A German-Canadian consortium has discovered oil deposits under Brandenburg, in the former DDR, that will eventually be worth billions of euros when exploited. Although the amount of oil involved is small by Persian Gulf standards, it is of high quality and is expected to help revive the depressed economy of northeastern Germany.
In other news, the Russian government has officially granted a one-year term of asylum to Edward Snowden, the fugitive NSA whistle-blower.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to Fjordman, Insubria, JD, McR, Vlad Tepes, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.
Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.
Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.
Fabrice Tourre, Former Goldman Trader, Is Found Liable in Mortgage Deal
Fabrice Tourre, the former Goldman Sachs trader at the center of a toxic mortgage deal sold to investors on the eve of the financial crisis, was found liable on Thursday for civil securities fraud.
Five years after the crisis, he is the only employee of a big American bank to lose a courtroom battle to Wall Street’s top regulator, the Securities and Exchange Commission. The S.E.C. took only a handful of employees to court over the crisis, but most cases were settled.
After two of deliberation, the nine-person jury concluded that Mr. Tourre misled investors about the mortgage deal, capping a more than two-week civil trial in one of the most prominent cases involving the 2008 crisis.
Of the seven charges facing Mr. Tourre, the jury found him liable on six.
| [Return to headlines] |
The Most Important Number in the Entire U.S. Economy
There is one vitally important number that everyone needs to be watching right now, and it doesn’t have anything to do with unemployment, inflation or housing. If this number gets too high, it will collapse the entire U.S. financial system. The number that I am talking about is the yield on 10 year U.S. Treasuries. When that number goes up, long-term interest rates all across the financial system start increasing. When long-term interest rates rise, it becomes more expensive for the federal government to borrow money, it becomes more expensive for state and local governments to borrow money, existing bonds lose value and bond investors lose a lot of money, mortgage rates go up and monthly payments on new mortgages rise, and interest rates throughout the entire economy go up and this causes economic activity to slow down.
On top of everything else, there are more than 440 trillion dollars worth of interest rate derivatives sitting out there, and rapidly rising interest rates could cause that gigantic time bomb to go off and implode our entire financial system. We are living in the midst of the greatest debt bubble in the history of the world, and the only way that the game can continue is for interest rates to stay super low. Unfortunately, the yield on 10 year U.S. Treasuries has started to rise, and many experts are projecting that it is going to continue to rise.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Armed Agents Raid Animal Shelter for Baby Deer
WISN 12 News investigates an operation raising questions about the use of government resources and the state policy that meant a death sentence for a fawn.
“It was like a SWAT team,” shelter employee Ray Schulze said.
Two weeks ago, Schulze was working in the barn at the Society of St. Francis on the Kenosha-Illinois border when a swarm of squad cars arrived and officers unloaded with a search warrant.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
CBP Supervisor Pleads Guilty to Possession of Child Pornography
[WARNING: Disturbing Content.]
A Hamburg man, who is also a former supervisor with U.S. Customs and Border Protection, pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography Monday following an investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General and the Hamburg Police Department.
Steven Metz, 41, faces a possible sentence of 10 years imprisonment, a fine of $250,000 and a term of supervised release of at least five years to life.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Court Rules Cops Don’t Need Warrant to Track Cell Phones
The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit delivered another blow to the Fourth Amendment this week when it ruled the police do not need a search warrant to track cell phones.
The court ruled that because cell phone records are owned by phone providers the user has no expectation of privacy and thus no search warrant is required to access data.
“The court did not address whether people have a reasonable expectation of privacy in their movements and made clear its decision only concerned obtaining historical cell site records when a user makes or ends a phone call,” Hanni Fakhoury writes for the Electronic Frontier Foundation today.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
FBI Raid Reveals Govt Knee Deep in Child Sex Trafficking
[WARNING: Disturbing Content.]
FBI agents have rescued more than 100 children forced into prostitution by sex traffickers, during a three-day sweep across the US.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Five Ways Liberalism Destroyed Detroit
Detroit was once one of the world’s great cities. It was the 4th largest metropolis in America, jobs were plentiful because of the auto industry, and Motown even kept it on the cutting edge musically.
