Olivier Travers

Marginal Revolution leads me to this article: "The credit ratings of most rich industrialised countries will come under intense pressure from borrowing to fund age-related expenditure, unless the countries take decisive measures to cut state provision for old age, Standard & Poor’s says. In a report published on Thursday the credit ratings agency says the [...]

Eric Olsen writes this mouthful: "I only care what justifications the twisted mass murderers of innocents and civilians make in terms of how they facilitate intelligence gathering and predicting their behavior – all with an eye toward finding and liquidating them and preventing further attacks. The point isn’t to respond to the accusations and justifications [...]

It’s floating around the Internet, but I had to make sure it wasn’t a joke and recounted. There are indeed 911 days (2 1/2 years) between 9/11/01 and 03/11/04. Considering the kind of sick fuck you need to be to plan and execute such terrorist acts, it wouldn’t surprise me if this was some sort [...]

The Atlantic Monthly: "Mark Bowden, the author of "The Dark Art of Interrogation," on why the practice of coercion is a necessary evil". Interesting interview. I’m especially in agreement with this quote: "[Q] Was it difficult to do that? You’ve written very candidly about torture. And I imagine that some of the people you interviewed, [...]

I just posted a story about the EU’s pretense at collecting VAT from foreign sites that sell digital goods and services, which somehow led me to the dissident frogman, to file along with Merde in France. I’d rejoice if this wasn’t a lost cause. Or rather I should say I decided I had better things [...]

How surprising to see the same old extreme leftists (I saw CNT black and red flags again, like in April last year) demonstrating against the "imperialistic war." Thanks for protecting the right of the Iraqi people to be tortured and oppressed without foreign interference. That’s the kind of "peace" the left is notoriously rooting for. [...]

NYT: "Why replace France with India? Because India is the world’s biggest democracy, the world’s largest Hindu nation and the world’s second-largest Muslim nation, and, quite frankly, India is just so much more serious than France these days. France is so caught up with its need to differentiate itself from America to feel important, it’s [...]

Steven Den Beste and Mark Steyn think France is playing real politik with whatever few cards it has in hands. Hmm, maybe. Don’t suspect malice where there is only stupidity though. I must say, I like this "new Europe" concept. But look at a map, making Europe without France and Germany is a tough call.