Gates of Vienna News Feed 9/30/2012

Gates of Vienna News Feed 9/30/2012Islamic organizations in Missouri and New Jersey have called on Congress to pass a law against insulting anyone’s religion. They say that an exception to the First Amendment must be made to prevent blasphemous speech, which incites violence.

In other news, almost no students are attending Nyambogo School in Rorya, Tanzania, due to the witchcraft wars that are now raging in that region. Riotous mobs have repeatedly assaulted and torched houses where people suspected of witchcraft live.

To see the headlines and the articles, open the full news post.

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, Kitman, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.

Commenters are advised to leave their comments at this post (rather than with the news articles) so that they are more easily accessible.

Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.

The Egyptian Hit List

Nader Fawzy is an Egyptian-Canadian Coptic Christian who has been an activist on behalf of Egypt’s Christian minority. In retaliation, the new Salafist government in Egypt indicted him, along with a number of other Copts and pastor Terry Jones, for his purported involvement in the making of the notorious Mohammed movie.

Mr. Fawzy talked to Michael Coren recently on the latter’s SUN TV program. Many thanks to Vlad Tepes for uploading this video:

Below is an article on the same topic from The Globe and Mail:

Canadian linked to anti-Muslim film seeks police protection, citing fear for his life

A Canadian Coptic Christian who fears for his life says he is breathing a bit easier after asking police to help protect him over allegations by Egypt that he was involved in a controversial anti-Muslim film.

Nader Fawzy, one of two Canadians named in Egyptian arrest warrants in connection with the film Innocence of Muslims, is worried the warrants make him and his three daughters a target for Muslim extremists, who have been encouraged by senior clerics in Egypt to kill all those connected to the film.

Mr. Fawzy, originally born in Egypt, gave a statement to Toronto police Saturday. He says police told him patrols around his home will be increased and that officers will occasionally check in on him.

“I feel a little bit [of] protection but, still, I have the same fears for my kids,” he told reporters outside a local police station.

A police spokesman says officers are investigating his case but did not confirm they are taking direct steps to protect him.

[…]

Mr. Fawzy and Mr. Attalla both say there’s no evidence they were involved with the movie, which has sparked violent protests in several countries after a trailer translated into Arabic was posted to YouTube.

“I never saw more than four minutes [of the movie] … I have nothing to do with it,” Mr. Fawzy said, as he stood next to his MP, Liberal Jim Karygiannis, who is trying to help both men.

Mr. Fawzy, who described himself as a Coptic activist, said he has raised the ire of Egypt for his history of speaking out against the way Coptic Christians are treated by the country’s government – and that Egypt is seeking “revenge” by placing him on the warrant list.

Mr. Fawzy said he was not happy that Foreign Affairs responded to his concerns by advising him to keep quiet.

“I’m not here to seal my lips, I’m here to talk as everyone in Canada on Canadian soil has the right to talk,” he said.

Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird’s press secretary said the best way to get the men off the warrant list is through backdoor diplomacy – not public calls for action.

“Quiet diplomacy is often the most effective in these situations. This is something we will raise with the Egyptians, but ramping up rhetoric is often not helpful and counterproductive,” Rick Roth said in an e-mail.

Mr. Karygiannis says he will raise the issue on the floor of Parliament next week.

Surrendering Our Castle to the Besiegers

Vlad has some thoughts (and videos) today on the assault mounted against our free speech by the world’s 9.33 quintillion offended Muslims:

The picture clarifies. Muslims all over the world tell the same lies to the same effect. the request? “Infidels world wide, destroy your values and rights”

And in many of the videos they tell the same lie, that Muslims respect Jesus and other ‘prophets’ etc. Which of course is preposterous. Islam has rewritten the narrative on all famous religious figures of Judaism and Christianity to make them conform to Islamic values and make them enemies of the very people they represented.

These riots/demonstrations world wide are days of rage and part of the plan the OIC and the Muslim Brotherhood have been planning and implementing for decades now. To destroy us, with our own legal systems and a hijacking of our values to their purpose.

It needs to be said, that freedom of speech has bugger all to do with the 1st amendment of the US constitution or with what any government can offer in terms of ‘rights’. Freedom of speech is a piece of real estate that we must occupy or lose it to those willing to take it.

Each time we agree for reasons of politeness or fear or intimidation or political correctness to abandon a corner of that real estate, imagining that this means it will remain technically ours but we are nice enough not to use it, very quickly it becomes enemy territory and the choice to use it is gone.

The proof of this is clear from our own history in the last 60 years. How many words and ideas that were once common in the language now can send you to jail? Especially in England.

[…]

Once you make truthful analysis of Islam illegal, you have submitted. That real estate, your own castle in fact, the one you built over centuries of bloodshed, you have ceded to your worst imaginable enemy and you will soon count yourself lucky to be the lowest servant to them and that, only till they know the layout of your home as well as you do.

Read the rest, and watch the videos, at Vlad Tepes.

A Tiny Minority… Of What?

Mischief

Below is a snapshot of today’s top news headlines, taken from Google News at about 10:00am EDT:

On the morning of September 30, 2012, Google’s news editors (or its bots) considered these the eleven most important new stories of the moment. Those highlighted in red —seven of the top eleven — are directly related to Islam.

As you can see, all the Islam-related stories involve extreme, brutal violence — now, in the past, and in the future. That is, 64% of the day’s top news stories concern Islamic violence. And today isn’t particularly special — it’s pretty much a normal news day.

During a presidential election season, the horse race will always get the first headline, and will rarely be bumped from the top even by the most ghastly catastrophe. In fact, unrelated bad news will often be absorbed, amoeba-like, into presidential politics: “Massive Asteroid to Strike Earth Tomorrow — Analysts Debate Impact on Romney Campaign”.

So if you scrub out Obama/Romney and a few natural disasters, Islamic murder and mayhem generally rule the news.

Let’s take a closer look at Google’s seven Religion of Peace Stories:

Afghan insider attack kills 2 Americans

Eleven years ago Taliban irregulars were killing American soldiers in Afghanistan. They are doing the same thing today, only they are now wearing Afghan military and police uniforms, and are considered our “allies”.

This is considered progress by the State Department and the Pentagon. Our leaders assure us that America is that much closer to winning the hearts and minds of the Afghan people. If only our soldiers could learn to be more sensitive about “cultural differences” — then the process would move much more quickly.

Car bomb targeting security offices kills at least 4 in eastern Syria

Despite all the noise about democracy, the “Arab Spring” in Syria as elsewhere is really about removing corrupt Middle Eastern despots from power and replacing them with Salafist ideologues under the guidance of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Our leaders speak of “reforms” in the Muslim world, and that is exactly what these represent: a Muslim reformation that aims to return Islamic governance to the pristine state it enjoyed under the “rightly guided Caliphs” of the seventh century.

Steinitz: Iran economy near collapse due to sanctions

Iran is preparing to launch the Greatest Jihad Ever as a nuclear payload on a long-range missile. Will economic collapse be enough to stop it?

String of Iraq car bomb blasts kill at least 32

Six years ago the United States military committed vast amounts of time, treasure, and blood to stop the mass terrorist attacks that were killing and maiming people nearly every day in Iraq. Then we withdrew our forces, and — hearts and minds notwithstanding — the massacres resumed where they had left off.

Each of these attacks is committed in the name of Islam.

Kenya Church Grenade Attack Kills Child, Wounds Others

The group responsible for blowing up Christians in Kenya today is said to be affiliated with Al-Shabaab, the Salafist terrorist network in Somalia.

Remember twenty years ago when we committed all that time and treasure, plus a downed helicopter and a number of dead soldiers, to winning the hearts and minds of the Somali people? How’d that turn out?

Khadr eligible for parole next summer, lawyers say

Omar Khadr is the “Canadian” Kiddie Taliban, captured in Afghanistan a decade ago as a teenager for killing an American soldier. He has been removed from Gitmo and consigned to the Canadian criminal justice system, where he will serve out the rest of his sentence, however much that may be.

Mr. Khadr is considered an innocent brutalized child by progressive-minded folks, despite his full beard and robust attitude towards violent jihad. He has been a cause célèbre of the Left for years, and is still the darling of the keffiyeh-wearing Israel-boycotting crowd.

Newspaper: Malvo felt like ‘worst piece of scum’

Our final news item from the Religion of Peace may not seem to have much to do with jihad. Most Americans have probably forgotten, if they ever knew, that Lee Boyd Malvo — another child terrorist — and his late partner, John Allen Muhammad, were mujahideen.

But it’s true — their killing spree ten years ago in the Washington D.C. area ago targeted kuffar at random in the name of Allah. The mainstream media did their best to hide this aspect of the Beltway Sniper affair, but it was laid out clearly in young Master Malvo’s diary.