Unfortunately, from 1962 until the present day, the mayor of Detroit has been a Democrat.
The result?
Detroit’s population has dropped from 1.8 million to just over 700,000, the unemployment rate is over 50% if you count the people who’ve given up on finding jobs, property values have dropped so much you can buy homes in the crime-ridden city for $500, and Detroit has gone bankrupt.
How did Democrats kill one of the most prosperous cities in America? With the same sort of unfettered liberalism that Democrats like Barack Obama, Harry Reid, and Nancy Pelosi want to foist on the rest of the nation.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
From a Nazi Past to a Communist Robbing-Babies-of-Nutrients Today
Completely lost in the understandable uproar yesterday in excerpts from Ben Urwand’s upcoming book, The Collaboration: Hollywood’s Pact with Hitler is one of Hollywood’s dirtiest little ongoing secrets.
The dark and dirty side of the Hollywood of the present day may never have come to light had it not been for Bill Donohue and the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights.
Hollywood letting Nazis censor scripts, removing credits from Jews and getting movies stopped before reaching the screen was Hollywood circa 1930s. Rich Hollywood stars and producers have much to feel guilty about, and perhaps this is part of the reason why so many of today’s actors and producers work harder at politicizing the masses rather than just entertaining them.
Did Steven Spielberg, Oliver Stone, James Cameron and other producers ever tell you how movies of the present day are made with Communist censors in China right on Hollywood sets to offer advice on what is acceptable for movie audiences and what is not?
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Government Report: TSA Corruption, Misconduct Soaring
Up 26% in three years; no consistency in disciplining thieves, molesters, and those neglecting security
A report out of the Government Accountability Office shows that TSA employee misconduct is rapidly rising, with a 26% spike in reported incidents over the past three years.
The report detailed instances of theft, sleeping on the job, leaving work without permission, and allowing friends and family members to bypass security screening procedures, to name but a few.
The report states that there have been close to ten thousand discovered cases of misconduct since 2010, 1,900 of which were classified as security threats.
When you consider that there are around 55,000 employees, these figures are appalling.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Hasan Sends Writings to Fox News Ahead of Fort Hood Shooting Trial
On the eve of his military trial, accused Fort Hood shooter Maj. Nidal Hasan released seven pages of handwritten and typed documents to Fox News in which he appears to renounce his U.S. citizenship, abandons his military oath as a commissioned officer, and explains his relationship with radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki — the first American targeted for death by the CIA.
Most of the documents also include the acronym “SoA,” which is considered shorthand for “Soldier of Allah.” Hasan’s business card, also bearing “SoA,” was found in his Texas apartment after the shooting.
Hasan’s attorney for civil matters, John Galligan, verified the authenticity of the documents and the signature, adding that the 42-year-old Army major, who is acting as his own attorney, directed him to provide the writings to Fox News.
“He represented to me that he either personally wrote in longhand or typed the statements at issue,” Galligan said. “All of the documents were prepared by Major Nidal Hasan and were sent, at his specific request, to your network.”
The documents may help illuminate Hasan’s state of mind and could challenge the Defense Department’s attempt to deal with the attack in the context of “workplace violence.”
“The government has tried to deny that this was an act of terrorism. I think that, I hope that if people hear the words from Hasan’s own mouth that they will understand that this was an act of terrorism,” Staff Sgt. Shawn Manning, who was shot six times at Fort Hood on Nov. 5, 2009, told Fox News.
Manning first spoke to Fox News a year ago as part of the network’s ongoing investigation of the massacre. Manning said he supported publishing the documents from Hasan so that the American public can decide whether Fort Hood was an act of terrorism or “workplace violence.”
Manning, who will testify at the trial, and is part of a separate legal action, says the victims and their families are being denied certain benefits and pay because Fort Hood is not considered terrorism. At the same time, the accused shooter has collected nearly $300,000 in military pay since his arrest.
