Zionist Youngster had something to say about the State of Israel after reading yesterday’s account of the inclusion of the nakba in the official Israeli school curriculum. It’s his opinion that Israel is in that lambent moment of unbearable tension after the bowsting has been stretched but before the arrow flies.

He left this in our comments:

The surface impression is one of desperation. But, under the surface, things are constantly improving.

I mean that the decision to teach the Pretendestinian narrative is not representative of the Jews of Israel. Nor Olmert’s talk of giving away Judea and Samaria. Nor even the police action against the settlements.

– – – – – – – – – –

The majority, after the trauma of the assassination of Rabin (Nov. 1995), is behaving very, very responsibly — if there’s a case to be put before HaShem that the Jewish nation has atoned for the sin of gratuitous hatred (for which the Second Temple was destroyed), then this is it. Make no mistake, though: it is only by its current silence that the illusion of a suicidal Israeli Jewish people is maintained.

Few believe in concessions anymore. Many have begun exploring alternative ways of solving the conflict, some ineffective (pitting enemy factions against each other), some extreme (“Nuke the r–heads”) and the one solution that was proposed years ago, by the late Rabbi Meir Kahane (may HaShem avenge his blood), the one I advocate myself (mass expulsion of the enemy population). The majority is in the stage of thinking what the right course is, of uncertainty about it, but let there be no doubt that there is absolute certainty that concessions are out, consigned to the trash heap of failed ideas.

That’s the necessary first half of the move toward change: a majority of conscious rejecters of the Old Order. The arrow is in place and the bowstring is being stretched as we speak. Now all that’s left is for the majority to stop being silent. In due course.

The mills of the University of Colorado grindly slowly, but grind they do. Ward Churchill has been fired.

You won’t have Little Big Man to kick around any more.

[Nothing follows]

Christine from CVF reminds us that the John Doe amendment (protecting vigilant citizens from malicious lawsuits by CAIR, etc.) can still be enacted. Don’t give up yet.

Today, Pamela reports on some of the shenanigans the House Democrats are engaging in to try to make sure that CAIR retains its ability to sue us.

And Rodger, who is the King of Photoshop, has his own witty and iconic propaganda on the topic:

If you want to see the full-size version, you’ll have to go over to Are We Lumberjacks?

And no, that’s not a question, even if it looks like one.

I’ll reprise my own visual effort on the same theme:

[Nothing follows]

Here is an excellent summation of one’s man’s qualms about the Iraqi war – past, present, and future. In “A March Up Country,” Hank F_M sets out his premises:

I was very [ambivalent] about the war to begin with. There was a stable balance of power in the region, but stable balance of powers can protect genocidal governments for years. Sadam was accused of following what Hans Morgantahau called an anti-status quo policy, I thought it was a prestige policy, but the two are often difficult to tell apart, and he had invaded two counties. Saddam got more from the prestige of out of having (or having people think he had) WMD’s than he could ever get from using them outside Iraq, but what ever you think chemical weapons do to people it is much worse, and he did use them in past. My pre-blog comments have long since disappeared off the net. Paul Cella expressed what I was thinking then and said it better than I did.

Whatever one thinks of the war the Secretary of Defense had very misguided ideas on how to run a Defense Department and fight a war.

And then his conclusions about the present:
– – – – – – – – – –

And despite all that, owing more to the troops on the ground and the Iraqis, the military situation in Iraq, while difficult, is nowhere near as bad as the press reports would have you believe.

As Hank says, this Americentric notion of a quick pull-out is wrong on any number of levels:

With all the discussion on the possibility of a withdrawal it seems that most of the discussion is an Americentric approach to US domestic politics. Some even give the impression that they see the issue is about George Bush, what happens to Iraq, neighboring countries, US ability to conduct international relations in the future, or even US troops in Iraq is unimportant or a distraction. Yes, one can have differences of opinion about Bushes policies, I do, but harming our country and others for what ultimately amounts to patronage and contacts is just plain stupid.

But it was “just plain stupid” greed and ambition that motivated the State Department flunkies in Iraq in 2003 to foul the nest.

Here is my post on the situation as described by Ken Joseph, an Assyrian Christian who was there, who witnessed the situation up close and who blames two kinds of Americans for what went down:

The good guys, were the “aw shucks” Americans that came into Iraq and did their best to organize, fix and restore Iraq. They could not imagine that anyone would purposely try to work against what clearly the Iraqis wanted.

I watched them, many times with tears in my eyes as they worked so hard, under such terrible conditions to make things better for Iraq.

“Why are you here?” I would ask over and over. The answer was always the same: “I just want the Iraqis to have what we have. Just doing my job!”

How simple, how naïve and yet how powerful.

