A researcher at Iowa State University faked experimental results by adding human blood to rabbit blood, making it appear that the rabbit blood showed promise as an AIDS vaccine. The discredited scientist falsified his findings in order to win a $19 million grant from NIH.
In other news, Geert Wilders’ Gmail account was blocked to keep people from using it to order stickers bearing the revised anti-Islamic Saudi flag. The PVV was forced to switch to another email account.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Caroline Glick, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, Jerry Gordon, Papa Whiskey, 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.
DHS Insider Gives Final Warning
U.S. is a captured operation. The lie is bigger than most people realize or are willing to confront.
“According to every internal document I’ve seen and read, and from the few people I’ve spoken with who understand what’s going on, preparations have been finalized to respond to a crisis of unprecedented magnitude within the United States. The response will include the use of lethal force against U.S. citizens under the instructions of Barack Obama.” But why?
“‘It’s the economy, stupid,’“ he began, paraphrasing a campaign slogan coined by James Carville for Bill Clinton’s 1992 campaign. “Just as I disclosed in our first meeting, the crisis will be rooted in an economic collapse. I told you last year, at a time when gold and silver were setting record highs, one specific indicator that time is very short. It is the final ‘smack down’ of the metals, gold and silver, that will presage the orchestrated economic collapse that is being planned by the bankers of Wall Street. Everybody needs to understand that this is a deliberate collapse of the U.S. economy with the oversight of the White House and the full knowledge of the Justice Department. Everyone seems to be waiting for some big, history making event that will signal the start of the collapse. The fact is that the collapse has already started. It’s incremental, like a snowball rolling down a hill. It gets bigger and rolls faster. Well, this snowball is well on its way down the hill.”
“I don’t mean to sound repetitive, but I can’t stress this enough. Contrary to what you hear, we’re already in an economic collapse, except that most people haven’t a clue. The ‘big bang’ comes at the end, when people wake up one morning and can’t log in to their bank accounts, can’t use their ATM cards, and find out that their private pension funds and other assets have been confiscated,” he stated.
“I’ve seen documentation of multiple scenarios created outside of DHS. Different plans and back-up plans. Also, please understand that I deliberately used the word ‘created,’ as this is a completely manufactured event. In the end it won’t be presented that way, which is extremely important for everyone to understand. What is coming will be blamed on some unforeseen event out of everyone’s control, that few saw coming or thought would actually happen. Then, another event will take place concurrent with this event, or immediately after it, to confuse and compound an already explosive situation.” I asked for specifics…
“Please note a few final things. The relationship that exists between DHS today and the executive branch is well beyond alarming. DHS and other organizations have become the private army of the Oval Office. The NSA, and I’ve got contacts there, is taking orders from the Oval Office. The IRS is under the virtual control of the Oval Office in a manner that would make Nixon cower. Even though all roads appear to lead to the Oval Office, they lead through the Oval Office. It’s not just Obama, but the men behind him, the people who put him there. The people who put him there are the ones who created him.“ I asked who created him.
[Comment: Read it all.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Majority of Latvians Oppose Euro on Eve of Joining
Latvia will join the euro on 1 January but nearly 60% of Latvians oppose the single currency, reports AFP. Latvians have endured steep wage cuts, rather than Lat devaluation, as the government sought to get the country out of economic crisis while keeping on track to join the euro.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The Stock Market Has Officially Entered Crazytown Territory
It is time to crank up the Looney Tunes theme song because Wall Street has officially entered crazytown territory. Stocks just keep going higher and higher, and at this point what is happening in the stock market does not bear any resemblance to what is going on in the overall economy whatsoever.
So how long can this irrational state of affairs possibly continue? Stocks seem to go up no matter what happens. If there is good news, stocks go up. If there is bad news, stocks go up. If there is no news, stocks go up. On Thursday, the day after Christmas, the Dow was up another 122 points to another new all-time record high. In fact, the Dow has had an astonishing 50 record high closes this year. This reminds me of the kind of euphoria that we witnessed during the peak of the housing bubble. At the time, housing prices just kept going higher and higher and everyone rushed to buy before they were “priced out of the market”. But we all know how that ended, and this stock market bubble is headed for a similar ending.
It is almost as if Wall Street has not learned any lessons from the last two major stock market crashes at all. Just look at Twitter. At the current price, Twitter is supposedly worth 40.7 BILLION dollars. But Twitter is not profitable. It is a seven-year-old company that has never made a single dollar of profit.
Not one single dollar.
In fact, Twitter actually lost 64.6 million dollars last quarter alone. And Twitter is expected to continue losing money for all of 2015 as well.
But Twitter stock is up 82 percent over the last 30 days, and nobody can really give a rational reason for why this is happening.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
600 People Brawl Outside Movie Theatre
Police in Jacksonville, Fla., say made five arrests after more than 600 people got into a brawl in the parking lot of a movie theater. The fight broke out in the Regal River City Marketplace theater parking lot around 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, WJXT-TV, Jacksonville, reported.
About 600 people were in the lot, fighting and jumping on cars. Many did not have movie tickets, said Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Lauri-Ellen Smith. Smith said 62 officers were brought in to disperse the crowd, using pepper spray and other tactics.
There were no reports of gunfire or serious injuries. Among the five arrested were three juveniles, an 18-year-old, and a 19-year-old.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
A Century of African-American Islam
The year 2013 marks the centenary of the reported founding of the Canaanite Temple in Newark, New Jersey. That was the very earliest form of an indigenous African-American Islam, one completely distinct from normative Islam, the 1,400-year-old religion from Arabia founded by Muhammad. From this movement came Elijah Muhammad, Malcolm X, and Louis Farrakhan.
The century divides into two main eras: inventing a new religion (1913-1975) and moving toward normative Islam (1975-2013).
Timothy Drew (1886-1929), an American black who called himself Noble Drew Ali, founded the Newark temple and then, in 1925 another, better verified organization, the oddly named Moorish Science Temple of America. His ideas derived mainly from four unlikely sources — pan-Africanists, the Shriners, Ahmadiyya Muslims, and white racists.
- From pan-Africanists such as Edward Wilmot Blyden and Marcus Garvey, he appropriated the notion of Christianity as the religion of whites and Islam that of non-whites. As a practicing Shriner, Noble Drew Ali borrowed traits from this organization, such as the use of “Noble” before one’s name, the requirement that men wear fezzes, and a network of lodges. From Ahmadis he took Arabic personal names, the crescent and star motif, the prohibition of pork, and the notion of Jesus traveling to India. From white racists came the idea that accomplished black Americans are not Africans at all but “Moors,” “Moorish-Americans,” or “Asiatics,” a mythical northwest African people, the Moabites, who migrated to sub-Saharan Africa.
- From this unique mixture, Noble Drew Ali concocted the 64-page scripture of his religion, The Holy Koran of the Moorish Science Temple of America (Chicago, 1927) which, despite its name, has almost nothing to do with the normative Islamic Koran but is largely plagiarized from two texts, one occult Christian and the other Tibetan. Even more strangely, his Koran focuses not on the figure of Muhammad but on Jesus.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Chamber of Commerce Gets Behind Establishment Effort to Defeat Tea Party
“Our No. 1 focus is to make sure, when it comes to the Senate, that we have no loser candidates,” Scott Reed, a Chamber political strategist, told The Wall Street Journal. “That will be our mantra: No fools on our ticket.”
