The Goldilocks of Supranational Supergovernments

France is proud of having a diplomatic apparatus that resembles an industrial scale powerhouse. The EU’s “External Action Service” seems otherwise to be too large by half, even in its crib, writes Boris Biancheri in La Stampa [IT] [EN] .

As always, at the heart of the dealing lies the question of the distribution of power among the various players, who represent the different branches of the EU: How are tasks distributed between the Commission and this new service, notably in the sensitive dossiers concerning development aid and humanitarian projects? How much control will the Parliament have over the High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and this new diplomatic service? Who will be responsible for its administration?
Behind the struggle waged by each of the principal actors to defend his or her role and privileges, there remain certain questions on basic principles: the Commission is a supranational organisation, as is the Parliament; conversely, the Council, to which Lady Ashton is attached, is composed of sovereign states. This indirectly creates yet another battlefield for proponents of collective action versus the interests of individual sovereign states.

The one question that goes unasked is: “how can anyone ELSE deal with them?” The question doesn’t seem to come up.

Behind the struggle waged by each of the principal actors to defend his or her role and privileges, there remain certain questions on basic principles: the Commission is a supranational organisation, as is the Parliament; conversely, the Council, to which Lady Ashton is attached, is composed of sovereign states. This indirectly creates yet another battlefield for proponents of collective action versus the interests of individual sovereign states.

The other individual sovereign states, that is to say the rest of the world, on the other hand, will continue to find them to be just another squabbling and infighting party to deal with in among 27-30 other entities that Europeans represent themselves in global dialog.

Without some logical order of precedence, ‘federalization’ of authority, or separation of powers, how, in heavens’ name, are they to be taken seriously or dealt with in with any more seriousness as a well-meaning delegation from the Lions’ Club?

In truth, you aren’t. You’re just supposed to designate them as relevant, important, and render them the respect that comes with experience and authority: each of which they have absolutely none of.

The Community machine has in the past known the problems of gargantuan bureaucracy, where the desire for prestige mixes with national ambitions: some have already placed their bets on the identity of the future Secretary General of the new European diplomatic corps, which will probably be – Hear, hear! – a Frenchman, the ambassador Vimont, flanked by – and not by chance – a German woman. However, it would be a shame if the first child of the Treaty of Lisbon were not the embryo of a concrete and efficient external policy, but rather just another weighty bureaucracy, the fruit of secret agreements, with no identity of its own.

Biancheri’s clarity of thinking needs to be applauded, as he asks that if one is to establish this new leviathan, that it do what its’ assigned to actually do:

At a time where public opinion is focused on harmonising divergent national interests and stabilising the euro and political objectives within the EU, allowing little consideration for external political policy. At a time when everyone can see that the larger external issues facing the EU, including dealings with Russia, Turkey and the United States, have met with more divergence than agreement. And finally, at a time when it is more than ever necessary to have a concrete sense of reality, one wonders if it is in the EU's best interests to advance a project whose function and role have yet to be clearly defined.

Odds on, it will molt away over and over for a decade or two until it gets there, but be little more than a make-work outfit for former newspaper-writes who can tie a necktie, and mop up an army of recent “peace studies” graduates.

Good luck with all that.

The Happiest Nation on Earth: “Way too many Danes think ‘What’s in it for me?’ instead of considering what’s best for Denmark”

"…in light of the credit crunch and a growing public debt problem, Denmark’s generous public spending has come under scrutiny" writes Natalia Rachlin in the New York Times after referring to the country as "something out of a fairy tale: a place where social benefits are not just a last resort for the underprivileged, but an ingrained part of everyday existence, even for high earners."

Specifically, the state-funded pension program … has fueled a discussion about the paradox of Denmark’s high earners receiving many of the same social benefits as the very neediest citizens.

“Way too many Danes think ‘What’s in it for me?’ instead of considering what’s best for Denmark,” Bendt Bendtsen, a member of the European Parliament and a former leader of the Danish Conservative Party, told the financial daily Boersen in a recent interview.

…Denmark has the highest overall tax burden of all O.E.C.D. member countries, with taxes to G.D.P. reaching 48.2 percent in 2009. Furthermore, numbers from the O.E.C.D. show that Denmark has one of the highest marginal tax rates for high earners — 67 percent — when consumer taxes are included.

“If you take away social benefits from high earners, it’s basically the same thing as taxing them even more heavily,” said Mads Lundby Hansen, chief economist at Cepos, a center-right research organization in Copenhagen. “The question quickly becomes, why stay in Denmark? And the thing is, we need high earners here to invest in businesses, to keep the economy rolling.”

…Mr. Hansen of Cepos pointed to calculations done by his organization, based on data from the Ministry of Finance and Statistics Denmark, that show that in 2010 the percentage of the adult population living entirely off transfer income — whether it be welfare, student checks or state retirement funds — is at 43.2 percent.

…Lars Bruhn, founder and chairman of NorthCap Partners, a major venture capital firm … acknowledged that Mr. Bendtsen’s comments had started an important discussion about how to get Denmark back on track. But he added that any solution that amounted to increasing the burden on the country’s handful of high-net-worth individuals would be counterproductive — no matter how politically popular it might be.

“This will undoubtedly lead some business angels, those wealthy individuals who will invest in the next generation, to leave the country in order to avoid being a Dane – leaving behind what’s supposedly the happiest nation on earth,” he said.

“Activism”: Ever for the Good of the None

Activists disable some London BP petrol stations, as if a station operator or franchise owner was spilled oil with intent on wrecking his own business.

LONDON (Reuters) - Protesters from environmental group Greenpeace disabled some of BP's 50 petrol stations in central London on Tuesday in protest at the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
Greenpeace said its activists had managed to close down 47 service stations in the capital. BP confirmed 30 had been forced to close temporarily. The company branded the demonstrations an "act of vandalism" and said it would reopen the sites as soon as it was safe to do so.
The protests coincided with BP's second-quarter results where the oil company reported a $17 billion loss and said it had set aside $32 billion to tackle the spill.

They are angry, therefore, 'Capitalists' may not have earnings, simply because they aren't smart enough to figure out how to benefit from them themselves. Setting aside the obvious ignorance of this style of ‘activism’ (it’s actually just a fig leaf for adolescent lashing out), leftism is an exhibit of envy and hatred. Without invective, it has little to believe in.

Europe Recycles!

Mach Mit, and all that sh*t.

September 1944: From the German magazine “Simplissimus”, we find the same argument employed by the French left today. That American and British, nay ”Anglo-Saxon” hostility is poisoning their bucolic, egalitarian idyll.

The “Context” was a Brutal, Left-Wing Fascist State

Oscar-winning director Oliver Stone in an interview decried what he called the Jewish lobby's control over Washington's foreign policy and said that Hitler's actions should be put "into context.”

Oliver Stone, have long lost an audience in the North America is obviously reaching out to Europe and the Near East when he makes the Hitler made the trains run on time kept the gas chambers running argument:

On Hitler, Stone said that the German leader “did far more damage to the Russians than the Jewish people, 25 or 30 million. Hitler was a Frankenstein, but there was also a Dr. Frankenstein -- German industrialists, the Americans and the British. He had a lot of support.”

As if that makes it okay. After all, when you’re a died in the will agitational revolutionary trying to crash test civilization until it turns into a authoritarian state, human rights means human rights for SOME with whom you feel politically warm to, and not those of the individual’s rights.

