Saturday, October 29, 2011

Weekend Newsbites: Sat. & Sun., Oct. 29 & 30, 2011


KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- A Taliban suicide bomber rammed a van into an armored NATO bus Saturday in Kabul, killing 13 American troops...

Oh, yeah... definitely worth the blood and treasure...

Oh, yeah... we're winning baby... perhaps Hillary could hire Charlie Sheen as her new personal spokesman...

The true evidence of our decline as a nation and of the cultural rot infecting "We The People" is we've been allowing this - in our name - to continue for a decade now.

This isn't WW2 folks. This isn't even Korea. Indeed, this debacle is more tragic than the Vietnamese War in the sense that at least with regard to that war there... the majority of the South Vietnamese whom we were protecting actually wanted to be protected.

In Afghanistan...? Jeezus... we're talking "forth world" Muslim tribes where the main disagreement with the Taliban revolves around the allocation of power and wealth where many of our "allies" are only our (temporary) allies because when the Taliban comes back into power (perhaps under a different name for western public consumption) they may once again outlaw the poppy (heroin) trade that many of these villages would subsist upon if "allowed."

Nation-building in Afghanistan has been a total failure. For the past few years our finest young men and women have been losing their limbs, eyes, and lives for... for what?

Imagine one of those thirteen dead Americans was your son... your daughter... your husband...

What a waste. What an unconscionable waste.

12 comments:

William R. Barker said...

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-10-27/obama-miracle-is-white-house-free-of-scandal-commentary-by-jonathan-alter.html

President Barack Obama goes into the 2012 with a weak economy that may doom his reelection. But he has one asset that hasn’t received much attention: He’s honest.

* OH... MY... FRIGG'N... GOD...!!!

* FOLKS... THIS ABSURDITY IS COMING FROM THE PEN OF JONATHAN ALTER... LATE OF NEWSWEEK... PRESENTLY LEAD COLUMNIST FOR BLOOMBERG VIEW... CONTRIBUTING CORRESPONDENT FOR NBC NEWS... ETC., ETC., ETC.

* FOLKS... THIS IS OCTOBER 2011 - 13 MONTHS AWAY FROM THE ELECTION. CAN YOU IMAGINE WHAT WE'RE GONNA BE GETTING OUT OF THE MSM FOR THE NEXT 13 MONTHS?!

* OH... MY... FRIGG'N... GOD...!!!

(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)

William R. Barker said...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/national-security/foreign-students-say-visa-program-abused/2011/10/26/gIQAbsUESM_story.html

* MAN... THAT HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON... THE MOST COMPETENT WOMAN IN THE WORLD...

(*SNORT*)

* FOLKS... YOUR GOVERNMENT AT WORK IN THE AGE OF OBAMA...

For years, it has been touted as a form of vacation diplomacy: a U.S. government program that selects college students from across the globe to come work at beach resorts, amusement parks and other seasonal jobs. In the process, the visitors are expected to imbibe American culture, practice English and take home fond memories.

* SOUNDS GREAT! I MEAN... IN A TIME WHEN UNEMPLOYMENT IS VIRTUALLY NON-EXISTENT AND ANY AMERICAN TEEN OR 20-SOMETHING (OR OLDER FOR THAT MATTER) CAN GET A JOB WITH LITTLE MORE THAN A SNAP OF THE FINGERS...

(*SNORT*) (*SMIRK*)

...THE DEPARTMENT OF STATE IS "IMPORTING" ENTRY-LEVEL SERVICE WORKERS.

But this August, a group of students complained that their work conditions were closer to a sweatshop than a summer break, sparking demands for government intervention and a firestorm of bad publicity that federal officials are now trying to tamp down.

(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)

More than 300 young foreigners, packing candy in a warehouse in Pennsylvania, staged a high-profile walkout and protest against their employers and the State Department, which oversees the program. They alleged that they had been worked to exhaustion and had met few Americans except supervisors who pressed them to pack faster and threatened to have them deported.

