Gates of Vienna News Feed 9/5/2009

Gates of Vienna News Feed 9/5/2009Allesandra Mussolini, Benito Mussolini’s granddaughter, has demanded that a Romanian film be banned from an Italian film festival because it insults both Italy and her grandfather.

In other news, a sheriff in Texas is embroiled in controversy over his decision to allow an Al Jazeera reporter and cameraman access to prisoners in his jail.

Thanks to A Greek Friend, C. Cantoni, Gaia, JD, TB, Vlad Tepes, and all the other tipsters who sent these in. Headlines and articles are below the fold.
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Financial Crisis
USA Today Rejoices in Man-Cession, Hails Rise of Gender Equality
 
USA
9/11 Truther Van Jones Was Arianna Huffington’s Political Director
Al Qaeda-Linked American Terrorist Unveiled, As Charges Await Him in U.S.
Avoid This if You Want to Keep Your Thyroid Healthy
Beware of Agents Provocateur
CIA Asks Justice to Probe Leaks of Secrets
Democrats’ Despicable Duplicity
No Obamacare — No Trigger!
‘Political Realignment’ Through Social Networking
Sheriff Under Fire for Al Jazeera Access to Jail
U.S. Website for U.N. Restores Flag
Van Jones: ‘Resist’ Against Police
Van Jones Mystery Solved?
 
Europe and the EU
Anders Fogh Rasmussen: The Reformer
Italy: Alessandra Mussolini Wants a Romanian Movie Banned
UK: Anti-Fascists Clash With Right-Wing Protesters in Birmingham
UK: Anger as Council Closes Road So Travellers Can Hold Wake for ‘Two Weeks’
UK: Jews Who Escaped Nazis as Kids Recreate Train Trip
UK: New Mayor Tells Town: ‘We Could All Learn Something About Family Values From the Taliban’
UK: Rival Protesters Clash on Streets
UK: Windfarms? We Might as Well Use Hamsters on Treadmills
 
North Africa
Egypt: Coptic TV Channel Targets Youth
‘Hebrew Book-Burning’ Minister Farouk Hosni is Front-Runner to Head UNESCO
 
Middle East
Iraq: Tight Security for Return of Shia Leader’s Body
The Systematic Oppression of Women in the Islamic World
What’s New on the Niqab and Burqa Front?
Yemen a New Hot Spot for Terrorists: Minister
 
Russia
Is Russia Setting the Stage for a Nuclear Apocalypse?
 
South Asia
“Honour Killings” In India
 
Far East
China: Demonstrators Demand Security After Needle Attacks
 
Immigration
Italy: Migrants Treated Like Holocaust Jews, Say Bishops
Mexico Denounces Growing Intolerance Toward Mexicans in U.S.
 
Culture Wars
Angry Parents Suing California Schools Over Mandatory Gay-Friendly Classes
Lawmakers: Schoolkids Must Study ‘Sexual Predator’

Financial Crisis


USA Today Rejoices in Man-Cession, Hails Rise of Gender Equality

USA Today published a lead article Thursday that is one of those now-I-understand-what-socialism-is-all-about articles. The essay’s pretzel logic is so outlandish that I promise to keep a straight face as I explain it to you.

And the article’s original title was so outrageous that within hours the USA Today editors felt compelled to tone it down. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

It’s no secret that men been hit hard in the current recession. The USA Today article acknowledges that men have lost 74% of jobs since December 2007, with women losing the remaining 26%. The reason is men predominate in construction and manufacturing, sectors that have suffered a massive hemorrhaging of jobs.

Most would view these numbers with dismay and even alarm. In many families men are the primary breadwinners and men’s job loss hurts their wives, children, and dependent parents. And unemployment is emotionally devastating to many men.

But socialists view massive male unemployment with undisguised glee. After all, if we can’t force more women out of the home into the workplace, then we can achieve numerical workforce equality by throwing millions of men off the assembly line.

USA Today quotes economist Heidi Hartmann of the Institute for Women’s Policy Research: “It was a long historical slog to get to this point.” Apparently Hartmann’s only regret is the recession didn’t hit a few years sooner.

And wait, there’s more good news!

Not only have men lost 4.75 million jobs, but now that the economic stimulus plan is kicking in, men are having trouble getting back on their feet.

Why? Because federal stimulus money is being directed to education, healthcare, and social services, sectors that tend to be female-dominated. (This didn’t happen by accident — here’s why: www.renewamerica.com/columns/roberts/090723 ). Local jurisdictions have cut 86,000 men from payrolls during the recession, while hiring 167,000 women, a transformation USA Today applauds as “remarkable.”

For those who have a remaining scintilla of concern over the plight of men, University of Chicago economist Casey Mulligan assures us, “Unemployment among men isn’t going to last forever. People will move from construction and manufacturing to industries that are creating new jobs.”

That’s right, guys, if you got laid off as a $35 an hour crane operator or tool-and-die worker, not to worry. With a little training you can become a home health aide, social worker, or teacher’s assistant!

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

USA


9/11 Truther Van Jones Was Arianna Huffington’s Political Director

Arianna Huffington’s liberal gossip site the Huffington Post has been vigorously defending green jobs czar and 9/11 “truther” Van Jones.

It turns out that Jones was Huffington’s grassroots political director when she ran for governor in the 2003 recall election. In fact, Jones, a self-described “communist,” thought Huffington was so wonderful he was part of the effort to draft her to run for office.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



Al Qaeda-Linked American Terrorist Unveiled, As Charges Await Him in U.S.

A week after the 9/11 attacks, a young Muslim at the University of South Alabama told the school’s newspaper it was “difficult to believe a Muslim could have done this.”

Now, eight years later, he is professing to launch attacks himself and calling on others to join the fight, as terror-related charges await him at home in Alabama, FOX News has learned exclusively.

Abu Mansour al-Amriki — or “The American” — has become one of the most recognizable and outspoken voices of terrorist propaganda.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



Avoid This if You Want to Keep Your Thyroid Healthy

Bromides are a common endocrine disruptor. Because bromide is also a halide, it competes for the same receptors that are used in the thyroid gland (among other places) to capture iodine. This will inhibit thyroid hormone production resulting in a low thyroid state.

Iodine is essential for your body, and is detected in every organ and tissue. There is increasing evidence that low iodine is related to numerous diseases, including cancer. Various clinicians and researchers have found iodine effective with everything from goiter to constipation.

