And the quote of the day...

"The person who does not become irate when he has cause to be sins. For an unreasonable patience is the hotbed of many vices. It fosters negligence, and stimulates not only the wicked, but above all, the good to do wrong."

--St. John Chrysostom
c. 347-407 AD

(via)

The lesson for today

... comes to us from 13th Spitfire:

Socialism

An economics professor at a local college made a statement that he had never failed a single student before, but had recently failed an entire class. That class had insisted that Obama's socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer.

The professor then said, "OK, we will have an experiment in this class on Obama's plan". All grades will be averaged and everyone will receive the same grade so no one will fail and no one will receive an A.... (substituting grades for dollars - something closer to home and more readily understood by all).

After the first test, the grades were averaged and everyone got a B. The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy. As the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too so they studied little..

The second test average was a D! No one was happy. When the 3rd test rolled around, the average was an F. As the tests proceeded, the scores never increased as bickering, blame and name-calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else. To their great surprise, ALL FAILED and the professor told them that socialism would also ultimately fail because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great, but when government takes all the reward away, no one will try or want to succeed. It could not be any simpler than that.

Remember, there IS a test coming up. The 2012 elections.

These are possibly the 5 best sentences you'll ever read and all applicable to this experiment:

1. You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity.
2. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving.
3. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else.
4. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it!
5. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that is the beginning of the end of any nation.

Here endeth the lesson...

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If not, why not?

The news in NL: EU reaches 'historic' budgetary pact: De Jager

What our MSM is not telling us: RED ALERT: EU Finance Ministers Push Through ESM Treaty in Fishy Fly-by-Night Move.

Europe's most important treaty on the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), which will lead the EU into a financial dictatorship, has been pushed through by EU finance ministers late Monday evening.
But the latest version of the ESM cannot be found on English and German EU websites. A link on consilium EU only leads to a 'file not found' message and the German EU website "Europa von A - Z" does not mention the ESM at all. (...)

It is all the more troubling that last night's agreement changes have not been communicated by the EU at all. It reminds one of the ACTA act that was signed in a non-public meeting of the Agriculture and Fishing Commission and is designed to destroy the freedom on the internet.

See also this here. So that is what Jan-Kees and the entire Rutte cabinet mean by 'historic deal': selling out all of us to a cabal of Goldmann-Sachs types with full immunity. To Hitler and Stalin, but with option packages and mega-bonuses. And these people are suprised we hate their guts to the point of gladly wanting to see them swinging from lamp posts and bridge overhangs.

Elsewhere, the ECB is threatening Ireland with a bomb going off in Dublin, should the Emerald Isle think of defaulting on debt. Oh, and Germany will start with abolishing cash transaction as of this summer. As per EUnion directives. Because cash is (too) anonymous.

Are you scared yet? If not, why not? This is a financial dictatorship in the making.

On the other hand, as to the ESM deal, confusion reigns supreme.

As yet we don’t have any official confirmation. But it’s clear from the Finnish media that their Finance Minister insisted on (and got) 85% consensus for any and all dispensing of bailout money. The lady concerned – social democrat Jutta Urpilainen – is clearly somebody who could teach Camerlot a thing or two about (a) paying attention and then (b) sticking around to bully the bullies.

But there remains enormous confusion about the size of this ESM. While writing this, I have had breaking input from The Slog’s Bankfurt Mole that – as he feared – Merkel is ready to compromise on the size of the fund – the Spiegel piece also confirms this. But Mario Monti wants a $750bn fund “at least”, Christine Lagarde and Mario Draghi want a $1 trillion fund, and the markets (along with the Americans) would like one 2.4 times the size. There’s a twist in the tail, too: raising the capital of the ESM will also require the 85% consensus upon which Finland has insisted. Won’t that be fun.

Much of this list-wishing, however, remains a fantasy: Eurozone countries are required to provide a total of €80bn in cash capital to the new ESM, but as six of them are broke, in practice very few will partake to any great extent: Berlin admits that its minimum contribution will be around €22bn. There will be a deal of argie-bargie in the Bundestag when CDU senior players realise that, in reality, Germany will have to cough up rather more than that.

