AFGHAN ELECTIONS, BELGIAN F-16'S, AND THE TURN OF THE TIDE IN EUROPE?

For understandable reasons, the nationbuilding effort in Afghanistan has always been, and will continue to be, a sideshow to the big events in Iraq. Somehow, what mattered most in Afghanistan was first dislodging the Taliban and only after that introducing Rule of Law and democracy, while in Iraq it was/is basically the other way round. Saddam was a spent force anyway, and no matter how much his WMD threat mattered, Iraq was first and foremost all the trial ground for the grand scheme of rendering the region harmless by empowering its people and hoping they get prosperous in the process.

That said, somehow, just below the radar, the very same process as the one in Iraq DOES continue in Afghanistan, albeit in a much less publicized way – and, admitted, not always in the way we westerners would like it to be. There was the country’s new constitution, adopted January 4, 2004. Taliban Lite for some perhaps, but somehow still a step forward. Then there was the country’s first-ever democratic presidential election on October 9, 2004, from which Hamid Karzai, with a 55.4% support, emerged as the clear winner. And soon, come September 17/18, 2005, the country is going to hold its first ever democratic Parliamentary Elections, in which 249 representatives for the Wolesi Jirga, or House of the People, are to be elected for a five-year term. This Wolesi Jirga tasks sound very familiar to western ears:

* Consider, debate and approve or reject draft laws
* Approve a law with a two-thirds majority
* Approve or reject Government proposals to obtain or grant loans
* Make decisions on the annual state budget and state-funded development programs
* Question Government ministers
* Set up special commissions to review and investigate the actions of the Government
* Approve or reject individuals appointed by the President to Government positions

At least 68 seats in the Wolesi Jirga have been reserved for women, in accordance with the constitutional provision that at least two women, on average, are elected from each province. If a province is allocated only two seats, one seat will be reserved for a woman.

Direct elections will be held too to form the Provincial Councils in all provinces. Every province must have its own democratically elected council of 9 to 29 members.

As for the Meshrano Jirga, or House of the Elders, (the "Senate"), its 102 members fall apart in three categories. 34 will be appointed to four-year terms (indirectly elected, so to say) by the Provincial Councils, and 34 to three-year terms by the District Councils. The remaining 34 Meshrano Jirga members will be appointed directly, for five-year terms, by the Afghan President himself.

I admit that there seem to be a lot of Islamist loopholes in the Afghan Constitution and in the conditions set for participating in the elections, mostly about Islam being the sole religion in Afghanistan and citizens being able to do anything they want and profess what religion they like as long as it is not contradictory to the principles of the Muslim Holy Book, the Quran... Personally, I don’t believe anymore that Islam is compatible with democracy, I even wonder now how I ever could have believed that. There’s not a single country on the face of the Earth that has Islam as its main religion and is as prosperous, free and democratic as your average western democracy. Turkey e.g., has had 80 years the time and were it not for its military, it would long since have become a theocracy again.

What I do believe however is that it is possible to nudge the Muslim countries to some condition where they can create for themselves a relative sate of prosperity to the extent that no significant pool of jihadists has a chance of forming. Islam is on this planet to stay, at least as long as illiteracy, poverty and inequality exist, and since eradicating it off the face of the planet is no option, the best thing the West can do is help those countries where it is the main religion towards a state where its citizens are rich enough to not consider anymore blowing themselves and others up to protest their self-inflicted misery.


Now, I still regret Belgium did not participate in the Iraq Operation. In my opinion, we could, and should, have sent a light brigade just like the Dutch did. However, I somehow am glad that at least in the Afghanistan theatre my country takes some responsibility towards attaining said goals, see above, as well as doing at the same part something useful in the WOT. It does so within the framework of ISAF, which stands for International Security Assistance Force", and ISAF's aim is to provide the nascent Afghan nation and its government with the military backbone to impose its rule in the farthest corners of its vast territory (ISAF’s Mission Statement can be found here). Now, since ISAF is also a UN-mandated operation (yeah, urgh, I know. Heard it too about benon Sevan and Boutros Ghali's family member), one finds many non-NATO countries contributing troops to its military chapter, although ISAF is run under NATO auspices. In fact, ISAF counts among its 8,000 troops soldiers from as many as 36 nations. Current ISAF commander is the Italian Lt. Gen. Mauro del Vecchio.

A while back, Belgium had some 630 troops on the ground, composed chiefly of a 400-strong battalion guarding Kabul International Airport (KAIA) and a 200-strong Paratroop Company as part of the KMNB (Kabul Multinational Brigade). In the meantime, the Para Company has been withdrawn and the only ground troops are still the KAIA Guard unit, now consisting mainly of soldiers from the 1st Regiment Jagers te Paard, a recce unit based in Leopoldsburg. However, there is also air support, since the Belgian Air Force recently dispatched four F-16AM fighter-bombers to Kabul, under the code name "Eastern Eagle".



This happened at the request of General James Jones, NATO Commander in Europe (SACEUR), and in fact the Belgian government took the decision already on 22 April 2005, at which time there was, since April 1, already a detachment of four Dutch F-16s in Afghanistan. The actual ferry flights took place first on July 6, with the F-16s from the 2nd Fighter Wing departing from Florennes AFB towards the Turkish Base of Acinki, and then on July 12 with in-air refuelling originally scheduled over the Black Sea by a Dutch KDC 10 tanker plane, in the event however it was a French Armée de l’Air C 135 FR (this because the Dutch tanker was at… Aruba, where it assisted in the refuelling of three Dutch F-16s deployed to map and scan the area in search of the missing American teenager Natalee Holloway!). Anyway, the four F-16s arrived at KAIA after a flight of 4 hours on July 12.



Initially, they are meant to stay six months including the Afghan parliamentary elections, but this period could be extended should the need for continued air support arise. Basically, the fighters are meant to lend support to ISAF ground troops in their effort to establish and support government control in Western Afghanistan (the so-called Phase 2). But additionally, the presence of the jets is supposed to have a stabilizing effect during the crucial parliamentary elections on 17 and 18 September. In fact, the Dutch and Belgian F-16s cooperate together in an ad hoc unit, the so-called EEAW (Expeditionary Air Wing). The principal tasks of this wing are "CAS" (Close Air Support), "QRF" (Quick Reaction Force) and "REC" (Reconnaissance) flights. The Netherlands and Belgium have some kind of tradition when it comes to military cooperation. Within the NATO framework e.g., Dutch and Belgian Navy vessels often operate in a joint flotilla.

The F-16s standard equipment to carry out their mission above Afghanistan will consist of a Lantirn Targeting Pod, detection and protection systems, a 20 mm Vulcan cannon, 2 external fuel tanks of 300 gallons each, two AIM-9L Sidewinders and two GBU-12 laser-guided bombs.

Somewhere in October, the Belgian pilots drawn from the Florennes-based 2nd Fighter Wing – Walloons, from the province of Namur – will be replaced by 10th Fighter Wing pilots from Kleine Brogel AFB, in the Flemish province of Limburg. So first Walloons, then Flemings. Thus we both do our thing, however little it may be. Sometimes I wish this sharing of responsibility transcended to more terrains o’er here in "good ole" Belgium. There’s been quite some tensions earlier this year between our two communities; maybe you somewhere picked up the dreaded BHV-acronym, which stands for Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde. Not gonna elaborate now, it ain’t the place. Also, way too complex to explain in a couple of paragraphs to foreigners. Suffice to say we Flemings got screwed again, unfortunately.




Okay. Back to topic. I said "however little it may be" because, after all, four planes, if you don’t count the one 15th Transport Wing Hercules, ain’t that much. Still there’s more to this deployment than it would seem at first. Not one year ago, in late 2004, an operation like "Eastern Eagle" would have been unthinkable in Belgium – let alone in, say, late 2002 at the time of the anti-racism conference in Durban SA, where Robert Mugabe was hailed and the States vilified. Methinks just over the past year Euro states have swallowed a huge dose of reality pills. On November 15, 2004, the EU3 (France, Germany and the UK) signed an agreement with the Islamic Republic of Iran aimed at guaranteeing that country stops its pursuit of weapons-grade uranium in exchange for economic incentives. Well, on Monday, August 8, the Iranians blew the agreement and resumed processing uranium. What else do you expect from a country where 40,000 human time bombs are supposedly ready to selfdetonate for jihad and whose president-elect Ahmadinejad on July 25 said "that the Islamic Revolution is not restricted to a particular space or time and will conquer all the mountain tops in the world"?

One year ago, eurocrats could still delude themselves the Madrid bombings were an isolated case. Since then, not only did they learn that in fact, even after the Spanish withdrawal from Iraq, follow-up attacks in Spain were scheduled, but also that the Islamic terrorists are, for the most part, homegrown, and that they enjoy significant support from their less sassy co-religionists. With skyrocketing immigrant democgraphics that's a hell of a prospect.

Today, Europe is starting to sing a different tune. If the rampant anti-Americanism in Europes MSM and among its leftist elites is not dead yet, it however seems to be petering out into rearguard actions against a new realism setting in. Today, radical French Imams are sans pardon put on a plane back to the shitholes they came from. Londons Metropolitan Police does apologize for the killing of the hapless but foolish Jean Charles de Menezes – but it dryly notes that "unfortunately" and due to the circumstances more incidents like that are likely to happen, get used to it if you please - and it keeps sending its bobbies with submachineguns on the streets.

