Planking for Ché

Here it is reaching its’ natural conclusion as he would have had it.

If Nations were like Lawyers, Germany Would Advertise on the Side of a Bus

On Libya:

Germany Just Wants To Help
To help itself to a piece of Libya’s reconstruction pie, that is.

The funny thing is that most European anti-semitism is inaccurately founded on accusations of mercantilist parasitism that German society actually practices, and actually calls "pacifism".

And they will get it, too. They always do, although they may have to squirm and grovel around for a bit first. Damn. If this were the US we were talking about here I’d have to say that they are only in it for the oil.

Where do I get the Feeling...

That men of a politically minded personage will want to get a blowjob in front of this sign.

Nasty, Brutish, and Short

So where is this armpit of the European Union, this cancer of the continent?

Stop that! I know what you’re thinking!

Greece? The Balkans? Not exactly. Behold the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, population 503,000, a tiny freckle on the map between Belgium, France, and Germany.

Actually, I would call it a pollup. It’s one of those highly unusual places where, if you weren’t told were you were dropped in, you would have some sense you’re in northern Europe, but would be unable to establish where.

Luxembourg boasts the world's highest per capita GDP, $108,832 in 2010. But something must be wrong.

Much as no-one seems to make the strange and politically specious “affluenza” argument anymore, one wonders what they’re measuring:

The miserable Luxembourgers – who rate lower than all but one other European country on the Happy Planet Index (they're tied with war-torn Sudan!) – buy more cigarettes and alcohol and have a higher per capita carbon footprint than any other country.

Why can’t they practice self-immolation like the REAL believers in a desperate cause?

Great! Take Them Back With You!

NASA has expended some of its’ waning brain power speculating on the political affiliation of aliens, or at least a rosy sci-fi imagining of who they might be.

Of course, the fact that this is also the chosen political affiliation of people who are prone to be hostile to religious faith seems entirely lost on them when said energy is expended contemplating something as spiritually relevant as “ abduction by small greys”.

It’s sad. Their leftism is showing.

Where’s my Insane-O-Meter?

Firmly planted in this donkey’s sphincter:

A state lawmaker is explaining his remark that suggests the impact of Pennsylvania's booming natural gas industry includes the spread of sexually transmitted disease "amongst the womenfolk."

Democratic Rep. Michael Sturla of Lancaster County was expected to discuss the remark at a previously scheduled hearing Wednesday on gas drilling.

To wit, the CYA was unleashed on the gift that keeps on giving:

However, Sturla was apparently citing testimony by Troy Community Hospital from May that says among its experiences with the influx of drilling crews is an increase in sexually transmitted diseases.

”Drilling crews” Huh. Huh-huh.

Right. That makes about as much sense as attributing it to something like this:

The Latino population in Lancaster County has grown by 68 percent in the last 10 years, the fifth-largest gain in Latinos statewide.

In the city of Lancaster, nearly two out of every five city residents identify their ethnicity to Mexico, Puerto Rico, Cuba and other Latin American countries.

By Sturla’s “concurrence” reasoning, one could even blame the “womenfolk’s” contagious affliction on virtually anything.

Cliché-opolis

Guides try their best to recreate the odd world behind the Wall. "Safari" guests are subjected to traffic checks by men dressed as officers of the former East German police force. A now they are also forced to exchange their euros for East German marks, which they can spend on such classic Socialist fare such as "Solyanka," a Russian soup, or an Eastern European version of ragoût fin.

But are businesses like this trivializing East German history?

No, they are trivializing East Germans, and trivializing their accomplishments. Worst still, the Soljanka he’s talking about is hard to find and awful. Newsflash, Wessie exploiter: ketchup is not Tomatenmark.

That aside, Frank Hornig’s article in Spiegel’s online English edition has provoked me to think about the eternal vacuity that seems to accompany the Art School black “fake seriousness” in Berliners’ discussion of Berlin’s history.

Thus the Wall, which the East Germans had officially dubbed an anti-fascist protective barrier, finally became a wall in people's minds, an imaginary place that various players from the federal and state governments now seek to occupy. Some prefer to emphasize the victory of freedom and the market economy, while others would rather draw attention to the policy of détente and the East German civil rights movement.

With all of their usual self-absorption and “unseriousness”, how could a trivialized history of the Berlin wall become that “wall in the mind?”

The context he’s now using the stale term seems to be limited to the mind merely capturing images of it, if not a few memories of it.

