This morning, as we were packing our stuff to get back to Belgium - our family spent the Easter period with my mother-in-law's family in some small Polish town - the underground garage's security guy, very upset, broke the news to me that the Polish president had just died in a terrible plane crash in Smolensk, Byelorussia. At this point, it is still unclear to me how many people exactly perished in the crash. While still in Poland this morning, I heard TV first speak of 97 dead, then my wife picked up the number of 136 somewhere. FOXNews writes that Mr. Kaczynski headed a delegation to Byelorussia of 88, so, if we add him and his wife and assume a crew of 7, which seems like a reasonable estimation for a Polish Air Force Tupolev, the number of 97 is probably closest to the actual number.
Now having - through my marriage to a Polish girl - a certain affinity with this great country and its citizens, I feel that it is only right to offer, for what it's worth, my sincere and heartfelt condolences to the relatives of the deceased.
Apart from the president and his wife, Lech and Maria Kaczynski, the dead include:
* Ryszard Kaczorowski, the last Polish president in exile (during World War II, an anti-Communist government-in-exile had been set up in London. It was still there right before the Wall came down, and Mr. Kaczorowski held the post in 1989-90).
* Aleksander Szczyglo, the head of the National Security Office and a former Secdef
* Pawel Wypych and Mariusz Handzlik, presidential aides
* Jerzy Szmajdzinski, deputy parliament speaker and also a former Secdef
* Andrzej Kremer, the Deputy Foreign Minister
* General Franciszek Gagor, Army Chief of staff
* Andrzej Przewoznik, the minister in charge of WWII memorials
* Slawomir Skrzypek, the Chairman of Poland's National Bank
* Janusz Kurtyka, Chairman of the National Remembrance Institute, an institution investigating communist-era crimes
* Przemyslaw Gosiewski, Zbigniew Wassermann and Grzegorz Dolniak, MP's
In a tragic twist of fate, the delegation led by Mr. Kaczynski was on its way to a commemmoration of the horrible murder seventy years ago in Katyn, back then in the Soviet Union, of thousands of Polish Army officers by NKVD executioners.
On orders of Lavrenty Beria, some 22,000 Polish officers were killed during fall 1939 and throughout the subsequent winter and spring, an appalling tragedy approved by the entire Politburo including, of course, Stalin. April 10, 2010, will now be another date connected to that fateful name.
One story among a plethora of them. In November 2007, a Moroccan immigrant, Omar Sellami, strangled his muslim wife Karima, born and raised in Belgium. Their marriage, a few years previously, had exactly been the reason why Omar Sellami had been allowed in the country, since our notorious family reunifiaction laws allow for such a possibility.
Karima Sellami (24) got little credit from her own parents for her marriage troubles. That much was clear from their testimonies before the Antwerp Judicial Court today. They had bluntly shown her the door [when she came to explain her troubles - MFBB], because she wanted to work outdoors while her husband Omar Sellami (38) was against it. That he beat her was only normal according to her father. "She didn't want to listen."
Father Abdelkader gave his eight children a traditional Moroccan education. He taught them the principles that a woman must show respect for her husband, that she has to obey him and that he may beat her when she does not listen. In Abdelkader's eyes, Karima caused her marriage troubles herself by not respecting Omar and as a result deserved it to be beaten.
"I was afraid."
Mother Rahma did not agree with her husband. "A man may not beat his wife. I told Omar [her son-in-law, MFBB] that if the problems continued, he had to divorce." Yet she too had shown her "disobedient" daughter the door. "I agreed with Omar, because I was afraid that otherwise he'd beat Karima."
On Karima's alleged possession by evil spirits they did not issue an unanimous opinion. "Because she had been beaten by Omar she had gotten scared and therefore she had to go to a koranic healer. There were no djinns involved." said Abdelkader. Rahma first agreed with her husband, but nevertheless said later on that three djinns inhabited Karima.
"Strangled like a chicken."
Abdelkader and Rahma recall their daughter like a joyous, humorous girl. Rahma still has some difficulty with they way Omar killed her daughter. "He strangled her like a chicken. It was not a quick death, Karima suffered. He has not only killed her, but me as well. It hurts too that he lied for so long."
Karima and Omar's children are now being raised by her parents. "I do hope dat Omar realizes well that he leaves them as orphans", Rahma concluded.
And here is an expert opinion by Latifa, one of Karima's sisters:
1.) islam is such an appalling, diabolical belief system that it leads fathers to justify son-in-laws killing their own offspring if they do not adhere to "muslim rules".
2.) the complete and total backwardness of this evil belief system is furthermore apparent from the continued presence of djinns - evil spirits - in the daily worldview of adherents to the muslim faith
3.) the set of rules still to be followed by muslim females in our "modern" societies is as out of touch with western values as icecream on a steak.
4.) the muslims females who do observe the rules develop into unschooled, dumber than dumb brainwashed breeding machines
5.) the backward parents, Abdel and Rahma, had eight children
6.) the end result is that the children of Omar and Karima will now be raised by Abdelkader and Rahma.
Take a good look at Omar Sellami, wife-killer and a good muslim. Before the murder, he beat Karima with a belt and not only forbid her from working outdoors, but also from meeting friends and even her sisters.
This human filth has now been sentenced to 24 years of imprisonment.
Mister Bellami was allowed into our country by a law drafted by socialists.
In 8 years, if he "behaves" in prison, he will be set free by another socialist law, which reduces a sentence to one third of the verdict if the convicted is a model prisoner.
Just to add some features to DowneastBlog, I wanted to equip it with some Java applets. In practice these should look like applications in the side"bar" to the right. Now, when you scroll down you'll see there, at the bottom, a blank rectangle. That's supposed to be a Java applet. I named that applet simply "AppletDemo". Normally, the only thing it should do, since it is merely a test, is show a black rectangle and circle. The code I included in DB's web page is:
... which I wrote of course between the appropriate brackets, and afterwards terminated with a closing applet-tag, and...
... wherein the argument "codebase" points to the absolute domain where I have stored the binary code of AppletDemo, and the file that contains it, AppletDemo.class. Since I cannot store the file AppletDemo.class on the same server as DowneastBlog, I have to place it somewhere else, and luckily I have this junkyard site of mine, http://users.skynet.be/OUTLAWMIKESSITE/, which I use mainly for storing pics. So that's why the codebase arg. As a sidenote, I might add that I wrote the sourcecode of AppletDemo using ECLIPSE (which I can recommend, btw), and that it compiled this sourcecode, AppletDemo.java, in AppletDemo.class. Also as a sidenote, the uploader software I used to get the AppletDemo.class file to OUTLAWMIKESSITE is "Classic FTP", which looks very much like Ipswitch software (which I used before) and is extremely easy to operate.
... and oh yeah, OUTLAWMIKESSITE is a bogus name for reasons of privacy...
Now, as for the code in AppletDemo.java, it's simply this:
And, being poepsimpel it works of course just fine on the ECLIPSE platform.
Have I got you this far? You must be a geek. Okay.
