Going Danish: Reactions

The reactions on from the other side of Second Chamber are in. Elsevier puts it succinctly: From the sidelines left-wing parties look on in frustration (NL). D66, PvdA, GroenLinks and SP have requested an extra session of Second Chamber for Tuesday, after the informateur, Ruud Lubbers has briefed all fractions not in the talks of this weeks. Reporting in EN via DutchNews.nl. (minor update: Elsevier reports parliament will be back for a special session on Wednesday next week)

PvdA leader Job Cohen is whining (NL) that Lubbers should not be looking at the options for a minority cabinet, since such options were not in the assignment Ruud Lubbers received from the Queen.

Cohen is demanding that first all possible majority cabinets be explored, before negotiations for the minority VVD-CDA cabinet are opened. Which is a bit rich, coming from the man who personally blocked exploration of the only other viable majority cabinet: The so-called 'centre cabinet' of VVD, CDA and PvdA. At the time Cohen refused to enter talks on the grounds that such a cabinet would involve two parties which lost seats in the general election.

Elsewhere fears are great Geert Wilders will have too much influence on a minority cabinet. Thus, we have Sharon Dijksma (PvdA)stating that 'Wilders will not be in the cabinet, but he will be the real prime minister', while Boris van der Ham (D66) thinks that 'Wilders has got Verhagen and Rutte on a lead'.

But the ultimate in sour grapes comes to us by THE political disappointment of the first decade of this century: Andre Rouvoet (CU): 'If Wilders' preference really is for a minority government, that would seem to me to be every reason not to do it'.

Taking all this in, you would have to conclude that the best summary of the left-wing reactions to the Danish variant is given by Coontje's Fotoneuk reproduced here on the right.

Holland's favourite Frenchmen Sylvain Ephimenco gauges the Lefts reactions and is a bit worried by what he finds:

Yesterday various sites placed a call to join the resistance. Some frightened bunnies started evaluating destinations for emigration. Others want to reclaim tax money. What isn't yet visible are surfers that have started visiting several sites where one is taught to put together home-made 'fireworks'. I am bloody serious. Tolerance to the extreme left is what praying five times a day on a little mat is for the PVV. The persistent demonisation of Crazy Geert with heavy WW2 accents has brought our world-ignorant fellow citizens closer to a paranoid delirium.

On the right reactions are understandably more enthusiastic. The colleagues from De Dagelijkse Standaard break out the champagne (NL) while promising to throw a party when the Danish cabinet (which they rather presumptuous call 'the DDS cabinet') is sworn in.

Continuing with the 'cry baby' motif, Michael van der Galien puts the reactions on the left to the frustration of the prospect of not being in power. All the angry, panicky reactions of the ladies and gentlemen politicians make clear they truly believe they have a patent on power, says Michael. They can't handle losing, because they convinced themselves that even in losing they must come out on top. If you think about it a little, it is really to sick for words, according to Michael: such arrogance is seldom seen outside of politics.

Whatever else, yesterdays news has shaken up quite a stir in the Netherlands. That's for sure.

[UPDATE001] Snouck shines his light on the situation here.

Breaking: The Dutch are going Danish

Time to bring out that cartoon again, methinks.

From DutchNews.nl: Formal talks to start on a minority CDA Liberal government.

The Netherlands is set to get its first post-war minority cabinet, if talks between the VVD, PVV and CDA are successful.

The three parties agreed on Friday to start discussions on forming a minority cabinet between the VVD and CDA which will rule with support from the anti-Islam PVV.

VVD leader Mark Rutte said on Friday evening that he, CDA leader Maxime Verhagen and Geert Wilders saw 'perspectives' for such as cabinet. The three leaders have been in exploratory talks all week.

Happy

Wilders told reporters he was 'extremely happy' with the move and that a minority right-wing cabinet will be 'fantastic' for the Netherlands.

He said he expects a tough stand on immigration and integration, more police on the streets and better care for the elderly in return for his support.

The parties have also agreed to cut government spending by €18bn, the Volkskrant quoted Wilders as saying.

Responsibility

Forming a minority government will allow the CDA to get round objections to ruling with the anti-Islam party, frees Wilders from the responsibility of having to find ministers and gives him free reign to continue his anti-Islam campaign.

It would also be beneficial to the Netherlands' reputation abroad not to have the PVV in government, the Volkskrant said earlier on Friday.

Together the three parties control 76 seats of the 150-seat lower house of parliament.

The agreement means Wilders will be involved in drawing up the coalition agreement and will sign it, but will not be part of the government.

Denmark

In Denmark, the far-right DPP has given its parliamentary support to a right-wing government for nine years and Wilders would do well to copy this, Danish MEP Morten Messerschmidt told the Volkskrant.

Wilders is often in Denmark and knows DPP leader Pia Kjaersgaard well.

'The cabinet cannot do a thing without our support. In return we get our way in the fight against Islam and in tightening up immigration and integration policy,' Messerschmidt told the paper.

And with that the 'Danish variant' is closer then ever. As we argued before: In the present conditions of the highly polarized Dutch political landscape this makes eminent sense. Undeserved or not, Wilders is at the present time much, much too controversial. He still has to convince a sizeable portion of the population he can be an effective leader.

If Wilders were to become PM, with the mood in the Netherlands being what it is these days, he would not be able to govern effectively, I think. The extreme-left, having convinced themselves (and a goodly portion of the Dutch populace) that Wilders is evil incarnate, would be galvanized into action. He'd be running hither and yon, putting out brushfires. Irrespective of his competence (and I personally do not doubt those) he would find the Netherlands rather ungovernable.

Be that as it may: The alternative that was contemplated earlier, when first explorations for a right-wing broke down, was far, far worse. Things are looking up.

[UPDATE001] GoV posted a translation of the official statement by the three participants in the negotiations here.

Not even an issue

The start of this week saw a minor scandal erupting in the UK over the UK coalition government opting in the European Investigation Order, new EUnion legislation that would grant foreign police forces the powers to prosecute and arrest Britons on British soil. From the Daily Mail: Now ministers hand over Big Brother powers to foreign officers.

Ministers are ready to hand sweeping Big Brother powers to EU states so they can spy on British citizens.

Foreign police will be able to travel to the UK and take part in the arrest of Britons.

They will be able to place them under surveillance, bug telephone conversations, monitor bank accounts and demand fingerprints, DNA or blood samples.

Anyone who refuses to comply with a formal request for co-operation by a foreign-based force is likely to be arrested by UK officers.

Richard North of EURef is concise: In Europe and ruled by Europe.

To all those happy, gullible little bunnies who were so convinced that "Call me Dave" was a eurosceptic, and just needed to be given a chance, there is only one word – schmuck. We could use other words, but that conveys the sentiment.

Our Dave never was a eurosceptic, is not now and never will be. A typical Tory, he runs with the hare and the hounds but, in the end, goes with the "colleagues" for an easy life. Voting Tory was never going to make the slightest bit of difference.

But at least the draconian measures imposed by the EUnion cause a bit of a stir over there in the UK.

This week Cameron argued that Turkey should become a full EUnion member as soon as possible. Now, take one (Turkey) and one (European Investigation Order) and see how that adds up. Or better yet, read Mary Ellen Synon, who touches on this very subject in a piece that otherwise professionally takes 'not-a-Tory' Cameron down a peg or two: Cameron goes native.

