• When Sandra and I went to the Christmas Market on the lower half of the Champs-Elysees last (Friday) night, we saw something that we definitely didn’t see a year ago: Army patrols, in groups of three, carrying automatic weapons. And that in addition to police patrols.
• We also saw and heard from our hotel room — both yesterday and today — a lot of police vehicles (motorcycles, cars, vans) going up and down the C-E. One went by, siren cycling, as I typed this.
• This afternoon, when I went out to start my interviews, the location I had picked out earlier in the day was now crowded, with bystanders watching a large contingent of police — both uniformed (in light riot gear) and plainclothed — questioning a succession of people — all black males — and detaining a number of them, making them empty their pockets and get into one of several parked police vans.
• Later that afternoon, while I was still out soliciting interviews, I was approached by an American couple looking for their hotel (which happened to be the same as ours). They said that they had walked down from the Arc de Triomphe, where there appeared to be two different protests going on: one that he said looked like the ‘Occupy’ protests in the US, and the other comprising what appeared to be all blacks.

Sandra and I were actually up by the Arc de Triomphe this morning — largely to go to the Metro station there — and while the area was crowded, we didn’t see any protests. (We did see, however, quite a few young people blantatly jumping the turnstiles in the Metro.) I can’t find anything on the newswires, either about the protests or about why security would be ramnped up right now, but there you have it. ..bruce w..

I did get two interviews. In two hours. Plus one bit of pungent walk-by commentary. I’ll chronicle the whole effort later, but here’s the feedback from today.

Thomas — in his 30s, and looking like a classic clean-cut-with-stubble French professional — described himself as ‘not a typical Parisian’, though he never quite explained what that meant. His general view of the Euro crisis that of running towards a cliff: everything’s fine until you hit the edge, and then ‘boom’. He focused mostly on the cultural differences between the Germans and everyone else — in particular, getting the Germans to share anyone else’s point of view or to acknowledge that there might be a better or at least different way. As he put it, the Germans are great marketers, but after a while they begin to believe their own marketing, and so does everyone else.

He also drew another interesting comparison between the Germans and the French. He said (again paraphrasing) that Germans resist any change, but when they are finally convinced that change is necessary, they go through a period of upheaval (Thomas said “chaos”) and then make real, substantive change. By contrast, he said, the French are always willing to tweak and adjust, but they never seem to make the fundamental, ground-up changes that are needed.

Finally, Thomas seemed to be genuinely torn between admitting that the Germans pretty much are correct in needed to be fiscally responsible and at the same time wondering if the cure is going to simply make things worse. Thomas used the analogy of a starter (by which I believe he meant the choke) on an older car — that if the engine is really cold, you need to pull the starter out to get the engine started. But he also acknowledged that the rest of Europe had been continuing to drive with the starter pulled out, and that this wasn’t very good for the engine.

As far as the ultimate fate of the Euro and possiby the European Union itself, Thomas acknowledged that the risks and dangers are there, but said, “At the end of the day, we have no choice — they will have to work this out.”

A while after I spoke with Thomas, a tall, dishevled man stood a ways off and read my sign. He then walked towards me, laughing, though not in a friendly way. As he passed close to me, he gave me the bird and said, walking away behind me, “America is the problem, not Europe. F**king America, f**king dollar…” More than that, I could not make out, due to the noise of the area.

My other real interview of the afternoon was Matthieu, who looked to be in his 20s and of Asian descent. Matthieu, who said he worked at a bank, felt that the origin of the current EU crisis was the American banking (by which I think he meant financial) system itself. In effect, he said that American financial firms were (for a while) so successful at getting higher and higher returns on investment that European banks felt they could and should do the same, instead of remaining conservative and content with lower returns on lower risks. In particularly, he was critical of ‘state’ banks that try to compete with private banks but can’t, really.

Interestingly, as for sovereign debt, Matthieu actually saw the American debt problem as the bigger crisis. He felt that a major financial downturn by the EU would weaken it but not have a lot of impact outside of Europe, while a similar financial collapse by the US would seriously impact the rest of the world. He also had serious concerns about China, where (as he put it) the rulers are rich but everyone else is poor, and that the governmnet is having a hard time managing that.

Next post: why it took me two hours to get two interviews today. ..bruce w..

There’s a late session tonight (with James Lileks, Andew Klavan, and S. E. Cupp), but I’m frankly worn out by the steady roll of the ship (due to steady 30+ knot winds blowing from the east) and we’ve got an 8:30 snorkling excursion in the morning (we arrive at Grand Turk around 7 am). I may yet run down to listen a bit, but I’m whipped. ..bruce..

…you probably just didn’t expect it to be so well done. Hat tip to American Digest. ..bruce w..

