OBAMA'S NO.1 PRIORITY FOR NASA: "ENGAGE MORE WITH MUSLIM COUNTRIES TO MAKE THEM FEEL GOOD ABOUT MEDIEVAL SCIENTIFIC ACHIEVEMENTS".

I guess you can't say I have the scoop - it's been in and on every self-respecting news outlets - but still I feel I have to pay some attention to it.

NASA Chief Charles Bolden in an interview with al Jazeera, via FOX News, July 5, 2010:

"...When I became the NASA administrator -- or before I became the NASA administrator -- he charged me with three things. One was he wanted me to help re-inspire children to want to get into science and math, he wanted me to expand our international relationships, and third, and perhaps foremost, he wanted me to find a way to reach out to the Muslim world and engage much more with dominantly Muslim nations to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science ... and math and engineering," Bolden said in the interview..."

Reach out to the muslim world and help them feel good about their historic contribution to science...


He really said that.

That would be the same Bolden who a couple of months ago stressed the need for NASA to develop a big rocket "in the 2020-2030 timeframe" (an HLV, for Heavy Lift Vehicle), who spoke of "game-changing technologies", who promised in-orbit refuelling.

That's it? No HLV, no in-orbit refueling? And making muslims feel good about their historic achievements in science, those are the "new game-changing technologies"?

Breathing in.

Breathing out.

Breathing in.

Breathing out.


Some sound advice for Americans.

You better do your DAMNEDEST BEST to reconquer the House AND the Senate from the democratic loons this fall, or by the timeframe 2020-2030 NASA will be producing fireworks.



MFBB.

SATURDAY NIGHT MUSE, VANGELIS, DURAN DURAN, BJORK.

Muse with New Born. Single drawn from the 2001 album Origin of Symmetry.





Singer's Matthew Bellamy.


Vangelis with the theme from Blade Runner. 1982.




Relatively impressive cast in that movie, which is loosely based on a Philip K. Dick novel, although I didn't know at the time who that was. There's Harrison Ford, Sean Young, and Rutger Hauer. Daryl Hannah. The movie wasn't too bad. After all, Ridley Scott directed.


I had actually wanted to have the original by Bob Dylan but helaas plattekaas, no such luck. You'll have to do it with a 1995 Duran Duran cover. Lay Lady Lay. Shoot me.




We end this wonderful night with Bjork's Isobel. Good song, and interesting video btw. Isobel's from the 1995 album Post.




Bjork is actually a quarterwit or worse. What do you want, her dad is a union leader. Well, general nuttiness has never stopped people from making good music.


Good night from among zhe rolling Belgian fields.



MFBB.

THOMAS BERTONNEAU ON AVIATION PIONEERS.

Being very much an aviation fan and one of those tens of millions of boys who never saw their youth dreams come true, I was surprised pleasantly by an article by that erudite The Brussels Journal contributor, Thomas Bertonneau, who is a visiting Professor of English at the State University of New York College, Oswego, New York, and who holds a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature.


"...The Sound Barrier begins with Peel’s Spitfire above the English Channel at Dover. It ends with a glimpse of the distant heavens. These bracketing images define the metaphysical trajectory of the story, very much in the mode per aspera ad astra. Lean conveys the idea that technical progress itself accelerates by the simple expedient of sequencing the types. The Attacker, a jet fighter for the Royal Navy first flown in 1946, incorporated the laminar-flow wing originally intended by Supermarine for its piston-engine successor to the Spitfire, the Spiteful. The twin-boomed DeHavilland Vampire followed into service Britain’s first jet fighter, the Gloster Meteor, the only allied jet aircraft to serve operationally during World War Two. The Vampire (below), which like the Attacker was a straight-wing airplane, only just missed the war. In the 1950s it flew with dozens of air forces around the world.

In two extended flying sequences the Attacker, despite its conventional planform, looks swift and agile. Cameraman Jack Hildyard (1908-1990) – he would work with Lean again on The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) – captures the three-dimensional aerobatics in what is arguably the best flight-related footage ever filmed.
The Sound Barrier is not a war movie although it is a story of conflicts. Hildyard’s aerobatic sequences, synchronized perfectly in finished form with Arnold’s deft score, emphasize the solitude and lyricism of airframe testing. Another acoustic element of the film deserves mention: The sound of the jet engines – which the Foley artist on Lean’s post-production team makes to resemble now an equine whinny, now the rolling thunder, and now the screech of the banshee, with many subtle shadings in between – belongs to the galvanizing sensory reality of reaction propulsion. Arnold orchestrates with his usual canniness, showcasing instruments of high register, like the flutes and piccolos, in the fabric of whose intertwining timbres the voice of the engines fits like one of the family.

Two actual aviation events dogged The Sound Barrier in the year of its release. The Americans had broken the proverbial “barrier” in level flight in 1947 with the Bell X-1 rocket plane, but the United States Air Force kept the feat secret until five years later, when the British were still only diving their aircraft past Mach One. The American revelation, coming when the film debuted, stole some of Lean’s thunder. Then at Farnborough in 1952, test pilot John D. Derry’s DeHavilland DH.110 fighter plane (below) – a swept wing evolution of the Vampire – broke up in flight killing Derry and co-pilot observer Anthony Richards. [Clip] Seconds before the disaster Derry had dived his machine through Mach One.

Twenty-nine spectators also perished when heavy debris from the mid-air disintegration smashed down on the crowd. Fellow test pilot Neville Duke almost immediately took to the air in a prototype Hawker Hunter, flying in which he exceeded Mach One in a dive. Speaking of supersonic flight regimes in the early days, the dean of British test pilots Eric Brown once said in an interview, “We realized that this was going to be a very costly field.”

Death in the air belongs to the thematics of Lean’s film, which references the DH.110 crash at Farnborough. On the day after their nuptials the newlywed Garthwaites witness the death of Susan’s diffident younger brother Christopher (Denholm Elliot) when he tries to fly solo, under pressure from his father, in a light plane. The daughter holds her brother’s death against the father whom she comes to regard as heartless and cold. Christopher’s plane need not have caught fire on hitting the ground, Ridgefield remarks to Tony after the funeral, “if only he had switched off.” The death was pilot error, the parent implies. Susan glares silently. Garthwaite becomes the substitute son, bonding closely with Ridgefield, whose laconic determination he respects and comes increasingly to share. He shrugs off danger with the casual words, “Piece of cake.” Susan’s worries put a strain on the marriage, especially when she learns that she is pregnant.

The Sound Barrier realistically shows the sexual division in these matters. In their pioneering ambition and unsentimental commitment to technical challenge men willingly risk their lives in extreme situations. The uxor, averse to the hard metallic world of the machines, lives moodily, jealous of the man’s preoccupation, and always expecting the worst.

Lean leads viewers on for some time into seeing it from Susan’s viewpoint. (She has a viewpoint, the feminine one, after all.) Even Ridgefield’s chief engineer Will Sparks (Joseph Tomelty) begins to think his boss inhuman. Aided immensely by Richardson’s representation, however, the director gradually reveals Ridgefield, the industrialist, as a hero in his own right – a necessary man seeing to a necessary job. Garthwaite asks Sparks, “Seriously, apart from the buffeting, and the heavy controls, and the wanging and banging, and other little problems, what does happen to an aeroplane at the speed of sound?” Sparks replies, “I don’t know, and shall I tell you something, Tony – no one else does either.” Ridgefield tells Susan that there is “a whole new world with speeds of fifteen hundred and two thousand miles per hour within the grasp of man.” He regards his son-in-law as the fellow who will grasp that world.