[…]

[This was]The first group that “lost Iraq”… the “good guys” — the men and women who gave of their lives and their time to rebuild Iraq so the Iraqis could be free.

[…]

The second group? “The opportunists”. These were many of the people working in the CPA — Coalition Provisional Authority who were there not to see Iraq restored, but simply to get a good line on their résumés and to get a job in the new administration.

A year ago [he means 2002 – D.] those who were hoping for a job in a Kerry Administration had every incentive to see Iraq fail. While it is very difficult to point to specific instances, put yourself in the position of a staffer desperate for a job in a Kerry administration in January.

The best way to insure it? For Iraq to fail! Did it happen? I am absolutely confident it did. I saw it every day!

I am putting out a call to all who were working at CPA headquarters and others to come forward with details of how the “opportunists” worked against success simply to insure they would have a job in January!

A “forgotten” poster which was supposed to be posed all over the country announcing the plans of the CPA. “Accidentally” delayed telephones, computer systems and a host of other supplies we saw daily.

A whole class of staffers working subconsciously and often consciously to in their own little small way have Iraq “fail” so they could get a job in a new administration which would be directly linked to the failure of Iraq.

Never underestimate the stupidity of people when their main focus is their main chance…and to hell with anyone else. These people were ambitious and their ambition cost the US dearly.

If the Cindy Sheehans of the world want to march anywhere, it ought to be to the State Department. That byzantine den of corruption isn’t called “Foggy Bottom” just because of the landscape.

“A March Up Country” leaves us with seven possible scenarios if we simply withdraw from Iraq due to political pressure. Scroll down to the bottom of Hank’s post to see what he (and Austin Bay) envision in the way of alternative outcomes if there is a quick withdrawal of American forces. Most of it is not pretty, though they offer one thin thread of hope.

I believe it will be “Rwanda in the desert” except there will be more than two factions going about their bloody work of destruction.

The founding of Israel in 1948 is considered by the Arab world to be the greatest tragedy since the Crusades, and maybe even since the days of the Prophet. That’s why they have a special word for the event: the naqbah, or nakba, meaning “tragedy” or “catastrophe”.

Nothing else quite matches the nakba within the Palestinian territories for sheer emotive impact. In the Palestinian mind, the sorrow and rage engendered by the event justifies any activity — lying, stealing, destruction of property, kidnapping, suicide bombing, the murder of innocent people, the indiscriminate slaughter of women and children — anything.

Above all, the fury over the nakba requires the destruction of the state of Israel, and the extermination of the Jews.

Given all that, the only explanation I can put forward for the following story is — like so many actions taken in the West of late — mass insanity. Israel has decided to teach the nakba in its official school curriculum:

Israel Education Ministry ‘Nakba’ Curriculum

Arab schoolchildren in Israel will be taught next year that the founding of the State of Israel was a tragedy (Nakba in Arabic) in accordance with a widespread Arab view of the event.

The Education Ministry, headed by Prof. Yuli Tamir (Labor), has approved adding the Arab version to the curriculum in response to calls by Arab nationalists who requested the “Nakba“ version be taught in their schools.

The new directive approves a Grade 3 textbook “Living Together in Israel,” which was written by Arabs who left their homes during the 1948 War of Independence and claim that Israel took their land. The textbook evenhandedly points out that the Arab nations refused to accept the United Nations partition plan creating the Jewish State and a new Trans-Jordan country.

“The Arab narrative deserves to be told in Israel,” Tamir explained. Arab MKs congratulated her for her decision, though immediately raised new demands. Arab MK Hana Sweid said Tamir should now incorporate Arab poetry into Jewish school curricula, while MK Jamal Zechalke called for “Arab cultural autonomy” under which Arabs would solely determine Israeli-Arab schools’ curricula regarding Arab history and culture.

Not everybody in Israel is happy about this insanity. Reaction from the right was intense:
– – – – – – – – – –

MK Zevulun Orlev (NRP), a former Director-General of the Education Ministry, called upon Prime Minister Olmert to fire Tamir for making an “anti-Zionist decision that erases Jewish history and denies the State of Israel as a Jewish state. The Education Minister gives Arabs the legitimacy not to recognize Israel as the State of the Jewish people. This decision marks the “Nakba“ of Israel’s education network.”

Strategic Affairs Minister Avigdor Lieberman slammed Tamir as “expressing not only post-Zionism but also political masochism… The Israel left always complicates itself trying to justify the other side without understanding that there is nothing to justify.”

Moshe Feiglin, running for Likud Party Chairman on behalf of the party’s Manhigut Yehudit (Jewish Leadership) faction, said, “If it is OK to teach Israeli[-Arab] schoolchildren that the Jewish victory in the War for Independence and the establishment of the Jewish State are actually a catastrophe, this means that the State of Israel is an illegitimate and temporary body… Yuli Tamir hereby reveals that she does not identify with the Jewish claim over the Land more than with the Arab claim. If we do not hurry and give Israel a leadership that truly believes in the justness of our existence, Israel will be erased from the map.”

