And on a more positive note.

When the left's machinations, the agenda driven distortions of the MSM and the liberal useful idiots naivete, inclinations toward pacifistic appeasement and moral cowardice are considered, the outlook is quite grim.

The potential for a new dark age threatens the world.

Geoffrey Britain commenting on "Saving 1 Billion People from Themselves." By Daniel Greenfield, Sultan Knish, 3/27/11.

Sweden explained – one giant backfire.

In order to have the adult generation working and creating wealth that can be taxed (current tax rates for low income earners are at approximately 65% of earnings), the Swedish welfare state continuously launches progressive programs to protect them from incidents and problems. Welfarist freedom is a trouble-free, responsibility-free, and benefits-rich existence created by the welfare state.

What we are now seeing in Sweden is the perfectly logical consequence of the welfare state: when handing out benefits and thereby taking away the individual's responsibility for his or her own life, a new kind of individual is created — the immature, irresponsible, and dependent. In effect, what the welfare state has created is a population of psychological and moral children — just as parents who never let their children face problems, take responsibility, and come up with solutions themselves, make their offspring needy, spoiled, and utterly demanding.^[1]

This state of childishness, this dependency explains the stunningly supine acceptance of the take over of Sweden by an alien human horde that couldn't be more incompatible with Sweden's centuries-old culture even if they rode around on giraffes and lived off boiled vulture. Getting your mouth on the tit is Job No. 1 and daddy and mommy will take care of any unpleasantness, notwithstanding the complete absence of evidence that mommy and daddy want to take care of the Unpleasantness in Question.

This must operate throughout Europe where the nationalist, salvationist parties gasp for oxygen, essentially ignored by the electorate. Let there be national annihilation. At least that French guy in Paris had the decency to shed a tear when the Germans marched in.

These were people who struck fear in the hearts of the people of Atlantic Europe. Today, they grovel at the feet of their inferiors, at a loss to know how to defend themselves or even that they've been humiliated by scum.

Who would have thought the progressive reforms to secure workers' rights and prosperity for all in the early 20th century would backfire philosophically and morally?^[2]

"Notes
^[1] How the Welfare State Corrupted Sweden." By Per Bylund, Mises Daily, 5/31/06.
^[2] Id.

Oil and water.

In order to achieve democracy [in Egypt], one must first eliminate the Sharia.

~ Bat Ye'or.

"The Islamization of Modernity." By Baron Bodissey, Gates of Vienna, 3/26/11.

That unique Western quality.

As the leading historian J.M.Roberts put it: “The massive indifference of some civilisations and their lack of curiosity about other worlds is a vast subject. Why, until very recently, did Islamic scholars show no wish to translate Latin or western European texts into Arabic? . . . . It was not just greed which made Europeans feel they could go out and take the world. The love of gain is confined to no particular people or culture.

"The Curious Civilization." By Fjordman, Gates of Vienna, 3/23/11.

Exactly.

For now the First World has the best soldiers and the worst leaders.

"The Plot to Destroy the US Military." By Daniel Greenfield, Sultan Knish, 3/20/11.

Ready, fire, aim.

More and more observers are zeroing in on the fact of and consequences of the profound ignorance and hubris of our political class:

How then do our leaders respond? With "austerity" measures that barely cut any spending and add trillions to the debt. Others assert that the shortfalls are simply the consequence of the recession. Ergo, we should spend our way out of the recession. Consider it borrowing our way out of debt. But the biggest problem is not the political class's innumeracy. It's their lack of restraint. Presented with a problem, they are seized with the uncontrollable urge to "Do Something," without knowing how that something will be paid for, whether it will work, or what the consequences will be.

Is Denzel Washington the only one who can stop train wrecks?

"Too Big to Fail." By W. James Antle, The American Spectator, 3/15/11.

Superb piece on liberalism.

"The Post-American Liberal Culture." By Daniel Greenfield, Sultan Knish, 3/15/11.

After vous, Alfonse.

