Marine Le Pen, the leader of the Front National in France, may face prosecution if the judicial committee of the European Parliament revokes her parliamentary immunity. Her “crime” was to compare Muslims to Nazis.
In other news, the Dow lost 2.5% in trading today. Investors were reportedly spooked by a rumor that the Fed will cut back on “quantitative easing”, and the possibility of a credit crunch in China.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, JP, Kitman, McR, Papa Whiskey, 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.
China, Euro Zone Threaten U.S.-Led Economic Recovery
(Reuters) — Factory output in China, the world’s second largest economy, weakened to a nine-month low in June, combining with a continued recession in the euro zone to threaten a global recovery led by the United States.
A day after the Federal Reserve suggested the U.S. economy was firmly on a recovery path — enough so to withdraw some monetary stimulus — data showed China’s economy was stuttering.
Faltering demand pushed the flash China HSBC Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) down to 48.3 in June from 49.2, increasing pressure on the People’s Bank of China to loosen the monetary reins.
Meanwhile, Markit’s Flash Eurozone Composite PMI, which makes up around 85 percent of the final reading and is seen as a reliable economic growth indicator for the bloc, remained below the dividing line between growth and contraction.
It did, however, rise to 48.9 in June from May’s 47.7, suggesting the decay has eased across the 17-nation bloc.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The good news is at least some lawmakers are concerned about the enormous amount of money in benefits — $106 trillion within the next three decades — that past generations of congresses have promised Americans, in order to secure their votes and remain in power.
At least some lawmakers are aware that there simply isn’t enough money on the planet to pay those benefits, and are trying — though largely in vain, at the moment — to head off the approaching economic tsunami. But will it be too few — and too late? Is Washington’s culture of buying votes with the federal treasury too ingrained to alter course?
Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., is one of the few. He and a group of Senate Republicans recently bypassed the Congressional Budget Office, which traditionally only projects budgets and spending out for a decade, and did their own 30-year project. What they came up with was economic Armageddon: $106,954,000,000,000 in the red, and that was the medium estimate (the range was a low of $72 trillion and a high of $120 trillion, as reported by National Review magazine).
“In all of these budget negotiations, we’re really trapped by this ten-year budget window, which, truthfully, minimizes the problem,” Johnson says.
Indeed. By limiting its scope to a single decade, the CBO creates an environment where budget policy is gamed by both the White House and Congress; “projected savings” and other accounting tricks allow them to mask problems and hide the real danger. The Senate GOP’s 30-budget projection was designed to lay bare the problem — and its scope — so that Americans have a very clear idea of just what is coming (it will be Greece but on a dramatically higher order of magnitude).
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Ford’s CEO Calls Japan Currency Manipulator Amid Weaker Yen
Ford Motor Co. Chief Executive Officer Alan Mulally called Japan a currency manipulator that’s giving local exporters an unfair edge as the weaker yen threatens to undermine U.S. automakers’ profits.
Japan is “absolutely” manipulating its currency, the CEO of the second-biggest U.S. automaker said in a Bloomberg TV interview today. “With the currency manipulation, we just have to get back to the place where the currencies are set by the markets and the free trade agreements really are free trade agreements.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italian Bad Loans Reach Record of 133 Bn Euros in April
Financing for families, firms shrinks for 13th month in a row
(ANSA) — Rome, June 18 — The value of bad loans in recession-hit Italy reached record levels in April, as gross non-performing loans surpassed 133 billion euros, banking association ABI revealed on Tuesday.
The April figure is two billion euros more than in March, and up 22.3% on the year.
Net non-performing loans reached 66.4 billion euros in April, a 2.2 billion increase over the month before and a 32.9% rise since April 2012, the association said.
ABI also warned that loan risk remained high.
Meanwhile, bank loans were down for the 13th consecutive month.
Financing for household and non-financial businesses fell to 1.455 trillion euros in May, down 3.1% from April.
Total loans, including those to financial companies, slid for the tenth month in a row to 1.893 trillion, losing 2.2% on the month.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italian Construction Industry Marks ‘Worst Year Ever’
Nearly half a million jobs lost since start of crisis
(ANSA) — Rome, June 19 — Italy’s construction sector suffered its worst year in history in 2012, the construction workers’ association ANCE reported Wednesday. “The crisis (has been) the most intense and longest-running in the history of the country,” said the report. Some 446,000 construction jobs have gone up in smoke since the start of the global financial crisis in 2008, according to ANCE, which said that number was 669,000 when including jobs in related sectors. “Equal to the entire population of Palermo,” said ANCE. Over 11,000 construction firms have gone out of business over the same time period. “We’ve hit the bottom,” said the report.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Negotiators Strike Deal on €960bn EU Budget
EU negotiators are on the brink of formally concluding a €960 billion deal on the next seven year EU budget, after a tentative deal between national ministers and MEPs.
