Stabbing Westward

Europe is Between Decline and Fall, the World is Flowing East to West...

In a rare Obama administration success, we pulled off a major diplomatic offensive a few weeks back in Asia, setting China back on its heels, diplomatically speaking. We’re standing up a new beachhead in Northern Australia, Opening up Burma (Myanmar) and China’s neighbors are cosying up to us, encouraging our involvement in the region.

Looking across the Atlantic, things ain't so great...

“The nose of the British Bulldog has been slanted backwards so that he can breathe without letting go”  -- Winston Churchill

Meanwhile, Europe is in its death throes, with member states lacerating and devouring one another. First, irresponsible governments loaded up on free money, incurring crushing debt and demanding others pay, and now this …

“BRITAIN last night faced a revenge attack for David Cameron’s EU snub when a senior Brussels bureaucrat promised a new deluge of damaging red tape on UK business.”  (EU Plots Revenge against Britain)

What a slice of reality.  Europeans no longer fight wars.  They now threaten one another with onerous paperwork.  Britain was smart to keep its own currency, and it is now distancing itself further from the imploding EU experiment, incurring the wrath of the unelected Continental Poobahs in Brussels.  The British Bulldog, however, is not backing down…

Conservative MP Douglas Carswell said:  [...]  “If he is such an economic genius, why is the continent that he helps to preside over heading down a debt vortex? He should be worrying about his own maths, not ours.”

Stephen Booth, of the Euro-sceptic think tank Open Europe, said: “The threat of EU regulation on the City of London remains.

“The British Government must continue to push to prevent any further unnecessary and unwanted regulation from Brussels.”  (EU Plots Revenge against Britain) 

Britons are tough, but it worries me that we have a Great Britain hater in the White House.  Our closest and most trusted ally may need some backup if it is to survive the continental collapse...

Meanwhile, wild-eyed practitioners of the Religion of Peace bombed and shot up the city center of Liege, Belgium, killing or wounding almost 100 people.  It was all a matter of "honor" with links back to *Surprise!* Pakistan.

It’s the Decline and Fall of Rome on a continental scale...

Lest anyone on this side of the Atlantic give vent to a schadenfreude-induced chortle, let us recall that we ourselves teeter on the brink.

So the Olde Continent is in economic collapse, and its once brave societies have turned “weak and effeminate*.”  The barbaric invaders have overwhelmed the decadent hosts; the 7th century obscurantists who Europe invited in will finish the job, just as the Vandals and the Goths finished off Rome, picking through the ruins and hauling off the marble.  A darkness of ignorance will fall upon the continent, as it does anywhere civilization cedes ground to Islam.

So the US is right to turn our attentions away from the Middle East and Europe. They deserve one another. The Western Hemisphere has enough gas, oil and coal, there’s no further need to spill our blood and treasure on ungrateful bastards. Vietnam (yes, that Vietnam) and it’s neighbors are welcoming us because China is an imperial bully.

China's Hu tells all the Hu's in Huville to prepare for war

Chinese President Hu Jintao on Tuesday urged the navy to prepare for military combat, amid growing regional tensions over maritime disputes and a US campaign to assert itself as a Pacific power.

War with China is not inevitable.  Neither is the fall of Europe.  Our destiny is in our hands.  Do we have the wisdom, strength and courage to grasp it?

* - Gibbons’ observation on Rome’s decline

London’s Bankers Tell EU to Get Bent

Muslims Immigration: Even Open-Minded People Think it's a Bad Idea

This is a reprint from 2009.  I thought I'd run it since my last post on Islam in America got such a response.  As AOW concluded, immigration policy is something we can and must get control of.  Stop importing people who hate us and who have a history of spawning children who will grow up here and end up hating us... --Silverfiddle

** Unhinged DeviledEgg Rant Alert! ** 

If the thought of an "honor killing" on American soil doesn't disgust you and make you boil with patriotic rage, you're brain dead! 

I live in Europe, I've lived in North America, and I've lived in that armpit they call the Middle East. No contest which I think is better!

Close The Damned Gates!

Why the hell do Western nations continue to allow these troublemaking Muslims to immigrate? Look at a map.  Wherever there's trouble, angry turbaned men with beards are involved.

Our cultures are incompatible.  We enjoy pork bbq and beer, use toilet paper and refrain from female genital mutilation, for example.

Many Muslim immigrants refuse to assimilate, and the only way to have peace here in the West is to give in to their fleck spittled agitations at the expense of our cultural norms.  Not while I have breath in my body!  Better to close the gates!

ISLAM IS A RELIGION OF PEACE!!! DISAGREE AND I'LL KEEEEL YOU!!!

Unlike the DeviledEgg, foreign editor of The Australian Greg Sheridan is no xenophobe, but he declares, "Uncontrolled Muslim Influx a Threat to the West."

