Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev has weighed in on the Crimean crisis, saying that Russia’s annexation rectifies a historical error created by the USSR, and should be celebrated. Meanwhile, in an acknowledgement of the Russian fait accompli, Ukraine says it plans to pull its remaining military forces out of the Crimea.
In other news, in just two days, the Italian Navy and Coast Guard have plucked more than two thousand illegal immigrants from the sea and brought them to safety on Italian territory.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to Fjordman, Insubria, JD, JP, KP, MC, Nick, RR, 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.
18% of Greeks Suffering Poverty, OECD Reports Says
(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, MARCH 19 — The 17.9% of Greeks can’t afford to buy food — more than in countries with lower per capita income such as Brazil and China — as GreekReporter website writes quoting the results of a recent Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (Oecd) report. The survey, titled ‘Society at a Glance 2014’, details huge income losses incurred by Greeks during the period 2007-2012, averaging 4,400 euros per person — the highest among OECD countries and four times the eurozone average.
According to the report, poverty in Greece is due to an “explosion” of unemployment, especially among younger people, and an “ill-prepared” social protection system. As reported, since 2008, total spending on social protection and health fell by 18%.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
28-Year Old Former JPMorgan Banker Jumps to His Death, Latest in Series of Recent Suicides
Not a week seems to pass without some banker or trader committing suicide. Today we get news of the latest such tragic event with news that 28-year old Kenneth Bellando, a former JPMorgan banker, current employee of Levy Capital, and brother of a top chief investment officer of JPM, jumped to his death from his 6th floor East Side apartment on March 12.
– From the NY Post:
Bellando, a former investment bank analyst at JPMorgan, is the son of John Bellando, chief operating officer and chief financial officer at Condé Nast. His brother, John, a top chief investment officer with JPMorgan, works on risk exposure valuations…
And so another young life is tragically taken before his time, the 11th financial professional to commit suicide in 2014, and the third in as many weeks. How many more to come?
In summary, here are all the recent untimely financial professional deaths we have witnessed in recent months:…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Fed Cuts Bond Purchases by Another $10 Billion
The Federal Reserve continued to curtail its economic stimulus campaign Wednesday, announcing as expected that it would further reduce its monthly bond purchases because of the progress of the economic recovery.
The Fed emphasized, however, that it expected to continue the centerpiece of its stimulus campaign, the suppression of short-term interest rates. It said that rates would remain at the current level, near zero, “for a considerable time” after it stops adding to its bond holdings, particularly if inflation remains sluggish.
| [Return to headlines] |
France: Élysée Aims to Cut Budget to 100 Million Euros by 2015
(ANSAmed) — PARIS, MARCH 19 — In times of austerity, even wine is rationed at the Élysée Palace. The objective is to reduce the presidential palace budget to 100 million euros by 2015 compared to the current spending of 101 million euros, with additional cuts in personnel and operating expenses. Even wine will be drunk to the last drop. To avoid having to throw away open bottles, left unfinished at receptions, the palace sommelier has procured special wine corks that permit the conservation of contents until the next meal. According to the numbers of French Deputy Rene’ Dosiere, finance specialist for the state, the Élysée Palace today spends about 250,000 euros per year on wine, a figure certain to be revised downward in the coming years.
Expenses for the French presidency have already fallen 11 million euros compared to 2011, according to radio Europe 1.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Greece Roots for Renzi for ‘Challenging Merkel on Austerity’
Italian premier’s plan is a gamble for southern Europe
(by Demetrio Manolitsakis) (ANSAmed) — ATHENS, MARCH 18 — Greece is watching Italian politics and ‘rooting’ for Premier Matteo Renzi and Italy’s centre-left over their “challenge” to end austerity policies and “throw down the gauntlet to Merkel” on behalf of “all of southern Europe”, according to leading papers in Greece. Greece is about to return to international capital markets to test its strength after harsh austerity policies imposed by the troika and local media reports over the past few days have been focusing on Italian current events.
Local media and analysts have been closely watching the latest developments and awaited Renzi’s meetings with French President Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
A headline published by Athens daily Ta Nea two days ago summed up the ongoing mood: “The Italian centre-left ends austerity and throws down the gauntlet to Merkel”. And an editorial on the same paper ran this headline: “Italy’s gamble for the entire South”.
“The economic policy of young Italian Premier Matteo Renzi which in practice signals the end of three-year-long austerity policies in his country, tracing a different route from the one outlined by Brussels and Berlin, is turning into a great gamble for the entire (European) south”, wrote Ta Nea. “It is the first time that a eurozone country with problems announces a different plan from austerity measures. In this respect, the outcome of the Italian project, regardless of its success, will be a catalyzing agent also for Memorandum countries. In order to allay market fears, the Italian premier has assured that his country will stand by engagements over its economic indexes”, the paper wrote over Italy’s international engagements. “After all, the ‘Italian model’ will be tested here as it seems to be giving a ray of hope to all southern countries”.
Newspaper Kathimerini ran the headline “Matteo Renzi and Greece”, writing, among other things, that “Renzi took the helm of the government in Italy promising a number of reforms which will produce a constructive quake and will lead the country out of the economic crisis. Meanwhile Greece in 2014 is in strong need of a Greek Matteo Renzi and is for now forced to endure a two-party system”, as indicated by recent surveys. The so-called Memorandum agreements signed by the Greek government and the country’s international creditors will meanwhile expire in a few months and troika officials — Germany’s Matthias Mors (EU) and Clauss Mazuch (ECB) and Denmark’s Paul Tomsen (IMF) — who are in charge of monitoring the national economic recovery programme, will finish their work and leave Greece in a few days. The long round of talks that kicked off six months ago thus ended. From now on EU officials will have to monitor the Greek economy and the government’s work. Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras said now Greece — which has made relevant progress towards economic recovery, in spite of mistakes committed by representatives of international creditors — is about to return to international capital markets to test its strength. But local political observers have some reservations as, after analyzing the behaviour of the troika in the last round of inspections and, most of all, the stance taken by the IMF representative who even irritated Premier Antonis Samaras — believe this is part of a plan aimed at imposing on Greece a new Memorandum which would enable the IMF to prolong its presence in Europe.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Greece: Industry Loses 66 Jobs Daily, Says ELSTAT
(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, MARCH 19 — The number of permanent or temporary employees in the Greek manufacturing industry decreased by 6.7% in 2013, as GreekReporter website writes quoting the last figures released by the Hellenic Statistical Authority (Elstat) today. According to Elstat, during the last year the number of jobs decreased by approximately 24,100 and an average of 66 positions were lost on a daily basis.
Specifically, the number of employees in the manufacturing industry is estimated to have been limited to approximately 336,350, compared to approximately 360,450 in 2012. In 2011, the number of people who were employed in the manufacturing industry dropped to an average of 416,200 people, 469,750 people in 2010, 513,375 people in 2009, and 538,925 people in 2008, while in 2007 they amounted to 560,550 people. Compared to 2007 jobs in the sector have decreased by 224,200 or 40%.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: OECD Warns That Family Income Has Dropped Dramatically
Agency praises reforms to Italy’s social security, labour market
(Updates previous) (ANSA) — Rome, March 18 — The average Italian family saw its income drop by 2,400 euros between 2007 and 2012 — more than double the eurozone average of 1,100 euros, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) said Tuesday.
It blamed a “deteriorating labour market, especially for youth” as well as a “weak level of protection” for workers as contributing to income weakness.
But the Paris-based organization also praised Italy’s “recent labor-market reforms” and an extension of social-security programs as “important steps in the right direction”. Both marked important turning points away from Italy’s “poorly prepared social-security system” which it said contributed to rising poverty and unemployment.
Both the former government of ex-premier Mario Monti and the new administration of Premier Matteo Renzi proposed changes that they said would make it easier for employers to hire.
Last week the OECD, whose former chief economist Pier Carlo Padoan recently became Italy’s economy minister, warned that although economic growth in the first quarter of this year will be relatively positive, providing further evidence that Italy is emerging from a bitter recession, the second quarter of 2014 still looks weak.
It said then that Italy’s gross domestic product (GDP) will show growth of 0.7% between January and March of this year but that the expansion won’t be easy or direct as in the second quarter of this year, economic growth will stall, likely showing just 0.1% expansion between April and June.
In Tuesday’s statement, the OECD said that in 2011, 13.2% of Italians said they could not afford to buy enough food, compared to 9.5% in 2007, and 7.2% had been unable to afford some medical care for economic reasons.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy to Respect ‘Outdated’ Budget Rules, Says Renzi
With EU looking on, premier signals deficit forecast may rise
(By Christopher Livesay) (ANSA) — Rome, March 19 — Premier Matteo Renzi told parliament on Wednesday the government would honor the 3% limit on Italy’s deficit-to-GDP ratio, but called the European Union’s threshold “outdated”, and said the Italy’s deficit forecast for 2014 could rise. Speaking from the floor of the Lower House, Renzi said that tens of billions of euros in combined income-tax cuts, infrastructure spending and debt repayments planned for this year could raise this year’s deficit-to-GDP ratio forecast “from 2.6% to 3%”. Aiming to jolt the sclerotic economy out of a slow recovery from Italy’s worst recession since World War II, Renzi plans to cut income taxes by 10 billion euros, invest 1.74 billion euros in social housing programs, spend 3.5 billion euros on schools and repay 68 billion euros in outstanding bills, among other things. Recent reports said Renzi had planned to broach the sensitive issue of deficit limits when he met Monday with German Chancellor Angela Merkel at their first bilateral since he was sworn in as premier last month. At the meeting, Merkel praised Renzi’s “ambitious” plans and expressed certainty in Italy’s commitment to stay below the EU-enforced limit. Italy must be careful to avoid breaching it, as it did in 2009. The European Commission subsequently opened an excessive-deficit procedure against Italy, obliging it to divert public money into trying to reduce that ratio. It was taken off the procedure last year after bringing the ratio below 3%. With Italy’s duty presidency of the EU arriving in July, the House was particularly interested in hearing Renzi’s ideas regarding Italy’s role in the 28-member union. He told MPs Italy is “ready to do its part” within the EU by offering reforms to national institutions and the Constitution. “We have offered a package of reforms to the Constitution and to our institutions that have impressed our European partners because this is a sign that Italy is ready to do its part,” Renzi told the Lower House on the eve of a two-day summit of European Union leaders in Brussels.
Among the most urgent reforms are those to Italy’s labour market, to deal with what Renzi called an “atrocious” level of youth unemployment that exceeds 40%.
These reforms are not an option, “this is not a debate over whether we can deal with it or not,” added Renzi, who has suggested it is time to shift focus away from concerns about reducing debt to instead consider policies aimed at encouraging growth and recovery.
“This pushes parliament” to deal with labour market issues as well as numerous other economic priorities, and may include innovative approaches, said Renzi.
Spending Review Commissioner Carlo Cottarelli is devising a list to cut as much as five billion euros in the last eight months of 2014 for lower-priority areas, to free money for higher priorities, Renzi noted.
Renzi admitted that will demand hard choices in terms to where to cut, for which he will take responsibility.
Like a family budget, “if there is not enough money, it’s Mom and Dad who decide what to cut and what is not (cut),” he said. He also reminded the House of his dramatic plan for tax cuts and targeted social investments, which he vowed Wednesday to implement “before July,” which marks the start of Italy’s six-month EU presidency. Known as a charismatic fast-talker, Renzi went on to say that Italy could become a European leader over the next two decades if it works hard enough. “We are going in Europe, conscious of the fact that we have countless limits and difficulties — but, if Italy works hard enough, it can aim to be a leader within the European Union for the next 20 years and not for six months,” the premier said. But his tone was at times tough on the EU, as it has often been in his nascent premiership. He told the House that Italy gives more to the EU than it receives, and that one of the causes of Italy’s worsening debt-to-GDP ratio was its big contribution to the EU’s euro bailout fund. Italy’s debt-to-GDP ratio of 133% is the second-biggest in the eurozone after Greece’s.
In recent weeks Renzi has received praise from European and EU leaders for his planned economic reforms, but has been quick to respond that such measures were necessary not to appease Europe, but to be able to “look our children in the eye”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Renzi Says Europe in Difficulty, Risk of Populism Rising
Premier says EU must not just ‘check homework’
(ANSA) — Rome, March 19 — Premier Matteo Renzi said Wednesday that the European Union was suffering a major crisis and there is a danger of a sharp rise in support for populist, Eurosceptic parties.
“When I met (former Brazil president) Lula (Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva) it struck me that he said he had never seen Europe so resigned, pessimistic and tired,” the leader of the centre-left Democratic Party (PD) said.
“I think that those who represent a country inside the European Council should start from the fact that Europe is going through a clear period of difficulty and there is a risk of populist parties getting strong support”. Renzi, Italy’s youngest premier at 39 after unseating his PD colleague Enrico Letta last month, has made several calls for Europe to focus more on growth and employment and less on the austerity that was its main response to the eurozone debt crisis.
He presented a major package of tax cuts and public investments last week and, while stressing that Italy will not breach the 3% deficit-to-GDP ratio allowed by Brussels, he says the EU must radically change approach. “It’s fundamentally important that we get away from the vision of the EU checking homework and going through things with a fine tooth comb,” Renzi said.
