Bushes Brushed (rather than bashed)

Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery: "President and Mrs. Bush’s Portraits"

During the winter holidays, visitors will have the first chance to view the portraits of President George W. Bush and first lady Laura Bush commissioned for the National Portrait Gallery.

The president and first lady will unveil the portraits in a private ceremony at the museum Friday, Dec. 19. The paintings will be on public view beginning Dec. 20. This is the first time that the Portrait Gallery will present the official likenesses of a sitting president and first lady.

“It is always a great moment for the National Portrait Gallery to unveil the portraits of presidents and first ladies” (...) >>>

On Mahmoud Day, Myanmar Day!

After the first lady went out of her way:

- Int'l Herald Tribune: "Laura Bush calls on U.N. to denounce Myanmar government" - "In a gesture of public policy not normally associated with first ladies, she telephoned the United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki Moon, last Friday and called on him to denounce the junta that rules Myanmar, the country formerly known as Burma."I wanted the U.N. to be on record saying, at least, that we know what's happened in this recent crackdown," she said in an interview Wednesday."

... and her husband weighed in ...

- AFP: "Bush blasts Myanmar junta for 'tyrannical' crackdown" - "Piling pressure on the generals, Bush said he would be speaking out about Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, at a weekend summit of Asia Pacific leaders in Sydney."

... and even a Leftist mouthpiece cannot keep quiet any longer ...

- Al Guardian: "Tens of thousands support monks in Burma protests" - "Tens of thousands of people joined around 10,000 Buddhist monks in Rangoon today in the biggest demonstration against the ruling military in Burma for 20 years."

... isn't it time that the entire peace loving, truth admiring, reality based, morally bankrupt anti war camp turned out the placards, said something, some little thing, a few words perhaps ... a sigh than at least? Instead you get this:

- Global Researcher: "Preventing a Rogue President from Committing a War Crime: Open Letter to the New Generation of Military Officers", subtitled "Should-some-civilian-order-you-to-initiate-a-nuclear-attack-on-Iran-you-are-DUTY-bound-to-refuse-that-order", by Dr Lt. Col. Robert M. Bowman - "Our oath of office is to “protect and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.” Might I suggest that this includes a rogue president and vice-president? ... we in the military have not only the right, but also the DUTY to refuse an illegal order ..." Hat tip: Right Truth

Personally, I blame the Global Researcher, the webpage publishing "news articles, commentary, background research and analysis on a broad range of issues, focusing on social, economic, strategic, geopolitical and environmental processes", as researched by the Center for Research on Globalization. I feel publishers are DUTY bound to protect some authors at a certain point against themselves! Where that certain point is? Let's say, as of embarrassment level ...

... which reminds me of the Dutch Anti Terrorism czar, who happens to be a Frisian. The Frisians are an ancient, indigenous people inhabiting the utmost northern fringes of the Netherlands. Their flag is a feast to the eyes. They are well known for their pigheadedness, their blond, easy going women, their arduous skating events known to last over 48 hours, rustic alcoholic beverages and cute names.

This official was baptised Tjibbe Joustra. He's also known to say cute things about Muslims (another rustic, ancient, not so indigenous people inhabiting the rest of the Netherlands). Joustra says that Muslims are known to be easily upset and prone to seek the assistance of explosive material when provoked. Since this is well known, the Dutch have only themselves to blame should dangerous situations erupt. It's not just the Frisians though, that are well known to love a game of "Blaming the Victim".

Update 25th Sept., 18:00: BBC News Alert: U.S. President George W. Bush condemns the Burmese military government's "19-year rule of fear", as Rangoon protesters defy army warnings.

Blurring the Border between Reality and Perception (1)

Just one of the hazards of Postmodern (Pomo) thought (if that is the right word), is that the line between reality and perception becomes blurred. Indeed, it was thought up by the Marxists for this exact same purpose: it is a psy-ops program that proves very useful in the present subversion plot: setting the Jihadis on the realm of The White Patriarch, so that the Egalitarian Collective may still blossom on the ashes, once the fog of war has lifted.

The process of surgically removing the West's moral consciousness has long been completed: that put paid to right and wrong, and 'oppressive social constructs' like good and evil. The consequences of that second part of the subversion program: the blurring of reality and perception, are only now becoming apparent.

Keeping in mind that even the research into the natural world - science - is seen as only one of many versions of reality (a meta narrive, in Pomo lingo), this helps in the realization that this is - by now - an institutionalised attempt at creating a global nut-house. The fact that we now have Pomo Christians - which doesn't make sense on any level - is one measure of just how pathologically insane the world really has been made.

The task of journalism is to inform the public of current events. Events are facts, they are objective reality, things happening in the real world. Considering that journalists as a professional class were one of the first and most enthusiastic admirers of Postmodernism, it is apparent that what they write isn't seen as reality at all, but only as a particular version of it: the so-called 'narrative'.

The BBC always has been, secretly, proudly biased, although the chickens may now be coming home to roost. The spectacle of pretended objectivity has run for a long time, until the appearance of Al-Jazeera-in-English created some sort of a critical mass and pretence was dropped altogether. I think it was then that the theoretical period ended and the mainstream media quite overtly swapped the 'narrative' of the West, for that of the East. It may have been a coincidence: this is of course my 'narrative', but perhaps somebody else has a better 'version of events'. Update: LGF reports more antisemitism and Christophobia on BBC message boards; Islamophobia though is considered taboo.

An example of the confusion between fact and perception (or personal opinion) is that attempts at correcting a wrong - a mistake is easy to make in the creative commons of the virtual communities - is rapidly shoved aside as censorship.

A personalised news service, as for example offered by Google may seem a practical feature, few people realise after time, that what they are getting aren't objective news items as they happen, but subjective news items as they have ordered them.

Anyway, at last the objective realists are starting to fight back. Lists are appearing, detailing when, why and how the facts were manipulated to conform with somebody's particular 'narrative', attempts at disinformation, spin and counter-spin, fibs and lies, fabrication, selective emphasizing, manipulation and censoring.

For fun, let's start with Coulter's list, never one to mince words in a good cause:

"All the Democrats' most dearly beloved anti-war/anti-Bush heroes invariably end up in the Teresa Heinz Kerry wing of the nut-house."

