Aleqa Hammond, the leader of the social democratic party Siumut in Greenland, says that Greenland should become a sovereign nation completely independent from Denmark. According to the latest polls, her party stands a good chance of winning the elections next month.
In other news, a female Italian tourist was raped by two policemen in the Mexican resort city of Cancun. Both alleged assailants are under arrest.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to Andy Bostom, C. Cantoni, Diana West, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, Jerry Gordon, 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.
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.
Sometimes societies just plod along, oblivious that the world is being reinvented right under their noses. In 2000, one never saw pedestrians bumping into themselves as they glued their noses to iPhones. Thirteen years later, it is almost rare to see anyone on the street who is not stumbling about, networking or texting. Yet most of us are scarcely aware of the collective effect of that odd habit repeating itself millions of times over each day, of millions of books not read, of “hellos” not offered, of brains wired to screens rather than the physical world about them. When cars once drifted into your lane, you assumed a DUI; now their drivers are most likely texting.
Cars, of course, look about the same as they did thirty years ago. But we just assume now that they almost never break down. Up until 1980 I used to see them with hoods up by the side of the road almost every five miles or so. Today, entire notions such as points, plugs, tune-ups, and carburetors have simply quietly passed away for most motorists. The old jalopy with 100,000 miles on it was junk; the new Accord with 150,000 miles has another easy 250,000 to go. The world changes while we snore.
Lazy Money
No wonder, then, most of us are still not quite aware of how vastly different the world of 2013 is from even 2008. Take interest: not long ago most Americans assumed that when they retired, their 5-7% interest rate on passbook savings would provide some sort of income. Not now. There is scarcely a 1% return. In fact, most accounts lose money. The interest is not even matching the rate of inflation. Will we soon be charged by the banks for “protecting” our deposits?
At some unspoken moment, we shrugged and silently accepted Ben Bernanke’s world, along with the thousands of ways that his Federal Reserve Board has radically changed our lives. Those at retirement age are not stepping down, not when they have a bad/worse choice of receiving no interest income or putting their life savings in the stock or bond market. Our fathers may have retired at 58; we will be lucky to quit at 70. Is there even such a thing as retirement anymore?
[…]
About four years ago, the media just dissipated. Gone, buried. Did we notice our newsreaders are virtual government employees? The media is a Ministry of Truth where spokespeople vie for superlatives — a living “god,” a man who creates tingles in our legs and is pictured as a “messiah” on our magazines. Each sermon is a new “Gettysburg Address,” each gesture is Lincoln’s, each new Joe Biden or Hillary Clinton part of the new Lincoln’s “Team of Rivals.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Britain’s Credit Rating Downgraded From AAA to Aa1
Moody’s announced on Friday night that it had cut the Government’s bond rating one notch from ‘Aaa’ — the highest possible level — to ‘Aa1’.
The move is a significant setback for Chancellor George Osborne, who has faced criticism that his strategy for dealing with UK’s huge debt burden is failing to deliver.
Moody’s pointed to “continuing weakness in the UK’s medium-term growth outlook, with a period of sluggish growth which [it] now expects will extend into the second half of the decade”.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
EC Says Italy Doesn’t Need More Austerity
But Commission sounds alarm about growth, unemployment
(ANSA) — Brussels, February 22 — Italy should not need more austerity measures to hit its budget targets, European Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn said on Friday.
But the government that is formed in Rome after Sunday and Monday’s general election must continue with the fiscal consolidation policies adopted by outgoing Premier Mario Monti’s emergency technocrat government, Rehn said.
There has been speculation that Italy might need another tough budget in top of the austerity measures adopted by Monti to respect its commitment with the EU to balance its budget in structural terms this year.
Rehn said this should not be necessary, under certain conditions.
“Italy doesn’t need another (austerity) budget, but it’s essential that it maintains the full application of the consolidation strategy that has already been adopted and makes it possible to balance the budget this year,” said Rehn.
The commissioner added that Brussels “will continue to monitor Italy very closely”. Rehn was speaking after the European Commission published its winter economic forecast, which had encouraging news for Italy’s budget targets, but painted a bleak picture about the state of its recession-hit economy. The Commission said Italy was on track to balance the budget in structural terms this year and that Italy’s massive national debt should start coming down next. “In structural terms, a broadly balanced budgetary position is expected for 2013,” the report said. “The gross debt is projected to peak at 128.1% of GDP in 2013, before falling in 2014 thanks to the sizeable primary surplus and the return of economic growth”.
But the Commission revised down its growth forecast for this year and said unemployment is likely to keep rising in 2014. The Commission said Italian gross domestic product (GDP) will drop 1% this year, compared to its previous prediction of 0.5% in November. “Domestic demand, and in particular investment in equipment, is set to resume growth in the second half of 2013,” the Commission said. “However, the negative carry-over from 2012 implies that real GDP in 2013 as a whole is still projected to decline by 1%”. It said real GDP is forecast to increase by 0.8% in 2014, when “the projected normalisation in financing conditions and reduced uncertainty are set to sustain activity”. The EU report added that unemployment in Italy will rise from 10.6% to 11.6% this year and keep increasing next, even though the recession should be over by then, reaching 12.0%. But there was some good news too.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
The Big Dogs on Wall Street Are Starting to Get Very Nervous
Why are some of the biggest names in the corporate world unloading stock like there is no tomorrow, and why are some of the most prominent investors on Wall Street loudly warning about the possibility of a market crash? Should we be alarmed that the big dogs on Wall Street are starting to get very nervous? In a previous article, I got very excited about a report that indicated that corporate insiders were selling nine times more of their own shares than they were buying. Well, according to a brand new Bloomberg article, insider sales of stock have outnumbered insider purchases of stock by a ratio of twelve to one over the past three months. That is highly unusual.
And right now some of the most respected investors in the financial world are ringing the alarm bells. Dennis Gartman says that it is time to “rush to the sidelines”, Seth Klarman is warning about “the un-abating risks of collapse”, and Doug Kass is proclaiming that “we’re headed for a sharp fall”. So does all of this mean that a market crash is definitely on the way? No, but when you combine all of this with the weak economic data constantly coming out of the U.S. and Europe, it certainly does not paint a pretty picture.
According to Bloomberg, it has been two years since we have seen insider sales of stock at this level. And when insider sales of stock are this high, that usually means that the market is about to decline…
[…]
At the same time that many of the big dogs are pulling their money out of the market, many smaller investors are rushing to put their money back in to the market. The mainstream media continues to assure them that everything is wonderful and that this rally can last forever.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Times Says Italy Needs ‘More Monti Medicine’
If Bersani allies with Left, country risks return to instability
(ANSA) — London, February 22 — Italy needs more “Monti Medicine,” British daily Times said on Friday.
With Italian elections due to start on Sunday, an editorial in the daily paper warns that Italy should not veer from the course of reforms and austerity it has undertaken with technocrat Premier Monti.
If Monti is squeezed out of politics in elections Sunday and Monday, “it would waste the painful sacrifices endured by Italian taxpayers on his watch and would risk a return to dangerous instability in and beyond the eurozone,” the editorial said.
Center-left candidate and Democratic Party (PD) leader Pier Luigi Bersani should seek an alliance with “the political center to form a government, and not towards the left” if he is victorious.
Otherwise, Italy risks a return to “dangerous instability”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Why Are Gasoline Prices High and Rising?
“Motorists are paying more for gasoline at this time of year than they’ve ever paid,” according to AAA spokesman Michael Green
As of February 20, 2013, gasoline prices in the United States are averaging $3.78, 14 percent higher than a month ago and are the highest on record for this time of the year. The purpose of this post is to explain why this increase is occurring.
Gasoline prices are composed of four main components:
- the price of oil determined on world markets;
- refining costs to transform oil into gasoline;
- taxes that are levied by federal, state, and local governments and
- distribution and marketing costs that include the costs of the retailer who provides the gasoline at the pump.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
An Excerpt From the Book ‘The Master Plan’
“I considered myself very fortunate to be accused of treason and not of terrorism. When The National Defense Authorisation Act (NDAA) was signed into law by the President on New Year’s Eve, 2012, it empowered the Armed Forces to engage in civilian law enforcement and to selectively suspend due process and habeas corpus, along with the 1st, 5th, 6th and 14th Amendment rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution. In the history of America, this insidious law posed the greatest threat to civil freedoms.
“The war on terror isn’t a war on a country or a people; it’s a war on a tactical operation. Therefore, it has no restrictions and is endless. Subsequently, anyone alleged to be a threat to the nation’s stability or security, suspected of sympathizing with or supporting a person or group that the U.S. government designates a terrorist organization or an affiliate, may be imprisoned without charge or trial eternally.
The NDAA’s definition of a terrorist was so vague and all-encompassing, even legitimate activities such as a peaceful demonstration or a peaceful protest, which are rights provided under the First Amendment, could subject a person to indefinite detention. Under the NDAA, an American citizen could be grabbed off the street, seized from their job, or forcefully removed from their home and imprisoned forever.
“The Posse Comitatus act was enacted on June 18, 1878. It was passed to prevent the government from using combat troops against American citizens on U.S. soil. It was concluded that combat troops were trained to seek, kill and destroy while the local police were trained to protect and serve. To nullify the protections afforded under the Posse Comitatus Act, the NDAA declared America to be a permanent battle zone; this transferred the power from local law enforcement agencies to the Military, empowering the Military to be the chief law enforcers of the land.
“The government had purchased billions of rounds of ammunition, including hollow-point bullets that literally exploded upon impact, shattering bones and organs as they ripped through the body. According to the rules of war established during the Geneva Conventions, these bullets were forbidden in combat. This, however, didn’t deter the government from using them against American citizens.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Brennan: From Barack to Benghazi
Even today, the majority of officials in power don’t seem to want to talk about what happened in Benghazi, and Obama and Clinton repeatedly stonewalled all legitimate investigation of the incident. Why? Because any honest investigation into the activities taking place there would confirm a secret CIA operation intended to arm anti-Assad rebels, including the Iranian and Syrian backed Ansar al Sharia terror group. The purpose of this operation, the objective of which remains in place, is to topple Assad and replace him with a Saudi-backed leader. Based on research and investigation, it appears that somewhere amid the magician’s fog of this illegal “black op” overthrow is John O. Brennan.
