Hadrian's Fateful Consolidation

Art Daily: "The British Museum Presents Hadrian: Empire and Conflict Exhibition in London"

The British Museum presents Hadrian: Empire and Conflict, on view through October 26, 2008. The Roman Emperor Hadrian (117 to 138AD) is best known for his passion for Greek culture, interest in architecture, his love for Antinous, and of course the eponymous wall he built between England and Scotland, then Caledonia. (...)

- Caption: Bronze head of the Roman Emperor Hadrian (117–138) AD found in the River Thames at London Bridge in 1834. The head comes from a statue, one-and-a-quarter life-size, that may have been erected in a public space in London in AD 122 to commemorate Hadrian's visit to Britain. -

Incorporating recent scholarship and the latest spectacular archaeological discoveries, the exhibition will feature over 180 objects from 28 lenders from Italy to Georgia, from Israel to Newcastle. Loans of dramatic sculpture, exquisite bronzes and architectural fragments will be brought together and displayed for the first time in the UK, alongside famous objects from the Museum’s own collection such as the iconic bronze head of Hadrian and the Vindolanda tablets. (...)

By the time of Hadrian’s accession, the Roman Empire covered much of Europe, northern Africa and the Middle East. (...) His first act on coming to power was to withdraw the Roman forces from Mesopotamia, present- day Iraq. Another example of this consolidation was the wall he had built in the north of England to mark the furthest reach of his empire. Hadrian was remarkable in that he travelled extensively across his empire, meeting more of his people than any other emperor before him. Hadrian was a man of great contradiction in both his personality and reign (...) >>>

The Balfour Declaration Turns Ninety

On the 2nd November 1917 British Foreign Secretary Lord Arthur James Balfour wrote Lord Walter Rothschild, representative of the Jewish community and the Zionist Federation, a short letter reading as follows:

His Majesty¹s Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.


Jerusalem Post: "Balfour At 90"

"Almost a century later, the latest tyrants seeking Israel¹s destruction, Iran¹s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his Arab jihadi allies, habitually pretend that Israel exists only as redress for the Holocaust, and claim that the Muslim world is bearing the burden of the genocide in Europe against the Jews. But the truth, as Olmert¹s statement alluded, is exactly the opposite: If the Jewish state had been founded earlier, history, including the Holocaust, would have been very different. (...)

Long before the word "Zionism" was coined, a strong current of "restorationism" ran through the Christian world and strongly influenced many of the founders and almost all the presidents of the United States. Restorationists deeply believed the Jews should be "restored" to their ancient land. The British cabinet of 1917 did not act on a whim or in a vacuum, but in a political-religious landscape in which its action, while engendering some controversy, was considered natural and just. (...)

Ninety years ago, no less than today, there were those who saw the recognition of Jewish national rights as a provocation and irritant. Since 9/11, if not before, it should be clear that the "irritant" to the Islamic extremist ideology is not Israel or any other Western manifestation, but the existence and independence of the West itself." >>>

What happened after the Balfour Declaration, as they say, is history.

Exclusive: The Clinton Legacy, The Balkan Caliphate

Last Friday morning the traditional neoclassical building, today the Cultural Center of the University of Indianapolis - an architectonic jewel in the traditional old town of Athens at the foot of the Acropolis mountain - was the scenic theatre of the presentation of a book with the skin crawling title "The Coming Balkan Caliphate", written by the American author Christopher Deliso.

Deliso is director of Balkanalysis.com, a leading independent online news and analysis group.

The site utilizes a growing corps of writers and researchers from regional countries as well as from elsewhere in Europe and the United States. Amongst those Ioannis Michaletos, the intelligence blogger and Junior Analyst at Research Institute for European and American Studies (RIEAS) who has kindly provided this blog with unique background information on this summer's devastating wild fires, which - in all probability - were part of a pyro terrorism campaign against the Greek state, for which seventy people have been arrested, twenty of whom are described as 'foreigners'.

Deliso has lived and traveled widely in southeastern Europe and has a master's degree with distinction in Byzantine Studies from Oxford University (1999). Since 2001, he has published many articles on Balkan politics, economics, security issues, travel, history and culture in US and world newspapers, analysis firms such as the Economist Intelligence Unit, and in numerous magazines and websites.

The Balkans (link provides an excellent UN map) is the gateway between East and West, and historically Europe's soft underbelly. Presently organized crime and terrorism present a constant threat. Chris Deliso's eye-opening book details how fifteen years of misguided Western interventions, political scheming, and local mafia appeasement, compounded by a massive infusion of Arab cash, fundamentalist Islamic preaching and Wahhabi mosque building, have allowed radical Islamic groups to fill in the cracks between internal ethnic and religious schisms, and take root in key areas of the Balkans.

Deliso clarifies the situation as follows.

- Bosnia - During the 1990 Yugoslav conflict the Western powers conspired to allow Arab (Saudi, Wahhabi) mujaheddin, surplus of the Afghan resistance against Soviet occupation, to enter the territory as an easy way to counter the Serb attempts to keep the federation of Yugoslavia together, while countering internal Muslim harassment of local Christian populations.

Since the blow-back of this policy has become apparent, the US is pushing Bosnia to expel the radicals who've set up shop in the region. Belatedly, as by now they have gone underground. The present situation is said to be fluid.

There are however direct links between the Islamic radicals who were imported into Bosnia as a consequence of said Western policy, and the attacks of 9/11, the Madrid train bombings and the London attacks.

