A quote from Arnaud de Borchgrave at UPI, 10 April 2007

Islamic activists in Europe have taken a leaf out of the old Communist guidebook for the “long march through the institutions.” In Antwerp, for example, the City Council has been infiltrated by Islamist fundamentalists – Belgian citizens, of course – who keep pushing the envelope with impunity. […] Quicksand is the only common ground between Western values and militant Muslim fundamentalism. […] Zero tolerance for intolerance has gone the way of the Dodo. Now, misguided tolerance has spawned liberal opinions that categorize Muslim honor killings as manslaughter, not murder. Some Islamic experts in German universities are already asking whether Sharia law, or Islamic law, is gradually infecting German law.

A quote from The Guardian, 10 April 2007

[P]lanting trees to offset carbon emissions could contribute to global warming if they are planted outside the tropics, scientists believe. They argue that most forests do not have any overall effect on global temperature but, by the end of the century, forests in the mid and high latitudes could make their parts of the world more than 3C warmer than would have occurred if the trees did not exist.

Notker Wolf, the Abbot Primate of the Benedictine Order, in an interview with the German newspaper Welt am Sonntag about the islamization of Germany and Europe:

Welt am Sonntag: What do you think about the influence of Islam on the western world?
Notker Wolf: There are certainly some groups that have set the islamization of Europe as their goal. I think that in itself is a serious thing. In Germany the Turkish association Ditib recently demanded that the «Word on Friday» be broadcast on public television. I only wonder: How can it be that these people demand all rights in Germany for themselves, while at the same time Christians are seriously discriminated in Turkey? Why are we, Christians, not allowed a theological faculty in Turkey? Why are we not allowed to have any church property there? Meanwhile, the mayor of Munich even breaks building regulations to approve a mosque, just to win the votes of the Turks. That is unbelievable! Tolerance is good, but it doesn't mean we should surrender.

It goes without saying that the mayor of Munich, Christian Ude belongs to the social-democratic SPD.

A quote from the French national news agency AFP, 6 April 2007

A French publisher said Thursday it had blurred the face of the Prophet Mohammed in painting reproduced in a history textbook after teachers warned it could spark protests by Muslim students. The publisher Belin confirmed a report in the French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo, which said it had digitally masked the face of the prophet in a reproduction of a 13th-century miniature painting.

Last week, a Russian law banning foreigners from retail stalls and markets, announced by the cabinet last November, finally took effect. While facially neutral, the law essentially targets immigrants from predominantly Muslim countries. Meanwhile, a Russian city court in Pyatigorsk convicted Anton Stepanenko of promoting Wahhabism, inciting ethnic and religious hatred, and encouraging vigilantism. Yet Stepanenko’s case had become a cause célèbre for many Russian Muslims, and after public appeals to President Vladimir Putin on behalf of the imam (an “exemplary, heroic figure for all the nation’s Muslims,” according to some), the charges were reduced and Stepanenko went free.

The Pacific Research Institute's new film, “An Inconvenient Truth ... Or Convenient Fiction?” will have three premieres across America, in San Francisco (12 April), Washington, DC (18 April), and New York City (24 April). All are invited.  

“An Inconvenient Truth ... Or Convenient Fiction?” is an entertaining, fact-based look at the climate change issue featuring Dr. Steven Hayward, PRI Director of Environmental Studies and F.K. Weyerhauser, Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.

A quote from William Keenan at mercatornet, 3 April 2007

One of the worst examples of this destructive intervention in family life is the sex education system that has been imposed on [British] schools. […] Not very long ago the Daily Telegraph ran a whole-page story headlined, Outrage over explicit sex lessons. Education correspondent John Clare described parents’ anger at 12-year-old children being given explicit sex lessons. In these lessons they were taught sodomy, oral sex with reference to “blow jobs” and mutual masturbation.

In recent decades two important economic developments have occurred.   First, average per capita income (in real terms, i.e. after adjustment for inflation) has continued to increase in the world.  Second, the distribution of that income has also improved from a global perspective, as the economies of most major ‘emerging’ nations have grown significantly faster than those of rich ‘developed’ countries.   The single most important factor underlying these developments has been the (partial) liberalization of the economies of China (since the early 1980’s) and of India (since the early 1990’s), which has spurred rapid income growth in those countries and elsewhere.  Taken together, these two countries account for about one-third of the world’s population.   

An article by H.E Mart Helme, Estonia’s ambassador to Russia 1996-1999

When last February the Russian president Vladimir Putin unleashed his chilling attack against America in a speech in Munich, he was really addressing the European Union, or “old Europe” to be exact, and most humiliatingly its most influential state, Germany.

An article by Nima Sanandaji, the president of the Swedish think tank Captus

In many European nations taxes, government regulation and public programs have expanded rapidly during the past 50 years. Many people today are dependent on government jobs and handouts whilst others are paying into the system year after year. The political discussion in Western European nations has focused on the short term interest of various interest groups. It might be useful to break the status quo of the political debate and ask ourselves what social model makes sense for Europe.