Monday, January 12, 2015

Paris "Peace" March: Everything Wrong with Progressivism on Parade

Sorry, I can't restrain myself any longer.

I am sick of hearing about the Paris "Peace" march or "Unity" rally or whatever the lame MSM deems to call it at any particular time. It was not an act of bravery, a show of lack of fear, of standing up to terrorism.

Nope. Not at all. No, sir.

It was a very typical, in fact, an extremely typical leftist/progressive/narcissist manifestation akin to so many others we have seen over the years. It was replete with the usual trademarks of progressivism: prancing and preening; empty slogans and rhetoric; and equally empty gestures and cartoonish props, e.g., giant pencils, rakishly worn bandanas, silly make-up, etc. It was a manifestation on steroids by people who would put lame bumper stickers such as the one below on a PRIUS.


It was also a show by spoiled brats who forget that they have the freedoms they have thanks to 18- and 19-year-old kids willing to pick up a gun and go to war in far off lands against the monsters threatening our homes and families. Continental Europe, especially, has been living in a bubble of safety and security provided by British and American young men. When that bubble gets pierced, the spirit of Petain returns.

It was a "demonstration" in favor of what? Freedom of speech? Hardly. Almost every politician marching there represented a country or a movement which advocates censorship of various types. In favor of standing up for the West and its core values? Nope. A declaration of war on the Islamists who have brought misery to nearly corner of the world? Mon Dieu! Ah, ce n'est pas possible! No, no we must not mention Islam as the cause of the horrors!

The hypocritical press in the West hardly even showed the cartoons for which the Charlie Hebdot cartoonists were murdered. In fact, those cartoons could not have been exhibited at just about any university in the West; the cartoonists would have been hounded from those campuses, and, in many countries, could have faced charges of inciting hatred.

In sum, the "march" was a call to do, what exactly? Simple: It was a call to do exactly nothing. The march was about nothing.

Obama did not attend.

I am surprised. It was the sort of vacuous "I-am-doing something-which looks-daring-but-is-quite-safe" for which The One and His Cohorts are known--e.g., "I Can't Breathe," "Hands Up! Don't Shoot!"--and the multiple nonsensical hashtags and tweets for which our increasingly deranged Progressive Era is so renown.

As the master of hypocrisy and doing nothing real, therefore, Obama should have been there in the midsts of the marchers; he would have fit right in.

Let me clarify: Obama should have been there, but not the President of the United States.

The President of the United States does not do marches.

The President of the United States should act as an adult, not like some overgrown college kid.

The President of the United States should stay home, get his security team together, lay out a plan to strike the Islamists, get on the airwaves and declare that the United States, alone if needed, will go after the sponsors of this murderous ideology.

We, however, have no President; and Obama, the man who pretends to be President, watched TV, instead.

The jihadis have declared war on the West, and the response is a "peace" march? Sitting in their mud huts, surrounded by their 10-year-old wives, the leaders of the jihad must be laughing their heads off, giving each other high-fives, all in celebration of how they can drive the West into surrender at almost no cost.

Let's face it: there is no leader of the West.

Netanyahu was there. He was one of the few there for whom I have respect.

It seems, however, that the "all-inclusive" event designed by France's absurd President Hollande was never intended to include the Israeli PM--nor Marine Le Pen, either. According to sources within the PM's office, the French let Bibi know he was not welcome. They, apparently, did not want the focus "to be on Israel." Netanyahu, of course, decided to go, anyhow--and seeing the strained face on Hollande when he had to meet the PM was delicious.

Israel's PM went for a different reason than the other marchers. He, in my view, went to show the French, and the world, that the roots of Islamic terror have nothing to do with the Israel-Palestine issue. Contrary to the concerns of Hollande, Netanyahu wanted to show that Israel is, in fact, not the focus. The terrorists never even mentioned Palestine as their cause. He also went as the representative of a country that has been fighting these Islamists for decades, and has experienced repeatedly their savageness--and gotten lectured by the Europeans and others on the need to live peacefully with the very people now killing Frenchmen in the streets of France. (See above bumper sticker.) He also went to stick it in the eye of the French government by speaking directly to the Jews of France and Europe. He wanted to remind them of something many of the silly progressive secular Jews of the Old Continent have forgotten: the reason for Israel's existence. Israel is a safe haven for the Jews of Europe, a place where they are increasingly not safe. President Hollande was not pleased and left as Prime Minister Netanyahu began speaking in the synagogue.