[T]he point of this blog is to note that if Turkey is allowed to join the EU, Turkish police and Turkish prosecutors will be free to come to Britain and investigate British men and women, demand information from the national DNA data base -- and remember how many innocent men and women and children in Britain now unwillingly have their DNA on the data base -- because Cameron and his Government have just agree to hand such powers to other EU states.

(emphasis mine - KV).

I'll say it again: For all the embarrassing rolling-over on the issue of the European Investigation Order, at least in the UK this positively scary bit of EUnion legislation is an issue noted by the UK MSM en public.

We're all in this monster together now, so the legislation leading to these absurdities in the UK is equally applicable in the Netherlands. You too could find yourself being investigated and arrested by Turkish or Bulgarian police in your own country. Your government will not be able (even if they are willing) to do anything to protect you.

Yet here in the Netherlands the sound of crickets is only disturbed by the light snoring from the Dutch MSM and sleepily smacking of lips by the general public. It is not even an issue here.

And it is big scandal that it isn't!

Wilders trial update: Resumes October 4th

The second session of the Wilders trial was back in February. Back then I wrote that the trial will resume somewhere between July 1st and October 31st, depending on the availability of the three witnesses Wilders was allowed.

Via Snouck we learn that a date for the resumption of the trial has been scheduled on October 4th. That is at least what the website of the Court of Amsterdam (NL) states. The hearings will start on the fourth of October, the courts verdict is expected on or before November 2.

The reason for the delay which is given is the fact that some of the witnesses Mr. Wilders called up would be unable to make it at an earlier date.

You are known by the friends you keep.

Today it emerged that in an interview with De Volkskrant (NL) the Afghan Taliban heartily thanked the PvdA (Labour) for the upcoming departure of Dutch troops form Uruzgan, the issue that tripped up the former Dutch cabinet. The radical Islamic terrorist organization says it hopes the PvdA will again become part of the Dutch government so that there will be a lasting friendly policy “toward Afghanistan”.

GoV have a translation up of the Elsevier reporting (NL), including this delicious snippet (emphasis mine - KV):

“We still remember well the day the Dutch government resigned,” says [Qari Yusuf Ahmadii, the spokesman for the Taliban in southern and western Afghanistan], who states that the Taliban keep a sharp eye on the international media over the Internet. The spokesman also promises that there will never be peace in Afghanistan as long as foreign troops are present in the country. “The resistance will only become stronger.”

All thanks to the PvdA...

The demise of science VII - Science turns authoritarian

On this blog we have a semi-regularly re-appearing feature under the heading 'The demise of science'. Mostly, the pieces under this heading lament the current trend to pervert hard science into a mushy, activist pseudo-science. This is most noticeable in 'climate science'.

But it occurs in other fields too. Just a couple of weeks ago we pointed out an article in the New York Times about how the insistent dietary advice given to us by food 'scientists' may be itself responsible for the so-called epidemic of obesity.

As a result, science in general has lost much of its hallowed glow in the public eye. Why this is so is explored in a brilliant piece in The American: Science Turns Authoritarian.

Our theory is that science is not losing its credibility because people no longer like or believe in the idea of scientific discovery, but because science has taken on an authoritarian tone, and has let itself be co-opted by pressure groups who want the government to force people to change their behavior.

Basically, their theory is that, while scientist used to phrase their findings in terms of 'We discovered such and such' (period) or 'we found this and that' (period), they increasingly seem to say 'we found such and such and such, and those findings say that you must change your life in this and that way'.

To test this hypothesis, the authors use the LexisNexis search engine, they tracked whether and how much the use of authoritative phrases ('science requires us', 'science tells us we should') has increased over time. Their results were simply stunning (see figure above). Starting their count in 1980, the noticed a sharp increase of authoritative phrases starting in the mid nineties. And (irony of ironies) the shape of the curve resembles... a hockeystick!

The tragedy in all this is of course that science itself is destroyed by this short-sighted abuse of scientific findings by activists as the ultimate appeal to authority to ram through highly particular (and usually not very freedom-advancing) agendas.

The American ends with a call to scientists who still belief their profession intrinsically worthwhile to rise up and be counted:

[S]cientists need to come out every time some politician says, “The science says we must…” and reply, “Science only tells us what is. It does not, and can never tell us what we should or must do.” If they say that often enough, and loudly enough, they might be able to reclaim the mantle of objectivity that they’ve given up over the last 40 years by letting themselves become the regulatory state’s ultimate appeal to authority.

Something yours truly can only heartily agree with.

About those Afghanistan WikiLeaks

I really don't care one way or another about the embarrassment the leaked 'Afghan Diaries' cause respective governments. Given the conspicuous lack of vigour in prosecuting the war, they deserve every bit of the embarrassment thrown their way.

But if this is true, publishing the Afghan Diaries on WikiLeaks is an unforgivably malignant and stupid act, by someone who needs to be taught a harsh lesson or two about integrity.

Times of London reporters “scanning the [Wikileaks] reports for just a couple hours found hundreds of Afghan names mentioned as aiding the U.S.-led war effort.”

One specific example cited by the paper is a report on an interview conducted by military officers of a potential Taliban defector. The militant is named, along with his father and the village in which they live.

The news came as Wikileaks founder Julian Assange expressed fears he could be arrested. The Telegraph says he “has been warned by ‘inside sources in the White House’ not to return to the US as he could be arrested.”

He’s had more warning than the individuals in Afghanistan who will more than likely be identified by al-Qaeda support cells in Western Europe or the Middle East who will pore through the Wikileaks documents. The names of the traitors to radical Islam will be duly transmitted to the avengers who will then go out severally into the night to on their missions of revenge.

A small price to pay for the opportunity to score some cheap political points, you'll all agree.

Really?

Said the UK prime-minister David Cameron (known on EURef and elsewhere as the 'cleggeron' Boy-King) today: Israeli blockade has turned Gaza Strip into a 'prison camp'.

Really? Are you sure?

Cameron has gone off his rockers. That much is clear.

[Instant Update] I like the come-back by Ephraim Sneh, the former Israeli deputy minister of defence, in the Guardian piece linked to above:

Cameron is right – Gaza is a prison camp, but those who control the prison are Hamas.

Pimping for Allah

Via Michael Ledeen, who does his bit to report on Irans long but slow slide into nation-state insanity, we get the news that the Iranian religious leadership has opened up vacancies for women and girls to prostitute themselves at the Imam Reza’s shrine in Mash’had.

It is not put in those stark terms. Rather, women and girls are asked to make themselves available for Mut'a (term-limited contract) marriages. Over on Planet Iran, you will find the entire original letter and translation. To give you a taste, here's a snippet:

In order to elevate the spiritual atmosphere, create proper psychological conditions and tranquility of mind, the Province of the Quds’eh-Razavi of Khorassan has created centers for temporary marriage (just next door to the shrine) for those brothers who are on pilgrimage to the shrine of our eighth Imam, Imam Reza, and who are far away from their spouses.

To that end, we call on all our sisters who are virgins, who are between the ages of 12 and 35 to cooperate with us. Each of our sisters who signs up will be bound by a two year contract with the province of the Quds’eh-Razavi of Khorassan and will be required to spend at least 25 days of each month temporarily married to those brothers who are on pilgrimage.

