The threats themselves make his point

Robert Redeker is a philosophy instructor who has received threats to his life for being critical of Islam and of the violent predilections of Jihadists.
From Le Nouvel Observateur’s collection of quotations, we find among the statements supporting the right people have to their opinions, forehead-slapping stupidity wooly-headed weenies licking the boot that kicks them - more to the point, to the comfort they’ll have when free speech is excised from their midst. Not by law, but through intimidation.

The League of the human rights (class and race hustling politicos) said in a press release:

“One could not admit that whoever, was this because of nauseous ideas, that is to say the object of intimidation of some nature which they are.” “Mr. Redeker accustomed us to such outbursts which communicate very little of his intellectual rigor compared to his hatred of Islam and Muslims”, the LDH said, but “even though one thinks of the Redeker’s writings, nothing justifies that he has to undergo such treatment (...) One does not fight the ideas of Mr. Redeker by making him into a victim”.

To be sure the worst examples were long vetted out in the interest of ‘social management’ making sure most of their quotes had a ‘yes, but’ to blunt any tangible argument for or against Redeker’s statements.

A colleague of Redeker who wanted to remain anonymous:

“He tackled on several occasions the question of Islam in France and liked to draw attention to himself”, noting that his remarks often aggravated his colleagues who didn’t appreciate the name of the college being mentioned in the article.

In other words: Shut the hell up, you’re wrecking my meal ticket. Stop speaking your mind. It’s not like I have your back. anyway.

Gilles de Robien, Minister of Education:

Said that he was “understanding” of the professor, while stressing that “a civil servant must be careful and exercise moderation at all times”

In other words: Shut the hell up. Your critics have rights, and you don’t.

Chloé, one of Redeker’s students:

“It’s normal that there are people who revolt, he said things which were forbidden by the Koran (...). One should fear reprisals”.

In other words: Shut up, you’re busting my bubble of delusions.

Dalil Boubaker, president of CFCM, vice-chancellor of the Grand Mosque of Paris:

“One has to be careful in the tense climate which currently faces the Muslim community, both on the national and the international level.” “After the [Mohammed] caricatures, certain statements about Islam being violent, or about the lack of reason in Islam, one sees more and more a link being made between Islam and Islamism. One often confuses one for the other, and that’s unacceptable.” At the same time, Dalil Boubaker deplores Redeker’s situation: “It’s sad to see him anxious and threatened, it is unacceptable. We live in a nation of rights, and no one can take the law into their own hands”. But he also supposed that there’s more “bluster and boastings than serious threats [to him]”.

Yeah, sure, nothing will happen to you! In other words, shut up, but I get to seem reasonable if I make this ‘mom and apple pie’ statement about your rights.

The new thought police

Europe’s new thought police think that they’re just being respectful of religion. Well, one particular religion, but are undermining the foundation of a free society. A transnational view of the world is pushing them to arrest writers, abide the banning of newspaper sales in Arabic speaking states, and disposing of what few liberties they have

Robert Redeker, Egon Flaig, and threatened for his life in Bangladesh, Solhedein Shoaib Choudhury

For more on this disappointing and inhumane failure to support a pluralistic and democratic social framework, read articles by Michelle Malkin, Fausta Wertz, Extremecenter, and the Augean Stables. Were it not for work and a project we find ourselves in the middle of, we would be joining them, but it would be hard for us to do nearly as cogent a view as these citizen journalists already are.

They’re giving this serious subject the attention it deserves. The outrage is the lack of outrage we aren’t seeing right now. There is a cancer of laziness in the heart of Europe, and like the recent rioting in the center of Brussells, it’s going untended to and un-noticed. At best these things are something they imagine that can be merely managed by their governments, but all that is, is an excuse permitting one the passivity and self-administered temporary palliatives that fascism feeds on.

They want you to accept that they’re misunderstood...

...so they can hate you anyway.

Goths wear the clothes and the warpaint to let you think that they’re only feeling one thing, or one type of thing. Perhaps so they can surprise you otherwise and call attention to themselves, their towing with the look of borderline Satanism, or their own borderline personalities.

With the painting of a single emotion on themselves, they instantly become 2 dimensional figures of people. In that sense they’re no different than clowns, except they enjoy scaring children instead of entertaining them. Otherwise they want you to hold them to the same low expectation that you’d have for children.

