Yassine Salhi, the principal suspect in yesterday’s terror attack against a gas plant in Saint-Quentin-Fallavier, near the French city of Lyon, reportedly took a “selfie” of himself posing with the decapitated head of his boss before he was arrested by police. Prime Minister Manuel Valls warned the public that France could expect more terror attacks. However, he said it was important for French people to remember that that such attacks have nothing to do with Islam.
OK, so I made that last part up. But still…
In other news, the Tunisian government responded to yesterday’s deadly terror attack on the beachfront at Sousse by ordering a security crackdown, which will include the forced closure of about eighty radical mosques. None of those mosques have anything to do with Islam.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Dean, Fjordman, Gaia, Insubria, JD, LP, PG, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.
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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.
“Easy Money” Lets Governments Avoid Free-Market Reforms
The Greek drama continues to unfold with the risk of “grexit” becoming increasingly likely.
Yet, a large majority of the Greek people want to keep the euro. This, however, would require the Greek government to live within its means — something it has not been able to do for decades. With anti-austerity parties gaining strength continent wide, Greece may be the first, but not the last, to leave.
For many years, it has been fashionable among some economists to blame the euro for all of Europe’s problems. Yet, the problem in Europe is not that it has a common currency, but that it has excessive government regulations, spending, and taxation. Economists who suggest that breaking up the euro will solve the region’s economic problems are like people selling gimmicks promising massive weight loss without either exercise or dieting. They want the gains without the pain.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Europe Rejects Greek Bailout Extension After Referendum Shock
(BRUSSELS) — Greece hurtled towards default and a possible euro exit Saturday after Europe responded to the leftist government’s announcement of a surprise referendum by refusing to extend Athens’s desperately needed bailout.
The most dramatic day in the five-month crisis saw long lines of people queueing at cash machines in Greece after the announcement by radical Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, amid fears of a bank run and possible capital controls.
In Brussels, Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis had asked eurozone colleagues to stretch the aid plan for a few days past its June 30 expiry date and until after the July 5 referendum vote on a creditor reform plan, but they unanimously rejected his appeal.
The move leaves debt-laden Athens struggling to meet a crucial 1.5 billion euro IMF debt payment on Tuesday, putting Greece’s place in the single currency at risk and threatening the entire post-war European project.
“The Greek government has broken off the process, has rejected the reform proposal and is now putting the question in a negative way to the Greek people, which is an unfair way of putting the question,” Eurogroup president Jeroen Dijsselbloem told a press conference.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
$200 Million Went to House Members to Pass Fast Track — Here’s Who Took the Cash
Many think our government is for sale. However, by taking a look at the facts below provided by Open Secrets, it is easy to understand where they are coming from.
Looking back at Friday the 12th, the House voted on Trade Promotion Authority (TPA), the controversial bill that gives power to the executive branch to negotiate treaties. TPA limits Congress’ ability to better a trade deal by subjecting members of Congress to 90 days of reviewing the trade agreement, prohibiting any amendments on the implementing legislation, and giving them an up or down vote.
TPA passed with a mere 219-211 vote with only 218 needed to pass. The real shocker comes from the amount of money each Representative received for a yes vote. In total, $197,869,145 was given to Representatives for a yes vote where as $23,065,231 was given in opposition.
- John Boehner (R-OH) received $5.3 million for a “yea” vote and was the highest paid legislator.
- Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) received $2.4 million for his “yea” vote.
- Paul Ryan (R-WI) received $2.4 million for a “yea” vote and came in at the third highest paid legislator.
- Pat Tiberi (R-OH) follows Paul Ryan, coming in the fourth spot having received $1.6 million for his “yea” vote.
The fifth highest paid legislator is somewhat of a “hero” in comparison to others. Representative Steny Hoyer (D-MD) received $1.6 million for a yes vote and only $282,710 for a no vote. Despite his high contribution from those in favor of TPA, he still voted a solid nay.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
America’s Extreme Makeover is Socialism in Action
Our future looks decidedly Orwellian, with Big Brother government in charge and the concept of American liberty a quaint notion from yesteryear.
The pace of change impacting the United States of America is accelerating at an alarming rate. This week the Supreme Court bolstered ObamaCare by rewriting the law and sanctioning the subsidies that are the centerpiece of the program. On Friday, by a 5-4 margin, the justices legalized gay marriage in all 50 states. This sweeping decision rendered meaningless the vote of Americans in states across the nation.
In essence, these Supreme Court justices, a majority appointed by Republicans, have become a leading force in advancing the liberal agenda. According to research from the New York Times, 54% of the rulings in this term have been liberal, making it the most left wing Supreme Court in 46 years.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Confederate Flag at South Carolina State House Pulled Down
A black woman has climbed the flagpole in the grounds of the South Carolina State House and removed its controversial Confederate flag.
