Vlad just phoned me to say that his site is having technical trouble while the hosting service moves it to a faster, more secure server. Be patient; it will return to normal shortly.

In news from France, the Front National announced that its party leader Marine Le Pen accidentally fractured her spine when she fell into an empty swimming pool.

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

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Diana West, Fjordman, Heresy Today, Insubria, JD, LS, Mary Abdelmassih, McR, RR, 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
»	10 Amazing Charts That Demonstrate the Slow, Agonizing Death of the American Worker
»	CBO: Obama Vastly Exaggerated Deficit Cuts in Budget
»	Debt Becoming Serious Problem in Netherlands
»	We Have Blown the Largest Bubble in the History of Mankind
	USA
»	“Big Brother” Is Big Business?
»	Cell Phone Users ‘Have No Legitimate Expectation of Privacy’ — Judge
»	Chechen Refugee Friend of Tsarnaev Interviewed by FBI in Manchester New Hampshire
»	CIA-Connected SAIC Awarded Government “Cyber Security” Contract
»	Colorado Sheriffs Sue the State Over New Gun Control Laws
»	Diana West: A Preface to “Afterwords”
»	Flashback: Watergate, Nazis, Nixon, Rockefeller
»	Infowars Exclusive: IRS Form Sent to Patriot Groups
»	IRS Demanded Info on Pro-Life Group’s Prayers
»	IRS Targeted Billy Graham Ministry and Other Christian Groups
»	IRS Wasn’t Only Agency Hassling True the Vote
»	It’s Bigger Than Obama — We’re Witnessing What Happens When Liberalism Rules
»	Last Week’s Conspiracy Theories Are This Week’s Reality
»	Minnesota: Somali Women Sentenced in Terror-Funding Case; Get Stiff Sentences
»	New English Review Does Thorough Report on Boston Bombers
»	Obama IRS Asked Tea Party Groups for Back-End Access to Their Websites (Video)
»	Obama’s Federal Gestapo is Going Down
»	Rep. Mike Kelly Rips IRS Chief a New One, Gets Standing O From Gallery
»	What Are These Weird Street Signs Being Installed in Las Vegas?
	Europe and the EU
»	Denmark: School Experiment Discovers Garden Cress Won’t Germinate Near a [Wireless] Router
»	Fancy Dipping Your Bread in Some Olive Oil? Not Anymore! EU Vows to Ban Jugs and Dipping Bowls From Restaurants to ‘Protect Customers’
»	Far-Right French Politician Marine Le Pen is Seriously Injured After Fracturing Her Spine in Swimming Pool Fall
»	Hunters on Horseback Revive Ancient Tradition of Spearing Wild Boar in Spain
»	Italy: Venice Has Europe’s Priciest Hotel Rooms
»	Italy: ‘Manners Police’ To Keep Venice Tourists in Line
»	Italy: Verona Considering Entry Fee to See Juliet’s Home
»	Italy: Child Protection Agency Says Condition for Roma ‘Shameful’
»	Italy: Hundreds Attend Funeral of Pickaxe Killer Victim
»	Italy: Beppe Grillo Condemns ‘Idiots in Government’
»	Muslim Association of Greece Receives Letter Containing Sick Threats
»	Nazi Slogans: Has Berlin’s Gentrification Feud Gone Too Far?
»	‘Scottish Nationalists Are Fascist Scum’: Nigel Farage Hounded by Mob Says They Were Driven by Hatred of the English
»	UK: Grieving Husband Accused of Attacking Traffic Warden After He Caught Him Ticketing Cars Outside His Home as He Waited for Wife’s Funeral Cortege
»	UK: I Think I’ve Killed Him… He Was Getting on My Nerves: What Pensioner Said After She Throttled Dying Man — But Court Still Rules it Was a ‘Mercy Killing’
»	UK: Loving Parents. An Utterly Respectable Home. So How Did Rachel, 11, Fall Prey to the Oxford Sex Gang?
	North Africa
»	Egypt: Over 20,000 Muslims Screaming “Allahu Akbar” Attack Christian Church With Birdshot and Bricks
»	One Dies in Muslim-Christian Clashes in Egypt
»	Two Christian Churches in Egypt Attacked by Muslims This Week
	Middle East
»	Halal Mark a Must for All Food Products in UAE
»	Saudi Cleric: Prohibit Women From Using Air Conditioning
»	Several Bombings in Tripoli and Benghazi in Last 24 Hours
»	Syria: U.S. Adds Sanctions Against 4 Ministers, TV
»	US Condemns Russian Shipment of Missiles to Syria
	South Asia
»	Chinese Man Held in Pakistani Kashmir Over Quran Abuse
	Far East
»	All Eyes on the Arctic Council
»	China: Internet’s First Victories Over “Princes” Of Communist Power
»	Japan Angered by China’s Claim to All of Okinawa
»	Three New Suicides in Apple’s Chinese Supplier Foxconn
»	U.S. Seizes Operator Accounts of Major Japanese Bitcoin Exchange
	Australia — Pacific
»	Welcome to Websites Being Blocked in Australia
	Sub-Saharan Africa
»	Horrendous Death of Construction Worker Held Hostage in Nigeria Recounted to Family at Inquest
	Immigration
»	Have We Forgotten That “Undocumented Citizens” Are in Our Country Illegally?
»	It is Confirmed! Idaho Uzbek Arrested on Terror Charges is a Refugee
»	Italy: Northern League Organises Petition Against Naturalisation
»	Obama Takes Pro-Amnesty Road Show South of the Border
»	Trade Deal Could Open Canada for More Asylum Seekers
	Culture Wars
»	Croatia: Petition for Anti-Gay Marriage Referendum Underway
»	France: The Word ‘Race’ To be Struck From Constitution
»	Italy: Legal Protection ‘Inadequate for Homosexual Discrimination’
»	Italy’s ‘Macho: Homophobic’ Culture Persists, Says Speaker
»	Italy: Fight Gay Discrimination Says President on Homophobia Day
»	Italy: Church ‘Flunks’ Marino on Civil Partnerships and Euthanasia
»	Michael Barone: In Defense of Jason Richwine and Charles Murray
»	New Court Action, Legislation, In Mt. Soledad Cross Case
»	No Such Thing as ‘Race’, Say French Lawmakers
»	Should Research on Race and IQ be Banned?

10 Amazing Charts That Demonstrate the Slow, Agonizing Death of the American Worker

The middle class American worker is in danger of becoming an endangered species. The politicians are not telling you the truth, and the mainstream media is certainly not telling you the truth, but the reality is that there is nothing but bad news on the horizon for workers in the United States. In the old days, when the big corporations that dominate our society did well, that also meant good things for American workers since those corporations would need more of us to work for them. But in the emerging one world economic system that our economy is being merged into, those corporations have other choices now.

For instance, the big corporations can now choose to limit the number of “expensive” American workers that they employ by shipping millions of jobs to the other side of the world. And from their perspective, it makes perfect sense. They can make much bigger profits by hiring people on the other side of the planet to work for them for less than a dollar an hour. If they can get good production out of those people, then why should they hire Americans for ten to twenty times as much, plus have to give those Americans health insurance and other benefits?

Another major factor in the slow, agonizing death of the American worker is technology. We live during a period when technology is advancing at a pace that is almost unimaginable at the same time that it is steadily becoming cheaper and cheaper. That means that it is going to become easier and easier for companies to replace workers with robots and computers. As I have written about previously, it is being projected that our economy will lose millions of jobs to technology in the coming years. Yes, some of us will still be needed to help build the robots and the computers, but not all of us will. And of course the overall general weakness of the economy is not helping matters either. The American people inherited the greatest economic machine in the history of the world, and we have wrecked it. Decades of very foolish decisions have resulted in the period of steady economic decline that we are experiencing now.

America is simply not the economic powerhouse that it once was. Back in 2001, the U.S. economy accounted for 31.8 percent of global GDP. By 2011, the U.S. economy only accounted for 21.6 percent of global GDP. That is a collapse any way that you want to look at it.

Today, American workers are living in an economy that is rapidly declining, and their jobs are steadily being stolen by robots, computers and foreign workers that live in countries where it is legal to pay slave labor wages. Politicians from both political parties refuse to do anything to stop the bleeding because they think that the status quo is working just great.

So don’t expect things to get better any time soon.

The following are 10 amazing charts that demonstrate the slow, agonizing death of the American worker…

— Hat tip: JD

[Return to headlines]

CBO: Obama Vastly Exaggerated Deficit Cuts in Budget

Plan’s tax hikes would outweigh spending cuts by nearly 6 to 1

(Investor’s Business Daily) President Obama vastly exaggerated the spending cuts and deficit reduction his budget plan would produce, while dramatically undercounting the level of tax hikes, according to a Congressional Budget Office analysis of his budget released Friday.

When Obama put out his budget in mid-April he said that it “will reduce our deficits by nearly another $2 trillion,” and “does so in a balanced and responsible way, a way that most Americans prefer.”

But the CBO report finds that Obama’s budget will cut 10-year deficits by just $1.1 trillion, with annual deficits starting to rise again after 2017.

And far from being balanced, the CBO found that his plan’s tax hikes would outweigh spending cuts by nearly 6 to 1.

— Hat tip: JD

[Return to headlines]

Debt Becoming Serious Problem in Netherlands

Warning that debt now a ‘broad social problem’ which is ‘firmly rooted in society’

With the third highest inflation rate in the EU, one household in seven in the Netherlands is unable to pay its bills, while the main earners are facing health problems due to worry and sleepless nights, according to a new survey from the country’s Association of Court Bailiffs.

Although the Netherlands is one of the five EU countries to retain its AAA international credit rating, a blizzard of worrying statistics this week led the Association for Debt Relief and Social Banking to warn that debt was now “a broad social problem” which had become “firmly rooted in society”.

The latest inflation figures show that although there was a drop from 3.2 per cent in March to 2.8 per cent in April, this remained well above the euro zone average of 1.2 per cent — leaving the Netherlands behind only Estonia on 3.4 per cent and Romania on 4.4 per cent.

Contributory factors

Ironically, the Central Bureau of Statistics says increases in insurance tax and value added tax — both introduced when the new Liberal-Labour coalition government came to power last October — have been significant contributory factors to the high inflation rate.

An increase in the excise duty at the same time also means that the Netherlands now has the most expensive petrol in Europe, averaging €1.78 a litre, according to the German motoring organisation, ADAC.

The cost of diesel is the third highest in Europe at €1.44 ($1.89) a litre.

The mood of economic gloom is not being helped either by the fact that more than one million of the country’s 4.2 million owner-occupied houses is now in negative equity — with six in 10 of the owners of those “underwater” properties under the age of 40.

The estate agents’ association, NVM, said the number of houses changing hands fell a massive 30 per cent in the first quarter of 2013, making it the worst quarter on record. The number of properties sold in April fell 26.6 per cent compared to March and 20.4 per cent compared to April 2012.

Uncertainty in the workplace is also increasing, as King Willem-Alexander acknowledged on the day of his investiture three weeks ago.

New figures last night showed that 10 per cent of the working population was now self-employed, with another 16 per cent on short-term or flexible contracts. This means that for the first time, more than a quarter of the Dutch workforce does not have a traditional permanent employment contract.

Immigration decline

Due to this faltering economy, total immigration to the Netherlands declined last year for the first time since 2006.

Despite that, the Government parties say they will begin talks in the next few days to “toughen up” the country’s asylum policy — a move immigrants’ groups say is designed to “divert attention away from the real economic issues”.

— Hat tip: McR

[Return to headlines]

We Have Blown the Largest Bubble in the History of Mankind

According to Peter Schiff, who is well known for his dire economic warnings leading up to the crash of 2008, the government is involved in a wide array of manipulations and fuzzy-math in an effort to convince us that the price increases we’ve seen in stores, restaurants and gas stations over the last decade are merely a figment of our imagination.

“What we get from the government when it comes to inflation is not information, it’ s propaganda.”

Citing anecdotal evidence because of a complete lack of transparency from the Fed, BLS and government as a whole, Schiff points to the “Big Mac Index,” which has tracked the price of a McDonald’ s Big Mac at restaurant chains across the world for decades.

Because McDonald’ s caters to tens of millions of customers yearly and offers food at a fairly low cost compared to others in the food service industry, it is a fairly insightful gauge of consumer activity.

According to the Big Mac Index, and contrary to the government’ s claims of stable prices, since 2003 when the Federal Reserve really began cranking hundreds of billions of dollars into an already troubled financial system, the price of inflation is more than double what is being claimed.

The Big Mac has gone up by over 6% per year, yet the government claims CPI is only 2.5% per year. So something’ s wrong. Either something’ s changed at McDonald’s, or something has changed in the way we report inflation. And I trust a hamburger more than I trust the U.S. government.

— Hat tip: JD

[Return to headlines]

“Big Brother” Is Big Business?

The odds are you are not just a face in the crowd any longer. Even if your picture isn’t plastered all over social networking and photo-sharing sites, facial recognition technology in public places is making it harder if not impossible to remain anonymous. Lesley Stahl reports on the new ways this technology is being used that even has one of its inventors calling it too intrusive. Her 60 Minutes report will be broadcast Sunday, May 19 at 7 p.m. ET/PT.

Professor Alessandro Acquisti of Carnegie Mellon, who researches how technology impacts privacy, stunned Stahl with an experiment. He photographed random students on the campus and in short order, not only identified several of them, but in a number of cases found their personal information, including social security numbers, just using a facial recognition program he downloaded for free. Acquisti says smart-phones will make “facial searches” as common as Google searches in the future. And nearly everybody can be subject to such prying, even those who are careful about their Internet use.

“One of the participants, before doing the experiment, told us, ‘You’re not going to find me because I’m very careful about my photos online.’ And we found him,” says Acquisti, “Because someone else had uploaded a photo of him.”

Watch the Segment[url]

— Hat tip: JD

[Return to headlines]

Cell Phone Users ‘Have No Legitimate Expectation of Privacy’ — Judge

A federal judge recently ruled that if someone has their cell phone turned on, their location data does not deserve protection under the Fourth Amendment, meaning law enforcement can track individuals without a search warrant.

New York magistrate judge Gary Brown decided in favor of Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents who were seeking his approval over a warrant on a doctor who they suspected was being paid for issuing thousands of prescriptions. The warrant would have compelled the physician’s phone company to provide real-time tracking data from his cell.

Brown, certainly to the delight of police, issued a 30-page brief outlining his opinion that, by carrying a cell phone, someone is essentially waiving their Fourth Amendment right to due process.

— Hat tip: JD

[Return to headlines]

Chechen Refugee Friend of Tsarnaev Interviewed by FBI in Manchester New Hampshire

Longtime readers know that Manchester, NH is one of the (few!) cities

fighting back against the refugee resettlement industry for

overloading their city with needy third-worlders. We have dozens of

posts at RRW on Manchester. [go to URL, above]

Now the residents have one more reason to be up in arms. It seems

that Tamerlan Tzarnaev was a regular visitor, and that he went

shooting with a wheelchair-bound Chechen there who had clearly come as

a refugee (although there is only an oblique reference to the UN

bringing him to Manchester). I’ll bet you a buck that, adding insult

to injury, Musa Khadzhimuratov is living off the generosity of US and

New Hampshire taxpayers in addition to “helping” Tsarnaev.

And, btw, do we give gun permits to former Chechen rebels? (just wondering)

Sheesh, I want to get back to more mundane topics like the State

Department meeting this past week, but all of these refugee terrorist

stories keep getting in my way.

[Return to headlines]

CIA-Connected SAIC Awarded Government “Cyber Security” Contract

SAIC’s expertise and its involvement in the Department of Homeland Security’s misnamed “cyber security” operation is particularly worrisome now that the Obama administration has authorized “a new government program involving the interception of communications on Internet service providers, including AT&T — one of the key players in the NSA warrantless wiretapping program,” the Electronic Frontier Foundation noted last month. The initiative eschews the Fourth Amendment and provides transnational telecoms with immunity from prosecution for crimes against the Constitution and the republic.

The secretive and largely covert high-tech surveillance state apparatus was never intended for the likes of Osama bin Laden. It was built for the American people who are considered the real enemies of the national security state. This fact was underscored by former NSA crypto-mathematician and whistleblower William Binney. In 2012, Binney said the high-tech surveillance state now going online is not about foreign terrorists. It is about Americans “who could be a threat to national security” as defined by a centralized federal government. “Even if they think they aren’t doing something wrong, if their position on something is against what the administration has, then they could easily become a target,” Binney warned.

In March, we quoted Richard Davis, the director of the Arkansas State Fusion Center, who said the fusion center in Little Rock does not waste its time surveilling al-Qaeda and other supposed foreign terror threats. “We focus [on] domestic terrorism and certain groups that are anti-government. We want to kind of take a look at that and receive that information.”

— Hat tip: JD

[Return to headlines]

Colorado Sheriffs Sue the State Over New Gun Control Laws

A consortium of plaintiffs led by 54 of Colorado’s 62 elected county sheriffs filed a lawsuit in federal court against the state Friday in an effort to overturn two new gun control bills that are set to go into effect on July 1.

The plaintiffs have in their sights one law that effectively bans all firearm magazines, and one that requires a background check for every gun transfer when the gun will be in the possession of someone other than the owner for more than 72 hours.

“On one hand, I’m proud to be part of this historic case,” said Weld County Sheriff John Cooke, who spoke on behalf of 18 sheriffs who attended a press conference announcing the suit.

“But on the other hand, it saddens me that we have to be here at all,” he added. “It should never have gotten to this point in the first place.”

— Hat tip: JD

[Return to headlines]

Diana West: A Preface to “Afterwords”

A preface to my appearance on Afterwords this weekend, airing on C-SPAN2 on Saturday May 18 at 10pm, Sunday May 19 at 9pm, and Monday May 20 at midnight and 3am. It will re-air on C-SPAN2 next Sunday May 26 at noon.

Every author wants to go on C-SPAN Book TV’s Afterwords, and why not? Book TV audiences actually tune in to hear about books they might like to read. I was elated to have my new book, American Betrayal, chosen for the Afterwords show and went to tape the program yesterday with high hopes.

It is a most civilized setting, produced by lovely people, and it provides an author, who has spent years alone in a hole, reading, writing, toiling, thinking, with the chance, faciliated by an informed interviewer, to tell the world what it’s all about. Lay out the themes. Hit the highlights. Even defend the controversial bits and emit some sparks along the way just for fun.

But no. That is, this was not exactly my experience as you’ll see if you tune in. It was tough at times to get a word in edgeways (especially before the off-camera intervention took place midway through) so there are times when the interview is more like a battle for airtime-space — more Senate filibuster meets Hunger Games than convivial let-the-author-cut-loose-and-talk-about-baby…

— Hat tip: Diana West

[Return to headlines]

Flashback: Watergate, Nazis, Nixon, Rockefeller

Watergate eventually became the story of two young rookie reporters who exposed and took down a president.

Try to think of another major story in your lifetime where the reporters themselves took center stage, and in the process nearly eclipsed their own work. Odd.

One of them, Bob Woodward, expanded his fame. The powers-that-be permitted him to go on and, with extraordinary access, write books criticizing future presidents. Woodward became the in-house attack dog. Mr. Limited Hangout.

The other reporter, Carl Bernstein, faded into relative obscurity. Well, he began connecting journalists to the CIA. That wasn’t a smart career move. That was, perhaps, a case of biting the hand that had fed him.

To learn why Richard Nixon was really blown out of the White House, you could begin with the infamous Nazi chemical/pharmaceutical cartel, IG Farben. The cartel that pushed Hitler over the top into power in Germany. One of its lasting legacies is the multinational corporation ballooning out into titanic proportions. Farben didn’t just buy smaller companies, it forged favorable agreements with huge corporations all over the world: Standard Oil (Rockefeller); Rhone-Poulenc; Imperial Chemical Industries; Du Pont; Dow.

— Hat tip: JD

[Return to headlines]

Infowars Exclusive: IRS Form Sent to Patriot Groups

Alex Jones and Infowars.com received a copy of the form sent to Tea Party and patriot groups. The form queries applicants on the following:

• A detailed narrative on the organization’s political activity
• Who conducted the activity and where
• How organization members were recruited
• Detailed information on political events
• Detailed information on speeches, forums, panels, and speakers (including credentials)
• Names of organization members
• Copies of all communications, pamphlets, advertisements, etc., distributed
• Copies of all radio, television or internet advertisements

Although the corporate media has portrayed the intrusive IRS behavior as harassment, the content the government demanded the organizations turn over to the taxation agency to gain tax-exempt status reveals something far more ominous — the IRS was in the business of collecting sensitive political data on organizations ideologically opposed to the Obama administration.

See the form in PDF format here.

— Hat tip: JD

[Return to headlines]

IRS Demanded Info on Pro-Life Group’s Prayers

The Internal Revenue Service allegedly told two pro-life to reveal the content of their prayers and prayer meetings, according to the Thomas More Society.

An IRS office in California ordered Christian Voices for Life of Fort Bend County, Texas to explain the content of prayers “as if they were engaging in highly offensive or criminal behavior,” the Thomas More Society charged.

Agents also ordered Coalition for Life of Iowa to provide detailed information about the group’s prayer meetings.

Rep. Aaron Schock (R-IL) demanded that outgoing IRS commissioner Steven Miller answer questions about the incidents during Friday’s House Ways and Means Committee hearing. “Their question, specifically asked from the IRS to the Coalition for Life of Iowa: ‘Please detail the content of the members of your organization’s prayers.’“

Shock wanted to know if that was an appropriate question for the IRS to ask.

— Hat tip: JD

[Return to headlines]

IRS Targeted Billy Graham Ministry and Other Christian Groups

Even as the president was assuring the American people, more revelations were coming out about the extent of the targeting of organizations that could be broadly categorized as opposing the Obama agenda. Among the organizations the IRS investigated and audited were the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA) and the 180-year-old Baptist newspaper the Biblical Recorder, published by the North Carolina Baptist State Convention. The IRS reportedly also targeted the humanitarian relief group Samaritan’s Purse. Both it and the BGEA are run by Franklin Graham, son of famed evangelical preacher Billy Graham.

In the run-up to last year’s presidential election, the BGEA took out ads in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and other newspapers encouraging Christians to vote in line with biblical values. Shortly after the ads were published, both the BGEA and Samaritan’s Purse were notified that they were being audited by the IRS.

On May 14 Franklin Graham shot off a letter to President Obama concerning the targeting of the organizations he oversees, telling the president that he believes “someone in the administration was targeting and attempting to intimidate us. This is morally wrong and unethical — indeed some would call it ‘un-American.’“ Added Graham: “I do not believe that the IRS audit of our two organizations last year is a coincidence — or justifiable.”

— Hat tip: JD

[Return to headlines]

IRS Wasn’t Only Agency Hassling True the Vote

TRUE THE VOTE: Catherine Engelbrecht’s organization has revealed multiple cases of voters casting ballots in two states in the same election.

HOUSTON — Since filing for tax exemption at a 501(c)(3) nonprofit in 2010, the founders of True the Vote, a Houston-based group that tries to prevent elections fraud, have been overwhelmed with scrutiny from a host of government agencies, in particular, by the Internal Revenue Service. .

Catherine and Bryan Englebrecht have suffered through 18 separate encounters with five government agencies, from surprise audits to FBI visits to never-ending demands for paperwork.

The government has been scrutinizing True the Vote, the Engelbrechts’ tea party group, which is called King Street Patriots, and the family’s oil services manufacturing business.

— Hat tip: JD

[Return to headlines]

It’s Bigger Than Obama — We’re Witnessing What Happens When Liberalism Rules

I have a story in the Stack here about the government, ladies and gentlemen. “Homeland Security Guidelines Advise Deference to pro-Shariah Muslim Supremacists.” This is the Daily Caller. Now, I think this is an important point to make. “The Department of Homeland Security, which under Secretary Janet Napolitano has shown a keen interest in monitoring and warning about outspoken conservatives, takes a very different approach in monitoring political Islamists, according to a 2011 memo on protecting the free speech rights of pro-Shariah Muslim supremacists.”

The Obama regime, the federal government, has more tolerance, more deference, more respect for Islamic extremist Muslims than they do for their own citizens who happen to be conservative or Christian. This administration considers conservative Americans and Christians and pro-lifers and people who care about the social issues, to be greater enemies of the state and not worthy of respect or deference. However, militant Islamists and extremist Muslims are accorded all of that.

“The Homeland Security document also seems to discount evidence unearthed by the Justice Department about the aims of some mainstream Muslim organizations..” Instead, Big Sis sends out memos warning everybody at DHS: Make sure you do not infringe upon the free speech rights — the constitutional free-association right, whatever — of pro-Sharia Muslim supremacists. But when it comes to American conservatives and American Christians, this administration is willing to trample all over their constitutional rights and continue denying them — and then warn everybody that it is they, these conservatives and these Christians, who pose the real threat to America…

— Hat tip: LS

[Return to headlines]

Last Week’s Conspiracy Theories Are This Week’s Reality

Obama and his co-conspirators aren’t liberals; they’re Maoist-Leninists. Comprehending what that means will be the difference between life and death.

It is now safe to say that if one cannot see the abject evil of the Obama administration as well as the endemic corruption and criminality in our federal government, it is only because they are refusing to look. Due to what some are calling a “perfect storm of circumstances, three scandals have rocked Washington, but these are only the grossest symptoms of the systemic infection that has been festering there for decades.

Those such as myself who suspected on September 12, 2012 that the Obama administration’s narrative relative to the attack on the US embassy in Benghazi, Libya was a false one were mocked and ridiculed (as was I personally in 2008 upon claiming that a communist was in the running for the White House). We now know that not only was the narrative false, but that President Obama and his cabinet are probably guilty of criminal action surrounding their responses and subsequent coverup of the actual events in Benghazi that night.

On the heels of whistleblowers’ testimony before Congress last week, the monumentally egregious practices of the Internal Revenue Service pertaining to conservative nonprofit applicants, and the Department of Justice’s collection of communications records from reporters and editors at the Associated Press have emerged. These have given us the opportunity for an unvarnished glimpse into the machinations of the Obama administration — and into our possible future.

…Let us examine just a few of the established facts attendant to recent revelations about the IRS:

— Hat tip: JD

[Return to headlines]

Minnesota: Somali Women Sentenced in Terror-Funding Case; Get Stiff Sentences

I wonder if the stiffest sentence has anything to do with what one of the women told the court back in 2011? Amina Ali, after being found guilty of sending money to al-Shabab, declared that we infidels would go to hell.

After the verdicts, one of the women, Amina Farah Ali, told the judge through an interpreter that she was happy because she was “going to heaven no matter what,” and condemned those in authority, saying: “You will go to hell.” She was ordered into custody pending her sentencing.

Although in December 2011 we reported that Minnesota’s hard lefties were coming to the women’s defense, I guess it didn’t amount to a hill of beans when it came to sentencing the pair.

I would have deported them and both of their families because now they will cost the US and Minnesota taxpayers a boatload of money while in prison, not only for their care but in the cost of welfare for their families.

Be sure to see the “peace and love” crowd’s publication entitled, Fight Back News, here. ***UPDATE*** Fight Back News calls them “humanitarian heroes!”

Here is the sentencing news from CBS (hat tip: Ed). I guess refugee terrorism stories are starting to break out of the local press and are going national!

Two Minnesota women convicted of conspiring to send money to al-Shabab in Somalia were given prison sentences in federal court Thursday, ending a week of punishments tied to long-running investigations into terrorism recruiting and financing for the terrorist group.

The ‘go to hell infidel’ girl gets 20 years!

Amina Farah Ali was sentenced to 20 years in prison on 13 terrorism-related counts, and Hawo Mohamed Hassan received a 10-year term on one terror-related count and two counts of lying to the FBI.

Ali insisted during her 3-and-a-half-hour hearing in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis that she was only trying to help the poor in the war-torn East African country of which she is a native.

Chief Judge Michael Davis asked Ali whether those who she collected money from knew that it would be going to al-Shabab. The al Qaeda-linked group is at the heart of much of the violence in Somalia in recent years.

“I did not send the money to al-Shabab. Al-Shabab was a vehicle used to get the money to the needy. It was not used for their own purposes,” Ali said.

[…..]

Ali and Hassan were among nine people sentenced this week for their roles in the federal government’s long-running investigations into terrorism recruiting and financing for al-Shabab.

Let the civilians die!

The government’s key evidence included hundreds of hours of recorded phone calls, obtained during a 10-month wiretap on Ali’s home phone and cellphone. In one call, Ali told others to “forget about the other charities” and focus on “the jihad.” In another, she said, “Let the civilians die.”

[…..]

“A significant sentence would serve as a warning to others among the diaspora lest they believe that similar grass roots fund raising on behalf of a designated terrorist organization is a viable avenue to bringing stability and humanitarian relief to Somalia,” prosecutors wrote in documents filed before the sentencing.

Note to refugee advocates who want to make refugee resettlement available to all Afghan women: Women are just as likely to be Islamic troublemakers as are the men. Have we already forgotten about the charming Mrs. Tsarnaev?

