A 17-year-old student at a high school in the French town of Grasse opened fire inside the school, wounding eight people before he was arrested. The suspect is said to have right-wing sympathies and a fascination with guns and other weapons.
In other news, a letter bomb exploded at the offices of the International Monetary Fund in Paris, causing burns to a secretary’s face and hands. A far-left Greek political group known as the “Conspiracy of Fire Nuclei” claimed responsibility for the attack.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to Dean, Fjordman, JD, Jerry Gordon, LP, Pierre, Reader from Chicago, 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.
Has the Federal Reserve gone completely insane? On Wednesday, the Fed raised interest rates for the second time in three months, and it signaled that more rate hikes are coming in the months ahead. When the Federal Reserve lowers interest rates, it becomes less expensive to borrow money and that tends to stimulate more economic activity. But when the Federal Reserve raises rates , that makes it more expensive to borrow money and that tends to slow down economic activity. So why in the world is the Fed raising rates when the U.S. economy is already showing signs of slowing down dramatically? The following are 12 reasons why the Federal Reserve may have just made the biggest economic mistake since the last financial crisis…
#1 Just hours before the Fed announced this rate hike, the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta’s projection for U.S. GDP growth in the first quarter fell to just 0.9 percent. If that projection turns out to be accurate, this will be the weakest quarter of economic growth during which rates were hiked in 37 years.
#2 The flow of credit is more critical to our economy than ever before, and higher rates will mean higher interest payments on adjustable rate mortgages, auto loans and credit card debt. Needless to say, this is going to slow the economy down substantially…
[Comment: People still don’t get it. The Fed knows EXACTLY what they are doing. As an organ of the bankster globalists they are INTENTIONALLY seeking to bring down the USA economically. They NEVER worked for the USA, but for the private consortitum of bankster globalists seeking to implement a tyrannical NWO.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Ann Arbor Woman Pleads Guilty to Making Up Hate Crime
ANN ARBOR, MI — A 21-year-old Ann Arbor woman pleaded guilty as charged to one count of false report of a misdemeanor in 15th District Court on Monday, March 6.
Halley Bass admitted in court that she fabricated a story about a strange man scratching her face in downtown Ann Arbor on Nov. 15.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Awkward: After Trashing Her on Campaign Trail, Will Trump Get Along With Merkel?
While campaigning for president, Donald Trump slammed Chancellor Angela Merkel for “ruining” Germany. He called her decision to allow more than a million refugees into Germany “insane.” He even predicted that Germans would overthrow her.
Trump, now the president of the United States, and Merkel, still the leader of Germany, will come face to face for the first time Friday at the White House.
Merkel, ranked as the second most powerful person in the world by Forbes last year, is expected to ignore Trump’s criticism altogether and move forward on forming a relationship with the brash new leader of one of Germany’s closest allies…
| — Hat tip: LP | [Return to headlines] |
California Today: A Gallery Flees and Neighborhood Activists Cheer
Often referred to as the Ellis Island of Los Angeles, the neighborhood east of downtown known as Boyle Heights has been the first stop for several waves of immigration. Since the 1940s, it has transformed into a largely Mexican-American enclave and the center of Chicano culture and activism in the city.
As other parts of Los Angeles have seen real estate prices climb steadily, many in Boyle Heights have expressed concern about gentrification, particularly after several art galleries moved into an industrial stretch. The battle between the galleries and activists reached a peak last fall when someone spray-painted a vulgar statement condemning “white art” on the door of one gallery and a hate-crime investigation was opened.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Chelsea for Congress? ‘Outnumbered’ Goes Off on Potential Next Clinton Run
There’s speculation that Chelsea Clinton could run for political office, possibly for a U.S. House or Senate seat.
The rumors have been fueled in recent months by the former First Daughter’s increased tweeting, as she has posted some green spinach pancakes and a lot of criticism of the new president.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Experiments Show Titan Lakes May Fizz With Nitrogen
A recent NASA-funded study has shown how the hydrocarbon lakes and seas of Saturn’s moon Titan might occasionally erupt with dramatic patches of bubbles.
For the study, researchers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, simulated the frigid surface conditions on Titan, finding that significant amounts of nitrogen can be dissolved in the extremely cold liquid methane that rains from the skies and collects in rivers, lakes and seas. They demonstrated that slight changes in temperature, air pressure or composition can cause the nitrogen to rapidly separate out of solution, like the fizz that results when opening a bottle of carbonated soda.
NASA’s Cassini spacecraft has found that the composition of Titan’s lakes and seas varies from place to place, with some reservoirs being richer in ethane than methane.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
John McCain: Rand Paul is “Working for Vladimir Putin”
Senator John McCain’s Putin paranoia has broken off the chain of reason. On March 15, on the floor of the Senate, the Arizona octogenarian “outed” Rand Paul as a Russian agent.
After Paul (R-Ky.) objected to McCain’s motion to approve the application of Montenegro to join NATO, McCain (shown) accused the libertarian-leaning senator of doing the bidding of the Russian president.
“The senator from Kentucky is now working for Vladimir Putin,” McCain declared.
The full context of his condemnation is equally disturbing. As Paul left the chamber, McCain said:
I note the senator from Kentucky leaving the floor without justification or any rationale for the action he has just taken. That is really remarkable, that a senator blocking a treaty that is supported by the overwhelming number — perhaps 98, at least, of his colleagues — would come to the floor and object and walk away.
The only conclusion you can draw when he walks away is he has no justification for his objection to having a small nation be part of NATO that is under assault from the Russians. So I repeat again, the senator from Kentucky is now working for Vladimir Putin.
In response, Senator Paul’s office released the following explanation of his vote against Montenegro’s NATO membership:
Currently, the United States has troops in dozens of countries and is actively fighting in Iraq, Syria, Libya, and Yemen (with the occasional drone strike in Pakistan). In addition, the United States is pledged to defend 28 countries in NATO. It is unwise to expand the monetary and military obligations of the United States given the burden of our $20 trillion debt.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Julian Assange ‘Enjoying’ Being One of Twitter’s ‘Deplorables’ After Site Refuses to Verify Account
Twitter refuses to verify the official account of WikiLeaks’ founder and editor Julian Assange, despite his accumulation of over 100,000 followers.
“This is absurd,” Assange tweeted on Wednesday, along with a screenshot of Twitter’s verification rejection. “We’ve been trying to verify this account since early October.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Man Beaten in Fast Food Joint After Offering to Pay for Meal
According to authorities, a man who offered to help pay for a meal at a Brooklyn restaurant was beaten and robbed for his kindness.
A 37-year-old man offered up some money to the alleged attackers when they entered the establishment and said no one would give them a dollar. Apparently the offer set them off.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Mark Cuban: The Robots Are Coming
Billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban’s prediction for the future of the workforce includes more robots and less human workers.
