Flooding in Central Europe

Photos of the terrible weather and its effects.  #13 especially caught my eye.

Ties That Bind: the Czech Republic and West, Texas

Here's a nice story of people helping people in the aftermath of the awful explosion in the little town of West, Texas.

Canada Vs. the UN

I hadn't posted about the kerfuffle in the UN on the upgraded status for the Palestinians, but now I think I have to because Canadian-raised Alessandra just alerted me to a news item with the pleased comment: "Did you hear that the Canadians grew some balls?"  There's no way you can ignore a news item like that!

Quote of the Day: Fools and the Prince of Fools

Via Smaizdata comes this pithy comment translated from the original Czech (this had appeared in a Prague newspaper):

The danger to America is not Barack Obama, but a citizenry capable of entrusting a man like him with the Presidency. It will be far easier to limit and undo the follies of an Obama presidency than to restore the necessary common sense and good judgment to a depraved electorate willing to have such a man for their president. The problem is much deeper and far more serious than Mr. Obama, who is a mere symptom of what ails America. Blaming the prince of the fools should not blind anyone to the vast confederacy of fools that made him their prince. The Republic can survive a Barack Obama, who is, after all, merely a fool. It is less likely to survive a multitude of fools, such as those who made him their president.

Oh, dear.  Is it really that bad? DON'T ANSWER THAT! IT WAS A RHETORICAL QUESTION!

Vaclav Havel and the Politics of Common Decency

Predictably (and more or less understandably), North Korea is all over the news outlets because of the concern of what's going to happen in the aftermath of Kim Jong Il's demise.  Still, it has overshadowed the passing of Havel, a man who did far more good in life.  Two more different leaders could scarcely be imagined.  So I give you a nice write-up of Havel's life and career.  Hail and farewell, sir.  Keep on rockin' in the free world!

Three Timely Books to Read

Since we've been inundated with news and and the analyses thereof ... and because as a professional nerd I always reflexively turn to books:

• The Aquariums of Pyongyang: Ten Years in the North Korean Gulag by Chol-hwan Kang (Basic, 2005). A harrowing memoir of a childhood spent in a prison camp.
• Open Letters: Selected Writings 1965-1990 by Vaclav Havel (Vintage, 1992). A collection of Havel's writing on his journey from dissident playwright to president.
• Hitch-22: A Memoir by Christopher Hitchens (Twelve, 2011).  A memoir that became a valediction.

Ave atque Vale, Vaclav Havel

Havel, Czech dissident playwright and the first president of the Czech Republic after the Velvet Revolution, has died at the age of 75.  Reason magazine has a number of features on Havel.  Oh, and note that Noam Chomsky considers Havel "morally repugnant" -- which means Havel really is all that and a bag of chips.  Hail and farewell, sir, and thank you for your efforts to undo Communism in eastern Europe. 

Quote of the Day: Czech-US Relations

Here's a telling comment by a Czech lawmaker on Obama's approach:

"...the current administration doesn't take the Czech Republic seriously."

Oh, dear.

Life Imitates Geico Commercial: The Gay Caveman

Really?  Well, it's a sensationalist headline at least.

Quirky Euro Files: The "Ladies of the Czech Parliament" Calendar

Heehee!  If you got it, flaunt it!

Quote of the Day: "Never has there been a worse time to be a US ally."

It's no surprise. I've been banging on and on about foreign policy for a while now (just click on the tags "HopeChange Chronicles" and -- duh -- "foreign policy"), and if you want a real MM rant, you'll get one if you ask me about how the Obama Administration treats our friends and allies. His foreign policy seems to be, in a nutshell, "coddle our enemies and screw our friends." It's nonsense on stilts. And horrifically dangerous.

ANYWAY, Daniel Hannan has his own rant this time, and it's a good one. I give you the bit about foreign policy, but you really should read his entire rant.

His fondness for the EU is matched by his disdain for the United Kingdom. It’s not the diplomatic snubs that bother me: the dissing of Gordon Brown, the insulting gifts, the sending back of Winston Churchill’s bust. It’s not even the faux-anger towards the company he insists on calling “British” Petroleum. (No such firm has existed since the merger of BP and Amoco nine years ago. Thirty-nine per cent of BP shares are American-owned, and 40 per cent British-owned. The stricken rig in the Gulf is owned by Transocean, and the drilling was carried out by Halliburton, yet Obama isn’t demanding compensation from either of these American corporations.)

All these things are minor irritants compared to the way the Obama administration is backing Peronist Argentina’s claim to the Falkland Islands – or, as Obama’s people call them, “the Malvinas”. British troops were the only sizeable contingent to support the US in Iraq and Afghanistan. We have fought alongside America in most of the conflicts of the past hundred years. Yet, when the chips are down, Obama lines up with Hugo Chávez and Daniel Ortega against us.