Indeed.

It’s evident that there are some anti-Zionist Jews in Israel who look forward to the end of the state of Israel. Presumably they think that the utopian bi-national Palestinian entity will be such an enlightened and peaceful place that they will not be in danger of violence at the hands of the new Arab majority.

There are many people in the West these days who seem bent on collective suicide. But in the United States or Europe, it’s possible to imagine that the deadly results of suicidal government policies can be postponed for a generation or two.

But not in Israel. The mass insanity in evidence there will have a direct and immediate impact on the current generation. “Palestine” will not wait a moment before driving the Jews into the sea.

So maybe it’s time for the Jews in Israel, like those in Europe, to pack their bags and move… where?

Where can they go?

Hat tip: Dana.

Mme. Sarkozy seems to have done the trick: the Bulgarian nurses have been released. According to a story in the International Herald Tribune, Libya got a pretty sweet deal out of their little hostage-taking number.

For each of the HIV-infected children — none of which sustained any damage at the hands of the nurses — Libya gets $1 million, plus a plum trade deal and “full partnership” with the EU. That’s a pretty good return for grabbing six innocent people and keeping them in the slammer for eight years.

The president of France is pretending that the deal is something other than a ransom payment:

In France, President Nicolas Sarkozy said he would go to Libya on Wednesday “to help Libya rejoin the international community.” He said neither France nor the EU paid any money to Libya for the medics’ release.

He’s being disingenuous. From a legalistic standpoint, the European countries didn’t pay anything, they simply forgave some debt, and the debtors in Libya paid the families of the children. A little fiscal sleight of hand, and voilà! No ransom.

The Libyan court issued the death sentences, and then the appeal court commuted them to life imprisonment. Under an existing treaty, the nurses were returned to Bulgaria to serve their sentences, and the Bulgarian government pardoned them. Another sleight of hand, and the nurses are free.

Note that the nurses were convicted, and their conviction was never reversed. Libya got paid off, and never admitted to any wrongdoing.

And now it gets to rejoin the “community of nations”.

The details of the story:
– – – – – – – – – –

After more than eight years in prison in Libya, five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor stepped off the French presidential plane in Bulgaria’s capital early Tuesday, greeted by the hugs of crying relatives and Bulgaria’s top officials.

They were accompanied on the flight by the European Union’s external relations commissioner, Benita Ferrero-Waldner, and France’s first lady, Cécilia Sarkozy, who helped secure their release.

During a news conference at the airport terminal, standing in front of the nurses, Bulgaria’s foreign minister, Ivailo Kalfin, announced that President Georgi Parvanov had pardoned the medics, ending all their legal liabilities, to the emotional applause of the crowd.

“I waited so long for this moment,” one of the nurses, Snezhana Dimitrova, said on being reunited with her family, The Associated Press reported.

The release completes a rapprochement with Libya, which not long ago was largely shunned in the world community.

A turning point came when it publicly abandoned a program to develop weapons of mass destruction and made payments to the families of the people who died in the Lockerbie explosion. That led Washington and other capitals to restore diplomatic ties.

Libya’s foreign minister said Libya and the European Union had agreed to develop a “full partnership” after the release of the medical workers, with the Europeans promising help for Libyan hospitals and infrastructure.

In Brussels, the European Commission president, José Manuel Barroso, said Tuesday that the European Union would now move to normalize trade and political ties with Libya. “We hope to go on further normalizing our relations with Libya,” he said. “Our relations with Libya were in a large extent blocked by the nonsettlement of this medics issue.”

[…]

Following Bulgaria’s admittance into the European Union on Jan. 1, the political weight of the 27-member bloc considerably changed Bulgaria’s diplomatic pull, while coinciding with moves by Qaddafi for closer relations with the West.

The release came at the end of eight years of imprisonment, three trials and two separate death sentences. The medics deny infecting the children and say their confessions were extracted under torture.

The Libyans agreed to the release only after the families of the infected children agreed to accept $1 million in exchange for dropping their demands for the medics to be executed, permissible under Libyan law.

Most of the families received the money last week, after Bulgaria agreed to forgive Libya’s foreign debt dating to the Cold War.

Seif al-Islam, a son of Qaddafi’s who heads a foundation that led negotiations between the families and the Libyan government, said that Libya provided the money, which came from debt forgiveness that was also granted by Slovakia, Croatia and the Czech Republic.

The Libyan Supreme Court upheld the death sentences on July 11, the final legal step. That allowed the Supreme Judicial Council to take up the case, and it commuted the death sentences to life imprisonment on July 17.