Which is followed by a list with rates according to the length of the contract, ending on a rather jarring note by promising virgin candidates a bonus of 100,000 Tomans ($100 US) for the removal of their hymen.


I'll leave it to the reader to list the numerous logical and theological contradictions and hypocrisies in this bit of religious absurdity. Whatever else one can say about, for instance, the Roman Catholic church, it never, ever came upon the idea of husbanding a class of prostitute nuns.

Occupied

German Deputy Finance Minister Steffen Kampeter, in an interview with Bloomberg, says the one thing we have been told time and time again the EUnion is NOT about:

Europe is much more than a “technical assembly,” Kampeter said in a Bloomberg Television interview in New York yesterday. “The biggest misperception is to understand Europe just as an economic project -- it’s a political project, like the United States.”

Ever since the Turnip. and teh hamfisted way it was shoved down our throat, we already suspected that the EUrocrats were saying one thing (no superstate), while working to some thing else (too a superstate).

But as Gawain notes, that is a pretty clear, direct, uncomplicated and above all honest statement by Herr Kampeter. That the EUrocrats now think nothing of admitting that this has been the goal all along, signals their strong belief that whatever else we, the citizens may be thinking or wanting, the EUnion superstate is a done deal.

So, apparently it is official: Holland is occupied territory. As are all the other territories of the former states that made up the membership of the EUnion.

You'd have to have a heart of stone

You know you presidency is a disaster when your allies are turning on you. In the Washington Journal today, Democrat Senator James Webb delivers a stinging indictment of the Age of Obama:

I have dedicated my political career to bringing fairness to America's economic system and to our work force, regardless of what people look like or where they may worship. Unfortunately, present-day diversity programs work against that notion, having expanded so far beyond their original purpose that they now favor anyone who does not happen to be white.

(emphasis mine - KV)

The Vodka Pundit wonders 'Why now? Why write this column today? What brought this particular issue out at this particular moment?', taking this latest column as a sign that Obama is not just losing his presidency, he is losing the entire Democrat party.

The candidate from 2008 who ran on the notion of returning us to Clinton-era surpluses has instead repudiated every policy and notion that made them possible.

Obama, they might rightly fear, is going to tarnish their party for a generation or more — and at the exact moment the Republican brand was so tarnished that the Democrats very recently were poised for a generation or more of national dominance.

And thus empty promises deliver their bitter fruits. You'd have to have a heart of stone not to snigger with a bit of righteous Schadenfreude.

The death of us

This is how we will lose everything that is our: Media in Lower Saxony pledge themselves to positive reporting on immigration (NL; original item in D here)

The new minister for Social and Integration Affairs of the [German] state of Lower Saxony Aygül Özkan, wants media to sign the ‘Mediacharter Integration’. In signing de Charter the media pledge to 'support integration in Lower Saxony'.

The minister wants media to pay more attention to progress in the area of integration, that the use language that is 'culturally sensitive', that they strengthen their inter-cultural competences [whatever the hell that means - KV] and that they initiate projects and supervise journalism in that respect. Özkan has gained the support of the managing editor of Bild-Zeitung, Kai Diekmann.

Earlier this year Özkan caused unrest with her call to ban crucifixes in class rooms.

The real scandal in this is not that we have a politico (with such a through-and-through German family name) calling for the MSM to fall in line. The real scandal is, of course, the media falling in line without even a protest. The MSM, once thought to be the citizens last defence against overreaching political force, is actively engaged in destroying the last bits of freedom we still have left. They will be the death of our freedom.

Another question

Right, so now that we've established that this shit is going on across the Big Pond: Do we have something similar going on at this side?

It wouldn't surprise me a bit. But we need some evidence.

Drifting into irrelevance

It has been a while since we devoted some attention to what is increasingly becoming an embarrassing absurdity: The UN. But thanks to The Independent (via EURef) we can right that: 'Deplorable and reprehensible' UN boss savaged by outgoing aide.

A 50-page memo was leaked to the Washington Post, written by Inga-Britt Ahlenius, a Swedish auditor who until last week served as the UN undersecretary general of the Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS), which is meant to keep the fight against internal fraud and corruption alive.

In the report she accuses Ban Ki-moon, the UN Secretary-General, of unwarranted and unethical interfering with the functioning of her office. And she doesn't mince words.

"Your actions are not only deplorable, but seriously reprehensible.... Your action is without precedent and in my opinion seriously embarrassing for yourself," Mrs Ahlenius, 72, wrote in an introduction to the 50-page memo, which was first obtained by The Washington Post. "I regret to say that the secretariat now is in a process of decay." She goes on: "Rather than supporting the internal oversight, which is the sign of strong leadership and good governance, you have strived to control it which is to undermine its position." Moreover, under Mr Ban, who was selected in 2008 and whose first term ends next year, the UN Secretariat is "drifting into irrelevance", she contends.

Among the accusations she makes are that the UN lacks transparency and accountability.

Rather than supporting the internal oversight which is the sign of strong leadership and good governance, you have strived to control it which is to undermine its position. I do not see any signs of reform in the organisation. (...)

Is there any improvement in general of our capacity to protect the civilians in conflict and distress? What relevance do we have in disarmament, in Myanmar, Darfur, Afghanistan, Cyprus, G20....? (...)

I am concerned that we are in a process of decline and reduced relevance of the organisation. In short - we seem to be seen less and less as a relevant partner in the resolution of world problems.

According to The Independent, the US government has taken note.

The leadership vacuum is certain to deepen concern in Washington that Mr Ban is precisely neglecting the area the US was so anxious for him to emphasise. That in turn could jeopardise his chances of re-selection when his term expires in December 2011.

The anxiety is already being expressed loudly by the US mission to the UN in New York. "The United States has consistently and aggressively pushed for a strong and independent OIOS to uncover fraud, waste and mismanagement at the UN, but we are disappointed with the recent performance of its investigations division," Patrick Ventrell, its spokesman, said earlier this month.

Yet another tranzi organisation that is not living up to the fine words uttered with regularity by the head honchos of same. So... Is this sheer incompetence, or have they been lying all along? That is a question that needs some serious contemplation.

And now for an announcement of general benefit

Blogging is mostly a pastime for yours truly. It does render a service that is of some value to others. Our small but loyal readership (around 5,000 each month) seems to prove that. But is it useful? Not in any direct, day-to-day-life kind if way, I don't think.

However, others are able to blog a post that is of direct significance to us, in this summertime. Mario Vittone is one such blogger. His post Drowning Doesn’t Look Like Drowning should be read by any parent and all who venture seaside in these hot, sunny days.

Whoever said blogging has no use?

(h/t/ Tim Worstall)

And there was much rejoicing

DutchNews.nl: 'Purple plus' coalition talks fail.

Talks on forming a coalition government between the two Liberal parties, Labour and the left-wing greens GroenLinks stranded on Tuesday evening on differences about how much to cut from government spending.

The four parties were in their third week of talks on forming a so-called purple plus cabinet, named after the combination of party colours.

VVD leader Mark Rutte said a very real effort had been made to bridge the differences between the parties but in the end the talks 'broke down down over the finances', NOS tv reported.