“We’re about to go into a period with artificial intelligence, machine learning, deep learning, those things where we literally are going to see a change in the nature of employment,” Cuban said in an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
McDonald’s Twitter Account Hacked, Blasts Trump
A hacker used McDonald’s Twitter account to attack President Donald Trump in an extremely derogatory tweet early Thursday.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Michael Savage: If the United States Falls to Globalism the Ussa Will Enslave the Planet
Michael Savage joins Alex Jones to break down how the globalists planned to use the United States to take over and destroy the rest of the world.
[Comment: 100% correct. NWO = world communist dictatorship = Tyranny.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Pelosi’s Call for ObamaCare Success Stories Backfires
(Political Insider) Lawyers are known never to ask a question they don’t already know the answer to — and politicians should do the same if they want to spare themselves some embarrassment. Nancy Pelosi didn’t get that memo.
Despite all the ObamaCare horror stories we’ve heard since the day it took effect, whether it be people losing coverage, paying higher premiums, or seeing their deductibles skyrocket, Pelosi apparently was under the impression that once they passed the bill, people were happy to find out what was in it. They weren’t — which she learned when she tweeted out a request for people to tell their ObamaCare success stories, hoping she could use them as ammunition as ObamaCare’s repeal looms.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Senate Intelligence Panel Rejects Trump Wiretap Claim
There are “no indications” that Trump Tower was under surveillance by the US government before or after the election, a Senate committee has said.
The statement from Republican Senator Richard Burr, Senate Intelligence Committee chairman, dismissed Donald Trump’s claim his phones were tapped.
Mr Trump had accused his predecessor Barack Obama of wiretapping Trump Tower during the presidential race.
But White House spokesman Sean Spicer said Mr Trump maintains his claims.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Senators: ‘No Indications’ Trump Tower Subject of Surveillance
Two top senators said Thursday they see “no indications” that Trump Tower was surveilled “by any element of the United States government,” in one of the most definitive bipartisan rejections to date of President Trump’s wiretapping allegation.
Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Chairman Richard Burr, R-N.C., and Vice Chairman Mark Warner, D-Va., issued the statement only hours after Trump told Fox News’ Tucker Carlson that he would be providing evidence of his claims “very soon.”
“Based on the information available to us, we see no indications that Trump Tower was the subject of surveillance by any element of the United States government either before or after Election Day 2016,” the statement from Burr and Warner said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Texas Bill Would Allow People to Opt Out of Smart Meters, Undermine Federal Program
AUSTIN, Texas (March 15, 2017) — A bill introduced in the Texas House would allow utility customers to opt out of installing “smart meter” technology on their homes and businesses. Passage of this bill would allow Texans to protect their own privacy, and it would take a step toward blocking a federal program in effect.
Rep. Ken King (R-Canadian) introduced House Bill 3656 (HB3656) on March 9. The legislation would allow Texas utility customers to opt out of any utility company smart meter program with no charge or penalty.
Smart meters monitor home energy usage in minute detail in real time. The devices transmit data to the utility company were it gets stored in databases. Anybody with access to the data can download it for analysts. Without specific criteria limiting access to the data, these devices create significant privacy issues. Smart meters can also be used to remotely limit power usage during peak hours.
Under the proposed law, utility companies would be required to inform customers in writing that they have the right to decline installation of a smart meter. The company would not be allowed to charge the customer for for declining installation, nor for the cost of traditional metering service. HB3656 also includes provisions giving utility customers the right to have an existing smart meter removed. The company would be allowed to charge the customer the cost of installing the replacement traditional meter.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Whole Point of the Internet of Things is So Big Brother Can Spy on You
The government is already spying on us through spying on us through our computers, phones, cars, buses, streetlights, at airports and on the street, via mobile scanners and drones, through our credit cards and smart meters (see this), television, doll, and in many other ways.
The CIA wants to spy on you through your dishwasher and other “smart” appliances. Slate reported in 2012:…
Author and persistent Silicon Valley critic Evgeny Morozov summed up the entire problem with the internet of things and “smart” technology in a tweet last week:
In case you are wondering what “smart” — as in “smart city” or “smart home” — means:
Surveillance Marketed As Revolutionary Technology
[…]
And in the wake of the CIA leaks showing that the agency can remotely turn on our tvs and spy on us using a “fake off” mode so that it looks like the power is off, Tech Dirt wrote in an article called CIA Leaks Unsurprisingly Show The Internet Of Broken Things Is A Spy’s Best Friend:
The security and privacy standards surrounding the internet of (broken) things sit somewhere between high comedy and dogshit.
As security expert Bruce Schneier points out, the entire concept of the IoT is wildly insecure and vulnerable to hacking.
The highest-level NSA whistleblower in history (William Binney) — the NSA executive who created the agency’s mass surveillance program for digital information, 36-year NSA veteran widely regarded as a “legend” within the agency, who served as the senior technical director within the agency, and managed thousands of NSA employees — reviewed an earlier version of this post, and told Washington’s Blog: Yep, that summarizes it fairly well. It does not deal with industry or how they will use the data; but, that will probably be an extension of what they do now. This whole idea of monitoring electronic devices is objectionable.
If forced to buy that stuff, I will do my best to disconnect these monitoring devices also look for equipment on the market that is not connected in any way.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
VA Hospital Refuses to Hang Trump Portrait
(WASHINGTON TIMES) A Veterans Affairs hospital in West Palm beach has refused to put up pictures of President Donald Trump and Secretary David Schulkin, even though they were delivered by a congressman who lost both legs on a deployment to Afghanistan.
Republican Congressman Brian Mast showed up Tuesday with fellow veterans in tow at West Palm beach’s VA hospital. The group of constituents have been seething at the facility’s decision not to hang a portrait of the 45th commander in chief in its entrance.
Despite Mr. Mast’s personal intervention, the hospital took down the photographs shortly after he left.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Video Shows a Car Pulling Out of a Gas Station — And a Frantic Woman Escaping From the Trunk
Surveillance video shows a dark-colored vehicle pulling from a parking spot and slowly starting to drive away at a gas station in Birmingham, Ala.
The trunk pops open and a woman, seemingly trapped inside, propels herself from the car — landing on her back before running inside a convenience store. Frantically, she pleads: “Please help me! Please help me!”
Then, she runs toward a man inside the Gas Land station on Bessemer Road.
“What happened?” he replies.
“He’s been trying to rob me,” the woman says of her alleged kidnapper.