Whenever I meet a member of the undead, the only thing I can think of is that they’re not even half of the beastmaster as the most theatrical, neediest, attention-getter to ever come out of Rochester NY:

So when all of your patience for their silliness runs out, some of them try to get you to dispense some attention to their fluffy, caring and sharing side hiding under their fake, conformist pseudo-outré bullshit.

Enough with the theatrics, already Krusty!

-- H/T to the Trots.

The “Teufelskreis” of anti-Americanism

Others, including ZDF Bureau Chief and Correspondent Eberhard Piltz, felt that ideology was a major impediment to quality coverage of the United States. Piltz spoke of “prejudice” and described it as “an intellectual arrogance that thinks that the American way of life, feeling, taste and thinking is inferior and not authentic.” He complained that many journalists see “the U.S. through an ideological lens,” and that “most of them grew up with the leftist, socialist dream and now they look for scapegoats.” Stern magazine correspondent Michael Streck agreed with Piltz’s statement and worried “that populism goes over the line quite often.” Deutsche Welle Bureau Chief for North and South America Ruediger Lentz also expressed deep concern that “populist” ideology and views often “resonate the public mood” when it came to coverage of the United States.

The attitude of the mainstream German press toward the covering of America in an irrational, emotional manner has been quite pronounced in the past decade, and especially so toward the United States after 9/11. Medienkritik uncovers what even some heavy hitters in the German language press have found unethical and biased in it.

One could easily suspect that the overraught and tasteless coverage of any matter as it relates the United States is even painful for the press doing it to maintain a reader and viewership. For many, that indeed seems to have been the case. That it appears to be a systematic demonization of not just the US government administration’s policies, but also any feature of American culture is quite plain: according to the repeated impressions made by the German press, all American urban dwellers are impoverished and angry black men or put upon women, all believers, including Mr. Bush is a religious fundamentalist no different than the violent Taliban and al Queda.

None of it is true. Mr. Bush is a mainstream Methodist, a church that seems more obsessed with inclusion and diversity than celebrating the faith. For the editors back home in Germany, which have a near monopoly on the news given the lack of German speaking populations outside of Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, the view their readers form of events can be scripted. It also needs to be noted that the German press lacks breadth and range of opinion since any outlet with a diverging point of view is either an upstart or part of a industry of trade publication.

Medienkritik:

Cornel Faltin put it best: “Some colleagues already have stories in their suitcases.” In Faltin’s view, some correspondents working in the United States are influenced by pre-existing views. One interviewee stated anonymously that many journalists come to the U.S. “with preconceived bias.” Eberhard Piltz concluded that, “they tend to look at America with their European, German eyes.” He added that, "stories that make Bush look bad were requested all the time." According to Piltz, one would only have to "wait by the phone for the editors." Piltz also stated that the editors were those who "went in the streets and cried for Ho Chi Minh" at an earlier time and many still viewed the United States as "the spoiler of their dreams." Piltz was of the opinion that Spiegel and Stern magazines were in the forefront of "Bush bashing" and cautioned that it was often difficult to separate "Bush-bashing from anti-Americanism." He described anti-Americanism as a "larger phenomenon" that reaches back to at least 1917.

Another factor that has contributed to “predetermined” reporting is the excessive reliance on so-called “Leitmedien” or leading media. Martin Wagner explained that many “editors at quality papers read The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Der Spiegel and have stories and ideas all ready before the day starts.” This game of follow-the-leader reduces the number of issues that actually reach the German news consumer. Wagner stressed that many examples of good journalism were ignored because they did not relate to “hot” topics.

All of it whipped up by a press struggling to maintain its’ circulation against sources available on the internet, and against apathy itself. If only their ‘robust’ solution to this challenge was to have a broad range of views, and stick to more incisive accuracy, they might achieve this. As it has always been well known, throwing red meat to the mob only works as long as they remain hungry and angry. Sooner or later even the least inquisitive among them get exhausted by it.

One would hope that this doesn’t come as a shock.

