Gates of Vienna News Feed 3/28/2015

According to a recent study by the Bertelsmann Foundation, Germany will require up to half a million non-EU immigrants every year over the next 35 years. If it fails to maintain that level of immigration, its working-age population will fall by about a third.

In other news, the Saudi ambassador to Sweden has returned to Stockholm after Sweden apologized for insulting the Kingdom when Minister for Foreign Affairs Margot Wallström talked about human rights.

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

Thanks to Fjordman, Insubria, JD, Kitman, 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
» Paper: Stock Market Rigging No Longer ‘Conspiracy Theory’
» Santelli Stunned as Janet Yellen Admits “Cash is Not a Store of Value”
» This is Why You Need Your Money Out of the Bank: Freeze Outs, Glitches and Holds Increasingly Locking Customers Out of Funds
 
USA
» Alabama Ex-Cop Hit With Federal Charge After Injuring Indian Grandfather
» Austin Police Label Infowars Engineer ‘Sovereign Citizen, ‘ Gang Member for Challenging Improper Application of Traffic Law
» Beyond Denial: Preparations for Martial Law in America
» Head of House Benghazi Probe Says Hillary Clinton Wiped Email Server ‘Clean’
» Hillary Clinton Wiped Email Server Clean, Refuses to Turn it Over
» MSM Caught Lying: Breaking Jade Helm Update — Video
» New Study: Monsanto’s Herbicides Are Breeding Super Bugs
» Refuting Objections: But Nullification Isn’t in the Constitution!
» Tele-Com Insider Reveals NSA Spygrid Blueprint
 
Europe and the EU
» CERN Battles Short Circuit Behind LHC Delay
» Italy: Indian National Sentenced to 23 Yrs in Double Homicide
» Italy: Soccer: Court Cancels Moggi Jail Term in ‘Calciopoli’
» Italy: League Secretary Can Also be Milan Mayor, Veneto Chief Says
» Pilot Andreas Lubitz’s Ex-Girlfriend Says He Shared Chilling Prophecy Before Alps Crash
» Platini Re-Elected UEFA President for 3rd Term
» Polish Priest Sentenced to 7 Years for Pedophilia
» Saudi Ambassador Returns to Sweden
» Sweden: Nobel Laureate Tomas Tranströmer Dies at 83
» Sweden Democrat Head: ‘I’m on Antidepressants’
» Sweden: Saudi Ambassador to Return to Stockholm
» Tech Firm Claims Facebook Stole Secrets
» UK: BBC Won’t Renew Top Gear’s Clarkson Contract
» UK: Tasnime Akunjee Says Muslims Shouldn’t Co-Operate With Police
» ‘Unholy Alliance’ of Islamists Threatens Sweden — Spy Chief
» Why Would a 28-Year-Old Co-Pilot Intentionally Crash His Plane, Killing 150 People?
 
North Africa
» Gentiloni Says Tunisia’s 25 Mn Euro Debt Cancelled
» Tunisia: Lions Club Strong Help to “Children of the Moon”
 
Middle East
» Arab League: Leaders Discuss Unified Military Force While Saudi-Led Air Strikes in Yemen Target Houthi Militia Dubbed ‘Iran’s Puppet’
» How Yemen’s US-Backed Ex-Dictator is Tearing His Country Apart
» UN Says Israel, Not Iran, North Korea or Syria Worst Violator of Human Rights
 
Russia
» Russia Builds Miles of Nuke Bunkers While US Does Nothing
 
South Asia
» In Singapore, Lee Kuan Yew Built a Welfare State That Works
» Taliban Video Shows Fighters Parading Through Captured US Military Base in Afghanistan
 
Far East
» Asia’s About to Spawn a New Tiger Economy: Good Morning, Vietnam
» Philippine President: Give Muslims Self-Rule or “Count Body Bags”
» The Place Where China Began Its One-Child Policy is Dying
 
Sub-Saharan Africa
» Al-Shabab Siege at Somali Hotel Ends, At Least 24 Dead
» Mogadishu Hotel Attack: 10 Dead in Al Shabab Bombing as Fighting Continues Between Somali Forces and Militants
 
Latin America
» Mexico’s Mid-Terms Scheduled for June
 
Immigration
» DHS Secretary: ‘Thousands’ of Unaccompanied Children Still Crossing Into U.S.
» Germany Needs More Immigration from Non-EU Countries: Study
» Illegal Accused of Holding Pregnant Woman Captive for Months in Rape Dungeon
 
Culture Wars
» Baker in Ireland Attacked by Government for His Christian Conviction
» Censorship by Design: Criminalization of Child Evangelism
» Italy: CEI Slams Civil-Union Bill for Same-Sex Couples
» Italy: Five-Day-After Pill Without Prescription Says AIFA
» Sex Education Part of Longterm Social Engineering
 
General
» Twin Earths May Lurk in Our Nearest Star System
 

Paper: Stock Market Rigging No Longer ‘Conspiracy Theory’

The stock market is rigged.

When I started making that claim years ago — and provided solid evidence — people scoffed. Some called it a conspiracy theory, tinfoil hats and that sort of stuff. Most people just ignored me.

But that’s not happening anymore. The dirty secret is out.

With stock prices rushing far ahead of economic reality over the last six or so years, more experts in the financial markets are coming to the same conclusion — even if they don’t fully understand how it’s being rigged or the consequences.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Santelli Stunned as Janet Yellen Admits “Cash is Not a Store of Value”

Intended warning or unintended slip? After Alan Greenspan’s confessional admission that

“Gold is a currency. It is still, by all evidence, a premier currency. No fiat currency, including the dollar, can match it,”

we found it remarkable that during the Q&A after her speech today that Janet Yellen, when asked about negative rates, admitted that

“cash in not a very convenient store of value,”

seemingly hinting at Bernanke’s helicopter and that there will be no deflation in The US ever…

Rick Santelli then sums it all up perfectly…

“deflation is clearly the boogeyman… and the only thing that will save the middle class.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

This is Why You Need Your Money Out of the Bank: Freeze Outs, Glitches and Holds Increasingly Locking Customers Out of Funds

If ever you needed a better motivation to get your funds out of the bank, this is a clear sign that a digital clampdown is coming.

