Gates of Vienna News Feed 2/18/2016

A car bomb that exploded in Ankara, killing 28 people, and a bomb that exploded at a Turkish cultural center in Stockholm (causing no injuries) may both be the work of Kurdish separatists, reacting to Turkey’s ongoing military offensive against the Kurds in both Turkey and Syria.

Meanwhile, European Migration Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos has written to the Austrian interior minister, warning her that Austria’s decision to cap the number of migrants entering the country is forbidden under EU regulations and international law.

In other news, Pope Francis has determined that Donald Trump is not a Christian, due to the latter’s proposal to build a wall along the border with Mexico.

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

Thanks to AF, C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, LD, Nick, RL, Steen, Vlad Tepes, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

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

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

Financial Crisis
» Dijsselbloem Says Banks Situation Not Disastrous
» Italy: Nine Million No Longer Use Natl Health Service Says Camusso
» Spending to Blame for Ontario’s Chronic Deficits and Massive Debt — Not a Weak Economy
» This is the Real Reason for the War on Cash
 
USA
» Clinton Suggests Racial ‘Bigotry’ Behind Republicans’ Stance in Supreme Court Fight
» Cliven Bundy Indicted in 2014 Standoff
» Decorated Marine Vet Attacked, Robbed at Washington DC McDonald’s, Police Say
» Drudge Slams ‘Media Cover-Up’ Of Hillary’s Health
» FCC Commissioner: Free Speech is Endangered, From Campuses to the Internet
» LIGO’s Black Holes May Have Lived and Died Inside a Huge Star
» Majoring in Anti-Semitism at Vassar
» Obama’s Visit to a Terrorist-Connected Mosque!
» Obama Says Donald Trump Won’t be Elected President in 2016
» Only a Scalia II Can Save SCOTUS, And the Country
» Scalia’s Son Calls for End to ‘Hurtful’ Theories
» The Ultimate Minority Right
» Why Rand Paul Lost; Why Freedom is Faltering
» Yuuuuge Black Hole Lies at Heart of This Elliptical Galaxy — Video
 
Europe and the EU
» Documents Show Polish Anti-Communist Leader Collaborated With Regime, Official Says
» Documents Show Walesa Collaborated With Regime
» EU Eyes ISIL ‘Sleepers’ For Next Major Attack
» Evidence Mounts for Interbreeding Bonanza in Ancient Human Species
» France: Eagles of Death Metal Singer: ‘I Want Everyone to Have Guns’
» French Judge Summons Former Guantanamo Chief in Torture Probe
» Hungary: Putin: Moscow Ready to Fund Two Nuclear Reactors
» Italy: Vacancies for Displaced Provincial Staff Outstrip Demand
» Italy: Berlusconi Backs Bertolaso After Salvini Doubts
» Italy: M5S Begins Online Voting for Rome Mayoral Candidate
» Norwegian Military Close to Bankruptcy, Orders Personnel to Turn in Pistols to Save Money
» Our First Sex With Neanderthals Happened 100,000 Years Ago
» Paris Survivors: Healing the Scars of Bataclan
» Poland: Anti-Islam Magazine Cover Causes Outrage
» Renewed Debate Over Possible Merkel Candidacy to Lead UN
» Sweden: Blast at Turkish Cultural Centre in Stockholm
» Swedish Teenage Girl Found Guilty of ‘ISIS’ Plot
» U.S. Stationing Tanks and Artillery Sent to Norway
» UK: Activists Threatened With Dawn Raid, Arrested for Anti-Islam Speech
» UK: Midsomer Murders Set Become More Politically Correct After Producer’s Departure
» UK: Rochdale Child Sex Grooming Ringleader Uses European Human Rights Law to Avoid Being Kicked Out of UK
» UK: Teen Quadruple Amputee Told to Prove His Disability or Have His Benefits Stopped
» UK: Teenager Stabbed in the Face and Neck by Two Men After Being Chased Down the Street While Riding His Hoverboard
 
North Africa
» Exclusive: Obama Refuses to Hit ISIS’s Libyan Capital
» The U.S. Government Thought it Had Killed This Legendary Militant. Now it’s Not So Sure.
 
Middle East
» In Wake of Ankara Attack, Turkey Targets PKK Positions in Iraq and Syria
» Kurdish Commander: “We Have Proof” That Turkey Backs the Islamic State and Other Terrorists
» Syrians in Turkey Caught Between EU Deals
» Syria: Media: 2,000 Militia Arrive From Turkey to Fight Kurds
 
Russia
» Another Faction Quits Ukraine’s Governing Coalition
 
South Asia
» Afghan Defense Ministry Built Five Years Late, $100mln Over Budget
» Pakistan’s ‘Guns for Teachers’ Drive and the Failure of State
» Pakistan: Punjab: Govt Should Stop Discriminating Against Religious Minorities, Uphold Constitution
 
Far East
» Autogrill to Open Three New Sales Points at Beijing Airport
» China Warns Australia Over South China Sea Dispute
» China Debt Binge Spurs S&P Warning as Magnus Sees ‘Big Problems’
» Japan’s Economic Woes Cast Shadow on Abe’s Twin Election Choice
» Satellite Images ‘Show China Has Set Up Surface-to-Air Missiles on Its Man-Made Island’
 
Australia — Pacific
» One-Third of Meals Given to Australian Troops to be Halal-Certified — Despite the Fact There Are Only 100 Muslims Serving in the Defence Force
 
Sub-Saharan Africa
» African Farmers Struggle to Feed Continent’s Booming Population
» Female Surfer Off Strandfontein Beach Pictured Being Circled by Five Sharks
 
Latin America
» Nancy Menges & Luis Fleischman: Agreement With the FARC is a Colombian Problem as Much as an American Challenge
» Obama Plans Historic Trip to Cuba to Further Ties
 
Immigration
» Asylum Seekers Charged With Rape of Child in Sweden
» Austria Sets Migrant Cap, Throws up Border Controls
» Bulgaria Grants Army More Powers to Guard Borders
» Can’t Make Two Countries Pay for Global Refugees Says Alfano
» Capping Refugee Numbers Illegal, EU Tells Vienna
» Closing Borders to Balkans Would Cause Major Crisis in Greece, Says Mouzalas
» Crime by Migrants in Germany Went Up by 79% Last Year
» Dutch Primary Schools With Less Than Four Refugees Refused Extra Funding
» European Police Chiefs Announce Joint Refugee Register
» Exclusive Video — London ‘No Borders’ Campaigner Urges ‘Palestinian’ Tactics to ‘Bring Government to Its Knees’
» Frank Gaffney Warns: Southern Border Now a ‘Fertile Environment for Jihadis’
» Germany: Leader of Anti-Islam PEGIDA Faces Trial for Facebook Posts Calling Foreigners ‘Trash’
» ‘Italy and Greece Need Support’, Italian FM
» Merkel Will Outlast All Her Critics on Refugees: Juncker
» Migrants Blamed for Shortfall in the German Health Service by 2017
» Now Germany Says it Expects Half a Million More Migrants to Arrive This Year Alone
» Police Inspector: Sweden on Verge of Collapse Due to Migrant Crime
» Refugee Crisis Discussions Heat up Ahead of EU Summit
» Sweden is Forced to Hire Luxury Cruise Liner to House 2,000 Refugees
» This Could Become Sweden’s Biggest Home for Refugees
» Trump Not Christian if He Says Raise Walls Says Pope
» UK Police Arrest Man for ‘Offensive’ Facebook Post About Migrants
 
Culture Wars
» Dennis Prager Destroys ‘White Privilege’ Myth With One Simple Statistic
» Italy: Zanda Chides Cirinnà for ‘Insinuations’ Over Civil Unions Bill
» Man Undressing in Women’s Room Cites Transgender Rule
» The Replication Crisis and the Repetition Crisis
 
General
» Photomath App to Dumb Down Students Like Never Before: Gives Instant Answer to Picture of a Math Problem
» The Truth About Exoplanets
» What Sparked the Cambrian Explosion?
 

Dijsselbloem Says Banks Situation Not Disastrous

Eurogroup chief says lack of client information ‘serious’

(ANSA) — Brussels, February 18 — Eurogroup President Jeroen Dijsselbloem said Thursday that the situation for European banks was not “disastrous” even though they have been hit hardest by the recent stock market turmoil. He also said that many banks needed to offload the bad loans weighing down their balance sheets and that it was “serious” that some small investors had not been sufficiently informed about the risks of buying bonds in lenders. Premier Matteo Renzi’s government recently reached an agreement with the European Commission on a guarantee mechanism to help Italian lenders offload some of billions of euros of non-performing loans. The government has also come over fire over its recent rescue of four small Italian banks, which left investors with worthless shares and bonds in the lenders. Many of the small investors said they were not informed of the risks by the banks who sold them. “It’s not true that the banks are in a disastrous situation,” Dijsselbloem told the European Parliament.

“They are in a bad situation, although in individual cases there is still issues of the legacy of the crisis, such as enormous quantities of deteriorated credits.

“There’s no magic wand to make them disappear, but it’s necessary to offload them.

“As for clients who bought retail products subject to the bail-in (if the bank fails) without being sufficiently well informed, this is a serious problem”.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Nine Million No Longer Use Natl Health Service Says Camusso

‘Budget cuts, reduced services’ says union chief

(ANSA) — Rome, February 18 — Nine million Italians no longer turn to the national health service, CGIL union federation leader Susanna Camusso said Thursday. “They can’t reach it anymore because of budget cuts and reduced services,” she said.