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

64% of today’s top headlines have to do with Islamic violence. Tomorrow the figure may be 45%, and the day after 82%. But it won’t be zero for the foreseeable future, and over the next few months it may rise to nearly 100% — one Romney story at the top, with the rest about jihad murder, maiming, kidnapping, extortion, rape, and slavery.

If we believe the talking heads (and our own political leaders), all this Islamic mayhem is committed by a “tiny minority of extremists”, who “do not represent true Islam”.

Yet this tiny minority manages to dominate the news headlines every day, month after month, year after year.

Media progressives strive their mightiest to insert happy-face stories into the news about Islam involving mosque openings, children’s play-groups, interfaith harmony, rabbis and pastors and imams all gathered together in harmony smiling and shaking hands.

But they can’t avoid the truth. If it bleeds, it leads, and Islamically-induced bleeding leads the headlines every single day.

I can believe that a tiny minority of Muslim extremists is responsible for all the killing and burning and raping and maiming. Even if you throw in the enablers — the truck-drivers, the bomb-parts suppliers, the owners of safe houses, and the cooks who prepare the final kebabs for the shahids — it’s presumably still only a tiny minority. Probably no more than a few tens of millions out of the world’s 1.5 billion Muslims.

But what do you do when a tiny minority within a certain religion is responsible for the vast majority of the world’s murderous violence?

What then?

Gates of Vienna News Feed 9/29/2012

Gates of Vienna News Feed 9/29/2012Islamic leaders in the Philippines called on Filipino Muslims to refrain from violence when protesting the Mohammed movie. The U.S. government apparently has its doubts about the effectiveness of such appeals, and has issued a terror alert for its citizens in the Philippines.

In other news, a British citizen from Yorkshire was sentenced to death in Indonesia for smuggling crystal meth into the country hidden in his suitcase.

To see the headlines and the articles, open the full news post.

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, JP, Mary Abdelmassih, McR, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.

Commenters are advised to leave their comments at this post (rather than with the news articles) so that they are more easily accessible.

Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.

“Anti-Racists” vs. SIAN in Oslo

Our Norwegian correspondent The Observer has translated a brief article about a SIAN rally today in Oslo.

He says, “The video accompanying the article shows the counter-demonstrators acting like they always do at events such as this.”

Many thanks to Vlad Tepes for uploading this clip:

The accompanying (translated) article from VG Nett:

Four arrested during rally outside parliament

(VG Nett) Here counter-demonstrators are being wrestled to the ground by police during a SIAN rally in Oslo.

The organization Stop Islamisation of Norway (SIAN) held a rally outside the Parliament in Oslo on Saturday afternoon.

The police were well-prepared and had positioned numerous personnel and armoured vehicles at the scene before the start of the rally.

Approximately 30 to 40 counter-demonstrators from Anti-NDL and the New SOS (New SOS racism) gathered to demonstrate against SIAN.

Four arrested

Shortly after the rally kicked off anti-racists started clashing with the police. When the demonstrators started moving beyond the police barriers which had been erected earlier several of them began scuffling with the police.

“We have arrested four individuals who were trying to cause trouble. They were arrested for public nuisance,” Find Belle, the leader of operations for the Oslo police, tells VG Nett.

The leader of the police at the scene has confirmed that the situation now is under control.

“We are here today because of threat assessment made before the rally,” says Kristoffer Berg to VG Nett.

Held an appeal

According to a statement posted on SIAN’s website the reason for today’s rally is all the commotion surrounding the Muhammad movie.

The Leader of SIAN, Arne Tumyr was among those who held an appeal outside the Parliament.

“We in SIAN cannot quietly watch them (Muslims) abuse democracy, freedom of speech and freedom of religion. We cannot have special rules for Muslims,” he told the SIAN audience, who responded with applause

Tumyr was greeted with slogans such as “No to SIAN, yes to diversity” from the approximately 25 attending counter-demonstrators.

Will the UN Intervene in Mali?

Below is an update from EuroNews about the situation in Mali, where Salafists have taken control of the northern part of the country. The government of Mali wants the United Nations to intervene, but the UN — perhaps constrained by its de facto control by the OIC, and thus the Muslim Brotherhood — is reluctant to get involved.

Many thanks to Michael Laudahn for the translation, and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling:

Rough Justice

The following article from Norway is a reminder that Islam is not the only component of cultural enrichment. Our Norwegian correspondent The Observer, who translated the piece, has this to say about it:

Highly mobile organized foreign criminal gangs have roamed Norway for years stealing whatever they can get their hands on, and the incompetent Norwegian pencil-pushing police force pretty much just twiddle their thumbs and look the other way.

The chances that the police will show up in the event of someone being burglarised or physically attacked are pretty slim. I’m not exaggerating; it’s true. The police are, however, notorious for setting up speed traps and issuing heavy fines to law-abiding and taxpaying Norwegian motorists.

It’s therefore refreshing to see Norwegians fed up with this travesty take decisive action when they catch thieves red handed. Romanian and Bulgarian gypsies are infamous for their thieving ways and they have in the last few years cast their eyes on wealthy and naïve Norway. I guess this time they were taught a proper lesson. Hopefully more will be handed out in the future.

Also, pay attention to the stupid remark made by the police officer interviewed in this article: “He is surprised that someone whose car is damaged chooses not to contact the police.”

Well, duh! Why would anyone contact the police after being caught stealing? I’ll bet the van is probably stolen too, so it makes perfect sense for the thieving gypsy not to report this incident to the police.

But I suppose this type of reasoning is too complex for a pencil-pushing Norwegian police officer these days. It really tells you all you need to know about the Norwegian police.

The translated article from today’s VG Nett:

Claims Romanians stole aluminium — smashed their van

(VG Nett) The truck owner claims Romanians have stolen from him for months. Friday, he took both the law and the gearshift in his own hands. The truck owner from the Ålesund area, who prefers to remain anonymous, claims that his company has been plagued by thefts of diesel, car batteries and other valuable items for months.

“There isn’t a truck that they’ll leave alone. They steal everything. They have broken into my yard several nights in a row. Today they struck in the middle of the day,” he tells VG Nett.

“The cargo hold of the van was jam-packed with aluminium”

On Friday some of his employees caught two men in the company yard. When the two men were ordered to open the doors of the Romanian-registered van the employees discovered that it was full of goods belonging to the company, according to the truck owner.

“They came up with a thousand lies and pretended not to understand. The car was full of aluminium and other stolen goods. They were made to remove all the items from the van and to sort it. Before they were allowed off the site they had to watch their van being smashed,” he says.

The two allegedly Romanian males remained calm while the white van was smashed by a hook on a crane mounted onto one of the trucks.

“One of them uttered, ‘Oh, Jesus.’ Then they took their bags and wandered off. They probably realised that the train had left the station.”

“Could have been solved differently”

The truck owner acknowledges that his method is rather unconventional.

“This could probably have been resolved in a different manner, but there’s simply no point in reporting the incident to the police. The police are understaffed and we had to do something. I’m okay with people coming to Norway to work, but those who come here only to steal are not welcome. I did the police a favour,” he says.

The police, on the other hand, are not happy that someone took the law into their own hands. As of Friday evening they have not received a formal complaint from the owner of the van.

“To crush a car is vandalism and a criminal offense. It is difficult for us to have an opinion about a matter that we have very little info on, but to take matters into your own hands is not how things should be done,” says Einar Rostad, manager of operations at Sunnmøre Police district to VG Nett.

He is surprised that someone whose car is damaged chooses not to contact the police.

When VG Nett contacted the police on Saturday morning we were informed that a patrol was on its way to examine the damaged van.

“This is an investigation that we have decided to pursue on our own initiative having been made aware of the matter. A police patrol will arrive at the scene shortly,” says leader of operations Leif Arne Valderhaug at 11:30 AM Saturday.

He describes the crushing of the van as unbelievable.

“We have initiated an investigation after having been tipped off about the matter by others. We can’t accept this. This is a case of taking the law into one’s own hands,” he says.

Scrap dealer: Two Romanians sold me some scrap metal

The scrap dealer Jan Henriksen in Ålesund tells VG Nett that he has twice been contacted by two Romanians in a white van who had small quantities of scrap metal that they were looking to sell.

“They had some scrap and I assumed that they had come across it tidying for other people. They received approximately Nok 2000 for the metal I bought from them on both occasions,” he says.

He believes these things occur all over Norway.

“These are insignificant figures to us. They only sold me some debris. Throughout Europe, Romanians gather scrap metal and resell it. I don’t think they deserve to get their vans smashed based on that,” he says.

Norway’s Most Wanted

Cultural Enrichment News

Our Norwegian correspondent The Observer has translated an article from today’s Dagbladet about the large number of criminals who are wanted by the Oslo police and still at large.