The Arabic-speaking John Brennan, who serves as Obama’s assistant for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism, and is the choice to head the CIA, has seen his share of exposure in the alternative media lately. Most recently, former FBI agent John Guandolo alleged that Brennan, while working as the CIA station chief in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia from 1996 to 1999, converted to Islam. According to agent Guandolo, Brennan visited Mecca and Medina during the Hajj, which are traditionally off limits to non-Muslims during that period. Former agent Guandolo cites Brennan’s presence and his comments about his visits as evidence of his conversion.
Beyond his possible conversion to Islam, however, Brennan’s other actions are much more troubling, particularly as they relate to his past history with Obama, and more recent history related to Benghazi, drone warfare, and his involvement with an administrative “kill list.” It appears possible that, by nominating Brennan to be the nation’s top spy chief, Obama might be tying up loose ends that are shrouded by controversy. One loose end is the Benghazi operation and the manner in which an obscure Internet video was immediately blamed. Yet another loose end relates to Obama’s passport records while he was on the campaign trail in 2008. These two significant incidents involving questions and controversy, lies and murder, are like bookends to a four-year stint in a star chamber.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Connecticut’s War Between Constitutional Rights and Government Control
HARTFORD, Conn. — Last fall, residents of Newtown were having a debate that could have taken place almost anywhere in America.
It was an argument over guns. The issue was fairly simple: Should amateur shooting ranges be subject to inspection and approval by the police chief? On one side were residents concerned about noise and wary of unregulated shooting. On the other were those who believe gun rights spring from essential American freedoms.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Democrats Want to Turn More People Into Victims
A nation of victims — that’s what the Democrat Party and the Left in general want for us to be. Unable to fend for ourselves, and unable to defend ourselves, they want for you, me, and everyone else to be dependent upon the state — controlled by them, of course — for everything. How else can you explain the frankly flabbergasting position being taken by Democrats in the Colorado state legislature this week concerning a bill about allowing concealed carry on college campuses in that state. In the course of debate on that bill, we have seen that many Democrats literally do prefer that Americans be forced to remain at a disadvantage versus those who would victimize them in horrific ways…
The obvious question is: Why are Democrats pro-rape?
I mean that as a serious question, by the way. More generally speaking, we must enquire as to why Democrats want people to be victims, unable to protect themselves, either from criminal predators, from criminal government, or even from the vicissitudes of life.
That’s ultimately what every Democrat of other left-winger wants for you and me when they push for more gun control. One of the things that makes gun ownership so freedom friendly is that it is, in a very literal sense, the great equalizer. If the 5’3”, 110 lb. woman mentioned above is carrying that .357 revolver in her purse, she is, in the sense of her ability to project force, every bit the equal of that 6’3”, 250 lb. guy stalking her through the parking lot at night. Indeed, Democrats and other lefties, who usually make great show about their love of “democracy” and “equality,” go strangely silent when it comes to the democratizing power of personal firearms. A gun is what makes that woman equal to any potential rapist. A gun is what makes the homeowner equal to the thugs trying to break into his home at night. A gun is what made the black man the equal of the Klan member. As State Senator Ulibarri — who is openly gay — ought to appreciate, a gun is what makes the gay guy walking home at night the equal to the truckload of rednecks with baseball bats out looking for trouble.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Federal Government Moves to Disarm Veterans
It’s no secret that the Department of Homeland Security considers returning veterans a threat to the established order. They said as much back in 2009 when they wrote in a report exposed by Alex Jones and the alternative media: “Returning veterans possess combat skills and experience that are attractive to right-wing extremists… DHS/I&A is concerned that right-wing extremists will attempt to recruit and radicalize veterans in order to boost their violent capacities.”
Following the case of veteran Brandon Raub, who was abducted and held in a psychiatric ward for Facebook posts the government considered subversive, police in Ohio seized a veteran’s guns after he was adjudged to be mentally incompetent despite the fact a Veterans Administration psychiatric evaluation determined he was not mentally ill.
“Since the veteran is active in the so-called truth movement or patriot community, it is assumed that his involvement in this field is part of the reason why he has been targeted for psychiatric evaluation,” Paul Joseph Watson wrote on August 24, 2012.
According to constitutional attorney Michael Connelly, the government is now moving to strip veterans it determines to be mentally incompetent of their Second Amendment right to own a firearm. Connelly cites a letter “sent by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to hundreds, perhaps thousands, of America’s heroes.”
“A determination of incompetency will prohibit you from purchasing, possessing, receiving, or transporting a firearm or ammunition,” the VA letter states. “If you knowingly violate any of these prohibitions, you may be fined, imprisoned, or both pursuant to the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act, Pub.L.No. 103-159, as implemented at 18, United States Code 924(a)(2).”…
The federal government is targeting veterans because it realizes that when martial law is declared and people are rounded up for political reasons — REX 84 and other military contingency plans demonstrate that the government has long planned for such an inevitability — the military experience of veterans will be crucial to any effective resistance.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Kerry Gives First Foreign Policy Speech … on Climate Change
Secretary of State John Kerry gave his first major foreign policy speech today. In his address, delivered at the University of Virginia, he discussed tackling climate change.
“We as a nation must have the foresight and courage to make the investments necessary to safeguard the most sacred trust we keep for our children and grandchildren: an environment not ravaged by rising seas, deadly superstorms, devastating droughts, and the other hallmarks of a dramatically changing climate,” said Kerry, according to prepared remarks.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Malkin: Firearms Industry Breaking With Liberal States
Here’s the latest example of head-splitting cognitive dissonance in Washington: President Obama used his State of the Union address to crusade for a revitalized U.S. manufacturing sector. But while he pays lip service to supporting businesses that build their products on American soil, Obama and his left-wing operatives are hell-bent on driving a key sector of the U.S. manufacturing industry six feet under: the American firearms and ammunition industry.
The White House is pushing new government spending to “spur economic growth,” protect manufacturing plants and “create good-paying jobs” to help America’s middle class. Yet across the country, with aggressive lobbying by the White House itself, Democrats are working to destroy tens of thousands of good-paying jobs and the firms that created them. Assault rhetoric has lasting real-world consequences.
In New York, Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo imposed radical, ineffectual gun-grabbing measures that are backfiring in more ways than one. Nearly half a dozen gun companies have now announced that they will no longer sell their products to police in the Empire State. In protest of Cuomo’s gun-control regime banning citizens from owning semi-automatic rifles or shotguns because of cosmetic features deemed “military-style,” Washington-based Olympic Arms “will no longer be doing business with the State of New York or any governmental entity or employee of such governmental entity within the State of New York.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Michael Moore: If You Want to Protect Yourself From Criminals, Get a Dog
Film maker says Americans should only be permitted to own muskets
Gun control advocate Michael Moore thinks that Americans should only be permitted to own muskets, a stance that would instantly criminalize nearly 100 million firearms owners. His message for everyone else? “If you are worried about your safety, get a dog.”
The maker of Bowling for Columbine was asked by We Are Change’s Luke Rudkowski what his stance was on the argument that Americans should have the right to own firearms in order to protect themselves against criminals, who will always find a way to get guns no matter what the law says.
“There’s nothing wrong with the second amendment, as written, and as intended at that time — I think everybody has a right to own a musket,” said Moore as he smirked and laughed.
Of course, the word “musket” does not appear anywhere in the second amendment…
Despite his reservations about Americans having guns in their homes, Moore admitted in a 2008 Larry King interview that he owns a gun and also relies on armed security.
Despite his draconian advocacy for strict gun control, Moore routinely surrounds himself with armed bodyguards. Addressing a story about how one of his bodyguards was arrested at New York’s JFK airport for carrying an unlicensed gun, Moore dismissed the issue as “propaganda put out by the right, by Fox News,” claiming the bodyguard did not work for him.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Obama Eyes Coal Plants, Moves Forward on Climate Change Without Congress
President Barack Obama is tired of waiting for Congress to move on legislation to reduce carbon emissions, and his administration is poised to move forward on actions to do just that — including a move that will effectively eliminate the possibility of any new coal plant opening in the United States, experts say…
“If Congress won’t act soon to protect future generations, I will,” he said. “I will direct my Cabinet to come up with executive actions we can take, now and in the future, to reduce pollution, prepare our communities for the consequences of climate change, and speed the transition to more sustainable sources of energy.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Orrin Hatch: Obama Would Repeal Second Amendment if He Could
Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) believes that President Barack Obama and “most liberal Democrats” really want to repeal the Second Amendment.
On Thursday, conservative radio host Laura Ingraham asked Hatch, “Do you think, if he had his druthers, President Obama would repeal the Second Amendment?”
“I don’t think there’s any question about it. Most liberal Democrats would,” Hatch replied. “I don’t know of any liberal Republicans that would, but most liberal Democrats would. They’ll mouth that they wouldn’t, but look, what are they doing? They want more and more controls.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Scorecard: How Many Rights Have Americans Really Lost?
Preface: While a lot of people talk about the loss of our Constitutional liberties, people usually speak in a vague, generalized manner … or focus on only one issue and ignore the rest.
This post explains the liberties guaranteed in the Bill of Rights — the first 10 amendments to the United States Constitution — and provides a scorecard on the extent of the loss of each right.
First Amendment
The 1st Amendment protects speech, religion, assembly and the press:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
However, the government is arresting those speaking out … and violently crushing peaceful assemblies which attempt to petition the government for redress.
A federal judge found that the law allowing indefinite detention of Americans without due process has a”chilling effect” on free speech. And see this and this.
The threat of being labeled a terrorist for exercising our First Amendment rights certainly violates the First Amendment. The government is using laws to crush dissent, and it’s gotten so bad that even U.S. Supreme Court justices are saying that we are descending into tyranny.
