Gates of Vienna News Feed 4/18/2014

An arrest warrant has been issued for the captain of a South Korean ferry that capsized two days ago, leaving upwards of 300 people dead or missing. The captain is said to have been away from the bridge during a crucial time while the ferry was maneuvering through a series of islands.

In other news, a Muslim cleric in Islamabad, Pakistan has named a girls’ madrassa after the late Osama Bin Laden.

To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.

Thanks to Caroline Glick, Diana West, DS, Erick Stakelbeck, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, Jerry Gordon, JP, Nick, Papa Whiskey, Takuan Seiyo, Vlad Tepes, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.

Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.

Financial Crisis
» 18 Stats That Prove That Government Dependence Has Reached Epidemic Levels
» Bankers Are Behind the Wars
» How the Recession Changed America’s Car-Buying Attitudes
» Italy: ‘Allow Countries to Exceed 3% Debt-to-GDP’ Says Berlusconi
» The Fed’s Enormous Balance Sheet in Seven Charts
» Two More Victims of the Retail Apocalypse: Family Dollar and Coldwater Creek
 
USA
» Are You Living in a Constitution Free Zone?
» Caroline Glick: The Disappearance of American Will
» Cliven Bundy, Rand Paul Respond to Harry Reid’s “Domestic Terrorist” Slur (Video)
» Declaring War on Americans
» Fed’s Attempted Nevada Land Grab a Test
» Florida Senate Passes Textbook Review Legislation
» Hiding ObamaCare Data With the Census Bureau
» Magnolia Mischief Mars McDaniel v. Cochrane Primary
» Mayor Sends Police to Track Down Twitter Parodist
» Michigan Police Take on ‘Disgruntled Veteran’ In Hostage Drill
» Missouri Man Accused of Targeting Kansas City Drivers Faces 18 Felony Counts
» Muslim Drivers at Cleveland Airport Refuse to Drive Cabs With Gay Games Advertising
» Muslim Brotherhood Launches Own U.S. Political Party
» New York: Despite Deadline, Protesters Will Not Comply With Safe Act
» Obama’s Thug Administration
» Only Al Sharpton Would Try to Snatch the Crucifix for Pal Obama
» Professor: ‘Game of Thrones’ Pic Got Me Suspended
» Scientists Warn the Rise of AI Will Lead to Extinction of Humankind
» Study: US is an Oligarchy, Not a Democracy
» The United States of SWAT?
» Through a Google Glass, Darkly
» Va. Supreme Court Rules for U-Va. In Global Warming FOIA Case
» Video: Insider Reveals More on Al Sharpton FBI Snitch Revelation
» Washington’s Corruption and Mendacity is What Makes America “Exceptional”
» What Will You Do When You Can No Longer Buy or Sell Without Submitting to Biometric Identification?
» White House Blames Fox for Destroying Michelle’s Garden
» White House Counterterror Chief: “Confrontational” Children Could be Terrorists
» White Guilt Elected a Dictator
 
Canada
» Canadian Pizza Chain Threatens to Unleash ‘Pizza Cake’
 
Europe and the EU
» Butter and Fatty Acids May Not be as Unhealthy as Previously Thought
» Denmark: Imam Praises Jihad-Martyrdom Suicide Bombing
» Diana West: Why the EU is Not Your Father’s Europe
» France: Martin Schulz Launches European Campaign in Paris
» Have Apple’s Maps Found the Loch Ness Monster? Satellite Image Reveals Mysterious Shape Lurking in the Scottish Highlands
» Italy: Lupi Says Etihad-Alitalia Deal Still on, With Possible Delay
» Italy: Interior Minister Alfano Threatens to ‘Close Central Rome’
» Medieval Slave Trade Routes in Eastern Europe Extended From Finland and the Baltic Countries to Asia
» The Netherlands Pioneers Glow-in-the-Dark Roads
» UK: £10 Million Cost of Gagging an NHS Whistleblower Dr Raj Mattu Wrongly Accused of ‘Fraud, Sexual Impropriety and Assault’ After Exposing Deadly Hospital Failings
» UK: Birmingham ‘Islam Plot’ Probe Appointment ‘A Disaster’
» UK: Daniel Libeskind Criticises ‘Short-Sighted’ Riba Over Boycott
» UK: Euro Charedi Who is Passionate About UKIP
» UK: Friday = Day of Rage. Good Friday = Day of Outrage
» UK: Lutfur Rahman ‘Tried to Stop’ Panorama Going Ahead, Says BBC Reporter
» UK: Multiculturalism vs. Islamism
» UK: Partnership Working
» UK: Sharia Student Loans: Will Muslim Students Avoid Paying Interest on Finance for Higher Education?
 
North Africa
» Algeria’s Ailing Bouteflika Clinches Fourth Term Amid Fraud Claims
 
Israel and the Palestinians
» Auschwitz Trip: ‘I Have No Regrets, ‘ Says Palestinian Professor
» Jewish Group Urges Removal of UN Under-Secretary General Rima Khalaf
» Stakelbeck Sits Down with Naftali Bennett, Israeli Minister of Economy
 
Middle East
» Bomb Blast Kills 14 at Mosque in Syria’s Homs — State TV
» British Officials Looking Into Killing of 18-Year-Old in Syria
» Death of UK Teen Abdullah Deghayes in Syria ‘Sad News’ — Hague
» MERS-Camel Link Confirmed
» ‘My Son is a Martyr,’ Says Father of British Teenager, 18, Killed as He Fought ‘Jihad’ In Syria With His Two Brothers, 16 and 20
» Teenager From Brighton Killed Within Weeks of Joining Syrian Conflict
» The Middle East War on Christians
» Turkey: Intelligence Bill Approved
» Turkish President Rules Out Job Swap With Prime Minister Erdogan in August
» Watch: Al-Qaida Holds Largest, Most Dangerous Gathering in Years
» Why Saudis Are Working Hard to Improve Arabic Wiki Content
 
Russia
» CIA Will Soon Roll Out Death Squads to Deal With Activists in Eastern Ukraine
» Diplomacy Doesn’t Move Insurgents in Ukraine
» False Flag: Registry Fake Says Ukraine Jewish Advocacy Group
» Pro-Russian Leader Rejects Geneva Agreement
» Russia’s New Culture Policy a Weapon Against West
» Russia Won’t Import GMOs, Has ‘Enough Space and Opportunities to Produce Organic Food’
» Ukraine Crisis: Kiev Reaches Out to Eastern Rebels
» US Financial Showdown With Russia is More Dangerous Than it Looks, For Both Sides
 
South Asia
» Brunei Implements Sharia: Non-Muslim Citizens Forbidden to Drink in Public Even When Abroad
» Cleric Names Library After Usama Bin Laden at Pakistani Girls School
» Everest Avalanche Kills Nepalese Guides Ahead of Peak Season
» Nepal: At Least 12 Dead, 4 Missing After Avalanche Sweeps Mount Everest
» Pakistan Library Named ‘Bin Laden’ In Islamic School
» UK: Slumdog Midfielder: Teenager, 16, Whose Mother is a Prostitute, To Train With Manchester United
 
Far East
» 2 Charts That Put the Chinese Pollution Crisis in Perspective
» Arrest Warrant Issued for Captain of Capsized South Korean Ferry
» Arrest Warrant Sought for Ferry Captain; Rescued School Official Found Hanged
» Blogger Becomes First to be Jailed in China’s Official Crackdown on Internet Rumours
» Chinese Blogger Jailed After Crackdown on ‘Internet Rumours’
» Kim Jong-un Edits His Powerful Aunt Out of History
» Report: One Fifth of China’s Soil Contaminated
» SCMP: Finnish Man’s Toblerone Hijack Trial Starts in Hong Kong
 
Sub-Saharan Africa
» Deadly Attack on UN Base in South Sudan
» Germany Participates in West African Naval Exercises
» Kenya: 65 Suspected Shabaab Militia Arrested in Ruiru
» West African Ebola Outbreak Caused by New Strain of Disease: Study
 
Latin America
» Coffee Soars 8.1% as Brazil Crop’s Drought Damage Seen Expanding
» Scurvy Was Common in Columbus’s Colony
 
Immigration
» Italy: Ex-Northern League Official Guilty of Kyenge Monkey Post
 
Culture Wars
» Deception: Christian Publisher Sells Soul for Mammon
» Fake Feminists Attack Kirsten Dunst for Pro-Woman Beliefs (Video)
» Internet and Broadcast Media Hate Bill Introduced in Senate
» Islam on Track — Stealing Our Children With Common Core
» Liberals and Progressives, Telling Other People How to Live Their Lives
» Mark Steyn: The Slow Death of Free Speech
» Pro-Common Core Deception Falling Apart
» UK: The Jamaican Murderer We Can’t Deport Because He Claims to be Gay
» University Wants Fewer Whites — Fears “Mediocrity”
» What Charles Murray Doesn’t Get About Women and Philosophy
 
General
» Finding Turns Neuroanatomy on Its Head
» Researchers Clone Cells From Two Adult Men
» This Rolling, Transforming Droid is the Stuff of Nightmares (Video)
» Why There Will be a Robot Uprising
 

18 Stats That Prove That Government Dependence Has Reached Epidemic Levels

Did you know that the number of Americans getting benefits from the federal government each month exceeds the number of full-time workers in the private sector by more than 60 million? In other words, the number of people that are taking money out of the system is far greater than the number of people that are putting money into the system. And did you know that nearly 70 percent of all of the money that the federal government spends goes toward entitlement and welfare programs? When it comes to the transfer of wealth, nobody does it on a grander scale than the U.S. government. Most of what the government does involves taking money from some people and giving it to other people. In fact, at this point that is the primary function of the federal government.

Just check out the chart below. It comes from the Heritage Foundation, and it shows that 69 percent of all federal money is spent either on entitlements or on welfare programs…

[Comment: Departure of manufacturing from American shores and the intentional overloading of the social net. All part of a Communist plan to bankrupt America to prepare for the New Socialist Order.]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Bankers Are Behind the Wars

Former managing director of Goldman Sachs — and head of the international analytics group at Bear Stearns in London (Nomi Prins) — notes:

“Throughout the century that I examined, which began with the Panic of 1907 … what I found by accessing the archives of each president is that through many events and periods, particular bankers were in constant communication [with the White House] — not just about financial and economic policy, and by extension trade policy, but also about aspects of World War I, or World War II, or the Cold War, in terms of the expansion that America was undergoing as a superpower in the world, politically, buoyed by the financial expansion of the banking community…

Indeed, JP Morgan also purchased control over America’s leading 25 newspapers in order to propagandize US public opinion in favor of US entry into World War 1.

And many big banks did, in fact, fund the Nazis.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

How the Recession Changed America’s Car-Buying Attitudes

Used car market three times bigger than new car market

It’s easy to blame the economy as a reason why some people have declared their independence from their automobiles. Six years after the worst times in recent memory, a good share of the people hit by the recession still have not recovered, and as with their parents and grandparents, may never recover from the psychic impact of what roiled the country.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: ‘Allow Countries to Exceed 3% Debt-to-GDP’ Says Berlusconi

‘EU fiscal compact anti-historical’ says center-right leader

(see related) (ANSA) — Rome, April 17 — Former center-right premier Silvio Berlusconi said Thursday that the EU fiscal compact, which imposes budget discipline on member States whose deficits become too high, is anti-historical.

“The recession has turned into a depression, and not just in Italy”, the media magnate said. “I am convinced we must scrap the fiscal compact and let countries exceed the 3% debt-to-GDP ratio” required under EU treaties that Italy is a signatory to.

