With the news that the alleged perpetrators of the Boston Marathon bombings were Chechens, Chechnya as a topic trended among Americans using Twitter. However, so many of them confused Chechnya with the Czech Republic that the Czech ambassador to the United States felt compelled to make an official response.
In other news, American home-builders have scrapped the use of the term “master bedroom” because of concerns that the word “master” has associations with slavery, and is therefore racist.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Caroline Glick, Diana West, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, Jerry Gordon, McR, 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.
Italy: Crisis Could Kill 250,000 Businesses, Says Confcommercio
Almost four in ten families worried about debt, says survey
(ANSA) — Rome, April 18 — Almost four in 10 Italian families fear they won’t have the money to pay their mortgage while at the same time, 250,000 companies are at risk of shutting their doors.
Such are some of the results of the ongoing economic crisis in Europe that has hit recession-plagued Italy very hard, Carlo Sangalli, president of Confcommercio, said Thursday.
His group released the results of a survey taken on some of the impacts of the crisis, and called on government to do more to support families and businesses.
“This long crisis is deleting the most vital part of the country,” which is its entrepreneurs, said Sangalli, whose group represents Italian business.
Up to 250,000 operations could be forced to close this year and many more are losing hope, said Sangalli.
Making matters worse, 11 million Italian households have been forced to slash spending and are frightened they won’t be able to pay Italy’s rising taxes.
They’re especially worried about a hike in the VAT scheduled for July, and are tightening their spending accordingly, he said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Spain’s Alta Films May Have to Shut Down 180 Cinemas
Crisis-hit sector offered glimmer of hope by rising ticket sales
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, APRIL 18 — The crisis bringing Spain to its knees has not spared its cinemas. Alta Film, the largest film distribution and cinema management company in the country, may have to close 180 of the 200 cinemas it owns in the peninsula as well as its film marketing division, Alta Films chief and head of the Spanish Academy of Film Arts and Sciences, Gonzalez Macho, said. The economic recession in general and the crisis specifically in the world of Spanish cinema may speed up the shutting down of cinema halls throughout many Spanish cities.
The producer said that the troubling situation his chain finds itself in had been aggravated by the lack of support from the public television TVE, a steep increase in VAT on cultural products and services from 8% to 21%, and the current economic crisis. However, ticket sales offer a glimmer of hope: in the first quarter of 2013, over 3 million tickets were sold, equal to 37.6% more than the same period in 2012 — despite there being 25% fewer Spanish films than the previous year, according to Rentrak Espana figures.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Al Qaeda Linked to Saudi at Boston Marathon
On my national radio show on Tuesday April 16th, former Muslim Brotherhood member, now author, speaker and expert on Islam and the Middle East, Whalid Shoebat, called in revealing info he discovered in the Arabic, his native language.
We all recall Abdul Rahman Ali Al-Harbi detained as a ‘person of interest’ at the scene of the Boston Marathon explosion. He was injured and hospitalized then questioned but not arrested. Today as the news cycle unfolded he was described as ‘innocent’ and most cooperative with authorities.
Whalid Shoebat found in Arabic a list of known Islamic terrorists, either wanted or currently being held on crimes of terrorism with the name Al-Harbi. They were all numbered and listed. He lists them all and reveals his sources in his article posted on www.shoebat.com.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
American Law for American Courts Enacted in Oklahoma Moves Ahead in Florida
While it has been a tension filled day in Boston with the successful capture of home grown Jihadi suspects in the Patriots Day Marathon Massacre. In the heartland there was good news in the fight for human rights. Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin signed into law American Law for American Courts legislation in the Sooner state that had bi-partisan support from community groups. Enactment of ALAC in Oklahoma bolsters an important trend in providing protection for individual rights of parties in family law litigation in State courts against the intrusion of foreign law and doctrine that may violate both State and US Constitution guarantees.Meanwhile, progress was being made in Tallahassee, Florida on its version of ALAC, HB351/SB58, Application of Foreign law in Certain Cases. HB351 passed the Florida House by a vote of 79 to 39 on April 18, 2013. Rep. Larry Metz (R-Yahala) sponsor of HB 351 said: Today’s increasingly complex international economy results in more people relocating to Florida from abroad to live or conduct business, increasing the potential for disputes with foreign connections to end up in Florida courts. This bill makes protection of fundamental constitutional rights the gold standard for deciding any request to apply foreign law. If a request to apply foreign law is denied, the parties would be free to litigate their disputes under Florida law. The bill awaits approval by the Senate before being sent to Governor Rick Scott, who applauded its passage. Senator Alan Hays (R-Umatilla) is the sponsor of the companion Senate Bill. SB58 is scheduled for the fourth step, a hearing before the Florida Senate Rules Committee next week prior to going to the Senate Floor.
| — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon | [Return to headlines] |
Aunt of Bombing Suspects Says ‘Show us the Evidence, ‘ ‘I’m Suspicious That This Was Staged’
The aunt of the two Boston bombing suspects is calling for additional evidence showing they are behind the acts.
“I am a lawyer and there are four of us in the family,” Maret Tsarnaev told reporters Friday at her Toronto home. “I can’t lightly accept this kind of accusations without supporting evidence. Forgive me, but I cannot.
“Could it be staged? I have to question everything. That’s my nature.”
Police are hunting for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, who survived an overnight shootout and police chase. His older brother Tamerlan, 26, was killed in the shootout.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Before the Blast, West Fertilizer’s Monsanto Lawsuit
As details emerge about the Texas fertilizer plant that was the site of Wednesday’s fatal explosion and fire, a few tidbits can be gleaned from a 2007 lawsuit that the plant’s owners filed against agribusiness giant Monsanto Co.
The suit, filed as a potential class action in U.S. District Court for the western district of Texas, claimed that Monsanto had artificially inflated prices for its herbicide Roundup through anti-competitive actions. The suit did not relate to storing fertilizer, believed to be at the root of Wednesday’s blast.
The suit was filed by Texas Grain Storage Inc. The company now calls itself West Fertilizer Co.
In the suit, the company said that it was started in 1957 as a grain-storage business by the Plasek family in the town of West, Texas. It later built a small fertilizer-blend plant and started selling fertilizer to area farmers.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Boston Suspect Remains at Large; Lockdown is Lifted
The manhunt for the surviving suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings, which shut down a large swath of the metropolitan area for much of the day and prompted a door-to-door search, continued into the early evening on Friday.
Gov. Deval Patrick of Massachusetts said the lockdown for residents of Boston and its neighboring communities had been lifted, but he urged caution. Mass transit service has also resumed, he said.
Investigators tried to piece together a fuller picture of the man, Dzhokhar A. Tsarnaev, and his brother Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who they said were responsible for setting off the deadly marathon blasts.
| [Return to headlines] |
Boston Terrorist Had ‘Terror Links’ On YouTube
The Boston Marathon bombings suspect who was killed had a YouTube page listing links to men he identified as “terrorists”.
The Boston Marathon bombings suspect who was killed in a police shootout features a YouTube page listing links to men he identified as “terrorists” and Islamic teachers, AFP reports.
The Russian-language YouTube page of the dead suspect, identified as 26-year-old Tamerlan Tsarnaev, features various links to websites pulled by YouTube as well as to those on Islamic teachings, according to the report.
One link, called “It’s Only Sunnah,” features a nearly hour-long speech by an Islamic teacher named Shaykh Feiz Mohammed, while other links are entitled “Terrorists” and “Islam”.
Meanwhile, Tamerlan’s 19-year-old brother Dzhokhar, the other suspect in the bombings who remains at large, has a social website in Vkontakte, the Russian equivalent of Facebook, stating that he went to elementary school in the Dagestani city of Makhachkala in southern Russia between 1999 and 2001.
The site says that Dzhokhar graduated from Cambridge Ringe & Latin School in Massachusetts in 2011, identifies “Islam” as his world view, and “career and money” as his main goals in life, according to AFP.
It also lists information about Chechnya and Islam as well as different mosques around the world, and retells some jokes about the unfair treatment of Muslims in the North Caucasus.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Boston Bombing Suspect Killed, Another on the Run
Within hours of the FBI naming two culprits in the Boston bombings while aggressively demanding that no attention be focused on any other potential suspects, police found themselves engaged in a deadly shootout with the two individuals, killing one while the other remains on the run.
“Two men identified by law enforcement sources as the Boston Marathon attack suspects — armed with explosives and guns — battled authorities in a Boston suburb early Friday morning, unleashing chaos until cops took one of the men into custody, and the other fled, the sources said. Officials later said the the suspect taken into custody died,” reports NBC News.
Doctors said the suspect had “suffered extreme trauma to his trunk area” and had “a combination of blast and gunshot wounds.”
Another suspect who was later released was held at gunpoint by police and later marched naked to a squad car.
Eyewitnesses said the suspects set off grenades to try to fight off police and that they also had what looked like backpacks and a “pressure cooker bomb,” matching the explosive device used in the Marathon bombings.