- "Scott Ritter went from being a trusted U.N. weapons inspector .... to being just another creep trying to have sex with underage girls."

- "Cindy Sheehan once had 'absolute moral authority'. Now she's just a madwoman writing mash notes to Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez."

- "Max Cleland was a war hero who lost his limbs as a result of Viet Cong grenades ... (T)hen we learned Cleland was a victim only of his own clumsiness and had dropped the grenade on himself in Vietnam after stopping for a beer."

- "Bill Burkett was the left's most admired military veteran since Benedict Arnold. He claimed Bush had shirked his National Guard duty and said he had the documents to prove it. And then Burkett turned out to be a foaming-at-the-mouth loon."

- "Paul Hackett was treated in the media as if it were the Second Coming ... yes, he was a veritable Noel Coward, that Hackett. Soon, even Rep. Rahm Emanuel and Sen. Chuck Schumer were trying to get Hackett to drop his next political campaign for the U.S. Senate."

- "Gen. Wesley Clark was once compared to Eisenhower ... Then it turned out the only war Clark wanted to lead was America's War on Fetuses ... he had received calls from 'the White House' by which he meant 'a think tank in Canada'. Last we heard, Gen. Clark was on the alternate list for 'Dancing With the Stars'."

- "Joe Wilson went from being billed in the media as a trusted adviser to Vice President Dick Cheney and billed (by himself) as an eyewitness to the president's 'lies', to being an apron-wearing househusband who had been sent on an errand by his wife."

- "Most recently, The New Republic's 'Baghdad Diarist' has been unveiled as a liar, another illustrious chapter in that magazine's storied history of publishing con men and frauds."

~ To be continued in Part 2: Reports from Iraq have become synonymous with Leftist spin, censoring, emphasizing, and selection. Each death that occurs within its borders is brought to me, personally, 'as it happens' by CNN's and the BBC's Breaking News Email Service. ~

Of Homeland Security and the Most Discredited Profession

Dr Sanity, in "Reprise: The Neo-Marxist Fascism of the Left" posts that John at Power Line in "More Revelations From the Intelligence Community" ...

"... makes a startling discovery in the text of the most recent NIE report, recently splashed all over the headlines and leftist blogosphere as "proving" that the Bush Administration has put the US in more danger by its actions in the war on terror:

"Remember all those news stories about how a secret report--still secret, I guess--said that we were now in as much danger of terrorist attack as we were prior to September 11? Well, that's not what the NIE says. It says the opposite (my emphasis), in a paragraph that I have yet to see quoted in a newspaper:

"We assess that greatly increased worldwide counter-terrorism efforts over the past five years have constrained the ability of al-Qa’ida to attack the U.S. Homeland again and have led terrorist groups to perceive the Homeland as a harder target to strike than on 9/11. These measures have helped disrupt known plots against the United States since 9/11."

"This is a perfect example of what I hate most about the MSM and the left."


Well, what can you say? Journalism surely must be by now The Most Discredited Profession after the occupation of Freedom Fighter ... Read all about John's revelation here, and the doctor's valued comments on the Carnival of Insanities here!

Transnational Progressivism: an Inexplicable Presumption

The Transnational Progressivism Alerts for today are for the Central European areas and the Balkan peninsula, as well as for the whole of Northern America and parts of Meso-America, and - oh .... what thee eck ... make that for the whole of planet Earth and the surrounding areas!

Foehammer's Anvil, in "Bush dismembers Serbia" is on to the consequences of the impending Kosovo precedent. In instalment number 5 on the transnational state in the series "Neo-Totalitarianism" we have already seen that " ... it is certain that diplomatically and politically something is afoot. The U.N. does not have the legal power to declare countries independent; nevertheless, if Security Council member and Serb ally Russia doesn't veto ... the U.N. will have done exactly that. It will provide for any other area in the world with separatist aspirations or with an axe to grind, to go the same route".

But, if the whole exercise isn't an adexterous attempt at appeasing Radical Islamism, betting heavily on Russia indeed voting the hazardous plan to Neverland, "perhaps this is the very thing the Transnational Progressive community have in mind ... the gradual end to the mono-cultural remnants of the era of "sectarian war after war, and wave after wave of ethic cleansing", as the latest postmodern propaganda slogan goes."

Foehammer is quoting from a 'Accuracy in Media' (AIM) article by Cliff Kincaid dated June 8, 2007 as follows: "What Bush is doing is laying the groundwork for more conflict and upheaval in the world ... Never before in history has the U.N. presided over the deliberate destruction of a sovereign state. Kosovo represents the religious heritage of Serbia's Christians and many Christian churches have already been destroyed by Muslim extremists there. Taking Kosovo from Serbia is comparable to taking Jerusalem from Israel." Amen!

There is that last aspect too, yes. But in today's 'post-Christian' world who cares for a few antiquated churches and monasteries: old bricks and mortar, and a reminder of the terrible world we inhabited before the advent of postmodernity! We are all interdependent now ...!

Yet the relentless diplomatic push towards an independent Muslim state in Kosovo is indeed "ominous ... If ethnic Albanians can take Kosovo from Serbia, then Mexico can take the Southwest from the U.S., making it part of Mexico or making it into a state or region of its own, separate from the U.S. Indeed, there is a plan to do just that. Bush apparently doesn't fear this possibility because he sees Mexico joining Canada and the U.S. in some kind of ultimate trilateral entity. In this kind of world, there would be a common identity card and people would be free to travel anywhere." Hey, let's rock with this transnational progressivism! Burn your passport, delete the border!

That multicultural and multi-ethnic world of empires people lived in before the doctrine of self-determination, autonomy and the national identity was fully developed, and which since has gone out of diplomatic fashion, is described in the book "Not even my name" by Thea Halo whose mother was a Pontian Greek, father an Assyrian, Christian minorities in the Ottoman Empire that - along with Armenians - felt the brunt of the Young Turk and Ataturk's policies of 'Turkey for the Turks'. Armenian Aztag Daily had an interview with the American author; it can be read in "Companians in Suffering".

Which begs the question: can Turkey ever become a worthy E.U. member while in denial over its own history of conquest, submission (dhimmitude) and suppression? Germany and South Africa were brave enough, having completed their psychological processes to come to terms with the past and are the better for it; due to their cultures of shame Japan and Turkey are still struggling with the events, the latter being in a state of denial altogether.

