Even more than the The Bimbo of Finland, the Finnish Foreign Minister, Erkki Tuomioja, is perhaps the most incompetent Finnish political leader today.

His decision to bar the sale of gas masks to Israel points to an ineptitude in foreign relations that is simply breathtaking.

P.S. Some of the comments in the link really point out how poorly Finns have explained their role in World War 2 to the rest of the world. Doubtlessly the Finnish government's decision to join the festivities in Moscow to mark V-E day will not help the matter.

The news from Iraq just keeps getting better and better.

The number one thing to keep in mind is that if this liberation is a success, - and the evidence seems to point to that - it can and should be repeated in other countries, as well.

How do the welfare states exploit and oppress the world? This is a subject that has manifold aspects to it, and I will have to write and expand on it in sections, time permitting. (In the end, work takes priority).

There are several broad arenas to examine:

1. The exploitative yet dependent relationship welfare states (the EU) have to a group of worker-consumers (the US) that do not have welfare state protections, but who must continue to lack welfare state protections in order to guarantee welfare state protections for the EU.

Contrary to the common impression – that this relationship happened accidentally, and that the exploited quite willingly acceded to their role – it is clear that the European leadership always knew what they were doing, and continue to deceive the European public as to the reality of the relationship.

2. Welfare states have engendered a class system that is controlled by an elite which consciously limits possibilities for class mobility.

Social strata are codified, even if the need for such strata is suspect. Look at the number of farmers that are kept in farms, when there is no need for such numbers. Look at the number of workers that are kept in factories, when there is no need for them anymore. And look at the elite that makes the decisions where everyone is kept, when there is no need for them anymore, either.

In the end, social democracy is a benign form of communism, but perhaps because it is so benign it is more insidious than communism.

3. Welfare states burn up the wealth and resources of the world, without giving anything of equal or of enhanced value back in return.

Shorter working hours and leisurely living arrangements of welfare states are touted as a value and a resource, but they are completely lost hours and lost resources, as they produce nothing of real value that can be shared with the rest of the world. Those values are also guaranteed at the expense of the Third World, who wind up being the biggest losers, if welfare states are the winners. Contrast that to the US worker, who works longer hours, and shares more of the wealth and knowledge created from that labor with the rest of the world, - than the EU is ever willing to do.

4. Welfare states spread their statist ideology to Third World entities without regard to the harm it causes.

The reason they do this is simply to guarantee their own survival against the free market model. Never mind that the resultant poverty winds up causing more havoc than they are able to deal with. Foreign aid is a proven disaster; foreign trade a proven success.

5. Welfare state justifications for their own existence have created a culture of moral relativism that provides the greatest support for ideologies that spawn terrorism.

In the end, even the 9/11 attacks can be ideologically traced to European welfare state academia.

All good reasons to work for the destruction of the welfare states of Europe, including that of Finland.

Look at the difference between the way these two Finnish news outfits report on the same bit of news:

The anti-American Helsingin Sanomat reports that Prime Minister Vanhanen used a conference in Brussels to chide the EU for a lack of cooperation, while the more staid SST, Finland’s News Service, reports that Vanhanen also called for more European cooperation with the US, a fact totally omitted by Helsingin Sanomat.

Quite frankly, I would oppose Vanhanen’s call since, as an American, I oppose any cooperation with the freeloading welfare states of Europe, and would support their destruction. But it is ironic that welfare statists would work against that entity (the US) that is their main financial support.

Given such obtuse thinking, the prospect for bringing about their destruction is not as far-fetched as one might think.

Well, that’s a relief. The Bimbo of Finland has announced that Finland won’t play nanny to the Baltic states.

But let’s analyze this a bit further. It is obvious that it’s in Russia’s interests to have the Baltics take on the same kind of subservient role Finland has made world-famous, in finlandization. Can The Bimbo’s gesture, therefore, be construed as an act of charity to the Baltics?

Of course not. The Finnish political establishment has sought to distance itself from the New European states as much as possible, not only because they don’t like the way these states assert themselves against Russia, but because these states pose a threat to the high tax welfare-state regimes of Old Europe, the ideology of which Finland is more aligned with.

Thus we can be assured that Finland would never go up to bat to defend the new democracies emerging from the Soviet empire. And this presents an interesting question: would Finland condone Russian pressure on these countries, simply because they also present a threat to Old European interests?

All of which makes the notion of Finnish NATO membership a bad idea. Despite claims to support "international" law and trans-national principles, Finns are way too cowardly to take a stand when a stand has to be taken. And when they are not cowardly, they can be very conniving. They might preach the morals of democracy, but when it comes down to basics, they will never be prepared to defend them.