Birmingham police said in a statement that the woman, who has not been publicly identified, told authorities that she was making her way to her apartment door when a man tried to rob her at gunpoint Tuesday night. When she told the man she didn’t have any money, the man forced her into his car — then later, into the trunk, she told the investigators…
| — Hat tip: Dean | [Return to headlines] |
It’s Time for a Tax Revolt in Canada
How come, for instance, our productivity has gone up by as much 75% since the ‘70s, but our incomes haven’t kept pace? Why aren’t we seeing more of the fruits of our labours? Why can so many of us now no longer afford to buy houses or pay off student loans. Isn’t that because the rich, greedy 1% are keeping more of our money for themselves?
The short answer is: No. The reason middle-class Canadians feel like they are running on an income treadmill is that governments are keeping much greater sums of our cash.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Privacy Commissioner Investigating Canada Border Services Agency Over Electronic Media Searches
OTTAWA — Canada’s federal privacy commissioner has launched an investigation into the Canada Border Services Agency’s practice of searching the electronic devices of travellers at the Canadian border.
The investigation comes amid mounting concerns over whether CBSA’s U.S. counterparts are not just searching travellers’ devices, but also downloading their contents for later examination and even cloning and mirroring the devices.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Trudeau’s Arrogance Fuels ‘Trumpism’ In Canada
What does it say about the government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau when it repeatedly suggests the vast majority of Canadians are Islamophobic, bigoted and racist?
Time and again, Trudeau and the Liberals try to come up with divisive wedge issues for the Conservatives to slip on — which is politicking, not governing — – and time and again it blows up in their faces.
The latest is the Liberals’ so-called “anti-Islamophobia” motion proposed by MP Iqra Khalid but, more importantly, backed by Trudeau and the PMO, the wording of which a recent Forum Research poll found 71% of Canadians surveyed oppose, with only 14% in support.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
What You Do on Your Cell Phone Could Come Back to Haunt You
As far as Big Brother is concerned, nothing that you do on your cell phone is ever private. And if the government really wants to see what is on your cell phone, they are going to get that information one way or another, even if that means resorting to physical violence. On Monday, NBC News provided us with yet another glaring example of how the United States is being transformed into a Big Brother police state. On January 1st, Akram Shibly and Kelly McCormick from Buffalo, New York were coming back home from a trip to Toronto, and they didn’t anticipate any unusual problems when they got to the border. Unfortunately for them, U.S. Customs & Border Protection agents decided to take their cell phones, demanded their passwords, and kept them in custody for the next two hours as they searched for anything that might be incriminating on those phones.
You might be thinking that sounds like it should be illegal, and you would be correct, but sadly federal courts have ruled that our constitutional rights do not apply to border searches. So authorities use this legal loophole to do pretty much anything they want at the border.
If that young couple from Buffalo would have had something illegal on their phones, they could have been immediately arrested and put in prison.
And we haven’t even gotten to the worst part of the story yet. Just a few days later Akram Shibly and Kelly McCormick took another trip to Canada, and this time border agents physically assaulted Akram when he did not immediately turn over his phone. The following comes from NBC News…
Three days later, they returned from another trip to Canada and were stopped again by CBP.
“One of the officers calls out to me and says, ‘Hey, give me your phone,’“ recalled Shibly. “And I said, ‘No, because I already went through this.’“
The officer asked a second time.
Within seconds, he was surrounded: one man held his legs, another squeezed his throat from behind. A third reached into his pocket, pulling out his phone. McCormick watched her boyfriend’s face turn red as the officer’s chokehold tightened.
Is this still America?
I can’t believe that this is what the United States has become. When I was young I remember reading about this sort of thing in Nazi Germany, the USSR and Communist China, but I never imagined that it would happen here. For years I have been warning about this growing “Big Brother police state control grid” , and I wish that more Americans would realize how evil all of this government surveillance truly is.
You can watch an interview where this couple from Buffalo talks to NBC News about this recent incident at the border right here. It is so disgusting that this is how we are treating law abiding people when countless numbers of drug dealers and gang members are pouring across unprotected sections of our border every single day.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Archaeologists Make Sensational Viking Discovery in Denmark
In what is being described as one of the most important archaeological discoveries in Denmark in recent times, archaeologists have uncovered several chamber-graves in the hamlet of Hørning near Skanderborg in Jutland.
What is of particular interest is that one of the chamber-graves contains the remains of a high-level person from the early Viking Age, as well as a number of spectacular items that confirm the individual’s high standing. He has been dubbed the ‘Fregerslev Viking’.
“The fittings date to circa 950 AD, which means that the Fregerslev Viking could have been the confidant of the king, Gorm the Old — or alternatively a rival.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Austrian Venue Cancels ‘Political’ Turkish Music Concert
The venue for a Turkish music concert in Austria cancelled the event on Thursday over its apparent “political” nature, amid an escalating row between Turkey and the EU.
Innsbruck’s Olympic Hall said it took the decision on the basis of “information about the organization of the event (on Saturday) and about the performing artists Osman Oztunc and Gokhan Tekin”.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Citizens’ Protection Minister: French Authorities Say IMF Parcel Bomb Sent From Greece
Greece’s Citizens’ Protection Minister Nikos Toskas told ANT1 television channel on Thursday that French authorities said a parcel bomb that arrived at the Paris offices of the International Monetary Fund on Thursday and left an employee with minor injuries when it exploded, had been sent from Greece.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Cutting Jobs is a ‘Very Serious Sin’, Says Pope
Closing factories and cutting jobs can constitute a “very serious sin”, Pope Francis said on Wednesday in his latest broadside in defence of labour rights.
His comment was made in support of staff at the Italian branch of Sky television who are currently involved in a dispute over 200 redundancies and 300 relocations.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Discovery Challenges Our Current Understanding of Gravity
Einstein’s theory of gravity may have to be rewritten, after a team of astronomers at the University of St Andrews discovered a 10-million-light-year-wide ring of small galaxies moving away from us much faster than predicted.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Dutch Election: European Relief as Mainstream Triumphs
European leaders have welcomed the result of the Netherlands election, which saw the anti-immigration party of Geert Wilders fail to become the largest in parliament.
Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s centre-right VVD won by some margin.
For Francois Hollande of France it was a “clear victory against extremism”, while German Chancellor Angela Merkel hailed a “good day for democracy”.
The vote was closely watched ahead of elections in France and Germany.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
France: Headmaster and Children Among at Least Eight Victims Shot at School in Grasse
Police confirmed a 17-year-old student carrying a rifle, two handguns, and two grenades had been arrested in connection with the shooting at the Lycée Alexis de Tocqueville, in the southern town of Grasse. A second person absconded. A rifle, a revolver, a pistol and GRENADES. And it’s “not” terror related. It’ s now called “a dispute” . …
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Geert Wilders and the Real Story of the Election
by Daniel Greenfield
Wilders had the courage to defy the assassins and murderers, the politically correct scolds and the bleeding hearts, the pallid men and women who counsel moderation in all things and at all times, to tell the truth about Islam and Islamic migration. That is what he will go on doing even as he lives under threat. And his courage inspires opponents of the Jihad in the Netherlands and around the world.
