Isaac Schrödinger

Another Futile Blitz

So, what is Europe doing to overcome her economic woes? Tim Worstall:

Appoint a 70s style Keynesian as the Chief Economist for the European Central Bank? Ramp up deficit spending (already over 3% of GDP)? Lower interest rates? Run the printing presses? More State spending? Unfortunately, yes.

[Emphasis mine]

If that happens, inflation would increase dramatically and the Europeans will have even less purchasing power. Tim Worstall is way ahead of me and promptly offers a solution at the end of the post.

Not Right

It seems that the Canadians still love the socialists-in-power. This is either because the Conservatives don't have a good message or the majority is simply left-of-center and views the Conservatives as un-Canadian. Or it could be a noxious mixture of the two. Regardless, the Conservatives aren't gaining much support.

Sure, They "Won"

Arthur Chrenkoff:

That's the beautiful thing about fighting a liberal free-market democracy like the United States - even if you win, you lose.

And vice versa. Just look at Germany and Japan after the Second World War. Even though they lost, they ended up winning. Today, Japan and Germany are only behind the US in terms of economic output.

Ouch

Jayson:

The current, asinine version of the old Democratic Party has degenerated into a satire of itself. If it were a race horse, in point of fact, we’d already have euthanized it.

Even, the crew at Power Line takes apart Mario Cuomo. I've heard Cuomo on radio, and the guy sounds like a slimeball: all politics, no principles. The shellacking by Power Line is richly deserved.

The Best 20

If one could only read 20 political websites for the next year...John Hawkins provided his list, here's mine:

1. Instapundit
2. Jewish World Review
3. National Review Online
4. Little Green Footballs
5. Belmont Club
6. Victor Davis Hanson
7. Pejmanesque
8. Iraq the Model
9. Terrorism Unveiled
10. Tim Blair
11. Right Wing News
12. Polipundit
13. Michelle Malkin
14. Michael J. Totten
15. FrontPage Mag
16. La Shawn Barber
17. Tim Worstall
18. Israellycool
19. Samizdata
20. The Corner

Update: Many thanks for the link, Mr. Hawkins.

On Their Own

Grimly amusing? Indeed.

Cat Fight!

As appealing as it sounds (meow), I won't be following this story.

Lucas Could Insert This in EPIII

Oh, the things that hardcore geeks will do. They never fail to amuse.

L33T

You are teh suck!!!

Damn

A link via Arnold Kling:

More than a quarter of Portugal’s babies are born to unmarried women, while in Austria, Ireland and Hungary the share is now above 30 percent, and in France the figure is just under 44 percent.

[Emphasis mine]

That is an incredible figure. Mr. Kling has a question for discussion. I think the welfare state is, by far, the biggest factor contributing to this depressing reality. When the government is responsible for child care, education, and health care, the family unit has less value. Take that mixture with increasing tax rates and one gets massive incentives to simply leave the kid(s) to the state.

But the population, and thus the tax base, is shrinking because Europeans are having less kids than before. So, this insanity of cradle-to-grave handouts won't last. Add in the ever-growing unassimilated members of the Religion of Peace^TM, and we get a recipe for a full-scale disaster. We are going to see some wretched ugliness in Europe over the next two decades.

Awww

My heart bleeds NOT.

Liberty in Lebanon

It's finally over! Another revolution for democracy succeeds. Hurray.

The instadude offers, a useful, but:

But remember:  Democratization is a process, not an event.

A Great Day for Liberty

Iraq the Model:

For years before 2003, a day like this (the 28th of April) was one of the worst days of the year. We were forced to watch disgusting theatrical celebrations showing Iraqis happily and cheerfully celebrating Saddam's birthday. While today I was following Iraq's birth with true joy and hope and instead of trying to avoid facing the TV screen like I used to do in the past, today I was flipping channels like crazy trying to find more and more details about this great event.

This event brought to you by President Bush and the US military. Enjoy!

A Gentle 9/11

On the topic of P.C.ness, here's Lileks:

Another producer of another upcoming 9/11 drama says they won't show planes hitting the towers because, "We're not ready for it yet." We're babies. Please take the scary pictures away. Tell me the fairy story about Maboto again, Daddy.

Showing planes hitting the Twin Towers is a no-no. Humanizing the scum that brought the Towers down -- no problem with that. Why do the majority of people in showbiz think in such a warped manner?

Update: Damian posted about this as well.

Ashamed of Freedom

The curse of political correctness is destroying Sweden.

