Africa and the Extent to Which Capitalism Is the Root of the Continent's Problems

A standard myth is there's a "vicious cycle of poverty" that makes economic development virtually impossible for the world's poor nations

writes Walter E Williams (emphasis added).

This myth holds that poor countries are poor because income is so low that savings cannot be generated to provide the kind of capital accumulation necessary for economic growth. Thus, it is alleged, the only way out of perpetual poverty is foreign aid.

Let's examine the "vicious cycle of poverty" myth and whether foreign aid is a necessary ingredient for economic development. The U.S., Britain, France, Canada and most other countries were once poor. Andrew Bernstein of the Ayn Rand Institute wrote in an article titled "Capitalism Is the Cure for Africa's Problems" that pre-industrial Europe was vastly poorer than contemporary Africa. …

Some economic development "experts" attribute Africa's troubles to its history of colonialism. That's nonsense, because some of the world's richest countries are former colonies, such as the U.S., Canada, Hong Kong and Australia. In fact, many of Africa's sub-Saharan countries are poorer now than when they were colonies, and their people suffer greater human rights degradations, such as the mass genocide the continent has witnessed.

One unappreciated tragedy that attests to the wasted talents of its peoples is that Africans tend to do well all around the world except in Africa. This is seen by the large number of prosperous, professional and skilled African families throughout Europe and the United States. Back home, these same people would be hamstrung by their corrupt governments.

The worst thing that can be done is to give more foreign aid to African nations. Foreign aid goes from government to government. Foreign aid allows Africa's corrupt regimes to buy military equipment, pay off cronies and continue to oppress their people. It also provides resources for its leaders to set up "retirement" accounts in Swiss banks.

What Africa needs, foreign aid cannot deliver, and that's elimination of dictators and socialist regimes, establishment of political and economic freedom, rule of law and respect for individual rights. Until that happens, despite billions of dollars of foreign aid, Africa will remain a basket case.

Thomas Sowell (the minority author who points out that indignation has replaced thought for many people) takes this further:

"Forgiveness" of foreign debts is always high on the agenda of those on the political left.

At any given moment, this would of course free up money that African governments could spend to help relieve their people's distress -- assuming that this is what they would spend it for. But why would anyone think that promoting irresponsible government borrowing by periodically "forgiving" their debts is going to help African countries in the long run?

…Promoting dependency and irresponsible borrowing is not the way to help the poor internationally any more than these are ways of helping the poor at home. Such policies benefit the bureaucracies that administer foreign aid and enable vain people to see themselves as saviors, even when they are doing more harm than good.

Sub-Saharan Africa has some of the most tragic geographic handicaps of any region of the world. Navigable waterways, which have been crucial to the development of nations and of cultures, are severely limited in most of Africa. Poor soil and inadequate and undependable rainfall patterns shrink the possibilities still further.

Ideologues love to think of African poverty as caused by "exploitation" on the part of Western countries. But, with a few notable exceptions, Africa has had little to be exploited. Even at the height of European imperialism, there was far less foreign trade or foreign investment in the whole vast continent of Africa than in a little country like Belgium or Switzerland.

In more recent times, so-called "foreign aid" has left many monuments of futility in Africa, from rusting machinery and the ruins of many projects to cows sent from Europe that keeled over in the African heat.

With all its handicaps, Africa used to feed itself and even export agricultural produce to Europe. In some of the more geographically favored parts of sub-Saharan Africa, iron was smelted thousands of years ago.

During the first two decades after African nations gained their independence in the 1960s, one sub-Saharan nation that stood out with its economic prosperity and political stability amid economic disasters and social catastrophes among its neighbors was the Ivory Coast under President Felix Houphouet-Boigny.

Yet neither the Ivory Coast nor its leader attracted nearly as much attention, much less adulation, as was showered on Julius Nyerere in Tanzania, Kwame Nkrumah in Ghana, or other big-name African leaders who led their countries into ruin.

The Ivory Coast in those days relied on markets instead of the kind of policies and rhetoric that the intelligentsia favored. When its policies changed, it became just another African basket case.

Today, too many people in the West continue to see Africa as an outlet for the visions and policies of the left that have failed in the West and are even more certain to fail in Africa.

Sowell adds that

many African societies have been isolated by that continent's dearth of both navigable rivers and harbors.

Isolated regions have almost invariably lagged behind regions in touch with a wider cultural universe. One among many signs of the isolation and cultural fragmentation of much of sub-Saharan Africa is that African languages are one third of all the languages in the world, even though African peoples are only about 10 percent of the world's population.

Small, tribal societies were another consequence of geographic isolation -- and the vulnerability of such societies to conquest by outsiders was another.

If cultural diversity was all that the multiculturalists claim, Africa would be a heaven on earth. Too often and in too many places it has been a hell on earth.

Many people expected great things from Africa when new independent African nations began to emerge from colonial rule in the 1960s, often headed by leaders who had been educated in Europe and America.

Unfortunately, what these new leaders brought back to Africa from the West were not the things that had made the West prosperous and powerful but the untested theories of Western intellectuals and ideologues who had taught them. Such African leaders by and large lacked both the common sense of the African masses and the technological and economic experience of the West.

The net result was that African leaders, full of confidence because of their Western education and the adulation of the Western intelligentsia, made their people guinea pigs for half-baked theories that had contributed nothing to the rise of the West and had contributed much to its social degeneration.

Poverty-stricken Africa could afford these economic and social disasters far less than the affluent West could.

As Jonah Goldberg asks, how exactly was Bob Geldof's Live8 concert "a monumental demonstration of support for helping Africa", Emmett Tyrrell opines that

surely, even the most drugged-up of the rock singers knows that most of the money that has been heaved at the continent since the chaotic end of colonialism has been either wasted or filched.

Britain's Royal African Society claims that in the past 50 years, Africa has received a trillion dollars in aid, 10 times the aid sent to Europe after World War II. However, more Africans live in deeper poverty today than when the aid began to flow. Recently, it was revealed that corrupt Nigerian officials pocketed 220 billion pounds in bribes over the past few years. How much the other corrupt officials throughout the continent have accounted for can only be imagined.

Nonetheless, the assembled rockers shouted -- some called it singing -- threats to the political leaders of the West to take action to end the evils afflicting Africa. None has been supportive of Tony Blair's and George Bush's attempts to end the evils recently afflicting Iraq. Yet, military action against Africa's corrupt potentates is about the only imaginable way Africa's suffering can be alleviated in the near future. Would they like us to commence "regime change" now, or after we have brought democracy to Iraq?

Herbert London chimes in:

…overlooked by well meaning rockers is that as long as tyrannical governments control the distribution of funds those targeted for relief never get it. Starvation is indeed a problem in many parts of Africa, most especially in the Sudan. But in this nation emergency food relief sent by the U.S. and others is used as a weapon to subjugate designated enemies of the government. This has been a pattern observed earlier in Somalia, Ethiopia and Eritrea.

Despite the claim of Jeffrey Sachs of the Earth Institute that America foreign aid to Africa is niggardly, the problem that neither he nor his colleagues consider sufficiently is how best to ensure that these foreign aid dollars end up in projects for which the money is earmarked rather than Swiss bank accounts for corrupt leaders.

As Peter Baur, the father of development economics once noted, "foreign aid is little more than poor people in rich countries giving money to rich people in poor countries."

Suzanne Fields is less charitable (so to speak):

While [the stars] were rappin' and rockin', James Shikwati, a distinguished Kenyan economist, was singing another song: "For God's sake, please just stop the aid."

