Friday, October 07, 2005

Proud to Be a Danish American


This flag is supposed to show smugness, condescension, and scorn with regards to Copenhagen's presence in the coalition of the willing besides the Danes' American brothers-in-arms, but never mind; as someone who is proud of Danish foreign policy in regard to the war against terrorism, I like Staffan Sommelius's banner anyway and intend to view it, and to take it, as I see fit…

Thursday, October 06, 2005

Designer bomb belts coming soon

French urban fashion by Anticon.

The Broken Country Effect

The "broken window effect," in policing, is the idea that failure to enforce minor crimes emboldens more serious criminals
Robert Tracinski reminds us.
I have argued for the "broken country effect": failure to oppose rogue authoritarian regimes that start out as minor annoyances--such as Zimbabwe and Venezuela [and Syria]--leads to much worse consequences later.

The consequence of the US failure to back Venezuela's political opposition in 2002, when they briefly ousted strongman Hugo Chavez, is causing no end of trouble across Central and South America, from Chavez's support for leftist rebels in Columbia--to the threat of a new Sandinista coup in Nicaragua, which our diplomats are now scrambling to prevent.

Read also Frank J Gaffney's
War for the free world

Wednesday, October 05, 2005

Is a late admission better than none?

In the European press, the truth does come out - right after the political types spoon feeding them their stories have had a chance to make sure most of the public has forgotten about the original problem.

5 October - Karen McVeigh writing in The Scotsman reports on the UN's findings that their efforts in the aftermath of the tsunami left a great deal to be desired:
The United Nations failed to adequately co-ordinate the relief effort in the wake of the Boxing Day tsunami, according to a report commissioned by the International Federation of the Red Cross.
There is even s glimmer of awareness of the righteous indignation which the "world community" evacuated from its' bowels in the days and weeks following the landfall of a certain notable disaster which befell the US:
Matthias Schmale, the UN's international director, said: "We share the concerns of the report. Is the UN playing an effective role in rehabilitation? It would be foolish of me not to acknowledge that there are serious challenges." He said that after the sheer scale of a disaster such as the tsunami or Hurricane Katrina, "chaos is automatically what follows. There is no intentional bad practice, but it is part of an initial response."
Were this information aired or even the sentiment permitted to be discussed at the time, the difficulties after the disaster would have been far less severe. Unfortunately image and appearances trump reality in virtually everything the UN touches.

French rappers use 9-11 to peddle their tunes

La zik' de la caillera pour faire gigoter cette sale vermine du 9-3.
The CD is called "Rap Attack 3" and the poster shows the Twin Towers under siege. The notice states "in stores on 9-11 2005" with a reference to 8:52 AM.

Dessine-moi une nation de moutons

The French are ruffled over intelligent design, even more so because it's popping up, without secular benediction, in their own school system.


My very existence is proof of intelligent design ...

We joke, but perhaps shouldn't laugh too hard

Tuesday, October 04, 2005

Burnin' down the house

The debt burden and budget deficit are two different things altogether. People get them confused, especially economies that are having a hard time waking up in the middle of a boom going on around them. That's the polite way of saying that they're sucking wind.

All the while, the socialists (let's call them the peasants for the sake of argument,) are out in the streets with pitchforks demanding more, more, more of what's killing them, and has been obvious for a long time.

The only politically acceptable option in a France afraid of change and challenge remains borrowing at the worst time. In effect, this is like busting up the furniture to stay warm, something long discredited, and long abandoned by the best and the brightest.

Hngh! I pity the fool.

Fight for your right (To party)

Nail French union thugs with messy cream pies while dodging for the bricks, the hammers and the sickles.

Elections Schmelections: "May the government once again become an area of invention and of decision"

