Obama Lionized by the NYT for "Cutting Generals Entirely Out" of Afghanistan Strategy-Making

The aide told [President Obama] that he believed military leaders had agreed to the tight [Afghanistan] schedule to begin withdrawing those troops just 18 months later only because they thought they could persuade an inexperienced president to grant more time if they demanded it.

“Well,” Mr. Obama responded that day, “I’m not going to give them more time.”

A year later, when the president and a half-dozen White House aides began to plan for the withdrawal, the generals were cut out entirely. There was no debate, and there were no leaks.

Of course, when George W Bush was — or when any Republican is — president, there would not have been, there would not be, any praise from the New York Times (and from David Sanger) for not listening to the military — indeed, there would have been head-shaking, tut-tutting, and hand-wringing (as in fact happened on at least one occasion when a handful of retired generals protested about Bush's decisions). No awe for the commander-in-chief’s “light footprint” strategy (as David Sanger has for Obama) in cases involving Republicans, no respect for the president's "placing an enormous bet", and, in the case of Bush, certainly not even a mention of the president's "thinking". And no matter-of-fact description of the president's mental "conclusions" (as in the coming quote).

Needless to say, this was before the advent of the One come to save us, the father of peoples, our collective big brother, who is indubitably the most brilliant, the most compassionate, the most humble mind in the room, in the capital, in the nation, on the planet. So no wonder this great brain is praised for doing whatever any Republican would be castigated for, such as not listening to the (military) experts and simply for learning what he knows in the Oval Office.

Mr. Obama concluded in his first year that the Bush-era dream of remaking Afghanistan was a fantasy, and that the far greater threat to the United States was an unstable, nuclear-armed Pakistan. So he narrowed the goals in Afghanistan, and narrowed them again, until he could make the case that America had achieved limited objectives in a war that was, in any traditional sense, unwinnable.

But it gets better. No debates with generals, and none either with the members of the cabinet (at least not until the last moment).

By early 2011, Mr. Obama had seen enough. He told his staff to arrange a speedy, orderly exit from Afghanistan. This time there would be no announced national security meetings, no debates with the generals. Even Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton were left out until the final six weeks.

• Also concerning the New York Times: Paul Ryan Dissed for Lack of Foreign Policy Know-How; Obama Praised for "Learning what he knows in the Oval Office".

Scientists with political agendas use apocalyptic predictions to justify increased government regulation, higher taxes, and redistribution of wealth

In response to James Hansen's New York Times op-ed, Game Over for the Climate, Erik Axelson writes that

James Hansen is at it again, flogging the dead horse of man-made climate change as a reason to keep Canada’s tar sands petroleum locked up forever. For the past 30 years, Dr. Hansen has issued ever more dire predictions of catastrophic climate change, while actual conditions have not borne out his doomsday forecasts. If anything, as the climate stubbornly fails to conform to Dr. Hansen’s predictions, he becomes even more extreme in his outlook.

Dr. Hansen made a name for himself in the 1980s by warning that computer models predicted that increasing carbon dioxide levels would result in major global warming. In fact, since 1998, after a decade of temperature rise, average global temperatures have been stable or actually declined, according to several analyses. This unpredicted trend underscores the shortcomings of computer models.

Scientists with political agendas like Dr. Hansen use apocalyptic predictions to justify increased government regulation, higher taxes and redistribution of wealth. His latest polemic is no different and would result in major economic impacts on Canadian and American citizens, more government bureaucrats to restrict and regulate fossil fuel production, and reduced living standards.

One Way for Barack Obama to Replace Joe Biden as VP with Hillary Clinton

Instapundit says that since "Sarah Palin has told Obama he should dump Biden, that path [the one to replace Biden with Hillary Clinton] has pretty much been closed off"…

But, if Obama — or if his campaign — feels desperate enough, there is still a way to do so. Even though it won't fool many people, expect the MSM to run along with the narrative (although perhaps no longer with all that Jay Carney tries to pass along)…

The idea is not to dump Biden but to have him making, to all appearances, the decision to resign a few weeks down the road.

Here is how that scenario might work out:

• Joe Biden has been making gaffe after gaffe after gaffe.

• Needing to look strong and loyal, Barack Obama praises his vice-president and vows to keep him on the ticket.

• A few days, or a few weeks from now, Biden decides that he has to resign, probably due to health reasons. (Of course, were he to have a heart attack, real or feigned, it would be even better.) Alternatively, the decision could be made not by the White House, but by delegates at the Democratic National Convention in Virginia in North Carolina. In any case, officially, Obama's honor has been saved.

• Obama now needs another vice-presidential candidate, so he looks for someone to replace Joe, quickly. Et voilà, Hillary Rodham Clinton joins the ticket.

It ain't easy to see it happening, of course, but it's hardly beyond the possible… And, with this White House…

In any case, credit Sarah Palin (remember the clueless, unintelligent broad of 2008?) for foresight and for a preemptive strike… (Well, count the post you are currently reading as another preemptive strike…)

• Update: Come to think of it, perhaps the very reason that Biden made the North Carolina gaffe in Virginia is that he had the Democratic National Convention in mind…

Tanking Humanity Every other Generation

It’s just what they do.

European banks had bad loans on their books worth the hardly imaginable sum of €1,050 billion by the end of 2011, Pricewaterhouse Coopers (PwC) calculations presented in Frankfurt on Wednesday showed. Liabilities not repaid on time was almost nine percent larger than in 2010, PwC said.

But of course: For the Left, Leftists Are in Fact "Centrists"

Rendue à une majorité de cinq contre quatre — sur neuf membres —, sa décision [celle de la Cour suprême] de jeudi [28 juin] va peser lourd sur l'élection du mardi 6 novembre. Elle renforce les chances de réélection de Barack Obama face à son adversaire républicain, Mitt Romney. Le vote décisif a été celui du président de la Cour, le juge John Roberts, un ultraconservateur qui a, cette fois, joint sa voix aux quatre centristes de l'institution.

