The Desperation-of-Deprivation Myth

by Mark Steyn

The West has incentivized non-productivity on an industrial scale.


Unlike many of my comrades in the punditry game, I don’t do a lot of TV. But I’m currently promoting my latest doom-mongering bestseller, so I’m spending more time than usual on the telly circuit. This week I was on the BBC’s current-affairs flagship Newsnight. My moment in the spotlight followed a report on the recent riots in English cities, in the course of which an undercover reporter interviewed various rioters from Manchester who’d had a grand old time setting their city ablaze and then expressed no remorse over it. There then followed a studio discussion, along the usual lines. The host introduced a security guard who’d fought for Queen and country in Afghanistan and Bosnia and asked whether he sympathized with his neighbors. He did. When you live in an “impoverished society,” he said, “people do what they have to do to survive.”

Read more at: National Review Online

Europe needs a revolution - 2011

What’s REALLY Happening in the Middle East Today

August 25, 2011 - 11:21 am

By Barry Rubin


A few hours ago I wrote that the Egyptian military government reportedly told Israel that a major Israeli offensive into the Gaza Strip might create an out-of-control situation in Egypt. The Egyptian generals weren’t being threatening or hostile, they were saying that they could either not control a wave of violence that would result or perhaps be unable to resist demands for strong action. For this and other reasons, Israel has not retaliated.

One reason for the generals’ lack of desire to confront Israel now–aside from knowing they would be defeated and lose U.S. aid–is that they may be aware of three things. First, the Egyptian government has acknowledged that three Egyptian citizens participated in the terror attack on Israel. The story is covered here.

Second, as was made clear by his comrades at the funeral, Egyptian soldiers killed an Israeli soldier in an unprovoked shooting as the Israelis were packing up to leave the border area.

Third, the Egyptian government knows that three Egyptian soldiers were not killed by Israel on purpose but were spotted by an Israeli helicopter hunting the terrorists, who were wearing Egyptian army uniforms, and fired two missiles and machine guns at them.

Read more at: PajamasMedia

Obama’s Next Vacation

“Rivieren van bloed”

E.J. BRON - 17 augustus 2011

Zijn waarschuwing werd in de wind geslagen: op 20 april 1968 eiste de Engelse afgevaardigde Enoch Powell dringend een stop op de massa-immigratie naar Groot-Brittannië. De actuele onlusten bevestigen de angsten van de in 1998 overleden politicus. Hieronder zijn integrale rede.


“De belangrijkste functie van goed staatsmanschap bestaat erin, om vermijdbaar kwaad te voorkomen. Bij deze inspanning stuit zij op hindernissen, die diep in de menselijke natuur wortelen. Enerzijds zit dat in de orde der dingen, dat zulk kwaad niet bewijsbaar is, voordat het aan het licht komt: in iedere fase van zijn ontwikkeling blijft er speelruimte voor twijfel en twist of hij echt zou zijn of ingebeeld.

Tegelijkertijd baart het weinig opzien in vergelijking met huidige problemen, die zowel onbetwistbaar als dringend zijn: daarom de voortdurende verleiding in de politiek om zich ten koste van de toekomst met het onmiddellijke heden bezig te houden. Mensen neigen vooral naar de verkeerde opvatting, dat diegene, die trammelant voorspelt, deze veroorzaken of er zelfs naar verlangen zou. “Als de mensen er maar niet over zouden praten”, denken ze graag, “dan zou het waarschijnlijk niet gebeuren.”
Wellicht is deze gewoonte terug te voeren op het primitieve geloof, dat het woord en het ding, de naam en het voorwerp identiek zouden zijn. Hoe het ook zij, het zich bezighouden met toekomstig zwaarwegend, maar door direct handelen nog af te wenden kwaad, is de meest impopulaire en tegelijkertijd de meest noodzakelijke taak van een politicus. Diegenen, die zich hier met open ogen voor drukken, verdienen de vloeken van diegenen, die na hen komen – en vaak genoeg krijgen ze die dan ook.

Lees meer op: Artikel7.nu

On the Radicalization of Anders Behring Breivik

The Annihilation of Civilizations

By the time Mohammed died in 632 AD, Islam had used persuasion and jihad to subjugate Arabia. The annihilation of native Arabic culture is Sunna, the perfect example for all times and all Muslims. Said another way, the political theory of Islam is annihilation of Kafir civilization. How well did this political theory work out in history? Is this theory of annihilation at work today?

We have records of Mohammed’s last jihad against the Christians north of Arabia. After he died, Umar, the second caliph, took Mohammed’s jihad against the Christians and developed it into a war that conquered half of the Christian world. But this conquest was only the beginning of the political transformation. Sharia law was put into place and the Christian Kafirs became dhimmis. But Umar was not able to conquer Anatolia, the site known today as Turkey. For centuries, Islam attacked Anatolia and finally took Constantinople, now known as Istanbul, Turkey.