The tone for example in which Turkish Daily News recently reported on the matter of a Greek history text book didn't exactly betray awareness of any sensitivities on the Greek side towards past events that happened on their imperial watch, to say the least.
And neither did Turkish P.M. Erdogan betray any empathy when he told Greek P.M. Karamanlis during a meeting in Vienna last Friday, that "there is a lot of sensitivity (on the part of Turkey) to this sort of issue"; this sort of issue being the unveiling of a monument in Thessaloniki, commemorating the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Pontic Greeks during World War I and in the Asia Minor catastrophe of 1922 at the hands of Turkish forces: it "cast a shadow over friendly relations between the two countries", rang the ultimate chutzpah.

The American author has a good point where she stresses that "... by recognizing the genocides they (Turkey) would resolve some of the other important issues as well. For instance ... you don't have to keep jailing your teachers, publishers, and journalists on this issue ... It's a shame that they can't speak freely and learn what happened in their own country without fear."

"The sad thing is that they lost so much, because the Greeks, Armenians, and Assyrians had so much culture there ... vibrancy ... wonderful artisans, intellectuals, teachers, musicians. At the time, there were Europeans who were saying "What in the world will Turkey do without the Christians?" After all, it was the Christians who were the intellectuals and business people, who had the education to help Turkey progress into the 20th century."

"When Turkey got rid of the Christian populations, they set themselves back, way-way back. The general Turkish population was not well educated at that time, because the Turkish government didn't bother to educate them the way the Christian missionaries educated the Christian populations. For the most part, the government wouldn't allow Muslims to attend the Christian schools, for fear of conversion, so most Turks of the time remained peasants and farmers" ... whose grandchildren are currently finding their way to permissive, postmodern, liberal societies and don't seem to be able to get over the culture shock.


As history lessons are gradually erased from school curricula, it is not unusual to find Westerners going through their lives with the false idea that Greek temples, Armenian monasteries and Assyrian churches were built by Turks, unaware as they are of the fact that pre-Islamic Turkish tribes only came on the Indo-European scene out of the Mongolian planes, from the thirteenth century onwards, conquering the indigenous Christianized peoples in the process. It is an illusion the Turks do nothing to dispel, claiming the cultural loot as their own.

A similar development occurred from the eighth century onwards with the Islamic conquests of countries in the Middle East and Northern Africa: it may come as a shock to some victims of the postmodern interpretation of history education, but (Islamic) Turks and Arabs don't build churches, or Greek ruins, or Roman aquaducts - never have, never will! Nor are they indigenous to Turkey (Asia Minor, or the Near East) or the Middle East, the Arabs hailing from the Arabian peninsula, roughly present day Saudi Arabia.

The postmodern elite is so much in a hurry towards the progression of the transnational, borderless, multicultural and multi-ethnic empire building, that they rather opt for silence and suppression of unwelcome historical events rather than deal with them, non-offensive policies being the number one on the politically correct order of the day.

U-turning politicians are never a pleasant sight, but nothing is more repulsive and nauseating than the European party big wigs slithering hither and thither in their exculpation of the Turkish atrocities in the face of that country's impending E.U. membership (Belgium's Messrs Johan Vande Lanotte and Yves Leterme and, on behalf of The Netherlands, Wouter Bos).

The most perplexing of the transnational progressive wisdom is, that - apart from the fact that the old empires were neither easy manageable entities from a governmental point of view, nor democratic champions of civil rights - the idea also counters, what not a century ago, was seen as the solution to "sectarian war after war, and wave after wave of ethic cleansing", namely borders, passports, sovereignty, the nation-state.

Of Sick Games, Dangerous Asymmetrics and Demographics

It's a bit of a mixed bag today, mostly covered by the press from hell.

- "Church threatens legal action over 'sick' Sony game which 'desecrates' cathedral"
Sony stands accused by Church of England clergy of desecrating Manchester Cathedral after using the place of worship, without permission, as the backdrop to an ultra-violent computer game. A Dutch media outlet picks up the story (probably the low season has started to kick in) and heads "Church of England upset about a little game". The diminutive and the postmodern inverted commas trivialize the alleged qualification of the 'sickness' as well as the game itself, while in 'desecrates' they serve the purpose of throwing into doubt if such a thing really exists: isn't it all a gross exaggeration posed by hysterical Christians?

It reminds me of the comments of a E.U. Commissioner Margot "make-love-not-war" Wallstrom a few months ago, who briefly assumed the role of film critic. She derided the American production "The Departed" - covered by the freedom of expression, if not artistic licence - for its 'violence'. Apparently virtual violence from American sources is much worse than produced by Japanese. Ah, the selective indignation of the postmodern establishment and the overt game of deriding organised Christian faith in the press! And so our opinions are manipulated.

- The Los Angeles Times exploits and misuses Pope Benedict's criticism of the Iraq war for its own purposes. In "On Iraq, pope's message to Bush is quiet but firm" (which is an invention in contradiction of their own words further down the article: "Benedict did not use Bush's visit to make public remarks of substance and instead chose to deliver his message in private") the reporters state: "Benedict has been vocal in his opposition to bloodshed in the Middle East, singling out the Iraq war in this year's Easter message ...".

Actually, Pope Benedict XVI in his Easter message, worked his way down the entire list of the world's trouble spots. Instead, it was the press that singled out Iraq from that list!

- South Africa's IOL, with the intrepid headline "Palestinians 'take fight' to Israelis" is reporting on the brazen attack by a disguised Israeli army jeep on the Kissufim crossing, a fortified army position. Jerusalem Post clarifies that the hapless disguise of the car, with the letters TV taped on it, attracted attention of the Israeli soldiers since journalists do not usually drive so close to the security fence. A Palestinian spokesman admitted the raiders meant to snatch a soldier, but the attempt was foiled when IAF helicopters arrived.

The asymmetric warfare of the Palestinians could easily have backfired, as we have seen prior to last year's Lebanon war as a result of the abduction of an IDF soldier. It seems the Palestinian cause is well worth the risk of a few Palestinian lives. On top of that, after ambulances being used in attacks, press vehicles have now become also suspect. Which means that Palestinian lives are at stake as the former are checked for fighters and explosives, and that in the latter case the press are being hampered in their pet project of bringing the Palestinian cause to the world. In today's climate of emotion over reasonable arguments, in both cases the Israelis get blamed, while the Palestinians shoot themselves in the foot.

