EUROPEAN ELECTIONS – JUNE 13, 2004-06-13

Today was an important day for the European Union, as it is the culmination of a four-day voting process in which about 14,670 candidates all across Europe compete for 732 5-year EP seats. Officially the elections kicked off on Friday in the UK, the Netherlands, Latvia, Malta, the Czech Republic and Ireland. Today, “Super Sunday”, it’s the turn to the remaining 19 countries (the EU currently consists of 25 countries with some 455 million people).

The pic I took this morning, below, shows you a row of Euroweenies awaiting their turn to cast their vote (in Belgium voting is compulsory). Location is a decrepit school in Deux-Acren, Wallonia. Belgium will send 24 MP's to the European Parliament, 15 of which are Flemings and 9 Wallonians.






I mentioned earlier that in general Europeans are rather lukewarm to participate in these elections. I fear that this is still largely due to our politicians, since most of them still focus on national politics, and hence the European Parliament, or the Commission (the EU’s “government”), for that matter, almost invariably attract second-rank personages, who are as yet unable to present the broader population with a sound perspective of the EU’s purpose and why it is, or should be, good for all of us. The lack of vision was apparent in the slogans with which the candidates campaigned: e.g. Flemish Liberal Annemie Neyts with Woman of the World – Woman for Europe, Spirit (green-red nutcases) minister Bert Anciaux with "For a warm Europe".(!)

A phenomenon that has been marring national elections throughout Europe for the last ten years is the emergence of public showbiz figures, TV anchors, sports stars etc… in politics. Well, this time it looks like the trend has moved to the European scene. If you Americans were a trifle embarrassed with Miz Carey showing up during the California Recall, well, don’t bother, since we Europeans had our own Dolly Buster, a Czech porn star. At first you’d think that this is evened out by the candidacy of her compatriot Vladimir Remek, former Czech astronaut… only the asshat is coming up on the KSCM list, the Czech Communists. Estonia brings up supermodel Carmen Kass, in France the Chairman of Radio France, Jean-Marie Cavada, has stepped down to be able to participate in the elections on UDF’s list – Chirac’s party. And in Italy, popular RAI journalist Lilli Gruber appears on Romano Prodi’s cartel list. Slovenia sport a.o. a soccer champion. In Poland Lech Walesa's son, Jaroslav Walesa, bids for a seat in the EP too, claiming to be a "real liberal". Ouch.

So up until now we have the fuzzy agenda of Europes traditional parties, the presence of high-profile entertainment figures on the lists… are there any other striking characteristics? Well, there seem to be. I mentioned that in six countries elections took place on Friday already. It looks like the parties that inisisted on supporting the US’s policy in Iraq are being punished, given the results of the polls in the UK and The Netherlands. The European public simply does not comprehend that, again, America is fighting its wars, since an American success in Iraq – imposing democracy and encourage it to spread to the neighbouring countires – will in time positively affect the ever increasing flood of malcontent backward Muslim immigrants to the European nannystates. Europeans have generally become absolute wimps, self-possessed, snobby, "sophisticated" (or so they kid themselves), and preoccupied mainly with their social security, wages, tan, holidays or sex life. If you ask me, it will have to become much worse before it gets better.

So I fear that the Parti Socialiste do-gooders, some of whom are depîcted below, are gonna gain again. These are the fine gentlemen who turned Wallonia into an impoverished region where ONE-IN-THREE of the "active" persons is in some kind of state service. I myself voted for the Front National, a Wallonian rightwing party with an anti-immigration agenda. So did my wife.






Results are to be expected in Brussels at 7pm local time, that would early afternoon for you Mainers. I’ll keep you updated.


UPDATE:

Not much to say yet, except that according to the most recent poll results in Belgium, in Flanders the Vlaams Blok gains strong. This is not so incongruous as it seems given my earlier assessment of the Left gaining decisively the upper hand. First of all, the term "gaining strong" in our country does NOT mean a landslide victory - positions are too entrenched and the "swing voter" is not so important as he is in The States. The Vlaams Blok is merely consolidating its position, and the other parties will keep isolating it by vowing never to cooperate with it. Secondly, Iraq was not an issue in Belgium, as it was in the UK, Poland or The Netherlands, since our government chose not to support the US. If the leading party in Belgium, the VLD, is punished, it's mainly because it allowed the others to pass legislation that grants immigrants who refuse to assume our nationality or to assimilate, the right to vote in municipal councils.

In a couple of hours I'll try to give the broader European picture.

Hey you jerks out there, don't wanna keep annoying you but they leave me no choice:

BELGIUM IS LAUNCH PAD FOR TERRORISTS


"The report(from the Belgian Parliament's intelligence committee) said most of the recruits were second and even third generation immigrants, chiefly from North Africa, who appeared to have rejected the Belgian way of life, even though Belgium, like neighbouring Holland, had tried to serve as a model of tolerant integration.

The report concluded that Belgium had become "a logistical support base" for terrorist groups abroad - favoured by bin Laden's al-Qa'eda network, the Algerian Armed Islamic Group GIA, the Wabahi Tabligh movement and the Hamas-linked Muslim Brotherhood.

The FBI complained bitterly after September 11 that the Belgian judiciary was withholding key information needed to track down al-Qa'eda activists before the intelligence leads turned cold.

It has since come to light that leading terrorists have been travelling the world on Belgian passports, either stolen or sold by corrupt officials.

One of the killers of Gen Ahmad Shah Massoud, the leader of Afghanistan's Northern Alliance, carried Belgian documents.

Filip Deman, a leader of the growing anti-immigrant Vlaams Blok movement and a member of the parliamentary investigation, said Belgium's elite coalitions had been brushing the Muslim problem under the carpet for years.

He said: "It was taboo to even talk about it under our code of political correctness, but this report cannot be ignored.""

Never heard about this report in our press. Figure not much was done with it.

But what should I care, soon the Vlaams Blok and its members are going to be outlawed for being racists...

MFBB

The final nail in the coffin of the "No War for Oil" argument.

Joining the Reagan Frenzy

Well, it seems I spoke a little to soon in my earlier comments about the press keeping things classy in regards to Ronald Reagan. The spinfest has begun, with both sides trying to out shout the other so they can put their stamp, or smear as the case may be, on the Reagan legacy. While many on the right are getting pretty heated up about the attempts to degrade Reagan's place in history, I see this as inevitable. In a society as politically polarized as America's is, it is impossible to have a great impact on the world and not infuriate around 50% of the population in the process. Anyone who actually manages to influence real change, as Reagan did, is going to become a demon to half of us.

Is all this debate about a dead president important? You bet it is. While many will write off the back and forth in the media as simple partisan background noise, what's happening here is a struggle to write history. I know first hand how important this is, because for a long time I took as fact many of the things that Reagan's opponents had forced into the public consciousness. Years ago I took for granted that Reagan was pretty stupid, that he personally said it was OK to consider ketchup as a vegetable on school lunch menus, that he was just fine with $500 toilet seats for the military, and that he was seriously outclassed by the wily Gorbachev in their many summit meetings. I specifically remember that last point being pounded home in a PBS documentary. The line went something like this: "a study in contrasts; the sophisticated, worldly Gorbachev, and the awkward bumbling Reagan." Combined with some well edited shots of Reagan looking confused and Gorbachev looking relaxed and confident, that was enough to convince a fairly intelligent 18 year old that the 40th president wasn't all he was cracked up to be. Unfortunately, I had been duped, and it took a lot of years for me to figure it out. When I was older, I caught another documentary on Reagan and Gorbachev on the History Channel. This one relied very heavily on actual interviews with the people involved in the summit meetings (imagine that) rather than an omnipotent voice over to help you to understand what was going on. I was stunned to hear the Russian generals state over and over how they felt as if Reagan took control of the meetings from the very start and that Gorbachev never seemed to get his footing. They also admitted that they thought Jimmy Carter was a complete joke, and that they toyed with him by pretending to be interested in his disarmament ideas just to get him to concede them whatever they wanted. When Reagan was elected, they knew the jig was up.

As with any account of history, there is more than one side to the Reagan legacy. Many of Reagan's critics bring up sound points: Were there illegal dealings in the Iran contra scandal? It's likely there were. Was Reagan slipping a little towards the end of his second term? Maybe. Did he delegate important decisions that he should have been more involved in? Perhaps. These things should be debated and investigated, because we can't learn from our mistakes if we can't figure out if they were ever made or not. But let's not be so petty that we can't accept simple, provable fact. The desperation on the part of some to deny Reagan credit for ending the cold war, among other things, is simply laughable. He did it. There were cameras. There are documents. Accept it and move on. There's plenty not to like about Ronald Reagan, or anyone else for that matter, without having to make things up.

How many men have had a song titled "The Man Who Made Those Pussyfooters and Weaklings Feel Ashamed." written about him by people from a country he helped free?

Ronald Reagan did.

Now THIS is art. I bought this fine triple portrait at a discount store in the early 90's for $5. It was one of about 200 in the box. I know I could get at least $3.50 for it now. This wonderful Sally Evans pastel was very useful for confusing crunchy art students who saw it in my apartment when I was in art school in the early 90's. Since then it has adorned the men's room at Artifact, my former company in Atlanta, GA. It now resides in my permanent collection of high art in my office.

It's nice to see that Reagan's legacy seems to be surviving the onslaught to make him look like he was an inept fool while in The White House. There's a lot of people who's ideological universes don't make sense with an intelligent Ronald Reagan in existence. As for me, I think he is one of the best examples of the right man at the right time in American history.

