Posting has been light today because I spent most of it working on a paying programming job. I also had to clean out the rain gutters this afternoon, an odious task, and managed to get a splinter under the side of one of my fingernails while I was doing it — but y’all don’t want to hear about that…
Today the Senate confirmed the appointment of John Kerry as United States Secretary of State by a vote of 94 to 3. Meanwhile, an American F-16 fighter jet was lost over the Adriatic Sea, and an intensive search is underway for the missing pilot.
In other news, France says that it will begin deporting radical Salafist imams during the next few days. Also, Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad’s wife is pregnant.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, JP, McR, Steen, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.
Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.
Commenters are advised to leave their comments at this post (rather than with the news articles) so that they are more easily accessible.
Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.
Bank of Italy Says Troubled MPS Won’t Fall Into Receivership
Central bank says no immediate action for Monte dei Paschi
(ANSA) — Rome, January 28 — The head of Italy’s central bank says that the troubled Monte dei Paschi di Siena is not facing the possibility of receivership, sources said Monday.
Ignazio Visco, governor of the Bank of Italy, has denied the need for “immediate action” concerning the bank, despite its massive financial troubles, according to sources.
Last week, news broke that lossmaking derivatives trades by MPS, the world’s oldest bank, could cost it as much as 720 million euros.
The European Commission recently gave provisional backing to a 3.9-billion-euro Italian government bailout for the bank “to preserve the stability of the Italian financial system”. Meanwhile, authorities confirmed Monday that the bank faces at least two tax audits.
One relates to the 142-million-euro sale of Rome’s Palazzo dei Normanni and the second, to a capital gain of 120 million euros from the sale of equities in another Italian financial group, Unipol Assicurazioni.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
British Youth Unemployment Rising Faster Than Any Other G8 Country Since Start of Recession
Youth unemployment has increased in the UK at a faster rate than any country in the G8 since the start of the recession and cannot be blamed solely on the economic downturn, a new report claims.
A study by the Work Foundation found that the UK is now only behind Spain and Greece for youth joblessness in OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries.
The problem cannot be attributed just to the recession because other countries have fared better, said the research group.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Federal Reserve Money Printing is the Real Reason Why the Stock Market is Soaring
You can thank the reckless money printing that the Federal Reserve has been doing for the incredible bull market that we have seen in recent months. When the Federal Reserve does more “quantitative easing”, it is the financial markets that benefit the most. The Dow and the S&P 500 have both hit levels not seen since 2007 this month, and many analysts are projecting that 2013 will be a banner year for stocks. But is a rising stock market really a sign that the overall economy is rapidly improving as many are suggesting? Of course not. Just because the Federal Reserve has inflated another false stock market bubble with a bunch of funny money does not mean that the U.S. economy is in great shape. In fact, the truth is that things just keep getting worse for average Americans.
The percentage of working age Americans with a job has fallen from 60.6% to 58.6% while Barack Obama has been president, 40 percent of all American workers are making $20,000 a year or less, median household income has declined for four years in a row, and poverty in the United States is absolutely exploding. So quantitative easing has definitely not made things better for the middle class. But all of the money printing that the Fed has been doing has worked out wonderfully for Wall Street. Profits are soaring at Goldman Sachs and luxury estates in the Hamptons are selling briskly. Unfortunately, this is how things work in America these days. Our “leaders” seem far more concerned with the welfare of Wall Street than they do about the welfare of the American people. When things get rocky, their first priority always seems to be to do whatever it takes to pump up the financial markets.
[…]
Unfortunately, all of this reckless money printing has a very negative impact on all the rest of us. When the Fed floods the financial system with money, that causes inflation. That means that the cost of living has gone up even though your paycheck may not have.
If you go to the supermarket frequently, you know exactly what I am talking about. The new “sale prices” are what the old “regular prices” used to be. They keep shrinking many of the package sizes in order to try to hide the inflation, but I don’t think many people are fooled. Our food dollars are not stretching nearly as far as they used to, and we can blame the Federal Reserve for that.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
France’s Socialist government was involved in a vast damage limitation exercise today after a senior minister admitted that the country was ‘totally bankrupt.’
Colleagues of Michel Sapin, secretary of state for employment, insisted that he was merely highlighting the faults of the last conservative administration, after the minister said the government’s tax-and-spend policies are just not working.
Finance minister Pierre Moscovici said: ‘What he meant was that the fiscal situation was worrying’, and added that the last government, led by Nicolas Sarkozy, had accumulated £513billion of debt.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Greece: Over Half of Homeowners Can’t Pay Tax
(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, JANUARY 28 — Just over half of Greek homeowners say they will not be able to pay all their property taxes this year, according to a new poll, daily Kathimerini reports. The Kapa Research survey for the Hellenic Property Federation (POMIDA) found that of 1,414 people questioned, 54% said they would not have enough money to cover the cost of a range of property taxes that have to be paid in 2013. Just under 50% said they doubted whether they would be able to meet their mortgage repayments this year, while about 25% are already falling behind in their monthly payments. Regarding landlords who rent out their properties, 82.7% said that they are losing money from their real estate assets rather than making a profit.
Property taxes were doubled by former Finance minister Evangelos Venizelos, now head of the PASOK Socialist party that is a partner in Prime Minister Antonis Samaras’ coalition government.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Rehn Says ‘Serious Concern for Italy, Spain’ A Year Ago
Commissioner sees situation different now, but challenges remain
(ANSA) — Brussels, January 29 — Olli Rehn, the European economic and monetary affairs commissioner, said Tuesday that “there was serious concern about Italy and Spain” a year ago and “deep uncertainty” about Greece, but the situation is now under control.
The commissioner stressed, however, that while the predictions of the end of the eurozone were wrong and progress has been made, “there are still challenges”.
He added that the priorities for national governments must be to “maintain the pace of economic reform” and “continue with fiscal consolidation”.
These are the policies that outgoing Italian Premier Mario Monti’s emergency government adopted after taking power in November 2011.
This approach boosted investor confidence in Italy and helped ease the crisis, but Monti’s austerity measures also deepened the recession Italy went into in the second half of 2011.
Rehn added that EU countries needed to implement “balanced, ambitious reforms” of labour markets that “remove obstacles to employment” and make it easier for people to find permanent, full-time jobs.
This, along with moves to revive Europe’s manufacturing and services sectors, should be among governments’ priorities for 2013, said Rehn, who added that “this year will be an essential test for the credibility of the EU and the eurozone”. The commissioner said 2.5 million manufacturing jobs were lost in 2010 and 2011 in France, Germany, Italy and Spain.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
1.8 Gigapixel ARGUS Camera by DARPA Watching You
Big Brother is watching you, from its eye in the sky, in the form of ARGUS — the world’s most powerful mobile camera. DARPA developed the 1.8 gigapixel camera so it can record at 20,000 feet, from the Hummingbird UAV, scanning 25 square miles of ground in one shot. The detail is scary, with objects as small as six inches picked up. And it’s all done using the equivalent of 368 image sensors like that found in your mobile phone. The US government plans to use three of these surveillance drones for the next year over Afghanistan. That’s 3 million terabytes of video being recorded a day — the equivalent of 15,000 hours of HD footage. A UAV called the Solar Eagle which, when it arrives, could potentially stay in the air for years at a time is the ultimate home for ARGUS. When that day comes there will be constant surveillance, just as Orwell predicted.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
22 Signs That Barack Obama is Transforming America Into a Larger Version of North Korea
If there is one country in the world that you would not want to live in, it would be North Korea. Unfortunately, the United States of America is becoming more like North Korea with each passing day. North Korea is a totalitarian police state hellhole where the state rules supreme, the “leader” is lavishly worshipped, no dissent is tolerated, and the government micromanages everything. America is supposed to be the opposite of that, but now Barack Obama is implementing his version of “change” and he has promised to engage in the “remaking” of this nation and to transform it “brick by brick”. A tremendous “cult of personality” has been built up around Obama, and under his leadership the U.S. government has become larger and more repressive than ever before. But do we really want to “change” America so that it more closely resembles totalitarian regimes such as North Korea, communist China, the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany? After all, all of those regimes have a nightmarish history of brutality and death. Even today, there are starving North Koreans that are eating their own children. Is that really where we want to end up as a nation?
The truth is that we desperately need to take America in the opposite direction of where Barack Obama is trying to take us. We need a much smaller federal government, a much greater emphasis on freedom and liberty, a return to true free market capitalism, and politicians that are willing to take a low profile and that are actually there to serve the American people.
But what we need and what we are getting are two very different things.
The following are 22 signs that Barack Obama is transforming America into a larger version of North Korea…
1. Obama has appointed numerous socialists and communists to important positions in his administration. The following are just a few examples that were highlighted in a recent article[url] by John Perazzo…
2. As Paul Roderick Gregory demonstrated in an outstanding article[url]for Forbes, Barack Obama’s economic agenda matches the November 2011 Declaration of Principles of the Party of European Socialists almost point for point.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Backfire: Seattle Gun Buyback Turns Into Gun Show; Collectors Waved “Wads of Cash” At Those in Line
Leave it to enterprising Americans to always find a loophole in the midst of ever-expanding government regulation.
While thousands of Seattle residents lined up for hours to trade their handguns, rifles and family heirlooms away in exchange for up to $200 in gift cards as part of the city’s latest gun buyback program, gun collectors who have seen prices for assault rifles and firearms accessories almost triple since November took advantage of a huge opportunity.