Her comments came after State Audit Court President Raffaele Squitieri described the government’s spending review as a “partial failure” at the inauguration of the judicial year earlier in the day. The review of public spending has given “the essential issue of the interrelationship with the quality of services” a back seat, Squitieri said.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Spending to Blame for Ontario’s Chronic Deficits and Massive Debt — Not a Weak Economy

TORONTO Government spending — not slumping revenues — is responsible for Ontario’s chronic budget deficits, finds a new study released today by the Fraser Institute, an independent, non-partisan Canadian public policy think-tank.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

This is the Real Reason for the War on Cash

Limits on cash transactions have been spreading in Europe since the 2008 financial panic, ostensibly to crack down on crime and tax avoidance. Italy has made it illegal to pay cash for anything worth more than Eu1,000 ($1,116), while France cut its limit to Eu1,000 from Eu3,000 last year. British merchants accepting more than Eu15,000 in cash per transaction must first register with the tax authorities. Fines for violators can run into the thousands of euros. Germany’s Deputy Finance Minister Michael Meister recently proposed a Eu5,000 cap on cash transactions. Deutsche Bank CEO John Cryan predicted last month that cash won’t survive another decade.

The enemies of cash claim that only crooks and cranks need large-denomination bills. They want large transactions to be made electronically so government can follow them. Yet these are some of the same European politicians who blew a gasket when they learned that U.S. counter terrorist officials were monitoring money through the Swift global system. Criminals will find a way, large bills or not.

The real reason the war on cash is gearing up now is political: Politicians and central bankers fear that holders of currency could undermine their brave new monetary world of negative interest rates. Japan and Europe are already deep into negative territory, and U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said last week the U.S. should be prepared for the possibility. Translation: That’s where the Fed is going in the next recession.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Clinton Suggests Racial ‘Bigotry’ Behind Republicans’ Stance in Supreme Court Fight

Hillary Clinton ratcheted up Democrats’ criticism of Senate Republicans in the debate over filling the Supreme Court’s sudden vacancy, suggesting Tuesday that those calling on President Obama not to nominate someone are motivated by race.

Republicans fired back on Wednesday, calling Clinton’s comments a “new low” in the debate.

The Democratic presidential candidate had accused Republicans of talking in “coded racial language” during remarks in Harlem, tying that to the ongoing battle over who should replace the late Justice Antonin Scalia — and who should nominate that replacement.

Many Republicans want Obama to defer to the next president to name a successor; Obama has rejected those calls and plans to nominate a replacement, he says, “in due time.”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Cliven Bundy Indicted in 2014 Standoff

(THE OREGONIAN) Ammon Bundy, brother Ryan Bundy, Ryan Payne and Peter Santilli — already indicted in the armed takeover of a federal wildlife refuge in eastern Oregon — now face federal indictment along with Cliven Bundy in the 2014 armed standoff near the Bundy ranch in Nevada.

The indictment charges the four with 16 felonies: one count of conspiring to commit an offense against the United States, one count of conspiring to impede or injure a federal officer, four counts of carrying a firearm in a crime of violence, two counts of assault on a federal officer, two counts of threatening a federal law enforcement officer, three counts of obstructing justice, two counts of interfering with interstate commerce by extortion and one count of interstate travel in aid of extortion.

It also levels five counts of criminal forfeiture against each defendant. If convicted of the offenses, they would have to forfeit property obtained from the proceeds of their crimes, totaling at least $3 million, including cattle at the so-called Bunkerville Allotment and Lake Mead National Recreational Area in Nevada. They also would have to forfeit firearms and ammunition used in the April 12, 2014, standoff with federal authorities.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Decorated Marine Vet Attacked, Robbed at Washington DC McDonald’s, Police Say

Authorities worked Wednesday to identify at least four people who attacked and robbed a decorated former Marine at a Washington, D.C. McDonald’s, leaving him in the restaurant unconscious.

Christopher Marquez, 30, an Iraq War vet, told the Washington Post he was eating in a back corner of the restaurant on Friday when a group of teens and young men approached his table.

“They saw me and crowded around — and they started asking me if I believed black lives matter,” Marquez told the paper. “I was ignoring them, then they started calling me racist.”

At that point, Marquez said he left the McDonald’s, but was knocked unconscious by a blow to his head. When he came to, his pants were ripped and his wallet, which contained $400 in cash, three credit cards and VA medical card among other items, was missing.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Drudge Slams ‘Media Cover-Up’ Of Hillary’s Health

(WASHINGTONTIMES) — Drudge Report creator Matt Drudge slammed what he called a “media cover-up” of Hillary Clinton’s “flaring hypothyroidism” after the Democratic presidential candidate suffered another coughing fit on the campaign trail.

Mrs. Clinton, 68, struggled to recover from a coughing fit during a speech at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in New York City Tuesday, perpetuating rumors that the former secretary of state is in poor health. She suffered similar attacks last month during a speech in West Des Moines, Iowa, and during the Benghazi hearings in October.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

FCC Commissioner: Free Speech is Endangered, From Campuses to the Internet

FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai warned about the erosion of free speech in an interview with the Washington Examiner on Tuesday, making a crucial point about how a generation comfortable with thuggish intimidation on campuses and the Internet will have a weak immune system against the virus of official censorship. Liberty is a habit, which Pai perceptively warned we are losing.

“Largely what we’re seeing, especially on college campuses, is that if my view is in the majority and I don’t agree with your view, then I have the right to shout you down, disrupt your events, or otherwise suppress your ability to get your voice heard,” said Pai.

Off-campus, he cited Twitter’s recent creation of a speech-policing “Trust and Safety” board — loaded with social justice warrior activists — as an example of private censorship that erodes our resistance to government speech and thought control.

“Private actors like Twitter have the freedom to operate their platform as they see fit, [but] I would hope that everybody embraces the idea of the marketplace of ideas. The proverbial street corner of the 21st century, where people can gather to debate issues is increasingly social media, which serves as a platform for public discourse,” he said.

           — Hat tip: AF [Return to headlines]
 

LIGO’s Black Holes May Have Lived and Died Inside a Huge Star

Call it a gut reaction. The revolutionary discovery of space-time ripples may have come from two black holes colliding while inside the belly of an enormous star, whose subsequent collapse launched powerful jets of gamma rays.

Scientists already knew that the gravitational waves detected by LIGO, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory, were generated when two black holes — each about 30 times as massive as the sun — spiralled around each other and merged.

But now it seems that collision may have been followed by a bright burst of gamma rays. NASA’s Fermi gamma-ray space telescope detected such an eruption just 0.4 seconds after LIGO’s gravitational waves arrived at Earth. It’s not clear whether the same event triggered both signals, but the Fermi team calculated that the probability of a coincidence was just 0.0022.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Majoring in Anti-Semitism at Vassar

Anti-Israel sentiment mixed with age-old anti-Semitism has reached a fever pitch at Vassar College. It is time that faculty and administrators take a stand against this toxic brew on behalf of academic values.

The campus of this private liberal-arts college in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., has experienced more than its share of anti-Israel activity. In the spring of 2014, the boycott of a course in the International Studies Program—because it involved a trip to Israel—included heckling students and picketing the class. During the fall of 2015, attempts were made to boycott Sabra hummus because the maker of this popular food is partly owned by an Israeli food company.

The most recent incident was a talk on Feb. 3 by Jasbir Puar, a Rutgers associate professor of women’s and gender studies. The address, “Inhumanist Biopolitics: How Palestine Matters,” was sponsored by eight Vassar departments and programs, including Jewish Studies and American Studies.

Ms. Puar began by exhorting the students to support a boycott of Israel as part of “armed” resistance. As reported by several in attendance at the speech—the professor introducing her requested that it not be recorded—Ms. Puar passed on vicious lies that Israel had “mined for organs for scientific research” from dead Palestinians—updating the medieval blood libel against Jews—and accused Israelis of attempting to give Palestinians the “bare minimum for survival” as part of a medical “experiment.”

When asked, she agreed with a questioner that Israeli treatment of Palestinians amounted to genocide but objected to the term itself, which she said was too “tethered to the Holocaust.”…

           — Hat tip: RL [Return to headlines]
 

Obama’s Visit to a Terrorist-Connected Mosque!

President Obama recently visited a terrorist-connected Muslim mosque; however, he has not visited an Evangelical or Fundamentalist church! That’s interesting since such people had everything to do with founding this nation and Muslims had nothing to do with it. Among other falsehoods, he opined that Islam is “essential to the fabric of America.” He did not try to support his obviously false statement. If every Muslim in America disappeared tonight, it would have little negative impact on our nation.

Even the media have noticed how he panders to Muslims at every opportunity and always defends Muslim terrorists when they kill the innocent shouting, “Allah is the greatest.” Sane, honest people know they are obviously wild-eyed barbarians from the 7th century desert. However, when an American city is smoldering in flames from a terrorist attack, Obama will be forced to discard his pandering to Muslims as quickly as long underwear in a Texas heatwave.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Obama Says Donald Trump Won’t be Elected President in 2016

President Barack Obama said Donald Trump won’t be elected president and the Republican primary campaign has alarmed foreign audiences who expect the U.S. to lead the world.