Read more at: Political Islam

Citaat van de week

De Europese Unie is de drijvende kracht achter de islamisering van Europa. Ze levert een heel continent formeel uit aan de islam, terwijl ze intussen gevestigde nationale culturen vernietigt, en is bereid degenen die het met dit beleid niet eens zijn aan te vallen.

Dit is het grootste georganiseerde verraad in de geschiedenis van het Westen.

Fjordman

Britain is a riot

Conquering the Storm

by Sarah Palin on Monday, August 8, 2011 at 3:53pm

In the coming days we’ll sort through the repercussions of S&P’s downgrade of our credit rating, including concerns about the impact a potential interest rate increase would have on our ability to service our suffocating $14.5 trillion debt.
I’m surprised that so many people seem surprised by S&P’s decision. Weren’t people paying attention over the last year or so when we were getting warning after warning from various credit rating agencies that this was coming? I’ve been writing and speaking about it myself for quite some time.

Back in December 2010, I wrote: “If the European debt crisis teaches us anything, it’s that tomorrow always comes. Sooner or later, the markets will expect us to settle the bill for the enormous Obama-Pelosi-Reid spending binge. We’ve already been warned by the credit ratings agency Moody’s that unless we get serious about reducing our deficit, we may face a downgrade of our credit rating.” And again in January, in response to President Obama’s State of the Union address I wrote: “With credit ratings agency Moody’s warning us that the federal government must reverse the rapid growth of national debt or face losing our triple-A rating, keep in mind that a nation doesn’t look so ‘great’ when its credit rating is in tatters.”

One doesn’t need a Harvard Law degree to figure this out! Just look across the pond at Europe. European nations with less debt and smaller deficits than ours and with real “austerity” plans in place to deal with them have had their ratings downgraded. By what magical thinking did we figure we could run up perpetual trillion dollar deficits and still somehow avoid the unforgiving mathematics of a downgrade? Nothing is ever “too big to fail.” And there’s no such thing as a free lunch. Didn’t we all learn that in our micro and macro econ classes? I did at the University of Idaho. How could Obama skip through Columbia and Harvard without learning that?

Read more at: Facebook

Het gelijk van Breivik

Overpeinzingen over een ‘verweesde samenleving’


Nu de kruitdampen uit de handguns van Breivik wat opgetrokken zijn, leek het mij goed om met enige reflectie terug te blikken en vooruit te kijken.

Breivik heeft gelijk. Niet met de moorden natuurlijk, maar wel met betrekking tot de rode draad uit zijn Manifest. Bijeengeplakt of niet, de boodschap is onmiskenbaar: het Westen heeft zitten pitten en een haar vijandige cultuur binnen de poorten gehaald, die het voortbestaan van het vrije Westen bedreigt en degenen die hiervoor verantwoordelijk moeten worden gesteld zijn de cultureel marxisten. Dat is zijn boodschap. En die boodschap is juist.

In dit stuk wil ik het niet over zijn Manifest hebben, daarover is al meer dan genoeg geschreven, ook door ondergetekende, de man in kwestie, Breivik, is volkomen doorgedraaid en verder als individu niet relevant voor wat komen gaat. Zijn opvattingen daarentegen wel. Ik wil het hebben over de oorzaken dat in het relatief ruime en rustige Noorwegen een ‘Breivik’ kan opstaan en met name welke gevolgen dat heeft voor de politieke ontwikkelingen binnen Europa over het algemeen en Nederland in het bijzonder.


De titel van dit stukje is bewust provocerend. Waarom ?

Ik ben het policor geleuter van de afgelopen decennia, tot op de dag van nu, een beetje zat. Overigens ook de harde toon van de tweets en het gestigmatiseer op blogs. Van links tot rechts. Laten we de knuppel maar in het hoenderhok gooien. Het is tijd voor bezinning.

Lees meer op: Keizers & Kleren

‘I’m just quitting’: A scene right out of ‘Atlas Shrugged’ in Birmingham

by David McElroy


If it had been a scene in “Atlas Shrugged,” the guy would have disappeared into the secrecy of Colorado with a shadowy figure who we would later learn to be John Galt. In real life, the story will probably be more complex. But I wonder how long it’s going to be before businesspeople really do start walking away and deciding it’s not worth doing business in America today. Or it it already happening and we just don’t know it?


The man you see in the picture at the right is named Ronnie Bryant. He operates coal mines in Alabama. I’d never heard of him until this morning, but after what I saw and heard from him, I’d say he’s a bit like a southern version of Ellis Wyatt from Ayn Rand’s novel. What I saw made an impression on me.

Read more at: David McElroy (don't forget the comments)

The Wrench In the Plans

By William Warren – After listening to Obama’s address last night, it’s evident that he is the wrench in the debt ceiling plans.

Afghanistan: Jihad/martyrdom suicide bomber murders Kandahar mayor with bomb hidden in turban

Reinforcing Islamophobic stereotypes

Will the Islamophobia never end? "Kandahar mayor killed by suicide bomber with explosives in turban," by Jon Boone in the Guardian, July 27 (thanks to Bill):

Read it all on: Jihad Watch (and don't forget to read the comments!)

