Egypt descends into chaos
Sunday’s massacre of protesting Copts is heartbreaking; from the initial reports, several thousand Christians marched to protest the military government’s blind eye towards Muslim violence when they were “were attacked by thugs carrying swords and clubs,” according to one Copt. The Egyptian government says that the Christian protesters began firing live ammunition at soldiers. That stretches credibility.
Meanwhile, according to today’s summary of the Egyptian press:
The state-owned [newspaper] Al-Dostour reports on an “insane” increase in the prices of commodities and services that has left citizens “screaming,” presumably in despair. In its report, Al-Dostour claims that the “current state of lawlessness has left merchants and businesses with no supervision,” giving them free reign to raise prices without fear of repercussion. After a string of powerful metaphors depicting consumers as helpless prey in the grips of some fiercer yet unspecified predator, the report turns into an onslaught of numbers and percentages – food products up 80 percent since January of this year, LE7 for a kilo of sugar and LE13.75 for a liter of vegetable oil, 50 percent increase in the price of flour and LE22 for a kilo of duck meat, and on and on. LE9 for a kilo of humus, too.
No-one appears in charge. Central bank foreign exchange reserves are down to just $19 billion, or four months’ imports, the Financial Times reported last week. “After negotiating a loan from the International Monetary Fund, the military council decided to scrap it, partly on fears of popular criticism – the IMF has a negative reputation in Egypt because of its association with harsh structural adjustment programmes. In addition, only $500m of some $7bn of promised aid from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have arrived so far.”
Egypt literally will run out of food. It imports half its caloric consumption, mainly wheat (although Egyptians eat less wheat than Iranians, Moroccans, Canadians, Turks and Russians). Egypt spends $5.5 billion a year on food subsidies. Its social solidarity minister wants to change the system (which subsidizes some people who can afford to pay more than the penny a loaf the government charges), but seems deeply confused. ”‘We need to change consumer habits so that we are not consuming so much bread. In Mexico, for example, they rely more on potatoes. Why can’t we start shifting toward that?’said Saad Nassar, adviser to the agriculture minister.” Mr. Nassar seems unaware that Mexicans eat more corn than wheat or potatoes. This discussion would be comical if not for the fact that Egypt is about to run out of money to pay for any sort of food.
At 8 million or more, the absolute number of Copts is not insignificant–I hope the Europeans will intercede on their behalf.
That is crazy that the Iraqi government is now supporting Assad! How can America just sit back and accept that? It is way too of an idealistic view the Americans are taking.
“I hope the Europeans will intercede on their behalf.”
A nice thought, but one recent example is the Vatican which NEVER lifted a finger to help the Maronites of Lebanon during the 1970s when the PLO was massacring whole Christian villages and desecrating their churches.
The other example is European Crusaders who, while killing Jews & Muslims, also murdered Middle Eastern Christians, simply because they didn’t look European and so, in the minds of the Crusaders, couldn’t possibly be Christian…
Besides all that – “European” is quickly becoming a description of the past as “Europeans” stop having children while Muslim families expand and take over.
Does anyone here remember how the Vatican screamed at Israel for catching and imprisoning their Lebanese prelate Hilarion Capucci for running arms and explosives from Lebanon to the PLO in the West Bank, in his official Mercedes, even as Arafat was slaughtering Christians in Lebanon (e.g. town of Damour 1976)?
Which is why I am not as impressed with any pope as David is.
You mean “quickly” like 400 years?
It’s a logarithmic curve; he means “quickly”, as in the latter part of such a curve, . . .
True, sir
Logarithm graphs for those having slept in maths…
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ae/Log4.svg
Essentially, this is what happened to Jews in the Arab countries. Now, there are no more Jews so it’s the turn of Christians.
The appropriate quote is, ”First the Saturday people, then the Sunday people.”
Off the subject, Mr Goldman, yesterday I read an interesting analysis of the Israeli economy at the blog ISRAEL MATZAV – ”Can Netanyahu Break the Cartels.”
http://israelmatzav.blogspot.com/2011/10/can-netanyahu-break-cartels.html
I would very much value your opinion.
Terry,
The Copts were (and are) just as savage in their Jew-hatred as Muslims. Anti-Semitism is a force so powerful, that it unites all Arabs – Christian, Shia, and Sunni.
The Copts were happy to see the Jews expelled from Egypt and their property confiscated; even though a fool could have seen that they would be next (a fool not blinded by psychotic, genocidal Jew-hatred that is).
They have been just as strong in their support of even the most radical Nazi savage sub-human Palestinians as any Jihadist.
I do not feel sorry for them. They are getting what they deserve. Hashem is delivering justice; let him continue to deliver it.
And the Maronites? They will get their justice when Israel, to save its existence from Hezbollah Nazis and their rockets, is forced to level the entire country.
Yes, generally speaking, the Christians in the Middle-East are not favourably dispossed towards Jews. This is especially true of the Palestinian Christians.
The Copts led the first widescale Christian massacre of Jews – in Alexandria in 415 CE. So their hatred predates Islam by at least two centuries.
Their attitude has not improved since.
Right. With trillions in various sovereign funds funding massive da’wa and stealth colonization, as the West goes bankrupt, with nukes already in Pakistan, and more nukes soon in Iran, (and probably Saudi Arabia et al), with 25-30 million breeding minions already installed Europe, and 5-6 million or more installed in the USA, with the prospects of millions more flooding Europe as Islam dissolves various failed experiments at secularism and drives more colonizers to the corners of the globe, with Islam ascendent from Turkey to Malaysia, from Indonesia to N. Africa, from Egypt to the Balkans, Islam is about to collapse.
Right.
I agree 100%.
Saudi Arabia is doing just fine in its own planet, but it won’t bail out Egypt or back Turkey. Turkey is about to have a hard landing economically; longer term it is demographically doomed (the biggest demographic time bomb is the Kurds vs Turks). Pakistan is a catastrophe; Syria and Yemen and Lebanon are in a permanent state of civil war.
By our standards, Islam looks like a chaotic mess. But by Islam’s metrics, things are looking up. Whereas chaos renders our modern complex social and economic systems dysfunctional, chaos and mayhem seems to be like fertilizer for Islam. So while we see terror, oppression, genocide, and tyranny as bugs, within Islam these appear to be desirable features. Our system collapses in the face of chaos, but Islam’s grip reinforced and strengthened. Islam is served by the very chaos and destruction it wreaks in the world.