Just the economical side won't hold up for long. Sweden has fallen from a top placement to a 17th spot on the list of the world's richest countries. The Welfare State is in deep crisis. The taxes are pressuring people down - think of the USA where tax progression is nowhere like here, but even so manage to take the bigger part from the wealthy few. In Sweden the tax comes mainly from the bottom. And the tax basis is eroding by the day. Money flees abroad, and people without education and resources comes in. Thus the state is forced to indebt itself massively. The newly arrived are marginalised and the lower public employees, teachers e.g., are made lower class. On the side, a gigantic black economy grows forth and is tacitly accepted. And the immigrants do not contribute to the economy - on the contrary. Even in the US, where the welfare expenses are much smaller than here, has it been shown by a Harvard economist that immigrants are a net expense for society.

Baron Bodissey ends the post with a most distressing conclusion.

Blogciting

This is just mean.

Via Tim Blair.

Improvement on Paper

Q. How fast can a pigeon transfer data?

A. Well, the fastest rate seems to be approximately 160 KB/s.

Q. Would that rate be for an infidel or a Zionist pigeon?

A. Leave me alone.

Link via these infidels.

Ground Zero of the Middle East

Do you know what Beirut is? Michael Totten explains.

The Next Battle?

The Israelis are going to get 100 bunker busting 5000-pound bombs. Hunh, this might be misdirection. I still think that the US will take out the nuclear facilities of the Moolahs. It seems too risky for the Israelis to fly their fighters to Iran. The US is literally next door and Iran is the prominent member of the axis...so don't be surprised if US jets destroy Iran's nuclear infrastructure. The Israelis would likely play a minor but still important role of providing intelligence.

Either way, the Moolahs are screwed. Yay.

Geek Stuff

• Please, excuse the drool. I can't help it.

• More and bigger.

• Finally, that's some expensive poetry.

Do You Have Your Mother's Permission?

I fully understand where Lileks and Collier are coming from. Two years ago, I got this what's your name-address-phone# treatment while buying socks from a store. The whole bloody process took ages. My jaw dropped when they asked for my address, and then the phone number.

Me: I don't have a phone!

Cashier: Well, we gotta have a number.

[My friend walks over to see why it's taking so long and offers his number]

Me [to myself]: Never shopping here again, dammit.

And I haven't since. I don't understand why some stores have such an intrusive and pain in the ass process. It only succeeds in pissing off customers.

What Biased Media?

Yesterday, it was this poll, today it's this NYTimes story which contradicts an earlier ... NYTimes story. Sheesh. The instadude is not impressed:

Sorry, but this is just a pathetic performance by the Times, and warrants a correction. And an apology.

I won't bet on it.

No Link to Terror

The authorities: move along, nothing to see here, everything is fine.

Oh, [wipe sweat off face] for a moment there I was a little worried.

Free Country = Police State

This is the kind of high-level advanced stupidity one usually sees in academia:

On Tuesday, the six students enrolled in the elective course taught by Jane T. Christensen were to attend the course's final session: "Police State USA (Where Do We Go From Here?)"

...

The attacks were used by neo-conservatives in the Bush administration, acting on behalf of pro-Israel Zionists, as "a catalyst for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq as well as the attack on civil liberties in the United States," according to the course's syllabus.

John Hawkins points out how the president of N.C. Wesleyan defends this crap:

"We don't tell professors what to think. We don't tell professors what to teach. The Eastern European Communist regimes, or Saddam Hussein for that matter, that's what they did. What makes America great is we don't do that."

I understand that professors have tenure and that colleges and universities are stuck with them till the end but why do the taxpayers have to pay for this? It's funny that this gal calls America a police state while simultaneously getting paid/subsidized by her. Just think about what Hawkins says:

Here we have a course that features bizarro-world conspiracy theories and sounds like it's being taught by a lunatic. The title of the course's final session is practically self-refuting. If it's really "Police State USA" then why hasn't Christensen been dragged off to a gulag already? Isn't that what police states tend to do when people complain about how things are run publicly?

[Emphasis mine]

Any Burden

The world is very different now. For man holds in his mortal hands the power to abolish all forms of human poverty and all forms of human life. And yet the same revolutionary beliefs for which our forebears fought are still at issue around the globe - the belief that the rights of man come not from the generosity of the state, but from the hand of God.

We dare not forget today that we are the heirs of that first revolution. Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans - born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage - and unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which this Nation has always been committed, and to which we are committed today at home and around the world.

Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty.

JFK said those words on January 20, 1961. Can you imagine the Democrats saying that today? Look at the utterly disgraceful and shameless Kennedy to see how far the Democrats have come.

Very Smart

Micha Ghertner:

... stolen nuclear “football” ... terrorists ... myriad of ethical dilemmas ... side with the terrorists ... pro-torture ... Hurray for the culture of capitalism!

That's what was said. It's just slightly Dowdified.

