Behind the Façades in France: What expats and the mainstream media (French and American alike) fail to notice (or fail to tell you) about French attitudes, principles, values, and official positions…
For killing her babies — six of them over as many years — in one of the worst infanticide cases in history, Céline Lesage was sentenced not to death, not to life in prison, but to 15 years in jail (2 1/2 per baby) — apparently because by the time she gets out, she will no longer be able to have children and there will be no more "reason" for the serial killer to remain behind bars… "Elle pense que la justice a été correctement appliquée", dit son avocate.
Dr. Sanity nails it:Indeed. As I have noted time and again, the left with their regressive agenda are in complete denial about the sinister motives that drive their so-called "compassion" for others. Progressivism is just another strategy to obtain power over the lives of others. Getting this kind of power over others--and at the same time reinforcing your own grandiosity and sense of superiority!-- is far more important than trying to convince others of your position.
But its all part of the ideologically enhanced sense of moral and intellectual superiority that drives all these progressive, neo-Marxist fascists.
If you listen to these fiscal histrionics, who believe that wealth and progress are magically created out of their wishes and whims, you begin to get an idea of the kind of utopia they actually envision--that is, if they were rational enough to actually take their cognitively dissonant ideas to a logical endpoint.
For example, spend enough time around these latter-day Marxists (whose political ideas invariably lead to untold poverty and human misery), and you could easily begin to think that human beings are entirely spiritual beings, existing in a golden glow of non-material nothingness. You would think that people are not composed of matter and have substance in a 3-dimensional, material world. Or, you could cue the Madonna music and believe exactly the opposite: that we are living in a material world, and that human beings are nothing more than physical, material creatures. And, of course the Obama Administration is going to rescue us from ourselves and make it so that we don't have all that money to spend on such useless "things". He says that he's only going to "soak the rich", but as the WSJ noted, there's only one teensy little problem:
Consider the IRS data for 2006, the most recent year that such tax data are available and a good year for the economy and "the wealthiest 2%." Roughly 3.8 million filers had adjusted gross incomes above $200,000 in 2006. (That's about 7% of all returns; the data aren't broken down at the $250,000 point.) These people paid about $522 billion in income taxes, or roughly 62% of all federal individual income receipts. The richest 1% -- about 1.65 million filers making above $388,806 --paid some $408 billion, or 39.9% of all income tax revenues, while earning about 22% of all reported U.S. income.What is becoming obvious of the actions considered most important by the Obama Administration are:
The de facto nationalization of the Heath system
Financial regulation that will remander of autonomy of individual wealth and savings
Carbon regulation, providing effective control over the energy sector.
The three of which represent roughly half of the United States GNP. In the guise of trying to remake the crony-capitalism that the European “Social Democracies” are trying desperately to shed, he is creating the tools by which a bad actor can create a command economy. Don’t forget, it only took a decade of incrementalism for the eastern states of Germany to become the Marxist-Leninist DDR.Let's stop and think about the Marxist modus operandi for a moment. If you take the anti-materialistic and anti-capitalist, "redistribute the wealth" message to its logical extreme, you must inexorably reach the conclusion that the highest values of society should be to encourage a virtuous--and equal--poverty for all; while homelessness and hunger would be proof that an individual has attained the highest moral plane. From the perspective of the "anti-materialists", malnourished children in societies of mud huts wearing rags and owning nothing- would be the epitome of human existence; since the possession of material wealth only condemns us to meaningless and empty lives given over in pursuit of meaningless and empty things. Clearly the poor have managed to eke out a life of powerful meaning and spiritual worth.
Everything had to be done as it was, of course “for the workers”, and “the good of man”. This is the same rotten tree that the “progressives” who detest human progress hide behind as well.
Only one problem with all this Marxist and neo-Marxst BS: human beings are not either spiritual or material. They are both at the same time. And, even more important for this discussion, there is a direct link between human freedom and those material goods the left incessantly tells us we should shun. Consider: all the marvelous goods and services that our incredible capitalistic society makes possible would not exist unless there were thinking, rational MINDS creating them.
As we have seen with the absurd demonization of the Insurance companies, those people who actually suppress the cost of procedures, and are little more than middle-men, the methodology of constructing a puppet show of inverse good-guys and bad-guys is alive and well in the present age. All it could leave us with is the culture of a Nomenclatura, where the government controls so many of life’s basic functions, and does it so badly, that getting ANYTHING done will require the petty criminality of “needing to know somebody”. Like the political penetration the left has made of educati0on and social services, I think you know what new “power class” will benefit from that.
As faith was an enemy of the fascists by virtue of its’ ability to give people a means of honest reflection independent of the vilest nationalists, so it goes today: which is why so many on the left, in the course of constructing an authoritarian framework over the little things in life, attempt to make an straw man of independent entities functioning freely in society, and are bound up with the notion of individual freedoms and autonomy, as “authorities” to be defeated. Mad as it sounds, 1918, 1933, and 2010 have more in common that anyone cares to think.
After all, we already have a minority of young willing “street fighters” treating a leader as though he is infallible, and press hacks willingly and unsceptically taking his every effort with unquestioning fealty – making a halo for him with every thoughtless repetition of his every breath being “historic”. Sure is. They just don’t know what history he’s reflecting back to.
Present at the Cooper Union's commemoration of the 150th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's February 1860 visit to New York City and of his speech in the Peter Cooper-founded venue — widely credited with being crucial to handing Honest Abe the Republican Party's nomination for presidential candidate three months later — Erik Svane and Dan Greenberg (authors of the upcoming graphic novel, The Life & Times of Abraham Lincoln — which is, really, more of a graphic "biopic") decided that their readers might want them to share a preview of the book's Cooper Union sequence…
Included in the Cooper Union sequence from Svane and Greenberg's graphic biopic are the remarks that Lincoln addresses to the Republican Party's adversaries; read them below or on the first and second pages above and… ask yourself how much things have really changed in a century and a half… …when you speak of us Republicans, you do so only to denounce us as reptiles, or, at the best, as no better than outlaws. You will grant a hearing to pirates or murderers, but nothing like it to [Republicans]. In all your contentions with one another, each of you deems an unconditional condemnation of [Republicanism] as the first thing to be attended to. Indeed, such condemnation of us seems to be an indispensable prerequisite — license, so to speak — among you to be admitted or permitted to speak at all. Now, can you, or not, be prevailed upon to pause and to consider whether this is quite just to us, or even to yourselves? Bring forward your charges and specifications, and then be patient long enough to hear us deny or justify.
Germans are losing their fear of climate change, according to a survey, with just 42 percent worried about global warming.To add insult to injury, our German brothers and sisters firmly show their new-found heretical beliefs know no bounds:
It seems the long and chilly winter has taken its toll on climate change sensibilities despite the fact that weather has nothing to do with climate.
The latest figure is a clear drop from the 62 percent of Germans who said they were scared of such changes just last autumn.
