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Le Mont de Sisyphe
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Location: Zurich, Switzerland

Je suis beau et intelligent. À part cela, je suis juriste helvète, libéral-conservateur, amateur d'armes, passionné d'histoire et de politique. Je suis libéral et capitaliste convaincu car je pense que c'est cela l'état naturel de l'homme. Je parle le "Schwiizerdütsch" avec un accent zurichois, j'adore la bonne musique, la bière et surtout la femme avec qui je vis.





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Tuesday, May 30, 2006

Die CVP ist eine linke Partei

Ich stamme ja ursprünglich aus einer CVP-freundlichen Familie. Und manche meiner besten Freunde sind traditionnell CVP-Wähler, die kaum als "links" qualifiziert werden könnten. Doch die Christdemokraten beweisen einmal mehr, dass der Linksruck, der seit einiger Zeit durch die Partei geht, nachhaltig ist. Die Bundesratskandidatur von Doris Leuthard, die mit so ziemlich 100%-iger Wahrscheinlichkeit gewählt werden wird, wird eindeutig die "sozial eingestellten" Kräfte im Lande stärken. Der CVP letzter Streich ist aber nun die Stimmfreigabe der Zürcher Sektion bei den Ersatzwahlen in den Zürcher Regierungsrat. Bekanntlich soll der vakante Sitz der abgetretenen FDP-Regierungsrätin Fierz wieder besetzt werden. Es treten zwei Damen an, die eine, Ursula Gut, welche für liberales Gedankengut einsteht, die andere, Ruth Genner, die in Zürich eine links-grüne Wende einläuten will. Zitat von Genners Homepage:
Die Finanzknappheit ist in erster Linie das Resultat von unverantwortlichen bürgerlichen Steuergeschenken. Hier stehe ich ein für eine ehrliche Politik: Die Finanzen müssen auch auf der Einnahmenseite saniert werden.
Genner muss zugute gehalten werden, dass solche Aussagen eindeutig sind. Dass aber die CVP, die sich weiterhin als "wirtschaftlich liberal" verkaufen will (dixit Doris Leuthard in einem kürzlichen Weltwocheinterview), gegen eine explizit linke Wirtschaftspolitik offensichtlich nichts substantiell einzuwenden hat, zeigt, dass sie von "wischiwaschi" nach links gekippt ist. Unabhängig, wie sie es ja gerne wäre, wird sie damit immer weniger. Im Gegenteil, die immer weitergehende Anbiederung nach links wird die CVP bald als Filiale der Sozialisten erscheinen lassen.

UPDATE (31052006, 08:00): Die NZZ teilt meine Meinung:
(...) Was will uns die CVP mit dem Nichtentscheid über sich sagen? Dass sie eine Partei ist, die unabhängig von den Blöcken politisiert? Eine Partei, die sich an Sachfragen orientiert statt am Links-Rechts-Schema? Eine, die unbeirrt ihren Weg in der Mitte geht? So möchte es der CVP-Präsident verstanden wissen. Die Stimmfreigabe lässt freilich weitere Interpretationen zu. Selbst in der CVP räumt man ein, es handle sich auch um einen Tritt ans Schienbein von FDP-Präsidentin Doris Fiala, die die CVP mehrmals in die linke Ecke gestellt habe. Zwar beeilt sich die CVP-Spitze nachzuschieben, man halte ja doch Gut für die geeignete Kandidatin. Aber das ändert nichts am Signal, das mit dem Entscheid ausgesandt wird: dass es der CVP egal ist, ob eine dezidiert bürgerlich politisierende und wirtschaftsnahe Kandidatin Regierungsrätin wird oder eine, die ebenso klar Stellung bezieht gegen Steuererleichterungen sowie für die Beschränkung des Verkehrs in der Luft und auf der Strasse.(...)

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Monday, May 29, 2006

Questioning myself on "Redistribution"

The more I think about it, the more I feel uncomfortable about it: The Redistribution of wealth in a Welfare State. What else is Redistribution than A, B, and C deciding ("voting") to rob ("tax") D and E in order to offer the prey to ("subsidize") F?

Some may wonder why I am putting the question that straight forward, but it has been on my mind for quite some time now. On the one hand, taxing income in order to "redistribute" it is pure legalized robbery, no doubt about it. It is therefore highly immoral. On the other side, I also feel uncomfortable not to approve it, since I still think that any other outcome (with no redistribution at all) would be unacceptable with regard to the human consequences. A minimum of redistribution seems unavoidable in the world we're living in. Or would there be other, better means? Thanks for disabusing me.

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Saturday, May 27, 2006

Reverence to the Gipper

A short film on Ronald Reagan.



UPDATE (27.05.2006, 19:25): Here are two sites with lots of Reagan's quotes. Love it!

One example, which is one of my favorites:
"Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction."
Another one, on his predecessor:
"Recession is when your neighbor loses his job. Depression is when you lose yours. And recovery is when Jimmy Carter loses his."
Since we are speaking of this awful president Carter, here's another video, of the debate during the campaign in 1980. Carter just had no chance.






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Froid dans le dos...


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Friday, May 26, 2006

Jerusalem Day - a personal account

Chaim at the Freedoms's Cost has a very personal account of how he experienced the Six Days War and the day of the taking of Jerusalem by the IDF.
If I forget thee… A very Personal Recollection

Today is Jerusalem Day - celebrating 39 years since Jerusalem was liberated by Israel’s Defence Forces… I thought I would share some thoughts…

I arrived in Israel on Friday before the Six Day War, as a volunteer. (Read the rest)

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Wednesday, May 24, 2006

Friedman, Nixonomics and Down with Democracy

Three texts worth reading which I found recently:

Milton Friedman on the Surplus (interview) (Hat tip: Arlecchino)
What should the Bush administration do with the surplus? Give it back to the American people, of course. In an interview with Peter Robinson, Nobel laureate Milton Friedman explains why he is "in favor of any tax cut, under any circumstances, in any way, in any form whatsoever."
A video with an interview with Milton Friedman here.