* HIL-LAR-Y! HIL-LAR-Y! HIL-LAR-Y! HIL-LAR-Y!

* SERIOUSLY, FOLKS... IT'S A SMALL THING IN THE LARGER SCOPE OF "RUNNING THE WORLD," BUT DOESN'T THIS JUST REPRESENT A MICROCOSM OF THE U.S. GOVERNMENT'S INABILITY TO DO... WELL... HARDLY ANYTHING RIGHT?!

* I'LL LEAVE IT TO YOU TO DECIDE IF YOU NEED TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE. (BE MY GUEST, HOWEVER!)

William R. Barker said...

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/281570/adult-babies-mark-steyn

Last Thursday was officially “Diaper Need Awareness Day” in the State of Connecticut.

Were you aware of it?

(There are so many awareness-raising days, it’s hard to keep track. Maybe we could have an Awareness-Raising Day Awareness Day.)

At any rate, the first annual Diaper Need Awareness Day was proclaimed by Dan Malloy, governor of the Nutmeg State, and they had a big old awareness-raising get-together in New Haven. It’s not clear yet whether they’ve got an official ribbon. We’re running a bit low on ribbon colors these days: It’s not just pink ribbons for breast cancer, but also teal for agoraphobia, periwinkle for acid reflux, pink-and-blue ribbons for amniotic fluid embolisms, and pinstripe ribbons for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

(We could use a Ribbon-Hue Awareness Day to raise awareness about how we’re falling behind in the race for more ribbon colors.)

* BTW, FOLKS... THE AUTHOR OF THIS PIECE IS NONE OTHER THAN MARK STEYN. I KEEP ON TELLING YOU... GET YOURSELF A COPY OF "AFTER AMERICA"!

If you’re wondering what sentient being isn’t aware of diapers, you’re missing the point: Connecticut representative Rosa DeLauro is raising awareness of the need for diapers in order to, as Politico reported, “push the Federal Government to provide free diapers to poor families.”

(*SLOWLY BANGING MY HEAD AGAINST THE DESK*)

Congresswoman DeLauro has introduced the DIAPER Act - that’s to say, the Diaper Investment and Aid to Promote Economic Recovery Act. So don’t worry, it’s not welfare, it’s “stimulus.”

(As Fox News put it, “A U.S. congresswoman in Connecticut wants to boost the economy by offering free diapers to low-income families.”)

(And, given that sinking bazillions of dollars into green-jobs schemes to build eco-cars in Finland and a federal program to buy guns for Mexican drug cartels and all the other fascinating innovations of the Obama administration haven’t worked, who’s to say borrowing money from the Chinese politburo and sticking it in your kid’s diaper isn’t the kind of outside-the-box thinking that will do the trick?)

In fact, the federal government already provides free diapers for at least one lucky American. Stanley Thornton Jr. of California receives Supplementary Security Income disability checks from the Social Security Administration in order to sit around the house all day wearing a giant diaper and a giant onesie, sucking on a giant pacifier and playing with a giant baby rattle. Stanley Jr. runs a website for fellow “adult babies” called BedWettingABDL.com. I believe I first heard of the “adult baby” phenomenon some years ago in London. If memory serves, there was a club, and the members lay around in giant cribs being read bedtime stories by a bosomy nanny. Minor celebrities and possibly backbench Tory members of Parliament may have been involved. In those days, it was what we called a “fetish” and you had to do it on your own dime. Now it’s a “disability” and the United States government picks up the tab. And, if that’s not progress, what is?

* FOLKS... I'M GONNA LEAVE IT HERE. I STRONGLY SUGGEST YOU READ THE FULL PIECE VIA FOLLOWING THE ABOVE PROVIDED LINK.

William R. Barker said...

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/281597/public-employees-busted-retirement-scheme-nathaniel-botwinick

Employees of the Long Island Railroad (LIRR) have defrauded that organization of over $1 billion over the last seven years.

