Monday - March 26, 2007

Joke Of The Day

I know I’m gonna catch hell from our Brit readers, especially Bulldog but here goes anyway ....

Changing A Bulb Is Risky At BBC
(Sunday Telegraph-UK) - 12:00am GMT 25/03/2007

With a few simple precautions, thousands manage it every day. Yet BBC staff have been stopped from replacing lightbulbs because of concerns for their health and safety. Instead, the corporation is paying up to £10 for each replacement bulb to be fitted.

The situation came to light when Louise Wordsworth, a learning project manager with the BBC, complained. “I called up to ask for a new lightbulb for my desk lamp and was told that this would cost £10,” she wrote in a letter to Ariel, the corporation’s magazine.

“On telling them I’d buy and replace the bulb myself (bought for the bargain price of £1 for two bulbs) I was told that it was against health and safety regulations. So guess how many BBC colleagues it finally took to change a lightbulb (risking life and limb to do so)?”

A BBC spokesman confirmed that there had been a number of complaints, but said that each request was judged on its merits to save staff time. As for Ms Wordsworth’s unanswered question, three years ago it was calculated how many people it takes to change a BBC lightbulb.

The member of staff left in the dark would need to find a clerk to get a reference number so that the repair could be paid for, then report the fault to a helpline. An electrician would ask the store manager for the part and install the bulb, making a total of five people.

_{(-- Hat tip to James Taranto at WSJ’s Best Of The Web Today for this one! --)}

Posted by The Skipper     on 03/26/2007 at 03:44 PM   
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   Wednesday - March 14, 2007

Green Britannia

Can someone explain to me why the Brits haven’t crept out in the dead of night and tossed all the tea in to the London River and had their own little “London Tea Party”? Over 250 years ago we told the British government to f**k off when they tried to interfere too much in our lives. Now that same government is doing it to its own citizens at home.

Of course, we’re partly to blame since Al Gore is over there this week indoctrinating the government bullshitting the politicians in his vision of glowbull warming. We’re sorry, chaps. Try to ignore him as best you can ...

Warning To Homeowners As The Green Vision Is Unveiled
_{(DAILY MAIL-UK) - 00:29am on 14th March 2007}

Homeowners who refuse to make their properties energy efficient will face financial penalties under drastic government plans to transform Britain into the world’s first ‘green’ economy.

Ministers yesterday promised deep cuts to greenhouse gas emissions that they warned would mean everyone in the country having to ‘live, work and travel differently’. They compared the scale of change that was necessary to reduce emissions by 60 per cent by 2050 to the industrial revolution of the 18th century.

The Government said that every new home should be ‘carbon neutral’ within ten years - and existing properties subject to a ‘home energy audit’ to assess how green they are.

Householders would be given access to ‘hassle-free’ renovation services to improve the energy efficiency of their homes. They would be able to ‘buy now, pay later’ for green improvements as their fuel bills decreased.

Zero carbon homes are insulated to reduce heating costs, use solar panels, windpower or other renewable energy sources, are made with environmentally friendly materials and use energy efficient light bulbs and appliances.

Critics said the plans raised the prospect of ‘eco-snoopers’ inspecting homes. Blair Gibbs, of the Taxpayers’ Alliance, said: “It’s bad enough that politicians want to take so much of our money away in tax. For them also to intrude into our homes in order to have the ability to penalise us even further is simply unacceptable.”

Unveiling the plans, Environment Secretary David Miliband said it would be “painful” to continue to have an “energy inefficient home”. Those that did would face higher bills, he added.

- More ...

Posted by The Skipper     on 03/14/2007 at 01:40 AM   
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   Saturday - March 10, 2007

Most Ridiculous Item Of The Week

You’ve got to hand it to the Liberal, nanny-state government in Great Britain. They have outdone themselves this time. You see, they’re trying to get everyone in Britain to apply for and start carrying national ID cards ... which requires the applicant to submit to fingerprinting and tell the government all kinds of private information about oneself.

They have attempted to calm fears of Big Brother by clearly stating over and over that the new system is entirely voluntary. Now, here comes the punch line (stop me if you’ve heard this one before) --- if you opt out of the ID program then you cannot get a passport to travel abroad ... you must stay home and never go anywhere - not even to Euro-Disney World in France.

Don’t you just love it when our friends in Britain pull this off long before our own government pulls the same crap? If you don’t think the US Congress will try to pull off the same crap then you need your head examined - and that information will go on your “voluntary” national ID card someday.