The new survey, carried out by polling company Infratest for Der Spiegel magazine, showed a quarter of those questioned thought Germany would profit from climate change rather than be badly affected by it.
A flood of apocalyptic legislation: The real goal of "health care" legislation, the real foal of "cap-and-trade", and the real goal of the "stimulus" is to rip the guts out of our private economy and transfer wide swaths of it over to the government to control.
…the population was dumbed down through a politicized and substandard education system based on pop culture,The good news is that the part about "the American public [taking] this with barely a whimper" has been proven false. As has the final paragraph, including the sentence, "The proud American will go down into his slavery with out a fight, beating his chest and proclaiming to the world, how free he really is."rather then the classics. Americans know more about their favorite TV dramas then the drama in DC that directly affects their lives.
…The final collapse has come with the election of Barack Obama. His speed in the past … months has been truly impressive. His spending and money printing has been a record setting, not just in America's short history but in the world. If this keeps up for more then another year, and there is no sign that it will not, America at best will resemble the Wiemar Republic and at worst Zimbabwe.
The liberals are asking us to give Obama time.
We agree — and think 25 to life would be appropriate.
— Jay Leno
America needs Obama-Care like
Nancy Pelosi needs a Halloween mask.
— Jay Leno
Q: Have you heard about McDonald's' new Obama Value Meal?
A: Order anything you like and the guy behind you has to pay for it.
— Conan O'Brian
Q: What does Barack Obama call lunch with a convicted felon?
A: A fund raiser.
— Jay Leno
Q: What's the difference between Obama's cabinet and a penitentiary?
A: One is filled with tax evaders, blackmailers, and threats to society.
The other is for housing prisoners.
— David Letterman
Q: If Nancy Pelosi and Obama were on a boat in the middle
of the ocean and it started to sink, who would be saved?
A. America.
— Fallon
Q: What's the difference between Obama and his dog, Bo?
A: Bo has papers.
— Kimmel
Q: What was the most positive result of the "Cash for clunkers" program?
A: It took 95% of the Obama bumper stickers off the road.
— David Letterman
Long rationalizing that Boeing aircraft sales are a subsidy Europeans plumping for their cronyistic monomania in business have to take a step back today. The WTO whose rounds of agreements they scuttled more than once came to seem like a useful instrument to them – that is, until they saw it doing what it was supposed to: resolve trade disputes:The World Trade Organization ruled on Tuesday that the European plane maker Airbus received improper subsidies for its $13 billion A380 superjumbo jet and several other airplanes, hurting Boeing, its American rival, industry officials in the United States and Europe said.
Despite the fact that EADS/Airbus need not take any risks with its’ own revenue by not having to pay off the “loans” governments give it until a venture is profitable, the bleating about them not getting a fair shake will likely resume after a few weeks of the memory of this ruling fading away.
Think about it: a subsidized monopolist entity trying to give itself a form of ‘victim status’ as a way of bypassing the commercial challenges real businesses face.Boeing has contended that the subsidies helped Airbus vault past it in 2003 to become the world’s largest plane maker. Boeing hopes that the ruling could help it catch up once its new 787 Dreamliner jet hits the market.
Stranger still, the push for the sales deal with the United States Air Force was the clincher in a deal to produce enough of an order book and revenue to make viable the replacement of the Europeans’ military lift capacity.
The decision was made as tensions mounted over European claims of protectionism in the Pentagon’s competition for a $35 billion to $40 billion contract for Air Force refueling tankers, the latest scrape between the companies.
Sales to USAF were to functionally subsidize EADS, Airbus, and the heavy lift capacity of the European militaries who signed up rejuvenate their aging, nearly non-existent fleets.
Nice trick, if you can keep them all bamboozled, especially since it will have the fringe benefit of artificially inflating EADS’ market share at the cost of both the American and European taxpayer.The W.T.O. is also looking into a European complaint that Boeing has benefited improperly from subsidies from its military business. Airbus said in the statement that “resolution will finally only be found in trans-Atlantic negotiations.”
The last phrase of which should be “nuts,” because it fits their view that this is warfare with their real enemy itself, and taking pride in that foe’s unwillingness to harm them.
I would point out that it was the Democrats who just took over 1/6th of the American economy despite upwards of 56% of the American public being opposed. And they expect people to . . . what . . . clap?Instapundit, again (refreshing memories):As I said earlier today, violence is unacceptable, but none of us should be surprised — especially the left, which feeds off riots, protest, and molotov cocktail parties every time they strongly oppose something. The Weather Underground was not a Republican insurgency at the Weather Channel.
…I can’t say enough — we should beat them at the ballot box. Violence is inexcusable. But did they really think the public would just roll over when they willfully imposed the largest tax increase in America history, betrayed major Obama campaign promises, and mocked, taunted, and ridiculed the people who believe the constitution actually has meaning and value?
A STROLL DOWN MEMORY LANE: Leftist death threats against Bush at protests.Then, of course, there was Craig Kilborn’s “Snipers Wanted” moment.
If not for federal Medicaid reimbursements and commitments from Washington to prop up this plan, Massachusetts would be broke. The only reason MassCare has survived is that we have been repeatedly bailed out by the federal government. But that raises the question: Who will bail America out if we implement a similar program?
John Rosenthal has an article in the Weekly Standard on EUtopia’s War on the GWOT. Think of it as their own little Passive-Aggressive Jihad against their own population.
One curious feature of the SWIFTboating of using the SWIFT financial clearinghouse to monitor terrorism funding, was that a salve was sought in the proposal to negotiate an interim agreement. So servile are these governments, that they made a conscious effort to employ the very “revolutionaries” that the Islamists would castrate first:While the German government had consented to negotiations on the agreement in July 2009, it is notable that when the completed agreement was approved by the European Council four months later, Germany abstained. As the council decision required unanimity, a German “no” would have killed the agreement then and there. But rather than bearing the onus of having torpedoed a crucial transatlantic security arrangement, the German government by its abstention simply handed off the issue to “Dany the Red,” Werner Langen, and the other “putschists” in the European parliament.
Never mind the fact that these comfortable fantasists are carrying on as if they were Paraguayan peasants, you can predict that they’ve “gone straight” with some schtick about preserving the privacy of their own terrorists, and possibly the privacy of some innocent EUvian citizens as well, even if their own governments treat them like children.
In the spirit of reinforcing the individual autonomy and free will though they seem to have no problem with sweeping up the innocent with the guilty when it comes to taking some data-hostagetaker’s word about the taxpayers he’s informing on:Two years earlier, the German foreign intelligence service, the BND, had purchased data stolen from the Liechtenstein-based LGT Bank. The purchase led to, among other things, a televised police raid on the home of Klaus Zumwinkel, one of Germany’s best-known business executives and now its most famous tax evader. Not only did the BND pay the data thief the equivalent of $5.5 million. According to reports in the German media, it also furnished him with a new identity. One can only conclude that in the eyes of both of Germany’s leading political parties, it is good and righteous for Germany to violate a bank client’s expectation of confidentiality in the name of combating tax evasion and topping up the coffers of the German treasury, but it is bad and evil for the United States to do the same in the name of combating terrorism and saving lives.