- Dutch Elsevier Magazine's Women's section carries a column on the lengths some people will go to in order to conceive: "It is actually possible to live without children, you know", taunts the columnist. Holland hasn't woken up yet to the fact that this attitude is the reason, that millions of Muslims from Turkey and Morocco are uprooted from their rural agricultural or pastoral base, into a society that is overly permissive, postmodern and post-industrialized, so as to broaden the tax base to pay for the columnist's pension in twenty years time.

In "Liberty for Social Security" in the series "Neo-Totalitarianism" we concluded that immigration is the Socialists solution to the problems caused by Socialist policies. It will have grave consequences for the future. The impending demographic annihilation is being hushed up, and very few people have as yet woken up to the fact.

Refuge within the Western hemisphere will just land you in another pickle: here's Ann Coulter's view from America. The similarities are striking! Anybody got any data on New Zealand's Southern Island of late?

How existential demographic imbalances can become the Israelis as well as the Serbs in Kovoso can attest to: of what once was the Serbian heartland, today only ten percent remain, fighting for their culture and way of life, a tiny enclave beleaguered by an assertive Muslim majority.

In Israel P.M. Olmert spends billions for Jerusalem, amidst warnings of a Palestinian demographic threat to the capitol, saying Hamas could take over the city without as much as firing a shot. I can do better than that: given time, large parts of Europe will be added to that inheritance, The Netherlands almost certainly in the vanguard of that development.

Tony's Canard, Bunkers and some darned thing in the Balkans

"I did what I thought was right". The end of an era. Tony Blair today announced he will tender his resignation to the Queen on 27th June after ten years in office. His Labour economic legacy is debatable. I haven't had the pleasure of seeing the U.K. up close for a while, and cannot really judge the fairness of statements like "whole towns are on the state's payroll: we have no one on the dole, we only have civil servants". What I do admire is the man's core decency, his patience and power of persuasion - at least, his efforts in casu the Iraq War, which I still consider to be a Liberation.

I still see him endlessly debating TV studios filled to the brink with hysterical anti war activists.Teenagers, some moved to tears with frustration over their incapacity to understand that removing a murderous tyrant from one of the world's strategic hot spots, is of a higher moral order than letting the bastard sit out his time at the rate of hundreds tortured to death on any given day, only to be succeeded by a dynasty of recreational serial rapists. Tony, you did the right thing!

There's no debating postmodern sentimentality and irrationality, is there? The time of great statesmen is definitely over as baby-boomers hold the reigns of power. Since postmoderns have done away with the concept of objective truth, it is consequently not something they aspire to. So we don't have seekers for truth, we have activists whose opinion is formed by blurting out the very opposite of what they deem to be "the enemy's".

For instance, if U.S. President George W. Bush seeks to disseminate democracy in the Middle East, if only because democracies are on the whole more peaceful nations than Islamic versions of Nazi-Germany - the concept of democracy is vilified and its virtues relativised out of existence: suddenly "so overrated!"

Similarly, if author Melanie Phillips "is a British neoconservative" (no need to ask any less shallow questions: she's a neocon, isn't she?) "who has devoted herself to warning England that Muslims are taking over and destroying its culture" , as stated in her "oh-so-cleverly titled book, Londonistan", this is considered a hype and a gross exaggeration (or something). Let me not fall into the trap of retaliating at the italics at this point with a list of laughable Leftist book titles, their particular fruits of cerebral ravings!

The point is that if someone finally unearths Marshall Tito's Iraqi bunkers, an obvious WMD storage facility and hiding space as there ever was (one that was destroyed is described here), these reports are consigned to the muck-heap as "drooling, deranged, self-evidently moronic conspiracy dribble" ... have you quite finished? Let me ask the reader in all honesty: what age do you suppose the producer of this infantile graffiti is?

This champion linguistic distance urinating is Glenn Greenwald, blogger at Salon.com. His juvenile invective is condensed in an article with the brilliant title "Right-wing blogs discover massive conspiracy to hide WMDs in Iraq", together with updates II, III and IV. Here are links to Melanie Phillips' article "I found Saddam’s WMD bunkers" and to Front Page Magazine's item "The Iraqi WMDs That Slipped Through Our Fingers".

Let's remind ourselves at this point that the WMD as a casus belli was a British canard, initiated by Tony Blair to make his task at home a little easier - and fat lot of good it did him! Factual reason was that Saddam had been violating the terms for ending the 1st Gulf War for twelve long years, an offence the Security Council for economic reasons best known to themselves, failed to enforce.

This item warrants much more in-depth coverage, which I will certainly do, but early awareness - if not hot-blooded activism - is important on this point. Michelle Malkin yesterday in "Jihadists Exploit Our Hospitality and Open Borders ... Again" describes a 'plot' in CNN inverted commas to massacre U.S. soldiers at Fort Dix. One of the suspects, "Abdullahu was familiar with the base because it was the first place he landed when arriving in the United States as a refugee from Kosovo ... Abdullahu arrived at Fort Dix as a teenager in 1999 as part of a group of about 4,400 refugees from Kosovo, officials said".

Thanks, says Michelle Malkin. Thanks, says I, after the U.N. and the E.U. with U.S. endorsement - are saying Yes to a potentially Muslim state in Europe's heartland. "As said by House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Tom Lantos at a recent Kosovo hearing "Here is yet another example that the United States ... stands foursquare for the creation of an overwhelmingly Muslim country in the very heart of Europe."

Diana West's Townhall article "The 'limited' war for 'hearts and minds'" from which the above is an excerpt, carries an icon at the top: "Take Action"; please hit it!

As Europe, the U.N. and America console themselves with the thought that, since "we're all interconnected now" which seems to warrant "peace at any price", and the Balkan's Muslims moreover are a far cry from the Saudi desert, the signs are there - if suppressed by the MSM - that things are already starting to go very wrong indeed! Try that ... and this, for an appetizer of some darned thing in the Balkans ...

Relativism on the Couch with Dr Pat (III)

In an aside Dr Pat states - and this is a serious, but well-known allegation - that "academics of the left are desperate to "prove" these assertions and give them a scientific seal of approval ...".