The standoff erupted shortly after a Massachusetts Institute of Technology police officer was shot dead after he investigated a disturbance on campus. Some have speculated that the suspects were preparing to attack the University.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Boston Marathon Bombings & Saudi ‘Person of Interest’
In the wake of the horrific April 15 bombing at the Boston Marathon that killed three people including an 8-year-old boy, injuring over one hundred and forty, and the media frenzy that ensued, today I contacted the Saudi Embassy In Washington, DC, seeking answers regarding President Obama’s meeting with Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal, the Boston Marathon bombing, and the conflicting media reports regarding the Saudi national, Abdulrahman Ali Alharbi — initially considered a “person of interest.”
Following is our email exchange and the response I received from the White House Press Office in its entirety to my queries (available at the end). In the email, the White House press office is referring to terrorism expert Steve Emerson’s appearance on Sean Hannity’s Fox News program where Emerson claimed that the 22-year-old Saudi student was being deported on “national security grounds.”
Shortly thereafter I received a separate response from the Saudi Embassy press office. With no comment, they sent this story written by The Hill’s Julian Pecquet and Jordy Yager: Saudi student hurt in Boston bombing not a suspect, not being deported.
April 18, 2013 Email exchange:
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Suspected terrorist Dzhokhar Tsarnaev posted a chilling message on Twitter eight months ago where he wrote: ‘Boston marathon isn’t a good place to smoke tho.’
The words were written on the micro-blogging site by user @J_Tsar, named in multiple reports as an alias for the man behind Monday’s atrocity. He also tweeted about his intent to grow a beard and how he ‘wanted out’ of American life.
The messages suggested the level of forethought and planning that the 19-year-old Chechen immigrant and his older brother Tamerlan allegedly put into the devastating attack on Boston which killed three people, including at eight-year-old boy, and left 176 injured.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
CISPA is Back — Big Brother Tries Yet Again to Invade Your Online Privacy
The idea of CISPA, introduced back in November 2011, was to allow companies to share internet traffic data with the government to detect possible cyber attacks. The idea has been rejected by internet freedom advocates and over 40 civil liberty organizations.
This power grab is creating an uproar; many are fed up with being monitored and force-fed information. A controlled internet sphere would enable a select few to delegate what goes in and out of the internet, all in the name of national security. This blind adherence to security would throw away every ounce of liberty that has made the internet a great place to learn new information and spread ideas.
Information such as online chats, email content, browsing history, and bank records would all be up for grabs if this bill passes. The government’s national security network could become a government spy network that could gain legal access to anyone’s private online information.
Under the new CISPA, the government could access a person’s information from a corporation and hand it over to the National Security Agency. This could lead to a stealth war against freedom loving Americans. National security spies might begin targeting specific people they deem as threats to the status quo. They could then go after truthful journalists, those who post anti-government sentiment on their social media profiles, or those who back liberty in any online way.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
In what the FBI’s public information officer calls an “active” and “fluid” situation, hundreds of police cruisers converged on a small neighborhood in Watertown, Massachusetts after multiple bombs were reportedly detonated.
Reports indicate that the bombings came shortly after a shooting involving a police officer at MIT’s campus in Cambridge. The officer, whose name has not yet been released, was killed in the exchange.
Witnesses have also reported “round after round” of gunshots and explosions going off in Watertown.
Both locations are within 10 miles of the deadly Boston Marathon bombings.
The FBI reports that a suspect is in custody, but has not confirmed if the individual was also involved in the Boston bombing.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Congress Silent on Al Jazeera’s Expansion
After Florida broadcaster Jerry Kenney asked his member of Congress, Rep. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), to examine the strong ties between Al Jazeera and known terrorist organizations, he received a personal telephone call from the congressman promising action. But DeSantis has now told Kenney and other residents of Volusia County in his congressional district that he doesn’t plan on calling for any investigation unless the chairman of his committee wants to “spearhead it.”
A member of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs and the vice-chairman of a House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee, DeSantis told a town hall meeting sponsored by Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University that while he is “looking into” the deal and has talked to other members about it, there is no investigation underway and he would not initiate or call for one.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Deal Approved in Muslims’ Suit Against McDonald’s
DETROIT (WWJ/AP) — A judge has approved a long-awaited $700,000 settlement between a Dearborn McDonalds and people who say they ate chicken sandwiches, that should have been prepared as HALAL: the Muslim equivalent of Kosher.
Ahmed Ahmed, the Dearborn Heights man who represents plaintiffs in the class-action suit, claims he bought a chicken sandwich in September 2011 at the restaurant but found it wasn’t prepared according to Islamic law.
Islam forbids consumption of pork, and God’s name must be invoked before an animal providing meat for consumption is slaughtered.
The McDonald’s restaurant chain and one of its franchise owners agreed in January to the tentative settlement that would be shared by Ahmed, as well as a Detroit health clinic, the Arab American National Museum in Dearborn and lawyers.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Diana West: Another Terrorist Attack, Another Saudi Cover-Up?
After the FBI rescheduled another postponed briefing on the Boston Marathon Massacre for 8 p.m. on Wednesday night — and then canceled that one, too — that was it. I was going to give the news circus a rest until morning.
Came the dawn I heard that terrorism expert Steven Emerson had dropped a bombshell Wednesday night on Sean Hannity’s Fox News program. Emerson reported that Abdulrahman Ali Alharbi, the Saudi national first identified as a “person of interest” and then downgraded, like a tropical storm, to “witness,” would be deported from the United States “on national security grounds.” This, Emerson added, “is very unusual.”
Yes. But also no. Amid similar conditions — a terrorist attack, an ongoing investigation and Saudi diplomatic pressure — we have seen Saudi nationals spirited out of the country en masse in the past rather than be exposed to any part of an investigative process.
I refer, of course, to the immediate aftermath of Sept. 11, 2001, when, following a private meeting on Sept. 13 between President George W. Bush and Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the Saudi ambassador to Washington, “something strange began to happen,” as former Florida Sen. Bob Graham writes in his 2004 book “Intelligence Matters.” (As Senate Intelligence committee chairman, Graham co-chaired the Congressional Joint Inquiry into 9/11.)…
| — Hat tip: Diana West | [Return to headlines] |
Dorothy Lu Lingzi’s Dreams End at the Boston Marathon
After graduating in Beijing, she had arrived in Boston last September. Together with two other friends, she had gone to see the marathon. Lu died, one of her friends was badly injured, and the third was unharmed.
Hong Kong (AsiaNews/Agencies) — The authorities announced that one of the people killed at Monday’s Boston Marathon bombings was from China, Dorothy Lu Lingzi, a brilliant rising mathematician, who only arrived in the United States last year hoping to graduate in statistics from Boston University and land a job as a financial analyst. Her dream ended on the day of the race when she and two other students, Zhou Danling and Qian Tingting, went to watch the event. Lu was killed; Zhou was injured and is in the hospital, undergoing surgery; the third, Qian, was miraculously unharmed.
Friends and teachers remember Lu as a bright and lively young student, with leadership skills. On the morning of the marathon, she had posted a photograph on the Chinese social-media site Weibo of her meal of bread and vegetables in a ceramic bowl, calling it “my wonderful breakfast” (pictured). On her Facebook profile, she said she loved very much the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
Lu went to school in Shenyang (Liaoning), and then earned a degree in economics and international trade at Beijing Institute of Technology.
In 2010, she went to the University of California at Riverside for three months to boost her chances of getting a place in a graduate programme.
Last September, she was able to get into Boston University for a master in mathematics and statistics. She was one course short before completing her statistics programme.
Chinese students at Boston University were in front of the Marsh Chapel yesterday, gathering signatures and condolences from other students on a card to send to Lu’s family.
Theology student Meghan Nelson left a pair of running shoes, flowers and a university key chain in front of a memorial to Martin Luther King as a tribute to the killed student.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Father of Boston Suspects: US Security Services Set Up My Sons
The father of the two suspects in the Boston bombing, Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, has told Russian and Western media that he believes his sons have been framed by US intelligence.
A report from the Russian agency Interfax says that a correspondent spoke with Anzor Tsarnaev, who resides in the southern Russian republic of Dagestan.
– From the Interfax report:
“I learned about the incident from TV. My opinion is: the special services have framed my children, because they are practicing Muslims. Why did they kill Tamerlan? He was supposed to be caught alive. The younger is on the run now. He was a sophomore at a medical school in the U.S. We expected him to come home for vacation. Now I don’t know what’s going to happen. Tell you once again: I believe special services have framed my children.”
Reports on Twitter also claim that Anzor has said that “all hell will break loose,” if his remaining son, who is currently on the run in a suburb of Boston, is killed.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
FBI Tells America: Believe us and No One Else
The implication is clear: there is official truth and then there is everything else. How many times has that assertion put America in the dumper?
As I write this, one suspect in the Marathon bombings is dead, and the other suspect is apparently surrounded in a house in Watertown, Massachsetts. (6:55AM, Pacific) The city of Boston is locked down.
Once events reach this point, an overwhelming number of people believe the authorities. They accept what is happening. The FBI must have it right. Reject all other possibilities.
That’s always a dangerous assumption.
Yesterday, at a heralded press conference, seen by millions around the world, Richard DesLauriers, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Boston division, produced photos and video of two suspects in the Marathon bombing.