The BND, you’ll recall, was the same failed spook outfit that was so on the take and badly infiltrated by East Germany’s Stasi that the rest of civilization had virtually no reason to let them see your phonebook.
In fact, there is likely no way of knowing how many of their own citizens the bad actors in the BND betrayed, let alone the dead in East Germany who were revealed to be western intelligence sources. Then, like now, getting in the spirit of pretending it isn’t happening includes the same kind of negligence with the safety and well-being of their own citizens. As were the motives for doing it: markets, the infantile notion that appeasement will succeed, and to a certain degree, a shared outlook founded on having the same imaginary ideological enemies.Well, if telephone or Internet users in Germany experience the “threatening feeling of being observed,” it is likely because they really are being observed. German law enforcement authorities are able to employ wiretaps and other forms of electronic surveillance with an ease that would make their American counterparts green with envy. In 2007, nearly 1 million phone calls were monitored by police in Berlin alone. Over 1,000 Berlin residents were the targets of wiretaps. A 2003 study conducted by Germany’s Max Planck Institute for Foreign and International Criminal Law found that wiretaps are used by law enforcement authorities some 30 times more frequently in Germany than in the United States.
Which is fine, unless a potential terrorist feels like he or she is being made uncomfortable.
Frankly, it would be funny, if only THEY got killed, but there’s a reason the name of The Hamburg Cell is so widely known.
No if only our logo-branded fearless “historic” leader would listen:So the French Government abandoned their planned Environmental Tax because Man-made Global Warming is junk science, or more appropriately a religious belief? No. It was abandoned because being a French only tax would put French industry at a disadvantage to it's European competitors. Yes. This argument does hold water but can, and should, be applied to a larger scale than Europe. Same goes for USA vs it's competitors, which is the global economy.
After having just committed trillions to the scrapheap of Socialism’s failed intentions, have no doubt that the White House will be going “full speed ahead” on Carbon capping, just as the United States is within 5 years of becoming a net exporter of fossil energy.
Anyone doubting the solomonic sophistication of Barack Obama need look no further than “world citizen’s” inability to even aknowledge his own nation’s needs during a recession. I’m sure he’ll continue acting like a third-rate city councilman, and try to look smart with some “Green Jobs” statement, but only his supporters who are still mooching off their spouse or parents will buy it.
-תודה, תודה לך! to Chai Gai
I’m still keeping my hopes up for a Taiwan-style parliamentary brawl:Confirmation of European commission becomes free-for-all
My hopes are pinned on a tough Bulgarian fireplug with a ‘tude and a mono-brow coming in to liven things up. It also makes adding Libya in the next round of enlargement talks seem plausible.
So is that why it sounds like some kind of secret code when they say “I’m going to a convention”?Senior Dutch police officers spent over 730,000 euros on trips to other countries in the last two years, newspaper AD reports today. The paper bases the item on data received from police.
I guess it’s a little like “going to Uganda”, if you know what I mean, because the politics of the natives ain’t pretty.
Most of the trips were connected with programmes aimed at fighting the international drugs trade and human trafficking. However, the most expensive were 'teambuilding' trips for police force commanders.
EU diplomats to benefit from new intelligence hub
Filling roles and checking boxes as one seemed to be expected to, the EU is working on celebrating with stunning fanfare and admiration, the development of an Intelligence Centre to (as always,) attempt some sort of force multiplication scheme, by gathering up the product of member states’ spook outfits. The problem with the calculus is that the denominator is zero, and they just aren’t that sure what to do with a kickoff that started with a press announcement that seems to have already declared a success of the thing that doesn’t really exist, save for:a cell of secret service agents seconded from EU capitals. The cell, headed up by a French agent, pools classified information sent in by member states and drafts occasional four-to-10-page-long reports on topics ranging from terrorism to, for example, Iran's diplomatic contacts with neighbouring countries.
A huge improvement on a rough start. Their information assets on 9-11 amounted to:SitCen started out as "a piece of A4 paper, a telephone and a pool table," according to one anecdote. When 9/11 struck in 2001, the commission's phone lines and internet crashed due to heavy traffic, leaving it cut off and triggering the creation of the Crisis Room. "There was one TV set in the building. We were crouched round a telephone listening to the TV at the other end of the line," another EU official said
SitCen is a butch, and possibly involved-in-something way of saying “Situation Center,” with a bold, movie-like ring.
So world-beating and representative of the a font of usefulness, its current products include something you can hire a few college punks part-time to do.SitCen also runs a round-the-clock alert desk which uses open sources, such as BBC Monitoring or photos taken by commercial satellites, and sends emails and SMSes to selected EU diplomats two or three times a day.
Speaking of bold, the forgone success has the following bold, assertive stuff going for it:The details of the EAS' new intelligence branch are still up in the air.
Look out world! Here they come!
It is unclear where it will be situated and who will be in charge. But the current head of SitCen, former British diplomat William Shapcott, is the top candidate due to his friendly ties with member states' secret services.
The mandate for the new department also remains to be written.SitCen already sends staff to visit the EU's foreign police and military missions to gather information and has a mystique due to the secretive nature of its work.
Which is stunningly unsecretive, featuring software audio-scanning features that compare favorably to the new smartphone I bought a few weeks back.But the new EAS branch will not have undercover operatives in the field on the model of member states' intelligence agencies. "Belgium and Austria proposed this [creating an EU secret service] after Madrid. But we are still light years away from it,"
Lucky for them, Teheran isn’t a light year away, in fact, it’s in missile range.Which sure justifies a title like:>EU diplomats to benefit from new intelligence hub
The key to which is, beside reading the newspapers, is using good information security and discipline.Meanwhile, the best classified information is often shared through informal channels
However, eclipsing the usual amateur night antics, we find the very well practiced and professional antics of Eurotopian policiana:"The French are worried that the EAS will be dominated by British people," one EU official said.
The familiarity of a announcement of that sort must be rather comforting in these troubled times where MEPs try to create a security organization without being able to say out loud what it’s mandate should be, in favor of the usual bland, bullshit that makes everything they do reek of a UN spouses and kids gunny-sack race.Some EU diplomats would like it to make policy recommendations as well as analytical reports. Others are posing questions about its ethos: "Will it be used to aggressively pursue member states' national interests or for common goals, such as peace-building and crisis relief?" one EU official asked.
On the face of it, I wonder about the “some that don’t part,” and applaud them for not throwing in a ‘Climate Change’ mandate in there, as one would expect from Pavlov’s dog. Oops! Hold the phone!
