Gates of Vienna News Feed 2/17/2013

Supporters of the late Christopher Dorner, the ex-LAPD cop who is suspected of killing four people and wounding a number of others, demonstrated yesterday outside police headquarters in Los Angeles. The protesters were objecting to what they identify as rampant corruption and brutality among LA police. They said they don’t agree with Mr. Dorner’s murderous methods, but share his sentiments about problems in the police force.

In other news, an official with Germany’s Federal Financial Supervisory Authority says that the euro crisis is far from over. He maintains that the excess liquidity flooding the banking system has not solved the underlying structural problems in the Eurozone.

To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, Nilk, Paul Green, Steen, Vlad Tepes, 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.

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.

Financial Crisis
» America’s Financial Downfall: Citizens Now Desperately Raiding 401(k) Plans to Pay Bills Long Before Retirement
» Credit Rating Agency Upgrades Iceland
» Donald Boudreaux and Mark Perry: The Myth of a Stagnant Middle Class
» Euro Crisis ‘Not Solved, ‘ German Bank Supervisor Says
» Eurozone Sees Record Trade Surplus of 81.8 Bn Euros
» Ex MPS Chief Mussari Contested on Arrival for Questioning
» G20 Summit to Focus on ‘Currency War’ Threat to Economy
» Greece: Privatizations; Three Big Company to Go by End-April
» Greenspan: Ignore the Economy, “Only the Stock Market Matters”
» Italy: RCS Publishing Group to Sack 800 Employees
» Italy: Former MPS Chairman and Ex-General Manager Probed
» Merkel Calls for Tax on Financial Transactions
» Spain Likely to Get More Time to Bring Down Deficit, Almunia
» UK: Now They Want to Tax Jewellery: New Lib Dem Wealth Plan to Target All Assets — Including Buy-to-Let Homes
 
USA
» Alex Jones Exposes Behind the Scenes at CNN Uncensored (Video)
» Austin Police Employ GPS Dart System to Track Suspect Vehicles
» Chuck Norris: 10 Reasons I Wish George Washington Were Still Alive (This is Part 1 of a Series on President George Washington.)
» Dozens of Pro-Dorner Protesters Rally at LAPD HQ
» Dr. Bruce Levine: The Antidepressant Epidemic (Video)
» Have Pastors Forsaken America?
» Muslims Claim Christian Group Defamed Them
» The Diseased Minds of Liberals
 
Europe and the EU
» Cypriot Presidential Elections Hinge on Economy
» EU States Call on Big Business to Pay More Tax
» Germans Place Fourth for Gun Ownership
» Germany: 20,000 Problems Plague New Berlin Airport
» Germany: Lernstift Digital Pen Vibrates to Indicate Bad Spelling, Grammar and Penmanship
» Greek DEPA Secures Discount From Gas Suppliers
» How Europe Bankrolls Terror
» Italy: Ex-PDL Candidate Arrested in Milan for Alleged Market Fraud
» Italy: Ingroia Says Monti Belongs to the Corrupt Ruling Class
» Italy: ILVA Slams Taranto Court Order to Sell Impounded Stock
» Italy: Former Berlusconi Minister Sentenced to Four Years in Jail
» Italy: Berlusconi Unconcerned Over Potential Corruption Scandal
» Madrid Court Remands Swede on Terror Charges
» Netherlands: Will 3D-Printed Houses Stand Up as Architecture?
» Sitzerland: Bern Signs Tax Disclosure Agreement With US
» UK: Anjem Choudary: Hate Preacher Pocketing £25,000 a Year in Benefits Calls on Fanatics to Live Off the State
» UK: Give Suspects in Rape Cases Anonymity to Prevent the Innocent Becoming ‘Stigmatised’, Says Top Barrister
 
North Africa
» Egypt: Prosecutor General to Summon Salafi Preacher Over ‘Contempt of Religion’
» Italy: Egyptian Minister Announces Webcams at Tourist Sites
» Libyan-Style “Democracy”: Two Years Without Gaddafi
 
Israel and the Palestinians
» The Holy See is Negotiating With the “State” Of Palestine
 
Middle East
» French Student Jailed in Turkey Terror Trial
» From Football to Military Might, How Qatar Wields Global Power
» Iran Confiscating Buddha Statues to Stop Promotion of Buddhism
» Islamism: ‘Spiritual Pathology Based on Deformed Theology’
» Islamic Supremacy Alive and Well in Ankara
» Lebanon: Over 100 Italian Restaurants for 4 Mln Inhabitants
» Saudi Princess ‘Blackmailed by Fake Sheikh Who Wants £320,000 for Video Which Shows Her Smoking and Blowing a Kiss With Head Uncovered’
 
South Asia
» India Scrapping Finmeccanica Helicopter Contract
» India Freezes Finmeccanica Deal, Could Strike One for French Helicopters
 
Far East
» A Genetic Code for Genius?
» Video: Acclaimed Author Exposes Overpopulation Myth
 
Australia — Pacific
» Geert Wilders: Islamification of Western Societies Threatens Everyone’s Freedoms
» Protests Likely as Controversial Dutch MP Geert Wilders Changes Venue
 
Sub-Saharan Africa
» Briton Among Seven Foreign Workers Kidnapped by Gunmen in Nigeria During Attack on Construction Firm
 
Immigration
» Italy: Immigrant Auto Ownership Climbs 34% in 15 Months
» State of the Union Speech Features Illegal Alien Stage Props
 
Culture Wars
» 2017: What Will Christendom Look Like?
» Death Threats to UK’s Top Muslim MP Who Voted for Gay Marriage
» Love is Finally Dead in America, But Does Anyone Care?
 
General
» Can You Trust a New Brain With an IQ of 7000?
» It’s Not Easy Being Red and Green
» Scientists Unveil New Detectors in Race to Save Earth From Next Asteroid
» The Starving Goose

America’s Financial Downfall: Citizens Now Desperately Raiding 401(k) Plans to Pay Bills Long Before Retirement

Is chronic, slow economic growth and rising poverty the new normal for America and Americans? Unfortunately, for an increasing number of people, the answer is yes.

According to recent reports, a large and growing portion of American workers who are having trouble making ends meet because of rising costs are being forced to raid their retirement accounts for non-retirement needs, “raising broad questions about the effectiveness of one of the most important savings vehicles for old age,” The Boston Globe said.

In fact, more than one in four — a staggering 25 percent of workers — with 401 (k) and similar retirement savings accounts are now using them to pay current bills, new data indicates.

The monetary figure is alarming: A quarter of the $293 billion deposited in such accounts each year is now being drained via loans, withdrawals and out-right cash-outs, “undermining already shaky retirement security for millions of Americans,” the paper said.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Credit Rating Agency Upgrades Iceland

Credit rating agency Fitch has upgraded Iceland’s debt from junk status to the investment grade of BBB, reports the Guardian. The island-nation allowed its banks to fail and escaped the severe social downturns experienced in most other European countries which bailed out their financial institutions.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Donald Boudreaux and Mark Perry: The Myth of a Stagnant Middle Class

Household spending on food, housing, utilities, etc. has fallen from 53% of disposable income in 1950 to 32% today.

By Donald J. Boudreaux and Mark J. Perry

A favorite “progressive” trope is that America’s middle class has stagnated economically since the 1970s. One version of this claim, made by Robert Reich, President Clinton’s labor secretary, is typical: “After three decades of flat wages during which almost all the gains of growth have gone to the very top,” he wrote in 2010, “the middle class no longer has the buying power to keep the economy going.”

This trope is spectacularly wrong.

It is true enough that, when adjusted for inflation using the Consumer Price Index, the average hourly wage of nonsupervisory workers in America has remained about the same. But not just for three decades. The average hourly wage in real dollars has remained largely unchanged from at least 1964—when the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) started reporting it.

Moreover, there are several problems with this measurement of wages. First, the CPI overestimates inflation by underestimating the value of improvements in product quality and variety. Would you prefer 1980 medical care at 1980 prices, or 2013 care at 2013 prices? Most of us wouldn’t hesitate to choose the latter.

Second, this wage figure ignores the rise over the past few decades in the portion of worker pay taken as (nontaxable) fringe benefits. This is no small matter—health benefits, pensions, paid leave and the rest now amount to an average of almost 31% of total compensation for all civilian workers according to the BLS.

Third and most important, the average hourly wage is held down by the great increase of women and immigrants into the workforce over the past three decades. Precisely because the U.S. economy was flexible and strong, it created millions of jobs for the influx of many often lesser-skilled workers who sought employment during these years.

Since almost all lesser-skilled workers entering the workforce in any given year are paid wages lower than the average, the measured statistic, “average hourly wage,” remained stagnant over the years—even while the real wages of actual flesh-and-blood workers employed in any given year rose over time as they gained more experience and skills.

These three factors tell us that flat average wages over time don’t necessarily support a narrative of middle-class stagnation…

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Euro Crisis ‘Not Solved, ‘ German Bank Supervisor Says

BONN — Cheap loans from the European Central Bank (ECB) might have calmed the euro crisis, but the fundamental problems are still there: governments have too much debt and no strategy to get out of it, Raimund Roeseler, executive director for banking supervision in Germany’s Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin), has said.

“The sovereign debt crisis is certainly not solved. The ECB pumped more money into the system, but that doesn’t make states automatically more solvent,” Roeseler told EUobserver in an interview in his office in Bonn, the former German capital.