There are increasing examples of technology failures and stricter bank policies that are keep people from getting their money.

And they are happening all across the globe.

Ulster Bank in Ireland just made news after customers were locked out of their accounts by a glitch that disabled access to wage money:…

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Alabama Ex-Cop Hit With Federal Charge After Injuring Indian Grandfather

The police officer caught on video violently throwing down a 57-year-old Indian grandfather on a sidewalk in Alabama in February was indicted Friday on a civil rights charge, federal prosecutors announced.

Eric Parker, who was fired from the Madison Police Department after the Feb. 6 incident, was charged with deprivation of rights under color of law. Under the Constitution, the law allows people the “right to be free from the use of unreasonable force,” according to the indictment released by U.S. Attorney Joyce White Vance in the Northern District of Alabama. The charge carries up to 10 years in prison.

Parker was identified as the officer seen on dash-cam video throwing Sureshbhai Patel to the ground. Patel, who does not speak English, had been visiting his son’s home in Madison when he was stopped after someone called police to report a “skinny black guy” walking around the neighborhood.

[Comment: Watch the video.]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Austin Police Label Infowars Engineer ‘Sovereign Citizen, ‘ Gang Member for Challenging Improper Application of Traffic Law

Austin cops call Infowars technician “dangerous” in confidential documents.

An arrest record obtained by Infowars shows that APD considers the technician to be gang affiliated and a member of the sovereign citizen movement, despite him never having been convicted or arrested on a gang related charge, nor self-identifying as a sovereign citizen.

The contractors’ arrest record inexplicably contains notes warning officers that he is a “DANGEROUS” individual even though he has no history of violence.

Under “Additional remarks,” one of Austin’s finest has also added “10-0 (caution) SOVEREIGN CITIZEN.”

The document reveals how local police departments are bending to the “domestic extremist” narrative promulgated by the FBI and the SPLC, which demonizes nearly all citizens who peacefully challenge laws as dangerous, cop-hating “sovereign” revolutionaries hellbent on anarchy.

In this case, the Infowars technician’s challenge of the improper application of traffic laws, a simple, non-violent challenge within the court system, prompted local authorities to inappropriately brand him a “sovereign citizen,” considered by the FBI to be one of the “nation’s top domestic terror threats,” according to CBS News.

The erroneous notes also endanger the Infowars contractor’s life. During casual encounters the labels can be seen by other officers, who might maintain an offensive posture and treat the situation with a higher degree of apprehensiveness.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Beyond Denial: Preparations for Martial Law in America

The establishment media’s reaction to the upcoming Jade Helm military exercise has characterized concerns about the drill as being founded in nothing more than “right-wing paranoia,” but the exhaustive history of how the federal government and the U.S. Army have made preparations for martial law in America is beyond denial.

Jade Helm, a “realistic” military training exercise which will involve the Green Berets, Navy Seals, and the 82nd Airborne Division, is set to take place from July 15-Sepember 15 and will cover at least nine U.S. states.

As we reported yesterday, the exercise will involve soldiers operating “undetected amongst civilian populations,” to see if they can infiltrate without being noticed.

The drill stoked concerns after Texas and Utah were labeled “hostile” territory in documents related to the exercise. However, when Infowars drew attention to the issue, numerous mainstream news outlets reacted by regurgitating Army talking points about how the drill was solely focused on preparing U.S. troops for overseas missions. Those same outlets also demonized anyone who questioned that narrative as engaging in alarmism and paranoia.

The history of the federal government and the U.S. military’s preparations for martial law in America is manifestly provable. That is not to say that a military takeover is imminent, but to dismiss the militarization of law enforcement and verifiable plans for using troops to deal with domestic unrest as “alarmist” or mere “conspiracy theory” is completely erroneous.

Despite assurances by the Army that Jade Helm is to prepare troops for overseas missions, Army documents in the past have made clear that plans for martial law are in place for within the Continental United States (CONUS).

– A leaked 2012 US Army Military Police training manual, entitled “Civil Disturbance Operations,” described how soldiers would be ordered to confiscate firearms and kill American “dissidents.” The manual also revealed that prisoners would be detained in temporary internment camps and “re-educated” to gain a new appreciation of “U.S. policies,” in accordance with U.S. Army FM 3-19.40 Internment/Resettlement Operations.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Head of House Benghazi Probe Says Hillary Clinton Wiped Email Server ‘Clean’

Hillary Clinton wiped her email server “clean,” permanently deleting all emails from it, the leader of the House committee investigating the 2012 terror attacks in Benghazi said Friday.

Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., said the former secretary of state has failed to produce a single new document in recent weeks and has refused to relinquish her server to a third party for an independent review, as Gowdy has requested.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Hillary Clinton Wiped Email Server Clean, Refuses to Turn it Over

Former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has refused to turn her email server over to an independent third party and claims she has wiped the server clean, dealing a setback to the special investigative committee looking into the 2012 Benghazi terrorist attack, the probe said late Friday.

Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy said the whole House will have to decide what the next steps are in the push to pry information from Mrs. Clinton, but said she will likely have to appear and testify on her decision-making about her emails, setting up another dramatic showdown between the former first lady and her congressional critics.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

MSM Caught Lying: Breaking Jade Helm Update — Video

Retired Staff Sergeant Joe Biggs breaks down the current crop of talking points and outright lies by the Pentagon and Main Stream Media as they attempt to discredit and smear infowars.com.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

New Study: Monsanto’s Herbicides Are Breeding Super Bugs

Recently, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced that it had classified glyphosate, the United States’ most widely used herbicide chemical, as “probably carcinogenic to humans.” As if we need another reason to ban Roundup (which contains glyphosate), there is now evidence that the chemicals in Monsanto’s best-selling herbicide also cause antibiotic resistance in harmful bacteria like Escherichia coli and Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium.