So... the line of code in DB is okay, and if not I'll eat my shoes. The sourcecode of AppletDemo is okay too, and so must be the binary code. AppletDemo.class is in an appropriate location, and the codebase and code arguments point to its correct whereabouts.
On my web browser, Java is enabled.
SO WHY THE H*LL WON'T IT WORK?
If you have a hunch why not, please feel free to drop a line in the comments section. I'll get you a Nobel Prize for Numbnuts Assistance, I swear it.
Christus geeft de sleutels aan de Heilige Petrus, by Peter Paul Rubens (Christ hands the keys to Saint Peter - painting is in the Staatliche Museen in Berlin)
An appropriate painting, I think, since Easter is when Christians commemmorate the Resurrection of Christ and this scene depicts an event shortly thereafter, when the resurrected Jesus hands the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven to Saint Peter. Peter was Jesus' first and most important apostle. Peter is actually his "surname" since Jesus told him that "he would be the rock upon which he would build his church" [Peter stems from the Greek "Petros", which means stone, rock, and indeed he became the Christian's first pope]. And his first name was Simon, the son of Jonah, and he was a humble fisher at the Lake Gennesaret. So it is rather more correct to refer to him as Simon Peter (or Simon Cephas, since "cephas" is aramaic, Jesus' language, for "rock").
Reasonably good Joe Jackson hit, "Nineteen forever". What do I say? It's a brilliant song!
At some point in the mid-nineties these guys were real cool. Faith No More with Midlife Crisis. The cover is of Angel Dust, the album the hit was drawn off. I read somewhere sometime that singer Mike Patton used to drink one of his shoes full of urine on stage. Well, to each his own.
And because I am in such a good mood, Rush with Afterimage. That's one from the 1984 album Grace under Pressure.
Rush must be the biggest rock band that has forever eluded mainstream. No matter whether you like them, their craftmanship is undeniable. Geddy Lee is a wizard on the keyboards, Alex Lifeson I'd rate among the planet's five most proficient guitar players, and Neil Peart is the best drummer this side of Zeta Reticuli (period).
We've been talking about Benno Barnard here before. He is a leftist playwright who saw the light in 2009.
Now a speech he intended to give at the University of Antwerp was disrupted by radical muslim students. Police had to intervene. The speech was cancelled altogether, even before it begun.
"What is needed now urgently is a top-to-bottom accountability exercise on expenses: Who spent how much on what and on whose authority? The RNC's members ought even now to be scrambling to get to D.C. (flying coach) to address this story and decide whether or not Michael Steele stays as Chair. They may chose to keep Steele, but he will need a vigorous show of support if he is going to stay on, and almost certainly a new Deputy Chair for Management should be named and vested with the authority to oversee the finances and administration of an organization which, at best, has enormous blind spots.
There isn't a moment to spare, and at the same time the NRCC.org and the NRSC.org will have to spend effort to message that they are not the RNC, and that their practices are not the practices of the national committee. It would help a great, great deal if either or both of the Congressional committees actually posted an online target list with links to GOP candidates for competitive seats so that the energized base could decide where to direct money and volunteer efforts to most effect.
In this new age of speed in communications and total transparency, whether voluntary or forced, the D.C. GOP still seems incredibly slow to transform itself and tone-deaf to the urgency felt by its core voters and newly arrived converts. The leadership from John Boehner, Eric Cantor and Mike Pence in the House as well as from Mitch McConnell, Jon Kyl and Lamar Alexander in the Senate was excellent through the battle over Obamacare. The display of expertise by Congressman Paul Ryan and others provided the hope that a new architecture of ideas on how to repair the damage was emerging. Great candidates were appearing across the country to challenge incumbent Democrats or contend for open seats.
2010 could indeed be a watershed year, a "Black Swan" moment for Democrats.
But not if serious self-inflicted wounds are left untreated and a staff that is building a reputation for miserable judgment left undisturbed in its evident complacency."
It's bad enough that I have to see the pitiful transformation of Europes "conservative" parties into left of center outfits - David Camoron's Tories, Sarkozy's UMP, Spain's Partido Popular et al...
But having to acknowledge that across the pond the American "conservatives" of the Republican Party can't seem to be able to cash in on the bankrupt policies of the Democrats is even worse.
It is really very, very, very easy and it works for me. Conservative ethics. Cultural self-confidence. Capitalism. Christianity. In America, as in Europe and everywhere else in the western world, conservative leaders must STOP trying to look like less extreme leftists.
If Steele is unable to lead, and lead in a convincing and genuinely conservative way, he has to go.
Very interesting post over at The Redhunter, a longtime colleague and "blogger in arms" of DowneastBlog. Tom investigates to what extent Obama has thus far performed as a Uniter, as he predicted he would reign during his presidential campaign. As we all know, during the latter three quarters of the Bush years George W Bush was scolded as the President who outdid every predecessor in dividing the country.
A.) LEGISLATION PASSED OR PROPOSED UNDER OBAMA'S WATCH.
House - March 21, 2010, 220 - 211: Democrats 220-33-0 GOP 0-178-0 Senate - Because this is being done as a "reconciliation" bill it has not yet been voted on in the Senate, but given that all it takes is a simple majority it's passage is a fait accompli. More importantly, I think we're all aware that Zero Republicans would vote for the measure, where as Obama has to bribe Democrats into voting for it
B.) LANDMARK LEGISLATION IN HISTORY
Let's go through some of the landmark history of the past century and examine the breakdown in voting between the two parties (for the sake of clarity, and because it doesn't really matter for our purposes, I have not included the votes from third parties in this legislation)
House - July 30, 1981, 323 - 107: (I cannot find the breakdown, but the party breakdown in the House for the 97th Congress were: Democrats 244, Republicans 191, so clearly many Democrats voted yes) Senate - July 1981, 89 - 11: Democrats 37-9 GOP 52-1
C.) CONCLUSION
While this is hardly an exhaustive list of legislation, I believe it to be a fair sampling of landmark legislation passed over the past 75 years. Before President Obama, in every single case the legislation was passed with overwhelming bipartisan support.
Obama's legislation, however, is opposed almost unanimously by the Republicans. Worse, he can't even get all of his Democrats to go along with him without virtual bribes that stink to high heaven and legislative tricks that are foreign to most people.
Obama is worse than partisan; opposition to his bills is bipartisan, while support is strictly partisan. Obama even divides his own party.
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Sorry, but no original material from moi today. I am absolutely and completely busted. Oh wait. It seems that Ricky Martin has come out of the closet. Ha! As if we didn't know!
A Belgian judge in Belgium's crime-ridden Detroit-on-the-Sambre aka Charleroi has ruled that a banker who used a 6,172 EUR state premium to renovate his house and who left it again before the mandatory ten years he was required to keep living in it were over, has to pay back the sum. The banker had left the mansion prematurely because in a short span of time he had been carjacked and robbed three times. From Belgian daily Het Laatste Nieuws:
Judge Geneviève Denisty on banker Laurent X being targeted: it is your own fault, "since it is not very prudent to draw attention to yourself by driving a Jaguar, living in a beautiful house and exhibit a certain wealth in an economically poor and disadvantaged region like Charleroi".