Here are a few things to think about as we gear up for yet another mindless foreign military adventure (YAMFMA):

The Europeans seem to believe the continent can be a military power without possessing military power.

The ongoing fiscal crisis has caused the Europeans to reduce defense outlays even more deeply. . . .

. . .Virtually all European peoples prefer to preserve welfare benefits than guard against security threats.^[1]

So, someone please tell me why it's the U.S. that should get out in front and do the deed in Libya at this particular hour. Aren't the Europeans big-time human rights champions and isn't Libya in their backyard? Can we even ask this?

Apparently they're saving their army(ies) for a rainy day or can't muster 10 fighters to inconvenience the world's no. 1 killer screwball. Given European long ago-established priorities – and obvious intention to let Sam do it toujours l'amour, will all domestic neocons, manifest destinyers, America-must-lead hysterics, and only-remaining-superpower drivel maestros please put a sock in it.

It's NOT AT ALL clear to me that what's happening anywhere in the Middle East has any kind of potential to disgorge anything democratic, rational, or un-Islamic. For the past 150 years while the rest of the world has been scrambling to rationalize politics, society, and economics, the Arab and Persian nations have been firmly in the grip of autocracy and Islamic whatever. Where enlightened efforts were made in Turkey, Iran, and even Afghanistan to break free of the mullahs, those nations have been or are being dragged back to the archetypical Islamic sand farm. One way or another, a Muslim state that purports to "modernize" can be likened to a satellite in a degrading orbit around the earth – huge, huge effort to get up there in the first place but inevitable failure down range.

In-ev-i-ta-ble.

Similarly, Al Qaida and the Muslim Brotherhood lurk in the background of Libya and Egypt and are far likelier to command events in the near term whether we do nothing or make like Dudley Do-Right.

As the brilliant adage goes,

People usually are the way they usually are.

What we have in the Middle East is 1,400 years of Islamic locked brakes and nothing any arrogant ferengi, haoli, infidel dimwit can do is going to change that. Intervene anywhere in the Middle East and the end result will be Middle Eastern -- replete with persecution of Christians, honor killings, first-cousin marriages, and flat-earth Koranic science.

If someone will explain to me how a vital national interest is jeopardized by Outcome A versus Outcome B in Libya, well then, let's debate that. But let's not get involved in yet another formless, shapeless, pretty-much-pointless foreign ground (or air) adventure with a game plan that ensures that our troops get picked off or mined for 365 days and then we wait for State and Defense Department thinkers to issue plans for "Intervention – Phase II: Our Real Objectives in Somalistan Now That We Have Given It Some Thought."

And if you think that our South-Side-Chicago, Alinskyite Strategist-in-Chief is going to have some grown up input into any of this, well then, you just report to the principal this instant.

We still aren't getting any Iraqi oil and we still haven't stopped the flood of heroin out of Afghanistan onto our streets. Two modest payoffs for a lot of blood, treasure, and aggro, if you ask me.

I do like the part about our killing large numbers of al Qaida types and missing-link Talibangers . . . ok, I LOVE that part, but at the present moment under the current state of affairs with Europe being AWOL from acting like grown ups in their foreign policy (as well), I say we go with "friend to liberty everywhere but guardian only of our own."

In fact, let's go with that for the next three generations.

Seriously.

Notes
^[1] "Libya's Lesson for Europe." By Doug Bandow, The American Spectator, 3/16/11.

Muslims and "assimilation."

Western nations proceed at flank speed to commit suicide by importing Muslims who will – beyond a shadow of a doubt – refuse to integrate, assimilate, or buy into the cultural and political norms of the suiciding Western nation.

Theologically and psychologically, Muslims have been taught that they are superior to all other faith groups; thus, when they are treated merely as “equals” in the West, they may, unconsciously, experience such “equality” as a form of persecution. When Muslims are not “on top,” they feel humiliated and dishonored.