Another Bosnian connection that surfaced not so long ago was the foiled attempt on US Fort Dix and, just last week the scantly publicised matter of a Bosnian arrested in Vienna, Austria for a thwarted attack on the US Embassy in that city.

- Albania - Already historically a breading ground for lawlessness, tribalism and backwardness, this isolated rugged territory became a radical Islamist safe haven from the moment the old Stalinist regime fell. The US policy was to strengthen the fledgling democratic government. It is this blog's opinion that personal ties between Albania and the Clintons stem from these early years, as the US political order transited from the Cold War. Deliso: "The United States both cracked down on extremists and allied itself with Islamic leaders in the Tirana government, funding these radicals."

Albania became the scene of an influx of Wahhabi mujaheddin and Al Qaeda elements. Wahhabi mosque building is proliferating as we speak, as is Islamist social engineering: providing unemployed villagers with hand-outs to dress up as fundamentalists in an attempt at creating critical mass for the normalization of radicalism; call it the corrupt Islamist version of political correctness. This method is combined with a form of institutionalised thuggery: extortion, blackmail and intimidation. It is happening not just in Albania, but in all less affluent regions of the Balkans, of which there are many.

Albanian clan structure produces a social situation, ideal for the incubation of organised crime. The connection between terrorism and organised crime is by now well established; it is being monitored and documented by the various intelligence agencies.

- Kosovo - As was the case in Bosnia, Western policy has allowed mujaheddin to establish themselves in the territory, creating the conditions for radicalisation and Wahhabi mosque building. Also here the same pressurizing pattern of social engineering and intimidation emerges. (Tony Blair, rather shortsightedly, specifically encouraged mujaheddin who found themselves on UK territory, to join the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) so as to be rid of them).

Whether Kosovo, under American and European pressure, will become independent or not, is no longer really relevant as radical Islamization is concerned. The question is rather, will the matter of independence get sectarian dimensions or not.

Deliso was kind enough at this point to hand the audience a great scoop: there are Albanian-American radicals in Kosovo who had prior knowledge of the 9/11 attack. They were actively recruiting terrorists for 'the war against America'. The UN was aware of this fact, and did nothing.

Saudis and Pakistanis are making sincere efforts to take over the territory by means of (forced) conversions, proselytizing, charity hand-outs, entrenchment of Islamic banking structures, social engineering, intimidation, etc. Islamist functionaries are parachuted below the radar into minor positions, that are nevertheless of strategic interest. The word that springs to mind, is subversion.

Funds are pouring in. Donors are located in the Middle East, Malaysia and Birmingham (UK). The Islamic Heritage Foundation is another of the great Islamic charities exerting social pressure. The organization is banned in four countries, but is allowed to do their damnedest in the UN administered province of Kosovo.

The Bulgarian region of the Rodopi Mountains, bordering Greece, has pockets of radicalized villages, once again the result of Islamist import and social pressure, through charity, hand-outs, and intimidation.

There are tensions as a result of Christian versus Islamic animosity, but there's also competition over Saudi versus Turkish Islamic influence in the region.

While most Muslims - in the Balkans, or anywhere else - aren't fanatics at all, it must be stated that they profit from the situation in the sense that extremism offers them an opportunity to present themselves as the viable, reasonable alternative. Once in key positions, the moderates are threatened, intimidated and bullied into a more radical attitude. Their Islamist enforcers often take the shape of mafia style thugs.

- Intelligence failures - There has been a marked lack of intelligence sharing between countries, as well as between national or federal agencies. This has assisted in creating the current situation to a large extent. Various intelligence agencies per country are competing and fighting out turf wars over competence and jurisdiction. Given the EU's multinational dimensions this competition is even worse in Europe than it is in America. Terrorist groups of course have no such impediments.

The policies on Kosovo and Bosnia have assisted the nesting of foreign radical elements. The UN administration of Kosovo is inhabited by career diplomats whose attitude is to sit it out while pondering the next prestigious career move. Their motto consequently is "don't rock the boat", coupled with a mind set that prefers sweeping dirt under the carpet. Whistle-blowers are known to be stonewalled. There's high level corruption.


At this point Deliso voices concern over the US government's infiltration by spooks to an extent that is alarming. He also mentions there was a second failed attempt on Pope John Paul II's life, which is rarely publicised. I think I saw it reported once, but took it for a mistake. (Google produces no hits at all).

The threat of terrorism is also changing shape: an innovation are the so-called 'white devils', Caucasian converts who escape racial profiling. I think I predicted in these pages somewhere that this will likely be the face of terrorism in the future: a sort of Islamic Bader Meinhoff, just as fanatical, deluded, and radical Marxist as the Cold War set up.

Computer hacking is assisting terrorism by 'remote control', for example attacks on essential installations, such as power grids. The spate of pyro terrorism waltzing through Greece this summer may have been ignited 'remotely' by cell phones. Also in Greece some attacks were perilously close to power grids.

More attacks than we realise are being thwarted.

How's this for a coincidence ... on the morning that the former President Clinton is arriving in Athens to consult the local Socialist Party out of the crisis it finds itself in since losing the general elections - they cannot figure out how they lost it - Deliso is filling us in on some details of the Clinton legacy: "The Coming Balkan Caliphate".

Deliso stresses that he has spoken with high level US officials who have made plain that the 1990s failed policies were conscious decisions. The election of Hillary Rodham Clinton would in all probability bring back the same politicians who signed for the flawed policies of which we only now are experiencing the dire results: Wesley Clark, Madeleine Albright, Sandy Berger, Richard Holbrooke, to name but a few.

