But guns are fun and cool.
Communications Regulator?!
Creepy-ass Eurocrats.
Saturday, September 04, 2004
Wow 2.
I think it is starting to dawn on the Europeans that appeasement doesn't really work. Let's hope so.
(German Foreign Minister Joschka) Fischer spelled out three conditions to ensure a prosperous and peaceful Middle East and therefore to guarantee Europe’s security: reforms, solving the Middle East conflict and stabilising Iraq.
“If you put all three together it is quite clear we need American leadership, America in the driver’s seat,” Fischer said.
I think it is starting to dawn on the Europeans that appeasement doesn't really work. Let's hope so.
Friday, September 03, 2004
Did you say bounce?
I found this an interesting testament to the kind of person John Kerry is.
ASSHOLE.
I found this an interesting testament to the kind of person John Kerry is.
Kerry bounced the ceremonial first pitch during last night's Red Sox-Yankees game at Fenway Park, but he said he was just going easy on the National Guard soldier and Iraq war veteran standing in as catcher.
"I held back," Mr. Kerry told reporters early this morning, on the plane ride after the game. "He was very nervous. I tried to lob it gently."
The ball bounced at the feet of Will Pumyea, the 23-year-old who served tours in both Afghanistan and Iraq as a military police officer in the Massachusetts National Guard. The soldier fumbled for the ball beneath his legs, but managed to come up with it.
ASSHOLE.
Let's see who wins the spin battle on this one.
While these aren't the spectacular numbers from a few months ago, they seem to refute the predictions of the economy sliding backwards. This will be interesting...
While these aren't the spectacular numbers from a few months ago, they seem to refute the predictions of the economy sliding backwards. This will be interesting...
Yeah, the Republicans brought hate to NYC.
More like bring out the hate in the sensitive, caring liberals...
A featured performer at a National Organization for Women rally accused President Bush of having "savagely raped " women "over and over" by allegedly stealing the 2000 presidential election.
Poet Molly Birnbaum read aloud to a crowd of feminists gathered in New York's Central Park on Wednesday night, as part of a NOW event dubbed "Code Red: Stop the Bush Agenda Rally."
"Imagine a way to erase that night four years ago when you (President Bush) savagely raped every pandemic woman over and over with each vote you got, a thrust with each state you stole," Birnbaum said from the podium. (If something is pandemic, it affects many people or a number of countries.)
More like bring out the hate in the sensitive, caring liberals...
Wednesday, September 01, 2004
THE SCOTTISH HIGHLANDS…
Tomorrow Thursday my wife, our daughter and me are going on vacation to Scotland. As I’m typing this, with roughly 1 hr plus of paperwork still to do before venturing to bed, it occurs to me what a lucky bastard I am. Before the advent of the Internet, I used to think I had a pretty good idea of what was going on in the world. When, though, I state that thanks to my broadband connection I’m seeing world events from a virtual front seat, I still may be seriously overplaying my hand. As sure as the earth is round, too many machinations and undercurrents in society still escape my view, and too many topics just catch the eye without my brain connecting the obvious dots and grasping the true relevance of what I see.
Yet for all that, the Internet has proven itself a wonderful tool. At worst it has turned my happy relative ignorance into an uneasy realization that we truly live in a world in turmoil, a global battleground of ideologies, and that’s not even counting the plethora of mundane-or-rather-not-so-mundane problems facing the majority of earthlings: proper nutrition, health care, lack of freedom etc… etc…
At best though it has opened the door for new friends across the globe, and notably in the United States, where over the past year I finally found large numbers of people who thought and spoke as I do – or liked to do, since over here in the Old Continent very few qualify as people to whom I’d refer as being “on my side of the fence”. I’ve stated this several times and it may even start to bore you, but you in America, where despite the omnipresence of liberal media, rightwing views are carried by at least half of the population, have no idea whatsoever what it means to live in an “intellectual” environment where political correctness is the New Religion. When I was invited by Kerry Dupont to post on Downeast, a whole world opened up for me, a world where the decade-old lies with which I had been bombarded since childhood (as a twelve-ear old I had to learn that Julius Nyerere, notorious for screwing Tanzania’s welfare, was “The Torch-Bearer of Africa”) were effectively exposed as the senile rantings of pony-tailed, woollen-sock wearing, frustrated and hypocritical do-gooders locked in May 1968.
I like to live my life the way I do it: working hard, loving my family, raising our kid and hopefully kids, planning and securing my and my family’s future, renovating the country house I bought in 1997, trying to make my business flourish, reading and studying, enjoying the beauty of my country and continent, both its natural as its architectural enigmas… I was raised in a family where hard work was considered one of the highest virtues and laziness was something to loathe… and when all the work was done, I truly learned to appreciate the reward of a vacation meant to come to rest, breathe other air (often in Switzerlands mountains) and simply enjoy being healthy and young.
As I am preparing for this long-awaited break from the often demanding work, anticipating to venture out in the grandiose scenery of Scotland’s mountains, glens and lochs, I’d like to wholeheartedly thank those people who are on the forefront of defending our civilization from a murderous ideology that wants to cast hundreds of millions back in the seventh century. In a very real sense of the word I feel that those nineteen year-old troopers in Iraq, the security personnel back in the States and in my own Europe, and all those from far or close involved in fighting this “War On Terror”, because that’s what it is, a War On Terror, are fighting to preserve our - my - way of life. And I’m tremendously grateful for that. Not knowing which readers care about religion and therefore a bit reluctant to invoke God, I find it nevertheless appropriate to share with you that I’ll surely take some time to go into a church and save a prayer or two for all those out there, men and women, following orders, taking responsibility and putting their lives at risk. Thanks for all that.
If all goes well, we’ll be back on September 14th. Thanks for the company, Kerry, Tom, Scott, Mark, Jamie, Stacy, JohnL, LarryF, Kevin, Drazil, John, Arthur and all those I might forget.
Tomorrow Thursday my wife, our daughter and me are going on vacation to Scotland. As I’m typing this, with roughly 1 hr plus of paperwork still to do before venturing to bed, it occurs to me what a lucky bastard I am. Before the advent of the Internet, I used to think I had a pretty good idea of what was going on in the world. When, though, I state that thanks to my broadband connection I’m seeing world events from a virtual front seat, I still may be seriously overplaying my hand. As sure as the earth is round, too many machinations and undercurrents in society still escape my view, and too many topics just catch the eye without my brain connecting the obvious dots and grasping the true relevance of what I see.
Yet for all that, the Internet has proven itself a wonderful tool. At worst it has turned my happy relative ignorance into an uneasy realization that we truly live in a world in turmoil, a global battleground of ideologies, and that’s not even counting the plethora of mundane-or-rather-not-so-mundane problems facing the majority of earthlings: proper nutrition, health care, lack of freedom etc… etc…
At best though it has opened the door for new friends across the globe, and notably in the United States, where over the past year I finally found large numbers of people who thought and spoke as I do – or liked to do, since over here in the Old Continent very few qualify as people to whom I’d refer as being “on my side of the fence”. I’ve stated this several times and it may even start to bore you, but you in America, where despite the omnipresence of liberal media, rightwing views are carried by at least half of the population, have no idea whatsoever what it means to live in an “intellectual” environment where political correctness is the New Religion. When I was invited by Kerry Dupont to post on Downeast, a whole world opened up for me, a world where the decade-old lies with which I had been bombarded since childhood (as a twelve-ear old I had to learn that Julius Nyerere, notorious for screwing Tanzania’s welfare, was “The Torch-Bearer of Africa”) were effectively exposed as the senile rantings of pony-tailed, woollen-sock wearing, frustrated and hypocritical do-gooders locked in May 1968.
I like to live my life the way I do it: working hard, loving my family, raising our kid and hopefully kids, planning and securing my and my family’s future, renovating the country house I bought in 1997, trying to make my business flourish, reading and studying, enjoying the beauty of my country and continent, both its natural as its architectural enigmas… I was raised in a family where hard work was considered one of the highest virtues and laziness was something to loathe… and when all the work was done, I truly learned to appreciate the reward of a vacation meant to come to rest, breathe other air (often in Switzerlands mountains) and simply enjoy being healthy and young.
As I am preparing for this long-awaited break from the often demanding work, anticipating to venture out in the grandiose scenery of Scotland’s mountains, glens and lochs, I’d like to wholeheartedly thank those people who are on the forefront of defending our civilization from a murderous ideology that wants to cast hundreds of millions back in the seventh century. In a very real sense of the word I feel that those nineteen year-old troopers in Iraq, the security personnel back in the States and in my own Europe, and all those from far or close involved in fighting this “War On Terror”, because that’s what it is, a War On Terror, are fighting to preserve our - my - way of life. And I’m tremendously grateful for that. Not knowing which readers care about religion and therefore a bit reluctant to invoke God, I find it nevertheless appropriate to share with you that I’ll surely take some time to go into a church and save a prayer or two for all those out there, men and women, following orders, taking responsibility and putting their lives at risk. Thanks for all that.
If all goes well, we’ll be back on September 14th. Thanks for the company, Kerry, Tom, Scott, Mark, Jamie, Stacy, JohnL, LarryF, Kevin, Drazil, John, Arthur and all those I might forget.
Paul Begala with some typical liberal sputum.
Lots of accusations being pushed as facts with no actual evidence to back it up.
Sounds about par for the course.
Lots of accusations being pushed as facts with no actual evidence to back it up.
Sounds about par for the course.
Tuesday, August 31, 2004
WAR AND DISHONOR.
Kevin and other people on the left side, THIS IS THE ENEMY.
Don't you dare come to tell me the actions of your government have only encouraged and emboldened this human trash.
The Middle East is like a decrepit shack full of rattlesnakes and cockroaches in your backyard. You could it let it rot and wait for it to deteriorate to the point where the vermin ventures out and creeps into your house via the back door. Or you could go in and clean up the place. If you do the latter you can surely expect the creeps to crawl out from under damn near everything you touch and for a while it may look as if you had better left things alone.
Right now we are at that stage. We see the worms squirming in the daylight. What do we do now Kev?
Do we call it quits and leave the shack to harbor the vermin further? Oh, but now you have disturbed it, like a wasp's nest. Remember, if you close that shack's door, that does not mean the worms cease to exist.
Or do we proceed and look forward to making the place useful and pleasant again? Well, I'm not going to embellish it. I fear the democratization of the Middle East is going to be a long, hard slog.
Once again though, I'm reminded of Winston Churchill addressing Neville Chamberlain who chose to have the Czech Republic raped by the Nazis instead of confronting them:
YOU HAD THE CHOICE BETWEEN WAR AND DISHONOR. YOU CHOSE DISHONOR AND YOU WILL GET WAR.
Choices like that should be obvious.
God, those poor men. May I invite everyone to save a prayer for them and their relatives?
Kevin and other people on the left side, THIS IS THE ENEMY.
Don't you dare come to tell me the actions of your government have only encouraged and emboldened this human trash.
The Middle East is like a decrepit shack full of rattlesnakes and cockroaches in your backyard. You could it let it rot and wait for it to deteriorate to the point where the vermin ventures out and creeps into your house via the back door. Or you could go in and clean up the place. If you do the latter you can surely expect the creeps to crawl out from under damn near everything you touch and for a while it may look as if you had better left things alone.
Right now we are at that stage. We see the worms squirming in the daylight. What do we do now Kev?
Do we call it quits and leave the shack to harbor the vermin further? Oh, but now you have disturbed it, like a wasp's nest. Remember, if you close that shack's door, that does not mean the worms cease to exist.
Or do we proceed and look forward to making the place useful and pleasant again? Well, I'm not going to embellish it. I fear the democratization of the Middle East is going to be a long, hard slog.
Once again though, I'm reminded of Winston Churchill addressing Neville Chamberlain who chose to have the Czech Republic raped by the Nazis instead of confronting them:
YOU HAD THE CHOICE BETWEEN WAR AND DISHONOR. YOU CHOSE DISHONOR AND YOU WILL GET WAR.
Choices like that should be obvious.
God, those poor men. May I invite everyone to save a prayer for them and their relatives?
This pretty much sums up my opinion of protestors.
Protests are by and large a massive waste of time. No wonder they seem more popular with a certain side of the political aisle. Anyone with a job and a life is probably too busy to attend.
Protests are by and large a massive waste of time. No wonder they seem more popular with a certain side of the political aisle. Anyone with a job and a life is probably too busy to attend.
What's your platform?
OK, folks, here's your chance to be president. List the top 5 initiatives of your presidency. Here's mine:
1) Abolish the IRS, replace all income taxes with either a flat tax or national retail sales tax. Include a constitutional amendment that outlaws the income tax and prevents all "progressive" taxation.
2) Begin the process of legalizing drugs. Begin with marijuana and study the results of this phase and apply it to other drugs over time. As drugs become legalized, release all non violent drug offenders from prison whose sentences are associated with that drug. Split the money saved between the taxpayers and drug treatment programs. Phase out the treatment programs over time and let private entities handle this over the long run.
3) Privatize social security. Set a cutoff age where people can still receive benefits consistent with the current system, and then force everyone else to handle their own SS dollars.