Art.

George Tenet resigns. Not that you can blame all of the bad things that have happened on his watch on him, but this has been a long time coming. You have to think there was more than a little suggestion going on within the Bush admin to get Tenet out before the election. I'll bet this guy's blood pressure drops 80 points after he is officially out.

Abolish War

My family and I went to our local Memorial Day parade in Brunswick, Maine on Monday. In addition to the usual military representatives, high school bands, local clubs, etc. marching in the parade, there was one float titled "Peace is Patriotic." I couldn't tell who the sponsor of the float was, but suffice it to say it was some kind of peace activist organization. They were all wearing black, and their float consisted of a black flatbed covered in a grid of white crosses, simulating a cemetery. While I was sort of amused by the cone of silence that overcame the crowd as the float passed by (pretty much every other float was getting at least polite applause) I really didn't have much of a problem with this float. They were displaying the American flag, which surprised me, and they refrained from the immature "Bush is Hitler" type slogans. A message of peace doesn't seem contradictory to the celebration of Memorial Day, even if these folks were pushing their agenda as opposed to honoring the true spirit of the day.

One thing that did bother me (you knew there had to be something) was a banner that some of the members of this group carried. Written on the banner were the words "Abolish War." The more I thought about it, the more this irritated me. Just what the hell does "Abolish War" mean anyway? Do these people really think that is some kind of solution? That's kind of like saying "make happiness mandatory." Nice thought, but completely outside of reality, and not a solution to anything. (The question comes to mind that if you pass a law abolishing war, and someone breaks it, how do you enforce the law? Perhaps a UN resolution?)

I don't know too many people who actually like war. While I realize political slogans are often oversimplified for impact, it's scary to think there are people out there that vote who think that the world is so simple that you can just be completely passive and all of the evil bastards around the globe will have a revelation and give up their Jihads based on your fine example. Pacifism is nice for winning little moral victories inside your own head, but historically its track record for encouraging evil is frightening. Abolish war? Let's abolish stupidity first.

------------------

This is what you get when you work a 14 hour day and are too wired to sleep. Hopefully I won't regret this in the morning...

Ok, normally I don't elaborate this long on a given subject but since the following upset me very much at the time it happened I thought I'd answer these questions from Larry:

1.)Is this devastation of free speech indicative of your surrounding EU members?

Well, in May 2002 there was this Dutch rightwing politican Pim Fortuyn who dared say that The Netherlands were "full" (having absorbed more than its share of non-integrating immigrants and with 16,000,000 people crammed on 36,000 square kloms, I can understand that).


He was shot dead by Volkert Van Der Graaff, a 32-year old Radical Green-Left activist.

"Fortuyn, 54, was shot in the head and chest at least three times at close range at 6 p.m. Monday as he was leaving a radio station in Hilversum, 20 kilometers (12 miles) southeast of Amsterdam."

"Fortuyn, an openly gay former TV analyst, was a plain-speaking politician who targeted fears over immigration. Saying that the Netherlands was "full up," he criticized Muslims for not embracing Dutch culture."

Members of Fortuyn's party apparently had reason to be afraid too.

Okay, it's old news now, but it is says a lot of the way things have become for anyone who dares challenge the established views of the politically correct elites. But slowly, times are changing: France recently banned some extremsit clerics, Denmark put legislation into effect restricting the influx of radical Imams, and the Dutch will expel 26,000 illegals over the coming three years (it really, really has become too bad over there). From what I see, it's rather Belgium that, as so often, is at the tail of the movement to address the immigrant problem in a thorough way.


2.) Michael- I find this information mind-boggling.
Stephen Pollard's site mentioned the Vlaams Blok(VB)party advocates secession from Belgium and the establishment of a Republic of Flanders...Could you elaborate a little on that?
Where will conservatives seek refuge when sharia law is instituted if secession is not realized?

Well, I'm glad you bring that one up Larry. It is indeed true that the Vlaams Blok advocates nothing less than the breakup of Belgium as a nation and the creation of an independent Flanders. To be sure, I am against that. We are already so small a country, why divide it even further? It is however important to consider their rationale for such a bold claim. Flanders, the northern, Dutch-speaking part of Belgium, DOES transfer huge sums of Social Security money to sick brother Wallonia, the southern, French-speaking, purely socialist run part of Belgium. I think the amount per 4-person household has been calculated as being something in the neighborhood of the price of a small family car, say a Ford Orion, every four years.

Basically Flanders keeps Wallonia afloat through an imbalanced redistribution of federal funds. The federal government is raking in much more from Flanders than it does from Wallonia and then diverts it mostly to Wallonia - small wonder, in Wallonia 1 active person in three "works" for the state, the other two depend on social security. Marc Dutroux, this horrible child molester and murderer, who was just dandy, had somehow managed to get himself declared unfit for work and got 80,000 Belgian francs per month (some 2,000 US$) from Social Security - NOT KIDDING!!!

Still I think breaking up Belgium would be a bad idea. You might ask why I have joined the Vlaams Blok. Well, because it was the only party that vehemently OPPOSED granting the right to vote for municipal councils to non-Belgian immigrants - read the hundreds of thousands of Moroccans, Tunisians, Algerians and Turks who live here since decades but of whom a majority still does not speak our language, of whom many don't abide by our laws (slaughtering animals at home during Ramadan, e.g., although law says they should do it in one of the designated slaughterhouses etc...).

For me the point about the voting right is right now much more important than the Vlaams Blok's unrealistic claim that Belgium should cease to exist - it will never happen, a grand majority of Belgians like it just as it is.

I ran across this today, and I feel compelled to make an announcement: McDonald's isn't bad. Their food isn't really even bad for you, believe it or not. Like so many other things demonized as being "bad" (fast food, TV, video games, etc.) by those who seek to remove all fun from life, it is the excessive consumption of said item that can lead to problems. You will die faster on an all broccoli diet than you will on an all Big Mac diet, so where is the anti broccoli movement? The fact that the children in this story were denied a little treat just so a few pompous asses could proudly display their moral superiority is particularly infuriating. I suppose simply not accepting the food vouchers of using them to purchase a salad simply wasn't acceptable. Better to force everyone to accept your great wisdom than to allow people to make their own choices.

Yeah, I know, this isn't exactly a world changing event, but you see this kind of thought, or lack thereof, all the time and it's total bullshit. As someone wise once said, it's amazing how many people see democracy as a way to turn their own personal prejudices into laws.

Larry F. wrote: “Michael, what are the chances of you starting your own "talk-radio" show in Flanders?”

Zilch Larry. The following is a story about a fellow who had a talk-radio show of his own (scroll down till you get to "Kritishe talkshow afgevoerd"). I’m talking about Jurgen Verstrepen, whose show “Zwart of Wit” (Black or White) was broadcast every Sunday afternoon on Radio Contact and LibertyTV. The motto of his talkshow was “Freedom of Speech by all means”. The show gave, a.o., a voice to the many disgruntled Belgians living in Brussels or Antwerp neighborhoods with a majority of foreigners. Sometime in February, Radio Contact decided not to broadcast the show anymore, and LibertyTV stated that it does want to cooperate further with Mr. Verstrepen, but only when non-political issues are treated. I might add that Mr. verstrepen’s talkshow’s format followed a pattern which seems to be popular in the States: a multitude of telephonic interventions by listeners, followed by anitmated studio discussions with a political panel.

This is the second time that Mr. Verstrepen’s voice is stifled: the previous version of his show, broadcast on Kanaal2 and TopRadio, was suspended in 2001. Here’s a comment on that by NRC Handelsblad, which is a widely respected Dutch newspaper (yes, the news was important enough to be reported in The Netherlands): “But Verstrepen also writes political commentaries on an Internet newssite. Or rather: wrote. Because he’s stopped with that just lately. There was pressure on him, he says, by the Prime Minister’s circle. If Verstrepen should continue with his “shitty business in those columns”, so he was assured by left and right, then “the Prime Minister would make sure not a single political authority would appear in his TV show”.

Anyway, Mr. Verstrepen apparently had to shut up for introducing people on a radio show who dared to say that immigrants should assimilate and that if not they could return. Somewhere in March Mr. Verstrepen joined the Vlaams Blok, a Flemish nationalistic party which the political establishment over here demonises as “extreme right” but which has an agenda that has actually quite a few similarities to the one of the Republican Party in the States. Some of you may remember that I actually joined the Vlaams Blok back in February, because all other parties had agreed to grant the right to non-Belgian immigrants to vote in municipal elections (which implies that if you happen to live as a Belgian in a neighbourhood with a majority of, say, Moroccans or Tunisians, you’re likely to see your tax euros go to a new mosque rather than to that desperately needed municipal playground.






The photo shows him during the press-conference, where he was sided by Filip Dewinter and Frank Vanhecke, leading figures of the Vlaams Blok. Behind him you can just make out part of the slogan “13 juni, een kwestie van vrije meningsuiting” (June 13, a matter of Free Speech), the motto under which the Vlaams Blok participates in the upcoming June 13 European elections.

