Or so say some of our neighbors to the north:

With city shelters filled and a surge of further refugee claimants expected to flood into Windsor, Mayor Eddie Francis is pleading for financial help from Ottawa.

“When there is a possibility of adding thousands to the local social assistance system as a result of refugee claimants crossing the border into Windsor, we will become overwhelmed and our current resources will not suffice,” Francis wrote in a letter sent Wednesday to Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

Over the past three weeks, 45 families and 31 individuals — approximately 200 people — entered Canada at the Detroit River crossings and applied in Windsor for shelter and social assistance after filing refugee claims with the Canada Border Services Agency. Municipal agencies dealing with the sudden influx of mainly Mexican refugee applicants are renting out hotel rooms and bracing for predicted thousands more to come.

“We don’t have the means, ability or capacity to deal with this additional cost. We are not able to deal with this potential crisis locally,” Francis wrote Harper.

“I don’t believe that Windsor’s residents and taxpayers should have to foot the bill for U.S. immigration policy,” Francis [said]. He was referring to the suspected source of the problem — a recently begun crackdown on illegal immigrants in economically struggling regions of the U.S. South.

Hmm…perhaps they can build a wall?

How come these are Mexican citizens who are actively encouraged by their government to get across the border, and yet it’s America’s fault that they end up in Canada?
– – – – – – – – –
Further into the article – much further – you find the source of the problem: a little bit of Haitian free enterprise operating in Florida:

But a group operating out of Naples, Fla., vowed to continue sending the so-called economic refugees to Windsor.

“They ask, ‘Is Canada an option?’ and I say, ‘Yes, it is an option,’“ Jacques Sinjuste of the Jerusalem Haitian Community Center said in a phone interview Wednesday. For a US$300 “donation” (most of those interviewed in Windsor claim they paid US$400), JHCC staff download forms off the Internet, help applicants fill them out and give directions on how to get to the Canadian border.

So these poor illegal immigrants are taken for a ride by another immigrant who prints out forms they could get for ten cents a page at a local library. And then all they need are directions to the bus terminal…but of course they don’t speak English.

To be successful, refugee claimants must prove they are fleeing persecution at home, something most of the Mexicans arriving in Windsor would be hard-pressed to do…there was only a 13 per cent acceptance rate of refugee claims filed by Mexican nationals during the first six months of the year, compared to an overall rate of 47 per cent.

But the average processing time for a refugee claim in Canada is currently 14.2 months…a period during which the applicant is eligible for financial and other support. A failed claimant then also has the right to seek leave to appeal his or her rejection to federal court.

I feel sorry for any Mexican who has to winter over in Canada only to be deported (where? To the U.S. or to Mexico? To whomever doesn’t make a big fuss – which Mexico will surely do).

Meanwhile, Sinjuste has been paid a visit by a member of the Canadian consulate in Florida. Somehow, I doubt any dialogue is going to stop him from collecting $400.00 a head from these poor people:

Sinjuste said he’s simply providing a “referral” service.

“Most of the time when the people come, they say they’ve heard something (about Canada). I say that I’ve heard the same thing,” he said.

Sly one, isn’t he? So is it Haiti’s fault that this guy, Sinjuste, ended up in Florida fleecing Mexicans and pointing them to Windsor? If so, does that make Haiti the real source of Windsor’s problem?

And since Haiti’s problems originate in its colonization by France, shouldn’t Canada be talking to the French consulate instead of some mountebank in Florida?

Never mind. Let’s worry about all that tomorrow, when the North American Union comes to life and our three former countries are just one big happy continent just like our European cousins.

Hat tip: Jillosophy

Whenever I think of something that I want to say, it’s all but inevitable that Zionist Youngster has already said it better.

And so it is with a comment on yesterday’s post quoting from Staff Sergeant David Bellavia’s book about his experiences in Fallujah. An interesting discussion about the Iraq war developed in the comments, and Zionist Youngster had this to say:

Iraq showcases something other than what the Politically Correct (and PC taxpayers, such as President George W. “Islam is a religion of peace” Bush himself) would like to get from it: the unannounced support of the Muslim majority for the actions of a few. Or, as it is often put on Jihad Watch: Has a way of sifting the Muslims who don’t support jihad from those who do been devised yet?

I suspect that even if there were a good way of doing so, it’d be time-consuming and imperil the troops. But above all, it could never surmount the self-made handicap that the US forces have carried with them ever since the Vietnam days: “Winning hearts and minds”. You can try to win hearts and minds, or you can take care of the problem of Islamic imperialism, but you cannot do both. Active jihadis are intermixed with their non-military supporters, and combatant Muslims are in the thick of non-combatant Muslims giving them protection (as well as invaluable propaganda points when the infidels inevitably have to strike — think Qana in Lebanon 2006).

I said that even Afghanistan, where democratization and “winning hearts and minds” wasn’t the initial pretext, was premature. The war was taken to the enemy field too early. As Fjordman says repeatedly, the home field is under serious enough attack, and should be defended first. And I add: the defense of the home field is a better position for infidels, in that it’s a moral position of survival rather than “winning hearts and minds”. When it comes to defending their own states, infidels should remember that they owe the Muslim colonials nothing, and that they are perfectly within their rights to hit them the hardest blows: expulsion, en masse, by droves, by shiploads, by the millions. As in Iraq, there is no effective way of distinguishing between the guilty and the innocent; not as in Iraq, the pretense of “winning hearts and minds” is not there to make us give a damn.

I’m not saying the enemy field is beyond action. Far from it; we have it from the experience of Germany under Allied occupation in 1945-60 (including the quelling of the insurgency) that it can work. But it’s too early. And, the Coalition forces went there without having recognized what the enemy really is. Osama Bin Laden is an enemy, but not the enemy — Islamic imperialism doesn’t need him in order to function. Al Qaeda is just another head of the hydra. Afghanistan is just another location for it to operate from. But fighting them over there when they are here, on our home fields, is by nature premature.