What Hitler is currently being quoted as saying:

“We must close union offices, confiscate their money and put their leaders in prison. We must reduce workers salaries and take away their right to strike”
- Adolf Hitler, May 2, 1933

Problem is, as far as anyone can tell, Hitler never said that. On the other hand, and in all fairness, he (or his officials) did co-op and then abolish the existing trade unions, and at that point in time, mostly because he saw them as a threat to Nazi power. They were eventually replaced by the German Labor Front (Deutsche Arbeitsfront, DAF):

Soon after the NSDAP came to power in 1933, all trade unions and worker organizations were declared illegal and the DAF was setup in their place as the sole labour organization of the German Reich. The concept of the DAF was to ensure the political stability and smooth operations of all German industry and commerce. It was through the use of mass organization, much like all other NSDAP-era organizations, that labour was to be formed into a single militarized group where “…a certain amount of well supervised misery, combined with daily work begun with drums beating and ended with drums beating…” would be used to solidify the labour front of the German Nation.

Membership in the DAF was voluntary, but any person who was a worker in any area of German industry or commerce more-or-less was a member by default. Membership dues were given in the range of 15 Pfenning to 3 RM, depending on the catagory a member fell into in the large scale of 20 membership groups. A substantial amount of money was raised through dues, in 1934, the total intake was 300,000,000 RM.

The DAF was composed of two main areas, the Nationalsozialistische Betriebsorganization, or National Socialist Factory Organization (NSBO) and the Nationalsozialistische Handels und Gewerbeorganization, or Natational Socialist Trade and Industry Organization (NSHABO).

Another major part of the DAF was the KdF, or Kraft durch Freude – Strength through Joy. This organization, as a subset of the DAF, was tasked with providing activities such as trips, cruises, concerts, and cultural activities for the German workers. These events were specifically directed towards the working class and it was through the KdF that the NSDAP hoped to bring to the “common man” the pleasures once reserved only for the rich. By opening the door for the working class to easily and affordably take part in activities once reserved only for the rich, it was hoped that the labor force could be lulled into being more flexible and productive. One of the most famous aspects of this were the numerous trips and cruises provided by the huge fleet of ocean-going liners controled by the DAF/KdF, such ships as the Wilhelm Gustloff, Robert Ley, and many others. The Volkswagon was also a partial product of the DAF/KdF organization as well.

Hitler, having co-opted the unions, turned his attention on business:

The business men, who had been so enthusiastic over the smashing of the troublesome labor unions, now found that left-wing Nazis, who really believed in the party’s socialism, were trying to take over the employers’ associations, destroy the big department stores [shades of Wal-Mart], and nationalize industry. Thousands of ragged Nazi Party officials descended on the business houses of those who had not supported Hitler, threatening to seize them in some cases, and in others demanding well-paying jobs in management. Dr. Gottfried Feder, the economic crank, now insisted that the [Nazi] party program be carried out — nationalization of big business, profit sharing, and abolition of unearned income and “interest slavery”. As if this were not enough to frighten the businessmen, Walther Darre, who had just been named Minister of Agriculture, threw the bankers into jitters by promising a big reduction in the capital debts of the farmers [shades of mortgage write-downs] and a cut in the interest rate on what remained to 2% [ditto].

– The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany, William A. Shirer, Simon & Shuster (New York, 1960), Volume I, pp. 203-204.

Note that Hitler also hated state governments and stripped them and their separate legislatures of all power:

Thus, within a fortnight of receiving full powers from the Reichtag, Hitler had … abolished the separate powers of the historic states and made them subject to the central authority of the Reich, which was in his hands. . . . “Popular assemblies” of the states were abolished, the sovereign powers of the states were transferred to the Reich, all state governments were placed under the Reich government, and the state governors were placed under the the administration of the Reich Minister of the Interior. As this Minister, Frick, explained it, “The state governments from now on are merely administrative bodies of the Reich.”

– Shirer, p. 200.

Contrary to the manufactured quote above, Hitler was focused on jobs and on improving the lot of workers:

“History will not judge us according to whether we have removed and imprisoned the largest number of economists, but according to whether we have succeeded in providing work.” [Hitler to the the Nazi state governors, July 6, 1933]

– Shirer, p. 206

And within a few years he had succeeded:

“…a newly arrived observer [Shirer himself moved to Germany in 1934] was somewhat surprised to see that the people of the country did not seem to feel that they were being cowed and held down by an unscrupulous and brutal dictatorship. On the contrary, they supported it with genuine enthusiasm. Someone it imbued them with a new hope and a new confidence and an astonishing faith in the future of their country.

Hitler was liquidating the past, with all its frustrations and disappointments. Step by step, and rapidly…he was freeing Germany from the shackles of Versailles, confounding the victorious Allies and making Germany militarily strong again. This is what most Germans wanted and they were willing to make the sacrifices which the Leader demanded of them to get it: the loss of personal freedom, a Spartan diet (“Guns before Butter”) and hard work. By the autumn of 1936 the problem of unemployment had largely been licked*, almost everyone had a job again and one heard workers who had been deprived of their trade union rights joking, over their full dinner pails, that at least under Hitler there was no more freedom to starve. “Gemeinnutz vor Eigennutz!” (The Common Interest before Self!) was a popular Nazi slogan in those days, and though many a party leader, Goering above all, was secretly enriching himself and the profits of business were mounting, there was no doubt that the masses were taken in by the new “national socialism” which ostensibly put the welfare of the community above one’s personal gain.