“The EU is not distinct from us. If we are not able to say that Italy and Europe are in the same boat, there will be no space for politics”. The European Commission recently said the 2014 budget passed by Renzi’s predecessor Enrico Letta did not do enough to bring down Italy’s massive public debt of over two trillion euros, around 133% of GDP.
As a result it put Italy under “specific monitoring” over its “excessive macroeconomic imbalances”, which include high debt and poor competitiveness, as part of an in-depth review.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy Gives More Than it Receives in Europe Says Renzi
‘One of causes of worsening debt’
(ANSA) — Rome, March 19 — Italy gives more to the European Union than it receives, Premier Matteo Renzi said Wednesday.
One of the causes of Italy’s worsening debt-to-GDP ratio, he said, was its big contribution to the EU’s euro bailout fund.
Italy’s debt-to-GDP ratio of 133% is the second-biggest in the eurozone after Greece’s.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Obama’s Budget Bad for 401(k) Savers
President Obama’s proposed budget for 2015 would be a disaster for the millions of Americans who are underprepared for retirement. This plan would reduce the tax incentives for employers to offer retirement plans to their employees.
Let’s examine the backdrop.
Our country’s retirement situation is a mess. Social Security is grossly underfunded and is headed for insolvency, yet neither political party has the guts to offer any real solutions.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Top Economist: The Bankers Need to Take a Hit
Alex welcomes the founder of economic forecasting firm Dent Research, Harry S. Dent, Jr. to discuss why he thinks the Dow Jones industrial average may spike at 17,000 then make a rapid descent to 6,000 by 2016 and why the bankers need to a hit on this one instead of being bailed out.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Actress Denounced Over Refusal to Vaccinate Kids
Actress Kristin Cavallari is facing condemnation after she revealed during an interview that she didn’t vaccinate her children due to fears over a link to autism.
During an interview on Fox News, Cavallari, who had her first child in 2012 and is expecting another this year, responded to the host who lambasted Jenny McCarthy for not vaccinating her children before asking Cavallari, “are you opposed to vaccines?”
“We didn’t vaccinate,” states Cavallari, to which the host responds, “Really! you’re one of those communists?”…
With a deluge of mainstream media outlets rushing to denounce Cavallari’s personal decision as a mother not to vaccinate her children, one would be forgiven for thinking that the pharmaceutical industry, which spends around $2.4 billion dollars a year on direct-to-consumer television advertising every year, was in cahoots with the corporate press. That couldn’t possibly be the case, right?
One of the most worrying factors is the clear connection between higher vaccine doses and infant mortality rates in the developed world. A 2011 study published in the reputable Human and Experimental Toxicology journal found “a high statistically significant correlation between increasing number of vaccine doses and increasing infant mortality rates.”…
The United States administers the highest number of vaccine doses to children in the entire developed world, 26 before infants reach the age of one, and its infant mortality rate is higher than 33 other nations, all of which administer less vaccines.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Beaumont ISD Officer Placed on Leave After Student’s Arm Breaks While Being Restrained After Fight
12News has learned that an officer with the Beaumont Independent School district has been placed on administrative leave without pay following an incident at West Brook High School in which a student’s arm was broken.
BISD Police Chief Clydell Duncan says Officer Steve Rivers was placed on leave following an investigation of the incident.
The incident happened Friday March 7 on campus. Cell phone video surfaced Monday, March 17 showing the officer trying to break up a fight between two students. Duncan says his department started investigating March 7 after the incident happened.
Parents tell 12News the video clearly shows the male officer breaking the student’s arm while the student is on the ground.
We have contacted BISD spokesperson Nakisha Myles. She told us, “The district is reviewing the complaint.”
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
By Mark Steyn
Excerpt: Every time the Democrats call for “the richest one per cent” to pay their “fair share”, Republicans ought to point out that we have a more progressive — ie, redistributive — tax system than Canada, Scandinavia, Belgium, the Netherlands… In other words, America’s rich already pay more than Sweden’s rich or Norway’s rich. If it’s fair enough for the Continentals, why isn’t it fair for Americans? What about corporate tax? Federal corporate tax in the US: 35 per cent; in Canada: 11-15 per cent. Total (national, local, the lot) corporate tax burden: Ireland 12.5 per cent, Sweden 22 per cent, Denmark 24 per cent, Netherlands 25 per cent, Germany 29 per cent, Italy 31 per cent, Belgium 33 per cent, United States 40 per cent. So America is more Euro-socialist than most Euro-socialists
| — Hat tip: KP | [Return to headlines] |
After a series of events that continue the decline of America’s global reputation along with increasing questions about the level of Obama administration corruption within the Internal Revenue Service, these and other factors lead inevitably to the question of whether America can survive Barack Hussein Obama.
By March 12, a Wall Street Journal/NBC news poll indicated that Obama’s popularity had declined to an all-time low with 48% approval versus 54% disapproval. This is unchanged from December when the ObamaCare rollout dominated the news. The rate of disapproval among Democrats stands at 20%.
The question of survival might sound absurd under normal circumstances, but there has not been anything “normal” about Obama’s first term in which he lied repeatedly to Americans to secure the passage of the Affordable Care Act — ObamaCare — and then claimed that what he and Congressional Democrats said was an inadvertent misstatement of the facts. His namesake legislation has been a disaster from the beginning. Nothing about it works and it costs more while destroying the healthcare insurance system.
And he has continued to lie to the point where anyone above the age of five has concluded that nothing he says can be trusted.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Celebrating Islam Awareness Week
Islam Awareness Week began Monday March 17 with events around campus that hoped to spark insight and understanding. Albion College’s Intercultural Affairs members are eager to enjoy and learn from the informative week, and the on-campus Muslim Student Association, is hard at work to make this celebration of Islamic religion count…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Congress Should Act to Protect the Internet
By Charles C. W. Cooke
Earlier in the week, I wrote about the Commerce Department’s baffling decision to relinquish its oversight of ICANN, the keeper of the Internet’s “guts.” This, I argued, was an “unforced error” and a “shame” — a classic case of government electing to fix a system that wasn’t broken. Most worrying, I suggested, was that the move played right into the hands of the likes of Russia and China, both of which are desperate to expand their influence.
In the Wall Street Journal, L. Gordon Crovitz takes my warning one step further. Not only has the U.S. opened up the Internet to interference from outsiders who do not share its commitment to liberty, Crovitz writes, but it may well have let in the United Nations — the worst of all possible options.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Did ‘Fracking’ Play a Role in LA Earthquake? Councilmen Want to Know
By Emily Alpert Reyes
Excerpt: “I think people are trying to take advantage of a naturally occurring incident in order to attack our industry,” California Independent Petroleum Assn. CEO Rock Zierman said Tuesday. He said it had been proven that “there’s no link between operations and seismic activity.” Seismologist Lucy Jones, a USGS science advisor for risk reduction, said she would need to know much more about nearby pumping in the area, such as whether someone was changing the water pressure deep in the ground, to say whether it could have been a factor in the Monday temblor. However, “my first impression is that sounds implausible,” Jones said, “just because the earthquake was so deep. Induced earthquakes are almost always shallower than this.”
| — Hat tip: KP | [Return to headlines] |
Facing Drought, California Farmers Rally Against Regulations Limiting Water Supplies
Thousands of farmers in drought-stricken California are rallying this week in opposition to regulations that have frozen water supplies across the state. “It’s devastating, it’s like I’ll have to sell something. I’ll have to sell half to maintain the other half,” Alfalfa farmer Michael Erskine said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
FBI Bust Handcrafted ‘Terrorist’ For Crime of Thinking About Supporting a Terrorist Organization
The FBI’s string of thwarted, self-created terrorist plots continues unabated. Why look for terrorists when you can just craft them yourselves? Digital Fourth has the rundown on the latest “coup” by the agency.
The news this morning is full of the arrest of yet another American on charges of “attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization.” Nobody’s suggesting that 20-year-old National Guardsman Nicholas Teausant of Acampo, CA is a terrorist, or that he provided any help whatsoever to terrorists, or that he was in contact, ever, with any actual terrorists. But, the media breathlessly report, he’s still facing charges that can put him in jail through to the 2030s.
The more you dig into the story, the more ridiculous it becomes. And Alex Marthews digs in deeply. The propellant (if you will) for this latest thwarted terrorist plot is little more than a campfire story.
Well, seems that he was on a camping trip sometime last year — or maybe not; investigators couldn’t corroborate that the camping trip ever happened — but anyway, afterwards, Teausant is reported to have said to some guy that he had been on a camping trip and had talked with friends about “blowing up the LA subway,” but that they hadn’t done anything because “they” had been “tipped off”.
Unfortunately for Teausant (but fortunately for America!), the “somebody” he relayed his camping conversation to was an FBI agent. Recognizing that Teausant needed a little more prodding to turn against his own nation, the agent connected him with a terrorist tutor of sorts (another FBI agent). This agent/mentor suggested Teausant travel to Canada to further radicalize and then sent more FBI agents to arrest him at the border. Voila, another terrorist attack thwarted.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
FDA’s Sneak Attempt to Ban Another B Vitamin
You can’t live without this vitamin. But the FDA wants to reserve the natural form for monopoly drug companies, leaving only the synthetic form for supplements.
The FDA has just released a new 109-proposed rule on the revision of nutrition and supplement labels. On page 69, the agency slipped in two little paragraphs that could risk the health of millions of people who desperately need folate. It’s a sneak attack so quiet and unobtrusive that few people will even realize it’s there.
According to the guidance, the word “folate” will be banned from the Supplement Fact labels—only the term “folic acid” will be allowed.
Folate is the naturally occurring form of the water-soluble vitamin B9. It is found in foods such as black-eyed peas, chickpeas and other beans, lentils, spinach, turnip greens, asparagus, avocado, and broccoli, but is also available as a supplement.
The human body needs folate to synthesize and repair its DNA. It’s especially important during the kind of rapid cell division and growth seen in infancy and pregnancy. Children and adults both require folate to produce healthy red blood cells and prevent anemia among many other vital functions.
Folic acid, on the other hand, is synthetically produced, and refers to just one member of the folate group: pteroylmonoglutamic acid. While folic acid occurs only rarely in whole foods, it’s extremely stable, which is why it’s widely used in dietary supplements and to fortify processed foods.
The important thing to remember is that folic acid is not itself biologically active, though for most people the liver can convert it to the folate we need. Most, however, does not mean all. It’s estimated that 30% to 40% of the population can’t efficiently convert synthetic folic acid into folate.
In other words, about a third of the human population has two potential problems: a deficiency in folate (because it is hard to get enough from a diet full of processed foods), and possibly even an excess of folic acid (because their body can’t metabolize what could become an overabundance of folic acid present in “fortified” foods):
According to Dr. Jonathan V. Wright, folate deficiency is one of the most dangerous medical conditions, leading to Alzheimer’s and other brain diseases. If pregnant women are deficient in it, it can also lead to spina bifida and other neural tube birth defects in their children.
On the other hand, too much unmetabolized folic acid can build up in the blood, which could lead to an increased risk of prostate, lung, and colon cancer, or worsen already present cancerous lesions. This refers to large amounts of folic acid, larger than in current supplements, but more research is needed to account for individual differences.
Note that the FDA is not exactly banning the inclusion of folate and requiring the inclusion of folic acid in supplements. As usual, it is playing a much more subtle insider’s game. It is simply banning supplement producers from using the word folate on their labels and conversely only allowing the word folic acid on their labels. But it would of course be fraudulent to put folic acid on your label and then use something else. The FDA understands that perfectly…
[…]
[If you take supplements, read the rest.]
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Fluoride Combined With Even Trace Amounts of Aluminum in Water Can Cause Major Brain Damage
In his “Why Fluoride Is Toxic” report, Dr. Blaylock explains how we are all essentially being lied to about the safety of artificial fluoride chemicals in our water. Widespread claims by government health authorities that fluoride is completely safe at current exposure levels are false, Dr. Blaylock explains, as they ignore copious scientific evidence pointing to both brain and nervous system damage in conjunction with fluoride exposure, not to mention an elevated risk of cancer.
One major area of research involves fluoride’s apparent role in triggering early-onset brain diseases such as Alzheimer’s. When it is not lodging itself in brain tissue and actually causing this and other forms of dementia, fluoride appears to worsen brain disease symptoms in patients who have already been diagnosed with dementia. And it does this by combining with other toxins also found in water such as aluminum.
“One study shows that adding fluoride to water in the presence of even small amounts of aluminum caused severe destruction of brain cells in the part of the brain controlling learning and memory,” explains Dr. Blaylock in his new report.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Government Agency: If 9 Substations Are Destroyed, The Power Grid Could be Down for 18 Months
What would you do if the Internet or the power grid went down for over a year? Our key infrastructure, including the Internet and the power grid, is far more vulnerable than most people would dare to imagine.
These days, most people simply take for granted that the lights will always be on and that the Internet will always function properly. But what if all that changed someday in the blink of an eye? According to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s latest report, all it would take to plunge the entire nation into darkness for more than a year would be to knock out a transformer manufacturer and just 9 of our 55,000 electrical substations on a really hot summer day. The reality of the matter is that our power grid is in desperate need of updating, and there is very little or no physical security at most of these substations. If terrorists, or saboteurs, or special operations forces wanted to take down our power grid, it would not be very difficult. And as you will read about later in this article, the Internet is extremely vulnerable as well.