– – – – – – – – –

Switch to survival mode, over here. Realize that it’s about whether the USA’s and Europe’s football stadiums will really be used as football stadiums in the future, or as arenas for the display of public beheadings and amputations. Here, in our states. And just lose, lose, lose that Sixties-Hippie phrase from the Sixties-Hippies days, “Winning hearts and minds”! For once, just for once, be a little more selfish, a little less altruistic, a little more willing to run roughshod over the sacred Other, especially as that Other gives nothing in reciprocation. Say to them, “This is ours, and since you didn’t come to become part of ours, but to remake ours in your image, then you’ll have to get lost.” And then let’s facilitate their getting lost with a forceful and unrelenting application of our ambulatory organs to their posteriors. Because our way of life is something worth keeping, even if it’s called “racism” just to think so.

In the Torah, God tells the Israelites, upon coming to the Land of Israel from Egypt, not to occupy the nations of the land, even warning them against that, but to kick them all out. That “Bronze Age text containing the thoughts of goat-herders” — as the PC crowd call it — has more strategic wisdom than all of the generals and statesmen of our age put together. Unless the enemy’s will has entirely been broken as it was in 1945, occupation necessarily leads to a quagmire. But before embarking on that enterprise, it must be remembered: We have bigger fish to fry.

The month of November in the Counterjihad Calendar is represented by Australia.

Australia has shown stalwart resistance to Islamization. Yes, it has its dhimmis, its PC brigades ready to crack down on “racism” at the drop of a burnoose, but its national character seems to have pushed all the Multicultural nonsense to the sidelines.

In this characteristic Oz is rivaled only by Denmark among the countries of the West. Shall we call the Aussies the Danes of the Antipodes?

I’ve chosen the Sydney Opera House as the iconic monument for Australia (click for a larger image):

Many thanks to Darrin Hodges, who sent me most of the links, and for all the other Aussies who contributed. Here’s the list of Australian Counterjihad websites for the calendar:

http://abandonskip.blogspot.com
http://auspundits.typepad.com
http://aussie_news_views.typepad.com
http://beforeithappens.wordpress.com
http://colonelrobertneville.blogspot.com
http://crusader-rabbit.blogspot.com
http://www.democracyfrontline.org
http://democracyfrontline.org
http://didgeman.wordpress.com
http://eloivsdiablo.blogspot.com
http://fallbackbelmont.blogspot.com
http://fortressaustralia.blogspot.com
http://www.ideologyaus.com
http://www.islammonitor.org
http://www.israellycool.com
http://laras420.blogspot.com
http://www.mandateministries.info
http://milkbarjihad.blogspot.com
http://www.pommygranate.blogspot.com
http://rightwingdeathbogan.blogspot.com
http://rwdb.blogspot.com
http://sheikyermami.com
http://silentrunning.tv
http://squalidshoebox.blogspot.com
http://www.taoofdefiance.com
http://www.themidnightsun.org
http://timblair.net
http://voiceoftheshire.blogspot.com
http://www.whackingday.com
http://worldwar111.blogspot.com
– – – – – – – – –
If anyone has URLS for Spanish Counterjihad sites, please send them by email, or leave them in the comments.

Once again, the twelve countries I will be using for the 2008 calendar are:

• France
• Denmark
• Germany
• India
• Sweden
• Italy
• The U.S.A.
• Greece
• Britain
• The Netherlands
• Australia
• Spain

After the final image is complete, I will revise each page to add any additional links, compile the complete calendar, and then make it available at our Café Press site.

We’ll finish up the calendar with Spain, for the month of December.

¡Basta ya!

The Baron’s recent graphs about population growth in Sweden got one of our readers reminiscing about the changes in his thinking over the years since childhood. It’s a transformation that many Americans can identify with…at one time or another, most of us went through a similar sea change in the way we saw the rest of the world.

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

It’s obvious now that First World’s chickens are coming home to roost. An evil brew of Marxist social engineering combined with our Judeo/Christian ethos in the West has created mechanisms in the Third World which have triggered these various population explosions. As a result of our unintended consequences grave threats now confront us.

I’m not by nature an isolationist. However, I’ve grown increasingly convinced that all those nickels which UNICEF pilfered from me and others (when I often went without my milk for the day as a child to “feed the children”) were naïvely misguided.

And I began wondering about this much earlier than 9/11…
– – – – – – – – –
During the 80s and 90s I’d begun to notice how, with few exceptions, nations which Americans had sacrificed to help most often were the same countries which seemed to hate us the most profoundly. It was a shock when I went to Europe for the first time — 1980-81 — and found it to be a nest of anti-American hatred. Germany, France, and to a lesser extent the UK all featured a venomous regard for anything American. This was also a period when it was clear that the Muslims were gunning for us after a number of hostile events had occurred, e.g., the 1974 oil “crisis” or the 1979 revolution in Iran. There were many more, including murders of Americans in terror attacks.

I began to think that the theory which underlay our foreign aid policy, coupled with our largesse as a nation, had done much to empower people we thought to be friends but, who, in the end turned out to be our enemies.

If it hadn’t been for our aid-money , medicine, engineering, etc., much of Africa, most of the Muslim world, and Asia would be much sicker. They would also be much less productive and far less populous than they are now. Ironically, many have observed that our own population trends now are going in the opposite direction.

It certainly seems to be long past the time to reconsider all of our “do-gooder” projects. Recently you’ll recall Bill Gates and Warren Buffet joined forces to lavish sixty to eighty billion dollars on malaria eradication and clean drinking water projects. These staggering sums will flow into the coffers of people who are most likely to become even more our enemies.

