After an unprecedented escalation of political violence, opposition leaders in Ukraine struck a deal with President Viktor Yanukovych brokered by the EU. The president promised to install a new government that includes opposition leaders, arrange for the writing of a new constitution, and call early elections. The Ukrainian parliament then voted to release Mr. Yanukovych’s imprisoned rival, Yulia Tymoshenko.
In other news, a European think tank has released a study concluding that Greece will require yet another Eurozone bailout, this one of €40 billion.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Caroline Glick, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, JP, 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.
China Starts to Make a Power Move Against the U.S. Dollar
This week, we learned that China started to dump U.S. debt during the month of December. Many have imagined that China would try to dump a flood of our debt on to the market all of a sudden once they decided to exit, but that simply does not make sense. Instead, it makes sense for China to dump a bit of debt at a time so that the market will not panic and so that they can get close to full value for the paper that they are holding.
As Bloomberg reported the other day, China dumped nearly 50 billion dollars of U.S. debt during the month of December…
So if China is not going to stockpile U.S. dollars or U.S. debt any longer, what is it going to stockpile?
It is going to stockpile gold of course. In fact, China has been voraciously stockpiling gold for quite some time, and their hunger for gold appears to be growing.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
German Doctors Liken Greek Healthcare to That of War Zone
Wrought by six years of economic crisis, austerity measures
(by Furio Morroni) (ANSAmed) — ATHENS, FEBRUARY 20 — Eight German doctors who visited several Greek hospitals have said that, after six years of a deep economic crisis and painful austerity measures brought in by the Athens government for public finance recovery, Greece’s healthcare system is in a “shocking” state comparable to that of a “war zone”. The doctors were in Greece to document the effects of the crisis and austerity measures and inform Berlin on the matter.
“If such brutal austerity measures had been implemented anywhere else, society would have collapsed,” they said. They added, however, that some hope was provided by the clinics and pharmacies throughout Greece that are still open and try to help the population out of a sense of solidarity. The Greek healthcare system was never one of Europe’s best and has worsened sharply since the crisis began in 2008. The austerity measures that the Greek government has had to impose as a condition of agreements signed with international creditors included salary cuts for public hospital staff and doctors, as well as substantial reductions in funding for hospitals. This has in turn led to serious shortages of basic supplies such as sterile dressings and syringes, as well as surgical instruments.
The hospital fee introduced in late October in an attempt to find alternative sources of revenue for the healthcare sector has been counterproductive, since it has decreased and not increased access to medical care as many people cannot afford it. Patients are required to pay 25% of the cost of the medicine needed while the rest is paid by the healthcare system, but if the medicine is not on the national healthcare list, the patient must also pay 50% of the price difference. An increase in unemployment alongside cuts to salaries, pensions and unemployment benefits means that most of the population are no longer able to buy costly medicines. Greek patients must also pay a 10-euro fee to doctors simply for the renewal of the prescription for the medicine. The German doctors will be presenting a report documenting the situation on March 12 at the University of Frankfurt. Meanwhile, doctors from the National Organisation for Healthcare Provision (EOPYY, the country’s main healthcare provider) and Healthcare Minister Adonis Georgiadis continue to face off. The Greek doctors are struggling against reforms in the primary healthcare sector, including the shutting down of EOPYY clinics and the placing of EOPYY physicians in a mobility program that calls for compulsory transfers and lay-offs. On Sunday, in response to the government policy, doctors from the institute occupied several clinics and now refuse to hand the facilities and equipment back. They have also said that further protests will be held and have asked Greek citizens to support them in their struggle. The Geneva Red Cross headquarters may also shut down their Greek office, after its debts began to affect the central offices in Switzerland and a series of administrative scandals harmed its image.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
‘Greece Will Need a New Bailout’, Bruegel Says
A study of the influential Bruxelles-based research institute
(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, FEBRUARY 21 — Greece will soon have to take up a new bailout package of 40 billion euros, or freeze any payments to the eurozone until 2030, as GreekReporter website writes quoting what the European think tank Bruegel argued in a recent study. The influential Bruxelles-based research institute, which conducted the study on behalf of the European parliament, focused on the role of the troika in the countries that are undertaking an adjustment program, while also questioning the success of such programs. The think tank argues that it is very difficult to predict precisely the country’s exit from the adjustment program and believes that, opposed to government plans, the country won’t be able to secure loans with good interest rates from markets by the end of 2014. The need for a new bailout has emerged due to the funding gap seen in the Greek program. Meanwhile, any bilateral loans taken by Greece through the first bailout should also be extended by 50 years.
The currently discussed plans focusing on only extending the maturity and lowering the interest rates on Greece’s outstanding debt won’t be sufficient, according to the study. The think tank also mentions that Greece should definitely postpone any repayments to the eurozone until 2030, thus extending the present day’s deadline of 2023. Until 2030, however, Greece will need more bailout loans worth 75 billion euros, so as to meet its upcoming financial obligations to its creditors. Bruegel says that a new loan package would allow the country to gradually reduce its debt level, lowering it to 135% of GDP by 2020 and 98% of GDP by 2030. Greece’s debt level currently stands at about 175% of GDP.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Interest Rate Blues: Emerging Nations Demand Western Support
At the G-20 finance ministers’ meeting in Sydney, emerging economies will push for joint action to halt rising interest rates. But the industrialized nations want nothing to do with it and are instead arguing that each country should solve its own problems.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: OECD Urges Italy to Cut Labour Costs to Boost Growth
Protect wages, not jobs says Paris-based organisation
(ANSA) — Rome, February 21 — The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development on Friday urged Italy’s incoming government to lower labour costs to help generate growth in an economy showing timid signs of emerging form its longest postwar recession.
Matteo Renzi’s government should change the focus of labour policy by providing stronger safeguards for workers’ wages and less for the job per se,” as well as “improving the social safety net”, the OECD said.
In its Going for Growth report, the OECD said Renzi should reduce the so-called ‘fiscal wedge’ — the difference between what employers pay in labour taxes and what workers get — as well as cutting minimum labour costs.
Italy’s slow growth may have become a structural problem, added the Paris-based organisation. The recommendation broadly reflect Renzi’s economic programme.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
New Clues in Suicide of JP Morgan Banker Add to Mystery
Friends of the JP Morgan banker who leapt to his death from a high rise building in Hong Kong this week, becoming the 7th financial worker to die under strange circumstances in recent weeks, suggest that he was planning to return to Canada, adding to the mystery of the suicide.
33-year-old Dennis Li Junjie plunged to his death on Tuesday after jumping from the roof of Chater House, which serves as JP Morgan’s Asia headquarters. Junjie worked for JP Morgan as a back up services associate.
His suicide was blamed on “the stressful environment of investment banking,” although its timing, just three weeks after JP Morgan senior manager Gabriel Magee jumped 500ft from the top of the bank’s headquarters in central London, and amidst a number of other strange banker deaths, has prompted speculation that something more insidious may be afoot.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Crony capitalism and environmental interest groups drive the climate change agenda
Our omniscient government is going to spend $1 billion in addition to the billions already wasted so far in order to attempt the impossible, “engineering” climate change to satisfy the Green agenda.
What is the scientific, measurable definition of a “normal” climate change and what is the measuring stick used to determine acceptable variability? What are the parameters of deciding “normal” and what makes the global warming crowd the soothsayers of climate, especially since they’ve been wrong in their predictions in the last fifty years? Can the Green Agendders describe a “normal” climate change?
The global warming scheme became a very profitable enterprise, a veritable cash cow, until people started asking questions, and Mother Nature froze in thick Arctic ice the scientists’ vessel on their global warming ice-melting fact-finding mission, or dumped unusual amounts of snow every time environmentalists gathered to protest global warming. Returning to the drawing boards, the liberal euphemists came up with a different explanation, Polar Vortex, and the profitable enterprise called global warming became climate change.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
25 Charged in Fraud Involving Home Care in DC
Twenty-five people were charged Thursday with obtaining at least $75 million in fraudulent Medicaid payments from the District of Columbia government, a series of cases that federal prosecutors said added up to the largest health-care fraud in the city’s history.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
3D Printer Industry: Next Big Thing or No Big Deal?
Manufacturers of 3D printers and materials have been getting mixed signals lately from Wall Street. Analysts laud the industry’s long-term growth prospects, but waver on just how much growth to expect, and when.
3D printing, also called additive manufacturing, has become more pervasive in a variety of different commercial and industrial applications. Companies use it to design everything from auto parts and aircraft components to prosthetic limbs, architectural models and energy systems.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Article V Convention: How “Individuals of Insidious Views” Are Stealing Our Constitution
Q: How are amendments to the federal Constitution made? A: Article V of our Constitution provides two method of amending the Constitution:
1. Congress proposes amendments and presents them to the States for ratification; or
2. When 2/3 of the States apply for it, Congress calls a convention to propose amendments.
Q: Which method was used for our existing 27 amendments? A: The first method was used for all 27 amendments including the Bill of Rights which were introduced into Congress by James Madison.[3]
Q: Is there a difference between a constitutional convention, con con, or Article V Convention? A: These names have been used interchangeably during the last 50 years.
Q: What is a “convention of states”? A: That is what the people pushing for an Article V convention now call it.
