Sarkozy Attacked for 'Sacrilegious' Plan to Build Over 100 Wind Turbines Off Normandy's D-Day Beaches

Nicolas Sarkozy has come in for heavy criticism after approving plans for a large wind farm complex off the D-Day coast where Allied troops launched their World War Two assault in 1944

reports the Daily Mail (merci à Carine à New York).

The French President was accused of a 'grave attack on the collective memory' of Allied forces after giving the go-ahead for the plans on the Calvados coast near the Normandy landing beaches.

The proposed project will see more than 100 turbines more than 525ft high erected just seven miles from the beaches, synonymous with the D-Day landings.

Mr Sarkozy's decision to open the bidding process on the €20 billion (£17.5 billion) project has been branded 'sacrilegious' by critics, including British veterans' families.

Blight: How the view from the beachhead at Normandy might look if the plan for an offshore wind farm goes ahead

It was claimed the windmills' flashing lights would ruin poignant night remembrances on Juno and Omaha beaches by giving off a 'disco' effect.

Juno was the target of 3rd Canadian Infantry Division supported by British Royal Marine Commandos.

It is less than 20 miles from the coastline codenamed Omaha Beach in 1944, where U.S. forces suffered more than 2,000 casualties during the operation.

1886 Liberal-Type Judgment Moderated by Common Sense

It is a bad thing to judge by appearances

wrote Inspector Thomas F Byrnes in his 1886 book Professional Criminals of America,

but it it not always safe to judge against them.

Plantu's Fetish...

...Appears to be doing fat chicks:



"Carla" figure: ..."Who is this woman?"
Sarko: "I'm doing her for Europe!"

Politeness Compared in Countries Around the World

In one of innumerable summer series, short and long, to keep readers interested in the daily during the July and August months, Le Monde presents a series on politeness around the world, from Thailand, Japan, and South Korea to Israel, Russia, and Italy via Columbia, California, and the East Coast. (The Alain Salles article about Greece is perhaps the most interesting, in view of Athens' recent economic meltdown and the country's debt…)

Syria's European Flunkies

Come from the "humanist, intellectual left" like this flunky, a former East German VoPo "criminal investigator" (and Honecker's answer to The Karate Kid) who was loved by the chillingly misnamed "VoltaireNet." Let's revisit the Baghdad Bob-esque Jürgen Cain Külbel when the Syrian regime he was covering for is making its' perfectly normal behavior known more broadly to the world. Don't mind their hysterical tone. That's normal for them to see the world as one big potential beer hall putsch, that is, when they imagine Voltaire would be shilling for autocrats and advocating mandatory mindfucks for any real free-thinkers who might slip out of their grasp on their way to adulthood.

Got Issues? Need to Induce Vomiting?

Then here are some poorly drafted vaguely homoerotic paintings of Obama Naked with Unicorns, not to mention saving ugly Betty's self-respect from that cruel, vane world out there. Note how he's walking his fantasy steed on the Canadian side of the border.

Hated it!

Asked Whether He Might Think of Himself as American or as Partly American, George Soros Answers Proudly and Defiantly: "I Am European!"

Vous êtes né à Budapest mais vivez aux Etats-Unis. Vous sentez-vous européen ?

Je suis européen !

In an exclusive interview with Cécile de Corbière and Claire Gatinois, George Soros admits — or he doesn't admit, he states proudly, he states defiantly — that although the Budapest-born Hungarian has lived for years, for decades, in the United States — he has been in America for over half a century (!) and is a naturalized citizen — his identity is fully and exclusively European.

Insofar that George Soros has any love for America, therefore, it seems like it is only, like Barack Obama's, to transform it "fundamentally" into a European-style welfare state.

Otherwise, the main focus of the interview is the weak state of the Euro, and the fact that this puts the EU in danger, along with George Soros's dissing of the Germans for their demanding balanced budgets from all member states of the EU and his dissing of the ("simple-solution"-demanding) American people for opposing more state "stimuli" and other types of intervention.

Faut-il autoriser des pays à sortir de la zone euro ?

Oui. L'euro peut survivre à la sortie de pays comme la Grèce ou le Portugal, de taille modeste. Mais l'Union éclaterait si c'était le cas de l'Italie ou de l'Espagne. Il faut donc distinguer les petits pays des grands. Mais même si un petit pays comme la Grèce abandonnait l'euro, cela provoquerait un chaos, l'effondrement de son système bancaire. Autoriser un pays à quitter la zone euro réclame donc une préparation minutieuse. Il faut s'assurer que les prêteurs ne sont pas spoliés, garantir les dépôts des épargnants et faire en sorte que les banques restent debout. Tout cela doit être écrit noir sur blanc.

… Si vous ne pouvez augmenter le déficit, alors vous êtes piégés.

Que faire ?

En Grèce comme en Espagne, il faut mettre en place des réformes structurelles ; rendre plus flexible le marché du travail et gagner en compétitivité. Mais la demande intérieure doit aussi être stimulée. Il faut établir des règles qui autorisent les pays dont le chômage est élevé à rester déficitaire. Le problème est que l'Allemagne a des idées fausses à ce sujet. Elle aimerait que tous les pays aient des budgets à l'équilibre.

Les Etats-Unis aussi ont un problème de dette et de croissance…

Le problème est d'ordre politique. Il faut mettre en place des stimuli pour accroître la productivité et redémarrer la machine. Mais les pressions politiques contre une hausse des dépenses publiques empêchent ce type de mesures. Dès lors la Réserve fédérale américaine (Fed) peut être le recours. La banque centrale peut déployer un nouveau "QE3", pour injecter plus d'argent dans le système. Cela ferait baisser le coût du crédit, encouragerait les investissements et la consommation. Mais c'est moins efficace. L'argent pourrait rester dans les banques ou se nicher hors des Etats-Unis. Finalement, le blocage est politique comme en Europe. C'est plus grave.

Que voulez-vous dire ?

Les problèmes sont complexes mais les gens veulent des réponses simples. Cela conduit certains à être frustrés et à adopter des positions antieuropéennes comme en Finlande ou en Allemagne où certains se disent opposés aux transferts financiers. Nous devons être unis. Nous n'avons pas le choix.

