Welcome to the New Year, Same as the Old

by Mark Steyn
Steyn on Europe
January 2, 2018

https://www.steynonline.com/8364/welcome-to-the-new-year-same-as-the-old

France greets the New Year with the traditional ceremonial Torching of the Citroëns

Happy New Year to you. On the Eighth Day of Christmas the multiculti fetishists gave to us:

An eight o'clock curfew:

VAST areas of East, North and South London have been declared "no-go zones" by terrified delivery drivers because of the acid attack epidemic, The Sun can reveal.

Moped riders say they won't go to the violent hotspots after 8pm because they fear being attacked with acid or knives.

They have been forced to cut down their hours - taking a massive pay cut - thanks to the dangers.

The House of Commons heard last week that London has more acid attacks per head of population than any other world city.

Seven sexual assailants:

At least seven people were arrested for sexual assault in the German capital, police said, as cited by Die Welt newspaper...

In most cases, women were "groped between their legs or their buttocks," Thomas Neuendorf from the Berlin police press office told Ruptly. "The suspects were predominantly young men from Syria or Afghanistan," he said.

Six stabbers arrested:

Six people have been arrested following four fatal unrelated stabbings that took place on New Year's Eve and in the early hours of New Year's Day.

Five homes raided:

Police have raided five homes as part of an anti-terror operation to foil a suspected Christmas terror plot.

Loud bangs were heard as an army bomb squad was deployed following a raid in Chesterfield and there were also operations by counter-terror officers in three parts of Sheffield.

Four women gang-raped:

Another woman has been attacked and gang raped by several men in the Swedish city of Malmö... Police have searched an area in Högaholm with a special dog for semen. The victim was taken to hospital but had no severe injuries.

This is the fourth gang rape in Malmö in less than two months.

Three pubs attacked:

"These were the only white businesses in the area," he said. "No Asian businesses were attacked. They were targeted because they were white.... There are so many areas in this city where white people are scared to go into.... I think we are heading towards disaster."

Two police officers lynched:

Horrifying video footage has emerged of a female police officer and her boss being beaten in a Paris suburb.

The incident took place in the early hours of Monday following an emergency call in Champigny-sur-Marne, an area to the south-east of the city.

The unnamed police officer was filmed by gang members as she was kicked around by the attackers. The footage was then uploaded onto the internet by the group.

and a canceled New Year in Sydney:

An Anglican church with a view of the Sydney Harbour Bridge has been forced to cancel an annual New Year's Eve street party over terrorist attack fears.

St Aidan's at Longueville, on the lower north shore, had hired bands or put on an annual family-friendly sausage sizzle on the last day of the year since 1999...

The church's rector Reverend Craig Potter said new state laws requiring community groups to hire professional security guards and put up concrete or water-filled bollards meant his congregation couldn't afford a $10,000 bill to ward off a potential terrorist attack.

I tried to satirize the likes of the above over the weekend, but every day's headlines remind us that we're way beyond that.

You might be minded to discern a not altogether reassuring trend in all of this, but I wouldn't advise it. In Europe the ruling class has decided that the real problem are the people who insist on noticing such things. So January 1st was also the first day of a rigorous new German hate-speech law:

Beatrix von Storch, a leading figure in the Alternative for Germany party, is one of the first hit by new hate speech laws on social media. Critics say the legislation opens the way for censorship by internet companies.

Oh, perish the thought:

A lawmaker from Germany's anti-Islam, ultra-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party was blocked on Twitter most of Monday for lashing out over New Year's greetings sent by Cologne police in Arabic.

"What the hell is happening in this country? Why does an official police site tweet in Arabic," wrote Beatrix von Storch, a leading party member for the anti-immigrant right-wing group.

"Diversity" is where once functioning societies go to die. But who ya gonna believe - the official happy-talk or your acid-scarred eyes?

~Tomorrow, Wednesday, Mark will be keeping his midweek date with John Oakley, live on Toronto's AM640 at 5pm Eastern. We hope you'll tune in.