Where else but in a Le Monde editorial (from June) would the U.S. Supreme Court's four far-left judges ("Steve Breyer, Ruth Ginsburg et les deux plus récentes arrivées, nommées par Obama, Elena Kagan et Sonia Sotomayor") be described — be praised — as "centrists"? While any rightist judge would — but of course — become an "ultra" conservative… And meanwhile, we learn that "the former centrist Mitt Romney has reneged on all of his convictions" in what Le Monde calls "an abyss of cynicism."

Cause and Effect Take a Holiday

Sufferning from Radio-philia as I do, I rather enjoy indulging in sources from around the world. One such among the many I listen to is Harvey Stockwin’s commentary on RTHK (Hong Kong).

Among his bravery in the modern age is being open about the things that the Beijing government should be less than proud of, and of this: a critique of the cult of victimhood in Japan over the dropping of the A-Bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Quite simply, woiuld a land invasion or a blockade that would make the Japanese population submit under the force of starvation and disease? It doesn’t matter to the peace-clique, very few of who were actual victims, and virtually none of them willing to discuss the cruelty the Japanese practiced on civilians, war prisoners, and Japan’s wartime population themselves.

Morality is absent among virtually anyone who makes some abstract sketch of “peace” their life’s work, and morality’s long shadow is little more than a useful tool.

There Is "An Impression of Generalized Disorganization" in the French Army, Says Paris Report on Savings in the Armed Forces

There is "an impression of generalized disorganization" in the French Army, writes Le Monde on its front page, quoting a Senate report for the reform of the armed services.

The problem is not the quality of the fighting soldier, but the politicians who have tried to make saving by instituting reforms throughout the service, with Nathalie Guibert giving a handful of examples of ludicrous changes.

For the Army, it [the reform] was a cultural shock, because it marked the end of the age-old rule, "one commander, one mission, and lots of means."

Plantu weighs in with the French army forced to jettison 7200 jobs


• You'd think we were at the Peugeot automaker!

Today is the Feast Day of St. Maximilian Kolbe

Spare a moment’s thought to the life and trials of St. Maximilian Kolbe who died at Auschwitz. Ten men were to be put to death as a result of a prisoner’s escape. He spared another man’s life by taking the place of another in that reprisal.

"Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends."

- John, 15:13

Lack of Decisive Action from Washington: The Real Reason Why the Europeans Love Barack Obama

[During] the last four years of trans-Atlantic relations, [the] American president laid off making any big demands on the Europeans. The Europeans, in turn, continued hoping to see the multilateral fountain of reason they like to think inhabits Obama.

All in all, that’s a largely passive relationship.

Thus writes John Vinocur, the most conservative commentator working for the New York Times.

A dissonant theme from the American presidential campaign takes over at this point. It has come in the form of remarks from Obama about “headwinds” from Europe’s financial crisis endangering America’s recovery.

By way of emphasis, he sent the U.S. Treasury secretary, Tim Geithner, to a North Sea island to tell the German finance minister, Wolfgang Schäuble — and then the European Central Bank’s president, Mario Draghi — that Europe has “to do some more things” to push growth “in the near term.” The president’s catchphrase for that is “decisive action.”

Boom, pfft, cymbal clash: …

The reaction from major voices in Germany, overseer of Europe’s austerity regimen, to the Obama administration’s perceived hectoring was harsh and bitter in a way that made criticism of Mitt Romney’s remarks in London about the “disconcerting” level of preparations for the Olympics seem frivolous.

Yet a massive irony intrudes here. On different scales, both Obama and Romney are clearly right.

… With a very good argument in the president’s hand — move decisively now, or watch the markets tear the European Union apart (with America’s unemployment rate and Obama’s re-election in the balance) — he chose to avoid singling Germany out, and instead put the problem on the back of the “Europeans.”

Obama and Geithner not naming names in any of their statements looked pretty much like leading from behind.

… The United States ought to have fit in here — even with its decreased leverage and insufficiently explicit discussion of Germany’s role — at a moment when American trans-Atlantic concerns and recommendations, like Europe lowering its interest rates, are justified and reasonable.

In fact, considerable disregard has developed in relation to the Obama administration’s capacity to persuade, dissuade, or create either serious confidence or discomfort in Europe.

In respect to Germany, there’s not much reason for it to react otherwise.

Berlin knows after four years of experience that it won’t confront anything like “decisive action” from Washington that might make it less comfortable doing what it pleases. Example: The German decision, alongside Russia and China, to abstain from approving U.N. intervention in Libya was followed four months later by Obama’s presentation to Merkel of the Medal of Freedom.

A Status Report from Socially Managed Paradise

Waifish, helpless “Youts” who just can’t help themselves are rioting in Amiens over a traffic stop. Apparently this justifies
trashing public goods such a kindergarten “for the people”.

A leisure centre, school and cars were burned overnight on Monday amid the unrest in the rundown district of Amiens, reports said.

The clashes are believed to have started at about 21:00 (19:00 GMT), ending at about 04:00 once police reinforcements arrived. Up to 150 police are said to have used tear gas and rubber bullets to quell the violence.

Authorities have brought in 550 riot cops. 16 police officers have also been injured in this outburst of youthful enthusiasm.

It’s also been reported that police have been fired upon.

The Real Rebels

¡No Pasarán!

Paul Ryan Dissed for Lack of Foreign Policy Know-How; Obama Praised for "Learning what he knows in the Oval Office"

So Emily Bazelon dismisses Paul Ryan with the fact (among others) that the Wisconsin Republican "has no foreign policy experience" (thanks to Instapundit).

