#4
Boy, did the discussion about Pusan's red light district bring back WestPac memories. Texas Street, Green Street.
Posted by: Bay Area Torpedoboy ||
10/08/2006 10:35 Comments ||
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#5
San Francisco Is A Major Center For International Crime Networks That Smuggle And Enslave
brace yourself..
SF is corrupt as hell. whether its political patronage, fixing 'problems', building permits, import 'massage' parlors, bath houses, weed emporiums etc.
If you're going to San Francisco
Be sure to wear some flowers in your hair
If you're going to San Francisco
You're gonna meet some gentle people there
For those who come to San Francisco
Summertime will be a love-in there
In the streets of San Francisco
Gentle people with flowers in their hair
All across the nation such a strange vibration
People in motion
There's a whole generation with a new explanation
People in motion people in motion
For those who come to San Francisco
Be sure to wear some flowers in your hair
If you come to San Francisco
Summertime will be a love-in there
If you come to San Francisco
Summertime will be a love-in there
#6
"It makes me sick to my stomach," said San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom. "Girls are being forced to come to this country, their families back home are threatened, and they are being raped repeatedly, over and over."
Federal authorities yesterday announced the indictment of 56 persons on drug-smuggling and money-laundering charges, 27 of whom were arrested for their purported links to international drug cartels.
The arrests were part of "Operation Watusi," coordinated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), along with the FBI's "Operation Green Traketon" -- operating under the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force.
The investigations focused on drug cartels that operated in Puerto Rico, Colombia, St. Martin, Netherlands Antilles, the U.S. Virgin Islands, the British Virgin Islands and the Dominican Republic.
ICE spokesman Dean Boyd said simultaneous arrests took place in several countries. Numerous foreign and domestic bank accounts were seized, along with $3.1 million cash, about 4,000 pounds of cocaine and six boats. According to one of the indictments, a purported leader of one of the organizations, Luis Pena-Pena, coordinated the kidnapping of an undercover ICE agent in Medellin, Colombia, in December. The indictment also said a ransom of $2 million was requested for the release of the undercover agent.
The purported drug traffickers, who thought they were dealing with a drug smuggler, later discovered the kidnapped man was a U.S. drug agent and he was released.
"We will leave no stone unturned in hunting down those that kidnap and threaten undercover ICE agents. In this case, our agent was fortunate to escape with his life," said Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Julie B. Myers, who heads ICE.
Two of eight indictments in the probe said the cartel members and their co-conspirators coordinated the transportation of multimillion-dollar shipments of cocaine from South America to Puerto Rico via boat. Seven of the eight indictments accused cartel members of laundering the narcotics proceeds through various financial transactions.
Given the growing alliance between the narcotraffickers, Chavez and the Islamacists, that's a threat that goes beyond drugs.
CAIRO - A team of doctors examined ailing Egyptian opposition leader Ayman Nur Saturday as a step toward a ruling on his condition that could see him freed from jail early, his wife said. They examined him for more than two hours, saying they would make a determination within a few weeks after studying his entire medical file, Gamila Ismail told AFP. She did not explain why they had told her it would take so long.
It's a thick file.
The 43-year-old failed presidential candidate was imprisoned on forgery charges a year ago and suffers from diabetes as well as heart and back problems. Other than freeing him, a recommendation could be made to transfer him to a hospital, or to leave him in prison.
Press reports have suggested doctors who examine Nur could recommend his release through a presidential pardon around the time of Eid al-Fitr, the festival marking the end of the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan, later this month.
Nur, a lawyer, mounted an unsuccessful electoral campaign against Mubarak, who was re-elected to a fifth term in September 2005. He was sentenced last December to five years in prison after being convicted of forging affidavits for the creation of his Ghad (Tomorrow) party. The United States has described his imprisonment as a miscarriage of justice.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/08/2006 00:00 ||
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KUWAIT CITY - Kuwait has received 11.2 billion dollars in war reparations from Iraq for Baghdads 1990-1991 invasion and occupation of the emirate, an official report said Saturday. The report by Kuwaits compensation authority, published in Al Qabas daily, said the UN Compensation Commission had so far approved 41.3 billion dollars in war reparations for Kuwait.
The emirate has filed compensation claims worth 178 billion dollars to the UNCC, set up by the UN Security Council after Saddam Husseins forces occupied Kuwait in 1990 before being ousted seven months later by a US-led coalition. A majority of the claims were filed for damages in the oil sector, the lifeline of the Gulf state, and the environment, the report said.
Kuwaiti lawmakers have warned their government against giving in to external pressures to forgive part of the unpaid compensation, with some threatening to hold the government accountable. The emirate, however, agreed in 2004 to an American request to substantially cut the estimated 16-billion-dollar debt owed to it by Iraq.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/08/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Because Lord knows that a country like Kuwait can really use that money.
The British health system is collapsing. That collapse will intersect with a growing anger that many immigrants spend a lot of time on the dole without integrating. The result is not likely to be peaceful, despite the best efforts at appeasement by the government, I suspect.
The NHS is much worse off than you think. Even the Guardian and the Independent can't hide how bad it's getting. The docs I know there are extremely frustrated -- they know what they need to do to provide the care, they just can't do it. And every year the gummint promises to put more money in to make NHS a sterling example of medical care. They keep putting the money in and the care keeps sinking.
#1
Where's Lemming of the BDA when you need him? (g)
Posted by: Ernest Brown ||
10/08/2006 0:09 Comments ||
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#2
In all seriousness, though, this just typifies what happens when government gets its insidious hooks into a good thing.
Posted by: Ernest Brown ||
10/08/2006 0:10 Comments ||
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#3
"Patients have complained about dentists who treat only children on the NHS and force adults to pay, and the new contracts will deal with this."
Oh the horror. Having to pay for a service? Shocking!
Right. Because nobody should pay. And Candy Canes should grow on trees, and cute fluffy kittens should gently fall from the sky.