Garthwaite will “buy it” flying in the “Prometheus,” actually the Supermarine Swift. Even more than the Attacker sequences, the “Prometheus” sequences constitute the scenic highpoint of The Sound Barrier. Whereas the Attacker wears its Royal Navy livery, Lean puts the Swift in clean metal finish, giving accent to its pleasing lines. The Swift belongs to the beautiful late-1940s generation of jet fighters. Like its contemporaries the North American F-86 Sabre Jet (below left) and the Hawker Hunter (below right), the Swift possessed elegance of shape regrettably not achieved in the later generations of fighter aircraft. In the “Prometheus” sequences, too, Lean exploits the seeming contrast between the technical sophistication of the machine and the rustic beauty of the English countryside. For Lean, the machine is not inimical to the natural surroundings. A farmer’s acre is already an alteration of nature, indeed. Viewers also see the tiny silver fleck of the Swift against mountainous clouds in a vast sky, a reminder that nature still towers over man. "


Upon reading this part of Bertonneau's column, I was reminded of that famous late nineteenth century aviator pioneer, Otto Lilienthal (1848-1896), of whom I read a lot as a boy. The name suggests he was a German, and indeed he became one, but he was actually born a Prussian in Anklam, a town in Pomerania, a region close to the Baltic. German he only became after that other Otto, the Bismarck one, unified Germany.





Lilienthal was a necessary link in the chain of aviation pioneers that led to the Wilbur brothers' succes in 1903. Indeed, Wilbur and Orville Wright considered him their most significant predecessor. Lilienthal, who was himself indebted much to Sir George Cayley, devised many gliders and made numerous flights. Perhaps it was the fact that Pomerania is part of the Great European Lowland that forced him to erect his own artificial hill whence he made his gliding sorties:





How goes the saying? Faith moves mountains? Lilienthal did it. Try to explain that to today's ecowussies, sensitivity managers and political correctness apparatchiks.





Otto Lilienthal was killed when the top wing of a novel biplane glider design broke off. He fell from a height of 17 meters. His last words were "Kleine Opfer muessen gebracht werden" ("Small sacrifices must be made"). Hello again, androgynous wimps?


Now on to one of my early jet age favorites. The Hawker Hunter. Designed by that magnificent character Sydney Camm, who was also the father of the Hawker Hurricane.





Back to Bertonneau, more precisely to a money quote at the end of his article:

"...I also owe a good deal of what I know about flight and airplanes to my older brother, Dan (born 1936) – an aerospace engineer with stints at Lockheed, where he redesigned the ejection seat of the F-104, and at North American, where he worked on the J-5 engine of the Saturn V Moon Rocket at the managerial level.

My male students at SUNY Oswego, where I teach in the English Department, know almost nothing about flight or airplanes. They have never read Pylon (1935) by William Faulkner or Pilote de Guerre (1942) by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry and they have never heard of Flying Aces or the Supermarine Swift or the Sabre Jet. This deficiency belongs to their general spiritual emasculation in a world dominated by sensitivity, emotions, free-association, “smiley faces,” “fairness,” “comfort food,” soccer leagues for girls, “women’s studies,” “bad hair days,” “offense” and other specifically female institutions, conspiracies, and phenomena. In a Spenglerian mood, I say that fathers should instill in their sons careful appreciation for powerful, dangerous, and extravagant machines..."

DAMN. RIGHT. If you are so lucky to be the father of a young son, and you catch him watching crap from James Cameron with blue apes in it, switch off the dvd player. Make him see something like...

... like...


... well, this may be a good start:





You might then try to make him watch The Bridges at Toko-Ri, with William Holden:





I can't say it's a thousand times better than Avatar, because when I was wearing short pants they taught me mathematics instead of cultural awareness, and one of the things we learned was that 1,000 times zero is still zero.


Now, to wisen your son up completely, and make him foster REAL AND DESERVED RESPECT, not the "respect" they teach us we should have for an insane paedophile worshipper cult which instills into its followers the desire to fly beautiful planes in skyscrapers...

... let him read, as soon as his reading skills allow it, Such Men as These, by David Sears.


Ignore Outlaw Mike's good advice at your own peril.



MFBB.

PARTI SOCIALISTE SHOWS TRUE COLOURS.

Last Saturday, in Anderlecht, one of Brussels' 19 communes, the mayor Of Molenbeek, Philippe Moureaux, married his moroccan sweetheart Latifa Benaicha. Moureaux is a prominent member of the Parti Socialiste (he's chairman of the Brussels Federation). His bride "works" in the cabinet of Brussels Minister-President Charles Picqué (Parti Socialiste).





Moureaux is a notorious socialist cretin and dhimmi, who forbids the Molenbeek Police to eat sandwiches and/or drink coffee in the streets during Ramadan. He has also ordered them not to patrol anymore in the no-go areas, which has resulted in the effective establishment of a mini islamic republic in his commune.

This man is one of the architects of Belgium's "anti-racism" laws, which were primarily tailor-made to harass the Vlaams Belang. In an earlier post I explained that Moureaux is actually a racist himself - never in my life have I heard this scumbag utter one word in Flemish (though it is Flemish money that keeps his fiefdom financially afloat) - but he did follow arabic lessons to be able to converse with his wife and her family. According to moroccan law - and Morocco is actively infiltrating in Belgium and enforcing its laws on Belgium's moroccan community - Moureaux now has to submit a testimony of his conversion to islam, to make the marriage in the bride's country of origin legal. Of course, the scoundrel denies this. However, article 39 of the moudwana (the moroccan marriage legislation) is very clear: a marriage of a muslim woman with a muslim man is not authorised otherwise the marriage will not be recognized.




Philippe Moureaux, traitor, dhimmi, socialist parasite.


It is common "wisdom" to state that the Vlaams Belang is a divisive party since it insists so vehemently on the abolition of the Belgian state and on Flemish independence. However, in my opinion the REAL divisive factor is the Parti Socialiste, which over the course of seventy years has impoverished Wallonia and Brussels. The economic trainwreck that is Belgium's south today is entirely the result of socialist policies, which have pushed probably one and a half million Walloons in a state of permanent state dependency. The money needed for their welfare checks comes for the most part from productive Flanders, via a federal redistribution scheme that ensures that statistically speaking, every Fleming, from the newborn to the centenarian, pays in excess of 2,000 EUR a year to finance the south's social "security".

Mark Steyn not so long ago famously wrote that socialism changes the people themselves. He is right. If you are too long on the government teat, after some time you are effectively unable to fend for yourself. With financial dependence comes moral decadence. This explains why during the recent parliamentary elections, a staggering total of 36% of Walloons voted for the Parti Socialiste - even though that party is so corrupt that if a brief summary of a table of contents of their scandals over the last decade would fall on your foot, you would be incapacitated for six weeks.

The socialists have ruined the states finances, passed legislation that destroys the family (while facilitating forms of marriage that are a travesty of what that institution should be), enabled abortion, and set the doors wide open for uncontrolled mass immigration from (mostly) muslim countries.

Perhaps nothing illustrates the latter point so good as the following video of a moroccan festival in Molenbeek. You do recognize the mustachioed guy on on the posters, right?





Just remember. These images were shot in Brussels, the Capital of Europe.

Courtesy the Parti Socialiste.



MFBB.

SATURDAY NIGHT ROXY MUSIC, THE SHIRTS.

Roxy Music with Same old scene, from the album Flesh + Blood, 1980.




Thirty years old and still kicking.


The Shirts with Laugh and Walk Away. 1979.




Thirty-one years old and still kicking.


Nite.



MFBB.

THANK GOD THE FRENCH HAVE THE CHINESE TO STAND UP TO MUSLIMS.

Via Galliawatch, June 21, 2010. If you thought muslim "youths" - or make it muslims by extension since the "elders" don't give a flying shit about what their degenerated offspring is doing in the streets - well, if you thought muslims in Europe only harass indigenous Europeans, you are mistaken. Literally everywhere on the planet the adherents of this criminally insane, cruel, isgusting, inhuman and utterly contemptible "religion" are a royal pain in the *ss for decent, productive and law-abiding non-muslims, and it is no different in Europe, host to a plethora of ethnic minorities.

Southeast and east Asians are a hardworking class with close to nil criminality among them. They work (very) hard, respect the law, pay taxes, and their personal behavior vis-à-vis indigenous Europeans is almost unanimously very decent and courteous. They are your dream immigrants.