He stated: “…these images should be the only ones, I emphasize, the only ones that the public should view to assist us. Other photos should not be deemed credible, and they unnecessarily divert the public’s attention in the wrong direction, and create undo work for vital law-enforcement resources.”
Translation: Ignore all the images uncovered by independent researchers, citizen reporters, bloggers. Forget, for example, about photos of those men who appear to work for Craft International, a private security contractor, who were standing at the finish line of the Marathon. We, the FBI, are running this show. We’re the pros, we deal, you behave.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
First Neighbouring Planets That Are Both Life-Friendly
Twelve hundred light years away, two warmish Earth-size planets are circling the same dim red star. Travelling in adjacent orbits, both worlds may be covered in liquid water, making this the first known solar system outside our own to have more than one life-friendly planet.
Though there’s a huge distinction between being life-friendly and actually hosting life, the existence of side-by-side habitable worlds raises the possibility of aliens who are one step ahead of earthlings and have already discovered life outside their own planet.
“These are very exciting planets,” says Lisa Kaltenegger of Harvard University, who works on the team behind the NASA Kepler space telescope used to discover them. Together with other Kepler scientists, she announced the discoveries at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California today.
Known as Kepler 62e and Kepler 62f, the worlds are both about 11/2 times the size of Earth, which means they are most likely rocky. Two Earth diameters is the cut-off below which planets should be solid, says Kaltenegger. Larger than that and planets may be mini-Neptunes — small, gaseous worlds with no defined solid surface.
The Kepler team, who use dips in starlight to deduce the presence of planets passing in front of stars, actually saw five planets — b, c, d, e and f — around the star in question, Kepler 62. But only e and f orbit in the habitable zone (see image), the region where temperatures should be neither too hot nor too cold, but just right for liquid water to exist.
So could there be life on both planets, maybe even of the intelligent variety? It’s too early to say, but there is certainly a chance, according to Kaltenegger. “You’ve got two solid planets in the habitable zone of their star. We don’t know if life evolves everywhere, but if it does, these two planets provide great candidates for life,” she says.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Gun Control’s Fact-Free Crusaders
Have the media outlets that you follow ever even mentioned that some studies have produced evidence that murder rates tend to be higher in places with tight gun control laws?
The dirty little secret is that gun control laws do not actually control guns. They disarm law-abiding citizens, making them more vulnerable to criminals, who remain armed in disregard of such laws.
In England, armed crimes skyrocketed as legal gun ownership almost vanished under increasingly severe gun control laws in the late 20th century. (See the book “Guns and Violence” by Joyce Lee Malcolm). But gun control has become one of those fact-free crusades, based on assumptions, emotions, and rhetoric.
What almost no one talks about is that guns are used to defend lives as well as to take lives.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
‘I Don’t Understand Them, ‘ Bombing Suspect Said of Americans
The brothers behind Monday’s deadly bombing at the Boston Marathon are believed to have come to the U.S. from Chechnya as long as a decade ago, but apparently never fit in with the American culture.
“I don’t have a single American friend, I don’t understand them,” the older brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who was killed in a shootout with police hours after the pair was identified as suspects, told a photographer in 2009.
What drove him and his brother, Dzhokhar A. Tsarnaev, 19, who lived with him in Cambridge, Mass., to perpetrate the deadly attack — which killed three people and injured 176 others — is not clear. They are believed to be Muslim and to have had military training overseas. But the older brother, who was 26, also worked out in a gym and dreamed of making the U.S. Olympic boxing team, according to an online photojournalism slideshow that chronicled his training.
The journalist who created the project, Johannes Hirn, could not be reached for comment. But one caption in his account described the family’s odyssey to America.
“Tamerlan fled Chechnya with his family because of the conflict in the early 90s, and lived there for years in Kazakhstan before getting to the United States as a refugee,” read the caption.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Media Flips ‘Confirmed’ Boston Suspect From Sunil Tripathi to Dzhokar Tsarnaev
Early this morning, IB Times and Russia Today had ‘confirmed’ with Boston Police that the Boston Marathon suspect still evading police was indeed Sunil Tripathi. Now, in a 180 move, the suspect has changed to Dzhokar A. Tsarnaev based on a new AP report.
It seems the media cannot stick with a suspect, pinning the Russian native and follower of Islam as the new ‘confirmed suspect’ hours after claiming that Boston Police had detailed the missing Sunil Tripathi as the suspect to CBS news. It was originally reported early this morning by the International Business Times:
“Boston police on Friday revealed the names of two suspects in the Boston Marathon bombing, one of whom is an Indian origin person, Sunil Tripathi, reported CBS-affiliated television station WFSB.”
Sunil Tripathi had gone missing last month and was reportedly ‘depressed’ and left a suicidal note behind before leaving his Philadelphia apartment. Aside from looking very similar to the suspect in the FBI photos, Sunil Tripathi’s troubled history painted the very picture of a bomber. You can see the similarities in the photo below:
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Obama’s Futile Tantrum Over Gun Bill
During his 2008 presidential campaign, Barack Obama ran as a great uniter. “I don’t think there is anybody in this race who’s able to bring new people into the process and break out of some of the ideological gridlock that we have as effectively as I can,” he said at the time.
Yet after his party’s resounding defeat on gun control legislation, the president may have pulled the final piece away from a facade that has been crumbling for quite some time. In his Rose Garden speech Wednesday, unity, above all else, was the most obvious casualty.
“Families that know unspeakable grief summoned the courage to petition their elected leaders — not just to honor the memory of their children, but to protect the lives of all our children,” said Obama. “And a few minutes ago, a minority in the United States Senate decided it wasn’t worth it. They blocked common-sense gun reforms even while these families looked on from the Senate gallery.”
What the president fails to mention is that “these families,” relatives of the Newtown victims, were in the gallery because he flew them down from Connecticut aboard Air Force One, precisely for the purpose of using them as props to persuade senators to vote for the bill. Yet the president angrily denied that reality. “I’ve heard folks say that having the families of victims lobby for this legislation was somehow misplaced,” he fumed. “‘A prop’, somebody called them. ‘Emotional blackmail’, some outlet said. Are they serious? Do we really think that thousands of families whose lives have been shattered by gun violence don’t have a right to weigh in on this issue? Do we think their emotions, their loss is not relevant to this debate?”
Relevancy is a two-sided coin, and the president sidesteps an obvious reality: are people whose lives have been shattered by gun violence the only ones with the moral authority to weigh in on the debate?
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
One Suspect in Boston Bombing is Dead, Second is at Large, Police Say
One of the two suspects wanted in Monday’s deadly Boston marathon bombing was killed in a dramatic standoff with police officers in Watertown, Mass. A manhunt was under way for the second suspect, the police said.
Using guns and explosives, the two men engaged in a violent standoff with dozens of police officers Thursday night, the police and residents said. The showdown came after the fatal shooting of a campus police officer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The suspect at large had been identified earlier in the day by F.B.I. officials as suspect No. 2, pictured in photos distributed by the agency wearing a white hat.
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Photo Surfaces of ‘The Craft’ Mobile Communications Van at Boston Marathon
A detailed, hi-res photo of more “The Craft” operatives and what appears to be their mobile communications van has just surfaced. “The Craft” is a group of private military operatives who have been revealed through a fast-growing number of photos published by Natural News and Info Wars.
The mainstream media is engaged in a total blackout and refuses to run any photos of “The Craft” operatives. This story is quickly becoming the biggest media cover-up in history.
Natural News was the first to identify the brand of the radiation detector being held in the hand of one “Craft” operatives. Now, we appear to be the first to run this photo of what looks to be an extremely high-end mobile communications van with seven more “Craft” operatives.
The van clearly has a foldable satellite dish as well as what is possibly a microwave communications dome. The vehicle is a Chevy Escalade that has been outfitted with hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of roof racks and communications equipment.
Note: We can’t be 100% certain this vehicle belongs to The Craft team, but it fits their M.O. While all the other emergency vehicles on the scene are clearly marked, this vehicle is unmarked. The proximity of The Craft members to the van is also an indication that this vehicle may be a “rally point.”
Here’s the image:
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Sunil Tripathi: 4Chan Beats Out FBI, News Media in Identifying Boston Bombing Suspect
As news reports come in identifying FBI Boston Marathon bombing suspect as missing student Sunil Tripathi, it becomes clear that major community-driven internet boards like 4Chan are actually light years ahead of the mainstream media.
The Politically Incorrect (/pol/) board on 4Chan has generated a large number of on-target Boston Marathon images that have now gone mega viral and ignited new-found questions regarding the event at large. Mixed with eyewitness accounts of bomb drills/training exercises and the apparent presence of private military firm Craft International, the quest to push these into the mainstream media is now larger and more successful than ever.
But perhaps even more compelling than some of the images generated from /pol/ and its thousands of users, is the fact that posters rapidly identified the FBI Boston Marathon bombing suspect in a matter of hours after the FBI released the photos online. Reports have now detailed police transmissions listing Sunil Tripathi as the suspect in the photos…
Now, let’s see how the media spins Sunil Tripathi into a gun-loving lunatic in order to push the anti-gun agenda. It reminds me of another interesting post from 4Chan [on April 15th by Anonymous] that was originally scoffed at (click for full size): [Portion of text quoted below]
“ WARNING: Laws being written to screw you. I work on a security commission and I’ve just received word to start campaigning on a campaign we’ve been working on for the last two months and now it all makes sense.
