Gates of Vienna News Feed 3/5/2013

Despite the fact that 65% of Italians say they are struggling to make ends meet during the current economic crisis, despite the fact that more than a million people took to the streets of Portugal to protest their government’s “austerity” policies, despite the closure of the White House to tourists due to sequestration — despite all that, the Dow Jones Industrial Average surged to a record high today.

In other news, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez has died after a long battle with cancer.

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

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, JP, MC, Paul Green, 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
» Banks Are ‘Stabbing Business in the Back’: Lending Plunges Despite £80bn Treasury Scheme
» Barroso Confident Italy Will Stick to EU Course
» Dow Holds Gains, Closing at New Record
» Dow Trades Above Previous Closing High of 14,164.53, Set in 2007
» EU: Ministers Open Way for Easier Budgets After Austerity Backlash
» Eurogroup Calls on Italy to Respect Commitments
» Greece: Athens News Closes Down After 61 Years
» Greece: Qatar’s Emir Buys Islets Near Ithaca
» Italy’s Winter Sales Prove to be a Flop for Retailers
» More Than 65% of Italian Families Struggling
» More Sequester Pain: White House Cancels Tours
» Portugal: ‘More Than a Million Sang the Grândola’
» Portugal: The Social Earthquake Rumbles Ever Louder
» US Cannot Afford to Keep Criminals in Jail, Yet We Send $250 Million to Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt?
 
USA
» (Three Female) Senators Blast Military After General Overturns Sexual Assault Verdict
» “Dialogue” Required for Violent Video Games
» 30 Facts About the Coming Water Crisis That Will Change the Lives of Every Person on the Planet
» 4 More Years: Obama’s Forward Program to Socialistic-Communism is Easier; Let’s Deny Him
» Battle Over West Philly Mosque’s Control Goes to Court
» Bill Cosby Says Those Who Oppose Obama Are Racist
» Dallas CAIR Director: “Muslims Are Above the Law of the Land.”
» DHS Rolls in the Tanks
» DHS Signs $4.5 Million Dollar Contract With Heckler & Koch
» Government Arms Race Kicks Into High Gear as DHS Buys 2,700 Armored Vehicles for Streets of America
» How Cops Became Soldiers: An Interview With Police Militarization Expert Radley Balko
» Kids Conditioned in Public Schools to Become Loyal Subjects Exposed (Video)
» Killing Us Softly (Part II)
» Martial Law: Tucson City Council Hands Authority Over to Military
» Miami Mosque Imam Convicted of Aiding Pakistani Taliban
» Miracle: No One Shot by Strawberry Tart Shaped Like a Gun
» Oral Argument on DNA Searches Provides Scary Glimpse Into the Future of Privacy
» Pentagon Welcomes Chinese General Who Threatened Nuclear Strikes on Hundreds of US Cities
» Pilot Reports Mystery Black ‘Drone’ At JFK
» Post-Constitutional America: The Trap is Closing
» Republicans Facing Extinction! (Video)
» Senate Intelligence Committee Backs John O. Brennan for C.I.A. Director
» Signs of the Times: New York Times Kills Green Blog
» Stolen Shotgun Hits Trigger on Stolen Rifle, Kills Burglary Suspect
» Support for Keystone Xl Pipeline Project Hits 70 Percent
» We Sweep So Much Under the Rug in America
» Will Smith Once Stood as Arguably the Most Bankable Film Star in Hollywood.
 
Europe and the EU
» British Journalists Worked for MI6 During the Cold War: Investigation
» City Dwellers Abandon the Swedish Church
» Europe Takes Aim at Space Junk Menace
» Fourteen Swedes Make Forbes Billionaire List
» Gucci Launches Eco-Friendly Handbags
» IRA Militant Nabbed in Anti-Mafia Operation
» Italy: Cairo Snaps Up La7, Raising Fears for Pluralism
» Italy: Bridgestone Europe Announces Plan to Close Bari Plant
» Italy’s 5-Star Movement Not Ruling Out Technocrat Government
» Italy: Grillo Says M5S Won’t Back Technocrats
» Italy: Monti to Meet Bersani, Berlusconi, Grillo Ahead of EU Summit
» Italy: Berlusconi Calls for Monthly PDL ‘Freedom Square’ Protests
» Netherlands: Rejected Asylum Seeker Gets 28 Years for Double Murder
» Norway Far-Right Group Profiles Muslims
» Norwegian Defence League Filing Muslim Organizations and Companies
» Sweden: Jews Hit Malmö Streets to Counter Anti-Semitism
» Switzerland: Sink or Swim: Future of Private Bankers Under the Microscope
» Switzerland: Capping Manager Salaries: Minder Vote Sends Clear Signal to Executives
» UK: Campus Extremism, Freedom and Security Conference
» UK: Free School for Muslims Aims for 2014 Opening
» UK: Lord Tebbit’s Fury at the Way Margaret Thatcher is Portrayed in the Audience
» UK: Luton, The Town Where the Rats Don’t Even Bother to Hide Any More: Grim Portrait Reveals Rubbish Left to Rot in the Street and Derelict Buildings in Ruins
» UK: Mosque Must Rethink Its Plan to Get Bigger
» UK: The Next Conservative Leadership Election is Under Way
» UK: Teenager Was “Intimidated” By Her Alleged Abusers, Old Bailey is Told [Bullfinch Trial]
» UK: When Did ‘Unkempt’ Become a Racial Insult?
» World Halal Food Council Europe Arrives in Italy
 
North Africa
» Egypt: Muslim Brotherhood Not Responsible for Instability
» Egypt: Ultras Besiege Central Bank and Cut Off Road in Alexandria
» Egypt: TV Host Faces Investigation Over Insulting President
» Libya: ENI: Gas Flow Not a Problem, But Situation Unstable
» Libya: Benghazi Gunmen Attack Coptic Church
» Protesters Set Governorate’s Headquarters on Fire in Egypt’s Port Said
» Super Morsi: Egyptian President Becomes Video Game Hit
» Tunisia: Salafists Want Medieval Islam, Ennahda Cofounder
 
Israel and the Palestinians
» Arab Students Chase British Envoy From Ramallah College
» Israel Busts Hamas Cell in West Bank
» United Nations: UN Agency Cancels Third Gaza Marathon After Hamas Bans Women
 
Middle East
» Barack Obama a ‘Dithering, Controlling, Risk-Averse’ US President
» Ethiopia: Saudi Arabia — An Honest Friend or Pretentious Foe?
» EU: 30 Extra Mln to Lebanon for Refugees Emergency
» Iran is the Nose Job Capital of the World With Seven Times More Procedures Than the U.S. — But Rise in Unlicensed Surgeons Poses Huge Risk
» Obama’s Billion-Dollar Giveaway to the Muslim Brotherhood
» Syria: John Kerry in Emirates, Sheikh Urges Help for People
» The West and the Muslim Brotherhood After the Arab Spring
» UAE: Sharia Allows for Full Compensation
 
South Asia
» 2,600 Tonnes of Aid Delivered to Myanmar Muslims
» Insurgents Burn Tires in 40 Spots in Restive S. Thailand
» On the March to Afghanistan
» Protests Over Student’s Death Continue in Indian-Controlled Kashmir
 
Far East
» Sabah: Kuala Lumpur Launches Offensive Against Filipino Rebels
» US Held Secret Meetings With North Korea After Kim Jong Il’s Death
 
Latin America
» Hitman Aged 13 Found Tortured and Killed in Mexico
» Hugo Chavez Dies, Venezuelan VP Blames U.S. “Cancer Attack”
» President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela Has Died, Vice President Says
 
Immigration
» Connecticut Eager for Licenses for Illegal Aliens
» Immigrant Families in U.S. Start Interstate Tour to Push for Immigration Reform
» Memo to Jeb Bush: Tell the Truth. There is a Line. Don’t Make Immigration Worse
 
Culture Wars
» Gay Marriage as a Civil Right—are Wrongs Right?
» The Bible: The Book, The Miniseries and the Sins of Sodom
» UK: Gay Marriage Will Destabilise Family Life, Sociologist Warns
 
General
» Black Socialist Pope to Follow Black Socialist President?
» Slight Chance Comet Could Hit Mars in 2014, NASA Says
» The Emerging Galactic Religion: Science Fiction and the Rise of Technocratic Posthumanism
» World’s Strangest Towns

Banks Are ‘Stabbing Business in the Back’: Lending Plunges Despite £80bn Treasury Scheme

Big banks rescued by the taxpayer were yesterday accused of ‘stabbing businesses in the back’ as it emerged lending to small firms has collapsed.

Incredibly small building societies — including the Newbury, Leek United, Principality and Monmouthshire — are doing more net lending than some of our biggest banks.

State-owned Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds saw net lending plunge to minus £2.4billion and minus £5.6billion respectively during the six months from July to December.

By comparison the smallest mutuals are doing a better job, although the boost is largely from mortgages.

Bank of England figures revealed net lending was negative — minus £1.5billion.

This is despite the launch of an £80billion scheme by the Bank and the Treasury last August aimed specifically at solving the country’s small business and mortgage lending crisis.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Barroso Confident Italy Will Stick to EU Course

European Commission President speaks with Napolitano by phone

(ANSA) — Rome, March 5 — European Commission President Jose’ Manuel Barroso on Tuesday told Italian President Giorgio Napolitano he trusts that Italy will stay on the European integration course, the president’s office said.

Speaking over the phone, the Barroso also brought Napolitano up to speed on the latest European Council budget and financial decisions.

Barroso’s comments came after Beppe Grillo, whose anti-establishment Five Star Movement rocked the political establishment with a stunning showing in Italy’s recent election, proposed holding a referendum on whether Italy should stay in the eurozone.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Dow Holds Gains, Closing at New Record

The Dow Jones industrial average closed with a gain of more than 125 points Tuesday, surpassing its previous record close of 14,164.53 nearly five and a half years ago.

Since a low point in March 2009, the Dow Jones index has more than doubled, surprising even the most seasoned stock market watchers. It closed at 14,253.77 Tuesday.

The much broader Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index at its Tuesday close of 1,539.79 points was still off its nominal high of 1,565.15, also set in October 2007.

[Return to headlines]

Dow Trades Above Previous Closing High of 14,164.53, Set in 2007

The Dow Jones industrial average, which measures the performance of 30 blue-chip companies, rose more than 60 points at the start of trading on Tuesday, to 14,188.11. That surpasses its record close of 14,164.53, which it achieved nearly five and a half years ago. Its record intraday high, set around the same time, is 14,198.10.

[Return to headlines]

EU: Ministers Open Way for Easier Budgets After Austerity Backlash

Rome, 5 March (AKI/Bloomberg) — European finance ministers have opened the way for looser budget policies after a backlash against austerity thrust Italy into political limbo and shattered months of relative stability in European markets.

Economic strains “may also justify in a certain number of cases reviewing deadlines for the correction of excessive deficits,” European Union Economic and Monetary Commissioner Olli Rehn told reporters late Monday after a meeting of euro- area finance ministers in Brussels.

Italy’s deadlocked election, France’s refusal to make deeper budget cuts and protests against the shrinking of the welfare state across southern Europe escalated the rebellion against the German-led prescription for fighting the debt crisis.

The euro-zone economy will contract 0.3 percent in 2013, making for the first annual back-to-back contraction since the currency’s birth in 1999, the European Commission forecast last month.

The currency-bloc prediction masked a widening north- south divide, with growth in countries like Germany, Finland, Belgium and Luxembourg set against dwindling output in Italy, Greece, Spain and Portugal.

France is straddling the middle, set to eke out a 0.1 percent expansion after the economy stagnated in 2012, according to the commission.

Deeper budget cuts are out of the question, French Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici said.

“We do not want to add austerity to recession,” Moscovici said. “If our rules are intelligent, they are also flexible. We have to find the right rhythm and the right balance without weakening the little growth left.”

France is counting on estimates that it has made sufficient reductions in the “structural” deficit — a figure that factors out the effect of the economic cycle — to escape a European order to cut more.

French President Francois Hollande became a spokesman for southern European opposition to belt-tightening last year after ousting Nicolas Sarkozy, who toed German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s anti-crisis line.

“The cure is not working, and there is no hope that it will — that is, without being worse than the disease,” Joseph E. Stiglitz, the Nobel Prize-winning Columbia University economist, said in a posting on Project Syndicate. “Germany has consistently rejected every policy that would provide a long- term solution. The Germans, it seems, will do everything except what is needed.”

Italy’s political stalemate — with a quarter of the vote in the Feb. 24-25 election going to a protest movement headed by Beppe Grillo, a former comedian — dramatized the stakes in the recession-hit European economy that has yet to shake off the financial crisis.

The biggest vote-getter in the lower house of parliament, Pier Luigi Bersani, who leads a centre left bloc, is trying to form a government by outmaneuvering Grillo’s blocking minority in the upper house.

A second election like Greece’s in 2012 is a possibility as is another technical government like that of prime minister Mario Monti.

Italian bonds rebounded from a two-day slide today. Ten- year Italian yields fell 12 basis points to 4.76 percent, paring the extra borrowing costs over German levels to 331 basis points. The spread, an indication of the perceived risk of Italian investments, remained above its pre-election level of 288 basis points

Italians revolted against the budget cuts spearheaded by Monti, even though no one in Europe called for additional savings. Monti, an economics professor appointed to head a unity government in November 2011, picked up barely 10 percent of the vote.

Germany’s Merkel indicated that she is sensitive to criticisms that budget cutting has been overdone.

“We’ve done quite a bit to consolidate budgets, but we always have this discussion about growth, and don’t quite have the answers for where the growth should come from,” Merkel said late yesterday at the CeBIT technology fair in Hanover.

Messages from the Brussels-based commission have catered to two audiences, with pro-austerity rhetoric aimed at northern Europe contrasting with policy decisions to ease the strains on the unemployment-plagued south.

With the northern public in mind, Rehn said it is wrong to characterize the more flexible approach as “leniency.” He said the budget rulebook “is not stupid, but it focuses on the structural sustainability of public finances.”

The commission last year recommended — and governments including Germany endorsed — extensions of deficit-reduction deadlines for Portugal, Greece and Spain. It is considering giving France extra time to get its deficit down to 3 percent of gross domestic product, the euro-area limit. Portugal and Spain are also clamouring for additional relief.