Bree Newsome climbed the 30ft (9m) steel pole just after dawn on Saturday despite police telling her to come down, Associated Press reported.
Ms Newsome and a man were later arrested and the flag returned.
There have been calls for it to be removed since nine people were killed in a racist attack in Charleston.
Shooting suspect Dylann Roof had been pictured with the Civil War era saltire — seen by some as a symbol of slavery and racism — on a number of occasions.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Episcopal Church Elects First Black Presiding Bishop
SALT LAKE CITY — The Episcopal Church elected its first African-American presiding bishop, choosing Bishop Michael Curry of North Carolina during the denomination’s national assembly Saturday.
Curry was elected in a vote by bishops at the Episcopal General Convention, the top legislative body of the church. Curry won among the bishops in a landslide, earning 121 votes. The other three candidates had 21 votes or less. The decision was affirmed on a vote of 800-12 by the House of Deputies, the voting body of clergy and lay participants at the meeting.
Curry will succeed Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, who will complete her nine-year term on Nov. 1. She was the first female presiding bishop and the first woman to lead an Anglican national church. The New York-based Episcopal Church is the U.S. body of the Anglican Communion, an 80-million member worldwide fellowship of churches with roots in the Church of England.
Curry, 62, has been bishop of North Carolina since 2000, leading a diocese of 48,000 church members, 112 congregations and a network of ministries. He will now lead a nearly 1.9 million-member denomination known for its history as the faith home of many of the Founding Fathers and U.S. presidents…
| — Hat tip: PG | [Return to headlines] |
Feds Force Reason.com Editor to Rat Out Commenters
I think we all know how crazy the comment section of any website can get. If you’ve used the internet for more than five minutes in your entire life, you know that anonymity creates an environment where people can say whatever they want; and sometimes, the things they say can get pretty heated. But no matter how vindictive, blustering, or threatening a comment may be, it’s pretty rare for the commenter to act on it in the real world.
But try telling that to the US District Court for the Southern District of New York. According to an editor for Reason.com, they were subpoenaed by the court after they published an article on the prosecution of Ross Ulbricht. Some of the readers had blasted Judge Katherine Forrest with comments like, she should be “taken out back and shot” and “I hope there is a special place in hell reserved for that horrible woman” among other colorful phrases. The court then tried to force Reason.com to release all information that would identify the commenters “such as IP addresses, names, emails, and other information.” They were later issued a gag order, and weren’t allowed to share this fact with anyone, or even the fact that they were under a gag order.
The editor has since contended that none of the comments were genuine threats, and that the court’s reaction was completely unnecessary. He even suggests that the court issued the subpoena to punish them for their critical analyses of the trial. I wouldn’t put it past them.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
ObamaCare Travesty: The Supreme Court Continues to Make Stuff Up Out of Thin Air
Thanks to the Supreme Court’ s willingness to make stuff up, Obamacare has been saved once again. In order to save Obamacare from utter disaster, Chief Justice Roberts essentially rewrote the law. If you are thinking that the Supreme Court is not supposed to do that, you would be right. But this is what our judicial system has devolved into. When I was in law school, I was horrified to discover that most judges in our country just do whatever they feel like doing. Instead of applying the law to the facts and coming to a fair and unbiased judgment, most judges in America just do whatever they want to do and then search for some law or case precedent that they can use to justify their decision. If there is no law or case precedent, some federal judges even go outside of the country to find justification for their absolutely ridiculous rulings. There have been instances where international law or international standards of morality have been cited as authority for a decision in a federal case. We have become a lawless land where the letter of the law no longer holds any real meaning, and where tyrannical judges just make stuff up out of thin air in order to advance their own personal political agendas.
This decision on Obamacare should have been quite straightforward for the court. The following is how Business Insider described the key issue in this case…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
‘Reverend Obama’ Takes on Guns and Racism in Emotional Eulogy
President Obama on Friday delivered an impassioned call for America to confront gun violence and racism during his eulogy of Rev. Clementa Pinckney, one of nine victims of a massacre at an African-American church.
In a personal address that touched on a number of social policies, Obama concluded with the cadence of a preacher — and surprised the 5,500 mourners at TD Arena in Charleston, S.C., by breaking into song, leading the congregation in a rendition of “Amazing Grace.”
After Obama finished, clergymen in the arena called him “Reverend Obama.”
The president memorialized each of the nine victims of the shooting but also called the incident a wake-up call for the nation to address not only gun violence, but racial inequality and a broken criminal justice system.