The deployment of the Belgian F-16s must in my opinion also be seen in this light. The realizaton has dawned on the European leadership that urgent measures are to be taken to neutralize the only "root cause" that matters today – the inability of the Muslim World to offer its subjects a decent standard of living. Two years after OIF, Europe concludes that it better help the United States in implementing its democratization scheme for the Islamic world, since it appears to be the only strategic tool to counter the deadly influence of a poisonous ideology bent on imposing its disastrous rule on the Old Continent, and, by extension, the whole Western World.

MFBB

(all photos via Belgian Armed Forces website and Dirk Geerts)

In these dark times, a glimmer of hope.

Our local "newspaper," The Times Record, has chosen to add Thomas Sowell to its roster of syndicated columnists. His presence in this liberal propaganda rag not worthy of wrapping fish in is a welcome surprise. Has anyone checked the temperature in hell lately?

Radical Moderates

This is coming straight off the cuff while I'm working, but I had to get it out. The situation in Iraq has gotten me thinking about possible solutions to the issue. Well all know that the Iraqis need to take control of their own country for this all to work, but the question remains why that doesn't seem to be happening. I won't get into all the historic and cultural reasons for this, as I will quickly stray out of my league, but one thing strikes me that's missing in this equation that seems essential to a thriving, democratic Iraq. This missing element is a class of moderate muslims that truly understand what's at stake, and are willing to go to the same lengths, if not further, that the terrorists are to gain control of their country. We can talk all day about what's civilized, what's acceptable, etc, but this sort of thing doesn't happen by sitting around talking and hoping it goes away, or relying on a big brother (the U.S.) to take care of things for you. You have to have a dedicated force of people from within who are willing to be absolutely ruthless in their pursuit of the jihadists. They have to be willing to out intimidate, out fight, and out murder these scumbags at every turn. The jihadists have to live in fear of them, or all is lost.

I don't care about all this bullshit about "becoming one of them" or "stooping to their level". If you're not willing to sacrifice as much as your enemy, you are bound to lose. There isn't an independent democratic society anywhere that can't trace it's roots back to a group of radicals who were willing to take things to a level beyond what their enemies could tolerate in order to secure their freedom. If this group doesn't emerge in Iraq soon, all will be lost.

IN MEMORIAM STEVEN VINCENT



Steven Vincent is dead. Dunno if you check sometimes for new on-the-spot bloggers in Iraq, but in recent months a spate of newcomers caught my eye, a.o. Michael Yon, blogging from Mosul, Sgt. Missick with his blog A Line in the Sand and… Steven Vincent, whose blog In the Red Zone dealt mostly with his Basra experiences. Well, Steven was killed yesterday, Tuesday August 2. He was abducted at gunpoint in the Ashar neighborhood of Basra, together with his female interpreter Mrs. Tiays, and his body was found on a nearby spot shortly after, showing multiple gunshot wounds. Mr. Tiays was shot in the chest but is being treated in a hospital. She is in critical condition.

During the short time I got to know Mr. Vincents blog I nevertheless was impressed by his vivid writing style and ability to paint a situation as if you were there. I especially recall his report on a visit in a British Army Landrover to an Iraqi Border Fort somewhere east of Basra. Basra seems to have been the place he was irresistibly drawn to, he was writing a book about it, and his numerous blog accounts picture a telling tale of a city where – let’s face it – corruption and rising religious interference threaten to destabilize reconstruction.

It now seems Vincents criticism of the disastrous impact of strictly religious Islamic groups on Basran society may have cost him his life. He was killed days after a critical piece of him appeared in the New York Times. I don’t have the link to that, but below is one to his latest (and alas, last) contribution to National Review. Steven was not shy to calling a spade a spade and had no good word for, a.o., SCIRI’s interference in Basra politics (e.g. their appointing of religious zealots in technical capacities over the heads of competent engineers) as well as the infiltration of SCIRI and Mehdi Army puppets in Basra Police.

On again, off again...

BASRA, IRAQ — In the middle of an interview with Sheik Abdul al-Baghdali, an American-hating supporter of Moqtada al-Sadr, the lights in his office suddenly went out. "This is what your country has done to Iraq," he snorted, "stolen its electricity." On his pumpkin-sized face was the insufferable smirk of a man who knows — right or wrong — he has you beat in an argument.

....

Save a prayer for this brave man and fellow blogger. Steven Vincent was a New Yorker, and I think it is only fitting that the last words in this post should be his:

"I stood that morning on the roof of my building in lower Manhattan and watched United Airlines Flight 175 strike the south tower of the World Trade Center. At that moment, I realized my country was at war -- because of the 1993 attack on the Trade Center, I figured our enemy was Islamic terrorism -- and I wanted to do my part in the conflict. I'm too old to enlist in the armed services, so I decided to put my writing talents to use."

Steven Vincent, December 2004, interview with Frontpage Magazine


MFBB

A TALE OF TWO JOHNS...

George, I love you!

John, luvya too!

MFBB

Have you ordered your advance copy yet?

This is currently #1 on Amazon's non fiction list; which bodes well for putting the spotlight on tax reform.

Things to do in Montana when you're bored and well armed.

Behold

I finally tracked down the elusive Drazil in the wilds of Gallatin National Forest, Montana. I managed to capture him on video.

Behold

Here we go...

If President Bush nominates a man for the Supreme Court he is a typical chauvinist, insensitive to women.

If he nominates a woman or a black "person of color" or a hispanic he is simply pandering racially.

Unless he picks Maya Angelou or Mumia Abu-Jamal he Just Doesn't Get It(TM).

I would just like to express my outrage regarding the fact that Bush is nominating a lifetime appointee to the Supreme Court, one of the most powerful positions in this country, and all we hear is "what are his views on abortion." News flash: There are more important things going on in the world than Roe v. Wade. I wish all the people on both sides who are all up in arms over abortion would get some damned perspective. It burns me to no end that this is a national level issue. I'm moderately pro choice, but I'd like to see Roe v. Wade overturned for the simple reason that it would become a state level issue and we wouldn't have this in the center of every debate regarding federal officials. Next we'll be turning down nominees for Secretary of Defense because 20 years ago they might have said something to piss off some side of the abortion debate.

I am going to beat the next person who says anything negative to me about the conduct of U.S. soldiers in Iraq. Then I'm going to force their bloody ass to watch this video and read the accompanying story.

Click HERE for video.

Click HERE for the story.

NO TO ISLAM


Gee, what did those Thai do to piss off the Religion of PeaceTM ?

The "Emergency Powers Law" replaces localised martial law already in place in the three southernmost provinces, where more than 800 people have died in the last 19 months. It brings responsibility for security directly into the PM's office.

"In the past seven days there have been signs that the situation will escalate," Deputy Prime Minister Wissanu Krea-ngam told reporters after an emergency cabinet meeting prompted by a coordinated set of attacks on Thursday evening in the provincial capital of Yala.

"The last straw that prompted us to impose this law is what happened at seven pm (1200 GMT) in Yala," he said.

In one of the most dramatic episodes of the southern unrest, suspected Muslim separatists set off a series of bombs, bringing down pylons outside electricity sub-stations and plunging the town into darkness for an hour. Two policeman were killed and 23 people injured in the ensuing chaos, as the militants went on a shooting spree in the normally quiet town of 30,000 people around 1,100 km (690 miles) south of Bangkok and near the Malaysian border. The violence continued on Friday, with a small bomb blast at 11.30 a.m. injuring four people in Yala, and unidentified gunmen shooting dead two teachers in neighboring Narathiwat province.

Mohammed Bouyeri, the murderer of Theo Van Gogh, is on trial. Detailed translations too at Cdr. Salamander.

"I can assure you that one day, should I be set free, I would do exactly the same, exactly the same," he said, speaking slowly in sometimes halted Dutch.

He said he felt an obligation to Van Gogh's mother Anneke, present in court, to speak, but offered no sympathy.

"I have to admit I do not feel for you, I do not feel your pain, I cannot -- I don't know what it is like to lose a child," he said as Van Gogh's family and friends looked on.

"I cannot feel for you ... because I believe you are an infidel," he added.

"I acted out of conviction -- not because I hated your son."

As usual, the Guardian is not exactly on the side of the victims of Islam, even if those victims are Brits themselves.

Shocked would be to suggest we didn't appreciate that when Falluja was flattened, the people under it were dead but not forgotten - long after we had moved on to reading more interesting headlines about the Olympics. It is not the done thing to make such comparisons, but Muslims on the street do. Some 2,749 people were killed in the 9/11 attacks. To discover the cost of "liberating" Iraqis you need to multiply that figure by eight, and still you will fall short of the estimated minimum of 22,787 civilian Iraqi casualties to date. But it's not cool to say this, now that London's skyline has also has plumed grey.

Shocked would also be to suggest that the bombings happened through no responsibility of our own. OK, the streets of London were filled with anti-war marchers, so why punish the average Londoner? But the argument that this was an essentially US-led war does not pass muster. In the Muslim world, the pond that divides Britain and America is a shallow one. And the same cry - why punish us? - is often heard from Iraqi mothers as the "collateral damage" increases daily

Perhaps now is the time to be honest with each other and to stop labelling the enemy with simplistic terms such as "young", "underprivileged", "undereducated" and perhaps even "fringe". The don't-rock-the-boat attitude of elders doesn't mean the agitation wanes; it means it builds till it can be contained no more.

Dilpazier Aslam, tha author of this piece of journalistic garbage, is a Guardian trainee journalist. Mr. Aslam happily types "The don't-rock-the-boat attitude of elders doesn't mean the agitation wanes; it means it builds till it can be contained no more." at the very moment that 30 meters under Londons streets, "rescue" crews recover maimed corpses from the wreckage of commuter trains. 7/7 is one week ago and the temperature in those tunnels is said to be 60 degrees Centigrade. I don't want to know what those corpses look like by now. But Mr. Aslam warns us the time of the don't rock the boat attitude is over.