In an interview in der Spiegel, the German magazine, Mr. Shikwati describes what he sees as the disastrous result of aid to Africa. Not only do African leaders exploit it for their own purposes, stuffing their pocketbooks and adding to their power, but aid weakens local markets, destroys incentives and fosters corruption and complacency. He scoffs at the motives of the United Nations World Food Program, "which is a massive agency of apparatchiks who are in the absurd situation of . . . being dedicated to the fight against hunger while . . . being faced with unemployment were hunger actually eliminated."

…Increasing numbers of Africans decry the damages of paternalism, but you didn't hear those voices at the Live 8 concerts. Rage and protest were not directed at corrupt local leaders, either.

Star Parker brings all the above together:

A study just published by the International Policy Network in London reports that, despite $400 billion in aid expenditures in Africa from 1970 to 2000, the correlation between the aid and economic growth was negative. Increases in aid resulted in worse economic performance.

The general explanations for this negative correlation between aid and economic performance are that aid discourages the very activities that produce economic growth and vitality — savings, investment, and incentives for government policies that encourage and sustain positive economic activity.

If we change the question we ask regarding poverty, the picture of the problem becomes clearer. We should examine the conditions that allow prosperity to occur rather than asking how to spend money to eliminate poverty.

…The data show clearly that the less economically free a nation is, the more likely it will be poor. The more likely a nation is economically free, the more likely it will be prosperous. …

As President Bush prepares to discuss global poverty in general, and in Africa in particular, with other world leaders, he is under great political pressure to agree to address poverty with aid money rather than pressure for policy reforms. As I noted earlier, the aid issue lends itself readily to politicization.

The Europeans are forever looking for angles to blame America for the world's ills. Recently, pastors from some of the largest black churches in the United States wrote to the president urging large increases in US aid to Africa.

As we celebrate the 229th birthday of the United States, we should remember two things. First, we are the most generous nation in the world. Americans delivered $80 billion to the developing world in aid and assistance last year. Of this $80 billion, over $60 billion came from private rather than government sources. Second, Americans have the capability to provide this largesse because we are free and freedom is what produces prosperity everywhere.

Leading Paul Jacob to conclude that

a cure for poverty has already been found. Yes, a cure!

Freedom.

And by freedom I mean more than just the right to buy rock 'n' roll records. I mean the right to private property, to buy and sell, to compete for any peaceful business. And more. Free markets and free individuals — communicating, trading, praying, working, with maximum liberty and minimum harassment from criminals or governments.

…Dictators destroy economies. And too often they take the aid we send to help the poor and use it to stay longer in power.

Africans know this well. Asked about more aid, a Kenyan health care worker quickly and depressingly predicted that "the aid money will go into the pockets of corrupt officials to buy their fully loaded Mercedes-Benzes."

"For God's sake, please stop the aid," Kenyan economist James Shikwati bluntly told a German weekly. "If the West were to cancel these payments, normal Africans wouldn't even notice. Only the functionaries would be hard hit."

… Ousmane Sembene, a Senegalese-born filmmaker, called the efforts "fake." Nigerian musician Femi Kuti called Live 8 a "waste of time."

These men and others are looking elsewhere for solutions. Kuti cites a need for new leadership, saying, "Africa has very many old leaders who do not want to leave office. They are the ones who have made our debts reach billions of dollars through corruption and stealing. And they are still asking for more so that they can steal to their graves and leave the youth with the burden of paying the debts."

Mr. Shikwati says Africa "must take the first steps into modernity on its own. There must be a change in mentality. We have to stop perceiving ourselves as beggars."

Sembene states what is obvious and overlooked, "The only way for us to come out of poverty is to work hard."

True, the Live 8 campaigners are on target in demanding that Western governments end the agricultural subsidies that hurt African farm products in the world market. This is precisely where Americans can make a difference for Africans — by demanding a free market system here at home.

But the rest of the Live 8 agenda rehashes the same old snake oil: the West, with wealth produced by the freedom we have, must bail out countries in Africa, where government corruption and tyranny make progress impossible.

Luckily, Africa's future does not depend on Western aid. Or even rock 'n' roll.

Africa simply needs freedom. It won't be easy to come by. Never is. But it is a crusade that can and must be won by Africans themselves.

Time for a new campaign to make poverty history? Call it "Liber-8."

Whom from Cuba to Invite to Celebrate France's Bastille Day?

Last Thursday, the French embassy in Havana decided to invite Fidel Castro's communist cronies over to help celebrate France's Bastille Day -- a day similar in significance and symbolism to our Fourth of July

writes Peter Brookes.

Shamefully, they expressly didn't invite any of Cuba's political dissidents: France's government had promised to turn a cold shoulder to democracy activists struggling to free themselves from their own (island) prison.

So much for liberte, égalité and fraternité ...

But it's not just the French who have decided to play along with Cuba's horrendous human-rights practices; the European Union as a whole has caved to Cuba's caudillo, Fidel Castro.

The Holier-Than-Thou Attitude Is So Ingrained in France that Even at the Highest Levels of Its Defense Establishments, It Rears Its Ugly Head

By leaking sensitive intelligence information on the London bombing, writes Elaine Sciolino (merci à Jon Baum et Gregory Schreiber), France's new antiterrorism coordinator broke the cardinal rule of the club and "the bonds of trust".

[Christophe Chaboud] did not stop with his assessments of the explosives and their origins, which, it turned out, were completely wrong [!]. He plunged into politics, railing at the British with an I-told-you-so air that Europe was a more dangerous place because of the war in Iraq.

"The war in Iraq has revived the logic of total conflict against the west," he declared [to France's newspaper of reference], without adding the obvious, that Britain supported the war and France did not.

Neither did he mention the mention the obvious that a framework is being set up for the French élite (it always is, that's a permanent fact of life here) where anything that goes wrong in France in the future (terrorist attacks in this specific case) can be blamed, directly or not, on America, the Anglo-Saxons, and/or the capitalists (or their leaders, if you want to be cute).

The sense of betrayal has been acute. The British overture to its friends was rare in the intelligence and law enforcement world, where information is often shared only on a bilateral basis and only when it benefits a country's own national security. …

So poisonous is the atmosphere that the talk in European intelligence circles is that the British feel that the French may have leaked bad information on purpose.

"My friends in London are furious at the French about this," said the director of a European intelligence agency. "They believe they released this incorrect information deliberately." The result, he added, is "there's not much good will left between them."

What this does is help confirm what I have been observing over the past few years: it puts the lie, at least partially, to the myth — oft repeated by (usually well-meaning) Frenchmen to their Anglo-Saxon counterparts (officals or common citizens) — that too much importance shouldn't be granted to French anti-Americanism (or "anti-Anglo-Saxonism") because under the surface, French citizens are reasonable, and lucid, and unfazed by the ruckus and impervious to the drone.

And where it matters most, the myth goes on, say in matters of intelligence-sharing and in cooperation among the military, the respective French establishments can be found standing steadfastly by the Anglos' side…

I wish it were so, les gars, but I trust this (self-serving) mantra less and less, and I am less and less willing to believe that it has ever been otherwise to a great degree.

The war in Iraq and the Israeli-Palestine conflict are flashpoints in the war; they are not the cause or effect

Since terrorists detonated a series of bombs across London’s mass transit system last week, killing 52 people, there has been a tendency to wonder whether the war in Iraq is making the world more, not less dangerous

writes Armstrong Williams (as he indirectly answers Christophe Chaboud).