“Merkel and her allies have exhibited more flexibility toward the troubled countries of southern Europe than is often acknowledged,” Jacob Funk Kirkegaard, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington, said yesterday. “The euro area has considerable leeway in its new fiscal surveillance framework.”

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

Eurogroup Calls on Italy to Respect Commitments

Dijsselbloem asks politicians to support euro stability

(see related stories on Italy’s political situation) (ANSA) — Brussels, March 4 — Italian politicians of all parties have a duty to ensure the stability of the eurozone, Eurogroup chief Jeroen Dijsselbloemof said Monday.

“Each of the parties in Italian politics should contribute to the stability of the eurozone and respect the agreements that we have taken to secure the euro,” said Dijsselbloem following a meeting Monday at which the Italian elections were discussed. He added that he hoped the anti-establishment Five Star Movement (M5S), which did well in last week’s general election, did not speak for all Italians.

The M5S now holds the balance of power in parliament after winning a total of 163 seats in both houses and stopping Pier Luigi Bersani’s centre-left coalition gaining a working majority in the Senate.

The leader of the M5S, Beppe Grillo, has said he wants to scrutinize every international treaty that Italy has signed and questioned whether the country should remain in the euro.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Greece: Athens News Closes Down After 61 Years

Capital’s only English-language newspaper

(ANSAmed) — ATHENS — Athens News has become the latest victim of the economic crisis in an already battered Greek media industry, closing its doors after 61 years in business. The English language newspaper, which launched in 1952, was the only one of its kind in Athens. Its online site has been inactive for months. Online news site Zougla reported news of the closure as well as the announcement that 15 workers who hadn’t received their salary since September last year, have been laid off.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Greece: Qatar’s Emir Buys Islets Near Ithaca

(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, MARCH 5 — Greece seems to be in very close collaboration with the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, while in search of investments that will bring in more cash. So far, as GreekReporter writes quoting local news agencies, the Emir has already bought the islet Oxya and five more in the Ionian Sea. Yiannis Kassianos, Mayor of Ithaca, an island in the Ionian complex, told Mega TV channel that the small island of Oxya has been purchased by the Emir against 4.9 million euros. Kassianos said that the Emir has spent another 3.5 million euros on five more islets nearby. According to the mayor, Oxya is an islet of 4,200 acres (1,680 hectares) and the sum of the other five islets is 1,600 acres (680 hectares). Both Oxya and the smaller five islets are privately owned and administrative parts of Ithaca. Kassianos expressed his satisfaction over the Emir’s investments and added that he will be declared honorary citizen of Ithaca. Oxya islet is part of the Echinades complex and is located at the mouth of Acheloos river opposite Astakos on the mainland. According to Ithaca’s mayor, the Emir has also promised to develop a plan to bring water from Astakos to Ithaca.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Italy’s Winter Sales Prove to be a Flop for Retailers

Sales fell by as much as 20% in January, February, stores report

(ANSA) — Rome, March 4 — Despite big discounts, retailers in Italy say their annual winter sales were a flop.

The annual winter sale season, which ended Monday in much of Italy, saw a 10% drop in sales of clothing and footwear despite an average discount of 25%, said retail industry group Confcommercio.

Another industry group, Fismo-Confesercenti, which represents small- and medium-sized businesses, said its members saw sales fall by an estimated 20%.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

More Than 65% of Italian Families Struggling

Renters and young income earners hardest hit

(ANSA) — Rome, March 5 — More than 65% of Italian families cannot make it to the end of the month with their current salaries, a report by the Bank of Italy said on Tuesday.

The alarm launched by the country’s central bank said that those hardest hit are young families and renters whose monthly income is not sufficient to cover living expenses.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

More Sequester Pain: White House Cancels Tours

The White House announced Tuesday that it was canceling all public tours of the president’s home because of the sequester spending cuts.

“Due to staffing reductions resulting from sequestration, we regret to inform you that White House Tours will be canceled effective Saturday, March 9, 2013 until further notice. Unfortunately, we will not be able to reschedule affected tours,” the White House said in an email.

The notice comes as both the White House and Congress try to find cuts to their own budgets as part of $85 billion in cuts to the entire government.

At the Capitol, staffers who use the building’s West Front entrance that looks out on the National Mall were told Tuesday that door would be closed as of next week in order to save money.

[Return to headlines]

Portugal: ‘More Than a Million Sang the Grândola’

Diário de Notícias, 4 March 2013

More than 1m people from 40 cities throughout Portugal took to the streets on March 2 in a series of demonstrations organised by the non-partisan movement known as Que se lixe a troika (f*** the troika). Organisers say around 800,000 marched in Lisbon alone.

“The people give the orders” was the slogan most-often written on posters and chanted during demonstrations, which ended with the protesters singing Grândola, Vila Morena, a song linked to the Portuguese revolution of April 25, 1974.

During the austerity protests, demonstrators called on Pedro Passos Coelho’s government to resign and for the troika, currently in Lisbon conducting the seventh review of the bailout programme, to leave the country.

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

Portugal: The Social Earthquake Rumbles Ever Louder

Expresso Lisbon

More than a million people of all ages took to the streets of Portugal on March 2 to demand an end to austerity. The growing discontent could bring down the political system that has been in place since the fall of the dictatorship.

Daniel Oliveira

Ultimately, September 15 was just a passing episode. In the end, everything did not boil down to just the Single Social Tax, which was followed by the fiscal massacre. Ultimately, the vast majority of Portuguese are not waiting on the mood swings of the CDS [Christian Democratic Party, a member of the coalition] or waiting for the president of the Republic, Aníbal Cavaco Silva, to shake off his profound lethargy, or for what has come to be called the internal opposition of the PSD [the centre-right Social Democratic Party of Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho] to believe that its time has come. Ultimately, people took to the streets in the middle of an inspection by the visiting troika to show that they are not the “good people” that one of its bureaucrats seemed to believe live here.

Despite the obvious antipathy that the entire political class appears to deserve these days, the protests of March 2 were not anti-political. They were, rather, marked with more sadness and blighted hopes than those of September. But they are not — not yet, away — desperate. They were entirely political demonstrations, framed in all their symbolism by democratic sentiments. And that, considering the social situation we are living through and the institutional stalemate we are facing, is extraordinary. This may be explained, perhaps, only by the fact that our democracy is still relatively young.

I say “still” because, if the opposition fails to provide an answer to this revolt by coming up with a credible alternative — and not restricting itself to preparing for another spell in power or trying to capitalise on the support for the next elections — the next step could be quite different.

I am convinced that if something new appears on the electoral spectrum next year and proves able to enthuse the Portuguese or to capture their attention, the result would be surprising. That “something” could be positive — but it is more likely to be inconsistent, or even politically dangerous.

Protesting pensioners

One thing leaps out when you look at the Saturday demonstrations: their make-up in terms of age groups. Observers noted a lot of retirees in the crowds, more so than in the protests of September 15. It is on the retirees that the problems of the country concentrate most forcefully — the problem of having been born and raised in a country that is socially, economically and culturally backward. And the problem of carrying, more than all the others, the burden of this backwardness…

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

US Cannot Afford to Keep Criminals in Jail, Yet We Send $250 Million to Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt?

Janet Napolitano, Director of Homeland Security, claims that the Obama-initiated Sequester is causing such budget headaches that she has been forced to release illegal aliens from jail.

Oddly enough, at the same time as Nappy is releasing criminals to the streets of America because of insufficient funds, John Kerry is in Egypt giving away $250 million taxpayer greenbacks to the Muslim Brotherhood.

Just what is really going on here?

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

(Three Female) Senators Blast Military After General Overturns Sexual Assault Verdict

Letter sent from three female Senators to Hagel about this overturn from the top:

“Lieutenant General Craig Franklin dismissed a case against Lieutenant Colonel James Wilkerson, despite the fact that the fighter pilot had been found guilty of aggravated sexual assault, sentenced to a year in prison and dismissed from the Air Force,” they wrote. “As we understand, General Franklin has not adequately explained why he chose to overturn a guilty verdict by a jury of high-ranking military officers, allowing Lt Col Wilkerson to be reinstated in the Air Force.”

Air Force News reported that the former Aviano Air Base, Italy, inspector general convicted in November of sexual assault will return to active duty and could pin on his next rank of colonel after an unusual Feb. 26 decision to throw out the case by the commander of the 3rd Air Force.

Over the past three years, the Air Force has identified 62 Air Force recruits at Lackland Air Force Base who have been assaulted by 32 drill instructors. The cases touched off new scrutiny of military culture and an apparently permissive command structure that may have created an environment in which women were hesitant to or coerced not to come forward and report the crimes.

“I think there is a culture issue,” McCaskill said. “I don’t think one general should be able to overturn a jury. … I have a high degree of frustration.”

Boxer and Shaheen wrote that the decision was unacceptable and “raises serious concerns about the military justice system as a whole.

“It is clear that despite sweeping reforms by the Department of Defense to improve prevention, investigation and prosecution of military sexual assaults — including adding specially trained legal personnel and Victim Advocates — these efforts become irrelevant when a case of this magnitude can be thrown out at the discretion of a Convening Authority.”

[NOTE: In other words, the old boys’ club still rules…]

[Return to headlines]

“Dialogue” Required for Violent Video Games

The Obama administration’s assault on the Second Amendment in reaction to Newtown is not a serious solution. It’s a Band-Aid on cancer. The NRA’s call for armed guards in every school also misses the point. When is anyone going to get serious? The problem is violence, a violence of monstrous and horrific proportions that has infected America’s popular culture.

The Hartford Courant reported on Sunday that during a search of Newtown grade-school killer Adam Lanza’s home after the shootings, “police found thousands of dollars worth of graphically violent video games.” Detectives are exploring whether Adam Lanza might have been emulating the shooting range or a video-game scenario as he moved from room to room at Sandy Hook Elementary.

In California, 20-year-old Ali Syed went on a carjacking and shooting rampage, killing three before turning the gun on himself. Syed was a loner and a “gamer” who spent hours holed up in his room, Orange County authorities said. “He took one class at college and he did not work, so that gives him most of the day and evening and most of the time in his free time he was playing video games,” reported county sheriff’s spokesman Jim Amormino.

After Newtown, President Obama and other officials insisted the country needed a “dialogue” about “gun violence,” but there’s been remarkably little exploration of the role of video games and even less of movie and TV violence.

Rep. Frank Wolf of Virginia requested a study from the National Science Foundation, and was disappointed that Obama’s State of the Union only focused on gun control. “While I recognize the potential constitutional issues involved in tackling media violence, mental health parity and gun control, I am disappointed that mental health issues and media violence were left out of the president’s address,” Wolf said.

The NSF report acknowledged that a link between violent media and real-world violence can be contentious, but explained “Anders Breivik, who murdered 69 youth in Norway, claims he used the video game ‘Modern Warfare 2’ as a military simulator to help him practice shooting people. Similarly, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, who murdered 13 fellow students in Colorado, claimed they used the violent video game ‘Doom’ to practice their shooting rampage.”

No, Virginia, not everyone who’s ever played a violent video game is an assassin in training. “However, a comprehensive review of more than 381 effects from studies involving more than 130,000 participants around the world shows that violent video games increases aggressive thoughts, angry feelings, physiological arousal (e.g., heart rate, blood pressure), and aggressive behavior.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

30 Facts About the Coming Water Crisis That Will Change the Lives of Every Person on the Planet

The world is rapidly running out of clean water. Some of the largest lakes and rivers on the globe are being depleted at a very frightening pace, and many of the most important underground aquifers that we depend on to irrigate our crops will soon be gone. At this point, approximately 40 percent of the entire population of the planet has little or no access to clean water, and it is being projected that by 2025 two-thirds of humanity will live in “water-stressed” areas. But most Americans are not too concerned about all of this because they assume that North America has more fresh water than anyone else does. And actually they would be right about that, but the truth is that even North America is rapidly running out of water and it is going to change all of our lives. Today, the most important underground water source in America, the Ogallala Aquifer, is rapidly running dry. The most important lake in the western United States, Lake Mead, is rapidly running dry. The most important river in the western United States, the Colorado River, is rapidly running dry. Putting our heads in the sand and pretending that we are not on the verge of an absolutely horrific water crisis is not going to make it go away. Without water, you cannot grow crops, you cannot raise livestock and you cannot support modern cities. As this global water crisis gets worse, it is going to affect every single man, woman and child on the planet. I encourage you to keep reading and learn more.

The U.S. intelligence community understands what is happening. According to one shocking government report that was released last year, the global need for water will exceed the global supply of water by 40 percent by the year 2030.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

4 More Years: Obama’s Forward Program to Socialistic-Communism is Easier; Let’s Deny Him

I’m having a hard time making up my mind whether so many Americans are actually incredibly stupid or just terribly naïve. The ones I am referring to are mostly Democrats with a smattering of RINOs included.

You’ve heard of RINOs, haven’t you? Not to be confused with those big ugly animals with big ugly tusks in the middle of their foreheads, these RINOs are registered Republicans who, when it comes to making decisions, can’t make up their minds whether they are socialist liberals or patriotic conservatives who follow the principles of our founding fathers and not the teachings of Communists such as Trotsky, Stalin and Gorbachev.

It is a well known fact that 66 million residents, not necessarily all legal citizens, of a once good solid 80 percent Christian-believing country turned their backs on their Christian roots and religion and voted for a Communist trained and raised Socialist who pretended he was of the Christian faith who was theologically mentored by a false practitioner who proudly proclaimed, “God Damn America” to his followers and to the world in general, leaving no doubts that both the false minister and the pretend Christian, Rev. Wright and Barack Obama were and are deep-souled socialist-communists ready and willing to take all of your worldly goods and treasures and pass them on to whom they call “the needy” and to others as “the greedy” who refuse to make do for themselves; meanwhile adding to their own prodigious fortunes in the process.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Battle Over West Philly Mosque’s Control Goes to Court

THE FIGHT for control of the city’s oldest African-American mosque made its way into Common Pleas Court on Monday. The trial to settle the long-running dispute at the Philadelphia Masjid in West Philadelphia began more than a year after the first request for an emergency injunction filed by the organization’s elected officials was dismissed. An injunction was sought after what elected officials say was a hostile takeover by a rival group called the “concerned believers.” Fights broke out inside the mosque, on 47th Street near Wyalusing Avenue, during religious services. An imam and the board’s chairman were assaulted during the scuffle…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Bill Cosby Says Those Who Oppose Obama Are Racist

Comedy and television icon Bill Cosby slammed Republicans who failed to stand for President Obama’s State of the Union speech, likening them to racists who opposed desegregation.