Don’t Like ID Cards? Hand Over Your Passport
_{(DAILY MAIL-UK) - 23:09pm on 9th March 2007}

Anybody who objects to their personal details going on the new “Big Brother” ID cards database will be banned from having a passport. James Hall, the official in charge of the supposedly-voluntary scheme, said the Government would allow people to opt out - but in return they must “forgo the ability” to have a travel document.

With one in every eight people saying they will refuse to sign-up, up to five million adults could effectively be refused permission to leave the country. Campaigners reacted to Mr Hall’s remarks with fury, saying they were yet more evidence of the lurch towards “Big Brother” Britain.

Phil Booth, of the NO2ID group, said: “The idea that ID cards scheme is voluntary, and people can opt-out, is a joke. “There are all sorts of reasons why people need to travel, not just for holidays. There is work, visiting relatives.

“What are these people supposed to do? It stretches the definition of voluntary beyond breaking point. They will go to any length to get personal information for this huge database. Who knows what will happen to it then?”

Mr Hall, chief executive of the Identity and Passport Service, delivered his warning during a Downing Street “webchat”. One concerned member of the public, Andrew Michael Edwards, asked what would happen to people who refuse to join the £5.4 billion scheme.

Mr Hall replied: “There is no need to register and have fingerprints taken - but you will forgo the ability to have a passport”. Officials later explained the meaning of his remark. The first ID cards will be issued in 2009, to anybody who applies for a passport.

People will be required to give fingerprints, biometric details such as a facial scan and a wealth of personal details - including second homes, driving licence and insurance numbers. All will be stored on a giant ID cards Register, which can be accessed by accredited Whitehall departments, banks and businesses.

While The ID Cards Bill was going through Parliament, peers agreed an “opt out” with Ministers for people who needed a passport, but did not want to participate in the ID cards scheme.

It was the only way the Lords would accept the legislation, amid howls of concern that it represents yet another move towards a surveillance society. But, as Mr Hall’s comments this week make clear, the opt-out only applies to being physically issued with a card.

In order to get a passport, people will still have to hand over all their personal details for storage on the ID cards Register - where they will be treated in the same was as those who agreed to sign-up.

They simply avoid getting the card - even though they will have to pay the full combined price of £93 for an ID card and passport. It means that, despite the Government repeatedly insisting the scheme is voluntary, the only way to avoid signing-up is to never obtain or renew a passport.

Posted by The Skipper     on 03/10/2007 at 01:30 PM   
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   Tuesday - March 06, 2007

No More Ninjas In Britain

OK, people. Show of hands here. Raise your hand if you didn’t see this coming. - - - - OK, I see. It seems no one is surprised at this latest Nanny State Nuttiness.

Yes, believe it or not, Britain is now banning citizens from owning sharp knives. Rumor has it that in June the Liberal government will add sharp sticks and rocks to the list of banned items.

Finally, sometime next year the use of the phrase “self-defense” will be severely punished as being politically incorrect and a threat to society as a whole. Individuals who are attacked by criminals will be encouraged to keep a stiff upper lip and not resist as they are beaten, stabbed and shot to death.

The second verse of “God Save The Queen” (the British national anthem) pretty much sums it up ...

O Lord, our God, arise, Scatter her enemies, And make them fall.
Confound their politics, Frustrate their knavish tricks,
On Thee our hopes we fix, God save us all.

Samurai Swords To Be Banned
_{(TELEGRAPH-UK) - 2:08am GMT 06/03/2007}

The sale of imitation samurai swords could be banned by the end of the year, the Home Office announced today. Importing or hiring the weapons could also be made illegal following a string of samurai sword attacks in recent years.

Breaching the ban, which is targeted at cheap imitation samurai swords rather than the more expensive genuine collectors’ items made by licensed swordsmiths in Japan, would result in up to six months in jail and a £5,000 fine.

Collectors and martial arts enthusiasts owning or using genuine samurai swords would be exempt from the ban.  According to Home Office estimates, there have been at least 80 serious crimes involving the swords in England and Wales over the last four years.

One MP recently warned that they were being used by criminal gangs as the preferred weapon of choice after guns. Last month, amphetamine addict Hugh Penrose was jailed for at least 19 years for hacking a 21-year-old woman with a samurai sword and then deliberately running her over.

In October, Bradley Moran was jailed for 17 years for murdering another man with a samurai sword following an argument in a nightclub. It is currently legal to buy samurai swords - which are freely available at martial arts shops and on the internet - provided they are not brandished in a public place.

