Get a Life

The European mind is such that it seems to need a fake crisis over which to seem a heroic champion of. Below is a survey of what the editors looking at the work of editors find important: pretending that the non-existent global-warming tidal wave is coming, putting billions into a fund to support the non-existent effects of global-warming on their favorite among poor victims, etc.:

Il Sole 24 Ore - Italy: World becomes more multilateral

De Volkskrant - Netherlands: Breakthrough next year - maybe

Neue Zürcher Zeitung - Switzerland: Progress in climate policy

Expansión - Spain: Hope of partial success in Cancún

Elsewhere: The NYT is too passive-aggressively anti-American to realize that it’s answering its’ own question. From a article titled Europeans Criticize Fierce U.S. Response to Leaks, previously condescendingly titled ”Many Europeans Find U.S. Attacks on WikiLeaks Puzzling”, we find the following with nary a blink:

The Russians seemed to take a special delight in tweaking Washington over its reaction to the leaks, suggesting that the Americans were being hypocritical. “If it is a full-fledged democracy, then why have they put Mr. Assange away in jail? You call that democracy?”

Speaking for a government that has a recent history of murdering journalists and suppressing dissent. Never mind what they would do to an outfit like Wikileaks who published THEIR internal traffic.

Even The Financial Times Deutschland (independent of the English-language Financial Times), said that “the already damaged reputation of the United States will only be further tattered with Assange’s new martyr status.”

It sounds like they’re fond of the new islamist agitprop definition of “martyr” – regardless if Assange is still alive.

The left-wing Berliner Zeitung wrote that Washington’s reputation had been damaged by the leaks. But the reputation of United States leaders “is being damaged much more right now as they attempt — with all their means — to muzzle WikiLeaks” and Mr. Assange.

As if the douchebag neo-Marxists with populist lynch-mob fantasies at BZ were actually concerned with the United States reputation. The mention and tone in all of the reports is made solely out of bitterness and a desire to smear a large, democratic state that is in reality the only defense that they have against the autocrats of the world and potential autocrats within.

So the way it works, is that even when you’re right, you’re wrong. One of the especially arrogant pretenses of European self-regard is that they do anything realistic or meaningful to advance their adopted virtues: human rights, individual will, etc. That is, when they arent triangulating or doing business that bolsters the worst human rights abusers in the world:

Le Figaro, said that he was impressed by the generally high quality of the American diplomatic corps. “What is most fascinating is that we see no cynicism in U.S. diplomacy,” he said. “They really believe in human rights in Africa and China and Russia and Asia. They really believe in democracy and human rights. People accuse the Americans of double standards all the time. But it’s not true here. If anything, the diplomats are almost naïve

If you don’t see that there is a blinding self-importance in what Europe thinks IT thinks, you’re simply too used to the pedantry of their trope.

No-one outside of the echo chamber of their thinking is puzzled at their puzzlement - trust me on that one. Humanity does not exist to play dress-up for your self-delusions - so if you can't accomplish anything relevant, stay in your playpen for the time being.

Foreign Minister Michèle Alliot-Marie on the WikiLeaks Revelations: "Totally Irresponsible"

In an interview with Le Monde's Natalie Nougayrède and Gilles Paris, Michèle Alliot-Marie had the following comments to make:

Comment réagissez-vous à l'affaire WikiLeaks ? La France est-elle à l'abri d'une fuite de télégrammes diplomatiques ?

Je trouve ces révélations totalement irresponsables et les condamne sans aucune restriction, car je considère que les relations internationales reposent sur la capacité de dire un certain nombre de choses, choses qui peuvent d'ailleurs évoluer, ainsi que sur une relation de confiance.

Moreover, the new foreign minister — "MAM" is a Gaullist — also had the following to say:

L'OTAN a adopté un projet de bouclier antimissile pour protéger l'Europe, en particulier de la menace balistique iranienne. La France ne se place-t-elle pas sous une trop forte tutelle américaine en acceptant ce projet ?