Alas, for the paedophile worshippers that does not make any difference at all. Like their indigenous French co-citizens, Chinese immigrants in France are legitimate targets too.

And last weekend, they had enough. A pathetic Apéro-party by mostly indigenous Frenchmen to protest the relentless and state-sponsored islamization of their country barely mobilized the pathetic number of 800 Claudes, Jacques, Virginies and Isabelles.

But the small Chinese community in Paris managed to produce a demo numbering more than ten times that number:

"The Chinese residents of Paris demonstrated on Sunday against acts of violence by Arabs. There was a huge turnout - 8500 people according to the police, (over 10,000 according to Novopress), in the neighborhood of Belleville, in East Paris, the largest demonstration by Asians ever organized in France. The organizers of the demonstration spoke of a "growing climate of insecurity". Included among the demonstrators was the adopted daughter of Jacques Chirac - Anh, Dao Traxel of Vietnamese origin. There are an estimated 600,000 - 700,000 Asian residents in France, most of them in Paris and its suburbs.





However, the rally turned violent when, according to one demonstrator:

"Someone stole a Chinese lady's purse. The Chinese caught him, and alerted the police, who let him go. We are not violent, but it was too much."

At 7:30 p.m. young Chinese were still throwing glass bottles at the mobile gendarmes, lined up with their shields, who threw tear gas in turn. Earlier, the gendarmes had been targets of the demonstrators, some of whom threw tables and chairs taken from the La Vielleuse Bar.

Another report adds these details:

"Stop the violence, We want to live in security. We've had enough of these attacks. Respect for all." These words were written on tee-shirts, caps, and banners.

"There are too many people attacked by Arabs. They grab purses, they break shop windows, we no longer feel safe," cried out a young demonstrator as gongs and drums sounded.

According to Philippe Costa, president of the France-China Club, elected officials have demonstrated their inability to deal with crime in this multicultural neighborhood. "Many people won't come into Belleville from fear of attacks. Those who live there and work there are easy targets, because a lot of money circulates. We are asking for surveillance cameras. We do not want any more thugs in Belleville."

A spokesman for the Chinese associations says that the Chinese community can no longer keep silent. "It is not usual for Asians to demonstrate, but this has been going on for 20 years. Everybody passes the buck. This is a neighborhood that borders on four arrondissements."

Note: Paris seems to be dividing up, fragmenting into livable and non livable areas, with the livable areas slowly but surely giving way..."

It takes a village of Chinese to come up for the rights of Jean-Claude and Jacqueline.





If France is to survive in any meaningful way, it will probably depend just as well on non-muslim foreign ethnicities as on autochton Frenchmen and -women. Probably more so. What to think, e.g., of French Prime Minister François Fillon, a multiculti lunatic, of Sarkozy's party no less, who is hellbent on issuing 170,000 visas a year to Algerians (a trebling compared to 1997's 57,000) and who will inaugurate on Monay June 28 yet another new mosque, at Argenteuil. Via Observatoire de l'Islamisation:




Meanwhile, the "bleus", the French soccer team, has become so overwhelmingly islamic that it demands a halal meal whenever it is invited somewhere:


"Cela me choque par exemple que l’équipe de France demande un buffet halal pour être reçue quelque part."


France will be the first European country to go down in flames. May it be a final wake up call for the rest of Europe to arm itself and use, if necessary, Deadly Force against the muslim cancer destroying the continent from within.



MFBB.

THE NEW DEAL: NOT EXACTLY A "BIG F*CKING DEAL".

To the point column by His Master's Voice Thomas Sowell over at National Review:

"Sometimes you can read a book that will change your mind on some fundamental issue. Rarely, however, is there just one page that can undermine or destroy a widely held belief. But there is such a page — page 77 of the book Out of Work, by Richard Vedder and Lowell Gallaway.

The widespread belief is that government intervention is the key to getting the country out of a serious economic downturn. The example often cited is Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt’s intervention after the stock-market crash of 1929 was followed by the Great Depression of the 1930s, with its massive and long-lasting unemployment.

This is more than just a question about history. Right here and right now, there is a widespread belief that the unregulated market is what got us into our present economic predicament, and that the government must “do something” to get the economy moving again. FDR’s intervention in the 1930s has often been cited by those who think this way.

What is on that one page in Out of Work that could change people’s minds? Just a simple table, giving unemployment rates for every month during the entire decade of the 1930s.

Those who think that the stock-market crash in October 1929 is what caused the huge unemployment rates of the 1930s will have a hard time reconciling that belief with the data in that table.

Although the big stock-market crash occurred in October 1929, unemployment never reached double digits in any of the 12 months after that crash. Unemployment peaked at 9 percent, two months after the stock market crashed — and then began drifting generally downward over the next six months, falling to 6.3 percent by June 1930.

This was what happened in the market, before the federal government decided to “do something.”

"What the government decided to do in June 1930 — against the advice of literally a thousand economists, who took out newspaper ads warning against it — was impose higher tariffs, in order to save American jobs by reducing imported goods.

This was the first massive federal intervention to rescue the economy, under Pres. Herbert Hoover, who took pride in being the first president of the United States to intervene to try to get the economy out of an economic downturn.

Within six months after this government intervention, unemployment shot up into double digits — and stayed in double digits in every month throughout the entire remainder of the 1930s, as the Roosevelt administration expanded federal intervention far beyond what Hoover had started.

...

If more government regulation of business is the magic answer that so many seem to think it is, the whole history of the 1930s should have been different. An economic study in 2004 concluded that New Deal policies prolonged the Great Depression. But the same story can be found on one page in Out of Work.

While the market produced a peak unemployment rate of 9 percent — briefly — after the stock-market crash of 1929, unemployment shot up after massive federal interventions in the economy. It rose above 20 percent in 1932 and stayed above 20 percent for 23 consecutive months, beginning in the Hoover administration and continuing during the Roosevelt administration.

The very fact that we still remember the stock market crash of 1929 is remarkable, since there was a similar stock-market crash in 1987 that most people have long since forgotten.

What was the difference between these two stock-market crashes? The 1929 stock-market crash was followed by the most catastrophic depression in American history, with as many as one-fourth of all American workers being unemployed. The 1987 stock-market crash was followed by two decades of economic growth with low unemployment.

But that was only one difference. The other big difference was that the Reagan administration did not intervene in the economy after the 1987 stock-market crash — despite many outcries in the media that the government should “do something.”"

— Thomas Sowell is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution. © 2010 Creators Syndicate, Inc.


I have unfortunately been unable to retrieve the notorious graph on page 77 of Vedder and Lowell's book. I have however found a similar one which tells basically the same story. The numbers stare you in the face:





Note that the mean unemployment percentage and the median unemployment percentage are practically equal, 18.23 vs 18.10. This means that there are few extreme values in between the "lowest" percentage, 8.7% (!) and the highest, 24.9%. (yeah, that's twenty-four point nine per cent unemployment). Bottom line: pretty constant misery and no matter how much the FDR administration tried to "create" or "save" jobs in this lost decade, it had no influence at all. The only "influence" it had was the dull pain caused by the intrinsically wrong premisse - that the State can create jobs. A state can, apart from the working places with which it necessarily has to fill its administrations, not create jobs. And the number of those working places should be modest. Dick Armey did some useful research regarding the maximum desirable size of government. Yet what FDR was determined to do was the same as what the current occupant of the White House does (or wants us to believe to): "create jobs". In the 1930's, Roosevelt basically extended the brief 1929-1930 recession to a full blown depression lasting a decade. And his "famous" New Deal... actually destroyed the lives of tens of millions of ordinary Americans.

It should of course be noted that it was actually Hoover, a Republican, who gave the opening shots in this dismal adventure. Of course, FDR took it a step further, or rather, a whole flight of steps. But Hoover's decision to impose higher tariffs through the notorious Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, a typically leftist mechanism, reminds us that long before George W. Bush and Paulson tried a leftist method (their 2008 168 billion$ "mini stimulus" package, which achieved nothing), other rightwing presidents made the mistake of picking a recipe from the leftist cookbook.