Police stood in awe as gun enthusiasts and collectors waved wads of cash for the guns being held by those standing in line for the buyback program.
Police officers in Seattle, Washington held their first gun buyback program in 20 years this weekend, underneath interstate 5, and soon found that private gun collectors were working the large crowd as little makeshift gun shows began dotting the parking lot and sidewalks.
John Diaz, Seattles Police Chief, wasn’t pleased with the turn of events stating “I’d prefer they wouldn’t sell them,” but admitted it’s perfectly legal for private individuals to buy and sell guns, FOR NOW. Mayor Mike McGinn said at a news conference the private transactions are a loophole that needs to be closed. “There’s no background checks, and some (guns) could be exchanged on the streets that shouldn’t be in circulation.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
DHS Boss Praises Trampling of Posse Comitatus at National Police Confab
Department of Homeland Security boss Janet Napolitano addressed a joint session of the Major Cities Chiefs Association and the Major County Sheriffs’ Association winter meetings on Monday.
During remarks boasting about the wonderful job the federal government has done in violating and rendering irrelevant Posse Comitatus, Napolitano conflated “gun violence,” “active shooter incidents” and “violent extremism.”
Since the release of the DHS document on “rightwing extremism” that created a firestorm of criticism, the mega-agency has chosen its words more carefully. “Groups and individuals inspired by a range of religious, political, or other ideological beliefs have promoted and used violence against the homeland,” the Countering Violent Extremism DHS page states without naming specific groups or individuals.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
(NaturalNews) Now you know that you’ve been saved from spontaneous combustion after a hard workout if you drank Gatorade. It’s had an actual flame retardant chemical in it, and still does. The ingredient is called brominated vegetable oil (BVO), and its been patented in Europe as a flame retardant
A spokesperson for Gatorade’s owner PepsiCo, Molly Carter, mentioned to reporters that Pepsi had been considering removing BVO for about a year, pending their discovery of a new and better replacement ingredient that wouldn’t alter the taste. Molly claims the petition from change.org with over 200,000 signatures had little impact.
[…]
BVO has been banned as a food and beverage additive in Europe and Japan. But it has been used for decades in U.S. beverages such as Gatorade, Mountain Dew, Squirt, Fanta Orange, Sunkist Pineapple, Powerade Strawberry Lemonade or Fresca Original Citrus.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Government to Dispose of Radioactive Waste by Putting it in Our Silverware
The overwhelming scientific consensus is that any amount of radiation — no matter how small — can cause cancer and other serious health effects.
(Current safety standards are based on the ridiculous assumption that everyone exposed is a healthy man in his 20s — and that radioactive particles ingested into the body cause no more damage than radiation hitting the outside of the body. In the real world, however, even low doses of radiation can cause cancer. Moreover, small particles of radiation — called “internal emitters” — which get inside the body are much more dangerous than general exposures to radiation. See this and this. And radiation affects small children much more than full-grown adults.)
But the Department of Energy — the agency which is responsible for the design, testing and production of all U.S. nuclear weapons, promotes nuclear energy as one of its core functions, which has been covering up nuclear accidents for decades, and has used mutant lines of human cells to promote voodoo, anti-scientific arguments — proposes letting radiation into our silverware.
Congressman Markey writes:
“A Department of Energy proposal to allow up to 14,000 metric tons of its radioactive scrap metal to be recycled into consumer products was called into question today by Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) due to concerns over public health. In a letter sent to DOE head Steven Chu, Rep. Markey expressed “grave concerns” over the potential of these metals becoming jewelry, cutlery, or other consumer products that could exceed healthy doses of radiation without any knowledge by the consumer. DOE made the proposal to rescind its earlier moratorium on radioactive scrap metal recycling in December, 2012.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Is a Political Balance of Powers “Unconstitutional?
Robert McElvaine, professor of history at Millsaps College, said all this bill will accomplish is to put Mississippi up for ridicule. “ ‘The Neutralization of Federal Law’?” he said. “I am astounded to see such a measure introduced in the 21st century. Do the authors of the bill see Mississippi as part of the United States?”
[…]
The question is — what does the good professor think the Founders meant in the Tenth Amendment? — “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”
Does Professor Robert McElvaine understand that the Mississippi bill does not seek to neutralize “constitutional acts” of the federal government, but rather the “unconstitutional acts” only? Or does the professor think that all federal acts are “constitutional?” Or does the professor really think that the Charters of Freedom died at some point in history, becoming nothing but a relic?
Be very careful professor, if the Constitution and Bill of Rights no longer exist, then the people and the states have no obligation to the federal government at all, including an obligation to follow any of its laws or pay any taxes. So, which way do you want it professor? It exists, or it doesn’t exist?
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Nullification Deniers! This is What James Madison Really Said
This is The Age of Ignorance. Our “intellectuals” can’t think. Our “scholars” parrot each other. The self-educated fixate on idiotic theories. Our People despise Truth and disseminate lies.
Nullification deniers such as Matthew Spalding of Heritage Foundation, Jarrett Stepman of Human Events, law professor Randy Barnett, David Barton of Wallbuilders, and history professor Allen C. Guelzo, say that nullification by States of unconstitutional acts of the federal government is unlawful and impossible. They make the demonstrably false assertions that:
[…]
Their assertions contradict our Declaration of Independence, The Federalist Papers, our federal Constitution, and what James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, and Alexander Hamilton really said.
What are the Two Conditions Precedent for Nullification?
The deniers seem unaware of the two conditions our Framers saw must be present before nullification is proper and possible. These conditions are important — you will see why!:
- The act of the federal government must be unconstitutional — usually a usurpation of a power not delegated to the federal government in the Constitution; and
- The act must be something The States or The People can “nullify” — i.e., refuse to obey: the act must order them to do something or not do something.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
NYPD Looking to Deploy Naked Body Scanners on Street Corners as Part of Gun Control Roll-Out
(NaturalNews) It’s not enough that the state of New York just doubled down on its trashing of the Second Amendment with the passage of new gun control laws. Now the city of New York, with its gun-grabbing mayor, is set to deploy revealing new x-ray scanners that will violate residents’ Fourth Amendment right to privacy to ensure they’re not taking advantage of their Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms.
According to local media reports, New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said his force is currently testing the new technology, which is designed to hone in on guns without using the department’s well-established “stop-and-frisk” procedure. Now, not only will suspected criminals be targeted, but so will the vast majority of law-abiding New Yorkers who, once again, are going to be presumed guilty until proven innocent.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Obama’s Destruction of America on Fast-Track Second Term Start
There will be more of this anti-American exercise in the days to come as Obama drafts a deeper and more detailed plan for its adoption right here in our own country.
I really don’t think those folks looking for his failure to gain a second term were incorrect in their assumptions, it was just a case of a lot of shady and illegal manipulations of numbers and voting polls machinations worked against them. I’m still at a loss as to how starkly evident proof of illegality was so blatant, such as the Obama vote totals in one southwest Ohio county that were in excess of the total number of residents; not just voters, but all adults and children, and to this date little to nothing is heard about it.
[…]
And in that context, you can probably see how his other new plan just announced in the short days after his SECOND inauguration of sending 100,000 American youths to China to study; what else? Why communism of course. Susan Jones of CNSNews.com published on January 24, 2013 that “Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Thursday will celebrate the launch of a newly rebranded organization called the ‘100,000 Strong Foundation,’ which aims to have 100,000 American students studying in China by 2014.”
This isn’t just happening; oh no, Obama announced it as far back as 2009 on his trip to China according Ms. Jones and she reports that it has been operating inside the State Department. Thursday’s 1 p.m. ceremony marks its transition to a non-profit, nongovernmental organization operating independently. According to State Department statistics, in the 2010/11 academic year, 14,596 U.S. students were studying in China.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The media herd is stunned to discover that Barack Obama is a man of the left. After 699 teleprompted presidential speeches, the commentariat was apparently still oblivious. Until Monday’s inaugural address, that is.
Where has everyone been these four years? The only surprise is that Obama chose his second inaugural, generally an occasion for “malice toward none” ecumenism, to unveil so uncompromising a left-liberal manifesto.
[…]
For Obama, nothing lies between citizen and state. It is a desert, within which the isolated citizen finds protection only in the shadow of Leviathan. Put another way, this speech is the perfect homily for the marriage of Julia — the Obama campaign’s atomized citizen, coddled from cradle to grave — and the state.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Seattle Police Gun Buy-Back Gets Hi-Jacked! Turns Into a Gun Show!
Police officers in Seattle, Washington State held their first gun buyback program in 20 years this weekend, underneath interstate highway 5, and soon found that private gun collectors were working the large crowd as little makeshift gun shows began dotting the parking lot and sidewalks. Some even had “cash for guns” signs prominently displayed.
Police stood in awe as gun enthusiasts and collectors waved wads of cash for the guns being held by those standing in line for the buyback program.
People that had arrived to trade in their weapons for $100 or $200 Buy-Back gift cards($100 for handguns, shotguns and rifles, and $200 for assault weapons) soon realized that gun collectors were there and paying top dollar for collectible firearms. So, as the line for the chump cards got longer and longer people began to jump ship and head over to the dealers.
John Diaz, Seattle’s Police Chief, wasn’t pleased with the turn of events stating “I’d prefer they wouldn’t sell them,” but admitted it’s perfectly legal for private individuals to buy and sell guns, FOR NOW. Mayor Mike McGinn said at a news conference the private transactions are a loophole that needs to be closed. “There’s no background checks, and some (guns) could be exchanged on the streets that shouldn’t be in circulation.”
