SOME THOUGHTS ON NEO-KEYNESIANISM.

Last week, regular reader Spiral, who I shall forever remember as Mark from Colorado, linked to an article by the WSJ's Peter Ferrara. It was so good I thought I'd post some exerpts here:

THE KEYNESIANS WERE WRONG AGAIN.

by Peter Ferrara, September 11, 2009.

"From the beginning, our representatives in Washington have approached this economic downturn with old-fashioned, Keynesian economics. Keynesianism—named after the British economist John Maynard Keynes—is the theory that you fight an economic downturn by pumping money into the economy to "encourage demand" and "create jobs." The result of our recent Keynesian stimulus bills? The longest recession since World War II—21 months and counting—with no clear end in sight. Borrowing close to a trillion dollars out of the private economy to increase government spending by close to a trillion dollars does nothing to increase incentives for investment and entrepreneurship.

The record speaks for itself: In February 2008, President George W. Bush cut a deal with congressional Democrats to pass a $152 billion Keynesian stimulus bill based on countering the recession with increased deficits. The centerpiece was a tax rebate of up to $600 per person, which had no significant effect on economic incentives, as reductions in tax rates do.

Learning nothing from this Keynesian failure, which he vigorously supported from the U.S. Senate, President Barack Obama came back in February 2009 to support a $787 billion, purely Keynesian stimulus bill.

Even the tax-cut portion of that bill, which Mr. Obama is still wildly touting to the public, was purely Keynesian. The centerpiece was a $400-per-worker tax credit, which, again, has no significant effect on economic incentives. While Mr. Obama is proclaiming that this delivered on his campaign promise to cut taxes for 95% of Americans, the tax credit disappears after next year.

The Obama administration is claiming success, not because of recovery, but because of the slowdown in economic decline. Last month, just 216,000 jobs were lost, and the economy declined by only 1% in the second quarter. Based on his rhetoric, Mr. Obama expects credit for anyone who still has a job.

The fallacies of Keynesian economics were exposed decades ago by Friedrich Hayek and Milton Friedman. Keynesian thinking was then discredited in practice in the 1970s, when the Keynesians could neither explain nor cure the double-digit inflation, interest rates, and unemployment that resulted from their policies. Ronald Reagan's decision to dump Keynesianism in favor of supply-side policies—which emphasize incentives for investment—produced a 25-year economic boom. That boom ended as the Bush administration abandoned every component of Reaganomics one by one, culminating in Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's throwback Keynesian stimulus in early 2008..."

I'm not gonna rip off Baron Keynes completely. Back in the day he published The Means to Prosperity (1933) and especially his magnum opus the General Theory on Employment, Interest and Money (1936), two works which inspired the Roosevelt Administration to continue on the interventionist path already chosen under President Hoover, the flaws of his theories had yet to manifest themselves. After all, there had been no precedent.

The current administration does not have that excuse. There IS a precedent. The New Deal's total failure, an outcome which, handily for leftitst, was effectively overshadowed by Roosevelts steadfast, courageous and successful leadership during World War II.

Over at DowneastBlog, we've always been true acolytes of Von Mises, Hayek and Friedman. And it is in their theories that lies salvation for the West's economic woes.


MFBB.

"WE THE PEOPLE, SILENT NO MORE"

Being a European, and preocuupied with rather pressing issues in our neck of the wood, it apparently took me some time to grasp the ever increasing importance of the so-called tea parties across the USA. But I was shocked wide awake - and I suppose quite a few other Europeans too, insofar their media were honest enough to report about it - by the massive rally held in Washington DC on Saturday September 12. Regulare reader and commenter Adriane provided this link to Protein Wisdom, who have good coverage. The photo below is from their site:




I did not know there were so many nazis, uh, fiscally responsible people in the US of A.

I took the following pic from The New Boston Tea Party's site:




But the demo in Washington DC apparently wasn't the only one. The following pic is from a 2,500-3,000 strong demo in Los Angeles, no less:





From AmericanpowerBlog. Anon will not believe me when I say I wish it wasn't true what's on that guy's sign. But it is. I wish it wasn't true. And while this time I won't go as far as to say bluntly that what's on it IS true, I fear that nevertheless, it isn't too far off the mark.

Then I came across this video:



If I were a crybaby, I'd say that it brought a tear to my eye. Hey, wait a minute (takes handkerchief).

No, serious. This huge demonstration came as a pleasant surprise to me. Watching this all from across the Atlantic, I may be wrong about my impression that this massive movement across the US is not borne by big names, at least not per se. But so far I do indeed not see any well-known GOP Senator or rightwing pundit profiling him- or herself as the leader of these demos. Which means I have to conclude it is truly a grassroots movement. And that is giving me hope. Over here in Europe, our corrupt, short-sighted, spineless slimeball cowards of politicans enact measures against the will of the population. A majority against gay marriage? Just push it thru. A majority against more immigration? Set the floodgates even more open (just happened in my country). Some country's EU referendum not in line with a Brussels or Strasbourg Diktat? No problem, we'll just hold another referendum until they vote correctly. Overwhelming majority against inclusion of Turkey in the European Union? Talks are proceeding as if this majority lived on Pluto. And... why wouldn't it be that way? Because no matter how contrary to the will and aspirations of the population the deeds of our "elite" fuckwad politicians are... said population just swallows it in the end. No such thing like tea parties over here, although there's plenty of reasons for them.

BUT... at least in the United States... the citizenry hasn't been reduced yet to scared will-less, spineless, voting cattle, not believing in anything anymore but their holidays and pensions.

Government's first duty is to protect the people, not run their lives.

- Ronald Reagan.

The people on these photos understand that.


MFBB.

SATURDAY NIGHT INDIE MUSIC.

Salad was a nineties UK indie group composed of Marijne Van Der Vlugt (vocals), Pete Brown (bass), Rob Wakeman (drums), and Paul Kennedy (guitar). Previously, Marijne, from The Netherlands, had been a model and an MTV Europe jockey. She's still around somewhere, and the song Yellow Horse, from the group she's with now, Cowboy Rider or sumpin, was used as a soundtrack for the Grey's Anatomy series. Drink the elixir is probably their biggest hit, from the 1995 album Drink me.




Aztec Camera were a Scottish new wave/indie band formed in Glasgow in 1980. During their lifespan, which lasted till 1995 or so, they went through a gazillion of musicians and contributors (including Ryuchi Sakamoto and Paul Carrack), the only constant member being the singer, Roddy Frame. This single, Still On Fire, is from the 1984 album Knife.



Roddy Frame looks terribly gay in this video. I just hope his real name wasn't Pee Wee Herman.


MFBB.

P.S.: and those trousers! Yuk!

REMEMBERING THE SECOND DAY OF INFAMY.

Tara and John Creamer met at college, where he was captain of the football team, and she never missed a game. "Her life, in her eyes, was perfect," said her sister, Liz Waldo. "She had a tremendous life in her short 30 years. Her smile was radiant. It was her most beautiful feature."

Tara and Liz grew up as two of the four Shea sisters in Westfield, Mass. "The four girls looked on ourselves as four sturdy legs on a table," Mrs. Waldo said, "and now we're down to three wobbly legs." (Profile published in THE NEW YORK TIMES on December 24, 2001.)

Tara K. (Shea), 30, of Worcester, a passenger on American Airlines Flight 11, died Tuesday, in New York City. She leaves husband of 7 years John J. Creamer, her 4 year old son Colin J. Creamer and 15 month old daughter Nora A. Creamer. She also leaves her father James F. Shea of Westfield, 2 brothers Kevin J. Shea of Omaha, NE, and Brian J. Shea of Granville, MA, 3 sisters Maureen A. Shea and Kellie P. DiFilippo both of Reading and Elizabeth M. Waldo of Westfield and many nephews and nieces. She was born in Westfield, her mother was Colleen M. (O'Connor) Shea who died in 1995. Mrs. Creamer was a 1993 graduate of the University of Massachusetts. Mrs. Creamer had been Planning Manager for TJX Corporation in Framingham. She had been actively involved with several charitable organizations the TJX Corporation including the American Cancer Society and Christmas Relief for the Homeless. A Memorial Service will he held Saturday, September 15th at 1:00 PM in Our Lady of the Angels Church, 1222 Main Street, Worcester. O'Connor Brothers Funeral Home, 592 Park Ave., WORCESTER, is directing the arrangements. The family requests that flowers be omitted and contributions made to the Creamer Children's Scholarship c/o Worcester Credit Union, 520 West Boylston Street, Worcester, MA 01606.