Gregory Bresiger on George W. Bush's "Nixonomics"
(...) Nixon's economic problems — like George Bush's — stemmed from his embrace of inflation as an economic cure-all. He increased state spending at the same time that he pressured the chairman of the Federal Reserve Board to expand the money supply. This Republican president, several years into his first term and looking toward re-election, proclaimed himself converted to the policies of full-employment and deliberate deficits.

"Now, I am a Keynesian," Nixon announced on television. Did Nixon, the leader so noted for not caring about economics, understand what he was saying? Keynesianism, then and now, had made persistent inflation respectable. Indeed, small amounts of inflation were thought to be good for an economy.

Keynesians see their embrace of inflation not only as an economic stimulant for managing the business cycle, but as a backdoor method of redistributing income. Indeed, Nixon said that inflation was an acceptable price to pay for an expanding economy, despite the dangers of double-digit inflation and stagflation. (...)
Hans-Hermann Hoppe: Down With Democracy (French translation) (Hat tip: Pan)
(...) More importantly, it must be made clear again that the idea of democracy is immoral as well as uneconomical. As for the moral status of majority rule, it must be pointed out that it allows for A and B to band together to rip off C, C and A in turn joining to rip off B, and then B and C conspiring against A, etc. This is not justice but a moral outrage, and rather than treating democracy and democrats with respect, they should be treated with open contempt and ridiculed as moral frauds. On the other hand, as for the economic quality of democracy, it must be stressed relentlessly that it is not democracy but private property, production, and voluntary exchange that are the ultimate sources of human civilization and prosperity. (...)
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Tuesday, May 23, 2006

Problem solving

Via the Blog Chigaco Boyz, you can find some essential truths:

Let's say you've been keeping cats for a while, and you've been feeding them outside in the yard. Every time the bowl gets low, someone pours in more cat food.

One day you notice that you've been going through multiple bags of cat food per day. Then you look outside and notice that there are entirely too many stray cats in the yard. You've successfully deduced that the stray cats coming in your yard from all over the neighborhood are eating all of the extra cat food you've been buying. Now how do you solve this problem? Do you:

a) Keep putting cat food in the yard. Round up as many stray cats as you can find and drop them off next door. Repeat as necessary.

b) Keep putting cat food in the yard. Build a large wall around your property to keep the stray cats out.

c) Keep putting cat food in the yard. Patrol the perimeter of your property with a gun to keep the stray cats out.

d) Keep putting cat food in the yard. Adopt the stray cats that are currently in your yard, but this is it! After this you aren't taking in any more, and that's final. Repeat as necessary.

e) Stop putting cat food in the yard. Feed your cats and only your cats in a place where the strays can't get access to the food.

Let's say you go with (e).

Result? There's fewer cats in the yard, and the ones that do show up aren't eating any of your cat food. You're buying significantly less cat food than before. There's also a distinct shortage of mice on the premises. Life is good.

Of course if this decision is made by committe, especially if that committe features heavy representation from the ones that originally advocated adopting several cats and feeding them outside, this solution might meet with some resistance...


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Monday, May 22, 2006

No compassion for the Palestinians

How the Arabs see it:
With the scourge of starvation beginning to take its toll on impoverished Palestinians also tormented by unrelenting Israeli campaigns of violence and ruin, the Hamas-led government is searching for options to surmount one of the worst threats faced in the occupied territories since 1967.(...)

Indeed, Hamas's refusal to yield to Israeli- American blackmail has strengthened the movement's standing in the eyes of most Palestinians who have come to view their government as epitomising and embodying heroic Palestinian resistance in the face of Western-Zionist arrogance and aggression.(...)
And yet, it would be so easy for the Palestinian "Governement" to improve the situation of its constituency. The only thing Hamas would have to do is to credibly renounce to Genocide.* Can't be that hard, right? Until then, and although I try really hard, I don't feel any compassion for these people. They are in this situation because they choose to be so.

*The other, second thing would be to renounce to corruption, but that's another question.


(Hat tip: Slak)

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US Anti-missile System in Europa

Genüsslich und mit Spannung erwarte ich die pazifistischen Protestdemos der Nihilo-Pawlowianer in Europas Strassen:
USA planen Abwehrsystem gegen iranische Raketen

Polen und Tschechien als Standorte

Die USA wollen gemäss einem Bericht der «New York Times» auf europäischem Boden ein Abwehrsystem gegen iranische Interkontinental-Raketen errichten. Die Gesamtkosten werden auf rund 1,6 Milliarden Dollar geschätzt. (...)

Während das Projekt in den USA bisher kaum Aufmerksamkeit erregt hat, wird es offenbar in Polen bereits heftig diskutiert. Russland sei besorgt über eine Erweiterung der Einfluss-Sphäre des amerikanischen Militärs in Richtung Osten im früheren Warschauer Pakt.
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Sunday, May 21, 2006

Zur Revision des Asylgesetzes

Meine Gewohnheit, Kommentare auf anderen Blogs kurz zwischenzuspeichern, macht sich wieder mal bezahlt. Ich habe auf dem Blog der CVP der Stadt Luzern auf einen Beitrag von Nationalratsmitglied Ruedi Lustenberger geantwortet. Ich bin mir aber nicht sicher, ob der Kommentar auf Zulassung durch die Administration des Blogs wartet oder ob er untergangen ist. Ich drucke ihn zur Sicherheit also einfach nochmals hier ab (inkl. Kommentar zum Kommentar).