Nothing could be further form the truth. Long before the United States stepped foot in Iraq, al-Qaeda agents spent their days thinking about how to rip apart Western culture. They claimed innocent lives in Madrid, Bali, Saudi Arabia, Russia, Kenya, Tanzania, Yemen, Turkey, Egypt, and yes, New York on September 11. The war in Iraq, the Israeli-Palestine conflict—these are flashpoints in the war; they are not the cause or effect. …

What’s particularly disgusting and disgraceful is the way that Muslim leaders repudiate America and Europe, but cannot bring themselves to find fault in the Muslim dictatorships that are responsible for so much of their poverty and death. Instead, the spokesmen for Islamic extremism refer to their terror attacks as part of a holy war. …

Meanwhile, the problem gets worse, not better. Much of the Muslim world is impoverished. They lack many basic rights we associate with happiness. This won’t change if we pull out of Iraq. It won’t change if we alter our policy regarding Palestine. As long as Islamic tyrants continue to control the flow of information in the Muslim world, they will continue to condition the children to believe that the Western world is responsible for the ruin of their lives.

The only way this will change, is if we facilitate democracy throughout the region. The only way to marginalize the Jihadist ideas is to make sure the people have access to alternative viewpoints. We cannot defend against every terror attack. But if we break the stranglehold of ideas in the Muslim world, then maybe children will stop strapping bombs to their bodies and detonating themselves in our subways and on our streets.

Tales of Learned Helplessness

Le Monde seems befuddled by the reality that they have been trying to convince themselves doesn't exist, and Germany's SZ is suddenly not obsessed with something that they used to love to pretend to rub in people's faces, especially the US - the quality of public education:

«But for the Sueddeutsche Zeitung [leftist holding hands...], the debate generated by the study, based on an assessment tool known as Pisa, has become a "national fetish".
"Forget PISA!" the paper urges.

"What kind of absurd ambition, what kind of crazy, swot-like attitude is it to wish to move to the top ranks at any cost?" it asks in exasperation.»

To the european media's old guard, helplessness, disappointed surprise, and passive agression knows no bounds.

In the meantime the basics of human comfort and air conditioning continue to be lost on l'hexagon. Never mind the fact that all it does is transfer ambient heat, separating heat from cold, and reseving the colder part for human comfort and to prevent heat stroke, heart attacks, etc...

They're even fooling around with something Americans have been using for 50 years in dryer parts of the country - evaporative cooling or "jungle coolers". There's one problem - they just don't have much of an effect in environments as humid as France's. In fact from that perspective it's an awful choice of technology. So ineffectual that it's a WASTE of energy to achieve a mere, stinkin' 2 degrees celcius.

Amazingly, they continue to live with the planned meagerness Americans persuaded themselves out of 30 years ago. It comes from artificially propped up energy prices which reduces the quality of life for the entire population, but especially on people with the least. It manages to conserve VERY little since consumption of energy is less, but isn't significantly less than North America especially as it relates to cost. In fact all it does is make it cost a great deal for no clear reason.

Congratulations. They've done a fabulous job of proving themselves to be the idiots of the engineering world. If they keep this up, they'll be living in mud huts - sorry... "pisé".

Keeping it all in perspective

A commenter on Scott Burgess' TheDaily Ablution puts all the nonsense buzzing around in the press post london-7/7:

«Like millions of other Jews, my great-grandmother was born into a life of terrible poverty and even worse discrimination in a small town in the Pale of Settlement. She never attended school and could not read or write. Her earliest memories were of death, pogroms, hunger and cold.

Escaping to England with just a few roubles in her pocket, she spent the next few years helping raise her younger brother and sisters and working 12-14 hour days in various sweatshops. On Saturdays, she got up at 4 in the morning to "stand markets" so she could earn a little extra to help feed and clothe her family. Not a few times, she was called a "dirty Jew" and told to "go back to Palestine." On at least two occasions, children threw stones at her.

Starting a business with her recently demobbed husband who had spent four years fighting in the trenches, she made her way up the ladder inch by painful inch. During World War II, she personally helped save many Jews from the gas chambers. The Jewish inhabitants of her own town were all murdered. She died possessed of a considerable fortune at age 86 in her very beautiful home in Hampstead. All of her children and grandchildren were or would become university graduates. All of her children and grandchildren attended private schools. Having been gassed in the trenches, her husband never really regained his health, and died in his late 30s leaving her to cope alone with a growing family and burgeoning business.

If you would have talked to her about root causes and revenge, she would have thought you were completely mad.»

And to think that people are trying to gin up and pin "root causes" on jews - the very people who know more about human loss than anyone wagging their fingers at them and demonising them... Those "talking heads" are sick, sick people, and should be ashamed of themselves. The World's jews know more about forgiveness and moving on that their critics ever will.

"It is not the plane that killed the thousands of people [on 9/11], but rather Uncle Sam."

"The World Trade Center was not destroyed by the planes, but because the Americans built it too high."

John Rosenthal has more about the national education ministry's high school exam that treats the 9/11 attacks like a bona fide "challenge" to (or as a protest, as he calls it, against) American power. It turns out the Plantu cartoon appears in a high school textbook as well. Make sure you read to the end of JR's post to appreciate some of the students' exam answers. La sophistication is what the contents of such avant-garde attitudes are called here in la France…

First, Condemnation Over an "Unacceptable" Outrage, then a String of Concessions, then Craven Suggestions About Blame Share, Finally Weakening Resolve

…and surrender.

…the usual response of governments is mere condemnation of an atrocity, describing an outrage as "unacceptable"

writes James Molyneaux, who witnessed the dead of Belsen (danke zu Franz Hoffmann, who also points to Dissent's Paul Berman article, und zu Jon Baum).

Next come a string of concessions to the offender, leading to a craven suggestion that the victims must share some of the blame, and then concessions to the demands of the perpetrators.

Opinion formers appear to have forgotten Kipling, who warned of the outcome.

"It is always a temptation
To a rich and lazy nation,
To puff and look important and to say:
'Though we know we should defeat you,
We have not the time to meet you,
We will therefore pay you cash to go away.'
And that is called paying the Dane-geld;
But we've proved it again and again,
That, if once you have paid him the Dane-geld,
You never get rid of the Dane."

Increasingly, the general public weakens in its resolve. Under the label of moderation, it is fashionable to plead for understanding; to do a Chamberlain and settle for a piece of crumpled paper in the mistaken belief that the word of dictators and terrorists can be trusted. Today, we should reflect on our responsibilities, and those of our governments, to stand up to the prejudice and tyranny that can still, today, lead to genocide. These events happened in my lifetime. They are not lost in the past; they could still happen again today.

Steve Bell, throwback propaganda artist part XI

End of series. You may puke now.

July 4: An Occasion to Lambaste America While Conveniently Overlooking Europe's Sins

The editors of Le Monde could not resist celebrating the Fourth of July with a generous frontpage helping of anti-American incitement from its star cartoonist Plantu

writes John Rosenthal, who goes on to detail how the Kyoto Protocol not only was loaded in favor of the Europeans from the beginning, but how, even so, the latter are in no way being successful in following it directives; a fact little known and (strangely enough) little-made-a-big-deal-about (as we have recently pointed out) among the European populace. But then again, a rather normal fact, as you must understand that they are occupied, like Plantu, with far more important matters, such as castigating Uncle Sam for the world's troubles, environmental and other.

Gracias, Señoras y Señores de España, for Going Along with the Wishes of alQaeda and Breaking Your Pact with Bush and Blair

AS IF THERE WAS still any doubt at this point, the Spanish press reports today on a document found in the computer of one of the key perpetrators of the March 11 terrorist attacks in Madrid (translation by Barcepundit, the final paragraph of whose post you should not miss):

A document found in the personal computer of Jamal Ahmidan, "The Chinese", undersigned by the Abu Hafs al Masri brigades and dated March 15, 2004 declares that the March 11 perpetrators intented to remove [Aznar's] Popular Party from the government.

The document was recently found by police, according to the Cope radio network who has seen it. It says: "those who were suprised for our quick claim of responsibility in the battle of Madrid, let them know that there were other circumstances. In the case of Madrid, the time factor was very important in order to put an end to the government of Aznar the ignoble."