“Some of the survivors and some of the deceased, or family members of the deceased, are struggling. I think it’s a grave injustice, and it breaks my heart to see things like that happen,” Manning said…
| — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes | [Return to headlines] |
(NaturalNews) Raw milk farmer Vernon Hershberger has been unjustly maligned by a tyrannical system of bad government. His family and farm were subjected to an armed raid by government goons who trampled all over his private property and accused him of committing “dairy crimes” by distributing raw milk to a small group of people who were members of a private buying club.
Hershberger, who has an Amish background, was then hauled into court where the state attempted to prosecute him and send him to jail for the “crime” of producing real food in America. Thankfully, he was recently found innocent on most of the charges, but then his farm was mysteriously set on fire in the middle of the night, destroying over $100,000 worth of equipment and buildings.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Liberal Activist: ‘Thousands of People Will Die Every Year’ Under ObamaCare
“Thousands of people will die every year” and “costs will continue to go out of control” under Obamacare, says Public Citizen President Robert Weissman.
The only solution is to nationalize health care through a single-payer system, Reps. John Conyers (D-Mich.) and Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Public Citizen argued outside the U.S. Capitol Wednesday.
[Comment: Was this the real purpose of Obamacare? To totally collapse the system and force nationalization of health care just like the Soviets of old?]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Look Out Below! Work More, Get Less in ObamaCare ‘Cliff’
Be careful you don’t fall off the ObamaCare “cliff” when the boss asks you to put in some overtime.
Working more could ultimately mean thousands of dollars less for you under a quirk in the new health-care law going into effect this fall. This could prompt some people to cut back on their hours to avoid losing money.
“Working more can actually leave you worse off,” the price-comparison site ValuePenguin.com notes in a new analysis.
“It’s sort of an absurd scenario,” said Jonathan Wu, ValuePenguin.com’s co-founder. “It’s something for people to be aware of.”
In that scenario, an individual or family whose annual income surpasses maximums set by the federal government—if only by $1—will totally lose subsidies available to buy health insurance under the Affordable Care Act.
The loss of those subsidies in some cases will mean that people potentially would have been better off financially if they had worked less during the year, Wu said. And they then would have to work significantly more to make up for the lost subsidy.
“I think they’d be surprised to see how drastic it is,” said Wu. “I’d be kind of shocked to see if I make $100 less (in total income each year), I get all these benefits, but if I make $100 more, I get nothing.”
“You basically don’t want to fall in that hole,” said Wu, adding that he believed contractors and others with more control over their incomes would be apt to adjust their hours worked to avoid the subsidy cliff.
He also said that because of lower insurance premiums often offered younger people, the effect will more likely be seen by older people. But “you will see it across all age groups” in the seven states including New York and Vermont where insurance premiums are either barred from being affected by age, or restricted from being dramatically affected, he said.
Under the ACA, federal subsidies in the form of tax credits to buy insurance on new state health insurance exchanges will be available to millions of people who can start enrolling on those exchanges Oct. 1. The subsidies are available to people or families whose incomes total 400 percent above the federal poverty level or less, and are designed to cap their insurance premiums at 9.5 percent of their total income.
Doing the math
For a single person, that FPL income maximum is $45,960 per year. The maximums are adjusted upward for couples and families until maxing out at $94,200 for a family of four.
Under a scenario that ValuePenguin.com identified, a couple in Ohio, both age 50, would be eligible for subsidies worth $3,452 to purchase a so-called silver insurance plan—a moderately priced level of benefits under the ACA’s scheme—that costs $9,346 annually if they made up to $62,040 per year.
But if they made just $1 more than that, they would lose the subsidy. Wu noted that the couple then would have to earn at least $65,492 to make up for the lost subsidy.
| — Hat tip: McR | [Return to headlines] |
New Bill Aims to Make ‘Smart’ Meters Mandatory for Entire Nation
(NaturalNews) There is a sinister agenda underway to forcibly convert every standard electric meter in the U.S. to the “smart” variety under the guise of promoting renewable energy interests. And one of the latest pieces of Trojan horse legislation pushing for this ominous transformation is the Smart Grid Advancement Act of 2013, introduced by Representative Jerry McNerney (D-Cal.) and co-authored by Rep. Matt Cartwright (D-Penn.), which would force utilities all across the country to convert their customers to smart meters.