But alas, Mr. Verstrepen again had no luck. Hardly had he joined the ranks of the Vlaams Blok, or, surprise: the Court of Appeal in Ghent ruled that the Vlaams Blok was a racist organization (arrest from April 2004). To be sure, the Vlaams Blok welcomes any immigrant who wants to integrate in our society, i.e. that he/she learns our language, behaves like agood citizen and contributes to our wealth. Non-assimilating ones should return or stay home, simply put. Anyway, for having had the audacity to say that, the Vlaams Blok was rewarded with the (heavy) fining of three of its supporting organizations, and steps are now being taken to make the distribution of Party publications, leaflets etc… via the Belgian Postal System impossible. In a later stadium the financing of the Party by the state (in Belgium political parties receive a donation from the state) will be suspended – although that may take some years yet. Find out more about the story on Stephen Pollard's blog: I've seen the future: it's scary and it's Belgian. Recommended reading.

Interesting to note that the Vlaams Blok threatens to be declared a criminal organization while the Antwerp-based Arab European League, led by former Hezbollah member Dyab Abu Jahjah, can freely threaten the Antwerp Jewish-owned Diamond Sector with bomb attacks by Hamas.

They also wanted to get a militant Pakistani cleric with al-Qaeda ties to Antwerp to give a speech, but luckily the guy intended to visit The Netherlands first. As could be expected the Dutch government refused the fucker a visa, upon which the Belgian government was somehow able to muster sufficient courage to do the same. But only barely. Hear the AEL whine about the affair over here.

This is Belgium Larry. No, I'm not gonna start a radio talk show.

With all of the talk of another major attack on our soil this summer, I thought it would be an appropriate time for a little reflection. Below are two links to articles written by Thomas Sowell a couple days after the attacks of 9/11. They will certainly bring you back, which I believe is a good thing. So many people have forgotten the essence of that day, or have reworked it in their minds to better fit their ideology. Sowell nails a few predictions in these pieces while dispensing his usual wisdom in the process. My favorite prediction:

"No doubt any further acts of terror after the administration's response will be blamed on that response, even though such terrorist acts were probably already planned before the administration did anything. But escaping blame is a major preoccupation in Washington, so the response may be inadequate, for fear of being considered excessive by "world opinion." But when members of your family are dying, you don't worry about what the neighbors will say."

Sept. 13, 2001

Sept. 14, 2001

Here's one from the "you won't see this in the mainstream news" file. Why talk about this when we can show those Abu Ghraib pictures for the hundredth time...

Here's another installment from our new pal Kevin...

Hi everyone. Thanks for letting me participate. It's been
fun...gulp...sharing different ideas and perspectives with everyone. Next
up, I'll tell ya' why Bush is going to lose the election...


MY POINTS AND IDEAS/SOLUTIONS

Okay, here are a few of the points I have made today in our discussion. I'd
like to summarize so you don't think my postings were "pointless", and per
Frizzle's request, list some general ideas that could help change things:

-THERE IS A COST FOR EVERYTHING. My point is that everything has a ying and
yang. Every single thing we do affects others in some way. So, knowing
this and keeping it in our conscious mind when making decisions goes a long
way to improving everything...everywhere. This is just basic personal
responsibility, but brought into corporate boardrooms, as well. SOLUTIONS:
We should put as much thought into the consequences of our actions as we do
energy into the actions themselves. Alternatives will never show themselves
unless necessity dictates or we put great effort into improvements.

-THE LARGER THE COMPANY, THE MORE DISCONNECTED ARE THE DECISION-MAKERS. I
think this is inevitable with large companies, so they have to work even
harder to stay in touch with what got you to that place. Most small
businesses don't have a problem, because they have their hands on their
products every day and are talking with their customers. It's not so easy
for large companies. SOLUTIONS: How about doing it like UPS does it? Every
couple of years, every employee at any level has to go and work a couple
days at a shipping plant...unloading trucks, moving boxes, etc. This is a
great "out of the box" idea that some companies would laugh at, but it's
worked well for UPS for a century. I talk to employees all the time who
don't even know their own products as well as I know them...sad. I don't
get this at mom and pop shops...

-SOME REGULATIONS SUCH AS ZONING AREN'T BAD AS LONG AS THEY ARE EQUAL FOR
EVERYONE. It's like putting a salary cap on the NFL teams...competition is
no worse off with it. Matter of fact, it is the most competitive league in
pro sports. As long as everyone plays by the same rules, I think it's okay
to make or even remake the rules to achieve other goals like smart growth,
beautification projects, etc. SOLUTIONS: ALWAYS be consistent across the
board when changing or putting down new rules/laws. Do not create so many
that it takes away the entrepreneurial spirit and ability for businesses to
function/maintain profitability. (Profitability...not 100x.)

-A COMMUNITY OF SMALL BUSINESSES VS A SUPER-BUSINESS. I still think it is
far healthier for a community to have several hardware stores, several
coffee shops and several movie theaters versus a Starbucks, a Home Depot and
a Megaplex. You may pay a few more cents at a small place, but it is
CONNECTED to your community. (See above.) The decision-makers are living
next door to you. This has to be better...maybe not cheaper, but better.
SOLUTIONS: Local and state governments should stop with such HUGE incentives
for the big boys and instead give the tax breaks to the small businesses.
Every town should have some sort of incubator program for small, homegrown
businesses, rather than giving enormous breaks to Walmart. (But they'll
employ 100's? Yeah, the same 100 people they are putting out of work from
the local small shops.)

-FRIZZLE CAN'T SPELL TERRORISM. SOLUTION? Send that boy to school. Oh and
Frizz, for the record? I think you have it wrong in saying (in jest)
Americans are ignorant. Blinded by riches and wealth? Maybe, but not
ignorant.


PS-I didn't do this to "throw water on the fire." This was a planned email
from weeks ago and just coincidentally was sent after our debate today. :-)

Hi Kevin, welcome aboard. I'm the nutty Belgian. On the pic below you see me with my late uncle (PBU). Some evil character on this blog likes to accuse me of wearing a cheesy hairpiece but you can clearly see that ain't the case. The bozos who run this place hired me back in November to provide them with, hahaaaaa, fasten your seatbelts, useful info on the EU and stuff and boy did they wish they could turn back time!

Kevin, don't get intimidated by these shameful greedy slimeballs. I for one recognized a soulmate. These are the quotes the dimwits failed to notice:

"I love making money..."

"I know all you guys are very pro-big business. That's fine..."

"Big biz is great..."


Son, I NEVER confused you with the likes of Chris Martin (ecofella who wed Gwyneth Paltrow and who also sings), who put this ephemeral wisdom on his CD (A Rush of Blood to the Head) (the only thing making sense in this title being Rush):

"For countries to develop or even survive they need to be able to trade fairly. At the moment poorer countries are strangled by ridiculous international trade laws and ruthless western businesses, keeping millions trapped in poverty and widening the gap between rich and poor."

ROFLMAOPIMPTIME!!!!

Ladies and Gentlemen, like me Kevin is NOT a Chris Martin aficionado, (well... except for his music maybe because the fella has talent in that field). Kevin is like me, he wants to put a humane face on big development and capitalism WITHOUT making it impossible for it to thrive. In one of the previous comments I elaborated a little on the concept of "Ruimtelijjke Ordening" (again, how would you call that in your language?). Fact is, whereas twenty-five years ago businesses great and small in Flanders could do just about anything (like storing a huge deadly cocktail of dangerous chemicals and explosives in the heart of Ghent), they are now mostly grouped together on neat industrial zonings. This required legislation, true. It required financial efforts - from the authorities (buying and readying the terrains) - and from the companies (relocating). But guess what? Today investors great and small wouldn't want to be anywhere else than on these zonings. Access is easy (delivering raw materials, transporting finished stuff), the personnel can get there much more easily using public transport (bus stops in the zonings), and to some extent there is mutual enrichment. Of course we shouldn't forget the additional bonuses of not having the city clogged by heavy transport, plus that the visual pollution is kept to a minimum (zonings shielded off by shrub and larger trees), preservation of our scarce landscapes elsewhere.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I can't help but thinking that you, me and Kevin are basically on the same side of the fence, one only being a little more radical than the other. Big business' role as a nationwide provider of jobs, wealth and added value should be recognized and preserved. If they weren't there the socialist charities would have nothing to distribute (a fact they often tend to forget). On the other hand, if our companies can sustain it, why not gently require them - make that encourage them - to help us to make our countries not only rich but also pleasant to live in. Lke Scott said, living and working in a suburban sprawl ain't fun.

MFBB

Ladies and gentlemen, I'd like to introduce you to my friend Kevin (his last name has been witheld to protect the innocent.) He's been lurking on our site for a while and is making his debut post today in reaction to my comments below regarding Atlanta, development, etc. Please welcome Kevin to the mix; he's sure to provide a different point of view on many topics. Let the debate begin!

Here's Kevin's post:

The overdevelopment of Atlanta and many other cities is a great example (and
product of) the downside of extreme wealth in this country and the focus on
money, money, money. I love making money...but at what expense? If
anything, we Americans know that there is COST FOR EVERYTHING!

All businesses begin by smart, hardworking people that take on an area that
they know something about and do it better and/or cheaper than everyone
else. But, as they accumulate wealth, it's quite natural to get more distant
from what got them there in the first place. The more distant...the more
soulless, imo. Suddenly, it's all about profits ONLY and there is no
cultural or personal return.

As they make more, they can venture into other businesses for profit only,
where they really have no experience, skills, or love of the concept. But
they do have money, so they can afford to make mistakes, burn bridges and
piss people off. None of this would ever work with a small business.