So maybe these panic stricken flights into full dictatorship will be thwarted by events (like hedgies opting for a 'credit event', not a debt swap deal, in Greece). But we should take note of the eagerness with which these easily frightened little men and women are willing to sell out our God-given freedoms and the future of our children, so as to have the party, started after WW2, last just a few days longer, a couple of bonuses more. And we should remember their names and faces for when the time has arrived for the Reckoning.

Fjordman File updates: After Fjordman

[18 - 1] On Gates of Vienna: Is the Mass Murderer Anders Behring Breivik Insane? Part 1 - The Nordic Mohammed.

[O]ne could say that Islam is a creed stating that those who urinate like Mohammed should wage war against the rest of mankind until they, too, urinate like Mohammed.

Theologically speaking, what I write here is exaggerated, but not incorrect. Muslims are expected to emulate all aspects of Mohammed’s personal example or Sunna, including bathroom etiquette, and spread these manners to the rest of planet by any means necessary.

Based on these examples, one could be tempted to conclude that Anders Behring Breivik, with his extreme narcissism and desire for others to emulate his perfect personal example, represents a Nordic Mohammed.

[15 - 1] On Tundra Tabloids: Fjordman interview: Europe is the sick man of the world.

While Muslims and other outsiders are now infiltrating Western societies, it is unlikely whether they would have been able to do so without exploiting the internal decay and decline of the West itself. I sometimes fear that we are stuck in a form of ideological civil war within the Western world between Westerners and post-Westerners, between those who still hold emotional and practical loyalty to traditional European cultures and nations and those who want to dismantle European nations through promoting open borders and mass immigration.

[ 1 - 1] On Europe News: Medieval Law - Germanic and Islamic Practices.

When it comes to practices such as forced marriages and honor killings, it is hard to escape the conclusion that we are ultimately dealing with fundamental differences in civilizational level. Some repressive cultural practices and mentalities encountered in Western immigrant ghettos today were unthinkable in Europe even a thousand years ago.

More Fjordman Files here.

Whom the Gods wish to destroy...

... they first make mad.

From Zerohedge: $10 TRILLION Liquidity Injection Coming? Credit Suisse Hunkers Down Ahead Of The European Endgame

[B]oth S&P and now Fitch expect Greece to default on March 20 (just to have the event somewhat "priced in"). Which means that in an attempt to front-run the unprecedented liquidity scramble that will certainly result as nobody has any idea what would happen should Greece default in an orderly fashion, let alone disorderly, the only buffer is having cash. Lots of it. A shock and awe liquidity firewall that will leave everyone stunned. How much. According to Credit Suisse the new LTRO number could be up to a gargantuan, and unprecedented, €10 TRILLION!

And this is going to save the euro as a credible currency how, exactly?

Nearing the end

Holland keeps it AAA rating. Yay for us!

The bad news: There's only four of us left: the Netherlands, Germany, Finland and Luxembourg. Even more bad news: This may costs us sad little Lowlanders a bit more then was anticipated.

There are, however, broader implications. France is one of the major contributors to the European Financial Stability Facility (ESFS) and if as a result of its downgrading this fund also takes a hit, its lending power will be substantially cut.

The EFSF's €780 billion lending capacity, says Reuters is based on guarantees from eurozone governments. Even with six of the 17 contributor governments AAA-rated, all member states still had to provide over-guarantees to ensure that the fund remained AAA rated.

But, with only four holding on to their triple-A status, the overall impact will be to suck power from the EFSF and make it that much harder to scale up the resources that are already committed to the facility – and the borrowing more expensive.

In the mean time Greece is facing another major crisis. Remember that 'voluntary' 50% haircut that holders of Greek bonds would take? A handful of hedge funds, having amassed a big chunk of Greek debt at bargain prices, is not playing ball.