The new bill, as stated in a recent press release posted on Rep. McNerney’s website, would require virtually all energy utility companies nationwide to implement so-called “smart grid technologies,” which in turn would require the installation of smart meters on customers’ homes and businesses. Smart meters, as you may already be aware, contain wireless communication components that are not only a serious threat to human health, but also a monumental detriment to personal privacy.
But crafty politicians like Rep. McNerney and Rep. Cartwright are couching the technology as a viable way to help save people money by lowering their electricity bills. This explanation, of course, is meant to divert attention away from the not-so-enticing fact that the technology is really nothing more than a massive, interconnected government spying and control apparatus.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Protecting Your Information From the NSA
Like millions of Americans, I was frustrated when The Guardian broke the story on June 6th that the NSA has a top secret program called Prism that collects personal data on American citizens from all of the most well known and trusted technology companies. This included tech giants such as Google, Yahoo, Microsoft/Bing, Facebook, Youtube & Twitter.
What made this story especially heinous as it unfolded is that each of these companies is prevented by the actual FISA court orders they were served from disclosing to the public their information is being intercepted by the government. These trusted companies all have privacy policies and tell their users “we take privacy matters seriously”, yet we now find out millions of records are being secretly turned over to the NSA every single day. From the documents leaked to The Guardian by the NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, the government literally has unfettered “back door access” to these vast databases.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
SEAL’s Dad: Warriors Not Allowed to Protect Themselves
Hopes congressional investigation results in changes
One man who lost his son when the Taliban in Afghanistan shot down a U.S. Chinook helicopter in 2011 that was carrying 22 Navy SEALS says he has high hopes that a review of the incident by Congress will provide answers for family members who have accused the Obama administration of putting political ends over the safety of their loves ones.
The helicopter was shot down just three months after Vice President Joe Biden revealed that SEAL Team 6 carried out the operation in Pakistan that killed terror leader Osama bin Laden in May 2011. Seventeen members of SEAL Team 6 were among the 38 killed in the Chinook incident.
In an interview with WND today, Doug Hamburger, whose son, Patrick, was lost that day in August 2011, said: “It looks like people finally are realizing there was a big part of this story that has been missing. We don’t really know what those answers are going to be.”…
He told WND the federal government provided only partial information about what happened to the service members. When family members started asking additional questions, they were told to drop it.
He said he believes American soldiers are sent into harm’s way, then ordered not to take reasonable precautions.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
U.S. Expects Immunity for Its Cops Working in New Cross-Border Policing Program
We’ve all heard of diplomatic immunity, the international convention that exempts select representatives of foreign countries from arrest and prosecution unless that protection is specifically waived by their government.
The privilege has been occasionally abused, but it’s a vital element in allowing diplomats to operate in sometimes hostile environments without fear of being detained.
But how do you feel about foreign cops being given similar immunity while operating in Canada?
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Vermont Man Handcuffed, Detained by Police for Legal Open Carry
National Guard veteran placed in police cruiser for doing nothing illegal
A Vermont man is upset after he was handcuffed and detained in a police squad car for doing little more than walking down the street with a handgun clipped to his belt, harassment many see as a stark infringement of the man’s personal rights and Vermont’s open carry laws.
26-year-old Joshua Severance, a National Guard veteran, says he was stopped by police Monday and questioned as he walked down the street to his father’s apartment. Severance says his pistol was made all the more visible as his shirt was off due to hot weather.
“There was a cruiser sitting there parked, and it saw me. I had my firearm on my side, had my shirt off because I was hot, minding my own business just walking along, cops saw me,” Severance told WCAX.com.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Oil Under Brandenburg ‘Could Deliver Billions’
Currently best known for not very much, the north German state of Brandenburg could soon be catapulted into an economic boom — a drilling firm reckons there are 92 million tonnes of oil there and plans to start drilling in four years.
The economically depressed former east German state could benefit by nearly €7 billion, according to Central European Petroleum (CEP), which intends to start drilling in the Lausitz area, the Tagesspiegel newspaper reported on Thursday.