For another perspective on the internal contradictions of vibrant diversity, Mark's trip to Northern England to meet "grooming" victims is recounted in the first issue of The Clubbable Steyn, which comes free with membership in The Mark Steyn Club: You can sign up for a full year, or merely an experimental quarter. And don't forget our new Gift Membership for a friend or loved one. Among the other benefits of membership is our series of audio adventures, Tales for Our Time - we'll have a new one later this month - and (even more hi-tech than radio serials) video poetry!

Club membership also confers the privilege of clobbering Steyn by logging-in and commenting below. For more on The Mark Steyn Club, please see here.

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58 Reader Comments

Lawrence Brennan • Jan 5, 2018 at 15:38

Just wondering if you've seen the news about the two-year trial in Scotland of a man who taught his girlfriend's pug dog to give a Nazi salute? Poor taste, no doubt, but so was "Springtime for Hitler" and I guess that can't be performed in the UK now, either. all in the name of stamping out offensive hate speech-- or non-speech, in the case of the dog.

Michael Bledsoe • Jan 3, 2018 at 18:28

"Club membership also confers the privilege of clobbering Steyn by logging-in and commenting below."

I wish I could find something that Mark has said that I disagree with. Unfortunately I'm afraid he's absolutely right. It's difficult to see any of this resolving well. With a call-back to A Christmas Carol, "answer me one question. Are these the shadows of the things that Will be, or are they shadows of things that May be, only?'"

Roy A Crocker • Jan 3, 2018 at 17:39

It continues to amaze me just how much this leftist "Pope" gets away with in our twisted media. An exception to their overwhelming hostility toward Christianity is granted to Francis for reasons that are all too obvious. Dying in Europe and America, the future of the church lies in the third world so choosing this far leftist to lead the Catholic church made perverse sense. What no one talks about is how the Christian church is slowly being destroyed from within. Our seminaries have been affected with the same inner rot as the rest of academia. In Tucson a few years back a new minister took over a congregation and did away with what he called "outdated dogma". That being traditional worship. You see the pope leading the way here. The Tucson faithful were sent out to serve the homeless, spread the new 'Gospel' of global warming, etc. Sunday worship was perfunctory and the sermon was mostly leftist dogma. This seems to be the future of Christianity in America and few are paying attention.

Gary Petersen • Jan 3, 2018 at 09:02

I've been following this Islamic invasion since 911. By my following this evil and unsuccessfully beating the warning drum, I'm weary of it all. Today I find out the results of a second biopsy in three years on my prostate. I'm pushing 71 years on this planet and I'm not sure if I plan to fight should the results be cancer. I'm not used to rolling over but with Islam appearing to be taking over the world, unopposed, almost seemingly welcomed I just quit. Sorry to feel this way but it hurts to fight anymore!!!

Laura Rosen Cohen

Gary Petersen • Jan 3, 2018 at 10:52

Gary, 71 years is not very old. I hope it is not cancer and hope that you don't give up. That's what they want, to beat us down. There is opposition, lots of it, but there is a concerted effort to quash opposition. Just take a little break from the news, but never, ever, ever give up. Wishing you long healthy years!

Fran Lavery

Gary Petersen • Jan 5, 2018 at 21:15

Gary, don't give up the ship! I've been there in '92 though with a female kind and thought I beat it for 25 years, then last December it resurfaced in a different form and there was no wasted time getting that in check. I heard it was back, called four or five doctors in five cities a SWA flight away and took the first doctor who would cut the next day. You're your own best advocate.

I'm taking it one day at a time and have been appreciating each day since the doctors got it all out; and it's a nice feeling to just be happy to be alive one more day. None of us have a crystal ball so take care of your self first and the battle will still be raging no doubt when you feel like giving support. I know what you mean though, some days I do ask why do I care, because freedom of speech is worth hanging onto for posterity.

