Your Monday reading

• Visual Thesaurous
• SchellingPoint.com
• Reporter gets shot, keeps reporting
• An alternative to business requirements
• The Pop vs Soda map
• David Friedman on Bob Barr
• An interview with Bob Barr
• An Asian rant about Europe, which had the memorable quote

  Heaven is a place where the police are English; the chefs are Italian; the car mechanics are German; the lovers are French and it's all organized by the Swiss. Hell is a place where the police are German; the chefs are English; the car mechanics are French; the lovers are Swiss and it's all organized by the Italians

Recommended reading for Tuesday

• Londonistan Calling - Hitchens goes back to London. Choice quote:

  He was a conspicuous figure because, having lost the use of an eye and both hands in an exchange of views in Afghanistan, he sported an opaque eye plus a hook to theatrical effect. Not as nice as he looked..

• The Crime Against Kansas - Why isn't this sort of thing in more history classes? You might hear about John Brown's raid, but never about any clashes
  

European vs American Talents

From Marginal Revolution

Because European government works better, Europeans demand more of it and get more of it. American liberals look at Europe and see (sometimes) better results per dollar spent. They then conclude that America should be more like Europe, whereas in reality America would end up spending more to get more bad American government.

It's a very nice argument against moving towards European style nationalized health care, to wit, we would not get the same results as they do. Instead we would probably just magnify existing problems.

Tuesday round up

• Popular mechanics and 100 mpg cars
• Couple Fights for Baby 'Metallica' Name
  

  In Sweden, parents must get the names of their children approved by the tax authority, which is in charge of the population registry and issues personal identification numbers, similar to Social Security numbers in the United States.

• Billy Joe Shaver seems to have shot someone.
  

Friday night round up

• Hansellman on graphing - the data "wants" to be presented in a certain way
• Hansellman on a family backup strategy - for all of those of us who give out free tech support to family and friends
• Perceptions of America and Iran in der Spiegel
• Der Spiegel again - Muslim integration into Europe
  

Those crazy Germans

I read this fawning article on the future of China in der Spiegel. The go on and on about the benefits of state owned industry, and a central strategy for all of China's economic activity. And not once do they use the term "National Socialism"!

The Germans are German

From a quick read of Der Spiegel

• They actually have a guide to "Scoring a German"
• German Brothel Offers 50-Percent Discount to Senior Citizens

  The brothel "Pascha" in Cologne is now offering senior citizens a 50 percent discount on sex services -- but only between the hours of 12 and 5 p.m., and only upon proof of age. The offer, which many would argue beats free coffee at McDonalds, is valid for clients aged 66 and over.

  Only "many"? Not all? Also from the same article

  A brothel in Dresden in economically hard-hit eastern Germany made headlines in 2005 when it introduced a 20-percent discount for the long-term unemployed.

  I can't think of a worse incentive...
  

Back up

I'm back from being without the internet all day, oh how I missed it. To celebrate, check out the Frank Zappa statue in Vilnius Lithuania. (via Coming Anarchy)

The funniest thing I've read all year

French marchers say 'non' to 2007

Parodying the French readiness to say "non", the demonstrators in the western city of Nantes waved banners reading: "No to 2007" and "Now is better!"

The marchers called on governments and the UN to stop time's "mad race" and declare a moratorium on the future.

The headbutt seen round the world

Here is how it was seen in different nations.

What's wrong with German people?

You would think that this article German cannibal jailed for life for 'ultimate kick' couldn't get any stranger after the opening paragraphs of

A self-confessed German cannibal has been jailed for life after a court here found him guilty of murder for killing and partly eating an allegedly willing victim he had met on the Internet.
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The court in the western German city of Frankfurt found that Armin Meiwes, known as the "cannibal of Rotenburg," killed his victim to satisfy his sexual urges.

Meiwes, 44, immediately said that he would appeal the sentence, signaling another round in a long legal process that has laid bare a hitherto secret market in cannibalism.

but it really does get stranger from there.

Nomenclature

Over the past week the term "Prophet Mohammed" has come into existence. Weird. It used to just be Mohammed, with no title.

In related news, here is a fine editorial by Andrew Sullivan on the topic, and here is a post about the media as "a proper Victorian gentleman" which is well worth reading Also marginally related, Fareed Zakaria on the decline of Europe.

