tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post6085334500026118969..comments2024-03-29T11:07:51.893+13:00Comments on Bowalley Road: Twilight Of The West?Chris Trotterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09081613281183460899noreply@blogger.comBlogger44125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-15581520013650249212015-01-30T13:36:16.495+13:002015-01-30T13:36:16.495+13:00Just to clarify, I didn't say Jesus was anti-S...Just to clarify, I didn't say Jesus was anti-Semitic. I did say that he condemned the Jews, particularly those that didn't follow him. I just believe that this is part of the origin of anti-Semitism which runs through Christianity. That's where it all began.Guerilla Surgeonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03427876447124021423noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-37994189016993320372015-01-29T17:25:46.843+13:002015-01-29T17:25:46.843+13:00GS and Brendan
Since we're into final words,...GS and Brendan <br /><br />Since we're into final words, mine are as follows:<br /><br />Both Christianity and Islam have sacred texts that castigate the Jews.<br /><br />Both religions have, in consequence, been responsible for persecuting and discriminating against the Jews. However, the record of Christianity is infinitely worse (i.e. more murderous) than that of Islam.<br /><br />Conversely, many Christians (such as our friend, Brendan) have gone to great lengths, over the last couple of generations, to distance themselves from this legacy and to explore the Jewish roots of their faith. I honour them for this.<br /><br />In contrast, Judeophobia has, of late, become quite central to the mindset and belief systems of very many Moslems. <br /><br />The reasons for this are manifold and not restricted to the foundation of the State of Israel and the dispossession of the Palestinians, although these have obviously been significant factors.<br /><br />Other factors include (inter alia)the introduction of western Christian Antisemitism into the Middle East by nineteenth century French Catholic clergy, resentment at western colonialism and, more recently, the spread of an extreme, literalist version of Sunni Islam across the Moslem world, courtesy of Saudi Arabian oil wealth. <br /><br />The 'Salafist' doctrines of Sayyid Qutb have also been influential, as has the perception that Islam is under siege across the globe, be it in the Middle East, South Asia, the Caucuses, Central Asia, the Horn of Africa or the cities of western Europe. <br /><br />We can argue as to whether this perception of siege is justified. But it's hard to argue against its existence! <br /><br />Taken together, these factors provide fertile soil for conspiracy theorists. Hence the wide uptake in the Islamic world of, for example, the notorious Russian Antisemitic forgery, "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion", which I last recall seeing piled high at a book stall in Kuala Lumpur airport. <br /><br />Yes, all this is a problem and, for Jews in particular,a dire problem. But it's not the only problem facing Europe's Jews or Europeans as a whole, at this time of economic dysfunction and political unravelling, alienation and discontent. <br /><br />In the 1930s, in not wholly dissimilar circumstances, many Europeans believed they faced an undiluted choice between Fascism and Stalinism. They were wrong.<br /><br />Similarly the notion that they now face a simple choice between fascitoid nativist populism and surrender to Islamo-Fascism is wrong and urgently needs discarding. <br /><br />End of conversation, as far as I'm concerned. Time for a cuppa!Victornoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-7945712670558772922015-01-29T17:25:13.996+13:002015-01-29T17:25:13.996+13:00I thought I had posted my last item on this exchan...I thought I had posted my last item on this exchange, but perhaps just one more – Is this an addiction? ☺<br /><br />@GS<br /><br />The New Testament is not anti-Semitic, neither was Jesus - he was a Jew for goodness sake, but your point about Martin Luther is well made, and I accept that to our immense shame, the Jews of Europe have historically suffered badly at the hands of Christians. <br /><br />However, to be fair, this is not the case today, and in any event there is no Scriptural justification in the Bible for anti-Semitism, which I believe is the defining point. Unlike Muslims, Christians who engage in such behaviour have no mandate from their texts.<br /><br />Yes, I’m to blame for unemployment, along with nasal hair and a list of other maladies. ☺<br /><br />When it comes to the primary source of welfare, the nature of these replies tend to restrict both of us to generalities rather than specifics. I don’t favour dropping state welfare overnight. It took us the best part of 100 years to get here, and it may take that long to unwind. <br /><br />My point is that it is a failed project, it actively undermines functional families, and it needs to be unwound.<br /><br />@Victor<br /><br />Thank you for the clarification, and apologies for applying or implying unwelcome ideological labels! I don’t like them myself, so I should have known better.