Being polite to barbarians only works if they listen and follow an example. Rampaging fools who would shoot a nun don’t. European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso, the only senior figure in the EU who appears to have a spine, chides Euro-leaders for caving in on the Pope in the usual Euro-manner:

"To attack the Pope because he referred to a historical document in a speech is fully unacceptable," said Mr Barroso.

"I was disappointed that there weren't more European leaders who said: of course the Pope has the right to express his views. The problem is not his remarks, but the reactions of the extremists."

Asked why European politicians had been so reluctant to support the Pope, Mr Barroso said "Perhaps because there is concern about a possible confrontation. And sometimes [there is] a sort of political correctness: that one is only being tolerant when placing the opinion of others above one's own. I am very in favour of tolerance, but we should stand up for our values."

The making of the US as a straw man, and the frequent reversing of what those values are for the purpose of being America’s contrarian is further proof of that. The behavior is not that different from Ahmedinejad’s bleats: he wants to give a popular pitchfork-raising slap at what appears to stand for authority, but not slap so hard that the United States will do anything about it.

Barroso seems to see the weakness and indignity of this approach, and seems to be more than willing to discuss values for something other than political effect or public appeasement. He seems to be aware of the existential threat to those values and tenets.

Meanwhile at the other end of the bar, Dominique de Villepin takes an approach that the public is more used to. Breaking big concepts to them by seeming to demand more and better symbolism, when what he seems to be looking for is a statesmanlike dealer to hire on.

Dead from the neck up anyway

Leaks are notorious in the world’s intelligence lacework. It seems that some DGSE flunky leaked a report that the Saudis deny assembling in order to appear to make news. Amusingly, the DGSE can’t corroborate the allegation, and the CIA won’t touch such silliness with a bargepole. One possibility is that Saudi intelligence put word on the street of bin Laden’s death out just to see who it was that they could trust, and which ones are just out-of-control spook wannabees.

Like solving the mystery pf a roof problem, it seems the biggest drip has been found. Rushing to release unconfirmed news like this in order to appear to be associated with good news or a success reveals the kind of narcissism that can get people killed. Not touching it with a bargepole, not trotting out speculations, not compromising other outfits’ sources or methods – now that’s a class act.the fuse is lit!

Taking their schtick out on the road: Americans undercutting America abroad

The looming economic crisis comes from the unsustainable US external debt. For more than a quarter-century, we Americans have been buying more from the rest of the world than we have been selling it, and borrowing from abroad to make up the difference. The resulting trade deficit has been a major engine of global growth...

-- The Nation, February 13, 2006 issue

The Communist rag L’Humanité interviews American moonbat economist Joseph Stiglitz. He’s been making the rounds, and tailoring the message to the listener, having recently tossed out the unsupported whopper that cleaning up after Saddam would ultimately cost the United States $1 trillion $2 trillion dollars in equipment and manpower, and for present and future soldier benefits. Needless to say, as a Nobel winning statistician dabbling in Social-“Justice”-Economics, he knows how to have fun with numbers such that he can arrive and a clean, round figure that conveniently sounds alarming.
His recent BBC World Service interview dwelled on the futurelessness of globalization, but only if America is an importer. It seems odd that it’s a subject the BBC understands rather badly for an operation that is globalized, and is most eagerly listened to in South Asia which seems to be in the process of being raised out of deprivation by it.

So his foray into the kooky world of L’Humanité (quite naturally prompted,) dwells rather too simplistically for a Nobel Laureate on the failure of capitalism. He comes just short of declaring that it’s already pushing daisies. “The free market doesn’t work? For WHOM, exactly, Joe?:

L’Humanité: You often refer to the euphoria of the financial markets. In 2001, the financial laws put in place after the dotcom bubble had burst, like the law Sarbanes-Oxley in the United States, did not change things greatly...

Stiglitz: First of all, one needs better and clearer data, which makes it possible to detect the problem in a more precise way. Secondly, a more important tax, like China has on the short-term capital gains is a way of discourage capital from being exported quickly. It’s also necessary to use economic stimulus benefiting socially productive goals such as innovations, research on diseases like malaria or AIDS, rather than on the growth of the hair (but which pays more!). The free market doesn’t work, but one can use its’ strength by altering it.

Ignore the stagnancy and rampant escalation of poverty under the feverish Keynsianisn of the left, especially Carter, the British Left of the 1970s, and pre-realism Mitterand, big Joe's employment killing Capital Gains Tax is here to rescue the world from tooth decay!