Based on the mug shots accompanying the article, the most wanted criminals are not… ahem… persons of Norwegian background:

Etterslyste Oslo

More than 3,000 people are wanted by the Oslo police

The police in Oslo are looking for 3,246 people wanted in connection with various criminal cases. Murder, attempted murder, rape, kidnapping and robbery are among some of the crimes.

“The numbers change every day, but at the present time we have 3,246 individuals that we are looking for. We have no idea of their whereabouts. They could be in Oslo, elsewhere in the country or abroad,” says head of the police station in Grønland, Kåre Stølen to Dagbladet.

These individuals constitute a very diverse group, but they have one thing in common, the police want to get hold of them in connection with criminal cases or possible criminal cases.

“They encompass the entire spectrum, from missing individuals, to undelivered subpoenas and witnesses who refuse to attend, to murder and attempted murder,” says Stølen.

The number of people who at any given time are wanted by the Oslo police is on the rise, according to the head of the police station.

“There is a lot of serious crime, and every criminal charge is represented among these 3,000. There is violence, theft, fraud, sexual crimes and drug use. The entire spectrum,” says Stølen.

7000 wanted by the police in Norway

The police have no idea where these people are. And although many of them are probably somewhere in Oslo, it is not necessarily that easy for the police to locate them.

“Many of them give us addresses that are not for their primary residence. They’ll do everything to hide, it’s a huge problem,” says Stølen.

“And then we catch them for traffic-related offences or we arrest them when they commit new crimes.”

He believes that some criminals take advantage of the fact that it can take a long time before they are apprehended, because under Norwegian criminal law sentences will be reduced if there’s a long gap between the time a criminal act is committed until the case is finally tried in court.

“It’s not fair that criminals who deliberately elude the police should receive a reduced sentence simply because of the length of time that has passed between the crime and the sentencing. Altogether the police in Norway are currently looking for 7,000 individuals,” according Stølen.

Wanted individuals who are known to be abroad and on whom Interpol has an APB out are the responsibility of the PST.

Not coordinated

Last summer Dagbladet reported on a case concerning a wanted robber (22). He had been in police custody in Finnmark [region in northern Norway] after being caught with 1.4 kilograms of methamphetamine. He also had a previously conviction for armed robbery of a taxi from Oslo District Court. He then fled to Kosovo, with several unsettled robbery and drug issues on his rap sheet in Norway. Several APBs were issued for this person.

He then returned to Norway in 2011 and began working in a small carpentry firm. Eight months later, the police finally discovered that he was back in Norway.

It was then uncovered that the man had worked as a construction worker at government square — a job that requires security clearance.

According to Stølen it is a problem that Norway hasn’t coordinated its national registers.

“We do not have access to the records of NAV and Skatt Øst [eastern branch of the IRS]. A person who is wanted by us could receive funds from NAV without us knowing about it. The State is investigating with one hand and handing out funds with the other.”

Will grant access to the PST

The major legal obstacles for information-sharing between public agencies are a matter which is being discussed at the highest political levels these days. The July 22 Commission also highlighted this problem in its report.

Minister of Justice Grete Faremo told Aftenposten on Wednesday that she wants to give the PST access to public records.

“I question whether it is appropriate to have these strong barriers limit the exchange of information. When public agencies have information which can help to address a purpose, my question is whether or not this type of information, for example from Nav, should be made available for PST if they request it,” said the Minister of Justice.

The text under the photos in the original article, in order from top to bottom:

Wanted for attempted murder: Ahmed Hassan Jama is wanted for attempted murder after having shot a Norwegian-Pakistani 27-year-old repeatedly in Ellingsrud on July 30.

Wanted for knife murder: Donatas Majauskas (24) is home in Lithuania. Norwegian police have put out an APB on him for a knife murder of a 31-year old Lithuanian in Re on February, 20 2011.

Wanted for Drug TRAFFICKING: Iraqi coach Arkan Musa Jaf (29) was indicted for having imported and sold a total of 4.6 kilograms of heroin in Norway. In October 2008, he escaped from the Bergen County Court while being accompanied into the courthouse jail during a break. In February 2009, the 29-year-old was sentenced in absentia to nine years in prison. Now he wants to return to Norway to serve his penalty.

Arrested in PARIS: Alexandru Dodo (35) from Romania is accused of raping two elderly women in Oslo. He was wanted by Interpol and arrested in Paris and he is now in the process of being extradited to Norway.

Wanted for rape: Karwan Tahsin Mohyeldin (35) is convicted of two assault rapes in Borgarting Court of Appeals. He was not in police custody and decided to leave the country during the his trial

Wanted FOR MURDER: Azad Ali Ghaleb (33) Iraq is wanted for the murder of Cathrine Halvorsen, who was found strangled in an apartment at Kongsvinger in December 2003.

Wanted FOR Child Abduction: Silvia Voice Holm and Rambo Hansen are wanted for child abduction after they abducted her child who was in the care of the state at Aline infant center in Oslo on June 12. He has been arrested, but mother and child are still at large,

For a complete listing of previous enrichment news, see The Cultural Enrichment Archives.

Gates of Vienna News Feed 9/28/2012

Gates of Vienna News Feed 9/28/2012Early this morning a loud explosion was heard outside the Jewish center in the southern Swedish city of Malmö. When police arrived they found the door had been damaged by explosives and paving stones, which had apparently been used in an attempt to batter it down. Two “youths” were later arrested as suspects in the crime.

In other news, the semi-official Iranian news agency was fooled by an Onion satire saying that rural American voters would prefer to vote for President Ahmadinejad over Barack Obama. The Fars news agency reported the spoof as fact.

To see the headlines and the articles, open the full news post.

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, JP, LH, RE, Seneca III, The Observer, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.

Commenters are advised to leave their comments at this post (rather than with the news articles) so that they are more easily accessible.

Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.

Canada the Model

More and more often these days conservative-minded Americans look to Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper for principled leadership.

This is an inversion of the traditional order of things. For all of my adult life up until very recently, Canada stood as a prime example of socialism, progressive thinking, permissiveness, socialism, bloated public spending, support for Castro’s Cuba, and socialism. Persecuted American Communists or draft dodgers fled to Canada for succor.

All that has changed. Yesterday Mr. Harper received the annual “World Statesman” award from the Appeal of Conscience Foundation in New York for being a “champion of democracy, freedom and human rights”. And that’s not the sort of “human rights” that the UN and Amnesty International are always bleating about, but the more robust kind that conservatives champion.

Below are excerpts from Stephen Harper’s acceptance speech in New York. Many thanks to Vlad Tepes for uploading this video:

The European take on Mr. Harper was epitomized by Deutsche Welle, whose headline told its readers that “Critics deplore Canada’s shift to the right”. It also informed them that the prime minister’s “approval ratings at home are plummeting”, and then quoted from his critics among street protesters to prove its point.

But The Toronto Sun was more upbeat. This is the text of an editorial published in today’s edition of the paper:

Harper proves worthy of statesman prize

When Prime Minister Stephen Harper received the World Statesman award this week in New York, he purposely snubbed the United Nations by turning down an opportunity to speak to its General Assembly.

This should make Canadians proud.

Instead of blindly accepting that malevolent regimes like Iran would eventually surrender to sanctions and diplomatic overtures, he preceded his trip by boldly kicking Iran’s diplomatic spies out of Ottawa and closing down Canada’s embassy in Tehran.

The left booed; we cheered.

And then he thumbed his nose at the UN, a venue which has turned into a bully pulpit for every neurotic dictator on the planet to spew hatred, dismiss human rights abuses, show utter contempt for western values and, if clinically mad like Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, denying it is developing a nuclear saber but rattling it nonetheless at Israel.

This is called leading by example.

It was somewhat pitiful, however, to watch Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu resort to displaying a cartoon of a bomb at the UN to stress the dire straits of his country if a “red line” is not drawn against Iran.

Pitiful, but understandable.

But if Netanyahu thought Harper was going to up the ante on Iran by supporting his demand of U.S. President Barack Obama to threaten imminent war with Iran if its nuclear program persists, he went home disappointed.

Harper had already drawn his own line.

While breaking all diplomatic relations with Iran sent a strong message, Harper knows Canada’s place on the world stage as well as its limits.

“Our country has not been shy about warning the world about the danger that the Iranian regime ultimately presents to all of us,” Harper said, before dusting off reporters, and making no reference to Netanyahu’s red line.

“But we want to see a peaceful resolution to all this.”

As Henry Kissinger said of Harper in presenting him with the World Statesman award, “he has the courage to affirm his views even when they are not shared by all — and be proved correct by events.”

Not only did Harper get a trophy to back this up, he also got a chance to slag the UN.

All in all, not a bad day.

Teaching Islam in Italian Public Schools

Italian education minister Francesco Profumo ignited a controversy this week by proposing that Islam be taught in public schools alongside the traditional teaching of Roman Catholicism.