Q: Who is behind this push for an Art. V convention? A:The push to impose a new Constitution by means of an Article V convention (and using a “balanced budget” amendment as justification) started in 1963 with the Ford and Rockefeller Foundations. 1 Today, it is pushed by:
a) Hundreds of progressive (Marxist) groups listed here b) George Soros c) Michael Farris, Esq., of “Convention of States” (COS), and author of the “parental rights” amendment which delegates power over children to the federal & state governments. d) Nick Dranias, Esq., of the Compact for America, Inc., whose “balanced budget” amendment imposes a new national sales or VAT tax on the American People. e) Former law professor, Rob Natelson. f) Nullification denier and law professor, Randy Barnett, who proposes an amendment which delegates to Congress the power to regulate “emissions” [EPA now exercises usurped powers]. g) Nullification denier and birther denier, Mark Levin, Esq., whose “balanced budget” amendment legalizes Congress’ unconstitutional spending and does nothing to control the debt.
[Comment: A MUST READ article for Americans.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Boy, 13, Arrested and Charged With Felony for Throwing Snowball
Instead of preventing or dealing with actual crime, a police officer in Chicago decided to arrest a thirteen year old boy and charge him with aggravated battery to a peace officer after he allegedly threw a snowball in the officer’s general direction.
According to The Chicago Times, the cop reported that the dangerous icy projectile hit him in the arm while he was sitting in a marked squad car close to the boy’s school.
The eighth grader claims, however, that he didn’t throw the snowball, and that someone else in the group of around 15 kids was the real culprit.
“It made me mad,” said the boy, who will face a felony charge in juvenile court. “He (the officer) said the snowball hit him but it hit the car, not him.” the boy added.
“He kept trying to tell the officer that he didn’t do it but they didn’t believe him,” the boy’s mother said. “He was standing on the corner, there was a whole crowd of kids. It’s so crazy.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Colorado Taxpayers Footing Bill for Welfare Potheads
Fox31 in Denver, Colorado has discovered welfare debit cards are being used in recreational marijuana dispensaries in the state. The ATMs used to withdraw cash with JP Morgan Quest cards are situated in the pot retail stores. Marijuana sales in Colorado are restricted to cash only transactions.
The cards are designed to be used for food and other necessities and are not for entertainment or recreational purposes. The state of Colorado, however, does not monitor how welfare recipients spend the money provided by taxpayers.
It is not illegal to use welfare money for marijuana or strip clubs. However, there is a law on the books in the state preventing redistributed cash from being used in gambling casinos.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Dear Beautiful America, Please, Stop Moving Forward
Upon migrating to the United States many years ago, I embraced my new home and left the past behind. Never could I imagine that, at some point, that past would become relevant.
But now, I am compelled to talk about it again.
In the USSR, we had state-controlled media which shaped the narrative entirely.
Our founder, Vladimir Lenin, was portrayed as a noble, charismatic, and smart man — the champion of the underdog (the working class), the seeker of equality, defeater of the rich. The humble man with common ideas who was destined for greatness.
Lenin peered at us intently from textbooks and walls. His was the face behind the good intentions that shaped our everyday life.
As a kid, I was largely shielded by my family — they took the brunt of “ adult tasks” in everyday life. They bribed officials to accomplish the most basic of things, they conserved every kopek and piece of bread, they got me the rare medicines I needed, all through means I didn’ t dare fathom.
Of course, there was nothing special about those medicines, those favors, or anything else that took such effort to obtain — in America, you can just go out and get it in a corner store. In the Soviet Union, the word “ deficit” was commonly used in everyday language.
“ This and this product are in deficit.” This meant that you couldn’ t buy them. Maybe for the next three months or maybe forever, unless someone was bribed or the product was obtained via the black market, friends, or contraband. Fruits and vegetables had their “ seasons” when they made an appearance in local stores — we didn’ t have advanced technology like hydroponic farms.
Instead, adults were herded into collective farms, which were the Soviet antithesis of family — or individual-owned farms. Under cheerful banners of “ accomplishing a five-year plan in four,” they usually underperformed and the bureaucrats responsible faked the numbers, which moved up the chain of command.
[Comment: An riveting account of life under Communism. ]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
It’s Talk Show Radio the FCC is Really After
Don’t get too many shudders from the government monitors of the FCC arriving any time soon at the television newsrooms. They’ve been there for the last five years.
Dress newsroom monitors of the Obama Regime’s FCC in jackboots and military caps when they come to invade because the “Multi-Market Study of Critical Information Needs” (CINS) they proposed last May is truly all about image.
Why are they sending monitors into the newsrooms at this particular juncture of the Fundamental Transformation of America?
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Jogger Arrested for Jaywalking, ‘Failure to Identify’
Footage capturing an aggressive arrest by Austin police of a non-violent jaywalker yesterday near the University of Texas campus is spurring outrage.
Witnesses say a jogger wearing headphones ran past an officer and was quickly subdued for failing to produce identification.
“I was sitting at the Starbucks at 24th and San Antonio,” one witness told The Daily Texan. “Then I hear a cop shout at an innocent girl jogging through West Campus with her headphones on.”
“She repeatedly pleaded with them, saying that she was just exercising and to let her go,” the witness said.
The woman jogger, who looked to weigh no more than 110 pounds, apparently required four burly APD officers, two on bikes, unashamed about being caught on camera as the scene played out in broad daylight in full public view, to place her in the back of a squad car.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Judge Throws Out Lawsuit Contending NYPD Surveillance of Muslims in NJ Was Unconstitutional
NEW YORK — A federal judge has ruled that the New York Police Department’s surveillance of Muslims in New Jersey was a lawful effort to prevent terrorism, not a civil rights violation.
In a decision filed Thursday in federal court in Newark, U.S. District Judge William Martini dismissed a lawsuit brought in 2012 by eight Muslims who alleged that the NYPD’s surveillance programs were unconstitutional because they focused on religion, national origin and race. The suit accused the department of spying on ordinary people at mosques, restaurants and schools in New Jersey since 2002…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Judith Butler Talk at New York’s Jewish Museum Canceled
Anti-Israel professor Judith Butler on Thursday withdrew from an event at The Jewish Museum of New York that she was scheduled to address, the museum said…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Man Wearing Pro-Gun T-Shirt Thrown Out of Voting Booth
Election officials ejected a Texas man from a voting booth because he was wearing a Second Amendment t-shirt.
Chris Driskill was prevented from voting at the Waller County Courthouse on Tuesday after officials claimed he was violating Texas Election Code section 85.036, which states that “a person may not electioneer for or against any candidate, measure, or political party” in or within 100 feet of a voting location.
“I heard a gentleman’s voice over my shoulder say ‘he can’t vote with that shirt on. You’ll have to either turn it inside out our you’ll have to leave,’“ Driskill told KVUE.
The officials used the election law to throw Driskill out of the voting booth even though the shirt simply stated “Second Amendment — 1789 — America’s Original Homeland Security” on the front without any mention of a political candidate or proposition.
This is simply an attack on free speech and voting rights through the color of law as well as another example of the continued demonization of gun owners across America.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Missouri Republican: Common Core Skeptics Are Paranoid Lunatics, Should Wear Tin Foil Hats
Skeptical that the national Common Core standards will improve the quality of education in local schools? Then you must be a lunatic conspiracy theorist — at least according to Missouri State Rep. Mike Lair, a Republican, who set aside $8 — yes, $8 — in a recent appropriations bill to buy tin foil hats for opponents of the Common Core.
The hats will protect them from the aliens that Lair assumes they must believe in.
It may sound unbelievable, but it’s right there in the appropriations bill, according to the Columbia Daily Tribune. The $8 will be used to buy “two rolls of high density aluminum to create headgear designed to deflect drone and/or black helicopter mind reading and control technology.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Montana Boy: Bones Show Ancestral Links to Europe
By Rex Dalton
Despite general resistence, representatives of tribes in the US recently gave their blessing for DNA analysis of the remains of a Stone Age child. Research conducted on the boy’s genes indicate that Native Americans have European roots.
It must have been a pretty special child, otherwise the two-year old wouldn’t have been buried in such a ceremonious manner. The boy was sprinkled with celebratory red dust and given distinctive stone artifacts for his last journey.
The characteristic fluting of the stone weapons serve as archeological evidence that the boy, who died some 12,600 years ago, came from the Clovis culture. It was one of the earliest New World groups, disappearing mysteriously a few centuries after the child’s burial in present day Montana. From the summit of a hill towering over the burial site near the Yellowstone River, the boy’s Ice Age contemporaries could monitor their hunting grounds for mammoth and bison.
Now a team of scientists led by the Danish geneticist Eske Willerslev has analyzed the boy’s origins and discovered that he descends from a Siberian tribe with roots tracing back to Europe. Some of the boy’s ancestors are likely even to have lived in present-day Germany.
Their findings go even further: More than 80 percent of all native peoples in the Americas — from the Alaska’s Aleuts to the Maya of Yucatan to the Aymaras along the Andes — are descended from Montana boy’s lineage.
Surpring Similarities
Last week, the scientists published the results of sequencing the child’s DNA in the scientific journal Nature. Late last year, the same team published the decoded genome of another early human: A juvenile buried near Lake Baikal in Siberia some 24,000 years ago. Their genomes showed surprising ancestral similarities.
This earned Willerslev’s team an astounding publishing achievement in just 100 days: The decoding of the genomes of the oldest analyzed members of homo sapiens in both the Old and the New Worlds. This has allowed them to reconstruct the settlement of the Americas via the Beringia land bridge during the ice ages — when what is now the Bering Strait between Russia and Alaska was frozen over — in greater detail than ever before.
