During his annual September pilgrimage to the shrines of global governance at the United Nations in New York, Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero boasted that Spain’s per capita GDP has now surpassed that of Italy. “This depresses Berlusconi,” he joked of the Italian prime minister, adding that Spain was on target to overtake France “within three to four years.”

We proudly present the printed version of "Defeating Eurabia", the first book by our appreciated contributor Fjordman. This compilation of Fjordman articles from Gates of Vienna, Jihad Watch, Atlas Shrugs, The Brussels Journal and Fjordman's own (now defunct) blog has been updated and finetuned to reflect his current views on the islamization of Europe. It provides a thorough analysis of the causes and circumstances of the islamization process, a country-by-country survey and an optimistic concluding chapter with suggestions for the future.

The book is a paperback, containing 340 pages, 25 chapters and an index. It is published by BJ Books. This is the publishing spinoff of The Brussels Journal dedicated to publishing books by our authors. The book is available through Lulu.com, a print-on-demand provider. The price is EUR 34.95 or USD 47.17, though these prices may fluctuate with currency exchange rates. Shipping costs are not included. These may vary depending on the destination. Buyers in the US and the EU will typically pay between 3 and 5 dollars/euros for shipping.

Click here to buy Fjordman's "Defeating Eurabia" via Lulu.com

During the ceremony honoring the 70th anniversary of the death of Ataturk (d. Nov. 10, 1938), organized at the Turkish Embassy in Brussels, the Turkish Defense Minister, Vecdi Gönül, launched into an atrocious denial, praising the policy of what he termed the “deportation” of the Armenians, because it allowed the construction of the Turkish nation.

President-elect Barack Obama is already facing his first global test. And it’s not coming from the usual suspects like Iran or North Korea, but from America’s “allies” in Europe.

European leaders have congratulated Obama on his election victory by sending him a six-page letter in which they benevolently “offer” the United States a “partnership of equals” in order to address global problems in the post-Bush era.

Does the financial crisis make clear that capitalism, the free market and the classical liberal ideology are failing? Of course not, whatever social democrat ideological veterans might proclaim. Socialism and its derivatives have been morally discredited since the fall of the Berlin wall and there is no chance for them of getting back. People get a grasp that there is something wrong with the way the system works for now, but not with the system itself, as a recent poll by FT/Harris suggests.

I will publish a multipart essay on the history of optics at the website Jihad Watch later this month. One of the parts will be about the history of glass, a fascinating subject which most of us rarely think about. We often talk about how much we owe to the ancient Greeks, but when it comes to the use of glass, we owe much more to the Romans than to the Greeks.

Last Tuesday, the Americans voted like Belgians. Obama is even more popular here than in the US. Last week, a poll among the students of the renowned University of Leuven (Louvain), the oldest in the Netherlands, showed that 98% of them preferred Obama as US president. For the past six years the university has been regularly polling its students on political issues. “The result has never been as unanimous as now,” Prof. Marc Hooghe said.

Whether a joke or comment is racist or not, highly depends on who makes it. When Barack Obama tells a racist joke, journalists are laughing tears, but when Silvio Berlusconi tries to make a compliment (though as usual in his own peculiar way), they hang him in the highest tree.

George Handlery about the week that was. Talk loud and carry a big pencil. Abuse Bush, handicap America. Obama the Unaware. Dividing true wealth or poverty? Immigrants, integration and resentment. How to be liberal. The goals of economic intervention. Economic illiteracy and its politics.

L'Express, one of France's leading news weeklies, similar to Time Magazine or Newsweek, was ready for anything. Two separate editions were prepared, with two covers. At the top we see the winner with the headline: Barack Obama: The man who can change the world. Below we see the alternative with this ominous headline: McCain, Palin: The couple that arouses fear; their conservatism, their failings, their militarism. (Source: Nouvelle Formule)