When I read the following statement from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s latest report, I was absolutely floored…
“Destroy nine interconnection substations and a transformer manufacturer and the entire United States grid would be down for at least 18 months, probably longer.”
Wow.
What would you do without power for 18 months?
FERC studied what it would take to collapse the entire electrical grid from coast to coast. What they found was quite unsettling…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Kalamazoo Islamic Center to Host ‘Questions About Islam’ Event Thursday
“Questions about Islam,” an event that has been held for the past few years, is an constructive attempt at helping the broader Kalamazoo community garner a better understanding of the religion of Islam, and establishing trust between Muslim and Non-Muslim communities…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Leftist Media Descends on NFL Quarterback, Wife for Refusing to Vaccinate Children
Parents should be encouraged to conduct their own research, not ridiculed
Leftist media outlets are up in arms over NFL quarterback Jay Cutler and his wife Kristin Cavalarri’s announcement that they will not vaccinate their children, a decision they made public last week, but is still stirring controversy.
Chicago Bears quarterback Jay Cutler and his wife, former Laguna Beach star Kristin Cavalarri. Embracing MSNBC’s mantra of “your children belong to the collective,” Salon, Think Progress and Raw Story all but blamed Cutler and his wife for the recent outbreak of measles, arguing the couple’s decision not to inject their kids with lab-concocted, chemical cocktails puts everyone else in danger.
“I’ve read too many books about autism and the studies,” Cavalarri said to the dismay of vaccine pushers during an interview on Fox Business, adding that “one in 88 boys is autistic and that’s a scary statistic.”…
Obama PR firm Think Progress noted that once-prestigious “CDC officials point out that in America, 80 percent of measles cases in 2013 presented among people who were never vaccinated, and 80 percent of those people cited ‘philosophical differences’ for forgoing vaccination.”
Of course, this is the same CDC that quietly memory-holed an entire section on their website dedicated to detailing the fallout from the botched polio vaccine, which was contaminated with a primate form of cancer virus and administered to over 98 million Americans.
The same CDC also went through the trouble of deleting the pages from Google’s cache system, an unprecedented move on par with scenes from George Orwell’s 1984. The CDC never publicized an excuse as to why they did this. so they’re definitely trust-worthy.
The Internet Archive, fortunately, still hosts the CDC’s Polio Vaccine Fact Sheet here and here.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Mass. Residents Faced With $23,000 Sewer Bills
Costs for sewers built for condos passed on to homeowners with septic systems.
If you think your sewer bill is high, then wait until you hear what’s going on with some homeowners in Wayland. They are facing bills that will take decades to pay off. Chief Correspondent Joe Shortsleeve says these residents want all town residents to pitch in.
Mary Farley is a Wayland resident. “When you add up all the fees, we are looking at close to $55,000!”
Abhilash Barot is also a Wayland resident. “I owe $23,000!”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
New Jersey Expedites Magazine and Gun Ban; Only Chris Christie Can Stop
The anti-gun politicians that control the New Jersey Legislature are racing to get a magazine and gun ban on Gov. Chris Christie’s desk.
A bill that bans magazines over 10 rounds and classifies .22-caliber tube-fed youth rifles as “assault firearms” could hit the governor’s desk as soon as March 27, according to the Association of New Jersey Rifle & Pistol Clubs, which is the state’s affiliate for the National Rifle Association (NRA).
Scott Bach, the executive director of the gun rights club, thinks the Democrats who control the Legislature are speeding up the legislative timetable for purely political reasons.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Principal Who Told Kids Not to Speak Spanish Will Lose Job
HEMPSTEAD — The Hempstead school board won’t renew the contract of a principal who instructed her students not to speak Spanish, in a rapidly-evolving district where more than half of the students, like many Texas schools, are now Hispanic.
The Hispanic population of the rural area, roughly 50 miles northwest of Houston, is growing quickly, and Latino advocates say that it’s important to allow Spanish in public schools.
Such fast growth is pervasive in Texas, says Steve Murdock, a professor at Rice University and director of the Hobby Center for the Study of Texas. Half of all Texas public-school students are now Hispanic, he notes. “When you look at issues related to education in Texas, to a great extent, you’re looking at the education of Hispanic children.” Similar growth patterns, he says, hold true for the rest of the United States: “It’s not just Texas.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Putting a Face on Radical Environmentalism
Every week we get calls or e-mails from landowners from all over America who have come up against the consequences of environmental law, passed by governments who are lobbied by radical environmentalists. The foundation of most environmental laws come from the United Nations radical Agenda 21 accord adopted by over 170 nations, including the United States, at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. The flawed premise of Agenda 21 is that man is a virus that must be rigorously controlled in all forms of behavior, in order to save the planet. That control, defined by Agenda 21, takes no account of American constitutional property rights. In fact, it tramples all over those rights.
Here is a response from one of those “faces” of radical environmentalism, a family that was destroyed by the Army Corps of Engineers, who charged the family with filling in a wetland, a federal offense, but the family wasn’t filling in a wetland. The family had all the permits to do what they were doing but the Army Corps ran rough shod over them in court and their permits were ruled inadmissible. The family lost a going business, their entire savings and their farm to the fight with the Army Corps of Engineers. They were literally left on the street with nothing but the clothes on their backs. The following words from the surviving spouse of this family are heart wrenching:…
As a tribute to these forgotten faces of radical environmentalism, we have prepared a 12-minute video based on one of our last year’s article with the same name. It is a must viewing for any urban or rural landowner.
“Rural America In The Cross Hairs”:
[Comment: Read this article and watch the video. This insidious assault on rural private property is happening all over America. This is all part of Agenda 21 — rewilding of rural Amerika. Drive the rural people off their own land and revert the land to the point before the ‘evil hu-man’ came along. Herd everybody into mega cities complete with panopticon so they are easier to watch and control. Fusion centres will process ‘dissidents’. ]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Rand Paul “Concerned About Who is Truly in Charge of Our Government”
Libertarian Kentucky Senator Rand Paul warns in a speech today that he believes US spooks and shadow government agencies are “ drunk with power”, and that elected representatives are privately afraid of those operating behind the curtain.
In a scheduled appearance at the University of California-Berkeley, Paul will address the continuing domestic spying controversy.
In prepared comments Paul notes “I am honestly worried, concerned about who is truly in charge of our government. Most of you have read the dystopian nightmares and maybe, like me, you doubted that it could ever happen in America.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Romney: ‘I Hate to Say I Told You So, But…
By Ed Morrissey
Excerpt: ‘Why, across the world, are America’s hands so tied? A large part of the answer is our leader’s terrible timing. In virtually every foreign-affairs crisis we have faced these past five years, there was a point when America had good choices and good options. There was a juncture when America had the potential to influence events. But we failed to act at the propitious point; that moment having passed, we were left without acceptable options. In foreign affairs as in life, there is, as Shakespeare had it, “a tide in the affairs of men which, taken at the flood leads on to fortune. Omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and in miseries.”‘
| — Hat tip: KP | [Return to headlines] |
Siemens Wins US High-Speed Train Contract, Outbids Rivals Caterpillar, GE
German conglomerate Siemens has won a multi-million-dollar US contract to build high-speed locomotives. Siemens outbid major US rivals in a tender aimed at establishing the first high-speed train services in the US.
Siemens and US engine maker Cummins had been awarded a $226-million (162-million-euro) contract to build 32 diesel locomotives for the US market, the German industrial conglomerate announced March 19.
The passenger locomotives would be delivered to five US states, including California, Illinois, Michigan, Missouri and Washington, which were developing high-speed rail routes with US rail operator Amtrak, Siemens said.
The locomotives would be delivered between autumn 2016 and summer 2017, with the order including an option to build an additional 225 locomotives.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Student Arrested, Expelled for Pocket Knife Found in Car
An Ohio high school student is now considering a lawsuit after school officials searched his car without his consent and found a pocket knife, leading to his arrest.
Jordan Wiser, an EMT trainee who attends Ashtabula County Technical School in Jefferson, spent 13 days in jail for the three-inch knife officials found and reported to police.
He was charged with “illegal conveyance of a weapon onto a school ground” despite the fact that the knife was found in Wiser’s first responder vest and used for slicing an accident victim’s seatbelt.
“I declined to allow them to search myself or my car and that I wanted to talk to my lawyer or my father,” Wiser told Fox News. “They told me it wasn’t an option.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
With a unique programme, the US government has managed to drive the cost of genome sequencing down towards a much-anticipated target.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The £20m Fabergé Egg That Was Almost Sold for Scrap
A scrap metal dealer who bought an ornament from a bric-a-brac market to be melted down for its gold discovered it is a £20 million Fabergé egg after finding a Telegraph article online.
The extraordinary find has been likened by the expert who verified it to “Indiana Jones being presented with the Lost Ark” — a trail that began in Tsarist Russia and ended in the kitchen of a house in the American Mid West overlooking a branch of Dunkin’ Donuts.
The Imperial Easter Egg was designed by Carl Fabergé for Tsar Alexander III in 1887 and seized by the Bolsheviks during the Russian Revolution.
It eventually turned up on an antiques stall in the US a decade ago, its provenance unknown to the vendor.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
nder the FDA’s new rules, Supplement Fact labels would only be allowed to list the term “folic acid” as an ingredient; the word “folate” would not be permitted. Oddly, this contradicts another FDA regulation that allows supplement producers to list sourcing ingredients next to nutrient names—for example, “Folic Acid (Folate).” Is the FDA attempting to overrule this old regulation via the new labeling rules?
This wouldn’t be a small labeling tweak: banning folate from the label is a sneaky way of banning it in the bottle, as it would be completely inaccurate and misleading to refer to dietary folates like folinic acid (5-FTHF), calcium methylfolate, various tetrahydrofolates, and other “whole food” folates as synthetic folic acid.
Why ban folate? Well, according to FDA “logic,” if dietary supplements can’t contain any folates except folic acid, all other folates would only be available from whole foods—or drugs. As clinicians learn more about genetic defects in the genes responsible for the fifteen or so enzymes needed to convert folic acid to the reduced forms of folate the body can use, drug companies have been dreaming of the billions they’d make by turning folate into an expensive patented drug. Now it looks like the FDA is trying to hand it to them on a silver platter.
[…]
Researchers have also found a strong link between folate deficiency and depression. This is particularly interesting when you consider research showing that 70% of patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) carry the MTHFR mutation. Importantly, L-methylfolate, which completely bypasses the “damaged” MTHFR conversion step and delivers a “finished” folate the body can immediately use, has been proven to safely treat major depressive disorders with few to no side effects. L-methylfolate is readily available in some dietary supplements especially those supplied by practitioners—at least for the time being.
Of course, a gentle, natural, and cost-effective vitamin isn’t safe from drug companies: Merck, a Big Pharma heavyweight, holds the patents to Metafolin(r), the “finished” and stabilized form of L-methylfolate. In addition to licensing Metafolin(r) to dietary supplement companies, Merck has worked with a Nestlé subsidiary to create Deplin(r), a Metafolin(r) pill marketed as a medical food. Deplin(r) is designed to be taken in conjunction with SSRIs—a risky class of antidepressants linked to suicidal and violent behavior—for the treatment of depression.
[…]
[NOTE: With the FDA, always follow the money trail to Big Pharma.]
| [Return to headlines] |
Trudeau Gets 10 Years; Obama Still at-Large
Compare the damage Trudeau inflicted and the damage Obama and his wrecking crew wrought on the American economy — somebody should think about putting the president in jail.
Now comes word that Kevin Trudeau, the author and infomercial genius or man who claimed the federal government was out to get him, was sentenced March 17 in a federal courthouse to 10 years in federal prison and fined $37 million for making false claims in his book, still available on Amazon.com after sentencing: The Weight Loss Cure ‘They Don’t Want You to Know About.’
This is how our government protects us from bad books and bad people, who claim to have a secret cure, but are really just taking our money, like rubes stumbling through the carnival.
The prosecution of Trudeau was a joint effort by the Federal Trade Commission and the Justice Department. Do not hold your breath waiting for those two to get together again to prosecute President Barack Obama, or any of the other charlatans he brought to Washington with him.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Valerie Jarrett, The CEO of Obama Inc.
By Daniel Greenfield
Excerpt: For eight years, the media envisioned Dick Cheney as the ‘evil genius’ behind the Bush White House, but few in the media have wanted to take a long look at the ‘evil genius’ behind the Obama White House. The populist grass roots myth died shortly after Obama was elected and while plenty of books have been written about the internal workings of the Obama campaign and administration, unlike the books written about Bush, they rarely inform mainstream media news coverage. When these books and articles come from within the media, the authors are not attacked and their work isn’t discredited, it simply gets compartmentalized into the wonksphere and away from daily news coverage.
| — Hat tip: KP | [Return to headlines] |
Videos: Fighting Hipsters With Hipsters
By Kevin Glass
Excerpt: The Republican National Committee is out with a new series of web ads that star people of a variety of different demographics designed to appeal to different segments of the American population that they’ve recently struggled to win: minorities, women, and, yes, hipsters. The ad campaign, entitled “Create Your American Dream,” features a spotlight on Scott Greenberg, a bespactacled young man that National Journal’s Lucia Graves accuses of that deadly word that doesn’t really mean anything: “hipster.”
