Oil production in Libya has decreased by 85% since the “Arab Spring” revolution in 2011. The major cause of the decline has been repeated strikes by oil workers in Cyrenaica, which continue despite concessions from the new government.
In other news, 600,000 jobs have been lost in southern Italy since the financial crisis began in 2008. GDP in the region has dropped by €43.7 billion during the same period.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, Jerry Gordon, Jolie Rouge, KP, Nilk, Takuan Seiyo, 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.
Detroit Needs Money. Can a ‘Grand Bargain’ Save the City’s Art?
Can wealthy art lovers help save Detroit’s pension funds — and one of its museums?
The city is struggling to find ways to emerge from bankruptcy. One idea: sell the city’s art to of city retirees. The Detroit Institute of Arts, or DIA, has faced serious financial difficulties over the years, and yet it holds the city’s most valuable assets: a world-class art collection that includes works by Van Gogh, Rembrandt and Matisse. Estimates vary, but Christie’s these works at more than $850 million.
Because some of those masterpieces were bought with city funds, they could be auctioned off to pay creditors. “It’s the only source of money that exists in the city of Detroit,” philanthropist Paul Schaap says flatly.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
How Debtors’ Prisons Are Making a Comeback in America
As if out of a Charles Dickens novel, people struggling to pay overdue fines and fees associated with court costs for even the simplest traffic infractions are being thrown in jail across the United States.
Critics are calling the practice the new “debtors’ prison” — referring to the jails that flourished in the U.S. and Western Europe over 150 years ago. Before the time of bankruptcy laws and social safety nets, poor folks and ruined business owners were locked up until their debts were paid off.
Reforms eventually outlawed the practice. But groups like the Brennan Center for Justice and the American Civil Liberties Union say it’s been reborn in local courts which may not be aware it’s against the law to send indigent people to jail over unpaid fines and fees — or they just haven’t been called on it until now.
The Brennan Center for Justice at New York University’s School of Law released a “Tool Kit for Action” in 2012 that broke down the cost to municipalities to jail debtors in comparison with the amount of old debt it was collecting. It doesn’t look like a bargain. For example, according to the report, Mecklenburg County, N.C., collected $33,476 in debts in 2009, but spent $40,000 jailing 246 debtors — a loss of $6,524.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Islamic Banks, Stuffed With Cash, Explore Partnerships in West
The investment is being built for banks that are run according to Islamic law, which, among other things, prohibits investments in those three commodities. If the cars are acceptable, or halal, the deal will be one of the first in the United States to be completed in compliance with Islamic law.
“It’s a new territory for all of us,” said John H. Marino Jr., chief executive of Continental Rail.
The deal is a sign of how banks that comply with Islamic law are making inroads into the global banking scene and how Western businesses are working to meet the expectations of those banks. The banks can’t find enough acceptable places to park their money, many industry insiders say, so investment bankers are scurrying to assemble deals.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Still lowest since July 2011
(ANSA) — Rome, December 27 — The spread between Italian 10-year bonds and their AAA-rated German equivalents, the premium investors pay to hold Italian paper, on Thursday closed two points down on its pre-Christmas mark of 227 points, at 225 with a 4.20% yield, still around its lowest since July 2011.
A narrower spread indicates greater investor confidence in the Italian economy and Rome’s ability to pay down its huge debt.
Analysts said investors were responding to a good bond sale and the prospect of political stability as Italy’s left-right government embarks on reforms in the New Year, although pointers were seen as weak in thin post-holiday trading.
Markets posted the latest in a two-week series of gains across Europe as the Dow Jones hit new heights amid optimism that the US economy is strong enough to withstand the gradual withdrawal of monetary stimulus.
The Milan bourse closed 1.39% up despite some turbulence around banking stocks, notably troubled Tuscan lender Monte dei Paschi di Siena (MPS) which postponed a key meeting.
London was 0.85% up, Frankfurt 1.06% up, Paris 1.40%, Madrid 0.82% and Athens 4.78% up.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
South Italy Has Lost ‘600,000 Jobs in 6 Years’
South GDP eroded of 43.7 billion euros during crisis
(ANSA)- Rome, December 27 — Southern Italy has lost 600,000 jobs over the past six years and the economic crisis has wiped out some 43.7 billion euros of area’s gross domestic product, according to data released by industrial employers’ association Confindustria Friday.
Confindustria went on to say that the decline in GDP was slowing and the business confidence was starting to show signs of recovery.
Economic data released earlier this month by national statistics office Istat showed that national gross domestic product in the third quarter of 2013 was flat, following two years of negative growth. This led Economy Minister Fabrizio Saccomanni to say that eurozone’s third-largest economy had pulled out of its deep, painful recession.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
The End of Italian Opera: Will They Wait for the Fat Lady to Sing?
Florence’s Teatro del Maggio Musicale is seriously in the red, as are the opera houses in Rome, Bologna, Genoa, Parma, and Cagliari. In fact, reports Enrico Votio Del Refettiero, the influential writer who covers opera on the Luigi Boschi blog, only three Italian opera houses are currently able to pay their bills within two months: Milan’s La Scala in Milan, Venice’s La Fenice, and Turin’s Teatro Regio.
“Our opera house system is already shutting down,” he said. “It’s gone, finished.”
There’s a simple reason behind the desperate financial plight of Italy’s opera houses: Italy’s economic crisis has forced the government to slash arts funding.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Bold Thieves Stealing Mailboxes in Inland Empire Community
EASTVALE (CBSLA.com) — Bold thieves have been stealing mailboxes in the community of Eastvale and officials say the victims of the crime might end up paying for it. KCAL9’s Crystal Cruz reports that residents who live in newer developments are the biggest targets. Specifically, the thieves have been making off with entire group mailboxes.
“It’s not one of those things you realize, it’s something you kind of take for granted. It’s just a mailbox. But when you don’t have it you realize just how much you need it,” said one resident. “This is a nice safe area. Who would have thought?,” said Dennis Kierulff, an Eastvale resident.
Kierulff and his neighbor noticed their group mailbox was missing Tuesday morning, 12 boxes all together.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Bike-friendly bloggers retorted that maybe pedestrians ought to be charged a shoe tax to use the sidewalks.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
CNN’s ‘Reliable Sources’ Anchor Brian Stelter: Media ‘Overreacted’ To Boston Bombing
On CNN on Friday, Brian Stelter, anchor of “Reliable Sources” along with radio talker Steve Malzberg and Media Matters’ Eric Boehlert, looked back at how the media handled the Boston Marathon bombing coverage earlier this year. Stelter suggested that perhaps the media had overplayed the story to cause a panic.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Conn. Police Release Final Report on Newtown School Shooting
New York (CNN) — A final report released Friday on the investigation of the mass shooting at Connecticut’s Sandy Hook Elementary School offered snippets of information into the life of the reclusive and tormented young man who carried out the second deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history.
More than anything, the voluminous report — thousands of pages long — from the Connecticut State Police closes the final chapter on a massacre that triggered a national debate over gun violence, school safety and mental health.
In a heavily redacted page in the report, an unidentified witness told investigators 20-year-old gunman Adam Lanza hated his mother, Nancy, and Sandy Hook Elementary School. She volunteered at the school from 1998 to 2012, including years when he attended it. “Lanza apparently felt that his mother loved the students more than him,” the report said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
EPA, The Enforcer of Federal Pollution Control Laws
EPA’s unchecked power has been blamed for destroying economic prosperity, supply of food, Americans’ means of support, preventing the exploration of much needed resources.
Waiving “sovereign immunity” the EPA assessed nearly $615 million in penalties in 2012 against 61 federal agencies. Regulated businesses and individuals were charged in 2012 $9 billion for judicially mandated pollution controls, cleanup and “beneficial” SEP projects.
In 2012 EPA claims that 2.2 billion pounds of pollutants were removed from air and water, $208 million were levied in civil penalties (administrative and judicial) and $44 million in criminal fines and restitution. EPA issued 1,780 penalty orders and referred 215 civil cases to the DOJ. (Congressional Research Service, RL34384, December 16, 2013, Robert Esworthy, Federal Pollution Control Laws: How Are They Enforced?)
To fund the EPA’s enforcement/compliance activities, the President FY 2014 budget request was $625 million, more than the previous year’s $615.9 million. Detailed allocations for the EPA were not available. The DOJ’s FY2014 budget request funding for its Environment and Natural Resources Division was $112.6 million and 520 FTEs.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Fury of Piranha Attacks Rip the American Dream to Shreds
Piranha attacked 70 people in Argentina on Wednesday, even biting off one girls’ fingers. They can smell blood up to 2 miles away, and piranha attacks are taking place all over America — a slow death by small bites here and there — depending on how you define piranha attacks.
For example, if you want to eat fish, the price has doubled since 1990. Wheat prices just jumped by 4.9% and the price of chocolate rose 28% for the first 10 months of 2013 and climbing.