There's not much more to say.....

Everything that needs to written about the current green line conflict (to use hip internationalist jargon) in Denmark has been written. I suppose the underlying theme is the need for people to participate in a society to a strong degree.

It is a good display of spine by the Danes; I imagine we'll see a lot more of this sort of thing in the future as multiculturalism wears thin for the Europeans, and diminishing marginal returns (as it becomes easier to move about that part of the world) on immigration.

Interesting

Holland might ban the burqua. Here is a link to Georgia's largely unenforced mask law, which would ban it here as well.

A fine point

I forget how I got to this examination of the French riots, but this is a pretty good explanation

What you’re seeing in the riots now is really just the same thing that happens when the government tries to privatise some public company, and the unions go on strike.

This is the French banlieu criminal union going on strike.

Long time no blog

The riots in France continue. Is it me, or is it very strange that there is a national strategy on what is essentially a local law enforcement problem, albeit a common one.

I still think some of the French politicians are playing a "the worse, the better" game with the rioters, to wit, the worse the riots, the more the anti-immigration sentiment, which bodes well for le Pen's party. Or it could be that the French government simply lacks the ability to end the riots.

And on the 13th day

The riots continue, and seem to escalate a tad.. I am a believer that this underclass was created by perverse incentives of the French welfare system, who have nothing to lose by indulging in Jane Galt "breaking stuff is fun" meme.

That being said though, are the French actually trying to stop the rioting? Their efforts have been somewhat subtle. It seems like there's something larger afoot here.

Are the French even trying?

We enter day 11 of the European intifada.

So now the French cops found a Molotov Cocktail factory and rioters are shooting at cops and attacking firemen. They seem to be doing a successful job of ghettoizing (or creating their own autonomous areas) themselves. I suppose the French will eventually call in the military once this whole thing starts to lose steam and then call it a triumph of civilization.

One of the commenters over at the Belmont Club observed:

But are letting the burnings and insurrection go on so as to give the Muslims plenty of rope to hang themselves. Perhaps a decision exists within the French government that Muslim labor is not needed when less criminally-inclined, less subversive alternatives exist in Latin America, India, Asia......and that they have decided Islam cannot assimilate and the riots are a good way of convincing the public of that fact..

Which is an interesting thought. Not practical, and a bit too clever. It also ignores the (I think) obvious observation that when you pay people to stay out of the economy you create an underclass and breed resentment. I would imagine that would happen with most immigrant groups.

Also from Belmont

Car burning is spectacular, serious enough to get attention yet -- and this is the vital point -- not serious enough to provoke lethal force

which is probably true. That means these things can go on forever and probably continue for another week or two. All of this points to large gains for le Pen's far right party whenever their next election happens.

Hookers for the handicapped

No, really it's true. Be glad you don't pay taxes in Denmark.

The Danish government is under attack for paying for its disabled citizens to have sex with prostitutes.

The official 'Sex, irrespective of disability' campaign pays sex workers to provide sex once a month for disabled people.

The legal guidelines advise: "It could be of great importance that the carer speaks to the prostitute together with the person in their care, to help them express their wishes."

Via the Kaus of Slate

Fascinating and horrifying

I recently read this interview with a terrorist recruiter in the UK Prospect. It's quite long but worth reading. The recruiter is some unassimilated Pakistani Brit who seems quite terrifying in his certainty. It brought to mind two things.

1. It is uncanny how accurate Eric Hoffer was in describing this sort of person in The True Believer as rootless, no strong family, no national identity, no sense of self etc.
2. The current situation seems to be similar to the international(ist) unrest Trotsky had in mind before he was forced out by Stalin. That is to say; having active agents throughout the world with no strong connections to the center of the movement. The Global Guerillas blog calls this Open Source Warfare.

And now I see this article on the French deporting radical Muslim clerics. Hmm.

Pileing on Europe

Robert Samuelson of the Washington Post joins the chorus of people who think that Europe has some major problems.