Bromide can be found in several forms. Methyl Bromide is a pesticide used mainly on strawberries, found predominantly in the California areas. Brominated Vegetable Oil (BVO) is added to citrus drinks to help suspend the flavoring in the liquid.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



Beware of Agents Provocateur

Beginning in 2006, WND chronicled the bizarre behavior of Internet blogger and micro-caster Hal Turner who said he might have to assassinate half the members of Congress.

[…]

It seemed very strange to us at WND that law enforcement officials paid little heed.

[…]

Last month, in a trial over charges brought against Turner by local officials in New Jersey and Connecticut, it was revealed that Turner had been trained by the FBI on how to deliberately provoke violent actions by others. He was an “agent provocateur” for the FBI from 2002 through 2007 and was taught by the agency “what he could say that wouldn’t be crossing the line,” according to testimony in the trial.

His defense attorney said, “His job was basically to publish information which would cause other parties to act in a manner which would lead to their arrest.” In other words, the government was paying him to get people to commit crimes they might not otherwise commit.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



CIA Asks Justice to Probe Leaks of Secrets

Besieged by leaks of several closely held secrets, the CIA has asked the Justice Department to examine what it regards as the criminal disclosure of a secret program to kill foreign terrorist leaders abroad, The Washington Times has learned.

Two U.S. intelligence officials, who spoke on the condition that they not be named because of the sensitivity of the case, said the leak investigation involved a program that CIA Director Leon E. Panetta told Congress about in June and that surfaced in news reports just a month later.

The vice chairman of the the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence declined to discuss any possible leak investigations but told the Times on Thursday that a growing number of disclosures of highly secret programs, tactics and other information had caused “irreparable damage” to the U.S. intelligence community.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



Democrats’ Despicable Duplicity

Democrats insisted on changing the law in Massachusetts to require an election to fill the office of Sen. John Kerry, should he be elected president in 2004. They argued that the people, not the governor, should choose the senator’s replacement. Of course, the governor at the time was a Republican, Mitt Romney. Now that the governor is a Democrat, the people should not choose Ted Kennedy’s successor; the governor should make the appointment. The duplicity here is despicable.

Democrats went berserk over what they called President Bush’s “power grab,” but are silent in the face of President Obama’s massive consolidation of power. The duplicity here is despicable.

No president has ever abused the power of the presidency as has Barack Obama. In view of the many abuses in which several presidents of both parties have engaged, this is a damning indictment. While Obama claims to be a teacher of the Constitution, he obviously does not believe the powers of the federal government are limited to those enumerated in Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution. Obama, the Democratic Party and far too many Republicans completely ignore these limitations.

Let the world know your solution to tyranny and socialism in America with the magnetic bumper sticker: “IMPEACH OBAMA!”

What Obama has done to the American system of government in the few months he’s been in office is absolutely staggering. He has done it with the blessings of a Congress controlled by Democrats, and a largely adoring media. Among his power-grabbing initiatives, Obama’s government has…

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



No Obamacare — No Trigger!

Now, as ObamaCare has become a lightning rod amongst the exponentially growing number of opposing American people, Obama is still bent upon our enslavement to him and his advisors. However, he and the New Marxist Party (formerly know as the US Democrat Party)—and at least one liberal and firm RINO Senator Olympia Snowe (R-ME)—are kicking around an idea for attempting to fool us again. The new Con? It’s called “the Trigger.” What this essentially means is that the government “option” (which we already know is no option at all) will be temporarily removed from ObamaCare. Then Obama and his adherents will place severe and uncompromising restrictions on the healthcare insurance companies that will mandate they provide services for everyone and not raise their rates to the consumers.

As there is no way that any company can reduce rates while increasing services and adding millions of new clients (unless it plans to go out of business), insurance companies will not be able to comply. That’s when the invidious ObamaCare and all-government-control of everything you do and will ever do is slammed back into the program. The insurance companies’ inability to obey Obama and the dictates of the New Marxist Party will “trigger” the re-inclusion of the government-run insurance clause—replete with all of the ObamaControls placed upon We-the-People. None of this is remotely acceptable to a free people. Heck, it isn’t even acceptable to the slaves they want us to become!

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



‘Political Realignment’ Through Social Networking

Obama czar’s comments surface amid report White House to gather Web users’ info

Environmental activism combined with new information technology, such as social networking websites, can bring about a political realignment “to get us the country we always wanted,” according to President Obama’s controversial “green jobs” adviser, Van Jones.

“It’s my great hope that if we combine this breakthrough in clean energy technology with the real breakthrough in the information networking domain, we can get to a breakthrough in American politics,” said Jones at a speech screened by WND.

[…]

A WND review of STORM’s official manifesto, titled, “Reclaiming Revolution,” surfaced on the Internet, found a description of Jones’ organization as having a “commitment to the fundamental ideas of Marxism-Leninism.”

Speaking to the East Bay Express, Jones said he first became radicalized in the wake of the 1992 Rodney King riots, during which time he was arrested.

“I was a rowdy nationalist on April 28th, and then the verdicts came down on April 29th,” he said. “By August, I was a communist.

[Comments by JD: article has link to video of speech.]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



Sheriff Under Fire for Al Jazeera Access to Jail

The chairman of the Harris County Republican Party sharply criticized Harris County Sheriff Adrian Garcia Thursday for granting jail access to a reporter and videographer from Al Jazeera English, an English-language offshoot of the Arabic news network.

GOP Chairman Jared Woodfill invited supporters to call the sheriff’s office and “voice concerns” about the decision to allow Al Jazeera English reporter Josh Rushing, a former public affairs officer for the U.S. Marine Corps in Iraq, to conduct interviews for a long-form news story about treatment of the mentally ill by U.S. law enforcement.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



U.S. Website for U.N. Restores Flag

Change follows ‘scrubbing’ of emblem, archives

UNITED NATIONS — Less than 48 hours after WND reported that under the Obama administration the website for the United States mission to the United Nations had been scrubbed of its flag emblem and archives, those apparently have been restored.

[…]

But the website today exhibited a new — albeit tiny — flag logo in the top left part of the page.

But the new and “improved” site was missing some important and traditional features.

For one thing, the image of the U.S. flag disappeared from the banner, to be replaced by the United Nations logo.

[Comments from JD: Screen captures at url above.]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



Van Jones: ‘Resist’ Against Police

Anti-cop mission drawn up by Black Panther group

Van Jones, President Obama’s controversial environmental adviser, signed a petition calling for nationwide “resistance” against police, accusing them of using the 9/11 attacks to carry out policies of torture.

The petition was organized by the October 22nd Coalition, an anti-police organization whose mission statement was drawn up by leaders of the radical Black Panther Collective for Social Progress.