These last days saw negotiations on Greece’s debt restructuring break down as the hedge funds walked out. The Slog has the news and relevant links to explain the situation. Apparently they are holding out for a coercive Greek default. This would trigger a 'credit event', which means that the debt insurance (credit default swaps) these hedgies hold would have to be paid out. K-ching for the hedgies, the end of the eurozone (at the very least: in its present form) for us, banking crisis for France, renewed debt crises for Italy and Spain and all manner of other economic trouble. As The Slog asks:

How on earth did we get to the stage where half a dozen MoUs have this much power? Where were the watchdogs to ensure that Hedge Funds couldn’t manoeuvre themselves into profiting from madness? When will the blind, neocon globalists finally face facts, and see that the system not only stinks – it’s nihilistically destructive?

And if you're asking why all this doesnt lead to a EUnion break up, why the Merkozy have not kicked Greece out a year ago, the Slog has an answer to that as well: The Merkozy need the EUnion to pay for Germany's and France's insane state pension obligations.

State-funded pension obligations in France and Germany are three times the gdp of those two countries. Together they total 13.9 trillion euros, VERY NEARLY HALF of the pension bills of the 19 nation States studied.

As the Slog notes, maybe here we have, revealed in its full, awful, decaying obscenity, the truth about why the EU cannot be allowed to end, and why its founders would rather eat glass shards than give up on it: for in its current existence, the European Union is a cash-cow based on honouring debt so that Franco-German pensions can continue to be meaningful. Welch on the debts, and the entire construct of a whole continent’s retirement plan ceases to be. But nearly half of that plan involves the inflated retirement expectations of just two countries.

There is a house of cards. Cards with a blue back, with yellow stars on it. And it is falling. I think the applicable term is: creative destruction.

Submission, not acceptance

Ann Barnhardt highlights the single defining feature of islam in stark terms. In terms I hadn't even thought about (consciously) even as I read comments by hard-core muslims:

Many of you put signature footers at the bottom of your emails. I would recommend putting this Osama Bin Laden quote on your emails, on your websites, where ever. Post this quote on ANY thread that a RonPaulbot tries to hijack. Because at the end of the day, this quote from Bin Laden himself is the absolute simple quintessence of the totalitarian political system that is islam. Here it is:

"Our talks with the infidel West and our conflict with them ultimately revolve around one issue—one that demands our total support, with power and determination, with one voice—and it is: Does Islam, or does it not, force people by the power of the sword to submit to its authority corporeally if not spiritually? Yes. There are only three choices in Islam: [1] either willing submission [conversion]; or [2] payment of the jizya, through physical, though not spiritual, submission to the authority of Islam; or [3] the sword — for it is not right to let him [an infidel] live. The matter is summed up for every person alive: Either submit, or live under the suzerainty of Islam, or die."
--Osama Bin Laden
(The Al Qaeda Reader, p. 42)

(...) "Suzerainty" is a French-origin word ("suzerain") that means "overlordship". Google it and look it up for yourself. Bin Laden uses exactly the right word in this context.

Please note that Bin Laden confirms my premise that islam is NOT a religion, but a completely earthly totalitarian political system:

"force people by the power of the sword to submit to its authority corporeally if not spiritually"

"payment of the jizya, through physical, though not spiritual, submission to the authority of Islam"

Thank you. Musloids do not give a flying flip if you actually believe any of their pseudo-religious crap. Hell, only the inbred mentally retarded ones actually believe any of that nonsense themselves. Why don't they care if you actually believe any of it? Why are they satisfied with mere physical submission without any spiritual "submission"? Why are they satisfied with "infidels" merely paying a tax (jizya)?

BECAUSE IT ISN'T A RELIGION AT ALL. Islam isn't about "allah" or "paradise" or "prayer" or "spirituality" or how human beings should relate to one another or how human beings should relate to a "god" or the eternal fate of the human soul. THEY DON'T CARE ABOUT ANY OF THAT. Islam is about acquiring physical, earthly territory and installing a totalitarian government over the earth that provides a cadre of "elites" masquerading as some sort of "clergy" with massive decadent wealth and as much twisted perverted sex as they want, including homosexual and heterosexual pedohilia, ephebophilia, concubinage, incest, bestiality and necrophilia. There is nothing new under the sun. They want power, they want money and they want sex. The "religious" aspects are a stone-cold con, which Bin Laden himself declared in no uncertain terms.

