The State of the State speech sounds tautological, but its not. Think of it as The Condition of the Entity speech. It occurs today at 11 PM, and I expect an upbeat oration with the usual qualifications: "My fellow Minnesotans, the state of the state is good. But we face challenges." Or "The State of the State is challenged, but good." They might as well pass out a box of candy stamped Good N Challenged and leave it at that.
A speech reflecting our wild communal mood swings would be much more entertaining, wouldn't it? In fat years the governor bounds on stage with a big grin and shouts "BOOYA! The State of the State is KICKING MAJOR BUTT. Holy jumpin lunkers, folks - we have so much money were going to fix every bridges in the state and gild them. Then well gild the gusset plates. Then well gild the inspectors. For that matter I have just announced the mandatory gilding of all K-12 teachers, and thats just the start. Were talking trains all over the place. Were talking a train that has a small train inside it to take you from the dining car back to your seat."
Or the governor shows up pale and shaking, drops his notes, mutters Game over, man, game over, and runs for the exits.
According to this unscientific poll, half the respondents believe the state is in BAD shape. Im sure some believe its in bad shape because taxes are too low, and some believe its bad because taxes are too high. At least we can agree things are bad. Depends how you define that, I suppose; Id like to reserve the scary depressing words for breadlines and brokers leaping out of windows, falling on other brokers who are selling apples.
Posted by: Mike ||
02/13/2008 13:23 ||
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#1
mandatory gilding of all K-12 teachers
Given the number of weird news items originating from our public schools, gelding all K-12 teachers is probably not a bad idea. Expect some pushback from the teacher's unions though.
#2
As some asides, the Real Doll corporation, that makes the most advanced solid sex dolls, also makes the most advanced artificial "skin", which will likely be used on humanoid robots in the future.
Interestingly, some celebrities copyright their image, but most do not, so popular humanoid robots will most likely resemble them. Several adult movie actors have licensed their images for Real Dolls.
On the personal front, developing an artificial personality AI is a major challenge, and will probably need the person to wear a monitoring device, so that the robot program can "learn" their feelings and moods, much like voice to text analysis works today (like Dragon Naturally Speaking).
When Dragon was first devised, it took over an hour for a user to develop even a 90% accuracy rate, which meant one in ten words was wrong. But in about three generations, a 98% accuracy rate could be acquired in just 3-5 minutes, probably peaking at 99.8% or better.
I like to point out that it is unlikely that a robot body will be able to carry its "brain" for many generations, so it will have to be wireless connected to a powerful local computer brain in the same building, with several parallel communications links for different activities.
On top of which, that brain will need to be connected to a very powerful master control computer for complex safety and judgment decisions by the robot.
#16
And how long before we become robots, transfering cyberbrains into robotic bodies? This type of stuff makes me wonder just how long we can hold onto our biological make-up. First it's sex toys, then everybody wants to be A sex toy, then the end times come upon us!
Interesting read though.
Posted by: Charles ||
02/13/2008 16:28 Comments ||
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#17
And how long before we become robots, transferring cyberbrains into robotic bodies?
That's the whole premise of the central character of the Japanese series Ghost in the Shell and intertwines with several subplots in the video series. The Japanese sort of keep popping up on this subject. Of course the Americans have had a fascination with the subject since Julie Newmar was the android feature of My Living Doll, circa 1964. Hubba Hubba. Now where are those flying cars we were promised?
While he acknowledged that scientists are unable to predict its consequences, Mayor Bloomberg yesterday compared the scourge of global warming to the threat of terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. Although it is a "long-term" fight, he said, reducing gas emissions may save the life of "everybody" on the planet, the same way that fighting terrorism and its proliferation saves lives in shorter terms.
Addressing a U.N. climate change conference, the mayor also announced a new plan to reduce the use of tropical hardwoods by New York City and told delegates that the city plans to host a meeting in June of leaders from 20 major world cities to discuss ways for the largest municipalities to reduce global warming. Other participants in the conference called for a "war" against climate change, in which the United Nations would serve as a front-line combatant.
Mr. Bloomberg renewed his call, made first late last year, for taxing countries such as America that emit large amounts of carbons, which are believed to cause changes in the planet's climate. "So long as there's no penalty or cost involved in producing greenhouse gases, there will be no incentive" to meet targets set by international institutions, the mayor told the General Assembly. "For that reason, I believe the U.S. should enact a tax on carbon emissions.