But Schuyler Taylor, a previous gun retailer attending the event in hopes of buying weapons, asked “Why not offer them cash versus a gift card? I’m still taking the guns off the streets; they’re just going in my safe.”
People were reportedly, at one point, jumping out of vehicles whilst sitting in traffic — making on the spot deals with the gun buyers.
But the Buy-Back wasn’t a bust. On the contrary — their $80,000 supply of gift cards didn’t last but 2 hours, and by 11:00 am they began attempting to issue IOU’s at which point the entire crowd responded by turning and marching toward the gun dealers, forcing the police officers to pack it up for the day.
On one last note of hilarity, the Seattle Police department claims that they will check the buyback guns to see if any were previously stolen and, if so, try to return them to the rightful owners! Brilliant!
In 1992, Seattle police collected more than 1,200 guns in a four-day buyback program.
Now the only question is, when will the Seattle Police department stage the next gun show?
| — Hat tip: McR | [Return to headlines] |
Sen. Ron Johnson: Secretary Hillary Clinton, You Failed
During her Senate testimony, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stated that approximately 25 Americans who were on the ground or who witnessed the terrorist attack in Benghazi were immediately evacuated. Secretary Clinton also revealed that neither she, nor her senior people, debriefed or spoke with those people immediately after the attack, or for months afterward, to understand what happened. She stated that she didn’t want to be later accused of playing politics.
When I questioned her about the misinformation disseminated for days by the administration, most notably by Ambassador to the U.N. Susan Rice on Sunday news programs five days after the attack, she asked, “What difference does it make?”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Senate Confirms John Kerry as Secretary of State
WASHINGTON — The Senate on Tuesday confirmed Senator John Kerry as secretary of state, filling a key job in President Obama’s second-term national security team.
The nomination was approved by a vote of 94 to 3.
Mr. Kerry, a Massachusetts Democrat who has served in the Senate since 1985, had strong support on both sides of the aisle. Earlier in the day, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the panel he has led for the past four years, gave his nomination unanimous approval.
Mr. Kerry, 69, will succeed Hillary Rodham Clinton, whose last day at the State Department is Friday.
| [Return to headlines] |
Students Aim to Spread Knowledge of Islam, End Stereotypes
With 1.5 billion followers, Islam is the second-most practiced religion worldwide. Despite that number, some Muslims say Islamophobia still persists, even on the UW campus. To help dispel stereotypes and spread awareness about the religion, the UW Muslim Students Association (MSA) has established an annual scholarship of $1,000 for two freshmen or transfer students. This is the first-known scholarship developed by an MSA chapter nationwide. “We have fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, we work hard to earn a living for our families; we are doctors, teachers, in the U.S. Army and police,” MSA President Ahsen Nadeem said. “Our society and country needs to internalize the reality that Muslims are also Americans, and we are working hard for a better and more progressive America.”…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Parents of children killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School appeared before a subcommittee of the Connecticut Legislature on Monday to speak about gun control. While some used the platform to promote stricter firearms legislation, at least one parent became passionate, claiming that there are more than enough laws on the books, that current regulations simply need to be enforced and that the nation needs to embrace personal responsibility.
Mark Mattioli, whose six-year-old son James perished inside of the school, testified that a plethora of new gun laws isn’t the answer and that, instead, personal responsibility, accountability and civility are the best path forward. He made his comments as intense debate surrounding gun control and the causal factors behind the shooting continue to be at the forefront of public discussion.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The South Dakota School of Mines & Technology is partnering with a technology firm to offer a pilot biometric program on campus. Developers hope the pilot program will lead to a cashless society. The university says it is the first in the country to use the technology. The Nexus Smart Pay pilot program is being tested by 50 students and faculty at two locations on campus. The faculty and students pay for goods by scanning their finger. The money is then taken out of an account that students and faculty have deposited money into. The university’s acting president, Duane Hrncir, says the university is proud to be not only the first university but the first organization to pilot the program.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Video: Journalist Accosted by Security Over Mayor Bloomberg Gun Control Question
In an explosive exchange outside the U.S. Conference of Mayors meeting in Washington, D.C., security guards for billionaire New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg accosted senior Talk Radio Network investigative reporter Jason Mattera when he asked the mayor about his strong support for gun control.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Warning: Many Childhood Vaccines Contain Aborted Human Fetal Protein, DNA
(NaturalNews) The National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC), a non-profit vaccine safety group, recently conducted an independent review of the contents of childhood vaccines and found that many of them are tainted with ingredients that would shock most parents. According to the manufacturer-produced package inserts included with each vaccine batch, many vaccines are made with disturbing ingredients like aborted human fetal proteins, altered DNA material, and even genetically-modified (GM) human albumin.
This shocking information was compiled as part of an NVIC safety review on the childhood vaccination schedule, which has been called into question in recent years due to a steady increase in cases of autism and other forms of neurological and brain damage among vaccinated children. As it turns out, there are at least eight, and as many as 23, vaccines routinely administered to children that contain one or more of these questionable ingredients — and if the general public truly knew about this, there would likely be a massive vaccination fallout resulting in the complete collapse of the vaccine industry.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
1,000 Demonstrators Protest Rome’s Trash in Their Dump
50 mayors and EU parliament member among protesters
(ANSA) — Frosinone, January 28 — About 1,000 people demonstrated in front of a southern Italian garbage-disposal facility on Monday to protest the importation of 430 tonnes of rubbish per day from Rome. Despite the winter cold, demonstrators gathered at dawn to the gates of the SAF rubbish plant in Colfelice, located near Frosinone, about one hour south of Rome. A State decree signed by environmental minister Corrado Clini designated the landfill to relieve Rome’s rubbish emergency.
Fifty town mayors from the surrounding territory were among the protestors as well as European parliament member Francesco De Angelis and an outgoing regional council person.
Trucks that gather rubbish from the nearby town of Ciociaria were blocked from entering the facility.
Security forces are manning the zone. Rubbish could start piling up in Rome’s streets in a crisis reminiscent of the problems Naples has had in recent years if a new dump site is not found, Environment Minister Corrado Clini warned last fall.
Clini presented a decree this month to ward off a rubbish emergency in the capital, which would designate space in regional facilities for waste coming from Rome province.
Meanwhile, Lazio’s regional administration is appealing to Italy’s highest administrative court, the Council of State, to fight for its rejected garbage-disposal plan.
Lazio’s garbage woes thickened when the Lazio Regional Administrative Court threw out the regional administration’s 2011-2017 waste management plan, passed in January 2012.
The Italian capital has been on the verge of having trash problems for some time with its huge dump at Malagrotta filled to well beyond capacity and local administrators, environmental groups and residents unable to agree on an alternative.
A commissioner for the rubbish emergency, Prefect Goffredo Sottile, was brought in by the technocrat government of Mario Monti to handle the emergency and locate new space for Rome’s trash.
“On January 1, 2013 we risk having rubbish in the streets of Rome,” Sottile declared in late October.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
France to Expel Radical Preachers Within Days
Against radicalism and global jihad, Interior Minister Valls
(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, JANAURY 29 — France will expel radical foreign preachers within days, Interior Minister Manuel Valls announced Tuesday at an international conference on fighting terrorism and radicalism.
The decision was taken within the framework of preventing radicalization and combating “global jihadism”, Valls said.
“I am not confusing radical Islam and French Islam,” the minister explained. “There are religious communities, and there are self-styled Salafist groups, which are taking part in a political process, and which aim to take over the world of associations, to enter the school system and affect the consciences of a certain number of families. We will expel all those imams and foreign preachers who attack women, who profess that which is contrary to our values and uphold the need to fight France itself. From this point of view it is necessary to stand very firm, and we will.”
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
France to Deport ‘Radical Foreign Imams’
France’s interior minister says the move is part of a fight against “global jihadism”.
French Interior Minister Manuel Valls told a conference that several ‘radical foreign preachers’ will be expelled [EPA]
French Interior Minister Manuel Valls has said that Paris is set to deport a string of radical religious imams as part of a fight against “global jihadism”.
“Several radical foreign preachers will be expelled in the coming days,” Valls told a Brussels conference called to tackle extremism in Europe on Tuesday, without identifying any of the individuals concerned.
“I don’t confuse this radical Islam with the Islam of France but there is a religious environment, there are Salafist groupings, who are involved in a political process, whose aim is to monopolise cultural associations, the schooling system,” he added.
“We will expel all these imams, all these foreign preachers who denigrate women, who hold views that run counter to our values and who say there is a need to combat France.
“We have to be extremely firm and that I will be,” he said.
The move is part of a programme that France has carried for years against those who preach violence or considered to bet a threat to public order and French values.
In last October, France expelled a Tunisian imam accused of calling his followers to “violent jihad” and violence against women, the interior ministry said.
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
Islam Takes Another Step to German Recognition
Bremen is the third German state to recognize Islamic organizations as official religious bodies. Holidays, funerals and pastoral care will be regulated by state contracts. Other states will likely follow suit.
For Erol Pürlü, spokesman for the German Muslim coordination council, the signing of the contract with the city-state of Bremen marked a “day of joy”. Three Muslim associations were officially recognized as religious bodies. “That sends a clear signal that Islam belongs to Germany,” said Pürlü. Bremen is the third German state to confer this status on Islamic organizations. Hamburg made a similar agreement last November, while Hesse officially recognized two Islamic organizations and allowed them to offer their own religious classes in schools in December…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Balotelli’s Younger Brother Convicted in Fight With Police
Enock Barwuah gets suspended sentence for barroom brawl
(ANSA) — Brescia, January 28 — Enock Barwuah, younger brother of Manchester United striker Mario Balotelli, was sentenced to four months in jail Monday for resisting a public officer and violence. Barwuah, 19, was arrested last month and accused of assaulting three police officers called to break up a fight at a bar in Bagnolo Mella, in the province of Brescia.