[…]

Signing alongside Jones was the radical attorney Lynne Stewart, who was convicted of illegally passing messages on behalf of her incarcerated client Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman — the terrorist mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



Van Jones Mystery Solved?

The Obama Administration refuses to say how communist Van Jones was hired as the “Green Jobs Czar” and who recommended him. The administration refuses to say who knew what about his communist background. The White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ), where Jones is employed, told me, in response to a series of Freedom of Information Act requests, that it had no documents about his hiring or communist background. But some possible explanations for the mysterious appointment are now coming into focus.

On the Thursday edition of his Fox News Channel television program, Glenn Beck noted that Valerie Jarrett, Senior Advisor and Assistant to the President for Intergovernmental Affairs and Public Engagement, seemed to claim credit for the appointment during an appearance at a left-wing bloggers conference last month. Beck made the disclosure while noting evidence that Jones was a member of the 9/11 truth movement, which blames the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on U.S. Government officials. A video had previously surfaced of Jones calling Republicans “assholes.”

[…]

But other evidence supports the idea that Rep. Barbara Lee, one of the most extreme members of Congress and an apologist for Fidel Castro, played a key role in the Jones appointment. Lee, perhaps best known for casting the lone vote in the House against U.S. military action to remove the Taliban regime in Afghanistan after the 9/11 attacks, is a close friend of both Jones and President Obama.

But behind Lee and Jones is an influential network of communists known as the Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism (CCDS).Lee was a secret member of the group, a spin-off of the Communist Party USA, while Jones was the keynote speaker at a 2006 CCDS fundraiser.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Europe and the EU


Anders Fogh Rasmussen: The Reformer

You don’t get small talk with Anders Fogh Rasmussen. The longtime Danish Prime Minister and new Secretary-General of NATO likes to get down to business quickly. Meetings have to achieve something tangible, notes a colleague. In private briefings before he took on his new job at the beginning of August, Rasmussen was “very focused,” says Fabrice Pothier, director of the European office of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “There’s no bullshit. It’s ‘Give me some concrete, doable recommendations.’“ Two days in, Rasmussen, who at 56 is just four years younger than the military alliance itself, headed to Afghanistan. A trip to Turkey and Greece followed.

Rasmussen’s sense of urgency is understandable. He wants to remake the world’s most powerful military alliance, born from the ashes of World War II and shaped by its frontline role in the Cold War, into something that’s “relevant in today’s world.”…

           — Hat tip: TB [Return to headlines]



Italy: Alessandra Mussolini Wants a Romanian Movie Banned

Italian MP Alessandra Mussolini, the granddaughter of fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, wants a Romanian movie critical of Italians banned, according to the Italian press.

The Romanian movie “Francesca” by Bobby Paunescu that stars Monica Barladeanu was screened yesterday (Thurs) at the Venice International Film Festival.

The Adnkronos news agency has reported that the movie was applauded by viewers despite that it criticises Italian politicians and accuses Italians of being racists.

Mussolini has declared in the Italian press that she wants to ban the movie from being distributed in Italy.

She is quoted as saying: “If what I’ve read about the movie is true, my lawyer said he could ask, apart from damages, for it to be banned. Its tone is unacceptable, even if it’s art.”

In the movie, a character says: “Have you heard that whore Mussolini who wants all Romanians dead?”

The movie tells the story of Francesca, a young kindergarten teacher whose dream is to migrate to Italy. Looking for a better life, Francesca is ready to face any obstacles, even the doubtfulness and worries of people close to her. The plan is that her boyfriend, Mita, will join her in Italy as soon as he finishes a small business he’s involved in. Things take an unfortunate turn, painful truths come to light, and priorities change.

Domenico Procacci, the manager of the production company that has the rights to distribute the movie in Italy, said he intends to screen it as planned.

“I want to respect the director’ work,” he was quoted as saying.

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



UK: Anti-Fascists Clash With Right-Wing Protesters in Birmingham

[See article for lots of photos]

There were angry clashes in a city centre today as right-wing protesters fought with anti-fascist campaigners in a busy shopping street.

A planned demonstration by The English Defence League in central Birmingham descended into violence as the group charged along New Street, close to the city’s main train station.

More than 20 men have been arrested.

‘There were about 250 people in total, fighting and throwing bottles at each other,’ one onlooker said.

The disorder spilled onto the adjoining Bennetts Hill, a street lined with a number of pubs, popular with shoppers.

Dozens of riot police worked to contain the disturbance and a police helicopter hovered overhead.

A police spokeswoman said there had been ‘pockets’ of trouble. West Midlands Police said it would deal with anti-social behaviour or criminal activity connected to the protests ‘robustly’ after a demonstration last month turned violent.

Earlier this week the force, along with Birmingham City Council, obtained an order from the Home Secretary banning protesters from the Bullring area of the city, under section 14a of the Public Order Act.

Under the same legislation, Chief Constable Chris Sims passed an order restricting the protests to two locations — Lancaster Circus and Old Square.

But after meeting on Broad Street in the city’s entertainment district, demonstrators proceeded to New Street, around half a mile away, and trouble ensued.

The street, which houses a large number of banks, cafes and chain stores, is a major pedestrian route from Birmingham New Street train station to the Bullring shopping mall.

The exact location of the first outbreak of violence is close to the city’s Town Hall and central library.

Publishing details of the protest plans on its website, the English Defence League (EDL) had urged supporters to avoid being drawn into violent clashes.

The league claims not to be a racist group and says it has no ties with the British National Party.

It said: ‘As many people are now aware, we at the English Defence League are holding a demonstration in Birmingham on Saturday 5th September to oppose Islamic Extremists.

‘We would like to state that anyone who wishes to cause trouble, or use this demonstration to voice any other issues other than Islamic Fundamentalists, Radical Islam and Sharia will be turned away.

‘We are not a Fascist organisation, and urge anyone who knows of anybody who is intent on causing trouble on the day to contact us.’

The group predicted the demonstrations would be a ‘great day out’, adding: ‘We are confident that, due to the support and communications with West Midlands Police, this looks set to be a great day out for all concerned.

‘We must add that any trouble caused by anyone demonstrating with the English Defence League will be arrested or removed, and could destroy the hard work that has been put in by the English Defence League’s organisers and West Midlands Police and ruin the day for everyone. ‘

A police spokeswoman said a group of more than 20 men were arrested for violent disorder on a bus in Digbeth High Street, just outside the city centre.

Officers also arrested a 41-year-old man in Waterloo Street, close to St Phillip’s Cathedral, for the same offence.