For example, the following actions may get an American citizen living on U.S. soil labeled as a “suspected terrorist” today:
[Comment: Well worth reading.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The American fool may not be stupid, but he or she has fallen prey to the belief that issues of Social Justice, gay “marriage,” bullying, and climate change are more pressing than the fact that our nation has a pack of radical Marxists at the helm, operating more or less unchecked, that our economy is teetering before a yawning abyss, and that we are being left increasingly open to aggression by foreign enemies.
When American presidents in recent times trotted out police, firemen, teachers — and of course, children — in their efforts to enact or retain government spending, it was just theater. Cheap, dishonest theater, but it was no more or less than that in which presidents of both political parties regularly engaged. When President Obama did so this week in his effort to avoid across-the-board spending cuts that he and Congress approved in 2011 to force compromise on debt and deficit reduction, it was something worse.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Time to Slay the Dragon of “McCarthyism”
by Diana West
I’ve begun taking whacks at the fire-breathing dragon of “McCarthyism” lately (beginning with this piece that ran in Dispatch International last month) as a terrorizing, paralyzing figment of Communist-derived conditioning — an overall phenomenon I examine at great length in the new book, American Betrayal. Similar forces are today trying to twist our understanding and thus defense against another totalitarian ideology, Islam. The remedy is in the moral: If we can’t face facts, we can’t face anything.
Freshman Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas is just the latest in a long series of public figures to be reviled for “McCarthyism” following his recent questioning of Chuck Hagel, President Obama’s nominee for secretary of defense. The response? Conservatives have rushed to defend their own against the charge. To understate the case, that’s not enough. It’s time to debunk McCarthyism itself.
No matter how much evidence vindicating the late Sen. Joe McCarthy comes out, what we call McCarthyism remains anathema in American life. Simply to utter the word is to deep-freeze debate, even thought itself. Even as we learn about the history-changing extent to which American traitors working for the Kremlin penetrated and subverted the U.S. government (including many individuals investigated by McCarthy), the unsupportable fact remains that nothing in American public life is worse than to be compared to the man best-known for his uncompromising fight against the secret, massive assault on our nation. When will we realize it’s time to make amends and honor his memory?
Liberals and also conservatives who should know better continue to fall for the poisonous bait. Last summer, for example, conservative cries of “McCarthyism” erupted after Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid aired an anoymous charge that Mitt Romney had not paid taxes. Romney adviser Eric Fehrnstrom called Reid’s accusation “baseless” and “shameless,” and compared it to so-called McCarthyism. The Hill newspaper’s write-up of Fehrnstrom’s comments perfectly sums up society’s ignorance on the issue:…
| — Hat tip: Diana West | [Return to headlines] |
Wahhabi Alley Imam in Virginia Calls for Armed Jihad
A Washington, DC suburban Mosque, Dar al-Hijrah, infamous for fostering radicalism, is the focus of new allrgations about Imam Sheik Shaker Elsayed, a former leader of Muslim Brotherhood (MB) front, Muslim American Society, extolling armed Jihad to an audience of Muslim Ethiopian youths at a public high school in Fairfax County, Virginia. Dar al Hijrah Mosque in Falls Church, Virginia is located in, what counter Jihadists leader Jim Lafferty of the Virginia Anti-Shariah Task Force and others have called call Wahhabi Alley. Northern Virginia’s Fairfax County has a high concentration of Washington metro area fundamentalist Muslims exemplified by the location of the MB funded think tank, the International Institute of Islamic Thought in Herndon, Virginia . Anwar al Awlaki, the late American born Yemeni radical Al Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula , killed by a US drone attack in 2011 in Yemen had been a preacher at Dar al Hijrah and facilitated the transportation of two of the 9/11 perpetrators in the US. Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad, formerly Melvin Bledsoe. Bledsoe was a Muslim convert from Memphis who killed an Army recruiter in June 2009 at a Little Rock, Arkansas Mall as payback for fighting his brothers in the Muslim Ummah in Iraq and Afghanistan. Muhammad subsequently went to Yemen for jihadist indoctrination with the late American born radical Imam Anwar al-Awlaki and allegedly may have received terrorist training with Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. Al-Awlaki nurtured the jihadist actions of a frequent attendee at the mosque, Maj. Nidal Hasan who perpetrated the Fort Hood massacre that killed 13 injuring over 32 soldiers and civilians. Hasan is now awaiting the start a long delayed courts martial for the murders on November 5, 2009 in Killeen, Texas. An FBI raid in 2004 of a northern Virginia home hidden basement led to the secret plans of the MB for Islamization of America. Documents uncovered in that FBI raid were introduced into evidence at the 2008 Federal Dallas trial of the Holy Land Foundation who leaders were convicted of funneling upwards of $35 million in charitable funds to Hamas. The Holy Land Foundation trial also identified several Muslim Brother Fronts as co-conspirators, among them the Islamic Society of North America and CAIR.
| — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon | [Return to headlines] |
Warning: Hand Sanitizers May Burst Info Flame and Incinerate Your Skin
[WARNING: ** Disturbing content **]
(NaturalNews) Are you a germophobe who likes to bathe in alcohol-based hand sanitizer? Well, you may want to rethink your hygiene habits in the future or, at a minimum, stay away from static sources if you’re hooked on the Purell.
11-year-old Ireland Lane ran screaming from her hospital room at Doernbecher Children’s Hospital recently with the front of her t-shirt on fire, The Oregonian newspaper reported. Now, she is facing several skin grafts and other forms of burn treatment before she can go home to Klamath Falls, as state investigators try to figure out exactly what happened.
Their initial impression? That she burst into flames after static electricity ignited flammable hand sanitizer…
Ireland, who just turned 12 recently, was supposed to leave the hospital the day of the fire. She said the last thing she remembers that day is using the sanitizer to clean a table that rolled over her bed, where she had painted a wooden box as a gift to the nurses who had been taking care of her. Her father says he remembers that she was playing before the fire, making static electricity with her bed sheets.
It’s happened before
And while he says he’s never heard of that being a danger, similar incidents have happened before. In Kentucky in 2002, doctors reported that a nurse’s hand sanitizer ignited from a static electricity spark. In 1998, a patient in Arizona suffered serious injuries in an operating room fire where an alcohol-based sanitizer was involved.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Watch: The Pro Second Amendment Commercial Banned by Major Media Conglomerates
Steve Vaus is a musician, writer, producer and Grammy award winner who has worked with musical legends that include Willie Nelson, Billy Ray Cyrus, and Kenny Loggins.
In January, responding to the latest assaults on our Second Amendment, Vaus composed and produced “Come and Take It,” a ballad that takes aim at those who would strip Americans of their right to bear arms.
“We want the freedom that God gave us,” the lyrics declare, “so you best not cross that line. If you want this gun you gotta to come through us and take it, one shot at a time.”
The slogan, “Come and take it,” became the battle cry and banner of the Texas Revolution after the 1835 Battle of Gonzalez, in which Texans defied the Mexican government’s demand to return a cannon that had been given them for self-defense. Rather than surrender the cannon to Mexican dragoons, Texans stormed the Mexican camp and drove the soldiers away.(WND)
When Vaus contacted various local and national media outlets in an attempt to air his song as a way to counter the Hollywood and Washington media blitz targeting gun owners, he was denied.
Here is the video that the mainstream media and DC politicians don’t want you to see:
‘Come and Take It’ Watch at the Official Youtube Channel
[…]
Vaus also points out that, while his requests for paid airtime have been denied, Congresswoman Gabby Giffords purchased and was allotted TV time for her anti-gun spot that bookended the President’s State of the Union address, and progressive propaganda machine MoveOn.org has been given widespread national airtime for theirlatest gun control campaign titled The NRA doesn’t Speak for Me.
Given the brick walls facing Mr. Vaus at every turn, it should be clear that the media is complicit in silencing the voices of millions of Americans who support gun ownership. In his State of the Union address President Obama suggested that there is overwhelming support for gun control in this country. So, too, is there overwhelming support for gun rights, something you wouldn’t know if your only avenue for news and entertainment was your local cable TV provider or radio station.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
English Pupils Two Years Behind Chinese in Maths by the Age of 16
England’s brightest primary school children are lagging two years behind their counterparts in the Far East by the time they take GCSE maths, a study shows.
The cleverest youngsters are as able as those in Taiwan and Hong Kong at age ten.
But they make much less progress while they are at secondary school, between the ages of 11 and 16.
By the time they sit their GCSE maths, the brightest English children are two years behind their counterparts in Taiwan and Hong Kong.
The study also found that England’s most able youngsters make less progress compared with an average score for those of similar abilities across all the 12 places studied: Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, Australia, Slovenia, Norway, Scotland, the US, Italy, Lithuania and Russia.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
How Angry Birds is Boosting a Finnish Brewery
If beer sales slump, Angry Birds will give you a lift. That’s the outlook going into 2013 for a small Finnish brewery and beverage company Olvi Oyj.
Angry Birds, the wildly-popular mobile game franchise, is owned by the Finnish game developer Rovio Entertainment. Olvi struck a licensing deal with Rovio about a year ago and launched its Angry Birds-branded line of soft drinks last spring, Olvi chief executive Lasse Aho says.
Now orders are pouring in both from Finland and especially abroad. According to Mr. Aho, Europe, Russia and CIS countries are the main export markets, but orders have come from as far away as Australia, Mexico and Saudi-Arabia. “This is a big deal for us,” he says.
Olvi’s brewery, situated in the town of Iisalmi on a shore of a now-frozen lake 400 kilometers north-east of Helsinki, recently hired twenty new employees and switched to a seven-day production week — a move previously unheard of in January in Finland, where breweries and beverage makers have traditionally made their annual profits during the brief summer peak season.