Soldier survives attack; captures, medically treats sniper

From the Army Times (US):

«During a routine patrol in Baghdad June 2, Army Pfc. Stephen Tschiderer, a medic, was shot in the chest by an enemy sniper, hiding in a van just 75 yards away. The incident was filmed by the insurgents.

After tracking down the now-wounded sniper with a team from B Company, 4th Battalion, 1st Iraqi Army Brigade, Tschiderer secured the terrorist with a pair of handcuffs and gave medical aid to the terrorist who’d tried to kill him just minutes before. »

That's one ballsy MEDIC.

Mark sez ditch the babble

Mark Steyn on the need to ditch the sustaino-babble. For the sake of young and old, people need sustainable values and population, not sustained delusions.

Steve Bell, throwback propaganda artist part X

"May God curse the mujahedeen and their leader!"

No, no, ma'am, they are not terrorists. Those brave souls are insurgents, patriots, freedom fighters…

In related news (turban tips to Jonathan Baum, Mike H, Franz Hoffmann, Tom Pechinski, RV, and Joe Wierzbicki), read how Melanie Phillips monitors the the evolution of BBC descriptions from London's "terrorists" to expressions such as "bombers" and "misguided criminals". The logical conclusion, as Michelle Malkin tells us, is that in the future, what we will have is the following:

"Burglars" will be "takers." "Child molesters" will be "ticklers." "Rapists" will be "unplanned lovers." … In London, "terrorists" are "bombers." In the U.S., citizen watchdogs are "vigilantes." The Ministry of Truth would be pleased.

Meanwhile, Jonathan notes that with the "sort of trainee journalist they're nurturing at the Guardian" — unabashedly pro-terror — the "future of Islamicist cheerleading is assured." Tom points to The Daily Ablution, which adds that the Guardian article unaccountably omits the fact (presumably for reasons of space) that Dilpazier Aslam is on record as supporting a world-dominant Islamic state, notably in his writings for London based site khilafah.com.

In addition, it would seem that the leader who had nothing to do with al-Qaeda (and aren't you silly — snort — to believe otherwise) trained only 4,000 terrorists in the six months prior to the 2003 war. Claudia Rosett adds:

If anything, Mr. Bush in recent times has not stressed Saddam's ties to al Qaeda nearly enough. More than ever, as we now discuss the bombings in London, or, to name a few others, Madrid, Casablanca, Bali, Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, or the many bombings in Israel--as well as the attacks on the World Trade Center in both 1993 and 2001--it is important to understand that terrorist connections can be real, and lethal, and portend yet more murder, even when they are shadowy, shifting and complex. And it is vital to send the message to regimes in such places as Syria, Saudi Arabia and Iran that in matters of terrorist ties, the Free World is not interested in epistemological debates over what constitutes a connection. We are not engaged in a court case, or a classroom debate. We are fighting a war.…

The difficulty lies in piecing together the picture, which is indeed murky (that being part of the aim in covert dealings between tyrants and terrorist groups)--but rich enough in depth and documented detail so that the basic shape is clear. By the time Messrs. Hayes and Joscelyn are done tabulating the cross-connections, meetings, Iraqi Intelligence memos unearthed after the fall of Saddam, and information obtained from detained terrorist suspects, you have to believe there was significant collaboration between Iraq and al Qaeda. Or you have to inhabit a universe in which there will never be a demonstrable connection between any of the terrorist attacks the world has suffered over the past dozen years, or any tyrant and any aspiring terrorist. In that fantasyland, all such phenomena are independent events.

Finally, Tom notes that Steven den Beste is getting his fill with the "of course" crowd (similar to those whom Michelle Malkin terms the grievance industry), as are Cal Thomas and Mark Steyn:

When events such as last Thursday's occur, two things happen, usually within hours if not minutes: first, spokespersons for Islamic lobby groups issue warnings about an imminent backlash against Muslims. …

In most circumstances it would be regarded as appallingly bad taste to deflect attention from an actual "hate crime" by scaremongering about a non-existent one. But it seems the real tragedy of every act of "intolerance" by Islamist bigots is that it might hypothetically provoke even more intolerance from us irredeemable white imperialist racists. My colleague Peter Simple must surely marvel at how the identity-group grievance industry has effortlessly diversified into pre-emptively complaining about acts of prejudice that have not yet occurred.

Among those of us who aren't Muslim, meanwhile, there's a stampede to be first to the microphone to say that "of course" we all know that "the vast majority of Muslims" are not terrorists but law-abiding peace-loving people who share our revulsion at these appalling events, etc.

Mr Blair won that contest on Thursday… Terrorism ends when the broader culture refuses to tolerate it. There would be few if any suicide bombers in the Middle East if "martyrdom" were not glorified by imams and politicians, if pictures of local "martyrs" were not proudly displayed in West Bank grocery stores, if Muslim banks did not offer special "martyrdom" accounts to the relicts thereof, if schools did not run essay competitions on "Why I want to grow up to be a martyr".

…We can take steps to prevent Islamic terrorists killing us, most of the time. But Islamic terrorists will only stop trying to kill us when their culture reviles them rather than celebrates them.

…Shame on us for championing Islamic thought-police over Western liberty.

To this, Iran's Amir Taheri adds that

you are dealing with an enemy that does not want anything specific, and cannot be talked back into reason through anger management or round-table discussions. Or, rather, this enemy does want something specific: to take full control of your lives, dictate every single move you make round the clock and, if you dare resist, he will feel it is his divine duty to kill you.

Let's end this post with some positive — excellent, really — news (also from Afghanistan)…

'O' Allah, make America stronger!

The Sort of Environment Information that the Europeans Will Not Make a Big Fuss About

…signers of the Kyoto Protocol, a 1997 pact to roll back greenhouse emissions, are finding they cannot [solve global warming problems]

writes Michael Fumento.

This though Kyoto only calls for a return to 1990 levels, not California’s 80% below. Emissions from the original European Union 15 member states have INCREASED since 1997.

Blowing lines like it’s 1985

So down to earth, that they want get down, down to the ground.
It does explain their lively spending habits, letting NGOs to kick around just about anything they like, and, well, their narcissism and that penchance for repetition.

USA, Carbon Absorber

The reason that Kyoto is rigged up the way it is, discounting any absorption of CO2 and other greenhouse gasses is because such an arrangement would not favor Europe, an impugn the United States if greenies are shocked with their usual false indignation for the US, we should wait and see whether or not these same people treat Canada with the same spitefulness having signed on to that unproductive treaty, many are having second thoughts, and wondering how they would ever be able to achieve their targets at all. Canadian greenies on the other hand, have engaged in the usual brute force tactics of Liberal Party politics.

Absorption has long been known to be a major factor in air temperature, and yet still ignored:

«"We know that we who reside in the United States emit about 6.2 billion tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each year," said Taro Takahashi, Doherty Senior Research Scientist, associate director of Lamont-Doherty, Columbia's earth sciences campus in Palisades, N.Y., and an author of the report. "As an air mass travels from west to east, it should receive carbon dioxide and the East Coast concentration of CO2 should be higher than on the West Coast.

"But observations tell us otherwise. The mean atmospheric CO2 concentration on the East Coast has been observed to be lower than that over the Pacific coast. This means that more CO2 is taken up by land ecosystems over the United States than is released by industrial activities."

The results suggest the presence of a carbon sink, which occurs when carbon dioxide absorbed by plants as they grow exceeds carbon dioxide released by dead material as it decays. Although the method does not identify the causes, there are a number of possible mechanisms that could be responsible for the sink. Forest regrowth in areas where generations of pioneers leveled trees to create farmland almost certainly plays an important role. Millions of acres east of the Mississippi have returned to forest.