They shouldn't.

Never.

I shudder at the thought that people in positions FAR HIGHER than mine in life, indeed, a person supposed to be the mightiest man in the world, fails to learn simple lessons from history. And that he gets away with it. More, that he is actively supported in his devastating schemes by people who should know better.



MFBB.

NEW BOOK BY MELANIE PHILLIPS: THE WORLD TURNED UPSIDE DOWN.

Melanie Phillips has written a new book, The World Turned Upside Down: The Global Battle over God, Truth, and Power. An interview you shouldn't miss, in which she discusses it with NRO's Kathryn Jean Lopez, can be found here. Some exerpts:

"... KATHRYN JEAN LOPEZ: What’s notable about the current “apparent mass departure from rationality”?

MELANIE PHILLIPS: What I have found so striking is that, in this supposed age of reason, there is such an implacable refusal, over a wide and disparate range of issues, to acknowledge the authority of factual evidence over opinion, or distinguish truth from propaganda and lies, or differentiate between justice and injustice, victim and victimizer. More than that, this phenomenon is confined to the supposed custodians of reason, the intelligentsia; and some of the most prominent of these often-militant “rationalists” propound assertions that are demonstrably irrational.

Even more striking is that this repudiation of reason is associated with the most fashionable and progressive causes — anti-imperialism, anti-Americanism, anti-Zionism, environmentalism, moral and cultural relativism, multiculturalism, scientism. Yet they promote not just irrationality but a return to primitivism, pre-modern levels of social disorder, and the persecution of dissenters.


LOPEZ: What does a self-described “agnostic” care about God?

PHILLIPS: You don’t have to be a religious believer to understand that if religion — more specifically, the Hebrew Bible and the Christianity that built upon it — underpins Western civilization and the codes of right and wrong — putting others above yourself, freedom and equality, and belief in reason — that form the bedrock of that civilization, then eroding or destroying that religion will erode or destroy those virtues and the civilization they distinguish..."

"... One of the mysteries of the age is the way “progressives” who fetishize sexual freedom, gay rights, female equality, and the like march shoulder to shoulder with Islamists who stone adulterers, kill gays, and subjugate women. They share a common desire to destroy the cultural traditions and normative values of the West — all in the cause of creating the perfect society, which creates in turn a totalitarian mindset, which links religious fanatics and the political tyrannies of both Communism and fascism.

LOPEZ: Why do you put the word “progressives” in quotation marks?

PHILLIPS: Glad you asked that! Because there’s nothing progressive about the totalitarian fanatics of the Left, even though they claim that label for themselves. One of our biggest problems is the hijacking of language by the Left, which has turned words such as “liberal,” “tolerant,” and “progressive” into their very opposites. I do believe in being progressive in the true sense — the authentic, classical-liberal goal of creating a better society by encouraging the good and discouraging the bad. But to achieve that, we have to reclaim the language of social progress for its true meaning, which is based on a proper differentiation between right and wrong, truth and lies, justice and injustice. Until we do that, we allow ourselves to be co-opted into the discourse of moral and intellectual inversion, and we allow the lunatics to run the asylum.

I do hope that this language is not politically incorrect.


LOPEZ: Are there really a hundred thousand practicing pagans in Britain today? There’s a Pagan Police Association?

PHILLIPS: Yup! It’s testimony, is it not, to the rich diversity of diversity in Britain? We all have to keep straight faces while our police officers take official leave to dance naked ’round a pile of stones..."

"... LOPEZ: What is the “Middle East Witch-Hunt”?

PHILLIPS: Medieval witch-hunts involved singling out certain women as scapegoats and then killing them for crimes of which they were innocent but of which they found themselves incapable of proving their innocence because the case against them was rigged. In Britain in particular, but also in parts of Europe and on American campuses (see the Mearsheimer/Walt calumny), there is an obsessive malice toward Israel which goes far beyond reasoned debate and has become a pathological scapegoating of a nation.

The treatment of Israel by the left-wing Western intelligentsia is unique in its irrationality and moral and historical inversion. It takes a nation that is the historic victim of aggression and blames it for jeopardizing peace in the region and causing Islamic extremism worldwide — despite demonstrable evidence that this is simply untrue. It accuses Israel, wholly falsely, of “apartheid” and ethnic cleansing when Israeli Arabs have full civil rights and the Palestinian population has increased many times over — and when Jews are excluded from parts of the Arab world (including the putative state of Palestine).

It takes a nation that has been under exterminatory attack for six decades (nine, if you include the Palestine Mandate) and insists that it make compromises with its attackers, even as they continue to attack it. And if any Jew dares protest at the manifest injustice, lies, and bigotry in this unique delegitimization, they find themselves accused of “dual loyalty” or being part of a covert global conspiracy to put the world at risk..."

Hat tip American Power. Stole their pic too. Being an outlaw's easy.


MFBB.

SATURDAY NIGHT BREAD, KAYAK, SUSAN FASSBENDER, ECHO & THE BUNNYMEN.

Imho the best Bread single ever, Guitar Man. Released 1972.



These guys were quite hot in the weird transitory decade that the seventies was. Bread hailed from LA, and were the quintessential exponents of the genre that came to be known as soft rock. Originally, the band consisted of singer David Gates who was also a multi-instrumentalist (guitar, keyboards, violin, bass, percussion, even viola), Robb Royer (also a multi-instrumentalist, playing bass, guitar, flute, keyboards, percussion, recorder), Jimmy Griffin (vocals, guitar, keyboards, percussion), and Mike Botts (drums). Larry Knechtel came on board in 1971, replacing Royer.


A truly magnificent number by Dutch band Kayak, Ruthless Queen. Call it a golden and diamond oldie. Don't know to what extent these guys became known in the Anglosaxon world.



Kayak was founded in 1972 by Tom Scherpenzeel and Pim Koopman.


Another one hit wonder, Susan Fassbender with Twilight Cafe in 1981.



Fassbender, born Whincup, committed suicide in 1991 at the age of 32. Sad.


Rescue from Echo & The Bunnymen. 1980 we write.



Guys are from Liverpool. Once I knew a girl from Liverpool whom I met in - I'm not making this up - the Cathedral of Notre Dame on the Île de la Cité in the heart of Paris. Joanne was her name, and she was quite a dish. I went to visit her in the summer of the year after - we're talking 1990 then - and screwed up completely. Well - the conquest of wimin was never a piece of cake for ole Outlaw. In the end I got it right though. You got to persevere in life. With hindsight, Oliver Stoned's movie Platoon was a piece of shit, but there's a couple of lines in it worth retaining. At one point trooper King (Keith david) says to trooper Chris (Charlie Fucking Sheen): "Always keep ready to fuck and to fight, and the world will turn". Or something like that.

I have always remembered that.


Greetz from Belgium.



MFBB.

JOSE MARIA AZNAR: IF ISRAEL GOES DOWN, WE ALL GO DOWN.

There's a lot to be said with regards to the elections in the Low Countries, but my head is just not into it. Also, it's depressing to time and again witness people who should know better base their vote on pure emotions. Again, they voted for a perception. They will get reality, and it will hit them hard.

Instead, here's something from a guy who was as real as rough waves hitting rocks. Brilliant The Times article from Jose Maria Aznar, former Spanish PM. Hat tip Tundra Tabloids:

SUPPORT ISRAEL: IF IT GOES DOWN, WE ALL GO DOWN.

José María Aznar
June 17 2010

"Anger over Gaza is a distraction. We cannot forget that Israel is the West’s best ally in a turbulent region.

For far too long now it has been unfashionable in Europe to speak up for Israel. In the wake of the recent incident on board a ship full of anti-Israeli activists in the Mediterranean, it is hard to think of a more unpopular cause to champion.
In an ideal world, the assault by Israeli commandos on the Mavi Marmara would not have ended up with nine dead and a score wounded. In an ideal world, the soldiers would have been peacefully welcomed on to the ship. In an ideal world, no state, let alone a recent ally of Israel such as Turkey, would have sponsored and organised a flotilla whose sole purpose was to create an impossible situation for Israel: making it choose between giving up its security policy and the naval blockade, or risking the wrath of the world.