The €1-trillion-worth of cheap loans handed out by the ECB last year created “a lot of liquidity” on the banking market, but banks still prefer to park their money overnight in the ECB rather than lend it to each other due to lingering mistrust, he noted.

“The problem is not so much with the banks, but with the states. There are still concerns about the solvency of states and what will happen if a state gets in trouble,” Roeseler said.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Eurozone Sees Record Trade Surplus of 81.8 Bn Euros

In 2011, eurozone trade deficit 15.7 bn, best since 2006

(ANSAmed) — Brussels, February 15 — The 17 countries of the Eurozone pulled off a record trade surplus of 81.8 billion euros in 2012, Eurostat reported on Friday. In 2011, the Eurozone had a trade deficit of 15.7 billion euros — the best figure since 2006.

The 27 countries of the European Union, instead, saw its trade deficit narrow from 162.7 billion euros in 2011 to 104.6 billion in 2012.

In 2012, the largest trade surpluses were seen in Germany (+174.6 billion euros), Holland (+46 billion), Ireland (+39.9 billion), and the Czech Republic (+12.1 billion). The biggest European trade deficits were felt by Britain (-152.9 billion euros), France (-75.2 billion), Spain (-30 billion), and Greece (-19 billion). Italy had a trade surplus of nine billion euros for the first eleven months of 2012, a significant improvement over its trade deficit in 2011 of 26.9 billion euros. In 2012, the Eurozone especially improved its exports toward Japan and Russia (+15%), United States (+13%), Switzerland and United Kingdom (+8%).

Imports declined from all countries, except the United States (+8%) and Russia (+4%).

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Ex MPS Chief Mussari Contested on Arrival for Questioning

Protesters throw coins, shout ‘thief’ and ‘buffoon’

(ANSA) — Siena, February 15 — Monte dei Paschi di Siena (MPS) former chairman Giuseppe Mussari met with a small crowd of angry protesters Friday as he entered the local courthouse for questioning by prosecutors over his role in a major financial scandal at his troubled former bank.

People threw coins and shouted “thief” and “buffoon” at the former chair who resigned as chief of the Italian banking association ABI last month after it emerged that shady derivatives operations conducted by MPS while he was at the helm had led to previously undisclosed losses of hundreds of millions of euros.

Mussari is now reportedly under investigation for market manipulation, fraud, obstructing the work of banking watchdogs, issuing false statements and — as of Thursday — collusion in obstruction of proper oversight with the former head of the MPS finance department Gianluca Baldassari and ex-director-general Antonio Vigni.

Separate probes into the scandal at the world’s oldest bank are underway in Rome and Trani in the southern region of Puglia.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

G20 Summit to Focus on ‘Currency War’ Threat to Economy

Japan’s aggressive attempts to spur on its struggling economy were set to escape censure from the G20 nations today as bickering in Moscow kept alive fears of a “currency war”.

Finance ministers at the G20 gathering are understood to have pulled back from explicit criticism of Japan, whose prime minister Shinzo Abe has embarked on a huge programme of monetary and fiscal stimulus to jump start the world’s third largest economy out of its third recession in five years.

The currency market was thrown into turmoil this week after the G7 — the United States, Japan, Germany, Britain, France, Canada and Italy — issued a joint statement warning against using domestic policy to target currencies.

But the show of unity was immediately shattered by off-the-record briefings against Japan, which needs a weaker yen to help fuel its export-driven economy.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Greece: Privatizations; Three Big Company to Go by End-April

(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, FEBRUARY 14 — The sell-offs of gaming company OPAP and gas firms DEPA and DESFA should be completed by the end of April, according to the plans of the state privatization fund (TAIPED), Kathimerini reports adding that yesterday the board of the Thessaloniki Water Company (EYATH) approved the sale of its majority (51%) stake. After meeting with Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras on Wednesday, TAIPED chief Takis Athanasopoulos stated that binding offers for OPAP will be submitted by April 5 and for DEPA and DESFA by April 12, with the winning bids chosen by the end of that month. By the same date, Athanasopoulos also expects agreements for the sale of the Afandou plot on Rhodes and six state properties located overseas that are in the process of concession.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Greenspan: Ignore the Economy, “Only the Stock Market Matters”

Starting at around 1:50, Greenspan states the odds of sequester occurring are very high — in fact, the playdough-faced ex-Chair-head notes, “I find it very difficult to find a scenario in which [the sequester] doesn’t happen” But when asked how this will affect the economy, Awkward Alan is unusually clearly spoken — “the issue is how does it affect the stock market.”

While not so many of our leaders have taken the path to direct truthiness, Greenspan somewhat shocks a Botox’d and babbling Bartiromo when he admits “the stock market is the key player in the game of economic growth.”

Bartiromo shifts uncomfortably in her seat, strokes her imaginary beard and stares blankly as Greenspan explains that while the sequester will have a real effect on the real economy, “if the stock market can hold up through this, then the effect will be rather minor.”

He ends with a couple of wonderful truthisms — data shows that not only are stock markets a leading indicator of economic activity, they are a major cause of it — 6% of the change in the growth in GDP results from changes in the value of stocks and homes. So there it is — if we didn’t already know, straight from an old horse’s mouth — it’s all about stocks!

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Italy: RCS Publishing Group to Sack 800 Employees

Plans to sell or close 10 magazines

(ANSA) — Milan, February 11 — The chief executive officer of the RCS publishing group, which owns Italy’s biggest national newspaper and a number of major Italian magazines, told unions on Monday the group plans to lay-off 800 of its nearly 5,000 employees.

CEO Pietro Scott Jovane, along with the head of RCS personnel, also told unions the group will either shutter or sell 10 of its magazines.

The magazines concerned represent 20% of the group’s revenues and jobs for 90 journalists and graphic artists. Their titles are A, Bravacasa, Yacht & Sail, Max, Europeo, Astra, Novella, Visto, Ok Salute, and the group’s crossword puzzle department.

Three-quarters of the layoffs — or 600 — will be in Italy, and will affect both journalists and non-editorial staff. Jovane also announced plans to vacate the historic downtown Milan headquarters of its two flagship newspapers.

The national daily “Il Corriere della Sera” and the sports paper “La Gazzetta dello Sport”, will be moved to the publishing group’s seat in the city’s northeastern periphery.

Journalists at both papers are meeting separately Monday evening to decide how they will respond. RCS stock on the Milan stock exchange was nearly unmoved by the announcement, falling 1.13% to 1.15 euros per share.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Italy: Former MPS Chairman and Ex-General Manager Probed

Mussari, Vigni accused of obstructing Bank of Italy supervision

(ANSA) — Rome, February 14 — Both the former chairman and the ex-general manager of troubled Italian lender Monte dei Paschi di Siena (MPS) were put under investigation Thursday for obstructing the supervisory role of the Bank of Italy during its ongoing fraud investigation. The Italian central bank announced last month it was going through MPS documents when it emerged that a previously undisclosed series of derivative and structured-finance deals produced losses in excess of 720 million euros.

Former MPS chairman Giuseppe Mussari and ex-general manager Antonio Vigni have previously been called for questioning in the case.

MPS, Italy’s third-largest lender and the world’s oldest bank, is creaking under the weight of the failed derivatives transactions and alleged corruption which has involved some of the bank’s top managers.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Merkel Calls for Tax on Financial Transactions

(AGI) — Berlin, Feb 16 — German chancellor Angela Merkel has reiterated the need to tax financial transactions. In her weekly videotaped address, the chancellor said that the measure would be introduced next year in the EU and that — at least initially — it would be go into effect in 11 EU countries.

However, “this is only the beginning, and it would be better if all EU countries took part,” she said, adding that Germany is working hard to prepare the ground for the introduction of the tax.

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]

Spain Likely to Get More Time to Bring Down Deficit, Almunia

Progress achieved, unemployment and corruption concern EU

(ANSAmed) — MADRID, FEBRUARY 15 — The European Commission will “probably” grant Spain an extension to the deadline by which it must reduce its deficit to below 3%, currently set for 2014. The announcement was made by Commission Vice President and Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia at a Madrid press conference. “Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs Olli Rehn,” he added, “feels that Spain has made sufficient progress in reducing its deficit”, though it did not achieve the 6.3% target for 2012. “What I would like to ask European counterparts is how Spain can have a 26% unemployment rate, 56% among the young, even though with the crisis lessening the drop in absolute terms of GDP was not that sharp. This is the main concern, followed by cases of corruption which keep popping up like mushrooms day after day”.

Saying that employment policy is the remit of member states, Almunia noted the European Commission’s recent approval of a series of measures and recommendations for the struggle against youth unemployment. Over a third of the European Social Fund, as part of the EU 2013-2020 Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF), will be allocated to Spain, which lacks “active employment policies”.

The crisis is not only hitting Europe harshly, it is doing so “in an unequal manner”, fostering “divergences of political perception” which, as Almunia underscored, “make it difficult to find shared commitments that bring together responsibility and solidarity. This difficult equilibrium is what we need to build every day”. However, Almunia did not want to speak about a divided Europe, noting it was the search for greater EU integration that had partially rekindled the debate and raised “eurosceptic views in the United Kingdom”.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

UK: Now They Want to Tax Jewellery: New Lib Dem Wealth Plan to Target All Assets — Including Buy-to-Let Homes

Families will be forced to pay tax on jewellery and other heirlooms under controversial new plans drawn up by the Liberal Democrats.