A number of foreign news outlets were quick to pick the story up. Among them the UK's The Telegraph:
"The crime victim, a businessman named only as Laurent, had been living in a suburb of Charleroi, in Belgium's depressed French-speaking southern region of Wallonia. He moved north after a series of violent attacks and robberies on his family but was taken to a local court because he had not paid back a grant to renovate his house in 1998.
In 2001, the victim was attacked and his BMW car was stolen. Shortly after it was recovered, armed men stormed his home and stole it a second time. In 2006, his wife and children were threatened by armed raiders, who stormed his home at night and dragged him away in his pyjamas while his horrified family looked on. He was later freed and dumped on a industrial estate as the thieves made off with another one of his cars, a Jaguar.
Geneviève Denisty, a Charleroi civil judge, told the businessman that he must pay back over £5,000 in renovation grants because he had behaved "unreasonably" in leaving the region.
"It is perhaps not sensible to draw attention to oneself by driving a Jaguar and living in a big house, making an ostentatious display of one's wealth in a poor and damaged region like Charleroi," said the judge.
Charleroi is a sad decrepit bulwark of the Parti Socialiste, the "Party of 1,000,000 scandals" - in all likelihood the most corrupt political party in the entire western hemisphere. The PS has been in charge in Charleroi since, oh, since Julius Caesar was playing with tin soldiers or something. Curiously, after spreading the wealth around and shifting incomes towards the poor for aeons, Charleroi remains dirt poor and a very dangerous place to live. The place is known for producing and exporting curious individuals. Below to the left you see Marc Dutroux, Belgium's notorious paedophile/killer who in the mid-nineties let four young girls he had sexually abused starve to death in a dungeon he had built under his house. If not with a renovation premium, then in any case with the monthly 2,000 EUR check he got for free from the Walloon government for being "handicapped".
To the right you see Muriel Degauque, who lived a life of sex and drugs, though presumably not that much rock 'n roll, until she met a salafist asshole who convinced her that blowing yourself up in zhe name of Allah is a cool thing to do. She became the west's first female suicide bomber, self-detonating in Iraq in 2005 upon the passing of an American convoy. Luckily, there were only a couple of scratches on the paint of one truck (don't say too quick it's again a chick). Or how, while the Parti Socialiste is adamant about not sending Belgian soldiers to fight alongside their American colleagues, its policies nevertheless ensure that at least some Belgians are in the thick of the fight. Madame Degauque is with Allah now, though, as she was not a virgin anymore at the time of her passing, her services are probably declined upon the arrival of likeminded males.
Yeah, spreading the wealth around and realizing income shifts to help the poor really helps man. This guy gets it.
According to Mr. Baucus, Americans can sleep safe and secure in anticipation of a prosperous and just society because his party just did a Charleroi to the US of A! Yeee-haw!!!
Two more relatively good songs from "vaderlandse bodem" (dunno what would be an appropriate translation, fatherlandish soil perhaps?). First Always on the run, just released, from Admiral Freebee aka Tom Van Laere, a singer/songwriter from Brasschaat, near Antwerp.
Back in time almost thirty years, to 1981 to be exact. "You", from Scooter, not to be confused with the German band of the same name. The Belgian Scooter was a short-lived band (1979-1983), also from Antwerp.
OTTAWA - It’s just the thing conservative author, commentator and self-described polemicist Ann Coulter is known for: Dividing her audiences. Coulter was scheduled to speak before an audience gathered at the University of Ottawa’s Marion Hall Tuesday evening.
Instead, security concerns raised by the university kept the Republican firebrand from speaking. Organizers pulled the plug on the speaking engagement because there were just too many people — too many of whom were just too rowdy.
“At a university, instead of free speech, censorship,” said Ezra Levant, a Canadian conservative writer, lawyer and blogger who was scheduled to introduce Coulter.
Coulter was at the university for the second stop of her Canadian speaking tour to dish on political correctness, media bias and freedom of speech.
Apart from the fact that the Toronto Sun is a douchebag paper itself, otherwise it wouldn't give the impression that Ann Coulter "divides her audiences" nor that the screaming bigots who orchestrated the cancelling of her speech were "just too rowdy"... one thing is by now painfully obvious to me.
It is that silencing your opponents this way - by bullying and threatening violence - is an exclusively lefty thing. How ironic - IRONIC - that time and again we rightwingers get called fascists and nazis when the REAL fascists are... those who actually use that word as if it is bread and butter. Against us.
I don't know or care whether you like Ann Coulter or not. In se, that is irrelevant. Okay, saying her style's very tough is something like saying Britney Spears is still as fresh as morning dew, but face it, if you're a rightwinger you should be glad the Right has frontline soldiers like Coulter. Butchers are not my favorite kind of people to discuss the wonders of the universe with or the siege of Fort St Elmo, but I'm DAMN GLAD they are there to do the dirty work for me, a pussificated carnivore. That's about my sentiment vis-a-vis Madam Coulter, and let's just hope she doesn't read DB, for the comparison with a butcher was wholly unintended.
And if you're a leftwinger you should at least have the decency to agree to the principle that she should have the opportunity to express her views unhindered. I don't recall a single event whereby rightwing bullies made Al Franken or Arianna Huffington cancel a speech somewhere.
One could see this coming, just like one could see it coming that Pim Fortuyn would be murdered. Just prior to the speech Ann Coulter was to give at the University of Ottawa, the Vice President and Provost of that University, François A-Hole, whooooops A. Houle, issued the following open letter to her via half a dozen outlets. An exerpt (sorry if you just ate):
"... A couple of days ago, the I would, however, like to inform you, or perhaps remind you, that our domestic laws, both provincial and federal, delineate freedom of expression (or "free speech") in a manner that is somewhat different than the approach taken in the United States. I therefore encourage you to educate yourself, if need be, as to what is acceptable in Canada and to do so before your planned visit here.
You will realize that Canadian law puts reasonable limits on the freedom of expression. For example, promoting hatred against any identifiable group would not only be considered inappropriate, but could in fact lead to criminal charges. Outside of the criminal realm, Canadian defamation laws also limit freedom of expression and may differ somewhat from those to which you are accustomed. I therefore ask you, while you are a guest on our campus, to weigh your words with respect and civility in mind..."
Now is it just me, or are there other people who wonder whether Fuckois A-Hole (whoooops, I did it again) François A. Houle also wrote an open letter like that prior to rabid Israel hater Omar Barghouti's speech at the U of Ottawa one year ago? Or to Angela Davis, member of the Communist Party and former Black Panther, who gave a speech in Houle's fiefdom just last month?
Jesus Christ. Just look at them. Persons of tolerance and diversity.
Feel the love. What a mean, vulgar, brainless cunt.
You just remember. This is the kind of people that prior to Pim Fortuyn's predicted electoral victory distributed posters of him admonishing to "Stop the Dutch Haider". And then a nut from their ranks emptied a gun in Fortuyn's head. The vilifications, the hatred, the bullying, the hatred, the knives and the bullets...
