Why the desire to pull the troops out of Iraq in the first place?

*posted first on Friday Feb. 10, here*

In the Australian today:

NO sooner did President Barack Obama welcome home American troops from Iraq and laud that country’s stability and democracy than an unprecedented wave of violence across Baghdad and elsewhere revealed the severity of Iraq’s political crisis.

Unfortunate, yet hardly surprising, even to the most casual of observers.

And whilst I can understand (yet not agree with) the Left’s position not to send troops into Iraq in the first place – an argument, largely moot, for another day – what I don’t understand is their fervish desire to pull the troops out.

It always smacked of idealism, ideology, rather than hard-nosed practicality.

After all, what was so bad with having a US troop presence there to help maintain Iraq’s fragile democratic stability?

One could argue that I am biased because a) I am centre-right politically and b) because I live in South Korea, a nation that has had a US troop presence – some 37,000  28,000 or so currently – since the armistice between North and South Korea and have seen what a permanent US troop presence looks like.

I am happy to accept those labels and can gladly tell you that such a presence ain’t that bad.

By and large,  US bases in Korea – and Japan for that matter – haven’t been a problem.

Sure, issues pop up from time to time, but if one looks at the big picture, then a strong US presence here can only be seen as a good thing, a safe option, a pretty darn good insurance policy against North Korea trying anything major on.

Almost 60 years we’ve had US troops over here without any major problems. In fact, many major problems (a full-scale Nork attack comes to mind) have arguably been averted thanks to this presence.

So, why the rush to leave Iraq essentially free of any US military  before even a decade is up and before, as is clear now, the job is done?

OK, so perhaps it’s a bit like comparing apples and oranges. US troops in Korea, aside from those stationed at the DMZ, aren’t on active duty as they were in Iraq.

However, it’s not a completely dissimilar situation. Perhaps a good analogy would be to compare mandarins and oranges.

US troops not only provided safety and stability in the fledgling democracy that is Iraq – a country still steeped with sectarian and tribal rivalries – but surely they also provided a deterrence to anybody or any groups who want to destabilise the nation.

What takes years to build can take mere seconds to destroy, and I fear a lot of hard work is being undone on the whim of a flawed, feel-good, ideology.

So why?

The only practical reason that I can see for Obama pulling his troops out of Iraq is that with an Iranian confrontation looming which includes action needed in Syria, Iraq frankly isn’t important enough any more or at best, an impractical option for a potentially over-stretched military.

Of course, Obama – a man of the progressive Left – can’t actually come out and say that but it is reasonably well-known to those who don’t just get their news from the MSM that Obama is actually more of a war-time president than Bush was, having committed more troops to both Iraq and Afghanistan, and for a longer period of time.

So whilst the MSM might play along with the “bringing the troops home” narrative, the evidence indicates this simply isn’t the case.

Some 20,000 marines, seamen and air crews from half a dozen countries, a US nuclear aircraft carrier strike group and three US Marine gunship carriers are practicing an attack on a fictitious mechanized enemy division which has invaded its neighbor. It is the largest amphibian exercise seen in the West for a decade, staged to simulate a potential Iranian invasion of an allied Persian Gulf country and a marine landing on the Iranian coast. Based largely on US personnel and hardware, French, British, Italian, Dutch, Australian* and New Zealand military elements are integrated in the drill.
Bold Alligator went into its operational phase Monday, Feb. 6, the same day as a large-scale exercise began in southern Iran opposite the Strait of Hormuz. This simultaneity attests to the preparations for a US-Iranian showdown involving Israel behind the words on Feb. 5 of US President Barack Obama (“I don’t think Israel has decided whether to attack Iran”) and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Feb. 3 (“The war itself will be ten times as detrimental to the US.”).

(*BTW, I don’t recall Aussie PM Gillard highlighting that one.)

And this:

As the US and Israel carried on bickering over the right time to strike Iran’s nuclear sites, their war preparations continued apace. debkafile’s military sources report that flight after flight of US warplanes and transports were to be seen this week cutting eastward through the skies of Sinai on their way to Gulf destinations, presumably Saudi Arabia, at a frequency not seen in the Middle East for many years.

Add into this mix reports that China will reportedly help Saudi Arabia build a nuclear bomb, and that both China and India have started paying Iran for its oil in gold thus helping thwart current US/UN sanctions (more of which were recently thwarted by Russia and China), then we see a stage set for a showdown and we see the reality that rhetoric aside, Obama won’t be bringing many troops home at all.

To someone who doesn’t know any better, it’s as if Russia, India, and China – all wannabe first chickens to the trough – are ganging up on America.**

PS Who wouldn’t love to be a fly on the wall listening in to what the US is really saying about China? Their ever-expanding use of soft power is in many ways, stuffing it all up for America. China must surely be becoming an ever-increasing pain in the neck.

This leaves Australia in an interesting position. Our main export partner is China. Our main ally is the US. We send China our goodies to help them get rich and rival America. We practice shooting our guns with America to help keep America on top.

And yet China and America are also so deep in each other’s pockets. America buys China’s goods. China buys America’s debt.

Fun times.

** I highly recommend reading The Lucifer Principle by Howard Bloom. Part of the book talks about the pecking order of nations.

So which one?

Which Republican presidential nominee?

Having just spent an hour or so watching the New Hampshire GOP Republican debate, having gleaned various tidbits over the internet since a while back, I can honestly say I don’t know.

Yet.

In comments at that link, Ron Paul’s supporters come across as a tad too fervent, as does Paul himself. He just comes across as a bit whiney. Quick to complain about a problem but a bit wishy washy with any solutions.

Romney arguably won, but he comes off as Obama-lite+religion. He’s big government but I will say he’s tending to own his opponents. He does look presidential and has the establishment’s backing… not necessarily a good thing when up against Obama who REALLY has the Establishment’s backing and REALLY (at least) talks presidential (except here where he sounds about as formidable as Julia Gillard).