The spokeswoman added: ‘Other sporadic outbreaks of disorder have occurred around the Bennetts Hill and New Street area of the city, during which missiles have been thrown.

‘Police officers have been deployed across the city to deal with these outbreaks of disorder and contain them to prevent further disturbances.’

           — Hat tip: Gaia [Return to headlines]



UK: Anger as Council Closes Road So Travellers Can Hold Wake for ‘Two Weeks’

[Comments from JD: “travellers” … like Dr Who?…wait…ah…now I get it…they mean Gypsies. Why not say Gypsies?]

A council has come under fire after it closed a road to allow a group of travellers to hold a wake.

A brazier fire is burning in the middle of a country lane so the dead person’s belongings can be destroyed in what is a traditional traveller ceremony that can last up to two weeks.

But local residents are angry that West Sussex County Council has shut Blackboy Lane in Fishbourne instead of asking the travellers to move their ceremony elsewhere.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



UK: Jews Who Escaped Nazis as Kids Recreate Train Trip

LONDON (AP) — A vintage train carrying Holocaust survivors pulled into London on Friday, ending a three-day trip across Europe that marked the 70th anniversary of their extraordinary rescue by a young British stockbroker.

Waiting to greet them at London’s Liverpool Street Station was Nicholas Winton, age 100, who organized the rail “kindertransports” that carried hundreds of mostly Jewish children from Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia to safety in 1939.

The steam train carried 170 people, including about two dozen survivors of the evacuations and members of their families.

Winton, frail and leaning on a stick, shook hands with the former evacuees as they stepped off the train from Prague.

“It’s wonderful to see you all after 70 years,” he said. “Don’t leave it quite so long until we meet here again.”

Other Holocaust survivors had gathered at the station to meet the train.

[…]

In late 1938, Winton, a 29-year-old clerk at the London Stock Exchange, had traveled to what was then Czechoslovakia at the invitation of a friend working at the British Embassy.

Alarmed by the influx of refugees from the Sudetenland region recently annexed by Germany, Winton immediately began organizing a way to get Jewish children out of the country. He feared, correctly, that Czechoslovakia soon would be invaded by the Nazis and Jewish residents would be sent to concentration camps.

Winton persuaded British officials to accept the children, as long as foster homes could be found, and set about fundraising and organizing the trip. He arranged eight trains that carried 669 mostly Jewish children through Germany to Britain in the months before the outbreak of World War II.

The youngsters were sent to foster homes in England, and a few to Sweden. None saw their parents again.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



UK: New Mayor Tells Town: ‘We Could All Learn Something About Family Values From the Taliban’

His refusal to bow to political correctness has already won Peter Davies plenty of plaudits.

But the new mayor of Doncaster, who has been praised for his outspoken approach, has received less support for his latest suggestion that we could all learn something about family values — from the Taliban.

Mr Davies claimed that under the Taliban, Afghanistan had an ‘ordered system of family life’.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



UK: Rival Protesters Clash on Streets

Right-wing protestors and anti-fascist campaigners have clashed in Birmingham, leading to a large police presence.

A group calling itself the English Defence League which met to demonstrate against Islamic extremism was met with a counter protest near the city centre.

Police said more than 20 men have been arrested on a bus in Digbeth.

Several people were arrested last month when English Defence League protesters clashed with members of United Against Fascism.

Missiles thrown

Community leaders have been on the streets to try to ensure the situation remains calm.

A West Midlands Police spokesman said the arrests for violent disorder were made shortly after 1530 BST.

A 41-year-old man was also arrested for violent disorder in Waterloo Street.

Officers said further sporadic outbreaks of disorder took place in Bennetts Hill and New Street, with missiles being thrown.

A police spokeswoman said trouble causers would be dealt with “robustly”.

Shopping route

They were also granted permission to impose conditions on the protesters, restricting them to certain locations and a limit of 250 people.

Orders were also passed restricting the demonstrations to two locations.

But after meeting on Broad Street in the city’s entertainment district, demonstrators went to New Street, about half a mile away, and trouble broke out.

The street, which houses a large number of banks, cafes and chain stores, is a major pedestrian shopping route.

The nearby Bullring shopping centre and other shops remained open.

On its website, the English Defence League had urged its supporters to avoid violent clashes.

It added anyone causing trouble would be arrested or removed and could destroy the hard work put in by the league and police and “would ruin the day for everyone”.

It also stressed it was not a fascist organisation.

           — Hat tip: Gaia [Return to headlines]



UK: Windfarms? We Might as Well Use Hamsters on Treadmills

A weird and irrational cult has us in its grip. If the Mormons or the Moonies started taking over the BBC and the Government, which then harangued and persecuted us into wearing funny underwear or getting married in mass ceremonies, we would — I hope — rise in revolt.

But the ‘Man-made Climate Change’ fanatics are applauded and praised, even as they force us to abandon perfectly sensible electric lights, and instead subject ourselves to strange, flickering substitutes, simultaneously worse and more costly than the ones they replace.

There is worse to come. The same people wish to compel us to rely for our power on windmills, million upon million of them, as if we had never discovered more efficient and reliable ways of generating electricity.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

North Africa


Egypt: Coptic TV Channel Targets Youth

Cairo, 4 Sept. (AKI) — The Egyptian Coptic Church has launched a satellite television channel aimed at targeting young people around the world. The move is in response to the growing need for the church to enter the media market and technological age, church officials said.

The Christian Youth Channel, also called Aghabi, will eventually transmit programmes in at least seven languages and aims to help Coptic youth in Egypt and abroad.

There are dozens of Muslim channels that preach to a younger generation that has emerged in Egypt.

The new channel aims to bring about a moderate view of all religion through Coptic belief.

The church confirmed that the channel would broadcast a number of programmes produced by priests living abroad in order to target all Coptic Orthodox believers living outside Egypt.

The Coptic Church is one of the Eastern Orthodox churches and shares their general beliefs.

In the year 451 the Church split from other Christian churches in a major schism at the Council of Chalcedon over the nature of Christ.

The church is estimated to have more than 160,000 members with most of them in Egypt.

           — Hat tip: A Greek Friend [Return to headlines]



‘Hebrew Book-Burning’ Minister Farouk Hosni is Front-Runner to Head UNESCO

An Egyptian Cabinet minister who offered to burn Hebrew books last year enters the final straight as favourite for leadership of Unesco today in the face of fierce opposition from Jewish groups and intellectuals in Europe.