For the Chamber, political fools are those who oppose unchecked federal spending and irresponsible deficit spending and a ballooning national debt.
Calling itself an advocate for small business, the Chamber of Commerce is dominated by banks and large transnational corporations. CitiGroup, Google, Microsoft, Boeing, Merck and other banks and large corporations drive the relationship between the trade organization and government. In 2013 alone, the Chamber spent $30 million electing establishment and “centrist” Republicans who support corporate socialism.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Court: State Trooper Can’t Carry Gun While Off-Duty Due to Mental Health Record
Yet officer is allowed to carry while on-duty, granting him special concession he is not afforded as a private citizen
A Pennsylvania court has declared that a state trooper who was previously hospitalized for depression should be banned from possessing firearms while off-duty, but should still be allowed to carry a gun while on-duty, granting him special concession while serving the state which he is not afforded as a private citizen.
The Pennsylvania Superior Court ruled that State Trooper Michael L. Keyes’ involuntary mental health treatment in 2006 bars him from possessing any firearms privately, but he should still be allowed to carry a gun while on official police business, according to Penn Live.
“The dangers inherent in the possession of firearms by the mentally ill are manifest,” Jude Fort Elliott declared. “A present clean bill of health is no guarantee that a relapse is not possible.”
Yet Elliott also stated that Keyes should still be allowed to have a firearm while on-duty as a state trooper, implying that public officials have special status over private citizens.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
EPA Pushes Gun Control Through Green Ammo Mandate
Gun Control: Thanks to government regulations, the closing of the last U.S. lead smelter and a push for “green” lead-free ammunition, ammo prices will skyrocket. Does the Second Amendment threaten the environment?
Having been stymied by court defeats such as the Supreme Court’s deciding that the Second Amendment does indeed confer a right to keep and bear arms on individuals throughout the United States, advocates of a gun-free America and a disarmed citizenry are taking a different approach: Go after the ammunition through regulations that stifle domestic production and force the use of more expensive and eco-friendly substitutes.
Expanded regulations issued by the Environmental Protection Agency have forced the closing as of Dec. 31 of the country’s last bullet-producing lead smelter — a facility operated by Doe Run Co. in Herculaneum, Mo., that first opened its doors in 1892. As a result of the closure, a company press release notes, 145 Doe Run employees and some 73 contractors will lose their jobs.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Families to be Investigated by the Government Before ‘Allowed’ To Homeschool Their Children
(NaturalNews) On December 3, 2013, Ohio state senator Capri Cafaro (D) introduced a bill that would require Ohio parents to be investigated by social services before being allowed to homeschool their children. It was called “Teddy’s Law” to honor a 14-year-old boy who was abused and beaten to death at home.
The Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) approached the matter with weapons drawn. They pointed out that the child’s abuse had nothing to do with homeschooling. The facts were that social services and law enforcement did not act on reports from school officials and neighbors, not until it was too late and Teddy was dead. [1]
Teddy’s death had nothing to do with homeschooling. It had everything to do with a deranged mother protecting her psychotic boyfriend from being arrested by pulling Teddy out of school to allegedly “homeschool” him after realizing that officials were very suspicious of her boyfriend’s child abuse. He was sentenced to life imprisonment, and the mother was sentenced 15 years for negligence…
Under heavy fire from homeschool advocates and the HSLDA, senator Capri Cafaro responded by withdrawing her bill, claiming that she had never intended to incite a heated debate on homeschooling rights but only propose an effort to protect children from abusive parents. This was reported on December 23, 2013. [2]
But all that sort of bureaucracy is already in place. It simply needs to be used more effectively to protect children instead of impeding rights of medical treatment choices and worse. Ironically and sadly, many local social service agencies, such as Child Protective Services (CPS) and adoption agencies, have been complicit in harming children.
Those activities include enforcing toxic medicines on children and not allowing alternative medical choices, not following up on actual child abuse cases and occasionally being complicit with kidnapping and child trafficking for pedophilia prostitution.
All three of these sick activities have been reported but not publicized mainstream when it should have been. If you don’t believe it, do your own research on the internet.
David Icke’s website has reported this type of activity in the UK, and in the USA a suppressed report detailing abduction and child trafficking that went from Boy’s Town to the White House was exposed in attorney John DeCamp’s book, The Franklin Cover-up: Child Abuse, Satanism, and Murder in Nebraska.
Despite this Ohio victory, the matrix of public education with its political allies is forever fomenting resistance to homeschooling.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Hundreds of Teens Trash Mall in Wild Flash Mob
Hundreds of teenagers stormed and trashed a Brooklyn mall in a wild flash mob that forced the shopping center to close its doors during day-after Christmas sales, sources said on Friday.
More than 400 crazed teens grabbed and smashed jars of candy, stole cheap items such as baby balloons and beat up security guards at Kings Plaza Shopping Center in Mill Basin between 5 p.m. and 7 p.m., merchants said.
A violent game of “Knockout” also broke out on the upper level of the mall — and one teen may have been carrying a gun, sources said. The teens used social media to plan the mass looting, vowing to put the mall “on tilt” — or to raid it, according to posts on Facebook and Twitter.
Clerks, who scrambled to close up their shops, said they were terrified. “I’ve been here seven years and I have never seen anything like this before — I’m so scared. I know they will come back,” said Abu Taleb,31, a clerk at Candy Plaza 2.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Judge Rules N.S.A. Phone Surveillance is Lawful in Case Filed by A.C.L.U.
A federal judge in New York on Friday ruled that the National Security Agency’s program that is systematically keeping phone records of all Americans is lawful, creating a conflict among lower courts and increasing the likelihood that the issue will be resolved by the Supreme Court.
| [Return to headlines] |
Michigan Lawmaker Wants to Suspend Driver’s Licenses of Kids Absent From School
Thinking about cutting class in Michigan? Make sure you know someone with whom you can hitch a ride.
A state representative wants to revoke driver’s licenses for chronically absent students as part of an initiative to cut down on truancy.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Mom Punched While Walking With Young Daughter in Midwood, Police Say
BROOKLYN — A mother was sucker punched while crossing a Midwood street with her 7-year-old daughter in broad daylight, police said.
The 33-year-old mother was near the intersection of 12th Street and Elm Avenue in Midwood about 2:45 p.m. Saturday when a man approached her from behind, swung at the back of her head and knocked her to the ground, police said. Nothing was reported stolen. The woman sustained minor injuries to her hands and knees, police said.
