[Norman Ball]

I was born in Europe of Europeans parents and lived there as a child. I have countless family members there. But by all means, let’s denigrate my standing to comment and focus back on the ‘Europeans’ who arrived last week as they so clearly command the depths of you compassion. But I hear you. We mustn’t let jihadist incidents impede the larger goal of a refugee torrent. This covert social engineering project under cover of an exceeding concern for millions of refugees is to proceed unabated.

http://russia-insider.com/en/politic...empire/ri10025

You see, Norman, ISIS wants us to distrust the refugees and treat them badly.

There are a number of Parisians who, were they still here, would attest to having being treated rather badly. Sadly, they are Europe's dead forerunners, fodder for the grand social experiment of integrating jihadism within the continent's social structure. ISIS wants us all dead so that our level of trustfulness becomes an historical artifact. Their objectives are existential. Whereas your preeminent concern seems to be avoiding the appearance of inhospitality to the (no doubt) vast majority of peaceable refugees.

I really feel insulted by your warped pontificating. We have fewer murderers "within our gates" than you blithely assume.

I meant prospective murderers, Janice. No one, certainly not you nor I, knows how many of those have been ushered in of late. The events in Paris don’t augur well, nor do your misgivings that we could face more events in the run-up to the holidays (and let us all pray your fears don't come to pass).

Your generosity towards the influx of Muslims is abundant and well-evidenced. But how did ‘white supremacism’ suddenly get a dog in this hunt? And it’s kind of you to note that Breivik is a ‘so-called’ Christian. He was a paranoid schizophrenic too, and as such does not rise to the level of ideological practitioner. There's enough antipathy towards Christianity without lashing a demonstrable psychopath to its mast; so, while a very interesting comment from you, a non sequitur for this discussion.

Finally, two myths:

Myth 1: Rejecting the current disastrous brand of globalism immediately brands one a xenophobe. In fact there are two ‘globalist world-views’ to which Pope Francis offers a pretty decent synopsis:

“I would like to translate the theme into an image: the sphere and the polyhedron. Take the sphere to represent homologation, as a kind of globalization: it is smooth, without facets, and equal to itself in all its parts. The polyhedron has a form similar to the sphere, but it is multifaceted. I like to imagine humanity as a polyhedron, in which the multiple forms, in expressing themselves, constitute the elements that compose the one human family in a plurality. And this is true globalization. The other globalization — that of the sphere — is an homologation” (Dec 6th, 2013).

Homologation, in essence, is a prelude to the panopticon where every individual is equidistant from the observation platform; an indeterminate flatland ruled by God-knows-who from above. This is borderless, global totalitarianism presided over in essence by multinational corporations and financial institutions of which the PTT is but one of its early ‘enticements’. National sovereignty is the last bulwark against this flatland. Francis’ polyhedron recognizes the discrete features of viable nations and peoples (as opposed to glorified financial districts) and is at odds with the UN’s (Peter Sutherland’s) dismissive view of the nation-state as being “…an absolute illusion that has to be put behind us.”

Myth 2: There is this notion that, if the blight of national sovereignty can only be diluted and eradicated (partly through socially destabilizing, shambolic immigration), alienation will ensue and a sort of stultifying peace will break out over the land. Forgive me, but I cannot believe you believe that. Unless power is withering away, sovereignty (control) is simply ‘migrating upward’ and consolidating into a few supranational hands. Look at the repudiated Portuguese elections for a glimpse of the future. What did the Portuguese President say? “This is the worst moment for a radical change to the foundations of our democracy.” If I read this correctly, he’s saying democracy is in danger of undermining democracy. I’m glad that's cleared up.

[Andrew Mandelbaum]

Hey Norm. I like that guy-with-a-funny-hat analogy. The key issue for sovereignty is that change in size is a change in species. Decentralization back to entities where true representation is possible, where everyone can get in the room (arendt) is the only salvation of the polyhedron.

An article about the connections between two facets of the polyhedron.

http://roarmag.org/2015/02/chiapas-r...patista-kurds/

[Norman Ball]

"The key issue for sovereignty is that change in size is a change in species."

Yes sir, size matters. Good luck getting a guy on the line in Bonn to fix your pothole in Paducha. Localism, tiny polyhedrons, is the only way to starve the hegemonic beast. Reprising Mt. Olympus is a casting call for the gods in our midst.

[Don Jones]

Bill,

How is Holland's declaration for France to be impitoyable the same as the Decider in Chief's complete defying of international law? How is France wanting to defend itself a mark of authoritarianism? I don't see it.