A third of both juveniles’ DNA can be traced to the earliest European. Physical evidence also supports this European origin: Archeologists discovered 30 ivory pendants at Mal’ta, the Stone Age settlement site near Lake Baikal where the remains were found. The pendants show great similarity to ones found at Hohle Fels cave, an important Paleolithic site in southern Germany’s Swabian Jura mountains..
The results of the finds in Montana and Siberia now provide the scientists the opportunity to trace metabolic characteristics, susceptibility to disease and other properties during the intercontinental migrations.
Overcoming Resistance to Research
The analysis of the Montana probe is important for still another reason: It may signal a new era for genetic analysis of such ancient remains, overcoming a tradition of resistance from Native-American communities. Although American museums house the remains of many pre-historic inhabitants of North America, DNA analysis of them has largely been blocked by resistance from their descendants.
But this time, the relevance of the Willerslev team’s studies was appreciated by representatives of the Crow, the Northern Cheyenne, the Flathead and the Blackfoot Nations. None of the leaders representing these nations near the burial site resisted the publication of the DNA data. “This is righteous science,” Shane Doyle, a member of the Crow Nation, said after learning of Willerslev’s project in September.
This success would not have been possible without the family that owned the land on which the remains were found in 1968. Years ago, the owners of the ranch, Mel and Helen Anzick, had the idea to have the bones’ DNA analyzed. The challenge was later picked up by the couple’s daughter, Sarah, herself a molecular biologist who worked on decoding the human genome in the late 1990s. She is a co-author of the Clovis publication in Nature.
Sarah had considered extracting DNA samples from the Clovis bones while working on the initial human genome project. But the technology was not mature enough at the time, and her plan faced resistance from some Native Americans.
Enthusiastic about the new findings, she said: “When I saw the results, I almost jumped out of my skin I was so excited.” The Anzicks’ 35 hectare (86 acre) property is located approximately 150 kilometers (93 miles) north of Yellowstone National Park, set amid undulating prairie. In past centuries the ranch’s lookout hill served as a bison trap: Hunters could drive the animals over a cliff to more easily kill them for food.
At the same time the hill offered early inhabitants shelter from the fierce winds. The gales also blow the snow off the grasslands, thereby attracting foraging game that natives could hunt. Indeed year-round feed was the reason that Mel Anzick bought the land as pasture for his horses.
The boy’s remains and the artifacts were uncovered by a tractor moving earth. Over subsequent years, portions of the collection were sent to various scientific groups for study across the United States. Some bones went to Arizona, others to Washington DC’s Smithsonian Institution.
For decades, Native Americans were outraged by what they see as disrespectful treatment of remains — their link to “the ancient ones” — which were displayed in museums and shipped around like baggage. They fought tenaciously for their rights, earning in 1990 a federal law allowing for repatriation of human remains along with funerary artifacts.
However, the legislation only affected finds from government-owned land. The Montana boy’s bones were found on private land. Thus it was up to the Anzick family to make the only known Clovis bones available to scientists for DNA sequencing.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Obama and Kerry Have Gotten Religion!
The Religion of Environmentalism
Now that our President and our Secretary of State have become proselytizing converts to the new/old religion — Paganism — now known by the name “Environmentalism,” we thought we ought to revisit our earlier comments on environmentalism as a religion. Make no mistake about it, environmentalism is, indeed, a religion, a pagan religion, granted, but a religion, nonetheless.
We all know our President is a liar. A prolific liar. A pathological liar. And now, our Secretary of State has joined the liar’s club with gusto, jumping in with both feet. It would seem Mr. Kerry has a penchant for making a fool of himself, or allowing himself to be made a fool of by his boss, the liar-in-chief, our President. Remember Kerry’s “or else” speech on Syria? Obama’s about face on that one should have reddened Kerry’s face for months. In fact, a man of honor would have, I believe, resigned. Nevertheless, he is still there shilling for the worst President in the history of the country.
Now the President wants to push the global warming hoax. One must remember: Our President is a Marxist. Now. Ask yourself where all the communists went when the Soviet Union collapsed? They gravitated toward their natural home, the environmental movement. The goals of the communists and the environmentalists are the same. Green on the outside and red on the inside.
It’s not about saving the earth. It’s about redistribution of the wealth and power for the world’s leftist elite.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Obama Encourages Drug Money Laundering
The Obama administration has announced that it won’t enforce money-laundering laws against banks doing business with marijuana stores, in a move designed to “facilitate illegal conduct,” says Senator Charles Grassley (R-IA)
The Obama administration calls it “Guidance to Financial Institutions on Marijuana Businesses.”
The Washington Post story about this development carried the innocuous headline, “Obama administration clears banks to accept funds from legal marijuana dealers,” when in fact the marijuana “business” is not “legal” under federal or international law.
“Marijuana trafficking is illegal under federal law, and it’s illegal for banks to deal with marijuana sale proceeds under federal law,” noted Grassley. “Only Congress can change these laws. The administration can’t change the law with a memo.”
He added, “This is just one more area in which the Obama Administration is undermining our system of checks and balances and the rule of law.”…
… David Evans, the Executive Director of the Drug Free Projects Coalition and a special advisor to the Drug Free America Foundation, notes that during the George W. Bush administration marijuana use went down among young people by 25 percent. “If we had had a reduction in any other health problem in the U.S. of 25 percent, we would consider it an outstanding success,” he said. But marijuana use has been going up under the Obama administration.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Suddenly, concerns about Obama’s imperial dreams have been raised again, now with extraordinary force and concern.
On January 26, 2014, the Christian Science Monitor published an article by Linda Fieldmann, asking, “Is Barack Obama an imperial president? President Obama’s use of executive action to get around congressional gridlock is unparalleled in modern times, some scholars say.”
The article rightly pointed out how Obama,
“… has unilaterally changed elements of the Affordable Care Act (ACA); declared an anti-gay-rights law unconstitutional; lifted the threat of deportation for an entire class of undocumented immigrants; bypassed Senate confirmation of controversial nominees; waived compliance requirements in education law; and altered the work requirements under welfare reform.”
Like most of the bad things that have pushed America deeper down the drain, the idea of an imperial presidency originated at the Council on Foreign Relations:
[Comment: Recommended reading.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Progressive Insanity and the Global Warming Cult
What explains the Left escalating its outlandish claims and scaremongering?
Progressives will do virtually anything to advance their agenda. In the arena of global warming, they have resorted to hysteria and angry denunciation of those who dare to question their infallible “wisdom.” And as it is with every aspect of their agenda, such wisdom must be imposed at the expense of liberty.
Leading the charge is Secretary of State John Kerry, who epitomized the above approach in a speech to Indonesian students, civic leaders and government officials in Jakarta, Indonesia. First he laced into one the left’s favorite punching bags, namely the coal and oil industries he accused of “hijacking” the conversation. “We should not allow a tiny minority of shoddy scientists and science and extreme ideologues to compete with scientific facts,” he declared. “Nor should we allow any room for those who think that the costs associated with doing the right thing outweigh the benefits. The science is unequivocal, and those who refuse to believe it are simply burying their heads in the sand. We don’t have time for a meeting anywhere of the Flat Earth Society.”
Possibly suspecting that his presentation might be insufficient to galvanize the unwashed masses, Kerry added a dash of fear to the mix. “This city, this country, this region, is really on the front lines of climate change,” Kerry warned. “It’s not an exaggeration to say that your entire way of life here is at risk. In a sense, climate change can now be considered the world’s largest weapon of mass destruction, perhaps even, the world’s most fearsome weapon of mass destruction,” he added.
Kerry is taking his cues from President Obama, who went to California, where he promptly explained that state’s worst drought in a century is linked to global climate change and greenhouse gases.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Smartphone-Piloted Drones Could Support US Troops on Front Lines
Injured soldiers in dangerous or difficult-to-reach combat zones could one day be carried to safety aboard specially designed, smartphone-piloted drones.
The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, is developing a military drone capable of assisting troops while avoiding hostile threats on the ground, such as ambushes and improvised explosive devices or IEDs. The so-called Aerial Reconfigurable Embedded System (ARES) drones could transport cargo to and from the front lines of battle, deliver or pick up troops from out-of-the-way areas, or extract casualties, as well as conduct intelligence-gathering, surveillance and reconnaissance.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Well it has all kicked off overnight, hasn’t it? Mark Steyn has decided that attack is the best form of defence and has decided to countersue Michael Mann for $10 million.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Teens Carve Swastika Into Boy’s Head
[WARNING: Disturbign Content.]
Three Oregon teenagers have pleaded not guilty to numerous charges in the torture of a 16-year-old Portland boy this month, officials say.
The suspects are accused of hitting the victim with a crowbar, shooting him with a BB gun and carving a swastika into his forehead in an attempt to extort money, the (Portland) Oregonian reported Wednesday.
Jenna Jean Montgomery, 15, Blue Christian Kalmbach, 15, and Jess Taylor, 17, face 19 charges including assault, kidnapping and robbery. They will be prosecuted as adults.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UN Chief Says He’s Counting on Ex-NY Mayor Bloomberg to ‘Work for Humanity’ On Climate Change
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says he is counting on former mayor Michael Bloomberg “to work for humanity” in his new job as United Nations Special Envoy for Cities and Climate Change. Ban made the comments Friday as he welcomed Bloomberg to U.N. headquarters for the first time since his appointment on Jan. 31.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Victim of ‘Knockout Game’ Warns Others, Tells Own Story
An ISU student who said he was the victim of the “knockout game” last Saturday night said he wants others to learn from his experience.