And it’s not just food. That other staple, energy, is skyrocketing in cost.
Smart meters will charge you more based on time of day use, and people are paying just for the “privilege” of getting connected to the surveillance grid.
In Chicago, the average household electric bill will increase by $5.50 per month just for smart grid infrastructure creation.
But because of Obama’s war on coal, by summer, energy rates are expected to soar by 23% and not just in Chicago. Remember when Obama said companies could build a new coal plant, but it would bankrupt them? Well shutting down coal plants and keeping new ones from being built is going to bankrupt YOU.
But hey, energy prices will drop because of new natural gas — right? Nope, expect a 36% increase there.
Then there’s the ObamaCare taxes — if all these other surcharges are eating you alive like a school of piranha taking hundreds of small bites, the ObamaCare taxes are the great white shark headed your way.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Get Ready for More Democrat Subject-Changing Nonsense
Democrats know this: If the 2014 mid-term elections are about ObamaCare, they will get bazooked. They will lose the Senate. They will find their House minority even further eroded. A large enough Republican majority in the Senate, combined with terrified Democrats who see the havoc ObamaCare is wreaking on the nation, just might be able to cobble together the 67 votes to accomplish a veto-proof ObamaCare repeal.
I refuse to believe it is impossible. I think it could happen.
Now you know what Democrats do when the only issue that matters leads to their doom. They change the subject to something, anything, as long as it gives them a chance to change the narrative and dynamic of the election cycle. This is what they did in 2012, when Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan tried to run on the economy and the debt. Democrats turned their convention into a the world’s biggest celebration of abortion, and spent the next two months prattling on about the non-existent “war on women.” Meanwhile, they turned throwaway lines from Romney into gigantic campaign themes, with Big Bird and “binders full of women” becoming actual talking points in a campaign for the presidency of the United States.
They will do this again. As Republicans try to stay on message and focus on ObamaCare, Democrats will do two things:
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Hundreds of Teens Trash New York Mall in Wild Flash Mob
Hundreds of teenagers stormed and trashed a Brooklyn, N.Y., 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.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Judge Falls for the Big Lie About NSA Spying
Judge Pauley is uninformed … and he fell for the “big lie” behind NSA spying.
Bill Binney — the high-level NSA executive who created the agency’s mass surveillance program for digital information, senior technical director within the agency who managed thousands of NSA employees, interviewed by CBS, ABC, CNN, New York Times, USA Today, Fox News, PBS and many others — told Washington’s Blog:
[NSA chief Keith] Alexander wants you and everybody (including this clueless judge) to believe that caller ID does not work. First of all, all the calls that are made in the world are routed by machines. And, with machines, you have to tell them exactly what to do. Which means, the routing instructions calling nr and called nr have to be passed through the machines to route the call to get from point A to point B in the world.
So, he is feeding everyone a line of crap. If you buy into this, I have a bridge I would like to sell.
Also, all calls going from one region of the world to another are preceded by 01 or 011 in region “1” (US/Canada/some islands) or by “00” in the rest of the world. And that goes both ways on any call.
The Public Switch Telephone Network (PSTN) numbering plan is how we could eliminate all US to US calls right up front and never take them in.
In other words, while Binney headed NSA’s global digital communications gathering efforts prior to 9/11, his team knew in real-time which countries calls were made from and received in. The NSA is lying if it claims otherwise.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Mom: Hurricane Sandy Put Newtown Shooter ‘Over the Edge’
Connecticut State Police on Friday released thousands of pages of documents from the investigation into last year’s massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown. Here are some highlights of the documents, which supplement a summary report that was released earlier:
- Gunman Adam Lanza’s mother, Nancy, told a friend two weeks before the massacre that her son was becoming increasingly despondent and had was put “over the edge” when their house lost power during Hurricane Sandy.
- A nurse said that she interviewed gunman Adam Lanza four times in 2006 and 2007 and that he had been diagnosed with obsessive compulsive disorder and was “emotionally paralyzed,” changing his socks 20 times a day.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
NSA Whistleblower: “National Security is a Scam” (Video)
NSA whistleblower William Binney reacts to yesterday’s ruling.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Police: Mark Andrew Beaten After Getting iPhone Stolen at MOA Starbucks
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — The runner-up in the Minneapolis mayoral election is recovering after being robbed and brutally beaten Thursday night at the Mall of America.
Mark Andrew, 63, was at a Starbucks inside the mall at around 7 p.m. Thursday when a man grabbed his phone off his table and ran off.
When Andrew went after him, he was tackled by two teenage girls — aged 18 and 17 — one of which began beating him with a billy club. During the attack, they told Andrew, “We’re going to kill you,” police say.
Andrew was left with a large gash on his head that required nine stitches. He has since been released from the hospital.
Andrew said Friday that he chased after the thief, because he’s not a bystander by nature.
“If somebody is gonna do that to me or somebody else, I’m not a bystander by nature I’ll go in and fight,” he said.
The two women who attacked Andrew were arrested and are in custody. The 18-year-old was identified as Letajia Shapree Cutler-Cain, of Brooklyn Park. She is pictured above and is being held pending felony charges of aiding and abetting aggravated robbery.
Police are still searching for the male suspect.
Andrew’s phone was found Thursday by shoppers.
| — Hat tip: Takuan Seiyo | [Return to headlines] |
Revealing Gaffe on MSNBC About Obama Coverage
MSNBC’s substitute anchor, Kristen Welker, who is normally NBC’s White House correspondent, was interviewing Greenwald the day after Christmas. She asked him to “respond to critics who claim he’s become ‘more of a spokesman for Edward Snowden.’
Greenwald’s response? Pot, meet kettle:”
“I think that’s ludicrous, is what I say to that. Every journalist has an agenda. We’re on MSNBC now, where close to 24 hours a day the agenda of President Obama and the Democratic Party are promoted, defended, glorified. The agenda of the Republican Party is undermined. That doesn’t mean the people on MSNBC aren’t journalists, they are. I think every journalist has a viewpoint.
“My viewpoint is clear. I don’t hide it. I think what Edward Snowden did was very admirable and heroic, but at the same time the ultimate test of a journalist is, is what you publish accurate and reliable? And I think with regard to every story we published over the last six months, there hasn’t been a single correction made to any of them, very few called into question. And I think that’s the ultimate question when it comes to journalism.”
Welker, as The Daily Caller pointed out, appeared flustered. She said, “the point is not so much about MSNBC,” but that Greenwald’s defense of Snowden’s actions may “cross a line.”
“Sure, I do defend him,” Greenwald snarked back, “just like people on MSNBC defend President Obama and his officials and Democratic Party leaders 24 hours a day.“
“Not everyone on MSNBC does that 24 hours a day,” Welker sulked (emphasis added). “No, not everybody,” Greenwald laughed. “But a lot — a LOT — of people on MSNBC do.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Rush Limbaugh: A Roosevelist in the Closet? Part 2
A Department of Homeland Security Report dated April 7 2009, titled “Right-wing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment,”[1] warned members of the DHS about the possibility of violence by “right-wing extremists,” who are identified as people concerned about illegal immigration, abortion rights, increasing federal power, restrictions on firearms, abortion and the loss of U.S. sovereignty. These are considered extremists capable of carrying out violent attacks.
The Homeland Security Report was actually a sort of follow up on a previous Report by the Missouri Information Analysis Center. It linked conservative groups, like followers of presidential candidates Ron Paul, Chuck Baldwin, Bob Barr, the so-called patriot movement, and people who oppose the North American Union and the New World Order, to domestic terrorism.[2] It is not a coincidence that the Missouri IAC Report was compiled with the assistance of the Department of Homeland Security.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
[WARNING: * Disturbing Content *]
A 22-year-old Connecticut man has admitted to police he used a fire poker and then a buck knife to ruthlessly gut his own mother and pull out her intestines on Thursday.
A chilling police report shows that Robert Owen Rankin of Deep River didn’t know exactly what all the guts and gore he pulled from his mother Margaret Rohner, 45, were, but he knew why he was doing it.
‘I don’t know exactly what the stuff was, like octopus tentacles,’ he would coolly recount to police. ‘I killed my mother because she is pretty much responsible for everything that has gone wrong in my life.’
The gruesome events began to unfold Thursday morning at Rohner’s home.
Rankin allegedly detailed the unfathomable act first to his father and then the state trooper who initially encountered the horrific scene.
Rankin said he woke up with a plan to snap his mother’s neck, reports NBC Connecticut.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The TPP Negotiating Process Has Been a Betrayal of American Principles
Earlier this week, Secretary of State John Kerry said the TPP would bring “transparency” and “accountability” to the communist nation of Vietnam. We wish our government would bring some transparency and accountability to its own dealings with the TPP.
Our Founding Fathers established in our nation a set of ideals and rights which should be maintained by any government. Among these ideals it was established that our government was to be of the people by the people and for the people.