[Comment: broken criminal system…this from the same guy whose policies allowed the release of thousands of illegalsm, 121 of those went on to murder 121 Americans.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
United States of America Becomes the Newest Socialist Country
The Supreme Court of the USA has now become the latest branch of the ObamaGov to legislate illegally. We no longer have 3 co-equal branches of government. As the Republicans have shown for—at least—the past several months, the people of the former USA no longer have any voice in government. Despite constituents “burning up the phone lines” to their Republican Congress members and Senators telling them to vote NO on TPA—which gives Obama virtually unlimited and unchecked power to do anything he wants with this treaty and likely those to come—they voted YES in a large majority. Like their Marxist Democrat brothers and sisters, the RINOs have chosen to ignore their constituencies and do that which benefits them—not us.
With its two major decisions on Thursday 25 June 2015 and Friday 26 June 2015, SCOTUS has now shown us that CJ Roberts decision to rewrite ObamaCare in his first anti-Constitutional decision—and now the decision to uphold this monstrous piece of legislation announced Thursday—was not a fluke. With this decision—supported by the RINOs—the American people were told again that they no longer have any choice in their healthcare and that the government will force them to buy it—irrespective as to whether or not they can afford it—and they will pay for it…or else. So, they had better get used to it as their masters have spoken. The USA has become a Socialist form of government. As a Note, Roberts also rewrote this one to say that the word “State” could mean one of the 50 States or the massive federal government State! It depends what your definition of “is”…is.
With Friday’s decision to remove States’ rights from the actual 50 States and give the federal government the right to determine who can marry and whom or what they can marry, the Communist Goals set out for the USA are virtually complete. The ruling minority has won over the majority in the USA, because they placed their operatives in virtually all strategic positions necessary to rule over a population however they want…because the rest of us were actually working to better ourselves and our country. Will the 50 States rise up against this oppression and usurpation of their authority under the now-nearly dead US Constitution? Or will they be part in parcel in digging its grave?
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
David Cameron Will Warn That EU Exit is ‘Risky’ In Plan to Keep Britain in
Leaked details of the Prime Minister’s talks with other EU leaders reveal he has set himself the ‘firm aim’ of keeping the UK in the EU, in a move likely to infuriate Eurosceptics.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
French Police Seize Woman at Home of ‘ISIS Fanatic’ Who Beheaded Man in Attack
Herve Cornara was the boss at ATC-colicom in Chassieu — near the scene of yesterday’s horrific execution. His head was found pinned to gates was surrounded by two Islamist flags.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
French PM Warns of More Terrorist Attacks
Prime Minister Manuel Valls warned on Saturday that France faced more attacks to come after a grisly killing in which a suspected Islamist pinned the severed head of his boss to the gates of a gas factory.
The alleged assailant, identified as 35-year-old married father-of-three Yassin Salhi, also caused an explosion by smashing his vehicle into the Air Products factory near France’s second city of Lyon.
The grisly killing came on the same day as two other attacks claimed by the Islamic State jihadist group, which left 38 people dead at a beach resort in Tunisia and 27 in a suicide bombing in Kuwait.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
French Terror Suspect Took Selfie With Beheaded Victim
Officials say the top suspect in the beheading of a French businessman took a “selfie” photo with the slain victim and sent the image to at least one recipient.
Two French officials said authorities were working to confirm the identity of the recipient, but were not able to immediately confirm media reports that it was sent to an unspecified person in Syria.
On Friday, key suspect Yassine Salhi allegedly crashed a truck into an U.S.-owned chemical warehouse and hung his employer’s severed head on a factory gate in Saint-Quentin-Fallavier — in what authorities are calling a terror attack.
He was arrested and remained in police custody on Saturday…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Israel at Expo Thanks Italy for Inventing the Pizza
Country celebrates national day at world’s fair
(ANSA) — Milan, June 25 — The deputy foreign minister of Israel thanked Italy for inventing pizza during Israel’s national day at Milan Expo 2015.
“I am a big fan of pizza, and I take this opportunity to thank Italy,” said Tzipi Hotovely.
Hotovely also referred to the theme of Expo: Feeding the planet, Energy for life.
“There is no better place in the world than Italy to begin to feed the planet,” added Hotovely.
Israel has long been a pioneer in innovation to develop food sources from sometimes difficult terrain.
“For Israel, feeding the planet has always been one of the fundamental themes,” she said.
“Expo is beautiful and this is a beautiful theme that characterizes it,” added Hotovely.
