The royal Danes go full Addams,
Tanks for Hugo, bankrupt states, the Supremes, and the roundup
J. E. Dyer looks at the topography affecting those tanks Hugo Chavez is receiving from Russia:
Bridges to Bogotá.
Mary O’Grady reports that The U.S. Defends Democracy in Haiti
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice backs the OAS’s report of fraud in Haiti’s presidential election.
James Pethokoukis asks, Did Wall Street nix GOP push to let states go bankrupt?
Bipartisan seating for the SOTU address tonight? Not for Nancy Pelosi: Pelosi not sitting with Cantor, despite his invitation. Tweet Of The Day: Don’t Wait To Ask The Girl To The Prom Edition. Since she won’t be sitting behind the President, we shall be spared the sight of Nancy as cheeleader-in-chief to Obama’s every word:
Thank goodness for small favors.
Justice Scalia says he hasn’t “gone to the State of the Union in at least 10 years, and I’m not starting tomorrow night either.” Roger Kimball also has the State of the Union Blues. I think I’ll head out to meditation class.
Over at MSNBC, [Chris] Matthews Ties Tea Partiers to ‘Nazi Stuff’ Moments After Bashing [Glenn] Beck for ‘Violent Rhetoric’. Beck is in hot water with Liberals and the New York Times for pointing out Frances Fox Piven’s calls for violence. At the Wall Street Journal, James Taranto uncovers the real Advocate of Violence
Frances Fox Piven and the New York Times’s dishonest campaign for “civility.” American Power has video of Beck’s follow-up,
Matt Keller ponders The Most Useful College Class I Ever Took, or: “Everyone Loves Raymond, unless Raymond owns more land than you and his Livestock eats your feed” Via Pundette, Mark Steyn writes about the Danish show trials,
The Danish Member of Parliament Jesper Langballe commented on the Hedegaard case and was himself charged with “racism”. While preparing his defense, he was also told by the court that “defendants in cases brought under Article 266b are denied the right to prove their case”.
Oh.
That’s why these are heresy trials, and only the first of many. The prosecutors think Hedegaard, Langballe, Wilders, Mrs Sabbaditsch-Wolff et al are apostates from the new state religion of multiculturalism. Thuggish Muslim lobby groups, on the other hand, consider them heretics against Islam. In practice, it makes little difference, and multiculturalism is merely an interim phase, a once useful cover for an Islamic imperialism so confident it now barely needs one. The good news is that European prosecutors are doing such a grand job with their pilot program of show trials you’ll hardly notice the difference when sharia is formally instituted.
Back in the USA, just because you’re a Cabinet member doesn’t mean the POTUS can spare any time with you, and just because you are First Lady doesn’t mean you can get good tailoring.
Last but not least, Artsy And They Spared Us the Speedos
Syria and the Mohammed cartoons
Brian Preston writes about Taqiyya: WikiLeaked Docs Reveal Syria’s Role in the Cartoon Riots
Orchestrated chaos to serve political ends. Plus: Taqiyya: The Movie!. Taqiyya means deception, and that it was,
The cartoon riots were a trick, perpetrated by unscrupulous imams and their backers, for the purpose of intimidating the West into adapting Islamist codes of speech policing, and for the purpose of generating fear and loathing of the West up and down that fabled Islamic street. It all worked quite well, thanks in no small part to the Western media’s cowardly behavior throughout.
Now, to the incriminating doc concerning Syria. At the time of the riots, it was fairly obvious that various and sundry despots around the Middle East were using the Danish cartoon controversy for their own ends. Syria’s hands were bloody, as they tend to be in any crisis.
…
Here’s where the real taqiyya comes into play:(C) xxxxxxx assessed that the SARG allowed the rioting to continue for an extended period and then, when it felt that “the message had been delivered,” it reacted with serious threats of force to stop it. He described the message to the U.S. and the broader international community as follows: “This is what you will have if we allow true democracy and allow Islamists to rule.” To the Islamic street all over the region, the message was that the SARG is protecting the dignity of Islam, and that the SARG is allowing Muslims freedom on the streets of Damascus they are not allowed on the streets of Cairo, Amman, or Tunis.
Notice the dual messages. To the West, the riots were orchestrated and intended to send the West a message: Leave us despots alone or you’ll get nothing but chaos. The Syrian Ba’ath Party had every incentive to send that particular message to a United States that had just toppled the neighboring Ba’ath dictatorship in Iraq. Assad didn’t want to end up like Saddam. To those who embodied the chaos, the rioters themselves, Assad sent a different message: We, the secular Syrian government, are your guardians from those nasties in the West. Trust us to keep Islam pure.
Go read the rest of the article, while bearing in mind that the cartoonists are living in hiding.
Axe-wielding Islamist attacks Mohammed cartoonist home
Danish police shoot intruder at cartoonist’s home
Danish police have shot and wounded a man at the home of Kurt Westergaard, whose cartoon depicting the Prophet Muhammad sparked an international row.