The medics returned under an obscure mutual legal assistance treaty signed by Bulgaria and Libya in 1984, according to which prisoners can be transferred to serve sentences in their home countries. With the pardon from the Bulgarian government, the medics are free.

We’re all happy that the nurses are free and have gone home. Their lives will never be the same, after eight years of brutality and torture in a Libyan hellhole. But they are free.

However, make no mistake about it: the EU just paid the jizyah, big time.

This will not be last installment.

Hat tip: LN.

Remember our recent post on the “dismay” the EU expressed over Libya’s cyncial plan to extort money from the West for the Bulgarian nurses? As you may recall, the threat was extort or execute. The best the West could do was wring its collective hands and cry “no fair.”

Now the EU is whingeing about the French President’s wife butting in and trying to take the glory:

French President Nicolas Sarkozy came under attack from the left-wing opposition today for trying to steal the limelight by sending his wife Cecilia to Libya in the Bulgarian nurses’ affair.

Socialist Party (PS) deputy Benoit Hamon said Sarkozy wanted to take credit for securing the eventual release of the six medical workers, while the real responsibility lay with the European Union (EU).

“You can’t at the same time say you want to beef up Europe’s diplomatic muscle, and then try to steal the victory just when the EU’s about to pull something off — and all so that Madame Sarkozy can strut around on the republican stage,” he said.

Notice that the cry is still “no fair!” These people never left high school.

They whine on:

Cecilia Sarkozy arrived in Tripoli yesterday along with Claude Gueant, secretary-general of the presidency, and EU foreign affairs commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner.

It was her second visit to Libya to try to win the freedom for the five Bulgarians and one Palestinian convicted of infecting children with HIV/AIDS.

“It is extraordinary that just because Mr Sarkozy wants to find a role for his spouse, the EU should have to drag along the wife of the president in a difficult negotiation,” Hamon said.

Pierre Moscovici, a former PS European affairs minister, said Sarkozy was pursuing a strategy of “the cuckoo in the nest”.

“He’s laying his eggs in someone else’s nest. Because basically France has played no part in all of this,” he said.

There’s nothing in the story at Business Day that expresses anyone’s concern for the fate of the nurses. It’s all about elbowing one another out of the way.

These are not serious people. They are seriously narcissistic. It must send chills through the poor nurses to think they are pawns in the EU’s childish vying for the limelight. I guess that’s what you do when you can’t really fight: you scratch one another’s eyes out like a bunch of chorus girls…

First he’s not allowed to jog, now his wife is supposed to stay home and bake cookies. As I said, these are people without gravitas.

Give me a break.

Hat tip: The Baron

[That’s enough of this tripe. Nothing further.]

As an antidote to The New Republic fairy tale we posted the other day, there’s an enthralling story, told in the cadences of military-ese, at the blog, In From the Cold. It recounts the outstanding success of the first Airborne Reconnaissance Squadron’s recent operation to secure an area north of Baqubah that was held by the ISI – Islamic State of Iraq.

Here’s a snip of the operational summary that Spook 86 posted:

On 11 July 2007 Bravo (Strike Force 300) 5-73 CAV moved to the FOB Warhorse Helicopter landing zone during hours of limited visibility to stage on Black Hawk (UH-60) and Chinook (CH-47) helicopters for the Air Assault Raid on Objectives Red, White, and Blue.

The target was an Al Qaeda in Iraq (AQIZ) safe haven north of Baqubah, and east of Khalis, Iraq. Intelligence was developed primarily through local Iraq civilians. Shias and Sunnis directed us to this area, which was once a peaceful tribal farm land, but now overrun by Wahabbi extremists under the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI).

Having given the target, the summary goes on to explain the mission, purpose, and concept of the operation…again, in perfect military-ese. Too bad the editors at TNR didn’t immerse themselves in some after-action reports or operation summaries before deciding to run with the stories from “Scott Thomas.” Background reading in an unfamiliar field is a good way to discern the credibility of your author.

Again, from the summary:

We cleared from house to house, chicken coops, canals, and palm groves rooting out the enemy and forcing them into our planned kill zone. Along the way we discovered three large caches of RPGs, Heavy Machine Guns, AK-47’s, AQIZ propaganda, Iraqi Army/ police radios, military uniforms and over 17 IEDs. The significance of the IED cache is that they are unable to put them on the street, which equals saving coalition and Iraqi lives.

Through the night into the early morning we fought the enemy, dominating them with impunity…

– – – – – – – – – –

The end result was we killed 29 AQIZ fighters, captured 23, and most importantly saved eight severely tortured civilians being held captive. The hostages told us that they had been sentenced by the Islamic State of Iraq to be executed later that day, and we saved them from certain death. All eight hostages who were from all over Iraq are now safely at home with their loved ones.

