Entre Nous / Musings of a former Belgian

Elusive neoconservatives

Oliver Kamm ruminates on the "neoconservative" label and shows that its blanket application to anybody favoring a hawkish US foreign policy (no matter where they stand on other issues) leads to some ridiculous results.

DOS Attack

As The Captain notes, Hosting Matters (the hosting provider for Instapundit, LGF, and a number of other popular sites) was apparently brought down by a Distributed Denial of Service Attack. We can safely assume that a worldwide association of militant Amish ("mennonieten") is responsible ;-) ;-)

UPDATE: LGF is back

Euro US-bashing as proxy for self-hatred?

Hans ze Beeman has a long and thoughtful post on US-bashing as a proxy for European self-loathing, including links to several articles about the Islamism/far Left axis. Read it all, and follow the links too.

Madeline "Mother France, may I" Albright rebutted

Madeleine Albright (US Secretary of State under Clinton) has trotted off to Europe and is getting attentive ears in the Dutch and French press for her criticism (more reasoned than most, but no less self-serving) of the Bush administration. (I saw a long interview with her in the NRC-Handelsblad but was too busy to translate the whole darn thing.) Rich Lowry summarizes and rebuts. Go read it now. (Links to Albright's stuff there as well.)

Emperor defends democracy. No BS

I read Emperor Misha mostly as a kind of guilty pleasure, the way many people listen to Howard Stern. His sheer... creativity in hurling abuse at various idiotarians and other terror-apologists is a nice way to blow off steam. (I must admit though that some of the perversions described had me looking for a slang dictionary :-))

But once in a while there's a post that is very much worth reading for its own sake. Such as this withering review of a book by a self-described "radical Libertarian" who actually argues against democracy on Libertarian grounds. (A textbook case of how any utopian theoretical doctrine will lead to Absurdistan when taken to its logical extreme without regard for objective reality.)

Dhimmitude in Malaysia

Simply googling for "Malaysia" and "discrimination" yields this intriguing article from a Malaysian source, on how an "affirmative action" program for the "native" Malays essentially degenerated into institutionalized racial discrimination against non-Malay (read: non-Muslim) minorities, particularly Chinese (24%) and Hindus, in every aspect of society.

For reference , according to the World Factbook, the population distribution in Malaysia is: "Malay and other indigenous" 58%, Chinese 24%, Indian 8%, others 10%. In the breakaway city-state of Singapore, statistics are Chinese 76.7%, Malay 14%, Indian 7.9%, other 1.4%. Perhaps some deluded tranzi EUrocrat will call into question why Singapore needs to be a separate state at all ;-)

Lost in Translation

Newsweek has an article on the difficulties of the FBI with its translation unit.

The clash of civilizations rages in some surprising places, and one of them is the large room in the FBI’s Washington, D.C., Field Office that houses a unit known as CI-19. In one set of cubicles sit the foreign-born Muslims; across a partition is everyone else.

They have the same vital job: to translate supersecret wiretaps of suspected terrorists and spies. But the 150 or so members of CI-19 (for Counterintelligence) segregate themselves by ethnicity and religion. Some of the U.S.-born translators have accused their Middle Eastern-born counterparts of making disparaging or unpatriotic remarks, or of making “mistranslations”—failing to translate comments that might reflect poorly on their fellow Muslims, such as references to sexual deviancy. The tensions erupt in arguments and angry finger-pointing from time to time. “It’s a good thing the translators are not allowed to carry guns,” says Sibel Edmonds, a Farsi translator who formerly worked in the unit.

Go read the whole thing.

Another reason why I love LGF

In a post discussing the idiotic anti-American drivel spouted to The Daily WankerThe Guardian by singer Rickie Lee Jones (who had her 15 minutes of fame two decades ago with "Chuck E.'s in Love"), Charles Johnson recounts his musical experience with her:

Full disclosure: years ago, I auditioned, along with several other well-known LA session musicians, for one of Rickie Lee Jones's early tours. It was a terrific band; Vinnie Colaiuta on drums, Neil Stubenhaus on bass, Bill Myers on keyboards, and me on guitar.