Farouk Hosni, 71, an artist who has served as Culture Minister for 21 years, apologised this week for his book-burning call and is still deemed front-runner among seven contenders for the post of director-general of the Paris-based UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation.

Applications close tonight after a ten-day battle between Mr Hosni and his accusers, conducted largely in the pages of Le Monde, the highbrow French newspaper.

Israel decided this week to back Mr Hosni and it is held to be the Arab world’s turn for the plum international post, but if the furore in France and Germany spreads he may lose when Unesco members vote in September.

Mr Hosni, who is supported by the Arab League and African nations, had until recently been deemed an easy choice to succeed Koichiro Matsuura, of Japan, as the ninth chief since Sir Julian Huxley was Unesco’s first director-general in the late 1940s.

The latest in a long history of Unesco storms erupted last week with a blistering attack in Le Monde by three Jewish celebrities under the title: “The shame of a disaster foretold”.

Bernard-Henri Lévy, the philosopher-journalist, Claude Lanzmann, the film-maker, and Elie Wiesel, the Nobel peace laureate, urged the international community to block the appointment of a man whom they described as a racist and inciter of hate. They cited his call in the Egyptian parliament last May to burn all Hebrew language books in the Alexandria library. “If there are any there, I will myself burn them in front of you,” he said.

They also summarised Mr Hosni’s “nauseating” anti-Israeli positions, including allegations that Jews had infiltrated the world’s media and spread lies. “We invite all countries dedicated to liberty and culture to take the initiatives necessary to avert this threat and avoid the disaster that would be his nomination,” they said.

Mr Hosni responded on Wednesday with an apology. “I want to solemnly say that I regret the words that I used,” he wrote. “Nothing is more distant to me than racism, the negation of others or the desire to hurt Jewish culture or any other culture.” He said that his remark on the books was delivered in the heat of the moment and should be understood in the light of the suffering of the Palestinian people. He pleaded for understanding and noted that he was deemed to be a disgraceful liberal by Egyptian and Arab conservatives.

“My failure would be a victory for the most intolerant circles in my own country,” he said.

The French criticism was echoed by the German Council of Culture. Olaf Zimmermann, its chief executive, said that someone who “failed to respect the diversity of the world’s cultures” should not be allowed to run global cultural and education policy.

The publicity has shone a light on Mr Hosni’s record as a leader of Egyptian orthodoxy. He has censored the media and films. He once banned heavy metal music and its fans were arrested. Two years ago he barred from Egypt The Band’s Visit, an Israeli comedy about an Egyptian police band marooned in a poor Israeli town.

The controversy may be turning European governments against Mr Hosni but it is too early to predict an outcome, diplomats say.

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

Middle East


Iraq: Tight Security for Return of Shia Leader’s Body

Karbala, 28 August (AKI) — Security was stepped up in the holy Iraqi city of Karbala on Friday, where the body of late Shia leader Abdulaziz al-Hakim was due to lie in state. Thousands of extra police have been deployed across the city and at checkpoints along the road from Baghdad, Major Alaa Abbas told the Voices of Iraq news agency.

Three days of mourning are being held in Iraq for al-Hakim, who died of lung cancer on Wednesday in a hospital in the Iranian capital, Tehran, where he had been receiving treatment.

Prime minister Nouri al-Maliki and hundreds of officials met Hakim’s body at Baghdad airport earlier on Friday on a flight from Tehran.

His body was due be carried to Karbala and then to Najaf for burial on Saturday next to the body of his brother Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Baqer al-Hakim.

Hakim led the Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council (SIIC), Iraq’s ruling Shia alliance, which includes Maliki’s Dawa party.

The SIIC has been calling for a federal system of government in Iraq, to help run the country and accelerate its development process.

This vision brought the SIIC closer to the Kurds who had struck an alliance with it.

Hakim had not held any government post in Iraq’s government since the overthrow of the country’s late president Saddam Hussein, but he was considered an important powerbroker.

The SIIC has several senior cabinet members, and its militia — the Badr Brigade — wields considerable influence in Iraq’s security establishment.

Hakim’s son Ammar Al-Hakim is tipped to takeover the SIIC leadership from his late father.

SIIC announced this week it would lead a new political grouping and run in January’s polls without Maliki.

Al-Hakim was born in 1950 and became head of the SIIC in 2003 after his brother, Grand Ayatollah Muhammad Baqer al-Hakim, was killed in a massive car bombing in the holy city of Najaf.

           — Hat tip: A Greek Friend [Return to headlines]



The Systematic Oppression of Women in the Islamic World

Standpoint devotes two articles to the systematic oppression of women in the Islamic world. Nick Cohen asks why religiously propagated misogyny is not discussed in the West. Why does no one object when women are locked in their own homes, hidden under veils, forced into arranged marriages, raped and stoned. “Governments that stifle half their populations do not face boycotts or demonstrations outside their embassies, motions of condemnation at international conferences or opprobrium in everyday political discourse.

The comparison with the international anger directed at Apartheid is instructive. The oppression of blacks was once an affront to the conscience of the world. When we turn to the oppression of women, however, we find that the United Nations loses its conscience and encourages the ideologies of their oppressors.”

Clive James asks how Western feminists can turn a blind eye to the “honour killing” of women (he can only explain it as perverted multicultural ideology, what Pascal Bruckner termed ‘the racism of the anti-racists). “We are told that when it comes to a case of honour, Jordan is one of the more progressive Islamic communities. In Jordan, only one quarter of all homicides are cases of honour. In the Palestinian sectors of the West Bank and in Gaza, the proportion is two thirds. In Pakistan about 1,000 women get killed every year, and a startling, if lesser, incidence of ritual murder is true wherever Pakistanis live in the outside world. When a girl in a British Pakistani community is set on fire by her brothers, or has her face ruined with acid by a rejected candidate for the role of husband, we hear about it in the newspapers, although seldom for long. But in Pakistan such incidents aren’t news at all. They happen three times a day. They are part of the culture.”

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



What’s New on the Niqab and Burqa Front?

To remind, both garments are designed for the modesty of Muslim females; the niqab covers all but the eyes and the burqa covers the entire face. In “Ban the Burqa — and the Niqab Too,” two years ago, I documented how these two items pose criminal and terrorist dangers.

Is that still the case?

Criminality: Jordan offers a glimpse into the potential for niqabs and burqas as illegal accessories: one news report indicates that 50 people committed 170 crimes using Islamic garments during the past two years, or roughly one incident every four days, a crime wave that has prompted some Jordanians to call for restricting or even banning these Islamic head coverings.