Chronicles of Helplessness

Europe on Iraq, 2003: there are alternatives to war
Europe on Syria, 2011: we have no alternatives at all

Despite Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's increasing violence against his people there is no chance of the West launching a military intervention against his regime, writes the liberal business paper De Tijd: "Unlike Libya Syria is in the middle of the most explosive region in the world. And while Colonel Gaddafi was pretty isolated even within his own region the Assad clan has been very successful in the past decade in playing off powerful neighbours like Israel, Turkey, Iran and Iraq against each other. In the case of Syria underlining the condemnations with military action like in Libya is not an option. Assad's regime can still count on sufficient support from the regional superpower Iran.

And what exactly is Europe's "nuclear option"?

"We are [also] advocating for the UN Security Council to address the Syria issue again this week,"

Good luck with that, great compassionate minds of Mitteleuropa.

The 21st-century plantation where the Democrat Party has forever taken the black vote for granted

Fox News:

Republican Rep. Allen West, describing himself as a "modern-day Harriet Tubman," said Wednesday he wants to lead black voters on an underground railroad away from the Democratic Party.

The Florida congressman … the only Republican member of the [Congressional Black Caucus], told Fox News the Democratic Party as a whole has let black voters down.

"You have this 21st-century plantation that has been out there. Where the Democrat Party has forever taken the black vote for granted and you have established certain black leaders who are nothing more than the overseers of that plantation. And now the people on that plantation are upset because they've been disregarded, disrespected and their concerns are not cared about," West said.

"So I'm here as the modern-day Harriet Tubman to kind of lead people on the underground railroad away from that plantation into a sense of sensibility."

Applying European Sensibilities to Europeans

In an effort to improve interspecies relations, I thought that it would make an interesting experiment to apply the perfectly normal sentiment thrown around by Europeans when it comes to the rest of the world onto Europeans themselves. As such, let’s look at a sign which formerly graced Spiegel Online’s website for nearly three years which depicted a expectation that they had for the stock exchange transported to the ethical Olympus of the Frankfurt Börse on a day where the EURO STOXX 50 lost around 5%, and SocGen and Barkleys Bank are being soundly dumped and taking Opa’s savings with it:

Might as well jump. Go ahead and jump.

Welfare state spending is a major cause of our debt, and it is also morally costly because it chases fathers out of homes

This extraordinary change [the fact that having children has become increasingly detached from marriage] is the primary reason that government budgets, both federal and state, are so bloated

writes Phyllis Schlafly as the author of Feminist Fantasies comments on a report showing how illegitimate births for all Americans have risen from 26 percent in 1990 to 41 percent today "and could be headed higher."

Without fathers to provide for these millions of children, their mothers turn to "big brother government."

The economist Robert J. Samuelson recently concluded that, "the welfare state is winning the budget war." The bipartisan budget deal, which slashed our military budget but kept welfare-state handouts mostly off limits, turned out to be "a triumph of the welfare state over the Pentagon."

…Now, half of Americans depend, in whole or in part, on government handouts for their living expenses, paid by the other half who pay income taxes.

…In Ronald Reagan's famous caveat, when you subsidize something you get more of it. So the subsidies to women who have no husbands in the house, have promoted more and more children growing up without fathers.

…We can now see clearly that giving cash and benefits to single moms, beginning with Lyndon Johnson's War on Poverty, destroyed families by making fathers unnecessary and created a barrier to the women receiving free money.

This common-sense analysis was confirmed by British commentator Melanie Phillips, who described the current London riots as the result of "the promotion of lone parenthood;" "the willed removal" of fathers from the family unit by the welfare state; and the "ultra-feminist wreckers" of the traditional family with a male breadwinner. She calls for removing "the incentives to girls and women to have babies outside marriage" and for dismantling "the concept of entitlement" from the welfare state.

…Welfare state spending is a major cause of our debt, and it is also morally costly because it chases fathers out of homes. The Heritage Foundation's figures don't even count the social and fiscal costs of drugs, sex, suicide, school dropouts, runaways and crime that come mostly from female-headed households.

Also, welfare spending is a failure; it doesn't advance us toward any constructive goal, such as helping recipients get on their feet economically. It merely increases dependence on government handouts and votes for leftwing politicians.

The Obama strategists know their political bread is buttered on the side of creating more and more women dependent on government.

A Nirvana of Pacifism and Cronyism are Just one more Arms Sale Away

Behold, the Axis of Weasels rides again, only the usual European outlook which inflates its' global importance is calling it "a New Power Alliance."

Moscow is flush with cash from energy sales and arms producers in France, Italy and Germany are happy to take large chunks of it. They are busily selling Russia advanced weapons, sensitive dual-use systems and military supplies. All this indicatesunprecedented Russian openness about (and need to) buy advanced weapons systems. Moreover, Moscow-based experts say privately that the Kremlin hopes the arms deals help revive the Russian-French-German axis that began to emerge in 2003 in opposition to the US-Iraq war.

Which was all about high-minded human rights and whirled peas, if you were gullible enough to take them at their word.

Recent military sales include a record-breaking deal signed on June 17 between France and Russia. Moscow bought two French Mistral-class assault ships/helicopter carriers worth more than $1.4 billion, and it has options for purchasing two more. This is the largest deal between a NATO country and Russia since the alliance's inception and the largest defense sale from a Western power to Russia since the World War II-era land lease.

Which, without one shred of conscience, included NATO shared technology. Abiding by the lack of principles that Russia historically exhibits, would have been in Qaddafi's hands if this happened earlier.

You might recall that the French are at war with Qaddafi, and that too is about high-minded human rights and whirled peas too.

On the same day, Germany's leading producer of military technology, Reinmetall, signed a $398 million contract with Russia to develop a "combat training center for Russian ground forces."

Which must giver German militarists, all three of them, a woody knowing that they will sell Russia a combat training center, and probably also run it, while the nation of pacifist fantasies is dismantling a military that's already too understrength and poorly trained to deploy anywhere effectively.

You know the drill. Repeat after me: these are your "allies," America! All of that "smart diplomacy" will do its' magic in no time flat.