A German-Canadian consortium, CEP has found what it called deposits of “European significance” at two sites between Lübben and Lieberose in the Dahme-Spreewald region. It launched its plans to get the oil on Wednesday in Potsdam.
Thomas Schröter, CEO of the consortium said drilling could start in 2017, and could bring up at least 15 percent of what is there over the coming 30 to 50 years. This would be around 10 million tonnes of oil.
“It is of best quality, sweet and low in sulphur,” he said of the oil. “It is no Persian Gulf, but despite that it is an absolute hit.”
Currently around 2.5 million tonnes of oil are drilled in Germany each year, largely in Lower Saxony and off the Schleswig-Holstein coast, the paper said. And before reunification, drilling for oil was being carried out in Brandenburg. But this was dropped when East Germany ceased to exist.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italian Court Upholds 1-Year Prison Sentence for Silvio Berlusconi
Italy’s highest court on Thursday definitively confirmed a prison sentence for tax fraud for Silvio Berlusconi, dealing a severe blow to Italy’s most dramatic politician. But it also called for a re-examination of a ban on his holding public office, a compromise that might stave off an imminent collapse of Italy’s left-right coalition government.
The sentence the court confirmed was four years, but it was automatically reduced to one year under a law aimed at combating prison overcrowding.
The decision by the Court of Cassation was the first time Mr. Berlusconi has received a definitive conviction in 20 years of tangles with Italy’s judicial system. In the other cases brought against Mr. Berlusconi over the years — which range from tax evasion to buying judges to embezzlement — he was either acquitted on appeal or the statute of limitations ran out.
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Italy to Receive 30 Billion Euros in EU Funding
Trigilia announces matching-funding program to regions
(ANSA) — Rome, July 31 — Italy is eligible for about 30 billion euros in funding from the European Union between 2014 and 2020, the minister for territorial cohesion said Wednesday.
The funds must be matched by national financial commitments, Carlo Trigilia said following a meeting of regional presidents.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Court Says Jailed Prelate Shows ‘Criminal Behavior’
Former spy, broker also denied release for ‘20-mn-euro smuggle’
(ANSA) — Rome, July 31 — A court in Rome said that a Vatican prelate, a former Italian spy and a financial broker — each jailed for allegedly trying to smuggle 20 million euros into Italy — displayed “marked criminal behavior” and “common ruthlessness” in its assessment Wednesday of a decision not to release them. Giovanni Maria Zito, a recently transferred agent in the AISI domestic intelligence agency, financial broker Giovanni Carenzio and Monsignor Nunzio Scarano were detained June 28 in a probe over allegations they conspired to try to secretly repatriate the cash from Switzerland, allegedly the fruit of tax evasion by a family close to the prelate.
A judge rejected their request earlier this month to move to house arrest.
In its assessment of that decision, the court said the three showed the tendency to “manage people, institutions and things for their own personal gain”. The arrests have been linked by the Italian media to past probes into alleged irregularities at the Vatican Bank, IOR, creating a thorn in the side of Pope Francis who has shown eagerness to get the Vatican on the ‘white list’ of countries with unimpeachable credentials by working with the Council of Europe’s Moneyval anti-money-laundering agency.
In its latest effort at transparency, IOR announced Wednesday it had launched a new Internet site where it will publish its annual balance sheet.
In a letter to the pope made public last week, Scarano claimed he was innocent, pointing the finger at his bosses and unnamed high-ranking cardinals he says protected them.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Kyenge Says ‘Italy Not Racist’ Despite Barrage of Slurs
‘Proud to be Italian’ says first black minister
(ANSA) — Rome, July 31 — Italy’s first black cabinet member said Wednesday that the country was not by nature racist despite a barrage of epithets she has had to endure since her appointment in April. “There are episodes of racism but you can’t say that Italy is a racist country,” said Cecile Kyenge. The Congo-born integration minister said she was “proud to be Italian,” adding she believed “a cultural shift” was taking place in the country. After months of brushing off attacks from members of the anti-immigrant Northern League, Kyenge called on its leader, Roberto Maroni, to denounce party members for their “intolerable” rhetoric on Tuesday.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Piedmont Governor Rallies to Defence of Fiat Chief’s Comment
Regional leader where automaker based demands industrial policy
(see related stories) (ANSA) — Turin, July 31 — The governor of the region where the automaker Fiat is based on Wednesday rallied to the defence of Fiat-Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne, who on Tuesday blasted business conditions in Italy in a conference call with analysts and media. Marchionne said that the “conditions in industrial Italy remain impossible” and has threatened to move production of new models of Alfa Romeo vehicles outside of Italy.