That Mr. Obama has come this far — within a whisper of passing historic social legislation — is remarkable in itself. But the story of how he did it is not his alone. It is the story of how a struggling president partnered with a pair of experienced legislators — Ms. Pelosi and, to a lesser extent, Mr. Reid — to reach for a goal that Mr. Obama has often said had eluded his predecessors going back to Theodore Roosevelt.The authors do not mention whether that would be "good luck" or "bad luck". How the game is played by those listening to the "voice" of the people:
Their journey over the last two months, interviews with White House aides, lawmakers, outside advisers, lobbyists and political strategists show, involved tensions, resolve, political spadework — and a little bit of luck.
The speaker, though, was determined to go ahead. “We will go through the gate,” she said at a news conference on Jan. 28. “If the gate is closed, we will go over the fence. If the fence is too high, we will pole vault in. If that doesn’t work, we will parachute in. But we are going to get health care reform passed.”As if your "voice" actually matters:
New Rasmussen Reports national telephone surveying finds that 56% of voters oppose the effort to “reduce spending on Medicare by several hundred billion dollars.” Just 33% support the idea. Those figures include 12% who Strongly Favor the Medicare cuts and 38% who are Strongly Opposed.Never fear, your betters are on the case:
Perhaps more significantly, 70% of senior citizens oppose the plan to reduce spending on Medicare including 55% who are Strongly Opposed. Seniors are more likely to use the health care system and more likely to vote than younger adults.
Most voters also oppose the other big component being counted on to cover the cost of the health care plan. Just 31% favor the idea of enacting “a significant excise tax on the most expensive health insurance plans provided by employers." Fifty-four percent (54%) are opposed.
The Congressional Budget Office yesterday said that the proposed legislation would reduce the deficit, but voters are skeptical of the official government projections. Eighty-one percent (81%) believe the health care plan will cost more than projected. That’s one reason voters believe passage of the plan will increase the deficit and is likely to mean higher middle class taxes. Fifty-seven percent (57%) predict that passage of the plan will hurt the U.S. economy.
That helps to explain why 50% of voters say they’re less likely to vote to reelect a member of Congress who supports the health care bill.
While the cost of the plan causes problems for advocates of reform, 80% of voters like “an insurance exchange where people can shop for competing insurance plans.” Two-thirds (69%) favor a plan that prohibits insurance companies from denying coverage to anyone with pre-existing conditions.
Sixty percent (60%) support subsidies to the poor and an expansion of Medicaid. Fifty-four percent (54%) favor requiring nearly all employers to provide health insurance coverage. Fifty-one percent (51%) of voters favor a board to carry out cost control measures for Medicare.
On the other side of the ledger, just 45% favor requiring all Americans to buy or obtain health insurance. Fifty percent (50%) are opposed.
Forty-seven percent (47%) support spending “several hundred billion dollars over the coming decade to expand coverage of the uninsured.” Fifty-one percent (51%) are opposed.
On the issue of abortion, 55% favor prohibiting “coverage of abortion by any insurance plan that receives federal government subsidies.”
Overall, before being told of the various provisions of the reform plan, 45% supported the legislation, and 52% were opposed. Those numbers are unchanged after respondents were asked about the various aspects of the legislation.
The Euro corrected lower in December but remains significantly overvalued against the US Dollar with prices still over 20% above the PPP-implied “fair” exchange rate. The single was the second-worst performing currency against the greenback last month while the spread between 1-year priced-in interest rate expectations for the Federal Reserve and ECB as narrowed substantially as US data took on a firmer tone, suggesting both momentum and yield considerations are supportive of further losses. The critical thing to keep watch out for as 2010 gets going will be whether the market will return to a risk vs. safety dichotomy that characterized much of the previous year or extend the shift towards a focus on economic fundamentals that began to take root towards the final weeks of 2009. The former scenario would offer some support to the single currency, while the latter would allow for continued weakness. On balance, our bias remains bearish.What is Purchasing Power Parity?
German Communist Party Propaganda from 1954:
The Lie of the “European Defense Community”There are 32 states in Europe, of which only 5 ½ will be members of this so-called defensive community. It cannot, therefore, be called “European.” The Americans behind the EDC do not want to defend Europe, but rather only their own greedy plans aimed against the security of all the peoples of Europe. The EDC is a community of monopolists and militarists opposing Europe’s security and peace! The peoples can never build a community with monopolists and militarists!
Graduate level gibberish for credit, 2004. By a PhD candidate at the University of Geneva and in International Affairs at the J.F.K. School of Government, Harvard University:
Europe’s security can be assured only when resurgent German militarism is eliminated, when the idea of collective security for all the European peoples replaces the aggressive EDC, which is what the Soviet delegation proposed at the Berlin conference of foreign ministers!How does a hegemon behave in a unipolar world? How does the unipolar world structure affect the hegemon and provides it with incentives to act in different ways? This paper tries to answer these questions by testing various theories of international politics against the historical record of American behaviour since the end of the Cold War. In order to fulfil this goal I will draw on the case of the European security “architecture” since the early 1990’s. Why did the hegemon try by all means to undermine every single attempt to create some form of “autonomous” European security and defense policy, although the end of the Cold War represents a unique opportunity since the failure of the EDC in 1954 to pursue a strategy of offshore balancing? The answer to this question lies in the peculiar distribution of power resulting from the demise of the Soviet Union and the effect it had on the hegemon’s grand strategy.
I’m sure he means ‘hegemon’ in only the nicest way.My chief goal in this article is to provide a power-based theory of unipolarity and by examining the post-Cold War European security architecture, to demonstrate that unipolarity provides not only incentives for power maximization strategies, but that my theory offers a better explanation than alternative existing ones. My argument unfolds as follows: Unipolarity provides the hegemon with incentives to pursue power-maximizing strategies. Simply put the United States opposed an “autonomous” European security architecture because the only remaining threat on the European continent is a strong, autonomous politically and militarily integrated European Union. Pushing for an autonomous “EU force” would mean creating a buck catcher that could, in the long run turn, into a peer competitor. Structural constraints do not provide the hegemon with incentives to pursue such a strategy.
As bad as a partner as they are, what makes this guy think that Europeans could be peer competators, or that it would be a problem? As the atmospheric “gut feeling” theory has gone for the past few decades, it doesn’t matter because the same lot imagine that merely being European is cause for deserving power over others, especially after what their wonderful political movements and wars have done for civilization.
It must be nice to have a face-saving way to explain negligence, uncontrolled arms sales, and inaction in the face of things like ethnic cleansing in the Balkans, a mere 1000 km from Geneva.
Of course the author, a chap seemingly obsessed with the desconstruction of American capacity rather than anyone’s security, now has a title that doesn’t seem to fit on a garden variety business card, and a government job with rather hegemonious power over students:Current Affiliation: Head, Secretariat of the Federal Commission for Scholarships for Foreign Students, State Secretariat for Education and Research (SER), Federal Department of Home Affairs, Bern, Switzerland
The author seems unconcerned with European security so much as he’s thirsty to see an all-powerful Europe, and for no clear reason. Suppositions about their humanism are theoretical and based solely on the sales literature. As with the 1954 KPD propagandist, he seems to abide by the old rule that seeks common cause can be found in hatred of an external entity over the use of security for the construction of peace and a balance of power, missing all of the lessons of the misery continental collectivist nationalism imposed upon the world.