The fix is in

During the 2008 presidential election cycle, I wrote over 60 posts — including extensive analysis of the primaries and conventions — at my personal blog, The Vulture Lurks (recommended by 4 out of 5 curmudgeons). So far this election cycle I’ve written a handful of minor posts. Why the drop-off? That’s easy. This isn’t an election we’re witnessing. It’s a coronation, at least on the Team Elephant side of the ledger.

Why would I call it a coronation? How could I call it a coronation when there is no clear front-runner and the first primary hasn’t even occurred yet? Follow along as I read the tea leaves.

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Conservative media: Fox News (“fair” and “balanced”) is in the tank for Romney. Big time. Some of Fox’s so-called analysts are so far up Romney’s butt that they taste his lunch mere seconds after he does.

Fox has proclaimed Romney winner of nearly all of the debates. Yet after one of the debates, Michele Bachmann surged into the lead in the polls. After another, it was Herman Cain. After yet another, it was Newt Gingrich. You should be getting the idea by now. No matter Romney’s showing, he’s the winner.

Every time Fox gets on the subject of the “Primary front runners”, Romney’s name is first on their lips. No matter where he is in the latest polling, first, second, even FOURTH, he is always “a front runner”. Meanwhile, if he is first or second, NO ONE beyond second place gets a mention. Hell, when he was in fourth place in an Iowa poll recently, the candidate ahead of him, Ron Paul, was omitted from mention in the front runners discussion. But not Mitt.

Talk radio isn’t quite as blatant; in fact, many talk show hosts are reluctant to be seen as endorsing anyone, such is the general distaste for Romney among the listening public. But almost without fail, all talk show hosts assert that no matter who the Republican nominee is, no matter how much they might deviate from conservative principles, we HAVE TO vote for them – ANYONE but Obama. Never mind that a vote for Romney is a vote for “Obama-lite”. You gotta do it!

Columnists of various stripes have wandered hither and yon regarding Romney. But two powerhouse conservative pundits have lined up foursquare behind him: Ann Coulter and Charles Krauthammer. Both of these two alleged conservatives have shelved principle and gone with “electable” as be-all/end-all for their candidate. Never mind that it was said of Ronald Reagan in 1980 that he was unelectable. This is different.

Bang the war drums: Every candidate still in the race, with the exception of Ron Paul, is obsessed with proving their warrior bona fides. “I would go to war with Iran NOW!”, one after another will thunder. The audience (God help us!) eats that shit up. It would appear that so-called conservatives have bought into the propaganda that never-ending pre-emptive war is “defense”. Again, God help us!

One is left in amazement that a candidate can spew vitriol with regards to all of the wasteful spending in Washington, and yet opine that the military, estimated to hit around $1.4 TRILLION in spending in 2012, needs to be beefed up. We’re drowning in debt, but without war-without-end and the trillions of dollars it requires, we’re going to be overrun by cave-dwelling terrorists, and conquered.

The military-industrial complex lives and thrives.

The Team Elephant elite: They’ve made it clear for over a year – Romney is their guy. I suppose they’d settle for Gingrich in a pinch (much as they settled for McCommie last cycle, when Rudy Giuliani was their preference). But they’re adamant. It WILL be Romney or an equally conviction-free statist. Period.

Do you really think the attacks on Governor Perry Gardacil, Herman Cain, and Michele Bachmann happened because Big Media (the BM for short) hates “real” conservatives and wanted to destroy them? Those attacks were friendly fire. Those attacks were orchestrated. Don’t be surprised if Newt succumbs to something similar to what happened to Cain between now and mid-January.

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“Okay, Vulture. You believe there’s a coronation afoot. What do you say we do about it, smart guy?”

What CAN we do? Truthfully, we in the West have gone so far down the slippery slope to ruin that I don’t think it matters any more who we elect.We might crash and burn and start to recover sooner with one candidate over another.

But crash and burn we shall.

A Decade of Tim Blair — Blogger, Legend

Gavin Atkins at Asian Correspondent marks the milestone:

Blogger/journalist Tim Blair has never been one to take a lot of notice of plaudits, awards or milestones – in fact, he assiduously ignores them – but the recent passing 10-year anniversary of his blog should not go by without comment.

For many Australians of a conservative or libertarian bent, about ten years ago, just reading or watching the news was like being asked to wade through a floating garbage dump of dogma to try and read what was written on the ground. What’s more, most of us were left cursing, as only the most watered down of our thoughts would ever make it through as a letter to the editor.

Tim Blair changed all that with his blog that tackled the idiocies of the left pretty much as they happened. His blog filled a niche that conservatives were crying out for, and his comment sections soon became almost as entertaining as the articles. […]

Along the way, he has invented terms such as Blair’s Law and the Gore Effect as well as alerting the world to the alarming tendency of lefties to tilt their heads in photographs.

And then there’s the Plastic Turkey meme, the new verbs “to beclown” and “to Fisk,” and probably a whole lot more that others can add in comments.

One thing Gavin didn’t mention was how global Tim Blair’s appeal has turned out to be  – in fact, one sledge often thrown at him by some of his resident trolls is that he has “too many” American fans and commenters.  For some reason, his Leftoid Australian detractors believed that was some sort of fatal “gotcha”.

Ah, his trolls!  Not only have Tim’s blogging efforts attracted some of the most clever and witty commenters over the years, they’ve seen him collect some of the most dedicated, demented, obsessive and sometimes just chuckleheadedly-silly assortment of sockpuppets and trolls ever seen in one place.

Go over and read Gavin’s whole piece, and be sure to leave your thoughts & favourite memories/recollections in comments either here or there.