Es geht um die Revisionen des Asyl- und des Ausländergesetzes (sagt man wohl politisch korrekt "Migrantengesetz"?). Ich habe mir insbesondere ein paar bescheidene Gedanken über einige Punkte der Asylgesetzrevision gemacht. Ich gestehe, über die Gesetzesvorschläge noch nicht ganz sattelfest zu sein, doch wage ich schon mal, hier kurz den Stand meiner sich (noch in Entwicklung befindlichen) Meinung dazu mitzuteilen. Hier also mein Kommentar:
Ich gestehe im Vornherein noch nicht ganz up to date zu sein über diese zwei Gesetzesvorschläge. Jene die meinen Blog kennen sollten (ich habe bemerkt, dass er in der Blogroll gelistet ist - danke, habe mit Freuden Gegenrecht gewährt), wissen, dass ich politisch liberal-konservativ eingestellt bin. Zwei-drei Dinge geben mir jedoch im Asylbereich zu denken:

Zum einen scheint mir die Tatsache, dass von Asylbewerbern (ich rede von echten politischen Flüchtlingen, sei es vor staatlicher oder nicht-/quasistaatlicher Verfolgung) der Besitz eines Passes vorausgesetzt wird, doch an der Realität vorbeizuzielen. Jener der vor seinen eigenen Behörden fliehen muss, wird sich kaum an diese wenden können um ihm einen Reisepass auszustellen und ihm bei der Ausreise behilflich zu sein. Gerade so gut könnte man auch eine amtliche Bescheinigung des Herkunftslandes verlangen, wonach der Asylbewerber politisch verfolgt sei.

Des Weiteren finde ich die Tatsache höchst befremdlich, dass die Schweizer Behörden mit den Botschaften des betreffenden Landes Kontakt aufnehmen dürfen, bevor ein Ablehnungsbescheid rechtskräftig ist, bevor also die Asylrekurskoimmission (ARK) über die Beschwerde entschieden hat. Dies macht in meinen Augen das gesamte Beschwerdeverfahren zu einer Farce. Man sollte nicht vergessen, dass (echte) Flüchtlinge nicht selten vor Ort etwa noch Familie oder Bekannte haben, die selbst bei einer Aufnahme des Antragsteller erheblichen Repressionen ausgesetzt werden können. Man muss wissen, dass eine erstinstanzliche Aufnahme als echter Flüchtling den Behörden des Herkunftslandes aus Sicherheitsgründen selbverständlich nie gemeldet wird. Diese Vertraulichkeit wird dem Antragsteller bei der Empfangsstelle übrigens zugesichert.

Letzter Punkt zu den vorgeschlagenen Fristverkürzungen zur Beschwerdeführung: Ich empfinde es als Jurist und Rechtsanwalt als Hohn, dass Beschwerdefristen von 30 auf wenige Tage zusammengestaucht werden, offiziell um die Verfahrendauer zu straffen. Wenn man weiss, dass die Behörden nach dem Einreichen der Rechtsmittel bisweilen Monate oder gar Jahre brauchen, um rechtskräftige Entscheide auszustellen, dann fragt man sich schon, was auf Kosten des Beschwerdeführers gewonnene 20 Tage oder so bringen sollen. Es sind die Behörden die für die Dauer der Verfahren verantwortlich sind, nicht die Beschwerdeführer und ihre (im internationalen Vergleich kurze) Beschwerdefrist von 30 Tagen.

Ich bin gespannt, was Sie dazu meinen.
Ich bin der Auffassung, dass das "Ausländerrecht", d.h. das Immigrationsrecht der Schweiz, ganz dem nationalen Interesse der Schweiz zu dienen hat. Dazu gehört namentlich, dass man sich erlaubt, zwischen erwünschter und unerwünschter Immigration zu unterscheiden. Qualifizierte Ausländer (tschuldigung: Migranten) sind brauchbarer als nichtqualifizierte. Sie riskieren weniger, arbeitslos oder invalid zu werden und da sie mehr verdienen, zahlen sie auch mehr Steuern und Sozialabgaben. Das Immigrationsrecht ist deshalb primär Wirtschaftsrecht. Ergänzt wird es insbesondere durch Bestimmungen über Familienleben (Stichwort Familiennachzug) und Strafnormen. Asylrecht ist hingegen humanitäres Recht und dient den vitalen Interessen politisch verfolgter Menschen. Echter Flüchtling ist jener, der am eigenen Leib von anderen Menschen verfolgt wird, weil er irgendetwas an sich hat, das nicht gefällt. Ich sträube mich an dieser Stelle gegen die (in der Schweiz inzwischen aufgegebene) Unterscheidung zwischen (genügender) staatlicher und (ungenügender) nichtstaatlicher Verfolgung; als ob Folter durch nichtstaatliche Akteure weniger schlimm wäre als jene duch staatliche. Ein Wirtschafts-"Flüchtling" hat in diesem Bereich aber nichts verloren. Ebenso wenig grundsätzlich jener, der vor Naturkatastrophen flieht.

Zum Schluss möchte ich daran erinnern, dass die Asylantragszahlen noch nie (oder schon lange nicht mehr) so niedrig waren. Ich bin deshalb auch der Auffassung, dass dieser Bereich unnötig politisiert ist. Eine Versachlichung der Diskussion wäre hier überfällig. Zentral ist hingegen eine deutliche Positionierung im Immigrationsrecht.

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The EU: an obstacle to individual freedom

The EU wants to tell you what you are allowed to listen to, what to see and what to say on the Internet. That is one more attempt of the European Animal to become a huge Leviathan rising taxes and violating its citizens' liberties.

EU Commissioner for Censorship and Acceptable Opinions Information Society and Media, Viviane Reding, wants to regulate content on the Internet and wants "rules restricting television content to cover telephones and the Internet as well as over-the-air broadcasts". Of course, that is driven by a concern of "basic societal values": the "protection of young children" and restrictions on "incitement to hatred". At a recent meeting of European culture ministers, Reding said that there was "wide agreement on the restrictions against content that goes too far and ... destroys our society."