Moolahs Love Hezbollah

The regime in Iran is, oh so, subtle.

Agony for the Russians

The Russian sacrifices in the Second World War were truly horrendous. Hitler and Stalin share the blame for that. Stalin had terrorized Russia ever since he took power. The military leadership had been killed in the late 1930s on his orders. Russia had tremendous man-power and resources but militarily it was weak and unprepared when Hitler opened the gates of hell on Europe.

Stalin looked on as Hitler's Germany gulped down 'the Second Front' from 1939-41. Churchill even warned Stalin of the massive build up of German forces in 1941 on the Russian border but Stalin ignored that as Britain's pathetic cry for help. Russia kept on supplying Germany with materials and supplies till the day three million Germans assaulted Russia. The Germans didn't show any mercy to the Russians, civilian or military.

The Anglosphere was fighting for the Free World whereas the Russians were fighting to preserve the evil regime of Stalin. But fight they must. More than three million Russians were taken as prisoners of war by the Germans. Stalin declared that all of them were considered traitors. Auschwitz-Birkenau was liberated by the Russians. That liberation, however, was only for the non-Russians in the camp. The Russians there who had lived through the suffocating grip of evil had to endure the Russian gulag. Such was the experience of a many Russian soldier: mauled by the Germans and then tortured by the Russians.

Indeed, they deserved better:

As to the Soviets, we can and should recognize and respect the extraordinary achievement of the soldiers of the Red Army, without unduly glorifying them, without making excuses for their crimes, and with no illusions about the evil of the regime they served and saved. There is too little recognition of what they accomplished, in the face of a murderous, even psychotic enemy, ruled by a regime almost as bad. We in the West should be grateful that they did so much of the hard work to defeat the Third Reich, a fact the Cold War and a history seen through Western and German eyes did too much to obscure.

No to Competition

The super-state that wanted to be equal to or exceed the US in economic output is trying very hard not to accomplish that. The only thing holding back the EU is ... the EU.

No Love for Bolton

This shouldn't be a surprise to those of us who are following the dim attacks on John Bolton (he is such a meanie!).

The Revenge of the Binder

NOOOO.

No Surprise

John O'Sullivan:

If a picture is usually worth a thousand words, the photographs of former Labour MP and friend of Saddam Hussein, George Galloway, now leader of the leftist multicultural party, Respect, cowering in his car while Muslim fundamentalists threatened his life and invaded a moderate mosque, were more valuable than all three party manifestos put together. For it was the latest sign of the impending divorce between multiculturalism and the cultural liberalism that has reshaped modern Britain. And that divorce will be a bitter one.

That useful infidel is of no use now and got what every infidel gets: a taste of the Religion of Peace^TM.

No Free Internet

You mean that stuff like this still happens in a liberal dictatorship. Get outta here.

Note: UAE was one of the three countries in the world that recognized the Taliban. The other two were Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. My point is that UAE, which is liberal compared to Saudi Arabia (believe me, that's not a hard achievement), is still a dictatorship with mostly Sharia laws. From what I've been reading, it's also the Switzerland of terrorist finances.

Click!

Omar rightfully rips into the two ignorant idiots:

Saying that Iraq was better off under Saddam is in my opinion similar to saying that Germany was better off under Hitler or that Romania was better off under Ceausescu.
The other brilliant statement of our inspired author is really amazing; I don't know how he reached the conclusion that Iraqi is moving towards having a regime similar to that of Saddam's, which he at the same time portrayed as the worst possible scenario!!
I need you to help me figure this out; if the appearance of a regime similar to that of Saddam and the Ba'ath is the worst thing that can happen, then how could things be better when Saddam himself was in power!?

[Emphasis mine]

Yes, please do explain that to an Iraqi who's living in Iraq.

Drunk with Power

Vladimir Putin shows his true colors:

The former KGB agent said the 1991 breakup of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a "true drama" that left tens of millions of Russian people living outside Russia, in breakaway republics formerly under Soviet control.

It seems like both the Chinese and the Russians have territorial ambitions. And the Left thinks that the US is IMPERIALIST. The next few years might see some huge events unfold: China vs. Taiwan, Russia vs. Eastern Europe, Lebanon vs. Syria, the implosion of the EU, increasing antisemitism in the West, the rise of Islamism in Europe. The first decade of this century could be, overall, a very dark one.

The Jooos Again

The pope is controlled by the Jooos. Hadn't heard that one before.

Islamism in Britain

This is London:

Hizb's British leader, a 28-year-old IT consultant called Jalaluddin Patel, insists the group is not violent and is no threat to the West. But he adds that we in Britain "need to understand what is really an inevitable matter, that Islam is coming back, the Islamic caliphate is going to be implemented in the world very soon".