The governor of Piedmont, where Fiat was founded and remains based, responded by demanding clearer industrial policy from State government.
“Where is the government’s industrial policy? How long do we have to wait to see something done? There is no more time,” said Roberto Cota. “Fiat no doubt owes acknowledgment to the territory,” said the governor.
“For this reason it must continue to manufacture in the Mirafiori plant (in Turin), and even more so given positive results thanks to Marchionne’s actions and investments abroad,” Cota continued.
“The truth is, though, that every day hundreds of businesses close down and go away, because they can’t make it, because doing business here isn’t competitive and often impossible. These businesses are not talked about because they aren’t famous and aren’t part of the media spectacle,” Cota concluded.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Asian Footballer Jailed After Racist Tirade Against Match Referee
An Asian amateur footballer has been sent to prison for subjecting a referee to a 20-minute racist rant as he was being sent off.
Wasar Ahmed, 23, told Ian Fraser: ‘I’m going to break every white bone in your white face.’
As other players and spectators looked on in shock, Ahmed raged: ‘I’m going to burn your white house down and kill your wife and kids — I know where you live. I’m going to come and find your house.’
After the game finished, Ahmed stood near to Mr Fraser’s car and stared at him as he got in.
He was arrested soon after when the referee, who has 30 years’ experience in officiating at matches, went to a police station and made a formal complaint to officers and the East Lancashire Football League.
Mr Fraser, 48, told police he had ‘never known anything like it before, felt intimidated and was left extremely shocked.’
He said he feared further trouble because of the threats.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
[WARNING: Disturbing Content.]
Stunned officers chipped away plaster at a record shop wall and unveiled a hidden list of names thought to belong to young victims of Jimmy Savile.
The vile register, which contained the names, ages and a disgusting ratings system seemingly used to mark their sexual performance, was scrawled on a secret wall buried behind layers of wallpaper and plaster.
A source revealed: “The wall looked like something straight out of a horror movie. There were lists and lists of names of the victims — it’s a shocking discovery.”
The list of girls and young women is thought to identify hundreds of potential new victims abused at the hands of the BBC DJ and it raised fears Savile was at the centre of a celebrity paedophile ring.
Police believe the major breakthrough could lead to further arrests — including other well-known celebrities.
[…]
Earlier this year it was suggested there were around 450 victims of Savile’s depraved actions.
“This looks like an under-estimation. If the evidence on the wall is anything to go by, we could be talking in the region of 650 victims in all. It’s shocking.”
Criminologist Professor David Wilson from Birmingham City University said the register was a way for the predators to boast about their conquests.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Electric Car Farce as Councils Spend £7.2m on Charging Points ‘That Are Never Used’
Councils across the UK have spent more than £7.2m on charging points for electric cars over the last three years but many are not being used.
One in six councils admitted to having at least one point which has not been used at all over the past year.
While less than a third of authorities have a charging point used on average more than once a week, more than half of which are used only by council vehicles…
Matthew Sinclair, chief executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: ‘Taxpayers are clearly being fleeced to fund what is little more than an attempt by the councils involved to brandish their green credentials.
‘When only around four thousand of the 34.6 million vehicles on the road are electric cars, this amounts to a very expensive vanity project.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
[WARNING: Disturbing Content.]
Police have released CCTV images in a bid to catch off-road bikers who ran down and then left a three-year-old girl for dead in a horrifying hit-and-run.
Little Olivia Pollard was struck and flung into the air as she crossed the road with her mother Jessica four weeks ago.
Three off-road motorbikes were travelling on a road in East Herringthorpe, South Yorkshire, when one or more of the bikes is thought to have collided with Olivia, before driving off.