Years ago, people would work on the places they lived...the places they
walked by each day. These days, developers are so disconnected from the
area, that there is no real pride in the work and what their work does for
people, but instead a sole focus on money. How many developers do you think
live in the area that they developed? How many of these developers are even
based in Atlanta?? I bet very, very few. What do they care about the city?
As long as their execs can buy that Hummer they've been eyeing...

So, I know all you guys are very pro-big business. That's fine. But, we
reap what we sow, and we can't forget that. Atlanta is a great example of
how relatively few people made a ton of money while developing the hell out
of a city. Stand still too long and you'll have a billboard painted on your
ass.

I now live in Raleigh...a place where zoning has outlawed all billboards.
There are none in this city. And yet...all the businesses are still on a
level/equal playing field and the place is beautiful. Competition is just
as alive here, but without all the visual pollution. How is this zoning
bad?

Big biz is great, but don't any of you get frustrated with the many negative
products it puts out? I sure do. Are we all certain that our way is the
best way? We are the richest, aren't we? Is that better?

Brought down to a human level...I see a whole lot of corporate clowns every
day that are far richer than me...but, I wouldn't trade places with them for
anything. Ya' think there are countries out there that think that way about
us?

Ok, so I just got back from 6 days in Atlanta, GA for my brother's wedding. I was going to post a history of Atlanta, but I don't think I could equal Michael's brilliance, so you'll just have to look it up. I will say that one of my heroes, William Tecumseh Sherman, burned the city down in the civil war. This event is still blamed for Atlanta being somewhat of a cultural wasteland in the eyes of some.

As far as the trip goes, I'm glad it's over. I had to give the best man's speech, which means I was not able to relax all week until the speech was over. I think I did pretty well; I even got away with a Jewish joke in front of a mostly Jewish crowd: "The name Frizzle is actually an old Yiddish word that loosely translates into 'gentiles from the north.'" I got laughs.

I lived in Atlanta for 9 years, and I can confidently say that overall I am glad that I left. Not that Atlanta doesn't have a lot going for it, but it's just too damned hot for too damned long, and has some of the worst suburban sprawl you could ever imagine. Our hotel was right in the middle of this mess, and it is depressing as hell to face that every day. I had forgotten what road rage was like until I had to face 8 lanes of motionless traffic again. Too many people living too close together. Good barbecue and Mexican food, though.

Anyway, I'm back and ready to blog. I've also decided that it should be a law that all homes and public places have wireless internet. I REALLY missed that.

'Only nuclear power can now halt global warming'. And this from a greenie. This ought to throw the enviroweenies into a tizzy.

POLISH JOURNEY - PART I - SOME HISTORY.

As some of you may know by now, I’m married to a Polish girl from Wroclaw, which is Poland’s fourth largest city (pop. appr. 600,000), located in the southwest. Every year in April we go there to visit my mother-in-law and brother-in-law and to celebrate Easter. I thought I’d share some hard info plus some personal experiences with you, as, after all, in the present struggle in Iraq Poland is still one of your key allies. Also, Poland recently joined the EU (May 1st), together with nine other countries, and since somehow the emerging EU will be a reality the US will increasingly have to take into account, rather than the separate constituent nations, this is another reason Poland deserves some attention.




Poland is a republic with capital Warsaw, a surface of 312,685 square kloms and a population of 38,6 million, thus making it about three quarters the size of California, but with California, on the other hand, having only roughly three quarters of Polands population.


Polands history begins in 966 with Prince Mieszko I converting to Christianity (the word “Poland” stems from the Polish word “Pole”, which means field or plain). King Kazimierz The Great (Kazimierz Wielki, 1333-1370) established a.o. the famous University of Krakow (1364). The year 1386 saw the birth of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth under King Wladyslaw Jagiello. This Commonwealth officially became the Polish-Lithuanian United Republic in 1596 and was the greatest European Kingdom at the time, stretching from the Baltic to the Black Sea. The pre-1500 period saw struggles with the Teutonic Knights, the Germans being then already a rather trigger-happy folk. Economically, politically and culturally Poland knew its golden age in the 16th Century.


An important document from this era is the so-called Privilege of Radom (1505), a document issued by King Aleksander granting rights and privileges, somewhat comparable to the English Magna Carta (1215). Another very important document is the Parliamentary Constitution of 1543, written in that year in a Sejm session in Krakow (the old seat of the Polish Kings - today the Polish Parliament is still called “Sejm”). And yet another very liberal evolution came about with the Warsaw Confederation (Jan. 28, 1573), a charter granting absolute religious freedom. An important King in this time frame is King Sigismund I (1506-1548).

The 17th and 18th Century saw the Kingdom gradually weakened as a result of internal turmoils (an important King being Jan III Sobieski, latter half of the 17th Century - the chap got immortalized with his name being taken for a famous brand of cigarettes). By the end of the 18th Century Poland had become so unstable that it was an easy prey for the three upcoming superpowers of the time, Prussia under Frederick The Great, Russia under Catharina The Great and Austria's Maria Theresia. The process of the cutting up of Poland is known as the Polish Divisions, the first one in 1772 and the second one in 1793. Polish patriotism spawning a figure like Tadeusz Kosciuszko, a revolt took place the year after, which even knew a resounding military victory over the Russians during the Battle of Raclawica (1794), impressively depicted in the famous 360° mural painting exhibited in the Panorama Raclawica in Wroclaw, which I was able to see during my first visit to Poland. Worldwide there's only a handful of such paintings (another one being in Waterloo in my country), so if you happen to visit Wroclaw, don't miss it.

This Polish victory over the Russians was short-lived however, because 1795 saw the Third Division take place and thus the final demise of the great Polish-Lithuanian nation, an event that was formally "ratified" at the 1815 Vienna Congress.

Poland had to wait till 1918 before emerging as a nation again. The Poland of the interbellum (the years between the First and Second World Wars) had a shape which was distinctively different from the shape on the map above, namely 200km further to the east and the eastern portion jutting out northwards. A famous strongman was Marshal Pilsudski, who led Polands armies succesfully in a war with Ukraine in the early 1920s, Poland even briefly occupying Kiev. It was also Pilsudski who at a very early stage saw the intrinsic danger of Nazi Germany, urging France and the UK to wage a preemptive war in 1935 already. Too bad political correctness is not only a phenomenon of our times, so Poland got carved up a fourth time in 1939 between Hitler and Stalin, despite heroic resistance with outdated equipment. Poland suffered greatly in the Second World War, with nearly 6 million Poles killed. However, many of its soldiers fought on major European fronts and in key battles (Monte Cassino, Arnhem).

After WWII Poland shifted two hundred kilometres to the West and got its shape as shown in the above map. A.o. large portions of German Silesia became Polish, as well as the key city of Breslau, which became... Wroclaw. The photo below shows Wroclaws Main Square, Rynek in Polish.





Th most important head of State of the post-Stalin era was Party Leader Gomulka, who was initially relatively liberal-minded. Student revolts in 1968 and a workers revolt in 1970 in Gdansk forced him to step down and in his place came the pragmatic Edward Gierek, who sought an opening to the West and was a man of compromise but who nevertheless remained loyal to Moscow. 1980 saw the emergence of the Free Union "Solidarnosc" under Gdansk shipyard electrician Lech Walesa. His demands met initially with few resistance from the government, until General Jaruzelski brutally assumed power in 1981, declared martial law and imprisoned the key members of the new movement. It is said that by doing so he prevented a Russian invasion.

...(to be continued)...

BWEEEUUUUUAAAAARRRRRKKKK!!!!!

Ok, I've had it. Send in a Blackhawk. Like I said, bank sharply north over Paris; continue for some 250 kloms; prominent terrain features are two low hills and a river. I'll light a big fire in my garden. We would like to take our cat with us too.

The UAW loses another one. Let's hope this is one more nail in the coffin of this dinosaur.

For those who were participating in the conversation about the FairTax below, here's the response I received from one of their representatives regarding the repeal of the 16th amendment:

Dear Scott,

       Hello, I'm District Coordinator for the 18th Congressional District in PA and your question was forwarded to me for a response.

       With respect to the 16th Amendment.........there are several points we need to cover.  I understand your concern......and shared it at one time......but I now believe it to be unfounded.

       First,  You correctly observe that there is nothing stopping the government from implementing a sales tax while retaining / maintaining the income tax now.  Indirect, consumption based taxation (National Sales Tax) was in fact what the Founders envisioned for the US......and it's written into the body of the Constitution.  All the 16th Amendment really does is permit the Fed's to go further, and allows for the DIRECT, UNAPPORTIONED taxation of our income.  The 16th Amendment is what allows them to reach into your paycheck before you've seen a dime of it, and feast on the first fruits of your labor....and it must be repealed, in time.

       Second, you also correctly observe that HR 25 does not repeal the 16th Amendment directly because only a simple majority is required to pass this tax act........but a SUPER majority is required to pass a Constitutional Amendment.  We don't want to stall the passage of this bill, which will abolish the IRS and the Internal Revenue Code  (those are two very important goals of HR 25) while waiting for a Constitutional Amendment to pass.  So, you are correct, passage of HR 25 without the repeal of the 16th Amendment will leave the door open to future, direct, unapportioned, taxation of income.

       Third,  We have been told by House Majority Leader, Tom Delay, that he will use some procedural device, which I confess I do not fully understand, to link the two bills (HR 25 and Repeal of the 16th Amendment) so that effectively one will not become law without the other.  I confess to having a disagreement of opinion on this point........as I believe that the abolition of the IRS and repeal of Title 26 of the US Code (Internal Revenue Code) are laudable goals in their own right.  Even if, you assume for sake of argument, that the US Congress decided to re-impose the Income tax on some disfavored group........it couldn't possibly be any worse than what we have today. 