That sums it up re the Paris march, rally, demonstration, whatever, as far as I am concerned.

Oh, and by the way, nobody, but nobody should run the picture below of the new Charlie Hebdo cover. This blog won't run it because it is possibly offensive to certain peaceful people of a certain peaceful belief.




49 comments:

  1. Bibi also wanted to show the French where the balls are.

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  2. Absolutely right.

    I am watching with interest which parts of the MSM will publish the cover of the latest Charlie Hebdot. So far Downunder the only media to do so is the Murdoch New Limited outlets. As for the remainder, only a few short days after the preening proclamations that they are 'Je suis Charlie' and the usual whining by the local spokespeople of the religion of peace, it seems 'Je suis Charlie' not so much, or at all really. Craven pathetic cowards all.

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  3. Of course POTUS didn't attend - Paris does not have any golf courses...

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    1. They do but it's winter and Obama is used to Hawaii. Plus football is on TV. Then it'll be basketball season. No time for optional activities like being president.

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    2. Quite right. It is almost Superbowl time. He can't be distracted by anything requiring presidential-style 'leadership' now can he?

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  4. I was pretty surprised not to see obama there, too.

    I don't want to see a war on Islam either, or Mohamedans in general. There are plenty who are happy to live by our rules and I have no gripe with them.

    But the ones who have de fact declared war on freedom, they need to be hunted down.

    Having said that, I am not convinced that our various foreign adventures over the last 10 years have contributed to our safety.

    We were right to go into Afghanistan after 9/11, but it should have been a short sharp punitive mission. Iraq was crazy and it has never been proven was a substantive threat to us and successive interventions there, in Libya and SYria have made a bad situation worse.

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    1. I don't want to see a war on Islam either, or Mohamedans in general. There are plenty who are happy to live by our rules and I have no gripe with them.

      My Muslim friends accept Western values and live decent lives. It appears the differentiator is whether Muslims want to live by sharia law, even in the west.

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    2. On top of that, as Bill Maher pointed out (one of the few times, if ever I've agreed with him), if there are so many rotten apples one must wonder about the state of the orchard.

      As for overseas military actions, anything we do will be wrong and "incite" the radicals. People forget they didn't need to be "incited." They were already there, starting with blowing up Marines in Beirut (if not before).

      Iraq wasn't so much crazy as mismanaged. Seems like we are having trouble winning wars anymore--all I ever hear about is exit strategies and "ending hostilities." One wonders where we'd be today if we'd had such an attitude 1939-45.

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    3. Robert of O and Merk, this link might be of interest--http://malcolmpollack.com/2015/01/12/what-will-we-do/#comments

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    4. Well, Whitewall, I don't agree with that analysis. Nothing Christian about Islam. The Arab raiders were not oppressed by the Byzantine and Persian empires, they attacked them during a period when the empires were weak.

      I won't go into the fable of mohammad (did he actually exist?) but he was a two bit bandit. The sura, hadith and Koran were only compiled two centuries later. And there were competing versions for a long time.

      I think of the "religion" he invented was much like David Koresh's Branch Davidians (in form, not philosophy). He attracted followers by making stuff up and, being illiterate, just stuck together random bits of ideology ad hoc.

      What he did understand was the use of terror and reward. Terror has always been the Muslim way of war.

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    5. Robert you are correct about the "Christian" thing. That was in the comments to the piece I believe and I meant to omit the "comments" part of the link. Only meant to highlight the main article alone.

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    6. " Iraq was crazy and it has never been proven was a substantive threat to us "

      The dilemma that Bush had, and which seems to have been forgotten, was that sanctions were collapsing and the Saudis wanted us out, so to leave Saudi and allow Saddam to say he had defeated our sanctions would have looked terrible after 9/11. I agree it was botched after the early phase, particularly by Bremmer. It seems that he outmaneuvered Jay Garner who had done a great job with the Kurds who remain our only Muslim allies.