What means "going too far"? Is this post going too far? Is Bretzelmann, comparing this with Stalinism, going too far? Should we all be shut down? Who's going to decide on this? Some selective Anti-Racism NGOs as it is already current in France? Some detached culture ministers?* An Internet police? Big Brother? I miss the old days when people merely spoke of a European Common Market and of promoting economic freedoms. The "Political Integration" however proves to be a Road to Serfdom. It is puzzling to remember that it was Reding who accused China of "not being ashamed of censorship" and stated that it was the EU's view that the Internet didn't belong to anyone. At the same time though, the French Member of the European Parliament Alain Lamassoure wants to tax SMS and e-mails (Hat tip: ILYS).

Yet, did you know that the people working at the European Commission pay exceptionally low personal income taxes? A small wage tax (around 10%) is levied by the Commission, the rest is taxfree (!). I do not even mention the considerable additional benefits that are granted to these people. But still, it is the Commission that defends the Union's tax interests by bullying low tax countries and calling effective tax competition "harmful" since such competition allegedly cuts the public funds needed to finance its "Social Model" (dixit a Commission official, whom I won't name. She didn't even grin while saying that). Could you imagine members of some national Parliament having a considerable influence on tax legislation and policy but paying no taxes themselves?

As Pan concisely points out, while the European Union tends to bloat and become virtually a totalitarian contradiction of individual liberty, a small Eastern European country (ironically one of the EU's new members) leads the way to more individual freedom. Indeed, Estonia's evolution from Communsim to prosperity was influenced by ideas of American libertarians, above all Milton Friedman, for whom the ultimate ennemy of freedom is always the government: the smaller its size, the better. Only then can a society overall be prosperous. The trend towards Centralisation, big Government and Socialism in the European Union is however a guarantee of failure.

* The Swiss minister of the Judiciary, Christoph Blocher, recently said that in a truly liberal country, a Ministry of Economy would not be needed. I would add that in a truly liberal country, culture ministers are superfluous too.

UPDATE I (21.05.2006, 18:00):



UPDATE II (22.05.200, 15:25): Zilch has a great comment on this:
Viviane Reding may be well meaning but at the heart of such initiatives there’s the basic idea that people are too stupid or weak to make a decision by themselves, they need to be protected by a higher power, A nanny state who can always look over their shoulder and check that they’re not misbehaving (God knows what they might do should they behave freely).

Furthermore, there’s also the idea that society can be managed by regulating the interaction of the individuals. This has been a characteristic of every totalitarian dictature of the 20th century. However, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, Hitler did not have the technological means to spy constantly on their citizens, they had to rely on a secret police.

Today, however, bureaucrats can rely on state of the art technology and an army of NGOs for the active monitoring of citizens and the “protection of society”. This may look like i’m exagerating but they’re already putting people in jail for SpeakCrime how long before they start locking you up for Thoughtcrime ?

It’s only a matter of developing the required technology and reaching a wide agreement on what is dangerous for society before they’re able to do so. The highway to hell is paved with good intentions.

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Saturday, May 20, 2006

Plot to down El Al jet in Geneva foiled

It seems that some terrorists wanted to shoot down an Airplane of the Israeli company El Al in Geneva. The plot was uncovered in December.



Via the Jerusalem Post:
Plot to down El Al jet in Geneva foiled
JPost.com Staff, THE JERUSALEM POST May. 19, 2006

A terrorist plot to blow up an El Al jet at Geneva airport with an RPG (rocket propelled grenade) in December was uncovered by the Swiss and French intelligence agencies, details released for publication on Friday revealed.

The Yedioth Aharonot newspaper reported that a secret agent working undercover amongst an Islamic terror cell in the city discovered the plan after three immigrants of Arabic origin boasted of their attempts to smuggle weapons from Russia with the ultimate goal of shooting down an Israeli plane at the airport.

When the matter was reported to Israeli security, El Al changed the flight paths of all its Geneva-bound planes, landing them at Zurich Airport the following week.

Swiss officials reported that no arrests were made following the discovery since the plan had yet to reach its final operational stages.

El Al has reportedly installed the Flight Guard Self Protection System at a cost of one million dollars per plane on some of its fleet, and plans to install it in all its jets in the future.

However, the system, which is capable of detecting an approaching missile, would be largely useless against an 'unguided' weapon such as the RPG, which is not radar-guided and does not expel enough heat to be tracked.
This is an RPG (rocket propelled grenade):



I really wonder where the terrorists came from.

UPDATE I (23.05.2006, 09:35): According to the Swiss newspaper NZZ, the Office of the Prosecutor of the Swiss Confederation has made several arrests of alleged islamist terrorists. They are said to belong to the Algerian Salafist Group GSPC linked to Al-Quaeda. It is unclear though whether those arrests are linked to the plot in Geneva. The finding of the RPG is also not confirmed. I must add for non-Swiss that in the past the Federal Prosecutor has had several mishaps and that it is therefore under heavy pressure. Most of the fight against crime is however carried out by the Cantons (the Swiss "States").

UPDATE II (23.05.2006, 14:05): For those reading French, Ludovic has more on it.
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Friday, May 19, 2006

Iranian Jews to wear yellow mark

[Preliminary Remark, 21.05.2006: The story seems to be hoax. Not that the Iranian regime wouldn't be capable of such a law, but it seems it was not for now yet.]

Does this sound familiar?



via the Jerusalem Post:

New Iranian law to require Jews to wear yellow band
JPost.com Staff, THE JERUSALEM POST May. 19, 2006

A new dress-code law reportedly passed in Iran this past week mandates the government to make sure that religious minorities - Christians, Jews and Zoroastrians - will have to adopt distinct colour schemes to make them identifiable in public, the Canadian National Post reported on Friday.