Barwuah’s sentence was suspended for one year, “a benefit granted very rarely,” his lawyer Alessandro Bertoli said.
Barwuah was also ordered to pay damages of 600 euros to one injured police officer, 2,000 euros to another officer more seriously hurt, and 250 euros in damages to a vehicle.
Bertoli said Barwuah had hoped to be acquitted on the charges, stemming from an incident shortly before Christmas, but is still satisfied with the sentence.
An appeal is still being considered, although Bertoli said that it may be strategically smarter to just accept the sentence and ask that his criminal record be cleared after one year.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Berlusconi Reports Spectacular Come Back for PDL
(AGI) Rome, Jan 28 — Silvio Berlusconi has reported that the PdL has made a spectacular 10 point come back in just a few days, and is now likely to win 50% of seats in the Senate according to polls. In an interview with the Vista news agency recorded over the weekend, Berlusconi said that his party “is leading in the three most important regions and is only 5 points behind the Left in the lower house.” .
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Monti Confirms Top-Secret Status of Abu Omar Case
(AGI) — Milan, Jan 28 — The government has confirmed the top-secret status of the Abu Omar case, in which the former imam of Milan was kidnapped. The decision confirms the stance taken by the governments of Romano Prodi and Silvio Berlusconi.
It was revealed during the Marco Mancini appeal in Milan on Monday when his counsel submitted a letter from the Prime Minister’s office on the matter.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Dell’utri Probed in Naples Library Theft
Ex-Berlusconi aide ‘received books’ from detained thieves
(ANSA) — Naples, January 29 — Marcello Dell’Utri, a Mafia-linked former close aide of ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi, was placed under investigation Tuesday in a probe into the alleged theft of antique books from the important Girolamini library in Naples. Dell’Utri, a Senator with Berlusconi’s People of Freedom (Pdl) party on trial for allegedly helping Cosa Nostra and a noted bibliophile, is believed to have taken possession of several of the 1,500 books allegedly stolen from the library by its former head, Marino Massimo De Caro.
Two people, a book-binder in Bologna who allegedly cancelled the Girolamini imprint from the books and a ‘runner’ who allegedly linked the thieves with buyers, were arrested while arrest warrants were served on four people already in custody.
The four were detained last April when police blocked 500 volumes set for auction in Munich, Germany. All six now face charges of conspiracy, forgery and receipt of stolen goods.
Investigations began in April 2012 after media reported that around 1,500 precious books were missing from the library, then under the direction of De Caro, a former advisor to the culture ministry.
The probe has reportedly revealed the existence of an association dedicated to the systematic depletion of the contents of the library founded in 1586 and known particularly for its vast collection of writings on philosophy and theology. Meanwhile searches continued across Italy to locate numerous volumes that are still missing and which may have ended up on the antique book market. Earlier this month Dell’Utri was removed from the PdL’s list of candidates in upcoming general elections due to concern within the party over the impact among voters of the criminal proceedings against him.
He is currently facing justice in Palermo for allegedly helping the Mafia after Italy’s Supreme Court of Cassation overturned an earlier nine-year conviction and ordered a retrial on grounds that his legal rights had not been observed.
The chief prosecutor has asked for him to be sentenced to seven years in jail.
Dell’Utri, whose cultural interests and vast book collection have often been praised by Berlusconi, is the former head of the media magnate’s advertising arm who is credited with creating the three-time premier’s first party, Forza Italia, in 1993, a year before it swept to victory in general elections.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Mussolini’s Granddaughter Storms Out of Broadcast in Italy
‘Do I have to listen to this dickhead?’ says Berlusconi MP
(ANSA) — Rome, January 29 — The granddaughter of Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini stormed out of a television broadcast when a fellow guest said he had no respect for her late grandfather. “Do I have to stay here and listen to this dickhead?” said Alessandra Mussolini before exiting the studio. Mussolini is an MP in the People of Freedom (PdL) party of Silvio Berlusconi, who is leading the centre-right’s campaign for next month’s Italian election.
The ex-premier caused an uproar Sunday when he said the 1938 anti-Jewish racial laws were the “worst fault” of the Fascist dictator, adding that in many other ways Mussolini “did well”.
On Tuesday, his MP Mussolini was being interviewed by Italian station La7 along with journalist Andrea Scanzi, who denounced the late dictator for persecuting and killing Italian anti-Fascists. “I have respect for Piero Gobetti, for Giacomo Matteotti, for all the people who were devastated by her grandfather, but certainly not for her and her grandfather,” he said. Gobetti was an anti-Fascist intellectual and journalist who was savagely beaten by Fascist thugs in 1925 and died the next year in Paris.
Matteotti was a Socialist politician who on 30 May 1924 spoke out in parliament against Fascist electoral fraud and denounced the violence used to gain votes. He was kidnapped and killed by Fascists 11 days later.
Historians have debated how far Mussolini was involved in the murder, which sparked widespread protests that Mussolini eventually weathered, imposing stronger dictatorial rule.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Pentagon Confirms F-16 Missing Over Adriatic
(AGI) Washington — The U.S. Air Force has confirmed losing all contact with an F-16 fighter plane which took off from Aviano airbase on Monday evening .
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Two Arrested for Selling Residence Permits
Two Migration Board (Migrationsverket) employees in Malmö were arrested on Tuesday morning on suspicions they sold residence permits to asylum seekers.
The two migration agency workers are believed to have sold residence permits to around a dozen asylum seekers, who paid between 50,000 and 100,000 kronor ($7,800 to 15,800), Sveriges Television (SVT) reports.
The asylum seekers, who hailed from Africa and the Middle East, were given forged Bulgarian passports which allowed them to remain in the European Union.
Some also paid the migration agency workers to obtain Swedish residency permits.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Eight Years for Brother Who Fatally Stabbed Sister
The 17-year-old boy from southern Sweden who stabbed his sister to death in April was sentenced to eight years in prison on Tuesday for what the court referred to as an “honour killing”. The boy, who was 16 at the time of the attack, killed his 19-year-old sister in her apartment in Landskrona.
“This is an incredibly harsh sentence. My client is in shock,” the teen’s defence lawyer, Urban Jansson, told the TT news agency. She was stabbed over 100 times with two different knives and a pair of scissors.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Switzerland: Mother Gets Life Term for Killing Three Kids
A court in the canton of Zurich sentenced a mother to life in jail on Tuesday after she confessed to smothering her seven-year-old twins with a pillow and killing a third child — after denying the crimes for years.
The Horgen court found the 39-year-old Swiss citizen of Austrian origin guilty of murdering the twins, a boy and a girl, and of manslaughter for the death of the other child, a baby boy, court spokeswoman Bea Rosenberger told AFP.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
‘The Jews Crucified Our Lord’: Irish Antisemitism and the Complicity of the Catholic Bishops
by Ruth Dudley Edwards
Sarah Honig, a recent Israeli visitor to Cahersiveen, a charming little town in County Kerry, wrote yesterday in the Jerusalem Post of being asked in its main street for a donation by three teenage boys carrying large signs saying “Free Palestine”. When asked from whom Palestine was to be freed, they replied “The Jews”. “Are you sure”, she asked, “that this money wouldn’t fund terrorists and murderers?” She was thrown by the response: “What do you have against Palestinians? What have they done to you? They are only against Jews. Jews are evil.” One of them helpfully added that the Jews “crucified Our Lord”.
Honig then met the teacher, who explained he had brought them out during school hours as part of a class project “to further a humanitarian goal” by inculcating a commitment to charitable work. He “nodded in agreement without a word of objection” when she told him of the children’s remarks about Jews. Those of us who publicly address the one-sidedness of the Irish take on the Middle East are used to ill-informed and/or bigoted politicians and activists (particularly but not exclusively republican or of the Left), but the Catholic Church has been having a pernicious effect too, particularly through its official overseas development agency, Trocaire, an Irish word meaning compassion…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
U.S. F-16 Jet: Pilot Missing Over Adriatic
Aeroplane lost contact with controllers during training mission
(ANSA) — Cervia, January 29 — Italian coast guards and American military continued a massive search on Tuesday for the pilot of a United States F-16 fighter jet that went missing over the Adriatic on Monday.
A fuel slick was seen off the coast near the Italian town of Cervia and a fishing vessel found carbon fragments that could belong to the jet early on Tuesday.
The pilot lost contact with controllers at around 8pm local time on Monday after taking off from the Aviano Air Base in northern Italy for a training mission.
Sources at Aviano’s Pagliano e Gori airport, which has jurisdiction over flights from the US air base, said the fear is technical problem occurred that was “so sudden and serious that the pilot did not have time to activate the mechanism that makes it possible to eject, after having established that the plane could not cause risks for the local population”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Brighton: Call for Unity Against Racist March
Brighton Organisations and Leading Figures Launch Unity Statement Ahead of Far Right March
People of Brighton should show unity against a racist march according to leading local politicians, unions and other individuals and group who are supporting a Unity Statement, that is now online for members of the public to sign. Supporters include Brighton Trades Council, the Brighton University branch of the UCU union, Brighton and Hove NUT, University of Sussex Students Union, Brighton Unite Against Fascism, Brighton Love Music Hate Racism, and Sussex Labour Representation Committee. Individuals who are supporting it include Caroline Lucas MP, and ten Green and Labour members of the council; as well as Simon Burgess, the former Labour leader of the council, James Ledward, the editor of Gscene magazine and Itch, the lead singer of the band King Blues, who is a Brighton Resident…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: How Can the Conservatives Win Over More Ethnic Minority Voters?