This election was an erosion of faith in the establishment and a show of support for Wilders. To become Prime Minister Wilders, the PVV will either need a truly massive victory or a fundamental change in the political environment. Wilders understands this. He knows that the role of his party is to fight a failing establishment. Everything he does builds support and momentum for either of the two roads.
The media is cheering a defeat that never happened. And just as with Brexit, it may find that it had overlooked the seeds of its own destruction in the dirty politics of its own making.
“This patriotic revolution,” Geert Wilders said, “whether today or tomorrow, will take place anyway.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Geert Wilders Didn’t Win — But He Has Reshaped Dutch Politics
EU leaders are claiming this result is a vote against ‘extremism’ and have loudly congratulated Rutte on his ‘win’. They are for now breathing a sigh of relief that Wilders didn’t take the 30-odd seats some predicted. They are also hoping populism is on the wane ahead of a crucial election in France this year. But in truth while Wilders didn’t make the gains he hoped for, he has increased his share of the vote and now has more seats. He will be the largest voice of opposition to Rutte’s new coalition government and he will continue to shape the political sphere.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Man on Trial for Raping 90-Year-Old on Way Back From Church
After an elderly woman was raped and robbed on her way back from church in October, the trial started in Düsseldorf on Thursday of the 19-year-old suspect.
The Spanish-Moroccan man is accused of rape, bodily harm and theft, and faces up to 15 years in jail if found guilty, the Rheinische Post reports.
The 90-year-old victim had just lit a candle in the St. Lambertus Church in the old town of Düsseldorf on October 2nd, when the young man confronted her and shouted “money, money!”, according to the prosecution.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
by Maria Polizoidou
The Greek people have just about reached the limits of their strength. The economic situation is tragic. Illegal immigration is out of control, criminality increases day by day. The political system is steeped in corruption and the media have stopped being the communication channel between citizens and the political system. The Greek media are functioning as the praetorian guard of the euro; they favor the massive admission of Muslim populations into Greece and they fiercely attack every voice that disagrees with them.
Bishop Ambrossios is urging people to revolt. He characterizes the illegal Muslim immigrants entering the country as conquerors. He also says that Christianity is under attack in Greece, while Islam is being daily reinforced. He says that Greek Orthodox churches are being desecrated, robbed and burned by Muslim immigrants while the state just sits by and looks on.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Greek Public Health System on Brink, Doctors Warn
The National Health System (ESY) is on the the brink of collapse, according to the Panhellenic Medical Association (PIS), which cited chronic shortages in staff and equipment at public hospitals around the country due to limited finances, and disruptions in the primary healthcare system.
The association added that the only reason the health system is still running is due to the efforts of existing staff, whose endurance levels, however, are being put to the test.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Greek Militants Claim Parcel Bomb Sent to German Ministry
A Greek far-left group on Thursday claimed it sent a parcel bomb to the German finance ministry, over six years after waging a similar campaign against European officials.
“We claim responsibility for sending a booby-trapped parcel to the German finance minister,” the Conspiracy of Fire Nuclei group said in a statement posted on an anti-establishment website.
A Greek police source said the claim was “most probably” authentic.
German police on Wednesday said they had discovered the “explosive” package at Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble’s office building, a day before he was due to host his new US counterpart Steven Mnuchin.
“The package contained an explosive mix,” Berlin police said in a statement, adding that the substance is often used in the production of fireworks.
“It was designed to cause severe injuries when the package is opened,” they said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Hungary’s Orban Makes Rallying Call to European Nationalists
Hungary’s right-wing populist prime minister Viktor Orban called on European nationalist leaders on Wednesday to revolt against an “unholy alliance of Brussels bureaucrats, the liberal world media and insatiable international capitalists”.
The European Union is facing a period of upheaval following Britain’s vote to leave the 28-member bloc, with nationalist parties poised to gain support in Dutch and French elections.
Orban, whose Fidesz party faces elections in 2018 after two consecutive terms in office, called on nationalist leaders to bring about a “deep but peaceful” transformation of Europe.
[Comment: The article is one day old but I think its interesting. Orban is one of the great political leaders of our time.]
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Ten Injured in Volcanic Explosion at Mount Etna
Ten people have been reported injured in a volcanic explosion at Mount Etna on Sicily, according to Italian media reports on Thursday afternoon.
The people, who reportedly included BBC crew members, tourists, and one 78-year-old woman, were hit by lava and rocks.
They suffered from head injuries, burns, cuts and bruises, but the injuries are not thought to be serious. Six are recovering in the nearby Catania and Acireale hospitals, according to Il Corriere.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Letter Bomb Explodes at Paris Offices of IMF Leaving One Injured
A letter bomb exploded at the Paris offices of the International Monetary Fund on Thursday, injuring a secretary who suffered burns to her hands and face, police said.
Employees were evacuated from the building near the Arc de Triomphe monument in the heart of the capital “as a precaution” after the late morning explosion, a police source said.
IMF chief Christine Lagarde condemned it as a “cowardly act of violence”.
Although no link has been established at this stage, a Greek far-left group claimed Thursday that it had sent a parcel bomb to the German finance ministry in Berlin, more than six years after waging a similar campaign targeting European officials.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Majority of Scots Reject Independence: Poll
A new poll shows that a wide majority of Scottish people reject independence from the United Kingdom, despite the government revealing plans for a second independence referendum.
The survey, conducted by Britain’s The Times newspaper, indicated on Tuesday that 57 percent of Scottish voters had rejected independence, enjoying a 14-point gap with those in favor of remaining in the UK.
The opinion poll comes a day after the Scottish National Party (SNP) announced it would ask permission for a second referendum to split from Britain, arguing that London had failed to compromise with Edinburgh on Brexit.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Parcel Bomb Sent to IMF a Day After Similar Device From Greece Target German Finmin
News of a parcel bomb going off at the International Monetary Fund’s headquarters in Paris swept through the Greek media on Thursday afternoon as it came just a day after a similar device was posted from Greece to the German Finance Ministry.
Reuters reported that one person was “slightly injured” after opening the booby-trapped letter at the IMF’s Paris office.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Researcher: Making Populists Pariahs ‘Can Keep Them at Bay’
The election result in The Netherlands shows that mainstream parties can successfully combat right-wing populist parties by refusing to work with them, validating the approach in Sweden, according to a leading academic.
Jonas Hinnfors, politics professor at the University of Gothenburg, said: “If there is a lesson to learn, it is that it is not impossible to keep up the pariah status while at the same time keeping the populist-radical party at bay.”