Time to take the kid's gloves off. I'm done with smooth talking. This is about preservation of our civilization. They want war, they can get war. If you think that's rough, I say they will very likely get the point better.






MFBB

JULY 11 - FLEMISH "NATIONAL" HOLIDAY.

The battle of July 11, 1302 between an army of French knights and Flemish infantry was the military apex of the rebellion against attempts by French kings to annex the County of Flanders. In 1300, King Philip IV of France (1285-1314) seemed to succeed in this by appointing as governor of the County Jacques de Châtillon. The Flemish Count Gwijde van Dampierre (1278-1305) and his two sons were taken captive, causing strong resentment in Flanders. Furthermore, the gigantic debts towards France, as well as the division among the population between citizens sympathetic to the French King and anti-French merchants, created a lot of unrest, especially among the artisans in the cities.


The preface of the conflict took place on 18 May 1302 when citizens of Bruges, who had been expelled by occupying French troops, returned to their city and slaughtered the French garrison. This episode became known as the "Brugse Metten". The French king was enraged and amassed a splendid Knight's Army just to the south of Flanders. This army then headed for Kortrijk and so did the Flemish militia under the command of Willem van Gullik, grandson of Count Gwijde, and Pieter de Coninc, a leading Bruges Guild Chief. Another great Flemish hero of the time was Jan Breydel. A second Flemish contingent, under the command of Gwijde van Namen, son of the Count, joined the first in Kortrijk. The French Army's commander was Count Robert II of Artesia, one of the foremost French knights of that time.

Both armies were roughly 10,000 strong. The French one consisted mainly of heavily armoured cavalry, whereas the the bulk of the Flemish one was infantry. On the 9th and the 10th of July the French tried in vain to take the city of Kortrijk. By the evening of July 10th, the Flemish chose for a battle in the open land near that city.


Before the battle, the Flemings chose a strategic position between little streams and moors on an open plain known as the "Groeningheveld", in doing so making it difficult for the French cavalry to force a breakthrough. It is said that before the battle, the Flemings ate a mouthful of Flemish soil so that if they died it would be with the ground of their Fatherland in their stomachs. Hampered by the swampy ground, the French knights kept stumbling over their own infantry and over each other. The heavy weapons of the Flemish completed the gruesome job. At day's end, the French fled in all directions, often pursued by the Flemish. Most French captives were simply killed since, as it seems, the Flemish didn't know the military custom to ask ransom money for a captured knight. Among the booty were numerous golden spurs from French knights, and so the battle got its name in Flemish and Belgian folklore. These spurs were hung in triumph in the Church of Our Lady in Kortrijk.

The political fallout from the Battle of the Golden Spurs was significant. Dutch became the official language of Flanders, and remains so to this day. Administrative power was more and more assumed by artisans and merchants rather than by nobles. Moreover, a new era dawned as far as warfare was concerned : the military importance and effectiveness of well-armed infantry over cumbersome cavalry had been made clear.

Further extensive info here.

MFBB

DISSECTION OF A NEOMARXIST PAMPHLET POSING AS A QUALITY NEWSPAPER.

Some of us asked, after the tragedy inflicted in London on July 7 by zealots of the Religion of Peace ™, how long it would take before Blair, and by extension Bush, would get the blame for what happened.

Not long.

Page 4, special "De Standaard" issue, July 8 2005. "De Standaard" is the leading Flemish newspaper and, since Flanders is the biggest part of Belgium in terms of population and wealth, it is thus also the leading Belgian newspaper. Fat header in bold with large capitals (not visible on scan below): "Sooner or later the bombs had to hit us"





Here follow a couple of excerpts of the article accompanied by the photo above with the Bobby (London Policeman) and the Asian woman. Four persons are quoted. A woman union delegate, a businessman, a family man and a certain "Norma" from Leicestershire. While the others keep it neutral, expressing anguish as well as a typical British mixture of phlegm and resolve, it is Norma, being interviewed in King’s Cross Station, who sees fit to deliver a scathing attack on PM Blair. Not surprisingly, the space allocated to her in those columns exceeds that of the others. Mind you, I could not scan the entire interview, so you will have to trust me the following is indeed there. What you do see in medium capitals in the right upper corner is her key quote "For me, Blair is the biggest terrorist in this country". It is the only quote highlighted.

Norma shakes her head. "We could expect this. Nobody like that fucking war in Iraq. Nobody has it for Blair. We did not support this war! For me, Blair is the biggest terrorist in his country".

In that very same "De Standaard" issue, July 8, but on Page 8, we find a bottom column by a certain contributor, "esn". The column is identified as a "Profiel", (Profile). The subject is "Tony Blair, Brits premier" (Prime Minister)






The text reads:

BRUSSELS - PM Tony Blair yesterday exhorted the British to stay unanimous. Discord and quarrels would only further the terrorist’s cause, he said. But how quickly will he, and then especially his participation in the war against Iraq, get the blame?

An angry man in the heavily hit King’s Cross Station called him yesterday in an interview with this newspaper already "the biggest terrorist of them all".

…(there follows a lot of garbage)…

…But now already many ask aloud if Blair has made the country more vulnerable by participating in the war against Iraq.

Ladies and gentlemen, as we have seen "Norma", from the first column, called Blair "the biggest terrorist of them all". Her quote was the only one put in capitals for better eyecatching. Imagine now a not too bright or especially concerned "De Standaard" reader advancing through the pages. He has just soaked in Norma’s assessment of Tony, and after scrolling through pages 5, 6 and 7, which contain general information about Flemings in London, a Putin quote, bus trajectories and the like, he arrives at the bottom of Page 8. There, below, is a "Profile" with a photo of a grim looking British prime Minister accompanied by the fat black header "The Biggest Terrorist". This "profile" has been written by a "De Standaard" columnist referring to him-or-herself as "esn". "Esn" writes literally "An angry man in the heavily hit King’s Cross Station called him yesterday in an interview with this newspaper already 'the biggest terrorist of them all'."

There was no such interview on July 7.

The quote "esn" is referring to is the one on Page 4, see above Only, it was not a man. It was "Norma" from Leicestershire. "Esn" found no overwhelming majority of Brits wanting to call Tony "the biggest terrorist of them all". But "esn" is CONVINCED Tony is of the same caliber as Osama. So, in a desperate attempt to get his view endorsed by as many Brits as possible, "esn" makes "Norma" a man. Now, while I can imagine leftist fruitcakes really fancy the idea of swapping sexes, I am of the opinion that doing so to lend credibility to your own wacko theories in NOT kosher.

Ladies and gentlemen, what we have here is an obvious attempt to further a political agenda. A heavily, leftist, "anti-war" agenda. "Anti-war", because these chaps are not really anti-war at all. In summer of 2004, the death toll in Darfur stood at an estimated 70,000, and there was vast proof that the Sudanese government was actively waging war against its own citizens, the Darfurians. We are one year down the reoad now, and IIRC, the death toll in May in Darfur was 180,000. I assure you I have read nowhere an "esn" column denouncing the Sudanese war against its own citizens - even though Sudans Bashir is a lot more effective in killing than the UK's Blair.

Note also that "esn" refers to the conflict in Iraq as "the war against Iraq", see again the sentence (first paragraph):

…But now already many ask aloud if Blair has made the country more vulnerable by participating in the war against Iraq...

AGAINST Iraq. For "esn", the UK is, more than two years after it helped topple a murderous dictator and his rogue regime, still at war AGAINST Iraq!

Sometimes I wonder if Al Qaeda is really our MAIN enemy.


MFBB

SINCERE CONDOLENCES TO OUR FRIENDS THE BRITISH

As you undoubtedly know by now, the Religion of Peace has struck again.







On June 28, the Muslim Council of Britain finally persuaded the UK's Department of Education and Skills to introduce "Get to Know Islam Kits" in primary schools.

"The new resources will help school staff further develop their approach to high quality teaching of Islam — a religion that is far too often misunderstood," the Harrow Times Monday, June 27, quoted as saying Councilor Navin Shah, leader of Harrow borough Council, which has become the first to fully fund the teaching of Islam in primary schools.

The resource packs include books, artifacts, CDs, videos and teaching aids covering
the basic Muslim beliefs and practices through interactive class projects. Resources for secondary schools are also being developed and will be available to schools across the borough, according to the paper. The packs for primary schools were produced by the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB), in partnership with the Department of Education and Skills.

"We believe education is the key to creating a vibrant and understanding society," MCB Secretary General, Iqbal Sacranie, told Harrow Times. "These resources, developed by our team of educationalists, aim to support the teaching of Islam in schools by making available creative, engaging and child-friendly resources on Islam and Muslims."

(Via LGF:) In January of this year, Iqbal Sacranie and his Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) boycotted the commemoration of the liberation of Auschwitz, because it didn’t include the "holocaust" and "genocide" suffered by the Palestinians at the hands of Israel. So now this very organization has gotten the task to get British pupils to know Islam.

Holidays have just begun. That gives Sir Iqbal, since in the meantime he has been knighted, sufficient time to include some footage of today's carnage in his "Get to know Islam" videos.

I am feeling slightly better now. At around 7.15 pm, I got to watch the VRT (Flemish state-run television). One of the notoriously anti-American anchors, Martine Tanghe, was interviewing some university dude in political sciences. When she suggested that the War on Terror was apparently going nowhere and asked whether in the worldwide Muslim Community sufficient important voices would be found to condemn the London tragedy, the fellas face lit up and he started to explain that the WOT needed to be fought not primarily the military way, but foremost in a soft way, by winning the hearts and minds of the Muslim people, and "that flushing Qurans down toilets at Guantanamo was not a good tactic to achieve that end".

