CHECK OUT this Pim Fortuyn quote:
….when I am killed or wounded then you (prime minister) are responsible because you give me no protection and you make the atmosphere in this country so poisonous that people want to hurt me….
From a radio broadcast a couple of weeks ago.
UPDATE: A longer version appears at Best of the Web today.
ROD DREHER has a good column on Pim Fortuyn. Excerpt:
“Pim Fortuyn was reacting strongly against a highly organized communal politics,” says Erik Jones, a Netherlands expert at the University of Nottingham. “What he was arguing for was more of a sense of individualism, but within the context of a strong monoculturalism. He argued that the Dutch needed to do away with all this consensus, and just voice their opinions — but to do so within the general framework of Dutch culture.”
To do that, Fortuyn challenged one of the fundamental principles of liberal Dutch culture: Thou shalt not be seen as intolerant. Immigration and immigration-related crime are not new problems in the Netherlands, but the ability to speak openly about it is. For years, the ruling elite, which includes the media, has made discussion of the growing immigration problem taboo, on pain of being branded a crypto-Nazi.
As recently as last week, Fortuyn denounced this paralyzing political correctness, telling an interviewer that “everywhere in Europe, socialists and the extreme left have forbidden the discussion of the problems of multicultural society.” . . .He was right, but it’s in the interest of the political establishment in Europe to demonize challengers like Fortuyn as neo-fascist, thus delegitimating their ideas without having to engage these ideas democratically. A Belgian government official reacted to the Fortuyn murder by cautioning politicians to be more careful about how they campaign — implicitly blaming Fortuyn for his own assassination. This will not last, particularly when the average voters believe people like Fortuyn are a liberating presence in the stultified, statist world of European politics.
ADAM CURRY has Pim Fortuyn-related updates from Amsterdam.
BEFORE YOU START EMAILING, I don’t know any more about this UT football scandal than you do.
THE POWER OF THE BENSKYSPHERE: Yesterday, Alex Bensky wrote: “I wonder if you saw the front page of today’s Times. I’m sure it is sheer coincidence that the photograph illustrating the article on yesterday’s pro-Israel parade happened to have a large pro-Palestinian poster in the foreground. Just luck of the draw, I suppose.” Today, the New York Times issued this correction:
An article yesterday about a parade in Manhattan marking Israel’s 54th anniversary reported that 100,000 people had registered to march and hundreds of thousands more lined Fifth Avenue in support. The article also said that anti-Israel protesters numbered in the hundreds.
A front-page photograph, however, showed the parade in the background, with anti-Israel protesters prominent in the foreground, holding a placard that read, “End Israeli Occupation of Palestine.” Inside the newspaper, a photo of a pro-Israel marcher was outweighed by a larger picture of protesters, one waving a sign that likened Zionism to Nazism.
Although the editors’ intent in each case was to note the presence of opposing sides, the effect was disproportionate. In fairness the total picture presentation should have better reflected The Times’s reporting on the scope of the event, including the disparity in the turnouts.
Coincidence?
Er, almost certainly, actually. But it’s still cool.
CHARLES PAUL FREUND has some keen observations on Pim Fortuyn and his treatment by the press and the European political establishment.
MAHATHIR MOHAMAD UPDATE: A reader writes:
Perhaps Mahathir Mohamad is channeling Jamal al-Din al-Afghani?
“If it is true that the Muslim religion is an obstacle to the development of sciences, can one affirm that this obstacle will not disappear someday? How does the Muslim religion differ on this point from other religions? All religions are intolerant, each one in its way. The Christian religion, I mean the society that follows its inspirations and its teachings and is formed in its image, has emerged from the first period to which I have just alluded; thenceforth free and independent, it seems to advance rapidly on the road of progress and science, whereas Muslim society has not yet freed itself from the tutelage of religion. Realizing, however, that the Christian religion preceded the Muslim religion in the world by many centuries, I cannot keep from hoping that Muhammadan society will succeed someday in breaking its bonds and marching resolutely in the path of civilization after the manner of Western society. No I cannot admit that this hope be denied to Islam.” (“Answer of Jamal al-Din to Renan Journal des Debats, May 18, 1883 in N. R. Keddie, An Islamic Response to Imperialism, p. 183)
Could be. I’m not a historian of Islam, but I know that Muslims have been saying stuff like this for centuries. The depressing thing is, they’ve been saying stuff like this for centuries. Of course, if they’re really 600 years behind what used to be called Christendom, it’s about time for the Renaissance. I’d like that to be true.
READER FREDERICK LARSEN WRITES:
I speak/read Dutch and have been following the murder of Pim Fortuyn in the Dutch newspapers. De Telegraaf (of Amsterdam) is reporting that the alleged murderer is a worker at “Milieu-offensief” (environment offensive is the direct though inadequate translation), an enivronmental activist group that is dissociating itself from him and his actions. It appears that the main push of the group is animal rights and ridding the world of biotech.
The report goes on to quote one of his co-workers (they shared an office) as saying that he worked there 4 days a week, that he had spoken briefly with the accused’s wife last evening who wouldn’t say anything but did have a lawyer with her. They appear to be cooperating in the investigation.
Here’s the link.
Here’s a link to the group’s website.
Don’t know what this all has to do with Pim Fortuyn…..
