Saturday, July 02, 2005

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.Gholadude, left, and Herman, right







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:


Herman, left, and Kakapipi dude, right


"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

Friday, July 01, 2005

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.

Thursday, June 30, 2005

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!

Tuesday, June 28, 2005

INSTALLATION OF NEW KITCHEN AT CHATEAU MFBB.

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




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

Monday, June 27, 2005

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: Boeing 777-240LR Worldliner

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.



Airbus A380 Superjumbo 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