Mr Westergaard scrambled into a panic room at his home in Aarhus after a man wielding an axe and a knife broke in.
The BBC had first reported that the intruder was wielding a hammer, not an axe.
Danish officials said the intruder was a 28-year-old Somali, who they did not name, but said was linked to the radical Islamist al-Shabab militia.
The cartoon, printed in 2005, prompted violent protests the following year.
The intruder was able to get in, in spite of the existing security measures:
His house has been heavily fortified and is under close police protection.
Police said the man had entered Mr Westergaard’s house armed with a knife and axe and had shouted in broken English that he wanted to kill him.
Mr Westergaard ran to a specially designed panic room where he raised the alarm.
Too bad the Danes don’t issue gun permits.
These are the cartoons, which, by the way, Yale University Press didn’t have the courage to publish in a book about them:
The Telegraph says,
Mr Westergaard’s cartoon was seen at the time as the most controversial, as it depicted the Prophet with a bomb in his turban.
“Controversial” but entirely vindicated by events since. To return to the theme of my post a couple of days back, a significant percentage of Muslims in the west do not understand concepts such as pluralism and freedom of expression. A further percentage understand them very well but reject them as loser fetishes incompatible with the requirements of Islamic supremacism – and have a shrewd sense that when, push comes to shove, a lot of these fine liberal concepts crumble to nothing. Is the percentage of Muslims who support Mr Westergaard’s right to free expression and the broader principles of intellectual liberty sufficient to make the importation of legions of “27-year old Somalians” a net benefit to Denmark?
The answer to that seems obvious. But Mr Westergaard is 74, and I’ll bet his half-century-younger attacker grasps however crudely the demographic symbolism, in Scandinavia and beyond.
UPDATE
Noticias 24 reports that Westergaard was at home with his five year old grandson granddaughter. Noticias 24 also has a photo of the police standing in front of Westergaard’s house after the incident:
More photos of the location at Noticias 24.
Prior posts on the Mohammed cartoons here
The Christmas Week Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean
Welcome to the Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean.
The story of the week: the Copenhagen Climate Talks.
LATIN AMERICA
The ALBA’s sucre bill is no such thing
Noteworthy article from last February’s WaPo: Latin America’s Document-Driven Revolutions
Team of Spanish Scholars Helped Recast Constitutions in Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador
ARGENTINA
Argentina’s Dirty War Orphans
BOLIVIA
Bolivia seizes land from TV network owner
Bolivia Pres Morales Calls For Billions In Climate Reparations
‘Mr. Bolivia’ wins world’s most handsome man contest
BRAZIL
Los pensamientos de Lula
Roubini Says Brazil Real Overvalued, New Laws Needed
CHILE
Another Test for the Chilean Model
COLOMBIA
Security in Colombia
Calling freedom: How mobile phones may help to deter kidnaps
Colombia to Build Military Bases on Venezuela Border
CUBA
Tell me again how American tourists can make a difference in Cuba?
For those of you who think Cubans actually own a house in Cuba, Karina’s patio is neither private nor special*
Before he left for Denmark, Hugo stopped in Havana: Fidel gives Chávez a breakfast sendoff
ECUADOR
Ecuador Parliament Discusses Education Law
GUATEMALA
Rash of public lynchings hit Guatemala
Mistrust of justice system to blame, experts say (h/t Islam in Europe)
HONDURAS
Guest blog: Enough is enough!
Manuel Zelaya: Eligible to lose Honduran citizenship
MEXICO
Mexico City backs gay marriage in Latin American first
Via Gates of Vienna, Islam is the new religion in rebellious Mexican state Chiapas
NICARAGUA
Pro-Iranian Chavista Daniel Ortega overturns term limits
PANAMA
Birds of a feather (sort of)
PUERTO RICO
Sotomayor disappointed by ‘wise Latina’ souvenirs. Let’s hope no one’s bought her one of the NY Times t-shirts for peoples of color as a Christmas gift.
That “inherited” excuse getting popular with Leftists these days
VIDEO Chavez declares himself a Marxist:
Losers of the world unite – in Denmark
All you really need to know about them
Venezuela Imprisons Judge Who Freed Banker Without Trial
Venezuela’s Chavez accuses Dutch of aggression
Venezuela passes banking law raising government control
Morning Bell: The Hugo Chavez Case for Cap and Trade
Daily Gut: Green–It’s the New Red
Anunciantes que abandonaron a Tiger Woods acuden al Presidente Chávez
INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
Putting our economy in the hands of Chavez fans
The week’s posts and podcasts:
Jake Tapper picks up the scent of Chavez’s sulfur
Chavez: Obama smells of sulfur, too
Chile’s new prosperity: 15 Minutes on Latin America
Chavez does Denmark
At Real Clear World:
Former Sinaloa Drug Lord Dead in Shootout
Jake Tapper picks up the scent of Chavez’s sulfur
Last Friday I translated and posted Hugo Chavez’s video (in Spanish) where he says Obama smells of sulfur, during his speech at the Copenhagen Climate Summit,
Vlad Tepes subtitled the video with my translation and posted it on YouTube.
