tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3856837.post1102474104476854281..comments2023-10-24T09:06:30.200-04:00Comments on No More Mister Nice Blog: MAYBE THE TERRORISTS DON'T REALLY HAVE SUPERPOWERSSteve M.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11963290427258439242noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3856837.post-86414954514587933092015-11-24T09:36:00.547-05:002015-11-24T09:36:00.547-05:00Give any thought, Vic, to how people in Montana, N...Give any thought, Vic, to how people in Montana, N & S Dakota or Wyoming might have felt about that?<br /><br />'Bout like the Palestinians, I betTen Bearshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06594307610015584119noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3856837.post-4814649065936358542015-11-23T14:32:44.596-05:002015-11-23T14:32:44.596-05:00While we're playing 'If I were God,' a...While we're playing 'If I were God,' after WWII, I'd have told the Jews that their promised land of Israel was in the Western or South-Western US, and not the deserts of the Middle East.<br /><br />South or North Dak-Isreal.<br />Or, Mont-Israel or Wyo-Israel.<br />Maybe Col-Israel or New Mex-Israel?<br />Maybe even Holly-Israel, a small nation-state in California. Hell, Hollywood has long been accused of being run by Jews.<br /><br /><br />Of course, no matter where in the US, the refugees would have had to deal with good old fashioned American anti-Semitism!<br /><br />So, maybe not a good idea, either.<br /><br />*Snark* - lest anyone misunderstand.<br />And yeah, not too funny, either. I know...Victorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06609452382111686086noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3856837.post-73283602377950026732015-11-23T13:12:01.011-05:002015-11-23T13:12:01.011-05:00I'll start by noting that this sort of piece i...I'll start by noting that this sort of piece is the sort of thing that first got me interested in reading Steve M.'s NoMore posts. <br /><br />I'm intrigued by that whole area--from NE France around Lille and to the south in Arras, where the lawyer Robespierre was born, east into the Land of Legendary & Magical names: <br /><br />(a) Flanders (where in its field "the poppies grow ... row on row"; from the Siege of Breda and other battles and campaigns over the 80 Years War nominally between Orange and Spain and ostensibly about saving immortal souls, or preserving the Holy Roman Empire, or land, or power, or possibly nothing more than holding back the tide of history; from the historical novels of Perez-Reverte around hischaracter the line soldier Viggo Mortensen, uh .. uh, Diego Alastriste);<br /><br />(b) Brabant (where Wagner chose to set one his knightiest operas, Lohengrin);<br /><br />(c) Schaerbeek ('Notch Creek', where Jaques Brel was born: drops mic);<br /><br />Antwerp, Liege (where they got Standards), Bruges, soccer-mad Anderlecht, the Monsters of Mons, Knokke-Heist & the Mol, Geel (they come together & conGeel), Lier (they come together in packs), Duffel (D'bags), the poussees of Puurs, Wingene (I KNEW it: It's freaking GENETIC!) Wavre (Is it pronounced like QB Brett says his last name? NO F.W.! Its French Walloon locals pronounce it Wah-rruh, while its Dutch Flemish locals pronounce it Way-verr; Breaking: BRETT FAVRE REMAINS HERITAGE-IGNORANT WINKY-WANKING DOOFUS), the Ypres of WWI infamy, if this is Ghent why isn't that Ghenk?, for crying out loud WATERLOO, the real one, and Boom ... BOOM!<br /><br />And yet at the same time it's the bureaucratic Afghanistan to civilized industrialized commercialized western Europe. It brings to my mind London Bridge before the Great Fire, and Revolutionary Paris as depicted in Dickens' A Tale of 2 Cities: an unauthorized unregulated tenement suspended above a straight drop down to the street (or river), the whole thing hanging precariously off sticks attached to adjacent yet separate buildings.<br /><br />There's no central national policing authority that can sweep the residences in these quaintly named cities and towns in search of kids having Caliphate 2.0 wet dreams. There's not even a central body that can authorize anything like that. If they took a vote, few would show up at the polls, and still less would pay any attention to the result.<br /><br />It's a puzzlement. Personally, if I were God, I'd arrange for the Walloons to head west and for France to absorb them all, and for the Flemish to head north in the Netherlands or Denmark on a similar arrangment, then end by pointing at emptied out Belgium and telling the ME Kurds Here you go, folks: your new Kurdish state home.Feud Turgidsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05379322096770703017noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3856837.post-88129754156910551932015-11-23T11:49:13.448-05:002015-11-23T11:49:13.448-05:00Our conservatives will also use this as an example...Our conservatives will also use this as an example of how European Socialism leaves a nation unprotected.<br /><br />Too many taxes go for schools, nannies, and health care, and not enough to the police and military.<br /><br />So, cut taxes on the rich, and increase them on the poor - and for God's sake, get rid of the social safety nets, which suck up money from protecting our exceptional nation.<br /><br />I'd better stop. I'm starting to sound like one of them...Victorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06609452382111686086noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3856837.post-37483335107453735362015-11-23T10:53:51.819-05:002015-11-23T10:53:51.819-05:00Comment from a friend of mine a few days ago: &quo...Comment from a friend of mine a few days ago: "I find it interesting how much of all this seems to have been centered in Western Europe's nearest equivalent to a failed state." Remember that time Belgium went nearly two years without an elected government?Tom Hiltonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17575511424823512042noreply@blogger.com