Monthly Archives: November 2010

Croatian to be 24th Official EU Language

Posted on 26 November 2010 by craigjameswilly

EUobserver reports that Croatian will be accepted as a complete language in-and-of-itself, completely separate from Serbian. These two languages have different scripts but Serbo-Croatian is effectively one spoken language. Given that the entire Western Balkans are expected to eventually join … Continue reading →

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Cohn-Bendit on Turkey

Posted on 25 November 2010 by craigjameswilly

I can’t resist showing this video from Euronews (therefore available in 8 languages) opening with the European Parliament’s Green leader Daniel-Cohn Bendit attempting to engage Turkish Prime Minister Recep Erdogan. The one eager and seemingly trying to impress, the other, massive and unfazed. Most … Continue reading →

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Towards a European lingua franca (English)

Posted on 22 November 2010 by craigjameswilly

In European politics, multilingualism has been intractable problem. The needs of translation and interpretation in 22 languages are costly (the main reason the European Parliament is more expensive than national ones). The debates and speeches suffer, becoming stilted and bland. … Continue reading →

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France’s “War on Terror”

Posted on 17 November 2010 by craigjameswilly

As is well-known, if the United States of America has something, then France must have it to. So it goes with Revolutions and Republics, atom bombs and aircraft carriers, not to mention flying presidential palaces. So it is, too, with … Continue reading →

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British Europhobes and Van Rompuy’s Speech: What the Man Said vs. What the Trolls Pretended to Hear

Posted on 12 November 2010 by craigjameswilly

Trolls are a fact of life in our media and politics as much as on the internet. The best way for a small-time politician or starving pundit to get attention upon himself, and so “succeed” professionally, is to say something outrageous, regardless of facts … Continue reading →

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New Media vs. The Pope

Posted on 9 November 2010 by craigjameswilly

André-Joseph Léonard, the conservative Catholic Archbishop of Mechelen-Brussels, has been entarté (“pied,” courtesy of our good friends at the WSJ). See the video, already with circa 300,000 views. Meanwhile in Barcelona, Pope Benedict XVI’s speech at the Sagrada Familia cathedral attacking … Continue reading →

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Good Old Fashioned Anarcho-Terrorism

Posted on 6 November 2010 by craigjameswilly

The recent posting of explosive parcels to EU institutions as well Nicolas Sarkozy and Angola Merkel by a Greek left-wing terrorist group has a distinctly retro feel. It’s somewhat reminiscent of the Red terrorism of the 1970s in West Germany and … Continue reading →

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On Chinese Exports: Statism Works

Posted on 6 November 2010 by craigjameswilly

An undervalued yuan, five year plans, State subsidies and tax breaks for national champions, restriction on exporting certain raw materials (needed for manufacture of certain products), cheap loans to selected companies… all are cited as “unfair trade practices” and effective … Continue reading →

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“Any chance we could station the aircraft carrier in the South Atlantic for three months?”

Posted on 4 November 2010 by craigjameswilly

Regarding the much-celebrated recent Anglo-French defense agreement, the Courrier international re-publishes a little English-French guide to atomic cooperation prepared by The Guardian. The Charles de Gaulle now forms part of the British defense plan for las Malvinas. So long as … Continue reading →

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Discrimination in Flanders

Posted on 4 November 2010 by craigjameswilly

A committee of the High Commissioner for Human Rights of the United Nations (a high civil servant’s office, to be distinguished from the UN Human Rights Council, which is in large part composed of Third World dictatorships) has issued a … Continue reading →

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