Under the new law, which still awaits final approval from Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Jews will have to wear a yellow band on their exterior in public, while Christians will be required to don red ones.

Furthermore, according to the law, the Iranian government has envisioned that all Iranians wear "standard Islamic garments" designed to remove ethnic and class distinctions.

The purpose for the law was to prevent Muslims from becoming najis "unclean" by accidentally shaking the hands of non-Muslims in public.

"The new law resembles the Holocaust," said head of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles, Rabbi Marvin Heir, and warned that, "Iran was nearing Nazi Ideology."

According to Army Radio, Wiesenthal Center officials sent a letter to United Nations Director General Kofi Annan urging him "not to ignore" the new law, and reminded him that, "The world ignored Hitler for many years."

The new law was drafted during the presidency of Muhammad Khatami in 2004, but was blocked. That blockage, however, has been removed under pressure from current President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

According to Ahmadinejad, reported the National Post, the new Islamic uniforms will establish "visual equality" for Iranians as they prepare for the return of the Hidden Imam.

The final shape of the uniforms is yet to be established but there is consensus on a number of points.
I used to be called a right-wing extremist or a "neo-con" when comparing today's Iran crisis with Europe's past in the thirties and the forties. And still, more and more parallels appear: open threats, an aggressive rearmament, the will to destroy the Jews, a weak "International Community" refusing to face reality and opting for futile and counterproductive appeasemement. Hitler too tried to figure out how far he could go, and as we know today, he managed to go very far and the price eventually paid for it was almost unbearable. It is funny though to remember that Western leftitst nowadays like to compare Bush or even Sharon to Hitler. In fact, the Nazis are of course long gone and History does not repeat itself. But actually, the people most likely to defend Hitler's heritage are right now sitting in Teheran (the ones sitting in Ramallah and Damascus are not in a position to achieve that goal on their own). How can one still seriously believe that such a regime would finally comply and voluntarily renounce to obtaining the means of becoming a regional or even a world threat?

Did someone say "Peace for our time?"

(Hat tip: Fred & Pan)

UPDATE I (19.05.2006, 20:16): Vital Perspective has also reacted, reminding one of Charles Krauthammer's recent editorials in the (not especially neo-con friendly) Washington Post:

As it races to acquire nuclear weapons, Iran makes clear that if there is any trouble, the Jews will be the first to suffer. "We have announced that wherever [in Iran] America does make any mischief, the first place we target will be Israel," said Gen. Mohammad Ebrahim Dehghani, a top Revolutionary Guards commander. Hitler was only slightly more direct when he announced seven months before invading Poland that, if there was another war, "the result will be . . . the annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe."

Last week Bernard Lewis, America's dean of Islamic studies, who just turned 90 and remembers the 20th century well, confessed that for the first time he feels it is 1938 again. He did not need to add that in 1938, in the face of the gathering storm -- a fanatical, aggressive, openly declared enemy of the West, and most determinedly of the Jews -- the world did nothing.

When Iran's mullahs acquire their coveted nukes in the next few years, the number of Jews in Israel will just be reaching 6 million. Never again?


UPDATE II (19.05.2006, 21:00): Over on the Freedom's Cost, the right qestion is asked: After the ridiculous demonstrations against some "offensive" Cartoons, how many demonstrations will we see in the Muslim world against this latest expression of anti-Semitism and of "intolerance towards other religions and non-respect of other people's feelings"?

UPDATE III (19.05.2006, 22:10): Baroness Alexandra has more thoughts on it:
Make no mistake about it, Thug-In-Chief Ahmadinejad is no fool. This is much more than stubborn provocation; this is about paving the way for the 'final solution'. It is an ice-cold calculation, especially when expressly joining Jews and Christians together as Infidels. The purpose is not to find out how far he can push, but a systematic strategy to de-construct previously held taboos, and by taboos, I mean those established and upheld ever since the Holocaust.
UPDATE IV (19.05.2006,23:00): Accoding to the French newspaper Le Monde, a Jewish Member of the Iranian Parliament denies the above news. Yet, I can hardly imagine that an Iranian MP can show unlimited sympathy for the Jewish state . However, the denial is there.

UPDATE V (20.05.2006, 18:45): There's still confusion on the issue:

Iranian officials on Saturday denied a report published by the Canadian National Post on the previous day, claiming that a new dress-code law was passed in Iran this past week, which mandates the government to make sure that religious minorities - Christians, Jews and Zoroastrians - will have to adopt distinct color schemes to make them identifiable in public.

The National Post later cited experts saying that the idea of religious demarcation had only arisen in discussing a law defining Iranian dress code. The paper quoted an Iranian commentator who said the idea of external identification of non-Muslim minorities was only raised as a secondary motion. (...)

UPDATE VI (21.05.2006, 20:27): It really seems to be a hoax.

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Monday, May 08, 2006

Fréquence réduite

Ma présence sur ce blog se fera probablement un peu plus rare ces jours car nous avons une excursion organisée par le managment de mes cours ici à Vienne qui va nous mener à Bruxelles. On ira y voir l'Ogre.



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Ordnungspolitische Podcasts

Ich möchte auf die Ordnungspolitischen Podcasts hinweisen. Arlecchino vom Ordnungspolitischen Blog liest uns mit Eleganz regelmässig einige Perlen aus der liberalen Literatur vor, die man im mp3-Format herunterladen kann. Der letzte Podcast ist ein Zitat von Ludwig von Mises, der erklärt, dass der Antiliberalismus eine pathologische Ursache hat....


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Two videos worth watching

First, by the People's Cube: "Who are they?" (1:35) Click on the image to get to the video:



(Hat tip: Dostix)

Second, here's Milton Friedman on the necessity to limit Government. The interview dates of 1975 and the image is very bad. Nevertheless, it doesn't matter since this Chicago Boy has one or two important things to say. The transcript of the interview can be viewed here.