Behnke said that he continued walking and even sped up, but the suspect — whom Behnke described as a 6-foot-tall African American male with dreadlocks — continued to closely follow him.
Behnke said he was on the sidewalk outside of Es Tas Bar and Grill when the man punched him on the left side of his head near his temple, knocking Behnke to the ground.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Will You Drink the Obama Cult Cool Aid?
Obama, like all cult leaders demonize core values, real spirituality and relationships with any groups or people who stand against him. We are to be separate unto him and be divided from our morals, our parents, our faith and our past. Remember Obama and Holder pitching and supporting ‘race wars’ by looking the other way regarding the voter intimidation and threats of the Black panthers, standing with many ‘criminal and dangerous blacks, while Holder ignores attacks on whites by blacks.
Cult leaders, traffickers and pimps are all known for their combo of attacks. They emotionally, spiritually and sexually assault their victims. They literally shred the personality and will into submission and only when the confused and ‘half in half out’ person feels like desperate dirt and submits to the leader, do the compliments, rewards and comforts come. Members are now trained in a love-hate relationship but ALWAYS submissive relationship with the bully and boss. Rewards, punishment, twisting and controls are life now. You belong to Obama or no one.
Obama is the classic cult leader who has been breaking down the American personality — our love for freedom, exceptionalism and for God. Obama beats us down by lifting up evil, creating false flag events and invented reasons to steal our rights. He chronically and arrogantly lies to our faces while beating us down with regulations, UN Constitutional laws and executive orders.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
10 Dutch Youngsters Refused Passports Over Syria Jihad Fears
Ten Dutch youngsters have so far been refused a passport because the security services suspect they may be planning to go to Syria, the Dutch counter-terrorism unit NCTV told the Telegraaf.
The 10 include an 18-year-old girl from Maastricht who has converted to Islam and wants to travel to Syria with her husband, the Telegraaf says. The girl had expressed her support for terrorism on social media and was on an official watch list.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Basque Separatist Group ETA Begins Disarmament, Monitors Say
Basque group ETA has begun to give up some of its weapons, according to international monitors. The Spanish government has said it does not recognize the move, calling for the group’s “unconditional disbandment.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Bulgaria Says Third Suspect Identified in 2012 Burgas Bus Bombing
Ynet — A third suspect has been identified in the bombing of a bus that killed five Israeli tourists in the Black Sea city of Burgas in 2012 that Bulgarian authorities have blamed on the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
EU High-Tech Industry Losing Out to Rest of World, Study Says
A study by consulting group A.T. Kearney has found Europe is increasingly losing out in the information and communications sector. It said the EU urgently needed a strategic vision to regain some of the ground lost.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
France: In Praise of Muslim Soldiers
With municipal elections a little over a month away, François Hollande needs to reassure himself and his Socialist Party that they still have a chance to make a good showing. The easiest way to do this is to go straight to those who were instrumental in putting Hollande in office in 2012 — the Muslims of France — and to grovel before them in gratitude for their courageous participation in the two World Wars.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
France to Set Up State Mining Venture to Secure Minerals Supply
France has unveiled plans to set up a state-owned mining company aimed at exploring and exploiting mineral resources abroad. The move is yet another sign of the return of French state intervention in industry.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Greece Mulls Lifting Immunity on All Golden Dawn MPs
Greek judges on Thursday requested to lift the parliamentary immunity of all Golden Dawn MPs, reports the BBC. Golden Dawn has 18 MPs, nine of which are already facing criminal charges after their immunity was removed. The remaining nine MPs are set to have theirs lifted as well.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Greece: Immunity Lift Asked for the Rest of Golden Dawn MPs
The entire parliamentary group to be summoned for questioning
(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, FEBRUARY 21 — The special investigative judges handling the Greek neo-nazist party Golden Dawn investigation have requested that the parliamentary immunity of the party’s entire parliamentary group. Specifically, as daily To Vima online reports, the judges have requested the immunity lift of Eleni Zaroulia, Nikolaos Kouzilos, Antonios Gregos, Polivios Zisimopoulos, Konstantinos Barbarousis, Chrysovalantis Alexopoulos, Dimitrios Koukoutsis, Artemis Mattheopoulos and Michael Arvanitis. In their application judges Ioanna Klapa and Maria Dimitropoulou stress that the evidence they have accumulated indicates that the rest of neo-Nazi party’s parliamentary group must be summoned for questioning regarding their participation in a criminal organization. Five protected witnesses revealed extensive information about the party’s activities and that they would even recruit underage members.
Additionally, video footage recovered from Golden Dawn computers depicts MPs and new recruits can be seen giving Nazi salutes and swearing that they will hang politicians. In addition, the investigative judges have requested that the immunity of six MPs must also be lifted in order to question them for illegal possession and use of fire arms; MPs Nikos Michaloliakos, Ilia Kasidiaris, Nikolaos Michos, Giorgos Germenis, Panagiotis Lagos, Efstathios Boukouras and Panagiotis Iliopoulos are believed to have supplied other members of the criminal organization with weapons.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Veneto to Urge Government to Regulate, Tax Prostitution
Sex workers call for right to pay taxes, get pensions
(ANSA) — Venice, February 20 — The regional assembly of the northeastern Veneto region on Thursday passed a motion asking the local government to urge Rome to regulate prostitution and tax the proceeds of sex work.
The motion was proposed by the populist Northern League, which rules the region around Venice.
The exchange of sexual services for money is legal in Italy but organized prostitution — indoors in brothels or controlled by third parties — is prohibited. Brothels became illegal in 1958 but there have been periodic calls, especially from right-wing and populist parties, to bring them back.
Sex workers in Italy are often referred to as ‘lucciole’ (fireflies), which is also the name of their website.
The Northern League’ move came after ‘lucciole’ committees this week started campaigning for “taxes, rights and (social security) contributions” so their members can qualify for State pensions.
Two cases of sex workers being asked to pay taxes claimed headlines Thursday.
A Brazilian-born escort who works under the names of Sandra Yura or Gaia di Montebello out of the northern Italian city of Salò said Italian tax agency Equitalia sent her a bill of 50,000 euros after a fiscal check.
“When I went to the chamber of commerce they told me my job could not be regularised,” said Yura, who is in her 50s.
“I want to be registered as a self-employed worker,” she said.
Turkish-born transsexual escort Efe Bal, 37, took out a full-page ad in the Milan supplement of the Corriere della Sera daily on Wednesday and stripped naked outside the newspaper’s HQ in the Italian business capital to protest against an Equitalia bill of 425,000 euros.
Bal, who plies her trade in Milan, said in interview that she earned 8,000 euros per session and was a supporter of the Northern League and their historic ally, ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia party.
“But I never worked for Berlusconi,” she quipped, alluding to the three-time premier’s conviction, which he is appealing, for paying an underage prostitute for sex at his villa outside Milan.
Pia Covre, secretary of the national committee for the civil rights of prostitutes, told the press Thursday that the Italian tax agency had “doubled its inspections and sanctions against sex workers in the last year”.
An estimated 70,000 prostitutes work in Italy, half of them foreign-born and 20% under the legal age for sex work of 18, according to the most recent survey by activist organisation Gruppo Abele.
Abele says there are nine million “assiduous or occasional” clients of sex workers in Italy, who generate a turnover of 5.6 billion euros. photo: Efe Bal at Corriere della Sera HQ
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: M5S Dissidents Could Face Ejection
Four Senators criticised Grillo’s rant during Renzi meeting
(ANSA) — Rome, February 21 — Four Senators for the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S) risk ejection after criticising leader Beppe Grillo’s volcanic conduct during talks with premier-designate Matteo Renzi this week. Comedian-com-politician Grillo erupted with an angry barrage and would not allow any else to speak without interrupting during government-formation “consultations” on Wednesday.
Grillo then went on a rant at a press conference following the meeting, saying he wanted to destroy the current political system and blasted the journalists present for helping uphold it. The M5S leader reluctantly went to the talks, after a poll of M5S members narrowly voted for the movement to take part.
On Thursday Grillo used his popular blog, which gave life to the Internet-based M5S in 2009, to name and shame four Senators who criticised his display — Lorenzo Battista, Fabrizio Bocchino, Francesco Campanella and Luis Alberto Orellana — accusing them of “friendly fire”.
There are reports that M5S Senate whip Maurizio Santangelo has told the movement’s lawmakers that a meeting will be held next week to decide on whether to eject the four.
The so-called dissidents have said they do not intend to quit the movement, arguing it should tolerate internal debate.
“If they held an assemble to eject us, it would be a major political mistake,” Campanella said.
Orellana has been disowned by the M5S branch in the city of Pavia where he was elected, but the other three have not been censored in their home turf so far.
The M5S ejected two parliamentarians last year for expressing dissent.
Senator Adele Gambaro was thrown out in June after blaming Grillo for the party’s poor showing at a round of local elections. Another Senator, Marino Mastrangeli, was voted out of the party in April for breaking a ban on appearing on television chat shows, which Grillo says are rigged to favour the established parties along much of the rest of the Italian media.
The M5S won around a quarter of the vote at last year’s inconclusive general election.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Padoan to be Named Economy Minister, OECD Sources Say
Chief economist of global agency headed to Rome to join cabinet
(ANSA) — Rome, February 21 — Pier Carlo Padoan, chief economist of the OECD, will be named Italy’s economy minister, sources at the organization said Friday. Padoan, a former economics professor in Rome who also worked for the International Monetary Fund, left early from meetings of the G20 in Sydney, Australia, OECD sources said.