In as many as 500 cases, LIRR employees falsely claimed disability benefits to supplement their pensions, employing a sophisticated scheme involving special “facilitators” and doctors operating “disability mills.”

* NOTHING NEW... THIS IS HOW GOVERNMENTAL AND PSEUDO-GOVERNMENTAL AGENCIES WORK. (*DISGUSTED SHRUG*)

Eleven defendants have been named so far, including a former president of the railroad union; each has been charged with conspiracy to commit health-care fraud and mail fraud.

* AND IN A SANE WORLD... THE PENALTY FOR FRAUD AT THIS LEVEL - FRAUD AGAINST THE TAXPAYERS IN ESSENCE - WOULD BE DEATH. (BUT OF COURSE THAT'S JUST IN A SANE WORLD... WHICH THIS ISN'T.)

There were three doctors who participated in this scheme, and in return they received cash payments between $800 and $1,200 - along with millions in health-insurance fees for unnecessary procedures.

* AGAIN... EXECUTION IS THE PROPER PENALTY FOR SCUMBAGS SUCH AS THESE FOLKS. (IF THEY DID IT, THAT IS...)

These procedures, which included X-rays, MRIs, and physical therapy, were used to bolster their patients’ files for later claims. Afterwards, they provided patients with falsified medical assessments, claiming that it would be impossible for them to continue working. The LIRR employees would then immediately retire with both their regular and disability pensions.

The LIRR employees also collaborated with a few “facilitators,” who helped falsify disability applications and coordinated with the doctors’ offices. One of these facilitators, Joseph Rutigliano, was a former LIRR union president who had also falsely claimed disability benefits. Before retiring, he worked over 500 hours of overtime and took no sick days, yet applied for disability benefits due to back pain immediately upon retirement. His condition did not prevent him from playing golf several times a month.

* AGAIN, FOLKS... IF WE DON'T KILL THESE BASTARDS - LITERALLY KILL THEM - HOW THEN DO WE PUT A STOP TO THIS ONCE AND FOR ALL? KILLING SUCH SCUM WOULD SEND THE PROPER MESSAGE.

The structure of the LIRR’s pension system encouraged this massive scam. As early as age 50, a LIRR employee can retire and collect a LIRR pension, but has to wait until the age of 65 before he or she can claim a federal Railroad Retirement Benefit (RRB). However, if the employee is declared disabled immediately upon retirement, then that employee is entitled to both the LIRR pension and the RRB. This allows for the collection of an income equal to his or her previous base salary. In other words, the system created the incentives for deception by employees.

The high rate of disability claims at the LIRR relative to Metro North, a comparable regional railroad that does not have retirement at 50, illustrates this situation: Seventy-nine percent of LIRR employees over 50 claimed disability benefits, while only 15% of Metro North employees did.

Thus, while the LIRR scandal is a story of fraud, the real lesson lies in the dangers for abuse in entitlement systems.

William R. Barker said...

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/10/28/128624/us-will-lack-muscle-at-eurozone.html

When President Barack Obama arrives in Europe for meetings next Thursday and Friday with leaders of the 20 most-industrialized nations, he'll have limited influence over deliberations on how Europe should proceed...

* LUCKILY FOR THE EUROPEANS!

The U.S.-led global financial crisis in 2008 and subsequent inability of the U.S. political system to deal with federal budget deficits and debt have stripped the United States of the moral authority to tell others how to fix their finances.

* YA THINK...?!?!

In fact, Europeans are looking to Asia and the developing world, not the United States, to help them recover.

* Hmm... DOESN'T TAKE A PSYCHIC TO FIGURE OUT HOW ALL THIS IS GONNA TURN OUT...

(*SIGH*)

The U.S.-dominated International Monetary Fund would play some role in this rescue effort...

* BROKE AMERICAN TAXPAYERS BEING FORCED BY OUR POLITICAL MASTERS TO BAIL OUT EUROPEAN NATIONS WHICH ARE EVEN MORE IRRESPONSIBLE THAN OUR OWN... (GREAT... JUST FRIGG'N GREAT...)