Why so many Somalis in Minnesota? Because the US State Department and “church” contractors began a seed community there—see one of our most-read posts here at RRW.

[Return to headlines]

New English Review Does Thorough Report on Boston Bombers

Gordon, writing at the New English Review, has put together a must-read report on the Tsarnaev’s road to becoming the most successful Islamic terrorists in America since 9/11.

Gordon details the role refugee resettlement plays in the seeding of American communities with Islamic supremacists, and he reports on something many of you may not have seen—-the possible involvement of one or both Tsarnaev brothers in the ritualistic murder of three Jewish men in Massachusetts on the 10th anniversary of 9/11. One was a “friend” of the elder brother, Tamerlan.

Gordon (a few snips to pique your interest):

Bostonians may be relieved that the week of terrorism perpetrated by the Tsarnaev brothers which began at 2:49PM April 15, 2013 at the Boston Marathon Finish Line ended dramatically on April 20, 2013 with the capture of surviving younger brother Dzhokhar. However, the nation is perplexed about why this heinous and cowardly act occurred and what can be done to prevent possible re-occurrences in America.

[…..]

In this report, we shall explore why this domestic Jihad, perpetrated by refugees with Chechen Muslim origins from Russia’s troubled Caucasus, occured and the modalities of the alleged radicalization of the Tsarnaev brothers in the Boston Community. Why did the post 9/11 counter-terrorism intelligence system fail to detain Tamerlan Tsarnaev given Russian security requests for investigation prior to his sojourn in Dagestan? There is evidence that this is not an isolated phenomenon among Muslim refugees resettled in the U.S. It has been suggested that a moratorium must be imposed to prevent a reoccurrence of Jihad In America.

Then this:

Were the Tsarneav Brothers Perpetrators of a Triple Murder In Suburban Waltham?

We inquired of the Middlesex County Massachusetts District Attorney about whether they had made a match between the forensic DNA samples found at the murder of three Jewish men that occurred on the tenth anniversary of 9/11, and the Tsarnaev brothers. I was told that the matter was under investigation. An intrepid ABC free lancer, Michele McPhee, posted the stunning news that indeed possible matches of DNA samples had been indicated between the forensic evidence from the crime scenes and those of both Boston Jihadi bombers.

Read it all.

I think that the failure of Homeland Security to head off the Boston bombing should be right up there with the three Obama Administration scandals the public is now fixated on (IRS, AP phone records, and Benghazi). Personally, I think the reason it isn’t is that, of all four scandals, it is the most painful to contemplate

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Obama IRS Asked Tea Party Groups for Back-End Access to Their Websites (Video)

IT GETS WORSE! The Obama IRS demanded that several Tea Party groups provide back-end access to their websites.

And, from reliable sources: This happened to several Tea Party groups!

The source has this in writing. It states they wanted access to everything the members had access to, which would be chats, email, contact information, etc. The group raised less than $600. She was targeted as early as October 2010.

Central Texas 912 President, Maria Acosta joined Kristina Ribali from FreedomWorks to discuss being singled out by the Feds.

The IRS asked for back-end access to the group’s website. And this is a tax question?

— Hat tip: JD

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Obama’s Federal Gestapo is Going Down

White House propaganda secretary Jay Carney finally said something that was true, which I can agree with… “This is not a scandal” referring to the IRS gestapo operations run by Obama henchmen.

He’s right, it isn’t a scandal. A scandal is something to read in the supermarket tabloid for entertainment value. No, this is a full-blown conspiracy to use the full weight and power of all federal agencies to go after and destroy all political opponents of “the one” Barack Hussein Obama.

No matter who you ask about what in this administration, you get the same answer… “We know nothing!”

The current story involving Obama’s use of the IRS to target political opposition via going after more than 500 patriotic action groups, their donors and their volunteers, is but one piece of a much larger conspiracy to destroy the United States beginning with all who would stand in the way of that agenda.

Yes, the administration has been using the IRS to target all political opposition since taking office in 2009. They went after Tea Party, 912, Patriot, Liberty, Christian, conservative, republican, constitutional, pro-life and anti-global governance organizations.

These efforts were aimed at blocking “tax exempt” fund raising by placing the groups 501 status on hold. But they were also used to acquire lists of donors, officers and volunteers, individual American citizens who were then targeted for audits and delays in their individual tax refunds, a deeper attempt to cut-off the life blood of any political movement, the funding, and intimidate those who stand opposed to Obama.

— Hat tip: JD

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Rep. Mike Kelly Rips IRS Chief a New One, Gets Standing O From Gallery

Appearing before the House Weighs and Means Committee today, exiting IRS chief Steven Miller couldn’t do much more than just squirm in his chair as Rep. Mike Kelly, R-Pa vented the frustrations felt by millions of Americans.

Miller was immediately intimidated by Kelly’s tone and after a few “erms” and “uh-uh-uhs” Kelly let ‘er rip:

“If you think it’s uncomfortable sitting over there you ought to be a private individual when the IRS is across from you asking you questions!”

Here’s a few of Kelly’s best punches:

“I have a grandson who’s afraid to get out of bed at night because he thinks there’s someone under the bed that’s going to grab him. And I think most Americans feel that way about the IRS.”

“It’s always these are low-level people that pushed the wrong button.”

“Yes or no, does it come back to DC?” (Yes — one of Miller’s few coherent responses.)

“So DC and Cincinnati are pretty well connected?”

“This kind of reconfirms that, you know what, they [the IRS] can do almost anything they want to anybody they want, anytime they want. This is very chilling for the American people.”

— Hat tip: JD

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What Are These Weird Street Signs Being Installed in Las Vegas?

Part of ‘Intellistreets’ rollout?

Strange new street signs being installed across Las Vegas are prompting suspicions from concerned readers, one of whom sent us the following images. Are these new signs part of the nationwide ‘Intellistreets’ rollout of so-called “smart” hubs that eavesdrop on conversations?

As we previously reported, the Intellistreets system which is currently being installed in cities across the US relies on “smart” street lamps connected by a ubiquitous wi-fi network that have numerous “homeland security applications,” including the ability to “engage captive audiences” via a loudspeaker system and give audible warnings to individuals.

The system is “also capable of recording conversations,” according to a report by ABC 7.

The lights can also be fitted with a digital display similar to the one seen in the photos below which can be used for both advertising and security announcements.

The company behind the street lights, Illuminating Concepts, responded to the controversy over ‘Intellistreets’ last year by ludicrously claiming the system did not represent a “big brother” intrusion. ABC 7 confirmed that the company was “working with Homeland Security” to implement the high tech network.

— Hat tip: JD

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Denmark: School Experiment Discovers Garden Cress Won’t Germinate Near a [Wireless] Router

Garden cress is a fast growing and edible herb that will sprout in just a small amount of slightly alkaline water. But there is one exception to that rule, and is has scientists scratching their heads.

A group of 5 girls have carried out a science experiment at Hjallerup School in North Jutland, Denmark that saw garden cress seeds placed in 12 tubs and split into two batches. Both batches were placed in different rooms that remained the same temperature, and were given the same amount of water and sunlight over the course of 12 days.

You’d expect both batches of 6 tubs to grow equally well, but one set didn’t even germinate. The reason? They were placed next to two routers. Although it’s unclear exactly why this happened, it is thought that the radiation produced by the routers is what stopped the seeds germinating.

— Hat tip: JD

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Fancy Dipping Your Bread in Some Olive Oil? Not Anymore! EU Vows to Ban Jugs and Dipping Bowls From Restaurants to ‘Protect Customers’

They are a staple on restaurant tables across the country, but the EU has decided to ban olive oil jugs in order to ‘protect customers’.

The controversial move means that customers will now only be able dip their bread or garnish their food using oil from non-refillable and labelled bottles.

A decision to ban the classic jugs and dipping bowls was made by a little-known Brussels committee earlier this week.

— Hat tip: JD

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Far-Right French Politician Marine Le Pen is Seriously Injured After Fracturing Her Spine in Swimming Pool Fall

Far-right politician Marine Le Pen has fractured her spine after falling into an empty swimming pool in France, it emerged tonight.

News of the 44-year-old’s ‘rather serious’ accident will send shockwaves around nationalist groups, not just in France but across Europe.

Le Pen, who is leader of the National Front (FN), is one of the most high-profile right-wing politicians on the continent, with her hardline anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim agenda regularly winning a huge number of votes at elections.

A poll in May showed that the current president, Francois Hollande, would lose to her if France were to vote tomorrow.

Miss Le Pen has been capitalising recently on growing discontent in over economic gloom, record unemployment levels and President Hollande’s personal unpopularity.

News of her accident was broken by her notorious father, the convicted racist and anti-Semite Jean Marie Le Pen, who was runner-up in the French presidential elections of 2002.

Explaining his daughter’s absence from an FN meeting in Limoges today, Le Pen senior said: ‘Marine could not come because she was the victim of a rather serious accident that prevented her from moving. She fell into an empty pool and got a fracture of the spine.’

A statement released by the FN said Le Pen had a fracture of the sacral — the triangle-shaped bone at the bottom of the spine.

It is a particularly painful condition which severely limits movement and may require surgery to put right.

Le Pen’s accident happened a week ago but, said the FN, she was determined it would not stop her fulfilling future engagements.

— Hat tip: Heresy Today

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Hunters on Horseback Revive Ancient Tradition of Spearing Wild Boar in Spain

‘Pigsticking’ is the practice of hunting wild boar on horseback with spears. The sport dates back to Roman times and is making a comeback in Spain. Animal rights activists are outraged.

In northern Spain, prehistoric cave paintings depict early humans stalking wild boar with spears. Later, the Romans hunted boar on horseback across the Spanish meseta, or central plateau.

Now that same landscape hosts Madrid’s mirrored skyscrapers. But in their shadow, a handful of ancestral landowners are reviving the ancient hunting ritual of pigsticking, which is hunting wild boar on horseback with spears.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Italy: Venice Has Europe’s Priciest Hotel Rooms

Average night 281 euros, Geneva, London, Paris cheaper

(ANSA) — Rome, May 13 — Venice is the most expensive city for tourists to spend the night in Europe, researchers said Monday. According to the Trivago Hotel Price Index, average room rates in May shot up 38% in the lagoon city, more than three times the 12% increase recorded across Europe. The average Venice hotel stay now costs 281 euros, according to the report, beating out Geneva, London, Stockholm and Paris at 278, 204, 200 and 193 euros respectively per room. Rates in Florence went up 20% in May, with an average room costing 165 euros per night. The only Italian city whose rates dropped in May was Milan, down 14% compared to April, at 145 euros per night. Average rates across the country were down 17% compared to the same month last year, while cities such as Bologna, Naples and Venice bucked the trend, with rates up 16%, 5% and 8% respectively.

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Italy: ‘Manners Police’ To Keep Venice Tourists in Line

Squads to crack down on feeding pigeons, swim suits in St Mark’s

(ANSA) — Venice, May 15 — ‘Decorum monitors’ will soon be deployed in Venice’s St Mark’s Square to keep summer tourists in line with local customs and manners, officials announced Wednesday. Known as the San Marco Guardians, the civilian etiquette squad will be marked by its orange uniforms and will work alongside police asking visitors not to feed pigeons, not to wear swimsuits away from the beach, and to avoid sitting on the ground in front of busy landmarks. The effort is sponsored by Costa Crociere, a major Italian cruise company responsible for bringing on large numbers of tourists to the lagoon city who often outnumber Venetians on peak days. The cruise industry has been under fire since the Costa Concordia crashed off the coast of Tuscany last year, killing 32 people. Many locals in Venice fear that cruise ships pose a risk to to both the lagoon ecosystem, the surrounding architecture and citizens, and that the influx of tourists aboard those ships are threatening local customs and decorum. Last month, Venice launched a campaign called ‘Venice Yours Too, Respect It’, which consists of 10 guidelines for tourists to respect the city printed in seven languages: Italian, English, Spanish, Japanese, French, Russian and German.

The campaign is also using a mascot, a cartoon winged lion, the symbol of the city.

By some estimates Venice attracts 20 million tourists each year, making the day average in summer up to 90,000, dwarfing the dwindling local population of under 60,000.

The city has implemented a number of good-manners initiatives over the years.

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Italy: Verona Considering Entry Fee to See Juliet’s Home

‘Honeymoon suite’ would go for up to 5,000 euros

(ANSA) — Verona, May 15 — Romance in the city of star-crossed lovers Romeo and Juliette may soon get a bit more expensive.

The City of Verona is considering charging visitors two euros each to enter the courtyard that legend says belongs to the home of Shakespeare’s wretched Juliet, who died for love.

The entrance to the courtyard, where visitors come to see Juliet’s balcony and imagine Romeo standing beneath, is slated for redevelopment.

City officials want to create a new entry linked to other Verona sights.

Another idea being floated is creating a special suite on the top floor of the building where Juliet reportedly lived, to be leased to rich honeymooners at a rate of as much as five-thousand euros per night.

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Italy: Child Protection Agency Says Condition for Roma ‘Shameful’

Municipal camps force ethnic minority to ‘edges of society’

(ANSA) — Rome, May 15 — Conditions in Roma encampments in and around Italy’s capital are a “painful social shame to no longer be tolerated,” Vincenzo Spadafora from the national child protection agency said on Wednesday.

Spadafora, accompanied by human rights association 21 Luglio, visited several of Rome’s municipally organized container camps designated for 6,000 ethnic Roma living in the city.

“I am speechless. It is shameful that in 2013 people are forced to live on the extremes of society, stripped of their fundamental rights, in these conditions,” Spadafora said.

“Authorities have spent 62 million euros since 2009 on these camps. Thirteen were supposed to be completed by 2011, but today there are only 8 (organized villages),” association president Carlo Stasolla said.

Spadafora said that he would “immediately request a meeting with (Equal Opportunity and Sports) Minister Josefa Idem to ask what the government intends to do”.

According to 21 Luglio, the city’s camps are subject to frequent police raids, struggle with rat and parasite infestations and many are lacking hot water, as well as other basics.

“They say we live here for free, but it isn’t true. We pay 50 euros a month for electricity, but it has been cut off,” said Emil, a Romani man living in the Ceserina camp.

“This is supposed to be an equipped camp. Every year the city spends 587,000 euros for it, but if you look at the conditions, it is evident that the money is being spent elsewhere,” Stasolla said.

According to the European Roma Rights Center (ERRC) in a statement released Wednesday, “Italian policies towards the Roma and Sinti violate the basic human rights of thousands of families, and do not encourage their social integration”. “Segregated settlements…constructed and authorised by the authorities are supposed to ensure that camps are built in areas beneficial to the Romani community. In practice, these camps are often isolated and segregated, making it extremely difficult for Roma to access their basic rights to education, employment and healthcare,” the ERRC wrote.

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Italy: Hundreds Attend Funeral of Pickaxe Killer Victim

(AGI) Milan — Hundreds of people attended the funeral of Alessandro Carole, 40, one of the people killed by Mada Kabobo .

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

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Italy: Beppe Grillo Condemns ‘Idiots in Government’

(AGI) — Rome, May 18 — Writing on his blog, Beppe Grillo said: “It’s all ridiculous and nothing more. The only measure the idiots in government were capable of was a three-month postponement of IMU (property tax).” .

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

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Muslim Association of Greece Receives Letter Containing Sick Threats

The Muslim Association of Greece (MAG) has asked authorities to investigate a letter sent to its head offices in Neos Cosmos, central Athens, threatening violence against Muslims in Greece if they “don’t shut down their brothels and go to hell” by June 30.

The letter, which was unsigned but typed on paper bearing the insignia of the extreme-right Golden Dawn party, says — in Greek, English and Arabic — that “from July 1 onwards those who are still here will be slaughtered like chickens on the road.”

MAG called on authorities to “ensure that all citizens can enjoy equality in the eyes of the law and that we are not prey to every asymmetric threat.”

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Nazi Slogans: Has Berlin’s Gentrification Feud Gone Too Far?

By Charly Wilder

It may have begun as a joke, but with the adoption of slogans used by the Nazis, an ongoing feud pitting long-time Berliners against newer residents from southern Germany may have crossed a line.

On Monday morning, residents of Berlin’s central Mitte district awoke to find a memorial bearing a bust of the 19th-century German philosopher Georg Hegel smeared with ketchup and currywurst, a local fast-food specialty, under a banner reading “Expatriate Swabians.” This probably didn’t come as a big surprise, however, given that in the past year, graffitied messages like “Shoot Swabians” and “Swabians Out” have become commonplace in the city — particularly in the former working-class neighborhood of Prenzlauer Berg in what was once East Berlin.

Germans from the southwestern region of Swabia — with their hefty savings accounts and distinct accents — have become the unfortunate poster children for the city’s rapid gentrification. Proudly rough-around-the-edges Berliners like to complain that the well-heeled arrivals from the south are bourgeois and pedantic types who are not only causing rents to spike, but molding the German capital in their own provincial image.

An anonymous group claimed responsibility online for defacing the bust of Hegel, who hailed from Stuttgart, Swabia’s largest city. “The Swabians have until December 31, 2013 to leave the transitional quarter. They will be expatriated from Berlin and sent to the south,” reads their website.

Though most of the intimations of the “Expatriate Swabians” group and those like it are probably meant to be tongue-in-cheek, many feel the mock-nativism is in poor taste — especially in Berlin, where mass pogroms were carried out by the Nazis only a few generations ago. Berlin’s interior minister, Frank Henkel, called the most recent incident “tasteless” and “unspeakable.” On Tuesday, he told the mass-circulation daily Bild: “If anybody doesn’t fit into Berlin, then it is not the Swabians, but these intolerant factions.”

It Began as a Joke

The act is the latest in a series of incidents — often referred to as the “Spätzle Wars” in the local press — that at first seemed like harmless pranks. In January, a group known by the name of “Free Swabylon” splattered spätzle — a traditional Swabian egg noodle dish — on a statue of the artist Käthe Kollwitz and called for an autonomous Swabian district in Berlin.

A few days earlier, Wolfgang Thierse, a long-time Prenzlauer Berg resident as well as the vice president of Germany’s federal parliament, the Bundestag, had commented to a local newspaper that he felt he’d become an “endangered species” in his neighborhood and complained that many local bakeries now use the Swabian terms for various pastries, instead of the Berlin ones…

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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‘Scottish Nationalists Are Fascist Scum’: Nigel Farage Hounded by Mob Says They Were Driven by Hatred of the English

Nigel Farage was caught in a war of words with Scottish nationalists last night after he accused them of being ‘fascist scum’.

The UK Independence Party leader said the left-wing extremists who trapped him in an Edinburgh pub were the ‘ugly face of Scottish nationalism’ pursuing an anti-English agenda.

He challenged Scotland’s first minister Alex Salmond to condemn the protesters who had chanted ‘Nazi, Nazi’, jostled him and told him to ‘go back to England’.

Mr Farage also hit out at the BBC after a Radio Scotland presenter appeared to question his right to debate Scottish issues.

In the extraordinary scenes on Thursday night the police forced Mr Farage to take refuge in the Canons’ Gait pub on Edinburgh’s Royal Mile for his own safety after the mob of supposedly anti-racist protesters launched the hostile demonstration against him, preventing him from leaving a press conference.

Dozens of activists from the Radical Independence group, most of them students, had gathered on the street outside the press conference, where a giant ‘Vote Yes for Scotland’ banner was held up. Offensive chants included ‘you can stick your Union Jack up your a***’ and ‘go back to England, you’re not welcome here’.

— Hat tip: JD

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UK: Grieving Husband Accused of Attacking Traffic Warden After He Caught Him Ticketing Cars Outside His Home as He Waited for Wife’s Funeral Cortege

[WARNING: Disturbing Content.]

A grieving husband has been accused of assaulting a traffic warden who tried to ticket cars outside his home while he waited for his wife’s funeral cortege.

Angry relatives confronted the warden as he was allegedly preparing to issue them fines while they waited for the hearse carrying the body of cancer victim Rena Page, 64.

Her stunned husband Mac Page, 66, challenged the official who later reported him to the police for assault.

Four cars were briefly parked on a single yellow line outside Mr Page’s home in Hunstanton, Norfolk, as the funeral cars moved into position.

The family confronted the official who allegedly carried on noting the cars’ details. A funeral director is also reported to have tried to intervene.

Angry family members admit they challenged the warden but were stunned to later learn he had reported widower Mr Page for assault.

Mr Page, a self-employed gardener, said yesterday: ‘I can’t describe how I felt really. It was bad enough to bury someone at 64 after 48 years of marriage. This bloke didn’t show any compassion at all.

— Hat tip: JD

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UK: I Think I’ve Killed Him… He Was Getting on My Nerves: What Pensioner Said After She Throttled Dying Man — But Court Still Rules it Was a ‘Mercy Killing’

[WARNING: ** Disturbing Content **]

A pensioner who killed her ex-partner because he was ‘getting on her nerves’ walked free yesterday after a judge likened her actions to a mercy killing.

Joyce Evans, 69, put a Tottenham Hotspur carrier bag over the head of retired soldier Colin Ballinger before throttling him for up to 30 seconds.

When shocked neighbours discovered the scene, Evans told them: ‘I think I’ve killed him. He was getting on my nerves.’

But the retired furnisher polisher later changed her story, claiming that terminally-ill Mr Ballinger, 66, had begged her to help him end his life. She was cleared of murder at the Old Bailey yesterday but convicted of manslaughter.

Judge Gerald Gordon handed her a suspended sentence, saying that there were ‘clear similarities with mercy killing’. The case was described as tragic for all involved…

The judge said the killing was clearly a ‘grave and serious matter’ but noted that Evans had already spent nine and a half months remanded in prison awaiting trial.

She was handed a 12-month sentence, suspended for two years and ordered to carry out 80 hours’ unpaid work.

— Hat tip: JD

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UK: Loving Parents. An Utterly Respectable Home. So How Did Rachel, 11, Fall Prey to the Oxford Sex Gang?

[WARNING: ** Disturbing Content **]

On a Tenerife holiday with her parents to celebrate her 11th birthday, the little girl in the pink sun-dress smiles at the camera. She looks so innocent as her blonde hair blows in the wind and she happily waves a glass of cola in the air.

When this picture was taken, Rachel was in her final year at primary school. Her favourite pastimes were taking the family’s three terriers out for walks near her home in Oxford and inviting her friends round for tea.

As her mother, Georgina, says today: ‘Rachel loved school and was the teacher’s pet. She was excited about going to the big secondary with her friends. She is the youngest of our big family and we doted on her. We called her our baby.’

Yet five months after the holiday picture, Rachel’s childhood was abruptly ended. Instead of returning home straight after school, she started staying out in the park with the same group of girls who used to come to her home for tea.

She would arrive late for the 7.30pm family supper. And — after a time — she often did not come home at night and went missing for days on end.

Now her horrified mother knows the reason for her daughter’s worrying behaviour. She was being seduced by a predatory gang of paedophiles, who lured her into a life of sex slavery by giving her gifts of cocaine, cannabis, cigarettes and vodka.

By the age of 13, Rachel had more than 700 men’s names on her Facebook page. Hundreds of others were sending text messages and even naked photos of themselves to her pink mobile phone…

One of the myths perpetuated by police and social services is that the girls are the wild progeny of feckless parents or sexually precocious youngsters in the care system.

In fact, many come from decent, loving homes — as does Rachel.

— Hat tip: JD

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Egypt: Over 20,000 Muslims Screaming “Allahu Akbar” Attack Christian Church With Birdshot and Bricks

More fruit of the glorious Obama-endorsed “Arab Spring.” And look at how the Associated Press covered this atrocity.

“Two Christian Churches in Egypt Attacked By Muslims This Week,” by Mary Abdelmassih for AINA, May 18:

(AINA) — The escalation of Muslim attacks on Christian churches in Egypt continues unabated. This week two attacks were carried out, one in Alexandria and one in Menbal in Upper Egypt — both allegedly prompted by harassment of Muslim women. Yesterday the church of St. Mary, in the Dakhela district, west of Alexandria, was attacked by Molotov cocktails and bricks, causing the gate to burn and the breaking of most of the stained glass windows. One Copt was killed and several injured.

According to the official police explanation, the Copt Basem Ramzy Michael was seen by the Muslim Hamada Alloshy, a registered criminal, allegedly extending his body from his balcony to gaze at the flat of Alloshy’s sister, who lives on the ground floor. A quarrel broke out and when the church was attacked, hundreds of Copts hurried to the area to defend the church, among whom was 36-year-old Sedky Sherif, a father of three children. According to his nephew Rabah, who was with him at the time of his death, 1000 Copts were present and were attacked by over 20,000 Muslims, who were firing bird shots at them and throwing bricks. While the church was being attacked the Muslims were shouting “Allahu Akbar.” Security forces were sent out to diffuse the situation and disperse the crowd. They made several arrests on both sides.

— Hat tip: JD

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One Dies in Muslim-Christian Clashes in Egypt

(AGI) Alexandria — One person died in renewed clashes between Muslims and Christians in Alexandria .

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

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Two Christian Churches in Egypt Attacked by Muslims This Week

by Mary Abdelmassih

(AINA) — The escalation of Muslim attacks on Christian churches in Egypt continues unabated. This week two attacks were carried out, one in Alexandria and one in Menbal in Upper Egypt — both allegedly prompted by harassment of Muslim women. Yesterday the church of St. Mary, in the Dakhela district, west of Alexandria, was attacked by Molotov cocktails and bricks, causing the gate to burn and the breaking of most of the stained glass windows. One Copt was killed and several injured.

According to the official police explanation, the Copt Basem Ramzy Michael was seen by the Muslim Hamada Alloshy, a registered criminal, allegedly extending his body from his balcony to gaze at the flat of Alloshy’s sister, who lives on the ground floor. A quarrel broke out and when the church was attacked, hundreds of Copts hurried to the area to defend the church, among whom was 36-year-old Sedky Sherif, a father of three children. According to his nephew Rabah, who was with him at the time of his death, 1000 Copts were present and were attacked by over 20,000 Muslims, who were firing bird shots at them and throwing bricks. While the church was being attacked the Muslims were shouting “Allahu Akbar.” Security forces were sent out to diffuse the situation and disperse the crowd. They made several arrests on both sides.

According to the Security report, the Copt “died of fright,” suffering a heart attack after hearing the sound of gun fire. According to his family and those who saw him, his body was full of bruises and marks from bird shots.

The family and relatives of Sedky Sherif waited this morning at Kom el Dekka morgue to receive his body and the results of the autopsy. A death certificate was issued quoting cause of death as “under investigation.” Weesa Fawzy from Al-Kalema Human Rights Center said that this was the first time that a death certificate is issued and the cause of death is still under investigation. “Has he been seen by the forensics team or not, so how are they still investigating when the body is already buried?”

Coptic Mina Milad Saber, 19 years, was severely injured in yesterday’s attack and underwent brain surgery, but this morning he was found shackled to his bed by the police for fear he might escape, although he is still in a coma.

Most Christians who were injured during the attack either went privately for treatment or quietly left hospital, “as it will end by them being arrested too,” said Weesa Fawzy.

On May 13, in the village of Menbal, district of Matay, north of Minya province, a Muslim mob stormed the village church of Prince Tadros el-Mashreki and assaulted a person inside. They hurled stones and broke everything inside the church, including doors and windows. The mob then went along the streets looting and destroying all Coptic-owned businesses and pharmacies and torching cars. The Copts were also threatened to be expelled from the village. According to witnesses, any Copt who was met by the mob in the street was beaten up.

Attorney Dr. Ehab Ramzy, former MP, said that Menbal has a Muslim majority while Manshiet Menbal, 10 kilometers away, has a Coptc majority. In the afternoon of that day three Muslim youths went to Manshiet Menbal and harassed Coptic girls as they came out of church. “As they drove by, the Muslims threw plastic bags filled with urine at the girls,” Ramzy said. “The Coptic youth defended the girls and, being outnumbered, the Muslims left.” A couple of hours later Muslims congregated and attacked the church and the Coptic minority in village of Menbal.

“The two villages have nothing to do with each other, and Copts in Menbal have nothing at all to do with the quarrel that took place in Manshiet Menbal. They were attacked just because they are Christians,” said Ramzy. Two Muslims were arrested from Menbal, and there is talk of a “reconciliation” meeting to be held. “Now security are looking for Christians to arrest them as a bargaining chip for this forthcoming “reconciliation” meeting,” said Dr Ramzy.

— Hat tip: Mary Abdelmassih

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Halal Mark a Must for All Food Products in UAE

New certification system from next year

Dubai: All food products claiming to be halal need to have a halal mark and certification from next year, a senior official from the Emirates Standardisation and Metrology Authority (Esma) has said.

The announcement comes as part of a halal regulations package, which will also include halal certification for cosmetics and perfumes as well as clothes and accessories.

“It is His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai’s dream to make Dubai the capital of the halal economy and this initiative is part of that project. Through this process we will make sure what people consume assuming it is halal is actually halal,” said Mohammad Saleh Badri, Director-General of Esma.

