THE MORE THINGS CHANGE .....

An email from a Dutch-speaking reader

"I just acquired - for my collection of war memorabilia - a Nazi publication from around 1942: "What is the European worker struggling for?" (Waarvoor strijdt de Europeesche Arbeider?"). Apparently this was for distribution in Belgium and Holland. Most pages are taken up with pictures of the wonderful benefits of the German welfare state - free medical care, free day care, free summer camps - to show the contrast with the brutish Soviet state in the East, and the heartless Anglo-Saxon capitalist system in the West. The reason why the Soviets would like to conquer Europe is obvious enough, the writer says: to acquire the European standard of living (throughout the text, Germany is barely mentioned but can safely be substituted for "Europe"):

"The question of what the English and the American worker is striving and fighting for is also asked often, mostly in the enemy camp. In the meantime, what he MUST fight and work for has become clear: in order to, by means of conquering Europe and its advanced industry, eliminate a competitor and conquer a new market for the American gigantic (industrial) production. Europe must buy ..."

A clear echo of what we are told about the Halliburton factor in Iraq. This recycled Marxism is followed by a great deal of economic gibberish about how bad it is to buy things from other parts of the world, about the European worker's cherished social security and employment benefits, and, toward the end:

"One more thing the European worker knows: if our continent can maintain itself, i.e. if the East can be controlled and the West can be pushed back inside its own borders, then Europe will be able to continue projecting its ancient, illuminating power, and important parts of neighboring peoples will join our continent and elevate themselves to our level of culture."

Jacques Chirac, eat your heart out: Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose."

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ELSEWHERE

Amusing: The Left-leaning "Prospect" magazine has just published its list of the top 100 British intellectuals. And what a laugh it is! The nutty Germaine Greer who has now reversed herself on practically everything she ever said comes second and the unrepentant Marxist historian Hobsbawm comes fourth. But some sensible people get a look in too so it's not a total writeoff. Even the leader of Britain's Conservative party gets a spot on the list (towards the bottom, of course). But I don't know anything about most of the people on the list -- for which I can probably be grateful.

I should be used to it by now but I still get amazed at the arrogance of Leftist ideologues. There is an article by a feminist here which simply asserts -- without a shred of supportive evidence and in the face of lots of contrary evidence -- that all male/female differences are "forged by decades of conditioning". The idea of inborn differences is simply sneered at. Facts are irrelevant. She just KNOWS! She is almost certainly not a mother. Feminists who have boy and girl children soon learn the reality. (Via Oz Conservative).

There is a good post here pointing out that talk of a Pax Americana and America as an empire shows the total ignorance of history that one has to expect from the Left. It also rightly points out how strange it was to have the recent Democrat convention virtually glorifying the Vietnam war -- the same war that previously they always condemned utterly. "History, Schmistory! Who cares about history?" might almost be the Leftist slogan. It almost has to be: History is so inconvenient for them.

An attack on John Kerry from a "liberal" viewpoint: Just one excerpt: "It is always difficult, when you look closely at the speech of a Democratic Party candidate, to determine what is a lie and what are mere words. I think the most obvious lies in John Kerry's case are his pledges about healthcare and trade. Take this passage: And when I'm President, America will stop being the only advanced nation in the world which fails to understand that health care is not a privilege for the wealthy, the connected, and the elected -it is a right for all Americans. If you honestly think that Americans will have easier access to healthcare under John Kerry, raise your hand. At best, Kerry's federal reinsurance plan sounds like a hugely complex legislative fiasco that will die in committee sometime around Lebron James' 30th birthday. At worst, it sounds like a means of funneling enormous amounts of taxpayer money to insurers and employers without guaranteeing that the cost benefits will be passed on to the consumer".

Liddy has a great list of events proving that Leftists have no standards, principles or consistency at all. The same things that were good under Clinton are suddenly bad under Bush.

Good comment about the attacks on Iraqi Christians: "Will al-Jazeera dedicate the same outrage to the bombing of Christian churches as it did to imaginary U.S. attacks on mosques? There's the difference: Even in wartime, our soldiers went to great lengths to spare religious facilities, despite their cynical use by terrorist criminals. Nor did the Israelis destroy the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem when Palestinian militants used it as a bunker. Relativists may whine all they want, but such restraint is the hallmark of a superior civilization - cultures are not all equal."

EU Referendum notes that EU officials are complaining about a peculiarity of the British -- They have a free press! How awful for the EU socialists.

A good graphic here that explains Israel's security fence very simply.

I have just transferred a new lot of Chris Brand's exceedingly incorrect postings here. He includes a quote from Bertrand Russell which discounts Islamic "civilization". For more on that topic see this classic article

A couple of new postings on GUN WATCH. I hope to be posting daily there in future. There is a lot of stuff on that topic that I have been passing by in the past.

For more postings, see GREENIE WATCH and POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH. Mirror sites here and here

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Leftists acclaim "diversity" yet say "All men are equal". Figure that one out.

Perhaps the original example of Leftist "projection": Marx condemned conventional religion as the "opium of the masses". Why? Because he had an opiate to peddle.

Why can those who claim to understand the dangers of meddling with a complex ecosystem like the natural environment, not understand that government interference with a complex system like the economy is perilous too?

The conflict between conservatives and Leftists is not usually a conflict between realists and idealists. Mostly it is a conflict between realists and people who will say anything to win applause

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