If the past serves as any indication, I surmise that the most benefit will accrue to various Communist and Muslim societies. As such, rather than being a moral “obligation” or “good deed” on our part, we will have instead engaged in the most thoughtless and staggering orgy of self-destruction the world has ever known.

Have we learned nothing?

— JS

H. Numan, our Dutch expatriate correspondent, has translated an article from AD NieuwsMedia, and follows it with his own commentary:

‘Strong anti-Muslim tendency is threatening’
By Wim Bartelds Peter Groenendijk

The National Coordinator for Terrorism Suppression (NCTB) Mr. Tjibbe Joustra fears the consequences of the strong anti-Muslim sentiments worded by some prominent Dutchmen in the debate about Muslims.

He refers to, amongst others, the words of Member of Parliament Mr. Geert Wilders. “If someone says such things, I look at it with mixed feelings”, said Joustra in an interview with the Algemeen Dagblad newspaper. “Such radical statements can push individuals, who are already on the brink of becoming violent, right over the edge.”

Joustra has the same feelings about some words of Mr. Ehsan Jami, founder of a committee for ex-Muslims. “We have nearly a million Muslims living in The Netherlands, but the vast majority by far do not approve of any form of violence. The group of extremists we worry about consists of just a few hundred individuals. If you listen to the debates recently, it seems people do not see that perspective.”

Joustra stresses that freedom of speech is the highest good in a democracy. “Anyone can say what he wants, but that doesn’t want to say one has to say it. You have to think clearly before opening your mouth.”

Geert Wilders considers Mr. Joustra’s assertions ‘inappropriate’. He said he was democratically elected into parliament. “Thus, it is rather inappropriate for a civil servant to state that my words push extremists over the edge” according to Wilders.

Earlier, during this past spring, an NTCB employee asked Wilders to tone down his statements. A recent opinion poll from Maurice de Hond shows that 6 out of 10 Dutchmen find that Wilders unnecessary antagonizes. Research from the NTCB shows that fear of terrorist attacks in The Netherlands decreased significantly: from 29% last year to 12% now.

And now for our translator’s commentary:
– – – – – – – – –

Go back a bit in time. Say, almost seventy years. The year is 1938. Germany is gearing towards war. Austria has been annexed, Czechoslovakia is under threat, so are Poland and basically every nation bordering Germany. In Holland there is a quite strong pro-German political party exists, called the NSB (Nationaal Socialistische Beweging); who later will become the Dutch Quislings.

Imagine now the Head of Homeland Security stating in public that the NSB is actually a peace-loving movement, consisting of mainly law-abiding citizens. Nothing to fear at all, just don’t provoke them to do anything nasty. They might, after all, get violent.

In 1937, this chap would get away with his nonsense. Those were the days of Chamberlain with ‘peace in our time’. In early 1938, he would in all likelihood have been asked, politely, to resign for health reasons. Later that year, he would have been sacked on the spot. Should he have uttered his words by the end of 1939, arrested.

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

I actually know this Mr. Tjibbe Joustra personally. He worked for some time as one of the top officers in the Ministry of Agriculture. In those days (almost twenty years ago) he was by far the most unpopular man in the ministry. A mistake (expect his own) could only be atoned for in blood. For the most trifling mistake he demanded and (sometimes got) a platter with someone’s head on it. An (over)ambitious career man so nasty and self-centered that I still remember him after all those years. As a normally cheerful person who doesn’t hold a grudge, and rather forgets these unpleasant characters, that’s saying something. Luckily, I never suffered his ire personally.

I actually wonder how an agriculturalist can be appointed Head of Anti-Terrorism Intelligence, and even more one who is as cowardly as Mr. Tjibbe Joustra.

— H. Numan

There have been quite a few news stories recently about the damage that high agricultural subsidies have done to various European economies, and their contribution to high unemployment rates.

Now France is facing the possibility that it can no longer pay for its subsidies. According to The Telegraph:

French PM Fillon tells farmers ‘France is broke’

France is bankrupt and can no longer afford to pay its workers generous salaries and subsidies, its prime minister has declared.

Francois Fillon made the undiplomatic outburst during a trip to the French island of Corsica, where farmers were demanding more government money.

“I am at the head of a state that is in a position of bankruptcy,” he said.

“I am at the head of a state that for 15 years has been in chronic deficit. I am at the head of a state that has not once passed a balanced budget in 25 years. This can’t go on.”

Mr Fillon’s government is due to announce the 2008 budget this week with a deficit of €41.5billion (£29billion).

But his remarks drew immediate fire, both from within his own ranks and from the opposition.

Francois Bayrou, the head of the centrist Modem party, said Mr Fillon seemed to forget that both he and Nicolas Sarkozy, who was finance minister before becoming president, had been in government since 2002 without improving the situation.

He added that Mr Sarkozy’s decision to spend up to €15billion (£10.5billion) on a package of tax cuts had only made things worse. One deputy from Mr Fillon’s UMP party added: “This phrase was badly timed. The French are liable to ask why we committed all this spending on the fiscal package if we are in such a bad way.”

– – – – – – – – –

[…]

Some observers say Mr Fillon has decided to speak out because he is tired of being stifled by the “hyper-president” and his media-friendly aides at the Elysee, and is keen to push ahead with reforms.

One colleague from the Sarthe region, where Mr Fillon is a deputy, said: “Fillon has immense pride. While Sarkozy continues to stifle him and wants to do everything, Fillon will try and give provocative speeches in order to exist. It’s a process that could get out of control.”

Others argue that his “spontaneous” outbursts are part of a co-ordinated double act, with Mr Fillon playing the tough guy and Mr Sarkozy the conciliator.

French politics seem to be much like American politics: as soon as anyone points out the damage done by excessive government spending, the Left is quick to cite the most recent tax cut as the source of the problem.

It’s the first commandment of Socialism: Thou shalt never, ever cut taxes.

