Category Archives: Europe

Update II: Bangalore On The River Brent (Demographics? Diddlysquat!)

Britain, Europe, IMMIGRATION, Left-Liberalism And Progressivisim, Multiculturalism, Nationhood, Neoconservatism, The West

What on earth is a representative of the British National Party (BNP) doing in what he says is Wembley (an area of north-west London), but looks like Calcutta, warbling in Welsh? Be gone with you, you rambling racial supremacist. Give it up. As the Virginia Postrel thesis goes, change is always good. Embrace it. Count your blessings: there is still one pukka British symbol on the streets of Wembley: the double-decker bus.

Update I: Surprisingly, most comments hereunder ignore the larger reality, preferring to concentrate on minutia: are the streets clean and orderly (how the fuck do they know?). Western liberals are like that.
By contrast, confronted with a take-over of swathes of their towns, Chinese, Indian or Pakistani men would be furious. This is to their credit.
Yet an out-migration of the indigenous English population from a section of the city they no longer recognize or feel comfortable in is dismissed by your average, non-nonchalant, liberal-minded westerner. How sophisticated! This is why I, with few exceptions, have little respect for western men and, like Tom Fleming, hold white liberal-minded men responsible for everything from affirmative action to racial set-asides to speech codes—and, in general, for most forms of cultural and legal foot-and-mouth. As Dr. Fleming put it:

“[W]e should not make the mistake of blaming black people for the suicide we continue to inflict on ourselves. We white males are the problem, not blacks, women, homosexuals, or Mexicans. We–at least the liberal part of “we”– turned away from our religion and our civilization; we made war on property and marriage; we rejected Haydn and Sophocles in favor of John Cage and Kate Chopin. We have emasculated ourselves, pithed our brains, destroyed our vision and hearing …”

I believe this is the very impulse evinced in the blog posts that dismiss the Wembley footage. It’s left-liberalism at its seeming suavest.

Update II (Nov. 5): DEMOGRAPHICS? DIDDLYSQUAT! It is a great shame that the Jacobinism of the Steyns of the world is mistaken for a coherent defense of the West, or for the good kind of nationhood, for that matter. A little reminder: When the barbarians of the banlieusard rioted through France in November of 2005, one neoconservative troika—Mark Steyn, Jonah Goldberg, Frederick Kempe—fingered French racism and snobbery in marginalizing its poor Maghrebis. France, in this unholy trinity’s assessment, fell short in offering its Third Worlders freebies and fraternité.

From “Get With The Global Program, Gaul”:

When America’s news cartel woke up to one of 2005’s biggest stories—Muslims running riot across France—the response from many a neoconservative was to gloat.
The Schadenfreude was tinged with a sense of American superiority [can you say Steyn?]. It’s not happening here because we’re better. And why are we superior? To listen to their accounts, it’s because we’ve submerged or erased aspects of the American identity.
Taking the Frank out of the French hasn’t been as easy. As the famed (neoconservative) Francis Fukuyama has observed, in Europe “identity remains rooted in blood, soil and ancient shared memory.” How gauche.

Steyn, your “One-Man Global Content Provider,” is, predictably, wrong. Demographics are NOT destiny. Demographics are the excuse of statists (such as our neoconservative contingent) to persevere with immigration policies that destroy western civil society and shore up the western state. (I will incorporate these idea in a column.)

Did the now-waning West become great because it outbred the rest of the world? Ridiculous! The West was once great becasue of human capital—innovation, exploration, science, philosophy; because of superior ideas, and the willingness to defend such a civilization.

Of course, if I spouted the silly Steyn line I’d be rich.

Vaclav Finger-In-The-Dyke Klaus

Classical Liberalism, EU, Europe, Regulation, Socialism

The Euroskeptic Czech President Vaclav Klaus continues to valiantly oppose the European Union for its sovereignty sundering supranational regulation. He has “stubbornly refuses to fly the EU flag.” However, now it looks as though he may be required to capitulate:

Klaus, “a fierce critic of all things related to the European Union, is the only thing standing between Europe’s élite club and its mighty future. Until he signs the Lisbon Treaty — the Czech Republic is the last holdout among E.U. members — the E.U.’s grand reform plan remains in limbo. While politicians across the continent have spent weeks wringing their hands, trying to figure out how to compel Klaus to sign the document, the majority of Czechs are standing behind their leader. …

Although Klaus is fiercely opposed to the treaty, which aims to overhaul the E.U.’s decision-making procedures and establish a full-time President of the union, it’s looking more likely that he will grudgingly sign it. He is bound by the Czech constitution to approve the document after the parliament endorsed it and he indicated in an interview last weekend that it was probably too late to derail the process.”