Sweden’s parties of the centre-right and centre-left have, until a recent move by the Moderate Party, refused to either negotiate with the populist Sweden Democrats in parliament, or to enter into coalition governments with them.
This is in contrast to Norway and Finland where populist parties are now part of coalition governments, and also to Denmark, where the populist Danish People’s Party has long exerted a powerful influence in exchange for supporting centre-right governments.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Swedish Minister Says Returning ISIS Fighters Should be Integrated
A SWEDISH minister has been branded “ignorant” and “amateurish” after she suggested municipalities were expected to help integrate Islamic State fighters to the Scandinavian country.
Alice Bah Kuhnke, minister of Culture and Democracy made the remark on Sunday evening as she was quizzed on how Sweden should deal with jihadi defectors by the state broadcaster SVT.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Teen Pleads Guilty to Raping 90 Year Old Woman in Germany as Trial Begins
A 19-year-old man has pleaded guilty at the start of his trial to raping a 90-year-old woman who was on her way back from church in Dusseldorf’s old town. He faces up to 15 years in prison when sentenced.
The crime occurred on October 2 last year at around 11 am when the unnamed woman was walking back home after visiting a church in Düsseldorf’s famed Altstadt district. She was confronted by the young man, known only as Souhayl M., yelling “money, money!”
He is also said to have shouted “Keep silent, or death,” German media reports.
When it turned out the old lady didn’t have any cash, the young man dragged her into a passage between two buildings where he raped her while choking and pulling on her hair. He then went through her handbag, stole her house key and wrote down her address, though there’s no evidence he tried to break in at any point.
The elderly victim had to be hospitalized after the attack, while the suspect, a Spaniard of Moroccan origin, was charged two weeks later after his DNA matched with that taken from the scene of another robbery he’d been arrested for that had taken place in May
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Turkish Minister Claims ‘Holy Wars Will Soon Begin in Europe’
A Turkish minister has claimed “holy wars will soon begin” in Europe, in spite of the defeat of far-right leader Geert Wilders in the Netherlands elections.
Mevlut Cavusoglu, Turkey’s foreign minister, did not welcome the victory for Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s centre-right People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD).
“Now the election is over in the Netherlands…when you look at the many parties you see there is no difference between the social democrats and fascist Wilders,” he said according to a translation by Hurriyet.
“All have the same mentality. Where will you go? Where are you taking Europe? You have begun to collapse Europe. You are dragging Europe into the abyss. Holy wars will soon begin in Europe.”…
| — Hat tip: Pierre | [Return to headlines] |
Queen Elizabeth II on Thursday gave royal assent to a bill empowering British Prime Minister Theresa May to trigger Article 50 of the European Union’s Lisbon Treaty and begin the process of leaving the EU.
House of Commons Speaker John Bercow announced that the EU (Notification of Withdrawal) Bill has received the assent of Queen Elizabeth II.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Victim of Its Own Success, Iceland Considers New Tax on Tourists
One of the world’s hottest and most expensive holiday destinations could soon become a little more expensive.
Overwhelmed by a record number of visitors in spite of its far-flung location, Iceland’s government is considering ways of raising taxes in the tourism sector. The alternative would be to limit sightseers’ access to the country’s most popular spots.
“The sector and all of us have to be careful not to become victims of our own success,” Thordis Kolbrun Reykfjord Gylfadottir, Iceland’s tourism minister, said in a recent interview in Reykjavik.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
What We Know About the ‘Troubled’ Pupil Behind the France School Shooting
A 17-year-old pupil was arrested with a cache of weapons after a shooting in a high school in southern France on Thursday. Here is what we know about the shooter and the incident that had France fearing it had been hit by another terror attack.
The suspect has been named in the French media as 17-year-old Killian B, who is a pupil at the Alexis de Tocqueville high school in the southern town of Grasse, where he opened fire.
He was not previously known to police and appears to have acted alone, despite initial reports of a second attacker on the loose.
He was armed with a rifle, two handguns and two grenades, although it is not clear whether all the weapons were operational, including the grenades.
The head of the regional government, Christian Estrosi, said that early indications pointed to someone with “psychological problems”.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Did ISIS Inadvertently Uncover the Secret to the “Lost” Hanging Gardens of Babylon?
Last week, a group of concerned archaeologists, mapping out the extent of the damage wrought by ISIS when it occupied the Iraqi city of Mosul, announced a shocking discovery. In 2014, the terrorist group had gleefully announced its destruction of the Nebi Yunus shrine, traditionally believed to be the tomb of the Prophet Jonah and a part of the ancient ruins of the city of Nineveh.
But the story doesn’t end there. It is, in fact a poetically linked component in a chain of lost monuments and ancient kings, dating back to one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, the only one that historians have wondered if it ever existed at all.
You can still visit the Great Pyramid at Giza today. But all the other Seven Wonders are known to have been destroyed — except for the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. The presence and loss of the others — The Tomb of Mausolus, the Lighthouse of Alexandria, the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, the Colossus of Rhodes, the Statue of Zeus at Olympia — have been accounted for in archaeological and historical documentation.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Erdogan Accuses EU of Anti-Islam ‘Crusade’ Over Headscarf Ruling
The Turkish president has accused the EU of launching an anti-Islam “crusade” over a ruling that allows companies to ban staff from wearing headscarves. He added that the Netherlands has lost Turkey’s friendship amid a deepening crisis in ties.
Addressing a rally in the northwestern Turkish province of Sakarya on Thursday, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan expressed his discontent with a Tuesday ruling by the European Court of Justice, which states that Islamic headscarves can be banned by employers as part of a general policy barring all religious and political symbols.
“Shame on the EU. Down with your European principles, values and justice…they started a clash between the cross and the crescent, there is no other explanation,” he said, as quoted by Reuters.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Europe Headed for ‘Religion Wars’ Despite Wilders’ Stumble, Turkish Minister Says
Anti-Islam politician Geert Wilders may have fallen short in this week’s election in the Netherlands, but his views were shared by all the Dutch parties and are pushing Europe towards “wars of religion”, Turkey’s foreign minister said on Thursday.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Middle East Experts: Syrian Kurdish Safe Zones Could Thwart Iranian Threat to Israel
by David Keleti and Jerry Gordon
In an exclusive interview with JerusalemOnline, Middle East experts David Keleti and Jerry Gordon stated that in last month’s meeting between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump, the two discussed ways of managing Iranian belligerency. The two Middle East scholars noted that establishing a Syrian Kurdish safe zone dominated by the democratic Kurdish National Assembly of Syria (KURDNAS), an umbrella organization comprised of a majority of Kurdish tribes and Syrian political parties led by Dr. Sherkoh Abbas, is the best guarantee that Israel has to thwart the Iranian threat. According to them, the KURDNAS-sponsored militias are also part of the 65,000-strong Kurdish contingent of the SDF, leading the push to liberate the ISIS-controlled capital city of Raqqa…
| — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon | [Return to headlines] |
Turkish FM Warns of ‘Religion Wars’ In Europe in Remarks on Dutch Elections
Europe will soon be the site of “religion wars,” Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavusoglu said on March 16, in Ankara’s first comment on the general elections in the Netherlands that saw the victory of Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s Liberal VVD.