If chaos was all that there was, and Muslims and WMD weren’t proliferating, I’d agree that we would not be in much peril from the Muslims. But add WMDs to the mix, add the steady inflow of trillions from oil revenues flowing into whatever Muslim coffers (that won’t change unless we act to change it), and a critical and increasing mass of looted technology from the West, and Islam becomes the ravening beast we see rampaging across the globe.
Sure, this or that regime may topple, but the general trend is now more Islam and a more brutal Islam than the world has seen in centuries. Their “user base” is larger than it’s ever been in history. Their nodes are more distributed than ever in history.
Now, on top of the tens of millions perpetuating Jihad on our soil, the trillions flowing into their coffers, the spread of WMD, add in the civilizational auto-immune disease of multiculturalism which the West is suffering from – and Islam is cooking with gas. In the starkest terms, they are advancing and we are withdrawing.
Muslims will continue to steal most things we’ve given them and pervert those gifts to wage Jihad. They’ve done this already with the internet, with the computer, with the cell phone, fertilizer, and medical technology (both to poison us and to birth more babies for Jihad), and they’ve done it with the airplane, the box cutter, and more abstract gifts like freedom of assembly, freedom of speech, and freedom to practice their supremacist ‘religion’ with all the legal protections the West can provide. I suggest we are in supreme danger.
Nuclear winter, anyone?
I think we can reasonably say everyone is collapsing – question is, who will collapse last? And who will wake up from the wreckage first?
“We can’t attack Iran to neutralize its nuclear weapons program because that might destabilize Iraq (which seems an odd concern given that Iraq is an Iranian ally).”
We can’t attack Iran because we already control its top layer of government and probably much of its lower administration by now.
It is not as if the Mubarak regime did such a bang up job protecting the Copts, but with Obama and the Europeans stupidly proclaiming the “Arab Spring” as a harbinger of democracy, human rights, and freedom, this ongoing destruction of the Egyptian Christian Coptic community must come as a real surprise.
No of course not, Obama the Wonder Boy and the Europeans probably aren’t even aware of the anti Copt Muslem riots and if they did they probably wouldn’t even care.
I guess, you did not care to verify your thesis. Was a major issue in German and French media…
http://www.lemonde.fr/afrique/article/2011/10/10/en-egypte-une-manifestation-de-coptes-est-reprimee-dans-le-sang-au-caire_1585038_3212.html
http://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/0,1518,790829,00.html
Most European media hope that the secular parties win and put checks on the Muslim Brotherhood, but some are already now pessimistic about this.
David,
At what price levels do you estimate food scarcity / expense begins to result in social outgroup violence? What level leads to total social breakdown? It would seem we are already seeing the former. Do you have any rough analysis on the later?
I would think the food scarcity problem begins to grow and loom ever larger even before the money runs out. By the time it runs out, I would expect society to already be in full breakdown, with insiders taking everything they can and abandoning ship. I am wondering if there is a metric we can observe (price of a standard bag of rice, let’s say) that could serve as a proxy indicator for when the entire system starts to collapse.
The system is already collapsing. You will know the system has completely collapsed when our brilliant leftist media reports that there are fears it may collapse.
You will know there is hope for the middle east when, if ever, they reject their stupid religion.
Why do you insist on labeling it….a “religion”?
It is a political ideology of conquest, war, pillage, conquest and murder of non adherents.
Abdul – Spot-on!!
So should one expect Thomas (“the-US-should-be-more-like-China”) Friedman to blame these latest “incidents” on Israel’s refusal to embrace Egypt’s “revolution” with the same enthusiasm as he did….
(Or should one expect him to take any responsibility at all for the current chaos?)
File under: “But I meant well, I really did…and I still insist that I was right at the time….”
Well, those who hoped that the “Arab spring” would inspire a rebirth of “activism” elsewhere must be thrilled by the Occupy Wall Street crowd. Unfortunately for the New York Times et al, it probably never occurred to them that they would be part of the target matrix for the “activism”.
As for Egypt, I think the fact that their decisions are being made at least in part by a “social solidarity minister” (can you say “social justice”?)speaks volumes for why they have problems over and above Islam itself. The combination of bloodthirsty radicalism with “social justice agendas” is an old one, and it never turns out well. Not even for Che’!, or Fidel, let alone any revolutionaries less adept at casting blame elsewhere and becoming pop-culture idols in the process.
Egypt is self-destructing, all right. The problem is that Arab nationalist radicalism owes at least as much to the French Revolution as it does to the Qu’ran. And the B’aath Party was at least as strongly influenced by the philosophies of Marat and Robespierre’ as it was by Herr Schicklegruber.
When things went south on the French revolutionaries, they looked around for a “man on horseback” who had all the answers to their woes. And decided to follow an artillery officer named Napoleon.
The rest of the world would regret their decision. Especially after nearly two decades of war.
The Arab countries, from Egypt on down, are no more likely to blame themselves for their problems than the French revolutionaries were, no matter who is running things in each one. And they are just as likely to convince themselves that, since their problems are “everybody else’s fault”, “everybody else” should pay.
And that’s how world wars get started.
clear ether
eon
“And that’s how world wars get started.”
The rise in food prices, looming economic collapse and scarcity of commidities, ethnic and religious strifes aside, ensures the next one is on its way.
Hopefully, a new world war can be avoided by the United States, if we, unilaterally if necessary, isolate this Arab/Muslim/Islamic disease in a quarantine of sorts inside Islamic Asia. The Russians will perhaps welcome wheat export opportunities. Their shipping distances are shorter than ours.
We’ll need to wake up first and confirm to ourselves that we’re in a killing, shooting war against Islamic terrorism….we haven’t yet done that in spite of 9/11, so it will take still more time for us to realize we need to do this in our own defense. This is a parallel of sorts with the ‘Thirties, when we had an isolationist faction, but we woke up suddenly when attacked by the Japanese. Sadly, 9/11 hasn’t yet galvanized us.
We can’t depend on Europeans to unite and reciprocate, reciprocate, our efforts at protecting them. Economically the Europeans are a spent force for at least the next decade.
Economically we’re in slightly better shape, and will improve after the next election.
Such a “Cordon Sanitaire’” (To use the French term) would have been practical thirty-odd years ago, before the various Arab states crossed the nuclear and ballistic missile threshold (with the Communist Bloc’s help) in the post- Iran/Iraq War period. Today, we face the potential dual problems of nuclear-armed states with the “reach” to at least hit Europe, combined with nuclear/biological/chemical terrorism. (Anyone who thinks chemical weapons are less of a threat than a nuke or weaponized anthrax or Ebola has never seen what nerve agents can do.)