Of course, this is the kind of thing that Barack Obama routinely receives praise for. In fact, just a couple of weeks ago, the New York Times was waxing lyrical about the Apologizer-in-Chief for this very feature (or lack of one).

Writes Leslie Gelb in his NYT book review of the James Mann book, The Obamians:

The creator and commander of this diverse team is, of course, Obama himself. And I would go further than Mann and argue that he oversees one of the most centralized foreign policy operations in history — based principally on his brain power and intellectual self-confidence, not on knowledge or experience. Indeed, Obama was much more of a foreign policy tabula rasa than any of his subordinates. Sure, he briefly sat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. But essentially he has learned what he knows in the Oval Office.

Barack Obama "has learned what he knows in the Oval Office" lionizes Leslie Gelb with obvious awe for the One's (unquestioned) "brain power and intellectual self-confidence" forming the basis of a foreign policy second to none.

But of course, Paul Ryan (thanks to Duncan for the House Budget Committee Chair's Chicago Club speech) has little to no brain power — as we learn from leftists' (incredibly well-thought-out) tweets — if indeed his skull contains a brain at all.

So, just in case the rule isn't clear yet, here it is:
• when a Democrat has no foreign policy experience,
it is an undisputed asset;
• when a Republican has no foreign policy experience,
it is an unqualified liability.

More generally, the more basic rule is that:
• whatever a Democrat has or does not have (foreign policy experience, his or her length of service in the political world, practical knowledge of the business world, an account of his or her youth and background, etc etc etc) is an asset;
• whatever a Republican has or does not have (idem) is a liability…

Update: See a 2008 campaign example comparing
Barack Obama with Sarah Palin:

Whatever the alleged lack of experience that the Republicans' choice for vice-president may have, it can hardly be greater than that of the Democrats' choice for chief executive — a man with only two years in the national legislature.

Update 2 — More from the New York Times: Obama Lionized by the NYT for "Cutting Generals Entirely Out" of Afghanistan Strategy-Making

When Cultures Aggress

Femmes de la Rue is the title of film student Sophie Peeters documentary about the men who hassle women on the streets of Brussels. These are mainly men of North African origin who do much more than booty-pinching Italian men of old (which is more of a myth at this point) ever did. The question really is: does European feminism have the stomach to deal with a real issue facing women?

Long List of Disillusionment: Europe’s Olympian vision of its future has dimmed to a flicker

Europe’s Olympian vision of its future — great power plus universal indispensability as a beacon of reason — has dimmed to a flicker

writes John Vinocur in his International Herald Tribune column.

Without willingness to accept a dare or two, the situation is unlikely to brighten soon.

The European Union’s debt and deficit grief, compounded by a crisis of political will, is much more than a bad moment that puts progress temporarily on hold.

The community’s faster-higher- stronger thread of grand ambitions has frayed. And the vision meant to give it direction, an independent political role — and to project Europe to the world as something wiser and more responsible than other great powers — has faded.

There are no doubts tingeing the European Union’s exceptional practical achievements, like a single regulatory system or open internal borders. And no one could disparage smaller successes — on the order of reduced mobile phone roaming charges, which save the average E.U. business traveler €1,000 annually. The problem involves once-great-notions associated with Europe that now seem empty and overreaching, shaking confidence in its claim to unlimited promise.

Beyond concern for the euro’s permanence, the list of disillusionment is long.

[And since the year 2000], Europe’s notions of becoming a geopolitical co-equal of the United States and China have shriveled.

With France doing most of the imagining — and successfully attaching a European nameplate to its own strategic goals — the Continent was cast as a pole of power in a notional construct called a multipolar world that was aimed at counterbalancing the weight of the United States. This still sounds very visionary, but has become unrealistic — as did a French-inspired plan, supported by the Russians, to rival the dollar as the world’s single reserve currency through a basket of other currencies featuring the euro.

Neither concept has weathered the reality of Europe’s incapacity to bring a convincing close to its debt and deficit misery. The G-20 summit meetings, a French idea and a pop-up showroom for multipolarity since 2008, have markedly declined in significance. In parallel, the French-German blueprint to build a European defense force, a symbol-to-be of its independence from an American-led NATO, is no longer a priority.

Germany, in turn, has focused almost all its visionary energy on Germany. Since reunification, and with the founding of the euro, it has regarded itself as “normalized,” or no longer required to play the role of its partners’ constant benefactor.

… all the same, an important initiative could take shape with enough credibility and ambition to make Europe look alive, bolder and in refocus mode: a trans-Atlantic free trade zone.

Advocacy of such a goal by E.U. leaders is a political dare because it exposes the time-wasting hollowness of Europe’s desires concerning multipolarity and reserve currencies.

… Could [Angela] Merkel, François Hollande, and David Cameron — all of whom would have a hard time turning their backs on a shot at some real economic renewal and job growth — jointly put this year’s American presidential candidates on the spot and propose a trans-Atlantic free trade pact?

A Return to their Natural State

French State Run Broadcaster Delights that they Can Once Again be Irrationally Abusive to an American Political Figure

The francophone branch of France 24 has taken to some rather 2002-esque looking criticism of America, now that Mitt Romney is in French journalism’s myopic view. Below is a translation of a “débat” (as they refer to them in the original Klingon) that Erik reported on this past Friday. It involve the usual amplification of whatever leftist vulgarity the newsroom chortles about. It is essencially a masturbatory rant:

The World According to Mitt Romney
By Anne-Diandra Louarn on 31/07/2012 - 16:48


On the occasion of a six day European tour, Mitt Romney hoped to prove his international stature. On balance, the Republican candidate's gaffes seem to have made a lasting impression.