<br /><br />I agree that the Islamofacists (as you call them) are not close to taking political power in France (yet) although as in Britain I’m sure they will have elected representatives in parliament. However, they don’t need to become a majority, or anything like it in order to make their totalitarian presence felt. The Telegraph reports today that a work of art showing women’s shoes on Muslim prayer mats was removed from a gallery in Paris France following threats of violence.<br /><br />http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/11374899/Blasphemous-artwork-removed-from-Paris-exhibition.html<br /><br />The more we submit, the more we encourage threatening and violent behaviour from the Muslim community. That’s how Islam rolls.<br /><br />I suspect you will agree that this behaviour by Muslims must account in some measure for the rise of ‘anti-immigration’ parties in Europe, the ones that you appear to be concerned about. Who needs or wants the constant threat of violence and intimidation from this ungrateful and culturally supremacist immigrant community?<br /><br />The biggest threat to Europe, is that the existing political elite do nothing to address these problems. This is after all what they are best at.<br /><br />Europe faces some very difficult choices, as do all western nations concerning the rise of militant Islam. We may all have concerns about Marine le Pen, but for the people of France her election may be the lesser of two evils. Ultimately the French will decide this for themselves.Brendan McNeillhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02741263914308842497noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-21084161345599368512015-01-29T13:45:41.580+13:002015-01-29T13:45:41.580+13:00My final word on your Islamophobia Brendan.
The v...My final word on your Islamophobia Brendan.<br /><br />The very origins of anti-Semitism are in your Bible, where the Jews are blamed for deicide. The Gospel of John in particular quotes Jesus as characterising the Jews as sons of the devil or some such.<br />Martin Luther (a figure akin to Mohammed) was specifically anti-Semitic, and argued for Jews to be enslaved, and Judaism banned.<br />So, so-far in the anti-Semitism stakes Christians come out pretty much on top. You could also consider reading1st Thessalonians 2:14-6.<br />The modern word anti-Semitism was actually created by a Christian anti-Semite, to make the emotion – whatever you want to call it – seem more respectable, at least more respectable than Judenhass.<br /><br />You consistently ignore attacks on Jews and for that matter Muslims by right-wing nutcases such as Anders Breivik (both an extreme right winger and a Christian.) when you say the far right are not doing this. Oh yes they are.<br />Jews and Christians in North Africa? It is interesting that you choose the hundred year mark, because nothing much happened to them until the formation of the State of Israel. Indeed in some countries they were treated a lot better than they were in the West.<br /><br />Your inability to take contradictory evidence into account when formulating your Islamophobic rants is quite frustrating. I along with Victor am not at all keen on extremist Islam, but at least he and I can see parallel threads in Christianity. <br /><br />I would like to think that you would try to deal with some of these specific issues, but your handling of specifics is not good.<br /><br />(GOD HELP US, NO WONDER I HAVE TO SHOUT! :-))<br /><br />Guerilla Surgeonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03427876447124021423noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-1552383222969258652015-01-29T13:26:27.613+13:002015-01-29T13:26:27.613+13:00Brendan, my final word is this. Family and the wel...Brendan, my final word is this. Family and the welfare state are not mutually exclusive. <br /><br />If we look at the root cause of your "welfare dependency" it is long-term generational unemployment. That's your fault. :-)<br /><br />You still don't answer specific questions like what if the family is too poor to help? You just avoid them. Which – with all due respect – means as far as I'm concerned you don't know what you're talking about.Guerilla Surgeonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03427876447124021423noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-45879456535995932752015-01-29T09:37:36.801+13:002015-01-29T09:37:36.801+13:00Brendan