“I continue to believe Mr. Trump will not be president,” Obama said Tuesday at a news conference after meeting with Southeast Asian leaders in Rancho Mirage, California. “And the reason is, I continue to have faith in the American people. And I think they realize that being president of the United States is a serious job. It’s not hosting a talk show.”

While Obama again criticized the tone and substance of the Republican primary campaign, he described the Democratic contest as a “healthy debate.” He didn’t say whether he would endorse his former secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, or her challenger, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, but allowed that he and Clinton may more often agree on policy.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Only a Scalia II Can Save SCOTUS, And the Country

This is it. This is the reset. The moment of clarity has arrived. The fate of our republic, the fate of this noble experiment, will be decided by January 21, 2017, one way or the other. Know this: There is no tomorrow if we don’t rise up as a people and fix this now. We must take our country back. Here is what must be done…

The time for compromise, for meeting in the middle, for giving the Progressives half of what they want each time is over. We must win it all or we___re lost.

The forces arrayed against us will not accept defeat easily in this pivotal fight. Thuggish ideologues who have destroyed so much of our culture and heritage are determined to win at all costs, and they nearly have. They hate us for our love of country and for our reverence for the Constitution. They despise the freedoms we cherish. They have no respect for our ancestors or for those we know and remember who gave their service and their lives to defeat national socialism and communistic socialism to deliver these freedoms to us. They will fight like hell. But like Francis said of Buck in The Call of the Wild, we must fight like two hells.

If we don___t win on these points this time, it’s all over. We will see the ship of state go down in dark seas, never to be recovered. There will be no excuses, no second chances, no mulligans. Make no mistake, it will be over, AND IT WILL BE OUR FAULT.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Scalia’s Son Calls for End to ‘Hurtful’ Theories

Eugene Scalia, the deceased Supreme Court justice’s oldest son, called for Americans to stop theorizing about the suspicious nature of his father’s death, saying his eight siblings and other family members have “no doubt” Antonin Scalia died due to natural circumstances.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

The Ultimate Minority Right

by Steve Sailer

The Democrats, for example, have long boasted of their plan to import tens of millions of foreigners and then figure out some way to give them the vote so the Democrats can enjoy a permanent racial and electoral majority.

Now, you might think that when the old majority becomes a minority, it would then get minority rights.

But that’s not how it works.

Whites can’t become a certified minority; they will always be the legacy majority. The closer we get to the future when whites are a minority, the more we hear about their ancestors’ sins, their ineradicable hereditary guilt, their corruption of blood.

Nor will minorities give up their minority privileges, such as affirmative action.

As part of this drive for the final minority rights—becoming a majority—American elites now frequently switch the moral denominator from their responsibility to do what’s good for American citizens to doing what’s putatively good for all 7.3 billion earthlings.

           — Hat tip: AF [Return to headlines]
 

Why Rand Paul Lost; Why Freedom is Faltering

The reason America is in the miserable shape it’s in today is primarily because the American electorate is itself mostly ignorant of constitutional principles and, therefore, is either incapable or unwilling to hold their civil magistrates accountable to the Constitution. And, yes, the biggest reason for this vast ignorance and indifference is that the pulpits of America have abandoned the principles of Natural and Revealed Law upon which our founding documents were founded and framed.

Recently, Paul Craig Roberts asked the biting question, ‘Are Americans Too Insouciant To Survive?’ A very real possibility exists that they are.

See Dr. Roberts’ column here.

But the problem is more than mere insouciance. There has been a dramatic shift in philosophy in the so-called ‘freedom movement’ since Ron Paul’s presidential campaigns in 2008 and 2012. Where once the cry was ‘we want to return government to the Constitution,’ now the cry is ‘we want to get rid of government altogether.’

Jason Charles recently wrote an excellent column in this regard:…

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Yuuuuge Black Hole Lies at Heart of This Elliptical Galaxy — Video

The Hubble Space Telescope has imaged one of the most massive black holes yet discovered anchors this elliptical galaxy, numbered NGC 4889. The giant elliptical galaxy is about 300 million light-years from Earth. It contains a mass equivalent to twenty-one billion times that of our Sun.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Documents Show Polish Anti-Communist Leader Collaborated With Regime, Official Says

Recently seized documents show that Poland’s former president and Solidarity founder Lech Walesa was a paid informant for the communist-era secret security service from 1970-76, the head of Poland’s history institute said Thursday.

A legend of Poland’s successful struggle to topple communism, Walesa has previously acknowledged signing a commitment to be an informant, but has insisted he never acted on it. In 2000 he was cleared by a special court, which said it found no evidence of collaboration.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Documents Show Walesa Collaborated With Regime

Informant for the communist-era secret security from 1970-1976

(ANSA-AP) — WARSAW — The head of Poland’s history institute says that recently seized documents show that former president and Solidarity founder Lech Walesa was a paid informant for the communist-era secret security from 1970-76.

Walesa has admitted signing a commitment to be an informant, but has insisted he never acted on it. In 2000 he was cleared by a special court.

Head of the state National Remembrance Institute, Lukasz Kaminski, said Thursday that documents seized this week from the house of the last communist interior minister, the late Gen. Czeslaw Kiszczak, include a commitment to provide information to the secret security that is signed with Walesa’s name and codename, “Bolek.” There are also pages of reports and receipts for money signed by Walesa.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

EU Eyes ISIL ‘Sleepers’ For Next Major Attack

Terrorist boot camps and ‘commando teams’ on the Continent.

PARIS — By sending warplanes to bomb Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, Western powers wanted to punish the terrorist group on its turf — and avoid a blowback on the home front.

That logic looks increasingly shaky.

In the wake of last November’s attacks in Paris, U.S. and EU intelligence officials are reassessing their view of the self-described Islamic State’s strategic objectives to take into account its battlefield setbacks and need for propaganda victories.

They now believe the group, also known as either ISIS or ISIL, is determined to prove its continued strength by staging further attacks in the European Union. Their working scenario resembles the Paris tragedy, but on a vaster scale — with commando teams attacking soft targets in several countries at once, according to terrorism experts in France, Britain and the United States who were briefed on non-public discussions.

“The next attack is likely to be bigger,” said former French intelligence official Claude Moniquet, who heads the European Strategic Intelligence and Security Center. “The type of attack that intelligence and security agencies are preparing for now is a coordinated attack in multiple sites, in several major [EU] cities — two to four.”…

           — Hat tip: Steen [Return to headlines]
 

Evidence Mounts for Interbreeding Bonanza in Ancient Human Species

Nature tallies the trysts among Neanderthals, humans and other relatives.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

France: Eagles of Death Metal Singer: ‘I Want Everyone to Have Guns’

Eagles of Death Metal frontman Jesse Hughes said he is convinced people who died in the Bataclan that night would have survived if everyone had had access to guns.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

French Judge Summons Former Guantanamo Chief in Torture Probe

A French judge has summoned retired US General Geoffrey Miller, the former Guantanamo Bay prison chief, to court over allegations of torture, a lawyer for one of the plaintiffs told FRANCE 24 on Thursday.

William Bourdon, a lawyer for former Gitmo detainee Mourad Benchellali, said General Miller was due in court at 10am on March 1 to answer accusations that he oversaw Benchellali’s “illegal detention and torture”.

Bourdon said he did not expect the general to show up, noting that “top US civilian and military officials refuse to be held to account by [foreign] judges”…

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]
 

Hungary: Putin: Moscow Ready to Fund Two Nuclear Reactors

10 billion dollar loan for Paks nuclear power plant

(ANSA) — MOSCOW — Russia is ready to provide a 10 billion dollar loan for Hungary to build two new reactors at the Paks nuclear power plant, president Vladimir Putin confirmed after meeting with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. The project to build these two new reactors is expected to cost $ 12.5 billion.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Vacancies for Displaced Provincial Staff Outstrip Demand

Preliminary data ‘very encouraging’, civil service minister says

(ANSA) — Rome, February 18 — Vacancies in public administrations for civil servants displaced by the abolition of the country’s provinces well outstrip the number of people to be reassigned, according to provisional data announced by Civil Service Minister Marianna Madia on Thursday.

“For the approximately 1,800 workers included in the mobility lists there have been over 2,500 vacancy proposals from interested administrations,” Madia said, describing the figures as “very encouraging”.

Now care is being taken to match demand and supply, particularly on a territorial level, the minister added. Last year Madia announced that over 15,000 provincial employees were to be reassigned to regional or ministerial posts or otherwise phased out as part of a measure to scrap provinces altogether.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Berlusconi Backs Bertolaso After Salvini Doubts

Former civil protection chief ‘able to put capital on track’

(ANSA) — Rome, February 18 — Ex-premier and Forza Italia leader Silvio Berlusconi renewed his backing for the centre-right Rome mayor candidate Guido Bertolaso after Northern League leader Matteo Salvini expressed doubts about the former civil protection chief Thursday. “The three centre-right parties, Forza Italia, the Northern League and Brothers of Italy have chosen Guido Bertolaso as their candidate to be Rome mayor,” Berlusconi said in a statement. “I’m convinced that Bertolaso is the only professional around who is able to put the capital back on track”.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: M5S Begins Online Voting for Rome Mayoral Candidate

Top 10 candidates to go through to second round

(ANSA) — Rome, February 18 — The anti-establishment Five Star Movement (M5S) on Thursday began online voting to select its mayoral candidate for June elections in Rome.