Take a look:…
| — Hat tip: KP | [Return to headlines] |
Video: Kid Screams in Agony as Cop Snaps His Arm
[WARNING: Disturbing Content.]
Some attempt to justify officer’s actions
Shocking video has emerged of a campus police officer violently breaking a student’s arm as he screams out in agony during an incident at West Brook High School in Beaumont, Texas…
Joel Scott, a professional MMA fighter, said that the cop’s actions suggest he intentionally tried to break the student’s arm.
“I am a professional cage fighter. I have trained in Jiu Jitsu for 3yrs with is a form of martial arts that specializes in submissions and breaking bones. It takes a lot of force to break a human bone. You can clearly see that was intentional. He used his weight as leverage. The average person knows the rage of motion of the human arm and he knew what he was doing,” wrote Scott.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Virginia Gov. McAuliffe Vetoes Pro-Gun Legislation
Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) this week broke out his executive veto power for the first time by refusing to sign the state’s burgeoning ‘guns in cars’ bill.
The bill had previously passed the state Legislature by wide margins, but McAuliffe had returned the bill to lawmakers on March 4 to revise the verbiage. The state’s executive recommended that an amendment be added to ensure that firearms in a vehicle are secured in a locked container, which the state House rejected. This impasse led to the governor’s veto of the pending bill.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
What We May Never Know About Pollard
Congressman John LeBoutillier was sure that Jonathan Pollard was not telling the truth when Pollard told him that the United States was selling weapons to Iranian moderates to fund the rebels in Nicaragua.
LeBoutillier was fighting what he believed was a US government cover-up of American POWs still alive in Southeast Asia. Pollard, a US Navy intelligence officer, approached him after one of his speeches, to share vital information that the government was withholding.
Pollard lost LeBoutillier’s trust when he referred to the Iran-Contra arrangement. That story was too unbelievable even for the conspiracy-minded former congressman.
That’s how the New York Times reported it shortly after Pollard’s arrest.
When the Iran-Contra scandal broke months later, the Times had a chance to revisit the story. But the New York Times had neither the interest nor the integrity to pursue a story whose narrative might be Pollard as patriot trying to tell congressmen dirty — but true — secrets about illegal military actions.
As the terrible probability of Pollard dying in prison increases, there have been different speculations as to why. Some insist Anti-Semitism. Others suggest that the US is keeping him as a bargaining chip, or as a warning to other American Jews.[…]
[Pollard has now been in gaol longer than the spies who gave away secrets to the Russians in the cold war. —MC]
| — Hat tip: MC | [Return to headlines] |
2 Soldiers Who Served in Afghanistan Found Dead
It’s believed Cpl. Alain Lacasse of Quebec and Master Cpl. Tyson Washburn of Ontario took their own lives
Just as the last Canadian soldiers deployed in Afghanistan returned home today, news emerged that two soldiers took their own lives. Cpl. Alain Lacasse, 43, was found dead in his home Monday afternoon in Valcartier, Que. Police said that because Lacasse’s death was a suicide, they are not giving out any details about what took place.
Canada’s Department of National Defence (DND) also confirmed that another soldier in Ontario, Master Cpl. Tyson Washburn, was found dead over the weekend…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Rethink911 Toronto Subway Ads Launched
WTC 7 collapse to show on 300 screens throughout Toronto subway
The decision to go digital and show riders the collapse of Building 7 was inspired by a scientific poll commissioned by the campaign last September, which found that 51% of Canadians who are shown video of Building 7’s collapse suspect it was a controlled demolition, compared to just 18% who suspect it was caused by fires. When asked who they are more inclined to believe — the U.S. government, which says fires brought it down, or the critics who contend it was controlled demolition — 49% side with the critics, while only 20% are inclined to believe the government. 44% support opening a new investigation, with only 14% opposed.
“The poll shows quite clearly what we already knew. Most people who see Building 7’s collapse have trouble believing that fires brought it down,” said Mr. Gage. “It simply doesn’t look like a natural building collapse, and that’s because all the columns have been removed at once to allow it to come down symmetrically in free-fall. When everyone in Canada and everyone in the U.S. sees this footage, there will be widespread outcry for a new investigation.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Breitbart London: Al Qaeda Magazine Urges Followers to Bomb Savoy Hotel
By Nick Hallett
Excerpt: The prestigious hotel has been a favoured location of celebrities and statesmen for 115 years. The Telegraph quotes the magazine as saying: “At about 10 pm GMT, businessmen and high profile targets leave the hotel. This is a perfect place and time to detonate your car bomb.” The magazine carries instructions as to how to build your own car bomb from cooking gas cylinders, oxygen gas and a trigger. Suggestions for targets in other countries include the Sears Tower in Chicago, the Bastille Day Parade in Paris, as well as sites in Washington DC and Chicago. The popular tourist destination of the Dordogne is also mentioned.
| — Hat tip: KP | [Return to headlines] |
British TV Needs Ethnic Quotas About as Badly as it Needs the Comedic Talents of Lenny Henry
By James Delingpole
Excerpt: That’s just how life is in a world where freedom of association is still down to personal choice. None of this would matter of course if Lenny’s musings on this score were confined to a pontification session with a bunch of similarly PC luvvie mates over a plate of squid’s ink polenta or two at the Groucho Club. But unfortunately, because he has been given a platform to spout such drivel at the BAFTA television lecture, we’re somehow expected to sit up and listen and take his ravings seriously. He claims that the most talented black actors are abandoning Britain to seek work in the US. Well of course they are. So are the most talented white actors: it’s where the money is.
| — Hat tip: KP | [Return to headlines] |
[WARNING: Disturbing Content.]
British children using social networking sites have unwittingly been the victim of one of the world’s worst ever child pornography rings, it has emerged.
Police are preparing to make arrests across the UK of dozens of men who had paid to access the secret obscene image-sharing website.
The US authorities — which smashed the international ring — called it ‘one of the largest known online child exploitation operations in history’.
Many of the victims were contacted via social network sites and ‘enticed to produce sexually explicit material’.
Some of the men responsible tricked them by posing as females.
More than 27,000 subscribers to the vile secret network had access to 2,000 videos filmed on computer webcams.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the US said they had arrested 14 American men who operated the member-only site from the southern state of Louisiana.
Investigators have so far identified 251 child victims, of whom 243 were boys.
There were 228 Americans and a total of 23 from Britain, Canada, New Zealand, Australia and Belgium.
The majority were aged 13 to 15, but 33 were aged under 12 and two were aged just three.
The UK’s National Crime Agency has been handed detailed intelligence on British users of the site, who now face being arrested.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Bulgarian Sentenced to Year in Jail for Spreading Radical Islam
(Reuters) — A Bulgarian man was sentenced to a year in jail on Wednesday for spreading radical Islam, in a case seen as a test for the delicate relations between the country’s minority Muslims and Orthodox Christian majority.
The trial has provoked protest rallies both by Muslims and by nationalists claiming to represent the majority. Supporters of the nationalist VMRO party gathered outside the court on Wednesday in support of the prosecution…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Dutch Populist Politician Geert Wilders Leads His Followers in Anti-Moroccan Chant
AMSTERDAM — The Dutch right-wing populist politician Geert Wilders has led his supporters in an anti-Moroccan chant.
At a party meeting Wednesday evening in The Hague, where his Freedom Party is set to win the most votes in municipal elections, Wilders asked supporters whether they wanted “more or fewer” Moroccans in the Netherlands.
His supporters chanted back: “Fewer! Fewer! Fewer!” before breaking into applause. “Good, we’re going to take care of that,” Wilders said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
France Seeks Answers as Terror Attacks Marked
As France pauses on Wednesday to mark the two-year anniversary of Toulouse terrorist Mohamed Merah’s shooting spree, the country’s intelligence services remain under investigation for its alleged failure to prevent the slaughter. And the hunt for Merah’s accomplices goes on.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
France: Toulouse Jewish Leader Urges Young Jews to Leave
(JTA) — Two years after the murder of four Jews in Toulouse, the president of the French city’s Jewish community encouraged young Jews to leave France. Ari Bensemhoun said young Jews should move away because they cannot practice Judaism openly and without fear in Toulouse.
“I won’t deny that, yes, I encourage the younger people to make aliyah [immigrate to Israel] or go elsewhere, where they can thrive in open Judaism, emancipated and without constantly fearing over what tomorrow will bring,” Bensemhoun said in an interview Monday with the i24 television news channel…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Centre-Left MP Suspends Himself From PD After Arrest Request
Lawmaker suspected of fraud related to training contracts
(ANSA) — Messina, March 19 — Centre-left MP Francantonio Genovese said Wednesday that he was suspending himself from Premier Matteo Renzi’s Democratic Party (PD) after a judge upheld a request from prosecutors for his arrest in relation to a fraud probe.
The Lower House will now have to decide whether to approve the arrest of one of its members following the decision by a judge in the Sicilian city of Messina.
The judge also put four people, including three who work with Genovese, under house arrest.
The MP, the former mayor of Messina, is suspected of illegally profiting from contracts for the public financing of training programmes.
He could face charges that include criminal association, money laundering, embezzlement and fraud. “I give advance notice of my intention to suspend myself from the Democratic Party and the parliamentary party for understandable reasons of opportuneness and the high sense of respect that I have always had for the (State) institutions, my party colleagues and all parliamentarians,” Genovese said. He added that he was “certain” he could clarify his position and disprove any suspicions about him.
“I’ll do that, with serenity, at every forum, not excluding parliament,” he said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Leading Candidates Square Off: The Race for Europe’s Top Job
This May, European voters will decide for the first time who becomes the president of the European Commission. In a SPIEGEL interview, leading candidates Jean-Claude Juncker, 59, and Martin Schulz, 58, discuss their views on tax havens, euro bonds and the losers in the debt crisis.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Mafia’s Grip on Italian Food ‘Jeopardizes Safety’
Italy’s leading agriculture industry association on Wednesday launched a drive to root out mafia infiltration which is costing the sector billions of euros.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Netherlands: Prosecutors Receive Complaint Over Geert Wilders’s Campaign for ‘Fewer Moroccans’
An anonymous resident in The Hague, one of only two places where Wilders’s Freedom Party (PVV) is fighting for seats on the local council, submitted the complaint to the public prosecutor’s (OM) branch office for the city.
Wilders has sought to make The Hague’s large and concentrated immigrant population an issue in the local elections, which are being held on Wednesday.
In a television interview he declared: “The fewer Moroccans there are in the Netherlands, the better.” Political opponents condemned the comments one Labour (PvdA) candidate compared the PVV leader to Hitler, prompting Wilders to issue his own threat of legal action.
Also seeking to retain his council seat is former PVV councillor Arnoud van Doorn, who converted to Islam after leaving the party and has since founded the Unity Party (PvdE).
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Norway to Mandate Hospital Circumcision
Norway’s Health Minister Bent Høie will propose that hospitals take the lead in carrying out ritual circumcisions on Jewish and Muslim baby boys, when the results of a government consultation are passed to the country’s parliament for discussion in the coming weeks.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Renzi Says Italy Must Emerge From EU ‘Subjugation’
Warns of ‘spread’ between citizens’ wishes and European actions
(By Sandra Cordon and Paul Virgo) (ANSA) — Rome, March 18 — Italian Premier Matteo Renzi said Tuesday that Italy must free itself from psychological “subjugation” by the rest of Europe.
“We have to get out from the subjection in Europe,” he said at a book presentation following meetings on Monday with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. “Let’s stop with this provincial attitude”.
Renzi’s meetings with Merkel were judged to be a success, with Italy’s fledgling government receiving a powerful vote of confidence from the German chancellor, who praised Renzi’s “courage” in making significant structural changes in Italy’s economy. During the first bilateral meeting between the two since Renzi was made premier last month, Merkel, the head of Europe’s largest economy, said she looked at “all aspects” of Italy’s reforms, adding she was impressed and wished Renzi “a lot of luck”. Still, Renzi has been striking an independent tone and after Monday’s meetings, said Italy’s reforms were designed for Italians and not to win approval from other EU states.
“Italy must stop thinking reforms have to be done because Brussels or Berlin or other capitals ask us. We’ll do them because they’re right for us,” Renzi said Monday. He continued that tone Tuesday, warning that the European Union itself must become relevant to its citizens or risk losing their confidence and become irrelevant.
“Either the EU faces the political challenge and invokes policies that return dignity to the (EU’s) role, or we lose,” he said.
Invoking the economic language of interest-rate spreads between countries that measure investor confidence, Renzi said there is a “spread” between the expectations of citizens and their relationship with European institutions.
The evidence of that gap is seen in public opinion surveys that suggest a “tsunami” has blown between the public and EU bodies said Renzi, who is calling on EU to focus more on growth and job creation after years of austerity in response to the eurozone debt crisis.
Italy’s youngest-ever premier, who unseated his Democratic Party (PD) colleague Enrico Letta last month, added that the country was not last in line in Europe in terms of economic strength and could change the whole EU if it changes itself.