For the umpteenth time, I am neither unaw...Brendan<br /><br />For the umpteenth time, I am neither unaware or unconcerned about the roots of Islamic Antisemitism or their current consequences. <br /><br />For me, personally, it might literally turn into a matter of life or death, should I, for example, choose to visit my mother's homeland (Belgium).<br /><br />Nor do I consider myself either "progressive" (yuck!), a member of the "left" (as opposed to the "centre left") or a "romantic" (I prefer Bach). Charm is, of course, another matter.<br /><br />But, with all due respect, you do seem to have an inability to understand what's happening in Europe at present.<br /><br />Certainly, there's a huge problem caused by fundamentalists within Islamic communities and by the reluctance of the authorities in some countries to properly enforce the rule of law against them. <br /><br />But the fact remains that,whatever mayhem they might cause, there's no single European country in which Islamo-Fascists are close to taking power. <br /><br />Yet, in at least one rather large country, old-fashioned white "Aryan" Fascists (suitably airbrushed) are disturbingly close to that goal, whilst in other countries their appeal is also very much on the rise. <br /><br />Forgive the emotional nature of my question but which do you consider the more immediate threat to all that our fathers and grandfathers fought for? <br /><br />Do you really want me to raise my hand in salute to Marine le Pen? If not, what?Victornoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-60489670768116986802015-01-28T23:09:13.939+13:002015-01-28T23:09:13.939+13:00@GS
My final observation to you is this. The wel...@GS<br /><br />My final observation to you is this. The welfare state is a very poor substitute for family. In a democracy, you are free to advocate for this option as you seem keen to do, but in my humble opinion, you sell children short every time. <br /><br />@ Victor<br /><br />The charm of the progressive left is that they are incurable romantics, but cold reality proves it to be their weakness. The prophet Mohammad beheaded captives, took sex slaves and assassinated poets who wrote verse that was critical of him. You would be hard pressed to differentiate between his actions and those of the present day Islamic State. This is the sober and difficult truth that progressive romantics need to grasp if our civilization is to be preserved for the next generation. <br /><br />Furthermore, Islam’s holy texts are explicitly anti-Semitic. To be clear they treat Jews as the enemy that needs to be exterminated. That’s why the Mumbai Muslim terrorists took time out of their day to send two assassins to torture and eventually murder a Jewish couple who ran an accommodation business in the city several km away from their primary target. That’s why a lone Muslim gunman in Brussels chose to attack and murder Jews a Jewish museum, that’s why a lone Muslim gunman murdered four Jews in a Kosher supermarket in Paris, that’s why a year or more previously Jewish school children were murdered in France by a Muslim gunman.<br /><br />This is not about the poverty and oppression of Muslim immigrants, their lack of employment opportunity, or even their sense of victimhood. This is about the example of their prophet, and the exhortation of their sacred texts.<br /><br />Sure there are extremists on the other end of the political spectrum, but today at least, they are not the ones making the running. They are not the ones slaughtering Jews and Journalists. They are not the ones causing Jews to reconsider their future in Europe. They are not the ones seeking to impose Islamic blasphemy laws on the west.<br /><br />Muslims as a people are not the problem here, but Islam is, or at least the form of Islam that is presently animating the Muslim world. There are very few on the progressive left who are prepared to address this honestly. Sam Harris is one, amongst a handful of others.<br /><br />I’m hopeful that you along with others who are readers of this blog will pause and reflect. If we don't begin to hold the Muslim leadership to account for the extremists in their midst, then who will? If we don't challenge them to revisit their theology of violence, then who will?<br />Brendan McNeillhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02741263914308842497noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-86840878527520640262015-01-28T15:01:21.631+13:002015-01-28T15:01:21.631+13:00Hi Brendan
A gift from the heavens for your argu...Hi Brendan<br /><br />A gift from the heavens for your argument!<br /><br />But let's wait and see how this one turns out. These are, after all, the DRESDEN prosecutors!<br /><br />My point remains, however, that Europe faces a challenge from both aggressive Islamisers and racist populism.<br /><br />The former present a threat to the rule of law and, at their most extreme, to the lives and safety of those they castigate, with Jews pretty much at the top of the list. They are not to be lightly dismissed.<br /><br />But the latter might very soon vest the government of reasonably large countries in "hard right" hands. We know what that led to last time around and we should not be in any way sanguine about it. <br /><br />A storm warning is that Greece's openly Neo-Nazi "Golden Dawn" movement achieved third place in this week's election, toppling the once governing social democratic party, "Pasok",from that position.<br /><br />So OK, Greece is a special case. Moreover, parties like the French Front National are, I agree, rather less extreme. <br /><br />Moreover, they've learned (albeit only very recently) to disguise their authoritarian, anti-Jewish and anti-democratic animus behind Islamophobe rhetoric and vapid references to "Europe's Judeo-Christian Heritage" and the like.