Registered M5S members resident in Rome could vote for up to five candidates among the 208 in the running from 10 am to 7 pm local time. The ten candidates garnering most votes will go through to a second-round ballot, probably on February 23 or 24, to decide who will run against the centre right’s Guido Bertolaso, former head of the civil protection department, ex Lazio regional governor Francesco Storace for the right-wing La Destra, probably either deputy Lower House speaker Roberto Giachetti or former Rome executive urban planning councillor Roberto Morassut, both of the Democratic Party (PD), for the centre-left and ex PD member Stefano Fassina for Italian Left. Rome is holding elections following the ouster of PD mayor Marino allegedly over an expenses scandal last autumn.

The city is being administered by a special commissioner, former Milan prefect Francesco Paolo Tronca, in the interim.

M5S can count on strong support following the Mafia Capitale scandal involving alleged infiltration by a criminal organisation into lucrative city contracts.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Norwegian Military Close to Bankruptcy, Orders Personnel to Turn in Pistols to Save Money

It seems the Norwegian military is in financial trouble! The Norwegian Ministry of Defense has issued a statement saying that they will no longer be able to equip officers and other personnel with both a rifle and pistol, and therefore pistols issued to such personnel should be turned in immediately. According to an article in AftenPosten, machine translated below:

Frustration and despair are great in the Army, not least in the professional departments and hurtigreakjonsstyrkene.

For Brigade North can no longer afford to equip officers and professional soldiers with both rifle and pistol.

It is modest Aftenposten has received, and as Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Jankov, spokesman for the Army, confirmed to the newspaper.

— We do not think this is something all right. But we have to implement the measure, for economic reasons, says Jankov…

           — Hat tip: LD [Return to headlines]
 

Our First Sex With Neanderthals Happened 100,000 Years Ago

IT WAS a two-way street. Many people carry ancient Neanderthal DNA in their genome as a result of cross-species liaisons around 50,000 years ago. Now it seems that some Neanderthals carried our DNA, too.

This particular group had, for example, a big chunk of modern human DNA right in the middle of a gene that may have a role in language development, called FOXP2. What’s more, they got that DNA from us at least 100,000 years ago, somewhere in Eurasia. The finding challenges an idea central to our thinking about human evolution: that our species didn’t properly leave Africa until about 60,000 years ago.

A team led by Sergi Castellano at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, compared 50,000-year-old DNA from four extinct human relatives: a Neanderthal and a Denisovan from Siberia, and two European Neanderthals. They also looked at 500 genomes from living Africans.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Paris Survivors: Healing the Scars of Bataclan

Three months ago, a trio of Islamist terrorists stormed the Bataclan theater in Paris and slaughtered 90 people. Those who survived are still struggling to come to terms with what happened that night.

Arnaud was the last one to leave the Bataclan alive on the night of the attack. He was the last to be freed. It was at 12:23 a.m. on Saturday, Nov. 14 and he was lying on the floor in that narrow hallway. His right eardrum was ruptured and metal shrapnel from Foued Mohamed-Aggad’s suicide belt was embedded in his back.

At a café on the Seine, we meet with a member of the BRI who was part of the unit that stormed the Bataclan. Wearing a forest green quilted jacket, he declines to be identified. His recollections of that night are like memories of a war. He describes the concert hall as a mass grave and speaks of a carpet of death.

“We were swimming in blood. What can I say? That’s my job. But I had never experienced anything like that before. You can’t really prepare for something like it.”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Poland: Anti-Islam Magazine Cover Causes Outrage

Some social media users, freedom of speech or racism?

(ANSA) — TRIESTE — The front page cover of the right-wing Polish magazine Wsieci (‘The Network’), published this week with the title “Islamic rape of Europe” has caused outrage. The cover features a white woman wrapped in an EU flag, screaming while assaulted by dark male hands. Some social media users have compared the image with the WW2 nazi and fascist propaganda which featured photos of women attacked by Jewish and North-African men.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Renewed Debate Over Possible Merkel Candidacy to Lead UN

With the end of Ban Ki-moon’s tenure as UN Secretary General approaching and German Chancellor Angela Merkel facing difficult times at home, her name keeps popping up as a possible successor.

The idea surfaced again just as Chancellor Merkel was preparing for a delicate mission to Brussels this week to try to convince at least a few other European nations to help ease the burden Germany has been aching under since it took the unprecedented step of opening its doors to refugees.

An opinion piece in the New York Times by a former communications aide to United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon named her as the perfect choice to be his successor when his term runs out at the end of the year. The article, included a graphic featuring the famous Merkel’s rhombus with the world in its middle, listed all the reasons why “there is a compelling logic in favor of a Merkel candidacy.”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Sweden: Blast at Turkish Cultural Centre in Stockholm

Police were investigating after an explosion damaged a Turkish cultural centre in a Stockholm suburb, highlighting growing tensions in the community.

No one was injured in the blast, which took place around 9.30pm on Wednesday in the south-western Fittja neighbourhood, where a man was shot four days ago at a pro-Kurdish rally.

The explosion came the same day that 28 people were killed in a bomb attack in the capital of Turkey, which has been targeted by Islamist and Kurdish groups since it started fighting them in neighbouring Syria.

Ankara has been waging an all-out assault on Kurdish groups it says are allied to outlawed domestic separatists, including shelling their positions in the north of its war-torn neighbour.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Swedish Teenage Girl Found Guilty of ‘ISIS’ Plot

A 17-year-old Swedish girl arrested in Austria has been found guilty of planning to join Isis militants.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

U.S. Stationing Tanks and Artillery Sent to Norway

Washington (CNN)Marines are prepositioning battle tanks, artillery and logistics equipment inside Norwegian caves as the U.S. pushes to station equipment near the NATO-Russia frontier.

“Any gear that is forward-deployed both reduces cost and speeds up our ability to support operations in crisis, so we’re able to fall in on gear that is ready-to-go and respond to whatever that crisis may be,” Col. William Bentley, operations officer for the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade, said in a statement Friday on the Norwegian deployment that called the caves classified.

The deployment of new equipment to the Cold War-era caves comes amid renewed tensions between NATO and Russia. Russia shares a 121.6-mile long border with Norway. The border was heavily militarized during the Cold War, and the Russian navy’s Northern Fleet is in Murmansk, about 100 miles from the border.

In October, Norway’s Chief of Defense, Adm. Haakon Bruun-Hanssen, told reporters that Russia has “shown that they are willing to use military force to achieve political ambitions.”

The climate-controlled caves are located throughout central Norway. The storage of American equipment there first began in 1981 during the Cold War in an effort to bolster NATO’s defenses against the Soviet Union, according to the Marines statement.

After the end of the Cold War, the United States questioned the rationale behind maintaining the cave complex, according to Magnus Nordenman, director of the Transatlantic Security Initiative at the Atlantic Council.

In a bid to save the cave facilities, the Norwegian government agreed to shoulder the cost of maintaining the caves during the 1990s, according to Nordenman, who has discussed the caves with the Norwegian minister of defense.

The secured cave complex is a modern and robust facility, staffed by about 100 Norwegian and U.S. personnel, and it contains enough equipment to support 15,000 Marines, according to Nordenman. The equipment in the caves has been used to support operations in Iraq…

           — Hat tip: LD [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Activists Threatened With Dawn Raid, Arrested for Anti-Islam Speech

Britain First activists were reportedly threatened with a dawn raid and later arrested by police after they published a viral video which showed members of the group being confronted by Muslims in the town of Luton.

The original video, which attracted tens of millions of views on Facebook, shows Muslims embroiled in heated arguments with Britain First activists, vowing to “take over,” as well as making violent threats and at least one physical assault.

Luton police subsequently issued a statement saying they would investigate Britain First, seek to ban the group from entering Luton again and that, “no members of the local community,” ie the Muslims that hurled abuse, would be arrested.

According to Britain First leader Paul Golding and deputy Jayda Fransen, they received a phone call from Bedfordshire Police on Saturday night threatening the pair with an early morning raid if the two didn’t voluntarily surrender and be arrested on the charge of “wearing political uniforms” the following Monday. Bedfordshire Police deny that such a threat was made.

           — Hat tip: AF [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Midsomer Murders Set Become More Politically Correct After Producer’s Departure

At least 24 ethnic minority characters have appeared in the show since former producer Brian True-May claimed ‘it wouldn’t be an English village with them’. Pictured, Natalie Mendoza plays Sasha Fleetwood.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Rochdale Child Sex Grooming Ringleader Uses European Human Rights Law to Avoid Being Kicked Out of UK

The ringleader of a Rochdale child sex grooming gang cited human rights laws as he launched an appeal against deportation from Britain.

Paedophile Shabir Ahmed, 63, described by a judge as a “violent hypocritical bully”, has written to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) claiming his convictions for child sex offences were a conspiracy to “scapegoat” Muslims, his immigration tribunal heard.

