The Europeans are back to their old hatred of Jews

Excerpt from Michael Ledeen. I am not quite clear on what Ledeen thinks started at the beginning of C20. European antisemitism goes back many centuries. Both Luther and Marx were great antisemites

Daniel Johnson, writing in the Weekly Standard from London, notes with sadness and alarm that the European elite have now admitted their failure to negotiate an end to the Iranian nuclear program. Not only that, but they let out of the diplomatic bag the dirty little secret that it's always been about nuclear weapons.

So the Europeans know-in all likelihood they've always known-that the Iranians are building atomic bombs, and intend to use them against Israel. Against the Jews. Johnson says that if that happens, he'll pack up and leave Europe, as well he might. I'm tempted to ask him why he needs to wait. British Jews now constitute the largest single group of immigrants to Israel, having seen the graffiti on the walls and in the newspapers of their finlandized country.

The campaign against Israel and the rising tide of antisemitism are two faces of the same medallion. Anybody who has studied the rise of National Socialism recognizes the symptoms, above all the dehumanization of the Jews, accompanied by the big lies about Jewish control of this and that, from the banks to the newspapers.

In retrospect, we can see that Europe set on this course at the turn of the twentieth century, then indulged their antisemitic fantasies until they were defeated in war. We then had a happy interlude, when antisemitism was so discredited by Hitler and rendered taboo as a result of defeat. That interlude is now over, and the Europeans are reverting to form.

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ELSEWHERE

Dr. Sanity has a good post on how and why Leftists use systematic denial as a psychological defence-mechanism. Excerpt: "As the real world presses in on them, their voices have become more shrill and hysterical; their rage is escalating out of control. No longer do most of them even bother to argue their points logically; they simply loudly denounce any idea or person who threatens their ideology; or deliberately and with the ruthless finesse of all tyrants and thugs, simply attempt to suppress all dissenting opinions"

Former Clinton fundraiser condemns Hillary: "Today mogul Geffen spoke out in the New York Times column of Maureen Dowd. He attacked Hillary Clinton as a polarizing figure who cannot bring the country together and praised Obama as a uniting figure. He said Republicans believe Hillary will be easiest to defeat. He said the Clinton political organization will slime Obama, adding: "That machine is going to be very unpleasant and unattractive and effective." And regarding the Clintons themselves he said: "Everybody in politics lies, but they do it with such ease. It's troubling." [Riehl World has more]

About time: "Travellers mistakenly placed on a US no-fly list of people deemed a threat to aviation can file complaints through a new government program, the US Homeland Security Department said yesterday. The no-fly list dramatically expanded following the attacks of September 11, 2001, with tens of thousands of names added, leading to numerous complaints of errors, including high-profile incidents with a US senator and British singer. The Homeland Security Department announced yesterday the launch of the DHS Traveler Redress Inquiry Program, accessible via a secure website. "Travellers can now seek redress and resolve possible watch list misidentification issues with any of the department's component agencies at an easy-to-use and easy-to-access online location," the department said in a statement."

British police get real about heroin: "The Libertarian Alliance, the radical free market and civil liberties policy institute, notes with approval the suggestion by Ken Jones, the President of the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO), that "heroin should be prescribed to long-term addicts to prevent them from committing crimes to feed their habits" (The Independent). However, the LA suggests that this is a very modest step in the right direction. It calls on ACPO to embrace the full logic of its position and argue that heroin should once again be sold over the counter in pharmacies...."

Arrogant Leftists still want to dictate other people's choices: "Where markets have proved triumphant is in their ability to drive up living standards and personal choice through rising productivity. And yet, as John Maynard Keynes presciently warned in 1930, this solving of "the economic problem" still leaves mankind with his "real [and] permanent problem - how to use his freedom from pressing economic cares . . . which science and compound interest will have won for him, to live wisely and agreeably and well". Solving this problem means rethinking the essence of each individual's relationship to the labour market. Capitalism is triumphant but complacent - to reform it, we have to go into the belly of the beast." [That each individual should be free to solve this "problem" in the way that suits his/her particular wishes best is too radical a thought for this Leftist know-all].

Hayek as a fusionist: "'Fusionism' is the attempt to combine libertarianism and conservatism into a unified political philosophy and program. It has been controversial ever since Frank Meyer first defended it half a century ago, and every electoral cycle seems to generate another round of debate over the question of whether fusionism is possible or desirable.... As it happens, Hayek rejected both the "conservative" and "libertarian" labels; he preferred to call himself a "Burkean Whig." But then, Burke was the father of modern conservatism, and the Whigs were the classical liberal ancestors of contemporary libertarians. So while there are certainly versions of conservatism and libertarianism Hayek would not have endorsed, his own self-description seems to indicate a commitment to fusionism of a sort. More substantively, Hayek was the preeminent twentieth-century champion of the free market so beloved by libertarians, and made central to his later work a Burkean defense of tradition as a repository of social and moral wisdom. Nor is this combination accidental, for the two themes are deeply intertwined in his work.

Ways to improve economic growth: "The news of the past year is pretty good. Despite high oil prices and weakness in the housing market, the U.S. economy turned in its fifth consecutive year of growth in 2006. The unemployment rate was only 4.6 percent in 2006 (compared to 6 percent in 2003) and GDP growth clocked in at 3.4 percent over the entire year. Compare those macroeconomic numbers with the 2006 performance in high-tax France, where growth was around 2 percent and the unemployment rate was more than twice that of the U.S. It is very clear that America's 2001 and 2003 tax cuts have been an unmitigated success, and Congress urgently needs to make them permanent. So, if inflation is in check, productivity is increasing, the stock market is rising, and growth is solid, what are the problems facing the United States economy? First, we shouldn't be satisfied with 3.4 percent growth, and we must continue to expand our economy in an increasingly competitive global marketplace. There are many, many policy distortions that drag on the economy and keep America, and her people, from reaching our full potential. Just because we're a little more free than Japan or Europe is no cause for celebration"

For more postings, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS and EYE ON BRITAIN. (Mirror sites here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here).

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"All the worth which the human being possesses, all spiritual reality, he possesses only through the State." -- 19th century German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. Hegel is the most influential philosopher of the Left -- inspiring Karl Marx, the American "Progressives" of the early 20th century and university socialists to this day.

The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist" (Nationalsozialistisch) and the full name of Hitler's political party (translated) was "The National Socialist German Workers' Party".

The kneejerk response of the Green/Left to people who challenge them is to say that the challenger is in the pay of "Big Oil", "Big Business", "Big Pharma", "Exxon-Mobil", "The Pioneer Fund" or some other entity that they see, in their childish way, as a boogeyman. So I think it might be useful for me to point out that I have NEVER received one cent from anybody by way of support for what I write. As a retired person, I live entirely on my own investments. I do not work for anybody and I am not beholden to anybody.

Comments? Email me here (Hotmail address). If there are no recent posts here blame Blogger.com and visit my mirror site here or here. My Home Pages are here or here or here.

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