In this case, it was a “centrist” who decried the tax cuts, but that only proves how much of the European “center” has been occupied by the Left.

Another thing to notice is the high drama of the political personalities involved, with Mr. Fillon crying havoc in order to upstage Mr. Sarkozy. It’s too early, and I’m too ignorant of French affairs, to say whether this is all just sound and fury, or whether it signifies something.

Hat tip: Fjordman.

How’s this for a news story?

Muslim imams in Belgium have protested against a TV ad depicting Mohammed as a pot-bellied hippy picking up half-naked women in a nightclub.

The advertisement is being aired on the country’s main TV channel to promote youth channel Plug TV.

The Muslim Council says this sort of portrayal of Mohammed is disrespectful to believers and that it is wrong to use him for advertising.

“Wot th’—?!” you exclaim. “How could this be? Belgium is totally dhimmified; there’s no way this could have gotten past the PC-Multicultural Censorship Brigade!”

Well, it didn’t really, of course. But I’m not making it up entirely; I just did a little search-and-replace within the text of a BBC story that a reader sent to us. The victim of this particular piece of infidel blasphemy was actually Jesus Christ.

The Beeb didn’t include a photo of the Jesus hippie in its story. Fortunately, however, Steen always has photos of everything, and he hasn’t let us down. In the interest of journalistic fairness, and to entice you into the rest of the story, here’s Christ the Belgian Hippie:

And now for the BBC story:

Pot-bellied Jesus ad irks Church

Catholic bishops in Belgium have protested against a TV ad depicting Jesus as a pot-bellied hippy picking up half-naked women in a nightclub.

The advertisement is being aired on the country’s main TV channel to promote youth channel Plug TV.

The Catholic Church says this sort of portrayal of Jesus is disrespectful to believers and that it is wrong to use him for advertising.

However, Plug TV denies that the advertisement is blasphemous.

‘Number one dad’

The ad shows a long-haired hippy Jesus grooving along as he tries to get into a nightclub and is refused entry by the bouncers.

– – – – – – – – –

Jesus makes the sign of the cross and sweeps aside the bouncers, shrinking them so they are left in his wake as dwarves.

This Plug TV version of Jesus then drinks whisky at the bar and magically turns two brown haired frumpy women into blonde babes wearing bikini tops and red horns.

The Jesus character then disappears into a huge limousine with the women but his attention is distracted by an advertisement for Plug TV before he is recalled by God who is standing on a cloud, wearing a T shirt with “Number one dad” written on it.

The God figure tells Jesus off for wanting to watch Plug TV as well as everything else — saying “you still want more”.

The Catholic Church has expressed its disapproval to the TV channel — saying advertising is not the same as journalism and should not share the same concerns about freedom of expression.

The Church believes this advertisement “crosses the limits of respectability”.

Plug TV however argues it is not blasphemous but contains a message about a “laid-back Jesus addressing youth”.

If you are anxious to see more photos of this piece of haute couture, go visit Plug TV’s website.

I notice that the Catholic Church in Belgium agrees with the imams on one thing: the power of the state should be used to suppress blasphemous speech, because freedom of speech does not extend to blasphemy. Nice going, bishops!

This should make everybody redouble their efforts to spread the Motoons and the Modoggies far and wide, because the media are not going to do to ol’ Mo what they did to Jesus.

And, as a Christian, I’m offended.

So… you’ll have to excuse me for the rest of the evening. I’ve got a Belgian flag and my Zippo, and it’s time for me to join the mob and go burn a few embassies.

LGF has a listing of the demonstrations to take place on Monday in both New York City and Washington, D.C. The latter is necessitated by the shameful invitation of the National Left Press Club to have the Iranian Butcher address them via satellite.

One of the demonstrations in New York will be addressed by the sister of the pilot of American Airlines Flight 77, the one which crashed into the Pentagon.

There seem to be two for Columbia University – one on campus grounds which only allows those with student identification, and another on Broadway.

I hope many, many Washingtonians (and Northern Virginians), New Yorkers, and New Jersey people can show up for at least one of these events.

[post ends here]

Our Dutch correspondent Michiel Mans sent us the following essay about current conditions on the political scene in the Netherlands.

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The Madness of King George
by Michiel Mans

The unbearable horror of being…

…a European. I can only speak for the Dutch, but in particular Belgium and Britain seem to be pretty unbearable as well. Let us not talk about recent Brussels events. It is too embarrassing for our Belgian friends.

If you’re Dutch, you have a socialist Minister, Ella Vogelaar, who wants the Netherlands to acquire a Judeo-Christian-Islamic tradition over time. As a Dutch person, you have an ex-Minister and runner up for PvdA (socialist) party leader who publicly stated recently “to be glad of the coming of Islam in Holland”. The same man, Jan Pronk, negotiated with the Sudanese government on behalf of the UN about Darfur. He got nowhere. The mass murder and rape continued. Pronk continues to call for dialogue with Khartoum and will continue to do so until the last black Darfurian is murdered and robbed.

If you’re Dutch, you have a spineless wimp for a prime minister who, when his lack of leadership becomes plainly visible again, embarrasses the Dutch by yelling in despair remarks about our spirit during the seventeenth century, the Dutch Golden Age. An odd remark for a leader who refuses to face or acknowledge what threatens us, something which was clear and present for our leaders during the seventeenth century when we fought until 1648 to become free of Spanish rule. Then, we mostly had leaders with guts and vision and we had princes who fought. Now we have a queen who submits on socks in a mosque, accepting the Islamic refusal to shake hands because she is a woman. Such a refusal would have meant being drawn and quartered back then. Perhaps it is somewhat rude, but it does make it clear to handshake refuseniks to either adapt to the ways of their chosen new country or move out.