4) Maintain or increase defense spending, but work to eliminate needless bureaucracy and waste in the Pentagon. Prepare for inevitable confrontation with Iran and North Korea.
5) Greatly expand investment/ incentive in all American energy resources. Bring nuclear back big time. Drill for oil wherever we can find it. Temporarily utilize our massive coal reserve. Achieve complete energy independence within 10 years.
OK, so there's really about 50 more of these, but that will do for now. How about you candidates?
OK, folks, here's your chance to be president. List the top 5 initiatives of your presidency. Here's mine:
1) Abolish the IRS, replace all income taxes with either a flat tax or national retail sales tax. Include a constitutional amendment that outlaws the income tax and prevents all "progressive" taxation.
2) Begin the process of legalizing drugs. Begin with marijuana and study the results of this phase and apply it to other drugs over time. As drugs become legalized, release all non violent drug offenders from prison whose sentences are associated with that drug. Split the money saved between the taxpayers and drug treatment programs. Phase out the treatment programs over time and let private entities handle this over the long run.
3) Privatize social security. Set a cutoff age where people can still receive benefits consistent with the current system, and then force everyone else to handle their own SS dollars.
4) Maintain or increase defense spending, but work to eliminate needless bureaucracy and waste in the Pentagon. Prepare for inevitable confrontation with Iran and North Korea.
5) Greatly expand investment/ incentive in all American energy resources. Bring nuclear back big time. Drill for oil wherever we can find it. Temporarily utilize our massive coal reserve. Achieve complete energy independence within 10 years.
OK, so there's really about 50 more of these, but that will do for now. How about you candidates?
Monday, August 30, 2004
I just love this.
If you're John Kerry, this has to scare the crap out of you. Bill Clinton OWNED the MTV crowd in both of his elections. He even said after being elected for his first term that he would not have been elected if it wasn't for MTV. This demographic has always been a gimme for the Democrats, but it looks like the times they are a changin'...
If you're John Kerry, this has to scare the crap out of you. Bill Clinton OWNED the MTV crowd in both of his elections. He even said after being elected for his first term that he would not have been elected if it wasn't for MTV. This demographic has always been a gimme for the Democrats, but it looks like the times they are a changin'...
Sunday, August 29, 2004
Saturday, August 28, 2004
From the Miami Herald.
“John Kerry had just pumped up a huge crowd in downtown West Palm Beach, promising to make the state a battleground for his quest to oust President Bush, when a local television journalist posed the question that any candidate with Florida ambitions should expect:
“What will you do about Cuba?
”As the presumptive Democratic nominee, Kerry was ready with the bravado appropriate for a challenger who knows that every answer carries magnified importance in the state that put President Bush into office by just 537 votes.
'I'm pretty tough on Castro, because I think he's running one of the last vestiges of a Stalinist secret police government in the world,'' Kerry told WPLG-ABC 10 reporter Michael Putney in an interview to be aired at 11:30 this morning. Then, reaching back eight years to one of the more significant efforts to toughen sanctions on the communist island, Kerry volunteered: ``And I voted for the Helms-Burton legislation to be tough on companies that deal with him.''
”It seemed the correct answer in a year in which Democratic strategists think they can make a play for at least a portion of the important Cuban-American vote -- as they did in 1996 when more than three in 10 backed President Clinton's reelection after he signed the sanctions measure written by Sen. Jesse Helms and Rep. Dan Burton.
”There is only one problem: Kerry voted against it.”
”Asked Friday to explain the discrepancy, Kerry aides said the senator cast one of the 22 nays that day in 1996 because he disagreed with some of the final technical aspects. But, said spokesman David Wade, Kerry supported the legislation in its purer form -- and voted for it months earlier.”
LAETITIA CASTA, COMPETITION AND NEELIE KROES.
Yesterday, a well-known Maine citizen aka Tom the Blog Dictator expressed concerns over the EU’s Competition Department opening an investigation into a Microsoft and Time Warner agreement that would effectively put them in charge of Contentguard.
To clarify what Contentguard does: well, with the arrival of the worldwide web, companies had the possibility to online offer hitherto unknown amounts of digital info, whether it be audio, text, video, games, business information or whatever. Of course a lot of these data can’t be copied or used right away. So the owners of web information and service providers effectively need a powerful software tool for the description, interpretation, and enforcement of rights to use any web resource.
Well, Contentguard is a company offering such a software tool. It developed XrML 2.0, which stands for eXtensible rights Markup Language, and which can be used to extend the range of rights-enabled business models applicable to digital content and web services. Learn more about XrML on www.xrml.org. It’s worth to take a brief look. Technical description here. XrML is an XML-based (XML = HTML’s successor) usage grammar for specifying rights and conditions to control access to digital info and services. XrML’s predecessor was DPRL (Digital Property Rights Language). DPRL in fact became XrML when the lisp-style metalanguage used to construct DPRL was replaced with XML.
Now, with the undreamt of stream of copyright-eligible info on the web, the Digital Rights Management (DRM) market promises to become a vast business in itself. Apparently SuperMario, or the EU’s current Competition Commissioner Mario Monti, saw in the Microsoft/Time Warner initiative another attempt of that vile Bill Gates to dominate a market THAT HAS YET TO DEVELOP!!!
It’s stupid, I admit it. But hold your fire.
Instead, cheer up and answer the following question: what do the following personae have in common?
They are both women. They are both European. They are both defenders of the free market. They are both older than 25 and younger than 64. They both can be found on the net, here for instance for Miss Casta and here for Mrs. Kroes. They both were on board, Mrs. Kroes was on the Supervisory Board of Lucent Technologies BV, Volvo and New Skies Satellite NV and Miss Casta must in her life definitely have been on board of some ship, I mean, when you’re 26 years old one can’t imagine you have never been on some ship, no? They both make men shiver, they both live in a country which is a neighbour of Belgium... the similarities are striking... know what I’m sayin'?
Anyway, without worrying too much about the digital rights management of Tech Central Station I will let them do the talking:
More importantly, there is good news for supporters of the free market: several of the most important Commission jobs have gone to center-right politicians with experience in - gasp! - the private sector. The most crucial assignment - and arguably a more important job than the presidency itself - is that of competition commissioner. The current occupant, Italian Mario Monti, is perhaps most famous for thwarting a couple of high-profile US mergers (WorldCom-Sprint and GE-Honeywell) and for relentlessly pursuing an antitrust case against Microsoft. Monti was successful early on in his tenure at breaking up state monopolies and forcing governments to stop subsidizing anemic business sectors. But lately he has racked up a pathetic record of blocking innovation and letting countries such as France prop up ailing industries.
Replacing him in the new Commission line-up will be a Dutch woman, Neelie Kroes. She's not only a member of the Netherlands' pro-free-market liberal party (VVD), she's also got significant private sector experience, including service on the boards of Lucent Technologies and Volvo. It's too early to tell whether she'll make a real difference in EU antitrust policy (which has grown increasingly ham-fisted of late), but at least she figures to have more sensitivity to the competitive business environment than did the bookish Monti.
Ladies and gentlemen, I would also like to point out that the recent snafus of SuperMario have shed a bad light upon the EU’s Competition Department. Personally, I DO think it can fulfill an important role in Europes business landscape. Just take a look here and don’t tell me you disagree.
Competition is a basic mechanism of the market economy and is a simple and efficient means of guaranteeing consumers a level of excellence in terms of the quality and price of products and services. In order to be effective, competition assumes that the market is made up of suppliers who are independent of each other, each subject to the competitive pressure exerted by the others.
Of course the excesses of this spring have left a drab impression of what an EU Commissioner for Competition stands for. But believe me, there’s a vast array of cases in which its role should rather be lauded than castigated. This very spring I had a post (Kerry will doubtlessly remember) on the EU Competition Department fining the Charleroi-based low-cost airliner Ryanair for having unrightfully received vast amounts of money from the Wallonian Regional Government, which caused an unfair advantage for Ryanair compared to other low-cost carriers such as Virgin: AEA Welcomes European Commission’s Ruling that Payments to Ryanair by Charleroi Airport are State Aids.
My conclusions at the end of the day:
1° Phew. Monti is leaving the scene.
2° In his place as EU Commissioner for Competition comes a true defender of the free market, Neelie Kroes.
3° The EU Competition Department, when it’s not losing itself in pointless cases, is necessary.
4° Not all that comes from France is bad.
MFBB
Yesterday, a well-known Maine citizen aka Tom the Blog Dictator expressed concerns over the EU’s Competition Department opening an investigation into a Microsoft and Time Warner agreement that would effectively put them in charge of Contentguard.
To clarify what Contentguard does: well, with the arrival of the worldwide web, companies had the possibility to online offer hitherto unknown amounts of digital info, whether it be audio, text, video, games, business information or whatever. Of course a lot of these data can’t be copied or used right away. So the owners of web information and service providers effectively need a powerful software tool for the description, interpretation, and enforcement of rights to use any web resource.
Well, Contentguard is a company offering such a software tool. It developed XrML 2.0, which stands for eXtensible rights Markup Language, and which can be used to extend the range of rights-enabled business models applicable to digital content and web services. Learn more about XrML on www.xrml.org. It’s worth to take a brief look. Technical description here. XrML is an XML-based (XML = HTML’s successor) usage grammar for specifying rights and conditions to control access to digital info and services. XrML’s predecessor was DPRL (Digital Property Rights Language). DPRL in fact became XrML when the lisp-style metalanguage used to construct DPRL was replaced with XML.
Now, with the undreamt of stream of copyright-eligible info on the web, the Digital Rights Management (DRM) market promises to become a vast business in itself. Apparently SuperMario, or the EU’s current Competition Commissioner Mario Monti, saw in the Microsoft/Time Warner initiative another attempt of that vile Bill Gates to dominate a market THAT HAS YET TO DEVELOP!!!
It’s stupid, I admit it. But hold your fire.
Instead, cheer up and answer the following question: what do the following personae have in common?
They are both women. They are both European. They are both defenders of the free market. They are both older than 25 and younger than 64. They both can be found on the net, here for instance for Miss Casta and here for Mrs. Kroes. They both were on board, Mrs. Kroes was on the Supervisory Board of Lucent Technologies BV, Volvo and New Skies Satellite NV and Miss Casta must in her life definitely have been on board of some ship, I mean, when you’re 26 years old one can’t imagine you have never been on some ship, no? They both make men shiver, they both live in a country which is a neighbour of Belgium... the similarities are striking... know what I’m sayin'?
Anyway, without worrying too much about the digital rights management of Tech Central Station I will let them do the talking:
More importantly, there is good news for supporters of the free market: several of the most important Commission jobs have gone to center-right politicians with experience in - gasp! - the private sector. The most crucial assignment - and arguably a more important job than the presidency itself - is that of competition commissioner. The current occupant, Italian Mario Monti, is perhaps most famous for thwarting a couple of high-profile US mergers (WorldCom-Sprint and GE-Honeywell) and for relentlessly pursuing an antitrust case against Microsoft. Monti was successful early on in his tenure at breaking up state monopolies and forcing governments to stop subsidizing anemic business sectors. But lately he has racked up a pathetic record of blocking innovation and letting countries such as France prop up ailing industries.
Replacing him in the new Commission line-up will be a Dutch woman, Neelie Kroes. She's not only a member of the Netherlands' pro-free-market liberal party (VVD), she's also got significant private sector experience, including service on the boards of Lucent Technologies and Volvo. It's too early to tell whether she'll make a real difference in EU antitrust policy (which has grown increasingly ham-fisted of late), but at least she figures to have more sensitivity to the competitive business environment than did the bookish Monti.
Ladies and gentlemen, I would also like to point out that the recent snafus of SuperMario have shed a bad light upon the EU’s Competition Department. Personally, I DO think it can fulfill an important role in Europes business landscape. Just take a look here and don’t tell me you disagree.
Competition is a basic mechanism of the market economy and is a simple and efficient means of guaranteeing consumers a level of excellence in terms of the quality and price of products and services. In order to be effective, competition assumes that the market is made up of suppliers who are independent of each other, each subject to the competitive pressure exerted by the others.
Of course the excesses of this spring have left a drab impression of what an EU Commissioner for Competition stands for. But believe me, there’s a vast array of cases in which its role should rather be lauded than castigated. This very spring I had a post (Kerry will doubtlessly remember) on the EU Competition Department fining the Charleroi-based low-cost airliner Ryanair for having unrightfully received vast amounts of money from the Wallonian Regional Government, which caused an unfair advantage for Ryanair compared to other low-cost carriers such as Virgin: AEA Welcomes European Commission’s Ruling that Payments to Ryanair by Charleroi Airport are State Aids.
My conclusions at the end of the day:
1° Phew. Monti is leaving the scene.
2° In his place as EU Commissioner for Competition comes a true defender of the free market, Neelie Kroes.
3° The EU Competition Department, when it’s not losing itself in pointless cases, is necessary.
4° Not all that comes from France is bad.
MFBB
Friday, August 27, 2004
For all those who thought that opposing the invasion of Iraq would keep you safe from terrorism, there's this.
More EU silliness.
Hat tip to Little Green Footballs
This week, the European Union's (EU) European Commission (EC) opened an investigation into a Microsoft and Time Warner deal that would give them control of digital rights management (DRM) company Contentguard.