They're no threat to the West AND they'll implement sharia around the globe. Hey, makes about as much sense as everything else they say.

Orwell's Nightmare

The American Thinker:

DePaul has argued that they object to Klocek’s behavior, not to his speech nor to his views. This is nonsense. Susanne Dumbleton, Dean of the School of New Learning, Klocek’s boss, made the following priceless remark about the Klocek case  :

“No one should ever use the role of teacher to demean the ideas of others or insist on the absoluteness of an opinion, much less press erroneous assertions.”

Arguing that Israelis are not Nazis is now demeaning.

Delicately Asinine

Hollywood is making movies about 9/11. Of course, it was our fault.

Thai Sex Tourism

Tyler Cowen makes a most accurate comment about the Saudis.

Best Fit ...

or rather Hit.

For the Sake of Allah!

The pledge is distorted modified to make everyone (especially the children) feel comfortable.

Don't miss the P.C. pledge at the end.

Meek? Weak? Nope

Hey, I call 'em spineless, the MSM calls 'em maverick. Another issue where moi and the cheerleaders for the Democratic Party MSM don't look eye to eye.

Politics, Ay

Even though I live in Canada, I don't follow Canadian politics; I'm more of a US politics junkie. However, the recent political scandals here have caught my attention. The mounting pressure practically forced the Canadian Prime Minister to make a live speech. Damian collects the many responses to that. Don't miss the last one from an honorary Canadian.

This column by Linda Williamson is quite damning. Again via Daimnation. After a long absence, the Conservatives might finally be voted in as the majority. Think about it: then Canada, the US, and Australia will have right-of-center parties in power. Add to that P.M. Tony Blair's unflinching support in WWIV. Almost the entire Anglosphere will, again, be fighting the evil of their time.

Here's hoping that New Zealand flips as well.

I Agree

Jay Nordlinger:

James Taranto, at OpinionJournal.com the other day, had a great catch. Washington Post reporter Dana Milbank had written, “Democrats . . . assailed Bolton’s knack for making enemies and disparaging the very organization he would serve.”

That encapsulated perfectly the Democratic mindset. You see, we Neanderthals think that the purpose of the U.S. ambassador to the U.N. is to serve the United States, particularly its foreign policy, as made by the government’s executive branch. It is the other view that the U.S. ambassador is to serve the United Nations — to be part of that clique, that bureaucracy. That is why Barbara Boxer and others shudder so at Bolton’s “contempt” for the United Nations. They love that body, and value it as a check — or a brake — on U.S. foreign policy.

Not Cool

Tim Blair gets 62 comments for nothing. I am sooo jealous.

Update: It's now 67 comments for the infidel Tim. Pretty soon, it'll be 69; you know what that means. Jihad!

Update: It's now 90 comments. This is really juvenile.

C is for Crazy

Jonah Goldberg valiantly defends the original cookie monster. I'm serious.

Gold

Gene Weingarten:

If you got yourself on the witness stand, would you make mincemeat out of you? Could you make yourself cry?

Bwahahaha.

Chop Chop Square

Another horrid letter from the desert version of Mordor:

"I don't know if the prisoner had a short neck or he just jerked funny when they jabbed him in the back, but the blade glanced off his shoulder and only cut through half his neck," Fred said.

"He fell over sideways," he said. "I never saw so much blood. It was squirting out all over the place from the gash in his neck. He started moaning. It was awful. Even though he was doped to high heaven, it must have hurt like hell. It took two more swings to hack his head off."

"When it was over, I'll be damned if a doctor didn't walk over to the body and check his pulse," Fred said. "It was weird, seeing him kneel down next to a headless body, holding the wrist to make sure he wasn't going to get up and walk away."

Then the head and body were thrown onto a stretcher and placed in the ambulance and the ambulance driven away to bury the body in an unmarked grave.

One small detail: the head is sewn back before the body is buried. And no, I never saw a human beheading either in all my years in Saudi Arabia. Why not? Fred said it clearly:

"Believe me, you're going to see enough ugly stuff by the time you're my age without having to carry around the memory of a beheading the rest of your life," Fred said. "You think it won't bother you, but it's a hard thing to see. Harder to forget. Wish I never went."

NUTS

FrontPage Mag:

“This course is outside the scope of traditional 'political science' in many ways. First it is 'unscientific' in that it relies much on eyewitness accounts and speculation. Secondly, there is not yet a solid literature on the September 11 'attacks' or on the war on terrorism. This literature is emerging, particularly on the latter. Thirdly, this course will rely somewhat extensively on alternative news media accounts and a variety of films and videos in lieu of literature.”

[Emphasis mine]

It gets much much worse. Truly unhinged.