If you are Dutch you have a government whose members just granted themselves a ten percent pay raise, and more is to follow. Actually, the idea was a thirty percent pay rise (30%, you read it right). Like confused Christians, which two of the three governing parties are (one very), the third in bed being the godless socialist party, they somewhat misread and reversed an old line and made it into ‘what one taketh with one hand, the other one giveth’. In our case the gift is a tax increase of one percent for all, and various steep price increases for some, like those who drive cars, smoke or enjoy a drink sometimes. Thus, just about all of us yet again, with a one percent overall tax increase on top. A cunning coincidence kept the Ministers’ salaries with the ten percent pay raise just south of the 180,000 euro limit above which certain unpleasant tax measures become applicable. How convenient.

In spite of a healthy economy and the billions extra they make on the high oil prices and the (illegal) coupling of the gas prices to it, our government needs all this extra tax cash to continue wasting it on a grand scale. For example, there are engineering white elephants such as our multi-billion euro Betuwe Line railroad which sort of ends in a ditch somewhere in nowhere in Germany. No trains in mentionable numbers run on it. Nor does the prestigious High Speed Line (HSL) to France run. Perhaps it will run from Amsterdam to Rotterdam. But then, perhaps not. It is a 6.7 billion euro failure of immense proportions. On paper it can do about 300 km/h, but it actually can’t do more than 160 km/h if it wants to be safe. That is 20 km/h faster than an ordinary train. No one is to be blamed, no one sacked, no one shamed. As ever.
– – – – – – – – –
Of course our 26,000 illegal immigrants who have just been pardoned, including known criminals, won’t come cheap as well. Neither will those who then inevitably come over in massive numbers as brides and grooms, brothers and sisters (brides and grooms are often nieces and nephews). This follow-up will not bring many university degrees or thick wads of cash either. Actually, the EU commission wants to let in another 20 million immigrants from countries like Turkey and Morocco. Great — as if we have no trouble whatsoever absorbing the ones already here! Never in the history of mankind were there populations which not only volunteered to dig their own graves, but insisted on producing and paying for the shovels as well. Amazing!

To top it all off: our government has just decided not to have a referendum about the new EU treaty, formerly known as constitution (grondwet). This was rejected by the French and the Dutch. The new treaty is in many ways even a more misty, thick, impregnable cloud of unintelligible words than the old one. The unintelligibility was intentional. But no referendum this time, the main argument being: “Trust us; it really is a good one this time.” I would trust a used car salesman with “Yes it is old and has the original engine, but it’s been completely overhauled and was formerly owned by a nurse, rarely driven and kept in a warmed garage” before any promise from a politician. In our case it is a Prime Minister who has lied and cheated before.

Another ‘reason’ for refusal was that a referendum would bypass our parliament. This is an odd reasoning, not used the last time. We choose our parliament by voting on various parties to represent us in order to control the government. Or such is the general idea. Parliament is not a separate entity of power independent of the people. It is, or should be, an extension of the people. When these vote in a referendum, they can take the day off. The people represent themselves. On the last EU constitution referendum, the people voted ‘no’, our parliament voted ‘yes’. This wasn’t the first time that our parliament had a different opinion than the majority of the people. This voting behavior proved yet again that the politicians in our parliament do not represent the people anymore.

The madness of King George III pales into insignificance compared to the madness of our present European elite. Is there anyone, or any party anywhere, who can stop this mad competition in incompetence? Do we have someone in Holland? Maybe. Maybe the liberal Geert Wilders is such a person. His party stands at nineteen parliament seats in the polls at the moment. Nineteen out of a hundred and fifty seats. Not enough. It was nonetheless heart-warming to see and hear him repeat in our parliament his ‘barking mad’ statement. That is what he called our Minister Ella Vogelaar, mentioned at the beginning of this column.

He called her barking mad because of her Islamic cultural wishes. A horde of parliamentarians howled and were shocked. They demanded, in good Islamic fashion, ‘respect’. A very abused word in Holland. Respect is no longer something you have to earn, something you deserve after an exceptional performance or show of strength, determination or courage.

To end the madness I suggest we use the aforementioned gravediggers’ shovels to dig up King George. Even George the Third at his worst was more sensible and had more reason in him than the sane fruitcakes who govern us in large numbers at the moment.

Last month Dymphna reviewed House to House, a memoir by Staff Sergeant David Bellavia of his infantry service in Iraq. I’ve finally gotten around to reading it, and can recommend the book to anyone interested in warfare, urban guerilla tactics, or the Counterjihad.

House to House reads like an action novel, only its action is real, so the subplots do not always sort themselves out in a tidy fashion. Not all of the sympathetic characters come through alive, although the bad guys do get their asses most emphatically whupped.

A passage that caught my eye this morning concerned an embedded journalist and his interaction with the soldiers he accompanied into battle. Sgt. Bellavia’s platoon was among the very first to breach the railroad berm north of Fallujah and make contact with the enemy during the Coalition assault on the city in November 2004. The author’s account of the urban combat that followed is brutal and gripping. It will make you proud of our military and what they have managed to accomplish, even as their political leaders cut the legs from under them.

A seasoned freelance Australian reporter named Michael Ware was embedded with Sgt. Bellavia’s platoon. Mr. Ware had previously reported from amongst the insurgent mujahideen, and as a result was viewed with some suspicion by the soldiers of the U.S. Army. However, after a series of firefights in which the journalist demonstrated his sang-froid and his dedication to the job, he earned the respect of the soldiers he accompanied into battle.

