11 July 1302. THE BATTLE OF THE GOLDEN SPURS.

706 years ago a Flemish Army utterly defeated the finest of all knight's armies the French King had ever assembled.





The Battle of the Golden Spurs, so called because of the huge numbers of golden spurs taken from the bodies of the French knights after the battle, was but one chapter in the early 14th century hostilities between the County of Flanders and the Kingdom of France. France has a long history of annexing, or trying to annex, neighboring territory. One of the most coveted regions the French Crown would have liked to lay its hands on was rich Flanders, with it prosperous cities Ghent, Bruges, Oudenaarde, Ieper (Ypres), Roeselare. By shrewd manoeuvring the French King, Philip IV, had lured the Count of Flanders, Guy of Dampierre, and his two sons, into captivity. In his place he appointed, in 1300, a governor, Jacques de Châtillon , who quickly made himself detested, a.o. by imposing heavy taxes. In May 1302, a Bruges militia murdered the French garrison there, an episode known as the "Brugse metten". Among the few who managed to escape was Jacques de Châtillon. Two months later, the French King, white with rage, sent a splendid 10,000 strong Knight's army commanded by Count Robert II of Artesia to Flanders to extoll revenge. Before the city of Kortijk they were awaited by the Flemish Army, which was basically an infantry army of militias of townsfolk from all over Flanders. Important Flemish leaders were Willem Van Gulik, Jan Van Renesse, Guy of Namur and Pieter De Coninc. It is believed that the Flemish commanders deliberately chose a "victory or death" strategic position on a field just outside the city of Kortrijk, with the French-held Castle of Kortrijk and the River Leie (Lys) in their backs and the approaching enemy army on the other side of a deep brook, the Groeningebeek.





The following is a translated exerpt from a famous document of the time, the so-called Annales Gandenses (Annals of Ghent), believed to have been written in Latin by a Franciscan Monk in a Ghent monastery around 1308-1311. The translation is by Hilda Johnstone (London, 1951). You will now be reading a 700-year old document:

About the beginning of July, Robert moved from Lille, set out for Courtrai, and pitched his camp near that town, at a distance of about four or five furlongs. As the French entered Flemish-speaking Flanders, to show their ferocity and terrorize the Flemings they spared neither women nor children nor the sick, but slew all they could find. They even beheaded the images of the saints in the churches, as though they were alive, or chopped off their limbs. However, such doings did not terrorize the Flemings, but stimulated and provoked them to still greater indignation and rage and violent fighting.

When Guy and William heard of the approach of the enemies whom they hated so bitterly, they assembled their army with speed and rejoicing, about sixty thousand foot, strong and well armed. And they summoned all those faithful to them, who loved there, not only from the parts of Flanders those who were with them and had turned against the king, but also from Ghent, where about seven hundred well-armed men secretly left the town, and on this account were at once banished by the leliaerts. All those he had assembled were eager to come to blows with the French. In their whole army Guy and William had no more than about ten knights, of whom the most distinguished and experienced in warfare were Henry de Loncin from the duchy of Limburg, John de Renesse from the county of Zeeland, Gossuin of Goidenshoven from the duchy of Brabant, Dietrich of Hondschoote, Robert of Leewergem, Baldwin of Popperode of the county of Flanders. These, with Guy and William, drew up the Flemish army in order of battle and put heart into it. For three or four days there were individual assaults and combats between the two armies. But on a certain Wednesday, July 11, Guy and William found out through their scouts that all the French were making ready for battle in the morning, and did the same themselves, posting the men of Ypres to resist any of those in the castle who might wish to make a sally during the battle, and drawing up their army in a line both long and deep, about the hour of terce, to await the enemy in the field.

About the hour of sext, the French appeared in arms on the field. They had divided their whole army, both horse and foot, into nine lines of battle, but when they saw the Flemings drawn up in a single line, very long and deep, boldly ready for battle, they made three lines out, of their own nine, placing one of them in the rear for protection and intending to fight with the other two. Battle was joined shortly before none, with horrible crashing and warlike tumult, and with death for many. The fighting was fierce and cruel, but not prolonged, for God took pity on the Flemings, giving them speedy victory, and put to confusion the French, who, as appeared clearly afterwards, had intended if victorious to do many cruel deeds in Flanders. When battle was joined those in the castle, mindful of their friends, threw down fire from the castle, as they had done often before and had set alight many houses in Courtrai and consumed one beautiful house by fire, to terrify the Flemings. Also both horse and foot came out from the castle, to attack the Flemings from the rear, but were forced ignominiously to return to it by the men of Ypres, who resisted them manfully and well. The count of St. Pol, who was in command of the third line, entrusted with the defence of the rear, though he saw his two half-brothers giving way with the [other] two lines, and in peril of death, did not go to their aid and succour, but most disgracefully taking to flight quitted the field. And so, by the disposition of God who orders all things, the art of war, the flower of knighthood, with horses and chargers of the finest, fell before weavers, fullers and the common folk and foot soldiers of Flanders, albeit strong, manly, well armed, courageous and under expert leaders. The beauty and strength of that great army was turned into a dung-pit, and the [glory] of the French made dung and worms. The Flemings, embittered by the cruelty the French had practised between Lille and Courtrai, spared neither the dying Frenchmen nor their horses, and slew them all cruelly, till they were completely assured of victory. An order had been proclaimed in their army by their leaders before the fight began that anyone who stole any valuable during the battle or kept as prisoner a noble, however great, should be straightway put to death by his own comrades. In the said battle, therefore, there perished that no and victorious prince, Robert, count of Artois, with James his half-brother, already mentioned, to whose brewing all the evils then and later were mainly due; Godfrey, paternal uncle of John, duke of Brabant, with his only son, the lord of Vierzon (he, it is believed, because on the mother's side his nephew was of Flemish blood, would if. the French had won have turned him out of his land, or slain him, and secured it from the king to hold himself); John, eldest son of the count of Hainault, called the Pitiless because of his cruelty; Pierre Flote, the crafty and powerful councilor of the king; the count of Aumale; the count of Eu; the lord of Nesle, marshal, that is to say chief of the knighthood of France, with his brother Guy, a most valiant knight; and other barons and landed magnates, as noble, mighty and powerful as many counts of Germany, to the number of seventy-five. More than a thousand simple knights, many noble squires, and numbers of foot, fell there, and more than three thousand splendid chargers and valuable horses were stabbed during the battle. The total of those who were either killed in the battle or died of their wounds soon afterwards was as much as twenty thousand, and many took flight. The whole of the knightly force remaining to the king was not equivalent to the number of slain. After the victory the Flemings captured some nobles who had remained on the field, unable to flee because wounded. They were immensely enriched by booty and spoil taken from their enemies, and furnished and magnificently provided with weapons, tents and trappings of war.

The Battle of the Golden Spurs, sometimes referred to as the Battle of Courtrai in Anglosaxon literature, was but the opening shot in a four-year war between Flanders and France. But in the end it turned out to be the decisive battle. There would be further minor clashes and skirmishes. And two year later, the war would be concluded with two major battles. The first was the Naval Battle of Zierikzee on 10 and 11 August, 1304 in Zeeland, which is in the Netherlands. There, the Flemish fleet was defeated in two days by the French fleet under the command of a Genovese admiral with what would become a famous name: Rainier Grimaldi. He was the first sovereign ruler of Monaco, and Monaco's current ruler of Monaco, Prince Albert, is a far descendant, colourful although probably a less good tactician.

The second battle took place barely one week later, on August 17, 1304, at Mons-en-Pévèle in northern France. We Flemings call it the "Slag bij de Pevelenberg. It was a horrifying clash with tremendous casualties on both sides. At one point in the battle, the French came very close to another crushing defeat, as King Philip IV, personally leading his army for the first time, was thrown of his horse and reportedly only escaped death because the amour he donned did not betray his true identity. The Battle of Mons-en-Pévèle ended undecided, but both sides claimed victory, and if you ever happen to watch the famous August 15 Bruges Procession, know that what you see is in fact a commemoration of the Battle of Mons-en-Pévèle.

The war dragged on for another year, until an armistice was signed on June 23, 1305, known as the Treaty of Athis-sur-Orge, in which France recognized Flemish independence, and Flanders in return had to pay heavy fines and give up the cities of Lille, Douai and Béthune, now in northern France. Tourists are reminded of the Flemish origin of these cities and the surrounding land by the brown and white signs along highways reading "Flandres" - French for Flanders.