Under the scheme, tax inspectors would get unprecedented new powers to go into homes and value rings, necklaces, paintings, furniture and other family treasures.

Householders would be forced to pay a new ‘wealth’ levy on the assets — with the threat of fines for those who refused to let snoops value their possessions.

A policy document seen by The Mail on Sunday spells out how the taxman ‘may have to visit homes to test values of jewellery, paintings, etc’.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Alex Jones Exposes Behind the Scenes at CNN Uncensored (Video)

In an interview with WHDT host Gary Franci, Alex Jones explains what really happened with CNN’s Piers Morgan and the larger attempt to shame 2nd Amendment rights and hand all remaining power over the usurpers in Washington.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Austin Police Employ GPS Dart System to Track Suspect Vehicles

Austin police officers can now shoot GPS-equipped darts at vehicles while on the chase.

The Austin Police Department debuted a new GPS vehicle tracking system, called StarChase, that allows officers to deploy a device similar to a dart from the front of their cars. The device sticks to the back of the vehicle police are pursuing and helps track the suspect, APD Chief Art Acevedo said.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Chuck Norris: 10 Reasons I Wish George Washington Were Still Alive (This is Part 1 of a Series on President George Washington.)

Many conservatives point to great modern men and leaders like Ronald Reagan as models we can follow, and I concur with their sentiment. But I think the best of leaders lived long ago during the founding of our republic, away from the limelight and luster of today’s politics and Washington drama.

With Feb. 18 being President’s Day and Feb. 22 being the actual day George Washington was born, I thought it was no better time to honor what I consider one of the greatest leaders ever born anywhere. And I’m going to take a few weeks (articles) to do it.

Let me begin by highlighting a few background notes for some who might not be as familiar with this pillar of American life beyond the basics, as documented by the University of Virginia and the History Channel.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Dozens of Pro-Dorner Protesters Rally at LAPD HQ

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Dozens of protesters rallied outside Los Angeles police headquarters Saturday in support of Christopher Dorner, the former LAPD officer and suspected killer of four who died after a shootout and fire this week at a mountain cabin following one of the biggest manhunts in recent memory.

Protesters told the Los Angeles Times (http://lat.ms/11Ndm6i ) they didn’t support Dorner’s deadly methods, but objected to police corruption and brutality, and believed Dorner’s claims of racism and unfair treatment by the department. Many said they were angered by the conduct of the manhunt that led to Dorner’s death and injuries to innocent bystanders who were mistaken for him.

Michael Nam, 30, who held a sign with a flaming tombstone and the inscription “RIP Habeas Corpus,” said it was “pretty obvious” police had no intention of bringing Dorner in alive.

“They were the judge, the jury and the executioner,” Nam said. “As an American citizen, you have the right to a trial and due process by law.”

During the hunt for Dorner, LAPD Chief Charlie Beck called for Dorner’s surrender and said he didn’t want to see the suspect or anyone else injured.

Dorner was already believed to have killed three people when he was cornered Tuesday at the cabin near Big Bear Lake, and during the standoff shot and killed a San Bernardino County sheriff’s deputy, authorities said…

           — Hat tip: Paul Green [Return to headlines]

Dr. Bruce Levine: The Antidepressant Epidemic (Video)

In an exclusive interview for the Infowars Nightly News, clinical psychologist Bruce Levine joins host Melissa Melton to discuss a society losing touch with reality in the wake of hyped school shootings and knee-jerk reactions to clampdown on ordinary childhood behavior in classrooms across the country.

Should a drug that produces sexual dysfunction for the majority of users and which doubles the risk of a suicide attempt be labeled as an antidepressant? No, argues a recent Scientifica article “Relabeling the Medications We Call Antidepressants.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Have Pastors Forsaken America?

The pastors of our Founders were men of courage and commitment. They were committed to obeying the Word of God, no matter what the cost. In 1954 then Senator Lyndon Johnson attached an amendment to an IRS bill that did not allow any 501 (c) 3 to endorse or oppose any political party or candidate. This was the first time in American history that the church could not be involved in the political arena. One of the most popular sermons for well over 150 years was What A Christian Should Know About The Presidential Election. These sermons would endorse a candidate or Party or it would oppose a candidate or Party. When this bill was passed, no pastors stood their ground and a piece of our freedom was taken away.

For the last few years the Liberty Council has sponsored what they call Pulpit Initiative Sunday. It is usually the third Sunday in September of an election year and they have a pastor endorse a candidate from the pulpit, record the endorsement and send it to the IRS. I never gave that bill any credence. I always stated from the pulpit whom I believed was the better candidate and I always stated why giving biblical reasons. I did that all twelve years I was a senior pastor. Last year I believe that over 300 churches participated in Pulpit Initiative Sunday. This was done to challenge the threat of our First Amendment right to practice our faith by informing the people on the god and ungodly candidate and to push the IRS into enforcing their threat to take a church’s tax exempt status away. The IRS has stated that they don’t really have that right. So all these years of threats were nothing but that, threats. Something to keep the church under the thumb of the government.

How many churches know about this revelation is unknown. The IRS sure isn’t going to advertise it and main stream media isn’t about to report on it.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Muslims Claim Christian Group Defamed Them

BINGHAMTON, N.Y. (CN) — The Muslims of America asked a federal judge to silence and punish the Christian Action Network and its founder, who allegedly defamed the group as terrorists, and their close-knit communities as Islamic training camps.

The Muslims of America Inc. sued Martin Mawyer and his Christian Action Network in Federal Court. It also sued Patti Pierucci, whom it describes as a ghostwriter and co-author with Mawyer of the book “Twilight in America: the Untold Story of Islamic Terrorist Training Camps in America.”

The group claims that the “provocative and defamatory statements” were made in the book, and “uttered by Mawyer on various media outlets including Fox News (October 2012) and posted on CAN’s website”.

Muslims of America claims the defendants’ libels and defamation “have served to cause fear and hatred to flourish against plaintiff while inciting violence and putting the lives of plaintiff’s members in danger for the purpose of monetary enrichment.”

The Muslims of America demands retractions and a gag order against further defamation. It also wants sales of the book “Twilight in America” enjoined.

The book was published in October 2012.

“Defendants repeatedly refer to plaintiff as a terrorist organization engaging in terrorist acts and running terrorist training camps in the United States,” the complaint states. “Defendants bolster their claims through the use of intentionally misleading documents and sources in order to deceive and mislead the public about plaintiff. … In committing the acts herein alleged, the defendants acted willfully with malice in conscious disregard of the plaintiff’s rights and with intent to cause injury to plaintiff.”

Mawyer, who founded the nonprofit Christian Action Network in 1990, once worked as editor-in-chief of the Moral Majority Report, published by the evangelical fundamentalist Rev. Jerry Falwell, according to CAN’s website.

Based in Lynchburg, Va., CAN describes itself as a public advocacy and education organization “based on biblical principles, values, traditions and American ideals.” The website says it uses documentaries, radio and TV interviews, books and alliances with other organizations “to impact change.”

The lawsuit claims that Mawyer has appeared on the Fox News shows “The O’Reilly Factor” and “Hannity” as well “Entertainment Tonight” and NBC’s “Today” show, where “he continues spreading various sensational, erroneous theories and presents them as fact.”

The group claims that Mawyer and CAN have spent the past decade “waging excessive divisive and intolerable attacks against the plaintiff.”

           — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes [Return to headlines]

The Diseased Minds of Liberals

Warning: Contains strong language quotes

“Give me four years to teach the children and the seed I have sown will never be uprooted.” — Vladimir Lenin

Very early on in my two decade plus journey to the truth, I read a book that has become more than prophetic: Political Correctness — The Cloning of the American Mind by David Thibodaux, Ph.D. (1992)

That book perfectly, in about 210 pages, educates Americans on the propaganda being shoved down the throats of impressionable young adults in colleges and universities across this country: “…apply to the new thought police of universities today. In their zealous attempt to silence those with whom they disagree, these radical reformers will stop at nothing to silence their opponents…This is a brilliant illustration of the hypocrisy of the political correctness movement and its destructive effects on a free society.”

So much so, Dr. Thibodeaux, followed it up with: Beyond Political Correctness: Are There Limits to This Lunacy?, published in 1994. For the past six decades and in hyper drive the last twenty years, the brain washing was deliberately injected into schools at even kindergarten level, so that by the time America’s children get to college, their minds are so diseased, they can no longer even process reality. The result of the attack on America’s culture and moral standards is there for anyone to see and it’s not pretty.

Let me give you these examples; a small sampling we see every day of the week:

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Cypriot Presidential Elections Hinge on Economy

Reunification takes backseat; 3 candidates and gas field pledges

(ANSAmed) — NICOSIA, FEBRUARY 15 — On Sunday just under 560,000 Greek Cypriots will be casting their votes for the nation’s next president. For the first time in 40 years the main issue will not be the unification of the island — a third of which has been occupied by the Turkish military since 1974 — but how to deal with the economic crisis on the island, which until a few years ago was doing exceptionally well at the economic level. Cyprus has already signed a four-year program with the EU-ECB-IMF troika enabling it to receive aid from European creditors. Cyprus needs 17.7 billion euros in aid before June, including about 10 billion for bank recapitalization. Most analysts concur that the election results will prove crucial for the island’s future, but many disappointed voters are focusing less on the best candidate than which would be the lesser evil at such a critical juncture for the country. The problem, said political expert Christoforos Christoforou, is that none of the three main candidates — Nicos Anastasiades, Stavros Malas and Giorgos Lillikas — seems able to offer a new, realistic vision for the country.