“I think we have people sitting there,” he said, referring to the president’s SOTU speech, during a CNN television interview reported by Mediaite, “who are as bad as the people who were against any kind of desegregation.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Dallas CAIR Director: “Muslims Are Above the Law of the Land.”

By Daniel Greenfield

I for one welcome this new CAIR policy of honesty and openness. Any day now, maybe one of their directors will admit what they truly stand for.

Council on American-Islamic Relations leader told a crowd at a rally for Islam that members of the faith should not be bound by American law.

“If we are practicing Muslims, we are above the law of the land,” said Mustafa Carroll, executive director of the Dallas-Fort Worth CAIR branch.

The rally in Austin was part of a nationwide effort to hold “Muslim Capitol Day” events. The event included a speech by a representative of Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam, who declared that Texas was an awful place and that Islam was the answer.

“Why did Muhammad say that he would not rest until the Koran was the law of the land?”

“Islam does not have Texas in the current condition, the current socio-political condition that Texas is in. What is this condition that Texas is in? Why is Texas on the brink, when you look at Texas in comparison to 50 states, education, percent of population graduating from high school is 46, high school completion rate is 46, the scholastic assessment rate, the SAT score in Texas is 47, the percentage of population with no health insurance in Texas is first, those without health insurance Texas is first. When you look at the state of a child in Texas, the percentage of uninsured children, Texas is first… etc etc

You shouldn’t be filing legislation against Islam, when you look at Texas, Islam is not the problem. Islam is the solution. Allah Akbar.”

Clearly when we look at the literacy rates and health insurance rates in the Muslim world, we cannot help but see that Islam is the answer. That is assuming the question is how can we make Texas more like Somalia or Egypt.

Herman Mustafa Carroll had defended terrorists, perhaps on the same theory that Muslims are superior to the law of the land…

           — Hat tip: MC [Return to headlines]

DHS Rolls in the Tanks

Another brick in the black iron prison.

The Department of Homeland Security has purchased almost 2,700 light-armored tanks.

Need I remind everyone of other actions by DHS and fellow bureaucrats in the Obama Administration?

Consider:

1.   DHS purchased 1.6 billion rounds of hollow point ammunition. Hollow point bullets are not usable for target practice nor in warfare. They serve only one purpose — to kill people.
2.   Other agencies have likewise purchased such bullets, including the Social Security Administration and the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
3.   The DHS have conducted a series of exercises using Blackhawk helicopters in large urban areas.

Urban warfare drills have been conducted in St. Louis, Minneapolis, Chicago, New York, Houston and a host of other American cities…

One or two such actions could be dismissed as inconsequential, but this list taken together suggests something far more dangerous and overreaching.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

DHS Signs $4.5 Million Dollar Contract With Heckler & Koch

Amidst concerns that the agency is engaged in a domestic arms race against the American people, the Department of Homeland Security has signed a new $4.5 million dollar contract with weapons manufacturer Heckler & Koch.

A synopsis posted on the Federal Business Opportunities website yesterday announces the DHS’ intention to ink a five year deal with the Virginia-based firearms maker to provide gun replacement parts for the Federal Protective Service, ICE, Customs and Border Protection, “and other DHS agencies as needed.”

Although the document (PDF) is supposed to be redacted, the relevant sections have not been blacked out correctly and the figures are visible (see screenshot here).

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Government Arms Race Kicks Into High Gear as DHS Buys 2,700 Armored Vehicles for Streets of America

When DHS purchased 1.6 billion rounds of ammunition to be used domestically, inside the USA, and I said this looks like a government agency preparing for war with the American people, I was told, “That’s crazy. The government would never do that.”

When DHS purchased 7,000 full-auto assault rifles to be used inside the United States, calling them “personal defense weapons” that could be used in urban warfare, I was once again told I was crazy for suggesting the government was arming up for war with the American people.

Now DHS has retrofitted 2,717 “Navistar Defense” armored vehicles for service on the streets of America. Click here to see pictures and specs for this vehicle from the manufacturer’s website.

These vehicles, which people who don’t know any better might call “light tanks,” are specifically designed to resist mines and ambush attacks. They use bulletproof windows and are designed to withstand small arms fire, including smaller-caliber rifles such as .223 Remington.

The retrofit was completed in May, 2012, and these 2,700+ armored vehicles are now ready to deploy across the streets of America, reports Modern Survival Blog, the primary source for this story.

Importantly, none of these armaments — billions of bullets, thousands of full-auto assault rifles and thousands of armored assault vehicles — are being purchased by the Pentagon for use in wars overseas. Instead, these are being purchased by DHS for use inside the United States… on the streets of America.

This is a domestic department of the federal government that is clearly and unambiguously arming for war against the American people.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

How Cops Became Soldiers: An Interview With Police Militarization Expert Radley Balko

In 2007, journalist Radley Balko told a House subcommittee that one criminologist detected a 1,500% increase in the use of SWAT teams over the last two decades. That’s reflective of a larger trend, fueled by the wars on drugs and terror, of police forces becoming heavily militarized.

Balko, an investigative reporter for the Huffington Post and author of the definitive report on paramilitary policing in the United States, has a forthcoming book on the topic,Rise of the Warrior Cop: The Militarization of America’s Police Forces. He was kind enough to answer some questions about how our police turned into soldiers as well as the challenges of large-scale reform.

Motherboard: When did the shift towards militarized police forces begin in America? Is it as simple as saying it began with the War on Drugs or can we detect gradual signs of change when we look back at previous policies?

“There’s certainly a lot of overlap between the war on drugs and police militarization. But if we go back to the late 1960s and early 1970s, there were two trends developing simultaneously. The first was the development and spread of SWAT teams. Darryl Gates started the first SWAT team in L.A. in 1969. By 1975, there were 500 of them across the country. They were largely a reaction to riots, violent protest groups like the Black Panthers and Symbionese Liberation Army, and a couple mass shooting incidents, like the Texas clock tower massacre in 1966.”…

“The gear and weapons and tanks are a problem. But I think a much deeper problem is the effect all of this war talk and battle rhetoric has had on policing as a profession. In much of the country today, police officers are psychologically isolated from the communities they serve. It’s all about us vs. them. There are lots of reasons for that, which I describe in the book but are too involved to get into here. But it’s really destructive.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Kids Conditioned in Public Schools to Become Loyal Subjects Exposed (Video)

Lenore Skenazy, a columnist, author, and reality show host who gained national notoriety when she let her then-9-year-old son take the New York City Subway home alone, talks to Katherine Albrecht about the school system conditioning our kids to become loyal subjects.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Killing Us Softly (Part II)

[WARNING: ** Disturbing Content **]

“A total world population of 250-300 million people, a 95% decline from present levels, would be ideal.” —Audubon magazine, interview with Ted Turner, 1996

“This is a terrible thing to say. In order to stabilize world population, we must eliminate 350,000 people per day. It is a horrible thing to say, but it’s just as bad not to say it.” —Jacques Cousteau in an interview with the UNESCO Courier for November 1991

Please understand that the Geisinger Hospital Jean was in is considered a model for Obama Care by the President. [Link] Obama actually desires all American hospitals to follow the Geisinger model. [Link] So, let’s take a look at what it’s all about.

From Time Magazine’s, The Long Goodbye by Joe Klein, “Geisinger hospital is the mother ship of an extensive network of medical practitioners tending to 2.6 million patients in 44 mostly rural Pennsylvania counties. It was founded in 1915 by a widow named Abigail Geisinger and first directed by Harold Foss, a surgeon who had been an assistant to the famed Mayo brothers. Like the Mayo Clinic, it employed a team approach, with doctors paid as employees rather than independent operators cooperating on patient care. “It’s like hiring a general contractor to supervise the renovation of your house,” says Henry J. Aaron, a health expert at the Brookings Institute.” (Another nasty leftist think tank funded by Rockefeller and Ford Foundations).

The accountable-care-organization model, which is the emerging term of art for places like Mayo and Geisinger, became a pioneer in computerization of medical records and analyzing those records. Geisinger’s Proven Health Navigator enrolls patients who are overseen electronically by case managers. The elderly are even contacted in their homes by these case manager nurses to see if they’re taking their medication, eating the right things, keeping their doctor appointments, and even weighing themselves (on Bluetooth scales that send the results to the Geisinger computers). This way Geisinger can decide when “end-of-life” care should commence, or lack of life-giving care should end. Doesn’t this make you feel all warm and fuzzy that a government approved health care facility will be watching over you this closely, and when you step on a scale, the numbers will go to the watchdog!

Most of today’s doctors, including some of mine, don’t like the Mayo-Geisinger way of doing business. They say, “We don’t want to be robots run by your computers.” Well they shouldn’t be, but Obama Care may force all of them into this new health care model, resulting of course in euthanasia and rationing of care.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Martial Law: Tucson City Council Hands Authority Over to Military

On February 20, 2013, the Tucson, Arizona City Council passed a resolution allowing the U.S. Air Force to “make appropriate decisions when balancing National Security and community needs when it comes to their existing and future military mission and assignments.”

In other words, the resolution allows the military to reject decisions made by the people of Tucson.

The resolution is posted on the Tucson government website (as of this writing) and further states that it “is necessary for the preservation of the peace, health and safety of the City of Tucson that this Resolution become immediately effective, an emergency is hereby declared to exist and this Resolution shall be effective immediately upon its passage and adoption.”

In short, the Council has imposed what for all practical purposes is a declaration of martial law on the residents of Tucson.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Miami Mosque Imam Convicted of Aiding Pakistani Taliban

MIAMI: An elderly Muslim cleric in the US was convicted on Monday of funneling thousands of dollars to support the Pakistani Taliban terror organisation.

Hafiz Khan, the 77-year-old imam at a Miami mosque, was found guilty of two conspiracy counts and two counts of providing material support to terrorists. Each charge carries a potential 15-year prison sentence. Prosecutors built their case largely around hundreds of FBI recordings of conversations in which Khan expressed support for Taliban attacks and discussed sending about USD 50,000 to Pakistan…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Miracle: No One Shot by Strawberry Tart Shaped Like a Gun

Josh Welch. Seven years old. Park Elementary School, Baltimore. Bit off pieces of strawberry tart, trying to make shape of mountain. Tart ended up looking like gun. Josh suspended for two days. No bullet wounds reported.

On top of all that, the students at Park Elementary were sent home with a letter stating there had been a disruption at the school.

So far, no federal troops have been deployed to guarantee the security of the students.

I can think of a solution to this problem. Every pupil at Park Elementary should make a gun out of his/her next strawberry tart. All at once. An armed rebellion.

Then the parents should yank their kids out of Park and start their own school. I’m reasonably certain they can find, among themselves, teachers and a principal who aren’t absolutely insane…

Thousands of new private schools and home schools then spring up. Parents defect out of the public school nightmare. No more random diagnoses of ADHD and drugging with cheap speed called Ritalin or Adderall. No more pressure to take dozens of toxic vaccines. No more social engineering programs in classrooms. No more sex ed for kids. No more junk food lunches. No more pastry scares.

No more federal funding accepted for public schools. No more no child left behind or left ahead or left in the middle. No more textbook publishers ripping off schools with new editions of the same old books every year. No more “every child has to have a computer or else they won’t learn anything” nonsense.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Oral Argument on DNA Searches Provides Scary Glimpse Into the Future of Privacy

The Supreme Court recently heard oral argument in Maryland v. King, a case considering the constitutionality of warrantless DNA collection from arrestees. We’ve long warned about the privacy problems with the rise of cheap, easy and fast blanket DNA collection, and filed an amicus brief with the Court urging it to hold the government can only obtain this sensitive genetic material with a search warrant. While it can be fruitless trying to read the tea leaves of oral argument, one specific idea — that technological advances making DNA analysis faster means warrantless collection may be OK — should leave you worried about the fate of privacy going forward in the digital age.

One of the main disagreements surrounding the issue of DNA collection is whether the state is collecting DNA from arrestees for immediate identification — to figure out if they’ve arrested the right person and learn who that person is for purposes of making a bail determination — or for past and future investigation — to solve cold cases and to store DNA for future searches. The state has long claimed they used DNA for both, while we’ve argued the government simply isn’t able to use DNA collection for immediate identification purposes since there’s currently a delay in analyzing DNA ranging from several days up to a few months. But with the rise of rapid DNA analyzers which can analyze DNA in 90 minutes, law enforcement is chomping at the bit to purchase and install these devices at police stations across the country.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Pentagon Welcomes Chinese General Who Threatened Nuclear Strikes on Hundreds of US Cities

A Chinese general who once threatened to use nuclear weapons against hundreds of U.S. cities will visit the Pentagon this week as part of a U.S.-China military exchange program.

Maj. Gen. Zhu Chenghu, who is head of China’s National Defense University, will take part in a “familiarization exchange,” Maj. Catherine Wilkinson, a Pentagon spokeswoman, told the Free Beacon.

“The delegation will visit Hawaii and D.C.,” she said. “A military delegation from the U.S. Pacific Command will visit China later this year for a reciprocal exchange.”

Zhu will lead a group of 10 senior colonels from all branches of the Chinese military, Wilkinson said. She declined to provide the names of the officers.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Pilot Reports Mystery Black ‘Drone’ At JFK

The pilot of a commercial jetliner spotted a drone aircraft hovering near his plane as he landed at JFK Airport yesterday, according to sources.

The Joint Terror Task Force is now probing the sighting of the mysterious flying object, the sources said.

The Alitalia pilot spotted the unmanned craft — described as “a black drone” — hovering just 200 feet from his jet about three miles east of the airport as he made his approach from Brooklyn.

“He was very clear as to what he saw,” a source said.

The pilot told investigators the object was flying at about 1,800 feet and looked like “a black drone about a meter square, with helicopter rotors on the corners.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Post-Constitutional America: The Trap is Closing

Price of liberty is vigilance. Those willing to trade freedom for the illusion of security will end up neither free nor secure. Patriots, be warned — America is rapidly becoming a garrison state.

“A government big enough to give you everything you want, is big enough to take everything that you have.” —President Gerald Ford, Address to Joint Session of Congress, 12 August 1974

By tradition, Americans are accustomed to referring to themselves as free citizens of a constitutional republic, and not subjects of an all-powerful ruler or state. Today, however, evidence continues to mount that we are no longer a free people and no longer live in a constitutional republic. The increasing size and scope of government at all levels has been a fact of life in the United States for quite some time, but in recent years — especially since the September 11th 2001 terrorist attacks — that growth has accelerated dramatically. Under the Obama regime, it has gone exponential.