The study abstract states:

“Increasingly common chemicals…can induce a multiple-antibiotic resistance phenotype in potential pathogens. The effect occurs upon simultaneous exposure to antibiotics and is faster than the lethal effect of antibiotics. The magnitude of the induced response may undermine antibiotic therapy and substantially increase the probability of spontaneous mutation to higher levels of resistance.

The combination of high use of both herbicides and antibiotics in proximity to farm animals and important insects, such as honeybees, might also compromise their therapeutic effects and drive greater use of antibiotics. To address the crisis of antibiotic resistance requires broadening our view of environmental contributors to the evolution of resistance.” Along with commercial formulations of the herbicides Dicamba, 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid, glyphosate was shown by researchers at Oregon State University to induce an adaptive multiple-antibiotic resistance phenotype.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Refuting Objections: But Nullification Isn’t in the Constitution!

A common complaint among detractors of nullification is that, as they see it, “James Madison was the author of the Constitution and since he didn’t include nullification in the document, it can’t be done.”

This attitude holds that the feds get to do whatever they want, as long as it’s not specifically prohibited by the Constitution, while the states have to receive their authority from the Constitution or the feds. This argument completely flips the entire structure of the Constitution on its head. It also ignores what Madison later wrote about nullification in the Virginia Resolutions and later in Notes on Nullification.

The federal government is only authorized to exercise those powers delegated to it in the Constitution, not the states. While states are expressly prohibited from doing some things in the Constitution, mostly listed in Article I, Section 10, it’s the federal government that can’t do something if it’s “not included in the document.”

The Constitution was written to define the limited powers of this central government. Meanwhile, the states retained any powers not specifically delegated to the feds. This is exactly what Madison later wrote in Federalist 45: “The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite“ (bold emphasis added).

The Tenth Amendment also confirms this relationship between the states and the feds when it speaks of “delegated” powers to the federal government.

“The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people” (bold emphasis added).

The argument that nullification is illegal because isn’t in the Constitution falls apart under even the gentlest scrutiny. If the states must specifically receive authority from the U.S. Constitution and not even their own constitutions, then logically it must follow that every law they pass and legal action they take that is not mentioned in the Constitution must be considered illegal. Plain reasoning demonstrates how absurd this is.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Tele-Com Insider Reveals NSA Spygrid Blueprint

Alex Jones talks with James Knox about the NSA spygrid and what he learned working as a contractor.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

CERN Battles Short Circuit Behind LHC Delay

Team will attempt to remove small metal debris left over from upgrade work, without opening massive magnet.

Days before it was supposed to start circulating protons again after a two-year hiatus, the world’s largest particle accelerator has developed a short circuit. The team behind the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is now evaluating its options to determine whether the problem will cause a delay of days or months.

“An intermittent short circuit to ground in one of the machine’s magnet circuits was identified on 21 March and is under investigation,” says a 24 March statement from the CERN, Europe’s particle-physics lab near Geneva, Switzerland, which hosts the LHC.

The suspicion is that the short circuit, which is interrupting the power supply to one of the accelerator’s magnets, is caused by a piece of debris. “A small metallic object is sitting in what we call the diode box,” explains accelerator physicist Lyn Evans, who led the original design and construction of the LHC.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Indian National Sentenced to 23 Yrs in Double Homicide

Vicky Vicky ran over his wounded brother and a doctor

(ANSA) — Bergamo, March 25 — A court in the northern city of Bergamo on Wednesday sentenced an Indian national to 23 years 20 days for the double homicide of his brother and a doctor.

The court found Vicky Vicky guilty of intentionally running over his brother Baldev Kumar and Eleonora Cantamessa, a 44-year-old gynecologist who was giving Kumar first aid on the evening of September 8, 2013. Kumar had suffered knife and billhook wounds in a street fight with a rival Indian family, and was still alive when Vicky drove him over in his Golf car at 78 kms/hr, fatally injuring both his brother and the doctor who had stopped to help.

His motive was to get rid of his brother in order to quell ongoing conflicts with the rival family, prosecutors said.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Soccer: Court Cancels Moggi Jail Term in ‘Calciopoli’

Sentence against Giraudo also timed out in match-fix scandal

(ANSA) — Rome, March 24 — Italy’s highest appeals court has cancelled a prison sentence against ex-Juventus executive Luciano Moggi in a notorious match-fixing case known as ‘Xalciopoli’ because it timed out, the Cassation Court ruled early Tuesday.

The court said the sentence against former Juventus chief executive Antonio Giraudo also timed out.

Further, the high court upheld an earlier court decision to acquit referees Paolo Bertini and Antonio Dattilo on the charges that date from 2006.

Moggi expressed relief at the high-court ruling.

“This is an unpleasant thing, because this process is abnormal and has resolved nothing, it only created so many expenses,” said Moggi.

Four defendants in the Calciopoli case were originally sentenced in December 2009 on charges of criminal association aimed at committing sports fraud.

The original trial judge condemned “the existence of a conspiracy to affect the outcome of soccer championships”.

The case centered on allegations that Moggi and Giraudo worked with Italian football federation officials to influence refereeing assignments in order to have compliant refs officiate at some of the Juventus games.

Moggi was originally sentenced to five years and four months and both Giraudo and Moggi were banned from football for life.

Seven other defendants — three ex-refs, one ref still officiating at the time of the trials, and three former linesmen — were ultimately acquitted in the scandal.

Many Italian teams were implicated in the scandal, but champions Juventus were worst hit.

The Turin giants were stripped of two Serie A titles and demoted to the second tier as a result of the scandal, where they stayed a season before winning promotion back to the top flight.

Moggi was banned from sport for five years and, when the suspension ran out, the Italian Soccer Federation (FIGC) extended it to the rest of his life.

That ruling was upheld by the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI), Italian sport’s governing body, and by the Lazio regional administrative court.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: League Secretary Can Also be Milan Mayor, Veneto Chief Says

Salvini says he is ‘available if Milanese so want’

(ANSA) — Verona, March 24 — Veneto governor Luca Zaia of the anti-euro and anti-immigrant Northern League on Tuesday endorsed a possible double role for party secretary Matteo Salvini as future mayor of Milan after the populist leader announced his readiness to stand in 2016 municipal polls. Salvini “can be mayor of Milan and secretary of the League.