Debra Milligan

Fran Lavery • Jan 6, 2018 at 01:15

You're a profile in courage, Fran. One day at a time is the way to face life, and thank the Ineffable for that day.

Fran Lavery

Debra Milligan • Jan 6, 2018 at 09:54

Thanking the Ineffable, is right, Debra. I never thought it was courage though. We had at least five in the extended family die from brain, skin and female-related cancers, most of those under the age of sixty, so when I first heard the cancer word at thirty-six with four kids under twelve and after I shoved the first couple days of emotional train wreckage off the tracks, I treated it like my job to get rid of it. I recently had met the very strong cancer survivor, Susan Borman, the wife of astronaut Frank, who calmed my nerves a great deal and who advised me to go to MD Anderson for treatment.

There I met a great team of health pros, saw a lot of people worse off than me from all parts of the planet and those patients who were missing hands, limbs and face parts were who I regard as the real profiles in courage folks, not me. My girlfriend from Galway Bay, another by the name of Milligan if you can believe that, who happened to be between jobs, came with me for the two weeks of surgery and post-op care so my husband could stay with the two toddlers and two pre-teens. It was as if a special Loving Hand was guiding the way to recovery before anything began.

The second time it came about a year ago, the emotions weren't even there, just anger which can propel you into action and the thought just to get it out fast like it was something inside like a creature in an alien film. To get educated about whatever kind you have and meet with the doctors and show them you know what your dealing with and that you mean business getting rid of it, is key. Getting two opinions is good for the strategizing it can take to be successful. Really being your own advocate is paramount because nobody else's life is at stake if things go south. Also, keeping a sense of humor is very important as well as a "Che Sera Sera" attitude.

Debra Milligan

Fran Lavery • Jan 6, 2018 at 11:58

Someone Upstairs has a plan for you, Fran! You did not even hear the Victim theme song! You faced those scary "family genes" and said, No -- This is Me!

I was born Tanis but became Milligan upon marriage, and to be honest, after decades, I'm still more Tanis than Milligan, but I understand the steely edge those forebears! And humor is very important for so many things!

I opine I've got my gallows humor from the Scots-Irish side of me. (The Tanis side came to America from Holland about 100 years ago but they probably got to the Netherlands by way of northern France, and they made the surname up!)

I believe people are sent your way for a purpose, good, bad or indifferent, and you certainly had gifts sent your way. And though people work very hard to deny any Supreme Being (they're the real Deniers!), that special Loving Hand touches you today. Touches many of us.

Fran Lavery

Debra Milligan • Jan 6, 2018 at 12:43

Yes, Debra, I often thought that. If He wanted me back then, He sent me the Signals, alright. We have the Irish-Scots tension on both sides of the maternal and paternal sides. It always surprised me it hadn't erupted into a civil war in the Irish Sea.

Debra Milligan

Fran Lavery • Jan 6, 2018 at 12:55

Oh, the Scots will fight each other, just to fight. It's in the genes!!!

Fran Lavery

Debra Milligan • Jan 6, 2018 at 14:11

Maybe they'll be the last group standing, then. I thought it might be some sects
of Islam and the Chinese.

Debra Milligan

Fran Lavery • Jan 6, 2018 at 14:32

I'd say the Anglo-Saxons and the Celts are the unplayed cards. Cards that have not been in play since the Blitz of London and the Blitz of Coventry. Glasgow got hammered and Clydebank got flattened too. The problem, as I see it, is that the peoples of those Western European nations got hoodwinked into believing that the EU blob would prevent another horrific war. You know the problem was borders and nations. Imagine no religion too.

We see how that pack of lies is turning out. The house of cards is falling while the unplayed cards have to join the game. The odds in Vegas aren't out yet.