The toddler suffered serious head and eye injuries, and came close to losing the sight in one eye.
She was airlifted to nearby Sheffield Children’s Hospital following the shocking collision.
Thankfully, she has now been released from hospital and is recovering at home.
South Yorkshire Police are still appealing for information to help them catch the culprits — and today released CCTV images of three off-road motorbikes and four people in the hope members of the public will recognise them.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
CNN Bombshell! Jake Tapper’s Exclusive Report About Benghazi and the Ongoing CIA Cover-Up
The CIA has been ordering agents with first-hand, on-the-ground knowledge of Benghazi to keep silent under threat of ‘You will jeopardize your family.’
Mediaite CNN’s Jake Tapper broadcast a report on Thursday in which the network’s reporters alleged that the Central Intelligence Agency is pressuring agents who were on the ground on the night of the deadly 2012 attack on an American consulate in Benghazi from talking to Congress or the media. The agents in question have been subjected, according to the report, to an inordinate amount of polygraph testing in order to ensure that they are not talking about the Benghazi attacks.
“Sources now tell CNN dozens of CIA agents were on the ground that night,” Tapper revealed about the night of the attack, “and the CIA is going to great lengths to make sure whatever they were doing and what happened that night remains a secret.”
“Since January, some CIA operatives involved in the agency’s missions in Libya have been subjected to frequent, even monthly, polygraph examinations,” CNN reporter Drew Griffin revealed. “The goal of the questioning, according to sources, is to find out if anyone is talking to the media or Congress.”
“It’s being described as pure intimidation with the threat that any unauthorized CIA employees who leaks information could face the end of his or her career,” Griffin continued…
| — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes | [Return to headlines] |
Blogger Gets 7 Years in Jail, 600 Lashes for Offending Saudi Gov’t
[WARNING: Disturbing Content.]
The editor of a Saudi Arabian social website has been sentenced to seven years in prison and 600 lashes for founding an Internet forum that violates Islamic values and propagates liberal thought, Saudi media reported on Tuesday.
Raif Badawi, who started the ‘Free Saudi Liberals’ website to discuss the role of religion in Saudi Arabia, has been held since June 2012 on charges of cyber crime and disobeying his father — a crime in the conservative kingdom and top U.S. ally.
Al-Watan newspaper said the judge had also ordered the closure of the website.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Russia Grants Snowden 1-Year Asylum
After a month holed up in the transit zone of Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport, Edward J. Snowden, the former intelligence contractor wanted by the United States for leaking details of surveillance programs, has received temporary refugee status in Russia and left the airport, his lawyer said Thursday.
The movement from the airport’s international transit zone marked a significant change in Mr. Snowden’s status for the first time since he left the United States and began leaking details of the National Security Agency’s surveillance.
The refugee status in Russia marks the first formal support from another government for the 30-year-old leaker, and seems likely to elicit strong objections from the United States.
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Author Claims That ‘Fair Use is Theft by Any Other Name’
We’d noted that there’s a big copyright review going on down in Australia, with the current suggestion being to recognize fair use in Australia. This would be a huge step forward because, as has been widely recognized in the US, fair use is a key driver of creativity. Yet, for reasons that make little sense, the big copyright holders hate fair use, and argue that fair use needs to be restricted… even as they rely on fair use themselves.
The problem, often, is that those who lash out against fair use rarely recognize just how important it is to their own creativity, as well as the ability to create important services that they use. So it’s especially ridiculous to see the bogus arguments laid out against fair use. Case in point, down in Australia, author Linda Jaivin has written a factually-challenged article entitled: Long story short: Fair use is theft by any other name. What’s incredible is how Jaivin’s own argument is completely undermined by her own words. Let’s start out with the very title her article is under:
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Germany’s Helmut Kohl ‘Wanted Half of Turks Sent Back’
Former Chancellor Helmut Kohl wanted to halve the number of Turks living in West Germany in the early 1980s, British official papers cited by a German magazine reveal.
He discussed the idea with then UK PM Margaret Thatcher at a meeting in Bonn in 1982, Spiegel Online reported.
Mr Kohl said that Turks “did not integrate well”, minutes of the meeting said.