The 39-year-old said the PD had to “outline the type of Europe we imagine” to defeat populist parties such as the Northern League and comedian-cum-politician Beppe Grillo’s 5-Star Movement (M5S). The centre-left leader added that the government had to be willing to tackle taboos as it sought to usher in institutional reforms to make Italy cheaper and easier to govern.
A plan Renzi agreed with ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi, the leader of the centre-right Forza Italia (FI) party, for a new election law to replace the dysfunctional old system that was declared unconstitutional in December is being examined by the Senate after clearing the Lower House.
He also has an agreement with Berlusconi to transform the Senate into a leaner assembly of local-government representatives stripped of law-making powers to make passing legislation easier and help reduce the massive cost of the country’s political apparatus.
His executive also wants to change Article V of the Constitution to scrap Italy’s provincial administrations and take back some powers from the country’s regional governments, many of which are guilty of overspending.
“Italy needs to show our (international) partners that we are getting serious about reforms, that we’ll pass them in a set period of time, without letting the parliamentary term elapse, that that we have the courage to question taboos that have not been touched for 30 years,” he said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: 60 Percent of Catalans Want Own State: Poll
Almost two thirds of people living in the Spanish region of Catalonia want independence from the rest of Spain, poll results released on Tuesday show.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Spain Becomes World’s Biggest Wine Producer
In their fields of vines in deepest Spain, the winemakers at the Jesús del Perdón cooperative smiled last August: the blend of rain and sun promised a bumper grape crop. They just didn’t realize how big it would be.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sture Bergwall: Swedish ‘Serial Killer’ Released
A man once considered one of Sweden’s most prolific serial killers has been released. The move came after the authorities ruled that his eight murder convictions were based on false confessions. Sture Bergwall, now 63, has been held in psychiatric detention for more than 20 years.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Police Issue Pics of Gun-Slinging Metro Freerider
Stockholm police have issued the video of a man who threatened a metro employee with a gun when he was not allowed to jump the barrier without a ticket.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Sture Bergwall Free After Two Decades
Sture Bergwall, who made up confessions to over 30 murders, is to be released from closed psychiatric confinement. The decision was announced Wednesday by an administrative court in Falun, western Sweden.
Bergwall, also known as Thomas Quick, has been confined to the Säter psychiatric hospital for the criminally insane since the 1990s, when he confessed to a series of murders and became known as the most ruthless killer in Scandinavian history. He was convicted of eight murders, but later changed his name and revealed his confessions were all faked. After withdrawing his confessions, Bergwall was cleared of all charges.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: ‘My Odd Story Will be Told in Full’: Sture Bergwall
The man nicknamed Sweden’s Hannibal Lecter will put his version of events down on, he said on Wednesday as he was set free after 23 years in a high-security mental institution.
Bergwall was known as Thomas Quick when he was found guilty of eight murders and confessed to cannibalism.
In 2008, Bergwall retracted all of his confessions to several murders. He had been convicted of eight of them. But as he recanted, the prosecutor had to drop the charges, making the guilty verdicts null and void. Bergwall has said he made his confessions during periods when he was heavily medicated.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Bristol City Council Tries to Ban Children Climbing Trees and Playing Ball Games in Public Parks
The strict new rules proposed by Bristol City Council would also ban adults from entering a children’s play area unless they are in charge of a child under 14.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Extreme Speakers Invited to Student Society Annual Dinner
As the end of the Spring Term approaches, many student groups around the UK are currently planning and advertising their Annual Dinners. Whilst the majority of these events will be no cause for concern, a small number are likely to feature extreme or intolerant preachers, and at one organised by students from Brunel University this is certainly the case…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Erica Connor’s eyes widen as she reads the four-page letter purportedly outlining a plot by Muslim fundamentalists to take over state education. It brings back terrible memories for the former headmistress who won £400,000 in compensation after religious zealots forced her out of the primary school she loved in the English Home Counties.
‘It’s a letter that makes me realise nothing has changed in our schools,’ she tells us with a sad smile. ‘Muslim extremists used an identical strategy to get rid of me and nearly ruined my life.’…
[JP note: See also Muslim extremists, and a worrying lesson for us all ]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Islamic Schools Condemned by David Cameron Receive State Funding
An Islamic charity previously criticised by both David Cameron and Michael Gove, now the Education Secretary, continues to receive government funding
A charity once described by David Cameron as a “front” for an extremist Islamist group is receiving tens of thousands of pounds each year in state funding, research shows. The group is being given annual grants to fund places for children at nurseries it runs in London and Berkshire. The funding was criticised by campaigners who called for the Department for Education to “urgently” review its “appropriateness”.
The department said it was “looking into” concerns over the Islamic Shakhsiyah Foundation, which is being awarded grants worth more than £70,000 each year to fund free school places for toddlers. The funding, distributed by local authorities, is part of the Government’s “free early education” scheme which provides all three and four-year-olds, and some two-year-olds, with 15 hours of free teaching each week…
[JP note: See also David Cameron condemns £113,000 award to schools linked to ‘extremist’ Muslim group and Ed Balls creates smokescreen over extremist school funding ]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Men With Links to Banned Islamist Group ‘Targeting Students’ Outside Queen Mary University
Men linked to a banned Islamist group whose members have been jailed for terrorism offences are operating outside universities in east London, it emerged this week.
Videos posted online show young Muslim men interviewing students outside Queen Mary University in Mile End Road arguing democracy is not compatible with Islam. Using the name Need4Khilafah, the group includes several people involved with Al-Muhajiroun, the group led by hate preacher Anjem Choudhury.
One man in the videos, Abdul Muhid from Whitechapel, organised a march through Brick Lane in December led by Anjem Choudhury against the sale of alcohol. At the time Mr Muhid — who was jailed in 2007 after telling a crowd to bomb the UK — told the Advertiser his group The Shariah Project was “strongly linked” to Al-Muhajiroun…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
This is the Britain that British authorities have forced upon the British people. This is the Britain that British authorities have chosen. This is the Britain that British authorities have wanted. This is the Britain that British authorities have brought about by means of their immigration policies, their supine attitude toward Islamic supremacism, and their eagerness to appease Leftists and Islamic supremacists even to the point of barring foes of jihad such as Pamela Geller and me from entering the country.
This is the Britain that Tony Blair, Jack Straw, Jacqui Smith, Gordon Brown, David Cameron, Theresa May and a host of others have brought about. And now they have to live in it.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
A public meeting will be held over controversial plans for more than 300 student flats near a proposed Cambridge mosque. The meeting will take place after supporters of the new mosque in Mill Road said they don’t want more than 300 student flats to be built next door on the former Priory Motors site…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Three Dogs Dead and Three More Treated After Eating Poisoned Meat in London Park
Three dogs have died and three more required treatment after being poisoned in a London park, police said. Two bull lurchers and a springer spaniel died after ingesting poison in or near Fryent Country Park in Brent, north-west London. The Metropolitan Police described the incidents as “nasty” while the RSPCA warned that the dogs would have experienced “a great deal of suffering”…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Algeria Seeks to Restore Order in Ghardaia With Deployment of 10,000 Policemen
In bid to restore order, 10,000 police and gendarmes are deployed around city’s main streets, with helicopters flying overhead.
Despite the deployment of 10,000 security force members, schools and shops remains shut in Ghardaia, a once-popular tourist destination in central Algeria on edge after days of deadly sectarian violence.
Burnt-out buildings and police patrols reflect the lingering hostilities after fresh clashes between rival communities erupted last week, leaving three people dead and some 200 wounded, a journalist reported.
The unrest, which first began in December, has now claimed at least seven lives. It pits indigenous Berber Mozabites who belong to the Ibadi Muslim sect against members of the Arab Chaamba community…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: Police Teargas Student Protests in Cairo and Alexandria
Cairo — Egyptian authorities fired teargas to disperse pro-Muslim Brotherhood protesters in Cairo and Alexandria on Wednesday.
Hundreds of pro-Brotherhood students gathered in Cairo and Alexandria on Wednesday to denounce the army and show support for President Mohamed Mursi who was overthrown by the army last year…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: Cairo University Chief Blames Woman’s Dress for Sexual Harassment
The head of Egypt’s leading state university has provoked furious condemnation for claiming that an on-campus sexual harassment case was the fault of its female victim, and saying that she may be punished.
The Cairo University student was surrounded on Monday by a group of male students who sexually harassed her as she walked across a busy campus. The woman was later escorted from the university by campus security, and the incident was filmed by bystanders — many of whom appear unconcerned, or eager to join in — and uploaded to social media.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Egyptian Christian Succumbs to Head Injury After Attack by Suspected Extremists in Libya
An Egyptian Christian shot in the head by a suspected Islamic extremist in Libya on March 2 has succumbed to his injuries, family members said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Libya: Cyrenaica Rebel Accuses Navy Seals of ‘Piracy’
After US raid on illegal export of Libyan oil
(ANSAmed) — TRIPOLI, MARCH 18 — The self-proclaimed authorities of Cyrenaica on Tuesday called intervention by US Navy SEALs on a tanker transporting oil for a separatist group in Libya’s eastern region an “act of piracy”. The accusation was by Ibrahim Jadran, the 33-year-old leader of a group of former revolutionaries and the self-proclaimed Political Office of Barqa (the name of Cyrenaica in Arabic), a body which in recent months had announced the autonomy of eastern Libya and the intention to export oil independently of the central authorities in Tripoli.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Pro-Brotherhood Cleric Issues Fatwa to Terrorize Egypt
By Raymond Ibrahim
Recently on live TV, Sheikh Abdul Maqsud, an Islamic jurisprudent, issued a fatwa obligating “Muslims” (in this context, Muslim Brotherhood supporters in Egypt) to engage in acts of terror against “infidels” (in this context, the Egyptian government and anyone else opposing the Brotherhood).
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Two Egyptian Army Officers Killed in Clashes With Militants
Two Egyptian army officers were killed on Wednesday during a raid on militant hideouts near the Nile Delta, the army said.
“Two bomb disposal experts, an army brigadier colonel and a general, were shot dead after militants and the army exchanged gunfire in the Arab Sharkas district of al-Qanatir al-Khayriya,” a city 30 km north of the capital Cairo, an army spokesman said…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Chechen President to Dedicate Mosque in Israel
President Ramzan Akhmadovich Kadyrov of the Chechen Republic is scheduled to visit Israel on Sunday. He will hold a press conference in Jerusalem and also dedicate a large mosque in Abu Ghosh. Chechnya, located near Russia, has a predominantly Muslim population. The mostly Christian-Arab city of Abu Ghosh, located near Jerusalem, has enjoyed a relatively peaceful relationship with its neighbors.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Defense Chief: Israel Stands Alone Against Iran Nukes
In a wide-ranging discussion reported in the Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz, Israel’s plain-speaking defence minister Moshe Ya’alon said Monday that Tehran has the upper hand in nuclear negotiations, and dismissed the idea of Israeli dependence on the United States to lead an action against Iran’s nuclear program, saying that Israel can only rely on itself.
“I heard voices of disappointment in the region. I was in Singapore and heard disappointment about China getting stronger and the U.S. getting weaker. Look what’s happening in Ukraine, where the United States is demonstrating weakness, unfortunately.”
An image of “feebleness” and weakness can only damage America’s own national security, Ya’alon said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Dozens of Israeli Settlers Storm Al-Aqsa Mosque
Dozens of Israeli settlers, accompanied by Israeli soldiers, stormed on Wednesday the al-Aqsa Mosque compound through Bab al-Maghrabeh Gate.
The raids carried out by settlers to perform their religious rituals or to conduct tours in the compound have escalated in the past few weeks and hampered the Palestinian worshipers’ access into the mosque…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Israel Authorizes 186 More Settler Homes in East Jerusalem
In Pisgat Zeev and Har Homa
(ANSAmed) — TEL AVIV, MARCH 19 — Israel has authorized the building of 186 more housing units in East Jerusalem, report Israeli media. Forty of them will be in the Pisgat Zeev and 146 in Har Homa, settlement neighborhoods built on territory seized by Israel during the 1967 Six Day War and later annexed in a move never recognised by the international community.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Caner Temel Killed in Syria Revealed as Former Australian Soldier
A young Sydney man who was killed in January while fighting with extremist organisations in Syria was an Australian soldier who went absent without leave more than three years ago. Caner Temel, 22, from Auburn, was a member of the group Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) when he was killed after travelling to Syria to fight in the country’s civil war.
An Australian Defence Force (ADF) spokesperson told Fairfax Media that Mr Temel joined the Australian Army in February 2009 and was discharged in September 2010…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Erdogan and the Traitors: Scandal and Protests Threaten Turkey’s AKP
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is facing the most difficult challenge of his premiership. Corruption scandals, a weakening economy and a draining battle with the Gülen movement have the leader reeling ahead of important local elections.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Iraq: Fallujah Sleeps and Wakes Up to Deadly Clashes and Shelling
Senior doctor says shelling by government security forces and clashes in various parts of Fallujah killed at least 15 people.
BAGHDAD — Shelling by government security forces and clashes in various parts of Fallujah, which has been out of Baghdad’s control for months, killed 15 people Wednesday, a senior doctor said.