[…]

Consider the following developments, which have unfolded since the man from Chicago took over in early 2009…

In March, 2012, Obama signed an executive order for the National Defense Resources Preparedness Act, whose language authorizes the White House and cabinet-level departments of the federal government to seize control of any and all food, water, energy, health resources, transportation and “all other materials, services and facilities” in the U.S. that it deems necessary — even if the nation is not experiencing emergency conditions. The NDRPA heavily-modified existing language from E.O. 8248, passed in 1939 during the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration. NDRPA effectively strips Americans of their right to own property and also subjects them to unreasonable search and seizure, a violation of the Fourth Amendment of the Bill of Rights…

The Department of Homeland Security, the Transportation Security Agency and other parts of the federal government recently have contracted for the purchase of 1.7 billion rounds of ammunition, including a recent purchase of 450 million rounds of .40 caliber hollow-point handgun ammunition. Under the Geneva Conventions, for humanitarian reasons the use of hollow-point (HP) bullets is prohibited during warfare between nations. However, domestic law-enforcement and other agencies are legally permitted to use HP ammunition.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Republicans Facing Extinction! (Video)

The Republican party keeps acting like Socialists and as Reporter David Ortiz reports that’s why the party is nearly extinct.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Senate Intelligence Committee Backs John O. Brennan for C.I.A. Director

The Senate Intelligence Committee voted 12 to 3 to confirm John O. Brennan as director of the Central Intelligence Agency on Tuesday, hours after the White House agreed to provide more information on the legal basis for targeted killings of Americans believed to pose a terrorist threat.

The vote, in a closed committee meeting, clears the way for Mr. Brennan, a 25-year C.I.A. veteran who has been President Obama’s top counterterrorism adviser, to be confirmed by the full Senate later this week.

[Return to headlines]

Signs of the Times: New York Times Kills Green Blog

Fewer and fewer people care about the apocalyptic claims and outright lies of the environmental movement these days. The end of the world is nowhere in sight unless a stray asteroid is headed our way and, after some seventeen years of a natural cooling cycle, it’s hard to convince people that global warming is a problem.

In January The New York Times that has printed every global warming lie it could since the late 1980s shut down its “environmental desk” and reassigned its editors and reporters to other tasks. On March 1 it announced it was discontinuing the “Green Blog”, leaving only Andrew C. Revkin to rave on at “Dot Earth.”

Tim Graham, the Director of Media Analysis at the Media Research Center, noted that Revkin’s paycheck is being underwritten by financing from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation and, if that dries up, Revkin will have to take his fear-mongering somewhere else. Graham opined that “The reality must be that people don’t read it (Green Blog) and people simply don’t find global warming a scintillating subject. So much for the notion it’s the ‘story of the century.’“

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Stolen Shotgun Hits Trigger on Stolen Rifle, Kills Burglary Suspect

INDEPENDENCE, Oregon. (AP) — A burglar died when a rifle he’d just stolen was jostled and fired during a ride down a bumpy farm road, Polk County authorities say.

Detective John Williams says investigators found a shotgun and the rifle Sunday morning, side by side on the passenger-side floorboard of a stolen farm truck, barrels pointed at the driver.

Williams says it appears that a lever on the shotgun got into the trigger guard of the rifle and fired it.

The weapons were among other goods taken from a nearby house on the farmland near Independence.

Williams says detectives found no indication anybody else had been in the truck, whose engine had been running for hours.

The man was identified as 19-year-old Genaro Hernandez Mendoza.

           — Hat tip: Paul Green [Return to headlines]

Support for Keystone Xl Pipeline Project Hits 70 Percent

A new Fox News poll shows support for the project has reached a new high, with 70 percent supporting its construction and 23 percent opposing it. That 70 percent support figure is up from 67 percent a year ago. Other polls at the time showed slightly lower levels of support, though still huge majorities in favor.

The increase appears to be due to a rise in support among Democrats, who now support it with a clear majority — 57 percent.

[NOTE: See URL for map outlining the pipeline’s route]

The project would channel oil from Canada to refineries in the United States. The Obama administration in January 2012 said it needed more time to evaluate the pipeline’s impact.

[…]

[Return to headlines]

We Sweep So Much Under the Rug in America

On the front of the March 11, 2013 cover of Time Magazine, legless athlete Oscar Pistorius stands like a physical specimen held up by his prosthetic legs. The title reads, “Man, superman, gunman: Oscar Pistorius and South Africa’s culture of violence,” by Alex Perry.

“Don’t keep sweeping your troubles under the rug for someday you’ll trip over it.” Taylor Wapaha

While reading the article, I felt overwhelmed by the statistics: South Africa # 6 in the world for gun killings, 88 percent rise in home robberies in the past five years and total racial separation. Black poverty skyrocketed after the end of apartheid. Two surveys found: “…28 percent of men admitted to being rapists and 46 percent of victims were less than 16 years of age, 23 percent under 11 and 9 percent under six years old. Out of 3.5 million residents of Cape Town, 2.1 million live in shacks without toilets or running water.”

“In the townships, vigilante beatings and killings are the norm,” wrote Time writer Alex Perry. “South Africa’s private security industry employs 411,000 people, more than double the number of police officers. South Africa knows crime as a vast stretch of lawlessness covering an area twice the size of Texas. As much as $50 billion annually is lost to graft and crime.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Will Smith Once Stood as Arguably the Most Bankable Film Star in Hollywood.

Over the weekend we learned Smith was one of President Barack Obama’s superbundlers, a term used for those who cleverly work around current campaign finance laws to raise oodles of cash for a politician.

Actors Will Smith and Jada Pinkett-Smith landed on the list, having hosted a fundraiser at their Los Angeles home, in the $500,000-and-above category….Federal laws capped personal contributions at $2,300 to individual candidates or committees during the 2012 election cycle, but bundling is a common practice to show loyalty to a candidate.

This wouldn’t have mattered four years ago, but Obama’s recovery-free recovery continues to pound ordinary Americans. Those very same Americans might want to catch a movie to escape from news of soaring deficits and shrinking job opportunities. Will those same Americans be eager to choose a Smith project as their form of escapism?

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

British Journalists Worked for MI6 During the Cold War: Investigation

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |

Numerous notable journalists working for some of Britain’s most prestigious publications routinely collaborated with British intelligence during the Cold War, according to a BBC investigation.

In 1968, Soviet newspaper Izvestia published the contents of an alleged British government memorandum entitled “Liaison Between the BBC and SIS”. SIS, which stands for Secret Intelligence Service, also known as MI6, is Britain’s foremost external intelligence agency. The paper, which was the official organ of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, claimed that the foreign correspondents of most leading British newspapers secretly collaborated with the British intelligence community.

It also alleged that the BBC’s world radio service had agreed with MI6 to broadcast preselected sentences or songs at prearranged times. These signals were used by British intelligence officers to demonstrate to foreign recruits in the Eastern Bloc that they were operating on behalf of the UK.

At the time, the BBC virulently rejected the Izvestia’s claims, calling them “black propaganda” aimed at distracting world opinion from the invasion of Czechoslovakia by Warsaw Pact troops, which had taken place some months earlier. But an investigation aired this week by the BBC Radio 4’s investigative Document program suggests that the memo published by the Soviet newspaper was probably genuine. The program says it discovered a memorandum in the BBC’s archives, which laments the embarrassment caused to MI6 by the Soviet claims. The memorandum, dated April 24, 1969, describes MI6 as “our friends”.

The BBC program, which is available to listen to here, discusses the Soviets’ claims that several notable British journalists were MI6 agents.

They include Edward Crankshaw and David Astor of The Observer, Lord Hartwell and Roy Pawley of The Daily Telegraph, Lord Arran of The Daily Mail, Henry Brandon of The Sunday Times, and even Mark Arnold-Foster of the left-leaning Guardian newspaper.

Leading veteran security and intelligence correspondent Phillip Knightley told Document that he would not be surprised if Izvestia’s claims turned out to be true. Another expert, Stephen Dorril, who has authored extensively on the history of MI6, told the program that he believed the memorandum was probably given to the Soviets by George Blake, an MI6 officer who spied for the USSR. Blake was later convicted to 42 years in prison, but managed to escape to Moscow in 1966, where he still lives today.

[NOTE: See link to radio program at original URL, above]

[Return to headlines]

City Dwellers Abandon the Swedish Church

The former state Church of Sweden lost more than 50,000 members in 2012, continuing a trend in declining membership, seen most acutely in the towns, since Sweden became secular in the year 2000.

The church, which defines itself as Evangelical Lutheran, still has 7 million members.

Last year, however, 54,000 people decided to drop out. During the same time frame, the national church also attracted more than 7,500 new members.

There are differences in the drop-off rate between the towns and smaller communities.

Stockholm and Gothenburg saw thousands of members decide not to renew their memberships, while in the tiny town Bjurholm in Ångermandland County there was only one person who decided to leave.

“That community has a high attendance at church services,” the local pastor Michael Brodin told the TT news agency, before underlining that the congregation was small.

“They have a tradition of piety.”

The church itself has noted the urban rural divide.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Europe Takes Aim at Space Junk Menace

The European Union has launched a new program to tackle the threat of space junk, which litters the corridors of Earth orbit.

Space junk is man-made debris — spent rocket stages, dead satellites and even lost spacewalker tools — orbiting Earth. These bits of detritus pose a risk to orbiting satellites, which even a small piece of space trash could damage or destroy.

There are thought to be about 600,000 objects larger than 1 cm (0.39 inches) in diameter orbiting Earth, and at least 16,000 larger than 10 cm (3.9 inches).

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Fourteen Swedes Make Forbes Billionaire List

H&M owner Stefan Persson was the highest placed Swede on the Forbes billionaire list published on Tuesday, with 13 other Swedes possessing a fortune large enough to join him in the elite club. Stefan Persson came in at number twelve in the 2013 Forbes rankings, down four places from last year, with an estimated fortune of around $28 billion.

The 65-year-old’s fortune rose by $2 billion since 2012. Forbes noted that Persson had been busy lately with his high profile real estate investments.

In March, he snapped up a whole city block in Paris to go with a previous purchase of an entire village in Hampshire, England. Nearly all of his fortune comes from his family’s 38 percent equity stake in Swedish clothing giant H&M.

The only other Swede to sneak inside the top 100 list was 86-year-old Hans Rausing of TetraPak fame, who boasted a wealth of $11 billion.

Despite a gain of roughly $1 billion to his name, Rausing dropped six places on the list to 94th.

Rausing’s private life took a heavy hit last year when his daughter-in-law was found dead in her London apartment of a drug overdose.

Birgit Rausing, who ranked 50th last year, did not feature in the 2013 list as she passed on her fortune to her three children Jorn, Kirsten, and Finn, all of whom are new entrants on the list.

Ikea founder Ingvar Kamprad, who placed as high as 11th back in 2010, dropped even further this year to 412th place with an estimated fortune of $3.2 billion.

Kamprad’s drop comes after his economic stake in Ikea was taken out of his control and put into a tax haven in Lichtenstein. Forbes noted that the 86-year-old Swede has “historically shown little interest in the trappings of wealth anyway”.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Gucci Launches Eco-Friendly Handbags

Luxury purse said to be made with traceable, organic leather

(ANSA) — Paris, March 4 — Gucci has moved to boost its green credentials by announcing at fashion week in Paris that it is making a new range of environmentally friendly leather handbag.

Gucci says its new line of Green Carpet handbags are made from leather that is certified to have come from Brazilian producers who did not cause any damage to the Amazon rainforest.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

IRA Militant Nabbed in Anti-Mafia Operation

Police arrest 20 alleged mobsters and businessmen

(ANSA) — Reggio Calabria, March 5 — An Irish Republican Army (IRA) militant is reportedly among 20 people arrested early on Tuesday in an operation against the Aquino and Morabito ‘Ndrangheta organized crime families, police sources said.

Alleged crime boss Rocco Morabito, son of Giuseppe Morabito aka U Tiradrittu and several Spanish and Italian businessmen were also arrested on suspicion of criminal conspiracy and money laundering in what police are calling Operation Metropolis. Agents also seized assets worth 450 million euros.

The IRA allegedly sent the arrested militant to launder money with the help of Italian organized crime families. The IRA allegedly first contacted the Neapolitan Camorra and the Calabrian ‘Ndrangheta around 2007-2008. The IRA reportedly has also laundered money through organized crime elements in Spain. ‘Ndrangheta, whose name means ‘virtue’ or ‘heroism’ in a dialectical form of ancient Greek, once dealt mainly in kidnappings and extortion and fed off the pickings of public tenders, living in the shadow of its Sicilian cousin.

But it has since expanded throughout Italy, northern Europe and other countries, where it invests its huge drugs profits.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Italy: Cairo Snaps Up La7, Raising Fears for Pluralism

Centre left concerned there may be editorial shift

(ANSA) — Rome, March 4 — Italy’s fourth commercial TV channel La7, known for hard-hitting independent reporting, has been sold to media businessman and Torino FC boss Urbano Cairo, a former protege’ of media magnate and ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi, raising concerns over pluralism in TV, the medium where an estimated 90% of Italians get their news, amid a post-election stalemate in national politics.

The news was first tweeted by La7 presenter and political analyst Gad Lerner, one of the La7 journalists who have expressed concern over the takeover, before confirmation of the sale came in from Ti Media, the media arm of Italy’s biggest telecoms group Telecom Italia.

After fears voiced by centre-left politicians in the run-up to the recent elections, Cairo pledged that La7’s editorial line would not change after his Cairo Communications took over Italy’s seventh TV channel.

“I am not going to give away the best players, those that increase viewing numbers and give us visibility on the market,” he said in the run-up to February 24-25 elections, when the sale became a talking point.

On Monday, after the takeover news, all he would say was “I’ve got hold of a real hot potato”.

Cairo has previously stated he has no intention of following in the footsteps of Berlusconi, who in the past has allegedly used his political and economic clout to purge his three private Mediaset channels and state broadcaster RAI of journalists critical of his government and policies.

Several subsequently migrated to La7.

During the election campaign Berlusconi said he “hoped” La 7’s “leftist” line would change after Cairo took over.