He told Mrs Thatcher he wanted their numbers cut by half within four years.
Speigel Online said the minutes were marked “secret” but have now been released as the period of confidentiality has ended.
“Chancellor Kohl said… that it would be necessary over the next four years to reduce the number of Turks by 50% — but he could not say that publicly,” notes from the meeting said, according to the Spiegel Online report.
“Germany had no problems with the Portuguese, the Italians, even the south-east Asians, because these communities integrated well,” the notes read.
“But the Turks came from a very distinctive culture and did not integrate well.”
The author of the report was said to be Mrs Thatcher’s then private secretary, AJ Coles.
Turkish migration to Germany stems from October 1961 when a labour recruitment agreement was signed between the two countries.
Many so-called “guest workers” also came from Italy, Greece, Portugal, Tunisia and the then Yugoslavia.
Mr Kohl, who was chancellor until 1998 and a leader of the conservative Christian Democrats (CDU), often spoke out against immigration during his time in office. However, numbers of immigrants continued to rise steadily.
His office has so far not commented on the Spiegel Online report.
| — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes | [Return to headlines] |
Homeland Security Loses Track of 1 Million Aliens
The Homeland Security Department has lost track of more than 1 million people who it knows arrived in the U.S. but who it cannot prove left the country, according to an audit Tuesday that also found the department probably won’t meet its own goals for deploying an entry-exit system.
The findings were revealed as Congress debates an immigration bill, and the Government Accountability Office’s report could throw up another hurdle because lawmakers in the House and Senate have said that any final deal must include a workable system to track entries and exits and cut down on so-called visa overstays.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
My neighbor informs me that another neighbor has got his dogs pooping all over the place, and I should watch my step.
If only we could clean up after Congress, the courts, Hollywood, and the other culture-wreckers as easily as we can clean up after dogs. I had just come back from the supermarket, where I discovered that there are now two series of novels, not just one, promoting “dominance and submission” as a fantastically hip and desirable way of life. I wonder which books they had to remove from the shelves to make room for these. The only advantage such books have over dog-droppings is that you don’t have to worry about stepping on them.
Rot, rot, rot — right before our eyes, our culture rots away.
A few doors down, a 13-year-old boy has just returned to his home state after a visit with his grandparents. I like this kid; everybody does. He comes here every summer. He and I play chess together, or just sit and talk.
But there wasn’t much of that, this time around.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Former ‘Archbishop’ Desmond Tutu: I Much Rather Prefer to Go to Hell Than a ‘Homophobic Heaven’
During a news conference introducing a United Nations homosexual rights campaign, former African Angelican archbishop and anti-apartheid activist Desmond Tutu told reporters that he would rather go to Hell than a “homophobic Heaven.”
“I would refuse to go to a homophobic Heaven. No, I would say, ‘Sorry, I would much rather go to the other place,’“ Tutu, 81, stated. “I would not worship a God who is homophobic and that is how deeply I feel about this.”
He made the comments Friday at a news conference for the UN’s “Free and Equal” campaign in Cape Town, South Africa, which was spearheaded by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. The campaign seeks to gain equality for homosexuals worldwide, including in Africa, where most nations oppose or criminalize sexual activity between those of the same gender.
“I am as passionate about this campaign as I ever was about apartheid,” Tutu said. “For me, it is at the same level.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Pope Francis on Homosexual Priests: ‘Who Am I to Judge?’
During an 80-minute news conference on his flight home from participating in World Youth Day in Brazil, Pope Francis told reporters that it was not his job to judge homosexual priests.
“If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?” he said. “The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains this very well. It says they should not be marginalized because of this, but that they must be integrated into society.”
“The problem is not having this orientation. We must be brothers,” Francis continued. “The problem is lobbying by this orientation, or lobbies of greedy people, political lobbies, Masonic lobbies, so many lobbies. This is the worse problem.”
The pope had also been asked about the alleged homosexual lobby in the Vatican, which he denied. He stated that he had investigated the claim and found it to be unsubstantiated.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Off-topic: I nominated your blog for the Most Influential Blogger Award here. Thanks so much for the years of reading pleasure you have given me.