The crime? Future domination of a market that does not yet exist.
If you're confused or angered by this, then you must not be a socialist or an EU commissioner. So step outside yourself for a moment, you capitalist dog, and try to see things from the EC's side of the table.
Here's what the EC claims: "It appears to the Commission that the transaction might possibly create or strengthen a dominant position by Microsoft in the market for Digital Rights Management (DRM) solutions."
Hat tip to Little Green Footballs
One more reason I like UKIP (United Kingdom Independence Party):
Yesterday UKIP London went into action over this issue, by announcing publicly that they were supporting the Paris bid for the Olympic Games 2012. They unfurled a banner outside City Hall and wore t-shirts with pro-Paris slogans for the photocall. (Whether the French, who, presumably, have also looked at the figures and the empty stadium in Athens, are quite as happy with that support as one might wish them to be, is another question.)
Thursday, August 26, 2004
More Kerry storytelling. Boy, is this clown ever in the wrong line of work.
John Kerry speaking at a Martin Luther King day celebration in Virginia last year said, quote, "I remember well April 1968, I was serving in Vietnam. A place of violence. When the news reports brought home to me and my crew mates the violence back home and the tragic news that one of the bullets flying that terrible spring took the life of Dr. King." That date, of Dr. King's death, was April 4, 1968. According to kerry's website, it was not until November 17, 1968, that he reported for duty in Vietnam.
Has the Left completely lost it or what???
Anything less than 100 million shouters is a horrific failure? Well, I'm looking forward to it.
Hey people, serious. This is insane (scratching head, looking puzzled, letting out deep sigh)
On another note: I bought a magazine on (a.o.) US Marines in Iraq. Ok, it was a French magazine (Raids) but it's prety good. Great photos, accurate reporting, no particular stance taken). There wer several photos of Marines in combat situations with the old Vietnam-era M-79 grenade launcher. I was really surprised these one-shot things were still in use. I mean, I thought all grenade launchers today came attached to the barrel of an M-16. What are you supposed to do in a fluid combat situation when you have shot your gun? I guess that if it's still on the USMC's inventory it must be pretty good for its intended purpose.
Anything less than 100 million shouters is a horrific failure? Well, I'm looking forward to it.
Hey people, serious. This is insane (scratching head, looking puzzled, letting out deep sigh)
On another note: I bought a magazine on (a.o.) US Marines in Iraq. Ok, it was a French magazine (Raids) but it's prety good. Great photos, accurate reporting, no particular stance taken). There wer several photos of Marines in combat situations with the old Vietnam-era M-79 grenade launcher. I was really surprised these one-shot things were still in use. I mean, I thought all grenade launchers today came attached to the barrel of an M-16. What are you supposed to do in a fluid combat situation when you have shot your gun? I guess that if it's still on the USMC's inventory it must be pretty good for its intended purpose.
Tuesday, August 24, 2004
If this is true Kerry is more of a douchebag than I thought and as Scott has mentioned, someone should just follow him around with a microphone.
KERRY: "Why are all these swift boat guys opposed to me?"
BRANT: "You should know what you said when you came back, the impact it had on the young sailors and how it was disrespectful of our guys that were killed over there."
[Brant had two men killed in battle.]
KERRY: "When we dedicated swift boat one in '92, I said to all the swift guys that I wasn't talking about the swifties, I was talking about all the rest of the veterans."
Monday, August 23, 2004
"A mix of red and blue, the color purple embodies red's sense of authority but also blue's association with serenity, making it a less negative and more constructive color for correcting student papers."
"The concept of purple as a replacement for red is a pretty good idea," said Leatrice Eiseman, director of the Pantone Color Institute in Carlstadt, N.J., and author of five books on color. "You soften the blow of red. Red is a bit over-the-top in its aggression."
Good lord.
Sunday, August 22, 2004
Ok, so other than their respective military careers, what do we all think of Kerry and Bush, and why do we plan on voting the way we do? For me, it's still the same as it was many months ago. I trust GWB more with the War on Terror and with the economy, and the guy who is going to raise my already ridiculous taxes is always going to have a hard time getting my vote. There's lots of other pros and cons, but they don't add up to much in light of those issues.
So what's influencing everyone else, other than military records?
So what's influencing everyone else, other than military records?
Saturday, August 21, 2004
New EU chief urges greater effort in Iraq. This is a very good thing, hopefully he will be able to effect some positive change.
Friday, August 20, 2004
THE DUTCH IN AL-MUTHANNA/IRAQ.
As most of you know, Belgium’s northern neighbour, The Netherlands, is part of the "Coalition of the Willing" and has as such done its share by sending a troop detachment of about 1,300 men to keep Iraq’s southern province of al-Muthanna secure. Now while this contingent may seem small in comparison to the area to be controlled (somewhat 1,5 times the surface of The Netherlands itself, which is roughly 40,000 square kilometres), one has to keep in mind there is only one major city in the north of al-Muthanna, and that’s as-Samawah. The rest is mainly desert.
At the handover of power from the CPA to Iraq’s current interim government under President al-Yawer and PM Allawi, Dutch Parliament voted for prolonging the stay of its troops till after the January 2005 elections.
The photo was taken on or around March 9, 2004, and shows a joint patrol by Army Infantry (42nd Battalion Limburgse Jagers) and Koninklijke Mariniers. No Humvees, but Landrovers and Mercedeses.
A brief overview of how the detachment is composed:
a.) Its infantry component is formed by the Tweede Mariniersbataljon (2nd Battalion Marines) under Lt. Col. Richard Oppelaar. It fields around 650 men. Note that unlike the Marines in the United States, who form their own arm, Dutch Marines are subordinated to the Koninklijke Marine (Royal Navy).
b.) A loose collection of Koninklijke Landmacht (Army) engineer, communications and security units
c.) The Koninklijke Luchtmacht (Royal Air Force) participates to the so-called NLDETIRAK II with an air transport unit of three Chinook CH47D helicopters and approximately 90 men, and an air attack unit of six Apache helicopters with roughly 100 men, both units based at al-Tallil airbase.
d.) Two small units of the Koninklijke Marechaussee (Military Police)
Al-Muthanna province is not known for harbouring hard-core religious groups or ex-Baathists, so the Dutch were able to pull of a good job with few men. But those days seem to take an end. In May of this year, the Dutch contingent suffered its first fatality when Sgt. Steensma died in a grenade attack. Then came a lull, until the recent outbreak of unrest caused by al-Sadr’s insurgence stirred things up here too: there was an attack on a patrol vehicle in the neighbourhood of ar-Rumaythah, some 40 kloms north of as-Samawah. A rather fierce gunfight reportedly ensued in which a Dutch emergency unit, the so-called Quick Reaction Force, was called upon, as well as some of the Dutch Apaches. Two insurgents were killed. And just lately, on the 15th of August, a 29-year old Dutch MP was killed.
Personally I think the Dutch contingent is quite capable, especially since the bulk of it is formed by a Marinier Bataljon, which in the Dutch armed forces is considered an elite unit. It is therefore all the more deplorable that the recent spate of attacks immediately results in unrest on the homefront, with relatives of soldiers openly calling for the troops to come back and leftist political parties demanding the government put an end to the Dutch operation. While in my car this evening I heard on Dutch radio that the commander in Iraq called upon the homefront not to panic (!), since "most Iraqis are still glad the Dutch soldiers are around".
I’m not downplaying the Dutch losses, but I find this apparent frenzy among the Dutch civil scene highly disturbing. When you are a military man, you know the risks. You know that you can be called upon to do your duty and have to go where your government sends you to. Apparently large swaths of the Dutch population do not see it this way and think the Army is for sunshine soldiers only. Never mind that the Iraqi local government and the councils of towns in the region have pleaded for Dutch troops staying a while longer. It’s just another manifestation of European lameassitude. For when the time that we Europeans are able to distract ourselves from our cosy lifestyle, face the fact that we live in a world of risk, and take up responsibility? Just imagine, the recent fatality led ALL political parties except the liberal (mind you, over here that’s rightwing) VVD to ask for a Parliamentarian Debate on safety in Iraq (read finding reasons to cut and run). One word says it all people: Sitzpinklers.
MFBB
As most of you know, Belgium’s northern neighbour, The Netherlands, is part of the "Coalition of the Willing" and has as such done its share by sending a troop detachment of about 1,300 men to keep Iraq’s southern province of al-Muthanna secure. Now while this contingent may seem small in comparison to the area to be controlled (somewhat 1,5 times the surface of The Netherlands itself, which is roughly 40,000 square kilometres), one has to keep in mind there is only one major city in the north of al-Muthanna, and that’s as-Samawah. The rest is mainly desert.
At the handover of power from the CPA to Iraq’s current interim government under President al-Yawer and PM Allawi, Dutch Parliament voted for prolonging the stay of its troops till after the January 2005 elections.
The photo was taken on or around March 9, 2004, and shows a joint patrol by Army Infantry (42nd Battalion Limburgse Jagers) and Koninklijke Mariniers. No Humvees, but Landrovers and Mercedeses.
A brief overview of how the detachment is composed:
a.) Its infantry component is formed by the Tweede Mariniersbataljon (2nd Battalion Marines) under Lt. Col. Richard Oppelaar. It fields around 650 men. Note that unlike the Marines in the United States, who form their own arm, Dutch Marines are subordinated to the Koninklijke Marine (Royal Navy).
b.) A loose collection of Koninklijke Landmacht (Army) engineer, communications and security units
c.) The Koninklijke Luchtmacht (Royal Air Force) participates to the so-called NLDETIRAK II with an air transport unit of three Chinook CH47D helicopters and approximately 90 men, and an air attack unit of six Apache helicopters with roughly 100 men, both units based at al-Tallil airbase.
d.) Two small units of the Koninklijke Marechaussee (Military Police)
Al-Muthanna province is not known for harbouring hard-core religious groups or ex-Baathists, so the Dutch were able to pull of a good job with few men. But those days seem to take an end. In May of this year, the Dutch contingent suffered its first fatality when Sgt. Steensma died in a grenade attack. Then came a lull, until the recent outbreak of unrest caused by al-Sadr’s insurgence stirred things up here too: there was an attack on a patrol vehicle in the neighbourhood of ar-Rumaythah, some 40 kloms north of as-Samawah. A rather fierce gunfight reportedly ensued in which a Dutch emergency unit, the so-called Quick Reaction Force, was called upon, as well as some of the Dutch Apaches. Two insurgents were killed. And just lately, on the 15th of August, a 29-year old Dutch MP was killed.
Personally I think the Dutch contingent is quite capable, especially since the bulk of it is formed by a Marinier Bataljon, which in the Dutch armed forces is considered an elite unit. It is therefore all the more deplorable that the recent spate of attacks immediately results in unrest on the homefront, with relatives of soldiers openly calling for the troops to come back and leftist political parties demanding the government put an end to the Dutch operation. While in my car this evening I heard on Dutch radio that the commander in Iraq called upon the homefront not to panic (!), since "most Iraqis are still glad the Dutch soldiers are around".
I’m not downplaying the Dutch losses, but I find this apparent frenzy among the Dutch civil scene highly disturbing. When you are a military man, you know the risks. You know that you can be called upon to do your duty and have to go where your government sends you to. Apparently large swaths of the Dutch population do not see it this way and think the Army is for sunshine soldiers only. Never mind that the Iraqi local government and the councils of towns in the region have pleaded for Dutch troops staying a while longer. It’s just another manifestation of European lameassitude. For when the time that we Europeans are able to distract ourselves from our cosy lifestyle, face the fact that we live in a world of risk, and take up responsibility? Just imagine, the recent fatality led ALL political parties except the liberal (mind you, over here that’s rightwing) VVD to ask for a Parliamentarian Debate on safety in Iraq (read finding reasons to cut and run). One word says it all people: Sitzpinklers.
MFBB
Kevin posted this link about Iran's threats to the US in the discussion below, and I thought it deserved it's own space, so let's continue this discussion here.
We're going to have to deal with the Iranians sooner or later; I vote for sooner. And in a big way too.
We're going to have to deal with the Iranians sooner or later; I vote for sooner. And in a big way too.
Thursday, August 19, 2004
It's George Bush's fault that the America's basketball team is doing so poorly in Athens. This and other brainless observations from the always open minded Maureen Dowd, who incidentally makes it to the top of my "Political Pundits That I'd Like To Spank With A Canoe Paddle Covered In Toothpaste" list.
Wednesday, August 18, 2004
"The (Sierra Club) report said the Bush administration "has learned nothing from the illnesses and hardships suffered by the ground zero community. Rather, it plans to perpetuate them in any future national disaster anywhere else in the United States."
Riiiiiiiiiiight.
I did not know that President Bush replaced every single employee in the EPA with political appointees.
Riiiiiiiiiiight.
I did not know that President Bush replaced every single employee in the EPA with political appointees.
Monday, August 16, 2004
More lameassitude from the Kerry camp.
Liar or just incompetent - it doesn't bode well(well actually, it does for me).
Liar or just incompetent - it doesn't bode well(well actually, it does for me).