I’ll keep it as short as I can.
They’re going to pin this event on a male late teens to early 20s and say he did it because he’s unstable. They are going to find firearms and an NRA book in his home. They are going to say he used reloading powder for the explosion and that reloading powder shouldn’t be for sale to the public. They are then going to say that because the powder in ammunition can be used for explosions that the number of rounds you can buy should be limited and taxed to help pay for these events.
I can’t do anything or I’ll lose my job and possibly face criminal charges. Please don’t let them get away with it. They won’t find the suspect til later this week and the raid is issued to occur on Friday. This was a staged event. The people are real but the event was planned. Don’t let them hurt our rights.“
[Screenshot:
cdn.storyleak.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Boston-marathon-prediction.png
of this quoted post shows that this was posted on Monday, April 15, 2013]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Chechen has been described by friends as a ‘careful and jovial’ medical student, who has lived in the U.S since 2003 and partied ‘like a normal American kid’, painting a conflict picture of the emergence of a man now wanted for terror.
It appears he became increasingly radicalized by his older brother Tamerlan, with whom he is said to have carried out the deadly terror attack — killing three and injuring more than 180.
The twitter account also portrays these two contrasting pictures.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Total Media Blackout Now Under Way on Most Likely Suspects in Boston Marathon Bombing
(NaturalNews) In a story that’s almost as explosive as the actual bombing itself, the mainstream media is waging a total media blackout on the photos of “The Craft” private military operatives who were present at the Boston marathon bombing.
NaturalNews.com and InfoWars.com have published a multitude of photos which absolutely prove that numerous members of “The Craft” private military contractors were actively engaged in operations at the finish line of the marathon.
This is photographic proof. In real police work, it’s called “evidence.” But astonishingly, there is not a single mention of “The Craft” in any mainstream media outlet: not NYT, not Washington Post, not LA Times, etc. Not a single word.
This is quickly becoming the biggest media cover-up of all time.
The FBI is also deeply engaged in the cover-up, selectively choosing the publicize photos of the patsies who are scripted to take the fall.
As part of its cover-up, the FBI has announced “other photos will not be deemed credible.”
Huh? The only photos that count are the ones you say count? How is that an “investigation?”
So even though we have a multitude of photos now showing at least ten men wearing combat uniforms, black backpacks and tactical gear, the FBI has no interest in these people! Even though we have already proven through photographic evidence that one of them is carrying a radiation detector and that nearly all of them are carrying black backpacks.
Dan Bidondi, an Infowars.com reporter based on the East Coast, attempted to show photos of “The Craft” operatives during a public press conference and was immediately censored by government agents holding up clipboards to block his photos.
Incredible! No photos from the event that are not selected by the FBI are allowed to be shown!
Click here to watch the video report.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
British police forces will be forced to hand sensitive details of criminal investigations to Brussels or risk a massive fine.
In a controversial move, the European Union’s crime intelligence agency would be allowed to demand access to private police files.
Europol could insist chief constables disclose evidence from criminal cases, witness statements, DNA samples, fingerprints and other data.
The UK would not be able to block a request — even if it harmed national security or jeopardised an ongoing investigation.
It raises the prospect of corrupt or incompetent police officers or officials in other countries allowing compromising information to fall into the hands of criminals.
The proposal would also put huge operational strain on forces as they would be ordered to divert resources from tackling crime to information-gathering for Brussels.
If the UK refused to comply, it could be hit with a £220million-a-year fine.
Concerned critics warned the move, which would cost £62million a year, was a step nearer a single European criminal justice system.
Tory MP Dominic Raab said: ‘This plan lays bare the federalist ambition of moving towards a single European criminal justice system, shorn of proper national democratic control.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Franco Fiorito to Pay Lazio Region 1.09 Million Euros
Ex-Lazio PdL leader granted fast-track trial
(ANSA) — Rome, April 18 — Disgraced centre-right politician Franco Fiorito will return 1.09 million euros to the Lazio regional government, his lawyer announced on Thursday.
The former Lazio caucus leader of ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi’s People of Freedom (PdL) party is suspected of embezzling 1.4 million euros in party funding.
“Today we have defined with the Audit Court the full compensation which amounts to one million and ninety thousand euros,” said Fiorito’s defense attorney Carlo Taormina.
The presiding judge at his preliminary hearing on Thursday approved Fiorito’s request for a fast-track trial, which allows for sentence reductions in case of conviction. Fiorito and two ex-secretaries, Bruno Galassi and Pierluigi Boschi, were indicted for conspiracy at the hearing.
The scandal sparked by the alleged misappropriation of funds by Fiorito and others led to the resignation of the PdL governor of Lazio, Renata Polverini, late last year.
She was replaced in recent elections by Nicola Zingaretti of the centre-left Democratic Party.
The court denied the defence’s request to put Polverini on the stand as well as a previous ex-governor of Lazio, Francesco Storace, and Lazio Regional Council Speaker Mario Abbruzzese. The judge on Thursday did, however, grant the defense’s request to have three Lazio regional officials testify on how the party compensation system worked. They are scheduled to be heard on Monday, April 22.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Centre Left’s Divisions Aired by President-Vote Shock
Renzi rebels not only ones to vote against Marini
(By Paul Virgo) (see related stories) (ANSA) — Rome, April 18 — The Italian centre left’s divisions were embarrassingly exposed on Thursday when the Democratic Party’s (PD) candidate did not prevail in the first ballot to elect the new president after an internal rebellion.
Senate Speaker Franco Marini failed to win the two-thirds majority needed in the first round, even though ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi’s centre-right People of Freedom (PdL) party and other parties were also backing him.
PD leader Pier Luigi Bersani selected Marini, a member of the Catholic wing of his party, in the hope that he could win broad cross-party support after talks with Berlusconi.
Instead, Marini obtained 521 votes in the first ballot, well short of the magic number of 672, with many PD lawmakers coming out against an 80-year-old seen by some as a representative of Italy’s tired old political class.
The outcome is set to increase the pressure on Bersani, who was already under fire over his handling of Italy’s political deadlock since February’s general election.
His centre-left alliance came first in the election but failed to win a working majority in the Senate after he conducted a colourless campaign.
Italy still has no government as Bersani failed in a bid to reach out to the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S), which holds the balance of power in the Senate. He has refused to consider forming a broad coalition government with the PdL, while at the same time rejecting calls for another vote, saying that this would be equally inconclusive under the current election law. His most vocal critic has been Florence Mayor Matteo Renzi, the rising star of the PD who came second to him in the primary to select the centre left’s premier candidate.
Renzi announced Wednesday that the 50-odd parliamentarians loyal to him would not vote for Marini, saying electing him would be like playing a “prank” on the nation. He pointed out that Marini failed to win re-election to parliament in February.
But the rebellion against Marini went beyond Renzi’s supporters in the party.
“I didn’t vote for Marini. I was undecided about whether to cast a blank paper or vote for (M5S candidate Stefano) Rodota’,” said PD Senator Laura Puppato, who also ran in the primary.
“In the end I voted for Rodota’,” she added, saying she was confused about why Bersani had failed to move after M5S leader Beppe Grillo hinted he would soften his line on a government pact if the PD voted for his movement’s presidential candidate.
“Bersani had done extraordinary things until yesterday. Then he turned towards the open sea just as he was about to enter the port”. Former centre-left leader Walter Veltroni said Bersani should now drop Marini and try to find another candidate.
“The result of the vote for the president is so clear that it would be a big mistake to insist in going down this road,” Veltroni told ANSA. “The Democratic Party should offer a name or a limited list of names of people who don’t belong to a political party and are esteemed and competent, like (1999-2006 President Carlo Azeglio) Ciampi”. Thursday’s second ballot is likely to be inconclusive as the PD has told its electors to cast blank papers and the PdL was expected to do the same.
It is not clear whether the PD has done so to have a pause for thought or whether it is simply a tactic to effectively put things on hold in the second and third votes with the intention of proposing Marini again in the fourth ballot, when a simple majority of 504 will suffice.
“I suffered great unease in the first ballot as I was torn between a responsibility to the party leader and awareness of how people outside the world of politics felt,” said Simonetta Rubinato, a PD MP from Veneto. “In the end I decided to cast a blank paper in order to not be an accomplice in a decision that was rightly seen as being submissive to the will of Berlusconi”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Centre Left Choose Prodi as Presidential Candidate
PD move to regain unity angers Berlusconi’s party
(ANSA) — Rome, April 19 — Italy’s centre left tried to bury its internal rifts Friday when the Democratic Party (PD) chose former European Commission president and twice Italian premier Romano Prodi to be its new presidential candidate.
But the move has infuriated Silvio Berlusconi’s centre-right People of Freedom (PdL) party.