“We have not heard anything new from them,” the analyst said, commenting on the speeches made during the election campaign, which ends at midnight on Friday. He added that “even the rhetoric used by the three candidates suffers from inconsistency and contradictions to varying extents. All three have bombarded voters with promises of how they intend to save the island, but none of them have explained clearly what they actually want to do to achieve this.” The “Cypriot problem” (i.e. the reunification of the island) has taken a backseat to the more pressing issue of how to use the immense underwater gas fields discovered last year just off the island. The gas reserves are currently far from being ready to exploit. Anastasiades — who most voters hold to be the most competent candidate and able to negotiate an MoU with the troika — feels a strategic alliance is necessary between Cyprus and Israel (which has also discovered enormous offshore gas fields), and that a gas liquefaction plant should be built on the island to be used for the gas extracted by both countries. Malas also feels that Cyprus should exploit the gas to develop greater political and economic alliances with other nations.

Lillikas, on the other hand, holds that only Cypriots should decide on how to manage the unexpected energy resources of the island. His program focuses on the proposal to securitize the underwater gas reserves, which he feels would enable Cyprus to rapidly free itself from the difficult conditions imposed by international creditors. A number of experts have called this proposal illusory, unfeasible and amateuresque.

Voters will have their say on Sunday between 7am and 6pm local time. The official results will be known around 8:30pm but by 7pm it will likely be clear who the winner is. If none of the three candidates gets 50%, a second round will be held the following Sunday, November 24. The latest polls say that Anastasiades has a slight chance of winning already from the first round.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

EU States Call on Big Business to Pay More Tax

France, Britain and Germany on Saturday launched a new push to force top firms to pay their share of tax and to halt tax avoidance schemes.

France’s Pierre Moscovici, Britain’s George Osborne and Germany’s Wolfgang Schaeuble said it was time for internationally-coordinated action to clamp down on the practice of shifting profits from the company’s home country to pay less tax under another jurisdiction.

The drive — which is backed by a study by the Organisation for Cooperation and Economic Development (OECD) on the consequences of the so-called profit shifting — comes as cash-strapped governments try to use every means to inject new funds into their budgets.

Osborne said that current global tax rules had been developed almost 100 years ago — along principles set out by the League of Nations in the 1920s — and few changes had been made since. “This means that the tax system does not reflect how international companies do business.”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Germans Place Fourth for Gun Ownership

Figures compiled for Germany’s new National Weapons Registry reveal that there are 5.4 million legally owned guns in the country, making it the world’s fourth most-armed nation per capita.

Der Spiegel magazine reported on Sunday that the state of Bavaria topped the list with 1.1 million, followed by North Rhine-Westphalia with 1 million and Baden-Württemberg with 700,000.

The new national gun register bundles together the data from over 500 local authorities, which were previously not interconnected. Some still had not even digitized their records, and still kept weapons ownership information on index cards.

Germany’s lower house of parliament, the Bundestag, decided to introduce the weapons registry in April of last year, exactly a decade after 16 people were killed in a shooting rampage at a school in the eastern city of Erfurt.

More recently in 2009, 16 people died and nine were injured in a shooting at a school in Winnenden in southwestern Germany. On Friday, Germany’s Constitutional Court rejected a claim by parents of victims of the massacre that German gun laws introduced since the shooting spree did not provide citizens with adequate protection.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Germany: 20,000 Problems Plague New Berlin Airport

Rather than announcing a final opening date for Berlin’s much-delayed new airport, authorities are turning their attention to classifying structural problems. So far they’ve found 20,000 flaws.

According to the Bild am Sonntag newspaper, tens of thousands of issues have so far been identified, ranging from faulty exhaust ventilation systems to broken tiles. The board responsible for the new airport aims to systematically eliminate each problem listed in the report.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Germany: Lernstift Digital Pen Vibrates to Indicate Bad Spelling, Grammar and Penmanship

Use digital technology long enough and you start to become dependent upon it for such mundane tasks as spell checking. That means when you pick up a garden variety ballpoint pen you’re back in dictionary and “I before E except after C” territory. Like LiveScribe, the creators of the Lernstift digital pen hope to bring handwriting into the 21st century by having the pen vibrate to indicate when the writer makes spelling and grammatical errors or exhibits poor penmanship.

Currently under development, the Lernstift (German for “learning pen”) is powered by Linux and contains €50 to €80 (US$68 to US$109) worth of smartphone electronics in a thermoplastic or aluminum body. It uses motion sensors to trace movements and detect errors. If a mistake is found, the pen vibrates to alert the writer.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Greek DEPA Secures Discount From Gas Suppliers

(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, FEBRUARY 11 — Greek government is promoting measures to cut industrial energy costs, as according to sources the Public Gas Corporation (DEPA) has managed to persuade its suppliers of natural gas, Russia, Algeria and Azerbaijan, to reduce the price by 12%. This reduction, as daily Kathimerini reported, will be passed on in its entirety to DEPA’s major industrial clients, along with the three local gas corporations and electricity producers. Deputy Energy Minister Asimakis Papageorgiou will also ask for a further discount from Russian firm Gazprom, DEPA’s main supplier. Regarding electricity, Papageorgiou has asked the Public Power Corporation to adopt a model for charges similar to those of other European countries for energy-intensive exporting industries and that it harmonize its policy with a decision by the Regulatory Authority for Energy for the rates of medium-voltage industries to be based on their energy profiles in tailor-made contracts.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

How Europe Bankrolls Terror

WHEN northern Mali fell to terrorists and foreign militants last April, a debate began over the causes of the country’s chaotic collapse. Many argued that it was a direct byproduct of NATO’s 2011 intervention in Libya, which sent thousands of well-armed men across the Sahara to Mali.

Others pointed to Mali’s internal corruption and ethnic divisions. But little was said about the most important factor: Europeans have knowingly bankrolled Islamist radicals with ransom payments since at least 2003.

Over the past decade, Britain, Germany, Italy, Spain, France, Austria, Sweden and the Netherlands have paid more than $130 million to terrorist groups, mostly through mediators, to free European hostages.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Italy: Ex-PDL Candidate Arrested in Milan for Alleged Market Fraud

Alessandro Proto known as realtor to the stars

(ANSA) — Milan, February 14 — An Italian realtor to Hollywood stars and ex-primary candidate in former premier Silvio Berlusconi’s People of Freedom (PdL) party was arrested on Thursday for alleged fraud and market manipulation in Milan.

Alessandro Proto, 38, who has handled luxury Italian property purchases for Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie and Leonardo DiCaprio, has been under investigation since November for deals at his Proto Consulting firm.

Proto, a financier, made headlines in Italy last January for expressing interest along with four investors in buying up the Benetton family’s shares in the loss-making RCS publishing house.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Italy: Ingroia Says Monti Belongs to the Corrupt Ruling Class

(AGI) — Rome, Feb 16 — Civil Revolution Antonio Ingroia said Monti belongs to the corrupt ruling class. “Mario Monti has absolutely nothing to do with renewal! Just like most other politicians, he is part of this corrupt caste that the judiciary is prosecuting. They tried to save face with a fake anti-corruption bill that we intend to change as soon as we are voted into Parliament because only we, of the Civil Revolution movement, have a clean conscience and we intend to wage an all-out war on corruption”.

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]

Italy: ILVA Slams Taranto Court Order to Sell Impounded Stock

(AGI) — Rome, Feb 15 — In a statement issued by ILVA on Friday, the Taranto-based steelwork’s management described court orders to sell ILVA’s warehoused stock as “illegitimate.” The statement also describes preliminary investigation judge Patrizia Todisco’s ruling as “marred by legal misconceptions.” With a Constitutional Court ruling on the Monti government’s contingency ‘ILVA Biill’ due in the coming days, ILVA’s statement questions Todisco’s “incomprehensible” fast-tracking of orders to sell the stock, suggesting that if the decision was truly warranted by concerns for the stock’s deterioration “the Prosecution Office should not have sat on such evidence for two whole months.” .

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]

Italy: Former Berlusconi Minister Sentenced to Four Years in Jail

Fitto found guilty of corruption, abuse of office

(ANSA) — Bari, February 13 — Raffaele Fitto, a former minister in ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi’s last government, has been sentenced to four years in prison after a Bari court found him guilty of corruption, illegal party financing and abuse of public office.

The court upheld prosecutors’ accusations that Fitto accepted a bribe of 500,000 euros from Rome businessman Giampaolo Angelucci when he was governor of the southern region of Puglia between 2000 and 2005.

Fitto, who served as regional affairs minister from May 2008 to November 2011, was also found to have intervened illegally to ensure a company called Fiorita won a contract for all cleaning services for public health authorities in Puglia.

He was found to have made sure a contract worth 198 million euros was awarded to a company owned by Angelucci for the management of 11 assisted care residences too.