At least he isn’t pretending to play pop psychologist, as one would find almost universal to the usual dragging out of the “wall of the mind” phrase.

The Most Socially Progressive Place on Earth

Swedish “youts” are firebombing cops. It also has happened in the ironically named town of Angered.

“To throw incendiary bombs at the police takes this problem to a level where we definitely don’t want to be. I have never in my whole career seen or heard of anything like it,” detective Bertil Claesson, head of the police unit in Angered, told news agency TT.

Why can’t they just smoke dope under a bridge like NORMAL anti-social punks?

The boy was brought in for questioning on Monday after the blast at a pre school in the Stockholm district of Sköndal seriously injured a four-year-old girl.

[ ... ]

The teenager remanded into custody by police on Monday on suspicion of the pre-school explosion, may have had help from accomplices, according to police.

Look on the bright side, if they DO lock them up, they have a lifetime of complaint, dependency, and arrogantly high expectations to look forward to.

According to the inmates it is not uncommon for detention centres across Sweden to offer their detainees 10-19 channels to choose from. But in Kalmar they have to make do with seven.

Of course in the environmentally “Socially Sustainable” society of the future, they would just be sent straight to the Soylent Green plant.

Waaah! We’re Oppressed!

Only in firmament of the needy EUtopian leftist mind would somebody compare a 14 day suspended prison sentence as being “treated like a terrorist”.

Greenpeace Copenhagen Gatecrashers Convicted – Fret They Are Being Persecuted

It’s Never Blood for Oil when THEY do it, Silly!

EU oil companies get set to return to Libya This includes a curious redefinition of the word “goodwill”:

EU oil firms are preparing to return to Libya amid good will generated by Nato support. The military alliance has also carried out "prudent planning" for a potential peacekeeping mission.

ONE hit. Yes, only ONE, and it’s also lampooning
the “No Blood for OOOOOOOil!!!!” crowd.

Syria's European Flunkies

Come from the "humanist, intellectual left" like this flunky, a former East German VoPo "criminal investigator" (and Honecker's answer to The Karate Kid) who was loved by the chillingly misnamed "VoltaireNet." Let's revisit the Baghdad Bob-esque Jürgen Cain Külbel when the Syrian regime he was covering for is making its' perfectly normal behavior known more broadly to the world. Don't mind their hysterical tone. That's normal for them to see the world as one big potential beer hall putsch, that is, when they imagine Voltaire would be shilling for autocrats and advocating mandatory mindfucks for any real free-thinkers who might slip out of their grasp on their way to adulthood.

Got Issues? Need to Induce Vomiting?

Then here are some poorly drafted vaguely homoerotic paintings of Obama Naked with Unicorns, not to mention saving ugly Betty's self-respect from that cruel, vane world out there. Note how he's walking his fantasy steed on the Canadian side of the border.

Hated it!

The Watermelon Chronicles

Pursuant to a message recently received, I encountered a phrase which gave me cause for pause: "social sustainability:

Congratulations on earning a LEED Professional Credential! Your My Credentials account has been updated with your new credential status.

(3x Yadda...>

You can now begin earning continuing education (CE) hours and report them in your My Credentials account. For more information on GBCI's Credential Maintenance Program (CMP), visit gbci.org/CMP.
At GBCI we feel a personal and organizational responsibility for creating global change that is economically, environmentally, and socially sustainable and lasting. Thusly, we encourage you to be active as a LEED Professional, including at your local USGBC chapter and volunteering with GBCI.
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Congratulations on your achievement!

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gbci.org/contact

Okay, like, whateva. What exactly does it mean?

I have no idea, but I'm sure it's chillingly like the "socialist new man" who isn't allowed to object to the instructions given by people who have no actual stake in your personal well-being, and thinks that we should "take one for the team" in ways that we are ordered to.

The Wikipedia entry on social sustainability defines it this way:

Social sustainability is one aspect of sustainability or sustainable development. Social sustainability encompasses human rights, labor rights, and corporate governance. In common with environmental sustainability, social sustainability is the idea that future generations should have the same or greater access to social resources as the current generation ("inter-generational equity"), while there should also be equal access to social resources within the current generation ("intra-generational equity"). Social resources include ideas as broad as other cultures and basic human rights. Also we can speak of Sustainable Human Development that can be seen as development that promotes the capabilities of present people without compromising capabilities of future generations. In the human development paradigm, environment and natural resources should constitute a means of achieving better standards of living just as income represents a means of increasing social expenditure and, in the end, well-being.