The media, which made a huge fuss over the times that Chavez said that GW Bush smelled of sulfur, has ignored Chavez’s insult to Obama.
About the only one who hasn’t is Jake Tapper, who posted my subtitled video,
At Copenhagen, Chávez Suggests Obama is the Devil and posted my translation.
I wish Jake would have linked to my post particularly since I specifically request it because this is a professional translation, but looking at the bright side, the subtitled YouTube has had over 11,000 viewings – so I appreciate that he picked up the YouTube.
I’ll be talking about this and other news in today’s podcast at 11AM. The Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean will be up later this afternoon.
Curly, Larry and Moe at Copenhagen Climate Talks next week
Nyuk, nyuk, nyuk:
Iranian Prime Minister Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe plan to address negotiators at international climate talks in Copenhagen next week.
The three leaders are listed in a line-up of more than 180 government officials published in a United Nations schedule of speakers. Each head of state will have up to three minutes to address roughly 700 delegates, reporter, observers and civil society groups.
They will all be demanding US financial assistance, no doubt.
Yegads! Al Gore, poet?
Ooooh yeah, babeee….
Vanity Fair heaps praise on the Vanderbilt Divinity School drop-out and self-ordained pope of the cult of Anthropogenic Global Warming: Al Gore: The Poet Laureate of Climate Change
Among the brilliance shared by Gore is this (not sure what to call it),
The shepherd cries
The hour of choosing has arrived
Here are your tools
Vanity Fair asks “Is Gore himself that shepherd?” He probably sees himself as the sheperd who will lead us like meek sheep to the promised land, along with the help of countless media tools like Vanity Fair, and other ones like the people who awarded him the Nobel Prize, and the hardcore believers who don’t want us to breathe because we exhale CO2.
On the breathing, Roger Kimball urges us, Don’t Hold Your Breath! Humans for Respiration, Unite! While you’re still allowed to breathe, hold on to your wallet: The AGW farce will cost us plenty, as you can see in these two articles,
James Pethokoukis writes on The EPA and Obama’s Uncertainty Tax
the only thing certain about the EPA ruling is more regulatory uncertainty leading to less economic growth and fewer jobs. Bad news, to be sure, for American businesses already flummoxed by the mercurial state of healthcare, financial and tax reform. Call it Obama’s Uncertainty Tax.
While a cap-and-trade bill has already passed the House of Representatives, few Capitol Hill observers expected the Senate to approve one, even by the end of 2010 thanks to the anemic economy and political risks for incumbent Democrats facing midterm elections. What’s more, expectations of a more Republican-leaning congress after 2010 made it seem like economy-wide carbon caps were sliding off the Obama agenda for the foreseeable future.
But now it’s conceivable carbon restrictions would be implemented as early as next year – even though the EPA itself admits its efforts would be more disruptive and less efficient than congressional action. Such an optimistic timetable assumes no legal challenges. But there will be plenty of those. Already, business groups are preparing to file suit against the EPA. It could fall to U.S. courts to determine the future of the nation’s approach to climate policy. This is a nightmare scenario for the private sector when it comes to planning for new expansion or hiring. Note that the big problem with the job market at the moment is not so much job losses and zippo new jobs being created. It will take a year of 4 percent growth adding 250,000 jobs a month to lower the unemployment rate to 9 percent.
Of course, about the only thing worse than regulatory uncertainty would be for the EPA to follow through with its top-down, command-and-control approach to dealing with perceived climate change.
While we’re dealing with that, the tools at the UN want our money: William Jacobson has the details, UN Climate Chief to US: “Show Me The Money”
Jacobson points out,
None of this is surprising. The global climate change industry is all about shaking the dollars and cents out of our pockets. From Al Gore’s profiteering off of the hysteria he has created, to the large corporate interests involved in selling “green” as a marketing tool, to researchers willing to stifle debate and tamper with data so as to justify funding, to an internationalist movement interested in transfer of wealth as a social policy, the global climate change debate is all about showing the money.
The “show me the money” line is from the movie Jerry Maguire, about a desperate sports agent willing to do anything. So fitting that the UN climate change guru now uses such a crass phrase
Perhaps the UN guy’s been reading Shakespeare, where Iago, one of the great villains, says,
Put money in thy purse; follow thou the wars; defeat thy favor with an usurp’d beard. I say put money in thy purse.
Thing is, that’s our money he’s talking about.
UPDATE, Thursday 10 December
Defused Lethal Al Gore Poem Released by Government