Also, such a “blockade” would require us to stop buying anything from those states, notably oil. As long as our necks are under the Birkenstocks of eco-fanatics who worship Holy Wind and Holy Sun, and would kill to keep a nuclear or hydroelectric plant from even being planned, much less built, that Is Not Going To Happen. And even if they somehow have an attack of reality, we still will need motor fuel, lubricants, etc., and unless their epiphany includes domestic drilling, we still will be dependent on the very people who dream of enslaving or exterminating everybody else. Namely, the Islamist fanatics who are as eager to “martyr”their own people as they are to kill “infidels”, and who now bid fair to be the winners in the Arab world’s latest round of “musical chairs with AK-47s”. (Anyone who isn’t sitting when the music stops is “out”- permanently.)
This will require not just a change in the Oval Office and on Capitol Hill, but the intestinal fortitude to show the “deep-ecos” the door- and lock it behind them. I don’t see that in any potential candidate, for anything.
Reality is not popular with the “ruling class”.
clear ether
eon
“The problem is the faulty premise that American ingenuity, blood, and treasure could stabilize the Muslim world by building democracy. That premise is exploding in every single theater one cares to mention: Egypt, Syria, Palestine, Lebanon, Turkey, Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan. Stability is a mirage in the Muslim world.”
The American State Department as well as American Presidents (both George W. Bush AND Obama) actually believed that the Middle East is ready for Democracy. It is not and never will be. You are asking people who have never, ever, had a background in any form of democracy to all of sudden behave like Indiana. Trust me, it ain’t gonna happen. These are people that have been ruled literally for thousands of years by either kings, dictators, military men, tribal leaders, or holy men. Even in one tiny country where democracy actually had a chance, Lebanon, that dim light has been put out by Hezbollah and Syria.
Face it, force and power are the only things respected in that part of the world. Both Iraq and, especially, Afghanistan are both going to collapse just like South Vietnam did once we leave. And there is NOTHING we can do about it, unless we want to get involved in every Muslim nation in the Middle East and North Africa. Does anybody want to bet that Libya is actually going to turn into a working Democracy without our “help?” Any takers? Libya will either have a Muslim nationalist dictator or a mullah taking over the country, and there is nothing we can do about it. Unless, of course, we want to also stay in Libya for about 20 years and try to change them, even though we won’t.
The elder George H.W. Bush had it exactly right. He had no illusions about fighting these people. He did NOT invade Iraq after the first Gulf War simply because he understood that there was no way that he could change the Iraqi people. The people in the Middle East actually admire strong men, dictators, kings, mullahs, or tribal leaders. They WANT them to stay in power. That’s why the Muslim Brotherhood is about to take over Egypt, because their experiment with “Democracy” has been a disaster. More Americans should have learned the lessons that George H.W. Bush learned a long time ago, that these peopel will never, ever, change.
Here’s Martin Peretz at the New Republic writing, “Arab Spring, my ass!”
http://www.jidaily.com/YOnW/e
Very good piece.
Peretz’s official title was “Arab Spring, My Foot” as he is still in ‘editorial rehab’ from last year’s assault from most of his former mentees.
http://www.tnr.com/article/tel-aviv-journal/95834/arab-spring-saudi-arabia-israel-turkey-qadaffi?page=0,3
Perhaps the Saudis are trading oil for wheat (although I assume Yemen is in worse shape than Egypt and would get priority) – today’s report on US wheat supply/exports does not mention the Middle East at all:
http://www.agriculture.com/news/crops/wheat-stocks-expected-to-slump_2-ar19831
And, is there any chance that Libya can resume hiring Egyptians?
one small safety valve.
I await the occupation of the Sinai by Egypt’s Copts, centered at St. Catherine’s monastery.
“Democracy”
The Founders put ZERO stock in democracy. They knew it to be intensely disruptive, full of danger, almost certainly destructive of a nation-state.
The Founders highly regarded putting authority at the most appropriate level of the social, economic and governmental hierarchy. What they established here in the US in the mid-1700s through the early 1800′s (July 7th, 1731, the famous sermon by Jonathan Edwards, through the election of anti-renter NY Governor John Young in November 1846 to be exact) was a hierarchical representative republic, with each level autonomous, and represented by an agent at the next higher level.
Each State determined its own method of establishing a legislature, and of enfranchising those agents among the population who would and could vote or appoint that legislature. Similarly for juries and civil panels of all sorts needed. The most common method of was to allow the male heads of freely owned households to vote, to serve on juries, but there were variations.
The State legislatures appointed Senators, they also declared and managed the appointment of Presidential electors. This gave the States, as States, as an establishment, a serious check and balance upon Federal authority.
Within the Federal level of government divisions of authority between legislative, executive, and judicial powers also operated as check and balance. But the MOST important checks were (1) those given to the States, per the selection of Senators and Electors, and by the dread RESPECT afforded and expected of the State Judiciary powers by the Federal judiciary and (2) those given to the people by the election of a US Representative for each 30,000 every two years. Note that even that last was not fully “democratic”, for a State could define both the districts and the method of enfranchising the electors within those districts, as nest met the requirements of the State.
Not a democracy at all.
bvw – What the Founders gave us was a republic not a democracy. Remember the famous quote attributed to Franklin when he was asked the question about what kind of government the Founders had given us? He purportedly answered: “A republic, if you can keep it.” The Founders did not want to maximize democracy, they wanted to maximize freedom. The successors have lost sight of the Founders’ intentions, and now we have a democracy but we are slowly losing both our republic and our freedoms.
In the context of this thread, it is critical to emphasize that America’s greatness NEVER arose from “democracy”, and the Founders opposed Democracy as much as they opposed Monarchy. OF COURSE “democracy” will NOT work in Iraq, Afghanistan, Egypt or anywhere. As a national or even regional method of governance it will always fail rudely, crudely, and often in much bloodshed.
Yet “We, the People” means something. Just not democracy. What it meant to the Founders was a hierarchical, representative government. Within each level the representatives of the establishments at that level would vote with equal weight to each representative. Yet in other places, such as the selection of federal judges, those where appointed positions, not voted. A single magistrate (master), in this case the national president, appoints judges. Likewise in matters of the national army and navy the national president rules as commander-in-chief.
In such cases the Founders provided checks and balances. In the case of judges, the national congress may impeach a judge and remove that judge from office, and has to approve by simple majority each appointment. In the case of the national military, the navy and the army, the congress must authorize funding and may declare wars. The congress also has a military capability of sorts that beyond and independent of the president. That is “letters of marque and rebuke”.