Fitto, who is an MP for Berlusconi’s PdL party, was banned from serving public office for five years. In Italy prison sentences for non-violent crimes do not usually become effective until the two-tier appeals system has been exhausted.

The Bari court also handed prison sentences to 12 other people for involvement in the corruption, including Angelucci, who was given three years, six months. It ruled six million euros in assets be confiscated from a firm owned by Angelucci.

PdL MP Maurizio Lupi said the decision was part of a ploy by magistrates to influence the result of the February 24-25 general election. “I thought the election campaign was conducted by politicians and, in some cases, magistrates who left the prosecutors’ offices to lead political parties,” said Lupi.

“I was naive. In Italy, the judges conduct the election campaign”.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Italy: Berlusconi Unconcerned Over Potential Corruption Scandal

(AGI) Rome, Feb 15 — Silvio Berlusconi has no concerns whatsoever about a potential new corruption scandal in Italy.

“I’ll paint you a very simple picture. There is a huge scandal concerning Monte [dei] Paschi di Siena, with a missing three billion whose whereabouts no one knows, and that scandal involves the Democratic Party”, which has turned to “friendly magistrates and media” so as to sweep the matter “under the rug”.

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]

Madrid Court Remands Swede on Terror Charges

A 65-year-old Swedish man was on Friday remanded into custody by a Madrid court on suspicion of terror crimes connected to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PPK).

“According to information from the Spanish police, he is suspected of extortion for terrorist purposes,” said Catarina Axelsson at the Foreign Ministry’s press service.

The Swede and five others were arrested in Spain on Tuesday in a series of coordinated raids which also saw 16 arrested in France.

Those detained are all suspected of belonging to the terrorist-classified Kurdish separatist movement PKK. They are suspected of having coerced other Kurds into paying a so-called “revolution tax”.

According to the charges, the collections are intended to have been used to finance the purchase of explosives and weapons for terrorist activities in Turkey.

In the course of the raids, police seized weapons and cash.

According to news agency Europa Press the Madrid court released three of the six arrested in Spain, although they remain under suspicion and are not permitted to leave the country.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Netherlands: Will 3D-Printed Houses Stand Up as Architecture?

Janjaap Ruijssenaars’ design can be printed from sand ‘just by pressing enter’. But is this high-speed construction a welcome change?

3D-printing may have been used for a long time in the world of architecture, allowing visionaries to conjure ever more elaborate and unbuildable forms from the ether. But the technology has never been used to build anything bigger than a prototype model.

This could all be set to change, now that Dutch architect Janjaap Ruijssenaars has unveiled designs for the world’s first 3D-printed house. The Landscape House takes the form of a continuous looping Möbius strip, rising out of the ground before folding back on itself in a seamless undulating band. Its complex geometries are not made of reinforced cast concrete, however, but layers of printed sand.

Working with mathematician and artist Rinus Roelofs, Ruijssenaars plans to create the building in sections of up to 6x9m, printed using the D-Shape printer. Developed by Italian engineer Enrico Dini, the printer uses the same stereolithography principles as smaller printers, only scaled up, using sand fused together with a chemical binding agent. The sections will be printed as hollow shells, which will then be filled with fibre-reinforced concrete for extra strength. The entire house will take around 18 months to construct, at an estimated cost of €4-5m (£3.3-£4.2m).

“By simply pressing the ‘enter’ key on the keypad we intend to give the architect the possibility to make buildings directly,” says Dini, “without intermediaries who can add interpretation and make mistakes in the realisation.”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Sitzerland: Bern Signs Tax Disclosure Agreement With US

The Swiss government said on Thursday it had signed a controversial deal with the United States requiring all Swiss banks to report the holdings of their US clients to US tax authorities.

The agreement, which was initialled in Washington late last year, aims to simplify Switzerland’s implementation of the US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), a source of dispute between the two countries since it was announced in March 2010.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

UK: Anjem Choudary: Hate Preacher Pocketing £25,000 a Year in Benefits Calls on Fanatics to Live Off the State

A controversial Muslim cleric who lives off benefits is urging his followers to also sponge off UK taxpayers by claiming their ‘Jihadseeker’s allowance’.

Anjem Choudary, who in the past has planned to disrupt the minute’s silence on Remembrance Sunday, also openly mocked hard-working Britons, calling them ‘slaves’.

The Sun newspaper secretly filmed him saying Islam will overrun Europe, David Cameron and Barack Obama should be killed and calling the Queen ‘ugly’.

The father-of-four takes home more than £25,000 a year in benefits and lives in a £320,000 house in Leytonstone, East London.

He told a crowd of around 30 fanatics: ‘People will say, ‘Ah, but you are not working’. But the normal situation is for you to take money from the kuffar (non-Muslim).’

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

UK: Give Suspects in Rape Cases Anonymity to Prevent the Innocent Becoming ‘Stigmatised’, Says Top Barrister

People accused of sex crimes should have their identities protected until they are convicted, a senior lawyer has said.

Under current legislation, people who complain they have been the victims of sexual offences automatically receive anonymity, but suspects do not.

Maura McGowan, chairwoman of the Bar Council, believes the law should be changed because allegations of a sexual nature ‘carry such a stigma’.

‘Until they they have been proven to have done something as awful as this — I think there is a strong argument in cases of this sort, because they carry such stigma with them, to maintain the defendant’s anonymity, until he is convicted,’ she told BBC Radio 5.

‘But once the defendant is convicted then of course everything should be open to scrutiny and to the public.’

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Egypt: Prosecutor General to Summon Salafi Preacher Over ‘Contempt of Religion’

The prosecutor general is summoning hardline Salafi preacher Ahmed Mohamed Abdallah, known as Abu Islam, who is charged with contempt of religion.

Naguib Gabriel, head of the Egyptian Federation for Human Rights, and activists had filed a complaint against Abu Islam, accusing him of calling Coptic women prostitutes.

The complaint also said the country’s Copts are bitter over the absence of justice regarding contempt of Christianity, as Abu Islam appeared in scenes humiliating Christ and the Virgin Mary.

It requested that the preacher be brought to a speedy trial so that Copts feel they are equal citizens, and that all religions are safeguarded.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Italy: Egyptian Minister Announces Webcams at Tourist Sites

Live-streaming to show safe conditions, ‘bikinis welcome’

(ANSAmed) — MILAN — The Egyptian tourism minister told a conference in Milan Thursday evening that live webcams will be placed in the country’s major tourist destinations to show the world the true conditions of the country.

Live-streamed surveillance of Luxor, Aswan, Sharm el Sheikh, Hurghada and Mars Alam will reveal to anyone connected to the Internet how tourists are spending their vacations in the land of the pharaohs.

“Egypt is a safe country,” Egyptian Tourism Minister Hisham Zaazou repeated several times to a packed press conference Thursday evening at the BIT tourism trade fair in Milan. “One can not reduce a country extending millions of square metres into a few hundred square meters,” he added, making reference to Tahrir or “Martyr” Square in downtown Cairo.

And although the Salafites are boycotting Valentine’s Day as a “Western, ‘Christian’ tradition that goes against Sharia law” Zaazou sought to reassure the Italian market. “Bikinis are welcome, and no restrictions exist of any type,” he guaranteed.

“I am a technocrat and I do not belong to any political party. But I assure you that everyone in Egypt is very clear on the importance of the tourism industry, the only one able to function at the moment.” “This government and the president himself are firmly convinced of the fact that the path to take is openness and development in the sector,” Zaazou said, adding that tourism employs four million people in Egypt. No administration “can change this trend — I guarantee it,” said Zaazou.

Zaazou thanked Italian tourism operators who continued to support Egypt over the last two years.

Zaazou reported that despite Egypt’s political crisis, which hit the entire Egyptian tourism industry, there were 700,000 visitors from Italy in 2012. “We expect to reach 1,000,000 Italian tourists” this year, added Zaazou.

But if many of the beach locations are more-or-less managing, archeological sites continue to suffer, he said. “At Luxor and Aswan, operators are suffering a lot,” Zaazou confirmed.

Things may improve substantially thanks to a decision adopted by the Italian national tour operators’ association FIAVET to hold its annual conference this April in Luxor.

“To calm Italian tourists and travel agents, we are going to a safe country,” affirmed FIAVET President Fortunato Giovannoni.

Zaazou also asserted that, in addition to continued development of the Red Sea, the Mediterranean coast must also grow.

“Our intention is to increase domestic air transport to allow vacationers to more easily reach archeological pearls like Luxor from beach locations like Mars Alam. We’ll do so by opening flight connections,” Zaazou said.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Libyan-Style “Democracy”: Two Years Without Gaddafi

Mass protests are sweeping across Libya as the country marks the second anniversary of the beginning of a civil war that ousted Muammar Gaddafi. Two years after the fall of the Gaddafi regime, no new constitution has been drafted.

The new authorities have obviously failed to maintain law and order. Crime is rampaging and popular discontent is on the rise. Prime Minister Ali Zeidan has shut the borders with neighboring Egypt and Tunisia from February 14 to 18 as a security precaution.

Though the anti-Gaddafi revolt erupted on February 17, the main celebrations will take place on the 15th . Airport security is being tightened. Meanwhile, Lufthansa and Austrian Airlines have suspended all flights to Libya until the 17th, citing “tensions on the grounds”. Earlier, Germany, France, Canada and other countries urged their citizens to immediately leave Benghazi over the imminent threat of terrorist attacks. Security is being tightened in the capital Tripoli and also in Benghazi where four U.S. diplomats were killed in a bloody raid on the U.S. consulate last September.