Therefore, Muslims, both as a canny jihadic strategy and as an experienced emotion, claim [and feel] that they are hated and feared. ^[1]

Westerners adore the concept of equality and will abase themselves 10 different ways from Sunday to have it play out in their lives^[2] and convince themselves that Muslims will integrate into their countries like Czarist generals, Cubans, Poles, Hindus, or Norwegians. Muslims have it that they are top dog, in a manner of speaking, and that's the long and the short of it. Inevitable chivvying to transform host country into a shariah-compliant hell hole to manifest in direct proportion to Muslim percentage of population. Full stop.

Apparent Muslim willingness to get along with Westerners is just a manifestation of their waiting for the correlation of historical forces to shift in their favor.

Notes
^[1] "The King Hearings: Intimidation, Lies and the Suicidal Denial of Islamic Terrorism." By Phyllis Chesler, NewsReal Blog, 3/11/11.
^[2] Inevitably working it so native whites end up in an inferior position, but that's a different story.

H/t: Right Truth.

Ho hum.

We now field fewer ships than we did before our entry into World War I.

And the Chinese are building up their military like gangbusters.

Are there any elected officials within 100 miles of Washington, D.C. with a sense of urgency about national security? I'd settle for Congressional majorities composed of people who've simply seen "The Longest Day" and "Saving Private Ryan." Forget profound strategic insight.

And do you think our Metrosexual in Chief has even seen one war movie in his entire life? What an absurdity. To think that our present Commander in Chief would ever have thrilled at the portrayal of the exploits of American men at arm. He's as interested in the strategic realities of the United States as he is in sealing the southern border to prevent further illegal immigration.

Which is to say, he has zero interest in our strategic realities.

"China, The Next Superpower?" Editorial, Investor's Business Daily, 3/1p/11.

Islam's sterilizing homogeneity.

Increasingly I enjoy reading readers' comments to blog articles. There's a wealth of insight and wit out there if you have the patience to read through the comment storms.

I like this gem from Zenster:

Islam epitomizes a monolithic creed whose internal exceptions only serve to prove the overarching rule of its ultimately sterilizing homogeneity.^[1]

I don't understand Zenster's "exceptions proves the rule" idea but I like the "sterilizing homogeneity" idea a whole lot.

That there is the antidote to ten tons of the horsefeathers you hear in the course of a year about The Golden Age of Islam. Puhleez. More like the Gold Age of Plunder plus living off the doomed remnants of local Persian and Egyptian scholars and artists who had a chance at independent thinking before the Islamic Curtain of Intellectual Darkness descended.

Innovation in matters of Muslim doctrine is bid'ah and can amount to outright heresy and that, friends, spells "Trouble" with a capital "T." Modest inquiry, questioning, or speculation are things that any reasonably sane Muslim avoids as though his life depended on it – which it does.

As we all know by now, outright rejection of Muslim doctrine is apostasy and it and its country cousins are a green light to the murder of the apostate by the do-it-yourselfers perpetually on duty in Muslim lands for housecleaning of this type. A fatwa by some imamical jackass in the Hindu Kush seems to be sufficient authorization for DIY teams (aka mobs) in Morocco to dispatch too-independent thinkers, though I get the impression that a "boys will be boys" approach will be taken in the case of too much local initiative, too much zeal in the service of Allah. There's no shortage of Islamic zeal anywhere in the world and what's one more dead infidel in a crowded world anyway?

Shirk (polytheism) is also a bad idea and seems by my logic to cover the Christian doctrine of the Trinity. Note to missionary friends: no shirk while visiting an Islamic country.

Also good for anyone in Muslim lands to avoid is blasphemy, an exceedingly elastic concept, that encompasses, for example, Christians who get into neighborhood, land, water, or business disputes with Muslims. After reading about several cases, I gather that it is a common practice for Christians in disputes with Muslims to try to gain a psychological advantage over their Muslim opponents by insulting to Mohammed or Islam. An example of this might be, "Sir, kindly permit me to say that I think your idea of the boundary line between our two properties is in error. Let us obtain an actual plat of the properties and see where the line lies." Naturally, blasphemy charges (with death penalty) are brought when Christians insist on such reckless and insulting ways of settling disputes.