... come from the Left.
And yet they manage to call us the fascists. And they get away with it. Think about that.
Marine Corporal Jonathan D. Porto, 26, of the 1st Battalion/6th Marine Regiment (2nd Marine Division), died on March 14 while supporting combat operations in Helmand Province, Afghanistan.
He... leaves behind his 23-year old wife and a baby daughter, Ariana. Mrs. Porto has a heartbreaking account on the loss of her husband on her blog, A little pink in a world of camo.
I don't have the right words for this.
Semper Fi.
A trust fund has been established for their daughter, Ariana.
Aberdeen Proving Ground Federal Credit Union ATTN: Collean McKinney for the account of Ariana Ralyn Porto P.O. Box 1176, Aberdeen, MD 21001
all checks should be made payable to Ariana Ralyn Porto.
Please pray for Jonathan, his wife, their daughter, and their families.
I think a good way to start would be an interesting overview of 18 Health Care myths debunked by blogger Firedoglake, presented to you in a handy Scribd. format I found over at Legal Insurrection. Unfortunately the Scrib. thing don't seem to work so well on our blog, so check it out yourself over at William A. Jacobson's blog.
Oh yes... Firedoglake is no frothing at the mouth Glenn Beck acolyte... it's a leftwing blog... :
People visiting this blog may often get the impression that I idolize and/or idealize the United States. Let me respond that, though I indeed think there's much to admire across the pound, I never bought into too rosy views of the land of the free. Over here, we are being slapped in the face every other day with stories of Americans ending dead in the gutter because they couldn't afford health care.
I do see thru the nonsense but I am willing to buy that for certain categories of Americans who deserve better, affordable health care and affordable health care insurance remain out of reach.
I think that the current system, which apparently consists of a smorgasbord of public and private initiatives, is far from ideal. How else can it be explained that the results that are obtained with a budget of give and take 16% of the US's GNP - AFAIK the highest percentage spent on healthcare by any country on earth - still leave much to be desired. At the same time I also think that if the system needs an overhaul, the result should be something better. And, as far as I have been able to investigate the (summary of the summary of the) bill, that is not the case.
In my country, small risks (a visit to the doctor for a flu, a visit to the dentist, etc...) are covered by what we call a mutualiteit. It's an organization that collects collective contributions and then redistributes as needed. You pay a fixed amount a year depending on your income, you get back in case you are sick and have to go to the doctor and the pharmacy. Are you often ill, it won't cost you too much to see a medic or pay for (simple) medication. Are you healthy all the time, well okay, you get back less than you put in but for God's sake, congratulate yourself on your luck and robust health.
Hospitals are clustered in cupola organizations, very much like private enterprises can have daughter companies. The cupola organizations, which are "vzw's" (non profit organizations) get paid by the state via the RIZIV (Rijksinstituut voor Ziekte- en Invaliditeitsverzekering - State's Institute for Sick and Invalidity Insurance). So while most hospitals do not belong to the private sector, their personnel aren't state employees either. There are, of course, a number of private clinics specializing in, e.g., dermatology or other "niche markets".
For the "grave risks" however, you' better take care of yourself. Key is, get a hospitalization insurance early and remain a good customer (i.e. don't break too many legs). It will be less easy for the insurance company to throw you out once you reach a certain age. Personally, since about five years I have a hospitalization insurance which costs me about 355 EUR/year and covers a lot.
All in all the Belgian system works fairly well, and there are gazillions of testimonies from expats living here to prove it. A couple of years back, there was even a UK programme shipping British patients to Belgian hospitals because they could receive care here far quicker and better than in the notorious British NHS. Two weeks back, my wife's gynaecologist identified a little but unpleasant problem for which an urgent operation was needed. The day after she was operated at 10am. She was back home by 6pm. I haven't received the bill yet, but I'm confident it will be a very reasonable amount.
I see nothing of this all in the new US Health Reform Bill, only an encroaching state that will determine who gets what treatment and when. I can imagine that an army of bureaucrats will be needed to man a bazillion of desks, not necessarily with added value for the treatment of Joe Clutterbucks ulcer - quite the contrary. There's nothing of this all in Belgium. In my country, the state finances the whole shebang but leaves the actual medics and nurses otherwise pretty much alone. Heck, even as the hospitals are officially non profits, there IS a degree of competition among them, as patients often drive farther upon hearing doctor so and so in the clinic in town X or Y is better at this and that, and operation this and that is cheaper in hospital so and so. And there is NO state dorkasaurus official telling the patient he has to go to this or that particular hospital. I actually wonder why our Belgian media are fainting over "Obama's historic achievement" when a child can see that the stinker of a system he's putting down the throats of 300 million plus Americans is so radically different from ours. Oh wait, no. I don't wonder. Belgian whorenalists and opinion makers are still all spasms when they think of their big hero.
No, Americans are screwed, again. I will no longer bother to tell you that, after all I have been telling it ever since I determined, during 30 seconds in 2004, that an upcoming politician by the name of Barack Hussein Obama was the Mother of all Frauds. The last word is for Mark Steyn - he says it so much better than me:
My advice to Americans? Consider your current government an enemy. In November, beat those who are chasing your country down a perilous path. And make it a bloody business.
With regards to the Belgian ISAF mission in Afghanistan, the Belgian government took an important decision last week in that the duration of our military presence there, scheduled to end by the end of this year, will be prolonged with one year, till December 2011. For the moment, the troop level will remain at about 630 men, although further batches of instructors are envisaged. Moreover, the budget earmarked for civil projects and/or reconstruction will be raised to at least 13 million EUR over the whole of 2011, up from the 12 million EUR spent in 09.
Otherwise, no major changes are to be expected with regards to the deployment of the Belgian contingent. On KAIA, a small battalion-sized unit is still responsible for security along the airport's inner perimeter.
The photo, taken on March 8, shows a trooper from the 1st Regiment Carabiners/Grenadiers Prince Baldwin in a checkpoint along KAIA's perimeter. Yes, he's either of Congolese or Ruandese descent, which is not surprising given that Belgium, in view of its colonial past, has a significant Congolese/Ruandese community. Personally, I can only welcome the relatively recent evolution whereby the Belgian Army seems to be attracting a larger number of recruits of foreign extraction. I can think of but few examples to make immigrants feel more 'Belgian'. Call it Outlaw Mike-approved multiculturalism. The weapon he's holding is a light machinegun, manufactured by FN Herstal near Liège, in Belgium's east. It is typically used as a squad or platoon weapon, and the caliber is usually standard NATO 5.56x45mm. Since its introduction in 1974, it has entered service with the armies of a host of countries, among them the US Army, which knows it as the M249 SAW. The US versions are produced by FN Manufacturing LLC in Columbia, South Carolina. It seems they won't run out of work soon, since many first generation M249's are worn out and the US Army and USMC, rather than purchasing other light machineguns, will simply replace the old SAWs with new ones. The British Army uses it too, under the designation L108A1. In our army it is rather affectionately known as the Minimi, which is not some gullible multiculti moniker but simply short for Mini Mitrailleuse, which is French for "mini machine gun" - Herstal and Liège lie in Wallonia, Belgium's French-speaking south.