BARROSO PRESENTS NEW EU COMMISSION, THE EU'S "GOVERNMENT"
Ok, I guess you were not exactly waiting for it but here it is: the distribution of portfolios in the new European Commission, the EU’s "gumint". There are 25 of them, Chairman Barroso included. The smarter ones among you (could it be I’m not holding my breath) will already have noticed 25 is also the number of EU states in the new, enlarged constellation. Indeed, until 2014 every member state has the right to delegate one commissioner, regardless of its relative power. So Slovenia, population 2 million, gets one commissioner, and Germany, population 80 million, too. Seeing that the US gumint does not count 51 ministers must have ringed a bell though, since after 2014 the number of commissioners will be reduced to 18, regardless of whatever or how many states will join still.
Whether you like it or not, Jose Manuel Durao Barroso has given a fairly good impression as a man of deeds, not words till now. Dismissed by many observers as your typical colorless compromise figure at the time of his appointment, he has so far proven he’s nobody’s stooge. He wanted one third of commissioners to be females, he got them. The local powerhouses, rightfully fearing their voice would be diluted, wanted "constructions" still granting them power – Barroso did not budge. E.g., in the previous Commission the big countries had two commissioners. Germany, backed by the UK and France, asked for the new Commission a "Supercommissioner" to take charge of all aspects of economic performance, read it asked for a commissioner to whom several other commissioners wouild be subordinated. Barroso quickly made it clear he and no one else would decide on his team’s composition. Anyway, here it is:
Chairman of the European Commission: José Manuel Durao Barroso, former PM (Portugal), centre-right
Transport Commissioner/Vice Chairman: Jacques Barrot, former Minister of Work (France), rightwing
Justice, Freedom and Security Commissioner/Vice Chairman: Rocco Buttiglione, former Minister of European Affairs (Italy), centre-left
Administrative Affairs, Audits and Anti-fraud/Vice Chairman: Siim Kallas, former PM (Estonia), centre-right
Corporate Sector and Industry/Vice Chairman: Guenter Verheugen, former EU Commissioner of Enlargement (Germany), leftwing
Institutional Relations and Communications strategy/Vice Chairman: Margot Wallstrom, former Commissioner of Environment (Sweden), leftwing
Economy and Monetary Affairs: Joaquin Almunia , former Minister of Employment and Social Affairs (Spain), leftwing
Fishery and Maritime Affairs: Joe Borg, former FM (Malta), rightwing
Environment: Stavros Dimas, former Commissioner for Social Affairs and Employment (Greece), rightwing
External Relations: Benita Ferrero-Waldner, former FM (Austria), centre-left
Education, Formation, Culture and Multilinguality: Jan Figel, former State Secretary OF Foreign Affairs (Slovakia), centre-left
Agriculture and Rural Development: Mariann Fischer-Boel, former Minister of Food, Agriculture and Fishery (Denmark), centre-right
Budget and Financial Progrmmation: Dalia Grybauskaite, former Finance Minister (Lithuania), no party
Regional Affairs: Danuta Huebner, former Minister of European Affairs (Poland), leftwing
Energy: Laszlo Kovacs, former Foreign Minister (Hungary), centre-left
Competition: Neelie Kroes, former Minister of Traffic and Waterworks (Netherlands), centre-right
Health and Consumer Protection: Markos Kyprianou , former Minister of Finance (Cyprus), centre-right
Trade: Peter Mandelson, former Minister of Trade and Northern Ireland (Great Britain), leftwing
Internal Market: Charles McCreevy: former Minister of Tourism, Trade and Social Affairs (Ireland), rightwing
Science and Research: Janez Potocnik, former Minister of European Affairs (Slovenia), centre-right
Information Society and Media: Viviane Reding, former Europarlementarian (Luxembourg), centre-right
Enlargement: Olli Rehn, former Advisor to Finnish PM (Finland), centre-right
Work, social affairs, Equal Chances: Vladimir Spidla, former PM (Czech Republic), leftwing
Taxes and customs: Ingrida Udre, Chairman of Parliament (Latvia), centre-right
And, last but not least (snicker):
Surveillance of Salmon populations in Lofotian fjords: Louis Michel, Eternal Dimwit Par Excellence (Belgium), Maoist in disguise
As you can see I did a little research on the place of our beloved EU-bosses and bossettes and the result comes as a moderate surprise to me. Always struggling with the slightly different notions of a right-and leftwinger on either side of the Atlantic (e.g., over here a "liberal" is considered a moderate rightwinger, whereas you would call our "socialists" half-communists), I have decided to distinguish four categories, namely "Rightwing" (conservative), "Centre-Right" (liberal), "Centre-Left" (Christian Democrats, Social-Democrats) and "Leftwing" (socialists). Not taking into account Lithuania's Mrs. Dalia Grybauskaite, who reportedly has no political affiliation, I've come to the following results:
Rightwing: 5 Commissioners
Centre-Right: 7 Commissioners
Centre-Left: 5 Commissioners
Leftwing: 7 Commissioners
In other words, Left and Right are neatly divided 50/50 in this new EU-Commission. I never did such an inquiry for the previous Commission, but I bet the Left was stronger represented. Anyway, this rightwing transition, coupled with the fact that Mr. Barroso is moderately pro-American (his predecessor Romano Prodi was not), should give you Americanos some hope for the future. And of course, the political process will be influenced too by a European Parliament in which France's and Germany's voices have significantly lost weight and have been effectively replaced to a certain extent by the rather pro-American voices from the new countries in the East.
Just have some patiece yet, as the new EU-Commission will only assume EU leadership in autumn, if I'm not mistaken at about the same time a new US President gets elected. So if Bush wins, as I hope and still expect, then a case can be made that slowly but irresistibly the Western World is turning more conservative (sorry, Kevin). This process should not come as a surprise given the the dawning realization among a majority of western voters that our common problems, a.o. immigration, need firmer solutions.
I would also not exclude that many people for whom "liberal" issues were never a problem, are growing increasingly uncomfortable with the ever-more prominent alternative lifestyles which our media more and more display as the norm. I'll give you just one example: this weekend my wife watched on dvd "Under the Tuscan Sun", with Diane Lane (she's getting older btw, although she's still quite a broad). Diane finds out her husband has an adulterous homosexual affair, she divorces, her lesbian friends, of whom one, who is Asian, is pregnant (father unknown), organize a trip to Italy with her with a gay group, she buys a house and has an affair with a smooth-talking Italian who bangs another woman twenty miles further down the road, blah blah blah... are you still following???
Anyway, I get the disitnct feeling that a growing number of the "conventionals" are not taking it for granted anymore that we should swallow the ads for alternativo lifestyles, and want some "traditional" values re-emphasized. This is not just a gut feeling, the Belgian story of the rising relevance of the rightwing "Vlaams Blok", once a political pariah, may very well be a study in microcosm of a rightwing trend in the Western World.
Ok, forget that sermon, I was talking about Barroso and crew. Let me finish by saying that Barroso, on the press conference on which he presented his equipe, also made clear what his two main aims were: making the EU by 2010 the most competitive economy in the world, and maing it better known among European citizens. If he succeeds, then by that time we may feel ourselves a little more like Europeans and a little less like Slovaks, Italians, French or whatever. I might hope so.
MFBB
Ok, I guess you were not exactly waiting for it but here it is: the distribution of portfolios in the new European Commission, the EU’s "gumint". There are 25 of them, Chairman Barroso included. The smarter ones among you (could it be I’m not holding my breath) will already have noticed 25 is also the number of EU states in the new, enlarged constellation. Indeed, until 2014 every member state has the right to delegate one commissioner, regardless of its relative power. So Slovenia, population 2 million, gets one commissioner, and Germany, population 80 million, too. Seeing that the US gumint does not count 51 ministers must have ringed a bell though, since after 2014 the number of commissioners will be reduced to 18, regardless of whatever or how many states will join still.
Whether you like it or not, Jose Manuel Durao Barroso has given a fairly good impression as a man of deeds, not words till now. Dismissed by many observers as your typical colorless compromise figure at the time of his appointment, he has so far proven he’s nobody’s stooge. He wanted one third of commissioners to be females, he got them. The local powerhouses, rightfully fearing their voice would be diluted, wanted "constructions" still granting them power – Barroso did not budge. E.g., in the previous Commission the big countries had two commissioners. Germany, backed by the UK and France, asked for the new Commission a "Supercommissioner" to take charge of all aspects of economic performance, read it asked for a commissioner to whom several other commissioners wouild be subordinated. Barroso quickly made it clear he and no one else would decide on his team’s composition. Anyway, here it is:
Chairman of the European Commission: José Manuel Durao Barroso, former PM (Portugal), centre-right
Transport Commissioner/Vice Chairman: Jacques Barrot, former Minister of Work (France), rightwing
Justice, Freedom and Security Commissioner/Vice Chairman: Rocco Buttiglione, former Minister of European Affairs (Italy), centre-left
Administrative Affairs, Audits and Anti-fraud/Vice Chairman: Siim Kallas, former PM (Estonia), centre-right
Corporate Sector and Industry/Vice Chairman: Guenter Verheugen, former EU Commissioner of Enlargement (Germany), leftwing
Institutional Relations and Communications strategy/Vice Chairman: Margot Wallstrom, former Commissioner of Environment (Sweden), leftwing
Economy and Monetary Affairs: Joaquin Almunia , former Minister of Employment and Social Affairs (Spain), leftwing
Fishery and Maritime Affairs: Joe Borg, former FM (Malta), rightwing
Environment: Stavros Dimas, former Commissioner for Social Affairs and Employment (Greece), rightwing
External Relations: Benita Ferrero-Waldner, former FM (Austria), centre-left
Education, Formation, Culture and Multilinguality: Jan Figel, former State Secretary OF Foreign Affairs (Slovakia), centre-left
Agriculture and Rural Development: Mariann Fischer-Boel, former Minister of Food, Agriculture and Fishery (Denmark), centre-right
Budget and Financial Progrmmation: Dalia Grybauskaite, former Finance Minister (Lithuania), no party
Regional Affairs: Danuta Huebner, former Minister of European Affairs (Poland), leftwing
Energy: Laszlo Kovacs, former Foreign Minister (Hungary), centre-left
Competition: Neelie Kroes, former Minister of Traffic and Waterworks (Netherlands), centre-right
Health and Consumer Protection: Markos Kyprianou , former Minister of Finance (Cyprus), centre-right
Trade: Peter Mandelson, former Minister of Trade and Northern Ireland (Great Britain), leftwing
Internal Market: Charles McCreevy: former Minister of Tourism, Trade and Social Affairs (Ireland), rightwing
Science and Research: Janez Potocnik, former Minister of European Affairs (Slovenia), centre-right
Information Society and Media: Viviane Reding, former Europarlementarian (Luxembourg), centre-right
Enlargement: Olli Rehn, former Advisor to Finnish PM (Finland), centre-right
Work, social affairs, Equal Chances: Vladimir Spidla, former PM (Czech Republic), leftwing
Taxes and customs: Ingrida Udre, Chairman of Parliament (Latvia), centre-right
And, last but not least (snicker):
Surveillance of Salmon populations in Lofotian fjords: Louis Michel, Eternal Dimwit Par Excellence (Belgium), Maoist in disguise
As you can see I did a little research on the place of our beloved EU-bosses and bossettes and the result comes as a moderate surprise to me. Always struggling with the slightly different notions of a right-and leftwinger on either side of the Atlantic (e.g., over here a "liberal" is considered a moderate rightwinger, whereas you would call our "socialists" half-communists), I have decided to distinguish four categories, namely "Rightwing" (conservative), "Centre-Right" (liberal), "Centre-Left" (Christian Democrats, Social-Democrats) and "Leftwing" (socialists). Not taking into account Lithuania's Mrs. Dalia Grybauskaite, who reportedly has no political affiliation, I've come to the following results:
Rightwing: 5 Commissioners
Centre-Right: 7 Commissioners
Centre-Left: 5 Commissioners
Leftwing: 7 Commissioners
In other words, Left and Right are neatly divided 50/50 in this new EU-Commission. I never did such an inquiry for the previous Commission, but I bet the Left was stronger represented. Anyway, this rightwing transition, coupled with the fact that Mr. Barroso is moderately pro-American (his predecessor Romano Prodi was not), should give you Americanos some hope for the future. And of course, the political process will be influenced too by a European Parliament in which France's and Germany's voices have significantly lost weight and have been effectively replaced to a certain extent by the rather pro-American voices from the new countries in the East.
Just have some patiece yet, as the new EU-Commission will only assume EU leadership in autumn, if I'm not mistaken at about the same time a new US President gets elected. So if Bush wins, as I hope and still expect, then a case can be made that slowly but irresistibly the Western World is turning more conservative (sorry, Kevin). This process should not come as a surprise given the the dawning realization among a majority of western voters that our common problems, a.o. immigration, need firmer solutions.