This has been going on for years, while the political and ideological elites bend and relativize any given that happens to be in their way. If the outcome is made to fit the theory, it is obvious we can no longer speak of scientific method. But this is what is brought up as the summit of reason, man as his own New God against the dark forces of religion and faith that are out to stop his further advancement as Enlightenment's supremo in his tracks. As adding insult to injury society is paying for the very "scientific research" that seeks to undermine it. It's like the Chinese communist party sending the family of the people's enemy the bill for the bullet.

But back to the couch: we pick up Dr Pat's narrative in her post on the 29th January where she states, she is often reminded of her paranoid patients, who are effortlessly able to dismiss or explain away the facts that don't fit their conspiracy theories: "If you get too assertive in pointing out ... (the) facts, you find yourself ... fully integrated into the theory. For the paranoid, the case is closed ... The political left has been utilizing the same psychological strategies ... all combined to dissuade those on the political left from pursuing a course of intellectual honesty and/or emotional insight".

Tough stuff, but it does explain some of the fallacies we talked about here in the PMF-list and it rings an entire carillon of alarm bells: the immaturity, the confusion of reality with myth (PMF #6. Confusing fact with opinion), the "frustration" of the impossibility to "debate or argue" a subject (PMF #9. The Intolerance of tolerance and why it is no longer fun to have a debate), reality and truth are merely subjective constructs anyway (this is relativism's most important dogma and core-belief), "any evidence you present ... is some one's "opinion" and ... their opinions are as good as anyone else's ... such a position should logically disqualify their position to begin with, but of course, it doesn't ... they will then usually proceed directly to the usual ad hominem attacks. Q.E.D." [sic] (this is of course Greg Koukl's Passive-Assertive Tolerance Trick). It is striking indeed how philosophical analyses and psychology come independently to the same conclusion!

Dr Pat's analysis comes full circle with the assertion that "their (other) myths about the Iraq war ... have become inextricably entwined and inseparable from their most sacred ideological beliefs ... of the evil of George Bush, Republicans and America ... to acknowledge even the slightest possibility that ... (they) are warped would threaten their entire ideology - and thus the image of themselves ... as caring and compassionate ... in contrast to the members of the political right who are always described as "hate-filled";

and

"when the consequences of confronting truth and reality are personally unpleasant ... exactly what psychological denial seeks to avoid ... as long as they can hate and vilify George Bush, Dick Cheney, Condi Rice and all those evil Republicans and Lieberman Democrats out there; and as long as they can pretend that the objects of their hate are the real cause of any problem; then they don't have to deal with the external reality of Islamofascist terror, or face the truth about their own unacknowledged and pathological internal reality. They can continue to cling to the holy, neo socialist faith, newly risen from the ashes of the 20th century; and delude themselves into thinking that they are wonderful, caring, loving and reality-based people".

Fear is a powerful mover, and this is what terrorists are playing on. But here's the good news: fear is subjective! The classical Greek hero Theseus and other ancients of our culture we are so keen on to throw away, have taught us that the only way to deal with fear, is to pump up courage, confront it head on, and nuke it. These are times that we have nothing to fear, but fear itself [3]... so take position in front of a large mirror, stick your thumbs in your ears, while waiving your fingers forward and backward and start jumping up and down in a steady cadence, yelling BBBBRRRRrrrrrrr!!! as loud as you can, to the bogeyman ...

Those of you with a strong stomach that care to know how the patient is reacting to all this analyzing of Dr Pat's, feast your eyes and ears on the comment section of said post of the 29th January!

In the next post we shall see how Ann Coulter gets her way and Relativism, like Liberalism, proves to be a real, Godless faith with missionaries and all, putting Jehovah's Witnesses to shame when it comes to proselytizing (which I would advice against doing in some cultures that relativists hold to be identical to the West's).

The Euston Manifesto: Offences against Reason

PROUD NOT TO BE

As stated in the previous post on
The Euston Manifesto this is basically old news that I missed when it was hot, due to other pressing matters (like fleeing Western Europe). A few Google exercises however learn that criticism of the Manifesto mostly came from bloggers on the Leftest side of the authors, and were termed in the usual expletative and unmotivated style that we now know is associated with a relative world view. After working a way through four of the ten pages, said to contain 402,000 hits, I had seen enough. I am seriously wondering why no one else has taken the thing apart, but then that review might still be hiding in the remaining six pages of lower Google rank. If so, I'd like to know.

Not far from where Karl Marx used to jot down his misguided lunacy that led to so much human misery in later years, in the early months of 2006 a group of the Leftist Intelligentsia came together to distance themselves from what had become a movement of terrorist and totalitarian apologists. In the words of the Manifesto: "...a reaction to what are asserted to be widespread violations of left-wing principles by other left-wingers". The manifesto states that "the reconfiguration of progressive opinion that we aim for involves drawing a line between forces on the Left that remain true to its authentic values, and currents that have lately shown themselves rather too flexible about these values". (Sorry about the lingo, which is to convey the general atmosphere: I'll distill and re-phrase as much as I can.) Said violations are largely in relation to issues in the Middle East, such as the Iraq war, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the war on terrorism etc.

Broadly speaking, the group asserts that the Left as a whole is overly critical of the actions of Western governments, such as the military presence in Iraq, and correspondingly [1] is overly supportive of forces opposing Western governments, such as the Iraqi insurgents. As the paper puts it, "we must define ourselves against those for whom the entire progressive-democratic agenda has been subordinated to a blanket and simplistic 'anti-imperialism' and/or hostility to the current U.S. administration".

So, there you have it. The nomenclature and terminology are Old Marxist School (so much for mainstream socialism the 3rd way), but don't let that mislead you! This stuff makes the Leftist building shake on its very foundation: this is the Elite (academics, journalists, activists, pundits) disseminating right wing neo-con agit-prop, displaying neo-imp tendencies, and this is a minimum Manifesto - your guess as good as mine what blasphemy a fully fledged paper might have produced!

The Manifesto states it cares for historical truth. Reading this for the first time I was at first mesmerized by the very expectation of real historical confessions of earth shattering proportions, but the authors hereby merely express their intention, hence to criticise in forthright terms those Leftists, who ally with "illiberal theocrats" or other anti-democratic figures and organisations (one feels George Galloway is singled out here). Additionally, they promise to listen to the ideas of both the left and the right, if ... furthering democracy.