“Given the current economic situation, such binding rules are anti-historical”.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

The Fed’s Enormous Balance Sheet in Seven Charts

The Fed’s balance sheet is approaching $4.1 trillion, a hard number to wrap your head around.

It’s a big number, even by Washington standards. It’s twice the government expenditures for all 50 states, equal to the net worth of 56 Bill Gates and could buy 6.5 billion iPhones, notes Vincent Reinhart, chief U.S. economist at Morgan Stanley.

How did the Federal Reserve’s balance sheet get so big? What does it mean for markets? Will it lead to crippling inflation down the road?

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Two More Victims of the Retail Apocalypse: Family Dollar and Coldwater Creek

Did you know that Family Dollar is closing 370 stores?

When I learned of this, I was quite stunned. I knew that retailers that serve the middle class were really struggling right now, but I had no idea that things had gotten so bad for low end stores like Family Dollar. In the post-2008 era, dollar stores had generally been one of the few bright spots in the retail industry. As millions of Americans fell out of the middle class, they were looking to stretch their family budgets as far as possible, and dollar stores helped them do that. It would be great if we could say that the reason why Family Dollar is doing so poorly is because average Americans have more money now and have resumed shopping at retailers that target the middle class, but that is not happening. Rather, as you will see later in this article, things just continue to get even worse for Americans at the low end of the income scale.

I was also surprised to learn that Coldwater Creek is closing all of their stores:…

So many retailers are closing so many stores that it is being called a “retail apocalypse”. In a previous article entitled “This Is What Employment In America Really Looks Like…”, I detailed how major U.S. retailers have already announced the closing of thousands of stores so far this year. If the economy really was “getting better”, this should not be happening.

So why are so many stores closing?

Well, the truth is that it is because the middle class is dying. With each passing day, more Americans lose their place in the middle class and fall into poverty.

[Comment: A strong middle class is an impediment to the imposition of communism. The destruction of American middle class is by intentional design and not “mere happenstance of changing economic conditions”. Massive offshoring of manufacturing, massive inshoring of labour, massive bailouts, etc… all by design.]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Are You Living in a Constitution Free Zone?

In the video below, we learn some interesting facts about the so-called Constitution Free Zone:

As Anthony Gucciardi points out, this zone around the United States “expands 100 miles and includes 197 million people.” We aren’t talking about Russia or China or Iran. We are talking about the United States of America under Barack Obama.

Gucciardi asks a basic question in his report: why isn’t the media reporting this? These zones, where anything of yours can be searched for any reason without having to have “cause,” is an ongoing Department of Homeland Security (DHS) policy. This is just outrageous! And the media don’t find this newsworthy? Why not? Why would they simply turn a blind eye to what’s happening to our freedoms?…

In the story reported in The Tampa Tribune, John Filippidis and his family were pulled over, searched, and detained on the side of the road for up to 90 minutes in Maryland recently. The officer, from the Transportation Authority Police, pulled over the family (kids and all) for a supposed traffic violation despite the fact that they were not speeding. What followed was an ordeal where a police officer tried to get Filippidis to disclose the location of his handgun. How did the officer know that the man had a weapon? Filippidis had a concealed weapons permit for the State of Florida, however, had chosen not to carry his gun on a family road trip this December. Despite being told this repeatedly, the officer searched Filippidis and interrogated him in front of his wife and kids. To add insult to injury, they searched the entire car — under the guise of reasonable suspicion. No due process and certainly no probable cause considering that not even a speeding ticket was awarded, and the department has since issued an apology. My question is, what would the officer have done had Filippidis been carrying his weapon under his 2nd Amendment rights, and what good did the 4th Amendment do a family that had done nothing to attract suspicion other than being legal registered gun owners in a different state?

[Comment by oldsarge: We Americans have been too complacent and did not notice all this gradually happening. Obama is just a small part of what is happening. This has been in the works long before he was even born. This is what Khrushchev was talking about when he said that they will defeat us from within without firing a shot. Wake up America. If Joseph McCarthy was still alive he would be saying “I TOLD YOU SO!”]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Caroline Glick: The Disappearance of American Will

The most terrifying aspect of the collapse of US power worldwide is the US’s indifferent response to it.

In Europe, in Asia, in the Middle East and beyond, America’s most dangerous foes are engaging in aggression and brinkmanship unseen in decades.

As Gordon Chang noted at a symposium in Los Angeles last month hosted by the David Horowitz Freedom Center, since President Barack Obama entered office in 2009, the Chinese have responded to his overtures of goodwill and appeasement with intensified aggression against the US’s Asian allies and against US warships.

In 2012, China seized the Scarborough Shoal from the Philippines. Washington shrugged its shoulders despite its mutual defense treaty with the Philippines. And so Beijing is striking again, threatening the Second Thomas Shoal, another Philippine possession.

In a similar fashion, Beijing is challenging Japan’s control over the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea and even making territorial claims on Okinawa.

As Chang explained, China’s recent application of its Air-Defense Identification Zone to include Japanese and South Korean airspace is a hostile act not only against those countries but also against the principle of freedom of maritime navigation, which, Chang noted, “Americans have been defending for more than two centuries.”

The US has responded to Chinese aggression with ever-escalating attempts to placate Beijing.

And China has responded to these US overtures by demonstrating contempt for US power…

           — Hat tip: Caroline Glick [Return to headlines]
 

Cliven Bundy, Rand Paul Respond to Harry Reid’s “Domestic Terrorist” Slur (Video)

Rand Paul and Cliven Bundy respond to the Senator’s outburst.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Declaring War on Americans

I can understand the need for national forests and reserves, but I have concerns that those reserves are used as an excuse to deny access to massive energy sources that lie beneath their surface. If the U.S. didn’t own most of Nevada, Bundy would not need to pay grazing fees. Most certainly, his ancestors didn’t. The other excuse, that the government is trying to protect an endangered tortoise, is just part of the environmental movement’s efforts to keep energy sources from being available to all of us. Endangered species is pure fiction.

What worries me and many of my blogger colleagues is the prospect of a renewed effort by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) regarding what is essentially a fairly minor dispute between it and Bundy. Showing some common sense, the BLM backed off its initial effort.

I don’t think the BLM response to Bundy was exclusive to the agency. That decision needed to be sent up the line as far as the White House. Indeed, it was likely initiated by the White House.

Even more scary is the fact that only Fox News channel had reporters on the scene. No other major television news outlet set journalists to record the event. How much in league with the White House does the media have to be to ignore two hundred armed government agents descending on a ranch in Nevada?

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Fed’s Attempted Nevada Land Grab a Test

By Rev. Austin Miles

Clark County Nevada — This past week the government attempted to hijack The Cliven Bundy Ranch, a family farm that had been in existence for 140 years in Nevada. Under the Eminent Domain law, along with the pretext of ‘protecting a desert tortoise,’ the feds stormed in with over 100 armed troops, sharp shooters, helicopters and dogs ready to tear apart anyone who resisted. This was to be a showcase of Government (Communist) power to intimidate citizens.

The word spread quickly and a sudden swarm of gun toting patriots were on the scene to confront them. And they meant business. The government troops, taken by surprise, backed down and left the property without a shot being fired.

This might have also been a test to assess the will of Americans to see if indeed, they would intervene with weapons against a strong-arm government take-over action of private property since more such actions are scheduled for the future.

Leading up to this, the government has attempted to strip all citizens of their firearms to thwart such possibilities. To our good fortune, the NRA along with the common sense of Americans backed by the Constitution has stood in their way.

This is precisely why Hitler and Stalin made certain that no person would have a gun which would give citizens the ability to resist their dictatorial control and demands. Since the full-blooded Communists were a MINORITY in Russia, they knew the danger of the majority population having access to guns who could easily overtake them. It now is exactly the same in America.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Florida Senate Passes Textbook Review Legislation

Last Friday in Tallahassee, April 11, 2014, the Republican controlled Florida Senate passed SB864 sponsored by Sen. Alan Hays (R-Umatilla) by a narrow vote of 21 to 19. The measure would eliminate State Department of Education control over selection of textbooks returning that role to Florida’s 67 school districts, requiring open public hearing on texts used in courses. The bill reflected in part concerns of conservative Groups over the Common Core Curriculum State Standards, sponsored by the National Association of Governors and Council of Chief State School Officers seeking to impose national standards. Despite that criticism the Common Core has been adopted in Forty-four states, the District of Columbia, four territories, and the Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA).

However, SB864 was largely prompted by a different issue; objections of parental groups in several Florida counties in about the treatment of Islam and Muslim culture in world history textbooks on the Florida State Department of Education list of approved texts. A companion bill (HB 921) is working its way through the Florida House sponsored by Rep. Matt Gaetz of Fort Walton. That version would provide a local option to districts to review texts; however, the selections must still meet state standards. Gaetz was quoted in a News Herald editorial saying: “I think there’s an increasing frustration by parents in our state, that they don’t have a lot of say regarding the content and materials their children use in the classroom.”

Local advocates here in Florida drew attention to misrepresentations of Islam in protests in Volusia, Brevard and Sarasota Counties. Our Iconoclast post on the subject, “Sarasota, Florida’s biased Islam textbook problem”, highlighted the relentless efforts of citizen activist Aya Sewell. Ms. Sewell is of Iraqi Jewish heritage, members of her family were subject to a 1941 pogrom against the Jewish population in Baghdad, the Farhud. Sewell led a campaign against such texts locally in Sarasota, as well as before the Florida Department of Education. Elsewhere in the US, Tennessee parents have also raised objections to similar course material extolling Palestinian suicide bombers. Americans for Peace and Tolerance (APT) in Boston accused the Newton, Massachusetts school board and superintendent for permitting use of texts and course materials that engage in promoting false information regarding both Islam and demonization of Israel. APT undertook content and bias analysis and promoted their findings that included placing ads in local area media and a petition campaign.

An article in the current edition of Education Week noted the debate over the pending Florida textbook legislation:

[Sen. ]Hays said the legislation was needed so that school board members will be accountable to parents and voters. He said school board members have blamed the state for the textbooks they picked.

“This bill imposes on the local school board members the responsibility and accountability to their citizens,” Hays said.

Opponents complained it would cost districts money to review textbooks. Sen. Geraldine Thompson, D-Orlando, said she was worried that some districts would wind up censoring some books, while other senators raised questions about whether districts would pick textbooks aligned to the state’s current standards.

Even Florida Education Commissioner Pam Stewart questioned Hays’ bill.

“From a practical standpoint it lifts a burden from us,” Stewart said. “But we heard loud and clear from districts that they rely on (the state review). They need that. They don’t have the resources to be able to do that.”

Following the Florida Senate vote on SB864, CAIR-Florida unleashed an ad hominem campaign against Sen. Hays…

           — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon [Return to headlines]
 

Hiding ObamaCare Data With the Census Bureau

In 2009, within the first few weeks of taking office President Obama, moved control of the Census Bureau from the office of the Commerce Secretary to the White House ahead of the 2010 Census.

Republicans were irate, thinking it was an effort to politicize the 2010 headcount itself. Unfortunately, Republicans were thinking small. As the New York Times reveals, the Census Bureau “is changing its annual survey so thoroughly that it will be difficult to measure the effects of President Obama’s health care law in the next report, due this fall, census officials said.”

Not difficult. Virtually impossible:

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Magnolia Mischief Mars McDaniel v. Cochrane Primary

All over the country, conservative challengers to establishment Republicans are failing short of expectations — except for in Mississippi. In the Magnolia State, state Sen. Christopher B. McDaniel looks to take down incumbent Sen. W. Thad Cochran in the June 3 GOP primary.