Angry Birds beverages come in six flavors: mandarin, raspberry, orange & cola, apple & pear, mandarin & pineapple, and tropical fruit. “We use high-quality ingredients, fructose and fruit juices,” Mr. Aho says.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Elderly Couple Held Hostage and Robbed of Life’s Savings
Burglars took as much as 400,000 euros
(ANSA) — Avellino, February 21 — An elderly couple living alone in an isolated location near the southern city of Avellino lost their life’s savings they had hidden in their home after being held hostage overnight by burglars, police said on Thursday.
The husband and wife, Giuseppe Luongo and Giuseppina Merola, both 80 years old, told police that the intruders threw the electricity breaker from the outside of the home, entered and tied them to chairs then ransacked the house.
According to police, the burglars who seemed to know the couple’s numerous hiding places where they had stashed cash over the years, may have had an informant or cased the residence beforehand.
“I have worked in the fields all of my life and have never set foot in a bank or post office. I decided to keep my money in my home,” Luongo said.
The couple believes that the robbers got away with approximately 400,000 euros.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: ‘Scourge’ of Corruption in Lombardy Region, Says Court
Audit court says bribery, extortion has grown worse in 20 years
(ANSA) — Milan, February 21 — The “scourge” of corruption in the Lombardy region is disconcerting and worse than it was 20 years ago, the regional public prosecutor of the Audit Court said Thursday.
During 2012, prosecutors found a series of excessively corrupt acts by public administrators in the region, Antonio Caruso said in a statement as the court opened for its new judicial year.
“The phenomenon of corruption is still alive in Italian government and has disturbing elements of growth,” he said.
Bribery and extortion are particular problems in this “scourge” of corruption, added Caruso.
“The scourge of corruption is much more serious than it was 20 years ago, it has now nestled deep in the social fabric and constitutes an intolerable distortion of the system”.
As many as 62 regional councillors in the northern Lombardy region have been under investigation in various probes by prosecutors, most dealing with misuse of public funds.
These investigations follow a series of corruption probes that led Governor Roberto Formigoni to dissolve his executive in October. Formigoni is suspected of wrongdoing related to health-sector contracts in one of those cases. He denies any wrongdoing.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Maroni Says ‘Ambrosoli is a Good Guy With Zero Experience’
(AGI) — Rome, Feb 21 — Northern League Secretary Roberto Maroni commented on Twitter, “Ambrosoli is ‘un brau fioeu’ (a good guy) but with zero experience. Leading Lombardy is a serious thing and I am a serious person. After Giannino, the raging moralist, here is Albertini with the falsified signatures. I am different, I am a serious person.” .
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: PD’s Bersani Tackles Monti Claim on Merkel Relations
(AGI) — Naples, Feb 21 — In Naples for an electioneering event, the PD’s Bersani addressed relations with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and her government, with outgoing prime minister Mario Monti having argued that Merkel would rather the PD party did not win the parliamentary majority. Pier Luigi Bersani described relations between his party and the German Chancellor as “based on the utmost respect — that is my impression, of course. The respect and dialogue are mutual; we have never mixed government with politics.” Bersani then went on to describe Monti’s statement as “poor judgement.” .
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
M5S Leader Grillo on Bad Press and ‘Bomb Parliament’ Calls
(AGI) — Viterbo, Feb 21 — During a Viterbo rally, M5S leader Beppe Grillo lamented press reports “claiming I have urged Al Qaeda to bomb parliament — none of which with any irony. In the wake of such coverage, I have received thousands of emails urging me to do just that.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
More Germans and Austrians to Visit Greece
(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, FEBRUARY 21 — More positive messages regarding Greek tourism are arriving from Germany and Austria, pointing to a significant increase in arrivals this year, daily Kathimerini reports. German tour operator Alltours has so far recorded a 10% rise in bookings for Greek destinations this season, with its chairman stating that “Greece has overcome the crisis of the previous couple of years and is back in its good old shape.” Rhodes has seen a major increase of 25% in bookings from Germany, followed by Crete, up 15%. Individual bookings for Samos, the Cyclades and Thasos are also on the rise. Meanwhile Austria’s Ruefa-Verkehrsburo Group has noted an increase of 35% year-on-year in bookings for Greek package holidays. The rise in bookings is likely to cover most of the losses registered in 2012. Every year some 500,000 visit Greece from Austria. Greece will apparently benefit again from the turbulent situation in Egypt, which has seen bookings from Germany drop by 15%.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
None of 357 Danes passed when participating in last year’s EU concour, a recruitment competition selecting staff to all institutions of the European Union, reports Politiken. Danish Europe minister Nicolai Wammen is Friday launching a new initiative to attract more talented young Danish academics for the jobs in EU administration.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Siumut Party Demands Independence for Greenland
Greenland should become a fully independent country, outside the rule of Denmark, Siumut leader, Aleqa Hammond has said, according to Danmarks Radio. The social-democratic Siumut is currently second largest party in Greenland with Hammond standing good chances to win March elections and become the first female leader of her country.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The Lunatics Have Taken Over the Asylum
by Thomas Pascoe
It’s hard to disagree with James Delingpole — these days do have an end of empire feeling to them. Like Yeats wrote, “the best lack all conviction, while the worst / Are full of a passionate intensity.” In the political and economic spheres, ideas which would defy the boldest of satirists are proffered as the new orthodoxy. Sir Mervyn King’s one man crusade against sterling has resulted in a the currency taking a drubbing on the financial markets. His attempt to make his parting gift to the nation another £25bn of money printing for gilt purchases was defeated by 6-3 at the most recent MPC meeting, the minutes revealed yesterday. Nevertheless, his demand for “radical” action sent the currency into freefall, hitting 2010 lows against the dollar, 2011 lows against the euro and all-time lows against the Swedish krona, as shown in the graph above (actually a good measure, as one of the few non-emerging market currencies not being actively depreciated by its central bank)…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
The ‘four lions’ gang that planned the biggest terrorist atrocity the UK has faced in a generation was led by a 23-stone chemist deemed too fat to be a suicide bomber.
Nicknamed ‘Chubbs’ and ‘Big Irfan’ by his fellow plotters, it was Irfan Naseer’s bulky frame that helped him to work on his bomb-making skills while at training camps in Pakistan.
The 31-year-old was too overweight to go on physical training exercises, and admitted he was mixing chemicals rather than ‘running up and down the mountains with weapons’.
Naseer gained an A at A Level chemistry, and honed his skills during a four year pharmaceuticals course at Aston University in Birmingham, coming out with a 2:2 degree in 2003.
He barely worked afterwards and spent his time showing his fellow terrorists how to make a bomb out of sports injury treatments.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
by Douglas Murray
There’s nothing quite like diversity. Take Manchester. It has a large Muslim population and a lot of gays. What could possibly go wrong? Last week Manchester University’s Student Union played host to the ‘Global Aspirations of Women Society’. This appears to be a front group of the extremists of Hizb ut-Tahrir and therefore by no means does what it says on the tin…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Birmingham’s Muslim Community Did Not Inform Police of Terrorism Plot
No-one in the Birmingham bomb plotters’ own community tipped the police off with their concerns, despite finding out they were sending young men to terror training camps in Pakistan.
Three Birmingham men were found guilty of planning a massive terrorist bomb attack, while a further six had previously admitted their involvement in the plans.
But at no point during the 18-month investigation by the West Midlands counter-terrorism unit did anyone in Birmingham’s Muslim community inform on the behaviour of Irfan Naseer, Irfan Khalid and Ashik Ali, raising questions over the health of relations between officers and community leaders..
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Birmingham Terror Plotters’ Profiles
Irfan Naseer, Irfan Khalid and Ashik Ali planned an attack that could have caused ‘death and injury on a massive scale’
Irfan Naseer
Born on 14 June 1981 and raised in Sparkhill, Birmingham, Naseer is a self-confessed chemistry fanatic who demonstrated to his co-defendants how to make a bomb by extracting material from sports injury cold pack treatments. He told the court he became fascinated with chemistry while at school, during his GCSEs. He gained an A for chemistry at A-level and went on to do a four-year pharmaceutical degree at Aston University, leaving in 2003 with a 2:2. Naseer was in possession of terrorist handbooks and a copy of The Anarchist Cookbook. He had searched online repeatedly for tips on how to make homemade explosives…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Bullfinch Trial Day 23: ‘I Had to Have Sex With Men to Prove My Love.’
A MAN told a 12-year-old girl he loved her and asked her to have sex with other men to “prove” she loved him, the Old Bailey heard. And when she fell pregnant the child was drugged and made to have an illegal abortion, the court was told. Now 19, the alleged victim yesterday began giving evidence at the Oxford child sex exploitation trial…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Birmingham Terror Gang Who Thought 7/7 Was Not Deadly Enough Found Guilty
Chemistry graduate led trio of would-be suicide bombers inspired by al-Qaida who plotted ‘murder on a horrendous scale’
Three would-be suicide bombers face life in jail after a jury convicted them on Thursday of plotting to carry out terror attacks in the UK which would have been more deadly than the 7/7 bombings in 2005. The men from Birmingham are the latest group of British-based extremists to be radicalised by the preachings of the now-dead Anwar al-Awlaki, the one-time leader of Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: City University London Removes Muslim Friday Prayer Room
City University in London has been accused of discrimination by a group of Muslim students after it closed a dedicated room used for Friday prayers.
A group of students have formed Muslim Voices on Campus, calling on the university to reverse its decision.
The group said it was being “unjustly targeted”.
City said it acted because students had refused to submit the proposed content of sermons to the university before prayers to check its “appropriateness”.
Wasif Sheikh, who leads the group, said: “We feel we are being unjustly targeted. All of our sermons are open, we welcome all students and all staff.
“But when you start submitting your sermons to be monitored and scrutinized then there’s a chance for it to be dictated what’s allowed and what’s not allowed. We, as students, don’t accept that.”
Confrontational atmosphere
Three years ago, the counter extremism think tank the Quilliam Foundation released a report on the sermons at Friday prayers at City University, in central London.