“Now the election is over in the Netherlands … “When you look at the many parties you see there is no difference between the social democrats and fascist [Geert] Wilders. All have the same mentality. Where will you go? Where are you taking Europe? You have begun to collapse Europe. You are dragging Europe into the abyss. Holy wars will soon begin in Europe,” Çavusoglu said on March 16, in Ankara’s first comment on the general election in the Netherlands that saw the victory of Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s Liberal VVD.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Russia Begins Recruiting Cosmonauts in Bid to Beat America and China in Race Back to the Moon
Russia has begun recruiting cosmonauts for a new spacecraft that will go to the moon.
Russia’s space corporation Roscosmos has declared an open contest for a team who will pilot the Federatsiya spacecraft to the Moon.
‘The selection begins today and it will last till the end of the year,’ said , Roscosmos First Deputy CEO Aleksandr Ivanov told a news conference.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
A New Baby Boom is Happening in China’s Smaller Cities
China’s smaller cities are struggling to cope with a baby boom after the nation ended its one-child policy in 2015, demonstrating that it’s too early to further relax the new two-child ceiling.
So says lawmaker Sun Xiaomei, who criticizes calls for an immediate easing of the current two-child policy, and says her visits to small cities and towns showed her that already-stretched hospitals, pediatricians and kindergartens are finding it hard to cope with increased births.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
China Plans Massive Expansion of Marines to Exert Global Power
Chi-coms to create overseas expeditionary force
The Communist Chinese government is planning a massive expansion of the country’s Marine Corps to better project its power globally, according to military insiders.
Chinese President Xi Jinping has regularly expressed his desire to better project military power overseas, and experts suggest such a goal necessitates a move away from China’s traditional military reliance on ground forces.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Ship Hijacking Shows Somali Piracy Threat Remains High, UN Says
The hijacking of a fuel tanker off Somalia’s coast shows the threat still posed by pirates to one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes, a risk that may also hamper the Horn of African country’s efforts to explore for offshore oil and gas, a United Nations official said.
“This is absolutely a return of piracy,” Alan Cole, head of the UN’s Global Maritime Crime Programme, said of the March 13 hijacking of the Aris 13 freighter in waters off Somalia’s semi-autonomous Puntland region.
The tanker was the first ship seized off the Eastern Africa seaboard in five years. Hijackings in the region caused havoc for international shipping from about 2001 to 2012, peaking with 176 attacks in 2011.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Somalia Ship Hijack: ‘Pirates’ Release Vessel Without Ransom
Somali pirates who hijacked an oil tanker have released it without condition, according to officials.
The announcement came hours after the pirates and naval forces exchanged gunfire over a boat believed to be carrying supplies to the hijackers.
The tanker, which was en route from Djibouti to the Somali capital, Mogadishu, was seized on Monday with eight Sri Lankan crew members on board.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Belgium Rejects Working Visa Applications for Four Imams as Erdogan Condemns EU
BELGIAN authorities have rejected visa applications for four Turkish imams who wanted to work long-term in the country.
The decision by Belgian immigration minister Theo Francken was supported by the Belgian Council.
Mr Francken has already declined the applications of 12 imams this year, saying they wanted to preach sermons in mosques unrecognised by the state, according to German newspaper Deutsche Welle.
Ten of the imams objected to the decision, claiming their religious freedom was being violated
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Asylum Seeker Accused of Murdering Teenager Attempts Suicide in Prison
A BOGUS asylum seeker accused of the rape and murder of a beautiful young student in Germany tried to take his own life in jail, it has emerged.
Hussein Khavari from Afghanistan hid a shirt under his bed in the maximum security Hohenasperg Prison to strangle himself with over the Christmas period, according to authorities.
Khavari is under 24-hour observation at the jail. He pulled the covers of his bed over his head to try to kill himself when he was discovered by a guard and taken to the hospital wing.
Khavari came to Germany in November 2015 after having fled Greece where he was caged for ten years for trying to murder a young girl by throwing her off a cliff.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
In a ruling issued on Wednesday afternoon, a federal judge, and Obama appointee, prevented the President of the United States from enforcing his own executive order to protect the nation from migrants from terror-riddled countries.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Anger After Unvetted Migrants Hired to Walk Children to School
Opposition politicians have promised to fight plans by northern Italian town Arcore’s left wing local government which would see unvetted migrants walking young children to school in a project to teach pupils about ‘diversity’ and ‘humanity’.
Shortly after the project was announced, the centre-right Forza Italia party, the national-conservative Brothers of Italy party, and populist Northern League launched a poster campaign to protest the move.
On it, an image of a man with his arm around a young boy is accompanied by wording which reads: “With a stranger? No thanks. Immigrants without legal status are going to be accompanying our children to school? We say no.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Le Pen: Ending Calais Border Checks Means ‘Bodies on the Shore of Britain and France’
French presidential frontrunner Marine Le Pen has denounced threats by Emmanuel Macron and others to get rid of British border checks in Calais, calling for strong French borders instead.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Migrant Crime and Violence Soars in German States
Authorities in two German states have expressed concern over official figures showing a huge rise in migrant crime, with the number of violent attacks having almost doubled in 2016.
“Refugees really entered onto the crime scene last year,” said Baden-Württemberg State Criminal Police Office (LKA) president Ralf Michelfelder.
“We are very worried about the rise in violence by asylum seekers,” the police official added. The comments come following the release of figures which reveal a 95.5 per cent spike in the number of physical attacks carried out by asylum seekers and migrants.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Report: Eight Out of Ten Swedish Churches Helped Refugees
Eight out of ten Church of Sweden congregations helped asylum seekers during the refugee crisis in 2015 and 2016, according to a new report.
Archbishop Antje Jackelén, who leads the Church of Sweden, said that the church’s high level of engagement could be explained by the central tenets of Christianity.
“This kind of work is actually natural for any Christian congregation: to extend a hand to a fellow human who needs help; to show hospitality to a stranger,” Jackelén said in a statement.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey Threatens to End Migrant Deal With EU Amid Spat
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan threatened on Thursday to scrap a deal with the European Union to readmit migrants who have crossed illegally into Europe, amid a standoff with European nations over their reluctance to allow Turkish ministers to hold campaign rallies in their countries.