Irish deputy Prime Minister Eamon Gilmore, who led the talks in Brussels on Wednesday (19 June), told reporters that he and Alain Lamassoure, the French centre-right deputy leading the parliament team, agreed compromises on the four main EU parliament concerns.
“It’s a very good day for Europe,” said Gilmore.
“This budget is not about the institutions but a robust budget for jobs to be created,” he added.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Ron Paul: Dollar Will Collapse, Gold Will “Go to Infinity”
Former congressman says that precious metals will literally become priceless
Appearing on CNBC yesterday, former Congressman Ron Paul warned that if the US continues on its current course, the dollar will collapse, and gold will literally be priceless.
“Eventually, if we’re not carefully, it will go to infinity, because the dollar will collapse totally,” Paul said on CNBC.com’s Futures Now.
“As long as we have excessive spending, and excessive computerized money, we are going to see gold go up,” Paul urged, noting that as the value of the dollar is destroyed, everything measured against dollars will increase in value.
“Six thousand years of history shows that gold always retains value,” Paul added, “and paper always self-destructs.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Stocks Close Down 2.5% on Fed and China Worries
Global markets tumbled on Thursday over concern about a credit crunch in China and uncertainty about the United States central bank’s plans for withdrawing the monetary stimulus upon which the American economy has become dependent.
Just a day after the Federal Reserve hinted that it could soon begin winding down its bond-purchasing program, investors were unnerved by reports that Chinese banks had become reluctant to lend to one another, causing interest rates in the interbank market to spike to punishingly high levels.
On Wall Street, the broad-based Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index ended down 2.5 percent Thursday, the Dow Jones industrial average dropped 2.3 percent — more than 350 points — and the Nasdaq composite index shed 2.3 percent. On Wednesday, the S.&P. 500 fell 1.4 percent.
| [Return to headlines] |
The Financial Markets Freak Out When the Fed Hints That it May Slow Down the Injections
U.S. financial markets are exhibiting the classic behavior patterns of an addict. Just a hint that the Fed may start slowing down the flow of the “juice” was all that it took to cause the financial markets to throw an epic temper tantrum on Wednesday. In fact, one CNN article stated that the markets “freaked out” when Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke suggested that the Fed would eventually start tapering the bond buying program if the economy improves. And please note that Bernanke did not announce that the money printing would actually slow down any time soon. He just said that it may be “appropriate to moderate the pace of purchases later this year” if the economy is looking good. For now, the Fed is going to continue wildly printing money and injecting it into the financial markets. So nothing has actually changed yet. But just the suggestion that this round of quantitative easing would eventually end if the economy improves was enough to severely rattle Wall Street on Wednesday. U.S. financial markets have become completely and totally addicted to easy money, and nobody is quite sure what is going to happen when the Fed takes the “smack” away. When that day comes, will the largest bond bubble in the history of the world burst? Will interest rates rise dramatically? Will it throw the U.S. economy into another deep recession?
Judging by what happened on Wednesday, the end of Fed bond buying is not going to go well. Just check out the carnage that we witnessed…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Concord Police Stun, Arrest Gun Rights Protester After Officer Touched on Shoulder
A man was arrested and two people, including a Concord police officer, were allegedly assaulted during a rally Tuesday in a clash between a gun control group and gun rights supporters.
The event had people supporting the Mayors Against Illegal Guns movement, founded by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, reading the names of those “killed with guns” since the Dec. 14 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary outside their “No More Names” bus.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Do You Have Any Idea How Widespread the Spying Really is
Preface: Americans now know that the government is spying. But they still have no idea how many of their communications and activities are being surveilled … or what might be done with that information.
Yes, the Government Is Spying On You
You know that the government has been caught spying on the Verizon phone calls of tens of millions of Americans. The spying effort specifically targeted Americans living on U.S. soil…
Fox news notes that the government is insisting that “black boxes” be installed in cars to track your location.
The TSA has moved way past airports, trains and sports stadiums, and is deploying mobile scanners to spy on people all over the place. This means that traveling within the United States is no longer a private affair.