The violence erupted just after midnight and continued through to the morning in northern, eastern and southern neighbourhoods of the city, killing 15 people and wounding 40 others, according to Fallujah Hospital’s chief medic Ahmed Shami…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
By Badrya Darwish
What’s with names? Why are countries so worried about baby names?
Saudi Arabia lately published a list of names that the kingdom has prohibited people from using, around 50 names or more. But it’s not only Saudi that’s banning names. Democratic and advanced nations in the West are also doing it. For instance, Germany banned a Turkish couple from naming their baby Osama bin Laden. With this, I fully agree because it is so stupid to call your son after such a controversial figure. Because you never know in which country your son will end up in the future and may cause him harm and discrimination for nothing. But Germany also banned ordinary names like Miatt, Stompie, Woodstock and Grammophon. That’s Germany’s business.
But Iceland went too far. Instead of banning, they have a list of approved names for boys and another list for girls and you have to follow them. If you choose a name not on the list, you are out. I find that ridiculous. A girl was named Blaer, which has a beautiful meaning ‘light breeze’ (which we need badly sometimes in our long summers), but the Icelanders tried to ban the breeze. Other countries are also banning names. For instance, Tom is banned in Portugal though I have no idea why. Bless the Japanese for denying parents the option of naming their child Akuma, which means devil. I also second that. And no one can forget the child Talula Does The Hula from Hawaii, blocked by the authorities in New Zealand. Also, enterprising parents in China wanted to name their child @ but were stopped.
But seriously speaking, names make a lot of difference on the personality of children and this is what some parents do not realize. They choose bizarre or funny names and they think it’s cool but they don’t know the psychology of the child himself and what he will feel when he’s older and he’s teased and mocked by other kids only because of his name.
I’m serious about this because the parents of a good friend of mine gave him a funny name and that affected his life. He’s a grown up man with children. When he reached adulthood, he changed his name to something more common but in his official documents, the old name remains. And he told me that he wishes he could change that as he doesn’t want his kids to face the same embarrassment he faced in school.
In fact, our Prophet (PBUH) advised people to give their children good and nice names and also allowed that if a child has a name that is harmful, to change the name. There are a lot of stories from the Prophet’s (PBUH) time that he himself changed children’s names to avoid them being embarrassed and mistreated. But some countries are not doing it for the children’s sake or to save them embarrassment. You have a feeling some countries are doing it simply for politics.
After all, what’s in a name, as Juliet said in Shakespeare’s famous play ‘Romeo and Juliet’.
| — Hat tip: RR | [Return to headlines] |
Sacked State Employee Shoots Six Dead at Turkish Statistical Institute
A former state employee has shot dead six people at the Turkish Statistical Institute, TurkStat, in the eastern province of Kars before killing himself, state broadcaster TRT Haber reports.
Kars governor Eyup Tepe said the attacker had carried out the shooting after being dismissed from his job at TurkStat, known in Turkey as Tüik.
“The incident was not a terrorist attack,” the Hürriyet daily website quoted Tepe as saying. “The attacker’s name was Veysi Erin. He worked as a psychologist at Tüik.“ A Tüik official confirmed that seven people had died and one person had been slightly wounded, but provided no further details.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Saudi Book Fair Removes 10,000 Copies of ‘Blasphemous’ Titles
Saudi authorities have reportedly banned 10,000 copies of 420 books because they were deemed threatening to the conservative kingdom. The works included publications by the late Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish, who is widely considered one of the greatest Arab poets.
Organisers of the Riyadh International Book Fair were coerced into withdrawing Darwish’s poetry following protests against “blasphemous passages” from the kingdom’s notorious religious police, AFP reported.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
World Cup 2022 Investigation: Demands to Strip Qatar of World Cup
Senior MPs say Fifa should launch inquiry into payments by Qatari firm to former Fifa executive and consider stripping the Gulf state of the right to host the 2022 World Cup
Football’s world governing body is facing calls to re-run the 2022 World Cup bid after an investigation by The Telegraph revealed that a former official and his family were paid almost $2€‰million from a firm linked to Qatar’s successful campaign…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
A Russian Joke Behind the Crimean Joke About the American Joke
Did the Russian intelligence promote Obama from lieutenant to colonel?
By Oleg Atbashian
“I wonder, after the successful campaign of handing over the Crimea, will Barack be promoted to a colonel?” That was the question Tweeted yesterday by the newly elected Prime Minister of Crimea, Sergey Aksyonov, shortly after the Russian-speaking residents of the disputed peninsula voted to leave Ukraine with the prospects of joining the Motherland. The Russian-language Tweet was accompanied by a Photoshopped picture of Barack Obama wearing a Russian uniform.
[see photos at URL]
The Huffington Post, which first reported on this Tweet, quickly replaced it with a different article about Aksyonov — possibly after a scathing call from the White House — but not before The Washington Times and a few conservative blogs picked it up and ran with it, reposting the picture along with the awkward English translation made by the HuffPost using Google translator or a similar electronic service..
None of them, however, provided any background, or asked a relevant question: why would a previously obscure pro-Russian politician, whom Obama administration’s incompetence helped to become a Prime Minister, sarcastically imply that Obama is working for the Kremlin? This doesn’t seem to make any sense.
Such a jab could have easily come from conservative jokesters in the U.S., as a way to vent their bitterness over Obama’s inept handling of international affairs and squandering America’s standing in the world. It could have also come from those Russians and Ukrainians who are opposed to Putin’s imperial policies. But why would a pro-Russian separatist with a shady past, who is himself very likely working on orders from Moscow, out his alleged “colleague”?
As someone who frequents the Russian-language side of the blogosphere, let me explain…
[See the rest of the story at the URL. Great photoshops too. NOTE: Will Obama be considered a White Russian -or do we have to wait for the renaissance of Czarist Russia for his place to be decided?]
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Argentina Accuses U.S., U.K. Of Hypocrisy Over Crimea
Argentina’s president on Wednesday accused the U.S. and Britain of “double standards” if it doesn’t recognize Crimea as part of Russia.
During a speech in Paris, Cristina Fernandez compared the referendum in the Black Sea peninsula to the one that took place last year in the Falkland Islands, a British territory that Argentina claims as its own and refers to as the “Islas Malvinas.”
The international community accepted the will of citizens of the archipelago who overwhelmingly voted to remain British, despite strong protests from Buenos Aires.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
China’s Crimea Dilemma: A Diplomatic Balancing Act
Beijing doesn’t want to give up a good relationship with Russia, but it’s also trying to maintain a policy of non-interference in the Crimean crisis. China could benefit from sanctions against Moscow — but at what price?
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Gorbachev Says Outcome of Crimea Referendum Corrected Historical ‘Mistake’
Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev has defended Russia’s takeover of Crimea, saying that the referendum among the peninsula’s voters corrected a historical “mistake.”
“While Crimea had previously been joined to Ukraine based on the Soviet laws, which means (Communist) party laws, without asking the people, now the people themselves have decided to correct that mistake,” Gorbachev said on Monday, Interfax reported.
“This should be celebrated, not sanctioned,” he said.
Crimea was part of Russia until Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev handed it over to Ukraine in 1954, in a symbolic gesture that had little significance at the time since both countries were part of the Soviet Union.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italian Premier Wants Open Dialogue With Russia
Warns against return of ‘Iron Curtain’
(see related) (ANSA) — Rome, March 19- Italian Premier Matteo Renzi told the Lower House on Wednesday that communication with Russia must be kept “open” in order to avoid “the nightmare of a return to the Iron Curtain”. Renzi underlined the need “to come to a solution that does not ignore the role of Russia” and stressed the importance of keeping an open dialogue with Moscow.
The new premier, who was sworn in last month, called for “concrete action on the part of all institutions, especially G8 countries,” of which Italy is one. He went on to call a recent referendum on independence in Crimea “illegitimate” and emphasized that the use of sanctions (against Russia) should be “gradual and reversible”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
McCain’s Eleven Point Plan for War
Sen. McCain to the rescue. He looks on in horror as the dramatic threats of the Obama administration against Russia on Ukraine are not only undeterring but in fact mocked by the Russians.
He has developed an eleven point plan to hoist the administration back up onto a war footing with Russia. Never let a good crisis go to waste.
McCain would start of course with money. Not his own but ours. His first point is to pass the one billion dollar loan guarantee to Ukraine currently stalled in the Senate. Just an appetizer, as he foresees much more US money “to strengthen the IMF’s ability to be a stronger partner to Ukraine.”
Then McCain would have NATO come in to Ukraine to “rebuild” the Ukrainian military, presumably to prepare it to attack Russia and presumably we would have to pay for this as well.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Moscow Signals Concern for Russians in Estonia
(Reuters) — Russia signaled concern on Wednesday at Estonia’s treatment of its large ethnic Russian minority, comparing language policy in the Baltic state with what it said was a call in Ukraine to prevent the use of Russian.
Russia has defended its annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula by arguing it has the right to protect Russian-speakers outside its borders, so the reference to linguistic tensions in another former Soviet republic comes at a highly sensitive moment.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Soldier Killed in Crimea: Possible False Flag to Start War
The establishment media is spinning the shooting death of a Ukrainian soldier in Crimea following a vote to secede from Ukraine. USA Today and other propaganda cartels in the United States are insinuating that violence will be an inevitable result following the vote and the move for Crimea to secede from the rest of Ukraine, now under the control a coup government in Kyiv that violently ejected a democratically elected president in February.
“The conflict is moving from a political one to a military one because of Russian soldiers,” Yatsenyuk said at the defense ministry. “Today, Russian soldiers began shooting at Ukrainian servicemen and this is a war crime without any expiry under a statute of limitations.”…
The remark by PM Yatsenyuk that “the conflict is shifting from a political to a military stage” indicates the next phase of the orchestrated crisis is now underway.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
‘This Cold War Could Last 10 Years’
Vladimir Putin felt humiliated by the West and frustrated by the outcome in Kyiv. Now, he wants to show the West he means business, says Eberhard Schneider of the EU-Russia Center in Brussels.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Ukraine: Tatars in Crimea Face up to a Russian Future — Video
A Tatar family discuss their hopes and fears for their future in Crimea. As the region takes a definitive step towards becoming the newest Russian territory, Crimea’s 250,000 Tatars face the prospect of a very new socio-political landscape. Vladimir Putin has said their rights will be respected, but pro-Russian militia appear to be provoking the Tatars, who are desperate to avoid being sucked into a Balkan-style conflict.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Ukraine Plans to Pull Military From Crimea, Conceding Loss
Bowing to the reality of the Russian military occupation of Crimea a day after Russia announced it was annexing the disputed peninsula, the Ukrainian government said on Wednesday that it had drawn up plans to evacuate all of its military personnel and their families and was prepared to relocate as many as 25,000 of them to mainland Ukraine.
Thousands of Ukrainian soldiers and sailors have been trapped on military bases and other installations here for more than two weeks, surrounded by heavily armed Russian military forces and loosely organized local militia.
While the provisional government in Kiev has insisted that Russia’s annexation of Crimea is illegal and has appealed to international supporters for help, the evacuation announcement by the head of the national security council, Andriy Parubiy, effectively amounted to a surrender of Crimea, at least from a military standpoint.
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Ukrainian Nationalists Humiliate, Violently Force State TV Channel Head to Resign
The head of the National Television Company of Ukraine (NTU) has been beaten by members of the nationalist Svoboda party and forced to write a letter of resignation over allegations that his channel aired anti-Ukrainian content.
The office of the acting CEO of the National Television Company of Ukraine, Aleksandr Panteleymonov, was stormed by people who claimed to be members of the freedom of speech and information committee. What began as a loud conversation quickly turned into a fight.
A video of the incident has been posted online.
NTU is state-run and operates the nation’s largest public broadcaster, Pershyi Natsionalnyi.
Svoboda (Freedom) party members yelled at the interim CEO and beat him in the face, accusing the channel of a lack of nationalism and forcefully demanding his resignation.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Ukraine Sends Defense Minister and Deputy Premier to Crimea as Military Tensions Escalate
The interim government in Ukraine has sent its defense minister to Crimea, where tensions are escalating. Meanwhile, Russia has accused the EU of refusing to “learn the truth” regarding the situation surrounding Ukraine.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Ukraine ‘Preparing Withdrawal of Troops From Crimea’
Ukraine is drawing up plans to withdraw its soldiers and their families from Crimea, Kiev’s security chief says. Andriy Parubiy said they wanted to move them “quickly and efficiently” to mainland Ukraine.
Earlier, pro-Russian forces seized two naval bases — including Ukraine navy’s HQ — in Crimea. Kiev says its navy chief has been detained. It comes a day after Crimean leaders signed a treaty with Moscow absorbing the peninsula into Russia.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Unknown Snipers Once Again Stir Up Violence … This Time in Crimea
After a Ukranian soldier at a base in Crimea was killed, Ukraine announced that the murder was a “war crime”, and that Ukranians could use live fire to protect themselves.
Fair enough.