The head of state represents national unity and usually a figure capable of winning broad cross-party party support is sought for the role. However, Prodi, a 73-year-old former economics professor, is seen as the nemesis of three-time premier Berlusconi after defeating him at the helm of centre-left alliances in elections in 1996 and 2006. “Prodi is an option that divides us. This is the opposite of what Italy needs,” said PdL Senator Maurizio Gasparri. In the first ballot to elect the new head of state on Thursday the PdL backed former Senate Speaker Franco Marini, who had been proposed by the PD. But Marini failed to prevail after an internal PD revolt so centre-left leader Pier Luigi Bersani dropped him on Friday and proposed Prodi.
Many saw 80-year-old Marini, a member of the Catholic wing of the party, as a representative of Italy’s discredited old political class. Others in the party were unhappy at the “method” used to select Marini. Bersani consulted Berlusconi before proposing him and some suggested there had been a “shady deal” which saw the ex-premier’s People of Freedom (PdL) party backing Marini. “The PD reached an agreement with us over Marini that it could not honour, or did not want to honour,” said Fabrizio Cicchitto, the PdL’s former House whip. “It’s clear that by choosing Prodi they’ve caused a rift”.
The PD and the PdL both told their lawmakers and representatives of regional governments to cast blank papers in the two inconclusive votes in the two ballots that followed Marini’s failure.
Bersani will be hoping Prodi will be elected President Giorgio Napolitano’s successor in the fourth ballot later on Friday, when a simple majority of 504 is needed rather than two-thirds of the 1,007 electors. The decision to drop Marini is seen as a major victory for the PD’s rising star, Florence Mayor Matteo Renzi, whose loyalists led the revolt.
Renzi, a 38-year-old who has been compared to Tony Blair and came second to Bersani in December’s premier-candidate primaries, has also blasted the party leader for his handling of Italy’s political impasse after the centre left came first in February’s election but failed to win a working majority in the Senate Bersani, meanwhile, called on the PD to rediscover its unity after opting for Prodi.
“Now we have to regain the profile, unity and autonomy of our party and our coalition,” Bersani told a meeting of the PD Upper and Lower House lawmakers and regional representatives who are taking part in the election of the next head of state. “Prodi gives value to our coalition and he speaks to our nation,” said Bersani.
The decision to bank on Prodi may not suffice to heal the party’s internal rifts though as his bid could also be scuppered by PD members not voting for him too. Several lawmakers close to Marini are said to be upset at him being dropped, ANSA sources said. A number of parliamentarians loyal to former premier Massimo D’Alema are irked too. They are said to be unhappy that Bersani only presented Prodi to the party as a possible alternative to Marini rather than giving a shortlist of options, including D’Alema. On a positive note for Bersani, Puglia Governor Nichi Vendola, the leader of the leftwing SEL that was allied with the PD in February’s inconclusive general election, has reportedly said he is willing to back Prodi. In the first ballot, SEL voted for Constitutional lawyer Stefano Rodota’, the candidate of the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement. The M5S has said it will continue voting for Rodota’, who was selected following an online vote after making a shortlist that also included former European Commission president Prodi.
This led to speculation that the movement led by comedian-turned-politician Beppe Grillo might drop their man and adopt Prodi as their candidate. But the M5S lawmakers voted to stick with Rodota’ at a meeting on Friday.
Grillo also emphatically ruled out the possibility of M5S lawmakers switching support to Prodi. “No one in the M5S has ever dreamed of voting for Prodi and they won’t dream of it in the future either,” Grillo told a rally. “Our president is Rodota’“. Rodota’ is an ex-Communist who was the inaugural chairman of the first heir to Italy’s once-strong Communist Party in 1990.
Rodota’, also a former head of the national privacy watchdog, is seen as more divisive than Prodi for the PD, which is trying to heal the deep rifts exposed by the failure of Marini. The PdL is considering adopting Interior Minister Anna Maria Cancellieri as its candidate after speaking to outgoing Premier Mario Monti’s Civic Choice party. Cancellieri is one of the unelected technocrats that have served in Monti’s emergency administration since November 2011.
The next president will have to decide whether to try to form a government from the hung parliament that emerged from February’s general election or call a snap vote.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Grillo Asks Bersani Why Won’t Back Rodota’
‘Too popular, incorruptible” demands anti-establishment comic
(ANSA) — Rome, April 19 — Anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S) leader Beppe Grillo on Friday asked Democratic Party (PD) chief Pier Luigi Bersani why he would not switch his support from PD candidate Romano Prodi to the M5S’s man, Stefano Rodota’, in Italy’s presidential election.
Comedian-tuned politician Grillo, who has the balance of power in a hung parliament where the PD holds the House but not the equally powerful Senate, said on his blog that Constitutional lawyer Rodota’ was a left-winger who polls say enjoys big popular support.
“I can’t get my head round why (Bersani’s) party won’t vote for Rodota’. Is he too intellectual? Too independent? Too honest? Too popular…Too incorruptible?, Grillo said. “I’d like an answer from Bersani”.
The PD voted Friday to propose ex-premier and former European Commission chief Romano Prodi as its candidate, despite widespread grass-roots calls for Rodota’.
Rodota’, who was chairman of the first heir to Italy’s once-powerful Communist Party, is seen as potentially more divisive than Prodi, a former Christian Democrat who twice defeated the left’s nemesis, three-time premier Silvio Berlusconi.
On paper the PD and allies are four votes short of the 504 votes needed to elect Prodi in Friday afternoon’s fourth ballot.
But the ex-premier’s bid may be scuppered by unhappy backers of the PD’s first candidate, ex-Senate Speaker Franco Marini, whose bid failed Thursday, as well as supporters of other party heavyweights like ex-premier Massimo D’Alema.
The voting could go into the weekend.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Centre-Right Coalition Leads Opinion Poll
Centre-left PD most popular single party
(ANSA) — Rome, April 19 — The centre right led by ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi’s People of Freedom (PdL) party is the most popular coalition in Italy with 33.8% of the vote, the SWG polling agency said Friday.
The formation was polling 33.8%, up 0.4% over April 12.
This compared to the 31% registered by the centre left, a 0.3% increase over the previous week.
However the Democratic Party (PD) of centre-left leader Pier Luigi Bersani came in as the most popular single party, polling 27% compared to the PdL’s 26.8%.
Last week their positions were reversed, with the PdL polling 26.9% and the PD 26.8%. The anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (5SM) of ex comic Beppe Grillo trailed slightly in third place at 24%, the same as last week.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Berlusconi Says PD Violated Agreement With Prodi Candidacy
Marini’s rejection blasted by ex-premier and PdL leader
(ANSA) — Rome, April 19 — Ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi blasted the Democratic Party (PD) on Friday, saying that it had violated an agreement by shelving Senate Speaker Franco Marini as the party’s presidential candidate.
People of Freedom Party (PdL) leader Berlusconi said that the PD had “gone back on their word”.
Earlier on Friday the PD tagged former European Commission president and twice Italian premier Romano Prodi to be its new presidential candidate after Marini, the PD’s first candidate, failed to prevail in the first two presidential ballots on Thursday because of an internal party rift. Bersani consulted Berlusconi before proposing Marini and some suggested there had been a “shady deal” which saw the ex-premier’s PdL party backing Marini, an 80-year-old member of the Catholic wing of the PD.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Mussolini Sports ‘The Devil Wears Prodi’ Shirt to Vote
Center left boos conservative MP during presidential ballot
(ANSA) — Rome, April 19 — Alessandra Mussolini, the conservative MP and granddaughter of Benito Mussolini, sparked boos and hisses from the center left when she wore a shirt mocking former premier and presidential candidate Romano Prodi during a vote in parliament Friday. “The devil wears Prodi,” read the shirt that Mussolini wore as she entered the floor. Democratic Party (PD) leader Pier Luigi Bersani proposed former European Commission president Prodi after the PD’s first candidate, ex-Senate Speaker Franco Marini, failed to prevail in the first presidential ballot on Thursday because of an internal party rift. Marini had been the consensus candidate of both the center left and center right, and former premier Silvio Berlusconi of the conservative People of Freedom (PdL) party called the PD traitors for the volte-face. Prodi has long been ruled out by Berlusconi, who was twice beaten by his political nemesis in elections.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Prodi Fails in Bid to Unite PD
Fifth vote for president Saturday morning
(ANSA) — Rome, April 19 — Two-time centre-left premier and ex-European Commission chief Romano Prodi failed to be elected Italian president in the fourth ballot Friday. Prodi apparently fell short of reuniting the centre-left Democratic Party after rifts in earlier ballots.
With 395 votes, Prodi did not reach the 504 needed to win a simple majority of the 1,007 total votes in the parliament and from regional electors. A fifth vote will take place Saturday morning. Italy’s centre left tried to bury its internal rifts when the Democratic Party (PD) chose Prodi to be its new presidential candidate earlier Friday.
But the move infuriated Silvio Berlusconi’s centre-right People of Freedom (PdL) party.
The head of state represents national unity, and usually a figure capable of winning broad cross-party party support is sought for the role.