“Do not forget that the topic of food is implicitly a theme of peace”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy No Longer Sick Man of Europe Says Renzi
Premier says country now ‘part of solution’
(ANSA) — Turin, June 23 — Premier Matteo Renzi said that Italy could be proud that it is no longer considered the sick man of Europe during a visit to Turin’s Egyptian Museum. “What unites the work of (Economy) Minister (Pier Carlo) Padoan, my cultural visit to the Egyptian Museum, the homage to the technological investment (for a new cable car) at Courmayeur and the work before us in cabinet is the pride at seeing that Italy is no longer the sick man of Europe, but part of the solution to the problems,” said Renzi.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Somali Brutally Raped 12-Year-Old Girl — Sentenced to 180 Hours of Community Service
The 18-year-old Somali citizen who brutally raped a 12-year-old Swedish girl in Sundsvall last year was sentenced to 180 hours of community service this week.
Ida* claims she went home to Mohamud because he had promised to give back intimate pictures that he had of her.
The injured party is only 12 years old. She has recounted the incident but done so with a child’s language. Although her story isn’t that extensive it contains some unique details, such as Guled Mohamud several times having stated that “black c*** is expensive”
— excerpt from court documents
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Transport: No Ferries in Greece on June 30 Due to Strike
(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, JUNE 25 — Greece’s passenger ferry service is expected to be disrupted on Tuesday, June 30, as the Pan-Hellenic Seamen’s Federation (PNO) has announced a 24-hour strike in protest of some shipping firms violating their collective labor contracts. Among other claims, the Greek seamen are demanding unpaid wages from certain shipping firms and are protesting against uninsured labor and increased unemployment in their sector which they said has surpassed 50%. In its announcement, PNO also referred to an upcoming “avalanche” of anti-worker measures that have been demanded by Greece’s creditors.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: ‘We Felt as if the Whole World Had Turned Against Us’
Father of girl killed by a drug driver tells how he was threatened with jail for speaking to the family of her killer
Liberty Baker was 14 was killed by a drug driver as she walked to school with in June last year. Her father Paul was handed a summons for ‘harassment without violence’ for giving her killer ‘hard stares’.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
West Midlands Police knew five years ago that Asian grooming gangs were targeting children outside schools across the city — but failed to make the threat public.
Documents obtained by the Birmingham Mail show the force were aware pupils were at risk of child sexual exploitation (CSE) back in 2010.
The confidential report, obtained under a Freedom of Information Act, also shows police were worried about community tensions if the abuse from predominantly Pakistani grooming gangs was made public.
The 2010 report said police had identified a potential 139 victims, 78 per cent of whom were white while more than half were aged 13 to 15. Half of all victims lived within parental homes, while 41 per cent lived in care.
The report said of the 75 grooming suspects identified, a large proportion were from a Pakistani background and a significant proportion were likely to be from a Muslim background.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Two Emsworth Boys in Hospital After Man Stabbed Them as They Walked Home From School
Police were called to the scene in Emsworth, near Havant, Hampshire, shortly after 3pm after a 999 call came in to say the two youngsters had been attacked in the street by a man.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Wales: Mentally Ill Woman Sadie Jenkins Who Slit Two Children’s Throats is Freed
Sadie Jenkins, pictured, from Newport, South Wales was handed a two-year supervision order at Cardiff Crown court after a jury found her not guilty of attempted murder due to insanity following a knife attack on two children.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
With Knife Murders Spiking After Gun Ban, UK Urges “Save a Life—surrender Your Knife”
Don’t try to think this one through.
The logic fail and sheer volume of absurdity might just make you sick if you do.
For the UK — whose laws and policies all-too-often influence those of the U.S. — gun control isn’t enough. Probably nothing will ever be enough.
Now a call to surrender knives, ongoing for years, is in full swing. Via Citizen Action:
The right to bear arms might be under attack here in America—but in the United Kingdom, police are trying to do something even more ridiculous: they’re attempting to ban knives.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Montenegro: EU: Now We Must See Implementation of Reforms
On state of law and judiciary, progress necessary for adhesion
(ANSAmed) — LUXEMBOURG, JUNE 23 — After the adoption “of legislation on the fight against corruption and the reform of the judiciary, we now must see their implementation”, according to the European Neighborhood Policy and Enlargement Commissioner Johannes Hahn, after the sixth meeting of the Association Council EU-Montenegro in Luxembourg. Hahn stressed that adhesion talks to the European Union in Pogdorica go “hand in hand with progress on the rule of law” and the implementation of necessary reforms for the European Commission remains “the most difficult issue”. On the overall situation of the European integration process, “we have opened two important negotiation chapters: one on financial services and one on trans-European connection networks”, explained Edgars Rinkevics, Latvian foreign minister, for the EU rotating presidency. Montenegro in total has opened “20 negotiation chapters out of a total of 35, with two chapters already temporarily closed”, said Rinkevics.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Algeria to Train Tunisian Special Forces
For advanced border control
(ANSAmed) — TUNIS, JUNE 23 — Algeria “will train a special Tunisian security force to patrol borders that will have to learn how to use advanced technologies to carry out their jobs”, announced Tunisian Defense Minister Farhat Horchani to Algerian daily El Khabar, adding that the agreement to start training was reached a month ago during his visit to Algiers.