America is weaker, sickened greatly by the changes, mostly of the “Progressive Era” which preempted and or removed the most important protections of the representative hierarchy. Such as the direct election of senators, the unchecked expansion of the Commerce Clause, giving multiple members of a household the right to vote.
bvw – Mostly agree with you. I would just add the following to your last comment: giving people who pay no taxes the right to vote.
Only the most blinkered deluded uneducated left wing moonbat would be surprised. This is just Mohammedans doing what Mohammedans do. The Hate and Death CULT needs feeding with constant bloodletting and when they run out of Jews and Kafirs to kill they turn on each other.
Gee, who could have predicted this?
Let’s see…. If the Muslim Brotherhood is attacking Coptic churches, and the Egyptian military is firing on Christian protesters, and the Iranians are financing terrorists in the Sinai, and the Turks are backing the Muslim Brotherhood, whose fault is it that 15 million Egyptians are in danger of starvation?
The Israelis, for building apartments in Gilo.
Oy vay, maybe I should stop putting up the sukkah on my terrace. Who knows what might happen …….
Your Sukkah constitutes “an illegal settlement” and as such is condemmed by the UN. If I were you I’d be very afraid.
15 million is an overwhelming number. Even a third of that is insanely frightening. What happens psychologically to the entire international structure if even 1.5 million people starve to death in a relatively modern country right across the Mediterranean from the heart of Europe? 5 million would be shattering. 15 million is impossible to contemplate. Should anything even close to this actually come to pass, the entire liberal world order will instantly implode. What replaces it?
No one is going to let 1.5 million die.
It isn’t a lack of food, it is a lack of food at the subsidized price.
When the excrement hits the rotating blades of the ventilation system shipments will be made. Yet another disaster avoided, liberal westerners will again sit in their homes and piously (though with out G-d) tell themselves how good they’ve been, and nothing will change. Pork may even be consumed.
With luck the politics will change, be we are talking about an Islamic country.
Notice I qualified the statement with a “should”. That said, it has been a recurring theme for David – the Moslem world will starve so that Chinese pigs can eat. Given the timing – a potential food crisis in Egypt / the Near East coming simultaneously with a financial crisis in Europe and possibly the US, I am not sure that everyone does get fed this time.
I think it is worth thinking about what such a crisis would do to the liberal world order. I do not mean politics per se, but the entire liberalized world trade and institutional structure.
For example: Any sufficiently large food disaster in a country like Egypt would almost definitely result in many food producer nations applying export controls on surplus food stocks. It would also lead stronger importing economies to increase food inventories. Both of these would result in even higher prices for food stocks. (The later in the short run, the former in the long run as export controls discourage production long term.) It might also result in even faster fresh water depletion rates in countries like China, as there are attempts to grow more grains in dry climates. The long discussed international water wars might actually move closer to reality in some parts of the world. As a minor aside, it would make food to fuel programs like ethanol production in the US even more idiotic and hard to justify, likely leading to a curtailing of some or all of it.
Refugee flows would also dwarf anything seen in recent times. This would likely be the end of the European Shengen Treaty, and possibly another nail in the coffin of the European Union federalism process. Given the amount of foreign aid given the Palestinians as a matter of course, you could very well see reverse refugee flow from Egypt to Gaza. Regardless, look how just a few thousand Moroccans trying to get into Spanish held North African islands tied Europe up in knots a few years ago. How does Europe adjust to a wave of starving refuges coming to its shores? Look what the threat of a much smaller invasion from tiny Haiti did to US politics in the Caribbean a few years back. Europe’s options are much more limited. What are the repercussions to the international system of the inevitable reaction? Does the framework of International Law even survive something like this?
Yeah, I agree, I was just reviewing a recipe for lamb stew and I was thinking sheesh, I bet I could put pork in it and no one would be the wiser seeing as how it is cooked to near oblivion and with the sauce and vegetables to cover it up who will know. So I’m thinking Holy Cow, I bet the Moslems wouldn’t know the difference either. We could cook it, label it “Real Authentic Arab Made Lamb Stew”, can it, and ship it over and then they wouldn’t have to die in such large numbers and could live for a couple of more years until they start blowing each other up, which I think would be worth the waiting to watch on You Tube, Arab home video’s and Al Jazeera, et al.
The added benefit here would be the farmers could enjoy some ‘Arab Spring’ profits (sort of a ‘Pork for Oil’ concept) and then after the Moslem faithful have consumed several million tons of this fake lamb stew and are asking for more, all the time made out of good old U.S. of A grade ‘A’ pork, we could Spring the news on about what they have really been eating this whole time. Heh, heh, heh. I’d sure like to be the ol’ fly on the camels butt when they get that news. Heh, heh, heh. Boy they’d probably be mad as hornets, heh, heh, heh. Gosh that’s funny….fly on the camels butt…. heh heh heh.
michael hoskins: A lack of food at subsidized means a lack of food given demand at the subsidized price. The increase in food prices is exactly the right medicine. It will force people to conserve on food and it will attract food from abroad. The best thing for the Egyptian economy would be for the military to keeps its hands off the price mechanism and let things straighten out by themselves. But the military won’t do that, and people will starve because there will be shortages at the subsidized prices.
To be repetitive, Islam is the Problem.
In the upcoming war (mid-’12 or early ’13)a real or threatened food blockade would shut Egypt down.
Israel is increasing the size of its Navy.
The Sixth Fleet needs to stay in the Western Med.
Reality is after 9-11 (actually after Munich in 1972) the West had two choices. Try to democratize the Muslim world and bring them into the 20th (now 21st) century. Or fence them off and let nature take its course. In hindsight we should have built the fence. And when a culture makes a mistake of this magnitude the fix is going to really hurt.
Winds of Change had a really good discussion about that back in the day. I think in the end analysis the Wilsonians believed they owed it to the Arab (but eventually, to the mostly-ignored but VASTLY more significant Indonesian) world to try.
I hope ‘Dame’ Catherine Ashton is on the case. If not, I’m sure she’ll get right on it as soon as she finishes whining about the Mizrahi family retiling their bathroom in Pizgat Zeev.
I always giggle when I see press reports referring to ‘Lady’ Ashton. Who is this person? I only know a ‘Fat Cow’ Ashton.
She’s apparently a Lesbian Jew Hater, who somehow thinks her kind are better treated in the Arab world than in Israel, or, more likely, she knows better, but doesn’t care, as she never plans to set foot in the Arab world, and there’s more glory in her world trashing the Jews.
I do agree with you, she is not exactly glamorous. For some reason, the JPOST insists on exposing us to her via their rotating cache of dated stock photos.
