Saturday, August 20, 2011

Politeness Compared in Countries Around the World


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

Syria's European Flunkies

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

Friday, August 19, 2011

Got Issues? Need to Induce Vomiting?

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

Hated it!

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

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

Je suis européen !


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

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

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

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

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

Que faire ?

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

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

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

Que voulez-vous dire ?

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

Chronicles of Helplessness

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

Despite Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's increasing violence against his people there is no chance of the West launching a military intervention against his regime, writes the liberal business paper De Tijd: "Unlike Libya Syria is in the middle of the most explosive region in the world. And while Colonel Gaddafi was pretty isolated even within his own region the Assad clan has been very successful in the past decade in playing off powerful neighbours like Israel, Turkey, Iran and Iraq against each other. In the case of Syria underlining the condemnations with military action like in Libya is not an option. Assad's regime can still count on sufficient support from the regional superpower Iran.
And what exactly is Europe's "nuclear option"?
"We are [also] advocating for the UN Security Council to address the Syria issue again this week,"
Good luck with that, great compassionate minds of Mitteleuropa.

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

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

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

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

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

Thursday, August 18, 2011

Applying European Sensibilities to Europeans

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



Might as well jump. Go ahead and jump.


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

This extraordinary change [the fact that having children has become increasingly detached from marriage] is the primary reason that government budgets, both federal and state, are so bloated
writes Phyllis Schlafly as the author of Feminist Fantasies comments on a report showing how illegitimate births for all Americans have risen from 26 percent in 1990 to 41 percent today "and could be headed higher."
Without fathers to provide for these millions of children, their mothers turn to "big brother government."

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Moscow is flush with cash from energy sales and arms producers in France, Italy and Germany are happy to take large chunks of it. They are busily selling Russia advanced weapons, sensitive dual-use systems and military supplies. All this indicatesunprecedented Russian openness about (and need to) buy advanced weapons systems. Moreover, Moscow-based experts say privately that the Kremlin hopes the arms deals help revive the Russian-French-German axis that began to emerge in 2003 in opposition to the US-Iraq war.
Which was all about high-minded human rights and whirled peas, if you were gullible enough to take them at their word.
Recent military sales include a record-breaking deal signed on June 17 between France and Russia. Moscow bought two French Mistral-class assault ships/helicopter carriers worth more than $1.4 billion, and it has options for purchasing two more. This is the largest deal between a NATO country and Russia since the alliance's inception and the largest defense sale from a Western power to Russia since the World War II-era land lease.
Which, without one shred of conscience, included NATO shared technology. Abiding by the lack of principles that Russia historically exhibits, would have been in Qaddafi's hands if this happened earlier.

You might recall that the French are at war with Qaddafi, and that too is about high-minded human rights and whirled peas too.
On the same day, Germany's leading producer of military technology, Reinmetall, signed a $398 million contract with Russia to develop a "combat training center for Russian ground forces."
Which must giver German militarists, all three of them, a woody knowing that they will sell Russia a combat training center, and probably also run it, while the nation of pacifist fantasies is dismantling a military that's already too understrength and poorly trained to deploy anywhere effectively.

You know the drill. Repeat after me: these are your "allies," America! All of that "smart diplomacy" will do its' magic in no time flat.
The United States has remained remarkably quiet on this issue, but outgoing Defense Secretary Robert Gates and others in the Pentagon have tacitly objected to these and other deals. Nevertheless, the Obama administration decided against going to bat against such arms sales. At this point, Washington and its key NATO allies can ill afford another spat that may compromise its near-term operations, like those in Afghanistan and in Libya. And, of course, should Washington raise vocal opposition, it might jeopardize the "reset," the ultimate objective of Obama's Russia policy.

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

The Most Socially Progressive Place on Earth

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

“To throw incendiary bombs at the police takes this problem to a level where we definitely don’t want to be. I have never in my whole career seen or heard of anything like it,” detective Bertil Claesson, head of the police unit in Angered, told news agency TT.
Why can’t they just smoke dope under a bridge like NORMAL anti-social punks?
The boy was brought in for questioning on Monday after the blast at a pre school in the Stockholm district of Sköndal seriously injured a four-year-old girl.

[ ... ]

The teenager remanded into custody by police on Monday on suspicion of the pre-school explosion, may have had help from accomplices, according to police.
Look on the bright side, if they DO lock them up, they have a lifetime of complaint, dependency, and arrogantly high expectations to look forward to.
According to the inmates it is not uncommon for detention centres across Sweden to offer their detainees 10-19 channels to choose from. But in Kalmar they have to make do with seven.
Of course in the environmentally “Socially Sustainable” society of the future, they would just be sent straight to the Soylent Green plant.

