Saudis: No minimum age for marriage

So said Saudi marriage officiant Dr. Ahmad al-Mu’bi last week on Lebanese television.

“You can have a marriage contract even with a 1-year-old girl, not to mention a girl of 9, 7 or 8,” he said. “But is the girl ready for sex or not?” What is the appropriate age for sex for the first time? This varies according to environment and tradition,” al-Mu’bi said.

Is a girl of 9, 7, or 8 ready for sex?!  NO!  Not in any environment.  Not according to any respectable tradition.  It’s called pedophilia, and if it’s your cultural practice, you should be invaded and overthrown.

Don’t tempt us.

Green Like Gore, Green Like Europe, Goodbye Planet

Via Instapundit.

These days, with environmentalism elevated to the status of a new age religion, it’s hard to fight the central dogma surrounding climate change and still be heard at all with respect to the environment.  To the True Believers, those of us who, like me, don’t believe that man-made CO2 is causing global warming, cannot, by definition, be environmentalists.

I suggest that those in my situation read Hard Green: Saving the Environment from the Environmentalists, a book written by engineer, attorney, entrepreneur, and all-around genius, Peter Huber.  Huber points out the stark distinction between mushy-headed, misanthropic, anti-corporation, unscientific, earthy-crunchy, Environmentalist True Believers and those he calls “hard greens,” who focus on sound science and (especially) economics, free-market solutions to environmental problems, and common-sense conservation. 

The book came out a while ago, but its content is becoming increasingly relevant, as it’s becoming increasingly obvious that the current leaders of the environmental movement are leading us into economic turmoil for exactly no environmental benefit.  Europe, smug, snarky, and supercilious about its efforts to curb CO2 emissions and the US’s refusal to sign Kyoto, is emitting more CO2 while US emissions have fallen.  Al Gore, king environmental blowhard, was exposed as an energy glutton and promptly gave his mansion a green makeover.  The result?  He now uses more energy than ever.

The left has dropped the ball on the environment.  If the right is smart, they’ll pick it up and run with it.  Unfortunately, that’s about as likely as Al Gore practicing what he’s preaching.

Lay. Off. The Pot.

There are kooks in every country, and I usually just try to ignore them, but this is too perfect.

Apparently, thousands of Dutch are preparing for the end of the world (it’s nigh, according to the Mayan calendar, which ends in 2012).  I’m not surprised to see broad support for end-of-the-world scenarios, no matter how obscure, but individual responsibility is like a dirty word here, and fatalism is the national religion, so I am surprised that these folks are making preparations.  The really Dutch thing to do is believe that the world is ending, but shrug it off, light a joint, and wait for the end.

It is kind of adorable that the emergency supplies include life rafts, though.  To the Dutch, the world is always in danger of sinking.  In any emergency, step one is to grab your boat or life raft.  I think this pervasive fear is the real reason why the Dutch are so tall - they’re so afraid of flooding that height has gained added influence as a factor in sexual selection.

Alan West Calls Obama Out on Race Relations

Via Gateway Pundit.

My husband has been raving about Lt. Col Alan West, U.S. Army (Ret.), a candidate for Congress in Florida’s 22nd district, since he stumbled on this video of West on the stump.

He made me watch the video, and I was duly impressed, but I was even more impressed with the statement he issued to Senator Obama with respect to the role of race in the presidential election.  The conclusion, thanking Obama for setting American race relations back 30 years, is refreshing in its brutal honesty.

EU Doesn’t Even Pretend to Respect Democracy

It appears that I was right to be concerned about the EU overruling the Irish “no” vote on the Lisbon treaty.

European leaders met last Thursday to discuss how to proceed.  They apparently concluded that the solution is to lay the effort on Ireland’s lap, and push them to make the “correct” choice.

This is my favorite part:

The European Commission president, José Manuel Barroso, said he had assured Prime Minister Brian Cowen that Ireland would be given time to plan for and hold a new vote.

How kind of the EU to generously allow the Irish government plenty of time to subvert the express wishes of its public, and undermine the very foundation of its democracy.  It’s sad that Europe, the cradle of democracy, isn’t even paying lip service anymore.

