The heart of stone

You would have to have a heart of stone not to laugh
Oscar Wilde

"This administration – I try not to pat myself too much on the back – but this administration has done more in terms of the security of the state of Israel than any previous administration. Whether it’s making sure that our intelligence cooperation is effective, to making sure that we’re able to construct something like an iron dome so that we don’t have missiles raining down on Tel Aviv, we have been consistent in insisting that we don’t compromise when it comes to Israel’s security.”  

"U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta urged Israel to get to the "damn table" in peace talks with the Palestinians, an unusually blunt comment that inserts him into the Middle East peace process. In remarks at a Brookings Institution conference, Panetta called on Israel to again start negotiations with the Palestinians. "Just get to the damn table. Just get to the table," Panetta said during the event in Washington. "The problem right now is we can't get them to the damn table to at least sit down and begin to discuss their differences." 

Leon Paneta, December 3, 2011.

Currently, PLO refuses to negotiate with Israel unless she forbids the Jews from building houses in the disputed territories. This makes Leon's demands to Israel all the more absurd - and damaging to Israel. All in all, he is now claiming that it is Israel that refuses to negotiate, and this issurely bad for Israel and is helpful for the PLO and Hamas. Is this what true friends do?

"Speaking Wednesday at a Jewish conference on anti-Semitism organized by the European Jewish Union (EJU,) Howard Gutman told participants he was apologizing in advance if his words are not to their liking...

A distinction should be made between traditional anti-Semitism, which should be condemned and Muslim hatred for Jews, which stems from the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, Gutman said. He also argued that an Israeli-Palestinian peace treaty will significantly diminish Muslim anti-Semitism. The American envoy, a lawyer by training, is Jewish and played a major role in fundraising for the Democratic Party. He was appointed to the post by President Barack Obama. " Howard Gutman, US ambassador in Belgium, November 30th, 2011.

I assume the next thing we will hear is Obama's proclamation that we must make distinction between traditional Islamo-phobia, which should be condemned, and Jewish-Christian-Hindu hatred for Moslems, which stems from the ongoing conflict between the Moslem world and the rest of the planet. Obama needs to argue that the peace treaty between Islamic world and Israel, West and India will significantly diminish Jewish-Christian-Hindu Islamophobia. Oh, and last thing - if Moslems stop blowing themselves up, it would also help with the air-travel. BTW, do you feel a little bit Islamophobic, each time you need to go through the TSA? It's quite understandable, actually, according to the Obama administration. Ah, but I say this in jest - the Obama administration has no problems finding excuses for Anti-semitism - but Islamophobia is something it would never accept.

And now for something completely different

"Both parties came together to cut payroll taxes for the typical middle-class family by about $1,000, but that tax cut is set to expire at the end of this month. We can’t let that happen. We’re going to keep pushing Congress to make this happen. They shouldn’t go home for the holidays until they get this done."

 Barack Obama, December 3, 2011

President Barack Obama will be setting off later this month for a 17-day Christmas vacation in Hawaii with his family. The White House travel office said Obama has no public events scheduled for the trip, which is scheduled for Dec. 17 to Jan. 2.... The 17-day Christmas vacation follows Obama’s 11-day vacation to Martha’s Vineyard this summer. From Blaze

This takes the prize
I remember years ago reading Hayek's proposal for multiple currencies, and Thatcher's criticism of the EU currency. About 6 years ago, I've learned about the CIA's prediction of the imminent EU breakup in 2012. While CIA is not known for its predictive power, this intrigued me, and I started following the EU and I've learned about the euro-skeptics, the shenanigans with referendum (there is even a blog called EU Referendum) and the EU constitution  Lisbon Treaty. Of course, when famous Russian dissident, Vladimir Bukovsky compared EU with the CCCP back in 2006, I got even more interested. And most certainly, no story about EU would be complete without the issue of moslem immigration to EU. And now, we can see the European Union rapidly coming to an end - and no amount of American help can stop it. The project was doomed from the start - and what amazes me most is the fact that this was known to the EUs architects. I am curious if it is possible to file a civil lawsuit against those bustards.


"Euro doomed from start, says Jacques Delors"

The euro project was flawed from the start and the current generation of European leaders has failed to address its fundamental problems, Jacques Delors, the architect of the single currency, declares today....

Famous in Britain for his public clashes with Baroness Thatcher in the 1980s over closer European integration, Mr Delors says that he shares some of the concerns that were expressed by British politicians and economists about the euro before its creation.



When “Anglo-Saxons” said that a single central bank and currency without a single state would be inherently unstable, “they had a point”, he admits.

In summary - the European Union and the euro currency were launched by the left-wing bureaucracies and supported by the mainstream media in order to bring peace, democracy and prosperity to Europe. Today, both EU and euro are bankrupt and we are told that if euro is not saved, European continent and the entire world will be on the brink of economic destruction. Moreover, European people must immediately give up democracy and sovereignity to save the euro - there is simply no other way.

Amazingly, none of the EU optimists and promoters in the government and the media are in any danger of losing credibility. What's even more amazing is that most of the liberal ideas in the 20th century are faced with the same imminent threat of destruction as the EU. Walk down the memory lane and check out the liberal predictions about Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and welfare. All of those programs were supposed to solve our social and economic problems, cut the government spending (in the long run, of course), eliminate poverty and make poor people self-sufficient. Conservative predictions of the fiscal unsoundness of these programs (as well as the creation of a permanent class of people dependent on the government handouts) were brushed aside as mean-spirited. Today, our federal, state and local governments are on the brink of bankruptcy, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and welfare grew beyond the wildest dreams of the most ardent socialists - and yet, the American poor are apparently getting poorer and poorer. In case you are wondering, the total federal, state and local spending on Medicare+Medicaid+Social Security+Welfare is a staggering 2.6 trillion dollars in 2011 alone (and don't forget to add 900 billion dollars on education). And somehow, as the New York Times recently proclaimed: "Yet one old problem has not changed: the poor have rapidly gotten poorer." In summary, the US government is spending itself into oblivion trying to save the poor from poverty, and yet the poor get poorer. And apparently we cannot get rid of all those liberal programs, because this would destroy our country. The same programs that were supposed to bring the era of peace and prosperity to US are now threatening to bankrupt the nation - and we cannot get rid of them because that would cause the economic Armageddon. So let me ask again - was it a mistake to start these programs in the first place - just as it was a mistake for Europe to launch the euro? And why do the same people people who cheerleaded the euro and the Medicare-Medicaid-Social Security-Welfare sound so smug today?

As Oscar Wilde famously said: "You would have to have a heart of stone not to laugh". Indeed....




Barack Obama, November 30, 2011