The Home Office now wants to ban their sale as part of a wider crackdown on knives and bladed weapons. Carrying a samurai sword in a public place already attracts a maximum jail sentence of four years.

Vernon Coaker, the Home Office minister, said today: “Samurai sword crime is low in volume but high in profile and I recognise it can have a devastating impact. “Banning the sale, import and hire will take more dangerous weapons out of circulation, making our streets safer.

“We recognise it is the cheap, easily-available samurai swords which are being used in crime and not the genuine, more expensive samurai swords which are of interest to collectors and martial arts enthusiasts.”

“It is already illegal to have a samurai sword in a public place but I want to restrict the number of dangerous weapons in circulation to enhance community safety.”

The plans are outlined in a consultation paper, Banning Offensive Weapons, published by the Home Office today. At present there are 17 weapons, including knuckle-dusters and batons, on the Offensive Weapons Order.

Posted by The Skipper     on 03/06/2007 at 05:01 AM   
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   Saturday - March 03, 2007

Most Ridiculous Item Of The Week

In 1914 the Austrians accidentally stumbled into Serbia. In 1939 the Germans accidentally stumbled into Poland. In 1967 the Arabs accidentally stumbled into Israel. Now, in 2007 the Swiss are repeating these mistakes and have accidentally stumbled into Liechtenstein (where the f**k is that anyway).

Yes, the country that brought multi-function pocket knives and cuckoo clocks to the world has launched a unilateral attack on a country that is about the size of a postage stamp and whose entire military force consists of 7,700 troops - and most of them are on vacation at the moment.

We simply cannot let this terrible aggression by Europe’s Watchmakers go unpunished. America must come to the aid of Liechtenstein and drive the oppressive Swiss back to Geneva.

  Over there! Over there! Send the word! Send the word over there! That the Yanks are coming ...

Swiss Army Oversteps Mark With Midnight Foray Into Liechtenstein
_{(AFP) - Mar 02 7:05 PM US/Eastern}

Switzerland’s army is hardly known for its aggressive stance but this did not stop 170 armed soldiers crossing the border into Liechtenstein at the dead of night, red-faced Swiss military officials said Friday.

Army spokesman Daniel Reist said the troop’s commander got lost in bad weather during the night-time maneuvres in the Alpine region.

They strayed some two kilometres (one mile) across the unmarked eastern border into Switzerland’s tiny and friendly neighbor on Wednesday night, he admitted.

“It was all so dark there,” one infantryman told the Swiss tabloid Blick. Having realized his mistake, the commander immediately gave the order to turn back. It was not the first time that the Swiss military has accidentally invaded the principality.

In December 1985, a winter storm interfered with an artillery exercise and blew Swiss army rockets into Liechtenstein’s protected Bannwald forest, setting it on fire.

Switzerland had to pay millions of francs in compensation, and the incident led to a lengthy dispute between the Swiss defence ministry and the principality, Blick said.

Posted by The Skipper     on 03/03/2007 at 03:50 PM   
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   Friday - March 02, 2007

Britain Is Too White

Here is a little something to make your day from our covert agent Peiper who is over in Britain spying on the Liberal government that seems to be intent on making fools of themselves at the expense of every Anglo-saxon in Britain. It seems Muslims and Blacks are protected species and a drive is underway to run all the white folks out of the country. No kidding ...

Town loses prison jobs for being ‘too white’
_{(TELEGRAPH-UK) - 3:09am GMT 02/03/2007}

Scores of public sector workers are being relocated from a town because its residents are “too white and British”, it has been claimed.

The Prison Service has decided to move 80 administrative staff next month from the predominantly white Corby, Northants, to Leicester, a city with a more ethnically diverse workforce. The development is the most startling example of a renewed drive by the Government to employ more blacks and Asians.

Although positive discrimination to benefit one race over another is illegal under the Race Relations Act, public bodies can take “positive action” to meet recruitment targets.

There are now moves to take the policy further by introducing American-style “contract compliance”. This makes the award of public contracts conditional on companies setting goals and timetables for increasing ethnic employment.

The idea was recommended in a recent study commissioned by the Government and welcomed by Jim Murphy, the minister for employment and welfare reform. But employers fear that it is a back-door way of introducing positive discrimination. Martin Temple, the director-general of the Engineering Employers’ Federation, said: “It is a superficially interesting way of doing things, but it brings in all sorts of complexities that employers cannot manage without bringing disadvantages to others.”

Ann Beasley, a senior Home Office civil servant, said one of the reasons for moving the Prison Service staff to Leicester was “our ability to attract a more diverse workforce”. Leicester also had a far higher level of skills, she added.