I would also not exclude that many people for whom "liberal" issues were never a problem, are growing increasingly uncomfortable with the ever-more prominent alternative lifestyles which our media more and more display as the norm. I'll give you just one example: this weekend my wife watched on dvd "Under the Tuscan Sun", with Diane Lane (she's getting older btw, although she's still quite a broad). Diane finds out her husband has an adulterous homosexual affair, she divorces, her lesbian friends, of whom one, who is Asian, is pregnant (father unknown), organize a trip to Italy with her with a gay group, she buys a house and has an affair with a smooth-talking Italian who bangs another woman twenty miles further down the road, blah blah blah... are you still following???
Anyway, I get the disitnct feeling that a growing number of the "conventionals" are not taking it for granted anymore that we should swallow the ads for alternativo lifestyles, and want some "traditional" values re-emphasized. This is not just a gut feeling, the Belgian story of the rising relevance of the rightwing "Vlaams Blok", once a political pariah, may very well be a study in microcosm of a rightwing trend in the Western World.
Ok, forget that sermon, I was talking about Barroso and crew. Let me finish by saying that Barroso, on the press conference on which he presented his equipe, also made clear what his two main aims were: making the EU by 2010 the most competitive economy in the world, and maing it better known among European citizens. If he succeeds, then by that time we may feel ourselves a little more like Europeans and a little less like Slovaks, Italians, French or whatever. I might hope so.
MFBB
Sunday, August 15, 2004
Stop me if you've heard this one before. Questions about John Kerry's truthfulness.
Just more fuel for the fire.
Just more fuel for the fire.
Here's a somewhat more scholarly response to Bruce Bartlett's column which was not kind to the FairTax (are you guys getting sick of this yet?) Again, this is a linked file, not a web page.
I'll give this organization credit; they are extremely responsive to requests for information and seem very well organized. I've yet to really stump them on any aspect of this plan, and I've tried many times, often with critiques I've heard on this blog. There's still some cheerleader in this response, but it seems pretty solid. I hope Bartlett responds. I'd like to see more public debate on this topic.
I'll give this organization credit; they are extremely responsive to requests for information and seem very well organized. I've yet to really stump them on any aspect of this plan, and I've tried many times, often with critiques I've heard on this blog. There's still some cheerleader in this response, but it seems pretty solid. I hope Bartlett responds. I'd like to see more public debate on this topic.
"Iran's world judo champion Arash Miresmaeili refused to compete against an Israeli Sunday, triggering a fresh crisis at the Olympic Games where race, creed or color are barred from interfering in sport.
The International Judo Federation (IJF) failed to agree how to deal with the politically explosive issue at an emergency meeting and said it would hold further talks Monday."
Let's hope the Olympics aren't run like the U.N. and the Iranian team is sent home. Call me a pessimist, but I somehow doubt it will happen.
Actually, I want the Olymics to kick them out AND bomb the Bushehr nuclear facility.
Saturday, August 14, 2004
U.S. plans to cut forces overseas by 70,000. I say it is about time, I don't think the Russkies will be charging through the Fulda Gap any time soon.
And even if they did, we have our man Michael with his can of whupass at the ready.
And even if they did, we have our man Michael with his can of whupass at the ready.
Friday, August 13, 2004
Jonah Goldberg is all over John Kerry for opposing the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste storage facility. Not that we needed another reason to oppose John Kerry, but this a really good one.
Michael, I went to see The Greatest Band In The Universe last night at the Tweeter Center just outside of Boston. They were absolutely amazing. Their latest album is all covers of classic rock songs, so it was a lot of fun to see that mixed in with all their own material. They were onstage for over 2.5 hours. Now that's a real band. Check the site; they are doing some dates in the UK and continental Europe. It could be your last chance to see them...
For those following the FairTax discussion, here's a rebuttal from the FairTax group of Bruce Bartlett's recent column "A National Sales Tax No Vote" which was highly critical of proposals like the FairTax (this is a link to a Word document; not a web page.) As I suspected, Bartlett missed some key features of the FairTax in his article. This document clears that up nicely.
Many thanks to James Baird for putting this together and getting it to me so quickly!
Many thanks to James Baird for putting this together and getting it to me so quickly!
Moqtada Sadr wounded? Keep in mind this is the BBC reporting, almost as dubious as "the paper of record" - The NY Times.
I just hope when this battle is over Sadr is dead, not captured.
UPDATE:
If true this is very disheartening. We should be going in to take care of this business once and for all. Second, if true, why are we announcing it publicly? I hope that is just the line they're feeding the press to keep down stories about the evil, infidel Americans destroying ancient mosques and cemeteries.
I just hope when this battle is over Sadr is dead, not captured.
UPDATE:
"We are allowed to engage the enemy only in self defence and long enough to break contact," Maj Bob Pizzateli, from the 1st Cavalry Division, was quoted by AP news agency as saying. "That was a blanket order for everybody."
If true this is very disheartening. We should be going in to take care of this business once and for all. Second, if true, why are we announcing it publicly? I hope that is just the line they're feeding the press to keep down stories about the evil, infidel Americans destroying ancient mosques and cemeteries.
Wednesday, August 11, 2004
John and Harvey’s Excellent Cambodian Adventure
John: So, here we are in Cambodia. On Christmas eve. On my trusty Swift boat.
Harvey:
John: Hey man, I really like your hat. It’s groovy. Where can I get one ?
Harvey:
John: So, CIA, huh ? That must be pretty cool. Does it get you a lot of chicks ?
Harvey:
(conversation interupted by a severe pokata pokata pokata noise from boat’s engine. John fixes engine with rubber band and ball point pen)
John: That was a close one. Hey ! I scratched my wrist – better put myself in for another purple hea … uh, band-aid. I’d better get a band-aid.
Harvey:
John: You know, for a giant rabbit, you sure don’t talk much.
Harvey:
Something needs to be done about Iran. Perhaps Israel will (yet again) be the only nation with the guts to do it. Personally I'm hoping for an Osirak type raid.
Tuesday, August 10, 2004
This sounds like great news on the illegal immigration front.
"Citing concerns about terrorists crossing the nation's land borders, the Department of Homeland Security announced today that it planned to give border patrol agents sweeping new powers to deport illegal aliens from the frontiers abutting Mexico and Canada without providing the aliens the opportunity to make their case before an immigration judge."
"Under the new system, immigrants will typically be deported within eight days of their apprehension, officials said."
Here's another helping hand from our pals the Germans. So, despite the fact that there is no evidence to suggest that this guy was tortured, they're going to let him go because there's no proof that he wasn't tortured? What a bunch of spineless metrosexuals the Germans have become. We're so much better off without these limp writsted deeters in the coalition. I can imagine the whole case against Bin Laden being thrown out because someone stepped on a ladybug while capturing him. Feiglinge!!!
BELGIAN AIRCREWS AND ISLAMIC BANKING.
A.) There are those who like to make fun of Belgians in general and Belgian aircrews in particular, when fate has it that some stoopid cat manages to enter a cockpit and attack the co-pilot.
Curiously enough, one will NEVER hear those jokers when Belgian aircrews perform feats of remarkable courage and competence. Even more curious, these same people complain day and night about perceived bias when mainstream media allegedly puts a spin to matters of their concern.
In a situation reminiscent of the United Airlines DC-10 landing without hydraulics in Iowa in 1989, the crew of a DHL A300 hit by a missile relied solely on engine power without flight controls to land at Baghdad.
Pierre Ghyoot, secretary general of the Belgian Cockpit Assn. (BeCA), told Aviation Week & Space Technology that the pilots were able to guide the aircraft to a safe landing on Nov. 22 using only engine power settings. The aircraft lost all three hydraulic systems and all flight controls. Ghyoot said his organization is already planning to give the crew a safety award.
DHL was carrying U.S. mail to troops in Baghdad but shut down this operation for about a week after the missile attack. The 1979 vintage A300B4-203F was operated by DHL/EAT with two Belgian pilots and a British flight engineer. DHL offficials said the aircraft will eventually be repaired.
‘Nuff said, except that the Belgian pilots on the DHL flight were very likely Flemings and those on the flight to Vienna either Wallonians or Smurfs.
B.) The First Islamic Bank of Britain – but not the last - is a fact.
The British financial watchdog FSA (Financial Services Authority) yesterday gave the let-go for the first British Islamic bank based on the principles of the Sharia, the Islamic law. The do-gooders over at the IBB will invest deposits only in ethically responsible companies, and not in enterprises selling, e.g., tobacco, alcohol and pornography. As could be expected, it will also work according to the "lease" principle instead of with interests. A special committee with Islamic scholars will approve of the IBB’s banking services, investments and other activities. "Of course" it will also fall under the FSA’s scrutiny, "just like the other British banks".
My ass. In Belgium there’s a lot of Islamic-run companies in Brussels. I know firsthand from Tax Controllers that they are threatened when they demand to inspect the books. As a result many of these companies only get "controlled" every ten years, or even not. I have no immediate info on the British situation but I bet that FSA scrutiny will be even a worse joke than that cat story.
Anyway, the IBB will provide financial services to around 1,8 million British muslims. Its Headquarters, to be operational in September, will be in Birmingham, where there have never been the slightest problems with Muslim youths as long as they went off to Pakistan to do a bombing in Kashmir. The first London branch opens shortly after. In October further branches in Birmingham and Leicester follow.
Well, Europe counts millions upon millions of Congolese, Chinese, Polish, Thai, Indians, Jews, Buddhists and what not. Somehow they fail to attract my ears or eyes with stories of inbred development of own facilities meant to compete with the Belgian facilities instead of simply using these last ones. Of course I live in the province, but even reading about Brussels or Antwerp I’m never struck by initiatives from these communities to create a self-sustaining network that provides, say, sports, health care, cultural events or financial services. It’s safe to say that Chinese for example either use Belgian banks or else, if they don’t, make no fuss of whatever else they sluice their money through and to.
This latest Islamic banking initiative though brings again that uneasy awareness of the growing presence of a heavily religiously motivated group of citizens which stubbornly refuses to link itself, out of some sick and racist-in-itself disdain for the West, into the existing social, cultural and financial framework. In Paris last month the authorities recognized the growing problem of a subsociety which is literally developing into a state-within-a-state, with e.g. an own social network, own police, an own Sharia-based judicial system...
Multiculturalists will of course hail this development. I say it’s one more divisive issue. The Muslim Community does NOT want to integrate. It ultimately wants to IMPOSE. We should not be fooled by the slow pace at which this problem is unfolding. Stand still for a moment and watch Islam getting an ever sturdier foothold in the Western World, with demographics reciprocal to ours and a firm policy of keeping the distance. If this goes on like that, we will wake up one day in 2030 to ask ourselves bewildered how the hell Islam succeeded without the sword where it failed in 1683 before Vienna by the sword. We Westerners think in time intervals of days, months or a couple of years. They think in decades and centuries. I am utterly convinced that even the so-called moderate Muslim leaders aspire to have Islam ultimately imposed as the dominating religion in Europe… and elsewhere. If you think I’m grossly exaggerating, follow Islam’s timeline in Europe over just the past two decades. See where they come from and see where they have got.
Stay vigilant and start thinking of strategies.
A.) There are those who like to make fun of Belgians in general and Belgian aircrews in particular, when fate has it that some stoopid cat manages to enter a cockpit and attack the co-pilot.
Curiously enough, one will NEVER hear those jokers when Belgian aircrews perform feats of remarkable courage and competence. Even more curious, these same people complain day and night about perceived bias when mainstream media allegedly puts a spin to matters of their concern.
In a situation reminiscent of the United Airlines DC-10 landing without hydraulics in Iowa in 1989, the crew of a DHL A300 hit by a missile relied solely on engine power without flight controls to land at Baghdad.
Pierre Ghyoot, secretary general of the Belgian Cockpit Assn. (BeCA), told Aviation Week & Space Technology that the pilots were able to guide the aircraft to a safe landing on Nov. 22 using only engine power settings. The aircraft lost all three hydraulic systems and all flight controls. Ghyoot said his organization is already planning to give the crew a safety award.
DHL was carrying U.S. mail to troops in Baghdad but shut down this operation for about a week after the missile attack. The 1979 vintage A300B4-203F was operated by DHL/EAT with two Belgian pilots and a British flight engineer. DHL offficials said the aircraft will eventually be repaired.
‘Nuff said, except that the Belgian pilots on the DHL flight were very likely Flemings and those on the flight to Vienna either Wallonians or Smurfs.
B.) The First Islamic Bank of Britain – but not the last - is a fact.
The British financial watchdog FSA (Financial Services Authority) yesterday gave the let-go for the first British Islamic bank based on the principles of the Sharia, the Islamic law. The do-gooders over at the IBB will invest deposits only in ethically responsible companies, and not in enterprises selling, e.g., tobacco, alcohol and pornography. As could be expected, it will also work according to the "lease" principle instead of with interests. A special committee with Islamic scholars will approve of the IBB’s banking services, investments and other activities. "Of course" it will also fall under the FSA’s scrutiny, "just like the other British banks".
My ass. In Belgium there’s a lot of Islamic-run companies in Brussels. I know firsthand from Tax Controllers that they are threatened when they demand to inspect the books. As a result many of these companies only get "controlled" every ten years, or even not. I have no immediate info on the British situation but I bet that FSA scrutiny will be even a worse joke than that cat story.