If you want to see a truly emblematic image. look up St. Paul's Cathedral shrouded in smoke on 29/30 December 1940. The Brits ought to google that one. Or duckduckgo it, as I do. Although google has better images since they've been a monopoly for so long.

fran lavery

Debra Milligan • Jan 6, 2018 at 15:44

I wonder if this decade we will see just one country say enough is enough. Putin doesn't seem to resort to bollards. Bollards have replaced battles, it sure seems. I also wonder if we'll ever get to hear what is going on with the Las Vegas mass shooting since you mentioned Vegas. Some days it seems like it never occurred. That investigation seems to have died before it got up and running. Guess there's something going on behind the scenes. Benghazi was another case where it took some time for the reports to get out. It's very frustrating following the news these days. The world just seems to be run by the egotistical and insatiable power-hungry elites. Most of the regular folk seem to be living in their ephemeral ideological bubbles that they protect like pitbulls inside paper mache fences waiting for someone to take some heroic and noble action.

Frederick Mackintosh

Gary Petersen • Jan 6, 2018 at 22:29

let me know, I can give you info and advice as a cancer doctor with lots of prostate cancer experience

tug • Jan 3, 2018 at 06:56

The 44th president of the U.S.A. was sharia compliant and told us quite clearly that the future does not belong to those who disrespect "The Prophet".
The 44th president of the U.S.A. advised his followers to bring a gun to a knife fight. When the women start to dispatch their attackers with "two to the temple" and the "men" of Europe join in adding to the trip to "the land of 40/70 virgins". Europe is finished.
My "Commander-InChief" (wife of 48 years)and I had a bucket list trip to San Fransisco, the MORONS determined that the killer of Kate Steinle was NOT GUILTY of her murder. These two Kids of the 60"s will never go to San Fransisco and Europe is closing in on a "no-go" list

Carolin • Jan 3, 2018 at 05:28

I would like to add, that the lack of reports of sexual assault from Cologne is probably only due to MASSIVE police presence on New Year's Eve. I read in a German newspaper that the police of Cologne had ten (!) times as many police officers patrolling the streets as in 2015/2016.

Skip Engle • Jan 2, 2018 at 23:15

I have lost any desire to travel to Europe. What kind of moron buys a vacation to go where he has to look over his shoulder rather than at the sights?
Not this kind.

Sol Cranfill

Skip Engle • Jan 3, 2018 at 00:31

I am that moron. I take vacations for many reasons, including trying to do my part to learn about western civilization to be able to fight for it in from a stronger foundation.

Skip Engle

Sol Cranfill • Jan 3, 2018 at 00:56

God bless you and enjoy! Touring my beautiful country keeps me satisfied. I'm proud to see all the folks from other nations coming all this way just to see our backyard and take pictures. Lots and lots of pictures.
If I have any fight left, I plan to expend it here.

Laura Rosen Cohen • Jan 2, 2018 at 21:22

Here's the link: it was Macron himself using the weaselspeak.

http://www.breitbart.com/london/2018/01/02/cowardly-criminal-lynching-police-france-female-officer/

Tracy Mescha • Jan 2, 2018 at 21:16

Yet here in America we can't pay these things ANY attention, instead it's tamarisk trees, cultural appropriation, and other completely imagined atrocities...Ignorance truly is bliss...

Laura Rosen Cohen • Jan 2, 2018 at 21:13

Hey Mark, thanks for the cheerful...err...Steynian New Year's Greeting/Prophesy/Summary.

I noticed one article where the attack on the French policewoman was called "cowardly".

Isn't that part of the problem? The language is full of lies and when not full of lies, full of the passive voice ("the Twin Towers that fell, the lives that were lost"). It's actually quite brazen and bold to attack an armed member of the police forces with impunity in one's host country, without any fear of repercussion and video tape it breezily, then upload to social media. These attacks are actually not "cowardly". Don't you feel like this is one other way of obfuscating the real issue? Islam is brazen toward its hosts until they submit or are murdered. It's the exact opposite of "cowardly". A lot of lefties use that word and I think it's really sinister actually.

Sol Cranfill

Laura Rosen Cohen • Jan 2, 2018 at 21:49

Bingo. Patented leftist method. Slip something subtle, a slight bit off, but who's perfect? past the guard who's not paying a lot of attention at the front desk. The seed has been planted because the host has allowed it, to begin germinating.