Friedman on Redistribution:
You see, I think there's been one underlying basic fallacy in this whole set of Social Security and Welfare measures. And that is the fallacy -- this is at the bottom of it -- the fallacy that it is feasible and possible to do good with other people's money. Now, you see that fallacy -- that view -- has two flaws. If I want to do good with other people's money I'd first have to take it away from them. That means that the welfare state philosophy of doing good with other people's money, at its very bottom, is a philosophy of violence and coercion. It's against freedom, because I have to use force to get the money. (...) Very few people spend other people's money as carefully as they spend their own.
On the sources of support to get off what the interviewer calls "the path to serfdom", the road to a totalitarian society:
Number one, is the extraordinary ability and ingenuity of the American people in finding ways to get around laws. That's our major source of strength for freedom. And number two is the inefficiency of government. People go around complaining about waste in government. (...) Well, I say thank God for government waste. If government is doing bad things, it's only the waste that prevents the harm from being greater. And the waste of government has two very important elements. Number one, if government were now spending the amount it spends -­which is 40% of our income -- governments Federal, State, and local in the United States have total spending which equals 40% of total national income -- if they were spending that efficiently, we'd be slaves now. And in the second place, the waste is so obvious that it arouses a counter­movement on the population at large, people are disillusioned with government and it increases the chance that they will recognize where this road is taking them and get off that train before it goes all the way.

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Sunday, May 07, 2006

Nazis ‘shipped arms to Palestinians’

Via Ynet (Excerpts):
British National Archives unveil presence of Nazi S.S. agents in Mandatory Palestine, working closely with Palestinian leaders

Historical documents in Britain’s National Archives in London show that Nazi Germany attempted to ship arms to Palestinian forces in the 1930s.

A British Foreign Office report from 1939 reports of “news of a consignment of arms from Germany, sent via Turkey and addressed to Ibn Saud (king of Saudi Arabia), but really intended for the Palestine insurgents.” Britain’s chief military officer in Mandatory Palestine also noted reports “regarding import of German arms at intervals for some years now.”

British documents from the same period, and German records photographed by an American spy and sent to the British government, said that a number of Nazi agents were sent to Mandatory Palestine, in order to forge alliances with Palestinian leaders, and urge them to reject a partition of the land between the Jewish and Arab populations.

‘Arabs admire our Fuhrer’

“The Palestinian Arabs show on all levels a great sympathy for the new Germany and its Fuhrer, a sympathy whose value is particularly high as it is based on a purely ideological foundation,” a Nazi official in Palestine wrote in a letter to Berlin in 1937.

A second Nazi agent, Dr. Franz Reichart, was reported to be actively working with Palestinian Arabs by the British Criminal Investigation Division “to help coordinate Arab and German propaganda.” Reichart was also head of the German Telegraphic Agency in Jerusalem.

German records show that the Nazis viewed the establishment of a Jewish state with great concern. A 1937 report from German General Consulate in Palestine said: “The formation of a Jewish state… is not in Germany’s interest because a (Jewish) Palestinian state would create additional national power bases for international Jewry such as for example the Vatican State for political Catholicism or Moscow for the Communists. Therefore, there is a German interest in strengthening the Arabs as a counter weight against such possible power growth of the Jews.”

Jewish refugees abandoned

The records also show that the news of increased Nazi-Arab cooperation panicked the British government, and caused it to cancel a plan in 1938 to bring to Palestine 20,000 German Jewish refugees, half of them children, facing danger from the Nazis.

Documents show that after deciding that the move would upset Arab opinion, Britain decided to abandon the Jewish refugees to their fate.

“His Majesty’s Government asked His Majesty’s Representatives in Cairo, Baghdad and Jeddah whether so far as they could judge, feelings in Egypt, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia against the admission of, say 5,000 Jewish children for adoption… would be so strong as to lead to a refusal to send representatives to the London discussions. All three replies were strongly against the proposal, which was not proceeded with,” a Foreign Office report said.

“If war were to break out, no trouble that the Jews could occasion us, in Palestine or elsewhere, could weigh for a moment against the importance of winning Muslim opinion to our side,” Britain’s Minister for Coordination of Defence, Lord Chatfield, told the British cabinet in 1939, shortly before Britain reversed its decision to partition its mandate, promising instead all of the land to the Palestinian Arabs.
(Hat tip: Gabrielle)

It is common knowledge that the Arab Palestinians and the Nazis felt a great sympathy towards one another, having common goals in mind... Together with the refusal of the Peel Commission's proposal in 1937, this was maybe the first (but certainly not the last) time the Arab Palestinians chose to be on the wrong side of history.




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Saturday, May 06, 2006

Cartoon jihadist dies

The wanna-be "Terrorist who abusively invoked Islam" in order to kill Roger Köppel, the Swiss editor of the German newspaper die Welt has killed himself in jail. Of course, according to his Pakistani family, the man must have been tortured before reaching martyrdom. The reason for the man's fury was the fact that die Welt had dared to publish the cartoons of Muhammad. Btw, the term used above ("Terrorist who abusively invokes Islam") is going to be the new politically correct term for Islamists within the European Union. To call a spade a spade is no more appropriate, after all it could hurt the Muslim world's feelings, right? It seems better to adopt Newspeak.

(Hat tip: Ludovic Monnerat)

UPDATE: While one Islamist Terrorist who abusively invokes Islam failed, more are still to come. Via WorldNetDaily:
12 terrorists hunt Danish cartoonists
Europe-bound dirty dozen traveling through Iran, claims Afghan report

A dozen young terrorists have departed Afghanistan, bound first for Iran and then Europe, where their mission will be to hunt down the Danish cartoonists responsible for drawing anti-Muhammad sketches (...)
(Hat tip: Gabrielle Goldwater)

I would however suggest the word "terrorist" be replaced by "militant", "fighter", "rebel" or "activist". Such words would be more neutral and would also acknowledge the deeper moral significance of the struggle against Western liberties civilization oppression.