In London, "Mitt, the idiot"

On the eve of his arrival in Britain, the first leg of his European tour, Mitt Romney was critical of the organization and security of the London Games. "Disconcerting" and "bleak" are the adjectives that the Republican candidate for president of the United States used, referring to the failures of the security company G4S and the threat of strike by British customs. Romney, who was the organizer of the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City in 2002, was seen immediately lambasted by the English press. "Mitt the twit", headlined "The Sun", July 27. Stung by the Republican, the reaction of Prime Minister David Cameron has also not made to wait: "We hold the Olympics in one of the most popular, active and lively in the world. Of course it is easier if you organize them in the middle of nowhere."

Make a note, people, because this is the first and only time a French scribbler has citied in a positive light anything from any part of the British press outside of The Guardian. You are unlikely to ever see it again.

Other gaffes are highly esteemed as well. The former Massachusetts governor announced he would meet the head of British intelligence, an interview that should not have been revealed. He also clumsily called the Labor leader Ed Miliband "Mr. Leader," [ED.: as if he would be expected to address them with any of this trash] he had obviously forgotten his name.

Controversial remarks in Jerusalem

.Continuing his tour of Israel, Romney has raised more than a million dollars from American Jewish donors. His speech, welcomed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, however, caused outrage on the Palestinian side.

Commending Israel for its booming economy, Romney explained that the difference between the Israeli GDP and that displayed by the Palestinian Authority was "cultural". Deemed "racist", these statements were immediately criticized by Saeb Erekat, a close associate of President of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas.
Referring to earlier in his speech, "Jerusalem, the capital of Israel," Romney had already angered Palestinians.

In Gdansk, Romney saves face

The third and final stop, Poland, seems to have gone better for Mitt Romney. The Republican candidate has received the indirect support of Lech Walesa, former Polish President and 1983 Nobel Peace prize winner. If he felt it would be "moved" to display an official position, however, he confessed he was "very excited" after his interview with Romney. The Republican candidate has not made any statement to the press but took time to pose alongside Walesa, icon of the anti-communists.

Although no misstep has been noted during this last stop, across the Atlantic, the Romney’s six days trip is far from convincing. The American business press points out that the Republican candidate has carefully avoided European countries at the heart of the debt crisis, while the U.S. are also feeling the impact. "This trip is more like a vacation!" crowed the FT. The decision to oust the euro area from his journey echoed fairly strict bound by Romney last June during a broadcast on CBS: "We will not send checks to Europe. We “will not bail out European banks. We will stay here to support our economy, " he said.

The point of this paragraph being WHAT exactly? That the world’s business is European interests, and nothing else? That Israel is now part of Europe?

Is there no awareness of cause and effect when in the face of their eternal, never-ending, spitefulness and hopelessly inept management of the financial crisis, that they expect America to bail them out at the expense of Americans?

We then move on to the soothing. The notion that they will get what they wish from the rest of the world, and that Obama will win re-election, and will do an about-face and lend them money to dispense as welfare or some other childish fantasy.

The fact is that Romney’s outreach to Poland undoes some of Obama’s disastrous management of relations with Poland, who is arguably our closest ally in the EU.

Obama, imbattable sur la scène internationaleObama, unbeatable on the international scene

Accused of being Manichean and considered too superficial in its vision of international relations is definitely not unique to the Republicans. And the many gaffes committed in recent days in Europe confirm the weakness of the former governor of Massachusetts. "Mitt Romney has offered Barack Obama a gift that is priceless for the presidency," according to "The Guardian". It must be said that the current U.S. President, a 2009 Nobel Peace winner, is particularly popular on the old continent. Warmly received during his European tour, candidate Obama's speech in Berlin landmark and had raised hopes.

Increased popularity, once elected, over his Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, the world record holder of diplomatic travels, it was said "If Obama was competing for the presidency of Europe, he would receive 90% of the vote! His foreign policy is prudent, realistic and very popular outside of our borders," said EJ Dionne of the "Washington Post" in a radio interview on American radio network NPR.

Yet the American president had, too, made some diplomatic missteps in his campaign. One of the most publicized had just taken place in Poland where he had referred to a "Polish death camps" instead of Nazi extermination camps during an official ceremony in honor of a resistant Polish.

Finally, many political commentators relativize the impact of the provision of European Romney. "The U.S. presidential election is about the economy, not on gaffes or big speeches abroad", concludes the German conservative daily "Die Welt".

In a recent survey for the New York Times and CBS released July 19, Romney was - for the first time since the beginning of the campaign - expected to win the presidential election with 47% of likely voters supporting him, and 46% for Obama. The weakening of the president’s electability is due to a decline in Americans' confidence in its management of the economy, a subject traditionally reputed to be a Republican strength.

That reputation being demonstrated as we speak.

And sorry, EJ, Americans care about THEIR vote, not some servile state of channeling the wishes of those you and an eleite believe to be our moral superiors abroad on the basis of nothing.

The Comparisons are Not Lost on the Reader

In memory of his endless supply of grievances and forgetfulness, The gem by Plantu about Hiroshima was published by Le Monde on 6-AUG-2005, 60 years to the day that the bomb than ended Japan’s war was dropped.

Another Steaming Pile of Plantu:

Uncle Sam:
As the beards from al Queda like to remind us: from time to time, you need to be aware of the massacring of civilians!

If you Yankees were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help; There was a great King somewhere in your life

Althouse has a similar post (with the help of Meade), in text form (cheers to Instapundit):

Lord North: Look, if you colonists have been successful, you didn't get there on your own. You didn't get there on your own. I'm always struck by colonists and yeomen who think, well, it must be because I was just so smart.

… There are a lot of smart people out there in the New World. It must be because I worked harder than everybody else. Let me tell you something -- there are a whole bunch of hardworking British subjects of the Crown out there.