Our Constitution was designed to ensure no faction could maintain control of our government. This system of divided government has stood for over two centuries and has been a constant guard to our freedoms.
Before our leaders lies the makings of an agreement which would be the next step to the overthrow of our sovereignty. The TPP would strip away the rights of the people and remove our government’s ability to oversee its own affairs. It would hand more power to multinational corporate interests while stripping our economy to the bone.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Why the Internet Giants Oppose Federal Surveillance
Executives from seven of the firms will meet with President Obama on Tuesday, in the shadow of a federal judge’s ruling that the collection of domestic phone records is “almost certainly” unconstitutional. The opinion from US District Judge Richard Leon reinforces the impression that NSA overreach constitutes a primary threat to privacy and civil liberty. But some privacy advocates caution that even if the NSA’s programs are scaled back, surveillance infrastructure will persist in the private sector — thanks to the same companies now calling for reform, whose business models depend on the collection and sale of vast quantities of personal information.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Coca-Cola Withdraws Bottles From Greek Shelves Over Acid Threat
Coca-Cola is removing 500 ml bottles of its soft drinks from stores in Athens and Thessaloniki after the FAI/IRF urban guerrilla group threatened to tamper with some of its beverages by injecting hydrochloric acid into them.
The group sent a USB stick and a Coca-Cola bottle to the zougla.gr website and said that four days after the package would be received, its members would start placing 63 Coca-Cola Light and 42 Nestea bottles on shop shelves in Athens and Thessaloniki after adding the acid to them.
FAI/IRF said that it was an act of solidarity with members of the Conspiracy of the Cells of Fire group and two people being held in Spain on suspicion of planting explosive devices.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Dozens of Ex-Stasi Staff Remain Employed at Archives of Germany’s Former Secret Police
The Federal Commission for the Stasi Archives — the East German secret police — was born shortly after German reunification. The agency’s employment of ex-Stasi members is fuelling fear that records of its wrongs will be lost in the annals of history.
The commissioner in charge of the agency admitted in a recent interview that 37 ex-Stasi staffers remain.
“There are still 37 of them here. Five [out of an original 48] have been moved on, five have left for age reasons, and one of them has died,” former dissident journalist and current commissioner Roland Jahn told Germany’s Tagesspiegel newspaper on Friday.
He admitted that the issue was harder to resolve than originally anticipated. Under German employment law, public servants can only be moved to “comparable” posts in other state agencies.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Fireworks But No Joy as Latvia Joins Eurozone
Fireworks will light up the skies above Riga when Latvia adopts the euro on January 1, but on the ground the feeling will be far from festive among those fearing the impact of the switch.
Polls show just a fifth of people in the austerity-weary nation favor the changeover while nearly 60% are opposed.
This can be explained by the fact that Latvians were asked to a take steep pay cuts as the government did not want to devalue the lat, which would have meant pushing back adopting the euro.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
France: Tightrope Walker Who Crossed Niagara Falls Dies
PARIS (AP) — The celebrated French tightrope walker and chair-balancer known as Henry’s, who balanced high above the Alps, Niagara Falls and for months over a supermarket in his hometown, has died. Maurice Vincent, a senator and the mayor of Saint-Etienne, said in a statement that Henry’s died Friday.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
France: Paris Mosque Sparks Fury Over Separation of Sexes
Muslim women reacted angrily this week to a new ruling that the sexes must be separated during prayers at the Great Mosque in Paris — France’s biggest Muslim centre. Female worshipers at the Great Mosque of Paris, the oldest and most prestigious in the country, are demanding the right to pray alongside men following the mosque’s decision to separate the sexes.
After a ruling earlier this month, women must pray in a separate room located underneath the main prayer hall.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
France Seeks to Ban ‘Anti-Semitic’ Comedian
Controversial French comic Dieudonné M’bala M’bala — better known by his stage name “Dieudonné” — faces a possible ban from performing in public, following long-standing allegations that his routines are anti-Semitic.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Audi to Invest Billions in New Technology
Audi, the top-of-the-range carmaker owned by German auto giant Volkswagen, announced on Friday a massive investment programme in new models and technology over the next five years.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Greece: Jailed Terrorists Believed to be Behind Coca-Cola Sabotage Plan
Jailed members of Conspiracy of the Cells of Fire, a domestic urban guerrilla group, are believed to be behind a plot to sabotage bottles of Coca-Cola Light and Nestea in Greece, police sources have told Kathimerini.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Greece: Golden Dawn Crime Probe May Implicate More MPs
Investigating magistrates handling a criminal probe into the neofascist Golden Dawn have new evidence that is likely to lead to charges being brought against more party MPs early next year, Kathimerini has learned.
The new evidence was found during the inspection of computers found at the homes of several prominent party deputies, including Christos Pappas, Giorgos Germenis and Panayiotis Iliopoulos, who already face criminal charges. It is likely that magistrates Ioanna Klapa and Maria Dimitropoulou, who are perusing documents and other evidence seized from the homes of party leader Nikos Michaloliakos and party spokesman Ilias Kasidiaris, will resummon some of the nine MPs already facing charges for additional testimony.
Germenis, Iliopoulos and another lawmaker, Stathis Boukouras, are due to defend themselves before the magistrates on January 11 on charges of belonging to a criminal organization.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Top Pollster Says Will Cough Up Unpaid Taxes
‘I realise gravity of what I did’
(ANSA) — Rome, December 27 — One of Italy’s top political pollsters, Renato Mannheimer, on Friday promised to pay seven million euros in undeclared income uncovered by the tax police.
“I have fully realised the gravity of what I did and will pay everything I owe,” said the head of the Ispo survey agency, who appears regularly on Italian TV.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Woman Steals Church Offerings After Hypnotising Priest
Padua abbey robbed of 1,800 euros in Xmas money
(ANSA) — Padua, December 27 — A woman made off with Christmas offerings made to a local church in the Northern Italian city of Padua after having hypnotised the local priest and entered the cloisters where women are banned to make off with some 1,800 euros in cash. The money was the total offerings gifted to the parish over the Christmas period. The 71-year-old priest of Padua’s Santa Giustina abbey alerted the police after one of his colleagues informed him of the theft after he came out of the hypnosis-induced trance the woman had placed him under. She was described to law enforcement officers by the victim as a Roma (gypsy) aged around thirty-five.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Prosecco Production Outpaces Champagne in Volume
330 million bottles of prosecco vs. 300 million of champagne
(ANSA) — Milan, December 27 — Wine production of the popular Italian bubbly Prosecco beat out French Champagne, consortiums for the two sparkling wines reported on Friday.
A growing global thirst for Prosecco prompted makers to produce 330 million bottles in 2013 compared to French producers’ 300 million bottles of Champagne.
“It is a trend that is growing stronger; and Italian bubbly in general sold twice as much as Champagne in China during the first six months of the year,” commented Gianluca Bisol, who runs Prosecco-producer Bisol with his brother Desiderio.
Bisol’s reference to sales success in China includes the many Italian sparkling wines in addition to Prosecco, which is made with the Charmat method in a specific region of northeastern Italy. Prosecco is a dry sparkling wine that is more economical than either Champagne or well-known classical method Italian rivals, like Franciacorta, largely because it undergoes secondary fermentation in stainless steel tanks rather than individual bottles, a less costly production process.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy’s Po River Rises Following Heavy Rain
(AGI) Parma, Dec 27 — The river Po in northern Italy was rising to its peak level between Lombardy and Emilia Romagna following heavy rain. There was no cause for concern, said those monitoring the river.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Muslim Brotherhood an “Entirely” Legal Organisation in UK: FCO Spokesperson
Egypt’s foreign ministry addresses Arab League countries to implement the Arab Convention on Suppression of Terrorism
The United Kingdom’s government is “assessing” the implications of announcing Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organisation, yet has continued to recognise the Brotherhood as “an entirely legal organisation in the UK,” according to a Foreign Commonwealth Office (FCO) spokesperson.
The UK’s FCO statements follow the listing of the Brotherhood as a terrorist organisation by Egypt’s interim Prime Minister Hazem El-Beblawi’s cabinet on Wednesday. The cabinet also ordered the Foreign Ministry to notify Arab countries which signed the 1998 Arab Convention on Suppression of Terrorism with the decision.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Norway: English Spellcheck ‘To Blame for Statue Typos’
A row has broken out after it emerged that a monument in Oslo to Norwegian wartime resistance fighters was covered in typos. The designer says her use of English spellcheck is partly to blame.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Woman, 92, Reports Rape by Man in Twenties
Swedish police are investigating the reported rape of a 92-year-old woman, and have detained a suspected culprit almost seventy years her junior.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Swiss Banks Are Now Agents for the IRS
In accordance with the deal cut back in August 2009, the Department of Justice now has the power to force Swiss banks to disgorge any and all information the DOJ demands in its quest to levy taxes, penalties, and interest, and possibly to issue criminal charges against alleged U.S. tax evaders. The DOJ said:
Under the agreement … the Swiss government will … initiate procedures which could result in the turning over of thousands of accounts to the IRS.