<br /><br />But, after all their previous decades of Holocaust revisionism and Fascistoid posturing, how can one take their current protestations seriously?<br /><br />PEGIDA seems to come from a similar stable. All over Germany, of recent years, there have been small local organisations that tout anti-immigrant and anti-Islamic rhetoric(but not, all of a sudden, Antisemitism) and often have seats on local councils.<br /><br />A friend of mine, who's a member of a local council in suburban Nordrhein-Westfalen, sits on various cross-party committees with the like and describes their populist, modern, democratic stance as "just window dressing" for basically racist and anti-democratic attitudes. And this in Germany, of all places! <br /><br />Be careful of what you wish for. It might not be quite what you expect.Victornoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-28620594319888207712015-01-28T07:46:43.621+13:002015-01-28T07:46:43.621+13:00I have been listening to you for years now Brendan...I have been listening to you for years now Brendan, and you are still short on specifics. And you still don't answer specific questions about specific problems associated with your theories. So forgive me if I shout out of frustration. You still haven't answered my question. You never do. Absent welfare, what happens to these people? Or are you still happy to give them welfare? The main point is Brendan what are you going to do with them, as you keep mentioning the poor are always with us.Guerilla Surgeonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03427876447124021423noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-40607636470955399852015-01-27T12:21:21.587+13:002015-01-27T12:21:21.587+13:00Hi Victor
"Was all this coincidental and not...Hi Victor<br /><br />"Was all this coincidental and nothing to do with the passions that PEGIDA is helping to fan? I think you'd have some difficulty in convincing me! Moreover, such incidents are far from uncommon across Europe as a whole."<br /><br />Ah, well...<br /><br />Prosecutors say an Eritrean man has been arrested over the fatal stabbing last week of a compatriot in the German city of Dresden, a killing that came amid tension over immigration in the region.<br /><br />http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jan/22/dresden-stabbing-eritrean-man-arrested<br /><br />@GS<br /><br />If you STOPPED SHOUTING and started listening you would have understood my alternative to State funded welfare.Brendan McNeillhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02741263914308842497noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-23580288408528740382015-01-26T17:37:12.858+13:002015-01-26T17:37:12.858+13:00You are weirdly correct Brendan, but I would say t...You are weirdly correct Brendan, but I would say that it's intergenerational unemployment rather than welfare dependency. Without welfare what happens to these people? Jobs don't just appear out of nowhere. It's not as if we're giving them free training or anything.<br />Not everyone is suited to being an entrepreneur. Should they beg in the streets? Should we be a nation of people selling Chinese knockoffs of fancy brand label sunglasses and handbags? You are still talking in cliches. Where is some evidence?<br />AND THE $64,000 QUESTION – ABSENT WELFARE WHAT DO WE DO WITH THEM? Something which you seem incapable of answering.Guerilla Surgeonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03427876447124021423noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-69422045690325135182015-01-26T15:50:46.689+13:002015-01-26T15:50:46.689+13:00Hi Brendan
Maybe I'm too sanguine about the o...Hi Brendan<br /><br />Maybe I'm too sanguine about the one threat although I don't think so.<br /><br />But it seems to me that you are totally oblivious to the other.Victornoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-71291152547246866272015-01-26T14:47:17.674+13:002015-01-26T14:47:17.674+13:00@GS – Have you ever stopped to ponder why there ar...@GS – Have you ever stopped to ponder why there are so many poor and dysfunctional families? Could intergenerational welfare dependence have anything do to with it – just maybe?<br /><br />You don’t have to be wealthy and middle class to support extended family members, that is the stuff of myth and nonsense.<br /><br />I’m not blind to the dysfunction that exists, but I’m also not blind to its causes. Turning to the State for the last 100 years has simply increased the problem. Can we learn from our mistakes or are we bound to keep repeating them?<br /><br />@Victor<br /><br />I respect your opinion, but I suspect you are way too sanguine when it comes to the threat of radical Islam. I hope I’m wrong.<br />Brendan McNeillhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02741263914308842497noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-24796892025428708722015-01-26T14:09:49.980+13:002015-01-26T14:09:49.980+13:00Hi Brendan
One more point.
