A quote from The Hindustan Times, 17 February 2008

Britain, which is seeking to overhaul its immigration policy, cannot afford to upset the Asian community because of its increasing electoral clout, says the chairperson of the Indo-British Friendship Society. “No political party can govern if they upset the Asian vote,” India-born Rami Ranger, who also heads the Sun Group of Industries, told IANS. […] “We can elect 40 to 50 members of parliament from several inner cities... They cannot afford to go wrong,” said Ranger

A quote by Arieh Eldad, Member of the Knesset, in Ma’ariv, 22 February 2008

The flag of Kosovo is that of Islamic proliferation and a source of serious anxiety to Europe. Those European countries recognizing Kosovo are doing so under economic pressure from oil-rich Arab countries, the markets of Islamic countries, and internal pressure by millions of Moslem voters in Europe. [...]

Monaco, Andorra and Liechtenstein are all, unless they have been visited overnight by a trio of Bundeswehr Panzer Divisions, sovereign independent states. All are members of the United Nations. The former has a history as a polity going back to 1297; Andorra to 1278 and the latter to 1719. As such they are entitled to pass whatever laws they choose without interference from outside.

Each has made themselves prosperous by passing tax laws and setting tax rates that attract wealthy people and corporations to their lands, each has had the temerity to run themselves efficiently and frugally and thus has chosen to impose low tax rates upon its citizens, residents and corporations.

A quote from Julia Gorin at FrontPageMag, 22 February 2008

As Americans look quizzically at their TV sets while non-Muslim protestors in Europe torch a U.S. embassy, they should know that yesterday’s 200,000-person protest in Belgrade (whose members are separate from the fire starters) is the first time in two decades that Serbs are showing a glimmer of rational behavior – amid 20 years of the “free world” foisting terrorist neighbors upon them.

A quote from Dan Mitchell at the Market Center Blog, 21 February 2008

In a remarkable display of fiscal imperialism, the German government sent spies into Liechtenstein and bribed a bank employee to provide confidential records about German account holders. […] This story is troubling on many levels, particularly given Germany's ugly history of oppression. In the 1930s, Germany had draconian laws to deter citizens from having money outside the country and - like today - it trampled on the sovereignty of its neighbors to get information (see
http://switzerland.isyours.com/e/banking/secrecy/nazi.spies.html
for more information). Indeed, snooping by the Nazis was the main reason that Switzerland substantially strengthened its privacy laws in the 1930s.

Every age fathers its own illusions and in the postwar Europe there were plenty of opportunities. Europe’s threats were contained by America and its material needs glutted by a postwar recovery. It seemed as if the continent could carry on without the ordinary constraints of survival and it could indulge itself in a world where a cut off between means and ends, causes and effects was not only imaginable but also possible. Now the Europeans would not have to face any of the predicaments, make any sacrifices or contemplate any of the awful dilemmas of that previous time. We were to encounter a gentle reality where grave crises existed outside a diminishing European jurisdiction and where the mastery for dealing with these crises became superfluous.

A quote from The Local (Sweden), 21 February 2008

Sweden’s chief heraldists remain dissatisfied with a decision by the Nordic Battlegroup to remove a lion’s penis depicted on its coat of arms. […] [T]he Commander of the Nordic Battlegroup, Karl Engelbrektsson, revealed that it was he who he had ordered the alteration. This ran contrary to initial reports suggesting that the emasculation occurred following pressure from female soldiers. In an interview with Sveriges Radio, the Commander said he decided to give the lion the snip having read UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on women, peace and security.

The picture that describes our age is composed as a mosaic. Its pebbles can be missed as the details obscure the whole. This column presents overlooked details that deserve attention.
 
1. Castro goes, or is about to be carried away by pall-bearers. Good news but too bad that the laws of biology will save him from a Nuremberg-style trial for crimes against humanity. His totalitarian system stays. For now. The Chief Butcher’s chosen enemy was the USA. Nevertheless, the main danger to his system comes from within that kidnapped country.

The secret report about massive embezzlement and fraud by Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) has been written by one Robert Galvin, who is head of unit, internal audit and is based in Luxemburg. Well informed rumours are suggesting that the silence surrounding this report is well warranted. One comment from a senior official, which was passed on to me on Monday, says “the reason that we cannot make this report open to the public is that we want people to vote in the 2009 (European) elections.”

Bruno Waterfield of the Daily Telegraph writes that the Parliament has decided to keep the lid on Mr. Galvin’s report because, as one Parliament spokesman said: “The report does not name people but contains sensitive information that can easily be linked to individuals. For data protection reasons the report can not be published.”

Another spokesman, however, told Waterfield: “The document is not secret. It is confidential. It can be read by certain approved EPs on the Budget Control Committee, in the secret room but not generally. That is not the same as a secret document nobody can read. This is a technical decision not a political one because it was taken by the auditor himself. The decision was not taken by the president or secretary general.”

Education is very much in the news at the French websites. Besides the plan to artificially inoculate children against racism - the world's most malignant disease, as we all know, there may soon be a free rein, granted by the courts, for gay rights groups to spread anti-homophobia propaganda in the high schools.