Forest regrowth, and carbon absorption, in North America may be enhanced by some side effects of industrialization. Nitrogen deposition in soil, a result of combustion processes in automobiles and power plants, can act as a fertilizer, as can the higher concentrations of atmospheric carbon dioxide in the air. Global warming itself can contribute to longer growing seasons, which have been observed in studies of satellite measurements cited by the team.»

Of course they won't count it - nor will Europe meet their own Kyoto targets. So long as it's politically useful, they'll keep up with their little fiction, but I don't expect that to last long. At least the part where they actually do what they set out to.

When the Murder of 3,000 Men, Women, and Children Concerns the Yanks, It Becomes Little More than "Challenging" the American Power

Subject of the Histoire Géographie high school finals in Créteil (merci à RV):

Document 1:
1) How is the military power of the United States reflected in the world?

Document 1 and 2:
2) Find four indicators of the American economic power and give two pieces of evidence of America's cultural might. (4 points)

Document 3:
3) In what way was the American power challenged on 11 September 2001? (1 point)

When the murder of 3,000 men, women, and children concerns Yanks, in the minds of the wise and lucid "humanists" and of the holier-than-thou pacifists, it is nothing more than "challenging the American power".

Click below for some students' answers to the above exam, for another French example of sophisticated high school education, for more objective French literature for the young, and for an assessment of what atmosphere the above help to contribute to in the worldview of the French (young and elders alike)…

Steve Bell, throwback propaganda artist part IX

The decline of the British (television viewer’s) Mind

In a poll to select “the greatest philosopher” BBC viewers have passed up both Mel Brooks and Thomas Aquinas, and chosen Karl Marx. Apart from having been laughably stacked by college punks, it made me think of this little paragraph written by Kevin Phillips on his blog as he was trying to be gentle in explaining why he blasts troll comments:

« I am further eliminating arguments based on Karl Marx and his class warfare thesis. About one quarter of Americans and 65.3% of university professors use this analytic tool. The problems are that it is irrelevant 99.8% of the time, it is the most repeated mantra in English and the human models derived from this analysis have led to Stalin, Castro, Mao and several other nightmares. We don't need this dirty underwear on this blog.»

Never mind the fact that Marx wasn’t a philosopher, he was an economist, and a very, very bad one who believed in a thing that doesn’t occur in nature called the zero-sum game. I have to give them SOME credit, Karl Popper made it up to number 10, but oddly enough Burke, and virtually none of the great minds of the enlightenment seem to have appeared on the rapidly dimming Beeb-watcher’s radar screen.

Singer on Hand-Wringers

Today, Bastille Day, is the birthday of Isaac Bashevis Singer (1904-1991), the Polish writer  who captured the doomsayers and the hand-wringers quite capably when he said

If you keep on saying things are going to be bad, you have a good chance of being a prophet

For those who castigate religious believers as unthinking zombies, he added that

Doubt is part of all religion. All the religious thinkers were doubters.

Finally, for those who carp on about "ça ne sert à rien", he wrote

For those who are willing to make an effort, great miracles and wonderful treasures are in store.

The wit and wisdom of my favorite Texan

The wisdom of Valerie in Texas - accept no substitutions:

«As for London, the comment that drove me nuts was from some British intelligence "expert" lady who said that "Until the causes, the motivations for these people is addressed these attacks will continue."

Cough.

And she gets paid how much?
Let see if my untutored mind can come up with a motivation...

THEY'RE HATE FILLED RELIGIOUS FANATICS HELL BENT ON WORLD DOMINATION.

But what do I know?»

Comparing Jefferson to Bush

May it be to the world what I believe it will be (to some parts sooner, to others later, but finally to all), the signal of arousing men to burst the chains under which monkish ignorance and superstition had persuaded them to bind themselves, and to assume the blessings and security of self-government.

All through the years 2003 and 2004 one used to hear it: "So, you think your Iraqi friends are about to adopt Jeffersonian democracy . . ." (pause for hilarious nudge, sneer, snigger or wink)

writes Christopher Hitchens as he compares Thomas Jefferson (favorably) with George W Bush.

Jefferson … did identify with democrats in other countries and did believe that America should be on their side. …

The most successful "export" was Jefferson's determined use of naval and military force to reduce the Barbary States of the Ottoman Empire, which had set up a slave-taking system of piracy and blackmail along the western coast of North Africa. Our third president was not in a position to enforce regime change in Algiers or Tripoli, but he was able to insist on regime behavior-modification (and thus to put an end to at least one slave system). Ever since then, every major system of tyranny in the world has had to run at least the risk of a confrontation with the United States, and one hopes that the Jeffersonians among us will continue to ensure that this remains true.

Proud to be Danish

In the wake of the London bombings, Gallup asked over 1,000 Danes: "Do you believe that it was the correct decision" not just to support Bush and/or the war on terror but "to have Denmark participate actively in the war in Iraq with soldiers and material?"

Fifty percent answered Ja.

This hardly changed in the wake of the London bombings, and that even though the number of Danes who believe that it is probable that Denmark itself will become a target in the coming years rose drastically after 7/7, by 50% (from 52% overall to 75%).

Greed, tranzi style.

Europeans smugly call the US stingy on aid, because they're covering a deep personal greed with the fiction of governments doing good for them. If you believe that all live flows through government, then you might mananage to channel some of it personally, but it’s only imagined. Stinginess however, is not wanting to do it yourself.

Tim Wortsall:

«I mean, really. What would happen if people were simply free to spend their own money in their own way? Not only would they be rich and happy themselves but it looks as if they would spend more than the official targets! We could never have that now, could we, things proceeding along nicely without a bureaucracy to administer it? Anyway, we all know private spending doesn't work, it isn't really money unless it has been processed through the system, unless the form fillers have said the magic incantation...we're from the government and we're here to help. »

From the Hudson Institute report that he cites:

«While the United States gives the greatest absolute amount of ODA to developing countries, it is routinely criticized for being "stingy" because U.S. Government aid ranks last among donor nations as a percent of Gross National Income (GNI). U.S. official aid is .15 percent of GNI compared to Norway, the highest ranked donor, at .92 percent.

What such criticism ignores, however, is that the measure, developed by the Paris-based Organization for Economic Development and Cooperation (OECD), fails to take into account the primary way in which Americans help others abroad: through the private sector. "ODA is an outdated and inaccurate way of measuring a country's generosity," says Dr. Adelman, Director of the Center for Science in Public Policy, at the Hudson Institute. "Americans prefer to give people to people assistance versus Europeans who give primarily government to government aid."»

Steve Bell, throwback propaganda artist – part IIX

Go on the light!

STS-114 (Discovery) launches at 1951 GMT(21.51 in Paris and 15.51 in New York)

NASA TV linked here.

Steve Bell, throwback propaganda artist part VII

Steve Bell, throwback propaganda artist – part VI

Sour Grapes Alert

AP - Paris Mayor Says Blair, Coe 'Crossed Line'

Paris mayor Bertrand Delanoe says British prime minister Tony Blair and London bid leader Sebastian Coe "crossed the line" by criticizing other cities that were vying for the 2012 Olympics.

However, French International Olympic Committee member Jean-Claude Killy said the Paris bid was weakened from the inside and he was "sickened" by the complaints.

Last week, London was awarded the 2012 Games over Paris, Madrid, New York and Moscow.

"They crossed the yellow line with respect to the IOC rules," Delanoe told France-Info radio Monday after a meeting of the Paris city council.

Delanoe did not offer specific accusations, though two consultants for the British bid were critical of the sightlines at the Stade de France, considered a centerpiece of Paris' bid. Under IOC rules, the bid cities are prohibited from criticizing each other.

However, after reviewing the remarks, Paris officials decided not to complain to the IOC ethics commission. The IOC said it wouldn't pursue the matter.

On Saturday, IOC president Jacques Rogge said none of the cities broke rules designed to stamp out corruption in the bidding process.