The IRS will receive information on accounts of various amounts and types, including bank-only accounts, custody accounts in which securities or other investment assets were held and offshore company nominee accounts through which an individual indirectly held beneficial ownership in the accounts…
While it’s hard to weep for the Swiss banks who now complain about the onerous requirements imposed on them by the U.S. Department of Justice, what the DOJ and its enforcement arm, the IRS, have managed to accomplish boggles the mind. It has erased Swiss sovereignty, eliminated Swiss bank secrecy laws dating back to 1934, abrogated private property and Fifth Amendment rights of thousands of American citizens, and has virtually turned Swiss banks into foreign collection arms for the U.S. government. While tax evasion, when proven in a court of law, is a serious crime, with the help of Birkenfeld the IRS has managed to ride roughshod over decades of Swiss law and custom, resulting in extending IRS power over the single most defiant defender of those rights on the planet.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
This Worryingly Crowded Isle: England is Officially Europe’s Most Densely Packed Country
England has become the most overcrowded major country in Europe. Population growth is so rapid that four times as many people will soon be crammed in as France and twice as many as Germany. England has overtaken the Netherlands to become second only to tiny Malta as the most densely populated nation in the EU.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Council bosses have been accused of wasting money and paper after sending thousands of leaflets to families asking them to sift through their rubbish for every scrap of wrapping paper.
The festive memo warns people Christmas wrapping paper cannot be re-cycled because it is too shiny.
Wolverhampton City Council’s team of binmen delivered 166,000 warning letters commanding residents to put their festive wrapping in the ordinary household waste bin.
The council said binmen do not have time to check through people’s Christmas leftovers, so homeowners must do the job for them.
But residents claimed the move was a ‘waste of money’ accusing the ‘cash-strapped’ council of spending a fortune producing the 166,000 leaflets, and would act to create a new mountain of paper thrown in the bin.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Countryside Alliance Chief Urges Members to Stop Supporting ‘Sinister and Nasty’ RSPCA
The RSPCA has turned from a ‘great institution’ into a ‘sinister and nasty’ organisation which is not interested in animal welfare, the head of the Countryside Alliance has warned.
General Sir Barney White-Spunner has urged his members to stop donating to the charity because they are becoming more interested in animal rights issues such as fox hunting and badger culls.
The former Army comanding officer, who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, also questioned where the charity’s ‘authority’ came from and believes the animal inspectors have been given intrusive powers which have no basis in law…
More recently, the charity has infuriated dairy farmers by trying to stop the badger cull, intended to halt the spread of bovine tuberculosis.
Sir Barney claims farmers were targeted and ‘intimated’ by campaigners during the bid and is concerned ministers may now drop the policy.
His cattle herd was shut down because of an outbreak of TB, and he claims to have only just cleared the financial costs.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Man, 31, Who Was Shot Dead Inside a West End Nightclub at 3am on Boxing Day
A man shot dead inside a nightclub in London’s West End on Boxing Day has been named by police.
Hassan Isman Omer, 31, from Poplar in east London, died in hospital after suffering multiple gunshot wounds.
He died in the early hours of Thursday during a private function in the Avalon club on Shaftesbury Avenue.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Nicolas Anelka: West Brom Striker ‘Surprised by Celebration Criticism’
France’s sports minister has accused Nicolas Anelka of a “disgusting anti-Semitic” goal celebration during West Brom’s 3-3 draw at West Ham.
Anelka, 34, made the ‘quenelle’ — described as an inverted Nazi salute.
The French government is trying to ban comedian Dieudonne M’bala M’bala’s shows over his use of the gesture.
Albion said it was not an anti-Semitic act, but Sport Minister Valerie Fourneyron criticised Anelka, who is also being investigated by the FA.
Fourneyron wrote : “Anelka’s gesture is a shocking provocation, disgusting. There’s no place for anti-Semitism on the football field.”
But Anelka defended his action, saying: “This gesture was a special dedication to my friend Dieudonne.”
Albion caretaker manager Keith Downing said Anelka was “totally surprised” by the furore, despite the French government announcing on Friday that it was studying legal options to ban performances by Dieudonne.
“It has got nothing to do with what is being said,” Downing said. “It is absolute rubbish.”
Jewish groups had complained to French president Francois Hollande about Dieudonne’s trademark gesture, which they described as a “Nazi salute in reverse”. They linked it to increasing anti-Semitic remarks and acts in France.
| — Hat tip: Jolie Rouge | [Return to headlines] |
‘We May Have to Leave EU’: Catalan President
The president of Catalonia has conceded for the first time that the Spanish region could be expelled from the European Union if it were to become an independent State.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
What if the Germans Had Won the First World War?
With the war’s centenary near, this is not a parlour game. Counterfactual conjecture allows us to see the conflict far more objectively.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
EU and Morocco Adopt New Action Plan 2013-2017
The EU-Morocco eleventh Association Council, held yesterday in Brussels, adopted the new Action Plan 2013-2017 in the framework of the Advanced Status, marking a new stage in the development of relations between the EU and Morocco.
The Association Council was chaired by the Lithuanian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Linas Linkevicius, on behalf of EU High Representative Catherine Ashton. The European Commission was represented by Commissioner for Enlargement and Neighbourhood Policy Stefan Füle. The Moroccan delegation was led by the Moroccan Foreign Minister Salaheddine Mezouar.
The Association Council was also an opportunity to exchange on a high political level on many regional issues of common interest such as regional integration, the Euro-Arab and Euro-African dialogue, Libya, Syria, the Sahel and the Middle East Peace Process.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
EU Confirms Full Support to Morocco With New Phase of 2013 Action Plan
The European Commission has announced the adoption of the second part of the 2013 Action Plan in favour of Morocco. This programme of a total amount of €166.9 million reflects once again the EU’s commitment in favour of social development and closer ties between the European Union and Morocco.
The programme aims at supporting the strategy of gradually bringing Morocco closer to the EU, a strategy that has been implemented by the Moroccan authorities for almost ten years, rewarded since 2008 with the “advanced status” in the partnership between Morocco and the EU.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
EU Launches EuroMed Voluntary Service for Eight Countries
From 2015 compulsory accreditation to coordinate Erasmus+
(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, DECEMBER 20 — The European Union is launching Euromed Voluntary Service (EVS) accreditations for eight European Neighbourhood South countries — Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestinian Territories and Tunisia. According to the Enpi website (www.enpi-info.eu), during 2014 SALTO EuroMed Resource Centre and the Regional Capacity Building and Support Unit (RCBS) of the Euromed Youth programme will take charge of the process of introducing accreditations. As of 2015, the EVS system will be compulsory for organizations wishing to host, send or coordinate projects granted under the Erasmus+ programme and the Euromed Youth Programme.
The programme EuroMed Youth IV — with a budget of 11 million euros during the period 2010-2016 — aims at stimulating and encouraging mutual comprehension among youth in the Euro-Mediterranean region, fighting stereotypes and prejudices and enhancing the sense of solidarity among youth by promoting active citizenship. It also seeks to contribute to the development of youth policies in the Mediterranean Partner Countries. The programme promotes the mobility of young people and the understanding between peoples.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
North African Students Invited to Apply for Erasmus Mundus Scholarships
North African students are being invited to apply for scholarships to study in Europe under the Erasmus Mundus — Al Idrisi II Programme. The programme is open to nationals from Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco and Tunisia, with scholarships for undergraduate, master and doctoral students, post-doctoral fellows as well as academic and administrative staff wishing to join credit transfer or full degree programmes or to perform short stays for research, teaching, training or other cooperation activities.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Clashes Erupt at Al-Azhar University in Cairo
(AGI) Cairo, Dec 28 — At least one person died as Islamist students clashed with Egyptian riot police at the Cairo campus of Al-Azhar University on Saturday. Supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood began massive street protests, dubbed ‘a week of rage’, on Friday after the army-backed government labelled the movement supporting deposed President Mohamed Morsi a terrorist organisation.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Egyptian Police Crack Down on Brotherhood Supporters
At least five people were killed and hundreds arrested across Egypt as police clashed with Muslim Brotherhood supporters on Friday amid a ramped up crackdown on the movement, which comes after the government listed it as a terrorist group. The violence broke out after Friday prayers in Cairo and at least seven provinces around the country.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Four U. S. Military Personnel Released in Libya
(AGI) Washington, Dec 28 — Four U.S. military personnel were released by Libyan authorities after being held in custody for some hours. A State Department spokesperson, Jen Psaki, said that the personnel were detained at a checkpoint near the city of Sabratha, some hundred kilometres east of the border with Tunisia, and then moved to the Ministry of the Interior. Psaki was unable to explain the cause of the incident.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Oil: Libyan Production Down to 230,000 Barrels a Days
From 1.6 million before 2011 revolution
(ANSAmed) — ROME, DECEMBER 23 — Libyan oil production has dropped to 230,000 barrels a day since workers shut down eastern terminals and sites at the end of July, the oil and gas ministry said Monday. Worker strikes have caused output to drop from an average of 1.6 million barrels a day before the 2011 revolution to a historic low of 110,000 b/d in 2013.