Besides, nothing quite says rigorous scholarly skepticism than parroting the political propaganda of a tyrannical political racketeers written 30 years before you were born.
Sometimes you just don’t want to know that much about some people’s sex lives. The producers of “Game of Death” recruited 24 volunteers who were told that they were going to shoot a pilot for a new show called “La Zone Xtrême”, or “The Xtreme Zone”.
‘Not my problem, eh?’
With no financial incentive on the table, the point of the game was to ask one “candidate” – played, in reality, by an actor – a series of questions. If he gave a wrong answer, the punishment would be an electric shock, with the voltage increasing by increments from 80 to 460 volts with each incorrect response.
In the book about the documentary, “L’Expérience Extreme” (The Extreme Experiment), written by producer Christophe Nick and co-authored with journalist Michel Eltchaninoff, a participant identified as Patrick, a Metro driver, said he was happy to simply follow orders – because it was a TV show.
The instinct to obey, said Patrick, overrode all feelings for the man he believed was receiving the shocks and was in genuine pain.While much is made of the fact that this mimics the dynamics of an American behavioral experiment that dew much nitice in the 1960’s, that isn’t what’s of interest in the story. Yale University psychologist Stanley Milgram’s experiment in how willing people were to screw each other over was not conceived of as light game show-cum-‘reality TV’ entertainment of the sort we have seen with “Fear Factor” and the like.
The ungrounded nature of whoever though this show a good idea is of more interest, not because of something surprising in the behavior of the participants, but of the clinical predictability, particularly in a society where many are fond of thinking themselves unique and rebellious, but are notoriously conformist and conditioned in their behavior. One hears at every turn about the miracle of –being them-, which is only made possible by the sameness of reactions from one person to the next.
Okay, so let’s bring back the three words all Europeans have been pedantically conditioned to repeat on the evidence of fewer abuse events than this TV show, and with no cause other than the playing out of the emotions of people making low-budget TV programming: Abu-Ghreib! Guantanamo! Abu-Ghreib! Guantanamo! Abu-Ghreib! Guantanamo! Abu-Ghreib! Guantanamo! Abu-Ghreib! Guantanamo! Abu-Ghreib! Guantanamo!
A commentary in Britain’s Independent is inappropriately titled “However nice you are, you might push the button too” forgets that the reality of the choice should make that say “However morally bereft you are, you might push the button too”. Remember that there is something significant in common among the 20% who wouldn’t push the button. In Milgram’s data set of 40 years ago, it was 35% who refused to fry for the sake of conformity or a Paulingian happy pellet.
That’s nearly twice the number found in our enfeebled, present day postmodern world where even the intelligent and observant resort to the anesthetic use of saying “everyone would do it,” probably because they know what side of that 80-20 break they fall on.
The head of Kazakhstan, a Pinkerton state, is pimping the idea that the pointless, make-work OSCE has created some purpose for itself in the world. I wonder if the Europeans staking their safety, security,and just about everything else on a myriad of external organizations realize that there is nothing internal for them to offer to accomplish it.
They can try to seem as important as they want, but in matters of global stability, it’s a case of alphabet soup outfits and European states wanting to look like they are partners wisely leading America, only to lecture it about wiping its feet before it enters the house it just saved from destruction. When it comes down to it, even in the Balkans, they can’t even attend to Europe’s security risks.Kazakhstan calls on all OSCE states to show their readiness to act in favor of common interests and for the sake of collective goals and priorities, implementation of which will support and strengthen the OSCE and foster trust and respect for the Organization.
Okay. Thanks for the fine words to Nursultan Nazarbayev, President of Kazakhstan.
Now all the OSCE needs is a reason to exist, and then actually do something productive. Maybe a cold, overdesigned, blue glass building with aggressive looking details dome up in stainless steel, in a dull and tidy European city will make them feel like they matter. When all else fails they can resort to some mindless pap like everyone else, and do a ‘Mom and Apple Pie’ thing about ‘Climate Change’.OSCE is an optimal platform to bring the Corfu process to the fore whilst opening a forum for strategically important initiatives including the European Security Treaty.
Even the public affairs buffoonery requires summit-Kabuki, theatrically over-important names, and assertive sounding initiatives to help states that wouldn’t lift a finger for another member state think that they are a critical and cherished partner and key to the construction of heaven on earth.
As a trans-national organization that unites Europe, Asia and North America, OSCE is responsible to comprehend and offer support for cross-border security issues.We strongly believe that stabilization in Afghanistan can be implemented through active involvement and closer cooperation of regional organizations.
Nazarbayev’s writers are really showing that they’ve learned the codex of communication – note how willing and active the tone of the text is to coordinate and lead someone else’s capacity. On the strength of that evasion, they should redraw the map of Europe to include Kazakhstan.
Membership in things like the OSCE make one seem important at no cost, and seem to create nothing other than a platform for unkept promises and a very false sense of security.
The EU is going after Google, supporting the case of 3 niche-market search engines to tie them up in red tape. This comes after the great debacle of Google virtually stepping in to virtually run the digital branches of the national archives of several states at their own cost.
While they dream that the whole thing is some kind of street battle between the cheery, innocent Smurfs and the straw man American Gargamel, European whining about the success of American companies forget the number of virtual monopolies they have in the world. It’s a simple case of wanting it both ways, and wanting affection, pity, market share, and a fat tunnel report. They want YOUR cake and to eat it too.
Their competitive disadvantage was that they failed to produce products as successful as Intel, Google, Microsoft, and Apple.
If there’s a drought – it’s global warming. When there’s a hurricane – it’s global warming. If there are heavy snows or even blizzards – it’s somehow global warming. And amazingly, the latest round of rainy and windy weather in the Northeast, well that’s consistent with this phenomenon as well, so says former Vice President Al Gore.So much for the "weather isn't climate" routine.
Gore, the self-anointed climate change alarmist-in-chief, told supporters on a March 15 conference call that severe weather in certain regions of the country could be attributed to carbon in the atmosphere – including the recent rash of rainy weather.
“[T]he odds have shifted toward much larger downpours,” Gore said. “And we have seen that happen in the Northeast, we’ve seen it happen in the Northwest – in both of those regions are among those that scientists have predicted for a long time would begin to experience much larger downpours.”
Traditional twit-hood and madcaperry have fallen victim to the cultural revolution of “Health and Safety”:A centuries-old cheese rolling contest has fallen victim to health and safety — but not because of the broken bones and dozens of other injuries sustained each year.
Cheesed off yet?