The outcome of the 1302-1305 war meant that Flemish would remain our language and that Flanders would never lose its cultural identity. I do not say "territorial integrity", for Flanders' independence would alas be short-lived. It would return to some vassal-state status under French influence (and later on it would come, together with its age-old antagonist Wallonia, under Burgundian, Spanish, Austrian and Dutch control.) Nevertheless, such was the power of Flemish arms in those long-ago hot summers of 1302 and 1304 that afterwards, France considered it too hot a potato to swallow. Unlike other peripheral regions such as the Languedoc or Gascony or Brittany, Flanders was never incorporated into the Kingdom of the Lys. And to the end of his days, Philip IV would speak of the Flemings only in the harshest and most scornful of words.

What we are today, the immense architectural and literary riches that survive to this day, the virtues of hard work and the quest for perfection which inspire our entrepreneurs to this day, the still very freedom-loving undercurrent in Flemish society (of which the mere existence of the Vlaams Belang is but the most visible manifestation)... all that we owe to those warriors of long ago. For decades now, Flemish youth is told and taught otherwise, with lessons that reduce what was a noble struggle for freedom into a senseless butchery without purpose or significant outcome. Luckily, in my case my interest in history has for some reason always be such that beyond the fairytales taught in school, I came across far too many material convincingly disclaiming the politically correct nonsense. We westerners of this time and age, who at these pivotal times risk losing so terribly much, have an obligation to instill in our youth an interest and love for our great past. For if we don't value our past, we will not be able to value what is still ours, and are bound to lose it. My children, to begin with, will know the truth.


MFBB.

SPANISH SOCIALISTS KNOW WHO TO BLAME FOR ECONOMIC CRISIS.

Why, George Bush of course!!! Former Minister of Labor Jesus Caldera, of the Spanish Socialist Party PSOE, in a recent interview:

"El ex ministro de Trabajo y vicepresidente de la Fundación de Estudios Progresistas, Jesús Caldera, ha afirmado que la actual situación económica 'tiene mucho que ver con el pensamiento neoconservador por el que ha apostado' el líder de EEUU, George Bush, que ha permitido un capitalismo sin límites éticos.

Translation:

"The former Labor Minister and Vice President of the Foundation of Progressive Studies, Jesus Caldera, has stated that the current economical situation "has a lot to do with the neoconservative thought school as propagated by the leader of the United States, George Bush, who has allowed an unchecked capitalism."

Got that? Four years of socialist rule stalled the economic locomotive set in motion by Jose Maria Aznar. Unemployment numbers are skyrocketing again, economic growth is expected to be a meagre 2% in 2008 (and even predicted by the Spanish Banking Association to be negative in 09), car sales in May were 24.3% less than in May 2007 and... and... it's all Bush's fault!!! You will have noticed Caldera is the "former" Labor Minister. Indeed, while the man filled that post in the first Zapatero government, apparently his talents were judged such that he was needed to spearhead the intellectual efforts at the PSOE's new think tank, said "Foundation of Progressive Studies", of which he assumed chairmanship on July 6. That an important PSOE personage, presumed to represent the intellectual capital of his party, comes up with such a ludicrous explanation at a time when any dog with a hat on can see that socialist tenure ruins an economy, speaks bookmarks about the petrified, dogmatic state of mind of Spain's, and by extension Europe's, leftist leaders.

But Caldera is only parroting his master. Last June 26, Zapatero himself blamed Spain's economic downfall on... America's neoconservative model, the subprime crisis and the war in Iraq:

"Esta crisis alimentaria es fruto de varias causas. Entre otras, la crisis financiera vivida en Estados Unidos con las famosas hipotecas subprime. Es una crisis financiera fruto de un modelo neoconservador basado en el capitalismo sin fronteras, sin límites, y sin ética. Es fruto también del problema energético, de la subida del precio del petróleo, que ha disparado su valor a partir de la guerra de Irak y que ha incorporado los peores objetivos a lo que ha de ser una evolución respetuosa ante la lucha contra el cambio climático.

Or:

This crisis [of rising food prices] is the fruit of several causes. Amongst others, the subprime crisis in the United States. It's a financial crisis borne out of the neoconservative model and an uncontrolled capitalism without borders and without ethics. It's a crisis finding its origin in the energy sector which raised fuel costs as a result of the war in Iraq, and whose very modest goals [with regards to limiting carbon dioxide emission] necessitate a strong effort to combat climate change.

Not sure that's a totally exact translation, but you get the gist. What a fool!!! As you will recall, Zapatero's predecessor, Jose Maria Aznar of the rightwing Partido Popular, was the author of a second "Milagro Espanol", or Spanish Miracle (the first "Spanish Miracle" was an accomplishment of the Franco government). Aznar's economic measures slashed unemployment by half, reduced the public sector, transformed the labor market, privatized cumbersome key state industries, and generally improved the lives of the majority of Spaniards (in the 2000 elections, Aznar's opponent, the socialist Almunia, claimed that the Aznar government "played Robin Hood backwards" and that "it put a lot of power and money in just a few hands". In short, the eternal old nonsense).

In 2004, the Spaniards rewarded Aznar by voting for Zapatero, who managed to undo all his accomplishments in just under four years. This remarkable reversal of economic fortune is yet further proof for an economic paradigm of the post World War II western world, by extension applicable to all modern, industrialized countries, namely, that Rightwing governments herald an economic boom, while leftwing governments ensure economic downfall. Indeed, anno 2008 a vast body of evidence can be presented that makes the case for this paradigm. Speaking for my own country, I could refer to the mid-eighties, the last time that Belgium was ruled by a center-right government, in which Guy Verhofstadt, Belgium's previous PM, was Budget Minister. At the time, Verhofstadt profiled himself as a true Hayekian disciple. With his essays the "Burgermanifesten" (Citizen's Manifests) he established himself as party ideologue for the then rightwing PVV (Partij voor Vrijheid, Party for Freedom) - and indeed, during his short tenure he achieved very remarkable results, earning him the scornful soubriquet "Baby Thatcher". He and the government he was in were torpedoed in 1987 by a coordinated action of Belgium's christian-democratic and socialist labor unions, and Belgium has since been ruled by center-leftist and leftist governments. Needless to say, economic growth has been sluggish ever since. Verhofstadt and his liberal VLD (the old PVV) would return in 1999, but as PM of a coalition with the socialists and the greens until 2003, and a coalition with the socialists from 2003 till 2007. During those eight years he gradually forsaked all his principles and every classical liberal example he ever stood for (keep in mind that in Europe, "liberal" is, or was at least, often associated with rightwing). Verhofstadts betrayal of his rightwing principles was one of the reasons of my disenchantment with the VLD, of which I was a longtime member until the party did not oppose voting rights for immigrants in 2004, upon which I joined the VB. A fitting anecdote in this regard took place during a debate in 2004 organised by a liberal students association, during which Filip Dewinter, VB strongman, asked Karel De Gucht, one of Verhofstadt's sidekicks, "whether Verhofstadt now denounced his Citizen's Manifests - whether they [the VLD] now denounced Thatcher and Reagan, which they ideolized in the eighties". De Gucht's reply was: "Yes, and I have no problem calling that [adoration of Thatcher and Reagan] a mistake. You do."

Belgium's example however misses the magnitude of the events in bigger countries. Telling examples of the tandem rightwing tenure - prosperity/leftwing tenure - downfall can be found all over the western world and in industrialised countries in other continents as well. Think of Margaret Thatcher's very succesful tenure following the disastrous years under Labour's James Callaghan, an evolution very much like Aznar's reign after Felipe Gonzalez' socialist government. Think, naturally, of the Reagan years after the disastrous Carter Administration. Think of Australia's four very successful John Howard administrations, starting in 1996, after the wasteland of thirteen years Labor. Think of Denmark's own economic miracle, a product of the centre-right Anders Fogh Rasmussen governments, which followed miserable years of socialist rule under Poul Nyrup Rasmussen (not related to the current Danish PM).

Of course, not every rightwing government behaves like a rightwing government, nor does every leftwing government follow a genuinely leftwing policy. Former British PM Tony Blair e.g. was Labor - yet his "Third Way" incorporated the key elements of Thatcher's economic agenda. In Jacques Chirac France had a "rightwing" President - yet during his many years in power touching on his bloated état français or bidding his protectionist tendencies farewell was totally out of the question. On the other hand, when centrist or even leftist governments apply rightwing measures, they invariably are successful. One of the most striking examples is Ireland, where taoiseach Charles Haughey of the centrist Fianna Fail party introduced Reaganomics from the mid-eighties on, leading to that country becoming the proverbial "Celtic Tiger". But do not forget Germany's socialist leader Gerhard Schroeder, yes, Schroeder of all people (!) who, in his last years in office, adopted typically rightwing measures to combat high unemployment (see e.g. the Hartz IV-plan), which almost immediately produced astonishing results.