It is extremely difficult to talk honestly about Muslim immigration. All generalisations about it are subject to countless exceptions. Muslims are very different from each other.

Most are reasonably successful. But a much bigger minority end up with social, political, extremist or other problems resulting from a lack of integration than is the case with any other cohort of immigrants in Western societies. A lack of honest discussion about this results in bad policy.

He goes on to recommend a book by Christopher Caldwell, Reflections on the Revolution in Europe: Immigration, Islam and the West.

Jacob Laksin at City Journal recommends the book as well.

Polls show that some 70 percent of Britons believe that there are too many immigrants in their country. Majorities throughout Western Europe agree, and Muslim immigrants in particular are viewed with suspicion.

Europe is a Benignly Racist Continent
 
Despite the finger-wagging at America, many Europeans are fundamentally and unconsciously racist and insular. Here in Germany, people from the next village over are considered outsiders, fellow German speakers from Austria are treated as the enemy, and those who hail from farther afield have no hope of ever fitting in in the land of beer and bratwurst. 

Europeans are in a jam, trying to steer a course between the Charybdis of bigotry and the Scylla of cultural destruction. Worse, the entire continent is in denial. Muslims are to blame as well, especially when they display open contempt for their new home:

Yet the immigrants themselves are far from faultless. One of the immigration debate’s inconvenient truths is that Muslim immigrants have been so difficult to assimilate into European societies because they’re unwilling: many Muslims simply choose religious ties over national loyalties.

... 31 percent of British Muslims felt they had more in common with the people of Muslim nations than with their fellow Europeans.

I hope the US can learn the right lessons from Europe's immigration debacle. Reading Caldwell's book would be a good start, but cutting off all Muslim immigration is imperative.

I've got to stop now, that guy shouting from the tower is giving me a headache!

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

The DeviledEgg is prone to unhinged rants, childish outbursts, and fits of anger, but he's really a good egg once you get to know him. He is half German and half American and splits his time between the two countries. Western Hero is proud to add him to the team.

City Journal - Jacob Laksin
RCP - Greg Sheridan

Banker Bailout

Europeans are irked, miffed and rankled at Tiny Tim Geithner's stern warnings against the eventuality of a Euro-Crash.

"I found it peculiar that even though the Americans have significantly worse fundamental data than the euro zone that they tell us what we should do and when we make a suggestion ... that they say no straight away,"

They say they don't need his lectures, and they're probably right.  They seem to be doing a hell of a job on their own, although they will gladly accept our money to keep the scheme afloat awhile longer.

The latest round of American financial assistance came Thursday with a promise by the Federal Reserve to swap as many dollars for euros as European bankers need.

Make no mistake.  This is a Banker Bailout, at US Taxpayer Expense

We The Taxpayer will pay for this by paying more for everything as the value of the dollar continues to erode:

But over the long term, consumers could feel the impact of central bankers flooding the financial system with cash, according to John Ryding, chief economist at RDQ Economics.

If Greece and other unstable economies collapse, Goldman Sachs and their international partners in crime would suffer catastrophic losses, and we can't have that!  So you and I watch our savings continue to be eaten away by these rats and cockroaches, while prices climb, all so Tiny Tim can send Europe all the dollars it needs.

They are propping up a rotting edifice.  The foundation has been eroded by rent-seeking rats and moral relativists.  The walls are shot through and the roof is sagging, threatening to fall in at any moment.

Collapse is inevitable.  Maybe all at once, or maybe piece by piece.  A credible argument can be made that it has already started.  Does anyone in their right mind really think Greece, Greece! can pay all that money back? Really?

The Economist explains The Cost of Break-Up.  Experts conclude that more borrowing is the only answer.

It is a bad sign when the only remedy the wizards can come up with is more of what got you in trouble in the first place.

Bloomberg - End The Fed's Dual Mandate

Angry Islam Incompatible with European Liberalism

Europeans are increasingly unwilling to tolerate Muslim intolerance

The liberal media in this country are wringing their hands over increasing European intolerance. They worry that anti-Muslim sentiment is on the rise even in Sweden...

"...home of the Nobel Prize and known as the "conscience of the world" for aiding refugees and pioneering laws for women's equality and gay rights. Yet even here, the Swedish Democrats made it into the Rikstag by tapping into a surge of anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim sentiment sweeping across many nations in Western Europe, propelling right-wing and nationalist parties to their biggest gains in years." (WaPo)

Are our ink-stained scribblers and enlightened cognoscenti really too dumb to realize that Islam is the greatest threat to Europe's famed and admirable liberalism? Muslims are not known for championing women's equality and gay rights.

A Swede put it simply:

"The Swedish are tired of walking around in their own neighborhoods and feeling like they're in Saudi Arabia," said Ekeroth, an intense 30-year-old and founder of the new Anti-Islamic Fund, which promotes criticism of radical Islam. "It is time for the Swedish to be comfortable again in their own country."