In addition to the chief economist post, Padoan has been deputy secretary-general of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) since June 2007 and previously served as an economics advisor to Italian premiers Massimo D’Alema and Giuliano Amato, in charge of international economic policies. Premier-designate Matteo Renzi was pulling together a cabinet on Friday, to present to parliament on Monday and Tuesday for confidence votes
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Lavazza Boosts Green Mountain Tie
Additional $105mn investment aimed to strengthen U.S. market
(ANSA) — Turin, February 21 — Italian coffee producer Lavazza has announced plans to strengthen its relationship with U.S.-based Green Mountain Coffee Roasters through an additional $105 million investment that confirms the Turin-based firm’s interest in strengthening its presence in North America. “At times of economic recession, few companies invest”, Lavazza Chief Executive Antonio Baravalle told ANSA. “We decided to do so, with the objective of strengthening our presence in the U.S.”
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Bomb Defused Outside Northern League Offices in Modena
Bitonci says threats won’t deter political party from agenda
(ANSA) — Modena, February 21 — Police were investigating Friday after a crude bomb was defused outside the offices of the regionalist Northern League political party in Modena.
The bomb, comprised of three sticks of explosives wired together, was defused by police experts after its discovery Thursday night and investigators are now looking for motives in the threat.
A similar bomb threat was reported last week in the centre of Modena, and the area was evacuated as police dealt with a suspicious black bag that was later found to contain packages of salt.
Massimo Bitonci, a League Senator, called Thursday night’s threat “incredible violence” that could have killed many.
“It could have been a massacre,” as the bomb was set before a meeting of the League members, he said.
The threat will not deter the league from its agenda of promoting Italy’s northern area while challenging regulations imposed by the European Union as a condition of the country’s membership in the EU, he said.
“No one will stop us: obviously someone fears us for our ideas and our battles against the euro and against immigration,” he said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: New Anti-TAV Letter Arrives at La Repubblica in Turin
Ominous letter tells local paper of people drawn to arms
(ANSA) — Turin, February 21 — A new letter warning of possible violence against work on the Treni Alta Velocita’ (TAV) high-speed rail link between Italy and France arrived at the Turin office of La Repubblica, the Rome daily said Friday. Separately, a number of ATMs in Turin banks were vandalised Friday and ‘No-TAV’ slogans daubed on the banks. Special investigators opened a probe Thursday into a death threat issued against officials responsible for building and guarding the link north of Turin.
The letter, sent to the ANSA news agency on Wednesday, came from the Nuclei Operativi Armati (Armed Operational Nuclei, NOA) which said its “revolutionary court” had condemned to death officials and police who were allegedly “repressing” protests against work on the line.
The letter delivered to La Repubblica said “in the (Susa) valley, an increasing number of people, especially the young, are being lured by the siren call of violence” and towards the preachers of armed struggle, like the NOA. The anonymous writer, who signed the letter a “worried” ‘cattivo maestro — jargon for the past ideologues of political violence who turned countless young people into terrorists without themselves risking punishment — enclosed a pair of pages written by the NOA declaring the case for violent methods.
A previous letter also signed ‘cattivo maestro’ arrived at La Repubblica last summer that complained the TAV was the work of outsiders in which locals had no say, and threatened that “arms are available” to people who might use them.
The No-Tav citizens’ movement trying to stop the link disassociated itself from the NOA and condemned its actions, saying it objected to “violence against persons”.
The movement, which has clashed with police and been blamed for acts of sabotage, condemned the NOA and reiterated it was engaged in a program of civil disobedience only.
The letters come as a chilling reminder of leftist and rightist terrorist campaigns in Italy that left an estimated 2,000 dead between 1969 and 1981.
Opponents argue the project linking Turin to Lyon is wasteful of public funds and destroys pristine countryside.
Supporters say it will cut down on automobile and truck pollution and make shipping and transit more efficient.
The Italian and French governments have insisted that the link will not only speed passenger and freight traffic but also boost both countries’ economies.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Norway: Ten-Year-Old ‘Dwarf’ Joyrider Strikes Again
The ten-year-old joyrider who made headlines this month when he claimed to police that he was a dwarf who had forgotten his driving license has struck again.
On Wednesday afternoon, the boy was stopped by police driving his aunt’s Opel Zafira down a road with an 80km speed limit near the city of Fagernes, nearly 200km north of Oslo.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Shamrock Crescent: Islam is Ireland’s Fastest Growing Religion
Republic of Ireland may be intimately associated with the Roman Catholic Church, but the fastest-growing faith on the emerald isle is Islam — at such a rapid rate that Muslims are projected to replace Protestantism as the second-most popular religion by the year 2043…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: ‘Class Not Migration Ups School Drop-Out Rate’
Growing up with a single parent on a low income cuts Swedish students’ chance to graduate high school, revealed a new regional study.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: EDL Hold Protest Outside Legoland’s Head Office
The Bournemouth English Defence League (EDL) group staged a ‘flash’ protest over plans to hire out Legoland to a Muslim foundation on March 9. A comment posted on the Bournemouth EDL’s Facebook page said members gave two speeches at the protest and handed out flyers.
It added: “We have asked them to cancel a Muslim only event organised by a well known terrorist supporter who wants Sharia to dominate the UK. We will be back AGAIN & AGAIN until they cancel the event.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: EDL Hold Protest Outside Legoland’s Head Office
The Bournemouth English Defence League (EDL) group staged a ‘flash’ protest over plans to hire out Legoland to a Muslim foundation on March 9.
The Windsor theme park is part of the entertainment group. A comment posted on the Bournemouth EDL’s Facebook page said members gave two speeches at the protest and handed out flyers. It added: “We have asked them to cancel a Muslim only event organised by a well known terrorist supporter who wants Sharia to dominate the UK. We will be back AGAIN & AGAIN until they cancel the event.”…
[JP note: See also http://www.newenglishreview.org/blog_display.cfm/blog_id/51985 ]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Frank Sinatra Impersonator Smashed Up Restaurant After Claiming He Was Underpaid
Frank Sinatra impersonator Jim McAllister claimed that he was short-changed £100 for a gig at the Rajdoot Tandoori restaurant, near Droitwich, Worcestershire, and when the owner refused to pay him, he wrecked the place
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Nigel Farage, the leader of the UK Independence Party, today accepted a challenge from Nick Clegg to a live debate over Britain’s membership of the European Union…
Mr Clegg had issued the challenge in an appearance on LBC yesterday. He called Mr Farage to “a public, open debate about whether we should be in or out of the European Union”. The Deputy Prime Minister said: “That’s the choice facing the British people. “He is the leader of the party of out, I am the leader of the party of in. It’s time for a proper public debate so that the public can listen to the arguments and decide for themselves.”…
[JP note: In out, in out, shake it all about …]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Jolly Jihadi Boy’s Outing to Legoland
Legoland has been hired out to a radical Muslim cleric for a ‘Family Fun Day’. Maybe that’s ‘Fun’ as in ‘Fundamentalism’. The theme park in Windsor, Berkshire, has accepted a booking from a man said to be among the top 25 hate preachers in Britain. Haitham al-Haddad leads the Muslim Research and Development Foundation, which is based in Tower Hamlets, and is in favour of turning this country into a Sharia state…
1pm: Community chanting. Ram Jam Choudary leads the family funsters in a popular chorus of ‘Death to America, Death to the Jews!’ The quartermaster of the Hounslow branch of Al Muhajiroun will be handing out leaflets showing how to disguise Semtex as bricks of Lego. If wet, in bedouin tent behind Knights’ Kingdom…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Muslim Groups Demand Apology From Daily Mail Over Littlejohn Article
More than 25 British Muslim organisations, in company with interfaith bodies, have signed a letter of complaint to the the Daily Mail’s editor, Paul Dacre, about an article by columnist Richard Littlejohn. They say that Littlejohn’s column on Tuesday, headlined Jolly jihadi boys’ outing to Legoland, “deployed hateful Muslim stereotypes” and “used slurs commonly found in racist and far-right websites.”…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Muslim Groups Seek Censorship of Anti-Islamist Satire at Daily Mail
A number of self-appointed leaders from Muslim groups in the United Kingdom have written to the editor of Britain’s Daily Mail, urging him to censor a satirical article by political commentator Richard Littlejohn, regarding the appearance of a known hate preacher at Legoland in Windsor…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Man Who Stole £655,000 From Charity Ordered to Pay Back Just £1,620
Harris Polak, 54, organised bucket collections outside supermarkets in Merseyside for a number of charities, including Cancer Relief UK, raising a total of £655,000 between 2007 and 2011.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The mother, 41, who cannot be named, hit back at a judge who criticised her ‘permissive’ attitude. She said she is ‘responsible and reasonable’ parent who enforced a 10pm bedtime.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: No Plans to Cancel Legoland Event Despite Hate Preacher Outcry
Legoland Windsor has confirmed it has no intention to cancel plans to privately hire the park to a Muslim foundation led by one of the top 25 hate preachers in Britain…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Nottingham’s First Minaret Set to be Installed at New Sneinton Dale Mosque
Nottingham’s skyline will feature a minaret for the first time with the opening of a new mosque that its founders say will “help create a multicultural society”. And the committee behind the project says it may apply for planning permission to issue a call to prayer in the afternoons at a later date…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Petition Against EDL’s Opposition to Cambridge ‘Mega-Mosque’
Cambridge Unite Against Fascism (CUAF) have hit back against islamophobic comments made by the English Defence League (EDL), which condemned plans to build a new mosque on Mill Road. The protest groups Stop Islamification of Europe (SIOE) and Sikhs Against Sharia (SAS) also opposed the new mosque; 1,600 people have signed a petition to prevent it being built…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Two of the Class A4 locomotives, which weigh more than 100 tons, made the epic journey across the Atlantic to the National Railway Museum at Shildon, County Durham, for the reunion.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Violent Burnley Criminal Jason ‘The Joker’ Gorton Has Racked Up Almost 200 Offences in 20 Years
Jason Gorton, 37, of Burnley, Lancashire, has been in and out of prison since the 1990s for a range of crimes including burglary and assault on police officers.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Vatican: Pope: Consistory, Prayer for Christians Victims of Persecution
The pope refers to “the succession of attacks” in Sudan and Nigeria, “the dramatic evolution” of the situation in Ukraine and the “persistent conflict” in Syria and the Central African Republic. Many conflicts are described as religious in nature, not infrequently surreptitiously placing Christians and Muslims in opposition, when in fact they are mainly of an ethnic, political or economic nature.