But no one know who actually pulled the trigger. The Independent reports:
However, there were indications that it was the separatist Crimean government’s recently created “Self Defence Forces” who had actually carried out the fatal attack. Local officials, meanwhile, claimed that “fascist snipers” had fired the first shot from a residential building and one of the injured was one of the defence force members.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Bangladesh: The Chaotic, Colorful Slums of the World’s Most Overcrowded City
For the first time in history, more than half of the world’s people live in cities, drawn by the industrial tech and service sectors of the global economy. Despite the greater opportunities and advantages that often come with urban living, such as closer proximity to healthcare and education, many of these people simply trade poverty in the countryside for poverty in the city.
There are few places where this is more true than Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh and arguably the world’s most overcrowded city.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Chief of Pakistan’s Spy Service Knew Where Bin Laden Was Hiding
“One hundred percent they knew what was happening,” a former cabinet minister who attended the meeting told me. The ISI allowed the militants to do what they wanted out of sympathy, he said. “The state is not as incompetent as people believe.”…
Soon after the Navy SEAL raid on Bin Laden’s house, a Pakistani official told me that the United States had direct evidence that the ISI chief, Lt. Gen. Ahmed Shuja Pasha, knew of Bin Laden’s presence in Abbottabad.
Bin Laden traveled in plain sight, his convoys always knowingly waved through any security checkpoints.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
‘Everything’s Possible’ In Missing Jet Conspiracy Theories, Experts Say
As the investigation into the mysterious disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 focused Wednesday on deleted files from the home flight simulator of the pilot, Capt. Zaharie Ahmad Shah, a host of possible explanations — and conspiracy theories — have materialized.
“Nothing is going to be determined as a fact until we either have a wreckage or an airplane,” aviation expert Al Yurman told FoxNews.com. “You cannot make factual statements in an aircraft accident until you have either of those. What’s happening now is complete speculation; everything’s possible.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Maldives: Police Investigating Anti-Islamic Activity on Social Media
The police are investigating online anti-Islamic social media activity, officials have confirmed. A police media official confirmed that the investigation was initiated by the police, but that they have since received similar complaints from the public…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
The Not-So-Mysterious Disappearance of News About Malaysian Flight 370
Pro-Islam, pro-homosexual agenda of the media propaganda outlets
Like many of you, I have read and watched “news” reports about Malaysian flight 370 (MH370) ad nauseum. And I have been especially struck by (and concerned by) what has not been reported.
For example: did you know that the pilot of MH370 was Muslim? Did you know that the copilot was Muslim? Did you know that the captain of MH370 was a fervent supporter of Muslim political activist Anwar Ibrahim? Did you know that Captain Shah was (is?) related to a son-in-law of Ibrahim’s? Did you know that Ibrahim was convicted of sodomy (a crime in Malaysia) only hours before flight 370 took off? Did you know that Captain Shah probably attended that sodomy trial and heard the verdict? Did you know that Ibrahim purportedly has ties to the “Muslim Brotherhood?” (Please keep in mind that I am not trying to imply any conclusions regarding the fate of MH370 — I am merely stating facts). If you are aware of those things, then congratulations, you are ahead of the curve — most folks don’t have a clue. And that is just the way the MSM would like to keep it.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Uzbekistan: Islam Karimov Does Not Dance But Kisses During Navruz Celebration
Uzbekistan president exhibited his excellent mood at today’s Navruz celebration not with his traditional dance but rather with hugs and kisses (see video below)…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
China Vows to Clear Smog From Its Cities
TIME to clear the air. China has vowed that 60 per cent of its cities will meet its pollution standards by 2020. At the moment few do. China’s State Council made the pledge on Sunday as part of a plan for growing the urban population.
Smog may kill 2.1 million people a year, many of them in China, and people are starting to protest. Fearful of popular unrest, last year China promised to cut the pollution released by industry by almost a third by 2017, and to spend $283 billion cleaning up Beijing and the surrounding area.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Dog ‘Sold for $2 Million’ In China
Beijing (AFP) — A Tibetan mastiff puppy has been sold in China for almost $2 million, a report said Wednesday, in what could be the most expensive dog sale ever. A property developer paid 12 million yuan ($1.9 million) for the one-year-old golden-haired mastiff at a “luxury pet” fair Tuesday in the eastern province of Zhejiang, the Qianjiang Evening News reported.
“They have lion’s blood and are top-of-the-range mastiff studs,” the dog’s breeder Zhang Gengyun was quoted as telling the paper, adding that another red-haired canine had sold for 6 million yuan.
Enormous and sometimes ferocious, with round manes lending them a passing resemblance to lions, Tibetan mastiffs have become a prized status symbol among China’s wealthy, sending prices skyrocketing.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
From His Pakistan Hideout, Uighur Leader Vows Revenge on China
(Reuters) — Entrenched in secret mountain bases on Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan, Uighur fighters are gearing up for retribution against China to avenge the deaths of comrades in Beijing’s crackdown on a separatist movement, their leader told Reuters.
China, Pakistan’s only major ally in the region, has long urged Islamabad to weed out what it says are militants from its western region of Xinjiang, who are holed up in a lawless tribal belt, home to a lethal mix of militant groups, including the Taliban and al Qaeda.
A mass stabbing at a train station in the Chinese city of Kunming two weeks ago, in which at least 29 people were killed, has put a new spotlight on the largely Muslim Uighur ethnic minority from Xinjiang.
In a rare but brief interview, Abdullah Mansour, leader of the rebel Turkestan Islamic Party, said it was his holy duty to fight the Chinese.
“The fight against China is our Islamic responsibility and we have to fulfill it,” he said from an undisclosed location. “China is not only our enemy, but it is the enemy of all Muslims … We have plans for many attacks in China,” he said, speaking in the Uighur language through an interpreter.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Japan: Yakuza Membership Shrinks to Record Low
Japan’s notorious crime syndicates, the yakuza, are becoming a rarer breed in the country as new laws, public attitudes, economics and simple demographics eat into their membership.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Taiwanese Students Storm Parliament Building Over Trade Pact
A group of students in Taiwan has occupied the country’s parliament building in the capital, Taipei. The act of protest is in response to government plans of a trade agreement with China.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UN Chief Concerned at Death of Detained China Human Rights Activist
UNITED NATIONS — United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has joined the United States, the European Union and human rights groups in expressing concern over last week’s death of a detained Chinese human rights activist in a Beijing hospital.
Last month, Human Rights in China quoted Cao Shunli’s lawyer as saying she suffered from tuberculosis, liver disease and other conditions and was not receiving proper medical treatment. China’s Foreign Ministry has denied that she died because of a lack of medical care.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Accused Mosque Murderer ‘Spoke to Devil’
A man charged with murdering a worshipper at a Melbourne mosque says he went there because he spoke to the devil. Erol Elmas, 22, has briefly faced court charged with the stabbing murder of 68-year-old Omer Ali Aysel at the Dallas mosque in December…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Criticising Islam, Gays Sets Army Major Up for a Fall
by Paul Sheehan
Major Bernie Gaynor jnr has served three tours of duty in Iraq but he is going to be thrown out of the army this week, or next, or very soon. And he is not going quietly.
Last week, I attended a conference in Melbourne called the Symposium on Islam and Liberty in Australia, organised by the Q Society, and Gaynor was one of the speakers. I also interviewed him at length about why a patriotic, articulate Australian intelligence officer, now serving in the Army Reserve, has become an unbearable presence for the Chief of Army, among others…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
‘Somalia Suicide Bomber Was Norwegian’: Shebab
Somalia’s Al-Qaeda-linked Shebab rebels on Wednesday identified a suicide car bomber who struck a town recently captured by African Union troops as a 60-year-old Somali man who held Norwegian citizenship.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Somalia: “Norwegian” Chased by Obamas Special Operations Force
The Norwegian-Somali escaped the Navy Seal group that killed Osama bin Laden
A Navy Seals team raided a villa in Baraawe south of Mogadishu this weekend. Their target was a Norwegian-Somali man who allegedly plays an important role in the terrorist group al-Shabaab.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
South Africa’s top anti-corruption watchdog claims president Jacob Zuma has “benefited unduly” from a $23 million (16.5m euros) state-funded security upgrade to his private home that included a swimming pool, cattle enclosure and amphitheatre. Zuma’s conduct over the matter is “inconsistent with his office” and he should repay a reasonable part of the cost of the unnecessary, said public protector Thuli Madonsela in a report.
The release of the damning report comes just six weeks before elections in South Africa.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
South African President Jacob Zuma Must Pay Back £14m of Taxpayers’ Money
South African President Jacob Zuma must pay back £14 million of taxpayers’ money used to build a swimming pool, football pitch and an amphitheatre at his private compound.
A damning report by the country’s top anti-corruption official described improvements at the residence used by Mr Zuma, his four wives and more than 20 children, as an ‘unconscionable and excessive misappropriation of public funds’.
The report is the result of a two-year probe into a controversy which is largely responsible for a dramatic drop in the popularity of the 71 year old president, who was booed spontaneously by thousands of mourners at a memorial service for Nelson Mandela, in December.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
StanChart Opens Islamic Banking in Kenya, Eyes Region
(Reuters) — Standard Chartered (STAN.L) has launched Islamic banking services in Kenya, the first foray of its “Saadiq” brand into Africa, and it will use Kenya as a testbed for expanding the brand across the continent, a bank executive told Reuters.
The move comes after Kenya proposed a separate regulatory framework for Islamic finance, part of a broader strategy designed to boost capital markets in east Africa’s biggest economy…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Uganda Issues Warning Over Al Shabab Terror Attack in the Country
Ugandan police have went on high alert after issuing a terror warning following new threats found by the police, according to police spokesman.
Uganda security agencies have said they have beefed up the security and the police were now more vigilant after they activated and tightened security in particular around fuel tanker stopovers and parking places…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
[WARNING: Disturbing Content.]
A father was beaten up and thrown off the side of a bridge in Argentina by striking trade unionists after he begged them to let him pass so that he could take his pregnant wife to hospital.
Disabled Razl Lezcano, 27, who has an artificial leg, had decided not to wait for an ambulance and instead put his three-month pregnant wife on the back of the motorbike when she reported getting severe stomach pains.
When they got close to the hospital they were stopped at a Puente Avellaneda bridge in the Argentinian capital of Buenos Aires by members of the transport workers union who have blocked the road in a protest to demand more pay and better conditions.
His tearful wife Ana said: ‘There was a large crowd at the bridge just before the hospital and he got off the bike and went over to ask if they would let us past.
‘They ignored him and when he asked a second time, one of them punched him in the face.
‘Then the others started beating him up and then they robbed him, stealing his wallet and mobile phone before picking him up above their heads — taking him to the side of the bridge and throwing him onto the road below.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Mexican Cartel Member Allegedly Kidnapped Children, Harvested Their Organs for Profit
[WARNING: Disturbing Content.]
An alleged member of the Mexican Knights Templar cartel, 34-year-old Manuel Plancarte Gaspar, was arrested by police in the state of Michoacán — suspected of killing young children by removing their internal organs. Michoacán state Public Safety Secretary Carlos Castellanos accused the alleged gang member of involvement in the cartel’s organ harvesting ring, which reportedly targeted children, according to a report in the New York Daily News.
According to the Daily Mail, Gaspar was apprehended last week in a stolen car where large amounts of cash and crystal meth were found. He is the nephew of a notorious Knights Templar leader named Enrique Plancarte Solis.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Pope Meets Argentine Falkland Vets, Relatives of Dead
May raise issue with Queen, Argentine press says
(ANSA) — Vatican City, March 19 — Pope Francis on Wednesday met with Argentine veterans and relatives of dead soldiers from the 1982 war between Britain and Argentina over the Falkland Islands, a British territory claimed by his home country as the Islas Malvinas.
As archbishop of Buenos Aires, Francis frequently backed Argentinian dominion over the Falklands, describing them as part of Argentina’s homeland. He presided over religious ceremonies commemorating his countrymen’s servicemen who died in the war following the junta’s invasion of the islands.
Three days after he was elected pope on March 13 last year, Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner asked him to facilitate a dialogue between Argentina and the United Kingdom on the islands’ sovereignty.
Kirchner also visited the pope earlier this week but the Vatican said nothing about possible papal intervention, echoing its silence a year ago.
However, the Argentine media are speculating that Francis may bring the issue up when Queen Elizabeth II visits Rome and the Vatican on April 3. At Wednesday’s general audience the pope chatted with members of the Argentine contingent, had his photograph taken with them, and signed one of their posters repeating the sovereignty claim and recalling the soldiers who died for it.
British Prime Minister David Cameron addressed the issue two days after Francis became the first Latin American pope following the shock abdication of Benedict XVI. “The white smoke over the Falklands was pretty clear”, he said, dismissing the pontiff’s past claims backing Argentinian ownership of the South Atlantic islands.
“I don’t agree with him, respectfully, obviously,” Cameron said when asked about Pope Francis’s views on the Falklands.
In a referendum in the Falklands last year a total of three voted not to remain under the British, the tiniest minority among more than 1,500 who said the islands should remain a Crown overseas territory.
“There was a pretty extraordinarily clear referendum in the Falkland Islands,” said the prime minister, “and I think that is a message to everyone in the world that the people of these islands have chosen very clearly the future they want and that choice should be respected by everyone”.