On Kandahar Airfield, the six F-16 fighter bombers continue to fly regular missions, mostly two a day. Most of them are recce and scare flights, but every now and then they engage ground targets in support of friendly troops, see the MoD's weekly overviews.
Unlike our Dutch colleagues, there's no denying that the Belgian military have been deliberately kept out of harm's way by our politicians. That does not mean that the Belgian missions were or are without risks. Actually, we've been incredibly lucky so far, given the fact that missiles are regularly lobbed into the KAF perimeter, that the Kunduz detachments (OMLT and deminers) regularly come under fire, and that even at KAIA there have been shooting incidents and suicide attacks. But as things are getting hotter all across Afghanistan, it seems only a matter of time before real war will come to our troops as well. The OMLT detachment for instance, responsible for the training of an ANA battalion, finds itself under fire almost every week now. Last week, the Belgian daily Het Laatste Nieuws reported that soldiers of the OMLT team, drawn from 2nd Commando Battalion at Flawinne, were engaged in a firefight lasting several hours, and almost ran out of ammo before they were finally relieved by air support. The same article mentioned that last monday a demining unit assisting the Germans had also been taken under fire, and that their camp in Kunduz had been the target of a rocket attack.
The photo shows some soldiers from our OMLT team which operates alongside the Germans in Afghanistan's north. In the background is their transport, the new Kraus-Maffei Wegmann Dingo II armored car, with a remotely controlled machinegun on top. Of these, the Belgian Army has ordered 220, with an option for 132 more.
As much as I deplore the fact that Belgian troops did not play a more active combat role, preferably alongside our Dutch colleagues, I think that the future is nevertheless upgrading the Afghan National Army to a self-sustaining status. Because after all, our armies are not in AF to do the fighting indefinitely. In the end, it is AFGHAN soldiers who have to keep their country safe. That I understand, is tough work. I recall a Dutch trainer stating, a couple of years back, that raw Afghan recruits "geen knip voor de neus waard waren" [weren't worth doodley squat - MFBB]. However, the same sentiments could be heard in Iraq in 03-05, and for a long time the efforts to get an efficient Iraqi Army in the scaffolds seemed lost. Over at Theo Spark however, one can regularly get a glimpse of an impressive military buildup in Mesopotamia tough. This seems to have become an army that won't run away from AQ and/or the Baathists.The same must be possible in Afghanistan.
There are of course those, like noted blogger and columnist Diana West, who argue that our efforts to raise strong homegrown forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, only serve to make stronger islamic enemies of the west. They certainly have a valid argument there - I will not exclude the outcome that they envisage. An ominous case in point is that in Iraq, christians are persecuted as never before. For the time being however, I would counsel patience and continuation of the current strategy. What nascent "democracies" see the light in the countries the West liberated from the worst of islamic extremism, they need homegrown protection to at least have a chance of getting off the ground. Maybe, and I admit it's a Big Maybe, in time, under the Infidel West's influence, Iraq and Afghanistan may develop into something halfway decent. If we succeed in getting them to solve their problems from parliamentary benches instead of that they cave each other's heads in, it's already a huge victory for OUR "infidel" ideas of state management. And if that status is attained, at some unspecified point in the future, maybe some softened version of islam will emerge. Maybe less 18-40 year olds will feel tempted to self-detonate. Maybe.
It's a lot of "maybes". But we've gotta to it this way, because the alternative, open war with the islamic world, would be terrible.
If one would ask me what song I'd rate quint-essen-tially American, Kansas' Carry On Wayward Son (1976) would certainly be among the candidates.
Impossibly good rock song from The Tragically Hip, Courage, from the 1992 album Fully Completely. Personally, I'd rate TTH Canada's second best rock band (I guess you know who's at no. 1). The Tragically Hip formed in 1983 in Kingston, Ontario. Unlike a gazillion other longlasting bands, their lineup has stayed pretty much the same and consists of Gordon Downie (lead vocals and guitar), Rob Baker (guitar), Gord Sinclair (bass), Paul Langlois (guitar) and Johnny Fay (drums). Other notable hits include Springtime in Vienna and Ahead by a Century.
I have a post on Spain in the scaffolds and was trying to get one up about the French regional elections, but in the end found out I was too goddam tired to come up with something original from moi. Luckily, Michael Colhaze over at The Brussels Journal has a very good post up regarding modern art.
"...He is Baselitz, a name tuberose, not only acoustically, with dirty connotations. He is Germany’s foremost Modern artist. He is one of those who accepted the thirty pieces of silver and turned them into a heap of gold. He is a well-received guest at the London Royal Academy of Arts, which strikes you as odd since the Brits and the Krauts, never mind what they tell you in Brussels, regard each other warily. He is loved by the country’s foremost gazettes, like the FAZ, or the SZ, or the old pansy ZEIT. He can be found in Tate modern. He owns a Giant Schnauzer with a degree in psychology who handles his castration complex, the foremost source of his creative inspiration. He produces his masterpieces watching Big Brother on TV while reclining on a sofa next to a canvas previously splattered with an undisclosed amount of colours on which he diverts an occasional glance and then arranges artistically by means of an Italian bread roll using his left hand only. Once dry, he signs it with his illustrious name, waits until that one is dry as well, and hangs it up upside-down.
This, the upside-down, has made him famous.
Ever repentant Germany, foremost bastion of politically correct forces, where, rather en passant and widely unnoticed, book burnings and show trials have been reintroduced and hefty jail sentences are handed down to those who dare to insist on their constitutional rights and challenge the official credo, is an El Dorado for those in Modern art with the necessary connections. It is less so for the ordinary citizen, because here the crunch has shown its ugly claw as well, particularly since seventy percent of the country’s produce is earmarked for export and thus a recipe for disaster once the cash flow begins to stagger. The lawmakers and law enforcers feel uneasy as well, wondering in moments of quiet reflection if the hate laws they have so carelessly set afloat or applied might come back and bite them in the backside, once the hour of reckoning arrives. Like in Nuremberg not long ago. Or in London right now, where the country’s supreme PC warriors, though not their minders, are accused of invading Iraq without the faintest shred of legal support and causing the death of hundreds of thousands of innocent bystanders, while the folks at the International Court of Justice in Den Haag are popping their garters for fear of being saddled with a trove of their own kind.