Publicly, the Treasury Department was supportive of the European plan.

* SURE! SUPPORT PILING DEBT UPON DEBT - THAT'LL "FIX" THINGS! SOUNDS LIKE A PLAN, MR. GEITHNER!

President Barack Obama had a commentary under his name published Friday in London's influential Financial Times, offering no firm positions but exhorting the Europeans to get their rescue plan done.

(*SNORT*) FOLKS... I COULDN'T MAKE THIS SHIT UP IF I WANTED TO! WE'RE FRIGG'N DOOMED...!!!

William R. Barker said...

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203687504577001780712273626.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop

Harrisburg, the capital of Pennsylvania, is drowning in debt.

City officials have known for more than four years that they'd have to deal with the fiscal mess, but they punted.

The state has engineered a "bailout" plan, but the city council rejected it. Instead it has asked creditors to forgo as much as $100 million of the debt.

Essentially, the city council is engaged in a giant game of brinksmanship with the state and creditors, daring them to come up with something that's less onerous than the current state plan, which involves asset sales and renegotiating union contracts.

Under seven-term Mayor Stephen Reed, who governed from 1982 to 2010, Harrisburg had a long love affair with borrowed money, using it to spur projects of dubious value.

The city invested millions of dollars in a stadium in the late 1980s to attract a minor league baseball team. When the Harrisburg Senators threatened to leave in 1995, the city bought the team with borrowed money. In 2009, even as the fiscal clouds darkened, it sank another $45 million, including $18 million in new debt, into upgrading the stadium. The team was attracting 2,488 fans per game.

(*SARCASTIC CLAP-CLAP-CLAP*)

Mr. Reed, once described by a local newspaper as a man who "never met a municipal bond he didn't like," wanted to borrow to open a network of museums. He spent some $39 million on a National Civil War Museum that opened in 2001. It has struggled for years to attract crowds. Undeterred, the mayor borrowed some $8 million to buy artifacts - including a Gatling gun, a Wells Fargo coach and a document signed by Wyatt Earp - for a proposed Wild West museum, though most of the purchases were made without the knowledge and consent of the city council. Plans for a Wild West museum and a National Sports Hall of Fame, financed by a $30 million bond offering, mercifully fell through.

* DON'T THE DEMS RUN MOST OF PENNSYLVANIA...???

The Harrisburg Authority, a city agency controlled by the mayor, floated much of the city's debt, including millions on an ill-fated incinerator. Built in the 1970s, it has been plagued by breakdowns and operating losses. Many other municipal governments, including nearby Lancaster County's, have turned their incinerators over to private-sector operators. The Harrisburg Authority spent the 1990s investing millions in a fruitless effort to make the plant efficient and profitable. But default loomed by 2003 - when the city was forced to close the incinerator, now saddled with $100 million in debt, because it did not comply with federal clean-air standards.

* FOLKS... SERIOUSLY... YOU JUST CAN'T MAKE THIS SHIT UP!

Next up? A massive retrofit engineered by Barlow Projects Inc., a firm from Fort Collins, Colo. Harrisburg and Dauphin County, where the city is located, agreed to guarantee $125 million in new borrowing that was supposed to be paid back by revenues from the reopened plant. The city's debt load grew to $441 million, about $9,000 per resident. The project fell behind and Barlow filed for bankruptcy in 2007 after the city fired it before work on the plant was completed. Harrisburg has missed payments on the incinerator debt, and it avoided default on its general obligation bonds in September 2010 only because the state stepped in with aid.

(*HEADACHE*)

The Harrisburg case raises fundamental questions about the way cities and states increasingly use debt to finance speculative development that private investors or lenders won't touch. ... These deals are one reason why state and local debt outstanding has ballooned from $1.3 trillion to $2.5 trillion in the last decade, according to the U.S. Federal Reserve.

William R. Barker said...