However, Prodi, a 73-year-old former economics professor, is seen as the nemesis of three-time premier Berlusconi after defeating him at the helm of centre-left alliances in elections in 1996 and 2006. “Prodi is an option that divides us. This is the opposite of what Italy needs,” said PdL Senator Maurizio Gasparri. In the first ballot to elect the new head of state on Thursday the PdL backed former Senate Speaker Franco Marini, who had been proposed by the PD. But Marini failed to prevail after an internal PD revolt so centre-left leader Pier Luigi Bersani dropped him on Friday and proposed Prodi, to the ire of Berlusconi who accused the PD of betrayal. The decision to drop Marini is seen as a major victory for the PD’s rising star, Florence Mayor Matteo Renzi, whose loyalists led the revolt.
Renzi, a 38-year-old who has been compared to Tony Blair and came second to Bersani in December’s premier-candidate primaries, has also blasted the party leader for his handling of Italy’s political impasse after the centre left came first in February’s election but failed to win a working majority in the Senate Bersani, meanwhile, called on the PD to rediscover its unity after opting for Prodi.
“Now we have to regain the profile, unity and autonomy of our party and our coalition,” Bersani told a meeting of the PD Upper and Lower House lawmakers and regional representatives taking part in the election of the next head of state. “Prodi gives value to our coalition and he speaks to our nation,” said Bersani.
But in the first vote with Prodi on the ballot, the ex-premier came up short in healing the party’s internal rifts, as several lawmakers close to Marini are said to be upset at him being dropped, ANSA sources said. A number of parliamentarians loyal to former premier Massimo D’Alema are irked too. They are said to be unhappy that Bersani only presented Prodi to the party as a possible alternative to Marini rather than giving a shortlist of options, including D’Alema.
On a positive note for Bersani, Puglia Governor Nichi Vendola, the leader of the leftwing SEL that was allied with the PD in February’s inconclusive general election, said he was willing to back Prodi. In the first ballot, SEL voted for Constitutional lawyer Stefano Rodota’, the candidate of the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement. The M5S has said it will continue voting for Rodota’, who was selected following an online vote after making a shortlist that also included former European Commission president Prodi.
This led to speculation that the movement led by comedian-turned-politician Beppe Grillo might drop their man and adopt Prodi as their candidate. But the M5S lawmakers voted to stick with Rodota’ at a meeting on Friday.
Grillo also emphatically ruled out the possibility of M5S lawmakers switching support to Prodi. “No one in the M5S has ever dreamed of voting for Prodi and they won’t dream of it in the future either,” Grillo told a rally.
“Our president is Rodota’“. Rodota’ is an ex-Communist who was the inaugural chairman of the first heir to Italy’s once-strong Communist Party in 1990.
On Friday Grillo once again suggested that the PD supporting Rodota’ could lead to a truce with M5S that might break the deadlock. “It would open up prairies” for the government, said Grillo.
But Rodota’, also a former head of the national privacy watchdog, is seen as more divisive than Prodi for the PD, which is trying to heal the deep rifts exposed by the failure of Marini.
The PdL is considering adopting Interior Minister Anna Maria Cancellieri as its candidate after speaking to outgoing Premier Mario Monti’s Civic Choice party.
Cancellieri is one of the unelected technocrats that have served in Monti’s emergency administration since November 2011.
The next president will have to decide whether to try to form a government from the hung parliament that emerged from February’s general election or call a snap vote.
Unlike outgoing Napolitano, dissolving parliament was not an option as his seven-year term was about to run out, ruling out a snap vote according to constitutional law.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: ‘Prodi’s Candidacy Over’ Says Renzi
Florence mayor reflects after ex-premier comes up short
(see related) (ANSA) — Florence, April 19 — Florence Mayor and rising star in the center left Matteo Renzi said “the candidacy of Romano Prodi is over” after the two-time premier and ex-European Commission chief failed to be elected Italian president in the fourth ballot Friday.
A fifth round of voting will take place Saturday morning.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Mussolini Kin Sports ‘Devil Wears Prada’ T-Shirt to Protest Prodi Nomination for President
Rome, 19 April (AKI) — Alessandra Mussolini, a conservative MP and granddaughter of wartime dictator Benito Mussolini, entered the floor of the Italian parliament on Friday wearing a ‘Devil Wears Prada’ T-shirt to mock Romano Prodi, the centre-left’s candidate for head of state.
Fifty-year-old Mussolini paraded the T-shirt in front of the speakers of the lower and upper houses of parliament as they oversaw the fourth round of the presidential ballot before she was removed from the chamber to cheers from most lawmakers.
‘The Devil Wears Prada’ was a hit 2006 send-up of the New York fashion scene starring Anne Hathaway and Meryl Streep, loosely adapted from Lauren Weisberger’s best-selling novel of the same name.
Prodi, a former European Commission president was proposed by Democratic Party leader Pier Luigi Bersani after his party’s first candidate, ex-Senate Speaker and veteran Catholic trade union leader Franco Marini, failed to win in the round of presidential voting on Thursday after a rebellion by about 200 Democrats.
Former premier Silvio Berlusconi and his People of Freedom party’s centre-right bloc, to which Mussolini belongs, had supported Marini as candidate head of state and decried the Democrat Party as ‘traitors’ for failing to elect him.
Prodi is Berlusconi’s arch-enemy, having beaten him in two elections (1996 and 2006).
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Stonehenge Occupied 5,000 Years Earlier Than Thought
An excavation funded with redundancy money shows Stonehenge was a settlement 3,000 years before it was built.
The archaeological dig, a mile from the stones, has revealed that people have occupied the area since 7,500BC.
The findings, uncovered by volunteers on a shoestring budget, are 5,000 years earlier than previously thought.
Dr Josh Pollard, from Southampton University, said the team had “found the community who put the first monument up at Stonehenge”.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Anarchists Target Church With Explosive Dildos
A group of Spanish anarchists have owned up to mailing explosive dildos to high profile Catholic targets including the Archbishop of Pamplona and the headmaster of an elite religious school.
Two small anarchist cells have been linked to the explosive mail, Spanish news agency EFE reported on Friday.
Jointly known as ‘El Club de Artesanos del Café’ (the Coffee Craftsmen Group), the collective released a statement on March 1st in which they owned up to the shipment of explosive dildos to Pamplona’s archbishop
Archbishop Francisco Pérez told EFE he called Spanish police after he received a “weird package” that contained some form of powder.
“We didn’t give it any importance but we later found out it was a bomb”, Pérez told EFE.
The anarchist collective also owned up to sending another explosive sex toy to the headmaster of Legionnaires of Christ school.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
[WARNING: ** Disturbing Content **]
A schoolboy killed himself after listening to death metal on his iPod, an inquest has heard.
Truman Edley, who was just 15 at the time of his death, hanged himself in the hallway of the family home in Rotherham after he had been listening to the violent music.
A coroner refused to name the band he was listening to or publish the extreme lyrics which formed part of the evidence at the inquest in Rotherham.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Did Jimmy Savile Abuse 1,350 Victims… Treble the Number Who Have Come Forward So Far?
[WARNING: ** Disturbing Content **]
Jimmy Savile could have sexually abused up to 1,350 victims, treble the number who have come forward so far, the police officer that exposed him said today.
Operation Yewtree, which is looking into allegations of sex crimes against the former DJ and presenter, as well as a host of other celebrities, has recorded 450 complaints against him.
But former Metropolitan Police Commissioner Peter Spindler, who led Yewtree until earlier this year, told an NSPCC conference that as well as those who came forward there were ‘probably double, treble who haven’t’.
The report by Scotland Yard and the NSPCC, released in January, found that Savile’s reign of sexual abuse spanned 54 years.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Yesterday’s BBC Radio 4 Today programme informed us that Brighton’s local public health agency may introduce what is euphemistically called a drug ‘safe consumption room’, otherwise known as a ‘shooting gallery’.
The purpose of such places is to enable addicts to ‘shoot up’ on heroin and crack cocaine under supervision, without fear of prosecution.
Brighton has one of the highest drug-related death rates in the UK, and is where more than one in four has used drugs — double the national average. Now it is being invited by a self-described ‘independent drug commission’ to consider becoming the first British city to open such a shooting gallery.
The commission claims this would reduce drug-related harm.
But this could not be more wrong. Successive governments have refused to sanction such shooting galleries because they have correctly judged that they would, in fact, create more harm.
Such places normalise, institutionalise and thus encourage the continued use of hard drugs…
So who is behind this travesty of a proposal?
Step forward the ‘independent drug commission’ — which actually possesses not a shred of credibility, being merely a group of ten people ostensibly aiming to reduce Brighton’s drug problem, but actually providing a front for drug liberalisation.
This ‘commission’ was set up at the prompting of Green MP and would-be drug legaliser Caroline Lucas. Chaired by crime writer Peter James, its vice-chairman and leading light is none other than the notorious Mike Trace.
Mr Trace was appointed deputy drug czar under Tony Blair. In 2003, however, he was forced to resign from a key appointment as Head of Demand Reduction at the United Nations Office for Drug Control and Crime.
That resignation came about after this newspaper exposed his role in assembling a secret network of lobbyists to subvert the UN drug control laws — – which underpin the use of criminal penalties for the drug trade — and pressurise governments into legalising drugs.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
[WARNING: *** Disturbing Content ***]
A teenage paedophile viciously raped a girl of 11 while he was on probation for another sex crime.
