Meet the Pretenders

Strange as it is, there are two men claiming the throne of France. I’ve even met a pair of bloggers whose subject of discussion is the advancement of the idea that some royal family should be reinstated. My sense is that a frustration with the loony state of public discussion and public policy is what compels them, but on the other hand – compared to the shallowness of European political thought, it isn’t that bad an option.

"Maybe one day the monarchy will be restored in France," said Prince Jean as he strolled around the gardens of the Palais Royal in central Paris. "The prince can't just sit back and wait. He must make his mark."

Europe has many families descended from old monarchies. But most are happy just to enjoy the social status their backgrounds confer.

Which is a lot like being a trade union rep or being in one of the syndicated industries that have whole lines of business inefficiently stitched-up.

Prince Jean does his best to live like a king.

He has no official status and little public recognition, and he has to work for a living. He has been a financial consultant, and he now works full time promoting French heritage.

But he still carries out a program of "royal" engagements, aided by a staff of 30. He tours France 10 times a year, meeting mayors and visiting factories, where he says people see him as a reminder of French history. He also makes an annual overseas visit. He has discussed foreign policy with Vatican officials, has performed a tribal dance with Houma Native Americans in Louisiana, and traveled to the North Pole to raise awareness of climate change.

As kings will do, I suppose, when they aren’t encouraging the oxidation of ferrous metals into the atmosphere.

Prince Jean says he is a modern royal, and he cultivates an appropriately modest, varied lifestyle. He rides around Paris on a rusty bicycle, and his favorite movie is "Beverly Hills Cop II." In his spare time, he enjoys hunting, windsurfing and collecting ornamental knives. If aides address him as "Your Royal Highness," he tells them: "Just call me 'Prince Jean.'"

This is the funny part though: voting with their feet, the public shows an unstated fondness for symbolic leadership, happy to let another anti-meritocracy in the form of a never-changing cadre run things. There is also a taste for hearing excessive drama in the stating of positions in the sense that a radical sounding idea leaves an impression that progress of some kind – that mythical gentle and magical age some carry around different ideas around in their heads about, is just around the corner – if we could only just imagine it. Hope and change, in the style of a mass of imagined members of an underclass cramped into a rotting gilded shanty.

Nonetheless as fashion would dictate, these two “houses” manage to squabble.

Rival Claim

The current Bourbon pretender to the French throne is Prince Louis Alphonse Duke of Anjou, who lives in Venezuela. His adviser, Jacques De Bauffremont-Courtenay, Duke of Bauffremont, declined requests for an interview with Prince Louis, but said that this lineage gave his man the best claim to the French throne.

He said that in addition to the Orléans' less-direct lineage, they had helped trigger the French Revolution by hoarding a shipment of grain sent from the U.S. in 1788. The grain was intended to relieve a famine, and a year later the starving peasants revolted.

Something they continue to do to this day. To quote Mel Brooks’ finest opus: “the peasants are revolting!” “Yeah. They stink on ice.”

The very fact that a society that avers socialistic taglines and vocabulary, but still names “Lord Mayors” and clings has a symbolic shield for every village, reveals a cognitive dissonance. It either that or a strange desire to have it both ways, or as we are more likely to find evidence of: a desire to believe in notions of equality, but being so wanting to cling to a protector and so untrusting of peoples’ choices that you conclude that a iron fist is a comfort. It’s like finding a warm-fuzzy in licking the boot that kicks you.

But the thing that is repelled against by the appeal to the notion of reinstating monarchies, the seeming chaos in society, is the same reaction that the thugs on the barricades and the skinheads in the back alleys find as pretext to act. And yet it’s that action that motivates others still to say the kids ain’t alright – which of course

they aren’t.

Every Three Days a Cemetary Get Vandalized

"Abject", "scandalous", "deeply shocking": the political class has strongly condemned the desecration whose cemetery Notre-Dame-de-Lorette (Pas-de-Calais) was the target on the night from Sunday to Yesterday, for the third time in less than twenty months. More than 500 grave markers of Muslims and a dozen Jewish graves have been vandalized. Swastikas and various messages insulting Islam and the Minister of Justice Rachida Dati have been tagged in black paint. At the mention of these acts, perpetrated on the day of Eid el-Kebir, Nicolas Sarkozy denounced a "repulsive racism."

The desecration took place between rounds of a gendarmerie patrol at around 1:45 a.m. and the arrival of a veteran at 8 a.m. The Secretary of State for Veterans Affairs, Jean-Marie Bockel, announced the installation of eight cameras around the Muslim section of the cemetary.

Last September, a dozen skinheads had been arrested after the desecration of 148 headstones.

”Classes” fending off violence by “classes”. A ubiquitous state where far and wide gangs are obsessed with race and class.

Of course the “progressives” quietly hope for a new Robbespierre to lead them to deliverance of social sameness with a regime of life-controlling regulations no different than an iron fist, and the neo-fascists look for the same warmth of being treated to the socialism of being treated like a boarding school student.

Centuries have passed, and the pretentions remains the same. Centuries have passed, and a great many Europeans still confuse responsibility with authoritarian power. It looks almost like it's that disssonance and frustration that still drives people to take shelter in the strange and hostile ideologies of neo-marxism and neo-fascism, and others to take comfort in recreating the distant past which yearns for a similar result: one where in a strange way there is no resentment for others' success or good fortune because all us peasants are equally miserable, or that an elite can justify it's power based on their thinking themselves indispensible.

Reality continues to re-surface

Sometimes an article blogs itself:

Organic farmers have asked the Government for permission to take a "holiday" from strict organic standards in an attempt to survive the recession.

So what then is the point of organic farming sans the organic farming bit?

Chart a course for adventure

Life imitates the Onion, Monty Python, and Zissou:

For many sea anglers it could be the end of the line. The European Union wants to impose quotas on recreational fishermen limiting the number of fish they may catch.

Assuming the sextant is ratched-up tight this story will follow the per as usual EU-course: Publication; Silence; Denial-followed-by-Enforcement (at least for those countries choosing to play pretend).



Rather like carting around a bond company stooge on the voyage (without the charm of course).

Just in Case Some Unpleasantness Starts Between Russia and Ukraine…

Lest French citizens should feel nonplussed about an (admittedly speculative) official lack of (tough and determined) response in the event of hostilities breaking out between Russia and the Ukraine, Le Monde 2 has an article and a photo essay — all of which (photos, save one, perhaps) tend to emphasize the unity of what used to be one country — pointing out that the inhabitants of the Crimea feel a lot closer to Moscow to Kiev…

Commemorative Graphic Novel for Peter Madsen's Valhalla Series

Up in the great white North, Peter Madsen is bringing his 30-year-old graphic novel series, Valhalla (TV report in Danish), to a halt, which has given rise to a surprise party for the author, along with Thierry Capezzone's commemorative album by two dozen colleagues of his (including one by yours truly in collaboration with Sam Ménétrier)…

Although Peter Madsen is best known for bringing to life the Nordic gods of the Viking sagas and other trolls, he has also done stories about a God of a quite different character (along with the story of Job and a book series about the three most important feasts in the Christian religion)…

The Nigerian Widows Now Have… Their Own Domain Name!

Well, they're Kuwaiti widows, actually, but the exotic-country widows (you know, those who have nothing better to do but to give you millions of dollars) now have their own domain name.

Just when you think they aren't many ways Nigerians/Kuwaitis/whatevers can take the scam any further, you get one of those ubiquitous emails, and find out it's from a… veronicaturaki@kuwaitwidows.name…

I suppose that is supposed to make it more (?!?!) believable when reading Mrs Veronica Farooq Turaki's claim that she

inherited most of my husbands Bank deposits and properties after his death, which includes the sum US$8.5Million deposited in a Bank in the U.K which no one knows about.