… If you yankees were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great King somewhere in your life. Some members of Parliament helped to create this unbelievable Royal Navy system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in French and Indian Wars and the East India Company.

Utopianism and its’ Limits

With a history of extremist utopianism, European elites once again might be dreaming their populations into social failure again. Take for example the fetish for redrawing maps, exemplified by the bleatings of one who assumed that not just people, but whole nations can be bullied into conforming to some new model way of being:

Alfred Heineken did more than just brew beer. He also thought about things, like the future of Europe and how best to proceed.

"I propose a United Europe of 75 states," he wrote in a pamphlet published in the summer of 1992, "each with a population of five to 10 million inhabitants."

Heineken, a creative old man with a lot of time and money on his hands, was famous for having wacky ideas. And the one about Europe was quickly forgotten.

Alas. Because 20 years later, it is more relevant than ever.

Why all this you ask? It seems to be solely driven by a desire to rule the world, despite a distinct lack of interest in actually policing any dysfunctional part of it on an as-needed basis. Otherwise, it somehow goes all the way back to the 19th century need to buy off ugly mobs with bread and circuses instead of offering them the right to create their own opportunity and healthy civil society:

Everything which has a function, one could argue, has an optimal size. A pen can be bigger or smaller, you still need to be able to use it.

The European welfare state has multiple functions. It needs to protect its territory from outside, uphold the rule of law, provide healthcare, education, take care of the roads and the forests and - to a more or lesser degree - distribute wealth.

After all, an elite governing a bankrupted mass, emasculated by taxation and grand projets can still be loved for giving away whatever is left that they can find, can they not?

In an age where technology can either make people as independent as ever before, or as servile as ever before, they choose the class warfare racket to be their oriflamme, and the vessel of their hopes.

Goodbye, Friend

Robert Studley Forrest Hughes, 1938-2012

Tennessee Tree House: Living, and Preaching, in an Appalachian Tree Cathedral

David Walter Banks has some remarkable pictures from Tennessee, where Horace Burgess has spent twenty years of his life building an enormous tree house that doubles as a… cathedral. In fact,

The tree house includes seven trees, including one of the massive oaks that are common in this region of Tennessee. Crossville is in the foothills of the Appalachians. The forest has been beautifully preserved.

Horace recovers all kinds of boards on construction sites. Rather than see them destined for destruction, he retrieves the pieces of wood and adds them to the building.

Sunday, Horace preaches before visitors. … Horace Burgess had lived a life of wandering after his return from Vietnam. One day he "met" God. A "born again" Christian, he has devoted his tree house to Jesus.

Visitors can leave the tree house and truthfully
say that while at the top, "they saw Jesus"

Non Sequitur Cartoon: The Department of Economic Management

Learn the Word, Bro

The Atlanticist reminds your correspondent that CFO jobs don’t grow on trees. So morally repugnant Chic-Fil-A motorist and bullier of the 99% Adam Smith should probably learn the following phrase, now that he’s been fired from medical supplies manufacturer Vante:

“Do you want fries with that?”

The Leftist Way: Making the Useful Unwashed Believe Non-Existent Economics Facts

My clients are diminished by me having a gov contract?! Now you’re making shit up @nopasa @richlowrie @LilMissRightie #p2 #tcot #left #right

I received a curious tweet out of the blue, from someone looking very much like a funded political operator very-much mis-stating his identity. It begins with a name which is supposed to look banal and “non-partisan” in nature, and links a blog that looks too well produced not to have been put together by a paid political operation, obfuscating for a phony argument that President Obama has been good for the economy at large.

But a close look at the web page is a encylopedia example of passive-aggressive politicval demagoguery masking itself as a “mild” news-opinion site, promoted by someone who purports to be involved in business. There is nothing other than a bizzare defense of the Kony donation exploitation sham, Sandra Fluke’s stunt, and an attempt to compare Mitt Romney (who is not the President) to Vadimir Putin.

The type of business this light and authority on the workings of business and the economy is not stated.

When I tried to engage him in a conversation about productive businesses and the effect of aggressive regulation, he then went on to tell be something about having a US government contract in an attempt to silence the question. It assumes that business is business in any regulatory environment, and that all should be well is we all had tons of government contracts. As if.

If anything about his stated identity is true, the Solicitation number and possibly even his SF 330 should be a matter of public record. So far, he’s reinforced the fact that the “outreach” is Democrat political sham by not saying anything that makes any sense.

“Left Slash Right” is a propaganda operation run by a liar.

Le Débat sur France 24: Mitt Romney a-t'il commis des gaffes ou non ?

While a heated debate on Mitt Romney's alleged gaffes was taking place on the English-language set of the France 24 news channel, a similar one was taking place on the French set of Le Débat (partie 1 et partie 2 / partie 1 sur YouTube et partie 2 sur YouTube):

Tournée diplomatique de Mitt Romney : à la recherche d'une stature internationale

Débat consacré à la tournée internationale de Mitt Romney : Royaume-Uni, Israël, Pologne.... Le candidat républicain à la Maison Blanche veut montrer qu'il a l'étoffe d'un homme d'État. A-t-il remporté son pari ou a-t-il perdu des points dans la course à la présidentielle ? Quelle vision du monde pour le républicain ? Quel impact sur l'élection présidentielle de novembre ?

Émission préparée par Pauline Heilmann, Camille Febvrier et Anthony Saint-Léger.

Nos invités :

• Ellen WASYLINA, Membre de "Republicans Abroad"
• Martin MICHELOT, Chercheur au German Marshall Fund Paris, Spécialiste de la politique domestique et étrangère américaine
  
• François DURPAIRE, Historien, spécialiste des États-Unis
• Paul VALLET, Professeur de Relations Internationales, spécialiste de la politique américaine

Regardez la deuxième partie.