The central government’s repeated attempts to negotiate a solution, including several visits to Cyrenaica by Libyan Prime Minister Ali Zeidan and an offer of a 67% pay hike for oil workers, have so far been unsuccessful.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Rival Tunisian Political Parties Reach Compromise on Constitution, Draft Goes to Parliament
TUNIS, Tunisia — The head of Tunisia’s transitional parliament says rival political parties reached agreement on contentious points in a draft constitution, and the document will go to the legislature Jan. 3.
Tunisia’s 2011 revolution to overthrow dictator Zine Abedine Ben Ali triggered protests to unseat autocratic leaders across the Arab world. But since then, Tunisia’s hopes for renewal have foundered. The new constitution is meant to end months of political crisis.
Parliament President Mustapha Ben Jaafar said Saturday the ruling Islamist party, which had wanted a pure parliamentary system, agreed instead to give more powers to a president, including the power to dissolve the legislature.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
String of Palestinian Attacks Has Israel Fretting Over Potential New Violent Uprising
A spate of violent Palestinian attacks on Israeli targets in recent weeks is raising concerns in Israel that it may be on the verge of a new type of Palestinian uprising.
In contrast to previous waves of Palestinian violence, the recent incidents do not appear to be an organized effort by militant groups but rather a collection of individual acts. Their rogue nature has made it difficult for Israeli leaders to respond or even identify their exact cause.
After years of relative quiet, Israel’s Shin Bet security service has reported a steady rise in attacks since Israeli and Palestinian peace negotiators resumed peace talks in July. In November, for instance, there were 167 attacks in Jerusalem and the West Bank, compared to 136 in October, the agency said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Wall Painting by Ottoman Officer Found in Haifa
(ANSAmed) — HAIFA (ISRAEL), DECEMBER 24 — A large painting dating back from World War I was discovered in a nuts store in the coastal Israeli city of Haifa, as Anadolu Agency reports.
The 10-meter-wide and three-meter-high painting, which covers the entire wall, depicts an air attack by the British army against the Ottoman army during World War I. The painting was revealed by a university student who had come to the store for shopping. Seeing a miniature soldier’s head beneath the peeled-off plaster on the wall, the student called a friend who is an expert on wall paintings. The expert went to the store the following day to examine the wall and said a bigger painting could be concealed beneath the plaster. The university student, the expert and Haifa History Club member Eli Liran obtained permission from the store’s owner to begin peeling off the plaster on the wall. After a long and detailed work, the painting by an Ottoman soldier was finally revealed. Dozens of miniatures depicting Turkish warplanes bombing British planes or dead and wounded Turkish soldiers being carried on stretchers were found. Below the painting was the signature of the painter, “Edip Kemal.” Speaking about the issue, Liran said: “We have examined a Hebrew newspaper from this era and found out that Edip Kemal was an Ottoman officer. He went to Damascus with the Ottoman army, which lost the war and withdrew to Damascus, but he returned to Jerusalem in 1933 and then to Haifa. He operated this nuts store as a boxing club.” Liran said they needed USD 10,000 to reveal the whole painting. “The painting has not been entirely revealed yet. We can only see two-thirds of the painting. When the work is done, the painting should be removed from the wall and moved to another place. I hope that Turks will support us because it belongs to them.” Haifa was a port city where the Ottoman army set up a base for sea transportation until the end of World War I.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Bahrain’s Main Shiite Opposition Group Says Leader Ali Salman Has Been Arrested
MANAMA, Bahrain — The main Shiite opposition bloc in Bahrain says its head has been arrested in a move that could inflame tensions in the tiny Western-allied Gulf kingdom.
Al Wefaq says it considers its leader, Ali Salman, to be under arrest hours after he was called in for questioning in what it alleged was a “series of illegal measures” by authorities. Bahraini officials did not issue any comment on Salman or immediately respond to questions.
Al Wefaq has been a major driver in Arab Spring-inspired protests that began in February 2011 in the strategic island nation, which is home to the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet. More than 65 people have been killed since the unrest began against the Sunni-led monarchy. Some rights groups place the overall death toll higher.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Gold at Center of Corruption, Money Laundering Allegations Hitting Turkish Gov’t
Gold has been the focus of corruption allegations that are hitting the Turkish government, as some of the suspects of the case are alleged of being involved in Turkey’s gold-for-gas trade with Iran and money laundering through gold deposits
Gold has become the main subject of “money laundering” claims since recognizing Turkey’s bullion gold trade’s boom since 2011. Turkey exported $1.5-billion worth of gold, while importing $6.2-billion gold in 2011, but the export explosion came in 2012 and reached $13.3 billion in one year. The country’s import was $7.6 billion that year. In 2013, import came to the forefront again and reached $13 billion. What was happening, why did gold trade burst?
Turkey could not pay for the natural gas it buys from Iran in foreign exchange due to U.S. sanctions on banks. So, how could it return the money? A way to bypass sanctions was found: Iran was going to be paid in Turkish Liras and then the country would use those liras to buy gold in Turkey.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
“The West Is Terrified of Arab Democracies”
Chomsky: There are constant democratic uprisings. They are crushed by the dictators we — mainly the US, Britain, and France — support. So sure, there is no democracy because you crush it all. You could have said the same about Latin America: a long series of dictators, brutal murderers. As long as the US controls the hemisphere, or Europe before it, there is no democracy, because it gets crushed.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Iraq to U.S.: Send in the Drones, Hellfire Missiles to Destroy Al Qaeda
The Iraqi government wants drones — American drones.
Iraq has requested 10 reconnaissance drones and Hellfire missiles from the U.S. to help with waves of attacks perpetrated by al Qaeda and its affiliates. There is also debate within the Iraqi government about having American-operated and armed Predator or Reaper drones, the New York Timesreported.
In 2011, American officials failed to secure a Status of Forces Agreement with Iraq, which now complicates matters as the nation’s officials request U.S. assistance. The Baghdad government of Nouri al-Malaki is struggling to control an influx of Islamic fighters from Syria, many of whom have contributed to the death of 8,000 civilians in 2013, according to the United Nations.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Rising Concerns in Turkey Over Al Qaeda Connections in Erdogan Corruption Scandal
The revelations of duplicity in the Turkish corruption investigations have apparently reached Premier Erdogan and his family. Could these unraveling developments destabilize relations with the Obama Administration over both Iran and Syria?
Yesterday, we posted on the Turkish gas for gold scheme with Iran. The boxes of funds uncovered by Turkish prosecutors at the state-owned Halkbank resulted in the arrest of its general manager Suleyman Aslan.
Now there is more on why Premier Erdogan wanted to quash investigations and prevent a prosecutor from making arrests; possible al Qaeda connections. Those connections involve a shadowy Saudi billionaire who the US has designated terrorist financier , Yasin al-Qadi. Also involved was the Turkish intelligence service, MIT, and Erdogan’s son Bilal. They conspired to use Muslim charities to channel funds to an Al Qaeda affiliate in Syria, the Al-Nusrah Front.
What is troubling is that Turkey is a NATO member, ostensibly an ally of the US. Obama placed great trust in forging a partnership with Erdogan dealing with problems in the region. If these reports are confirmed it raises questions about the wisdom of the Administration’s dealing with Erdogan on Iran’s nuclear program. US policy opposes Erdogan’s covert support of the Al Qaeda’s agenda in neighboring Syria.
Now, that these nefarious al-Qadi/Erdogan connections funding Al Qaeda affiliates are out in the open, one can understand the massive protests and calls for Erdogan’s resignation in Turkey. Will these damaging revelations in the Erdogan corruption scandals blowback against US efforts in the roiling Middle East? Could these disclosures of Erdogan family connections with alleged money laundering via Muslim charities to Al Qaeda affiliate, the Al Nusrah Front, upend the scheduled Geneva II discussions in late January 2014 seeking a truce in the 34 month civil war in Syria? Stay tuned…
| — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon | [Return to headlines] |
Royal Pardon: Bahraini Court Acquits Princess Accused of Torturing Doctors
The Bahraini government’s Information Affairs Authority (IAA) said Monday that Sheikha Noura bint Ibrahim al-Khalifa, who works within the police force, and another officer were acquitted Monday by the Supreme Criminal Appeals Court, Reuters reported.