No other country reports nearly so many head-garment-related crimes, but Philadelphia, Pennsylvania boasts multiple robberies (3 banks and 1 real estate leasing office) in a sixteen-month period in 2007-08, including the murder of a police officer.

The United Kingdom has the West’s second-worst record. Jewelry stores — some owned by Muslims — have been targeted in the West Midlands, Glasgow, and Oxfordshire. Two travel agencies were attacked in the adjoining towns of Dunstable and Luton while an armored truck driver was assaulted in Birmingham. Robbery is not the only motive; teenagers in London, used niqab-style face coverings when stabbing a younger boy.

Other criminal incidents in the West include east European pickpockets wearing Islamic headgear in Rotterdam and a burgundy burqa’ed armed robbery at the People’s Bank in Hiddenite, North Carolina (population: 6,000). The man who abducted Elizabeth Smart, 14, of Salt Lake City, forced her to wear a niqab-like garment that hid her in plain sight for nine months.

In response, banks, credit unions, jewelry stores, and schools are limiting access to persons of cover. For example, the Carolina Federal Credit Union of Cherryville, North Carolina, not far from Hiddenite, steers anyone wearing hats, sunglasses, or hoods to an isolated teller where special security measures obtain.

Terrorism: Taliban reliance on burqa’ed terrorism, often of the suicide variety, makes Afghanistan the current world epicenter of this tactic. On two occasions, authorities foiled would-be suicide bombers before they could act — one a Russian male convert to Islam with 500 kilograms of explosives in an automobile in Paktia Province, the other an Afghan woman hiding a bomb in Jalalabad.

An Afghan soldier stands guard over a burqa used by a male Taliban suicide bomber to attack government buildings in Paktia Province.

Usually, though, violent intentions are hidden by the burqa, becoming apparent only after an attack begins:

A Taliban commander, Haji Yakub, was killed in burqa as he tried to escape a house in Ghazni Province while attacking U.S. forces.

A Taliban operative, Mullah Khalid, attacked a police patrol in a crowded market in Farah Province. killing at least 12 people (7 police, 5 civilians).

A suicide bomber in Helmand Province killed a Pashtu-speaking British soldier before being shot in the forehead.

About fifteen suicide bombers in burqas armed with suicide vests, Kalashnikovs, and grenade-launchers drove to government buildings in Paktia Province and killed 12 persons.

Iraq suffered three such incidents (a male insurgent disguised as a pregnant woman, an attempted assassination of a governor, and two suicide bombers killing 22 Shi’i pilgrims) while Pakistan suffered two (one, operating from a rickshaw, killed 15 people). The attack on Mumbai that left nearly 200 dead included a mysterious burqa’ed woman. Elsewhere, incidents involved an attack on French tourists picnicking in Mauritania and a Molotov cocktail attack in Bahrain.

Oh, and on the bright side, Herve Jaubert, a Frenchman falsely accused of embezzling $3.8 million managed to escape Dubai by donning a niqab.

As an ancillary problem, new studies in both England and Ireland have found that covered women (and their breast-fed children) tend to get rickets disease due to an insufficiency of vitamin D, which the skin absorbs from sunlight.

(For greater detail on all these issues, see my weblog entry, “The Niqab and Burqa as Security Threats.”)

I have previously called for a ban on “these hideous, unhealthy, socially divisive, terrorist-enabling, and criminal-friendly garments” from public places. Now joining with fed-up Jordanians, I reiterate that call. Islam requires that women wear neither niqab nor burqa, while public welfare emphatically requires their public prohibition. How many more cases of robbery and terrorism must occur for this common-sense stricture to be applied from Afghanistan and Jordan to the United Kingdom and Philadelphia?

Related Topics: Counter-terrorism, Radical Islam, Sex and gender relations | Daniel Pipes

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           — Hat tip: A Greek Friend [Return to headlines]



Yemen a New Hot Spot for Terrorists: Minister

Canadian officials observing ‘flow’ of extremists

A general view shows on Aug. 29, 2009 a displaced man from Yemen’s Saada province amid UNHCR tents at a camp set up by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Mazraq in Yemen’s Hajja …

Three years after police disrupted an al-Qaeda-inspired bomb plot in Toronto, Canadian extremists are continuing to seek terrorist training, Public Safety Minister Peter Van Loan said Friday.

Mr. Van Loan said in an interview that Canadian security officials were still observing a “flow” to terrorist hot spots but that Yemen was replacing Afghanistan and Pakistan as the preferred destination.

“We’re having considerable success,” he told the National Post. “But there still continue to be cases of people flowing to — we don’t know for sure [they are] gaining terrorist training — but certainly some of the destinations and the countries that people are going to, there are strong implications that people are still going and meeting up with known terrorist organizations.”

As the Minister in charge of the RCMP and CSIS, Mr. Van Loan is largely responsible for Ottawa’s counterterrorism program. He was commenting a day after an Ontario judge sentenced Saad Khalid to 14 years in prison for his role in a 2006 plot to detonate truck bombs in downtown Toronto.

The Saudi Arabia-born Khalid was one of the “Toronto 18,” a group of young men that trained at a camp in Washago, Ont., in December 2005. The group had also allegedly sought weapons training in Pakistan and intended to flee there after the bombings.

The Minister said he would have liked to see a tougher sentence but “there is also a clear message here that terrorism won’t be tolerated and a clear message to Canadians that we do have a real problem with homegrown terrorism.”

The term homegrown terrorism refers to violence by Westerners who are not formally connected to terrorist groups but have embraced the al-Qaeda philosophy. Homegrown terrorists sometimes seek training abroad in places such as Pakistan, but the Minister said they were looking increasingly to the Arabian peninsula.

“A lot of the activity that’s been happening recently in north Pakistan and Afghanistan has caused a lot of disruption to the terrorist training camps, to the efforts of the core of al-Qaeda and associated organizations,” Mr. Van Loan said.

“And I think that has had some impact on the flow and traffic there. But there are other parts of the world, too, where we are seeing flows of people from around the world who are potentially linked with Islamic extremism, particularly to places like Yemen and other parts of the Mideast.”

Poor and unstable, with three ongoing insurgencies, Yemen has long been a jihadist safe haven but there are mounting concerns about al-Qaeda’s expanding presence in the country.

As Saudi Arabia has cracked down on terrorists, and operatives in Afghanistan and Pakistan have come under intense pressure due to missile strikes and the NATO mission, al-Qaeda has been establishing a regional base in Yemen.

This year, the Saudi and Yemeni branches of al-Qaeda merged into al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. The group is led by several former Guantanamo Bay detainees who fled to Yemen following their release.