Of course there'...Hi Brendan <br /><br />One more point. <br /><br />Of course there's no moral equivalence between the attack on Charlie Hebdo and a largely peaceful demonstration.<br /><br />Even less is there any equivalence between such demonstrations and the massacre of shoppers going about their wholly unprovocative daily tasks at a Paris supermarket. And, even less than that, is there any equivalence between a demo and the deliberate shooting of little children in Toulouse a few years back. <br /><br />But demonstrations of the PEGIDA sort are rarely untainted by other less peaceful forms of "political" action. <br /><br />As you may know, Dresden, the city which largely spawned the movement, was also, a few weeks ago, the scene of the fatal stabbing of a young Eritrean male. And just three days prior to his death, a swastika had been daubed on the door of the young man's flat.<br /><br />Was all this coincidental and nothing to do with the passions that PEGIDA is helping to fan? I think you'd have some difficulty in convincing me! Moreover, such incidents are far from uncommon across Europe as a whole.<br /><br />But let's assume for a moment that you're right about Europe's Jewish communities being in denial about the Islamist threat. If so, it hardly makes sense for them to sit around waiting for the Front National or whatever other bunch of xenophobes to also reveal its true colours. <br /><br />Then obvious course is either to support non-xenophobic parties and institutions or, if that no longer works, to emigrate!Victornoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-67115435802036271102015-01-26T13:59:06.649+13:002015-01-26T13:59:06.649+13:00Sorry Brendan meant to add, if you have some actua...Sorry Brendan meant to add, if you have some actual statistics on the reasons Jews are leaving Europe, perhaps you could share them with us :-). I would hate to think that your opinion is based on, well......... opinion.Guerilla Surgeonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03427876447124021423noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-5236542648986002712015-01-26T13:57:41.262+13:002015-01-26T13:57:41.262+13:00Actually, we don't really know what is causing...Actually, we don't really know what is causing Jews to leave Europe. I don't think anyone does exit polls. Not helped by wild statements like "every Jew I know is leaving." Which I have read on at least one new site.<br />Not only that but the number of Jews leaving Europe seems to vary quite widely over time. So it could be Islamic extremism, it could be the crap state of the French economy, it could be a rise in hard right anti-Semitism, or it could be a simple temporal uptick. Coincidence does not make for causation. Good scientific principle.Guerilla Surgeonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03427876447124021423noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-53830168472776173682015-01-26T12:40:21.682+13:002015-01-26T12:40:21.682+13:00Hi Brendan
Believe me, I'm more than aware of...Hi Brendan<br /><br />Believe me, I'm more than aware of the challenges facing Jews in Europe at the moment.<br /><br />Even so, I doubt whether you'll find more than a few thousand Jews in any given European country who are prepared to vote for hard right, anti-immigrant parties.<br /><br />Why? Firstly because European Jews recognise the antecedents of such parties and are appalled to find them once more crowding into the public space.<br /><br />Secondly, because most European Jews are the children, grandchildren or great-grandchildren of immigrants. They have ample reason to fear Islamic Judeophobia. But they also know what it's like to be the castigated "other". And they recognise racist dog whistles when they hear them. <br /><br />Thirdly, because they know that integralist nationalism, once let loose, may well, given time and circumstances, be turned against them as well.<br /><br />Fourthly, because "Never Again"!<br /><br />Even UKIP, which isn't quite your average hard right party, seems to be failing to attract Jewish support (apart from Joan Collins). In fact, even my Thatcherite relations (I have some!) are appalled by its rise. <br /><br />I differ with those (mainly in the US and Israel)who would have us believe there's no longer a safe place for Jews in Europe. But I would undoubtedly share their view if I thought that the only alternative to Islamo-facism was Marie le Pen, Vlaams Belang or the Austrian Freedom Party, let alone "Golden Dawn" or Jobbik. <br /><br />Organisations like PEGIDA are just the slippery slope in that direction.Victornoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-35701345751131914152015-01-26T11:09:13.660+13:002015-01-26T11:09:13.660+13:00On the contrary Brendan, I have a better understan...On the contrary Brendan, I have a better understanding of families than you do. There are people out there who don't have convenient well off families that can help support them. There are people out there that don't have much in the way of family at all. There are all sorts and types of families Brendan some of which are supportive some of which aren't. Are you going to force people to support relatives? How is this going to be funded if the family is poor? You might well thank God that the state isn't a surrogate for your grandchildren, but there are people who do need the state - thank God it's there. I'm really confused as to whether you are that naive, or just wilfully ignorant. You seem to live in a little middle-class bubble.