So it's, like, basically, like, y'know everything except the tangible, or anything associated with free market decision-making, or the choices made in social interest by an individual on their own. It does seem to recognize the concept of wealth and income, but is too vague to directly indicate their motives or hostility to managing your own resources, especially given that it looks like its' trying to form a philosophy that takes the role of faith in society, employing a concept similar to "From each according to his ability, to each according to his need" which is attributed to Karl Marx.
I suspect that the access provided to future generations is not by you to your spawn, but by a larger, more "authoritative" entity, a kind of cozy equivalent of the test tubes the population of Logan's Run was hatched in, or something... who knows.

Like Marxians, I'm sure they believe that people will work hard for "the good of man" when wanting resources for yourself are no longer an issue. However, that doesn't explain the need to pass through a variety of rites (which seem to be used in operant conditioning) associated with those with less. In their brave new world, no-one would be wanting for anything they needed anyway.

While leadership and motivational topics focus on prosperity in wealth and different social status, social sustaining role models take on the role of taking the risk upon changing what is necessary instead of what is wanted. From this point of view, in order to achieve a social sustainable system, there will be a possibility of challenging current infrastructure and common expectations. Some radical examples are: starvation by choice to understand the actual need of a starving individual, or the vow of poverty to understand a certain level of built-in social expectations, in which proved unnecessary when it comes to solving community issues as listed.

[Bold emphasis mine.]

Note the taking over of Lenten fasting and the clerical vow of poverty. Anyone promoting this should deemed to be proslethyzing a philosophy, which means that any donation to them should not only NOT be tax-deductible, but that if the organization conducts itself as a charitable non-profit, that they are in violation of the law. They are no different than a church, and should be subject to the same constraints put on the churches by government.

I think its motives are unclear, and that it's probably concealing some things that would easily be deemed evil (in the original, non-recreational definition of the term) by the faithful, if they presented their views plainly, rather than hide it in an environmental Trojan Horse.

Ah, but it's their way.

A Nirvana of Pacifism is Just one more Arms Sale Away

Behold, the Axis of Weasels rides again, only the usual European outlook which inflates its' global importance is calling it "a New Power Alliance."

Moscow is flush with cash from energy sales and arms producers in France, Italy and Germany are happy to take large chunks of it. They are busily selling Russia advanced weapons, sensitive dual-use systems and military supplies. All this indicatesunprecedented Russian openness about (and need to) buy advanced weapons systems. Moreover, Moscow-based experts say privately that the Kremlin hopes the arms deals help revive the Russian-French-German axis that began to emerge in 2003 in opposition to the US-Iraq war.

Which was all about high-minded human rights and whirled peas, if you were gullible enough to take them at their word.

Recent military sales include a record-breaking deal signed on June 17 between France and Russia. Moscow bought two French Mistral-class assault ships/helicopter carriers worth more than $1.4 billion, and it has options for purchasing two more. This is the largest deal between a NATO country and Russia since the alliance's inception and the largest defense sale from a Western power to Russia since the World War II-era land lease.

Which, without one shred of conscience, included NATO shared technology. Abiding by the lack of principles that Russia historically exhibits, would have been in Qaddafi's hands if this happened earlier.

You might recall that the French are at war with Qaddafi, and that too is about high-minded human rights and whirled peas too.

On the same day, Germany's leading producer of military technology, Reinmetall, signed a $398 million contract with Russia to develop a "combat training center for Russian ground forces."

Which must giver German militarists, all three of them, a woody knowing that they will sell Russia a combat training center, and probably also run it, while the nation of pacifist fantasies is dismantling a military that's already too understrength and poorly trained to deploy anywhere effectively.

You know the drill. Repeat after me: these are your "allies," America! All of that "smart diplomacy" will do its' magic in no time flat.

The United States has remained remarkably quiet on this issue, but outgoing Defense Secretary Robert Gates and others in the Pentagon have tacitly objected to these and other deals. Nevertheless, the Obama administration decided against going to bat against such arms sales. At this point, Washington and its key NATO allies can ill afford another spat that may compromise its near-term operations, like those in Afghanistan and in Libya. And, of course, should Washington raise vocal opposition, it might jeopardize the "reset," the ultimate objective of Obama's Russia policy.

A Bit of the Old Ludwig Van...