See also France24's mocking visual of Mitt Romney:

Update: Joe reacts:

[The] rather 2002-esque looking criticism of [Mitt Romney's] America … involve[s] the usual amplification of whatever leftist vulgarity the newsroom chortles about. It is essencially a masturbatory rant

Good-Bye, Friend: RIP John Keegan; Keegan's Perspective on the Iraq War

John Keegan has died (cheers to Instapundit), the military historian who is best known for The Face of Battle (I still treasure my college course book copy), although my own favorite is Warpaths: Travels of a Military Historian in North America:

Military history and geography explain each other in North America as nowhere else in the world. Award-winning historian John Keegan explores their relationship and examines the battles fought over three centuries between Frenchman and Indian, Royalist and colonist, Union and Confederacy.

Highly recommended. Keegan has been mentioned half a dozen times on No Pasarán. Back in June 2004, we quoted from his Daily Telegraph column:

What monopolises the headlines and prime time television at the moment is news from Iraq on the activity of small, localised minorities struggling to entrench themselves before full peace is imposed and an effective state structure is restored. The news is, in fact, very repetitive: disorder in Najaf and Fallujah, misbehaviour by a tiny handful of US Army reservists — not properly trained regular soldiers — in one prison. There is nothing from Iraq's other 8,000 towns and villages, nothing from Kurdistan, where complete peace prevails, very little from Basra, where British forces are on good terms with the residents.

A day earlier, I wrote a post mentioning his book, The Iraq War, and linking that year's D-Day commemorations to another anniversary from 2004:

… it turns out that there is another 60th birthday this year. That of the Ba'ath party. Yes. It was founded by a Syrian (a Christian, incidentally) in 1944.

I am currently reading a book by an author variously described as "our greatest modern military historian" and "the most readable and most original of living military historians". In The Iraq War, John Keegan does not only describe the military operations from March to April 2003, but gives the context and background of the Iraq conflict, from the history of Mesopotamia to the historic break between Sunnis and Shi'ites, from the fall of the Ottoman empire to the contemporary rivalries. What caught my attention (and what, if truth be told, got a flame of anger burning inside me) was the information on the last page of chapter 3 relating to the origin of the Ba'ath party.

Speaking of Saddam Hussein : "The nature of his régime owed more to twentieth-century ideologies of intolerance and systems of repression than to anything derived from the more distant past."

Speaking of Saddam's Ba'ath party: "Michel Aflaq, the founder of Ba'athism, had modelled the organization of his party on Hitler's Nazi movement, of which he was an admirer."

Let us remember the Iraqi citizens quoted in Steven Vincent's Reason article: "European and Arab journalists talk to us, but they don’t care about our happiness in being liberated. They only want us to make anti-American comments."

Our Sophisticated European Betters

They have such a healthy and open attitude toward life, especially where sex with sheep is involved.

A farm hand is reported to have received a shock when he wandered past the field shortly after 3pm on Monday afternoon and witness the elderly man in the act.

"The employee saw that the whole episode was, how shall I put it, close to completion,"

Maybe He Knows Something We Don't: Kofi Annan to Step Down as Syria Mediator

Unexpectedly, announces Le Monde, Kofi Annan will not renew his mandate as Syria mediator for the United Nations and the Arab League, and will accordingly step down on August 31. The UN is looking for someone to replace the former secretary general, says his successor to that post, U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon (see Reuters news item in English, merci au Drudge report)…

In an interview with Le Monde's Natalie Nougayrède three weeks ago, Kofi Annan said that "on the Syrian case, obviously, we were unsuccesful."

Erik Svane Discusses Romney's Alleged Gaffes During Heated Debate on France 24's English-Language TV Channel

During a heated 40-minute debate with Newsweek's Paris Bureau Chief and others on France 24's English-language channel (part 1 and part 2) (part 1 on Youtube and part 2 on Youtube), Erik Svane discusses Mitt Romney's alleged gaffes during his trip to Europe and Israel.

Romney stirs controversy on bumpy foreign trip
Gaffe-prone, wannabe or savvy statesman, Western media has slammed Mitt Romney's tour of American allies, but US opinion polls tell a different story. Laura Baines and her panel discuss the Republican candidate's choice of destinations and what they mean.

• Christopher DICKEY, Newsweek Paris Bureau Chief / Mideast Editor;
• Erik SVANE, Member Republicans Abroad France, Author of "La Bannière étalée";
• Aaron David MILLER, Distinguished Scholar at The Wilson Centre and advisor to Republican & Democratic Secretaries of State for over 20 years;
• Mordechai KEDAR, Researcher at the Begin-Sadat Centre for Strategic Studies Bar Ilan University; Watch the second part
  Programme prepared and produced by Wassim Nasr, Sara Bertilsson and Mary Colombel

Stranger Than Paradise

How weird, you ask?

They invite you to customize your pan-galactic omnivorous transnational super-dooper–state (the EU). As if it actually makes sense to make an online survey substitute for the use of a democratic process as a way of presenting your gripes to the state, or presenting your vision of an entity with half a billion belching welfare moochers in it.

Maybe they’re doing this to look engaged with the public, or trrying to grow more relevant. I suppose that’s possible, but it’s unlikely to be as successful as, say, the fact that it’s National Cheesecake day – and what National Cheesecake day can be truly complete without bakeries giving out samples.

So, let me also wish you a happy post May 9th belated Europe Day as Neelie is warmly extending to you in the video re-published today, if “happy” is indeed the right term. Maybe it’s “anxious,” or “merry,” or “bereft of cogent meaning.” I don’t know what Emily Post would say on such an august occasion.

So Long, and Thanks for all the Kleingebäck

In the town of Breisbach on the Rhein river near the gateway to the Black Forest - in the most prosperous and Cutsie-poo part of Germany, we discover the success of European social solidarity and integration of outsiders, their tolerance for others, and their whimsical and rich incorporation of the host society’s values.