Horchani noted that neither Tunisia “nor Algeria can beat alone the threat of terrorism which requires a global response”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Beach Massacre Gunman Reportedly Told Tunisians to Flee During Shooting
The gunman who fatally shot 38 beachgoers Friday at a popular Tunisian tourist location reportedly instructed his fellow Tunisians to get away while he fired his assault rifle into the fleeing crowd.
Witnesses told The New York Times that the gunman, identified as Seifeddine Rezgui — a 23-year-old student — acted businesslike during the attack and as tourists fled the beach, he pursued them to a nearby pool and into offices on the second floor of the Imperial Marhaba Hotel in Sousse.
“He seemed like he did not know how to handle the weapon, because it is heavy,” Hassen, a witness who declined to give his full name, told the paper. “He seemed not to be experienced.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Fiancee in Tunisia Tells How Matthew James Used His Body to Shield Her From Bullets
Matthew James, 30, from Cardiff, was staying at the Bellevue Hotel in Sousse, Tunisia, with fiancee Saera Wilson, 26, when the gunmen struck this afternoon, and was hit three times in the stomach.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Thousands of Tunisia Holidaymakers Expected to Cancel Their Trips After Massacre
The travel association ABTA said its 1,200 member tour operators were holding urgent discussions over whether to bring tourists home and cancel holidays after Sousse terror attack.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Tunisia Attack: Islamic Terror Families Must Apologise
With its pure white sands and rows of palm trees, the Sousse beach resort in the North African country of Tunisia offered holidaymakers an escape to paradise.
In a country stricken with poverty, high unemployment and social unrest, the luxury tourist trade served as a critical pillar of the economy, providing valuable jobs and holding out the promise of much needed stability.
The vulnerable have always been a target of Islamic State. Sousse beach is now stained with blood, cordoned off with Police crime tape and at least 38 people, so far, are known to have been murdered. Many, it appears, are Britons.
Islamic State’s brutality is always designed to destabilise countries and communities, driving up poverty and encouraging more dispossessed and angry young Muslims into its arms.
That’s why they’ve been bombing tourist resorts in Mombasa and Nairobi in Kenya, destroying the reputation of the country, terrifying tourists and destroying the local economy in the process.
Back in Britain we have to sit back and watch as terrorist after terrorist hops on a plane to behead innocent people in a faraway land. As if it couldn’t get any worse, we then have to put up with seeing their families crying crocodile tears on TV and telling the whole country they had no idea their little ones were bloodthirsty murders.
These families should be apologising to the victims of their offspring, not misrepresenting them as children mislead.
Who gave these terrorists the money for the flights, their parents? What was discussed around the dinner table and why did the parents not make it clear that murder and rape was illegal and immoral?
I’ve never seen so many families asking for sympathy when they should be explaining the criminal conduct of their children to the security services and pledging their allegiance to Britain.
We’ve already seen widespread Islamic extremism in full view of the authorities in places like Rotherham…
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
Tunisia Launches Security Clampdown After Sousse Attack
Tunisia’s Prime Minister Habib Essid has announced a clampdown on security after an attack on a holiday resort in which 38 people were killed.
He said army reservists would be deployed to archaeological sites and resorts.
About 80 mosques accused of “spreading venom” will close within a week, he said.
Fifteen of the victims in Friday’s attack near Sousse were Britons. The gunman was shot dead.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The photograph is like countless others released by the Islamic State’s propaganda wing — a young man sits flanked by a pair of Kalashnikovs, grinning excitedly at the prospect of proving himself in combat.
Yet when Seifeddine Rezgui’s turn for martyrdom came, it was not in the tough battlegrounds of Syria or Iraq, but in a killing field that could scarcely be easer — a group of unsuspecting tourists lying on sunbeds on a Tunisian beach, some of whom may not even have seen his face.
However, had his parents, his uncle or indeed the police ever browsed the main page of what appears to be Rezgui’s Facebook account, one particular posting might have given them a very clear inkling. “If jihad is a crime,” he wrote, “the world shall know that I’m a criminal.” On Friday, with his massacre of innocent civilians on the beach, he proved that to the world beyond all doubt.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Tunisia:- Tunis, Stop Terrorism by Closing Fundamentalist Mosques
President Essebsi believes unified and global strategy needed to counter terrorism. The attack in Sousse almost simultaneous with those in France, Kuwait, Somalia. Islamic State claims responsibility.