Opemipo Jaji — who was ‘obsessed with little white girls’ — dragged the girl into a park after she got off a bus from school.
She had tried to run away from him, but he caught up with her before repeatedly raping her over a three-hour period.
Serious questions over how the authorities handled Jaji were raised last night after it emerged he was convicted of another sexual assault a year earlier.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Vatican Employees Miss Out on ‘New Pope’ Bonuses
A double loss for workers who never got ‘papal death’ tip
(ANSA) — Vatican City, April 18 — In keeping with his desire to lead “a poor church,” Pope Benedict has opted not to give out the customary bonus to the roughly 4,000 Vatican employees upon the inauguration of a new pope. According to French news agency I.Media, the move amounts to a double loss for Vatican workers, ranging from clerks and cleaners to pharmacists and butlers, who also missed out on the traditional gratuity handed out upon the death of a pope, given that in February Benedict XVI became the first pope in 700 years to voluntarily resign from an otherwise lifetime appointment. While the amount of the bonus varies, it is usually significant. In 2005, Vatican employees received 1,500 euros each — 1,000 upon the death of John Paul II, and 500 upon the election of Benedict. Some employees remember the particularly fruitful bonuses of 1978, the year John Paul died after 33 days in office, leading to a second conclave to elect his successor. Vatican watchers say that times are different and coffers are light amid the global economic crisis. Sources also say the pope, who told the press three days after his election he wanted “a poor Church, a Church for the poor,” has instead given part of the employee bonus money to charity.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: Islamic March in Cairo After Ruling on Mubarak
Organized by Brotherhood and Salafites
(ANSAmed) — CAIRO, APRIL 19 — Thousands of demonstrators on Friday gathered in front of a tribunal in Cairo in a demonstration organized by the Muslims Brotherhood and a number of Salafite movements to protest against a ruling ordering the release of former president Hosni Mubarak from prison and re-instating a former prosecutor general.
‘The people want to cleanse the judiciary’, chanted demonstrators. Mubarak remains under arrest despite the ruling because he is facing other trials.
He was taken back to the Tora prison two days ago.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Archaeology: Gaza: Concern Over Work on Ancient Port
(ANSAmed) — GAZA, APRIL 19 — Unesco and experts in the Gaza Strip are concerned over recent construction work ordered by Hamas along the coast of Gaza City where the remains of the ancient port of Anthedon are located. Local sources said several bulldozers are working in the area, raising fears they could damage underground archaeological treasures. Anthedon is 3,000 years old and used to be one of the Mediterranean’s main ports. Its archaeological site includes mosaics and pillars from the Roman and Byzantine periods.
According to the al-Monitor website, the Ezzedine al-Qassam brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, intend to build a new military installation in the area.
A high official with the interior ministry said the work only concerns a limited area and will be of short duration. In any event, the Hamas government official said, attention will be paid so as not to damage archaeological pieces that could be buried underground.
However a number of concerned activists have called on Hamas Premier Ismail Haniyeh and Unesco to intervene in order to prevent damages to the ancient port area.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Caroline Glick: Israel: The Happy Little Country
As Independence Day celebrations were winding down Tuesday night, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu made a guest appearance on Channel 2’s left-wing satire show Eretz Nehederet. One of the final questions that the show’s host Eyal Kitzis asked the premier was how he would like to be remembered after he leaves office.
Netanyahu thought a moment and said, “I’d like to be remembered as the leader who preserved Israel’s security.”
On the face of it, Netanyahu’s stated aspiration might seem dull. In a year he’ll be the longest-serving prime minister in the state’s history, and all he wants is to preserve our national security? Why is he aiming so low? And yet, the studio audience reacted to Netanyahu’s modest goal with a thunderclap of applause.
After pausing to gather his thoughts, a clearly befuddled Kitzis mumbled something along the lines of, “Well, if you manage to make peace as well, we wouldn’t object.”
The audience was silent.
The disparity between the audience’s exultation and Kitzis’s shocked disappointment at Netanyahu’s answer exposed — yet again — the yawning gap between the mainstream Israeli view of the world, and that shared by members of our elite class…
| — Hat tip: Caroline Glick | [Return to headlines] |
Gaza: After Negev Attack, Hamas Arrests Salafites
Suspected of being involved in last night’s rocket attack
(ANSAmed) — GAZA — After last night’s rocket attack against western Negev in Israel, Hamas police arrested Friday morning a number of Salafite militants in Gaza suspected of being involved in the attack, according to well informed sources. Last week, Hamas police cracked down on a non-authorized demonstration of women who were protesting against the arrest of a group of Salafite militants in March.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Czech Ambassador Clarifies That Czech Republic is Not Chechnya
You’ve probably noticed that the Russian republic of Chechnya has dominated the news today, as we learn more about the suspects implicated in the Boston Marathon bombing. For some, though, this has led to more confusion than clarity. On Friday, the Czech Republic began trending on Twitter as people mixed up the two locations — located 1,600 miles apart.
In addition to prompting a host of angry responses, the mix-up has now even elicited a response from the Czech ambassador to the United States, Petr Gandalovic, who seemed rather offended.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Fishing Boat With 61 Immigrants in Siracusa
Including 4-year-old girl, rescued by coast guards
(ANSAmed) — SIRACUSA, APRIL 19 — Coast Guards on Friday morning rescued 61 would-be immigrants including a 4-year-old girl some 12 miles east off Siracusa, in Sicily. The immigrants were on board an old fishing boat which had broken down. The 13-meter-long wooden boat, which was in extremely poor condition, was towed to the port of Siracusa. Once they reached the island, the immigrants had a medical checkup and were identified. According to the first reports, most were Egyptians though the little girl and her father are believed to be Syrian nationals.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Greece: Migrant Shooters Arrested During Minister Visit
(ANSAmed) ATHENS, APRIL 19; Greek police on Friday arrested the three farm foremen accused of opening fire on a crowd of Bangladeshi strawberry pickers in Nea Manolada in the Peloponnese and injuring 28 of them, as Kathimerini online reports. The arrest of the foremen, aged 21, 27 and 39, came as Public Order Minister Nikos Dendias visited the area. Shortly before the arrests were announced, Dendias said that Greek authorities would not deport the victims of Wednesday’s shooting, adding that Labor Minister Yianns Vroutsis would pass legislation in Parliament allowing police to crack down on uninsured work. Dendias made his comments during a visit to the police station of Varda that is handling the investigation into the incident. Seven of the migrants remained hospitalized on Friday. “The brutal assault does not only violate Greek laws but also every sense of humanity and has no relation to Greece’s culture” Dendias said after speaking with local police chiefs.
The minister was to visit the strawberry farm in Manolada where the Bangladeshi migrants work and the camp where they sleep.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Refugees Occupy Turin Municipal Offices
Protesters ask for ‘work, houses and residency’
(ANSA) — Turin, April 19 — About 50 African refugees, part of a group of immigrants that are illegally residing in the former Olympics Village of Turin, occupied Turin municipal offices on Friday to protest a lack of housing, work and residency permits.
The demonstrators brandished signs and banners, threatening not to leave the building until their requests are heard.
The general registry offices were forced to interrupt services as a result of the demonstration, and police were on the scene to ensure that the protest did not get violent.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Immigrants March for Citizen’s Wages in Naples
Grillo’s M5S party also calls for state benefits for job seekers
(ANSA) — Naples, April 19 — Thousands of immigrant workers in the southern city of Naples demonstrated on Friday, asking for guaranteed unemployment benefits for job seekers and people who have lost their jobs.
According to police estimates, approximately 2,000 foreigners living in Italy marched through the city center carrying banners and chanting “right to benefits and happiness”.
Protest organizers placed the number of employed and unemployed laborers taking part in the march as much higher at 10,000.
“This is the first time that demonstrators are calling to be allowed access to a citizen’s wage, not just legalized work permits,” organizers said.
Marchers included workers from the nearby Pomigliano Fiat plant and the Campania regional environmental protection agency ARPAC, responsible for waste disposal.
Comedian Beppe Grillo’s anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S), which gained a huge protest vote in the inconclusive February general election, has called for the introduction of a universal system of unemployment benefits.
Grillo’s Internet-based movement holds the balance of power in parliament.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
The 1965 Congressional Lie on Immigration; The 2013 Lie Even Bigger
But the one lie that will go down in history as the beginning of the end of the United States of America goes to the late Senator Teddy Kennedy (D-MA) and his 1965 Immigration Reform Act. He exploded immigration from 175,000 annually to over 1.2 million year after year, decade after decade. He jumped our population from a reasonable 194 million to its current 316 million on our way to 625 million in this century.
In front of Congress he said, “First, our cities will not be flooded with a million immigrants annually. Under the proposed bill, the present level of immigration remains substantially the same. Secondly, the ethnic mix of this country will not be upset. Contrary to the charges in some quarters, [the bill] will not inundate America with immigrants from any one country or area, or the most populated and deprived nations of Africa and Asia…
The truth:
1. When the bill becomes law, every single illegal alien in America becomes legal. 2. Legal status will never be revoked; it can and will only be expanded with every inevitable subsequent act of Congress. 3. This amnesty will leader to more amnesties for millions of other aliens crossing our borders or overstaying their visas.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Department of Justice: ‘Home Schooling Not a Right in America’
The American freedom to home school your children is almost unique in the Western World but is under assault continually. The Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) is increasingly having to run defense for parents being threatened by intrusive government officials.