Grasping the quintessential truthfulness of the paradigm that rightwing policies lead to prosperity while leftwing policies ruin a country, does of course not require a scientific degree - in fact only basic common sense. Rightwing governments generally favor companies, and it's companies which are the original and main creators of prosperity. In the words of former Spanish PM Jose Maria Aznar, "If anybody can come up with a better form of social protection than having a job, then please tell me". By contrast, leftwing governments foster an inherenently unfavorable view of companies, on the totally illogical mercantilist pretext that if some entity, be it an individual, a company or a state, acquires a significant concentration of wealth, that entity can only have done so by taking it from another entity or other entities. Consequently, that entity has to be punished - by taxes, fines or, in the worst possible scenario, nationalization, which is basically institutionalized theft. Again, it does not require a genius to understand that by thus hampering, or even rendering impossible, the proper functioning of wealth's original creators - the companies - actually the exact opposite outcome of what the socialist agenda aimed for is reached.

The paradigm extends even to non-democratic forms of government and offers an explanation as to why rightwing dictatorships are self-extinguishing while leftwing dicatorships cling decade after decade to a perpetually prolonged poverty-stricken existence, with dire consequences for its desperate citizenry. Again, examples abound. Chili e.g. under Pinochet - long execrated as a monster, in reality the savior of Chilean democracy - is a typical example, but also Taiwan under the Guomindang, Greece under the colonels, Portugal under Salazar and Spain under Franco. In all these countries, rightwing dictators professed the not insurmountable philosophy that one could prosper economically if only one shut up politically. The result was that the gradually enhancing wealth in time created a prosperous middle class which was incrementally able to conquer democratic reform after democratic reform - and which was allowed to do so since not carrying the burden of suspicion meted out to ideological adversaries such as union leaders, leftwing ideologues etc. The opposite holds true of course, which is why leftwing dictaorships such as Cuba and North Korea are dirt-poor, and which is why Bolivia and Venezuela, if they don't watch out, will become economic basket cases too.

Nothing of this all matters much to Spain's Zapatero and Caldera, of course. The left is characterized by many ominous traits, but one that is easily overlooked is their incapacity to learn from history and past mistakes. That is why they think that Spain's current economic woes are to blame on heartless capitalism. It is also why another protagonist of the "Latinosphere", Bolivia's Morales, thinks that nationalizing key industries will definitely work this time.

Is there then really no silver lining to the dark clouds hovering over Spain? There is. Because for all the ominous news, there is a bright glimmer of hope for Jose Q, recently divorced from his wife with whom he had three abortions, and now living in the Calla del Miseria next to an apartment filled with Moroccan formerly illegal immigrants, whose muezzin wakes him up at five in the morning with a call to prayer from the minaret of a mosque built in 2006 with government funds. The good news is that on June 26, 2008 the Spanish Parliament granted human rights to gorillas, urangutans, chimpanzees and bonobos. Henceforth, using apes in circuses, TV commercials or films will now be banned, and all dvd copies of "Planet of the Apes" will be burnt publicly on the Generalissimo Franco, whoooooops, the Hugo Chavez Square.

And there really is a ray of hope out there. I for one can very well imagine a future Spanish government run by apes pulling off a better job than Zapatzero.


MFBB.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMERICA!!!

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

- Thomas Jefferson



Beautiful.



MFBB.

PARIS FASHION WEEK.

An article in the Fashion addendum to the Belgian weekly Knack (leftwing, what else did you expect?), June 30, 2008. Topic: Paris Fashion Show. Title: The Soft Man of 2009 in Paris. Author: fella by the name of Jesse Brouns, who is a man. Or was at least born like one. Whatever. Exerpts:

"Kawakubo [designer of the French men fashion label "Comme des garçons" - MFBB] reintroduces the skirt, in all kinds of ways. The past ten days I have seen skirts everywhere, or rather: interpretations of skirts and all kinds of hybrids (like Prada's knee-reaching polo shirts). The show of Comme des Garçons confirms my suspicion that soon the Man Skirt will break through decisively. Hurrah!"

"Boris Bidjan Saberi, only featuring his second collection, hangs his models on the ceiling using chains. His top notch sportswear betrays his Iranian descent. The hoods e.g. look like borrowed from an islamic woman in black abaya. As far as I'm concerned: the revelation of the season."

"The Lanvin boys look simultaneously nostalgic and melancholic, but are at the same time completely from "now". They are dandy's in outfits which, if you describe them, easily sound effeminate, but definitely aren't: shirts with little pow sleeves, slack bow ties, see-through blouses, supple suits (one of them in pastel-colored velvet), here and there some glitter. My favorite: a T-shirt with a broad rim of fake jewels, laid in onto a T-shirt in the same colour. One of the high points of the Paris fashion week."

Fill in a caption yourself. I'm tired.


MFBB.

MUSLIMS CAN GO ROYALLY FUCK THEMSELVES.

A couple of essential stories from what is now rapidly becoming Eurabia.


A.) THE UK.

From The Daily Mail, July 1st, 2008:

Muslims outraged at police advert featuring cute puppy sitting in policeman's hat.

A postcard featuring a cute puppy sitting in a policeman's hat advertising a Scottish police force's new telephone number has sparked outrage from Muslims.

Tayside Police's new non-emergency phone number has prompted complaints from members of the Islamic community.The advert has upset Muslims because dogs are considered ritually unclean and has sparked such anger that some shopkeepers in Dundee have refused to display the advert. Dundee councillor Mohammed Asif said: 'My concern was that it's not welcomed by all communities, with the dog on the cards. 'It was probably a waste of resources going to these communities. They (the police) should have understood. Since then, the police have explained that it was an oversight on their part, and that if they'd seen it was going to cause upset they wouldn't have done it.'

Councillor Asif, who is a member of the Tayside Joint Police Board, said that the force had a diversity adviser and was generally very aware of such issues.

...

A spokesman for Tayside Police said: 'Trainee police dog Rebel has proved extremely popular with children and adults since being introduced to the public, aged six weeks old, as Tayside Police's newest canine recruit. 'His incredible world-wide popularity - he has attracted record visitor numbers to our website - led us to believe Rebel could play a starring role in the promotion of our non-emergency number. 'We did not seek advice from the force's diversity adviser prior to publishing and distributing the postcards. That was an oversight and we apologise for any offence caused.'

Can you f*cking believe it.



B.) BELGIUM.

Via Gates of Vienna.

Raped in the middle of the station

21-year-old Lola was attacked by two men. Some commuters witnessed it but did not react.

SAINT-GILLES (BRUSSELS). It is an indignant father, disgusted and outraged, who speaks to us. “My daughter was raped in the Gare du Midi. In Brussels. Capital of Europe. With total impunity.” It was June 12. “My daughter was returning from Waterloo. It was 9:00 pm. On exiting the train, she headed for the Bancontact.” A public passage. Yet this is where the tragedy took place.

“Right in the middle of a station. But how is this possible?” continues the father of Lola, who is 21 years old. “Two men accused her of not wearing the veil. My daughter is pretty. She is blonde with blue eyes.”

Everything happened very quickly after that. “One of the assailants took out a knife. My daughter was pushed up against the wall of Bancontact. With a knife at her throat, one of the boys raped her. The other watched.” It was 9:00 pm. It was still light, and outside the station was far from empty. “People were passing by. My daughter is confident that she saw at least three people. None of them stopped to help her.” The rape ended, and the attackers departed calmly. “They were two North Africans. They did not even wear hoods. And don’t tell me that I am a racist because I mention their origin! My daughter was raped because she was not wearing a veil. That’s the truth!”

C.) THE NETHERLANDS.

From Islam in Europe, May 17, 2008.

The heads of a contractor firm working on a large renovation project in Almere were asked last week if the construction workers could change their short pants into something with longer legs. The Muslim neighbors had complained about the workers wearing such bare clothing. In order not to succumb in the tropical heat of the past weeks, the men had exchanged their work overalls for short pants and a t-shirt. Construction workers Robin Willemsen says that they all walk around with short pants. Together with his colleagues he's renovating the outside of 750 residences in Almere.

