The European Paradox

There are those that criticize the U.S. for various faults and deficiencies, many times rightly so. It's not so much the criticism that many Americans find invalid, but it is the source of the criticism that irritates us, at times. Many times it's a clear-cut case of being blind to one's own faults, while demonizing Americans. Much of this kind of criticism results from Europeans, yet, it's becoming more apparent that the Euro stone throwers are living in glass houses.

Take this story for example, it comes from the IHT:

For the second time in two days, the Russian police forcefully dispersed an opposition rally Sunday, beating protesters and arresting their leaders in a chaotic, violent street scene in St. Petersburg.

The two rallies cumulatively drew at most several thousand anti-government protesters and posed little threat to President Vladimir Putin. A loose coalition of opposition figures, including Garry Kasparov, the former world chess champion, organized the events. Kasparov was among those arrested.

Nonetheless, the weekend rallies were dispersed in a flailing of truncheons, marking one of the largest displays of raw police force used against political opposition figures since Putin assumed the presidency seven years ago.

In the U.S., there are frequent protests, with most of them directed at the current administration. Yet, we rarely read that U.S. police use violence to break them up. It's all covered under free speech, something that other countries have yet to grasp. Russia is but one of those countries. The EU so far has been silent on the methods of dealing with unrest, used by the Putin administration. But let this happen here in the USA, and it would very likely be open season in the halls of Brussels.

Another area that Euros would have us all believe is more prevalent in America than anywhere else, is racism. Take this story (also from the IHT), for instance:

Chancellor Angela Merkel is facing a rebellion inside her conservative party after Günther Oettinger, premier of the conservative southern German state of Baden-Württemberg, refused to retract a funeral eulogy in which he praised a disgraced Nazi judge.

Merkel, who until now has managed to maintain some discipline in her Christian Democratic Union party since being elected chancellor in late 2005, will meet senior party leaders Monday in an attempt to prevent the crisis from growing.

The German Jewish community has already asked for the resignation of Oettinger, and the Social Democrats and Greens have also called upon him to retract his praise of Hans Filbinger, a former Nazi judge who issued death sentences during World War II but who concealed the fact for decades.

I'd say we could offer to send Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson to help facilitate Oettinger's demise, but we must remember that it's okay for white people to disparage other white people, and it goes double when it's Jews that are the target of hate speech.

But wait. Here's one that they could jump on without any reservations:

A German army instructor ordered a soldier to envision himself in New York City facing hostile blacks while firing his machine gun, a video that aired Saturday on national television showed.

First of all, what the hell would the German Army be doing fantasizing about being in New York City, conducting any kind of an operation? And then secondly, why would their focus be on blacks? Very telling, wouldn't you say?

It leads me to ask, how much of this is far more pronounced than those in Brussels would have the world believe? They talk a good game, but talking is just words. Words mean little to most intelligent people, for they are not easily persuaded by empty rhetoric like that that comes out of irrelevant institutions. It's easy to sit on some kind of moral judgment seat, pointing fingers at a speck in your neighbor's eye, all the while overlooking the mote in your own. It's not so easy to admit it you have the mote to begin with. But moreover, it is action that counts.

So, don't hold you breath on Al and Jesse making this an issue. They will not be able to win this one, anyway. What's more, they do not care.