Peter Hitchens:

Bitter laughter is my main response to the events of the past week. You are surprised by what has happened? Why?

Applying European Sensibilities to Europeans

In an effort to improve interspecies relations, I thought that it would make an interesting experiment to apply the perfectly normal sentiment thrown around by Europeans when it comes to the rest of the world onto Europeans themselves. As such, let’s look at a sign which formerly graced Spiegel Online’s website for nearly three years which depicted a expectation that they had for the stock exchange transported to the ethical Olympus of the Frankfurt Börse on a day where the EURO STOXX 50 lost around 5%, and SocGen and Barkleys Bank are being soundly dumped and taking Opa’s savings with it:

Might as well jump. Go ahead and jump.

From the Annals of Helplessness

Europe on Iraq, 2003: there are alternatives to war
Europe on Syria, 2011: we have no alternatives at all

Despite Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's increasing violence against his people there is no chance of the West launching a military intervention against his regime, writes the liberal business paper De Tijd: "Unlike Libya Syria is in the middle of the most explosive region in the world. And while Colonel Gaddafi was pretty isolated even within his own region the Assad clan has been very successful in the past decade in playing off powerful neighbours like Israel, Turkey, Iran and Iraq against each other. In the case of Syria underlining the condemnations with military action like in Libya is not an option. Assad's regime can still count on sufficient support from the regional superpower Iran.

And what exactly is Europe's "nuclear option"?

"We are [also] advocating for the UN Security Council to address the Syria issue again this week,"

Good luck with that, great compassionate minds of Mitteleuropa.

Line up, Children, and Repeat After the Activist!

When foundations and other flunkies are engaging in post-modern behavior modification campaigns, sometimes they lose sight of what they're going. I'm being charitable. I don't think they are even remotely aware of where the missing word belongs here:

So it seems that you're expected to pledge that any loud mook
double-parking in Teheran is also your fellow American.

I was alerted to this by way of an email I received requesting that we post a link to this campaign on this site. It was addressed politely, but so badly thought out, that I simple have to decline. It was sent by someone, it turns out, who comes to this as an academic feminist: a real student of not just sculpting images, but from a school of thought convinced that it isn't founded on the principle of class warfare. I suppose she told herself that she had to be especially nice to the ones who aren't on the usual mailing list of foundation types whose "work" is inherently unproductive in any real social or economic terms: raising "awareness" among those whose awareness and personae is a caricature to begin with.

Besides: I KNOW that American Muslims are my fellow Americans. My sense is that everyone else I know knows that as well. SO WHO exactly is this ritual crapola for? Judging by the youth and geographic ambiguity of the people who have linked to it, my guess is that it's supposed to fit the feel-okay-this-is-nice-nothingness crowd that is largely made up of college students from the US and abroad. My sense is also that the audience for the display it a foreign one in a bid to "better like us", despite the fact that they know where they need to immigrate to, to experience genuine freedom of though and conscience.

It also seems to be structured around outlook modification based on a false premise that Americans, in a conflict with near-east terrorism are at war with a religion, in preparation of some supposed "orgy of internecine violence" that will overcome whitey on the 10th anniversary of 9/11.

Sorry, but that mental bugaboo is THEIR problem, not ours. We are no more at war with Islam, as we were at war with the Orthodox Church when we were shutting down Solbodan Milosevic. We are neither that stupid, or that inhumane to fit the profile that activism imagines the public to be, or perhaps needs us to be to justify their existence.

Like all of these campaigns, they are tacitly insulting and patronizing. Muslim Americans are my fellow Americans - that's a fact that doesn't need some sort of "pledge".

Plantu's Fetish...

...Appears to be doing fat chicks:



"Carla" figure: ..."Who is this woman?"
Sarko: "I'm doing her for Europe!"

Before you know it, They'll Have us Wear Uniforms and Carry a Little Red Book

Which is no surprise given the chillingly broad range of life features that watermelons meddling in building design and construction are willing to indulge. This, from an email I just got:

As the LEED Pilot Credit library is now open, this webinar is a timely event to learn about Pilot Credits such as the LEED Pilot Credit for Physical Activity.

This webinar will address the following topics:
- tying improvements in health to improvements in the built environment
- increasing the physical activity of building users
- synergies between Active Design, sustainability, and LEED
- Intent & Requirements of the LEED Pilot Credit for Physical Activity and how it benefits building users
- What are LEED Pilot Credits and how can you participate in them
- Case studies of projects using the LEED Pilot Credit for Physical Activity
- Free technical assistance to help LEED projects implement the LEED Pilot Credit for Physical Activity

No preshha!