With anarchy and marauding flourishing in border areas where once strict law and order reigned under Gaddafi, most Libyans, particularly in the east, have been outraged by the authorities’ inaction. In addition to local extremists and “adventure seekers”, terrorists of all sorts, including groups of jihadists from Mali, have been pouring in. The “democracy” the West had once been so fervent in forcing upon Libya looks more like a medieval rule, says Director of the Cairo-based Java Center for Political Studies Rifaat Sayed Ahmad.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

The Holy See is Negotiating With the “State” Of Palestine

Following last Tuesday’s bilateral meeting between a delegation from the Holy See and the State of Israel, on the status of the Catholic Church and its tax exemptions and property rights, the delegation went on to Ramallah yesterday, where it met with Palestinian leaders. In the statement published by the Vatican Press Office, reference is made to the “State of Palestine”. “Following the bilateral negotiations held in past years with the Palestine Liberation Organization (P.L.O),” the statement reads, “an official meeting took place in Ramallah on the 30th of January 2013, at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the State of Palestine.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

French Student Jailed in Turkey Terror Trial

A French-Turkish university student has been sentenced to five years imprisonment by a Turkish court for “terrorist propaganda” in a case which has sparked criticism from human rights groups.

Defence lawyer, Inayet Aksu, said the court in the northwestern city of Bursa had sentenced Sevil Sevimli, 21, to five years and two months in prison but freed her until her planned appeal and did not require that she stay in Turkey.

She will however have to pay 10,000 Turkish lira (around €4,200 euros, $5,600) in bail before she leaves, Aksu said.

The exchange student was arrested after joining a May Day parade in Istanbul and went on trial in September on charges that risked up to 32 years in prison.

Aksu said that while she was initially accused of belonging to a terrorist organisation, she was only found guilty of disseminating propaganda on behalf of an outlawed group.

Sevimli, who was detained for three months before her release under court supervision in August, is accused of links to the Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C).

The far-left extremist group is listed as a terrorist organisation by the United States and the European Union. It claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing at the US embassy in Ankara this month that killed a Turkish security guard.

Since 1976, the DHKP-C has been behind numerous attacks against the Turkish state that have killed dozens.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

From Football to Military Might, How Qatar Wields Global Power

Beckham goes to PSG, al-Jazeera launches in America — just the latest signs of the reach of the gas-rich nation

Sometimes, it seems that all stories now connect to Qatar. Last week, it was David Beckham signing for the super-rich club Paris Saint-Germain, owned by the Qatar Investment Authority. Earlier last month, it was revealed that al-Jazeera, the hugely powerful Qatari broadcaster, was launching in America, where it was once known as “terror TV”. Why has this tiny Gulf state — the richest country in the world per capita, largely thanks to natural gas — become so active, so attention-grabbing?

Of course, there’s an element of the state doing what any person would do who suddenly came into fabulous wealth — shopping on a major scale. Some people go to Harrods; the Qataris buy the shop.

But there are also clear strategies behind Qatar’s high-profile investments and its broader foreign-policy activism, which has made it a key player in the Arab Spring and beyond. The priority is to secure the country — and the continuation of the monarchy — from potential threats. Second, as its confidence grows, the royal elite is seeking to play a bigger role on the regional stage. It wants to write itself into the history of the Middle East at a time of huge historical importance.

The most straightforward reason for these overseas investments is to diversify the economy. More than half of GDP, and 70% of the government’s revenue, comes from gas exports. These should last a long time: their reserves are the third largest in the world, after Iran and Russia, and their population is far tinier. (Wealth is heavily concentrated among the estimated 250,000 citizens; about four times as many immigrants do much of the mundane work.)

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Iran Confiscating Buddha Statues to Stop Promotion of Buddhism

TEHRAN, Iran — An Iranian newspaper is reporting that government authorities are confiscating Buddha statues from shops in Tehran to stop the promotion of Buddhism in the country.

Sunday’s report by the independent Arman daily quotes Saeed Jaberi Ansari, an official for the protection of Iran’s cultural heritage, as saying that authorities will not permit a specific belief to be promoted through such statues.

Ansari called the Buddha statues symbols of “cultural invasion.”

He did not elaborate on how many have been confiscated so far, but said more would be seized from shops.

Iran has long fought against items, such as Barbie dolls and Simpsons cartoon characters, to defuse Western influence, but this appears to be the first time that Iranian authorities are showing an opposition to symbols from the East.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Islamism: ‘Spiritual Pathology Based on Deformed Theology’

Editor’s Note: Three American scholars, two Christians and one Muslim, spoke to WND to sound alarms on Islamism — otherwise known as political Islam. They say there will be trouble unless Americans fight political Islam’s war of ideas. This interview with Robert R. Reilly, of the American Foreign Policy Council, is the first of the series.

WASHINGTON — America needs to interact with Muslims and encourage them, but not all Muslims, and especially not those the U.S. government has taken under its wing, says noted Islam expert Robert R. Reilly of the American Foreign Policy Council.

Even while branches of al-Qaida strategize how to kill Americans, the U.S. is giving gifts of fighter jets and billions in taxpayer dollars directly to Islamist organizations and nations like Egypt that are controlled by the Muslim Brotherhood, al-Qaida’s parent organization. There also is evidence that the U.S. was supplying the radical Muslim rebels in Syria, all of which raise strategic, political and economic questions — and religious concerns.

“We’re doing more harm now to ourselves than good,” Reilly told WND in an interview about the issues of Islamism in the world today.

“The problem exists at the theological level and so it requires a theological solution. Once we do that, we ought to support the Muslims in the world who are advancing that solution. Instead, we’re supporting the Muslim Brotherhood — we’re supporting the side that is against our own interests.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Islamic Supremacy Alive and Well in Ankara

Turkey, Past and Future

by Diana Muir Appelbaum

Supersessionism refers to the belief that Christians have superseded Jews in a new covenant with God. Islam, too, sees itself as superseding all previous divine revelation but, unlike Christianity, which canonized the Old Testament embedding long centuries of pre-Christian history into the Christian narrative, Islam freely erases history itself. But Kemalist Turkey appeared to offer a revolutionary break with Islamic tradition when it established a secular republic on the ashes of the Ottoman caliphate. For decades it has been held up as a model of a modern, westernized, Middle Eastern democracy, that happened to have a Muslim majority.

Closer examination, however, reveals substantial “continuity between the late Ottoman Empire” and the republic as Turkish treatment of religious and ethnic minorities exposes an unacknowledged streak of Islamic supersessionism.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Lebanon: Over 100 Italian Restaurants for 4 Mln Inhabitants

Italian Academy of Cuisine celebrates 10th anniversary in Beirut

(ANSAmed) — BEIRUT, FEBRUARY 15 — With just over four million inhabitants, Lebanon now boasts more than 100 Italian restaurants compared with only ten or so a few years ago.

A large part of the credit for this exponential growth is due to the activities conducted by the Lebanese delegation of the Italian Academy of Cuisine, which recently celebrated its tenth anniversary. The Lebanese delegation of the academy aims to safeguard and promote Italian cooking by keeping a close eye on its genuineness in Lebanon. To this end it regularly holds dinners and annual trips to Italy to seek out the origins of the nation’s culinary traditions.

The Italian Academy of Cuisine, founded in Milan in 1953 and recognised in 2003 as a cultural institution by the Italian Republic, has 8,000 members, 212 territorial delegations in Italy and 79 abroad throughout 41 countries.

Italian ambassador to Lebanon Giuseppe Morabito took part in the anniversary celebration in its Lebanese section.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Saudi Princess ‘Blackmailed by Fake Sheikh Who Wants £320,000 for Video Which Shows Her Smoking and Blowing a Kiss With Head Uncovered’

A Saudi Arabian princess is the victim of a blackmail attempt involving a video of her that could anger and shock the establishment in the hardline Islamic state.

Princess Basmah bint Saud bin Abdulaziz al Saud — more commonly known as Princess Basmah — is being held to ransom by a man who plans to embarrass her with a video — if she does not pay him £320,000.

The video shows her blowing a kiss and smoking with her head uncovered — taboos in strict Saudi Arabia

But rather than bow to the demands of the man, London-based Princess Basmah, who campaigns for human rights in the kingdom, has exposed the extortion attempt on her website and through social media channels.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

India Scrapping Finmeccanica Helicopter Contract

‘Action started’ to cancel deal for 12 copters

(ANSA) — New Delhi, February 15 — India on Friday “took action” to cancel a helicopter contract with the AgustaWestland unit of Italian defence giant Finmeccanica amid a bribery probe in which Finmeccanica CEO Giuseppe Orsi was arrested and forced to step down, the Indian defence ministry said.

“The Indian defence ministry has started action to cancel the contract to supply 12 AW-101 helicopters from AugustaWestland,” a statement said.

On Thursday India froze payment on the helicopters, two of which have been delivered and one is on the way, pending the results of the corruption probe. The defence ministry said it had asked Finmeccanica’s new CEO, Alessandro Pansa, for any information he might be able to provide on suspected bribes.

Finmeccanica is Italy’s biggest defence contractor and a major world player, employing some 70,000 people.