The decision is down to him, but in the meantime the results bear him out: he has led the League from 3% to 15%,” Zaia said. Earlier Salvini said he was “available if the Milanese so wished”.

“The surveys show that the League’s projects are well received. In Milan there is the desire to start afresh after four years of Pisapia,” he added. On Sunday incumbent Milan mayor Giuliano Pisapia of the leftwing Left Ecology Freedom party said he would not be running for a second term in 2016, paving the way for discussions on both sides of the political spectrum about who might replace him as mayor of the Lombardy capital. Lombardy, like neighbouring Veneto, is governed by the Northern League.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Pilot Andreas Lubitz’s Ex-Girlfriend Says He Shared Chilling Prophecy Before Alps Crash

Andreas Lubitz was a tormented, erratic man who was a master of hiding his darkest thoughts and would wake up from nightmares screaming ‘we’re going down’, his former partner said.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Platini Re-Elected UEFA President for 3rd Term

Vows ‘love’ for FIFA

(ANSA-AP) — Vienna, March 24- — Michel Platini was re-elected Tuesday as UEFA president for a third term.

The France great then pledged his love for FIFA despite supporting all three candidates opposing Sepp Blatter in the world governing body’s own presidential election. Platini ran unopposed to extend his reign, which started in 2007, and was voted in by acclamation by the leaders of UEFA’s 54 member federations to serve four more years.

“This means more to me than you could possible imagine,” Platini said in an acceptance speech in French.

Platini also retained his position as a FIFA vice president through 2019.

Though he opted not to stand against Blatter in the FIFA election on May 29, UEFA backs all three other candidates.

“We love FIFA deeply,” Platini said, watched by Blatter sitting at the front of the congress hall. “It is entirely because we love and respect FIFA that we want it to be perfect.

“We Europeans want a strong FIFA, a FIFA that is respectable and respected,” Platini added, before launching an apparent jibe at his onetime mentor.

Platini said some people wanted to isolate UEFA as “arrogant and selfish.”

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Polish Priest Sentenced to 7 Years for Pedophilia

Media sources say case is linked to another in Vatican

(ANSA) — Warsaw, March 25 — Polish priest Father Wojciech Gil was sentenced to seven years in prison and a fine of 38,000 euros on Wednesday for pedophilia in parishes where he served in Poland and the Dominican Republic.

Polish media sources said Gil’s case is linked to that of Polish Monsignor Jozef Wesolowski, a former apostolic nuncio in the Dominican Republic currently awaiting criminal trial in Vatican City.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Saudi Ambassador Returns to Sweden

Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to Sweden will soon return to Stockholm, Minister for Foreign Affairs Margot Wallström confirmed Saturday, more than two weeks after the ambassador was recalled amid a diplomatic row over human rights.

Wallström said that diplomatic ties between Sweden and Saudi Arabia may now be resumed.

“We can immediately normalise our relations and we can also welcome back the Saudi ambassador to Sweden. We can clear up the misconception that we should have insulted the world religion Islam,” Wallström said at a Saturday morning press conference held at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs in Stockholm.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Sweden: Nobel Laureate Tomas Tranströmer Dies at 83

Sweden’s Nobel Prize-winning poet and author, Tomas Tranströmer, has died. He passed away aged 83 on Thursday, after a short illness. Tomas Tranströmer was born 15 April 1931 in Stockholm, Sweden and received the 2011 Nobel Prize for literature.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Sweden Democrat Head: ‘I’m on Antidepressants’

Jimmie Åkesson, who is poised to return as leader of Sweden’s nationalist party in April after months of sick leave, has revealed he is taking antidepressants for exhaustion and sleeping difficulties in an interview set to air late on Friday.

The leader of the Sweden Democrats, who has also struggled with gambling problems, has been on sick leave since October 2014, due to chronic fatigue following his party’s election campaign.

It was revealed earlier this week that he is set to announce his return to politics at 9pm on Friday, as a guest on the popular television talk show Skavlan, broadcast on SVT.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Sweden: Saudi Ambassador to Return to Stockholm

Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to Sweden will soon return to Stockholm after a diplomatic spat, Swedish officials said Saturday. But an envoy sent to Riyadh stopped short of offering the Saudis an apology.

The report of the imminent return of the Saudi ambassador, who was recalled more than two weeks ago, indicates tensions between Sweden and Saudi had calmed somewhat.

“I’m very pleased that we can resume our normal diplomatic ties,” Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallström told reporters.

The announcement followed a visit to Riyadh to Swedish Government envoy Björn van Sydow on Friday, where he met with Saudi Arabia’s kind Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud. The Swedish news agency TT said the envoy relayed messages from Sweden’s King Carl XVI Gustaf and Prime Minister Stefan Löfven during the meeting.

Ambassador Ibrahim bin Saad al-Ibrahim was recalled in mid-March in the wake of Foreign Minister Margot Wallström’s remarks about Saudi Arabia. She criticised the situation around women’s rights in the conservative kingdom and the absolute power held by the royal household. Wallström had also called the punishment inflicted on regime-critical blogger Raif Badawi — 10 years in jail and 1,000 lashes — as “medieval”.

Saudi laws are based on sharia, a moral and religious code.

Around the same time, Sweden cancelled a long-standing military cooperation deal between the two countries, which prompted the Saudi Arabia to prevent Wallström from making a speech on human rights to the Arab League. Saudi Arabia also froze Swedish business visas to the Gulf kingdom and the UAE recalled its own ambassador to Stockholm.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Tech Firm Claims Facebook Stole Secrets

British engineering company BladeRoom Group claims in court that Facebook ripped off its revolutionary data center design and encourages others to do the same.

“BRG spent years developing and refining the prefabricated, modular design and the transportation and construction techniques that Facebook blithely passed off to the world in 2014,” BladeRoom says in its March 23 federal complaint.