At one point during a lull in the fighting. Mr. Ware is drawn into a conversation with Sgt. Bellavia and his platoon, and is induced to discuss what he knows about the enemy insurgents (pp. 180-181):

Ware notices he has his audience’s complete attention. He takes the opportunity to segue into a discourse on the different groups we are fighting in Fallujah. He talks about Hezbollah, and the type of training the Iranian Revolutionary Guard gives to the insurgents. That leads him into a tactical discussion. He compares the insurgents who fought in Samarra to those in Najaf. He speaks of the Iranian influence on Sunni Wahhabis. He goes on to explain how Hezbollah-trained squads sometimes carry nothing but RPGs and move without detection. When they attack, they volley-fire their RPGs, then fan out as they retreat. These are all the things Fitts and I have talked about for months, have heard through the infantry grapevine. But I am impressed to hear the same things from a journalist.

And then there are the insurgents’ ambush tactics. Ware has seen or heard of them all. He explains how they’ll probe an American unit just to get a response. Then the probing element will break contact and withdraw with the hope that the Americans will chase them. If the Americans do give chase, they’ll run smack into a horseshoe-shaped or L-shaped ambush and get blown away.

– – – – – – – – –

In Fallujah, we face an insurgent global all-star team. It includes Chechen snipers, Filipino machine gunners, Pakistani mortar men,, and Saudi suicide bombers. They’re all waiting for us down the street.

Ware is an authority on the enemy. He knows more about them than our own intelligence officers. I hang on every word and try to remember everything he tells us. It is the best, most comprehensive discussion I’ve heard about the enemy since arriving in Iraq.

And it comes from a f***ing reporter.

Sgt. Bellavia’s account reminds us that the information war is the most important part of the current conflict, whether it is fought amid the rubble of Fallujah, in the back alleys of Malmö, or in the federal criminal courts in Texas.

Our traditional structures — the institutions that we have long trusted, be they civil or military — can no longer be relied upon to collect and propagate useful information in a timely fashion. Ordinary citizens are obliged to find new ways of communicating, and form new structures to collect and act on information.

Sgt. Bellavia engaged in his own version of this updated information war when he decided to rely on a stringer for CNN instead of Army Intelligence when gathering actionable data for the men under his command.

It’s a new war out there.

Mr. Woody: you’re still going to get this copy of the book. Dymphna gave me an extension to let me finish it, but the book will get mailed to you eventually. 🙂

Our Swedish correspondent LN left a comment on yesterday’s post about the Swede who nominated Adolf Hitler for the Nobel Peace Prize. According to LN, the whole thing was a put-up job, conceived in the same spirit that animated Lars Vilks’ in his drawings of Mohammed as a Rondellhund.

Here’s what LN has to say:

“This little gem” has got many more carats than the good Baron could imagine.

Neither does this story speak for itself, as the Baron thinks without knowing anything of the historical background of Mr. Brandt’s letter to the Nobel Committee in Oslo — and to suggest in this case that “those Nobel folks aren’t too bright” falls back on its originator Associate Professor of Political Science Mr. Donald Douglas, Long Beach, California, showing that his lack of brightness is not small. He will never become a laureate.

To mock at stupidity can become dangerous, the nitwits and the fools and the idiots are, as also Ibsen pointed out, enormously many.

We see this again and again and especially now once more in the case of Mr. Lars Vilks’ Mohammed roundabout doggies. The idiots are popping up as croci in springtime, Muslim idiots and kaffir idiots — the number of Muslim idiots, however, seems to be many, many times bigger than the number of kaffir ones (mostly halal hippies), and this may be a slight consolation.

Mr. Brandt and Mr. Vilks were/are playing on the same team. Both challenge the establishment, playing pranks on its members, who then are compelled to show the flag: the fool-flag.

Back in 1939 almost the whole Swedish establishment fell for this ironic, magnificent joke, inclusive of the MSM of those days with one exception Göteborgs Handels- och Sjöfartstidning — Sweden’s one and only daily paper with a spine and manly equipment, capable of giving a true and uncensored picture of the doings of Herr Adolf Hitler and his crew.

The fate of the commendable men and women who dare to lead the high and the mighty by the nose is often hard. Mr. Vilks may be compelled to exile to keep his throat unslashed, and Mr. Brandt, social democratic member of the then Senate of the Parliament and a convinced anti-Nazi, had to leave — here I am not sure — the parliament, and go back to his old profession as Elementary-School Inspector.

Following: (1) is Mr. Brandt’s letter to the Norwegian Nobel Committee — a wonderfully ironic document; (2) and (3) are articles from the Göteborgs Handels- och Sjöfartstidning — especially number (3) is a glorious attack on common and established stupidity.

What is lacking, I think, is some kind understanding and even praise for Mr. Brandt’s deed! But those were the days — harsh and cruel, in February 1939.

Baron, I will suggest that you engage your expert translators, and write a post in honor of Mr. Brandt and his joke of the century.

And lastly, the Norwegian Nobel Committee and the Swedish Nobel Committee are as night to day.

LN, you are quite right: my leg was pulled. Kudos to you for bringing it to my attention!

Below the jump are his attachments in Swedish
– – – – – – – – –
Are any of our translators willing to take up LN’s challenge, and put some of the following material into English? I await the results with great anticipation…

Till Det Norske Stortings Nobelkomité.

Undertecknad tillåter sig härmed vördsamt föreslå, att Nobels fredspris för 1939 måtte tilldelas Tysklands rikskansler och Führer Adolf Hitler, vilken enligt miljoner människors uppfattning framför varje annan man i hela världen är förtjänt av denna höga utmärkelse.

Det framgår av autentiska dokument, att världsfreden var i stor fara i september 1938 samt att det hängde på timmar, att ett stort europeiskt krig skulle utbryta. Den som i detta farofyllda läge räddade vår världsdel från den fruktansvärda katastrofen var utan minsta tvivel i främsta rummet det tyska folkets store ledare, vilken i det avgörande ögonblicket frivilligt avstod från att låta minan springa, ehuruväl han hade fullkomlig makt att släppa loss världskriget.