Dominic Grieve, the Conservative diversity spokesman, said: “The Government should not be penalising people because of the ethnic make-up of where they live. It needs to explain just how widespread this policy is.” Jack Straw, leader of the Commons, told MPs that the move was triggered by the sale of the building in Corby because of a regeneration scheme.

Ordered to discriminate
_{(TELEGRAPH-UK) - 12:01am GMT 02/03/2007}
Corby in Northamptonshire has become the first town in the country to be deemed too white for its own good.

The Prison Service has decided to transfer one of its offices (and 80 jobs) from the town to nearby Leicester. One of the reasons for the move, according to a leaked letter from the Prison Service’s finance director, Ann Beasley, is that this will make it easier for the service to hit its target for employing ethnic-minority workers - or, in New Labour Orwell-speak, to “attract a more diverse workforce”.

With refreshing candour, Mrs Beasley points out that “93.7 per cent of the population of Corby are white British, compared to 59.6 per cent in Leicester”. How very remiss of Corby to be so insular.

Mrs Beasley deserves some sympathy. This is not some clumsy aberration by an over-zealous official. She is simply obeying orders. The Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000 - enacted in response to the Macpherson inquiry, which branded the Metropolitan Police “institutionally racist” - imposes a statutory obligation not only on the police but on all public bodies to take active steps to promote racial equality.

While it outlaws discrimination against people on grounds of race, it also encourages the public sector to take “positive action” to help meet ethnic targets. Mrs Beasley was just ticking this box.

The obvious question raised by the Corby case is just how commonplace such crass attempts at social engineering are. How many Mrs Beasleys are out there relocating jobs around the country to hit “diversity” quotas? The overall tone of her letter suggests that it is absolutely routine to regard the availability of ethnic workers as a “key influencing factor” when making such decisions. If she had not spelled out the statistical justification for the decision literally in black-and-white terms, it might never have been noticed.

The Prison Service’s retreat from Corby highlights once again the plight of that least valued sector of modern British society, the white working class. They appear to exercise precious little clout in New Labour’s brave new world of diversity, inclusion and ethnic targets. Such neglect fuels resentment, which the odious British National Party is expertly exploiting.

The supreme paradox in Corby’s case is that a large section of its excessively white population is actually of immigrant stock - descended from the thousands of Scots who moved there when the steel industry was developed in the 1930s. If it were not so depressing, it would be positively comic.

Posted by The Skipper     on 03/02/2007 at 11:08 AM   
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   Wednesday - January 31, 2007

France Nods Off

If you live in France (I’m sorry) you can only work 35 hours per week and no more. You are required to take a minimum of a month’s vacation every year. You may soon be required to take a nap at work because you naughty French-persons are staying up too late doing God only knows what when you should be sleeping. Now take your sleeping pill and go to sleep, France ... and try not to suck your thumb or snore ...

French Health Minister Seeks Nap Study
_{PARIS (AP) - January 31, 2007, 8:25 AM EST}

The French already enjoy a 35-hour work week and generous vacation. Now the health minister wants to look into whether workers should be allowed to sleep on the job.

France launched plans this week to spend $9 million this year to improve public awareness about sleeping troubles. About one in three French people suffer from them, the ministry says.

Fifty-six percent of French complain that a poor night’s sleep has affected their job performance, according to the ministry.

“Why not a nap at work? It can’t be a taboo subject,” Health Minister Xavier Bertrand said Monday. He called for further studies and said he would promote on-the-job naps if they prove useful.

France’s state-run health insurance provider will send letters explaining the importance of good sleep. The Health Ministry’s Web site offers tips on how best to get a good night’s rest.

The ministry’s online “Passport to Sleep” recommends cutting down on coffee, tea, colas, and athletic activity after 8 p.m., shunning TV time or working late in the evening, and listening better to the body’s own sleep signals, such as yawning.

Bertrand said sleepiness causes 20 percent to 30 percent of highway accidents across France each year.

Posted by The Skipper     on 01/31/2007 at 10:12 AM   
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   Friday - January 26, 2007

Furball Of The Day

Every once in a while the News Cat here at BMEWS coughs up a furball and we just have to share it. Today’s furball involves France, an insane Muslim and a gynecologist. What more could you ask for? Here, kitty-kitty-kitty ...

French Muslim Jailed For Attacking Gynecologist
_{PARIS (Reuters) - Friday, 26 January 2007}

A French Muslim who attacked a male gynecologist for examining his wife just after she had given birth, saying it was against Islam, has been jailed for six months by a Paris court.