The IAA said the Appeals Court had upheld a previous verdict from July 1 in which she was acquitted…
According to Physicians for Human Rights, around 60 medics were put on trial and sentenced to up to 15 years in jail on charges including attempting to bring down the government. Most of them appealed, and the majority has had their sentences reduced or quashed.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Syria: Gregory III Urges Christians in the Middle East Not to Emigrate
In his Christmas letter, the Greek Catholic patriarch of Antioch and All the East pleads with Christians to live their mission in the Arab world through charity and social action without leaving the region. Muslim leaders appreciate the Christian contribution to Arab culture. Muslims and Christians must work for full recognition of the rights of Christian believers on par with others. They must also work to stop fundamentalism. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict remains a great challenge. Pope Francis expresses his solidarity.
Damascus (AsiaNews) — “Stay here! Don’t emigrate!” Despite all the difficulties, destroyed churches, abandoned parishes, marginalisation, Middle East Christians should “remain staunchly in their land, village or district,” said Gregory III Laham, Greek Catholic Patriarch of Antioch and All the East, in a deep and moving appeal to the region’s Christians contained in the letter he addressed to them on the solemnity of Christmas and New Year.
Titled Rejoice, Mary, who hast shown the Lord Christ, Lover of mankind!, the letter explains the reasons why Christians are needed in the Middle East, even if they often suffer from marginalisation and violence by Islamic fundamentalists, and just as their presence is increasingly appreciated by Muslim representatives.
At the same time, the long message (17 pages in the English translation and as many in the French translation) calls on Muslims to help guarantee Christians full citizenship and equality in rights and duties in Syria, Egypt, Iraq, Palestine and Lebanon.
Starting with a strong theological and spiritual flavour, the patriarch shows the mystery of the Church veiled in Mary, who gave the world Christ, the man-God, testifying to his faith through love, acts of mercy and charity, which “is how the Church has appeared in our Arab world [. . .] through its love, service, institutions and projects.”
“This Muslim Arab world needs us,” Gregory writes. “I dare say that without us Christians there can be no Arabness. A big Muslim businessman (who shall be nameless) asserted, in a public meeting, that the Muslim Arab world needs the Christian presence to be Arab and Muslim, and for living together, democracy, social justice, openness to be realised . . .. “.
The patriarch quoted “the great Egyptian writer Muhammad Hassanein Heikal” who in 2002 spoke about “the demographic and sociological changes in the Arab world” and said, “I have something to say about Eastern Christians: Christian emigration is noticed. We cannot turn our attention away from this phenomenon and neglect its reasons or causes, even if these reasons are psychological, and more to do with the prevailing atmosphere, than with reality. I think that the whole Arab scene will be different, from the human and civilizational perspective; it will surely be poorer, less rich, if this Christian emigration were to be ignored or neglected and become the subject of fears, however unjustified. What a loss if Eastern Christians feel, reasonably or unreasonably, that there is no future for them and their children in this East! Islam will remain alone and solitary in this East, where nothing assuages its loneliness except the Jewish presence, namely Israel.”
In listing the many “challenges” the region’s Christians are facing, the patriarch writes that some of them are common to all Arabs, others are specific to Christians.
A desire for security, fatigue over Arab divisions, Arab revival and cooperation with Muslims are among the first. A desire not to be considered second-class citizens; the possibility to spread freely the Christian message; the right to ensure that their children study, work and are not marginalised; the separation of religion and politics, and a stop to the growth of Islamist and fundamentalist movements that restrict the space of others are among the second.
Christians and Muslims must meet these challenges together, Gregory notes, especially those of “extremism, fundamentalism and Takfir,” the latter being the practice of condemning other Muslims for apostasy.
In his view, all the upheavals in the Arab world, which have led Islam to extremism, are due to another major challenge that must be addressed, namely the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the “biggest reason for emigration of Christians, and of Muslims too”, which is also “at the root of the series of crises that have continued to be unleashed on Muslim and Christian Arabs in Palestine and elsewhere, since 1948.”
For Gregory, this conflict has not been resolved partly because of divisions in the Arab world and among its rulers, who give priority “to the particular interests of each country, party”.
The Arab world needs Christians because of their contribution to its just development, which they do by manifesting the “Gospel’s values.”
“We want Christians to show Christ in their life, behaviour, presence, witness, involvement, interaction in their society, political activity and service in the various sectors of life in their society.”
“For this reason,” he goes on to “exhort our faithful and call them to patience in these tribulations, especially in this tsunami of stifling, destructive, bloody and tragic crises of our Arab world, particularly in Syria, but also to different degrees in Egypt, Iraq, Palestine and Lebanon.”
“We appeal to them not to emigrate, to remain staunchly in their land, village or district, despite the difficulties that we all know. We share in the suffering of our brothers and sisters. We pray for the many victims, whose number is growing every day. We are bruised by the pain and suffering of the injured in our hospitals, and of those who have handicaps. We are expending every possible effort to alleviate this poignant pain of millions of our fellow-citizens, displaced and destabilised inside and outside Syria, and to obtain the release of the kidnapped, such as the Syriac Archbishop and Greek Orthodox Metropolitan of Aleppo and other priests and faithful, our fellow-citizens.”
“Yes, we want to preserve this strong, faithful, convinced, resistant, deep, open, interactive, conversant, active, influential, calm Christian presence at all costs, to be able to bear witness and show Christian values and real Christian vision in our predominantly Muslim world, and be present with and for this world, showing forth the compassionate Christ Jesus, Lover of mankind”.
For the Greek Catholic patriarch, acts of violence in Tripoli, Saida and Beirut in Lebanon, in Baghdad, in Maaloula and other parts of Syria and in Egypt, show that the fate of Christians is like that of the Mothers of the Holy Innocents, like that of “Rachel [who] weeping for her children refused to be comforted for her children, because they were [no more] (Jeremiah, 31:15; Matthew, 2:18).” Still despite this, he remains opposed to the emigration of Christians.
In expressing his best wishes for Christmas and the New Year, he noted that the international community has come to pay more attention to the situation in Syria mainly due to Pope Francis’ interest and prayers. He also expressed some hope for the upcoming peace conference (Geneva II).
Finally, “as Pope Francis showed solidarity with us in bearing Syria’s cross, I call upon all of you to bear this cross with us, to help us reach the Resurrection dawn.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Syria: Greek Orthodox Patriarch Appeals for Nuns’ and Bishops’ Release
Beirut, 24 Dec. (AKI) — Syria’s Greek Orthodox patriarch has made a fresh appeal for the release of a group of nuns and two bishops being held by kidnappers in the war-wracked country. “We will not stay silent over the abduction of our bishops and any other innocent people,” Youhanna X Yazigi said in a Christmas message cited by Lebanon’s Daily Star newspaper on Tuesday.
He was referring to Greek Orthodox bishop Boulos Yaziji and his Syrian Orthodox colleague Yohanna Ibrahim, who were both seized at gunpoint outside the northern Syrian city of Aleppo on 22 April.
Yazigi also called for the release of a dozen nuns kidnapped from the Orthodox Monastery of Saint Tecla in the historic Christian village of Maalula north of Damascus on 2 December, after it was reportedly overrun by rebels.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Tribal Group Destroys Major Oil Duct in Southeast Yemen
(AGI) Aden, Dec 28 — A tribal group in Yemen destroyed a major oil pipeline in the southeast of the country, government sources reported. The attackers set off bombs, bringing production to a halt. The pipeline, which is managed by several foreign companies, connects the Masila basin to Al-Daba port in the town of Shahr and carries some 120,000 barrels a day. The incident comes at a time of great tension in the south of Yemen, where clashes between militia and security forces have resumed.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey Requests Saint Nicholas Bones From Pope Francis
Santa Claus Peace Council writes to Pontiff
(ANSAmed) — ISTANBUL, DECEMBER 27 — The Turkey-based Santa Claus Peace Council has said it has written a letter to Pope Francis, requesting the return of the bones of Saint Nicholas, as daily Hurriyet reported. Council Chairman Muammer Karabulut said they were expecting Pope Francis to give a positive response to their request to have a meeting on the bones, which are currently in Bari, Italy. “We have been struggling for the return of the bones since 1995. State institutions have also been involved in this struggle,” Karabulut said. “So far, we have not reached a conclusion.”
Saint Nicholas, a historic Christian saint, died in 343 at the age of 73 in Demre, currently a district of the Mediterranean Turkish province of Antalya. His habit of performing miracles and his reputation of giving secret gifts to the faithful made him a model for Santa Claus.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: Anti-Santa Campaigns Heat Up as Christmas Arrives
“Muslim, return to yourself!”
(ANSAmed) — ISTANBUL, DECEMBER 24 — A Muslim youth group and a neighborhood authority led two separate anti-Santa campaigns on the eve of Christmas in Turkey, as daily Hurriyet online reports. The Istanbul University branch of a group called Anatolia Youth Association (AGD) released an illustration of a Muslim youth punching Santa Claus in the face and announced that it would make a press statement against Christmas on December 26 in Istanbul. The group announced the event with a statement titled “Muslim, return to yourself!” adding that “Christmas is a Christianity practice.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey’s Gülen: Opposition Movement or Cult?