Continued on Page 49
#5
what Mayor Nanny needs is a good mugging, to return him to everyday American's worries. A sexual assault might help, but I'm not encouraging anyone, mind you
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/13/2008 22:15 Comments ||
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#6
reducing gas emissions may save the life of "everybody" on the planet
It may also kill everyone on the planet. It depends on whether the climate drivers beyond our control warm or cool our future climate.
The Year Without a Summer after the Tambora eruption. Widespread famine. No one knows how many died but its probably in the millions.
Ditto for the Icelandic eruption a century earlier.
AGW would appear to be the best chance we have of saving our collective arses should we get another big volcanic eruption. Assuming of course CO2 warms the climate as much as advertized, which I very much doubt.
Anne Applebaum Is this a storm in a teacup, as the archbishop now claims? Was the "feeding frenzy" biased and unfair? Certainly it is true that, since Thursday, when Rowan Williams -- the archbishop of Canterbury, spiritual leader of the Church of England, symbolic leader of the international Anglican Communion -- called for "constructive accommodation" with some aspects of sharia law, and declared the incorporation of Muslim religious law into the British legal system "unavoidable," practically no insult has been left unsaid.
One Daily Telegraph columnist called the archbishop's statement a " disgraceful act of appeasement"; another called it a " craven counsel of despair." An Observer columnist eruditely wondered whether the archbishop's comment might count as a miracle, according to David Hume's definition of a miracle as a "violation of the laws of nature," while the notoriously sensationalistic Sun launched a campaign to remove the archbishop from office.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/13/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
The British Anglican Church should re-register as a Hostile Domestic Organ which is using its considerable resources to undermine England from within.
Give the old English families and their progeny rifles and lots of Ammo. The Springfield M1903, w/ a case of .30-06 Springfield (7.62x63mm would do just fine.
#3
And this coming from a descendant of the people who authored the "Magna Carta"
I seriously advise All truely British Gents to start stashing explosives and RPGs. When Ahmed and Mahmud come to rape your daughters and kill your sons, believe me the demented Archbishop would not save you - after all it's part of the Sharia to kill all infidels !
What A bunch of Dhimmie priests
Posted by: Elder of Zion ||
02/13/2008 5:45 Comments ||
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#4
An Observer columnist eruditely wondered whether the archbishop's comment might count as a miracle, according to David Hume's definition of a miracle as a "violation of the laws of nature,"
#5
First disarm the population. Then teach them that all violence - including and especially in self-defense - is morally wrong. Then imprison people from defending their lives and their homes. Then call out the military and the police to charge children with race-hate when they cannot speak Urdu in class. Then abandon the streets to the rule of the alien mob.
#8
All hail the inadvertant comic power of whoever decides the google-ads who run on this - the ad to the right of this story (as I post this comment!) is for a dating/matchmaking service for US Muslims...
Once again - it happens way too often - Mayor Carty Finkbeiner has managed to embarrass himself and the city he so zealously represents. Indeed, with sniping from the ubiquitous Internet blogosphere, Mr. Finkbeiner has made Toledo the subject of national derision by abruptly turning away a detachment of U.S. Marines that had arranged to conduct training exercises in urban warfare in the downtown last weekend.
This was a public relations debacle that could have been headed off were it not for inexplicably poor communications inside city government, plus the intransigence of a mayor with a long history of shooting from the lip, who rarely admits mistakes, and who reflexively digs in his heels when challenged.
On one level, we understand Mr. Finkbeiner's decision. If he agreed to allow the Marines to train downtown, he would in effect be admitting that Toledo has a central business district that is so devoid of activity that a bunch of folks in camouflage with guns, storming empty buildings, wouldn't bother a soul. But, given the fuss when the same thing happened two years ago, it's unbelievable that responsible officials in the police department and the mayor's office and, especially, the mayor himself, allowed controversy to blow up in their faces again.
To begin with, the 200 members of Company A, 1st Battalion, 24th Marines, from Grand Rapids, Mich., shouldn't have been given the green light to train in Toledo, given the mayor's after-the-fact opposition in May, 2006, when he contended - somewhat dubiously, we believe - that the presence downtown of troops from the same unit "frightened" people.
But once the unit showed up last week, they shouldn't have been so unceremoniously turned away. Never mind that no one bothered to tell the mayor they were coming, or, more likely, that Mr. Finkbeiner wasn't listening, the Marines should have been allowed to complete their training mission here. It's not as if they were going to use live ammunition, and the training had been publicized in The Blade beforehand.
As anyone except the mayor might have anticipated, the response to his decision was not pretty. Traitorous, disgusting, and national disgrace are some of the kinder comments about the Mr. Finkbeiner on various Internet blogs.
