H/T Niall
Tuesday, 21 September 2010
LIFE IN THE TRENCHES
INCREDIBLE - Newly discovered illustrated diary of a World War I Tommy . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . STORMBRINGER
EU hypocrisy!..............from Filippo
The French Government has recently enacted a law providing for the forced repatriation - that is a paid ticket and a small allowance for the trouble - of Romas without jobs, without residence permit and without any legal means of subsistence.
This has aroused the indignation and hypocritical condemnation of the European Commissioner for Justice Viviae Reding who had the nerve and
bad taste to compare the measures to the deportations carried by the Nazis during the Second World War. Note that the Commissioner is from Luxembourg, a country where Romas are barred from entering.
The outburst of this brilliant lady, bad taste aside, was also shared by the President of the EU and several european government, as well as from the U.S., which is building a wall to defend the border with Mexico against illegal immigrants .
The EU, always very quick to impose rules and regulations to define the optimal size of bananas and cucumbers, and address the fate of octopus and cuttlefish, never wanted to seek a common solution to deal with the issue of uncontrolled immigration.
Each time countries most affected by this problem - Italy, France and Spain - take unilateral measures in this respect, they are immediatley labelled as racist.
As President Sarkozy said: "If you don't like our measures, why don't you take them".
Hypocritical EU!
News......
Day 74 – 21st September 1940
It's the Ballot Box Smash that's taking the nation by storm!
Olmert: Bush offered to absorb 100,000 Palestinians into US for peace deal
Moody's hails UK austerity effort
UK Proposes All Paychecks Go to the State First
Media Matters attacks those who noticed Obama edited the Declaration
IT’S TRUE– Proof That the DNC and Team Obama Are Targeting Tea Parties and Top Conservatives
D-Day for the US military
Aunt Zeituni: 'The System Took Advantage Of Me'
Blame the generals and politicians for this mess. But our soldiers can hold their heads up high
Sangin shows why it would be madness to cut the Army
Barack Obama's planned assault on the Tea Party smacks of desperation
'Smelly people, 'commies' and 'dirty porn': Europe mapped by national stereotypes
N Korea 'to pick new leader'
Britain vulnerable to space nuclear attack or 'solar flare' storm, conference told
Al-Qaeda 'expand into Uganda'
Russian jets buzz US navy frigate in Arctic in Cold War-style show of force
US forces 'ignore British advice' in Sangin handover
and finally.....
5 ways to reinvent yourself this fall
A Selection of Pimped Out Golf Carts
2010 Brewery and Brewerof the Year Awards
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Over 50 and Unemployed: Will they ever work again?.....from Rico
This has been one of my 'concerns' for a number of years now.
Having watched "free trade" shift jobs overseas from Clinton, through Bush, and into the Obama-Soetoro years it is clear that the way for "international" business to make money is to produce in the country with the lowest labor cost, re-import the product into the US and 'mark' it up for the profit at point-of-sale.
- Meanwhile the Unions are getting screwed and do not know it, while the consuming (and ever-increasingly unemployed public DO know it...they just do not understand the "why?").
And that is why you have no jobs, and may never again!
IF you are over-50 and unemployed in THIS scenario, you may never work again. Welcome to the soft-slavery of Government subsidies and handouts. There ain't gonna be any pay-stubs or W-2's in your future. You are already RETIRED but don't yet know it!!
Over 50 and Unemployed: Will they ever work again?
Monday, 20 September 2010
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Anti-Intellectualism and the Marxist Idea
I had a brief exchange the other day with Brendan of BJKeefe blog. I don't normally go over there, but his link showed up in my Sitemeter and I found a post suggesting that someone should "take the shovel away from Donald Douglas." Brendon apparently thinks leftist demonization is a barrel of monkeys, and as I disabled comments to avoid the abuse, Brenden writes: "Nothing like the wingnutosphere's love for the frank and open exchange of ideas!" Check the post for what follows. Actually, it turns out Brendan's not so intellectually prepared for the "open exchange of ideas." For starters, I left one of the Sadly No! sample comments from my blog: "... you're nothing but a bag of meat and your thoughts and desires are meaningless and you are a worthless piece of" shit. Sure. And I guess that's quality high-octane exchange for lefties. So I respond to Brendan, "So you wanna debate, bonejobkeefe? Bring it on." And what's he do? Runs from debate!