L'OTAN statue toujours à l'unanimité. Parler de domination américaine est faux dès lors qu'il y a moyen de s'opposer lorsque l'on en a la volonté politique.

C'est une gaulliste qui parle.

Absolument. Au moment de la guerre d'Irak, j'ai eu des discussions avec Donald Rumsfeld [alors secrétaire américain à la défense] parce qu'il y avait un souhait d'engager l'OTAN dans cette opération. Je le rappelle, que ce soit à l'époque ou maintenant, c'est la même règle d'unanimité qui s'applique. Je peux vous dire aussi : il y a un meilleur partage aujourd'hui des responsabilités qu'il n'y en avait autrefois. Notamment, à l'occasion du retour de la France dans le commandement intégré de l'OTAN, nous avons obtenu au nom de l'Europe l'un des grands commandements, ce qui avait été refusé jusque-là.

Vous avez déclaré en prenant vos fonctions : « Nous croyons en un monde multipolaire. » Dans ce monde-là, y a-t-il une « famille occidentale » ?

Je crois qu'il y a des pôles, dont un pôle occidental. Mais je dirais un pôle européen, plutôt qu'un pôle occidental. Car il y a aussi le pôle nord-américain. Le grand défi des prochaines décennies est l'apparition de grands blocs démographiques, économiques et culturels. Chacun représentant environ un milliard d'habitants : la Chine, l'Inde, l'Afrique, le groupe d'Amérique du Nord, celui de l'Amérique du Sud, centré autour du Brésil.

Tous ces pôles ont leurs spécificités, et le problème est de savoir quelles seront leurs relations. C'est dans ce cadre qu'il doit y avoir une interrogation sur la taille de l'Europe, et éventuellement sur la place de la Russie. L'Europe aujourd'hui c'est 450 millions d'habitants. Si nous voulons avoir les moyens de peser plus, comment faisons-nous ? Nous avons deux possibilités, l'une est à l'Est, l'autre est au Sud. Je pense qu'elles ne sont pas exclusives l'une de l'autre.

Sur les enjeux stratégiques, le pôle américain et le pôle européen sont-ils distincts ?

Les Etats-Unis défendent leurs intérêts, ce qui est tout à fait normal. Nous aussi. Cela ne doit surtout pas nous faire oublier ce que nous avons en commun, ni nous empêcher de travailler ensemble. Pour autant, nous ne pouvons pas non plus ignorer que nous sommes en concurrence en matière économique, sur le plan technologique...

A quels changements faut-il s'attendre au Quai d'Orsay ?

Ma préoccupation n'est pas de me situer par rapport à mes prédécesseurs. Ma première priorité sera toujours nos compatriotes en difficulté à l'étranger, et d'abord les otages. Deuxièmement, je voudrais faire de ce ministère un pôle d'expertise privilégié pour la prévision et l'anticipation des grandes problématiques du monde. C'est ainsi que nous pouvons jouer pleinement notre rôle d'aide à la décision présidentielle.

Le troisième point, c'est d'avoir une stratégie d'influence de la France, aussi bien économique que culturelle. Je souhaite créer une véritable culture internationale, dans les collectivités territoriales, le monde culturel, les médias, et même dans le monde syndical. Par exemple, en détachant des diplomates auprès d'entreprises ou de collectivités locales, pendant des périodes de deux ou trois ans.

Aren’t they Just so Cute when they’re Pretending that they Matter?

Berlin, Paris and Warsaw keen to beef up EU military muscle

Or is that Russell the Love Muscle?