Not that we should feel singled out. The Obama administration has scorned America’s other established friends. It has betrayed Poland and the Czech Republic, whose Atlanticist governments had agreed to accept the American missile defence system at immense political cost, only to find the project cancelled. It has alienated Israel and India. It has even managed to fall out with Canada over its “Buy American” rules and its decision to drill in disputed Arctic waters. Never has there been a worse time to be a US ally.

(How do you manage to tick off Canada, that famously easygoing, friendly nation?)

"Never has there been a worse time to be a US ally"? Never have we needed our friends and allies more.

Hannan, by the way, had backed Obama during the 2008 campaign, but he has since stopped drinking the Kool-Aid. I guess this now means he's a gun-clinging, Bible-thumping, bitter, racist teabagging retrograde hater like the rest of us, heh. (Wake up, rest of you Obamaniac Europeans.)

Here's Hannan's parting shot: "His policies are serving to make his country poorer, less free and less respected. And that is a problem for all of us." No kidding, sir!

The HopeChange Chronicles: Foreign Policy Analysis In 1 Sentence

Here it is, short and sweet:

For the first time in a long time, the president of the United States is not trusted by our allies or feared by our adversaries and is respected by neither.

How often have you heard me saying so?

Human Rights Spotlight: the Geneva Summit

Maggie's Farm offers a reminder that the Geneva Summit is beginning today.

Here is the WSJ blurb about the meeting:

The Geneva Summit -- organized by groups such as U.N. Watch and Freedom House, and chaired by Poland’s Lech Walesa and the Czech Republic’s Vaclav Havel -- will bring together political dissidents from China, Iran and Burma, rights activists for the Tibetan and Uighur peoples, a survivor of the North Korean gulag, plus a former Sudanese slave named Simon Deng who plans to speak about “the gross human-rights abuses by radical jihadists and the Islamic government in Khartoum . . .

I should clarify that the full name of the meeting is the "Geneva Summit for Human Rights, Tolerance, and Democracy." (Yes. Democracy.)

Contrast, my darlings, with the rogues' gallery that is the UN's Human Rights Council.

Quirky Euro Files: Send Your Toy On a Vacation

Here's something cute from the Czech Republic. Well, why not send your teddy bear abroad? It's too expensive to send yourself these days! Do check out some of the adorable photos.

Top 10 Apologies Obama Hasn't Made Yet

Now these are apologies I would not mind hearing. HOPECHANGE!

Nerd Analysis: Thoughts on History and Ideologies

Here's an interesting piece by Michael Zantovsky, colleague of Vaclav Havel and the Czech ambassador to the UK (and previously to the US and Israel). Here is a blurb:

There is no manifest destiny for mankind, no end point, no true ideology, and no salvation on this earth. Civilizations come and go, idols rise and fall, people are born and they die only to make room for later generations. Freedom, for which liberal democracy is a conduit rather than the other way round, can never be assured of its final victory, can never be taken for granted. Its enemies, among which the most insidious reside inside rather than outside us, will always threaten it. Ideologies are the props of history, not the moving forces behind it and certainly not the actors. These are the people. In fact, by trying to channel history into the boundaries of their dogmas and prejudices, ideologies more often hinder history than propel it forward. It is simply not the case, as Hegel thought, that “spirit . . . determines history absolutely, and it stands firm against the chance occurrences which it dominates and exploits for its own purpose.” History, to borrow a phrase from Adam Ferguson, is not a product of human design but of human action. The end of history is the death of the last man.

Um ... Take that, Francis Fukuyama!

Today in History: the 1989 Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia

Your history lesson of the day, kids! The Velvet Revolution began on November 17, 1989, in Prague and led to the overthrow of the Communist regime a month later. Out of it would come Slovakia and the Czech Republic. 1989 was a good year for liberty in Europe as Communism collapsed and the Cold War followed.

Becoming a Free Marketeer in a Communist State: Vaclav Klaus Remembers

Here is an interesting interview with Vaclav Klaus, president of the Czech Republic (and holder of a doctorate in economics). Do see.

Bonus: it's an example of grad school and higher education actually having a great result!

Also see Klaus' comment on the current state of things in the relationship between Brussels and the Czech Republic: "We are importing socialism from the EU." Uh-oh. He doesn't sound at all happy with this, as well he shouldn't.

Euro Notes: Vaclav Klaus, the Last European?

Interesting thoughts on one recalcitrant Czech and the juggernaut of the Lisbon Treaty from a British Euro-skeptic.

The HopeChange Chronicles: Bailing on Missile Defense and Eastern European Allies

UGH! I was all set to rant, but I see that Dignified Rant has the best analysis yet (and best use of Monty Python on the topic) of our utterly feckless and miserably gutless and stupid foreign policy that can't seem to tell friend from foe.

The Czechs and Poles are not happy, and they are quite right. Putin must be grinning like the Cheshire Cat. The timing of all this is simply too much. This administration's foreign policy antics are worse than the Keystone Cops, and they would be uproariously laughable if the stakes weren't so high. I'll even throw a bone to the Cine-Sib and quote Megatron: "This is bad comedy."

UPDATE: More here and here.