Yesterday morning, a young man posing as a lifeguard, wildly opened fire on tourists on the beach in Sousse, 140 km south of the capital. He then tried to enter the Riu Imperial Marhaba hotel (Spanish owned) and was killed by police. The young man was a student from the region of Kairouan, not registered among dangerous persons.
The toll so far is of 37 dead and 36 wounded. Those killed include Tunisians, British, German, Norwegian, Belgian, French and one Irishwoman.
The Islamic State (IS) has claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement posted on Twitter, identifying the bomber as “Abu Yahya al-Qayrawani” and defining the slain “subjects of the allied crusade fighting the Caliphate”.
In recent weeks, the Islamic State had urged followers to carry out attacks and die for jihad during the holy month of Ramadan. Almost in response to this call, in parallel with the attack in Sousse, there was an attack in France, one in Kuwait, one in Somalia.
In France, in Saint-Quentin-Fallavier, about 40 km from Lyon, a man, Yassin Salhi, a suspected Islamic radical, beheaded his employer and tried to trigger a huge explosion at a US owned gas company. two Islamic state flags were exposed alongside the severed head, and writting on the face of the victim.
In Kuwait, during Friday prayers, a suicide bomber blew himself up inside a Shiite mosque of Imam Sadiq, killing 27 worshipers and injuring 227 people.
In Somalia, al-Shebab attacked an African Union forces base in Lego, approximately 100 km from Mogadishu. Some witnesses say that there are at least 50 dead.
Tunisian president Beji Caid Essebsi the said that Tunisia cannot tackle the terrorist threat alone, calling for a unified global strategy.
Tunisia, birthplace of the Arab Spring in November 2011, succeeded in establishing a liberal and democratic constitution, which guarantees freedom to all confessions. At the same time, it saw a growth of Islamic fundamentalism, which undermines one of the most important industries in the country: tourism.
In October 2013, there was a previous attack in Sousse; last March an attack on the Bardo museum with dozens of deaths. Tourism accounts for 7% of the nation’s GDP and provides employment for at least 400 thousand people.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Iran Stakes Out Red Lines on Sanctions, Inspections as Nuclear Talks Get Underway in Vienna
Iran is making its red lines clear as talks on a final nuclear deal get underway.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif are meeting in a Vienna hotel in the first of what should be several days of negotiations ahead of a Tuesday deadline.
The U.S. and other world powers are pursuing an agreement that would curb Iran’s nuclear program for a decade in exchange for billions of dollars in sanctions relief.
Zarif says an accord is in reach unless there are “excessive demands.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
ISIS Celebrates Gay Love by Tossing 4 Gays From Roof of Building
[WARNING: Disturbing Content.]
ISIS celebrated gay love today by tossing four more gays from top of a highrise.
Of course a crowd gathered below to watch the execution.
Several Islamists tweeted out #LoveWins — the same hashtag that was used today after the Supreme Court ruling.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
ISIS Marks Anniversary of Caliphate Amid Ramadan Calls for Violence
Islamic State is marking its first year as a self-proclaimed caliphate by calling on sympathizers around the world to take up arms and commit acts of terror. It was on June 29, 2014 that the terrorist army then known as ISIS announced it had established a government run by a medieval version of strict Islam in territory that spanned northern Syria and Iraq.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Indonesia: Bowing to Ulema, Constitutional Court Approves “Forced” Marriages With Minors
Civil society outraged by supreme court decision, already criticized for the ruling on mixed faith couples. The Court legalized marriages of minors under 16, considering them adult ready for marriage. MUI pressure instrumental. Indonesian activist: a dangerous precedent.
Katjasungkana explains the judges have effectively legalized marriages of girls as young as 16, considered “adult” and “ready” for marriage even if the reality is quite different. In this context, he adds, cases of forced marriages involving girls and young women, 16 years or younger will be legal.
Moreover, the activist continues, with this law the quality of the marriage which was previously reserved only for persons of consenting age (over 18 years) was permitted. Katjasungkana says the decision hides “the moral influence exerted on judges by the Indonesian Council of Ulemas,” who judges hold as more important than common law and even the well-being of the same young people.
In the past, according to tradition, in Indonesia a girl was considered ready for marriage after her first menstrual cycle. However, in general menstruation began later while now even young girls experience the menstrual phase. For Islamists, a period implies that the bride is ready for marriage and procreation. Rather than considering common sense and common practice of medicine, concludes Katjasungkana, “the judges take into account the opinion of Mui”.
Recent studies developed by the Indonesian Women’s Coalition (KPI) show that 20% of marriages celebrated in the archipelago involve young people between 13 and 15 years, in blatant violation of the law (1/1974 on marriage). And the figure rises to 39% if we consider girls between 15 and 17 years. A few years ago an Islamic leader, Syeh Puii, became famous for marrying his student, just 12 years old, for “humanitarian reasons”.