The Tea Party Phenomenon Explained to a French Audience

One day after the Republican Party's victory in the 2010 mid-term elections, Erik Svane appears on LCI's 12/14 news show to explain the Tea Party phenomenon to a French audience…

Un jour après la victoire du Parti Républicain dans les élections américaines de mi-mandat en 2010, Erik Svane s'efforce d'expliquer le phénomène des Tea Parties à un public français…

Among other guests of Katherine Coole and Philippe Ballard were Judith Bingham and Anne Deysine…

Failed State

One Fake Crisis is not Enough

Experts Link Economy And Broadband Adoption
National Journal

"I think this country has an education crisis," Michael Powell, former FCC Chairman said at a forum convened by the Internet Innovation Alliance.

Doorbusting Geopolitical Events

Which is to say, the very opposite of the NorK condition, unless fascism becomes an Olympic sport.

Pyongyang, November 21 (KCNA) -- The Puebla State Branch of the Mexican National Preparatory Committee for Commemorating the Centenary of Birth of President Kim Il Sung was inaugurated on Nov. 13.

Arturo Mauricio Juarez Lopez, president of the Mexican Puebla State Association for Friendship with the Korean People, was elected chief of the branch.

The branch decided to briskly conduct colorful commemorations till 2012, centenary of birth of the President.

How very cosmopolitan. It’s almost like an Ice Capades of authoritarian leftism. They insist that a desperate world yearns for their wisdom! They will not disappoint!

For What the World Needs Now, Obama Channels the Soviet Union

Email from Valerie:

Anyone catch Dear leader’s comment on

what the world needs is a “Sputnik” moment?

Not America. The World.

Not a “Man on the moon”moment. A “Sputnik” moment.

Being very young at the time Sputnik appeared, from what

I recall of what my parents telling me the world was pretty

scared and upset that the Russian Communists had

sent that little sphere up there.

Ah, so Dear Leader wants us all scared shitless of the government.

Me so dumb Comrades!

No gruel for me.

Further “Bravitude” in the Face of 4 Measly inches of Snow

There’s much Spaßmachen among those hardy Berliners too. They’re rough and ready for the new literary season.



Pffft!!!

The Liberal Media and Their Double Standards with Regards to Europe's Policies

The liberal media are generally fond of touting European countries for their liberal domestic policies, chastising America by comparison for being too conservative

writes Ken Shepherd (thanks to Ben).

But when the electorate of such a country votes to institute a strong conservative policy over the objections of its political elite, the media's fascination with the European everyman evaporates.

Take Sunday's vote by Swiss citizens to institute a referendum requiring foreigners convicted of serious crimes to be expelled from the country after serving out their sentences.

…In her dispatch from Geneva, Time magazine's Helena Bachmann at least put a human face on the pro-deportation majority, opening her story with one Lise Thevenaz, a Geneva receptionist whose teenage son "was brutally beaten last summer by a band of immigrants from Eastern Europe":

When she found out Sunday night that 53% of voters also supported the proposal, "I thought that finally we would be able to feel safe in our own country," she says.

But Thevenaz was the only pro-deportation voice in Bachmann's piece, as the Time contributor devoted the rest of the article to critics slamming the new law as violative of treaty obligations and possibly of the human rights of foreigners, as well as a cynical ploy by a minority of Swiss politicians appealing to populist anti-immigrant sentiment.

Hovel, Sweet Hovel

The morons at Propagandastaffel still refuse to admit that markets don’t work when they smother them with onerous demands. Real estate in Paris is expensive, but not by the standards of cities of similar size in similar economies. It is, nonetheless, expensive, and is the result of the fact that it isn’t profitable to build in a city that dense that maintains height limitations, has political parties that seem willing to impose price xontrols at the drop of a hat, and there is a “constitutional right” to be housed at the cost of a property owner.

Housing is one of the great scandals of the French. As the country continues to grow, the working and middle classes are forced to devote an ever increasing share of their income to this basic needs, and prices become prohibitive as a result of property speculation.

Never mind the single greatest cost people are forced to exceed at the cost of their well being: taxes.

