The NY Times Frets Over Europe

MC knows it has only itself to blame for reading the NY Times daily but, like gawking at an accident on the road, we just can't look away. Today's paper has a front page story, above-the-fold, thank you, about Europe and the current economic crisis. MC had thought for some time that Europe was always in a state of economic crisis, given an aging population, heavy taxes, government interference in what's left of the private sector and grudging job growth. But our readers need to see the first full paragraph of "Economy Shows Cracks In European Union" by the by clueless Steven Erlanger:

"BERLIN — The European Union is an extraordinary experiment in shared sovereignty, creating a zone of peace that now stretches from Britain to the Balkans. The union of 27 countries is the world’s most formidable economic bloc, incorporating 491 million people in an integrated market that produces nearly a third more than the United States."

Where to start? Heaven on earth has apparently arrived. First, the EU is an experiment in surrendering sovereignty, not in sharing it. Its proposed, then rejected by the French (delicious), constitution is over 400 pages long and mentions not once the debt to Christianity in shaping it. Second, it was not the EU that created a "zone of peace" but rather the United States which twice saved the Europeans from themselves. NATO and other structures helped keep the French and the Germans from killing each other, not the bureaucrats in Brussels. The world's most formidable "bloc" is OPEC, even in its reduced circumstances. Or China, a bloc of one, with its purchase of US debt.

A few final thoughts about this story, which tells more about the mindset of a certain elite in American journalism (if such still be alive) than it does Europe:

1. Erlanger favorably quotes Joschka Fischer, former sixties radical and now German politician. Anyone on the right to quote? No. Unintentionally indicting himself, Fischer is quoted as saying "We have a traumatic lack of leadership." Well, yes.

2. Erlanger quotes not one but two disaffected French workers. Are there any other kind? Really, this is lazy coverage even for the remaining employees of the Grey Lady.

3. Erlanger notes in passing that "European leaders are concentrating on passing the long-delayed Lisbon Treaty, to create a European president and foreign minister and simplify decision-making." Uh, Steven? Care to tell your readers that Ireland was the only nation who put that treaty to a vote and rejected it? That the EU bullies are now insisting Ireland vote again? Care to offer a thought about respect for the decent opinion of mankind? We thought not.

4. About Muslim immigration and non-assimilation, Erlanger says nothing. Perfect. Not a word about the violence engaged in at a drop of the hat; about quisling governments catering to them out of misplaced political correctness; about "no go zones" in the UK and France where police simply don't tread; about attacks on Jews; about riots in the suburbs of Paris and elsewhere; about the demographics which suggest, if not outright conclude, that Europe is dying and Eurabia is being born.

No, this is the New York Times. In one of life's numerous paradoxes, MC will be both glad when it disappears and miss it.

Click on the title of this post to read the story.