According to Badri, there is currently a system in place to verify halal compliance of food products but it has very limited scope.

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Recently mandated by the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to formulate halal codes for cosmetics and perfumes to be implemented in all Islamic countries, Esma hopes the halal food standards will also be adopted by other countries.

“Each emirate has its own system to verify halal compliance at municipal level but there are no general standards and regulations. We will be putting a whole new system in place which will not only be a point of reference for firms in the UAE but also for other Islamic nations,” added Badri.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Saudi Cleric: Prohibit Women From Using Air Conditioning

A man who claimed to be a Salafist-Wahhibist cleric put the word out on Twitter that women should not flip on air conditioners at home because it sends the signal they’re home and that could lead to moral depravities.

The cleric said “turning on the cooler ventilator is prohibited for women in the absence of their husbands [because] the woman’s act is very dangerous, and may bring about immorality in the society. When she turns the cooler on, someone may notice her presence home, and this might bring about immorality,” International Business Times reported.

— Hat tip: RR

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Several Bombings in Tripoli and Benghazi in Last 24 Hours

(AGI) Tripoli, May 18 — Amid mounting tension in Libya, several bombings shook Tripoli and Benghazi in the last 24 hours.

Fortunately, nobody was killed, security forces announced. On Friday, there were four explosions in different areas of Benghazi. The bombers’ objectives were a military checkpoint, an orthodox church, a wheat warehouse and a police patrol unit.

In Tripoli, two homemade bombs exploded in the district hosting the embassies of Cyprus, Palestine and Saudi Arabia, damaging several parked vehicles.

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

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Syria: U.S. Adds Sanctions Against 4 Ministers, TV

Syrian Arab Airline and a private satellite TV also targeted

(ANSAmed) — NEW YORK — The US Treasury Department on Thursday imposed new sanctions on Syria, blacklisting four ministers, an airline and a television broadcasters. The cabinet members involved are Defence Minister Fahd Jassem al-Freij, Health Minister Saad Abdel-Salam al-Nayef, Industry Minister Adnan Abdo Al-Sukhni and Justice Minister Naim Hamad al-Ahmad.

The carrier is state-owned Syrian Arab Airlines which, according to US authorities, carried weapons, ammunitions, rockets and anti-aircraft artillery sent by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards to Syria.

Private satellite broadcaster al-Dunya TV, created in March 2007, is charged with assisting al-Assad’s propaganda by airing forced confessions.

The United States has already imposed sanctions on Syria’s government, central bank, oil companies and over 100 regime members.

— Hat tip: Insubria

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US Condemns Russian Shipment of Missiles to Syria

The United States has expressed disapproval at Moscow for sending a missile shipment to the Syrian government. Meanwhile, the UN Security Council is considering a plea to allow aid into the country.

Top US military official General Martin Dempsey said on Friday that Moscow’s most recent delivery of anti-ship missiles was “ill-timed and very unfortunate.”

Russia’s decision to allow the arms consignment, Dempsey added, risked protracting the civil war within Syria.

“It’s at the very least an unfortunate decision that will embolden the regime and prolong the suffering,” Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters at the Pentagon.

The Yakhont missiles, which were recently delivered by Moscow, have advanced radar. That makes them more effective against ships, the New York Times reported Friday, quoting US government sources familiar with classified intelligence reports.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Chinese Man Held in Pakistani Kashmir Over Quran Abuse

A Chinese man working on an energy project in Pakistan-administered Kashmir was being held Saturday after hundreds of protesters attacked his company offices over the alleged desecration of a Quran, officials said.

Lee Ping, administration manager of a Chinese consortium building the Neelum Jhelum Hydropower project, was accused by co-Pakistani workers of throwing the Quran on the ground.

“We have taken Ping into protective custody after protests erupted in the company when Pakistani labourers saw him throwing the belongings of a Pakistani worker including the Quran,” Sardar Gulfraz, a senior police official, told AFP.

Blasphemy is a very sensitive issue in Pakistan, where 97 percent of the 180 million population are Muslims, and even unproven allegations can spark a violent public backlash.

Rights campaigners argue the blasphemy laws, for which the maximum penalty is death, are often abused to settle personal scores and should be reformed.

“(Ping) will be charged under the blasphemy law only after this commission confirms that he was involved in a serious violation,” Gulfraz said.

In March, more than 3,000 furious Muslims rampaged through the Joseph Colony area of Lahore, looting property and burning buildings after a Christian was accused of blasphemy.

Pakistan and China have close friendly relations and Chinese firms and engineers are working in development and energy projects across Pakistan.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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All Eyes on the Arctic Council

The Arctic Council has accepted China and other Asian states as permanent observers. With climate change making the region more accessible to shipping and commercial exploitation, countries are lining up to join.

Asian countries China, India, Japan,South Korea and Singapore have been granted permanent observer status on the Arctic Council, which coordinates research and development activities in the far North. Canada, Iceland, Norway, Russia, the USA and EU members Denmark, Finland and Sweden are currently members, while six indigenous groups are permanent participants. An application from the EU was blocked by Canada. Although numerous EU countries are already represented in the forum as members or observers, the EU is seeking permanent observer status for itself as a bloc.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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China: Internet’s First Victories Over “Princes” Of Communist Power

In recent weeks the cyber users in China, increasingly engaged in denouncing abuses and distortions of the system of national power, fought and won even against prevailing nepotism in the Communist Party: at least 4 cases of “hereditary power” were discovered and defeated via the internet .

Beijing (AsiaNews) — A “prince” of the wealthy southern province of Guangdong has been removed from his post and returned to the rank of government clerk after a group of internet users questioned his rapid rise to power. Jiang Zhongyong, 29 year-old son of the vice president of the local Chinese Political Consultative Conference (CCPC) was degraded by the central authorities after a number of complaints posted on the web called his appointment into question.

Jiang joined the government of the municipality of Paotai in March 2007 as a clerk. After just four months he was promoted to vice president of the Communist Youth League of the area. In November 2011, when his father retired and entered the CCPC (consultative body, but of great influence), his son gets a new job: county vice president at just 27.

The virtual community balked at the decision and began to demand justice from national leaders: according to the internal regulations, in fact, the jump between clerk and executive requires at least 3 years of service. The campaign achieved its result, and the Party removed Jiang announcing that “all those who violate the codes of conduct will be punished.”

The internet’s electronic control of China’s political and social scene seems to be growing in power. While there are increasing cases of medical malpractice and civil persecution reported by the network — especially through Weibo, the most popular microblogging site in the country — these days there’s also other victories against the system of patronage and nepotism in the ruling Communist Party. 3 cases, all in the province of Hunan, were in fact discovered and reported by cyber users.

On 10 May, the portal Chengdu.cn denounced the ties of kinship between Wang Fang — 29 years and secretary of the Youth League of Leiyang — and you Qiusheng, former head of the local propaganda who is his father. Again in Leiyang Wang Qing, 31 (pictured), was appointed vice mayor without having the necessary credentials for the role: instead she has influential relatives.

Finally there is the case of Xu Tao, 27, who was appointed vice president of Xiangtan County without having the right qualifications. His father is the former head of the People’s Congress of the district of Yuhu, while his mother is the deputy director of the Office of the Prosecutor of the same district. The young man was promoted 7 times in 5 years after his graduation, but was forced to resign after the online denunciation.

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

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Japan Angered by China’s Claim to All of Okinawa

Tokyo has rebuffed an effort by Beijing to claim sovereignty over more than 100 Okinawa islands, although some analysts are warning that this is merely the latest gambit by China to seize Japanese territory by force.

The Japanese government has lodged a strong protest with its counterpart in China after an article in a Chinese state-run newspaper suggested that Okinawa was previously a “vassal state” of China and that its sovereignty should be reconsidered.

The protest was passed to Beijing through diplomatic channels, officials at the Foreign Ministry in Tokyo told DW.

The lengthy article appeared in Wednesday’s edition of the People’s Daily newspaper, a mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist Party, and was written by Zhang Haipeng and Li Guoqiang. The two are scholars at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the nation’s leading state-run think-tank, and the commentary stated that China had a historical and genuine claim to what used to be the Kingdom of the Ryukyus and was annexed by Japan in the late 1880s.

As well as previously being a “vassal state,” China has strengthened its claim by stating that Japan’s surrender at the end of World War II nullified a treaty signed in 1895 under which China ceded territory to Japan.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Three New Suicides in Apple’s Chinese Supplier Foxconn

(AGI) Beijing — Three new suicides have been reported at Foxconn, the Chinese firm assembling products for Apple, Sony and Nokia ..

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

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U.S. Seizes Operator Accounts of Major Japanese Bitcoin Exchange

U.S. authorities have seized two accounts linked to a major operator in the booming Bitcoin digital currency market, Tokyo-based exchange Mt. Gox. The move may prevent the firm from facilitating the purchase and sale of Bitcoins in U.S. dollars at a time when use of the currency and its value has mushroomed.

— Hat tip: JD

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Welcome to Websites Being Blocked in Australia

An interesting article today in the news paper, sadly I don’t think its going to get the attention it deserves.

http://www.news.com.au…

“MORE than 1200 websites were accidentally blocked after ASIC tried to bar access to a fraudulent website. “…

Here is the most critical statement in the news piece

“ASIC said it had exercised the power extended to it by the Telecommunications Act “numerous times over the past nine months”.

Let’s go back a few quotes

“The university said it was informed by its ISP Exetel that its website had been blocked by Australian authorities. “The Attorney General’s office, ACMA, and the AFP all said they weren’t involved but they still couldn’t or wouldn’t give us any information about why we were blocked,”

See the point?

The Government now has the ability to instruct ASIC to block certain websites under the “fraudulent” banner, without having to give any information into how, why or who.

— Hat tip: JD

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Horrendous Death of Construction Worker Held Hostage in Nigeria Recounted to Family at Inquest

[WARNING: ** Disturbing Content **]

A British hostage was executed by Islamist kidnappers moments after UK Special Forces launched a rescue mission in Nigeria, an inquest heard.

Construction worker Chris McManus, 28, was shot six times as he sought refuge in a toilet while the Special Boat Service joined Nigerian soldiers in a battle to save his life.

His Italian colleague, Franco Lamolinara, 48, was also killed in the raid last March. The pair had been held for ten months.

— Hat tip: JD

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Have We Forgotten That “Undocumented Citizens” Are in Our Country Illegally?

On top of everything else Congress is arguing about in the great Immigration Debate, now there’s a lawyer and a lawyer-wannabe who think we also need to include language to help protect the immigrant’s consumer rights once he becomes a legal U.S. citizen. It’s too much. Doesn’t anyone out there remember that these “undocumented citizens” are actually in our country illegally? By their own choice?

Huffington Post bloggers Joseph Sanderson and Norman I. Silber believe there looms on the horizon a “positive change” for the estimated 12 million Americans whose “immigration status is unauthorized.” (Sounds like they both got the AP memo about “illegal aliens,” right?) But they also believe that once these “Americans whose immigration status is unauthorized” become legal American citizens, they’re going to be plagued by consumer difficulties and we need to do everything within our power to help them make the transition as smoothly as possible.

— Hat tip: JD

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It is Confirmed! Idaho Uzbek Arrested on Terror Charges is a Refugee

by Ann Corcoran

This is an update of my post this morning where I only surmised that Boise’s Uzbek terror suspect is a refugee.

In the case of Boston’s Tsarnaevs, they came here seeking political asylum and in Fazliddin Kurbanov’s case we actually brought him to America. The refugee resettlement program and our asylum program are basically two sides of the same coin. We “welcomed” both to America. But, one thing the resettlement contractors can’t seem to grasp is that with most Muslims their Jihad imperative trumps the American ‘good life’ and it’s just a matter of time before Allah calls.

Are we seeing the beginning of a trend? I suspect we will see other young bucks seeking fame and martyrdom having been emboldened by the Tsarnaev’s ‘succesAP confirms Kurbanov’s immigration status here at USA Today:

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — He was a Russian-speaking truck driver who came to Idaho in 2009 to join hundreds of other Uzbekistan refugees for whom the state has become a sanctuary from violence in their home country.

But federal officials say in an indictment that Fazliddin Kurbanov also was teaching people to build bombs that would target public transportation.

It’s unclear whether those alleged targets were domestic or abroad — or how far Kurbanov would have gone. Prosecutors said Friday only that they believe he is no longer a threat.

[….]

Kurbanov is among about 650 Uzbeks living in Idaho. He was admitted to the U.S. as a refugee in August 2009, the same month he moved to Boise, said Jan Reeves, director of the Idaho Office for Refugees, citing immigration records. Kurbanov was here legally, federal officials said.

He didn’t just move to Boise! A federal refugee contractor, possibly Boise’s office of the International Rescue Committee, was paid by the US State Department (paid by you!) to get him hooked up with social services, find him an apartment and get him a job.

Uzbeks began coming to Idaho’s two refugee settlement centers, in Boise and Twin Falls, in 2003, Reeves said. The centers connect refugees with services such as language classes and help finding work.

The flow of Uzbeks to the state escalated around 2005, when a violent clash between protesters and the government left hundreds dead. [We took in the troublemakers in a special airlift! Now we are reuniting families in sanctuary cities like Boise—-ed]

[….]

About 90 percent of Uzbeks in their home country are Muslim. Representatives of the Islamic Center of Boise, a meeting area for the region’s Muslim community, didn’t immediately return a phone call Friday.

Radical Uzbeks have a broader mission now! Don’t they all!

Although the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan started in the 1990s with the stated aim of overthrowing the Uzbek regime and establishing an Islamic government, its goals have expanded to create a broader Islamic influence in Central Asia.

There is more, read it all.

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Italy: Northern League Organises Petition Against Naturalisation

(AGI) Milan — The regionalist Northern League has organised a petition against naturalisation in Milan and around the North.

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

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Obama Takes Pro-Amnesty Road Show South of the Border

President Barack Obama took his pro-amnesty road show down south of the border, and guess what, they liked it there.

Well, not entirely. Some Mexicans are angry about the illegal aliens Obama has deported, and some are impatient that he hasn’t gotten amnesty enacted already.

You can’t please everybody. But, we know where his heart is — the amnesty proposal hasn’t even passed the Senate and Obama is already promoting it south of the border. You think that’s not going to encourage more emigration?

The Obama trip to the region lasted from May 2nd to May 4th. The president arrived to Mexico on the 2nd of May, and departed on the 3rd of May for Costa Rica in Central America, from whence he returned to the U.S. on May 4th.

The visit displayed a lot of PR and hot air, but it also showcases the growing integration between the U.S. and Mexico, of which immigration is an important part…

Obama also spoke about the guns in Mexico:

And we also recognize that most of the guns used to commit violence here in Mexico come from the United States. (Applause.)

— Hat tip: JD

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Trade Deal Could Open Canada for More Asylum Seekers

Around the world countries are struggling with the flow of asylum seekers. I have stories to post from South Africa and Australia where both countries are struggling to cope with tens of thousands who want in. Canada has been trying to deal with its asylum overload by throwing out asylum requests for those citizens of so-called “safe” countries.

For new readers, ‘refugees’ are brought into a country by the government largely with the “help” of the UN, but asylum seekers get across a country’s border somehow (visa overstays are common) and then ask for asylum. Asylum technically is for people who have been persecuted or fear they will be persecuted on account of race, religion, nationality, and/or membership in a particular social group or because of a political opinion.

Canada has said that there are “safe” countries and will not accept asylum claims from those countries, nonetheless, Stephen Harper will soon have to decide if he will be pressured into opening Canada’s borders to several countries with whom they wish to engage in a special trade deal.

From the Globe and Mail:

In Cali, Colombia, next week, Stephen Harper will ponder a choice driven by the forces of globalization. Trade talks are increasingly applying pressure on Canada to lower restrictions on foreigners entering the country, and in turn, squeezing the refugee-protection system.

Mr. Harper will travel to Colombia to meet the leaders of a new trade bloc, the Pacific Alliance, to consider whether Canada should join. The alliance might be the next big thing in Pacific Rim trade, quickly reducing barriers between emerging Latin American nations and then with Asia.

But the biggest obstacle for Canada isn’t reducing barriers on goods crossing the border, it’s lowering restrictions on people.

The members of the Pacific Alliance — Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru — have dropped visa requirements so their citizens can travel freely within the bloc without forms and fees. They’d expect Canada to do the same if it joins, letting their citizens visit without getting a visa in advance. They find Canada’s visa-application process onerous, and say it rejects too many tourists and business people.

But for Canada, it’s not a straightforward decision on paperwork. Ottawa imposes visas on some countries so they can screen out people who might claim refugee status here. The pressure to lift them forces choices about the asylum system.

[….]

But visas are a tricky hurdle. Lifting them immediately would raise concerns about a flow of refugee claimants from Colombia or Peru.

Read on. Canada has already given refugee status to some Mexicans so this surely would open the door to ‘visitors’ who then apply to stay in Canada.

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Croatia: Petition for Anti-Gay Marriage Referendum Underway

450,000 signatures necessary, half that many gathered already

(ANSAmed) ZAGREB, MAY 17; A segment of Croatian society has launched a petition for a referendum to amend the country’s Constitution so it will define marriage as a union between a man and a woman.

While the Croatian Family Code specifies that marriage is a union between people of opposite sexes, the Constitution does not include gender in its definition.

Called “In the name of the family”, the initiative is supported by the Croatian Catholic Church and opposed by the center-left government of Social Democratic Premier Zoran Milanovic, who a year ago promised but has not yet introduced a special bill that would recognize gay couples. The petitioners, who have already gathered 215,000 signatures as of Sunday, have 15 more days to collect a total of 450,000 signatures, or 10% of the electorate. They will probably make the deadline for what will be Croatia’s first popularly demanded referendum, analysts said.

The idea is “to keep Croatia from ending up like France”, organizers said. Croatia becomes an EU member nation as of July 1.

— Hat tip: Insubria

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France: The Word ‘Race’ To be Struck From Constitution

President Francois Hollande fulfills 2012 campaign promise

(ANSAmed) — PARIS, MAY 17 — The word “race” is on the verge of disappearing from the French constitution, as parliament on Friday adopted a bill introduced by Left Party (PG) leader Jean-Luc Melenchon and supported by the Socialists.

Written in 1946, the French charter stipulates that “France is an indivisible, secular, democratic and social Republic. It guarantees that all citizens are equal before the law, without distinction of origin, race, or religion”. In the amended version, the term “race” will be struck, and a text will be added specifying that “the Republic fights racism, antisemitism and xenophobia. It does not recognize the existence of any supposed race”.

President Francois Hollande promised during his victorious campaign, in March 2012, to strike the word “race” from all current legislation. “The Republic has no room for race”, he said.

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Italy: Legal Protection ‘Inadequate for Homosexual Discrimination’

Senate Speaker says state must take action

(see related) (ANSA) — Rome, May 17 — Juridical protection for same-sex couples in Italy is “disproportionate” to the level of discrimination that homosexual pairs face, Senate Speaker Pietro Grasso said on Friday.

“Parliament will have to learn how to effectively deal with these social dynamics with clarity,” Grasso, the country’s former national chief anti-Mafia prosecutor, said.

“The state must take action, not only for recognition, but also for the protection of homosexuals’ rights,” Grasso said.

“It may be a politically controversial theme, but one with which the institutions will have to deal,” he said.

Grasso was speaking on the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia (IDAHOBIT), set up in 2004 to mark the day in 1990 when homosexuality was removed from the International Classification of Diseases of the World Health Organization (WHO).

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Italy’s ‘Macho: Homophobic’ Culture Persists, Says Speaker

Boldrini says rights must be guaranteed

(ANSA) — Rome, May 17 — Italy is still overrun by a widespread “macho and homophobic culture,” the country’s House Speaker said on the International Day Against Homophobia Friday.

It is a culture that reduces “women to objects and homosexuals to caricatures, making them isolated groups who are simply tolerated as long they do not claim their rights and their identity,” Boldrini said.

When women and homosexuals ask for their rights to be respected is when they become open to “attacks at all levels, verbal and physical,” Boldrini, a centre-left former United Nations refugee chief, said.

According to Boldrini, homophobia is fought in three ways. “By implementing more guarantees for rights, punishing perpetrators of homophobic violence or aggression and by battling cultural prejudices and stereotypes,” Boldrini said.

Recognizing women’s and homosexuals’ rights “does not mean stripping them from others,” she said.

“Are we equal or not? The Constitution says we are,” Boldrini said.

The International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia (IDAHOBIT) was set up in 2004 to mark the day in 1990 when homosexuality was removed from the International Classification of Diseases of the World Health Organization (WHO).

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Italy: Fight Gay Discrimination Says President on Homophobia Day

‘Constant commitment’ from govt, society, Napolitano says

(ANSA) — Rome, May 17 — Italian President Giorgio Napolitano on Friday urged Italian citizens and lawmakers to wage a “constant” battle against homophobia.

“Reporting (cases) and combatting homophobia must be a firm and constant commitment not only by the institutions but also by the whole of society,” he said on International Anti-Homophobia Day.

The International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia (IDAHOBIT) was set up in 2004 to mark the day in 1990 when homosexuality was removed from the International Classification of Diseases of the World Health Organization (WHO).

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Italy: Church ‘Flunks’ Marino on Civil Partnerships and Euthanasia

(AGI) Rome — The Roman Vicariate gave thumbs down to candidate-mayor Ignazio Marino over civil partnerships and euthanasia ..

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

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Michael Barone: In Defense of Jason Richwine and Charles Murray

My American Enterprise Institute colleague Charles Murray came to the defense of our former colleague Jason Richwine, who resigned from the Heritage Foundation amid protests about his Harvard Ph.D. thesis, on nationalreview.com. Charles was entirely accurate in stating that Richwine’s conclusion that Hispanics have lower-than-average IQs is accurate and, among specialists in this area, non-controversial. Richwine was careful to say that the average Hispanic IQ might rise over time, as has been observed of other groups’ average IQs.

And the Heritage Foundation paper co-authored by Richwine estimating the fiscal cost of legalizing current illegal immigrants (of which the Hoover Institution’s Keith Hennessey has written a sharp critique on other grounds) did not advocate screening immigrants by IQ. He does seem to favor shifting our system toward admitting more high-skill applicants, as do I and many others, and as do the immigration systems of our Anglosphere cousins Canada and Australia. This is not racist; it has resulted in rapidly growing Asian populations in those two countries. It is discrimination based on skills. No nation has an obligation to admit every foreigner who wants to move there.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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New Court Action, Legislation, In Mt. Soledad Cross Case

As the fight against the ACLU to save the Mt. Soledad National Veterans Memorial cross continues in its 24th year, I forward a link to a Fox 5 news report in San Diego on the Mt. Soledad Memorial getting “more space to expand” to allow for more plaques honoring veterans to be added to the some 3,400 plaques already dedicated.

The report also references the ongoing legal battle against the extremist ACLU, which has become the Taliban of American liberal secularism, to save the memorial “as it is where it is,” i.e., with the Cross honoring veterans intact.

The importance of the Mt. Soledad Memorial Cross case cannot be overestimated. Since the battle to save the Mojave Desert Veterans Memorial Cross from destruction by the ACLU was won in 2012, the Mt. Soledad National Veterans Memorial Case is the single most important Establishment of Religion case affecting veterans memorials. It will set a precedent affecting not only this generation, but generations of Americans far into the future.

What is really at stake is whether 300-million Americans will continue to have the ability to honor their war dead and the service of other veterans as those Americans choose; or whether ideologically motivated special interest groups, atheists, agnostics, intolerant secular extremists epitomized by the ACLU, or intolerant Muslims striving to transform America from a free republic under the U.S. Constitution into an Islamic republic under Sharia Law, will have the right to veto those decisions.

— Hat tip: JD

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No Such Thing as ‘Race’, Say French Lawmakers

French lawmakers approved a bill on Thursday to completely remove the word “race” from the country’s law books, but the initiative has been blasted as naïve and useless by right-wing opponents.

France’s National Assembly voted on Thursday to strike out the word “race” in any existing legislation that governs the country, even as members of the main opposition Union for Popular Movement labelled the move as overly idealistic.

“In eliminating the legal category of race, the Assembly has helped our country move forward on ideological and educational levels,” said the text’s author, MP Francois Asensi, a member of the far-left Left Front coalition that sponsored the bill.

The bill’s supporters argued that the term, which appears at least six times in France’s penal code and other legal texts, could be interpreted as a category of people.

“The word ‘race’ has no scientific validity and it has been the basis for racist ideologies,” the preamble to the bill declared.

Under the new law, France will not recognise the existence of any distinct race or races.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Should Research on Race and IQ be Banned?

The old issue of genes, race and intelligence has exploded once again. The trigger this time is social scientist Jason Richwine, who recently co-authored a study of immigration for the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank. The study contended that granting amnesty to illegal immigrants could cost the U.S. more than $5 trillion.

After the study’s release, The Washington Post reported that Richwine asserted in his 2009 Harvard Ph.D. thesis, “IQ and Immigration Policy,” that the average IQ of U.S. immigrants “is substantially lower than that of the white native population.” Arguing that “the totality of the evidence suggests a genetic component to group differences in IQ,” Richwine added, “No one knows whether Hispanics will ever reach IQ parity with whites, but the prediction that new Hispanic immigrants will have low-IQ children and grandchildren is difficult to argue against.” Richwine proposed that IQ be considered as a factor for screening immigrants.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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]]> http://gatesofvienna.net/2013/05/gates-of-vienna-news-feed-5182013/feed/ 4 http://gatesofvienna.net/2013/05/the-modoggies-on-the-road-in-germany/ http://gatesofvienna.net/2013/05/the-modoggies-on-the-road-in-germany/#comments Sun, 19 May 2013 03:42:47 +0000 Baron Bodissey http://gatesofvienna.net/?p=28604 Continue reading →]]> The Roundabout Dogs inspired by Lars Vilks will be touring Germany this spring. Hans Erling Jensen just sent this announcement and itinerary for the famous Modoggies.

The “Modoggies” come to Germany — Please help us support the TOUR!

The Roundabout Dog Tour is inspired by the artwork of Swedish artist Lars Vilks. It intends to visit 60 European cities to highlight the importance of free speech. As in many campaigns before it, art is used to highlight the issues. Lars Vilks produced his Roundabout Dog series of drawings in response to the atmosphere of censorship that has enveloped Europe in recent years. He has been demonised, threatened and lost his livelihood because of the stand he took.

The drawings themselves are not on tour. Instead, the tour involves a plywood mock-up of the roundabout dog and it is this mock-up that visits the various cities. The plywood roundabout dog was created by a Swedish society called Free Speech Europe. It is non-political and promotes freedom of expression by supporting those who have been “blacklisted” or persecuted because of their political or artistic expressions.

Now, five years later Lars Vilks is still figuring as number 5 on the Al Qaeda death list!

Read more at our home page .

Sunday the 26th of May the Roundabout Dogs will capture Germany.

The Free Speech Europe Roundabout Dog TOUR will visit 20 cities in Germany and The Czech Republic between the 26th of May and 12th of June.

Unfortunately our mission is so sensitive, that we cannot reveal the exact places or time in the selected cities. We would be happy if anybody could offer a little local help during the journey. I could use help to carry the “dogs”, to borrow a parking spot with car and caravan outside a “friend’s” property. We could use ideas about places for photo sessions or names and contact to people worth interviewing or people in the art business for an exchange of ideas.

For press and other interested parties

Please feel free to mail Hans Erling Jensen at info@freespeech.nu or phone +46 707 875750 if you have questions or know of something that could be of interest for the TOUR.

The TOUR list will be approximately as follows:

28		May		Berlin
29		May		Berlin
30		May		Berlin
31		May		Berlin
1		June		Dresden
2		June		Prague
3		June		Pilsen/Regensburg
4		June		München
5		June		Stuttgart
6		June		Heidelberg
7		June		Frankfurt
8		June		Fulda
9		June		Göttingen
10		June		Hannover
11		June		Hamburg

You can read much more of the TOUR here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lars_Vilks
http://en.freespeech.nu/about-free-speech-europe/

Here you will find pictures from the TOUR in Sweden and Denmark (will be updated daily):

en.freespeech.nu/press-room/press/
en.freespeech.nu/press-room/links-from-press-and-blogs/

An article describing the tour from Dispatch International/ICLA:

www.d-intl.com/a-roundabout-way-to-promote-free-speech

Support The Roundabout Dog TOUR & Lars Vilks

Would you like to support Free Speech, then you can invest in Lars Vilks new Art work “in style of”. Available here: en.freespeech.nu/the-art-shop/

You can also “member up” with the Free Speech Europe society for only Euro 35 for 2 years:

en.freespeech.nu/membership/

Yours sincerely,

Hans Erling Jensen
Free Speech Europe — Director
The Free Press Society, Sweden — Board Member

For previous posts on Lars Vilks and the Roundabout Dogs, see the Modoggie Archives.

The following news report from Germany discusses the ongoing persecution of Jews in the southern Swedish city of Malmö, mostly at the hands of the city’s “New Swedes”.