His Honor's response was pure Carty: Rather than graciously admitting his error, he called anyone who questioned his loyalty to the military and love of country a "baboon."
Neither Toledo City Council nor the Lucas County commissioners have helped the situation either. The political posturing of some members of Council has been more than a little transparent. And the commissioners' attempt to mend fences by offering gift cards for visits to Toledo by the Marines and their families seemed foolish.
What this incident boils down to is yet another example of Carty's "Ready, fire, aim!" approach to management. Like - can it ever be topped?- the idea of moving deaf people out near the airport. Once again, the whole city is made to look the fool because of the mayor's lack of judgment and unhealthy obsession with always being in control.
Without thinking, Mr. Finkbeiner treated the Marines as an enemy to be vanquished, with all the patriotic connotations in this post-9/11, war-torn world. He should know by now that sometimes discretion is the better part of valor. Failing that, he needed to remember that the mayor is responsible for everything that happens on his watch. A quick acceptance of responsibility and a sincere apology would have gone a long way toward ameliorating the negative national attention focused on Toledo.
#5
Sorry...Rex has ZERO sympathy. You get what you pay for. Don't like it? Move....or get out the torches n pitch forks. Or how about this....stop electing @$$hOle$ to represent you!
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
02/13/2008 23:55 Comments ||
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WASHINGTON - For years, Bill and Hillary Clinton treated the Democratic National Committee and party activists as extensions of their White House ambitions, pawns in a game of success and survival. She may pay a high price for their selfishness soon.
Top Democrats, including some inside Hillary Clinton's campaign, say many party leaders the so-called superdelegates won't hesitate to ditch the former New York senator for Barack Obama if her political problems persist. Their loyalty to the first couple is built on shaky ground.
"If (Barack) Obama continues to win .... the whole raison d'etre for her campaign falls apart and we'll see people running from her campaign like rats on a ship," Who wrote this? The expression is "[flee] like rats on a sinking ship" said Democratic strategist Jim Duffy, who is not aligned with either campaign.
The rats started looking for clear waters This doesn't even make sense. It almost wants to be a mixed metaphor, but there's no metaphor to mix! when Obama won Iowa, narrowly lost New Hampshire and trounced Clinton in South Carolina before holding his own in last week's Super Tuesday contests. He won primaries in Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia on Tuesday to extend his consecutive win streak to eight.
Obama has won 23 of 35 contests, earning the majority of delegates awarded on the basis of election results. The remaining 796 delegates are elected officials and party leaders whose votes are not tied to state primaries or caucuses; thus, they are dubbed "superdelegates."
And they are not all super fans of the Clintons.
Some are labor leaders still angry that Bill Clinton championed the North American Free Trade Agreement as part of his centrist agenda.
Some are social activists who lobbied unsuccessfully to get him to veto welfare reform legislation, a talking point for his 1996 re-election campaign.
Some served in Congress when the Clintons dismissed their advice on health care reform in 1993. Some called her a bully at the time.
Some are DNC members who saw the party committee weakened under the Clintons and watched President Bush use the White House to build up the Republican National Committee.
Some are senators who had to defend Clinton for lying to the country about his affair with Monica Lewinsky.
Some are allies of former Vice President Al Gore who still believe the Lewinsky scandal cost him the presidency in 2000.
Some are House members (or former House members) who still blame Clinton for Republicans seizing control of the House in 1994.
Some are donors who paid for the Clintons' campaigns and his presidential library.
Some are folks who owe the Clintons a favor but still feel betrayed or taken for granted. Could that be why Bill Richardson, a former U.N. secretary and energy secretary in the Clinton administration, refused to endorse her even after an angry call from the former president? "What," Bill Clinton reportedly asked Richardson, "isn't two Cabinet posts enough?"
And some just want something new. They appreciate the fact that Clinton was a successful president and his wife was an able partner, but they never loved the couple as much as they feared them.
Never count the Clintons out. They are brilliant politicians who defied conventional wisdom countless times in Arkansas and Washington. But time is running out.
Two senior Clinton advisers, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the race candidly, said the campaign feels the New York senator needs to quickly change the dynamic by forcing Obama into a poor debate performance, going negative or encouraging the media to attack Obama. They're grasping at straws, but the advisers said they can't see any other way that her campaign will be sustainable after losing 10 in a row.
Clinton strategists are famous for poor-mouthing their own campaign in order to lower expectations, but these advisers have never played such games. They're legitimate, and legitimately worried.