Wasif Sheikh leads the group Muslim Voices on CampusIt claimed hard line views and a confrontational atmosphere were being encouraged.
In one sermon, which was recorded, the speaker said: “The Islamic state teaches to cut the hand of the thief. Yes it does. And it also teaches us to stone the adulterer.
“When they tell us that, the Islamic state tells us and teaches us to kill the apostate, yes it does.”
BBC London has seen no evidence those views are still being spread now, but some argue the episode shows the need for greater scrutiny…
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
UK: EDL Forges Ahead With City Demo Over ‘Super Mosque’
The English Defence League (EDL) is “pleased” a planned Cambridge mosque is environmentally friendly as details of its protest against it are revealed. But the bizarre praise for the proposed place of worship in Mill Road is in marked contrast to the reasons for the demonstration — which is to stop it being built…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Fears of New Generation of Terrorists Who Found the ‘Heart of the Beast’ Of Al-Qaeda
Britain faces a new generation of self-starting “Nike terrorists”, the security services fear, amid alarm over the speed with which a gang of home grown extremists were able to find and gain support for a 9/11-style plot from the “heart of the beast” of al-Qaeda.
The terror cell hoped to kill hundreds of people with eight suicide bombers, armed with guns, in what would have been the worst terrorist outrage on UK soil. The ringleaders now face life behind bars after being convicted on Thursday of planning a terror campaign. But the security and intelligence services are concerned how two of them, with no apparent previous links to al-Qaeda, were able to quickly make contact with the terror group’s international arm in northern Pakistan to learn how to make bombs and poisons.
The plot — which The Daily Telegraph can also reveal was personally blessed by al-Qaeda’s number five, Abu Zaid al-Kuwaiti, who was killed in a drone strike last year — was the most serious since plans to blow up transatlantic airliners with liquid bombs in 2006. But it also marked a sea change in the influence of al-Qaeda and the growing threat of self-motivated fanatics nicknamed in the intelligence world as the “Nike terrorists” because of the sports brand motto “just do it”…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Islamist Terror and Extremism: “They Haven’t Gone Away, You Know”
by Paul Goodman
There has been no mass terror attack in Britain for over five years — since the bombing of Glasgow airport in 2007. Osama Bin Laden is dead, and the reach of his Afghanistan-and-Pakistan-based Al Qaeda network reduced. British troops have returned from Iraq and will, before too long, come back from Afghanistan. It might therefore be assumed that the threat of bombs on the tube — or elsewhere — carried by Islamist fanatics has faded away altogether.
However, yesterday’s conviction of three would-be suicide bombers from Birmingham is a reminder that Al Qaeda, as Gerry Adams once said of the IRA, “hasn’t gone away, you know”. It never had: for example, innocents in Exeter’s Giraffe Cafe were lucky not to die or be maimed in 2008, when Nicky Reilly’s exploding bomb injured only himself. Reilly was a convert to an extremist variant of Islam — a distortion of the classical, traditional form…
[Reader comment by tarpapershack on 22 February 2013 at about 9 am.]
It is difficult to for me to leave any remarks on this article as I can’t see what the author is driving at. In any event we know all govts follow a convenient pattern of politely ignoring the activities of muslims in the UK whilst paying lipservice to the idea of caring about terrorism or the spread of fundamentalism. Meanwhile the problem and its causes will not go away and will, in fact, become more and more of a threat but we all know this.
[JP note: UK Tories such as Paul Goodman continue to make a distinction between Islamism and Islam where none such exists.]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Three Brit Muslims Plotted Slaughter Worse Than 7/7
8 rucksack bombs… 2,000 deaths
‘Boom, boom, boom, kill’ boast
THREE British Islamic fanatics were convicted yesterday of plotting a huge bombing campaign that would have wrecked the 2012 Olympics and Queen’s Diamond Jubilee.
The terror cell aimed to go even further than the 7/7 killers by mounting EIGHT suicide bombings, together with gun and poison attacks. They calculated that one kilo of explosive would kill up to 25 people and injure 60 more. With eight backpack bombs each containing ten kilos of explosive, the attacks would have left about 2,000 dead and 5,000 wounded.
The men, all born and brought up in Birmingham, also discussed mowing down pedestrians using a “Ben Hur” truck with blades fitted to its wheels. But the plot was foiled by a joint police and MI5 operation. Leader Irfan Naseer, his right-hand man Irfan Khalid and co-conspirator Ashik Ali were convicted at London’s Woolwich Crown Court of 12 counts of committing acts in preparation for a terrorist attack…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Wall Street Journal Warns of Post-Election ‘Chaos’ In Italy
Berlusconi, Grillo ‘have muddied the waters’
(ANSA) — New York, February 22 — Upcoming general elections in Italy risk producing potentially “chaotic results”, the Wall Street Journal said on Friday.
The return of ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi, the rise of Genoa comedian Beppe Grillo and his anti-establishment Five Star Movement, and the “disappointing showing” of outgoing technocrat Premier Mario Monti’s new centrist and reformist platform Civic Choice “have muddied the waters in an election that two months ago many had hoped would usher in a strong, stable government,” the daily wrote.
“Two days before the polls open, that hope has withered”. The centre-left Democratic Party (PD) led by Pier Luigi Bersani was still likely to poll most votes and lead a new government, the WSJ said.
“But what kind of parliamentary majority the new government can count on — and therefore how effective it will be in fixing Italy’s jammed economy and inspiring its dejected citizens — is another matter,” it added. Much will depend on the undecided voters and those who will abstain, which polls suggest could be as many as 20% of the electorate.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
WSJ Offers Platform to Hatemonger Hedegaard
The Wall Street Journal has seen fit to publish an article by Lars Hedegaard, the notorious Danish Islamophobe, who was recently targeted in an assassination attempt…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Algeria: 31 Hydro-Carbon Fields Found in 2012
800 bln dollars in exports since 1971
(ANSAmed) — TUNIS, FEBRUARY 21 — Some 31 gas and oil fields were found in Algeria in 2012, the country’s Minister for Energy and Mining Youcef Yousfi told Aps, noting that the El Merk oil field which was discovered in the 1990s is on course to begin production within a year.
Within a month production will get underway at a field in Menzel Ledjmet Est, in the Berkine basin, Yousfi added. In 2011 20 gas and oil fields were discovered, bringing reserves to around 157 tons of oil equivalent (TOE) — a unit of energy used to measure hydro-carbons.
From 1971 to the present day and with the nationalization of the sector, more than 300 fields have been discovered totaling exports of roughly 800 billion dollars in 40 years.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Arming Our Enemies: Sending Egypt F-16s is Idiotic
Why would the Obama administration send twenty F-16 fighter jets to Egypt in the wake of the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak with whom the deal was struck in 2010 and in light of the fact that man now in charge, Mohammed Morsi, is a rabid anti-Semite and enemy of Israel?
Wouldn’t a prudent U.S. administration review the earlier deal, part of a $1 billion U.S. foreign aid package, and conclude that a regime now led by a leader of the Muslim Brotherhood and man who calls Jews “descendants of apes and pigs” not have its military power increased at a time when much of the Middle East and the Maghreb, northern Africa, is embroiled in turmoil?
Egypt is not threatened by Israel, but it is known that Morsi meets regularly with Mohammed Badi, the Muslim Brotherhood’s supreme leaders, who last year declared that “The jihad for the recovery of Jerusalem is a duty for all Muslims.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Egyptian Christians: Where Can They Turn to?
[WARNING: Dusturbing Content.]
One solution for the Copts of Egypt is to give up their country and migrate to free and democratic states as the Egyptian Jews did years ago. I have included some reasons for this in my answers to questions asked of me recently in an interview with Israel Today writer Ryan Jones. Here is the original interview with Dr. Ashraf Ramelah:
[…]
2. What is life like for Egyptian Christians under the Muslim Brotherhood?
The plight of the Egyptian Christians today entails Christian women living in fear of attacks by Muslim gangs because they do not wear the veil. As before, Christians are subject to open discrimination by Muslim Koran-adherents who frequently commit acts of destruction of Christian property and routinely threaten and take the lives of Copts. Muslim mobs randomly bomb church buildings, set them on fire or use bulldozers and hatchets to demolish them — this violence now accelerated under Morsi. Worshippers coming and going from church are at high risk of never returning home, a familiar scenario for Copts.
In this new political climate, the Muslim nemesis has been emboldened. Muslim vigilantes have now revived (unofficially) the anti-Copt Hamayouni Decree of 1856. Accordingly, Muslims actively forbid Christian burials in Christian cemeteries where Muslim cemeteries are nearby — believing that the corpse of a Christian should never be interred within proximity of a buried Muslim. Is this perhaps the ultimate act of bigotry?
3. Does Egypt’s new constitution discriminate against or make life difficult/dangerous for Christians?
Egypt’s new constitution is consistent with and generally supports the discriminatory behavior described in my answer to the previous question and will ultimately endanger the lives of all Egyptians. For the Brotherhood, any approved Egyptian constitution is a façade for the benefit of the West. A constitution’s sole value is to impose religious Sharia law through drafted articles which are absent of religious freedom and universal human rights. This in turn will degrade the country’s economy as it discourages tourism and Western investments.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Libyan Universities Grapple With Leaving Past Behind
Plans and initiatives to remedy dictatorship’s errors
(ANSAmed) — TUNIS, FEBRUARY 22 — Dictatorships make life difficult not only for democracy but also for what should be the training ground for future leaders: education, which is manipulated throughout the world for use and abuse by whatever regime holds the reins. Libya was no different, where Muammar Gaddafi’s policies were eccentric across all sectors but affected education especially hard. University education was dealt a heavy blow, left in the hands of eminently political bodies such as revolutionary councils that understood little or nothing about education, as evinced by the choices they made. Such as when — despite having no competence in the matter in question — they made decisions about teaching methods and specific subjects in order to better glorify Gaddafi and his regime. Now, though, with the Colonel out of the picture, the country is facing the choice not of “whether” or “how” to intervene, but “when”, since the young and the country’s future may be forced to pay a very high price for any delay. For this reason the ministry of higher education has drawn up a plan which, by investing in universities and “large schools”, will affect the entire country, region by region. The aim is to create a new model for schools and teaching that gets rid of the negative aspects of practices ingrained over the forty years of dictatorship, when exam irregularities were the norm in order to favor the children of the country’s nomenclature in both small towns and large cities. This was also the case as concerns shortsighted planning policies, which put thousands of students through school only to find they were unable to get jobs after graduation because their degree made it impossible. This then led to Libya making ample use of foreign workers and professionals. The problem is now how to come up with ways to enable future leaders and professionals to close the gap with neighboring countries and strengthen their qualifications. The first measure set to come in over the next few months is a series of study-abroad scholarships. However, this depends entirely on whether the education ministry can come up with the necessary funds to do so. Thus: the plans and commitment are in place, money is what needs to be found.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Muslim Woman: Jews Don’t Rape Us, Unlike Arabs
An Arab Muslim mother from northern Israel who is aspiring to a life in politics called out fellow Arab women on Tuesday for failing to differentiate between the Jews and Arabs with whom they are in conflict.
