Progressive secularism and moderate Islam. Extortion called bail. Human nature, equality and those in charge of leveling.
 
1. Its phrasing did not quite reveal why Turkey’s vote, on September 12, had a significance that transcended the affairs of that often ignored country. Even if it is not quite PC to talk about it, the vote has implications. On top of the list stands the European Union which, under the pressure of the indigenous Left and the USA, is being nudged to accept Turkey as a member. Of greater significance is what the results tell about the prospects and stability of states intending to be secular democracies that happen to have a Muslim population. Beyond that, crucial scenarios regarding the future of the Caucasus-Black Sea and Caspian regions are affected by the decision.

On the surface, the Turks had to decide the fate of a new constitution. Officially, the case put forward had democratic plating. The new basic law was to replace the one that the soldiers, which ran the country in the 1980s, had imposed. According to the draft, the military’s privileged position in politics is to be reduced. Furthermore, the judicial system’s personnel become dependent of parliament. That body is to determine the appointment of judges and it is the legislature that will make the appointments to the enlarged constitutional court of the country.

On Friday evening, a tall, bespectacled 30-ish Englishman, Matthew Elliott, escorted Lady Margaret Thatcher into a reception at London's 800-year-old Guild Hall. Despite the fact that England is going through its worst economic crisis since Mrs. Thatcher became prime minister more than three decades ago, she was of good cheer as she conversed with those of us who had come to pay our respects. Perhaps a reason for her upbeat manner was that the ideas she (and Ronald Reagan in the United States) championed are once again gaining currency.

Back in 2005, Danish prime minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen set the gold standard on defending free speech when, on being approached by perpetually aggrieved Islamic ambassadors hoping for official redress against Jyllands Posten (Cartoon Rage was just kicking in), he refused to hear their plaints, explaining to them and the world that it was not his place, as prime minister, to interfere with free speech in Denmark.

“This is a matter of principle. I will not meet with them [the ambassadors] because it is so crystal clear what principles Danish democracy is built upon that there is no reason to do so...As prime minister, I have no power whatsoever to limit the press – nor do I want such power.”

Once again Belgium is in shock. Yesterday Professor Adriaenssens, the man who headed the committee that was established to collect and investigate instances of sexual abuse and pedophilia in the Catholic Church in Belgium, presented his report [pdf] and conclusions. The extent and degree of abuse that turns out to have been widespread, is horrifying. The Belgian Cardinal Danneels’s response to the report is entirely in character. This man will never change. His spokesman said that Cardinal Danneels “once again expresses sincere sympathy with the victims and their families for the suffering that they experienced…” and adds some platitudes about structures and institutions. Yet for decades he was responsible for the fact that complaints by the victims and their families were ignored. He made himself scarce whenever churchgoers who encountered abuses appealed to him.

Protecting criminal subcultures. When laws do not count. The attraction of world-saving schemes. Fighting a war or conducting a police action. When a bad system is deemed to express a national – religious essence. Who needs Israel?
 
1. Some of the insiders of our lording power elites attempt to convince us that we need to choose between competing versions of collectivism. A related complementary message is that the alternative we face is risky freedom or safe servitude under their protective command.
 

If a medical doctor prescribed a treatment for a patient that only worked in theory, and the patient did not get better, the doctor could rightly be sued for medical malpractice if tried-and-true cures were known. When members of Congress and a president engage in economic malpractice, the patient's (i.e., the American public's) only recourse is to vote them out of office.

Yesterday Monday September 6th, Clive Crook gives Obama a break in the Financial Times. The generally expected big disaster for the Democrats during the upcoming November Congressional elections is not Obama’s fault. At least that is what Clive thinks. He lays the blame almost entirely at the feet of the Congressional Democrats. He believes Obama is not all that bad. But, he forgets to mention what exactly he thinks Obama did right.

Clive misses the ball. Obama is the leader of the Democratic party, and the personification of what is going wrong in the USA. The Democratic Congress, with an absolute majority, worshipped Obama, and executed his plans on demand. Only since this summer we see Democrats running away from Obama to enhance their chances for reelection. Better than Clive, they understand what Americans really think of Obama’s policies.

Legal rights, sensitivity and the Lord’s struggle. The wetting committee’s action. Save the world – abolish the West. Deprived of eggs, the geese that lay golden eggs go the way of the Dodo. Subvention failure and you get more of it. Equal output for differentiated inputs will reduce the input. Ginseng the global currency of the future?
  
1. As a story, the Mosque project on 9/11’s ground is fading. With that, the plan ceases to be a subject of the day’s news. However, the time to reflect and to analyze the intention and the reaction it brought about has not passed. Regardless of whether the Mosque - or embellished by the redefining new feathers, a cultural center - is built, there are insights to be gained from the attempt.

As noted in Andrew Bostom's essay debunking the just-can't-shake-it myth of Islamic "tolerance" in Muslim Spain, by the middle of the 8th century, the cathedral in Cordoba dedicated to Saint Vincent had been "converted" to a Muslim mosque. However, as 19th-century scholar of Muslim Spain (and Islamophile) Reinhart Dozy writes, this was "clearly an act of spoilation as well as an infraction of the treaty" between Cordoba Christians and the invading Arab Muslims.

This is commentary on an article in The Economist, online edition, Clearing the Air. It is not radically different than other articles concerning the Federal Reserve, monetary policy and speculations about what will happen next. It deserves some analysis, for otherwise this reporting is more confusing than helpful. And while this concerns the US Federal Reserve, the situation regarding the European Central Bank (ECB) is quite similar.