Cuts

The VVD wants to make cuts between now and 2015 of €18bn - a figure the party says is the bare minimum. Labour, D66 and GroenLinks say this was too much.

There are also sharp differences between them about reforming mortgage tax relief and introducing a tax on motoring.

The VVD is opposed to cuts in the mortgage tax break and road pricing. The other parties want mortgage reform and a kilometre tax.

Definitive

Rutte described the break as definitive. 'There will not be a purple cabinet,' he was quoted as saying.

The other parties were less final. 'I never say never,' Labour leader Job Cohen said.

'We knew before we started it would be difficult. Everyone did their very best,' the Telegraaf quoted him as saying.

D66 leader Alexander Pechtold and GroenLinks' Femke Halsema both said they were very disappointed with the outcome.

Three parties

Rutte will now advise the queen to look to forming a right centre left coalition between the VVD, Labour and Christian Democrats, Nos said. 'Given the circumstances, that is the most likely option,' he said.

The VVD took one more seat than Labour in the June general election, giving it the upper hand in the cabinet formation process.

But Labour leader Cohen opposes such a three-party groupimg because it involves two parties which lost support in the general election: Labour which lost three seats and the CDA which lost 20.

The two negotiators Uri Rosenthal and Jacques Wallage are expected to present their report on the negotiations to queen Beatrix on Wednesday afternoon.

Wilders

Immediately after the election, Rutte began talks on forming a right-wing government with the anti-Islam PVV.

But those talks failed because the CDA refused to join in until the Liberals and Wilders had agreed on controversial issues such as a headscarf tax, ethnic registration and a ban on Muslim immigration.

Wilders said on Tuesday evening that his party, the VVD and CDA should get down to talking immediately. 'Otherwise there should be new elections,' the Telegraaf quoted him as saying.

I haven't posted anything about the ongoing attempts to form a viable cabinet, given the results of the general elections June 9 last. I had planned to write something, if and when a new cabinet was formed. But I just wanted to share my sense of relief that this particular cabinet, sanctioned by our Queen I'm sad to say, is not going to happen.

Rutte has indicated he still wants to go for a 'cabinet of the middle' (VVD, CDA and PvdA), but after this I think the 'Danish variant' (a minority cabinet of VVD and CDA, with support from the PVV) becomes increasingly likely.

Be that as it may, today the Netherlands skirted the edge of the abyss, but managed not to fall in. This has been a good day.

A truly shameful act

Today De Dagelijkse Standaard came out with a stunning bit of news: Dutch government finances Ground Zero mosque (NL). No, this is not a joke, or a bit of sick satire. This is real.

Esther has the news in EN. Evidently, the Dutch government gave a grant of 1,000,000 euro to the American Society for Muslim Advancement (ASMA), the organisation headed by Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, that wants to erect the infamous Ground Zero Mosque.

You'd think that PvdA (Labour) Bert Koenders (p), then state-secretary for International Development Aid would do so quietly, but it is all out in the open. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs website announces the grant as part of the Dutch Millenium Development Goals. The project is nominally called 'Women’s Islamic Initiative in Spirituality and Equity (WISE) Compact Program.', of which the ministry happily declares:

WISE Compact will work with local and national women leaders and the organizations they work in. The programme aims to provide: a) a global infrastructure for shared work among Muslim women’s groups, organisations, institutions, and networks, b) religious context for Muslim women’s dialogue about, and advocacy for, their rights, c) an institutional voice for gender equality, and d) accessible knowledge about effective ways to promote the equitable ethic of Islam.

It assures us that the 1,000,000 is not thrown away on the most tasteless project in recent history, but that it will 'promote gender equality and empower women'. Because we all know islam is big on female equality and empowerment, don't we?

It is one thing to openly pander to what is now your main constituency as the PvdA: The muslim vote. However, it is another thing entirely to grant money to an organisation that wants to defile the site of the biggest crime in recent history with a religious building dedicated to the god in whose name that atrocity was perpetrated. It is utterly shameful. There is no other word for it...

[UPADTE001] More EN coverage by NIS News, including the fact that the PVV (and only the PVV) is taking the government to task over this scandalous absurdity.

Fatalism is no option; ‘Inch’ Allah’ is a curse; Submission is a disgrace

Geert Wilders describes his first encounter with a muslim society on Muslims Debate. Pm a back-packing vacation he encountered Egyptian hospitality, but was puzzled by the Egyptians fear, when President Mubarak came to visit, and the filth of Cairo.

From Sharm el-Sheikh, my friend and I went to Cairo. It was poor and incredibly dirty. My friend and I were amazed that such a poor and filthy place could be a neighbor of Israel, which was so clean. The explanation of the Arabs, with whom we discussed their poverty, was that they were not in any way to blame for this affliction: They said they were the victims of a global conspiracy of “imperialists” and “Zionists”, aimed at keeping Muslims poor and subservient. I found that explanation unconvincing. My instinct told me it had something to do with the different cultures of Israel and Egypt.

He ends his interview, making clear what the great distinction is between being anti-islam and being anti-muslim.

As a Dutch, a European and a Western politician, my responsibility is primarily to the Dutch people, to the Europeans and the West. However, since the liberation of the Muslims from Islam, will benefit all of us, I wholeheartedly support Muslims who love freedom. My message to them is clear: “Fatalism is no option; ‘Inch’ Allah’ is a curse; Submission is a disgrace.

Free yourselves. It is up to you.

Can't argue with that, can you? Anyway, read it all...

Your reads for today

A long, rather hefty, but worthwhile article in the American Spectator. The author is Angelo M. Codevilla, a professor emeritus of international relations at Boston University: America's Ruling Class -- And the Perils of Revolution

It is written according to the American situation, but a lot of it will be recognizable to a European audience. Hence, the piece has one or two things to say about our EUrocrat overlords (and national politicians that conspire with them). It all puts the maxim 'it is not what you know, but who you know' in a rather ghastly light.

But all may not be so bad. On Pajamas Ed Driscoll describes the ideological basis of the lite, progressivism, as an old, decrepit set of ideas, who's time has come and gone.

All of which is a roundabout way of saying that progressivism is a surprisingly old, and increasingly frayed philosophy, as the reality and technology of the present day continues to move away from its century-old roots. One of the writers on Saturday Night Live was once quoted as saying, you can only be avant-garde for so long before you become garde. As I’ve asked before, are we witnessing the old guard’s dotage? If so, chances are, its twilight years will likely be many. What will it morph into next?

Enjoy!

[UPDATE001] On the same subject:

Janet Daley (The Telegraph): American politics has caught the British disease
Wretchard (Belmont Club): As Time Goes By

Riots in Grenoble after police shoot armed robber

In the French city of Grenoble riots erupted last night. 'Youth' torched at least 50 cars and two shops and were throwing rocks at the trams. Eventually the situation descended into a shooting with the police, but nobody was hurt.

The reason for the riots: Two men tried to rob a casino in Uriage-les-Bains, close to Grenoble, armed with assault rifles. It came to a shoot-out with police, in which one of the robbers, one Karim Boudouda (27, with three prior convictions for armed robbery), was killed. The second robber fled to Grenoble and is still at large. The police did manage to recover the robbed money, some 30,000 euro.