Demonize him? Sure. He earned it with his moral illiteracy.

Stone recently completed a documentary on Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and is working on a documentary series about American history.

It follows a familiar pattern: parrot some patriotism only in a “Born on the 4th of July” context, so long that it degrades society, turn the murder of JFK into a history lesson in factually absent cabal conspiracy, rattle on about “an American empire”and so forth. All for “the cause” of reconstructing “the context” around some people and ideas, but not others. Yadda yadda. Basically, it’s a repetition of Nazi propaganda.

Here’s the historical context behind Stone thoughts:



”Lustige Blätter” (the Nazi funny pages), circa 1942. The caption reads: "Behind the Curtains." A Jewish puppeteer is looking nervously at his remaining puppets: Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin. On the floor are broken former puppets, including Neville Chamberlain.

For Stone, it’s okay, because Nazism was just another form of the Marxist-Leninism that he tacitly promotes and advances the cause of.

French Gangsters Put Members of an Élite Grenoble Police Force on a Hit List; Government Gives Threatened Officers Furlough

According to Le Point, French gangsters have put every member (some reports say several members, not all) of Grenoble's 45-strong anti-gang police force on a hit list, following the latter's killing of a gangster during a casino hold-up, writes Le Monde.

Selon le Point.fr, un "contrat" aurait été lancé sur la vie des 45 membres de la brigade anti-criminalité grenobloise impliqués dans la fusillade du braquage du casino qui avait fait un mort. … En représailles à la mort du braqueur et à ces affrontements, ces policiers ont, selon Brice Hortefeux, fait l'objet de menaces de mort "totalement indignes et bien réelles".

In order to protect the lives of the members of the élite police force, they have been given furlough.

The Fresh Reminder of Commie Flesh Peddling

Castros offer dissidents for sale.

There’s nothing new under the sun.

Líder Maximo emerges as "Maximo Dealer," puns Tageszeitung in the wake of the July 21 announcement by the Spanish Foreign Minister and the Cuban parliament chief that all of the island’s political prisoners would now be released. According to the Berlin daily, Cuba, which urgently needs to restore economic relations with the European Union, is applying a method reminiscent of the communist state in East Germany: to obtain hard currency, the GDR was in the habit of imprisoning anyone it believed West Germany would pay to have released. TAZ warns that there is no guarantee that the current state of affairs "will not lead to a new wave of arrests."

They are speaking from experience.

Please Tell me that you’re Kidding

Assimilation, Euro-Style, at an event meant to celebrate social diversity and togetherness:

"The Germans say: Foreigners out!" the girl replied. "Why can't we say: Jews out?" Then she ran away.

Of course officials are “concerned”. They're always "concerned". Maybe even concerned enough to actually do something about this neo-Kristallnacht consensus that been ubiquitous for a decade.

Following an anti-Semitic attack in Hanover, German authorities have identified a new source of anti-Semitic hatred in Germany: young migrants from Muslim families. The ideological alliance has officials concerned.

The author goes on to parrot the tripe about the neo-fascists, who invariably gravitate toward the idea of a muscular, all powerful state, as being “right wing”.

It was supposed to be a carefree festival in Sahlkamp on the outskirts of the northern German city of Hanover. Billed as an "International Day" to celebrate social diversity and togetherness, the June celebration included performances by a multicultural children's choir called "Happy Rainbow" and the German-Turkish rap duo 3-K. Music from Afghanistan was also on the program.
But then the mood suddenly shifted.
When Hajo Arnds, the organizer of the neighborhood festival, stepped onto the stage at about 6:45 p.m. to announce the next performance, by the Jewish dance group Chaverim, he was greeted with catcalls. "Jews out!" some of the roughly 30 young people standing in front of the stage began shouting. "Gone with the Jews!"

The striking stupidity of this kind of story, as frequent as they are, is that the people righting them up always seem to be pretending to ‘just realize’ the state of affairs, and exhibit a kind of puzzlement at connecting the dots.

Further in the nuance-land report, there never seems to be a shortage of retrograde European nostalgia:

During a football match in April, for example, supporters of SV Mügeln-Ablass 09, a district-league football club in the eastern state of Saxony, chanted "a tree, a noose, a Jew's neck" and "we're building a subway, from Jerusalem to Auschwitz," until the match was stopped.

The litany of defaced cemeteries and modern day pamphleteering on the internet also makes the expected appearance, but the dots that no-one seems to be able to connect is the historical frequency that these same demonization movements re-emerge.

Perhaps they’re covering their eye with a kind of foreknowledge of the outcome, if they are as passive about it as they were in the last century. Perhaps heads turn away from a kind of self-awareness of how ‘natural’ these phases of factional hated comes to those noble people of the “EMEA”.

How do you Import the Bad Weather and Peevishness?

An Austrian real-estate developer is seeking a fortune with a set of European-themed islands in the Persian Gulf. The Vegas-style glitter of Dubai may have faded since the boom -- but not for everyone

It’s a kind of Busch Gardens for gullible Arabs and Iranians, possibly finding some unstated appeal to indulge in some Jew hating with a Teutonic flair, or maybe their famous emotionally distant self-abuse, or something like the apathy. Who knows:

Today, Josef Kleindienst is €200 million richer and far from Schrattenberg, on his own building plot covered in grey, shell-flecked sand. It's a deserted piece of property in the steaming water of the Persian Gulf, and Kleindienst calls it "Germany." Now a real estate broker, he bought the island outside Dubai together with "Austria," "St. Petersburg," "Sweden," "Switzerland," and "the Netherlands," which is destined to become a party island.

After all, the image of the Netherlands has long-since ceded any notion of cheap bastards, or hardworking farmers and fishermen, always willing to sell their grandmother for a nickel. Even an article in NRC Handelsblad rues over is:

Two utterly contradictory images of the Netherlands circulate in the international press. One is the idea of a wild, unruly place where policemen smoke marijuana, gay men dance in the streets, and euthanasia can be arranged in an instant,

The elite of Teheran should feel right at home.

A Cuban Dissident Asks: Why do you (heart) Marxist-Leninist Autocrats?

You don’t get peristroyka through enablement. A group of recently freed Cuban dissidents ask the EU to stop its’ misguided policy of friendly engagement with Havana.

On their arrival in Spain, nine of the 52 political prisoners whose release was announced by the Castro regime on 8 July announced "that they would like to consult with the European Parliament before next September’s review of the EU’s Common Position on Cuba, which has remained unchanged since 1996."

With a flair for having more unbridled rage Gitmo detainees than the entire Cuban population, it comes as no surprise to find the reaction of the Precambrian 68ers now ruling Festung Europa to be more ‘reactionary’, and subject to the conditioned reaction of a state of ‘false consciousness’.

One of the freed dissidents, Normando Hernández, who had been sentenced to 25 years in prison, described the Cuban government’s decision as "a smokescreen," and further insisted abandoning the Common Position would be an “aberration” because "its objectives have yet to be attained."

Without pointing out the political ideology of Spain’s foreign minister, a member of the Socialist Worker’s Party, the article continues:

This view not shared by Spanish Foreign Affairs Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos, who, during a recent visit to the island, announced that there was "no reason" for the EU to maintain its Common Position on Cuba.

Emphasis mine. After all, you know a left-leaning Spanish paper surely wouldn’t want to draw too much attention to the reality of ‘real, living socialism’.