The questionable method of rendition that got the Bush government into trouble, was first used in 1995 in Albania during the early Clinton years. Ray Robison commenting on a Front Page Magazine article by Julia Gorin, "Kosovo – The Epicenter of Islamofascism?" writes on this matter:

"... There are Islamic extremists in Kosovo. There have been for years as evidenced by the Clinton Administration’s germination of a controversial policy called "rendition". It was in Bosnia and Kosovo that the rendition of Islamic terrorists to nations like Egypt - which would obviously employ torture and in some cases murderous interrogation methods - began. The reason the U.S. rendition policy became necessary is because the Islamic terrorists were not from Kosovo. They were sent back to Egypt in most cases because they were Egyptians. Now an argument can be made that these Arab jihadists, veterans of the Afghan mujahideen were supported locally by some Albanian Islamic extremists."

The US, having currently concentrated their efforts on the Middle East and Afghanistan, have an intelligence deficiency in the region. In the past the US have outsourced information gathering to Ukrainian and Romanian agencies, but stopped doing so when a inordinate amount of disinformation ensued.

- Greece - Greece has of course always objected to the failed Western policies in the Balkans, but was forced to go along with more powerful allies. Foreign policy instead was concentrated on the minor issues, such as the name of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM), or Skopje, on which matter Turkey seems to be very well informed.

Also in Skopje enclaves have been created that are virtual no-go areas for Westerners: ideal safe havens for terrorists and radicals.

Greece should identify and correct the intelligence hiatus. If more information would be available to combat the War on Terrorism, Greece would become a more valuable partner.

What stood out - and this is effectively the reason why Greece in the West is almost a white elephant - was Deliso's underlining specifically that the Greek governments, as well as the Orthodox Church 'have not allowed' and have 'prevented' Islamic radicals from establishing themselves in the country. The habitual means of establishment is through charity organizations.

But what Greece and the Greek Orthodox Church can achieve, can also be done by other countries! All we know is, that they haven't. Was that the result of active, but inapt policies as described here by Deliso, or a lack of political will? Or are we perhaps scratching the surface here of the very purposeful Eurabia doctrine as presented by author Bat Ye'or, of which we are to witness the latest instalment during the forthcoming Arab-European Dialogue on Human Rights and Terrorism, taking place in Copenhagen on 21-23 October?

This seems to be a good moment to go on record that a family member who worked for an intelligence service in the past, once disclosed that the Cold War ended at a good time, as resources would now become available for monitoring radical Islamist elements. This means that in government circles in 1990 there was known to be a threat from that area. Today it is widely forgotton that the problems didn't start on 9/11, 2001.

While many Western countries have severed their historical ties and suppressed national consciousness for ideological reasons, Greece is still a very free, traditional, Christian country, enjoying their historical roots and national identity and all that entails. While Western Europe is wallowing in decadence, and realing from its self-induced uprootedness, Greece is developing the first affluent middle class.

Deliso: "Many countries in the West, for example Germany and the UK, are in trouble through their multicultural policies." Greece on the other hand is still recovering from the historical black hole that was the blessing of being part of the Ottoman Empire. There are people alive today who remember, and there are those who know because their (grand)parents told them. Greece will have to be force-fed by the EU on multiculturalism, will it ever become a politically correct nation.

Deliso travels through the area extensively and has concluded, there are quite a few Western exiles who have found a home in the Balkans as well, the undersigned one of them. It would seem everybody is more or less adrift these days.

Finally, I'd like to remind the readership that the petition against the independence of the Serb province of Kosovo-Metohija, which would enhance the chances of the Balkan Caliphate even further, can be signed here.

Of Palestinian Pincers, Terror and Crime, again

Does anyone know a way out of this pincer movement?

Hamas:

- Haaretz: "Meshal: Upcoming Middle East conference is doomed to fail"- "The U.S.-sponsored international conference on Israeli-Palestinian peace is doomed to fail because it will serve only Israel's interests, Hamas political leader Khaled Meshal said in a CNN interview broadcast on Monday. >>>

Fatah:

- Jerusalem Post: "Summit failure may ignite new intifada" - "A failure in the upcoming US-sponsored Middle East peace conference would have more dangerous repercussions than the botched Camp David summit in 2000, Fatah officials warned on Tuesday. This was the first time senior Fatah officials hinted at a possible wave of violence if the conference - expected to be held in Annapolis, Maryland, next month - did not meet the Palestinians' demands. >>>

- Daily Mail: "Police raid finds £50m Da Vinci masterpiece in a lawyer's office"- "A stolen Leonardo da Vinci masterpiece was recovered in a raid on a lawyer's office yesterday. Police officers interrupted a meeting during which it is understood a deal to buy the £50million painting was being negotiated. Four men were arrested and are due to appear in court today. The Madonna with the Yarnwinder, painted in 1501, was taken from a castle belonging to the 9th Duke of Buccleuch, Britain's largest landowner, four years ago. >>>

- Elsevier: "Saint Martin centre of global narcotics trade" - "The Caribbean island of Saint Martin is an important centre for international narcotics trafficking, and through it also money flows to terrorist organisations. This is the conclusion of the Dutch Ministry of Justice in a confidential report on 'Organised crime and law enforcement on Saint Martin'. The report, dating back to June, speaks of an 'important and multi-purpose role concerning (international) drugs trade'. The Antilles island functions as a port of transit not only for cocaine, but also for heroin, marijuana and synthetic drugs. Moreover, local law enforcement agencies mention a flow of funds to terrorist organisations through the island. Large sums of money, the proceeds of drugs and human trafficking, arrives on bank accounts of organisations connected to the Taliban and Hamas. According to American intelligence, on the island itself are terrorists who have been trained in Al Qaeda training camps and are barred from flying to the United States. The Ministry of Justice report cautions the credibility of the information, but does stress that American intelligence agencies are not optimistic concerning crime and law enforcement on the island."