The Bimbo’s statement is simply a reflection of the myriad ways Finnish hypocrisy gets rationalized.

The one single aspect of European welfare states that has to be kept in mind is that it is inherently dependent on exploitation of a set of worker-consumers... that do not have welfare state protections, namely, the American worker-consumer. This exploitation happens in the form of an export surplus in Europe's favor which, in effect, provides the crucial financing that keeps the welfare state solvent.

Should Americans institute a welfare state tomorrow, and raise taxes to a necessary rate to support that kind of state, the European welfare states would not be able to support themselves economically. For the purchasing power of the American consumer - which exists only because the American worker-consumer gets taxed so little compared to the European worker - is what maintains the European welfare state.

Thus the European welfare state is inherently exploitative. However, this reality is always soft-pedaled, and Europeans constantly try to use ruses to portray the welfare state as benign. Witness all the peace-initiatives, and all the advocacy for foreign aid (when dropping welfare-state tariffs are much more effective in helping the developing world). And, of course, the use of the best weapon of all: America-bashing.

Yet it is the greed and stingyness of the welfare state that is more exploitative in the world. America redistributes wealth on a massive scale (hundreds of millions of Chinese have been lifted out of poverty, thanks to the American worker-consumer). The European welfare state economy, on the other hand, consumes most all of its surplus wealth on its own people.

The truth is hard to bear, for welfare-statists. That is why thinking along these lines tends to be actively suppressed in Europe

Oh, no! The Bimbo of Finland is up for another job! This time with the OECD.

Can't this moralizing idiot be kept president in isolated, evil little Finland? Must the entire world have to endure her lame-brained, equivocating ineptitude?

For a while I thought that we were safe from her influence, as Finland is thankfully not a part of NATO. But if she gets access to other "international" organizations... perish the thought!

Barcepundit is following a story about a Spanish sale of chemical weapons to Venezuela.

As soon as the socialists were in, the Spanish government started courting dictatorships.

Figures.

A small statement from this blog entry about Bobbie Fischer simply jumped out at me.

"Iceland granted Fischer a passport in recognition of his 1972 triumph, and Japan let him go willingly enough. But Iceland has an extradition treaty with the United States, so he may not be free for long. And even if the State Department relents, it probably won't take Fischer much time to wear out his welcome in Iceland. He is greedy, uncouth, paranoid, anti-Semitic, anti-social and probably schizophrenic. He made obscene, jubilant anti-American radio broadcasts in the Philippines after 9/11, and has had the fillings removed from his teeth to prevent them from being used as mind-control receptors. Despite (or because of) his 180 IQ, he relies on sycophants to manage daily life, but inevitably denounces them in the end. It won't take him long to turn the boreal statelet into just another self-constructed prison."

Hell of a guy. But it probably won't take long for some European nutjob to claim that Bobbie Fischer was used by the US to try to discredit anti-American conspiracy theorists...

Here's one German Green who comes pretty close to that.

Arthur Chrenkoff provides a roundup of the good news coming from Iraq.

Most all of this never gets reported in pro-Saddam Finland, of course.

More evidence that Finland is firmly in the clasp of Old Europe. Finland's alignment with the Franco-German conspiracy to have social welfare state ideology dominate all of Europe is a given. (All the more reason to oppose Finland at every turn, and work against Finnish interests.)

It remains to be seen whether the New European countries of eastern Europe can have much of a rehabilitating effect in Europe. Their market-friendly taxation policies should certainly be emulated. But most likely the seductive power of EU subsidies will lull them into co-dependency, until they, too, are sucked into the system.

As to Iraq and the Middle East, I am astounded how well things are developing there. Almost all of the goals of the neo-con strategy are being met. Just think of it! Democracy is taking root, with ripple effects throughout the region. Israel is becoming less of a focus for Arab obsessions, given the spectacle of the Iraqi elections. And the terrorists are now doing what they always preached they would never do: kill fellow Muslims, - a fact not lost on the Arab world.

And that's where the fault always was in the first place: within Arab Muslim society, and not in Israel, or America. It'll take time, but the signs of Arab weariness at their own ineptitude is growing.

What a brilliant strategy!

Roger L. Simon has been following the UN Oil-for-Food scandal closely, and thinks that the investigation is being soft-pedaled.

The scandal receives scant coverage in Europe, of course. But it is clear that Saddam's bribes under the UN's auspices was a major factor in shaping the French and German governments' anti-war stance. All of that tends to get ignored now in Finnish and European media.