AmeriKKKa is Just SUCH an Awful Soul-Crushing Place

According to one Briton sharing his experience with others of his move to the US, the country isn’t the abyss of cannibalism and grindingly medieval as the European branch of the 40millionpeoplewithouthealthinsurance! reciting robots of recycled recorded complaint would have you believe:

After all the trials described previously with our move to the USA, an obvious question is "Was the move worth it?"

The short answer is a definite "Yes". Even though we found the move to the USA a big challenge, we know we made the right choice overall.
Relocating was definitely a good move for us:

- The quality of life here in Redmond is vastly better than we had in London.
- The scenery and beauty of the area is just phenomenal.
- Crime and violence are low here.
- Medical treatment is phenomenally better if your employer has a good healthcare plan.
- The kids have integrated well into the school system and are enjoying all the activities like sports and recreation that is available to them.
- We moved from a 1100 sq foot house in London to a 3800 sq feet house in Redmond, in a vastly better location, and for about the same price!

Overall, we have grown as a family and individually from the relocation experience, and I would recommend it to anyone if they get the chance.

Oh, the horror! Bring that emergency supply of hope and change right away so that this sort of thing never happens again! This narrative may not be!

Sarkozy's seemingly boundless capacity to move from old friend to new, from passionate old position to eager new standpoint (as a Gaullist reborn)

Soon enough, according to some Europeans, Germans in particular, the Sarkozy fantasy and free-fire zone will reach its limits

writes John Vinocur.

The demarcation would be Barack Obama's entry in the White House, bearing issues like Iran, Afghanistan, and France's capacity to function as a team player in the context of its return to NATO's unified command in April.

It's then that the rules allowing Sarkozy's seemingly boundless capacity to move from old friend to new, from passionate old position (as a would-be Atlanticist) to eager new standpoint (as a Gaullist reborn) grow very much tougher.

Obama will have too little time to waste - and too much power, credibility and persuasiveness - not to ask Sarkozy if he wants to risk a return to French irrelevance by promoting his own importance with a policy hodgepodge he and France can't deliver.

Television "Never Shows What Really Takes Place" in France's and Europe's Prisons

"Même les SDF dehors, ils sont mieux que nous", témoigne un détenu devant sa fenêtre.

With the help of a camera smuggled into their Essonne detention center, inmates held in the prison of Fleury-Mérogis spent several months filming the interior of their cells and their jail.

No spectacular revelations, as Luc Bronner points out in Le Monde (nor, of course — from our part — any chicken little hand-wringing about the alleged abhorrent fate of the martyrlike prisoners), only this: are Europeans really apt (or that apt) to give lessons to the Americans on social policies? (Especially when the judgment made by the continent's proud citizens — i.e., that in forward-looking Europe, unlike backward and clueless America, prisons are "reinsertion centers" — turns out to be nothing but "la communication officielle de l'administration pénitentiaire".)

"Quand on est en détention, on voit plein de reportages télé sur les prisons, nous explique un des vidéastes en demandant l'anonymat. Mais ils ne montrent jamais ce qui se passe vraiment parce que l'administration organise les visites et ne montre que les bâtiments en bon état. On s'est dit qu'il fallait montrer l'autre côté de la détention." Ils mettent aussi en avant leur volonté de casser l'image positive des prisons pour une partie de la jeunesse des quartiers. "Beaucoup pensent qu'aller en prison c'est pas grave et qu'ils en sortiront plus forts. Nous, on veut leur montrer que c'est vraiment la merde et que tu deviens fou là-bas."

…Des détenus ont aussi accepté de témoigner sur la dureté des rapports sociaux au sein de la maison d'arrêt. "Ici, contrairement à ce [que disent] les gens, c'est la loi du plus fort. (…) Chacun a son terrain. (…) Pour faire mes marques, j'ai dû me bagarrer au départ", explique l'un d'entre eux. Plusieurs fustigent le comportement des surveillants, volontiers insultés et accusés de pratiques humiliantes. …

Un des détenus interrogés lance un "appel" pour que le public arrête de croire que la prison est un "lieu pour se réinsérer". "Moi, je me suis fait attraper pour un petit fait, de catégorie correctionnelle. Je suis passé en comparution immédiate, on m'a condamné. Moi, maintenant quand je marche en promenade, je marche avec des tueurs, avec des meurtriers, des trafiquants internationaux. Et je le vous cache pas qu'à certains moments ça donne envie."

La prison de Fleury-Mérogis filmée par des détenus
envoyé par lemondefr

BFM

On BFM on January 2, Erik Svane will be discussing 2008 and its elections, along with Democrats Abroad rep Constance Laborde (details will follow)…

Snake eyes

Somebody said something about man-made global warming, somebody said something about doubling-down, somebody said something about that "free" shrimp cock-tail, somebody said something about house rules:

The ongoing snowstorm has stopped flights from landing or leaving at McCarran International Airport, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

"No planes are departing for Las Vegas from anywhere in the U.S. right now," said FAA spokesman Ian Gregor.

You gotta double-up to catch-up.

They Had to Hang a Pork Chop Around His Neck to get the Dog to Play with Him

The EU has stopped funding to “5-6” western-balkans news operations that they were paying to cover their circus in Brussels. Bra-vo, and all that, but the question really is: why would they need to pay anyone to cover them to begin with?

Until the end of 2006, the European Commission supported all TV correspondents coming from EU candidate states. This was first a scheme first applied to the correspondents of 12 countries that are now part of the EU.
Then it was our turn in the “Western Balkans”. This technical aid consisted of cameras, editing studios and a chance to send our stories via satellite. The first 12 beneficiaries of the scheme were happy to receive this aid until the day they entered the EU. Croatia, Albania, Macedonia, Montenegro, Bosnia, Kosovo and Serbia were to follow. Back in 2003, the EU gave these countries a clear perspective of eventual membership, right?But almost two years ago, the European Commission reorganized the budget in order to redirect the money earmarked for “media support”. They cash was top be redirected towards civil society, they said. So, money that once went on media support is now going to go directly to the countries for the purposes of staging workshops, seminars and similar activities, including sporadic help for several TV broadcasts. This initiative is fine, but what about the correspondents, the people that are at the centre of happenings? Who better than us can directly and instantaneously inform people about political events concerning our countries?

The simple answer is to start media support of civil societies, whatever the hell that chilling, ademocratic sounding thing is – as opposed to proving so be so uninteresting or so unable to market virally that you have to put cash out on the street.

I find odd though, that the title of the blog reporting on this is called “shooting the messenger”, as though it’s perfectly normal for a government entity to pay journalists, and a sign of harshness when they stop paying them.

Elsewhere, demanding students ask: What am I? Chopped liver? Frankly, yes. Yes you are.

Quotus

Indeed:

All my life I've known better than to depend on the experts. How could I have been so stupid, to let them go ahead?

Generally speaking, pick your topic and apply the above in very large doses.

Buzzkill

Just like a three-day bender in Amsterdam, something always comes along to harsh your buzz dude. In this particular instance, reality intrudes:

Many American environmentalists are also rubbing their eyes in amazement. Just as a new US administration looks ready after eight years of Bush stagnation to make real efforts on climate change, the Europeans seem to be getting cold feet.

The possible irony of Euro-centric eco-sanity is indeed delicious to think about.

Don't these Little Lefties Know that ‘Hate is not a Family Value’?

Drug addled ‘young militants’ hunt Jews in Mumbai.