Happy Tenth Blogiversary, Tim!

P.S. Where’s Wronwright with that mead…?

P.P.S. As our blogroll has been rather neglected of late, if you are one of the #BlairNation troupe of bloggers (new motto, #WeAreUs – thanks Julia!) and aren’t listed over on the right-hand side there ——->
just drop your blog link in comments and we’ll get it updated. Cheers.

UPDATE:  More comments now at The Blogfather’s here:  TEN YEARS OF LOVE.  As Puce would have said, CLICK.

Huge win for freedom

There are some, among them a certain troll who likes to hijack my blog’s comments for his small-minded rants, who are of the opinion that journalists must be accredited and licensed in order to hold that “lofty” title. I disagree wholeheartedly; had that sort of constraint been in place 250 years ago, individuals such as Patrick Henry would have been proscribed from publishing their treatises against the King of England, and we might still be no more than ragtag pommy colonies.

Apologies in advance to any Brits offended by the preceding paragraph. I was just being cheeky.

No, the tradition of the citizen-journalist is at the very bedrock of rights the founding fathers held most dear. Troll-boy’s protestations to the contrary, the reporting of news and spouting of opinion by mere commoners is of vital importance to the health of a republic.

And now a federal judge agrees.

Boston lawyer Simon Glik was arrested on October 1, 2007 when he used his cell phone to record officers making a drug arrest, and later sued the city and the officers for violating his rights. After the officers tried to having the lawsuit dismissed on the basis of qualified immunity, a Federal Appeals Court denied the motion last week and ruled that filming and photographing police is in fact protected by the First Amendment. They also note that the rights extend not just to professional news gatherers, but ordinary citizens as well:

“[…] changes in technology and society have made the lines between private citizen and journalist exceedingly difficult to draw. The proliferation of electronic devices with video-recording capability means that many of our images of current events come from bystanders with a ready cell phone or digital camera rather than a traditional film crew, and news stories are now just as likely to be broken by a blogger at her computer as a reporter at a major newspaper. Such developments make clear why the news-gathering protections of the First Amendment cannot turn on professional credentials or status”.

How big is this news? Beyond big.

As I reported well over a year ago, it is a felony crime in the State of Maryland People’s Republic of Maryland to take video of the Maryland State Police Schutzstaffel in the course of executing their duties (such as shooting pet dogs, for example). Or, should I say, it was.

Now that we can confidently record the jackbooted jagoffs in action, I’m willing to bet that their behavior toward we mere commoners might just be a little less strident. We can only hope.

Disability and opportunity

Just a few thoughts on one of the many issues related to physical disabilities and the broader ideas of “opportunity” as presented by many groups.

 

I am fortunate in having only the one “easy to work around” problem, moderate deafness, but unfortunate in being caught in the trap of too severe for job positions (army, firies was a childhood dream, my metal trades pre-apprenticeship was wasted, no one would employ me with a pre-existing condition), but not severe enough for government assistance.

My biggest feeling of “let down” was precisely the organisations supposed to assist disabled. It is not realistic to tell people “they can do anything” throughout their childhood/teens, and leave it until they enter the workforce to discover, case by case, thats not the way it really is.

But this is all ground gone over a lot of times, my point today is how a large pool if talent may be being ignored by society as a whole due to a lack of opportunity for the disabled.

In effect it is extremely difficult to get a business up and running, usually requiring a good pool of capital as well as a few good ideas. For myself, I have one business running, and ideas for another 3, but lack of capital restricts me to my original venture for now.

To get access to this capital I have spent 20 years living “cheaply”, taking on a number of jobs, none earning much more than average wages. None of these jobs were what I wanted to do in life, most involved physical work.

But without the opportunity to have worked these jobs it would have been impossible for me to have saved the money necessary for my first big step to amassing assets (shares,houses), most of which has been sold to fund my business.

 

Thats the opportunity missing for most disabled,  particularly those with limited mobility. Just how does that segment of the population gain the seed capital needed? There is the option of a desk job, either public service or private, but it is extremely hard to be as “work mobile” as a physically able person, meaning the person may (without extra effort), become a little too reliant on that employer, and limit their skill set.

 

A considerable amount of time and effort is spent by various government agencies to place disabled people into the work force, if I may be heretical, some of that money may be better spent as a “silent partner” funding business startups for disabled people.

Indeed if I was to ever become massively wealthy its the kind of “not for profit” agency Id like to set up myself. As per usual for these type of businesses it would be a continual lossmaker, as most businesses tend to fail. I could see massive positives for society as a whole, and for the disabled individuals in particular. A few dozen wheelchair bound (vocal) millionaires would do more for disabled access to venues than a sea of government legislation. I want to see fantastically wealthy “wheelies” demanding things or they spend their money elsewhere. The existing model of disability services merely assumes a low/middle class life is all disabled aspire too. There needs to be better than this.

Best Australian Ad of the Year So Far: TradeTools Doesn’t {Heart} Julia

I love this ad.  I would marry this ad.  Hell, I would gay marry this ad.

PDF of actual ad from yesterday’s Sunday Mail at link; text of the prize rant below for clarity:

Extreme Keynesianism meets extreme green in Germany.

I read today of an extremely strange decision in Germany to shut down the largest single contributor to their power supply.

“Angela Merkel has committed to shutting down all of the country’s nuclear reactors by 2022, a task said by one minister to be as mammoth as the project to reunite East and West Germany in 1990.”

Nuclear energy in germany accounts for somewhere around 23% of their power supply, the single biggest component above even coal. Given that Gerbil worming is the “greatest threat to mankind”, evah!! how does it make sense to remove a non greenhouse gas producing asset?

 “It gives the country just over 10 years to find alternative sources for 23% of its energy.”