I could leave it at that. And something tells me I actually should. Something tells me I... may dishonor the remembrance of so many innocent who were brutally and for no reason murdered by islamic terrorists on that fateful day, now eight years ago.

Then...

... not.

So I proceed, and it feels like walking on thin ice.

Eight years later, on the spot where it all happened, there should have been a 1,000-meter high Towering Wonder of modern architecture, a Testimony to Defiance in the face of blind bloodthirsty sheer madness, a testimony to the confidence, technological prowess, ingenuity, courage and strength of a nation that has spread so much good over the world, spilling the blood of hundreds of thousands of its soldiers in doing so...

But instead there's just this:




Eight years later, in the same city that back then was visited by the malign hatred of mentally derailed adherents of a wicked belief system, who were consumed by the realization of their own impotence... the New York City council overwhelmingly approved a resolution calling for two muslim holidays for the city's schools...

And eight years later, a man whose father AND stepfather were muslims, who attended muslim schools in his youth, who has Hussein for middle name, and who is hellbent on leading his country to financial ruin... is President of the United States.

I might have left it at that, even knowing that he has appointed as Secretary of Homeland Security a woman who has proclaimed that we should not refer anymore to 9/11 as a terrorist act, but as a "man-caused disaster". I possibly would even have left it at that, when on the commemmoration of this heinous day he willingly spread confusion by not naming the source of evil, instead saying that the US 'would never falter in going after Al Qaeda' (the name of which he spoke only once), which is something akin to Winston Churchill saying in June 1940, after having been ingloriously chased from the beach at Dunkirk, that Great Britain would never falter in going after Von Rundstedt's Heeresgruppe A.

But I can't leave it at that, knowing that just days ago he thought it necessary to praise American muslims for their "enrichment of the nation's culture":

"The contribution of Muslims to the United States are too long to catalog because Muslims are so interwoven into the fabric of our communities and our country..."

Go tell that to the relatives of the Pentagon staffer above.

I am sorry for... the inconvenient use... of a photograph of someone who was once a loved father, husband, child, brother, friend.

I ask for forgiveness for doing it, and I'm doing it only because I cannot bear the absurdity and insanity of our current situation anymore, and because ... I sense that not addressing the real issue here, not naming the real evil, not identifying the REAL ENEMY... which is islamic extremism and possibly islam itself... means to dishonor these innocent victims even more.



MFBB.

DUTCH INSANITY: JOHN CALVIN COMMEMMORATED WITH A KAABA COPY.

Very quick post. It's the 500th anniversary of John Calvin, a protestant reformer second only to Martin Luther. He was born Jean Cauvin in 1509 in Noyon, in Picardy in northern France. No time to elaborate, but the basic tenet of Calvin’s theology, aptly called Calvinism, is that God created human beings for "personal" fellowship. This led Calvin to conclude that all wisdom comes from knowledge of God and of ourselves, so that in knowing God, we know ourselves and vice versa. Calvin also stressed that what we know about God is strictly limited to what He explicitly revealed, so our chief preoccupation should not to be to waste time on theological speculation, but rather try moral edification.

Have I got you this far? Okay. Now, Dordrecht. Dordecht is an important city in The Netherlands. Not as important or well-known as, say, Utrecht, but not exactly a small town either. Think what St.-Louis is for the US, for instance. In Dordrecht they commemmorate Calvin's birthday this year. Why? Well, the Dutch are Calvinists. Or used to be.

The city of Dordrecht ordered a Moroccan-Dutch artist, Aziz Bekkaoui, to craft a piece of art:



The fact that it resembles the Kaaba in Mecca is purely coincidental. That these doofuses walk around it in white clothes just like muslims on a hajj is coincidental too. Not.

I, Outlaw Mike, live in Europe, the world's greatest Open Air Lunatic's Asylum.


MFBB.

PS: I have to get back to work immediately. Actually, I DO NOT have time for this. Not in the middle of the day.

IN MEMORIAM CPL. KEVIN VAN DE RIJDT, SGT. MAJOR MARK LEIJSEN.

Respect.

Two more Dutch soldiers fell in Afghanistan, bringing the death toll for The Netherlands to 21 in that theatre.





On Sunday, September 6, Corporal Kevin Van de Rijdt (26, photo left) fell in a firefight near Deh Rawod, Uruzgan province. He was a member of the Commando Corps based in Roosendaal, southern Holland. In Uruzgan, together with his colleagues and troopers of the Marine Corps, he belonged to special unit Task Force 55.

On Monday September 7, 44 year old Sergeant Major Mark Leijsen (photo right) died when an IED exploded near the convoy he was riding in. Three Dutch troopers and an Afghan translator were wounded in the same attack. The explosion took place at 2pm local time near the forward post of Tabar, around 9 kloms north of Camp Holland. Sgt. Major Leijsen, of 101 Engineer Battalion from Wezep, The Netherlands, was a member of an OMLT (Operational Mentoring and Liaison Team) training an ANA unit. His OMLT Team took part in Operation Ghat Mahy, meant to gain control of the western part of the Deh Reshan area.

R.I.P. for these brave troopers. My thoughts and prayers go out to Kevins and Marks families and loved ones.


MFBB.

MUSLIMS DESECRATE BRITISH CHRISTIAN GRAVES. WITH LABOUR'S PERMISSION.

A BNP video, via Vlad Tepes' blog:

... The bloodless genocide and ethnic cleansing of the British people and culture continues apace with the latest example being the ripping up of a century old Christian cemetery to make way for a mosque in Manchester. The grave desecrations, being carried out with a large Komatsu earthmover in the graveyard of the St John the Apostle and Evangelist church at the corner of Holmfirth Street and St Johns Road, is part of the re-opening of this nineteenth century church as the Dar-ul-Ulum Qadria Jilania Islamic Centre. A sign on the door says clearly that the Islamic Centre is already open for prayer — showing that by Islamic centre the colonisers actually mean mosque.

The conversion of this church (founded in 1845 on a site donated by Sir J. W. H. Anson) into a mosque has been made possible by the displacement of the local indigenous British population by waves of Third World immigration into Manchester.

As this policy gathered pace under successive Tory and Labour governments, the numbers of Third World colonisers grew to the point where they have now totally displaced the indigenous population.

As there were no more white British people in the local area, the Grade II listed status church closed down — only now to be re-opened as a mosque.

This church — formerly the largest Church of England parish in Longsight, was the only one in the area with a graveyard.

These Christian British graves — the only remnant of the now ethnically cleansed British people in the area — are obviously offensive to the Muslim colonisers, who have brought in the earthmoving machine to smash up the gravestones which are being literally crushed to rubble.

St John the Apostle and Evangelist church is a real time history lesson of what will happen to Britain unless the insane multicultural Lib/Lab/Con genocidal policies of mass Third World immigration are not only brought to an end, but reversed...

I don't care anymore whether the BNP is "racist" or not. It is a non-issue to me. This is about survival. Besides, ever since I experienced how my party was smeared without a chance to defend itself, I have become highly suspicious of any allegations against the BNP.


MFBB.

SOME BELGIAN SCENERY.

While much of Flanders, Belgium's northern region, is rather boringly flat, there's some regions were a modest relief lends the landscape sometimes surprising grace and beauty. One such region is called the Heuvelland, in the south of the province of West Flanders. The photo shows the village of Loker with is typical steeple-less church (which reminds me of English countryside churches).




The slumped hill on the background is the Kemmelberg, a 156m high hilltop dominating the area. The pleasant scenery hides the fact that under it, there's a gigantic bunker complex built by the Belgian Army in the fifties. This command bunker was to be NATO's nerve center for the Benelux (Belgium-Netherlands-Luxemburg) in case of a Soviet invasion during the Cold War. It was in use till 1995, and is scheduled to open this very fall as a tourist attraction, much like the UK's underground facility in Troywood, Scotland.