Sol Cranfill

Laura Rosen Cohen • Jan 2, 2018 at 22:21

Cowardly is sinister. Calling him vicious would require a harsh response. A coward's no threat to anyone, and why kick a man when he's down, what are you, some kind of bully?

Nifty sleight of mind.

Steven Payne

Laura Rosen Cohen • Jan 2, 2018 at 23:50

Disagree. The key here is "without any fear of repercussion". The exact opposite of "cowardly" is what, brave? Is it brave to attack when you know there's nothing to fear? Or do you think they fear the terrible "Islamophobia", which will manifest itself any day now?
Brazen definitely applies, but I think cowardly also does. At least until there is real fear of real repercussions.

Steven Payne

Sol Cranfill • Jan 3, 2018 at 00:05

Again, disagree. Actually, I think cowardly is the right term in this context. For one thing, it's insulting. There's not much sympathy for cowards that I'm aware of. It's certainly not good for recruitment: "Join us, we're cowards", doesn't inspire young minds much.
And, cowards are often the biggest threat around.

Sol Cranfill

Steven Payne • Jan 3, 2018 at 00:26

It's a way for leftist politicians to get out of confronting the problem. It's aimed at the populace to tranquilize them so the left can feed them to the wolves and has very little to do with the terrorists themselves.

Richard Henry • Jan 2, 2018 at 20:39

I laugh at the euphemism "Asians" being tossed around in the British press. First, they take too many spots in universities and then they start attacking pubs. Perhaps they're attacking pubs because their spots in universities have been quota-limited.

Denyse O'Leary • Jan 2, 2018 at 16:40

Europeans have no special reason to defend their way of life. True, they like it. But, if someone holds a gun to their head, they quite sensibly give it up. Their way of life was nothing but the pursuit of pleasure anyway.

For example, women who give up Christmas caroling because of Islamic death threats were not rejoicing in the birth of their Saviour. They were indulging an antiquated pleasantry. And when it grew dangerous, they stopped doing it.

Had they believed that they were rejoicing in the birth of their Saviour, they would not so easily vote for politicians who pander to the terrorists who threaten them.

If European women are forced to live in garment bags in order to be safe on the streets, they will do that too.

Their feminism will adjust; indeed, it already has. They traded everything for abortion and a bargain was sealed.

Of course, they don't enjoy being reminded of how far they have fallen. So they persecute those who remind them.

Kate Smyth

Denyse O'Leary • Jan 2, 2018 at 20:26

Great comment, Denyse. I wonder if the young Europeans who'd given up caroling had long ago given up church attendance for entirely different reasons (assuming they ever attended). It brings into sharp focus the fact that Christians in the parts of the Middle-East and elsewhere attend regular church services, knowing they're risking their very lives.
As for garment bags and various forms of concealment, it's astonishing to see how enthusiastically some members of the sisterhood have embraced these.

John Shuba

Denyse O'Leary • Jan 2, 2018 at 21:39

Very sad and very true. If you ask most Europeans what they believe in they would probably rattle off a list of entitlements and a few bromides about "diversity." If you suggested thst their may be something else they would look at you like you had dung beetles crawling out of your nose. They would also assure you that they are the last word in both evolution and civilization and would then flounce off to cower before someone or something.

James McNicholas

Denyse O'Leary • Jan 3, 2018 at 10:56

There are 17.4 million British (at least) who do not propose to accept that the civilisational decline of Europe need necessarily include the UK, and wish to see accountability restored to the British Government by securing our departure from the European Union. Sadly not many of them have been elected to the House of Commons (still fewer appointed to the House of Lords), but our voices will be heard, whatever Parliament may decide.

There is however a very real risk that Brexit will be obstructed by Parliament, many of whose members appear to loathe even the possibility that we might have chosen a future that does not include abolishing the national political entity which is the UK, in favour of universal open borders and government by the unelected officials of the European Commission.