Drug addled ‘young militants’ hunt Jews in Berlin.

Last Wednesday, hundreds, if not thousands, of students ostensibly protesting poor conditions in German schools stormed the main building of Berlin’s historic Humboldt University: smashing windows, occupying seminar rooms, strewing rolls of toilet paper in the lobby and courtyard, and even setting at least one fire. Most astonishingly, the protesters also laid waste to an exhibit in the entry hall of the building devoted to the Nazi persecution of the Jews. The exhibit was titled “Betrayed and Sold: Jewish Businesses in Berlin 1933-1945.” According to reports on the German news site Spiegel-Online and in the popular German tabloid Bild, virtually all the poster boards making up the exhibit were damaged and, as photo evidence shows, some were fully ripped in two. Eyewitnesses cited by Spiegel-Online say that the rioters who destroyed the exhibit were adolescents around thirteen years old.

Interviewed by Spiegel-Online, a researcher at the university reported that when he informed rioters that the university had visitors from Israel and asked “What will they think?” one young man responded “F*ck Israel!” [Scheiß Israel] and proceeded to attack him. Reacting to suggestions that the students may not have realized what the subject of the exhibit was, police chief Peter-Michael Haeberer told Bild: “Leaving aside the fact that university employees and other witnesses pointed it out to them, even a dyslexic could not have failed to recognize that it was an exhibit about the persecution of the Jews. The perpetrators knew exactly what they were doing.”

All in the name of liberating something or other, of course.



“fighting the system”, and demanding the “ Demokratisierung der Schulen“

The incident occurred merely three days after Chancellor Angela Merkel and other German dignitaries solemnly commemorated the 70th anniversary of the infamous Kristallnacht pogroms, during which thousands of Jewish-owned shops and synagogues were destroyed throughout Germany.

As with the riots in Greece, there is an unrepresented degree of organization to this, with the adolescent ragers at Indymedia playing a hidden role. In Berlin, it even gets richer. Looking desperately for something to trash, a group engaging in Fagan-like organizing of students as young as 13 posts stickers around the city calling for “school strikes” over just about anything they believe the world should give them for free, including jobs – this of course, without being able to square that claim with the demand that capitalism disappear. As we’ve seen before over and over, these things go down a lot easier if you know nothing about the world, and have even less life experience than your average 17 year old.

To the French, One Iraqi Shoe-Thrower Becomes the Symbol of His 30 Million Countrymen

Au printemps 2003, en signe de vengeance et de mépris, les Irakiens frappaient de leurs chaussures les statues monumentales de Saddam Hussein jetées à terre par les troupes américaines. Cinq ans plus tard, ils les jettent à la figure du chef de la coalition venue les libérer d'une sanglante dictature, en le traitant de "chien".

Voilà ce que nous apprend (sic) Le Monde! A moins que j'ai mal vu les images de la télé, ce ne sont pas 30 millions d'Irakiens (!) mais… un seul (!) qui s'est mué en jetteur de godasses.

Dominique Dhombres renchérit en affirmant — in so many words (et à la grande joie des lecteurs du Monde) — que le mot de la fin de la guerre d'Irak, ce n'est autre que

ce lancer de chaussures à Bagdad.

Le Monde (et ses lecteurs) ignorent allègrement 1) les condamnations du geste par de nombreux Irakiens, tout comme ils ignorent allègrement 2) que si un journaliste avait été l'auteur d'un geste similaire contre Saddam Hussein (ou contre, mettons, Assad ou contre les Mollahs, pays dans lesquels ce geste a été loué "spontanément"), il aurait eu (au minimum) les bras arrachés.

Comme le dit Gateway Pundit : "Funny. This never happened at a Saddam palace before?" The reporter "did not have his tongue cut out, did not have his arms broke and was not thrown off a roof. Now that's success." Gateway Pundit ajoute : "Of course, we have an idea what al-Zaidi would be going through right now if he were held in an Egyptian prison."

Enfin, 3) tant Le Monde que ses lecteurs présentent (à travers leur correspondante, Mouna Naïm) Mountazer Al-Zaïdi comme un Irakien type, alors que jamais, ô grand jamais, il n'aurait jeté une chaussure ou quoi que ce soit sur Saddam Hussein, vu que le dictateur était son héros et que — justement — le journaliste de Al-Baghdadiya travaille pour une télévision pro-saddamite ; sa "protestation" tient donc à peu près autant du symbolique que si, après le printemps 1945, un journaliste allemand, de tendance nazie, avait jeté ses bottes sur Franklin Delano Roosevelt ou Churchill pour tous les morts que les Américains et/ou les Anglais — et non Adolf Hitler — avaient causé durant la 2nde Guerre Mondiale.

Update: Ralph Peters agrees…

High School Musical

You probably already know what a watermelon is. Look it up in the dictionary, and you should find Daniel Cohn-Bendit’s face should be there. High among his priorities are the silencing people who don’t agree with him, and trying to relive his childhood (which was actually quixotic by European standards) of abetting fugitive terrorists.

His latest tantrum was a passive-aggressive sit-down protest in front of Czech president Vaclav Havel’s person, presumably because he exists, and hasn’t drunk from the same cup as Cohn-Bendit, a leftist flunky for any revolutionary notion that a 15 year old is unsophisticated enough to embrace.

He then moved on to the Lisbon Treaty. "I don't care about your opinions on it," he said. If the Czech Parliament approves the treaty in February, he demanded, "Will you respect the will of the representatives of the people?"

Which is exactly where the problem lies. It’s the ‘representatives of the people’ of other EU member states that the people who voted in the Netherlands, France, and Ireland when they were voting on referenda themselves, sans non-representative representation voted in by people other than them.

He then reprimanded the president for his recent meeting in Ireland with Declan Ganley, the millionaire leader of the "No" campaign in the Irish referendum, claiming that it was improper for Klaus to have talked to someone whose "finances come from problematic sources".

Visibly taken aback by this onslaught, Klaus observed: "I must say that no one has talked to me in such a style and tone in the past six years. You are not on the barricades in Paris here. I thought that such manners ended for us 19 years ago" (ie when Communism fell). When Klaus suggested to Hans-Gert Pöttering, the president of the EU Parliament, that perhaps it was time for someone else to take the floor, Pöttering replied that "anyone from the members of the Parliament can ask you what he likes", and invited Cohn-Bendit to continue.

"This is incredible', said Klaus.

The post-vote attacks on Declan Ganley have really been rather hilarious, and egged on and caused by many in the press as well. They included things like complaining that he’s made his money ‘in business’, accused without basis in fact of taking money from the CIA (while ironically neglecting to mention that the US government has been begging Europeans to get their act together as a group,) and nicknaming him ‘The Mysterious Mr. No’ when he’s made his position on matters as plain as day. This kind of smear that the attention-seeking left likes to pull, and an inability to absorb any new idea since 1917 despite their love of “la provoc” that’s all too typical and stale.

Elsewhere: the german pulisher with a near monopoly, Bertelsmann, is trying to dictate to the incoming US president America's terms of surrender to them. Since they effectively bought-off Senetor Obama, the stunt might just work.

The Washington, DC-based Bertelsmann Foundation presented its Trans-Atlantic Briefing Book for the Obama administration on Thursday, 13 November 2008 in the US capital. The Briefing Book is a policy blueprint that offers strategies for foreign-policy cooperation between Europeans and the new American leadership during their first consultations in early 2009.