Av sin glödande fredskärlek, tidigare bäst dokumenterad i hans berömda bok Mein Kampf — näst Bibeln världslitteraturens kanske yppersta och mest spridda verk — och hans utomordentliga gärning att med enbart fredliga medel, utan blodsutgjutelse, med Tyskland införliva Österrike, förmåddes Adolf Hitler vid ovannämnda kritiska tillfälle att avstå från våld vid befrielsen av sina hemlängtande landsmän i Sudeterna och i sin legitima strävan att göra sitt fädernesland stort och mäktigt. Det är högst sannolikt, att Hitler, därest han ostörd av ännu förefintliga krigshetsare får i fred fullfölja sitt höga syfte, inom överskådlig tid kommer att pacificera Europa och kanske hela världen.

Emellertid finns det tyvärr ännu ganska många människor, vilka icke förmå inse storheten i Adolf Hitlers fredssträvanden, och jag skulle av hänsyn till detta faktum icke ha funnit tiden redan nu mogen för ett framförande av Hitler som kandidat till Nobels fredspris, därest icke ett antal medlemmar av Sveriges riksdag föreslagit en annan kandidat, nämligen Englands premiärminister Neville Chamberlain. Ett sådant förslag förefaller föga genomtänkt. Ty visserligen är det sant, att Chamberlain genom sin utomordentliga hänsynsfullhet och förståelse för Hitlers pacificeringssträvanden i hög grad bidragit att rädda världsfreden, men i sista hand låg dock avgörandet hos Hitler och icke hos Chamberlain! Det är Adolf Hitler och ingen annan som vi främst ha att tacka för att fred ännu råder i större delen av Europa, och till honom knytas också förhoppningarna om framtida fred.

På grund av Chamberlains likväl obestridliga förtjänster om freden kunde det möjligen synas påkallat, att en mindre del av fredspriset tilldelades honom, men riktigast torde dock vara, att intet namn får ställas vid sidan av Adolf Hitlers och fördunkla detta. Adolf Hitler är dock vår tids oförliknelige, gudabenådade frihetskämpe, och miljoner människor blicka upp till honom såsom fridsfursten på jorden.

Stockholm den 27 januari 1939

E. G. C. Brandt, ledamot av riksdagens första kammare

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Göteborgs Handels- och Sjöfartstidning 30/1 1939

Fredspristagare Hitler

En senator på Helgeandsholmen E. G. C. Brandt — i det civila folkskoleinspektör i Dalarna — har föreslagit, att Adolf Hitler skall få fredspriset. Ty han hade makten att släppa lös kriget i höstas, men han gjorde det inte.

Det hela är förstås en drift med det dussin av hr Brandts riksdagskamrater, som skrivit till stortinget och bett för Chamberlain.

Men som det lustigaste i hela historien är att man närapå böjd att betrakta det högtidliga allvar, varmed T. T. och dess radioredaktion tog sig an denna sak, och dess seriösa referat i lördags. Hr Brandt är visserligen en herre, som man inte tar där man släpper honom och han tillhör långt ifrån ‘likschaltningsmännen’ inom regeringspartiet. Men man behöver inte läsa många rader för att veta, vad han menar.

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Göteborgs Handels- och Sjöfartstidning 2/2 1939

I DAG

Riksdagsman Brandt har återkallat den skrivelse till norska stortingets nobelkommitté, i vilken han föreslog herr Hitler till fredspriset. Ännu har icke någon underrättelse ingått att de herrar riksdagsmän, vilka framförde Mr. Chamberlain som kandidat, återkallat sin skrivelse.

Herr Brandt hade icke riktigt beräknat effekten av sin åtgärd. Eller kanske hade han det verkligen. Var det månne hans avsikt att anställa ett intelligensprov bland dem som tala å den svenska allmänhetens vägnar? I så fall lyckades han ganska bra. Gycklet kom många hjärtans tankar att uppenbara sig. Många klevo fram och tryckte bildlikt talat rörda och tacksamma kardan på denne modige socialdemokrat, vilken vågat uttala, vad som rörde sig i deras hjärtan.

Äldre och yngre herrar i framskjuten ställning säges skriftligen hava betygat hr Brandt sin uppriktiga högaktning, tacksamhet och beundran. Andra anställde högaktningsfulla betraktelser över förslaget, bugade sig sju resor för Hitler, för att hans anhängare icke skulle misstycka och reserverade sig sedan med klädsam gråtmildhet mot förslaget att hylla honom just som fredsapostel. Som drift betraktat var alltså Brandts tilltag mycket lyckat.

För hr Brandt själv bli följderna kanske icke odelat angenäma. Att driva gäck med dumheten är ett farligt tilltag. De dumma äro, som Ibsen framhåller, fruktansvärt många. En viss andens gemenskap existerar också mellan dem.

Hade förslaget att tilldela herr Hitler nobelpriset framförts på allvar, skulle hr Brandt vunnit ännu större anseende än de högermän, vilka lanserat Mr Chamberlain. Deras handling var förvisso behjärtad och vinner gillande. Det är något förtroendeingivande och solitt, något jönssonskt och oförgripligt över deras förslag. Det är en bekännelsehandling, som blottar deras andes plyschmöblemang. Och Brandt kunde ha varit ännu styvare.

Så avslöjar han sig som gyckelmakare, som en man den där icke håller allvaret i helgd, en smädeandens företrädare som hånar dumheten. Det är en synd, som aldrig förlåtes. Hr Brandt kan återgå till sin syssla som folkskoleinspektör — om han får behålla den. Spefåglar ha vi icke bruk för i vårt offentliga liv.

Man måste taga saker och ting och människor, framför allt de dumma människorna, mycket allvarligt. Ingen hatar skämtet i alla dess former så innerligt som den, vilken plågas av en hemlig misstanke att vara en smula löjlig. Hur skulle det gå, om löjet släpptes lös bland dessa folk, som ha lyckan att styras av statsmän i övernaturlig storlek? Spioner, bödelsdrängar och andra dignitärer skulle inte längre kunna tillförsäkra folken lyckan att svälta och hundsvotteras. Allvaret är a och o i det offentliga livet.