Ahmed, serving 22 years in jail, was convicted in 2012 of being the ringleader of a group of Asian men who preyed on girls as young as 13 in Rochdale, plying them with drink and drugs before they were “passed around” for sex.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Teen Quadruple Amputee Told to Prove His Disability or Have His Benefits Stopped

Edward Bright, 16, from Ripley, Derbys, had to have his limbs amputated when he contracted septicaemia as a seven-year-old, but was told by officials to prove his disability.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Teenager Stabbed in the Face and Neck by Two Men After Being Chased Down the Street While Riding His Hoverboard

Two men being sought in connection with the attack have been described by detectives as young, aged in their teens or early 20s, and of average height and build.

One of the men is believed to be black and the other Asian.

Police have said they are keeping an ‘open mind’ as to the motive of the stabbing. No one has been arrested.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Exclusive: Obama Refuses to Hit ISIS’s Libyan Capital

The terror group is gaining ground in Libya. But the Obama administration has said no to a Pentagon plan to go after ISIS there.

Despite the growing threat from the self-proclaimed Islamic State in Libya, the Obama administration has turned down a U.S. military plan for an assault on ISIS’s regional hub there, three defense officials told The Daily Beast.

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]
 

The U.S. Government Thought it Had Killed This Legendary Militant. Now it’s Not So Sure.

Officials at Joint Special Operations Command had found the uncatchable man — they were sure of it.

Mokhtar Belmokhtar, the legendary Algerian militant, had eluded capture across North Africa and the Sahel for a dozen years, defying reports of his death to continue his campaign of kidnappings and guerrilla attacks. The United States and its allies had missed him before.

But in June of last year, JSOC, the secretive military outfit tasked with hunting al-Qaeda, believed they had Belmokhtar in its sights as he made his way to a dusty farm outside of Ajdabiya, in eastern Libya, where a group of militants assembled for a meeting.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

In Wake of Ankara Attack, Turkey Targets PKK Positions in Iraq and Syria

In the wake of the bomb attack in Ankara, Turkey has carried out airstrikes on PKK positions in Iraq. Turkey claims two bombers were involved in the car bombing — one a Syrian and the other a PKK militant.

Following a car bomb attack in Ankara that left 28 people dead on Wednesday, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said, “Turkey will not shy away from using its right to self-defense at any time, any place or any occasion.”

In a separate incident, at least six people were killed in an alleged PKK attack on a military convoy in southeast Turkey on Thursday.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Kurdish Commander: “We Have Proof” That Turkey Backs the Islamic State and Other Terrorists

Turkey favors Syrian jihadist groups that emerged from Al-Qaeda, a top Kurdish commander has told Russian media. He claims that Ankara, along with Saudi Arabia and Qatar, have been furnishing extremists with weapons and munitions.

The support the terrorist groups have been given by Turkey is confirmed by documentary evidence, Murat Karayilan, co-founder of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), told RIA Novosti.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Syrians in Turkey Caught Between EU Deals

As thousands of Syrians fleeing the war amass on the border to Turkey, those already there are struggling with homegrown bureaucracy and European ineptitude. Anna Lekas Miller reports from Istanbul.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Syria: Media: 2,000 Militia Arrive From Turkey to Fight Kurds

Anti-Assad groups with weapons and tanks to fight PYD in Azaz

(ANSAmed) — ISTANBUL, FEBRUARY 18 — At least 2,000 militants with the Syrian opposition backed by Ankara have crossed the border into Syria from Turkey with weapons and tanks to counter the advance of the Kurdish PYD in Azaz north of Aleppo, near the border. So reports local media citing, among others, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Another Faction Quits Ukraine’s Governing Coalition

Lost majority in parliament

(ANSA-AP) — KIEV — Ukraine sank deeper into political turmoil Thursday as the governing coalition lost its majority in parliament after a second faction bailed out. The move by Samopomich (Self Help), which has 26 seats in the 450-seat parliament, leaves the coalition partners with 217 votes. Former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko’s faction withdrew from the coalition a day earlier. The failure to create a new majority coalition may lead to early parliamentary elections, something President Petro Poroshenko has sought to avoid, fearing it could further destabilize the nation. The two factions remaining in the coalition are led by Poroshenko and Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk. They have been uneasy partners, with members of Yatsenyuk’s and Poroshenko’s blocs engaging in fierce spats which have strained public patience and eroded the confidence of the West. Some respected reformers have resigned recently, citing their disenchantment with the government’s cronyism and corruption. Poroshenko has urged Yatsenyuk to step down amid economic troubles and political infighting, but the premier has refused to do so.

Lawmakers failed to oust his Cabinet in a vote of confidence on Tuesday.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Afghan Defense Ministry Built Five Years Late, $100mln Over Budget

Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) said that the cost of the construction of the Afghan Ministry of Defense building in Kabul that was riginally $48.7 million, rose to $154.7 million, or more than three times the original estimated cost.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — The construction of the Afghan Ministry of Defense building in Kabul by US-sourced contractors took five years longer and cost $100 million more than originally planned, Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) said in a press release on Thursday.

“The cost to complete the building rose to $154.7 million, or more than three times the original estimated cost, and it took almost five years longer to complete than originally anticipated,” the release stated.

According to SIGAR’s audit, the cost of the building was originally $48.7 million and was supposed to be completed within 18 months.

However, the project was delayed because of weather, security and funding issues, along with the fact the Afghan National Army refused to allow contractors access to the site, according to the release.

Although the building has been transferred to the Afghan government, as of January 7, 2016 it was still not fully occupied.

SIGAR has previously reported that the US Department of Defense has wasted billions of dollars on reconstruction efforts because of poor oversight, mismanagement, corruption and fraud.

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]
 

Pakistan’s ‘Guns for Teachers’ Drive and the Failure of State

Pakistan has allowed teachers to carry guns to protect themselves from Islamic militants. But critics say the move will promote violence in a country which is already volatile due to a protracted Islamist insurgency.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Pakistan: Punjab: Govt Should Stop Discriminating Against Religious Minorities, Uphold Constitution

Lala Robin Daniel, activist and president of the National Minorities Alliance of Pakistan, issues an appeal through AsiaNews, calling on political leaders to protect minority groups, as required by secular and Islamic laws. Article 27 of the Constitution and ILO convention, which Pakistan signed, are clear. Shari’a also requires employers to treat employees “as brothers”.

Faisalabad (AsiaNews) — In an appeal made through AsiaNews, Lala Robin Daniel, activist and president of the National Minorities Alliance of Pakistan (NMAP), has called on the Government of Punjab to end almost 60 years of discrimination against religious minorities, in the workplace and elsewhere, and uphold the country’s constitution, which declares the equality of all citizens.

Daniels made his appeal just days after the latest incident of anti-Christian discrimination in the workplace. Last year, Qaisar Jahan, a Christian man hired as a water man by MC Girls High School in Faisalabad, was reassigned to janitorial work after the principal discovered his religion.

Lala Robin Daniel has followed the case, and sent a letter of protest to the Education District Officer (EDO), noting that Article 27 of the Constitution states, ‘No citizen otherwise qualified for appointment in the service of Pakistan shall be discriminated against in respect of any such appointment on the ground only of race, religion, caste, sex, residence or place of birth’.

Hence, for NMAP’s president, it is clear that work is covered by the constitution, which requires that both federal and provincial governments implement the laws and regulations on the matter. That, however, has not taken place yet.

In addition, workplace and labour practices come under the International Labour Organisation Convention No 87, which Pakistan signed.

Lastly, Daniel noted that the Federal Shariat Court, which vets and decides on whether bills comply with Islamic law, ruled that the State has a duty to intervene if an employer fails to comply with the duty required by Shari’a to treat employees “as brothers”.

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]
 

Autogrill to Open Three New Sales Points at Beijing Airport

Eateries to generate 20 million euros

(ANSA) — Milan, February 18 — Autogrill is to open three new sales points at Beijing Capital International Airport, the group controlled by the Benetton family said in a statement Thursday.

The new restaurants come in addition to six existing Autogrill sales points at the airport and will be managed through a joint venture with local company Huazhuo.

The three eateries are expected to generate a total of 20 million euros during the course of the contracts, lasting five years in two cases and six years in one.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

China Warns Australia Over South China Sea Dispute

China has urged Australia to take a “fair” stance over its activities in the South China Sea, ahead of high level talks.

Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop had said she would ask China about its plans for reclaimed islands it has built in disputed waters.

But a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman warned Australia not to “harm regional peace and stability”.

Trade ties are likely to dominate talks with China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

China Debt Binge Spurs S&P Warning as Magnus Sees ‘Big Problems’

China’s unprecedented jump in new loans at the start of 2016 is fueling concern that excessive credit growth is piling up risks in the nation’s financial system.

The increase in China’s debt relative to gross domestic product could pressure the country’s credit rating, Standard & Poor’s said on Tuesday, less than a week after the cost to insure Chinese bonds against default rose to a four-year high. Credit growth is storing up “big problems” in the economy that will weigh on the yuan and stocks, said George Magnus, an economic adviser to UBS Group AG. Mizuho Bank Ltd. warned that the threat of bad loans is rising and Marketfield Asset Management said China’s central bank may be losing its regulatory grip on credit growth.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Japan’s Economic Woes Cast Shadow on Abe’s Twin Election Choice

With Japan’s economy shrinking, the stock market in turmoil, and a stronger yen threatening export earnings, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s calculus on whether to call a snap general election this summer has suddenly grown more complicated.

Another win in the lower chamber along with an expected victory in the upper house vote set for the summer could allow Abe’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party to stay in power until 2020, making him the longest-serving premier since the 1970s. With ministerial blunders and economic woes eroding his support, Abe risks the opposition Democratic Party of Japan gaining ground in any double vote.