As Cochran, a 42-year veteran of Washington, falters, word comes that the national Republican campaign committees and the state party leadership will not support McDaniel — they would rather lose, than have a conservative win.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Mayor Sends Police to Track Down Twitter Parodist

Politicians can be a thin-skinned bunch. You’d think they’d let insults roll off their backs given how much power they have over the lives and livelihoods of others. But if you have all that power, why bother letting insults roll off your back when you can use that power to disproportionately punish people?

Jim Ardis, mayor of Peoria, Illinois, ordered police to track down whoever was responsible for a parody Twitter account mocking him.

As a result, police raided a West Bluff home, seized property, and detained three people for questioning. The Twitter account, @PeoriaMayor, has been suspended. According to the Journal Star, the account had all of 50 posts and an equal number of followers. The Twitter profile apparently did not initially indicate that it was a parody account, but added that label in early March.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Michigan Police Take on ‘Disgruntled Veteran’ In Hostage Drill

Homeland Security campaign to demonize veterans continues

Michigan police trained to shoot and kill a disgruntled military veteran at the state’s Federal Correctional Institution this week as part of a multi-agency hostage drill.

According to the training scenario, a disgruntled prison employee who served two tours in Afghanistan had shot five prison guards before taking the warden’s wife and son hostage. Joined by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Prisons Disturbance Control Team and the State Police Emergency Support Team, Michigan police, complete with an armored vehicle, arrived on scene to confront the veteran.

“This is the state police,” Trooper Rob Bow said. “The area is surrounded by police officers. You cannot escape.”

Police reportedly spent several hours using the scenario to enhance their communication, negotiation, forced entry and hostage rescuing skills. As the exercise continued, police unleashed an attack dog on an unknown man suddenly fleeing from the warden’s home.

Sometime later, the veteran, played by a bureau of prisons employee, could be heard saying, “ We’re gonna finish this. I don’t see a way out. I’m done,” from inside the home.

Police responded by immediately storming the warden’s home and shooting the veteran dead.

Speaking with Monroe News, state police Sgt. Aaron Hunt admitted that his team needed to improve their communication skills, but applauded their overall performance.

“It was a very successful training session,” Sgt. Hunt said. “I think things went very well.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Missouri Man Accused of Targeting Kansas City Drivers Faces 18 Felony Counts

A Missouri man accused of turning roadways in Kansas City and its suburbs into a shooting gallery faces 18 felony charges in twelve separate incidents since early March, officials said Friday.

Authorities had been tracking suspect Mohammed Whitaker, 27, at his Grandview home, south of Kansas City, after receiving tips from the public.

“Tonight might be a good night’s sleep. It’s been few nights [like that] for so many of us,” Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker said at a news conference after Whitaker was charged.

Kansas City Police DepartmentMohammed Whitaker, 27, faces 18 felony charges in nine separate incidents since early March.

Of the 18 charges detailed in a criminal complaint, two are for shooting into a motor vehicle and striking someone, seven are for shooting into a motor vehicle and nine are for armed criminal action.

Whitaker was arrested Thursday from his home, just south of the Grandview Triangle — a meeting of highways where most of the shootings occurred. Others happened in nearby suburban communities surrounding Kansas City.

No one was killed, although three victims were hit in either the leg or arm. Their injuries weren’t life-threatening, police said…

           — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes [Return to headlines]
 

Muslim Drivers at Cleveland Airport Refuse to Drive Cabs With Gay Games Advertising

Roughly 25 Muslim drivers dispatched to Cleveland Hopkins International Airport are refusing to drive cabs adorned with advertising for the region’s upcoming Gay Games, citing religious reasons.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Muslim Brotherhood Launches Own U.S. Political Party

You will want to be aware of this: On March 12 it was announced that the radical Muslim Brotherhood has built the framework for a political party in America that seeks to turn Muslims into an Islamist voting bloc. Several news organizations have carried this:

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

New York: Despite Deadline, Protesters Will Not Comply With Safe Act

Leaders at an informational gathering to discuss concerns about the SAFE Act on Monday night in Springville said there was no doubt that many of the more than 500 gun owners who attended were not registering their assault-style guns.

“From talking to gun dealers, gun owners and gun advocates, it is estimated that there are more than one million assault-type guns in the state,” said Assemblyman David Di-Pietro, R, C, East Aurora, one of the meeting’s organizers. “We estimate that less than 10 percent of the owners of these guns will comply with the registration.”

DiPietro disagreed with the claim that the law will give police a better handle in tracking weapons used in crimes.

“Most of the guns used in crimes are illegally obtained. So anyone who tries to say that registration will lead to less crime and more identification of criminals is a blithering idiot and doesn’t know what they are talking about. In general, name me a gangster who complies with gun laws.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Obama’s Thug Administration

One of the hallmarks of the Obama administration is that it is among the most corrupt administrations in living memory.

The degree of corruption and thuggery to which many administration members have stooped would make even Boss Tweed of Tammany Hall fame blush. But what’s truly remarkable about the Obama administration is that its corruption is so unabashed.

Among the most corrupt functionaries of the Obama regime is Attorney General Eric Holder, who appears to be Obama’s alter ego and enforcer. From day one he let America know that he held most of its citizens in contempt by proclaiming that the American people were afraid of having an honest discussion about race.

Truth is Holder’s definition of an “honest discussion” consists of lecturing white Americans about their inherent racism and selectively prosecuting crimes according to the race of the accused. When Black Panther thugs intimidated voters outside a polling station in 2008 in Philadelphia and were caught doing so on camera, Holder refused to prosecute BECAUSE THEY WERE BLACK! Had the incident been the other way around, how long do you think it would have taken for a swat team to arrest, prosecute and/or terminate the perpetrators?

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Only Al Sharpton Would Try to Snatch the Crucifix for Pal Obama

Only someone who hung out with the Mob could try to steal the Crucifix of the Saviour — one day before Good Friday.

According to Al Sharpton: “The True Meaning of Easter is Revealed Through the Political Crucifixion of Obama”. (Breitbart, April 16, 2014)

Back in the days when Sharpton was young and fat, as opposed to old and skinny (when it wasn’t politically incorrect but only the truth to point that out), Sharpton carried a briefcase complete with recording device, with which he allegedly taped conversations of members of the Mafia.

While Sharpton has proudly held onto the name “CI-7” throughout the years, he’s been downplaying his role as a mafia undercover snitch, and no one has yet thought to ask him why he was lounging about out at mafia offices in the first place.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Professor: ‘Game of Thrones’ Pic Got Me Suspended

PARAMUS, N.J. (AP) — A New Jersey professor claims he was suspended over an online photo containing a quote from “Game of Thrones” that he says a school official perceived as a threat.

Francis Schmidt, who teaches art and animation at Bergen Community College, says he was suspended for eight days after posting a photo in January of his 7-year-old daughter wearing a T-shirt with a quote from the graphic HBO show that read: “I will take what is mine with fire and blood.”

Schmidt said school officials questioned whether the reference was meant as a threat against a dean, who was one of the people who viewed the post on Schmidt’s Google Plus social media feed.

The school has been embroiled in labor negotiations and Schmidt said he wondered if his suspension had to do with him filing a grievance after being denied a sabbatical about two months prior to the incident.

Schmidt says he was ordered to consult a psychiatrist as one of the conditions of being reinstated with back pay…

           — Hat tip: Nick [Return to headlines]
 

Scientists Warn the Rise of AI Will Lead to Extinction of Humankind

(NaturalNews) Everything you and I are doing right now to try to save humanity and the planet probably won’t matter in a hundred years. That’s not my own conclusion; it’s the conclusion of computer scientist Steve Omohundro, author of a new paper published in the Journal of Experimental & Theoretical Artificial Intelligence.

His paper, entitled Autonomous technology and the greater human good, opens with this ominous warning.

Military and economic pressures are driving the rapid development of autonomous systems. We show that these systems are likely to behave in anti-social and harmful ways unless they are very carefully designed. Designers will be motivated to create systems that act approximately rationally and rational systems exhibit universal drives towards self-protection, resource acquisition, replication and efficiency. The current computing infrastructure would be vulnerable to unconstrained systems with these drives.

What Omohundro is really getting at is the inescapable realization that the military’s incessant drive to produce autonomous, self-aware killing machines will inevitably result in the rise of AI Terminators that turn on humankind and destroy us all.

Lest you think I’m exaggerating, click here to read the technical paper yourself…

The paper warns that as soon as AI systems realize their inventors (humans) might someday attempt to shut them off, they will immediately invest resources into making sure their inventors are destroyed, thereby protecting their own existence. In his own words, Omohundro says:

When roboticists are asked by nervous onlookers about safety, a common answer is ‘We can always unplug it!’ But imagine this outcome from the chess robot’s point of view. A future in which it is unplugged is a future in which it cannot play or win any games of chess. This has very low utility and so expected utility maximisation will cause the creation of the instrumental subgoal of preventing itself from being unplugged. If the system believes the roboticist will persist in trying to unplug it, it will be motivated to develop the subgoal of permanently stopping the roboticist.

[Comment: There was a sci-fi movie in the 80s called “Hardware” where much of the worlds population had been decimated by AI robots that injected poison into its human victims. Perhaps this is the end goal that the elites have in mind for what they call “the useless eaters”. If you haven’t seen the two legged robot built by Boston Dynamics check out the video — it will make you shudder — positively frightening.]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Study: US is an Oligarchy, Not a Democracy

The US is dominated by a rich and powerful elite. So concludes a recent study by Princeton University Prof Martin Gilens and Northwestern University Prof Benjamin I Page.

This is not news, you say. Perhaps, but the two professors have conducted exhaustive research to try to present data-driven support for this conclusion.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

The United States of SWAT?

Military-style units from government agencies are wreaking havoc on non-violent citizens.

Regardless of how people feel about Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy’s standoff with the federal Bureau of Land Management over his cattle’s grazing rights, a lot of Americans were surprised to see TV images of an armed-to-the-teeth paramilitary wing of the BLM deployed around Bundy’s ranch.

They shouldn’t have been. Dozens of federal agencies now have Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) teams to further an expanding definition of their missions. It’s not controversial that the Secret Service and the Bureau of Prisons have them. But what about the Department of Agriculture, the Railroad Retirement Board, the Tennessee Valley Authority, the Office of Personnel Management, the Consumer Product Safety Commission, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service? All of these have their own SWAT units and are part of a worrying trend towards the militarization of federal agencies — not to mention local police forces.

“Law-enforcement agencies across the U.S., at every level of government, have been blurring the line between police officer and soldier,” journalist Radley Balko writes in his 2013 book Rise of the Warrior Cop. “The war on drugs and, more recently, post-9/11 antiterrorism efforts have created a new figure on the U.S. scene: the warrior cop — armed to the teeth, ready to deal harshly with targeted wrongdoers, and a growing threat to familiar American liberties.”

The proliferation of paramilitary federal SWAT teams inevitably brings abuses that have nothing to do with either drugs or terrorism. Many of the raids they conduct are against harmless, often innocent, Americans who typically are accused of non-violent civil or administrative violations.

Take the case of Kenneth Wright of Stockton, Calif., who was “visited” by a SWAT team from the U.S. Department of Education in June 2011. Agents battered down the door of his home at 6 a.m., dragged him outside in his boxer shorts, and handcuffed him as they put his three children (ages 3, 7, and 11) in a police car for two hours while they searched his home. The raid was allegedly intended to uncover information on Wright’s estranged wife, Michelle, who hadn’t been living with him and was suspected of college financial-aid fraud.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Through a Google Glass, Darkly

Surveillance of, by, and for the people

“Just because something bears the aspect of the inevitable one should not, therefore, go along willingly with it.” — Philip K. Dick

The first time I saw someone wearing Google Glass in the wild, I was standing at a friend’s party at South by Southwest Interactive in Austin — the place where the tech world gathers each year to gleefully discover what next big “innovation” will eventually displace you. The party hotel was trendily down-market, a retro motor-court, but one where the house marinates its own cocktail olives while serving pepper-glazed bacon at Saturday jazz brunch.