* From February 1933 to the spring of 1937, the number of registered unemployed fell from six million to less than one million.

– Shirer, pp. 231-232 [Footnote in original]

Oh, and contrary to the repeated assertions of Nazi Germany being a Christian nation:

Not many Germans lost much sleep over the arrests of a few thousand pastors and priests [by the Nazi government] or over the quarreling of the various Protestant sects. And ever fewer paused to reflect that under the leadership of Rosenberg, Bormann and Himmler, who were backed by Hitler, the Nazi regime intended eventually to destroy Christianity in Germany, if it could, and substitute the old paganism of the early tribal Germanic gods and the new paganism of the Nazi extremists. As Bormann, one of the men closest to Hitler, said publicly in 1941, “National Socialism and Christianity are irreconcilable.”

– Shirer, p. 240

So: nationalize unions, nationalize businesses, eliminate large department stories, mandate profit sharing of corporations, force banks to write down loan principles and lower interest rates, disband state legislatures, make state governments mere appendages to a strong central National government, put the common interest above self-interest, have Party leaders enrich themselves while promoting socialism among their followers, and control or eliminate all Christian churches. Who does that sound like? The Tea Party?

Note that in Mein Kampf, Hitler had good things to say about unions:

“In the present state of affairs I am convinced that we cannot possibly dispense with the trades unions. On the contrary, they are among the most important institutions in the economic life of the nation. Not only are they important in the sphere of social policy but also, and even more so, in the national political sphere. For when the great masses of a nation see their vital needs satisfied through a just trade unionist movement the stamina of the whole nation in its struggle for existence will be enormously reinforced thereby.”

– Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf, Volume II, Chapter XII

Time and again, the Left invents false quotes, mostly because history is not on their side. ..bruce w..
[Cross-posted over at Ace of Spades]

The two right columns are mine, but they're just math.

Earlier today, a good friend of mine cited the Federal budget surpluses at the end of the Clinton Administration as an argument for higher taxes. I pointed out that if we had the same Federal budget as Clinton did, we’ve have a surplus, too. Then I put together this chart from a spreadsheet downloaded directly from a US Government website, though the percentage growth and overage columns are my addition.

Put simply, from 1999 to 2010, the US population grew by 10% and inflation reduced the value of the dollar by about 30%. Combine those two, and Federal spending should have gone up roughly 43% over that period. Instead, it went up 135%, or three times what it should have. Setting aside some of the bailouts, etc., that are in the budget, it’s still clear that almost every Federal line item went up at least twice what it should have during that period. Almost nothing (other than “general government”) grew a “mere” 43%.

I fully blame Bush and the 2002-2006 Republicans as much as I blame Obama and the 2006-2010 Democrats. The real question is whether the 2010 Republicans have the brains and the will to turn back the tide.  ..bruce w..

Hat tip to Gerard Van der Leun at American Digest. ..bruce w..

Something to keep in mind as the economy struggles and the government bungles.  ..bruce w..

Gerard Van der Leun over at American Digest posted the poster above.

As for me and my house, well, here’s a photo of our place from Earth Hour 2009:

Repeat and rinse.  ..bruce w..

…but only because Stupak caved. And for what? A meaningless Presidential declaration and $726,409 in airport grants. Once again, I am reminded of “A Man for All Seasons“:

MORE:  I have one question to ask the witness. (RICH stops) That’s a chain of office you are wearing. (Reluctantly RICH faces him) May I see it? (NORFOLK motions him to approach. MORE examines the medallion) The red dragon. (To CROMWELL) What’s this?

CROMWELL:  Sir Richard is appointed Attorney-General for Wales.

MORE:  (Looking into RICH’S face, with pain and amusement) For Wales? Why, Richard, it profits a man nothing to give his soul for the whole world . . . But for Wales! (Exit RICH, stiff-faced, but infrangibly dignified)

Sen. Ben Nelson is probably thanking his lucky stars tonight that someone else will now get the blame for Obamacare.

As for me, well, I plan to spend several thousand dollars between now and November helping to defeat the Democrats who voted for this abomination.

UPDATED (03/22/2010 — 1222 MDT)

And I’ve started. I’ve sent $100 to Dr. Dan Benishek, who’s running against Stupak (thanks to Daniel Blatt over at GayPatriot for the pointer as well as to the link my ‘Stupak caves’ post). I even gritted my teeth and donated $200 to the GOP’s “Fire Pelosi” campaign. (The teeth-gritting is not because I don’t want to see Pelosi out as Speaker, but because I fear the GOP will find some way to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.)  ..bruce w..