This has apparently been brought about by the Fukushima plants problems, which, to date havent killed anyone despite experiencing at least a partial meltdown. So the worst scenario possible, in a decades old plant, caused by a catastrophe well outside its design tolerances is reason to shut off 25% of a nations power?

It smells fishy, regardless of the power of the greens party in Germany (a major player there), so what could be driving this push into idiocy?

Greens mothership come to take them away??

The answer seems to be Keynesianism ratcheted up to 11..

The EU is currently experiencing a massive financial crisis, Germany, traditionally a modern bedrock of financial stability is lashed to the mast of the Euro, therefore exposed to the PIGS financial woes. At the moment they are bailing out the PIGS, but this seems top be staving off the crisis not preventing it from spreading.

Germany has done extremely well out of the Euro, in the past the Deutsche Mark would have appreciated hugely against the PIGS currency, severely hurting Germany’s export ability within the EU. As it stands they can “export” internally into the EU without worrying about currency fluctuations.

The PIGS get german goods, paid for by borrowing Euros from Germany, which then drives its own economy by selling products into its captive markets.

All nice an neat, until now…

Germany is preparing for 2 likely scenarios, both of which will potentially tip them into recession, the nuclear announcement is a call for stimulus spending on an unprecidented scale.

Scenario 1: The bailouts continue.

Germany continues to support the Euro, this requires austerity measures within Germany itself, and would be almost certain political suicide for Merkel, unless she can sell it as part of a “grand coalition” action supported by all parties.

Merkel presented the results to the center-left Social Democrats and Green Party on Sunday evening, in an uncharacteristic appeal for opposition support. But it remains unclear whether the opposition will back the new approach.

Scenario 2: The Euro is allowed to fail, national currencies re-emerge.

This would be the easy political fix, but the resulting strength of the new Deutsche Mark would effectively cripple the competitive advantage the Euro gave of a “captive market”, to Germany’s export sector.

Wheres Keynes come in?

“Energy firms warned that the decision – a total policy reversal – would require significant investment in energy infrastructure. Philipp Rösler, new head of the FDP party, which rules in coalition with the CDU, agreed, likening the task ahead to that which faced Germany in 1990 after reunification. A study in 2009 showed that €1.3 trillion (£1.1tn) had been transferred from the West to rebuild the East.”

Germany is considering bailing on the Euro, they have to find a way to prevent the mass layoffs which are sure to result. They have to find a way to soak up a few million people in their own internal economy.

The highly inefficient renewables sector is a way of employing a large number of people to generate the same amount of power as Nukes currently provide. In the meantime Germany will import power from France/Eastern bloc countries to meet any shortfall. This may actually be cheaper for Germany than the current arrangement, given the likely strength of a new Deutsche Mark.

All opinion and kite flying of course, but I can’t see any underlying logic behind this decision.

Australian squalor, welcome to the underclass.

As I posted a couple of times before, I work mainly with the underclass in my town.

Recently a long term customer took off leaving behind most of my stuff locked into her house, apparently she’s run up a lot of bills around town and is skipping to “start afresh”. Her sister was left with a load of lies (I’m back tomorrow/next day/next week etc) and the house keys.

She called up and allowed me access to retrieve my stuff. While we were there my other half took a load of “happy snaps”. The sister gave permission, she was as disgusted as us, she is currently on a waiting list for a Homeswest property but may be waiting months yet.

This is how a portion of the Australian underclass chooses to live.

Some of the pics are disgusting and might upset a few people, but this is reality.

The lady in question has 4 children under 10, there were 3 dogs (oldest one left behind) 4 cats as a rough estimate her income is around 1300 per fortnight of pension payments.

The house is public housing (Homeswest), who apparently carry out inspections of their properties. So this is a Western Australian government owned asset.

Captions under each photo.

Levin rips Donald Trump to shreds

There’s James Board’s unedifying man-crush on Trump*, and then there’s reality…

Levin points out many things about Trump that show he is no conservative, but a few of the glaring ones are the fact that he support Charlie Crist over Marco Rubio twice, as well as calling for the impeachment of George W. Bush, accusing him of lying to get us in the war. Oh yeah, and he supported Universal Health Care in America, the Canadian style.

And there’s more. This is a must listen.

And where the hell was he during the last few years of the Tea Party’s birth and rise, and the battles it was fighting?

President Trump?  Not. Gonna. Happen.

*LOL. You know I still love ya, man 😉

UPDATE:  Shy retiring type @DanRiehl has a word in the Trump fanbois’ shell-likes.  Heh.

via The Right Scoop and Mark Levin

President Trump? Not. Gonna. Happen.

James Board begs to disagree.  Seriously?

Finally, Obama addresses the nation about America’s Kinetic Military Action in Libya

And via the magic of Twitter, his entire 7-page single-spaced speech can be distilled down into fewer than 140 characters:

“I authorized this war that is not a war, which is narrowly focused but broad in scope, so we could lead. As helpers.”

And this critique:

“Eerily like a Bush speech, but without the conviction.”

Hey, here’s a word cloud!

If you’d like a little more detail, see PJTV‘s account of the speech.  If you’d like the time-limited, vermouth-limited overserved kinetic martini-action version, see VodkaPundit’s drunkblog account.

And if you’d like to see how this speech SHOULD have been done, see Reagan.

UPDATE: More on Obama’s War from James Board, and a great post at RedState which includes some of the top Twitter reactions.

 

via twitterers @MelissaTweets, @EWErickson, @KamaainaInOC, @GayPatriot, @instapundit, @CalebHowe & @VodkaPundit.

“No Carbon Tax” Rally — Some Twitter Highlights

"Alene Composta was unavailable for comment"

…but there is more “No Carbon Tax” Rally Twitter-snark below the fold, for your reading enjoyment!