The interesting thing is that Mr. Profumo didn’t actually mention Islam. In fact, none of the news stories excerpted below used the I-word or the M-word. The ministers and cardinals and spokespersons referred to pupils “from different countries, cultures and religions,” and a “more multiethnic” “multicultural” curriculum.

Yet these are code words for “Islam”, since the Jewish population of Italy has not increased significantly in recent decades, nor are hordes of Hindus and Buddhists pouring into the country.

No, the minister is plainly referring to Muslims, specifically Muslims from Tunisia, Libya, Morocco, and Albania, whose numbers have been growing steadily in Italy over the last few decades. One assumes that everyone who reads the Italian papers or watches the news on TV knows exactly what Mr. Profumo means.

Here’s what he said in his first announcement on Tuesday, as reported by AKI:

‘School Lessons Must Reflect Multiethnic Population’ Says Minister

Rome, 25 Sept. (AKI) — The teaching of religion and other subjects in Italy’s schools needs to be overhauled to be relevant to immigrants and their children living in the country, education minister Francesco Profumo said on Tuesday.

“There are students in our schools who come from different countries, cultures and religions,” said Profumo, opening a new library in Rome.

“We need to update the religion curriculum but also the geography curriculum to reflect this.”

Italy’s traditional school curriculum needs reforming to make its schools “more open, more multiethnic and able to be relevant to the world,” said Profumo.

On Monday, he visited a school classroom in Italy where 50 percent of its pupils were from other countries, he said.

The integration of non-Italian pupils in Italian schools has been a contentious issue in recent years as the number of immigrants has continued to rise. Around 4.6 million or 7.5 percent of the population are foreign residents in Italy according to the central statistics office Istat.

During the conservative government of Silvio Berlusconi which fell in November 2011, its junior coalition partner, the anti-immigrant Northern League party proposed allowing schools to have separate classes for immigrant children who do not speak the Italian language or fail admission tests for Italian state schools.

Immigrant leaders, Italy’s centre-left opposition and Catholic leaders criticised the Northern League plan, which also wanted mainstream classrooms to contain a ‘proportionate’ number of Italian and immigrant pupils.

Leaders in the Vatican hierarchy were not uniformly in favor of Mr. Profumo’s proposal. Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, while ostensibly welcoming “innovation”, made it plain that religious education in Italy should remain focused on the history and doctrine of the Catholic Church:

Cardinal Ravasi on Religious Education in State Schools

(AGI) — Holy See, 25 Sep — The president of the Pontifical Council for Culture, cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, today welcomed Education Minister Francesco Profumo’s latest proposals concerning religious tuition in Italian state schools.

With religious education subject to Concordat agreements between Italy and the Holy See, the cardinal welcomed the minister’s proposals to inject innovation in the subject’s tuition methods arguing, however, that the core content of religious education should be the Christian religion.

Ravasi said ‘it is important that we innovate methods,’ adding ‘the Gospel and the greater Christian teachings will continue to warrant teaching, but there is always room to latch on to changes within society, the times and culture.’ Ravasi went on to suggest that the issue of innovation would be the subject of follow-up discussions.

Teachers of religion had their own objections:

Religion Teachers Against Min. Profumo: “It’s No Solution”

(AGI)Rome — Teaching the Catholic religion “is in school curricula because the Italian Republic acknowledges the value of religion. This is because the principles of Catholicism form part of the historical heritage of the Italian people, teaching them according to the objectives set out for schools”.

Orazio Ruscica, the President of the Italian Independent Trade Union of Religion Teachers (SNADIR), comments on the controversy on the teaching of religion that exploded following the statements made by Minister Profumo on the need to update school curricula and recalls that “at the end of June, the Minister signed two agreements on the teaching of the Catholic religion in public schools, including teaching guidelines, without however having paid much attention to what he signed”.

But the minister stuck to his guns, repeating and extending his remarks on Wednesday by saying that the Mediterranean had always been a “crossroads of peoples and faiths”. This statement is either naïve or disingenuous: the Med was only a “crossroads” of faiths because Muslims invaders and pirates crossed it to murder, pillage, rob, rape, take slaves, and convert Christians to Islam by the sword.

According to ANSAmed:

Minister Sets Off Firestorm Over Religion in Class

‘Mediterranean crossroad of faiths which should also be taught’

(ANSAmed) — Rome, September 26 — Italy’s education minister refused to back down Wednesday from his earlier suggestions that schools in the country should teach more than Catholicism in the classroom. But Francesco Profumo said he had no immediate plans to change “certain rules or terms” of the curriculum for religion classes. The minister triggered controversy recently when he suggested it was time to update school curricula with respect to teaching the Catholic religion in public schools. As Italy becomes more multicultural, it may be important to teach students about other faiths, Profumo said.

He expanded on his views in a letter to Catholic philosopher Giovanni Reale, a copy of which was obtained by ANSA Wednesday. “Our country is at the center of a tumultuous evolution, both political and spiritual, in the Mediterranean, which has always been a crossroads of peoples and faiths,” Profumo wrote. It’s time, therefore, that Italian schools “deal with this changing reality” of a multicultural world, he added.

Religious education teachers have responded to Profumo’s ideas by saying the Catholic faith is a deeply embedded part of Italy’s historical heritage, and curricula shouldn’t be changed.

These teachers, and an association for Italian families, noted that in June Profumo signed new agreements on what would be taught in religious education classes and now is no time for change. “Christianity is inextricably inserted in the history of our country,” said Francesco Belletti, president of the Forum of Family Associations.

Religious teachers are appointed by schools in consultation with local religious Catholic authorities. Students who opt out of religion classes should be given alternative teaching.

Hat tips: C. Cantoni and Insubria.

Which Model of Muslim is Best?

A Consumer Quandary

In these difficult economic times, the modern consumer may have trouble knowing which Muslim to choose among all the competing models.

A reader named Sarka left a comment at Harry’s Place on the EDL/Muslim Debate Initiative article recounting his (her?) own frustrating experiences with the Muslim marketplace:

With so many fake and defective models of Muslim on the market these days, I think it is time to approach the Consumer Association.

Some years ago I purchased what I thought was a reliable Muslim through Amazon [an MCB Multiculti with warranty]. What a disappointment for the whole family! The blender simply did not work properly — even on the top settings ingredients remained separate, and the lid was not sealed — so it made a terrible mess. Despite the specifications on the box, there was no free-speech attachment, and it was hugely noisy and expensive to run.

Next I rather stupidly bought a cheapo Shariah4 from a door-to-door salesman, who made much of its grating, slicing, chopping and julienne capacities, and mixing hook. Frankly, this product should be banned! No blender at all. The blades are indeed sharp — lethally so (try putting them in the dishwasher without cutting your finger!) It makes an ear-splitting row, is totally unstable — hurling itself in all directions and smashing anything else on the countertop. and repeatedly caused explosions and electrical fires.

I am now very hesitant about my next purchase. After perusing the Web, I am very attracted to the Quilliam brand Muslim. Pluses: quiet motor, stable, blends and mixes efficiently, parts all dishwasher safe, sturdy, very nice traditional British retro-design — will fit beautifully into any kitchen, compatible with Western Kenwood, and Dualit attachments .. But minuses: expensive, allegedly incompatible with most new and traditional Muslim attachments, e.g. scriptural interpreter range, hadith grinders.

I went down to our local Curry’s for advice, but I am afraid that the assistant I talked to, a Mr. Robinson. is rather prejudiced

He said, “Madam, if I was you I wouldn’t waste my money on them Muslims at all. Load of dangerous foreign rubbish.”

“That’s completely racist and unfair!” said a gentleman who happened to be standing behind me at the desk. He turned out to be a sales rep for a new Muslim company, MDI, and he started to show me brochures that looked quite interesting. Mr Robinson scoffed, of course, and soon the two were engaging in a passionate argument that I was finding quite instructive until, unfortunately…it was broken off by the manager, who came in looking pale and saying he had to shut the branch because there was a mob outside.

There was a mob too. I had thought it might be a mob of Mr. Robinson’s wilder friends, or of competing Muslim sales reps, but surprisingly it was neither. It was a group of nerdy but dangerous-looking youths with placards that read, “Antifa Campaign for Real Muslims”. They looked rather dim but as I left the branch I couldn’t resist asking them “Hey, which Muslim do you recommend?” “Have you tried the MCB Multi, or the Shariah4? They’re okay, authentic like…” one mumbled. “But they’re ****” I retorted, “what about Quillian or this MDI model?”

There was a moment of horrified silence, and then the nerds began to bay, “Fake fake fakes! Fakes for fascists, fakes for fascists!” and I prudently made off home as fast as I could. In these circs I feel that a CA Which Muslim? objective report is very urgently needed.

Hat tip: JP.

The Bee and the Lamb, Part 7

Update: This post was originally published on September 25. It has been made “sticky” to keep it at the top. Scroll down for last night’s news feed and Bill Warner in Hungarian, plus nine recent Vlad videos.