Large cities, primarily Paris, are the scene of a silent exclusion mechanism, a deadly hunt that imposes itself more on the less fortunate citizens who are doomed to spend hours in transport, adding to it the consequence of emitting polluting carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

The blissfully laissez-faire expect that rising prices will lead to a greater supply that will ease the market. But the argument that the inner-city construction market is inherently limited by regulation is a chimera designed primarily to protect the interests of owners and real estate professionals. Without strong intervention of public power, urban apartheid will continue to grow. Taxation of empty homes, causing some rents (for small areas, for example), affirmative action programs for construction, release of certain allowances, acceleration of Greater Paris, you can discuss all the details. But with a market failure or too unfair, the failure of the community is tantamount to abandonment. Or desertion.

Why not call it ultra apartheid? Why not bring the image of Nazism into the fact that demand is forced to recognize the existence of a supply one may not really add to?

A minor matter? A silly, throw away subject just to throw fuel on their revolutionary lynchmob fantasies? Hell no. France 24 has been giving it “the embarrassing American story” treatment for the past 24 hours: which is to say repeating it incessantly if it gives a warm, wet handjob to the minds of the editors.

Having worked on the building of buildings for 20 years, I can think of a dozen things that would salve their complaints far quicker than their typical demand for a heavy hand of government to simply “declare” what rents should be.

Solution: bureaucrottes non-élus

Given that there is enough demand to drive up rents and real estate prices, the next fix in their (literal) authoritarian Marxist-Leninist solution to the problem will be the assignment of housing to people based on a standard of need or personal social standing.

So Long, Suckaaaahs

Seeing the EU for all it’s glory and efficiency, the Nordic nations want to Federalize.

Without them. And they actually want to FEDERALIZE:

The United Nordic Federation would only have powers that are expressly ceded to it by its members. Foreign and defence policy would be federal matters; economic and labour-market policy would need to be co-ordinated; and research policy would probably also be best served at federal level.

Thism in a sharp contrast to the EU which, any time anyone asks, says one shall renders anything unto Ceasar that ain’t bolted down, even if the real outcome is that there isn’t much of an effective defense or International Affairs structure to centralize anyway.

The Federation would work in the same way, as an arena for comparisons and co-ordination, without the need for decisions to be unanimous before they can be implemented. Most taxation would remain at national level, as would most social services, perhaps including social security, unless it is generally agreed that a joint system would be more beneficial.

Which in it’s original intent would make it look a lot more like the United States than Switzerland, as the author suggests – but then again, there subjects that are still taboo to discuss in a favorable light.

However, in one strange twist alluding to the idiotically unrealistic self-regard the EU sees itself in, we find this bit of rayonnement.

Nordic co-operation can function as an example and a model for the wider European community.

How do you say “bureaucrottes zéropéens non-élus” in Finnish anyway?

The Afghanistan Armadillo

Highly recommended:

An intimate portrait of young, adrenaline fueled Danish soldiers stationed at Camp Armadillo, a base located in Helmand province in Afghanistan.

“I Want My Tax Hike!”

How many bigoted, condescending caricatures can Tom Friedman jam into one paragraph?

More than ever, America today reminds me of a working couple where the husband has just lost his job, they have two kids in junior high school, a mortgage and they’re maxed out on their credit cards. On top of it all, they recently agreed to take in their troubled cousin, Kabul, who just can’t get his act together and keeps bouncing from relative to relative. Meanwhile, their Indian nanny, who traded room and board for baby-sitting, just got accepted to M.I.T. on a full scholarship and will be leaving them in a few months. What to do?

Just a little reminder to the reader, that all of the characters, strange ethno-stereotypes, theories, evidence, and conclusions arrived to... are entirely hypothetical.

Which makes any paragraph after it that expounds on it superfluous.

One strategy would be to hunker down, don’t spend a dime on anything other than food, the mortgage and paying off their credit card debts. They would get by, but there’s not much future in it. Another strategy would be to borrow against their life insurance policies to make up for the loss of income, keep living like they’re living, and hope that the husband’s job comes back before his unemployment checks run out.