Anyway, the IBB will provide financial services to around 1,8 million British muslims. Its Headquarters, to be operational in September, will be in Birmingham, where there have never been the slightest problems with Muslim youths as long as they went off to Pakistan to do a bombing in Kashmir. The first London branch opens shortly after. In October further branches in Birmingham and Leicester follow.
Well, Europe counts millions upon millions of Congolese, Chinese, Polish, Thai, Indians, Jews, Buddhists and what not. Somehow they fail to attract my ears or eyes with stories of inbred development of own facilities meant to compete with the Belgian facilities instead of simply using these last ones. Of course I live in the province, but even reading about Brussels or Antwerp I’m never struck by initiatives from these communities to create a self-sustaining network that provides, say, sports, health care, cultural events or financial services. It’s safe to say that Chinese for example either use Belgian banks or else, if they don’t, make no fuss of whatever else they sluice their money through and to.
This latest Islamic banking initiative though brings again that uneasy awareness of the growing presence of a heavily religiously motivated group of citizens which stubbornly refuses to link itself, out of some sick and racist-in-itself disdain for the West, into the existing social, cultural and financial framework. In Paris last month the authorities recognized the growing problem of a subsociety which is literally developing into a state-within-a-state, with e.g. an own social network, own police, an own Sharia-based judicial system...
Multiculturalists will of course hail this development. I say it’s one more divisive issue. The Muslim Community does NOT want to integrate. It ultimately wants to IMPOSE. We should not be fooled by the slow pace at which this problem is unfolding. Stand still for a moment and watch Islam getting an ever sturdier foothold in the Western World, with demographics reciprocal to ours and a firm policy of keeping the distance. If this goes on like that, we will wake up one day in 2030 to ask ourselves bewildered how the hell Islam succeeded without the sword where it failed in 1683 before Vienna by the sword. We Westerners think in time intervals of days, months or a couple of years. They think in decades and centuries. I am utterly convinced that even the so-called moderate Muslim leaders aspire to have Islam ultimately imposed as the dominating religion in Europe… and elsewhere. If you think I’m grossly exaggerating, follow Islam’s timeline in Europe over just the past two decades. See where they come from and see where they have got.
Stay vigilant and start thinking of strategies.
Monday, August 09, 2004
US/EU TRADE RELATIONS
Yesterday following my pig story Mark from the Centennial State had a question on US/EU Trade Agreements, and this is a very good link.
Without kind permission from my new EU boss Barroso I will reproduce the following paragraphs since they are quite relevant and illustrate how strange (tragic?) it is that two political blocs which are so dependent on each other economically, apparently seem to have such a political abyss dividing each other.
The EU and the US are each other's main trading partners and account for the largest bilateral trade relationship in the world. They are also the largest players in global trade.
The EU and the US both account for around one fifth of each other's bilateral trade, a matter of €1 billion a day. In 2003, exports of EU goods to the US amounted to € 226 billion (25.8% of total EU exports), while imports from the US amounted to € 157.2 billion (16.8 % of total EU imports).
The investment links are even more substantial. The EU and US are each other's largest trade and investment partner. The total amount of 2-way investment amounts to over € 1.5 trillion, with each partner employing directly and indirectly about 6 million people in the other. The share of EU investment in the US amounted to more than 52% of EU Foreign Direct Investment over the period 1998-2001 (€ 162.663 million a year in average), while US investment in the EU amounted to more than 61% of EU FDI inflows over 1998-2001 (€72.041 million a year in average).
So why it is obvious that the EU exports far more to the US than it imports from it, this is compensated somewhat by the fact that EU investments are more than double those of US investments in Europe.
Now that link offers new links to stuff like the Clinton-era New Transatlantic Agenda (1995) and the accompanying EU/US Joint Action Plan, which I fear is for a large part hollow letter. Much more interesting is the November 9, 1998 Tranastalantic Economic Partnership. Have a glance at it, there’s a lot going on without us being aware of it.
You may also note there has been that June 25/26 2004 EU/US Summit in Dromoland Castle, Ireland. Since that summit dealt mainly with Iraq, the Middle East, counterterrorism coordination and agreements on our respective navigation satellite systems (US: GPS, EU: Galileo), I don’t think the summit is that important from an economical POV. More important was imho the related Brussels June 25 meeting, the Trans-Atlantic Business Dialogue, or TABD. On that meeting recommendations for four priority areas were given, namely:
a.) Open Trade and Security
b.) Intellectual Property Rights and the Fight against Counterfeiting
c.) Capital Markets and International Accounting Standards
d.) World Trade Organisation and the Doha Development Round.
Note though there were only recommndations, not agreements. Still I thought it worthwile to mention this TABD. At least there seem to have been "considered replies" from both the US government and the EU Commission. I figure there's a lot going on behind the scenes.
There’s been some talk over here in recent years about the necessity of harmonizing our accounting standards (read modeling EU accounting standards to US standards). If I have some time left or Easter falls on a Monday I’ll try to entertain you about that last one, Inshallah.
Yawn. 1.29am. I am a fool after all.
Yesterday following my pig story Mark from the Centennial State had a question on US/EU Trade Agreements, and this is a very good link.
Without kind permission from my new EU boss Barroso I will reproduce the following paragraphs since they are quite relevant and illustrate how strange (tragic?) it is that two political blocs which are so dependent on each other economically, apparently seem to have such a political abyss dividing each other.
The EU and the US are each other's main trading partners and account for the largest bilateral trade relationship in the world. They are also the largest players in global trade.
The EU and the US both account for around one fifth of each other's bilateral trade, a matter of €1 billion a day. In 2003, exports of EU goods to the US amounted to € 226 billion (25.8% of total EU exports), while imports from the US amounted to € 157.2 billion (16.8 % of total EU imports).
The investment links are even more substantial. The EU and US are each other's largest trade and investment partner. The total amount of 2-way investment amounts to over € 1.5 trillion, with each partner employing directly and indirectly about 6 million people in the other. The share of EU investment in the US amounted to more than 52% of EU Foreign Direct Investment over the period 1998-2001 (€ 162.663 million a year in average), while US investment in the EU amounted to more than 61% of EU FDI inflows over 1998-2001 (€72.041 million a year in average).
So why it is obvious that the EU exports far more to the US than it imports from it, this is compensated somewhat by the fact that EU investments are more than double those of US investments in Europe.
Now that link offers new links to stuff like the Clinton-era New Transatlantic Agenda (1995) and the accompanying EU/US Joint Action Plan, which I fear is for a large part hollow letter. Much more interesting is the November 9, 1998 Tranastalantic Economic Partnership. Have a glance at it, there’s a lot going on without us being aware of it.
You may also note there has been that June 25/26 2004 EU/US Summit in Dromoland Castle, Ireland. Since that summit dealt mainly with Iraq, the Middle East, counterterrorism coordination and agreements on our respective navigation satellite systems (US: GPS, EU: Galileo), I don’t think the summit is that important from an economical POV. More important was imho the related Brussels June 25 meeting, the Trans-Atlantic Business Dialogue, or TABD. On that meeting recommendations for four priority areas were given, namely:
a.) Open Trade and Security
b.) Intellectual Property Rights and the Fight against Counterfeiting
c.) Capital Markets and International Accounting Standards
d.) World Trade Organisation and the Doha Development Round.
Note though there were only recommndations, not agreements. Still I thought it worthwile to mention this TABD. At least there seem to have been "considered replies" from both the US government and the EU Commission. I figure there's a lot going on behind the scenes.
There’s been some talk over here in recent years about the necessity of harmonizing our accounting standards (read modeling EU accounting standards to US standards). If I have some time left or Easter falls on a Monday I’ll try to entertain you about that last one, Inshallah.
Yawn. 1.29am. I am a fool after all.
This editorial from The American Prospect is laughable.
That's swell and all but how does he know they're lying? Because he disagrees? I love the way he dismisses the Swiftvets allegations because Kerry's service "is a matter of fact." That Kerry spent 4 months in Vietnam is fact, that he was awarded 3 Purple Hearts is fact - this does not obviate the allegations against him.
"Whether Bush did enough to fight terror before September 11, or whether Kerry could deliver democracy to Iraq, are matters of interpretation. Kerry's record in Vietnam is a matter of fact. If people are lying about those facts, they need to be called on that and sent away. It is not a matter of these veterans, as The New York Sun wrote in a mendacious editorial last week, deserving "the right we all have to speak." They obviously have a right to speak. They don't have a right to lie..."
That's swell and all but how does he know they're lying? Because he disagrees? I love the way he dismisses the Swiftvets allegations because Kerry's service "is a matter of fact." That Kerry spent 4 months in Vietnam is fact, that he was awarded 3 Purple Hearts is fact - this does not obviate the allegations against him.
I just want to point out the futility crying politics every time there is some sort of terror alert. To claim that the Bush administration is doing this for political reasons implies that you KNOW that there is no real threat, and therefore the conclusion is that Bush has to be messing with us. Of course these people, like the rest of us, don't know anything about the intelligence information involved.
Could the alerts be political? Sure. But this knee jerk reaction by some every time the subject comes up does nobody any good, and probably has the effect of making officials in the administration second guess themselves whenever the timing of an alert coincides with political events, which we don't need them doing. I know some people are blinded by Bush hating rage, but this is dangerous stuff. I think we can all agree that we don't want any attacks, so how about some benefit of the doubt? Without putting forward some proof, this is just partisan BS, and potentially dangerous BS at that.
The real fear is that Bush's numbers go up every time there is a terror alert, so they must be questioned. Perhaps if these people could choose a candidate that didn't have such a soft national security record they wouldn't have to worry about his numbers taking a dive every time people are reminded that we are at war.
Could the alerts be political? Sure. But this knee jerk reaction by some every time the subject comes up does nobody any good, and probably has the effect of making officials in the administration second guess themselves whenever the timing of an alert coincides with political events, which we don't need them doing. I know some people are blinded by Bush hating rage, but this is dangerous stuff. I think we can all agree that we don't want any attacks, so how about some benefit of the doubt? Without putting forward some proof, this is just partisan BS, and potentially dangerous BS at that.
The real fear is that Bush's numbers go up every time there is a terror alert, so they must be questioned. Perhaps if these people could choose a candidate that didn't have such a soft national security record they wouldn't have to worry about his numbers taking a dive every time people are reminded that we are at war.
Sunday, August 08, 2004
HARVEST TIME HAS ARRIVED,
and I don’t want to spoil your summer party but over here we have a saying "Oogst geschoren, winter geboren" (loosely translated as Harvest done, Winter born). Anyway, this pic is a good excuse to enlighten you with a couple of stats on Belgian agriculture. Small as Belgium is, it luckily manages to exploit more than half of its area for agricultural purposes (17,511 square kloms out of 30,528). A little less than 100,000 people (mid-2004 estimate: 97,700) are working full-time in farming, but their number is declining. Other than the photo suggests, Belgian agriculture’s mainstay is cattle in its various forms, and pig breeding is the crown jewel among these. A November 15, 2003 survey put the number of pigs in Belgovakia on 6,366,248, which is quite impressive when considering the number of Belgians (10,350,000). Since the pig business is mainly a Flemish undertaking (95%), and Flanders counts roughly 6,000,000 inhabitants, it’s an, ahem, interesting prospect we Flemings are outnumbered on our own soil by those happy (at least they think they are) pink grunting fourfooters. Considering the also impressive livestock of cows and veal, it is safe to say that the Belgian farmer is mainly a cattle farmer. Also important is the poultry sector with on average some 39,000,000 "units". I can tell, since my only neighbour is a poultry farmer who owns a chicken breeding farm churning out 42,000 ready-for-processing (ahem) chickens every six weeks.
Still Belgian crops can’t really be neglected either; chief among these are the grain crops which take in 319,625 hectares. Next come fodder crops, like maize for cows (logical in view of the importance of cattle in Belgian agriculture), on 248,409 hectare, and then the so-called "industrial crops" (sugarbeet, chicory, flax, cole-seed, tobacco, hop, and agricultural seed): they take in 134,873 hectare. The most important crop among these industrial ones is sugarbeet, easy to understand in a country where the chocolate industry needs huge amounts of sugar. Of the abovementioned 134,873 ha, 88,377 hectare is used for sugarbeet cultivation. I don’t have the numbers for Wallonia, the southern French-speaking part of Belgium, but in Flanders, where Tienen, the Mecca of Belgian Sugar production is situated, around 64 tons of sugarbeets are harvested per hectare. These 64 tons yield 10 tons of sugar. In other words, the sugar farmer’s 88,377 hectares produce 883,770 tons of sugar. Given that the sector is very heavily subsidized and that sugar farmers are – yet – guaranteed a sale at attractive prices, they are considered the Princes of Belgian Agriculture. The last important bloc of agricultural area is taken in by potato cultivation, accounting for 66,348 hectare.
As an afterthought, I might add that the Flemish farmer (again, I’m sorry but have no data on Wallonian farmers, read am too lazy to look it up), that the Flemish farmer doesn’t have to be ashamed next to his European counterparts. Flanders, with its roughly 13,000 square kloms (it is somewhat more than one third of Belgium) stands for only 0,47% of European farming grounds and counts only 0,56% of European agricultural enterprises – yet it produces 1,9% of European agricultural products.