Nothing is free. Everything costs something to produce, and all you do when you offer it free to one person is put the cost onto somebody else. Obligation without compensation is servitude. This is true, no matter what the service or good might be.
There is no "right" to health care anymore than there is a right to food or clothing or bicyles or fishing tackle or landscaping or housecleaning. It's simply another thing that must be purchased as necessary. Trying to make cradle-to-grave government run - and financed - doctoring a government item has been an unmitigated disaster everywhere - even the workers' paradises in Scandinavia are starting to reprivatize parts of their "systems."
Like every other type of socialism, programs like this are great for a couple of generations but eventually go bankrupt - physically and/or morally - at some point.
Among all of the other reasons not to vote in the Dems is the fact that they would gleefully give us a system of health care not meaningfully different than the one in the article.
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/08/2006 10:42 Comments ||
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#8
I can't see the situation with the NHS improving in the near future; the NHS is seen as something untouchable by all major parties (even the conservatives), meaning that the reforms needed won't take place.
This is very annoying, because recent opinion polls have shown that the population is generally willling to stop treating the NHS as some sacred cow, but the politicians are too frightened to do anything about it - none of them wants to be known as the guy who 'killed' the NHS (as though it were some ludicrous binary decision).
Huge strides could be made by simply allowing internal markets, but again the political will is not there to create a meaningful one (the conservatives were in the process of making one, labour came in and killed it off in one of their first decisions, and then found that they needed to recreate it). See the Adam Smith Institute's idea for more details.
The really annoying thing is that there's evidence of how a market could work extremely well on every high street ine the UK - opticians. When I was younger, you could always tell NHS spectacles - loads of jokes were made about them, but now it's exceedingly rare to see anyone wearing them, why? because you can go to SpecSavers, Vision Express, Boots, the Eye Clinic (and many more) and get the very best designer frames or invisible frames if you want, or maybe two-for-one deals is what you're after, varifocals, bifocals, all manner of contact lenses and several different forms of laser correction surgery are all available - and you can choose how much you want to pay, from hardly anything (reading glasses are available for less than a tenner) through to hundreds of pounds - your choice.
Why people can't see this going on and extrapolate it to the NHS is a constant mystery to me...
The market works, it's not perfect, but in virtually all areas it's more efficient and sensible to have a market. Check out this great article by Charlie Munger (the bit about 'Glock Air' should resonate with a lot of people on the 'burg!!), I've clipped the last bit - a quote by Ludwig von Mises;
"The market process is a daily repeated plebiscite, and it ejects inevitably from the ranks of profitable people those who do not employ their property according to the orders given by the public."
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
10/08/2006 10:46 Comments ||
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#9
#7 - bugger, I knew that was coming up, I just hoped to get my retaliation in first ;)
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
10/08/2006 10:47 Comments ||
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#10
Knew it, just wanted to see which a-hole posted it first, huh? LOL, Tony
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/08/2006 11:04 Comments ||
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#11
Tony UK
"Why people can't see this going on and extrapolate it to the NHS is a constant mystery to me..."
Because they want candy, a pony, etc. The economically illiterate think that it all freely drops down from the Giving Elf in the Sky, only to be intercepted by Bad Corporate Dwarves who make everyone pay for it. That's the essential mindset grown-ups have to deal with, which is why we're in this dilemma in the first place.
Posted by: Ernest Brown ||
10/08/2006 11:36 Comments ||
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Posted by: Ernest Brown ||
10/08/2006 11:50 Comments ||
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#13
Thanks, EB. Good link to a well-reasoned article.
Posted by: mac ||
10/08/2006 12:14 Comments ||
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#14
You're welcome, Mac. I put it in Opinion if anyone wants to comment on it there.
Posted by: Ernest Brown ||
10/08/2006 12:57 Comments ||
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#15
It's a real eye opener to know how our numbers of students going into science math and engineering are dwindling compared to other countries. Folks coming to this country aren't educated to any high degree at least the majority of them and they don't pay into our services, mostly only using the services instead.
Many illegals and undereducated folks not paying into the already overtaxed system and expecting and getting the best free care. Hospitals have closed down and paying customers are expected to pay more.
Free would be nice, but not practical in the real world.
I forsee our system collapsing soon too.
Posted by: Jan from work ||
10/08/2006 14:14 Comments ||
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#16
thankfully we don't have to wear those uniforms or hats anymore, heh. Great picture though.
Posted by: Jan from work ||
10/08/2006 14:16 Comments ||
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HT to Drudge
Tens of thousands of people have marched through the Venezuelan capital, Caracas, in support of the main opposition candidate, Manuel Rosales. Mr Rosales will face President Hugo Chavez in December's presidential poll.
The march, which filled the main avenues of the city centre, was the biggest opposition rally Venezuela has seen since early 2004. Then, protesters made an unsuccessful bid to oust Mr Chavez from power in a recall referendum.
Young and old took to the streets to throw their weight behind the campaign of Mr Rosales, a middle-class Social Democrat who governs the state of Zulia, on the Colombian border. Many claimed that they were seeking liberty and democracy and that made Mr Rosales their only option: "The problem of the opposition is that before we had a lot of candidates and people couldn't make up their minds whom to support," one woman said. "Right now we have just one candidate and I believe that we have a better shot if we have just one candidate against Chavez."
For some it was simply a day out to enjoy the sunshine, but for most it was a chance to listen to a speech by Mr Rosales, who declared that Venezuela was "at a crossroads". Mr Rosales condemned what he called the cheque book diplomacy of Mr Chavez, accusing him of giving away Venezuela's oil wealth to foreign powers.
If Mr Rosales can keep up this kind of pressure against his rival, the election results may not necessarily be a foregone conclusion. But for now, Mr Chavez still enjoys a clear lead in opinion polls because of a sense of loyalty that poor and working-class voters feel towards him. things aren't out of hand yet. Expect to see mass arrests and no-rally rules put into effect.
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/08/2006 11:24 ||
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#1
Let's hope the Venezuelans get their country back without too much of their blood being spilt.