Commenting on a Facebook event page protesting the sexual harassment and torture of female activists in Egypt, Anet Haskia (who was interviewed in the latest issue of Israel Today) said Palestinian women should take a close look and realize how humane their Jewish “enemies” really are.
To the Palestinian women who commented on that event page, and apparently tried to draw Israel into the issue, Haskia had this to say on her own Facebook page:
“We are talking about the rape of Arab women in Egypt and other Arab states, and you still try to make a connection to Israel? Jewish men do not rape Arab women and girls! It is Arab Muslim men who are raping you, so focus this campaign on them and leave Israel alone.”
Haskia has created her own Facebook movement called Another View (Hebrew) that is working to bring local Jews and Arabs together in true coexistence.
| — Hat tip: Andy Bostom | [Return to headlines] |
As China is Set to Build High-Speed Rail, It Overwhelms Iran’s Economy
Reports about the new railway come a few days after the international community renewed its sanctions against the Islamic Republic. In order to get around the embargo, Beijing barters oil for goods and services. However, anti-Chinese feelings are on the rise in Iran, as China’s impact on its economy proves devastating for local businesses.
Tehran (AsiaNews/ Agencies) — China is taking advantage of Iran’s disastrous economy for its own benefit, buying cheap crude oil in exchange for consumer goods and services rather than cash. The latest project involves high-speed rail.
Beijing’s support for Tehran comes at a time when the United States and its allies are tightening their sanctions against Iran’s refusal to abandon its nuclear programme.
Although not yet official according to Bloomberg, the latest deal involves a billion dollar contract to build high-speed railway line, two anonymous Chinese sources said.
Although China has become the Islamic Republic’s main trading partner, for Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei, who spoke yesterday, the two countries have maintained “normal business cooperation”. In fact, China is the biggest buyer of Iranian crude oil, some 440,000 barrels a day.
By paying for the oil with cheap goods and services, Beijing has helped Iran bypass financial sanctions. However, this has meant that Chinese goods have flooded the Iranian market, giving China an advantage in Iran’s weak economy, said Sino-Iranian expert Naser al-Tamimi.
This is in the case for the car industry. Chap Chinese imports have swamped the local market. China’s main car manufacturers Geelran, Geely and Chery Motors are selling cars in Iran for a third of the price of their European competitors, but for consumers they are far lower in quality than those made in Europe.
China’s takeover is also affecting state-owned firms charged with national projects. Over the past two decades, Chinese engineers have led countless infrastructural projects, like Tehran’s subway.
“The new agreement seems to be, no more consumer goods. If we’re going to barter, build us motorways, bridges and dams,” said al-Tamimi.
Yet, the 70 Chinese businesses currently active in the country, each with its own Chinese employees, create almost no jobs in a country where unemployment is above 20 per cent.
One result has been a rising wave of anti-Chinese resentment.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Iran to Execute 4 Bankers on Fraud Charges
Iran’s judiciary system recently worked through the biggest banking fraud case in the nation’s history.
According to The New York Times, the outcome of the case was made official on Monday. Results were dramatic to say the least.
Judiciary spokesman Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei told reporters that four people had been officially sentenced to death on charges of corruption and “disrupting the country’s economic system.”
The guilty party was responsible for mishandling $2.6 billion of funds — using forged documents in order to receive credit from banks, permitting them to purchase state-owned companies.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Saudi Religious Police Arrest Ethiopian Workers for Practicing Christianity
Saudi Arabia’s notorious religious police, known as the mutawa, swooped in on a private gathering of at least 53 Ethiopian Christians this month, shutting down their private prayer, and arresting the peaceful group of foreign workers for merely practicing their faith, FoxNews.com has learned.
The mixed group of men and women was seized in a private residence in the city of Dammam, the capital of the wealthy oil province in Eastern Arabia, and Saudi authorities charged three Christian leaders with seeking to convert Muslims to Christianity. The latest crackdown on Christianity in the ultra-fundamental Islamic country comes on the heels of a brutal 2011/2012 incarceration and torture of 36 Ethiopian Christians, and drew a sharp rebuke from a U.S. lawmaker.
“Nations that wish to be a part of the responsible nations of the world must see the protection of religious freedom and the principles of reason as an essential part of the duty of the state,” Rep. Jeff Fortenberry, R-Neb., who sits on the Caucus on Religious Minorities in the Middle East, told FoxNews.com.
During Advent in 2011, Saudi authorities stormed a prayer meeting at the private home of one of the Ethiopian workers in the Red Sea city of Jeddah. The Saudi mutawa imprisoned 29 women and six men for more than seven months in barbaric prison conditions, where the men faced severe beatings and the women were subjected to sexually intrusive torture methods. After Christian organizations and human rights groups, as well as the United States government, complained, the Saudis deported the 35 Christian Ethiopian workers in August 2012.
Last March, Abdulaziz ibn Abdullah Al al-Sheikh, the grand mufti of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, declared it is “necessary to destroy all the churches in the Arabian Peninsula.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Syria: Car Bomb Kills 53 People and Injures 200 on Busy Road Close to Russian Embassy in Damascus
[WARNING: Disturbing Content.]
A car bomb killed 53 people and wounded 200 in central Damascus on Thursday when it blew up on a busy highway close to ruling Baath Party offices and the Russian Embassy, Syrian television said.
TV footage showed charred and bloodied bodies strewn across the street after the blast, which state media said was the result of a suicide bombing by ‘terrorists’ battling President Bashar al-Assad.
Central Damascus has been relatively insulated from almost two years of unrest and civil war in which around 70,000 people have been killed across the country, but the bloodshed has shattered suburbs around the capital.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Syria: Silent Exodus of Assyrian Christians
(The Christian Post) In the midst of terrible war and chaos, Syria’s Christian minority is facing insurmountable challenges due to distinct persecution. Vicious attacks have been made by militant Islamists and criminals, resulting in a massive exodus of believers who are being forced to flee the country. According to Archdeacon Emanuel Youkhana of the Assyrian Church of the East, who is trying to cope with the overwhelming refugee crisis, Christians in Syria are fleeing en masse from threats, kidnappings, rapes and murders. “Behind the daily reporting about bombs,” he says, “there is an ethno-religious cleansing taking place, and soon Syria (will) be emptied of its Christians.”
Although the official number of Assyrian Christians who have already fled is not known, hundreds are crossing the border into Turkey and Lebanon daily. Sadly, these panic-stricken refugees have faced horrific circumstances and ongoing threats. Some point to a government that failed to protect them; others to the Islamist rebels who drove them out. One woman explained that her husband and son were shot in the head for no reason. “Our only crime is being Christians,” she responded. (Click here to view a previous report that also reveals the seriousness of Syria’s mounting persecution.)
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Obama, despite his third culture cred and his ability to carry around important books about world events while on vacation, has no clue what to do about any of that. Obama at War is really a dumber Bush at War, rehashing Bush era ideas and tactics with completely botched implementations. With Kabul in the rear-view mirror, all he has left is Bush’s policy of targeted drone strikes on Al Qaeda terrorist leaders.
The only other foreign policy idea that the Obama crew brought to the table, aside from ending the support for the dictators, which ushered in the Arab Spring and the Islamization of the region, was to avoid ground wars and focus on limited drone strikes and intelligence operations.
This approach has been rebranded as the smarter and smaller war. A true conflict for the 21st with Muslim grad students in Yemen chatting on XBox Live with Muslim teenagers in Jersey City to convince them to make and carry liquid explosives on board a plane in tiny shampoo bottles while overhead a drone piloted by a formerly unemployed middle-aged professional skier with a degree in drone piloting from Kansas State hunts for them silently in their clan territories. It’s the world of a William Gibson novel, except it’s also our world now…
What’s the next step? It doesn’t appear that there is one. Geniuses like Brennan only thought as far ahead as draining Muslim anger by rewarding political Islamists while using drone warfare to decimate violent Islamists. Not only is this distinction mostly imaginary, but the rise of political Islamists has made for more Al Qaeda takeovers and more work for the drones in North Africa.
The plan has failed and the second term is underway. It is very doubtful that Obama, whose big plan for Afghanistan was to copy the Bush plan for Iraq that he denounced in the Senate, has a backup plan. Brennan certainly does not. Secretary of State John Kerry is spending a lot of time talking about Global Warming while waiting a week for a callback from Russia. It’s hard to think of a worse bunch of people in whose hands to put the fate of the nation and the world.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
British Gang Plotted a Deadlier Atrocity Than 7/7 Using Afghan- Style Roadside Bombs
In the towering shadow of Pakistan’s Black Mountain, Irfan Naseer and Irfan Khalid were trained to assemble the deadly IEDs that are the scourge of British soldiers.
The home-grown terrorists learned the tradecraft of mass murder that they wanted to bring to the shopping centres, cinemas and train stations of Britain.