The attack appears to follow the pattern of the alleged “knockout game” assaults that have taken place over the past couple of months in Midwood and Crown Heights. In the knockout game, a random victim is punched in the head and knocked to the ground. Nothing is stolen during the assault.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
More Accommodation of Sharia Compliant Finance
Yesterday’s New York Times Business Day Section had a major article reporting on Shariah Compliant Finance, “Islamic Banks, Stuffed with Cash, Explore Partnerships in West”. In late October 2013, we posted on the Iconoclast about cheerleading that UK Prime Minister David Cameron gave at the London meetings of the World Islamic Economic Forum extolling the virtues of making the City, “the unrivaled Center for Islamic finance”. In that post, we drew attention to some of the demonstrable problems that the UK had encountered over the past five years accommodating “Islamic Economic Imperialism”, the term used by Christopher Holton, Vice President for Outreach at the Washington, DC-based Center for Security Policy and editor of Sharia Finance Watch.
The New York Times article noted the mushrooming growth of the global Shariah compliant financial market place:
Over the last 30 years, the Islamic financial sector has grown from virtually nothing to over $1.6 trillion in assets, according to data from the Global Islamic Financial Review, an industry publication. The financial crisis has only encouraged the growth. Industry assets grew 19 percent in 2011 and 20 percent in 2012, in contrast to the less than 10 percent growth at non-Islamic banks in most of the world.
Until recently, Islamic banks have largely put their money to work in the Middle East — or, if they invested in other parts of the world, in real estate. Real estate is among the most popular investments under Islamic law, also known as Shariah, because a deal can be structured that does not require interest payments, which are prohibited by Shariah. But as the banks grow larger they are looking for new, more diverse places to put their money.
Coincidentally, Holton, see our March 2013 NER interview with him, sent us a recent video of his presentation on Shariah Compliant Finance at an event sponsored by Children of Holocaust Survivors of Los Angeles (CHSLA) on December 18, 2013, “Shariah Compliant Finance and Jihad with Money”. Watch the CHSLA presentation of Holton, here.
Perhaps the best comment at the conclusion of the New York Times article is by Mr. Ibrahim Mardam-Bey, a group president at Washington, DC-based investment firm Taylor-DeJongh. who observed:
That some American businesses were hesitant to take money from Islamic banks, perhaps a byproduct of negative associations with Shariah since the Sept. 11 attacks. But in the Texas deal, and in many others, that tends to fade as the financial possibilities become clear.
“The borrower was a Texan wildcatter who couldn’t spell ‘sukuk,’ “ Mr. Mardam-Bey said. “But at the end of the day when I brought the check he didn’t care if I prayed to Allah. He just wanted the money.”…
| — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon | [Return to headlines] |
NSA Phone Surveillance is Legal, N.Y. Judge Rules
NEW YORK — Citing the Sept. 11 attacks, a federal judge on Friday found that the National Security Agency’s bulk collection of millions of Americans’ telephone records is legal, a valuable part of the nation’s arsenal to counter the threat of terrorism and “only works because it collects everything.”
U.S. District Judge William Pauley said in a written opinion that the program lets the government connect fragmented and fleeting communications and “represents the government’s counter-punch” to the al-Qaida’s terror network’s use of technology to operate decentralized and plot international terrorist attacks remotely.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
NSA Surveillance Eroded Transatlantic Trust
One year ago, most people on either side of Atlantic had scant or no knowledge of the NSA and its activities. Edward Snowden’s revelations changed all that and rocked one of the pillars of transatlantic relations.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Obama’s Speeches Are Chilling to Me … Almost Malevolent
Here in the 21st century, we have another great orator. He, too, has the power to move his listeners to act while disregarding consequences. He, too, has worshipers — some who even refer to him as “Lord and Master.”
His Name is Barack Hussein Obama. And he is President of the United States of America. And he scares the dickens out of me!
If you look at the faces in one of Hitler’s crowds and compare them to the faces in Obama’s crowds, you will see the same worship of their speaker. But look closely. Look at the eyes. Do you see it? Do you see the vacant, “the lights are on, but nobody’s home” look reflected in those eyes? It’s the look that makes those tiny little hairs on the back of your neck tingle and stand up. That’s primal fear, honed to perfection by our ancestors while they still lived in caves.
Trust it. It is telling you: “Something is dreadfully wrong.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Poll Ignored by Media Reveals Most Americans Believe U.S. Government is Corrupt
A new poll released on Thursday, by a well-regarded, nonpartisan public-interest law group and a reliable and a highly regarded digital news organization, reveals that more than three-quarters of the U.S. population are concerned about widespread government corruption and more than half of Americans believe that corruption has gotten worse during the past five-years.
The poll itself was conducted December 13-16, 2013.
The Judicial Watch-Breitbart.com poll revealed that 77% of the American people are concerned about the issue of government corruption in Washington, D.C., with 52% of them believing it has gotten worse over the past five years.
That five-year timeframe coincides with the number of years President Barack Obama has been in office, according to political consultant Paul Waltman.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Professor Admits Faking Aids Vaccine to Get $19m in Grants
An Iowa State University professor resigned after admitting he falsely claimed rabbit blood could be turned into a vaccine for the AIDS virus. Dr. Dong-Pyou Han spiked a clinical test sample with healthy human blood to make it appear that the rabbit serum produced disease-fighting antibodies, officials said.
The bogus findings helped Han’s team obtain $19 million in research grants from the National Institutes of Health, said James Bradac, who oversees the institutes’ AIDS research.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sustainable Development a.k.a. Agenda21 and “Regionalism” Part 1
Let’s use Taylor County, Florida as an example for Regionalism, although it could be all 67 counties in the State. Or any county in any state.
Tucked away in a beautiful setting in northern Florida is Taylor County. Generations of good people are now being attacked by the United Nations Sustainable Development a/k/a/ Agenda21.
It was like dropping a bomb on an unsuspecting quiet community that trusted their county administrator and board of commissioners, along with the city manager. Sustainable development is the infrastructure and indoctrination program for transforming America from:
- a democratic Republic free person society whereby the individuals vote and tell their representative what to do allowing the individual to control their own life,
- into a member of the fascist-communist order whereby the government controls life and tells the people what to do.
[…]
Regionalism comes from the communist Soviet Union also called the Union of Soviet Socialist Republic (USSR). Those of us that have read true history know that the USSR ended in the starvation and death of millions and dissolution of the USSR. Regionalism eliminates borders so the individual will not have allegiance to their home town, community, state or county. Humans will live in a region controlled by unelected people. Regionalism denies the right of representative government by denying the vote of the people giving the power to make rules and regulations to unelected bureaucrats also called administrators. Regionalism can be traced to 1945 and the United Nations, which was founded by communists with money from the Rockefeller Foundation. Regionalism eliminates borders and countries like the European Union, a failing program. Currently the US pays 22% + of the UN budget to a group of people trying to eliminate America. (How much money has the US given to the UN since its inception? Trillions, why do we still have poverty, hunger and disease?)
Why?
The US Constitution is ignored. Article IV Section 4 of the United States Constitution: The United States shall guarantee to every State in the Union a republican form of Government; meaning States and the people have a vote in choosing representatives to carry their policies to the Federal government. Regionalism eliminates that choice…
On this map you will see the light green (720,000 acres) representing the current corridor already off limits to humans. The dark green expands the corridor’s vision to connect through the entire east coast by future land acquisitions. When completed almost 80% of Florida land will be off limits to humans.
[Comment: Read it all.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Court Challenge That Could Drive a Stake Through the Heart of ObamaCare
Enter Jonathan H. Adler, a conservative law professor (itself a rarity) at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio. The year: 2011.