Fouad ben Moussa burst into the delivery room at a Paris hospital last November and shoved, slapped and insulted Dr Jean-Francois Oury as he examined the woman after a complicated birth, the prosecution said in court on Wednesday. Police had to intervene to remove him.

Ben Moussa, a 23-year-old lorry driver, apologised for the attack and said he had requested a female doctor. French state hospitals comply with such requests when staffing permits but say patients must accept treatment from the doctors on duty.

“This is a public and secular place,” prosecution lawyer Georges Holleaux said of the state hospital where the attack occurred. “This is not the place where one can invoke religion to get different treatment.”

French media have reported cases in recent years of Muslim men barring male doctors from treating their wives, sometimes resorting to violence, but legal cases against them are rare.

France’s five million Muslims make up eight per cent of the French population, Europe’s largest Islamic minority.

Posted by The Skipper     on 01/26/2007 at 09:25 AM   
Filed Under: • EUro-peons • Insanity • RoPMA •  
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   Wednesday - January 24, 2007

Behind Bars

England’s prisons will only hold 80,000 criminals and with the prison population hovering around 76,000 lately, our Brit friends have decided to only jail “the most dangerous and persistent criminals” to keep society’s refuse from being cramped and uncomfortable while serving their sentence. The rest will have to be set free. Meanwhile, the 2,135,901 criminals in US prisons demand a recount ...

Limit Jail Sentences, Urges Reid
_{(BBC) - Wednesday, 24 January 2007, 02:14 GMT}

Judges and magistrates are being reminded to jail only the most dangerous and persistent criminals. The home secretary and law chiefs have sent them a letter as the number of inmates in England and Wales hovers around the jail capacity of 80,000.

The government said the move was necessary before 8,000 more prison places are created this spring. It comes as the BBC learns Norwich jail is to reopen a wing declared “unfit” by inspectors because of cell shortages.

Up to 150 men are due back in ‘A wing’, days after it closed for refurbishment. The developments at Norwich Prison are a sign of how serious the overcrowding crisis has become, said BBC home affairs correspondent Danny Shaw.

With prisoner numbers back to pre-Christmas levels, the dilapidated wing is to be re-occupied. Meanwhile officials will advise Mr Reid if the prison population continues to increase he may have no alternative but to order the release of inmates nearing the end of their sentences, our correspondent said.

The letter from Mr Reid, Lord Chancellor Lord Falconer and Attorney General Lord Goldsmith said courts should not be “squandering taxpayers’ money to monitor non-dangerous and less serious offenders.”

Mr Reid said: “The public have a right to expect protection from violent and dangerous offenders. “Prisons are an expensive resource that should be used to protect the public and to rehabilitate inmates and stop them reoffending.”

Posted by The Skipper     on 01/24/2007 at 01:24 AM   
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   Thursday - January 04, 2007

Saint Saddam?

In America if you want to keep up with the deranged writings of the Liberal press you need look no further than the Washington Post or the New York Times. Our friends in Britain have a similar pair of pathetic press outlets. They are The Guardian and The Independent, with the latter being the worst of the two.

The following editorial is hitting the streets today in London and elsewhere across Ol’ Blighty. Many of our Brit friends will read it. Most of them will use the paper to wrap their fish in. The smart ones will not want to taint the fish with such a foul odor ...

_{Eric Allie - Chicago}

Saddam: From Monster To Martyr?
How Bush and Blair’s choices have led to disaster in Iraq,
culminating in a chaotic execution that is fuelling civil war
-- By Patrick Cockburn
_{(THE INDEPENDENT - UK) - 04 January 2007}

It takes real genius to create a martyr out of Saddam Hussein. Here is a man dyed deep with the blood of his own people who refused to fight for him during the United States-led invasion three-and-a-half years ago. His tomb in his home village of Awja is already becoming a place of pilgrimage for the five million Sunni Arabs of Iraq who are at the core of the uprising.

During his trial, Saddam himself was clearly trying to position himself to be a martyr in the cause of Iraqi independence and unity and Arab nationalism. His manifest failure to do anything effective for these causes during the quarter of a century he misruled Iraq should have made his task difficult. But an execution which vied in barbarity with a sectarian lynching in the backstreets of Belfast 30 years ago is elevating him to heroic status in the eyes of the Sunni - the community to which most Arabs belong - across the Middle East.