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
10/08/2006 12:00 Comments ||
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#2
If Mr Rosales can keep up this kind of pressure against his rival, the election results may not necessarily be a foregone conclusion.
MOSCOW - A Russian investigative journalist known for her criticism of the governments actions in war-torn Chechnya, Anna Politkovskaya, was found murdered in Moscow Saturday, Russian news agencies said. A neighbour found Politkovskaya shot dead in the hallway of the building where she lived in the centre of the Russian capital, a police official quoted by the agencies said.
Dmitry Muratov, the editor in chief of the opposition newspaper for which she worked, the Novaya Gazeta, confirmed her death. The prosecutors office announced it had opened an investigation into premeditated murder.
They'll be told tomorrow that it was a simple mugging, and that will be the end of it.
Politkovskaya was the recipient of numerous journalism awards, in particular for her coverage of Chechnya, and had written several books. In articles for the bi-weekly Novaya Gazeta, she denounced the explosive situation in the Caucasus republic despite assurances by President Vladimir Putin that it was returning to normal.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/08/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
As Russia slowly backslides into another era of Soviet-style grandeur.
#2
Anna Politkovskaya is probably the most brave person you've never heard of. She went to places and interviewed people that you would never go on a bet. She was poisoned by her own government.
Her book, Putin's Russia, is one of the best current events books I've read in the last five years. And that's pretty much all I read.
Local elections in Belgium are expected to strengthen the anti-immigrant Flemish far right in the run-up to next year's parliamentary election. The Flemish far-right party Vlaams Belang (Flemish Interest) could take control of the northern port city of Antwerp after partial results from state television suggested it will make a strong showing in the city.
The party has been kept in opposition by a coalition whose only common cause has been keeping Antwerp out of the hands of the anti-immigrant party.
The party has been kept in opposition by a coalition whose only common cause has been keeping Antwerp out of the hands of the anti-immigrant party. Vlaams Belang won 33 per cent of the vote in the 2000 municipal polls in its former guise as Vlaams Blok, which was found guilty of racism in 2004. Filip Dewinter, the party's leader, was optimistic that his party could make another breakthrough after successes in local elections six years ago and regional elections two years ago.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/08/2006 20:59 ||
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Spain, U.S. Agree to Radioactivity Cleanup 40 Years After Atomic Accident
MADRID, Spain Spain and the United States have reached an agreement to clean up radioactivity in the Spanish farming village of Palomares, on Spain's southeast tip, 40 years after two U.S atomic bombs fell in the area after a midair collision, news reports said on Sunday.
The agreement to clean the area was reached at a meeting mid-September between the U.S. Department of Energy and Spain's CIEMAT, the national Center for Energy and Environment Investigation, leading Madrid daily El Pais reported.
The accident took place on the morning of Jan. 17, 1966, when a B-52 bomber collided with a flying tanker while refueling over Palomeras and released all four of its hydrogen bombs in the ensuing explosion.
It is unlikely - damned unlikely - that there is any actual threat to life or limb at Palormares. What is very likely is that somebody decided this was a good stick to poke us with, and in the interest of not starting any MORE sh*t, we're rolling over and taking it.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
10/08/2006 13:16 ||
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#1
"In 2001 CIEMAT detected higher levels of plutonium, uranium and americium than average over 24 acres of Palomares."
Higher than average -- not exactly alarming.
Over 24 acres -- not much of a clean-up as things go.
#2
Just the usual Scamming for Big Bux gig. It was cleaned up and they were paid for the imagined "losses" back when it happened. There's a bull market in Golden Guilt and State Dept Stupidity, so they're looking for a return engagement. Just the usual EU-Thimk.
Emirates, the leading launch customer for the Airbus A380 super jumbo, is demanding £150m in compensation for delays to the crisis-hit programme.
Tim Clark, president of Dubai-based airline Emirates, which has ordered 45 A380s, made the claim in talks with Airbus management last week following the announcement of a third postponement of deliveries of the world's largest passenger jet. It is also understood that Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Atlantic is claiming more than £20m in compensation for delays in its order of six A380s, while Australian carrier Qantas has announced it wants £40m.
The Virgin board meets on Thursday to discuss its options for dealing with the hold-ups, which have pushed deliveries back by two years. The alternatives under consideration are: cancelling all or some of the orders; deferring them; or switching A380s for other Airbus planes. Last week, Airbus parent EADS announced that technical problems with the wiring would now leave airlines waiting two years longer than they had planned before receiving their aircraft, adding that the problems with the programme would hit profits over the coming years by £3.25bn.
Continued on Page 49
#2
I'm not an economist but giving your customers large sums of money instead of goods and services they want sounds like a shaky business model. Maybe they could append 'over the Internet' to their business plan and call it the next .com boom.
Spain will need at least 4 million more immigrants - between 16 and 64 by 2020, according to a study.
Guess they can't throw them back into the ocean now, can they?
I think they'd be better off with 4 million Messicans or Peruvians or Guatamalans than with 4 million North Africans.
Perhaps we, Spain and Mexico could arrange a three-way trade ...
The report, prepared by the regional government of Catalonia,looked ahead to the situation in 2020. It said the nation's relatively low birth rate was not sufficient to provide Spain with the workers it would need in the coming decades. [Oliver] said immigration was "unavoidable and necessary" because "if no one else enters, there will be a significant aging of the population," and, as a result, a lack of workers, so "if we do not have them here, they will come from outside".
In calculating the number of immigrants needed, researchers factored in annual workforce growth of 2-3 percent and gross domestic product growth of 3 percent annually. "Workplaces produce the call effect" since "we need immigrants," but if a large wave of immigrants arrives it could create a "worrisome clash, given the problems seen with integration in other European countries," Oliver said.
Oh, it's just with certain immigrants, the ones who have different plans and don't intend to integrate.
Last year, Spain's Socialist government extended amnesty to illegal immigrants, a move deemed overly generous by the opposition in Spain and some other European nations. Madrid provided work and residence papers to nearly 600,000 people, but more than 1.2 million foreigners continue to live illegally in the Iberian nation, according to a study conducted earlier this year by the Communist Comisiones Obreras, or CCOO, labor union.