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203554104577003981724277456.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEFTTopOpinion

President Obama doesn't take campaign contributions from lobbyists - unless you count the owners and CEOs of lobbying firms, corporate vice presidents for government relations, or managing directors for public policy...

(*RUEFUL CHUCKLE*)

Wealthy revolving-door banker Peter Orszag epitomizes everything [candidate] Obama ran against.

Orszag was Obama's budget director until the 2010 elections at which point he cashed out to bailed-out megabank Citigroup.

A Citi executive touted Orszag's "key . . . government experience" and "his expertise in economic policy."

(In other words, Orszag has monetized his public service and sold it to Citi, which, like all big banks, counts on favorable government policy for its profits.)

Apparently feeling fairly plush after nine months at a Wall Street salary, Orszag cut a $35,800 check last month to the Obama Victory Fund, a joint fundraising committee that divides its funds between the official Obama campaign and the Democratic National Committee.

(*SNICKER*)

To sum up: Orszag gained inside knowledge and connections on the taxpayer dime, put them to work for a big bank, then used his salary from this bailed-out bank to give the maximum contribution to the man who hired him in the White House.

(*SHRUG*)

* AND THERE YOU HAVE IT, FOLKS...

William R. Barker said...

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_OCTOBER_SNOW_POWER?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2011-10-29-18-36-18

The number of homes and businesses without power on the East Coast has grown to more than three million as an unusually early snowstorm passes over New England.

Connecticut Gov. Dannel P. Malloy says the more than 750,000 customers without power there breaks a record set when the remnants of Hurricane Irene hit the state in August. He says people could be without electricity for a week.

More than 650,000 have lost power in Massachusetts. Those without electricity number 285,000 in New Hampshire and at least 150,000 in Maine.

More than 617,000 people in New Jersey have lost power, and in New York, more than 200,000 are without it.

Utilities in Pennsylvania are saying more than 423,000 are without power, and Western Maryland had more than 29,000 outages.

Central Vermont Public Service says more than 6,300 there had no power.

* ANYONE WHO OWNS A HOME AND DOESN'T OWN A GENERATOR IS A MORON. PERIOD.

* HOW MY BEST FRIEND CARL MAKES MORE MONEY THAN I DO... (*SIGH*)... IT REALLY DOES TELL YOU ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT HOW ASS-BACKWARDS OUR AMERICAN REALITY HAS BECOME.

William R. Barker said...

http://www.nbcconnecticut.com/news/local/Passengers-Grounded-for-Hours-With-No-Bathrooms-or-Water-132862693.html

For seven hours, the passengers on JetBlue flight 504 have been grounded at Bradley Airport, with no bathrooms and no water, according to passengers on the plane who are Tweeting and others who contacted NBC Connecticut.

The passengers left Ft. Lauderdale, Florida just after 10 a.m., heading for Newark, but the flight was diverted to Bradley, where it had been since 1:30 p.m.

"At the three-hour mark they told us by law they had to let us off the plane. They were waiting for a tug to take us to a gate. We heard that same message at the four-hour mark, and continuing until state troopers boarded the plane for a medical emergency," said Robert, a passenger who did not want to give his last name.

A paraplegic on the flight had a medical issue, and about seven hours after the plane landed. It was at that point that police and firefighters came onboard to render medical assistance.

* SO, FOLKS... HOW'S THAT AIRLINE PASSENGERS PROTECTION ACT (OR WHATEVER IT'S CALLED) WORKING OUT? APPARENTLY NOT SO WELL. AGAIN, FOLKS, YOU CAN HAVE ALL THE LAWS YOU WANT... BUT IF THEY'RE UNEVENLY AND ONLY UNILATERALLY ENFORCED (OR NOT)... WHAT'S THE POINT?