Many thanks to Myriam for the translation, and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling:

Transcript:

00:00		An external security system.
00:04		The construction workers cement the massive metal pillars.
00:09		Shneur Kesselmann has been waiting for it for months.
00:13		The rabbi hopes that the synagogue in Malmo is now finally better protected.
00:20		“These are security pillars. We need them for protection
00:23		so that no vehicle can go too close to the synagogue
00:27		and throw various things against the building.
00:29		Unfortunately, this is our situation at the moment …”
00:35		Shneur Kesselmann came here nine years ago —
00:39		the hatred of Jews in Malmö surprised him from the beginning.
00:43		He tells us: “Anti-Semitism has become increasingly worse!”
00:46		It often happens that people on the street throw cans or other things at me.
00:52		A motorist has once tried to run me over.
00:56		He got into reverse with full force as I crossed the street with my wife.
01:01		Thank G’d nothing happened.
01:09		Malmö is booming. Under the swanky Turning Torso, the south Swedish city
01:12		has developed in recent years into a center of rendition of services.
01:17		At the waterfront, posh urban districts have emerged
01:19		and since the bridge over Öresund ensures fast connection
01:22		to the Danish capital Copenhagen,
01:25		it attracts even more people from all over the world here.
01:28		And now for the highlight of the emerging city:
01:31		the EuroVision Song Contest 2013 — tens of thousands of fans have already arrived.
01:36		Malmo cleans itself, wanting to show itself as a lively, beautiful city.
01:48		However, hardly any of this glamour gets to this place.
01:51		Rosengaard, the giant satellite town on the outskirts of Malmö.
01:55		The neighborhood of Siavosh Derakhti and his friends.
01:58		The 21-year-old grew up here and he knows from personal experience
02:01		that you have a hard time, if you come from Rosengaard.
02:04		If you are looking for a job, then you immediately
02:07		get a negative stamp if you name Rosengaard as your address.
02:12		In the news the only show the horrific stories anyway.
02:15		This makes it difficult to find work.
02:19		In Rosengaard most immigrants first find a place to stay
02:22		because the rents are so low. Unemployment, however, is high.
02:27		At night, gangs rule the streets.
02:30		Again and again people are dying in the war of drug gangs,
02:33		more then anywhere else in the country.
02:35		The Swedish dream of a multicultural society,
02:38		respectful of each other — in Rosengard it flatlined.
02:42		For their exasperations many search the right concept of the enemy
02:44		- the Jews of the city come to the fore consistently by young Muslims.
02:49		“It’s true that young people are violent time and again,
02:54		torch cars, but I ask you why? Because nobody listens to them,
02:58		because they are disappointed, because they left to be high and dry.
03:02		They want to be listened to, want attention.
03:05		I don’t like that they set fire to cars, but I can understand it.”
03:13		The aggression against the Jews of the city — for many it has its origin in Rosengaard.
03:26		It is now four years ago as a pro-Palestine demonstration got out of hand.
03:31		On the edge of a Davis Cup tennis match Israel against Sweden.
03:34		The overwhelmed police couldn’t stop the violence, which started a series of attacks.
03:41		A terrible event. Rockets and smoke bombs were fired,
03:46		we were insulted and harassed.
03:50		At the end we had to escape under police protection.
03:59		Shortly after, the chapel burns in the Jewish cemetery. The perpetrators were never found.
04:08		Last fall an arson attack against the Jewish community building.
04:12		Police ascertained two immigrants as criminals,
04:15		but the prosecutor did not want to charge them, labeling the attack a prank.
04:20		The heavy front door is now repaired and back in order.
04:24		The fear among Jews in Malmo, however, remains,
04:26		and the safety precautions at the community center was aggravated.
04:33		Many were completely shocked that we had to endure
04:37		such hostility here in our Sweden.
04:42		This hatred that was directed against us.
04:44		For many, this is a reason to no longer wanting to live here.
04:52		Harry Turner is one of the Jews who no longer want to live in Malmö.
04:56		He moves away on the island of Gotland.
04:58		The 62-year-old ophthalmologist has a good living;
05:01		but the everyday antisemitism he has witnessed over and again
05:05		in his hometown is nothing he wants to endure longer.
05:10		Good friends of mine in other professions,
05:13		teachers for example, have been physically attacked.
05:17		They had to change their jobs because they were abused
05:22		to such an extent by their students that they could no longer stand it.
05:32		The young Muslim Siavosh Derakhti wants to do something about it.
05:35		“Muslims Against Anti-Semitism” is his project, and he speaks with those
05:39		who take it seriously, in the cultural center.
05:42		It takes a long time that day until a few interested people
05:44		come together and listen to Siavosh lecture.
05:51		“I once asked in my class: What do you know about persecution of the Jews?
05:55		Only Auschwitz crossed their minds! And then I asked
05:58		if they have ever listened to a survivor …
06:00		only 2 of 27. That scared me!”
06:04		The others listen in silence. The prejudices runs deep, Siavosh knows.
06:09		What many do wrong here, in my opinion, is that they
06:12		throw together the politics of Israel and the Jewish faith,
06:15		Judaism or the Jews here in the city.
06:19		Why should a Swedish citizen who is Jewish,
06:22		with a Swedish citizenship, be guilty of Israeli politics?
06:26		It’s all about people have no idea AND feel great hatred.
06:31		Despite the daily attacks and insults,
06:34		Rabbi Kesselmann wants to stay — even when he is sure
06:36		that they will continue to abuse him on the road.
06:41		When has the Jewish community ever needed me more than now?
06:47		I think it would not be the right point in time to leave the parish.
06:52		And maybe — he hopes — the synagogue located in the city
06:55		once again will be a meeting place — without prejudice and to all residents of Malmö.

]]> http://gatesofvienna.net/2013/05/the-persecution-of-jews-in-malmo-again/feed/ 1 http://gatesofvienna.net/2013/05/sweden-is-more-dangerous-than-mogadishu/ http://gatesofvienna.net/2013/05/sweden-is-more-dangerous-than-mogadishu/#comments Sun, 19 May 2013 01:48:18 +0000 Baron Bodissey http://gatesofvienna.net/?p=28592 Continue reading →]]>

A young Somali journalist in Sweden named Amun Abdullahi got herself in trouble with the politically correct elite by reporting the truth about the radicalization of young Somalis in Rinkeby (a culturally enriched suburb of Stockholm), where they were recruited for jihad by the Islamic terrorist group Al-Shabab.

The treatment meted out to Ms. Abdullahi made her decide to move back to Somalia. She acknowledges that Mogadishu is a dangerous place, but she considers Sweden more dangerous, because “here you cannot tell the truth.”

Transcript (untimed):

Amun is a journalist, and the first thing you notice is
that she has more passion for journalism than most people do.
Let’s say that if all the jobs in the world were a person, then the journalist would be the head
and all the other jobs would be the different parts of the body.
Now that you have spoken so warmly about journalism,
I have to assume that you would like to work as a journalist in Sweden?
Never… I wouldn’t do that.

Amun came as a refugee in 1991, first arriving in Umeå,
which she describes as one of the most beautiful cities on earth.
Later on she moved to Rinkeby near Stockholm.
She had made the whole transition from refugee to reporter on Swedish Radio.
And her knowledge and contacts as a Somali led her onto a story which changed her life.
One morning she recognised a young Somali,
who had changed character after studying religious scripture.
That was the beginning of an investigative report,
in which she revealed how a leader of am after-school activity center lured youths into Al-Shabab
“It’s half past five, you are listening to Ekot.
Many of the young men from Sweden recruited by the Islamist rebel group Al-Shabab
have come from an after-school activity center in Rinkeby.”

After the report was aired, Amun received numerous threats.
And one night her car was torched on the street.
But she had prepared herself for the threats and social ostracism.
But she was not prepared for what followed later on.
A few months later criticisms emerged from an entirely different front.
From her own colleagues on one of Sweden’s most influential political radio shows, “Konflikt”
Here Ekot’s and thereby Amun’s research was dismissed as mere “hearsay” and “rumors”.
Behind it stood Randi Mossige-Norheim, who has been awarded
the Swedish “Grand Journalism Award” among many others
It’s simply normal to ask “did it really happen?”
I don’t think we made a claim of truth. And I could say that about many things.
We did not say that anything was correct or incorrect.
-You didn’t claim anything was correct or incorrect?
No, we didn’t say anything was correct or incorrect.
But isn’t it your job to say, that which is correct?
But what I mean is, we don’t judge anybody. We don’t judge anybody.
Amun tells us, that after the program on “Konflikt” was aired, she became even more ostracized.
And it confirmed the religious groups’ belief, that they were right.
She received more threats, a mutilated doll among other things.
And her own family now turned their backs on her.
My family told me: “You see, what the Swedish journalists have done?”
“Why should you want to report (on Al-Shabab) when the Swedes don’t want to?”
Amun Abdullahi says she ended up moving away from Rinkeby due to the threats.
Ever since that show, she has been unemployed or on sick-leave.
And she will now be abandoning the journalist profession for good.
You cannot grasp this, because you belong to this group of Swedish journalists
who sit around debating… “We really can’t report this, it’s too sensitive.”
“If we do this story the Sweden Democrats could get more votes.” You belong to this group.
In the past 6 months Amun has been in Mogadishu as the leader of a girls’ school.
She is only in Sweden as a matter of coincidence. She will now be moving to Somalia permanently
But Mogadishu is a dangerous place?
It is also dangerous here. This place is more dangerous than Mogadishu.
What do you mean? Here you cannot tell the truth.
The truth is kept hidden, and the people are silenced.
Not all dreams come true, she says.
She came to Sweden as a refugee, now she is fleeing again. On her way to Somalia to start anew.
If you lose your things in a fire, it is not a problem.
But if you have faith in something, and you lose it, then it hurts.
I had faith in journalism, and in spite of its shortcomings I also believed in Swedish Radio.
I also had faith in myself, quite a lot actually.
And all three things were crushed in one go.

For a complete listing of previous enrichment news, see The Cultural Enrichment Archives.

Hat tip: Kitman.

In other news, according to recent reports, Qatar has provided more than $3 billion worth of weapons and other aid to the Syrian rebels.

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

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Caroline Glick, Insubria, JD, McR, Papa Whiskey, 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
»	Cyprus: Real Estate: Market Demand Falls, 49% Drop in March
»	Fifteen Seizures in Italy and Switzerland in MPS Probe
»	Will Chained Consumer Price Index Punish the Taxpayers?
	USA
»	A Filmmaker on Obama’s Enemies List?
»	California Statesman: CPS Kidnapping Baby Sammy Perfect Example of Power Corrupting
»	Caroline Glick: Obama and the “Official Truth”
»	D.C. Moves to Force Gun Owners to Buy Prohibitive Liability Insurance
»	Disarming Realities: As Gun Sales Soar, Gun Crimes Plummet
»	Do You Really Want the IRS Policing Your Health Care?
»	Don’t Get Distracted, Stay Focused on Benghazi
»	Exposed: Angelina Jolie Part of a Clever Corporate Scheme to Protect Billions in Brca Gene Patents, Influence Supreme Court Decision (Opinion)
»	From Rags to Riches on You and Your Neighbor’s Tax Dollars
»	German Christian Home-Schooling Romeike Family Loses U.S. Asylum Bid
»	Gross Mismanagement: DOJ Witness Program Lost 2 Suspected Terrorists
»	Homeland Security Guidelines Advise Deference to Pro-Shariah Muslim Supremacists
»	House Votes to Fully Repeal Obamacare for Third Time
»	Military Says No Presidential Authorization Needed to Quell “Civil Disturbances”
»	Natural News Challenges Angelina Jolie to Denounce Corporate Patents on Human Genes
»	News Anchor Who Complained of IRS Harassment ‘Off the Air’
»	Prominent Catholic Professor Claims IRS Audited Her After Speaking Against Obama
»	Robbers Shove Homeowner in Closet, Where He Kept His Guns
»	Second Top IRS Official Resigns Over Scandal — One Month Before Scheduled to Retire
»	The Incident in the Rose Garden Rain
»	Top Constitutional Experts: Obama is Worse Than Nixon
»	Woodward: Don’t Let Government Dismiss Benghazi
	Europe and the EU
»	Italy: Northern League Discipline Committee Expels 14 Members
»	Italy: Luxury Goods, Apartments, Motorcycles Seized in Mafia Raids
»	Italy: Controversial TAV Rail Line Treaty to be Ratified in Weeks
»	Italy: Crimi Says M5S Ready to Vote for Berlusconi Ineligibility
»	Italy: Funerals Tomorrow for Kabobo Pickaxe Rampage Victims
»	Police Seize Assets From Sicilian ‘Supermarket King’
»	Rain and Floods Continue to Thrash Northern Italy
»	UK: ‘Anyone Who Has More Than Two Children is Irresponsible’: What GP Told Mother With Bad Throat After She Mentioned She May Have Another Baby
»	UK: I’ve Been Knocked Back From 450 Jobs, Says Unemployed Man With Buddhist Tattoo on His Forehead
»	UK: International Manhunt Launched for Mother of Two-Year-Old Girl Found Dead at House by Police Called Over Concern for Youngster’s Welfare
»	UK: Now We Pull Out Our Own Teeth: Boom in DIY Dental Kits as Patients Cannot Afford NHS Fees
»	UK: Police Chiefs Prepare to Defy Cameron and May by Imposing Ban on Naming Suspects
	North Africa
»	Bomb Damages Empty School in Benghazi, Libya
»	Egyptian Troops Seized in Sinai, Gaza Crossing Closed
»	Egypt: Islamist Judges and Blasphemy Charges, New Weapons Against Christians and Secularists
	Israel and the Palestinians
»	Israel to Legalise 4 Unauthorised Settler Outposts
	Middle East
»	Bahrain: Twitter: The Social Medium the Emirs Do Not Like
»	Kuwait Bars Expats From Morning Treatment — Activists Slam Kuwait ‘Racist’ Move
»	Lebanon’s Baalbeck Festival Announces Line-Up
»	Qatar Provides Syrian Rebels With Weapons and Aid
»	Russia Sends Warships, Missiles to Syria
»	Washington: Obama Talks to Erdogan, Against Shipping Weapons to the Rebels
	South Asia
»	Indonesia: After Six Months, Jakarta Commuter Rail Drops Women-Only Trains
»	Indonesian President Named for Religious Freedom Prize. Anger and Indignation of Minorities
	Immigration
»	Italy: Grillo Puts Focus on Migrants in Extreme Social Situations
	Culture Wars
»	Godless UK: A Quarter of Britons Have No Religion With Christians Increasingly Likely to be Retired People
»	Pro-Life Groups Confirm: IRS Targeting Began in 2009
»	UK: Gay Marriage Laws Are Fuelling a ‘Real Sense of Anger’ And We’re Wrong to Focus on it, Says Defence Secretary Philip Hammond
	General
»	Map Shows World’s ‘Most Racist’ Countries (And the Answers May Surprise You)

Cyprus: Real Estate: Market Demand Falls, 49% Drop in March

(ANSAmed) NICOSIA, MAY 16 — Doom and gloom continues to settle deeper into the Cyprus’ housing market with little sign of improvement, as Famagusta Gazette reports. Domestic demand in the property market recorded a decrease after a Eurogroup decision on Cyprus last March and restrictions imposed on transactions which followed. According to the Republic’s Land Registry Office, the decrease was recorded in all cities except the western coastal town of Pafos, which appears to benefit from the interest of foreign investors, mainly Russians and Chinese.

Sale deeds submitted in April 2013 stood at 285 compared to 461 in April last year, thus recording an annual decrease of 38%. In March, the decrease was at 49%. The largest decreases were recorded in Nicosia (-65%), Famagusta (-61%), Limassol 54% and Larnaka 42%. Data for Pafos show an increase of 6%.

— Hat tip: Insubria

[Return to headlines]

Fifteen Seizures in Italy and Switzerland in MPS Probe

New suspects under investigation for money-laundering

(ANSA) — Siena, May 16 — Some 15 seizures were being carried out in various Italian and Swiss cities on Thursday as part of probes into Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena, the world’s oldest working bank, and new suspects were placed under investigation for alleged money-laundering.

The seizures reportedly pertain to so-called “Five percent gang” — a name given to ex-bank managers accused of taking a five percent personal payoff for banking operations under a previous management. Gianluca Baldassarri, the former head of Monte dei Paschi’s finance department, has been detained since February by law enforcement officials as part of an investigation into alleged fraud and bribery at MPS.

Italy’s third largest bank was thrown into crisis in January when it emerged that a shady series of derivative and structured-finance deals produced losses of 720 million euros.

Siena prosecutors are conducting probes into alleged bribery, corruption, tax evasion and other illicit operations at MPS, which were either related to the bank’s nine-billion-euro acquisition of rival Antonveneta in 2008 or the period following the takeover.

Baldassari himself is in fact reportedly under investigation for market manipulation, fraud, obstructing banking watchdogs, issuing false statements and possible collusion in obstruction of proper oversight together with MPS’s former chairman Giuseppe Mussari.

After months of bad news, MPS saw its fortunes turn on the markets on Wednesday.

Stocks for the financially creaking, scandal-mired Italian bank rose 7.7% to 0.22 euros after issuing better-than-expected first-quarter results.

“The bank has totally turned a corner with respect to the past in terms of transparency and capital solidity,” the current chairman of the Tuscan bank, Alessandro Profumo, said.

MPS said in late April it might not be able to repay the controversial government bailout, commonly called “Monti bonds” after ex-premier Mario Monti whose technical government shepherded the deal through.

Repaying the government bailout is “the main challenge” facing the bank, Profumo said.

The bank faces possible nationalization should it default.

MPS in recent months revealed losses of more than three billion euros last year.

— Hat tip: Insubria

[Return to headlines]

Will Chained Consumer Price Index Punish the Taxpayers?

Government out-of-control spenders win and the retirees, the elderly, the pensioners, and the saving taxpayers lose.

Generic CPI is important because it is a powerful policy control. CPI-W is used to calculate cost of living adjustments (COLAs) for Social Security retirement benefits. CPI-U is used to calculate “annual inflation adjustments to personal income tax brackets,” affecting outlays and revenues. Outlays are government-speak for spending.

Since 2002, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) published a Chained Consumer Price Index for all Urban Consumers (C-CPI-U) in order to report CPI “free of substitution bias.” Substitution is an economic term which refers to consumers who change their buying pattern as a direct result of changing relative prices. Consumers buy goods and services more when their prices increase slower over time. If prices rise sharply, consumers substitute those goods.

Policy-makers believe this substitution effect protects consumers from the full effect of rising prices. Neither CPI-W nor CPI-U entirely accounts for substitution thus overstating “the impact of inflation on consumer well-being.” (Julie M. Whittaker, The Chained Consumer Price Index: What Is It and Would It Be Appropriate for Cost-of-Living Adjustments, May 8, 2013)

If I have to switch the quality and type of food I buy (substitute it) for a cheaper or different alternative, it does affect my standard of living. I have insulated myself from higher prices (inflation) but the quality of what I eat has gone down.

— Hat tip: JD

[Return to headlines]

A Filmmaker on Obama’s Enemies List?

The revelations about the IRS targeting voices opposed to Barack Obama’s political agenda came of no surprise to filmmaker Joel Gilbert. His private financial accounts were hacked into and the information used by a George Soros-linked journalist, Seth Rosenfeld, before the presidential election. Gilbert wants to know who provided Rosenfeld with his private bank records. Was it someone at the IRS? Or at the White House?

Gilbert directed the blockbuster film, “Dreams from My Real Father,” which was heavily criticized by the left before the November 2012 presidential election because of the Obama campaign’s fear it could alert voters to Obama’s communist connections and Marxist philosophy. The film featured evidence that Obama’s real father was Frank Marshall Davis, a Communist Party USA operative who indoctrinated Obama into a Marxist ideology during his formative years in Hawaii.

Gilbert was interviewed extensively on radio and television, as well as by major newspapers such as The New York Times, which apparently feared the film would have an impact on the election outcome. His announcement of a promotional campaign to send millions of DVDs for free to various states was of major concern to Obama’s backers in the media.

— Hat tip: JD

[Return to headlines]

California Statesman: CPS Kidnapping Baby Sammy Perfect Example of Power Corrupting

(CA Assemblyman Tim Donnelly) There are few cases that show the truth in this proverb as clearly as when Child Protective Services (CPS) tears a baby from his loving mother’s arms without a warrant and refuses to explain why. That is what happened to one Sacramento couple late last month.

It all started with Anna & Alex Nikolayev’s 5 month-old son, Sammy, who was born with a serious heart condition.

After a nurse at one hospital tried to give young Sammy medicine that a doctor later explained should not have been administered, Anna became nervous about the quality of Sammy’s care. She expressed her desire to receive a second opinion from another doctor. When the ER refused to discharge Sammy, Anna left with her child and immediately took him to another hospital. Subsequently, the CPS was alerted.

At the second location, she was able to have him evaluated and discharged. A doctor-signed note was presented to the authorities explaining that Sammy was in very capable hands. At that point, the CPS’ involvement should have ended. It did not.

In what would be a nightmare for any loving parent, the CPS showed up the next day with four police officers to take Sammy. Thanks to Anna’s quick thinking, there is a home video* of this abusive government action.

When asked to explain their actions, CPS stated that they did not have to.

— Hat tip: JD

[Return to headlines]

Caroline Glick: Obama and the “Official Truth”

Nakoula Basseley Nakoula has been sitting in a US federal prison in Texas since his photographed midnight arrest by half a dozen deputy sheriffs at his home in California for violating the terms of his parole. As many reporters have noted, the parole violation in question would not generally lead to anything more than a court hearing.

But in Nakoula’s case, it led to a year in a federal penitentiary. Because he wasn’t really arrested for violating the terms of his parole.

Nakoula was arrested for producing an anti- Islam film that the Obama administration was falsely blaming for the al-Qaida assault on the US Consulate in Benghazi and the brutal murder of US ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans on September 11, 2012. Obama and his associates falsely blamed Nakoula’s film — and scapegoated Nakoula — for inciting the al-Qaida attack in Benghazi because they needed a fall guy to pin their cover-up of the actual circumstances of the premeditated, eminently foreseeable attack, which took place at the height of the presidential election campaign.

With the flood of scandals now inundating the White House, many are wondering if there is a connection between the cover-up of Benghazi, the IRS’s prejudicial treatment of non-leftist nonprofit organizations and political donors, the Environmental Protection Agency’s prejudicial treatment of non-liberal organizations, and the Justice Department’s subpoenaing of phone records of up to a hundred reporters and editors from the Associated Press.

On the surface, they seem like unrelated events.

But they are not. They expose the modus operandi of the Obama administration: To establish an “official truth” about all issues and events, and use the powers of the federal government to punish all those who question or expose the fraudulence of that “official truth.”…

— Hat tip: Caroline Glick

[Return to headlines]

D.C. Moves to Force Gun Owners to Buy Prohibitive Liability Insurance

In a frontal assault against the Bill of Rights, the District of Columbia is moving to force firearms owners to purchase prohibitively expensive liability insurance.

California, Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York and Pennsylvania have also proposed forcing gun owners to buy liability insurance.

Democrat City Council member Mary Cheh proposed the law. It requires residents purchase at least $250,000 in insurance coverage before city government would consider applications to register a firearm.

If passed, the law will be the first in the country and serve as a precedent for Democrats and gun-grabbers working to dismantle the Second Amendment.

— Hat tip: JD

[Return to headlines]

Disarming Realities: As Gun Sales Soar, Gun Crimes Plummet

A couple of new studies reveal the gun-control hypesters’ worst nightmare… more people are buying firearms, while firearm-related homicides and suicides are steadily diminishing. What crackpots came up with these conclusions? One set of statistics was compiled by the U.S. Department of Justice. The other was reported by the Pew Research Center.

According to DOJ’s Bureau of Justice Statistics, U.S. gun-related homicides dropped 39 percent over the course of 18 years, from 18,253 during 1993, to 11,101 in 2011. During the same period, non-fatal firearm crimes decreased even more, a whopping 69 percent. The majority of those declines in both categories occurred during the first 10 years of that time frame. Firearm homicides declined from 1993 to 1999, rose through 2006, and then declined again through 2011. Non-fatal firearm violence declined from 1993 through 2004, then fluctuated in the mid-to-late 2000s.

And where did the bad people who did the shooting get most of their guns? Were those gun show “loopholes” responsible? Nope. According to surveys DOJ conducted of state prison inmates during 2004 (the most recent year of data available), only two percent who owned a gun at the time of their offense bought it at either a gun show or flea market. About 10 percent said they purchased their gun from a retail shop or pawnshop, 37 percent obtained it from family or friends, and another 40 percent obtained it from an illegal source.

— Hat tip: JD

[Return to headlines]

Do You Really Want the IRS Policing Your Health Care?

Over the past week, details have emerged on how the Internal Revenue Service subjected certain groups to undue scrutiny in a systematic manner over an extended period of time. It is deeply concerning that the same IRS that just admitted to the political profiling of Americans who oppose a big-government agenda is also tasked with enforcing the myriad mandates, taxes and regulations in Obamacare.

Americans have entrusted the IRS with a tremendous amount of power, and that power has been systematically abused over the course of months and years. While this fact is chilling enough for many of us, it’s actually about to get much worse.

With the House poised to once again to vote to repeal the disastrous Obamacare law on Thursday, it’s worthwhile to note that President Obama has approved giving this entity billions more in funding and thousands of new employees to take on even more extraordinary authority — enforcing Obamacare, overseeing the health care decisions of all Americans and, what’s more, handling the private health insurance information that belongs to you and your family.

— Hat tip: JD

[Return to headlines]

Don’t Get Distracted, Stay Focused on Benghazi

Most of us thought the Benghazi nightmare was beyond unbelievable! Surely as the investigation full of whistle blowers and high level officials verified our worst fears about Obama, justice would be done this time. The investigation still continues and the smell of treason, hidden agendas and the mother load of illegal cover-ups reek to high heaven! It demands treason, arrests and impeachment charges.

I won’t roll out all the details of the current Benghazi testimony and verified facts that expose the endless lies by Obama and the evil cover up but they are now all verified, even by the normally ‘asleep media’ ABC, CNN and others. We now have our first apology this week by the head of the BBC saying they had been ‘duped’ by Obama and the Government spin. Who will be next?

Obama sees that lava is coming down from the mountain and the Elephants are charging. Even more frightening for him is that the idiot and sold out mainstream media is waking up. Obama knows the consequences will be severe regarding his actions. I predict his endless and evil behavior is now starting to hit him upside the head. He apparently forgot that ‘what goes around comes around.’ He also forgot that when you throw out the evil he has, it will eventually land hard just like an angry boomerang — in your face.

— Hat tip: JD

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Exposed: Angelina Jolie Part of a Clever Corporate Scheme to Protect Billions in Brca Gene Patents, Influence Supreme Court Decision (Opinion)

Today, about 20 percent of your genes are already patented by corporations and universities. As the ACLU explains, “A gene patent holder has the right to prevent anyone from studying, testing or even looking at a gene. As a result, scientific research and genetic testing has been delayed, limited or even shut down due to concerns about gene patents.”

This means that when corporations own patents on human genes, it stifles scientific research while granting that corporation a monopoly over the “intellectual property” encoded in your own DNA! (How criminal is that? You decide…)

What this means is that if the Supreme Court rules against Myriad, it would set a precedent that would dismantle the entire human gene patenting industry, affecting trillions of dollars in future profits.

This, I believe, is the real reason behind Angelina Jolie’s announcement. It seems designed to invoke women’s emotional reactions and create a groundswell of support for corporate-owned genes, thereby handing these corporations a Supreme Court precedent that will ensure trillions in future profits. It’s a for-profit PR stunt that tries to trick women into supporting a corporate system of patents and monopolies that claims, right now, to own portions of the bodies of every woman living today.

While most media outlets have no clue about the patent issues at stake here, the Detroit Free Press took notice, saying:

“The Hollywood star’s decision to get tested for a breast cancer gene mutation, undergo a double mastectomy and then write about it calls attention to a case now pending before the court. The justices have just weeks to decide if Myriad Genetics’ patent on the two genes that can identify an increased risk of breast and ovarian cancer is legal. Critics complain that the company’s monopoly leaves them as the sole source of the $4,000 tests needed to determine each woman’s risk.”

— Hat tip: JD

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From Rags to Riches on You and Your Neighbor’s Tax Dollars

80% of Dept. of Energy loans went to companies owned by or connected to President Barack Obama’s top campaign fundraisers.

The wheels of TRUE justice, not those of the Obama-Holder unJustice Department, are beginning to move, if ever so slightly; but moving they do appear to be. With all the roadblocks the dastardly duo of Obama and Holder are placing in the path of progress, it’s a wonder that they are moving at all.

Those two conniving chameleons of corruptness and chicanery run the most illegitimate department of justice in the history of this one-time great country (BO — Before Obama). In fact, to call it the Justice Department is the most improper and nonfactual title that could be bestowed on it. Justice does not dwell within its parameters.