The three-month amnesty process started February 2005, and some 700,000 foreigners applied to legalize their status in Spain, according to the Labour and Social Security Ministry. It said 573,270 people were given their papers, about 70 percent of them from Latin America. For months, Spain has been dealing with a wave of illegal immigration into the Canary Islands. Illegal immigrants from sub-Saharan Africa bound for the European Union have increasingly opted for the sea route to the Canary Islands since Madrid tightened security last year around two Spanish enclaves in North Africa that were being used as a bridge into Europe.
I'm no math major, but it seems to me that if everyone in Spain got busy tonight they could have a whole bunch of 13-year olds in 2020. From Instapundit in May:
The consequence of Europeans not having children is that their elaborate social welfare system and free healthcare are liable to collapse in a generation or two as a consequence of their birth rate being below replacement level. They obviously know where babies come from, but it's less clear they know where adults come from.
Children are a burden in a cradle-to-grave welfare state. They're expensive and they cut into careers. You can't self-actualize yourself when you're busy being a parent. Socialism has helped this along by trying to atomize people, cutting off all dependencies except the one on the State. Now it's about time for post-WW2 Europe to pay the piper. They can start making babies, or they can import a few ten million more people from all corners of the world and try and convince said immigrants to become good Y'urp-peons, or they can watch their world implode and be taken over by someone else. That's the genesis of Eurabia, and the present-day Euros are doing it to themselves.
#1
In calculating the number of immigrants needed, researchers factored in annual workforce growth of 2-3 percent
Brilliant analysis. We need more workers because we started from the premise we need more workers.
I miss the good old days with it's dire predictions (from the same mob who say we have to have massive immigration) of massive unemployment from ever increasing automation.
#3
The Spaniards condescend dreadfully to the "Colonials", according to my Hispanic-American friends living in Europe. But having a sub-population that resents being condescended to is better than one plotting conquest. And such a citizenized sub-population might gradually turn around the culture, bringing love of children and willingness to work -- very hard -- to where it's most needed. Of course, they might have to fight the pre-existing Moroccans, who figure they own that territory, but I imagine the immigrants would figure out how to handle that.
#4
Not just Spain; the *official* Eu mantra is that europe will need a whole bunch of migrants (in the tens of millions range) in the near future, to compensate for its declining natality.
Guess from where they will come?
And there is that INSANE UN rapport which advocates an huge immigration into Europe to maintain its workforce, something I can only qualify as "suicidal", IE remplacing the almost complete european population... or "when tranzis meet anti-western resentment from the UN Elites"
I'll try to find some material on that.
And by the way, during the 2005 campaign for the Eu constitution, one EU politician (I think it was a french, but I really can't remember, it was in a debate, but the idea stuck in my mind) said that "the turks will pay our retirement".
So, really, this is a Cycle of Doom(Tm); the society promoted by the cultural marxists/progressists/tranzis/... leads to a below remplacement birth level, while the welfare State was created in a period of demographical expansion (especially the retirement system)... so, to keep the welfare system, which is at the core of the whole power structure, really, our Enlightened Elites need immigration, from the nearest population pool, which happens to be muslim.
But, muslim migrants are not asked to integrate, and even less assimilate (cf. the Eurabia faustean deal - petrodollars are good!), and they're not (mostly) a working immigration, but a welfare-benefiting immigration (according to the interior minister in 2005, only 5% of legal migrants come in France as workers...).
So, the situation worsens, and the response is : more immigration... like digging a hole to fill an another hole.
So, this is spiralling out of control. But again, it's a feature, not a bug. If the EE had the will, they could enforce a strict immigration policy (they are, in some regards... against East Europe immigration), but it fits into their worldview.
#5
They can start making babies, or they can import a few ten million more people from all corners of the world and try and convince said immigrants to become good Y'urp-peons, or they can watch their world implode and be taken over by someone else
Good analysis. Wow, this really got me thinking. I was initially going to say that if you want someone to take care of you in your old age, then you have to have children or work hard when you are young to accumulate money. I was thinking that up until the 1950's that America had done a good job of balancing the idea of socialism through the churches (charity is form of socialism without the Robin Hood qualities). The churches did a reasonably good job of providing education and a refuge for the poor and sick and integrating disadvantaged around the world by allowing them to exchange their labor for opportunity. But then, of course, I thought of the south and realized that there is one more thing besides children or money - and that is the power to subjugate others to work for you.
I'm very suspicious of this whole idea that having more babies is the solution because opportunity through hard work is the necessary key to that equation. The reason I am suspicious of this whole idea of just having more babies is because under our current culture of self, it doesn't result in people who are willing to work. And thus money and especially power, rather than hard work, become the ways to accumulate wealth. And power is money. And a very easy path to power is to tell the poor and disadvantaged that if they "vote" for you, you will just give them what they want. But someone, somewhere has to do the work, so then the person who makes that promise, must deliver by subjugating someone else to carry the weight.
There has to be opportunity through hard work at the other end of this bargin or the bargin will collapse as Europe is showing.
Socialists have purposely killed the concept of opportunity by killing the idea that you must work hard so that your children and grandchildren may prosper. Socialism killed it with the idea of self and immediate gratification and entitlement. Thus the opportunity model, as it worked well in the US for so long, is broken. If you don't carry your own load in life, someone else will have to carry it for you and they have to have a reason for wanting to do that.
But I digress from the point that I was musing on. And that is that I think this whole meme put forth both here in the US by our leftists re: immigration as well as the point of this article re: what they want to do in Spain - this idea that we need more immigrants to care for us in our old age- is an ugly distortion of the truth. They are putting forth the lie that: you or someone in your family doesn't need to work hard for the money to help you carry your load, all you need to do is import immigrants and they will do it for you.