SIOE Update: Legal Loonies United!

While there's no going back at this stage, it cannot harm to evaluate some that has been written in the last few days.

Brussels Journal: "Brussels Mayor Warns: 9/11 Demonstrators Are Criminals":

FT: "First and foremost the organizers have chosen the symbolic date of 9/11. The intention is obviously to confound the terrorist activities of Muslim extremists on the one hand and Islam as a religion and all Muslims on the other hand."

The date of 9/11 is a brave choice and very symbolic. The link with Islamization by stealth does however provide an adverse mayor with the legal basis he is looking for to deny his permission. Having said that, as this particular generalization is apparently a huge No-No - while "'t was the Dews that did 9/11" isn't (perhaps someone needs pressing charges) - facilitating a club of loonies, who are basically accusing a friendly nation's government of having murdered 3,000 innocent people in cold blood for political gains, is not an offence.

FT: "To my knowledge not a single rule specific to the Islamic religion is being enforced in similar fashion. And I see no indication that a large majority of our Muslim population is demanding any such thing."

BJ provides part of the answer: "Contrary to what the mayor says, rules specific to the Islamic religion are being imposed upon society as a whole. For instance, Brussels has segregated swimming hours for women in public pools; Brussels public schools serve halal meat; Muslims slaughter sheep in the streets of Brussels.

Where are the animal rights activists when you need them? Oh, they're with FruitCakes United!

Snaphanen weighs in, in reference to the recent Doctors United actions in Scotland: "Apparently the bureaucrats believe that the would-be bombers were demanding sandwich-free offices in Glasgow hospitals during Ramadan."

Muslims normally only hit the streets in anger about perceived grievances; they do not do so, in demand of specific rights. They are more clever than that. Ask CAIR c.s. how the West's legal systems are being played like a piano forte. The Islamization by stealth process is supported by our own usefuls through coinciding ideology (see Chart I: the Straight Red Line), by dhimmitude through intimidation (see above example provided by Snaphanen), and through jurisprudence.

Consider the text of Leftards United: "Recently the French Minister for Housing and the City Mme Christine Boutin expressed her doubts about the official 9/11 report. Before, Michael Meacher, secretary of state in Britain and Andreas Von Bulow, ex Minister from Germany, stated clearly that 9/11 and the war on terror are orchestrated by the Bush administration ... They agree the 9/11 attacks and other terrorist acts, no matter if they were carried out by some so-called Afghan cavemen or by the governments themselves, inflicted the current policy of fear ..."

We've already seen that accusing a friendly government of cold blooded mass-murder isn't punishable by any contemporary liberal law. Cowards United are hiding behind a battery of European government officials with whose accusations they say to agree. What these various officials are doing is a disgrace and a diplomatic scandal, but at no time are Lobotomy United linking terrorism with a specific culture, religion or race. Therefore it might be of some importance to find out what was really being said here and by whom.

There's no going back at this stage. SIOE HQ: "A Line in the Sand" - "This is the limit! Therefore the organisers of SIOE call upon all to carry on and join the demonstration anyway, – because enough is enough. If we do not draw a line in the sand, and reject the attempts of people like Thielemans to curb our rights – people like him will turn the EU into a dictatorial state. Therefore we also call upon all organisations and ... >>>

Way to go, guys!!!

The Marxist Revival (6): the Queen of Rage & Ludicrous Equation

~ Continued from Part 5: Political Justifcation to Violence ~

Genuine or functional hatred and hysteria, the rage, rage, rage as cultivated by the Left brings us to an author of the finest in the tradition of the surreal equation, in which she excels and possibly even might claim original authorship of: Virginia Woolf.

Theodore Dalrymple decries the icon of women's literature Three Guineas as the locus classicus of self-pity and victimhood and suggests an alternative title: "How to be Privileged and Yet Feel Extremely Aggrieved". It is well known that the proletariat doesn't cause revolutions: that's the prerequisite of the middle class scions: the spoiled brats of the elite, the Osama bin Ladens, the Mohammed Attas and the Virginia Woolfs of this world.

Privileged she undoubtedly was, daughter of Sir Leslie Stephen, an eminent essayist, editor and critic, founder of the Dictionary of National Biography and publisher of Thomas Hardy. Her uncle, Sir James Fitzjames Stephen was an eminent legal scholar, historian, judge and political philosopher.

Dalrymple: "As a female member of the British upper middle class and one of what she called "the daughters of educated men" she felt both socially superior to the rest of the world and peculiarly, indeed uniquely, put upon". Throughout she laments her position, in so close proximity of learned men, with whom she couldn't compete. She attributed this to English society, unable as she was - like most very stupid people - to detect her own naturally diminished mental capacity.

Current Postmoderns (Pomos) must have taken several leaves out of the Woolf book, as she is no doubt the uncrowned queen of the ludicrous equation and false analogy; of logic so bent it could put the kitchen plumbing to shame.

Be that as may, she did discover single-handedly the secret to world peace! Get this: Throughout the ages warfare has been a male activity, during which time men have suppressed women. Were men to see the error of their ways and consider women their equals (you see what feats of logic can be accomplished once you set your mind to it), the will to war would vanish as by miracle.