Karim Boudouda lives in the Grenoble district of Villeneuve. 'Youth' in this poor district [qualification in the original - KV] were upset that the police shot Boudouda. Hence they vented their anger in a way that is so depressingly familiar: Riots, torchings and general mayhem.

Given the general pattern of the riots in Grenoble (not to mention the name of the dead guy in this tale), it will not be hard to correctly guess the ethnic and religious background of the rioters. Even as the reporting is curiously silent on these aspects.

Source: Le Figaro

[UPDATE001] Reporting in EN by YNet here. Pamela has video. According to Bloomberg 'rioters in Grenoble fired at police, torched cars, and wielded stones and baseball bats'.

[UPDATE002] Esther is also on the case. Including this cheery quote:

"The youths told me: You killed one of ours. In any case, you're a dirty race, we'll kill you too," a policeman deployed to Villeneuve says, confirming the hatred against the police expressed by many local youth. "Anybody European, we'll shoot down," he says he's heard.

[UPDATE003] Much more videos up at F. Desouche, who calls the riots 'urban guerilla'. The link is in French, but the videos speak for themselves. A video with EN subtitles about the use of automatic weapons against the Grenoble police can be found at GoV here.

[UPDATE004] Head on over to Tiberges Galliawatch for the inside scoop.

Bloodshed in Dudley

An English Defence League (EDL) demonstration in Dudley has turned very sour. West Midland Police seem to have done everything in their power to break up any coherence of the EDL demonstration, while allowing muslim counter protesters to physically assault any EDL supporter they can get their hands on. Pamela Geller is following the situation here. Gates of Vienna keeping a regularly updated post here (prior one is here). Durotrigan has some videos up here and more on the demo here.

Several eyewitnesses describe protesters being attacked by both West Midlands Police and Muslim counter protesters. There are reports that muslims drove cars into EDL protesters. Gates of Vienna have one source, describing a quite chilling situation:

I’ve just spoken to [a source]. He, as I mentioned, is in a pub outside Dudley. A number of guys who came with him from [elsewhere] have decided not to return home now but to join up with others and return to Dudley to confront the police and the Muslims.

The news is that the Muslims have now taken over Dudley railway station, preventing people from leaving town.

There is anger that the West Midlands Police have obstructed all the negotiations to set up this demonstration, have caged the EDL attendees like animals, have stood by while they were attacked by Muslims, and joined in on the beatings.

Visit the links regularly for updates.

Summing up some cold hard facts

I read this one in the comments over at De Dagelijkse Standaard, on a piece about Edward Said and Ibn Warraq.

Dear Said,

We have hospitals, you have Doctors Without Borders.
We have agriculture and animal husbandry, you have emergency help.
We have universities, you have madrassas.
We have the miniskirt, you have the burqa.
We have rights and duties, you have duties and bans.
We have grass, you have sand.
We have space flight, you have camels.
We are fairly happy, you are fairly jealous.
We are free, you are not.

How all that came to be is not that important. As long as there is nothing in your culture that can be pointed out as an improvement, it is not important at all.

Which just goes to show one doesn't need to be a blogger to come up with a brilliantly pithy observation. Commenters rule!

KV Linkage: The Wilders edition

I don't have a lot of time or energy to do a full post. But there are one or two items I wanted to bring to your attention.

Firstly: Wilders sets up international anti-Islam, pro-freedom alliance (AP). The reporting is a bit... one-sided. Then again, this is the AP. But the news is welcome. A preliminary website for the new alliance can be found here. Hopefully this way some meaningful resistance to the complete sell-out of what is ours can be organized.

Then, today we heard this: Another Day, Another Death Threat. Gates of Vienna brings us the translation of the original in De Telegraaf. The threat was issued in a glossy magazine called Inspire, which according to the Baron was published by Anwar al-Awlaki, the fugitive Yemeni-American imam who provided spiritual guidance to the Fort Hood killer. Another reason to take note of this particular threat is that Mr. Wilders’ name was just one on a list that included Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Flemming Rose, Lars Vilks, Molly Norris (the creator of “Everybody Draw Mohammed Day”), and others.

And in a school example of why Wilders' new alliance is so desparately needed: Nijmegen Municipality Maintains Subsidy for Sharia Website.

Nijmegen municipality sees no reason to withdraw its subsidy to an ultra-orthodox Islam website. According to Mayor Thom de Graaf, all unacceptable content has already been removed from the site. (...)

Alderman Floris Tas has had a meeting with Ar Rayaan, at which apologies were reportedly made. The municipality says a "sharper" eye will be kept on the activities of the foundation, but it is not withdrawing the subsidy for 2010.

In fact, the website remains a patchwork of controversial texts. For example, the visitor can still read that men and women should only speak to each other if it is strictly necessary. The site also says that Western dress invites rape and that Islam "takes strong action" to effect the rule of the laws of the Koran.

(emphasis mine - KV)

[UPDATE001] On GoV more on the launch of his new Alliance, including an interview with Wilders.

Panicking into November

Wretchard of the Belmont Club has two consecutive posts up about President Obama's crashing poll numbers and the unease this is causing within the Democratic Party, what with mid-term elections coming up in November.If the polls are anything to go by, those elections will see the Democrats lose their majority, possibly in both Houses.

In Proximity Alert Wretchard takes a closer look at the meaning of Obama's bombing numbers.

The Washington Post-ABC News poll is striking not only because it was commissioned by a normally pro-Administration group of media companies but because it conveys an implicit two-part message. Part 1: we are in an airplane diving straight for the ground and Part 2: an increasing number of passengers don’t believe the pilot knows how to fly an airplane. The two parts together spell a crash, and the only question is how many will survive.

And this has implications, not only for Obama's presidency, but for the elite (political and MSM) that sold the American public the 'empty box' that is Barack H. Obama.

[T]he real challenge facing the Democratic Party and the political and cultural elites as a whole is not whether they can save Obama’s Presidency — that is already lost — but whether they can still save themselves. But Zuckerman and the mainstream press cannot seem to advance a feasible rescue strategy except to hope the Republicans win in November to carry off some of the blame. They’ve gone as far as recognizing the problem but they can’t bring themselves to craft a solution. Probably that is because Washington is incapable of it.

Following up in Mene, Mene, Tekel u-Pharsin Wretchard describes the failing attempts by the Democrat leadership to quash any discussion of the expected Democrat loss in November. As Wretchard writes it, panic is starting to take a hold of the Democrat Party and particularly those Democrat candidates that 'are now staring political death in the face', because they were unlucky enough to enter the election race at this particular point in time.

Who brought this pox upon their houses? The right answer would be the political and economic environment. But the obvious answer would be Barack Obama. He’s the obvious patsy. He’s what changed since last. As the President’s unpopularity bears down on his supporters like the albatross around the Ancient Mariner, the temptation to survive at his expense may easily infect a group of people who were opportunists to begin with. The President and Nancy Pelosi know exactly how steadfast and principled their minions are. The thought of their principled followers sacrificing themselves to Hope and Change will doubtless assure them in the nights to come.

And thus endeth the reign of Obamses. It would be ironic if his attempt to re-organize the US in such a way that a Republican president could never be elected, will turn out to be make the Democrats political lepers for years and decades to come, wouldn't it?