Angry Muslim replaces Ugly American as #1 Threat to Europe

There is disorder in the European house. Europeans were living comfortably and peaceably in the home they had built, settling upon a live-and-let-live liberalism that has kept the peace for 65 years.  Ugly Americans demanding everybody speak English used to be the main disturber of Europe's peaceful repose.

Now, denizens of the Olde Continent are shocked and horrified to see that many Muslims they generously invited in have become a pack of wild animals let loose in the house. The beasts have found high perches upon couch backs and china cabinets and bare their fangs at the customs of their hosts.  
 
Because of these newcomers, Europeans must change their behavior?

How is that right? A people have a right to their culture, and nobody has the right to forcibly change it from the outside. This is especially so when the culture is beneficial to mankind, not a threat to others, and has been decided upon by the people. Europe's culture meets all three criteria.

"It isn't racist to want to preserve your culture," said Leif Johansson, a 64-year-old carpenter. "I'm open to immigration, but these people come without a thought to integration, no interest in learning Swedish or being part of Swedish society."

Precisely. No nation should be compelled to commit national suicide. But what else could the agenda be of a people who move in and angrily demand conformance to their strange and violent politico-religious freak show?

Europe may finally be fed up. I pray they are, and I pray we learn a lesson here before it's too late.

* - This is a repost.  It expands upon my thoughts from yesterday's post

Camp of the Saints: Europe's Nighmare Becoming Reality

Europe, already besotted with immigrants, is straining under the latest siege: 

The present crisis started when refugees began fleeing Tunisia by boat in the wake of January’s revolution. Italy was a natural destination: its island of Lampedusa lies south of Tunis and just 70 miles off the African coast. These refugees were joined by others from Libya, and by late May almost 40,000 had arrived. (NY Times - Immigration in the EU)

EU nations are talking of reestablishing border controls because they don't know what to do about their immigrant problem.  I guess, "stop letting them in," is too unsophisticated for the European mind.

The issue has been simmering for years, but unrest in the Middle East and North Africa and fears of a new wave of migrants have brought it to a boil. Of course, closing off Europe to newcomers violates the cosmopolitan vision on which the European Union was built... (NY Times - Immigration in the EU)

The problem is that the immigrants storming Europe's borders are not cosmopolitan.  

A liberal democracy will not survive being swamped by people bringing ancient hatreds and intolerant ideologies with them.  Especially when these immigrants are well-versed in agitprop jujitsu, using a state's liberties against itself to stifle free speech and criticism and to enshrine special status for themselves and their abhorrent cultural practices.

All of this is eerily reminiscent of a gripping novel French author Jean Raspail wrote back in the early 1970's.  Entitled Camp of the Saints, it remains controversial to this day.  He describes a sagging third-world flotilla bringing millions of benighted poor to the shores of Europe, and the liberal powers that talked a good game about the brotherhood of man don't know what to do.  They cannot appear as hypocrites, so they dither and talk, acquiescing by inaction to the invasion.

Raspail has been branded a hateful racist by the Southern Poverty Law Center, and was unsuccessfully sued in Europe for writing an anti-immigrant article in Le Figaro.  It is unfortunate that the multiculturalists have succeeded in equating defending your culture with racism.  Like most progressive ideas, the very notion of multiculturalism goes against human nature.  For better or worse, we are tribal: 

That scorn of a people for other races, the knowledge that one’s own is best, the triumphant joy at feeling oneself to be part of humanity’s finest—none of that had ever filled these youngsters’ addled brains, or at least so little that the monstrous cancer implanted in the Western conscience had quashed it in no time at all.  (Raspail - Camp of the Saints)

Loving your culture and wanting to preserve it against newcomers who would turn it all upside down is not hateful

Especially the way Raspail expresses it.  Yes, he employs dark-skinned people as the protagonists, but his pointed and sustained scorn is aimed at squishy western elites, not immigrants.  Indeed, he understands why they are sailing to Europe and he is sympathetic.

The novel is dark.  While employing unflattering terms for the immigrants and the elites who pretend to care for them, the author displays a marked Christian sympathy for the poor of the world.  It is a complex novel, but his simple message seems to be that we can and should help them, but not by inviting them all here.

Jean Raspail speaks of eternal realities...

Man never has really loved humanity all of a piece—all its races, its peoples, its religions—but only those creatures he feels are his kin, a part of his clan, no matter how vast. As far as the rest are concerned, he forces himself, and lets the world force him. And then, when he does, when the damage is done, he himself falls apart. (Raspail - Camp of the Saints)

Western Christendom is falling apart.  We are ashamed of our culture and our elites caution us to tone down the flag waving and displays of cultural pride.  Meanwhile, those who immigrate but refuse to assimilate despise us for our weakness.

Related:  Western Hero - Angry Islam Incompatible with European Liberalism
NY Times - Immigration in the EU
Islam vs Europe