"Spiritual oasis" in Poland: exorcism center to open in Poczernin

Andrzej Trojanowski, a polish priest, plans to open an exorcism center close to the German border, in Poczernin, 30km to the east of the Baltic city of Szczeczins. Supported by the local archbishop and by the Vatican, Rev. Trojanowsk is hopping to help a growing number of Polish possessed by evil forces or the devil. There are currently 50 exorcists operating in Poland.
I would rather see them dealing with Mr Jaruzelski...

There's no way like the American way

"Nobody's safe. That's the warning from the first large-scale study of medical bankruptcy.
Health insurance? That didn't protect 1 million Americans who were financially ruined by illness or medical bills last year.
A comfortable middle-class lifestyle? Good education? Decent job? No safeguards there. Most of the medically bankrupt were middle-class homeowners who had been to college and had responsible jobs -- until illness struck.
As part of a research study at Harvard University, our researchers interviewed 1,771 Americans in bankruptcy courts across the country. To our surprise, half said that illness or medical bills drove them to bankruptcy. So each year, 2 million Americans -- those who file and their dependents -- face the double disaster of illness and bankruptcy." (in washingtonpost.com)

And now a little joke:

"The 15,000 dead that Michael Moore forgot about

In 2003 France experienced a heat wave and the result was almost 15,000 deaths. USA Today reported that most the victims “died during the height of the heat wave, which brought suffocating temperatures of up to 104 degrees.”Not long ago I spent half a year in Phoenix. And Phoenix is a very hot city. That region of the world has been hot long before we started blaming everything on CO2. Just outside Phoenix is a retirement community known as Sun City. It is a town of around 33,000 elderly people. The median age in Sun City is just over 72 years of age. And the average high temperature in Sun City is 106 degrees summer after summer.

So 33,000 elderly people thrive in temperatures higher than those that hit France where 15,000 people died. And according to USA Today many of the victims in France were elderly. What are some of the reasons that elderly people in America flock to a climate that routinely exceeds the temperatures of France’s heat wave without the dire consequences that France experienced?Like most issues there are numerous causes involved. One is that the elderly in Sun City know that the temperatures will go above 100 degrees every day during the summer. Knowing this means they are prepared.

For instance every home and business in the Phoenix area will have air conditioning. Very few homes and business in Europe have this sort of decadent luxury. On a hot day shopping in Europe is often a horrid experience since the shops are stuffy and temperatures inside often are warmer than outside.The reality is that Europeans have a much lower standard of living. They don’t like to admit it but it’s true. They have regulated and taxed themselves to such an extent that they live much less comfortably than do their counterparts in the United States. Average income in Europe is below average income in the United States. Then the welfare states in Europe gobble up vast amounts of the income that is earned. So the average European not just earns less but pays more in taxes. And then costs for virtually everything is much higher. I suspect something in Europe has to be cheaper than in the US but I don’t know what it is.

With lower levels of income the average home is much smaller in Europe.
People don’t drive as much but walk, ride bicycles or take public transit. Cars are discouraged by the Green fanatics. Of course when heat waves hit that means old people are trying to bicycle to the store. Actually I should say stores. In the US an older person heads to one grocery market and picks up everything they need. Such large stores go against the European mentality. So there are mostly smaller stores with minimal selections. So this means going from store to store. When it is hot out this extra exertion doesn’t help the elderly.If the elderly in Sun City had to walk from store to store to store to buy their groceries and ride their bicycles in the 106 degree temperatures, instead of driving, they would probably be dropping dead in massive numbers as well. Luckily for them they don’t live in a town that is as “eco-friendly”.

Germany has a sales tax of about 20%. And energy is especially expensive so they can meet their Kyoto requirements. Of course they don’t meet their Kyoto requirements but they do heavily tax energy. With energy being expensive the result is that people can’t afford to air condition. It’s the same across Europe.When the heat wave hit France people died because the cost of air conditioning is above what most people can afford. The welfare state reduces living standards and people can’t afford “luxuries” like air conditioning.

So what happened what that socialized health care? Docufraud producer Michael Moore is harping on about the benefits of the French socialized health system. He says: “The French system is the best in the world.” So why the 15,000 deaths there? How did the French system respond?Much of it didn’t react at all. France has long mandated holiday periods for workers. The French brag about them. They pride themselves as to how little work they do, which is one reason they have chronic high unemployment. And August is the big holiday month when many French workers take the entire month off. That includes physicians, nurses, etc.

Again the news report stated: “The heat wave hit during the August vacation period, when doctors, hospital staff and many others take leave.” Of course France has a union for physicians, since every special interest group must have a union or they get screwed by the other union groups. And the National General Practitioners Union denies that vacations had anything to do with it since only 20% of all physicians were off on holiday. Only 20%! That’s one out of five physicians being gone for an entire month.

Apparently it wasn’t just the physicians and their extended holidays that were the problem. “...[T]he French Parliament released a harshly worded report blaming the deaths on a complex health system, widespread failure among agencies and health services to co-ordinate efforts, and chronically insufficient care for the elderly.” So the health system in France is complex and has “chronically insufficient care for the elderly.”But this is one of the systems that Moore drools over when he advocates a socialist system for the United States.It was this excellent health care that explained why 15,000 French old people died from temperatures that in Sun City would be just average. It is the excellent health care that caused the French Parliament to report that their own health system provides “chronically insufficient care for the elderly.” I suspect Mr. Moore will never mention that parliamentary report." (in http://freestudents.blogspot.com/2007/06/15000-dead-that-michale-moore-forgot.html)

1990: Nelson Mandela freed

February 11, 1990: Leading anti-apartheid campaigner Nelson Mandela has been freed from prison in South Africa after 27 years.
His release follows the relaxation of apartheid laws - including lifting the ban on leading black rights party the African National Congress (ANC) - by South African President FW de Klerk.