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Wednesday, May 03, 2006

My Blog in the Blogosphere Ecosystem

After having been a ridiculous "Crunchy Crustacean" in January, I am now a "Marauding Marsupial" in the Blogosphere Ecosystem which contains more than 54'000 blogs worldwide (my status is indicated in my sidebar; scroll down). I am currently on place 1634 and I got 152 incoming links of blogs which are part of the system (thanks to Captain's Quarter's initiative, that helped). However, most of my favorite blogs which I read on a daily basis are unfortunately not in the system (yet?). It's time to join in, isn't it?



UPDATE (07.05.2006, 15:06): I am now a Large Mammal. Current Rank: #269 (of more than 54'000), Incoming Link Count: 177.



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Tuesday, May 02, 2006

George W. making fun of himself

If someone still didn't now about George W. Bush's wit and sense of humor, have a look at this hilarious 10 minutes-video. It shows Bush and a impersonator at the annual White House Correspondents' Association dinner making fun of "W". Bush proves that he is still the one making the best jokes on himself (and on Dick Cheney). Click on the image to start downloading.
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Welche Partei ist es?

Ein grossartiger und origineller Post drüben bei Bastian.

Auszug:
Welche Partei ist es?

Zur Abwechslung ein kleines Rätsel. Ich beschreibe die Februar-Ausgabe der Monatszeitschrift einer schweizerischen Partei und Sie raten, um welche Vereinigung es sich handelt. Ein Tipp: Es ist keine der grossen Volkspartei. (...)
Den Rest lesen Sie in den Freien Gedanken.

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Le Hamas: commanditaire d'un attentat

Le Hamas a été impliqué dans une tentative d'attaque terroriste. Pour une fois, les flics palestiniens ont fait leur boulot et les en ont empêchés. Le lirons-nous dans nos journaux européens...?

Via Arouts Sheva:

Le Hamas a commandité un attentat au passage de Karni
David Geller
dimanche 30 avril 2006 - 22:32

Les services de sécurité ont révélé dimanche soir que le Hamas est à l'origine de la tentative d'attentat perpétrée la semaine dernière au passage de Karni, à l'entrée de la bande de Gaza. Une camionnette transportant douze hommes armés avaient été interceptée à l'entrée de Karni par des forces de l'AP fidèles au président Abou Mazen. Les policiers palestiniens avaient alors ouvert le feu sur le véhicule, provoquant la fuite des terroristes.

D'après les informations publiées par le Shin Bet, deux hauts responsables de l'organisation islamique terroriste avaient commandité cet attentat: il s'agit de Ahmed A'ntzour, le chef du Hamas dans le nord de la bande de Gaza, et d'Ahmed Ja'abri, le commandant des forces armées du mouvement à Gaza. D'autre part, les terroristes avaient également été formés dans un camp d'entraînement du Hamas.

En Israël, des officiers de Tsahal soulignent que c'est la première fois que des membres du Hamas sont impliqués dans des activités terroristes depuis l'investiture du cabinet d'Ismaïl Haniyé à la tête de l'Autorité palestinienne.

La cible choisie par les terroristes est plutôt surprenante: le passage israélo-palestinien de Karni est destiné à maintenir les échanges commerciaux entre Israël et les zones autonomes de Gaza. Chaque attentat provoque une longue suspension du transit des marchandises, provoquant ainsi des pertes importantes pour les commerçants et agriculteurs palestiniens qui vendent leurs produits sur le marché israélien.


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Schafft den 1. Mai ab!

In Zürich fanden die traditionnellen 1. Mai-Aktivitäten statt: Kundgebungen, welche, wie es sich gehört, nostalgisch gegen die neoliberalen Abocker und gegen die Aubeutung der Arbeitnehmer durch das Kapital protestierten, ein provokativer Redner, der sich dann doch nicht zeigt (Hugo Chavez sollte per Direktübertragung an die vereinigte Linke sprechen *), Ausländergruppen, die auf ihre Sorgen aufmerksam machen (die komunistische kurdische PKK ist regelmässig vertreten, anscheinend waren dieses Jahr auch Exiliraner dabei) und selbverständlich durften auch die linken "Jugendlichen" vom "Schwarzen Block" nicht fehlen, welche sich mit Wonne der Zerstörung und dem Randalieren hingaben. Dass eines der zerstörten Kleidergeschäfte offensichtlich ausgerechnet einem Juden gehörte, dürfte der Sache wohl nicht abträglich gewesen sein. Auch einer Filliale der Kantonalbank wurde ein Denkzettel verpasst (Quelle: 20Minuten).



Das "autonome" Gesindel ("racaille" pour les intimes) schaffte es dann sogar, den eingeladenen SP-Bundesrat Moritz Leuenberger vom Rednerpult zu verscheuchen (lassen Sie sich die Filmaufnahmen nicht entgehen)... Von einer Reporterin gefragt, ob der 1. Mai überhaupt noch seine Berechtigung habe, verwies Leuenberger auf all die anderen Feiertage welche das ganze Jahr hindurch irgendeiner politisch korrekten Chose gewidmet sind (Mutter, Vater, Frau, Kind, Behinderte, Kranke, Alter, Aids, Antirassismus, Antidrogenmissbrauch, Antilärm, Antisklaverei, Pro-Pressefreiheit, Pro-Wald, Pro-Ozonschicht, etc.), weshalb also nicht auch ein Tag der Arbeit? Und weshalb sollte man schliesslich am Tag der Arbeit überhaupt arbeiten?

