3rd "Summer of Recovery", AKA #Obamatopia

Steal This Book. (Club the Busboy to Death with it.)

On one hand, you have MEPs bloviating about how the piracy of intellectual is some sort of human right. On the other hand, after tch-tch-ing those clueless Americans (even using sock-puppets) about Arizona’s border enforcement code being some sort of RacistApartheidWallOfFascism, Maltese citizens beat illegal border-runners to death.

The Malian asylum seeker had escaped from Malta's Safi detention centre in August 2009. On Friday evening, he sought medical treatment at a clinic but staff alerted the authorities who picked him up in a van and transported him to a detention facility, report Maltese media. By the time he arrived at the facility early Saturday morning, he was found dead inside the van.

“He had blows to his groin. He did not die of natural causes,”

Le Monde Hides Muslim Teen Killer's Identity By Giving Him a Russian Orthodox Name

Pascal Galinier, the ombudsman of Le Monde, has received a flurry of angry letters after Serge Le Luyer's decision to hide the identity of a Muslim teen killer under a Slavic name.

Hiding the identity of alleged teen criminals is hardly an abnormal way to proceed in France, since protecting the identity of minors is required by French law, and the decision to use the name "Vladimir" for the 16-year-old who strangled a 13-year-old might sound logical at first since the high school student was indeed born in Russia.

But that does not take into account the fact that the region of the Russian Federation that "Vladimir's" family hails from was not the Slavic part but the Chechnya republic, meaning of course that the presumed killer and all of his family are Muslim.

"Vladimir? Why not Bjorn Borg?" asked one witty reader, tongue-in-cheek.

Giving the alleged killer a (fake) Muslim name — Mohammed, Abdullah, Ali, Samir, Suleiman (since his real first name does start with the letter S) etc — instead of "Vladimir" would thus have made more sense, say the readers in protest of what they perceive as political correctness — "transforming a Muslim connotation into an Orthodox Slav" — especially since "the great persecutor of Chechens is a certain Vladimir (Putin)…"

"Manipulations dignes des pires heures soviétoïdes !", accuse Paul Pottel, de Reims. "Manière insidieuse de désinformer", selon Jean-Christophe Antoine (Paris). "Désinformation qui vise bêtement à protéger les musulmans tchétchènes, totalement contre-productive, et injuste vis-à-vis des Russes", estime Claude Courouve.

Reflecting the extent of the protest, "Vladimir" was changed in the online version of the article to the teen's (real) first-name initial, "S." But needless to say, ombudsmen in the mainstream media are rarely the neutral arbiters they pretend to be, and so, while denying any evil intent, Pascal Galinier goes on to call the letters he has received as "abusive" and "sometimes delirious", ridiculing the people who would dare put into question Le Monde's entirely innocent choices…

Something MUST be Done, Dammit!

Despite being obscenely expensive and Bloomberg-esque in its degree of a paperwork frustration, all drivers in France are being treated like ex-DUI offenders:

In an attempt to cut back on the number of alcohol-related traffic accidents, each driver will from now on be required to keep a breathalyzer test in his or her vehicle. Those caught without the test, which cost between 1 and 3 euros a piece, can expect to pay a fine of 11 euros as of 1 November.

While that doesn’t seem like a lot of money, what we’re talking about here is a portable test that the police can make you take when they pull you over. YOU’RE supposed to have purchased it and have it on hand. Innocence not being assumed in the least, YOU need to have bought the test kit used to prove your sobriety.

According to an Ifop poll published in Dimanche Ouest France, only 39 percent of French drivers owned the test as of Saturday, just one day before the law came into effect.

Remember that Nanny doesn’t just loves you, but is always ready to hug you to death.

Also to include in Nanny’s pointless, morally vane strangulations is this sort of thing that the average European is so used to getting forced on them on a daily basis that they are conditioned into a sort of weird bliss of the servile:

In a measure to bring down electricity consumption, neon lights and illuminated advertisements will be forced off during the wee hours of the night. From 1 to 6 o’clock in the morning, even the town Christmas tree will have to go dark overnight.

Next week it will be something else. There always is.

The measure could cut CO2 emissions by 120,000 tons.

Irritating 60 million people in one small way or another, this will make up for the annual carbon dioxide output of a mere 7868 households.

They must be so proud.