Johnny Clegg : Asimbonanga

One of the faces of Flemish regionalism (or just a tourist trap)?

"Marcel Kalmann is 64 years old. Born January 1st, 1944 in Auschwitz-Birkenau, he is the youngest person to have survived Auschwitz. After the war he lived in shelters, where he was also abused. As a young man he emigrated to America and is now a professor.

About two weeks ago Kalmann visited the city of Bruges. On the last day of his stay he entered a famous restaurant: Le Panier d'Or and asked for a cup of coffee. He was the only client at the time, and besides him there were a barman and two waiters. When one of the waiters noticed his yarmulke he turned to him and barked out: "We don't serve Jews here, out!" The professor was completely confused and left the cafe as quickly as possible, the waiter yet screaming after him: 'out, OUT!'

Shocked by the attack, Kalmann walked into a nearby restaurant. "That man came in here with tears in his eyes." says waiter Dean Stalpaert to Joods Actueel. "We apologized to him for the attack, though we had nothing to do with the affair. We felt dreadfully bad that something like this could happen in our city. We immediately called the police."

They didn't want to come along and required the man himself to the come to the police office (3 km further). What happened then is too crazy for words. The young police officer made it clear that she didn't believe his story and she didn't let him give his statement in English although Kalmann explicitly and many times asked to report the facts in this language. Another policeman who was called in (probably a superior) got involved with the case and began to scream and rage against the man that he must give his statement in Dutch. The professor asked to lodge a complaint for antisemitism to which he was told that "this doesn't exist in Belgium".

The police questioned the man and ignored the explicit request of the man to lodge a complaint. Somewhat later Marcel Kalmann left the police office frustrated and angry, without having lodged a complaint and with an interrogation sheet that included things he had never said.

Several days later Kalmann contacted Joods Actueel to follow up on the case. He intends to lodge complaints against the police and the waiter involved.

According to Joods Actueel, the waiter was not interrogated by the police. Joods Actueel contacted him and he didn't deny that he kicked out the man, but said he did so because the man acted peculiarly. Realizing that there might be consequences the waiter said that he was willing to apologize to the professor if he would so wish.

The tourist department of Bruges will open up a complaint file on this issue. Restaurant owners in the area were shocked to hear that the professor was charged 6.5 euro (three times the going rate) for his coffee and concerned about how such treatment could reflect on their city, but according to Joods Actueel were less concerned about the fact that a man was kicked out due to his religion."

(in Islam in Europe)

Apart from the rest (please check the comments), now we know that we better speak dutch to file a complaint in the flemish touristic (and beautiful) city of Bruges. I'm sure that had Mr. Kalmann tried to file the complain in Frech, he would had been arrested.

(more news on the Marcel Kalmann incident here and here) (read one more update here)

New Ecowhat?! Fiat Bravo 1.6 Diesel Multijet

As you might recall from one of my previous posts, I have serious doubts about the so-called environment-friendly diesel cars. For example, Fiat is launching a new 1.6 diesel engine for the Bravo range, in 103 or 118bhp variants, both Euro 5 compliant, thanks to a new particle filter. AND a third “Eco” model, with the same motor, 103bhp and CO2 emissions of just 119g/km, which is not Euro 5 compliant because removing the particle filter was the only trick Fiat could find to keep CO2 emissions bellow the 120 g/km threshold. The dirty trick will not work in Luxembourg, because the 750 euros reduction from the governmental scheme for cleaner cars can only be granted for a diesel car equipped with a particle filter: “Pour les voitures équipées d’un moteur à carburant diesel, l’aide financière [750 euros] n’est accordée que si les émissions de particules fines sont inférieures ou égales à 5 mg/km, un filtre à particules est dès lors indispensable" (in car-e.lu) .

Shopping in Luxembourg

Today I've found:

• this blog about shopping in Luxembourg: Good Idea;

• this very nice customer-friendly swedish shop: Good Ikea;

• this beautiful piece of merchandise from The League of Gentlemen:

• and this nice video to enlighten those of you who are not familiar with this BBC series (or the movie) and don't know what the heck am I talking about:

This is a local shop for local people
(click on the image to see the video in YouTube)

Honeymoon at Gandrange

French President Nicolas Sarkozy suggested Monday the government could come to the rescue of steel workers at an ArcelorMittal plant facing layoffs.
"We're going to fight, you're not alone," the president said to 600 workers gathered for his speech at the company's plant in Gandrange in northeast France.

"After the speeches, about 50,000 people set off for the Pentagon. It took them about an hour and a half to walk two miles across the Memorial Bridge and down a service road to the north parking lot where a second rally was scheduled.
At the other end a group of hippies was trying to exorcize the Pentagon. The brainchild of Abbie Hoffman [the guy in the photo], the plan was for people to sing and chant until it levitated and turned orange, driving out the evil spirits and ending the war in Viet Nam. The Pentagon didn’t move."