As much as I like the Heuvelland (literally Hill Country), I still prefer the Ardennes for hiking, a favorite pastime on those rare occasions when there is time. Scheduled for this fall is a trek with some good friends in Belgium's "extreme" south, along the Semois river. For those who would like to check out the area, I recommend the places on this map.




The village of Poupehan.


MFBB.

SATURDAY NIGHT THIRD EYE BLIND, THE CHURCH.

Losing a whole year, a 1997 subhit from Third Eye Blind, from their titleless debut album.



After listening to their CD, I thought these guys were one of the most promising acts of 97. After that, never heard anything anymore.


Metropolis is a rather good number by The Church, an aussie new wave/rock band which saw the light in 1980 in Canberra. Their biggest hit was, of course, Under The Milky Way, from the album Starfish (1988). Metropolis is from the subsequent album, Gold Afternoon Fix (1990).




The video would be bearable were it not for the irritant drag. What do you want, it was shot in Euro Sin City aka Amsterdam (I hope there's no Dutch peeking in).


MFBB.

PREPARE FOR CIVIL WAR.

I reported earlier about the commotion around the headscarf ban imposed by an Antwerp High School, the Koninklijk Atheneum.

Since Tuesday, September 1, there have been angry protests from 150-200 muslim girls and their parents at the school gates. The girls that were willing to lay off their scarves upon entering were scolded and intimidated. Which is unbelievably ironic, since the protestors were toting a.o. placards reading "Vrije Keuze" (Free Choice). Keep in mind that it was EXACTLY the fact that non-veilwearing girls were pressed to cover up that led Karin Heremans, the Director of the Koninklijk Atheneum, to impose the ban, in a perhaps futile attempt to stop the islamic radicalization of her school.





And now this:

The entire week the muslim parents and their daughters have shouted slogans like "ALL FLEMINGS GET OUT!". I kid you not.

Of course, it don't make much difference - the percentage of muslim students at the Koninklijk Atheneum has risen from 48% in 2001 to 80% this year. Courtesy the socialist party.


More from the article. Keep in mind it's from De Standaard, a regime newspaper par excellence. If they print it...

"Heremans was given police protection last week. Just like in the days after the announcement of the headscarf ban at the end of June, there was also a police officer present on the school's grounds. Heremans' private house is also under police surveillance. Heremans, who has become the face of the headscarf ban, is especially disturbed by verbal threats on the street. Especially by older muslim men, she says."

If you need to order police officers to watch over schoolchildren, and a bodyguard for the school principal, you are in





MFBB.

SEPTEMBER 1, 1939. THE BATTLE OF WESTERPLATTE. THE START OF WORLD WAR II.

In late August, 1939, under the suspect pretense of an amiable courtesy visit, the German battleship Schleswig-Holstein dropped anchor in the channel off Westerplatte and on September 1, at exactly 04:45 local time, began it's barrage of the Polish outpost with its superior 280 and 150mm guns. Thus began Germany's invasion of Poland, igniting the powderkeg that would explode into World War II.

Expecting an easy victory, the German offensive was sternly repelled by Polish small arms and machine gun fire, and suffered unexpected losses during two more assaults upon Westerplatte the same day. The only Polish 75mm gun was destroyed after discharging 28 shells into the German position across the channel. Despite a German naval infantry invasion, sustained bombardment by heavy artillery and diving airraids from German warplanes, the Polish garrison repulsed the Germans for seven days, before the depleted unit, suffering from exhaustion, severe injury and a shortage of food, water, ammunition and medical supplies, was forced to surrender on September 7th.

Over the course of the violent engagement some 2,600 German soldiers fought against the 205-strong garrison of stalwart Poles. The exact number of German casualties has never been disclosed, but is assumed to be quite high in comparison to the Polish figures - of the 205 Polish soldiers defending the outpost, only 14 perished (including the Polish radio operator, later executed for refusing to divulge radio codes to the German side) while 53 were wounded...

The following video shows you how the German battleship Schleswig-Holstein shelled the small peninsula of Westerplatte and its handful of defenders. Despite the fireworks, despite the Stukas, despite repeated assaults by three thousand plus Germans... the barely two hundred Polish soldiers under Major Sucharski... held out for one week.




Thus started World War II. Seventy years ago.


MFBB.

IN MEMORIAM TED KENNEDY (1932-2009).

"... Picking his way through the Soviet archives that Boris Yeltsin had just thrown open, in 1991 Tim Sebastian, a reporter for the London Times, came across an arresting memorandum. Composed in 1983 by Victor Chebrikov, the top man at the KGB, the memorandum was addressed to Yuri Andropov, the top man in the entire USSR. The subject: Sen. Edward Kennedy.

On 9-10 May of this year," the May 14 memorandum explained, "Sen. Edward Kennedy's close friend and trusted confidant [John] Tunney was in Moscow." (Tunney was Kennedy's law school roommate and a former Democratic senator from California.) "The senator charged Tunney to convey the following message, through confidential contacts, to the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Y. Andropov."

Kennedy's message was simple. He proposed an unabashed quid pro quo. Kennedy would lend Andropov a hand in dealing with President Reagan. In return, the Soviet leader would lend the Democratic Party a hand in challenging Reagan in the 1984 presidential election. "The only real potential threats to Reagan are problems of war and peace and Soviet-American relations," the memorandum stated. "These issues, according to the senator, will without a doubt become the most important of the election campaign."

Kennedy made Andropov a couple of specific offers.

First he offered to visit Moscow. "The main purpose of the meeting, according to the senator, would be to arm Soviet officials with explanations regarding problems of nuclear disarmament so they may be better prepared and more convincing during appearances in the USA." Kennedy would help the Soviets deal with Reagan by telling them how to brush up their propaganda.

Then he offered to make it possible for Andropov to sit down for a few interviews on American television. "A direct appeal ... to the American people will, without a doubt, attract a great deal of attention and interest in the country. ... If the proposal is recognized as worthy, then Kennedy and his friends will bring about suitable steps to have representatives of the largest television companies in the USA contact Y.V. Andropov for an invitation to Moscow for the interviews. ... The senator underlined the importance that this initiative should be seen as coming from the American side."

Kennedy would make certain the networks gave Andropov air time--and that they rigged the arrangement to look like honest journalism.

Kennedy proved eager to deal with Andropov--the leader of the Soviet Union, a former director of the KGB and a principal mover in both the crushing of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution and the suppression of the 1968 Prague Spring--at least in part to advance his own political prospects...."

- Peter Robinson on Forbes.com

May 68'ers who were NOT protesting US troops in 'Nam and who were therefore NOT cool. 72 Czechoslovakians were killed, 266 severely wounded, and 436 lightly wounded. Andropov was the main proponent of the "extreme measures" to wipe out the Czechoslovakian Revolt. Ted must have forgotten that by the early eighties.

Hat tip the USN's digital brownshirt, CDR Salamander.


MFBB.

ALL OVER EUROPE, POLICE ARE WITHDRAWING FROM MUSLIM NO-GO ZONES.

A.) BELGIUM - BRUSSELS/SINT-JANS-MOLENBEEK.

From De Standaard, August 28, 2009:

Thursday night riots took place in Sint-Jans-Molenbeek between a hundred youths and police. The turmoil started around 10.15pm when a patrolling car got a stone thrown through the windshield. But things got really out of hand around 11.30pm...

... Youths had set car tyres alight and when firefighters arrived, they were pelted with stones. Two passers-by, who asked a group of youths what was going on, were attacked with pepperspray and kicked and beaten repeatedly. Their attackers fled with the wallet of one of the victims.

Firefighters had to intervene again around midnight to extinguish the fire of several burning tyres placed in the middle of the Ribeaucourt and Mexico street in Molenbeek. Upon arrival, youths threw heavy stones and other projectiles at them. Thereupon the firefighers requested police backup.

Some twenty police officers of Brussels West Zone arrived. They were reinforced by another thirty from Zone Brussels Capital/Elsene. Furthermore two Federal Police trucks with water cannons were dispatched. Around 2am a group of one hundred youths gathered in Ribeaucourt street. They busted two doors of an apartment block and set two vehicles on the inner courtyard alight, and damaged four others. According to the police, they were masked and armed with iron bars and stones.