Some Thoughts on American Patriotism

Some Thoughts on American Patriotism was written during the Bush years, but it still holds up today and will continue doing so, hopefully, many years from now…

France sings for the USA

(Merci à Carine)

The Trailer to A Face in the Crowd, 1957

A notable motion picture starring Andy Griffith who died today.



He almost seems to create an imprint of the political characters of the left whose views he would espouse later in life.

It Only Took 16 Hours

For someone to blame “man caused climate disruption” for the US mid-Atlantic derecho, or “land hurricane”.

And it was done using the most passive-aggressive yet evasive language possible:

As the intensity of the heat wave, without reservation, was a key factor in the destructiveness of this derecho event - it raises the question about the possible role of manmade climate warming (from elevated greenhouse concentrations). It’s a complicated, controversial question, but one that scientists will surely grapple with in case studies of this rare, extraordinary event.

Why doesn’t he go pound sand so we can study what the anthropogenic contribution to gasses in the atmosphere that might have an impact on.

The Chronicles of Prolixity

Zerohedge brings you a glossary of leftist economic illiteracy:

Fairness: Definition: A word used to motivate making sure outcomes do not match abilities or effort. Note, pre-1970 it meant roughly the opposite.

Many gems, many, many gems...

Our Heritage, from 1976

Our heritage is one of great ideas, not ethnicity, greed, and factional strife.



“Champions of the dignity of man, throughout the world.”

Conspiracy Theory Article Brings Out 911 Cartoon

• Say do you know where Merah was on September 11, 2001?
• Uh… no
• Hah! Neither do I! Suspicious, no?!

Soren Seelow's article on conspiracy theories surrounding Mohamed Merah allows a Le Monde cartoonist to make another 911 joke.

The Little Engine That Couldn’t

If Europeans holding summits made anything better, they’d be living in heaven on earth.

Europe's Worst Nightmare: What If Euro Can't Be Saved?


Here's a nightmare for Europe's leaders to ponder as they prepare for yet another summit to tackle the euro zone crisis: a bond auction fails in Spain, spreading solvency worries to Italy and beyond and triggering uncontrollable bank runs that spell the single currency's end.

This is the question we DO know people are asking themselves:

Are We Having A European Lifestyle Yet?

I’ve maintained a high standard when it comes to observable economic indicators. My most reliable one is that I know things are becoming most unpleasant when I see well-dressed and dignified middle-aged women in a city like Vienna fishing through street trash cans for mislaid bottles and cans to get a deposit return on. It brings forth fond memories of the super-duper-latex-and-cape-clad-world-spanking Lisbon agenda/strategy summit statement that the world was supposed to be awed by.

Or such like.

Censorship? BBC Ignores the Word "Allah" Present Throughout the Speech by Egypt's New President Musri

Not understanding Arabic, I may be slightly wrong in what I am about to say, but it is a certainty that the BBC, or the BBC's interpreter, is leaving out many parts of newly-elected President Mohammed Mursi's speech currently being given (at the time of the posting of this post) in Cairo, and notably, the London-based MSM member is cutting out most of speech's (numerous) references to Allah. [Update: "This broadcast has now ended" and an updated article has now appeared, with no more notice made of Mursi's ubiquitous usage of the word "Allah" (or "God") then during the translation of the live broadcast.]

In one sentence after another, you keep hearing the word "Allah" (often numerous times) in the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood member's speech — a rousing speech with the Tahrir Square crowd responding, with chants and slogans, as one — but the name of the Divine, or "God", is among the many parts that the BBC is not translating.

"Shocking" Photo in French Magazine Shows Bloody Corpse of Child Killer Mohamed Merah

For its 20th anniversary, the monthly Entrevue is publishing a special issue including the photo of the bullet-riddled body of Mohamed Merah, uncensored in the pages of its magazine unlike the blurred photo appearing on its website and linked by the Jean-Marc Morandini and the No Pasarán blogs.

A slightly less blurry photo (warning: (somewhat) graphic content) appears above Antoine Agletiner's Entrevue editorial defending the photo's publication: notice that, with the numerous bullet holes in Mohamed's jeans, it seems that the police tried to focus their shots on his legs and were thus attempting to take him alive.

