A quote from Brendan O’Neill at spiked-online, 28 December 2006

In elevating tolerance above all else – as an end in itself, the value to end all values – the authorities are effectively making a virtue of a vacuum, and attempting to put a positive spin on the profound uncertainty about what Britain stands for today. So the collapse of common values gets re-presented as ‘diversity’, and the inability to say what Britain represents is sexed-up and repackaged as ‘tolerance’ for other cultures and ways of life. Tolerance becomes a default position, adopted not from a standpoint of openness and experimentation, but from a position of doubt.

A quote from a C-FAM press release, 28 December 2006

The U.N. Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) recently granted official status to three gay-rights non-governmental organizations (NGOs): the Danish National Association for Gays and Lesbians, the Lesbian and Gay Federation in Germany (LSVD) and [ILGA-Europe, the European Region of the International Lesbian and Gay Association]. ECOSOC granted the consultative status to the gay-rights NGOs despite the fact that the UN Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations recommended against it, and the fact that one of the groups had clear links to pro-pedophilia organizations in the past.

The modest growth performance of Japan and of many developed countries in Europe during the 1990’s, in combination with rapidly rising pension and health care costs due to lengthening life spans, has fueled debate about ways to improve their economic growth performance.   Most governments have become quite adept at demand-side management through appropriate fiscal and monetary policies.  But that is essentially concerned with limiting short-term cyclical movements (of aggregate demand) around the underlying trend line of potential GDP.   To strengthen the longer-term growth performance of actual GDP is largely a matter of removing or raising supply-side barriers to growth. How can this be done?

A quote from Tony Blair in Foreign Affairs, January/February 2007

To me, the most remarkable thing about the Koran is how progressive it is. I write with great humility as a member of another faith. As an outsider, the Koran strikes me as a reforming book, trying to return Judaism and Christianity to their origins, much as reformers attempted to do with the Christian church centuries later. The Koran is inclusive. It extols science and knowledge and abhors superstition. It is practical and far ahead of its time in attitudes toward marriage, women, and governance.

Under its guidance, the spread of Islam and its dominance over previously Christian or pagan lands were breathtaking. Over centuries, Islam founded an empire and led the world in discovery, art, and culture. The standard-bearers of tolerance in the early Middle Ages were far more likely to be found in Muslim lands than in Christian ones.

A quote from John Blundell in a Heritage Lecture, 22 December 2006

It is not even clear how many E.U. regulations there are! When pressed on the matter, a British minister said that “as far as the government has been able to verify” the number of sets of regulations enacted between 1973 and 2002 as a result of E.U. membership was 101,811. But Britain, like other applicants, was obliged to adopt the acquis communautaire – the existing body of E.U. regulations and directives – on entry. The total number of sets of regulations to which British citizens are subject as the result of E.U. membership may be in excess of 200,000, with an average 2,500 new sets of regulations being added each year.

A quote from Andrew Cusack on his blog, 24 December 2006

What Belien actually gives us is an overview of the history of “Belgium” which is both succinct and thorough, mostly focusing on the Belgian monarchy and its deep influence on the formation of this “nation” half-French and half-Dutch. It makes for a fascinating read of disgrace and debauchery as we’re told of the disgusting actions of, firstly the various kings of Belgium from the creation of the country ex nihilo in 1830, and then of astonishing Belgian cowardice and collaboration in the First and Second World Wars. However all this pales in comparison to the most telling, and the most disturbing, part of the book which tells us about modern, post-war Belgium. I will not reveal it’s contents but is truly, truly frightening. The point Belien posits as the crux of the book is this: I’ve told you about Belgium. Recall that the Eurocrats and their enthusiasts extol Belgium as the model for European unity; a single state in which communities of different blood and language live together in supposed harmony. If what I’ve written is true, then be afraid: be very afraid. And you will be.

Verbum caro factum est et habitavit in nobis
The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us

By Gene Miller and Chris Gillibrand
 
Where would we be without Brussels:

José Manuel Barroso, the European Commission president, is facing criticism from his own ranks over what some commissioners believe is a tendency to cave in too readily to pressure from big member states.

The two cases concern Germany’s alleged failure to implement a directive enabling companies to deploy staff in other member states, and the country’s barriers to chimney sweeps from abroad.

First they came for the Polish plumbers and I said nothing. Now they come for the chimney sweeps... Who’s next?!?

Serge Régnier (as some readers may remember) is a 47-year old Belgian with three wives and thirty children. In 1986 Régnier married Christine Wuest (who is now 38). They have fifteen children, between 19 years and 11 months old. A couple of years later, Christine’s homeless sister Karine Wuest (now 35 years old) came to live with the couple. Soon she fell in love with Serge. Christine consented in her husband taking her sister as a second wife. Serge and Karine have six children, between 10 years and 10 months old.

Governments often claim that they want to promote faster economic growth, and economists tend to advise them that this can be done through (1) disciplined macroeconomic policies (to prevent ‘crises’), (2) through structural policies aimed at fostering competition and flexibility and  (3) through the provision of a strong institutional framework that encourages entrepreneurship.   But, these are very general prescriptions that are not always easy to translate in practical guidelines for policymakers.