Woolf's contribution to education foresaw in the establishment of a college building that was to be erected out of cheap, easily combustible material, that wouldn't tend to hoard dust, needlessly perpetuating despised traditions. That would lead only to vice, folly, cruelty and the suppression of women. The pictures and books would be new and always changing: a living testimony that the new is always better than the old by mere virtue of its novelty.

The university of Wordsworth, Milton and Wittgenstein was to teach only the arts that can be taught cheaply and practiced by 'poor people': medicine, mathematics, music, painting and literature, human intercourse and empathy (the latter perhaps a forerunner of multicultural theory, that no doubt shall become a compulsory subject taught in elementary schools in the very near future).

The little arts of talk, dress and cookery would be taught to lift women out of their limited domestic environments! The college would of course prevent wars, and not be elitist, competitive or judgmental in the slightest. One would perpetually immerse oneself in the tepid bath of self-esteem, mutual congrats and benevolence.

This self-indulgence stands in marked and familiar contrast to the habitual Marxist intolerance towards The White Patriarch. Monetary contributions toward the old system would be earmarked "rags, petrol, matches" with the message "... burn the college to the ground ... set fire to the old hypocrisies ... let the light of the burning building scare the nightingales and incarnadine the willows. And let the daughters of educated men dance around the fire and heap armful upon armful of dead leaves upon the flames. And let their mothers lean from the upper windows (presumably to be rescued at a later stage by invisible cloned pet proletarians, reminiscent of Lady Chatterley's lover) and cry "Let it blaze! Let it blaze! For we have done with this education!".

Unrestrained emotions and high strung aesthetics notwithstanding, Woolf leaves our contemporary Pomos far behind in the use of false analogies and the inability to distinguish metaphor from literal truth. Dalrymple: She "... collapse[s] all relevant moral distinctions, a technique vital to all schools of resentment ...

- Both the British policeman and the Nazi stormtrooper wore a uniform", rendering them both brutes;
- English society - so unfair to daughters of educated men - was proto Nazi, if not worse;
- A commentator who blamed the employment of women for the mass unemployment among men, was called the embryo of a Dictator, with a reference to Mussolini and Hitler: "Where is the difference? Are they not saying the same thing?"
- Discussing the struggle of women's emancipation: "It is true that the combatants did not inflict flesh wounds; chivalry forebad; but you will agree that a battle that wastes time is as deadly as a battle that wastes blood";
- Topped up with equating the Church of England with the German Nazi Party;
- If England doesn't know what it wants, the only alternative is fascism;
- There is no real difference between a university degree convocation and a Nuremberg rally;
- The dictatorship against Jews and women coming from Oxford, Cambridge, Whitehall and Downing Street is 'the same' as current in Germany, Italy and Spain.
- A club not admitting women members is the same as Nazi death camp Treblinka.

It goes on and on, unremittingly! Dalrymple: "It is one of the chief characteristics of [post]modern (my editing) rhetoric, designed not so much to find the truth as (in the words of former Australian prime minister Gough Whitlam) to 'maintain the rage'."

"One would hardly guess from reading Three Guineas that it was written at a uniquely dangerous historical juncture, in the shadow of a barbaric threat", in 1938. The same can be said of present Pomos: their fallacies and destructive instincts are eating away at the West's self-defense at a time when it is under threat from a number of sides, least of which not the pressures of mass immigration and the overt menace emanating from Radical Islam.

If worst comes to worst we can rely on Pomo to act as Mrs Woolf advises all women to do, should it come to war with Germany: "Since it was evidently a matter of indifference if the Nazis won (every British male being already a virtual Nazi), the answer was obvious to Mrs Woolf: they should do nothing ... not to fight with arms ... refuse to make munitions or nurse the wounded (the prospect of which would only be a perverse incentive to fight!) ... to maintain an attitude of complete indifference" and echoing a speech by the mayoress of Woolwich: "... would not even so much as darn a sock to help in a war."

Dalrymple: "Had Mrs Woolf survived to our time, however, she would at least have had the satisfaction of observing that her cast of mind - shallow, dishonest, resentful, envious, snobbish, self-absorbed, trivial, philistine, and ultimately brutal - had triumphed among the elites of the Western world."

~ To be continued: Part 7: Reversed Sophistry & Mythical Creatures ~

Of Political Entertainment and Slumber

The surrender party have now resorted to overnight theatricals in the hope of averting a victory for democracy in Iraq, pushing instead to open up the way for a victory of the forces of darkness, thereby completing the long and slow process to complete moral bankruptcy.

My personalized version of Google News has been announcing it since Saturday, ominously threatening that "Democrats will pull an all-nighter" ... "Senate debates Iraq pullout in marathon session" ... "Slumber Party in the Senate" ... "Senate Burning Midnight Oil", etc., etc., culminating this morning in "Senate Republicans scuttled troop withdrawal bill" and "Republicans Deride All-Night Senate Debate on Iraq", the White House classifying the amusement as 'a spectator event'.

What a to-do just to show how much the capitulators are out of touch with reality. Subject matter is the central theme of this decade, the geopolitical future hangs in the balance, and the hapless donks turn it into a piece of bad amateur operatics! These immature dilettantes are the party that is to supply the free world with a new leader come 2008?! Give me British entertainment any time (see next items).