Free people around the world could help us by talking up Brexit at every opportunity and challenging the narrative of untruths and misinformation, which has consistently been used by Eurofederalists to confuse British voters and obfuscate the facts.

Liberty is struggling hard in Continental Europe and the UK, but many have not given up on it just yet; in that fight, nothing matters more than Brexit and clear sighted people on both the Left and Right see it.

Sol Cranfill

James McNicholas • Jan 3, 2018 at 11:15

Challenge accepted. Lights on, game on.

Sol Cranfill

James McNicholas • Jan 3, 2018 at 11:59

In fact, late last week, I had dinner in California with an Aussie from Perth currently living in Arizona, and we discussed Brexit, which he was confident will happen.

I am confident the sun will rise on the old British Empire by the tongues of the Anglosphere.

Rob Mort Byron Bay

Denyse O'Leary • Jan 3, 2018 at 15:35

So brilliantly put..definition of sanguine that!!

James McNicholas

Sol Cranfill • Jan 4, 2018 at 15:08

Thank you Sol, the more the merrier.

Nonny Mouse • Jan 2, 2018 at 15:36

The strangest, most jarring dissonnance of 2017 was the curious case of The AG That Did Not Bark.
Is Jeff Sessions a Swamp plant? There is no sign of him being any different in 2018.

Steven Payne

Nonny Mouse • Jan 3, 2018 at 03:59

The Curious Case of the AG That Didn't Bark -- pure gold!

Reid Trummel • Jan 2, 2018 at 15:13

I see pictures such as the one you used to illustrate this post (silhouetted figures standing around a burning, overturned car) and I wonder, what is in their minds? Assuming the silhouettes are Arab-Muslims and the photo is from Europe, are they unhappy with their decision to leave their ancestral homeland? Has the reality of life in Europe not lived up to the promise? Is it a simple manifestation of embarrassment as they compare the standard of living of their home culture with that of Europe? Is it simply blind rage - raw, unprocessed hatred - provoked by community "leaders"?

Whether a manifestation of embarrassment or frustration or the result of mere rabble-rousing, the lack of contemplation and even of association of actions and consequences is disturbing. How many Citroëns must be burned ... all of them? To achieve ... what, exactly?

Sol Cranfill

Reid Trummel • Jan 2, 2018 at 16:46

They are descendants of Ishmael, the son Abraham had in disobedience to God, described in the Bible to be at war with the descendants of Abraham's son of promise, Isaac, until the end of the earth. Christendom and Judaism are the focus of their hatred. They have poison from the Koran in their minds and their spirits are under sway of Satan.

Rob Mort Byron Bay

Sol Cranfill • Jan 3, 2018 at 15:41

Wow! Righto...

Owen Morgan • Jan 2, 2018 at 14:41

I picked this one pretty much at random from the Gatestone Institute article linked to by Mark above ("Three pubs attacked..."):

"A spokesman for the West Midlands Police wrote on social media that parents caught practicing female genital mutilation (FMG) on their children should not be prosecuted. He revealed that the force is opposed to 'prosecuting/jailing' parents for FGM because it would be 'unlikely to benefit' children who fall victim to the crime."

As a general rule, victims of murder don't benefit all that much from posthumous investigations, either, so I wonder whether we'll ever see prosecutions arising from the four fatal stabbings in London on New Year's Eve. The helplessly politically correct Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police insists that only a lack of money prevents her plods from cracking down on gun and knife crime, so it's good to know that it's nothing to do with an activist judiciary, a cynical "human rights" culture running riot, or a wholesale departure from sane policing tactics. Put a few more quid in the rozzers' pockets, promote a few to DS, or DI, and, all of a sudden, they'll be able to detect illegal blades and firearms and will interdict acid attacks before they happen.

Honest.

Fran Lavery

Owen Morgan • Jan 2, 2018 at 14:52

A sliver of good news would carry me a long way into this first week of the new year. What do you say to the politicians who sit on their hands now puffing their peace pipe and well wishing in Arabic? How about an acid facial to get you motivated into doing your job? I can't take it anymore. I thought I was tough. This is is all very difficult to stomach.