By Harry Phibbs
The Times splashes (£) this morning with a report that the Conservatives are proposing that companies should publish data on the number of their workforce from different ethnic groups and the numberrs recruited over the past year. This would be controversial as most Conservatives reject any suggestion of positive discrimination — our instinct is for a “colour blind” approach based on meritocracy. However Alok Sharma, the Tory vice-chairman and MP for Reading West, who has come up with the proposal, says it would be voluntary. He says that it would not conflict with the principle of merit as it would not be a quota system…
[Reader comment by radsatser on 29 January 2013 at about 9 am.]
This seems to have been getting a regular airing on here in recent weeks. Must be the precursor to another halfbaked scheme of how to get rid of more of the core support. As a living breathing blue collar Northern conservative, let me give you a tip about how to widen your support base. Do not under any circumstances even think about, never mind consider implementing further positive discrimination in favour of minorities of any type.
In light of the approaching catastrophe in loss of support you are going to suffer with the implementation of your gay marriage agenda, pandering to other minority groups especially the ethnic vote, which has already caused a substantial loss of support for Labour, would be one of the last nails in the coffin for your party. You might ask why I am bothered, I’m not really, but pointing out something the people really care about, is a usefull method of ensuring the politicos will go ahead anyway, further accelerating the demise of your party.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Lutfur Rahman: Some Facts the Guardian Forgot to Mention
by Andrew Gilligan
For reasons I can’t quite understand, the Guardian newspaper, “the world’s leading liberal voice,” has appointed itself spokesperson for some of the most illiberal forces in London, notably the extremist-dominated East London Mosque and the council leader closely connected to it, Lutfur Rahman (above). Maybe the Guardian likes them simply because the Telegraph doesn’t like them — but even for the left, that seems an outstandingly stupid reason to embrace people who oppose everything you’re supposed to believe…
[Reader comment by Cassandra1963 on 28 January 2013 at 12:56 am.]
Welcome to the 3rd world, it really is everything we feared it would be and worse, and it will get worse, this is normal 3rd world Indian sub continent politics. We were promised a multicultural wonderland, what we are getting is the foundations of the Balkans Mk2 tragedy, now that suits the forces of the anti democratic left perfectly because they have to inherit a wasteland on which to build their utopia. This is what fanatics and believers in the perfect truth believe in with all their heart and they all share the same destruction and rebuilding fantasy.
And the guardian is not liberal in the true descriptive sense, democracy is is only useful to the illiberal left as a means to destroy it from within, get to know any true illiberal progressive leftist of the guardian mould and you very quickly realise how much they hate and despise real democracy. Democracy is a tool and once that tool has achieved its objective it can be discarded, this is how the illiberal left operate. The illiberal left know, or think they know that if they can use democracy as a tool to destroy it then others will use the same strategy, so as soon as they have used that bridge they burn it down.
The extreme left love certain aspects of islamofascism, the two ideologies are similar in outlook, both hate and despise democracy and the supposed degenerate nature of true democracy, both see their ideology as sacred and perfect and anyone not believing the same is seen as an enemy of that perfect truth. Anyone who believes in a perfect unassailable and undoubted higher truth is dangerous, in a group they can be the most fanatical and vicious and cruel people imaginable and have been responsible for a greater part of all the evil of the last century.
Beware the fanatic, they do not tolerate dissent, a non believer becomes their bitter enemy, a person who chooses not to believe their perfect truth must infect others with the poison of their doubt and so they become an enemy of that truth to be wiped out. After so many tragedies in the past we have still to realise how dangerous these true believers are and how they operate, how they exploit democracy only as a means to destroy it from within. The illiberal left recognize in islamofascism the same central iron certainties that they both hold the key to supreme perfection, they both bring with them the darkest of anti human hatred and intolerance.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Litter Squads Make Millions: Fines Soar as Councils Enlist Ex-Soldiers to Patrol Streets
Covert patrols by former soldiers have seen litter fines soar 90-fold in 15 years.
Dropped bank cards, nut shells and even pens have been enough to warrant on-the-spot fines of £80.
A staggering 63,883 tickets were issued in England last year compared with just 727 back in 1997.
The surge follows ‘payments for penalties’ deals between 15 councils and Xfor, which typically takes £45 from each ticket.
Freedom of information requests reveal the firm, which is run by former soldiers, has pocketed £1.6million in commission. It is expected to issue around 40,000 penalties this year.
Councils insist the fines are popular with residents tired of litter-strewn streets. But campaigners say a ‘private police force’ is targeting pedestrians over the most trivial offences.
Patrols have been known to hide in bushes waiting for smokers to drop cigarette butts. One woman in Blaenau Gwent, South Wales, says she was targeted by Xfor for accidentally dropping a cotton thread from her glove.
Another was given a £75 ticket for walking her dog in a field she had used for 30 years. She was not aware it had been turned into a no-dog zone because warning signs had been stolen.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Milton Keynes: Protest Held Outside Cinema Against ‘Islamophobic Film’
For non UK readers Milton Keynes is a ‘New Town’ in England, north of London not too far from Luton. It was originally noted for its clean but souless architecture, including novelty concrete cows. From the Milton Keynes Citizen.
ANGRY Muslims staged a protest against an allegedly Islamophobic film outside Cineworld last Saturday …The group were protesting the UK release of the controversial Indian film Vishwaroopam, which is currently showing in British cinemas. The film has already been banned in two Indian regions and in Muslim countries in South East Asia amid controversy about the way it depicts Muslims as terrorists…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
A millionaire businessman has been ordered to remove an Islamic message from the side of his luxury house because council chiefs say it is advertising, it emerged today. Mahmood Ali, 54, fell out with planners over the wording, taken from the Arabic creed, which reads: ‘There is no god, but Allah and Mohammed is his messenger’…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Rotherham’s Muslims Urged to Report Hate Crime
ROTHERHAM’S Muslim community is being urged to report prejudice or abuse under a new initiative being launched in the north of England. Organisers of the Tell MAMA campaign say anti-Muslim feeling and crime is growing, but they are urging victims not to suffer in silence. The Measuring Anti-Muslim Attacks campaign has set up a website. www.tellmamauk.org, where abuse and hate crime can be reported. Spokesman Faisal Hanif said Victims could describe the abuse suffered and add the location of the attack so that MAMA could analyse places where attacks took place and identify issues like Far Right activity…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: The 14ft Wide Home Built Between Two Semis That is Detached
Room for a small one? Developer Peter Hunter certainly thought so and managed to squeeze a detached home between these two semis.
The house, measuring just 14ft wide, is probably one of the thinnest in Britain. But despite its slim nature, it has three bedrooms, two bathrooms and a living room and dining room.
Mr Hunter, 70, views the property as an ingenious way of converting derelict land into ‘a nice family home’. Unsurprisingly, his neighbours are not quite as enthusiastic — having found he has only left a four-inch gap between the buildings.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Thugs Who Robbed 14-Year-Old Schoolboy of Just £3 Jailed for 18 Months
Two thugs have been jailed for robbing a schoolboy for just three pounds.
Stephen Campbell and Michael Beardmore confronted the teenager in Dover, Kent, last June, before grabbing him around the neck demanding cigarettes and money.
Scared of being attacked, the boy handed over all the cash he had, which he had saved for his bus fare home.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Wake-Up Call for Mr London: Why the ‘Muslim Patrols’ Are Welcome News
[Londoner #1] “I’m actually in favour of immigration, but not Muslim immigration. I just don’t think we have to let in people who are hostile to modernity.”
***Unclosed Item!***{Londoner #@] “They’re not. It’s just some who let the side down. Most of them want to escape their religion by coming here.”
This kind of dialogue should be pretty familiar to anyone residing in London, or any other great Western city. The conversation — regarding the suitability of Muslim residence in the non-Muslim world — almost always ends in a polite stalemate — neither side having budged, and with no-one having benefited.
This is understandable enough, I suppose, since the misunderstanding behind the latter statement is acute and based in a wholly alternate reality. Those who believe it almost certainly reside in areas with little or no Muslim presence. These are people — whose troop includes some of my closest friends — who believe that the Muslims walking around London they do see, draped in religious clothing and sporting veils and beards, are doing so for the same reasons as a Chelsea hipster wears an African skirt; harmless ‘identity-fashion’ in other words, or the means to make an edgy but non-political ‘cultural statement’.