The cat's out of the bag II

Via England Expects. Joke Schauvliege, Flemish Minister for Environment, Nature and Culture, and current holder of the rotating Chair of the EU's Environment Council and European Commissioner for Climate action, Connie Hedegaard issued a statement today, which is the result of the 'Informal Environment Council In Gent On The 13th Of July 2010' (No, I didn't know either).

Inadvertently (one presumes) both ladies let the cat out of the bag, where it concerns the real agenda behind climate alarmism: supra-national governance.

Having no concrete outcome in Cancun would be unacceptable. It would not only put the UNFCCC and the role of multilateralism at risk, but we would also run the risk of losing public support for the process and for our climate policies in general.

In order to keep the international process on the rails, Cancun must produce a balanced, ambitious and realistic package of substantive decisions that responds to the urgent desire of many countries to step up their action.

Note the wording: "the process" and "the international process" are EUnion-speak for the continuing slouch towards tranzi rule. The collapsing narrative of Climate Change is first and foremost viewed as a threat to the EUrocrat elites who so desperately want to lord over us. Only as a second item we get the prerequisite nod towards the environment.

Which brings me to a question: Why are not these two dames paraded around the Brussels market square all tarred and feathered up?

Related reading:
The cat's out of the bag
New EU President Rompuy announces 2009 as “first year of global governance”

Ban the burqa!

From the Associated Press:

France's lower house of parliament overwhelmingly approved a ban on burqa-like Islamic veils Tuesday, a move that is popular among French voters despite serious concerns from Muslim groups and human rights advocates.

There were 336 votes for the bill and just one against it at the National Assembly. Most members of the main opposition group, the Socialist Party, refused to participate in the vote — though they support a ban, they have differences with President Nicolas Sarkozy's conservatives over some aspects of it.

The ban isn't law yet. It has to go through the Senate in September. According to the AP piece, it is unlikely to counter much resistance there.

But after that, the law will be reviewed by France's constitutional watchdog. Some legal scholars say there is a chance it could be deemed unconstitutional. AP thinks this may be the laws biggest hurdle.

Personally, I don't see this law passing the review. Mainly, because it goes squarely against the EUnion and its opinions on non-discrimination and the threat that is posed by 'islamophobia'. (h/t Sheik Yer'Mami)

But that would put France on a collision course with the EUnion, which in and of itself would be fun and more then a little interesting to watch.

In the mean time, support for the burqa ban comes from some unexpected quarters. Via EuropeNews we learn about Mona Eltahawy, an Egyptian-born journalist who calls herself "a liberal, a Muslim and a feminist". And a staunch supporter of the ban:

I support banning the burqa because I believe it equates piety with the disappearance of women. The closer you are to God, the less I see of you -- and I find that idea extremely dangerous. It comes from an ideology that basically wants to hide women away. What really strikes me is that a lot of people say that they support a woman's right to choose to wear a burqa because it's her natural right. But I often tell them that what they're doing is supporting an ideology that does not believe in a woman's right to do anything. We're talking about women who cannot travel alone, cannot drive, cannot even go into a hospital without a man with them.

Mrs. Eltahawy could teach our home-grown 'feminists' (which for all intents and purposes are just the female variety of cultural marxists hell bent on the destruction of Western Civilization) a thing or two about what it truly means to stand up for women. Are you listening, Anja Meulenbelt?

Quote of the day

Liberal-lefties (...) need to explain to us what’s good about a philosophy which favours bureaucrats and rent-seekers over strivers and risk-takers; which steals people’s hard-earned money and squanders it on ‘social justice’ projects; which despises human nature and seeks to remould it and force it to act against its own interests through social engineering; which stifles ambition, creativity, invention; which is the enemy of freedom and therefore the enemy of life. So far, they’re not doing a very convincing job.

James Delingpole in the Spectator: Lefties have got away with feeling superior for too long — let the fightback begin

King Arthur's Round Table

This is kinda cool. From the Telegraph: Historians locate King Arthur's Round Table

Researchers exploring the legend of Britain’s most famous Knight believe his stronghold of Camelot was built on the site of a recently discovered Roman amphitheatre in Chester.

Legend has it that his Knights would gather before battle at a round table where they would receive instructions from their King.

But rather than it being a piece of furniture, historians believe it would have been a vast wood and stone structure which would have allowed more than 1,000 of his followers to gather.

Historians believe regional noblemen would have sat in the front row of a circular meeting place, with lower ranked subjects on stone benches grouped around the outside. (...)

The recent discovery of an amphitheatre with an execution stone and wooden memorial to Christian martyrs, has led researchers to conclude that the other location is Chester.

Mr Gidlow said: “In the 6th Century, a monk named Gildas, who wrote the earliest account of Arthur’s life, referred to both the City of Legions and to a martyr’s shrine within it. That is the clincher. The discovery of the shrine within the amphitheatre means that Chester was the site of Arthur’s court and his legendary Round Table.”

Hat tip to Wolf Howling, who has more on the subject.

A little perspective

The Netherlands is having a heat wave. Barbecues and outdoor smoking have been banned in large parts of the countryside because of the strong risk of fire following the dry weather. Yours truly has been suffering from yet another 35+ centrigrade day, with more to come tomorrow and the week after that.

Thoughts of global warming are hence resurfacing. But fear not. J. Storrs Hall provides us with the necessary perspective. If you look at a temperature recontruction of the last 500 or so years, taken from a Greenland ice-core sample, you would get a picture as shown below.

Seems a bit worrying, no? But the great thing about ice core samples is that they allow temperature reconstructions that go back way further then just 500 odd years.

Here's the picture when we look at the last 1200 years:

Clearly visible is the Medieval Warm Period (MVP), when Greenland was in fact green and vineyards were found all along the British coasts. The warming we've seen in the last decade of the 20th century is not even half of the warming during the MVP, if this ice core sample is anything to go by.

And if we take the grand perspective, say the last 450 thousand years, what do we see:

In the words of Storrs Hall: we’re pretty lucky to be here during this rare, warm period in climate history. Enjoy it while it lasts!

Latter days

Brussels Journal, commenting on the recent "Make Muslims Feel Good" directive Obama gave NASA, has this depressing paragraph:

Planetary exploration, that last great endeavor of what Oswald Spengler called Faustian Culture – the spiritual movement that built the great cathedrals of Christian Europe and that invented science and technology – is dead. On its tomb we see rise the social-welfare “nanny state,” multiculturalism, affirmative action, Gaia-worship, the entertainment industry, and an education establishment nationalized, feminized, and purged of intellectual rigor so as to make room for insipid self-esteem and the cultivation of homey errands that (how to put it?) teenage girls can do. Contemporary society, like the teenage girl, takes interest in itself primarily, in a preening and thoroughly petty way. The postmodern social order dresses women up as soldiers, it puts them in dangerous aircraft as pilots, and it even sends some of them on Shuttle missions, but it lacks the outward urge of the true pioneering spirit. The de-spirited dhimmi-polity meanwhile cozies up to Stone Age barbarians but refuses to rebuild its own fallen towers ten years after they fell.

Could that be true? Has the spirit that built Western Civilization been squandered when we weren't looking? Did we witness the Fall of the West and didn't realize it? Is it too late to do anything?