In reviewing the Obamacare law, Adler thought he might have spotted an error which could unravel a very large portion of it. Curious, he shot off an email to Michael Cannon, his friend and health policy expert at the libertarian Cato Institute in Washington, D.C.
The issue: federal subsidies for individuals buying insurance through state Obamacare exchanges.
The law says such subsidies should be allotted for plans purchased “through an Exchange established by the State under Section 1311,” which references a section of the law that established the state-run exchanges.
That made Adler wonder if the law provides subsidies only for state-run exchanges and not federal ones.
The law “requires that the federal government step in to create an exchange when a state declines to do so,” Newsweek reported. “But does it fail to give subsidies to the residents of those states?”
That may seem like just a small issue. But if that’s the case, it’s a disaster for Obamacare. Because without subsidies, healthcare coverage on the open market then becomes unaffordable for millions of Americans. And without a reasonably affordable option, the individual and employer mandates would necessarily go away.
“In other words,” the news magazine reported, “the entire law could come crashing down on the 36 states that have opted not to run their own exchanges.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The DOJ’s Curious Foray Into the ‘Knockout Game’ Fray
Twenty-seven-year-old Conrad Barrett of Katy, Texas, has been charged with a hate crime by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) for allegedly targeting a 79-year-old black man as his “knockout game” victim…
“The ‘knockout game’ — and the media underreporting of it — combines the breakdown of the family with the media’s condescending determination to serve as a public relations bureau for blacks,” contends black American columnist Larry Elder. Elder points out that both National Public Radio and the New York Times have labeled such incidents as overblown. He further notes that, following an incident where 30-40 black youths and adults attacked three white girls in Long Beach, CA — with eyewitnesses reporting the mob yelling, “We hate white people, f*** whites!” as it occurred — NPR didn’t report the incident for a month. When they did, it was used to question “whether blacks, given America’s history of racism, can even commit a ‘hate crime,” Elder explained.
Americans would be disturbed to learn how those in charge of the DOJ would answer the above question.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
(NaturalNews) Yet another vaccine researcher has been caught faking research on a bogus AIDS vaccine, adding to the pattern of scientific fraud and criminality that characterizes the modern-day vaccine industry. Dr. Dong-Pyou Han from Iowa State University has resigned this week after admitting he spiked rabbit blood samples with healthy human blood to falsely show the presence of antibodies that would “prove” his AIDS vaccine worked.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) was so convinced by the fraud that they gave Han $19 million in research funding. The NIH later found the fraud after attempting to replicate Han’s work and figuring out something was terribly wrong with the research.
Newly-released federal documents reveal the stunning breadth of the fraud. As the findings state:
[The investigation] found that the Respondent falsified results in research to develop a vaccine against human immunodeficiency virus-1 (HIV-1) by intentionally spiking samples of rabbit sera with antibodies to provide the desired results. The falsification made it appear that rabbits immunized with the gp41-54 moiety of the HIV gp41 glycoprotein induced antibodies capable of neutralizing a broad range of HIV-1 strains…
Han’s $19 million vaccine research fraud eerily resembles the vaccine industry fraud exposed by former Merck virologists Stephen Krahling and Joan Wlochowski. In a little-known False Claims Act filing, these two scientists accused Merck of spiking mumps vaccine blood tests with animal antibodies in order to make the vaccines appear to be effective.
This fraud is what allowed Merck to falsely claim its mumps vaccine is 95% effective, say the scientist whistleblowers. In reality, the fraudulent Merck mumps vaccine actually contributed to the spread of mumps across America, they explain.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Environmentalists Vow to Stop Swedish Wolf Hunt
The licensed winter wolf hunt in Sweden will likely be cancelled despite the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency’s decision to allow for 30 wolves to be shot in three Swedish counties.
Several environmental organisations plan to appeal the EPA decision. Jan Darpö, an environmental law professor at the University of Uppsala, told Swedish Radio that the administrative court appeal will probably be successful.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Gmail ‘Blocks’ Wilders’ Anti-Islam Sticker Mail Account
Email system Gmail has blocked an account set up by Geert Wilders to distribute an anti-Islam sticker, the Dutch politician claimed on Friday.
‘Unbelievable but Google has blocked the account islamsticker@gmail.com. So Mohammed Rabbae’s complaint was successful,’ Wilders said, using the microblogging service Twitter. He was referring to a complaint about the sticker by a lobby group Landelijk Beraad Marokkanen led by former GroenLinks MP Rabbae.
The sticker is a play on the Saudi flag and says in Arabic ‘Islam is a lie. Mohammed is a criminal. The Koran is poison’.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
New Bach Discovery Raises Question of Burn-Out
A newly discovered letter suggests Johann Sebastian Bach severely neglected his duties in the years leading up to his death. Now scholars are asking: Was that due to burn-out, seeing problems or clever time management?
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Norway’s Shame: How a Nation Squandered Its Oil Riches
Here’s a warning to America: Even a rich nation can be bled dry … by pandering to those who won’t work
Some 50 years ago, Njord, the mythological Norsk god of wealth, smiled on the hardworking fishermen and lumberjacks, and presented Norway with the gift of oil. In financial terms, this was a handsome gift indeed, currently translated into a natural bounty worth $740 billion.
Successive Norwegian governments pledged to save this wealth for the welfare of future generations. Yet, half a century after this windfall began, questions increasingly arise of whether Norway’s handling of its oil wealth has even withstood the test of the past, much less the future.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Health Inspectors Ban Hookah Pipes
The smoke looks set to go out on six hookah clubs in Södertälje, after municipal politicians banned the water pipes and inflamed community centre owners who have pledged to appeal.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Muslim M&S Worker Refused to Sell ‘Unclean’ Bible Book to Grandmother, Customer Claims
A Muslim store worker at Marks & Spencer refused to serve a customer buying a children’s book on biblical stories because she said it was “unclean”.
Sally Friday, a customer at a branch of one of the famous stores, felt publicly humiliated when she tried to pay for First Bible Stories as a gift for her young grandson.
When the grandmother put the book on the counter, the assistant refused to touch it, declared it was unclean and then summoned another member of staff to deal with the purchase.
Mrs Friday was so upset that she has now complained to the store’s manager.
Politicians and religious leaders supported her in condemning the high street chain and it has reignited the debate over religious beliefs in the workplace.
Conservative MP Philip Davies said the refusal to serve Mrs Friday, 69, was “unacceptable” and “damaging” to community relations.
Inayat Bunglawala, assistant secretary-general of the Muslim Council of Britain, described the assistant’s comments as “offensive” and called for Marks & Spencer to conduct an investigation.
He said: “This appears to be a very regrettable incident and the ‘unclean’ remark was clearly very offensive and unacceptable.
“Many Biblical stories complement the teachings of the Koran. We hope that M&S will investigate this incident.”…
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Shopper Fury at ‘Deals’ That Were Cheaper Before Christmas
…as stores enjoy £3bn record takings from Boxing Day spree
Angry shoppers yesterday accused stores of ripping them off with bogus discounts as millions of people flocked to the Boxing Day sales.