Hey Lefties – Got Yer #NewTone Right Here!

From the tolerant open-minded Left who keep lecturing us on the importance of striving for a more civil tone:

UPDATE: To preempt any complaints that I shouldn’t be giving these bile-spewing haters any more oxygen, for the most part I agree.  But in this case, this particular tweet was just the last straw.  Coming up with the most demeaning insult against Miranda Devine seems to be the new sport on Twitter, and there comes a point when these people need exposing.

Australia’s Carbon Tax: Brought To You By Julia’s Ratchet-Jawed Purveyors Of Monkey-Doodle And Baked Wind

In honour of The Labor-Green Carbon Tax They Promised We Wouldn’t Have, let’s revisit my favourite part of the lecture PJ O’Rourke delivered to the Centre for Independent Studies (@CISOZ) in Sydney a couple of years ago:

America has wound up with a charming leftist as a president. And this scares me. This scares me not because I hate leftists. I don’t. I have many charming leftist friends. They’re lovely people – as long as they keep their nose out of things they don’t understand. Such as making a living.

When charming leftists stick their nose into things they don’t understand they become ratchet-jawed purveyors of monkey-doodle and baked wind. They are piddlers upon merit, beggars at the door of accomplishment, thieves of livelihood, envy coddling tax lice applauding themselves for giving away other people’s money. They are the lap dogs of the poly sci-class, returning to the vomit of collectivism. They are pig herders tending that sow-who-eats-her-young, the welfare state. They are muck-dwelling bottom-feeders growing fat on the worries and disappointments of the electorate. They are the ditch carp of democracy.

And that’s what one of their friends says.

Although no one would ever accuse anyone in Australia’s current Labor–Green government (‘Seriously. Just look at them’) of being “charming”, the rest fits like a glove.

.

 

Update: We ask our Australian readers to ‘Just Say No to Monkey-Doodle and Baked Wind’ by signing this petition (5000+ signatures so far and counting) sponsored by Menzies House.  And if you’re on Twitter, please follow & support @MenziesHouse, @NoCarbonTax and Community Organiser par excellence @Tim_Andrews. Cheers.

POLL: Does Australia Need A Climate Commissar?

The Australia is running a poll: Is Tim Flannery the right person to be Australia’s climate commissioner?

They assume that Australia needs a “Climate Commissioner” in the first place.

We encourage readers to vote early and often.

Ref: See this, this, this and this via Mean Ol’ Meany Tim Blair for background.

Muslim “pride”, an excellent article.

This article here is a great read for anyone wanting to see a bit about the differences in the mindset between Westerners and Muslims.

The straightforward explanation of how a pride based culture can be incredibly self defeating is a compelling one.

If this makes you want to behead someone, then stiff shit!

Heres a few excerpts.

“Discussing psychological characteristics of the Muslim culture is important. Denmark has foreigners from all over the world and according to official statistics from Danmarks Statistik all non-Muslim groups of immigrants are less criminal than the ethnic Danes. Even after adjusting, according to educational and economic levels, all Muslim groups are more criminal than any other ethnic group. Seven out of 10, in the youth prison where I worked, were Muslim.”

So a fairly clear correlation between criminal behaviour and adherents of the Muslim faith. Other ethnic minorities which should suffer much of the same disadvantages are actually underrepresented

Expressions of anger and threats are probably the quickest way to lose one’s face in Western culture. In discussions, those who lose their temper have automatically lost, and I guess most people have observed the feeling of shame and loss of social status following expressions of aggression at one’s work place or at home. In the Muslim culture, aggressive behavior, especially threats, are generally seen to be accepted, and even expected as a way of handling conflicts and social discrepancies. If a Muslim does not respond in a threatening way to insults or social irritation, he, not “she” (Muslim women are, mostly, expected to be humble and to not show power) is seen as weak, as someone who cannot be depended upon and loses face. 

  

This was a common experience when I was working in detention centres. Ive broken up arguments between blokes apparently about to fly at each other, only to have one tip me a wink to let me know it wasnt serious as it looked. The thing was to not be seen as weak or taking a backward step to the group. Id argue this same perverted pride based posturing is what drives a great deal of the Australian underclass’ criminality as well. An undeserved feeling of self importance and fear of being seen as weak.

More under the fold

Kevin “Turdfingers” Rudds latest diversion.

For sheer, blatant spin Mr Rudd is to be congratulated. Faced with a multitude of looming debacles what does he do?

Throws up a smokescreen, literally:Cigarette tax to increase 25pc from midnight

Hes announced out of the blue that smokers will face a 25% increase in the price of cigarettes from midnight tonight. Mouthing all the usual platitudes about saving chiiildren it allows him a free kick at a group hes already driven outside, and tried to ban from smoking in their own cars.

I hate ciggies, they make my nose run and sneeze, but I hate do gooder wankers even more. No-one in Australia should be under the impression smoking is good for you, it costs a lot and it stinks. Everyone has been informed about that for decades. Please piss off and moralize somewhere else.

My Grandfather died of asbestos, he was a builder/carpenter in the bad old days.His death was listed as “due to smoking”, despite his lungs asbestos related degeneration. Every smoker who goes to hospital now can expect their every aliment traced back to smoking, no matter how tenuous the link.  tobacco is a killer, so why inflate the figures even more?

I dont believe the official statistics anymore. The semi-government cancer council and various lobby groups exist to let the government look as though its community pressure driving the bansturbation and tax raising. That same increase in tax revenue helps fund ever more generous grants to these same “charities” to start all over again.

Heres the group responsible for the report, and a few highlights of the members backgrounds.

Unbiased bloke N#1: He is currently President of the Public Health Association of Australia, the Australian Council on Smoking and Health and the WA Heart Foundation, and Chair of the WA Alcohol and Drug Authority. He has played a leading role in tobacco control, alcohol and other public health issues nationally and internationally for many years, and has advised governments and NGOs in some thirty countries.