Worrying questions on a late Saturday afternoon...

Hostile take-over

Via Islam in Europe we get the cheery news that a football club in The Hague has been taken over completely by Moroccans: 'Moroccan coup' in football club

52 ethnic Dutch members turned their backs on the club after a general members' meeting in which due to massive turnout by the Moroccan members an almost completely Moroccan board (except for one member) was elected.

"A coup was carried out in a devious way," claims former board-member Jaap Kanters, who also needs to clear out. "It was all contrived in advance, with the result that a large number of [Dutch] members have now resigned and all went to the new association WIK in Zuiderpark."

(NL reporting by Elsvier here: Moroccan coup in The Hague.)

What has happened is that prior to the meeting where the new bard was to be voted on, Moroccan members went out and mobilized the Moroccan community, to stage a hostile take-over of what used to be a Dutch football, making it exclusively Moroccan. Obviously this has had some impact on the atmosphere at the club.

Meanwhile the labels on the alcoholic beverages and the beer tap have been removed and (pork) chops can no longer be ordered in the cafeteria.

People are also active very differently in regard to the women who dedicated themselves for years as volunteers for the club. The women who stood behind the bar the whole season weren't invited to the party to celebrate the end of the season.

This seems to be part of a larger trend. One that doesn't bode too well for the immediate future.

Last December, in the run up to the municipal elections, the local PvdA (Labour) chapter of the district Rotterdam-Feijenoord saw its board replaced with Turkish members (NL) almost exclusively. This happened during a meeting where all of a sudden Turkish members (many of them very new members) turned up en masse to vote the new board in place. One of the few Dutch members spoke of a 'Communist Party like directed coup'. Many of the old-and-true PvdA members in Rotterdam-Feijenoord have since cancelled their membership, with some publicly pointing to 'the islamisation of society' and musing 'Maybe Wilders is right after all'.

Around the same time, something similar happened in Amsterdam (Elsvier: Moroccan coup in Amsterdam; NL). Here PvdA darling Achmed Marcouch, was unexpectedly brought down by new-comer Achmed Baâdoud. Here also, there are strong clues that many of the members attending the meeting where this happened were freshly minted (Moroccan) PvdA members, who had been persuaded to turn up and vote Marcouch down by false rumours about his sexual orientation, his supposed preference for the Dutch and his supposedly pro-Israeli views.

Last June de Volkskrant (NL) reported that during the tumultuous meeting, supporters of Marcouch were intimidated by those of Baâdoud, and were actively watching over the shoulders, when voters were filling out their ballot. Said one of those present: 'I saw boys that aren't politically active, that hate politics. They were plucked from the streets to intimidate us. They were very hostile and said they hated Marcouch.'

So... The PvdA in Amsterdam-Nieuw West (2), the PvdA in Rotterdam-Feijenoord. And just this week Esdo football club in The Hague. Are we watching a new trend? Is this how the Balkanization of the Netherlands will be complete?

Notes:
1) Illustration: Windmill Hill Mosque by Catherine Hale.
2) Nieuw West is a new district, the result of a fusion of Slotervaart, Osdorp and Geuzenveld/Slotermeer, infamous for the Amsterdam car-b-ques, back in 2007.

Another consensus bites the dust

Fatty foods are causing obesity. We all 'know' that, don't we. Except maybe we don't. The New York Times published a lengthy article, wondering What if It's All Been a Big Fat Lie?

The article reports on recent nutritional research which shows that maybe the low-fat, high carbo-hydrate diet recommended by nutritionists and health ministries for decades now may in fact be totally counter-productive.

These researchers point out that there are plenty of reasons to suggest that the low-fat-is-good-health hypothesis has now effectively failed the test of time. In particular, that we are in the midst of an obesity epidemic that started around the early 1980's, and that this was coincident with the rise of the low-fat dogma. (Type 2 diabetes, the most common form of the disease, also rose significantly through this period.) They say that low-fat weight-loss diets have proved in clinical trials and real life to be dismal failures, and that on top of it all, the percentage of fat in the American diet has been decreasing for two decades. Our cholesterol levels have been declining, and we have been smoking less, and yet the incidence of heart disease has not declined as would be expected. "That is very disconcerting," Willett says. "It suggests that something else bad is happening."

Which only goes to show that more often then not the 'scientific consensus' is wrong. Dead wrong.

Towards the end of the article we have John Farquhar, who is a professor of health research and policy at Stanford University, asking "Can we get the low-fat proponents to apologize?" If climate-gate is anything to go by, I'd say the chances are slim. But we should...

A constitutional coup in the Netherlands

I had planned to do an elaborate post on the formation of our new government (of which, as things stand now, Geert Wilders and the PVV will NOT be a part). But now I see that Gates of Vienna have a post up that makes mine superfluous: A Constitutional Coup in the Netherlands.

It gives a good description of the subversion of the democratic process by our elites, up to and including our royal house. Apparently in a bid to keep the liberal-socialist flower-children of the '60 and '70's in power for a little while longer. The most poignant quote comes from Hannibal:

Twenty years ago I jokingly said to friends that democracy in my view would not last another hundred years. Ten years ago I had reduced that time to fifty years, but I still assumed it would last out my days.

I was wrong.

Read it all.

[UPDATE001] GoV also posted a follow-up by their expatriate Dutch correspondent H. Numan: The Invisible Power of the Queen. Well worth a read if your unfamiliar with the Dutch parliamentary monarchy.

Your read for today

The Progressives’ Legacy of Bankruptcy - Tiffany Jones Miller

Our debt crisis, in sum, has everything to do with the transformation of morality and government effected by the late-19th- and early-20th-century Progressive movement. Far from being largely ineffectual reformers, the Progressive academics who articulated the new conception of Freedom and the “positive” State, outlined above, were also the initiators of the entitlement programs that lie at the core of our crisis today. How Americans ultimately decide to resolve this crisis — by reining in spending or meekly submitting to far higher taxes — will serve either to revitalize the Founders’ conception of freedom, and the idea of limited government that flows from it, or seriously accelerate America’s century-long slide into the “overlordship” of Progressivism.

For 'America' one could read 'Western Europe' and it would still be true. More so, even.

Having said that: This is a good read. It explains the differences in the concept of Freedom, as commonly understood versus the 'progressive' definition, and everything that flows from those differences. And it may point out a way to counter the 'progressive' narrative.

(via Vox Day)

A butcher grading his own meat

Yesterday saw the presentation of the report by the national environment assessment agency PBL on their investigation into the results of the IPCC report. And wouldn't you know it? No new errors unearthed in climate report, but quality controls needed.

Although it did not uncover any new serious errors in the controversial UN climate report, a Dutch research institute said on Monday the UN body should improve its quality controls.

The national environment assessment agency PBL was commissioned by the Dutch environment ministry to look into the results of the IPCC report after two serious errors emerged.

The IPCC report wrongly stated that the Himalaya glaciers would have melted by 2035. And it claimed claimed 55% of the Netherlands is below sea level. The correct figure is 25%.

The PBL said some of the assertions made in the report were not sufficiently grounded and it had questions about how seven on the main 32 conclusions were reached.

The organisation needs to invest more in quality control and to employ more people to write the final document, the Dutch body said.