Beneath that garb, they generously imagine, the Muslims are actually perfectly modern, if not slightly postmodern. They are just like you and me. All of that talk of hellfire and infidels is no more threatening or sincere than the trend for retro haircuts in Camden suggests a longing for the conservatism of the 1950s…
[…]
| [Return to headlines] |
Who Really Runs the World? Forget Brussels: Now We Are Ruled by the Giants of Geneva
As predicted, that speech on “Europe” delivered by David Cameron at eight o’clock on Wednesday morning put one in mind of the White Queen’s boast that she could “believe six impossible things before breakfast”. He wanted us to believe that he could persuade the EU to change its nature and the purposes for which it has been built up over 60 years. He wanted us to believe that it could breach its core rule that powers of government once surrendered to Brussels are never handed back; and that he can somehow persuade Brussels, and the other 26 members, to allow us to retain full membership, while opting out of much else except the right to continue trading freely in the single market. He would also have us believe that he can win the next election on the promise of such negotiations, and that they could be completed by 2017, to be part of a new treaty the EU is planning, for quite different purposes — even though the requirements for such a treaty, including a lengthy intergovernmental conference, could not possibly be completed by that date.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: Arab Spring Will Go on for Years, Writer Ben Jelloun
Award-winning novelist foresees long winter of bloodshed
(ANSAmed) — JAIPUR (INDIA), JANUARY 28 — “The Arab Spring is not over yet. It will go on for years, and there will be more slaughter,” Moroccan writer Tahar Ben Jelloun told ANSA on Monday during a literature festival in the city of Jaipur, the capital of the north-western Indian state of Rajasthan.
“It is a struggle for the same principles that sparked the Arab Spring, which are justice and respect for the rule of law,” the author of ‘The Jasmine Revolution’ and ‘Racism Explained to my Daughter’ said of the ongoing violence in Egypt on the second anniversary of its uprising. “The Islamists now in power have shown they are incapable of ruling without treading on personal dignity, and without the help of corruption.” “Democracy has not been assimilated yet in countries like Egypt and Tunisia,” the writer explained. “We must wait a few more years before the Arab Spring consolidates. Before that, there is a long winter ahead, one with many massacres, especially in Syria where tragedy strikes daily.” The UN, says Ben Jelloun, is “good for nothing, a machine for eating money” incapable of stopping “daily slaughters carried out by a barbarian named Bashar al-Assad”. The writer also said he supports French intervention in Mali against “gangster” Islamic extremists. “Fighting these bands of criminals and drug traffickers that are armed and financed by some states and billionaire lobbies is absolutely legitimate,” said Ben Jelloun. “They must be stopped before they enter Algiers.
The novelist and Prix Goncourt winner today participated in a round table on Arab literature with Egyptian writer Ahdaf Soueif, author of ‘Cairo, My City, Our Revolution’ and British-Palestinian writer Selma Dabbagh.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: Death Penalties for Makers of Anti-Islam Film Upheld
Seven Coptic US residents sentenced, 5 years for Jones
Protests and clashes in Cairo after the release of the anti-islam film ‘Innocence of Muslims’ in 2012 (archive)
(ANSAmed) — CAIRO — After the green light given by the Grand Mufti of Egypt, Cairo’s Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld the death sentences of seven Egyptian citizens involved in the film ‘Innocence of Muslims’, whose trailer caused deadly unrest throughout the Arab world in September. A co-defendant, US Pastor Terry Jones, was sentenced to five years in prison.
The seven, all Coptic Christians who reside in the US, were found guilty of insulting Islam and threatening national unity.
Among them is Nikolas Bassili, who directed the film that sparked the fatal protests. In Cairo, protesters scaled the walls of the US embassy and ripped the Stars and Stripes off the flagpole at the center of the compound.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: Army in Suez Cities to Defend Strategic Sites
Political conflict harms future generations, Defense minister
(ANSAmed) — CAIRO, JANUARY 29 — The army has been deployed in the cities of Port Said and Suez to defend strategic sites on the Suez Canal, Defense Minister and Commander in Chief Abdel Fatah el-Sisi told reporters on Tuesday.
The army’s job is to defend “strategic and vital targets”, and any attempt to put them at risk is “a threat to national security and the future of the country,” the minister warned.
“The Egyptian army remains united. It is the spinal cord of the state itself, because it is the army of all Egyptians regardless of their affiliation,” el-Sisi said. “Divergences between political forces on how the country should be run will lead to its demise and is a threat to future generations.”
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: Military Chief Warns of Collapse of State
Egyptian Defence Minister and military chief General Abdel Fattah al-Sissi warned on Tuesday that the political crisis rocking the country could lead to the collapse of the state.
Failure to resolve the situation “could lead to grave repercussions if the political forces do not act” to tackle it, Gen Sissi said in comments posted on his Facebook page. “The continuing conflict between political forces and their differences concerning the management of the country could lead to a collapse of the state and threaten future generations,” Gen Sissi said in the comments, which were extracts of a speech he gave to students at a military academy. He further warned that the political, economic, social and security problems facing Egypt constitute “a threat to the country’s security and stability”…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt Erupts Against the Islamist Regime Favored by Obama
Under Obama’s self-described “leadership,” his administration promulgated the false image of the Muslim Brotherhood as “moderate Islamists” (an oxymoron if there ever was one). Just last September, for example, an administration official, defending the White House’s plan to forgive $1 billion in Egyptian debt, said of the Muslim Brotherhood’s supposed commitment to economic reform: “They sound like Republicans half the time.” And let’s not forget Director of National Intelligence James Clapper’s memorable description of the Muslim Brotherhood in February 2011 as “largely secular.”
As a consequence of his delusions about the good intentions of the Muslim Brotherhood, Obama tilted U.S. policy in their favor to lead the post-Mubarak regime at the expense of the more pro-democracy secularists who sparked the revolution in Tahrir Square in the first place two years ago.
On the second anniversary of the revolution last Friday, violent clashes broke out in Cairo and other Egyptian cities. There were protests aimed at the Muslim Brotherhood’s highjacking of the revolution with its Islamist-infused Constitution that marginalized women’s and minority rights. Over the weekend, confrontations with the police also erupted in response to the death sentences handed down by a court against 21 soccer fans in Port Said for their role in a deadly riot last February. As a result, at least 50 people lost their lives and more than 300 have been injured in the last few days, many of them at the hands of the police.
[…]
Morsi was reportedly angry and almost screaming during his televised address announcing the state of emergency.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Islamists Kill Two Guards in Algerian Gas Pipeline Attack
(AGI) Algiers — A jihadist group have killed two security guards and injured seven in an attack on a gas pipeline southeast of the capital.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Libya: After Assassinations, Misrata Beefs Up Security
Weapons ban, curfew, and checkpoints against militia
(ANSAmed) — ROME, JANUARY 28 — The Misrata city council on Monday banned unauthorized arms and imposed a partial curfew in an effort to curb militia violence, Libyan media reported. The new measures follow on the assassination on Saturday of city council member Mohamed Ben Othman, and on those of two security officers on Wednesday. Check points have been set up throughout the city. Any vehicle carrying unauthorized weapons will be impounded and its occupants arrested, as will anyone circulating armed during the curfew. Vehicles with no license plates or with tinted windows will be impounded.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Tunisia Puts Oil Installation Under Army Protection
After deadly terrorist attack on Algeria’s In Amenas gas site
(ANSAmed) — TUNIS, JANUARY 29 — Tunisia is putting its oil fields under army protection following a deadly terrorist attack on the In Amenas gas site in Algeria last week, Tunisian news agency TAP reported Tuesday.
Special military units will patrol the country’s oil installations, most of which lie in the country’s “Saharan perimeter” in the south-western Tataouine Governorate, bordering Algeria and Libya.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Women Assaulted at Tahrir Square Anniversary of Revolution
(AGI) — Cairo, Jan 29 — There was an rise in sexual assaults on women at Tahrir Square on Friday, the NGO Anti-Sexual Harassment/Assault reports on its Facebook site. NGO volunteers intervened in 15 out of 19 times to protect women on the second anniversary of the Egyptian revolution. In a number of cases women were threatened with knives and other weapons.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Barack Obama Facing ‘Last Chance’ To Secure Middle East Peace
Barack Obama is facing a “last chance” to try and secure an Arab-Israeli peace deal, William Hague said, warning that time was running out for the viability of the so-called ‘two state’ solution.
Noting that the confluence of Mr Obama’s re-election and recent Israeli elections had opened a very narrow window for action, Mr Hague, speaking in Washington, said: “This administration could be the last chance to inject the necessary momentum on this issue.” Speaking hours before hosting a farewell dinner for Hillary Clinton, the outgoing US secretary of state, the Foreign Secretary said that pace of Israeli settlement building and the hardening of Israel’s internal politics could mean that when the next opportunity arose — likely four years from now — it would be too late. “There is a really strong need for fresh momentum from the United States, at the beginning of a second-term administration, after the Israeli elections, and with a two-state solution in danger of slipping away on the ground in the Middle East,” he said…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Obama Secretly Pledges to Divide Jerusalem
Now that he has secured his second term, President Barack Obama has already secretly pledged to the Palestinians he will press Israel into a new round of so-called land-for-peace negotiations, a top Palestinian Authority negotiator told WND.
The negotiator said top members of the Obama administration told the Palestinians the U.S. president will renew talks aimed at creating a Palestinian state in the so-called 1967 borders — meaning in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and, notably, eastern Jerusalem. The negotiator further revealed when it comes to dividing Jerusalem, Obama wants to rehash what is known as the Clinton parameters. That formula, pushed by Bill Clinton during the Camp David talks in 2000, called for Jewish areas of Jerusalem to remain Israeli while the Palestinians will get sovereignty over neighborhoods that are largely Arab.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
‘Fatah Al-Intifada’ Founder Abu Musa Dies
(AGI) Damascus, Jan 29 — Said Musa al-Murragha, better known as Abu Musa, has passed away after a long illness. Abu Musa was a military commander whose opposition to Yasser Arafat caused the the splitting of al-Fatah in 1983. He accused Arafat of being corrupt and of lacking military expertise, hence founded Fatah al-Intifada. The radical movement he had joined has informed he passed away today at dawn in a hospital in Damascus. The funeral will be held tomorrow, after the midday prayer.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Rupert Murdoch Apologises for ‘Grotesque’ Middle East Cartoon
Rupert Murdoch has offered a “major apology” for a “grotesque” cartoon in The Sunday Times, after the newspaper was accused of anti-Semitism.