Paris bidders were reportedly angry that Blair had met with IOC members in his hotel room in Singapore.

"There's nothing wrong with having a conversation with a major politician from a bid city," Rogge said.

Killy pointed to the last-minute loss of Foreign Minister Michel Barnier - who long worked with the Olympics but was replaced following a government change in June.

And he made a veiled suggestion that remarks in 2003 by President Jacques Chirac, who criticized eastern European nations over their support of the United States in its war in Iraq, cost Paris the votes of members from those countries.

Killy, a World Cup, world and Olympic ski champion, said Paris shouldn't "look for pitiful excuses."

"Imagine trying to obtain today the votes of the east. It's really not easy," he said in an implicit reference to Chirac's criticism of Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic for supporting Washington in 2003 ahead of the invasion of Iraq.

Chirac said it was "not very responsible" or "well bred" of them to do so, adding that "I think they missed a good chance to shut up."

He said that Barnier was "one of the best known and most respected French with the IOC" and added that France has no "international sports presence."

From Brazil, More Evidence of the Left's Fight Against the Powerful, For Democracy and Objectivity, Against the Suppression of Free Speech, and…

…For All Voices to Be Counted and Heard (not to mention the struggle against recurrent witchhunts that characterize America and the right so well…)

Bad news from Brazil. The Brazilian newspaper O Globo fired me last Monday. This is not just a personal bad luck, but a political fact

writes Olavo de Carvalho (on Luís Afonso Assumpção's website, in Porto Alegre, no less — bacana!).

According to deputy Roberto Jefferson (the main witness in present investigations about PT corruption), Mr. Jose Dirceu, the former number one man in Lula government and now a very important leader in the House of Representatives, boasted often of having complete hold over O Globo board of directors, owing to the huge debt the company had to state banks.

So my dismissal was not impossible to foresee. I just fancied it would take still some months to come, but the growing tide of attacks against Lula's reputation and the starting of the electoral campaing probably accelerated it.

Hundreds of protestation letters against my dismissal are been sending to O Globo (I have copies of many of them), but none of them was or will be published. Here is the evidence of the deliberated occultation of the facts.

With muy dismissal, Brazilian big media becomes at last the conservative-free ambience it aimed to be

To believe all men honest would be folly; To believe none so is something worse

Today is the birthday of John Quincy Adams (1767-1848), the US president who said

America does not go abroad in search of monsters to destroy. She is the well-wisher to freedom and independence of all. She is the champion and vindicator only of her own.

Courage and perseverance have a magical talisman, before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish into air.

Patience and perseverance have a magical affect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish.

Always vote for principle, though you may vote alone, and you may cherish the sweetest reflection that your vote is never lost.

Posterity: you will never know how much it has cost my generation to preserve your freedom. I hope you will make good use of it.

To live without having a Cicero and a Tacitus at hand seems to me as if it was aprivation of one of my limbs.

Regarding the anti-Americans' fall-back strategy of across-the-board cynicism when confronted with undeniable evidence that their champions have deep faults (often worse) of their own, the strategy that drops the accusatory and sneering bile to hold forth in a noncommital and ho-hum (and slightly impatient to change the subject) tone of voice that all politicians are equally corrupt and thiefs and liars:

All men profess honesty as long as they can. To believe all men honest would be folly. To believe none so is something worse.

Full of Bile

"A man full of bile is not fit to pronounce on food"

snorted UK food critic Egon Ronay as he accused the French president of being "ill-informed" for his attacks on British cuisine.

If you want to read more about typical French condescension (bile) towards countries that don't fall in line with the dictates of Paris, head to the following BBC report from Kaliningrad (thanks to Gregory), the one in which Jacques Chirac is quoted, as saying (to the laughs of the three main "peace camp" members), regarding the Brits,

"One cannot trust people whose cuisine is so bad"

Understand, now, that the obvious correlation is that people whose food is good — as good as that of the French, say (no controversy regarding la cuisine française, by the way, needless to say) — you can trust (hook, line, and sinker) and you should just fall in line with them, automatically, and follow them in whatever they do and say, no matter what the issue and no matter how close it is to or how removed it is from the subject of nutrition, and those who might be so bold as to voice other ideas on the matter "auraient mieux fait de se taire…"

"The only thing they have ever done for European agriculture is mad cow disease," Mr Chirac said… "After Finland, it is the country with the worst food."

Update from Al Webb:

Hans Valimaki, owner of Helsinki's prestigious restaurant Chez Dominique, recipient of two Michelin stars, hit back at the French. "It is also true that the French are the dirtiest people. They do not buy a lot of soap, and for that, our president will not insult them."

The daily Iltalehti called Mr. Chirac's comments absurd, and "in any case, even the French no longer take him seriously."

Leftists helping Jihad by dislocating reason

Sever Plocker writing in YNet news points out the pointlessness of trying to communicate basic concepts of justice or even self-preservation with a certain special segment of the european population:

«With all due respect, Britain's prime minister got it wrong, as did the analysts who are already pointing their finger not only at the terrorists, but also at President Bush, Israel, "the rich," and the West itself, thus absolving the terrorists of their crime.
Their one and only motive was, and still is, to undermine the basis of the despised Western culture and expose it as weak.

...Sowing destruction for the purpose of sowing destruction.

Therefore, al-Qaeda's terror would not have ended - indeed, it would have only intensified - had the U.S. reacted to terror attacks by removing its forces from Iraq, while Israel withdrew to the Green Line.»

Scott Tiberius Burgess has much much more on the subject. It's easy to dismiss some of opinions he relays from letter-writers to the Guardian and Independant, but bear in mind that there are editors who found the notions so mainstream and, well, NORMAL - that they published them. i suppose all ideas are equally good, like newborns. But it doesn't explain the ones that eventually turn into bank robbers or run vitamin businesses out of their homes.

So while many euro-lefties are singing John Lennon's "Imagine" for the 25th year running like a kid with a knock-knock joke stuck in his head, thet still don't understand why they need to worry about a society needing to save it's skins. They are still looking for any cause other that the obvious one for the trail of terror.
Helpless to actually imagine doing anything about it, it only becomes another subject worthy of their political exploitation - on par with something about child vaccinations and wearing fur. Take for example Tariq Ali's recent statement in light of Michael Moore's gaffe of 12 September, 2001:

«Most Londoners (as the rest of the country) were opposed to the Iraq war. Tragically, they have suffered the blow and paid the price for the re-election of Blair and a continuation of the war.

The real solution lies in immediately ending the occupation of Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine.»

«Many families have been devastated tonight. This just is not right. They did not deserve to die. If someone did this to get back at Bush, then they did so by killing thousands of people who DID NOT VOTE for him! Boston, New York, DC, and the planes' destination of California -- these were places that voted AGAINST Bush!»

Indeed. As if self-detonating jihadist could care less about a handful of people far away who aren't against them, and the complicated reasons they might have. They simply don't care what ANY of us think or why - and they want to kill. Leftist, always thinking of themselves, think otherwise.

Pfeh! It's bad enough that the same arguments and refutations were repeated after the Bali Bombings, the Madrid bombings, and now the London bombings.

Nationalist Blinkers: The French reporter inveighed about the rampant Francophobia she had witnessed; the Anglo-Saxons were not able to get a word in

Kindly ponder the meaning of "Plus ça change…" as you read about how "The French media seemed to understand little about what was happening [regarding the Anglo-Saxon country; readers in France] were reading reports of anti-French hysteria, as if the tricolour was being torched from [one coast to the other and as if French] expats were in fear of their lives."

On a cold winter morning in July 1985, I walked into the French embassy in New Zealand to catch up with the news from home.

writes the BBC's Henri Astier (thanks to Gregory).