It is only fitting that officials holding office in the Congressional House of Representatives are finally stirring with comments that include the word ‘impeachment’. It is about time and probably close to FIVE years late; but I shouldn’t be saying “late” as it is NEVER too late to bring daylight to the dark and mysterious corridors of that terribly mismanaged and mishandled Executive Department. The apparent sins of the Treasury Department’s former tax-Cheat Secretary and currect Internal Revenue Service are childish when compared to the unJustice Department.

— Hat tip: JD

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German Christian Home-Schooling Romeike Family Loses U.S. Asylum Bid

A German family seeking asylum in the U.S. so they can home-school their children lost their appeal in federal court on Tuesday (May 14), but their lawyers say they’re prepared to petition the U.S. Supreme Court to take the case.

The German government persecuted the Romeike family for their faith, said Mike Donnelly, a lawyer with the Home School Legal Defense Association, a religious organization that is representing the Romeike family.

“It is treating people who home-school for religious or philosophical reasons differently,” he added.

— Hat tip: JD

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Gross Mismanagement: DOJ Witness Program Lost 2 Suspected Terrorists

The Justice Department’s inspector general said the U.S. Marshals Service lost two known or suspected terrorists who participated in a federal witness program.

A summary of an interim report from the Inspector General’s office said during an audit of the federal Witness Security Program it became apparent “the department did not definitively know how many known or suspected terrorists were admitted into the WitSec [Witness Security Program],” among other “significant issues concerning national security,” CNN reported Thursday.

The U.S. broadcaster said the Marshals Service concluded one of the “known or suspected” terrorists was living outside the United States and the other was believed to be living outside the country.

— Hat tip: JD

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Homeland Security Guidelines Advise Deference to Pro-Shariah Muslim Supremacists

“The Department of Homeland Security, which under Secretary Janet Napolitano has shown a keen interest in monitoring and warning about outspoken conservatives, takes a very different approach in monitoring political Islamists, according to a 2011 memo on protecting the free speech rights of pro-Shariah Muslim supremacists.

“In a checklist obtained by The Daily Caller entitled “Countering Violent Extremism Dos and Don’ts” the DHS’s Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties notifies local and national law enforcement officials that it is Obama administration policy to consider specifically Islamic criticism of the American system of government legitimate.”

[Not only have the feds proscribed the truth about Islam in their terrorism training manuals, theyre mandating dhimmitude in their agents. The document is reproduced at the Caller’s site. — PW]

— Hat tip: Papa Whiskey

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House Votes to Fully Repeal Obamacare for Third Time

The House of Representatives voted today to repeal the entire Affordable Care Act, 229-195. This was the third vote for full repeal, and the 37th overall vote the House has taken to disrupt, dismantle, defund or repeal parts of the Affordable Care Act.

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R.-Minn.) called the vote shortly before 6:30 p.m.

Two Blue Dog Democrats, Reps. Mike McIntyre (D-N.C.) and Jim Matheson (D-Utah), voted along with 227 House Republicans in support of the bill.

No Republicans opposed repeal, although five GOPers missed the vote.

In a statement following the vote, House Speaker John Boehner said the vote was “all about jobs.”

— Hat tip: JD

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Military Says No Presidential Authorization Needed to Quell “Civil Disturbances”

A recent Department of Defense instruction alters the US code applying to the military’s involvement in domestic law enforcement by allowing US troops to quell “civil disturbances” domestically without any Presidential authorization, greasing the skids for a de facto military coup in America along with the wholesale abolition of Posse Comitatus.

The instruction (embedded at the end of this article), which was originally released in February yet has only come to light this week, outlines DoD policy regarding, “DoD support to Federal, State, tribal, and local civilian law enforcement agencies, including responses to civil disturbances within the United States.”

In essence, this policy change seeks to supersede Posse Comitatus, the 1878 law which forbids the military from being involved in domestic law enforcement “except in cases and under circumstances expressly authorized by the Constitution or Act of Congress.”

— Hat tip: JD

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Natural News Challenges Angelina Jolie to Denounce Corporate Patents on Human Genes

(NaturalNews) Following recent revelations of how Angelina Jolie’s double mastectomy P.R. stunt feeds into the profits of the trillion dollar industry which claims to own human genes, Natural News is now calling on Jolie to publicly denounce patents on human genes, including the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes she has now made famous.

Does Angelina Jolie really stand up for women and human rights? Or is she a corporate sellout who corrals women into the for-profit cancer industry that claims ownership over the genetic code of all women?

FACTS:

• The BRCA1 gene for breast cancer is patented by a corporation called Myriad Genetics. All patents are government-enforced monopolies over intellectual property, and they thus prevent anyone else from conducting research or testing on the BRCA1 gene without paying huge royalties to Myriad. This is why the BRCA detection tests cost $3,000 — $4,000 each.
• Angelina Jolie’s announcement of a double mastectomy even though she had no breast cancer caused the stock price of Myriad to skyrocket to a 52-week high. Whether she intended it or not, her advocacy of double mastectomies is causing market values to sharply rise in the human genomics industry, where corporations own patents on human genes.
• Obamacare mandates that, over the next few years, taxpayers start paying for BRCA1 gene testing. This will be a direct transfer of money from taxpayers to the corporations that “own” the human genes being tested.
• An imminent Supreme Court decision could make or break the human gene testing industry. Trillions of dollars are at stake. If the Supreme Court rules against corporate patents on human genes, BRCA1 testing will become amazingly affordable (in the $100 range), thereby denying billions of dollars in profits to gene patent holders.

— Hat tip: JD

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News Anchor Who Complained of IRS Harassment ‘Off the Air’

Larry Connors, the KMOV anchor who asked Barack Obama some tough questions about his family’s vacation habits and claimed earlier this week that he might have been harassed by the IRS as a result, has been taken off the air.

According to the St. Louis Dispatch, the station decided to give Connors a “few days off” while they looked into his allegations. KMOV news director Sean McLaughlin went out of his way to say that Connors was not suspended.

“We take this very seriously, and we don’t expect this to drag on. We’re still looking into the situation and weighing our options,” he told the St. Louis Dispatch.

— Hat tip: JD

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Prominent Catholic Professor Claims IRS Audited Her After Speaking Against Obama

Startling allegations are emerging in the midst of the Internal Revenue Service scandal. Dr. Anne Hendershott, a devout Catholic and a noted sociologist, professor and author, says that she believes she may have been one of the IRS’s targets. Hendershott claims that the IRS audited her in 2010 and demanded to know who was paying her and “what their politics were.” Ann Hendershott can’t help but wonder if her writings against progressive groups played a role in her audit.

Hendershott says she received a phone in May of that year in which she said she was being audited. A letter that followed on May 19, 2010 solidified the IRS’s request to meet her in person two months later in July. The professor told the Blaze that she believes that the situation surrounding hers was more-than-curious.

“The IRS calls my house and says . ‘I just wanted to let you know that we’re going to be auditing your business’ and I said ‘My businesses?’ and he said, ‘You know the expenses you take off for writing,” she recalls.

— Hat tip: JD

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Robbers Shove Homeowner in Closet, Where He Kept His Guns

In yet another pro-Second Amendment story that the national media dare not touch, a homeowner in Sharpstown, Houston was assaulted by three robbers who broke into his house and shut him in a closet — unaware that the closet was where he kept his guns.

With the homeowner thinking the three men had left, he exited the closet armed and proceeded to walk downstairs, before confronting one of the burglars and exchanging shots.

The homeowner was unharmed but the wounded robber stumbled outside and collapsed onto the floor, where he was watched by Neighbor Craig Gaddis who had heard the gunfire. The other two men fled the scene.

Neighbors said that the area had been plagued by a spate of recent robberies. The wounded suspect was hospitalized and the homeowner faces no charges for defending his property.

“Guess what? The owner had a gun,” Gaddis told local ABC 13 news. “He did exactly what he was supposed to do — with the gun, that’s what they’re made for — protect his home.”

This is precisely the kind of story, reflecting the Second Amendment in a positive light in stopping a crime, that happens routinely but is rarely if ever mentioned by the national media, which instead only obsesses about guns when they are used in the commission of a crime.

— Hat tip: JD

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Second Top IRS Official Resigns Over Scandal — One Month Before Scheduled to Retire

Expected to retire in June, Joseph Grant, head of the tax-exempt and government entities division of the IRS, said on Thursday he was leaving the agency immediately. Grant was the supervisor for the controversy-mired department responsible for illegally targeting tea-party and other conservative groups.

Grant’s resignation came just one day after acting IRS Commissioner Steven Miller stepped down. Miller’s assignment was also scheduled to end in June.

[…]

Not to be mollified by a simple slap on the wrist and what basically amounts to an extended vacation for the two people most responsible for the IRS action, Speaker of the House, John Boehner is calling for blood. “My question isn’t about who is going to resign. My question is who’s going to jail over this scandal?”

— Hat tip: JD

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The Incident in the Rose Garden Rain

Armed by the arrogant confidence that comes via a protective circle of self-serving, back-scratching politicians (including Republican ones), who do nothing to deter his increasing taunts against all things American, President Barack Hussein Obama continues to publicly trash the cherished image of the military.

Taking a leaf straight from the book of his overbearing wife, Michelle who used military members in full dress as props on the night she invaded living rooms via satellite from the White House to announce this year’s Best Picture, yesterday big brave BHO used Marines holding umbrellas to shelter both himself and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan from a little light drizzle in the White House Rose Garden.

[…]

“According to Marine Corps regulation MCO P1020.34F of the Marine Corps Uniform Regulations chapter 3, a male Marine is not allowed to carry an umbrella while in uniform. There is no provision in the Marine Corps uniform regulation guidelines that allows a male Marine to carry an umbrella.”

“Not even the President of the United States can request a Marine to carry an umbrella without the express consent of the Commandant of the Marine Corps, according (to) the Marine Corps Manual.

— Hat tip: JD

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Top Constitutional Experts: Obama is Worse Than Nixon

In the wake of the twin scandals of the IRS targeting conservative groups and the Department of Justice spying on AP reporters, the comparisons between Obama and Nixon are everywhere.

But what do experts say?

Former New York Times general counsel James Goodale — who represented the paper during its Pentagon Papers fight with the Nixon administration — said in an interview yesterday that Obama is worse than Nixon when it comes to press freedoms. And see this.

Former constitutional lawyer Glenn Greenwald noted last year:

We supposedly learned important lessons from the abuses of power of the Nixon administration, and then of the Bush administration: namely, that we don’t trust government officials to exercise power in the dark, with no judicial oversight, with no obligation to prove their accusations. Yet now we hear exactly this same mentality issuing from Obama, his officials and defenders to justify a far more extreme power than either Nixon or Bush dreamed of asserting: he’s only killing The Bad Citizens, so there’s no reason to object!

Jonathan Turley — perhaps the top constitutional law expert in the United States (and a liberal) — writes:

The painful fact is that Barack Obama is the president that Nixon always wanted to be.

Four decades ago, Nixon was halted in his determined effort to create an “imperial presidency” with unilateral powers and privileges. In 2013, Obama wields those very same powers openly and without serious opposition. The success of Obama in acquiring the long-denied powers of Nixon is one of his most remarkable, if ignoble, accomplishments. Consider a few examples:

— Hat tip: JD

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Woodward: Don’t Let Government Dismiss Benghazi

During an appearance on MSNBC’s Morning Joe today, Bob Woodward said the corporate media should not allow the government to underplay and divert attention away from the Benghazi terror attack.

“If you read through all these e-mails, you see that everyone in the government is saying, ‘Oh, let’s not tell the public that terrorists were involved, people connected to al-Qaeda. Let’s not tell the public that there were warnings,” Woodward said.

He then compared the situation to Watergate 40 years ago. “I have to go back 40 years to Watergate when Nixon put out his edited transcripts to the conversations, and he personally went through them and said, ‘Oh, let’s not tell this, let’s not show this.’ I would not dismiss Benghazi. It’s a very serious issue. As people keep saying, four people were killed.”

— Hat tip: JD

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Italy: Northern League Discipline Committee Expels 14 Members

Slaps, shoving reported at Veneto branch

(ANSA) — Milan, May 13 — The disciplinary committee of the regionalist Northern League agreed Monday to expel at least 14 members from its Veneto branch in northern Italy after a meeting that reportedly involved scuffles, slaps and shoving.

Another 22 so-called militants, who clashed with other League members at the meeting, have been suspended by “unanimous” consent, ANSA has learned.

Dissidents who have challenged national secretary Flavio Tosi were able to enter Monday’s meeting and began shoving and shouting insults at other League members.

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Italy: Luxury Goods, Apartments, Motorcycles Seized in Mafia Raids

Investigators target assets of associates

(ANSA) — Palermo, May 15 — Police seized luxury clothing, purses and accessories from designer shops as well as apartments and other assets worth more than 16 million euros as part of a Mafia crackdown Wednesday.

Police in Sicily said Wednesday that raids in the city of Palermo, as well as in the city of Catania, were conducted during an investigation into the business dealings of Filippo Giardina and Salvatore Milano. Both men are 60 and under investigation for money laundering.

Police say that Milano is well known as a Mafia leader in Palermo and has been placed under house arrest.

Besides luxury items, apartments, warehouses and land, a tobacco shop, three cars, motorcycles and a boat were also seized.

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Italy: Controversial TAV Rail Line Treaty to be Ratified in Weeks

Link to return before parliament

(ANSA) — Rome, May 16 — The international treaty for the controversial Tav high-speed rail line running from Lyon to Turin will be ratified by Italy’s parliament in the next two weeks, Infrastructure Minister Maurizio Lupi said on Thursday.

Critics of the rail link have staged violent protests since a construction site for the high-speed rail connection opened outside Turin in 2011, denouncing its high cost and claiming it will cause environmental damage.

Despite the backlash, the government has said that construction will continue as planned and that the project is an important driver of economic growth.

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Italy: Crimi Says M5S Ready to Vote for Berlusconi Ineligibility

(AGI) Rome — Crimi says that the M5S movement, taking the word of Senate PD group leader, is ready to vote Berlusconi ineligible .

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

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Italy: Funerals Tomorrow for Kabobo Pickaxe Rampage Victims

(AGI) Milan — Funerals will be held tomorrow in Milan for the three victims of Ghana native Mada Kabobo’s pickaxe rampage .

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

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Police Seize Assets From Sicilian ‘Supermarket King’

Sebastiano Scuto guilty of associating with Mafia

(ANSA) — Catania, May 15 — Police on Wednesday sequestered hundreds of millions of euros in assets linked to a disgraced businessman known as Sicily’s ‘supermarket king’. Sebastiano Scuto was sentenced by an appeals court last month to 12 years in prison for Mafia affiliation. He was convicted along with former police sergeant Orazio Castro, who was accused of passing information to the Mafia.

The court heard that Scuto, 72, paid the Laudani clan for protection and help in expanding his independent supermarket franchises, which were part of the Despar chain.

Besides the 12-year jail term, it also ordered the confiscation of all Scuto’s property.

Initially, the courts had sentenced Scuto to four years and eight months in prison, and had ordered just 15% of his goods confiscated.

Scuto had argued that he was a victim, not a part, of the Mafia.

Seizures of his property Wednesday were taking place in five Sicilian cities as well as in Salerno, Reggio Emilia, Monza and Milan.

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Rain and Floods Continue to Thrash Northern Italy

Man drowns in garage, railways submerged in mudslides

(ANSA) — Rome, May 17 — Unseasonably heavy rains continued to flood parts of northern Italy Friday, killing at least one person and causing hundreds of millions of euros in damage. In the Valsugana valley between the Veneto and Trentino-Alto Adige regions, a landslide blocked the railway outside Trento.

In Lombardy, 80 people were evacuated from two buildings whose foundations were weakened by a mudslide along the Lecco-Bergamo rail line. Near Verona, a man was found drowned in a flooded semi-underground garage, while not far away a woman was trapped in her car buried by a mudslide before being rescued by firefighters and taken to hospital. Operators across northern Italy reported emergency lines were overwhelmed. Veneto Governor Luca Zaia said he would ask for over half a billion euros in emergency State assistance. The bad weather is estimated to last up to another five days in parts of northern Italy.

— Hat tip: Insubria

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UK: ‘Anyone Who Has More Than Two Children is Irresponsible’: What GP Told Mother With Bad Throat After She Mentioned She May Have Another Baby

When Charlotte Comer went to her GP with a sore throat, she got more than she was expecting.

As well as being prescribed antibiotics for tonsillitis, the mother of two received an unwelcome lecture on family size.

Her doctor told her she would be ‘irresponsible’ if she had a third child, and went on to call for a limit on how many children couples can have, as happens in China.

[…]

The couple do not claim employment or housing benefits and Miss Comer is currently on maternity leave. ‘I was walking out with Freddie in my arms and he [Dr Landen] asked me if I wanted any more kids,’ she said. ‘I told him we were thinking of having another, but not until after we got married.

‘I started explaining that we both came from big families so we’d like more children but he said he didn’t think coming from big families justified having more children.

‘He then started talking about how the country is overpopulated and anyone who has more than two children is irresponsible. He started going on about how this country should be like China where people are allowed only one child.’ China’s one-child law has been used to control its booming population since 1979…

[…]

‘I was shocked to be having this conversation. I went in for some antibiotics and came out with a lecture…

— Hat tip: JD

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UK: I’ve Been Knocked Back From 450 Jobs, Says Unemployed Man With Buddhist Tattoo on His Forehead

A job-hunter claims he has been left unemployable because he is covered in tattoos.

Yusuf Hameed, 40, has been knocked back from dozens of jobs over the last year because of his unconventional appearance.

His body art includes a Buddhism symbol on his forehead, two Thai boxing tattoos on the back of his head, and a yin yang on the back of his head.

He said he has applied for 450 jobs including a car wash attendant and a street cleaner but receives the same feedback — employers cannot hire him because of his tattoos.

Mr Hameed, from Batley, West Yorkshire, said: ‘It is really getting me down and it is so hard to think that these tattoos are such a strong barrier against me getting a job.

‘I came to Batley from Pontefract after being made redundant from a meat manufacturing company.

‘I’ve been doing everything the job centre has told me and attended all my interviews but they take one look at my tattoos and won’t give me a chance.’

Muslim convert Mr Hameed got his first tattoo aged 14 but wishes he had never had them done.

— Hat tip: JD

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UK: International Manhunt Launched for Mother of Two-Year-Old Girl Found Dead at House by Police Called Over Concern for Youngster’s Welfare

An international manhunt was launched tonight for the mother of a two-year-old girl found dead in her home.

The child’s body was discovered at her semi-detached home after a member of her family became concerned for her welfare and contacted police.

Detectives from Thames Valley Police said they are trying to find the mother, who they believe may have left the country.

— Hat tip: JD

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UK: Now We Pull Out Our Own Teeth: Boom in DIY Dental Kits as Patients Cannot Afford NHS Fees

THOUSANDS of Britons are carrying out DIY dentistry, pulling their own teeth with pliers and using household glue to stick down fillings.

Unable to afford soaring charges, almost a fifth of people have all but given up going to their dentist, the Sunday Express newspaper has discovered.

There has been a surge in sales of dental kits at pharmacies including chemicals to whiten teeth.

Experts say that up to 200,000 DIY dentists risk injuring themselves and missing out on potentially life-saving check-ups.

Up to a third of adults no longer have an NHS dentist, according to the latest figures.

Gulf War veteran Ian Boynton, 46, from Woodmansey, East Yorkshire, pulled out 13 of his teeth with pliers because he was in agony and could not find an NHS dentist to treat him.

In another case a 46-year-old man from Wandsworth, south London, needed major surgery after he stuck a crown into his mouth with super glue which rotted the bone in his gum.

Other DIY dentists have whitened teeth with household cleaning products and popped ulcers with pins.

Dental surgeon Julian Perry warned: “DIY dentistry can be extremely harmful. It is vital patients get regular check-ups. Dentists can identify mouth cancer and problems linked to conditions such as heart disease.”

Sandy Renton, 41, of Hove, East ¬Sussex, lost a veneer leaving her with a stump at the front of her mouth. No NHS practices could take her on and she went to a private clinic which badly refitted her veneer and damaged another healthy tooth.

Mrs Renton eventually discovered Oasis, a new chain of dental practices that offers affordable private care and NHS treatments when it has space, which resolved her problems.

Since a new NHS contract was introduced in 2006, the number of crowns, bridges and dentures being fitted has fallen dramatically as dentists feel they are no longer paid enough for time-consuming procedures.

As many as 500,000 patients have been wrongly told by their dentist they must pay privately for treatment that should be available on the NHS.

Barry Cockcroft, Chief Dental Officer for NHS England, said: “All children and nearly one third of adults who see a dentist under the NHS get their treatment for free and 1.25 million more ¬people now see NHS dentists than in May 2010.

“For those who do pay, NHS dentistry charges are very simple. Anyone worried about charges should speak to their dentist, who can help them ensure their treatment is affordable. No one should feel any need to put themselves in danger by attempting their own dentistry.”

— Hat tip: McR

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UK: Police Chiefs Prepare to Defy Cameron and May by Imposing Ban on Naming Suspects

Police chiefs are preparing to defy the Prime Minister by imposing a ban on identifying arrested suspects.

Despite warnings from David Cameron and Home Secretary Theresa May, the Association of Chief Police Officers is pressing ahead with plans to impose a policy of almost total secrecy.

A draft of its draconian new guidance — due to be approved next week — states: ‘Save in exceptional and clearly identified circumstances, the names or identifying details of those who are arrested or suspected of a crime should not be released by police forces to the press or the public.’

It flies in the face of a hugely significant intervention by Mr Cameron on Wednesday, when he said there should be a ‘working assumption’ in favour of identifying crime suspects.

— Hat tip: JD

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Bomb Damages Empty School in Benghazi, Libya

(AGI) — Tripoli, May 17 — A bomb exploded in an empty school in Benghazi, causing damage, but injuring no one. The school was closed on Friday, the Muslim sabbath, but investigators said the men guarding the building could not be ruled out as targets. The incident is the latest confirmation of the high level of instability in the country.

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

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Egyptian Troops Seized in Sinai, Gaza Crossing Closed

Hamas boosts controls to prevent ‘jihadist’ infiltration

(ANSAmed) — GAZA — The Rafah crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip was blocked on Friday by Egyptian policemen in a protest against the abduction of seven fellow officers Thursday in northern Sinai, between el-Arish and Sheikh Zweid.

Many suspect that jihadist groups could take the hostages to the Palestinian enclave.

Hamas, the Islamic group governing Gaza, has boosted controls along the border to prevent ‘infiltrations’ following the kidnapping, allegedly carried out by militants with jihadist cells in Sinai.

Palestinian news agency Maan said four of the kidnapped officers were deployed on the Rafah border crossing and that is why their colleagues have decided to block the passage in retaliation ‘until the prisoners are released’.

Local sources said that hundreds of Palestinians are now blocked on both sides of the crossing until the crisis is solved.

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Egypt: Islamist Judges and Blasphemy Charges, New Weapons Against Christians and Secularists

The case of Dimyana Ubeid Abdel al-Nour, a Christian teacher accused of insulting Islam, is raising concerns across the country. Backed by Islamist Prosecutor General Talaat Abdhallah, more and more judges accept complaints for blasphemy and proselytising.

Cairo (AsiaNews) — Judges affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood and Salafist imams are jeopardising the safety and survival of Egypt’s Coptic Christians, sources, anonymous for security reasons, told AsiaNews. Backed by controversial Attorney General Talaat Abdhallah, more and more judges are in fact accepting allegations of blasphemy and insults to religion.

“The presence of radical imams in mosques in Upper Egypt villages is another problem,” one source said. “They incite the largely illiterate population against Christians.”

Minority Copts have in fact become the victims of assault, arsons and bombings on a daily basis. The latest case occurred on Wednesday in a village in Minya District (Upper Egypt) where a mob of more than 2,000 Muslims attacked Coptic-owned shops and homes and tried to burn down the local church, which is dedicated to St Theodore Coptic.

“Copts have lived with these problems for years,” the source added, “which are often resolved through the intervention of religious authorities, and reconciliation. However, the rising number of complaints about blasphemy or proselytising is a reason of concern. In fact, judges once were reluctant to deal with such complaints out of fear that they might spark sectarian violence, now blasphemy charges are one of the easiest ways to attack the Christian minority thanks to the support of Islamist officials.”

In recent weeks, the case of Dimyana Ubeid Abdel al-Nour (pictured) become front-page news. The 23-year-old Christian teacher at a primary school in Luxor was arrested on 8 May for allegedly insulting the Prophet Muhammad in class.

Faced with a large number of calls for her release, Prosecutor General Abdhallah freed her on bail (US$ 2,900), a huge sum for the young woman’s family. Yet, Dimyana is still in prison where she begun a hunger strike ahead of her trial on 21 May.

Dimyana’s legal ordeal began on 8 April 2012. The young teacher taught at the Shaikh Sultan Primary School and on that day was covering polytheism, religious life at the time of the pharaohs, and how Pharaoh Akhenaten had adopted monotheism. The lesson also touched on the three monotheistic religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. During the class, the subject inspector was also present but he left ten minutes before the session ended.

Two days later, the school suspended the teacher after three children accused her of defaming Islam and praising the Gospel. In the following days, three separate committees as well as the school director questioned her.

The parents of some children had claimed that the teacher had compared Muhammad and the late Patriarch Shenouda III, judging the latter better than the former. However, from the start, Dimyana denied the allegations.

After questioning, all three committees cleared her. However, under pressure from parents and other teachers, the school brought the case to the attention of the Education Ministry, which opened a file against the teacher. On 8 May, she arrested.

Moderate Muslims have also caught in cases of lèse-religion, especially journalists and television commentators. The most famous case involves Bassem Yousef, the Egyptian Jon Stewart, who was arrested and later released after the Muslim Brotherhood complained that he had insulted Islam, a charge he has always rejected as false. His trial has been set for September. In recent months. (S.C.)

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

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Israel to Legalise 4 Unauthorised Settler Outposts

Reports from Peace Now spark Palestinian Authority rage

(ANSAmed) — TEL AVIV, MAY 16 — Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu’s nationalistic government plans to grant legal status to four illegally-built settler outposts in the West Bank. The reports from the Israeli anti-settlement group Peace Now activists have sparked the anger of Palestinian Authority and may render in vain the U.S.’s latest, difficult attempt to restart the peace process, which has been stalled for years. The matter came to light only days prior to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s visit to the region. Kerry is scheduled to meet with both Prime Minister Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in the attempt to relaunch talks. In response to a Supreme Court petition by Peace Now, the government said it had decided to retroactively authorise four West Bank outposts built without official permission. The court will meet on May 22 to discuss the issue again.

Peace Now considers the decision “a slap in the face to Kerry’s initiative” and “blatant reassurance to settler interests”. The association said that the decision harms any hope for peace. Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad Malki said that the Palestinian Authority “condemns” the decision and “firmly rejects it”. No public statement has yet been issued by the Israeli prime minister’s office. The four outposts, all located in isolated areas, are: Maale Rehavam (east of Bethlehem), Haroeh (north of Ramallah), Givat Assaf (east of Ramallah) and Mitzpe Lachish (south-west of hebron). Peace Now noted that Givat Assaf was supposed to have been evacuated a year ago. According to media reports, the Supreme Court has stated that the government claims that three quarters of the land on which the outpost was built — previously entirely owned by Palestinians — has been purchased by a cooperative connected with the settlers. This is why the government has ordered the civil administration (the Israeli military command in the Palestinian Territories) to look into the “possibility of legalising the outpost”. Peace Now said that the new government’s attitude “shows that it is not interested in peace or the two-state solution”.

Last week the media reported that Netanyahu was quietly curbing settlement activity in the West Bank and freezing tenders for new housing projects in an apparent show of support for Kerry’s initiative. The Israeli activists also say that settlement building is going forward in any case. They also note that last week Israeli announced preliminary approval for the building of 300 housing units in the Beit El settlement, on the basis of agreements made between the prime minister and settlers a year ago.

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Bahrain: Twitter: The Social Medium the Emirs Do Not Like

As government persecution continues, six more people are arrested in Bahrain for offensive twitting against the country’s customs and institutions. Meanwhile in Saudi Arabia, the religious police warns locals that anyone using social media “has lost this world and his afterlife.”

Manama (AsiaNews/Agencies) — A Bahrain court sentenced six activists to a year in jail for insulting King Hamad bin Isa al-Halaifa in messages posted on Twitter. For the public prosecutor, they were guilty of “misuse of freedom of expression”.

On the same day the six activists were convicted, Abdul Latif Abdul Aziz al-Sheikh, head of the Saudi religious police, strongly criticised the use of twitter by Saudis, saying that “anyone using social media sites,” especially Twitter, “has lost this world and his afterlife”, reflecting official concern that Saudis use Twitter to discuss sensitive political and other issues.

Saudi Arabia is believed to have seen the world’s fastest increase in the uptake of Twitter.

Protests in Bahrain began in February of 2011, leading to the arrest of 3,000 activists and the death of 80 protesters, 35 of them only between March and April.