The pride and sense of accomplishment shines through, doesn’t it? Go to Spook’s post and read about Bravo Troop 5-73 CAV, 82nd ABN DIV’s part in Operation Ithaca.

The beginning section, which covers how this cadre was formed, is interesting for the description of the leeway officers were given to choose personnel and have them train together extensively. One of the lessons learned from Vietnam was that soldiers are not mere ciphers, to be inserted and removed without affecting the whole group. You can’t move them in and out of the field of battle willy-nilly with no regard for the integrity and morale of the men involved. That was a hard-won lesson, a lesson many individual soldiers in Vietnam paid for dearly. It is encouraging to see that experience being drawn upon today.

Thanks to Spook for the story, which was given to family members of the troops and thus made its way to him.

As I said in the beginning, this is the antidote to TNR. You won’t read it in Time or WaPo, will you?

Enjoy.

Last week I wrote about Canada’s multifaith multiculti TV channel, VisionTV, and its jihad-preaching Islamist, Dr. Ahmad.

Dr. Ahmad was in serious violation of the TV station’s rules, not to mention Canada’s hate-speech codes. It looked like the station was going to punish Dr. Jihad by banishing him from the air.

But instead… from today’s National Post:

VisionTV gives Islamic radical more air time
Jewish groups Outraged; Vision Backpedals On ‘Regret’ To Air Preacher

A day after saying it regretted broadcasting a lecture by a Pakistani preacher who says Muslim scripture advocates violent holy war and the “extermination” of Jews, VisionTV put him back on the air again this weekend.

A leading Jewish organization said yesterday it would launch a formal complaint with Canadian broadcast regulators after Vision aired another hour-long talk by fundamentalist Israr Ahmad on Saturday.

The preacher’s reappearance on Canadian television came as a surprise to some, since VisionTV had issued a statement on Friday expressing regret for broadcasting Mr. Ahmad’s lecture on violent jihad on July 14.

But despite the statement, Vision aired another lecture Saturday afternoon by Mr. Ahmad, who compares Jews to “parasites,” describes the Holocaust as “divine punishment” and calls Jews “condemned.”

– – – – – – – – – –

“It is most troubling that VisionTV made a calculated decision to re-broadcast a segment featuring a radical Imam, whose words have the potential to incite hatred and violence,” Frank Dimant of B’nai Brith Canada said yesterday.

[…]

Vision, which is available in 7.8 million Canadian households, has a strict code of ethics that forbids the broadcast of programs that could incite violence, overseas conflicts or strife between religions. Vision could not be reached for comment yesterday.

Last week, a Vision executive, Mark Prasuhn, described “Dr. Ahmad” as a religious scholar — he is a medical doctor — and in a recent interview the preacher acknowledged that he was not welcome in Canada. “I had no official information about a ban [from entering Canada] but I understood that I was not in the good books of the U.S. and the West, especially after 9 /11, due to my concept of radical Islam; which demands a Muslim to struggle against the prevailing corrupt and exploitative system in the world,” he said.

Mr. Ahmad heads a self-described “revolutionary” organization called Tanzeem-e Islami, which wants to turn Pakistan into a fundamentalist Islamic state and a launch pad for the global domination of Islam.

[…]

Mr. Ahmad’s followers in Canada include terror suspect Qayyum Abdul Jamal, arrested last summer for his alleged role in a plot to detonate truck bombs in downtown Toronto.

A reminder — this is VisionTV’s mission statement:

We are Canada’s multi-faith and multicultural broadcaster. VisionTV presents inspirational, insightful and original programming that celebrates diversity and promotes understanding among people of different faiths and cultures. VisionTV is part of a group of channels that also includes One: the Body, Mind & Spirit channel, a digital service offering programs on natural health, personal growth and living a planet-friendly lifestyle.

Say what?

Hat tip: RES.

Michael Yon has a memorial tribute to the late General Wayne Downing. One of The most admired of our senior officer corps, General Downing served after his retirement as a military expert for the media. Mr. Yon describes his pleasure and awe on meeting Downing in this capacity in Iraq:

During the evening, as I walked back to my tent, there was a crew of fourteen from NBC. Sound people, cameramen, a big satellite dish, the works. Three producers. It was all there—the face of the “evil” Mainstream Media in the personages of Brian Williams and Richard Engle. And standing in the dark with them as military analyst for NBC was retired 4-Star General Wayne Downing, a legend in special operations. (Think Delta Force and all the rest of the gang.) Wayne Downing graduated West Point in 1962. Served in Vietnam and everywhere else under the sun. He might have killed more terrorists directly and indirectly than any man on the planet.

I had to rub my eyes. Was that General Downing?

The General Downing?