In a feisty campaign speech in northwest Turkey, Erdogan said the EU could “forget about” the deal, in which Ankara agreed to readmit migrants that had reached Greece illegally via Turkey — a key transit country for tens of thousands trying to flee fighting and poverty and enter Europe. In return, the EU was to grant Turkish citizens the right to travel to many European countries visa-free.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey’s Erdogan Tells EU to ‘Forget About’ Migrant Deal After Dutch Row
ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan threatened on Thursday to scrap a deal with the European Union to readmit migrants who have crossed illegally into Europe, amid a standoff with European nations over their reluctance to allow Turkish ministers to hold campaign rallies in their countries.
In a feisty campaign speech in northwest Turkey, Erdogan said the EU could “forget about” the deal, in which Ankara agreed to readmit migrants that had reached Greece illegally via Turkey — a key transit country for tens of thousands trying to flee fighting and poverty and enter Europe. In return, the EU was to grant Turkish citizens the right to travel to many European countries visa-free.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
‘We May Cancel it’ Now Turkey Threatens to Pull Migrant Deal With EU Amid Netherlands Row
The one-for-one migrant deal which has allowed Greece and Italy to redirect illegal migrants back to president Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s country is being re-evaluated, foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said.
Hostility has been brewing between Turkey and Germany, as well as Ankara and the Netherlands, after Turkish officials were banned from campaiging for a Turkish referendum abroad.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The UN’s Role in Exporting the Feminists’ Agenda
The Left’s route to promoting their radical agenda around the world is engineering the enactment of a United Nations treaty that contains their distorted “women’s rights” policies that can then be used to impose their alien feminist views on third world nations. I know this from my experience of more than 20 years at the UN — including working as an NGO delegate advising official delegates plus being an official U.S. delegate appointed by President George W. Bush to two sessions, The Children’s Summit (2002) and the Commission on the Status of Women (2003). I’ve learned that whatever the theme of the session and whether it’s an official or NGO meeting. And this week, March 13 — March 24, the UN is holding its 61st annual Commission on the Status of Women.
A 2013 article that cited the 10 top accomplishments of the UN lists “promoting women’s rights” as the UN’s #1 accomplishment over the years. That achievement demonstrates the indirect and outsized influence of radical feminist NGOs in the United States and in other Member States. They gained significant, even decisive, power in 2010 with the establishment of a body incorporating all related UN agencies under one billion-dollar entity — UN Women: United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. This powerful consolidation of women’s agencies within the UN (often referred to as a “global policy-making body”) gave radical women unprecedented global influence. UN Women is now among the most powerful of the various entities of the UN in working to impose radical policies and practices related to women’s rights and gender identity. It is nothing short of the 21st Century’s most glaring example of arrogant western colonialism: cultural imperialism and domination at its worst.
The establishment of UN Women was the result of significant groundwork to implement a long-term strategy. Ambassador Arvonne Fraser, former ambassador to the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), explained the strategy very simply: “[W]hen you put something in law you change culture.” UN treaties, of course, are not law, but “customary law” has become a direct implication of the treaties and economic benefits that are given or withheld by the UN according to a specific nation’s adherence to the treaties. Thus, a series of women’s meetings were planned to provide a foundation for cultural change, not just in the U.S. but around the world.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Where is the Left’s Cognitive Dissonance?
According to a report by Pew Research, Italy was set to surpass Greece in late 2016 as “Europe’s new focal point for refugee flows.” Eighty-five percent of the refugees who arrived in Italy last year, the story continues, were from African countries “such as Nigeria, Eritrea and Sudan.” Those would be predominantly Muslim countries. Italy accepted over 170,000 such refugees last year.
One might think those of the leftish bent who simultaneously pushed for Italy to become, as the Journal noted, “one of the last [countries] in Europe to approve civil unions for gay couples” might be a little squeamish about welcoming onto the Boot hordes of folks whose core belief system calls for the slaughter of homosexuals. As the estimable Shaykh Muhammad Saalih al-Munajjid helpfully explains at his handy Islam Question and Answer website, Islamic scholars disagree a bit on the exact manner of disposing of LGBT community members, but the options can include stoning, throwing from a high place, and burning with fire. (There is nothing quite like academics quibbling over execution methodology to raise the hair on the back of your neck.) Regardless of manner, the end result is the same. Or, as Shaykh al-Munajjid writes: “The Sahaabah [i.e., companions of Prophet Muhammad] were unanimously agreed on the execution of homosexuals, but they differed as to how they were to be executed.”
This sort of liberal hypocrisy manifests itself in other ways as well. To take Merriam-Webster’s example a step farther, leftists in the United States have been pushing everywhere and anywhere to legalize marijuana use. Yet I seem to recall in the not too distant past that leftists were trying with convert-like zeal to destroy the tobacco industry for profiting from its evil cancer-producing “nicotine delivery systems.” They waged a war on the tobacconists that would have made Genghis Khan proud. Yet now they say, “Smoke away on those doobies.” What happened to all their moral preening? While I don’t recall much from DEA intelligence school a couple decades ago, I do distinctly remember that the chemicals in marijuana are far more carcinogenic and lethal than those in tobacco.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Ignore ‘Climate Change, ‘ Lose Your Job
(London Independent) World’s biggest fund manager issues ‘Darth Vader-style’threat to oust bosses who ignore climate change
Lawyer says BlackRock’s warning that it is losing patience with firms over global warming should be read as if voiced by ‘James Earl Jones as Darth Vader’.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Snapping Earth for More Than Seven Decades
For centuries, the only way to ‘see’ Earth whole was through globes and maps; its grandeur was merely glimpsed in mountain vistas or across a stretch of ocean. That changed in the 1940s, when the first images of the planet were snapped from rockets probing the border of space, 100 kilometres up. The imaginable became the visible.
Since then, satellites and spacecraft have beamed down shots from ever greater distances and in growing detail. Now Nature Video has captured the most iconic of these in the film Portraits of a Planet: Earth from Space.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The Idea of Surgeons Washing Their Hands is Only 150 Years Old
The world of surgery before that was much grosser and less effective.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Tim Berners-Lee: I invented the web. Here are three things we need to change to save it
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/mar/11/tim-berners-lee-web-inventor-save-internet
How the web lost its way – and its founding principles
When Tim Berners-Lee invented the world wide web 24 years ago he thought he’d created an egalitarian tool that would share information for the greater good. But it hasn’t quite worked out like that. What went wrong?
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/aug/24/internet-lost-its-way-tim-berners-lee-world-wide-web
“This kind of work is actually natural for any Christian congregation: to extend a hand to a fellow human who needs help; to show hospitality to a stranger,” Jackelén said in a statement.