It cites a January 2014 announcement from Facebook, stating that it had developed a revolutionary way of constructing the climate-controlled buildings that house computer servers.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

UK: BBC Won’t Renew Top Gear’s Clarkson Contract

‘Line has been crossed’ says D-G

(ANSA-AP) — London, March 25 The BBC decided Wednesday not to renew the contract of “Top Gear” host Jeremy Clarkson after a fracas with his producer, ending his connection to the immensely popular program built around macho banter, off-color jokes and cars.

BBC Director-General Tony Hall concluded that Clarkson struck and launched a 30-minute verbal attack on a producer, Oisin Tymon, while they were filming on location, leaving him with a swelling and bloody lip. The producer went to a hospital for treatment.

Hall acknowledged that sacking the presenter of the program “will divide opinion.” But he said a line had been crossed in Clarkson’s often controversial behavior — even if he is a big star.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Tasnime Akunjee Says Muslims Shouldn’t Co-Operate With Police

Tasnime Akunjee, the lawyer of Abase Hussen, has said in the past that no Muslim should co-operate with the police and questioned whether Theresa May had ‘Nazi blood in her veins’.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

‘Unholy Alliance’ of Islamists Threatens Sweden — Spy Chief

Sweden, once cited by Osama bin Laden as the kind of country al Qaeda did not attack, is facing a rising threat from Islamist militants because of the crises in Iraq and Syria, its spy chief said in an interview on Friday.

Anders Thornberg told Reuters the number of Swedes travelling to fight in those countries had tripled in the past year, and record immigration to the Nordic country was making it vulnerable to infiltrators from militant groups.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Why Would a 28-Year-Old Co-Pilot Intentionally Crash His Plane, Killing 150 People?

Analysts believe that that finding will become key to understanding Lubitz’s motivation as the investigation into the incident proceeds, as it is already raising questions about why he was allowed to fly at all and whether the incident would have ever happened had he been grounded.

The Mail said that Germanwings officials have confirmed that the troubled co-pilot had stepped away from his job for several months and had to retrain in order to rejoin the airline, but they insisted that he was “100% fit to fly” after passing a battering of medical testing.

“It also emerged today that his parents only discovered that their son was a mass murderer just minutes before the bombshell press conference by prosecutors in Marseille [France],” the paper reported.

What is patently clear at this time, however, is that the entire incident was calculated.

“At this moment, in light of investigation, the interpretation we can give at this time is that the co-pilot through voluntary abstention refused to open the door of the cockpit to the commander, and activated the button that commands the loss of altitude,” said the chief French prosecutor investigating the crash, Brice Robin.

He added that it appeared as though Lubitz’s entire objective was to simply “destroy the aircraft.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Gentiloni Says Tunisia’s 25 Mn Euro Debt Cancelled

Foreign minister, Tunis president discuss security

(ANSAmed) — Tunis — Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni said Tuesday that Italy has cancelled Tunisia’s 24-million euro debt with Italy. Gentiloni met with Tunisia’s president Mohamed Beji Caid Essebsi to discuss finances as well as “cooperation in the security sector and the fight against terrorism”. Gentiloni visited Tunis less than a week after a terrorist attack at a major tourist attraction led to 21 tourist deaths, including four Italians.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Tunisia: Lions Club Strong Help to “Children of the Moon”

Light causes tumors, helping those with xeroderma pigmentosum

(ANSAmed) — TUNIS — In these troubled days for Tunisia, there are those who continue to carry forward with strength and determination, especially for those who have more needs. This is the case of the ‘children of the moon’, children suffering from a genetic disease that is 95% related to marriage between blood relatives.

For those suffering from “xeroderma pigmentosum” light is a poison that causes tumor growth. Due to this, the afflicted need creams and special fabrics (to go out during the day), completed screened glasses, and also transparent films applied to window glass to prevent the entry of ultraviolet light and even special lighting. Daniel Passalacqua, Italian from Tunis, has been fighting since 2007 to raise funds for those in need as President of the Lions Club Tunis-Doyen International Relations Commission and chairman of the sub-committee “Children of the Moon”.

Saturday, March 28, thanks to the work of Lions Club International Foundation and Lions Club of Tunis-Doyen, Sidi Bou Said, Schio, France 103, at the premises of the laboratory to the SVR Lac Tunis will receive a delivery of material, equipment and security products valuing 16,000 euro destined for 30 families, in a ceremony coordinated by the Tunisian aide group “Help for children Xeroderma Pigmentosum”.

The children of the night are not asking for pity but support: information for on prevention and early diagnosis in pregnancy; protection; organization of moonlight cultural, recreational and professional activity, and funds for research.

“Another route is to try to raise State awareness for the purpose of the responsibility of the national health service as it has not recognized the disease”, Passalacqua said.

Tunisia with its 1,200 cases holds a dramatic record but it is also at the forefront of research that has been taking place since 1965 with Japan. One hope, in the near future, is gene therapy. Surveys noted that there were only about 200 cases in the United States, 96 in France, many in Japan, and seven in Sicily (one is the son of a Tunisia couple).

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Arab League: Leaders Discuss Unified Military Force While Saudi-Led Air Strikes in Yemen Target Houthi Militia Dubbed ‘Iran’s Puppet’

Leaders of Arab League nations congregated today at the Egyptian holiday resort Sharm el-Sheikh while Saudi-led allied air strikes against Shia Houthi rebels have continued for the third day in Yemen.

The two-day summit involving 14 of the League’s 22 member states discussed the possibility of a joint Arab military force led by Saudi Arabia and Egypt against the Iranian-backed militia and their allies Russia and China.

Egyptian president Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi said he “backs calls for a unified Arab force” to confront security threats in the Middle East and North Africa.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

How Yemen’s US-Backed Ex-Dictator is Tearing His Country Apart

For years, the Americans saw President Ali Abdullah Saleh a key ally in the fight against al-Qaeda. He allowed his air bases to be used by US drones to strike at the movement’s operatives, and gladly received Western aid in development cash and arms supplies.

Yet according to claims in a United Nations report last month, one of the first things Mr Saleh did when his three-decade rule was threatened by the 2011 Arab Spring was strike a secret deal to give an entire southern province to al-Qaeda. The more he could portray Yemen as falling into militant hands, he calculated, the more the West want to keep him in office at all costs.