The movement founded by Islamic preacher Fethullah Gülen, with its effective communication strategy and connections to police, has emerged as a powerful enemy of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
With several of his ministers resigning in the wake of a corruption probe, Erdogan seems to have hit a rough patch — and a major factor behind his troubles is a feud with the influential Gülen movement.
The group once supported the prime minister’s centre-right Justice and Development Party (AKP), but became openly hostile toward its former political allies in November, when the government announced a plan to ban several private schools run by the Gülen network.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Human Rights Are Under Attack in Post-Tsunami Indonesia
Aceh civilians, especially women, are under siege from Sharia-inspired criminal bylaws which have become increasingly common across Indonesia
Welcome to Aceh, nine years after the Indian Ocean tsunami that devastated the province and left 221,000 of its people dead or missing. The unprecedented international response to the tsunami, which affected 14 countries including Indonesia, included US$8bn for emergency assistance to Aceh’s survivors and to fund reconstruction of roads, schools and housing.
The quality and security of the lives of many Acehnese remains in peril, though, and this time the threat isn’t a natural disaster. Instead, women and religious minorities are the target of discriminatory laws, intolerance and abuse.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
India’s Popular Beach Destination Goa Debates Price of Tourism
GOA, India — The American tourist sipping a frosty beer by an oceanside shack had been in Goa just a few hours before a man sidled up to him and asked whether he wanted to buy drugs. “I heard the waves, my toes dug into the sand, and my weekend holiday had just begun,” said Pablo Rosa, 48, from Texas. “Even before I got my feet wet in the water, I was offered drugs. That’s how easy and open it is here.”
A few weeks ago, the shadowy subculture of the area dubbed India’s “cocaine coast” by the news media was exposed when violence spilled onto the streets: After a Nigerian man was killed in a turf war between drug gangs, more than 150 outraged Nigerians dragged his body from a police hearse, attacked the officers and blocked a national highway for hours.
The protest sparked a backlash against Nigerians among local residents, part of a growing uneasiness about the Africans’ presence here, which some observers say reflects a wider trend of racism in India.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Suicide Bomber Kills Three in NATO Afghanistan Convoy
(AGI) Kabul, Dec 27 — Three soldiers were killed in a suicide car bomb attack on a convoy in Kabul, NATO reported. The troops from the International Security Assistance Force were attacked on a main road that passes by a series of government compounds and military facilities in the Afghan capital on its way to the eastern city of Jalalabad. Afghan security forces have begun an investigation, said Kabul police spokesman Hashmatullah Stanikzai.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
China Will Require Its 250,000 Journalists to Pass a ‘Marxism Test’
In the several months leading up to the exam, the government has mandated that reporters take weekly classes to ensure “political consistency” with the Communist Party line.
“Some reporter[s] who lack ethics still have not surfaced,” one Marxist educator told the state-run Global Times. “We urgently need to educate media circles with the Marxist view of journalism. Such education can’t be loosened and should be conducted in a long term.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Chinese Dragon Flexes Its Military Muscle
China is breathing nuclear fire and threatening Japan and US military bases with nuclear weapons. This just came out on the pro-communist news source: Want China Times. Who’s afraid of the big, bad dragon? Everyone should be, because the Chinese will eventually act on their threats when they deem the time right and probably, when we aren’t looking:
“The People’s Liberation Army’s H-6K strategic bomber can attack the Japanese mainland with CJ-10 cruise missiles without even leaving Chinese airspace, reports the Kanwa Defense Review run by Andrei Chang also known as Pinkov, a military analyst based in Canada.”…
On the list of possible targets:
- US Military Bases
- Japan
- India
- Malaysia
- Vietnam
- South Korea
- Philippines
Although the Chinese have a penchant for bragging concerning their military prowess, their H-6K strategic bomber can attack US military bases in South Korea, as well as the Japanese mainland using long range nuclear cruise missiles. I have long contended that the Chinese military is now stronger than ours and they certainly have more disposable numbers of soldiers that they are more than willing to sacrifice in order to win in the South China Sea:
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
‘Butcher of Bega’ Graeme Reeves Released on Parole and Avoids Dozens of Charges
DISGRACED former gynaecologist Graeme Reeves has been released on parole, with prosecutors confirming they have dropped dozens of charges against the doctor.
Reeves, who was found guilty of removing Carolyn DeWaegeneire’s clitoris and genitals in 2002, was released from Long Bay jail on December 20 after a decision by the High Court of Australia two days earlier.
The Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions has elected not to pursue dozens of other charges against the former gynaecologist relating to other alleged victims.
Yesterday, Mrs DeWaegeneire told The Sunday Telegraph the decision left her feeling like “women are of no importance in this world”.
Reeves was facing dozens of charges relating to the mutilation of women following an investigation by police operating under Strike Force Tarella.
“I’m flabbergasted … all the work of the taskforce over thousands of hours has come to nothing,” Mrs DeWaegeneire said. “The powers that be have underestimated women.
“They always say hell hath no fury like a woman spurned.”
She only found out the charges would not be pursued when contacted by the media.
In 2011 Reeves, 63, was found guilty of mutilating and indecently assaulting female patients between 2001 and 2003. He was sentenced to two years and six months in jail, with a one-year non-parole period that expired on May 31, 2013.
The DPP appealed against the sentence on the grounds of inadequacy and the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal increased the sentence by 18 months. Reeves appealed against that decision to the High Court, which quashed the sentence and ordered the Court of Criminal Appeal to hear the appeal again next year.
Reeves was released from jail because his original District Court sentence had expired, a spokesman for NSW Attorney-General Greg Smith said.
Reeves may return to jail after the matter is next heard in the CCA next year.
Mr Smith’s spokesman said the DPP withdrew the charges after it found there was insufficient evidence to ensure a reasonable prospect of conviction. The spokesman also said Mr Smith had no authority to direct the DPP in relation to its prosecutorial functions.
One of Reeves’ alleged victims, Marilyn Hawkins, 63, of Merimbula, said she was in a state of “disbelief” when The Sunday Telegraph told her of Reeves’ situation yesterday.
Ms Hawkins saw Reeves in about 2002 for “a slight bladder problem” and allegedly “came out incontinent”.
The Medical Error Action Group yesterday challenged the DPP to publicly explain why it had decided to abandon all the outstanding charges.
| — Hat tip: Nilk | [Return to headlines] |
Looters Plunder South African Beer Truck for Festivities
Several people stocked up their booze for Christmas Day when a lorry, transporting beer, was hijacked and left on its side on the N3 highway in South Africa.
Apparently by mid morning, when a salvage team tried to block traffic to clear the truck, one or two looters were still helping themselves to the brew. The truck was blocking traffic on a coast-bound lane in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Nigerian Extremist: It’s Divine Will That We Decapitate
MAIDUGURI, Nigeria: An extremist leader in northeastern Nigeria says the bloody insurgency will continue because it is divine will that they must decapitate and mutilate.
Shekau warns Christians not to go to churches in this holy month, though Christmas passed in Nigeria with none of the feared terrorist attacks. Five churches were bombed on Christmas Day 2011 and dozens of people died.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Cuba Eases Rules for Small Business Lending in Attempt to Spur Economy
HAVANA — Cuba says it’s easing the terms of lending to private business owners in an attempt to boost the country’s new small business sector. The new rules were published in the country’s Official Gazette this week and publicized by state media Saturday. They let private businesspeople take out loans for as little as 1,000 pesos, or $41, a third less than the previous minimum.
The terms of repayment can now extend up to 10 years, with bank presidents authorized to extend them even longer in certain cases. Earlier this year, Cubans were allowed to use personal property such as real estate and jewelry as collateral for loans.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Exhumation Proves Murder of Brazilian President, New York Times Must Admit
Far from looking for relics to sell, investigators are looking for evidence that these deaths were actually assassinations, the work of fearful tyrants anxious to prevent the victims’ return to power. Now one result is in, and it’s explosive.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Police Find 5 Decapitated Bodies in Western Mexico
MEXICO CITY — Prosecutors in the western Mexican state of Michoacan say they have found five decapitated bodies on the outskirts of Morelia, the state capital.
The state attorney general’s office says the bodies of three men were found Saturday leaned up against the curb of a traffic circle. Their heads had been placed next to them.
A little later Saturday, the bodies of two other men were found in another community on the outskirts of Morelia. Both had been decapitated. Michoacan has been the scene of bloody turf battles between the Caballeros Templarios cartel and the Jalisco New Generation gang.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Asylum Seekers Protest in Tel Aviv Against Government Policy
Some 5,000 African migrants, supporters march in central Tel Aviv chanting “freedom!” and “no more prisons”.