As the fella spoke, in London 38 charred and mutilated carcasses as well as 700 plus wounded had been counted.

I was able to follow the "conversation" for a full 18 seconds, but the Gitmo smear made me switch off the TV before I smashed the screen. Half an hour later, I was still so boiling inside that migraine set in. I was able to cut the attack using a heavy dose of Cafergot.


MFBB

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!!!!




Give 'em hell!!!











And here's some good news from across the pond:

There's gonna be general elections in Germany this September, one year early. Schroeder called for them after the recent disappointing election results for the SPD-party in the state of Nordrhein-Westfalen. Curious reasoning, shooting yourself in the foot like that, but hey, you don't hear me complaining:

But Christian Wulff, the state's (in this case the state of Lower Saxony, another "Bundesland" making up the federal Republic of Germany)conservative prime minister and Germany's most popular politician, was licking his lips at the prospect of an altogether different delicacy.

"There will be new elections in Germany. This means a change in the content and style of politics," he said. "Then the hard work will begin. Our leader, Angela Merkel, will carry out the kind of economic reforms that were implemented in Britain over the last 15 years."

Opinion polls show the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) way ahead of Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's Social Democrats (SPD), with Mrs Merkel poised to become Germany's first female leader.

CDU-strongwoman Mrs. Merkel, 50 and physicist by formation, may indeed very well become Germany's first female Chancellor this autumn. Being from the former DDR, she is very much aware of who won the Cold War and is subsequently strongly pro-US. By contrast, Mr. Schroeder, during the whole of the Cold War sitting comfortably on his warm ass in West Germany, is known to have sent one of the last DDR czars, Egon Krenz, congratulations with his "victory" in the communist dictatorship's sham "elections".


From Sweden comes a similar sound: Over half of government's MPs could quit.

Fewer than half the MPs in Sweden's ruling red-green coalition plan to stand for re-election, according to a new survey by Swedish Radio.

Asked whether they would consider standing at the next election, fewer than half of MPs in the Social Democratic, Green and Left parties answered in the affirmative.

Of 144 Social Democrat deputies, only 67 said that they definitely intended stand in the 2006 election. Eighteen said that they did not intend to stand, with 31 MPs currently uncertain. Twenty-eight did not respond to SR's question.

This contrasts with the attitude of MPs in the right-wing alliance, which is currently riding high in opinion polls. Forty-two Moderate Party deputies said they planned to stand next year, with only six planning to stand down, and a further seven either uncertain or not responding.

Hat tip to Fjordman, my fellow blogger from Norway. Now, I don't know if you sometimes visit his blog. While the described phenomenon above is ground for optimism, it does not take away the fact that Sweden, and by extension the whole of Scandinavia, is facing tough times. Still it's another indication of a major political shift to the right throughout Europe. Here's hoping for the future.

MFBB

NO BEER TODAY, THE COMPANY WASN'T GAY...

Last Thursday, June 30, an Iranian delegation of the Consultative Islamic Council, which reportedly is a Majlis-affiliated group, visited the Belgian Parliament. The Majlis is the Iranian "Parliament", or what passes for it anyway. At noon, so it was scheduled, Belgian House Representatives under House Chairman Herman De Croo, would offer their Iranian counterparts, led by Gholamali Haddad Adel, a lunch. This fella must have some weight in Iranian politics, since his daughter is married (off) to the son of Supreme leader Ayatollah al-Khamenei. Poor broad.







MFBB is left with the question if the Iranians had to queue at a Belgian frietkot, since the lunch was cancelled. The reason: the Iranians INSISTED no alcohol would be served. Under those circumstances, good ole Herman, on the photo to the left with the Governor of Kakapipistan (I think), had no choice but to scrap the lunch (which, according to evil tongues, would also have included pork meat). Mr. De Croo was quoted as saying:

"I haven’t got demands on paper. But it is true that I was indirectly asked not to serve alcohol."

MFBB thinking Iranians must by now a Low Opinion of the Low Countries have, since last month same problem in Netherlands surfaced. There too, demands the same were and lunch cancelled was. MFBB understanding mullahs not like blowing Dutch "jointje", but not drinking al-cohol? Iranian diplomats not diplomatic are!

Where was I? Oh yeah, the Iranians reportedly had their frieten at "Bij Sonja" (I hope they were cold). Anyway, in the afternoon the caravan came back to Parliament intending to visit the Belgian Senate. A new hurdle presented itself in the person of Mrs. Anne-Marie Lizin, the Senate Chairman, who happens to be a Chairwoman. As some of you may or may not know, male Shiite Muslims are not allowed to shake hands with women.

If you don’t believe me, Big Sis says so too and you will certainly pay more attention to the words of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani is than to those of Mullah MFBB, don’t you agree? Anyway, them Iranians being good Shiite Muslims, they understandably refused to shake hands with the Lizin woman as well as several female Senate members, after which Mrs. Lizin cancelled talks with the visiting delgation. For a Parti Socialiste chick, she was remarkably succinct when afterwards she declared in a statement:

"Iranians should respect local customs in Belgium."

Mrs. Lizin is indeed a key member of the Parti Socialiste, a party which is a main accomplice in the sealing off from power of the Vlaams Belang party through the so-called Cordon Sanitaire, on the grounds that the Vlaams Belang is racist, xenophobe and against equality. If I tell you that MFBB is a not-so-key-member of the Vlaams Belang, you will probably nod in agreement with Missuz Liza..., erm, Lizin. Anyway, after having offended the Islamic Republic of Iran in such a callous way, I fear we Belgians may soon expect several divisions of Iranian Mujahideen. Luckily there is always the Belgian Army, but in case things get too hot, I hope you americanos can send us 3rd ID to help a bit, okay?


MFBB stole the Herman and Gholadude pic, without permission as customary, from the new The Brussels Journal site, which in the words of fellow blogger Visual Hugo:

...will be an English-Flemish conservative-liberal group blog with a number of writers that earned a considerable amount of credit already in blogging, in journalism, and in politics.

Go pay 'em a visit and say I'm sorry.

MFBB

We've all heard about Sandra Day O'Conner's resignation from SCOTUS, and the likely resignation of Chief Justice Rehnquist to follow soon. Of course, everyone with an ounce of political interest is already going batty with this story, but here's my 2¢:

Bush needs to strap on his balls and put two nuts and bolts conservatives (read: people who can read and understand the constitution) on the bench, period. There should be no talk of deals, moderates, or anything of the sort. Bush and the Republican majority in congress won, and this is the time to act like it. Does anyone really think that John Kerry would be considering moderates to replace O'Conner had he won? I don't care if the government shuts down for a year and Ted Kennedy blows a vein in his forehead; it's time to put the Supreme Court back on track as an interpreter of the constitution, not a fall back for liberals who cant get their policies through the legislature.

When you take a step back, this is one of the most important issues that's going to come before this president; the effects of which will last a long time after Bush is gone. Let's hope he shows some backbone on this one.

MORE THAN 8,000 IRAQIS KILLED IN INSURGENT ATTACKS.

From CNN, contributor to the article a certain Jennifer Eccleston.

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Insurgent attacks in the last six months have killed more than 8,000 Iraqi civilians, police and troops, according to Iraq's interior minister.

(....)

In an interview with CNN, Iraqi Interior Minister Baqir Jabbur said "terrorists" had killed 8,175 people and wounded another 12,000 since January 2005.

Note the scare quotes framing the word "terrorists". Golly, these guys only killed 8,000 men, women, and children, we really can't call them "terrorists", can we?

These days, when surfing the web or reading what passes round here for newspapers, I often find myself scratching my head. Why is it that so many moonbats flock to news outlets?

Sixty years ago, in 1944, during the Normandy battle, there was a Canadian journalist, Johhny-I-forget-his-name, who made a sport of praising the 12th Waffen SS Panzer Division "Hitlerjugend" to heaven and above. To be sure, the boys manning that divison knew how to fight and die bravely. But Hitlerjugends "fame" stems for a sizeable part from the columns and reports made by that journalist. Allied soldiers about to face the 12th SS were scared to death; at home, the civilian population thought that their boys were facing Supermen.

Let us thank God on our bare knees in 1944 there was just one Robert Fisk.


MFBB

Happy Birthday Thomas Sowell!

INSTALLATION OF NEW KITCHEN AT CHATEAU MFBB.

Maybe I had better called Al Qaeda Inc. for the demolition works.




It's gotta become this model, the Alnoclair (hopefully). Check out the A.N.U.S. site, which stands for Alno Network United States.













MFBB

PARIS AIR SHOW 2005 UPDATE.

It’s already again some ten days behind us, but from June 13th – June 19th the Paris Air Show at Le Bourget airport took place, Europes Mecca for the Aeronautics and Aviation industry where thousands of companies and customers, military and civilian alike, meet. As it happened, the Outlaw Dad was there, since he could hike a ride on a SABCA bus. SABCA is a leading Belgian aeronautical manufacturing company, and although it is not a part of Airbus Industrie, some work regarding the fuselage is being done by them, a.o. the construction of the so-called Rear Center Lower Shell. Anyway, SABCA workers had the chance to go to Le Bourget by bus and via an acquaintance my dad managed to hop onto it. Below are some pics he took, using a Nikon Coolpix 4800:

Boeings 777 Worldliner, with a range of almost 17,500 kilometers, and its future 787 Dreamliner, with a slightly less range of maximum 15,700 kilometres, are the workhorses that will have to make Boeings strategy for 21st Century Passenger Air Transportation work. I suppose most of you know that Boeing placed its bets on passenger transport becoming more of point-to-point travel in smaller, large-range aircraft, given the growth of dozens more of cities with several million inhabitants. Airbus, on the other hand, believes air transport will become a matter of gathering large numbers of passengers in hubs on designated main airports on the respective continents, and then fly them across. This view resulted in the birth of the A380, capable of ferrying 555 passengers at ranges up to 15,000 kilometers. Personally, I think the next decade will be Airbus’, as not only the A380 has the range of Boeings 787 but can transport more than twice its number of passengers, but also since, no matter how many new big cities emerge, large (ever larger) crowds will always want to fly to London, Paris, Washington or Shanghai. Plus, Airbus has plans to directly compete with the 787 with yet another aircraft of its own, the A350.