Heat Map - woowee

Start the Death Watch

When Jon Bon Jovi's hair becomes the subject of conversation, even among unmedicated adults, methinks so.

Euro-Think: a Sampler

In response to the mere mention of moral failure in the discussion of a failed civil institution, this is the kind of Pavlovian reaction you get.

Get the satanic freemasons out of law-enforcement and from out behind Church pulpits

Once, just ONCE, I'd like to pull the cord on one of these clowns' back and here something different. It's been decades of listening to the same trope, the same vocabulary, the same impotent rage. Can we have some diversity, please!?!

I presume all those paedo priests do believe in an all powerful skyfairy, yet they continue their damnable activities in secret with no shame.

And this doozy, advocating crushing free speech by calling (the mere existence of) a conservative media outlet to be like statist oppression:

In the 1930s, when the Nazis ruled Germany, Reinhard Heydrich was at the head of the Gestapo (the Third Reich's Secret State Police) - an organisation whose major aim was to spy on the German people.

In the 1980s, when the Communists still ruled East Germany, Erich Mielke was at the head of the Stasi (East Germany's Secret State Police) - an organisation whose major aim was to spy on the East German people.

In 2011 Rupert Murdoch is at the head of News Corp. - an organisation whose aims I don't know.

However, having watched FOX NEWS, I am absolutely sure that balanced reporting of political issues to a broad audience is certainly NOT among the aims of News Corp.

And the source? A conservative British newspaper.

So what are the aims of News Corp.?
And how dangerous is News Corp. for all freedom-loving citizens?

If the sick determinism wasn't so typical, it would be shocking.

Rus-Think

Cute creature depicted is not to scale

Warped Russian rag blames the death of the polar bear shot in Svalbard on the student. Further:

The British NATO contingent wastes up to 100,000 USD of their taxpayers' money per aircraft per hour, every single day since February 17, bombing kids, strafing water supplies, murdering babies, targeting civilian structures, in Libya. Now in Norway a polar bear has been shot because of a British student.

...bacause, you see, poley was a fully aware social justice activist. The writer continues his high-minded thoughts with high journalistic standards:

As the British press carries this story in its headlines, maybe some of these callous bastards could spare a fleeting thought for Libyan children slaughtered in their homes by NATO cowards. Or, as one suspects, they couldn't care less.

The RAF should have known about the bear weeks ago, dagburnit!

The Same to You, Spanky

Behold the image that graced the website of the permanently dyspeptic besserwisser German magazine Spiegel since 2009:

Nearly. Three. Years. Now that the concept of individual savings lost to dramatic drops in the market are closer to home, and people they are capable of imagining are human are involved, the picture has been taken down. NOW, you see, it's in poor taste.

Obviously, They're Oppressed

Feds? Look, whatever. The BBC is calling them "protesters", and the petri-dish trot are calling it "social justice". Hopefully, their ability to embrace reality is just an arm's reach away.

Young Man Killed by Polar Bear

And I'll bet you believed that they were made extinct every year for the past decade by people not thinking the correct thoughts.

A polar bear has mauled a 17-year-old British boy to death in the Arctic and injured four other UK tourists.

Horatio Chapple, from Wiltshire, was with 12 others on a British Schools Exploring Society trip near a glacier on the Norwegian island of Svalbard.

The fact is that it's a very sad thing to happen to a 17 year old with his entire life ahead of him. That doesn't stop the BBC from having a fit of Daddy drinks because you cry,. After all, nothing signals a Pavlovian response among the rugged, toothless outdoors-people of the BBC's ilk like the word "polar bear":

As climate change reduces ice cover, there are concerns that more polar bears will become displaced and will move further inland to seek food, bringing them into contact with more people.

The fact is that an excess of sea ice, that stuff that's supposed to have been a distant memory at this point, was the cause of the young Eatonian, part of a party of 80 having been in proximity to polar bears.

A blog on the group's website dated 27 July described polar bear sightings from their camp where they had been marooned due to "an unprecedented amount of ice in the fjord".

The Telegraph notes:

It added that students on the £2,900 expedition were told they would "venture into the untouched beauty and wilderness of Svalbard".