He took the opportunity to meet the general and are thus began a conversation that was to last until the General’s death.

Read the whole story here.

The family is requesting donations be sent to these groups:

Special Operations Warrior Foundation
P.O. Box 13483
Tampa, FL 33681-3483

National Ranger Memorial Foundation, Inc.
P.O. Box 53369
Ft. Benning, GA 31995-3369

Both sites allow for credit card donations – I checked. You can go here or here to give.

Mr. Yon’s full tribute to this man he greatly admired can be found on his site.

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

The milblogs are weighing in, giving their full measure of the man. He was proof of the fact that the military in this country attracts some of the best people we have. Despite the militant anti-war groups in this country, we will always have our General Downings: great men and great leaders who other men are willing to follow into battle.

In his last email to Mr. Yon, General Downing said he thought that eventually it would be up to the Iraqis to sort things out; he thought that a civil war could be part of the equation. Such an expectation for a repressed people is realistic. Soviet Russia kept the lid on sectarian strife until, finally, there was no more Soviet Russia. Now that there is no more mini-me Saddam Hussein (remember that his hero was Stalin), Iraqis have many scores to settle…and miles to go before they sleep.

Day is done,
gone the sun,
From the hills,
from the lake,
From the skies.
All is well,
safely rest,
God is nigh.

Go to sleep,
peaceful sleep,
May the soldier
or sailor,
God keep.
On the land
or the deep,
Safe in sleep.

[Requiescat in Pace, General Downing]

Last night Kepiblanc reported on the methods nightclubs in Copenhagen use to handle the problem of Muslim “youths” and their tendency to react violently when they can’t have their way with Danish girls.

Two commenters on the post then reported on the same problem as it occurs in other parts of Scandinavia.

First, Vasarahammer has translated an excerpt from the interview of Sedu Koskinen, owner of several nightclubs in Helsinki. The entire interview is available in Finnish at Viisi Tähteä:

Sedu Koskinen spoke of a politically sensitive subject in the Haaga Studia Restonomia seminar, namely allowing entry of foreigners to a night club.

“Today there is a problem with foreigners. One must raise this issue in some forum. I sometimes get tens of complaints that there have been too many foreigners in our place. Regular customers find that disturbing. Foreign men don’t necessarily respect others, especially women. They openly grab, fondle and behave badly. That is the reality.

“And when the foreigners start making trouble, it is not that do I hit first or do you. At that point they have already hit, usually with a knife or a beer mug. And normally they come in groups. They make sure that the group is there and then they start hitting.

“Finns normally don’t come in groups. When the foreigners visit a club, they don’t come in at once, but one by one. But they still constitute a gang. When a Finnish gang arrives, they all come at the same time and they will be noticed at once and their entry is refused. They cannot do that. Foreigners know how to deal with it. Obviously we are not talking about the French here. Are there any specific nationalities you need to look out for?

“Yeah there are. Yugos, Albanians and Asians are a dangerous lot. And the Somalis have arrived as their own group. They have lived here so long that they know the system and speak Finnish. They are not outsiders any more. They are deep in the system. And I am not a racist. I have spent a lot of time abroad and always try to understand as far as possible, but the problems are a reality today. At some point they may get out of hand, as it has already happened in Sweden and Germany, for example.

“However, the law requires that you cannot refuse entry based on race or nationality.

“I know many clubs in Helsinki that forbid entry to foreigners. Even in the most popular clubs there are clear rules. You just don’t talk about them.”

Vasarahammer adds this comment: “Frankly, I’m surprised that he has not been visited by the thought police yet.”

Carpenter has his own report: “Well, we have similar bar problems in Sweden too. Here, a ‘discrimination industry’ has occurred.”
– – – – – – – – – –
Here’s his translation of excerpts from an article in Realtid.se published on May 29th:

Struggle against restaurant racism — A business idea?

The law students have received much — overwhelmingly positive — publicity for their struggle against club-racism. After having sued about a dozen clubs for ethnic discrimination, their requirements for damage compensation amount to almost 1,000,000 kronor [around $140,000]. Now, they’re accused of having found a profitable business idea.

[…]

So far, they have received just over 100,000 kronor [around $14,000]. But they will possibly receive even more. According to the “law students” themselves their demands amount to one million, against thirteen clubs.

[…]

It all started three years ago, as a discrimination experiment by the law students. With hidden camera and microphone, they went around in Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmö. Their work resulted in reports against thirteen clubs.

Yesterday Steen sent me a tip from his blog, a post about a Swedish artist whose Mohammed-related drawing was hastily censored. Steen’s account and the news story were entirely in Swedish, of which I can read very little. So I asked our Swedish correspondent LN to explain, and he sent me the following information:

A controversial but longtime and well-established Swedish artist, Lars Vilks (visit his homepage), was invited to take part in an art exhibition entitled “The Dog in Art” at Tällberg near Karlstad.