To be sure, in recent months Boeing has had some reason for optimism, since sales for the 787 have soared. Indeed, 787 Project Manager Mike Bair could proudly announce that Boeing has signed up 266 orders from 21 airline companies. After all the A380 publicity of this spring, the fuss caused by Harry Stoneciphers sudden departure and a looming legal clash with Airbus in the WTO arena, I can imagine the promising sales come as a relief. Still, I can’t help but think that by refusing to produce a successor to the 747, Boeing has shot itself in the foot. More on that later.

By any standard, the Paris Air Show 2005 was a great success. There were 1,924 exhibitors, 137,000 trade visitors and 257,000 visitors from the general public. Star of the show was, for Europeans of course, the A380 Superjumbo, see in flight pic above.


As you may recall from an earlier post, Airbus Industrie is a part of EADS, or European Aeronautical Defence and Space Company. Do me a favor and forget for a moment the grudges you possibly bear towards Airbus (like I said, more on that later), since EADS has an American branch, called EADS North America. Whilst directly employing only some 2,600 people as of now, it is estimated EADS North America supports already up to 100,000 American jobs. Capitalism and free markets at its best:

EADS North America is the U.S. holding company for the North American activities of EADS, the world’s second largest aerospace and defense company, and the largest in Europe. As a leading supplier and industrial partner in defense and homeland security, commercial aviation, helicopters, telecommunications and services, EADS North America – together with its parent company, EADS – contribute more than $6 billion to the U.S. economy annually, supporting 100,000 American jobs.


MFBB

In case you missed it, the Supreme Court pretty much destroyed property rights in this country yesterday. These guys are pissed; you should be too.

NOT GONNA SHUT UP. F*CK TARIQ RAMADAN & HAIL TO THE HEROINE

From Dhimmi Watch, author Hugh Fitzgerald:

What will happen in Europe if it is islamized? If there are already people removing statues, however banal those statues may be, from art expositions now, what will happen in 10 years? In 20 years? Already statues have been vandalized or destroyed by Muslims – in the Piazza del Popolo, and in a church in northern France (a statue of Mary and Jesus). Muslims have been recorded discussing their plans to destroy a celebrated fresco in Bologna that depicted Muhammad in Hell. What else is happening, and is being suppressed from us by worried European governments, whose elites, having been responsible for permitting millions of what are clearly enemy aliens, a classic fifth column, behind our own lines, cannot bring themselves to recognize the problem, and instead are intent on hiding the full truth from their own populations – populations that are getting fed up?

In France, one out of every three babies born is now a Muslim. In 20 years, one out of every three 20-year-olds will, therefore, be a Muslim. What is to be done? Anything? Nothing?

When will the Western world begin to realize it faces a mortal threat, small now but growing, and growing precisely to the extent that its Muslim population grows, learns the local languages, learns to present itself with all the cunning suavity of Tariq Ramadan, to ensure the constant confusion and fear that is easy to spread, apparently, among Infidels -- all too willing to deny the evidence of their senses.


From The Wall Street Journal, by Tunku Varadarajan:

NEW YORK--Oriana Fallaci faces jail. In her mid-70s, stricken with a cancer that, for the moment, permits only the consumption of liquids--so yes, we drank champagne in the course of a three-hour interview--one of the most renowned journalists of the modern era has been indicted by a judge in her native Italy under provisions of the Italian Penal Code which proscribe the "vilipendio," or "vilification," of "any religion admitted by the state."

In her case, the religion deemed vilified is Islam, and the vilification was perpetrated, apparently, in a book she wrote last year--and which has sold many more than a million copies all over Europe--called "The Force of Reason." Its astringent thesis is that the Old Continent is on the verge of becoming a dominion of Islam, and that the people of the West have surrendered themselves fecklessly to the "sons of Allah." So in a nutshell, Oriana Fallaci faces up to two years' imprisonment for her beliefs--which is one reason why she has chosen to stay put in New York. Let us give thanks for the First Amendment....

If you are a dhimmi, don't read the whole thing.





MFBB

At the risk of making this blog a "Mark-Steyn-a-Thon", I give you this.

I think I will stop having political arguments altogether and simply carry around the entire library or Steyn's writings to hand out when lefties come a callin'.

NUKE SPAIN BEFORE IT SPREADS!!!

Spanish men who refuse to lift a finger around the house are facing new legal sanctions. MPs in Spain have drawn up a marriage contract for use in civil ceremonies which obliges men to share household chores and the care of children and elderly family members. The new law, which will be introduced this summer in Spain, promises a revolution in a country where nearly half of all men admit to doing no housework at all.

Well, I'd say that it shows that Zapaterlain is in charge, huh? Soon we can expect legislation making it possible for fathers and sons to marry, and laws imposing minimum dimensions for goldfish aquariums.

Santi's trying to make up for lost time. He gives up on the ironing board and heads for the bathroom, ready to clean the mirrors. He is a man with a mission. The contract he will sign at his civil wedding ceremony this September will oblige him - by law - to share domestic responsibilities with his partner. Failure to do so will affect the terms of a divorce settlement, should he ever find himself in that position. But even as Santi cleans up his act, Aintzane, his wife-to-be, says she remains sceptical about the new law.

Nuke Spain from Granada to the Pyrenées and from Vigo to Barcelona! It's the only way to contain the plague. I know it sounds an itsy pitsy harsh thing to do, with the Partido Popular still around and all, but: The Lord will be able to tell the goodies from the baddies. All right, maybe the Prez can invite Aznar just before to have BBQ and Tapas Locas in Crawford.


MFBB

Here is an excellent post over at The Jawa Report giving a proper kick to the balls of those who equate the frat boy treatment of U.S. POW's to Saddam Hussein's regime.

WARNING: Graphic images.

Hat Tip: Jonah's Military Guys

Mark Steyn bitch slaps the "Gitmo=Gulag" crowd. Game, set, match.

I wonder why France can't compete anymore...

I absolutely fucking despise Jimmy Carter.




Click on the pic and check out the site, it's pretty amusing.

(Hat tip to Barb (Righty in a lefty state)

It looks like SUV haters have one fewer reason to be upset.

Just so you peons know, I had a hand in ending the cold war. Well, actually I spent five years working for the guy who helped end the cold war. No, I did not work in the Reagan administration, I worked for Ted Turner.

Here's more proof that no matter what we do, it's all our fault.

"KARACHI, Pakistan - A mob angered by an al-Qaida-linked suicide bombing in a Shiite mosque set a KFC restaurant on fire in overnight rioting, killing six employees and bringing the day’s overall death toll to 11, police said Tuesday."

What a lovely culture. "Radical Islamists have killed our Muslim brothers! Burn down the imperialist makers of chicken!"

THE FRENCH VOTED "NON".... WHY ALL THE FUSS?

France has some 61 million inhabitants. The enlarged EU some 451 million. In other words, about 1 in every 7.4 Europeans is a Fwenchman. Can someone please tell me then why the whole world was looking at France’s vote as if the frogs would decide the passing of the very first European Constitution all by themselves???





Anyway, Sunday’s voting was an important event indeed. After all, voting for the referendum does not take place in every EU member state. Take a look at the map: the countries in orange are where the constitution is ratified through a popular referendum. There are only 9 of them – out of a total of 25. In the remaining pink-colored countries, the constitution is ratified in Parliament. Check out David's Medienkritik to see how that happened in Germany.

Now take a closer look. You see a number of pink countries with a red mark: in those states, at the time the graph was printed, the document in question HAD ALREADY BEEN RATIFIED. We are talking about Italy, Spain, Hungary, Austria, Germany, Latvia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Greece – together accounting for roughly 215 million Europeans!!! And, since a notorious collection of Belgian insomniacs sometimes referred to as MPs sluiced the dragon through the Belgian House of Representatives last week, in fact some 225 million Europeans – or 50% - have already "agreed" on the EU Constitution!

Why did the French "non" have such a profound impact then? Well, it’s the largest country yet where ratification is through the people’s will. France is a founding member of the EU – the greatest European thinker, hell, the European Father, Jean Monnet, was a Frenchman. All true. However, the main reason for the importance of the French vote is of course that it takes only ONE country to disagree to put the whole undertaking in jeopardy. Buried somewhere in the "constitution" is an article, more precisely Art. IV-443-3, dealing with the event that Europes Bill of Rights is not approved of. It stipulates:

"If, two years after the signature of the treaty amending this Treaty, four-fifths of the Member States have ratified it and one or more Member States have encountered difficulties in proceeding with ratification, the matter shall be referred to the European Council."

Those two years end on October 26, 2006.

Like someove or the other said, there is no Plan B. Basically, now already the collection of Euro elitists each on their own trying to tug at Europes rudder are clueless. Poland has to vote yet, the UK, but... there is already one member state which said "NO". France, with a whopping 54,87%. On Wednesday, June 1st, there may be a second: the Netherlands.