- Update 20th June 01:25 l.t.: Democratic Senate leaders knew going into Wednesday's procedural roll call on their proposal to withdraw most U.S. forces from Iraq that they didn't have the votes to win, but victory wasn't their goal; it was stand-up comedy to draw attention to the Cause, which - as we know - justifies any means, which includes improper use of resources >>>

- Update 20th June 02:15 l.t.: I don't consider it my duty to provide the donks with a list of the consequences of their irresponsible demogoguery, but one person who did was Victor Davis Hanson. I hope somebody there takes notice and reaps some benefit from his wise insights, but regretfully we know better! Read "Defeat and Flight from Iraq" >>>


Remember ghastly George ... Galloway, Saddam's old buddy? Parliament's anti-sleaze watchdog, the Standards and Privileges Committee has found strong circumstantial evidence that the U.N.'s discredited oil-for-food program was used by the Saddam regime, with Mr Galloway's connivance, to fund his Mariam Appeal that he set up to campaign against sanctions imposed on Iraq.

The old windbag got off much too light, as usual: suspended from the Commons for 18 days during which time he is supposed to be contemplating his past sins. Knowing George, he'll probably be pondering whose interests to further next: the insatiable Satrap's in Tehran, or ride the wave of the emerging neo Marxists in South America instead?


On a happier note, we'll be in for a political treat as beastly Boris has officially announced he'll be running against erratic Red Ken! "I have a stock speech in which I berate the British - and especially British politicians - for being altogether too namby-pamby, mollycoddled and risk-averse; and I think of that speech now as I contemplate the challenge of running for Mayor of London."

"I am happy to confirm that I have today put my name forward to be the Conservative Candidate for London Mayor". Exchange of postmodern invective is already proliferating!


Back at the real war front, whence independent reporter Michael Totten has let it be known he's made it from Kuwait City to Baghdad. Noah Pollak has posted a report in re of Al Qaeda in Iran and reveals:

"It is long past time that one important piece of fantastical rubbish be finally sent on its way: this is the idea that Islamists maintain some kind of fastidious ethnic and theological separatism when it comes to who they're willing to work with on killing people. The co-option of Hamas and Islamic Jihad (Sunni Arab) by Iran (Shia Persian) is one piece of reality that intrudes on this comforting notion; so is the Iran-Syria alliance, along with the reality of Iranian support for both Shia and Sunni insurgents in Iraq."
Here's the rest of the revealing article >>>

While on the subject of debunking Islamic myth, most people think of Syria as a Sunni Arab country. The owners of this family estate however, the Assad dynasty, are Alawites or Alevites, a sect of Shi'ite Islam that is rather prominent in Syria. Hence the intimate connection with the satraps in Tehran, Southern Lebanon and Gaza City.

Of Degeneracy, Megalomania and other Anomalies

Today's range of current affairs subjects may differ wildly, but they have one thing in common: Culture War.

After failed attempts to establish a political party for pederasts, and the marketing of sex toys for Mother's Day (what can possibly be wrong with that?!), the Dutch broadcasting society that successfully brought televised sex and drug use education to the nation, is now pushing through a reality game show in which first prize is ... a kidney transplant! Wow, how progressive and liberal can a country possibly get without going to the dogs entirely? Answer: not very.

Let's put it in another way: this country is beyond immoral; it has long passed amoral; it has in effect become a moral black hole! As a consequence, and to make my point, ninety percent will have no idea what I'm on about!

The latest exercise in indifference and contempt for human life has resulted in the headlines "Baby suffocated in car", in two separate incidents of 'forgetfulness' in the Netherlands and in Belgium. Good night!

The good news is, Labour, the party we have to thank for furthering so much of the above, is on the brink of collapse! I could have told them that their boy wonder, Wouter Bos comes across as the cold-hearted, vain, unprincipled, technocrat that he is: a second Ad Melkert. People can sense fake even through the screen of a television. That's why the former Maoist competitor, Jan Marijnissen of the Socialist Party may be a totally misguided idealist, I'd buy a second hand car from him any day, as opposed to Bos whom I wouldn't even trust with the collection of my garbage.
CNN is reporting: Guantanamo detainee 'kills self'. Can anyone explain the function of these inverted commas, suggesting ... what ... foul play?

On to some more serious stuff now, as Venezuela requires our attention. The compassionate Leftist strongman of the proletariat, voted into power for a second time with some sixty percent of the vote as validated beyond doubt by the worst president in United States history, after the best of Marxist traditions is well on his way to megalomaniac totalitarianism. The choice for learning things the hard way seems to be a common human trait. Read here how key institutions have now been brought under Chávista control: ten of the twelve TV stations, the judiciary, the military.

John Allen of The National Catholic Reporter is having some fun with Chávez' "Cubanization policies" that are reflecting the spirit of "the greatest Socialist in history", viz. our Lord Jesus Christ. Apparently Pope Benedict's finer philosophical and theological points on Liberation Theology are lost on the Chávez' household, as might be expected. Enter the Second World War, Adolf Hitler and the Anti Christ, which just goes to show that even the saintly men in Rome can be sorely tested.

Asked Tomas Sancio of Venezuelan Politics Blog what we can do to help the situation in his country: "Write, write and write, that's what we can do, hoping that search engines and public opinion can read our opinions. Providing explanations on why we think totalitarianism is happening now. Opinions and arguments do count. The Venezuelan government pays people to lobby on its behalf (I know the name of one French man that was hired to do that job). Foreign press has for years given Chávez the benefit of the doubt. Hopefully, we can provide our grain of sand to overcome the propaganda."

Yes, the press from hell would be involved, wouldn't they? As they are in furthering the Marxist multicultural agenda as set out by the irrational, totalitarian Unholy Alliance of Islam and the Left in the boycott of Israel. After the 35,000 members of the British National Union of Journalists (NUJ) found it in themselves to declare a boycott against Israel, yesterday also Britain's largest professional body of lecturers (UCU) called upon its 120,000 members to join an international boycott of all Israeli academic institutions.