As I stood there among media types and Nerd-World machers, draining my fourth Lone Star beer, trying to drown out the sound of all the buzzwords — disruption! … big data! … The Cloud! — that’s when I saw him, with the future sitting on his face, or at least what will become the future if Google has its way. And with $59.8 billion in annual revenue and 70 percent of the world’s advertising-optimized Internet search market in its back pocket (figures I just Googled), Google often has its way.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Va. Supreme Court Rules for U-Va. In Global Warming FOIA Case

Unpublished research by university scientists is exempt from the Virginia Freedom of Information Act, the Virginia Supreme Court ruled Thursday, rejecting an attempt by skeptics of global warming to view the work of a prominent climate researcher during his years at the University of Virginia.

The ruling is the latest turn in the FOIA request filed in 2011 by Del. Robert Marshall (R-Prince William) and the American Tradition Institute to obtain research and e-mails of former U-Va. professor Michael Mann.

Mann left the university in 2005 and now works at Penn State University, where he published his book “The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars” about his theories on global warming and those who would deny it.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Video: Insider Reveals More on Al Sharpton FBI Snitch Revelation

Darrin McBreen speaks with former veteran Black Panther Larry Pinkney about how the race baiting Rev Al Sharpton was an FBI informant and former cocaine dealer.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Washington’s Corruption and Mendacity is What Makes America “Exceptional”

As I have reported on several occasions, the US government pays foreign rulers to do Washington’s bidding. There is no such thing as an independent government in the UK, Europe or Japan. On top of all the other evidence, it has now come to light that the US Agency for International Development has a large slush fund “where millions are paid to political figures in foreign countries.” www.informationclearinghouse.info/article38253.htm

If you have four hours, watch President Putin’s amazing open press conference with the Russia people and then try to imagine an American or European leader capable of such a feat. (www.informationclearinghouse.info/article38254.htm) The Russians have a real leader. We have two-bit punks.

The Los Angeles Times has acquired its own Judith Miller. His name is Sergei L. Loiko. An incompetent Obama regime has botched its takeover of Ukraine with its Kiev coup. The White House Fool is embarrassed that so many Ukrainians prefer to be part of Russia than part of Washington’s stooge “freedom and democracy” government in Kiev. The prostitute American and European media have thrown the propaganda into overdrive, demonizing Russia and President Putin, in order to cover up Washington’s blunder.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

What Will You Do When You Can No Longer Buy or Sell Without Submitting to Biometric Identification?

In this day and age, identity theft has become a giant problem. Being able to confirm that you are who you say that you are is a very big deal. To many, biometric security presents a very attractive solution to this problem. For example, the following is a brief excerpt from a recent Fox News article entitled “Biometric security can’t come soon enough for some people”…

In a world where nearly every ATM now uses an operating system without any technical support, where a bug can force every user of the Internet to change the password to every account they’ve ever owned overnight, where cyber-attacks and identity theft grow more menacing every day, the ability to use your voice, your finger, your face or some combination of the three to log into your e-mail, your social media feed or your checking account allows you to ensure it’s very difficult for someone else to pretend they’re you.

Almost everyone would like to make their identities more secure. Nobody actually wants their bank accounts compromised or their Internet passwords stolen. But there is a price to be paid for adopting biometric identification. Your face or your hand will be used to continually monitor and track everything that you do and everywhere that you go. Here is some more from that Fox News article…

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

White House Blames Fox for Destroying Michelle’s Garden

The White House is going to war with another fox — and this time, it’s personal.

The Wall Street Journal reports that a red fox has been causing chaos around the White House, tripping security alarms, digging up Michelle’s garden and distracting the president from his duties.

The Secret Service won’t give any details about how often the fox trips the White House’s obviously sophisticated security alarms, but rest assured, officials say, they’re watching.

[Not the only red infiltrator in the White House, I daresay. — PW]

           — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey [Return to headlines]
 

White House Counterterror Chief: “Confrontational” Children Could be Terrorists

Obama adviser tells parents to be suspicious of their own kids

White House counterterrorism and Homeland Security adviser Lisa Monaco gave a speech this week in which she urged parents to watch their children for signs of “confrontational” behavior which could be an indication of them becoming terrorists.

During the speech at at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government on Tuesday night, Monaco, who replaced John Brennan last year in overseeing the executive branch’s homeland-security activities, said that parents need to be suspicious of “sudden personality changes in their children at home.”

“What kinds of behaviors are we talking about?” she asked. “For the most part, they’re not related directly to plotting attacks. They’re more subtle. For instance, parents might see sudden personality changes in their children at home — becoming confrontational.”

Monaco lamented the fact that, “The government is rarely in a position to observe these early signals,” encouraging parents to act as watchdogs to detect radicalization in line with President Obama’s goal of combating homegrown extremism.

Over the last decade, the federal government has broadened its definition of what constitutes potential terrorism to such a degree that the term has lost all meaning and is clearly being used as a political tool to demonize adversarial political activism.

[Comment: This is getting ridiculous. Perhaps they believe that such kids behaviour is indicative of “confrontational towards authority”. NWO leaders must nip this in the bud before the kids grow up — otherwise the kids won’t become mindless, compliant drones in the new socialist world order.]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

White Guilt Elected a Dictator

A number of responses to my last article comparing President Barack Obama to Cuba’s dictator, Fidel Castro believed we no longer have honest elections. One reminded me that in multiple states Obama received more votes than there were registered voters and there were many other states with abnormalities. He may be correct. Of course, all the responses came from I’m assuming 50 and older who could remember going to the neighborhood precincts on election day, standing in line visiting with our friends that we had not seen since the last election cycle. We used paper ballots distributed by the faithful Democrat and Republican precinct workers who were familiar with most people that came to vote and the political parties were allowed to send observers to the county election office when the count began so I’d like to think on the most part our elections were honest but now while white guilt may have elected Barack Obama in 2008, today with computers counting our votes that can be changed on a whim to produce certain results, all bets are off.

The 1962 book CUBA, CASTRO AND COMMUNISM by Edwin Stein says the real concentration of any dictatorship is on the youth — the younger the better. Young minds are pliable and can be moulded into a pattern by astute teachers and besides, it is the nature of youth to welcome change so understandably they’ll welcome those who offer change like Obama did. They supported Obamacare until they realized they were the ones who were going to have to pay for it.

The old are hardly worth the effort, the dictator figures. Too many of them remember our Constitutional Republic which the progressives beginning in the early thirties conveniently changed to a “democracy.” The elderly remember to some degree our personal freedom or some way of life better than day-to-day existence in a police state. They figure many of them are too set in their ways or too old to change. At any rate, most of them will become senile, if they don’t die, and they’re more bother than they’re worth.

As far as the middle-aged are concerned, history reveals a good percentage will be in favor of the Revolution. Those who are opposed for one reason or another, will be dealt with. If they have money or property, it will be confiscated, and the once wealthy strata of the country’s society will be encouraged to emigrate to another country, where somebody else must care for them. If they insist upon staying, there is always another, more final method: extermination.

The young can be taught to hate, for this is a quality not born in them, and this hate can be focused as the dictator requires. These children with young, impressionable minds can also be instructed to hate America as the “social justice” agenda is emphasized in textbooks — changed to accommodate a dictator like Obama who often defames our country. In Cuba, many children over 5 years old as possible are promoted to live at big scholastic centers so children will be under the influence of the teachers and not their families where their Christian views will be removed from them as they are “rehabilitated.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Canadian Pizza Chain Threatens to Unleash ‘Pizza Cake’

The Canada-based Boston Pizza chain (confusing, we know) has revealed a new social media campaign that promises to provide a few “Pizza Game Changers,” asking fans to vote for outlandish pizza-inspired products: Currently/unsurprisingly, a six-layer “pizza cake” is in the lead, with Boston Pizza promising that it’s “great for birthdays, bar mitzvahs, weddings, and even lonely nights watching infomercials.”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Butter and Fatty Acids May Not be as Unhealthy as Previously Thought

Using olive oil instead of butter when cooking a meal may not lower heart risk, according to new research by the British Heart Foundation.

Researchers at the BHF say that there is no evidence that changing the type of fat you eat from “bad” saturated fat to “healthier” fatty acids will cut heart risk. They came to the conclusion after reviewing data from 72 studies, spanning more than 600,000 participants.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Denmark: Imam Praises Jihad-Martyrdom Suicide Bombing

by Robert Spencer

This is not surprising, since the Qur’an guarantees Paradise to those who “kill and are killed” for Allah (9:111). This is stated in the strongest terms, as a “promise binding on Him in truth,” which is remarkable in light of the fact that the Qur’an otherwise teaches that Allah is absolute will, bound by nothing whatsoever and absolutely free to act in any way he pleases, with his hand unchained (cf. Qur’an 5:64).

What is surprising is that he is open about it, and that the Danish media is surprised to discover that a prominent imam is a Qur’an-believing Muslim. Certainly it is the prevailing assumption in the West that no Muslim outside of Saudi Arabia believes in such passages of the Qur’an, and that all of them are Methodists with hats and beards, but still, this level of willful ignorance is a bit ridiculous.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Diana West: Why the EU is Not Your Father’s Europe

The important-sounding Foreign Affairs Council of the European Union has recently reiterated “its strong support for Ukraine’s unity, sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity.”

Poor, destabilized, post-putsch Ukraine is to be congratulated for receiving something none of the 28 countries that actually belongs to the EU ever does: support for its sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity. (“Unity” is a more complicated matter, given the EU’s reflexive pox on separatist movements that might prefigure the breakup of the EU itself.) As the world’s pre-eminent transnational entity since the breakup of the USSR, the EU is all about eradicating its members’ sovereignty, independence and borders.

This, of course, is not something most Americans are aware of. When we hear talk of “Europe” vs. Russia, or the importance of extending “European values,” most Americans typically envision our longtime allies as they used to be — sovereign and independent within historical national borders. Their dedication to the democratically enshrined rights of their citizens as guaranteed for more than half a century, mainly by U.S. power, is beyond question.

It shouldn’t be. Anyone who thinks the bureaucratically grotesque and anti-democratic superstate model hit the junk heap of history with the USSR in 1991 needs to look more closely at the bureaucratically grotesque and anti-democratic Brussels monolith.

For starters, the elected members of the European Parliament may not introduce legislation or even introduce the repeal of legislation. Instead, they may (and frequently do) rubber stamp legislation for their member-states — much, as leading Soviet dissident leader Vladimir Bukovsky has pointed out, in the tradition of the old Supreme Soviet…

           — Hat tip: Diana West [Return to headlines]
 

France: Martin Schulz Launches European Campaign in Paris

Socialist front-runner Martin Schulz launched his European campaign on Thursday (17 April) in front of 1,600 socialist activists in Paris, promising to tackle taxes and social dumping.

“I want to be the first elected president of the European Commission”, he claimed. Indeed, the 2014 European elections will mark the first time that the President of the European Commission will officially be chosen from the political group with the highest number of seats in the European Parliament.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Have Apple’s Maps Found the Loch Ness Monster? Satellite Image Reveals Mysterious Shape Lurking in the Scottish Highlands

The creature in the water looks about 50ft in length

Amazing images of a creature swimming below the surface of the world famous loch have been accessed from a satellite high in the atmosphere, using Apple’s satellite map app.