<br />As always, when it comes to specifics you are a trifle lacking. And typically, you think everybody is like you.<br /><br />And you don't think there's any moral equivalence between the people who murdered the cartoonists and Anders Breivik? Who killed 77 people? Or the guy in America who raided a Sikh temple and killed 6 people because he thought they were Muslims? Or those who shot at a Sikh temple in Greece, simply because there were Sikhs? Your idea of moral equivalence is very, very weird.Guerilla Surgeonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03427876447124021423noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-36161030709631554922015-01-25T20:11:11.392+13:002015-01-25T20:11:11.392+13:00@GS - You have a very anemic understanding of fa...@GS - You have a very anemic understanding of family. I have five married children. If any of them were in an abusive relationship, they and their children would be welcome to come and live with us. I have friends who have done exactly this same thing for their 38 year old daughter and her three children.<br /><br />We don’t need the State to become the surrogate parent for our children or our grandchildren – thank you, and thank God.<br /><br />@Victor – please, there is no moral equivalence between Europe’s so called ‘hard right’ and the Islamic supremacists who murdered 12 cartoonists at Charlie Hebdo for transgressing Islamic blasphemy laws, and who also murdered four Jews, just because they could, at a Jewish supermarket.<br /><br />You of all people should be alive to the situation that Jews find themselves in today’s Islamofriendly Europe.<br /><br />You say: “no-one concerned with the security or freedom of European nations should be backing either horse.” But in reality one horse is going to triumph over the other. Even the Prime Minister of Canada admits we are at war with Radical Islam. By refusing to engage you cede sovereignty to the most powerful horse. Today in Europe that is a confident and militant Islam.<br /><br />I agree that it is built on a brittle construct, but even so, it is more powerful than secular materialism, which is the best the west presently has on offer.<br /><br />Denial has never served any community well, especially the Jews, and that's why they are leaving Europe in large numbers.<br />Brendan McNeillhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02741263914308842497noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-54657863785683031992015-01-25T13:18:08.501+13:002015-01-25T13:18:08.501+13:00Brendan
I accept that Islamic militancy has prese...Brendan<br /><br />I accept that Islamic militancy has presented Europe with some significant challenges, although I don't agree with you over their scale or starkness.<br /><br />But, similarly, so has the rise of right-wing populist parties, with racist undertones and (normally) hard right outriders.<br /><br />On the one hand you have a challenge that's totally new (at least since the days of Jan Sobieski). On the other hand, you have a challenge that's sickeningly familiar.<br /><br />I agree that time alone will tell which is the greater threat. But no-one concerned with the security or freedom of European nations should be backing either horse.Victornoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-75210596575469827052015-01-25T12:22:09.049+13:002015-01-25T12:22:09.049+13:00As far as the Islamic thing goes Brendan I guess t...As far as the Islamic thing goes Brendan I guess time will tell. But it seems to me time has already told. In the 1930s there were moral panics about Eastern European immigrants, specifically Jews, who were stereotyped as anarchists, and people who wouldn't integrate into society. Not to mention the religious fears. Yet it all came to nothing. A few anarchist bombs and it all petered out. In Britain now apparently there is another moral panic going on about Eastern Europeans migrating to Britain to live on the benefit. I'm pretty sure that will all come to nothing as well.Guerilla Surgeonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03427876447124021423noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-76248820639326898172015-01-25T09:06:47.124+13:002015-01-25T09:06:47.124+13:00So