In God we Trust vs. In Loco Parentis

Ah, those continental sophisticates.

So intelligent, in fact, that they believe that their employers “give” them vacation and benefits, as though the resources used to fund them fell from outer space. They don’t, you dimwitted sucknozzle, they just pay you less, and pretend to be generous with what they didn’t give you in the first place.

Further, to reinforce the delusions that they frequently beat off to when they’re otherwise far less likely to be be employed to begin with:

What’s more striking is that serious analysts rarely talk about “laziness”. The reason is simple: European laziness may seem an alluring explanation for the observed differences, but the statistics tell a different story. The fact that Europeans work less isn’t due to laziness, but to a voluntary trade-off, says Andrew Moravcsik, a political scientist at Princeton and Newsweek contributor. The unemployment levels distort the figures: the US has known lower unemployment than Europe for the past ten years and a smaller non-working population. So it’s logical that the “average European” should put in fewer hours.

According to Moravcsik, Europeans are fully capable of working more, but they opt to spend more time at leisure than at making money. Economists say that trade-off gets more prevalent as a society gets richer. Americans, however, are the exception to the rule. The US, he continues, is the only developed, industrialised country in which working hours have increased enormously.

It’s not a trade, it’s a “take it or leave it” sh*t sandwich. “Getting more hours” when employed by someone else is something you see a lot more drooling over in EUtopia than in the US. In fact, in the US, you see a lot more people who know full well that they can take all of the leisure time that they like, because in normal times you actually CAN find a job after taking “a pause that refreshes” without waiting the European averages which range from 6 to 18 months for another job, even in boom times.

But let’s not be too harsh. There are a few people who DO get it:

The German press has been focussing recently on a group of “eternally unemployed” who for decades have been living off the state, reports Gazeta Wyborcza. Some, the Warsaw daily notes, receive up to €1,085 per month which is enough for food and accommodation, and still leaving some for leisure and entertainment, or even a short vacation on the Baltic coast. The last time Arno Dübel, 54, had a job was twenty seven years ago. Every month he receives a cheque for 359 EUR and the state also pays rent for his two-room flat in Hamburg. According to him, being unemployed has nothing but advantages: he doesn’t have to follow anyone’s orders, doesn’t get stressed, doesn’t have to get up early. So what does he do during the day? Shopping at Lidl, walking the dog, watching some TV. “Working is a beautiful thing when others do it. I’m no good for it,” says Mr Dübel with disarming honesty. No wonder Bild tabloid has called him Germany’s “cheekiest” jobless person. There are many more like him in Germany, points out the Warsaw daily.

Send that man a flotilla! He’s having a humanitarian crisis !!!

Journalism’s Leftist Flunkies

Or How I decided to stop worrying and became a servile scribbler acting at the will of a politician.

Spencer Ackerman:

I do not endorse a Popular Front, nor do I think you need to. It’s not necessary to jump to Wright-qua-Wright’s defense. What is necessary is to raise the cost on the right of going after the left. In other words, find a rightwinger’s [sic] and smash it through a plate-glass window. Take a snapshot of the bleeding mess and send it out in a Christmas card to let the right know that it needs to live in a state of constant fear.

Oh, but I think he DOES endorse the kind of behavior that connot be confused as being consistent with fascism, or to be charitable at the very least, a style of political rule that "tolerates" a society's democratic institutions merely to mute its' challengers:

Mussolini was raised by a strong socialist father and followed in his father’s footsteps by inheriting fervent socialist beliefs. Schooled as a teacher, Mussolini tried his luck in Switzerland but could not hold a steady job.

Changed groundwork executed by the ‘socially concerned’, etc., etc. Slowly altering the landscape to seem the same, but constructing sanctions and co-opting one sector of society after another: politicizing education, journalism, industries, DISempowering union members in the face of the political agenda of the Union leadership... it’s all too familiar, and Ackerman’s rueful oath shows that he’s as willing as any Inoffizieller Mitarbeiter to pitch in and damage civilization for the sake of the political shortcuts he wants to take, knowing that it’s needed to make an unwilling public take the bait.

Most everything about the parliamentary system was changed under the dictatorship and all law codes were rewritten. Teachers in schools and universities had to swear an oath to defend the Fascist regime and Mussolini personally chose newspaper editors. To practice journalism at all, the writer had to possess an official certificate of approval from the Fascist party. The trade unions were also deprived of any independence and became part of a larger group with the aim to place all Italians in various professional organizations and ultimately under governmental control. Most industrial industries were transferred to private ownership but then placed rigid government control over and the change hurt the Italian economy.

It is NOT an overextension to say that the Obama White House hasn’t done a modern form of the same thing. Ackerman and his cohort of Journalists-cum-propagandists (using their employers’ resources to do it whether they conscented or not) have actually carried water for a political campaign to enable it.

Now you know why all the “Faux News” tirades are needed – to cover for the participatory “news MAKING” (not news REPORTING) antics of the likes of... The Nation, Slate, American Prospect, The New Republic, Mother Jones, Media Matters, the Huffington Post, The New York Times, ABC, CBS, NBS, PBS “News” Hour, NPR, Pacifica, The Boston Globe, the Chicago Sun-Times,

Etal.

The Sexual Revolution and Children: How the Left Took Things Too Far

Der Spiegel has a report (danke zu Ben) regarding one "of the goals of the German 1968 movement", namely "the sexual liberation of children. For some, this meant overcoming all sexual inhibitions, creating a climate in which even pedophilia was considered progressive."

For instance,

In his 1975 autobiographical book "Der Grosse Basar" (The Great Bazaar), Green Party politician Daniel Cohn-Bendit describes his experiences as a teacher in a Kinderladen in Frankfurt. When the children entrusted to his care opened his fly and began stroking his penis, he writes, "I was usually quite taken aback. My reactions varied, depending on the circumstances."

Protocols of the Elders of Les Zones Urbaine Sensible

It’s strange, in describing Nazi attempts to infiltrate American culture and leadership in 1939, John L. Spivak could have been describing the behavior of second-string politicos in present day Europe: having a predilection very much like the American mainstream flunky press, to construct a portrait of evil to distract from a rather real one.

For a while Jung collected from terrified employers by promising to inform them about the threat of revolution--what time it would occur and who would lead it. In return he collected plenty. In time employers got fed up when the rowboat loaded with bomb-throwing Bolsheviks failed to arrive from Moscow. Pickings became slim. Jung was badly in need of a new terror-inspiring "issue" with which to collect from the suckers. He found it at the time Emerson was sent here from Germany. Gulden, Pelley and their associates were launching an anti-semitic campaign as the first step to attract people to the "Friends of Germany." Jung likewise discovered the "menace of the Jew" and peddled it for all it was worth.

There was an air of secrecy about the whole outfit. Even the location of the office in the Chicago Tribune Tower was kept from the membership; all they were given was the post office box number. As soon as he collected enough material from the Daily Worker and other Communist publications, he sent agents to call on the gullible businessmen with horrendous stories of the Muscovites now on the high seas on their way to capture the American Government. The salesmen collected and in turn got forty per cent of the pickings. When Jung heard that William Dudley Pelley was making money on the Jew-and-Catholic scare and that others like Edward H. Hunter of the Industrial Defense Association were talking with the German Consul General about getting money from Germany for propaganda, he got busy peddling "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion," long discredited as forgeries.