Bear in mind this is supposed to be an example used as an analogue for the path of a nation.

Mr. Friedman, despite all evidence, is a professional writer, and an Opinion-editorialist for the New York Times. It is assumed that he lives in the United States, and might be familiar with American social life. The subject of his column of yesterday was supposed to be about the failed effort of the Obama administration to raise the taxes to continue fuelling the expansion of the Federal Government, which the left has grown from 20% to 25% of GDP during a recession.

Elsewhere: Marxist twat lionized.

Entire Paris Region Paralyzed by Global Warming

As Instapundit reports the Gore Effect striking the Cancún Climate Conference, what have been the news from Europe, recently?

In Britain, Wales saw its coldest ever November reading; in Germany, Der Bild reported the coldest start to December for centuries (!); and here in Northern France, today, snow has been falling all day long, paralyzing the entire Paris region, causing both of the capital's airports to shut down (temporarily), and closing the Eiffel Tower while making the landmark totally invisible from across the Seine (01:08). Thousands of passengers are blocked at airport terminals, bus traffic has been "basically paralyzed" since early afternoon, secondary routes in the Paris region are described as "catastrophic", traffic jams are expected to be as long as 300 km, and some 50 communes will be opening shelters for stranded drivers through the night.

To make the news more jolly, the authorities are afraid that the electrical networks will fail (which can only remind us of the Instapundit post on "the compassion of the Welfare State on display" in Europe)…

"I Took My Time Leaving the Taliban Movement, But Now It's Done"

"Lors de la grande offensive de 2006, quand nous avons attaqué en nombre les forces canadiennes qui nous bombardaient, la population, spontanément, tuait ses moutons pour nous nourrir." Mais, fin 2007, les gens ont dénoncé la décision du chef taliban de la zone, Sadiq Agha, de pendre onze personnes en deux semaines pour espionnage. "Il n'y avait aucune enquête, des gens disaient qu'untel était un espion, pour de simples raisons tribales."

In Afghanistan, a former Taliban fighter opens up to Le Monde's Jacques Follorou.

"Intérieurement, j'ai commencé à prendre mes distances à partir des pendaisons, cela contredisait mes croyances. J'ai mis du temps à partir, maintenant c'est fait", poursuit-il. Si les talibans reviennent au pouvoir, il verra alors ce qu'il fera. "Peut-être qu'ils réussiront, ils n'ont pas la technologie, mais ils ont la détermination."

Reality Check

Just curious.

Why is it when statist-loving, government-providing all, no responsibility for anyone (outside of banks), everything is free nannyists, need to show that they have a clue about reality .... the surest way to do so is to stop acting like a statist-loving, government-providing all, no responsibility for anyone (outside of banks), everything is free nannyist?

Despite the chaos caused by last weekend's air-traffic controller strikes in Spain, the government's severe response has shored up the position of Spain's embattled prime minister and could give him more support in passing reforms.

Prime Minister José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's decision to force air-traffic controllers back to work under military authority played both to conservatives, who want to see tough reforms in areas such as labor, pension costs and the banking sector, and to Mr. Zapatero's working-class base, which sees the air-traffic controllers—who earn an average of €200,000 ($265,000) a year—as a privileged group tarnishing the reputation of organized labor.

Why not try starting from reality in the first place? It would really save us all a lot of time.

And Warm Wishes of Socialist Solidarity to our Brothers in Kampuchea!

Which is to say that many of us miss some of the perspectiveless lunacy of the bad old days sometimes. But fear not, lovers of that quiet European creepiness: it’s always around in one form or another.