Il surprenait par sa franchise et par son charme, mais plus encore par une énergie singulière, que j'apparentais à une sorte d'enthousiasme révolutionnaire, que ne modérait pas un attachement conservateur aux principes de notre Histoire et de l'Etat. … un calme inédit … [un] sphinx … un manteau de mystères … une mission de la dernière chance … Il entretient avec [ses collaborateurs] un dialogue de chaque instant … parmi lesquels [il] compte de nombreux amis … A chacun, il montre la même détermination, tempérée par la vitesse du sourire et le précis des phrases, sans arrogance. Sa décontraction chaleureuse range prudents et rieurs de son côté. … il était impatient de rencontrer la vérité des Français, et la sienne aussi, face à ce déclin qu'il récuse. …"Que chacun prenne ses responsabilités. Les jeux de rôle ne suffiront pas à nous sortir de la nasse." Il se prépare pour demain et promet des surprises. Il n'oublie pas que ce sont les événements qui emploient les hommes. … [Le marathonien] me confia : "Jamais je n'aurais imaginé que ce à quoi je m'étais préparé toute ma vie soit confronté à un tel choc de la réalité."
Two full pages! Two complete pages in the independent newspaper for "Villepin l'imaginatif", an article which is nothing if not a hagiography to France's prime minister. (The society that sees nothing wrong with allowing a marathon article of unparalleled length to be written by one single admirer who has followed the article's subject for 10 years, is the same society whose members scoff at the American journalists who put their lives at risk by being "embedded" — the charge carries a subtext of prostitution, willing or not — in combat units of the U.S. Army in Iraq.)
…le nouveau Villepin, son obsession de l'emploi, créent la surprise, et les événements semblent s'organiser pour le servir. Il touche les premiers dividendes de sa préparation, de ses méthodes de travail collectif, du style de sa communication (jamais de petites phrases, une conférence de presse mensuelle).
Pearls of wisdom from the "gaulliste ascendant Bonaparte" in the newspaper of reference:
Je lui dis que certains le trouvent un peu... Il m'interrompt : "... Un peu besogneux. Oui, je suis besogneux. Et humble. Je ne veux pas gâcher les deux ans que j'ai devant moi. La démocratie, ce n'est pas attendre sempiternellement les prochaines élections."… Il lève les bras au ciel …"Je voudrais prouver que le pouvoir n'est pas forcément le refuge du cynisme, du scepticisme et de l'inaction." … Les Français, tentés de vivre en arrière, dans une quiétude provinciale, s'enferment avec leurs plaintes, s'adonnent à la peur et au repentir, sans savoir qu'ils sont enviés, leur volonté trébuche. "Notre démocratie est complètement bloquée, dit Villepin. Je ne peux réformer que par surprise, en restant dans l'équilibre, la vraie nature française, dans la justice, qui n'est pas l'égalité, et dans le mouvement. C'est seulement parce que c'est difficile que je peux réussir."
Let's end the article on Nero with five excerpts of note:
Il savoure ce calme sans illusions, s'inquiétant de voir de grands Etats (les Etats-Unis, la Chine, l'Inde, l'Iran) s'organiser pour défendre leurs intérêts nationaux et leur souveraineté, et donne tous ses soins aux concepts de patriotisme économique et de croissance sociale.
Yes, you got that right. The only nation which is not defending its national interests is France. (Or, if you prefer, the only nation whose national interests happen to be in symbiosis with the common good of mankind — where patriotism is a good thing — is la France.)
Quelques vieux kroumirs se montrent alors oublieux des règles de la morale publique. Villepin purge notre diplomatie de ces réseaux parallèles où prospèrent les bacilles de la corruption.
Really? Seems like one germ of corruption that the guardian of public morale seemed to forget to purge France's diplomatic halls of was the Saddam connection. Here, indeed, is how Daniel Rondeau evokes post-911 America and the Iraq crisis, "cette guerre pour la paix":
L'Amérique, traumatisée par le 11-Septembre, cherche à entraîner la communauté internationale dans une embuscade diplomatique à l'ONU contre l'Irak, pays désarmé dont elle prétend qu'il menace la paix mondiale. Le 14 février 2003, Villepin porte la parole française à l'ONU. Son discours est applaudi dans l'enceinte des Nations unies. En France, il provoque un frisson à droite comme à gauche. Le pouvoir est aussi une question d'incarnation. Villepin a incarné, ce jour-là, une certaine idée de la France. En Amérique du Sud, où les télévisions diffusent alors quotidiennement ses interviews en espagnol, dans les pays arabes et musulmans, en Afrique, il est devenu l'homme qui résiste à George W. Bush. Ce sont les événements qui fabriquent les hommes. Villepin est en phase avec l'idée qu'il s'est toujours faite de la vocation universelle de notre pays : il fonce.
Needless to say, a wise and visionary Frenchman "without arrogance" is up to the shenanigans of the Anglo-Saxons, who (because of the innate duplicity of their system, probably) cannot admit that they actually agree, to some degree, with France's ever-wise and humanitarian position.
L'un de ses soucis était alors de garder le contact avec les deux chefs de la diplomatie anglo-saxonne, Jack Straw et Colin Powell, moins éloignés des positions françaises qu'ils ne pouvaient l'avouer. Il arrivait qu'il les rudoie. … Powell vivait alors avec la "tâche" du mensonge sur son uniforme de général. Il encaisse en silence, son interlocuteur éclate de rire.
Finally, Daniel Rondeau not only seems to make a plea against elections, equating democracy with a lethargic "system on its last legs" (!), but finds entirely normal that the admirer of Napoleon bases that vision on the history of the end of communism in Eastern Europe (!!).
Mais le président envisageait de finir son quinquennat avec Raffarin. C'était pour lui un confort politique et personnel. Par qui voudriez-vous le remplacer, disaient ses interlocuteurs (dont Alain Juppé) ? Villepin ? Votre ancien secrétaire général ? Surtout pas. La politique est un métier et, au coeur de ce métier, il y a l'élection.