As for the Baselitz’ meteoric ascent on the murky skies of Modern art, the usual machinations were set in motion. Among thousands of candidates, both academics or naturals, all waiting eagerly for a hint from the established Modern art Mafia, now and then one is chosen. Since he is, just like his many contenders, about as gifted as a bedbug, nobody with a sane mind would assume that considerations of artistic merit ever played a part. What counts is a rigorous talent for self-representation, unfettered by the smallest grain of aesthetics or ethics, an inborn and unlimited vulgarity, and the stated objective to be the most ruthless Judas Iscariot to the Fine Arts that ever set foot on our sacred earth. As to the operational level, it works more or less in the following way. One of the great Modern art dealers, a highly visible member of the afore mentioned Mafia, contacts a few of his highly invisible godfathers, strikes a deal, and the Baselitz (or anyone like him) is launched. Surprised by the sudden onslaught, goes the latter into high gear and produces twenty masterpieces a day, all of which fetch prices that increase breathtakingly fast. The press is informed, the usual dolls and pansies from the art section do their job and tell the astonished aficionado in exalted crap-art parlance what it is all about, and a new star is born. Next he has the so far unheard-of idea to present his work hanging upside-down, a clear sign of sublime genius if there ever was one, and prices go through the roof. Retrospections in the artist’s honour are arranged, Modern art sanctuaries like the Moma or Tate modern buy his crap, even the occasional sausage-and-ham manufacturer is impressed and lays out a sack of ill-gotten money for a slice of Baselitz."
Here, some anti-poison for Die grosse Nacht im Eimer:
Biondina is an 1879 work by Frederick Leighton, 1st Baron Leighton (3 December 1830–25 January 1896), an English painter and sculptor whose works depict historical, biblical and classical subjects.
Listening to Schumann, a marvellous work by my compatriot Fernand Khnopff (born Grimbergen, 1858- died Brussels, 1921). Too bad I don't have more time on my hands, because this artist deserves a post dedicated to himself alone. Khnopff is probably our most renowned symbolist painter. Listening to Schumann actually stands somewhat apart from the majority of his paintings, which often depict esoteric women and still, mysterious buildings and landscapes, submerged in melancholy. As for Schumann, meant is Robert Schumann, one of Germany's foremost Romantic composers of the 19th century. That his compositions are written mainly for pianos - see the pianists' hand in the upper left corner of the painting - is no coincidence. He had actually wanted to become a virtuoso pianist but a hand injury blocked this career path; so he dedicated his energy to composing instead.
The (notoriously leftist) Belgian daily De Standaard now gives the father of the killer a much-needed forum. After all, we don't want to jump to conclusions too fast, do we? Besides, it's a tragedy all right, but it would be an even bigger tragedy when our precious diversity was the victim here.
'Hicham must have been influenced by somebody', thinks father Ahmed. 'An armed robbery is not his thing. He is a sensitive young man who often reacts very emotionally.'
'What was he thinking? He didn't need money, because he had a job. How sad the jeweller did not shoot in the air. That would certainly have caused Hicham and Hassan to flee. I am sure that Hicham never wanted to kill somebody.'
The father understands that the family of the dead mother demands a heavy sentence for his son. 'I am mourning twice', he says. 'For the dead woman, her children and her family. Their suffering cannot be described with words, that I understand all too well. But I also mourn for my son, because I have lost him too now. And I do not know how long that is going to last.'
'The family of the victim asks that my son never be released from jail. I realize he must be convicted, but I know the Hicham how he was before he got behind bars for the first time in his life. He is a good boy. I fear that a long sentence will only turn him into a bad boy. And in the end nobody's gonna win by that.'
Draw your own conclusions. Hat tip commenter Blauwvoeter.
I am very short on time and see no possibility to flesh this out, but what I wanted to write about was the explosion of violence in Brussels over the last one year and a half at the hands of Moroccan and Turkish criminals. What is ominous is the surge in the use of submachineguns. Every month now we hear of shooting incidents whereby AK47's are involved. Police razzias in 'sensitive' neighborhoods produce Scorpio automatic weapons. A police precinct is torched. A neighborhood has to be sealed off because gangsters have fled, after a firefight, into a building. From which they mysteriously vanish despite the cordon. Aided, of course, by their kin.
I do not want to hear ONE WORD about how all this has no relation to islam. There IS a very clear relation in the sense that these scoundrels are brought up in the belief that westerners are filth.
It should also be noted that in islamic 'culture', there is no place for empathy. By the time a subject of islamic culture rounds the cape of childhood, he or she emerges as a curiously blank individual with regards to emotions and aspects which distinguish us from beasts. It's actually a wide range of human assets that's lacking. Humor e.g. How many real good arab jokes do you know? In our culture, we have tons of cartoons - I'm not talking motoons here - that make your eyes fill with tears of laughter. Now think arab cartoons. Exactly.
Empty a heavy caliber gun in her head. Skull shatters. Blood splashes. Bone fragments fly. Don't mean nothing. A fresh widower? Fresh orphans? Doesn't even cross the mind of these animals.
Rags to Rags from Eels' debut album Beautiful Freak (1996) was apparently never deemed good enough to qualify for hit, but to me it sounds just as good as Novocaine for the Soul or Your Lucky Day in Hell. Video is hilarious too. Singer's Mark Oliver Everett aka E.
Mayonaise is one of the less accessible songs on The Smashing Pumpkins' second album, Siamese Dream (1993). This ain't indeed no commercial easylistening stuff like Tonight, Tonight or 1979, but to me it's an essential nineties sound. Jesus, how time flies. I recall how, in the mist of time, in my chick chasing days, I asked the barkeeper in De Draa Deurkisj (The Three Little Doors) time and again to play it. The Smashing Pumpkins' frontman is Billy Corgan. IIRC, he used to do Courtney Love, also in the mist of time, so apparently his chick chasing days were more successfull than mine.
Great sound huh? If you disagree with me, you must certainly be a, wait for it... a nazi!
A major political event in Europe today, March 4, 2010, were the municipal elections held in The Netherlands.
When skimming Anglosaxon websites reporting on them, you would get the impression there's been an electoral seismic shock in Holland. I will not disagree, but it should be noted that, after all, they were elections of town councils - no parliamentary elections, national or European.
Then, the PVV, or Partij Voor Vrijheid (Party for Freedom) of Geert Wilders participated in only two cities, namely The Hague and Almere. The Hague, pop. appr. 486,000, is the third largest Dutch city. Though it is not the country's capital - that is Amsterdam - its importance is paramount since it is the seat of both the government and parliament (which the Dutch call the Staten-Generaal). In addition, Queen Beatrix lives and works here, and all foreign embassies are located in The Hague.
As for Almere, pop. 186,000, it is one of The Netherlands' youngest cities (its first house was completed in 1976). It is located in a province, Flevoland, which the Dutch reclaimed from the sea - as they did with so much of their land since medieval times.
Wilders, whose PVV was after his departure from the center-right VVD for a long time a one-man project, expressly decided to participate in only two municipalities because the PVV still lacks screened, suitable candidates for local mandates nationwide - a problem which has its cause to a great extent in the severely reduced mobility of Mr. Wilders.
The results are promising. In June, the Dutch go once again to the poll booths, but for parliamentary elections. If today's results would be extrapolated to the whole of The Netherlands, the PVV would become, with 24 of the 150 seats in Parliament, the country's third largest party, after the Christian Democrats (CDA) and Labour (PvdA).