       I passed the CPA exam in 1992, and for the last 5 years I've been a student at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh........studying Taxation and Law.  God willing, I will graduate next June with a dual degree......MS Taxation and a J.D.  I've spent a lot of time and money studying this monstrosity.........and I am absolutely convinced that if you set about the task of designing a complex, convoluted, inefficient, burdensome system of taxation.........you couldn't do any better than what we currently inflict upon ourselves.  In my humble opinion, Title 26 and the IRS must go even if we do not repeal the 16th Amendment immediately.

       Worst case scenario as I see it, is that HR 25 fails to pass, and we are left with this mess.  A slightly better scenario involves passage of HR 25 and the imposition of a sales tax with a significantly streamlined income tax (Remember, HR 25 repeals all but a small piece of Title 26), better yet......a sales tax with no income tax in place but with the 16th amendment in place.......best solution.........a sales tax concurrent with repeal of the 16th.  There is a spectrum of possibilities here.  I guess the best analogy I can use is to a war with a series of battles........I think we need to fight each battle in turn........and win the war by winning the battles...hence we need to pass HR 25 if at all possible.

       I hope I've answered your question.......if not, please feel free to reply. 

All the best,  Betty Male, PA - 18th Congressional District Coordinator

Liberals believe that Fox News must be stopped becuase of it's right wing slant. They are wrong. Fox News must be stopped because they keep Geraldo Rivera on the air. What a clown...

I once saw a Twilight Zone episode where some people in a normal, everyday American town become convinced that aliens (the outer space kind, not the kind that get amnesty) have landed near their neighborhood. As time goes on they become increasingly paranoid, and as night falls they begin to turn on each other, even though nobody can be sure if they have actually seen an alien. The episode ended with two aliens observing the interaction of the humans, and they say something to the effect of "you see, we will just let them destroy themselves." I can't help but think we're doing them same thing sometimes in the war on terror. Victor Davis Hanson echos this sentiment here.

Those who frequent DowneastBlog know that I am an enthusiastic supporter of the FairTax, a proposal to abolish our current tax system and replace it with a national retail sales tax. I'm on their mailing list, and lately there has been some great news regarding the progress of this proposal. It has been officially proposed in the House by Rep. John Linder (R) Georgia, and in the Senate by Saxby Chambliss (R) Georgia and Zell Miller (D) Georgia.

Recently House majority leader Tom DeLay has gotten behind the FairTax bill, officially known as H.R. 25, and has made his intentions clear to put this bill on the front burner. This idea was once thought to be too radical to ever see the light of day, but it's acceptance in the house and senate has been impressive. In a recent meeting between congressman Linder and Alan Greenspan, Greenspan stated that he thought the proposal was a good idea, but that the biggest obstacle to its adoption would be governmental inertia. Indeed, such sweeping reforms are often seen as too difficult to pass, so it is very hard to get members of the legislative branch to act to further such a bill. However, with the current momentum of this bill, it looks like there is a good chance that this could happen. While there will be the usual opposition to those who prefer our current "progressive" system of taxation, the fact that H.R. 25 is designed to support all current government programs gives it a fighting chance of getting support on both sides of the aisle.

I encourage all of you to check out the FairTax website and look at the details of this proposal and get behind this revolutionary idea. I believe that it would have an incredibly positive effect on all Americans, and would go a long way to getting this country back in line with what it's founders intended.

God bless the governor of Maryland.

Way to go Kerry! (The good Kerry, my wife. Not the evil, French looking clown from Massachusetts). It's not every day you're mentioned by name on NRO's Corner.

It's curious how the Iraqis don't seem to be as upset as our own media is about the prison abuses. Don't hold your breath waiting to read this in the mainstream media.

For those who think that I'm simply one-sourcing this, head on over to the Iraqi blogs and read similar accounts first hand.

I know this is a photoshopped picture but I love it anyway:

So it's looking like this prison abuse thing is actually turning out to be the issue that is going to stick on this administration. The Democrats have thrown everything but the kitchen sink at the president, but thus far nothing has seemed to resonate much with the American people, until now. Of course, we're all appalled with what happened in those prisons, but a lot can be told from people's reactions to this event. Some of us want the perpetrators of those acts punished, along with those in the chain of command who knew of these procedures. We'd also like to see this done quickly and decisively so that we can begin to repair the damage done to our image in that region, and get on with making this great undertaking work. There are others who would like to see this scandal continue to develop like a festering wound so that it drags down the entire administration and our efforts in Iraq as well. These people would gladly hand Iraq to the mad mullahs just to get the current president out of office, and they believe this scandal is their means to that end. Their concern is not for the Iraqis who were abused, or for the population of Iraq in general, or for our own soldiers. These are just tools to be used to further a political agenda. Where was the outrage when Saddam Hussein was committing acts far worse than this on his own people? Where was the outrage when millions were being slaughtered in Rwanda? Where was the outrage when American civilians were being killed and their bodies dragged through the streets just a few weeks ago? We're supposed that the left has reached their breaking point over acts that, let's face it, probably occur in our own prisons on a daily basis? Please, the selective morality is truly sickening.

Let's fix the problem, but let's not lose sight of the big picture here. There's no doubt in my mind that these acts will cost the lives of American soldiers. The longer the scandal goes on, the more our servicemen are at at increased risk. Perhaps those calling for resignations and yet another ridiculous congressional hearing should consider this fact before engaging in more petty political maneuvering.

Morons, Evil Bastards, and Uncle Toms

As we discuss the rise of the political left over the last century, I feel compelled to talk about what I feel is one of their most brilliant achievements: their ability to characterize their ideological and political opponents. Over the years, those who have chosen not to follow the teachings of the left have been automatically placed by the media and liberal intelligentsia into three distinct categories: Morons, Evil Bastards and Uncle Toms.

The first and most popular classification for the great unwashed is of course, Morons. This group is reserved for those who just don't have the mental capacity to grasp the complexities and nuance of the liberal path. The left looks down on this group mostly with pity, although Morons that manage to rise to power receive the full brunt of liberal scorn. Those classified as Morons by the left include our current president, all NASCAR fans, all gun owners, and pretty much everyone who was in the first two thirds of the class to be picked for a team in gym class. Liberals would like to put all non-believers into this category, but some notable exceptions make it necessary to add two more.

The next category contains the Evil Bastards. This group is much smaller than the mass of Morons, and is reserved for those who clearly display a powerful intellect, but for some reason do not walk The Path. Personalities like Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld fall into this group. While liberals would like to place these guys into the Morons club, they always seem to have intelligent, if insensitive and outrageous things to say, so it just wouldn't fly to call them Morons. What other explanation could there be for their behavior other than evil itself? The Evil Bastards are perhaps the most hated group of disbelievers, since they have the faculties to grasp the great tenets of Liberalism, but choose (how dare they) not to.

The last group is a special one that Liberals were reluctant to create due to their overwhelming compassion. However, tough times demand tough action, so here we have the Uncle Toms. The Uncle Tom's are people of color who normally would have been grouped into one of the other two categories, but due to the scriptures of political correctness, cannot be classified in such ways. Since it is immoral for liberals to criticize a person of color, the only explanation for these people's behavior is that they have been somehow confused or coerced into supporting the wrong side. This is an elegant solution, as any criticism of an Uncle Tom is automatically transferred to the Morons or Evil Bastards who corrupted him, which alleviates the Liberals of any guilty feelings about criticizing a person of color. Colin Powell and Condoleeza Rice are the most well known Uncle Toms, although their ranks are growing, much to the alarm and dismay of the liberal intelligentsia.

As you listen to liberal politicians pontificate or watch our left leaning media faithfully bring us the "news," notice how neatly they fall in line with this system. What better way to engage an opponent intellectually than to make them somehow instantly inferior, as if their opinion should be instantly discounted just because they didn't pass through this all-purpose liberal filter. Then you can pretty much say anything you want, since facts cease to become facts in the liberal universe when they come from Morons, Evil Bastards, and Uncle Toms.

Victor Davis Hanson gets it right yet again.

This clown needs a serious beating.

Here's more random thoughts from Thomas Sowell. There's more wisdom on this one page than in 99% of the books you will ever read.

Let's start a benevolent dictatorship tomorrow with Thomas Sowell as the supreme leader.

Aaarrggghhhh!!!! That'd be only fifty-five kloms from me!!!

Meanwhile at Knack, the leading magazine in Flanders and self-acclaimed Champion of Objective News:



The title in bold, "BUSH MAG AFZWAAIEN" can be freely translated as: "BUSH CAN DISAPPEAR NOW."

The caption just underneath "De oorlog in Irak dreigt niet alleen Saddam Hoessein de kop de kosten" means "The war in Iraq threatens to cost not only Saddam Husayn's head."

The text in bold at the bottom of the page "Nog nooit heeft de wereld zo verlangd naar het einde van een presidentschap, als naar dat van George W. Bush" reads "Never before the world has longed that much for the end of a presidency as for that of George W. Bush."

From the March 24, 2004 excrement, erm, issue.