Adam • Jan 2, 2018 at 14:05

I have spent a good deal of time considering this and other issues and it seems that there is a severe problem associated with representative democracy. At the time of the founding the theory under-girding the constitution was that no faction could come to dominate the national government in a large federation and that insulating the legislative bodies from popular opinion (by avoiding direct election of the President and Senators and by having representatives rather than direct democracy) was a good idea. Roughly speaking a system of representative democracy envisions some class of persons deliberating and freely deciding on issues rather than being bound by majoritarian sentiment of the moment. This I think is a laudable idea in theory. In practice and in this era it allows malfeasance in office by permitting special interests to dominate by allowing the megaphone of the media to allow the elites to control public sentiment and thereby exempting the representative bodies from popular opinion. To the extent that this cannot be effected unaccountable offices (bureaucratic and judicial) take decision making completely outside the realm of political accountability. So in effect representative systems are not responsibly deliberative but rather irresponsibly unrepresentative (crony profiteering, state enemies occupying state office using state office to undermine the legal order). This has allowed narrow but powerful interest groups to endanger the very existence of the state through backroom machinations. No public ever polled supported mass migration and yet here were are by means of some process of media indoctrination and mass bribery (aka progressive taxation). In corporate governance there is a good deal of concern over alignment of management interests with the welfare of the corporation including the issue of short-termism vs. long-termism. Representative democracy has proven very bad at grappling with the "preventable evils" spoken of by Enoch Powell. Now that the preventable evils are no longer preventable the democratic institutions designed for one political community cannot accommodate two or more. In effect the wrapping paper of the "state" is asked to encompass many nations. So the politicians lie. The lies are no longer believable so the truth becomes criminal. The next stage is what? If the states of the west survive serious consideration needs to be given to the design failings of representative democracy. Separating issue identification, from legislative response (with the former being by direct democracy), ensuring that the judiciary is not the ultimate arbiter of its own legality are important defects that need to be corrected. The tendency of representative democracy is for an issue to be ignored and then in crisis action is taken (often in excess or in circumstances much less desirable than had the issue been resolved earlier). The public doesn't demand action until it feels it so the political system doesn't respond.

Kate Smyth

Adam • Jan 2, 2018 at 20:28

Adam- it must have been your recent comment about CIR? It's interesting that there's growing discussion on this topic, as well as formal support. (A Swiss colleague recently described the practical aspects, including the time involved for the individual. Really interesting!).

Whether it's possible to end the destructive immigration Ponzi scheme remains to be seen. As for income tax, with the ever-growing no-net-payment dependent class, the "No Representation without Taxation" (flat rate) concept seems worth exploring.

Sol Cranfill

Adam • Jan 2, 2018 at 23:01

The American experiment requires a virtuous people, as explained in Eric Metaxas' excellent recent book "If You Can Keep it." With that are the words of Alexandr Solzhenitsyn that, If heeded, would change it all: "Let the lie come into the world, even dominate it, but not through me." That's the battlefield. It's up to each one of us.

Sol Cranfill • Jan 2, 2018 at 13:18

If he's going to persuade Congress to get serious about borders, in his upcoming State of the Union address, President Trump might want to include a compilation of terror attacks in Eutopia as a portent for America. Do you think he'd be interested in having a guest-host?

Joshua Passell • Jan 2, 2018 at 13:12

Well, that's Europe done for. Who's next?

Fan • Jan 2, 2018 at 13:10

Y'know what's really worrying about all this? The huge proportion of the West's population (presumably, mainly snowflakes) that would completely fail to understand the humour in your reference to these 'traditions'. For them, they have always been the traditions, along with trolling someone they disagree with - or having them fired; disrespecting the democratic will of the people (e.g. Brexit/Trump); and buying into the multikulti, postcolonial claptrap churned out by the media, political, and academic classes. Gawd 'help us all!!!