The Bertelsmann Foundation, the only non-partisan pan-European think tank in Washington, DC, wrote its Briefing Book from a distinctly European perspective. The Book describes the go and the no-go areas of major foreign-policy issues. It realistically considers the shortcomings of the European institutions and EU member-states. The Briefing Book highlights the numerous fields of trans-Atlantic cooperation and focuses on the viewpoints of Brussels, London, Paris and Berlin.

They might just manage to Talibanize us after all.

Again, is this some sort of end-run telling us that they are "speaking for the representatives of the people"?

Slicing and dicing 2008-style

One would think that winning the Nobel Prize for Economics would instill just a wee bit of self-confidence in the New York Times' op-edist Paul Krugman. As seen previously, Mr. Krugman tends to get his fingers a bit singed when pontificating on European affairs.

Never-the-less, todays effort:

So here’s the situation: the economy is facing its worst slump in decades. The usual response to an economic downturn, cutting interest rates, isn’t working. Large-scale government aid looks like the only way to end the economic nosedive.

But there’s a problem: conservative politicians, clinging to an out-of-date ideology — and, perhaps, betting (wrongly) that their constituents are relatively well positioned to ride out the storm — are standing in the way of action.

No, I’m not talking about Bob Corker, the Senator from Nissan — I mean Tennessee — and his fellow Republicans, who torpedoed last week’s attempt to buy some time for the U.S. auto industry. (Why was the plan blocked? An e-mail message circulated among Senate Republicans declared that denying the auto industry a loan was an opportunity for Republicans to “take their first shot against organized labor.”)

I am, instead, talking about Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, and her economic officials, who have become the biggest obstacles to a much-needed European rescue plan.

Is Mr. Krugman aware that Germany has (unfortunately) a "grand" coalition of government of left and right? The slicing and dicing started above but really grates here:

As in the United States, monetary policy — cutting interest rates in an effort to perk up the economy — is rapidly reaching its limit. That leaves, as the only way to avert the worst slump since the Great Depression, the aggressive use of fiscal policy: increasing spending or cutting taxes to boost demand. Right now everyone sees the need for a large, pan-European fiscal stimulus.

Everyone, that is, except the Germans. Mrs. Merkel has become Frau Nein: if there is to be a rescue of the European economy, she wants no part of it, telling a party meeting that "we're not going to participate in this senseless race for billions."

Last week Peer Steinbrück, Mrs. Merkel’s finance minister, went even further. Not content with refusing to develop a serious stimulus plan for his own country, he denounced the plans of other European nations. He accused Britain, in particular, of engaging in "crass Keynesianism."

Anyone with a modicum (or a modem) of interest in European affairs knows that the person leading the charge on the German reluctance (not necessarily unwarranted) to jump in feet first and without thinking is indeed Peer Steinbrück. However, Herr Steinbrück is not "Mrs. Merkel's finance minister". Herr Steinbrück is the finance minister from the Social Democratic Party portion of the coalition government led by Frau Merkel.

The point of the post goes back to the beginning of Mr. Krugman's piece:

But there’s a problem: conservative politicians, clinging to an out-of-date ideology — and, perhaps, betting (wrongly) that their constituents are relatively well positioned to ride out the storm — are standing in the way of action.

Who knew, Peer Steinbrück and the left-wing Social Democrats in Germany are amongst the "conservative politicians clinging to an out-of-date ideology". Perhaps this post is rather dancing on the head of a pin, but shouldn't we expect more from our Nobel Laureates?

Just think it is sloppy work on behalf of Mr. Krugman, sure....

The Times, they are a Flailing

Like the hoax that could set Belgians running to rationalize and the bombing that brought down a Spanish government, the fact that Europeans don’t want to be a nation with responsibilities, but rather a power vacuum magically held in high regard for their image of themselves, it’s an apparent function of character. That sort of character is the product of a million silly ideas about what one thinks human nature COULD do if you could will it away, one that can no longer use the excuse of what it thinks is its’ own experience, and will only be purged from our lower GI tract when the ‘68ers become too old to care about the sound of their own voices.

In the process of discussing India’s options following the Mumbai attacks, Barry Rubin has a point that while painful to hear is the obvious codex of our modern age:

The problem here is that the international community is not exactly courageous. There are those who sympathize with the terrorists, those who apologize for the terrorists, and those who are afraid of the terrorists.

What is truly frightening is how much the world is afraid of the terrorists. An example: In 2006 the Israel-Hizballah war ended with a UN ceasefire resolution. The UN, meaning more than 180 countries, pledged to patrol southern Lebanon and keep Hizballah forces from returning there. It also promised to help stop arms smuggling from Iran and Syria to Hizballah. In fact, after two years the UN armed soldiers in Lebanon have done nothing. Hizballah has returned and rearmed. What happened? Hizballah, and Syria, hinted that if the UN forces did their job they would be attacked. The entire world surrendered to Hizballah.

And to think that it was those very nailbiters that decided that they had to step in just so somebody else doesn’t do something about the way the Iran-Syria-Hizballah complex has ravaged Lebanon’s future and “regional stability” – that very nebulous and impossible that thing the Europeans keep pretending is itself a virtue worthy of permanently accepting tyrannies to maintain.

Indeed we may even have to wait until the real stupidest generation has permanently stopped talking about itself to see a change.

Declaring Year Zero

Words associated with Christianity and British history taken out of children's dictionary

Even if you imagine that there are specific social and philosophical goals to removing words from a dictionary associated with national historic or Christianity, one would be hard pressed to believe that there is a valid reason that it can be imposed on the general population.

Oxford University Press has removed words like "aisle", "bishop", "chapel", "empire" and "monarch" from its Junior Dictionary and replaced them with words like "blog", "broadband" and "celebrity". Dozens of words related to the countryside have also been culled.

The publisher claims the changes have been made to reflect the fact that Britain is a modern, multicultural, multifaith society.

But academics and head teachers said that the changes to the 10,000 word Junior Dictionary could mean that children lose touch with Britain's heritage.

"We have a certain Christian narrative which has given meaning to us over the last 2,000 years. To say it is all relative and replaceable is questionable," said Professor Alan Smithers, the director of the centre for education and employment at Buckingham University.

Supider still, it doesn’t have to have anything to do with the narrative of Britsh history at all. What is it exactly that these revisionists are trying to say? That there was no history of the UK before the 20th century and that Christianity never existed? That a simple conduit of information (broadband) is in itself comparable to a religious and philosophical framework?

It’s all evidence of a real loss of the narrative long past us now. One that can’t distinguish (inm this case) between objects and concepts. It isn’t even up to the storyboard mechanism of the cave paintings, and quite frankly the only way to dispose of all notions of our philosophical heritage, one would have to insure a standard of stupidity to enable it.

Words taken out:

Carol, cracker, holly, ivy, mistletoe

Dwarf, elf, goblin

Abbey, aisle, altar, bishop, chapel, christen, disciple, minister, monastery, monk, nun, nunnery, parish, pew, psalm, pulpit, saint, sin, devil, vicar

Coronation, duchess, duke, emperor, empire, monarch, decade

adder, ass, beaver, boar, budgerigar, bullock, cheetah, colt, corgi, cygnet, doe, drake, ferret, gerbil, goldfish, guinea pig, hamster, heron, herring, kingfisher, lark, leopard, lobster, magpie, minnow, mussel, newt, otter, ox, oyster, panther, pelican, piglet, plaice, poodle, porcupine, porpoise, raven, spaniel, starling, stoat, stork, terrapin, thrush, weasel, wren.