Bahrain’s ruling family has run the small country for more than 200 years. When challenged, it called on the Saudi government to help them crush demonstrations. Riyadh responded by sending about a thousand troops.

On 9 July 2012, Nabeel Rajab, head of the Bahrain Centre for human rights and an iconic figure in the protest movement, was also sentenced to two years in prison on misusing freedom of expression as well.

Friends now run his Twitter account, which has become the online window for Bahraini dissidents with over 200,000 followers.

On the same day that the six activists were convicted, Nabeel’s family went public with strong concerns over the conditions of his imprisonment.

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

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Kuwait Bars Expats From Morning Treatment — Activists Slam Kuwait ‘Racist’ Move

KUWAIT: Kuwait is to bar foreigners from attending public hospitals in the mornings, local media reported yesterday, in a decision activists labeled as “racist”. The decision comes after complaints in parliament of Kuwaiti patients having to wait for treatment at public health facilities because of the large number of expatriates.

Health Minister Mohammad Al-Haifi, who is also a surgeon, ordered that the outpatient clinics at the public hospital in Jahra, west of Kuwait City, will only receive Kuwaiti patients in the morning from June 1. Foreign residents will be able to receive treatment in the evenings, said the decision published in Kuwaiti media yesterday.

Kuwait is home to 2.6 million foreigners, mostly from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, the Philippines, Egypt and Syria, and 1.2 million native Kuwaitis. The new system will be applied at the clinics at Jahra hospital for six months on a “trial basis before its application at other (government) hospitals”.

Kuwait provides free medical services to citizens but expats must pay an annual fee of $175 each besides paying reduced charges for certain procedures like x-ray. Activists in the oil-rich Gulf state condemned the move, and opposition lawyer and writer Mohammad Abdulqader Al-Jassem described it as “racial segregation” on Twitter.

Similar restrictions are in place at other government agencies such as the traffic department, which handles applications from Kuwaitis only in the morning. —AFP

[Comment from the tipster: News long-expected according to the local gossip. These are the same people who scream “discrimination”, “profiling” etc. when in the West. Now they introduce nacional AND relgious aparteid — because by law only a Muslim can become a Kuwaiti citizen. There are few Kuwaiti Christian families — a remnant of the “imperialism” when American missionaries built the first medical facility in Kuwait. Now the building of this “Amriki hospital” is a venue for exhibitions, events etc organized by the foundation… guess which? — Dar al Islam.]

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Lebanon’s Baalbeck Festival Announces Line-Up

Mideast’s most prestigious summer event

(ANSAMed) — BEIRUT, MAY 16 — This year’s Baalbeck International Festival will open on June 30 with a concert by Grammy Award-winning Renee Fleming. As almost every year since 1955, the Middle East’s most prestigious artistic and musical festival — which was halted only during the Lebanese civil war, 1970-90, and in 2006 due to the conflict between Israel and the Shiite movement Hezbollah — offers a programme packed with performing artists both homegrown and from the wider Arab world, alternating with foreign ones. This year, ANSAmed was told by Nayla de Freije, head of the festival’s organising committee, singers, actors, musicians and dancers have been invited who through their work seek out the origins of different cultures. “We went in search of cultural roots, for the rediscovery of heritage and to explore artistic contamination,” de Freijie said. Fleming’s June 30 opening concert will be held in the evocative Temple of Bacchus in the archaeological site of Baalbeck, known in the ancient world as Heliopolis or The City of the Sun. Capital of the Roman Empire’s colony in the Levant, for centuries it was traversed by traders and visited by those on pilgrimages to the sun god Baal. Baalbeck is, however, only a few dozen kilometres from Syria, where a bloody civil war is underway that threatens to spill over into Lebanon, Turkey, Iraq and Jordan. Baalbeck is also the capital of a region dominated by Shiites answering to Hezbollah, ally of the regime in Damascus. Hezbollah has sent thousands of its militants to fight alongside Assad’s regime to put down the armed uprising underway in Syria. Nevertheless, the festival’s organisers are optimistic and hope they will not be forced to cancel any of the six concerts scheduled. Among the foreign stars sharing the stage under the ancient pillars until late August are the twentieth-century rock icon Marianne Faithfull, jazz musician Elian Elias and the contemporary dance show PUZ/ZLE.

As part of the attempt to rediscover local musical and cultural roots, a new performance of the composer, oud player and poet Marcel Khalife’s verses will also be staged.

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Qatar Provides Syrian Rebels With Weapons and Aid

(AGI) Rome — According to the Financial Times, Qatar has provided Syrian rebels with weapons and aid worth at least USD 3 billion ..

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

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Russia Sends Warships, Missiles to Syria

Russia has sent more than a dozen war ships to patrol the waters near Syria, U.S. military spokesmen said on Friday.

The country also gave Syria supersonic anti-ship cruise missiles, model P-800 Onika, United Press International reported. The message: Moscow is fully supportive of Syrian President Bashar Assad, U.S. officials believe.

Still, other U.S. officials are saying the missiles are actually headed to Hezbollah in Lebanon — realizing Israel’s greatest concern. More airstrikes from Israel could be on the way, military analysts say in the UPI report.

The high-tech missiles are upgraded versions of the Yakhont missiles that Russia has previously given Syria, UPI said.

The difference is the new ones have technologically advanced radar — and are more effective at hitting their targets. The upgraded missiles travel twice the speed of sound and are equipped with armor-piercing warheads, UPI said.

They have a range of about 180 miles, UPI reported.

— Hat tip: Vlad Tepes

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Washington: Obama Talks to Erdogan, Against Shipping Weapons to the Rebels

As talks get underway with Moscow, the US president speaks with Turkey’s PM, Syrian rebels’ main ally. The two leaders discuss Syria’s democratic future and Assad’s necessary departure. Ankara voices doubts about a peace conference between rebels and regime backed by Moscow and Washington. After decades, Russian Pacific fleet warships enter the Mediterranean.

Washington (AsiaNews/Agencies) — The meeting between Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and President Obama in Washington today confirms the middle-of-the-road position taken by the US leader, who is open to Russian concerns as well as eager to keep lines of communication open with Turkey, a NATO member and the anti-Assad alliance’s main ally.

The two leaders discussed the need for a democratic future in Syria, which can only come about once Bashar Al-Assad is out of office. Obama renewed his political support for the opposition, but called for limits on weapons shipment to the rebels from Turkey and the Gulf countries because they could strengthen Islamist forces on the ground.

US-Turkish talks come a few days after US Secretary of State John Kerry met his Russian counterpart, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, to discuss the Assad regime’s overtures to the Kofi Annan June 2012 six-point plan.

Obama administration officials said that the US president is taking a cautious approach even in relation to charges that Assad’s forces used chemical weapons, which could otherwise trigger US action in the Syrian conflict. For his part, the Turkish prime minister seems skeptical that the peace conference Washington is planning with Assad’s main ally Moscow will lead to reconciliation.

Meanwhile, warships from Russia’s Pacific Fleet have entered the Mediterranean for the first time in decades. The vessels left the Far-Eastern port city of Vladivostok in March to join Russia’s Mediterranean task force. The Mediterranean task force might be enlarged later to include nuclear submarines.

At present, the warships are heading to Cyprus but it is not clear what their final port of call is. A few months ago, Moscow announced plans to rebuild its naval base in the Mediterranean, in the Syrian port city of Tartus.

However, Moscow’s intentions are still hard to read after Western mainstream media reported that Russia had allegedly shipped anti-missile systems. This has overshadowed a meeting between Sergey Lavrov and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to discuss the Russian-US plan to bring the Syrian government and rebels to the negotiating table.

Responding to the allegations, Lavrov said that Russian supplies did not break any international rules, that Russia had signed a deal to supply Syria with Yakhont missiles in 2007, and that the weapons are designed to protect against air planes and did not benefit in any way Syria’s regular army.

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

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Indonesia: After Six Months, Jakarta Commuter Rail Drops Women-Only Trains

The service was introduced to stop sexual violence and harassment on trains. However, it was only used during peak hours and ignored the rest of the day. Because of overcrowding, the rail company has had to pull the plug on the service to increase capacity.

Jakarta (AsiaNews/Agencies) — After running the service for barely six months, Indonesia’s state railway company has had to cancel its women-only trains.

PT Kereta Api Indonesia launched seven brightly painted women-only trains in October 2012 as part of a plan to increase the safety of female passengers.

They were intended to stop incidents of sexual harassment in overcrowded mixed-gender commuter cars connecting Jakarta to areas outside the city.

However, the trains had only been popular with women during rush hour, and not at other times of the day, said PT Kereta Api spokeswoman Eva Chairunnisa, this despite the fact that all of their mixed-gender services are busy at all times.

For this reason, “To increase capacity, we decided to convert the women-only trains into regular ones,” Chairunnisa explained.

Overcrowding on Indonesian train services is a chronic problem so much so that many commuters choose to ride on train rooftops despite the risk. In fact, cases of passengers falling off rooftops or being electrocuted are daily occurrences.

In addition to women’s only carriages, the company introduced a number of deterrents to stop the practice, like special paint on train rooftops and concrete balls above train tracks. So far, they have not had any major success.

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

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Indonesian President Named for Religious Freedom Prize. Anger and Indignation of Minorities

In late May in New York Yudhoyono will receive the World Statesman Award from the Appeal of Conscience Foundation (ACF). The recognition for the protection of minority rights and freedom of worship. Indonesian Jesuit: he has never done anything to protect the rights in a country at risk of Islamization.

Jakarta (AsiaNews) — Catholic leaders, civil society and prominent figures of science and faith in Indonesia are protesting against the choice of an American foundation to reward President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono for the promotion of interreligious dialogue. Philosopher and Jesuit priest Fr. Franz Magnis Suseno has sent a letter to the Appeal of Conscience Foundation (ACF), based in New York, criticizing the choice to grant the World Statesman Award to the Indonesian head of state. There have been a series of protests and demonstrations against the award, which will be given to a politician who — in reality — has done very little to ensure interfaith harmony and protect minorities.

Fr. Suseno points out that “during the eight-and-a-half years of his presidency, Yudhoyono has never told Indonesians to respect minority rights. He obviously does nothing to protect minority groups.” As a result, he adds, it can be said that “no one has ever done anything concrete” to protect them. In the letter addressed to the leaders of the New York-based foundation, founded by Rabbi Arthur Schneier in 1965, he recalls the drama of hundreds of Shiites and Ahmadis expelled from their areas or killed because they were considered heretics in a nation that is overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim.

The Jesuit priest also asks with concern “will Indonesia’s condition worsen and eventually become like Pakistan and Iraq, where Shiites are killed every month for religious motivations for sectarian reasons.” And finally he adds the daily problems experienced by Indonesian Christians, from obtaining building permits to build places of worship to small episodes and discrimination cases. “Intolerance — he concludes — is rooted in the depths” of society.

The award ceremony is scheduled for the end of May, although the associations for human rights and civil society members promise to continue the battle for its cancellation. On May 6 there was a demonstration in the streets of Jakarta, where the participants tried to deliver a “petition” to the U.S. Embassy calling for the withdrawal of approval. “We have been the subject of repeated violence — recalls the Shiite leader Emilia Az J. Rakhmat — I just can not understand how they can reward [Yudhoyono] “.

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

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Italy: Grillo Puts Focus on Migrants in Extreme Social Situations

M5S leader asks how many more Kabobos are in Italy

(ANSA) — Rome, May 16 — Beppe Grillo, the leader of the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S) on Thursday asked for more attention to be paid to immigrants living illegally and in extreme social conditions in Italy, making an explicit reference to the pickaxe attack last Saturday by a Ghanian living in Milan that left three dead. One of the three, pensioner Ermanno Masini, died from injuries in hospital on Tuesday from the attack by Mada ‘Adam’ Kabobo over the weekend. The other victims are Alessandro Carole, an unemployed 40-year-old man who died shortly after being attacked, and 21-year-old Daniele Carella who was declared brain dead on Monday.

“How many Kabobos are there in Italy? Hundreds? Thousands? Where do they live? No one knows”, Grillo said in an article on his blog. He cited another two similar cases, one involving a Portuguese citizen of Angolan origin, and another a man from Senegal.

The comedian-turned-politician said he would be campaigning in the northern Italian city of Treviso Thursday evening.

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Godless UK: A Quarter of Britons Have No Religion With Christians Increasingly Likely to be Retired People

One in four people no longer believes in any religion, official analysis of national census returns found yesterday.

It revealed Christianity is in decline and Christians are increasingly likely to be older or retired people.

Many young people, young men in particular, appear to be rejecting religious belief altogether. Nearly one in three under-25s — 32 per cent — say they do not have a religion.

The rise of atheism has gathered pace in the decade since 2001, the census showed, a period when churches found themselves under pressure from equality laws and secular groups.

At the same time the UK’s second-biggest religion, Islam, frequently found itself on the defensive because of the actions of extremist groups.

— Hat tip: JD

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Pro-Life Groups Confirm: IRS Targeting Began in 2009

The list of categories included in the IRS’s effort to target conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status continues to widen. On Wednesday, the Thomas More Society, a Chicago-based public interest law firm, announced that cases they handled “demonstrate the agency’s abuse of pro-life organizations in addition to those identified as ‘tea party’, ‘patriot’, or ‘government spending’ groups.”

Meanwhile, years of high-profile election involvement from the abortion advocacy group Planned Parenthood have gone unaddressed, including the group’s highly public campaigning against Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker in the recall election of 2012.

Two cases the Thomas More Society handled are particularly egregious. In the case of the Coalition for Life of Iowa, approval of their application for tax-exempt status was withheld. In a June 6, 2009 phone call to the group’s leaders, an IRS agent identified as “Ms. Richards” allegedly told them to send a letter to the agency signed by the entire board “under perjury of the law” stating that they do not picket or protest, or organize other groups to picket or protest outside of any Planned Parenthood clinic. The agent said that when the IRS received that letter, they would grant approval of the group’s tax-exempt status.

…the initial number of conservative groups targeted for extra scrutiny has expanded from 75 to nearly 500, that at least two other offices besides the one in Cincinnati were involved, and that the number of employees involved in Cincinnati has doubled from two to four—all of whom told Fox News “they simply did what their bosses ordered.”

— Hat tip: JD

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UK: Gay Marriage Laws Are Fuelling a ‘Real Sense of Anger’ And We’re Wrong to Focus on it, Says Defence Secretary Philip Hammond

Defence Secretary Philip Hammond provoked the wrath of Downing Street last night by criticising David Cameron’s plans to legalise gay marriage.

In an outspoken intervention, Mr Hammond suggested the Prime Minister’s proposals had upset vast numbers of people and were a waste of time.

A senior Government source said Downing Street was ‘dismayed’ by the comments of the Right-winger, who some Tories believe is positioning himself for a leadership bid.

[…]

Mr Hammond told the BBC’s Question Time on Thursday that the plans had caused unnecessary offence to millions of voters.

The introduction of civil partnerships in 2005 had already ended the ‘real disadvantage’ that had faced gay couples, he said. ‘This change does redefine marriage — for millions and millions of people who are married, the meaning of marriage changes.

‘There is a real sense of anger among many people who are married that any government thinks it has the ability to change the definition of an institution like marriage. I have never felt this is what we should be focusing on.’

— Hat tip: JD

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Map Shows World’s ‘Most Racist’ Countries (And the Answers May Surprise You)

Britain is one of the most racially tolerant countries on the planet, a survey claims.

The global social attitudes study claims that the most racially intolerant populations are all in the developing world, with Bangladesh, Jordan and India in the top five.

By contrast, the study of 80 countries over three decades found Western countries were most accepting of other cultures with Britain, the U.S., Canada and Australia more tolerant than anywhere else.

The data came from the World Value Survey, which measured the social attitudes of people in different countries, as reported by the Washington Post.

The survey asked individuals what types of people they would refuse to live next to, and counted how many chose the option ‘people of a different race’ as a percentage for each country.

Researchers have suggested that societies where more people do not want neighbours from other races can be considered less racially tolerant.

The country with the highest proportion of ‘intolerant’ people who wanted neighbours similar to them was Hong Kong, where 71.8 per cent of the population would refuse to live next to someone of a different race.

Next were Bangladesh on 71.7 per cent, Jordan on 51.4 per cent and India with 43.5 per cent.

— Hat tip: JD

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]]> http://gatesofvienna.net/2013/05/gates-of-vienna-news-feed-5172013/feed/ 1 http://gatesofvienna.net/2013/05/the-syrian-civil-war-comes-to-australia/ http://gatesofvienna.net/2013/05/the-syrian-civil-war-comes-to-australia/#comments Sat, 18 May 2013 02:37:19 +0000 Baron Bodissey http://gatesofvienna.net/?p=28584 Continue reading →]]> This is a fascinating news report from the Australian TV program “Today Tonight” about enricher-on-enricher violence in the suburbs of Sydney. What’s interesting about this story is the fact that the Syrian civil war seems to have been imported to Australia, where tribal loyalties and grudges are being acted out within the Muslim-dominated areas of the city. You’ll also notice that any Muslims who are seen as opposing the dominant Sunni faction are anathematized as “Shi’ites”, even if they are fellow Sunnis.

Many thanks to Vlad Tepes for uploading this video:

I was a guest of Geoff and Vlad Tepes on the East Anglian EDL Radio Show earlier this evening. It was a real pleasure just to sit around talking about what we usually talk about here — and I didn’t have to comb my hair or put on a suit to do it.

Anyone who is interested may listen to the archive of today’s show at EDL’s Blog Talk Radio channel.

Early the following morning a commenter named Sepher posted this copy of a Facebook entry by the Bedfordshire Police:

Bedfordshire Police • 28,144 like this
52 minutes ago

Dear All,

A number of you have posted questions to us about rumours on other social media forums that a year 7 child was raped in the toilets at her school. Bedfordshire Police have received no reports at all about an incident of this nature. An officer has been asked to review any relevant social media postings to see if any offences of incitement or similar have been committed. We will let you know when there is any update. Because of the large number of comments on this topic, which we are unable to moderate between other duties, we have removed most of them and would ask for your co-operation in keeping posts within our guidelines.

Thank you

This message has now disappeared from the Facebook account of the Bedfordshire Police. There is, however, a screen shot of the original post:

I have no further information about what happened, other than the fact that the message has disappeared down the virtual memory hole. Draw your own conclusions.

A kestrel for a knave
by MC

So once more the idea of Israel as an apartheid state rears its ugly head, but I look around me, and it is not the same. I lived in South Africa during the apartheid era, and I do not see the trappings of apartheid here. What I see is the implacable hatred emanating from Israel’s enemies all around, even to the deceiving of the very elect.

Seldom has there existed on the planet a group of people with huge resources and a hatred going back thousands of years. This is a group who can buy hatred from their fellow men.

They can buy the sort of hatred that forces itself on elderly disabled physicists who just want a quiet life.

It is a shame that wealth can buy double standards. It is a shame when those bought-and-paid-for double standards are applied by people who should know better, but it is not unusual for greedy and ambitious people to apply double standards to things Jewish. It is something Jews learn to live with from an early age.

Think of the nations that violate human rights, day in, day out. Think of the Australian woman locked up for a year in Dubai for the severe crime of being a rape victim. Is this not a human rights violation that should invoke a similar response from British academia?

No, because the perpetrators are not Jewish. It is strange how Nazism once more raises its ugly head. It is strange how boycotts are once more a weapon against Jews. And it is strange that the great and the good do not have the integrity to remember the last time.

But then there was no last time, was there? It was a ‘hoax’. The Nazis were just putting Jews in labour camps with swimming pools. The Zyklon B was for ‘decontamination’ only. Those videos of the bulldozers were because there was not enough food to go around. The death marches were to try and save the Jews from the Russians, blah blah blah.

The BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) movement needs to compare itself to the Nazis — they will find huge commonality in attitude and methodology. But they are perhaps even more ignorant than the Nazis, for the Nazis had a good working knowledge of History, while BDS Socialists do not.

“To what degree British anti-Semitism, the anti-Israel BDS lobby and legitimate criticism of Israel’s policies are related is an inordinately complex question, but it is clear that anti-Semitism plays a role among some BDS supporters.” — From Occam’s Corner, hosted by the Guardian.

The legitimacy of Israel is based upon three rock solid foundations:

• The treaty of Lausanne 1923 providing for a national home for the Jewish People in Mandate Palestine,
• United Nations Resolution 181 of 1947, and
• The fact that nascent Israel was able to beat off the Arab invasion in 1948, and form and maintain a legitimate state.

Any one of these three foundational acts alone gives Israel legitimacy. The object of the League of Nations object the Palestine mandate was to create a self-governing Jewish state. The object of United Nations Resolution 181 was to create a self-governing Jewish state. The 1948 war was a war of aggression by the Arabs. They lost and have been bleating about it ever since, but as a result Israel became a de facto self-governing Jewish State.

As for the ‘Naqba’, Israel did not even have a vote! And if you make war and lose, then — tough!

Israel is not the only state in this world to come into being through partition and bloody war. The Partition of Pakistan/India cost some three million lives, and tensions are still high. Pakistan annexed (occupied) part of Kashmir and have built ‘settlements’ there. Indeed there are many similarities between the two situations. But Jews attract animosity, while Pakistanis do not. Minority groups in Pakistan attract vicious civil rights abuses, while a Muslim in Israel has the same civil rights as I do, upheld by law.

So I challenge the Israel BDS group to prove that they are not anti-Semitic by telling the next country against which they are going to launch a BDS campaign. Or do they just want to finish the task their Nazi progenitors failed to complete?

NB: The novel whose title was borrowed for this essay, A Kestrel for a Knave by Barry Hines, is available on Amazon.

In other news, a new report on corporate graft reveals that Croatia and Slovenia are the most corrupt nations in the European Union.

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

Thanks to Fjordman, Gaia, Insubria, JD, Jerry Gordon, McR, Nick, 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
»	Hollande Calls for EU ‘Economic Government’
»	Italy: Fiscal Discipline Can Bear Political Cost, Warns Bonino
»	Italy Won’t Team Up Against Germany Says Letta
»	Road to Nowhere: Haunting Images of the Abandoned Multi-Million Euro Highway in Spain That No One Could Afford to Finish… as Eurozone Slumps Into Longest Recession Ever
	USA
»	Cloaked in Misinformation
»	Desperate Holder Throws Underlings Under the Bus
»	‘F***’ America, ‘ Boston Marathon Bomb Suspect Wrote in Boat: Officials
»	Google and NASA Team Up to Study Artificial Intelligence
»	How Angelina Jolie Was Duped by Cancer Doctors Into Self Mutilation for Breast Cancer She Never Had
»	How Obama Illegally Bought the Black and Latino Rural Vote
»	IRS Criminality Proves Big Government is Lawless, Unrestrained and Utterly Out of Control
»	Minnesota Woman Given 20 Years for Fund-Raising for Al-Shabab
»	Obama to Name Daniel I. Werfel, White House Official, As Acting I.R.S. Chief
»	Refugee Jihad Terror in Boston
»	Rich Manhattan Moms Hire Handicapped Tour Guides So Kids Can Cut Lines at Disney World
»	The $124 Billion Secret Welfare Program You’ve Never Heard About
»	White House Wants Pastors to Promote Gun Control
	Europe and the EU
»	EU: Bonino Urges ‘United States of Europe’
»	France: Hotel-Dieu, Oldest Parisian Hospital, Closes
»	Italy and France Should Work With Germany, Says Hollande
»	Italy: M5S Senators Demand Italy Withdraw From TAV High-Speed Rail
»	Italy: Veiled Threat on Anti-High-Speed-Rail Blog Probed
»	Italy: Fresh Strains Hit Letta’s Fledgling Government
»	Italy: House Speaker Urges Tougher Approach on Internet Threats
»	Italy: Magistrates Association Against New PdL Wiretapping Bill
»	Italy: Fiat Denies it is Mulling Headquarter Relocation to U.S.
»	Muslims in Italy Have Been Victims of Violence, Leader Says
»	Survey: Croatia and Slovenia Most Corrupt in EU
»	UK: Butcher Who Forced an Indian Woman Into Modern-Day Slavery and Repeatedly Raped Her is Jailed for 11 Years
»	UK: Blow for Cameron as Tories Vent Euro Fury: Half of His Backbenchers Condemn the Lack of a Referendum Law
»	UK: Father Tried to Cover Up Battering His Wife by Asking His Mistress to Lie to Police That He Was the Victim of Abuse
»	UK: The Oxford Sex Ring and the Preachers Who Teach Young Muslim Men That White Girls Are Cheap
	North Africa
»	Benghazi: Where Are Gen. Ham and Adm. Gaouette?
»	Egypt: Agents Kidnapped in the Sinai, Morsi Calls Ministers
»	The Benghazi Deception
	Israel and the Palestinians
»	Smuggled KFC Popular in Gaza Strip
	Far East
»	China Beats EU to Arctic Council Membership
	Sub-Saharan Africa
»	Serengeti Highway Compromise Proposed by Famed Scientist
	Latin America
»	20th Century Mexico’s Catholic Uprising Against Tyranny
	Immigration
»	A Nation Divided, Then and Now
»	Denmark: Highest Number of Asylum Seekers in Over a Decade
»	Italy: Citizenship Reforms Cannot be Delayed, Says Minister
»	US Denies Christian Homeschoolers Asylum
	Culture Wars
»	Manitoba Teachers: Every Lesson a ‘Gay’ Lesson
»	Report: Sexual Minorities in EU Face Hate Speech, Violence and Discrimination
»	Sneering at Parents, Hiding Behind “Science” — The Emergency Contraception Controversy
»	Targeted Action Requires a Clear Plan … LGBTI Issues Are No Different
»	Top 5 Christian Leaders Targeted by Gay Activists

Hollande Calls for EU ‘Economic Government’

Speaking at a news conference marking his first year in office, French President François Hollande called for an “economic government” for the eurozone that would have a president, its own budget and a coordinated tax system.

French President François Hollande called Thursday for the establishment of a eurozone “economic government” that would have a president, its own budget and a coordinated tax system.

Speaking at a news conference marking a year since he took office on May 15, 2012, Hollande said that France wanted to create a more politically integrated European Union within two years.

He said the initiative would help put an end to the “lethargy” that was threatening Europe’s future.

“If Europe does not advance, it will fall or even be wiped off the world map,” Hollande said. “My duty is to bring Europe out of its lethargy.”

Hollande also called for new investments aimed at tackling skyrocketing unemployment among Europe’s young people, which in Spain hit 56 percent in March. Average youth unemployment in the European Union stands at 23.5 percent and at 24 percent across the eurozone.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Italy: Fiscal Discipline Can Bear Political Cost, Warns Bonino

Austerity will not end economic crisis, says foreign minister

(ANSA) — Rome, May 15 — Austerity alone won’t pull Europe out of the current economic crisis, Foreign Minister Emma Bonino said Wednesday.

Speaking to the Foreign Affairs Committees of the House and Senate, Bonino said that “not everyone understands” the harm that austerity can do.

Fiscal discipline is important, she said, but it also bears a steep political cost.

Critics of the spending cuts brought in by many governments say it has played a role in dampening economic growth.

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Italy Won’t Team Up Against Germany Says Letta

Youth unemployment ‘a nightmare for all European leaders’

(ANSA) — Rome, May 16 — Italy will not try to team up with France against Germany to wrest control of European policy from Berlin, Premier Enrico Letta said Thursday.

Letta said he “fully agreed” with French President Francois Hollande that all countries should try to work together to “make the right choices”.

Italy and France are trying to get German Chancellor Angela Merkel to ease austerity policies and make moves to stoke growth and create jobs, especially for young people.

Germany has been hoping struggling EU members will make the structural reforms Berlin achieved a decade ago to boost growth while avoiding deficit spending.

On Thursday Letta stressed that the two policy areas were not incompatible.

“Budget discipline is the condition for implementing growth policies, and (policies) for young people,” he said, acknowledging that Italy had in the past racked up “too much debt”.

“My generation has learned how much damage can be done when you solve today’s problems using tomorrow’s resources,” he said after talks with Polish Premier Donald Tusk in Warsaw.

Letta called youth unemployment “a nightmare for all European leaders”.

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Road to Nowhere: Haunting Images of the Abandoned Multi-Million Euro Highway in Spain That No One Could Afford to Finish… as Eurozone Slumps Into Longest Recession Ever

Stretching into the distance under grey skies, the only signs of life on this deserted Spanish highway are the occasional lone cyclist or pack of stray dogs.

The MP-203 in Madrid has remained unfinished for six years — despite initial investment of 70 million euro in the shelved project in recession-hit Spain.

Weeds can be seen growing on the surface of the abandoned route today, as it emerged the Eurozone has slumped into its longest recession ever.

Construction workers downed tools six years ago when the 12.5km route was 70 per cent complete, due to issues with the Madrid-Barcelona high speed railway and the connection to Spain’s R-3 highway.

These images reveal how the project — intended to relieve congestion on the Barcelona highway (A-2) — has fallen into decline, on a day of further economic blows to the beleaguered Eurozone.

