31 Oct 2007

Euro Arrogance

In a chilling display of the elitism that drives European politics, Giscard d’Estaing, author of the EU constitution that was roundly rejected by French and Dutch voters (and would have been by the British) has claimed the new EU reform treaty the EU leaders have slipped through the back door of Euro politics is exactly the same thing. The fact that he can baldly state this when centre right parties are crying 'foul' over the new treaty and demanding a people's vote on it, shows the cocky insulation he feels from the reality of democracy. He can bypass in having bypassed the popular will and brag of it. Read the whole frightening interview here.

Americans, apart from Europhiles who make up segments of the Democratic Party, have long viewed European politics as an Old Boys club , as tight and tangled as the rotten aristocracies it replaced. For all of Europe’s scoffing over the rare American political dynasty like the Kennedy or Bush family, politics of the elite is the norm in Europe. Whilst Europeans laugh at the Schwartzenegger phenomenon of a Hollywood star rising to governor and never stopped deriding Ronald Regan, they forget that it is virtually impossible to get elected in Europe unless one is an insider – Sarkozy being the first modest crack in this edifice.

True to form, d’Estaing states to the BBC with breathtaking arrogance that cosmetic changes were made to the EU reform treaty to "head off any threat of referenda" and that the drafters have made the new document "a catalogue of amendments" that is impenetrable for the public. So much for the voter. Such is the traditional contempt of Europe’s rulers, from kings to dictators to democrats, for the people.

6 Oct 2007

Mullahs Meet Modern Medcicine

Pretty sad story here about Muslim clerics in Nigeria who opposed the use of a polio vaccine campaign because they claimed the drug was designed to "sterilize" them. This ended up with too few children being vaccinated, which can cause the virus to reappear, as it did killing many and spreading to neighboring countries.

What happens when modern medicine meets the medieval mind, in the form of the gross ignorance so many mullahs display? The results are tragic.
"Convincing the Nigerians to take even more of this vaccine will be a tough sell," said Dr. Samuel Katz, an infectious diseases specialist at Duke University and co-inventor of the measles vaccine.

Fiji Orders It's Priorities

Hmm, our friends in the MSM never seem to get the right end of so many stories. Here the BBC misses the point totally. How can Fijians gather in large raucous crowds, get drunk, stay out late and party when their beloved rugby team has made it to the quarter finals of the Rugby World Cup and play the Springboks on Sunday? There is one way:

Last Updated: Friday, 5 October 2007, 07:41 GMT 08:41 UK
Fiji to lift state of emergency



Fiji's military-led government says it will lift the state of emergency it imposed last month when deposed PM Laisenia Qarase re-entered politics.

A military spokesman said that the measures would end on Saturday because there was no threat to the nation.

4 Oct 2007

BBC Goes N-Word

As if any proof were needed, the BBC takes on openly leftist vocabulary for a description of an Australian immigration policy. Misleadingly headlined "Africa Refugee Ban", the piece by Nick Bryant in Sydney states the dreaded "N" word as if it is a plain fact:
"Certainly, there is a nativistic streak in parts of the Australian electorate."
Most Third World countries try to restrict immigration from each other and from the North. Try getting a work permit from the Immigration Department of Kenya, let alone becoming a citizen, even after 30 years of residence. Many countries, like the UAE, forbid people not born of native parents to ever become citizens. In Dubai that precludes any of the over 1 million "guest workers" or their children from ever gaining a Dubai passport.

Would the BBC ever use the word "nativist" against these sorts of policies? That would be upsetting politically correct lexicon. Calling non-white people anything to do with "native" is strictly paeleolithic, racist and colonial. The correct left-think term for anything to do with "natives" is the self-authenticating "indigenous". Except of course for Australians.

Chili Terrorism

Also from the BBC:


"A pot of burning chilli sparked fears of a biological terror attack in central London.

Firefighters wearing protective breathing apparatus were called to D'Arblay Street, Soho, after reports of noxious smoke filling the air.

Police closed off three roads and evacuated homes following the alert.

Specialist crews broke down the door to the Thai Cottage restaurant at 1900 BST on Monday where they discovered the source - a 9lb pot of chillies."

Chili Power

Chilli pepper

A chemical from chilli peppers may be able to kill pain without affecting touch or movement, according to a BBC report.

This might in theory mean a woman in labour could have an epidural without losing the ability to move her legs, or the sensation of her baby being born.

Conventional local anaesthetics affect all nerve cells.

But the researchers Harvard team, writing in Nature, said that with capsaicin, the chilli chemical, they can target just pain receptors.

However, a UK expert said it might be difficult to inject it safely.

Certainly the idea of 5 cc of Tabasco shot into your ham sounds excruciating.