I tend to disagree…
We the Christians are guided to help our brothers, not some “fellow hue-mans”! We the Christians are advised to be holy and separate, and not to mix with the world! We are supposed to be the good example for the world, servants of the Living God, not “helpers to our fellow huemans”. Huemans, God warns us, can be incredibly wicked, and we must not be helping them in their wickedness! And I could go on and on…
The God of the Bible oftentimes warns the nations that if they continue in their wickedness, he will replace them with foreigners! He’s done that to Israel in the past, he may as well do it to Sweden, miss Jackelén.
And in the other news: Cutting Jobs is a ‘Very Serious Sin’, Says Pope
This pope is a Communist par excellance. Of course – cutting jobs is sin only in Communism – not Christianity. After a couple of decades of communism in Czechoslovakia, when everybody was forcibly employed, it became a sin to work fast and get things done quickly. Your mandatory co-workers would see your hard working as a threat to their evil lazyness!
How can people be persuaded of the Gospel, when these misinformers stand in the way?
While many of us have been eyeing off Sweden as the first domino to fall to Islam within Europe we have taken our eye off Greece which has already turned into a Greek tragedy. Unless the Greek people rise up and real soon, it’s goodbye to all that history.
The Fed wants world control by banksters. Not complicated.
This in from France
2 people found with their throats cuts in Paris:
(Since then nothing more in the media)
In Fr : http://www.lefigaro.fr/flash-actu/2017/03/17/97001-20170317FILWWW00119-plusieurs-personnes-egorgees-a-paris.php
Thanks for posting stuff on Lister and the germs. It’s always a good thing too, to remember the Hungarian Dr Semmelweiss and his efforts to convert Viennese hospitals to wash hands between patients. He discovered it from comparing the rates of infection and death of women who delivered at home and women who delivered in the hospital, also seeing how in the hospitals doctors went from sick patients to women in labor without cleaning up. He was vilified and destroyed. Honor to his memory.
I consider the The Semmelweiss Effect one of the biggest eye openers: How proffessional pride downgrades a real scientific discovery to the point of non-existence.
Similar thing happened in the Royal Navy. Today we know that the cure for Scurvies – a vitamin C deficiency disease – had been discovered a hundred years before it was implemented. The reason being those lazy sailors don’t need any luxuries like oranges you see…
The people lack bread? Let them eat oranges… The professional group psyche is a thing to beware.
Your scurvy example is improbable. Officers would have been victims of scurvy too. Also, professional pride had nothing to do with alleged deprivation of oranges. Too, wasn’t the lime the fruit of choice of the Royal Navy, not the orange, which has a shorter shelf life?
Do you have a source for this earlier discovery of the cure for scurvy?
I red about it in a magazine some time ago, so all I can give you now is Wikipedia.
The article must have been about: John Woodall
“John Woodall (1570–1643) was an English military surgeon, Paracelsian chemist, businessman, linguist and diplomat. He made a fortune through the stocking of medical chests for the East India Company and later the armed forces of England. He is remembered for his authorship of The Surgeon’s Mate which was the standard text to advise ships surgeons on medical treatments while at sea and contains an advanced view on the treatment of scurvy.”
…
“Since antiquity in various parts of the world, and since the 17th century in England, it had been known that citrus fruit had an antiscorbutic effect, when John Woodall (1570–1643), an English military surgeon of the British East India Company recommended them[6] but their use did not become widespread.
Although James Lind was not the first to suggest citrus fruit as a cure for scurvy, he was the first to study their effect by a systematic experiment in 1747.[7] It ranks as one of the first clinical experiments in the history of medicine.
…
The medical establishment ashore continued to be wedded to the idea that scurvy was a disease of putrefaction, curable by the administration of elixir of vitriol, infusions of wort and other remedies designed to ‘ginger up’ the system. It could not account for the benefits of citrus fruits and dismissed the evidence in their favour as unproven and anecdotal. In the Navy however, experience had convinced many officers and surgeons that citrus juices provided the answer to scurvy even if the reason was unknown. On the insistence of senior officers, led by Rear Admiral Alan Gardner, in 1794 lemon juice was issued on board the Suffolk on a twenty-three week, non-stop voyage to India. The daily ration of two-thirds of an ounce mixed in grog contained just about the minimum daily intake of 10 mg vitamin C. There was no serious outbreak of scurvy. “
“While I don’t recall much from DEA intelligence school a couple decades ago, I do distinctly remember that the chemicals in marijuana are far more carcinogenic and lethal than those in tobacco.”
Yeah. DEA “intelligence”. Haha.
If this were true, research would have confirmed it long ago, and baby boomers would be falling right now like tin soldiers due to their inhaling. Tobacco kills. Pot doesn’t. Moreover, pot can be eaten. Tobacco, of course, can also be chewed — and it still kills, via cancers of the mouth and throat. Pot doesn’t. It makes just as little sense to ban pot on health grounds as banning beer.
The Drug Wars are part of what is destroying western values, not the drugs themselves per se, because they use totalitarian methods of dealing with social issues. Enough.
While I agree with you about pot and tobacco being chewed, common sense should indicate that lungs are made to breath fresh air–and only that. Not smoke of any kind.
Ideally, yes. But dealing with human frailty? I always take the non-totalitarian side.
It’s sad that the Trump Administration takes any notice of some two bit judge in Hawaii who maintains that both he and some obscure moslem imam have power over the President of United States of America, and can bring anyone they like into the States.
The President would be wise to ignore the moslem and his ‘hugger’ and ban immigration from ANY moslem majority country. moslems are not our friends, as their so-called holy book tells us repeatedly.
** Hollande of France it was a “clear victory against extremism”, while German Chancellor Angela Merkel hailed a “good day for democracy” **
Destroying France with massive immigration of hostile, unassimilable people is not “extremism.” No. This is normal behavior from the ruling swine. “Normal” as developing a gangrenous lesion on your nose is normal.
And we hear from Merkel on the desirability of democracy, the “ex”-communist Merkel who turns a blind eye to leftist AntiFa street fighters and appoints a former Stasi informer to police free speech on the internet.
Today’s news feed is a perfect storm of madness – sappy Christian _____ about hospitality to strangers who despise you, yet another asinine papal pronouncement flying in the face of bedrock common sense, a Federal Reserve deliberately sabotaging Trump with a foot mysteriously jammed on the accelerator after eight years of geriatric ultra caution, continued European fake helplessness on sealing borders, another McCain eructation, Chelsea Clinton’s possible willingness to serve in the Senate, and a federal agency openly contemptuous toward a lawfully elected official.
The screaming woman escaping from the car trunk is the least bizarre story of all.
Caligula’s appointment of a horse as a senator I thought at first to be a symptom of mental derangement. Considering the absurd politics of our own time, however, I now see his appointment as an honest attempt in similar times to improve the Senate that we should emulate in our own time.