A Day of Mourning for the Dutch

Hup Holland no more.  After overcoming tremendous odds to trounce the French and the Italians, the Dutch lost to Russia 1-3 last night in the UEFA European Football Championship quarterfinals.  On one hand, I feel bad for the Dutch fans who had their high hopes dashed.  On the other, they’re crazy obnoxious, and I’m glad to be done with the hours of air horns, car horns, screaming, swearing, and general nonsense.  I generally enjoy fans who really get into the spirit of things, but over here the soccer fans were as rabid as any I’ve seen.  During game 1 they were acting like Americans would if their team were in the Super Bowl.  I can’t even imagine what life would be like if they made it to the final game.

Drill. Mine. Nuke. Fix the Grid. And Hurry.

So gas is at $4.00 a gallon.

Cry me a river.

With the dollar’s slide and the rise in oil prices, I just filled up at $9.52/gallon here in The Netherlands.  And guess what?  That’s not enough to get me out of the car and onto a bicycle, despite the fantastic bike infrastructure here (bike lanes with their own lights, tons of bike racks, favorable right-of-way rules, etc.).  I’d like to think that if it rained less, I might bike, but I think the plain truth is that I’m too spoiled by the American way of doing things.  It’s just way more convenient to drive, and I think I can say with confidence that lefty hopes of high gas prices changing American driving habits are just pipe dreams.

So what else do they have to offer in the marketplace of ideas?  Corn ethanol and other food-to-fuel solutions have blown up in the left’s face.  True, there are still a few options in the biomassarena, but probably it’s too early to seed the lawn with switchgrass.  Wind power is inefficient and unreliable.  Solar technology has seen some recent advances and is becoming a great supplemental energy source, helpful for hot water systems and reducing heating bills.  But it’s not going to make a dent in oil demand anytime soon.  Basically, that’s the story of the left’s energy policy.

 So what solutions does the right have to offer?

Jonah Goldberg recently had a great articlein Townhall debunking the notion that drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge would spoil its “pristine” beauty and rob it of the sanctity that environmentalists have tried to bestow on what they consider hallowed ground.  The truth, as Goldberg so aptly points out, is that the proposed drilling area is a frozen, barren wasteland whose only nearby residents are a few hardy knuckleheads that favor drilling.  Even most of the animals have enough sense to choose more habitable parts of the ANWR.

Goldberg is not alone.  All across the blogosphere, conservatives are calling for  more drilling.  Now even President Bush is calling for a lift on the offshore drilling ban.

Domestic drilling is a good first step, but alone it’s probably not enough to substantively reduce oil prices.  Chinese and Indian demand for oil has continued to grow even as oil prices have risen precipitously.  Much of this demand is attributable to the rise in car ownership, but rapid industrialization also plays a significant part.  China and India are hungry for oil, specifically, but also for energy, period.

Right-wingers serious about energy independence and some clear-headed environmentalists are championing the idea of plug-in hybrids affixed to a grid powered by nuclear energy.  Although dramatic advances in nuclear technology promise clean, safe, cheap electricity in the future, nukes won’t get us out of our current pinch, because building reactors takes time, and it yields a net loss of energy in the short term.  Even worse, our old, leaky, unreliable electric grid is probably not capable of handling the extra demand resulting from widespread use of plug-in hybrids.

All of this boils down to one really simple idea: we need to start utilizing all of the energy resources available to us, and we need to do it right now, before inflation tears our economy apart and Saudi petrodollar-funded jihad kills any more of our citizens.  Tap domestic oil reserves.  Build new nuclear power plants.  Use clean coal technology as a stop-gap until the nukes are online.  Update the power grid so that the power actually gets to our homes when we need it.  Doing some of those things is not enough.  We must do them all, and we must do them now.

Ingratitude for the Greatest Generation

As the another anniversary of D-Day came and went, I was reminded again of the courage and sacrifice of those who fought in WWII, including my grandfather, who fought in the Battle of the Bulge.  The enormity of their commitments never really sunk in, though, until I visited the beaches of Normandy last year.  Standing on the beaches they assaulted, looking at the cliffs they scaled, examing the German entrenchments and fortifications that opposed them, calculating the compounding improbabilities they faced - I couldn’t help but think it’s a wonder that any of the allies survived D-Day.  That they succeeded against all odds is a testament to courage and capability to which I can only aspire.

And it was easy to see that my thoughts were shared by most of the visitors.  Americans, Brits, and Canadians gazed at the water with somber faces, envisioning the landing craft being tossed around by fire and waves, or maybe picturing the blood-stained sand and water.  At the top of the Pointe-du-hoc, reverent members of a Japanese tour group took turns bowing, some of them clearly praying.  With very few exceptions, visitors spoke in the hushed tones appropriate for the place.