The paper is showing more signs of maturity: "... making common cause with genuine democrats, whether socialist or not ..." (does that extend to George Bush, one wonders?) and the self-confessed democratic and progressive forces continue that: "... after the bombs stopped falling, the Left should have united around a campaign to support Iraqi democrats, feminists, and progressives". Instead, in their view, alliances were formed with Islamist groups, Baathists and the libertarian antiwar.com. One does wonder what the extent is of these alliances and what they entail. The question also springs to mind if these treacherous acts in a time of war, are no longer punishable by law?

The Manifesto puts paid to blindly appeasing the ravings of the Sons of Peace, "... condemning all forms of tyranny, terrorism, anti-Americanism, racism, anti-Zionism, (they) reject fear of modernity, (fear) of freedom, irrationalism [2], the subordination of women and reaffirm the ideas that inspired the great rallying calls of the democratic revolutions of the eighteenth century: liberty, equality and solidarity; human rights; the pursuit of happiness".

But we aren't to hold them for zealots (I wasn't particularly inclined to - no idea why the aforementioned might lead to such a conclusion): they also embrace the values of free enquiry, open dialogue and creative doubt, of care in judgement and a sense of the intractabilities of the world. And here we have it:

"We stand against all claims to a total - unquestionable or unquestioning - truth".

Against all claims of unquestionable or unquestioning truth. More relativist they don't come! And it may be because I'm no member of the Leftist Intelligentsia by any stretch of the imagination, but this is where they loose me entirely:

The group strongly supports the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, dismissing all arguments against the idea of eternal truths.

If there is any Eternal Truth it is Universal Human Rights! That is the whole point of them: eternal, absolute and untouchable, a gift of dignity from God to man, made in His image (although I'm sure the authors have another source). The statement directly contradicts the earlier claim that "we stand against all claims to ... truth"? And yet here they declare they don't accept arguments that say there are no eternal truths, so which is it to be?

The Manifesto then takes another turn and continues to stress that it "rejects cultural relativism". This may explain their acceptance of the Declaration of Universal Human Rights, but then we still have the "eternal truth" issue.

It is beyond me why an Intelligentsia doesn't have the intelligence to have their scribbles screened by logicians before setting them loose on society, a large part of which takes these things seriously for some reason.

The Manifesto intentionally does not specify the preferred economic system, but we must assume they subscribe to the capitalist free-market system, that being the best capable of guaranteeing "the economic and social equality between people of all races, religions, genders, and sexual orientations" that they demand.

Next we hit trouble again as the Manifest declares that "labour rights are human rights, in defence of less-commonly represented people, including children and the sexually oppressed". Can anybody please explain to me, who are the sexually oppressed?! Trafficked women working in legalized brothels, or what? Equating labour rights with human rights is a fine example of what has given human rights a bad name and what has caused the lamentable devaluation of what we should be holding sacred as the very guarantor of human dignity. It is a stretch but let's suppose some labour union functionary demands a new coffee machine on the third floor, or a day care centre in the basement? One cannot in his right mind categorize that as human rights; it trivializes and debases them and will lead to their erosion!

Apparently the U.S. is "not a model society", begging the question what then is the ideal? Since the demise of the Soviet Union the Left is very short on ideals, reason why they display that obnoxious cynicism, what pundits mistake for an attitude of healthy criticism.

While the statement is commendable in that the authors condemn and reject all forms of terrorism (at long last) and equate it with a violation of international law, that nothing can excuse terrorism and they admit that the worst atrocities happen within Islam, the choice of words and feeling for detail is at times astonishing: what to think of their "opposition on inter-tribal conflict": yes, the war of Hutus and Tutsis was something terrible!

The Manifesto wraps it up by declaring that it condemns those that call the Iraqi insurgents freedom fighters, that people must be allowed to express and criticise opinions within the traditional constraints against libel, slander, and incitement to violence, and that religion is fair game for expression and criticism alike (of course). However, the authors say, this right should be tempered by the personal responsibility of the speaker. In that case it is hoped that parenting and education is improved. Or somebody wakes up and explains to the world at large not to confuse the person with the issues.

The Euston Manifesto: Truth by Incredibility

One of the ludicrous by-products of George-hatred is the almost silent condemnation of democracy. After all, there is something to be said for enlightened totalitarianism. On second thought a messy democracy is not such a good idea after all, just because George said that it was. Democracy: so bourgeois, so over-rated and generally not a result obtained by forcible liberation from dictatorship. Germany and Japan after World War II are visible refutations of this statement, but to relativists opinions are more important than facts.

The last few years have produced more of these aberrations, as the countries of "New Europe" acquired a bad name by voicing too much of an appreciation for freedom, by not being atheist enough and generally for having not nearly enough P.C.-ness infused into them.

First the Polish plumber became somebody akin to a free market terrorist; then in the early stages of cajoling the U.N. into enforcing their own Security Council Resolutions and support the war in Iraq (in the absence of Saddam, adhering to the terms and conditions brought to bear after his war against Kuwait), the Poles were told by the French President Jacques Chirac at some point, they missed a good opportunity to shut up. Lower than gutter level they don't come. The attack on New York's Twin Towers on 9/11 crossed a new frontier in the history of terrorism: since that time lots of people are inspired to cross new frontiers all of the time: Jacques Chirac with his comment crossed new territory in the history of diplomacy; it was a sad example of how an otherwise perfectly good mannered and sophisticated man all of a sudden lost sight of civility: it happened often those days.

This is still not really over and things are exacerbated by the relativist preference for the here and now. So it happened that it has been altogether erased from our collective memory how much we owe the former communist countries: they were sold and and left to their own devices when in Yalta and Tehran after World War II, they paid the price for the West's freedom. Some in the West consoled themselves with the thought that Uncle Joe probably wasn't nearly as bad as some said he was and that they, after all, were living in the working man's paradise. A state of affairs soon to be realised on a global level.

While the last thoughts (and sometimes other means of support) have not been atoned for, half as much as should have been, there are now people of the Intelligentsia (meaning Left Leaning High Culture) that have had enough of these aberrations and want to go back to the status quo ante George and forget all about the Americans being in Iraq for the oil and premature accusations like that. In fact they have been doing this since 25th May of last year, but nobody of the international MSM thought to inform the public outside the U.K. or I was too busy fleeing the relativist heartland. Anyway, this is the first I'm hearing of the Euston Manifesto Group of Islington by way of the New Culture Blog. It cannot have been hot news for a long time, otherwise I would have picked up on it from some place.

