This week in review

A European Weasel, by Keven Law

PAKISTAN: A terrorist sympathizer from Canada, Khadija Abdul Qahar (formerly Beverly Giesbrecht) is taken hostage by the Taliban in Pakistan, while reporting for Al-Jezzira. She runs the pro-Taliban web site Jihad Unspun. The irony here is rich. I hope she returns unharmed, but I can't help being awestruck by her naivete.

USA: Apparently the Obama administration wants to replace the phrase "Global War on Terror" (or GWOT for short), with "Overseas Contingency Operation" (OCO?). Calling it by a different name doesn't change anything, and I promise few people will actually use the new phrase, except in official announcements. This also wouldn't change the fact that hundreds of thousands of servicemembers (including myself) have already been awarded the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal. How do you change that?

USA: Illegal immigrant in Hannibal, MO confesses to murdering two people. Many in the town are outraged that he was still in the country at all, despite several previous run-ins with the law.

USA: Nancy Pelosi claims that enforcing our immigration laws is "un-American". How does she justify that statement? Good commentary at Michelle Malkin's site.

SOUTH AFRICA: The Dalai Lama was denied an entry visa to South Africa. He was traveling to the international peace conference in Johannesburg, and the official explanation was that his presence would be a distraction from the conference and the 2010 World Cup. The irony is that the Dalai Lama is just about the most patient and peaceful person on Earth (to a fault, in my opinion), and the focus has already shifted from the events to this controversy instead. Everyone knows the real reason for this; South Africa is simply kowtowing to pressure from China, its most lucrative trading partner.

CHINA: Speaking of China, they claim they want to see single world currency to assist international trade, but the real reason is likely that they want undercut US dominance by replacing the dollar on world markets. They would be some interesting side effect of this; not all of them would necessarily be bad for the US. Rampant international counterfeiting of US dollars would dwindle down to almost nothing.

USA: With unemployment high, more women are turning to strip clubs. No wonder, since many of them make $1000 a night, a much better salary than mine...

LIBERIA: A "blogger" in Liberia who reaches far more people than I do every day, without a computer even! This is entrepreneurism in its purest form. All it takes is hard work and thinking outside the box.

BLOGOSPHERE: John Cole finally admits the obvious. What's sad is that he thinks its a joke.

UK: Radical Imam says he wants to see the flag of Islam flying over Downing Street. If you want to turn Europe into a bloodbath, go ahead.

USA: Texas school used cagefighting to settle disputes among students. Why didn't I get to go to schools like that? It sure beats Saturday detention...

TURKEY: Last month, about 90 Muslim leaders from around the world signed a declaration of jihad (Arabic Link) in support of Hamas and against Israel. This was scarcely mentioned in the mainstream media. One of them was a leader of the Muslim Council of Britain. Doing the job that the media refuses to do, Esther at Islam in Europe, tracks down the other signatories residing in Western Europe.

USA: Sign of the Nanny state: Mom lets her 10 year old son walk 1/3 mile to his soccer game, and the police come calling. Once upon a time, children routinely walked much farther than that to school everyday. This is one reason why our young generation are obese like never before.

USA: Apparently in Colorado, you don't own the rain that falls on your own home. So technically, it is actually illegal to collect rainwater in the State. I understand the reasons behind this, but there must be a better way.

UK: A school administrator in the UK is wrongly accused of racism, and wins hundreds of thousands of pounds in a court settlement. Good for her. Unfortunately, as usual, the money comes from the school district, not from the clods that leveled the false accusations in the first place.

USA: In the face of outrage by Veteran's groups, Obama dropped a controversial plan to require private insurers to reimburse the government for treatment of wounded veterans. I don't see it as a huge issue myself, except that if the same thing happened under President Bush, the left-wing blogosphere would have had a field day. This time they were very quiet. Strange how that works out.

USA: Only in America. A class-action lawsuit forces the City of Seattle to refund each customer $45 for overcharging their water bills. Problem is, to pay for this settlement, the city is adding a $59 surcharge to water customers. Guess who actually profits off of this? The sad thing is, the tort system nearly ALWAYS comes up with these results; the wealth is transferred from the innocent to the innocent, with the attorneys taking their cut. What is rare is for people to see this process happening as blatantly as it did here (via Overlawyered).

UK: Convicts released early from prison are recieving reimbursement for the room and board they lost! Maybe it's cheaper to keep them in jail longer...