In stark contrast, many French locals were picnicing on the very cliffs and beaches where our grandfathers fought and died.  Their children were laughing and running around, skipping stones into the water, and building castles on the beach.  On one hand, I’m glad that they have the freedom to be so carefree.  On the other, their conduct was appalling.

Startled by this behavior, my travelling companions and I looked more closely for signs of French gratitude, and what we found was its conspicuous absence.  Monuments, plaques, and memorials all bore signs indicating private funding by US, Canadian, or British groups.  The Canadian cemetary we visited is funded and maintained by the Canadian goernment.  The huge American cemetary (pictured above) is funded and maintained by the American government.  Sights that did appear to be managed by the French flew the German flag with equal prominence as the Allies’, and one sight, pictured below, wasn’t bothering to fly any flags at all.

So I wasn’t surprised to see this article describing the felling of the historic WWII ”name trees” in Normandy.  I don’t blame the private owner for cutting down the trees instead of paying the huge cost of pruning them, but I do blame the government for forcing his hand.

Surely, there must be a lot of good-will and gratitude on the part of French individuals.  But where is the outcry against those who lack it?  Why is the government so willing to forget that they owe their freedom and prosperity to the sacrifice and largesse to the greatest generation?  Just as the tides are erasing the artificial port at Arromanches, the French government seems keen on erasing the memories of WWII.

 

A Victory for Popular Sovereignty

You can count on the Irish to call a spade a spade.

Irish voters have soundly rejected ratification of the Lisbon treaty, foiling the plans of the powers-that-be, who would have crammed the EU constitution down their public’s throats despite their vociferous objections.  The proposed constitution was rejected in 2005 by public referenda in France and The Netherlands, but let it never be said that European governments seek the consent of the governed.  Apparently, the “democracy” in “social democracy” is really just a metaphor.  After all, who would heed the wishes of the unwashed masses?

So the Eurocrats put their shiny noggins together, and came up with the Lisbon treaty, which they claimed was a reform treaty only, and not a resurrection of the failed constitution treaty - even though 96% of the constitution treaty was contained therein.  Under this guise, the French and the Dutch started forcing it through their legislatures for ratification, not trusting their publics to fall for the gimmick.  Luckily, the Irish constitution requires public referenda for the ratification of most EU treaties, and the Irish didn’t buy what Brussels was selling.

Czech President Vaclav Klaus, who totally rocks, called the no vote a ”victory of freedom and reason over artificial elitist projects and European bureaucracy.”  Have I mentioned that I love this guy?

There is reason to worry that the victory may be short-lived, however.  As happened with the 2001 Nice treaty, the Irish may be pressured to keep voting until they get it right.  Fortunately, the Czechs assume the rotating EU Council Presidency in January 2009, and they are likely to use their 6-month term to advocate against a third attempt at ratification.  Hopefully, their influence will be felt more strongly than the nons, nees, and nos of the European public.

Bring On The Caning

For a country that has perfected Nanny Statism, The Netherlands is paradoxically libertarian when it comes to children.  While doing some research for another piece, I found this article in The Independent gushing about Dutch-style child rearing, and it made me throw up in my mouth, just a little bit.

“Let them be free” is the golden rule for child-rearing in the Netherlands.

And how.

Dutch children as young as 6 and 7 are free to roam through heavy traffic unchaperoned and helmetless on their bicycles and (for teens) mopeds.

They are free to ignore the bike lanes and ride four abreast on the sidewalk, bowling over little old ladies.

They are free to scream, throw things, get in the way, and generally misbehave in public places.

They are free to toddle behind my car when I’m reversing in a parking lot.

They are free to graffiti and litter.

They are free to loiter outside of my house at all hours.

They are free to smoke up or have sex in the bushes at the public park.

What’s sad is that Chomps is more concerned about these kids and their activities than their parents apparently are.  He’s broken up more than one teen aged couple having sex in the park, which is pretty hilarious to watch.  Nothing says “SURPRISE!” like a 90 pound Doberman.

You can find bad parents, spoiled kids, and obnoxious teens in any country of the world, so it’s certainly not limited to The Netherlands, but I’ve never seen such widespread nonchalance in the face of so much atrocious behavior.  In fact, when children here behave badly in public, the parents can usually be found about 20 feet away, either laughing at, or ignoring their antics.

I guess it’s the schools’ job to turn these miscreants into human beings - just a byproduct of the Nanny State mentality after all.