But in Spain they are taking the idea and turning into a bigger lie. Those who seek power in Spain are not seeking the immigrants to provide them opportunity in exchange for labor, they are just flooding them in to increase their own power. It appears that the powerful in Spain have realized that it is in their interests to flood immigrants into Spain. It will not help the ordinary Spanish citizen under the socialist model, it will only help those currently in positions of power. It is easy to understand this if you think of the Democrats here and their desire to bring illegals here - not to work, but to vote the current reigning Democrats back into power. It's a lie. You either have to carry your own load or someone else has to carry it for you. More People(TM) either in the form of disadvantaged seeking opportunity or having more children of your own, can only be the solution if those More People(TM) are willing to work hard enough to not only carry their own weight but to pick up and help carry the load of others.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
10/08/2006 7:15 Comments ||
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#7
"Children are a burden in a cradle-to-grave welfare state. They're expensive and they cut into careers. You can't self-actualize yourself when you're busy being a parent."
Exactly.
We all thought Marxism in Euroland was dead with the collapse of the Soviet Empire. In reality, it was more deeply ingrained - in a soft-core fashion - in Western Europe. Modern Europe has the Marxist trifecta - disdain for religion, an economic system based on envy and outcome equality instead of work ethic and opportunity equality, and the mechanism to smash anyone who dares to object.
It's simply a lot more fun to have "someone else" pay for your schooling and health care, take 7 years to get out of college while being subsidized during that time, work at an easy job for 1/3 of your lifewhile you sit up each night in cafes sipping wine and eating cheese and making fun of cowboy Americans (all the while untroubled by the need to change diapers and deal with ear infections), and retire at 55 and be pretend-rich for twenty five years (again, paid for by "somebody else").
A great program for the kind of selfish, envy-driven, disconnected-from-religion-and-Western-culture person which seems to be the overwhelming norm throughout Europe. However, you can only do this for a generation or two before it collapses.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
10/08/2006 7:30 Comments ||
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#8
We all thought Marxism in Euroland was dead with the collapse of the Soviet Empire. In reality, it was more deeply ingrained - in a soft-core fashion - in Western Europe.
#9
A5089, not only is what you say true, but the 'we need more immigrants to maintain our standard of living' completely ignores that a declining population automatically makes everyone richer (in the aggregate) since a countries accumulated wealth remains the same, but needs to be shared with fewer people, makes many goods and services cheaper, increases wages and salaries because more competition for workers, decreases enviromental problems, decreases crime rates, makes technological innovation more attractive, is your only hope of meeting Kyoto, etc, etc.
Btw, you might want to check this primer on Europe by a retired french businessman, Gérard Pince : THE FUTURE OF EUROPE
ROAD TO A CIVILIZATION SUICIDE
In a previous version, the topic was more econmy-oriented, and did notice the "pie to distribute to fewer persons" aspect.
By the way, this reminds me a french free-market/conservative weekly I suscribed my grandfather to quoted an african website dedicaced to immigrating into Europe, notably France... and the money quote on that website was "France could easily accomodate about 60 millions immigrants, all they have to do is to raze the forests which account for about 20% of the territory"... a mind-boogling sense of entitlement (the "right to colonize", or when native non-western resentment meets PC-induced white guilt narratives), really.
#11
Guess they can't throw them back into the ocean now, can they?
I think they'd be better off with 4 million Messicans or Peruvians or Guatamalans than with 4 million North Africans.
Perhaps we, Spain and Mexico could arrange a three-way trade ...
I think the US has had it's fill of importing Black Africans.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
10/08/2006 9:08 Comments ||
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#12
How about encouraging working people to have more children?
#14
Careful Jim, one of my best friends is a Nigerian-American, wonderful family, smarter than me and works harder too.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/08/2006 10:52 Comments ||
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#15
Sorry you missed the point, prhaps it was a bit too oblique
"We Americans do NOT need to revert to the pre-Civil war days by importing more Slaves"
I'm NOT speaking of immigrants who come of their own free will and join America's society, Nor am I speaking of the descendents of centuries ago Slaves, I'm refering to the articles thrust that "Poor, Uneducated, "Workers" (Translate Slaves) are needed to shore up the "Elite" of Spain who want others to do the work for a pittance, and the reference to a "Three way Swap", with the USA, Spain, and Mexico swapping illegals.
Looks like Spain gets the Mexicans, and we would get the Africans that would normaly be Spain's problems.
Hell NO.
Clear enough?
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
10/08/2006 11:49 Comments ||
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#16
Not quite. I'm puzzled by how you think poor black africans would be swarming our shores. It's a tougher swim than the wade across the Rio Grande.
#17
I don't care if immigrants to America are pink with purple polkadots as long as they immigrate legally and work hard once they get here.
The EUros should think that way too, but they're too busy feeling self-important pointing out the bigoted speck in America's eye while refusing to acknowledge the bigoted mote in their own.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
10/08/2006 12:34 Comments ||
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#18
well, as long as they're not salmon-pink
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/08/2006 12:56 Comments ||
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#19
I don't want ANY more immigrants. Period. There isn't a problem in America that wouldn't be easier to fix with only 200 million people rather that 300 million.
Posted by: mac ||
10/08/2006 13:11 Comments ||
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#20
Not quite. I'm puzzled by how you think poor black africans would be swarming our shores. It's a tougher swim than the wade across the Rio Grande.
The same way that the Mexicans would get to Spain.
You figure it out LOTP.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
10/08/2006 13:23 Comments ||
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#21
I don't want ANY more immigrants. Period.
Best journey to New York and pull the plaque off the Statue of Liberty.
You know, the one that says "Give me your tired, poor," Etc.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
10/08/2006 13:26 Comments ||
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#24
I don't want ANY more immigrants. Period. There isn't a problem in America that wouldn't be easier to fix with only 200 million people rather that 300 million.
My sentiments exactly!
Best journey to New York and pull the plaque off the Statue of Liberty.
That plaque should have been pulled off a hundred years ago, but certainly today. We, America, do not need any more immigrants. The more people, the more problems you have. We're heading for eventual 3rd world status as we add people.