— Hat tip: JD

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Cloaked in Misinformation

The Truth behind the Holder Justice Department’s search for leaks

According to one intelligence official close to the situation who provided information specific to this incident, Holder’s Justice Department not only attacked the sacred separation of powers through his agency’s actions by obtaining the aforementioned telephone records, but what has yet to be disclosed is that all electronic communications data was included in this overreach. According to this source, the records not only included those within the cloak room, but in other areas throughout and within the Capitol. Not in real time, of course, so as to maintain the infamous Nixonian plausible deniability amid the semantics serving to sully the truth.

The purpose is to identify the media contacts used by members of the House and Senate as they look for leaks in the house of the people.

— Hat tip: JD

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Desperate Holder Throws Underlings Under the Bus

Holder can only serve as long as he maintains the support Obama. That he still does, speaks volumes — about both men.

In testimony before the House Judiciary Committee yesterday, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder reinforced the notion that he is unfit to remain in office.

Although he was grilled about many of the scandals afflicting the Obama administration, the seizure of phone records from the Associated Press (AP) remained the major concern for both Republicans and Democrats. Holder made it clear they were wasting their time trying to get answers about the investigation from him. “I was not the person involved in that decision,” he insisted. “I was recused in that matter as I described in a press conference held yesterday. The decision to issue this subpoena was made by the people presently involved in the case.”

Holder said he recused himself from the probe because “I am a possessor of information eventually leaked.” He expressed faith in the ability of those looking into the leaking of top-secret information to the AP. the leak revealed details of a CIA operation in Yemen that undermined an al Qaeda plot to get an underwear bomber on a jetliner. “I have faith in the people who actually were responsible for this case, that they were aware of the rules and that they followed them,” Holder said. “But I don’t have a factual basis to answer the questions that you have asked, because I was recused.”

That was an understatement. Holder wasn’t even able to answer the most basic questions about the investigation.

— Hat tip: JD

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‘F***’ America, ‘ Boston Marathon Bomb Suspect Wrote in Boat: Officials

As police searched for him, and as he lay bleeding in his boat hideout, Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev wrote “F*** America” on the side panel of the boat, police in Massachusetts told ABC News.

Officers said they also discovered the phrase “Praise Allah” on the boat’s side panels and several anti-American screeds, including references to Iraq, Afghanistan and “the infidels.”

A Massachusetts official showed ABC News what he said was a cell phone picture of the phrase “Praise Allah,” written in black ink, with a bullet hole above it, believed to have been written by Dzhokhar as he hid inside the boat in Watertown, Mass.

Also seen in the picture was the faintly written word “brother,” which the official said was part of a reference by the younger Tsarnaev “that was something about his brother is lucky to be with Allah first.”

Tamerlan Tsarnaev was killed hours earlier during a shootout with police several blocks away from the location of the boat.

Spokespeople for the Massachusetts State Police and the Watertown police had denied the existence of the writings when first asked about them by ABC News two weeks ago.

Today, both departments referred reporters to the FBI. A federal law enforcement official confirmed reports first broadcast by CBS News that writings had been discovered inside the boat.

The discovery of writings intensified tensions between the FBI and local police when FBI agents believed some Boston officers and state police had taken cell phone pictures of the writing.

Agents demanded the phones of all officers at the scene the night of the capture of Dzhokhar be confiscated to avoid the photos becoming public before being used as evidence at trial, according to two law enforcement officials.

A FBI spokesperson said agents cannot confiscate phones without a warrant and officials said none of the police approached would agree to turn over their phones to the FBI.

— Hat tip: Vlad Tepes

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Google and NASA Team Up to Study Artificial Intelligence

The company that could be called the king of the Internet has joined up with the gatekeeper of space to study artificial intelligence by creating a computer that relies on the unique properties of quantum physics, NASA and Google have announced.

To study artificial intelligence and create this computer, the two giants are forming the Quantum Artificial Intelligence Lab, which will be housed at NASA’s Ames Research Center located in California’s Silicon Valley. They expect the quantum computer, which will complete calculations way faster — by some estimates at least 3,600 times faster — than today’s supercomputers, will be up and running by the third quarter of this year, the New York Times reported. The quantum computer would be able to find complex patterns in information in order to determine creative outputs, a process called machine learning.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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How Angelina Jolie Was Duped by Cancer Doctors Into Self Mutilation for Breast Cancer She Never Had

(NaturalNews) In a New York Times op-ed explaining her decision to have both of her breasts surgically removed even though she doesn’t have breast cancer, Angelina Jolie cited risk numbers as key to her decision. She said that doctors told her she had an “87% risk of breast cancer.” Her solution? Undergo three months of surgical procedures and have her breasts cut out.

Problem solved, right? With her breasts removed, she says her risk of breast cancer is now reduced to a mere 5 percent. The same bizarre logic can also be applied to men who cut off their testicles to “prevent testicular cancer” or people who cut out their colons to “prevent colorectal cancer.” But that would be insane, so nobody does that, because one of the most basic principles of medicine is that you don’t subject patients to the considerable risks and costs of surgery and anesthesia to remove organs that have no disease!

But the really sad part about all this is that Angelina Jolie was lied to. She didn’t have an 87% risk of breast cancer in the first place. All the women reading her NYT op-ed piece are also being lied to. Here’s why…

— Hat tip: JD

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How Obama Illegally Bought the Black and Latino Rural Vote

The following paragraphs outline a story about blatant, in-your-face political corruption, racketeering, graft and fraud by former President Clinton, Obama, the Obama Administration, along with Obama appointees in the Justice and Agriculture Departments and certain members of Congress that included a scheme to buy off Black, Latino, Indian and women farmers for their votes with your tax money, for alleged racial discrimination by the U. S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). It is a story of unbelievable twists, turns, corruption and graft at the highest levels of government.

Andrew Breitbart actually broke the story several months ago but he was vilified by the press and those belonging to the Donkey party, as being a bigot, a racist and a sloppy reporter that was loose with the facts. It turns out that Breitbart was uncannily accurate, as proved out by a 5,000 word expose’ on the front page of the New York Times on April 25, 2013 [url]… the New York Times mind you, no friend of conservative issues! Read the article. You won’t believe that your government could be this reckless with your money!

[…]

Early on in the Pigford payoff scandal, it was reported that President Clinton ordered USDA to pay 60% of the Black farmer claims and reject 40% of the claims as a template for the payouts. President Clinton also suggested a payout amount of $50,000 to Black farmers and that became the standard. No wonder he was labeled the first “Black” president.

After the initial payouts to Black farmers, Senator Menendez, a Hispanic senator, and other sympathetic Democratic senators in September of 2009 cried foul and said that Hispanic farmers were also discriminated against and should be compensated as well. Menendez wanted the same payout for Hispanic farmers who had been allegedly discriminated against by USDA. With such a large payout for alleged discrimination, claim filers, Black and Latino, crawled out of the woodwork to get their share of the loot. In one county alone, claims filed were four times the number of farmers in the county.

— Hat tip: JD

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IRS Criminality Proves Big Government is Lawless, Unrestrained and Utterly Out of Control

(NaturalNews) Without any direction from the President, if you believe the current denials, the IRS went on a politically-motivated rampage that turned its own agents into weapons of intimidation and censorship against any non-profit which taught the Constitution or used conservative buzzwords like “We the People.”

As part of its campaign of tyranny, the IRS demanded from the groups titles of all the books they had recently read, details of Facebook posts and names of all their donors. They even asked for the names of students they taught! Applications for non-profit status were routinely denied or delayed, and a huge number of individuals including Catholic priests were warned that if they didn’t stay silent about opposing Obama, they would be “scrutinized” even further (i.e. audited or worse).

Obama says he knows nothing about any of this, even though he was of course the primary beneficiary of all this activity. But let’s assume he’s telling the truth for a moment, as bizarre as that idea may seem to most. If Obama really knew nothing about all this, it paints an even more frightening picture of a rogue government group with unlimited power that answers to no one and does whatever it wants, regardless of the legality of its actions or directions from Washington.

— Hat tip: JD

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Minnesota Woman Given 20 Years for Fund-Raising for Al-Shabab

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A Minnesota woman convicted of conspiring to send money to the terrorist group al-Shabab in Somalia is sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Amina Farah Ali was sentenced Thursday in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis on 13 terror-related counts. Each count held a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison.

Authorities say Ali and her co-defendant, Hawo Mohamed Hassan, went door-to-door raising money in the name of charity, but routed the funds to al-Shabab.

— Hat tip: Nick

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Obama to Name Daniel I. Werfel, White House Official, As Acting I.R.S. Chief

President Obama is naming Daniel I. Werfel, the controller of the Office of Management and Budget, to be the new acting commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, the White House announced Thursday.

Mr. Werfel, who currently manages many of the day-to-day operations at O.M.B., will replace Steven Miller, the current acting director of the agency, who is at the heart of the controversy over the targeting of conservative groups.

The announcement from the White House said Mr. Werfel will begin his new job on May 22.

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Refugee Jihad Terror in Boston

Bostonians may be relieved that the week of terrorism perpetrated by the Tsarnaev brothers which began at 2:49PM April 15, 2013 at the Boston Marathon Finish Line ended dramatically on April 20, 2013 with the capture of surviving younger brother Dzhokhar. However, the nation is perplexed about why this heinous and cowardly act occurred and what can be done to prevent possible re-occurrences in America. 26 year old Tamerlan, a 6’ 3” tall aspiring boxer was mortally wounded in a hail of bullets in a shoot out in Watertown, Massachusetts early Friday morning, April 19, 2013.

— Hat tip: Jerry Gordon

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Rich Manhattan Moms Hire Handicapped Tour Guides So Kids Can Cut Lines at Disney World

Article: New York Post

They are 1 percenters who are 100 percent despicable.

Some wealthy Manhattan moms have figured out a way to cut the long lines at Disney World — by hiring disabled people to pose as family members so they and their kids can jump to the front.

The “black-market Disney guides” run $130 an hour, or $1,040 for an eight-hour day.

“My daughter waited one minute to get on ‘It’s a Small World’ — the other kids had to wait 2 1/2 hours,” crowed one mom, who hired a disabled guide through Dream Tours Florida.

“You can’t go to Disney without a tour concierge,’’ she sniffed. “This is how the 1 percent does Disney.”

The woman said she hired a Dream Tours guide to escort her, her husband and their 1-year-old son and 5-year-old daughter through the park in a motorized scooter with a “handicapped” sign on it. The group was sent straight to an auxiliary entrance at the front of each attraction.

Disney allows each guest who needs a wheelchair or motorized scooter to bring up to six guests to a “more convenient entrance.”

The Florida entertainment mecca warns that there “may be a waiting period before boarding.” But the consensus among upper-crust moms who have used the illicit handicap tactic is that the trick is well worth the cost.

Not only is their “black-market tour guide” more efficient than Disney World’s VIP Tours, it’s cheaper, too.

Disney Tours offers a VIP guide and fast passes for $310 to $380 per hour.

Passing around the rogue guide service’s phone number recently became a shameless ritual among Manhattan’s private-school set during spring break. The service asks who referred you before they even take your call.

“It’s insider knowledge that very few have and share carefully,” said social anthropologist Dr. Wednesday Martin, who caught wind of the underground network while doing research for her upcoming book “Primates of Park Avenue.”

“Who wants a speed pass when you can use your black-market handicapped guide to circumvent the lines all together?” she said.

“So when you’re doing it, you’re affirming that you are one of the privileged insiders who has and shares this information.”

Ryan Clement runs Dream Tours Florida with girlfriend Jacie Christiano, whom the rich Manhattan mom indicated was her family’s guide.

A working phone number for Christiano couldn’t be found, and Clement refused to put The Post through to her. A message left on Facebook was not immediately returned by Christiano.

Clement denied that his gal pal uses her disability to bypass lines. He said she has an auto-immune disorder and acknowledged that she uses a scooter on the job.

Disney did not return repeated requests for comment.

— Hat tip: McR

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The $124 Billion Secret Welfare Program You’ve Never Heard About

(NaturalNews) To be sure, there are many Americans who, through no fault of their own, have become disabled through physical or mental illness over which they had no control. That’s what Social Security’s disability benefit was established to address — to help Americans with legitimate assistance for a legitimate disability.

But in the Age of Obama, a president who has never met a government program not worthy of expanding (think of his ending the work requirement in the 1996 welfare reform law), America is being “fundamentally transformed” into a dependency nation, and the disability program is just the latest tool the president and his Big Government allies are using to fleece taxpayers and buy more voters.

Per National Public Radio:

“In the past three decades, the number of Americans who are on disability has skyrocketed. The rise has come even as medical advances have allowed many more people to remain on the job, and new laws have banned workplace discrimination against the disabled. Every month, 14 million people now get a disability check from the government.”

According to NPR and other outlets, the total number of Americans now receiving disability benefits has soared to a figure larger than the population of cash-strapped Greece (whose government is also guilty of over-providing benefits, to the detriment of the country’s ability to pay them — but I digress).

— Hat tip: JD

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White House Wants Pastors to Promote Gun Control

A group of influential pastors and ministers recently met with Vice President Joe Biden at the White House where the Vice President called on them to use their influence to help pass President Barack Obama’s new gun control measures. Of course, these measures include the outlawing of all semi-automatic rifles, outlawing high-capacity magazines, and establishing a government-mandated national gun registration policy, which is subtly identified as “Universal Background Checks.” These measures were recently defeated in the US Senate, so now the White House is calling on the clergy to help sell this gun grab to America’s churches.

Here is how Breitbart.com covers the story: “Vice President Joe Biden wants pastors, rabbis and nuns to tell their flocks that enacting gun control is the moral thing to do. But another vote may have to wait until Congress wraps up work on an immigration overhaul.

“Biden met for two-and-a-half hours Monday with more than a dozen leaders from various faith communities — Christian, Jewish, Muslim and Sikh, to name a few. Both Biden and the faith leaders encouraged each other not to give up on what has been an arduous and thus far fruitless effort by Biden and President Barack Obama to pass new gun laws in the wake of December’s schoolhouse shooting in Connecticut.

…I seem to recall that this is exactly what Hitler’s Nazi government instructed the pastors of Germany to also do. But this is just a coincidence, right?

— Hat tip: JD

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EU: Bonino Urges ‘United States of Europe’

(ANSAmed) — Rome, May 15 — Italy’s foreign minister Emma Bonino has called for a ‘United States of Europe’.

“I am a confirmed federalist and so is this government,” Bonino said on Wednesday.

“Our objective remains the United States of Europe” and “a system that guarantees major results and also savings in the area of defence, research, major infrastructure and obviously foreign policy”.

Bonino was speaking to the House and Senate foreign affairs committee.

“I believe that the Italian presidency of the EU in the second half of 2014 will be an important opportunity to push for this,” she said.

— Hat tip: Insubria

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France: Hotel-Dieu, Oldest Parisian Hospital, Closes

Medieval building near Notre-Dame, doctors protest

(by Tullio Giannotti) (ANSAmed) — PARIS — Another historic Parisian landmark, Hotel-Dieu, a hospital created in 651 near Notre-Dame to treat pilgrims and the poor, will be closed. Authorities said it is too old and prefer to invest in other hospitals downtown where a number of services originally provided by Hotel-Dieu have already been moved. But for Parisians, the shutdown is a chapter of their history that is closing.

Doctors’ and nurses’ unions along with most leftist parties sitting in parliament are protesting against the decision although authorities made it official on Tuesday. The hospital’s emergency room will close on November 4. Even Mayor Bertrand Delanoe wrote a letter against the shutdown saying he was ‘very attached’ to Hotel-Dieu, to no avail. The hospital’s average 43.000 patients a year will now be treated at other major hospitals downtown, from Cochin to Pitié-Salpetrière, Lariboisière and Saint-Antoine.

The Hotel-Dieu, founded in 651, some 400 years after the oldest hospital in the world, Florence’s Santa Maria Nuova, will remain open only for daycare procedures. It will offer treatment to patients whose conditions are not diagnosed as serious and will have a couple of ambulances in the Medieval court to transfer patients requiring more specialized care to other hospitals, said Mireille Faugère, the director in charge of turning the hospital into a museum.

Authorities decided to shut down the ER after many specialized services were terminated and investments in new technologies interrupted, jeopardizing ‘the security of patients’.

Historically, an Hotel-Dieu was created in many Medieval French cities beside the church or main cathedral. It was originally built to welcome pilgrims and convert the homeless but later became hospices, rescue centers and institutions where the sick were treated. During plague epidemics, these were the only places treating the sick.

Located in the heart of Paris, on the Ile de la Cite’, it is in a strategic position in the IV arrondissement and has therefore often been chosen by tourists who get sick while visiting the French capital.

The Hotel-Dieu should in the future become a museum and a research and teaching centre training doctors and scientists.

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Italy and France Should Work With Germany, Says Hollande

‘Important to honor commitments’

(ANSA) — Brussels, May 15 — Italy and France would be better served by working together with Germany, rather than by teaming up against the economic powerhouse, French President Francois Hollande said Wednesday.

In fact, conflict with Germany “would be against the interests of Europe and Italy and France,” Hollande said after a meeting with European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso.

“We can work together in a constructive spirit in the interest of Europe,” said Hollande.

Many critics have complained that Germany’s emphasis on austerity, and its power to enforce that, within the European Union has seriously damaged other smaller economies.

Some, such as Italy’s ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi, have made a habit of directly attacking Germany and its policies.

Hollande noted that Italy and France are both dealing with several similar economic issues — particularly, high youth unemployment.

But, he added, both countries would want to “honour the commitments” that their governments have made with the rest of the EU on fiscal matters.

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Italy: M5S Senators Demand Italy Withdraw From TAV High-Speed Rail

Turin-Lyon line under fire for ‘environmental threat, high cost’

(ANSA) — Turin, May 15 — Senators from Beppe Grillo’s anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S) demanded Wednesday that Italy pull out of a controversial rail link project with France.

M5S Senators presented a bill, signed by their entire caucus, demanding a repeal of the September 2002 treaty that Italy signed with France for the Turin-Lyon high-speed-rail project.

M5S, led by comedian-turned-politician Grillo, won around a quarter of the vote in Italy’s general elections in February and therefore carries significant influence.

Some critics of the rail link, which Italy and France say they will begin building next year, have staged violent protests denouncing its high cost and claiming it will cause environmental damage.

The infrastructure and interior ministers held an emergency meeting in Turin Tuesday after activists destroyed parts of a TAV construction site and hurled Molotov cocktails in clashes with police. Proponents are promising 1,000 new jobs, lasting about 10 years in total, will be created by the project.

Late last year, Italy’s Senate budget committee approved a 10-year allocation of 2.25 billion euros for the rail project.

Both countries say that it is a piece of “strategic” and “priority” infrastructure for the entire European Union.

Italy has also said the project is an important driver of economic growth.

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Italy: Veiled Threat on Anti-High-Speed-Rail Blog Probed

‘No TAV’ post chided rail workers for ‘selfish’ choice

(ANSA) — Turin, May 15 — A veiled threat appeared on an Italian blog against construction on the TAV high-speed rail on Wednesday, sparking a probe by anti-terrorism police and fear for construction workers.

The ‘No TAV’ blog said workers at the TAV construction site in Chiomonte, in northern Italy, had made a “selfish choice” that “puts them outside the community” and “condemns them to a difficult coexistence with the territory”.

Turin prosecutors are taking the blog seriously after Molotov cocktails and fireworks were lobbed in an attack on a construction site two nights ago.

Investigators believe the blog post is significant given the new aims of an extremist faction of the No TAV activists.

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Italy: Fresh Strains Hit Letta’s Fledgling Government

Splits on Berlusconi ‘ineligiblity’, wiretap bills

(By Denis Greenan).

(ANSA) — Rome, May 16 — Fresh strains hit Enrico’s Letta’s fledgling right-left government Thursday with the centre-left Democratic Party (PD) suggesting centre-right People of Freedom (PdL) leader and media magnate Silvio Berlusconi should not be allowed to serve as Senator because of a 1950s law barring the holder of government licenses from working in government.

The two strange bedfellows, who almost tied in February’s general election, also clashed over the PdL’s revived controversial efforts to restrict the use and publication of police wiretaps. PD Senate Whip Luigi Zanda told bishops’ daily l’Avvenire that a so-far never-applied legal bar to Berlusconi’s holding public office because he has a government license to run three TV channels should be considered “properly this time around”.

“According to (an Italian) law (of 1957) Silvio Berlusconi is ineligible for office because he is a (government) licensee,” Zanda said.

Anna Maria Bernini, interim spokesperson for Berlusconi’s People of Freedom (PdL) party, said Zanda’s words were “mines planted under the political ground the Letta government is acting on”.

She claimed Zanda was “emulating the fanaticism” of the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S) which came third in the general election and has repeatedly called for the ineligibility law to be enforced.

After Zanda’s sally, M5S Senate Whip Vito Crimi reiterated: “We’re ready to vote for ineligibility, we think the issue should be tabled as quickly as possible”.

PdL bigwig, former minister Altero Matteoli, said the issue could topple the government.

“If the PD and M5S vote for ineligibility, we’ll all go home,” the head of the Senate labour committee said.

This prompted Zanda to stress that “my view is my own, personal one, and does not bind the party at all. I’ve been saying this for 10 years”.

“My opinion will not affect government stability,” he said.

It was in any case unlikely that the PD would press on the issue as Berlusconi is a linchpin in the government.

Long-time enemies PD and PdL forged their unprecedented alliance after two months of post-election stalemate in April.

Berlusconi’s legal woes, including a trial for alleged sex with a minor, and differences over tax reform were already putting pressure on Letta’s administration.

The ‘ineligibility’ issue was revived after Berlusconi’s ownership of Italy’s three main non-State TV channels helped boost his recent political comeback.

His flagship channel aired a programme Sunday that presented his defence in the Milan sex trial, sparking controversy.

The prosecutor in that trial on Monday requested a six-year jail term and a life ban from public office.

The PD is now also worried about two bills the PdL resurrected Wednesday to allegedly ‘gag’ the judiciary with a new restrictive law on wiretaps.

“That gagging law is not among the government’s priorities,” said Zanda.

“What we should do, however, is cut down on leaks of inappropriate wiretaps which have nothing to do with criminal offences to the press”.

On tax reform, Letta unveiled plans Wednesday to scrap a June payment of a property tax called IMU on primary residences.

But he stopped short of extending the move to factories, saying EU-mandated budget restrictions would not allow it.

PdL ministers went into a huddle Wednesday night with some of them determined to battle the PD but Berlusconi reportedly called them to order, the Italian media said.

Berlusconi campaigned on a pledge to scrap IMU altogether and repay last year’s revenues but has shown signs recently he is willing to reach a deal with the PD.

The three-time premier’s insistence on the emergency government despite initial and strong resistance from the PD has allowed him to pose as a statesman who puts Italy’s interests first, his supporters say.

President Giorgio Napolitano, who forged the unlikely alliance after being re-elected following a PD internal rebellion, on Thursday reiterated the government must move quickly to pass urgent reforms and try to revive an economy which is in its longest recession on record.

Napolitano praised the two main political parties for making Letta’s government possible but warned that elements in the political class have not realised the country is on the “razor’s edge”.

The president said in an interview published in Rome-based daily Il Messaggero that he saw the start of new government as “serious and serene” and that Letta was not letting himself “be intimidated by polemics or incidents along the way”. But the head of State added that it was not easy for the forces within government to “live together” as “the parties do not stop reacting to events, each on their own way”. He also said that: “some people don’t realise that we are on the razor’s edge with respect to Brussels”.

Letta’s government is hoping to convince the European Commission to remove its excessive-deficit procedure against Italy, with it forecasting that the deficit-to-GDP ratio will be just below the permitted 3% threshold this year, at 2.9%.

Letta’s predecessor, Mario Monti, helped steer Italy out of the centre of the eurozone debt crisis at the helm of an emergency technocrat administration.

But the country is seen as vulnerable to ‘contagion’ from problems in other countries because of its massive public debt of over two trillion euros. Napolitano also called on the parties to have measured reactions to criminal trials, a comment that seems directed at the PdL, with Berlusconi involved in a number of cases aside from the sex trial. “The fewer disordered reactions there are, the better,” Napolitano said.

Italy has an “acute need” for institutional reform, he added.

Premier Letta has said institutional reforms to make Italy easier to govern are a priority for his government.

These reforms should include a new election law to replace the much-criticised current one that failed to produce a clear winner in February’s general election. The measures will also look to change the current parliamentary set-up in which all laws must be approved by both the House and Senate. This is blamed by many for being one of the major sources of dysfunction for Italy’s institutions.

“Renewal of our institutions and of our institutional representatives is what our country has an acute need of,” Napolitano said.

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Italy: House Speaker Urges Tougher Approach on Internet Threats

Boldrini speaks at conference on violence against women

(ANSA) — Rome, May 17 — Italian House Speaker Laura Boldrini on Thursday urged for more action to be taken to prevent threats to women being made over the Internet, saying that violence carried out through the Web is not less serious than that carried out in person due to its “amplifying” powers.

Boldrini was making an introductory speech at a conference taking place in Rome on violence against women. Fighting Internet violence “doesn’t mean gagging, it doesn’t mean that the law kills the freedom of the Web. It simply means that the laws that already exist are applied on the Web. Today false identities and servers located on the other side of the world block investigations”, Boldrini said.

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Italy: Magistrates Association Against New PdL Wiretapping Bill

Proposal would limit use if turned into law

(ANSA) — Rome, May 16 — Italy’s National Magistrates Association (ANM) expressed its opposition to a bill proposal presented in parliament by the centre-right People of Freedom (PdL) party, which aims to curb the use of wiretapping by prosecutors. The PdL presented the bill in parliament earlier this week to limit the use of wiretapping in investigations by prosecutors, and comes as tension increases in politics amid PdL leader and former premier Silvio Berlusconi’s increasing political woes and as the coalition government, which includes his party as well as its traditional rival, the center-left Democratic Party (PD), grapple with the ongoing economic crisis.

Berlusconi said he is the victim of persecution from left-wing magistrates after his legal problems grew more serious this month. Meanwhile, the Supreme Council of Magistrates (CSM), the Italian judiciary’s self-governing body, on Wednesday asked Justice Minister Anna Maria Cancellieri to support judges “without any uncertainty” from Berlusconi’s claims.

“We are against measures that affect conditions, methodology and timeframes of wiretappings”, said ANM president Rodolfo Sabelli, referring to the la proposals. “We are contrary to any measures that limit the effectiveness or makes more difficult the use of this instrument”.

The bill proposal follows a similar failed attempt in 2011 when similar measures were introduced in parliament to try to curb reporting of wiretapping in legal cases before they reach the trial stage, a process that can take years in Italy. Under the previous bill, anyone found guilty of releasing or publishing wiretaps before the ‘filter’ hearing would have faced jail sentences ranging from six months to three years.

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Italy: Fiat Denies it is Mulling Headquarter Relocation to U.S.

Reports Fiat was evaluating move

(ANSA) — Turin, May 16 — A Fiat spokesman Thursday denied a media report stating the company was considering moving its headquarters to the US from Italy, the nation it has been based in since it was founded in 1899.

“This subject, which has already been discussed by news organizations from all over the world on many occasions, is not an issue that is being considered, as confirmed recently by Chief Executive Officer Sergio Marchionne”.

Bloomberg on Thursday reported Marchionne was mulling the move from Turin, Italy, where Fiat is currently located.

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Muslims in Italy Have Been Victims of Violence, Leader Says

Attacks began after alleged discovery of Islamist cell

(ANSA) — Bari, May 16 — Italy’s Muslim community on Thursday said numerous individuals of Islamic faith have suffered physical violence in the southern Italian region of Puglia, as well as in other areas of the nation in recent weeks by “unidentified assailants”.

Sharif Lorenzini, who heads the Italian Muslim community, said in an interview with ANSA that he had taken testimonies, including one from a young man in the city of Bari who was hooded and beaten violently. Lorenzini said the incidents started after April 30, when the Carabinieri military police discovered a so-called undercover Muslim cell in Puglia, where Bari is located.

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Survey: Croatia and Slovenia Most Corrupt in EU

BRUSSELS — Croatia, about to enter the EU, is one of the most corrupt countries in Europe according to a new survey. But Slovenia — an EU and eurozone member — is even worse.

The findings come in an annual report on corporate graft published on Tuesday (7 May) by the US-based financial services company, Ernst & Young.

It interviewed 3,459 company board members in 36 countries worldwide, including 22 EU member states.

It asked whether businesses offer bribes to win or retain contracts or if they deliberately misstate their financial performance.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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UK: Butcher Who Forced an Indian Woman Into Modern-Day Slavery and Repeatedly Raped Her is Jailed for 11 Years

A butcher who forced an Indian woman into modern-day slavery and raped her was jailed for 11 years today.

Enkarta Balapovi, 54, subjected the 39-year-old to four months of sexual abuse behind his wife’s back while forcing his victim to sleep on the floor of his single room flat.