you believe Brendan people should stay in an ab...So you believe Brendan people should stay in an abusive relationship, simply because of the children? How do we make families "functional"? I somehow doubt it can be done by private enterprise, without spending a lot of money. Absent that, do we just abandon these children? You see Brendan you just make broad sweeping generalisations and talk in platitudes. You don't seem to have any appreciation of the reasons why people are poor, and any practical methods of lifting them out of it. It's a simple fact of life that marriages will break down. Some for perfectly mundane reasons, some because one of the partners is a bad egg. And of course there are those parents, mainly fathers I do believe, who just abandon their families altogether. What are the alternatives to state intervention here?<br />And I think there is quite a difference between the state being in the bedroom, and the state trying to ensure that people don't starve.<br />Glad at least that you have finally admitted that charity cannot cope. You've been hedging around that for some time now.Guerilla Surgeonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03427876447124021423noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-2692789186838938112015-01-24T19:25:27.722+13:002015-01-24T19:25:27.722+13:00Hi GS
With respect to Islam, time will tell who o...Hi GS<br /><br />With respect to Islam, time will tell who of us has the best sense of the risks and challenges it presents to western civilisation. <br /><br />On your second point, I don't see charity as being the answer to poverty, but I do believe the functional family is the best defence against poverty. There is a place for private charity of course, but it's a distant second.<br /><br />There will always be relative poverty and inequality while the State is playing proxy parent to approximately 20% to 25% of the nations children, not counting those supported by WFF.<br /><br />We have spent a long time getting the State out of the bedroom, now lets get them out of the rest of the house. Are you with me on that one, or is it just the bedroom that's a problem for you? :-)Brendan McNeillhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02741263914308842497noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-40076608093832294992015-01-24T14:06:43.383+13:002015-01-24T14:06:43.383+13:00This spells it out even more clearly.
http://www....This spells it out even more clearly.<br /><br />http://www.salon.com/2015/01/22/new_atheists_are_wrong_about_islam_heres_how_data_proves_it/<br /><br />Some actual research.<br /><br />As for your professor Brendan, he seems quite political. Claiming to be a centrist, but associated with a far right political party in so far as Google translate can tell me. Also very Christian :-). Seems to me that taints his appreciation of Islam just a little.<br />Not to mention that birth rates tend to be higher amongst the poor. So unless he's corrected for that, with the "gentrification" of Muslims that problem should largely disappear. After all, they said the same thing about Catholics, and now they use birth control at the same rate as anyone else :-). <br /><br />Incidentally Brendan still waiting for your ideas on how charity is going to solve all our poverty problems. You seem remarkably silent on the mechanics of the whole thing, ideologically appealing though it may be :-).<br /><br />Guerilla Surgeonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03427876447124021423noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-90317131214722667662015-01-24T08:20:20.310+13:002015-01-24T08:20:20.310+13:00Hi Victor
" Germans may not know precisely h...Hi Victor<br /><br />" Germans may not know precisely how new cultural realities are to be reconciled with their hard-won democratic principles and practices. <br /><br />But, mercifully, most of them seem to recognise and reject the politics of ethnic division when they see them. "<br /><br />That may well be true for the host population, but if the growing Muslim immigrant populations are uni-cultural, with demographics and time on their side the multicultural impulse of 'native' Germans becomes increasingly irrelevant.<br /><br />You might like to read this article. An interview By BENT JENSEN, with cultural historian PROFESSOR, DR. PHIL., Frørup Denmark:<br /><br />Original:<br /><br />http://jyllands-posten.dk/debat/kronik/ECE7378962/Europas-undergang-?-tallenes-tale%2F<br /><br />Translation:<br /><br />http://vladtepesblog.com/2015/01/23/europes-downfall-the-figures-speak-for-themselves/#more-76090<br /><br />It spells out the issues clearly.<br /><br /><br />Brendan McNeillhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02741263914308842497noreply@blogger.com