Thanks also for the invitation to debate. Perhaps someday we shall. I do not think it likely in this case, however. Take whatever admiration you have for David Horowitz and multiply it by -100, and that will approximate how I feel about him. On this matter, to borrow from someone whose name I have forgotten, sorry, but our views of reality do not overlap sufficiently to make discussion possible.Two things of interest right away: (1) The complete dismissal of David Horowitz's ideals as sheer lunacy, and (2) the rejection of my use of the phrase "freakish nihilism" to describe the ideological agenda of the left. There's a word for this: Anti-intellectualism. And that stance marinates in a devilish sauce of hard left-wing hubris and deceit. It's further soaked in hatred, for to hate one's enemies is to categorize them as beyond the pale of reason and civilization. Perhaps there's some psychology at work for Brendan. Someone as esteemed as David Horowitz, who lived through --- in direct participation --- all the cultural revolts of the last couple of generations, is ridiculed as a crazed milk crate screamer? Brendan certainly thinks he's got it all figured out. But I doubt he's actually read the book in question, Horowitz's The Politics of Bad Faith. I respond at the post, in any case:
For the record, my own sense of Horowitz is this: If in the past decade he's said anything beyond "Yes, waitress, I'll have some more coffee, please" that isn't utter lunacy, it's escaped my notice. One does not engage with so determined a conspiracy theorist. One simply abandons him to his milk crate at Speakers' Corner and seeks more worthwhile voices elsewhere.
I would say in particular that this phrase from your blurb of his book -- "the freakish nihilism of the radical left" -- doesn't even make sense in light of what this book of his is supposed to be about: "the Left has continued to advance its socialist schemes …" Stipulating for the moment that We have such an Agenda, it can hardly be said to be nihilist to have one -- to seek to advance a different social order (or to foist one upon you, if you insist) is not at all the same thing as wanting to do away with any and every social order, just for the sake of destruction.
I guess we have nothing to talk about then, since with the exception of Melanie Phillips, I can't think of someone more penetratingly clear on the left's ideological campaign of death and destruction. (And you're down with that, apparently.)Now note something here: This is substantive. There are ideas on the table, postulates to consider. It doesn't matter who's producing them. A hypothesis is just out there, to be evaluated. And how does Brendan respond? With more anti-intellectualism. My comment was caught in the Blogger spam filter, and Brendan takes that as a launch pad for some wise cracks, and then the non-response:
And seriously, you should at least read the book (cited at the link below) before you blow off "nihilism." The left has recycled Soviet Marxism-Leninism, giving a pass to the murder of 100s of millions. When those apologies for totalitarianism --- what leftist refer to as "actually existing socialism" --- become a defense of a failed ideology, all you have left is utter nothingness, hence nihilism.
I have to say, now that I have restored your comment of 1:57 PM, September 18, 2010, maybe I am not completely surprised that it got flagged as spam. Because it sure does read just like the wingnut chain emails one sees on Snopes, for example. Are you really a college professor? At an accredited school? And not, say, teaching math or something?And so, David Horowitz, and myself, apparently, are out standing on a corner, on milk boxes, raving like alleged lunatics? This is what Brendan calls debate. As I said, concepts are in play here. Ideas have consequences. Why is it that Democrats utter nary a peep when declared Stalinist ideologues wind up gaining access to the top levels of the Obama administration? These same folks, including many Democrats in Congress --- including dozens who have open affiliations with the Democratic Socialist Party of America --- call for and implement a Castro-style healthcare regime in the U.S. Of course, these people blow off the mass murder and desolation of the such communist thugs. It's not what they do, it's the ideals of humanity and transcendence that count! And thus with Brendan, to contemplate the nothingness in the wasteland of leftist neo-communist ideology is to scream "BLAARRGGHHH!!"
Anyway, our discussion so far:
You: Let's debate! Let's talk about David Horowitz and how great he is!
Me: There, we have nothing to talk about.
You: Let's talk about David Horowitz and how great he is! No, how he's greater than great!!!1! Because left nihilist leftist soviet Marxist death evil left effete dark side BLARGH BLARGH blargh …
Me: Nice milk crate.
Yeah. And how about that "exchange of ideas" Brendan was pumping up? Not so much, eh?
But that's not all. Brendan tells me to "grow up." No kidding:
I was not typing "Blargh" in response to your effort to twist the definition of nihilism to fit your own preconceived notions. It was in response to everything else.This is pure dismissal. It's definitely not intelligent discussion. Check the link to the post. I'm not going to waste more time on someone who is that closed-minded, at least not at that entry. What you see here is the notion that leftist ideology is UNCHALLENGEABLE. There's nothing that can penetrate the hard-shell of neo-communist ideology. Anyone with a different idea is literally a "Flat Earther."
Seriously, Donald, be your age. Do you really think you're going to interest me in any sort of discussion where you start off by howling how everything Left is irredeemably evil? I'd just as soon discuss spherical geometry with a Flat Earther.
Truly amazing. Meanwhile, these people and their grand schemes for a nationalization of the U.S. health delivery system under ObamaCare socialism are running for the hills. It's not working. Costs are not going down. Firms are responding by not hiring, precisely at the same time that unemployment keeps rising. It's statism that's failing, and the idea that state planning --- THE CENTRAL COMPONENT OF ALL SOCIALIST IDEOLOGY --- is proving just one more disaster rammed down American throats by the mandarins of the Democrat-Socialist Party in Washington.