The Watermelon Chronicles

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

Congratulations on earning a LEED Professional Credential! Your My Credentials account has been updated with your new credential status.
(3x Yadda...>
You can now begin earning continuing education (CE) hours and report them in your My Credentials account. For more information on GBCI's Credential Maintenance Program (CMP), visit gbci.org/CMP.
At GBCI we feel a personal and organizational responsibility for creating global change that is economically, environmentally, and socially sustainable and lasting. Thusly, we encourage you to be active as a LEED Professional, including at your local USGBC chapter and volunteering with GBCI.
If you have any questions, feel free to contact GBCI customer service at 1 800 795 1746 (within the US) and +1 202 828 1145 (outside the US).
Congratulations on your achievement!

Regards,
Green Building Certification Institute
2101 L Street NW, Suite 650
Washington, DC 20037
gbci.org/contact
Okay, like, whateva. What exactly does it mean?

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

The Wikipedia entry on social sustainability defines it this way:
Social sustainability is one aspect of sustainability or sustainable development. Social sustainability encompasses human rights, labor rights, and corporate governance. In common with environmental sustainability, social sustainability is the idea that future generations should have the same or greater access to social resources as the current generation ("inter-generational equity"), while there should also be equal access to social resources within the current generation ("intra-generational equity"). Social resources include ideas as broad as other cultures and basic human rights. Also we can speak of Sustainable Human Development that can be seen as development that promotes the capabilities of present people without compromising capabilities of future generations. In the human development paradigm, environment and natural resources should constitute a means of achieving better standards of living just as income represents a means of increasing social expenditure and, in the end, well-being.
So it's, like, basically, like, y'know everything except the tangible, or anything associated with free market decision-making, or the choices made in social interest by an individual on their own. It does seem to recognize the concept of wealth and income, but is too vague to directly indicate their motives or hostility to managing your own resources, especially given that it looks like its' trying to form a philosophy that takes the role of faith in society, employing a concept similar to "From each according to his ability, to each according to his need" which is attributed to Karl Marx.
I suspect that the access provided to future generations is not by you to your spawn, but by a larger, more "authoritative" entity, a kind of cozy equivalent of the test tubes the population of Logan's Run was hatched in, or something... who knows.

Like Marxians, I'm sure they believe that people will work hard for "the good of man" when wanting resources for yourself are no longer an issue. However, that doesn't explain the need to pass through a variety of rites (which seem to be used in operant conditioning) associated with those with less. In their brave new world, no-one would be wanting for anything they needed anyway.
While leadership and motivational topics focus on prosperity in wealth and different social status, social sustaining role models take on the role of taking the risk upon changing what is necessary instead of what is wanted. From this point of view, in order to achieve a social sustainable system, there will be a possibility of challenging current infrastructure and common expectations. Some radical examples are: starvation by choice to understand the actual need of a starving individual, or the vow of poverty to understand a certain level of built-in social expectations, in which proved unnecessary when it comes to solving community issues as listed.
[Bold emphasis mine.]

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

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

Ah, but it's their way.

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


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

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

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


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

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

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

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

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

Le Monde's negative coverage on the tycoon lording over, among (many) others, the News of the World leads one reader to protest:
La série d'articles du Monde consacrés à Rupert Murdoch (du 3 au 8 août) relate les moments forts d'une saga industrielle éblouissante. La stratégie de l'Australo-Américain, magnat des médias, dévoile un sens de l'anticipation, une réactivité aux marchés et un opportunisme commercial qui le hissent au-dessus des autres " tycoons " de sa génération.
Mais j'ai été surpris que Murdoch soit dépeint comme " le contraire d'un libéral puisque son mode opératoire consiste à détruire la concurrence en créant un monopole défendu ensuite bec et ongles ". Son implantation américaine, d'une audace folle, ne correspond pas du tout à pareille analyse. Murdoch s'invite à la table des ogres — celle des trois réseaux historiques ABC, CBS et NBC — sans qu'aucun de ces grands médias ne l'ait convié. Il endosse un rôle d'outsider au toupet insensé sur un marché publicitaire éminemment concurrentiel. Le network Fox se construit brique à brique, journée après journée, dans un combat frontal avec les leaders emblématiques du prime time américain. Il s'approprie " Les Simpsons ", série politiquement incorrecte, dont aucune télévision ne veut. Il invente la contre-programmation. Non, l'Amérique n'attendait pas Murdoch. Son couvert n'était pas mis à son arrivée. Fox s'est taillé une place à la force du poignet. Jamais de la vie, il ne pouvait revendiquer le monopole de quoi que ce soit.