Unbiased lady N#1: has developed national cardiovascular health programs within Australia, has been extensively involved with cancer prevention programs and is regarded as an expert on tobacco control matters.

Worrying lady N#1: She has been an active environmentalist since the early 1980s and is particularly passionate about climate change. She was recently trained as a climate change presenter by former US Vice President Al Gore, who is training climate change presenters around the world as part of the Climate Project.

All in all a roundup of people of similar opinions, very “Yes Minister” collection.

Still it achieves Turdfingers objectives nicely.

A: Moves the news stories away from his stuff ups.

B: May move debate back to health, where he has a temporary advantage (since it will take a couple of years for his new stuff ups to unravel there)

C: Raises more money for him to hose up the nearest wall.

In addition to the massive increase in tax, there is a move to “plain package” cigarettes to remove the distinctiveness of various brands.

Australia would be the first country in the world to force cigarette companies to use plain packaging.

“From 2012, companies will only be allowed to print their brand name in a standard style and graphic health warnings will remain on the packets.”

I suggest he goes one step further and does this instead.

He took a cigarette from a crumpled packet marked VICTORY CIGARETTES and incautiously held it upright, whereupon the tobacco fell out on to the floor." Orwell.

One little problem, this is almost certainly not legal in any way. I dont have a huge amount of sympathy for the tobacco companies, as for some weird reason, defying all logic, they seemed to feel their previous concessions to the anti smoking lobby would appease them. What a surprise it hasnt, again.

“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber barons cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. They may be more likely to go to Heaven yet at the same time likelier to make a Hell of earth. Their very kindness stings with intolerable insult. To be cured against ones will and cured of states which we may not regard as disease is to be put on a level of those who have not yet reached the age of reason or those who never will; to be classed with infants, imbeciles, and domestic animals.

C. S. Lewis, God in the Dock”

More under the fold, including how its increasing profits for criminals.

Unintended consequences?

A lot of complaints from the “guardian” class of people seems to centre on the terrible exploitation of others by property owners who rent out houses. Theres also the same level of wailing about how expensive property has become due to investors buying up/renting out most of the cheaper housing stock.

I have a theory on this, and would invite anyone to pick it apart.

Most property investors are the “mum&dad” type, not educated enough or comfortable with either stocks, money managers or “exotic” schemes.

At the same time inflation, over 10 years,  of around 2.5% per year sees them loosing around 35% of that “saved” money if they were to stick it under a mattress, or slightly (very slightly) less if they banked the money.

Heres the Wiki figures, tell me why (in the absence of a crash) you wouldnt invest in real estate in Australia?

Between 1998 and 2008 inflation was about 36%^[30] yet property prices inflated by more than 300% in all capital cities except Melbourne (up 280%) and Sydney (up 180%)

So given cash goes backwards, most investments have an element of risk, lack of control or both where is an average person to invest their money? Housing in Australia is a rather large bubble waiting to burst, but the government isnt willing to risk deflating it anytime soon. A reflection of how much is tied up in housing can be seen by the devastation in America, where it was largely residential homes that triggered the financial crisis.

 

Australia treats property investment much different to nearly any other type. Live for a few years in a house and when you sell it, the profit is taxed at a massively lower rate than any similar item sold.

I blame the taxation system for the massive overinvestment and price bubble in Australia. The desire was good, more properties available for renters, more small investors, but it has become a monster.

Im not calling for a swathe of new taxes on housing though, but a realisation that the investment market is massively distorted  by the taxes levied on every other type of “ordinary” investment. If, for example the government was to cease taxing bank deposits the “average” investor might begin to see that as an attractive and less risky proposition to investment housing. Again this might begin to distort the flow of money, but I think its time the housing bubble was deflated softly in Oz, rather than allowing the upwards spiral to continue.

The problem isnt “greedy investors” its the inevitable result of the government taxing most other “unsophisticated” investment options. If they were to lessen taxes on other investment options it might take a lot of the heat (and the huge risk building) out of the housing market.

I watch twilight…yet another post on the all embracing suckiness…

The missus finally made me watch twilight last week. I know the last thing the world needs is another post on the all embracing suck that is twilight, but here goes anyway.

First the good points.

Very well shot, good locations and scenery.

The crap bits.

More below the fold.

“poverty” and squalor in Australia.

Another brief look into the underbelly of Australia’s underclass, the poorly educated and abandoned.

I have been visiting a number of my clients and a few stand out points Id like to make.

Most of the ladies are serial single mums, it is rare to find any receiving any sort of maintainance from the sperm donor involved. Equally rare is the lady who has only one child this way. The average for my clients tends to be 3 children, which coincidentally nets a payout of (on average) $1,300 per fortnight in government payments. They also are eligible for lower power/water bills and other subsidies.

To put that into perspective, a person on Australia’s minimum wage would have to work 100 hours a fortnight (at $13.47 per hour) to come close to the same amount…before tax is taken out….

If there are men around these ladies (and I use both terms with reservations) they tend to be living in the house, unemployed, and not contributing much, if anything to the costs of the household. They are little better than parasites on the ladies and their kids.

The treatment of the children varies wildly, from apparently well cared for and clean, to feral and (as observed) scabies ridden..

Now Ive set a bit of a tone heres the squalor 90% of Australians would have no idea exists in their own country, as observed it is difficult to blame lack of money, the 4 households Im about to describe all had 3 or more children guaranteeing a minimum of $1,300 per fortnight, tax free.