Willemsen says that the contractor came to tell them that Muslim neighbors had complained that their clothing were too bare and too short. The comment was duly noted, but Willemsen says that they don't intend to dress in overalls in such sweltering heat...

The caption with the photo reads: "Muslims complain about construction worker in short pants." I suppose that by the time the photo was taken, dhimmitude had already struck. Of course, sipping tea all day and scoff on those infidels who work for welfare checks and imam paydays don't make you sweat.



D.) FRANCE.

Via the blog Covenant Zone:

Muslim father demands, gets removal of crucifix from French Catholic Hospital Room.

After vehement demands, a muslim obtained the removal of a crucifix hanging from the wall of the room of a Catholic clinic in Bourgoin-Jallieu (Isère) where his daughter was being treated… Monday afternoon, at the Saint-Vincent de Paul clinic, the father of a young girl, who had just underwent scheduled preventative surgery, demanded that personnel unfasten a crucifix from his daughter’s room. "For almost 15 minutes, the father, in the presence of his wife, verbally ranted, demanding that the crucifix be taken down", reported a witness. The establishment’s personnel eventually gave in to this demand.

The management of the clinic expressed their astonishment. The director of the clinic, Marie-Thérèse Besson, declared that this demand was "surprising [given that it’s] from a family that freely chose our establishment."

And to whom do we owe all this crap? The Left. It's they who opened up the gates, opting for, in what is in my view the Treason of the Century, a deliberate strategy to import as many immigrants as possible, reckoning that the lavish welfare stipends they would shower over the newcomers would yield an electoral boom to replace the votes lost in their traditional markets. It has now become time to expose those responsible for Europes demise. As befits Belgium, today you should get to know two stereotypical traitors of their own people. Two good-for-nothing apparatchiks who,

a.) out of lust for power,
b.) and/or a pathological self-hatred,
c.) and/or an irrational and totally nonsensical feeling of guilt for colonial-era abuses,
d.) and/or a totally unjustified belief that western prosperity only exists because others are living in squalor

... decided to do everything in their might to destroy their own culture.

The first is Philippe Moureaux, a Parti Socialiste bigshot responsible for tailor-made legislation to silence Flanders' only truly rightwing party the Vlaams Belang. Moureaux is the cretin who as mayor of the Brussels community of Molenbeek became notorious for forbidding his police officers to drink coffee or eat sandwiches on the streets during Ramadan, in order to not upset his constituency. Never in my entire life have I heard this scoundrel utter a single word of Flemish because he considers it an uncouth peasants language. But this creep who married a muslim woman certainly knows at least a mouthful of arabic. The photo shows him not in Morocco, but in his own commune. Apparently he has less trouble getting even with people wearing djellabas.





The second is Mieke Vogels, former chairwoman of the Flemish Green party Groen!, a collection of ecobozos so ridiculous that, were it not for their dangerous inclination to silence political opponents via smear tactics and kangaroo courts would actually only deserve scorn and laughter. With the socialists, the greens are the main architects of a vile Belgian political construction known as the cordon sanitaire, some kind of pact between all Belgian "democratic" (cough) parties to never work together with the country's only true Rightwing party, the VB. Exerpt from lvb.net, which recently published a not to be misunderstood quote by Vogels during an interview with a reporter from the leftist magazine Humo.

"Actually, the Left has over the past years governed against the will of the population. Thanks to the cordon sanitaire we were able for years on end to neutralize those twenty per cent VB-voters; had we not done that, than the Right would have been in power for a much longer time already. After all, Flanders today counts more rightwing than leftwing voters."

Just remember, it's us that they call fascists.

This was Outlaw Mike, reporting from a continent going insane as we speak. Bah. I want to puke.


MFBB.

WILLIAM DELAHUNT, OBAMA SUPERDELEGATE. AMERICAN TRAITOR.

A couple of days back, there was a Congressional hearing in which William Delahunt, D-MA (MA-10), interrogated David Addington, Chief of Staff and Former Counsel to Vice President Dick Cheney, on the subject of waterboarding by the CIA of Al Qaeda POW's. At some point during the hearing, Mr. Addington said that he could not go into details since "Al Qaeda may watch this thing."

This was Congressman William Delahunt's reply:

"Right, well..., I'm sure they are watching and I... I'm glad they... finally have a chance to... to see you, Mr. Addington."

A leftist would not be a leftist if he wasn't lying. Faced with the beginning of the outrage following his scandalous remark - I HOPE it's just the beginning - Delahunt's defense was:

Delahunt said he was just trying to express that he was glad to see Addington. Delahunt said he recalls saying "I," not "they," during the testimony – though the video, broadcast on C-SPAN, shows he was talking about Al Qaeda.

Right. He claims now that he was just saying that HE (Delahunt) was glad to see Addington. Hey, why don't you judge for yourself? Closely watch the following video, broadcast on C-SPAN. It comes near the end:




You Big, Fat, F*cking LIAR. You said you were glad that THEY, Al-Qaeda, had a chance to see Addington. Fox reports that Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, said that Delahunt was "inciting Al Qaeda to violence," and suggested Delahunt should guard Addington’s family "until the war on terror is over." Delahunt's response was that King has "a good sense of humor" but "under no circumstances" was he implying during the hearing that Al Qaeda may target Addington. Oh yeah a$$hole? Well, watch that video again - especially the smirk on that traitor's visage when he faces Cheney's Chief of Staff with the prospect of an AQ visit. The very last sentence by Mr. Addington is "I'm sure you're pleased." Addington knew very well what Delahunt was implying.

Thanks a lot to CDR Salamander and RedState for blowing this thing wide open. RedState:

"If you do not call your Congressman today and demand the House of Representatives, at the very *least*, censure Congressman Delahunt, well damn us all. We have no right to carry on our fight. The number is 202-224-3121 and Congressman Delahunt's email address is william.delahunt@mail.house.gov.

And some intrepid reporter should ask Mr. Obama what he thinks of this. After all, Mr. Delahunt was one of Mr. Obama's early supporters and is now an Obama superdelegate. Of course, you can ask Barack Obama yourself at (866) 675-2008.

When you call your Congressman, you should make sure he knows an apology from Mr. Delahunt will not suffice. Delahunt clearly is lying about and denying his statement. "I'm sorry" would just be more of the same."

Here's another Delahunt pic, taken at the occasion of a "deal" he closed with Chavez in November 2005 to "provide the poor in Massachusetts with cheap heating oil." The guy certainly knows how to choose his friends.




You just remember. William Delahunt is an Obama Superdelegate.


MFBB.

MAJOR SCIENTIFIC BREAKTHROUGH IN BELGIUM.

Three renowned Belgian scientists, Bram Van Den Bergh, a doctoral student in marketing, Siegfried Dewitte, an associate Professor of marketing, and Luk Warlop, a Professor of Marketing, all three of them from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Faculty of Business and Economics, conducted ground-breaking research into bikinis and sexual stimuli, concluding that said items make men more prone to seek instant gratification, leading to blown diets, budgets and bank accounts. The study, published in the Journal of Consumer Research, describes how men alternately fondled T-shirts and lingerie (be it without ladies in them). After touching bras, men valued the future less and the present more, according to Mr. Van Den Bergh. Watching ads with hordes of women in bikinis had the same effect.

An article in the June 2008 issue of the Journal of Consumer Research, titled "Bikinis Instigate Generalized Impatience in Intertemporal Choice", describes it as follows:

Neuroscientific studies demonstrate that erotic stimuli activate the reward circuitry processing monetary and drug rewards. Theoretically, a general reward system may give rise to nonspecific effects: exposure to “hot stimuli” from one domain may thus affect decisions in a different domain. We show that exposure to sexy cues leads to more impatience in intertemporal choice between monetary rewards. Highlighting the role of a general reward circuitry, we demonstrate that individuals with a sensitive reward system are more susceptible to the effect of sex cues, that the effect generalizes to nonmonetary rewards, and that satiation attenuates the effect.

I understand the balls of it, but what I think the scientists are trying to say is that if you put girls or women in bikinis on ads, it will help sell the stuff. Who would have THUNK it??????????????????? What an amazing discovery!!!!!!! These days, science knows no bounds anymore!


MFBB.

HOT IDF BABE OF THE DAY.

Isn't she a sweetie? Photo taken from the excellent site Serial No. 3817131 by photographer Rachel Papo, a former female IDF soldier herself.