Which is to say largely in Brussels where its only virtue is that it could be easily kept in a cage if the native went along. They’re finally getting to the next Fake Crisis on their thick agenda of “caring” things ‘n stuff: the Bee Crisis:

The European Commission has published a new action plan intended to shed light on reports of declining honey-bee populations across Europe, key pollinators for many of the bloc's important crop species.
At the same time, one the Europe's top scientists in the field has warned against mass hysteria, pointing out that most species have experienced epidemics at one stage or another over previous centuries, ultimately with little long-term effect.

Van Rompuy warns EU is in 'survival crisis', and the crust of political class is worried about a fracking bee thing that was resolved two years ago. Natürlich. Nero isn’t fiddling while Rome burns, the entire population of snapperheads is.
In other news, not rising to the level of 2 year old fake Bee hype, Greek rioters and protesters clashed with police on Monday during a commemoration of the death of 15-year-old Alexandros Grigoropoulos who was killed by police during a protest two years ago on Pearl Harbor Day. The protests were against austerity associated with running out of anyone left to tax, and the absence of having a currency to deflate.



From “The Awareness Chanel”. I say don’t hope for too much.

But what does that matter. It’s merely a loose fact and a minor detail associated with being unable to add or have any connection with nature and her unforgiving laws – such as we find here from yet another recitation of the obvious from the Wiki-trove of things that should really remain unsaid because we know them already:

Perhaps the greatest insight from the whole Bruno affair might be that despite the veneer of 'greenness' extolled by German society, modern Germany in fact coexists rather uneasily with untamed nature,"

I sat for a while and pondered over this commentary and remember the Bruno the bear episode in detail. There is an excellent point over this analysis. There is often bragging done (similar to cases in the US) where the government and foundations are working to reintroduce wild populations back into "outback regions". In this case, all it took was one simple bear to upset the locals.....and that got the bear onto the hit-list.

The debate associated with this random bear not being the sort we would have in Pennsylvania, as to whether or not it would be better taxidermed or made into jerky. My vote is to subject the European intellectual “elite” who found the item of “CULtural interest” to taxidermy to form an example for the children.

Testimony of 4 Severely Wounded Afghanistan Veterans

En 2010, en Afghanistan, les blessures diffèrent des autres conflits. Elles touchent les membres, à reconstruire entièrement. Les amputations sont nombreuses. La cause : les engins explosifs improvisés déposés sur les routes par les talibans. "On amène beaucoup plus de blessés vivants au bloc. Mais leurs blessures sont beaucoup plus graves", explique Emmanuel Rigal, chef du service de chirurgie orthopédique de l'hôpital Percy (Clamart, Hauts-de-Seine). A l'avant, les techniques médicales et la logistique ont progressé. On va plus vite. Un soldat qui avait sauté sur une mine en fin de matinée en Afghanistan a été opéré par les Américains sur place dans les premières heures.

Nathalie Guibert has a story in Le Monde about four soldiers (severely) wounded in Afghanistan. Interestingly, it turns out that France is like the United States in the sense that she makes the same point as Frank Gaffney, Jr, i.e., that most civilians know next to nothing about the military.

Pour quoi et pour qui [le sergent Jocelyn Truchet, 25 ans,] a-t-il laissé cette jambe ? La question l'embarrasse. "J'espère que je ne l'ai pas laissée pour rien, répond-il après un silence, que tout ça servira à ce que les Afghans prennent en main leur pays."

The Hero of the European Left Shows the Way

Venezuela's Chavez blames capitalism for deluges: Chavez blames rich countries for climate problems

He seems to have forgotten that the capitalist west is the one that started the environmental movement, created all the of technology to clean the environment, created the efficiencies that allow for clean industrialization, despite the uninformed howling of the closet authoritarians of the “green” movement, and that the Marxist-Leninist regimes of old that he lionizes were so poisonously polluted and so willing to choke their own populations with toxic waste, that it was the one form of opposition that they couldn’t rationalize silencing.

The amateurishly operated Chernobyl nuclear plant and the cover-up of its failure was, of course, some sort of capitalist plot too, I imagine.