On Monday a Senator in Berlusconi’s People of Freedom party, Antonio Gentile, claimed La7 was “full of leftwing journalists”.

Cairo, 55, was given his start in business by Berlusconi and subsequently set up his own media and advertising group, before emulating his acknowledged model, the magnate-turned-politician who owns AC Milan, by buying Serie A outfit Torino. La7, which has been a drain on Telecom Italia, is considered one of the last independent broadcasters with a national reach.

Its acquisition by Cairo, who began his career working at Berlusconi’s advertising group Publitalia, has generated fears — principally aired by the narrow front-runner amid Italy’s post-election stalemate, Pier Luigi Bersani of the Democratic Party (PD) — that it may become another Berlusconi mouthpiece.

Berlusconi responded to Bersani’s claims that plurality could be at risk by saying: “I have not had a relationship with Urbano Cairo for several years. He was my assistant and then he became an entrepreneur and it’s been a while since I last heard from him”.

Bersani gave vent to his concern February 19, warning of the risk of a lack of pluralism in the Italian media and saying that that if he were premier, he would examine the deal’s ramifications thoroughly.

The PD leader, tipped to receive a government-formation mandate around March 20 from Italian President Giorgio Napolitano, said he would make sure the deal would not create any “conflicts of interest” or “dominating positions”.

Berlusconi, who staged a remarkable comeback to lead a centre-right coalition to within a wisp of victory in last week’s vote, replied that Bersani’s words were like a “mafia warning”.

“He (Bersani) said wait to sell because if we are the government we will intervene to do I don’t know what to Mediaset, so that La7 will be worth more,” Berlusconi added.

Bersani countered that in his remarks he did not mention Berlusconi.

“It’s curious because every time someone talks about rules Berlusconi gets offended,” Bersani said.

Ever since entering politics, Berlusconi has been accused of abusing his control of television channels to promote his own goals.

The accusations have been particularly strong in the instances when Berlusconi was the head of government, which critics claimed gave him control over Italy’s state-owned RAI networks, the main nationally broadcast alternatives to Berlusconi’s own channels.

In 2002 he famously blackballed two of RAI’s top journalists, Enzo Biagi and Michele Santoro, for allegedly making “criminal use” of the airwaves just before the 2001 elections, which Berlusconi won.

Berlusconi was also a close friend, and godfather to the second son, of late Socialist leader Bettino Craxi, who banned Beppe Grillo from the TV in the mid-1980s after the Genoese comedian joked about Socialists being unable to steal in China “where they’re all Socialists”.

Grillo has since founded an anti-establishment Web-based following, the 5-Star Movement, which shocked the political world by riding an anti-austerity and anti-euro wave to become top party in the House and potential kingmaker in the deadlocked Senate.

Telecom Italia said it intended to sell La7 as part of a debt-trimming operation last May.

Cairo shelled out one million euros for La7, Ti Media said.

The Torino boss said he would recapitalise the loss-making channel to give it a “net financial position no less than 88 million euros”.

Net assets would be boosted to 138 million euros, he said. Telecom Italia said it was waiving 100 million euros of financial credits.

Ti Media, the media unit of Telecom Italia, dropped 3.4% on the Milan bourse on news of the sale.

Mediaset shares were suspended for posting an excessive loss, pulled out when trading at a theoretical 5.9% down.

When they were readmitted they posted a 7% loss before closing at 6% down.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Italy: Bridgestone Europe Announces Plan to Close Bari Plant

Tire-maker’s move set to put 950 people out of work

(ANSA) — Bari, March 4 — Tire-maker Bridgestone Europe announced plans Monday to close its factory in Bari next year, throwing 950 people out of work.

The plant, making car tires in the Modugno suburb of the south-eastern Italian city, will be shut down no later than the first half of next year, the company said.

The Bari plant is one of eight in Europe owned by Bridgestone.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Italy’s 5-Star Movement Not Ruling Out Technocrat Government

‘They have to form it first,’ says M5S leader in Senate

(see related stories) (ANSA) — Rome, March 4 — Italy’s 5-Star Movement (M5S) on Monday reiterated that it would not back a government led by Pier Luigi Bersani’s centre left or ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi’s centre-right coalition.

But it left the door open to a government of unelected technocrats.

Bersani’s alliance came first in last week’s election but it does not have a working majority in the Senate and some have suggested a technocrat administration could be a way out of the political deadlock. “We’ll see, first they have to form it,” said Vito Crimi, who was named M5S’s leader in the Senate on Monday, when asked about the prospect of a technocrat administration.

“We are not the coalition that won. It’s up to the winners and President (Giorgio) Napolitano to decide. “A solution would be a 5-Star government (backed by the other parties).

“We reiterate what we said in the election campaign and years before — the M5S will not vote confidence in a government formed by the (established) parties”.

The movement, led by ex comedian Beppe Grillo, was staunchly opposed to outgoing Premier Mario Monti’s emergency technocrat government, which took power in November 2011.

Crimi said M5S would stick to its pledges to refuse public money and to ensure that its lawmakers only take the part of their salaries that is in line with the average income of Italian people, saying that the movement would “find a way to give the rest back to the public”.

Meanwhile, Roberta Lombardi, who was elected the movement’s leader in the House, hit back at those who have said the movement’s intransigence threatened Italy’s future.

“What is dangerous is what has happened over the last 20 years in Italy, not us,” Lombardi said.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Italy: Grillo Says M5S Won’t Back Technocrats

Monti admin was ‘most political in post-war period’

(see related stories) (ANSA) — Rome, March 5 — Beppe Grillo on Tuesday ruled out the prospect of his 5-Star Movement (M5S) supporting a technocrat government to overcome the impasse after Italy’s election failed to produce a winner.

“The M5S will not vote confidence in a technocrat government, I never said it would,” the former comedian wrote on his blog.

Grillo also criticised the record of outgoing Premier Mario Monti’s technocrat government which, among other things, changed Italy’s labour laws to make it easier for firms to fire workers.

“The Monti government has been the most political of the post-war period,” he said. “Before no one had ever questioned Article 18 (of the 1970 worker statute) that defends workers”.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Italy: Monti to Meet Bersani, Berlusconi, Grillo Ahead of EU Summit

Outgoing premier wants ‘exchange of opinions’

(ANSA) — Rome, March 5 — Outgoing Premier Mario Monti has requested the leaders of Italy’s main political groups to meet him for an “exchange of ideas” on Italy’s position ahead of next week’s European Union summit.

Monti is still at the helm of government and will represent Italy in Brussels after last week’s general election failed to produce a winner.

Pier Luigi Bersani’s centre-left alliance was first but it failed to win a working majority in the Senate after ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi’s centre right came a close second and former comedian Beppe Grillo’s anti-establishment 5-Star Movement benefited from a big protest vote.

Grillo’s movement holds the balance of power in parliament but it has said it will not support a government led by Bersani or Berlusconi.

Monti will meet Bersani, Berlusconi and Grillo separately at the premier’s office, Palazzo Chigi.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Italy: Berlusconi Calls for Monthly PDL ‘Freedom Square’ Protests

Alfano criticizes ‘concentric attacks’ against party founder

(ANSA) — Rome, March 5 — The head of Silvio Berlusconi’s People of Freedoms (PdL) party on Tuesday called for public protests on March 23 to demonstrate against “concentric attacks” by prosecutors against Berlusconi.

At a meeting of Lombardy PdL deputies elected to national parliament, Angelino Alfano — PdL secretary — said the party would organize a protest against “fiscal, bureaucratic and judicial oppression” later this month.

Earlier Tuesday, Berlusconi — whose PdL led a center-right alliance into national elections February 24-25 — said during the meeting of newly elected PdL deputies that he would seek to bring his party and its supporters into the streets once a month in “freedom square” protests.

Separately, in his speech to the party Berlusconi once again hinted at the idea of changing the party’s name back to its original Forza Italia (Let’s Go Italy).

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Netherlands: Rejected Asylum Seeker Gets 28 Years for Double Murder

A rejected asylum seeker who killed his girlfriend and a police officer in Groningen two years ago has been jailed for 28 years.

Alasam S was also found guilty of attempting to murder two other villagers and threatening three other police officers.

The court ruled S had acted in such a way as to show he was well aware what he was doing and that the killing was premeditated. The man, who claims to come from Benin, was also fully responsible for his actions, the court said.

Gun

The public prosecution department had called for a life sentence.

S had heard he would be deported six days before the killing spree. He battered his girlfriend to death with a fire extinguisher and went on to shoot the police officer with his own gun after a struggle.

The killings took place in the Groningen village of Baflo, which has a population of 1,800 and is described as a ‘close knit’ community.

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

Norway Far-Right Group Profiles Muslims

A list of hundreds of Muslim companies and organizations has been published on the website of anti-Islamic group NDL, an organization to which Anders Behring Breivik had membership.

The Norwegian Defence League (NDL), an anti-Islamic group closely associated with the English Defence League (EDL), has published a list of hundreds of Muslim companies and organizations on its website. The list was assembled based on listings in the Public Entity Registry. Lars Johnny Aardal, deputy leader of the NDL, stated the purpose for its publication was “to show the extent of Islam and Muslims in Norway”…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Norwegian Defence League Filing Muslim Organizations and Companies

Norwegian Defence League (NDL) has published a list of hundreds of Muslim companies and organizations on its website.

The list had been compiled on the basis of listings in the Public Entity Registry. Lars Johnny Aardal, deputy leader of the NDL, said that it was published “to show the extent of Islam and Muslims in Norway”. In the prologue of the list, NDL wrote: “The list is far from complete, and a longer list can be prepared with multiple keywords or keyword changes we have used. We have only included entries under the keywords “Islam, Kurdish, Turkish, Muslim, Iranian, Iraqi, Somali, Pakistani, Arabic, Mohammed, Ali and Hussein.”…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Sweden: Jews Hit Malmö Streets to Counter Anti-Semitism

As Malmö continues to struggle with anti-Semitism that has plagued the southern Swedish city for years, contributor Patrick Reilly learns how the city’s Jewish community is fighting back.

Video cameras and a heavy combination locked door greet visitors as they approach Malmö’s Jewish community centre. Once inside, appointments are made with a secretary who sits behind thick glass.

Security has been stepped up in the building, which is located in central Malmö, following an explosion last September that led to arrests and was classified as a hate crime by local police.

The attack was just the one in a long line of anti-Semitic incidents which have become increasingly common in Sweden’s third largest city. Even the city’s long-sitting mayor Ilmar Reepalu, who recently announced plans to step down, has been dogged by accusations of being anti-Semitic

But Malmö’s small Jewish population is fighting back. Amidst the shattered glass and reports of persecution the incidents are being used as a catalyst for change involving not only local Jews but also the wider populace.

“There is a kind of revival of the Jewish community here considering the number of us that are in Malmö,” local Jewish resident Jehoshua Kaufman tells The Local.

Malmö’s Jewish community centre has about 600 members, while there are an estimated 2,500 Jews among Skåne County’s total population of 1.25 million residents.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Switzerland: Sink or Swim: Future of Private Bankers Under the Microscope

With the demise of Wegelin and planned ownership changes at Pictet and Lombard Odier, the number of traditional, family-run private bankers in Switzerland is shrinking from a Second World War rate of around 60 to just nine.

The world of private banking faces an evolving landscape. The rate of new wealth creation in emerging economies eclipses that of Europe, volatile markets offer less returns and the global crusade against tax evasion has eroded banking secrecy.

Many observers fear that the rarified atmosphere of the small, discreet family boutique in Switzerland has become too noxious for the breed to survive.

There are no ostentatious displays of wealth at Switzerland oldest private bankers, Rahn & Bodmer. Clients do not wade through plush carpets under the gaze of gilded oil portraits when they enter the Zurich premises.

Instead, the bank exudes an aura of calm, understated efficiency that conceals the drama and volatility of the 263 years of history that the family firm — and generations of its clients — has lived through.

Safety first approach

One of the bank’s most successful calling cards is that its five partners accept unlimited personal liability for losses. This is a condition for earning the title of “private banker” (as opposed to private bank) in Switzerland — a distinction so valuable that the term was copyrighted by the Swiss Private Bankers Association (SPBA) in 1997…

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

Switzerland: Capping Manager Salaries: Minder Vote Sends Clear Signal to Executives

The Swiss press agrees that the 68 per cent approval of the fat cat initiative on Sunday’s nationwide ballot is a clear signal that there should be more transparency over top managers’ salaries and that excesses should be sanctioned.

For the Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ) the result is a “blatantly obvious signal” by the people who “vented their displeasure about the salary excesses over the past years”.

The newspaper warns, however, that the “record-high acceptance of the fat-cat initiative plays into the hands of the left”, which may see the approval as an initial spark for other policies to curb salaries.

The French-language daily Le Temps called the overwhelming yes vote the “triumph of an outraged man” for which parliament holds “significant responsibility, because it hesitated to act on the issue for several years and failed to issue a proper counter-proposal”. The defeat of business interests demonstrate that these “are losing direct influence”.

And, the Quotidien Jurassien newspaper from the Jura region cited the support for the initiative as “a democratic response to the ignorance of some top managers and their despicable conduct, which left the entire country in disgust”.

Epic fight

The NZZ further pointed out that Minder achieved a very rare feat — with his proposal, he achieved the third-best result of any initiative in Switzerland, which not only won approval in urban and rural areas but also in all the cantons…

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

UK: Campus Extremism, Freedom and Security Conference

London School of Economics Students’ Union conference

Date: Tuesday 12 March 2013

Time: 4-7.30pm

Venue: New Theatre, East Building

Speakers: Trevor Phillips, Dr Phyllis Starkey, Professor Ian Cram, Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari, Jonathan Birdwell, Hicham Yezza, Pete Mercer, Michael Chessum,Omar Ali

Chair: Dr Kai Spiekermann

In light of the increased opposition amongst student groups and university lecturers around the government’s counter-terrorism strategy, the LSE Students’ Union is convening this conference to provide a forum for dialogue and discussion between key stakeholders in the debate around campus extremism, freedom and security.

Trevor Phillips is the former chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission.

Dr Phyllis Starkey is a former MP and chair of the Communities and Local Government Select Committee.

Professor Ian Cram is head of the Law School at the University of Leeds.

Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari is a founding member of The East London Communities Organisation (TELCO).

Jonathan Birdwell is head of the Citizens Programme at Demos.

Hicham Yezza is editor-in-chief of Ceasefire Magazine and the ‘Nottingham Two’.

