Maybe it's the Irish/Viking gene pool in Iceland that accounts for their intelligent move. Whatever.
Meanwhile, Mr. Hannan seems to have been taking "Italian Hand Gestures 101". In the advanced class, they learn how to make them less obvious, perhaps?
Yeah, I'm sniping and unfair; it's a trenchant speech. But really, I watched it twice just to observe his hands - and also to hear him say again, though by indirection, that membership in the EU turns a country's parliament into a "local chamber".
Good on you, sir. Despite being in the EU's chamberpot yourself, you seem to have kept your good English jaundice...
Hat Tip: Before It’s News
13 comments:
Maybe it's the Irish/Viking gene pool in Iceland that accounts for their intelligent move.
Right. Because of all those times in history the Irish have acheived world dominance. Gotcha. : )
He's s shrewd operator. All these performances keep in him good money (he earns a hell of a lot on the US lecture circuit) and the hand gestures are practise for the despatch box of the House of Commons.
He has his eye on David Cameron's chair: it's common knowledge. We should be so lucky, I suspect we won't be.
Yes, I gathered that just from the tone of his essays. An eye on the prize. I would hope that such an eventuality would offer the English/British ppl a real choice, an acutual referendum on their membership in the EU. At the moment, like most others, they're simply hostages.
If Mr. Hannan is making some money over here, more power to him. And to Geert Wilders. We need to hear their voices in the US, given our majority plastic cut-out, interchangeable pols.
The Irish achieved a kind of dominance: their genes are everywhere.
The ones in Iceland, unfortunately for the original "settlers" were women kidnapped and brought there as slaves or concubines.
Most Icelanders are descendants of Norwegian settlers and Celts from Ireland and Scotland who were brought over as slaves during the age of settlement. Recent DNA analysis suggests that around 66 percent of the male settler-era population was of Norse ancestry, whereas the female population was 60 percent Celtic...
Iceland Demographics
There are other Iceland wikis which propose a small, even more ancient strain, dating from the Norse exploration of the Americas. They perhaps brought back enough indigenes that those shadows remain...
Vikings were an interesting group. They did a big biz in Mediterranean slave-trading with Islamic raiders during the very first rise of the Beduoins out of the desert.
Well, he's right. Not being part of the EU monetary structure they were able to right their financial boat quickly and not have to pay into endless bailouts of other EU countries.
Dymphna yes, I was lightening the mood a bit. Vikings definitely spread their gene pool from Iceland to Russia to Sicily & Morocco. But that doesn't equal intelligence necessarily. Were that the case, the Mongols would claim that prize (Ghengis Khan has the most decendants of any one man (not including biblical figures such as "Adam" or "Abraham" : ) And I don't really see Mongolia in any danger of becoming a world power anytime soon.
Qualis Rex
In answer to--- "What have the Irish ever done for us?" you might be interested in this book-
"How the Irish Saved Civiilization" by Thomas Cahill
The role of the Irish was vital, if you accept the author's thesis.
Mace - I haven't read the book, I confess. But I am absolutely on board with the idea that the Irish, namely the monks (both cloistered and evangelical) helped save European history and Christian learning due to their (then) secluded homeland in what is commonly known as the "dark ages". I don't think we can give them the sole credit, but definitely their impact and acheivement there is immense. And like many peoples on the earth, I think they (very much like Christian Arabs) were simply dealt a cruel hand in history.
Is the allusion to Nordic/Celtic intellectual superiority based on IQ tests? I wouldn't put too much stock in those. Ever heard of the Flynn effect? And if it is based on cultural dominance, doesn't that have to do with ideas/resources more than gene pool? The fact that Western Civ is headed down the toilet, when its leaders are the direct descendants of Western Civ's greatest heroes, goes a long way in showing that it is culture, not exceptional genius, that makes a civlization great (or not so great).
Of course the narcissistic mensa types are far too in love with their IQ's reflection in the water, to hold the same degree of warranted skepticism.
(That last sentence is a general statement, and not meant towards anyone here in particular.)
@ Anon-
I didn't say anything about Celtic or Nordic intellectual superiority. The fact that iceland has Celtic genetic material via its women is an interesting factoid, that's all. And the way in which that transpired makes for interesting history.
The video is up because Iceland made a smart move in staying away from the Euro pack. That's just common sense "smarts" and Hannan is rhetorical entertainment.
The IQ fights bore me stiff. They are aggregations and prove nothing at all about the particular ppl I know. As the Baron has been saying ever since I first met him, IQ doesn't predict survival, as our current ivory tower inhabitants prove.
Those celtic genes are spread all over the world for a variety of reasons, a major one being that for a very long time Ireland produced too many ppl to be able to support them, so they sailed away by the millions and now we have billions of ppl with *some* Irish blood.
Of course, Britain's treatment of the Irish, Scots, and Welsh made them spread even further.
It would be ironic if the final battle was between the Scots-Irish and the desert tribes. I know which side I'd be betting on: the side that likes to laugh.
Agreeing with Dymphna, no one said anything about superiority. Still the Celtic/Scandinavian background of Iceland is interesting history.
I'm thinking that centuries of geographic isolation on a volcanic island has been a big plus for Iceland. Also, any people who stick to their tradition of eating putrid fish rather than just baking up a nice Christmas ham are a people who won't be easily swayed by the prevailing wind, or the EU.
God bless the Icelanders.
http://icelandweatherreport.com/2005/12/putrid-skate-for-beginners.html
@Dymphna
You're quite right, I once spoke to a person who had a great deal of knowledge on genetic studies done on Icelanders.
Apparently, they are the most examined population in Europe precisely because they are the most ethnically pure.
Why? Because population dips on the barren and unforgiving island were solved by the kidnapping of slaves, the women of whom which bred with; while the males were without exception castrated.
It's weird to think that club-wielding hairy thuggish northern Vikings a millennium ago had a better grasp of demographic integrity than every single supposedly intelligent, progressive, enlightened, mainstream modern European politician!
Norway has said no to EU membership two times! The first time as early as 1972!
We norwegians look upon our islandic neighbours as our little brother, and it looks like the little brother do the same as we do.
Unfortunally, our pro-EU and sosialistic government went against the peoples will and signed a EU light membership called the EØS agreement, which forces us to accept more immigrants and pay EU bills. An EØS membership cost a lot of money and it does not allow us to take part in any lawmaking og voting.
So watch out Iceland, if your leaders claim that signing the EØS agreement is the only solution for your trades/business to survive, ask them why Switzerland manage just fine without both EU and EØS.
Post a Comment