Hmpf. To give you an idea of how I am looking at the whole shenanigan: given the possibility to cast my vote (socialists and greens blocked that), it would in all likelihood have been a "NO" too. Those of you who have been around long enough to remember my early EU posts know I’m a European pur sang. To put it bluntly: I’m ALL for a European Superstate. I see it as the only way for us Europeans to matter in tomorrow’s world. Suggesting that we should remain as we are – a squabbling conglomerate of relatively small and simply small states, strong economically but inherently weak politically and militarily – makes as much sense to me as advocating that the US should go back to being just a loose confederation of Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Jersey, New York etc… again. Utter nonsense in other words. Europe HAS to become truly unified, with member states subordinated to the supranational level. With one single President US-style. With a Congress-like Parliament. With a highest judiciary resembling the US’s. THAT’s what we need to move forward to. Of course, I would also want to see this Europe – the USE – as one leg of a Grand Transatlantic Alliance, with the USA being the other leg. I understand that is a scenario most Americans consider highly unlikely, given Europes disgusting show of cowardice and betrayal of the past years. But – I’m betting on a European Right getting stronger – which IS happening, make no mistake. And I’m betting on world events spurring us towards each other. I’m betting on the dynamics seen when people go to church again in times of war, if you get what I mean.

Now, this Constitution is meant as a step towards achieving that goal of a truly unified Europe. It calls a.o. for a fulltime post of President with a term of maximum 5 years, instead of the unwieldy, make that plains silly - six-month rotating presidencies. It will create the post of an EU Foreign Affairs Minister to present and defend a common European policy. It stipulates that the European Parliament must become a legislative power in its own right, approving all proposed EU laws.

Still I would vote "NO".

Because in my country, the job our politicians have done in explaining what the Constitution stood for and what it contains, was nonexistent. More, it was a disgusting show of utter disregard for what truly lives among Europeans. Here we have a 364-page document, plus 460 pages of annexes. 448 articles in all, and guess what? We, the John Q’s in the street, know Jack S. about it. Oh, there were fancy TV ads saying that if we voted "NO" it would open the doors again to Auschwitz and Treblinka. Oh, for the aficionados there are downloadable versions. If you are interested, this link might help. But hey, they can’t seriously expect from us to study that and comprehend it fully in so short a time since internet versions became available. Also, a turf like that is NO thing to carry around should you feel compelled to. 11 pages would come handier. So, do your homework better next time ladies and gentlemen politicians. Reduce the whole thing. Make it a transparent and easily readable document. Be honest: if you prepare a document – or a contract, treaty or whatever – the size of the Bible and expect people to approve it KNOWING FULL WELL that possibly only 1 in 500,000 Europeans, perhaps less – has actually read and understood the thing, how can you be surprised when people reject it???

Possibly you kidd yourself Europeans would vote "yes" because you have practically been pretending the Constitution is a Bible. Alas, no such luck guys. If you suggest at every occasion that in the case of a "no", "non", "nein", "nee" or "nej" you will still go ahead with the thing, you are not exactly doing wonders for your credibility – and for the credibility of your "Bible" neither, even if it is full of good intentions.

You wanna hear my advice eejits? Better no Consitution than a Bad Constitution. Even if I’m all for Europe, I suggest to blow off some steam and postpone the whole thing for two years. Forget that Oct 26 deadline. The line is dead already. Immediately start working on a decent paper. Make your aims honest and clear. Write something that fits in one’s backpocket. And stop thinking we are A-holes who will swallow everything just because you say it tastes good.


MFBB



N.B.: for those who may have missed the link in the above post, you can find the proposed EU Constitution here.

It appears the French have done the right thing (for the wrong reasons) and shot down the EU constitution(for now). The following quote from the article amused me:

"Many voters wanted to punish Chirac and his conservative government"

Only in Europe could Jacques Chirac's government be considered "conservative".

If these early reports are accurate it is a good day for Europeans, although I suspect most won't appreciate it.

EUROPE COMMITS SUICIDE.

Right under our noses.

I may have to learn how to use the FNC after all.



UPDATE:

Fjordman from Norway who, in the absence of decent Swedish bloggers (have they been silenced already) covers Sweden for us, has an interesting story on tow Swedish svhoolgirls who were sent home for wearing sweaters with the Swedish flag.




The photo shows the girls in question, Linda Larsson and Charlotte Bertelsen. In case you understand Swedish (fat chance), here is the story as it appeared in a Swedish newspaper.


Now, Fjordman, who has become somebody on Scandinavian blogger forums (hell, in the blogosphere for my part) cites a poster, a woman in Sweden, commenting on the affair. Just scroll down the discussion Is Swedish Democracy Collapsing? till you come across the post by the poster "perpetrator" (what's in a name) of Friday May 20, 9.20am:

it seems you know extremely little of the political climate in sweden. the swedish flag has become a nazi symbol. ordinary people don't WEAR patches with the swedish flag -- only nazis do. thus, if you as an immigrant see a person wearing one, the natural response is to feel unsafe. i doubt these girls were sent home from school ONLY because of the patch, a very good guess is they were notorious nazichicks.

Fjordman again:

So, wearing a sweater with a tiny flag from your own nation makes you a "notorious nazichick". Welcome to a parallel universe.

Oh boy. If there are intellectuals and reformers busy on defining a moderate version of Islam, they better had it coming quick. Since you are in the business of scrolling down, you may want to continue here. Sometimes I get the feeling it's five (hours) past twelve.


MFBB

I'm not making this up:

...doctors are calling for a ban on long pointed kitchen knives to reduce deaths from stabbing.

What next, cheese graters?

This story is just unbelievable. The Chirac government is already planning to ignore what looks to be a "non" vote on the EU constitution.

Listen to this pathetic whining by Senator George Voinovich speaking about the upcoming vote on John Bolton becoming the official U.N. ball-kicker.

In my mind's eye I picture Zell Miller walking up, grabbing him by the lapels, telling him in no uncertain terms to get his shit together and act like a man and then giving him the mother of all headbutts - completely caving in Voinovich's face.

I found this over at Radio Blogger.

You might have better luck saving it to your hard drive and then playing it.

What in God's name is the matter with Senator John "Assclown" McCain? It wasn't enough that he fucked us with McCain-Feingold? And don't forget McCain-Kennedy.

Now he's come up with this.

There's nothing wrong with John McCain that a tub of bear lard and a couple of Karelian Bear Dogs couldn't solve...


Hat tip to Drudge

I try and try, but I just can't seem to get myself to give a crap about the stem cell debate.

Thanks for listening.

Here is an interesting little piece by John O'Sullivan on why it would be a good thing for the U.S. if the EU constitution is shot down by voters.

At least some European countries allow their citizens to actually have a say in important political matters - it blows me away that France is actually one of them...

Hat tip to the Corner.

I love this bumper sticker:



I found it over at the Righty in a lefty state blog which has a story about their counter-protesting an anti-war march this past Armed Forces Day.

Call me a sick bastard but this is funny.

I want to see the video.

"Poll after poll predicts that the French will reject the constitutional treaty in a referendum on Sunday."

Hmmm. Maybe the French don't have their heads completely up their asses...

Last night I decided to catch Bill Maher's HBO show, since I had not seen it up until then. While I tend to disagree with Maher's politics, I've always thought he seemed more rational and open minded than most of the other voices on the left. Not any longer. I could not believe how far off the deep end he has gone. In a nutshell, he firmly believes that both the 2000 and 2004 elections were stolen, (the latter via rigged voting machines) that Bush supporters "don't care about the law, they just care about the Bible", and of course all the other various and sundry "Bush is an idiot" jokes that everyone has heard a million times. Maher even stumbled into a huge gaffe on the Newsweek/ Koran flushing story. Clearly the show was recorded before this story was debunked, but he wasted no time in driving home the point that "this sort of behavior (by our troops) is what puts us in danger; it makes these people want to kill us." I wonder if he will be so hard on Newsweek. After all, if this sort of behavior makes us less safe, shouldn't the false reporting of it do that same? There's a disgusting irony in his open contempt for American Christians, whom he mocks at every turn, and the free pass he gives to Muslims that riot and kill because of a single copy of the Koran being flushed down the toilet. If Christians behaved that way because of a Bible desecration he would be the first to cut them down. As if his own spin weren't enough, he had a little round table discussion, sort of like what Dennis Miller did on his show, but unlike Miller (and 90% of other shows like this for that matter) Maher had 3 liberal guests, including Gore Vidal and Al Franken, and they spent the whole time talking wild conspiracy theories. Even Bill O'Reilly, for all his bullshit, will have people with opposing views on his program to actually have a discussion, not a preach to the choir session.

It's really too bad, because guys like Maher used to keep things honest, but he's become just another liberal so enraged with Bush's reelection that he can't see straight any more. I'm sure HBO will keep his show on for a good while, but I'll bet his numbers are garbage. This is the kind of drivel that's driving down subscription rates and viewership of the MSM all over the country. I mistakenly thought Maher was above it all.

DON'T WANNA STIR UP THINGS, BUT...


On Friday, May 13, 2005, Sheikh Ibrahim Mudeiris held a sermon (khutba) broadcast by official Palestinian Authority Television. In it, he vowed that "one day Islam will rule America, Britain, and the entire world". Plus, wipe out the jews. View clip here. MEMRI TV, item no. 669.