“There’s a great, and I think growing, fear among policy makers in Washington, in London, in Canada and in Europe about what instability in Yemen will mean for the future of a group like al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and how this organization will take advantage of that,” said Gregory Johnsen, a Yemen expert at Princeton University.

Senator John McCain led a U.S. delegation to Yemen last month to discuss counterterrorism co-operation and Guantanamo Bay. U.S. President Barack Obama is reportedly reluctant to release roughly 100 Yemenis from Guantanamo, fearing the move might backfire.

The State Department has said it is concerned Yemen could become another Afghanistan, but Mr. Johnsen said he has not seen any evidence that Western youths have been arriving in Yemen for training, although they have come to study at institutes sympathetic to al-Qaeda.

“I don’t have access to classified material but I follow al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula very, very closely,” said Mr. Johnsen, a PhD candidate in Near Eastern studies who recently returned from Yemen.

“They put out statements and videos quite often and we haven’t seen any evidence that would suggest that, say, fighters from the West are joining al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.”

Western security officials fear that citizens who travel abroad for terrorist training might pose a security risk once they return home. One of the Toronto 18 is accused of travelling to Pakistan to obtain training.

An agreed statement of facts released following Khalid’s guilty plea said the terrorist group built electronic detonators and was in the process of purchasing explosives when police arrested the suspects.

The bombs were to be placed in rented vans and triggered using cellphone-activated detonators. The targets were the Toronto Stock Exchange, the CSIS office next to the CN Tower and a military base between Toronto and Ottawa.

The attacks were meant as a protest against Canada’s military involvement in Afghanistan. The Crown, which had sought 18-20 years, is considering whether to appeal. Nine other suspects are awaiting trial.

Mr. Van Loan said Canadians may be “a little bit complacent” because the bombing never happened but added, “This is not imaginary, it is real.”

“There was an agreed statement of facts in this case that laid out, in quite chilling detail, the kinds of actions that were contemplated and that were in the process of being undertaken by this group. And as a result we can’t be complacent about a very real threat that exists in our society.”

           — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes [Return to headlines]

Russia


Is Russia Setting the Stage for a Nuclear Apocalypse?

News regarding the Arctic Sea had been breaking at a rapid pace, although the Western media still had quite a lot of catching up to do when their focus was derailed by the sun setting on Camelot. Nearly all media accounts about the possibility of the Arctic Sea carrying suspicious and potentially dangerous cargo are meager in collective content and barely scratch the surface of this ongoing mystery. The mystery is as truly ongoing as the Arctic Sea vessel remains at sea somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean, under tow from Cape Verde as of this writing.

Our ongoing investigation into this incident has been extensive and exhaustive. Despite the comprehensive nature of our report, the final chapters have yet to be written. Nonetheless, during the course of our research and investigation into the incident of the Arctic Sea, we’ve uncovered — and in some instances inadvertently stumbled upon — the existence of government sponsored or sanctioned illegal activities on a global level. In this case, we believe we’ve identified a trail of multi-billion-dollar black-market nuclear sales to terrorists and foreign regimes by those within the Russian government. Most disturbingly, however, is that it appears that such activity not only involves individuals and groups within the Russian government, but appears to exist on a larger scale and involves even some within our own government.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

South Asia


“Honour Killings” In India

Frontline has compiled a highly informative dossier on the subject of “honour killings” in India. And, no, this is not about Muslims and the victims are just as likely to be men as women. “Honour killings” are particularly common in the North West of India, which is home to the Jats. The Jats are an ethnic group who live in both India and Pakistan and though most of them are Hindus there are also significant numbers of Muslims and Sikhs among them. Unofficially they are ruled by the self-appointed caste panchayats (more here) who enforce strict observance of traditional rules. These include the incredibly complicated rules on marriage, explains T.K. Rajalakshmi, citing the example of a village in Haryana (map). “According to the ‘brotherhood’ principle on which the caste panchayat organise themselves, marriages cannot take place between people of different castes. Within the same caste, marriages should not take place between people of the same gotra (clan). Even when the gotras are different, people living in the same village or adjoining villages cannot marry.” It goes without saying that under such circumstances brides and grooms do not know one another, but are forced by their parents into arranged marriages with strangers. Thousands of young couples who are taking a stand against these rules — the article lists a number of cases — and have been condemned to death by one of the panchayats, lynched by a village mob, and seen their relatives threatened and hounded.

Further articles: In an interview Brinda Karat, an MP for the Indian Communist Party, explains that no one knows how high the number of “honour killings” really is. When she inquired about the issue in parliament, she was told was that such as category was not recognised and, therefore, there was no separate collection of data for it. Political scientist Ranbir Singh explains the historical and political background of the khap panchayat. Lawyer and women’s rights activist Kirti Singh explains in an interview that the “honour killings” are an expression of an intolerant society’s “disrespect for young people’s wishes”. She calls for a special law “that views these killings as community killings and seeks to punish or make liable such panchayats.” Venkitesh Ramakrishnan reports on a number of barbaric murders of young couples (the victims were chopped into pieces) in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh (map) and describes the silence that surrounds the murders: neither the villagers nor the political parties have sought to make a statement. More significantly, the main political parties refuse to admit “that the caste panchayat is an illegitimate extra-judicial agency with no constitutional validity”. T.K Rajalakshmi cites a number of court rulings related to “honour” killings.

And S. Dorairaj notes that “honour killings” are not confined to India’s northern states, they are also committed in south-eastern state of Tamil Nadu (map). There, however, the victims are almost exclusively women. And there is a local twist to the killings — the female victims are then deified. “S. Madasamy, a former coordinator of the ‘Arivoli Iyakkam’ (literacy movement), who has conducted an extensive study on the history of little-known female deities, said honour killings still continued in the state and were usually committed by intolerant relatives of women who had taken control of their own lives or had chosen partners on their own. To escape police action and stall legal measures, the perpetrators of such crimes glorified the victims by installing a ‘putam’, a mound of earth or a small structure made of bricks, in the villages and deified them, he said. … The devotees and priests of these temples assert that the deified women had disappeared owing to supernatural powers and were not murdered.” Madasamy found over 300 such altars in the 1990s.

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

Far East


China: Demonstrators Demand Security After Needle Attacks

BEIJING, China (CNN) — Thousands of Chinese demonstrators crowded the streets of Urumqi in western China on Thursday to protest what they say is a lack of police protection, witnesses said.

Chinese soldiers have been recently deployed on the streets of Urumqi in northwest China.