You might also have seen the news this week that the Department of Homeland Security is going to continue to allow searches of laptops and phones based upon “hunches”.
What’s that about?
The ACLU published a map in 2006 showing that nearly two-thirds of the American public — 197.4 million people — live within a “constitution-free zone” within 100 miles of land and coastal borders:
[Comment: Check out the map of the “Constitution Free” Zone.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Is Journalist Michael Hastings a Victim of an Assassination Policy?
Update: Michael Hastings was working on a story about the CIA prior to his death, according to LA Weekly. “That Hastings had the Central Intelligence Agency in his sights is no surprise to those who knew his work,” writes Dennis Romero, adding that “the shadowy world of intelligence and off-the-record American aggression was a favorite topic of the journalist.”
The story gets even more suspicious. Hastings apparently contacted Wikileaks a few hours before his death. The whistleblower organization posted the following tweet:
Michael Hastings contacted WikiLeaks lawyer Jennifer Robinson just a few hours before he died, saying that the FBI was investigating him.
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) June 19, 2013
The establishment media glossed over the suspicious death of Rolling Stone journalist Michael Hastings in cursory fashion.
“Mr. Hastings was believed to have been alone in the car, which struck a tree at high speed, according to the Los Angeles County Coroner’s office,” the New York Times reported earlier today.
Photographs of the crash scene, however, reveal that the car Hastings was in did not experience a high-speed crash. “There is no impact damage to this car. The only damage there is BLOWN OUT in the back, not smashed in the front and it obviously missed the tree as it rolled to a stop,” writes Jim Stone. “This was a Mercedes, not a Pinto, which means it did not burst into flames on its own. One (seldom quoted) eyewitness said the car ‘exploded,’“ Stone continues.
“No matter how you slice this particular pie, a Mercedes is not just going to explode into flames without a little assistance,” Stone explains. “Car fires in new cars happen for three main reasons — running the engine out of oil, or running the engine out of coolant, or after an absolutely huge car mangling accident, having the hot side of the battery short out against the frame before it reaches the fuse panel. And for all 3 of those normal reasons, which account for virtually all car fires in modern cars, the fire would have started in the engine compartment, progressed slowly, and scorched the hell out of the paint before ever reaching the gas tank. That clean paint is the be all tell all, Michael Hastings was murdered, and the rest is detail.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Journalist Who Brought Down Gen. McChrystal Dies in Car Accident
Michael Hastings, the fearless journalist whose reporting brought down the career of General Stanley McChrystal, has died in a car accident in Los Angeles, Rolling Stone has learned. He was 33.
Hastings’ unvarnished 2010 profile of McChrystal in the pages of Rolling Stone, “The Runaway General,” captured the then-supreme commander of the U.S.-led war effort in Afghanistan openly mocking his civilian commanders in the White House. The maelstrom sparked by its publication concluded with President Obama recalling McChrystal to Washington and the general resigning his post. “The conduct represented in the recently published article does not meet the standard that should be met by — set by a commanding general,” Obama said, announcing McChrystal’s departure. “It undermines the civilian control of the military that is at the core of our democratic system.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Mental Health Gun Bill Goes to Scott’s Desk
A bipartisan gun bill has made its way to the governor’s desk. If signed into law, it will prevent tens of thousands of Floridians from buying firearms, but mental health workers worry the bill will backfire.
“I would think it would be very difficult for the governor not to sign a bill that keeps guns out of the hands of dangerous people with mental illnesses,” said Marion Hammer, of the Nation Rifle Association.
The legislation requires people who volunteer for mental health treatment to give up their gun rights. Mental health professionals want Gov. Rick Scott to veto the legislation.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
“The revelation last month that the Justice Department seized two months of telephone records from the Associated Press (AP) last year is only a small part of the story. The public admission is that the Holder Justice Department obtained only telephone records from three locations, something like 20 lines, and records of calls from the House press gallery for about two months. That’s one of the biggest lies ever told,” stated my source.
“The truth is that it was not limited to AP, and not limited to just number identification and call duration, but was an extensive and active wiretapping operation that included every reporter’s telephone conversations, landline and cell, text messages from their personal and business cellular telephones and other electronic devices. The primary focus is on the press gallery, where everything was monitored in real time.“
“Not only were the communications of reporters compromised, so were the private communications of congressmen and their aides. Listen to what I am saying,” he stressed, “the operation was much larger than anyone can imagine. Recordings, actual voice recordings, were turned over to the Obama administration, along with transcripts of texts, other communications and contacts.”