Armed with these, Jung's high pressure salesmen scoured the country, collecting shekels from Christian businessmen and getting their forty per cent commissions. It was not long before Jung, Pelley and others were working in full swing with secret Nazi agents sent into this country for propaganda and espionage purposes.

- “Secret Armies”

“Reaches Out?”

EU reaches out for new powers at United Nations

In an act of arrogant reverse-suzerainty the EU member states have unilaterally declared to make the EU a speaking member of the UN. This brings their "handicap" as an entity to 28 times that of China or India, with only half of the population of each of them, not to mention their over-representation on the security council.

European Council President Herman Van Rompuy will in future be able to address the UN chamber no differently from US President Barack Obama or Iranian leader Mahmoud Ahmedinejad under draft reforms agreed by member states.

But that’s not all, folks!

There will also be additional seats put in for the EU's foreign policy chief, High Representative Catherine Ashton and her officials.

This, for an entity that has no legitimate sovereign power if the member states are to maintain their seats, numbers, delegates, etal.

An EU diplomat said the idea behind the changes is to boost the profile of the EU as an entity in itself at the international level.

This, from the world’s least plausible “partner in security”n which would not need to be “boosted” were it not for their outright irrelevance.

The new rights flow from changes established by the EU's Lisbon Treaty

Which, at last reading, was not signed by anyone from whom recognition would be found with, or in any other way form a legally legitimate graduation of the sovereignty of the member states. It is simply an exercise in having it both ways, and be counted twice, with an expectation that the rest for the world will play dress-up for them, and officially declare them “big and powerful” with no basis in reality.

Earn your chops first? Never.

A Bounty of Fruits, Nuts, and Flakes

Berlin Fashion Week: The Good, the bad, and the Terrifying.

You might be a German if...

...you’re prone to go along with things just because you think it would seem otherwise un-cosmopolitan, when in fact it’s just awkward, feeble, and out of touch.

Gardez le Nez

An apparently ever rising trend when the economy turns down.

- Danke sehr, Jacob

Social Justice for Unsucessful Criminals! Now!

Guess which tense, developing nation, riddled with barbaric secterianism this took place in, and get a Chinese knock-off kewpie doll.

Rioters burned cars, attacked a tramway and shot at police in the xxxxxx city of xxxxxxxx overnight in protest at the death of a local Muslim man, identified as 27-year- old Karim Boudouda, fleeing police after allegedly holding up the city's casino.

In the screwed up world of post-rational European nihilism, scratching your chin and opining about this stuff is considered sociologically interesting, and a good use of a social thinker's time.



Anyone thinking clearly, without the intervention of political conditioning about "social sensitivities" will see it cultural backwardness imported from a failed, third world society.

Police said they intervened after local residents stopped a tramway by setting a fire on the rails and stoned it. At least 50 cars were burned and police said they were shot at once and returned fire.

Oh, but to Channel the Gauche Caviar

What ho!

You know, I rather think I agree with those poet-and-philosopher Johnnies who insist that a fellow ought to be devilish pleased if he has a bit of trouble.

All that stuff about being refined by suffering, you know. Suffering does give a chap a sort of broader and more sympathetic outlook. It helps you to understand other people's misfortunes if you've been through the same thing yourself. As I stood in my lonely bedroom at the hotel, trying to tie my white tie myself, it struck me for the first time that there must be whole squads of chappies in the world who had to get along without a man to look after them. I'd always thought of Jeeves as a kind of natural phenomenon; but, by Jove! of course, when you come to think of it, there must be quite a lot of fellows who have to press their own clothes themselves and haven't got anybody to bring them tea in the morning, and so on. It was rather a solemn thought, don't you know. I mean to say, ever since then I've been able to appreciate the frightful privations the poor have to stick.

- P. G. Wodehouse, “My Man Jeeves”

Top Obama Adviser Admits to the French that the July 2011 Withdrawal Date From Afghanistan Is Not to Be Taken Seriously, Being Purely Symbolic

In an interview with Le Monde's Sylvie Kauffmann and Gilles Paris during the National Security Advisor's brief stay in Paris, James Jones stated, rather unequivocally, that "the month of July 2011 will not signal the big departure of our forces" from Afghanistan (emphasis mine), adding, again rather unequivocally, that it is only a symbolic date (symbolic à la "positiveness", à la "new direction", à la "hope 'n' change", etc): "July 2011, that is a date to give us hope, that of being able to pull back some troops — the exact number is not predetermined — to show the Afghans as well as our own citizens, a new direction, a positive one, so that one day the responsibility for Afghanistan will revert to Afghan citizens."

Peut-on dire à la fois "nous allons gagner en Afghanistan" et "nous allons partir" ?

Vous avez oublié un mot : nous allons partir éventuellement. Ce qu'il faut bien comprendre, c'est que le mois de juillet 2011 ne marquera pas le grand départ de nos forces. C'est la période où nous pensons que nous pourrons transférer plus de responsabilités aux autorités afghanes. Il est raisonnable d'espérer qu'après dix ans de présence les Afghans puissent prendre en main leur destin. Il est impossible de se résigner à rester en Afghanistan une vingtaine d'années. Juillet 2011, ça nous donne un espoir, celui de pouvoir retirer quelques forces — le chiffre n'est pas prédéterminé —, pour montrer aux Afghans et à nos propres citoyens une nouvelle direction, positive, pour qu'un jour la responsabilité de l'Afghanistan revienne aux citoyens afghans.

Sylvie Kauffmann and Gilles Paris: Can one say both "We will win in Afghanistan" and "we will leave" at the same time?

James Jones: You forgot one word: we will leave eventually. What you need to understand is the month of July 2011 will not mark the great departure of our forces. This is the period when we believe we will be able to transfer more responsibility to Afghan authorities. It is reasonable to expect, after ten years of presence in the country, that Afghans can take control of their destiny. It is inconceivable to resign yourself to stay in Afghanistan for twenty years or so. July 2011, that is a date that gives us hope, that of withdrawing some forces — the exact figure is not predetermined — to show the Afghans and our own citizens a new direction, one of a positive kind, that one day the responsibility for Afghanistan will revert to Afghan citizens.

See also an interview with a French general: McChrystal Ripple: French General Also Is Summoned by Authorities to Cease Criticism of Obama's Strategy and of the "American" War

The government calls it "sealed management."

BEIJING – The government calls it "sealed management." China's capital has started gating and locking some of its lower-income neighborhoods overnight, with police or security checking identification papers around the clock, in a throwback to an older style of control.

Erm... NOT. It’s more of that “colonialism of the mind” crap imported from Europastani internment camps. You’ll note that Eye-talians found themselves doing the same thing.

The gated villages are the latest indignity for China's migrant workers, who already face limited access to schooling and government services and are routinely blamed by city folk for rising crime. Used to the hardship of the farm and the lack of privilege, migrants seem to be taking the new controls in their stride.

Which, as I understand it, is even worse than the Arizona of the left’s imaginary dystopia. I wonder, does the fact that they are avec-papiers and citizens make it okay, lefty?

"Sealed management" looks like this: Gates are placed at the street and alley entrances to the villages, which are collections of walled compounds sprinkled with shops and outdoor vendors. The gates are locked between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m., except for one main entrance manned by security guards or police, there to check identification papers. Security guards roam the villages by day.