Abe has fought and won three straight elections on a vow to revive the economy with his Abenomics plan of loose monetary policy, flexible spending and structural reform. Now with his signature policy in disarray, he may be hard-pressed to reuse his 2014 election pitch of “Economic recovery: this is the only way.” Instead, he may paint himself as an experienced, steady hand in difficult times.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Satellite Images ‘Show China Has Set Up Surface-to-Air Missiles on Its Man-Made Island’

Taiwan’s defence ministry confirmed the existence of the facility after reports that missile launchers had arrived on Woody Island, part of the Paracels chain, in the South China Sea in the past week.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

One-Third of Meals Given to Australian Troops to be Halal-Certified — Despite the Fact There Are Only 100 Muslims Serving in the Defence Force

The decision to make a third of meals for Australian troops halal-certified has angered military members, veterans and politicians, with less than 100 Muslims serving in the Australian Defence Force (ADF).

Deputy Chief of Army Major General Rick Burr has approved demands that four of 12 combat menu options be halal-certified.

This comes after changes to ensure variety in ration packs, with dietary requirements such as vegetarian, kosher, and halal being accommodated for ‘to meet ADF’s commitment to providing an inclusive working environment,’ the Daily Telegraph has reported.

However, Lieutenant General Angus J Campbell, Chief of the Australian Army, told Daily Mail Australia: ‘The proportion of combat rations specifically manufactured to meet religious considerations will vary subject to the ADF’s demography and our operating environment. The suggestion that one third has to be halal certified is incorrect.’

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

African Farmers Struggle to Feed Continent’s Booming Population

Like many of the 80 percent of Africa’s farmers who operate on less than two hectares (five acres) of land, Mbinya struggles with a lack of financing, proper irrigation, fertilizer and machinery. Land-ownership restrictions in some countries also discourages large and small-scale farming alike. With food production in other parts of the world approaching its limits, overcoming those constraints will prove critical to feeding a global population that the United Nations anticipates will balloon to 9.7 billion by 2050, from 7.3 billion.

While World Bank data shows agricultural production on the continent expanded 4.2 percent in 2014, up from an average of 2.3 percent a year in the 1980s, that’s still shy of a 6 percent annual growth target set by African leaders in 2003. Average crop yields in Africa remain less than half of the global average. In the case of corn, productivity gains have been marginal, lagging other continents.

Despite having about 60 percent of the world’s uncultivated arable land, the continent spends about $40 billion annually on food imports, according to the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa, or Agra, a Nairobi-based non-profit that assists small farmers.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Female Surfer Off Strandfontein Beach Pictured Being Circled by Five Sharks

These are the terrifying images taken of a female surfer as she paddles out to sea off the coast of Cape Town, South Africa, completely oblivious she is being trailed by five sharks.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Nancy Menges & Luis Fleischman: Agreement With the FARC is a Colombian Problem as Much as an American Challenge

An agreement may be reached between the Colombian Government and the (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) by next month or possibly even earlier. Furthermore, President Manuel Santos of Colombia recently received a pledge of $450 million from President Obama to help with the peace process and its implementation.

This Administration has been consistently optimistic about the peace process and along with many Colombians has wished for an end to the conflict that has caused so much death, pain and terror for Colombia’s people. That peace process is also consistent with the philosophy of an Administration that has tremendous faith in the ability of diplomacy and good will to make peace even with the most bitter and vicious enemy.

The big question is whether or not peace with the FARC is really possible given their history of drug trafficking, money laundering, extortion and kidnapping or whether it is just wishful thinking. It could be that by giving too much leeway to the FARC now, will only make matters worse for the Colombian people in the long run.

Peace agreements with terrorist or guerilla groups have had mixed results. In some cases these groups have found a way of channeling their demands through the formation of political parties (e.g. the M-19 in Colombia, the Tupamaros in Uruguay, the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front in El Salvador and others). In other cases peace agreements or truces have been consistently violated (Hamas reconciliation agreements with the Palestinian Authority, Hezbollah agreements with the United Nations in the aftermath of the Lebanese war and other cases)…

[Return to headlines]
 

Obama Plans Historic Trip to Cuba to Further Ties

To press govt on human rights, other issues

(ANSA) — Rome, February 18 — President Barack Obama said Thursday his history-making visit to Cuba next month was part of an effort to “improve the lives of the Cuban people, the Associated Press reported. Obama vowed to press the Communist government on human rights and other policy differences.

“We still have differences with the Cuban government that I will raise directly. America will always stand for human rights around the world,” Obama wrote, as he announced the history-making visit on Twitter.

The trip will make Obama the first sitting U.S. president to set foot on the island in nearly seven decades. In a series of tweets, Obama cast it as part of steady progression of normalizing relations between the U.S. and Cuba, a Communist nation estranged from the U.S. for over half a century until Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro moved toward rapprochement more than a year ago. Since then, the nations have reopened embassies in Washington and Havana, eased travel restrictions and barriers for business and have moved to restore commercial air travel. A presidential trip was held out as significant leverage in these talks.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Asylum Seekers Charged With Rape of Child in Sweden

SWEDEN: Two young men are being prosecuted for aggravated rape next to an asylum center in Alvesta, reports Aftonbladet.

They are suspected of having attacked a boy in a forest area and then filmed parts of the rape.

           — Hat tip: Nick [Return to headlines]
 

Austria Sets Migrant Cap, Throws up Border Controls

Austria has said it will set a daily cap on the number of refugees allowed to enter the country. Ahead of an EU refugee summit on Thursday, the country’s chancellor said Germany would eventually follow suit.

Austria will set a daily cap of 3,200 migrants allowed to enter the country and limit daily asylum claims at 80, Interior Minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner said on Wednesday.

The announcement comes a day after Austrian authorities said border checks would go up at 13 border points with Slovenia, Italy and Hungry to stem an influx of migrants coming through the Balkans.

Still, a cap of 3,200 migrants a day amounts to 1,168,000 migrants passing through Austria per year, with just over 29,000 able to apply for asylum there.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Bulgaria Grants Army More Powers to Guard Borders

Bulgaria’s parliament on Wednesday granted the army greater powers to help guard the country’s borders, amid fears the migrant flow along the Balkan route will pick up with the onset of warmer weather.

Until now, troops have only been able to provide border forces with technical and logistic support.

Following Wednesday’s vote, the army can now carry out joint patrols with border police in crisis situations such as increased migrant pressure along the borders.

EU member Bulgaria already has close to 2,000 police guarding its porous 260-kilometre (160-mile) frontier with Turkey and is currently extending a 30-kilometre razor-wire fence.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Can’t Make Two Countries Pay for Global Refugees Says Alfano

‘Mini-Schengen would be end of Europe’ says interior minister

(ANSA) — Brussels, February 18 — One or two countries can’t pay for “an entire global movement of refugees fleeing wars and persecutions”, Interior Minister Angelino Alfano said Thursday. He was commenting the risk that a mini-Schengen Area without Greece and Italy is de facto being set up in Europe as some countries restore border controls to prevent asylum seekers from entering. Greece and Italy are the first landfall for refugees fleeing Africa and the Middle East across the Mediterranean.

“Europe has nowhere to go without Italy,” Alfano said. “This European situation with the UK holding a referendum on exiting and possibly an Italy that would have to submit to this type of choice — that would truly make for an inconsistent Europe and one without a future”.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Capping Refugee Numbers Illegal, EU Tells Vienna

‘Incompatible with EU, international law’

(ANSA) — Brussels, February 18 — A cap Austria is planning to impose on asylum seekers “would be clearly incompatible with its obligations under EU and international law,” European Migration Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos wrote to Austrian Interior Minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner, in a letter of which ANSA obtained a copy Thursday. Avramopoulos also came out against quotas for asylum seekers passing through the country and urged Austria to “reconsider the unilateral measures proposed”.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Closing Borders to Balkans Would Cause Major Crisis in Greece, Says Mouzalas

Greece’s Migration Minister Yannis Mouzalas has said that closing the borders to the Balkans would trigger a “major humanitarian crisis” in his country and would not stop the influx of migrants.

He told German business daily Handelsblatt that the only way to stop refugees coming was to put an end to Syria’s civil war.

Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) has erected two lines of metal fencing topped with razor wire at the main crossing point for migrants along its southern border with Greece.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Crime by Migrants in Germany Went Up by 79% Last Year

Nearly one in five offences committed by migrants or refugees in Germany last year were violent crimes, such as assaults, robberies or ‘threatening behaviour’, new figures show.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Dutch Primary Schools With Less Than Four Refugees Refused Extra Funding

Of the 218 Dutch schools with enrolled refugee children that took part in the poll, 91 have fewer than four refugee pupils and therefore do not qualify for extra financial resources to help children who do not speak Dutch to adjust, according to the Dutch School Leaders Association.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Nearly half of the Dutch primary schools do not receive extra funding as they have accepted less than four refugee children, a poll by the Dutch School Leaders Association (Algemene Vereniging Schoolleiders, AVS) revealed Thursday.

Of the 218 Dutch schools with enrolled refugee children that took part in the poll, 91 have fewer than four refugee pupils and therefore do not qualify for extra financial resources to help children who do not speak Dutch to adjust, the AVS said. Half of the schools with larger numbers of migrant pupils have not received additional funding so far.