The fear inside the Clinton camp is that Obama will win Hawaii and Wisconsin next week and head into the March 4 contests for Ohio and Texas with a 10-race winning streak. Her poll numbers will drop in Texas and Ohio, Clinton aides fear, and party leaders will start hankering for an end to the fight.
Clinton should find little comfort in the fact that she has secured 242 superdelegates to Obama's 160.
"I would make the assumption that the ... superdelegates she has now are the Clintons' loyal base. A superdelegate who is uncommitted today is clearly going to wait and see how this plays out. She's at her zenith now," Duffy said. "Whatever political capital or IOUs that exist, she's already collected."
Few Democrats want to cross the Clintons when they're on top. But how many are willing to stand by them when they're down?
#3
"Hang on here. If a ship is sinking, the rats aboard are in no position to look for clear waters before they abandon it. To paraphrase Donald Rumsfeld, you abandon a sinking ship with the water you have.
"The headline confuses matters even further: 'ON DEADLINE: Chickens Come Home to Roost.' Fournier's deadline must have been really tight if he didn't have time to figure out if he was writing about rats or chickens.
"Or maybe he got confused because rats taste like chicken."
#2
Iowa, December Standing atop a stage in a livestock auction barn, Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton likened the experience to her quest to woo undecided voters in the closing days before Iowas pivotal caucuses.
Ive been to cattle barns before and sales before, in Arkansas, but Ive never felt like I was the one that was being bid on, Clinton told a crowd in western Iowa. I know youre going to inspect me. You can look inside my mouth if you want. I hope by the end of my time with you I can make the case for my candidacy and to ask you to consider caucusing for me.
To be fair: May, 2007 The death toll was 12.
"In case you missed it, this week, there was a tragedy in Kansas. Ten thousand people died an entire town destroyed," the Democratic presidential candidate said in a speech to 500 people packed into a sweltering Richmond art studio for a fundraiser.
Obama mentioned the disaster in Greensburg, Kan., in saying he had been told by the office of Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius that the state's National Guard had been depleted by its commitment to the Iraq War.
"Turns out that the National Guard in Kansas only had 40 percent of its equipment and they are having to slow down the recovery process in Kansas," Obama said, his shirt sleeves rolled up and his head glistening with sweat.
As the Illinois senator concluded his remarks a few minutes later, he appeared to realize his gaffe.
And it was August any substance came from the obama-nation.
And was it me, or was mccain trying to talk like GW cc: Virginia election results vs. huckles?
#4
"Given what we know about the Clintons, it would seem unlikely that Hillary would quit before every delegate possible was wrung out of the process."
Hah! Looks like the Clintons' are already calling in their favors from the Race hustlers. You know...the folks in Florida and Michigan are feeling all disenfranchised...and shit.
#5
Ya mean, Julian Bond?
Not a major league race baiter like "The Reverends", but worthy enough to inhabit the layer of pond scum just beneath them...
WASHINGTON A prominent civil rights leader has told the Democratic National Committee that refusing to seat delegates from Florida and Michigan would disenfranchise both states' minority communities.
In a Feb. 8 letter to DNC Chairman Howard Dean, NAACP chairman Julian Bond expressed "great concern at the prospect that million of voters in Michigan and Florida could ultimately have their votes completely discounted." Refusing to seat the states' delegations could remind voters of the "sordid history of racially discriminatory primaries," he said.
Shivin a brutha. Hope the payback's worth it. And it'd better work, or you are so screwed...
I'm getting a lot of email about Obama's candidacy and how it plays into my book. I think there's a lot one could say about it, though I haven't really thought it all through yet. The beauty of Hillary Clinton's "politics of meaning" was that there's an enormous paper trail a book even to work with. I've read bits of The Audacity of Hope, but none of the rest of Obama's stuff. Anyway here are some notes to ponder and elicit feedback. It's a bit choppy, but so be it.
I think the most obvious place to start is whether Obama is promoting something like a political religion. The messianic nature of Obama's campaign has been noted by many for a long time now. He often sounds like he's reviving the social gospel. There's even a website called "Is Barack Obama the Messiah?"
Many of the tropes of a political religion/liberal fascism are evident. He exalts unity as it's own reward. His talk of starting new and starting over often sounds like more than merely "turning the page" on the Bush-Clinton years. It sounds a bit like starting at Year Zero. . . .
Go read the whole thing -- it's poli-sci geek stuff, but it's interesting.