That, friends, is the China that the European Reducto ad Hitlerium Anti-American types won’t tell you about, or will imagine to be some sort of “social cohesion” paradise on earth. They seem to love every other kind of womb-like social incarceration otherwise, so why not this.

Maybe it says something about THEIR notion of the paradise on earth that they want for the “collectivist mass” (from which the generous and munificent intellectual may always get an equality-based, authority-granted exception from). After all you have that Isra-NaziApartheidSecurity”Separation”Wall to recreationally throw stones at.



Don’t get all sentimental about it, already.

France Says It Has the Planet's Second Diplomatic Network Behind That of the United States

Nous restons, et resterons, le deuxième réseau du monde derrière les Etats-Unis

Foreign minister Bernard Kouchner answers a Le Monde op-ed by two former ministres des affaires étrangères (Alain Juppé and Hubert Védrine), criticizing the current state of affairs of the Quai d'Orsay, with his own op-ed in which he states, among other things, that "we remain, and we will remain, the second [diplomatic] network [on the planet] behind the United States".

Des Chinoiseries Arabe

Deep in the Eutopian ethno-bunker of Belleville, a sort of Bobo-land cum ‘hood, friction in the district of Paris, (inside the Périferique) is growing more familiar. The latest comes in the form of the Algerian proletariat sticking it to Chinese immigrants, who up until recently were more interested in getting ahead than competing in the race to achieve maximum victimhood, and thus handouts

”Regular Tension”

The tense scene is almost a regular event in the first Chinatown in the Arab world, where disputes are regular. "I never go out without my knife," reflects Chu Jung, a bricklayer, who arrived in Algeria three years ago.

"The Algerians are racists, but my business is looking great! Too bad the violence turned a small paradise for business into hell.”

A few months ago, clashes in the city, where buildings have sprouted like mushrooms, have nearly ended in a pitched battle. The Chinese Embassy has responded quickly and asked the Algerian authorities to ensure the security and oversight of this large village with over 300 Chinese families.

Not quite: there are more like 10 000 overseas Chinese in the area, and they are demanding, quite simply, that les flics do something about crime. Even non-residents have felt the heat:

Cases of Chinese tourists being robbed in Paris have happened time and time again, with even the vice-chairperson Uyunqimg of China’s National People’s Congress Standing Committee having also been previously robbed during a visit to Paris.

So what do police do to “maintain the peace”? Fire tear gas at the Chinese immigrant protesters. After all, they know which klan runs Belleville.

Sort of a “Clash of Civilizations” thing which cannot be mocked for its’ foolish simplistic-ness, because of its rather real clash of civilizations, foolish simplistic nature and all.

Quiet at first, the demonstration degenerated and turned into an outright witchhunt for thugs.

Without the mobile police units, we would have had serious ethnic clashes in Paris. Believe me, I was there. Here is what we will not tell you in the national press.

[snip]

...the bobos go about their business. No solidarity with fellow Chinese immigrants?
Very few whites in the demo. No blacks, no Arabs.

[snip]

First incident. The guys on the right just busted the young Chinese guys’ face. He is the oriental type.
His assailants took flight. Suddenly, to my right, a band of thugs did not lose a second to get in on it. It will be a difficult day to live together.

The cops arrive and surround the victim. I try to learn more. A bobo journalist looks at the scene angrily. She tells the guy "Don’t add in the provocation, you have caused some too. "

A older Arab approached me:
"Why did they do that? Five against one, wow."
"Who did it, sir?"
"The Chinese. They did it."

And so on, and so forth. They really can’t all just get along, especially in that haven of diversity. The festivities continued with trash can fires, overturned cars, broken windows, and CS gas.

Titanic Piano

Obama's Falling Poll Numbers: The Logical Conclusion of the Leftists' Talking Points

Are you ready to accept your share of the blame for Obama's collapsing poll numbers? If only "spoiled Americans" would stop nitpicking his amazingly successful run as president, our country would be less child-like, or something like that.

In the face of ominous poll data splashed on the front page of today's Washington Post, libtalkers were in a tough position today. But only ultra-partisan Democratic Party crony Bill Press could manage to blame voters for Obama's failure to thrive.

If Bill Press's opinions (thanks to Instapundit) are (or if his meltdown is) taken to their/to its logical conclusion…

…then Americans should go through some sort of reeducation centers (or re-education camps) to be made to understand the good they are being bestowed, and to be made to refrain from criticizing (at least, not too much) the Spiritual Guide who is benevolently bestowing them upon us;

…then democracy should be curtailed and elections banned (polls as well, probably), at least temporarily, so that the benevolent Great Helmsman can implement his (benevolent) policies in the absence of obstacles from clueless idiots — be they common citizens or the unpatriotic naysayers in the opposition;

…in fact, then Barack Obama should be allowed to dictate his (benevolent) policies to the nation (the nation of clueless clods who are preventing him from carrying those dashing avant-garde ideas of his through to completion).

Of course, Bill Press is not saying this — he might even deny, quite sincerely, saying anything to that effect if he were told so in those exact words; still, this is inescapably the end result if his "viewpoints" are taken to their logical conclusion…

(And liberals, leftists, and statists wonder why, and think we are exaggerating when, some of us issue warnings about socialism and when we warn about it being a path to tyranny?!)

Update: thanks to Instapundit (again)…

Related: The Only Good Woman Is a Leftist Woman

Thoughts for Bastile Day

[none]

There's no point for a nation to celebrate freedom when they've largely abandoned any modicum of love they have for it a long time ago.

As EU Implements a Diplomatic Service, Eastern European Diplomats Are Snubbed for Not Agreeing on a Rosy View of Russia

« La frustration est particulièrement forte en matière de relations extérieures, constate un responsable polonais, le recrutement de nos ressortissants a été bloqué par crainte de leur russophobie présumée. »

As the European Union starts implementing a union-wide diplomatic service, writes Philippe Ricard in Le Monde, with 6,000 positions to fill, diplomats from Eastern and Central Europe feel left out. With the singular exception of Poland's Jerzy Buzek, elected head of the European Parliament in July 2009, only an infinitely small number of Eastern and Central Europeans have been nominated to fill one of the 136 European delegations throughout the world.

And the reason for the stiffing, it is believed, is because the alleged Russophobia of the former Warsaw Pact countries prevents them from seeing their Russian neighbor in a rosy enough light…

Allons Enfants

U.S. History Lesson for Minorities

American heroes you may not have heard of — and why not…

That Inconvenient Truth

Just call him Mr. Natural:

"There are, besides, eternal truths, such as Freedom, Justice, etc. that are common to all states of society. But Communism abolishes eternal truths, it abolishes all religion, and all morality, instead of constituting them on a new basis; it therefore acts in contradiction to all past historical experience."

- The Communist Manifesto (Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels)

Almost as Good as “Confusius Say”...

...and also largely true of the EU’s behavior when it comes to trying to match up to their ambitions to be a big, barking bow-wow on the world stage™©®

Cunning and treachery are the offspring of incapacity.

- François duc de La Rochefoucauld, ”Sentences and Moral Maxims”

Then again, you can always try starting with lowering people’s expectations of what “superpower” means.

From dictating the size of Coke bottles to dissuading Iran from pursuing its nuclear ambitions, the EU has arrived as a force to be reckoned with in the world.

Ooh! Can you feel the Pow-ah!
In reflection, it really is rather funny, and rather consistent with Rochefoucauld’s understanding of incapacity being the mother of mendacity.