In recent years, the Indonesian authorities have repeatedly succumbed to pressure from the MUI, which plays a role of “observer” of manners and morals in the archipelago. In Aceh region where the radical Islamic rule, women can not wear tight jeans or skirts. In March 2011, the MUI lashed out at the flag-raising “because Muhammad never did it”, and previously even launched anathemas against the popular social network Facebook as “amoral”, against yoga, smoking and the right to vote, for women in particular.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Over 200 Injured in Explosion at Taiwan Water Park
(CNN)At least 205 people were injured, 82 seriously, in an explosion Saturday evening at a recreational water park in New Taipei, Taiwan, the East Asian nation’s official Central News Agency reported.
The cause of the explosion has not been determined.
New Taipei is Taiwan’s most populous city.
| — Hat tip: Dean | [Return to headlines] |
Taiwan Park Fire Injures Hundreds
At least 200 people have been injured in a fire at an amusement park outside Taiwan’s capital, Taipei.
A spokesman for the fire service said it was believed coloured powder being sprayed on to a crowd had ignited.
More than 80 had serious injuries, the Taipei fire department said. Some victims suffered 40% burns according to CNA news agency.
The accident happened during a “colour play” party at Formosa Water Park in New Taipei City’s Bali district.
| — Hat tip: LP | [Return to headlines] |
Australian Whistleblowers Could Have Citizenship Revoked Under Proposed Laws
Whistleblowers with dual citizenship who speak out on Australia’s national security — including those involved in allegations that Timor-Leste’s cabinet room was bugged — could face having their citizenship revoked under proposed laws. A bill introduced to the federal parliament by the immigration minister, Peter Dutton, on Wednesday enhances the power of the immigration minister to revoke or initiate a renunciation of citizenship for conduct deemed to relate to certain terrorism offences. The new bill seeks to strip only dual nationals of their citizenship.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Researchers from the University of Melbourne found that the primates scratched themselves and fought more when they could see human visitors compared to when they were behind a one-way screen.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The statistics are shocking. So far this year, more than 100,000 illegal migrants have successfully crossed the Mediterranean into southern Europe — 48,000 to Greece and 54,000 to Italy. And 500,000 more are said to be waiting in Libya to chance their arms.
And this does not include the increasing numbers entering the Continent overland from Turkey and Serbia into Hungary.
The European border agency Frontex — whose HQ, for political correctness reasons, is thousands of miles from the Mediterranean coast in Warsaw — is completely overwhelmed.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Obama: Ditch Religious Convictions About Same-Sex Marriage Already
President Barack Obama urged supporters of same-sex marriage Friday to “help” people to overcome their religious convictions, so they are no longer held back from a progressive American view of equality.
“I know that Americans of goodwill continue to hold a wide range of views on this issue,” he said in a speech following the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling to Constitutionally recognize same-sex marriage. He initially espoused respect for those who disagree with the ruling.
“Opposition in some cases has been based on sincere and deeply held beliefs,” he said. “All of us who welcome today’s news should be mindful of that fact. Recognize different viewpoints. Revere our deep commitment to religious freedom.”
“But today should also give us hope that on the many issues with which we grapple often painfully real change is possible,” he continued, abruptly switching gears, clearly implying that those who disagree must come around to the more righteous, more American, and more equal view of marriage.
[Comment: he forgot to say “bitter gun clingers”.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Overthrow the Judicial Dictatorship
Commentators have missed the real significance of Justice Antonin Scalia’s dissent in the gay marriage case. He calls the decision a judicial “Putsch,” an attempt to overthrow a form of government—ours. His dissent, joined by Justice Clarence Thomas, was written “to call attention to this Court’s threat to American democracy.”
His comment about the Court using the kind of reasoning we find in a fortune cookie is a funny line. But there is much of the Scalia dissent that is not funny and which serves as a warning to the American people about what the Court has done to us.
Scalia understands the power and meaning of words and he chose the word “putsch” for a specific purpose. One definition of the term means “a secretly plotted and suddenly executed attempt to overthrow a government…” Another definition is “a plotted revolt or attempt to overthrow a government, especially one that depends upon suddenness and speed.”
Hence, Scalia is saying this was not only a blatant power grab and the creation of a “right” that does not exist, but a decision that depends on public ignorance about what is really taking place. It is our system of checks and balances and self-rule that has been undermined, he says.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The End of Constitutional Government
But, I saved the worst for last… in another 5-4 ruling, the Supreme Court legalized gay marriage nationally, following on the heels of Mexico doing the same thing last week. Funny, I don’ t remember marriage of any sort being mentioned in the Constitution or as being seen as ‘ a right.’ This decision will literally touch every aspect of our lives. It’ s not just the act of non-traditional marriage; it’ s all that it entails.