NEW ZEALAND: New Zealand's experiment with legalized prostitution. Didn't turn out so bad in the end. Germany has legal brothels, and they are rarely a problem.



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Post Office manager defends Britain [Updated]

This is not the most important issue in the world, but it is illustrative of growing divisions in the UK.

A manager of the Sneinton Boulevard Post Office in Nottingham is causing a stir for refusing to serve immigrant customers who will not speak English. I understand his frustration, but not entirely sure I agree (what about foreign tourists who might want to send a package?). But what really caught my attention were these wonderful words to the Daily Mail:

'Nobody stands up for anything in Britain any more,' he said. 'It's the best country in the world as far as I'm concerned ... All I'm doing is telling people that if they want to live in Britain, be British.

'Don't boo our soldiers when they come home from Iraq. Don't live your life without embracing our culture. Don't stay here without making any effort to learn the language. And if you don't want to be British, go home.'

White people can't say what I'm saying because they'd end up in jail,' he explains.
'I decided to make this stand because I think too many British people are afraid to talk out.

'If they insist on everyone speaking English they are afraid of being branded a racist or being accused of belonging to the BNP.

Racist? Normally, a statement like that from a public servant in the UK would lead to an immediate accusation of racism and dismissal from his job. Problem is, the man in question, Deva Kumarasiri, is an immigrant from Sri Lanka, who has also raised thousands of pounds in hurricane relief for his country of birth. Undoubtedly, this has the PC police confused over how to respond to him.

It's rare enough to find immigrants with this attitude in America, let alone the UK. I wish him well.

UPDATE 22/03/09 12:20:00 PM: That was quick. He has already been forced to transfer to another office due to complaints and threats.

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Two others complicit in the Fritzl case

In the United States, the Bernard Madoff affair is attracting all the attention. But in Europe, the sensation is the Josef Fritzl incest/imprisonment case, where yesterday he unexpectedly plead guilty to all counts against him.

How a man can keep his own daughter Elizabeth imprisoned for 24 years, and father seven children by her, without anyone in his building noticing, is still beyond me. But at least his guilt is now a settled issue. This statement is interesting:

He claimed that watching his daughter Elisabeth give 11 hours of harrowing, videotaped evidence about her years of torture and abuse in a cellar had made him face up to "my sick behaviour".

He realised "for the first time how cruel I was".

So what was different about that 11 hours vs. the 24 years his children pleaded with him to let them go? It's far more likely that he could see the effect her testimony had on the jury, and he felt fighting the charges would only anger them further.

But in this sad story, there are at least two other people who are partially to blame for this mess. Rosemarie Fritzl, Josef's wife, and Harald Fritzl, the eldest son. Rosemarie allowed her husband, who was convicted on a separate rape charge in 1967, to return to their home. That was, of course, bad judgement. But particularly in light of his history, how could she have missed everything else?

Somehow, she never noticed her husband molesting her daughter since she was 11 years old (even her son even knew about it - see below), causing her to run away on at least one occasion? Somehow, she swallowed the bogus story that Elizabeth had joined a cult; somehow she never questioned the foundling children popping up on the doorstep every few years. Somehow, she never noticed Josef hauling wheelbarrows full of food down to the basement, and pulling out trash bags (many of which would have been full of diapers) and taking them to the dumpster. Somehow, not once in 24 years did she bother to check the basement, even when Josef had it expanded. Elizabeth now blames her mother for her complacency all those years, and reportedly they are currently estranged. In my opinion, the Austrian police dismissed Rosemarie's complicity too quickly, and she should be on trial as well. There are no reports that she is mentally handicapped in any way, and that is the only way I could believe that she truly knew nothing was going on.

Harald Fritzl's conduct is a bit more defensible, but he also could have prevented this situation long ago. He also knew that Josef was molesting Elizabeth for many years before she was imprisoned, and he never spoke up about it. She confided the molestation to him when she was 12, so he would have been 16 years old - old enough to go to the police or another family member. I understand he was scared. But if you love your sibling, there comes a point at which you need to choose which is more important - your safety, or hers? I suppose now he knows he made the wrong choice, but now is a little late.



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I still exist

Although it's been a long time between updates. I am going through major changes in my life right now. The Blog is still here, although updates will still be slow.

But the writing here will change. Stay tuned.

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