#25
there is nothing wrong with immigrants who come here legally for opportunity. It's what makes us strong. The trick is to make sure there is work for them here once they get here. Work that pays them a living wage - without having the taxpayers foot the bill that the employers are currently not paying.
The argument that women need to get busy and have more children smacks of just another meme that if someone else just did something, then the problem would be taken care of. The bottom line is each person has a load in life that needs to be carried by someone. You can do it by working extra hard when you are young and save money for old age. Or you can work hard to raise good children who will take care of you when you are old.
To keep the the cycle going, you have to have enough young people entering the job pool to take care of the old. It doesn't matter if you birth them yourself of if you import them. But if those you import don't pull their own weight, the system will eventually collapse.
#27
Not only is there nothing wrong with immigrants who come here to work and settle, their willingness to do so is one reality check for the coddled descendents of those who have already made a comfortable life here.
Don't want to study math, science or engineering? Then don't complain when the high paying jobs go to people who came here, or whose parents came here, from Japan, India, Taiwan, Russia.
Don't want to take the risks of starting or buying a small service business and working long hours? Then don't be surprised if the 7/11 is run by an immigrant and his family, if the Best Western is owned by an Indian family whose members clean the rooms, cook the meals, man the check-in desk in and around doing homework.
Legal hardworking immigrants who come to settle here keep us honest. Not a bad thing IMO.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
10/08/2006 18:47 Comments ||
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#29
And the Spanish government does not want the incoming workers to be citizens : no advantage to them with that. What the Spanish government is trying to implement now is a guest worker program with no promise of citizenship. Remember, Spain is one of the European countries with the grandfather rule : if you can prove that your grandfather emigrated from Spain, you can legally apply for immigrant status to Spain that eventually leads to citizenship. The problem with that law for the present government is that all of the Latin Americans that emigrating back are fleeing the pseudo-populism/socialism of Chavez and his ilk. Makes the new citizens much more conservative and boosts the chances of the non-socialist political parties in Spain. So the Spanish socialists want a guest worker program that eliminates the need for the Hispanic returnees and helps them maintain power and control.
#30
the issue with incoming illegals is that they have few skills (other than teh willingness to do hard work) and start at the entry level (which harms teens and minorities looking to enter the job market) and are an overwhelming burden financially on schools, hospitals, and taxpayers, while sending their wages home. If we could choose (we can) who to admit, poor ignorant migrant mexicans is NOT what we would choose. But then again, I'm not a Democratic politician or union organizer
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/08/2006 18:55 Comments ||
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#31
Sheildwolf and Lopt you have said what I wish to express so much better than I. As I said in my much too long post above, Those who seek power in Spain are not seeking the immigrants to provide them opportunity in exchange for labor, they are just flooding them in to increase their own power. It appears that the powerful in Spain have realized that it is in their interests to flood immigrants into Spain. It will not help the ordinary Spanish citizen under the socialist model, it will only help those currently in positions of power. It is easy to understand this if you think of the Democrats here and their desire to bring illegals here - not to work, but to vote the current reigning Democrats back into power.
#32
Anyone who's ever looked into the requirements for emigration to another country - that's not a shithole or on it's way to becoming one, of course, knows that almost everybody else out there is picky as hell about whom they allow in.
#33
Yes. And several times in our own history we've throttled immigration down to a trickle as we assimilated large waves. For example after the Irish famines in the 19th century and then again after the wave of immigrants from Eastern Europe at the turn of the20th century.
But then we opened the doors again and overall it's been good for us. One difference tho -- those Irish and Poles and Ukrainians weren't sending money home via the local moneychanger nor were they going to work a couple years and go home easily. (Although some had hopes along those lines.)
Assimilation worked in part because it HAD to. The WASPS had to come to grips with Catholic Irish, Italians, Poles. The immigrants had to come to grips with being citizens of THIS country. And that meant they had strong incentive to have their kids educated and learn both English and a good trade.
#34
It doesn't matter where a person was born, but rather his loyalties. If he is a loyal American and willing to fight for America and our constitution, then he is a fine candidate for citizen. The rest is a matter of education. We are too soft. We don't demand enough of our children. We should have separate schools for bosy and girls and have a rewards system which moves only the able into higher education. Instead, our universities are businesses. Profit makers, exploiting their students for dollars and for performance on the playing field.
To be a success, you must be concerned about the experience your customer has dealing with you. Hungry immigrants sometimes know this and are the most reliable among their peers. Companies proud of their names are also reliable as are individuals just starting who would become successful. After success, some become fat and disinterested, bullying employees and becoming parasites on the work of others. Other companies advance college grads over their own experts. Mistakes are made which open doors for competition, which keeps the mix boiling. In Europe, there was never a mix, and boiling only occurs during wars. None of the European countries need immigrants, they need to make productive contributions to their societies, and stop the free rides. Then again, it's prolly too late for that.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
10/08/2006 20:23 Comments ||
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#36
from wikipedia: A cutman is a person responsible for preventing and treating physical damage to a fighter during the breaks between rounds of a full contact match such as a boxing, kickboxing or a mixed martial arts bout. Cutmen typically handle swelling, nosebleeds and lacerations (commonly called cuts). The rules of full contact sports stipulate that these injuries can be a cause for premature match stoppage, counting as a loss to the injured fighter. The cutman is therefore essential to the fighter, and can be a decisive factor in the outcome of the match.
#37
And Pacheco has been around for a couple of decades - now does announcer duties for televised fights. I can't imagine who posted that comment, though, lol.