Vatican City (AsiaNews) — This morning, at the extraordinary consistory, Pope Francis and the cardinals made a “special plea” for “the many Christians who, in various parts of the world, are increasingly frequently victims of acts of intolerance or persecution.”
“To those who suffer for the Gospel,” Vatican Press Office director Father Federico Lombardi said in a statement, “the Holy Father and the Cardinals wish to renew their assurance of their constant prayers, urging them to stand firm in their faith and to forgive their persecutors from their hearts, in imitation of Jesus Christ.
“Equally, the thoughts of the Pope and the Cardinals turned to those nations which in this period are riven by internal conflicts, or by serious tensions which have consequences for civil co-existence, such as South Sudan or Nigeria, in a climate of growing indifference. At this time there is particular apprehension with regard to the evolution of the difficult situation in Ukraine, where it is hoped that all violence will cease immediately and that harmony and peace will be re-established.
“Similarly, a great cause for concern is the continuing conflict in Syria, where it appears that the parties are still far from finding a lasting and peaceful solution, as well as the situation in the Central African Republic, which assumes greater proportions day by day. Initiatives on the part of the international community to promote peace and internal reconciliation, to guarantee the restoration of security and the rule of law, and to allow the indispensable access of humanitarian aid, are becoming increasingly urgent.
“Unfortunately, it is evident that many of the current conflicts are described as being of a religious nature, not infrequently surreptitiously placing Christians and Muslims in opposition, whereas in reality these conflicts have origins of a mainly ethnic, political or economic nature.
“The Catholic Church, on her part, in condemning every form of violence perpetrated in the name of religious belief, will not cease in her commitment to peace and reconciliation, through interreligious dialogue and the many charitable works which provide daily assistance and comfort to the suffering throughout the world.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Euro-Mediterranean Industry Cooperation: Working Together to Meet Common Goals
Ministers of industry from the Euro-Mediterranean area have agreed measures to improve the business environment in the Euro-Mediterranean region and promote entrepreneurship and the development of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs).
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UFM Backing to Promote Inter-Maghreb Trade
The Secretariat of the Union for the Mediterranean this week took part as institutional partner in the Third Maghreb Entrepreneurs Forum, held in Marrakech on 17-18 February. The Maghreb Initiative on Trade and Investment (IMCI) was officially launched on this occasion with the aim to boost intra-Maghreb trade by providing a roadmap and action plan for the short, medium and long term.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Fox News Poll: 66 Percent Say Congress Should Continue to Investigate Benghazi
The latest Fox News poll finds that most Americans think Congress should continue to investigate the Obama administration’s handling of the terrorist attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi. The attack took place in Benghazi, Libya on September 11, 2012 and resulted in the deaths of a U.S. ambassador and three other Americans.
Sixty-six percent of voters want Congress to keep investigating the White House’s handling of Benghazi. That includes 50 percent of Democrats, 68 percent of independents and 83 percent of Republicans.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Morocco to Train Tunisia, Libya Imams
Casablanca — Imams from Libya, Tunisia and Guinea-Conakry will soon follow their peers from Mali and receive training in Morocco. While in Bamako last September for the inauguration of President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta, King Mohammed VI of Morocco offered to train 500 Malian imams.
The fledgling programme “aims at combating religious extremism”, Malian Religious Affairs Minister Thierno Amadou Omar Hass Diallo said Tuesday (February 18th) during the Moroccan monarch’s latest visit to the country. “We are Morocco. We have shared an open, convivial and tolerant Islam. We also share the divine word,” Diallo said…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
US Presses Egypt to Respect Basic Rights, Freedoms
Washington warns Cairo not to target journalists, demands Egyptian authorities allow them free movement.
WASHINGTON — A US diplomat pressed Cairo to respect “basic rights and freedoms” Thursday, warning that Egypt’s stability and economic recovery were at stake, as a court opened a trial of Al-Jazeera journalists…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Caroline Glick: Rousing the Americans From Their Slumber
In an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times Wednesday, former US ambassador to the UN John Bolton warned his countrymen of the disaster that awaits them if President Barack Obama does not change the course of US Middle East policy.
Bolton warned that Obama’s three-pronged policy, based on three negotiation tracks with Iran, Syria, and the Palestinians and Israel, will almost certainly fail in its entirety.
In his words, “Iran will emerge more powerful, verging on deliverable nuclear weapons, while still financing and arming terrorists worldwide.. [Syrian President Bashar] Assad seems likely to survive, which is bad enough by itself, but it will be compounded by the affirmation it affords Iranian and Russian strength. Israel will trust Wash — ington even less than now, and ironically, Palestinians will be even more anti-American, because Obama will not be able to deliver to them the Israeli concessions he predicted.”
Bolton concluded mournfully, “[T]he increasing danger is that only another 9/11, another disaster, will produce the necessary awakening. There is tragedy ahead for our country if we continue on this course.”
Writing for Strafor the same day, strategic analyst George Friedman explained why Bolton’s warning will be ignored by the public…
| — Hat tip: Caroline Glick | [Return to headlines] |
Guantanamo Prisoner Found Guilty in French Oil Tanker Bombing; Won’t be Sentenced Till 2017
FORT MEADE, Md. — A Guantanamo Bay prisoner pleaded guilty Thursday to war crime charges in a pretrial deal aimed at limiting his sentence for helping plan the suicide bombing of an oil tanker off Yemen in 2002 that killed a crewman and wounded a dozen others…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Iran Parliament Speaker: Israel is a ‘Malign Tumor’
As Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif was in Vienna on Wednesday working to normalize the Islamic Republic’s relations with world powers, Ali Larijani, Speaker of the Iranian Parliament, railed against Israel, calling the Jewish State a “malign tumor,” according to semi-official Iranian state news agency Mehr…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Iran Calls for Violent Shi’ite Reaction Against Saudi Arabia
With the upsurge in attacks on Iranian interests, and on interests affiliated with Iran’s proxies, in Lebanon, Iraq, Yemen, and Afghanistan, the Iranian leadership and its mouthpieces have launched a campaign of harsh criticism against the Saudi regime, accusing Saudi Arabia, and particularly Saudi security chief Bandar bin Sultan, of responsibility for attacks on Iran and on the resistance axis in the region. Iran’s senior officials and media are calling the Saudi regime a takfiri (i.e. heretical) Wahhabi stream that is acting against Islam and the Muslims, in cooperation with the U.S, Israel, and Zionism.
It should be noted that the extreme language that Iran previously reserved for anti-Israel statements is now being used against Saudi Arabia.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Iraq: 27 Killed, 40 Wounded in Violent Attacks Across Iraq
BAGHDAD, Feb. 20 (Xinhua) — At least 27 people were killed and 40 others wounded in violent attacks across Iraq on Thursday, police said. Three mortar shells fell on a popular market in the town of Musayyib, 40 km south of Baghdad, killing 17 people and injuring 30 others, a local police source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity. The shells also damaged a number of shops in the crowded market, he added.
Earlier in the day, ten people were killed and 10 others wounded in two violent incidents in eastern and central Iraq, police sources said…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Iraq: Deadly Mortar Attacks Rock Crowded Area South of Baghdad
Shelling hits area of shops and restaurants that draws crowds at night, killing 17 people and wounding 70 others.
HILLA — Five mortar rounds struck the Mussayib area south of Baghdad on Thursday, killing 17 people, police and a doctor said. The shelling, which hit an area of shops and restaurants that draws crowds at night, also wounded 70 people, the sources said…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Israel’s Tamar Gas Field in $500 Mln Jordanian Export Deal
Feb 19 (Reuters) — The partners in the Tamar natural gas field off Israel’s Mediterranean coast have signed a deal to sell at least $500 million of gas over 15 years to two Jordanian companies in the first deal outside of Israel.
Under the agreement, Tamar will supply 66 billion cubic feet to Arab Potash and its unit, Jordan Bromine — a joint venture with U.S. Albemarle — at their facilities near the Dead Sea, Noble Energy said on Wednesday.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Mars One Encourages Muslims to Join Red Planet Mission Despite ‘Fatwa’
Muslims have “a rich tradition of exploration” and “Fatwa” on red planet mission should be cancelled, Mars One claims
The company behind the Mars One mission has said that Muslims should sign up for a trip to the red planet, following reports of a Fatwa against it being issued. The General Authority of Islamic Affairs and Endowment (GAIAE) in the United Arab Emirates apparently warned on Wednesday that taking the trip to Mars would pose “a real risk to life”. However, Mars One, a non-profit organisation that proposes to send four people to the red planet in 2022, has responded to the reports stating that the “Muslim world has for centuries had a rich tradition of exploration”…
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| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Overrun Lebanese Town Braces for More Syrians
Expected Syrian military offensive may push even more refugees into Arsal, already teeming with too many people.