The essay below is the seventh in a series by Takuan Seiyo. See the list at the bottom of this post for links to the previous installments.

Renoir-Grosz
Left: Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Dance at Le Moulin de la Galette, 1876
Right: George Grosz, Metropolis, 1916/17

The Bee and the Lamb
Part 7

By Takuan Seiyo

Hope of the helpless

Gallivanting as this work has, between Estonian poetry and the British patriotic songbook, Dresden and Baltimore, 13th century Prussians and 19th century Puget Sound Indians, there comes a point where one has to offer Ariadne’s thread to the reader. A corollary strand in this thread is the necessity to restore universal knowledge of the history, mythology and aphoristic wisdom of the Western peoples so that every high school graduate within the sphere of Western civilization “gets” the meaning of old and once ubiquitously understood cultural memes like “Ariadne’s thread.”

If I impugned in the preceding chapter the mental fitness of “Christians for Obama” it’s not because they are bad Christians but because they are gullible political bumpkins, so stupid that they are serving evil and unaware of it. But why speak of Christianity at all, particularly in a revisionist tone that puts reason ahead of faith? And if one removes sola fide as the sole basis for moral judgment, on what authority may an intelligent discourse proceed with strong words like “evil”?

We will get to all those points, but for now I will state that the Western West is immersed in evil and the Eastern West — the Christian countries once behind the Iron Curtain (ex Russia, always a separate case) — is not. Moreover, the rest of the world, where there are other kinds of evil, does not know this particular Western evil.

The East, i.e. Eastern Europe, has a good future to look forward to, if it avoids being crushed again by the Russians from the East, or infected by white man’s disease from the West. And here is a timely Reality Check:

“Sixteen months after it joined the struggling [euro], Estonia is booming, reported CNBC on June 5, 2012: “The economy grew 7.6 percent last year, five times the euro-zone average. Estonia is the only euro-zone country with a budget surplus. National debt is just 6 percent of GDP, compared to 81 percent in virtuous Germany, or 165 percent in Greece.”

The article goes on to explain that Estonia bounced back from a massive hit (18% contraction) by the global financial crisis because its people accepted severe austerity measures. They even re-elected the politicians that imposed them — quite unlike other eurozone countries where soft, socialist, decadent peoples have taken to the streets and toppled governments, for they have grown over three generations to expect an inexhaustible cornucopia of entitlements poured from above by ruling socialist oligarchs.

It was the Estonian people’s long apprenticeship in the School of Reality — of late under the brutal Bolshevik bear — that allowed them to choose the right course. This, plus Estonia’s smallness, and the strength of homogeneity. But one sample does not a trend make; for that we have to adduce other ex-Soviet vassals in the northeastern corner of Europe — all, like Estonia, graduates of the same school of terrible historical woes, traditionalist opposition to postmodern nonsense, and stubborn mono-ethnicism.

How about “Lithuania shows the way”? A May 2012 financial report of the Swiss IMD limns Lithuania as “The most improved economy in new global competitiveness rankings, proving that austerity measures can pay dividends.” In May, as well, the International Monetary Fund reported that Latvia’s gross domestic product will grow by 3.5% in 2012. No country in Western Europe will see such growth.

Here is another recent headline, from Germany’s Spiegel: “The Miracle Next Door: Poland Emerges as a Central European Powerhouse”. For anyone who knows that just as America was entering the most glorious chapter in its history, Poland was entering its most miserable, a misery that lasted from 1772 to 1989 — 218 years — and culminated in a Commie-Nazi-Commie apotheosis of horror in 1939-1948 — that headline is material for reflection. Why Poland up, but Spain down?

Concerning the austerity, a spat developed between the grossly deluded economic poobah of the New York Times, and the President of Estonia. In June 2012, Paul Krugman put down Estonia’s austerity measures in his “Conscience of a Liberal” column. To which Toomas Hendrik Ilves responded in these words: “Let’s write about something we know nothing about & be smug, overbearing & patronizing: after all, they’re just wogs.”

The average ratio of government debt as percentage of GDP is 41.4% in the nine formerly communist countries, ranging from 6.6% in Estonia (5.6% per IMF) to 79% in Hungary (75.5% per IMF). The average for the European Union is 83.4%, and 105% for the USA, i.e. twice and two and a half times the Eastern European average, respectively[1]. And so as freedom and prosperity increase in the East, they decrease in the West. Yet, set on a course by Keynesian socialist lunatics like Krugman, America in particular is set on printing, pumping and spending its way to sovereign default or hyperinflation — either one catastrophic and unnecessary.

Indeed, America should beg Estonia for an intensive cure session for the acute spongiform encephalitis that is ravaging the collective brain and soul of the Lilliputian heirs to the giants of 1776. This shows even in business — America’s traditional strength.

Skype, which was developed by three Estonian tech geeks, won the custom of over 600 million VoIP telephony users worldwide because it had been developed deliberately to frustrate government snooping. This was achieved via uncommonly strong encryption and connecting users directly, rather than through intermediate servers. But a few months after Microsoft bought Skype the following news item appeared in the Washington Post: “Skype, the online phone service long favored by political dissidents, criminals and others eager to communicate beyond the reach of governments, has expanded its cooperation with law enforcement authorities to make online chats and other user information available to police”.

We have here an Estonian business conceived to expand freedom, and freedom thwarted upon an American takeover. This in the “home of the free.” Love that continuum from political dissidents to criminals in a flagship American newspaper, too. But this decay has gone much deeper: from its second place in 2000 in the Fraser Institute’s world ranking of economic freedom, by 2012 the United States had slipped to the 18th, behind such traditional beacons of good governance and liberty as Mauritius and Bahrain. Thus can eight years of idiocy, followed by four years of intentional malfeasance, bring a great nation to its knees.

A country is known by its heroes, and so it’s germane that the founder of Microsoft, America’s top alpha businessman and one of its smartest people, Bill Gates, is an Obama tool who co-financed until July 2012 the Useful Idiot cable network MSNBC (motto, “Lean Forward”). Mr. Gates is known as well for pouring money into “fixing America’s schools” without a single indication he is aware that such schools are unfixable as long as America imports and then “educates” a sizeable share of the world’s sub-90 IQ peoples or lies about large, hereditary group IQ disparities among its own denizens.

Mr. Gates has, as well, donated US $1.5 billion for “minority scholarships” administered by the United Negro College Fund. I should like to hear of a rich Estonian, perhaps one of the Skype fellows, donating a proportionately smaller amount, say 1/300 of $1.5 billion, for scholarships restricted to Estonia’s long-suffering racial minority, the Gypsies.

But America won’t apply for a therapy session with Estonia. The size and diversity quotients are too different, the imperial hubris of the one dwarfs the quiet pride of the other, the overhang of past greatness and vast accumulated wealth is still too large to notice the Balt and Slav “wogs”. Nor could American or other Anglosphere patriots apply salutary lessons learned from their eastern cousins; it’s too late for that. A changed demography is a changed destiny.

Moreover, 50 years of an unopposed Long March through the educational system has cut off two Western generations already from all founts of wisdom and sanity. The Western young are merely ignorant fools if they completed high school, but zombies from space altogether if they attended a university. Their intellectual idols are hard core commies like Chomsky, Marcuse and Habermas, their most adored leaders are soft core commies in expensive suits like Obama, Hollande and Danny the Red, and their preferred towns are called Peoples’ Republic of (you fill in: Berkeley, Seattle, Cambridge, South London etc.) Not so in Eastern Europe, where people have actually lived in Socialist Peoples’ Republics and cultivate the remembrance of what a bloody, painful and miserable fraud communism is.

Decades of sheltered prosperity with a social safety net and “free market” lowest cultural denominator has frozen the West in a state of juvenile arrested development — what Diana West described in her book, The Death of the Grown-Up: How America’s Arrested Development Is Bringing Down Western Civilization. Eastern Europe could not afford the luxury of juvenile “vibrancy” and self-indulgence — it had to stay adult, or perish. So now it’s grown up.

There is one lesson from Central Europe and the Baltics that may still help the Western peoples. It’s the different brand of ethnic consciousness prevalent east of Berlin. It consists for the average high school graduate of the strong presence of 1100+ years of national history plus a reasonable veneer of 2500 years of Western cultural heritage. There is a specific Christian cultural identity even among the non-religious but, paradoxically, Nature-based pagan folklore is deeply embedded in the culture, paganism having persisted here for centuries after it had bad been eradicated in the rest of Europe [2]. I defined that particular cultural mix in earlier chapters as JJJJ per its ingredients of Jhvh, Jesus, Janus and Jutta.

