Refugees, Not Europeans, Benefit From The Engineering Of A Single European Identity

EU, Europe, IMMIGRATION, The State

“Europe rediscovers borders,” writes Kevin D. Williamson, and I would urge that so should we. “[T]he free movement of people called ‘al-Nasseri’ across the Mediterranean and over the Bavarian Alps” has been slowed some, with Germany and Austria… announcing “the implementation of border checkpoints.”

Checkpoints, of course, are not borders; they are what government erects when it wants to be seen to be doing something (I sound like Sir Humphrey Appleby of BBC’s “Yes, Minister” and “Yes, Prime Minister” satires). A Brownian Motion of sorts.

And to what avail are checkpoints if you are going to eventually allow a deluge of Middle-Eastern men safe passage into your communities? As Mark Krikorian points out,

… it’s important to note that refugees from the Islamic world cannot be properly vetted. I don’t mean only that the Obama administration has a frivolous approach to “violent extremists,” or that the Department of Homeland Security hasn’t shown itself especially competent in this regard. Rather, it is impossible to weed out jihadists from a refugee flow. Who are we going to check with, the Damascus police department? It’s not like any document claiming to be from Syria can be relied on; fake Syrian passports, for instance, are in great demand.

Back to Kevin:

… Berlin has pleaded for “solidarity” in the face of the crisis, studiously avoiding the question “Solidarity with whom?” Sweden, with its population of just 9.6 million, is expecting somewhere between 75,000 and 100,000 applications for refugee status. …
… Poland has shocked polite society by making it clear that it would prefer a small number of refugees, if any, and that they be Christian rather than Muslim. …
… Different peoples have different countries for a reason, and that’s why there are — or should be — fences or their equivalents. Whatever your assessment of the merits of Switzerland vs. Syria, Switzerland is Switzerland because it is full of Swiss people, and Syria is Syria because it is full of Syrians. As in the United States, the fingers-in-the-ears refusal of responsible European authorities to recognize this basic fact of life — that human beings are not interchangeable widgets …

Question: Weren’t most writes at National Review once for the collectivist super-state that is the European Union?

The quest to engineer a single European identity is at the heart of the crisis (as is the US’s foreign policy). “It remains unmistakably true,” wrote classical liberal philosopher David Conway, that “from its postwar beginnings to the present, the principal advocates and architects of European union have been uniformly animated by collectivist objectives that are deeply anti-liberal in spirit and form.”

“The EU already has rights to legislate over external trade and customs policy, the internal market, the monetary policy of countries in the eurozone, agriculture and fisheries, many areas of domestic law including the environment and health and safety at work,” and it has extended its rights into “justice policy, especially asylum and immigration.”

And it is this illiberal impetus that has allowed bureaucrats in Brussels to usurp the authority of previously sovereign states and make policy for the Continent (while being immune from its repercussions). Were it not for the rigid controls the EU exerts over its satellite states—each European country would be likely to respond to “refugees” in a manner consistent with the wishes of the voters, rather than that of the bureaucracy and its crooked beneficiaries.

The Perils Of The Female Franchise

Democrats, Elections, Feminism, Gender, Republicans

You and I know Republicans are not to be equated with freedom, smaller government or anything remotely libertarian. Ditto Democrats. It is safe to say, however, that the voting public considers a vote for a Republican to be a vote for less government and more freedom from the state. Assuming support for a Democrat is a reliable proxy for a greater proclivity for statism—we can all agree that women have been—and continue to be—a hindrance to liberty. As I once said, I’d give up my vote if all women were denied a vote.

Via CNN come the latest numbers on how the ladies lean:

Against Bush, Clinton leads 59% to 37% among women, while Bush holds an advantage among men, 51% Bush to 44% Clinton. Against Fiorina, the only woman among the major candidates for the Republican Party’s presidential nominations, women break 60% for Clinton to 39% for Fiorina, while men are about evenly divided, 48% for Fiorina, 46% for Clinton. The largest gender gap — 34 points — comes in a match-up between Clinton and Trump. Women favor Clinton by 23 points, 60% to 37%, while men break in Trump’s favor by 11 points, 53% to 42%.

Why Scott Walker Is A Two Percenter

Conservatism, Elections, Europe, Foreign Policy, IMMIGRATION, Middle East, Neoconservatism

Off the top of my head, let me share the unintelligent blather of Scott Walker, the man I call The Equal Opportunity Fencer (read why). Unlike the pundits who are ALWAYS wrong (as illustrated in 2004 ), yet keep returning to the national stage for encores—the base seems to have wizened up to neoconservatives like Walker. I’m really buoyed by the lack of support the likes of Walker and Bobby Jindal are getting from the GOP base: two and zero percent, respectively, in the latest Washington Post-ABC News Poll.

Oblivious to the poor marks his opinions have received from the public, Walker waffled to Sean Hannity about the refugees currently immobilizing life in Germany, Hungary, Austria ect.

First there were the obligatory expressions of empathy for the incomers. Not a word of sympathy was offered up by the host or his guest for the Europeans whose communities are being flooded by decree from Brussels and Berlin.

Next came Walker’s neocon, hackneyed lies about the root-causes of the migration problem (naturally, the magnet of welfare went unmentioned): Bashar Hafez al-Assad needs to be removed (Really? He was the source of stability in Syria, much like Saddam Hussein was in Iraq).

If the root causes of refugee influx into Europe is America’s lack of a more energetic involvement in Iraq and Syria—then Walker has the solution the Republican base is rejecting: back in we go.

Not for nothing is Walker a two percenter. Unless in defense of the realm, Americans are not keen on more of the same foreign-policy folly. Let us keep our military mitts to ourselves. Let us defend our own borders. That’s finally the prevailing sentiment among Republicans.

What else did Walker do to promote his brand of stupidity? For having the perspicacity to see something unique in the Trump phenomenon, GOPers have been maligned by pundits as stupid, ignorant, mere reality show watchers. Walker does not go so far. But he does dismiss the undeniable fact that Republicans are seething with good, honest rage. To the contrary, claimed Walker, singing from the same hymn sheet Republicans sang from in the last election cycle. The people are never angry. (What’s wrong with righteous anger? Nothing!). The people only want brainiacs like him to stop the gridlock and “get things done.”

Fuck off, Scott walker. As I read it, the base wants government to reverse the things it has done; to repeal laws, wars, and to do no harm.

Gunning For Tom Brady

Race, Racism, Sport, The Zeitgeist

I don’t give a tinker’s toss about the “Ow My Balls!” episode in which the New England Patriots are embroiled. (The satire “Idiocracy” predicted that in 2505, the age of the idiot, America would be enthralled by one of two seconds-long “films.” The first is “Ow my Balls!”) Worth pondering, however, is the hatred directed toward Tom Brady.

On MSNBC, the other day, a character from The Nation, Dave Zirin is his name, alluded to Brady’s own decaying Dorian Gray portrait stashed away in his attic.

In “The Picture of Dorian Gray,” Oscar Wilde told the riveting story of “a man who never ages while his portrait turns decrepit” because of his own “moral and spiritual putrefaction.” (The New Yorker.)

Nice comparison!

The Zirin bloke also protested the presence of a white man (Tom Brady) in a predominantly black sports league.

Brady’s a Dorian Gray (beautiful but evil) and he’s white (privileged but evil): If you ask me, these racists are gunning for the guy.