It was a fertile spring, here are some more pearls of wisdom:

* Massud Barzani quote "Our confidence has been used up" in bold, article copied from Der Spiegel, March 24
* Abu Bakar Bashir quote: "I pray that Allah will destroy the US", interview of Knack correspondent Alexander Weissink in Jakarta with said gentleman. Header in fat bold capitals., April 14
* From the same interview: "The Americans are very good in cheating people.", in bold
* Another article in the same excrement, erm, issue: "The criminal in George B. Junior", with a kindly provided link to http://www.brusselstribunal.org.


And, surprise, surprise: there was an article about Afghanistan in the April 2001 excrement, erm, issue: interview with Prez Karzai. Copied from Der Spiegel, of course. Apparently things must be going rather well in Afghanistan, since the article starts with:

"Three years is little for a country that since 1979 has been in war with itself. In october 2001 NATO-troops - together with armed Afghan opposition groups - chased the Taliban from power. Since then apparently much has turned for the better. A Loya Jirga, a grand gathering of clan leaders, chose a transitional government and a Head of State: Hamid Karzai (46)."

I really like the excerpt "In october 2001 NATO-troops ... etc... chased the Taliban from power". Whaaaaw, NATO-troops!!! From what country would they have been??????? I'm clueless ya know, since the article DOES NOT MENTION WHATSOEVER where this mystery army came from. France? Iceland? Norway? Turkey? Luxembourg??? Could it have been...... Belgium???????? Help me, does anyone know more???

Happy thoughts to you.



Posting from a hideout somewhere deep in the Ardennes, chased by the Belgian State Security and Islamic Relgious Police from Schaarbeek (Brussels), as always, your friend, Michael the Infidel.

Kerry 'Unfit to be Commander-in-Chief'

"We have 19 of 23 officers who served with [Kerry]. We have every commanding officer he ever had in Vietnam. They all signed a letter that says he is unfit to be commander-in-chief,"

Heh.

Here's an idea: Instead of listening to people talk about the economy, jobs, and education who have spent their entire careers sheltered from the real world, let's talk to someone who is ultra successful in the real world. The CEO of Intel has a few ideas about outsourcing, the economy, etc. I put more weight behind what this guy has to say on this topic than the entire House and Senate combined.

This is a test.




Hmmmmm. That does NOT look like a Polish MiG.


Btw, dunno if you noticed it but the enlarged EU of 25 member states is now a fact. Here is a comparison USA/EU:


USA: GDP 11,188 billion euros, military expenses 357 billion euros, population 291 million, 10,656 nuclear arms

EU (25-member): GDP 11,076 billion euros, military expenses 179 billion euros, population 451 million, nuclear arms 535


The EU has come a long way since the early fifties, when 7 Founding Fathers laid the foundations of the future supranational body as we know it today. They were:


* Robert Schuman, drafted the plan for the ECCS(European Community of Coal and Steel), the purely economic nucleus of the EU
* Jean Monnet, first President of the ECCS, founded in 1955 the Action Committee for the United States of Europe (!)
* Konrad Adenauer, first West-German Chancellor, restored firm ties with Charles de Gaulles' France
* Paul-Henri Spaak, Belgian leading advocate of the EEC (European Economic Community)
* Jan Willem Beyen, Dutch banker and top-notch financial official, launched the Plan-Beyen for a customs community without internal tariff limits
*Joseph Bech, smart Luxembourgian politician who placed his tiny country on the map and managed to get the EU's Court of Justice and the European Investment Bank to Luxembourg
*Alcide de Gasperi, fiery advocate of a federation of democratic European states


Well, in the very beginning of my presence on this panel I posted several articles on how the EU as we know it today came into being (but I'm too lazy now to provide the links). Suffice to say that anno 2004 the EU has become an Economic Giant, a modest Political Player and a Military Dwarf. Let's say the USE is in its adolescence.

As mentioned before, I am convinced that the basic rationale behind the EU is sane. We European Nations needed to unite instead of degenerating into a powerless conglomerate of small countries each with its own petty politics. It is my great hope that in 30 years or so the process towards a truly unified United States of Europe will have been completed and that by then, in the world's radically changed power balances, USA and USE will discover they are brothers-in-arms rather than adversaries.

You are worried about Frances influence in the EU. Well, first of all you should then be elated about the enlargement because Frances role is inevitably diluted. Secondly, you will remember that China's Hu Jintao visited France this winter and that France, worldwide acclaimed Human Rights Champion par excellence, was very eager to lift the EU's arms embargo, instituted after the brutal and bloody suppression of Chinese students at Tiananmen Square in 1989.

Well, this should be proof that France cannot push its will through just like that. The European Parliament vetoed it. That is not to say that they won't get authorization sometime in the future. But the European Parliament is now able to impose stricter conditions and ask for proof of their observance.

P.S.: and really, don't worry too much if it gets through. Rafales are no match for Raptors.

Golly gee, I wonder why the mainstream media hasn't reported this.

Believe it or not but Colonel Kadhafi landed at Zaventem, Brussels Interantional Airport. He met Prodi, President of the EU Commission and had also talks with a delegation of the Belgian government. Finally he visited Belgian Parliament, where he said (a.o.) the following, which came as quite a shocker for our dear Politically Correct Excellencies:


"I have a higher opinion of the direct people's democracy in Libya than the representative democracy in the Western World. Representation is fraud. I want the people to go sit on the seats you are now sitting on".


Ouch. Sorry, Colonel? You've been in charge for how many, 34 years now? Lemme see, in this time span we have had the governments of Tindemans, Leburton, Martens (all seven of them), Eyskens, Dehaene (also quite a few) and now we have (gulp) Verhofstadt II. Sheesh.

In spite of the man's obvious impudence in addressing the Parlementarians of his host country, I must admit I've been wondering quite a lot about the man's apparent U-turn over the past three years or so. I recall him saying - in the wake of Operation Enduring Freedom, I think - that the US has the right to defend itself. And this is a must-read. I'm puzzled. Has the Libyan leadership really made the correct analysis the way it was following was a dead-end? Or has Gadhafi other plans he wants to distract the world's attention from? I read he has big ambitions in Africa. That he wants to turn away from the Arab World and instead focus on the Leadership of something like an African Union.

It's all pretty hard to gauge at this stage. Worth watching closely however. Any thoughts?

I've been patiently waiting for this sort of thing. It looks as if some Iraqis are not going to let a small group of fanatics ruin their country's future.

Hat tip to Instapundit.

It would be worth the price of a first class ticket to Seattle to go and throw a beating into these jackasses.

Let's see how these latte saturated communists feel when the Space Needle falls on their neighborhood after a terrorist bombing. Oh yeah, that will be Bush's fault too, I'm sure.

Here's a suggested addition to The Patriot Act: Anyone who publicly supports the killing of US troops gets a public flogging and 20 years in Guantanamo. Bastards.

Around the time that the President was pushing the prescription drugs benefit, I wrote our wonderful Senator Susan Collins urging her not to support this bloated, ridiculous piece of legislation. I received written a reply today. I'm too lazy to retype the senator's whole response, but I can sum it up for you in plain English:

Dear Scott,

While this piece of legislation is far from perfect, I decided to support it anyway because it is laden with pork that is going to make me look really good to some key constituents. Sure, it's going to cost the American taxpayer an arm and a leg and isn't really going to solve much of anything, but Maine managed to get a giant pile of pet projects stapled onto this bill, so how could I say no?

Sincerely, Susan Collins


For those of you keeping score at home, no Republican administration in the last 75 years has actually shrunk the size of government.

Tom.

Shouldn't you consider removing this and that.

F*cking cowards.

Ok, you're the Headmaster and I don't hafta order you anything. It's just a thought. Hey, you could rearrange
the rest of the flags so as to eliminate one row - without gaps it'll be less obvious.

Typing away from a cellar hidden deep in the Ardennes, your servant Michael, soon-to-be-outlawed.

Tom, actually I'm glad that you came up with that topic about the Vlaams Blok.

The arrest has dominated the press over here.

I wanted to edit a piece on this event, but compared to the developments in Iraq, where the stakes for our Western Civilization and, indeed,
for the sake of Democracy, Peace and Prosperity in the Middle East are crucial, I considered it to be a if not a non-topic, at least a minor one, to be addressed at a more appropriate time.

Well, Politically Correct Belgium has struck again.

As Mr. Pollard's update clarifies, the Party itself is not outlawed (yet), but supporting organizations are, revenues are curtailed, steps can now be taken to prevent the distribution of Party-publicized printing via the Postal Services, etc. etc... In short, it's a strategy aimed at strangling the voice of what is soon to be Flanders biggest party.

Can I be just angry yes? Depressed? ANGRY YES?????? VERY, VERY, VERY, VERY ANGRY???????

Look friends (good to know I got friends across the Atlantic), I got no time.


I have kitchen furniture to order (requires filling in order forms, drawing plans, double-checking the order codes etc...).

I have faxes to prepare (for ordering spare parts for electrical appliances).

I have online payments to do (social security, goods purchased, electricity, taxes...)

I have invoices to make, quotations.

At the end of that, when I go to sleep, I want to try to make my desk look halfway decent.

In short, I'm doing the type of work that keeps a society going.


All this while a bunch of full-of-themselves morally bankrupt self-deluding coward reds and greens are trying hard to stifle MY political voice, when ALL I WANT FOR THE IMMIGRANTS WHO FLOCK TO MY COUNTRY IS TO LEARN THE LANGUAGE, ASSIMILATE WHILE BEING FREE TO WORSHIP WHOEVER THEY WANT, CALL THEIR NEWBORNS WHATEVER THEY WANT, CLOTHE HOWEVER THEY WANT, AND ABIDE BY OUR LAWS.