Organisers of Gloucestershire’s annual competition have cancelled the event due to be held on May 31 because of concerns raised by the police and local authority over traffic and crowd control.“Cheese rolling has been going on for hundreds of years and we must ensure that this great tradition continues.”
A translation of a blog by Jean-Michel Aphatie on RTL where he comments on air: A week of vacation can be a wonderful thing. A bit different than the news, but not too far either, because it let’s you tune into the Zeitgeist.
Inimaginable! Our president has declared it, and that’s the end of it.
On Thursday the President made a speech on industry, whose prospects are gloomy. Since 2000, industrial production in France fell by 15%, and 535,000 manufacturing jobs have been eliminated. What to do? Simply put, because it is always better than doing complicated, the president has proposed that industrial production increased by 25% by 2015. If you want more than that just write it down. A pessimist would ask why only 25%? Or, why wait until 2015? But official minds say bravo.
This kind of political will is exactly the essence of French identity that we have sought to define for months. A problem? The President replied: track opportunities, and expands horizons. He analyzes and proposes. How very talented and courageous he looks when he’s being decisive. That's how it always goes in France.
Is it different elsewhere? Maybe. The low spirits that govern other countries are apparently more inhibited than we are by the reality, truth, the global context, the autonomy of economic actors, etc... Their public speeches are taken seriously. They are less likely to make promises than we are. As a result, they are often re-elected.
We haven had a re-election at the national level since 1978, which is a world record for a democracy. France is the country of the political mess. Elsewhere, Great Britain, Spain, Germany, United States, officials are often re-elected once. With us, not so.
But the big difference is that our leaders are beautiful. At the forum, so proud they men or women is the same. They understand, they know everything, and they make declarations, on everything, all the time. Some think that the first obligation of the policymaker is to be pedagogical in order to understand the real way forward. But we are not likely to think that. The more that political thought dominates the world, the more likely it is to submit to his wishes all the other stakeholders in society.
This is what yields the rhetoric, such beautiful emotions, such wonderful elections, a nation that commues around slogans of “changing life”, “reduce the social divide," and "work more to earn more." It’s after that where things go wrong. Bad luck sometimes, international crisis some other time. Each time, bad luck, external factors conspire to prevent France, led by great men, to spread its wings and fly. Without reality, we are the leading world power, thanks to our superior intellect that inspires us and guides us. What a pity.
Fortunately, we will leave. In five years, if there are many, 2015 - 2010, five, so yes, in five years, our industrial production will have increased by 25%. That means hundreds of thousands of jobs, a flood of tax revenue, and public deficits will be a memory, with the new social taxes filling the gap in Social Security entitlements.
And if this does not occur?
Here’s a small gag that went unnoticed last night: Yesterday, the President of the French Republic has received the Greek Prime Minister, and not to let the Greeks down. If they have money problems, France will lend. The gag? The Greeks believed it, and left happy. Funny, no?And of course the first few comments have nothing to do with Alphatie, and pedantically repeat the unrelated trope that Éric Zemmour is a racist, and the usual fixation with throwing Muslims out of the country.
First, you need to be a nation, and have something to say.Lady Ashton's office said it is making enquiries into leasing a jet to ease the pressures of her demanding travel schedule, but hastened to dismiss rumours she wants to purchase an EU "Air Force One". Given the current economic climate in Europe, this would not go down well. Plus, as Euranet's Brussel correspondent Nina-Maria Potts points out, it could trigger a form of air envy, with every senior EU official demanding a bigger and better plane of their own.
Which raises an interesting point about the unwillingness of member states to assign upward any of their sovereignty, or, for that matter like the “great Darfouroise helicopter crisis”, even LEND the EU some of that finest in the world, world-beating, European hardware.
Call it Darfouroiserie, if you like. It’s the sound of wanting to do something, and saying so, even though you know there is no inclination for there to be an outcome, but like to hear talk of your own power.
Here’s a thought: give her a damn plane, and something real to do. Otherwise eliminate the position of “shadow foreign minister” who is shadowing no-one.
Bob Geldof sounds out on what has grown rather obvious to any BBC World Service listener: their standards of journalism stink. In spite of that, they take it out on Bob Geldof’s good works while trying to make some silly argument about journalistic exceptionalism (or supremacy, if you boil it down to what’s implied): Despite the on-the record refutation of everything in Plaut's report by very senior White House advisers, high-level UN delegates, senior British ex-ambassadors and diplomats, all the aid agencies, the leader of rest the Tigrayan relief group at the time, the prime minister of Ethiopia and rebel leader at the time, and me, and without a single shred of evidence, not one iota of evidence, they cannot bear to acknowledge the grim reality, the actual truth – that they were wrong. The BBC World Service is so far off the rails it quite literally cannot recognise or acknowledge truth when it encounters it.
What do they mean by ‘exceptionalism’? Every time the notion of ‘special rights’ for one sort of fashionable public feature comes up, such as it has been with journalism for a while, it seems rather obvious that what they want is a sort of status above the limitations a law-abiding person would live by. The only way to call these folks an ‘unimpeachable super citizen’ would be to insure that the general population has fewer rights (of free speech, of freedom from criticism, etc.,) than they do.
Greece’s budget deficit narrowed in the first two months of the year, the government said today before a European Commission deadline next week to show public finances are improving.This wouldn't happen to be one of the very same Greek governmental bodies which have been manipulating and cooking the economic data for years would it? Funny how deadlines and governmental data seem to merge so effortlessly at just the right time.
The January-February deficit dropped 77 percent to 903 million euros ($1.2 billion) compared with a year earlier, the Athens-based Finance Ministry said in a statement today. Ordinary revenue climbed 7.8 percent to 9.4 billion euros, less than the government’s target, while spending fell 9.6 percent to 8.9 billion euros.
we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it away from the fog of the controversy.
- Nancy Pelosi
The fog actually being her obfuscations of leaving us not knowing what we are supposed to proudly support as a measure more relevant than the US Constitution, grow the economy in spite of the cronyism, identity politics meddling, political patronage, and added overhead. We are supposed to thank these people for giving away our resources without our consent, etcetera, etcetera.
It is the political equivalent of:Here, kid. Pull my finger.
- Georges
When it comes to freedom, Americans and Europeans bring completely different ideals and definitions to the table. While Americans want to liberate consumers, Europeans seek to protect them.Damnit man, my information is protected. I do not have to worry about my personal, private and financial details being bought, sold and used for purposes I am unaware of, government will protect me. Man, I feel good!
Well, no doubt for my own protection....Germany said it was willing to pay a reward to a bank employee looking to sell stolen Swiss bank data. A German Finance Ministry spokesman said several sets of data have been offered in recent weeks and at least one data set has been purchased.
Via Gatewaypundit: Al-Qaeda terrorist, Sharif Mobley, was arrested in Yemen earlier this year. The New Jersey man shot two men at a hospital in Yemen over the weekend after being arrested in the company of several al-Qaeda members. Sharif Mobley, 26, was quietly detained earlier this year by Yemeni authorities.