The Left will use this ruling to try and destroy religious freedom of all forms of worship, except for Islam. It won’ t just be the refusal by Christian pastors and priests to consecrate homosexual unions… it will go far beyond that. If you go to a church that preaches biblical principles and traditional marriage, that could cost you your job. Children in all schools will be subjected to gender theories and all forms of sexual preferences — everything from homosexuality, to pedophilia, to polygamy, to incest, to bestiality and on it goes. This is what the liberal Progressives want — the destruction of all morality, faith and the family unit. It is the very bedrock of communism come to life in America. This ruling on gay marriage was the equivalent of a legalistic Pandora’ s Box. It’ s already occurring in the military — ministers are being court-martialed or rotated out because of their Christian faith. And of course, you are seeing it playing out with wedding chapels, bakeries, florists and photographers.
It will also be used as a weapon to silence free speech. It’ s already happening. Witness the editorial board of PennLive/The Patriot-News in Harrisburg, PA who is taking a hardcore stance against those who disagree with the Supreme Court ruling to legalize gay marriage:…
I will quote my friend James Simpson on gay marriage — because it goes to the matter:
The Left uses “rights” agendas to wrap itself in the mantle of righteousness and seize the moral high ground, tactically putting us on the defense in the process. But they couldn’t care less about the actual issue except in its ability to facilitate their path to power.
The agenda is never the agenda for the Left. And this is especially true for gay marriage. Homosexual marriage is a Trojan horse tactic. The true agenda is to establish the primacy of homosexual rights over the First Amendment’s guarantee of the free exercise of religion. Our nation was founded on this principle, and the gay marriage movement seeks to destroy it.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Silencing: Paper Will Limit Anti-Gay Marriage Op-Eds
The editorial board of PennLive/The Patriot-News in Harrisburg, Pa. is taking a hardcore stance against those who disagree with the Supreme Court ruling to legalize gay marriage.
“As a result of Friday’s ruling, PennLive/The Patriot-News will no longer accept, nor will it print, op-Eds and letters to the editor in opposition to same-sex marriage,” they declared.
After receiving strong pushback, the newspaper’s editorial board, which is overseen by Editorial Page Editor John Micek, quickly revised its policy. Freedom of speech will be allowed — but only for a “limited” period of time.
Micek explained on Twitter: “Clarification: We will not foreclose discussion of the high court’s decision, but arguments that gay marriage is wrong/unnatural are out.”
Before that, there was this: “From the edit: ‘PL/PN will no longer accept, nor will it print, op-Eds and letters to the editor in opposition to same-sex marriage.’ …This is not hard: We would not print racist, sexist or anti-Semitc letters. To that, we add homophobic ones. Pretty simple.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
“None of those mosques have anything to do with Islam.”
This is where the “nothing to do with Islam” claims get laughably absurd. 80 mosques are closed down for being radical and violent, yet we’re supposed to know that violent radical militancy has nothing to do with Islam. The only conclusion one could draw from this is that Islam is so vulnerable to corruption by Shaytan or something that 80 mosques have been taken over by some strange evil pseudo-Islam that has nothing to do with the true Islam.
So we can either believe that Islam is the religion of peace but that it’s so easy for Shaytan to corrupt it into something evil and violent that 80 mosques have to be declared Shaytan-infected, or just maybe it isn’t the religion of peace and it’s actually just evil and corrupt in its true form.
Appeasing
Feeding the Crocodile
“An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile hoping it will eat him last.”
Winston Churchill
Blood Red Lacoste Sweatshirt
Why, then, knowing he would be photographed, did Breivik insist on wearing his blood red Lacoste sweatshirt, ?
Was there an obvious – blood red – message there, that the jornolists and editors, at the time, were not capable of seeing? Blood red, or labor rose red, whichever.
Valls says it is not a question of whether, but rather when the next terror attack will happen. He emphazises the when. In other words, facing reality.
Valls is a socialist in the name, but from time to time has to counter accusations of not being a real one.
“The first victims are the muslims”
Just another mantra after any terror attack.
If they really feel they are victims of other muslims “misrepresenting” islam, why not use their freedom of religion, and think about doing something else for a change?
What if the “misunderstanders” are the ones who perfectly well understand the True islam, and that it is the majority of the muslims who misunderstand? How can copying their prophet to the letter, be misunderstanding? So, what are the majority of muslims going to do about the “misunderstanders” if they no longer can deny that they are the ones who perfectly well understand the koran and the purpose of it?
Prophet, another word hijacked from religion.