Acorn, allotment, almond, apricot, ash, bacon, beech, beetroot, blackberry, blacksmith, bloom, bluebell, bramble, bran, bray, bridle, brook, buttercup, canary, canter, carnation, catkin, cauliflower, chestnut, clover, conker, county, cowslip, crocus, dandelion, diesel, fern, fungus, gooseberry, gorse, hazel, hazelnut, heather, holly, horse chestnut, ivy, lavender, leek, liquorice, manger, marzipan, melon, minnow, mint, nectar, nectarine, oats, pansy, parsnip, pasture, poppy, porridge, poultry, primrose, prune, radish, rhubarb, sheaf, spinach, sycamore, tulip, turnip, vine, violet, walnut, willow

Even with the pummeling of eco-cation the kidlets are getting as a kind of ‘original sin’ burden they aren’t permitted to get past, plant names for things that are ubiquitous to the point of being invasive in Britain (such as mint) are being removed.

This isn’t a case of someone trying to build a brave new world or a ‘Logan’s Run’ society. It’s a expression of the sad lack of perspective of a generation incapable of placing itself anywhere in history without looking for the gaps it wish it didn’t have to face. In the US, I would think that they would want to leave the work ‘cracker’ in, just. Y’know, for the sake of indoctrination and all...

Elsewhere: hope is dangled in front of western women otherwise unable to form durable human relationships well into adulthood.

Have a nice day.

Protecting that all Imoprtant, nay - Vital Strategic Cheese Production

The cascade effect telegraphing through the whole of the economy, the mass layoffs, the agony. Despite the cost SOMEBODY should do something... Italians discover government cheese:

Italian consumers seem to support the cheese bailout, which also includes a purchase of 100,000 wheels of another grating variety, Grana Padano. The operation will cost €50 million.

To pay for the parmigiano wheels, the Italian government is dipping into a special European Union fund meant to help feed needy people.

Emphasis mine.

Dispatch from Utopia

Berlin - chaotic freedom-hating leftists counter-protest against authoritarian freedom-hating leftists. As usual, the natives don’t quite get the narrative of just what it is they’re protesting against: the mere existence of people who don’t agree with them.

From pacifist arms exporters the implausible delights of whining for its’ own sake, Observing Hermann continues to watch them following the script.

Lethargy as Lifestyle

Potential candidates who can’t be bothered to run. Potential bloggers who can’t seem to make themselves notice what is or isn’t going on. Welcome to the human warehouse that is EUtopia.

We know we have got it wrong when our senior European politicians prefer to serve in the non-elected commission, or even in national government, rather than in the currently anodyne European Parliament, even though that body is (theoretically at least) the second most important legislature in the world.

A people leaders are loath to actually trust, and a people unmoved by the tediousness of those in political life. It’s a perfect storm – a kind of ghetto mental complex on a continental scale.

Why should we need to "boost interest and participation in" the European elections at all? Why do we fear that turnout in some countries will be so low as to threaten the democratic legitimacy of those elected?

It is because politics in Europe and debate in Europe has simply become so stultified and dull, extinguished by the well-meaning and ordered hand of bureaucracy.

Politics was always about people and will always be about people, because ultimately we place our trust and our judgement in people.

While always willing to get jumping mad at someone an ocean away, and seem to want to chisel Senator Obama’s head onto Mount Rushmore before he’s even taken office, the lecturesome ways of these great Euro-minds seems to wander off when the subject at hand is their own behavior, initiative, or demonstrative value to civilization.

George Bush? They have a “lesson” for us about George Bush! Barack Obama? They’re all ”for” Barack Obama for a plentitude of recorded reasons they’re willing to recite verbatim. Themselves? Themselves? Hello... Is there anyone in there?

Mark Mazower, author of Dark Continent: Europe’s 20th Century, and other interesting criticisms that look into the heart or heartlessness of the Ur-European notes evidence of this retrograde nature and social lethargy – all the while imagining that their passivated actions are equal to the endless complex of sneering at others over mushy, irrelevant “good to do” notions things one tries to call virtues:

It is not so long ago that Austria’s rightwingers used to campaign on the slogan: “Vienna must not become Chicago”. They were not the only Europeans to become more xenophobic with the end of the cold war. But they were perhaps the only ones to link their detestation of the new immigrants from the Middle East and eastern Europe to hoary images of race riots and organised crime drawn from America’s bad old days.

Now that an African-American from Chicago is set to become president in Washington, not everyone in Vienna is happy. In an extraordinary on-air outburst, Klaus Emmerich, the veteran Austrian television pundit, declared: “I would not want the western world to be directed by a black man.” When invited to retract, Mr Emmerich stood by what he had said, adding that “blacks aren’t as politically civilised” and pouring fuel on to the fire by hinting that Mr Obama’s “rhetorical brilliance” and ability in organising a movement made him comparable to infamous demagogues from the past. America’s choice, Mr Emmerich concluded, was as misplaced as a Turk becoming the next chancellor of Austria.

His comments were greeted by a storm of criticism, just as Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi’s “joke” about Mr Obama’s “sun tan” had been: two elderly men betraying their generational prejudices, one might think. Yet the underlying problem goes deeper. A comment such as Mr Emmerich’s would be political suicide in the US; in Austria it earned little more than a slap on the wrist. How is it that while both places have their fair share of racism, one finds such contrasting public and political responses?

I guess there’s no place like Utopia.

If it did not exist would anyone bother inventing it? (circa now)

The EU precedent on torture that puts the actions of American officials in a more favorable light — which is precisely why the MSM hasn't reported it

In light of the spectacular nature of the case [of torture of a prisoner in a German police station] and, above all, the raging American debate on torture in connection with the Guantánamo Bay prison camp and the war on terror, on first glance this might seem odd

writes John Rosenthal in Policy Review about the fact that the European Court of Human Rights (echr) ruling went almost entirely ignored by the American news media.

But on further reflection, it is perhaps precisely its obvious relevance to the American “torture” debate that explains the American media’s indifference to the echr ruling. The ruling was announced just as a campaign to charge senior Bush administration officials with “war crimes” was reaching fever pitch this past summer. With leading news organizations like the New York Times openly abetting that campaign, it would hardly have been opportune for those same news organizations to call attention to a European precedent that puts the actions of the American officials in a more favorable light — and all the less so as the editorial boards that have been most adamant in denouncing alleged American “torture” practices typically regard Europe as a paragon of virtue in the matter of respecting international law.

…Two points are particularly notable about the echr’s [Magnus] Gäfgen ruling in light of the accusations against Rumsfeld and other Pentagon officials. The first is that the echr explicitly found that one of the techniques Rumsfeld and Haynes rejected as too severe does not meet the threshold for being regarded as torture. Citing the Army’s “tradition of restraint,” Rumsfeld and Haynes refused to authorize threats of physical violence, as well as two other “Category III” techniques, “exposure to cold weather or water” and what has come to be known as “waterboarding.” (The only “Category III” technique that was approved was the “use of mild, non-injurious physical contact such as grabbing, poking in the chest with the finger, and light pushing.”) The Court, however, found that mere threats of violence, if they are not carried out, do not as such constitute torture. It came to this conclusion even while recognizing that Ennigkeit’s threats must have caused Gäfgen “considerable mental suffering” (§69). By the standards of the European Court of Human Rights, then, all less harsh measures should not be regarded as torture either. The Court’s finding in this regard ought not, of course, to have any direct legal relevance. The United States is not a party to the European Convention on Human Rights and it is not represented in the Council of Europe to which the echr is attached. Nonetheless, the finding is especially awkward for Physicians for Human Rights and kindred ngos, since such groups tend precisely to regard echr jurisprudence as authoritative even for countries like the United States that are not part of the Council of Europe.