Israel is going the way of South Africa: singled out for boycott against Apartheid (the worst president in U.S. history has set the tone with a book title turned misnomer), while all measure of barbarism, suppression and crimes against humanity are apologized in the name of Marxist good intentions. Lately I'm having déjà vues from the 1970's.

Apart from the fact that we obviously have the Unholy Alliance here at work, I think we are getting beyond bias now, into the realms of open war fare on the part of Britain's multicultural bastions. Another way of seeing it, is an assault on an independent state by denying its right and first duty of protecting its citizens against terrorism. Put yet in another way: the 'right to commit insurgency' of a virulent minority outweighs the state's prime duty to protect the majority. How does this florid example fit into the transnational progressive agenda of undermining the legitimacy of the nation state?

Let's wrap this up with some good news, the U.N. Security Council has passed a resolution on the creation of an international tribunal to try suspects in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. If the Syrians hoped pressure could be exerted by unleashing the international band of marauders of Fatah Islam on Lebanon, these hopes are now truly dashed.

Orwell's Press from Hell

I may be one of a dying breed: call me peculiar, but I like to form an independent opinion, based on fullness of information, on my own - thank you very much!

Considering the postmodern press is doing our thinking for us by predigesting and preselecting the news as they see fit, I might as well open up a independent press agency here and make a day-job out of screening their omissions and censoring. I fear however I am already otherwise engaged.

I do however intend to nail Orwell's Infernal Journalism to the doorpost of hell whenever the opportunity presents itself! Such posts shall be announced, thus:


Israel and the P.A., already problem areas due to the overt anti Israeli media bias displayed by amongst others Britain's 35,000 strong membership of the National Union of Journalists (btw unheard of in the history of the press!), present today's focus. Here goes ...

... what the Western press didn't say:

- 20 Qassam rockets launched at Israel on Thursday
- Qassams ignored abroad
- 3 wounded as Qassam hits Sderot home
- Hamas blames world, Israel and Arabs

And it's not just "The Lighthouse" that's peculiar in that sense: here's yesterday's post from "Barking Moonbat Early Warning System"!

While we are on the subject of eccentricity, yesterday the world saw the first reports of a new digital application: cyber warfare, of Russia against "Soviet era ally", Estonia! It takes some getting used to by NATO: at present they don't consider it an Article 5 offence, which would normally kick the Musketeer Doctrine (all for one, one for all) into gear. Russia meanwhile, is peeved, denies as yet unpronounced charges, which it qualifies as "serious", calls for substantiation.

Iran Day: Expressions of Fear on E.U. Index Expurgatorius

Given my complete lack of comprehension of the postmodern obsession with trivia, of which the Eurovision Crimes against Culture is a prime example, for the sake of completeness I briefly need to revert to yesterday's post, dealing with the subject. It is unbelievable how serious this nonsense is taken in some political circles, but that isn't what concerns me at present.

What does, is the depth and intensity the Eurabian self-censorship has taken. And it evidently extends to Iran. Let's not fool ourselves here anymore in respect of freedom of expression. These days you have to fine-comb all news outlets so as not to miss the finer points.

Only just now I discovered that the Israeli Eurovision entry "Push the Button" was disqualified from the song contest for expressing fear of an Iranian nuclear device! Though not officially so, the banning of the Jewish contribution was no doubt done with reference to Islamophobia, a state of mind on the E.U. Index Expurgatorius.

So they do understand that phobia means fear, not hatred! Europe and the mainstream media (MSM) are far braver than previously presumed! These aren't pocket size versions of Neville Chamberlain! They are taunting the sources of terror, communicating that 'we are not afraid of your bombs ... suppressing all expressions of fear is just the E.U. way of fighting terrorism!

After the abduction of the fifteen British sailors and the questionable way in which it was handled by the U.K. government, we are currently to understand there are more people missing. Take this BBC article about the 'lawful' arrest of Iranian-American academic Haleh Esfandiari on trumped up charges of spying for Israel. It mentions in passing that also a journalist, Parnaz Azima working for the US-funded Radio Farda, has gone missing. Since the Gulf War we know how the 'lawful' taking of hostages works.

A 9th May article on Opinion Journal argues that Iran's economic crisis should not be underestimated. I can recommend reading it: it's a shocker! And that, in spite of the E.U. economic assistance that ultimately means subsidizing Hizbollah's and Hamas' terror campaigns. On top of that "the mullahs are betting that short-term financial interests will prevent Europe from defending itself and acting against an existential threat to Israel."

With Iran also throwing its weight about in the region, things could hardly get any worse now that the two paranoid, nuclear rogue states are making it official! Only yesterday Reuters reported that "Iran and North Korea have agreed to step up bilateral contacts, an Iranian news agency said on Friday, signaling closer ties between two countries."

As the brain drain and the economic situation worsen Mahmoud Ahmadinejad needs the Jewish and American scapegoats to divert attention and to maintain a semblance of unity in the country. The Jerusalem Post recently provided interesting insights into the psychological mechanisms within the Islamic Republic and what it means: "For Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Israel's destruction is the final step in the realization of the Islamic revolution. He certainly must believe in his own propaganda, and he means what he says."

At which point we come full circle with the E.U. indexing any expressions of fear of an Iranian nuclear device: 'Bring - It - On!'

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 ...

Eurabia: Brace Yourselves, Here Comes Sharia Law!