#38
well if anything, I think this discussion proves my point that this whole Have More Babies meme is fit for the trash pail. While I do think that people who have children truly beneifit over those who do not, I don't think that having more babies is a solution to the socialist ponzi problem. As a woman, I'm getting pretty sick of the demand we become incubators for the good of the state. There are plenty of people in the world and they are producing plenty of offspring to keep fair, honest capitalist governments operating for many years to come. Many throughout the world are willing to work hard to change their circumstance. It used to be that we had a good balance between the exchange of labor and opportunity for those poor and wretched that had the get up and go to get here - but that was then. Now they think all they have to do is cross the border and they are entitled to welfare and healthcare for life without having to earn it. It doesn't work unless they are willing to work hard to achieve what others worked sometimes generations to acquire. But the media floods us with the constant theme of me, myself and I. It's all about meeeeee. I want it all and I don't want to have to do my share to earn it. The whole I'm entitled to what everyone else has no matter how little I work - is the poison that ails us. Our democratic politicians pander to this, making promises they know they can't keep but sound good and get them elected.
#39
Got it, no right now I don't need a cut man thank you, (Though I was taking a misunderstood licking for a short bit there) but I sure do need some readers that have basic english comprehension amongst their talents.
Intuitive understanding of english would be a plus, and the ability to understand and compose puns would be an added bonus as well.
Sometimes I feel like I'm speaking to an entire audience of non-english speakers who just do not get the fine nuances expressed.
Probably my fault, I expect others to understand, and I'm being a bit obtuse.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
10/08/2006 20:52 Comments ||
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#40
That plaque should have been pulled off a hundred years ago, but certainly today. We, America, do not need any more immigrants. The more people, the more problems you have. We're heading for eventual 3rd world status as we add people.
You must live in a major city, there's more than enough room for hundreds of millions of more people to live in america without any crowding.
I've traveled, if you get ten miles out of any major metropolis there's only wasteland.Farmlamd, rare houses and undeveloped areas where people could live, farm, and build communities, but they're empty because most would rather live cheek to jowl in a City.
I've lived where the nearest neighbor was about 5 miles, and we didn't like them enough to socialize, the same area now is a suburb, (at least on the surface,) one side of my land is a "Bedroom Community" and the other side is still wilderness, the "Civilazation" is entirely localized. along the road, and incursions seem to be well under a half mile or less from this same road.
Kinda like a "Strip Mall" civilization, all in a row.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
10/08/2006 21:19 Comments ||
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#41
Do you need a cutman?
Do you need a cut man?
Do you need a cut, man?
All quite different meanings, much to the despair of non-English speakers.
Why not? It's how we conquer other nations. We attract their best and leave the dregs. That has happened to Europe to a large extent. Just think what would happen if we opened the gates to pre 1965 levels. The best would come.
The more people, the more problems you have.
You have the same problems either way. The more people you have the more solutions you get, if you attract the right kind of people.
We're heading for eventual 3rd world status as we add people.
No, Globalization is making that happen, regardless of immigration.
The question is whether we want to attract the best, smartest, most successful people or let them stay where they are. I say we should change our immigration policies to attract them, not to attract the extended families of refugees and asylum seekers who just go on the dole. Make immigrant the clear contributors they were 50-100 years ago.
#2
I think it was in 2004 than the then-finance minister sarko sold part of the french gold reserves to bail public finances out. Remember, France (or rather, the State) spends about 25% more than it earns each year, and has to borrow about 75-100 billions each time to just keep things running. And, yet, the socialists program for 2007 include more lavish spendings; go figure.
Democrats are hoping Hispanic voters will help them win control of Congress in midterm elections next month, and are promising help for immigrants in return.
Turnout is historically low for this swelling segment of the US electorate, but the community showed its political potential with massive demonstrations on immigration reform earlier this year -- and the Republican-controlled Congress has delivered little joy on their top issue. "The key is getting Hispanic voters out to vote," Democratic Party president Howard Dean said ahead of November 7 elections in which all 435 seats in the House of Representatives and a third of 100 Senate seats are up for grabs.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/08/2006 21:00 ||
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STAFF at the United Nations headquarters in New York claimed tens of thousands of pounds in school fees for non-existent children, one of its most senior auditors has revealed. Hundreds of employees also defrauded US tax authorities by claiming refunds for mortgage interest and property taxes that should have gone to the UN.
These are just two of the scams to be revealed in a book by Edwin Nhliziyo, chief auditor of the UNs peacekeeping division until his retirement. His account aims to expose how the UN is losing hundreds of millions of pounds through corruption and fraud.
From Kuwait to Cambodia and from Congo to New York, Nhliziyo says, employees were on the take. Some top officials turned a blind eye, he alleges, and conducted campaigns of dirty tricks against auditors such as himself who tried to stop the corruption.
I am a believer in the UN, but like 90% of the serving staff members I think member states have allowed a handful of people to abuse the organisation. It is for this reason that I wrote my book, Nlizhiyo said.
In 1996 he became one of the first auditors to examine the Iraq oil for food programme. But Nlizhiyo says he was pulled off the project before he could investigate further. In his book, he tells of two colleagues who went on a trip in 2001 to examine how funds were being spent on the programme. They uncovered incidents of mismanagement and possible fraud, he said.
However, when a draft of their report was sent to Benon Sevan, then programme director, he is said to have retorted: If you had spent more time in the field auditing and not sleeping in hotel rooms, you would have found all the answers to your questions.
The audit report never went out. But the auditors got their revenge when an inquiry into the scandal by Paul Volcker, the former US Federal Reserve chairman, accused Sevan of accepting cash bribes of up to $160,000. Sevan denied the charges.
#4
The UN is staffed with the third world kleptocracies' underachieving sons and daughters, IE the ones to dumb to be anything else than professional diplomats and life-time civil servants. So, old habits are brought along, as well as cultural and political bias. And when corruption becomes institutionalized, even the ones who wouldn't have been corrupt in the first place (staff from developped countries with higher ethics) go with the flow.
In a meeting held Friday between Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Israel Beiteinu Chairman Avigdor Lieberman, the two leaders decided to promote legislation that would bring about a change in Israel's system of government and the creation of a constitution for the state, the Prime Minister's Office said in an announcement released on Saturday. The meeting may also signal that Israel Beiteinu is on its way to joining the government. The two agreed that from the start of the upcoming winter Knesset session, the two parties, Israel Beiteinu and Kadima, would push the agenda forward.