The repetitious environmental propaganda of modern education being the unbalanced thing that it is fetishizes it's chosen victims and special examples. Those that planned this trip undoubtably drew their interest on it.

Another local person, Liv Rose Flygel, 55, said: "It's not been the first time. Last summer a man was attacked by a polar bear and there have also been attacks on a man from Austria and a girl. Only the man in the attack last summer survived. He was taken in the mouth of the bear and his friend ran after it and shot it.
"The problem is, when the ice goes, the bears lose their way and cannot catch food. People don't really know how dangerous they are. One came down to the sea recently and people were running down to take pictures."

You can firmly blame it on grown-ups with such a zeal to program the young to act out the adults' desired will, that they'll neglect their obligation to transmit common sense or perspective to the young. Effectively, it's operant conditioning.

One out of three children aged 6 to 11 fears that Ma Earth won't exist when they grow up, while more than half-56 percent-worry that the planet will be a blasted heath (or at least a very unpleasant place to live), according to a new survey.

But that didn't stop an adult adherent of the cult of stupidity from prefacing it this way:

There's a new bogeyman lurking in the closet, and this one isn't imaginary.

With a sick air of things past, the anxiety is clearly more frequently being transferred to them by parents who have drunk the kool aid.:i>

Interestingly enough, kids vex over the state of the planet, especially when it came to safe and clean air and water, regardless of any pro-environmental measures on the part of their parents. A staggering 95 percent of the children surveyed said their parents pitched in by recycling, using rechargeable batteries, and conserving water and electricity.

Enough is enough.

The Family Tree looks More Like a Weed, if you Ask me

But it's probably more like a wreath. From the WSJ:

There's no way to be certain, of course, but the speculation is the second woman from left in the group photo above, taken earlier this month at Pyongyang Department Store No. 1, is Mr. Kim's daughter Kim Sol Song. She is the third-eldest of Mr. Kim's seven children and the second-eldest daughter.

Like many a primitive tribal chief or ghetto thug:

(Mr. Kim had children with four different women.)

None of which seem terribly proud of the fact, so far as we can tell based on how they seem to dress the little guy.

If this Doesn't Work, They'll ask you to Start Hoarding Canned Food

ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet said the central bank's controversial program of buying government paper in an effort to stabilize markets, inactive since March, was ongoing. "You will see what we do,'' he told a news conference.

Be afraid.

The EU is setting up the ultimate moral hazard: buying up member government bonds to backstop them. They will then have to find buyers for the stuff.

It also raised questions about whether the ECB was waiting for Rome and Madrid to take extra fiscal adjustment measures before it will buy their bonds, or whether the central bank was unable to agree on widening the scope of bond-buying to them.

The ECB were certainly waited out by the "provincials" who only need to stay mum to out-maneuver Trichet.

This is the equivalent of a couple of California-sized states issuing bonds left and right knowing that the more bogus the prospect, the more likely that the Federal government will "save" them by buying those obligations up. Not only is there no-one else out there that can be bullied or to pawn this crap off on, it could cause an outflow and inflation at the same time.

Next step, of course is to see internecine cat fights. But first you'll hear some actual, real-life economics being theorized:

"I note that the Bank of Japan today launched quantitative easing and the Swiss central bank cut rates to zero. We are waiting for (ECB) decisions if possible, but desirable,'' he said. Tremonti said when he talked to Asian investors, they said: "If your central bank doesn't buy your bonds, why should we buy them?''

Bring popcorn.

The Bufoons Couldn't Fight the War Against Tooth Decay

John Rosenthal, who is one seriously astute SOB, ask rather plainly why it is the Europeans wanted to depose Muammar Qadaffi if they wern't willing to try and win it?

Gates indicated that the US has no vital interest there, and HR Clinton indicated that it was a vital interest based on "our NATO allies saying it was int THEIR vital interest". Since then, it seemed to have stopped being in their vital interest.

The Italians, it seems took a healthier approach: to just no take sides. It looks like UK and French communication fo "vital interest" rolled down-hill to hit the US and then Italy.