Pete Mercer is the NUS vice president (Welfare).

Michael Chessum is president of the University of London Union.

Omar Ali is President of the Federation of Student Islamic Societies.

Dr Kai Spiekermann is a Lecturer in Political Philosophy in the Government Department at LSE…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

UK: Free School for Muslims Aims for 2014 Opening

An independent Muslim faith school in Dewsbury has announced it has been given an interview with Government officials over its plans to convert into a state-funded free school

Paradise Primary Free School Trust expect to be interviewed by the Department for Education later this month and find out if they have been successful later this year.Free schools are a key education reform of the coalition Government which is encouraging groups to set up schools from scratch where they can prove they have parental demand. The trust says it has had more than 200 parents signed up so far. The plan is for a Muslim faith ethos school which would be open to children of all faiths and backgrounds…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

UK: Lord Tebbit’s Fury at the Way Margaret Thatcher is Portrayed in the Audience

Lord Tebbit is sickened by the depiction of Margaret Thatcher in Peter Morgan’s play The Audience, which focuses on the Queen’s relationships with her prime ministers.

Not for the first time in theatreland, Lady Thatcher is pilloried in The Audience, Peter Morgan’s new play focusing on the Queen’s relationships with her prime ministers. While the drama hints that Harold Wilson was her favourite, it leaves little doubt that Thatcher — played by Haydn Gwynne — was the bete noire…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

UK: Luton, The Town Where the Rats Don’t Even Bother to Hide Any More: Grim Portrait Reveals Rubbish Left to Rot in the Street and Derelict Buildings in Ruins

It is a town which has struggled with its image for many years.

Previous ‘awards’ for Luton include being voted the ‘dirtiest town in Britain’ and the ‘worst place to live in the UK’.

And if these pictures are anything to go by, it looks like the town is still struggling to shake off its poor reputation.

Concerned with Luton’s image, a local photographer, who did not want to be named, wandered the streets of the Bedfordshire town and took this disturbing series of images.

[Comment: The reason . . . you need only look at the one picture of the shopping centre ! — pasavecmonargent , Redcar UKIP Member, United Kingdom, 05/3/2013 14:15]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

UK: Mosque Must Rethink Its Plan to Get Bigger

ONE of Oxford’s three mosques has been told to go back to the drawing board with its plans for expansion. More than 30 neighbours of the Madina Mosque in Stanley Road, Iffley, wrote to Oxford City Council’s planning department opposing the application for an extension. Currently, the popular mosque has to divide worshippers into two sittings for Friday prayers — the busiest service of the week — to make room for the 700 to 800 people who attend. Neighbouring residents are concerned that a larger mosque would lead to more noise, traffic, parking, overcrowding and littering…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

UK: The Next Conservative Leadership Election is Under Way

by Paul Goodman

There’s a triple significance to the post-Eastleigh interventions of the three main Conservative members of the National Union of Ministers — Philip Hammond, Theresa May, and Chris Grayling. It may look at first glance as though Hammond’s plea for savings from welfare to be found to protect his budget, and May and Grayling’s interventions over the European Court of Human Rights and the Human Rights Act last weekend, have little connection, if any — but they’ve more in common than meets the eye…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

UK: Teenager Was “Intimidated” By Her Alleged Abusers, Old Bailey is Told [Bullfinch Trial]

A SCHOOLGIRL woke up with a love bite on her neck after “passing out” from drink and drugs given to her by a sex exploitation gang, the Old Bailey heard this afternoon. The unnamed witness, known as Girl 5, claims she had sex with four of the nine defendants on trial between the ages of 12 and 14. Today she told the jury she had sex with Zeeshan and Bilal Ahmed because she was frightened of them. She said: “They were intimidating”…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

UK: When Did ‘Unkempt’ Become a Racial Insult?

[Comment: More details on the case emerge.]

A former Government Education Minister has been subjected to a humiliating six-month ‘racism’ investigation after describing a constituent as ‘unkempt’…

After sending the email, Mr Loughton was contacted by a Detective Inspector from Sussex Police who wanted to speak to him in connection with allegations of a ‘criminal nature’.

He was put into a custody suite at Worthing nick and told he was being investigated under the Malicious Communications Act.

Mr Loughton was shown a document which read: ‘Mr Francis states that he is of Romany Gypsy origin and feels that references made to him are of a racist nature and that the email contains personal insults of a grossly offensive nature.’

The MP said he had no idea what Mr Francis’s ethnic origins may or may not be. But even if he had, how does calling him ‘unkempt’ amount to ‘racism’ and what has a dispute over an allotment got to do with the Old Bill?

Understandably, Mr Loughton is furious and is demanding an explanation from the Chief Constable.

He may be disappointed. Sussex Police have so far refused to answer any questions about the length or cost of the investigation, which could run to as much as £100,000. He won’t get much joy from the Crown Prosecution Service, either, even though no charges are being preferred.

The CPS said: ‘These were serious allegations and the matter was thoroughly reviewed.’

No, they weren’t. The only ‘serious’ aspect is the outrageous decision of the police to treat a blameless Member of Parliament like a criminal and accuse him of ‘racism’ on the basis of a vexatious and malicious complaint from a serial grievance-monger.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

World Halal Food Council Europe Arrives in Italy

In Milan on March 1-2 world council of food experts

(ANSAmed) — ROME — The World Halal Food Council Europe which groups top experts on foods Muslims are allowed to eat will meet for the first time in Italy and is scheduled to gather in Milan on March 1-2.

The meeting, organized by the local chapter of the Halal International Authority, Hia, charged with certifying which products and cooking procedures are halal, licit under Islam, will meet at the Sheraton Malpensa Hotel. Promoters say experts will discuss common rules of certification, the sector’s challenges and the opportunities for the halal market in Europe.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Egypt: Muslim Brotherhood Not Responsible for Instability

Theologian tells conference crisis must be overcome together

(ANSAmed) — ROME, MARCH 5 — The Muslim Brotherhood is not responsible for everything to do with the crisis in Egypt, Islamic theologian Abdul-Rahman al-Bar told a conference on religion and democracy in Rome on Tuesday.

“Holding the Muslim Brotherhood responsible for the Egyptian political crisis is a mistake,” said Bar, who sits on the Muslim Brotherhood council of directors. “We do not represent the whole of Egypt and cannot be held responsible for everything.” Titled “Religion and democracy in the Arab world and in Europe”, the conference was organized by the Rome-based Community of Sant’Egidio, a lay movement.

“We will only overcome this political crisis if everyone participates,” the theologian explained, emphasizing that the Brotherhood “is committed to a democratic and constitutional Egypt.” Bar said he could not understand why Christians and liberals quit the Constituent Assembly, which he also sat on.

“I can find no reasons to justify such a move. They might have different views on some articles, but quitting is not acceptable. You cannot criticize the Constitution without reading and knowing it”.

“For the first time, the charter mentions Christians and says they have a right to practice their religion. Anyway 63% of voters ratified it in a democratic referendum, so there’s no need to amend any of the articles,” Bar concluded.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Egypt: Ultras Besiege Central Bank and Cut Off Road in Alexandria

Hundreds of members of the hardcore soccer fans (Ultras Alexandria) besieged the headquarters of the Central Bank and cut off a main road in Alexandria. They raised banners condemning the Ministry of Interior and chanted slogans for the martyrs of previous clashes saying, “Either we bring back their rights, or we die like them.”…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Egypt: TV Host Faces Investigation Over Insulting President

Egypt’s public prosecutor ordered on Monday an investigation in a lawsuit that was filed against television host Bassem Youssef accusing him of insulting President Mohamed Mursi.

Twelve citizens had come forward to the attorney general with an appeal to summon Bassem Youssef who hosts an evening political satire show on Friday. The legal challenge mentioned that Youssef mocked an interview by the president, comparing it to the Oscars and granting it awards, including “best editing” and “best film”…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Libya: ENI: Gas Flow Not a Problem, But Situation Unstable

Priest shot at in Tripoli church

(ANSAmed) — ROME, MARCH 5 — Although the interruption of gas flow from Libya to Italy following clashes involving local militia at the ENI Mellitah oil field isn’t worrying in terms of energy supply levels, the overall atmosphere of instability in Tripolitania and Cyrenaica doesn’t bode well. Added to the tension is the attempted murder of an Egyptian born Catholic priest in Tripoli, who was shot at by an attacker wielding an AK-47.

“It’s the first time that something like this has happened”, said Monsignor Giovanni Martinelli, who, along with the police is puzzled by the “surprising” attack.

Acts of intimidation against non Muslims — and in general, Westerners in Benghazi, are on the rise.

“In the country the Salafi confuse the issue: they don’t allow debate — they shoot, they invade, they kill. This type of Islam doesn’t engage in dialogue. It’s a new phenomenon in Libya and we can’t remain indifferent”, said Martinelli. The situation between Zintan and Zware militia could also appear uncontrollable. They brought gas and oil production to a standstill at Mellitah after fighting for control of security management of the plant.

While ENI said on Tuesday that activity at the plant has resumed this doesn’t include a 520 kilometer gas flow from Greenstream to Gela, totaling 8 billion cubic metres.

When asked if there were any updates on liquid gas, which has been blocked, ENI president Giuseppe Recchi said: “it’s a matter of days, even though it doesn’t depend on us”.

“The situation is under control and Libya isn’t a problem”, Economic Development minister Corrado Passera added. “The supply from Libya is relatively low (roughly 10%)” he added, “and isn’t indispensable at the moment. However the situation in north Africa will be closely followed”. As demonstrated by a recent attack by Islamic terrorists at the In Amenas oil field in Algeria, this vast area is growing ever more uncontrollable and verbal condemnation from Premier Ali Zeidan is not enough. Speaking from New York Italian foreign minister Giulio Terzi reiterated that support for the stabilization of Libya remains a priority, and that Rome has offered to host the second International Conference on the country.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Libya: Benghazi Gunmen Attack Coptic Church

Libya on Sunday (March 3rd) condemned the recent attack on an Egyptian Coptic church in Benghazi that left two priests injured, Libya Herald reported. The government has “taken the necessary measures to secure the church and its occupants”, the foreign ministry said. The Thursday attack by armed gunmen was “contrary to the teachings of our Islamic faith and customs and as well as international covenants on human rights and fundamental freedoms and respect for the monotheistic religions”, the ministry statement added…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Protesters Set Governorate’s Headquarters on Fire in Egypt’s Port Said

CAIRO, March 4 (Xinhua) — Both the security and governorate’s headquarters in Egypt’s Port Said were set on fire on Monday as protesters hurled Molotov cocktail at the buildings, state-run Ahram online reported. The protesters also blocked fire engines from reaching the blaze. The clashes left 138 injured, among them 14 were hurt by cartouche and birdshot…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Super Morsi: Egyptian President Becomes Video Game Hit

A video depicting Mohammed Morsi, the president of Egypt, as Super Mario, has gone viral among the country’s youth.

“Super Morsi” is a 30 second clip satirising the classic platform game Super Mario, but featuring the superimposed face of Egyptian President Morsi instead, according to al-Arabiya news. As “Super Morsi”, he has to battle past former presidential candidates Mohamed el-Baradei, leader of the Constitution party; Hamdeen Sabahi, leader of the Popular Current party and Amr Moussa, head of the Congress party. All are members of the National Front for the Salvation of the Revolution, a broad coalition of parties that formed in November 2012 to oppose Mr Morsi’s attempt to pass laws without judicial review. After squashing these enemies, “Super Morsi” comes across an unexpected lifeline — the Muslim Brotherhood’s Supreme Guide, Mohammed Badie. Unfortunately, this actually ends the game for “Super Morsi”, with the words “Revolution Over” appearing in transliterated Arabic on the usual black Mario endgame screen…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Tunisia: Salafists Want Medieval Islam, Ennahda Cofounder

Our program is 21st century, the West must accept us

(ANSAmed) — ROME, MARCH 5 — Tunisian Salafists want to impose a Medieval vision of Islam, Ennahda party co-founder and vice president Abdelfattah Mourou told participants at a conference on religion and democracy here on Tuesday.

“I do not look kindly on people who are to our right.

People who do not understand Islam or the situation of the country, who follow 10th and 12th century versions of Islam, trying to apply them today,” Mourou told the “Religion and democracy in the Arab world and in Europe” conference organized by the lay Rome-based Community of Sant’Egidio movement.

“Salafists do not take into account the changes that have taken place in Muslim society,” Mourou explained, adding he was “attacked and wounded twice” by Salafist factions.

Tunisia “has a big problem” with these fringe movements, said Mourou, who is also a political scientist and a jurist.

Ennahda’s “social, economic, and political programs can be applied in the century in which we live. For us Islam is a principle that is applicable today, and that gives us the chance to be free and democratic,” Mourou went on. “The West must not posit itself as our protector. It must understand that the people choose their own fate, and they must answer to the people. The West must accept Islamist movements. And anyway, Western countries supported our former dictator for years.”

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Arab Students Chase British Envoy From Ramallah College

Scores of violent Arab students forced the British consul general to make a hasty departure from a university in Ramallah on Tuesday.

Scores of violent Arab students forced the British consul general to make a hasty departure from a university in Ramallah on Tuesday, according to witness reports.

Consul General Sir Vincent Fean had travelled to Bir Zeit University near Ramallah to deliver a lecture on Britain’s policy in the Middle East and the prospects for peace but was turned away by vehement Arab demonstrators, the Ma’an news agency reported.

Video footage showed protesters banging on his car and shouting: “Get out of Bir Zeit!”

Although Fean was hurriedly escorted back to his car and escaped unscathed, the protesters manage to break the car’s wing mirror and taped pictures of an Arab prisoner onto the vehicle’s window, according to an AFP correspondent at the scene.

The protesters also held up Palestinian Authority flags and banners in English and Arabic, one of which read: “I am a refugee because of Balfour” in reference to Britain’s publication in 1917 of the Balfour Declaration, which called for the establishment of a national home for the Jewish people in the Land of Israel.

“This is a message to the world,” the “Islamic Bloc At Birzeit University” wrote in a Facebook message.

A consulate official confirmed that Fean was unable to deliver his prepared address due to the riots.

“Because of the demonstration, we reluctantly took the decision to leave,” the official told the AFP news agency, speaking on condition of anonymity.

In February 2000, Arab protesters at Bir Zeit threw stones at then visiting French prime minister Lionel Jospin, demanding he leave the university over a speech he delivered at Tel Aviv University in which he called Hizbullah a terrorist organization.