But girl, I'd rather not see you toting an assault rifle like that. Call me old-fashioned, but I am against women in combat roles. Of course Israel is a case apart, and there have been times in Israels history when I wouldn't have frowned upon a pic like above. Take the 1948 War of Independence e.g.. That war was the equivalent of a fight between a newborn still wet from the womn and five kindergarten bullies. A "nation" on a handkerchief of land numbering no more than perhaps 650,000 people, give and take the population of Boise, Idaho, facing a ruthless simultaneous attack by five Arab armies. This was literally a battle for mere survival. Had the Israelis lost, the Nazi holocaust would in all likelihood have had a Middle Eastern epilogue. Miraculously, they won. And it was possible only through a rigorous mobilization including the drafting of women, of which an estimated 12,000 reportedly saw combat. A special corps was created for them, the "Chen", or "Women's Corps". However, that same war of 1948 marked until recently the only occasion whereby Israeli women actively served in the frontlines. Immediately after the cessation of hostilities in 1949, the Chen was restructurized and women were no longer allowed in combat units. Of course there has been ever since the compulsory military service, with the 1959 Defense Service Law stipulating that "all citizens and permanent residents of the State of Israel are required to perform military service..." and that "...all women between the ages of 18 and 26, who are physically fit, unmarried, have not borne children, and have not objected on religious grounds or grounds of conscience must fulfill their military obligation."

As it became clear over the years that Israel was more than capable of warding off any Arab attack, the need for extra "womanpower" was less felt, and so, with regards to the enlistment of women, the 1959 Law was often used loosely. This 1988 article, based on The Library of Congress Country Studies and the CIA Factbook, states that "...only about 50 percent of the approximately 30,000 females eligible annually were inducted. Nearly 20 percent of eligible women were exempted for "religious reasons"; nearly 10 percent because they were married; and most of the remaining 20 percent were rejected as not meeting minimum educational standards (eighth grade during the 1980s)."

The last years of the 20th century saw a shift in that attitude however. In 1999, the IDF announced that the year after women would begin serving as combat soldiers. First, in early 2000, women were deployed in artillery units, followed by infantry and armored units and elite forces. Israel's Navy, the Sea Corps, placed female sailors in its diving repair unit. As for now, the issue is still largely academic, since at the beginning of 2004, the total number of female soldiers in combat units was... 450. Personally, I may hope that this meagre number is a reflection of the realization, among the broader part of Israeli society, that women should be bringers of life, and not of death. Don't get me wrong. I think that women can play a great role in the military. Remember that any army is like a knife, that the cutting edge can only have effect when it is sustained by the mass of the blade. Logistics, medical assignments and intelligence come to mind as ideal domains for female troops. But combat roles? No way. At least not for me. And that goes for any army, not just the IDF.

What's your take on that?


MFBB.

ESA ALIVE AND KICKING.

Once upon a time there was a small, shy boy with far too big glasses who screwed up completely in sports, blew math and got scared shitless by females. By and large, it was books which got him through this quagmire, and one of the authors whose works he devoured was a noble French gentleman, alas long deceased. That boy was your servant, and that gentleman was Jules Gabriel Verne, the Father of Modern Science Fiction. Among the books that left the deepest impression on me were Michael Strogoff (1876), Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea (1870), Journey to the Center of the Earth (1864), and especially From the Earth to the Moon (1865). Recalling how fascinating - and credible - Verne's fiction still was more than a century after it was written, one wonders how the sheer novelty of these fantastic stories must have been received, and perceived, in the author's days. And what made him do it? What inspired him? After all, this son to an attorney who was born in the busy western French port of Nantes in 1828, wrote about space exploration when the first flight of an aeroplane was still a half century away. He predicted gas-powered automobiles, skyscrapers built of glass and steel, high-speed trains, helicopters and even the Internet (a worldwide "telegraphic" communications network) while very little, if anything, hinted at the advent of these technological wonders. The accuracy of his predictions sometimes reached an uncanny level, such as when NASA chose to launch its rockets from Cape Canaveral, 130 miles from the supposed building site (Tampa Town)of the Supergun in Verne's lunar voyage novel. Not to mention that the Apollo 11 capsule came down only miles from where the manned bullet landed in the book. The power of Verne's imagination reverberates through the decades, leading to the US Navy baptising its first nuclear submarine after Captain Nemo's Nautilus from Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea, contemporary authors borrowing from his ideas (e.g. James Rollins in his novel Subterranean, 1999), providing inspiration for famous 20th-century explorers and scientists, like William Beebe, Admiral Byrd, Robert Goddard...

... and ESA, the European Space Agency, naming its first-ever genuine spacecraft the Jules Verne. Indeed, on March 9, 2008, a powerful Ariane V rocket lifted the 20.7 tonne ATV-001, as it has been coded (with ATV standing for Automated Transfer Vehicle), into space from ESA's launch base in Kourou, French Guyana, with a heavy payload of propellant, water, air and supplies for the ISS. To be sure, ATV's are unmanned cargo resupply spacecraft, but unlike lab modules like Columbus, which are incapable of independent movement, an ATV, once in orbit, can perform all the tasks - and more - of typical manned spacecraft. Given that it was the first of its series, the Jules Verne first underwent three weeks of testing before it began its rendezvous operations with the ISS, to which it finally docked on 3 April. The following video, albeit from the hacks over at the Biased Broadcasting Company, is well worth watching:





The ATVs, of which the development cost an estimated 1.35 billion EUR, are not only designed to supply the International Space Station (ISS). Another important feature is their ability to, if necessary, boost the station into a higher orbit. Four more have been ordered already, to be used until 2015, with an option for a further two. The small number implies that the ATV's are meant to complement, not subsitute, the existing Russian-made Progress spacecraft, of which it has three times the capacity. Like a Progress, an ATV carries both bulk liquids and relatively fragile freight, stored in a pressurized shirt sleeve environment in a cargo section so that astronauts can have access to it without having to put on a spacesuit. Docking to the ISS is done using two videometers and two telegoniometers built by Sodern, an EADS subsidiary. Additional (actually redundant) monitoring data is provided by a Russian-made antenna originaly designed for the Ukranian-built Kurs, an automatic docking system comparable to those used on the Progress ships and the Soyuz manned ferries. A camera mounted on the ISS's Zvezda module provides visual imagery.

Some more technical data about the ATV's: each one weighs 20.7 tonnes at launch, of which the cargo comprises 8 tonnes in various distribution schemes: up to 5.5 tonnes of dry goods like supplies, scientific payload etc), up to 840 kilograms (1,900 lb) of water, up to 100 kilograms (220 lb) of gas (nitrogen, oxygen, air) and up to 4.7 tonnes (10,000 lb) of propellant for re-boost manoeuvring and refueling the ISS. The propellant for re-boost is monomethylhydrazine (MMH, also used in the Space Shuttle) and N2O4 oxidizer. "Re-boost" in this context is the ATV's capacity to "push" the entire ISS to a higher orbit since its course gradually lowers because of atmospheric drag, even at such an altitude (!). Contrary to what one would generally assume, re-boosting is not really "pushing higher up" but an indirect process, by enhancing the ISS's speed. The resulting higher centrifugal force ensures that the orbital altitude enhances. Even when "getting higher up" is not immediately necessary to avoid "falling down", the feature enables the ISS to get out of the way of the orbital paths of space debris, of which there is more every year. On April 25, the Jules Verne pushed the 280-ton ISS 4.7 kilometers higher up in a re-boost maneuver that took 13 minutes. To this end the ATV accelerated the ISS's speed from 7,700 meters per second with just 2.67 meters per second... but it sufficed, and only two of the ATV's four main engines were needed. Re-boost manoeuvres have to be carried out periodically (about once a month) and until now this was done using that brave little workhorse of the Russians, the Progress. Actually a Progress M1, an update of the Progress M, which is in itself a descendant of the famous Soyuz spacecraft. Below you find a comparison between an ATV and the Apollo and Progress spaceships respectively.




And here is a magnificent pic (courtesy of Wikipedia, just like the drawing above) of the ISS. Visible "on top" is the ATV, coupled to Zvezda. Zvezda, meaning "star", was the first fully Russian ISS contribution, and an early "building block" (actually the third one, in July 2000). It houses some of the ISS's lifes support systems as well as living quarters for two crew members. Original Russian info on Zvezda here.





(to be continued)


MFBB

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT, AUSSIE STYLE.

This is already a couple of years old, but it's still priceless. Save the planet, self-support!!!



Kevin Rudd , the blonde guy, is the fella who last year succeeded John Howard, Australia's Last Prime Minister With Balls. It is now clear to me why Australia withdrew its troops from Iraq, but at least you have to admit Butt, uh, Rudd has great hair (*). Hat tip Tizona's weblog.