There is a sublime clarity in simplicity. Forget the 'religion of peace' happy crap insisted on by the flower children. At its core this is what islam is about: Subjugation or death.

Yes, I believe that most muslims (probably) mean well and just want to get on with their lives. But ideas matter, ideologies shape actions. There is very little redeeming about a world view that at its heart is based on submission to its ability for terror and murder, rather then acceptance of its truth.

[Instant Update] And to the German authorities: Hallo Leute!

100%

In the Netherlands the current economic crisis is most acutely felt by those trying to sell their house: Nobody's buying. This is not a huge surprise, given the governments measures to curb mortgage lending (no more mortgages of 120% of the value of the house) and unclarity about the future of tax deductibility of mortgage interest.

But there's another reason, one that is left unspoken by all, but which all know to be true: Houses aren't worth the prices asked for.

In recent years the OECD published a report stating that house prices in the Netherlands were overvalued by 20%. When I read that, I was convinced this was a underestimation. That conviction is now corroborated by a report by William Xu-Doeve: The Overvalued Housing Market in the Netherlands: A Conspiracy of Silence (pdf).

The report concludes that the housing market for owner-occupiers in the Netherlands is overvalued by around 100%. House prices are twice as much as is sustainable in the long term. In addition, mortgage related household debt is already in excess of 100% GNP and easily exceeds Mediterranean sovereign debt levels. And it is still increasing.

The cause of this aberration is firmly put on the doorstep of government. Government interference in the housing market since the late 1980's have destabilized the market, causing prices to spike. The current crisis has seen house-prices drop a little (the report puts it at 5% year on year). But there is no sign yet of a downward price-correction of around 50%, something the author thinks necessary to bring housing market prices back in line with long-term sustainable levels.

However, such a price correction, whether in the form of an uncontrolled crash or a long down-ward slide, will prove to be destructive for the economy, the financial sector and for Dutch society.

Isn't that just lovely news on a Sunday morning?

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No justice at all

In the Netherlands this week there has been a small uproar (NL) about a community service sentence handed to a defendant accused of punching a cop in the face six times:

The sentenced young man, Bilal el B., was stopped by an officer two weeks ago, because he tried to run upon seeing the police car. El B. was acting belligerent, according to the officer.

The young man punched the police officer with a fist in the face six times. The officer had swellings and a contusion on his lip. Despite the injuries the judge did not think proven that El B. deliberately wanted to cause the officer grave bodily harm.

He was sentenced to 20 hours community service and a 200 euro fine. The Public Prosecutors office had requested a sentence of 30 hour community service. A spokesperson stated that this is 'according to guidelines'.

I am not even going to point out the boringly predictable nature of the name of the defendant. Moroccan scum is as Moroccan scum does. No, the centre point in this is the complete betrayal by the judge, in cooperation with the prosecutors office, of our police force and what normal citizens consider decent society.

My personal preference, of course, would be to have this facsimile of human life thrown from a plane cruising at 12,000 feet over the North Sea, protestations from Greenpeace about gross pollution be damned. But I realize this may not be to the taste of the average citizen. As the poet said (NL): Between dream and deed laws stand in the way, and practical objections.

However, behaviour such as displayed by Bilal el B. should instantly disqualify any perpetrator from the rights and duties of decent citizens. And in the case of Bilal el B. and those like him: from Dutch citizenship. And I would include the parents of this creature, for gross dereliction of parental duties.

But what of the court and the office of prosecution? What on earth possessed them to give off this signal that it is okay to punch a cop in the face, repeatedly, if you're from a certain ethnicity? The prosecutors office stated it had merely followed guidelines. Whose guidelines? Who drew them up? Are these persons still in office? Why? Why are they not on that plane cruising at 12,000 feet over the North sea (Yes, I am a bit miffed, as you can tell)?

During New Years Eve a 38 year old male threatened and insulted an officer. For this he received 100 hours community service and a suspended jail term of two weeks. For threats and insults. Yet this pond scum, punching an officer, not once, but six times in the face, with a closed fist, receives only 20 hours community service and a 200 euro fine. Probably because he's from a 'vulnerable' background.