* ALSO, FOLKS... IN LINE WITH MY CONSTANT REFRAIN THAT WE'RE IN DECLINE AND ACTUALLY GOING BACKWARDS... THINK ABOUT THIS: WHAT WOULD HAVE HAPPENED SAY 70 YEARS AGO... IN 1941... HAD A COMMERCIAL AIRLINER BEEN DIVERTED AND FORCED TO SAFELY AT THE WRONG AIRPORT? I'LL TELL YOU WHAT WOULD HAVE HAPPENED. WITHIN MOMENTS OF THE PLANE TAXIING TO A HALT A GROUND CREW WOULD HAVE WHEELED STAIRS TO THE PLANE AND THE PASSENGERS WOULD HAVE DEPLANED AND EITHER WAITED IN THE COMFORT OF THE TERMINAL OR A CLOSE BY DINER FOR THE PLANE TO RESUME IT'S FLIGHT OR ELSE MADE ALTERNATE ARRANGEMENTS TO GET TO WHERE THEY WERE GOING!

* THINK ABOUT IT, FOLKS... WE DON'T EVEN HAVE WORKING "OUTSIDE STAIR TECHNOLOGY" NOWADAYS! IT'S INSANE...!!!

William R. Barker said...

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/30/world/middleeast/united-states-plans-post-iraq-troop-increase-in-persian-gulf.html?_r=2

The Obama administration plans to bolster the American military presence in the Persian Gulf after it withdraws the remaining troops from Iraq this year, according to officials and diplomats. That repositioning could include new combat forces in Kuwait...

* AND YOU DON'T THINK WE LOOK LIKE A PSEUDO-IMPERIALIST POWER TO MANY FOREIGNERS AROUND THE WORLD?

* THIS IS "CHANGE?" THIS IS "HOPE?" REALLY...???

The plans, under discussion for months, gained new urgency after President Obama’s announcement this month that the last American soldiers would be brought home from Iraq by the end of December.

* WHAT IS THIS - THREE CARD MONTY...?!?! (HEY... FOLKS... I GUESS WE CAN KISS ANY "PEACE DIVIDEND" GOODBYE!)

After unsuccessfully pressing both the Obama administration and the Iraqi government to permit as many as 20,000 American troops to remain in Iraq beyond 2011, the Pentagon is now drawing up an alternative.

* HOLD IT! HOLD IT! HOLD IT! THE ABOVE SENTENCE IS ONE OF THE MOST BLATANTLY DISINGENUOUS LINES I'VE EVER READ - EVEN COMING FROM A NYT REPORTER! THE PRESIDENT IS COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF. THE PENTAGON CAN ADVISE HIM, BUT ALL DECISIONS ARE HIS. THE FACT IS THAT IT WAS PRESIDENT OBAMA AND SECRETARY OF STATE HILLARY CLINTON WHO UNSUCCESSFULLY PRESSED THE IRAQI GOVERNMENT TO ALLOW U.S. TROOPS TO REMAIN IN IRAQ BEYOND 2011 WITH FULL IMMUNITY FROM IRAQI LAWS.

* FOLKS... THE NYT JUST TRIED TO MISINFORM AND MISDIRECT READERS. NO DOUBT THEY LARGELY SUCCEEDED. UNDERSTAND, FOLKS... THE MSM IS IN THE BAG FOR OBAMA AND THE DEMS. IT'S THAT SIMPLE.

[T]he Obama administration is also seeking to expand military ties with the six nations in the Gulf Cooperation Council - Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Oman. [T]he administration [is] trying to foster a new “security architecture” for the Persian Gulf that would integrate air and naval patrols and missile defense.

* AND IF THERE ARE POPULAR UPRISING AGAINST SAY THE CORRUPT AND DICTATORIAL SAUDI MONARCHY... OUR "ALLIES"... ON WHOSE SIDE DOES THE SAME U.S. WHICH STOOD ASIDE AS OUR "ALLY" MUBARAK WAS TOPPLED AND WHO AIDED THE REBELS SEEKING TO OVERTHROW OUR "ALLY" GHADAFI THROW IN WITH...???