In our dealings with Israel, we must blow away the red mists of anger that too often cloud our judgment. A reasonable and balanced approach should encapsulate the following realities: first, the state of Israel was created by a decision of the UN. Its legitimacy, therefore, should not be in question. Israel is a nation with deeply rooted democratic institutions. It is a dynamic and open society that has repeatedly excelled in culture, science and technology.

Second, owing to its roots, history, and values, Israel is a fully fledged Western nation. Indeed, it is a normal Western nation, but one confronted by abnormal circumstances.

Uniquely in the West, it is the only democracy whose very existence has been questioned since its inception. In the first instance, it was attacked by its neighbours using the conventional weapons of war. Then it faced terrorism culminating in wave after wave of suicide attacks. Now, at the behest of radical Islamists and their sympathisers, it faces a campaign of delegitimisation through international law and diplomacy.

Sixty-two years after its creation, Israel is still fighting for its very survival. Punished with missiles raining from north and south, threatened with destruction by an Iran aiming to acquire nuclear weapons and pressed upon by friend and foe, Israel, it seems, is never to have a moment’s peace.

For years, the focus of Western attention has understandably been on the peace process between Israelis and Palestinians. But if Israel is in danger today and the whole region is slipping towards a worryingly problematic future, it is not due to the lack of understanding between the parties on how to solve this conflict. The parameters of any prospective peace agreement are clear, however difficult it may seem for the two sides to make the final push for a settlement.

The real threats to regional stability, however, are to be found in the rise of a radical Islamism which sees Israel’s destruction as the fulfilment of its religious destiny and, simultaneously in the case of Iran, as an expression of its ambitions for regional hegemony. Both phenomena are threats that affect not only Israel, but also the wider West and the world at large.

The core of the problem lies in the ambiguous and often erroneous manner in which too many Western countries are now reacting to this situation. It is easy to blame Israel for all the evils in the Middle East. Some even act and talk as if a new understanding with the Muslim world could be achieved if only we were prepared to sacrifice the Jewish state on the altar. This would be folly.

Israel is our first line of defence in a turbulent region that is constantly at risk of descending into chaos; a region vital to our energy security owing to our overdependence on Middle Eastern oil; a region that forms the front line in the fight against extremism. If Israel goes down, we all go down.

To defend Israel’s right to exist in peace, within secure borders, requires a degree of moral and strategic clarity that too often seems to have disappeared in Europe. The United States shows worrying signs of heading in the same direction.

The West is going through a period of confusion over the shape of the world’s future. To a great extent, this confusion is caused by a kind of masochistic self-doubt over our own identity; by the rule of political correctness; by a multiculturalism that forces us to our knees before others; and by a secularism which, irony of ironies, blinds us even when we are confronted by jihadis promoting the most fanatical incarnation of their faith. To abandon Israel to its fate, at this moment of all moments, would merely serve to illustrate how far we have sunk and how inexorable our decline now appears.

This cannot be allowed to happen. Motivated by the need to rebuild our own Western values, expressing deep concern about the wave of aggression against Israel, and mindful that Israel’s strength is our strength and Israel’s weakness is our weakness, I have decided to promote a new Friends of Israel initiative with the help of some prominent people, including David Trimble, Andrew Roberts, John Bolton, Alejandro Toledo (the former President of Peru), Marcello Pera (philosopher and former President of the Italian Senate), Fiamma Nirenstein (the Italian author and politician), the financier Robert Agostinelli and the Catholic intellectual George Weigel.

It is not our intention to defend any specific policy or any particular Israeli government. The sponsors of this initiative are certain to disagree at times with decisions taken by Jerusalem. We are democrats, and we believe in diversity.
What binds us, however, is our unyielding support for Israel’s right to exist and to defend itself. For Western countries to side with those who question Israel’s legitimacy, for them to play games in international bodies with Israel’s vital security issues, for them to appease those who oppose Western values rather than robustly to stand up in defence of those values, is not only a grave moral mistake, but a strategic error of the first magnitude.

Israel is a fundamental part of the West. The West is what it is thanks to its Judeo-Christian roots. If the Jewish nt of those roots is upturned and Israel is lost, then we are lost too. Whether we like it or not, our fate is inextricably intertwined."

José María Aznar was Prime Minister of Spain, 1996-2004


In 2004, in the wake of the Madrid bombings, the Spaniards basically did what muslim terrorists wanted them to do: elect the lunatic Zapatero instead of rewarding Aznar. It is true that the Aznar government botched its communication regarding the attacks, too long suggesting that they might be the work of ETA. But then, the Spaniards simply did not have the balls to appreciate the work of their troops in OIF, calculated they were being punished for it, and blamed Aznar for trying to suggest there was no link. Where they should have risen up defiantly, and backed sending MORE TROOPS to Iraq, they put their pants down, opened their asscheeks wide, and begged to be fucked in the arse. They were well served.

Now, how does a message from Zapatero compares to Aznar's? Easy. Read this:

"After talks with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, Spanish Prime Minister José Zapatero called for a "strong joint EU position" on Gaza and Israel's blockade. Spain is set to propose Monday that the 27-nation bloc call for an end to the blockade.

By News Wires

AFP - Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, whose country holds the European Union's rotating presidency, called Saturday for a "strong, joint EU position" on Gaza and Israel's blockade.

"We want to forge a strong, joint EU position towards what happened in Gaza and the humanitarian situation in that area," he said after talks with Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas.

Zapatero said his foreign minister, Miguel Angel Moratinos, would propose to his EU colleagues at a meeting on Monday that the 27-nation bloc "clearly declare itself in favour of ending the blockade of the Gaza Strip."

Moratinos said in a television interview this week that the ministers would discuss "a plan for lifting the blockade" in order to "ensure the entry" of humanitarian aid, commercial goods and people..."

Aznar vs Zapatero: character vs weakness.

During Aznar's eight years, unemployment was halved from 20% - a legacy from another socialist government - to 10%. These days, after six years Zapatero, it is about to hit a staggering 22%. Just dig this: the election poster below boasts: "For full employment"...





... but this is what Spaniards got. The years from 1996 to 2004 are the Aznar years:





The catastrophic spike towards the end is Zapatero's handiwork. Btw, real good post from Soeren Kern on Spain's woes over at The Brussels Journal - don't miss it.

Well, at least the Spaniards got gay marriage. And gay adoption. And millions of illegals. And muezzins calling for prayer from minarets in Granada. And orang-utans with human rights. And irresponsible youngsters who screw up with state-paid abortions. Good thing in a country with a fertility rate of 1.1 children per woman.

Good luck idiots. I suppose you like the change? Enjoy it!



MFBB.

SATURDAY NIGHT INXS, KEANE, VOTING ADVICE FOR BELGIANS.

In 1987, Aussie band INXS caused quite a sensation when they released "Kick", their sixth studio album. From it, here's "New Sensation", one of the six or so singles drawn from that album.





Frontman Michael Hutchence died in 1997 after sniffing too much white stuff thru his boogerholes.


Everybody's Changing, a 2004 hit from UK band Keane. Is currently composed of Tom Chaplin (lead vocals), Tim Rice-Oxley (piano, backing vocals), and Richard Hughes (drums, percussion).





Two numbers only, I'm not in the mood. Parliamentary elections in Belgium tomorrow, and I don't feel none too well about them.

Both in Flanders and Wallonia the Right, or what passes for it, is hopelessly fractured. In Flanders, the Vlaams Belang has, over the past four years or so, lost terribly in market share because of the emergency of two VB Lite parties. The Flemish voter, who as a rule is rather dumb and not as steadfast as yours truly, gave one of those parties, Lijst Dedecker, a huge score two years ago. Today, that party's star has waned and now it's the turn for the other one, NVA. Its frontman Bart De Wever is a pathetic jackass and is, like his colleague party chairmen in the establishment, a part of the problem rather than the solution.