…The fact that the echr acknowledged Gäfgen’s “considerable mental suffering” renders its finding even more awkward for Physicians for Human Rights, since the latter makes ample use of the notion of “psychological torture” in order to elevate physically nonaggressive interrogation practices into the torture category. The group has indeed previously devoted a 135-page report to the subject. As it so happens, Ennigkeit appears to have expressly aimed to maximize Gäfgen’s psychological torment, not only by invoking the imminent arrival of the “special officer,” but also, if Gäfgen is to be believed, by threatening to allow him to be sexually abused by fellow prisoners.

Of course, even if the interrogation methods approved by the Pentagon do not rise to the level of torture, they could well be considered “inhuman treatment,” which is likewise prohibited under the un Convention against Torture (more fully, the un “Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment”). No one reading the transcript of Mohammed al-Qahtani’s interrogations that was leaked to the press in2005 could doubt that the treatment to which he was subject by his interrogators was, by ordinary standards of human interaction, crude and abusive.

But this is where the second salient aspect of the echr Gäfgen ruling is especially relevant. For while the echr found that the Frankfurt police’s treatment of Gäfgen did constitute “inhuman treatment,” it accepted the Frankfurt District Court’s judgment that under the circumstances this treatment did not warrant punishment.

…One may well wonder whether the accusers of Donald Rumsfeld and other Pentagon officials would be prepared to acknowledge “massively extenuating circumstances” in their cases. But if the desire to save the life of an eleven-year-old boy is an extenuating circumstance, how can the desire to prevent a follow-on attack to 9/11 and to save potentially thousands of innocent lives not be one? And if the difficulty involved in questioning a wily and arrogant 27-year-old student who has been “trained in law” is an extenuating circumstance, how can the difficulty involved in questioning an evasive and potentially dangerous al Qaeda operative who has been trained in operational security measures not be one?

To deny the same degree of forbearance to American officials and personnel involved in the war on terror is to imply that irregular combatants forming part of terrorist organizations deserve greater legal protections not only than ordinary prisoners of war, but indeed than ordinary citizens. Such an absurd — and for the United States suicidal — logic could only be embraced by persons who are fundamentally committed to seeing American counter-terrorism efforts fail.

Humans: They Ain’t What they Used to be

In a fit of grinding out the last bits of ancient régime along with the dignity of the people still alive who built it, the East German seat of government is done being demolished. Funny – in spite of the near leveling of the city, a number of Nazi structures were left standing – but that may have been a case of sterner folk understanding that without evidence of history one is doomed to repeat it.

‘Smell ya later’

Then again, those folk ain’t what they used to be. The normally trashy Berliner Kurier known for dimwitted social taunts and page 3 bippy shots reports that Ikea has found most men in this post-touchy-feely-education age unable to assemble furniture, what after decades of being berated for being male:

The world is out of whack. You could also say the screws and pilot-holes too, because the head of Ikea in Germany shocked the world of men. She claims: Women do a better job assembling their furniture!


Petra Hesser (50), German boss of the Swedish furniture chain has to study their drawers. These men did a bad job with "Pax," "Billy" and so forth. Hesser: "Men never look at the instructions and have the most trouble because they always think they can figure it out. This is empirical evidence." On the other hand, women were very different: They begin studying the structure of the manufacturer’s instructions and then proceed systematically. Hesser: "The woman sets out first by properly sort all the screws. All the men throw a pile and then afterwards what is missing."

All it really means is that there is something so deeply irrational about the connections in the furniture, that trying to assemble it with known skills after making an observation of it employing reason and physical basics useless.

But I’ll leave it at that, along with your anthropomorphically named chair named ‘Sven’ or something. Upon last check, I was unable to converse with a lamp or any other inanimate object with the same élan as the statistical majority of women, nor did I feel any need to use junk as a substitute to human contact.

Gold Medals for a Global Committment to Issue Press Releases

The generic global buzz of the week a few weeks back was piracy off of the Somali coast, but it wasn’t that long ago that it was rapidly becoming a non-story. The International Maratime Bureau reported in 2007 that piracy in the Indian Ocean and East Africa fell to its’ lowest point in years. At the time, it was the US Navy active on the grey waters and the US which pushed for an effective reporting technology.

“We are like a beat cop conducting maritime interception operations either by radio queries or flag verification boarding, or pattern recognition,” he said. “We also pressurize the maritime environment to deny international terrorists its use as a venue for attack or transport of personnel, weapons, or other material”.

Thereafter, it was handed over to NATO, which in part meant that parties other than the US were taking the point. Then it went downhill, after any sort of success by European forces got a great deal of publicity.

Now, that failure, carefully leaving out the performance of any NATO member state Navies, we have the generic global story of the week to find in the generic global headlines and tut-tut over our oatmeal in the morning.

"Our participation in the Somalia project is an important one," said David Miliband, the British Foreign Secretary. "This is obviously a very challenging project but one that European leaders are approaching with real humility as well as determination."

Which is where they get a platform for some sort of future and present grandstanding, in spite of the fact that the Indians were unwilling to screw around as the EU attempts to “make history” as it has in Darfur since their 2004 commitment to quickly deliver a rapid-reaction force to the area, one over which they continue to obfuscate over.

Speaking of bobbing platforms in the sea or otherwise, the wind-up toy that are the Grauniad’s writers come up with a real salve – not for the piracy problem, but [http://thylacosmilus.blogspot.com/2008/11/idealism-vs-reality.html] their feelings. Peter Lehr somehow managed to convince himself that

“A western armada is not the way to sink Somalia’s pirates…”

Indeed. Buoyancy is drowning. Freedom is slavery. Etcetera, etcetera… Now that the Armada of cutsie poo social concrens is finally on its' way, the promotes have met their match: Somali pirates with a skill at manipulating the European sensitivity for the environment, or rather showing a skill at making Pavlov's dog drool on cue:

The EU fleet also faces the problem of strong support for the pirates amongst coastal communities who hail them as heroes, defending Somali fishermen against poachers from foreign nations, including Spain and France.

"The presence of European war ships will undermine the Somalis' ability to protect their natural resources from illegal fishing," said Mohamed Said, a pirate leader whose group has held the Saudi super-tanker Sirius Star for ransom since 15 November.

"Many of the polluters of Somalia's waters, those who dump toxic waste, are Europeans. This force will contribute to giving them unimpeded access to our waters," he told AFP.

As if Somali pirates were protecting any resources at all to begin with. Further, the Europeans having hamstrung themselves out of being able to act on any sort of common sense need to do something that might require shots to be fires have also managed to find a way to outsource their dispensing of bad news and expactiation-reduction messages:

According to UNOSAT, a UN-affiliated agency that analyses satellite data, the recent increase in naval vessels has done little to deter pirates, only forcing them to concentrate their attacks in specific areas.

"You would need at least 100 naval ships in the area to make a decisive impact, but this is impossible," Jean Duval, a maritime expert with French private maritime security outfit Secopex told the French news agency.

And why is that? Because even if in reality they did only need 10 ships and a nfew aircraft, a way would be found to explain why it couldn't be done, letting snarling dogs bite - just so long as the image of themselves can remain good, that the poor societies around them still pretend to look up to them, and that no action would be required on their part to maintain a good image of themselves as responsible - so long as it comes at no cost of their need to act on the values they try to look like they're promoting.

Think about it: they are making a big deal out of commiting to go where they've already been and failed, and at the same time trying to find a way to make a future failure forgivable and un-noteworthy. It's pathological.

What do you get when you cross a Political Unitarian and a Suicidal Fundamentalist Pacifist?