And Rickie Lee [Jones] was a total mess. She put sheet music for her songs in front of us, then started playing completely different music and expected us to read her alleged mind. When she did play a song for which we had music, she would immediately depart from the chart, playing verses and choruses out of order and changing the chords.

The audition was a disaster, and she blamed us for it, got very nasty, and ended up pouting and sulking after yelling at us that we were trying to wreck her career. It was an extremely unpleasant experience.

We didn't get the gig, and I was relieved; working with someone like that as a sideman is one of the worst things about the music business, no matter how well they pay. They will make you miserable beyond your worst nightmares.

And it looks like she hasn't changed a bit, except now she's gone political. Aren't we fortunate to have her insights? (Not.)

Only when prompted by commenters, does Charles Johnson reveal three albums he himself played on (all of which went gold): "Reach For It" by George Duke, "School Days" by Stanley Clarke, and "Live in London" by Al Jarreau. Holy effing scat! (For those unfamiliar with jazz: that's three of the greatest jazz musicians alive.)

And yup: Charles' session experience with RLJ rings a familiar "chord" in our household. (I shall say no more.) As for me: I'm off to a CD store at the first opportunity...

What's sauce for the goose..

Turning the tables on the supporters of the Munich Geneva Initiative, a banker retired in Switzerland writes a extremely sarcastic op-ed on how the "enlightened international community" should "save Switzerland from itself" and force it to join the French Ponzi schemeEuropean Union.

In pursuit of peace for Israel and the Palestinians, [Switzerland] circumvented Israel's elected government on an important national issue. Such kindness should not go unpaid. Switzerland, too, has political problems that could benefit from Israel's unsolicited intervention.

Switzerland must join the European Union. Though 80 percent of Swiss voted against a referendum to join the EU, Israel should not be deterred from doing what is best for Switzerland.
Current Swiss-EU bilateral agreements should be considered unsatisfactory interim measures. Switzerland belongs in the EU. Just look at the map.

Israel could initiate negotiations between Brussels and representatives of the pro-EU minority in the canton of Geneva. This canton rejected the EU referendum by 58%. If the negotiations are successful, the canton of Geneva and perhaps the rest of Switzerland will follow.

Independence, neutrality, and banking secrecy are important to the Swiss. The Israeli government should certainly take that into account when it encourages the pro-EU minority to concede all of these points in negotiations with Brussels.

Geneva is the world capital of private banking. In the context of the developing world, private banking is often a euphemism for tax evasion and stashing bribes abroad, both of which contribute to injustice and misery in those countries.

Since "injustice and misery are the principal causes of terrorism," according to the Socialist Party of Switzerland, Israel and the rest of the world have a clear interest in forcing these concessions from the Swiss.

SWITZERLAND is also on the verge of losing its standing as a democracy. One democratic axiom is the possibility of changing governments in response to the will of the people. Switzerland is about to fail this test.

The Swiss government is comprised of seven ministers chosen by the federal parliament. The political composition, however, was fixed in 1959 and is known as "the magic formula."

The three major parties – the Radical Democrats, the Christian Democrats and the Socialists – each receive two ministries, while the far-right Swiss People's Party (SVP) receives one.

In the federal elections of 1996, the SVP came in fourth place with 14.9% of the popular vote. In 1999, though, the SVP out-polled the other three parties with 22.6% popular support. Their demand for a second ministry at the expense of the Christian Democrats (15.6%) was rejected.

Projections – as we go to press – for the October 19 ballot show the SVP increasing its support to 26%, followed by the Socialists (22%), the Radical Democrats (20%) and the Christian Democrats (15%). [Meanwhile that actually happened. - Ed.] Will the "magic formula" be imposed again, giving the SVP half the ministries of the Christian Democrats despite getting nearly twice the votes?

Without endorsing the SVP's sometimes racist politics, the Israeli government ought not wait for an invitation to share its expertise on coalition governments that represent the will of the people.

With Israeli assistance, Switzerland might be able to retain its place in the community of democracies. Swiss politics is too important to be left to Swiss politicians. Political intervention, invited or not, is a moral duty.

Yeah, what's sauce for the goose (Israel) is sauce for the gander (Switzerland)...

Healing Iraq

Healing Iraq is a brand-new weblog by a young Iraqi dentist, on life in post-Saddam Iraq.