At the meeting, Olmert and Lieberman discussed the creation of a presidential system. According to the proposed model, the prime minister will have the power to nominate ministers based on their qualifications, without having to receive permission from the Knesset. These ministers will not have to act as Knesset members.
Science, Culture and Sport Minister Ophir Paz-Pines rejected the proposed change, saying that "direct elections were a big failure and its results were the opposite of its goals. The problem isn't the governmental system but the political culture in Israel. A presidential system without a constitution can be dangerous."
Posted by: Fred ||
10/08/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Add a "First past the post" provision, and they'll have something much more functional than what they've got now. Trailing daughter #2 is taking a class in Hebrew School on the political parties of Israel, and I'm very much looking forward to her explanation.
Hint : I'm not sure at all 'cos I have no culture, but I think it was Georges Mendel, a 3rd Republic politician who said "la politique c'est comme les andouillettes, il faut que ça sente la merde, mais pas trop" (politics are like the andouillettes sausages, it must smell like sh*t, but not too much); this was to describe the 3rd, and I think israeli politics are much like the 3rd (parliamentarism, ad hoc coallitions, dirty infighting).
Within a week, Indonesia will finish repaying all its debts to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), ending an eight-year, up-and-down relationship with the global financial agency. The central bank notified the IMF of the payment plan Thursday, Bank Indonesia (BI) Governor Burhanuddin Abdullah said, adding that the process is expected to be wrapped up within the next five days. Indonesia will pay the remaining US$3.2 billion of its principle and interest to the Fund, Deputy Governor Hartadi A. Sarwono said. Hartadi explained that the earlier debt repayment was feasible in light of Indonesia's foreign exchange reserves, which have recently strengthened to $42.3 billion on sound macroeconomic conditions.
The central bank repaid $3.7 billion of Indonesia's then approximately $7 billion in remaining debt to the Washington-based financial agency in June, following President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's request to settle the debt within the next two years. The IMF debt does not actually come due until 2010.
On the heels of signing a bill to boost border security funding, President Bush yesterday said immigration reform requires granting citizenship to current illegal aliens. "You can't kick 12 million people out of your country," Mr. Bush said at the White House celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month. "We must figure out a way to say to those that if you're lawful and if you've contributed to the United States of America, there is a way for you to eventually earn citizenship."
Since this spring, Mr. Bush has been a supporter of allowing some illegal aliens to earn citizenship, and he backed a Senate plan that divided immigrants, giving longtime illegal aliens a chance for citizenship while withholding that chance from less-entrenched illegal aliens. Any action on immigration will have to wait until Congress returns, either during a lame-duck session after next month's elections or next year, when a new Congress is sworn in. But in the meantime, Mr. Bush will soon sign a bill authorizing 700 miles of fence to be built along the U.S.-Mexico border. This week he signed a spending bill that included the first installment of money for that fence, as well as for other infrastructure such as vehicle barriers and ground-based radar. and it's one two three what are we fighting for?
#3
It's only on account that the demoCraps are so bat shit evil that The Prez and the repubs are able to go against their base on immigration.
And this is precisely why I think we need to give the GOP a big kick in the balls, and the country a generous taste of what the DemonCraps are all about.
Then, when we let the GOP come in from the cold they'll think twice before they abuse the base again, and, all the idiots that can't see past the end of their nose or think socialism is "kewl" will have changed their mind.
I do not remember the name of the Soviet dissident who made the statement, nor can I recall the statement verbatim, so I'll paraphrase: It is interesting that those in the West that are so enamored with Communism, have never actually had to live under it. I encourage them to try it.
If anyone can shed some light on who made the statement and the exact quote, it would be appreciated.
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/08/2006 08:30 ||
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#1
This is almost as bad as a military poser. They support our troops, but they just don't know who they might be. It also explains why they are quick to believe myths of our troops rape, pillage, and plunder because thats what they were orderd to do. I must have missed those classes in my twenty Which is taught first?
#3
The poppy is a dead giveaway. Every November, veterans sell the poppy to the general public as part of the Nov 11 Rememberance Day commemeration. It is not part of the uniform.
Incidently, the traditional poppy center has been green. It was changed to a black center last year.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Federal authorities yesterday announced the indictment of 56 persons on drug-smuggling and money-laundering charges, 27 of whom were arrested for their purported links to international drug cartels. 
CAIRO - A team of doctors examined ailing Egyptian opposition leader Ayman Nur Saturday as a step toward a ruling on his condition that could see him freed from jail early, his wife said. They examined him for more than two hours, saying they would make a determination within a few weeks after studying his entire medical file, Gamila Ismail told AFP. She did not explain why they had told her it would take so long.
KUWAIT CITY - Kuwait has received 11.2 billion dollars in war reparations from Iraq for Baghdads 1990-1991 invasion and occupation of the emirate, an official report said Saturday. The report by Kuwaits compensation authority, published in Al Qabas daily, said the UN Compensation Commission had so far approved 41.3 billion dollars in war reparations for Kuwait.
MOSCOW - A Russian investigative journalist known for her criticism of the governments actions in war-torn Chechnya, 
Local elections in Belgium are expected to strengthen the anti-immigrant Flemish far right in the run-up to next year's parliamentary election. The Flemish far-right party Vlaams Belang (Flemish Interest) could take control of the northern port city of Antwerp after partial results from state television suggested it will make a strong showing in the city.
Emirates, the leading launch customer for the Airbus A380 super jumbo, is demanding £150m in compensation for delays to the crisis-hit programme.
Spain will need at least 4 million more immigrants - between 16 and 64 by 2020, according to a study.
Democrats are hoping Hispanic voters will help them win control of Congress in midterm elections next month, and are promising help for immigrants in return. 
STAFF at the United Nations headquarters in New York claimed tens of thousands of pounds in school fees for non-existent children, one of its most senior auditors has revealed. Hundreds of employees also defrauded US tax authorities by claiming refunds for mortgage interest and property taxes that should have gone to the UN. 