Oh, well, she’s in good company with the other Israel-bashing dignitaries in the EU capital. Today she greeted the new socialist foreing secretary of Denmark. He came to the EU-meeting telling all of his colleagues, that it’s urgent that a common stand towards recognition of a Palestinian state shall be embraced. Not the least about mutual negotiations between the two involved parties.
Typical. Good thing, as far as Israel is concerned, that Europe doesn’t count anymore – or at least is becoming increasingly enfeebled as a power center.
Let ‘Lady’ or ‘Dame’ or whatever Ashton blather to her heart’s content, though it is enraging enough to want to see her slapped with an oily herring across that remarkably bland yet self important face the next time she expresses ‘concern’ or ‘alarm’ over Israeli self defense measures or zoning issues.
This is a valuable analysis of the current situation in Egypt, but I would not totally “dis” the Egyptian Army. 1967 was a debacle for them but they (with Soviet help) staged an impressive and successful surprise attack against the IDF in 1973 and managed to pull out a political-strategic level victory (see the analysis by IAF Reserve LTC Ron Tira in his, The Nature of War: Conflicting Paradigms and Israeli Military Effectiveness, http://www.infinityjournal.com/ij_group/ron_tira)
Not to worry, it’s only Christians being murdered. It doesn’t bother the media and the Democrats a bit. A similar incident a couple of months back, a church attacked, 13 dead, the NY Times didn’t even identify the religious nature of those killed, just referred to it as a clash.
You have to pause and consider the depth of Hate that our media holds for Christians, as well the considertion they show islamic murder & mayhem. Tough to swallow.
What needs to happen in Egypt is the destruction of the Aswan Dam, so to restore the natural flow of the Nile, with its fertilising silt. Egypt used to be the granary of the Roman Empire. With the Nile restored, it can be a granary for the whole region.
All I can say is Israel better get cracking on building that fence in the Sinai and strengthening its southern defenses. The last thing they need is a stream of Jew-hating Egyptians flooding into Israel because there’s no food at home.
For the record the protest was peaceful in Shubra with thousands of Christians along with Muslim activists who went in a rally to Maspero building in what they called “The Wrath Sunday”.
The rally was peaceful till Shubra tunnel where suddenly it was met by rocks hurled and gunshots in the air by some people “allegedly from locales !!” , nevertheless the rally continued but people were angry. In their way to Maspero at Galaa street in front of Al Ahram Newspaper building there was some sort of clash. Some eye witnesses say there were gunshots in the air again from the bridge . I saw by own eyes the angry protesters heading to Maspero.
In Maspero it was like a war zone. The rally was dispersed violently by the military police and clashes started between protesters and military police.
The military police vehicles ran over the protesters and the angry protesters had beaten some soldiers.
The protesters got injured and dead as well as the security forces. Officially according to the ministry of health not less 150 are injured while 10 are dead from both sides. The Egyptian TV claims that 3 army conscripts have been killed While on twitter there news that 28 dead bodies from protesters have arrived to hospitals downtown. “15 bodies in Coptic Hospital according to eye witnesses”
25TV channel has been stormed by military police that interpreted its live broadcast where the TV viewers suddenly heard screams on TV. The channel is currently is showing re-runs. According to my sources the military police was searching for something or someone “Some say that while storming the channel and terrifying its employees and reporters.
Al Hurra TV stops its live broadcast from Cairo by the orders of the SCAF.
I fear that the Egyptian TV will be set on fire thanks to the new low it reached when it calls for sectarian confrontation between Muslims and Christian protesters. It is the ugliest
It is hard thing to watch your country falling a part.When I look to what is happening I feel that it is history repeating for 1954 scenario once again considering the fact that on October 12th the candidacy for parliament will be opened.
Story is developing ..
19 civilians have been reportedly killed , 156 have been injured.
Protesters are currently in Tahrir square or rather Abdel Monam Riyad where there are currently clashes between protesters and thugs.It is chaotic.
Egyptian TV host Mahmoud Youssef has resigned from Egyptian TV on twitter “I am searching for this tweet”
@10:07 PM
The death increased to more than 23. The photos from morgues showing scary scenes , here is a shot from AFP “graphic”
The Maspero area is clam now but there are tensions at Tahrir square. Reports on people on motorcycles coming from Boulaq to support the security forces against the protesters. There are CSF and military police in Down town Cairo as well.
Ambulances are reportedly still taking injured from Maspero. The Coptic hospital needs blood donations still there is no blood donating facilities there , I do not know if donors should bring blood packets from blood bank or what.
@10:29 PM
It is a crazy night , crazy old night.
The cabinet will have a meeting tomorrow as Pope Shnouda III with the Church men. The potential presidential candidates as well political powers will have a meeting as well tomorrow’s morning according to Amr Moussa
I do not know if SCAF is having a meeting tonight or not.
Essam Sharaf has issued a short statement published in his official Facebook Page describing the clashes between Muslims and Christians “actually between military police and Christians not a Sectarian one” as an attempt to spread chaos. The Prime minister believes that implementation of the law was enough to restore order “really !?” and demanding the children of the nation not to listen to the sectarian fire.
The Sheikh of Al Azhar is calling the Church to interfere.
@11:02 PM
Sharaf is having a meeting with the Cabinet and members of SCAF now.
Hilary Clinton says on CNN that it offers U.S protection to Christian worshiping places !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This will make things worse.
Minister of information Osama Heikal says now that the news readers claimed that the protesters opened their fire against the army were only provoked emotionally !!
Potential presidential candidate Hamdeen Sabhi tweeted that it is time for rationality and to stop the spell of Egyptian blood rejecting violence and demanding the sovereignty of law. Hamdeen Sabhi is in Italy currently…
http://egyptianchronicles.blogspot.com/2011/10/black-sundary-1954-redux.html#more
Thanks for the update and the links. My God protect the Christians of Egypt.
The so called ” arab spring ” should have been called the arab ” dead cat bounce “. We are seeing the unraveling of societies throughout the middle east. The movement for ” democracy ” never was. It was simply a shuffling of the deck of despotism. Replacing one vileness for another. The ultimate freedom is freedom of worship and it is on that foundation that all other freedoms rest. American style democracy wont work in societies that elect Hamas to represent them. Hitler was also democratically elected and one of the first freedoms to go was freedom of worship. Once that freedom went all others followed.
Don’t worry. Max Boot will be along any time now to explain why this is actually a positive development and further vindication of the Bush foreign policy.