We are faced with freedom issues, more precisely, freedom of speech and freedom of the press. What is termed the Western mainstream media (MSM) are either so seriously biased, or so self-censored, to the point that - frankly, whatever they write - it has become suspect.

In the more recent past this phenomenon touched classical socio-economic Left versus Right issues, such as free-markets, trade unions, the size of the government (big versus small), liberalisation, price controls, etc. To anyone with any sense of objectivity left, it is obvious that most of the press rooms and media offices are inhabited by Leftist activists, or at least journalists with Left leaning sympathies.

I write this from a European perspective, which is why I have no exact knowledge why the press as a whole became somewhat more balanced in the United States. But I think it was during the Reagan years that conservative press and radio were born, something I understand the Democrats now want to abolish by legislating 'balanced journalism'.

The problem why Leftist journalists cannot be objective in their coverage, is that they're persuaded that men aren't created equal; reason why minorities must be compensated in proportion to their inequality, and groups of 'victims' get a different press treatment in similar cases.

With the vast inroads made by Muslim immigrants, and the event of Eurabia - the snail-pace merging of Europe, Northern Africa and chunks of the Middle East - we are faced with media bias of yet another - and let's face it - of far more sinister proportions. And apparently it's not just an European problem either!

Added to above described mechanism is last year's E.U. involvement in guiding the press towards better coverage of the Eurabian merger. To this end the boys in Brussels have drawn up a vocabulary of acceptable, 'unemotive' newspeak. The Brussels Journal has covered it extensively. An E.U. official: "The basic idea behind it is to avoid the use of improper words that would cause frustration among Muslims and increase the risk of radicalisation."

The Brussels Journal has rightly likened said list of politically correct lingo to George Orwell's 1984 B-vocabulary, that is described by Dictionary.com as "Deliberately ambiguous and contradictory language used to mislead and manipulate the public."

Just recently it would appear the E.U. watchdog has given up on the official media altogether and placed all its faith in the conservative blegosphere.

Last March the E.U. issued a secret common lexicon or guidebook, instructing government spokespersons how to use the newspeak so as to prevent "the distortion of the Muslim faith and the alienation of Muslims in Europe."

In October Britain's Daily Mail published an article in which BBC News' star reporters openly and rather proudly admitted that, yes "We are biased". This is so shocking because first of all the BBC have always been synonymous with the highest standards in journalism, and secondly that they aren't in the least ashamed of their malpractice ... on the contrary, they are proud of it!

In the recent post "AnotherVictory of Unreason over Reality" we have seen that the 35,000 members of Britain's National Union of Journalists have simply given up on even pretending to keep up neutrality and emotional distance.

The Dutch government now seems to be in competition with the boys in Brussels in finding innovative ways to muzzle free speech. Not content with reigning in citizens and government spokespersons, it is now seeking ways to pressure constitutionally independent politicians in behaving in accordance with the Eurabian merger.

Heavily guarded Dutch M.P. Geert Wilders, founder of the Freedom Party (PVV) which operates on a immigration stoppage platform and voices perfectly legitimate concerns of citizens who see their world crumble before their very eyes - recently received an invitation to tea at the premises of the national anti-terrorism czar. Although accounts of reason and content vary from both sides, we can safely assume it didn't involve small talk over compost heap management.

According to Elsevier Magazine, the last remaining independent Dutch media outlet left standing, Wilders was told to moderate the tone in which he normally discusses immigration issues, so as "not to provoke Muslims". In recent months Wilders has voiced criticism of Islam which specifically prompted Saudi Arabia to 'unofficially' demand a retraction and an apology.

Elsevier mentions also that reason for the discussions at the czar's "formed the raging responses in the Islamic world and the fear for terror, violence and economic sanctions. A threat of a recurrence of Islamic intimidation after the publishing of the cartoons of the prophet Mohammed in Denmark."

The article concludes that "The fear is not unfounded. It has been established how Islamic fundamentalists react to ridicule and criticism. But it is especially painful in this affair, that intimidation by Muslims leads to a plea for (self)censorship. If anxious Dutch authorities request M.P.s not to provoke Muslims in order to prevent sanctions, it is proof that terror does work."

Above examples are just an upbeat to the real thing!

The newest member of the E.U. dedicated MSM today in passing mentions that: "German government talks with the Islamic community reflect growing concern in Berlin that the angry children of immigrants may turn to terrorism because they are excluded from German prosperity."

The article "Background: Alarm grows over Muslim youth in Germany" by Jean-Baptiste Piggin goes on to specify the figures of Islam in Germany and concludes in passing that - and sit down for this one:

"The government says it is seeking a trade-off, where Germany changes some laws to accommodate Muslims while the Islamic community commits itself to German democracy."

This is how Germany proposes to save freedom as we know it: by a trade-off involving elements of Sharia Law! By cheap bargaining over our rights and freedoms as if they were peanuts!

Even yesterday it seemed far fetched, theoretical and an exaggeration that Dutch Government Minister Donner remarked that "imposing Sharia Law must be possible if a constitutional majority so wishes", today we are faced with the shocking reality of it in Germany. C'mon! Nazidom was nasty, but even Germany doesn't deserve this fate! Stop the self-mutilation!

But that is not all! Not only is this happening without any democratic consent whatsoever, but nobody of our ruling elites perceives the lack of morality in this. This treasonous lot aren't even moral relativists, they're simply amoral!

It's been a wonderful experience, the diversity of European culture! And it seems a waste of all that blood that's been shed to come this far. But it seems our spine has given out. Will the last person to leave please switch off the light?