Sharia law: It is not as much of a crime when a muslim maltreats an infidel, then when it is an infidel doing the same.

For the moment I am working under the hypothesis that the sharia-compliance of the courts ruling was not intentional. But it can have nothing but bad consequences for the immediate future. Citizens will lose even more trust in the Dutch justice system. Cops will be hesitant to act, because they know the justice system will NOT back them up or protect them. Moroccan lowlife scum will feel vindicated by the court and prosecutors office and will know they are above the law, that they trump the police entering 'their' area.

Rather belatedly the prosecutors office today said that in hindsight the requested sentence was too low (NL).

Our request was according to guidelines, but we may have underestimated the impact upon society. That is why we maybe should have requested more.

What kind of justice is it that ignores the very basics of justice, but seeks to impose sentences based upon 'societal impact'? Not the fact that the sense of justice of many was so blatantly offended should be guiding principle here. What should be leading is the integrity of Dutch society. Law and justice are tools with which we maintain a decent society. And we hire persons to serve as police officers to enforce the law and thus protect society. Hence, you do not resist arrest, you certainly do not physically abuse the cop arresting you. And as a prosecutor (and a court judge) you should first and foremost signal that both prosecutor and court will back the police, as the guardians of decent society, when the situation demands such.

Justice, real justice, is the supreme imperative here. That is how we maintain as decent a society as we can.

Doing justice comes first. Not guidelines, not societal impacts. These are circumstantial, secondary or even tertiary considerations at best. If these, however, take precedent over doing justice, then we have no justice in this country. All we have is sentencing by formula. A formula, moreover, that grossly favours some over others. Justice this most certainly is not.

The prosecutors office and the court have disgraced themselves beyond redemption in this episode. But not only themselves. They have disgraced Dutch society and the sense of justice of all. They have caused harm, maybe irreparably, to the trust of ordinary citizens in the justice system. And they have humiliated us, all of us, before those that refuse to abide by our laws and rules.

It is a disgrace of frighteningly damaging proportions that prosecutor and court colluded in this travesty. And I am not adding '... of justice' here, because this episode clearly shows that justice is something we do not have in this country. We have a multi-cultural nightmare (NL) of ad-hoc rulings by 'judges' who sympathize with the ones they are sworn to adjudicate. We have shady guidelines that, for whatever reason, are aimed at shielding Moroccan scum from the full force of the law, from the rule of law. We have public prosecutors whose perspective on their chosen profession does not exceed that of a municipal civil service middling, blindly following the 'guidelines', irrespective of circumstances. But justice? We have no justice at all.

[UPDATE001] Speaking of sentencing by formula: It's even worse then I thought. Apparently both the sentencing request and the sentence itself rolled out of a computer program used by the judiciary (NL):

The guidelines! Right. That is the issue here. Hallebeek [spokesperson for the prosecutor] refers to the BOS/Polaris-guidelines. The Polaris-guidelines judge crimes through an actual arithmetical sum. For each 'base offence' a fixed number of 'penalty points' is awarded. Stealing a bicycle gets you 10 points, breaking into somebody's home 60 points and stealing a car 20 points. Next the computer program BOS converts the number of penalty points to a sentencing request. Each point represents 29 euros in fines. So, if you steal a bike that means, doing the math..., nah, never mind, the computer does it for us, lessee... Yes, that'll be a fine of 290 euros! No human involvement necessary.

You can even download the program and play around with. Although I do think that a program, representing the sum total of penal law in the Netherlands, that is contained in a zip-file weighing in at a lousy 9 Mb (yes, that's megabytes, not gigabytes) is a tad disappointing.

One from each member state

Dr. Richard North expressing a sentiment with which yours truly wholly agrees.

The biggest dollop of BS, though, comes from Italy's Giorgio Napolitano, who tells his audience that, "Sacrifices are necessary to ensure the future of young people, it's our objective and a commitment we cannot avoid".

I do love these fully paid-up members of the political classes, collectively responsible for creating the mess of a lifetime then telling us that, in order to clean it up, "sacrifices are necessary" – while they are themselves living in the lap of luxury.