On this occasion, his unholy alliance failed in its goal: by the following year, his Western backers had quietly forced him out in return for immunity from prosecution. But last week, the man with a record of doing deals with anyone who will keep him in power was once again proving that his cunning should never be underestimated.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

UN Says Israel, Not Iran, North Korea or Syria Worst Violator of Human Rights

What country deserves more condemnation for violating human rights than any other nation on earth? According to the U.N.’s top human rights body, that would be Israel.

Last week, Israel was the U.N.’s number one women’s rights violator. This week it is the U.N.’s all-round human rights villain.

The U.N. Human Rights Council wrapped up its latest session in Geneva on Friday, March 27 by adopting four resolutions condemning Israel. That’s four times more than any of the other 192 UN member states.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Russia Builds Miles of Nuke Bunkers While US Does Nothing

As Russians build gigantic underground bunkers, spanning 400 square miles, the elite are planning their escape from America by purchasing airstrips, farms and underground shelters in record numbers.

As preparations for nuclear war intensify, the public is being told it’s not a danger anymore. Get this emergency broadcast out to everyone you know before the time for action runs out.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

In Singapore, Lee Kuan Yew Built a Welfare State That Works

The key is to ensure that one generation won’t bankrupt future generations by living beyond its means.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Taliban Video Shows Fighters Parading Through Captured US Military Base in Afghanistan

Dozens of Taliban fighters can be seen parading around the base and planting the extremist group’s white flag over the base’s headquarters in the Afghan province of Farah.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Asia’s About to Spawn a New Tiger Economy: Good Morning, Vietnam

Perched along one of the world’s most crucial shipping routes, and with a young and growing population, Vietnam is — once again — being tipped for economic lift-off, after years of disappointment.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Philippine President: Give Muslims Self-Rule or “Count Body Bags”

Manila: Philippine President Benigno Aquino called on lawmakers Friday to pass a bill endorsing a pact aimed at ending a decades-long Muslim separatist rebellion, warning them they would otherwise start counting “body bags”.

Aquino had wanted the bill, which would give autonomy to the majority Catholic nation’s Muslim minority in the south, passed this month.

But Congress suspended debates on the proposed law in the face of public outrage over the killings of 44 police commandoes by Muslim guerrillas in a botched anti-terror raid in January.

The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), which signed a peace deal a year ago Friday, had said its members fired in self-defence at the commandoes, who passed through a rebel camp while going after Islamic militants.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

The Place Where China Began Its One-Child Policy is Dying

Sitting in her neighbor’s, house playing cards, 58-year-old farmer Si Jinxin asks a question that is troubling millions of China’s workers: “What are we going to do when we’re old?”

“Rudong was so good at implementing the family planning policy,” says Si, whose only child, a daughter, lives about 200 kilometers (124 miles) away in the city. “Now we’re the ones who lose.”

On the flat delta of the Yangtze River north of Shanghai, Communist cadres embraced the call to stem the nation’s ballooning population a decade before it became national policy in 1979. The result is that Rudong is a window on China’s future, a windswept place of old people, closed schools and growing retirement homes.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Al-Shabab Siege at Somali Hotel Ends, At Least 24 Dead

MOGADISHU, Somalia — Blood spattered utensils, bullet-pocked walls and overturned chairs mark the reception area of a prominent hotel in the Somali capital following an attack by Islamic extremists that killed at least 24, including six attackers.

Somali special forces stood over three bloodied bodies of the alleged attackers after officials declared they have full control of the Maka Al-Mukarramah Hotel Saturday, more than 12 hours after gunmen, believed to be six in number, from the Islamic rebel group al-Shabab stormed into the hotel.

The gunfire has stopped and security agents have gone through the whole building, said senior police officer Capt. Mohamed Hussein. He had earlier said the gunmen were believed to have occupied the third and fourth floors of the hotel in the capital Mogadishu.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Mogadishu Hotel Attack: 10 Dead in Al Shabab Bombing as Fighting Continues Between Somali Forces and Militants

Attack began after suicide bomber blew up car at the gate of the Maka al Mukarramah hotel.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Mexico’s Mid-Terms Scheduled for June

On June 7th, 2015, our southern neighbor Mexico is scheduled to hold its mid-term congressional elections. Analysis of the Mexican Congress is important to any serious study of Mexican politics.

The Mexican political system runs on a six-year schedule, in contrast to the U.S.A., which runs on a four-year cycle.

In the U.S. there are presidential elections every four years, the latest having been in 2012 and the next scheduled for 2016. At the halfway point between each presidential election, congressional mid-term elections are held, the last ones having been in 2014.

In Mexico, the president is elected every six years, the last election having been held in 2012 and the next one scheduled for 2018. Mexican mid-term congressional elections are thus held at the halfway-point between presidential elections, three years after the previous one and three years before the next one.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

DHS Secretary: ‘Thousands’ of Unaccompanied Children Still Crossing Into U.S.

Government incentivizes children to flood United States.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Germany Needs More Immigration from Non-EU Countries: Study

BERLIN (Reuters) — The number of people of working age in Germany will fall by around a third by 2050 if Europe’s biggest economy does not increase immigration from countries outside the European Union, a study published on Friday said.

Germany will need between 276,000 and 491,000 net immigrants from non-EU countries each year to safeguard its levels of prosperity and economic activity, said the study by the Bertelsmann foundation.

           — Hat tip: Kitman [Return to headlines]
 

Illegal Accused of Holding Pregnant Woman Captive for Months in Rape Dungeon

Woman’s claims disputed by man’s family.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Baker in Ireland Attacked by Government for His Christian Conviction

Every now and then, an unassuming character of quiet strength and integrity comes into the limelight, and the world once more watches the unjust, and uncalled for battle of good versus evil.

Daniel McArthur, General Manager of Asher Baking Company, Northern Ireland, which is a small family business operating for 23 years, is one such man, who along with his family have become the latest target of inequality accusations, after the bakery politely turned down the commission of a wedding cake, when it was discovered it was ordered to bear the inscription ‘support gay marriage’.