(I will give the race of the occupants just to prevent anyone saying “its just THEM, that are like that, not my people”

House 1, White lady, 6 kids, 1 hellhound allowed free reign of the house, no male on the scene. Cant see the lower walls of any part of the living room, they are covered with clothes, toys, rubbish and furniture, the other room visible has 3 mattresses on the floor with soiled bedding in heaps on them. There is also 2 cots, its not clear where the toddler (year old?), sleeps as both cots are overflowing with clothing. In addition the edges of this room are again knee deep in more clothing and rubbish.

Then theres the ceiling… oh god the ceiling…. The light fitting was a red glass candelabra type, but 3/4 black, in addition the ceiling and down the walls to the level of the light switches was a mottled white/black mix of about 50/50.

Fly shit..

the black was fly shit.

I left the house with a near asthma attack, eyes streaming and itching, and I was only there for 1/2 an hour.

House 2. Aboriginal inhabitants, 3 kids man in the background. I had gone there to attempt to repair a washing machine which the proper repairman had refused to touch due to an infestation of cockroaches. The machine had only been in the house for a month when the powerboard had shorted, again from roaches.

I went into the laundry to see the following. 3 well used bongs on the dryer, a constant scuttling of roaches across the floor, and a backyard full of old mattresses and car bodies.

I opened the top of the washing machine and was revolted to see well over 100 cockroaches stream from the “drum” area before I shut the lid, I then removed the plastic shielding the powerboard area to find the board shorted out, and the area jammed tight with dead/alive cockroaches.

House 3. Mixed race, 4 kids and an actual defacto husband of long standing. House quite grotty but again cockroaches galore. As the old large TV was resting on the table (and cooling down) dozens of roaches were streaming from the lower cooling holes in the rear of the machine…

House 4. The…. worst…house….ever…

Its difficult to describe this one but here goes… Multiple inhabitants all sorts, furniture all broken, rubbish everywhere, multiple dogs/cats roaming at will.

The roaches…. Close your eyes and imagine this if you can, the corners of the room are a brown living carpet of roaches, thousands of them, oh and they arent on the floor, they are doing this in the corners of the ceiling, with a few constantly dropping, then scuttling back up to join the swarm… That is, god willing, the worst Ive ever seen or hope to see.

There is no relation to the money entering these households and the conditions inside, basic vermin control is not expensive or complicated, if I had to pick an explanation it would be this. The people involved dont realise the necessity of ongoing cleanliness of pest control measures, their long term thinking is “broken”. For the most part they arent bad people, but they are completely lazy and expect to be able to do things once and have them stay that way. Im sure theres plenty of other reasons of varying complexity, if you know of a few please post them…

Middle class madness

Not sure I necessarily agree with all of Rory Gibson’s opinions here, but it’s still food for thought and a good read…

HAVE you ever noticed how some status symbols seem to have gained their positions under false pretences?

For instance, who was the idiot who decided ensuite bathrooms were desirable items, a sign of prestige for the modern middle class?

😦 I’ve always liked the idea of an ensuite. Now I’m all confused.

Read on.

Paying Unassimilated Muslim Immigrants to Leave

The tide has shifted. Even many liberal-left Democrats are beginning to tire of government enforced, “cultural diversity” when the subjects in question are Muslim immigrants who refuse to assimilate, and do nothing but breed on the dole and threaten their hosts with violence… and often enough, act out on those threats.

Sweden, a country I love – OK, I really love the women – and have lived in, is paying the return trip for asylum seekers who have been turned down. Note that the countries listed are all Muslim countries, that a higher percentage are now being refused, and that applications are also dropping as the people back home get word that the public teat is running dry.

Denmark is going that one better, as they are paying unassimilated Muslim residents about $20K US to… ahem… get the fuck out. The something that is rotten in Denmark is the unassimilated Muslims, and the natives want them gone.

Expect this to spread. Peace-loving citizens of western nations – who will readily self-identify as libertarians if the terms are properly defined for them – are fed up with this malignant ideology parading as a religion, and they bloody well want their countries back.

Here in the US, the solo terror attack by Nidal Hasan is being called a terror attack in newspapers that were formerly allergic to the word. Deniers are being shouted down, and even their hearts aren’t into their arguments anymore.

Not only that, but there are now calls for the abjectly ridiculous Clinton-era gun ban for military bases and posts to be rescinded. This is major big progress. I grew up a military brat on Air Force bases in the 60’s and 70’s: My dad carried a .357 revolver around with him whenever he was flying, and nobody ever gave it a second thought. It’s a military base for fuck’s sake! Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines are supposed to be fucking goddamned ARMED! Expect this to change, and soon. Even lilly-livered generals don’t like to be caught with their pants around their ankles while their unarmed soldiers are mowed down by lunatics.

There will also be an end to this kind of malfeasant shit. Hasan’s superiors wondered if he was a bleeding psychotic nut-case, but nobody wanted to take the heat for accusing a Muslim of being a danger. A hearty fuck that to that noise. That’s gone soon as well, and three cheers.

Westerners are long-suffering because we’re civilized, and we’d like more of the world to share in our prosperity and standard of living, but if you invite a dog into your house and he refuses to stop shitting on the carpet, well, you’ll rid yourself of the cur sooner or later, no matter how much you wish he’d shape up.

That’s what’s happening now: Muslims have been shitting on the carpets of western countries too long, and the owners of those carpets are tired of cleaning up after them. We’d like to walk on those carpets barefoot without worrying about stepping in a pile of Muslim shit.

Perhaps in another few centuries Muslims will be ready for civilization, but they aren’t now.

Send them back to their bat-shit filled caves and their flea-infested sand dunes. That’s where they belong.

Let the Muslims shit on their own carpets.

The Cause of the Fort Hood Massacre: Islam

I intentionally waited 24 hours to post this, because it became obvious to me quite early on in the news coverage of the incident yesterday that there were many errors in the coverage, some intentionally misleading, and others not.