Rap Video Presents Toulouse Child Killer as a Victim in "a 2nd September 11" Conspiracy Against Islam

A rap video on Youtube presents Toulouse's child killer, Mohamed Merah, as a victim of the French state in "a Second September 11" conspiracy against Islam, "à la Française" this time.

From Soren Seelow's article on conspiracy theories surrounding Mohamed Merah (and putting the blame on — guess who…).

En témoigne ce clip du rappeur d'Alif (qui se présente lui-même comme le chanteur "le plus boycotté du rap français"), dans lequel il se glisse dans la peau de Merah : "La France m'a pris pour cible et m'a collé une affaire d'Etat. (...) En période électorale, tous les coups sont permis. (...) Ils m'accusent de tous ces meurtres que je n'ai pas commis. (...) Ce que nous vivons est un deuxième 11-Septembre à la française. (...) J'pisse le sang dans leur complot. (...) Je sais que tuer des enfants est horrible, mais le plus horrible est d'en avoir reçu l'ordre."

Conspiracy Theories: Mohamed Merah Is Innocent of Toulouse Killings Since He Was Manipulated by (Yup) the Jews

Soren Seelow's article on conspiracy theories surrounding Mohamed Merah brings forth the message from Réseau Voltaire and like-minded websites: the Toulouse child killer is innocent, he was manipulated by France's secret service, put in contact with Israel's intelligence service, and executed to prevent him from "telling the truth."

In other words, the true culprits are… the Joos!

[Update: See (and hear) the rap video presenting Mohamed Merah as a victim of a 911-type conspiracy against Islam
as well as the photo of his dead body published in a French magazine…]

Soren Seelow has a good way of defining the

mechanics of the conspiracy theory. Based on "gray areas", the believer in plots climbs back up the thread that leads him to irresistibly reject the official version. We don't know the whole truth, ergo there is a plot.

For the proponents of alternative theories, the authority of a [dubious] source matters little: the official version being de facto a lie, only assertions coming from the edges are conducive to bringing forth the truth.

… The conspiracy reflex … constitutes a form of patriotic, or even partisan, self-defense. In the Merah case, there is the "community" equivalent. One way to free oneself of collective guilt, anticipating all and any forms of stigma by denial.

… Doubt is healthy in a democracy" acknowledges Rudy Reichstadt [the founder of Conspiracy Watch]. "The problem is that conspiracy theorists are suspicious of everything, except for their own suspicion."

The only question that arises here, and that Le Monde ought to ask itself: why didn't the newspaper publish more articles like this one after 9-11, and after the Sofitel affair (no need to be a die-hard truther type to believe in conspiracy theories, notes Soren Seelow, since a majority of the French — 57%, 70% among socialist party sympathizers — thought that Dominique Strauss-Kahn was the victim of a setup), i.e., when America, not France, was the butt of the conspiracy theories?

De l'innocence de Merah à la culpabilité d'Israël

Ils sont rapidement relayés sur des sites " spécialisés ", comme le Réseau Voltaire, Mecanopolis, Oulala.net ou Legrandsoir.info. Pour Sott.net, un réseau de sites multilingue qui occupe une place de choix dans la " complosphère ", l'affaire est entendue : Mohamed Merah est innocent. Il a été manipulé par les services secrets, mis en contact avec le renseignement israélien et exécuté pour l'empêcher de " dire la vérité ".

Il faut lire l'exposé jusqu'à son terme pour comprendre l'arrière-fond idéologique qui sous-tend cette thèse : " Les véritables cerveaux du terrorisme à l'échelle mondiale - sont - les Israéliens. "

" L'idéologie conspirationniste pense qu'il y a un complot mondial. Elle recycle les vieux thèmes anti-judéo-maçonniques ", explique Rudy Reichstadt, fondateur de Conspiracy Watch, site qui se décrit comme un " observatoire du conspirationnisme et des théories du complot ". " La complosphère est une galaxie rouge/brune, qui s'agrège de l'extrême gauche à l'extrême droite autour d'un fond idéologique anti-impérialiste. "

Merah, Ben Laden, 11-Septembre... Le conspirationnisme se signale par une approche systématique, quasi obsessionnelle, qui tend à tisser un lien invisible entre certains grands événements de l'histoire récente au service d'une même vision du monde.