Alas, although Mr. Goldman is right that “Islam is Dying, Too”, the same is even more true of Christians of the Middle East. They have no Israel to flee to, and the Muslim population regards them as subhumans, able to be killed with relative impunity. They need our prayers. Even though there has long been an enmity between Jews and Christians in the Middle East, perhaps this onslaught of persecution will make these Christians rethink any lingering anti-semitism.
Meanwhile, back in the West, we have Brian McLaren (the emerging-church guru) spreading the Gospel of anti-Israel:
“Behind the status quo is American policy,” McLaren alleged. “And behind American policy is the Christian community in the United States that has deep connections all around the world and an attitude of unconditional, uncritical support for the state of Israel and complete lack of concern for the well-being of the Palestinians.”
Read his confused prattle here
“They need our prayers..”
Really? How naive. What they need are weapons to defend themselves with from the barbarians that seek their elimination.
Amen
Eric Holder can help them with firearms,
fast and furious.
Buraq can supply the audacity of hope.
As usual these people who started the mess in Egypt have no concept of economics or how unintended consequences pop up to bite them on their posterior. They remind me of our occupy Wall Street bunch.
I’m waiting for the Moslems of Egypt, Libya, and Tunisia to scape goat Israel and the US for all of its problems.
They’ve been doing that since Israel was founded, and probably even before that.
At the least we should have gotten Mubarak & co. out of there early on if he, in fact, would have left. I believe we owed him that much.
According to media reports, Mubarak was offered asylum by Saudi Arabia. Since he’s very ill, he refused. He wanted to spend his last days in Egypt. Whatever else he is, he wanted to die as an Egyptian.
What a mess. Egypt hasn’t been sane since it was controlled by Europe, and even then it had its moments. All that evil Western imperialism actually made the place run for a while . . .
Andy Gump at 24 above: Check out Elder of Zion blogspot. They already have! It’s the dastardly ‘Zionists’…
If only the Israelis would stop building apartments in Gilo…This is off topic, but I observe that even David Harris, the chairman of the American Jewish Committee, remonstrating with Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times, writes, “Yes, it’s true another step toward building within Gilo, a well-developed Jerusalem neighborhood, was just taken and the timing was unhelpful.” Unhelpful, even though “Gilo will remain part of Israel in any conceivable deal.” It is not East, but North Jerusalem, and was empty when Israel took the city in 1967. When, oh when, will Jewish liberals stop apologizing for perfectly normal construction in Israel’s capital city?
Just added a bath to my Jerusalem home. Leon Panneta dropped by to ok the shower but vetoed the jacuzzi.
Menachem Ben Yakov – That was an outstanding line … did you offer him a nosh? Gut Voch.
I’m rather sure Gilo is at the southern part of
Jerusalem. It used to be part of the southern border
of the extended city before Har Homa was built.
I’m rather sure it’s just north of Har Homa.
For myself, I’m waiting for the NYT editorial explaining how Menachem Ben Yakov’s jacuzzi triggered the recent Iranian assassination plot. Restricting such provocative Israeli water projects would be a logical means for the Obama administration to make a meaningful response to Iran and it’s IRGC.
Look..let’s not play PC to such an end that it’s a joke. It’s all well and good to spout such inanities here about “good and / or moderate” muslims.
But the time to stand up to their murderous cult is here. Everyday…everyday we’re ( non muslims ) assaulted, assassinated and murdered in the name of their “religion”.
They’re on an obvious reinvigoration of their pursuit of world wide domination. We have to get serious about defending ourselves, our society, our culture and our country, We are at war…with Islam….not with islamic terrorists whom there are many of right here at home…but with the political zeal, ideology of their war machine and cult.
Remind me again why we should care if the Egyptians, Libyans, and Syrians (or any other Arabs, for that matter) decide to chop each other up . . . .
There’s an old Jewish joke about the Jewish jury foreman who, at the end of a drawn out murder trial, announces that the jury has decided ‘Not to mix in.’
Descends into chaos?
Egypt has been in chaos for 3000 years.
Let’s face facts folks – In the “Mid-East” the choices are either (a)Fanatical mobs bent on killing SOMEBODY or (b)Hard-ass strongmen with the military behind them. There is no third alternative. If anyone seriously believes that Egypt (or Syria, or Yemen or Libya) is going to suddenly become a stodgy parliamentary-style government like Austria of Belgium then I have some swampland in Florida I would like to sell them. There is no chance of anything good coming out of any of this.
re
“I have been warning since Feb. 2 that the so-called Arab Spring represented the terminal convulsions of a doomed society.’
That may well be true Mr. Goldman, but that does not necessarily mean that Islam is a doomed religion.
People tend to turn to their religion when times are hard. As a result I am wondering if we won’t see more Islamic fundamentalism in the coming years?
A recent small news story I think sums up the future quite nicely.
One consequence of the ‘spring’ was that the Egyptian government imposed a ban on exports of palm fromds (lulav) to Israel. They are used only for the Sukkot holiday and catch a fair price then but are otherwise useless.
Most of those used in Israel had been imported from Egypt and it was nice trade for Egyptian growers. Hamas also banned sale of them to Israelis.
From todays Jerusalem Post about what Israelis did in response:
“With the Israeli harvest of palm fronds typically about 200,000 annually, there was a yawning gap ahead of the holiday. But around the time of the previous Egyptian ban, David Kenigsbuch and Nehemia Aharoni, two researchers at Israel’s Volcani Center, began developing a system for storing palm fronds.
Like Christmas trees in the West, the only market of palm fronds last for a limited time before on onset of the Succot holiday, but lulavim could only be stored for between 30 to 45 days, meaning that the harvest season was limited to a very short period before the holiday.
“We developed a special technique that preserves the lulav for up to six months. Now growers can begin harvesting as early as the spring in time for Succot,” Kenigsbuch told The Media Line. “The whole idea about this was to not be reliant on imports and help provide more income to growers.”
There are now more than enough, Egypt and Hamas walked away from a sweet little business deal and Israel can say “kish mir in tuchos Mitzraim”
I used to worry about all of those F-16s and Abrams tanks in Egypt, now I kinda think there cannot possibly be enough people over there with enough neurons to actually use them.
Validates my long-time argument that there is a reason all arab regimes were dictatorships.
That also relates to why the ME is now so explosive relative to the rest of the world. The dictators were able to channel the violence towards Israel and aside from the arab-israeli conflict, the ME was relatively stable for a while during the pax americana. But with both the West and the dictators down we see the ME in its natural state.
I keep saying that the PostWest will bring nostalgia about the West.