Full transcript here. Excerpts:

Ask Britain what it did to the Jews in the early sixth century. What did they do to the Jews? They expelled them, tortured them, and prevented them from entering Britain for more than 300 years. All this was because of what the Jews did in Britain. Ask France what it did to the Jews. They tortured them, expelled them, and burned their Talmud, because of the civil strife the Jews wanted to spark in France, in the days of Louis XIX. Ask Portugal what it did to the Jews. Ask Czarists Russia, which welcomed the Jews, who plotted to kill the Czar - so he massacred them. But don't ask Germany what it did to the Jews. It was the Jews who provoked Nazism to wage war against the entire world, when the Jews, using the Zionist movement, got other countries to wage an economic war on Germany and to boycott German merchandise. They provoked Russia, Britain, France, and Italy. This enraged the Germans toward the Jews, leading to the events of those days, which the Jews commemorating today.

But they are committing worse deeds than those done to them in the Nazi war. Yes, perhaps some of them were killed and some burned, but they are inflating this in order to win over the of the media and gain the world's sympathy. The worst crimes in history were committed against the Jews, yet these crimes are no worse than what the Jews are doing in Palestine. What was done to the Jews was a crime, but isn't what the Jews are doing today in the land of Palestine not a crime?!

We have ruled the world before, and by Allah, the day will come when we will rule the entire world again. The day will come when we will rule America. The day will come when we will rule Britain and the entire world – except for the Jews. The Jews will not enjoy a life of tranquility under our rule, because they are treacherous by nature, as they have been throughout history. The day will come when everything will be relived of the Jews - even the stones and trees which were harmed by them. Listen to the Prophet Muhammad, who tells you about the evil end that awaits Jews. The stones and trees will want the Muslims to finish off every Jew.

Apart from the fact that this dude obviously wasn't an ace in history - I have heard of only eighteen Louis, not nineteen - plus, I seem to recall 6 million jews were burned rather then "some" - this piece to me seems to come right out of a lunatics' mind. Highly illogical too.

In his State of the Union address, President Bush said that he would ask Congress to approve $350 million "to support Palestinian political, economic and security reforms."

Someone tell him to watch MEMRI TV. Hat tip to LGF.


MFBB

Gosh, that was nice of Newsweek to apologize for its erroneous story about desecration of the Koran by U.S. troops.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Newsweek magazine said on Sunday it erred in a May 9 report that U.S. interrogators desecrated the Koran at Guantanamo Bay, and apologized to the victims of deadly Muslim protests sparked by the article.

Editor Mark Whitaker said the magazine inaccurately reported that U.S. military investigators had confirmed that personnel at the detention facility in Cuba had flushed the Muslim holy book down the toilet.

The report sparked angry and violent protests across the Muslim world from Afghanistan, where 16 were killed and more than 100 injured, to Pakistan to Indonesia to Gaza. In the past week it was condemned in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Bangladesh, Malaysia and by the Arab League.

On Sunday, Afghan Muslim clerics threatened to call for a holy war against the United States.

I bet they couldn't wait to get that story to press and now U.S. troops are in a heightened state of danger and at least 16 are dead around the world. Nice going Newsweek.

Another observation - Muslim clerics the world over have their towels in a bunch over this but we hear nary a peep when "insurgents" massacre 30 or 40 of their fellow co-religionists. Say it with me now, "Islam is a religion of peace. Islam is a religion of peace..."

This story makes me chuckle. These enviro-weenies have created such a gloom and doom scenario(mostly in their own fevered minds) about global warming that some are now beginning to advocate the ultimate heresy - nucular power.

I'm going to drive my evil Ford Expedition around the corner to buy some popcorn so I can sit back and enjoy the bloodletting show. Care to join me?

MEANWHILE IN AFGHANISTAN...

Drazil, if you are out there, you may remember we had a conversation a while ago as to the armament of Belgian Pandur APCs in Afghanistan. It appears some examples are armed with the .50 and others with the MAG 7.62mm, as is evident from these recent pics taken from the Belgian Army site. To the left, Pandur with .50 cal. To the right, below, with the MAG. Pictures taken somewhere in April on a shooting range near Kabul.











The troops shown belong, as far as I know, to the 12th-13th Line Regiment. The incongruous name stems from the fact that in 1976 during a rationalization a merger took place between the 12th and 13th regiments. The 12th Line Regiment was the oldest active Belgian Infantry Regiment, as it originated from a volunteer corps established right after the Belgian Independence on March 31, 1831. Of all the units in the Belgian armed forces, it has always had the highest number of awards. It proved itself particularly during the 1914 campaign, during which the Belgian Army slowly fell back, over a period of two months and a half, from Liège towares the westernmost corner of the country, behind the river Yser. Its outstanding reputation was such that our King, Albert I, on April 5th, 1915 wrote:


"I have chosen the 12th Regiment of the Line for my son's military formation because this regiment during the past campaign has distinguished itself the most for its bravery."

Albert I - De Panne - 5 april 1915


The 13th Regiment of the Line was raised in 1874 and disbanded again in 1947. Re-established in 1976 as an anti-tank unit, it was then merged with the 12th and got its final name in 1984, "Régiment 12ème de Ligne Prince Léopold - 13ème de Ligne", referring to King Albert's son, Leopold. The 12th-13th is garrisoned in Spa to the southeast of Liège. WWII buffs may recall that Spa was the place where, prior to the Battle of the Bulge, General Hodges, commanding general of the US 1st Army, had his HQ established (which during Peipers dash for the Meuse consequently had to be evacuated).

The photos show the new desert camo as worn by Belgian soldiers in Afghanistan right now. Of course, with the continental camo pattern on helmet and Kevlar jacket, the effect is a bit weird.

And on Thursday, May 12th, President Karzai was in Brussels for EU talks. He used the occasion to visit the House of Representatives and thank Belgium for its efforts. President Karzais visit was a welcome opportunity for the parents of Hélène De Beir, who was a Belgian project coordinator for Doctors Without Borders in Badghis, Afghanistan, to ask about the proceedings in the investigation of the murder of their daughter. In June 2004 she was murdered, allegedly by Taliban, in Afghanistan, along with two colleagues and their Afghan driver and translator.

Pesonally, I think some of the news coming out of Afghanistan has been rather distressing a bit. As I mention the case of Mrs. De Beir, I recall that just this week I read in a newspaper that one of the prime suspects of the murder was a Police Chief... reinstated lately in March. Then of course most of us have heard about the recent demonstrations against the US in some Afghan cities. Crowds consisting of students and even children shouting "Death to America", "Death to Bush" and things like that. All so, it seems, because of a Newsweek article where some dipshit editor found nothing better than circulate a story about Guantanamo guards placing a Quran on a toilet (and even flushing one down).

I don't know how it is with you, but if I read crap like that I'm not so much incensed because of shoddy reporting putting lives from US military personnel at risk again, but because these fuckwads, just three years after having been liberated from vile oppressors and receiving massive aid to get their backward country back on its feet again, think it's appropriate to chastize Uncle Sam. When I saw these assclowns, dirty towels wrapped around their heads, eyes towards infintiy and brains switched off, I had this idea that it would be nice to call in a Spec...(censored).

Oh well. We'll see how it all plays out. But what I see thus far in the Muslim World is not exactly encouraging. Excuse me, but this guy may very well show the first signs of losing his patience with Islam.


MFBB

Goddamnit!

Something needs to be done about immigration. Now.

Gosh, I love Condi.

This was not the brightest of ideas.

Leave it to the Frogs...

Interesting. The Senate voted 100 to 0 to approve the $82 billion emergency war-spending bill.

Funny, how a few months and no looming election can change things...

Disadvantages of pissing off America.

I particularly like the last one.

WHY THIS WAR NEEDS TO BE FOUGHT.

From summer 2003 to late fall 2004 the scumbags mostly attacked US military personnel. Ever heard about CEV's? That stands for Combat Effectiveness Value. Losing 30-50 of their own for every US soldier KIA, by late fall even the dumbest jihadists had found out that their CEV was somewhat less than that of the average US infantry troop.

Thus, from late fall 2004 they shifted their attention to Iraq's newborn security personnel: Iraqi Police, Iraqi National Guard, NIA (New Iraqi Army). While they were quite successful blowing up raw would be recruits standing in a row sittingducklike and cutting off the heads of unarmed soldiers returning from furlough, by March 2005 it had become clear they could not fool the Iraqi forces forever.

Ergo, they once again had to go look for an adversary they could cope with. As most of you know by now, given the recent spate of terror attacks against unarmed civilians, it looks they have finally found their match:




Picture released by the U.S. Army Tuesday, May 3, 2005 shows a U.S. Army soldier comforting a child fatally wounded in a car bomb blast in Mosul, 360 km (225 miles) northwest of Baghdad, Iraq, Monday, May 2, 2005. 15 Iraqis were wounded in the combined suicide bomb attack. (AP Photo/U.S. Army)


I must admit that the past few months - say, from February on - I felt rather disappointed in the lack of a clear signal emerging from the Muslim world that there is an understanding that Americas actions in the GWOT are not meant to undermine Islam, but rather to spur it into re-evaluating and re-explaining its core beliefs and adapting them to modern times. Unshackling the Islamic Faith from the burden of fourteen centuries of rigid interpretations of Quran and Hadith.

Then just recently, I stumbled upon this. Can I - we - have some hope please?

The Muslim world is changing. Three years after the atrocity of 9/11, it may be in the early stages of a reformation, albeit with a small "r". From Morocco to Indonesia, people are trying to develop a more contemporary and humane interpretation of Islam, and some countries are undergoing major transformations.
Much of the attention is focused on reformulating the sharia, the centuries-old body of Islamic law deeply embedded in a medieval psychology. The sharia is state law in many Muslim countries such as Saudi Arabia, Iran, Pakistan and the Sudan. For many conservative and radical Muslims, the sharia is Islam: it cannot be changed, and must be imposed in exactly the shape it was first formulated in the ninth century.