The results of the PBL investigation will become part of the Netherlands' contribution to next year's IPCC meeting, acting environment minister Tineke Huizinga said.

EURefs Richard North shares his opinion of the Dutch report here. James Delingpole has his thoughts about the report here. Between these two giants there is not a lot for me to add.

Except maybe this: The PBL was responsible for the IPCC gaffe on the threat of AGW to our swampy corner of the world. They were the ones that gave the IPCC the 55% figure. Members of the PBL are listed as IPCC AR4 authors. That minister of the environment (at the time) Cramer subsequently saw fit to give them the job to research the IPCC's many failures, was already described by VVD MP Nepperrus as 'a butcher grading his own meat'. That really is all you need to know about the trustworthiness (or not) of this new report.

(And now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go and get obscenely drunk. Uruguay-Holland just ended in a 2 - 3 win and Holland made it to the World Cup final for the first time in 32 years. Time to celebrate, methinks).

Destroying the IPCC report

The release of the Climate-gate emails and subsequent outing of many other 'gates' in relation to the IPCC's 4th report have all but destroyed the credibility of the IPCC AR4 as a scientific work. Back in January the situation became such that we wrote that IPCC AR4, rather then being the pinnacle of climate science, was in fact a very thick pamphlet, written by activists and advocacy groups.

One of the gates that came to light back then was Amazon-gate: The IPCC's statement that 40% of the Amazon rain-forest was threatened directly by AGW. This statement in the IPCC report was a reference to a report written by the WWF (non-scientific and certainly subjective). The story was picked up by the Sunday Times, where Jonathan Leake outed the sordid details about the questionable referencing to non-peer reviewed literature in the IPCC's 4th report.

Over the last week and a half the UK witnessed a minor blog-war, when George Moonbiot (columnist for the Guardian and all-round climate-nut) accused Richard North (of the highly esteemed and even more valuable EURef blog) of shabby work. And so happy Moonbiot was with his little discovery, that he also declared dead the sceptic's case against AGW in toto.

This happened after the Sunday Times decided to retract the Leake article. The Times saw itself forced to do so, after it was alleged that the Amazon statement, while referenced to a WWF report, was indeed supported by really real scientific literature of the peer-reviewed kind. Which in turn led to the Moonbiot column.

Dr. North, normally calm and collected in his analyses, reacted furiously, stating the column was 'One Moonbat too far' and filing a complaint with the UK Press Complaints Commission.

[W]hile I am very much in favour of open debate, even I tend to draw a line at being accused on the website of a national paper of "peddling inaccuracy, misrepresentation and falsehood."

This is not debate. It is libel. Booker's advice on these things tends to be to avoid getting into a fight with a chimney sweep – for obvious reasons – but this is also a case of Moonbat going too far. And, since he is so keen on the PCC, I thought that this would be a good place to start.

Parallel to this, Dr. North decided to get to the bottom of the IPCC statement on the Amazon. Working his way back through the WWF report that originated the IPCC claim, he discovered what the true original source of the 40% claim really is.

A dead website.

I am not kidding. Following back the paper-trail, checking out the references the WWF and assorted other institution say they've used leads back to a Brazilian educational website which was taken down in 2003. Which is where we find the exact quote that "Probably 30 to 40% of the forests of the brazilian (sic) Amazon are sensitive to small reductions in the amount of rainfall".

In the meantime George Moonbiot is beating a hasty retreat, mocked all the way by the likes of a James Delingpole, who sardonically notes:

In his latest blog Monbiot describes the Amazongate story as an “issue of mind-numbing triviality.” So a story becomes, I suppose, once it has been revealed that you got your details wrong.

And ending his column with a poignant question:

With true stories as damning as these, why on earth does George Monbiot imagine we [Climate] Realists have any need to make our stories up?

That is the irony of the situation, I suppose. In declaring victory too soon, the warmist camp set itself up for its biggest defeat yet. Remember all those warmists (including our own then environmental minister Jacqueline Cramer) banging on about how the 'science' in IPCC AR4 was totally trustworthy because it was all peer-reviewed? Just the simple fact that the IPCC has to rely on an obscure, now defunct, educational website to bolster their claims, would seem to indicate a big problem with that statement.

We've said it before, and I am going to say it again: The Fourth Assessment Report by the UN's IPCC is not science. It is a very thick pamphlet. And it should not be relied upon in formulating national policies. In fact, it should not be relied upon at all.

[INSTANT UPDATE] Read on View From the Right: The rejection of Global Warmism goes official.

What began with the release of the East Anglia University Climate Research Unit documents last fall has become, in a mere eight months, a global rejection and abandonment of Global Warmism.

Question

Suppose you are the head of a family. A family that for years has spent more money then you and your significant other made. Your credit cards are maxed out, the bank and assorted credit institutions are sending increasingly threatening letters.

You decide that financial sanity must return. So you tell your family that the days of expensive shiny new toys and luxury are over. From now on, your family will have to live within the means that are provided. Additionally, you announce your intention to start paying off the debt you and your family have built up over years of care-free (or rather: careless) living.

Your adolescent children are throwing a hissy-fit as you try to explain that the situation now is dire, but still manageable. At the end of it they will at least still have a roof over their head and three meals a day. Something they will not have when the family continues as they do now for another year.

Then one day somebody you consider a friend comes by and tells you that 'you do not know what you are doing'. Instead of trying to responsibly manage your financial affairs, he counsels spending even more money you do not have, because else the harmony in your family (what with unruly adolescents and all) will be threatened. In so doing he completely ignores (and tells you to disregard) the looming foreclosure of your home and imminent bankrupt homelessness of you and your family.

Now for the question: Is this person A) a trusted friend offering well-meant advise or B) a bitter enemy who wants to see you and your family ruined for whatever vile, backhanded reason as moves him to offer such counsel?

This is the question that Angela Merkel must consider urgently, as George Soros (aka Dr. Evil) tells Merkel that Germany clearly “does not know what it is doing.”

The financier- philanthropist said last week that Germany is endangering the European Union by keeping wages down and pursuing a balanced national budget too aggressively. Germany’s parsimonious attitude, Soros suggests, may bring down the euro.

You get the feeling that Soros is speaking directly to Angela Merkel, trying to give the German chancellor a kindly tutorial. In a speech at Humboldt University, Soros said that Germany had understandable reasons for pursuing thrift. But, he added, the country should spend more and advocate aggressive spending and looser money by the European Investment Bank and the European Central Bank, respectively.

Soros implied that Germany should look to the U.S., where President Barack Obama has spent vigorously and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has created money for the greater good.

Remember, this is the man who made his fortunes by 'breaking the Bank of England', forcing the UK out of the European Monetary Union (which in hindsight may have been a blessing in disguise).

Could it be that this loathsome man is offering Merkel his counsel because he wants to repeat his little trick with the euro? A trick he could not perform if the eurozone were to break up, or if (unlikeliest of unlikely) the euro became a stable currency again?

Whatever his motivations, through is 'advise' Soros clearly communicates he has some ulterior motive, does not have Germany's best interest at heart. Mrs. Merkel would do well to be very weary of this 'financier- philanthropist'. Evidently, he is a bitter enemy who wants to see Germany ruined for whatever vile, backhanded reason as moves him to offer such counsel.