The old nostrum of Winston Churchill that “grass may grow on the battlefield but never under the gallows” is likely to prove as true in Iraq as it has done so frequently in the rest of the world. Nor is the US likely to be successful in claiming that the execution was purely an Iraqi affair.

Many Iraqis recall that the announcement of the verdict on Saddam sentencing him to death was conveniently switched last year to 5 November, the last daily news cycle before the US mid-term elections. The US largely orchestrated the trial from behind the scenes. Yesterday the Iraqi government arrested an official who supervised the execution for making the mobile-phone video that has stirred so much controversy.

The Iraqi Shia and Kurds are overwhelmingly delighted that Saddam is in his grave. But the timing of his death at the start of the Eid al-Adha feast makes his killing appear like a deliberate affront to the Sunni community. The execution of his half-brother Barzan in the next few days will confirm it in its sense that it is the target of an assault by the majority Shia.

Why was the Iraqi government of Nouri al-Maliki so keen to kill Saddam Hussein? First, there is the entirely understandable desire for revenge. Members of the old opposition to Saddam Hussein are often blamed for their past ineffectiveness but most lost family members to his torture chambers and execution squads. Every family in Iraq lost a member to his disastrous wars or his savage repressions.

There is also a fear among Shia leaders that the US might suddenly change sides. This is not as outlandish as it might at first appear. The US has been cultivating the Sunni in Iraq for the past 18 months. It has sought talks with the insurgents. It has tried to reverse the de-Baathification campaign. US commentators and politicians blithely talk about eliminating the anti-American Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and fighting his militia, the Mehdi Army. No wonder Shias feel that it is better to get Saddam under the ground just as quickly as possible. Americans may have forgotten that they were once allied to him but Iraqis have not.

When Saddam fell Iraqis expected life to get better. They hoped to live like Saudis and Kuwaitis. They knew he had ruined his country by hot and cold wars. When he came to power as president in 1979, Iraq had large oil revenues, vast oil reserves, a well-educated people and a competent administration. By invading Iran in 1980 and Kuwait in 1990, he reduced his nation to poverty. This was made worse by the economic siege imposed by 13 years of UN sanctions.

- More (if you can stomach it) ...

Posted by The Skipper     on 01/04/2007 at 03:00 AM   
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   Wednesday - December 20, 2006

Reading Assignment

Before the really cold weather settles in, go ahead and order these two books. Warning: if you live in Europe, you better contact your physician and have him or her prescribe a strong anti-depressant. You’ll need it. I finally got around to reading Melanie Phillips book last week and I was left speechless. The situation in Europe is much, much worse than many of us on this side of the pond are aware.

Europe is a sick old man and is dieing from a cancer within. The Old World may quite possibly be beyond help at this point. If anything, you should take away from these two books the fact that America is next on the list for assimilation into the New Muslim World order. You can learn from the example of what is happening in Europe and start pushing back on the invaders or ... you can grow a beard, beat your wife and start bowing to the East. It’s up to you ...

Londonistan
-- by Melanie Phillips (Amazon - $17.13)

“In contrast to the overwhelming majority of her British compatriots, who prefer to avert their eyes from the radical Islamic horror growing in their midst, Melanie Phillips has compiled a unique record that fearlessly, brilliantly and wittily exposes this problem. Londonistan builds on and goes beyond her prior work by showing the role of what she calls the British ’spiral of decadence’ in permitting Islamist ideas and demands to ride roughshod over the UK’s traditional ways. Phillips rightly warns Americans of the acute dangers for them, too, from Britain’s being a source of Richard Reid—like terrorists to the ending of the two countries’ special relationship.”

— Daniel Pipes, director of the Middle East Forum and author of Militant Islam Reaches America

“Londonistan is one of the most compelling books you will ever read on the ascendancy of Islamic fundamentalism, violence and intimidation in the West. Melanie Phillips exposes the scandalous appeasement of militant Islam by British officials, the media, even the Church of England, capturing in extraordinary detail how British society and institutions have either ignored or actively fostered the growth of extremist groups on British soil. This book will both enlighten and enrage. Although its story is focused on the United Kingdom, it could be applied to any European capital or to the United States.”

— Steven Emerson, executive director of the Investigative Project on Terrorism and author of American Jihad: The Terrorists Living Among Us

“Melanie Phillips’ Londonistan is a last-minute warning for Britain and for much of the free world. In the 1930s, Britain was the leading appeaser of the world’s most intransigent foe, refusing to see the gathering signs of danger until it was almost too late. Today, the same tendency to appeasement and self-delusion is evident again—only now, the threat is within. Britain refuses to recognize the clear and present danger of Islamism inside its own borders, which steadily corrodes its social values and moral compass. Once again, only the good sense of the British can save their country—and the same may be true in many other democracies. This book is powerful and frightening, but also courageous. In dictatorships, you need courage to fight evil; in the free world, you need courage to see the evil.”