Meanwhile the nice boys of the Arab European League, led by Brussels-based former Hezbollah member Dyab Abu Jahjah roam the streets of Antwerp SHADOWING POLICE PATROLS.

Understand who can.

So I'm very sorry. I feel like I should rant and rant and rant and RANT AND RANT AND RANT!!!!!!!!

But I can't. Work comes first.

Sorry for the dark thoughts and poor writing (I consider it poor). It's just that I've been so adversely affected by this arrest the past days that, well yeah, I'm so ANGRY it affects my capacity for coherent writing.

Sorry for now, I'll be back later. Keep up your good work. Kerry, noticed you've been mentioned on Instapundit and Buzz Machine (JohnL, a fine gent from Massachusetts, made me aware of it). Congratulations!!!

Michael, any comments on this story about the Vlaams Blok?

Ok people, this week I finally got ME's answer to my concerns expressed in my post of March 21st.

In short, it was a piece on the West's concerns with the worldwide rise of Islamic fundamentalism. I've been in contact through email for some time now with a Middle-Easterner I refer to on this blog simply as "ME", since I promised not to reveal his/her identity, gender, profession or nationality. What I can tell you is that ME is IMO a respectable, hightly educated person. The following is ME's answer to my rant, which I truncated in two because it's quite an elaborate piece. Btw, thank you for your effort ME.

NOTE THAT PERSONALLY I DO NOT AGREE WITH ME's OPINION CONCERNING:


a.) the reasons he/she cites for the rise of militant Islamism in especially Europe, at least only to some extent namely
that European racism is partially responsible for creating extremist Islam.

b.) his/her assessment of the Mujahideen being "abandoned" by the West after the Soviets were driven out of Afghanistan

c.) the wording at times used, most notably in the horrendous killing of the four Blacwater employees in Fallujah

d.) the so-called extermination of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. Although many live in appalling conditions, (to what extent is it their own fault?) I don't call that an extermination. 6 million shot, gassed or otherwise murdered Jews I call an extermination. 8,000 gunned down Bosnian Muslims in Srebrenica is an extermination.


That said, I think it's really worthwile to read through ME's addressing of the "problems with Islam" as we perceive it in the West.

If we can agree to disagree it's already a starting point. For the hardliners here, don't think I've gone soft, I'm only attempting to grasp what's on a Middle Easterner's mind.

Go ahead ME:


You know Michael , Kerry ,Tom, Scott, Drazil and Mark , I enjoy reading your blog immensely. even though I found it pro-Israel and pro-America and frighteningly anti-Arab and anti-Muslim. So maybe you are hardliners in your view but I don’t think so you are probably just like me afraid of the future. I nevertheless think that if I could talk with you we could perhaps make our voice heard and tell our mutual friends that we are not a threat to each other.

After you finish reading please do not flame or curse me, I think you will find that I have been very pragmatic . Dissect whatever you want and keep on asking questions we will find a solution together in the end.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Michael’s diatribe carried a lot of heavy loaded questions, which would require rivers of ink figuratively speaking or megabytes to answer. However it is summed up in 2 questions.


(1) What is the root cause of so called Islamic terrorism

(2) Why is it mounting?



Before voicing my theory, I would like to explain my opening statement to him with regards to the rise of Islam in Europe. I said this not because I was making a demographic count, not at all, I just stated what is widely believed by many Muslims according to the theology studies. For me that is a fact, but I am aware that for you it is not easy see this nor be convinced as that requires a leap of faith. I am unable to back this up scientifically; it is all in the realm of beliefs.



However, in discussing the part about demographics, I would like to stress that most converts I met are highly educated individuals, successful I their own fields. Though I was wondering why should there be a stigma to people financially challenged embracing Islam? Islam usually acts as a catalyst for them to strive to better themselves, feel worthy and rise from their sorry state. It is more like a way of life.



It is not my duty to preach, nor my intention; I’m hardly the candidate for that. I would simply like to address the two questions above mentioned and which started this whole debate.



The majority of North African Muslims have immigrated to Europe for economical not ideological purposes. This probably also applies to Asians and Turks. None had a pre-packaged baggage of ideologies or religious fervour; but traditions and their own culture yes. If they could make that kind of money at home then they would have definitely remained there. Please remember that Europe and the West in general had encouraged them and still do because they are cheaper labour, although nowadays they have competition from the former Soviet bloc states.



I am not going to discuss the other African or Asian people who have also gone to Europe but who are not Muslims.



Here’s the lowdown, we have literarily millions of Muslims of various ethnic backgrounds living, working becoming citizens, marrying and procreating in Europe. Their offspings consider themselves, French, Belgian, British, German etc.. They are not thinking of going back to the land of their ancestors. Yet still do not tell me that these people have been treated like the other Caucasian Europeans as equals, there has always been that item of condescendence and misunderstanding towards their customs. I am talking of the traditions indigenous to each country ( ie Algeria, Morocco, Egypt ,etc..) not to Islam. This resulted in them marrying people of their own race of even someone from back home Getting a bride from the old homeland is not because she is a better Muslim, it is just because the white French girls would not all have been widely excited about marrying them. You know sleeping with an exotic person may be okay but actually marrying the person is a difficult decision. This goes both was for men and women.

It is not because the generation of Muslim women in the west has become more ‘emancipated’ and therefore would stand up to their men. Though I admit that these ladies have become more westernised, which is not a crime in my book. I think it is good to learn from other people take the good part and make your decisions on how you wish to lead your life. Maybe these women wanted to marry a French man for example?

So racism has and continues to be an important factor. Please note that in France they still call French youngsters of Arab origin ‘Beurre’, despite these kids being 3rd or 4th generation immigrants. I’ve heard it as recently as last year from a French friend of mine who was describing the gorgeous girls he met at a beach in St.Tropez, even though I know that he is cultured and non-racist, but this expression did slip his tongue . How does that sound then when someone seriously means it . You cannot ignore that these small factors , molehills , add up to make mountains. So all the bills passed and all the efforts made by respective European governments have never been able to get at the underlying racism. Do not proceed to tell me that there has been no aggression or mistreatment towards these immigrant, no racial profiling , no thinking that the worst comes from them. This is even prior to 9/11 and earlier terrorist attacks. Have you heard of the 1967 massacre of Arabs in France and why this was carried out ? 1961 Massacre of Algerians in Paris.

I think that mostly comes from the inner fear of the ‘alien’ other, from ignorance about others and from unwillingness to learn, meet, interact with them at a deeper level, because of not really caring. A cheap working force is good for those jobs the Europeans may not want to do anymore, but there is an attitude of let’s not socialise with these people. Misunderstanding breeds and festers very negative feelings. I am not negating here all the efforts of serious, kind enlightened Europeans who have welcome these people in their midst but I would like to say that the current against them was more prevalent. Please try this little exercise, you are poor and have come to Tunis to work because you heard that there were jobs available and you will be earning much more than in Belgium. Then you find out that the population tolerates you barely at work and has absolutely no intention of socialising with you , except as a prostitute for example because that is not binding. How would you feel? No friends, no human contact? You will try and find some other person from you village or country and living in Tunis so that you may talk to each other and go out for a drink and generally be supportive. But you would be hurt by this snub and rebuke from the host country especially if after many years you have made your life there, have become Tunisian and feel a stranger on the other side of the Mediterranean, and economically you would be literally a beggar if you immigrate in reverse. Then why should you ? Tunis is as much you country as theirs now, you pay taxes, rent, serve in the police and work in all the strata of the society . Now that was a very simple example. Try multiplying it by thousands and hundred of thousands, what do you get ? Especially that if something happens, the Tunisian police will immediately raid your house. These combined situations: FEAR & SUSPICION and the rise of European nationalism because the economy has not been that healthy make the view of the outsiders even more as enemies and job-grabbers. Europe does not have my Jew cousins as a scapegoat anymore.



This leads to, depression, dissatisfaction, impotence (not in a sexual context here) maybe even anger, we are humans after all. Find me one ordinary person who has never felt angry ( except for Gandhi or Jesus Christ ) Look at you all, on the comments section , emotions flare up and people hurl insults at each other , and yet these are total strangers so how would it feel if you perceive to be deliberately targeted continuously? You freak out right ? look at America after 9/11.



Now let’s move to the next step, many immigrants have had great to moderate success and were able to move out of the ghettos, they are relatively safer from the discrimination. But what about the millions of others? They are making a living, they are in their own country but they are in essence poor . What happens to poor people, many of them drop out of school. Please look at the statistics of the British schools, many 16 years old kids drop and these are not just Muslims or Arabs, they are white little British kids. Where do dropouts hang ? logically they try to get menial, simple part time jobs if they still think correctly no decent institution would hire them since they have no skills or experience. I wouldn’t if I could choose between a graduate and a dropout it is a simple as that ! So let’s baby step back to where or with whom these poor dropouts hang: drug gangs, thieves and other undesirable shady groups who lure them with easy money, but money nonetheless which caters for their financial needs. This is common to all, be they European or American Caucasian youths or Japanese or even Arabs for that matter it has absolutely nothing to do with religion. So they all head for a life of crime, unless someone fishes them out before they are killed or imprisoned.



The ranks of the immigrants have been swelled in the last decade by those who have escaped from wars in the Middle-East namely Iran, Iraq, Lebanon and Palestine. Some have decided to evade the draft; other just could not stand the civil war whilst some just wanted a chance of a fresh start in a peaceful land.