           — Hat tip: MC [Return to headlines]

Israel Busts Hamas Cell in West Bank

JERUSALEM, March 4 (Xinhua) — Israeli security forces have seized a Hamas militant cell in Hebron which has plotted a slew of attacks, Israeli media reported, citing a statement released by the Shin Bet security service on Monday. The suspects “planned to carry out various terror attacks, but were arrested before they could put their plans into action,” The Jerusalem Post quoted the Shin Bet statement as saying. The statement named Basel Heimuni, who was released to the Gaza Strip under a prisoner-swap deal with Hamas in October 2011, as the cell’s commander, and Manjad Junidi, 23, as its leader in Hebron. It also named 25-year-old Mohammed Sh’idam, who was arrested on suspicion of producing an improvised explosive device and planning a shooting attack…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

United Nations: UN Agency Cancels Third Gaza Marathon After Hamas Bans Women

As the organising body, the UNRWA makes the announcement after Islamists insist on imposing Sharia, which bans women from taking part in sporting events along with men. Set for 10 April, the run had attracted 800 participants, almost half women.

Gaza (AsiaNews/ Agencies) — The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) has cancelled the third edition of the Gaza Marathon scheduled for 10 April because Hamas wanted to ban men and women from running together, the agency announced in a press release. The marathon was cancelled “following a decision by the authorities in Gaza not to allow women to participate,” the UNRWA statement said.

At the time of the cancellation, 807 people had registered, almost 400 were women, UNRWA said.

In justifying its position, Hamas-dominated government of Gaza said that the ban was in place for at least 16 years.

“We regret this decision to cancel the marathon,” Abdessalam Siyyam, cabinet secretary of the Hamas government, told the AFP news agency.

“We did not tell UNRWA to cancel the marathon and we haven’t prevented it, but we laid down some conditions: We don’t want women and men mixing in the same place,” he said.

“This year we have trained and exhausted ourselves for this marathon,” said Noora Bulbul, a 13-year-old girl who studies at an UNRWA school. “Why ban girls from taking part? They know very well that girls swim in the sea alongside boys,” she said. “What’s the difference?”

Ayman Abdullah, 16, who took part in last year’s race, also said he was disappointed that the race had been called off, saying it was “an expression of freedom and which showed that we in Gaza are a civilised people.”

In recent months, Hamas has been criticised on several occasions for trying to impose Sharia on Gaza Strip.

In January, it adopted a law that forces female students at Gaza University to wear a veil.

In November, its security forces used violence to disperse hundreds of women demonstrating in favour of inter-Palestinian reconciliation.

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

Barack Obama a ‘Dithering, Controlling, Risk-Averse’ US President

Barack Obama is a “dithering” president whose controlling tendencies and extreme risk-averse attitude to foreign policy has damaged US interests in the Middle East, according to a new book by a senior former State Department adviser.

The insider-account of the damaging divisions between the White House and the State Department comes as diplomats around the world wait to see if John Kerry, the new US secretary of state, can persuade Mr Obama to greater engagement on Syria, Egypt and the wider Middle East.

[JP note: Perhaps not so risk-averse when putting Israeli lives on the line.]

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Ethiopia: Saudi Arabia — An Honest Friend or Pretentious Foe?

By Daniel Berhane

The state media never gets tired of telling us how the Arabs are grateful that Ethiopia hosted the “First Hijra” — the relatives and followers of Prophet Mohammed who took refuge in Ethiopia from persecution back home. It reiterates this version of the story whenever it is reporting about the warm relationship with Arab nations and the influx of investors from the region. But, that is not the whole truth. An equally, if not more, influential version of the story credits the then Ethiopian king for his hospitality. It describes the state of Ethiopiaas one which stood in the way of Islamic expansion or, as some would say, the first land that “betrayed Islam” and “a land of the ultimate heresy,” — Irtad…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

EU: 30 Extra Mln to Lebanon for Refugees Emergency

Fule in Beirut, we remain committed to assisting the government

(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, MARCH 05 — The European Commission will provide an additional 30 million euros to Lebanon to alleviate the impact of the high influx of refugees from Syria.

“Lebanon receives the highest number of people fleeing the horrible bloodshed in Syria and we know that it puts this country under enormous strain” said Stefan Fule, the EU Commissioner for European Neighbourhood Policy, during his visit to Beirut. “The EU — Fule added — remains committed to assisting the Lebanese Government in its response to the refugee crisis”. Today’s announcement of the additional 30 million euros brings the total amount of financial assistance offered by the European Commission to Lebanon in relation to the Syrian crisis to almost 75 million euros in humanitarian and non-humanitarian aid. The objective of this special measure is to reinforce the national capacity to deal with the unprecedented number of refugees and provide financial support for the Government’s plan to mitigate the consequences this has for the country. While being the smallest of Syria’s neighbouring countries, Lebanon hosts the highest number of refugees. By the end of February it received more than 325,000 Syrian nationals in addition to a similar number already present in country previously (e.g. seasonal workers in agriculture and construction). There are also estimated 31,500 arrivals of Palestinian refugees from Syria. Out of the 30 million euros announced today to help Lebanon to cope with the refugee crisis, 5 million euros would be designated for Palestinian refugees from Syria.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Iran is the Nose Job Capital of the World With Seven Times More Procedures Than the U.S. — But Rise in Unlicensed Surgeons Poses Huge Risk

Young women in Iran, some as young as 14, are having cosmetic surgery in the hope of attaining the Hollywood ‘doll face’.

Iran has been named the nose job capital of the world — with seven times more operations carried out there than in America — despite the high cost of the surgery.

Cosmetic procedures cost five to six times the average monthly wage in Iran but according to a report in their conservative Etemad newspaper, as many as 200,000 Iranians are undergoing rhinoplasty operations every year.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Obama’s Billion-Dollar Giveaway to the Muslim Brotherhood

So soon after warning us that doomsday was at hand, the interests of Islamic totalitarians apparently come ahead of American ones. Aid to Syria, Egypt.

In the past few weeks, Americans have been subjected to a barrage of doomsday predictions regarding the disaster that would befall us should the sequester come to pass. Many were rightly incensed, then, that last Thursday, only one day before the “devastating” sequester cuts were scheduled to kick in, newly appointed Secretary of State John Kerry announced that the Obama administration will be giving $60 million to a group of Syrian rebels fighting Bashsar Assad.

This hypocrisy was quickly followed up with an announcement on Sunday by Kerry that the administration will be giving Egypt’s increasingly anti-democratic Muslim Brotherhood government $250 million in return for promises of economic reform—which will rise to $1 billion if that reform is deemed successful.

Kerry made the first announcement, on Syrian rebel aid, while attending an international conference on Syria in Rome. After asserting that Syrian President Bahsar Assad is “out of time and must be out of power,” Kerry revealed that the United States will be sending food rations known as M.R.E.s, as well as medicine to the rebels, via their central military headquarters. American advisors will supervise the distribution. Other countries will send additional aid, and Kerry is convinced the “totality” of that effort will impress Assad.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Syria: John Kerry in Emirates, Sheikh Urges Help for People

Gulf Council: Syrians should be armed against regime

(ANSAmed) — DUBAI, 5 MARCH — US Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) late Monday night where he met with top ranking government members including the crown prince Sheik Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan and foreign affairs minister sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyanthe.

During talks the question of Syria and the regional political situation were top of the list as well as bilateral relations between the two countries, who are close allies. “The international community has an ethical and humanitarian responsibility towards what is happening in Syria and to the wider repercussions for the entire region”, UAE media agency WAM quoted Sheikh Mohammad as saying. The Sheikh went on to stress that UAE policy is founded on cooperation, modernization and development and that these are the qualities which will promote a quantum leap in stability in the future of the region.

Kerry’s visit to the UAE is part of an 11 day tour of nine countries in Europe and the Middle East. He came from Riyadh where a meeting of foreign ministers from countries in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) was underway. The oil-rich monarchies are pushing the United States to be more incisive in Syria. In a signed statement they condemned “the allies of Damascus” for their support and for supplying weapons, and they called for a “binding UN resolution with the time and means to find a solution to the crisis”, and one which sees the Syrian people armed.

“The brutality of the Syrian regime, which includes the devastating use of Scud missiles against defenceless civilians, is such that the Syrian people should be equipped to be better able to defend themselves”, the statement read.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

The West and the Muslim Brotherhood After the Arab Spring

Press release

Few observers foresaw the Arab Spring, but it should not have surprised anyone that the Islamist movements — the most organized movements in the Arab world — became the main beneficiaries of the turmoil that ensued. Islamism, in its gradualist and pragmatic approach embodied by the Muslim Brotherhood and its offshoots worldwide, seems ready to reap the rewards of its three decades-old decision to abandon violence and focus on grassroots activities. This monumental change has created many concerns among liberals, religious minorities and, more generally, all non-Islamists in the countries where Islamists have won. In addition, Arab states ruled by non-Islamist regimes have expressed concern. The former worry that Islamist ideology — even in its more contemporary, pragmatic form — remains deeply divisive and anti-democratic, often at odds with their values and interests. The latter believe that on foreign policy issues, most of the positions of various Brotherhood-inspired parties are on a collision course with the policies of established regimes in the region.

In association with Al Mesbar Studies and Research Centre (based in the United Arab Emirates), the Foreign Policy Research Institute has just published as an E-Book The West and the Muslim Brotherhood After the Arab Spring, edited by Lorenzo Vidino. The book provides an overview of each of eight countries’ policies towards Islamism, including the United States, Britain, Canada, the Netherlands, Germany, France, Spain, and Israel…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

UAE: Sharia Allows for Full Compensation

Hotels, malls and other public places can be held liable for injuries

Dubai and Abu Dhabi: The legal system in the UAE is a combination of Sharia, civil and criminal laws. According to the Sharia, if one causes the death or injury of another person accidentally or intentionally, he or she has to pay blood money — diya — or a proportion of it equal to disability caused to the victim, lawyers said. “The blood money is to be paid to the victim’s family as compensation and the amount is given in accordance with Sharia by the Sharia criminal court,” said Tareq Al Serkal of Al Serkal law firm…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

2,600 Tonnes of Aid Delivered to Myanmar Muslims

Khalifa Foundation has distributed urgent aid totalling 5,200 tonnes

Burma: The Khalifa Bin Zayed Humanitarian Foundation (KZHF) has distributed another 2,600 tonnes of food aid to Myanmar Muslims, completing its third and last phase of the urgent aid totalling 5,200 tonnes of relief items among 850,000 beneficiaries…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Insurgents Burn Tires in 40 Spots in Restive S. Thailand

BANGKOK, March 5 (Xinhua) — Insurgents burned tires at some 40 locations in Thailand’s restive southernmost province of Yala but no casualties were reported, the Thai News Agency reported on Tuesday. An unknown number of insurgents, setting automobile tires afire at some 40 locations in seven districts of Yala from late Monday night to early Tuesday morning…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

On the March to Afghanistan

A TEAM of Fylde coast soldiers have been gearing up for their next tour of duty in Afghanistan. Servicemen from 2nd Battalion The Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment, based at Weeton Barracks, are preparing to leave for the war-stricken country in the next month. And to make sure they are well prepared for action, they have spent the last week undergoing a series of training drills at Westdown Camp in Tilshead, Salisbury…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Protests Over Student’s Death Continue in Indian-Controlled Kashmir

SRINAGAR, Indian-controlled Kashmir, March 5 (Xinhua) — Life across Muslim majority areas of Indian-controlled Kashmir remained affected for the second straight day on Tuesday due to protests and shutdown over the death of a Kashmiri student in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. Mudasir Ahmed Malla, pursuing PhD at the English and Foreign Languages University (EFLU) in Hyderabad, was found hanging from the ceiling in his hostel room Saturday evening. Clashes broke out between agitating youth and contingents of police and India’s paramilitary Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) in a few localities of Srinagar city, the summer capital of Indian- controlled Kashmir…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Sabah: Kuala Lumpur Launches Offensive Against Filipino Rebels

The bombings began this morning in Sabah in East Malaysia. They are the prelude to an imminent ground attack. The Filipinos’ rebels of the “real army of the Sultanate of Sulu” (Mindanao) announce that they are ready to die. Philippine President Aquino points his finger at his political opponents against the recent agreements between Moro rebels and Manila.

Kuala Lumpur (AsiaNews / Agencies) — The Malaysian army is launching an attack against 200 militants of the Filipino’ “Royal army of the Sultan of Sulu” holed up in the town of Sabah since February 4, in the eastern part of the archipelago. The raid comes after several attempts at mediation made by Malaysian Premier Najib Razak and Philippine President Aquino Benin, who in recent weeks have repeatedly urged Islamist rebels led by Jamalul Kiram, known as the “Sultan of Sulu” to lay down their arms . In these days of gun battles with security forces at least 30 people have been killed. The bombing this morning destroyed several square miles of palm oil plantations, but so far there have been no injuries among the civilian population. In the coming days there will be a ground offensive with the use of seven army battalions. Kiram has announced that his group will “fight to the death.”

“The royal army of the Sultanate of Sulu” occupied the territory of Sabah on 4 February claiming the property with documents dating back to 1878, which establish the ownership of the area to the heirs of the Sultan of Sulu. The Sabah came under Malaysia in 1963. In recent weeks, President Aquino has attempted to mediate with Kiram a descendant of the sultans, even to the point of checking the authenticity of the documents in his possession, to prevent the outbreak of a new conflict in the area.

The Philippine Head of State and Malaysian Premier were the advocates of peace between the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the Philippine Army, an event that kicked off a new phase of relations with the Islamic militias engaged in a guerrilla war which lasted more than 40 years, which has plagued the Muslim majority region of Mindanao, with tens of thousands of deaths. The recent occupation of Sabah comes ahead of parliamentary elections in Malaysia, set for April 28. Many have already accused Najib of weakness and bringing fresh conflict to the country. Aquino points his finger at the supporters of President Gloria Arroyo who are said to have close ties with the Islamic leaders of Sulu, who have criticized plans for the new autonomous region of Bangsamoro the result of an agreement between the MILF and Manila.

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

US Held Secret Meetings With North Korea After Kim Jong Il’s Death

Senior United States officials traveled secretly to North Korea for talks on at least two occasions following the death of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, according to a leading Japanese newspaper.