There’s an old saying dating back to the thirties in Europe, saying that first they take the Jews then the various opponents, and next your neighbor – and you didn’t say a word. Then they came after you, and nobody was left to protest. – Meaning, that when the Jews are persecuted, in a society, you can be damn sure, that several others will follow.
This ultimately inspires the neocons, however. If anything, modern life needs a better appreciation of neutrality.
Looks like it’s the turn of the Copts in Egypt. And they may well be the last –there’s no more infidels.
Arab society has done extremely well after they kicked out the Jews, isn’t it?
These idiots should be growing rice. But they have turned the flat fertile river basin into slums. They are fools.
David – Someone else at PJM in a comment said that there can’t be an Arab Spring in a culture that has only one season. While William Kristol didn’t see that is beyond me. Based on the nature of Islam, I knew from the get-go that this was not going to turn out well. Mr. Kristol should have seen the same thing, after all, political science is his business. I was quite disappointed in his unabashed enthusiasm for Mubarak’s overthrow. I would like to think that Irving Kristol would have been much more circumspect.
William Kristol is on the side of the angels. It happens that I disagree with him on this one, big time. I knew his father, who was a great man. No-one’s right about everything.
Sorry, but I think he really knows and understands zilch about Arab/Muslim societies. He is projecting from America to them, which is one of the worst mistakes in American foreign policy and American culture in general.
I agree with you, but I am still very disappointed with him.
BTW I meant to add regarding the chaos we are currently seeing around the world, that it reminds me very much Jimmy Carter’s last year in office. It took the muscular foreign policy of a Ronald Reagan to straighten things out.
I was very disappointed with William Kristol and the Weekly Standard back in 2006/2007 when they refused to call out the second Bush administration over the failure to continue the momentum in Iraq to the direction of Iran and Syria. The result was a focus on development in Iraq while essentially ignoring the main parts of the “Axis of Evil”, even as their “button-men” targeted our soldiers. Of course Obama has an order of magnitude worse.
I share a lot of the pessimism of our host and some readers about Arab/Muslim societies. Nevertheless, I suggest that Iraq could have turned out much better.
Circa 2007/early 2008, there was arguably a “moderate” Shia/Sunni/Kurd establishment consensus to support a pro-U.S. policy and perhaps even a long-term U.S. presence, with Iraq becoming a key regional ally and opponent of Iran and Syria. Staring in mid-2008 the Iraqis began to see that we did not have the guts to follow through. They made the logical decision to plan for an Iraq where the U.S. had “bugged-out” and Iran was ascendant. Their children’s necks were on the line. I can’t blame them.
Well, I feel encouraged: the more time the worse the mess. What will happen when Egypt is not worth the fee? They like Pakistan will go from being too big to fail, to too big to save, at least at an acceptable cost.
What you have to realize it that peoples ape the natural order. Islam follow the locust, breeding in good times to over population then swarming. That solution simple is not in the cards now.
The US has followed a marxian line with Pak, acting as if Pak will see the light and cooperate, in time. They will keep jazzed, thinking they are winning until they are crushed by the weight of their own population and universal disdain for their failure.
On Wall Street “The trend is your friend”, and the same might be said here. The only thing that would get the Islam mojo working is offering some Gotterdammerung and that will not happen.
Clinton and Obama cheered the Egypt uprising and now it’s come back to bite’em in the a##. Everything this administration touches turns to excrement.
junkman you are making the assumption that the Muslim Brotherhood/Military takeover in Egypt is NOT what the Mohammedan USURPER Obambi wanted. That’s a big leap of faith.
Ah Yes. The Arab Spring. The rise of the fredom fighters, as we were fed by the administration and its lackey state controlled media. They continue to think we are idiots and treat us as such.
Well, WE may not be idiots
, but to be honest, there isn’t a lot of scarcity of idiots in the US, is it?
If I were a Copt, I would be urging my brothers to make common cause with Israel, and ask them to train us up into a self-defense force.
If I were Israel, I would be trying to figure out how to get to the copts.
See Nina Shea:
http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/watershead-moment-copts-killed-in-clashes/
OK, I read it. It doesn’t change my opinion. I am trying to figure out what strategic options are available to the players.
The Israelis aren’t going to help the Copts. The Copts, like the Melkites, have tended to take a hard line towards Israel, e.g.
http://www.jihadwatch.org/2011/01/cutting-their-own-throat-copts-rally-in-italy-turns-against-israel-supporters.html
And at the first hint of Israeli support they would be slaughtered. There’s not much Israel could do about it. It can’t invade and occupy Egypt.
You took the words out of my keyboard.
In general Arabs are anti-Israel and that includes many Christians.
Some of the Christians do it in order to appease their muslim environment and avoid violence against themselves. I dk if that is the case with the Copts.
In their current circumstances they should experience some epiphany, but if I had to guess they will become even more anti-Israel. They probably think this may save them. In the Arab world that’s the instinctive and easiest response, as there’s little else they can do to save themselves short of converting to Islam.
Zero strategic benefit to Israel, it would seem. Only liability – a million or more Copts washing up on Israeli shores seeking asylum . . .
No way is the Arab society gonna ever progress and stop being a failure based on this:
“That didn’t take long: Egyptian leader blames Israel for violence
Egypt’s Youm7 reports that an Egyptian former foreign minister and ambassador and current presidential candidate has blamed the deadly riots yesterday on Israel.
Abdallah al-Ashaal said that the Zionists were behind the rioting Copts. According to him, Israel is attempting to destroy Egypt from the inside by instigating these disturbances. He claims that at the urging of the Mossad, the Copts are inviting Americans and Zionists into Egypt to protect them and through that to burn and destroy the country.
He suggests that the police need to be more brutal to stop such acts.
(The death toll has reached 36.)”
http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/2011/10/that-didnt-take-long-egyptian-leader.html
Lost cause.
This is quite serious. Bret Stephens at the WSJ quotes Samuel Tadros, a Copt who works at the Hudson Institute, to the effect that the world might have to absorb 8 million Egyptian Christian refugees:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203499704576622800107490180.html
Nah. They are not Palestinians and Israel is not the cause, so nobody will care.
Besides, the only potential absorber is the West, and it is bankrupt.
The Vatican has not lifted a finger regarding the oppression of Christians in the Arab/Muslim world. But it has blamed Israel for oppressing the Christians on the West Bank.
The PostWest. I wouldn’t want to live in it.
The PostWest
http://www.fallofknowledgeandreason.blogspot.com
This will all get sorted out as soon as Obama and SOS Clinton turns their attention to it. Smart power to the rescue, leading from behind.
