THE EU DISASTER

Alarming for Brits: "Veritas at the London Assembly is calling on the Mayor to join its members in condemning the government's acceptance of EU police officers operating in Britain with lifetime immunity from prosecution. These Europol officers will have authority to steal, lie and even kill in the course of their duties. Members of the public will have no right of redress. The European Communities (Immunities and Privileges of the European Police Office) Order 1997, already in force, states: "such persons shall enjoy immunity from suit and legal process in respect of acts, including words written or spoken, done by them in the exercise of their official functions."

The good news (1) "Once they were seen as the most loyal of all Europeans, but this week President Jacques Chirac faces one of the biggest battles of his political career as he launches a crusade to persuade the French to vote 'Oui' in next month's referendum on the EU constitution. Chirac will use a televised debate on Thursday to lay out his arguments in favour of the draft European constitution, amid mounting hostility. Yesterday the president of the European parliament, Josep Borrell, warned the French that they would plunge Europe into crisis if they rejected the constitution. Alarmed by opinion polls which show the 'Non' campaign in the lead, Borrell warned that rejecting the treaty on 29 May would have far more serious implications for the future of Europe than they imagine."

The good news (2): "The CIA has predicted that the European Union will break-up within 15 years unless it radically reforms its ailing welfare systems. The report by the intelligence agency, which forecasts how the world will look in 2020, warns that Europe could be dragged into economic decline by its ageing population. It also predicts the end of Nato and post-1945 military alliances. In a devastating indictment of EU economic prospects, the report warns: "The current EU welfare state is unsustainable and the lack of any economic revitalisation could lead to the splintering or, at worst, disintegration of the EU, undermining its ambitions to play a heavyweight international role." It adds that the EU's economic growth rate is dragged down by Germany and its restrictive labour laws. Reforms there - and in France and Italy to lesser extents - remain key to whether the EU as a whole can break out of its "slow-growth pattern". Reflecting growing fears in the US that the pain of any proper reform would be too much to bear, the report adds that the experts it consulted "are dubious that the present political leadership is prepared to make even this partial break, believing a looming budgetary crisis in the next five years would be the more likely trigger for reform"."

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ELSEWHERE

Sounds good: "A measure to oust the four justices who voted for same-sex marriage in Massachusetts will be considered today by the state legislature's Joint Judiciary Committee. As WorldNetDaily reported, the Massachusetts-based group Article 8 Alliance is promoting a "bill of address," a Massachusetts provision allowing lawmakers to remove judges who fail to fulfill their duties. The measure, filed by Democratic state Rep. Emile Goguen filed in April 2004, contends the justices violated multiple articles in the state constitution prohibiting courts from nullifying existing laws and requiring that laws remain in effect until the legislature repeals them, regardless of the actions and opinions of the judiciary branch"

Maybe I am simply showing that I am an irrelevant old pedant but I am afraid I have to agree with this German court decision: "German prosecutors have provoked outrage by ruling that the 1945 RAF bombing of Dresden can legally be termed a "holocaust". The decision follows the refusal by the Hamburg public prosecutor's office to press charges against a Right-wing politician who compared the bombing raids to "the extermination of the Jews". German law forbids the denial or playing down of the Holocaust as an incitement to hatred. So delicate is the subject of the slaughter of Jews under Hitler that any use of the word "holocaust", or comparison with it, faces intense scrutiny and sometimes legal action. But prosecutors have declined to pursue further the case of Udo Voigt, the chairman of the far-Right NPD, who likened the RAF's raids to the Nazis' "final solution".. For a start, I have always been appalled by the mass-murder by fire-bombing of German civilans -- men, women and children -- in Dresden and Hamburg by the Allied airforces of WW2. The raids concerned had little military relevance and were in my view occasions when Britain and America descended to the moral standards of the Nazis. More to the present point however, the court is precisely correct in calling the result of both raids a "holocaust". The word "holocaust" means consumption by fire -- from the Greek "kausis", meaning burning. Originally "holokauston" was the Greek word for a burnt offering -- something common in primitive religions -- including the original Hebrew religion as recorded in the Old Testament.

For anybody who wants a good brief reference on why the Nazis were Leftists and not Rightists there is a neat summary here. The writer references quite a few of my articles but tells the story a lot more briefly than I do. At the other end of the scale Charles Coulombe has three articles here and here and here under the general heading "The Return of the Swastika" -- which largely go beyond what I have written in showing how derivatives of Nazi ideas are still influential among Leftists in our society today.

There is a new conservative site with lots of stuff on it here

Email received: "My name is Seth Spores; I am one of the three editors and co-founders of College Tree Publishing. We contacted hundreds of university and college conservative and liberal groups, political science departments, and university news papers and requested essay submissions from people in the 17 to 25 year old age group on political and social issues. The end result was What We Think: Young Voters Speak Out, which was put out nationally in late October. The book was meant to be a running forum for political expression of America's youngest voting demographic, and in that regard has been a success.... We are a non-partisan company possessing a Republican, Democrat and Libertarian leaning editor, trying to give fair and equal voice to all ideologies present among college age youth. We are currently accepting submissions for our next two books, What We Think 2 and What We Think About God and looking to increase the number of well written pieces". If you want to submit something, email: seth@collegetreepublishing.com

Carnival of the Vanities is up again in the hands of the very Leftist "Dr. Zen" (Freddy Vessant). He refers to a previous correspondence he had with me. You can read it here. When you have read it, you might be amused to note whether Freddy has comments on his blog or not.

My latest quote on MARXWORDS shows that Engels admired America and scorned Mexico.

For more postings, see EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE and LEFTISTS AS ELITISTS. Mirror sites here, here, here, here and here

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That power only, not principles, is what matters to Leftist movers and shakers is perfectly shown by the 2004 Kerry campaign. They put up a man whose policies seemed to be 99% the same as George Bush's even though the Left have previously disagreed violently with those policies. "Whatever it takes" is their rule.

Leftist ideologues are phonies. For most of them all that they want is to sound good. They don't care about doing good. That's why they do so much harm. They don't really care what the results of their policies are as long as they are seen as having good intentions and can con "the masses" into giving them power.

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"

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