Someone had blown up a Greenpeace ship in Auckland overnight, killing a photographer.

"The radio ran interviews this morning, and they're all blaming the French!" said a young diplomat.

Opposition to nuclear tests in the Pacific was running high in New Zealand.

As a French teacher doing my national service, I knew many students and had more than once observed their sometimes paranoid ideas.

"There they go again!" I said. "As if France would ever do such a terrible thing."

But one member of our group was not sure. "It would not surprise me all that much," the military attaché said, shaking his head.

The attaché, of course, had no inside knowledge — spies rarely involve diplomats in bomb plots.

He just knew more about our masters' mindset than we youngsters did.

It turned out that the New Zealanders had something to be paranoid about.

By mid-September, after weeks of denial by Paris, a man and a woman arrested in connection with the bombing of the Rainbow Warrior were exposed as French spies. …

Over the next few months, French papers brought us — with their usual lateness — distant echoes of the political storm raging back home.

The communication problems, it seemed, ran the other way as well.

The French media seemed to understand little about what was happening in New Zealand.

We were reading reports of anti-French hysteria, as if the tricolour was being torched from Invercargill to Auckland and expats were in fear of their lives.

When I heard that a prominent reporter was in town, I tracked her down to introduce her to my students to start a dialogue and dispel misunderstandings.

I was desperate to show her that Kiwis were such nice people. Strongly as they felt about government policies, they would never vent their anger on individuals.

I caught up with the reporter and hauled her into my classroom. But the exercise did little good.

She inveighed about the continued detention of Mafart and Prieur and the rampant Francophobia she had witnessed. My mild-mannered students were not able to get a word in.

Not all French reporters, however, wore nationalist blinkers. The involvement of French external security services in the Rainbow Warrior bombing was exposed by journalistic sleuths in Paris.

… unlike his colleague I had met six months earlier, [Jean-Marie Pontaut of L'Express, who did more than any other to break the story,] was listening to New Zealanders — and he was impressed.

… "A terrorism trial would never happen like that in France," Pontaut told me admiringly.

"The government would have controlled the proceedings from A to Z," he said.

Jean-Marie Pontaut learned a lesson in New Zealand. He is not the only French journalist to have felt enlightened by a supremely civilised people.

Steve Bell, throwback propaganda artist part V

Steve Bell, throwback propaganda artist part IV

Lack of respect in the morning leads to mass suicide.

I guess these guys don’t think that 72 virgins in the afterlife are worth waiting for.

three Two men and a baby

I can only think of one more regrettably lame photo op…

Steve Bell, throwback propaganda artist part III

2005-JUN-27-Zulu:2300

Lifted from the Best of the Web:

Saved by the Cole

Remember the USS Cole? It is the American destroyer that was hit by an al Qaeda bomb in Yemen in October 2000, killing 17. Damaged but not destroyed, the Cole returned to service in December 2003. Columnist Michael Smerconish writes in the Philadelphia Daily News about the Cole's most recent mission:

«Before arriving in Philadelphia, the Cole participated in the annual Baltic Sea operations, a joint exercise of 11 nations. But the Cole took an unexpected detour on the way here, for reasons that offer a symbolic story about the U.S. military, one which hasn't been told until now. Here is the way [Cmdr. Brian] Solo spelled out the itinerary in an e-mail to me:

"At 2300 hours on 27 June, COLE received word via the Coast Guard regarding a medical emergency aboard a civilian sailboat in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean... more than 300 nm [nautical miles] to the southeast of COLE's position. The patient was initially reported to have appendicitis. Due in Philadelphia, COLE nevertheless turned and headed, at best speed (30+ knots) towards the position of the sailboat.
Simultaneously, the merchant vessel CHIQUITA NEDERLAND, who was in the vicinity of the sailing vessel, took the patient, a 16-year-old French national, on board, and then headed at best speed to the northwest to meet COLE."»

COLE changed course to save a French teenager. Other than one item in the Philadelphia Daily News, a rather “squidly” kind of town, the media is sure to stay mum. However, they seem more than capable of finding “international incident” items to run.

Then again the Navy inhabits a reality based environment, and actually CAN say "help is on the way" without being laughed at.

Steve Bell, throwback propaganda artist – part II

"Staged bombings terrorize everyone?"

With neither a shred of proof or an awareness that the causality can't be magically produced by ones' feelings, John Kaminski of uruknet.info rushes the following allegation on the London bombings to the presses: When the cops are the crooks Staged bombings terrorize everyone!

«Every time there's an embarrassing incident, a charge of official malfeasance, or some nasty revelation to cover up, the powers that be stage a terrorist incident — randomly throw away the lives of an arbitrary number of innocents — and then blame some fantasy enemy as an excuse to further ratchet up the corrupt oppression of ordinary people.»

Actually he could be describing his own leap to pretend that the only evil there is in the universe can only emanate from his own society - or at least the one he's pretending not to be a part of by rejecting and turning on.

And no - he's not criticising constructively to make a better world. A brief reading of his body of work amounts to little more than agit-prop in support of chaos. You would be hard pressed to find the phase "Staged bombings terrorize everyone" on Uruknet if he can't refute that the bomber is a jihadi-anarchist.

Steve Bell, throwback propaganda artist part I

Guardian cartoonist Steve Bell when not abnormally obsessed with drawing farts, always characterizes President Bush as some sort of sub-human. No matter what the situation, he is cast in the light of a sort of animal without thought or feeling. It isnt even editorializing, its nothing more than hate-baiting of the oldest, most sordid, and pedantic sort.
Even when Bush quietly took issue with Vladimir Putin over his treatment of political opponents and a growing suppression of political dissent in Russia, Bell made him look the fool. Apparently snuffing free speech in Russia is okay if one can take a cheap shot at W.

The likes of Steve Bell have a long history in the cruder "politics" of Europe. The common trait is the rendering of an individual, a class, an ethnicity, a nationality, or a faith into a non-person. All this makes it easier to hate, degrade, even kill off the one set up to be the non-person. The only thing left out is a ugly mob with pitchforks, and bada-boom a la bigot: instant vulgarian with an option on a Kristallnacht of their own.

The "Special People's" first reaction: blame the victim and the defender

"Don't look at me, lady. I didn't do it."
Link is to a commentor on Atrios. Blame the victim and you'll play right into the terrorists' hands.

Spot on	Droit dans le mille
Atrios is pointing to this as if it's over the top with regards to commentary about French kids aspiring terrorists. This afternoon at the Étoile subway station a small gang of French suburban punks were giving high fives all around and laughing like crazy about the bombings in London. Filthy animals.	Atrios pointe ici en insinuant que le commentaire au sujet des ados terroristes en herbe fwançais est un peu trop poussé. Cet après-midi au métro Étoile une petite bande de chères têtes blondes issues des banlieues franchouilles n'arrêtait pas de faire des saluts de congratulations en poussant des fous rires à cause des attentats à Londres. Putain de sales porcs.

London, 7 July 2005

Find out who did it. Retaliate with extreme prejudice. Put them out of business. Secondary causes only have secondary importance. Worry about lesser issues later.

Celebrity Guilt: Feeding Egos Since 1985

Actual events hidden. Feelings redirected

Today, Scott Burgess reports on omissions in the G8 meeting coverage – specifically that The Guardian and The Independent are giving short shrift to anything the US President says. There are even references to the us being a “G1”, and calling the meeting the “G7” summit.

«After two billion viewers watch Live 8's call for action on Africa... Bush says: I put US interests first

Stunned readers, aghast at the selfish actions of a democratically elected leader putting the interests of his own people above those of other nations, are soon given the specifics of the President's breathtakingly offensive statement:

"The president will adopt a stance starkly at odds with the idealism professed by the performers at Saturday's Live 8 concerts around the world and their television audience of 2 billion. "'I go to the G8 not really trying to make [Tony Blair] look bad or good; but I go to the G8 with an agenda that I think is best for our country.'"