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  5. The "C" part of the "Coexist" meme seems to be the problem.

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    1. Indeed, without islam and hippies, we simply have 'exist'... sounds peaceful, huh... :)

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  6. Glad to see that at least one person on the right is ignoring the outrage about Obama not attending this rally and instead calling it out for what it really was: a facile, perfunctory ritual that our enemies laughed at yesterday and the participants will forget tomorrow.

    A commentor on Ace of Spades pointed out that the Muslim "no go" zones prevalent in several Western cities, particularly Paris, amount to nothing more than colonies. Had this march wanted to serve a true purpose, the marchers would have directed themselves into these colonies and, with every weapon available, demanded their land back.

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  7. With regards to the coexist bumper sticker, I saw one I'd really like to get. I don't remember how tit was spelled out, but the T at the end was an A-10 standing on its tail. I've been looking for it ever since.

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    1. Yep...all the letters were spelled out with different weapons.
      http://ep.yimg.com/ay/yhst-50863389838911/preorder-coexist-bumper-sticker-8.gif

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    2. Even better would be one that says "Coexist: It worked out well for the Jews in WWII". I agree that marches and berets worn at jaunty angles are nothing. Where were all these people "oh-so-concerned" about free speech when Ayaan Hirsi Ali was booted from the Brandeis commencement because some little "students" cried that she was insensitive to the MooseLimbs? How about when the Firefox CEO was run out of town because he dared to have a different opinion on homosexual "marriage"? No they only want their speech unimpeded and unthreatened. Why didn't they complain when The Dear Golfer's admin said a couple of years ago that it was unwise for CH to print Moohamed comics?

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    3. There is another Coexist bumper sticker in which the C is in the typeface of Colt's Manufacturing Company's logo. The logos or elements from the logos of Glock, Beretta, Springfield, Winchester, Smith & Wesson and Mossberg.complete the word. The humor is instantly recognized by supporters of the 2nd Amendment and sails over the heard of most liberals who suspect they are being mocked but who don't know the brands.

      Those have been coexisting in gun safes all across America for years now.

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  8. Ace's LauraW looks at what the cartoon really means http://ace.mu.nu/archives/354316.php

    I watched Netanyahu's speech at the Synagogue (on The Telegraph livefeed). He essentially said that - as you put it - Jews are increasingly not safe in France, Israel is ready to welcome them. IMO, that's why he was in Paris on Sunday.

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    1. I have written before that I found Hebdo to be a childish and moronic. My problem is that I also find the Islamists to be that.

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    2. Download the image, and turn it upside down.

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    3. something vaguely related to masculine genitalia? I don't see it.

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  9. Diplomad, to put a fine exclamation at the end of your post, this link courtesy of two fine gentlemen over at Duff and Nonsense--from the right column on your page----
    http://www.atangledweb.org/?p=55283

    How many of us saw the "assembled leaders" leading the bulging masses? How many saw the above the street photos provided in the link?

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  10. I too was surprised our Golfer-in-Chief didn't rush over and divert attention to himself by attempting to emulate John F. "Ich bin ein Berliner" Kennedy.

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    1. "Ich bin ein Berliner" is one of the silliest quotes of all time. JFK was probably being sincere but he should have been better briefed. A 'Berliner' is a jelly-filled doughnut and a Berlin favourite snackfood. The correct quote should have been "Ich bin Berlinerische".

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    2. I've heard about JFK's mistranslation. Maybe that's why the Berlinerishes (sp?) were cheering JFK. They thought they'd get free jelly doughnuts. :)

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  11. To me, that 'Coexist' bumper sticker says: "Please help me, I'm adrift without a moral rudder in my life."

    I don't know if I could find a more obvious symptom of a person in need of spiritual help.

    Maybe those are the people I need to find, love, and lead to hope.

    (This comment started out *way* different, but really thinking about it pointed me towards the utter hopelessness and isolation that people putting that sticker on their car must be feeling. They're beyond the point of even 'hoping for hope', instead casting about trying to offend those who have real faith that they lack themselves.)

    - reader #1482

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    1. #1482, I sat down ready to write a comment similar to yours, but you beat me to the punch. Good one.