So by some miracle it’s strong, but failed, and useful only if “the social betters” who have little familiarity with it remander it for their specific social goals... Nice trick, if you can make it work more than once. After all, find me ONE economy that’s been heavily nationalized that hasn’t either gone into the tank, or has been saved by the type of “masses” that commie crackpots like L’Humanité refuses to represent.

Do-it-yourself post-modern leftist dialectics

Select on phrase from each column of the table and impress your friends and comrades down at the Uni! In a few remaining feverish locales it might even get you elected to office!

Have fun kids, and don’t get to “reactionary,” if you know whit I mean! Wink, wink...

-	A	B	C	D
1	One might say	the struggle of the worker	must untilize and be functionally interwoven with	the nuanced solution
2	Ontologically speaking	the introduction of the class struggle narrative	maximizes the real probability of unregulated thought for	the anticipated degree of human maleability
3	On the other hand	the legal handling of criticism	add specific critical path events to	the acuteness of the conflict gradient
4	Based upon transnational considerations	employing the political utility of the masses	necessitates that urgent conciderations be made of	the weakness of "democracy"
5	With a show of interestin human rights	the by-product of unregulated ideas	requires no rational analysis to conclude	the final output of message control
6	Indubitably	the unspoken anger	is further compounded by linking the idea that	the evolution toward a command economy
7	Beyond plebian comfort objectives	the meaninglessness of the individual's desires	presents extremely synergystic challenges to	the destruction of the acceptability of pluralism
8	Beyond the horizon of human intellect	the regulation of cultures by our cardes	requires the critical necessity to undermine	the study of expelling reactionaries
9	Socially thinking	the dynamic of post- modern analysis	imposes smothering constraints on	the creation of a politically useful class
10	In the final rationalization	the remandering of the power through humiliation	adds overriding constraints to	the final solution

4-6-8-7! Oh man, stop it! You’re killing me!

Boris and Natasha making beeg trouble for crazy Moose and Squirrel

Communism is theft.

- grace à Rocky Val the flying Squirrel

Californication

Plantu seizes on a ridiculous legal stunt in goofy California.



Besides, he forgets: [Shhhh... That human parking lot they call Europe accomplished next to nothing with the energy they waste]

As for Plantu’s slam, argument and reason are swept out of the way – after all, he has a job to do: avoid any criticism or controversy with his readers by pandering to them, and looking l.

Provenance Ignored

Why closed minded Euros can’t hack it in Oz:

And over wattle-seed muffins - she is an adventurer, no? - I will tell her that young Australians above all value drinking. Whether alco-pops, wine, or beer, it matters not what is drunk, its provenance, or the year in which it was bottled. What is valued here is how much you can drink of it.

Not to mention a completely different sort of epiphany of things far more meaningful that the effete perspective just can’t help but have contempt for. Everything continental might be so freaking precious and special to them and even some of us, but the rest of us just don’t care:

On the subject of employment, I will tell her that in Australia, contrary to mythology, we honour hard work. We elect a government dedicated to making us work harder. So if she thinks we are impressed by France's 35-hour week, and its cafe society, she is wrong. Latte-drinker, I will tell her, is a term of abuse in Australia.

- Merci buckets to Val.

Look for a job, and get a nice white jumper that ties in the back.

On Sunday, Swedes voted out of power the Social Democrats who have ruled longer than Castro – 67 of the last 74 years. Long considered some sort of Socialist Shangri-La, the state has been in steep decline: the real cost of labor has multiplied fivefold since WW2, and youth unemployment stands at nearly 25%. So it’s no surprise that the party that pulls this kind of stunt finally gets deposed in spite of rigging everything up in its’ favor:

That's the message 25-year-old Swedish citizen Jessica Pettersson got from the state unemployment office. Pettersson has a high school degree in economics and has worked in a post office and in a grocery store, among other jobs. After being out of work for a while, her supervisor at the unemployment agency told her that she ought to meet with a work-psychologist since "it is so hard to be without a job".

[...]

The unemployment agency explained that it was simply a matter of changing a code in her status as unemployed. If she agreed to be classified as mentally disabled she would be entitled to a range of government subsidies and programs. In fact, she could begin working at "Samhall" - a government project aimed at providing employment for the disabled. There she could get a job cleaning and building wheelchairs.