Contents of the Manifesto warrants a single, dedicated post. While it is old news and critique almost entirely comes from the (loony) lefter side of the manifestists proper and is worded in terms of "wanky wonkos betray our cause and join the ranks of the neo-imperialists", the Manifesto offers some beautiful examples of violations against reason that I simply cannot bear passing up.

Suffice it at present to say that the Left Elite/Liberal Intelligentsia have a rock solid template for everything they do: the choice of words and its nomenclature are infamous, as is its capacity to turn an idea on its head. The word Manifesto has a first class pedigree and its use on the Left goes all the way back to Karl Marx himself.
"New" in New Culture Blog works like "progressive" in those circles: it was new and progressive seventy years ago, so mentally you have to read instead "Over-aged" and "regressive".

At first the libs display all the usual Pavlov reactions to a given situation: if the self-appointed opinion leaders decide Against, say George and the war on terrorism, they all go Against George plus the war on terrorism. This automatically implies what they are For, namely all of George's enemies. Schematically this makes a horror cabinet of 3rd millennium current affairs (in no particular order):

- Against: the war in Iraq, the Iraqi government, democracy, Israel, the war on terrorism, the death penalty, the Iraqi Court, the Kurds, Eastern Europe, Colin Powell, Tony Blair, Condi Rice, pro democracy movements against authoritative but essentially "benign" governments (like Yanukovych's), God (Allah exempted), globalization, free-market liberalism, Ethiopia, classical liberalism, cookies, etc. etc.

- Pro: The Noble Freedom Fighters, Saddam c.s., the Palestinians, Hamas, Hezbollah, Ahmadinejad, Al Qa'ida c.s., France, Lebanon (at large), Robert Mugabe, Fidel Castro, Hugo Chavez and South American Friends of the Leftist Cause, Howard Dean, the Chechen cause, John Kerry, Nancy Pelosi, abortion, euthanasia, evolution as proposed by Darwin(ism), Spain under the Zapatero government, open source software (free of charge and called a movment), Somalia, humanism as proposed by "The Enlightenment", science however fuzzy, Africa (at large), etc. etc.

- The jury is still out on: Russia and President Putin, North Korea, Iran, Belorussia, the Maoist rebels in Nepal, the Sudanese government

- Kicked off the pro list are: the IRA, ETA

When the situation has reached unsustainable proportions and the stance is no longer seen as credible by opponents and proponents alike, some frequenters of one or another private salon or a public house, usually located somewhere in the South of England, come together to write a Manifesto, distancing themselves from the situation in an effort to raise some credibility, just in time for the next general elections.

So the next time you read some left leaning drivel please check if it carries the Euston Manifesto Seal of Correctness; in the affirmative you can rest assured that this is in accordance with the New Improved Left: you'd be pleased to know they no longer blindly further, apologize, appease or advocate George's enemies no matter who. What do you suppose this is: Truth by Incredibility?
One must assume that Al-Guardian, considering their article yesterday, calling Somalia America's new puppet, isn't a signatory to The Manifesto.

Dissecting relativism, The Base (II): Second generation post-moderns

A few interesting news items for sharing:

- Pope Benedict is not letting off on relativism: "A 'weak' (ed. relativist, post-modern) vision of the person, which would leave room for every conception, even the most bizarre, only apparently favors peace. In reality, it hinders authentic dialogue and opens the way to authoritarian impositions, ultimately leaving the person defenceless and, as a result, easy prey to oppression and violence." Thanks to John Allen for the daily dose of sanity!

- George Weigel has an uncanny ability to say what I mean: "... no program of state-sponsored assistance or massive philanthropic endeavour can ever replace individual acts of compassion". It is a thought too subtle for a Batavian to get his brain around, I fear.

Unrelated, but it reminded me of the criticism of being "unprofessional" that Mother Theresa once received from a heavily state-sponsored well-do-society - those that are the first to leave when the going gets rough ...! The media then report that "NGO so and so has left the country as it is no longer possible to do their work properly". The paradoxes of our time: armies and relief workers that quit because "it is too dangerous". It's like cooks that no longer want to work in the kitchen, as it tends to get too hot in there!

- Chairman of the European Council of Bishops Conferences (COMECE), Rotterdam bishop Adriaan van Luyn, on Monday issued a statement to the effect that citizens should get more involved in the project of "European unity". Hear, hear!

- Back to the Middle East where it is becoming apparent that the Sunni Arab countries are getting more nervous by the day of the Iranian sable rattling. This article in The Daily Star mentions in passing that apart from - encouraging Saudi youngsters to go fight in Iraq - anti-royal Shiite Ahmadinejad is "demolishing all the efforts that (former Iranian President) Khatami made to allay the Arab's fears ...". The article mentions as well - and the Americans are advised to take note - that "cries of treason are elicited from the Arab world when Americans change track and invite Iran into Iraq to pacify it". Frankly, I am at a total loss to understand how an apparent set of intelligent, elderly statesmen like the members of the Iraq Study Group, can come up with such a shocking idea (for want of a more diplomatic word). It's stunning! I hope George Bush is his normal self and puts it where it belongs.

Now back to our series, dissecting relativism:
Dissecting relativism, The base (II), continued

The subconscious moral Christian remnants are already much less in evidence in these children: okay, killing and stealing isn't done, but the odd white lie shouldn't be a problem, especially if it is in a good cause, like not hurting some body's feelings or getting away with a minor transgression, and such. They also choose other causes to support, not the Red Cross but Green Peace, not Churches for African Mission but Amnesty International or Doctors Without Borders. They feel that homelessness is more often a life-style than anything else, and some people shouldn't wallow so much in self pity.

By the time this generation is in turn ready to start a family, which is late in the day, they probably won't marry at all but co-habit, girls will have had a reasonable education and have jobs, their affluence has risen exponentially, while moral has become a rarely used dirty word and a spiritual life is on the back-burner. The general attitude towards society is one of "anything goes, as long as nobody gets (physically) hurt" and the principle of non-interference is expected to be reciprocated (trespassers, and that includes the whole of society, from relatives to politicians and other public figures who dare question their specific life-style of choice, are asked who the @&# they think they are).