Over the past month, more than 400 ethnic majority Han Chinese have been stabbed with tainted syringes by Uyghurs, the Muslim minority, according to local news reports. The stabbings fueled Thursday’s protests by Han Chinese in the capital of China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.

Many of those attacked with the hypodermic needles were hospitalized, but there have been no reports of deaths, the reports said.

Fifteen suspects have been detained for allegedly carrying out the stabbings, a senior official said Wednesday, according to China’s state-run Xinhua news agency. Of the 15, four have been formally charged, Xinhua reported.

A source told CNN that “countless” police and soldiers have deployed to Urumqi and so far, the demonstrations have been peaceful.

A local woman told CNN that the stabbings were ethnically motivated and that government text messages to citizens have warned that the syringes contained an unknown disease.

Ethnic-fueled violence between the Han Chinese and Uyghurs has plagued Urumqi since July, when soldiers and police stormed the streets to quell riots. Unconfirmed reports of deaths in those riots range from 200 to many more. Watch a report on the alleged attacks “

An art gallery director in Urumqi told CNN that thousands of people gathered on the streets on Thursday.

“People are protesting here right now. It’s all Han people,” he said, declining to give his name because of safety reasons. “Since August 3, the Uyghurs have been stabbing the Hans with needles with an unknown virus. People are all very scared.”

A spokeswoman for China’s Foreign Ministry said she did not know about the protests.

“I have not yet received news of this, but the Chinese government is capable of upholding stability and social unity,” Jiang Yu said.

A receptionist at a bank in the area also told CNN about the protests.

“I heard that today, even during the protest, some people got stabbed, too. People are angry that the government is not doing much against the Uyghurs’ needle stabbing,” said the woman, who also was afraid to give her name.

           — Hat tip: TB [Return to headlines]

Immigration


Italy: Migrants Treated Like Holocaust Jews, Say Bishops

[Avvenire (“future” in Italian) that’s a papal paper with a future — Islamic that is. Isn’t it disgusting when high position ignoramusses liken Jews and the Holocaust with invading soldiers from Dar al harb]

Rome, 21 August (AKI) — Italy’s Catholic bishops have likened the treatment of immigrants seeking asylum in Europe to the treatment of Jews deported during the World War II Holocaust. The Catholic bishops’ daily, Avvenire, on Friday published a strongly worded editorial in which it referred to the tragic deaths of 75 Africans who perished off the coast of Sicily as they crossed the Mediterranean in their bid for asylum.

Only five people were rescued on Thursday by Italian coastal police from the motorised rubber dinghy, which had been carrying 80 people, mostly Eritreans. The boat which set off from Libya had been adrift for at least 20 days and seen between Malta and the tiny island of Lampedusa.

Avvenire accused the West of having “its eyes closed” and failing to hear cries for help, comparing the situation to those that heard the Jews’ and others who sought help when they were being deported by the Nazis during the Holocaust.

“When we read of the deportation of the Jews under Nazisim today, we wonder. Certainly people did not know, but those convoys, the voices, the cries, did no-one see or hear them in the transit stations?” the editorial said.

“There was totalitarianism and terror to make you close your eyes. Today there is not. There is a quiet resigned indifference, if not an irritating aversion in the Mediterranean.

“The West has its eyes closed. Five survivors arrived to tell us about sons and husbands who died of thirst after days of agony. On the same seas where we holiday. A tomb at the bottom of our happy ocean.”

The article also raised fresh concern about Italy’s harsh immigration law that makes it a crime to enter the country illegally and includes stiff penalties.

“No immigration control policy allows an international community to leave a boat full of castaways to their fate. There is a law of the sea, which is older than those written according to treaties. And that law says you save at sea,”read the editorial.

“On land there are other laws such as the right to asylum, welcome, and later deportation later. But lives must be saved…”

The editorial ended saying: “An old law has been violated, that threatens our own roots. Our foundations. The idea of what is man, and how much man is worth”.

           — Hat tip: A Greek Friend [Return to headlines]



Mexico Denounces Growing Intolerance Toward Mexicans in U.S.

MEXICO CITY — The official responsible for the protection of Mexicans living abroad said there is a growing intolerance toward Mexican immigrants in the United States, especially in areas with a small foreign-born population.

“We’re seeing a growing criminalization of undocumented migrants and a hostile environment toward the immigrant, both the undocumented migrant and those who are in that country legally,” foreign ministry official Daniel Hernandez told a press conference on Friday.

[Comments from JD: “criminalization of undocumented migrants”. Amazing hutzpuah! Note how Mexican policy treats illegal immigrants at the Southern border of Mexico.]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Culture Wars


Angry Parents Suing California Schools Over Mandatory Gay-Friendly Classes

A lawsuit in California that was filed last month by angry parents who object to a gay-friendly curriculum they say is being foisted on kindergartners could well become a test case for schools around the country.

Parents in the Alameda Unified School District were refused the right to excuse their kids from classes that would teach all kids in the district’s elementary schools about gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender alternative families.

The parents say they are concerned about “indoctrination” in the schools, but administrators say the course is needed to protect against sexual discrimination — and that the lessons are protected by laws in California and 10 other states.

Those states, which stretch from Washington to Maine, will now be eyeing the court results in California in a case that warring sides say pits parents’ rights against a schools’ responsibilities.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



Lawmakers: Schoolkids Must Study ‘Sexual Predator’

Biography of ‘gay’ activist Harvey Milk outlines relationships with underage boys

Lawmakers in California have voted to pressure all schoolchildren in the state to study and “honor” the life and values of homosexual activist Harvey Milk, whose biography tells of sexual escapades, including relationships with young boys.

In addition, it was Milk who publicly advocated for the late Jim Jones, the leader of the massacred hundreds in Jonestown, Guyana, in 1978. Jones led the “Peoples Temple Agricultural Project,” and in an audiotape of the deaths, described the 918 fatalities — mostly from drinking cyanide-laced flavored drink — as a “revolutionary suicide.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

One thought on “Gates of Vienna News Feed 9/5/2009

  1. Arianna Stasinoplis Hiffington and Olympia Buglis Snowe are motivated by their islamosoviet Orthodox faith. Palamite Zealotes massacred Thessalonian aristocracy in preparation for Cantacuzene usurpation which brought about hesychast hyperventilatory hallutination. Πυρκαγιά στα μοναστηργιά This soviet socialism motivated Anatolian farmers to embrace Turks in th 1400s to avoid redistributative taxation and then for liberated mainlanders to migrate to Smyrna in the 1800s.

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