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    2. thanks!

      - reader #1482

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  12. "continental Europe, especially, has been living in a bubble of safety and security provided by Anglo-American young men".

    So very true and is a prime indicator as to why the USA is treated with disdain by a large percentage of Europe, couple with deep-rooted resentment for having the effrontery of liberating large tracts of said Europe from Nazi German aggression. The krauts hate you because you whipped their ass (yes yes with help I know but let's stick with America for the purpose of discussion) and then occupied them for decades afterwards. They HATE that because occupation is THEIR job. The French hate you because you liberated their country for them as they were too disorganised and stupid to defend it successfully in 1940, which was a very real possibility. Notice how the frogs always wanted to be up the front at every victory parade afterwards even though they did basically bugger-all to help bring that victory about? The Belgians, Dutch and Danish resent the British more than the US because broadly speaking, after D-Day the British Army wheeled left and advanced North back up through Belgium and the 'low countries' while the US Army thundered across central France. The BeNeLux countries will follow the French lead just to be bloody-minded however. Let's not forget the Czechs in this; they will never forgive the West for letting them be stitched up at Munich in 1938. They weren't even allowed to attend the meetings where the fate of their OWN country was decided by two fascist bullyboys and two craven peaceniks. The Austrians were quite happy; they weren't bombed all that much and post-war settled down into being the espionage capitol of Europe, as usual.

    Let's not forget all that wonderful Marshall Plan aid which rebuilt those countries and their economies afterwards along with all that technology and other goodies, all freely given courtesy of the US taxpayer. Gratitude? Forget it, just like they all did about a month after the war in Europe finished.

    Let's also not forget eastern Europe who had the misfortune to be 'liberated' by the boot-faced Russians and thus sentenced to @50 years of marxist-driven oppression, with cardboard shoes, burlap suits and a constant diet of black bread and turnips for all. All-expenses-spared holidays in the Gulag for dissenters. Basically eastern Europe got what we here in Australia call 'the rough end of the pineapple' (N.B. think about trying to insert that delicious piece of fruit forcefully up a certain bodily orifice and you'll get the gist). THEY hate America because you didn't beat the Russians to their countries but it certainly didn't stop squillions of them migrating to the USA at the first opportunity did it? Encouraged it more like. You have the choice between a good second-hand Dodge, or your own donkey driven cart, which would you choose?

    I once heard gratitude described as "a lively expectation of favours to come" which more or less sums up the European attitude towards the USA. "Yeah yeah thanks for winning the war but now piss off home. Oh by the way, don't forget to leave loads of money behind and keep topping it up. Goodbye".

    1930s European politics was dominated by wet blanket wallflowers espousing 'peace at any cost' with the exceptions of course of the anti-semitic psycho Hitler and the comic-opera buffoon Mussolini. Today, European politics is dominated by the same type of spineless peaceniks who are going to sell out the whole show to a pack of hankyheads who don't even have the courage to show their faces, always wearing balaclavas. I even saw a nauseating picture on a news site this morning of a bunch of German politicos at a rally doing that stupid 'invisible book' muslim thing with their hands. Spare me.

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    1. That took a big load off your chest. Mine too. Thanks.

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    2. You are very welcome. It is something I believe in quite strongly and I find the anti-American sentiment repulsive. But then, I find the whole EU concept to be laughable. They, as individual nations or even tribes (pre-mass immigration) having fighting and killing each other with great relish since the start of recorded history.
      At the time of the Bosnian War in the 90s I expressed disgust at the atrocities being carried out by the Bosnian Serbs against local Muslims and anyone else they didn't like. This was within earshot of a Serbian immigrant to Australia, a savvy lady with a couple of degrees and who was a senior programmer and she gave me a long and impassioned lecture as to why these atrocities were fully justified because of events of centuries before when the Ottomans ran the local area and repressed Christians. How can you compete with ingrained racial hatreds such as that? Answer: you can't, so don't even try. Stay out of the neighbourhood and don't get involved. Make no comments and let them get on with their killing games.

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  13. Love the irony at the end.