High street stores enjoyed record takings, with more than £3billion in total thought to have gone through the tills and footfall up on last year.
But within hours, consumers vented their anger on Twitter after discovering some items were originally cheaper before the Boxing Day sales began.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Your Next Snack: A Bug From the Swedish Forest?
Spiders, insects and other creepy crawlies can make healthy, cheap and climate-friendly meals, at least according to international organizations like the United Nations. What kind of bounty could Swedish forests be hiding?
Organizations like the UN have been pushing for more people to eat insects. And in May, the leading agricultural university dealing with this field — Wageningen, in the Netherlands — will host a big conference where researchers, politicians and representatives from the food industry will meet to discuss a future where insects provide nourishment.
According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, edible bugs are a good source of protein. They are also efficient. For example, crickets need six times less feed than cattle to produce the same amount of protein. Bugs also produce less greenhouse gases than livestock.
But in most countries in the EU, stores and restaurants are not allowed to sell insects as food.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Coptic Church Forced to Close Due to Violence From Muslim Brotherhood Backed Aggressors
Copts in the village of Tarshoub, Beni Suef, Upper Egypt, are experiencing intimidation after extremists attacked them on Monday. Aggressors threw stones at Coptic homes, burned a tuk-tuk truck owned by a Copt named Magdy Fathi Rizk and a store owned by Badr Maher. They also destroyed the fronts of some houses and called for the closure of the church, which dates back more than 40 years in the village.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Could a Gulenist Secularist Alliance Topple Erdogan’s Government?
Harold Rhode, former Pentagon Islamic Affairs and expert on Turkey has a provocative Gatestone Institute analysis. Could Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan fall from power amidst the current corruption controversy in Turkey, “Are Erdogan’s Days Numbered”? […] As we posted in the Iconoclast, the current turmoil in Turkey arises from a split between two former Islamist allies, Erdogan, co-founder of the ruling AKP Party, and Sheikh Mohammad Fethullah Gulen, a reclusive Islamist cult leader and ex-patriate resident in Eastern Pennsylvania who fled arrest in Turkey in 1999. Gulenists control the national and local police and judiciary. Following the 2007 parliamentary sweep by the AKP in their second term, Gulenist prosecutors had tried and convicted former secular Turkish military officers and political opponents charged with conspiracy to overthrow the Islamist AKP.
…
So why was Gen.Cevik Bir — an opponent of Gulen — released by a heavily Gulenist judiciary? Although the reason behind Bir’s release are not yet clear , as an opponent of the Erdogan government …he could now be an ally of Gülen.
Where Turkey’s once highly influential military stands is unclear. So far, it has been silent. It has historically been — and its senior officers still are — steeped in the Atatürkist secular and pro-Western tradition. At least for the moment, the Islamist Gulenists seem to have forged an alliance of convenience with Turkey’s secularists.. The beneficiaries of this political upheaval could well be the West, the U.S., NATO, and Israel. Stay tuned.
| — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon | [Return to headlines] |
Macedonia and Turkey: Muslims Slug Santa Claus
(Two pictures of anti-Santa posters.) The second flier began appearing last week in the Skopje suburb of Butel. It quotes Muhammad saying: “He who is practicing the way and the belief of unbelievers is not part of my people. Do not celebrate; fear Allah.”
[Such touching interfaith outreach! — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
Member States Want EU Embassy in Iran, MEP Says
BRUSSELS — EU countries have informally told the European Parliament they want the Union’s foreign service to open an embassy in Iran. Tarja Cronberg, a Finnish Green MEP who chairs the parliament’s Iran delegation, said member states’ ambassadors in Tehran backed the idea when she met them in the Iranian capital on an official trip earlier this month.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Prosecutor Accuses Turkish Government of Stripping Him of Investigation Into Corruption
In a written statement, Muammer Akkas said police refused to carry out court orders to seek out and arrest corruption and fraud suspects, and that the judiciary is under pressure. According to the press, Akkas was investigating corruption cases that involved Erdogan’s son and had ordered the arrest of 30 prominent people from the Prime Minister’s AK party.
Istanbul (AsiaNews/Agencies) — A prosecutor who was stripped of the investigation he was conducting into corruption among “government circles” has launched the latest accusation against the government of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
In Istanbul, prosecutor Muammer Akkas said in a written statement late yesterday that Istanbul chief prosecutor Turan Colakkadi had stripped him of the investigation.
The latter had removed Akkas accusing him of not informing him of his moves, something Turkey’s Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors said was unconstitutional.
For his part, Akkas claims that the police refused to carry out court orders to seek out and arrest corruption and fraud suspects, and that the judiciary is under pressure.
Akkas’ allegations follow Erdogan’s decision to replace ten ministers, after the resignation of three of them in the wake of the arrest of more than 50 people, including three sons of cabinet ministers.
The arrests were followed by the removal of about 500 police chiefs, including the chief of police in Istanbul where the investigation had started, an action described by some as a retaliation by the Prime Minister.
According to the press, Akkas was investigating corruption cases that involved Erdogan’s son and had ordered the arrest of 30 prominent names of the Prime Minister’s AK party.
As was the case during last summer Gezi Park protests, Erdogan has tried to resist increasing opposition and popular call for his resignation by blaming an unspecified “international conspiracy”.
Turkey’s Watergate comes at a particularly delicate time for Erdogan and his party. Next year, local and presidential elections are scheduled to take place and the current prime minister would like to become head of state, a goal that might be the cause of an internal war within Turkey’s Islamist camp.
Viewed as a “moderate”, Erdogan is opposed by former ally Fethullah Gulen who is in self-imposed exile in the United States.
Considered much less moderate than Erdogan, Gulen can count on the support of Turkey’s current president, Abdullah Gul, who has not been touched by the recent scandal and will likely challenge Erdogan for the presidency.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Saudi Women Learn to Drive on Quad Bikes
While feminist campaign heats up
(ANSAmed) — CAIRO — While waiting for a fatwa (religious decree) prohibiting Saudi women from driving cars to be abolished, women in the country are taking to quad bikes amid the desert dunes for fun. In the kingdom following the strict Wahhabi interpretation of Islam, however, they have to get their fathers’ permission first.
Activists involved in the Saudi women’s movement started a campaign against the ban on driving in late October, circulating videos online showing several women behind the wheel but without specifying where they had been filmed. About sixty women then took part in a ‘act of provocation’ both in the capital, Riyadh, and Jeddah, some 22 years after the first Saudi woman had officially requested but failed to obtain the right to drive. On November 29, police arrested one of the activists involved in the movement, Professor Aziza al-Youssef, while she and another activist, Eman Al-Nafjan, were driving her car in central Riyadh. She was released ten hours later. A national day of protest against the ban has been called for December 28.
Last week the weekend edition of the Saudi Gazette published a page of photos of young women wrapped in their abayas (black, ankle-length cloaks that cover both shirts and trousers of the same colour) driving quad bikes. There are few areas in which the ‘sport’ can be practiced and all are far from wandering eyes, mostly outside of Riyadh in the Al-Thumama region. In the reportage flanking the photos — from which it is impossible to tell whether the women were actually enjoying themselves or not, as their faces are covered — a number of people are quoted who (though not members of the campaign promoted by Azizi) underscore mostly that driving the quad bikes does not satisfy their desire to drive cars in urban zones.