The United States has remained remarkably quiet on this issue, but outgoing Defense Secretary Robert Gates and others in the Pentagon have tacitly objected to these and other deals. Nevertheless, the Obama administration decided against going to bat against such arms sales. At this point, Washington and its key NATO allies can ill afford another spat that may compromise its near-term operations, like those in Afghanistan and in Libya. And, of course, should Washington raise vocal opposition, it might jeopardize the "reset," the ultimate objective of Obama's Russia policy.

The Most Socially Progressive Place on Earth

Swedish “youts” are firebombing cops. It also has happened in the ironically named town of Angered.

“To throw incendiary bombs at the police takes this problem to a level where we definitely don’t want to be. I have never in my whole career seen or heard of anything like it,” detective Bertil Claesson, head of the police unit in Angered, told news agency TT.

Why can’t they just smoke dope under a bridge like NORMAL anti-social punks?

The boy was brought in for questioning on Monday after the blast at a pre school in the Stockholm district of Sköndal seriously injured a four-year-old girl.

[ ... ]

The teenager remanded into custody by police on Monday on suspicion of the pre-school explosion, may have had help from accomplices, according to police.

Look on the bright side, if they DO lock them up, they have a lifetime of complaint, dependency, and arrogantly high expectations to look forward to.

According to the inmates it is not uncommon for detention centres across Sweden to offer their detainees 10-19 channels to choose from. But in Kalmar they have to make do with seven.

Of course in the environmentally “Socially Sustainable” society of the future, they would just be sent straight to the Soylent Green plant.

The Watermelon Chronicles

Pursuant to a message recently received, I encountered a phrase which gave me cause for pause: "social sustainability:

Congratulations on earning a LEED Professional Credential! Your My Credentials account has been updated with your new credential status.

(3x Yadda...>

You can now begin earning continuing education (CE) hours and report them in your My Credentials account. For more information on GBCI's Credential Maintenance Program (CMP), visit gbci.org/CMP.
At GBCI we feel a personal and organizational responsibility for creating global change that is economically, environmentally, and socially sustainable and lasting. Thusly, we encourage you to be active as a LEED Professional, including at your local USGBC chapter and volunteering with GBCI.
If you have any questions, feel free to contact GBCI customer service at 1 800 795 1746 (within the US) and +1 202 828 1145 (outside the US).
Congratulations on your achievement!

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Washington, DC 20037
gbci.org/contact

Okay, like, whateva. What exactly does it mean?

I have no idea, but I'm sure it's chillingly like the "socialist new man" who isn't allowed to object to the instructions given by people who have no actual stake in your personal well-being, and thinks that we should "take one for the team" in ways that we are ordered to.

The Wikipedia entry on social sustainability defines it this way:

Social sustainability is one aspect of sustainability or sustainable development. Social sustainability encompasses human rights, labor rights, and corporate governance. In common with environmental sustainability, social sustainability is the idea that future generations should have the same or greater access to social resources as the current generation ("inter-generational equity"), while there should also be equal access to social resources within the current generation ("intra-generational equity"). Social resources include ideas as broad as other cultures and basic human rights. Also we can speak of Sustainable Human Development that can be seen as development that promotes the capabilities of present people without compromising capabilities of future generations. In the human development paradigm, environment and natural resources should constitute a means of achieving better standards of living just as income represents a means of increasing social expenditure and, in the end, well-being.

So it's, like, basically, like, y'know everything except the tangible, or anything associated with free market decision-making, or the choices made in social interest by an individual on their own. It does seem to recognize the concept of wealth and income, but is too vague to directly indicate their motives or hostility to managing your own resources, especially given that it looks like its' trying to form a philosophy that takes the role of faith in society, employing a concept similar to "From each according to his ability, to each according to his need" which is attributed to Karl Marx.
I suspect that the access provided to future generations is not by you to your spawn, but by a larger, more "authoritative" entity, a kind of cozy equivalent of the test tubes the population of Logan's Run was hatched in, or something... who knows.

Like Marxians, I'm sure they believe that people will work hard for "the good of man" when wanting resources for yourself are no longer an issue. However, that doesn't explain the need to pass through a variety of rites (which seem to be used in operant conditioning) associated with those with less. In their brave new world, no-one would be wanting for anything they needed anyway.

While leadership and motivational topics focus on prosperity in wealth and different social status, social sustaining role models take on the role of taking the risk upon changing what is necessary instead of what is wanted. From this point of view, in order to achieve a social sustainable system, there will be a possibility of challenging current infrastructure and common expectations. Some radical examples are: starvation by choice to understand the actual need of a starving individual, or the vow of poverty to understand a certain level of built-in social expectations, in which proved unnecessary when it comes to solving community issues as listed.

[Bold emphasis mine.]

Note the taking over of Lenten fasting and the clerical vow of poverty. Anyone promoting this should deemed to be proslethyzing a philosophy, which means that any donation to them should not only NOT be tax-deductible, but that if the organization conducts itself as a charitable non-profit, that they are in violation of the law. They are no different than a church, and should be subject to the same constraints put on the churches by government.

I think its motives are unclear, and that it's probably concealing some things that would easily be deemed evil (in the original, non-recreational definition of the term) by the faithful, if they presented their views plainly, rather than hide it in an environmental Trojan Horse.

Ah, but it's their way.

DSK Rape Trial Turns Out to Be — Surprise! — All About Racism

• Nafissatou Diallo: I have a dream!
• DSK: I'm having a nightmare?!
In Plantu's take on the Dominique Strauss-Kahn trial, the Martin Luther King-invoking hotel maid is clearly standing nobly up for black pride and for civil rights. As Radegunda points out, the only time that the Stars and Stripes are used as a symbol of justice by a Frenchman like Plantu is when the American flag is allegedly depicting social justice.