He forced the woman to cook and clean for him, and threatened to burn her passport unless she stripped naked and performed sex acts.

When the married victim resisted his advances, Balapovi threatened to throw her on to the streets without any identity documents if she did not sleep with him.

The illiterate woman had been lured to the UK with the promise of work as a nanny, hoping to earn money for her poverty-stricken family in India.

But she found herself locked indoors and forced to work 16-hour days during a four-year ordeal at the hands of Balapovi and co-accused secretary Shamina Yousuf and optician Shashi Obhrai.

Routinely beaten and used as a sex toy, the mother-of-four was burned with an iron, threatened with hypodermic needles, and had a knife held to her throat by Obhrai, 54, when she tried to escape.

Her passport was seized by Yousuf, 33, as soon as she arrived, and the woman, who is now wheelchair-bound, was passed between three families as a ‘dogsbody’, earning just £2,300 for year’s of gruelling work.

Despite dubbing Obhrai as ‘wicked’, Judge Shani Barnes spared her a jail sentence because she is the primary carer for her terminally ill millionaire husband Balram Obhrai, 59.

Mr Obhrai had been accused of trafficking and making threats to kill but the prosecution offered no evidence against him because he has a brain tumour and is on his death bed at home.

Yousuf, 33, had first recruited the woman when she came to the UK in 2005 to earn money for her poverty-stricken family in Hyderabad, India.

After nearly three years as a ‘servant’ for Yousuf’s family and friends, the woman confronted him.

Yousuf, whose marriage was breaking up, threw a mug at the woman’s foot which left a two-inch gash.

— Hat tip: Gaia

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UK: Blow for Cameron as Tories Vent Euro Fury: Half of His Backbenchers Condemn the Lack of a Referendum Law

More than 100 Conservative MPs condemned the Government last night for not bringing forward an EU referendum Bill.

A total of 130 MPs, including 12 Labour rebels and DUP members, backed an unprecedented motion expressing ‘regret’ that last week’s Queen’s Speech did not include legislation paving the way for a referendum.

In all, 114 Tories — more than half the party’s backbenchers and one in three of its MPs — backed the amendment.

Ministers abstained on the issue, in which Tory backbenchers were allowed a free vote. The vote was the most significant on Europe since October 2011, when 81 Tory MPs revolted in a bid to call for an in/out referendum.

— Hat tip: JD

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UK: Father Tried to Cover Up Battering His Wife by Asking His Mistress to Lie to Police That He Was the Victim of Abuse

[WARNING: ** Disturbing Content. **]

A cheating husband who smashed his wife’s head into a cabinet has been jailed.

Muhammed Khalil, 38, then asked his mistress to lie for him to police saying that he was actually the victim of abuse.

However, he was jailed yesterday for 15 months for the brutal assault that left Biklis Parveen, 33, with a serious head injury.

Birmingham Crown Court heard that the former probation officer flew into a rage and attacked his wife when she refused to let him take their two children away from the family home in October.

He slapped her across the face then rammed her head into the furniture.

Khalil then fled their home in Hall Green, Birmingham, before starting to weave his web of lies.

His new lover, Anarkali Habib, 34, told police she saw him being attacked by his wife when she was driving past their house.

She claimed she was driving past their house when she saw Mrs Parveen attacking Khalil and handed him her mobile phone to call police.

However, a jury found Khalil guilty of assault after hearing the pair had been having an affair.

Khalil was jailed for 15 months at Birmingham Crown Court on Wednesday after also pleading guilty to attempting to pervert the course of justice.

— Hat tip: JD

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UK: The Oxford Sex Ring and the Preachers Who Teach Young Muslim Men That White Girls Are Cheap

[WARNING: ** Disturbing Content. **]

[Dr Taj Hargey] The terrible story of the Oxford child sex ring has brought shame not only on the city of dreaming spires, but also on the local Muslim community.

It is a sense of repulsion and outrage that I feel particularly strongly, working as a Muslim leader and Imam in this neighbourhood and trying to promote genuine cultural integration.

There is no doubt that the evil deeds of these men have badly set back the cause of cross-community harmony.

In its harrowing details, this grim saga of exploitation, misogyny, perversion and cruelty fills me not only with desperate sorrow for those girls and their families, but also with dread and despair.

If I were the judge in this case, I would hand out the harshest possible jail sentences to these monstrous predators, both to see that justice is done for their victims and to send out a message to other exploiters.

And when I say harsh, I mean it: none of this fashionable nonsense about prisoners being released only a quarter of the way through their sentences. There is no pattern of good conduct these men could follow behind bars that could possibly make up for all the terrible suffering they have inflicted on others.

But apart from its sheer depravity, what also depresses me about this case is the widespread refusal to face up to its hard realities.

The fact is that the vicious activities of the Oxford ring are bound up with religion and race: religion, because all the perpetrators, though they had different nationalities, were Muslim; and race, because they deliberately targeted vulnerable white girls, whom they appeared to regard as ‘easy meat’, to use one of their revealing, racist phrases.

Indeed, one of the victims who bravely gave evidence in court told a newspaper afterwards that ‘the men exclusively wanted white girls to abuse’.

— Hat tip: JD

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Benghazi: Where Are Gen. Ham and Adm. Gaouette?

Who knows the whole truth about why Navy SEALs Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty along with State Department officials Chris Stevens and Sean Smith died in Benghazi 11 September 2012?

It’s now public knowledge that the ever evolving official administration stories on Benghazi are all bold faced lies. It’s clear that the four Americans who were brutally murdered in Benghazi did not have to die. What’s not clear yet, is who is responsible for these murders? Nothing the Obama administration has told the people about Benghazi is true… but who is responsible?

General Carter Ham and Admiral Charles M. Gaouette know the answer to this question. Where are Ham and Gaouette today? Why hasn’t Issa’s investigative committee called these decorated Military officers to testify before the committee investigating Benghazi?

We have known since 30 October 2012 that these two officers…

1. Were ordered to STAND DOWN in Benghazi 2. Ignored those orders 3. Were relieved of duty for refusing orders to STAND DOWN

— Hat tip: JD

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Egypt: Agents Kidnapped in the Sinai, Morsi Calls Ministers

Negotiations ongoing, two North Sinai cities shut down

(ANSAmed) — CAIRO — Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi has called an emergency meeting with Defense Minister Abdel Fatah el Sissi and Interior Minister Mohamed Ibrahim to discuss the kidnappings of a soldier, four navy guards and two national security agents in the Sinai. Negotiations for their release are ongoing, security sources said Thursday. Access to the cities of el Arish and Sheikh Zuayed has been shut down, while security in the Northern Sinai has been beefed up and the police and the army have set up a crisis task force.

— Hat tip: Insubria

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The Benghazi Deception

As the details of Benghazi are beginning to emerge from “whistleblowers” and the murderous events are being rightfully elevated to the proper realm of criminal conspiracy, other scandals have suddenly seemed to erupt, almost as if cued by a complicit choreographer. Most egregious misdeeds of the Internal Revenue Service, for example, that allegedly targeted Conservative groups, from 501(c)3 organizations to any group with Tea party or Constitution in their names, were suddenly “revealed.”

Other scandals of lesser significance, but nonetheless poking at the embers of public ire and intolerance are popping up as well. Watching the people who are reading the multiple news headlines on various news aggregator sites are like watching spectators at Wimbledon, as their heads move from side to side as they follow the ball in play. The white noise of new problems are constantly erupting, resulting in a feeding frenzy in the waters surrounding the Executive branch.

While fascinating to watch, has anyone stopped to consider that the process of chumming the waters with a flurry of cascading news events, combined with a docu-dump of 100 pages of Benghazi e-mails is actually a methodically orchestrated diversion? What is it we are not supposed to be seeing amid the white noise of new controversies of varying values?

[…]

By order of magnitude, however, this missing time is far greater than anything we saw with Watergate. Instead of 18 1/2 minutes of presidential time, it’s nearly 18 1/2 hours of time involving the actions, utterances, commands or lack thereof of Barack Hussein Obama as Americans were being killed a half-world away.

— Hat tip: JD

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Smuggled KFC Popular in Gaza Strip

Delivery service offers ‘finger-lickin’ good’ meals

(ANSAmed) — GAZA, MAY 16 — A growing number of Gazans have been ordering Kentucky Fried Chicken takeaway meals from Egypt’s northern Sinai over the past few weeks.

The ‘fast food’ is smuggled through tunnels crossing into Gaza from Egypt’s Sinai, tunnels previously used as supply lines for weapons, explosives and munitions trafficking. Now they are instead employed to bring a whiff of Western lifestyles to Gazans, in the shape of buckets teeming with KFC delicacies. A Gaza-based company specialising in delivery services, Al-Yamama, hit on the idea in early May. It calculated that it would take about four hours to get the precious buckets of fried chicken from the nearest KFC fast food joint in Al Arish to Gaza’s urban areas. For security reasons, night deliveries are not offered. The issue of prices was dealt with next. A sit-down KFC meal in Al Arish will set the customer back some three euros, but the relay over desert routes, through tunnels with their requisite tolls and the sending of the buckets to inside of Gaza results in a price six times higher than its original. Al Yamama initially wondered whether there would really be enough demand to justify the service. A bit of word-of-mouth and television ads did the trick.

Orders started rolling in, with Gazans “hungry for a sense of normality”. For security reasons, none of the large international fast food chains (such as McDonald’s, Pizza Hut and Dominos) has an outlet in the Gaza Strip. And so the chance to sink one’s teeth into the famous KFC ‘finger-lickin’ good’ chicken worked its magic on many a family in Gaza — even if by paying such a hefty price they could instead treat themselves to a more refined dining experience in one of the city’s best restaurants. And so, with the entrance of KFC buckets has come a bit of reprieve from the strict lifestyle Hamas has imposed on Gaza. No local politician has yet spoken out against the service, and some say that among them there may even be fans of the tasty American-style morsels.

— Hat tip: Insubria

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China Beats EU to Arctic Council Membership

The Arctic Council at its biannual meeting on Wednesday (15 May) in Sweden allowed in six new observer states, but deferred the EU’s application until a later date.

China, along with India, Italy, Japan, South Korea and Singapore, are now part of a select club of countries that oversee the exploitation and conservation of a changing landscape in the polar cap.

“It strengthens the position of the Arctic Council on the global scene,” said Sweden’s foreign minister Carl Bildt.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Serengeti Highway Compromise Proposed by Famed Scientist

Building an elevated highway across the Serengeti may not sound like the most feasible or wise idea. But that’s exactly what Kenyan scientist and conservationist Richard Leakey proposed yesterday (May 14), saying it could be the best solution for humans and wildlife.

Speaking yesterday (May 14) at a conference on wildlife crime and poaching here at Rutgers University Leakey — son of famed paleontologist and fossil hunters Louis and Mary Leakey, and himself a paleoanthropologist — said building an elevated highway would allow animals to cross underneath. The 30-mile-long (48 kilometers) road would also allow drivers to see the creatures pass by.

“It would be a grand spectacle, to see animals migrating by underneath, and signal Africa’s commitment to wildlife,” Leakey said during the keynote speech he gave at the meeting. “If I can drive over 30 miles of elevated highways in New Jersey, why not in the Serengeti?”

It would cost about 40 percent more than a paved highway, Leakey said, and the money would have to come from international donations. But the problem isn’t money, he added — it’s political will.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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20th Century Mexico’s Catholic Uprising Against Tyranny

In 1924, Plutarco Elias Calles became President.

In 1926, the president (left) and his clique launched a new offensive which they hoped to be definitive: “Now there must be a psychological revolution,” Calles declared. “We must penetrate and take hold of the minds of the children and the youth because they must belong to the revolution.”

The Catholic schools were shut down, the congregations expelled, Christian trade unions forbidden, numerous churches confiscated and profaned (turned into stables or halls) or destroyed. Public school attendance became mandatory, atheism was officially taught, and religious insignia (medals, crucifixes, statues, and pictures) were forbidden, even at home. God was even chased from the language! The use of such expressions as Adios, “If God wills,” or “God forbid,” was subject to a fine.

Lastly, the priests were “registered”: some states (Mexico is a federal republic) required them to swear not to proselytize, others tried to command them to marry if they wished to continue in their function! Msgr. Carvana, the Apostolic Nuncio, protested; on May 12, 1926, he was expelled. Throughout the country, Catholic public figures were assassinated, girls coming out of church were kidnapped, imprisoned, raped. Msgr. Curley, the Archbishop of Baltimore, vented his indignation: “Calles persecutes the church because he knows that he has Rome’s approval. Our government has armed Calles’s killers. Our friendship has encouraged him in his abominable enterprise: to destroy the idea of God in the minds and hearts of millions of Mexicans.”17

On May 28, Calles received the Masonic medal of merit from the hands of the Great Commander of the Scottish rite in Mexico. On July 12, the following communique appeared in the press: “International Masonry accepts responsibility for everything that is happening in Mexico, and is preparing to mobilize all its forces for the methodic, integral application of the agreed upon program for this country.”18

On July 26, an elderly shopkeeper was coldly struck down by two policemen in civilian clothes. His crime? In his shop he had posted a sign reading Viva Cristo Rey! Long live Christ the King! The Mexicans peacefully reacted to the persecution: they boycotted state-owned enterprises (tobacco purchases and railroad traffic were reduced by 74%, and in just a few weeks, the national bank suffered a 7 million peso loss), and they also circulated a protest petition signed by 2 million (out of a population of 15 million).

But Christians have something even better than that, they have prayer, and the country was crisscrossed by gigantic penitential processions: 10,000, 15,000 faithful, barefooted, crowned with thorns, implored God for their country. The powers that be could not tolerate that; their heavy machine guns dispersed the processions, and the first martyrs fell, singing.

In January 1927, Catholic Mexico rose: 20,000 combatants (30,000 by the end of the year, and 50,000 in 1929); few arms (a few rifles and carbines, but mostly hatchets, machetes, and sometimes simply sticks); few horses; but all the people supporting them, offering them their money, and necessaries. A Cristero peasant recounted how they set out with songs and prayers on their lips: “We were 1,000, then 5,000, then more! Everyone set out as if to go to the harvest….We firmly intended to die, angry or not, but to die for Christ.”

Against them were 100 mobile columns of 1,000 men each, veritable “infernal columns” financed by the US (light armored cars, tractor-drawn artillery, combat aircraft…). The first clashes were bloody massacres. An officer of Calles wrote: “They are more like pilgrims than soldiers. This isn’t a military campaign, it’s a hunting party!” The president himself predicted: “It will be wrapped up in less than two months.”

But when a pilgrimage takes up arms, it becomes a crusade! The Cristeros were able to equip themselves from the adversary, profiting from their cowardice or their corruption. The “Federales” were more like pillagers, drunk on tequila and marijuana, rather than soldiers worthy of the name. On March 15, 1927, they were defeated at San Julian; at Puerto Obristo, they left 600 dead. In November, the military attache of the US began to worry about the success of the “fanatics,” 40% of whose troops were now equipped with excellent Mausers recuperated from the enemy. How was it possible?

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A Nation Divided, Then and Now

The passage of Obamacare which nationalizes 16% of the nation’s economy is bringing the nation to the brink of rebellion. More than half of the states have filed suits against it and passed laws resisting its implementation. The same state that led seccession in1860, South Carolina, is leading the opposition to it.

Another constitutional issue, the protection of the Second Amendment, is generating a similar response. Millions of Americans are rallying around this constitutional freedom.

The debate about immigration is a third leg of the stool as Americans grow fearful over the failure of the federal government to protect its southern border from millions of illegal aliens in our midst (not unlike southern fears of its black population), the costs of public services, and the implications of enfranchising them, shifting political power to the Democratic Party which is responsible for Obamacare and other social programs draining the public treasury.

It is surely an irony of history that a majority of voters have now twice elected the first black President of the nation, initially responding to his message of “hope and change” until that change manifested itself as the socialism that has led some European nations to the brink of bankruptcy. Half the voters now see his administration as a threat to their freedoms and are being joined by others who are beginning to see the lies surrounding the attack in Benghazi (on September 11, 2012, the anniversary of 9/11) as an impeachable offense.

— Hat tip: JD

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Denmark: Highest Number of Asylum Seekers in Over a Decade

Despite Europe-wide rise in asylum seekers, policial opposition attempts to tie rise in Danish asylum numbers to ‘weak’ immigration policies

The number of asylum seekers travelling to Denmark in 2013 is expected to be the highest in 12 years and opposition parties say the reason for the influx is the government’s introduction of more humanitarian living conditions.

According to the Justice Ministry, the number of migrants applying for asylum in Denmark is expected to rise above 7,000, the highest number since 2001 when over 12,000 applied.

Both Dansk Folkeparti (DF) and Venstre blame the rise on the government’s improvement of living conditions for asylum seekers. These include the right to live and work outside asylum centres after six months as long as the applicant demonstrates a willingness to co-operate with repatriation if their application fails.

“We are reaching the same level that we experienced before Dansk Folkeparti and the right-wing coalition government tightened the asylum rules, and it is proof that the government has given up on trying to control asylum,” Martin Henriksen, DF’s immigration spokesperson, told Kristeligt Dagblad. “We are once again going to receive a lot of asylum seekers who will be hard to integrate into the Danish society.”

When the government took power in 2011, it also abolished starthjælp, a benefit given to immigrants and successful asylum applicants who could not provide for themselves during their first years in Denmark.

Starthjælp was a very small benefit and critics argued that it trapped recipients in poverty instead of providing an incentive for them to find work, which was its stated cause.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Italy: Citizenship Reforms Cannot be Delayed, Says Minister

Parliament may soon deal with law reform in Italy

(ANSA) — Rome, May 15 — Italy’s Parliament must soon deal with a reform of its citizenship laws, Integration Minister Cecile Kyenge said Wednesday.

“Citizenship reform is a real need and cannot be postponed,” said the Congo-born Kyenge.

Among other advantages, reforms could improve economic growth prospects for the recession-struck country, she added during question period.

Reform could occur via gradual regulatory changes made in consultation with all government ministries, but work must begin quickly, said the minister.

“I am confident that Parliament will soon begin to deal with reform,” said Kyenge.

The minister has stirred controversy with her plans to press for reforms granting automatic Italian citizenship to the children of immigrants born in Italy.

Automatic citizenship is rare in Europe, with France providing the exception to the general rule of blood-based citizenship rules.

However, most European countries are less rigid than Italy regarding naturalization, and grant easier paths toward citizenship for the children of immigrants.

— Hat tip: Insubria

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US Denies Christian Homeschoolers Asylum

An American appeals court has denied a fundamentalist Christian family from Germany the right to asylum in the US. The family claimed they were being persecuted for not being allowed to homeschool their children.

In its Tuesday ruling, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati, Ohio, said there was a difference between the persecution of a group and prosecution of violators of a law that is applied across the board — in this case, Germany’s rule on mandatory schooling.

News agency AP reported that the family is planning to fight the decision.

“Regrettably for the Romeikes they have not shown that Germany’s enforcement of its general school attendance law amounts to persecution against them, whether on grounds of religion or membership in a recognised social group,” the judge’s opinion read.

An immigration judge in the state of Tennessee initially ruled in 2010 that parents Uwe and Hannelore Romeike, and their five children, were free to remain in the United States, where they had been living for the past five years.

But the US government successfully appealed the decision two years later, and on Tuesday the Cincinnati court upheld that ruling.

The Romeikes, originally from Baden-Württemberg, said they decided to homeschool their children because public schools were teaching children to adopt an “anti-Christian worldview,” AP said.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Manitoba Teachers: Every Lesson a ‘Gay’ Lesson

Imagine being a kid sitting in a classroom, and hearing things like this:

“Two plus two equals four, children — and I didn’t say ‘boys and girls’ because there’s no such thing as boys and girls. Gender is a state of mind!”

“When a verb ending in i-n-g is used as a noun, it’s called a gerund; and same-sex marriage is great for society.”

“Constantinople fell to the Turks in 1453, and having two dads is wonderful.”

The Manitoba Teachers Society, a union with some 15,000 members, has proposed a “sweeping inclusion of sexual-orientation issues throughout education curricula,” reported The Winnipeg Free Press, May 3. Translation: “gay” stuff gets into everything. The announced purpose is to “ensure that same-sex families and LBGTTQ people and themes are reflected in all curricula.” Note the use of the word “all.”

Because it’s Canada and not the U.S.A., “provincial curricula must be followed by all Manitoba schools, public and private.” In Ontario they’ve ordered Catholic schools to set up “gay” clubs. There’s no escape into the private schools for Canadians. Anyhow, the teachers’ union has its general meeting May 23-25, at which this bizarre proposal will likely be endorsed.

In the history of the civilized world, has any group ever been more fawned upon, treated with more fearful deference, backed up with more coercion from the state, or catered to more than homosexuals are today? Don’t people wonder about that — or have their minds been dulled by non-stop repetition?

— Hat tip: JD

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Report: Sexual Minorities in EU Face Hate Speech, Violence and Discrimination

BRUSSELS — Equal rights for gays, lesbians, bi-sexual, trans and inter-sex (LGBTI) people are still patchy across Europe, with advances in some areas offset by discrimination, hate-speech, bullying and violence elsewhere.

The 2013 review of the human rights situation of LGBTI people by the Brussels-based NGO ILGA-Europe found that “degrading, offensive and defamatory language” is one of the “most common trends” across the continent.

The bias goes all the way to the top of the society. When it is not politicians themselves making derogatory comments, it is often religious leaders, representatives from conservative parties, “traditional family organisations” or people from far-right organisations.

Meanwhile, violence against LGBTI people “remains a truly pan-European phenomenon” regularly motivated by nationalism, traditionalism or fundamental religious beliefs.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Sneering at Parents, Hiding Behind “Science” — The Emergency Contraception Controversy

Looking for evidence that our society is losing its mind? Just look at the controversy over so-called “emergency contraceptives” and a federal judge’s effort to make these drugs available, over the counter, to girls of any age.

Last month, Judge Edward Korman of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York handed down an order forcing the Food and Drug Administration to make emergency contraceptives, sometimes called the “morning-after pill,” available without a doctor’s prescription or parental permission to girls without any restriction on age.

Judge Korman’s order would open the door for girls as young as 10 or 11 to obtain the morning-after pill without any involvement by either a doctor or a parent. That same girl, of course, could not be given an aspirin in a school clinic without parental permission, much less a simple antibiotic like penicillin. Nevertheless, this federal judge ruled that girls and women of any age must be allowed over-the-counter access to emergency contraceptives.

The Obama Administration had previously set the age for access to the morning-after pill, or Plan B, at age 17. That was not good enough for Judge Korman, nor for the abortion rights and feminist groups clamoring for any age restriction to be removed. On April 30, the Food and Drug Administration announced that the age for unrestricted access to Plan B would be lowered to 15. This move, shocking enough to most parents, was not acceptable to the groups demanding an end to all age restrictions.

— Hat tip: JD

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Targeted Action Requires a Clear Plan … LGBTI Issues Are No Different

BRUSSELS — If you are a lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans or intersex person (LGBTI) today in the European Union, there is a 60 percent chance that you have experienced homophobia at school because of your identity.

There’s also a 25 percent chance that you have experienced violence, and if so, it is very likely that you did not report it to any public authority.

These are just two of the figures already released from the largest survey ever conducted on discrimination and violence faced by LGBTI people, to be published by the EU’s Fundamental Rights Agency on Friday (17 May).

Through its work with LGBTI organisations across Europe, ILGA-Europe knows that this is only part of the picture.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Top 5 Christian Leaders Targeted by Gay Activists

Defending what the Bible teaches about homosexuality can often lead to public condemnation from gay activists. In recent years especially, Christians have been ridiculed and called bigots for their beliefs. Here are five well-known Christian leaders who have been targeted for their beliefs.

— Hat tip: JD

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]]> http://gatesofvienna.net/2013/05/gates-of-vienna-news-feed-5162013/feed/ 1 http://gatesofvienna.net/2013/05/fight-hate-speech-and-earn-big-bucks/ http://gatesofvienna.net/2013/05/fight-hate-speech-and-earn-big-bucks/#comments Fri, 17 May 2013 03:28:14 +0000 Baron Bodissey http://gatesofvienna.net/?p=28566 Continue reading →]]> Or kroner, anyway. Norwegian kroner, to be precise. Three million of them.

That’s what an independent foundation (in collusion with Norwegian government) is paying Øyvind Strømmen and one of his colleagues to “identify and expose” extremism and hate speech on the internet.

As long-time readers will remember from the LGF Wars, Mr. Strømmen was the conduit to Charles Johnson for leftist disinformation against the Sweden Democrats provided by EXPO and similar sources. He came back into prominence after the Breivik massacre in 2011, and is one of the numerous lefties who has repeatedly targeted Fjordman.

So what kind of extremism do you think these heroes will be fighting? Hint: It won’t be Antifa.

Our Norwegian correspondent The Observer has translated an article from Document.no about the largesse bestowed on these two esteemed Gentlemen of the Left. He includes this brief explanatory note:

Øyvind Strømmen should already be familiar to the readers of Gates of Vienna. Here is the Norwegian Wikipedia entry on his partner in crime, Kjetil Stormark. And here’s a Telegraph article with more information on Mr. Stormark. He recently published a book based on e-mail correspondence between Breivik and others..

It’s nice to see that at least some people in Norway have benefitted tremendously, both financially and career wise on the Breivik terror in Norway which cost 77 people their lives.

Wouldn’t you concur, Øyvind?

The translated article:

Yet another internet site against hate speech, hate crime and extremism

The independent foundation Fritt Ord [‘free speech’, or alternatively ‘free word’] has awarded NoK 3 million [about $510,000] to the newly established ‘journalistic trade network on hate speech, hate crime and extremism’. The new project ‘Hate Speech International’ (HSI) will be run by two authors and freelance journalists, Øyvind Strømmen and Kjetil Stormark. It will be supported financially by the Fritt Ord foundation and the Norwegian Foreign Ministry.

“The organization will create a website and carry out specific journalistic assignments with the aim of identifying causes and exposing leaders responsible for the dissemination of hate speech and hate crimes. ‘Hate Speech International’ will also focus on extremism as a phenomenon. HSI will be run in accordance with the guidelines of ‘redaktørplakaten’ [Editors’ rules] and ‘Vær Varsom-plakaten’ [The Norwegian Code of Media Ethics].

“Hate Speech International will focus mainly on Europe, but the organization also intends to establish networks and carry out research projects in North Africa and the Middle East.”

Kjetil Stormark will be the new editor of the internet site, with Øyvind Strømmen acting as the news editor and leader of content.

“In addition to Strømmen and Stormark, the attorney, Jon Wessel-Aas will act as the organization’s legal advisor. An advisory council comprised of prominent representatives from academia has also been established. The Advisory Council will provide technical input and ideas, and ensure that the quality of the project is maintained. The members of the Council are Professor Tore Bjørgo from the Police Academy, researcher Petter Nesser from The Defense Research institute (FFI) — Nesser is currently heading the institute’s Terra project —, Professor and sociologist Katrine Fangen of the University of Oslo, professor and political scientist Bernt Hagtvet of the University of Oslo, folklorist Kristian Bjørkelo of the University of Bergen and freelance journalist Anna-Lena Lodenius from Sweden, who has published numerous books on nationalist and extreme movements, including some which have been co-authored with the deceased author Stieg Larsson.”

I expect we’ll have to keep an eye on these folks — we know who they’re likely to be coming after.

Norway is a tough place to live in if you deviate even a micrometer from the party line. My sympathy goes out to all those unfortunate Norwegian “extremists” who question the wisdom of culturally enriching their country.

If we disappear from view for a few hours, and your comments go unmoderated, you’ll know why.

Update: The raging tempests have all receded to the east and/or dissipated. Everything here is very wet, but otherwise unscathed.

Since then, thanks to additional information kindly supplied by commenters on the post, I have learned that the Bedfordshire police have denied that such an incident occurred (also on Facebook, but I don’t have the URL), and that they are investigating whether anyone broke the laws against incitement by posting inflammatory false information on social media.

Long-time readers know that we are committed to truthful reporting here at Gates of Vienna. In this particular case, I’m anxious to learn more. I know what Kev said, and I know what the police said. In my personal experience, the EDL has a better track record than the police when it comes to telling the truth about culturally enriched sexual predation in England. It took law enforcement and the Crown Prosecutor many years to admit that “grooming and pimping” by “Asians” was a reality — and in fact a mass epidemic — and that the EDL were right all along.

So I’m keeping an open mind. I’m interested in acquiring more information, and I don’t expect anything useful about the incident to come from the British MSM. Therefore, I’d welcome it if any of our British readers can supply specific information that addresses one or more of the following questions:

1.		Is there anyone willing to corroborate the story, on the record?
2.		Is there an angry parent or other relative who has been identified and quoted?
3.		Has the specific school been identified?
4.		Has any police official made a public statement about the case, except on Facebook?
5.		What are the latest local rumors about it in Luton?

Any relevant information would be welcome. But spare me the invective, please, on either side of the issue. I’ve heard it all before.