Category Archives: EU

Junking Gender

EU, Europe, Feminism, Gender, Homosexuality, Psychiatry, Psychology & Pop-Psychology, Sex

It is one thing to let children be who they are; a girl to play football, if she likes; a boy to bake bread. It’s quite another to engineer the obliteration of gender roles. And it is one thing for a private school to engage in “engineering equality between the sexes,” as the reporter euphemizes an experiment underway in a Swedish preschool based in Stockholm; it is quite another for the state to compel its tax base to pay and partake in such dangerous, invasive folly. Oh well, it’s good to know that American pedagogues are not the dumbest in the world:

At the “Egalia” preschool, staff avoid using words like “him” or “her” and address the 33 kids as “friends” rather than girls and boys.
From the color and placement of toys to the choice of books, every detail has been carefully planned to make sure the children don’t fall into gender stereotypes.
“Society expects girls to be girlie, nice and pretty and boys to be manly, rough and outgoing,” says Jenny Johnsson, a 31-year-old teacher. “Egalia gives them a fantastic opportunity to be whoever they want to be.”
The taxpayer-funded preschool which opened last year in the liberal Sodermalm district of Stockholm for kids aged 1 to 6 is among the most radical examples of Sweden’s efforts to engineer equality between the sexes from childhood onward.

The literature in developmental psychology is clear—it was at least when I attended university. The development of gender identity early in life is a function of biology, psychology and learning. A small sample develops the opposite gender identity, likely because of innate, biological processes. It is a blessing that a male or female child no longer has to agonize over an innate mismatch between his or her physical being (for example, male) and the gender identity that attaches to it (female).

In these cases, acceptance and kindness is key. But to engineer gender confusion is a horrible idea. Profoundly stupid too. Going overboard and parading sexuality, any sexuality, in schools and the workplace—that’s plain vulgar, regressive and uncivilized. (See “Libertarianism Lite”)

UPDATED: Zuming Into Action

Africa, America, EU, Europe, Middle East, South-Africa, War

Kudos to South African President Jacob Zuma for attempting to broker a ceasefire in Libya. Zuma has embarked on his second tour of duty in Libya. The mission? To get Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi to say and do the requisite things that’ll pacify NATO’s (aka the USA’s) new allies, also known as The Rebels.

The African Union, which harbors many a mini-warlord, is toiling to get the Über dogs of war of “NATO” (read America) to stop leveling Libya.

Zuma is an interesting guy, as our friend Dr. Dan Roodt, founder of the Pro-Afrikaans Action Group (PRAAG), has pointed out.

UPDATE (May 31): On Libya, Zuma sounds a lot like … me. From “Libya: A War of the Womb”:

If indeed we’re subsidizing “freedom” for the Libyans, and are fighting their battles—then we’ve also increased their impotence and diminished their initiative. Subsidize individuals because you believe they are helpless—and you’ll get more learned helplessness. Besides, what are these Libyans? Wards of the crumbling American Empire? Whatever happened to fighting your own revolutions?

Speaking in Tripoli, Zuma divulged that he and “the tyrant” (the MailOnline’s locution—and idea of impartial reporting) “discussed the necessity of giving the Libyan people the opportunity to solve their problem on their own.”

What audacious idea will Zuma come up with next?

UPDATED: The Titan Is Tired

EU, Foreign Policy, Israel, Judaism & Jews, libertarianism, Middle East, Multiculturalism, Nationhood, Neoconservatism, Old Right, Palestinian Authority, Terrorism, The West, UN

The following is from “The Titan Is Tired,” my new WND.COM column:

“… This column has been consistently polite about—but disinterested in—the putative push for freedom across the Middle East.

Dare I say that such a stance, and not slobbering sentimentality, is the proper, libertarian position? I promised, accordingly, that when liberty deprived peoples the world over supported patriots stateside, I’d return the favor.

The same goes for Israel. Israelis want the support of Americans in standing up for their national sovereignty. Fine. But they should respond in kind.

The titan is tired. We Americans have our own tyrants to tackle. We no longer want to defend to the death borders not our own—be they in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Libya, wherever. And we don’t need our friends looking to us to do so.”

The complete column is “The Titan Is Tired,” now on WND.COM.

UPDATE (April 29): On Facebook, our friend Nebojša Mali writers this: “Ilana, the whole article is well-written, but that last paragraph is simply outstanding.”

Me: “Let me read it. Forgot it. Oh, it’s up there in the excerpt. Thanks, Nebojsa; coming from you, that’s nice. I think it captures how I feel personally: tired. Can’t imagine what some poor marine, or any soldier, must feel as the unarmed armchair warriors here and abroad coax him back to hell for the 1000th deployment. What the hell for? So that Ann Coulter can continue to be the prettiest, most profitable (almost) war profiteer around? Here’s something written about that for your site (antiwar.com), it’s called “LETHAL WEAPONS: NEOCON GROUPIES.”

Global Ghouls Rising

Debt, Economy, EU, Europe, Political Economy, Regulation, Taxation

Since the onset of the economic crisis, the din has grown louder from assorted international institutions. It goes without saying that the demands are never for a dispersion of power. There have been various lunges for EU types of controls over financial institutions. Most of the resistance to the pull has come not from the US.

For example, and as I documented over this space, the Canadian government, not the American one, resisted a bank tax suggested by the the global regulatory regime.

Ministers fanned out across the world to raise opposition to the proposal for avoiding another financial crisis. ‘Canada is, and will remain, opposed to a tax that would penalize financial institutions that remained strong and prosperous while many of the world’s banks failed,’ Clement told a press conference with Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon.”

“In an apparent attempt to reignite damped discussions on a key regulatory issue,” reports the Wall Street Journal, “the IMF proposed that a half-dozen or so of the countries with the biggest financial centers—such as the U.S., U.K., and Japan—voluntarily agree to a set of guidelines to resolve failed systemically important international financial firms.”

Not-so curiously, in opposition are the European countries: “it is uncertain whether [they] want to cede sovereignty on the issue.” Some of these countries have also implemented austerity measures, which have angered hedonistic B. Hussein. Remember when our president instructed German Chancellor Angela Merkel to “print more money, not make it”?

If the IMF is looking for the political will to galvanize the globe, they will surely find it in the US.