    However, had I been in the O's shoes, I would've gone. However, I would've joined the overgrown college kid ethos by having the most expensive tailor around stitch, in bright gold thread, a Mogen David on the back of my coat with an Arabic "n" for Nazrani inside it--and I'd show it to every camera I could see.

    While I feel for the Charlie Hebdo survivors, it is simply because being an obnoxious @$$ is not sufficient reason for being killed. I feel a much deep sympathy for the victims in the Jewish grocery store and respect for the guy who helped some of them stay hidden and/or escape. While I am a Protestant Christian who holds to Covenantal rather than Dispensational theology (and hence pro-Israel on other than theological grounds), I can identify a lot more with people who are out shopping for groceries. Further, due to my own family's peculiar ethnic mix, we sometimes shop at ethnically identifiable shops ourselves, and hence could be targeted in some other kind of ethnic ugliness.

    I will also take the opportunity to register my utter disgust with Hollande and the French government. On the one hand, Monsieur Hollande says that Jews are an essential part of la republique; but on the other, I understand that a French Jew wearing a yarmulke and tzitzit while on his way to synagogue could be charged with incitement should some goon attack him. In my corner of America, a goodly portion of the white population is Jewish, including the devout, who are clearly visible going to and from synagogue on Shabbos. Should such people be attacked and some official say they were inciting it, I would scream for such an official to tender his resignation effective 0800 hours last Thursday. I think that it is essential that a government let its population have a reasonable expectation of safety while going about an ordinary activity.

    Popular Front and Dip, at this stage, were I some never-a-care-in-the-world wealthy fat cat, I would endow a special fund to aid travel and shipping coasts for any American who wants to ship his WWII war dead from Europe to have them re-interred in the USA. The Yurruppeen Innaleckchools have never forgiven us Americans for having made it impossible for them to labor under the supervision of their idol Stalin. Should such people find themselves under the rule of a Khomeini Wannabe, it would be a cold day in Hell before I'd accept them as refugees in my country.

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  14. Well Mad'
    To think that Hollande would be angry that the head of state of the only Jewish nation on earth would come to his country because of Jews gunned down solely for the reason of being Jewish is something to behold. It is almost as if I am seeing the Lavals, Petains, and Quislings that I missed the first time.
    James the Lesser

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  15. It seems to me that 70 years after the Holocaust, only the Jews and only a portion of them really, took NEVER AGAIN seriously. I guess it was just the "Je suis" of its day.

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  16. Where were all of these 'concerned' marchers when Fusilier Lee Rigby was butchered in a London street by two Islamic terrorists?

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    1. Busy working out how it had "nothing to do with Islam" and after all he was only a soldier not part of the intellectual elite.

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  17. It seems we in the West are, in one way or another, trying to fight a coherent campaign against the obvious Islamist threat, but are having to do so within the limits forced on us by the PC Left and their assorted mouth pieces. The Left is umpire or what?

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  18. Obama's vanity stopped him from going to the march. Am I the only person who remembers that at a number of recent meetings involving heads of states Obama has been pushed to the side during the photo ops.

    How far away from the center would Obama have been if he went to the march?

    Davod

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  19. I think he has dreams of a great diplomatic coup with Iran, making them an ally. Chamberlain had similar delusions.

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    1. This is probably true, and it appears to be a concern of other Middle Eastern regimes, particularly Saudi Arabia. This perception may well have played a role in the Saudi actions to drive down the price of oil

      This could be the subject of a future Diplomad post!.

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  20. Krauthammer said it best:
    This march was for World Leaders...of which Obama is no longer one.

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  21. I guess you've heard about the "You've got a friend" reach out by Kerry to the French. Not even the mighty Inspector Clouseau could top that one.........."You've got a friend, unbelievable.............. heck even a snarky jackass like me cannot add to that.
    James the Lesser

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  22. Mad, I can see by certain small typos, that you were, actually, mad, i.e. angry. When I feel that way, my fingers hurt when I finish, because I was striking the keys so hard. I feel your pain, as well as your anger and disgust. This is our country. He ought not to be able to use us this way.
    Michael Adams

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    1. True. I was also typing it on an old IPAD while in a car.

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  23. Here is an even better cartoon:

    https://ejbron.wordpress.com/2015/01/18/cartoon-de-bekentenis/

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