(a horse’s behind)
“Egypt descends into chaos” What! a terrific article, and the tremendous affect for my mind, the more conspicuous in brevity, and much augmented by the comments of the many scholars in response, . . .
On balance, I kind of think that, as the world witnesses, this thing in occurrence in Egypt is an actual example of creative destruction, . . .
. . . . an example of creative destruction, . . . I mean, let pride, prejudice, and passion, run the course—it’s not unlike the fourth stage of civilization as described by the ancient Greeks in the story of Prometheus: the purging fires of war, to drive out the evil dogs of chaos, . . .
Thanks for the kind words, but I’m still looking for the “creative” part.
Dear Spengler,
I was curious when you wrote elsewhere “Egypt’s graduates are unemployable..” I have worked in the UAE and Saudi Arabia for about 12 years.Most Egyptian doctors ARE of poor quality.
Did you do any study into this before making that statement?
I myself am an Indian doctor working at present in the UK.I am 59 years old. Thanks for all the insights I have got from you..
There has been a good deal on this in the press; I quoted some of the discussion here:
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/MB16Ak02.html
Otherwise I have spoken a fair number of people in the field on the topic. It is hard to get quantitative estimates on quality of graduates, to be sure.
If it was still the 19th or 20th century, saving the Copts would be easy: move all Coptic Egyptians to Sinai and separate it from the mainland. It would serve as a buffer for Israel and prevent the Copts from being massacred. They could easily make a living by off-shoring from the EU and Israel and the fees from the Suez channel.
Furthermore, the Copts would rather stick with the Western countries and so the control of the Suez channel would not longer be in hands likely to abuse it. The Brits should have done it in the last century.
And you imagine the 90% muslims would permit 10% infidels to control the Suez channel and collect fees?
The boarders of Sinai would quite be easy to defend, if you take a look at the map.
But consider the stakes: Egypt losing the canal?
Besides, when Israel sat on the canal id did not exactly managed to defend that border, did it?
They gave it up, to follow the armistice. Not exactly a military defeat.
Now here’s a very moral idea: remove the indigenous population from its ancestral homeland to protect it from the invaders’ wrath!
FYI Copts are the largest part of the native Egyptians, before the Arab conquest.
Coptic, which survives mainly as a Christian liturgical language (its native speakers sadly number in the hundreds) is derived from ancient Egyptian.
There are, however, several Coptic words that have been adopted into Egyptian Arabic such as:
Yamm – sea;
Timsah – crocodile;
Salla – basket;
Rumma – grenade;
Funny, they are the same or reminiscent of Hebrew words.
It’s realpolitik.
I don’t see a moral way out there. It would be nice, if the Muslim majority in Egypt would respect their Coptic compatriots and implement affirmative actions for Christians etc. But as Mr Goldman could show, this is not too likely in these times.
Better a second Exodus than a second Lebanon.
That was indeed early-mid 20th century logic. Earned a Nobel Prize to Nansen, whose solution to the Greek-Turkish conflict was ethnic/religious cleansing.
How about deporting Arabs from Israel’s disputed territories to protect their “legitimate rights”?
Well, then rather to end the conflict. The commitment to a peaceful solution has reached such levels on both sides that this might happen anyway:
If there is really a new “Thirties Year War” to come, like Mr Goldman and others predict, and the US and other major players are distracted or weakened, one side might decide to fight it out once and for all.
Wonderful answer, though not to the question asked.
Try again.
That was the answer. I guess, you are aware that both situations are not comparable in any sense. So I considered your question as rhetorical and commented on the broader issue .
Not at all. It’s about deporting natives.
Used to be fashionable till some 60 years ago, but not any more, mainly for moral reasons.
Has yet to affect Arabs’ minds, though.
60 years? Maybe elsewhere, but not in Europe. Just take a look at the Balkan Wars in the Nineties.
And not in Arabia. Look at the Bagdhad neighbourhoods, which used to be religiously mixed before the Insurgency and are now strictly Shiite or Sunnis.
I think, deportations will continue as long as ethnic, national or religious conflicts will persist.
I should have been more explicit and specify Eurabia when talking about Arab minds.
I wouldn’t count on such a measure taken by Israel when she wins yet another war, though.
Just as I won’t advocate deporting the Copts from their native Egypt.
We will see in the future.
Actually, I see the Arabs closer in mind to the Israelis than to the Europeans, due to the geographic and religious proximity as well as the large Arab minority in Israel. But substantial proof of this would require me to have done some serious research in culture and history of the Middle East, which I have not.
To return to the main topic: Me neither, but if the violence against the Christians in Egypt continues, the Copts will have to assimilate and convert or beg for asylum or there find a new land.
Indeed, you do seem to be in need of quite a lot of knowledge.
It’s never to late to acquaint oneself with some facts. It can help.
Indeed, you do seem to be in need of some significant pieces of knowledge.
The good news is that they’re available.
Ethnic cleansing anyone?
How about Armenia II?
I’d feel a little better if only those studies, emerging inexplicably after rather than before the enactment of the ethanol mandate, hadn’t shown conclusively that ethanol, the mandate for which is based on Clean Air Act protocols, did not actually dirty the air significantly MORE than the petro replaced.
I’d feel better if the response to those studies, as well as the savage food-price strife opening in the quarters of the world poor, hadn’t to-date been, well, as Instapundit linked a day or two ago, that US corn production going into ethanol has now passed that going into food. Even though, as dirtier and costlier than its politically-suppressed-supply predecessor, any nation in its right moral mind would have long since forced a drop of the project in order to re-direct the food into the world food supply.
I’d feel better had not the Obama administration, in the persons of that Google kid and that State Dept gaggle of social-network experimenters, hadn’t instigated the front end of Egypt’s descent into chaos, and then just wandered off, whistling innocent-sounding little melodies and studying their fingernails.
For starters, those would make me feel better, which i’d appreciate, as this stomach-gnawing perpetual purpling rage is breaking down my health (possibly a violation of my civil rights).
How many terrorized and slaughtered, how much cultural and societal mayhem and destruction, can be perpetrated under the guise of creating a better world, before the premise will be allowed to mercifully moot?
Lost cause.
Nah! Call in the ISM Human Shields:
Kevin – I burned my US passport – O’Keefe. And from Canada, brother Derrick – I pissed $600,000 union funds on the useless Tahrir – O’Keefe; Kevin – ‘RamButt’ – Neish; big man Sid Ryan; Sid Shniad; and Christian Rabbi David Mivasair. They put the fear of God in me.
The Ayrabbs will tremble.
50. Tim Bus was
answer to 43 oao