… Le " doute " exprimé par Mathieu Kassovitz est néanmoins révélateur de la mécanique conspirationniste. A partir de " zones d'ombre ", le complotiste remonte un fil qui le conduit irrésistiblement à rejeter en bloc la version officielle. On ne sait pas tout, c'est donc qu'il y a complot.

… Pour les tenants des thèses alternatives, l'autorité de la source importe peu : la version officielle étant par nature mensongère, seules les assertions émanant de la marge sont à même de faire éclater la vérité. …

Nous sommes tous conspirationnistes

Inutile d'être un conspirationniste avéré pour céder, ponctuellement, à la tentation du complot. Au lendemain de la révélation de l'affaire du Sofitel de New York, une majorité de Français (57 %) pensaient que Dominique Strauss-Kahn était victime d'un coup monté. Le pourcentage montait même à 70 % chez les sympathisants socialistes.

Le réflexe complotiste a alors constitué une forme d'autodéfense patriotique, voire partisane. Elle trouve un équivalent dans l'affaire Merah, avec un conspirationnisme " communautaire ". Une façon de se libérer d'une culpabilité collective, d'anticiper par le déni toute stigmatisation.

… " Le doute est sain en démocratie, admet Rudy Reichstadt. Le problème, c'est que les conspirationnistes se méfient de tout, sauf de leur propre méfiance. "

Comrades in Barns

Thanks to Berlaymonster for finding this little gem that one José Manuel Durão Barroso doesn’t
seem particularly interested in people associating him with:


.

Of course, Portugal at the time was a practical dictatorship, so I’m sure anything looked good to some people if their standards are low enough. The idea of quibbling late at night over whether or not you prefer Enver Hoxha’s shining path over that of Mao Zedong who made even the isolationist Albanian look “modern minded” would seem right at home.

Hoxha had suffered from diabetes for many years and by the 1980s he knew his days were numbered. He wanted a young colleague named Ramiz Alia to succeed him and cleared the way for him by eliminating Mehmet Shehu, his righthand man since 1948, who was now prime minister and minister of the interior. In 1981 it was announced that he had suffered a nervous breakdown and committed suicide. The official story did not stand up and there were whispers in Tirana that Shehu had been shot and killed at a meeting of the politburo, perhaps by Hoxha himself. It was presently given out, highly improbably, that he had been spying for the Americans, the British and the Vatican.

Have a nice day.

The Western Left's Foundations in Social Subversion

The KGB Connections is a 1982 documentary co-produced by Canada's CBC and American television network ABC long before they foreswore all others for the Kool-Aid.

Bill Ayers', who, if he had a son, would look like Barack Obama is also discussed:

Wear Clean Underwear, Just in Case

Boris Johnson warns us:

We see ice cream Snickers bars and in vitro babies and beautiful electronic pads on which you can paint with your fingertip and – by heaven – suitcases with wheels! Think of it: we managed to put a man on the moon about 35 years before we came up with wheelie-suitcases; and yet here they are. They have completely displaced the old type of suitcase, the ones with a handle that you used to lug puffing down platforms.

Aren’t they grand? Life seems impossible without them, and soon they will no doubt be joined by so many other improvements – acne cures, electric cars, electric suitcases – that we will be strengthened in our superstition that history is a one-way ratchet, an endless click click click forwards to a nirvana of liberal democratic free-market brotherhood of man. Isn’t that what history teaches us, that humanity is engaged in a remorseless ascent?

Not so quick, sparky. Even the happiest societies could just as well collapse if we don’t mind them well and take them seriously.

On the contrary: history teaches us that the tide can suddenly and inexplicably go out, and that things can lurch backwards into darkness and squalor and appalling violence.

in all seriously, it’s those with a total lack of real seriousness, or actually a lot of fake seriousness about a lot of fake problems that aren’t exactly doing us any favors right now – I’m thinking of “climate change campaigners” who give lip service to starvation, and leftists more interested in actually engaging in socially harmful experiments than actually dealing with the economic crisis. The happy world where “seriousness” meant getting red in the face and cranked up about something that really doesn’t matter (like say saving the wales or something,) are just going to have to step aside for a while.

With them, the promoters of fake, invented “issues”, which the social caste around the European Union have been tops at.

Notable and Quotable

"Among artists without talent Marxism will always be popular, since it enables them to blame society for the fact that nobody wants to hear what they have to say."

-Clive James