It seems to me that sacrifices are indeed necessary, but of a kind more familiar to the Aztecs. But forget the virgins … senior politicians sound a much better idea. There should be no limit to the number of sacrifices made here. One from each of the member states would do for a start.

And with that, methinks, the tone for the new year is firmly set.

Gelukkig Nieuwjaar

To all who've graced us with their visits, reads and comments: Happy New Year and a safe and blessed 2012. Hope to see you all again in the coming year.

Nekschot quits

Gregorius Nekschot is no more.

The cartoonist working under the infamous pseudonym revealed to De Volkskrant (NL) he will stop publishing cartoons. The website will go off line on January 1st, 2012.

According to the cartoonist arriving at the decision to stop was a gradual process. His web shop is losing money and he receives too little commissions to keep the website going. On top of that his publisher didn't see any profitability in publishing a new book.

Gregorius Nekschot is, of course, known world-wide for the quite scandalous decision by then-minister of Justice, Ernst Hirsch-Ballin, to arrest the cartoonist over eight 'illegal' cartoons (the 'Nekschot Eight' can be viewed here in a report by Ferdy of the arrest).

In the Volkskrant interview Nekschot describes himself as 'change' in the Fitna affair.

Nekschot calls Hirsch-Ballin a religious nut, who views his faith as the measure of all things. Combating Wilders was an obsession to the CDA politician, in the wake of which he aimed for Gregorius Nekschot, who ridiculed religion. Nekschot sees himself as change in the Fitna affair; Should the government be unsuccessful to stop Fitna, they could always fall back on Nekschot and his cartoons.

And that is what happened. His arrest was shelved, as it were, in case of need. that is why it took three years before they lifted him of his bed.

You should always be conscious of the fact that you may be a pawn in a larger game, he says softly.

It isn't all sadness, according to Nekschot. All in all he says he's thankful he escaped unharmed. Something which cannot be said about his Danish colleague Kurt Westergaard. He can be himself again, without the need for secrecy in his personal life. He will not have to be afraid for his identity coming out and being targeted any more. It is the end of fear.

But therein does lie the tragedy of the Netherlands in this, the 21st century: Theo van Gogh was murdered, Geert Wilders was prosecuted, Nekschot arrested, interrogated for thirty hours (for 8 cartoons, FFS!) and now he's quit. It is safe to say that ridiculing islam and its band of backward, loud-mouth followers is about over in the Netherlands.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas is upon us, which means that we at KV will be away and posting will be light. Even more so, as the KV household has been extended two night ago with an heir apparent to KV manor (which, incidentally, is also my excuse for the radio-silence these past few days). Time away from the blogs, therefore, and a time to focus the mind on the positive aspects of life: Family, friends and faith. Mostly family this year, as one should given the circumstances.

This year we'll leave you with a piece that is one of the all-time favourites of yours truly : Jesus' blood never failed me. It is not a Christmas song per sé, but for some reason it captures some aspects of the season in a combination I've never heard in other songs.

For starters it is minimal music at its very best. Every repetition in the song adds another beautiful layer, a little more atmosphere. Then there is the contrast between the singing of that homeless man, known only to Our Father, and the singing of a successful, but hard-living singer like Tom Waits. It adds a 'there but for the grace of God' feel to the music. Towards the end only Mr. Waits remains, while (to my mind) the voice of the homeless guy disappears into eternity, peace at last.

The association with Christmas is of course due also to the fact that this piece was a minor hit during the season of '93. This single got to number 8 in the Dutch pop charts of that year.

And thus, a peculiar combination of circumstances, subject matter and musical mastery have created a Christmas jewel that is alas not nearly as known as it deserves to be. Here's hoping this will post will help, even if just a little.

And so, as we at KV manor are coming to terms with an all new rhythm of life, we bid you all very good holidays, and hope you will spend them with the food, drink, activities and company you enjoy best. On behalf of Ferdy and the KV family: A Very Merry Christmas and a Blessed New Year.

A nation hitting rock bottom

Presented without further comment: Television cannibalism stunt goes global.