Two ethnic Turkish men walking in on the Christian funeral service of a dead baby violently pulled the deceased from the coffin to ritually wash it.

The two men who caused the disturbance, 62 years and 28-years-old men will appear on the 1st of August before the District Court of Breisach (Breisgau in the Black Forest).

Throughout the ritual, the two accused had forcefully pushed all the guests who wanted to intervene, a court spokesman said on Wednesday. The baby died of sudden infant death syndrome.

The 28-year-old was the biological father of the child - but never acknowledged paternity. The 62 year old father took the corpse from the coffin, stripped it, and washed it in a tub that he brought. According to court spokesman, all the mourners could see the scars from the child's autopsy. After washing the remains, they wrapped it in cloth, placed it in the coffin, and buried quite crudely by the two men.

“Trying to Make the World Safe for their Volvos”

That just about sums ‘em up.

Venezuela Cartoonist Compelled to Hire Bodyguards, Risks 30 Months Behind Bars

While the presidency of Hugo Chavez is denounced in a report by Human Rights Watch (HRW) — "The accumulation of power in the executive, the removal of institutional safeguards, and the erosion of human rights guarantees have given the Chávez government free rein to intimidate, censor, and punish Venezuelans who 'offend' the president or obstruct his political aims" — Paulo A. Paranagua reports on the ordeals of a political cartoonist :

For the past 20 years, Rayma Suprani has been publishing her cartoons on a daily basis in the Venezuelan newspaper El Universal. Her drawings denounce poverty, the lack of social justice and of free speech in a country where caricaturing the president can land you in prison for 30 months. Rayma Suprani is the object of harassment from the authorities which compels her to move about under the protection of bodyguards.

• See a portfolio of Rayma's cartoons

• Check out Rayma's website

Au Venezuela, les médias ne doivent pas "susciter l'angoisse dans la population". Pour avoir enfreint cette règle, la chaîne de télévision Globovision vient de payer une amende de 1,7 million d'euros. Parmi les sujets "anxiogènes" qui ont provoqué les foudres du pouvoir figurent les émeutes dans les prisons surpeuplées, la lenteur des secours après un séisme, des affaires de pollution et, bien entendu, l'explosion de la criminalité. Ainsi, il ne faut pas raconter à quel point la morgue de Caracas est débordée les weekends. Ni la douleur des familles obligées de soudoyer des employés pour récupérer le corps de leurs proches dans des délais raisonnables.

Cette dérive autoritaire du régime Chavez est décrite minutieusement dans un rapport de 133 pages de Human Rights Watch publié mardi 17 juillet, en espagnol en anglais.

Si le registre de la gravité est encadré et surveillé, la volonté de détendre le public grâce à la satire et à l'humour peut aussi s'avérer dangereuse. Des textes manifestement comiques et des caricatures ont été sanctionnés durement par le régime du lieutenant colonel Hugo Chavez. De mémoire caribéenne, on ne se souvient pas d'un président aussi susceptible. A croire que l'usage abusif de l'uniforme, alors qu'il est passé depuis longtemps au cadre de réserve, raidit le comportement et la parole. Prenant des allures de prédicateur télé, Hugo Chavez prétend bannir l'irrévérence traditionnelle des Vénézuéliens, leur méfiance à l'égard de tous ceux qui se prennent trop au sérieux, leur refus de l'intolérance.

… Ce contexte permet de mieux apprécier le courage des dessinateurs de presse comme Rayma Suprani, collaboratrice du quotidien El Universal. Une caricature du président est passible de trente mois de prison. A Caracas, le harcèlement du pouvoir l'oblige à se déplacer protégée par des gardes du corps. L'association Cartooning for peace, créée par Plantu, a adopté Rayma Suprani.

Voir le portfolio "Les caricatures de Rayma, une lutte pour la liberté d'expression"

(Gracias para Fausta)

What’s Yours is Theirs’

L’Express’ personal fiance section runs down a list of things that will come under taxation assault in France. Painful and economically stupefying as they are, they don’t appear to produce much in the way of receipts.

Unearned income of all types, we are promised, will eventually be aligned with income tax rates, which is to say a nominal 34,5%. Oh joy, oh rapture.

- Social security sur-tax will be raised to 15,5% from 12,3%
- Tax on income from property will go up to 34,5%, as will capital gains from property sale which were at 32,5%
- Interest of life insurance returns will go up the “sociaux” rate of 15,5%
- Estate taxes will range from 30.5 to 50.5%, with some allowance for subtractions at the low end

This comes before the anticipated 75% income take rate on insufferably high income earners (<€1 Million/per annum) has yet to be announced. This is likely because they’re trying to sort out some sort of “exit tax” for people who take their wealth abroad where someone other than the government can use it. In case you think that all of this is some sort of realignment to “produce a sustainable society” that encourages personal responsibility and savings, employee savings will ONLY be taxed at a rate of 20%. On planet earth, employee retirement savings not only normally goes untaxed, but is incented by exempting it from taxable income. But since you will have less income and fewer earning prospects anyway due to the rise in income taxes generally, you won’t have a chance to save anything anyway. Whatever you have left, should you happen to actually want to shod your children’s feet or buy goods of virtually any durable sort, is subject to a VAT of 19,6%. The truly sick thing about it all is that when VAT was introduced, it was made of the argument that making goods more costly for everyone would create an incentive to save. The most common form of saves, however is subject to a 20% rate. Whatever, taxes were already punitively high, and they don’t think you made that cabbage on your own to begin with. So in conclusion, I hope your move goes smoothly, and that your new neighbors in Australia, the US, Canada, New Zealand, and the UK prove to be friendly, welcoming, and helpful.