The media chief took to Twitter to distance himself from the picture by Gerald Scarfe, even after the newspaper had issue a defence of the work. “Gerald Scarfe has never reflected the opinions of The Sunday Times. Nevertheless, we owe major apology for grotesque, offensive cartoon,” Mr Murdoch said. The Sunday Times was criticised by a Jewish lobby group after it printed the cartoon, which showed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu building a wall using what appeared to be the blood of Palestinians as cement. The picture carried the strapline: “Will cementing peace continue?”.
[…]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Syria: President Assad’s Wife Asma, 37, Pregnant
Lebanese, Jordanian media reports
(ANSAmed) — ROME, JANUARY 29 — Syrian President Bashar al-Assad told a Lebanese pro-regime daily in an interview that his wife Asma, 37, is pregnant, Al-Arabiya TV reported on Tuesday. Jordanian news site Al-Bawaba also previously reported the news.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: Erdogan Threatens to Give Up on EU Adhesion
‘Better go with Shanghai Cooperation Organization,’ Erdogan says
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, JANUARY 28 — If the EU can’t make up its mind then Turkey will seriously consider seeking membership in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoan told local media recently.
Now the 16th world economy, Turkey opened accession talks with the EU in 2005, but progress has been slow due to its Cyprus dispute and opposition to Turkey’s membership from some member countries.
“The EU would like to forget about us, but it can’t decide.
Instead of wasting our time, they should tell us what they really think, so we can get on with our business,” Today’s Zaman newspaper reported Erdogan as saying.
“When things turn out to be so disappointing and you’re the prime minister of 75 million people, inevitably you look for another way. That’s why I told (Russian Premier Vladimir) Putin: if we get into the SCO, we will say goodbye to the European Union.” A mutual-security organization founded in 2001 in Shanghai by the leaders of China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, SCO is light years from EU-level integration. But the fact that Erdogan suggested it as an alternative to the EU is a sign that “he has begun to seriously contemplate an alternative”, said analyst Yavuz Baidar.
Popular opinion seems to be swinging away from the EU, and the Islamist populist premier, who has been ruling unchallenged for the past ten years of Turkey’s economic boom, could be wise to follow in its wake: according to the latest survey by foreign policy think tank EDAM, 40% of respondents think Turkey doesn’t need the EU, 33.3% believe Turkey should join, and 19.7% think Turkey should have a “different relationship” with Europe. In 2008, 68% of Turks agreed their country should join the EU.
“At the bottom of their hearts, Turks really want to rule the world,” said Galatasaray University Professor Ahmet Insel.
“An imperial attitude is still living, 90 years after the fall of the Ottoman Empire.”
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Turkish Exports of Hazelnut Up, Profit Down
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, JANUARY 28 — Turkey’s exports of hazelnut between September and December 2012 reached 122,000 tonnes, Anatolia news agency reports. Turkey had exported 99,512 tonnes of hazelnut in the same term of 2011. Despite the increase in the amount of hazelnut exports in 2012, the income Turkey earned from hazelnut exports between September and December 2012 was 763.04 million USD. Turkey had earned 777.5 million USD from the exports of hazelnut between September and December 2011.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Twin Car Bombs Kill 11 Soldiers in South Yemen: Officials
SANAA, Jan. 28 (Xinhua) — At least 11 Yemeni soldiers were killed Monday in two successive suicide car bomb attacks on the army in the southern city of Radda, local police officials said. The suicide attacks came amid preparations by the Yemeni army to embark on a large ground offensive against a number of al-Qaida strongholds in Radda city and neighboring towns in the southeastern province of al-Bayda…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
6 US-Led Troops Killed in Bomb Blast in Afghanistan: Taliban
Taliban say at least six US-led troopers have been killed in a roadside bomb attack in eastern war-torn Afghanistan, Press TV reports. Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid claimed that the incident occurred on Tuesday when a tank belonging to foreign forces hit an improvised explosive device (IED) in Narkh district of Wardak province. Mujahid says the tank was completely destroyed. Locals in the area also said that a blast targeted a tank in the area, adding that choppers of US-led foreign forces soon arrived at the scene of the attack to transfer the injured to hospital…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistan: Policeman Killed as Gunmen Open Fire on Polio Vaccination Team
Gunmen ambushed polio vaccination workers in north-western Pakistan on Tuesday morning, killing a policeman who was providing security to the team.
The attack happened in Swabi, close to where seven charity workers were shot dead earlier this month. It underlines the risks faced by vaccination teams trying to wipe out polio in the face of threats and intimidation by extremists, blamed for murdering nine health workers in December. Abdul Rashid Khan, the local police chief, said the team was going door-to-door giving polio drops to young children on the second day of a three-day campaign. “The polio team comprised of two workers and escorted by a police officer came under fire when they were entering a nearby village for polio vaccination,” he said. Three men armed with AK-47s emerged from fields of sugar cane, he added, and disappeared again within seconds leaving the health workers unharmed.
[….]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Chinese Communist Party Mouthpiece Demands Obama Disarm Americans Again
Global Times, a newspaper described as an “angry Chinese government mouthpiece,” recently published an editorial in which it called for “urgent gun control,” in the United States, the second Chinese Communist Party publication to do so within the last month.
The newspaper’s January 17 front page editorial entitled Political inertia hinders gun control action, states that there is “clearly an urgent need for gun control in the US,” lamenting that it will “be impossible for the country to ban guns.”
Striking an authoritarian tone, the editorial notes how, “The difficulties in promoting gun control show that US society lacks authorities willing and able to push forward reform.” Presumably, if the United States were a one party dictatorship like China, such “reforms” would be far easier to implement.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Monash Council Recommendation to Approve Clayton Mosque
MONASH Council is expected to give the green light to a Clayton mosque at a meeting tonight.
Councillors will vote on a recommendation from council officers to approve a planning permit for the mosque, at 16 Beddoe St, Clayton. The one-storey building would cater for up to 185 people…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Monash Uniting Church Apologises to Islamic Groups Over Mosque Claim
A CHURCH has apologised to Islamic groups for suggesting that an outer-suburban mosque could become a training ground for religious fanatics.
Monash Uniting Church Congregation chairman Richard Farrell had written to Monash Council objecting to plans by an Islamic association to upgrade a house used for prayers to a mosque. Mr Farrell, who said he was writing on behalf of his church, said the expansion would disturb residents with the call to prayer, and “in effect the mosque is a training ground for religious moderates at one end of the scale and religious fanatics at the other end’’…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Victoria’s Peak Muslim Body Lashes Out at ‘Hysterical’ Objections to Mosques
VICTORIA’S peak Muslim body has lashed out at “hysterical” objections whenever plans for mosques go before local councils.
Islamic Council of Victoria board member Nazeem Hussain said there was an underlying level of Islamophobia in society and Muslims had to do more to educate people about their religion and mosque proposals. “People are clearly fearful of Muslims and Islam, and it’s easy to create that fear and hysteria in some ways,” Mr Hussain said. Several applications are in the spotlight, including a bid by an Afghan community group to build a mosque and community centre in Doveton, on the city’s south-east fringe. The mosque, which would be built next to the future headquarters of evangelical church Catch the Fire Ministries, has been hotly debated by residents and City of Casey councillors…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Mali Crisis: 350 UK Military Personnel Sent to West Africa
The UK is to deploy about 350 military personnel to Mali and West Africa to support French forces, No 10 has said.
This includes up to 40 military advisers who will train soldiers in Mali and 200 British soldiers to be sent to neighbouring African countries to assist in the training of the army.
Britain has offered a roll-on, roll-off ferry to transport equipment to the French force in Mali. It said the UK was doing what it could to support the French mission…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Supporting Mali Against Islamists a ‘Moral Imperative’
(AGI) Addis Ababa, Jan 28 — UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon has called supporting Mali in its battle against Islamists “a moral imperative”. He made this statement during the African Union summit underway in the Ethiopian capital. Ban said he was “determined to help the Malian population in these critical times”, stressing that the support is “a moral imperative for the entire international community”.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Timbuktu Shops Sacked, ‘Arab’ Businesses Targeted
(AGI) — Timbuktu’, Jan 29 — With the end of Sharia law, Timbuktu has been sacked. The day following in entrance of Franco-Malian troops in the legendary city on the edge of the desert, hundreds of Malians sacked the city’s shops. Those belonging to the “Arabs” who backed the Islamists were particularly targeted. The looters themselves, speaking with journalists on the site, said the angry mob wanted to loot the shops of Arabs, Mauritanians and Algerians who supported the Islamists who have now fled the city.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Uganda: Mengo, Muslims Clash Over Lubiri Mosque
Prince Kassim Nakibinge, fondly regarded as the “grandfather of the Muslim community in Uganda,” has moved to calm tensions between some enraged Muslims and the Buganda kingdom following the demolition of a mosque inside the Mengo palace by unknown people, last week. The mosque, built in the 1970s when the palace was essentially used as a military barracks, was razed on the night of January 20, 2013. According to palace sources, Nakibinge has assured the Muslim community that the mosque will be rebuilt. The Katikkiro of Buganda, John Baptist Walusimbi, denied sanctioning the demolition of the mosque…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
LatAm States Back Argentine Claim Over Malvinas
SANTIAGO, Jan. 28 (Xinhua) — The Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) adopted a resolution Monday to voice support for Argentina’s claim over the disputed Malvinas Islands, known to the British as the Falklands. The resolution said the bloc firmly supported “the legitimate rights of Argentina in the dispute over the sovereignty of the islands,” which marked the unanimous support of the regional countries for the first time…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Mexico: Mass Human Sacrifice? Pile of Ancient Skulls Found
Archaeologists have unearthed a trove of skulls in Mexico that may have once belonged to human sacrifice victims. The skulls, which date between A.D. 600 and 850, may also shatter existing notions about the ancient culture of the area. The find, described in the January issue of the journal Latin American Antiquity, was located in an otherwise empty field that once held a vast lake, but was miles from the nearest major city of the day, said study co-author Christopher Morehart, an archaeologist at Georgia State University. “It’s absolutely remarkable to think about this little nothing on the landscape having potentially evidence of the largest mass human sacrifice in ancient Meso-America,” Morehart said.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The British Dream: Why Europe’s African Citizens Come to Britain
Talking to African migrants, I have found many admire Britain so much they give up better public services elsewhere in the EU
A clear majority of British people think current immigration levels are too high, according to many polls. A major fear is that too many newcomers will stretch Britain’s already shrinking welfare state. According to some reports, Downing Street is considering negative advertising, to persuade Bulgarians and Romanians to stay away. It doesn’t help quell these fears when new migrants from poorer parts of the world, such as Somalia, show high rates of unemployment.