Joe Knippenberg, reviewing Obama's statements on religion writes:
Obama speaks as if the first move of someone faithful to Gods word is to call for government action, not to act directly through his or her own charitable efforts. Those who dont engage in political action of the sort he approves are apparently hypocrites, satisfied with mere words. His religious commitments are a kind of conversation-stopper, as the late Richard Rorty once said.
This reminds me of perhaps my favorite vignette from the book:
Walter Rauschenbusch offers the best short explanation of the Social Gospel for our purposes. A professor at the Rochester Theological Seminary and a onetime preacher on the outskirts of New Yorks Hells Kitchen, the slender clergyman with a thin goatee had become the informal leader of the movement when he published Christianity and the Social Crisis in 1907. [U]nless the ideal social order can supply men with food, warmth and comfort more efficiently than our present economic order, he warned, back we shall go to Capitalism . . . The God that answereth by low food prices, he boomed, let him be God."
In other words, God had chosen his preferred economic system, and any religious faith, doctrine or revelation that suggested otherwise must be false. God is a socialist, dagnabit, and if a God who isn't a socialist speaks to you in a small, still voice, turn your back on Him. The state, according to Rauschenbusch was "the medium through which the people shall co-operate in their search for the kingdom of God and its righteousness.
In my book I concentrate on Hillary Clinton's "village" and her Politics of Meaning. But it seems to me that Obama is every bit the practitioner of his own politics of meaning and his own conception of a village-like community.
Posted by: Mike ||
02/13/2008 08:28 ||
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#1
What is the author assuming? Sounds a bit of a stretch.
#2
Obama reminds of Jimmy Carter (the man from Plains) bursting on the scene to give America hope in the 70's. There were few concrete reasons to vote for him, but he attracted massive crowds, media adulation and won the presidency.
I think there are a lot of people out there who don't remember that bit of history and we are therefore doomed to repeat it.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi declared again on CNN's "Late Edition" program Sunday that the troop surge in Iraq is a failure.
Ms. Pelosi's timing was unfortunate for what shreds remain of her credibility. Her statement coincided with the release by U.S. forces in Iraq Saturday of the diary of Abu Tariq, an al Qaida leader around the northern city of Balad. The diary was captured in a raid in November. It apparently had been written the month before.
Abu Tariq once had nearly 600 fighters under his command, but his force has dwindled to no more than 20. The chief reason for this, he wrote, was the decision of most Sunni tribes to throw in with the Americans.
Continued on Page 49
#2
To the media and Democratic party Iraq will be a failure regardless of how it turns out. Military success is anethema to them and they will continue to repeat the big lie until it is accepted fact.
#4
She's got lifeless eyes. Black eyes. Like a doll's eyes. When she comes at ya, doesn't seem to be living... until she bites ya, and those black eyes roll over white and then...ah then you hear that terrible high-pitched screamin'.
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/13/2008 15:39 Comments ||
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#6
Shoulda used the image of Nancy with the scarf covering her head since it appears she's adopted the Paleo notion of - "Taking every opportunity to pass up an opportunity".
She's got the Hillary disease but with a smaller perspective - Power at any Price!(tm)
So knows she's in a safe seat regardless of her actions and doesn't care what happens to the party or nation as a consequence.
#1
Of course we all know which side the of the *WAR ON TERROR* TIME INC is rooting for. *SPIT*
And every one of us old timers knows for certain they'd love to replicate their 50 year old LIES by re-manufacturing the Big Lie again from the top of an Embassy. *SPIT*
Posted by: Fred ||
02/13/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Could the political rhetoric fuel a civil war in Lebanon?
A civil war within the civil war that's been going on since the 80's or is the writer trying to fool me into thinking that one ever stopped?
Posted by: Mike N. ||
02/13/2008 2:07 Comments ||
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#2
Could the political rhetoric fuel a civil war in Lebanon?
A war and/or a civil war within the a war and/or a civil war that's been going on since the 80's 8000 BC or is the writer trying to fool me into thinking that one ever stopped?
The eminent scholar, Bat Yeor, is a towering intellect and a fierce judge of both human character and history. Her work predicted and documented the Islamification of Europe. We both agree that the battle for America has only begunalthough I believe that it is well underway. In the following interview I had with Bat Yeor, we talk about War and Peace and the Clash of Civilizations.
Chesler: What do you see is happening at this moment?
Bat Yeor: The West is engaged in a very careful exercise of self-censorship. We are trying not to offend Muslim sensibilities. Western governments want to impose respect for Muslim sensibilities in the hope that this will avoid jihad. They are ready to suppress the truth.