I don't know how old Brendan is. He is idealistic. Perhaps the real world will intrude sometime in his life, and he'll learn to appreciate an actual argument for what it is an not the twisting evasion of some wingnut hokus pokus.
In any case, sometimes it's necessary to actually read the writings of your political enemies. (I didn't love wading through Markos Moulitsas' American Taliban, but I don't begrudge him for writing it. I know exactly where he stands now, and I'm all the more determined to resist him.) Perhaps Brendan might actually exhibit a little bit of personal maturity and actually attempt to engage some of these ideas, for example, this passage on Page 57 of The Politics of Bad Faith:
Totalitarianism is the possession of reality by a political Idea --- the Idea of socialist kingdom of heaven on earth; the redemption of humanity by political force. To radical believers this Idea is so beautiful it is like God Himself. It provides the meaning of a radical life. This is the solution that makes everything possible; the noble end that justifies the regrettable means. Belief in the kingdom of socialist heaven is faith that can transform vice into virtue, lies into truth, evil into good. In this revolutionary religion, the Way, the Truth, and the Life of salvation lie not with God above, but with men below --- ruthless, brutal, venal men --- on whom faith confers the power of gods. There is no mystery in the transformation of the socialist paradise into Communist hell: liberation theology is a satanic creed.
Cross-posted from American Power.
America's lost decade$......from Rico
Yes, that was a plural decadeS.
Our economic 40# brains and the talking heads/teleprompter readers tell us about Japan's "lost decade" but fail to mention something:
America has just had it's "lost decade."
a. in real (inflation adjusted) terms median wages are about 5% lower than they were in 2000.
b. The poverty rate is at a 15-year high.
c. The S&P 500 is about 20% lower than ten years ago.
But cheer up and pour three fingers of Das Hopenchangen Koolaid!
- In typical American we can do it bigger style, while the last decade may have been the worst decade for America in fifty years another "lost decade" is just ahead (thanks in no small part to a bloated government and spendaholic politicians and corrupticrats)!
Three cheers for Kenyan Keynesian Socialism! 
Colonoscopy ~ Patients' Comments
A physician claimed that the following are actual comments made by his patients (predominately male) while he was performing their colonoscopies:
1. Take it easy, Doc . You're boldly going where no man has gone before!
2. Find Amelia Earhart yet?
3. Can you hear me NOW?
4. Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet?
5. You know, in Arkansas , we're now legally married.
6. Any sign of the trapped miners, Chief?'
7. You put your left hand in; you take your left hand out...
8. Hey! Now I know how a Muppet feels!
9. If your hand doesn't fit, you must quit!
10. Hey Doc, let me know if you find my dignity.
11. You used to work for the Inland Revenue Service bad payers division, didn't you?
12. God, now I know why I am not gay.
And the best one of all...
13. Could you write a note for my wife saying that my head is not up there?
H/T DML
MICHAEL CAINE, ROYAL FUSILIER
Michael Caine on his service with the Royal Fusiliers, in Korea:
"It didn't give me nightmares, because the Army brutalizes you . . ."
Read the rest . . . . . . . . . . . . . STORMBRINGER
Catch This.......
A US army soldier with the 101st Airborne Division Alpha Battery 1-320th throws a fragmentation grenade as Combat Outpost Nolen on the outskirts of the village of Jellawar in the Arghandab Valley came under Taliban attack on September 11, 2010
News..........
Day 73 – 20th September 1940
Magersfontein & Boer Foreign Volunteers
BUT WAS IT ON THE TELEPROMPTERS? Barack leaves "by their Creator" out of the Declaration of Independence.
Ruthlessness—What McCain’s Miracle Shows Patriotic Immigration Reformers Need
Frontline soldiers forced to repay up to £6,500 of wages after MoD salary blunder
British troops hand over Sangin in Afghanistan to US forces
China halts senior government contact with Japan as boat row escalates
Diamonds sharpen Zimbabwe power struggle
The IMF itself has become the problem as Europe's woes return
The former Marxist guerrilla who is set to become Brazil's first woman president.
We're Not Going 'To Turn Afghanistan Into Any Sort of Switzerland'
and finally.....
Top Secret Aircraft that Officially Do Not Exist
Movie Review: 'Harry Brown'
Short Review: He's going down the road to Hell and he's keeping his blinker on the whole trip.
Full Review Here
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Great Tribute: Billy Fiske Memorial Flypast Goodwood Revival 2010.
Billy Fiske was a real American hero, who came to Britain during the WW2 and joined the RAF as a volunteer reserve.
The Goodwood Revival event held a special memorial for him, culminating in a flypast with Spitfires and a Hurricane leading the formation.
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