“Reagan should have a monument in every city” says Walesa as another Gipper statue unveiled in Eastern Europe

The Gdansk statue of Ronald Reagan is the second major statue to be unveiled in Poland — this one in the company of fellow Cold Warrior John Paul II — after that in Warsaw, and at least the fourth such commemoration of the Gipper in Eastern Europe, after Warsaw, Prague, and Budapest (the Hungarian capital has two statues of Reagan, as it also sports a bust of the former actor), not to mention the Reagan statue in London.

The Associated Press reports that

Polish officials unveiled a statue of former President Ronald Reagan and Pope John Paul II on Saturday, honoring two men widely credited in this Eastern European country with helping to topple communism 23 years ago.

The statue was unveiled in Gdansk, the birthplace of Lech Walesa’s Solidarity movement, in the presence of about 120 former Solidarity activists, many of whom were imprisoned in the 1980s for their roles in organizing or taking part in strikes against the communist regime.

Reagan and John Paul shared a conviction that communism was a moral evil, not just a bad economic system. And Lech Walesa, founder of the Solidarity movement that led the anti-communist struggle in Poland, has often paid homage to both men and told the AP in a recent interview that he deeply respected Reagan.

“Reagan should have a monument in every city,” Walesa said.

Rome’s Pantheon Symbolizes a Remarkable Leap in Human Knowledge

An article about the Pantheon in the Weekend WSJ provoked me to think about the example it represents to us in the broader context of human development.

Not only was it as good a solution to the idea of “just a dome over a drum” as can possibly be created Architecturally, it was also the first true concrete structure.

Aestheically, its’ précis is even more poetic in the economical use of ideas:

Seen from its north-facing front, the concrete-and-brick Pantheon consists of a pedimented entrance porch, a domed rotunda and a boxlike intermediate structure joining them. Their forms—triangle, hemisphere and rectangle—announce the underlying theme of pure geometry.

This is no small feat. While the Romans built arches and domes, there is no evidence that they actually understood the principals behind it. They understood their proportional thickness to span and limits of scale only by the skillful and advanced use of a much simpler principal that they used in the absence of other scientific knowledge: trial and error. This might seem like an insult to their intelligence, but it isn’t. Using a proxy for an engineering concept that you don’t have control of in order to use it is a risky strategy requiring their best engineering skills to manage.

Moreover the risk of using and evidence-based/ trial-and-error based engineering concept was high for other reasons: embarrassment in the face of failure of whomever tries it, and the ire of the powerful patron who put their resources and trust in whomever did it. Slavery or even beheading would not have been becoming when you’re a well-respected Architect in the Roman Empire or Republic, I’m sure.

We see that they cast coffers into the dome to lighten it, but we don’t know if they put two-and-two together, and understood that the space in between them turned into ribs made stronger by tie-ing them together with the concentric rings formed by the horizontal elements between the coffers. It took several centuries before we saw any rib-vaults that represent historical evidence that building technology knew and understood the concept.

The trial-and-error issue extend to the material too: they “discovered” concrete in that they thought it could do something based on making mortar. Using volcanic ash, they produced a hydrating-lime concrete without really knowing that it was the hydration that was producing something like modern concrete. The invention of modern concrete is attributed to French gardener in the 2nd half the 19th century noodling around with a better way to make flower pots, and an Englishman who observed some of the hydrating and heat generating reaction of slack lime.

So the take-away from this is that skillful use of what you know in order to do more than you know isn’t just possible, but it creates the examples that other can “reverse engineer” to determine the unknown engineering principals themselves.

So there you have it – someone had to take a leap of faith – but the results for civilization was the ability to build more and better shelter using fewer resources, and this incrementally improved the lives of more people. This whole concept is lost on modern environmentalists whose luddite outlook is based on a are nostalgia of something that never existed, and is detrimental to the largest number of people. After all, if you tried to engage in such an experiment today, they would do whatever they could to stop it because of the risk and use of resources, and immediately vilify the chemistry involved in making it as a “poison” that will only serve to pollute streams and “make the rich richer.”

The Only Good Woman Is a Leftist Woman

Ellen Barkin tells Jon Lovitz to "shut the fuck up", reports Twitchy (thanks to Instapundit).

In order to get to the bottom of the barrel and explain the basics of leftist logic to you once and for all, I am bringing the following announcement to you in the public interest:

Indeed, it is time for you to understand your lesson and to understand it once and for all:

• The only good woman is a leftist woman

• The only good black is a leftist black

• The only good Latino is a leftist Latino

• The only good queer is a leftist queer

• The only good comedian is a leftist comedian

• The only good member of the Hollywood community is a leftist member of the Hollywood community

• And, of course, the only good white male is a leftist white male — one who supports the above-mentioned minority members.

All other members of a minority, of any minority, and all other white males — aka "2 dumb and dangerous" "right wing fuckin morons" — should hereby be advised that they have the following right: to "shut the fuck up". (Otherwise, the famed narrative might not sound as attractive…)

And if they do not — as, say, Sarah Palin, Herman Cain, and Jon Lovitz have learned (or are learning) — they will be duly ostracized (see Jonah Goldberg's take on this).

In other words, the only good member of a minority is the one who believes that (s)he is a victim — scratch that, make that "the one who knows, who knows, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that (s)he is a victim" — and that (s)he needs to support and, to vote for, the victimization party, i.e., for the Democrats. The party in which (so goes the narrative) politicians dressed as white knights in shining armor ride to the rescue of the martyred wretches…

All others? They should STFU.

(At least, until such time as they have been duly reeducated…)

Update: Joe N writes:

In essence, to the left the only good HUMANS, worthy of decency, are the ones politically useful to them.

(You should check out his website sometime…)

America the Beautiful Sung by Jon Kahn

Jon Kahn sings America the Beautiful on Troopathon.