But just like Outlaw Mike saw six years ago from the very start that BHO was a crook and the American public is finding that out only now, and just like I saw in 2008 that Jean-Marie Dedecker was a hot air balloon while it took Flemings two years to come to the same conclusion, I see now that De Wever is just another nonachiever too - but unfortunately it will take the Jan Peetersens in the street again some time to catch up with Outlaw Mike's political genius.

The only steadfast value in the Belgian political landscape, and I say 'Belgian' because there is no equivalent in Wallonia, is the Vlaams Belang. NO OTHER PARTY sees the dangers facing our society so clearly, and is so committed to administer painful but effective cures instead of the put-bandage-over-a-tumor approach of the rest of the Belgian parties.

It is too bad, TOO BAD, that its leaders keep committing the same grievous strategical error, namely hammering on Flemish Independence. As I have asserted on these pages more than once, Belgium is NOT an artificial nation. Like Siamese twins, Flanders and Wallonia are tied to each other. Perhaps more than any other reason for the decline of the VB over the past years - the emergence of 'lighter' VB versions, and the despair among the party's voters about the undemocratic monstrosity of the cordon sanitaire - this element of the party programme - independence for Flanders - is making people turn their heads away from the VB. The ordinary Fleming KNOWS about the financial transfers going south - in both senses. But he just doesn't care enough to cope with the godforsaken MESS a split of the country would cause.

Be that as it may, I extend my best wishes to the VB for tomorrow.

Personally, as we live in Wallonia, my vote and my wife's will go to the Walloon Front National, although these idiots have managed to cause a rupture in their own ranks, further dangerously weakening the semblance of a Walloon right. Still, when offered the choice between a glass of muddy water and a glass of piss, it is, in my humble opinion, still better to drink the former.

Let us just hope - rather, let us PRAY - that tomorrow's elections, thru the weakness of the Belgian Right, won't lead to a socialist PM. If so, it risks to be Elio Di Rupo, chairman of the Walloon Parti Socialiste, the "Party of 1,000,000 scandals". I don't even care too much about the fact that Belgium would have the dubious "honor" of having the planet's first openly gay Prime Minister. It's more that Di Rupo and clique are presiding over the colossal economic trainwreck that is 21st century Wallonia, and might apply their wonderful - cough - economic model to the whole of the country.

I hope and pray God will have mercy on Belgium tomorrow.



MFBB.

STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN: MUSLIMS ATTACK POLICE STATION, SET FIRE TO SCHOOL. PREPARE FOR CIVIL WAR.

The colossal drama of the islamization of Europe is unfolding right before our eyes. Or would be, were it not that "incidents" like this are invariably relegated to less obvious media outlets.

About a hundred muslim youths set a school on fire in Rinkeby, a suburb of Stockholm, Sweden's capital. We have been talking about Rinkeby before on these pages, e;g. when I linked to this article in which investigator Backman found out that white blonde girls paint their hair in dark hues to avoid attention by muslim rapists. Our colleage Undhimmi regularly has updates on Rinkeby too.





Rinkeby is not the only place where muslims are targeting schools as part of their ethnic cleansing campaign. In April they set a kindergarten school on fire in the notorious Rosengard district in Malmo, southern Sweden:

"...The Jihad in Malmö continues apace. The Jews have largely left – and now the ‘youths’ (EUrabian code for ‘young Muslim hoodlums’) are looking for other targets:

A pre-school in Malmö’s Rosengård district was shut down on Monday morning in the interests of staff safety following an extended period of threats and harassment from a gang of local youths.

Henrik Wolter, a health and safety representative for the Swedish Teachers’ Union, took the decision to close the pre-school with immediate effect following consultation with district leaders.

The 34 children who attend the Herrgården pre-school have been moved temporarily to a school in Käglinge in south-east Malmö, but district chief Eva Ahlgren expects the children to move to a new location in Rosengård on Wednesday. In the longer term, places have been set aside for the children at a pre-school affiliated with Rosengård School, which is currently being extended..."

Prepare for war.


MFBB.

MEET FRANCOISE TENENBAUM, DESTROYER OF FRENCH SOCIETY.

It's not that this cunt is so special. It's rather that I shed light on her insignificant personage to illustrate the autodestructive behaviour of the Left in general, and the French Left in particular.

Françoise Tenenbaum is, ahem, "Deputy delegate for Solidarity and Health to the mayor of Dijon". Madame Tenenbaum is also a prominent member of the Parti Socialiste in that important city in eastern France. Here's her photo:





Not your type? Mine neither. Smug know-it-all attitude, radiating moral superiority like Chernobyl radioactivity right after the 1986 blowup. To top it all off, the sex appeal of a retired locust writing a grocery list. What do you want, they don't make 'em like this anymore. But that's not what I wanted to write about.

As basically ALL socialist do goodery types, so hopelessly superior to retarded uncouth unsophisticated rightwing neanderthals like me, myself and I, a couple of years back, Madame Tenenbaum found it necessary to put her delicate shoulders under one of those swell pet projects of the left, gay marriage and gay adoption. Hold your fire. I will repeat AGAIN, that I am - at best - okay with some kind of civil contract for gay couples. Marriage and adoption of children are off limits though. The following screenshot comes right off a leftwing site called Démocratie Militante Socialiste. I will spare you the translation of that leftozoid gibberish, the gist of it is that this site is highlighting the fact that from 2007 on, and over the five following years, amongst others gay marriage and gay adoption legislation comes up for vote and that people should know who's for and who's against. I think that you don't need to know French to understand what Le PS et la gauche se sont prononcés pour means. As for the candidate of the région Cote-d'Or, we see that it's Mme. Tenenbaum:





That site also sports a quote going "Le chemin vers une société du progrès humain passe par la sortie du capitalisme et de l'économie de marché." by a fella with the name Jacques Généreux, and that quote contains an oxymoron so baffling that you'd choke in it - since it was communist and socialist ideologies responsible for, oh, about 130-150 million deaths in the 20th century. But again, let's hold this topic off for another round.

Okay. Françoise Tenenbaum is fighting with ALL HER MIGHT FOR THE RIGHT OF HOMOSEXUAL COUPLES TO MARRY AND ADOPT CHILDREN. Françoise Tenenbaum is mounting the barricades for this kind of relationships:

"...Under French law, Bedos cannot marry his partner of six years, 42-year-old Gilles Kleitz. Spain, the Netherlands, and Belgium allow same-sex couples to wed, but France and Britain recognize only a form of civil union. And no country has yet drafted legislation that would legitimize the family structure Bedos and Kleitz have adopted. Together with Nathalie Jobard, 42, and Sophie Rajzman, 38, they are parents to daughter Louise, who turns 4 this month.

Schoolfriends Bedos and Jobard, Louise's biological parents, discussed having children together some years earlier but only put the plan into action when both were in settled relationships with partners who also agreed to play a full parental role. "We thought it would be positive for a child to have more people around them to give them the best possible chance in life. And in a selfish way, it's nice to be one of four parents because we have more freedom," says Bedos.

For Louise, that means a childhood that appears as fractured as the life of any kid caught in a custody dispute. She sees her fathers two days a week and splits vacation time between households..."

Now, isn't that just WONDERFUL??? FOUR parents producing ONE child??? Daddy 1 screws Daddy 2, Mommy 1 does Mommy 2. Or vice versa! And now that there's four parents, think of other promising possibilities! How beautiful! Can't you just FEEL the spirit of Liberty, Egality and Fraternity???

There is, however, also something called Reality.

It is by no means situated in the spiritual realm.

Via Galliawatch, June 6, 2010:

"...Saturday afternoon, Françoise Tenenbaum, Socialist adjunct delegate for Solidarity and Health to the mayor of Dijon, bestowed medals honoring the French family. The Medal of the French Family, created in 1920 by decree, modified on October 28, 1982, is an honorary distinction to worthy persons who are raising or who have raised many children, in order to pay homage to their merits and to show the gratitude of the Nation.