Christian de Maussion
Paris

A Bit of the Old Ludwig Van...

Peter Hitchens on the UK riots:

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

Monday, August 15, 2011

Rus-Think



Cute creature depicted is not to scale


Warped Russian rag blames the death of the polar bear shot in Svalbard on the student. Further:
The British NATO contingent wastes up to 100,000 USD of their taxpayers' money per aircraft per hour, every single day since February 17, bombing kids, strafing water supplies, murdering babies, targeting civilian structures, in Libya. Now in Norway a polar bear has been shot because of a British student.
...bacause, you see, poley was a fully aware social justice activist. The writer continues his high-minded thoughts with high journalistic standards:
As the British press carries this story in its headlines, maybe some of these callous bastards could spare a fleeting thought for Libyan children slaughtered in their homes by NATO cowards. Or, as one suspects, they couldn't care less.
The RAF should have known about the bear weeks ago, dagburnit!

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


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

Meanwhile, in an op-ed, Denis MacShane reminds us that the reason the Iraq War was allegedly "illegal" was due to a refusal to adopt a second resolution by… a communist Politburo (in Beijing) and a neo-authoritarian close to the Russian oligarchs (in Moscow) — and that, far earlier than the threat of a French veto.
La guerre en Irak a été illégale parce qu'un Politburo communiste en Chine et un néo-autoritaire proche des oligarques à Moscou ont refusé d'adopter une deuxième résolution de l'ONU et ce, bien avant la menace d'un veto francais.

Overruled: Government Invasion of Your Parental Rights


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

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



Sunday, August 14, 2011

The Difference Between Britain and Switzerland

Email from Damian:
No spanking in Britain.


No guns in Britain.


Riots galore in Britain.


No riots in Switzerland!

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


Guns and … chocolate. One doesn't expect a nation occupied with the manufacture of high-grade chocolate to produce union-grade thugs or French "69" style rioters.
Valerie adds:
The Swiss also produce some nice high grade rifles and handguns.

Speaking of encouraging a life with no consequences…

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

Valerie has more:
And then there is this:

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

Courtesy of the blog Wake Up Black America.

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

May this common sense spread.

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

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

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

Euro-Think: a Sampler

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

Get the satanic freemasons out of law-enforcement and from out behind Church pulpits
Once, just ONCE, I'd like to pull the cord on one of these clowns' back and here something different. It's been decades of listening to the same trope, the same vocabulary, the same impotent rage. Can we have some diversity, please!?!
I presume all those paedo priests do believe in an all powerful skyfairy, yet they continue their damnable activities in secret with no shame.
And this doozy, advocating crushing free speech by calling (the mere existence of) a conservative media outlet to be like statist oppression:
In the 1930s, when the Nazis ruled Germany, Reinhard Heydrich was at the head of the Gestapo (the Third Reich's Secret State Police) - an organisation whose major aim was to spy on the German people.

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

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

However, having watched FOX NEWS, I am absolutely sure that balanced reporting of political issues to a broad audience is certainly NOT among the aims of News Corp.
And the source? A conservative British newspaper.
So what are the aims of News Corp.?
And how dangerous is News Corp. for all freedom-loving citizens?
If the sick determinism wasn't so typical, it would be shocking.

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


A Le Monde article by Grégoire Allix comments on a Eurostat graph showing how the EU's population has reached (and risen above, by half a million people) 502,000,000, thanks mainly to immigration. But while many countries have seen increases — even when the natural natality rate was negative — eight countries, including Germany, have seen negative rates of population growth.
…plus que l'accroissement naturel, qui se solde par une hausse de 514 000 habitants (+ 1 ‰), c'est l'immigration qui a contribué à grossir les rangs des Européens : le solde migratoire affiche 854 000 personnes (+ 1,7 ‰). Les dix-sept pays de la zone euro, avec 332 millions d'habitants, accueillent à eux seuls 1 million d'habitants en plus et, signe de leur attrait, bénéficient de l'essentiel du solde migratoire (700 000 personnes).

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

The Elephant and the Donkey Give Birth to a Mouse


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