The third J, Janus, poses a problem for the Anglo diaspora and Northwestern Europe because they have had it so good, for so long, that they are too soft and degenerate to be able to go back to classical Greek and Roman virtues, let alone under a code of patriarchal Christian morality. That such virtues may still be found in the upper classes of Eastern Europe is because they largely descend from the nobility of the sword, and developed fortitude after centuries of persecution and dispossession by occupying foreign powers. In contrast, the WASP equivalent in Great Britain and her overseas diaspora is gone: lost to cowardice and country club, the debutante ball and the regatta, sex and psychoanalysis, single malt scotch and the Anglican/Episcopal congregation of pink lambs. In its place is an aristocracy of tattooed black ballplayers and rappers, white compulsive thieves in pin stripes and piranha morals, and people with great cheekbones who can learn a page of dialogue by heart.

The fourth J, Jutta, also poses a problem for the European diaspora, as it was formed by Christians emigrating from Europe long after nature-based paganism had been extinguished there. Hence one of the reasons for our detour to a deist-infused brand of Christianity that was once of pivotal importance in America.

But then, again, why Christianity? Many opponents of the worst of the Ten Plagues of Europe, Islamization, are secular liberals involved with feminism, homosexuality and other alternative lifestyles, atheism etc. In almost every European country there is now a small, secular political party rallying the people against Islamization and other plagues: unlimited immigration, costly absorption of barbarian refugees, yielding of national sovereignty to EU, rewriting of European history, etc. In the United States, there is no such party, the Tea Party being much too timid on all but economic issues. But both Islamization and Socialism have vocal, secular American opponents, Socialism being the second major plague that far too few Europeans recognize. Another powerful resistance, unique to the United States, comes from a movement of defiant patriots, largely retired military, committed to defend the Constitution with arms should the ruling elite’s depredations develop farther.

None of that will suffice. To start at the end, even in the United States the government has significantly pre-empted the chance of success of an armed insurrection (more about that later), while in Europe the people have been disarmed and psychologically gelded, or nearly so, outright. And even if this were not the case, Jefferson’s tree of liberty cannot be refreshed with the blood of patriots and tyrants except when the patriots have leaders of the caliber of Jefferson, and have the support of the population, too. This is not the case now.

The Progressive Left has been seeding its people in government bureaucracy, public education, academia, mass media and mass entertainment for decades. It has achieved extraordinary levels of both control and universal mind penetration. Its psychotic ideas and values are the mental baggage of almost all Westerners under the age of 50, partly because they have been packaged by high-IQ people who are drawn to this ideology and promoted by almost all the pretty faces and fetching bodies in show business.

In America alone, and it’s a pattern repeated in Europe, the Dark Side has Scarlett Johansson, Angelina Jolie, Eva Longoria, Jennifer Garner, Reese Witherspoon, Julia Roberts, Sarah Jessica Parker, Ashley Judd, Anne Hathaway, Gwen Stefani, George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, and many, many more including older by still potent stars like Meryl Streep, Susan Sarandon, Tom Hanks and so on. From securing B. H. Obama’s grip on the White House, François Hollande’s on the Élysée Palace and the Mexican patriot Antonio Villaraigosa’s on Los Angeles, to homosexual marriage, to the senatorial campaign of the faux Cherokee useful idiot Elizabeth Warren, to Hugo Chavez and Hamas, this Hollywood high wattage provides enthusiastic public support and funds for the vile and the insane. To countervail, the side of salvation and sanity has Clint Eastwood, 82, and Jon Voight, 74.

The Dark Side is for orgasm for all, any which way, from infancy to senility, sponsored by the state including free condoms in schools and prisons, Viagra for pensioners, sex change for prisoners, and, the holy of holies, indemnity for the ovulating part of the Big-O festival against Nature’s pesky consequences of pregnancy.

The sane side is for making and raising babies. It’s no contest; no contest at all.

A coalition of powerful business, labor unions and other organized looters — the legal system being particularly insidious, hostile racial and sexual identity groups, conquest-minded Muslims, white guilt-ridden voluntary dhimmis, poverty and equality-obsessed Christian and Jewish idealists, militant feminists and Communist true-believers has been tunneling under everything for a long time. They are financed lavishly by many subversive American centimillionaires, by compulsory trade union fees, and by the Inverted Reality 50-50 StateTM. In the latter category, to which all Western social-democratic societies belong, the state expropriates its taxpayers in order to employ or underwrite an equal or greater number of tax eaters. Such a state consumes the future of its own people in order to maintain the delusions and hold on power of its ruling elite.

In Western Europe the tunneling has been completed; no linear projection is possible showing redemption from the chute of descent. The possibility that’s still open is a quantum shift — an epiphany that comes to idiot humans after a long-foretold holocaust or, rarely and only through an act of divine grace, due to a spontaneous spiritual awakening, led by an extraordinary, charismatic figure.

What the Huns, the Mongols, the Umayyads, the Almoravids, the Turks, the Tatars, the Nazis and the Comintern could not accomplish by sword and fire, Europe’s Progressive pashas have implemented to the tune of Beethoven’s 9th with the bribes of socialism and feminism and feelgood “diversity” brainwashing. Even Huns and Tatars are part of the package, except they now come from Somalia and Morocco. The time will come too when they will show the white useful idiots-in-charge that their usefulness has expired.

The United States is also beyond the tipping point. This is no longer a 50-50 State but a 53.5%-47.5% State. As relayed by Forbes in August 2012, in a 308 million population (2010 census), 165 million are dependents of the state: 22 million as employees and the rest as beneficiaries of public assistance. 50.6% of voting-age Americans do not pay income taxes. The Founding Fathers’ warnings about the perils of democracy have come to life. The consequences may be projected.

Some parts of this huge country may endure nonetheless, where the people are assertively Christian and liberty-loving, and reject servitude to the state. Yet the array of forces lined up against them is formidable, for the Long March has succeeded beyond its instigators’ wildest hopes.

It’s not just that “conservative” forces that were supposed to countervail against the Progressives’ “progress” have been outplayed, outfoxed and just tucked tail at every stage of the great shift leftward. Much more than that, the Order of the Universe has been stood on its head. Apparently only, of course, for inverting social reality can no more change the Order of the Universe than standing on one’s head can invert Earth’s gravity. But it’s a road to disaster nonetheless, one of the four or five worst in all recorded history.

Few of the few who sense that something has gone terribly wrong understand either how much worse than their expectations the consequences are going to be, or how insufficient their resistance is. Liberals who think the Left will choose to protect their liberal values in preference to growing and protecting Islam, have a surprise coming. The Counterjihad activist who is not an anti-Third World immigration activist — i.e. “racist” per the prevailing nomenclature — will see his country swamped by Uttar Pradeshis, Polynesians and Zulus even if his position on Islam prevails. And if he is not an anti-statist activist as well, even if he prevails on immigration, the state will still crush him. Conversely, an anti-statist, anti-tax “conservative” activist who is also a pro-Muslim activist, like Grover Norquist, takes more with the left hand than what the right hand is giving.

The defender of capitalism who screams at the commie Occupiers but does not scream with them at the banksters, may save his country from ruin by the commies, but not from ruin by the banksters. The economic freedom activist who is not a reactionary cultural activist will be crushed by the open borders and free trade he advocates, and will see the lowest barbarian common denominator regnant. But the social conservative, family values warrior who is not a white ethnic activist may win the abortion fight but will still end up living in Haiti even if he lives in Maryland.

The French woman who fights to keep her country French but does not care whether America remains white and conservative will lose France even if she subdues jihad in France — for US Marines of Rainbow Coalition allegiance will land in Marseille to help her foes. But the American patriot in his fortified hideaway who thinks he can rebuild his country after implosion (popularly known as SHTF) but has no interest in his European cultural legacy will one day wake up on a barbarian steppe.

This is a global war of epic proportions, and the side under attack acts as though there is no attack. In another work, I called the opposing forces Equalitans and Freedomians. The Club of Crooks, Loons and Looters that leads the Equalitans is the most powerful institution in the aggregate West and in each of its constituent countries. The Freedomians are led by no one, except in a few countries such as Great Britain where freedom is a distant memory and serfdom of the autochthons is so advanced that most of the crucial issues may no longer even be defined, on penalty of imprisonment.

The disparity between the deranged Left’s offenses and the meekness with which the serf population receives them is astonishing. The PC-Multiculti Inquisition is still scouring the globe for any published dissenter whose name is iterated in Anders Breivik’s “Manifesto.” Norway, as demented a Progressive nation as exists in our galaxy, is collectively restaging the 19th century play of its great Henrik Ibsen, An Enemy of the People, with a peaceful Norwegian dissenter, Fjordman, in the protagonist’s role. Meanwhile, the “Kill Mitt Romney” Facebook page remained online for 17 days before an outcry by some Republicans forced its removal. And Hollywood celebrities routinely express their wishes of violent death for — as the actress Ellen Barkin put it lately — “every pro-life, anti-education, anti-woman, xenophobic, gay-bashing, racist SOB.”