[...]

Petterson finally managed to convince the unemployment agency that she would never agree to become classified as mentally disabled. She told Expressen that her family, her friends and her boyfriend have reacted strongly to this notion.

Alarmingly, what happened to Petterson is not an isolated incident in Sweden. The state unemployment agency is constantly attempting to force people to "admit" to being disabled. Today 19.3 percent of those seeking jobs at the unemployment office are being classified as disabled.

Only in a Socialist echo-chamber of social micro-management would you end up with most people accepting the inference that you’d have to be mentally ill to want a proper job, and not manipulate social categories and programs to work things out. Worst of all is the mendacity: having to tell yourself that this is the only way.

Pancho is an illiterate tit

If he only knew what the Geneva Conventions really say about what the press is alleging and selling as received wisdom.

Poodles, BDS, irrational love of the U.N.

Plantu is off his meds again.

”...Will he appear again in 2007?...”
“...If he does, I’ll use my Veto...”

SOme kind of reference to the U.N., but you have to read your own peevish BDS into it for it to make sense to you.

Hail to the Queef

Softening the ground minds in preparation for forcing a new paradigm on people. American TV attempt to make President Hillary Rodham a foregone conclusion. France2 copies the notion, obviously hoping that men will see Mme la Presidente as a fine young thang. Yeah, right! In a country where most people have seen the same politicians for most of their lifetimes, how likely is THAT?!? The only thing that makes 2007 unique is that the likely contenders have only been well known national figures for two decades.

”State of Grace” or should that be State of “Grace”

And now a new movie about a candidate of some description is on the way too. One would guess that it’s a knockoff of the Bob Roberts scam showing the same, or even less originality. Since the colors are not Green or Red, it’s not hard to guess who they’re gunning for. Hm. There’s even a fake blog on the bill.

Some of his friends call him Maurice

I suggest the Eurowanker of the day award go as a group to anyone who finds this funny.

Keythtone Kopth

If this doesn’t make Belgians sleep soundly at night, I don’t know what would:

If it wasn’t a little sad, it would be historic: On Thursday night the buildings housing the OCAM (Office of Threat Analysis Coordination) in the heart of Brussels was burglarized.

In fact VRT (Flemish public radio and television) announced it Friday evening 19H00. The OCAM is an interagency service responsible for the State security, the SGRS (General Intelligence and Security Service, military intelligence), the federal Police force and other agencies. Its role is to synthesize information and analyses transmitted by each service and certain foreign services, and to brief authorities on their estimation of the terrorist threat level.

Criminals must be in their happy place.

Thanks to alert reader Hervé whose stomache for stories like that is much stronger than mine.the fuse is lit!

Where’s Hugo Chavez when you need him?

The last favella inside Paris’ city limits is being cleared out. The word isn’t out yet on roughly 25 more in the socialist glory of the suburbs of the city of lights.

Next time, instead of trying to call these things “world heritage sites” or something stupid like that, try a little capitalism.

But they’re superior continental nut-roots

I bet you thought ALL malbouffe of any sort was by nature American. From the Wiki wasteland explication of a chain started in Belgium (and has since expanded) called Quick crediting its’ success to “high quality products and anti-Americanism”. The company probably DID write the Wikipaedia entry, since only a very strange person would go to such lengths for a fast food chain.

What I wonder is why they exist at all. Last year 404 stores only created €27.3 million of net income for the franchisee. In any functioning economy this would be called sucking wind. That, notwithstanding makes them, judging by the way McDonald’s stores are targeted for igneous youthful invective, vulnerable. The trashings are after all – all about general malbouffiness and esclavage wages, aren’t they? Well, aren’t they?

Bollocks – in this respect western Europe is no different than a bad neighborhood in Karachi. “Revolutionaries” with small minds and a cartoonish world view want to trash something American-seeming thinking that they’re ending capitalism as they know it, even though they’re actually destroying the property of a countryman who invested in the franchise, and put some guy name Gilles out of a job. These kids are Mensa material, I tell ‘ya.

No racism here, right?

It looks like Plantu really has been through cultural sensitivity training.