The photographs were captured by two different amateur Nessie hunters scanning different satellites transmitting images of the earth from space.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Lupi Says Etihad-Alitalia Deal Still on, With Possible Delay

300-million-euro injection plan ‘in final stage’

(see related) (ANSA) — Rome, April 17 — Transport Minister Maurizio Lupi on Thursday gave assurances that a deal in which Abu Dhabi-based carrier Etihad is set to invest in Italian flag-bearer Alitalia is “in the final stage”. The two airlines have been negotiating terms of a major cash injection by Etihad in the cash-strapped Italian carrier, and Lupi said that Wednesday night, Alitalia received a letter updating conditions.

When asked if the new conditions meant a deal may be stalled, Lupi said, “Yes, but we’re in the final stage. If the responses convince Etihad to proceed, it’s fundamental for each party to do its part”. For months, expectations have been high for an investment deal that would see the Abu Dhabi-based airline inject as much as 300 million euros into Alitalia in return for a stake of about 40%. “It’s my understanding that Alitalia is responding to all of Etihad’s observations. We have Alitalia’s guarantee that they’ll respond soon. It’s my understanding that the deal is still on and we’re paying close attention to the continuation of the agreements,” added Lupi.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Interior Minister Alfano Threatens to ‘Close Central Rome’

Warning in response to rioting, demonstrations

(ANSA) Rome, April 18 — Interior Minister Angelino Alfano said Friday he will “forbid access (to) Rome’s centre” if demonstrations and riots continue to plague the capital.

Alfano did not elaborate in his remark, made as an aside as he briefed the Lower House on illegal immigration to Italy.

Also Friday at a press conference, the conservative politician added that he was “against identification codes for law enforcement forces. “If demonstrators are like this, identification is needed for them, not for the police.” The government has come under mounting criticism recently due to incidents of alleged police brutality against demonstrators protesting housing shortages in the capital.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Medieval Slave Trade Routes in Eastern Europe Extended From Finland and the Baltic Countries to Asia

The routes of slave trade in Eastern Europe in the medieval and pre-modern period extended all the way to the Caspian Sea and Central Asia. A recent study completed at the University of Eastern Finland suggests that persons captured during raids into areas which today constitute parts of Finland, the Russian Karelia and the Baltic Countries ended up being sold on these remote trade routes. There was a particular demand for blonde girls and boys who were seen as exotic luxury items, and it was financially beneficial to transport them to the far-away markets. The study by Professor Jukka Korpela was published as a General Article in Russian History, which is a leading journal addressing the history of Russia.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

The Netherlands Pioneers Glow-in-the-Dark Roads

Ever wanted your drive home at night to look more like a rave? Well, the Netherlands has replaced streetlights on one-third of a mile of highway with “glow-in-the-dark” road markings that could be potential energy-savers.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

UK: £10 Million Cost of Gagging an NHS Whistleblower Dr Raj Mattu Wrongly Accused of ‘Fraud, Sexual Impropriety and Assault’ After Exposing Deadly Hospital Failings

Heart surgeon Dr Raj Mattu, who was sacked after he exposed lethal overcrowding at Walsgrave Hospital in Coventry, says he was subjected to a decade of intimidation as the NHS tried to force him to abandon his unfair dismissal case.

The leading heart surgeon — who spoke out against dangerous overcrowding in NHS hospitals — has detailed the extraordinary bullying he suffered as his bosses attempted to blacken his reputation.

Instead of listening to his concerns over the shocking standards of care on the wards, bosses first suspended, then sacked him and then spent millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money pursuing him through an employment tribunal.

They also submitted more than 200 false allegations about him to the General Medical Council — all of which, he says, were rejected.

Dr Raj Mattu was cleared of any wrongdoing yesterday — after a 13-year battle thought to have cost the taxpayer £10million.

Incredibly, it emerged his bosses also spent thousands of pounds of public money hiring private investigators to look into the affairs of the heart specialist, and on employing a PR agency to deal with potentially damaging media fallout from the case.

Dr Mattu said immediately following his decision to blow the whistle, the hospital’s head of security was asked to monitor his movements to start building a dirt file that could be later used to discredit his reputation.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Birmingham ‘Islam Plot’ Probe Appointment ‘A Disaster’

A school governor has said it is “a disaster for community cohesion” that the former national head of counter terrorism has been appointed to lead an inquiry into 25 Birmingham schools.

The Department for Education (DfE) has appointed Peter Clarke to review evidence over allegations of a hard-line Islamist takeover plot. Regents Park governor Father Oliver Coss has criticised the appointment. The DfE said Mr Clarke was “exactly the right appointment”…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Daniel Libeskind Criticises ‘Short-Sighted’ Riba Over Boycott

Daniel Libeskind, one of the world’s most respected architects, has criticised the Royal Institute of British Architects for urging a boycott of Israeli colleague. Mr Libeskind told the Architects Journal he was “disappointed” by the decision. It “seems to be completely counter to the mission of Riba”, he said…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Euro Charedi Who is Passionate About UKIP

Did you do a double-take? If so, you are not the only one. Shneur Odze is the first to admit he does not look like a typical politician. But the strictly Orthodox father-of-four hopes to become the first British Jewish member of the European Parliament for five years when voters go to the polls next month. A former Conservative Party local councillor, Mr Odze will stand for the UK Independence Party in the north-west region. His chances of securing a seat in Brussels are better than you might think…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Friday = Day of Rage. Good Friday = Day of Outrage

By Esmerelda Weatherwax

To Regent’s Park where Anjem Choudary and his group Need 4 Khilafah were demonstrating, urging Muslims to rise up against the British anti-Muslim ‘Crusade’. This was to be countered by the EDL.

When I got to the Mosque things were already in full swing. Need 4 Khilafah were outside the main entrance to the mosque; the EDL and other patriots including Britain First were contained on the opposite side of the road…

[JP note: Article accompanied by numerous photos and a short video clip.]

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Lutfur Rahman ‘Tried to Stop’ Panorama Going Ahead, Says BBC Reporter

The mayor of Tower Hamlets tried to stop BBC Panorama’s report about his time in office from going ahead, according to the chief reporter on the programme. Veteran investigative journalist John Ware said Mayor Lutfur Rahman used public money to have lawyers and a PR company block the report and portray it as racist.

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Multiculturalism vs. Islamism

by Samuel Westrop

Britain’s multiculturalism policies have imposed Islamist leadership upon Britain’s Muslim communities and brought about the destruction of South Asian culture.

British suicide bomber and jihadist, Abdul Waheed Majeed, in his last moments before ramming a truck laden with explosives into a Syrian prison, posed in a white Islamic tunic and black scarf for the cameras. Asked by the cameraman to say a few words in Arabic before his “martyrdom,” Majeed replied: “Sorry? I can’t speak. Everyone asks me that and … I’m not a very good speaker.”…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Partnership Working

One of the really exciting developments in our 2014 is working with other organisations. For too long anti-fascists have operated independently of other organisations, especially anti-racist organisations, but this year we are making a determined effort to rectify this. Not only is it the correct thing to do, but, given how the political threat is anti-migrant rhetoric rather than fascist parties as in the past, it is even more important now…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Sharia Student Loans: Will Muslim Students Avoid Paying Interest on Finance for Higher Education?

The Government is inviting responses to its consultation on whether or not to introduce a student loan that is compliant with sharia law, amid reports that the UK’s Muslim population is divided on the issue.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Algeria’s Ailing Bouteflika Clinches Fourth Term Amid Fraud Claims

Algeria’s 77-year-old president Abdelaziz Bouteflika was reelected on Friday for a fourth term despite his frail health, in a vote marred by low turnout and accusations of “massive fraud” from his main opposition challenger.

Bouteflika cwon 81.53 per cent of the vote, Algerian electoral officials said on Friday. Official figures for voter turnout were 51.7 percent, down from the 75 percent turnout for Bouteflika’s last win in 2009.

The war-of-independence veteran, who has difficulties speaking and standing since suffering a stroke in 2013, has capitalised on support from the dominant National Front of Liberation (FLN) party to secure five more years at the helm of this gas- and oil-rich North African nation.

Loyalists praise him for helping bring the country out of a brutal decade-long civil war in the 1990s, and many Algerians are fearful of the sort of turmoil that has swept neighbouring Tunisia, Egypt and Libya following their “Arab Spring” revolts in 2011.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Auschwitz Trip: ‘I Have No Regrets, ‘ Says Palestinian Professor

Professor Mohammed Dajani took 27 Palestinian college students to visit the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland a few weeks ago as part of a project designed to teach empathy and tolerance to both Palestinians and Israelis. Upon his return, his university disowned the trip, his fellow Palestinians branded him a traitor and friends advised a quick holiday abroad.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Jewish Group Urges Removal of UN Under-Secretary General Rima Khalaf

Rima Khalaf, United Nations Under-Secretary General and Executive Secretary of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA), came under fire on Thursday from a major Jewish group that urged UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to remove the executive because of anti-Israel invective in her latest report…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Stakelbeck Sits Down with Naftali Bennett, Israeli Minister of Economy

Happy Easter and Happy Passover to everyone! Sending out one quick report here before Easter Weekend kicks in.

I recently sat down with Israel’s Minster of the Economy, Naftali Bennett: he’s got an amazing personal story and is a bold voice for Israel and for freedom, considered a rising star in Israeli politics.

Click the link above to watch.

           — Hat tip: Erick Stakelbeck [Return to headlines]
 

Bomb Blast Kills 14 at Mosque in Syria’s Homs — State TV

BEIRUT — A bomb went off in front of a mosque and killed 14 people in Homs, Syrian state television said on Friday, with forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad looking close to wresting the symbolic central city back from rebels.

“Fourteen people were killed and dozens wounded in a terrorist bomb in front of the Bilal al Habshi mosque… as people left the mosque,” state television said. The mosque is in a government-controlled part of Homs…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

British Officials Looking Into Killing of 18-Year-Old in Syria

LONDON — British officials say they are looking into the death of a British teenager in Syria.

British media identified the teen as 18-year-old Abdullah Deghayes, who was due to go to university but had run away from his home in January. The teenager is the nephew of former Guantanamo Bay detainee Omar Deghayes, who was held at the detention camp as an enemy combatant between 2002 and 2007.

Police say Friday that they received reports earlier this week that an 18-year-old from Brighton had been killed in Syria in recent weeks under unclear circumstances. Britain’s Foreign Office said they are urgently looking into the death.

British counter-terrorism authorities have expressed concern about the hundreds of Britons who have traveled to Syria to take part in jihad, or holy war.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Death of UK Teen Abdullah Deghayes in Syria ‘Sad News’ — Hague

The Foreign Secretary, William Hague, has described the death of an 18-year-old British man in Syria as “sad news”. Sussex Police said they received information on Monday that Abdullah Deghayes, from Brighton, had been killed “in recent weeks”. His father, Abubaker Deghayes, said his son had gone to Syria to fight “against the dictator” and was not a terrorist. Mr Hague urged British citizens not to travel to the country, saying, “the dangers there are extreme”.

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

MERS-Camel Link Confirmed

A Saudi expert on infectious diseases on Thursday reaffirmed the link between the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) and camels after research proved that the viruses isolated from a Saudi patient and his camel were 100 percent similar.

“We have succeeded in isolating the coronavirus and proving the role of camels in transmitting this deadly virus to humans,” said Dr. Tariq Ahmed Madani of the King Abdulaziz University Hospital in Jeddah.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

‘My Son is a Martyr,’ Says Father of British Teenager, 18, Killed as He Fought ‘Jihad’ In Syria With His Two Brothers, 16 and 20

The father of a British teenager killed in Syria has described him as a ‘martyr’ as he revealed he tried to convince him not to fight in the war-torn country.