The New York Times publishes columns with titles like “Romney and the neo-Neanderthals.” The Yahoo News chief opined that Mitt Romney is happy to have a party when black people drown. A political blog at Esquire Magazine headlined a recent article, “Paul Ryan: Murderer of Opportunity, Political Coward, Candidate for Vice President of the United States.” Which a California Loonparty commissar, John Burton, topped by comparing Ryan to Joseph Goebbels.

Not to fall behind the zeitgeist, the gauleiter of the Teamster-Mafia union not coincidentally named Hoffa likened the sadly limp-liberal Republican Party to Pol Pot. And as soon as it transpired that Clint Eastwood would speak at the Republican convention, Huffington Post called Eastwood ditzy, hypocritical, deceitful, shameless, and, via his films and abode in Carmel, California (“too white”), vigilante reactionary fascist racist. In fairness to Mr. Eastwood, the HuffPo then published “The Hypocrisy and Deceit of Clint Eastwood’s Romney Endorsement,” by the author of that enduring classic, “The Lies of Sarah Palin.” And there are no consequences for the homicidal lunatics, because they are from the Left in a Leftist state — Progressive even when Tweedledee, i.e. “conservatives,” is in charge.

To raise an open cry for freedom under such circumstances requires what Jeanne d’Arc had and Wilhelm Tell and George Washington. A fierce, aggressive fire burning within; still common among Muslims, leftist ideologues and hateful American blacks replaying in their minds long-gone 19th century scenarios. The Left has had this fire for a long time, which is why it prevailed in the French and Bolshevik Revolutions, and persevered in the very Long March under unfavorable circumstances — to victory, finally, everywhere. But the side of sanity and redemption, a beleaguered minority already, gets limp George Bush clones as leaders year after year, when it needs its Moses.

The Crook, Loon, Looter, Malignant Narcissist, Traitor and Useful Idiot camp — in brief, the Progressive Left with its brood of clients — has passion, creativity, intelligence, and sex appeal. The passion comes from the Left’s conviction that it represents righteousness while the Right is evil. It also comes from fear, for the somnambulist sheeple in most Western countries are clearly, if very slowly, waking to the looming consequences of the long trail of malfeasance and misgovernment by their overlord improvers and shearers. Lastly, the Left being the camp of Yin, the fear comes from female hot flashes, flooding feelings, frivolous fantasies, and facile fatuities.

Come with us and enjoy the beautiful flower of “progress” — or take our hard punch to the face, says the logo of Socialist International and, with small variations, of all Socialist parties worldwide. But where is the symbol of the Freedomians and the expression of their will to power? Where is the moral case for liberty and a blazing condemnation of forced diversity and equality? Where is the oath of unrelenting fight unto victory?

Red rose and fist

Here is a hint: the cover of the Spanish translation of Hans-Hermann Hoppe’s Liberty or Socialism. This is the first time I have seen the clenched fist used in the West as a symbol of the struggle for liberty, and not for equality[3]. For the huge disparity in size and power is the lesser disadvantage of the Freedomians. Their most important handicap is lack of passion and commitment.

Hoppe: Libertad o socialismo

That passion, particularly in view of the bad odds for regaining liberty, can be found only if it finds a transcendent anchor, just like in days bygone. It can spring only from a spiritual identification with the force that makes the atoms spin and collapses (multi)universes into black holes the are gateways to more universes, which are gateways to more black holes[4].

It’s only this kind of fire that can provide the warmth and the light for rediscovering man and society built into a transcendent hierarchy under Nature’s God, with man’s natural rights unalienably etched in all that. It’s only this fire that can carry one’s lonely and reviled conviction that the transcendent hierarchy, as the word itself implies, is built on inequality, always and forever, between the sexes and the races[5] and the cultures and the individuals and the molecules themselves, in the known Universe and probably in all the unknown ones too.

It’s only this fire that can feed one’s conviction that the modern state’s sinister sabotage of man’s natural rights that inhere in the natural order, and the state’s fanatically enforced and unnatural equality, and its ruling elite’s ideology that powers the related social engineering, are a supreme evil — the Ultimate Blasphemy. Indeed, per Eric Voegelin — one more Germanic thinker who will help in our task here — the ideology is based entirely on “demonic mendacity” in service to “pneumopathology” — i.e. sickness of the soul.

Looting, loathing and resistance

We will leave Voegelin for later, but for now a few words about Hans Hermann Hoppe. Hoppe has written ten books and countless articles in German and English. He is Professor of (“Austrian”) Economics at University of Nevada — which is congruent with Eric Voegelin’s employment as professor at University of Louisiana. Non-leftist thinkers of this caliber have no place in premier American universities, where Dr. Ludwig von Mises and Dr. Samuel Francis were also unemployable but twaddle economics from the likes of Bernanke and Krugman reign at Princeton, and gibberish-spouting racial minorities like Luis Gates and Homi Bhabha hold the most exalted professorial chairs at Harvard and other Ivory Towers.

Hoppe focuses on the fatal flaw of Western democracy. The popular voting franchise allows parasites to help themselves to the income and wealth of the producers, or per my terminology, in the Inverted Reality 50-50 StateTM the tax eaters consume the tax payers. The latter group is constantly shrinking and the former increasing, for the Western state steadily imports more tax eaters while discouraging with its Socialist policies business activity and breeding by the taxpayers. It’s a spiral of doom that Hoppe sees as an insidious form of communism run by a band of robbers.

The government must violate property rights by armed force in order to confiscate from one group the loot that it redistributes to others for the sake of the politicians’ re-election and the continuing employment of the controlling bureaucracy. The theft is carried out also by planned inflation, i.e. money “printing,” which gives the government more funds to distribute to the parasite class[6] while devaluing the value of the producers’ income and savings

In Democracy: The God That Failed, Hoppe explains that, over time, this leads to lower levels of capital accumulation and durable consumer goods and therefore causes impoverishment and de-civilization. “Formerly provident providers will be turned into drunks or daydreamers,” he writes, “adults into children, civilized men into barbarians and producers into criminals.” Hoppe is not bashful about any of it either; the title of the interview he gave to the Wiener Zeitung is, “Der Staat ist eine kriminelle Organisation”.

As an alternative to the modern democratic state, Hoppe proposes a confederation of “a thousand Singapores” based on total freedom of association (which implies the right to discrimination), freedom of rightfully acquired property (i.e. no redistribution), free trade, rejection of all egalitarian ideologies, rejection of interventionism, militarism and of compulsory do-goodism. Leftists and parasites, which for Hoppe include all democrats, must be separated and excluded from society. So excluded must be promoters of alternative sexuality and hedonistic lifestyles, as the basic covenant of a healthy society is to protect family and kinship.

I find some flaws in Hoppe’s theory, common to libertarians. “Free Trade” is a self-defeating libertarian obsession and a road to impoverishment in a global context in which the major Asian exporting nations are mercantilist, and a predatory industrial — military giant, China, is chief among them. As well, to the military tactician it might not be that clear how a league of 1000 Singapores can arise and defend itself effectively against a Chinese or Russian or UN-US-EU attack or even prepare itself for one. But, to his great credit, Hoppe at least skewers the open borders twaddle that permeates libertarian ideology.

In his “Secession, the State, and the Immigration Problem” Hoppe explains the state’s motivation for both forcing domestic racial integration and dumping the most alien aliens upon its populace in imposed multiculturalism as “a means of breaking up all intermediate social institutions and hierarchies such as family, clan, tribe, community and church and their internal layers and ranks of authority.” The state does this to isolate the individual and weaken his power of resistance to the neoconservative-socialdemocratic elites that control state governments in the U.S. and Western Europe. Particularly so with regard to their agenda of subsuming and supplanting nation states in supra-national bodies such as the European Union and ultimately, One World Order.

Hoppe takes his analysis to its inevitable conclusion. Due to the state oligarchy’s “breathtaking sociological naivitee” — that I call plainly, insanity — instead of the promised comity of a New World Order there will arise fear, loathing, strife, murder, massive impoverishment and, at last, an all-out civil war. Hoppe therefore challenges the state’s right to import foreigners, based on strict interpretation of property laws.

All property, including state property which is acquired by the state with funds confiscated from its citizens, belongs to the citizens. The state’s legitimacy derives from its claim to protect its citizens and their property from invaders and trespassers domestic and foreign. Contrariwise, it promotes the invasion of millions of aliens who are not wanted by the true owners of the property — hence another basis for questioning the legitimacy of Western governments.

“A state is a contradiction in terms,” Hoppe writes, “a property protector who may expropriate the property of the protected through legislation and taxation. Predictably, a state will be interested in maximizing tax revenues and power [snip] but disinterested in protecting anything except itself. What we experience in the area of immigration is only one aspect of a general problem. States are also supposed to protect their citizen from domestic intrusions and invasions; yet [snip] they actually disarm them, encircle them, tax them, and strip them of their right to exclusion, thus rendering them helpless. Accordingly, the solution to the immigration problem is at the same time the solution to the general problem inherent in the institution of a state and public property. It involves the return to a natural order by means of secession.”