“For me, driving a quad bike is simply for fun and recreation. On the other hand, what I eagerly wished for was to drive a car to meet my needs and necessities,” said Fatin Al-Diyab.
Despite the openness shown several times in the past by King Abdallah, women’s right to drive comes up against both religious norms and tradition, which prohibit it. Then there is also the issue of morality. “Ten years ago, women driving quad bikes in the desert was considered as something shameful. But things have changed and now it has become a means of recreation and an outlet for relaxation,” said Amjad Al-Obaidi.
In the eyes of Muna Shahbal, however, driving even the quad bikes is still a thorny issue. “Each section of society has its own reasons and justifications for preventing young women from driving. But this is purely an individual decision taken by the head of each household,” she said. Many families seem to not want to allow the driving of quad bikes for safety reasons, since driving the four-wheeled vehicles with powerful engines often on unpredictable, sandy ground can be very dangerous. That said, another reason for the ban may be that it seems very difficult for women to comfortably ride the bikes in full Islamic attire, noted Ruqiyya Al Sameer.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Saudi Author: Nothing Wrong With Muslims Joining Christmas Celebrations
Every year, with the approach of the Christian holidays, and particularly Christmas, religious rulings are published in the Arab and Muslim world prohibiting Muslims from participating in the Christian celebrations and from extending holiday greetings to Christians. In an article published in the liberal website Elaph.com on Christmas Eve, December 24, 2013, Saudi author and journalist Hani Nakshabandi urged Muslims to join Christians in celebrating Christmas and attacked Muslim clerics who prohibit this. He also lamented that, while churches preach love and forgiveness, some mosques incite to hatred and killing.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Turkish Corruption Inquiry Halted After Targeting PM’s Son
(AGI) Istanbul, Dec 26 — A Turkish prosecuting magistrate, Muammer Akksam, has reported that the corruption inquiry that has rocked Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan’s government has been taken away from him and that police are hindering the investigation. Akksam made the shocking announcement through a press release issued to the Turkish media, a few hours after the papers reported that the next target of the inquiry will be the prime minister’s son.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Turkish Government in Crisis Over Corruption Scandal
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has reshuffled almost half of the entire cabinet — 10 ministers — in a bid to stave off calls that he should resign over a corruption scandal.
One of the ministers who lost his job is Egemen Bagis, the EU affairs minister and chief negotiator for Turkey’s EU membership. The move comes amid an ongoing police investigation into allegations of illicit money transfers to Iran and government officials having taken bribes for construction projects.
The sons of three ministers, as well as the head of the state-run bank Halkbank, are among 24 people who have been arrested on bribery charges, after police found millions of US dollars stashed in shoe boxes.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
What Lies Behind the Turkish Illicit Gold Trade With Iran
In our Iconoclast post on Harold Rhode’s speculations regarding a possible alliance of convenience between the Gulenists and Secularists that might topple Premier Erdogan, he drew attention to the illicit gold trading conducted by the state-owned Halkbank. Suleyman Aslan, the head of Halkbank at the center of the illicit gold trading had been prominent among the 52 arrested in the swirl of events in the current Turkish corruption scandal. Jonathan Schanzer and Mark Dubowitz of the Washington, DC-based Foundation for Defense of Democracy published an article in Foreign Policy Magazine (FPM) covering research into the “gas for gold “ scheme that the Obama Administration failed to stop, “Iran’s Turkish Gold Rush”.
Messrs. Schanzer and Dubowitz drew attention to the two principals at the center of the gas for gold trade between Turkey and Iran:
The drama surrounding two personalities are particularly eye-popping: Police reportedly discovered shoeboxes containing $4.5 million in the home of Suleyman Aslan, the CEO of state-owned Halkbank, and also arrested Reza Zarrab, an [Azeri] Iranian businessman who primarily deals in the gold trade, and who allegedly oversaw deals worth almost $10 billion last year alone.
[…]
According to a Zaman Today article, cited by the authors, the illicit “gas for gold” trade between Iran could be vastly more significant: “The suspicious transactions between Iran and Turkey could exceed $119 billion — nine times the total of gas-for-gold transactions reported. “
[…]
Clearly, the current corruption probe in Turkey may lift the veil on a vast underworld of transactions with Turkey that may have enabled Iran to continue, if not accelerate, achievement of their nuclear weapons program objective: nuclear hegemony destabilizing the Middle East and the World…
| — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon | [Return to headlines] |
Caroline Glick: Khodorkovsky and the Freedom Agenda
Until his arrest in October 2003, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the oligarch and oil executive, was the richest man in Russia. He might have still been the richest man in Russia today if he hadn’t started thinking about politics, and objecting to the fact that under President Vladimir Putin, Russia had abandoned all prospects for democracy.
With his billions, Khodorkovsky had the means to finance a challenge to Putin’s authoritarian rule. His arrest in 2003 and his 10-year imprisonment was ordered and orchestrated by Putin as a means of silencing and destroying the former KGB officer’s only potent challenger for power.
After 10 years behind bars, Khodorkovsky was suddenly released from prison last Friday, immediately after Putin issued him a presidential pardon. He held a press conference in Berlin the next day. There he showed that prison had changed his political thinking. Whereas in 2003, Khodorkovsky thought it was possible to transform Russia into a democracy by simply winning an election, after 10 years behind bars, he recognizes that elections are not enough.
“The Russian problem is not just the president as a person,” he explained. “The problem is that our citizens in the large majority don’t understand that their fate, they have to be responsible for it themselves. They are so happy to delegate it to, say, Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin and then they will entrust it to somebody else.”
In other words, until the Russian people come to the conclusion that they want liberty, no one can give it to them. They will just replace one dictator with another one. In his words, “If you have a ‘most important person’ in the opposition… you will get another Putin.”
So whereas George Washington was seen as the first among equals, an opposition leader who would succeed Putin, would be more like Robespierre in post-revolutionary France…
| — Hat tip: Caroline Glick | [Return to headlines] |
Russian Beekeepers Strive to Ban GM Honey
The Russian National Beekeepers Association addressed to The Federal Service for Customers Rights with a request to ban the sale of honey with pesticides, GMOs and chemical impurities.
According to market participants, Russia must discontinue both the sale of drugs for bees and bee products with residues of veterinary drugs, transgenic pollen, glucose and fructose syrup.
In addition, Russian beekeepers consider it necessary to ban the production and use of equipment with zinc coating. The association also considers it necessary to check every batch of honey that is imported into the territory of the Russian Federation.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
[WARNING: Disturbing Content.]
Ambar Arianto Mulyo, 59, had offered to capture the snake (like one pictured), which had been spotted several times near the hotel in Bali’s…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
US Al Qaeda Hostage Pleads for Obama’s Help
A 72-year-old American man kidnapped by al Qaeda in Pakistan more than two years ago has called on US President Barack Obama to help secure his freedom in a video released Thursday.