The town of Arsal, which had a population of 45,000 mostly Lebanese before the conflict, is now also an ad hoc home to more than 65,000 Syrians who have arrived since the civil war erupted three-years ago. Arsal’s mayor said more than 4,000 families arrived in just the past week, most from the nearby city of Yabroud, where fighting is intense.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Yemeni Security Forces Disperse Separatist Protest in Aden, 2 Killed
ADEN, Yemen, Feb. 21 (Xinhua) — Yemeni security forces fired live ammunition to disperse thousands of pro-secession protesters in the southern port city of Aden on Friday, killing two people and injuring 20 others, witnesses and police source told Xinhua…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Canada Defeats United States, 1-0, In Men’s Hockey Semifinal
Canada defeated the United States, 1-0, in the semifinals of the men’s hockey tournament to advance to the gold medal game.
In a rematch of the 2010 gold medal game, Canada dominated play for much of the game, going ahead on a goal by the Dallas Stars’ Jamie Benn early in the second period.
American goalie Jonathan Quick kept his team in the game, withstanding an near-constant Canadian barrage to make 37 saves. But the United States, which had been the highest-scoring team in the tournament, could not get the equalizer.
Canada will play Sweden in the gold medal game Sunday. Canada and Sweden have won the past three of the four gold medals in men’s hockey since N.H.L. players became part of the tournament in 1998, Canada in 2002 and 2010 and Sweden in 2006.
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Chess in a Minefield: The Global Implications of the Ukraine Conflict
The bloody conflict in Ukraine could trigger yet another confrontation between the West and Russia. Dominance in Europe is at stake on the geopolitical chess board. While Ukraine itself could descend into civil war.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Chief Rabbi of Ukraine Urges Jews to Flee Kiev After Attack on Students
One of Ukraine’s Chief Rabbis, Moshe Reuven Asman, urged Jews to leave capital city Kiev following a reported anti-Semitic attack on two Chabad yeshiva students in the city last month, Israeli daily Ma’ariv reported…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Former Georgia President: Putin Buys Influence in Eastern Europe
Concerns are growing over Russia and its President Vladimir Putin continuing to push for greater influence over countries that were once a part of the Soviet Union.
Fox News National Security Analyst KT McFarland spoke to Mikheil Saakashvili, the former president of the Republic of Georgia, about Russia’s influence in Eastern Europe. Georgia is a small country bordering Russia to the south on the Black Sea.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Fresh From Breakthrough Deal, Ukraine Parliament Pass Vote to Free Tymoshenko
Ukraine’s parliament has voted to release former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko from prison. It is one of several motions passed in the hours since opposition leaders and President Viktor Yanukovych signed a deal.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Mikaela Shiffrin of the United States Wins Gold in Women’s Slalom
Looking powerful and poised, 18-year-old Mikaela Shiffrin won the women’s slalom here Friday, dominating the first run and hanging on in the second.
Marlies Schild and Kathrin Zettel of Austria won the silver and bronze. It was the second Alpine gold of the Sochi Games for the United States after Ted Ligety won the giant slalom Wednesday.
Shiffrin, the reigning world slalom champion and the race favorite, led Maria Höfl-Riesch of Germany by 49-hundredths of a second after the first run, with Tina Maze of Slovenia in third, 67-hundredths of a second back. But Höfl-Riesch and Maze both skied poorly on their second runs, leaving Shiffrin with plenty of cushion for hers.
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Opposition Leaders Sign Deal With President to End Crisis in Ukraine
Shots rang out and tension remained high in the streets of Kiev Friday, as Ukrainian protest leaders signed a deal with Ukraine’s president to defuse a political crisis that has left scores dead and hundreds injured.
After hours of European-led negotiations, Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych signed an agreement with opposition leaders Friday that calls for early elections, a new constitution and a new unity government. The deal promises presidential elections will be held no later than December, instead of March 2015 as scheduled.
Many protesters say December is too late — they want Yanukovych out immediately.
Ukrainian authorities also will now name a new government — including opposition figures — within 10 days. The deal says the government will not impose a state of emergency and both sides will refrain from violence.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Parliament Moves to Release Former Ukrainian PM Yulia Tymoshenko From Jail
Hours after opposition leaders and the Ukrainian president signed a deal aimed at ending month-long deadly clashes, the country’s parliament voted to free Yulia Tymoshenko, the former prime minister jailed for more than two years for what supporters say are politically tainted charges.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Russian Media Paint a Dark Picture of Ukraine
As Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych agrees to hold early elections, the Russian media paint a grim picture Ukraine as a nation that has lost trust in all authority and is steadily slipping into chaos and civil war.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Ukrainian Sides Sign Deal to Defuse Crisis
Opposition leaders signed an agreement with President Viktor F. Yanukovych on Friday to attempt to defuse a deadly political crisis that has left scores of protesters and security officers dead and hundreds injured in Kiev, the capital.
The Germany Foreign Ministry announced in a Twitter message that the leadership council of the Ukrainian protest movement had authorized the signing of the deal, which calls for early presidential elections, a coalition government and reduction of presidential power through constitutional reforms.
A spokeswoman for the protest movement told The Associated Press that opposition leaders were headed for the president’s office to discuss the agreement.
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Ukrainian Parliament Votes to Allow Release of Former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko
The embattled president of Ukraine and leaders of the opposition signed a political deal on Friday aimed at ending a spiral of lethal violence with early elections and a reduction in presidential powers, but Russia declined to endorse the accord, and many protesters said nothing short of the president’s resignation would get them off the street.
In a further sign of President Viktor F. Yanukovych’s diminished influence, the Ukrainian Parliament voted to allow the release of former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, who has been imprisoned for more than two years. In a 310-54 vote, lawmakers decriminalized the count for which she was incarcerated.
It was not immediately clear when Ms. Tymoshenko might be released from a penitentiary in the eastern city of Kharkiv where she has been serving her sentence. But she is still considered one of Mr. Yanukovych’s most potent adversaries.
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Ukraine Announces Deal to End Crisis; Shots Fired
KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine’s presidency said Friday that it has negotiated an international deal intended to end battles between police and protesters that have killed scores and injured hundreds. It was unclear whether the deal would appease protesters, and shots rang out Friday morning in central Kiev…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Giant Manta Ray Sanctuary Declared by Indonesia
A ban on fishing the huge winged manta ray fish has been declared in Indonesian waters. An ecotourism agreement setting up a large sanctuary has been signed by Indonesia’s government and conservationists in Jakarta.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Indonesia: South Sumatra: Hundreds of Islamists Block the Construction of a Protestant Church
An armed mob has occupied a plot of land owned by the Christian community Huria Kristen Batak Protestan. Raid motivated by lack of building permit. The leadership of the Hkbp lodges IMB application in 2011, to no avail . The Minister for Religious Affairs orders the termination of the project.
Jakarta (AsiaNews) — Late yesterday afternoon, hundreds of armed men, led by local Muslim leaders, stormed and forcibly occupied a plot of land owned by the Indonesian Christian community Huria Kristen Batak Protestan (HKBP). The incident occurred in the village of Talang Kelapa , located in the sub-district of Alang -alang Lebar in the regency of Palembang, South Sumatra province. The raid was motivated by an attempt to build a place of worship. In fact, on February 17 the ceremony of laying the first stone was held, amid protests from local residents. A decision that has created discontent among Muslims, who organized a task force to occupy the land — two acres in all — and to send a strong message to HKBP leaders: churches are not allowed in the area.
The process for building a church in Indonesia — Catholic or Protestant — is quite complicated and may take five to ten years to obtain all permits required by law. The procedure is governed by the Izin Mendirikan Bangunan (IMB), a species of written protocol that allows for construction to commence and is issued by local authorities. The story gets more complicated if it is a place of Christian worship: permission must be obtained from a number of residents in the area where the building is to be constructed and the local Group for Interfaith Dialogue. And even if the permission is granted “unspecified reasons” can come into play that will lead officials to block the projects. Often, this occurs after pressure from the Muslim community or radical Islamic movements.
Since 2011, the Christian community has initiated procedures to obtain the necessary permits, without any concrete results. Moreover, the lack IMB provides a legal foothold to the Muslim majority, who can enforce breaches and irregularities in the procedures to stop the building and forcibly occupy land. Junaidi Alhafidz, a local Muslim leader who headed the mob in fact declared the raid was motivated by “the Hkbp’s lack of IMB permit” reflecting the fact that “the authorities in Palembang have not yet authorized the building”. He also reiterated opposition “to the construction of a church”.
The Islamic leader points to the fact that the signatures of 60 residents of the area are missing, as well as the minimal number of faithful (90) necessary to get the go- ahead for the construction of the building. This is confirmed by the head of sub-district Sulaiman Amien, who states that the local Protestant community “has not yet received the permits”. The Ministry for Religious Affairs of Palembang has also weighed in ordering the HKBP to “halt” the project until all legal procedures are completed.
Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim nation, has seen a rise in the number of attacks or acts of intolerance against minorities, including Christians, Ahmadi Muslims and others. In the province of Aceh — the only in the Archipelago to apply Islamic law ( Sharia ) — following a peace agreement between the central government and the Free Aceh Movement ( GAM ) , the application of a radical form of Islam among citizens is becoming more extreme. In addition, certain rules such as the building permit — the infamous IMB — are exploited to prevent the building or close down places of worship, as was the case in West Java against Yasmin Church. The constitution provides for freedom of religion, but the community is the victim of incidents of violence and abuse. Local sources report that in December alone , at least five Christian places of worship have had to close their doors due to pressure from Islamists.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Northeastern Thais ‘Angry’ At Government
Northern Thais make up Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra’s core support base. But people are becoming disenchanted with her government over issues of corruption and a botched rice price-fixing scheme.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Suicide Attackers Hit Afghan Police Compund
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Militants attacked a police compound near Kabul with explosives and guns on Friday, setting off an hour-long firefight that left one officer dead and four wounded, according to Afghan officials…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
China: Fight Against Smog Ramps Up
Chinese government to provide incentives for heavy polluters to go green, but analysts question whether its wider air-quality strategy goes far enough.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Is Japan’s ‘Abenomics’ Losing Its Luster?
After a positive start for the Japanese prime minister’s “three arrows” of economic reform, there are growing concerns that the recovery the government promised is failing to take hold.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Al Shabaab Militants Attack Somalia’s Presidential Palace
Militants have launched an assault on the presidential palace in the Somali capital Mogadishu, police and witnesses said Friday, in an attack claimed by the al Qaeda-linked group al Shabaab.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Somalia: Explosion and Gun Fight Around the Presidential Palace Mogadishu
Loud explosion heard near presidential palace in Somali capital Mogadishu, followed by heavy bursts of gunfire. Two loud explosions and very heavy and intensive gun fight rocked the Somalia’s army chief residence and where as suicide attacks targeted at the Somalia presidential palace in the capital Mogadishu…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Zimbabwe: Zanu PF Plans US$1m Mugabe Birthday Bash
ZANU PF plans to raise up to $1 million for a grand birthday party for President Robert Mugabe who turns 90 next month and continues to lead the country 34 years after its independence.
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Venezuela: Hugo Chavez’s Daughters Turn Presidential Palace Into Party Pad With “Defeaning” Parties
The late dictator’s children apparently have no intention of moving out of the president’s official residence, which is filled with antiques and priceless art .
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Venezuela Revokes Press Credentials for 4 CNN Journalists Over Coverage of Protests
Venezuela’s government has revoked the press credentials of journalists from CNN after President Nicolas Maduro blasted the television network’s coverage of political protests. CNN says Friday that four of its journalists were notified by the Information Ministry that they are no longer allowed to report in the country. They include CNN en Espanol anchor Patricia Janiot
The government’s near-complete control of domestic broadcasters has made CNN en Espanol a source of information for many Venezuelans trying to follow the unrest.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
EU: €200m for Immigration Projects in 2012-2013
The European Commission on Friday adopted a report looking at the main developments within the EU’s external migration policy in 2012 and 2013.
So far, mobility partnerships have been concluded with six countries, including Georgia, Armenia, Morocco and Azerbaijan. Discussions on a similar partnership with Tunisia concluded in November 2013, and its signing is imminent. Discussions with Jordan began in December 2013.
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Migrant Welfare Crackdown is Illegal, Brussels Tells PM David Cameron
A new war with Brussels looms after the Government was warned its plans to crack down on benefit tourism are almost certainly illegal.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Protests in Ceuta Against Spanish Government
Ministers of Spain and Morocco boost cooperation
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, FEBRUARY 21 — Over 300 people protested in the Spanish enclave of Ceuta against the government of Premier Mariano Rajoy, accused of treating migrants ‘‘like suitcases’’. Demonstrators also denounced incidents on February 6, when 15 migrants drowned and others were chased away by the Guardia Civil as roughly 1,400 people tried to get into the enclave. Guardia civil officers used anti-riot gear including rubber bullets against the immigrants.
Meanwhile, the interior ministers of Spain and Morocco, Jorge Fernandez Diaz and Mohamed Hassad, agreed to boost cooperation between the two countries to confront the immigration emergency in the enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla in Morocco.
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UK: Six Out of 10 Romanian and Bulgarian Immigrants Claimed Self-Employed Status
Oxford University report highlights how tens of thousands of workers from the two former Communist states claimed freelance status, winning wider access to benefits
Nearly six out of 10 Romanian and Bulgarian immigrants living in Britain last year claimed they were self-employed, allowing them full access to the welfare state, a new report has found…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Young Britons Beaten to Jobs by ‘New Servant Class’ of Immigrants
The number of Romanians and Bulgarians working in the UK rose by 40 per cent in 12 months to December 2013 to hit 144,000.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Gay Rights Activists in Uproar Over AZ ‘Religious Freedom’ Bill
The bill, approved by the Republican-controlled Senate on Wednesday and the GOP-led House on Thursday, would bolster a business owner’s right to refuse service to gays and others if the owner believes doing so violates the practice and observance of his or her religion.
The state Senate passed it on a straight party-line vote, 17 to 13. The House followed suit, 33 to 27, with two Republicans joining all the Democrats in opposition.
GOP Gov. Jan Brewer’s office said she would not take a position until she’d had a chance to review the measure.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Is Civil Liberty Important to God?
Today, many pastors teach that Christians should not concern themselves with politics, and are only to concern themselves with their “spiritual” liberty. If the state becomes tyrannical, well — that is just God’s will and we are to live with it.
This is pirma facie an absurd notion. It is, in fact, heresy. We are made in the image of God. That is, we project His attributes. God is not, nor ever will be a slave. This is why at the core of their being,every human longs to be free. God loves us so much that He sent His Son to grant us our freedom — in all of its forms.
The Old Testament sends a clear message that God takes the civil liberty of His people very seriously:
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
LA Times Pushes Euthanasia for Children
Twice in the past week the L.A. Times published op-eds contending the newly passed law in Belgium allowing euthanasia for children should be enacted in the United States.
In a Thursday op-ed, “Belgium’s humane stance on dying kids,” columnist Meghan Daum contended that people who object to such a program are paranoid, and it should be acceptable because it will be rarely implemented.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
NYC: More Black Babies Killed by Abortion Than Born
In 2012, there were more black babies killed by abortion (31,328) in New York City than were born there (24,758), and the black children killed comprised 42.4% of the total number of abortions in the Big Apple, according to a report by the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
We can’t justify feeling imperiled by the idea that white men are gunning us down while rejecting sweeping generalizations regarding black men, some of whom are responsible for many of the murders in urban cities.
These fears only work to further polarize our communities when we need to work together to alleviate the mistrust we have of one another.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Transgender Jordan Davis Receives Death Threats After Entering Miss England
Jordan Davis, of Radford, West Midlands, is one of 15 finalists in the Miss Coventry competition after beating more than 300 other girls to make it this far.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The 2014 Hollywood Diversity Report released this week examines the gender and race of actors, directors and writers of film and television. It reveals an industry that is still dominated by white men, with women and minorities dramatically underrepresented both on and off screen.
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Earmarked Taxes Can Finance Elder Boom Costs
We will be twice as wealthy in 2060 as we are today. But it’s doubtful that we will be eager to pay more taxes — unless we know what the money is going to.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
More Fish Found Deeper in the Ocean
The amount of fish in the world is being reassessed upwards. Some ten billion tonnes of fish that live at depths down to a kilometre are not fished at all. A University of Bergen professor thinks this biomass will be much more important for humankind in the future.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Your Fate? Thank Your Ancestors
By Gregory Clark
Large-scale, rapid social mobility is impossible to legislate. What governments can do is ameliorate the effects of life’s inherent unfairness. Where we will fall within the social spectrum is largely fated at birth. Given that fact, we have to decide how much reward, or punishment, should be attached to what is ultimately fickle and arbitrary, the lottery of your lineage.
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Regarding the article “Your fate? Thank your ancestors”:
Commenter Orazio appears to negate the (un)scientific methodology used by the study authors to use surnames to measure social status and social mobility in their ‘conclusion’ that social mobility is ultimately genetic and trends to the average.
“Regarding the inference of genetic transmission as measured by surnames I would like to point out that the genetic inheritance is reduced by 50% with each succeeding generation. Thus, a high status person today received 50% of his/her genes from each parent, 25% from each grandparent, 12.5% from each great grandparent, 6.25% from each great, great and 3.125% from each great, great, great-grandparent. Or in other words, each of us has 2 parents, 4 grandparents, 8 great grandparents, 16 great, greats and 32 great, great, great grandparents. However, one’s surname is transmitted intact and undivided from only one of these 32 great, great, greats to whom the individual is 96.875% genetically unrelated.”
Commenter jcb also points out that a study of surname transmission ignores women.
“Demonstrating by surname the persistence of ‘genetic’ traits influencing social mobility is so scattershot that it confuses. For example, by taking changes in professional affiliation as a measure of social mobility (in, e.g., Sweden) it ignores the persistence of paternal models that determine the occupation of sons (but not daughters). There is an overwhelming survivors bias toward the male, primo-genetic line. Lawyer fathers, lawyer sons.”
Regarding ancestors and fates, look to the Minnesota twins study which shows that intelligence is largely inherited.
Also, the longer a society has been egalitarian, the less social mobility you should have. If you suddenly impose egalitarianism on a country that has previously been caste-bound, you should initially have a surge in social mobility as bright people previously limited by caste now have opportunities to rise. In a country like Sweden, on the other hand, which has long been egalitarian, there are fewer bright people left at the bottom, hence less social mobility.