The pair had originally flown to Karachi but made their way to the training camp after meeting other fundamentalists in the madrasas of the city.
Inside one of the anonymous white washed houses and compounds that dot the hillside, they were taught to mix chemicals and ingredients from ordinary household items.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Finmeccanica Division ‘Cooperating With Indian Probe’
AgustaWestland says it complied with technical requirement
(ANSA) — Rome, February 21 — AgustaWestland, the helicopter division of troubled defence giant Finmeccanica, said Thursday that it is cooperating with the Indian military in its investigation of an allegedly tainted helicopter contract.
In a statement, AgustaWestland said it is “providing the necessary clarifications” requested last week by India’s defence ministry about the contract for purchase of 12 AW-101 helicopters, now linked to accusations of bribery.
Those accusations led last week to the resignation and arrest of Finmeccanica chief executive officer Giuseppe Orsi and a threat to completely cancel the purchase contract by the Indian government.
AgustaWestland said it is confirming that the company won the original contract based on a complete and proper technical evaluation of its proposals to meet the operation needs of India’s Air force.
Last week, India took the initial steps to cancel the helicopter contract. It froze payments on the units, two of which have been delivered and one on the way, pending the results of the corruption probe.
India’s defence ministry also 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.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Hyderabad Twin Blasts: IED Used, All Eyes on Indian Mujahideen
Banned militant outfit Indian Mujahideen’s name has cropped up in the preliminary investigation into the twin blasts here in which the toll climbed to 16 today. The probe suggested that Improvised Explosive Device (IED) was used to carry out the explosions and the modus operandi was similar to blasts triggered by Indian Mujahideen in the past. Delhi Police, along with Hyderabad Police, is expected to interrogate an alleged Indian Mujahideen terrorist, arrested by Special Cell of the Delhi Police from a place in Hyderabad last October…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
India Rocked by Islamist Terror Attack
India was knocked on its heels yesterday by two terrorist blasts in the southern city of Hyderabad. The bombs were timed to explode consecutively beginning at 7 p.m. local time at two crowded sites in the city of 7 million people. At this point, there are 20 killed and 30 injured, but those numbers are expected to grow.
As the evening wore on and the facts emerged on Friday, it became clear that the bombings were the work of the Indian Mujahadeen (IM), a group responsible for terror attacks that have killed over 300 Indians and injured many times more. It is well known here that IM receives financial and logistical support from the Pakistani intelligence wing, Inter-service Intelligence or ISI. Both the IM and ISI have been declared terrorist groups by the United States government and others.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
India: Death Toll Climbs to 16 in Hyderabad Blasts, 4 Critical
The death toll in the twin bomb blasts in Hyderabad on Friday mounted to 16 with two more persons succumbing to their injuries in a hospital. The deaths took place in two private hospitals, officials said. “Till now, out of 14 bodies, 12 have been handed over to their kin…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistan Ambassador Sherry Rehman Under Investigation for Being Against Blasphemy Law
She could be tried and get life in prison or death in the case of a conviction,. Supreme Court justices accepted the petition of a Multan businessman who had filed a complaint years ago. Ms Rehman had called for changes to the black law. The court’s ruling outrages activists and Catholic leaders.
Islamabad (AsiaNews) — Pakistan’s Supreme Court has authorised an investigation on blasphemy charges of Sherry Rehman, Pakistani ambassador to the United States and a leader in President Asif Ali Zardari’s Pakistan People’s Party (PPP). Coming years after a complaint was lodged against her, the court’s decision has caused an uproar among civil society groups and the Catholic Church.
Such an investigation is another example of the abusive use of the ‘black law’, which has already cost the lives of Punjab Governor Salman Taseer (murdered on 4 January 2011) and Minority Minister Shahbaz Bhatti (a Catholic who was shot 30 times on 2 March 2011).
The case against the diplomat goes back to the fall of 2010 when Asia Bibi affair became front page news around the world. Ms Bibi is a Christian mother of five sentenced to death on blasphemy charges who is still waiting for her appeal to be heard.
During a talk show and in an interview with AsiaNews, Ms Rehman called for changes to the blasphemy law to prevent abuses. To this effect, she presented a draft proposal in parliament, which was eventually dropped a few months later following threats against her from Islamic groups.
After she came out against the law, a businessman in Multan (Punjab), Muhammad Faheem, filed a complaint against her for blasphemy, a charge that can end in life in prison and even the death penalty. Initially, police turned down his application, but he persisted and went to the High Court and eventually the Supreme Court, which yesterday agreed with his request.
In the meantime, Ms Rehman was sent to Washington as ambassador to protect her from vendettas or attacks. Now she faces arrest and possibly a long sentence.
Human rights groups and activists have expressed their disappointment with the court’s decision, noting that it is further evidence of the abusive application of the blasphemy law, used more often than not against innocent victims like teenager Rimsha Masih.
Mgr Rufin Anthony, bishop of Islamabad-Rawalpindi, spoke to AsiaNews about the case. Visibly saddened by the decision, he explained that “the blasphemy law is used to settle personal disputes and vendettas.” In his view, it is now “time to call for interfaith harmony and reduce growing intolerance.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Our enemies are also seeking the ability to sabotage our power grid, our financial institutions, our air-traffic control systems
A damning, 60-page report released by American computer security firm Mandiant reveals that a 12-story building on the outskirts of Shanghai is most likely the epicenter of ongoing cyber attacks perpetrated against a number of American corporations and government agencies, as well as entities such as power grids, gas lines and water works. The building, located in a run-down section of the city, is the headquarters of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Unit 61398. A 2010 report by Mandiant questioned whether the Chinese government was directly involved in such hacking. No longer. “The details we have analyzed during hundreds of investigations convince us that the groups conducting these activities are based primarily in China and that the Chinese Government is aware of them,” the report states.
The report further notes that “Mandiant continues to track dozens of APT (Advanced Persistent Threat) groups around the world; however, this report is focused on the most prolific of these groups. We refer to this group as ‘APT1’ and it is one of more than 20 APT groups with origins in China. APT1 is a single organization of operators that has conducted a cyber espionage campaign against a broad range of victims since at least 2006. From our observations, it is one of the most prolific cyber espionage groups in terms of the sheer quantity of information stolen.”
The base, well-known to those who live in the area, is guarded by men in PLA uniforms.
Yet due to diplomatic sensitivities, the attacks will not be specifically linked to the Chinese army. Whether the attackers themselves will be publicly named — and accused of stealing — is currently under debate. However, administration officials have revealed China will be notified that the ongoing volume and sophistication of the attacks threatens the “fundamental relationship” between the two nations.
[Comment: Watch for Kerry to send a strongly worded letter. That is sure to get Communist China’s attention. /sarc]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
First off, you’re going to be shocked to learn that there is no limit to how much mercury, lead, cadmium, arsenic and aluminum is allowed in “organic” products.
It’s a fact: USDA organic standards place NO LIMITS on levels of heavy metals contamination of certified organic foods. Even further, there is no limit on the contamination of PCBs, BPA and other synthetic chemicals that’s allowed in certified organic foods, superfoods and supplements.
At this point, you’re probably shaking your head in disbelief and thinking, “No, that can’t be true. Organic standards must check for heavy metals and chemical contamination, right?”
No! “Organic” certifies a process of how food is grown or produced. It certifies that the farmer doesn’t add pesticides, herbicides, petroleum-based fertilizer, metals or synthetic chemicals to the crop (among other things), and it certifies that the soil must be free from such things for a certain number of years before organic certification is approved.
But organic certification does nothing to address environmental sources of pollution such as chemtrails, contaminated irrigation water, and fallout from industrial or chemical factories that might be nearby. A certified organic farmer can use polluted water on their crops and still have the crops labeled “organic.”
For this reason: the environment in which organic foods are produced is critical to the cleanliness of the final product.
Organic farming in a clean environment produces clean, organic foods. But organic farming in a polluted environment produces contaminated organic foods. And China is one of the most polluted chemical cesspools on the planet. The pictures on the right show some scenes from China, a country suffocating under a pollution nightmare…
China is a nation that has virtually no environmental regulation enforcement. In China, anything goes: You can dump mercury into rivers. You can spray raw human sewage sludge on crops. You can produce factory-made chemicals and blow the waste products right into the air through smokestacks. In China, many rivers are so toxic that, from time to time, they actually catch on fire and burn.
It’s so bad that a Chinese environmental official was recently offered over US $30,000 to take a 20-minute swim in a local river.
He DECLINED. Why? Because the river there is so polluted that swimming in it would mean certain death.
[…]
Here’s a little note that will interest pet owners: If you buy pet treats made in China, you are murdering your pet with the most insane chemicals imaginable. The stuff that goes into some pet treats made in China is highly toxic and causes cancer. This is one of the main factors behind the alarming rise of cancers among dogs and cats in North America.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Children Who Watch More TV Are More Likely to Grow Into Sociopaths
The more TV a person watches during childhood, the more likely they are to become a sociopath as an adult, according to a study conducted by researchers from the University of Otago in New Zealand and published in the journal Pediatrics.
Notably, the study ruled out the possibility that it is preexisting, antisocial tendencies that cause children to watch more television. Instead, what they found was that early television watching was correlated with the later development of antisocial behaviors.
“Children who watch violent TV behave in a violent way afterwards and people who watch a lot of TV are more likely to have bad behavior later in life,” said researchers.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Oscar Pistorius is Granted Bail
After four days of combative hearings, a South African magistrate on Friday granted bail for Oscar Pistorius, the double amputee track star accused of murdering his girlfriend in a case that has horrified and fascinated the nation.
The decision was made known after Magistrate Desmond Nair heard impassioned final arguments between defense and prosecution in Courtroom C of the Pretoria Magistrates Court in the presence of an emotional Mr. Pistorius who has testified that he mistook his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, for an intruder and never intended to kill her.