.....(are you still there? Think of this as one of those indefensible rants)
Avid Heinz Ketchup Consumer
and I don’t want to spoil your summer party but over here we have a saying "Oogst geschoren, winter geboren" (loosely translated as Harvest done, Winter born). Anyway, this pic is a good excuse to enlighten you with a couple of stats on Belgian agriculture. Small as Belgium is, it luckily manages to exploit more than half of its area for agricultural purposes (17,511 square kloms out of 30,528). A little less than 100,000 people (mid-2004 estimate: 97,700) are working full-time in farming, but their number is declining. Other than the photo suggests, Belgian agriculture’s mainstay is cattle in its various forms, and pig breeding is the crown jewel among these. A November 15, 2003 survey put the number of pigs in Belgovakia on 6,366,248, which is quite impressive when considering the number of Belgians (10,350,000). Since the pig business is mainly a Flemish undertaking (95%), and Flanders counts roughly 6,000,000 inhabitants, it’s an, ahem, interesting prospect we Flemings are outnumbered on our own soil by those happy (at least they think they are) pink grunting fourfooters. Considering the also impressive livestock of cows and veal, it is safe to say that the Belgian farmer is mainly a cattle farmer. Also important is the poultry sector with on average some 39,000,000 "units". I can tell, since my only neighbour is a poultry farmer who owns a chicken breeding farm churning out 42,000 ready-for-processing (ahem) chickens every six weeks.
Still Belgian crops can’t really be neglected either; chief among these are the grain crops which take in 319,625 hectares. Next come fodder crops, like maize for cows (logical in view of the importance of cattle in Belgian agriculture), on 248,409 hectare, and then the so-called "industrial crops" (sugarbeet, chicory, flax, cole-seed, tobacco, hop, and agricultural seed): they take in 134,873 hectare. The most important crop among these industrial ones is sugarbeet, easy to understand in a country where the chocolate industry needs huge amounts of sugar. Of the abovementioned 134,873 ha, 88,377 hectare is used for sugarbeet cultivation. I don’t have the numbers for Wallonia, the southern French-speaking part of Belgium, but in Flanders, where Tienen, the Mecca of Belgian Sugar production is situated, around 64 tons of sugarbeets are harvested per hectare. These 64 tons yield 10 tons of sugar. In other words, the sugar farmer’s 88,377 hectares produce 883,770 tons of sugar. Given that the sector is very heavily subsidized and that sugar farmers are – yet – guaranteed a sale at attractive prices, they are considered the Princes of Belgian Agriculture. The last important bloc of agricultural area is taken in by potato cultivation, accounting for 66,348 hectare.
As an afterthought, I might add that the Flemish farmer (again, I’m sorry but have no data on Wallonian farmers, read am too lazy to look it up), that the Flemish farmer doesn’t have to be ashamed next to his European counterparts. Flanders, with its roughly 13,000 square kloms (it is somewhat more than one third of Belgium) stands for only 0,47% of European farming grounds and counts only 0,56% of European agricultural enterprises – yet it produces 1,9% of European agricultural products.
.....(are you still there? Think of this as one of those indefensible rants)
Avid Heinz Ketchup Consumer
Friday, August 06, 2004
I thought I'd post this before Kevin got to it. :)
I think the headline is screwed up; the unemployment numbers are good; it's the job growth numbers that are unexpectedly low. This could be a gift for the Kerry campaign. The game is afoot...
I think the headline is screwed up; the unemployment numbers are good; it's the job growth numbers that are unexpectedly low. This could be a gift for the Kerry campaign. The game is afoot...
An interesting observation on Kerry's truthfulness over at rogerlsimon.com
Excerpt:
Excerpt:
For some reason, among the many stories, a subchapter entitled "Christmas in 'Cambodia' - Vietnam, December 1968" struck a special chord with me. Apparently, on the floor of the US Senate in 1986, Kerry asserted he was ordered into Cambodia in Christmas 1968. As he later told the Boston Herald, "I remember spending Christmas of 1968 five miles across the Cambodian border being shot by our South Vietnamese allies who were drunk and celebrating Christmas. The absurdity of almost being killed by our own allies in a country which President Nixon claimed there were no American troops was very real."
Never mind that Nixon was not yet president at Christmas of 1968, a whole slew of people, quoted in the chapter say it was impossible for Kerry to have been within fifty miles of Cambodia. They also say where he was and what he did. (It wasn't pretty.) Are they lying? Well, consider this. Despite having been repeated by Kerry many times over the years, this story (according to the chapter) is curiously absent from the Senator's recent laudatory campaign bio Tour of Duty. Why, if it was so important to him, so meaningful?
This Boston Globe - Swiftboat ad story get curiouser and curiouser.
Looks as if the Globe is working its way down to the level of the NY Times.
Looks as if the Globe is working its way down to the level of the NY Times.
Thursday, August 05, 2004
John Kerry knocks President Bush for September 11th performance.
Whoa! SEVEN minutes? I thought it was only six. I'm definitely voting for Kerry now.
"...Kerry said he would have reacted much more quickly than President Bush did on Sept. 11, 2001, when he learned of terrorist attacks.
The president spent seven minutes reading to Florida elementary school children after learning that hijacked planes had been flown into the World Trade Center in New York."
Whoa! SEVEN minutes? I thought it was only six. I'm definitely voting for Kerry now.
Here's an interesting piece from the New York Times, of all places, on the economic records of the past few presidents. The results may surprise you. Be sure to look at the chart; that pretty much tells the story.
While some conservatives will take heart in these findings, they scare me a little. If history is to repeat itself, John Kerry could be reelected only to enjoy an economic boom that GWB created. Of course, Kerry will take credit for the strong economy about 5 seconds after being sworn in. It reminds me of another famous NYT headline the day Clinton was inaugurated. It said "The Recession is Over." They were conveniently about a year late on that one.
Hat tip to John, friend of DowneastBlog.
While some conservatives will take heart in these findings, they scare me a little. If history is to repeat itself, John Kerry could be reelected only to enjoy an economic boom that GWB created. Of course, Kerry will take credit for the strong economy about 5 seconds after being sworn in. It reminds me of another famous NYT headline the day Clinton was inaugurated. It said "The Recession is Over." They were conveniently about a year late on that one.
Hat tip to John, friend of DowneastBlog.
Wednesday, August 04, 2004
Here's Walter Williams with a great article on conservatives, liberals, and blacks. The proclamation at the end is priceless. This should be required reading for all liberals.
Monday, August 02, 2004
Sunday, August 01, 2004
Friday, July 30, 2004
Hi there. I’m succumbing to the old adage that “if it bleeds, it leads”, but this was pretty devastating. A massive gas blast occurred at about 8.30am local time on an industrial estate in Ghislenghien, which is only some 8 kilometers south from where I live. It appears a ground working machine pierced a gap into a large gas distribution tube. The actual explosions took place when a team attempted to seal off the leak. The explosion was horrific, and up till now it is reported that fifteen people have been killed and some 112 wounded, 30 of them with very severe burning wounds (U1 and U2, whatever that may be). Had I been at home, I would have heard it and seen the flames and the ensuing smoke pillar. It was all over the news, national and even international, see BBC and even CNN.
Interior Minister Patrick Dewael was first on the site, PM Verhofstadt and Minister of Public Health Demotte suspended their holidays in Tuscany and Bulgaria and hurried home. Most if not all people killed appear to be either police or firefighters. The Firefighter Chief of Ath, the city lying closest by, and appointed only two weeks, was among those killed. Very sad. I saw helicopter shots form the explosion site and surroundings and it looked like hell, with half of a factory blown to smithereens, several other industrial buildings nearby severely damaged and car parks with all parked cars in ashes. Part of the surrounding corn fields had been set ablaze too. The government declared it a national disaster.
Gas transport and distribution throughout Belgium and to the surrounding countries is the responsiblity of the FLUXYS company. There’s a large LNG Terminal in the North Sea port of Zeebrugge. Not only gas tankers moor there, it’s also the endpoint of the so-called Zeepipe, a gas pipeline transporting Norwegian natural gas to Belgium over the sea bed. Anyway, when you look on the Fluxys' small map (note Belgium’s jagged contours and triangular shape) you notice the purple lines, representing high-calorific gas lines, and some yellow lines, which stand for low-calorific gas transport. The explosion occurred somewhat two-thirds down the axis Zeebrugge (in the northwestern corner) / Blaregnies (central down). A lot of that gas crosses the border towards France, so I guess the gas supply of a lot of households and industries in Northern France got cut off. Luckily, from the map it seems the cut off line can be easily bypassed by the grid’s redundant conduits. Note also that Fluxys’ share was taken off the Brussels Stock Exchange.
Now that I am on it, I may elaborate a bit on the so-called Zeepipe. Part of it, Zeepipe I (the oldest tube system) links the Sleipner East and West natural gas fields in the Norwegian North Sea to Zeebrugge. The line carries 13 billion cubic metres of gas per year.
I have to mention yet that just today I read latest prose
Worse still, the commission has helped to resurrect the fable that we are hated for what we do or don't to Muslims rather than who we are. But the collective brain power of the commissioners could not adduce a simple explanation as to why French and Germans are busy rooting out plots to blow up their own citizens — despite billions of EU money sent to terrorist organizations like Hamas, support for Arafat, and cheap slurs leveled at America in Iraq. Why do Muslim radicals hate Europe when Europeans have no military power, no real presence abroad, give billions away to the Middle East, despise Israel, will sell anything to anyone anywhere at anytime, and have let millions of Arabs onto their shores? Are daily threats to Europeans earned because of what Europe does — or is the cause who they are?
I keep repeating myself when I say that Europe desperately needs columnists like VDH or Mark Steyn. These guys baffle me time and again with their compelling prose.
Interior Minister Patrick Dewael was first on the site, PM Verhofstadt and Minister of Public Health Demotte suspended their holidays in Tuscany and Bulgaria and hurried home. Most if not all people killed appear to be either police or firefighters. The Firefighter Chief of Ath, the city lying closest by, and appointed only two weeks, was among those killed. Very sad. I saw helicopter shots form the explosion site and surroundings and it looked like hell, with half of a factory blown to smithereens, several other industrial buildings nearby severely damaged and car parks with all parked cars in ashes. Part of the surrounding corn fields had been set ablaze too. The government declared it a national disaster.
Gas transport and distribution throughout Belgium and to the surrounding countries is the responsiblity of the FLUXYS company. There’s a large LNG Terminal in the North Sea port of Zeebrugge. Not only gas tankers moor there, it’s also the endpoint of the so-called Zeepipe, a gas pipeline transporting Norwegian natural gas to Belgium over the sea bed. Anyway, when you look on the Fluxys' small map (note Belgium’s jagged contours and triangular shape) you notice the purple lines, representing high-calorific gas lines, and some yellow lines, which stand for low-calorific gas transport. The explosion occurred somewhat two-thirds down the axis Zeebrugge (in the northwestern corner) / Blaregnies (central down). A lot of that gas crosses the border towards France, so I guess the gas supply of a lot of households and industries in Northern France got cut off. Luckily, from the map it seems the cut off line can be easily bypassed by the grid’s redundant conduits. Note also that Fluxys’ share was taken off the Brussels Stock Exchange.
Now that I am on it, I may elaborate a bit on the so-called Zeepipe. Part of it, Zeepipe I (the oldest tube system) links the Sleipner East and West natural gas fields in the Norwegian North Sea to Zeebrugge. The line carries 13 billion cubic metres of gas per year.
I have to mention yet that just today I read latest prose
Worse still, the commission has helped to resurrect the fable that we are hated for what we do or don't to Muslims rather than who we are. But the collective brain power of the commissioners could not adduce a simple explanation as to why French and Germans are busy rooting out plots to blow up their own citizens — despite billions of EU money sent to terrorist organizations like Hamas, support for Arafat, and cheap slurs leveled at America in Iraq. Why do Muslim radicals hate Europe when Europeans have no military power, no real presence abroad, give billions away to the Middle East, despise Israel, will sell anything to anyone anywhere at anytime, and have let millions of Arabs onto their shores? Are daily threats to Europeans earned because of what Europe does — or is the cause who they are?
I keep repeating myself when I say that Europe desperately needs columnists like VDH or Mark Steyn. These guys baffle me time and again with their compelling prose.
Thursday, July 29, 2004
OK, I caught most of Edwards' speech last night, and from the the standpoint of the Democrats, I think he did pretty well. It's clear they're going full out on the optimism angle, which is probably a good strategy. One aspect of the speech for me was very telling. At one point Edwards started reeling off the specific things that the Kerry administration was going to do for Americans. Every sentence started with "we're going to give you..." followed by some tax credit or some other item. This sums up what is wrong with the Democrats in my view. They see government revenue as the government's money. When they decide to distribute this wealth back to the people, they see this as "generous." What garbage. It's the people's money, and you shouldn't be bragging about giving it back to those who didn't put as much into the pile to begin with. I'm convinced that if the American electorate truly understood how our taxes work, the Democrats would be toast. Until then, the class warfare rhetoric will always find an audience. "Look how much the Democrats care about us." Please.