Since 9/11, there has been a seismic shift in this perception. More and more Muslims now perceive Islamic law to be dangerously obsolete. And these include the ulema, the religious scholars and clerics, who have a tremendous hold on the minds of the Muslim masses.

The article points to numerous examples, including recent revisions in family law in Morocco, where women are now given equal rights in marriage and custody law, in India, and in Malaysia. Most importantly, where such changes are taking place, they are supported by the religious leaders who have justified the changes by reference to the Quran and to Islamic tradition...

Elsewhere, the focus is not so much on Islamic law as on Islam as a whole. In a general election last March, the Malaysian prime minister, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, argued that Islam was almost totally associated with violence and extremism and needed to be formulated anew. He called his new concept "Islam Hadhari", or progressive Islam. It was pitted against the "conservative Islam" of the main opposition party, the Islamic Pas. For the first time, the governing coalition won more than 90 per cent of federal parliamentary seats. Pas, and its version of Islam (full implementation of the sharia, without modification; a leading role in the state for religious scholars; and so on), were routed.


Prime Minister Badawi is, it looks, a welcome change compared to his successor, the fanatic Dr. Mahathir, who quit office with a notorious speech chastizing the jews and lamenting the fact that the Islamic people not so much fail to produce their own consumer goods, but rather their own weapons. Listening to Mr. Badawi, I sincerely hope Mahathir may soon become a ghost from the past. The article concludes with:


Muslims worldwide are acknowledging the need for fundamental change in their perception of Islam. They are making conscious efforts to move away from medieval notions of Islamic law and to implement the vision of justice, equality and beauty that is rooted in the Koran. If such changes continue, the future will not repeat the recent past.


If you are a bit suspicious as to the origins of said article, you may want to read Stephen Schwartz, whom some of us know via Tech Central Station, since he seems to echo the abovementioned viewpoint in this article over at Frontpage Magazine:


...Unlike the radical Islamists of the "Wahhabi lobby," represented by such aggressive and militant groups as the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), the Muslim Students Association of the U.S. and Canada, and others, we do not fantasize an Islamic conquest of America; nor do we preach the supremacy of Islam. We call for nothing more than a place at the big table of American religions. We do not demand control of the whole table, or a table of our own, separate from other Americans. We welcome sincere interfaith cooperation with Jews, Christians, and others, whom we believe share in the grace of almighty Allah. We affirm, in the words of Qur'an 2:62, "Believers, Jews, Christians, and Sabaeans -- whoever believes in God and the Last Day and does what is right -- shall be rewarded by their Lord; they have nothing to fear or to regret."


I hope they are right. Boy, do I hope so. In the meantime, KUDOS for the US Soldier, for it is him who stirred the hornet's nest - it is him, or her, who brought about the so necessary change in the Middle East.

MFBB


UPDATE:

It appears the man who took this photo is a freelance writer by the name of Michael Yon, who is embedded with a Mosul-based Stryker brigade. I got this info via Cdr. Salamander. The terrorist actually DROVE THROUGH A BUNCH OF PLAYING CHILDREN TO GET TO A STRYKER COLUMN!!! One of the victims was this little girl, who died at a US Army hospital. The soldier holding her is actually Major Mark Bieger, a 35-year old West Point graduate and father of three.

More on Michael Yon's blog (hat tip to Cdr. Salamander):


Major Mark Bieger found this little girl after the car bomb that attacked our guys while kids were crowding around. The soldiers here have been angry and sad for two days. They are angry because the terrorists could just as easily have waited a block or two and attacked the patrol away from the kids. Instead, the suicide bomber drove his car and hit the Stryker when about twenty children were jumping up and down and waving at the soldiers. Major Bieger, I had seen him help rescue some of our guys a week earlier during another big attack, took some of our soldiers and rushed this little girl to our hospital. He wanted her to have American surgeons and not to go to the Iraqi hospital. She didn't make it. I snapped this picture when Major Bieger ran to take her away. He kept stopping to talk with her and hug her.


Meanwhile, moonbats in Europe and elsewhere are chanting "Victory to the Iraqi Resistance":




I don't care if you are Buddhist, Jew, Muslim, Christian, Hindu, animist or whatever. I'm asking you to pray for this little girl and her friends who died because of a specimen I don't even want to call a swine for fear of insulting swines. If you are an atheist or agnost, ponder for a moment the terrible fate of this child and the agony of her parents. Let us all think if we can't do a little of our own to help Iraq achieve its goal of becomeing a free and prosperous nation where children can grow up peacefully.

Just one of the reasons I don't call myself a Republican...

ICH WAR AUCH EIN BERLINER.

But just for one day. Hi all. Every year around Easter I’m visiting with my wife and kid my mother-in-law and brother-in-law in the Polish city of Wroclaw. Since my company is a member of the German-based commercial group MHK and this feted its 25-year anniversary in Berlin last Saturday, April 16th, we decided "om het nuttige met het aangename te verenigen" – to combine the useful with the agreeable – as they say over here in Belgoland. So we off to Berlin.

The obligatory meeting with the group’s 2004 financial roundup and strategy talks was mostly what business meetings without clear-cut objectives are: lots of blah-blah-blah and yawning. However, I did not regret the 200-kloms detour for, a.) I got to collect my year’s bonus, hoorah, and b.) we took the opportunity to do a little sightseeing in Berlin, which had changed an awful lot since I was last there on a drab late autumn day in 1989, only months before the Wall came down. Not gonna make this a long thread, but I got some pics and info to share with you:



The first one is a photo of the Reichstag, the German Capitol so to say. This monumental piece of late 19th Century architecture has a troubled history. After its completion in 1894 it was officially designated as the place where the German people’s representatives should gather. It being still the time of Wilhelm I and Bismarck, these parlementarians had precious little power. Only in 1916, when unrest among the population resulted in the Kaiser’s authority eroding, was the inscription "Dem Deutschen Volke" (For the German People) added. In the twenties however the Reichstag did start to function in a truly democratic way – but not for long. Months after Hitler came to power, in early 1933, the Plenary Hall was set on fire – allegedly by a young Dutch Communist, Marinus Van Der Lubbe, but in reality by the Nazis themselves. They used the turmoil in the wake of the event to force through oppressive legislation, such as the Reichstagbrandverordnung and the Ermaechtigungsgesetz, bills which essentially suspended the legislative role of any parliamentary body. In short, they killed Parliament and allowed the Fuehrer to rule by decree. All in all a monstrous course of events. For those fools who liken 9/11 and the ensuing Patriot Act to the Fire in the Reichstag and the Nazi laws killing off democracy I recommend studying German history from 1933 to 1945. Maybe they also can check out whether Hitler sought for, and obtained, a Resolution 1441-like permission from the League of Nations to liberate Czechoslowakia and Poland.

Anyway, from 1933 on the building was mostly an empty charred hulk, although when the Russians entered Berlin in late April 1945 they seemed for some reason to regard it as a symbol of National Socialism, for they threw lots of troops against it – and the tenacious defense by Waffen SS units may have strengthened them in their conviction. Some of you may recall the famous photos of Russian soldiers hoisting the Soviet flag on top of the Reichstag (at the very moment this happened, there was still fierce fighting in the building’s basement).

During the Cold War, as West Germany (the Bundesrepublik) had its Bundestag (parliament) in Bonn whereas East Germany (the Deutsche Demokratische Republik) had its Volkskammer first in makeshift quarters, then from 1976 in the Palast Der Republik, there was little use for the Reichstag. That changed in 1990 with the reunification of East and West Germany, and the parliamentarians of both republics once again took seat in the imposing building. Under the guidance of the British architect Sir Norman Foster important transformations took place - in fact only the outer walls remained as before. He provided light for the Plenary Hall through an ingenuous system of mirrors placed in the gigantic glass and stell dome replacing the original dome. The renovation would cost 600 million DM (think in excess of 300 million US$). This is a really good link with marvellous photos.


The second pic shows the impressive Television Tower, or Fernsehturm in German, as it rises 365m high over Berlin’s Alexanderplatz. It was commissioned in 1969 (building started in August 1965) and meant as a showcase of East-German ingenuity and building and engineering competency. The 250m high concrete shaft weighs 26,000 tons and carries the 4,800 ton heavy ball, which houses a.o. a rotating restaurant (360° every ½ hour). The aerial carrier on top of the "Kugel" weighs another 245 tons. A lift takes you up in 38 seconds. The Fernsehtower is Berlins tallest building, that’s something you can use in a quiz. Good links here and especially here.





And last but not least, a remnant of the division which once existed between East and West Berlin: Checkpoint Charlie. In 1961 the then DDR Head of State Walter Ulbricht ordered the building of the infamous Wall dividing East and West Berlin since for some reason the marvellous living conditions in the East were not at all appreciated by the spoiled East German workers. On August 13, 1961 the Wall was a fact, and from that moment on tourists from abroad, diplomats and military personnel of the Western Powers were only allowed to enter East Berlin via the crossing point at Berlins Friedrichstrasse. It was named Charlie because there was already a Checkpoint Bravo at Dreilinden and a Checkpoint Alpha at Helmstedt. Checkpoint Charlie was removed on June 22, 1990. The former Allied guardhouses are now located in the Allied Museum. The shack you see in the middle is in fact a copy of the American guardhouse, erected on the original place on August 13, 2000. Checkpoint Charlie 101 here.


MFBB

Got an iPod, Michael? If not, and you want one, for the love of God don't buy one in The Netherlands!