Here’s a Friday LinkSwarm. I have a big piece brewing on the ObamCare battle I may or may not have out on Monday.
Posts Tagged ‘Poland’
LinkSwarm for September 20, 2013
Friday, September 20th, 2013European Union to Become SuperDuper European Union
Friday, December 9th, 2011Let me see if I can get this straight:
UK Prime Minister David Cameron, objecting to the Deutschland Uber Alles renegotiation of the Maastricht Treaty, is now causing the creation of a new SuperDuper Europe, with Germany reoccupying the Rhineland taking leadership of the whole shebang, finally erasing the rest of the continent’s reluctance at receiving orders from Berlin?
I mean, when even the Europhillic New York Times says that “Twenty years after the Maastricht Treaty, which was designed not just to integrate Europe but to contain the might of a united Germany, Berlin had effectively united Europe under its control,” maybe the citizens of those stodgy old entities we used to call “countries” should consider the possibility that they might may be making a mistake. I am especially surprised that the non-Euro-using generalgouvernement Poland gave in so readily, as their previous experiences with rule from Berlin have been less than exemplary.
But what’s sacrificing the last of your country’s vestigially sovereignty compared to the glorious dream of saving the Euro?
Assuming, of course, that forging this Pact of Steel (including a 500 billion Euro bailout fund) actually saves the Euro, which is a dubious proposition at best. And at least one U.S. general says we should be prepared for civil unrest if Euro ends up exploding anyway.
The irony, of course, is that David Cameron, the wetest Tory Wet PM since Neville Chamberlain, refused to give in to another Eurotreaty British citizens wouldn’t get a chance to vote on less than two months after refusing to allow a vote on the previous EU treaty British citizens were not allowed to vote on. It would be ironic if Cameron actually ended up pulling the UK out of the EU because, in a moment of weakness, he actually exhibited rare and uncharacteristic streaks of firm principle and common sense.
Will the citizens of Europe actually get a chance to vote on this Reich closer European integration? Doubtful. Ireland’s Taoiseach is being “cagey” about a vote. (Translation: Fark no, you peasants won’t get a vote.) I doubt any of his brothers in Europe’s Permanent Ruling Class will feel any less “cagey.”
Through a thousand small steps, from committees and working groups and consultations and emergency decrees, Eurocrats have done their very best to remove power for all important decisions from the hands of the people and entrust it into their own well-greased palms. And also, not so coincidentally, to avoid taking the blame for the ruin their cradle-to-grave welfare states, and the huge and ever-growing debts necessary to pay for them, have made of Europe’s once free nations and productive economies.
Other Eurozone news, some possibly stale and out of date:
For years, Europeans loved to lecture Americans on the both the safety and soundness of the continent’s banking system as opposed to our own, and how their economic system worked so much better than ours. Well, one lesson of the 2011 financial crisis is that many of their banks are probably in worse shape than the US banks were in 2008.
At least our banks’ troubled investments were tied to real estate, which may rebound once our economy improves. Their banks are holding debt tied to some of the world’s least productive, no-growth countries.
Why so underproductive? Most of the evidence points to the failure of the European welfare state.
Europeans loved to lecture Americans on how government-run health-care and cradle-to-grave entitlements provided such safety and comfort for the masses. People supposedly didn’t mind paying higher taxes because it enhanced their standard of living.
Until, of course, it didn’t enhance anything — and Greece, Italy, Spain and Portugal face the collapse of their safety nets because they can’t borrow to pay for them anymore, even as unemployment is rampant. (Meanwhile, France is not far behind.)
Helen Thomas Fallout Roundup
Tuesday, June 8th, 2010Lots of interesting fallout from Helen Thomas announcing her retirement following her amazingly stupid comments on sending Jews back to Germany and Poland:
- After World War II, about 1,500 Jews did try returning to Poland. What did they get for their trouble? Murdered. By Poles.
- For some reason, Cal Thomas’ essay on Helen Thomas was spiked. Is there a policy about not letting one reporter dis another? Or perhaps a policy against Thomas-on-Thomas violence?
- Jon Stewart weighs in.
- On The View (which evidently no one does), Whoopi Goldberg displays the same in-depth understanding of middle eastern history as she does of the definition of rape. (For those concerned that Ms. Goldberg displays an insufficient knowledge of her own ethnic heritage, be aware that she was born Caryn Elaine Johnson and took the last name Goldberg “because her mother felt the original surname of Johnson was not ‘Jewish enough’ to make her a star.” I’m sure the name completely fooled Broadway producers into thinking she was Jewish…)
- The Drudge Report headline for this Politico piece on Thomas’ retirement was “Helen sent to Poland.”
Still, despite all that, many liberals are still rushing to Thomas’ defense. (A quick Google blog search will turn many up.) It’s just more proof of that old liberal adage: “No enemies on the left.” Not even antisemitic ones.
(Hat Tips: Instapundit, Real Clear Politics, Geoffrey Britain.)
Updated: Iowahawk weighs in with The Golden Girls from Brazil.