It is therefore a way to reward these meritorious mothers who, through their devotion and their self-sacrifice, took on the responsibilities of their role, even if these mothers themselves do not see in it any merit. (...)

Thus, 21 mothers, in the presence of their families received their medal. Eight silver medals (six or seven children): Fatiha Benhalima, Fouzia Amezane, Fatima Boularess, Aïcha Hadj-Abderrahmane, Mama Lefdou, Fatima Loubbi, Rosaria Rutigliano, Aïcha Tasry.

Thirteen bronze medals (four or five children): Saadia Ayar née Ayar, Saadia Ayar née Jabir, Medhia Bargaoui, Fatima Batta, Diane Brenot, Saâdia Brouzi, Fatima Et-Tellah, Nacéra Farsi, Fatima Haddache, Nathalie Lerbet, Zineb Oussghir, Stella-Cora Robert, Latifa Sabik..."

Notice that it was a beaming Madame Tenenbaum, our acquaintance, bestowing the Order for Best Burping Kiddos Up Mother to Fatima, Fatiha, Aisha, Fouzia, Saadia, Latifa etc etc etc. Now is it just me, or are there other people who suspect that with her Four Gay Parents for One Kid programme she won't be having much success among said ladies and their spouses?


Gentlemen.

I suspect that there are still a few rightstuffers out there, even here in the world's biggest open air loonybin aka the Eurofuckingunion. When all hell breaks loose a few years hence, as a result of the policies of people who should also one day, for once, pay their "fair share", I expect you to do YOUR DUTY.



MFBB.

THE SCANDAL OF THE SOI-DISANT "PEACE" SHIP MV RACHEL CORRIE.

In the wake of the bruhaha surrounding the seizing of the "humanitarian" "aid" convoy headed for Gaza by the Israeli navy, we have been treated to some kind of follow-up with the MV Rachel Corrie, luckily without deadly incidents.

Rachel Corrie was a thoroughly brainwashed, self-loathing American "peace" activist who foolishly got herself killed in 2003 in an encounter with an IDF bulldozer.

Over at NRO's The Corner, Mark Steyn has some fitting remarks:

In contrast to the general directions of Helen ("Go back to Germany and Poland") Thomas, the peace-lovers aboard the Mavi Marmara were more specific:

In response to a radio transmission by the Israeli Navy warning the Gaza flotilla that they are approaching a naval blockade, passengers of the Mavi Marmara respond, "Shut up, go back to Auschwitz" and "We're helping Arabs go against the US, don't forget 9/11".

Such amusing conversationalists.

These are not "humanitarian" "peace" "activists". These are, in any objective sense, a party to the conflict. They're not trying to bring "peace", they're trying to help their side win. That's their choice, and may the best man win, but the media collusion in presenting them as "humanitarian" "aid" workers is Orwellian - and all the more so in a world in which the Turkish Prime Minister accuses Israel of killing children on the beach and in which the doyenne of the White House press corps no longer recognizes Israel's "right to exist".

Now the Israeli navy is beseeching the MV Rachel Corrie (an Irish ship funded by the Malaysian government) to land in the port of Ashdod, where the authorities will deliver the (entirely unneeded) "humanitarian aid" to Gaza. The Rachel Corrie is flipping 'em the bird and saying "Gaza, here we come."

This ship is merely the latest memorial to Miss Corrie, a foolish young American killed while enjoying the frisson of vacationing in someone else's despair. There's never been a better time to read Tom Gross' piece on "The Forgotten Rachels":

If you can't be bothered to follow the link, I provide here two screenshots of Gross' article - just making it easier for ya:









Rest in peace, Rachel Thaler.

And Rachel Levi.
And Rachel Charhi.
And Rachel Levy.
And Rachel Gavish.
And Rachel Kol.
And Rachel Ben Abu.
And Rachel Shabo.

No ships will be named after you.


Oh yeah... now that we are at it, you might want to know that "Peace Ship" MV Rachel Corrie is partially funded, together with the rest of the Gaza flotilla, by a Malaysian NGO, the Perdana Global Peace Organisation.

Its chairman is former Malaysian PM Mahathir bin Mohamad.

Just a couple of months ago, in January to be exact, Mr. Mohamad revealed himself to be a truther:

In January 2010, Mahathir stated the September 11 attacks, conducted by Arab Muslim terrorists and coordinated[citation needed] by Osama bin Laden would have been "staged" by a US government conspiracy to justify attacking Muslims,[60] a 9/11 conspiracy theory. He also said he was "more sensitive to the victims as I am saying this is done deliberately" and rejected comments that interpreted his statement as a publicity stunt. He added Jews "had always been a problem in European countries. They had to be confined to ghettoes and periodically massacred. But still they remained, they thrived and they held whole governments to ransom...Even after their massacre by the Nazis of Germany, they survived to continue to be a source of even greater problems for the world."

Back in the day, Mr. Mohamad's often made similar remarks. When Turkish president Erdogan recently foolishly accused Israel of "killing babies on the beaches", he was actually echoing his southeast Asian pal Mahathir, who in the wake of Operation Iraqi Freedom was quoted as saying:

"History should remember Blair and Bush as the killers of children or as the lying prime minister and president..."

Some nice peace activist huh? Maybe they should give him the Nobel Prize.



MFBB.

SATURDAY NIGHT THE PASSIONS, ELMER BERNSTEIN, DUBSTAR, CARL ORFF.

First, "I'm in love with a German filmstar" by The Passions, from 1981. The Passions were your archaetypical one hit wonder. Singer's Barbara Gogan.



I have never known someone to match the peculiar echoplex guitar accords by Clive Timperley. They still sound damn cool after almost thirty years.


Second, the theme from the movie "The Bridge at Remagen", directed by John Guillermin. I realize I'm a WWII buff, so I won't blame you if the name Remagen don't sound a bell. It's a small town on the western bank of the river Rhine and it boasted a bridge across that river, named after Erich Ludendorff. On March 7, 1945, troops from the 9th US Armored Division captured that bridge, effectively crossing Hitler's last natural barrier against the onstorming allies in the West. Elmer Bernstein composed the theme.





A pretty much okay theme imnsho. As for the movie itself, it's quite okay too. No masterpiece, but entertaining. What's annoying me somewhat though are the many factual errors. For one thing, the bridge was taken in early March, so trees should be leafless. Yet in the movie you'd get the impression it was almost high summer. Then there's the fact that the names of the historical key persons the actors represent are deliberately changed. For example, the US lieutenant whose platoon seizes the bridge is "Lt. Hartman" (played by George Segal). In reality, his name was Karl Timmermann, and he was the son of a WWI US trooper and a German fraulein, who followed Timmermann sr. back to the US of A - IIRC, to Frankfurt, Kentucky. Also IIRC, Lt. Timmermann died tragically of cancer during the Korean War.

Then there is the German major charged with the twofold task of a.) holding the bridge for as long as possible to allow a maximum of retreating German troops to cross the Rhine, and b.) of course blow it up at the last moment to prevent the Amis from getting into central Germany without getting their feet wet. In the film, that major is a certain Paul Krueger and he is played by Robert Vaughn, otherwise best known for his Napoleon Solo personage in the TV series The man from U.N.C.L.E. In reality, it was a major Scheller. To be sure, Scheller oversaw the blowing up of the bridge but because the wrong kind of explosives were used, his demolition squad only managed to slightly damage it.

There's an awful story to be told about the Remagen Bridge but this is Music Night after all, so I won't bother you anymore with wartime stories. Perhaps this one trivia thingy yet, though. German officials did not allow filming along the Rhine, so Guillermin shot the film along the Vltava in Czechoslovakia. It was 1968, and at some point the Ruskis invaded to crush the anti-communist revolt begun during the Prague Spring. It seems the whole set had to flee Czechoslovakia to Germany by... taxis!

You can find the trailer for the film here. Opening scene here. And if I'd have to recommend a book, it would be Rolf Palm's Die Bruecke von Remagen (1985). There must be an English translation; I myself have a Dutch one, and it is very, very good.