PIPEBOMBER UPDATE: Jonas Cord has done an investigation into pipebomb suspect Luke Helder, finding information about his taste in music and general worldview:
Before reading the notes left behind with the pipe bombs, I quickly considered that the acts were perpetrated by someone involved in the whole Militia/Turner Diaries/McVeigh crowd. The Punk/Vegan/Rage Against the Machine crowd would seem to have been the starting point of his warped campaign, although I’ve never known these kids to adopt the “do not fear death” attitude expressed in the notes.
Those vegans are killers! Oh well, so long as it wasn’t the Nebraska Guitar Militia.
UPDATE: Sean Hackbarth has more information.
THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT has formally endorsed the individual right to bear arms interpretation of the Second Amendment in two briefs filed with the Supreme Court. And rightly so.
DOCTOR WEEVIL points out that Pim Fortuyn is not the first right-of-center political figure to be murdered in Europe. Not even the first this year: “It’s only been seven weeks since the Red Brigades murdered Marco Biagi, a Berlusconi adviser ‘who had drawn up proposals for dramatic labour reform’ in Italy (to quote the BBC account). So far as I have heard, no one’s been arrested.”
A WHOLE BUNCH OF PEOPLE have written to tell me that today’s is Rachael Klein’s last column. Now Lex Gibson is encouraging people to write her via the address at the bottom of her column (it’s ) and encourage her to start a blog. It’s not the worst idea I’ve heard. Heck, she’s already a blogosphere celebrity, and it wouldn’t be a bad way of boosting her writing career.
SARA RIMENSNYDER offers another reason to love Ozzy Osbourne. Lynne Cheney take note.
Yeah, it’s washed-up-70s-rock-god day here at InstaPundit, apparently.
HMM. Maybe Alice Cooper was right.
ANOTHER SATISFIED CUSTOMER: Reader Jeff Hummer writes:
As is my luck, you put up your newly redesigned Insta-fashions just after I got my original-design Instapundit hat. So, am I “old-skool” now? By the way, I got a date out of the hat I ordered…with a young lady who also reads your site. Turns out she will let me barbecue her a steak if she can bring potato salad (’tis the season).
There are many styles of Insta-Wear,TM and none are obsolete. And if they get you a date, so much the better!
Another reader asked why, in light of an earlier post from today, I don’t sell InstaPundit strappy sandals and glitter panties. Um, if CafePress offered ’em, I probably would.
PIM FORTUYN’S KILLER is being described by Reuters as a vegan animal rights activist. Among his writings is this phrase: “Protecting animals is civilising people, as they say.”
BLOGLAND’S COOLEST STUFF: There’s now an all-new InstaPundit Store featuring merchandise with a new InstaPundit logo that was designed by James Lileks. It doesn’t get any cooler than that here in the Blogosphere!
You can also see it by clicking on the “InstaPundit Store” link to the left — that will take you to a store featuring all of the InstaPundit merchandise. Don’t forget the cool InstaPundit Boxer Shorts!
I don’t know why I get such a kick out of this, but I’m obviously not the only one in Blogland to feel this way.
MEDIA MINDED is tweaking TAPPED.
AN INTERESTING ANALYSIS of Hugo Chavez’s situation, which I found via Howard Owens’ Global News Watch site.
BRENDAN O’NEILL says that Pim Fortuyn was a victim of political hate speech. Dave Kopel says he still is, and he’s not the only one.
ANDREW LONG analyzes the New York Times coverage of Pim Fortuyn and calls it character assassination — not because it’s factually false, but because of the way it’s spun: putting the good stuff way down at the end, and the bogus comparisons to Le Pen up front.
THE NORWEGIAN NOBEL INSTITUTE has announced that it’s not going to revoke Shimon Peres’s Peace Prize:
At its meeting on April 29, 2002, the Norwegian Nobel Committee discussed the many responses it has received concerning recent statements made by certain committee members about Shimon Peres and the Nobel Peace Prize. Norwegian, as well as international news media, have interpreted these statements to mean that the Committee would have wished to revoke the prize awarded to Peres in 1994. This interpretation is not correct.
According to the statutes, the Nobel Prize cannot be revoked. This question has therefore never been an issue for the Norwegian Nobel Committee. This is true also for the many prizes that over the years have been awarded for peace-building efforts in the Middle East. The statements recently made about Shimon Peres and the Nobel Peace Prize have been made on behalf of individual committee members only, and do not reflect the view of the Norwegian Nobel Committee as such.
Sorry guys, but I just don’t care. You’ve blown your credibility completely. Revoke it, don’t revoke it, whatever. There’s more honest judging in the WWF.
UPDATE: Some readers say I’ve blown my credibility by saying WWF instead of the new WWE. But I meant the World Wildlife Federation all along. . . Yeah, that’s it! . . .
THE KEY TO LIFE IS: Strappy sandals? That’s what it says.
A MUSLIM LEADER with a clue! I’m not that much of a fan of Mahathir Mohamad, really, but he’s hit the nail on the head here:
Muslims spent too much time fighting themselves, neglecting the pursuit of knowledge and creation of wealth, said the Malaysian leader, known for his straight-talking ways.
“If I may be permitted to say, we Muslims and our countries are not very Islamic. We cannot even regard each other as brothers,” he said.
“To be very crude the fate of the Muslims of today is of their own making.”
Mahathir said Muslim education had concentrated too much on religious dogma, neglecting worldly subjects such as science, mathematics and philosophy. . . . “They missed the Industrial Revolution completely. And now they are going to miss the Information Age,” said Mahathir, whose country’s economic success is admired in much of the Muslim world.
I wonder how long before we hear this from an Arab head of state.
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