It was the second such protest in Tel Aviv, following one last Saturday night that also drew a few thousand participants. Unlike most protests by African migrants in Tel Aviv in recent years, the crowd was made up predominantly of asylum seekers, who appeared to be in charge and marching to their own beat, as opposed to previous protests that were mainly made up of Israeli activists.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
EU Project Launches Migrant Information Website in Egypt
www.bosla-egypt.info gives critical guidance
(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, DECEMBER 20 — A migrant information site has been launched in Egypt by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), as part of an EU-funded project called START, “Stabilizing at-risk communities and enhancing migration management to enable smooth transitions in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya”.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Finland: VATT Director Supports Increased Immigration
Juhana Vartiainen, the Director General of the Government Institute for Economic Research (VATT) proposes significant increases to immigration to bolster the Finnish workforce. Writing in his column on the VATT website, Vartiainen says too much emphasis is placed on increasing exports as the way to solve Finland’s economic woes.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
GOP Estab, Chamber of Commerce Preparing for Looming Amnesty Fight
The Republican establishment and outside groups like Karl Rove’s American Crossroads and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce are trying to blunt the influence of conservatives inside and outside of Congress to make it easier to pass amnesty.
According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, these groups are “preparing an aggressive effort to groom and support more centrist Republican candidates for Congress in 2014’s midterm elections.”
The Chamber of Commerce plans to spend at least $50 million to wage war against conservative and Tea Party candidates during the 2014 midterm elections while Rove’s American Crossroads is reloading as well. They hope that “a less restive Republican caucus” will pave the way for initiatives like immigration reform. The Chamber of Commerce has indicated it may also pressure incumbent Republicans in moderate districts who are not on board with amnesty to get their support.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Lampedusa Migrants Airlifted to Sicily After Protests
Rome, 24 Dec. (AKI) — A group of 100 out of 219 migrants currently being held in the southern island of Lampedusa’s controversial detention centre was airlifted to Palermo, centre-left MP Khalid Chaouki said Tuesday.
Moroccan-born Chaouki said all the migrants currently being held in the centre should leave it by the end of Tuesday. “The transfers from Lampedusa have begun. Two flights have been chartered and we should finally manage to empty this centre today,” he wrote in a Facebook post.
Chaouki barricaded himself in the reception centre on Sunday and said he would not leave until all migrants were removed including seven survivors from a shipwreck off Lampedusa on 3 October in which over 360 people drowned.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Nine Sew Lips Together to Demand Release From Migrant Centre
Rome, 23 Dec. (AKI) — Nine illegal immigrants have stitched their lips together with thread in a protest to demand their release from what they allege are unbearable living conditions in a detention centre in Italy. Four Tunisians each made a single stitch to join their lips in the middle, acording to Filiberto Zaratti, a lawmaker who visited the protesters.
Five Moroccans later imitated the gesture, according to the centre’s manager, speaking on Italian television. The protest began in a holding centre near Rome.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Migrants End Sewn Mouths Protest in Italy
A dozen migrants who had sewn their mouths shut in an immigrant detention centre outside Rome ended their protest on Friday, officials at the facility and a visiting parliamentary delegation said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Labour: White Boys’ Underachievement Linked to Mass Migration
The failure of white boys to succeed at school is linked to uncontrolled immigration from Eastern Europe, Labour’s shadow education secretary has suggested. Tristram Hunt, the former television historian, said the low attainment of white British boys, particularly those living on England’s east coast, was linked to high levels of migration from the EU.
More must be done to train indigenous Britons for skilled jobs, Mr Hunt said, admitting the last Labour Government got its immigration forecasts “badly wrong”. The children of Pakistani immigrants are now alarmed at the rate of migration from Eastern Europe.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The comments were made in an interview with The Fabian Society which will be published next week.
They come days before migrants from Romania and Bulgaria will be granted the unrestricted right to live and work in the UK.
And Mr Hunt said that the previous Labour government got their immigration forecasts ‘badly wrong’.
The Telegraph reported that Mr Hunt said: ‘What we can do in the education sphere is to [show] that there is a growing issue of white British boys not getting the education they want.’
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
CA Schools Prepare to Implement New School Transgender Laws
Sacramento — The law allowing transgender K-12 students to choose what bathroom they want to use, what gender-specific sports they want to play, and what dress code they adhere to is set to go into effect, and public schools are gearing up to comply with the law. On January 1, 2014, the law will launch in time for the spring semester, according to the Associated Press.
Karen England of the Capitol Resource Institute, a pro-family organization, criticizes the bill stating the bill “was never about helping a few children that experience gender dysphoria. It is about furthering the radical lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) agenda by utilizing the public school system to force acceptance of the lifestyle on our children,” reports The New American.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Duck Dynasty 1, Liberal Outrage 0
By Rip Curl, Truth Revolt
Excerpt: But as leaders of gay groups and outspoken progressive pundits like Piers Morgan declared victory, something unusual happened: People across the country started to speak out. Not just Sarah Palin and Louisina Gov. Bobby Jindal, among others, but regular ol’ people. First, they weighed in on Facebook, with more than 300,000 clicking “like” on the “Bring Back Phil” page. Then, they weighed in at the cash register, with thousands heading to Walmart to buy up all the merchandise from the popular show. And then, when rest-stop restaurant Cracker Barrel announced it would stop selling DD merch, Americans let them have it. Things changed fast. “You flat out told us we were wrong,” Cracker Barrel execs said in a Facebook post. “We listened. Today, we are putting all our Duck Dynasty products back in our stores. And, we apologize for offending you.”
| — Hat tip: KP | [Return to headlines] |
This is a transcript of the secret trial of Phil Robertson, patriarch of Duck Dynasty.
The trial was held in chambers, with only a robot stenographer present, as a third party, on May 2, 2014, in the US Federal Court of Public Speech and Hate Crimes, Judge Tomas de Torquemada presiding.
The Judge conducted an interview of the defendant and rendered an absolute and final verdict.
The transcript was leaked to this author. The anonymous leaker is now being sought by Homeland Security. His whereabouts are unknown. It is rumored he has gained “asylum” in the swamps of Louisiana.
Judge Torquemada: Good morning, Mr. Robertson. I see your gag and shackles have been removed. Are you comfortable?
Phil Robertson: My mouth is fuzzy, Your Honor.
Judge Torquemada: Fuzzy? Fuzz? Is that a derogative reference to the police?
Phil Robertson: What? No. My mouth is dry.
Judge Torquemada: Do you own a gun?
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Marines: Most Female Recruits Don’t Meet New Pullup Standard
Starting Jan. 1, every woman in the Marines Corps was supposed to meet a new physical standard by performing three pullups. But that has been put off.
The Marine Corps announced it quietly. There was no news conference — just a notice on its social media sites and an item on its own TV show, The Corps Report.
Lance Cpl. Ally Beiswanger explained that the pullup test had been put off until sometime next year, to gather more data and “ensure all female Marines are given the best opportunity to succeed.”
So far, female Marines are not succeeding. Fifty-five percent of female recruits tested at the end of boot camp were doing fewer than three pullups; only 1 percent of male recruits failed the test.
The three pullups is already the minimum required for all male Marines. Now the Marine Corps has postponed the plan, and that’s raising questions about whether women have the physical strength to handle ground combat, which they’ll be allowed to do beginning in 2016.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
MSNBC: Loving Jesus is ‘Interestingly Homoerotic’ … or Something
As MSNBC wallows in the sediment at the bottom of the ratings barrel, management seems to have made a conscious decision. They can’t sell their normal left-wing programming to a nation that’s deeply uninterested in their viewpoint, so they’re going to “go weird.”…
Case in point is Monday’s Ed Schultz show. Guest host Joy Reid was interviewing left-wing lunatic Michael Eric Dyson and the pair was discussing the blowback over A&E’s decision to fire Phil Robertson from Duck Dynasty. They claim that the right is trying to turn Robertson into the next Rosa Parks and, gosh darn it, they are outraged.
So the only proper response is to suggest that a lot of Christian men look like they might have some kind of weird, homoerotic, attraction to Jesus.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
It is interesting to note how politicians and media in Britian voice concern over immigration by using pakistanis as a reasonable vehicle to legitamise change of policy. It happened in Sheffield recently with protest against the Roma.
Things must be bad if the Pakistanis are worried they say. The white British were just being racist and alarmist but brown people must have a reasonable concern.
Aye right. It is a smoke screen to use the eastern european migration as the main concern for native Britains. Most are worried about the Pakistanis….ha ha.
There is no change of policy, this is the cultural naturalisation of the Mahomedan and the subjugation of the white working class.
Nigel Farage has been conducting this British anthem of white self-loathing in his anti-European peoples immigration rants.
The escape root is now far beyond the convoluted politics that is practised in the UK.
[Accursed] Labour perty! the deliberately destroyed one of the best education systems in the world in the 1960s then blame the badly educated “white boys” (isn’t that racist in itself?) for the need for immigration??? just how importing poorly educated labour voters To swamp England with welfare recipients would help he explains not! what treasonous [offensive fellows]!