We need the FairTax now. Can you imagine what these politicians would have to do to get your vote if there was no way to buy it?
We need the FairTax now. Can you imagine what these politicians would have to do to get your vote if there was no way to buy it?
Wednesday, July 28, 2004
Michael Moore and Bill O'Reilly went at it on Fox. I wish I would have seen this live, but this transcrpt pretty much tells the story. They both got their shots in, but I'm pretty disappointed that Bill O'Reilly didn't bring up one simple point that shatters much of Moore's argument: Those "children" killed in Iraq VOLUNTEERED to join the military of their own free will. This crap about "would you send your children" isn't even a proper analogy, I'm surprised O'Reilly put up with it.
"'They're not patriots,' Moore said. 'They're hate-triots, and they believe in the politics of hate-triotism."
Can you say ass-clown? Michael Moore sure does a spot-on impression of one.
Can you say ass-clown? Michael Moore sure does a spot-on impression of one.
Tuesday, July 27, 2004
This will give you a warm fuzzy feeling, especially if you're flying any time soon.
There should be separate airline flights for people who don't support profiling. That way they can travel in comfort, knowing that their moral superiority is on display for all to see, and the rest of us can have some actual security. We'll take all the air marshalls too, since most of these losers probably don't like the idea of armed officers on flights either.
There should be separate airline flights for people who don't support profiling. That way they can travel in comfort, knowing that their moral superiority is on display for all to see, and the rest of us can have some actual security. We'll take all the air marshalls too, since most of these losers probably don't like the idea of armed officers on flights either.
Monday, July 26, 2004
Sunday, July 25, 2004
HE CAME. HE SAW. HE DESTROYED.
Hey you jerks and ladies out there, he did it!!! He is Mr. Armstrong of course. No, not the guy from Ohio, that one from Texas.
SIX TIMES!!! Ok, all of you baseball nutjobs probably look down on cycling but over here in the good ole (cough) Europe cycling is really considered a top-notch sport, and a guy who wins the Tour de France even only once becomes an instant hero. Four riders won it five times: that’s Frenchman Jacques Anquetil (in ’56 and again in ’61, ’62, ’63 and ’64), my compatriot Eddy Merckx (in ’69, ’70, ’71, ’72 and again in ’74), Frenchman Bernard Hinault (in ’78, ’79, ’81, ’82 and ’85), and Spaniard Miguel Indurain (in ’91, ’92, ’93, ’94 and ’95). In ’99 Lance came into the picture and he has won all six Tours from then on in a row, which is AMAZING!!!! All the more considering this guy, at age 25, had testicular cancer which had also spread to the abdomen, the lungs, and the brain.
Anyway, today he was so far ahead in the general classification that only some disaster could have kept him from winning the Tour. That, fortunately, did not happen. The only real thrills which were in store were in fact to whom the so-called Green Shirt would go. Australian Robbie McEwen, who happens to have married a blonde Belgian virgin (well, at least she used to be) had the biggest shot at it, although Norwegian Thor Hushovd still was not entirely chanceless. It turned out to be the Aussie though. God put a final smile on your servant’s face by prodding Belgian Tom Boonen to win today’s prestigious stage. Maybe you’ll remember he already won once in the early stages of this Tour.
In case Maine keeps smirking about the noble sport of cycling, take notice that in Texas they do know how to appreciate it.
Never mind the denigrating Frogistanese talk in this last link. Too bad Napoleon wasn't a Tour de France champ.
As an afterthought, I have compiled this little list for my dear readers. From a Time article. It shows the 2002 figures for European tax revenues as a percentage of GDP, in declining order:
Sweden 50.6%
Denmark 49.4%
Belgium 46.2%
Finland 45.9%
France 44.2%
Austria 44.1%
Norway 43.1%
Italy 41.1%
The Netherlands 39.3%
Czech Republic 39.2%
Hungary 37.7%
Iceland 36.7%
Germany 36.2%
United Kingdom 35.9%
Spain 35.6%
Greece 34.8%
Poland 34.3%
Portugal 34.0%
Slovakia 33.8%
Switzerland 31.3%
Ireland 28.0%
Notice the third country in the list (no, I’m not a Slovak; the third from above). I’m optimistic however because soon now, very soon (mid-August) I will start working for myself in 2004. Notice that all Scandinavian countries are well represented. It would be worth doing some research into the reason it’s precisely these countries which have the most appalling tax rates. Interesting too is that the Czech Republic and Hungary have already rather high tax rates too. Indeed, there, too, manufacture of low-key technical parts is already outsourced to Ukraine, with some Hungarian companies even investing in own plants in that country.
MFBB
Hey you jerks and ladies out there, he did it!!! He is Mr. Armstrong of course. No, not the guy from Ohio, that one from Texas.
SIX TIMES!!! Ok, all of you baseball nutjobs probably look down on cycling but over here in the good ole (cough) Europe cycling is really considered a top-notch sport, and a guy who wins the Tour de France even only once becomes an instant hero. Four riders won it five times: that’s Frenchman Jacques Anquetil (in ’56 and again in ’61, ’62, ’63 and ’64), my compatriot Eddy Merckx (in ’69, ’70, ’71, ’72 and again in ’74), Frenchman Bernard Hinault (in ’78, ’79, ’81, ’82 and ’85), and Spaniard Miguel Indurain (in ’91, ’92, ’93, ’94 and ’95). In ’99 Lance came into the picture and he has won all six Tours from then on in a row, which is AMAZING!!!! All the more considering this guy, at age 25, had testicular cancer which had also spread to the abdomen, the lungs, and the brain.
Anyway, today he was so far ahead in the general classification that only some disaster could have kept him from winning the Tour. That, fortunately, did not happen. The only real thrills which were in store were in fact to whom the so-called Green Shirt would go. Australian Robbie McEwen, who happens to have married a blonde Belgian virgin (well, at least she used to be) had the biggest shot at it, although Norwegian Thor Hushovd still was not entirely chanceless. It turned out to be the Aussie though. God put a final smile on your servant’s face by prodding Belgian Tom Boonen to win today’s prestigious stage. Maybe you’ll remember he already won once in the early stages of this Tour.
In case Maine keeps smirking about the noble sport of cycling, take notice that in Texas they do know how to appreciate it.
Never mind the denigrating Frogistanese talk in this last link. Too bad Napoleon wasn't a Tour de France champ.
As an afterthought, I have compiled this little list for my dear readers. From a Time article. It shows the 2002 figures for European tax revenues as a percentage of GDP, in declining order:
Sweden 50.6%
Denmark 49.4%
Belgium 46.2%
Finland 45.9%
France 44.2%
Austria 44.1%
Norway 43.1%
Italy 41.1%
The Netherlands 39.3%
Czech Republic 39.2%
Hungary 37.7%
Iceland 36.7%
Germany 36.2%
United Kingdom 35.9%
Spain 35.6%
Greece 34.8%
Poland 34.3%
Portugal 34.0%
Slovakia 33.8%
Switzerland 31.3%
Ireland 28.0%
Notice the third country in the list (no, I’m not a Slovak; the third from above). I’m optimistic however because soon now, very soon (mid-August) I will start working for myself in 2004. Notice that all Scandinavian countries are well represented. It would be worth doing some research into the reason it’s precisely these countries which have the most appalling tax rates. Interesting too is that the Czech Republic and Hungary have already rather high tax rates too. Indeed, there, too, manufacture of low-key technical parts is already outsourced to Ukraine, with some Hungarian companies even investing in own plants in that country.
MFBB
Friday, July 23, 2004
Something's fishy with the Kerry campaign. We all know that Sandy Berger is in deep, and now we have the Kerry campaign removing their plan to fight terrorism from their website. At first I thought Berger's actions were simply a cover your ass move, but now it seems there may have been more to it. Either way, someone's got some splaining to do...
Wednesday, July 21, 2004
ALPE D'HUEZ AND INDEPENDENCE DAY.
Armstrong crushed them all on Alpe d’Huez. Mind you, it may mean nothing to you over there, but over here that timerun up a 15,5 km long steep slope is mythical.
You always have to be prudent, but I figure that Sunday, in Paris, history is going to be written. In the 101 years of its existence, no-one ever won the Tour more than five times. Watch out guys and gals!
More news from the Magic Kingdom! People, July 21 is Belgian Independence Day. In 1830 we kicked the Dutch out of Brussels (they poured back in but, admittedly, the French helped us defeat them). I found this pearl of prose on the Daily Crap Online:
Deze 21e juli staat in het teken van de 60e verjaardag van de bevrijding van België. Aan het defilé nam ook een Duits detachement deel.
Means: This July 21st has as theme the Liberation of Belgium. A German detachment took part in the troop show.
Belgian logic.
Furthermore:
Tanks waren er niet te zien. Dat heeft te maken met nieuwe politiek van het Belgisch leger om geen voertuigen met rupsbanden meer te gebruiken.
Means: There were no tanks anymore. That is because of the new policy of the Belgian army not to use tracked vehicles anymore (in the troop show I might hope. Or would they mean on the battlefield too?)
Sigh… To paraphrase Kim du Toit, the pussification of the Belgian Male continues. They ain’t got me yet however. And no pics today. The Blog Dictator thinks my ISP is screwed up.
Armstrong crushed them all on Alpe d’Huez. Mind you, it may mean nothing to you over there, but over here that timerun up a 15,5 km long steep slope is mythical.
You always have to be prudent, but I figure that Sunday, in Paris, history is going to be written. In the 101 years of its existence, no-one ever won the Tour more than five times. Watch out guys and gals!
More news from the Magic Kingdom! People, July 21 is Belgian Independence Day. In 1830 we kicked the Dutch out of Brussels (they poured back in but, admittedly, the French helped us defeat them). I found this pearl of prose on the Daily Crap Online:
Deze 21e juli staat in het teken van de 60e verjaardag van de bevrijding van België. Aan het defilé nam ook een Duits detachement deel.
Means: This July 21st has as theme the Liberation of Belgium. A German detachment took part in the troop show.
Belgian logic.
Furthermore:
Tanks waren er niet te zien. Dat heeft te maken met nieuwe politiek van het Belgisch leger om geen voertuigen met rupsbanden meer te gebruiken.
Means: There were no tanks anymore. That is because of the new policy of the Belgian army not to use tracked vehicles anymore (in the troop show I might hope. Or would they mean on the battlefield too?)
Sigh… To paraphrase Kim du Toit, the pussification of the Belgian Male continues. They ain’t got me yet however. And no pics today. The Blog Dictator thinks my ISP is screwed up.
Michael, I weep for Belgium after reading this. Hopefully this national treasure can be saved before it is too late.
Here is an interesting summary of last month's EU elections (scroll down to "Shock swing towards euroscepticism") - it looks as if the antis made some headway, particularly UKIP (a party which I suspect I'd support if I lived in the UK).
Michael, I've been meaning to ask you. Where does Vlaams Blok stand on the issue of European integration?
Michael, I've been meaning to ask you. Where does Vlaams Blok stand on the issue of European integration?
Our very own Kevin has alerted me to this story about nuclear warheads being found in Tikrit, Iraq.
If true, this will (obviously) have huge implications - particularly this November.
If true, this will (obviously) have huge implications - particularly this November.
Tuesday, July 20, 2004
TOUR DE LANCE 2004 UPDATE; FRENCH WORKERS COME TO THEIR SENSES
Piece of cake people. Piece of cake.
Tomorrow is the BIG DAY!!! Timerun upon the dreaded Alpe d'Huez!!! Those mythical, terrible 15 and a half kilometers up a slope with an average climbing rate of 8%. You think that ain't nothing? Go try it yourself. Pray for your hero(es).
Ladies and gentlemen, not long ago we talked about France's excruciating 35-hour week. The first cracks appear.
Workers at a Robert Bosch car parts factory in France have voted to work longer hours in an effort to save jobs, the firm said on Monday, making them the first employees to vote to scrap France's 35-hour week.
The decision sets a precedent that unions fear could eventually unravel France's 35-hour working week. Many employers want the law restricting work hours scrapped to increase the competitiveness of French industry.
A large majority of the 820 workers at the German auto supplier's factory in Vénissieux, near the southern city of Lyon, voted in favor of working 36 hours instead of the current 35 without any compensation in wages, the company's management said.
MFBB
Piece of cake people. Piece of cake.
Tomorrow is the BIG DAY!!! Timerun upon the dreaded Alpe d'Huez!!! Those mythical, terrible 15 and a half kilometers up a slope with an average climbing rate of 8%. You think that ain't nothing? Go try it yourself. Pray for your hero(es).
Ladies and gentlemen, not long ago we talked about France's excruciating 35-hour week. The first cracks appear.
Workers at a Robert Bosch car parts factory in France have voted to work longer hours in an effort to save jobs, the firm said on Monday, making them the first employees to vote to scrap France's 35-hour week.
The decision sets a precedent that unions fear could eventually unravel France's 35-hour working week. Many employers want the law restricting work hours scrapped to increase the competitiveness of French industry.
A large majority of the 820 workers at the German auto supplier's factory in Vénissieux, near the southern city of Lyon, voted in favor of working 36 hours instead of the current 35 without any compensation in wages, the company's management said.
MFBB
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)