Confusion in the Grand Confederation of Ethno-Statelets

Where saying that you’re really neo-nationalistic and post-gravitational remains a fashionable intellectual palliative.

Union fails most vital test of a democracy

There is no overlap between the space in which people believe they have something to say (which, like it or not, is and will remain the space of nation-states) and the space in which more and more decisions are being made, decisions that are increasingly unpopular.

says José Manuel Fernandes.

The European Union is failing the most vital test of a democracy: it doesn’t know how to replace its own government by peaceful means. The European Parliament can, of course, dismiss the Commission, but it can’t dismiss the Council, nor does anyone think about who will be the next president of the Commission whilst voting for members of the European Parliament.

If you use history (mostly unimaginably bloody,) this is perfectly normal for the continent.

What Comes After Paranoia?

No doubt some other meaningful use of your last diversity-training seminar, or some other feature of behavior on the way to phase IV societal collapse.

Golfis Yiannis stands on the dock of the Athenian port of Piraeus, unflinching among the dust clouds stirred by the thundering lorries and clattering forklift trucks unloading the vast container ships.

"That's Europe's new China Town over there," he says, pointing to the pier adjacent to where he is standing. "The only thing that is certain is that we've sold our soul to the Chinese."

Yeah, yeah, We’ve heard it all before Spankidoplos. What you have to do is pull the neck of your bouzouki out of your ass and get a job there, instead of trying to unionize the unemployed.



It brings to mind the Village People, does it not?

Probably Still There to Join in the Fun

Miguel Ángel Moratinos, a 68er if there ever was one and a member of the “fisting for peace” Socialist Workers' Party is visiting the holy city of Havana.

A few weeks ago, he was demanding an end to the “Gaza Blockade”, that inhumane Israeli practice of keeping missiles away from their civilians. Now he is in the worker’s paradise, with the best medical care in the world, while a Cuban dissident on hunger strike is near death.

Before departing from Madrid on Monday (5 July), Mr Moratinos told journalists the aim of his three-day trip was to support a dialogue between the Cuban government and the Catholic Church on improving respect for human rights.

I guess just to appease those warmongering, inhumane neocons, Moratinos feels obliged to try to do SOMEthing, though.

Some contact will also be made with the entourage of Cuban activist Guillermo Farinas. Mr Farinas, a psychologist and online journalist, is reportedly close to death after 132 days on hunger strike in defiance of the country's Communist government. He is demanding that sick political prisoners be freed.

But don’t expect too much. Rich Europe having long ago proved itself willing to have its’ free will brought to its’ knees by comparatively powerless rogues.

No blood for chicharonnes, spanky!

By the way, Moratinos, in his Sicialist Worker’s party radicalism for eschewing aristocratic class mutual support and suchlike holds the following honors:

Knight of the Order of Civil Merit,
Officer of the Order of Isabel the Catholic Queen,
Commander of Civil Merit,
Commander of the Alaouite "Ouissan" Order of Morocco,
Commander of the Order of the Republic of Tunisia,
Commander of the Order of Isabel the Catholic Queen,
Cooperation Prize of the Arab Journalists Association (Presented by H.M. the King in 1994),
Alaoute Ouissan Order (Officer) and
Commander of the Orange-Nassau Order of the Netherlands.

Not bad for a “pacifist” crypto-maoist and a lawyer. But let’s not forget who the real brave radical, defender of the people’s rights is: Guillermo Farinas.

"I want to die in my country right under the noses of the dictators who have the guns, rifles, cannons and bombs. I have the moral weight of the people from below, who have been deceived and repressed for 51 years by those who have the weapons,"

The fact remains that all of those European “fisting” socialists thinking paranoiacly that they are the bulwark of humanity against a sea of evil you name-it-ANYthings pretend that dey got da bravitude, but not one of them will EVER once consider for a second placing themselves in the position of being in a hunger strike in a dictatorial state with the very real risk of death, even if one ends the hunger strike. Every last one of them, with their wet dreams of taking violence the man (when they ARE the man) belongs in an adult diaper compared to Farinas.

Probably There to Join in the Fun

Until they expire, we will have to carry the legacy and the trail of social destruction left behind by the 68ers. In retrospect, it seems largely to have been driven by a gigantic hang-up so many of them accused others of: their weird relationship with remorse that drove so much of the violation of what gentler and thinking people know to be universal in nature:

Even a cursory review of the material revealed that the educational work at the Rote Freiheit ("Red Freedom") after-school center was unorthodox. The goal of the center was to shape the students into "socialist personalities," and its educational mission went well beyond supervised play. The center's agenda included "agitprop" on the situation in Vietnam and "street fighting," in which the children were divided into "students" and "cops."

They channeled their own internal nonsense to “solve problems” that these children didn’t have. There’s nothing new there, but that’s not the worst of the abuse.

The educators' notes indicate that they placed a very strong emphasis on sex education. Almost every day, the students played games that involved taking off their clothes, reading porno magazines together and pantomiming intercourse.

According to the records, a "sex exercise" was conducted on Dec. 11 and a "fucking hour" on Jan. 14. An entry made on Nov. 26 reads: "In general, by lying there we repeatedly provoked, openly or in a hidden way, sexual innuendoes, which were then expressed in pantomimes, which Kurt and Rita performed together on the low table (as a stage) in front of us."

The children were between the ages 8 and 14.

The left has its own history of abuse, and it is more complicated than it would seem at first glance. When leaders of the student movement of the late 1960s are asked about it, they offer hesitant or evasive answers. "At the core of the movement of 1968, there was in fact a lack of respect for the necessary boundaries between children and adults. The extent to which this endangerment led to abuse cases is unclear," Wolfgang Kraushaar, a political scientist and chronicler of the movement, writes in retrospect.

Unclear to whom? Everyone other than the ones that drank the revolutionary kool-aid instead of looking inside to their own humanity and, yes, capacity to feel remorse when dealing with the well being of children.
Useful stuff, that pain. To quote James T. Kirk: “It makes me who I am”. More to the point, regretting the things one’s done wrong, and learned from is what really does.

So let’s say you’re a caring, communal prole/hippy, at war with the world, rationalizing your indispensability to the fate of humanity, wondering why people have never done this before, and drunk on your own wonderfulness, see it as a power over others. The innocent other happen to be children, and you are then convincing yourself of the goodness and fitness of being little more than a child molester.

For instance, "Revolution der Erziehung" ("The Revolution in Education"), a work published by Rowohlt in 1971, which quickly became a bestseller, addresses sexuality as follows: "The de-eroticization of family life, from the prohibition of sexual activity among children to the taboo of incest, serves as preparation for total assimilation -- as preparation for the hostile treatment of sexual pleasure in school and voluntary subjugation to a dehumanizing labor system."

In short, none of us are supposed to have any remorse in order to make them feel less bad for the hurt that their own self-indulgence causes others, a point made beautifully made in Mary Eberstadt’s recent book, Loser Letters.

As St. Augustine should have said, “Make them good, God, not me!” But You have to admit, there’s a lot to be said for having the rest of the Species play by the rules.

Thus one sanctions ones’ own violations. Rationalizations couched as social though is the tool to convince oneself that there should be no regrets – if you can make yourself live with it.