The Yemenis should strip search all Americans trying to enter Yemen who belong to the Democratic Party. Campaign finance records show Mobley received $75 as an election day worker for Gov. Jon Corzine’s campaign in 2005.
Call it inspiration. Call it 'I love it when a plan comes together'. Call it anything you want, but don't call it Kismet.
Michael Yon, a modern day Ernie Pyle, reports from Afghanistan that he has been receiving complaints about a negligent lack of support for US operators by the Spanish military at a Forward Operating Base. Those writing to him include an officer of the 82nd Airborne. CENTCOM is likely not making much of the story to keep the peace, but should deal with the issue swiftly to end this reckless endangerment. Qal E Naw: The Spanish are not interested in helping in anyway, and are trying to make us decide to leave based on their unacceptable treatment of Americans. Our refuelers [soldiers who refuel helicopters] that are living there have to run out, unroll the hoses, pull security, and roll everything back up. They have asked for gravel along the FLS as it is currently calf deep mud, but the Spanish refuse to make any improvements. They asked for a T barrier (just one) to put at a 45 degree angle outside the fence where the FARP [Forward Arming and Refueling Point; where helicopters land for ammo and gas] has to be set up so they can run for cover in case there is small arms fire, the Spanish say no and refuse to make any improvements. They asked for a small gate where their billets are located so they can access the FARP directly rather than going a half mile loop to get out the gate, but the Spanish said no and refuse to make any improvements. They [sic] guys are living hard (we understand that) but have to do laundry by hand as all of their stuff is stolen if they turn it into the laundry, they discussed this with the Spanish, but they refuse to many any improvements.
Call it “Everyday meetings with Common Europeans”, if you wish, but it illustrates what happens quite often when a small-minded character is made an official, and is given a little bit of power over others. USFOR-A needs to energize someone to develop a viable, enduring plan for this FARP that isn’t reliant on the Spanish. This is a key hub for fuel (since we can’t get trucks to [xxx] or [xxx]) so let’s improve this location to better support those guys living out there on the edge by themselves. They refused to allow a Marine detachment that was dropped there to come into the wire or feed them overnight. Our refuelers had to fight the Spanish to bring them in and squeeze them into the two small tents that they have and give them MREs as they [sic] Spanish wouldn’t feed them. Is this how we allow our Coalition partners to treat Americans?
The Spanish government, led by José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, holds the rotating presidency of the European Union.
The irony is that Zapatero’s obsession with looking statesmanlike by finding as many photo-ops as possible with the US president is impossible under these circumstances. It nearly mirrors Erich Honecker’s obsession with the idea of constructing legitimacy and recognition for East Germany with the fantasy that he would find himself visiting the Oval Office for tough negotiations with Reagan. In both cases, the goal is self-aggrandizement on absurdly undeserved grounds.
At least in the case of Honecker, the Soviets were speaking for him to an extent, and there were reasons to talk to them. The Spaniards, on the other hand are trying to look like they are speaking for the EU, and trying to get above the din of the other Europeans in the auction pit, even though there really isn’t anything to talk about with the EU in the state they’re in. We arrived during a TIC [fighting] and a MEDEVAC mission. The aircraft have to land/park in a field that has no gravel and then they sink into the ground. They have to be moved everyday to pull them back out of the mud. If we can’t get gravel, how about putting some AM2 matting, stakes and a couple of Red Horse guys on a CH-47 and fly them in to build a couple of pads just big enough to park an individual UH-60 on? We’ve been pushing the gravel issues since last fall and are no closer to a solution. Those guys are living in fighting positions. When it begins to warm up in the next month, that field will be untenable
Yon summarizes: So, our soldiers and Marines, living in rough conditions at the far tip of the spear, apparently are being treated with contempt, with all basic support denied, from laundry to the conditions of the field on which our troops do their thankless job. If this report is true, and I have no reason to doubt it, the Spanish are endangering the lives of our warriors by failing to provide basic safety.
They were sent out to the tip of the spear, and the Spanish offer you a butter knife. They cannot be there to merely “appear involved” for some selfish purposes and endanger the success of something that they hope will legitimate their leadership potential.
They need to go away before they get somebody killed.
Denmark Introduces Harrowing New Tourism Ads Directed By Lars Von Trier
Just as Geert Wilders’ party wins after so much being done to prosecute him for being uppity and exercising his right to free speech, the distorted European political discourse founded on demonization continues.
Mark Steyn:Putting to one side the stupidity of the Dutch establishment in attempting to criminalize legitimate political opposition, one is struck by the media boilerplate: Wilders is the "extreme" "far-right" "fringe", but the parties he beats are the "mainstream"? That there is a lot of what's wrong with the European political discourse. Maybe he only seems so "extreme" and "far" because you're the one out on the fringe.
Got that? It’s the party with the most votes that’s being universally called by the European press to be the fringe, and the losers that they know and love with less than 14% of the vote that are called ‘the mainstream’.
Much like the use of the term “ultra droite” to refer to ANY conservative in France never being matched by the ameliorating term “gauche de la gauche” when referring to the carnival of destructive leftist radicals, they play into one idiotic notion after another.
The “ultra right” identified by the “ultra left” are a handful of neo-fascists who are just in love with a all-powerful state as the left are, and are, in fact, leftists themselves. Anarchists (the true, “no government at all” kind), coddled joyously by the “ultra left” are the only fringe element you could actually call “ultra right”, but only after you weed out the Trotskyite agitators.
Leaving aside that they think the minority parties are the mainstream, and vice versa, they avoid the ideological spectrum altogether in favor of the kind of story that can be written in a drunken stupor off of their yellowing 3-by-5 cards. The issue is a matter of how much central government/ local government/ no government you want in your life on specific issues.
Broadly accepted without questioning the matter, is the idea that the Netherlands is some kind of nirvana of liberty. Not so. Article 7 of their constitution, which is supposed to invauably encapsulate rights, formalizes a collection of middle-minded bugaboos more than anything else. The seed are there of making rights of free speech having a relationship with who you are:This article has only been partially changed in the 1983 revision, as it was linked to very complicated case law. Subarticle 1 contains the classic freedom of the press. Any censorship is absolutely forbidden. However, formal law can otherwise limit this freedom, e.g. by making a certain content punishable under penal law. Such limitative powers cannot be delegated to lower administrative bodies such as municipalities and this includes the concomitant right of distribution of printed materials. However, the Supreme Court has nevertheless ruled since 1950 that such bodies may in fact limit the distribution of materials, if such a limitation is not based on the content of those materials and does not imply a complete impediment to any separate means of distribution. They may e.g., limit the spreading of pamphlets to certain hours for reasons of public order.
Journalists have ‘exrta speech rights’ set aside which by virtue of that fact would have to be limited to others’, begging the question: who exactly is a journalist, and what foundation in law do those who are permitted to declare someone a journalist, or declare that they are not a journalist, have?