Their children won't have any roots left at all in the old, Christian ethics and values that once ruled the life of their forebears. Morality is undefined and a hotchpotch of vague notions, picked up here and there from foreign faiths and persuasions, which we are told, are all equally valid. Their personal ethic code is shelved in something, resembling a conscience, which tells them they shouldn't be doing one thing or another, but do it all the same because it is easier. At best there is the liberal yardstick, of the garden reaching to where the neighbour's begins. But most people do not even go as far as that. Society's moral guidelines are almost entirely made up of what the law of the realm stipulates, which is a danger in itself. Forgiveness and reconciling is no longer an obvious solution for resolving conflicts; a total break is found easier, while vengeance is no problem. Self obsessed behavior and egocentricity have replaced the foremost Christian principle "do unto others as you would have them do unto you". Sexuality and related areas I am leaving here out of the equation altogether: even I do not have that much time. But I understand from a new report that with the addition of the Internet into the sexual playground, humanity has reached new depths in the separation of Eros and Agapi (in the sense of new demotic Greek, not the Pope's terminology).

The reader is advised to make a mental mark (!) at this point, as we shall come back here often in these pages. This is the point were society - bumped and bruised, not knowing anymore where they are after the umpteenth social experiment of jilting old values for new ones - truly flies unawares off the rails! For easy identification I call it crisis point.

It is also the point where liberals start hitting the tiles and get red in the face when confronted with their lack of moral backbone. They assure us they have one and the Bible-based mustn't think they are the only ones with a moral code, just because they have a book ... which is usually left at that.

To be continued.

About reality, ignorance and balderdash

Another holiday from the serials. Some very remarkable news bits have been discovered in the niches of the current affairs vacuum. The first one is exactly that, a first:

- An article by Michael Rubin in Beirut's The Daily Star dated 1st December 2006
Is this evidence that anti-Bushism is finally lifting, a bit? While blind hatred for George Bush reached heights of hysterical proportions over the past two terms in office, this may be the first sign that a sense of reality is setting in, two years before the administration is wrapping up. But please don't stay around for the unveiling of the statue just yet. One paragraph I'd like to quote in full as it is illustrative of the depths some people will go to, to criticize President Bush, throwing the democratic baby away with the bathwater:

... Nor will Arab civil society organizations be able to rely on their "progressive" counterparts in the West to defend liberalism and reform. Hatred of Bush trumps declared principles. Because Bush made democratization and reform the centerpiece of his Middle East strategy, many Western progressives dismiss them as priorities or even as desirable. After all, in progressive rhetoric how can Bush be both an idiot and correct?

- It is getting an irritating habit of some debaters to define Christianity in terms of Islam, confusing all the issues no end. The call of Pope Benedict XVI for a return to Christian tradition, to them is either propagating a Christian version of Sharia law; or the shoe is on the other foot and it is explained as a call for Islam to be marginalized in favour of a form of militant Christianity. This is the combined result of the fact that generations under baby boom age (my apologies for the generalisation) are clueless when it comes to the principles and teachings of Christianity, and of the monopolization of the debate by assertive Islam. Which goes to show that the papal call doesn't come one day too soon.

- I just heard the former U.S. President Jimmy Carter reply to a question of CNN's Wolf Blitzer if the war in Iraq is a bigger blunder than the one in Vietnam, say that "well, it's a close call". That's apart from his saying Israel is perpetrating Apartheid (if that is what you do with Apartheid? Is it not committing?). Now he's clarifying that what he meant wasn't Apartheid in terms of racism. But that is exactly what Apartheid is ... now, where have I heard something such before...?

Just so that it's all on record.

Monday, 13th June 2005

A usual boring Monday, but with lots of news. Let's start at the home front.
Producers of soap series see no problem in cash for influence: the Dutch Muslim Broadcasting Club (or whatever they call themselves) is going to participate financially in the production, so as to secure influence on the content in an "advisory" role. How ordinary fidels look like in the real world and so on.

The police has made it known they are going to undermine their own authority once again by doning silly hats in demonstrations for a better salary. They haven't had a raise in two years, which amounts to sheer exploitation!

Apparently they're surprised about their lack of authority! The same holds true for other occupations and vocations of a certain standing, like doctors and paramedics: they're being bashed about by the public who by now have no respect left for them whatsover.

Once again a dangerous criminal is on the loose: the psychiatric ward apparently let him visit his elderly mom and at the train station he absconded from his guard (singular). The Ministry of Justice initially refused to inform the public who, as a result, was not on their guard for any danger. This is how serious the Dutch government is taking their number one duty, the protection of its citizens. They prefer to protect dangerous criminals instead. The Lower House is up in arms, not for the first time, as Breaking News, he's murdered an old man on a boat. This is a developing story ...

In another incident in a rural area, a weekend mob have encouraged a would-be suicide to jump off a building. Who'd require any more proof of the depravity of this country, consider yourselves hereby served.

The EU ministers and/or secretaries of Foreign Affairs are debating the new budget. Propped up by a resounding Dutch (and French) NO against the proposed E.U. constitution our minister is playing hard ball. The time is apparently over that it was normal in this country to buy foreign influence and/or positions with development and/or defence money and/or assets (read Srebrenica, U.N., World Bank posts, etc.).

Participation in the Italian referendum on IVF has remained under 50 percent. The Vatican can rest peacefully tonight (bless Pope Benedict and all of his cats!).

The Baghdad Tribunal has released recent pictures of Saddam. The government is pressing the tribunal to get on with it. But they are an independent court (contrary to the Saddam days) and pressure works contraproductive. Last week another mass grave has been opened, but this is of course hardly mentioned in the press, who are only interested in one thing and one thing only: to make the coalition look as bad as possible and blame George B. for everything: apparently he has now even given democracy a bad name (democracy: so overrated!). The Left as always show their ability of distinguishing good from bad, by aligning themselves and defending the worst dictators in human history, rather than to allow George Bush some credit. This, is nothing new in the history of right-wing American presidents and The Left, who are: against fascism (long live dear Uncle Joe!), against Vietnam (long live the VC!), against cruise missiles (long live the Polit Bureau!), against nukes (long live Pol Pot!), against apartheid (long live Mao!), the list is endless ...