Mr. Nair said Mr. Pistorius did not represent a “flight risk,” and was not likely to interfere with state witnesses.
| [Return to headlines] |
Earlier this week, we posted on denial of justice for the Argentinean Jewish victims of the 1994 AMIA blast perpetrated by the late Hizbollah terrorist mastermind Imad Mughniyah with the aid of Iran’s current Defense Minister, Ahmad Vahidi. The latter is the subject of a 2007 Interpol arrest warrant for his role in the 1994 AMIA bombing in Buenos Aires. In the Iconoclast post we discussed the ironic key role in negotiations with Iran played by Argentina’s Jewish Foreign Minister Hector Timerman. Thursday’s vote by the Argentine Senate is a furtherance of the Iranian Islamic regime deepening presence in Latin America. The measure now moves to the Argentine lower house next Tuesday, February 26th, for a vote confirming ratification of the treaty with Iran., Argentine’s trade with Iran reached $85 billion last year may have influenced this deal with Iran. More threatening has been the growth of Hezbollah terrorist proxy sleeper cells in the neighboring tri- border area that abuts Argentina. (See Alan Kornman’s article on this subject in Family Security Matters). The deal stuck by Foreign Minister Hector Timerman denies justice to his co-religionists especially the families of victims of the blast perpetrated by Hezbollah and Iran. Today a protest occurred at the Argentine Embassy in Herzliya, Israel. Perhaps Argentina’s Jews have been sent, a 21st Century version of Ze’ev Jabotinsky’s speech to Jews in Warsaw in 1938, “Ihr Kommt’ — they’re coming”. Time for Argentina’s Jews to re-consider aliyah — immigration to Israel.
| — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon | [Return to headlines] |
Italian Woman Raped in Cancun, 2 Police Officers Arrested
(AGI) Rome — An Italian woman, a resident in the Mexican tourist resort of Playa Del Carmen, was raped by two police officers.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Asylum Seekers Could Get Right to ‘Shop Around’ EU Before Choosing Britain
Britain could be forced to accept a flood of young asylum seekers who are allowed to ‘shop around’ for the best nation to settle in.
A key adviser to Europe’s most powerful judges believes that the UK should lose its current right to send refugees back to the EU country they first arrived in.
Luxembourg’s Advocate General Cruz Villalon said yesterday that asylum seekers under the age of 18 should not be sent back to where they first landed if they are on their own.
The Spanish-born lawyer admits that it could lead to the ‘undesired effect’ of allowing youngsters the chance to pick and choose where they want to go in the European Union.
[Comment: Mass migration is being used to cultural disintegrate nation states identity so they become more easily subservient to the EU proletariat.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Islamic Butchery Manifests in America With Muslim Immigrants
[WARNING: *** DISTURBING CONTENT ***]
Americans must ask themselves if Muslim-style “multiculturalism” fits into the United States of America. Can our country tolerate beheadings, be-handings, female genital mutilation, arranged marriages of 12 year old girls and murders of gays? Before 1990, no American ever experienced the barbaric ritual of beheading a person.
But since our U.S. Congress began importing a total of seven million Muslims from all over the Middle East and Africa since 1990, an ever increasing rate of “honor killings” continue to horrify Americans around the country.
This week, the New York Daily News reported Islamic violence in Buena Vista, New Jersey: “Cops arrested Muslim Yusuf Ibrahim, 28, of Jersey City on Sunday after detectives found the bodies of the two men, aged 25 and 27, behind a home in Buena Vista Township. Their severed heads and hands were discovered at a separate burial site. The investigation into the grisly murder began Thursday following reports of suspicious activity at the Buena Vista home. Cadaver dogs located the bodies, which both suffered a single gunshot wound to their chests.” (Source: New York Daily News, 2/19/13)
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Common EU Rules on the Way, Malmstrom
Immigrant holding centres ‘worrying’. EuroSur to start in fall
(ANSAmed) — TURIN — Europe is ready to launch a set of common rules on immigration, European Commissioner for Home Affairs Cecilia Malmstrom told citizens of Turin in a second meeting promoted by the European Commission. “This spring we can agree that immigrants who come to EU countries will be accepted according to the same standards”, she said.
This includes new rules on centers for identification and expulsion (CIE).
“I’m very concerned about the way people are treated in these centers and I know that in certain Italian regions there are issues that we are trying to resolve in order to improve the living conditions of the guests.” By autumn, EuruSur — a European border surveillance system, should get underway, Malmstrom added. “The European Parliament will decide next spring. We hope that EuroSur will be up and running by autumn, improving border security and safeguarding the lives of those who try to get into the European Union by sea”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
White Londoners Are Now a Minority — Cultural Replacement Completed
If anyone was in any doubt that their government was engaged in a deliberate policy of demographic and cultural replacement then a recent census in London should act as a wake up call.
The census results reveal that white Londoners are now a minority in the capital city, making up only 45% of the population while immigrants, mainly from the Indian subcontinent, the Caribbean and Africa make up the rest.
Anyone who visits London, particularly its suburbs, cannot fail to notice the difference from a decade ago. The city is unrecognisable and one would be forgiven for thinking they were in a foreign land.
It is understood that London, being the capital city, an epicentre for the business world and a focal point for the world’s financial markets, will be cosmopolitan to some degree, but this transformation goes far beyond that.
With the connivance of the political class, whole areas of London have been commandeered by various mono-cultural ethnic groups who have displaced the indigenous population and become self governing ghettos financed by the taxpayer via welfare benefits and entitlements.
White people are fleeing their traditional communities in larger numbers as they are deluged by non EU immigrants despite the promises of a clamp down by their political masters.
As an example, any rudimentary search of the web will reveal a whole host of companies in the major cities of Pakistan such as Lahore and Karachi who are offering expert visa services for those who wish to enter Great Britain. These include student, family, business and tourist visas.
Despite a much trumpeted government clampdown, there is still a roaring trade in spousal visas for child brides marrying elder close relatives.
The cultural disaster that has befallen London is being repeated in all the major cities of Great Britain including Manchester, Birmingham, Liverpool, Leicester, Leeds, Bradford etc. In fact there is not a town or village that has not been affected by the governments deliberate policy of open border mass immigration.
The government is well aware that this demographic and cultural replacement is happening but refuses to act despite the fact the British people want it stopped.
It is a matter of record that anyone who dares to question the deliberate policy of mass immigration will be demonised, smeared and accused of racism and bigotry. Gillian Duffy and Clarissa Dickson-Wright being two cases in point..
At the same time without any action or condemnation from the government, benefit scrounger Anchem ‘Andy’ Choudary and his band of jihadi clowns are still calling for a Muslim caliphate and the imposition of Sharia law in Great Britain, by violent means if necessary.
Another example of diversity and cultural enrichment, that matches the Muslim paedophile gangs of Rotherham, Rochdale and elsewhere, has just been revealed. Three young British-Pakistani Muslims have been put on trial for plotting the mass killing of innocent people in the name of Allah.
These killings were being planned to match 9/11 and the 7/7 bombings in London. The local Muslim community in Birmingham were aware of what these savages were planning but shamefully remained silent. In the opinion of many this silence makes them accomplices after the fact.
These medieval barbarians were frequent visitors to terrorist training camps in Pakistan where they were taught the quaint British pastimes of bomb making and the mass murder of infidels.
Its ironic that August 14th, Pakistani Independence Day is widely celebrated by the British-Pakistani communities the length and breadth of the land and yet they still insist on blessing us with their presence.
In the meantime, professional Muslim whiner Yasmin Alibi-Brown and token Muslim female Cabinet member Baroness Warsi, are still complaining that the British people are Islamophic. I have a suggestion for the pair of them but this is a family blog so I will keep it to myself.
With the imminent arrival of hundreds of thousands of Romanian and Bulgarian immigrants, Great Britain will reach the tipping point from which there will be no return.
The country will be defeated at last and with the connivance of its own treacherous political class, who are single minded in their determination to fundamentally transform our country into the multi-cultural cesspit that their perverted ‘progressive’ ideology demands.
| — Hat tip: McR | [Return to headlines] |
Communist Propaganda Poster: Comrades, Turn in Your Weapons!
Gun control advocates claim historical gun grabs by tyrannical regimes are a “myth”
This 1918 Communist propaganda poster from the Russian civil war serves as yet another reminder that tyrannical regimes throughout history have always sought to disarm their populations through gun control.
The poster shows Russian citizens turning in their rifles, handguns and even swords as a communist soldier looms over them with the words, “Comrades, turn in your weapons” appearing in front of a hammer and sickle inside a red star.
The text bears a chilling resemblance to Senator Dianne Feinstein’s infamous “turn em all in” quote from 1995.
Numerous left-wing blogs successfully gamed Google’s search engine results so that when people searched for terms such as ‘Nazi gun control’, they were met with a plethora of articles claiming the historical basis for this connection was a fabrication.
In reality, the Nazis did take existing gun control laws and make them more draconian in order to target their political adversaries. That is a manifestly provable historical fact.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The use of fictitious necessity to rationalize human oppression is not new. Whether the justification is a putative lack of food (e.g., Malthus, 1817, “A great part of the [Irish] population should be swept from the soil”), shortage of Lebensraum (e.g., Hitler, 1941, “The law of existence requires uninterrupted killing, so that the better may live”), overpopulation (e.g., Ehrlich, 1967, “India . . . will be one of those we must allow to slip down the drain”), or global warming (e.g., Cafaro, 2013), the argument has always been the same:
1. There isn’t enough of x to go around.
2. Therefore human numbers, activities, or liberties must be severely constrained.
3. Those of us enlightened by wisdom must be empowered to do the constraining.
4. And having obtained such power, let’s make the best of it and stick it to those we despise anyway.
All these cases were frauds.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Quote:
“We are talking about the rape of Arab women in Egypt and other Arab states, and you still try to make a connection to Israel? Jewish men do not rape Arab women and girls! It is Arab Muslim men who are raping you, so focus this campaign on them and leave Israel alone.”
end
God bless Haskia.
She is a brave, brave woman.