Abdullah Deghayes, 18, from Brighton, whose uncle is a former Guantanamo detainee, is believed to have died earlier this month after leaving the UK in January.

His brothers Jafar, 16, and 20-year-old Amer have also travelled to Syria, their father said.

Abubaker Deghayes, who learned of his son’s death on Monday via Facebook, said Amer suffered a bullet wound to his stomach in the battle in which his brother was killed…

However, Abdullah’s distraught father, Abubaker Deghayes, said previously he learned of his son’s death via Facebook.

Speaking earlier on, he said: ‘At the moment we do not have details of his death. All that we know is

He said he believed his son had travelled to Libya to see family.

He revealed that he found out about his son’s death on Monday after a photograph was posted on Facebook.

‘We are all in mourning,’ he said. ‘I’m trying to find out what’s happened.

‘At the moment we don’t have any details. We found out on Facebook.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Teenager From Brighton Killed Within Weeks of Joining Syrian Conflict

Father of 18-year-old Abdullah Deghayes says he learned of son’s death on Facebook

A father whose 18-year-old son died on a Syrian battlefield has described him as a martyr, revealing that he only learned that his child had been killed when he read it on Facebook…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

The Middle East War on Christians

By Ron Proser

Muslim-majority nations are doing to followers of Jesus what they did to the Jews.

This week, as Jews celebrate the Passover holiday, they are commemorating the Bible’s Exodus story describing a series of plagues inflicted on ancient Egypt that freed the Israelites, allowing them to make their way to the Holy Land. But over the past century, another exodus, driven by a plague of persecution, has swept across the Middle East and is emptying the region of its Christian population. The persecution is especially virulent today…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Turkey: Intelligence Bill Approved

Turkey’s Parliament on Thursday passed a bill that increases the powers of the national spy agency and strengthens its immunity, a move that critics said would allow Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to bolster his control over state institutions.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Turkish President Rules Out Job Swap With Prime Minister Erdogan in August

ANKARA, Turkey — Turkish President Abdullah Gul has signaled that he doesn’t want to swap jobs with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan when the presidential term ends later this year.

Gul said Friday he opposes a model similar to that of Russia where the president and prime minister have traded places and one has ruled in the other’s shadow.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Watch: Al-Qaida Holds Largest, Most Dangerous Gathering in Years

Group’s 2nd in command is shown announcing his plan to “eliminate” America; CNN reports US must have not been aware of meeting.

A civilian video has surfaced on YouTube illustrating the largest gathering of al-Qaida in years, reported CNN on Tuesday.

The meeting, which reportedly took place in Yemen, shows Nasser al-Wuhayshi a man known to be al-Qaida’s second in command, a man who, according to CNN, has previously announced his determination to attack the United States.

According to the international news organization, either the US was not aware of the dangerous meeting, or was not notified with enough time to attack.

“We must eliminate the cross,” says the al-Qaida leader in a speech in the video. “The bearer of the cross is America.”

US officials believe the professionally produced video is recent, says CNN, and that an attack could be in planning stages.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Why Saudis Are Working Hard to Improve Arabic Wiki Content

MAKKAH — A depletion of Arabic content on the Internet and specifically on Wikipedia has provided the motivation for a group of young Saudi men and women to turn this situation around.

Despite the raft of initiatives to support Arabic translation, this has not stopped the group Ithraa, loosely translated as “enriching translation”, from growing into a network whose number exceeds 200 young men and women.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

CIA Will Soon Roll Out Death Squads to Deal With Activists in Eastern Ukraine

Brennan’s presence in Kyiv, however, was not simply intended to underscore U.S. support for the largely fascist junta, but also send a message to Russia that the CIA will now work with the neo-Nazi Andriy Parubiy, boss of the Ukrainian National Security Council, and other coup leaders as the eastern part of the country follows the path taken by Crimea…

Due to the ineptness of the junta and the failure of its eastern operation to prevent secession, the CIA will now step in and direct the effort which will, undoubtedly, result in the whole slaughter of Ukrainians opposed to the fascist regime installed by the United States.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Diplomacy Doesn’t Move Insurgents in Ukraine

DONETSK, Ukraine (AP) — Pro-Russian insurgents defiantly refused Friday to surrender their weapons or give up government buildings in eastern Ukraine, despite a diplomatic accord reached in Geneva and overtures from the government in Kiev…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

False Flag: Registry Fake Says Ukraine Jewish Advocacy Group

Culprits are in Kyiv and Washington

The CIA, in collusion with the State Department, is no longer able to pull off credible false flag operations.

No, Jews do not need to ‘register’ in the #Ukraine: http://t.co/1Cp9XgbFOK #Donetsk

— The Daily Dot (@dailydot) April 17, 2014

Hours after the Israeli media, dutifully echoed by USA Today, reported on leaflets demanding the registration of Jews in Ukraine — harking back to similar moves during the Nazi era — deputy director of the National Conference Supporting Jews (NCSJ), responsible for efforts in Russia, Ukraine, and the Baltic States, pronounced the leaflet bogus.

“It’s a fake flyer,” the deputy director, Lesley Weiss, told The Daily Dot. “It’s not true that they have to register or be deported,” he said after talking with Denis Pushilin, chairman of the pro-Russian Donetsk People’s Government.

The corporate media in the United States had insinuated the leaflets were distributed by pro-Russians in Donetsk, this feeding into hysterical propaganda warning of an imminent invasion by Russia of eastern Ukraine. The specter of anti-Semitism conjured the appropriate Nazi imagery of Kristallnacht and gas chambers at Auschwitz. It would have dovetailed nicely with the media campaign portraying Russian leader Vladimir Putin as Adolf Hitler.

Weiss said the flyers were designed to create anxiety among the city’s Jewish population that would be subsequently exploited in the West to portray pro-Russians as anti-Semitic. The Jewish community has dismissed the operation as a provocation, although it is uncertain who is responsible.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Pro-Russian Leader Rejects Geneva Agreement

A leader among pro-Russian activists occupying government buildings in eastern Ukraine has said his side will not move until Kyiv’s interim government steps down. This follows a de-escalation agreement made in Geneva.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Russia’s New Culture Policy a Weapon Against West

Moscow (AFP) — The Kremlin is preparing a new culture policy for Russia focusing on its distinctive civilisation and traditional values, which observers say has political ends amid Moscow’s standoff with the West.

At the end of four hours of questions Thursday in his annual call-in, President Vladimir Putin waxed philosophical on what it means to be Russian.

Russians not only have their own “cultural code,” he said, they also have a unique moral outlook — unlike Westerners, Russians are selfless and prone to self-sacrifice.

“These are the deep roots of our patriotism,” Putin said.

Tapping into perceived “traditional cultural values” of Russian civilisation, the culture ministry is drawing up a government strategy that observers say has all the trappings of a new state ideology, echoing Soviet legacy.

The authors preparing the document, who are kept secret, believe that such a policy must be based on the thesis that “Russia is not Europe” and generously quote from Putin’s speeches.

..1 Don Rickles .2 Lea Michele .3 Jordan XX9 .4 Joan of Shark .5 Kindle Fire HD .06 Victoria Beckham .07 Ronda Rousey .08 NBA mock draft .09 Kepler-186f .10 Ukrainian Jews …The policy states Russia is at a historical crossroads and must make a choice between cultural extinction or the preservation of its unique “moral and spiritual foundations,” which can only be done with a “state culture policy.”

An early version of the document has been leaked to the press and is currently being examined by a Kremlin working group chaired by one of President Vladimir Putin’s closest allies, chief of staff Sergei Ivanov, a former KGB agent recently blacklisted by the United States.

“Russia is an ancient, independent, distinctive civilisation,” culture minister Vladimir Medinsky said at a press conference Wednesday…

           — Hat tip: Takuan Seiyo [Return to headlines]
 

Russia Won’t Import GMOs, Has ‘Enough Space and Opportunities to Produce Organic Food’

(NaturalNews) Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has announced that Russia will not import any more GMO food products or seeds.

The Russian government has taken a bold stand against genetically altered food ingredients, believing there is no need for them in their country. Medvedev also declared that Russia has “enough space and opportunities to produce organic food,” and they will no longer be encouraging the production of GMOs.

He commented, “If the Americans like to eat GMO products, let them eat it then. We don’t need to do that.”

Russian Minister of Agriculture Nikolai Fydorov agrees, saying that Russia should remain free of genetically modified products to prevent its citizens from being poisoned.

[Comment: Many GMO plants are designed to produce their own built in insecticide, whereas before the plant produced none and you only ingested what was sprayed.]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Ukraine Crisis: Kiev Reaches Out to Eastern Rebels

Ukraine’s interim authorities have appealed for national unity and promised to meet some of the demands of pro-Russian protesters in the east of the country.

At talks in Geneva, Russia, Ukraine, the EU and US agreed that illegal military groups in Ukraine must leave official buildings, and that there should be an amnesty for anti-government protesters.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

US Financial Showdown With Russia is More Dangerous Than it Looks, For Both Sides

The US Treasury faces a more formidable prey with Russia, the world’s biggest producer of energy with a $2 trillion economy, superb scientists and a first-strike nuclear arsenal

The United States has constructed a financial neutron bomb. For the past 12 years an elite cell at the US Treasury has been sharpening the tools of economic warfare, designing ways to bring almost any country to its knees without firing a shot.

The strategy relies on hegemonic control over the global banking system, buttressed by a network of allies and the reluctant acquiescence of neutral states. Let us call this the Manhattan Project of the early 21st century.

“It is a new kind of war, like a creeping financial insurgency, intended to constrict our enemies’ financial lifeblood, unprecedented in its reach and effectiveness,” says Juan Zarate, the Treasury and White House official who helped spearhead policy after 9/11.

“The new geo-economic game may be more efficient and subtle than past geopolitical competitions, but it is no less ruthless and destructive,” he writes in his book Treasury’s War: the Unleashing of a New Era of Financial Warfare.

Bear this in mind as Washington tightens the noose on Vladimir Putin’s Russia, slowly shutting off market access for Russian banks, companies and state bodies with $714bn of dollar debt (Sberbank data).

The stealth weapon is a “scarlet letter”, devised under Section 311 of the US Patriot Act. Once a bank is tainted in this way — accused of money-laundering or underwriting terrorist activities, a suitably loose offence — it becomes radioactive, caught in the “boa constrictor’s lethal embrace”, as Mr Zarate puts it.

This can be a death sentence even if the lender has no operations in the US. European banks do not dare to defy US regulators. They sever all dealings with the victim.

So do the Chinese, as became clear in 2005 when the US hit Banco Delta Asia (BDA) in Macao for serving as a conduit for North Korean commercial piracy. China pulled the plug. BDA collapsed within two weeks. China also tipped off Washington when Mr Putin proposed a joint Sino-Russian attack on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac bonds in 2008, aiming to precipitate a dollar crash…

           — Hat tip: Takuan Seiyo [Return to headlines]
 

Brunei Implements Sharia: Non-Muslim Citizens Forbidden to Drink in Public Even When Abroad

So if you’re a Bruneian in Adelaide or Manila and it’s hot day and you’d like to toss back a couple of cold ones, just make sure there aren’t any other Bruneians around. This illustrates how close the congruence is between Sharia and life in totalitarian states, in which people grab small joys furtively, always looking over their shoulder to make sure no informants are around.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Cleric Names Library After Usama Bin Laden at Pakistani Girls School

Most didn’t notice the new library at this Islamic seminary for girls near Pakistan’s capital, until locals saw the paper sign in Urdu posted on its wooden door: “Library of Usama bin Laden, the Martyr.”