He delivered three drawings: Mohammed as a Dog. Only an hour or two before opening last Friday the organizers discovered what they had hanging on the walls. Big rush, down with the drawings.

Vilks’ comment: “So much for freedom of speech.”

The Swedish state public radio did not say a word about it; the press however was informed via TT [Tidningarnas Telegrambyrå, the Swedish news agency], I think.

The drawing shown on Steen’s blog is called “Mohammed as a Rondell Dog”.

A Rondell Dog (Rondellhund) is a strange and funny phenomenon. For the last five to ten years unknown persons have placed stylized dog sculptures on traffic circles all around Sweden — for example, a white dog profile of natural size (grand Danois!) cut in plywood — often humorous. The strange thing is that the highway authorities have accepted this “habit” and have not diligently taken them away. Very strange indeed!

In this editorial the newspaper Expressen reacts to the censored pictures of Mo as a dog, finishing with: But to censor free culture and free media out of fear, or because of resolutions and laws, is the wrong road to walk. Many more should stand together for freedom of speech.

For more photos of Rondellhundar, see this Google image search.

Readers who understand Swedish are invited to post translations in the comments of anything from these links that they think is interesting.

Unlike the Danes, the Swedes have moved hastily to suppress any dangerous images that might upset followers of the Religion of Peace. Nevertheless, the Danish caper had a name — “The Motoon Crisis” — so we will need one for the Swedish version. Nothing euphonious comes to mind — “The Modoggie Affair”?
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In another drawing by Lars Vilks, Mohammed and Hans Christian Andersen are visiting the Carlsberg brewery in Copenhagen. For larger versions of both drawings, go over to Snaphanen.

It turns out that Mr. Vilks is one of the founders of Ladonia, an independent freestate carved out of what would otherwise be called southern Sweden.

Here’s some more information about him, from Ladonia’s website:

Nimis and Arx

In 1980 the artist and arthistorian Lars Vilks started to work on Nimis, a construction of driftwood and rests from the cutting areas.

Nimis (lat. “too much”) is situated on the peninsula of Kullaberg in the south of Sweden — now an independent state Ladonia.

When Vilks started to work with hammer and nail at Nimis his ideas were rather vague, but he had in mind to make a meetingplace between theory and practice.

The organizers of the exhibition must have known, based on his curriculum vitae, that in inviting Mr. Vilks they were getting no average run-of-the-mill artist. Even so, it seems that they got more than they bargained for.

Below is a forwarded email we received about the events planned for tomorrow, Monday morning, July 23rd.

(That’s when Cindy Sheehan marches on Washington as a part of her on-going labor against the war in Iraq. If you look at some of the online information, though, Miss Cindy is just the appetizer to the major disruption planned by ANSWER for September 15th, when General Petraeus is due to report to Congress on the state of Iraq)

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The A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition is supporting an important anti-war event on Monday, July 23 led by Cindy Sheehan to demand the impeachment of President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney. Please see below for details. We hope you can join this event.

“March for Impeachment” — Monday, July 23 in DC

This Monday, July 23, Cindy Sheehan will be leading a march from Arlington National Cemetery to the Capitol Hill Office of Congressman John Conyers to demand that he begin impeachment proceedings against President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.

These actions are a part of the Journey for Humanity initiated by Cindy Sheehan and the Camp Casey Peace Institute on July 10. Beginning in Crawford, Texas, Cindy and many others have been traveling all around the country to demand the end to the war on Iraq and the impeachment of the Bush administration. She has been submitting regular reports from the road on ImpeachBush.org.

The details for the July 23 Washington DC event are as follows:

10:00 am: Gather outside the Arlington National Cemetery metro
10:30 am: March to Capitol Hill office of Congressman John Conyers at 2426 Rayburn House Office Building
12:00 pm: Approximate arrival time at Capitol Hill
A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition
http://www.pephost.org/site/R?i=AVFFxE47O_xSoarlZsTj3g..
dc@internationalanswer.org
National Office in Washington DC: 202-544-3389

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Before getting to D.C., Sheehan stopped at a number of cities and towns along the way. On Saturday, July 21st, she was in Charlottesville on the downtown mall. Not all of the crowd was friendly, as you can see by the signs being held up. Given that Charlottesville, a university town, is a deep blue blip in an otherwise red state, it was a surprising place to see anyone brave enough to stand up to this icon of the anti-Bush faction of American politics.