MFBB.


(*) for a wussie

AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH.

An excellent column by Ralph Peters. From The New York Post, May 20, 2008:

May 20, 2008 -- DO we still have troops in Iraq? Is there still a conflict over there? If you rely on the so-called mainstream media, you may have difficulty answering those questions these days. As Iraqi and Coalition forces pile up one success after another, Iraq has magically vanished from the headlines. Want a real "inconvenient truth?" Progress in Iraq is powerful and accelerating.

But that fact isn't helpful to elite media commissars and cadres determined to decide the presidential race over our heads. How dare our troops win? Even worse, Iraqi troops are winning. Daily.

You won't see that above the fold in The New York Times. And forget the Obama-intoxicated news networks - they've adopted his story line that the clock stopped back in 2003. To be fair to the quit-Iraq-and-save-the-terrorists media, they have covered a few recent stories from Iraq:

* When a rogue US soldier used a Koran for target practice, journalists pulled out all the stops to turn it into "Abu Ghraib, The Sequel."

Unforgivably, the Army handled the situation well. The "atrocity" didn't get the traction the whorespondents hoped for.

* When a battered, bleeding al Qaeda managed to set off a few bombs targeting Sunni Arabs who'd turned against terror, that, too, received delighted media play.

* As long as Baghdad-based journalists could hope that the joint US-Iraqi move into Sadr City would end disastrously, we were treated to a brief flurry of headlines.

* A few weeks back, we heard about another Iraqi company - 100 or so men - who declined to fight. The story was just delicious, as far as the media were concerned.

Then tragedy struck: As in Basra the month before, absent-without-leave (and hiding in Iran) Muqtada al Sadr quit under pressure from Iraqi and US troops. The missile and mortar attacks on the Green Zone stopped. There's peace in the streets....

...Remember the Kurds? Our allies in northern Iraq? When last sighted, they were living in peace and building a robust economy with regular elections, burgeoning universities and municipal services that worked. After Israel, the most livable, decent place in the greater Middle East is Iraqi Kurdistan. Wouldn't want that news getting out. If the Kurds would only start slaughtering their neighbors and bombing Coalition troops, they might get some attention. Unfortunately, there are no US or allied combat units in Kurdistan for Kurds to bomb. They weren't needed. And (benighted people that they are) the Kurds are pro-American - despite the virulent anti-Kurdish prejudices prevalent in our Saudi-smooching State Department.

Developments just keep getting grimmer for the MoveOn.org fan base in the media. Iraq's Sunni Arabs, who had supported al Qaeda and homegrown insurgents, now support their government and welcome US troops. And, in southern Iraq, the Iranians lost their bid for control to Iraq's government. Bury those stories on Page 36.

Our troops deserve better. The Iraqis deserve better. You deserve better. The forces of freedom are winning. Here in the Land of the Free, of course, freedom of the press means the freedom to boycott good news from Iraq. But the truth does have a way of coming out. The surge worked. Incontestably. Iraqis grew disenchanted with extremism. Our military performed magnificently. More and more Iraqis have stepped up to fight for their own country. The Iraqi economy's taking off. And, for all its faults, the Iraqi legislature has accomplished far more than our own lobbyist-run Congress over the last 18 months. When Iraq seemed destined to become a huge American embarrassment, our media couldn't get enough of it. Now that Iraq looks like a success in the making, there's a virtual news blackout. Of course, the front pages need copy. So you can read all you want about the heroic efforts of the Chinese People's Army in the wake of the earthquake.

Tells you all you really need to know about our media: American soldiers bad, Red Chinese troops good...

From The Washington Post, January 30, 2007:

WASHINGTON -- Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama said Tuesday U.S. combat forces should be out of Iraq by spring 2008 to end "a foreign policy disaster" but he stopped short of endorsing a cutoff in funds.

Spring 2008 has come and gone. Just imagine that one year ago Senator Obama's plan would have been implemented and the combat forces would have been out of Iraq.


From Sen. Obama's website, June 6, 2008:

THE PROBLEM.
The Surge: The goal of the surge was to create space for Iraq's political leaders to reach an agreement to end Iraq's civil war. At great cost, our troops have helped reduce violence in some areas of Iraq, but even those reductions do not get us below the unsustainable levels of violence of mid-2006. Moreover, Iraq's political leaders have made no progress in resolving the political differences at the heart of their civil war.

PART 1 OF SEN. OBAMA'S PLAN: BRINGING OUR TROOPS HOME.
Obama will immediately begin to remove our troops from Iraq. He will remove one to two combat brigades each month, and have all of our combat brigades out of Iraq within 16 months. Obama will make it clear that we will not build any permanent bases in Iraq. He will keep some troops in Iraq to protect our embassy and diplomats; if al Qaeda attempts to build a base within Iraq, he will keep troops in Iraq or elsewhere in the region to carry out targeted strikes on al Qaeda.

Violence in Iraq has never been so low since 2004. Political reconciliation is a fact. Firebrand clerics are on the run. Al Qaeda has been defeated. The Iraqi Army is finally able to conduct operations without US backup.


Do you really want Barack Obama for President?

Really?


MFBB.

1001 STORIES OF NIGHT SETTING IN OVER EURABIA.

In early March 2008, Belgian newspapers broke the news that Abdelkader Belliraj (photo), a dangerous terrorist with dual Belgian/Moroccan citizenship, had been arrested in Morocco on February 18 on charges of involvement in an islamist terror circle. The group had links to other islamist and/or terrorist groups such as Moroccan Chabiba Islamiya (Islamic Youth), Moroccan Revolutionary Islamic Movement, the Mujahidine Movement in Morocco, Al Haraka Min Ajli Al Umma (Movement for the Ummah) etc etc. What has this all to do with Belgium? Simple. It appears that Belliraj had been on the payroll of the Belgian State Security for twenty years. In Morocco, Belliraj confessed to six murders he carried out in Belgium between 1986 and 1989. The first was a certain Raoul Schouppe, a grocer who held shop in the neighborhood of Brussels South Station. Belliraj, who frequented this shop, killed Schouppe "because he looked Jewish". Another victim was a 53-year old gay man, Marc Bille, who had apparently tried to proposition Belliraj. The victim's body, with a shot under the ear, was found in Braine-le-Chateau in Walloon Brabant. Then it was the turn of Abdullah al-Ahdal, the rector of the Grand Mosque in the Cinquantenaire Park in Brussels, and his secretary, Tunisian-born Salim el-Beher. They were considered too liberal for Belliraj since they had criticized the fatwa issued by Khomeini over Salman Rushdie, author of 'The Satanic Verses'. They were shot in the head on March 30, 1989. Later that year, on October 3, Belliraj murdered 48-year old Joseph Wybran, the president of the co-ordination committee of Jewish organisations in Belgium (CCOJB) and head of the immunology department at Erasme Hospital in Anderlecht, Brussels. Around the same time, Belliraj killed number 4, said to be the Egyptian chauffeur to the Saudi ambassador in Brussels. Belliraj's motif for the murder: the lukewarm reaction of Saudi Arabia to Khomeinis's Rushdie fatwa. Apparently Belliraj was already an informant of the Belgian State Security while he carried out some of these murders. Following Belliraj's arrest in Morocco, Belgian police interrogated his landlord, Brahim L. Brahim L. rented Belliraj a comfortable house (photo) in Evergem, in the province of East Flanders. The landlord, who is a koranic teacher in Ghent, denies any knowldge about Mr. Bellirajs activities. By contrast, Chakib Benmoussa, Moroccan Interior Minister, said that it was obvious that Belgian authorities "knew about" Abdelkader Belliraj and his activities. He claimed that Belliraj had resided in Afghanistan in 2001, where he would reportedly have met met Ayman al-Zawahiri, the deputy leader of Al Qaeda.