Interesting reading while uploading

A very interesting post from Austin Bay on US-French anti-terror collaboration. HT Instapundit

Our troubling times

I came across this article on Instapundit. It's a Reuters article about Italian authorities criminally charging an author for defaming Islam. For all practical purposes she would be tried for blasphemy. She's rather old and living in the US and I doubt she'll be extradited. Glenn ends with this quote

Tom Wolfe once said that Fascism is forever descending on the United States, but that somehow it always lands on Europe. Perhaps the same is true with theocracy?

Now mind you, she is being charged in Italy, not the US. If the Italians want to dig their own grave, so be it.

The cause (I think) is based upon vastly different underlying concepts; namely the West has moved the concepts of state, society and religion (and, for the properly educated, the economy) so far apart that Westerners' really aren't on the same page as those raised or educated in the Middle East or in the Middle Eastern way. What is a minor matter to us is a much larger thing to them and vice versa. Political Correctness and a permanent indignation industry don't help either.

I do think it's going to end badly. The cumulative effect of legal and other victories on behalf of Muslim sensibilities will effectively dehumanize Muslims in the eyes of the West and move them further out of the mainstream. By expending large amounts of effort on what seem to be trivial matters (based on the conceptual differences listed above), and maintaining group unity (which also seems to be happening) it will have the de facto effect of separating Muslims from the rest of society and giving them a high-maintenance reputation. Put in more mathematical terms it will raise the costs of interaction. The long run effect of all this is that the Western world treats Muslims as exotic pets and they never assimilate.

I wonder if there are any Ricardian Theories of cultural conflict? If not, this is the genesis of one I suppose.

A new slur!

Yesterday while at Borders I spent about 20 minutes flipping through a US News & World Report special issue about Islam. What I read was fairly informative. While I thought it neglected the conceptual differences between traditional Islamic notions of law and society and traditional Western notions, it was still a good read.

One thing that stuck me was the interviews with American Muslims (in describing themselves they used the phrase "Muslim-American" which annoys me intensely) was their descriptions of how 9-11 affected them. Granted I'm sure they interviewed dozens of people and they only chose a few, but they all had the same theme, largely that they were all self-consciously Muslim in their day to day life, whether in garb, associating with other Muslims, etc. One even went so far as to describe identification with a larger group as "uniquely American". That also annoyed me intensely (this should be a country for individuals, groups are for the Balkans.). They were then surprised and offended when people began viewing them differently after 9-11. Put another way, they voluntarily profiled themselves before 9-11, but became offended when perception became negative.

There was also a section on Europe's experience with Islam. The Theo van Gogh story is well known, but there was an article about Muslim immigrants not assimilating in Germany. The article also mentioned that the immigrant children are taught in Islamic schools. I don't remember if the German taxpayers were on the hook for that or not. Not surprisingly this produces youth who have no interest in assimilating and I would imagine no economically viable skills, which is great if you're trying to produce a permanent underclass, but beyond that it seem braindead. The slur mentioned in the title is "Pork Eaters" which is a derogatory term that the Muslim schoolchildren use for ethnic Germans.

I then come across this article in Reason

On April 30, American journalist Chris Crain became the victim of a hate crime in Amsterdam. While walking in the street holding hands with his partner, he was savagely beaten by seven men shouting antigay slurs. A few days later, Scott Long, director of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Program at the Human Rights Watch, expressed some sympathy for the gay-bashers. Crain's attackers were reportedly Moroccan immigrants.

"There's still an extraordinary degree of racism in Dutch society," Long opined to the gay news service PlanetOut. "Gays often become the victims of this when immigrants retaliate for the inequities that they have to suffer."

and

Serap Cileli, a Turkish-German author and filmmaker who escaped an arranged marriage, told Der Spiegel that until recently, the German media refused to publish her accounts of her and other Turkish women's experiences for fear of appearing "racist."

Even feminists often balk at breaking the multicultural faith. A 2001 article in Labyrinth, a feminist philosophy journal, lamented that concerns about the oppression of women in the Third World could perpetuate "the stereotype that 'brown' men abuse 'brown' women more than white men" and cause "Third World" people to be perceived as "more barbaric" than Westerners.

Now beyond the implicit statistical errors in the above what does it say when everyone is so concerned about appearances and feelings over everything else. I'm reminded of the old Onion headline "ACLU defends Klan's right to burn down ACLU headquarters".