Newspapers and broadcasters from around the world have picked up on a Dutch television stunt in which two presenters claim to eat a small piece of each other's flesh.

The show, due to be aired on Wednesday, features Dennis Storm and Valerio Zeno from youth channel BNN, allegedly eating a small portion of human meat on the show Proefkonijnen (guinea pigs).

One trailer for the programme shows a surgeon appearing to remove a small piece of flesh from the buttock of one presenter while the other people present joke about putting a photograph on microblogging service Twitter. Another trailer shows small pieces of meat being fried in oil.

Cannibalism
Britain's Telegraph newspaper says the show has 'caused a cannibalism storm'.
And Sky Television says 'a lawyer advised the show's producers that while cannibalism is not itself against the law, the presenters or the surgeon who operated on them could face legal difficulties.'
America's ABC news said the stunt is 'the most disgusting' story of the day.

Hoax
In the Netherlands, opinion is divided about whether the presenters actually do eat human flesh or whether the trailer is a hoax.
In 2007, BNN staged a tv reality show which centred on people competing for a dying woman’s kidneys. That show turned out to be a hoax aimed at raising awareness for kidney patients.

QotD - In memory of Vaclav Havel

In all events, I am certain that our civilisation is heading for catastrophe unless present-day humankind comes to its senses. And it can only come to its senses if it grapples with its short-sightedness, its stupid conviction of its omniscience and its swollen pride, which have been so deeply anchored in its thinking and actions.

Vaclav Havel, quoted by His Grace (and do read the eulogy in full) on this, the day that Our Father called former president Havel home.

The world has lost a precious soul today.

A mouthful of Islam

And here I thought the Dutch Protestant Churches were in a bad way. From across the Small Pond, in the UK, His Grace reports on a Christmas service held at Royal Holloway College, in the University of London. The service was led by a Rev'd Cate Irvine, an Anglican vicar, and a Roman Catholic chaplain from the local church, Father Vladimir Nikiforov.

And what did the assembled festive throng hear? The prophecy of of Isaiah? 'For unto us a child is born...'? The Gospel of Luke? 'There went out a decree from Caesar Augustus...'? A reading from Micah, perhaps? 'But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall He come forth unto Me that is to be Ruler in Israel'?

No, none of the above. Instead, they got the Qur'an.

It is unbelievable. A Christmas service, celebrating the birth (or incarnation, if you wil) of Our Dear Father, uses the very text that completely denies the act of sacrifice that redeemed this world and all who are in it:

That they said in boast "We killed Christ Jesus the son of Mary the Apostle of Allah"; but they killed him not nor crucified him but so it was made to appear to them and those who differ therein are full of doubts with no (certain) knowledge but only conjecture to follow for of a surety they killed him not. (Qur'an 4:156-158)

As His Grace comments: Maybe they’re saving that for Easter.

Go and read the whole preposterous saga. It is a sad day when Christianity in the West stoops to this depth in its quest for tolerance and inclusivity. As His Grace entirely correctly observes: When you compromise on the intellectual, political, and imaginative foundations of Western culture, you create a spiritual vacuum which needs to be filled. The people cry out for meat, and all they can get is the milk of dumbed-down Anglicanism followed by a mouthful of Islam. Is it any wonder they turn away en masse in search for the one thing the church should, but doesn't, provide?

[INSTANT UPDATE] Don't miss suggestions for carols to be sung at the service, provided by Trencherbone:

Bang Bang Verily You Die
Bombing in a Winter Wasteland
Death to the World
Do They Know It's Jihad?
Frosty the Boobytrap
Hijacked Three Ships
I'm Dreaming of a Shi'ite Christmas
I Stoned Mommy for Kissing Santa Claus
Jingle Belts
Little Bomber Boy
No-go Town of Bethlehem
Oh Come all ye Fanatical
Oh TannenBOOM
Repulsive Jews Below
Slay Ride
While Shepherds Screwed Their Flocks
Wreck the Halls

...and of course, that all time favorite: Violent Night

Thanks to DP111 for pointing that out. Made me laugh.