“It is completely unclear why schools with fewer than four refugee pupils get no money. The ministry will not give us a clear answer,” AVS head Petra van Haren said in a statement.

On average, it costs up to 9,000 euros [$10,000] annually to help each refugee child adjust to their new environment and acquire a basic knowledge of Dutch, it was noted in the statement.

This creates a disadvantage situation for children studying at schools that accept one to three refugee pupils, van Haren stressed.

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]
 

European Police Chiefs Announce Joint Refugee Register

The police chiefs of five countries on the migrant route through southeast Europe announced a new agreement Thursday for a coordinated registration point for refugees at the Greek-Macedonian border.

Top police officers from Macedonia, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia and Austria said the plan to jointly profile and register refugees from war-torn countries and arrange “controlled transport” through to Austria and Germany would take immediate effect.

“We made an agreement on the joint profiling and registration of migrants at the Greek-Macedonian border,” Croatia’s police director Vlado Dominic told reporters…

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]
 

Exclusive Video — London ‘No Borders’ Campaigner Urges ‘Palestinian’ Tactics to ‘Bring Government to Its Knees’

London riots convict turned pro-open borders agitator Syed Bokhari delivered a speech to a handful of hard-left activists and anarchists outside the French Embassy in London this weekend. Mr. Bokhari — married to fellow campaigner Mona Dohle, who claimed migrants were not responsible for the Cologne sex attacks — said that his hard-left group need to use “Palestinian” tactics against the British and French governments.

Mr. Bokhari, in a wending and self-contradictory speech firstly urged no collaboration with governments, before going on to claim how his organisations and followers had helped formulate government policy. He concluded by claiming he believed his rag-tag group of activists could, “bring [the British] government to its knees” over the issue of open borders.

The British Social Attitudes Survey reveals that 77 per cent of Britons want to see immigration reduced, with 56 per cent saying they want to see it reduced ‘a lot’.

           — Hat tip: AF [Return to headlines]
 

Frank Gaffney Warns: Southern Border Now a ‘Fertile Environment for Jihadis’

Frank Gaffney, founder of the Center for Security Policy, appeared on Breitbart News Daily with host Stephen K. Bannon on Wednesday to discuss the need for tighter border security, and how it conflicts with Pope Francis’ support for mass migration from the Third World into Western countries.

Gaffney used the Zika virus as a metaphor for how mass migration brings security pathologies from regions with serious security issues into the United States, much as Zika has flourished in countries with less stringent disease and mosquito control protocols.

“We’ve now got these cartels operating with gangs all over the United States,” said Gaffney, referring to South American drug cartels. “Literally, every state in the Union is now a border state.”

“That’s partly because we have been neglecting the border,” he continued, “and not preventing people who have been operating on one side of it from operating on both.”

Gaffney warned that the drug cartels are not alone in establishing operations on both sides of the porous border.

“They are being now, increasingly, accompanied by — and collaborating with — jihadists that the Pope is ignoring in Europe, where he’s residing at the moment, and a lot of other places besides, of course,” he said.

           — Hat tip: AF [Return to headlines]
 

Germany: Leader of Anti-Islam PEGIDA Faces Trial for Facebook Posts Calling Foreigners ‘Trash’

A LEADER of the anti-Islam and anti-immigrant group Pegida is facing trial after calling foreigners “cattle” and “trash” in a series of Facebook posts.

Lutz Bachmann was charged with incitement over the controversial social media posts.

Prosecutors said the posts were an attempt to incite Germans against refugees.

The Pegida leader wrote on Facebook he would face trial in Dresden on April 19, which was confirmed by the district court.

Bachmann, who co-founded Pegida, disputes the social media posts and wrote that the trial was “purely politically motivated” in order to discredit him and his group.

The Pediga frontman had previously stepped down after posting a picture of him posing with an Adolf Hitler moustache went viral…

           — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes [Return to headlines]
 

‘Italy and Greece Need Support’, Italian FM

‘Burden is only on countries where they land’

(by Luca Mirone) (ANSAmed) — ATHENS, FEBRUARY 18 — Italy and Greece cannot be left alone to share the “burden” of migratory influxes as countries where the migrants first arrive, said Italian foreign minister Paolo Gentiloni on Thursday.

The EU must also put forth greater efforts for shared policies, he added on a visit to the Greek capital on a day of a delicate European Council meeting marked by divisions on the sharing out of refugees and border control. Greece is under pressure due to a sharp rise in landings on its coasts. The EU Commission has given it three months to fill the gaps in its external border control, while the eastern bloc of the Visegrad group (Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary) is calling loudly for a wall along the border with Macedonia. Italy is meanwhile paying for the Libyan crisis with a sharp rise in landings on Lampedusa. Meeting with Greek president Prokopis Pavlopoulos, Gentiloni warned against “unilateral choices that could wipe out one of the greatest European achievements, that of free circulation of people and the Schengen Treaty”.

He underscored that “there is an alternative” in the form of EU-wide burden sharing, starting from a revision of the Dublin Regulation to change the rule requiring the first country the migrants set foot in to provide assistance. Gentiloni said that he expected this revision to start in March, “by the Commission as scheduled”. Though there is staunch opposition to any changes, Italy can count on backing from such countries as Germany and the aim is to widen support, he said. He stressed that it was important to maintain the Schengen zone and prevent the closing of borders that Visegrad would like, as would Italy’s neighbor Austria. The Greek president said that his country agreed with Italy “against countries that want to manage refugees in a unilateral matter”. Athens, he said, is prepared to collaborate with Frontex and NATO but wants “respect for its sovereignty” in sea control. Greece also does not want to distance itself from Europe, he said. “How can we feel outside of Europe?,” Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias said, warning that “the solution is not to block the borders as EU countries that are much ‘younger’ than us say.

Much better-thought-out ones are needed, not easy solutions that lead to fragmentation.”

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Merkel Will Outlast All Her Critics on Refugees: Juncker

Jean Claude Juncker, the most senior politician in Europe, said that Chancellor Angela Merkel is on the right side of history in the refugee debate.

Speaking to Bild newspaper, Juncker said “chancellors have always been given credit when they stuck to their course in stormy times. I’m thinking above all about the visionary reunification policy of Helmut Kohl. History showed he was right — and it will show Merkel was right too.”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Migrants Blamed for Shortfall in the German Health Service by 2017

Although the German government pays a lump sum to the country’s health insurance companies every time they treat an asylum seeker, this is is said to not even cover half the true cost.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Now Germany Says it Expects Half a Million More Migrants to Arrive This Year Alone

The country’s interior minister Thomas de Maiziere told his colleagues to brace for an influx of half a million more migrants in 2016 alone.

Mr Maiziere warned Frank-Juergen Wise — Germany’s head of both Federal Office for Migration and Refugees and the Federal Labor Office — in a report scheduled for release later today.

It comes just weeks after the German government announced that border checks on migrants arriving in the country will continue indefinitely.

More than a million migrants arrived in Germany last year after Angela Merkel flung the country’s borders open to Syrian refugees.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Police Inspector: Sweden on Verge of Collapse Due to Migrant Crime

In some areas, everyday situations are that police are meet with stones and Molotov cocktails, writes Alvarsjö.

Police Inspector in Stockholm, Lars Alvarsjö, issues a severe warning that the Swedish legal system — which is a cornerstone of a democratic society — is about to collapse.

In an article in Svenska Dagbladet, the police inspector writes that the huge influx of asylum seekers, criminal gangs and religious extremism have stretched the Swedish police to a breaking point.

In some areas, everyday situations are that police are meet with stones and Molotov cocktails, writes Alvarsjö.

Researcher of terrorism and radicalization at the Swedish Defence Academy, Magnus Ranstorp, agrees with the police assessment and believes that the situation in Sweden is catastrophic. He does not believe that the police’ warning will make sufficient impressions on the political leadership.

In the worst areas, extremists have taken over, while the Swedes are apathetic spectators watching. The entire legal system and security is threatened by the police on the verge of collapse and it just seems to get worse, says Ranstorp to Kristeligt Dagblad.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Refugee Crisis Discussions Heat up Ahead of EU Summit

As EU leaders prepare to meet to tackle Europe’s unprecedented influx of refugees, the EU parliament president has called for more solidarity within the bloc. Angela Merkel is facing pressure, both at home and abroad.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Sweden is Forced to Hire Luxury Cruise Liner to House 2,000 Refugees

The Scandinavian country’s Migration Board has rented the Ocean Gala, which was once the world’s largest cruise liner boasting a swimming pool, casino and theatre, for at least the next year.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

This Could Become Sweden’s Biggest Home for Refugees

An iconic vessel which once travelled the globe as the world’s largest cruise ship could provide a temporary home for up to 1,800 refugees in Sweden if migration agency plans go ahead.

In November The Local reported that Migrationsverket was hoping to use cruise ships to ease a housing shortage for the record number of people who have travelled to the country in 2015.

The refugee influx has eased since, but authorities are still working to find long-term accommodation to where they can transfer people staying at emergency housing centres for asylum seekers.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Trump Not Christian if He Says Raise Walls Says Pope

Francis also slams ‘monstrous’ pedophilia

(ANSA) — On board the papal airline, February 18 — US presidential hopeful Donald Trump is not Christian if he says walls must be raised against immigrants, Pope Francis said Thursday.