Le Monde's Five-Part Series on the Saga of Rupert Murdoch and His Empire

1) La saga Murdoch 1/5 : Au nom du père par Marc Roche

2) La saga Murdoch 2/5 : Le forcing britannique par Marc Roche

3) La saga Murdoch 3/5 : Scènes de chasse en Californie par Marc Roche

4) La saga Murdoch 4/5 : Une aventure chinoise par Marc Roche

5) La saga Murdoch 5/5 : L'empire en sursis par Sylvain Cypel et Marc Roche

Le Monde's negative coverage on the tycoon lording over, among (many) others, the News of the World leads one reader to protest:

La série d'articles du Monde consacrés à Rupert Murdoch (du 3 au 8 août) relate les moments forts d'une saga industrielle éblouissante. La stratégie de l'Australo-Américain, magnat des médias, dévoile un sens de l'anticipation, une réactivité aux marchés et un opportunisme commercial qui le hissent au-dessus des autres " tycoons " de sa génération.

Mais j'ai été surpris que Murdoch soit dépeint comme " le contraire d'un libéral puisque son mode opératoire consiste à détruire la concurrence en créant un monopole défendu ensuite bec et ongles ". Son implantation américaine, d'une audace folle, ne correspond pas du tout à pareille analyse. Murdoch s'invite à la table des ogres — celle des trois réseaux historiques ABC, CBS et NBC — sans qu'aucun de ces grands médias ne l'ait convié. Il endosse un rôle d'outsider au toupet insensé sur un marché publicitaire éminemment concurrentiel. Le network Fox se construit brique à brique, journée après journée, dans un combat frontal avec les leaders emblématiques du prime time américain. Il s'approprie " Les Simpsons ", série politiquement incorrecte, dont aucune télévision ne veut. Il invente la contre-programmation. Non, l'Amérique n'attendait pas Murdoch. Son couvert n'était pas mis à son arrivée. Fox s'est taillé une place à la force du poignet. Jamais de la vie, il ne pouvait revendiquer le monopole de quoi que ce soit.

Christian de Maussion
Paris

A Bit of the Old Ludwig Van...

Peter Hitchens on the UK riots:

Bitter laughter is my main response to the events of the past week. You are surprised by what has happened? Why?

Rus-Think

Cute creature depicted is not to scale

Warped Russian rag blames the death of the polar bear shot in Svalbard on the student. Further:

The British NATO contingent wastes up to 100,000 USD of their taxpayers' money per aircraft per hour, every single day since February 17, bombing kids, strafing water supplies, murdering babies, targeting civilian structures, in Libya. Now in Norway a polar bear has been shot because of a British student.

...bacause, you see, poley was a fully aware social justice activist. The writer continues his high-minded thoughts with high journalistic standards:

As the British press carries this story in its headlines, maybe some of these callous bastards could spare a fleeting thought for Libyan children slaughtered in their homes by NATO cowards. Or, as one suspects, they couldn't care less.

The RAF should have known about the bear weeks ago, dagburnit!

2012 Trial Awaits the Frenchmen Involved in the Oil for Food Corruption Scandal

Ten years of searching for evidence in the oil-for-food corruption scandal involving Iraq's Saddam Hussein should bring Charles Pasqua, Total, and the oil company's CEO (Christophe de Margerie) to trial in Paris in 2012, writes Le Monde in an unsigned article. Believe it or not, of 17 Le Monde readers (many of them skeptical of their country's justice system where the élites are concerned), a couple actually praise George W Bush (or at least credit W) for his actions (without mentioning it was war) in bringing the corruption to an end.

Meanwhile, in an op-ed, Denis MacShane reminds us that the reason the Iraq War was allegedly "illegal" was due to a refusal to adopt a second resolution by… a communist Politburo (in Beijing) and a neo-authoritarian close to the Russian oligarchs (in Moscow) — and that, far earlier than the threat of a French veto.

La guerre en Irak a été illégale parce qu'un Politburo communiste en Chine et un néo-autoritaire proche des oligarques à Moscou ont refusé d'adopter une deuxième résolution de l'ONU et ce, bien avant la menace d'un veto francais.

Overruled: Government Invasion of Your Parental Rights

Today is Phyllis Schlafly's birthday, so it is far from inappropriate to show the trailer for the 30-min ParentalRights.org Docudrama. The full 30-minute docudrama regarding the proposed Parental Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is available on DVD or www.ParentalRights.org.

Related: Birth and Freedom by Terri LaPoint as well as another trailer, the one for Guilty Until Proven Innocent

The Difference Between Britain and Switzerland

Email from Damian:

No spanking in Britain.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/aug/10/uk-riots-liberal-right-parent

No guns in Britain.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/social/WARHUKKER/london-riot-tottenham-arrests_n_920806_101746998.html

Riots galore in Britain.

http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php/site/article/10970/

No riots in Switzerland!

(A little something for my gun-toting pals):

http://thetruthaboutguns.com/2011/08/robert-farago/switzerland-is-crime-free-and-its-all-because-of-guns/

Guns and … chocolate. One doesn't expect a nation occupied with the manufacture of high-grade chocolate to produce union-grade thugs or French "69" style rioters.

Valerie adds:

The Swiss also produce some nice high grade rifles and handguns.

Speaking of encouraging a life with no consequences…

http://www.mrctv.org/videos/london-riot-reactions-and-debate-clapham

Valerie has more:

And then there is this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=MXwCOcBjpbg#at=611

Courtesy of the blog Wake Up Black America.

“Spend the next month reading’, try that for a change.”

May this common sense spread.

[Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter] is a progressive and a friend of the Obamas.

“Don’t touch what doesn’t belong to you or what you haven’t earned.”

He’s a friend to Obama. Maybe he should go give this talk to the White House.

Euro-Think: a Sampler

In response to the mere mention of moral failure in the discussion of a failed civil institution, this is the kind of Pavlovian reaction you get.

Get the satanic freemasons out of law-enforcement and from out behind Church pulpits

Once, just ONCE, I'd like to pull the cord on one of these clowns' back and here something different. It's been decades of listening to the same trope, the same vocabulary, the same impotent rage. Can we have some diversity, please!?!

I presume all those paedo priests do believe in an all powerful skyfairy, yet they continue their damnable activities in secret with no shame.