Stars from British band Dubstar. Singer's Sarah Blackwood. It's 1995.




Dubstar, still active, hail from Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, which has a lot more to offer than the Angel of the North. Not that that steel sculpture isn't worth seeing of course.


Then a short exerpt from Carl Orff's cantate Carmina Burana, dating from 1937. Carmina Burana is actually the title of a medieval manuscript containing no less than 254 poems and texts, found in the Bavarian abbey of Beuren (the latin title means litterally songs from Beuren). Carl Orff got the inspiration for the music piece he gave the same name, from a selected set of works in the manuscript. I wrote 'short exerpt'. What you hear is the actual hymn that precedes and conludes CB. This hymn is called O Fortuna.





Naturally, I chose a clip from the 1981 movie Excalibur, one of my all-time favourites.

Goedenacht.



MFBB.

THE PLANNED CORDOBA MOSQUE AT GROUND ZERO: AMERICANS, ARE YOU COMPLETELY OUT OF YOUR MIND TO LET THIS HAPPEN?

Before I let Pat Condell blast away at the horrifying outrage of muslims being allowed to build a thirteen-story high islamic cultural center plus mosque virtually on the hallowed ground where almost 3,000 innocent people were murdered BY MUSLIMS, there's a thing or two you should know about the proposed name, the Cordoba mosque.

Cordoba was conquered by a muslim army in 711, barely 80 years after Mohammed's death. It's a city in southern Spain that became the capital of first the emirate and then the caliphate of al-Andalus, which is how the muslim conquerors called present-day Spain. Since Charles Martel botched their effort to conquer the rest of Western Europe at Poitiers in 732, the muslims, in casu the Ummayad dynasty, set on consolidating their hold of the Iberian peninsula, and for a relatively short time succeeded beyond expectation. Indeed, the Ummayad's were so successful that for some time, Cordoba even overshadowed any other city in the entire muslim world, boasting, in the late 10th century, a population of 500,000 and 700 mosques. Inevitably, the relatively bening reign of the Ummayads gave way to more severe dynasties, the last of one which was the dynasty of the Almohads. In case you're interested, that lone famous muslim multi-disciplinarian scientist Averroes (Ibn Rushd), who INVARIABLY turns up when drooling leftozoids deem it necessary to point out how backward Europe was in the Middle Ages compared to the muslim world, was a native of Cordoba. What these know-it-alls who can't tell you any other name of a muslim scientist (though admittedly, there were others) always fail to tell you, is that Averroes only escaped death because of his writings on account of his qualities as a physician, and that he was banished to Morocco.

The bottom line is that muslims regard the somewhat less than 800 years of islamic rule in Spain as a golden age, and the statewise embodiment of that age, the caliphate of al-andalus, as the most successful muslim nation of all time. And the capital of that most successful muslim nation of all time was... Cordoba. As a symbol, it is quite telling that muslims have opted for this name for a mosque in the heart of "the great satan". Mayor Bloomberg, that ball-less carcass, can drool whatever he wants on the wonders of multiculturalism, interfaith dialogue and diversity, but muslims see it differently. Al-Zawahiri himself referred to the "tragedy of al-Andalus" right after 9/11, lamenting the loss of muslim Spain to the Christian. The supposedly 'moderate' muslim bridge builders in NYC, by choosing the name Cordoba, have given definite proof that they are completely on the same line with one of the key architects of the massacre just blocks away from the mosque construction site.

How foolish can you be? And how blind?





Oh yeah, Americans are getting plenty of change.



MFBB.

LIVERPOOL CITY COUNCIL SCRAPS MILITARY SHOW/MEMORIAL SERVICE, PROMOTES HOMOSEXUALITY INSTEAD.

Via ClickLiverpool, May 27, 2010: sorry if you just ate.





So, Liverpool City Council refuses to help organize with a lousy 8,000£ a military tattoo/memorial service in honor of those who served/serve...


..but on the other hand they have no problem whatsoever coughing up 80,000£ for...





... this?

HEY LIVERPOOL!!! ARE YOU FUCKING INSANE?????????


Wait, that's not all:

"...Last year's show helped raise around £13,000 for the Army Benevolent Fund, Combat Stress, St John Ambulance and the Army Cadet Force...."

So not only do they fund programs that promote homosexuality in schools and actually on the streets (effectively even more luring British society in a demographic death trap), but they scrap a morale booster event for people setting their lives on the line for our freedom...

... and they manage to deprive veterans organizations of a couple of thousands of pounds.

Well done assholes. You can really be proud of yourself. I'm looking forward to your Homotopia and IDAHO celebrations once the followers of Mo take over.



MFBB.

MEMORIAL DAY 2010.

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee;
blessed art thou amongst women,
and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother of God,
pray for us sinners now
and at the hour of our death.
Amen.

MFBB.

SATURDAY NIGHT MICHAEL GRAY, THE FOUR TOPS, PIXIES, BETTIE SERVEERT.

Good house hit, The Weekend (2004). From UK DJ Michael Gray.



Pity the girlz are so skinny. I rather like them like this.



In 1967, The Four Tops had a huge hit with a Tim Hardin cover, If I were a carpenter. TFP consisted of lead singer Levi Stubbs, the lead singer, and Abdul "Duke" Fakir, Renaldo "Obie" Benson and Lawrence Payton.



American music thru & thru. Immortal.



Fast forward to 1989. Pixies with Here Comes Your Man. From the album Doolittle.




Finally Bettie Serveert, a Dutch group. In 1995 they had a very decent, easy listening hit called Ray Ray Rain. From the album Lamprey. Singer's Carol van Dyk, who also does guitar.




Good night, and good f, erm, luck.

MFBB.

US COUNTERTERRORISM ADVISOR: "TERROR ATTACKS ON US NOT RELIGIOUSLY MOTIVATED."

I am speechless. Speechless. From FOX News, May 27, 2010:





What struck me most was the sentence "During a speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, John Brennan described violent extremists as victims of "political, economic and social forces," but said that those plotting attacks on the United States should not be described in "religious terms."


So forget "major" Hasan shouting "Allahu akbar" at the top of his lungs while murdering his colleagues. Forget the Fort Dix guys, forget Zazi, Faisal Shahzad, John Muhammad, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and frikking Mohammed Atta citing the koran as their inspiration. No, they were/are all "VICTIMS OF POLITICAL, ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL FORCES"!!!


Jesus Christ, I CAN'T believe that a high ranking official like Brennan can crap this thing out in a press conference and get away with it. In a normal world, he should have been fried, erm, fired. Unfortunately, this is no normal world.

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab aka the Pantybomber used to moan and whine in chat sessions, under the screenname Farouk 1986, about his lack of buddies, too many infidels around, not being able to get laid etc etc etc. He grossed in fantasies to cope. What kind of fantasies? Umar Farouk:

"…Basically they are jihad fantasies," he writes. "I imagine how the great jihad will take place. How the Muslims will win, and rule the whole world," adding, "do I have to clarify anything further?"

Yeah, you might want to clarify something further. There's a fella in Washington, the president's top counterterrorism advisor fella, guy by the name JOHN BRENNAN. Now, he is just ONE - SCHTOOPID - FUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He thinks that you attempted to blow up a plane with all the passengers on board because of your toenails growing in or because you still had to make do with centerfolds to squirt your degenerated juice out or because you are a victim of raaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaacissssssssssssssssm or whatever (btw I'm not sure you're still even able to produce degenerated juice at all, given your underwear malfunction).

Now, you tell this John Brennan you tried what you did because of JIHAD, because the kuran says you have to KILL INFIDELS, because you want islam to DOMINATE THE WORLD!!! I'm not sure he'll get it though, because he made it to the top not because of his brains but because he's of the merde-floating-upward-variety.

And pardon my French but it's crystal clear I'm still far more decent than idiots an lunatics desecrating the remembrance of dead terror victims by sighing with relief that at least diversity has been saved or by insisting they are dead because some Mo bloke couldn't pay off his mortgage anymore.

Jesus, what an insane world.



MFBB.