Readers have to wait quite a bit longer to see any actual reference to Bush policy vis-a-vis Africa - but it's there, near the end of the column, just past the cartoon of the smirking President behind a sign reading "G1", that's placed next to another, much smaller one bearing the legend "G7" (Geddit? It's to show that Bush won't, like, work with the other G7...):

"Mr Bush also said that the rich world had an "obligation" to make trade fairer, but made it clear he would not slash farming
subsidies unless the European Union did the same.
"He said America was 'leading the world when it comes to helping Africa', despite the fact that it gives only 0.2% of its GDP in overseas aid - well below the UN's 0.7% target."

And that's it - the only part of today's main story that even mentions, much less actually repeats (and barely so), any of the President's comments concerning either trade or aid policy, doing so in a fashion that very definitely implies intransigence.»

So WATCHING a concert is AID? Since WHEN?
The only sentiment left from Live Aid was pretty typical: all I can remember is that the Philadelphia Police were significantly nicer than the audience, and that I was canoodling with some chick from South Philly. Etheopians still starved until their civil war piped down.

The BBC has been supporting the “ignorance” argument on the environmental front – having one guest “expert” after another stating right out that the US shouldn’t really bother with advanced technology, but needed to reduce GHG output at any and all costs (while Europe’s output goes UP,) and that India and China needed to do nothing. So too was the argument that the UN was the only reasonable entity in the universe. I suppose this has something to do with the fact that the EU will permanently maintain 25 votes, with 2 on the UNSC.

Reasonable must mean that a European is in charge regardless of his disinvolvement, moral posturing, and lack of realism, while we mere wogs in the rest of the world look at them in awe for what they FEEEEEEL.

The implication is of American stinginess and stupidity, and that the rest of the world is a basketcase in need of Euro-management, and Nestle and Parma groceries. It’s little more than a bad case of Euro-penis envy and emotional bullying.

«Actual dollar contributions reveal that the U.S. is the world’s largest donor. The OECD calculates U.S. development assistance (based on bilateral assistance, humanitarian assistance, and contributions to multilateral institutions like the International Development Association of the World Bank) in 2003 at $16.2 billion—more than double the amount given by France, Germany, or any other European nation.[2] Japan is second at $8.9 billion.

Private aid is ignored. These numbers do not include private assistance. This is not a major factor for most other nations because private charity is not large in most countries. It is a gigantic oversight when calculating America’s aid ratio, however, because the U.S. Agency for International Development estimated that private assistance was $33.6 billion in 2000.[3] Therefore, the calculations upon which Egelund based his criticism severely shortchange the generosity of the United States.»

So the question is when is Government Aid giving by the choice and generosity of the people? It isn’t. It NEVER is, as much as anyone would like to salve their pangs of personal guilt over.
Euro-über-gutmenschen: if you really mean it, reach down into your pockets and give of yourself, not your neighbor’s pockets.

Meanwhile the irony in this lovefest is abundant:

«In London, where there were 205,000 at Live8, the biggest clean-up ever seen in the park was being completed. Officials said Live8 generated enough rubbish to fill 72 dustcarts - the equivalent of 10 days' litter.»

No problem there, right? Just demand a cleaner world from Chimpy W. Hitlerburton
Doctor, heal thyself.

Indymedia: a Room Stazi of their own

They have started taking down names and busting heads… and busting heads… and busting heads… and not saying anything when certain people are busting heads…

Which makes one want to take them all the more seriously…

In the mean time, have a go in this caption contest:

Mr. Euro-intellect Defending the Failed and Inhumane Regime

It’s bizarre enough that a 40 year authoritarian regime would continue to call itself a “revolution”, now we have a conspiracy minded French talking head with a limited intellect carrying their piss bucket simply because it feeds his anti-American instincts:

From Castro’s propaganda mouthpiece “Granma”:

«Jean-Guy Allard, a journalist with Granma International, wrote a book about RSF's leader (El expediente Robert Ménard: Por qué Reporteros sin Fronteras se ensaña con Cuba, Quebec: Lanctôt, 2005) which lays out the pieces of the puzzle regarding Menard's activities, associations and sources of funding in an attempt to explain what he calls Menard's "obsession" with Cuba.»

Hey Meyssan, what about BURMA or the NorKs – they don’t care for the US – do you plan on repeating THEIR press releases?
He is referring to RSF (Repoters without borders) and accusing them of “counter revolutionary activity,” which includes not just smothering dissent, but censoring and silencing journalists in “El Hefe’s” Cuba.

«On April 27 this year the pieces began to come together: Thierry Meyssan, president of the Paris daily, Red Voltaire, published an article in which he claimed Menard had negotiated a contract with Otto Reich and the Center for a Free Cuba (CFC) in 2001. Reich was a trustee of the center, which receives the bulk of its funding from the U.S. Agency for International Development. The contract, according to Meyssan, was signed in 2002 around the time Reich was appointed Special Envoy to the Western Hemisphere for the Secretary of State. The initial payment for RSF's services was approximately 24,970 euros in 2002 ($25,000), which went up to 59,201 euros in 2003 ($50,000).»

He is aiding in the snuffing out of any criticism and honest discussion for a regime which has capped 10.000 political opponents between the eyes. Not very wise of Meyssan. The stars in his eyes are obvious, and obviously misguided. It’s a VERY old story, and you’re still on the wrong side of humanity. Even a book reviewer in the freebie rag “Citypaper” ten years ago was aware enough the old leftist fiction about the “gentleness of Communism:

«My mentor in college was a devoted Cuban apologist. She conceded that the Castro government had problems, but she knew where her loyalties lay. When I told her I had met Guillermo Cabrera Infante at the Telluride Film Festival, she seemed almost agitated, reminding me that rumors abounded that he had once worked for the CIA. He seemed nice enough to me, I said, shrugging this off. When I mentioned him to another fellow leftish film person, she too recognized the name. "He's a gusano ," she said. This, apparently, is the Spanish word for worm, which is what pro-Castro types dubbed those who fled the island in the revolution's wake.

The fact is that Infante makes left-wing types really nervous. He started out as a journalist in the Batista days, and after his writing was banned he turned to publishing under the name "G. Cain." When Castro seized power he was named editor of Lunes , the literary supplement to the newspaper Revolucion, the voice of Cuban revolution. But when the film P.M., a "Havana by night" documentary, was denied an exhibition license by the government-sponsored film institute Infante had helped to form, Lunes led a movement to protest. The end result was that the seized film print was returned, but both P.M. and Lunes were banned. Infante, after accepting a post as cultural attache to the Cuban embassy in Belgium, eventually fell completely from favor in the Castro regime and fled to London, where he resides today.»

Talk show-boy needs to look carefully at who he's propping up, and who his friends are after.
One year after the 9-11 attacks one blogger writes of Meyssan, pointing out the obvious problem with tinfoil-hat conspiracy theories and asks the obvious questions:

«In short [to Meyssan], September 11th was a US conspiracy.
Now I’m mostly curious. Why is this guy still alive?

If he’s right, the weight of the US government should have fallen on him before he even got the pile of merde to his publisher. Since the French government and cops were absolutely cooperative during the post-9/11 investigation, they obviously would not have stopped it or even got in the way.»

Independence Day

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

An escapee of terrors grip on the mind explains the murderers programme

Brave and unapologetic, Walid Shoebat shows us the heart of darkness that is the culture of terrorism. Those who repeat over and over that the US should have stopped in Afghanistan need to be put on notice: jihad is old, widespread, and was planned from the start to kill its own young to kill others. All the while playing at their victims compassion.

It's time to go after the bagmen.