And this doozy, advocating crushing free speech by calling (the mere existence of) a conservative media outlet to be like statist oppression:

In the 1930s, when the Nazis ruled Germany, Reinhard Heydrich was at the head of the Gestapo (the Third Reich's Secret State Police) - an organisation whose major aim was to spy on the German people.

In the 1980s, when the Communists still ruled East Germany, Erich Mielke was at the head of the Stasi (East Germany's Secret State Police) - an organisation whose major aim was to spy on the East German people.

In 2011 Rupert Murdoch is at the head of News Corp. - an organisation whose aims I don't know.

However, having watched FOX NEWS, I am absolutely sure that balanced reporting of political issues to a broad audience is certainly NOT among the aims of News Corp.

And the source? A conservative British newspaper.

So what are the aims of News Corp.?
And how dangerous is News Corp. for all freedom-loving citizens?

If the sick determinism wasn't so typical, it would be shocking.

Immigration Pushes the EU's Population Above 500,000,000

A Le Monde article by Grégoire Allix comments on a Eurostat graph showing how the EU's population has reached (and risen above, by half a million people) 502,000,000, thanks mainly to immigration. But while many countries have seen increases — even when the natural natality rate was negative — eight countries, including Germany, have seen negative rates of population growth.

…plus que l'accroissement naturel, qui se solde par une hausse de 514 000 habitants (+ 1 ‰), c'est l'immigration qui a contribué à grossir les rangs des Européens : le solde migratoire affiche 854 000 personnes (+ 1,7 ‰). Les dix-sept pays de la zone euro, avec 332 millions d'habitants, accueillent à eux seuls 1 million d'habitants en plus et, signe de leur attrait, bénéficient de l'essentiel du solde migratoire (700 000 personnes).

…L'Allemagne a … perdu 50 000 habitants en 2010 mais elle demeure le pays le plus peuplé de l'UE avec 81,7 millions d'habitants devant la France (65 millions) et le Royaume-Uni (62,4 millions).

The Elephant and the Donkey Give Birth to a Mouse

In Plantu's take on America's debt, "the Democrat donkey and the Republican elephant give birth to… a mouse" (a French expression meaning that, in the face of expectations, the results are extremely disappointing)

The French Attack on the Political Egotist Rick Perry Kicks Off

Needless to say, the (David J Phillip) photo of Rick Perry chosen by Le Monde's print edition to illustrate Sylvain Cypel's article on the Texas governor's joining the Republican race has Perry and his image on the screen behind him looking like a maniac.

The opening sentence of Sylvain Cypel's article suggests that Rick Perry is an egotist, politically speaking at least, who is delighted with the degradation of America's debt, since that will (quelle horreur) hurt Barack Obama and since that in turn will benefit Perry's election prospects.

D'un point de vue égoïstement politique, Rick Perry, gouverneur du Texas, a pu suivre les suites de la dégradation de la note de la dette américaine avec délectation : les candidats à l'investiture républicaine pour l'élection présidentielle de 2012 se poussaient tous du col pour dénoncer un Barack Obama " entraînant l'Amérique à sa perte ".

What with Sylvain Cypel's description of Rick Perry as close to Christian fundamentalists, Le Monde readers are fretting about someone who believes he has a direct line to God (shades of another former Texas governor, George W Bush), about Rick Perry's election leading to a world war, and about a description of the USA as "humanity's civilizational mistake".

Is it Time to Start a Death Watch?

When Jon Bon Jovi's hair becomes the subject of conversation, even among unmedicated adults, methinks so.

Memories of the Fall of the Berlin Wall

In one of innumerable summer series published in Le Monde, short and long, to keep French(wo)men interested in the daily during the July and August months, the newspapers presents a series on stories from the time of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the barrier which was erected by the Warsaw Pact on August 13, 50 years ago.

Bloggers From Around the World

In another summer series, Le Monde presents a dozen portraits of bloggers around the world, a few of them interesting, but apart from a couple (The Arabist, Generación Y…), none of them as exciting as InstaPundit or as… No Pasarán:

1) Claire Ané sur le blog de Elsa Fayner, créatrice de Et voilà le travail

2) Florence Beaugé sur Issandr El Amrani, créateur de The Arabist

3) Pascal Galinier sur Ophélie Neiman, créatrice de Miss Glou Glou

4) Audrey Fournier sur Ian Ference, créateur de The Kingston Lounge

5) Philippe Jacqué sur Pierre Dubois, créateur de Histoires d'universités

6) Pascale Santi sur Christian Portal, créateur de Pour une médecine écologique

7) Adrien Le Ga sur William Réjault, créateur de Ron l'Infirmier

8) Véronique Lorelle sur Tavi Gevinson, créatrice de the Style Rookie

9) Pascale Robert-Diard sur Jean-Yves Moyart, créateur de Maître Mô

10) Paulo A. Paranagua sur Yoani Sanchez, créatrice (cubaine) de Generación Y

11) Nathalie Brafman sur Manuel Dorne, créateur de Korben

12) Xavier Ternisien sur Anne Lataillade, créatrice de Papilles et pupilles

13) Brice Pedroletti sur Li Chengpeng, créateur du blog du même nom

The Same to You, Spanky

Behold the image that graced the website of the permanently dyspeptic besserwisser German magazine Spiegel since 2009:

Nearly. Three. Years. Now that the concept of individual savings lost to dramatic drops in the market are closer to home, and people they are capable of imagining are human are involved, the picture has been taken down. NOW, you see, it's in poor taste.

But Apart From Those (Insignificant) Details, the Cartoon Hit the Mark!

It isn't Obama's money and it isn't — far from it — lunch money…

It is a bit tiring seeing the number of political cartoons that still don't get it, such as John Darkow's GOP Bullies drawing in the Columbus Daily Tribune.

Reminder to leftists, to statists, and to other Obama supporters:
It is not your lunch money, Barack Obama;
it is not the government's lunch money, leftists and Obama supporters…
It is our lunch money!

Is that idea starting to seep into your New York Times propaganda-addled brains?!