So far, I'm seeing serious impediments to independent thought in Islamic countries. Islam itself is like the ultimate disk brake stopping system when it comes to inquiry of any sort.

No, wait. Shia Muslims take matters of ritual purity very seriously and acres of cortex are involved in laying out the precise rules for avoiding this perilous state:

130. When a syrup or ghee is in a fluid state, in a manner that if some quantity of it is removed, it does not leave an empty trace, the entire quantity will become najis [impure] immediately when even their slightest part becomes najis. But if it has solidified, and when some part of it is removed, a trace of emptiness is seen, then only that part will be najis which has come in contact with najasat [impure stuff], even if the empty trace gets filled up later. So, if the droppings of a rat fall on it, only that part will become najis on which the droppings have fallen, and the rest will remain Pak [pure].^[2]

This is the Islamic equivalent of the domestic American "three-second" rule whereby food that lands on the floor may properly be consumed provided it is picked up within three seconds and the dog has not licked it too much.

Can you see the priestly brainpower that goes into the examination of these larger issues? So far as I know, no American philosopher, priest, or health professional has provided guidance on how the "three-second" rule applies when one's toast lands butter side down on rat droppings. A Sputnik moment, perhaps.

Is the reason for Islamic homogeneity and its sterility not clear? If you don't see it my way, how then do you account for the fact that the non-oil revenue of the Arab world amounts to less than the GDP of Finland? After the whole 20th century has gone by!

I say there's something about the Islamic world that's like crabs in a bucket. Any that try to escape are pulled back in by their fellows. I don't see the crowds in the Egyptian or Libyan streets in a hopeful light at all.

No, I don't.

Notes
^[1] Zenster comment on "A Lackey for the European State." By Baron Bodissey, Gates of Vienna, 3/6/11.
^[2] "Najis Things" as found in "Islamic Laws" according to the Fatawa of [Iraqi] Ayatullah al Uzama Syed Ali al-Husaini Seestani, Al-Islam.org, date unknown (accessed 3/9/11).

Outright Fabrication Dept.

Deficits and debt are a function of spending what is not there to spend, not of insufficient tax revenue.

~nmewn, comment at Zero Hedge.

H/t: Yer Ol' Woodpile Report.

Obama Fundamental Truth # 1

Change, we are learning, is not the same thing as desireable change.

Jay Maloney commenting on "Obama's Gas Price Migraine." By Kimberley A. Strassel, Wall Street Journal (subscription), 3/4/11.

Italian weasel chumps.

In 2008, Libyan Foreign Minister Abdurrahman Shalgham and former Italian Foreign Minister Giulio Andreotti revealed that Italian Prime Minister Bettino Craxi alerted him [Gaddafi] of coming U.S. airstrikes on Tripoli in 1986, actually saving his life.

This is revealed in an article detailing how Gaddafi played the Italians like a Mighty Wurlitzer.

Btw, if expulsion of (subversive) Muslims isn't your cup of tea in this little civilizational death struggle we are involved in these days, note the Libyan expulsion (and expropriation) of 20,000 Italian settlers from Libya described in Mr. Molinari's article. It's sort of like a precedent, though there are others much larger and bloodier. E.g., Turkey, much as the Turks don't like to be reminded of it.

I'm just sayin'.

"Roman Ruins. How Muammar al-Qaddafi hoodwinked Italy for decades." BY Maurizio Molinari, Foreign Policy, 3/3/11.

Labour Party betrayal and white working class stupidity.

It is they, the [British] white working classes who have suffered more than any other, who have lost out in terms of earnings, employment, housing, social care and loss of their natural inheritance, they are the main victims of imported crime and the first to be replaced by an imported workforce, and it is they who have been deliberately and ruthlessly targeted by a party which cares only for a form of new multiculturalism which must, by its very nature, destroy the old culture in order to survive.