Silvio Berlusconi, who was premier when the deal went through in 2010, caused a flap Thursday when he said bribes to secure contracts “in the third world and with some regimes” were budgeted and accused Finmeccanica’s critics of “facile moralism”.

On Friday the ex-premier denied he used the word “bribes” and said corruption should be prosecuted.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

India Freezes Finmeccanica Deal, Could Strike One for French Helicopters

Charges of corruption against the Italian firm might help the French clinch a deal to sell 197 helicopters to India. French President Hollande is also in India to sell 126 fighter planes.

New Delhi (AsiaNews/Agencies) — No more Italian helicopters will be delivered to India in the foreseeable future, this following the start of an investigation into corruption and tax fraud by Italian aerospace and defence firm Finmeccanica. A US$ 1.5 billion helicopter deal between France and India might also fall through. The same could happen to 126 French fighter jets worth US$ 12 billion that French President François Hollande is trying to sell during an official visit to India, his first in Asia.

Payments to the Italian firm were frozen last night after the firm’s chief Giuseppe Orsi was arrested in Milan on Tuesday. Italian authorities have been investigating him for bribery and embezzlement regarding a US$ 752 million 12-helicopter August Westland deal.

India also has to replace its fleet of vintage Cheetah/Chetak utility choppers, which date back to the 1970s. French company Eurocopter’s Fennec and Russian Kamov Ka-226T are participating in the tender for the supply of the light utility helicopters, but technical factors have so far prevented the deal.

Italian company Agusta Westland was a contender originally, but was eliminated, leaving the ground to Eurocopter Fennec for the US$ 1.5 billion deal for 197 helicopters.

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]

A Genetic Code for Genius?

In China, a research project aims to find the roots of intelligence in our DNA; searching for the supersmart

The average person’s IQ is around 100. The average Nobel laureate registers at around 145.

By Gautam Naik

At a former paper-printing factory in Hong Kong, a 20-year-old wunderkind named Zhao Bowen has embarked on a challenging and potentially controversial quest: uncovering the genetics of intelligence.

Mr. Zhao is a high-school dropout who has been described as China’s Bill Gates. He oversees the cognitive genomics lab at BGI, a private company that is partly funded by the Chinese government.

At the Hong Kong facility, more than 100 powerful gene-sequencing machines are deciphering about 2,200 DNA samples, reading off their 3.2 billion chemical base pairs one letter at a time. These are no ordinary DNA samples. Most come from some of America’s brightest people—extreme outliers in the intelligence sweepstakes.

The majority of the DNA samples come from people with IQs of 160 or higher. By comparison, average IQ in any population is set at 100. The average Nobel laureate registers at around 145. Only one in every 30,000 people is as smart as most of the participants in the Hong Kong project—and finding them was a quest of its own.

“People have chosen to ignore the genetics of intelligence for a long time,” said Mr. Zhao, who hopes to publish his team’s initial findings this summer. “People believe it’s a controversial topic, especially in the West. That’s not the case in China,” where IQ studies are regarded more as a scientific challenge and therefore are easier to fund.

The roots of intelligence are a mystery…

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Video: Acclaimed Author Exposes Overpopulation Myth

Alex welcomes an internationally recognized authority on China and population issues, as well as an acclaimed author and speaker, Steven W. Mosher. Mosher is the president of the Population Research Institute and the author of the best-selling A Mother’s Ordeal: One Woman’s Fight Against China’s One-Child Policy.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Geert Wilders: Islamification of Western Societies Threatens Everyone’s Freedoms

THIRTY years ago, as a young man, I dreamed of Australia. I wanted to find myself a job there. Lack of sufficient funds decided otherwise and I ended up in Israel, working in a bakery in Jerusalem and on a farm near Jericho.

During the year that I lived in Israel, I travelled to Egypt. This trip made a huge impression on me. Israel and Egypt are neighbours, with the same climate, similar resources, the same potential. And yet Egypt is poor while Israel is wealthy. Even though at the time I was not interested in politics, I learned from this trip that the key to understanding the wealth of nations lies in their culture. If the latter promotes freedom, a nation will prosper.

In the 30 years since my first visit to Egypt, I have visited Indonesia, Turkey, Tunisia, Syria, Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan. I left Iran in a hurry once, fearing for my life, because, in a speech at a Tehran school for diplomats and military cadets, I had criticised the regime and spoke in defence of Israel. They had told me that I was allowed to speak freely, but it was naive to believe them.

In the Islamic world, I was always struck by two things. I was impressed by the kindness and helpfulness of many people. But there was also their fear. Islamic societies are ruled by terror. Muslims are good people, but they live under the yoke of Islamic sharia. If they leave Islam, or even just mildly criticise it, they sign their own death verdict.

I returned to The Netherlands and became a politician. I used to live in the Kanaleneiland district of Utrecht. During my years there, the district was transformed into a dangerous neighbourhood for non-Muslims. I have been robbed. On several occasions I had to run for safety. The same transformation happened in several cities in The Netherlands and other European countries where Islam settled. Europe is going through an Islamification process, which makes our continent less free and less safe.

Contrary to what many Westerners think, Islam, rather than a religion, is a totalitarian political ideology. It is an ideology because it aims for an Islamic state and wants to impose sharia on all of us. It is totalitarian because it is not voluntary: once you are in, you cannot get out. Unlike genuine religions, Islam also makes demands on non-Muslims. We, too, are marked for death if we criticise it.

For nine years I have been living under constant police protection. I live in a government safe house. I am driven every day to my office in an armoured police car. I have even lived in army barracks and prison cells just to be safe from assassins. I am threatened because I am a a critic of Islam.

I always make a distinction between Muslims and Islam, between the people and the ideology. Most Muslims are moderate, but this does not mean there is such a thing as a moderate Islam. People who reject Islam’s violent and intolerant commandments are not practising “moderate Islam” — they are not practising Islam at all.

That is the truth. And it needs to be said because freedom of speech is the only tool we have. We stand for our convictions, but we never use violence. We abhor violence. The reason we reject Islam is Islam’s violent nature. Our commitment to human dignity does not allow us to use violence nor to give in to cynicism and despair. As the ex-Muslim and Islam critic Ali Sina says: “We don’t raise a sword against darkness; we lit a light.” So it is. We lit the light of the truth. The truth that while Muslims can embrace freedom, Islam cannot.

In the normal order of things, immigration from Islamic countries weakens Islam. People prefer freedom over tyranny. Contact with Western freedoms would lead Muslims to abandon Islam. However, through the creation of a sharia-based parallel society in the West, Islam manages to continue its control over its captives.

This week, I will be speaking in Melbourne, Perth and Sydney. Politicians say I am not welcome, universities do not want to grant me access. They say I am an extremist. However, I am not. I am the leader of the third-largest party in The Netherlands, a country known for its tradition of tolerance. I have spoken earlier in the premises of the US congress, the British House of Lords, the Israeli Knesset, the Danish parliament, and at numerous conferences, where I met like-minded democratically elected politicians, none of whom belong to the far Right.

Freedom is the key to prosperity and Islam deprives people of it. Let us support Muslims who want to free themselves from the yoke of Islam. Let us stand for our own freedoms. We owe it to the past generations always to speak the truth and not to squander our liberties. And we owe it to the future generations not to sign away their freedom.

Geert Wilders is a Dutch MP and leader of the Party for Freedom.He will talk in Melbourne tomorrow, Perth on Wednesday and Sydney on Friday. www.qevent.org.

           — Hat tip: Nilk [Return to headlines]

Protests Likely as Controversial Dutch MP Geert Wilders Changes Venue

POLICE will monitor the comments of controversial anti-Islamic Dutch MP Geert Wilders as he faces possible unruly protests in Melbourne tomorrow.

Mr Wilders, who opposes the so-called “Islamisation” of Europe, had been booked to speak at a CBD venue tomorrow night.

But it is understood his meeting will now be held in the outer suburbs after the venue’s owners cancelled amid fears of trouble from hard Left protesters…

           — Hat tip: Steen [Return to headlines]

Briton Among Seven Foreign Workers Kidnapped by Gunmen in Nigeria During Attack on Construction Firm

A British construction worker was among seven foreign workers kidnapped by gunmen last night.

A security guard was killed at the rural site in Jama’re town, Bauchi state, Nigeria, after the attackers first targeted a prison, in the biggest kidnapping yet in a region under attack by Islamic extremists.

The attackers went to the Lebanese-owned construction site of Setraco, where they killed a guard and kidnapped the foreign workers, police said. The identities of the workers were not yet known.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Italy: Immigrant Auto Ownership Climbs 34% in 15 Months

Immigrant accidents increase, auto club teaches safety

(ANSAmed) — Rome, February 15 — The automotive crisis in Italy appears not to have touched foreign drivers. There are more than three million vehicles registered in Italy to immigrants, marking a 34% increase over the last 15 months. On the other hand, traffic accidents involving immigrants also up, reaching 90 accidents per day, and a daily casualty toll of 141 injuries and 1.4 deaths.

Accidents involving foreign drivers cost more than 4.2 billion euros per year, or 14% of Italy’s 30 billion euro total.

Concerns about immigrant road safety prompted the Automobile Club of Italy (ACI) to launch an educational campaign last year to offer 1000 courses per year for three years running, in the Aci-Sara Center of Vallelunga, just outside Rome.