Quoting unnamed sources from Japan, South Korea and the United States, the Tokyo-based Asahi Shimbun newspaper said last week that the American officials traveled on US military airplanes from an Air Force base on the Pacific island of Guam to North Korean capital Pyongyang. According to the paper, the visits, which took place on April 7 and August 18-20, 2012, were kept secret from both the South Korea and Japanese governments. It appears, however, that Tokyo found out about the secret flights after it was approached by amateur air traffic hobbyists, who noticed the Pyongyang-bound flights out of Guam. After analyzing air traffic patterns, officials at the Japanese Ministry of Foreign affairs contacted the US Department of State inquiring about the mystery flights.

Incredibly, however, Washington refused to discuss the flights with its Japanese ally, citing national security concerns. Eventually, says Asahi, the State Department acknowledged one of the visits, but responded to persistent Japanese pressure by warning Tokyo that further inquiries on the subject “would harm bilateral relations” between Japan and the US.

The Japanese daily claims that the secret flights carried a host of senior US officials, including Joseph DeTrani, then chief of the North Koran desk at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, and Sydney Seiler, Korea policy chief at the White House National Security Council. They allegedly met with some of North Korea’s most powerful and influential political apparatchiks, including Jang Song Thaek, who is married to the late Kim Jong Il’s younger sister.

[…]

[EDITORIAL INQIRY: So is the visit to NK by basketcase, Dennis Rodman, just follow-up negotiations, then? — D]

[Return to headlines]

Hitman Aged 13 Found Tortured and Killed in Mexico

A 13-year-old self-confessed hitman has been found tortured and killed in Mexico.

Jorge Armando Moreno had previously been arrested by police on Feb 4 and confessed to a series of killings, but officers were unable to hold him because he was under the age of criminal responsibility. The Univision television network reported that the boy was among six people, including four women, discovered dead on the outskirts of the towns of Morelos and Vetagrande in Zacatecas state. One of the dead was thought to be the boy’s mother. The boy, a member of the violent Zetas drug gang, was originally arrested on suspicion of involvement in 10 killings. He admitted personally carrying out three executions but was released hours later because of his age. The Zacatecas Justice for Adolescents Law only allows prosecution of criminals aged 14 or over…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Hugo Chavez Dies, Venezuelan VP Blames U.S. “Cancer Attack”

Hours before Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez died, his second-in-command accused enemies of giving him cancer and announced the expulsion of two U.S. diplomats for an alleged plot to destabilize the government.

“There’s no doubt that Commandante Chavez’s health came under attack by the enemy,” Vice President Nicolas Maduro said in an address to the nation from the presidential palace.

“The old enemies of our fatherland looked for a way to harm his health,” according to Maduro, drawing a parallel to the illness and 2004 death of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, which some supporters blamed on poisoning by Israeli agents.

He said a special commission would investigate how Chavez, 58, ended up with the unspecified cancer that months of chemotherapy and radiation and four surgeries failed to tame.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela Has Died, Vice President Says

Hugo Chávez, who rose from poverty in a dirt-floor adobe house to unrivaled influence in Venezuela as its president, consolidating power and wielding the country’s oil reserves as a tool for his Socialist-inspired change, died Tuesday, Vice President Nicolás Maduro said. He was 58.

Mr. Maduro said Mr. Chávez died at the military hospital in Caracas, where he had been treated for complications arising from his long struggle with cancer.

[Return to headlines]

Connecticut Eager for Licenses for Illegal Aliens

NEW HAVEN — About 2,000 supporters of a pair of bills that would permit undocumented immigrants to obtain a Connecticut drivers license turned out for a public hearing Monday night.

The crowd filled the auditorium, cafeteria and gymnasium of Wilbur Cross High School, where members of the legislature’s transportation committee had gathered to collect testimony.

They heard from Mayor John DeStefano, top legislative leaders and Catholic priests. But they also heard from dozens of illegal immigrants, who brought deeply personal stories, in both English and Spanish, of how they must drive to get to work, or to pick up their children, even though they are breaking the law and live in fear of being stopped by police.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Immigrant Families in U.S. Start Interstate Tour to Push for Immigration Reform

LOS ANGELES, March 4 (Xinhua) — Immigrant families in Los Angeles of the United States started Monday an interstate bus tour to push for national immigration reform focusing on family reunion. A group of immigrant families led by the Coalition for Human Immigrant Rights in Los Angeles (CHIRLA) gathered in front of the office of Senator Diane Feinstein in Santa Monica, California, then boarded a bus for Sacramento, Capital of the state of California…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Memo to Jeb Bush: Tell the Truth. There is a Line. Don’t Make Immigration Worse

Yesterday former Republican governor of Florida, Jeb Bush, and Clint Bolick, a leading constitutional litigator, embarked on a media tour to promote their book Immigration Wars: Forging an American Solution (Simon & Schuster released today).

The authors’ claim their book will help solve America’s immigration crisis. Unfortunately, based on an op-ed written by the authors in the Wall Street Journal: “Jeb Bush and Clint Bolick: Solving the Immigration Puzzle—Some want illegals to return to their native countries and ‘wait in line’ like everyone else. There is no line,” they are playing politics with the truth. Why? Because they assert there is no waiting line. That is simply not true.

As I reported here, excerpting from my book Crime & Incompetence: Guide to America’s Immigration Crisis (One Rock Ink February 2013), there is a line; actually there are lots of lines and some of them are very, very long.

In fact the legal immigration lines are open source. Anyone can access them and see for themselves. These lines are updated every month. That has been the case for decades. To suggest otherwise is misleading. The lines are called the Visa Bulletin and can be found at the State Department website.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Gay Marriage as a Civil Right—are Wrongs Right?

We should have seen it coming. Back in 1989 two young activists pushing for the normalization of homosexuality coauthored a book intended to serve as a political strategy manual and public relations guide for their movement. In After the Ball: How America Will Conquer its Fear and Hatred of Gays in the 90s, authors Marshall Kirk and Hunter Madsen argued that efforts to normalize homosexuality and homosexual relationships would fail unless their movement shifted its argument to a demand for civil rights, rather than for moral acceptance. Kirk and Madsen argued that homosexual activists and their allies should avoid talking about sex and sexuality. Instead, “the imagery of sex per se should be downplayed, and the issue of gay rights reduced, as far as possible, to an abstract social question.”

Beyond Kirk and Madsen and their public relations strategy, an even more effective legal strategy was developed along the same lines. Legal theorists and litigators began to argue that homosexuals were a class of citizens denied basic civil liberties, and that the courts should declare them to be a protected class, using civil rights precedents to force a moral and legal revolution.

That revolution has happened, and it has been stunningly successful. The advocates for the normalization of homosexuality and the legalization of same-sex marriage have used legal arguments developed from the civil rights era to their advantage. Arguments used to end the scourge of racial segregation were deployed to normalize homosexuality and homosexual relationships. Over the years, these arguments have led to such major developments as the decriminalization of homosexual behaviors, the inclusion of homosexuals within the United States military, and the legalization of same-sex marriage in some states.

Now, the United States Supreme Court is poised to hear arguments in two cases that directly address the question of same-sex marriage and the Constitution. Oral arguments before the Court were scheduled for March, and the impact of the Court’s decisions in these two cases will be monumental.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

The Bible: The Book, The Miniseries and the Sins of Sodom

Those who viewed the first installment of The History Channel’s ‘The Bible’ miniseries know that far more than merely utilizing creative license, the producers of this series woefully and sinfully altered not simply the biblical text, but biblical truth. Among many grave and concerning alterations, one particular omission stood out, and it seems important to highlight it, especially considering the current moral state of society.

The producers of ‘The Bible’ appear to have taken it upon themselves to alter the story of Sodom and the reason for God’s destruction of this city. Perhaps they did not have access to a dictionary so that they could look up the term ‘sodomy,’ or perhaps they simply forgot to glance at the biblical narrative that clearly explains the sins of this city. Regardless of the reason, the unfortunate result is that the sin of homosexuality, and God’s righteous judgment and wrath upon those who were impenitently engaged in this sin, were ignored. Instead, ‘The Bible’ depicted the sins of Sodom as men behaving promiscuously with women, rather than with those of the same sex. Other significant discrepancies occurred in the telling of this narrative, but this element strikes one as the most notable in a time when many are seeking to normalize the sin of homosexuality.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

UK: Gay Marriage Will Destabilise Family Life, Sociologist Warns

Gay marriage will further destabilise marriage and family life in Britain, a leading sociologist has warned Parliament.

Dr Patricia Morgan told the House of Commons that same-sex marriage reinforced the idea that marriage is irrelevant to parenthood. This was the principle factor, she said, that has caused the collapse in marriage rates between heterosexuals in countries where gay marriage had been introduced — as well as a sharp rise in cohabitation and the numbers of children born out of wedlock…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Black Socialist Pope to Follow Black Socialist President?

With African Catholic Cardinal Peter Turkson in the running as the next pope, the media have noted that he carries the fancy title of the president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, an arm of the Vatican. But they have failed to note the existence of a left-wing lobby in the U.S. working feverishly on his behalf. It is the same group of radicals, with connections to billionaire hedge-fund operator George Soros, who backed Obama for president by claiming he shared their Catholic values.

One of Turkson’s chief supporters in the U.S. appears to be Stephen Schneck, an associate professor of politics at the Catholic University of America (CUA) and a top official of “Catholics for Obama.” He runs CUA’s Institute for Policy Research & Catholic Studies and holds conferences featuring left-wing and liberal speakers.

Former AFL-CIO boss John Sweeney, a member of Democratic Socialists of America, told one of Schneck’s conferences that Jesus Christ was pro-union. Another speaker was socialist Harold Meyerson…

Turkson, who is from Ghana, has taken “social justice” to the global level, arguing for a “global financial authority” to solve the world’s economic problems.

For this reason, left-wing “progressives” backing Obama hope Turkson will be the next pope and use the Vatican in a global campaign against capitalism.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Slight Chance Comet Could Hit Mars in 2014, NASA Says

A newfound comet will give Mars a close shave next year, and there’s a slim chance that it could actually hit the Red Planet, NASA scientists say.

Comet 2013 A1 (Siding Spring) will come within about 31,000 miles (50,000 kilometers) of Mars in October 2014, according to the latest estimate from the Near-Earth Object Program Office at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif.

The trajectory of 2013 A1 (Siding Spring) is still not known well enough to rule out a dramatic comet collision with Mars, though that could change.

“At present, Mars lies within the range of possible paths for the comet and the possibility of an impact cannot be excluded,” JPL officials wrote in an update today (March 5). “However, since the impact probability is currently less than one in 600, future observations are expected to provide data that will completely rule out a Mars impact.”

There is no dying allowed in this remote Arctic town—well, you can die, but you can’t be buried here. You heard that right: no body has been buried in the local cemetery in almost a hundred years. Why? The perpetually frigid temperatures prohibit corpses from properly decomposing. Following the influenza epidemic of 1917, Longyearbyen banned burials in the town’s graveyard. The local polar bear population rivals the human one, and it’s not abnormal for the townspeople to shoot a bear in self-defense (hunting is illegal). Even after a polar bear takes its last breath in this mining town, it must also be sent away for its final resting spot.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

The Emerging Galactic Religion: Science Fiction and the Rise of Technocratic Posthumanism

Medicine is no longer restricted to healing. Biotechnology’s popular uses constitute a long list, among them weight loss, hair growth, birth control, teeth straightening, and sex selection of children.[1] Transhumanism takes human enhancement further, in morphing the vision of perfect man into a human-machine complex properly called “posthuman”. This is an effort to break every human limitation and redefine personhood. Nick Bostrom, Oxford philosophy professor and co-founder of the World Transhumanism Association, writes that posthumans will realize eternal youth and health, gain complete control over their minds and emotions, and “experience novel states of consciousness” that present human minds cannot imagine.[2]Posthumans may even choose to discard their bodies in favor of life as “information patterns on vast super-fast computer networks”.[3]

Though this sounds bizarre, human-mechanic existence has entered mainstream movies as a radical potential — and many scientists, doctors, and philosophers call it attainable within decades. As the President’s Council on Bioethics wrote in their final report “Beyond Therapy: Biotechnology and the Pursuit of Happiness”, bioethics demands a current and public discussion of “what it means to be a human being and to be active as a human being.”[4] Asked whether transhumanism tampers with nature, Nick Bostrom replies: “Absolutely, and it is nothing to be ashamed of. It is often right to tamper with nature.”[5] According to Bostrom, the attempt to retain “humanness” would be bad. Instead, all what a posthuman would need to be is to act humanely.[6]

Transhumanists distinguish the value of human life from biology and creation, to place its value in human ideals and experiences. This is because values “come from minds”.[7] Since a man’s values are but the ones he chooses, opting for a new ethical paradigm would allow him to redefine all aspects of life.[8] In its “Transhumanist Declaration”, the World Transhumanism Association affirms “the feasibility of redesigning the human condition” in areas including “aging, limitations on human and artificial intellects, unchosen psychology, suffering, and our confinement to the planet earth.”[9]

These scenarios and many more could all become reality in this new century with the proper investments in technology, according to a report issued by the National Science Foundation and the Department of Commerce of the United States government. Titled “Converging Technologies for Improving Human Performance: Nanotechnology, Biotechnology, Information Technology, and Cognitive Science,” the 405-page report could one day be remembered as a seminal road map to the future. It calls for more research into the intersection of these fields. The payoff, the authors claim, isn’t just better bodies and more effective minds. Progress in these areas of technology also could play a key role in preventing a societal “catastrophe”. The answer to human brutality and new forms of lethal weapons, it suggests, is a kind of technology-triggered unity: “Technological convergence could become the framework for human convergence.

[Comment: Transhumanists goal is for humanity to become like the BORG in ‘Star Trek: The Next Generation’. A sort of BORG-Eloi for the elites; non-elites will be relegated to ‘moorlock’ status. ]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

World’s Strangest Towns

There is no dying allowed in this remote Arctic town—well, you can die, but you can’t be buried here. You heard that right: no body has been buried in the local cemetery in almost a hundred years. Why? The perpetually frigid temperatures prohibit corpses from properly decomposing. Following the influenza epidemic of 1917, Longyearbyen banned burials in the town’s graveyard. The local polar bear population rivals the human one, and it’s not abnormal for the townspeople to shoot a bear in self-defense (hunting is illegal). Even after a polar bear takes its last breath in this mining town, it must also be sent away for its final resting spot.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]