If anything it will be the U.S. holding the bag (natch!) when NATO's Article 5 is invoked. But I don't see Holland's understandable call to war a sign of EU authoritarianism. What am I missing? If anything it's back to the old-fashioned ideal of state sovereignty. Which of course is not true either.

Maybe not a possible Grexit or Brexit, but Islamism will spell the doom of the EU. Who knows at this point?

[Bill Carpenter]

Don, you're not missing anything yet, unless you're being willfully obtuse about the possibility that Hollande et cie. will find ways to draw political advantage from the attack. It's early yet.

Signs of democratic activism in France:
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cQ30JnjgxuU

[Janice D. Soderling]

I see there has been a lot of activity while I was thinking. Anyway, here's me thoughts prior to those new posts.

I have already lost one highly regarded FB friend so I shall try to choose my words with care. Maybe the strong emotions in everyone's heart and mind serve as a filter that won't let some thoughts come through intact.

Bill, my response to any text is always to try to ascertain WHO said it and WHERE did they say it and WHY. I was not familiar with the author of the link you posted but I've (quickly, albeit not thoroughly), looked at his creds. I get the feeling that he is rehashing an old mind set.

I started searching for his creds when I got to this:

More surprising yet, the professionals respond to the public's move to the right by themselves moving to the left, encouraging more immigration from the Middle East, instituting more "hate speech" codes to suppress criticism of Islam, and providing more patronage to Islamists. This pattern affects not just Establishment figures of the Left but more strikingly also of the Right (such as Angela Merkel of Germany); only Eastern European leaders such as Hungary's Viktor Orbán permit themselves to speak honestly about the real problems.

Well, if I had to choose between putting my future in the hands of Angela Merkel or Viktor Orbán it would not be a difficult choice.

In 2008 The International Monetary Fund (IMF), the EU and the World Bank granted Hungary a rescue package worth $25bn (£15.6bn). In 2015 Orbán erects a fence of razor wire in a spectacular show of selfishness.

As history plainly shows, demonizing any group as "the other" can quickly get out of hand and lead to unforeseen consequences. The aftermath of the French Revolution and the ensuing conflict between the Girondins and the Jacobins led to killing in the streets of Paris and mass executions including the guillotining of 16, 594 people.

In the Rwandan genocide the Hutu majority in around 100 days murdered between half a million and a million Rwandans.

A little over twenty years ago Bosnian Serbs slaughtered 80,000 neighbors in the course of the Yugoslav Wars. Eight thousand of these were men and boys from Srebrenica, a town supposedly under the protection of the United Nations.

It is surely not necessary to remind anyone that six million Jews throughout Europe were annihilated by their neighbors and other Christians.

In short, I am simply warning about demonizing fellow humans. The vast majority of the Muslim community in Europe are just like the vast majority of humans all over the world.

There are, of course, jihadists who want, as the media thrillingly put it, "to destroy our way of life".

Even without them, our global community includes home-grown madmen who want to destroy "our way of life" or segments of it; just as the jihadists do, these homeboys want to stone, to flay. (Warning. This is so disgusting you probably won't be able to watch until the end. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBDbGyv6SIQ )

Apart from the current influx of immigrants, the number of home-grown (a.k.a. native) psychopaths in our greater community make up about 1 percent of the general population and as much as 25 percent of male offenders in western correctional settings according to some studies.

Roughly that is about 1000 per 100,000 of our general population to be feared in varying degrees. Most of them won't cause major harm, but some do. One of our homegrown terrorists who targeted immigrants was known in the media as Lasermannen ("the Laser Man"), murderer, bank robber, and attempted serial killer. From August 1991 to January 1992 he shot eleven people in the Stockholm and Uppsala area, most of whom were immigrants, killing one and seriously injuring the others. He first used a rifle equipped with a laser sight (hence, his nickname), and later switched to a revolver. He was arrested in June 1992 and sentenced to life imprisonment in January 1994. His strategy was that no immigrant should feel safe, so he targeted them at bus stops, by aiming through the window of their homes, and other private sites.

What hope I have made clear is that danger is all around us. It is impossible to protect ourselves with higher walls, deeper moats, or by letting immigrant families freeze to death this coming winter because no one will allow them a safe haven.

[Don Jones]

All politicians draw advantages from circumstances, Bill. That's the nature of politics. Woe to the politician who doesn't. For example, Lincoln had to suspend habeas corpus in Maryland during our civil war. An ugly but necessary move as the nation's capital could not fall to the Confederates. Your arch-enemy FDR used WWII for his own purposes.