— Natan Sharansky

Eurabia: The Euro-Arab Axis
-- by Bat Ye’Or (Amazon - $23.95)

Bat Ye’or is the world’s preeminent historian of Islam, jihad and dhimmitude--the reduced state of non-Muslim peoples living under Islamic rule. Here, she has masterfully portrayed the means by which the Euro-Arab Dialogue (EAD) unfolded over the past 30-plus years, and how that process relates to the World War II Axis--as well as the historical, 1,400-year jihad.

“There are three forms of jihad,” says Bat Ye’or today, “the military jihad, the economic jihad and the cultural jihad.” The EAD between the European Union and the Arab League has been a means of spreading the economic and cultural jihads from the Middle East to Europe.

The process outlined here began with Charles DeGualle’s 1967 pronouncement that henceforward, France would assume a pro-Arab policy. In 1971, France began selling arms to Qaddafi, a step from which the EAD flowed as naturally as it did from DeGualle’s policy initiative.

Another factor, according to Bat Ye’or, was the French desire to regain a leading role in European history; Georges Pompidou furthered the process in October 1973, following the Syrian and Egyptian Yom Kippur war with Israel.

At that time, the Arab world imposed an oil embargo on Denmark, Holland and the U.S., cut oil production and began to raise oil prices by five percent a month. These new global geopolitics terrified the leaders of Germany and France.

Before it agreed to establish the EAD, the Arab League had demanded that Europe establish pro-Arab and anti-American policies in all their united political, cultural and economic endeavors. The oil embargo was the catalyst which finally moved the European Economic Community to action. Now, writes Bat Ye’or, EEC ministers enacted resolutions that met the Arab demands, and which at the same time reversed the true intent of United Nations Resolution 242. Only then was the Arab oil embargo to Europe lifted.

As Bat Ye’or also suggests, America is the last frontier, and the American people should take it as their duty to avoid Europe’s fate. Read this book for the depressing details.

Posted by The Skipper     on 12/20/2006 at 02:01 AM   
Filed Under: • EUro-peons • RoPMA •  
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   Thursday - December 07, 2006

CESMNN

France is about to about to launch a pre-emptive attack on CNN and the BBC with the launch of the Cheese Eating Surrender Monkey News Network (CESMNN). Help Jacques Chirac come up with a new slogan for his new network. My personal preference is “Plus de merde que les autres réseaux” (more shit than the other networks). Mheh-heh ....

France Launches 24-Hour News Channel
_{PARIS (FOX NEWS) - Wednesday, December 06, 2006}

France goes head-to-head with CNN and the BBC from Wednesday with the launch of its state-funded 24/7 news channel, part of President Jacques Chirac’s efforts to make his country’s voice heard. France 24 will broadcast two channels, one in French and the other mostly in English.

“Our mission is to cover worldwide news with French eyes,” CEO Alain de Pouzilhac told AP Television News. He said the channel will emphasize in-depth reporting and debate, culture and “l’art de vivre” — the art of living.

The channel launches its trilingual Web site — with video on demand and content in French, English and Arabic — at a gala in Paris’ Tuileries Garden on Wednesday evening. Chirac is to attend. Televised broadcasts follow 24 hours later. It will transmit to Europe, the Middle East and Africa via satellite, initially reaching an estimated 75 million households in more than 90 countries.

France 24 expects to expand coverage in North America and Asia and add Arabic and Spanish-language broadcasts in coming years. Programming on the French and English channels will be virtually identical, with 10-minute news bulletins every half-hour, and a selection of reports, talk shows and news magazines filling between-bulletin gaps.

France 24 will likely face stiff competition in a crowded all-news market that includes CNN, BBC World and Al-Jazeera, which made its English-language debut last month. France 24 executives say the channel’s French touch will make it stand out.

“Opinion leaders said they were very skeptical about international news because we have only one vision of the world,” said Pouzilhac, adding that Al-Jazeera in English now represents a second editorial line in cable news. “France 24 will be the third way.”

The idea for the channel, discussed for more than a decade, gained resonance during the run-up to the Iraq invasion in 2003, when Chirac tried to slow the U.S. drive to war and some media in the United States and Britain mocked his efforts.