Anderlecht, Brussels, January 2, 2006. Willy Roobaert (52), having missed the last tram from the Hallepoort to the Beurs (Brussels Stock Exchange), asks and gets a lift from four youths in a black Opel Kadett. The "youths" are Khalid Hamui (23), Bilal Bouquersa (21), Ridouan Hmidou Lamarti (20) and Mohamed El Hakkouni (23), four Moroccans with Belgian passports. Great is Mr. Roobaert's surprise when the Opel doesn't stop at the Beurs, but instead continues towards an open field near the Navezstraat. There they take his money and his cell phone and ask for his credit card's pin code. When Mr. Roobaert refuses, blows start to fall. Mercilessly the four "youths" beat the man up. Already blind to one eye because of an accident with an air gun in his youth, a fatal blow to the other eye blinds the man completely - and for the rest of his life. After some time, he is left alone for dead, bathing in blood. After one hour in the winter cold, a police patrol luckily finds him. Somehow the four young criminals - not unknown to the police - are rounded up. In what is actually an enigma given the fact that most young Morroccan criminals are left free because of a shortage of cells, the four have to stand for trial. Then finally, two weeks ago the Brussels Assisenhof condems the four to 15 years imprisonment. This is actually far less severe than it appears. The Lejeune Law, named after the socialist MP who introduced it, provides for the early release of detainees after having served one third of their sentence, on condition of good behavior in prison. A famous personage who benefited from the Lejeune Law was Marc Dutroux, the serial rapist and killer who placed Belgium on the map in 1996. In the late eighties he had been convicted to a sentence of 13 years for the rape of six girls. After his early release he picked up his career again, which ended a.o. in the rape, and subsequent death in a horror room in the cave of his house, of the teenagers Julie Lejeune (!), Melissa Russo, An Marchal and Eefje Lambrecks. Two other victims who had been abused in the dungeon were rescued, barely alive. But back to our Moroccan youths. When the judge read the verdict, the relatives of the perpetrators, massively present in the courtroom, started a brawl for so much injustice. The men blasted the Belgian judicial system, the women started to cry. A sister of Ridouan Lamarti fainted (or pretended to faint?) and was evacuated by ambulance. Insults were hurled at Mr. Roobaerts' lawyer, Meester Amaury De Craecker, of which really the nicest one was "Are you pleased with the result now? Are your proud of yourself???" Finally, security personnel had to intervene and evacuate the courtroom.



From the daily "Het Nieuwsblad", April 22, 2008. Two police vehicles on patrol in Anderlecht were shot at thursday evening with an air gun. This happened shortly before 7pm on the Bergensesteenweg. The patrolling cars just passed a group of around ten youths [The Nieuwsblad is so kind to not let us know the ethnicity of the youths, but - hint - quite a few of them were named after a certain 7th century guru from a region nowadays famous for exporting oil and pilots who can't land - note by MFBB], when the lead projectiles hit the cars. When the officers got out, they were surrounded and attacked and the group of youths quickly got bigger. Two 19-year olds were arrested because they behaved very aggressively and exhorted the rest. One of them had a pepperspray can. The two are known to the police. They were transferred to the precinct. Later that evening five youths arrived in the precinct to claim the release of their friends. A 21-year old attacked an officer and was arrested too.




On May 3, 2008, a heavy Volvo SUV rams the income doors of the CORA hypermarket in Châtelineau, near Charleroi, and penetrates one hundred meters inside the complex where it busts the central counter. Eyewitnesses see Kalashnikov-toting gunmen leave the vehicle, take whatever money they can carry, board an Audi A8 limousine which had followed the Volvo in its wake and leave with screeching tyres - after having set fire to the SUV, which explodes after a while. It's a small miracle no one gets hurt, although several witnesses have to be treated for shock, so violent was the assault.



On December 4, 2007, three criminals entered a house in Lot, a small community just southwest of Brussels, with the aim of obtaining the keys of a light lorry which they thought belonged to the proprietor of the house. The pepetrators gravely wounded the latter with two bullets in the stomach and one in the leg, but in the meantime an alert neighbour had alarmed the police. Just as a police vehicle stopped in front of the house, the gangsters burst in the street and emptied an AK47 Kalashnikov on the car - 20 rounds were later counted. One officer, 22-year old Kitty Van Nieuwenhuyzen, fresh from Police Academy, was hit in the head and killed instantly. Her 27-year old colleague was gravely wounded and barely survived. The perpetrators were able to flee before backup arrived (Officer Van Nieuwenhuzen was killed in the act of calling in reinforcements). Still, enough clues were found to identify them. They were two Moroccans, Nouredin Cheikni and Hassan Lasir, and a Turk, Galip Kurum, with homebase in Charleroi, a notorious crime-ridden city in Belgium's south. They were rounded up one and a half month later, upon returning in Belgium. They had simply fled to their respective home countries to lay low but had apparently judged the coast to be clear a bit too early. Anonymous sources at the Ministry of Justice confirmed that both Lasir and Kurum had been sentenced to ten years for other grave facts in 2002 but been let free in 2006, barely four years later, because of... the Lejeune Law. The perpetrators now risk a life sentence, but it should be noted that in Belgium, life sentences are automatically transformed in 30-year sentences, which means that, if the criminals show "good conduct" in prison, they can be released as early as after... 10 years, thanks to, you guess it, the Lejeune Law. Policewoman Kitty Van Neuwenhuyzen was just a few days shy of her 23rd birthday and an only daughter. In Belgium, it is well possible that her grieving parents may encounter her killers in just ten years as free men on the street.




Amsterdam, April 28, 2008. City Councilor for the PvdA (Partij van de Arbeid, one of the two socialist Dutch parties) Yman Mahrach, of Moroccan descent, publicly states that her party should not press too much for a "moderate" islam. "The Islam and the Koran are inalterable. You are muslim or not. Homosexual sex is forbidden, that is a rule in islam, just as you cannot lie." So what's the background to the story? Two indigenous socialist councillors had written an op-ed on the "artwork" (emphasis mine) of Sooreh Hera, an Iranian-born artist. In one of her recent works Muhammad and Ali were depicted as homosexuals. While I personally do not consider this as art, I don't think it should be forbidden. I loathe Serrano's Piss Christ, but if it turns him on to put a crucifix in a jar filled with his urine, let him. But back to Miss Mahrach, whose reaction to the op-ed of her party members was rather acid: "I agree with their claim that art must be judged using art's standards, BUT this photo is insulting and does not help the dialogue. You cannot depict the prophet, especially not as a homosexual or paedophile. Moreover, the PvdA has a large following among muslims. According to Mahrach, there are better ways to debate about homosexuality. "Because there is a lot of discussion already. For instance that you cannot use violence against gays. But that homosexuality is haram, is in the Koran. It's in the Bible too. It is not up to politics to disagree with that."

Got that? FYI, in lovely multicultural Amsterdam, Madam Mahrach is the vanguard of a whole new generation of young muslim socialist politicians. These guys and gals were elected with a mandate of their voters, were sworn in on the condition that they defend the Dutch constitution.... and then "Homosexuality is forbidden because it is in the Koran." In other words, the Koran is ABOVE Dutch Constitution. Several high-ranking indigenous Dutch socialists in Amsterdam were reportedly taken aback, but I'm not holding my breadth. These guys will be run over. Btw, did you check out Miss Mahrachs three photos? Back to the Middle Ages in five years! The first one shows her as a GroenLinks militant when she was 18 years. GroenLinks (GreenLeft) is the Dutch green party, a collection of econazi's and watermelon crackpots without equal. For unclear reasons, Miss Mahrachs stint at GroenLinks didn't last long. The second photo shows her when she came up for the PvdA in the Amsterdam municipal elections, two years ago. The third photo shows her as she is now, safely possessing her PvdA seat in the Amsterdam City Council. Draw your own conclusions.



From Expatica, May 28, 2008:

AMSTERDAM - Police officers in Amsterdam are to get a special deal if they buy Dutch writer Kader Abdolah's new translation of the Qur'an. The capital's police authority reckons that the new version, designed to be more accessible to the Dutch public, will give officers more insight into Islam. It is subsidising police purchases of the book by 50 percent. A police spokesman explained that while many officers have some knowledge of the Bible, the Qur'an is often unknown territory.

Right-wing Party for Freedom (PVV) MPs are outraged by the plan, with Sietse Fritsma calling it "Islamic propaganda" and saying that public money should not be spent on it.

On Tuesday, the PVV will demand the government intervene to scrap the plan.

Hat tip Atlas Shrugs.



The borough of Anderlecht in Brussels was the scene of a small-scale ethnic war last week. Last Friday evening (May 23) extremely violent riots broke out in the streets of Brussels between Moroccan youths and supporters of football (soccer) club RSC Anderlecht. The day before, Thursday May 22, an immigrant (Moroccan) blog had called for attacks on the "white" supporters of the club, and "to burn pubs, houses and cars." Enjoy the movie.