Over at The Brussels Journal, Paul Belien has a succinct but insightful column on the events in The Netherlands:
"...Yesterday’s local elections in the Netherlands resulted in a victory for the Freedom Party (PVV) of opposition leader Geert Wilders. On June 9th the Dutch will again be called to the voting booths for the general elections. Yesterday’s outcome reinforces the PVV’s momentum, which may result in a political landslide next June with repercussions all over Europe.
In yesterday’s local elections – the first ever in which Wilders’ party, established as recently as 2007, participated – the PVV became the biggest party in Almere and the second party in The Hague, two of the country’s major cities. The PVV won 21.6% of the votes in Almere and 16.9% in The Hague. The parties of the left had mobilized Muslim immigrants to come out and vote against Wilders. Many of them did so.
The Hague and Almere were the only two municipalities where the PVV fielded candidates for yesterday’s local elections. The PVV would also have done well in Amsterdam, Rotterdam and other cities, but decided not to run there. Wilders is leading a young party which still lacks a solid local structure. Rather than concentrating on quantity and fielding candidates wherever he could, even if he was not sure about the candidates’ background and talents, Wilders concentrated on quality. He could not afford to take the risk that in the three months remaining until June 9th, local PVV newcomers might discredit the PVV’s good reputation.
Wilders is a shrewd but cautious political strategist. He has learned from the experience of the LPF, the party of the late Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn. In many respects Fortuyn stood for the same ideas as Wilders. After Fortuyn’s assassination the LPF fell apart in quarrelling factions. In 2007 the party lost its 8 seats in Parliament, while the PVV gained 9 seats in the first parliamentary elections in which it participated.
A poll taken yesterday by Dutch state television NOS predicts that Wilders will gain 24 of the 150 parliamentary seats next June. This would make the PVV the third biggest party in the country, after the Christian-Democrats (CDA) of the current Dutch Prime Minister Jan-Peter Balkenende, and Labour. There are, however, other polls, such as the De Hond poll, which many consider to be the Netherlands’ most respected, which predicted yesterday that the PVV is to become the biggest party with 27 seats..."
The following video contains some general information:
And this one the victory speech held by Mr. Wilders in Almere:
We should still be cautious. It is possible that a Grand Operation Damage Wilders is in the scaffolds. Actually the trial against Wilders is already part of that operation.
But we should nevertheless be glad with today's success - there is reason for optimism!
First, the fun part. UKIP MEP Nigel Farage blasts EU President Herman Van Rompuy.
Let me make it clear that, even though I share Mr. Van Rompuy's nationality, I think it's a great thing that Farage was able to pull this off. As readers of this blog know, I absolutely LOATHE Barack Hussein Obama - but he has one merit over his European "counterpart": he was democratically elected. Van Rompuy was not. The former Belgian Prime Minister owns his appointment to a backroom deal in a secret meeting, last November, of the 27 heads of state of the European Union.
Then.
I will dwell somewhat on the frighteningly undemocratic character of this appointment later on, but first I will make it clear that I still support the notion of a European Superstate. Over the past seven years, I have expressed this opinion on these pages several times and have handed out the arguments in favor of it.
A politically, economically and militarily united Europe will be far better suited to face the challenges posed by the world's major power brokers, both the existing and the emerging ones. To our American readers of whom I still have to meet the first one sympathetic to a United States of Europe, I would pose the question: "have you forgotten your own history"? Have you forgotten that only by amassing strength between your thirteen original states you were able to bring the War of Independence to a favorable conclusion? Have you forgotten that in America too, there was tremendous skepticism between the Federalists, who wanted to take the Articles of Confederation a step further, and the anti-Federalists, who wanted to keep Washington weak and dependent on the states? Have you forgotten how foolish it was, in the years between 1776 and the passing of your Constitution in 1788, that several of the thirteen had an own petty army and ditto navy, an own ambassador in European countries, and an own currency? Have you forgotten that George Washington himself was an outspoken proponent of a strong federal state?
Considering all this, I would ask you then if you think that the United States would have become a hyperpower had the anti-Federalists' view gotten the upper hand? And I would also ask you: would you want to go back to the time when an insignificant, virtually powerless central government would have had to beg for money to the states?
I would wager that the answer is NO. You wouldn't want to go back to that time.
The same applies to Europe. Apart from the timeframe encompassing the unification processes on both sides of the Atlantic, there is no defining major difference between the two cases. Hence, the birth of a United States of Europe is, in my view, not only a desirable, but also a logical development. Human history shows us that integration is a normal thing, the evolution of which is "defined", dictated if you will, by a "federal" gen in the DNA of every human organization aimed at harnessing the assets of its people to get better organized - be it a tribe, a clan, a province, or a state.
While I recognize the gigantic waste and corruption in the bowels of the EU, I would wager that anno 2010 the benefits justify the unification process. Take, e.g., the single market and the single currency. What Europeans, even the skeptic ones, would in all honesty want to go back to the days when you had to have several currencies in your wallet when travelling from your home country to, say, Portugal or Denmark? Who would want to go back to waiting in line for hours when crossing a border? Who can deny that the opening of these borders, and the competition it made possible between European companies, has led to a sustained economic growth - even if that growth has been kept in check by the tax burdens imposed by so many countries?
No, personally I am all in favor of a USE. And since both America and Europe constitute what is commonly termed "The West", there needs to be no antagonism between the USA and the USE: our roots are the same, and we share - or used to share until recently at least - the same history, the same values, the same goals.
A couple of years back, I used this analogy when discussing the matter with one of the founders of this blog: if you are upset with the direction a unified Europe is taking, blame the driver, not the vehicle. There doesn't have to be anything wrong with a USE, provided that the guys at the helm are "good" ones and no Hugo Chavez types. The same applies to the United States: it is not because the country is currently steered towards a financial, moral and military abyss by what is certainly the most radically leftist US government in history that Americans would suddenly have to reconsider the arguments of the anti-Federalists. What needs to happen is that Americans realize that the current president is a fraud and his government a bunch of immoral crooks hell bent on destroying the country - and if you think that is crass, ask yourself how it is possible that the murderer of 3,000 innocent Americans in the most abominable terror attack on US soil, a man who has literally waged WAR against the US, ever can stand trial in a CIVILIAN courtroom, with all the the prerogatives that entails.
And here we come to the crux of the matter. My long defense of the European Integration and the evolution, and desirability, of a USE, does not mean that I do not recognize the frighteningly undemocratic character of many EU policies over the last years.
America's president is a fraud, but he was democratically elected and he would have been too even without ACORN crooks. Europes President, while not a fraud (yet), has NOT been democratically elected. It was a backroom deal, and the very Treaty that stipulates that there SHOULD be a President, the Treaty of Lisbon, is of a highly undemocratic nature.