Posted by The Skipper     on 12/07/2006 at 03:45 PM   
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   Tuesday - November 07, 2006

Euro-Peon Pussies

See the picture below? Those are Palestinian boys carrying signs protesting the death sentence of their hero ... Saddam Hussein. He is their hero because Saddam was paying out $25,000 to the families of all Palestinian suicide bombers. Their dirtbag parents and religious leaders took the money and sent their sons and daughters into Israel with explosives strapped on tight ... in much the same manner that you send your kids off to school every day - except your kids don’t blow themselves up. For money. From a mass murderer.

Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain, speaking to reporters on Monday, said he opposed the death penalty for Mr. Hussein, joining several other European leaders and European Union officials who announced their opposition to the sentence. When pressed by reporters, Mr. Blair spoke of his longstanding opposition to capital punishment. He said he did not intend to protest the sentence, and condemned Mr. Hussein’s brutality.

European leaders insisted that the viciousness of the actions of which Mr. Hussein was found guilty had not changed their view that state-sponsored killing was wrong. Some warned that executing Mr. Hussein would only worsen the sectarian bloodshed in Iraq.

The Associated Press quoted Terry Davis, secretary general of the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly, as saying: “A country ravaged by violence and death does not need more violence, and especially not a state-orchestrated execution. Saddam Hussein is a criminal and should not be allowed to become a martyr.” Amnesty International said Sunday that it “deplored” Mr. Hussein’s sentence, describing the proceedings as “deeply flawed and unfair.”

-- NY TIMES, November 6 - “Many Oppose Death Penalty for Hussein”

Posted by The Skipper     on 11/07/2006 at 03:02 AM   
Filed Under: • EUro-peons • Iraq • Middle-East •  
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   Monday - October 30, 2006

France Surrenders

I believe it was P.J. O’Rourke who said, “Contrary to popular belief, World War does not start when France surrenders. World War starts when the French begin collaborating with their invaders.” If that is the case (and who could doubt P.J.?), it is officially now the start of World War III.

I am stunned at the ignorance and lack of backbone of the Fwench once again. The Frogs never cease to amaze me but this time they have outdone any prior acts of insanity and/or cowardice, including building that ridiculous Maginot Line.

A year after two asshat Muslim kids ran away from police and managed to electrocute themselves when they jumped into a power substation to escape capture, sparking weeks of riots that left Paris burning, what do the Fwench do? THEY BUILD A DAMN MEMORIAL TO THE IDIOTS AND LAY A WREATH AT THE POWER STATION WHERE THEY FRIED THEMSELVES!

Yes, you read that right. Try and read it again. Savor the exquisite taste of appeasement, surrender and collaboration with the invaders. Wrap your brain around the concept. Try to rationalize it. ... ... ... ... It ain’t working, is it?

Forget it then. Fwance will always be Fwance. A nation of lily-livered, gutless, spineless, nutless, cheese-eating surrender-monkeys. This time they’re on their own. No bailing their ass out again. America will sit this one out, Fwenchie! We only regret the two prior visits over there to save their ungrateful butts. Never again!

Silent March For Dead Youths In France’s Suburbs
_{PARIS (EURONEWS) - October 29, 2006}

Relatives and friends of two French teenagers who were electrocuted as they fled from police a year ago have gathered in Clichy-sous-Bois near Paris. A plaque was unveiled in front of their school, and a wreath-laying ceremony was held at the power sub-station where the teenagers tried to hide.

The deaths of Zyed Benna and Bouna Traore sparked three weeks of violent riots in France’s poor suburbs as the young and unemployed vented their anger over what they saw as lack of opportunity and racial discrimination. The crowd gathered in silent prayer wearing t-shirts with the slogan “Dead for nothing”.

“It’s not by restricting them, or leaving them at home, or stopping them from going out - that’s not a solution,” said Zyed’s father. “The solution is to find them jobs, create training centres.” An inquiry into the teenagers’ deaths could lead to charges of negligence against several police officers.

In the streets, opinions varied on whether the situation had improved one year on: “Nothing has changed,” said one resident, “I would even say things have got worse - lack of security, bad behaviour by police, nothing has changed, it’s always the same.”

“It’s partly thanks to them that young people have more respect,” said one young lady. “Before, people used to say ‘Clichy, it’s the suburbs that’s all,’ now, people say things are changing.” Despite today’s call for calm, the anger - one year on - has not abated and violence continues to erupt sporadically in France’s poor suburbs.

Hat Tip: LGF and Gateway Pundit

Posted by The Skipper     on 10/30/2006 at 10:24 AM   
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