Chesler: What do you think of an Obama Presidency?
Bat Yeor: Obama and his supporters do not seem to understand that Europe has failed. Today, European dissidents are forming movements against the European Union whose policies have led to the Islamification of Europe. Europe is suffering from a huge Muslim immigration problem. The Muslim immigrants do not want to integrate into a modern, tolerant state and they want to impose Sharia law on us all.
Chesler: What does this remind you of?
Bat Yeor: All these Western gestures of appeasement remind me of the dhimmi regulations. These are a whole set of regulations whose purpose is to respect Muslim sensibilities. Therefore, Christians must conduct quiet services and dhimmis (infidels) must wear special clothing so as not to shock or offend Muslims with their too-fashionable or too-expensive clothing. Long ago, infidels had to dismount from their donkeys when a Muslim approached and a dhimmi could only pass a Muslim on the left (or impure) side, not on the right side.
I am not in favor of inciting anyone but really, where will this all end? And why this super-sensitivity only to Muslims? There is only one answer. Our intellectuals and politicians want to have a good relationship with the Muslim world. They think they will always have the freedoms that they currently enjoy. They do not understand that those freedoms are at risk.
Chesler: Where does Israel fit into this picture?
Bat Yeor: Europeans have imagined that the problem is only Israel. They were committed to allowing the Arabs to destroy Israel if that kept them, the Europeans, safe. But these Europeans do not seem to remember that Islam persecuted and then destroyed Christianity in Muslim lands. We see a repetition of this in Europe today.
Chesler: Such politicians and intellectuals are suicidal, dont you think?
Bat Yeor: Absolutely. But they want so much to be loved that they are reaching out to their enemy. This is the politics of self-destruction. They are making concessions about their basic security and freedom
Chesler: Some people are already discouraged, almost in advance, about the battle for America. What do you think?
Bat Yeor: This battle is not yet lost. The handful of us who are working to alert others to the dangers specific to the 21st century are doing heroic work against all odds. Weyouhave not failed. I believe that we are planting seeds. When America battled communism it had whole organizations committed to doing so. Weyouhave nothing like that today in the war against Islamic terror.
Chesler: I know that your work was initially attacked or disappeared. How much has this changed?
Bat Yeor: My work has been well received in Italy by the most prominent Italian intellectuals. I am, however, conspicuously avoided in the UK by the media and in universitiesalthough I did speak before Parliament two years ago. In France, everyones speech is less free than elsewhere. It is the most intellectually repressive society. Emphasis on that. Repressive both intellectually (overbearing PCness & constant self-censorship in the public discourse), and legally.
After I returned home, I read that French intellectuals, headed by the awful Bernard Henri-Levy are organizing to support Aayan Hirsi Alis request for French citizenship. Have the French finally begun to wake up? Or does this say something about Sarkozys future politics and his potential interest in a high-profile symbol?
#1
Bat Yeor makes valid points but unfortunately she's obsessed with the idea that the EU was and is sort of pushing or at least promoting the islamification of Europe.
This is simply nonsense. The countries with the highest percentages of Muslims (UK and France) owe this fact to colonial times. Germany got its Turks from its guest worker program way back in the 60s and 70s when the EU was only an ECC and hardly ran things.
The number of Muslims in Europe (in almost all countries below 4% of the population) is mostly due to higher birth rates. Not something the EU controls.
We definitely need more straight talk and less stupid archbishops though.
Posted by: Pearl Shuck3997 ||
02/13/2008 17:59 Comments ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
In the mood for a little skin-to-skin?" coos a lover slipping between the sheets.
While he acknowledged that scientists are unable to predict its consequences, Mayor Bloomberg yesterday compared the scourge of global warming to the threat of terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. Although it is a "long-term" fight, he said, reducing gas emissions may save the life of "everybody" on the planet, the same way that fighting terrorism and its proliferation saves lives in shorter terms.
Is this a storm in a teacup, as the archbishop now claims? Was the "feeding frenzy" biased and unfair? Certainly it is true that, since Thursday, when Rowan Williams -- the archbishop of Canterbury, spiritual leader of the Church of England, symbolic leader of the international Anglican Communion -- called for "constructive accommodation" with some aspects of sharia law, and declared the incorporation of Muslim religious law into the British legal system "unavoidable," practically no insult has been left unsaid. 
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi declared again on CNN's "Late Edition" program Sunday that the troop surge in Iraq is a failure. 
Maybe we should start calling her Baghdad Nancy!