First, it was reported that there were three shooters in at least two locations: There was one shooter in one location. It was reported that the shooter and the officer who shot him were both killed: They both survived. We heard that the shooter was a convert to Islam, sparking speculation that he was a black Muslim: He was a life-long Muslim, and a first-generation American son of Palestinian immigrants. We also heard that there were no warning signs: There were many.

If you want to see just how much of a cluster-fuck the reporting was, just read this Jawa Report post, or this Ace of Spades post to get a taste. No offense to those guys at all, as this is just what happens when you try to keep readers informed with continuously updated posts during a confused major news story like this. I, however, didn’t want to go there; I wanted to wait until the dust settled.

So, aside from the facts above, what do we now know? We know that Major Malik Nadal Hasan was the perpetrator, that he was a devout Moslem, that he voiced opposition to US policy in the GWoT many times, that there were at least some who were investigating some Jihadist statements he made, that he had come to the attention of the FBI because of some of these sentiments posted online, that he was a psychiatrist treating our servicemen and women who had been in combat or in combat zones, that his education was paid for by the American taxpayer, that he was in the military elite, earning a six-figure income, that he had received a “poor” performance evaluation at his previous post in Maryland, that he creeped-out some of his fellow officers with the statements he made, and that he was shouting, “Allahu Akbar” as he mowed down our Army men and women with two handguns that he illegally smuggled onto the post. And, most importantly, that he was about to be deployed to Afghanistan and was openly unhappy about it.

Yet, there are still some debating or denying that this was a terrorist attack. I don’t care that it was a lone shrink suffering from Sudden Jihad Syndrome, or if he had any ties to known terrorist groups, it is a fact and not an opinion when I say, this was a terrorist attack. It is always terrorism when a Muslim does something like this: Islam is a terrorist religion.

One person being interviewed following the disclosure of the perp’s identity even said, “I wish his name had been Smith.” Of course you do, because WASP males are the only group left who are legitimate targets of prejudice, racism, and religious discrimination (Well, there are the Jews. Eternally). Additionally, it is the hight of PC heresy to blame Islam or a Muslim for their actions. The MSM interviewers and commentators were spinning like tops to avoid it yesterday.

Well, fuck that. This POS Moslem scumbag should never have existed. His parents should never have been allowed into the US to breed on the taxpayer’s dime, he should never have been educated on the taxpayer’s dime, and he should never have been allowed into the US military! Since that proper policy wasn’t followed, once his sentiments became known – the instant they became known – he should have been kicked out of the Army and forced to repay what the Army spent on his education. Every. last. dime.

Additional problems abound. This was a US Army post, yet it was a gun-free zone? The female officer who shot Hasan was a civilian, not an MP. Whiskey, Tango, Foxtrot?

Guess what? In Israel when a weapon is issued to a serviceman or woman, they own it and are expected to keep it with them and ready to use 24/7. Go to an Israeli beach sometime: Scantily clad men and women carrying full-auto military firearms. I don’t know about you, but that would give me a warm and fuzzy feeling all over. Yes, people have gone crazy in Israel and started shooting innocents too, and they were summarily mown down by the armed populace. That is the solution! Why?… because crazies will always manage to get ahold of firearms, no matter how stringent the brain-dead shyster-politicians make the gun laws. The doughnut-eating police can’t ever seem to manage to be where they are needed when they are needed either – it’s impossible for them because they aren’t psychic – so the only solution is an armed citizenry.

For Christ’s sake, at least on an Army Post! When I grew up on USAF bases, the gates were guarded by armed AP’s. My dad routinely carried a .357 around with him, and nobody thought anything at all about it. We need to get back to that, especially now. And not just in the US, but in every Western country. Being armed and ready to defend your life, your family, and your property, is a fundamental human right! You want to prevent genocide? Arm the populace so they can resist effectively!

Let those evil fucks at the UN choke on that shit.

I’m sure as hell glad I live in Texas, where I can be armed in my house, my truck, and in public with a CCP. I’m still pushing for open carry like New Mexico has, though.

Bottom line is, most of these deaths would have been prevented if the soldiers were armed, as they should have been: 13 dead and 30 wounded. By one man with two handguns. On the largest United States military post in the world.

Disgraceful.

Here’s the perp the morning of the attack buying coffee, dressed in trad Islamic rags.

Here are CAIR representatives doing what Muslims do best, faking sincerity and lying to us infidels. Remember, CAIR is an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation terror financing case. The Koran tells them to lie to us, so that’s what they do when it suits their purposes. And they really don’t want the attention on them for this incident, so they are lying: Islam is the religion of lies also.

I’ll never trust a Muslim. Ever. And that’s not prejudice, it’s a rational and post-judicial decision. Islam is evil, as its followers prove daily.

UPDATE – bing

The compant we keep. From a fellow worshipper at Hasan’s mosque…

Duane : I’m not going to condemn him for what he did. I don’t know why he did it. I will not, absolutely not, condemn him for what he had done though. If he had done it for selfish reasons I still will not condemn him. He’s my brother in the end. I will never condemn him.

Personally, this is hard to reconcile. I have two muslim friends. And they are good blokes. Yet, unsurprisingly, the above pops up…

Suicidal kids and the media.

I am so bloody sick of these doomsday cultists and their effect on kids.

 

Try this sample

The following video encapsulates why these pressure groups are crossing over into outright evil. Teaching kids they

A: Have no future

B: all the oldies are going to kill them

C: They have a right, nay, obligation to be angry.

Plus the kids in a hoodie, the idea being to make all the oldies feel that the menace they feel from that particular sub group of idiots is somehow justified, and a result of anger over a real grievance about the environment. Scum.

 

 

Lovely, why not tell the kid she’ll grow up and the elderly will harvest her organs as well?

 More under the fold.