Secession. That’s the sticky point. May Virginia secede from the United States? Can it secede? In times far less demented and tyrannical, the answer was no, with lots of shooting. European secessionist movements, some of which may succeed, are not a valid template, for all of them are driven by long-established principles of ethnonationalist self-government. But to separate for the sake of personal liberty under God, to abolish the legitimacy of the social-engineering and expropriating looter state, to regain the rights of free association — i.e. “discrimination” and “exclusion” — that is a modern abomination. No one has tried it before except Jefferson, Madison et al. It died aborning already in the Federalist-influenced Constitution and is now anathema in its country of birth.

Hoppe does not present a viable way for transiting from the soft tyranny of the modern state to 1000 Singapores. He speaks of a “revolution” yet firmly rejects violence[7]. But he does dwell on one aspect that is central in my work as well: peaceful secession and noncooperation, “withdrawing from the compulsory union.” This is essential, but as argued in these pages, insufficient by itself.

Withdrawal is a cold endeavor. Unsupported by fire from within, after a period of hardship it dwindles to nothing. It’s still premature to plan the 1000 Singapores. For now, the issue is how to regain the Western peoples’ will to live, starting with ceasing to hide under the bed when the term “white people” is invoked. The next task is to reignite Westerners’ yearning for liberty under a non-sectarian yet Christian God instead of under a mad ruling class.

If Buddhism has four noble truths that explain the earthly suffering of man and propose its cure, I believe the path to Western redemption has seven. They proceed from awareness to recognition to rejection to resolve to implementation:

1.   The Progressive Left is clinically insane[8].
2.   The Western State is controlled by the Progressive Left.
3.   Ergo, the Western State is insane, and the West as a whole is insane and bent on suicide for insane reasons.
4.   The Western State wages an unacknowledged civil war against its autochthon population, with nearly omnipotent means at its disposal.
5.   Therefore, it’s misspent energy to struggle against the Progressive Left and its spawns of multiculturalism and euphemistically defined racism, diversity, inclusion, equity, peace and justice. Madness cannot be cured by argument anyway. The state and its acromegalic extensions like the European Union are the main and the more important foe.
6.   Personal energy is better spent on attaining clarity about the modern Western state, shedding related illusions, practicing withdrawal from the state’s schemes, cultivating inner freedom, maintaining a spiritual practice for charging one’s will to live in freedom, building community and support networks among the like-minded, biding time until the state collapses and preparing to rebuild from the wreckage.
7.   The state will collapse. A fall from a cliff is the inevitable destiny of any entity that marches blindfolded on a road paved with lies while asserting that it’s progressing with open eyes toward a blazing light.

In the next chapter, we will sum up why they whom the hearty American vernacular calls “libtards” are insane, and will then segue to the bolder task of showing that the state itself is insane. This is prima facie obvious, but in an age when white middle class Americans vote for Obama and the Dutch vote against Geert Wilders, when gender is a matter of choice and race is a social construct, when bankers steal, financiers plant bombs of mass destruction and journalists and teachers misinform on purpose, nothing can be taken for granted anymore.

Challenging and beating the Progressive-Statist juggernaut is no task for the average person. The case for gross violation of the transcendent basis of all life and its self-evident rules has to be made on the basis of belief in transcendence, but channeled through reason, not faith and 3rd century dogma. The reason for the reason is that a cadre of wise and educated leaders and proselytizers has to be mobilized to this task. Without them, the endeavor will do no better than the rebelling American colonists could have done without Franklin, Jefferson and Washington.

Lucidity is required to acknowledge that a lot of small-p progress good for all has been made; life is better than it was 100 years ago, yet the same road is now prey to declining marginal utility, too much of a good thing, and highly skewed Yin — Yang balance. Consequently, to lay the moral basis for rejection of the current social arrangement requires the ability to synthesize what appear to be two opposing theses to a conclusion that the West is close to a cataclysmic and perhaps irreversible self-destruction.

The task is not for the weak, fragile and cowardly either. Active opposition to one’s state and society and culture, and to the spirit of the times, and often to one’s wife and children who support the New Order, calls for awareness that by denouncing and opposing the Sea of Troubles one becomes instantly a scorned Jeremiah, a ridiculed Cassandra, a pariah for the very people one is trying to save. Alone and athwart the path not only of the Left and its many clients and sympathizers, but of almighty Leviathan itself.

The Christian revisionist subcurrent in this work is perhaps clearer now. For despite the centrality in Western civilization of the story of Jesus of Nazareth’ rejection by (the majority of) his people, and despite the insight that Jesus died for our sins, religious teaching has failed to transmit the notion that every generation, in every nation, repeats a similar story with its seers and patriots and mad poets.

The consequence to the victims is no longer crucifixion, but it is always dire. And so is the consequence to the community that throttles its coalmine canaries.

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

Notes:

1.   Averages calculated per data provided by Dr. Richard Rahn in “The Success of Eastern Europe”, Brussels Journal 9/6/2012. IMF figures differ slightly, as indicated. The 105% US ratio for 2012 has been widely publicized in the MSM.
2.   This statement is inaccurate with respect to Poland that converted to Christianity in 966 AD. However, even in Poland, many ancient pagan practices related to the change of seasons, harvest, water, fire etc. are consecrated by church ritual or coexist in close proximity to it.
3.   I am aware that various aggressive graphic symbols are used by White Supremacist and neo-Nazi groups. I ignore them by necessity, for the lies and pathologies there are as varied and deep as they are on the Left. They add to the problem and hinder its solution. To mention them would be to discuss them, and to discuss them would double the volume of this work.
4.   Per theory of University of Indiana astrophysicist Nikodem Poplawski.
5.   Qualifying a statement like “inequality between the races and the sexes” is necessary in a cultural context where a blanket assertion of the inferiority of the dark races and blanket discrimination against women were once the norm. The rational usage of “Inequality” does not connote superiority or inferiority, but difference. The difference is multifarious, hence qualitative statements can be made validly only in a narrow context. Comparing as aggregates, blacks to whites, is it about left brain talent or right brain talent? Masculinity or intellectuality? Same for women; are we talking child care or commando? Empathy or impartiality? Furthermore, in any such comparison, are we talking about averages or outliers? It’s the Progressives’ absolute rejection of any such differentiation that’s at the root of almost all modern societal diseases.
6.   Aid to legitimate victims of chance and fate, or to honest, hard-trying losers in laissez-faire economic competition, is another matter. I believe, as Hoppe does, that without the state’s meddling, increased prosperity would reduce the number of the needy, the incentive to choose welfare over unattractive work would be greatly reduced, and the much diminished number of those who have to rely on public assistance could be easily supported by private charity.
7.   This is a conditional statement. Hoppe has acquired by now an important enough intellectual status to have a whole institute, The Property and Freedom Society, devoted mainly to his ideas. I have not read all of his large output and therefore cannot make absolute assertions about all the facets of all of his ideas. This will have to suffice in the context of a panoramic tableau such as this work is.
8.   Not so the traditional Labor Left that pursues rational self-interest, albeit in a Lootist manner.

Takuan Seiyo is a European-born American writer living in exile in Japan.

Previous posts:

2008   Oct   14   The Real Mark-to-Market
    Dec   1   You Say Mumbai, I Say Bombay
2009   Apr   8   The Deadly Jive of Jiverly Diversity
    Jun   2   The American Press: The Unbearable Lightness of Treason
        12   Critique of the Culture of Kevin MacDonald
    Jul   31   Sons of Onan
    Sep   2   Be the Change
    Dec   15   F Street
2010   Apr   25   Vast Canyon of Gas and Dust, Inshallah
    Jul   7   Vast Canyon of Gas and Dust — Progressive Progress Report
    Dec   12   The Art of Strategic Citizenship, Part 1
2011   Jan   7   The Art of Strategic Citizenship, Part 2
        31   The Art of Strategic Citizenship, Part 3
    Mar   20   The Art of Strategic Citizenship, Part 4
    Apr   2   The Art of Strategic Citizenship, Part 4(b)
    Sep   30   On Fanciful Attributions and Wishful Imputations
    Nov   1   The Bee and the Lamb, Chapter 1
    Dec   1   The Bee and the Lamb, Chapter 2
2012   Jan   1   The Bee and the Lamb, Chapter 3
    Feb   12   The Bee and the Lamb, Chapter 4
        13   The Free University of Brussels is Not Free
        23   A Short Treatise on Modern Dance
    Mar   6   The Bee and the Lamb, Part 5
    May   4   Prokophy is Destiny
        12   The Three Cs
    Jun   16   Through the Looking Glass
    Aug   6   The Bee and the Lamb, Part 6