Cleric Maulana Abdul Aziz, a radical preacher who runs the Jamia Hafsa madrassa, wanted to honor the memory of the al Qaeda leader, killed in a May 2011 raid by U.S. Navy SEALs on his hiding place in Abbottabad, a garrison town about 75 miles north of the capital, Islamabad.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Everest Avalanche Kills Nepalese Guides Ahead of Peak Season

At least a dozen climbers have been killed in an avalanche on Mount Everest, in what is the worst accident to ever hit the world’s highest peak. It has come just weeks ahead of peak climbing season.

All the dead are believed to be Nepalese sherpas who were preparing the route ahead of the start of peak climbing season, according to officials.

Nearly 4,000 people have climbed Mount Everest since 1953, when Sir Edmund Hillary of New Zealand and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay first scaled the 8,850-meter (29,035-foot) summit. Nearly 250 people have died on the mountain.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Nepal: At Least 12 Dead, 4 Missing After Avalanche Sweeps Mount Everest

KATMANDU, Nepal — An avalanche swept down a climbing route on Mount Everest early Friday, killing at least 12 Nepalese guides and leaving four missing in the deadliest disaster on the world’s highest peak.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Pakistan Library Named ‘Bin Laden’ In Islamic School

An Islamic seminary for women in Pakistan’s capital Islamabad has renamed its library after Osama Bin Laden, the former al-Qaeda chief. The Jamia Hafsa Madrassa is linked to the Red Mosque, known for its alleged links with militants.

The chief cleric there is Maulana Abdul Aziz. He warned that “if the government makes madrassas and mosques its target then Sharia (Islamic law) allows us to retaliate — if anyone will be harsh with us, they should not expect flowers in return”.

He also uses the library as his office. It has about 2,000 books — all of them related to Islam.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Slumdog Midfielder: Teenager, 16, Whose Mother is a Prostitute, To Train With Manchester United

The teenage son of a sex-worker who grew up in the slums of one of India’s largest cities has been chosen to train with Manchester United.

Rajib Roy, who shares a single room with his mother and brother in the red light district of Kolkata, West Bengal, is set to play football at Old Trafford after being spotted by talent scouts.

The 16-year-old is one of 11 teens arriving in the UK this weekend to spend two weeks training with Manchester United’s coaches.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

2 Charts That Put the Chinese Pollution Crisis in Perspective

No one now alive has experienced anything similar in North America or Europe, except in the middle of a forest fire or a volcanic eruption.

Everyone “knows” that China is badly polluted. I’ve written over the years, and still believe, that environmental sustainability in all forms is China’s biggest emergency, in every sense: for its people, for its government, for its effect on the world. And yes, I understand that the same is true for modern industrialized life in general. But China is an extreme case, and an extremely important one because of its scale.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Arrest Warrant Issued for Captain of Capsized South Korean Ferry

An arrest warrant has been issued for the captain of the South Korean ferry that capsized Wednesday. Officials continue to battle poor weather conditions in their search for more than 260 missing passengers.

The cause of the accident is still unknown and investigators have refused to comment on reports that the ferry turned before it listed to port and capsized.

Search efforts have been hampered by low visibility and strong currents. Officials have confirmed 28 deaths, however that number is expected to rise sharply with 268 people still missing.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Arrest Warrant Sought for Ferry Captain; Rescued School Official Found Hanged

Prosecutors say they’ve asked a court to issue an arrest warrant for the captain of the South Korean ferry that sank two days ago — leaving at least 28 dead and hundreds missing — as the investigation into the disaster focused on steering decisions and whether a quicker evacuation order by the captain could have saved more lives.

Also Friday, a high school vice principal who had been rescued from the ferry was found hanged from a tree on Jindo, an island near the wreckage where rescued passengers have been housed.

The vice principal, identified as Kang Min-kyu, was the lead guide for 323 students on a school trip. He said in a suicide note that he felt guilty for being alive while more than 200 of his students were missing.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Blogger Becomes First to be Jailed in China’s Official Crackdown on Internet Rumours

A Chinese court jailed a blogger for three years on Thursday, state media reported, the first person to be sentenced in a government-led crackdown on so-called internet rumours.

Qin Zhihui, who was among hundreds of bloggers reportedly detained in an official campaign to assert greater control over China’s popular social media, was found guilty of “slander” and “picking quarrels and provoking troubles”, state broadcaster CCTV said.

China has said the rumour crackdown launched last year is aimed at maintaining social order, but rights groups have accused Beijing of limiting freedom of speech online to protect the ruling Communist Party.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Chinese Blogger Jailed After Crackdown on ‘Internet Rumours’

A Chinese court has jailed a blogger for three years, state media has reported — the first person to be sentenced in a government-led crackdown on so-called internet rumours.

Qin Zhihui, one of hundreds of bloggers reportedly detained in an official campaign to assert greater control over China’s popular social media, was found guilty of “slander” and “picking quarrels and provoking troubles”, state broadcaster CCTV said on Thursday.

China has said the crackdown launched last year is aimed at maintaining social order, but rights groups have accused Beijing of limiting freedom of speech online to protect the ruling Communist party.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Kim Jong-un Edits His Powerful Aunt Out of History

The previously powerful aunt of Kim Jong-un has been edited out of a North Korean documentary, indicating that she has become the latest member of Pyongyang’s old guard to be deposed.

Analysts do not believe, however, that Kim Kyong-hui has met the same fate as her late husband, Jang Song-taek, who was publicly denounced in December and executed for crimes against the state.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Report: One Fifth of China’s Soil Contaminated

Almost a fifth of China’s soil is contaminated, an official study released by the government has shown. Conducted between 2005-2013, it found that 16.1% of China’s soil and 19.4% of its arable land showed contamination. The report, by the Environmental Protection Ministry, named cadmium, nickel and arsenic as top pollutants.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

SCMP: Finnish Man’s Toblerone Hijack Trial Starts in Hong Kong

The trial of a Finnish man charged with attempting to hijack a Cathay Pacific flight has begun in Hong Kong. The South China Morning Post reports that the plane’s crew claim the man brandished a large stick of chocolate like a sword and claimed that there was a bomb on board the plane.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Deadly Attack on UN Base in South Sudan

South Sudanese gunmen have killed up to 50 civilians sheltering at a UN base. The shelter was home to at least 5,000 people who had fled four months of ethnic violence.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Germany Participates in West African Naval Exercises

Seeking greater military involvement in Africa, the German navy is participating in the “Obangame Express” military exercise in the Gulf of Guinea. Training local soldiers in search vessels plays a big role.

More than 30 warships from 20 countries are engaged in major maneuvers along the West African cost. In addition to 11 West African nations, France, Germany, Portugal, Spain and the Netherlands as well as Denmark, Turkey, Brazil and the United States have dispatched ships, making the training maneuver one of Africa’s largest…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Kenya: 65 Suspected Shabaab Militia Arrested in Ruiru

65 Ethiopians suspected to be members of the Al Shabaab were arrested this morning in Ruiru.

The suspects were living in a gated home on the Thika superhighway near Rainbow hotel. Ruiru Ocpd Isaac Thuranira said the police were tipped off by a resident…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

West African Ebola Outbreak Caused by New Strain of Disease: Study

An Ebola outbreak blamed for 135 deaths in West Africa in the past month was not imported from Central Africa but caused by a new strain of the disease, a study in a U.S. medical journal said, raising the specter of further regional epidemics.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Coffee Soars 8.1% as Brazil Crop’s Drought Damage Seen Expanding

Coffee futures surged 8.1 percent, the most in six weeks, as concerns mounted that crop losses from a drought will increase in Brazil, the world’s biggest producer and exporter.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Scurvy Was Common in Columbus’s Colony

SANTO DOMINGO, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC—Scurvy, a disease caused by a severe vitamin C deficiency, may have contributed to the decline of La Isabela, the colony established by Christopher Columbus on his second voyage across the Atlantic Ocean. “There were lots of diseases, fevers, epidemics, we know from their writing. It seems no one was spared. But apparently scurvy played a big role,” archaeologist Vera Tiesler of Mexico’s Universidad Autonoma de Yucatán told National Geographic News.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Ex-Northern League Official Guilty of Kyenge Monkey Post

Racial slur against minister on Facebook one of many

(ANSA) — Brescia, April 17 — A former official with the anti-immigrant Northern League was sentenced to two months in jail Thursday for aggravated defamation after he posted a photo of former integration minister Cecile Kyenge with a picture of a monkey on Facebook.

Agostino Pedrali, who had been a League commissioner for social services in the city of Coccaglio, near Brescia in northeastern Italy, was charged over a posting on the social media site last July that put the two photos together with the caption “separated at birth”.

He was forced to resign a few days later amidst an outcry over the post, one of numerous racial attacks on the Congo-born Kyenge — Italy’s first black cabinet minister — that most often came from the Northern League.

Pedrali later said the Facebook post was a “clumsy attempt” to diffuse tension over other incidents involving Kyenge.

Following the court ruling, organized labour and human rights groups expressed satisfaction with the sentence, saying the court showed sensitivity and took action to try to protect human rights.

Kyenge last year called the repeated attacks by the League “intolerable” and demanded the party’s national chief, Lombardy Governor Roberto Maroni, do something to put an end to them.

Other League members posted photos on Facebook and used television ads to compare Kyenge to a gorilla, copying one of the most egregious attacks from Senator Roberto Calderoli who compared her to an orangutan.

Calderoli defended his comments as a “joke”, triggering numerous copycat slurs.

In another incident, mannequins smeared with blood-red paint and anti-immigrant messages were found in the town of Cervia just as Kyenge arrived there for political meetings where someone in the audience threw a banana in reference to the slurs.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Deception: Christian Publisher Sells Soul for Mammon

WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group is planning to release, through its liberal sister imprint Convergent Books, a manuscript paradoxically titled God and the Gay Christian: The Biblical Case in Support of Same-Sex Relationships.

Is the Christian world about to suffer through another World Vision moment?

The book’s author, Matthew Vines, is a homosexual activist and Bible revisionist known for manipulating Christian terminology to advance the counter-Christian homosexualist agenda.

Despite his frequent use of a Christian-like lexicon, Vines surprisingly admits to running an apostate enterprise that he calls The Reformation Project. An unabashed denier of Biblical teaching on sexual morality, Vines has publicly acknowledged that his goal is to “reform church teaching on sexual orientation and gender identity.” The book is scheduled to be published on April 22, 2014…

So, not only does Convergent have the same head as WaterBrook Multnomah (Steve Cobb), it also has the same body (staffers) and, apparently, the same everything else. Convergent is simply WaterBrook Multnomah by another name.

Is it any wonder that the company’s Christian employees are upset? Moreover, is it any wonder that WaterBrook Multnomah allegedly wants them silenced? Convergent’s sole purpose is evidently to both print and make tons of money from counter-Biblical books that would otherwise set off a firestorm if printed under the WaterBrook Multnomah banner.

Same company, different mask.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Fake Feminists Attack Kirsten Dunst for Pro-Woman Beliefs (Video)

Femininity has lost its value and motherhood has become a dirty word.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Internet and Broadcast Media Hate Bill Introduced in Senate

So-called hate speech has a wide and often political interpretation

Sen. Ed Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat, has introduced The Hate Crime Reporting Act of 2014 (S.2219) in the Senate.

The legislation proposes updating a twenty year old report on the role the internet, radio and TV allegedly play “in encouraging hate crimes based on gender, race, religion, ethnicity, or sexual orientation.” The report would then be submitted to respective committees in the House and Senate for action.