Mr McArthur, a committed Christian, has stated that they have declined other requests in the past, where customers wanted bad language or lewd images, decorating their cakes. However, on this occasion, when he declined to promote another contradictory statement to his faith, he promptly received a letter from the Equality Commission, stating they would be seeking compensation from him on the grounds of discrimination against the customer. He was ordered to pay damages within one week.

He joins a growing number of people in the workplace who have all been hounded and persecuted, not for any attack they have made on another, but for quietly living according to their conscience. Many have lost their jobs.

In what is becoming known as the persecution of conscience, against the dictatorship of human right bullies, the escalation of cases reaching the media is now revealing itself as a problem which is not happening by chance. Sympathy is being drained as malicious and un-necessary attacks pose the question of who is intimidating who?

Support for the McArthurs, is not only coming from the Christian community, but from all people who respect the right for others not to be forced into a militant and insistent promotion of others beliefs. Asher’s is one of the first legal cases to be told it is against the law to refuse to take part in a gay rights campaign.

You can watch an address here that Daniel McArthur made in Ireland about the upcoming case.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Censorship by Design: Criminalization of Child Evangelism

Bible literacy and good news are rare commodities in our postmodern world. Thankfully, light continues to shine, even in darkness. Since 1937, an interdenominational, nonprofit organization, Child Evangelism Fellowship, has reached over 15.6 million children worldwide with clear, age- appropriate presentation of the Gospel (“Good News”) of Jesus Christ. CEF has supported 62,393 Good News Clubs all the while helping 609 national missionaries in 93 countries stay in children’s ministry through the Sponsor-A-National program.

Compliments of CEF, 190 countries have received nearly twelve million pieces of Gospel literature. Lives remarkably changed testify to its value, and the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability attests to the ministry’s integrity. Nonetheless, CEF faces formidable “censorship by design” in tireless efforts of secularists to criminalize child evangelism through after-school clubs. Fashioning well-meaning CEF volunteers as pawns of the Political Right, Good News Club antagonists advance their own political agenda in the interest of “a modern secular democracy” ostensibly envisioned by our nation’s founders.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: CEI Slams Civil-Union Bill for Same-Sex Couples

‘Aims to reduce different realities to one’ says Galantino

(ANSA) — Rome, March 27 — The Italian Bishops’ Conference (CEI) on Friday slammed a bill recognising civil unions including same-sex ones. CEI Secretary-General Msgr Nunzio Galantino said the bill aimed to “make an ideological stretch, reducing objectively different realities to one”. The Senate’s justice committee on Thursday approved the bill which will now go through both houses of parliament. The measure, drafted by Democratic Party (PD) Senator Monica Cirinnà, recognizes key rights for heterosexual and same-sex couples such as ‘stepchild adoption’, or the adoption of the biological child of one of the two partners in a civil union.

The bill also calls for same sex-civil unions to be registered by municipalities and institutes a series of juridical rights and duties including inheritance protection, health assistance and a reversibility clause for pensions.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Five-Day-After Pill Without Prescription Says AIFA

No mandatory pregnancy test

(ANSA) — Rome, March 25 — The Italian Pharmaceuticals Agency (AIFA) on Wednesday recommended making the so-called five-days-after emergency contraception pill available without a prescription to women who are of age and with a prescription to women under 18. The panel also recommended waiving a proposed mandatory pregnancy test for anyone seeking the pill. The pill prevents unwanted pregnancies by delaying or preventing ovulation if taken within 120 hours, or five days, of unprotected intercourse.

The health ministry’s superior council on health earlier this month recommended making the pill available only with a prescription and only to women who can prove they are not already pregnant.

The contraceptive manufactured by HRA Pharma was approved in Europe as a prescription medication at the end of 2009.

A recent survey of 134,000 women by VediamociChiara women’s health online magazine showed 93% of respondents believed they should be able to access emergency contraception without a prescription.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Sex Education Part of Longterm Social Engineering

The sex education controversy in Ontario today is is part of the government’s recent “mental health” initiative, the roots of which go back for decades.

Also known as “Mental Hygiene,” the goal is to produce a totally subservient population by dehumanizing the individual and controlling his every thought and deed from cradle to grave. Non conformists will be considered insane and treated accordingly.

In 1948, Canada’s Minister of Health Paul Martin Sr. introduced a system of health grants to support “mental health.” His Deputy Minister was the ex-military psychiatrist, Brock Chisholm, who later became first Director-General of the UN World Health Organization.

In the Feb. 1946 issue of Psychiatry, Chisholm wrote, “To achieve world government, it is necessary to remove from the minds of men their individualism, loyalty to family traditions, national patriotism, and religious dogmas.”

He continued: “We have swallowed all manner of poisonous certainties fed us by our parents, our Sunday and day school teachers, our politicians, our priests…The reinterpretation and eventual eradication of the concept of right and wrong which has been the basis of child training, the substitution of intelligent and rational thinking for faith in the certainties of old people, these are the belated objectives… for charting the changes in human behaviour.”

Chisholm was a strong supporter of early childhood sex education: “Children have to be freed from… religious and other cultural “prejudices” forced upon them by parents, civil and religious authorities […] sex education should be introduced in the 4th grade, (i.e. 9 to 10) eliminating “the ways of elders” by force if necessary.”

Ontario’s controversial new sex education curriculum is designed to destroy our family identity and make everyone an autonomous sexual contractor.

[…]

The new curriculum happens to coincide with a massive push to expand mental health treatment throughout the province.

[…]

Kathleen Wynne and her “wife” Jane Rounthwaite share an extensive background in the lucrative “mental health” growth industry in Ontario. Jane Rounthwaite secures government funding for private corporations in the field of mental health. Here is another trip to the trough. Wynne also appointed Rounthwaite’s brother to a key mental health position at an annual salary of $210,000. This is a clear conflict of interest.

The 2010 Report, Navigating the Journey to Wellness: The Comprehensive Mental Health and Addictions Action Plan for Ontarians” recommends developing “ the provincial and regional framework for the delivery of mental health and addictions services.”