In fact, it is more than just lunch money; it is a good deal of our (responsbily-earned) savings and we do not want Obama — or anyone else — to throw it, or any part of it, out the window…

Before you know it, They'll Have us Wear Uniforms and Carry a Little Red Book

Which is no surprise given the chillingly broad range of life features that watermelons meddling in building design and construction are willing to indulge. This, from an email I just got:

As the LEED Pilot Credit library is now open, this webinar is a timely event to learn about Pilot Credits such as the LEED Pilot Credit for Physical Activity.

This webinar will address the following topics:
- tying improvements in health to improvements in the built environment
- increasing the physical activity of building users
- synergies between Active Design, sustainability, and LEED
- Intent & Requirements of the LEED Pilot Credit for Physical Activity and how it benefits building users
- What are LEED Pilot Credits and how can you participate in them
- Case studies of projects using the LEED Pilot Credit for Physical Activity
- Free technical assistance to help LEED projects implement the LEED Pilot Credit for Physical Activity

No preshha!

Felonious Munk: Stop Bein' a D*ckhead an' Balance the F*ckin' Budget, B!

(Thanks to Hervé in New York)

Line up Children, and Repeat After the Activist!

When foundations and other flunkies are engaging in post-modern behavior modification campaigns, sometimes they lose sight of what they're going. I'm being charitable. I don't think they are even remotely aware of where the missing word belongs here:

So it seems that you're expected to pledge that any loud mook
double-parking in Teheran is also your fellow American.

I was alerted to this by way of an email I received requesting that we post a link to this campaign on this site. It was addressed politely, but so badly thought out, that I simple have to decline. It was sent by someone, it turns out, who comes to this as an academic feminist: a real student of not just sculpting images, but from a school of thought convinced that it isn't founded on the principle of class warfare. I suppose she told herself that she had to be especially nice to the ones who aren't on the usual mailing list of foundation types whose "work" is inherently unproductive in any real social or economic terms: raising "awareness" among those whose awareness and personae is a caricature to begin with.

Besides: I KNOW that American Muslims are my fellow Americans. My sense is that everyone else I know knows that as well. SO WHO exactly is this ritual crapola for? Judging by the youth and geographic ambiguity of the people who have linked to it, my guess is that it's supposed to fit the feel-okay-this-is-nice-nothingness crowd that is largely made up of college students from the US and abroad. My sense is also that the audience for the display it a foreign one in a bid to "better like us", despite the fact that they know where they need to immigrate to, to experience genuine freedom of though and conscience.

It also seems to be structured around outlook modification based on a false premise that Americans, in a conflict with near-east terrorism are at war with a religion, in preparation of some supposed "orgy of internecine violence" that will overcome whitey on the 10th anniversary of 9/11.

Sorry, but that mental bugaboo is THEIR problem, not ours. We are no more at war with Islam, as we were at war with the Orthodox Church when we were shutting down Solbodan Milosevic. We are neither that stupid, or that inhumane to fit the profile that activism imagines the public to be, or perhaps needs us to be to justify their existence.

Like all of these campaigns, they are tacitly insulting and patronizing. Muslim Americans are my fellow Americans - that's a fact that doesn't need some sort of "pledge".

Obviously, They're Oppressed

Feds? Look, whatever. The BBC is calling them "protesters", and the petri-dish trot are calling it "social justice". Hopefully, their ability to embrace reality is just an arm's reach away.

His Own Private Idaho Isn't Private Enough

Idaho police tell man to stop wearing bunny suit

"He's got the bunny outfit, a cowboy suit and a ballerina dress but you don't see him except where he's tripping through his backyard," she said.

So I suppose the local constabulary would prefer a Annie Oakley number, or something. Who can tell, when weirdness comes right up against the bleeding edge of the 2nd Amendment

Police warned Idaho Falls resident William Falkingham after a woman said she saw him dressed in the costume, peeking at her young son from behind a tree and pointing his finger like a gun, according to a police report.

An investigation of the sighting led officers to question other neighbors, "who expressed that they were greatly disturbed by Falkingham and his bunny suit," the report said.

It's all starting to look like DSK's retirement hobby once he's off of the little blue pills, if you ask me.

Young Man Killed by Polar Bear

And I'll bet you believed that they were made extinct every year for the past decade by people not thinking the correct thoughts.

A polar bear has mauled a 17-year-old British boy to death in the Arctic and injured four other UK tourists.

Horatio Chapple, from Wiltshire, was with 12 others on a British Schools Exploring Society trip near a glacier on the Norwegian island of Svalbard.

The fact is that it's a very sad thing to happen to a 17 year old with his entire life ahead of him. That doesn't stop the BBC from having a fit of Daddy drinks because you cry,. After all, nothing signals a Pavlovian response among the rugged, toothless outdoors-people of the BBC's ilk like the word "polar bear":

As climate change reduces ice cover, there are concerns that more polar bears will become displaced and will move further inland to seek food, bringing them into contact with more people.

The fact is that an excess of sea ice, that stuff that's supposed to have been a distant memory at this point, was the cause of the young Eatonian, part of a party of 80 having been in proximity to polar bears.

A blog on the group's website dated 27 July described polar bear sightings from their camp where they had been marooned due to "an unprecedented amount of ice in the fjord".

The Telegraph notes:

It added that students on the £2,900 expedition were told they would "venture into the untouched beauty and wilderness of Svalbard".

The repetitious environmental propaganda of modern education being the unbalanced thing that it is fetishizes it's chosen victims and special examples. Those that planned this trip undoubtably drew their interest on it.

Another local person, Liv Rose Flygel, 55, said: "It's not been the first time. Last summer a man was attacked by a polar bear and there have also been attacks on a man from Austria and a girl. Only the man in the attack last summer survived. He was taken in the mouth of the bear and his friend ran after it and shot it.
"The problem is, when the ice goes, the bears lose their way and cannot catch food. People don't really know how dangerous they are. One came down to the sea recently and people were running down to take pictures."

You can firmly blame it on grown-ups with such a zeal to program the young to act out the adults' desired will, that they'll neglect their obligation to transmit common sense or perspective to the young. Effectively, it's operant conditioning.

One out of three children aged 6 to 11 fears that Ma Earth won't exist when they grow up, while more than half-56 percent-worry that the planet will be a blasted heath (or at least a very unpleasant place to live), according to a new survey.

But that didn't stop an adult adherent of the cult of stupidity from prefacing it this way:

There's a new bogeyman lurking in the closet, and this one isn't imaginary.

With a sick air of things past, the anxiety is clearly more frequently being transferred to them by parents who have drunk the kool aid.:i>

Interestingly enough, kids vex over the state of the planet, especially when it came to safe and clean air and water, regardless of any pro-environmental measures on the part of their parents. A staggering 95 percent of the children surveyed said their parents pitched in by recycling, using rechargeable batteries, and conserving water and electricity.

Enough is enough.

Of the World's Mature Economies, The US is Still the Leper with the Most Fingers

José Manuel Barroso, the head of the European Commission, underlined the anxiety gripping the continent when he acknowleged: "The tensions in bond markets reflect a growing concern among investors about the systemic capacity of the euro area to respond to the evolving crisis."

Europe's economic minor league, the marginal fringe economies, having spent the past two years threatening civilization with cascading defaults, are exhibiting more weakness than ever. The press tries to cast this gross failure in terms of a "strain on leadership".

I suppose that's true, but it isn't the cause. It's just a sign that everything they do is seen solely through the prism of the political power of its' leaders. Frankly, they look like a bunch of bulldogs fighting in a gunny sack. Typical of that tone:

In a parliamentary speech delayed until after the market close, Silvio Berlusconi, Italy's prime minister, blamed the recent spike in its borrowing costs on factors beyond Rome's control.

Want to see how bubbles are made? When the financial world flocks to shelter in forex and singles out the Swiss Franc, one wonders how there could ever be enough volume there to support it. The notion of trading their goods and currency with other people's monopoly money has even lead those Knights Templar of finance to join everyone else in debasing their currency.

Switzerland's central bank made a surprise attempt to halt the rise in value of the franc on Wednesday, arguing the popular haven asset was "massively overvalued", but the initial impact of the move faded as the day wore on.
The Swiss National Bank cut target interest rates to "as close to zero as possible" and said it would inject SFr50bn in liquidity in coming days as it tried to halt the franc's relentless appreciation against both the dollar and euro.

Even the Swiss, the most notorious opportunists in the world of glow-ball finance are QEing, if you can believe it.

The Family Tree looks Like Kudzu, if you Ask me

But it's probably more like a wreath. From the WSJ:

There's no way to be certain, of course, but the speculation is the second woman from left in the group photo above, taken earlier this month at Pyongyang Department Store No. 1, is Mr. Kim's daughter Kim Sol Song. She is the third-eldest of Mr. Kim's seven children and the second-eldest daughter.

Like many a primitive tribal chief or ghetto thug:

(Mr. Kim had children with four different women.)

None of which seem terribly proud of the fact, so far as we can tell based on how they seem to dress the little guy.

The Ugly Slobs Couldn't Fight the War Against Tooth Decay

John Rosenthal, who is one seriously astute SOB, ask rather plainly why it is the Europeans wanted to depose Muammar Qadaffi if they wern't willing to try and win it?

Gates indicated that the US has no vital interest there, and HR Clinton indicated that it was a vital interest based on "our NATO allies saying it was int THEIR vital interest". Since then, it seemed to have stopped being in their vital interest.

The Italians, it seems took a healthier approach: to just no take sides. It looks like UK and French communication fo "vital interest" rolled down-hill to hit the US and then Italy.

Secretary Clinton's inclusion of Italy in the list was dubious to begin with. In fact, from the start of the unrest in Libya, the Italian government warned about taking sides in the conflict and supporting the rebellion. For example, in an interview published on February 23 in the Italian daily Il Corriere della Sera, Foreign Minister Franco Frattini alluded to the creation of an "Islamic Emirate" in the eastern-Libyan heartland of the rebellion. "We do not know more [about it]," Frattini told Il Corriere. "But we know that they are dangerous. There are elements of al-Qaeda there."
The Italian government's caution was hardly surprising, given that the February 17 protests that sparked the rebellion were called to commemorate protests five years earlier that had culminated in the storming of the Italian consulate in Benghazi by an angry mob. Several local residents were killed when Libyan security forces attempting to protect the consulate opened fire on the mob. The outrage of the protesters was tied to the publication of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad by the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten and other European newspapers. (On the 2006 protests, see my article "Our Principles? The Libyan Insurrection and the Mohammed Cartoons.")

The Italian reluctance to support a military intervention also had to do with fears of seeing such an intervention provoke an exodus of tens of thousands of refugees from Libya, many of whom would inevitably end up in Italy. These fears have proven well founded.

But now, according to a report in the Saturday edition of Il Corriere della Sera, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has confided to colleagues not only that he was opposed to the NATO intervention in Libya, but that he was pressured into making available Italian military capabilities by precisely the United States. According to the report, Berlusconi recalled that "at the time I had warned our international partners, and also at home I had explained that the operation would not be easy . . ." "But," Berlusconi is reported to have continued, "in the face of the pressures exerted by the United States, the position of [Italian president Giorgio] Napolitano, and the vote [in favor of the intervention] by our parliament, what could I do?"

Thanks for throwing us another Curveball, spankers.

If this Doesn't Work, They'll ask you to Start Hoarding Canned Food

ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet said the central bank's controversial program of buying government paper in an effort to stabilize markets, inactive since March, was ongoing. "You will see what we do,'' he told a news conference.

Be afraid.

The EU is setting up the ultimate moral hazard: buying up member government bonds to backstop them. They will then have to find buyers for the stuff.

It also raised questions about whether the ECB was waiting for Rome and Madrid to take extra fiscal adjustment measures before it will buy their bonds, or whether the central bank was unable to agree on widening the scope of bond-buying to them.

The ECB were certainly waited out by the "provincials" who only need to stay mum to out-maneuver Trichet.

This is the equivalent of a couple of California-sized states issuing bonds left and right knowing that the more bogus the prospect, the more likely that the Federal government will "save" them by buying those obligations up. Not only is there no-one else out there that can be bullied or to pawn this crap off on, it could cause an outflow and inflation at the same time.

Next step, of course is to see internecine cat fights. But first you'll hear some actual, real-life economics being theorized:

"I note that the Bank of Japan today launched quantitative easing and the Swiss central bank cut rates to zero. We are waiting for (ECB) decisions if possible, but desirable,'' he said. Tremonti said when he talked to Asian investors, they said: "If your central bank doesn't buy your bonds, why should we buy them?''

Bring popcorn.

Sometimes a Smurf is Just a Good Smoke

Reviving a truly sad academic theory from the 1980's, normally kicked around by undergrads desperate for a subject to write about, it has returned. Strangely enough, having mocked it a few times here is usually sufficient to eliminate it from the zeitgeist:

"The workers own all the capital equally, and there is no upper class of owners/capitalists to oppress them," wrote Mr. Schmidt, author of the book "Secrets of Pop Culture," in an email. "Unlike real-life Marxist countries, the Smurfs managed this feat without resorting to totalitarianism or repressing personal freedom, so it is a utopia."

In other words: Smurfs = the happy proletariat, Gargamel = USA

Yep. You read that right. It does betray some of the modern delusion people have about real, living socialism, which assumes that it's a caring, therapeutic sort of society. It wasn't and it isn't.

It held and holds rather bluntly that if you don't work, you don't eat. The ankle-biting modern promoters of "that other way" seem in large part to be allergic to the first half of that dictum.

The pedantic lifelessness of the argument wasn't enough to stop a Parisian academic, seemingly as desperate for a subject to write about as those undergrads of old.

All of the above was more than enough fodder for Parisian academic Antoine Bueno, who in June published a treatise on the topic, the aptly named "Little Blue Book." In its 250 pages, the 33-year-old university lecturer argued that Smurf society represents a "totalitarian utopia drenched in Stalinism"; in subsequent interviews, he claimed the Smurfs also were racist, and that Gargamel was an anti-Semitic caricature.

Not to mention the reaction of the "therapeutic culture":

The same Smurf fans who approved of a 2005 UNICEF television ad that depicted the Smurf village being bombed by fighter jets - the better to raise money for ex-child soldiers in Africa - called Mr. Bueno's book a disgrace. Thierry Culliford, son of the deceased Smurfs creator, called the author's take "grotesque."

Are we getting carried away here? No, the line of thought that believes that an animated feature about an anatomically incorrect panda says something about geopolitical theory has:

In his YouTube video, Mr. Topham does Mr. Bueno one better, noting widespread Internet belief that "Smurf" is an acronym for "Socialist Men Under Red Father."

And yet it the majority of humans who are told that they suffer from "false consciousness" by neo-coms and "scholars" looking anywhere and everywhere for affirmation of their ideas.

Two years ago, a Canadian professor was ridiculed for writing that Thomas the Tank Engine propagated a sexist, ultraconservative ideology. As opposed to being, well, a smiling choo-choo train.

For heaven's sake, how much more proof do you need? Isn't it obvious that Thomas the Tank Engine is an unwitting shill of the conspiratorial patriarchy rubbing their handlebar moustaches as they gurgle in glee?

Defend Socialist Land of Peace !

Hanguk Story has got the plot.

In his dream, an American fleet invades North Korea. The protagonist and his friends try to defend by firing artillery shells made of pencils, but the protagonist doesn't know how to use protractor to aim. Overwhelmed by the evil American fleet, he wakes up from the dream. He says something along the line of "I must study hard and pay attention in class so I can be a great soldier to fight against the Americans". The rest is math lessons.

Work hard, kid. Lil' Kim needs his hookers and smack.

He Was Listening to The Bruce Dickinson

Dutch Tourist Caught Stealing A Cowbell In Bavaria

Police say the tourist, whose name was not released, says he was just looking for a souvenir.

German Woman Leaving Paris Muses About What She Will Miss and What She Won't

Could there be any worse time to leave Paris?

asks Katrin Bennhold, a German working for the New York Times' International Herald Tribune offspring who indeed is leaving France (in spite of being six months pregnant) for a post in London.

On the long list of things to miss about France, the climate, public transport and generous amounts of vacation do of course feature prominently.

But, for this woman at least, none of that can beat a combination of free preschools, family allowances, tax deductions for each child, a paid, four-month maternity leave and to top it all off, an extended course of gymnastics, complete with personal trainer and electric stimulation devices, to get you and your birth canal muscles back into shape, courtesy of the taxpayer.

…I have another list, a much shorter one, of all the things I won’t miss about France: the overrated coffee, the smell of andouillettes, the “do not walk on the grass” signs in public parks and all the unnecessary traffic congestion due to cars piling into the intersection just as the light turns yellow. There are also the early-morning ticket controls in the Métro that in my experience seem to focus mostly on black and Arab-looking commuters.

But the No. 1 spot on this list is also occupied by something related to being a woman: A deep-seated machismo in everyday interaction that grated with me long before the Dominique Strauss-Kahn case made headlines.

Many French women appear to worry more about being feminine than feminist, and French men often display a form of gallantry predating the 1789 revolution. “Charming,” I thought, when I first arrived 10 years ago and an official in the Foreign Ministry scrambled to open every one of four doors in a very long, narrow corridor. But I soon tired of the unsolicited attention that young men sometimes heap upon women who are walking down the Champs-Élysées in a skirt.

France ranks 46th in the World Economic Forum’s 2010 gender equality report, lagging behind the United States, most of Europe, but also Kazakhstan and Jamaica. Women in France earn on average 26 percent less than men but do two-thirds of the housework.

As the historian Michelle Perrot put it to me a few months ago, “France may be Scandinavian in its employment statistics, but it remains profoundly Latin in attitude.”

And still, this is the only European country where I’ve routinely met successful businesswomen with three children and an enviable figure.

Surprise Election Results!

And the returns only took two days !

"99.97 percent of all the voters registered in the lists took part in the election and voted for the candidates for deputies registered in the relevant constituencies."

The epitome of leftist socio-political thought is clearly a bastion of free spirited debate and prosperity, I tell ya!

The remaining 0.3% who did not vote being the cosmopolitan evangelists of this international superpower who are out spreading the good news to the world of the fabulousness of being them.