Villepin lui a forcé la main. Un soir de l'été 2004, chez Claude Perdriel, industriel et homme de presse, la précision de ces phrases vaut condamnation d'un système à bout de souffle : "Regardons les pays qui sortent de soixante-dix ans de communisme ! Pour la première fois depuis longtemps, ils ont le sentiment d'avoir rendez-vous avec l'Histoire. Quittons notre léthargie ! Et que le pouvoir redevienne un espace d'invention et de décision."

"May the government once again become an area of invention and of decision"! The French never seem to wonder how their view of their leaders (and of the world and of history, domestic and international) are seen abroad (in America or elsewhere), taking it for granted that their self-serving views are shared throughout the globe (at least, by the avant-garde bien-pensants). (Here, for the record, is a different view of Dominique de Villepin and French diplomacy.)

Monday, October 03, 2005

Delusional

Here is a statement which basically declares that Europe should get off of its lazy ass, start pulling its weight, and get around to assuming some political and military responsability (in other words: change everything now because this is Europe's last chance). Libération PropagandaStaffel gets its grimy hands on this and runs the story 'The United States rediscovers Europe' with the spin being that American neocons are crawling back to embrace a relationship with Europe.

France flushes the EU down a Turkish toilet

The French hate Europe. La Fwance : xénophobe, globophobe, et dorénavant europhobe.

Trouduc

Implacable logique de pédaloïde sidaïque. "J'étais devenu officiellement 'polyvalent commercial'" , dit-il. "En clair, bouche-trou, ...". Abruti, tu l'as chopé en te faisant boucher le trou.

Sous la table, Vile-pine balance sa purée



In the course of the same week, Villepin patted a cow on the ass and shaked Bush's hand -- Chiraq: Which was more difficult?

Hate speech

Even Libération PropagandaStaffel is obliged to backpeddle and admit that the news coverage perpetrated by MSM in the aftermath of Katrina was nothing more than a pack of vicious lies born of an extreme hatred of America and George Bush.
Rumeurs également colportée par les chemise brunes syphilitiques de la blogosphere fwançaise, véritable fange boueuse à l'esprit sidaïsé qui avançait, parmi d'autres conneries, qu'il ne fallait pas critiquer le maire de la Nouvelle-Orléans, non parce qu'il avait fait du bon boulot (manifestement, ce n'était point le cas), mais parce qu'il est démocrate et noir. Il n'y a que la haine et le racisme anti-blancs qui reste à ces pôv' gôchistes.


We messed up in Iraq. You've lost New Orleans, but I promise you ... the moon!

Sunday, October 02, 2005

Ignorance + arrogance = a dead society



This is the notion they have of the US, down at the level of the lowest common denomnator, which is where things always end up in France. Telling yourself that you know better than anyone else on earth helps get you there a lot quicker.

Hatred is the fig leaf used to conceal the self-absorption, hubris, and madness caused by intellectual incest.

The one "Arab street" that Paris will NOT listen to

Or bow down to, or bend over for. Why are Iraqis treated like sub-humans by the French press? Guy Millière asks the tough question.

Contre un cancer virulent

Une chimio carabinée.

The blame lies clearly with Dr. Allende and those of his followers who persistently overrode the Constitution

While Dominique Dhombres shows some healthy skepticism towards the figure of Saint Guevara, do not forget that the muffled tone bears no comparison to the shrillness the Le Monde journalist uses when America and/or Bush are involved…

Elsewhere in Latin America, José Piñera, armed with evidence including "the momentous Agreement of 23 August 1973 … widely unknown outside Chile", opines that because

President Allende became a tyrant when he broke his solemn oath to respect the Constitution and the Chilean laws [and because] his government [had] fomented the creation of armed militias … the origin of the Pinochet government is that of any revolutionary one, in which only the use of force was left in order to remove a tyrant [and to] "put immediate end" to these constitutional violations. It must be agreed that this was, in fact, an unequivocal call to remove by force the President who had initiated the use of force with the purpose of imposing a communist dictatorship.

…the truth demands recognition that former President Pinochet led a legitimate rebellion against tyranny and that the origin of Chile's civil war --and its victims-- lies with former President Allende and his marxist Socialist party. … The Economist said it clearly at the time: "The temporary death of democracy in Chile will be regrettable, but the blame lies clearly with Dr. Allende and those of his followers who persistently overrode the Constitution" (September 15, 1973).

Regarding Allende's purported suicide, Eduardo Mackenzie and the Politic have advice for Venezuela's Hugo Chávez…