Belgian society, that’s what:

Last week, a couple of Belgian television networks received a video with masked Arabs claiming to speak on behalf of al-Qaeda. The men threatened attacks in Belgium if the country does not pull its tiny military contingent from Afghanistan. The video quickly turned out not to come from al-Qaeda but to be a compilation of existing al-Qaeda tapes. It was the work either of people attempting a sick joke or of potentially dangerous amateurs from the local Muslim community trying to mimic the big boys.

The reaction of the Belgian media was telling, however. Rather than exposing the video as a hoax and stating that, if the threats were genuine, the country should not grovel to terrorists, De Standaard, Belgium’s leading allegedly center-right newspaper, opened a public debate about the question whether Belgium should withdraw its troops from Afghanistan. Fortunately, the government has not responded affirmatively or Belgium would be the first country to give in to threats from jokers or Muslim kids who seek media attention with an amateur movie made on their pc.

It is to be feared, however, that if there ever is a major terror attack in Belgium the Belgians, whose country hosts the headquarters of both NATO and the EU, will react like the Spaniards did after the 2005 Madrid attacks: by painting their hands white and surrendering.

Yes, you read that right. A hoax was enough to trigger that.

The Only Committment Missing is “Reporting the News”

A Typical French Viewpoint: In the Russian-Georgian Conflict, Tbilisi Was the Hunter, While the Kremlin Was the Rabbit!

Le véritable moyen de juger de la légitimité des actions menées par la Russie n'est pas de se demander si le gouvernement démocratiquement élu de la Géorgie est venu à la rescousse de son peuple, sur son propre territoire, mais plutôt de répondre aux questions suivantes. Est-ce la Géorgie ou est-ce la Russie qui a : recherché une annexion de facto du territoire souverain d'un état voisin; délivré illégalement des passeports aux résidents d'une démocratie voisine afin de créer un prétexte à l'invasion; envoyé des centaines de chars et des milliers de soldats au-delà des frontières internationalement reconnues d'une démocratie voisine; été l'instigatrice d'une série de provocations mortelles et d'attaques ouvertes pendant de nombreux mois ayant entraîné la mort de nombreux civils ?

Georgian President Mikheïl Saakachvili answers his detractors (on the same page appears a sort of reply by Frank-Walter Steinmeier), stating that Moscow's campaign to convince the world that Tbilisi acted in an irresponsible manner during Russia's August invasion has manifestly borne fruit.

A en juger par la couverture médiatique récente, cette campagne a été un succès.

This is proven by the vast majority of Le Monde readers, who show that the French still like to listen to the Kremlin as the readers tell Le Monde to stop letting people like Mikheïl Saakachvili have a tribune (regulating speech they do not like, i.e., that does not square with la pensée unique).

The readers fume with scorn, calling the Georgian president an "irresponsible person", a "fantoche", an "agent of the CIA", somebody "filled with contradictions and imprecision", with "a degree zero in idiocy", a "hunter" who accuses the "rabbit" (Russia!!) of having started the conflict, and "un branquignol mégalomane et incontrôlable qui trouvera toujours normal de visiter une usine de fusées avec des briquets plein les poches". "J'allucine de voir des articles comme celui-ci dans le Monde" adds another reader, while another likens Le Monde to the ordinary Russian propagandist using the same Putin methods so often decried. "Le 'Monde' s'honorerait en ne lui [Mikheïl Saakachvili] servant pas de relai !"

To remember one definition of the danger of a one-party state: "contrary voices are regulated, barred, banned when possible, mocked and marginalized when not." There is only one truth: "Mais les faits sont têtus et ils s'imposent. L'agresseur fut la Géorgie! Pourquoi Le Monde insiste encore?" So keep quiet, nom de Dieu! And in case you don't understand that, get this: "La Géorgie, qui a été libérée de l'empire Ottoman par les Russes fait partie de l'ensemble russe !" So, enough already!

Thank goodness for people like Georges GIEN who says:

Les propagandistes zélés de l'ambassade russe sont en service commandé. Il est amusant d'ailleurs de constater, que les critiques portent uniquement sur l'homme, (comme à l'époque soviétique) que l'on présente comme un malade ou un fou...

Georges GIEN also answers Frank-Walter Steinmeier's column on the same page of Le Monde:

Et bla, bla, bli et bla, bla, bla. C'est creux et sans intérêt. Car pour espérer être crédible il ne faut pas accepter que la Russie envahisse et occupe un pays, membre de l'Onu, dont les frontières sont internationalement reconnues. reprendre les discussions avec la Russie, sans poser au préalable l'arrêt de l'occupation en Géorgie est inadmissible. Voulez-vous aussi, comme Schroeder devenir administrateur chez gazprom ?

Tsk, tsk

What will they say at the next drum circle:

This year is set to be the coolest since 2000, according to a preliminary estimate of global average temperature that is due to be released next week by the Met Office. The global average for 2008 should come in close to 14.3C, which is 0.14C below the average temperature for 2001-07.

Lest you think that more cooling means less warming (even writ small):

The relatively chilly temperatures compared with recent years are not evidence that global warming is slowing however, say climate scientists at the Met Office. "Absolutely not," said Dr Peter Stott, the manager of understanding and attributing climate change at the Met Office's Hadley Centre. "If we are going to understand climate change we need to look at long-term trends."

Of course the (publicly-funded) scientific community now is into the nuance game (eg. the facts are not fitting the models afterall). When it was time to pin the blame for Hurricane Katrina, natch ......... immediate pronouncement that it was AGW. It must be true, there is even a powerpoint.

One wonders with the scientific community, which is more important: long-term trends related to scientific facts -or- long-term trends related to funding.

Hmmmmmmm

Hold on to you Grundgesetz, People

German courts have found a way to extend the great warm-fuzzy of compassion to aggressive men incarcerated together.

The Federal Constitutional Court said the plaintiff was right in challenging a prison policy which allowed only female inmates to spend 25 euros (£21) of their own money on cosmetic and skin care products each month.

"Although the interest in cosmetics may be more widespread or frequently stronger among women than among men, it is not a biologically determined interest among women," the court ruled.

"Members of one sex cannot be denied their wellness choices simply because they are more typically found among the opposite sex."

It's just what they need in the crowbar hotel. Better smelling trany prison bitches.

In Memoriam

China Considers France a Female Country Which Acts Like a Vassal and Is Europe's Weak Link

Les diplomates français ont de tout temps été fascinés par la Chine et en ont une vision totalement déconnectée de la réalité

says a China specialist, Jean-Vincent Brisset, directeur de recherche à l'Institut de relations internationales et stratégiques, to Soren Seelow (Nee hau to José).

Nous sommes persuadés qu'il faut être gentils avec les Chinois pour que les Chinois soient gentils en échange. Parmi les pays ayant joué un grand rôle au niveau mondial, le nôtre est celui qui s'est montré le plus faible vis-à-vis de la Chine. Nous sommes ainsi considérés comme un pays femelle, faible et qui change tout le temps d'avis. Or la Chine ne respecte que la force.

…Pour [les Chinois], c'est extrêmement clair : la France est un pays vassal. … Nous n'y avons gagné que du mépris. … Il y a heureusement beaucoup de gens en Europe qui commencent à comprendre que la Chine n'est pas un pays ami. C'est un pays égoïste qui a des rapports rugueux avec le reste du monde, avec lequel il faut prendre un peu de distance.

… Si l'Europe faiblit, la Chine pourra piétiner tous les pays européens l'un après l'autre, sauf la Grande-Bretagne, qui ne se laissera jamais faire.

A Venezuelan Whose First Name Is Hitler? A Frenchman is Shocked; A Venezuelan Whose First Name Is Stalin? The Frenchman Is Amused

In Le Monde, Jean-Pierre Langellier has an article about the strange and funny first names that Venezuelans give their children.