Nun, ich habe ja nichts dagegen wenn sich die Genossen in ihrer gefährlichen Nostalgie suhlen. Leuenberger etwa ist ja bekanntlich dafür, dass alle Menschen gleichviel verdienen sollen. Dixit einer der 400'000 Schweizer Franken im Jahr vom Staat kassiert und seine Ferien in Oman am Strand verbringt...** Dass damit eine staatliche Lohn- und Preiskontrolle vorausgesetzt wäre, die man ansonsten nur in totalitären (national- und weniger national-)sozialistischen Ländern antrifft, scheint lediglich ein Kosmetikproblemchen zu sein. Leuenberger sei jedenfalls die Lektüre des "Weges zur Knechtschaft" von Friedrich A. von Hayek ans Herz gelegt.



Wie auch immer, die Genossen sollen natürlich feiern dürfen, aber ich sehe nicht ein, weshalb sie dafür von der Schule und vom Arbeitgeber freikriegen sollen. Es gibt ja auch keinen Feiertag zu Ehren der kapitalistischen und neo-liberalen Kräfte (die das Land und seine Feiertage ja immerhin finanzieren). Zudem hätten die parasitären Linksextremisten vom "Schwarzen Block" dann nicht immer auch noch einen Day off, der es ihnen erlaubt, massiv zu randalieren (nicht, dass ich annehmen würde, dass deren Mehrheit im Alltag produktiv und beschäftigt wäre, aber es würde ihnen immerhin nicht allzu einfach gemacht). Jedenfalls, mutatis mutandis wird dieses Jahr alles gleich verlaufen wie in früheren Jahren: Die Linken werden die Polizei beschuldigen, allzu hart vorgegangen oder sträflich nachlässig gewesen zu sein, die SVP wird mehr Repression verlangen, während die Gewerbetreibenden kopfschüttelnd und resigniert den Schaden beziffern und der Versicherung melden werden. Alle Jahre wieder...

Deshalb: Der 1. Mai als Feiertag gehört abgeschafft. Meinetwegen kann man ja die dadurch zusätzlich generierten Einkommenssteuern dann der Arbeitslosenkasse überweisen.

* Das 1. Mai-Komittee lädt mit Vorliebe Leute zweifelhaften Rufes ein, sei es ein lateinamerikanischer Diktator, eine deutsche Stalinistin, Terroristen der FARC, palästinensische Luftpiraten, etc.

** Leuenberger war anscheinend not amused über das Foto und erwägt juristische Schritte gegen dessen Publikation. Zum Glück gibt es das Internet.


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Monday, May 01, 2006

Johnny Cash: A Boy Named Sue

[UPDATE: There's trouble with the link to the video. It is not working for the moment. ]

I'm planning to go and see Walk the Line, the movie on Johnny Cash. Thinking of it, I made a research on Youtube and found excerpts of his famous concert at San Quentin prison in 1969. Here's the great song "A Boy Named Sue", one of those songs which make me always laugh. In addition, it's an excellent example of Cash's great voice.


Johnny Cash
- A Boy Named Sue -

My daddy left home when I was three
And he didn't leave much to ma and me
Just this old guitar and an empty bottle of booze.
Now, I don't blame him cause he run and hid
But the meanest thing that he ever did
Was before he left, he went and named me "Sue."

Well, he must o' thought that is quite a joke
And it got a lot of laughs from a' lots of folk,
It seems I had to fight my whole life through.
Some gal would giggle and I'd get red
And some guy'd laugh and I'd bust his head,
I tell ya, life ain't easy for a boy named "Sue."

Well, I grew up quick and I grew up mean,
My fist got hard and my wits got keen,
I'd roam from town to town to hide my shame.
But I made a vow to the moon and stars
That I'd search the honky-tonks and bars
And kill that man who gave me that awful name.

Well, it was Gatlinburg in mid-July
And I just hit town and my throat was dry,
I thought I'd stop and have myself a brew.
At an old saloon on a street of mud,
There at a table, dealing stud,
Sat the dirty, mangy dog that named me "Sue."

Well, I knew that snake was my own sweet dad
From a worn-out picture that my mother'd had,
And I knew that scar on his cheek and his evil eye.
He was big and bent and gray and old,
And I looked at him and my blood ran cold
And I said: "My name is 'Sue!' How do you do!
Now your gonna die!!"

Well, I hit him hard right between the eyes
And he went down, but to my surprise,
He come up with a knife and cut off a piece of my ear.
But I busted a chair right across his teeth
And we crashed through the wall and into the street
Kicking and a' gouging in the mud and the blood and the beer.

I tell ya, I've fought tougher men
But I really can't remember when,
He kicked like a mule and he bit like a crocodile.
I heard him laugh and then I heard him cuss,
He went for his gun and I pulled mine first,
He stood there lookin' at me and I saw him smile.

And he said: "Son, this world is rough
And if a man's gonna make it, he's gotta be tough
And I knew I wouldn't be there to help ya along.
So I give ya that name and I said goodbye
I knew you'd have to get tough or die
And it's the name that helped to make you strong."

He said: "Now you just fought one hell of a fight
And I know you hate me, and you got the right
To kill me now, and I wouldn't blame you if you do.
But ya ought to thank me, before I die,
For the gravel in ya guts and the spit in ya eye
Cause I'm the son-of-a-bitch that named you "Sue.'"

I got all choked up and I threw down my gun
And I called him my pa, and he called me his son,
And I came away with a different point of view.
And I think about him, now and then,
Every time I try and every time I win,
And if I ever have a son, I think I'm gonna name him
Bill or George! Anything but Sue! I still hate that name!

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Gabrielle Goldwater's Reports

I would like to mention a Gabrielle Goldwater's very comprehensive homepage on the Middle East. I had the pleasure today to have a two hour chat wit her (thanks to Skype!). Gabrielle is a very charming and interesting person living in Western Europe who devotes herself to information and analysis on Israel and the ongoing conflict with the Palestinians. You will find many valuable links and actual reports on her site. Bonne lecture!

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