“One person who thinks of making walls, whoever they are, and not making bridges, is not a Christain, that is not in the Gospel,” the pope said on his way back to Rome from Mexico.

Asked if American Catholics should vote for the billionaire Republican hopeful, he said “I can’t interfere: all I say is this man is not Christian, if he says these things”.

He said “you have to see if he said it or not. I give the benefit of the doubt on this”.

Trump has vowed to build a wall on the Mexican border and deport 10 million illegal immigrants if elected.

“The pope is a very political figure,” the American billionaire said in reply. “They’re using (him) as a pawn, and they should be ashamed of themselves for doing it”.

“For a religious leader to question a person’s faith is disgraceful,” Trump added. He went on to say “the pope should pray Donald Trump becomes president” because if so, he will prevent the so-called Islamic State (ISIS) fundamentalist militia from attacking the Vatican.

Meanwhile, Francis went on to say that bishops who cover for child-molester priests should resign, and that pedophilia is a monstrosity akin to spiritual cannibalism.

“A bishop who shifts a priest to another parish after cases of pedophilia have come to light is an irresponsible person, who should resign,” the pope said on his flight back from Mexico.

Pedophilia is “a monstrosity, because a consecrated priest takes a child from God and eats him up as though in a diabolical sacrifice, destroying him,” Francis said.

He went on to say that contraception might be the lesser of two evils for women trying to avoid being infected with the Zika virus, which causes severe birth defects.

“Abortion…is a crime,” Francis said. “On the lesser evil — avoiding pregnancy — we are talking in terms of conflicts between the fifth and sixth commandments. Paul VI…allowed nuns in a difficult situation in Africa to use contraceptives in cases of violence”. Francis spoke to reporters on his way back from Mexico.

The pope then landed in Rome, where he paid a visit to the St. Mary Major Basilica.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

UK Police Arrest Man for ‘Offensive’ Facebook Post About Migrants

British police have promised not to tolerate any speech that could cause offence on social media regarding Syrian migrants, after arresting a man for Facebook comments made about recent arrivals on his small Scottish Island.

The tiny Isle of Bute in the Firth of Clyde, which had a total population of just 6,498 in 2011, is expected to take in around 1,000 Syrian migrants, with 12 families already arriving since December last year (picture above).

However, commenting on the comparatively huge and sudden influx of Muslim immigrants online just became a very risky business for local residents.

Police have confirmed they have arrested a 41-year-old local man under the Communications Act, after receiving a report of a supposedly “offensive” comment made on Facebook regarding the migrants.

           — Hat tip: AF [Return to headlines]
 

Dennis Prager Destroys ‘White Privilege’ Myth With One Simple Statistic

Here’s the stat, then let’s talk: Whatever reason one gives for the white suicide rate, it is indisputable that, at the very least, considerably more whites than blacks consider life not worth living. To argue that all these whites were oblivious to all the unique privileges they had is to stretch the definition of “privilege” beyond credulity. Second, there are a host of privileges that dwarf “white privilege.”

A huge one is Two-Parent Privilege. If you are raised by a father and mother, you enter adulthood with more privileges than anyone else in American society, irrespective of race, ethnicity, or sex. That’s why the poverty rate among two-parent black families is only 7 percent. Compare that with a 22 percent poverty rate among whites in single-parent homes. Obviously the two-parent home is the decisive “privilege.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Zanda Chides Cirinnà for ‘Insinuations’ Over Civil Unions Bill

But says her ‘bitterness’ understandable

(ANSA) — Rome, February 18 — Ruling centre-left Democratic Party (PD) Senate Whip Luigi Zanda on Thursday chided the rapporteur of a contested civil-unions bill, Monica Cirinnà, for “insinuating” that Catholic members of the PD were against the bill because they were unhappy at not been given better jobs in a recent cabinet reshuffle. “What we need now is unity and not insinuations,” said Zanda a day after the bill ran aground in the Senate. Zanda said “the bitterness of Senator Cirinnà is very understandable and she’s right when she says the (anti-establishment) 5-Star Movement has a very grave responsibility” in pulling support from a ‘kangaroo’ amendment that would have speeded the passage of the bill “for petty reasons of political tactics”. he said that, in order to approve the long-awaited bill, “we need more responsibility from all”.

Voting on the bill has been postponed till next Wednesday.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Man Undressing in Women’s Room Cites Transgender Rule

The Seattle Parks and Recreation department is facing an obstacle regarding gender bathroom rules.

According to KING-TV, a man undressed in a women’s locker room on February 8, citing a new state rule that allows people to choose a bathroom based on gender identity.

Seattle Parks and Recreation says a man wearing shorts entered the women’s locker room at Evans Pool and took off his shirt. Women alerted staff, who told the man to leave, but he said, “the law has changed and I have a right to be here.”

Employees claim the man made no verbal or physical attempt to identify as a woman, yet he still cited a new rule that allows bathroom choice based on gender identification.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

The Replication Crisis and the Repetition Crisis

by Steve Sailer

Why a Repetition Crisis? Dissident social psychologist Jonathan Haidt of NYU’s Stern School of Business, author of The Righteous Mind, pointed out in a freewheeling interview with John Leo how the ever-growing list of sacred cows in American life restricts what social scientists can allow themselves to discover about important issues:

For many years now, there have been six sacred groups. You know, the big three are African-Americans, women and LGBT. That’s where most of the action is. Then there are three other groups: Latinos, Native Americans…and people with disabilities. So those are the six that have been there for a while. But now we have a seventh—Muslims.

One could argue that there are more sacred groups than seven, but Haidt’s next point was illuminating:

Something like 70 or 75 percent of America is now in a protected group. This is a disaster for social science because social science is really hard to begin with. And now you have to try to explain social problems without saying anything that casts any blame on any member of a protected group. And not just moral blame, but causal blame. None of these groups can have done anything that led to their victimization or marginalization.

For example, in discussing crime or poverty, social scientists are allowed to imply that the dirt that white people live upon is inherently magic while the dirt under black people is obviously tragic. But anything smarter and more interesting could get them furiously denounced by angry know-nothing students (or Watsoned out of their jobs if they lack tenure). So it’s safest just to blame everything and anything on white people.

           — Hat tip: AF [Return to headlines]
 

Photomath App to Dumb Down Students Like Never Before: Gives Instant Answer to Picture of a Math Problem

(NaturalNews) First there were slide rules, then calculators, then more sophisticated calculator versions for specific types of mathematical applications. Now there is an app call PhotoMath that can be loaded into cellular smartphones and can copy the image of a math problem in a textbook and provide the answer.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

The Truth About Exoplanets

Astronomers are beginning to glimpse what exoplanets orbiting distant suns are actually like.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

What Sparked the Cambrian Explosion?

An evolutionary burst 540 million years ago filled the seas with an astonishing diversity of animals. The trigger behind that revolution is finally coming into focus.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

9 thoughts on “Gates of Vienna News Feed 2/18/2016

  1. ” In other news, Pope Francis has determined that Donald Trump is not a Christian, due to the latter’s proposal to build a wall along the border with Mexico.”

    Has the pope not heard about : “Good fences make good neighbors.”

    When we hope that a great leader / pope will come say something wise based on experience and history cases, something that’s wise and beneficial to humanity, they come and say something silly, stupid, disappointing and unreasonable.

    Were not leaders, professors, ministers, supposed to have some exceptional wisdom to inspire the rest of us, the average.

    Why does Pope have a fence around his city, and fortresses with guards carrying deadly weapons against any intruder? Why does he not remove his fences and integrate his city with Rome and let 30 000 muslims live in its spacious rooms with good food. ?

    Why western leaders religious or secular say irresponsible outrageous things that makes you lose the rest of your Faith>

  2. – All-Muslim enclave in South Carolina called ‘Holy Islamville’ claim they “don’t feel safe because of Donald Trump”

    What actually they (i.e. world invaders) mean is that they don’t feel safe if they don’t take over USA and they don’t feel safe if a wise man like Trump, diagnoses the real deadly threat posed invaders and pointed out by Trump and any one who is wise and conscious ( not in a trance by muslim trance) enough to uncover muslim deadly intentions.

    You lose if you don’t understand the enemies’ intentions. Don’t wait another 1435 years. They /invaders’ actions have shed a bright light on what their deadly and bloody intentions are.

    Is the sleepy World going to wake up and smell the “Red Coffee) ?

    • Naaaahh, hey, going to the ball game tonight?!
      That’s all they seem to think about, and yeah, coffee too!

      • The so called corporate media is criminally irresponsible. The news content and advertising is a blur. This can and must be changed and must be changed if there is to be a less hopelessly uninformed public.

  3. No, they will not smell the coffee until it’s too late.

    The Pope (and I am a nominal Catholic) seems totally foolish to me. How can he say these things? Did they not teach history at his seminary in S. America?

    That being said, I am really outraged by the Muslim rampage going on throughout Europe: rape, robbery, violence. When will the fools start deporting them?

    God alone knows.

    • This Popey is the nu smiley TV friendly, happy, thoroughly modern diversity guy. The next Popey will be a nominal convert to Catholic manly from a dyed in the wool Muslim Saudi Arabisn family. All teeth and smiles too. Rushed up through the ranks – somehow. Hysterical.

Comments are closed.