Oh, and a Happy New Year to you too!! :-)

Sol Cranfill

Fan • Jan 2, 2018 at 16:03

Yes, that's why Tales for Our Time is so important.

Fran Meaney • Jan 2, 2018 at 12:50

Identifying the enemy that is attacking us in the West (and much of the non-Muslim world) has been a sick game played since 9/11. President Trump is making progress in referring to radical Islamic terrorists, but we are still a long way from the truth. In fact the enemy at war with us is Islam itself and it has been thus for almost 1400 years. Islam is a terrorist organization and should be designated as such and banned by democratic civilized societies. Its governing documents instruct its members to steal the properties of others, to take over territories they migrate to, overthrow and subvert governments and kill, rape, torture, intimidate and lie to those who stand in the way of its war for global domination. Violence of course, but refusal to adopt customs of the invaded populations, intimidation, threats, deceit, trickery, infiltration of organs of influence and demands for preference are all tactics of the war Islam is waging against us. Its ideology of submission to the Sharia and control of thought is totally incompatible with the values and laws of democratic nations.

So how is it to fought? Is there even one leader in Europe or the U.S. who will speak this truth and call for full-out resistance to save Western civilization? Or are the laws, as apparently they are already, or the doctrine of political correctness (speak no ill of Islam) so enveloping that such is impossible.

Maybe this could be a subject during an Mark Steyn Club question hour.

Sol Cranfill

Fran Meaney • Jan 2, 2018 at 15:28

Excellent comment, Fran. You say, "Its ideology of submission to the Sharia and control of thought is totally incompatible with the values and laws of democratic nations." If this German law were consistent, German news sources would not be repeating Beatrix's tweet in full, and would instead refer to it generically, as something so vile that it can't be written or spoken. It's intended to instill fear into people that their normal, natural thoughts, or in this instance, just noticing something, can be punished by the state. Fear is the mind-killer. This is the Berlin Wall of thought, with Islam-allied sharpshooters positioned in case anybody tries to escape the state-designated domain of thought, so this is one law of a democratic nation that is compatible with your description of Islam.

There are plenty of leaders who "will speak this truth and call for full-out resistance to save Western civilization." Beatrix is one of them. But they can only succeed with support of large numbers of voters. As Mark says, politics is about persuasion, and free speech is everything.

Bob Belvedere

Fran Meaney • Jan 3, 2018 at 11:11

Dead solid perfect, Fran.

Nicola Timmerman • Jan 2, 2018 at 12:49

Nine Ladies Dancing, Eight Maids Being Gropped in Berlin on the days of Christmas I guess. I keep hearing how the #metoo revelations are going to usher in a new era of non sexual harassment when they ignore the tidal wave about to hit them.

Sol Cranfill

Nicola Timmerman • Jan 2, 2018 at 15:59

A rollout of a pretend reckoning is imminent, with Reese Witherspoon starring in the "Gosh, I sure am steamed at you, mister" role in "Time's Up," a pink nail-polish PR campaign designed to be ineffectual. Its title captures its unseriousness and insincerity. People will fall for it, trusting the pretty faces of feminism. The real face, of course, is Harvey Weinstein.

David Watson • Jan 2, 2018 at 12:43

The question is which will come first - will the citizens rebel, or will the diversity cops recognize their error? One or the other is inevitable.

david klein • Jan 2, 2018 at 12:29

And therein lies the problem with any declaration that ISIS has been defeated. Aside from the multigenerational and multi-millennial destruction that they have left behind for the world to clean up in Iraq and Syria, their supporters and believers are chock-a-block in the cities of Europe. Almost every country that has allowed and encouraged Islamic immigration now has those shameful "no-go zones" which are effectively no longer part of the law and order which Western cities could point to as the enviable difference between themselves and the third world. Feckless politicians have ceded these neighbourhoods, which have in turn seceded from Europe while still physically there.
Good luck with that.