Vi få hålla ihop på denna punkt, hålla vakt vid fasaderna och vårda fasadbelysningen. Alla upptåg skola begapas med andakt, alla officiella stupiditeter vördas. Spyflugor kunna icke tolereras i det offentliga livet. Skenet är det väsentliga. En författare illustrerar tesen med en anekdot. Det var en betydelsefull akt som gick av stapeln, en kröning. Drottningen såg djupt gripen ut. Alla reporter skildrade i känslosamma vändningar det allvar, som präglade hennes anletsdrag och som så helt harmonierade med stundens betydelse. Man såg, att hon lyssnade till suset av historiens vingslag när hon under andlös tystnad mottog kronan. I själva verket, påstår författaren, var det bara en enda tanke som fyllde den höga damen, och det var denna: ‘måtte det nu inte kurra i magen på mig mitt i denna förfärliga tystnad.’

Det gick bra. Den stämningsfulla akten stördes inte.

Brandt bör för framtiden, om han får någon framtid, hava detta höga föredöme för ögonen. Han kan också tänka på en latinsk vers han fick lära sig i skolan: ‘risum teneatis amici’.

A brief note from Carpenter, who frequently translates Swedish for us:

I’ve noticed that you brought material from Fenix Exilen to attention at GoV. So you ought to tip all “Scandinavish” readers out there to read a post by Magnus Andersson of the blog Magnus Orerar, in which he has collected info on Malmö, and when it will be Islamized entirely. It is too much for me to translate…

Malmö is changing — sharia on its way.

By the way — This summer, The New York Times had an article on Swedish town Södertälje.

What impression does an American get from the article?

In each case, Södertälje has its own immigrants’ enclaves: the districts Ronna and Hovsjö, where immigrants (youths!) are burning buses, harassing the police, shooting Swedes with air guns, and robbing Swedish children. The town has been facing a crime wave, related to immigration of course…

[Nothing follows]

How’s this for a European-American hybrid post? I found this photo on Hodja’s blog, posted there by Skjoldungen, our occasional Danish translator.

The caption above the photo reads (my translation — there should be enough Vikings lurking here to correct me if I’m wrong):

The reality itself is sometimes more absurd than the most insane fantasy could dream about.

And so from the USA! Here one sees a woman (?) security guard, who searches — to all appearances based on her outfit a member of Al Qaeda or Hizbollah — an elderly nun at the airport. Or else checks that her virginity is intact?

It’s getting crazy over there!

You gotta watch them nuns — never know what those suckers might do…

Hat tip: Kepiblanc.

[Nothing more here]

Some of our American readers have expressed the opinion that we spend too much of our time covering European aspects of the Jihad (and the Counterjihad), and not enough on equally important American affairs.

I admit to a preoccupation with what’s going on in Europe, and I do spend an inordinate amount of time and blog space on European issues. There are several reasons for my concentration on Old World affairs:

1.		American issues are fully covered by other blogs. Hundreds — if not thousands — of American blogs offer extensive in-depth coverage of jihad-related stories in the USA, and also of stories of interest to Americans that occur abroad in places like Iraq and Afghanistan. If you want to know about the latest from the Green Zone, or Hillary’s maneuverings, or Barack Obama’s most recent faux pas, or about the guy who was tasered at John Kerry’s speech, you have many good blogs to choose from that offer far better coverage than we ever could. It doesn’t mean that we ignore American stories, just that we give them less attention than we otherwise might.
2.		English-language versions of some important European stories are otherwise unavailable. Gates of Vienna has acquired a dedicated corps of volunteer translators ready to get important stories into English. Some of these stories never see the light of day in English-language venues until they appear here. With the help of Kepiblanc, Phanarath, Carpenter, CG, LN, Michiel Mans, H. Numan, ProFlandria, KGS, and others too numerous to mention, we now have the ability to get Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Finnish, Dutch, Flemish, German, and French translated into English very quickly. The efficient use of these available resources allows us to push important stories into the Anglosphere that might otherwise go unnoticed.
3.		Some Europeans rely on Gates of Vienna for a news digest. Particularly in Sweden, where readers say the news is smothered by politically correct self-censorship, people look to Gates of Vienna, the Brussels Journal, and other news-collecting nodes for information about their own countries. We also provide a convenient place for pan-European discussions. Because we’re not European ourselves, we don’t excite the intramural enmity that might otherwise occur. Of course, people can always gang up on the United States in our comments. But, heck — that’s what we’re here for.
4.		Europe is important. Europe is on the front lines of the Great Jihad. What happens there in the next five to ten years will be crucial in the battle to preserve Western Civilization from the onslaught of Islam. Generally speaking, more Europeans have woken up to the imminent danger that is facing them than have their American counterparts, who, due to the relatively small number of Muslims within our borders, are unaware of — or remain in denial about — the coming clash of civilizations. In Europe the battle has already been joined.

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In recent weeks I have been concentrating on Sweden because the Modoggie Affair, coming as it does on the heels of a series of immigration-related issues, may be precipitating the long-awaited Swedish crisis.

Fjordman has asserted that Britain is the most thoroughly Islamized and dhimmified of European countries, with Sweden running a close second. But he expects the major crisis to occur first in Sweden, whose economy is more vulnerable due to the hypertrophy of the welfare state. Combine this with the Swedish tradition of social consensus — in which dissent is kept quiet due to a commonly understood sense of propriety — and the crisis lurks just below the surface, unavoidable, but not particularly visible.

So all of this is why I keep the Gates of Vienna telescope on Europe.

Our turn will come, but Europe has the privilege of going first.