Warren Weinstein, a development worker who was abducted in the eastern city of Lahore in August 2011, says in the 13-minute clip he feels “totally abandoned and forgotten” by his government, which has so far refused to negotiate with his captors.
The video, which was accompanied by a letter purporting to be from Weinstein, was sent anonymously to reporters in Pakistan.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Cambodia: Phnom Penh: Arrests and Injuries in Clashes Between Police and Textile Workers
The workers are demanding a doubling of salaries, from the current 80 to 160. So far they have been offered 15 dollars extra, as of April 2014. Anti-government protesters in solidarity with the workers. Opposition Leader: We stand with workers.
Phnom Penh ( AsiaNews / Agencies) — At least seven people were injured and others seven arrested in the clashes that took place this morning in Phnom Penh between police and workers in the textile industry, who are protesting on the streets of the Cambodian capital for better working conditions and higher minimum wages. Local witnesses reported that the police attacked the workers with batons and sticks. An amateur video shows protesters who , in response , hurl rocks and stones in the direction of police. The workers also joined opposition protesters close, who have been protesting for weeks against the results of the July election, won by Prime Minister Hun Sen , 28 years in power.
Dissatisfied with the increases in minimum wages obtained so far , thousands of workers in the textile industry took to the streets yestserday , joining the supporters of the main opposition party, the Cambodia National Rescue Party ( CNRP ) chaired by Sam Rainsy . The protesters are calling for the resignation of the prime minister and a new election .
In solidarity with the protesters Rainsy says he is ready to support their demands . “I am aware of the difficulties faced by the workers — told AFP — and have helped them for 20 years. Now I am ready to help them again”. “That is the difference with Hun Sen, who is sticking with factories owners.”
Previously tens of thousands of workers , led by the country’s two main unions, blocked the access roads to the Ministry of Labour. They promised more demonstrations and strikes, if their demands are not met . Unions , workers and opposition are pushing for a doubling of the minimum wage from the current 80 to 160 a month. However, so far they have managed to achieve an increase of 15 dollars per month from April 2014.
Fearing further violence, the Textile Association has urged companies to stop production while unions and the government have announced a series of meetings scheduled in the late afternoon, in an attempt to stem the protest. The strikes threaten to cripple the manufacturing industry of the country, one of the most vital and thriving in Cambodia with 650 thousand employees and a multi- billion dollar turnover, linked to the production of garments for major Western brands.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
China Rejects Shipments of Genetically Modified Corn
China rejected two shipments — almost 546,000 tons — of U.S. dried distillers’ grain, a corn byproduct, because it contained genetically modified material, state media reported Friday.
China’s top food-quality watchdog rejected the two shipments because they contained MIR162, a special insect-resistant variety of maize developed by Syngenta, a Swiss maker of seeds and pesticides.
The first shipment, 545,000 tons, was rejected last week in Shanghai, state media said. The second shipment, 758 tons, was rejected Monday.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
N. Korea Recalls Its Ambassador From Sweden
North Korea has recalled its ambassador to Sweden apparently as part of an ongoing purge by the nation’s leader Kim Jong-Un, news agencies reported on Friday.
Ambassador Park Kwang-Chol, who took up his post in Stockholm last year, was seen returning home during a brief layover in Beijing, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency said. AFP news agency said Park was an associate of Kim’s uncle Jang Song-Thaek, who was accused of corruption and plotting a coup earlier this month and was executed.
Sweden is an influential diplomatic player in Pyongyang, the AFP reports, with its embassy serving as a go-between for the United States and North Korea since the two countries have no diplomatic ties.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Scientists Create Glow-in-the-Dark Pigs
Chinese scientists have created the world’s first glow-in-the-dark pigs that emit a fluorescent green light.
The piglets acquired their bizarre ability to glow under ‘black’ or UVA light after their embryos were injected with DNA from a jellyfish.
Experts claim that the 10 young animals should live as long as any other pig and that the findings could help develop cheaper drugs for humans.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
British Female Convert to Islam Fomenting Jihad in Somalia on Back of a Camel
Samantha Lewthwaite, better known as the White Widow, is understood to be holed up in the Somali camp, where she is being protected by 800 al-Qaida allies.
It is believed Lewthwaite, who is the widow of one of the July 7 London bombers, has undergone plastic surgery, lost two stone in weight and changed her hair colour to avoid being recognised.
Lewthwaite is said to be a leader of Islamic terror group al-Shabaab, which carried out a massacre at a Kenyan shopping centre in September. The al-Qaida-affiliated group killed 67 people in the massacre.
The most recent sighting came a fortnight ago when she was seen riding a camel into a snake-infested forest in Somalia.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
12-Year-Old Drug Smuggler Reignites Immigration Debate
The U.S. Border Patrol earlier this month arrested a 12-year-old illegal immigrant smuggling 80 pounds of marijuana from Mexico into Texas, reigniting a debate over controversial comments made by a Republican congressman earlier this year about children’s involvement in the cross-border drug trade.
Rep. Steve King, an Iowa Republican who has called for a crackdown on illegal immigration, had said there were more young illegal immigrants smuggling drugs than there were ones who were valedictorians of their classes in U.S. high schools.
In the Texas incident earlier this month, Border Patrol agents arrested six Mexicans — two adults, two 17-year-olds, a 16-year-old and the 12-year-old — smuggling more than 300 pounds of marijuana.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Immigration Fears Spark Political Firestorm in UK
LONDON (AP) — They’re portrayed as pickpockets who will steal British jobs. There are predictions they will beg, the unruly young ones will stir up riots, and some will even try to sell babies.
For months, Britain’s tabloids have repeatedly warned of the horrors they believe will ensue after Jan. 1, when work restrictions will be lifted across the European Union for migrants from Romania and Bulgaria — two of the trading bloc’s newest members. Those changes, the papers claim, will unleash a mass exodus of the poor and unemployed from the two eastern European countries to Britain.
“In January, the only thing left will be the goat,” a Daily Mail headline proclaimed, referring to a remote Romanian village where, the paper claimed, everyone was preparing to move to Britain for the higher wages and generous welfare benefits.
“We’re importing a crime wave from Romania and Bulgaria,” another headline declared, quoting a Conservative lawmaker who told Parliament that most pickpockets on British streets hail from Romania.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Northern League Cautions Against Easing Immigration Laws
Bossi-Fini should not be touched, League chief Salvini says
(ANSA) — Venice, December 27 — Matteo Salvini, the leader of Italy’s regionalist Northern League, warned politicians against changing its Bossi-Fini anti-immigration law, unless it was to introduce harsher measures aimed at discouraging inflows into the nation from abroad. The law, which was framed by Northern League founder Umberto Bossi and former post-fascist leader Gianfranco Fini, is scheduled to be reviewed in January, according to an announcement made by Italian Premier Enrico Letta earlier this month. Salvini said that any changes made to the law, barring those of making it more difficult to seek legalized immigration into Italy, would be met with his supporters turning to the “barricades”. Italy has been in the spotlight for its immigration policies and for the way it handles refugees following mass inflows from North Africa and other economically less prosperous areas as well as a recent scandal involving the alleged mistreatment of migrants held in a reception center in the southern island of Lampedusa.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Anti-Gypsy Tweet From Rome Police Headquarters Stirs Ire
Parliamentary inquiry and disciplinary measures launched
(ANSA) — Rome, December 27 — A parliamentary inquiry was launched on Friday into who authored an anti-gypsy comment posted — and then deleted — from the Rome police headquarters’ account on the social network Twitter.