Obama's Legacy

Center for Security Policy

Jul 05, 2011

By Frank Gaffney, Jr.


For some time, the outlines of an Obama Doctrine have been apparent. It can be summarized in nine damning words: Embolden our enemies. Undermine our friends. Diminish our country. These days, it is hard to avoid proof that these outcomes are not inadvertent, or attributable to sheer and sustained incompetence. Rather, they are a product of deliberate decisions approved, we must assume, by the President himself.

Consider last week's announcement by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that the United States was going to "engage" the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. At one fell swoop, Team Obama hit its doctrinal trifecta:


Read more at: Center for Security Policy

In his 1,500-page manifesto, Anders Behring Breivik slides alarmingly from a legitimate concern about the rise of Islam in Europe to propose 'terror as a method for waking up the masses.

By BRUCE BAWER

When bombs exploded on Friday in a compound of government office buildings in the heart of Oslo, I assumed, as did pretty much everyone, that the perpetrators were Islamic terrorists. But over the course of the day—as the bombings were overshadowed by the gunning down of dozens of young people at a Labor Party youth camp on a nearby island, Utøya—it emerged that these atrocities were not the work of an international jihadist organization. Instead, the perpetrator was a 32-year-old Oslo native named Anders Behring Breivik. He was motivated by a hostility to multicultural policies that, in his view, are leading his country down the path to Islamization. His response was a murderous rampage that has taken the lives of at least 92 people.

It came as stunning news that Norway had been attacked by a blond, blue-eyed, anti-Islamic terrorist. It should not have been: Several of us who have written about the rise of Islam in Europe have warned that the failure of mainstream political leaders to responsibly address the attendant challenges would result in the emergence of extremists like Breivik.

Read more at: The Wall Street Journal

Executive truth-tellers about Obama's disastrous policies

July 21, 2011
Thomas Lifson

Two billionaire magnates, the founds of huge successful enterprises, have dramatically spoken out against President Obama's management of the economy. They have been joined in criticizing the president by several CEOs of big companies. Normally, the heads of huge enterprises are cautious about offending presidents, but the magnitude of the disaster apparently has caused these men to speak truth to power.

Home Depot founder Bernie Marcus did not mince words speaking with Investor's Business Daily:

Having built a small business into a big one, I can tell you that today the impediments that the government imposes are impossible to deal with. Home Depot would never have succeeded if we'd tried to start it today. Every day you see rules and regulations from a group of Washington bureaucrats who know nothing about running a business. And I mean every day. It's become stifling.

If you're a small businessman, the only way to deal with it is to work harder, put in more hours, and let people go. When you consider that something like 70% of the American people work for small businesses, you are talking about a big economic impact.

Read more at: American Thinker

Black Privilege

July 20, 2011
By Robin of Berkeley

One of my friends voluntarily attended an event recently, one that I wouldn't go to for a million bucks (well, maybe a million bucks). It was called Erasing White Privilege.

My friend, whom I'll call Andrea, sat in a room with other whites on one side, and people of color on the other. Then the whites sheepishly confessed any real or imagined offenses perpetuated against a person of color.

After the whites tried to atone for their guilt, the people of color got involved: yelling at them, preaching, and discharging much rage. Andrea's rendition of the events reminded me of those angerfests that were popular in the '70s.

Back then, people would pay to be in encounter groups, where they'd holler and smack each other with foam bats. The idea was that by releasing anger, everyone would feel better.

But guess what the research eventually found? By raging at another person (whether he deserves it or not), our anger doesn't dissipate; it grows. And the deleterious effects are not just emotional. Blood pressure rises and muscle tension increases, promoting hypertension and musculoskeletal pain.

But the studies don't matter; these days it's all about white guilt and minority rage. And the endgame isn't reconciliation and racial healing. We're living in a creepy age where revenge is the order of the day, where the left wants to seize power under the lofty guise of justice.

Read more at: American Thinker

Citaat van de week

"Er is niets wat zichzelf zo ondermijnt als vrijgevigheid."

Machiavelli
Florentijns staatsfilosoof (1469-1527)

THE PAGEANT PASSES

Five Years Ago

Sunday, 10 July 2011

This piece from half a decade ago seems relevant as the west's fetishization flotilla sets off in support of Palestinian house pets:

A few years back, when folks talked airily about "the Middle East peace process" and "a two-state solution," I used to say that the trouble was the Palestinians saw a two-state solution as an interim stage en route to a one-state solution. I underestimated Islamist depravity. As we now see in Gaza and southern Lebanon, any two-state solution would be an interim stage en route to a no-state solution.

In one of the most admirably straightforward of Islamic declarations, Hussein Massawi, the Hezbollah leader behind the slaughter of U.S. and French forces 20 years ago, put it this way:

We are not fighting so that you will offer us something. We are fighting to eliminate you.

Read more at: SteynOnline