There should be no surprise at all that another generation would react so badly to it all. The have reason. To use Eberstadt’s monologue character discussing abortion as an example, we can decrypt the present day behavior of those onetime “young radicals” fairly well.

I mean, face it! If You’re over fifty, there’s not much chance that anyone would have aborted You. But nowadays it’s different. It’s like anyone who’s even born now, in the Age of Choice, either requires explanation or feels like there’s a reason for it.

It’s changed the existential experience of the very question, Why am I here? I’m not saying this bizarre state of affairs is altogether bad for our godlessness. Some kids, today as ever, do turn effortlessly toward Atheism’s chief transmitter belts among the young, i.e., nihilism and melancholy. In fact, some do it easier than ever. The fact that their generation is the first truly disposable one—even disposed-of one—puts extra pressure on all of today’s kids to find a meaning in life. Some just can’t. That’s what Goth is for. And a lot of their music. And Norplant. And, of course, drugs.

For that you can thank those “revolutionaries”.

Two Kinds of Humor: The One That Brings Together and the One That Separates

If Elena Kagan is praised for anything, from non-liberals in any case, it is for her wit and for her sense of humor. But the philosopher Hugh Prather used to say that there are two kinds of humor in this life — the humor that brings together and the humor that separates.

Which kind is that of Barack Obama's candidate for the Supreme Court? It seems clear to me that her humor is the one that says: "I am part of the élite, and the opposition has no more right to question my credentials than has the common American citizen. And if they should so try, I will ignore, I will castigate, and/or I will ridicule their concerns relentlessly."

Unproductive and Leads to Loss of Sphincter Control

Those of you who can’t help but look at an accident might enjoy this coverage of the Greek way of solving your fiscal meltdown: riot, plant bombs, and bring what’s left of a feeble economy to a standstill. That’s sure to pay the bills and make good on Yaya’s pension – when there’s no-one left earning anything that the omnivore-left can tax at a higher, ever more “socially responsible” rate.

I.E.:

On June 14th, anarchists stormed a super-market in Thessaloniki, Greece. They destroyed the security systems, took food and money from the cashiers, which they burnt outside.

A Thought for the Day Century

In reality, political films are very often screened in the exact same place as they always were: in former factories, which are today, more often than not, museums.

- Hito Steyerl, ‘Is a Museum a Factory?'

McChrystal Ripple: French General Also Is Summoned by Authorities to Cease Criticism of Obama's Strategy and of the "American" War

Following the Rolling Stone interview that landed an American general in deep trouble, a similar fate (although not as drastic a dénouement) is befalling a French general for similar reasons, writes Nathalie Guibert of Le Monde.

After France's newspaper of record published an interview with Général Vincent Desportes on the subject of the difficulties of American strategy in Afghanistan, the officer was summoned to the office of Edouard Guillaud, the chef d'état-major des armées (the equivalent of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff), who went on to ask defense minister Hervé Morin to sanction the officer with a 38-year career behind him for what he, the chief of staff, called "misconduct."

Indeed, General Desportes' "faute" is compounded by the fact that he has been serving as director of none other than the Collège interarmées de défense, France's answer to West Point, Annapolis, Parris Island, and Colorado Springs, all rolled in one (and all in the center of Paris). And in the Le Monde interview, the head of the institute teaching military strategy states that General Stanley McChrystal's discharge "opens a debate on the chosen tactics," and this, at a moment when "the situation on the ground has never been worse." The French general, who is about to retire and who has an impressive bibliography to his name (including in English), goes on to make the same criticisms that have been leveled at the White House, both within military circles and without: "Strategy will need to be revised" because Barack Obama has "chosen a middle road that is struggling to function effectively."

Most revealing, perhaps, is the fact that when asked if the revision
of tactics was not a matter for the international coalition to decide, General Desportes corrected the journalist, stating that the conflict is, in fact, "une guerre américaine" — an American war.

The "truth to power" aspect in this case, therefore, seems not only to be the (rightful) one of questioning the left's wishy-washy feel-good "strategy" (the strategy of the left in America or anywhere else), but also to be the (self-serving) one of depicting the war in Afghanistan (not just the one in Iraq!) as being nothing if not one of the "does not concern us" type.

Indeed, the French seem to be showing, once again (and in knee-jerk fashion), that they are constantly on the outlook for excuses (however valid or otherwise) not to have to stand beside the Américains — something seen also among a majority of comments from Le Monde readers — and that the French, therefore, are not to be trusted as reliable allies. Stating this taboo subject publicly may have been the main reason that the général earned his superiors' displeasure.

Update: in wake of the scandal, a CID page showing the original French version of Desportes' book (La Guerre Probable) seems to have vanished…

Adolescent Error or Stunning Insight? (Part 2)

For some in Brussels the words "Latin America" still conjure up an image of basket-case economies, but the message from a recent high-level conference in the EU capital was loud and clear: ignore this region at your peril.

...the article begins. The irony, however that it’s Europe that conjures up that image now.

And with good reason, because they go on to discuss European engagement with latin America as if it was territory to be conquered away from China and the US. The all too typical tone is insulting.

Adolescent Error or Stunning Insight?

Every year, the funniest answers to France’s national comprehensive exams are published, such as:

Mai 68 voit l’émergance d’un nouveau leader de la jeunesse: Daniel Kohn-Bandit.

Fourth of July Tribute

A tribute to the men and women who sacrifice their lives for our country's freedom…

Related: Some Thoughts on American Patriotism…

True Dat

"Everyone wants to live at the expense of the state. They forget that the state lives at the expense of everyone."

- Frederic Bastiat

Soccer is for Panzies

Why they call it a beautiful sport is beyond me. The javelin is beautiful. Track events are beautiful. “Le foot” is just another team game. I realize that the fact that few Americans enjoy it is used a reason to engage in lecturesome nagging – it also ignores the fact that the same people would feign outrage at displacing the native interests of any other culture on earth except that of the United States.

Should Canadians engage in symbolic displays of shame because the zombie-like interest in Hockey or even Curling? Just to worship at the empty, generic, gel-coated fiberglass alter of “football”? Should Britons have to apologize or enjoying Cricket? No.

So the next time you get the canned tirade about “Americans and their sports”, just tell them to go fuck themselves. The statement is commensurate with the motives of the usual recorded rant.

The Other McCain says it all when it comes to American who fixate on Metric Football:

But affluent elite American soccer fandom of the type celebrated by the Nation/NPR piece has roughly the same relationship to merely liking soccer that knowing show-tune lyrics has to sodomy — which is to say, none at all.

Put in context, it’s for non-fans of any sport who yearn to seem ‘butch’ once every couple of years. Slather on top a big helping of yearning to be liked by people who hate you (and are willing to indulge in irrelevancies over it) and you have the perfect, unsophisticated “cosmopolitan” – who is in fact nothing more than a dim-wit who vacations here and there and can parrot a few phrases about things they idealize.

conservatives don’t hate soccer because we hate brown people. We hate soccer because we hate liberals.

American liberals love soccer not merely because it allows them to engage in displays of their imagined superiority — “Look at me! I’m a sophisticated cosmopolitan!” — but also because it’s usually the only sport they’ve ever actually played.

“Mom Wouldn’t Let Me Play Football” is a convenient shorthand that I’ve used to describe a category of person typified by, inter alia, David Brooks.