Subarticle 2 has the same arrangement for television and radio broadcasts.
Subarticle 3, added in 1983, gives a general right of expression, for those cases neither printed nor broadcasted information is involved; this includes the freedom of speech. Again, no censorship is ever allowed, but the right can otherwise be limited by formal law; explicitly mentioned in subarticle 3 is the possibility to limit the viewing of movies by minors under the age of sixteen. Although no delegation is possible, lower bodies may limit the exercise of the right for reasons of public order if such limitations are not based on the content of the expressed views. Subarticle 4 states that commercial advertising is not protected by article 7.
The Dutch constitution does not contain a freedom of gathering of information.
Why is advertizing different, and who can stretch that definition? i.e., the advertizing of ideas, and the over-extention of that power to give municipal authorities the right to distribute materials.
Why are radio and television different than speech or print? The whole thing isn’t just uninspired, it’s peevish – as buggy as the notions harbored by the European advocacy press that doesn’t consider for a moment that a nation can lawfully exercise sovereignty when it comes to putting figures to immigration, but does when it feels like prosecuting speech.
In the era of the Apologizer-in-Chief's New Feel-Good American Foreign Policy©™, how things have changed. When a US State Department spokesman refers to a row involving Colonel Gaddhafi, rightly, as "lots of words, not necessarily a lot of sense" and when it turns out that the colonel is in turn offended, this, in the era of Smart Diplomacy, brings about… an apology. Department spokesman PJ Crowley, who made the dismissive comments, said they did not reflect US policy and were not intended to offend.When this offended Gaddafi (0r Kaddhafi or however you spell the tyrant's name), the U.S. State Department hastened to apologize. And the leftists are surprised that a (leftist!) poll finds that a majority of Americans say the United States is less respected in the world than it was two years ago?!
Col Gaddafi had criticised a Swiss vote against the building of minarets and urged Muslims to boycott the country.
Mr Crowley described it as "lots of words, not necessarily a lot of sense."
"I should have focused solely on our concern about the term jihad, which has since been clarified by the Libyan government," Mr Crowley added."I understand my personal comments were perceived as a personal attack on the president," he said.
"These comments do not reflect US policy and were not intended to offend. I apologise if they were taken that way."
Perceived as a personal attack on the tyrant the president… That, in the 1980s, was exactly what Ronald Reagan intended and exactly what Gaddafi deserved (and… still does deserve)…
To survivors of the genocide in Rwanda and to human rights advocates, the oblique and morally obtuse statement from President Nicolas Sarkozy of France is deeply offensive.France, incidentally — just to provide a timely reminder — is the country otherwise known as the perennial sermonizer on human rights, the evils of war, and the benefits of peace and discussion to the clueless retards in America. Anjan Sundaram's New York Times news report continues:
France did not merely make errors of judgment. It deliberately supported through military training, weapons provision and economic aid the genocidal regime and its genocidal project before, during and after the genocide. After the genocide, it gave safe haven to those who carried out atrocities.
The French government has both the legal and the moral obligation to acknowledge its violation of the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide and its complicity in genocide.
The French government should apologize and provide reparations to the Rwandan government and to the survivors of the genocide, as they seek to rebuild their lives and rehabilitate their communities.
There can be no turning the page, as Mr. Sarkozy insisted, without truth and justice.
Mr. Sarkozy also said that Radio France International would begin broadcasting in Rwanda this year. The rift between France and Rwanda has coincided with Rwanda’s break from its French-speaking past under Mr. Kagame. Last year, the national language was changed from French to English, and Rwanda also obtained membership in the Commonwealth, widely seen as a snub to France.
… While many Rwandans were pleased with Mr. Sarkozy’s visit, some saw it as another French rebuff. “He should have stayed more than three hours,” said Sam Kagabo, a journalist in the capital. “The French are here after 16 years. He should have given more respect to Rwandans.”
I know you’re all practically peeing yourselves in giddy anticipation:Brussels to unveil economic plan for next decade
There’s nothing quite as rousing as being forcefully led! It sure puts a smile on the collective European face, even if they did seem to have had their senses of humor surgically removed.After a decade of the EU's failed efforts to become the world's most dynamic knowledge-based economy, Brussels is laying down a fresh economic vision based on innovation, education and digital technologies. However, it stops short of introducing sanctions to ensure national capitals this time stick to the plan.
The beatings will continue until morale a fresh economic vision based on innovation, education and digital technologies improves!
Have ou ever had to listen to teachers droning on about the evils of standardized testing, taking comps, and all of that insight-crippling “teaching to the test stuff”? Well here it is on a continental scale. Don’t forget your number 2 pencils, kids!"The monitoring of progress towards these targets should become an integral part of our economic governance,"
Just as long as that data isn’t going through the SWIFT network.Under the bloc's new, post-Lisbon Treaty set-up, member states will have no chance to formally debate the proposals ahead of the summit in sectoral councils of energy or finance ministers, giving the commission extra power to force its ideas through.
Any resemblance this has to ‘tractor production quotas’ is unintentional. Completely, and entirely without awareness of irony... unintentional.
We did not become a strong nation through hope(Thanks to Mark who links to A Soldier Speaks Out on Iraq, from Iraq)
but rather through self-reliance…
Senior Italian diplomat Francesco Paolo Fulci is arguing in support of German FM Westerwelle’s Jihad to get the EU “a seat on the security council”, in spite of the two they already have in the form of the UK and France. Even at the proposed expanded size, this would still represent 1/3 of the UNSC when the EU members are barely capable of playing a role in European security, let alone that of any other region of the world.
It’s a curious thing, this endless jockeying for more leverage... what on earth do they think they’re going to do with it, even if the rest of humanity were convinced that they DO deserve it?
Why not stop peddling your technology to dictators first? No entity on earth has exhibited MORE inconsistency, and LESS responsibility than the Europeans have. Take for example the matter of weapons proliferation: their entire schtick is limited to appearing to be doing something about it while covering for Iran’s nuclear weapons program. Otherwise in that department, they appear entirely unable to find North Korea or Pakistan on a map. China is only a human rights abuser when a politico needs to grandstand at home – they’re otherwise one hell of a customer.
In the short-term, why not ask the EU member that is elected to the Security Council for two years – which at the moment is Austria – to include a senior civil servant from the country that is currently in charge of the EU Presidency — Spain will take over on 1st January— in its delegation? This would enable a Spanish diplomat to be present in the Council's "holy of holies" right behind the Austrian ambassador. The presence of a representative of the EU Presidency would enable Europe to follow developments on issues presented to the council; and if there is a common European position on a particular issue, the Spanish representative – with the consent of the Austrian ambassador – could express the EU point of view, and enable Europe to take the floor when major decisions concerning war and peace in the world are being decided.
Though a demonized image of the US might scare the shy little children of the Euro-village, there is no objective reason to trust the Europeans with anyone’s security.