Since 2010, the Select Committee’s program has gone into effect. There are “mental health” centres for kids from 0 to 6 years old. Secure child lockups have the power to commit children. Ontario is building super jails and spending millions of tax dollars for mental wards and hospitals.

[Comment: In the Soviet, psychiatry was used as a tool to lock up and drug dissidents such as Alexander Solzhenitsyn — who revealed the gulag horror in his book “The Gulag Archipelago.” gulaghistory.org/nps/onlineexhibit/dissidents/movement.php]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Twin Earths May Lurk in Our Nearest Star System

There could be two Earth-like planets within cosmic spitting distance of our own. Both are likely too close to their star to host life, but the discovery opens the possibility of other planets in the system with more temperate climates. Alpha Centauri is a binary star system just 4.3 light years away from our own.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

19 thoughts on “Gates of Vienna News Feed 3/28/2015

  1. ” Saudi ambassador to Sweden has returned to Stockholm after Sweden apologized for insulting the Kingdom… ”
    Good for Saudis, real lions and men. Probably this will teach the wimpy creatures of Sweden what real men are like.

  2. will require up to half a million non-EU immigrants ‘

    Who will suspect that he is wrong. Decisions made by secular democrats bear no error. Live in peace Germany. Stay zombie.

    • Germany has truly gone insane if they implement this plan.

      500k largely unproductive new mouths to feed every year for the next 35 years…Bismarck will be spinning so quickly they could attach him to a dynamo and power the entire country!

  3. So Germany will no longer be Germany — they barely are as it now stands. However, I must say that a country that cannot be bothered to reproduce doesn’t really deserve to exist anyway.

    • Democracy, where anything goes, is the only system that is designed to destroy oneself for the sake of islam.

    • What caused this is the state becoming a surrogate mother and father for the people and offering cradle to grave social services. This essentially killed off the need for families and for women to get married and have children.

      Long term it also meant the cold death of a society. But that’s part of the deal.

      And the importation of Muslims will only produce another Yemen situation where rampant over population, violence, radicalism, lack of resources are the norm. It’s Easter Island on steroids.

      Merkel and elites are too arrogant and stupid to see this coming or simply figure they will all be dead by the time it blows up.

      • The chances are excellent that at the current rate of national derangement the next five to ten years will see Muslims declaring their “zones” as national territory of the countries they came from.

        • That’s an interesting idea. Since Islam is a tribal socio-political juridical system (NOT a religion), you could be right. It is also a system of high personal distrust so the friction – as between tectonic plates – tends to produce bloody borders even within the community of believers. They are constantly breaking into ever-smaller pieces. What else can you do if your ‘faith’ is built on conflict?

  4. I forgot to add that importing Muslims, who prefer welfare to work, is not going to solve the problem, either.

    Angela, go back to work and study further.

  5. From Vlad:
    Iranian journalist covering nuke talks defects to West:
    Amir Hossein Motaghi

    According to the British Telegraph newspaper, Motaghi also harshly criticized the American role in the talks, saying the White House was attempting to persuade the other members of the P5+1 group of nations (US, England, France, Russia, China and Germany) to accept Iran’s point of view.
    Israel does not need more enemies. Israel hankers for friends, just any friend. Just ask: Iran has no border with Israel, then why this enmity towards Israel? Is it Islam itself?

    Why does Indonesia hate the Jews?
    – Ok Joseph Goebbels, why did you commit so many inhuman crimes?
    – Ok Kerry, why did you expose israel’s military secrets and you negotiate on behalf of Iran?

    Goebbels and Kerry in Unison: We are following orders.

    • Wonderful! We already know that the Obama/Kerry line on Iran is bizarrely wrongheaded. Now we learn from a defecting Iranian journalist, Amir Hossein Motaghi, that the USA is leaning on the other members of the P5+1 to accommodate Iran’s nuclear power ambitions on Iran’s terms. Don’t ask why: the celebration of the “Facebook revolution” in Egypt by the US government and the subsequent marginalization of Al-Sisi after Morsi’s regime failed were just an appetizer in policy idiocy.

      The foreign policy of the Obama administration has been conceived and implemented as if a bunch of nincompoop sophomores were running the show. I remember when, as a youth, left wing adults would qualify their generic opposition to Nixon by conceding: “In foreign policy he did do very good job.”
      Is there anybody, on the right or the left, who could or will in the future say the same about the two terms of Obama?

  6. Re: Culture Wars: Baker in Ireland attacked…

    Northern Ireland, like the rest of the UK, is not (alas) officially secular. So, let’s imagine that this is happening in, say, France, or even the US (specifically Iowa at the moment)

    If the conscience of Christians is to be allowed to take precedence over the secular law, which attempts to treat all equally, then other religious groups must be afforded the same “rights”, taking precedence over the rights of those who wish to partake of the services they offer. So, Hindus may treat employees of a lower caste unequally, Muslim retail assistants may refuse to handle pork or alcohol, and Muslim cab drivers turn down guide (seeing eye) dogs. Ultra-Orthodox Jews in Israel may have buses segregated by gender, and enforce the closure of microchip factories on the Sabbath. Etcetera…

    There are very good reasons why the French and US constitutions are secular; they protect all, believers and others, equally.

    • Wow! This is the second time I’ve made this point here, and the second (so far) no-one has responded.

      Does this mean that none of the clever Christians out there, nor their supporters, has a convincing counter-argument?

      • I think it means that the subject isn’t of vital interest to anyone. Religious faith isn’t rational. Neither is the faith in scientism. So most folks just put their faith in their pockets and move along to a more promising subject.

      • When it comes down to it, this is another one of those issues like zoning regulations where there’s no simple heuristic that can resolve all cases where someone’s right to do something conflicts with someone elses’ right to not have that thing done around them. Democratic and judicial processes exist for the purpose of trying to figure out exactly where to draw the line, and it’s reasonable for the line to get drawn a little differently in different populations.

    • Well no. Apparently “the French and US constitutions do not protect all, believers and others, equally.”

  7. Bertelsmann is one of the 6 media mega-corps who own the vast majority of news and entertainment media.

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