“I rearranged the closet…it seemed to me like clearing a gypsy camp. Thank goodness I am prepared,” someone on Thursday commented in a tweet from the Twitter account of Rome police headquarters.
Rome police headquarters said disciplinary measures are underway for the still unidentified writer. “I will present a parliamentary inquiry regarding the tweet in the Rome police headquarters,” announced centre-left Democratic Party (PD) MP Dario Ginefra in a statement on Friday.
Ginefra indicated that a policewoman or female civil employee may have been responsible.
The author used the female gender in a self-referential adjective. “Despite the fact that the tweet was removed and followed by another announcing that measures would be taken regarding the person responsible for the gesture and that (the post) was not made by the Facebook and Twitter editorial staff of the police headquarters, it is in the best interest of the Rome police headquarters itself to guarantee maximum speed in the investigation, give a public response, and impose an exemplary penalty on the responsible party,” Ginefra continued.
“No one can use xenophobic expressions, especially someone who represents the State,” Ginefra concluded.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Obama’s Dangerous Immigration Reform Agenda and Amnesty
Before leaving on his 17-day vacation in Hawaii, President Obama declared that one of his top priorities for 2014 will be immigration reform, with amnesty. He knows that congressional Republicans feel pressure to do something to woo Hispanic voters.
Mr. Obama will leverage those political forces for the midterm elections, even though he doesn’t even enforce the existing immigration laws.
Mr. Obama held a rare press conference Friday before hopping on Air Force One for the direct flight to Honolulu. It was in an attempt to buck up his plummeting poll numbers after a year of failures.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
What America Will Look Like in 2050? Part 16
Our 100 senators passed the S744 amnesty bill this year and doubled legal immigration to 2.0 million annually. Not a single one of them understood the ramifications of speeding up the invasion of our country. Even the ones who voted against the bill, didn’t raise a voice about the addition of 100 million legal immigrants and the consequences.
In February of this year, I spent 45 minutes in the office of U.S. Senator Bennet of Colorado. I showed his staff “point blank” scientific evidence of the ramifications of adding the projected 100 million. The aides consisted of a black, Hispanic and white woman. I asked them to reduce all immigration to less than 100,000 annually in order to stabilize our country in order to move into the 21st century as a viable, functioning civilization. I showed them graphs and left them with a resource outline to make sure they “got it”.
In April, Bennet, one of the “Gang of Eight’ promoted and passed the S744 amnesty bill with a doubling of legal immigration to 2.0 million annually. When I called up one of the women in his office, Alexis Harrigan, I said, “What didn’t you understand about the figures and facts I presented to you in my presentation?”
She replied, “Yours wasn’t the only opinion.”
I said, “Mine wasn’t an opinion; it was scientific fact that we cannot support, sustain or continue as viable civilization with the addition of 100 immigrants.”
She said, “Senator Bennet stands behind the bill.”
I hung up in disgust, exasperation and a sense of futility.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Young Refugees From Africa Face Up to the Challenges of Life in Europe
After crossing numerous hurdles to reach Europe, many refugees from Africa think their arrival on European soil is the end to their struggles. They soon realise that many more challenges still lie ahead.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Twerking Miley Cyrus Pushes Homosexual Agenda
Another LGBT onslaught designed to inure the public to homosexuality.
An integral part of the prog political agenda is the demand that heterosexuals accept without question the “gay lifestyle.” The establishment and its corporate media insist the next phase in the struggle for human rights is centered squarely on homosexuality. As the Phil Robertson blow-up reveals, any disagreement with this agenda and refusal to affirm the gay lifestyle will result not only in censor, but economic warfare.
Next up, a photo of the former Disney teenage sweetheart morphed into licentious slut, Miley Cyrus, engaged in a tongue kiss with a super model that has an ancestry firmly rooted in royalty. The photo of Cyrus and Cara Delevingne kissing sports the symbol of gay “rights” — a rainbow.
Many will, of course, chalk this one up to Miley (or more likely her management team) taking her new outrageous public persona to its next level.
However, the timing of the release of the photo coincides with a determined push to propagandize the public and inure it to homosexuality. It is also an effort to condition the herd to accept the LGBT political agenda that prominently features intolerance of religious values or any social or political opposition to the creation of a special group of individuals supposedly deserving preferential treatment by the state.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Vaccine Lies: Whooping Cough Outbreaks Being Triggered by Vaccinated Children
A recent study published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences for instance, found that, despite more than 50 years of population-wide vaccination, cases of whooping cough are on the rise. The culprit? Antigens of Bordetella pertussis that not only are completely ineffective at preventing infection with Bordetella parapertussis, a whooping cough bacterium similar to B. pertussis, but actually promote it by interfering with the body’s natural infection clearance protocols.
“[W]e show that aP [whooping cough] vaccination impedes host immunity against B. parapertussis-measured as reduced lung inflammatory and neutrophil responses,” wrote the authors. “[W]e conclude that aP vaccination interferes with the optimal clearance of B. parapertussis and enhances the performance of this pathogen. Our data raise the possibility that widespread aP vaccination can create hosts more susceptible to B. parapertussis infection.”
In other words, children who are vaccinated for whooping cough actually suffer from decreased immunity and are more susceptible to B. parapertussis infection than their unvaccinated peers. Vaccinated children, in essence, are the carriers of disease when it comes to all these whooping cough outbreaks, infecting other mostly vaccinated children and putting massive strain on local healthcare resources.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Glow in the dark pigs! This is an affront to all Muslims, now they will have to see pigs even in the night! Slay the infidel etc etc ad nauseum.
So gmail is now the upholder of Saudi blasphemy laws? yes, unbelievable… are we to expect the American Civil Liberties Union to take up the case??
IIRC, Algore is on the board of directors of Google, and Algore is in the back pocket of Jihad. Anything with Google attached to it is suspect. For slightly different reasons, so is FB. I have disassociated myself from both.
Yes on Gore & Google. FB is Face Book? I think it is a doomed project, a place mostly inhabited by those of a certain age, perhaps 20s to 40s. I do not think the generation following after – those now in childhood and teens – will use FaceBook much. They have other ways of staying in touch, and the government will encourage that since collecting their information is so much easier. OTOH, some folks have employers who require that their employees register and maintain a FaceBook account
For extended families, for Americans who tend to move too far from kith and kin, for auld acquaintance, it’s a resounding success. But obviously, for that reason, time-limited.
I use FB to keep in touch with family too, it is monitored in Ontario by the OPP, as I found out a while back. The libtards in the USA think they are zoo clever harvesting all this info but if we decide to send them on wild goose chases it will be so easy! We can guess what words trigger their software to flag so type in a load of gibberish, or one of the mary viruses we get sent (a mac will print out the code of a windows virus, insert words like “threat” in there) with the trigger words and see them decrypt it!!