* Hmm... DIDN'T OBAMA "WIN" A NOBEL PEACE PRIZE UPON TAKING OFFICE...??? IRONIC... ISN'T IT?

William R. Barker said...

http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/saudi-royal-offers-900-000-reward-for-capture-of-israeli-soldiers-1.392666

* SUBTITLE: "SPEAKING OF OUR "ALLIES" THE SAUDIS..."

A Saudi royal offered a $900,000 reward to anyone who captures an Israeli soldier...

(*HEADACHE*)

[O]n Saturday. Prince Khaled bin Talal, the brother of business tycoon and Fox News co-owner Walid bin Talal, told the Saudi-based broadcaster Al Daleel that the captive would then be released in exchange for Arabs held in Israeli prisons.

Khaled's offer comes days after the prominent Saudi cleric, Awad al-Qarni, put $100,000 on the head of every Israeli soldier.

The Saudi offers follows the recent deal between the Israeli government and Hamas, when Israel agreed to release 1,027 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for Gilad Shalit.

(*SARCASTIC CLAP-CLAP-CLAP*)

William R. Barker said...

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=47180

* BY PATRICK J. BUCHANAN

Demography is destiny.

By mid-century, Western man will be down to 12% of world population.

By century's end, he will be a tiny fraction, roughly equal to the white population of Rhodesia when Robert Mugabe came to power.

* AND, HEY... DIDN'T THAT JUST WORK OUT FINE FOR RHOD... er... ZIMBABWE...?! (*SNORT*) (*SNICKER*)

The demographic winter of the West has set in.

What is the future of Europe? What is the future of Western man? Houari Boumedienne, Algerian revolutionary and president of his country, predicted it at the United Nations in 1975: "One day, millions of men will leave the Southern Hemisphere of this planet to burst into the Northern one. But not as friends. Because they will come in to conquer, and they will conquer by populating it with their children. Victory will come to us from the wombs of our women."

On Sept. 11, 2001, after the twin towers fell and Germany expressed her anguish and solidarity with America, a strange event occurred. In the Turkish districts of Berlin, bottle rockets were fired all night in celebration.

In the banlieues around Paris and other French cities, Arab riots, assaults on police and mass arson of vehicles regularly occur.

This summer in London, the immigrant enclaves exploded and poured out into the city night after night.

[W]hile world population is exploding, Western peoples are dying. Not a single European nation, except Muslim Albania, has a birth rate that will enable it to replace its present population.

"Hypermortality" is a word demographers use in discussing Russia. Between now and 2050, Russia, a nation of roughly 140 million, down from nearly 150 million at the breakup of the Soviet Union, is on schedule to lose an additional 24 million people. A Russia with not one-tenth China's population will not hold on to a continental nation twice China's size.

Germany is to lose 8 million of her 82 million people. Ukraine has lost 6 million people since liberation in 1991 and will lose another 10 million by 2050. The population of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, 8 million in 1990, will by mid-century have fallen by 30% to 5.7 million.

With the median age of European nations rising toward 50 and above, and a growing share of the population over 65, the continent is going to need millions of young immigrants to maintain the labor force and cope with seniors and elderly in retirement centers, assisted living facilities and nursing homes. Where will they come from? Continents and countries with population surges and surpluses.

By 2050, Africa's population will double from 1 billion to 2 billion people. Where today the six most populous Islamic nations - Indonesia, Egypt, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nigeria and Turkey - have a combined population of 885 million, by 2050 their populations will have increased by 475 million to 1.36 billion. Of the 48 fastest-growing countries in the world, 28 are majority Muslim or have Muslim populations of more than one-third of the national population. And since it is the Muslim nations of North Africa and the Middle East that are closest to Europe, with easiest access to the continent, Muslims will likely furnish most of the multitudes who are coming. What will this mean for Europe? Religious and racial conflict.

* "RACE" PER SE SHOULDN'T MATTER, FOLKS... BUT CULTURE SURE AS HELL DOES. THE BARBARIANS ARE INSIDE THE GATES.