But what if we were told that thousands of people from Africa we’ve seen arriving here are not, in fact, fleeing poverty at all? Or that, legally speaking, they’re not even Africans, but rather nationals of such generous welfare utopias as Sweden, Denmark and Holland?
For BBC Radio 4, I’ve been searching for some idea of what the modern “British Dream” could be, through a series of frank interviews with some of the almost 3 million new arrivals to England and Wales since 2001 (the first of three programmes is broadcast at 8pm starting tonight). Time and again, our team uncovered Africans who were not any longer from Africa. They were EU citizens and actually giving up welfare rights in places like Scandinavia to come to the UK.
Indeed, we met so many Nigerians from Germany, or Somalis from Denmark, that we asked Oxford University’s Migration Observatory to crunch the numbers on how many EU migrants are not originally from Europe. They found that 141,000 people, 7% of those who came to the UK under EU rules were born outside the continent. Somalis are one of the biggest such groups, with an estimated 20,000 coming to the UK from the Netherlands alone. Studies show that between one third and a half of the entire Dutch Somali community has moved to the UK.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: ‘I Feel Like a Stranger Where I Live’
by Jane Kelly
As new figures show ‘white flight’ from cities is rising, one Londoner writes a provocative personal piece about how immigration has drastically changed the borough where she has lived for 17 years
“When you go swimming, it’s much healthier to keep your whole body completely covered, you know.” The Muslim lady behind the counter in my local pharmacy has recently started giving me advice like this. It’s kindly meant and I’m always glad to hear her views because she is one of the few people in west London where I live who talks to me. The streets around Acton, which has been my home since 1996, have taken on a new identity. Most of the shops are now owned by Muslims and even the fish and chip shop and Indian takeaway are Halal. It seems that almost overnight it’s changed from Acton Vale into Acton Veil.
Of the 8.17 million people in London, one million are Muslim, with the majority of them young families. That is not, in reality, a great number. But because so many Muslims increasingly insist on emphasising their separateness, it feels as if they have taken over; my female neighbours flap past in full niqab, some so heavily veiled that I can’t see their eyes. I’ve made an effort to communicate by smiling deliberately at the ones I thought I was seeing out and about regularly, but this didn’t lead to conversation because they never look me in the face.
I recently went to the plainly named “Curtain Shop” and asked if they would put some up for me. Inside were a lot of elderly Muslim men. I was told that they don’t do that kind of work, and was back on the pavement within a few moments. I felt sure I had suffered discrimination and was bewildered as I had been there previously when the Muslim owners had been very friendly. Things have changed. I am living in a place where I am a stranger…
Jane Kelly is consulting editor of the ‘Salisbury Review’
[Reader comment by Mike Wood on 29 January 2013 at http://www.newenglishreview.org/blog_display.cfm/blog_id/45919 ]
I live outside Bradford and go to work there everyday. The place is becoming more and more alien to me. It’s breaking up into small social fragments with Muslim ghettoes forming the largest elements. These places are now avowedly hostile to non-Muslims. Muslims treat non-Muslims as outsiders. They only take an interest in you if they think you’re likely to convert to Islam. As with so many places in the UK and Europe, the Muslim population, with its stark otherness and territorial claims, is expanding inexorably outwards in all directions. Where I live at the moment is thankfully free of Muslims but I know with total certainty that one day they’ll be turning up in my town to begin the process of colonisation. I live in dread of this now.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Class Offers to ‘Heal’ Teachers Afflicted With Racism
The Milwaukee Teacher’s Education Association is promoting a series of workshops to help heal teacher’s infected with racism.
The “Healing Racism Workshops” provide college credit for educators who enroll in the class.
“We have all been assigned a race by America’s pervasive socialization process,” read a flyer promoting the workshop. “This racial conditioning permeates the fabric of our inter-personal and inter-group relations, taking little account of laws and statutes, and reaching deep into the hearts and minds of individuals.”
But critics of the class said it smacks of blame and victimization.
“Here we go again,” said Kyle Olson, founder of EAG, a non-partisan group that promotes sensible education reform. “Here’s another example of education activists seeking to implement their personal political agenda on others.”
The MTEA did not return calls seeking comment — nor did the group hosting the workshops.
“There’s a strain of thought in education that white people are racist,” Olson told Fox News. “We have educators and their trainers who put huge emphasis on this and they are seeking to dispel this so-called white privilege.”
The training workshop comes just days after a high school in southern Wisconsin came under fire for teaching a white privilege class to high school students.
“Their teaching white guilt,” one parent told Fox News. “They’re dividing the students. They’re saying to non-whites, ‘You have been oppressed and you’re still being oppressed.’“
The class at Delavan-Darien High School is currently under review by educators.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Morally Straight? The Transformation of the Boy Scouts of America
The comprehensive scope of the moral revolution America is currently experiencing is likely to surprise many Americans when they realize that the Boy Scouts are now swept up in the revolutionary tide. Word came yesterday that the Boy Scouts of America is poised to change its policy preventing the participation of openly homosexual scouts and leaders. According to a spokesman for the Boy Scouts, the group may make the formal decision to end the policy as early as next week. This announcement comes just six months after the B.S.A. board declared that it would not reconsider the policy. Deron Smith, B.S.A. national spokesman, said last July that a special committee established by the B.S.A. board had unanimously recommended keeping the policy. Smith said that the committee “came to the conclusion that this policy is absolutely the best policy for the Boy Scouts.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The “Chickification” Of America
Obama is a girly man. When you think of Reagan, he is astride a horse at his ranch. When you think of Obama, he is riding a bicycle.
The latest manifestation of an effort that pre-dates Obama, the “chickification” of America, is the decision by the Department of Defense to allow women to engage in battle alongside their male counterparts. There are few ideas more idiotic than this. Forget the usual arguments put forth about upper body strength and such, even the Israeli Defense Force, famous for including women in its ranks, uses them auxiliary functions in order to free up the men to do the actual fighting.
As I was thinking about the changes occurring in our culture, I was reminded of a list of Communist goals that were read into the Congressional Record by Rep. Albert S. Herlong, Jr, (D-Florida) in 1963. There were 45 of them, based on a book by Cleon Skousens, “The Naked Communist.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Salman and Khomeini’s Excellent Adventure
A review of Salman Rushdie’s memoir “Joseph Acton”
Joseph Acton, Salman Rushdie’s memoir of his years in hiding, is such a collection of industry talk, full of the good and bad reviews he received, the famous people he attended parties with and his opinion of every writer, lover and editor he came in contact with. There are plenty of meditations on his years in hiding and his relationship with his service branch protectors, but Rushdie is a creature of the publishing industry and the literary circles that made him famous and kept him influential, and the book is more about that world than it is about the reasons he went into hiding and stayed in hiding.
All biography is at its heart fiction and Joseph Acton is a triumphant work of fiction as its author labors to make Rushdie’s numerous marriages and infidelities seem like the natural outcome of a stressful situation and the neurosis of his many wives. Any writer who crosses Rushdie or whom he crosses receives that same treatment. How much of it is true, is impossible to know.
Joseph Acton is Rushdie’s way of settling scores, some probably justified, some probably not, with countless reviewers, writers, politicians and wives. Throughout it all he manages to maintain the persona of an affable man wronged by unfair attacks and allegations, though toward the end when discussing his breakup with Padma Lakshmi, he begins ranting incoherently about Scrooge McDuck.
What Joseph Acton isn’t about, is Islamism or even freedom of expression. Rushdie does his best to make his ability to write and live freely as the acid test of freedom of expression, and he has a case considering that silencing him was the first major move to enforce Islamic law in the West. But it’s less a case of a courageous reformer speaking out, than a mildly famous left-wing writer discovering that circumstances had placed him on the firing line.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Why do you deprive us of the pleasureful details about that splinter under your nail? As MAD magazine once quoted a WWII Japanese, “and if torture that doesn’t work, we’ll try shoving bamboo splinters under your fingernails…”