A look at where the battle is likely to go involves a home schooling family who fled from Germany to the U.S. to keep the state from removing their children and forcing them into the government school system. The Romeike family was initially granted asylum in the U.S. as political refugees.* After several years, the U.S. government is trying to deport them back to Germany to face huge fines, jail, and loss of custody of the children.
When HSLDA went to their defense, it uncovered an alarming argument that the office of the U.S. Attorney General, Eric Holder, was using. When stripped of its legalese, it came down to a question of an individual’s fundamental rights as opposed to the rights of the state. And the Department of Justice (DOJ) argued that the Romeike’s case was not religious persecution and asylum in the U.S. should be denied.
The Supreme Court of Germany declared that the purpose of the German ban on homeschooling was to “counteract the development of religious and philosophically motivated parallel societies.” This essentially declares that the state’s religion and philosophy is the only one that is permitted. Although the state is supposedly “secular,” without religion, it has become anti-religion by pushing the philosophy of humanism. In this environment, anyone, primarily a Bible believer, is the enemy, who doesn’t believe in evolution, social engineering such as abortion and euthanasia, and Marxist politics. HSLDA discovered that the U.S. government now basically agrees with this approach in its attempt to return the Romeike family back to their German nightmare.
*For info on HSLDA and the Romeike case, visit www.hslda.org and search Romeike.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Home-Builders Scrap ‘Master Bedroom’ Because of Racist, Gender-Biased Connotations
The “master suite” is being phased out — not from our homes, but from our lexicon.
A survey of 10 major Washington, D.C.-area homebuilders found that six no longer use the term “master” in their floor plans to describe the largest bedroom in the house. They have replaced it with “owner’s suite” or “owner’s bedroom” or, in one case, “mastre bedroom.”
Why? In large part for exactly the reason you would think: “Master” has connotation problems, in gender (it skews toward male) and race (the slave-master).
Enter the “owner’s suite”.
“I imagine it’s not only a more accurate description but also a more politically correct term of art,” said Steve Nardella, senior vice president of operations for Bethesda-based Winchester Homes Inc.
Either way, the “master suite” has been linguistically shoved aside.
Winchester, Pulte Homes, NV Homes and Ryan Homes (both under the NVR Inc. umbrella), Van Metre Cos. and D.R. Horton Inc. have all replaced “master” in their floor plans, some more recently than others.
Richmond American Homes, Shulz Homes Corp. Sekas Homes Ltd. (in some of its models) and Quaker Custom Homes LLC continue to employ the word “master” in their designs.
In general, said Grant Johnson of Sekas Homes, “we’re using owner suite, but sometimes it will come through as master.”
Over time, “master” will be filtered out entirely, he said. The change is “just working through the industry, and finally, bingo, we got it.”
Randy Creaser, owner of D.C.’s Creaser/O’Brien Architects PC, said he ditched “master” in the early 1990s in his home designs. He vaguely recalled a few lawsuits brought against builders over the phrase. Pulte spokeswoman Valerie Dolenga said Pulte made the shift maybe three or four years ago.
| — Hat tip: McR | [Return to headlines] |
Homosexual Activist Who Sent Death Threats Sentenced to Five Years’ Probation
An Enfield, CT man who pleaded guilty to sending hundreds of threatening letters to the head of a pro-life, pro-family group in Hartford was sentenced Tuesday to five years’ probation by a federal judge.
Daniel Sarno, 54, who is homosexual, admitted to sending over 300 letters to Peter Wolfgang, executive director of the Family Institute of Connecticut, expressing his anger over the Family Institute’s opposition to same-sex “marriage.” The letters he sent were uniformly abusive. Many contained death threats.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
H.G. Wells in Anticipations (1901), described the coming “world state” where there would be “the merciful obliteration of “weak and silly and pointless” people.
In Robert Hugh Benson’s, Lord of the World (1907), he said there would be Ministers of Euthanasia (like Jack Kevorkian) in 1998 under American Socialism. (a few years later, but I believe we’re there)
Policymakers
Ezekiel Emanuel, MD, who our President appointed Health Advisor, promotes the “Complete Lives System” that is being implemented to ration care. (Dr. Emanuel makes a clear choice: “When implemented, the “complete lives system” produces a priority curve on which individuals aged roughly 15 and 40 years get the most substantial chance, whereas the youngest and oldest people get changes that are attenuated.”)
Donald Berwick, who our President appointed administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, is a strong proponent of “Comparative Effectiveness Research” which will also be used to ration care. (In the United Kingdom, rather than focusing on the individual needs of patients, the National Health Service (NHS) uses comparative and cost-effectiveness information to limit options as a budgetary tool.) There is little doubt the same will happen in the US…
Ezekiel Emanuel, MD, has stated, “services provided to individuals who are irreversibly prevented from being or becoming participating citizens are not basic and should not be guaranteed.” These are the people in society who Emanuel considers “useless eaters.” They are no longer productive, and therefore, these vulnerable citizens should die.
This is not surprising since Dr. Emanuel is a fellow at the Hastings Center … the same Hastings Center co-founded by the euthanasia proponent, Willard Gaylin, MD … the same Hastings Center whose other co-founder, Daniel Callahan, explained in 1983 that taking all food and fluid away from vulnerable patients was probably the only way to make sure certain patients actually die (without legalization of euthanasia in America).
[…]
The Project on Death in America, financed by billionaire George Soros and the Robert Woods Johnson Foundation poured more than $200 million over the last decade into end-of-life programs and research.
[Comment: A MUST read article.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
It’s Time for Next Phase in Search for Alien Life, Scientists Say
With more and more Earth-like alien planets being discovered around the galaxy, humanity should now start planning out the next steps in its hunt for far-flung alien life, researchers say.
On Thursday (April 18), scientists announced the discovery of three more potentially habitable exoplanets — Kepler-62e, Kepler-62f and Kepler-69c — further suggesting that the cosmos is jam-packed with worlds capable of supporting life as we know it.
So the time is right to get the ball rolling beyond mere discovery to the detailed study and characterization of promising alien planets, researchers said — a task that will require new and more powerful instruments.
“You really want to collect the light from these planets, to figure out — take the data, not just infer —whether or not there’s water, and even signs of life, on these planets,” Lisa Kaltenegger of the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy and the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, who was part of the team that discovered Kepler-62e and f, said during a press conference Thursday.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sex With Other Human Species Might Have Been Secret of Homo Sapiens’s Success
DNA analyses find that early Homo sapiens mated with other human species and hint that such interbreeding played a key role in the triumph of our kind
It is hard to imagine today, but for most of humankind’s evolutionary history, multiple humanlike species shared the earth. As recently as 40,000 years ago, Homo sapiens lived alongside several kindred forms, including the Neandertals and tiny Homo floresiensis. For decades scientists have debated exactly how H. sapiens originated and came to be the last human species standing. Thanks in large part to genetic studies in the 1980s, one theory emerged as the clear front-runner.
In this view, anatomically modern humans arose in Africa and spread out across the rest of the Old World, completely replacing the existing archaic groups. Exactly how this novel form became the last human species on the earth is mysterious. Perhaps the invaders killed off the natives they encountered, or outcompeted the strangers on their own turf, or simply reproduced at a higher rate. However it happened, the newcomers seemed to have eliminated their competitors without interbreeding with them.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Regarding homo sapiens interbreeding with neandertals, etc, I fear this important new research is in danger of being quashed.
My PBS (public broadcasting) channel runs over and over again a program which states that dna evidence has conclusively proved that there was no interbreeding whatever between humans and neandertals. They never explain that their dna evidence, being mitochondrial dna only, is incomplete. They never explain that newer research does show substantial interbreeding.
I think I can guess PBS’s problem: the new evidence shows that the average European or north Asian has from 2 to 4% neandertal dna. Melanesians have even more. The average African has 0%. Racial genetic differences are a touchy issue, especially since humans are said to differ from chimps by only 2% of their dna.
In an ideal world, the political correctness issue would be solved by explaining that much of human dna is called “junk dna” since it has no know purpose. Some human dna is actually left-over virus dna! So the amount of genetic difference between people is important only if it involves important genes. One cannot go by percentages alone.
I’m not optimistic, however, that science will prevail over political correctness.
From an outsider’s perspective the censorship of ‘master bedroom’ is just bizarre, it’s not an April 1st joke is it?
Don’t the PC apparatchiks understand the difference between “master” and “master’s” and what does it matter anyway after 150 years.
“In other news, American home-builders have scrapped the use of the term “master bedroom” because of concerns that the word “master” has associations with slavery, and is therefore racist.”
In the same logic, let’s ban “masturbation” for the obvious racist implications.
That DNA article had me chuckling, since there were Adam and “three Eves”. Adam>Noah>three sons+three wives…one Y-DNA + three mitochondrial…
And more PC language garbage…English will disappear before we know it!