I’m not a political analyst not even a sociologist so I will not venture any opinion from that aspect nor try to prove anything I just want to speak about it from the average understanding of the man on the street . I won’t tay that Arabs have not made mistakes , oh no we’ve made scores , but so have others if it is any consolation. This though does not in any way excuse our shortcomings. But we are in agreement that at some point in recent/modern history America and other western countries have armed and trained and sponsored Islamic factions because that was perceived as in the interest of the west. These people have become better trained, highly experienced combatants with an agenda. When their use had expired they were left high and dry, no hero’s welcome back home as they were thought to be a threat to their respective government and totally undesirable in the countries which has supported them in the first place. That is a huge number of disenchanted individualswith a sense of betrayal. These are not thugs or bandits; many are doctors and teachers, and engineers and lawyers and other people who really believed they were performing a good deed to repel the communists. They succeeded brilliantly with the help of western and specifically American firepower. Their mistake was they did not stop to think that America was not waging a Jihad against the communists to defend an Islamic country; it was doing this because of its own personal vested interest of defeating the Reds. They were in a sense used as canon fodder in America’s wars ..



Now you’re thinking oops ME’s digressed into the usual boring bla bla wich was hashed over and over again. Please bear with me; we are still talking about the roots of so called Islamic terrorism.



In parallel to these events, sponsorships and encouragement from the West, results in the rise of what for lack of a better word I will call here ‘Islamic fundamentalism’, although it has nothing to do with Islam but the name. These people infiltrated the social ranks , they seem to know what the are talking about. Try it yourself, you’re trying to convince me of something so you hurl at me all these urls now, I don’t know much about that subject, I’m ignorant, young, disenchanted, I’m having an identity crisis in the West and am very impressionable. I’m a school dropout who has not been thought how to look for information on my own (cause if I did I would still be in school anyway) but I hardly know Arabic culture remember as I’m French , German or Belgian or even American , but there is still some hope in me and I want to be saved. I therefore listen fervently to the incomplete information spoon-fed to me by these people, and I see that they have legal status and encouragement by my country ( in the EU or the US). The result, two types of people straying from the normal path : education, work, contribution to society ad family building. The first are those becoming criminals and the second as are those who arrogantly think that now they know all the answers and turn into ‘extremists’ . These are an ignorant and dangerous species. Let us agree that these 2 are bad youths.



What do usually BAD youth do ? Easiest thing is to bully people.

We all know how bullies are and how should we act with them.

Why is no one offended when black gangs in NY prevent people from entering their street or are constantly jibing others , standing in defiance of transgressors on what their see as their turf .Now I’m being mild I’m not even mentioning the drug wars. Others bully their peers at school or family members. It is the same thing , a EU citizen of Arab/Muslim ethnic origin could possibly bully his sister and maybe even mother for many things including wearing a scarf ? So why the shock ? why the racist intonations?



Another factor goes into the equation, most of us have studied maths and we know that the more factors you add to an equation, the more it becomes complex right ?

The media , what is it doing ? it is blaring non-stop about events in the Middle-East , also the other geographical areas too , but this is what I’m focusing on. Now please do not bring Aljazeera of Alarabiya into the equation as these are fairly recent, I’m talking about CNN, Fox , BBC , TV5 and many other not mentioned here each with their own agenda . There is obvious double–standard applied… do not tell me that Western broadcasting is fair and impartial, do not tell me it is only for the sake of getting to the truth … there is always a hidden or open agenda. I am not talking about conspiracy theories here, merely about the right of any country/individual to do what it is best for her/him.So I’m not even laying on blame, I’m quite content and accept that this is what the westernes think is good for them and they want to achieve that goal. So there is this double-standard in treatment dished out to the countries from which the ancestors of these European citizens originate and in which they still have families . There is surely an added element of pain and humiliation, which is doubled because they realise for many of them it would be impossible to escape their conditions, and there is nothing to look back upon in the land of their ancestors. They would not even know how to, they are European citizens remember, albeit of different ethnic background. They identify with both, they look like their ancestors and behave like their host countries, they are lost between the East and the West .

Meanwhile Palestinians are being exterminated, (I’ll talk about that thorny issue another time), other Arabs (Muslim or not ) are humiliated worldwide or perceived so. Their ancestral homes are daily robbed by those in power , propped up with the tacit support of the West for its own interests ( I don’t blame them, the West has a right to do so for it’s own sake . I mean let’s be realistic why not if you have everything to gain !!).

The seething anger is poised to explode, criminals and drug dealers and junkies (whites and non-whites) commit felonies, crimes and murders, the others become potential recruits for terrorist agencies with private agendas, promising them Valhallas. These kids come usually from broken homes and their parents have rarely knowledge about Islam to answer their simple or more sophisticated inquiries. I don’t think their parents even pray. As for the terrorist agencies, I believe that it is difficult to begin to even know who is really and I mean really behind them and what are their motives. The fight for power is all consuming. I even heard that someone had given 20 $ to some people in Fallujah to mutilate those for mercenaries for the benefit of filming them, so some unscrupulous people did that, after all the guys were dead so would not even feel the mutilations. I agree that it was barbaric and uncalled for , but this theory could also be possible when you think about it . Scary hey that this may have been done for money or show, who benefits? I just wanted to illustrate that everything is possible and fair in war.

I am not defending anybody, nor being a racist anti-western.



We have also established that not all become, thugs and criminals nor potential terrorists.

There are also those as I mentioned above who successfully complete their education, but this does not delay the experiencing of that all defining identity crisis. I would be correct to assume so right ? I would further be correct that belief in a higher being or God is a very important factor too. Therefore we agree once more that Religion or faith is an important question. If we cannot find the answers at home or within ourselves, we resort to our church, mosque , synagogue or temple , the more enlightened devour books in libraries. In all these places, one either learns about heritage and religion, and has some kind of plan or idea on how to find his/her path or regrettably one becomes a brainwashed fundamentalist Christian, Muslim, Jew or even Budhist. We agree that there are a lot gun-toting wackos running around, from the American heartland to the Far South East Asia, passing through Africa and Europe. Not even Australia is spared.


I thank our readers who have come this far for their effort and I also think it was worthwile.

Any comments are welcome.

Will you now leave me alone, I got some work to do and it's getting late.

Man I love the citizen soldier! Army re-enlistments are going strong. Oh, and I love the feeble attempt by the author to throw a monkey wrench into this: "Some contend a poor job market and re-enlistment bonuses worth thousands of dollars are keeping soldiers in the Army."

Blow me.

Oh great, another toothless UN resolution. These clowns can't enforce resolutions dealing with outside entities, so what makes anyone think that they're going to enforce a resolution that calls for all their members to cooperate in an investigation that is likely going to implicate many of them? Maybe we should follow suit and put the Jackson family in charge of the investigation of Michael Jackson.

It's clear that the UN Oil for Food program was seriously corrupt, but I don't see this investigation going anywhere. France and Russia have too much to lose, as does the balance of the political left. If their beloved UN was found guilty of such a crime their whole "Bush lied" universe would get all messy.

This was a close one for our friends the Brits (hat tip to Kim du Toit.) Somehow I don't see England running and hiding like Spain if they are attacked...

Heh.

Tom, nice work getting rid of the Spanish flag. What a bunch of sissies. My niece is over there right now on a school trip, and her group has been getting constantly harassed by the locals because they are American, and of course they have a problem with our involvement in Iraq. She was even attacked by some guy, but apparently some of the boys in her group (this is a high school trip) overwhelmed him and eventually beat the crap out of him (like we needed more proof that these people can't fight.) If we hadn't paid for her trip in advance I would have definitely cancelled it. I don't care to have my hard earned dollars going to help support such a cowardly excuse for a country. My apologies to the few remaining Spaniards who haven't succumbed to the flaccid "post modern" ideology of Europe.

This story about our "silent war" with Syria is very interesting (and unsurprising).

'lo out there. Am back. This is a test.

Polish Air Force MIG in mint condition

I believe John Derbyshire and I share a brain. I think just like this and pretty much agree with everything he says here.

Much of the conservative media outlets are covering the President's press conference as if it were a strong showing for the President, but I have to disagree. While most of the things he said were relevant and did go some way to answering some of the questions swirling around the administration, his delivery was at time awkward and uneasy. Bush often seemed nervous and a bit disheveled, although at other times he seemed confident and resolute. Die hard bush lovers will say that it's what you say not how you say it, but he really didn't exude confidence to me. Of course, the only clip the mainstrem media is playing (I saw it 3 times on NBC this morning) is when Bush stumbled all over his answer about admitting mistakes. He essentially admitted that he was caught off guard and couldn't think of any on the spot. Not a good answer, even if it is truthful. The bottom line: Bush is horrible off the cuff, and he needs to do as little of this as possible. It's also clear that this election is now going to hinge on Iraq. The recent events in Iraq have torpedoed Bush's poll numbers more effectively than all of Kerry's attacks combined. Bush is betting his presidency on Iraq, and based on last night's performance, I'm not sure the American people are going to buy it. Let's hope things clear up over there soon, because I'm not sure Bush can sell this to middle America much longer.

I'm afraid I have to side with John Kerry on this one. Actually, I'm not siding with Kerry so much as I am siding against the members of the Catholic church pushing this silliness. So now they withhold sacraments based on one's political views? So much for forgiveness. I guess priests will now be like communion Nazis; "No Christ for you!"