There is Jefferson, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Nixon, Elvis, John Wayne, Usnavi, and, in the oil-producing region of Maracaibo, there are even kids (since grown up) named General Electric, Max Donald, and Made in USA. Along with Danger as well as Yesaidu and Juan Jondre, local adaptations of "Yes, I do" and "One hundred".

So far, so good. But here is where the French particularity comes out. Jean-Pierre Langellier points out there are some names of dubious taste, such as Iroshima Jennifer Bravo Queredo and Hitler Eufemio Sanchez Mayora, Jr, son of Hitler Eufemio Sanchez Mayora, Sr, and one of 60 people in the country with the first name Hitler.

The problem is whom the Frenchman did not include in the dubious name category. Indeed, see how the entire article started:

Lenin Danieri travaille comme reporter pour une chaîne de télévision vénézuélienne. Stalin Gonzalez, ex-leader étudiant, vient d'être battu aux élections municipales. Hochiminh Jesus Delgado Sierra dirige une entreprise à Barquisimento, une capitale provinciale. Mao Pinto est publicitaire.

Having Hitler for a first name is dubious (as we can all agree), but, obviously, for a Frenchman like Jean-Pierre Langellier, having Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Hochiminh, or Chegueva as a first name is not, and is obviously nothing less than as cute as Jefferson or Kennedy. In the country where, we are told, it is not at all true that people regret the Soviet era, note that (at the time of this writing) no reader has come forward to protest (or even offer a comment).

(True, Jean-Pierre Langellier goes on to bemoan the "sad" example of Carlos the Jackel, but that seems to be because the terrorist born Ilich Ramirez Sanchez (his brothers were named Lenin and Vladimir) brings disfavor to Lenin's (original first) name, not because Lenin's name brings disrepute to the terrorist.)

Election Monitors, Training Program in Civic Fairness Needed

What? Someone finally noticed? How can this be twisted to mean "George Bush shredded the constitution?

Belgium 'placed on democracy watch list'

The global champions of cultural fascism have turned to sneering on themselves: Belgium has banned three elected mayors from office for speaking French.

The COE has demanded that the mayors be immediately appointed and called for a review of Belgium's linguistic laws that have been used by Flemish nationalists to ban the use of the French language in municipalities around Brussels, home to the EU.

Good luck with all that.

"I cannot walk 200 meters in the streets" of Saint Petersburg, says the African native, "without getting fingers pointed at me"

Hamidou Bakayoko … est malien et vit depuis vingt-six ans à Saint-Pétersbourg. Agé de 46 ans, il est marié à une Russe, ils ont un enfant. Il est mordu de foot, mais ne mettra jamais les pieds au stade. Plombier dans le quartier de Petrogradskaya, il grille cigarette sur cigarette dans son atelier vétuste en méditant sur son sort : "La Russie, c'est pas un pays pour les Noirs. Le racisme, c'est la maladie principale ici. Je ne peux pas faire 200 mètres dans la rue sans me faire pointer du doigt."

Il met son manteau, allume une énième cigarette, et c'est parti pour une promenade. Deux cents mètres plus loin, une femme, la quarantaine, sourire moqueur, montre du doigt Hamidou à ses deux amis. "Comme un animal, souffle-t-il. Et encore, on ne m'a pas demandé si je me suis lavé aujourd'hui."

While all eyes are eternally on America on outlook for instances of racism, intolerance, greed, treachery, stupidity, and other "crimes" against humanity, other societies, such as Russia, with far worse "sins", only get passing interest in the media.

Pour accueillir les joueurs de l'OM, surtout les Noirs, des "ultras" se sont recouverts le visage de la fameuse cagoule blanche du Ku Klux Klan, ont imité des cris de singe, lancé des bananes. Dans une tribune, un singe en peluche portant le maillot marseillais a été pendu au bout d'une corde. "C'était amusant, lance Dmitri, 22 ans, un fan du Zénith qui dit appartenir à un groupe de supporteurs, les Members, proche des mouvements néonazis. C'est important de montrer aux nègres qu'ils sont des nègres. Nous sommes des patriotes de la ville, la place des Noirs n'est pas chez nous, mais dans les arbres en Afrique."

Needless to say, a number of Le Monde readers look back at Soviet times with nostalgia.

"Pull Down Your Underwear, Turn Around, and Cough Three Times"

"On se demande dans quel pays on vit", dit [Vittorio de Filippis, journaliste à Libération, membre de la direction du journal].

The French press is up in arms because a member of Libération has been allegedly mistreated by French police. Arrested at his home in the early hours of dawn for defamation (for "allowing" a website vistor's comment on a controversial businessman to remain on the website), Vittorio de Filippis was brought to the police station and told to get undressed. Then he was directed to lower his underpants… «Baissez votre slip, tournez-vous et toussez trois fois!»

The editor of Le Monde calls the police methods unacceptable but the police say that the Filippis version of events is exaggerrated.

Underwhelming

The European Union has launched its mission to strengthen the rule of law in Kosovo, after months of delay.  
 
Nearly 2,000 officials are taking over police, justice and customs duties from United Nations staff.  
 
Serbia rejected Kosovo's declaration of independence in February and still regards Kosovo as one of its provinces, but it has accepted the new EU mission.  
The UN will leave Kosovo after more than a decade in charge, retaining only a small political role.

After making a big point some time ago about the EU in Kosovo, the EU is making a big deal about ‘taking over the operation’ from the UN.  It has to be said that the same people who are effectively the government of Kosovo will be changing hats for this new effort to ‘take over the operation’again in a bid to do something slightly less parasitic looking than the year before.  From the BBC:

Eulex is the EU's biggest-ever mission and will operate across all of Kosovo. The 1,900 international officials will be supported by about 1,100 local staff.

Yup.  That’s it. Their ‘biggest ever mission’ is IN Europe and is composed of only 3000 people, more than a third of which are local hires, all to somehow make good on decades of cultural babble on what Casper should be doing for the world.  Oh, what a grand day as they continue to not ever find a way out of that quagmire they’ve been in, albeit looking like they’re passing around by re-re-redeclaring it an mission of some other alphabet soup operation: OECD, EU, UN, NATO, CoE, or who knows what next. 
 
A simpler point needs to be made: while the UN have been there since 1999, and realistically outside organizations have been there longer given the interventions in the region, they really have no way out.  All the while the region has been rotting in the EU’s back yard, and the EU decided to try to take as least visible a role as it could for more than a decade.  These are the people who we’re told are lighting the way to sunshine, lollipops, and peace for the world.  
 
 On the other hand, Iraq has been administered by Iraqis for some time.  I can’t help wondering if the real goal of those that idealize ‘internationalism’ is anything more than self-flattery. 
 
To begin with UNMIK after celebrating an 18 month anniversary of being a “renerwed commitment’ amounted to:

UNMIK budget for the fiscal year 2007/08 US$210,676,800.00 (Budget for the fiscal year 
2006/2007 amounts to US$217,962,000. The budget for the fiscal year 2005/06 (until 30 June 
2006): US$239,889,800.) 
UN Staff: (Police not included): International 462, National 1892, UNV’s 125. (as of Jan. ‘08) 
OSCE: A total of 999 staff. 283 International and 716 Local staff (as of 2007)

4194 personnel, 2608 of which are local hires.  How this is a “Kosavarizing” of the activity or with apparently fewer people a “renewed commitment” is, I suppose, a matter of being able to imagine a better world.

Man bites dog

Lawyers seek the creation of a new organisation which helps ensure lawyers are employed.

Film at 11