Secretary Clinton's inclusion of Italy in the list was dubious to begin with. In fact, from the start of the unrest in Libya, the Italian government warned about taking sides in the conflict and supporting the rebellion. For example, in an interview published on February 23 in the Italian daily Il Corriere della Sera, Foreign Minister Franco Frattini alluded to the creation of an "Islamic Emirate" in the eastern-Libyan heartland of the rebellion. "We do not know more [about it]," Frattini told Il Corriere. "But we know that they are dangerous. There are elements of al-Qaeda there."
The Italian government's caution was hardly surprising, given that the February 17 protests that sparked the rebellion were called to commemorate protests five years earlier that had culminated in the storming of the Italian consulate in Benghazi by an angry mob. Several local residents were killed when Libyan security forces attempting to protect the consulate opened fire on the mob. The outrage of the protesters was tied to the publication of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad by the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten and other European newspapers. (On the 2006 protests, see my article "Our Principles? The Libyan Insurrection and the Mohammed Cartoons.")

The Italian reluctance to support a military intervention also had to do with fears of seeing such an intervention provoke an exodus of tens of thousands of refugees from Libya, many of whom would inevitably end up in Italy. These fears have proven well founded.

But now, according to a report in the Saturday edition of Il Corriere della Sera, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has confided to colleagues not only that he was opposed to the NATO intervention in Libya, but that he was pressured into making available Italian military capabilities by precisely the United States. According to the report, Berlusconi recalled that "at the time I had warned our international partners, and also at home I had explained that the operation would not be easy . . ." "But," Berlusconi is reported to have continued, "in the face of the pressures exerted by the United States, the position of [Italian president Giorgio] Napolitano, and the vote [in favor of the intervention] by our parliament, what could I do?"

Thanks for throwing us another Curveball, spankers.

His Own Private Idaho Isn't Private Enough

Idaho police tell man to stop wearing bunny suit

"He's got the bunny outfit, a cowboy suit and a ballerina dress but you don't see him except where he's tripping through his backyard," she said.

So I suppose the local constabulary would prefer a Annie Oakley number, or something. Who can tell, when weirdness comes right up against the bleeding edge of the 2nd Amendment

Police warned Idaho Falls resident William Falkingham after a woman said she saw him dressed in the costume, peeking at her young son from behind a tree and pointing his finger like a gun, according to a police report.

An investigation of the sighting led officers to question other neighbors, "who expressed that they were greatly disturbed by Falkingham and his bunny suit," the report said.

It's all starting to look like DSK's retirement hobby once he's off of the little blue pills, if you ask me.

Of the World's Mature Economies, The US is Still the Leper with the Most Fingers

José Manuel Barroso, the head of the European Commission, underlined the anxiety gripping the continent when he acknowleged: "The tensions in bond markets reflect a growing concern among investors about the systemic capacity of the euro area to respond to the evolving crisis."

Europe's economic minor league, the marginal fringe economies, having spent the past two years threatening civilization with cascading defaults, are exhibiting more weakness than ever. The press tries to cast this gross failure in terms of a "strain on leadership".

I suppose that's true, but it isn't the cause. It's just a sign that everything they do is seen solely through the prism of the political power of its' leaders. Frankly, they look like a bunch of bulldogs fighting in a gunny sack. Typical of that tone:

In a parliamentary speech delayed until after the market close, Silvio Berlusconi, Italy's prime minister, blamed the recent spike in its borrowing costs on factors beyond Rome's control.

Want to see how bubbles are made? When the financial world flocks to shelter in forex and singles out the Swiss Franc, one wonders how there could ever be enough volume there to support it. The notion of trading their goods and currency with other people's monopoly money has even lead those Knights Templar of finance to join everyone else in debasing their currency.

Switzerland's central bank made a surprise attempt to halt the rise in value of the franc on Wednesday, arguing the popular haven asset was "massively overvalued", but the initial impact of the move faded as the day wore on.
The Swiss National Bank cut target interest rates to "as close to zero as possible" and said it would inject SFr50bn in liquidity in coming days as it tried to halt the franc's relentless appreciation against both the dollar and euro.

Even the Swiss, the most notorious opportunists in the world of glow-ball finance are QEing, if you can believe it.

Surprise Erection Result !

And the returns only took two days !

"99.97 percent of all the voters registered in the lists took part in the election and voted for the candidates for deputies registered in the relevant constituencies."

The epitome of leftist socio-political thought is clearly a bastion of free spirited debate and prosperity, I tell ya!

The remaining 0.3% who did not vote being the cosmopolitan evangelists of this international superpower who are out spreading the good news to the world of the fabulousness of being them.

He Was Listening to The Bruce Dickinson

Dutch Tourist Caught Stealing A Cowbell In Bavaria

Police say the tourist, whose name was not released, says he was just looking for a souvenir.