The democratic deficit of which the EU is currently suffering is mainly the work of Europes leftist parties. Over the past five decades we have seen these policies at work in all member states. They entail:
* cozying up to their ideological confrères at the height of the Cold War; * the assault on core elements of European heritage (Christianity, patriotism, labor ethic...). * undermining democratic principles (stifling of free speech, machinations to outlaw political dissenters). * striving for the application of economic theories that have proven not to work. * denial and ridicule of our culture * deliberate infiltration of the media, governmental institutions, the educational apparatus... to indoctrinate the larger population * deliberate attempts to change the ethnic outlook of Europe so as to create a new electorate
Post World War Two, the Left has scored two major victories. The first one is that they have succeeded in spreading the fable that the defeated Nazi Regime was Rightwing. This is the Mother of All Political Lies. Seventy years ago, a famous socialist, Joseph Goebbels, proclaimed that a lie repeated a hundred times becomes the truth. We are 2010 now, and the lie about the alleged rightwing character of the Hitler regime has not been repeated a hundredfold, but a billionfold... with results.
The second victory by the Left is that they have so successfully entered many of their talking points in the public discourse, that these ideas have seeped into the party programmes of their political opponents. Of no small importance in this mechanism was, of course, the help of their lackeys in the media and the educational system. The result is that, even with the leftist parties currently on the defensive, leftist ideas still dominate the political agenda, and supposedly rightwing politicians have come to unwittingly accept many of the leftist dogmas. This is why in Spain e.g., the leading conservative opponent of Zapatero's radical government, Mariano Rajoy, has indicated that even when in power, he would not repeal Zapatero's gay marriage legislation. It is why in Sweden, a supposedly center-right PM Fredrik Reinfeldt, has no qualms about placing a cordon sanitaire around Sweden's equivalent of the VB, Sverigedemokraterna - it is a proven and often attempted leftist tactic. And it is why in the UK, a so-called rightwinger like David Cameron is actually half of the time posing as an econutter.
... It is also why in my own country, the supposedly center-right Herman Van Rompuy, had in 1990 his party, the Flemish Christian Democrats, sign one of Europes most liberal abortion bills. Correctly, Andrew Millar in The Brussels Journal asks "Where have all the conservatives gone?".
When we thus consider the European Union's current status, we must conclude, using my earlier metaphor, that the European vehicle's chauffeur is nominally center-right (Van Rompuy and his younger brother Eric Van Rompuy are considered as belonging to the Flemish Christian Democrats's right wing - actually, Eric Van Rompuy was the first politican I ever voted for)... but that in practice he may very well steer a leftist course. A case in point were some ominous remarks he made during his acceptance speech, where he litterally stated that "2009 is also the first year of global governance".
And unlike the current White House occupant, it can be safely assumed that Van Rompuy, an intellectual and a poet (he already earned himself the nickname Haiku Herman), wrote his six books himself. Dreams of My father may include marxist dreams by Frank Marshall and have been fathered by William Ayers, but I am sure that this book: Het Christendom. Een moderne gedachte ...
... meaning Christianity. A modern thought (Davidsfonds, 1990) was written by Herman Van Rompuy and himself alone. Furthermore, his wife, smart and decent Geertrui Windels, is about the furthest you can get from Michelle Obama. Europe's "President" is also a family man and the loving and caring father of Peter (1980), Laura (1981), Elke (1983) and Thomas (1986) - and grandfather of Lander (2008) en Jasper (2009).
The Brussels Journal's Chief Editor Paul Belien writes in a commendable column that Van Rompuy "is like Saruman, the wise wizard in Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, who went over to the other side." I would not put it so stark yet. Van Rompuy's conservative credentials still mean something. But if anything, they will probably merely postpone Europes evolution towards a statist Leviathan. The chauffeur may feel the car has a strong tendency to go left but he won't certainly be tugging frantically to the right. Not only is Van Rompuy very much a "conservative" like Rajoy, Cameron and Reinfeldt (actually the latter played a considerable role in boosting Van Rompuys chances), he himself has indicated that he sees his role as EU President as a manager of councils and a consensus builder.
So, the bad news is that we now have an EU President who will do very little, if anything, to prevent the EU from becoming an EUSSR. The good news is that he will also not pull it straight away in that direction, something that is at this very moment happening across the Atlantic. This means that there is still time for Europes truly rightwing parties to consolidate and oppose the EU's leftist course. Upon the shoulders of parties like UKIP, Vlaams Belang, Lega Nord, Dansk Folkeparti and Sverigedemokraterna rests the heavy burden of offering a resistance to the collectivist totalitarian peril threatening the old continent. This may not be such a hopeless endeavour as it seems. Just like America's Right found its breath in less than a year again, and spawned a phenomenon like the Tea Parties, Europes Right may rise up, and new political players may emerge to take over the conservative banner. In the UK, this is already happening with UKIP vs the Tories. In The Netherlands, with Wilder's PVV vs CDA and VVD. In Germany, an ursprunglich local initiative like ProKoeln may morph into a nationwide movement, ProGermany.
The trend towards a United States of Europe should not be stopped, like history has proven in America. There IS however a crucial role for Europes new, Truly Rightwing parties: the role the Anti-Federalists played in America over two hundred years ago. Thomas Paine and Patrick Henry probably realized at some point they couldn't oppose the unification of the original thirteen forever - but they managed to chisel the Bill of Rights into the US Constitution.
Likewise, we Real European Rightwingers should not oppose the unification of the original fifteen - now twenty-seven already. But we should make sure we get OUR version of the Bill of Rights.
Now, I realize that defending your basic rights with Tea Partyesque panache is something very un-European to do. Proudly toting national banners only happens at soccer matches, and there's no thing like "Support the troops" here - if only because in too many European countries, there are barely troops left. We should take into account that the average European cares far more about his 37 insurances and his two or even three retirement savings systems than he cares about his liberty.
Perhaps we must therefore accept that the contemporary variant of Patrick Henry's slogan "Give me liberty, or give me death!" is Nigel Farage's less lofty, but otherwise pretty effective tirade in the European Parliament. Hell, if a speech like that can galvanize sufficient Europeans and make them realize they're on board a 1984 express towards the 21st century version of the Soviet Union, I will have absolutely no trouble with an MEP blasting the Euro President for having the charisma of a damp rag and the appearance of a low grade bank clerk.
Even if that Euro President happens to be a Belgian like me. You rock Nigel Farage!!!
"... A couple of days ago, the I would, however, like to inform you, or perhaps remind you, that our domestic laws, both provincial and federal, delineate freedom of expression (or "free speech") in a manner that is somewhat different than the approach taken in the United States. I therefore encourage you to educate yourself, if need be, as to what is acceptable in Canada and to do so before your planned visit here.
Well, it seems to be in the bag now. I try to be a sunny the-glass-is-one-sixteenth-full kinda guy, but it's hard to overestimate the magnitude of what the Democrats have accomplished. Whatever is in the bill is an intermediate stage: As the graph posted earlier shows, the governmentalization of health care will accelerate, private insurers will no longer be free to be "insurers" in any meaningful sense of that term (ie, evaluators of risk), and once that's clear we'll be on the fast track to Obama's desired destination of single payer as a fait accomplis.
This, the upside-down, has made him famous.