The ACI aims to turn thousands of immigrants into “Road Safety Ambassadors”. The educational campaign, which began in September, has already reached 1500 people.

At a meeting organized to outline the results of the project’s first year, the automotive club said Romanians are involved in the largest number of accidents of any immigrant group (4,753), followed by Albanians (3,504), Moroccans (3,142), Chinese (1,215), Moldavians (735), Tunisians (700), Peruvians (678), Egyptians (675), Serbs (607) and Ecuadorians (586). A driver-safety course can reduce the chance of having an accident by one third, as shown by Austria’s experience. Accidents among young drivers fell 33% after Austria introduced an obligatory driving-safety course, to be taken within three years of receiving a driver’s license.

Using Austria’s experience as a gauge, ACI aims to reduce automobile accidents costs by 1.4 million euros — which, if it could be extended to all foreign drivers in Italy, would amount to a savings of 1.5 billion euros.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

State of the Union Speech Features Illegal Alien Stage Props

Tuesday night’s State of the Union speech is being lauded as quintessential Barack Obama complete with human stage props to illustrate the importance of two vital parts of the President’s second-term agenda: Gun control and immigration reform, according to several political strategists who spoke with Law Enforcement Examiner following the SOTU presentation.

For example, GOP political consultant Jules Schwartz said it was difficult not to notice the crowd of family members of those victims shot and killed or wounded, who were obviously invited as props for the Democratic Party push to pass tough new gun laws. Even more noticeable, claims Schwartz, were the illegal aliens invited to sit with Democrat lawmakers and even First Lady Michelle Obama.

However, according to attorney and political activist Mike Baker, there was no mention of the enormous amount of crime committed by illegal aliens and the cost to U.S. state governments to incarcerate the hundreds of thousands of criminal aliens who commit the types of offenses that lead to imprisonment…

For the 5 states incarcerating about 80 percent of these criminal aliens in fiscal year 2003, about 68 percent incarcerated in mid-year 2004 reported that the country of citizenship or country of birth as Mexico, the Dominican Republic, or Cuba. Four of these 5 states spent about $1.6 billion to incarcerate criminal aliens reimbursed through SCAAP during fiscal years 2002 and 2003. Estimates are that the federal government reimbursed these four states about 25 percent or less of the estimated cost to incarcerate these criminal aliens in fiscal years 2002 and 2003.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

2017: What Will Christendom Look Like?

In less than five years, the Western world will commemorate the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther’s 95 Theses and the beginning of the Protestant Reformation of the church. It remains to be seen if the quincentennial will be celebrated or mocked. Over last 150 years, the Christian church in the West has gone through many changes and dealt with many enemies. However, its downfall may be its inability to deal with enemies within its own ranks.

In 2017, what will Christendom look like? France has spent more than two centuries with seething enmity against its Christian heritage stifling all efforts at social peace. The European continent’s idols of socialism, multiculturalism and unification have left it broke and struggling with unassimilated Islamists. The traditional churches have not risen to the challenges of Darwin, Marx and Muhammad. Every year, the Church of England hemorrhages members as it becomes more a state cult for the political and cultural elite — and their current faux intellectual fads — than an active member of the body of Christ. Europe is proving the New Testament’s metaphor of using a body to represent the church accurate: inactive members atrophy. The Roman Catholic Church continues to reel from its infiltration by pedophile priests as it prepares for the imminent retirement of Pope Benedict XVI.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Death Threats to UK’s Top Muslim MP Who Voted for Gay Marriage

Britain’s most senior Muslim MP has received death threats after voting in favour of gay marriage.

Police have told Sadiq Khan, Labour’s Shadow Justice Secretary, that the threats are credible enough that he should review the security around him and his family following the Commons vote.

Officers in his Tooting constituency in London have been put on high alert, and will respond ‘extra-quick’ should an incident be reported at his home.

The Metropolitan Police has also advised Mr Khan, 42, that they may put more officers around him if further threats are made.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Love is Finally Dead in America, But Does Anyone Care?

Is it overly-dramatic to suggest love in America is now DOA — Dead on Arrival? Of course not. In various ways we may measure the death of love in society, from the state of dating, marriage and families; the vitality and content of the education system; the typical interaction between strangers; or the state of orthodoxy preached from American pulpits. While there may be a spirited debate over the exact definition of love — there can be no doubt that the traditional notion is now defunct. Seminal French intellectual Jacques Ellul wrote:

I might adopt once again a formula I have used many times without ever being refuted: “In a society which talks excessively about a human factor, the point is that this factor does not exist. People talk excessively about freedom when it is suppressed.” This formula has always proved to be true. I would thus apply it here as well. So many novels and essays and studies and experiments and propositions are made precisely in order to hide the basic absence of love. Love does not exist in our society. It is no more than a word.

But why make the dramatic claim love is dead? Because great evidence exists that this statement is true. Further, such a fact must mean that our culture is mortally ill and will die unless we reverse course on this essential issue. In a variety of instances we can see how the very notion of love itself has fled from an increasingly materialistic, over-sexualized and spiritually apostate land. For example, traditional concepts of marriage are replaced by cohabitation, hookup dating, pornography, and endless tales of misbegotten trysts — like the army of young and attractive female teachers seducing students, which hits the papers on a weekly basis.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Can You Trust a New Brain With an IQ of 7000?

I’ve been forcing myself to read gushing statements about the march of artificial intelligence (AI) and how, in the near future, we will have “the source code of the brain,” and computers will be able to do whatever the brain can do, except much, much faster.

I’ve been reading about the day when we humans will somehow merge with the machines.

I think the technocrats who promote these notions were raised on comic books, and they haven’t really moved on from that phase.

What ever happened to the old phrase, “garbage in equals garbage out?” Was it too telling and real?

Take the idea that some day, tiny nanobots will patrol the body making adjustments and normalizing errant functions. Forget for the moment all the damage these little scouts could cause. Just focus on the quality of the information by which they would make moment-to-moment decisions…

The technocrats are actually playing a shell game with us. They’re showing us a vast array of quantitative and qualitative improvements in what computers can do, and they’re substituting that for wisdom. They’re redefining wisdom. They’re omitting the whole argument and debate about what kind of society we want to live in. They’re hucksters and hustlers and con men.

Who will decide how to program the basic assumptions of super-brain computers on the issue of climate change? With what “science” will these computers be initially infected? Who decides what the valid and the invalid science is?

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

It’s Not Easy Being Red and Green

The left is often vicious, hysterical and irrational, but underneath that is the vision of an orderly historical progression toward a great society.

The left has never adapted to the transition from nationalistic wars to ideological wars. It took the left a while to grasp that the Nazis were a fundamentally different foe than the Kaiser and that pretending that World War 2 was another war for the benefit of colonialists and arms dealers was the behavior of deluded lunatics. And yet much of the left insisted on approaching the war in just that fashion, and had Hitler not attacked Stalin, it might have remained stuck there.

The Cold War was even worse. The moderate left never came to terms with Communism. From the Moscow Trials to the fall of the Berlin Wall, the left slowly disavowed the USSR, but refused to see it as anything more than a clumsy dictatorship. The only way that the left could reject the USSR was by overlooking its ideology and treating it as another backward Russian tyranny being needlessly provoked and pushed around by Western Europe and the United States.

Having failed the test twice, it is no wonder that the left has been unable to come to terms with Islam, or that it has resorted to insisting that, like Germany and Russia, the Muslim world is just another victim of imperialism and western warmongering in need of support and encouragement from the progressive camp.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Scientists Unveil New Detectors in Race to Save Earth From Next Asteroid

The extraterrestrial double whammy that Earth only partially avoided on Friday has triggered an immediate response from astronomers. Several have announced plans to create state-of-the-art detection systems to give warning of incoming asteroids and meteoroids. These include projects backed by Nasa as well as proposals put forward by private space contractors.

In each case, scientists want to develop techniques that can pinpoint relatively small but still potentially devastating meteoroids, comets and asteroids that threaten to strike Earth. These would give notice of impact of several days or possibly weeks and allow threatened areas to be evacuated.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

The Starving Goose

My friend sent me a story that explains quite succinctly what happens to people who are so eager to become enslaved to more government and to communist utopia.

A famous communist leader, having been aided by western powers to amass a sizable portion of a continent, gave his underlings a valuable lesson in power and control. He asked them to convene at his palace. His lecture was going to be taught just once — his time was too valuable to waste. The apparatchiks were directed to bring a goose to the seminar.

Each acquired a bird, built a sizable cage to house it, and proceeded to feed it well. On a given day, all gathered in the grand ballroom of the palace, carrying various cages…

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

2 thoughts on “Gates of Vienna News Feed 2/17/2013

  1. I see no difference between what Iran is doing with Buddhas and what Western governments are doing with public expressions of Christianity.

  2. Speaking of Dorner. An interesting couple of facts. Dorner killed 3 people and wounded 2-3 people. In chasing Dorner down the California law enforcement killed Dorner, wounded 4 innocent people along the way, and burned down the house of another 2 innocent people. In terms of physical and financial damage California law enforcement did more damage than Dorner. In terms of murder LAPD shooting 4 innocents by act of itchy trigger fingers thinking they “might” be shooting at Dorner could easily have been another 4 murders. … hmm.

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