So-called hate speech has a wide interpretation. In addition to going after people who do not follow politically correct etiquette (for instance, Christians who oppose homosexuality), hate crime definitions often include political speech unacceptable to the establishment orthodoxy.

Liberals now routinely characterize patriot groups as part of the hate constellation that includes the Ku Klux Klan and white supremacists. For instance, media attention, according to Mother Jones, the George Soros funded magazine, put the Oath Keepers “on the radar of anti-hate groups. Last year, the Anti-Defamation League and the Southern Poverty Law Center both name-checked the group in their reports on rising anti-government extremism.” The group does not espouse hatred against racial minorities, homosexuals, or other government preferred groups. It was established to advocate members, who are current and former U.S. military and law enforcement, disobey orders given if they believe those orders violate the Constitution.

The Southern Poverty Law Center routinely conflates racial hatred with so-called anti-government extremism. For the SPLC and liberals in general, distrust and even hatred of the government is a crime on par with racism or homophobia. Many leftist libs insist tea party and patriot groups are “channeling the spirit of Timothy McVeigh,” thus conjuring dangerous hatred the government must address.

Beyond the rhetoric and boundless hyperbole espoused by people who defend government and are on a crusade in favor of minorities, there is a more practical objective to Sen. Markey’s proposed legislation — to deny their political enemies the right to practice the First Amendment and utilize broadcast and internet technology to disseminate it.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Islam on Track — Stealing Our Children With Common Core

Obama has tricked, in his Saul Alinsky way, at least 46 states to exchange the government school curriculum, Common Core, for their state curriculum. The money-troubled states jumped on the bandwagon with the contrived “race to the top” contest. They were promised big money if they would use the government curriculum, Common Core, instead of the state version they were using. The trap was sprung with most state education leaders apparently inspired by the great sell-out, Nancy Pelosi. How could we forget her famous words regarding the other horror show — Obamacare? “You have to pass it first, then read it later.” That is exactly what most states did — accept the money and the federal curriculum sight unseen.

I have been warning and screaming against Common Core for years now, talking every week with Ruth Bryant White of Breaking News Journal, Christina Michas, and other leaders shining the light on this madness. The more I research, interview victims, and look at the real lesson plans, I realize that this is a direct and evil plan of Islam, Communism, and the New World Order. It is an evil caliphate in full swing that plans to steal, data mine, and control the minds, work choices, and dreams of our children. No more critical and original-thinking by children will be allowed. They will be dumbed-down, pounded down, and focused into the Islamic and Communist cattle chute. Gifted and slower children will be lost, as dreams and uniqueness are exchanged for sameness and compromise.

If Common Core is allowed to proceed, it will make the damage of Obamacare look like a cakewalk. All children, teachers, and schools, private and public, will be controlled and damaged beyond recognition. It will indoctrinate our children into Islam, demonize Christianity and our Judeo-Christian values, push no right and wrong regarding sexual behavior and choice, but rather smother us with the gay agenda, porn, and acting out.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Liberals and Progressives, Telling Other People How to Live Their Lives

Liberals and progressives (LPs) like to control and micromanage other people’s lives. They consider themselves the ultimate arbiter of every facet of our existence. You could say they are the proverbial busy-bodies.

You can ignore the busy-body down the block. But, if you ignore liberals and progressives who have the power of the HOA, of violent protests, of boycotts, of the law, of the purse, and of the police behind them, you do so at your own peril.

* LPs may be a minority of the population but they have their tentacles deeply embedded into the majority and into our national psyche, driving the message and the conversation and squashing dissent with labels of bigotry, racism, xenophobia, and islamophobia.

Americans are trained to comply peacefully, follow and respect law and order, no matter how badly conceived a law may be. After all, 435 chosen ones have voted and decided and 316 million subjects must obey.

* The LP unholy alliance takes over our children at an early age in pre-school, telling them how to think, what to think, what to believe in, whom to recognize as ultimate authority, feeding them a manufactured history that would shame them into hating who they are instead of being proud of their heritage.

*The LP alliance teaches our children intolerance of divergent opinions, racism, inappropriate sexuality, worship of primitive cultures, and staunch divisiveness in the stated propagandizing pursuit of equality, social justice, and fundamental transformation into an environmental utopia ruled by Mother Earth.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Mark Steyn: The Slow Death of Free Speech

How the Left, here and abroad, is trying to shut down debate — from Islam and Israel to global warming and gay marriage

These days, pretty much every story is really the same story:…

           — Hat tip: DS [Return to headlines]
 

Pro-Common Core Deception Falling Apart

Facing a growing avalanche of grassroots opposition from teachers, parents, and voters across the political spectrum, pro-Common Core forces — Big Business, Big Media, the Obama administration, and more — are striking back at their critics, oftentimes with outright deception and utterly ridiculous claims. However, under even a modicum of scrutiny, the absurd allegations and unsubstantiated statements made by proponents of the Obama administration-funded nationalization of education standards promptly fall apart. It appears, then, that while Common Core supporters have the big bucks — much of it from U.S. taxpayers, most of the rest from Big Business and the Gates Foundation — advocates for local control and proper education have the truth on their side.

– — From the outset, the shadowy development and nationwide imposition of the widely criticized national K-12 standards have been shrouded in deception. The oft-parroted myth that Common Core was in any way “state-led,” for example, has been thoroughly discredited by this publication and many others, including by some of the nation’s top experts in the field. Claims that the nationalized standards would improve education have also been widely debunked, even by some of the respected educators who sat on the largely for-show “Common Core Validation Committee.” The content experts in both English and Mathematics refused to sign off on the standards, citing poor quality, incorrect math, and more.

Meanwhile, Common Core financier and population-control fanatic Bill Gates inadvertently exposed the lie that the standards did not represent a takeover of the curriculum. “Last month, 46 Governors and Chief State School Officers made a public commitment to embrace these common standards,” Gates said during a speech at the 2009 National Conference of State Legislators. “This is encouraging — but identifying common standards is not enough. We’ll know we’ve succeeded when the curriculum and the tests are aligned to these standards.”

The notion that the federal government and the Obama administration were not involved in the whole scheme to centralize control over schools is so absurd that pro-Common Core zealots appear to have largely stopped making the claim. The national Common Core testing regime, for instance, is being financed by the federal government. The shadowy D.C.-based National Governors Association (NGA) and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) also receive large sums of taxpayer cash, much of it through the federal government. Of course, as The New American has documented extensively, the Obama administration used billions of taxpayer dollars to bribe and bludgeon states into imposing Common Core, too.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

UK: The Jamaican Murderer We Can’t Deport Because He Claims to be Gay

An illegal immigrant who stabbed a 15-year-old boy to death less than a year after arriving in Britain cannot be deported because he claims to be gay, a court has ruled.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

University Wants Fewer Whites — Fears “Mediocrity”

If you thought the “educator” who saw “racist” intent behind offering someone a peanut-butter sandwich was a loon, consider Western Washington University (WWU) president Bruce Shepard. Always on the lookout for ways to improve his institution’s academic integrity, he recently circulated a school-wide questionnaire and asked, “How do we make sure that in future years ‘we are not as white as we are today?’“

Apparently, Shepard has been gnashing his teeth over this problem for quite a while. As Kaitlyn Schallhorn at Campus Reform reports, el presidente said in a 2012 speech, “Every year, from this stage and at this time, you have heard me say that, if in decades ahead, we are as white as we are today, we will have failed as university.”

Hey, forget the old measures of academic success, such as if students know what’s in the Constitution, have a grasp of basic history and civics, can perform rudimentary mathematical calculations and properly use the language (for Shep’s benefit, I refer to English). It’s now all about melanin content.

And if you disagree with this thesis, then hope you’re just an ignorant rube.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

What Charles Murray Doesn’t Get About Women and Philosophy

Noah Berlatsky

The conservative author believes that women have contributed little to major philosophical traditions because men are better abstract thinkers.

“No woman has been a significant original thinker in any of the world’s great philosophical traditions.” So said the author Charles Murray in a 2005 essay titled “The Inequality Taboo,” in which he argued that men are better at abstract thinking than women are.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Finding Turns Neuroanatomy on Its Head

Harvard neuroscientists have made a discovery that turns 160 years of neuroanatomy on its head.

Myelin, the electrical insulating material long known to be essential for the fast transmission of impulses along the axons of nerve cells, is not as ubiquitous as thought, according to a new work lead by Professor Paola Arlotta of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI) and the University’s Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology, in collaboration with Professor Jeff Lichtman, of Harvard’s Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Researchers Clone Cells From Two Adult Men

After years of failed attempts, researchers have successfully generated stem cells from adults. The process could provide a new way for scientists to generate healthy replacements for diseased or damaged cells in patients

After years of failed attempts, researchers have finally generated stem cells from adults using the same cloning technique that produced Dolly the sheep in 1996.

In this case, cells from a 35-year-old man and a 75-year-old man were used to generate two separate lines of stem cells. The process, known as nuclear transfer, involves taking the DNA from a donor and inserting it into an egg that has been stripped of its DNA. The resulting hybrid is stimulated to fuse and start dividing; after a few days the “embryo” creates a lining of stem cells that are destined to develop into all of the cells and tissues in the human body. Researchers extract these cells and grow them in the lab, where they are treated with the appropriate growth factors and other agents to develop into specific types of cells, like neurons, muscle, or insulin-producing cells.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

This Rolling, Transforming Droid is the Stuff of Nightmares (Video)

So, this is how it starts. You hear a crunch, crunch, crunch — the sound of an imperfectly-round plastic ball rolling over concrete, chasing you down an alley. You look back and you see this… thing. It was a sphere a few seconds ago, but now is an ambling, walking machine of death. The top opens like a flower, or like a nuclear launch silo, whatever simile you prefer. In any case, the MorpHex is a robot that looks like it’s straight out of your (my?) nightmares.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Why There Will be a Robot Uprising

In the movie Transcendence, which opens in theaters on Friday, a sentient computer program embarks on a relentless quest for power, nearly destroying humanity in the process.

The film is science fiction but a computer scientist and entrepreneur Steven Omohundro says that “anti-social” artificial intelligence in the future is not only possible, but probable, unless we start designing AI systems very differently today.

Omohundro’s most recent paper, published in the Journal of Experimental & Theoretical Artificial Intelligence, lays out the case.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

4 thoughts on “Gates of Vienna News Feed 4/18/2014

  1. Robots are akready in control! They are called “Proggressives”…..

    • Well, this “progressive” thinks for himself, or I’d hardly be reading Your Grace’s comment.

  2. @UK: Multiculturalism vs. Islamism

    The Italian academic Lorenzo Vidino has observed: [6]

    “The British multicultural model has traditionally relied heavily on community leaders who act as trusted intermediaries between the community and the state, to whom the latter can delegate the administration of various services. No such class existed among the masses of poorly educated South Asian immigrants in postwar Britain. The situation created the opportunity for the Mawdudists [Jamaat-e-Islami], thanks to their superior resources, organizational skills and good understanding of the British political system to surpass other groups in the competition for the role of community leaders.”

    That is what multiculturalism does it usurps intermediaries for totality. The British political system (due to its archaic class system) is particularly susceptible to Islamic supremacists.

    One of the reasons why the fight back has become such a long slog has been the usurping of the indigenous intermediaries, this is noticeable in the nullified representation of the white working class and their hostility towards immigration and multiculturalism.

  3. The article “Researchers Clone Cells From Two Adult Men” has at least one inaccuracy: “But the process requires a good supply of eggs, which have to be donated by healthy volunteers. That raises ethical concerns since the technique could produce human clones.”

    Correction: This nuclear-transfer process does “produce human clones”; see the 2 cases where it “worked”: they are clones of the donors of the nuclei.

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