Thrice police charged from 2.15 am, before the group of youths dispersed. Police went after them till Molenbeek's canal zone. Four police vehicles were damaged. Stones rained on the vehicles roofs. Youths torched public benches, flowerbeds and letter boxes. The Federal Police trucks with water cannons extinguished the fires, since the firefighers refused to deploy without escort.

B.) BELGIUM - BRUSSELS/ANDERLECHT.

From Het Laatste Nieuws, August 27, 2009:

Youths chase police with projectiles in Anderlecht

In the neighborhood of Aumale subway station in Anderlecht, a clash occurred on wednesday night between around twenty youths and police. The incident took place around 5pm, when Federal Police officers were checking two persons' ID's, following a violent robbery that had just taken place. The inquiry quickly attracted some twenty youths. They offended the officers and pleted them with stones. Thereupon the officers requested backup including police dogs.

The reinforcements proceeded with checking ID's of several youths. A twenty-five year old thereupon grasped an officer and beat two others, while he tried to rob them of their weapon. He was then bitten in his thigh by a police dog, carried to a hospital and subsequently arrested.

Finally police left the scene, under a hail of projectiles. One officer got hurt in the neck. (Belga/sps)

C.) GERMANY - BERLIN/WEDDING.

From Der Tagesspiegel, August 13, 2009:

Police attacked by 30-strong crowd.

When police officers wanted to check the identity of a twenty-three year old in Wedding, they were surrounded by a group of yuths. Only the arrival of reinforcements prevented that the individual was freed by the crowd.

Berlin - a group of around thirty persons attacked police officers in Wedding on Sunday evening. As a police spokesman clarified, the officers wanted to check the identity of a twenty-three year old in Buttman street. The subject beat the officers and tried to get free on the way to their patrol car. A group of around thirty youths appeared of which several attacked the officers. Only the arrival of reinforcements and the use of pepperspray prevented that the subject was freed by the crowd. Apart from this individual, a 24-year old was arrested too. One police officer was slightly wounded.

The "youths" in Molenbeek and Anderlecht were Moroccans. The "youths" in Wedding were Turks. Happy Ramafuckingdam.

Perhaps never before in the history of mankind have the signs that warn of an impending disaster been so manifold, widespread and unmistakable. At the moment that I write this, the Belgian CDH party (formerly the Walloon Christian Democrats, but their chairwoman changed the meaning of the "C" into "Center", CDH now means Centrist Democrats and Humanists) is heavily involved in a legislative battle to obtain regularization for 50,000 illegals, of which the overwhelming majority are muslims. Chances that the regularization will indeed take place are very, very high. When the powderkeg finally explodes, I sincerely hope that there will still be time to mete out justice to those responsible for Europes doom. They ruin our children's future, indeed the future of generations unborn - it would only be just that they pay their "fair share".


MFBB.

SATURDAY NIGHT LOONY TUNES.

At the height of their career, Coldplay produced two excellent albums, A rush of blood to the head (2002) and X&Y (2005). As far as I'm concerned, there's seven hits on the former and some five or six on the latter. There are those that are convinced that Viva La Vida or Death and all His Friends (2007) is just as good but I beg to disagree. If you reckon that "A rush..." boasts jewels such as "Politik", "Clocks", "Daylight", "Green Eyes", and good songs as "In My Place", "God Put a Smile upon Your Face" and "The Scientist" and that half of these received a lot of airplay over the course of just one year upon release, while "Viva..." has until now, after almost two years, just the title song that rings a bell with most people, you know it's over. If you disagree, name me a song the equal of "Politik" and other than "Viva" (which I consider far worse than "Politik") and we will talk again. "Viva la Vida" is to Coldplay what "Be here now" was for Oasis, whereby the title song "Viva..." stands for the Gallagher's "D'you know what I mean". And when I heard "Stand by me" from the Gallagher's Bros., I knew they were definitely doners. It's the same when you listen to the rest of Colplay's work on their last album.

That said, and keeping in mind that Chris Martin is a half-baked clueless drooling new age idiot, enjoy Politik:





Further proof that you don't have to be mentally sane to produce excellent music is amply provided by Moby. The following hit, "In this world", is from his 2002 album 18. Two years later, Moby worked extensively with moveon.org, backing John Kerry's presidential campaign. Nuff said.





MFBB.

A LEFTIST PLAYWRIGHT SEES THE LIGHT.

Benno Barnard is a leftist Dutch essayist, playwright and poet who has been living in Belgium for thirty-three years now and who has over the years gained quite a reputation for his oeuvre. As such, when he produces an essay or even a column, people pay attention. For a very long time, Mr. Barnard too was convinced the VB was the Big Foe, and its leaders dangerous populists secretly yearning for the time brownshirts ruled on the streets.

Apparently, Mr. Barnard is now beginning to think otherwise.

The following is a translation from Dutch provided by the elusive commenter VH over at Gates of Vienna of a Barnard column, which was - oh the irony - posted on the website of Filip Dewinter. It is well worth a read - and it reads easily:

LEFTIST LEMMINGS

By Benno Barnard

My annoyance with the left is steadily increasing. All those theses about society are nothing but barren leaves in a herbarium.

Many people demand my head since I wrote in a newspaper that “Inch’Allah?” by Filip Dewinter demonstrates a reasonable understanding of our multicultural mirth.

Please pray for me, I said — but the scope of Dewinter’s book does not differ significantly from the scope of documents and manifestoes that Salman Rushdie, Bernard-Henri Lévy, and Ian McEwan have published and signed, not to mention the warning words of intellectuals who have fled the Muslim world — and we feel rather let down because their message makes us far too nervous. This inclination is that Islam as a political ideology is a big black block of male aggression, pitch-dark obscurantism, and profound backwardness, aimed against everything we hold — or should hold — dear.

In the large cities of Western Europe, gays are bullied away by their Muslim neighbors, and teachers in secondary education are terrorized by Muslim boys, while girls demonstrate for headscarves, like chicken for battery cages. And these are only two examples of the increasing terror of Islam, fueled by sermons of imams and the waste that is imported via satellite dishes from the many Muslim dictatorships. Nevertheless, there are still intellectuals who insist that we must have confidence in the emancipatory strength of Islam.

But the emancipatory strength of that belief is rather limited. Intellectuals, in following Hegel, often detest facts, but the truth (the uncomfortable side effect of their library) that there is not any one country in the world with a Muslim majority where the minority may enjoy de facto equal rights — on the contrary, they are usually harassed, discriminated against, or even murdered.
- - - - - - - - -

The insane situation has arisen, however, in which nasty accusations are hurled at you as an Islam-critic only because you warn that the salon, where our ancestors displayed the treasures of our liberal civilization threatens to go up in smoke; yes, the carpet is already smoldering… You are a suspect because you think it is a wise idea to call the fire fighters when it burns.

Meanwhile the gauchists [leftists] talk about Muslims in the way nannies talk about the children whose care they are entrusted with.

A certain Marc Botenga states on a leftist website the following about Ahmadinejad’s intentions regarding Israel:


As for Israel I can be quite clear: he always has compared the disappearance of Israel with the disappearance of South Africa. He says: “The Apartheid regime is gone, so why would the regime in Israel not disappear?” This is very different from wiping the country off the map.

Of course, you might also quote Ahmadinejad as an authority on gay rights.

Ah, you leftist lemmings! What self-hatred is it that makes your brains continuously produce Manichean schematics with on the one side depraved Westerners — Americans, Zionists, Islam-critics — and on the other people who are suitable because they are poor and pitiful?

A short while ago, Ella Vogelaar, a wonderfully vulgar-sounding Dutch socialist, invoked once again the fatal parallel: Geert Wilders was a Nazi, and the Moroccans of the fourth generation were similar to the Jewish refugees in the thirties.

The truth is that the Nazis hate Wilders. Last year the National Socialist Action/Autonomous National Socialists (NSA/ANS) organized a demonstration against Wilders on the Binnenhof in The Hague. In their eyes he is nothing but a “dirty Zionist”. And the Dutch People’s Union (NVU) accuses Wilders of being bent on a civil war between Muslims and Christians, while those groups according to the NVU should precisely form a united front against Zionism, Capitalism, and American Imperialism, for those are the enemies the extreme right…

Wilders and Dewinter: I believe that you cannot blame the alarm clock for ringing loudly.

At the time I write this, over the past couple of days there has been a prisoner revolt in Sint-Gillis (the overwhelming majority of inmates are muslims), riots by tens of young Moroccans in Anderlecht whereby the police basically had to flee to save their asses, and an even larger riot in Molenbeek, where the scene developed in a veritable street war with cars torched, public property smashed, autochton locals beaten terrorized with pepperspray, and police and firefighters pelted with a hail of stones and other projectiles. Sint-Gillis, Molenbeek and Anderlecht are all three suburbs of Brussels with a muslim majority. It's always bad, but I wonder if this sudden outburst of violence has something to do with that yearly feast of hypocrisy called ramafuckingdam.

Prepare for civil war. And Americans, or, for that matter, any nation that risks to see its muslim minority in time morph into a majority, better pay attention.


MFBB.

ANTWERP IMAM THREATENS MASS INSUBORDINATION OF ALL MUSLIM SCHOOLCHILDREN IN FLANDERS.

It's almost September 1st and then the measure announced by the Koninklijk Atheneum, a high school in Antwerp now almost exclusively for muslim children, will go into effect. That measure forbids girls from wearing the veil inside the school's premises and was invoked because of the undeniable social pressure from veil-wearers onto non-veil-wearers to follow suit; in other words, to counter islamic radicalization.

There was a major uproar among the schoolchildren, and imam Nordine Taouil joined in and exhorted not only them but also all muslim children in Flanders to stay away from school come September 1st if the girls were not allowed to wear the veil.

The following shows the fanatic, who is actually the former imam of the El Mouslimin mosque in Antwerp. I have tried to find decent software that allows you to add subtitles of your own, but found none. The most promising, Subyo, claimed to have sent me an email with an activation link but so far nada. If somebody out there has a hint to a good subtitle inserting programme, I'd be very grateful.





Here is an exerpt from the islamic terrorism report currently on Filip Dewinter's website that deals with Taouil and the El Mouslimin mosque. At the moment I do not have the time to translate, will try this night.

b) Moskee El Mouslimin

Enkele Marokkaanse moskeeën in het Antwerpse prediken eveneens haat en onverdraagzaamheid. Jongeren worden er aangespoord om te gaan studeren op madrassa’s in o.a. Pakistan, Jordanië en Syrië. Via deze islamitische scholen worden ze in contact gebracht met fundamentalisten die hen proberen te overtuigen om nog een intensere geestelijke en bijkomende fysieke training te ondergaan. Zo komen de jongeren uiteindelijk terecht in opleidingskampen van terreurorganisaties zoals Al Qaeda. Ongeveer 50% van hen wordt doorgestuurd naar Afghanistan, Kashmir, Irak of Tsjetsjenië om te strijden in het belang van de jihad. De overige 50% keert terug naar België … Er lopen dus jongeren in de Antwerpse straten rond die een intensieve jihadopleiding hebben gekregen. Beangstigend toch!

Een van deze Marokkaanse moskeeën is El Mouslimin in de Jan Palfijnstraat. Dit is dé moskee waar de terreurgroep ‘Groupe Islamique Combattant Marocain’ aanwezig is. Het is een zéér groot gebedshuis waarin fundamentalisten zich thuis voelen.

De vroegere imam, Nordin Taouil, was een echte voorvechter van de gewapende jihad tegen de westerlingen en joden. Zijn agressief denken en handelen heeft er toe geleid dat 90% van de jongeren in deze moskee zich geroepen voelt om hun leven te geven voor de gewapende strijd. Hij is ook dé persoon die je moet contacteren als je een fysieke opleiding wenst te volgen in het buitenland (voornamelijk Pakistan en Algerije). Vandaar dat de Marokkaanse inlichtingendienst in deze moskee is geïnfiltreerd. Terroristen van ‘Groupe Islamique Combattant Marocain’ vinden in deze Antwerpse moskee een veilig onderkomen. Velen van hen worden in Marokko gezocht voor het plegen of voorbereiden van aanslagen.

Our friends over at Gates of Vienna are on this topic too, as well as the notable blogger Vladtepes, who - shame on me - provided the translation. Here's an exerpt from GoV:

“The aggressive manner in which the radical Muslims responded, convinced me that the headscarf ban was the right decision,” said Karin Heremans, director of the Royal Athenaeum of Antwerp, where all political and religious symbols — including the headscarf — are now banned.

How the Imam, with whom she just had a constructive conversation, could turn 180 degrees in a second like that she still does not understand. “But we stick to our position,” she declares. “We wanted to avoid all this fuss by communicating it only after the exams.” She sighs.

The director mentions (in the Flemish newspaper Gazet van Antwerpen) that there was an increasing radicalization noticeable within the school walls. Several girls were being put under pressure to wear a headscarf. “The presence of these radical Muslims during the protests confirmed my suspicion that this effect had been slumbering for a while and even enormously increasing. The politicians should most urgently consider how to deal with this group. These radical Muslims systematically, under the guise of religious freedom, reject all democratic principles. They reject any compromise. They have the right to profess their faith, but not to impose it on others,” Karin Heremans said, who herself in the meanwhile was threatened by certain Muslims: “Those men told me that I should be whipped and must be hanged”…

This is no exxageration, I can testify that Belgian press deemed newsworthy at least THAT tidbit, that Mrs. Heremans was stopped on the streets of Borgerhout (Antwerp suburb) by three muslim fanatics with long beards, djellabas and skullcaps, and told that she would be hanged if she did not revoke the measure.

So far, Mrs. Heremans is not giving in. It will be an interesting September 1st.



MFBB.

OUTLAW MIKE EXTENDS HIS RAMADAN GREETINGS TO MUSLIMS WORLDWIDE...

And if non-muslims think that's over the top and not very conciliatory, you might want to consider the ummah's gazillion of friendly gestures towards us the past week, of which the hero's welcome in Tripoli for a Lockerbie terrorist is but one example.

If you are incurable, you might want to look into the case of Riqfa Bary, a muslim girl who converted to Christianity and who risks being murdered by her father because of that. Pamela Geller is on top of this story and does a heck of a job of it. You may or may not like her style, but if it wasn't for her the girl might well be on her way to a rendezvous with her killer.




There will of course be the inevitable moral equalizers who will say this girl just swapped one ludicrous sect for another - well, screw you. I am a christian myself, although admittedly, not a very good one, and if you think the murder of Tiller the Killer somehow puts christianity on the same par with a heinous political-religious ideology in the name of which an estimated 13,000 terror attacks have been carried out since 9/11, you're mentally deranged.


MFBB.

SATURDAY NIGHT JAPAN, KINGS OF LEON.

Japan, British eighties rock band spearheaded by David Sylvian, a Kent native. Btw, if you ever can, visit Kent. It's the Garden of England. Do at least Dover, Canterbury and Leeds Castle in Maidstone. Japan had a couple of decent hits, a.o. My New Career, Night Porter, Gentlemen take polaroids etc etc. Sylvian cooperated with Ryuchi Sakamoto for some of the soundtrack on Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence. If you can't bear the effeminate look of the guy - close your eyes. It was cool in the eighties. Hell, it's been cool ever since. Must be fluorides in the water. Anyway, this might be something anon would label as new old music.





Sex on Fire from Kings of Leon, Nashville, Tennessee snotholes who formed in 2000. It's from their fourth album Only by the night, released one year ago.




Nite.


MFBB.

PREPARE FOR CIVIL WAR.

Everything I wrote until now on this blog about the perils of islamization is small beer.

From the website of Filip Dewinter, and if you have half a brain, you WILL resist that knee-jerk reaction:

Muslim extremism in Antwerp.

We are living in a nightmare.


MFBB.

DR. UDO ULFKOTTE'S WARNING.

Dr. Ulfkotte's map about hotspots in Germany in case of widespread civil unrest, if not civil war. The map, originally too small, was made more readable by the folks over at Gates of Vienna. Many thanks guys!

"Lesen Sie, wie Polizeiführer derzeit insgeheim auf die Bekämpfung von schweren Unruhen und auf die Zusammenarbeit mit der Bundeswehr in deutschen Städten vorbereitet werden. Von Internierungslagern bis zu Zwangsdurchsagen im Radio wird derzeit alles vorbereitet. Einige der Polizeiführer sprechen ganz offen über den erwarteten »Bürgerkrieg«, den sie mit allen Mitteln abwehren müssen.“

Translation:

"Read, how police chiefs are secretly being prepared to confront massive unrest [in the cities' no-go zones - MFBB] and how they should cooperate with the German Army. From detaining camps to martial law announcements via radio everything is being prepared. Some police chiefs openly speak about the anticipated "Civil War", which they have to avoid at all cost."

A day in the life of Police in Berlin:

"...They despise everything which doesn't belong to their cultural sphere - German above all, but also Turkish: The parents reject the legal system and this carries over to the children, says Heisig. Help is unwanted. Social workers report to the court that on visiting families they are threatened and spat on.

Work has become risky for the police too. Agents repeatedly face angry crowds, even when they just want to give parking tickets.

A recent example: when a special response unit arrested two con-men in Neukölln on May 6th, a riot started on the street: About 50 people of immigrant background threatened the agents, according to the police report. The situation calmed down only when reinforcements were requested.

Eberhard Schönberg says that it's not a big thing in Berlin anymore since it happens almost every day. The chairman of the GdP Police Union knows of cases in which colleagues had to barricade themselves inside shops. He says that the state's authority is often completely lost here.

Berlin police reports rarely mention the origin of the offender for typical crimes in the community - out of fear of feeding racist resentments. when in April four men committed a brutal attack on a supermarket, only the internal protocol stated that the perpetrators came from Lebanon and that all had been previously convicted for similar crimes...

Given the size and scope of the phenomenon, it's a crying shame - what do I say, a scandal - that there's virtually no coverage in our state-controlled media outlets. And of course there are those who, again, paint Ulfkotte as an obsessed fearmonger who constantly fails, when disclosing "top secret" information, to identify the origin of the news.

Really?

In his book, Ulfkotte cites 850 sources.


MFBB.

DUTCH ISLAMIC SCHOOLS EXCLUDING OTHER CULTURES AND FAITHS? WHO WOULD HAVE THUNK IT???

From the "This Makes My Blood Boil Department". The Dutch site SpitsNieuws had the following tidbit on August 17, 2009:

"ISLAMIC SCHOOLS EXCLUDE OTHER CULTURES."

Within orthodox islamic schools other cultures and faith are completely shut out. This is the conclusion of Hennie Metsemaekers, a school teacher who worked for one year on the As Siddieq school in Amsterdam.

Metsemaekers recounts her experience in today's Het Parool, as a reaction on City Neighborhood Chairman Ahmed Marcouch's call to provide subsidies for orthodox movements [note: I use here a rather cumbersome translation of the Dutch word 'stadsdeelvoorzitter', something like a lieutenant burgomaster for a part of the city - MFBB]. "We had to eat separately during lunch breaks. We were also greeted differently, and labeled as infidels", says Metsemaekers, who also called upon Educational Inspection to look into the matter.

Metsemaekers allegedly was ordered to tell children that christianity would be abolished. "Around Christmas I had put up models of houses in Amsterdam with little lights, to tell something about Christmas without even mentioning the name. That was forbidden to me." according to the teacher.

Listen, I am not going to mince my words. It's not five past twelve, it's five pas 1 am, and for once I do not mean the time I write this. If these sand apes think THEY can tell us how to behave on our own turf, they are gravely mistaken. Ooooooh, you're upset by my using the word sand apes??? Let me tell you something. If you receive ample supplies of taxpayer money, and:


* still manage to score dramatically below even the most basic educational level

* use part of it to teach your pupils things that are completely incompatible, indeed openly hostile to all values and basic rights that we westerners earned after hundreds of years of bloodshed...

* use the other part of it for extremely shady purposes, of which massive fraud is but the most innocent example

* and still think that after all this, instead of politely saying "THANK YOU", you can get away with a Big, Fat "FUCK YOU, NOW GIMME MORE MONEY"...

... then you are indeed a Fucking Sand Ape.

We need to get our act together, and quick. I cannot repeat often enough that there are literally hundreds of stories like this and worse, all over Europe. I would like to tell you about Tariq Ramadan, who was denied entry in the US, and who now receives a fat cheque every month from the City of Rotterdam for acting as some godforsaken, yes, "Community Organizer" with as task to "integrate" muslims in Dutch society, but who despite his busy schedule has found the time to appear on the IRANIAN state television PressTV to, amongst others, lambast gays in the series 'Islam and Life'. Unfortunately I have no the time Ramadan has, so I can't elaborate. Nor can I elaborate on the expensive vacation this asshole is currently enjoying on Mauritius on the Dutch taxpayer's dime. What do you want, it's the reward of his good buddy Ahmed Aboutaleb for his hard community organizing 'work'. FYI, Aboutaleb is the first muslim mayor of a big European city, in casu Rotterdam, Europes biggest port, and he got there after some shady manoeuvres by - again, who would have thunk it - one of the Dutch socialist parties, the PvdA.

Good God. What IS needed for people to wake up???


MFBB.

SATURDAY NIGHT NEIL YOUNG, ERIK SATIE.

As per usual, I was looking for a studio version but could only find this 1971 Live performance of 'Old Man' by Neil Young. Still, I have to give it to Young that he manages to capture the gist of that brilliant song unplugged, on a guitar lacking a string no less. As a Dutch-speaking outsider to the Anglosaxon world, I realize it's well possible this song has lost all appeal to British speaking rock aficionados in the Year of Our Lord 2009 - but for me it's still a beautiful thing to hear. Either I'm incurably true to my old tastes - or 'Old Man' isn't outdated a bit. What do you think?





The risk of having to do with a live performance of Erik Satie doing Gymnopédie No.1 was rather small, since the good man departed this life in 1925, when there was in all likelihood no Youtube yet. And if there was, tough luck: Al Gore wasn't born until March 31, 1948! Satie, born to a French father and a Scottish mother in 1866 in Honfleur, a lovely French coastal town and harbor in Normandy, was an eccentric French composer who made a sport of downplaying his own work and influence. Most of his life he spent quietly in Arcueil, a Parisian suburb. If this little jewel of Satie the piano virtuoso sounds familiar, you may have watched Twilight, which sports Debussy's Clair de Lune in its soundtrack - Satie and Debussy were acquaintances, and the latter is indebted to some extent to the former. As is another early twentieth century French composer, Maurice Ravel, who is known primarily for his Boléro.



This is the first and best known of the three gymnopédies, which are short, minimalistic and melancholic pieces written in 3/4 time with each sharing a common theme and structure. The unassuming but immortal charm is obtained by, for the first bars, an alternating progression of two major seventh chords, the first on the subdominant G, the second on the tonic D.



Here is some stuff on subdominants and tonics, but you don't have to have Beethoven genes to discern the alternation. Just listen attentively. Btw, I think I'm too early with this. I always imagine the Gymnopédies are for playing when you're sitting in your study on a cold sunday afternoon in November. You look out over pale brown fields, and low-hanging grey clouds muffle the light of the sun.


MFBB.

MORE PICS FROM SCANDINAVIA.

Denmark is basically Jutland, a tongue of land the size of New Jersey "jutting out" from northern Germany, the two big islands Fyn and Sjaelland, and numerous smaller islands. Copenhagen, the capital, is on Sjaelland. The biggest city on Fyn is Odense, birthplace of Hans Christian Andersen, he of the famous fairytales.

I wonder what inspiration good ole Andersen would get from present day Odense:



Multiculti enrichment courtesy the Religion of Peace, erm, Piss, in Vollsmosen, an Odense neighborhood.

Our friends over at Gates of Vienna have the story:

"100 PEOPLE TRIED TO STOP AMBULANCE-LIVE ROUNDS FIRED AT POLICE IN VOLLSMOSE

Live rounds were flying past local policemen in Vollsmose, while trying to assist colleges after a traffic incident. The situation became nasty last night in the Vollsmose suburb Odense when a 19-year old BMW-driver tried to escape the police and then crashed his car. When the ambulance arrived at the scene, the mood was so nasty that some 100 bystanders tried to block the ambulance.

“Finally, the police had to get the driver out of the car and into a patrol car in order to drive him over to the ambulance,” says Chief Inspector Hans Frederiksen of the Funen Police to BT. It escalated to vandalism, and around midnight four cars at the parking lot were set ablaze, including the wrecked car. When two policemen from the Vollsmose precinct arrived, ten shots were fired at them, possibly from an automatic rifle. The shots were fired from a green area some 50 meters away.

“One of our colleagues could actually see the muzzle fire and hear the rounds flying past. This means close proximity, and the shots were surely aimed at the policemen,” says the chief inspector."

Dr. Udo Ulfkotte, the well-known German author, journalist, intelligence services expert and former advisor to Helmut Kohl has written a new book about the future civil war between indigenous natives and the muslim hordes: "Vorsicht Buergerkrieg!". The book points out in what areas of Germany the impending civil war is most likely to break out, and it also deals with preparations taken by German police forces and the Bundeswehr - the German armed forces - to counter the violence by muslim masses. When I read this I was reminded of the delegations of European intelligence services who allegedly watched from up close how the IDF dealt with islamic terrorists in Gaza.

Anyway... for conservatives the time has come to make it clear to the left that in the event of a civil war, we will make no distinction between them and muslims. Only when they understand that, they might refrain from opening the gates for these violent hostile masses even further.


MFBB.

JOURNEY TO NORWAY.

For once, we changed direction for our yearly holiday, from northwest to due north - so instead of Scotland it was Norway this year. Always wanted to do it, always wanted to check out whether these fjords were really so breathtaking.

What to say? Since we still have small kids our ideal vacation is one that involves choosing a hub to avoid the constant cumbersome packaging and looking for a new place for the night every, well, night. Once we have established a "foothold" the holiday is then divided into daily journeys to one or more places of interest. This worked very well in the Scottish Highlands, where I can't imagine a better hub than Fort William. Daily excursions to Mallaig, Ardnamurchan, Glen Coe, Loch Tay, Ben Nevis, Blair Atholl, Inverness, Skye, Loch Ness, Ullapool, Inveraray, Dunadd, the list is endless. I fell in love with the Highlands, and in the back of my mind I have a couple of neuron knots telling me to retire there sometime.

No such tactics apply for a family with kids in Norway. The distances are too great, and - I hope Norwegian readers won't hold this against me - Norwegian roads don't allow fast travel. Almost all are two lane roads with a 90 kilometer per hour speed limit. Which meant that from the "central" location we finally chose, Kaupanger near Sogndal on the Sognefjord, a trip to even Bergen was out of the question. Oh, you could do it, all right. But we prefer no stress on holidays, thank you. Especially when Outlaw Mike jr. needs to have his diapers changed every now and then, and OutlawDaughter gets bored big time from having to sit still for too many hours. There's also the fact that you almost inevitably have to take a ferry somewhere - Norway is the land of tunnels and ferries - and your GPS system doesn't take the time spent in anticipation of ferries, or on the ferries themselves, into account.

Be that as it may - not having seen Bergen, not having seen Stavanger, not having set a foot in Trondheim (damn! DAMN!) - we had a GREAT holiday, and I climbed my little mountain, the Skala (1840 or so meters, starting from sea level). There's a small tower on top, built there about a century ago on orders of some eccentric doctor who thought patients with respiratory diseases would do well to spend some time there. Alas, by the time the tower, which came to be known as the Skalatarnet, was finished, the good doctor was dead. The Skalatarnet is now property of the Norwegian Mountaineering Society and you can enter it any time, take a rest, take a nap, cook and eat some of the available food, even sleep there. When you check out this guy, Jack Brauer, he's got some tidbit about it. Recommended site.

As always, not enough time. Stupid, because so much to tell, so much to show. Let me conclude with a hypershort shot from Norway's most beautiful fjord, the Geirangerfjord. Excuse me for the bad quality - the "camera" was a brandless thingy I got somewhere for free.





Hey, nite all.


MFBB.

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO 'DISSENT IS PATRIOTIC'????

From USAToday, August 10. Nancy Pelosi, House Speaker, D-CA:

"However, it is now evident that an ugly campaign is underway not merely to misrepresent the health insurance reform legislation, but to disrupt public meetings and prevent members of Congress and constituents from conducting a civil dialogue. These tactics have included hanging in effigy one Democratic member of Congress in Maryland and protesters holding a sign displaying a tombstone with the name of another congressman in Texas, where protesters also shouted "Just say no!" drowning out those who wanted to hold a substantive discussion.

These disruptions are occurring because opponents are afraid not just of differing views — but of the facts themselves. Drowning out opposing views is simply un-American. Drowning out the facts is how we failed at this task for decades."

Un-American huh? It may be that here and there things got quite, uh, uncivilized, but when it comes to drowning out opposing views I don't think the left has to teach us anything. Moreover, as regular reader and commenter Scott points out (linking to a Rasmussen Report), public support for Obama's health care reform plan has fallen to a new low as just 42% of U.S. voters now favor it. This is down five points from two weeks ago and eight points from six weeks ago. Also according to Rasmussen, 44% of voters strongly oppose the health care reform effort versus 26% who strongly favor it. This is not about isolated resistance. This is a nationwide movement, and as such it deserves at least to be listened at. To label as un-american the behaviour of tens of millions of citizens, rightly concerned that their forced inclusion in a governmental health care insurance scheme will be worse for them than their current employer-provided insurance, as flawed as it may be, is pure demagogy and utterly typical of the left. I know, because I am a European and I know these tactics because not only did I grew up on a diet of them, but also because they still play a significant role in my life. Let us be clear about this: by un-american dissenters Pelosi does not only mean the 'Just say no' shouting crowd in Texas. She means EVERYBODY who asks critical questions. As per usual, Dennis Prager nails it:

"...The worst part of the liberal mantra, "Dissent is Patriotic," however, is not that is meaningless. It is that it is apparently meant solely to defend liberal and left dissent. Dissent against the right is inherently patriotic.

Dissent against the left is another matter. To Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and to the New York Times Paul Krugman and every other left-wing commentator I have read on the issue, those who dissent against the Obama/Democratic Party health care plan are not only not patriotic; they are Nazis, mobs, white racists (according to Krugman's non-sequitur thesis) and are always organized. They are activists sent by health insurance companies, the Republican Party, or by some other nefarious right-wing organization...

...

... A local physician [in Georgia's 13th Congressional District this past weekend - MFBB], Dr. Brian Hill, a urologist, went to a town hall meeting organized by Democratic Congressman David Scott. When Dr. Hill asked in a calm voice why the Congressman would support a government health plan in light of the failing government health plan in Massachusetts, Rep. Scott began yelling at him about people from outside the district coming to "hijack this event" and that those at his town hall meeting raising the health care issue should have had "the decency" to call the congressman's office to set up a meeting to discuss the issue and not take over the town hall meeting. As reported by WXIA-TV News, the local NBC affiliate, however, Dr. Hill does live and vote in the congressman's district, had called the congressman's office numerous times and got no response, and is not a Republican.

But such people as Dr. Richman in California and Dr. Hill in Georgia don't exist in the Democratic Party's or in Paul Krugman's mind. Like most of the left since Marx, the American left today has created an image of the world to which reality is subservient. Left-wing theories define reality, not vice versa. And in that closed world, left-wing dissent is patriotic, while dissent against the left is fascistic at worst, or paid for by the greedy at best..."

You bet.


MFBB.

SATURDAY NIGHT HEART, THE MOTORS.

Heart with Magic Man, IIRC from the 1976 album Dreamboat Annie.





Someone should glue the first half of the studio recording to the second half of this video and then Magic Man would be almost perfect. Also - if you ask me, I thought that Ann and Nancy Wilson were pretty hot broads back in the day.


I actually meant to do a Level 42 hit (the best WHITE funk group evah, imho) but found that all their hits were disabled. In desperation, I turned to The Police. Same story. That's why tonight you get Airport from The Motors.





And if you whine about that, I'll give you Engelbert Humperdinck instead.

Hey! That rhymes!


MFBB.

CHERCHEZ LA FEMME. NOT.

There are those who call me a bigot because of the relation I perceive between criminality committed by immigrants and their religion, in casu of course islam. I am talking about the kind of people who see no islamic element at all in, say, the catastrophic phenomenon of France's carbeques (an estimated 35,000 cars torched every year). To them, the rampant criminality emanating from France's Algerian and Moroccan communities has nothing to do with religion, but with, wait for it, racism, xenophobia, discrimination, poverty etc etc etc.

For these bozos, the same applies for Belgium of course, or, for that matter, any western country. So, even if the grand majority of inmates in Belgian prisons is Moroccan, and therefore muslim, islam has nothing to do with it. Like islam has nothing to do with the rising number, in Belgium too, of "honour murders", or the fact that women's shelters are mainly populated with muslim women.

Islam has never anything to do with it. It is just "ordinary" criminality for which, just around the corner, there is always a sad tale of social exclusion or the wrong friends or some other fairlytale to serve as an excuse.

Right?

No.

In the previous post I mentioned briefly the spectacular escape by helicopter, on July 23, of three gangsters with typical Flemish names such as Ashraf Sekkaki, Mohammed Johry and Abdelhaq Melloul-Khajary, from Bruges prison. The helicopter in question was actually from a private sightseeing firm and the pilot a mere employee of that firm. We now know that a couple rented a flight, allegedly to watch a football stadium and some other landmarks from the air, and that when they were over the prison one of them put a gun against the pilot's head and forced him to land within the prison's walls. After quickly picking up the three gangsters, the pilot was then forced to land in a town some twenty-five kilometers to the east, near a service station, and the criminals seized a vehicle there. After some more hijackings they all disappeared without a trace.

Truth to be told, in the meantime two of the Bruges inmates have since been captured: Abdelhaq Melloul-Khajary in Belgium and Mohammed Johry in Morocco. But the third and the most dangerous, Ashraf Sekkaki, is still at large and reportedly in Morocco too. This is an Interpol photo of Sekkaki:





What is however not known are the wherabouts of the accomplices who rented the helicopter. It is now fairly obvious that the woman was in all likelihood... Mohammed Johry's girlfriend, Lesley Deckers, as Flemish as can be.

Well... at least until she met Johry. To the right is a photo of the pre Johry period. To the left...





So islam has nothing to do with it, right?

Judge for yourself.



MFBB.


PS: there is currently an awful lot of anxiety in Belgian press about Lesley Deckers' fate, of whom every trail is missing. The last time she was seen was on a security camera near a hotel in Amsterdam, in the company of Sekkaki, Khajary and Johry. Which, again, is why the woman in the helicopter was in all likelihood Lesley Deckers. The journal Het Laatste Nieuws anxiously writes "What happened to the girlfriend that helped escape Sekkaki?" and uses terms such as "uncanny silence". Personally, I don't give a damn whether that cunt found shelter in Holland's jihadist community or was disposed of in some ditch because of having become an embarrassment. If you opt for a mysogynistic culture of sand apes - as a woman, no less - that hasn't produced anything worthwile over the past 1,000 years, you don't deserve better.

More than ever, in this beautiful Europe of OURS - where those who subscribe to our values and want to be contributing and law-abiding citizens are WELCOME - in this magnificent Europe where uncounted treasures remind us every day of the greatness of Western Civilization... more than ever, the choice is clear:

YOU ARE EITHER WITH US OR AGAINST US.

BLESSINGS OF THE MULTICULTURAL SOCIETY, PICKED AT RANDOM.

A.) THE NETHERLANDS.

Dutch daily De Telegraaf, July 19, 2009:

"Sexual harassment in swimming pool. RIDDERKERK - Last week police has arrested a total of 10 Moroccan youths for sexual harassment in a swimming pool in Ridderkerk. The youngest was a 12-year old boy, the oldest 16...

The first reports and arrests took place on monday afternoon 6 July, when police got a tip around three o'clock that 13 [thirteen - MFBB] girls from the same class had been touched on their genitals in a swimming pool on the Sportlaan. Police officers reacted immediately and arrested, after an enquiry on the spot, four youths aged 14, 14, 15 and 16.

Even as the officers were busy jotting down statements, another boy harassed a girl. This 15-year old boy from Ridderkerk was arrested also. The five have been brought to the police precinct where they were imprisoned for further interrogations. Investigators briefed the youth's parents on the behaviour of their children..."

Good luck with that.


B.) BELGIUM.

This morning, August 4, two heavily armed gangsters freed three inmates in the Brussels Palais de Justice/Justitiepaleis, where they were due to appear before court because of a brutal but failed homejacking last year in Londerzeel. At the moment they were led into court and freed of their handcuffs, two masked and armed
men appeared, who forced everyone on the ground. Thereupon the five fled.

The names of the three (former) detainees are Oussama Trimini Langeri (28), Youssef Oulad Has Chaib (27) and Abdelhakim Akil (27).


C.) BELGIUM.

Via UK daily The Telegraph, July 24, 2009:

BELGIAN CRIMINALS ESCAPE FROM PRISON IN HELICOPTER. - Three prisoners, including one of Belgium's most dangerous criminals, have staged an audacious escape, breaking out in broad daylight aboard a hijacked helicopter. Two accomplices rented a helicopter, took the pilot hostage, and forced him to land in the courtyard of the jail, located in the northern city of Bruges, a justice ministry spokesperson told Belga news agency.

The escaped convicts and the accomplice were dropped off near a major road and the helicopter was abandoned at Aalter, on the outskirts of Bruges. The criminals then seized a vehicle from a nearby petrol station, later switching cars and taking a female driver hostage before dropping her off at Melle in Flanders, according to the police.

The names of the three escapees are Ashraf Sekkaki, Mohammed Johry and Abdel Had Kahjary Mulloul. All are repeat offenders, and the first, Sekkaki, has been described as one of Belgium's most dangerous criminals. He was jailed for 10 years for a slew of crimes.


D.) BELGIUM.

From Belgian daily Het Laatste Nieuws, August 1, 2009:

Suspect Mohammed A. arrested after stabbing in Lokeren - The prosecutor has decided that the suspect of the stabbing incident in Lokeren, whereby a 24-year old man received life-threatening wounds, remains arrested, the Dendermonde court stated.

The prosecutor decided that said suspect, the 33-year old Mohammed A. from Lokeren, remains in prison for yesterday night's facts. The man then gravely wounded two men from Berlare. He knocked a 22-year old men down with his fists and gave his 24-year old friend several knife stabs in his neck. The man is still fighting for his life.

So the name of the knife-wielding madman is Mohammed A. Hmmm. Where have I heard that before?


E.) UNITED STATES.

FOX News, August 4, 2009:

The accused ringleader of a U.S.-based group that allegedly was plotting to wage "violent jihad" against Americans told an FBI agent he'd gone to terrorism training camps in Connecticut and Pakistan, the agent testified Tuesday.

Michael Sutton said at a bond and detention hearing in Raleigh that terror suspect Daniel Boyd, a suburban father in North Carolina, told him he attended the Connecticut camp in the late 1980s, along with three others in Pakistan. Boyd, 39, said he learned how to engage in hand-to-hand combat and use military firearms during the training, The News & Observer reported.

Boyd appeared in court along with the six other suspects — including two of his sons — charged with plotting to kill people in the name of Islam.

F.) AUSTRALIA.


From FOX News, August 4, 2009.

MELBOURNE, Australia — Australian police said Tuesday they thwarted a terrorist plot in which extremists with ties to an Al Qaeda-linked Somali Islamist group planned to invade a military base and open fire with automatic weapons until they were shot dead themselves. Some 400 officers from state and national security services took part in 19 raids on properties in Melbourne, Australia's second largest city, before dawn Tuesday, arresting four men and detaining several others for questioning, police said.

Australian Federal Police Acting Commissioner Tony Negus said the raids followed a seven-month surveillance operation of a group of people with alleged ties to al-Shabaab, an Islamist organization fighting to overthrow Somalia's Western-backed transitional government.

I was just wondering... what have ten girl-molesting moroccans in a Dutch swimming pool, five criminals escaping from the Brussels Palais de Justice, five other ones escaping by helicopter from a Bruges prison, a knife wielding criminal in Lokeren, a US homegrown terrorist, and aussies wanting to blow up a military installation in common?

A knack for Sauerkraut?

Blue eyes and blonde hair?

Membership of Greenpeace?

They are all proud owners of a Toyota Prius?

Questions questions questions questions questions.....



MFBB.