Moroccan youths and hooligans, but especially the former category, destroyed bus stalls, damaged cars and busted shop windows. There was a hail of stones, beer bottles and even fences. The police deployed watercannons, horse charges and even pepper spray. Filip Van Laenen from The Brussels Journal notes the following: "Another interesting aspect of the story is that there is no information about the author of the inciting blog. It seems remarkable that the Centre for Equal Opportunities and Opposition to Racism (CEOOR, a government body) has not yet commented on the case yet since the posting clearly must have been in violation with the Belgian anti-discrimination laws. According to the press, the word "white" was specifically mentioned in the posting. One would expect that the CEOOR would leave no stone unturned to find out who the author is and bring him to court." Meanwhile, the CEOOR, led by extreme leftist Jozef De Witte, has expressed delight at the verdict of Bart Debie, formerly a very successful young Police Chief in Antwerp, who lost his civic rights last week for a five-year period and was sentenced to one year prison effectively. One of the charges was that although he had not used racist slurs himself, he was responsible for creating an atmosphere in which his men were apt to make such slurs. What slurs? Oh, like "Here we have five lambs, the Feast of Sacrifice can begin". This upon the arrest of five members of a Turkish criminal family. You will agree with me this case deserved in fact the ICC in The Hague. In the meantime, the CEOOR somehow thinks Moroccans who exhort other Moroccans to attack 'whites' and 'burn pubs, houses and cars' are okay-dokay.





From the Vlaams Belang online magazine, March 29, 2003: Colruyt goes halal.WTF is Colruyt? Colruyt is the prime Belgian distribution chain, kind of our own Wal-Mart. Very powerful, very rich. It seems they have discovered the special needs of a certain brand of customers. VB magazine:

"Following the release of the very debatable "islamophobia" report, yet another item surfaces confirming the stealth islamization and adaptation of the West. What have we had thus far? Apart swimming hours for muslim women. Removing the Christmas trees from the Palais de Justice in Brussels. Halal food for all Antwerp schools. Halal investment funds at Fortis Bank. And now grocery chain Colruyt is going 'halal' too. An ad for meat sausages loudly proclaims the fact. "Chatar, sausage with halal meat". "Boiled sausage on the basis of poultry, prepared with 100% halal meat". And, to remove all lingering doubt: "prepared according to muslim tradition." Lng live the holy diversity! Swell is different, but as long as they do not remove pork meat, we can lve with it. However, one never knows. Some want to go very far in their efforts not to insult their islamic co-citizens."

Sorry if you just ate.

Except when it was halal.

This was Outlaw Mike, reporting from the world's biggest open-air funny farm. Although it has also some streak of Orwell's Animal Farm. More and more so, it seems.


MFBB.

MEMORIAL DAY 2008.

May 25, 2008. Memorial Day ceremony at Flanders Field American Cemetery, Waregem, Belgium. This was my first visit to the cemetery, the final resting place of 368 servicemen who died in World War I, and the smallest US cemetery in Belgium (the other ones are the Ardennes America Cemetery in Neuville-en-Condroz and the Cemetery Henri-Chapelle in Hombourg). Flanders Field AMC is basically a rectangular field covering 6.2 acres, with the white stone chapel you see on the photo in the centre. A curtain of trees and shrubbery effectively shields the place from the traffic on the adjacent roads and the activities on the industrial estate lying no more than a few hundred yards away, and lends it a solemn, tranquil and graceful atmosphere. The graves are neatly arranged on four sides, with paths leading between them towards circular retreats with stone benches and urns at three of the corners of the cemetery. The following video presents a short tour of Flanders Field American Cemetery's landscaped grounds and the architecture and interior of the chapel: Flanders Field.wmv - windows media video ( 12 MB ). Courtesy of the video the American Battle Monuments Commission.





My friend Flemish American was there, together with his wife and kids. Of the VIP's present, the most notable were Belgian Prime Minister Yves Leterme and US Ambassador to Belgium Sam Fox. This is what the program looked like:




FLYOVER
INVOCATION Reverend Father Frans Verhelst Dean of Waregem
AMERICAN LEGION MEMORIAL PRAYER Mr. Paul Vande Walle Jr
TRIBUTE Mr. Kürt Vanryckeghem Mayor of Waregem
TRIBUTE General Hobbins, Commander USAFEUR
TRIBUTE The Honorable Sam Fox, Ambassador of the United States of America
PRESENTATION OF THE AMVETS
MEMORIAL CARILLON
Mr. Joseph T. Kolano President AMVETS National Service Foundation
ACCEPTANCE OF THE CARILLON
DEDICATION ADDRESS
Brigadier General John W. "Jack" Nicholson Secretary, A.B.M.C.
“THE STAR SPANGLED BANNER” Waregem School Children
LAYING OF FLORAL TRIBUTES U.S. Army Garrison BeNeLux Waregem Fire Brigade
FIRING OF VOLLEYS CC Sp. Mat & Prod., Ieper, West-Vlaanderen
TAPS AND RAISING OF THE COLORS Royal Band of the Belgian Navy
“IN FLANDERS FIELDS” Miss Brianna Fitch, Brussels American School
JEWISH PRAYER Rabbi Albert Dahan
BENEDICTION Chaplain (Major) Jeff Walden
USAG BeNeLux Family Life Chaplain
BELGIAN NATIONAL ANTHEM “De Brabançonne”
AMERICAN NATIONAL ANTHEM
“The Star Spangled Banner”, Royal Band of the Belgian Navy
RETIREMENT OF THE COLORS
PATRIOTIC HYMNS Secretary, A.B.M.C. Royal Band of the Belgian Navy

Very unfortunately, while at first the weather seemed promising, halfway through the ceremony rain started to fall. A minor nuisance at first, it gradually developed into a embarrassment for all those present, rendering the last tribute and the dedication address inaudible. Still, a group of Waregem school children started to sing the American National Anthem, the "Star Spangled Banner", a tradition since 1923. I took pictures of that, and it was really moving how these small kids, all soaked to the bone by then (why didn't the organizers think of providing more umbrellas for them) managed to sing it in full. By the time they finished, the rainfall had become a tremendous torrent (I will try to provide photos of that tomorrow). It became so bad that the children had to be whisked away in order to not let them catch a cold. Luckily, after some ten minutes had elapsed, it became a minor dribble again, and by the time it was rabbi Dahan's turn, the sun was peeking through the clouds.

After the ceremony I took a stroll along the graves. A very sobering experience. It noticed quite some soldiers from 145th Regiment, 37th Division. They came from all over the States, but many seemd to come from the state of New York. Also a few pilots from the Air Corps.

By the time I'm typing this, it's twelve past midnight, and my final thoughts on the matter are that it's quite rich to use a catchphrase like "Freedom isn't free", as some important personage did, if you don't really let sink in the truthfulness of that saying. FREEDOM-ISN'T-FREE. It's not something you should say to score at some meeting or during a debate. It's something to say standing in front of hundreds of graves with countless names of Noonans, Grzyczaks, Johnsons, Bairds, Hoffmeisters and Leishs on them. Preferably, under a darkened sky heavy with rainclouds, and being cold and soaked wet to the bone. We live in freedom, because they died. At age 18, 19 or 22. Young lives tragically cut short.

May we never, never forget. To all members of the US military, past and present, and of those other armies which liberated us: thank you for your service.


MFBB.


UPDATE: photos from the ceremony yesteday, uploaded using Flickr.



Despite the rain, a group of Waregem school children sing "The Star Spangled Banner", a tradition which began in 1923.



When the song was completed, the rain developed into a veritable torrent. Everybody was soaked wet to the bone. It's all Bush's fault.



The final resting place of John Masterson, 27th Division. He fell in August 1918.


PS: this was the first time I used Flickr for uploading and posting photos. Until now, I have been using a personal site (little more than a virtual junkyard, actually) with a maximum of 50MB for photos and other material. That limit has now been reached (actually though it's amazing how I have somehow managed to cram so many photos in it - even though I have also been stealing quite some bandwidth elsewhere). Creating a Flickr account via Yahoo! is simple as pie and all seemed cream and butter until I saw my pics above... of very poor quality now. I took them with a Nikon Coolpix 4800, 4 megapixels effectively, and my photos usually comprise between 700 and 800 kilobytes, giving a very fair resolution. If I had had that resolution over here, you'd be able to see the raindrops falling between the kids, e.g.. Or you'd be able to appreciate their teacher, who was a pretty hot woman. Now however.... the three pics above are barely 27-30kB each. Which is kind of weird, since during the uploading I could see that for the three photos a total of 2.73 MB was transferred. Which, as we see, somehow got lost. So if there's someone out there who can offer some advice to keep the quality, please spill. Thanks in advance.