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John Conyers, a quisling of the first order, has been rehearsing Bush’s impeachment for several years now. Since he is dependent on the Muslim voters in his district for re-election, his diatribes are often anti-Semitic:

John Conyers, son of a leftist Detroit union activist, represents the largest Arab population in the country. His district includes Dearborn, Mich., nicknamed “Dearbornistan” by locals fed up with cultural encroachment and terror fears from a steady influx of Mideast immigrants.

Conyers, who runs an Arabic version of his official Web site, does the bidding of these new constituents and the militant Islamist activists who feed off them. They want to kill the Patriot Act and prevent the FBI from profiling Muslim suspects in terror investigations. They also want to end the use of undisclosed evidence against suspected Arab terrorists in deportation proceedings.

[…]

Recall that John Conyers held a mock impeachment hearing regarding the Iraq War which devolved into an anti—Semitic hate fest. He featured known anti—Semitic “witnesses” and “experts” that blamed American Jews and Israel for the war in Iraq. Simultaneously, anti—Semitic “literature” was being distributed at Democratic National Committee headquarters…

So Mrs. Sheehan and Rep. Conyers are not strange bedfellows at all. They both paint over the truth with a broad “blame-America-blame-Bush” airbrush.

No doubt the usual pink ladies and fellow-travelers from ANSWER and La Raza will be along for the ride.

These people represent so few of us and yet delude themselves that their very small slice of the long tail is the whole political animal in this country.

“Journey for Humanity” indeed.

[ends here]

When I was in Copenhagen in April, the weather was unusually fine and warm, and downtown Copenhagen came alive in the evenings with a foretaste of summer nightlife. Kepiblanc, our Danish correspondent and frequent commenter here at Gates of Vienna, offered to give me an after-dark tour, so we took a stroll through the narrow streets of the old city.

From time to time he pointed out groups of young Muslim men who were heading for the nightclubs. They were dressed fashionably, and appeared to be mainly Turks and South Asians. According to Kepiblanc they frequent the bars and discotheques in search of something hard to find in their own cultural milieu: available young women.

Yesterday Kepiblanc sent me an email with more information on this topic:

Baron,

As you probably remember from our joint evening walks in downtown Copenhagen, one can always spot a “dance hall” — or discotheque — by the crowd of Middle Eastern types hanging around outside, arguing with a doorman while harassing female bypassers.

Of course, the Danish equivalent of CAIR, several Danish factions of the “do-good-industry”, and useful-idiot politicians accuse the doormen of “racism”, bigotry, and discrimination. Accordingly the “cultural enrichers” have started to sue doormen and bar owners — and with success in some cases.

Now, what can a bar owner or a doorman do to protect his business, his customers and earn a little money? If he lets the “youths” inside one thing is a given: trouble. His business is founded on selling liquor, wine, and beer. But Muslims don’t buy anything. Instead they “engage” the Danish girls (Muslim girls are not allowed outside their homes) in a rather un-Danish way. The girls mostly refuse to dance with them, but since Muslims can’t fathom that, the girls need protection from Danish boys. Then the fighting starts. Suddenly fists and knives appear, and the evening is ruined. As is the discotheque.

So, for the bar owner and the doorman it’s a lose-lose situation.

Below is Kepiblanc’s translation of a story from yesterday evening on Danish TV2:

Discotheque: Muslims make trouble

[Photo text: “Sorry fellas, I can’t let you in.”]

The overwhelming majority of problems in the discotheques can be related to young, Muslim immigrants. So says one of the owners of Australian Bar in Copenhagen, Tommy Petersen, who has appeared several times in media stories for rejecting immigrants. Tommy Petersen underscores that it has nothing to do with racism and discrimination:

“They are mostly unable to behave themselves because they don’t know, or will not respect, the norms and mores of the local nightlife,” he says.

In June the discotheque rejected a young Danish-Turk due to his haircut, a so-called “army cut”, with reference to the dress code of the place. Likewise the discotheque in February rejected three foreigners. The doorman in question later had to pay a fine of DKR 1,000 [$180].

Kepiblanc adds this editorial afterword:
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But where there’s a will, there’s a way. Several ways, actually.

Some discotheques made an agreement with the cops: They maintain a photo gallery of the “usual suspects” which makes it legal to reject matching faces. Others have established themselves as members-only, but the Muslims somehow figured that one out, so now they’re whining and seething about “racism” once more.

Fortunately, man’s best friend came into the play: by claiming an anti-drug policy some discotheques now place a “sniffer-dog” at the door. Poodles, bulldogs — whatever. It doesn’t matter: Muslims are afraid of being touched by dogs, so they leave the place without further ado.

While the Danes just pat the tail-wagging doggie on the head and walk right in.

I guess it’ll be a while until the Muslims’ lawyers figure out how to handle that one in court, but if they do, I have a suggestion:

Refurbish all the discotheques. Use swine-leather upholstery on all furniture, bars and doorknobs.

Keep the room clean.