Yet they keep voting for the party which has done them so much damage and still seeks their destruction.

* * * *

In answer to the question what is more stupid than a white working class Labour voter, one must admit that very little else on Earth is quite that dumb.

"Sheep Voting for Mint Sauce." By Sarah Maid of Albion, 3/4/11.

An irrecoverable calamity?

In the second place, a collapse in culture, even a very severe collapse such as we are facing in the West, is recoverable as long as you forbid immigration and insist on restoring yourself with your own progeny and efforts. The Japanese have taken this route, and there is no reason to doubt that after this demographic winter passes their islands will remain theirs.

For irrecoverable calamity, you have to let in the hostile and fertile hordes at the moment of your worst cultural weakness and lowest fertility. This is an elite decision, not one made by multitudes of individuals at the family level.^[1]

Tiberge responds:

The Unanswered Question remains "Why did this cultural collapse happen?" We know that it did, we know that the leaders of Western countries completely lacked foresight, insight, patriotism and concern for their national identities. We know they were willing to open wide the borders of their countries to allow in the hordes. We know all of this, and much more. But we don't know WHY. If the West hates itself, where did this self-hatred come from, what is its source? Was it the shattering events of '68 that brought about an irreversible rupture with the past? Yes it was, but we still don't know why the leaders and the people let it happen. We went to bed one night with our traditions still strong, our values seemingly imperishable. And we woke up in a totally transformed world, the world upside down as some call it.

Mark Steyn nails the reason with this:

So they [refugees from Islam and sub-Saharan Africa] will look elsewhere — to countries with great infrastructure, generous welfare, and among the aging natives a kind of civilizational wasting disease so advanced that, as a point of moral virtue, they are incapable of enforcing their borders.

The nations that built the modern world decided to outsource their future. In simple economic terms, the arithmetic is stark: In America, the boomers have condemned their shrunken progeny to the certainty of poorer, meaner lives.^[2]

You can speculate about White Guilt and the influence of Gnosticism and Masons all you want but The Great Mystery of Western surrender to the third world squalor, crime, and backwardness isn't anything complex. Westerners just want a low-cost, comfortable retirement and cheap labor regardless of the consequences.

Notes
^[1] Daybreaker commenting on "The Fatherland Betrayed By The Republic" by Jean Raspail. By Tiberge, GalliaWatch, 4/23/10.
^[2] "Why Are We Still In Germany?" By Mark Steyn, Investor's Business Daily, 3/4/11.

Zero degrees of separation.

If you doubt the socialist bona fides of these unions, get a load of the union boss, Richard Trumka, who uses Marxist class struggle rhetoric on a daily basis and who apparently speaks on a daily basis to Obama or his higher up minions.

Obama to Marxist troll in one step.

So how far fetched is it to declare that Obama embraces class warfare and Marxist revolution? If I had daily, voluntary contact with someone really into class struggle it would only be because I love Marxism and its bedrock idea of class struggle.

Since I don't associate with people who espouse these revolutionary methods and have never sought them out in my entire life, you may safely assume that I have no interest whatsoever in people who embrace these ideas.

Ergo, it's a sure bet that Obama lives and breathes class warfare, something that is utterly foreign to our constitutional republic.

"The Social Ideal of the Left And the Dilemma of the Utopians." By Dr. Sanity, 2/27/11.

Life's inconveniences.

This obligation to exist in a state of utopian happiness has caused untold misery. It’s the root of our very large abortion industry and it fuels our nascent but growing euthanasia business. Babies and old people are inconvenient and expensive. Both kinds of life are so dependent and burdensome. So we simply jettison these inconveniences at the opposite ends of the spectrum.

Dull spouses are inconvenient, too, and often as easy to put aside, which is fortunate, since it’s your inescapable obligation to be happy.

"The Pursuit of Happiness." By Dymphna, Gates of Vienna, 3/2/11.