On the 30th anniversary of the two-month war at a mass in Buenos Aires in June 2012, then archbishop Jorge Bergoglio said the Argentinian forces who died following the invasion “went out to defend their mother, the homeland, to reclaim what is theirs”. He described the British re-conquest under the Thatcher government as “usurpation”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Reports From Cuba: The Press That Disinforms
By Alberto De La Cruz
Excerpt: For Castroist ideologues, the activists in Kiev and the Venezuelan students are fascists, Kim Jong-un doesn’t traffic in weapons with Havana, and Beyoncé never visited the Island. There is an abysmal gap between everyday reality and the information provided by a clueless official press. News of the Castro regime’s blatant arms smuggling with North Korea, in violation of the UN embargo against the Pyongyang dynasty, was never reported in Granma, Juventud Rebelde, Workers, or any of the 15 provincial press organs
| — Hat tip: KP | [Return to headlines] |
Australia: Pictures of Illegal Immigrants Worth a Thousand Words
by Andrew Bolt
The ABC’s footage, including video shot by boat people turned back last month, actually showed a dangerous cultural difference.
How could these 34 people from Iran, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal — mostly Muslim countries that are neither war-torn nor famine-struck — think that threatening to kill our sailors, shouting “f—- Australia” and warning of another September 11 would make us unlock our hearts and our door?
And how many people just like them are among the more than 50,000 Labor let sail in uninvited, even taxiing them in on our warships?
Last month our Navy — under new instruction from the Abbott Government — towed another boatload of illegal immigrants back to Indonesia after intercepting them at sea and transferring them into an unsinkable lifeboat.
Some on the lifeboat filmed their tow-back on their mobile phones and, evidently to win our sympathy, gave the footage to the ABC — their friendliest media outlet.
They also gave interviews to tell of the alleged inhumanity of our sailors.
I don’t criticise the ABC for broadcasting all this on Monday and do not accuse it of bias. In fact, I praise it for not deleting footage from the boat people, which actually discredited them.
And here is the point: how complete is the cultural disconnect between such boat people and their Australian audience that they thought their story would soften our hearts?
First, the ABC admitted its main subject, Iranian Arash Sedigh, who is pictured, twice tried to smuggle himself and his wife here by boat after he’d been “refused entry to Australia through the skilled migration program”. Sedigh added: “We decided to go there in illegal way, to make them accept us.”
This sounded like a man we didn’t want telling us we had no right to reject him.
Next, Sedigh said after his boat was intercepted, he warned our sailors: “I will kill you if you don’t take us to that ship. I have nothing to lose. I will kill you. Believe me.”
Then, as the 34 illegal immigrants were towed back to Indonesia, they filmed themselves shouting “f—- Australia” and raising the middle finger.
Sedigh even had himself filmed issuing this warning: “F—- Australia … If later on you said why they do that to America on September 11, you should know the cause of it is your very deeds.
“Remember 9/11 for United States. All the world should know why.”
Sedigh and his fellow passengers were naturally bitterly disappointed and you could excuse their threats as heat-of-the-moment things, done under stress. Maybe they don’t really think the 3000 civilians who died in the September 11 terror attacks were just asking for it.
But why, weeks later, did they still think we should hear their threats when considering their case?…
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Human Traffickers Work Like ‘Travel Agents’
Police in Sicily have arrested ten people accused of trafficking people across the Mediterranean to Europe, saying they operate “like a travel agency”, according to Italian media reports.
The group of ten traffickers, aged 23 to 45, were arrested on Tuesday after authorities spent months tracking migrant boats arriving off the east coast of Sicily.
The criminal network is thought to have operated “like a travel agency”, arranging migrants’ travel across the Mediterranean, arrival in Italy and onward journey, La Stampa reported.
Specifically targeting Egyptians and Syrians, they allegedly played a role in trafficking around 1,200 people between last summer and the autumn.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy Rescues 1,200 Migrants Including Children, Women
Navy, Coast Guard vessels used to pluck migrants from seas
(ANSA) — Rome, March 18 — As many as 25 children and 50 women were on one of the 13 boats packed with about 1,200 migrants who were rescued from the seas off Sicily Tuesday by Italian Navy and Coast Guard.
Sources said that the group of migrant vessels included two boats with women and children and numerous rescue vessels were brought in to help the migrants.
Tens of thousands of migrants arrive in Italy from North Africa every year and many others die attempting the crossing in often rickety vessels. Boat arrivals in Italy more than tripled last year from the previous year, fuelled by the conflict in Syria and strife in the Horn of Africa.
In October, around 400 people died in two separate migrant-boat disasters near the Sicilian island of Lampedusa, which is often the migrants’ first port of call. Following that incident and the public outcry, later that month the Italian government launched Operation Mare Nostrum, which makes use of amphibious ships, unmanned drones and helicopters with infrared equipment in its search and rescue missions.
Every year for the past 15, an average of 40,000 undocumented immigrants have disembarked on European shores and the mortality rate has increased, a report by the Florence-based European University Institute said in December.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy Rescues Over 2,000 Migrants in 48 Hours
More than 2,000 migrants travelling in boats from North Africa were rescued by Italian naval and coastguard vessels over the past 48 hours.
The news comes a day after some 500 people forced their way into Spain’s North African enclave of Melilla, the largest number to storm the border in almost a decade.
Italy has struggled for decades with a steady stream of migrants travelling in small, unsafe boats from North Africa to the tiny island of Lampedusa, midway between Tunisia and Sicily. But the problem has ballooned since the “Arab Spring” turmoil of 2011, the breakdown of order in Libya and civil war in Syria.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: More Than 2,100 People Rescued at Sea in Two Days
Waves of migrants plucked from boats in Channel of Sicily
(ANSA) — Rome, March 19 — More than 2,100 people were rescued in 48 hours from over a dozen boats carrying migrants across the Channel of Sicily by Italian Navy and Coast Guard vessels, authorities said Wednesday.
The rescue included help from three merchant navy ships, working with the Mare Nostrum task force established to try to prevent migrant deaths in waters off Italy.
The latest rescue on Tuesday of 13 boats packed with 1,532 men, women and children followed a similar operation on Monday night when another 596 migrants, including 103 women and 62 children were rescued from two ships in two separate operations south of Lampedusa.
The Mare Nostrum operation “has contributed in a definitive way to limit trafficking in human beings,” Italian Defense Chief of Staff Luigi Binelli Mantelli said Tuesday.
The United Nations High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR) has also called the operations “an example to follow also in other countries”.
Before the latest rescues, the Mare Nostrum task force reported saving a total of 12,228 people and the capture of 46 alleged human traffickers.
“It is an important commitment from which I do not believe we can serenely exit, because the humanitarian aspect cannot be underestimated,” said Binelli Mantelli.
“NATO has understood that Mare Nostrum makes a contribution to security and not just to border controls,” Binelli Mantelli added.
“I hope that Europe also understands this,” he said, adding that there are strong connections between human traffickers and terrorist organizations.
The air and naval operation Mare Nostrum (Latin for ‘our sea’, as the Mediterranean was called by ancient Romans) was established last autumn as a military and humanitarian operation aimed to strengthen surveillance and rescue forces at sea. It makes use of amphibious ships, unmanned drones and helicopters with infrared equipment in its search-and-rescue missions.
The operation was triggered in part by the deaths of around 400 people in two separate migrant-boat disasters in October near the Sicilian island of Lampedusa, which is often the migrants’ first port of call. Tens of thousands of migrants arrive in Italy from North Africa every year and many others die attempting the crossing in often rickety vessels. Boat arrivals in Italy more than tripled last year from the previous year, fuelled by the conflict in Syria and strife in the Horn of Africa.
Each year for the past 15, an average of 40,000 undocumented immigrants have disembarked on European shores and the mortality rate has increased, a report by the Florence-based European University Institute said in December.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
More Than 2,000 Migrants Rescued Off Italy in 48 Hours
Italian authorities say they have rescued more than 2,000 illegal migrants, many from North Africa, off Sicily’s coast in the past 48 hours.
The announcement came a day after some 500 people forced their way into Spain’s North African enclave of Melilla. In response, the Spanish government has doubled the number of security forces there.
Every year, thousands of migrants try to reach Europe via Spain and Italy.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: Immigration Emergency, Patrols Reinforced at Melilla
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, MARCH 19 — The Spanish government is reinforcing surveillance along the border of Melilla, a Spanish enclave in Morocco, to face strong migratory pressure after a new assault yesterday on the double barrier at the frontier.
About 500 Sub-Saharan migrants managed to enter the autonomous city.
About 100 agents in anti-riot gear and 20 civil guards will be sent in the next hours to intensify watch on the border, Spanish interior ministry sources cited by the media said.
Spanish Interior Minister Jorge Fernandez Diaz told journalists today he was willing to “negotiate everything within reason” with the the opposition to reach an “agreement on immigration with wide consensus” at the margins of a parliament session for monitoring the government. Fernandez Diaz did not rule out reaching a deal for the dismantlement of the rounds of razor-like barbed wired along the border barriers of Ceuta and Melilla, and hoped that a delegation from the parliamentary commission for the interior would carry out an inspection in the two cities to “draw their own conclusions”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Spain Sends Riot Police to African Borders
Spain is planning to send 100 riot police to the border between its enclave of Melilla in North Africa after several recent massive assaults on the frontier by would-be immigrants.
The decision to reinforce the border comes a day after some 500 sub-Saharan Africans illegally entered the Spanish city — the latest in a series of such crossings.
In all of 2013, 1074 would-be migrants scaled the fences at Melilla, according to official figures. That figure is already more than 1,600 in 2014.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UN Refugee Agency Says Victims in Greek Migrant Boat Sinking Were Syrian
The United Nations refugee agency says seven migrants who drowned near a Greek island Tuesday were Syrian refugees, and renewed a call on the European Union to improve coordination in dealing with people fleeing the war.
Seven migrants, including two children, drowned and two remained missing after a boat crammed with immigrants traveling from nearby Turkey turned over near the Greek island of Lesvos. Eight people were rescued.
The agency called on the EU to create “legal migration alternatives” for Syrian refugees. Twelve migrants from Syria and Afghanistan died in a similar accident in Greek waters on Jan. 20.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Political Groups Pledge to Conduct Hate-Free Campaigns
BRUSSELS — The majority of mainstream parties in the European Parliament on Wednesday (19 March) signed a pledge to conduct election campaigns free from discrimination and intolerance.
It asks them to use “inclusive language” when referring to minorities, contribute to debates in a responsible manner, and reject anything that insights hostility towards different communities.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Blending truth and myth in an attempt to reconcile opposing philosophies, or religious worldviews
I have recently read this article from the Eternity Bible College’s Theology for Real Life, and watched the video by Jerram Barrs, Resident Scholar at the Francis Schaeffer Institute at Covenant Theological Seminary (where he teaches apologetics,) and am deeply concerned by the syncretism of many in the Christian world whose influence in our churches, Christian schools and seminaries are feeding unsuspecting millions with what has the appearance of light yet is dark, and has the taste of sweetness yet is bitter.
Isaiah 5:20 says, “Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil, who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Gravitational Waves Explained With a Towel and Apple
Feel like you need a giant IQ to understand Monday’s landmark announcement about gravitational waves from the birth of the universe? We don’t think so: our video (above) explains the breakthrough using nothing but a towel, an apple and a ping-pong ball.
On 17 March, physicists working on the BICEP2 experiment, based at the South Pole, announced that they had glimpsed gravitational waves — ripples in the fabric of spacetime — dating back to the universe’s birth.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Lost Sleep Leads to Loss of Brain Cells, Study Suggests
Sleep loss may be more serious than previously thought, causing a permanent loss of brain cells, research suggests. In mice, prolonged lack of sleep led to 25% of certain brain cells dying, according to a study in The Journal of Neuroscience.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Prices of Breakfast Staples Will Increase in Coming Months
Bacon and other breakfast staple prices to spike after mysterious virus kills millions of piglets.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Frederic Bastiat dealt with this very question many years ago in a book called “The Law.” Bastiat said that law itself was nothing but the collective organization of the individual right to lawful defense. He reasoned that if every person has the right to defend his liberty, his person and his property, then it follows that a group of men have the right to organize and support a common force to protect these rights constantly.
So common rights are based on individual rights and the common force that protects these rights can have no other purpose or mission than that for which it acts as a substitute. Therefore, if I can’t INDIVIDUALLY use force against your liberty or your person or your property, then the common force — the collective force — cannot lawfully be used to destroy your person, or your liberty, or your property.
Now since men are fallen creatures and work is required for making a profit that can be used to satisfy men’s needs and wants, it will naturally occur to some men that it may take less effort to steal the profit that other men earn rather than to take the time and expend the effort to earn profit for themselves. Men will tend to do this so long as the effort and risk are minimal. According to Bastiat, one purpose of the law is to restrain the exercise of this sinful behavior by punishing the plundering of men by other men. In other words, the punishment that the law meets out will turn men back to the honest and peaceful methods of earning profit for themselves, thus satisfying their own needs and wants and allowing all to live in peace. However, since those who are in authority in the land are also tempted to steal, it is common and natural that they will invent “laws” which allow them to steal the profit and the substance of others by means of the very laws they have created.
Bastiat calls this activity “legal plunder” and says this:…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |