Two news stories illustrate how the law of unintended consequences operates in public policy. The Daily Mail describes what happens when not enough resources for treating mouth disease are coupled with increased funding for tooth extractions. Amy King from Plymouth provides the headline: ‘I couldn’t find a dentist… Now, aged 21, I’ve had to have all my teeth removed’. It makes some sort of sense. No teeth, no problem.
Last week, statistics obtained by the Liberal Democrats revealed that the number of people having teeth extracted in hospital has risen by one third in the past four years. … But more pertinent is the fact that the rate of these extractions gathered pace after a deeply controversial contract for NHS dentists was introduced in April 2006. … More shocking still was the story of local resident Valerie Holsworth. Her inability to access NHS dental care since the year 2000 had forced her to resort to excruciatingly painful DIY dentistry. … Valerie described how, using a pair of her husband’s pliers, she wrenched out seven teeth. … Louise Webb, a 44-year-old careworker from Stoke-on-Trent, knows this only too well. Plagued by dental problems, she was referred to Birmingham NHS Dental Hospital and was told the only option was to have all but four teeth removed. ‘They told me they were going to rip them all out and then they would leave me for three or four months until the gums had healed before they gave me dentures,’ she says. ‘I’d already given up my job because I was so embarrassed by the way my teeth looked.’
Meanwhile, in another part of the world, a reader points out that the pirates of Somalia, stung by their recent reversal at the hands of the USN, have vowed: no more Mr. Nice Guy. We had our chance to get on pirates’ good side and blew it. The Associated Press reports:
Somali pirates, meanwhile, vowed retaliation for the deaths of three colleagues killed by U.S. Navy snipers in the rescue. Their anger raised fears for the safety of some 230 foreign sailors still held hostage in more than a dozen ships anchored off lawless Somalia.
“From now on, if we capture foreign ships and their respective countries try to attack us, we will kill them (the hostages),” Jamac Habeb, a 30-year-old pirate, told The Associated Press from one of Somalia’s piracy hubs, Eyl. “(U.S. forces have) become our No. 1 enemy.” …
“Every country will be treated the way it treats us. In the future, America will be the one mourning and crying,” Abdullahi Lami, one of the pirates holding a Greek ship anchored in the Somali town of Gaan, told The Associated Press on Monday. “We will retaliate (for) the killings of our men.”
The famous saying that in the Army you should never volunteer for nothing is rooted in the realization that once people recognize you are good for something, like wiping out enemy machine gun nests and pillboxes, you will forever be put forward for the job until you either expire or clean them all out. It would be ironic, but not surprising, if international reaction to the USN’s success against the pirates will be to demand action — on their behalf — as a right from the US military; I mean ‘system administrator’. Like the pulled teeth it also makes sense in a perverted sort of way.
They can demand all they want. I doubt we’d do anything. Why would we?
This crisis will make European countries either hunker down and pay out money or build up their own militaries. Free Ride on Uncle Sam is over.
And Uncle Sam protecting their own coastline is over. No reason Moroccan or Mauritanian folks can’t play the Somali Pirate game too. Not to mention Libyan, Algerian, Tunisian, and Egyptians as well. Rich people, un-defended, and helpless. Next to poor and armed people. Never comes out well.
I think that it is just the de facto situation that we are THE “volunteer” for everything that requires heavy lifting. This is because no one else can do it. We are obliged to handle the big things. How this will work under our new administration, I don’t know. The world might find that it should have been careful what it wished for.
I recently finished reading a book, “At War With The Wind” about the Kamikaze attacks on the USN in WWII. One of the early volunteers lashed to his waist an elaborate scarf that said “I shall now take revenge for 100 million people.”
But at that point, the home islands of Japan had seen almost nothing of the war directly. The B-29 raids had not begun and the US carrier task forces were far away, engaged at the Philippines. There was nothing to take revenge for other than the fact that Japan was losing the war. And the Revenge helped lead to the US decision to burn Japan to the ground.
I thought about that when I read of the Somali pirates vowing to take revenge. All they have to avenge is the fact that they tried a heist and got beat.
One day I am going to write a something called the Public Policy Phrasebook, like one of those foreign language primers that tourists use when going to an unknown country.
For example the translation of the phrase “the world should come together to end the scourage of piracy”, means the USN, with the possible help of one or two major western navies, should fix the problem. Nobody really expects the Philippine Navy to take to the oceans to spring their countrymen. Why? There is no Philippine Navy. Nor is there a Bangladeshi Navy, etc.
The words “we must address the root problems in Somalia” do not mean, whatever the UN says to the contrary, that Ghana or Uzbekistan are going to solve the root problems in Somalia. It means that the US taxpayer, with some help from other Western taxpayers, are going to have to shell out.
Maybe this is the way the world is, but it’s the dishonesty and deceit is galling. They just rename the money they take from you so they can keep calling you stingy. Never volunteer for nothing? True, but it never worked. Some people were born behind the Eight Ball.
My wife is a wonderful person. She cares deeply for little live things (and big live things, also, which I have always said bodes well for me). Three years ago, between a neighbor lady who is a wild life rehab volunteer who has tons of various kinds of feed scattered in various pens in her back yard and my loving wife, who has never seen a wild creature or bird that she doesn’t try to feed, we had an influx of wood rats into our back yard. At first, my wife reveled in their cuteness (keep in mind these are not Norway rats and resemble something between a large hamster and a small rabbit), but…one day she found that they had started nesting in the hot tub insulation, burrowing in her prize flower beds and generally conducting themselves as the rats that they are.
“Programmer”, she cooed into my ear, “Can’t you do something about those pesky little critters?” As most men do when asked by their wifes, I answered, “I’ll see what I can do honey.”
I have a German .177 caliber air rifle with a 12 power scope on it. I proceeded to set up sand bags in one of the back windows, overlooking the bird feeders where most of the rats congregated. I stopped counting after 36. Each was disposed of with true ecologically sound considerations by burial in the flower garden at the base of some prize plant or other, to provide nutrients through the slow process of composting. Does it make me a small man to admit that I had a grand time? It has been two years now and there has been no return of the rats. However, on really still nights when the moon is full, you can hear a quavery squeaky voice of an old rat telling the their young, “Don’t go into that yard. It is the death of rats.”
If there is some small parable here to be drawn, please do so.
Speaking of rats, I am in the middle of reading Bing West’s “No True Glory”, about the campaign in 2004 in Anbar, specifically Fallujah.
There is something so similar in the pronouncements of the aggrieved Somali pirates to the jaw-jaw of the Iraqis rationalizing about the aggrieved denizens of Fallujah that I have gotten this incredible sense of Deja Vu….
I mean, every time we run up against these jokers it’s the same story. Who speaks for the Filipino sailors who manned many of the hijacked ships, who now languish with little hope in some shack in Somalia?
I expect little real follow up to this last incident, as a real confrontation might take a little of the tough guy luster that Barack Obama has just acquired. That has to last for a week or two, until the next profound collectivist move or Joe the Gaffer says something weird again.
A really profound move would be to stage a Delta-force or SEAL Op and get some of these kidnapped civilian sailors the Hell out of the hands of the Somalis.
Square the circle. Send navy dentists to Somalia to pull their teeth out.
We should make Robert Byrd happy. Congress should issue a proper Declaration of War if Somalia does not accede to our list of demands. Make the list lengthy, make them submit to supervision under the Trusteeship Council and give up their seat in the UN. Also revoke all visas for Somali nationals in the US, except for a maximum of 50 in the H1-B fashion model category.
I’m still waiting for the coming criticisms that our response was disproportionate.
Although the larger point of the NHS being pathetic remains, the really sad thing about the dental problems of Britain is that the true cause of, and cure for, dental decay and gum problems has been known since the 1930s (at least). Anyone who is interested should read Nutrition and Physical Degeneration by Dr. Weston Price, but you can also just read the short version here. I had six open cavities last September and none when I returned to the dentist in December because of this simple method.
Similarly, the cause of, and cure for, piracy has also been known for centuries. Is there a correlation between our ability to ignore both medical and political evidence when it doesn’t suit how we want the world to work?
wretchard,
When they spend your money they call it an investment.
E. Nigma,
To do it right takes a little planning.
1. Get some enabling act through Congress to conduct Piracy suppression operations in Somalia
and adjacent territories, note that no special authorization is needed on the High Seas.
2. Set up interdiction sites outside of the coastal ports where the captives are being held.
3. Disable a merchant ship or three that are being held for ransom. Let the owners scream,
acts of war are not covered by insurance.
4. Rescue some prisoners held in a port, 4 days later repeat elsewhere, repeat again.
5. When they panic and try to escape inland with their hostages intercept them,
head them off at the pass.
If I may parse a bit, there is a big difference btw “Vows Of Revenge” as the media is pitching it (revenge is usually targeted to whom the aggressor feels responsible and worthy of the revenge), and this quotation from Jamac Habeb- “From now on, if we capture foreign ships and their respective countries try to attack us, we will kill them (the hostages),” Jamac Habeb, a 30-year-old pirate, told The Associated Press from one of Somalia’s piracy hubs, Eyl. “(U.S. forces have) become our No. 1 enemy.” …
(Let’s kill them all before they capture any ships or ‘hostages’)
Habeb thinks that slaughter and murder of all potential, waiting-list hostages, not to mention the fact that 300 million U.S. folks have now been bumped up from their (previous) status of double-secret-probation to being in violation, and are in his sights, so don’t be surprised when you turn up dead…
Shows the wounded pride and humiliation of a thug.
And that might be the end of that (Habeb’s bluster), but Ass Press doesn’t see it that way: they smell sensationalism by pitting both parties against each other, with bloody favouritism for poor, oppressed, and prideful Habeb in the media’s struggle to turn Habebs lucrative racket into Third World Class Warfare™.
0bama is such a fool: the media is a bigger whore for sensationalism than they are for his ego, and will escalate this (quite rightfully I believe) into something 0 will be forced to deal with as a first priority.
And when that happens, it will be those Navy professionals wretchard mentioned, who will get volunteered to get the job done, and off the priorities list.
I said 0bama is a fool: he is a pluperfect fool; the media now sets the agenda and now he has to buckle under it
I guess they volunteered him for it.
Gaffe Prices,
The way to stop letting the noisy tail wag the dog is to start being a little asymmetric yourself. If we started to yank Saudi student visas and otherwise discovered all sorts of problems in any paperwork that some influential person wanted, who’s wife’s second cousin happened to be married to someone from Somalia, for getting the occupancy certificate for their Minneapolis 7-11 for example, then there would be a lot less laughing and a lot more motivated people shutting down the Cash and Carry and Merchant’s Bank of Ayda.
wretchard the cat wrote:
“It would be ironic, but not surprising, if international reaction to the USN’s success against the pirates will be to demand action — on their behalf — as a right from the US military; I mean ’system administrator’.”
We have been doing for the world thusly for several decades now and what has it gotten us? I have to go over to another blog tomorrow and defend myself from a snotty Swede. And the blog owners write that everything the US has done is “evil and wrong” in the area of foreign policy BUT they call themselves anti-jihadists and make the sounds of small ‘c’ conservatives or right leaning libertarians. Hell, the Europeons have been making hay on our defense dime for a long time but still have the luxury of taking the time to backseat drive foreign policy, as it were. Screw it, just shut down the borders, deport non-citizens who are not H-1B sponsored and whose welcome (visa) has worn out then tell the world to take a hike for a time. IF they want us to help, it is gonna cost them dearly. IF some nudge from one of the -stans attacks us, no more -stanland. Simple strongman foreign policy for say 10 years. No more foreign aid unless we get some real, tangible quid-pro-quo. Rebuild our industries – steel, automotive, etc. The rest of the world can go hang. Oh, and make trouble for a traveling US citizen and reap a Seal Team on your doorstep for a visit.
noprisoners @ 2:
“We are obliged to handle the big things. How this will work under our new administration, I don’t know.”
Here is a good one: On Sheep, Wolves, and Sheepdogs – Dave Grossman: http://www.gleamingedge.com/mirrors/onsheepwolvesandsheepdogs.html
Think of the current admin and the Dear Leader, The Won as a soft in the center, smooth skinned metrosexual boy. Also, picture a hard crunchy type such as Marcus Luttrell. Who you gonna want with you as you sail into waters where pirates are known to sail? Obama or Marcus?
I see the soft in the center, smooth ones strut about all of the time. They try and act tough. They try and walk the walk but somehow, it is just unconvincing. That is what I see whenever I see Obama – soft in the center. They are cute and fun at cocktail parties but not when you have to go where there be tigers. Oh, and BTW, I think wretchard is a good one to take with you where there be tigers. Look at his eyes.
So, right now, the US is just one of those soft in the center metrosexual poseurs in a world full of hard, bad people.
Adult Star Marilyn Chambers Found Dead
Fly your fly at half staff.
#5 Programmer
On really still nights when the moon is full, you can hear a quavery squeaky voice of an old rat telling the their young, “Don’t go into that yard. It is the death of rats.”
A colony of feral cats worked just fine as rodent controllers for friends down the road from me. Of course it may be less entertaining from a human perspective to let the cats kill the varmints than to dispatch them with an air rifle.
The world turns counter-clockwise when it’s viewed from outer blue
But only if you’re looking at North Pole
When viewed above the South Pole spinning clockwise is the view
So how can spacey travelers judge the whole?
You see how difficult it is to get someone to see
That pulling teeth is not the way to go
When that someone has interest in the way it ought to be
And pirates in their scrubs now run the show
The same with little people in their countries far and wide
They scream and holler that we’re never right
And yet they’re much content to go along just for the ride
As long as Uncle Sam provides the might
Do pirates in the boardroom pay the pirates far at sea
To leave their ships alone a quid pro quo?
Of course they do, for it is only business by the fee
And we’re all in the business don’t you know
So yes we’ll clean the pirates out of their Somali lairs
And set the captives free to ply their trade
But don’t expect our allies then to stand up on their chairs
And give our guys a great big accolade
I’ve always felt sad at the death of a beautiful woman; even long after her youth. Though character and personality count above all, Keats was on to something when he said that beauty conveyed its own kind of truth; if nothing else all beauty is a momentary rebellion against death. Call me sentimental, but I always hate it when death wins; or seems to.
Wretch, it just aint fair to run Keats right after me. From the ridiculous to the sublime.
Walt,
It isn’t Keats, but snatches of Tolkien. But your stuff is good and most of all it’s original. I can only quote and envy your skill at verse because it is the most compressed kind of writing and the concentration of it brings out things which, counterintuitively, you can never express in the longer form. It’s the music in the gaps.
Listening to the pirate elders vowing revenge reminded me of the Taliban dude who also promised blood and wrath on America. Somehow I just don’t see either the Somali’s or the Taliban being able to carve out a big enough canoe to swim across their ocean to get to us.
It’s like Saddam promising the “mother” of all wars — and then being annihilated.
Don’t these idjuts realize that their huffing and puffing makes them look foolish? If they’re making the effort to save some sort of face or honor, then it seems to me that looking foolish won’t help at all.
What we have here is failure to communicate … as in, “what’s WRONG with these people?!?”
S’funny how the pirates and The Quality didn’t upset when the French released their hostages, even if bungled.
Must be a reason, I s’pose.
ADE
NahnCee, All politics is local.
Walt,
Beauty is truth, truth beauty,— that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know
Jamie Irons
Robohobo #13:
Very good! I pray that we have enough sheepdogs. I am trying to be one myself. God knows that we must be prepared to endure the unendurable if we must. I don’t worry too much about the financial damage that we are experiencing. I am more upset by the moral losses in this crisis. Even moreso, I am concerned by the loss of moral credibility that the U.S. is suffering under the current administration. I am a constitutionialist. I think that the Constitution was the second most imporatant documant, after the Bible, ever writtenl
wretchard,
You wrote:
It’s the music in the gaps…
That is exactly right. John Ashbery said something very similar, if I remember correctly:
…the art part, knowing what to leave out…
Jamie Irons
#12, Left of Mind:
I don’t quite grasp the connexion btw “yank[ing] Saudi student visas” (and) “for getting the occupancy certificate for their Minneapolis 7-11['s]”
I’m not an expert on this sort of thing, but I can’t find any examples of Saudi Students opening a 7-11, nor applying for an “occupancy certificate” in order to make that possible, or even if an “occupancy certificate” is even necessary for that.
Saudi’s on student visas are more in the business of opening a 9-11, without even applying for an “occupancy certificate”, although the poorly vetted visa application, it goes without saying, was of paramount importance for these studious students to obtain for to fulfill their dreams here in America.
Regardless, I’m still anxious to learn how yanking, (or not yanking, I’m still not sure what you mean) saudi strident visas would result in “a lot less laughing and a lot more motivated people shutting down the Cash and Carry and Merchant’s Bank of Ayda.”
And further, I’m certainly keen to contort myself as asymmetrically as possible to see how it is, that a lack of motivation, and its restoration will shut down the privacy of, (ooh sorry), the piracy racket.
Please expound.
I’m sure there is no lack of motivation on the part of the navy personnel in the horn o’africa region, particularly the seals: and this is because there is no lack of training and discipline. If anything, there might be more than a little boredom in spending all the adrenaline on training and precision scenarios, and maybe they are ready to expend that effort and adrenaline on the real thing, despite the danger. Again, I don’t know, I’m not an expert on this.
I am therefore forced to speculate…
0bama, by humbly and courageously and decisively granting “permission” to the seals, merely got out of the way so that said seals could do their job. The job they were trained to do: that of exterminating the enemies of humanity so that real live human beings could be rescued and get back on with their lives.
#14: good one Habu. LoL
Wretchard
Thanks for the compliment, and thank you for even noticing. I read your blog for the content and analysis, but above all for the purity and concision of your prose.
Walt Erickson
Gaffe Prices @ 26:
I happen to have friends who speak Arabic at a major university. The Saudi students assume that all American girls are whores since they show any skins at all. My wife, who is an Academic Dean at one of these major universities, is totally aware of the fact that these young men do not respect any woman – period.
Looking over Somalia, I think Wretch may have
penned the wrong title. Maybe he should have borrowed a page from Carol Burnett and called this one:
“As The Somach Churns”.
No respect for women , eh? Is Sarah Palin
their worst nightmare then?
How about introducing some of them to our own Teresita/Ruby/Michelle, replete with that shooting iron photo.
Hijack their e-mails and let Nahn Cee and others read them the riot act.
All this will either force a change of attitudes, drive them screaming back to where they came, or inspire them to make our day.
wow, this has become quite the ‘open thread’, while maintaining the integrity of the post.
On the rat front, here’s this- One morning I went round to the side of the house, and there, on the ground, belly up, was a rat, a dead rat. And nearby was the remains of a miniature, pink, baby rat, also dead.
It was curious, and mysterious: I did no forensic examination, but there did not appear to be any sign of a mortal wound to either rodental corpse (no blood, etc); but I did feel sorry for them as this was quite a sad occasion for the rat population my house supported. But I did count the advantage of two fewer rats in my home.
Human emotion is sometimes complex
I have three cats, and one of them has bagged three mice. And of course, there is a difference in both size and perhaps color btw rat and mouse. Mice are tiny, thin little things and rats are fat, no, obese
On beauty, Walt, Jamie and wretchard, I hope and believe you are all right.
This is an even better quotation from pirate man-elder: “Every country will be treated the way it treats us. In the future, America will be the one mourning and crying,” and “We will retaliate (for) the killings of our men.” ["our Men]
I guess this is, for heeem, the enfre mans, the “music between the gaps” that leaves no stone un-turned and no infidel un-threatened. How sweet
We used to put out warfarin for the rats. Gets ‘em every time. Generally head to water to die.
My grief was not excessive.
nahncee that’s just how some cultures react. they don’t understand anglo-saxons or how we think. same as the latins. the argentinians didn’t grasp how the british would react and couldn’t believe that a restrained and understated society(at that time)could so easily switch to one with blood in their eyes.if the west isn’t more blatant about what we want we’re going to get a lot more of this ‘foolishness’.
Wretchard,
I’m looking forward to your Public Policy Phrasebook. I hope you will include a section on international reactions to American action that is really international unless they don’t work, or something like that.
Yes it is galling to expect the US to solve all problems. Even worse is the criticism when US action has not been perfect, i.e., when some aspect of of what we did offended the moral sensibilities of those who sat on their a**es. It is amazing how all the different points of view pre-action manage to reconcile post-action and come up with a chorus of “ignorant, brutal, imperialistic Americans didn’t listen to us, and now look what a mess we’ve got.” Galling isn’t a strong enough word.
21. ADE:
S’funny how the pirates and The Quality didn’t upset when the French released their hostages, even if bungled.
Must be a reason, I s’pose.
ADE
Idiot, check the articles on the front page of PJM, the French and tha Americans are the equal targets
The link presents the latest “public phases” to use in describing our world problems!
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123958305263912309.html
Solving problems is as simple as renaming it.
The other news item we could have combined with the “No More Mr. Nice Guy” pirate story is that of the Obama Admin’s decision to improve relations with Cuba. Or rather, help Castro with his economy.
That ship was on its way to Kenya. And one reason Kenya and Somalia and Africa in general are so screwed up is that in the 80’s the Cubans sent an army to terrorize the countryside at the request of the USSR.
But the people who helped cause the problem just got a big boost to help the last remaining Worker’s Paradise to keep running until Castro kicks off. With luck, they will then become another typical Latin American country. With real luck they will then become like Somalia.
Gaffe Prices,
While my syntax might be convoluted your total failure to follow my comment, you can’t even get my name right – unless that is a feeble stab at a joke? – is not something I am obligated to correct by walking you through it slowly. Read it carefully and then ask about an unclear point but don’t insult just because you don’t comprehend. Marie Claude gets a pass because she is forthright about her English comprehension limitations, you have raised no such defense.
OK we spread warfarin in the Somali food shipments?
We send big cats there or shoot them with higher powered projectile weapons.
“I can live with that.”
Apropos of “public phrases,” Thomas Sowell’s lates is on Magic Words in Politics. He includes one of my favorite stories:
“Abraham Lincoln once asked an audience how many legs a dog has if you count the tail as a leg. When they answered “five,” Lincoln told them that the answer was four. The fact that you called the tail a leg did not make it a leg.”
wretchard,
JRR Tolkein named his wife Lúthien, some 45 years before he published LOTR, after she danced for him in a meadow.
Improbable: 2 Brick Sandwichs
Life of:
Rushdie’s ex eats Burgers for Us:
—
I cannot pretend to be offended by these ads.
Young men are coarse, callow, emotional imbeciles with suicidal dietary habits.
In other words, from a marketing perspective, these ads are perfection itself, practically verite. Meanwhile, if I put on my magic deconstructing spectacles, I can see neo-feminist subversion in these messages.
Note the tagline of the Padma Lakshmi commercial:
“More than a piece of meat.”
This was the cri de coeur of feminism back in the day, and though it refers to the burger, it is also a tweak of conscience to males slobbering over the accomplished actress-author-chef. Take that, you objectifying pig.
Also, in a culture in which glamour and beauty have been so thoroughly yoked to anorexia, isn’t it great to see a sexy woman eat like a stevedore?
Radio Japan news reported that there are some Japanese destroyers off Somalia doing something or other about pirates. So anyway there’s an actual boat there.
“S’funny how the pirates and The Quality didn’t upset when the French released their hostages, even if bungled.”
One American life is worth ten lives of any other nationality, the French included.
And it’s worth hundreds of Arab lives (if not thousands).
Something the rest of the world recognizes and for some reason finds galling.
More compassionate than killing the pirates would be the Muslim way, cutting off their hands. They then might starve in Somalia so we should send them $200/month for food to keep them alive as a warning to others.
To Standing in the Shadows #8:
It started yesterday on NPR International’s radio program called “The World.” A feature with the ususal broad equanimity exteded to the Somalis, the usual harshness and with the USA getting it in the neck. Of course there was no mention that over the past eight years the USA has played host to thousands of Muslim Somali refugees (I think that is their immigration status); there is a large community here in Seattle. Can’t NPR ever express affection for the USA. There’s no winning with the NPR crowd.
FWIW – I deal with Somalis all day, every day. There are as many in Seattle as in Minneapolis – in fact we see a lot of Somalis coming here by way of Minneapolis and those here are always heading out to see cousins there. (Or in Texas?!) As I’ve noted before, travel money is remarkably easy to come by for some reason, but don’t ask me where they get it. Most are on public assistance. They are instructed in the refugee camps in Kenya on what to demand when they get here and believe me they get it. We are legally obligated to care for these people and their families are growing year by year. Mark Steyn puts the Somali birth rate at 7 point something (highest in the world btw) and here in the USA they don’t have to worry about infant mortality so much. I often wonder how much of the USA’s stable population growth is dependent upon Somali women. I’m told that in the old country they don’t do anything but have babies (they even go into confinement in the last trimester!) and from what I see most do not change once they get here.
Also I’ve been told that back home it is considered an insult to the family if the woman of the house is seen to work in the home. If company comes, the daughters are supposed to make the tea or whatever. If the woman of the house is seen doing anything, people will talk.
Many of the boys are not disciplined at all. The word ‘no’ means nothing to them. I’ve been punched and kicked several times by pre-adolescent Somali boys who didn’t want their shots and the mothers do nothing. Nothing. Same if you tell them to do something or to stop doing anything. Without some timely intervention by concerned men, I fear these boys are just little gangstas in the making.
Anyway, the bluster and tough talk is typical adult behavior among the new arrivals. They can also change their tune in a second if it suits their purpose. It’s extraordinary to watch someone turn on a dime from bullying, in-your-face behavior to wheedling apologies once they determine you’re not going to budge on something. Experience has shown me it’s usually a ruse. They are nothing if not determined when it comes to getting what they want. A lot of things we take for granted are alien to them – when you listen to interpreters talking to them, the conversation is peppered with English words for which there are no Somali equivalents – things like “front desk” and “appointment”- which strongly suggests to me that civil administration is an unknown quantity in the old country. That said, once they learn the system they work it like old pros. They are amazingly simple people, ostentatiously devout, no curiosity about anything but very proud, and cunning too.
Isak Dinesen’s personal servant was a Somali and she wrote admiringly of his people a century ago. All the same, she described them as “acquisitive beyond belief” and judging from the amount of gold I’ve seen a lot of these welfare mothers wearing, that’s probably still true today.
One thing I’ve learned from living and working in this liberal echo chamber is that whether they admit it or not, most multiculturalists believe that everyone on earth has an inner white liberal, and if we could all just ‘access’ this superior being we all carry inside, the world would be the wonderful, “sustainable” place it’s supposed to be.
The short version then, is no quarter to the pirates. They will never stop so long as they think they can get away with anything. And as for the nation-building, I’m tempted to say let the Chinese have the place. The Somalis aren’t going to do anything for themselves and they keep biting the Western hand that tries repeatedly to feed them. Let them eat cultural revolution instead of spaghetti for a change.
With Teresita’s absence, I don’t mind playing devil’s advocate. The USN shouldn’t be guaranteeing the protection of the entire unarmed civilized world. If we were in the midst of a Pax Americana, I don’t believe I would have problems with the U.S. playing global policeman. But we’re not experiencing any sort of a Pax: China is rising, Russia is expansionist and ruthless, the Middle East is a cauldron of violence, and we’re in the early stages of a failure of modernization in many developing and undeveloped nations.
Failed states and authoritarians, and the concomitant return to a Hobbesian world, are the new “End of History.” The U.S. simply cannot continue to fight the world’s battles alone, whether it be Islamic fundamentalism, Russian aggression, or the resurgence of piracy.
Quoth the wise host: “For example the translation of the phrase “the world should come together to end the scourge of piracy”, means the USN, with the possible help of one or two major western navies, should fix the problem.” It’s all well and good we currently have the capability, and the compassion, to clean up the world’s unpleasant little messes. But U.S. military superiority is a finite resource; eventually the “free rider” problem is going to catch up to us. When that happens, the rest of the civilized world will be in for a rude awakening.
It’s interesting that in this wide-ranging thread there’s no mention of a ‘root cause’ of the piracy, i.e. it’s Muslim-ness. Maybe even Belmonters are just tired of pointing out the obvious, i.e. that Muslims think they have a right to whatever the non-believers own, by conquest or tax. The Prince of Tripoli told Jefferson so; Muslims believe it today.
Marymcl writes a really good comment: “One thing I’ve learned from living and working in this liberal echo chamber is that whether they admit it or not, most multiculturalists believe that everyone on earth has an inner white liberal, and if we could all just ‘access’ this superior being we all carry inside, the world would be the wonderful, “sustainable” place it’s supposed to be.”
“Inner white liberal” —that’s really good!
mary,
The Somalis sound like they have all the vices of the Arab Muslims and then some. That is one wicked people.
As best I can determine, they are here because Bill Clinton somehow obligated us to take them in. Some agreement with the U.N.’s refugee services?
Will there be no end to politicians who grovel like the most cowardly dihimmis at their feet? It’s very clear that we see the world so very differently than do our lawyers and our politicians (often these overlap anyway). Because of the lawyers, we cannot deal with the jihadis as we should. Because of the lawyers we cannot deal with the pirates as they should be dealt with. Everywhere you look, there are lawyers ripping out pieces of our civilization – and they are getting away with it.
Wretchard I admire your columns but your thoughts regarding government speak is something I would plunk down money to buy. Appropos of this phenomena I find, as another poster pointed out, that either through the media filter or through some NGO spouting govspeaker people with no background in this form of double speak seem to come up with some of the strangest, from my perspective of their perspective, justifications of their behavior. Then, of course, the MSM just spouts their silliness or it is filtered into MSM speak for our benefit and to help us UNDERSTAND their POV.
Some wag yesterday pointed out the Hill, Holder and Obama don’t know the difference between enemies and law breakers. Well aren’t lawbreakers enemies in their own way?
The Somalis believe they are the truest Muslims of all, descended from the Prophet or something, I forget now – Dinesen wrote about it in “Shadows on the Grass” though I haven’t time to look it up right now. They have Arab names, which is significant, and when I’ve asked people about the history of the country before Islam, I’ve been told told “nobody knows” or just gotten no answer at all, as if the question itself were incomprehensible somehow.
I want to add that I’ve also met Somalis, men and women, who seem to have assimilated and are as far from the picture I’ve painted earlier as you can imagine. Islam is the only question there. Anyway it’s always worth remembering that any individual can break the mold, and many do. That’s one of the things America makes possible.
btw Thanks Mark
None see, yours is worth nuthin, cuz you are the image of America that the other nations hate with good reasons
Whenever you see headlines like this: Obama vows to fight pirates off Horn of Africa
Its also helpful to recall that obama’s dad is from the luao tribe–a moslem tribe from kenya. they are closely related to the somalis. (never mind the question of whether obama is actually an american citizen)
In order for Obama to remain “balanced” or “even handed” he will have to come down Americans on the right.
Consider
Federal agency warns of radicals on right – Washington Times.
The Department of Homeland Security is warning law enforcement officials about a rise in “rightwing extremist activity,” saying the economic recession, the election of America’s first black president and the return of a few disgruntled war veterans could swell the ranks of white-power militias.
A footnote attached to the report by the Homeland Security Office of Intelligence and Analysis defines “rightwing extremism in the United States” as including not just racist or hate groups, but also groups that reject federal authority in favor of state or local authority.
“It may include groups and individuals that are dedicated to a single-issue, such as opposition to abortion or immigration,” the warning says.
The White House has distanced itself from the analysis. When asked for comment on its contents, White House spokesman Nick Shapiro said, “The President is focused not on politics but rather taking the steps necessary to protect all Americans from the threat of violence and terrorism regardless of its origins. He also believes those who serve represent the best of this country, and he will continue to ensure that our veterans receive the respect and benefits they have earned.”
The nine-page document was sent to police and sheriff’s departments across the United States on April 7 under the headline, “Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment.”
It says the federal government “will be working with its state and local partners over the next several months” to gather information on “rightwing extremist activity in the United States.”
The joint federal-state activities will have “a particular emphasis” on the causes of “rightwing extremist radicalization.”
Homeland Security spokeswoman Sara Kuban said the report is one in an ongoing series of assessments by the department to “facilitate a greater understanding of the phenomenon of violent radicalization in the U.S.”
The report, which was first disclosed to the public by nationally syndicated radio host Roger Hedgecock, makes clear that the Homeland Security Department does not have “specific information that domestic rightwing terrorists are currently planning acts of violence.”It warns that fringe organizations are gaining recruits, but it provides no numbers.
The report says extremist groups have used President Obama as a recruiting tool.
“Most statements by rightwing extremists have been rhetorical, expressing concerns about the election of the first African American president, but stopping short of calls for violent action,” the report says. “In two instances in the run-up to the election, extremists appeared to be in the early planning stages of some threatening activity targeting the Democratic nominee, but law enforcement interceded.”
When asked about this passage, Secret Service spokesman Ed Donovan said, “We are concerned about anybody who will try to harm or plan to harm any one of our protectees. We don’t have the luxury to focus on one particular group at the exclusion of others.”
Congressional debates about immigration and gun control also make extremist groups suspicious and give them a rallying cry, the report says.
“It is unclear if either bill will be passed into law; nonetheless, a correlation may exist between the potential passage of gun control legislation and increased hoarding of ammunition, weapons stockpiling, and paramilitary training activities among rightwing extremists,” the report said.
The FBI was quoted Monday as saying that, since November, more than 7 million people have applied for criminal background checks in order to buy weapons.
The Homeland Security report added: “Over the past five years, various rightwing extremists, including militias and white supremacists, have adopted the immigration issue as a call to action, rallying point, and recruiting tool.”
The Washington Times link is not working so try this.
Obama is making a mistake by putting this out.
President ‘Bitterly Disappointed’ in Biden
–as it comes under the same rules as putting down your wife in public–why? because since you’re hitched–if you take your wife down a notch–you take yourself down as well.
Now that I think of it (I’m always a little slow in picking up on Wrichard’s ironic connections), the National Health Service dental plan and the US military spending plan seem quite similar. First, ‘System Administrator’ Obama reduces funding for the military. In effect he advises tooth removal. Next, he’ll ask the military to snarl occasionally and show fierce gums. That way we can try to scare bad guys but make sure that no one gets hurt by those fierce teeth.
[Valerie Holsworth said] ‘They told me they were going to rip them all out and then they would leave me for three or four months until the gums had healed before they gave me dentures,’ she says. ‘I’d already given up my job because I was so embarrassed by the way my teeth looked.’
We’ll see if the US military feels Valerie-like after a few years of tooth extraction. It certainly felt embarrassed under Carter, when it seems to be going toothless. By then, as a benefit of reducing military spending, our peace dividend reward will be our very own NHS. Get ready for those dentures!
By the way, I love the edit feature. Thank you Wrichard.
Charles, you still don’t see? Whiskey’s right. He hates white people. Can’t help himself.
It’s why The Family Guy is press secretary. Makes him look even more cool.
MClaude, can you translate for us earthlings?
earthlings = Terriens, habitants de la Terre
inhabitants of the planet
MC,
maineman is referring to your #57.
It comes out as an incomprehensible gibberish.
Note the difference:
MClaude, can you translate for us[,] earthlings?
= We lowly earthlings don’t comprehend #57.
MClaude, can you translate ["]earthlings["] for us?
= How’s “earthlings” in French?
Me, being from that end of wood, understand #57. It comes out as arrogant, and moronic at the same time.
Marie Claude – you do understand, don’t you, that as a French person your opinion means less than nothing?
And NahnCee applies a coarse patch on a coarse bag, MC.
Just translating for you…
One day I am going to write a something called the Public Policy Phrasebook, like one of those foreign language primers that tourists use when going to an unknown country.
Actually Wretchard, I think several authors have already beaten you to the punch, though they’ve cleverly disquised their Public Policy Phrasebooks as children’s books. The ones that teach opposites. When a Public Policy says “in” it really means “out.” When it says “free” it really means “unimaginably expensive.” When it says “liberal” it means “authoritarian” and so on.
Works quite well, and nobody can bring them up on Hate Speech charges.
Cats and rats. An important note which has many parallels is the fact that most cats will not take on a rat. The rat’s aggression and mouthful of teeth are deterrents. And yes, in part, the killing of a rat is a skill taught by the queen to her kittens. The other part is a certain temperament, spurred by need. My very best ratter was a feral cat, Igamoo, who was especially fond of seared ahi with a side dish of spinach wilted in garlic sauce. He was terrified of deer.
oh my court !
2be4, I was aware of #61 intention, and responded in the vein of #57
thank you to let me know that you are frustratred ! umm am I enough arrogant ?
Nane CEE, you are a member of f**kFrance forum,
I have no respect for you
I my country you would be pursued for incitating to racism
MC, your humor was not lost on me. I get it that I am a silly English speaking person.
My very best ratter was a feral cat, Igamoo, who was especially fond of seared ahi with a side dish of spinach wilted in garlic sauce. He was terrified of deer.
Deer – especially the younger ones – appear to be facinated by cats. We’ve had deer walk up on to our deck just to look at one of our cats (the cats, though not terrified of the deer, are not exactly happy with the attention).
19. wretchard & Walt:
Certain other Tolkien allusions have been much on my mind lately as well. In particular, considering the current fashion of referring to our current leader, the TOTUS, as “the One”, I offer:
“the One’s Ring to rule us all, the One’s Ring to find us, the One’s Ring to bring us all and in the darkness bind us.”
MC – in this country, we call it freedom of speech. Ain’t it a bitch?
A Public Policy Phrasebook, with appropriate translations would be a good idea.
Back in the mid 70’s I found a list of bureaucratic phrases and translations for each and put it under the glass on my desk at work. Supposedly it had been produced by someone in the USN. Some of them were:
“Your attention is invited.” means “For Chrissakes, you guys, wake up!”
“Widely held opinion.” means “Two of us in the office agree.”
“Generally held opinion.” means “Two of us in the office and the kid who brings the coffee agree.”
“Study now under way.” means “We are trying to hire someone to do the study.”
“On an austerity basis.” means “No money to do this but do it anyway.”
“All policies of the pervious management will remain in effect until further notice” means “I have no idea what those policies are but you can be damn sure I will change them as soon as I find out.”
And of course, the proudest boast in the Pentagon while I was there was “We refuse to be constrained by the parameters of rational thought” and that needs no translation.
73, STFU
Try this, Marie-Claude: your country sucks and is morphing before your very eyes into a black hole of Islam. Your people are terrified of the invaders, haven’t got the guts or the guns to see them off, and are tamely submitting to them. Your Army openly admits it doesn’t trust its Muslim soldiers and wouldn’t dare utilize them against other Muzzies–or almost anyone else, for that matter. Do you justify the car burnings as a make-work program for Renault and Citroen?
Bigeard said it all about you and your country in his book, which irrevocably damns the lot of you.
As for trying me for incitement to racism, don’t make me laugh. In the U.S. truth is a defense to libel.
Nane the travestite ta itterature m’impressionne
BTW Bigeard was the Dien Dien Phu hero, and if you were in front of him, I don’t give a nickel of your Nahn face
muslim soldiers, so what? we had a lot of them in our conlonial armies
and it ain’t 3 cases that ruined our army
Marie Claude,
While you might not be the perfect representative of our allies you should be aware that the abuse is not coming from Belmont Club regulars but from anonymous trolls.
Lifeofthemind, “representative of our allies”, you’d preferred Poles !!! LMAO last time I read from them they were sniffing the eastern wind.
Besides the French, while not polishing anyone’s shoes, never attacked the US, and even with De Gaulle’s pullack from Nato burocraty in 1967, our army participated in most of the Nato interventions.
And the rest of your sentence, is a beautiful demonstration of your learned skills to make a frog looking like a toad
Though I hope you would understand that I defend myself as a frog
#38, Lifeofthemind
true, true, I adopted the pretentious posture of the grammarian to parse your post, in an equally pretentious semantic assault on the content in a straw man fashion. I had fun at your expense.
There is no need for cheap shots here. I apologize.
You are certainly not the sort of cookie-cutter troll we get here at Pajamas, and its inappropriate to vent my anger at piracy in your direction unsolicited.
I would like to exterminate, and especially, anihilate all mid-level sources of piratic support, and frankly I see this latest incident as a brilliant opportunity to do so.
Unfortunately I don’t think 0 has the ‘vision’ for it. He decided that navy seals might bump this thing back down to a lower priority, so he conveniently helped himself out of their way. So they could do their job and exterminate some of the enemies of humanity.
Anyway, I’m sorry. I use the moniker ‘gaffe prices’ as a pre-emptive disclaimer against anything stupid I might say (ineffectively, I might add). So sometimes one has to come clean, and admit he made a boo-boo.
No mercy for the vain idolatry that is 0 though.
Gaffe Prices,
Accepted, and on the big issues I agree.
Lifeofthemind, you might be right about the anonymous, anyway I don’t reject what I said to these nics.
I have to slow down what I wrote you
umm am I enough arrogant ?
No, but you’re close werry werry! Now you should aspire to enough incoherent. (How refreshing to be rude to a foreigner!)
I do my best
Not many places where even when people “flame” each other, they eventually get around to apologizing.
That must REALLY aggravate some trolls.
A lot of what is posted here is just folks “blowing off Steam” but there’s a mess of ideas that leave stretch-marks all over your brain.
And ***THAT*** TRULY PISSES OFF the Trolls.