Letters and Text Messages to Your Wife Can Theoretically Send You to Jail for Up to Three Years

FRANCE's parliament has approved a groundbreaking law that makes psychological violence an offence as part of a broader range of measures aimed at boosting protection for victims of domestic abuse

writes Emile Picy (merci à Benjamin), showing that Phyllis Schlafly's concerns are not limited to the American continent.

"We have introduced an important measure here, which recognises psychological violence, because it isn't just blows (that hurt) but also words," Nadine Morano, the minister for family affairs, told the lower house of parliament …

Anyone found guilty of breaking the new law faces up to three years in jail and a €75,000 fine.

The bill defines mental violence as "repeated acts which could be constituted by words or other machinations, to degrade one's quality of life and cause a change to one's mental or physical state".

Ms Morano said witnesses could be called on to testify in such cases, and doctors' certificates detailing their patients' descent into nervous depression could also be used as evidence.

"The judge could (also) take into consideration letters, SMSs or repetitive messages, because one knows that psychological violence is made up of insults," she added.

The law can be used to protect both women and men who might suffer from such abuse, however parliamentarians have acknowledged that women are the main victims of domestic violence.

See How Rapidly they React ?

Carrying on about their fantasies of what the UN can do that they won’t, which is defending them from risk and danger, Europeans are trying to employ argument and ‘discussion’ on themselves for the 30th year running.

An editorial in Sweden’s Dagens Nyheter asks What's the point in a European army?

For the first time in 2011, Sweden will assume command of Nordic Battlegroup 2, one of the 18 battlegroups that make up the European Rapid Reaction Force. The battlegroups are supposed to maintain readiness for deployment within ten days and a four month tour of duty in conflict zones.

Sounds good. I’m sure people feel warm and safe knowing that the reaction is nominally called to be rapid, and all that.

I imagine it also depends on your definition of ‘rapid’, though.

Although Europe's battlegroups "are an ideal force for the protection of populations, or the halting of ethnic cleansing," their deployment is often blocked by a lack of political will, and member states' reluctance to provide troops. The daily concludes that the idea of a "rapid" reaction force will remain a misnomer because "the UN is too slow and ponderous, and the United States follows its own agenda."

Actually, they are ideal - to those prone to imagining the world as it’s hoped to be, but not as it really is. Should anything like the ethnic cleansing in the fashion of the former Yugoslavia take place again, don’t think for a moment that the delays, unmet commitments, and bickering seen then will be any different today.

The usual argument European national forces have been under has been that their budgets and numbers are too small to have a complete effective defense and expeditionary structure. THEREfore a combined and coordinated force structure was needed. As we know, argumentation doesn’t lead to any actual accomplishment in meatspace.

The point of the ‘European Army’ was to solve that problem. Of course the moment it becomes possible, the yackity-yak engine fires up again, leaving the rest of humanity to hold the bag when forces are needed anywhere.

The emotionalism is summed up in the first reader comment that appeared in response to the article:

Sweden should not contribute to the EU's Waffen SS, we have barely resources here at home since the defense was destroyed during the past governments. Rather, we should rebuild a credible capacity so we can defend ourselves.

It’s a perfect circle of jabbering, since they will neither rebuild nor will they integrate into anything credible.

And by arguing about it endlessly, I’m sure there are people thinking that something is ‘being done’ to solve that dilemma.

Depriving Men of Constitutional Rights

Family courts routinely deprive divorced fathers not only of their own children, but even many constitutional rights

writes Phyllis Schlafly in The Awesome Power of Family Courts.

Family courts routinely deprive men of their fundamental right to parent their own children, by charging them with a wide variety of trivial offenses. Family courts generally uphold feminists' demands to kick a man out of his own home, and take control of their children and his money, based on a woman's unsubstantiated allegations. The principal tactics in this racket are domestic violence accusations and court-issued restraining orders.

The Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) was passed in 1994 as a payoff to the radical feminists for helping to elect Bill Clinton President in 1992. Personal sponsorship of this law was taken over by then-Senator Joe Biden.

VAWA shows the hypocrisy of noisy feminist demands that we kowtow to their ideology of gender neutrality, to their claim that there is no difference between male and female, and to their opposition to stereotyping and gender profiling. There is nothing sex neutral about VAWA. It is based on the proposition that there are, indeed, innate gender differences: men are naturally batterers and women are naturally victims. VAWA is not designed to eliminate or punish violence, but to punish only alleged violence against women. Most of the shelters financed by VAWA do not accept men as victims.

VAWA has been known from the getgo as "feminist pork" because it puts $1 Billion a year of U.S. taxpayers' money into the hands of the radical feminists. They have set up shop in domestic violence shelters where they promote divorce, marriage breakup, hatred of men, and false accusations, while rejecting marriage counseling, reconciliation, drug-abuse treatment, and evidence of mutual-partner abuse. There is no investigation or accountability for the taxpayers' money spent in these shelters. … VAWA has a built-in incentive for the woman to make false charges of domestic violence because she knows she will never be prosecuted for perjury.

Read the whole report…

Update from Instapundit:

YOUR CHILDREN BELONG TO THE STATE: To Get Children Back, Father Must Get Counseling to “Address His Use of Sexist and Racist Language.”

Looking More like a Third World Pit Every Passing Day

De Standaard has published a pair of articles on the fate of Jews of Antwerp: they are leaving, and it is reported further that there will be no Jews left in Antwerp in 50 years, or as Europe’s political adolescents nearly dare to say, “Judenrein” for the same old straw-man reasoning that dates back to the middle ages.

The growing anti-Semitism is increasingly driving young Jews to study in New York, London or Israel, and they are not returning. "Wearing a kippah to work in London is not a problem as it is here."

With one pack of haters after another trying to sound smart and ‘humane’ by telling Jews to “go back where they came from”, one wonders where exactly that is, and how little European and middle-eastern humanity has matured in the last century, since in large part, those not consumed by the ‘ethnic cleansing’ in Europe, had to evade the same fate in societies dominated by Muslims. It was ‘where they were from’ until they too were told to ‘go back where they came from’.

Since ‘Zionism’ took their imaginary scourge off of their hands, and they also oppose Zionism, it’s logical to assume that they are not ‘merely against what Israelis do’ or ‘against Israel’ or ‘against Israelis’, but rather just want to see the object of their obsessions dead. Will they satisfy their guilt in the same way Germans did in the Nazi area by saying that they were merely ‘resettled to the east’? Probably.

I also wonder when I hear the invective of a Gulf Arab or Iranian insisting that Palestine is ‘theirs’, whether or not they’ve through about what the Palestinians would think about that. Having long acted as though the Palestinians are their property for use as a political pawn, they’ve gone so far as to even skip a step in their contorted ‘humanistic’ argument about the Palestinians as well.

So Long, Exalted Cyclops!

Reason editor Nick Gillespie notes lat Senator Robert Byrd’s real negative legacy: having his snout in the government trough for a nigh 1/4 of the history of the United States.

it's Byrd's status as the Babe Ruth of pork-barrel spending and taxpayer-funded narcissism that is his real legacy and the one we should never forget or forgive. Here lies a man who pushed his home state to build a statue of him in defiance of a rule that such honorees be dead for 50 years.

And the legacy lives on, exemplified by the self-congratulatory nature of an award given to some lucky spendthrift for spending taxpayer’s money with extra special panache and élan, like a attention-seeking transvestite dressed up like the Sun King.

Whom Did You Fight For?

I Fought For You