More.

Background: “Adieu to the Evil EU”

Updated: He’s A Magic Man (Not)

Barack Obama, Etiquette, Europe, Foreign Policy, Politics, Sport

There are many ways in which a politician can throw his weight around and display his insularity and solipsistic self-absorption. The Obama entourage’s vulgar show of self-importance—down to the feeble-minded Talker they took along for the ride in their bid for the next Olympics—must have gotten under the collective skin of the more understated Nordic, European folks. Europeans have been first to shatter Obama’s messianic invincibility.

In a previous post, “How She Sacrifices For Us,” I wondered when the Europeans would finally get “sick-and-tired of the Obama dog-and-pony show. I assume they have some pride.”

Well, the time has arrived—and sooner than I imagined it would. But I’m not complaining. “The 2016 Games are going to Rio de Janeiro,” reports MSNBC. “Chicago was knocked out in the first round, despite in-person lobbying by President Barack Obama — one of the most shocking defeats ever handed down by the International Olympic Committee.”

The slap to Chicago was such that some IOC members were left squirming. The city’s plans for Olympic competition along its stunning Lake Michigan waterfront had long made it a front-runner and earned support from the highest possible level — President Barack Obama himself. His wife, Michelle, flew in two days before the vote to butter up IOC members, an essential part of the selection process. And Obama himself flew in Friday morning.

IOC members had seemed wowed, posing for photos with Mrs. Obama and taking souvenir shots of the president with their mobile phones. But, in the vote, Chicago was shunned.

Update (Oct. 3): THE TIMES OF ENGLAND (warning; intelligent writing ahead): “Mr Obama was greeted — as usual — like a rock star by the IOC delegates in Copenhagen — then humiliated by them. Perception is reality. A narrow defeat for Chicago would have been acceptable — but the sheer scale of the defeat was a bombshell, and is a major blow for Mr Obama at a time when questions are being asked about his style of governance.

… Chicago’s dismal showing yesterday, after Mr Obama’s personal, impassioned last-minute pitch, is a stunning humiliation for this President. It cannot be emphasised enough how this will feed the perception that on the world stage he looks good — but carries no heft.”

[SNIP]
In their understated, quiet way, the Europeans may have done us a favor. However, will a man with a messianic complex (Bush had it but, other than the Republicans, no one bought into his delusions) intensify his efforts at tyranny? On second thought, is that even possible?

Updated: He's A Magic Man (Not)

Barack Obama, Etiquette, Europe, Foreign Policy, Politics, Sport

There are many ways in which a politician can throw his weight around and display his insularity and solipsistic self-absorption. The Obama entourage’s vulgar show of self-importance—down to the feeble-minded Talker they took along for the ride in their bid for the next Olympics—must have gotten under the collective skin of the more understated Nordic, European folks. Europeans have been first to shatter Obama’s messianic invincibility.

In a previous post, “How She Sacrifices For Us,” I wondered when the Europeans would finally get “sick-and-tired of the Obama dog-and-pony show. I assume they have some pride.”

Well, the time has arrived—and sooner than I imagined it would. But I’m not complaining. “The 2016 Games are going to Rio de Janeiro,” reports MSNBC. “Chicago was knocked out in the first round, despite in-person lobbying by President Barack Obama — one of the most shocking defeats ever handed down by the International Olympic Committee.”

The slap to Chicago was such that some IOC members were left squirming. The city’s plans for Olympic competition along its stunning Lake Michigan waterfront had long made it a front-runner and earned support from the highest possible level — President Barack Obama himself. His wife, Michelle, flew in two days before the vote to butter up IOC members, an essential part of the selection process. And Obama himself flew in Friday morning.

IOC members had seemed wowed, posing for photos with Mrs. Obama and taking souvenir shots of the president with their mobile phones. But, in the vote, Chicago was shunned.

Update (Oct. 3): THE TIMES OF ENGLAND (warning; intelligent writing ahead): “Mr Obama was greeted — as usual — like a rock star by the IOC delegates in Copenhagen — then humiliated by them. Perception is reality. A narrow defeat for Chicago would have been acceptable — but the sheer scale of the defeat was a bombshell, and is a major blow for Mr Obama at a time when questions are being asked about his style of governance.

… Chicago’s dismal showing yesterday, after Mr Obama’s personal, impassioned last-minute pitch, is a stunning humiliation for this President. It cannot be emphasised enough how this will feed the perception that on the world stage he looks good — but carries no heft.”

[SNIP]
In their understated, quiet way, the Europeans may have done us a favor. However, will a man with a messianic complex (Bush had it but, other than the Republicans, no one bought into his delusions) intensify his efforts at tyranny? On second thought, is that even possible?