“NSA assets were used, with the NSA acting as the collection agency for their intermediate client, the DHS. Then, at the highest levels of DHS, they sifted through the information collected. But the ultimate client or recipient of the information was the Obama White House.
[…]
It was at this point I asked my source, what were or are they looking for?
“Anything and everything,” he responded. “Obviously, it’s about loyalty to the man, damn the country and damn the law. Protect the man and the agenda, which is not just his agenda, but the people who put him in office.“
Like who? I asked.
“Who benefits? This is about dismantling the United States and nothing less. This is about foreign interests who have taken over our government without a shot. Look at Syria and our economy, both issues that are expected, at least as discussed within DHS, to play out this year. You had it correct on both counts when you wrote about our involvement in Syria, by way of weapons shipments from Benghazi, to open another war. You also had it correct when you wrote about the killing of the U.S. Dollar. You want to know how I know this? Because the blowback from those two issues alone, one foreign and the other domestic, are what DHS is gearing up for in our ‘homeland,’“ he stated.
[Comment: Very interesting article. A MUST READ article for Americans.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Motorola Pushes Human Tattoo to Replace Digital ‘Smartphone’ Passwords
Desperate to make a comeback in the mobile phone market, technology giant Motorola, which is now owned by Big Brother spying shill Google, has developed a few solutions to a problem that does not actually even exist: the “chore” of having to type in a short passcode to access your locked cell phone. Yes, Motorola thinks this split-second step is somehow too laborious for the average consumer, and has thus come up with two potential new methods of accessing “smart phones” that involve either tattooing yourself with an electronic bar code or swallowing a pill that contains a small microchip.
Motorola unveiled the new technology at the recent AllThingsD conference, which showcases all the latest digital advancements in the development pipeline. As reported by DailyTech.com, Motorola CEO Dennis Woodside unveiled a small rubber stamp tattoo at the conference that the company hopes will one day replace having to type in a smart phone password. According to reports, the small stamp, which contains flexible electronic circuits, can be scanned by a smart phone to gain instant access.
“Motorola’s tattoos have already been developed by MC10, a Massachusetts-based engineering firm,” explains DailyTech.com. “Instead of punching in passwords, users just place their smart phones close to their tattoos for verification.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Naked Mole Rats Reveal Why They Are Immune to Cancer
IF HUMANS lived as long relative to body size as naked mole rats, we would last for 600 years. These mouse-sized, subterranean African mammals live for over 30 years, and if that wasn’t impressive enough, they don’t get cancer. Now we have a clue why, which could lead to treatments for a variety of human conditions.
Vera Gorbunova at the University of Rochester in New York and colleagues have found that the extracellular matrix in naked mole rats — the gloop that supports tissues — is rich in a substance that stops cancers growing.
The magic ingredient is a polysaccharide called hyaluronan, which acts as a lubricant in the body. It is present in a unique, heavyweight form in naked mole rats known as high-molecular mass hyaluronan (HMM-HA). The animal — which spends most of its life underground — probably evolved the special form to help it squeeze through tunnels but, seemingly as a bonus, the lubricant confers cancer resistance.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
New Matt Damon Movie Reveals Mankind’s Transhumanist Destiny
Elysium: The super elite centralizes technological progress to achieve utopia
Elysium, a new movie starring Matt Damon and Jodie Foster, depicts what many futurists have long predicted is mankind’s ultimate destiny — the division of the human race into two new class systems — a transhumanist elite that centralizes technological progress to achieve utopia, and a massive underclass left to rot on a dying planet ruled by robotic drones.
The trailer for the movie, set to be released on August 9 in the US, begins by depicting an army of robot drones in control of policing that shake down and beat citizens for trivial “violations”. The year is 2154. When Damon’s character expresses anger at his treatment, he is offered a pill to calm him by a robotic bureaucrat. Any form of dissent is treated as “abusive”.
“Humanity is divided between two worlds,” reads the caption, explaining that most of humanity is left to reside on an overpopulated, collapsing earth while the super elite have developed a gargantuan and luxurious off-planet space habitat called Elysium where war, poverty, hunger and disease are non-existent.
Damon’s character is forced to undergo cybernetic enhancements before he can lead a mission to Elysium in order to find a cure for a cancer virus he has contracted. The movie is also clearly designed to be a political jibe at anti-immigration activists.
[Comment: Such movies are a kind of “predictive programming” — ideas and images presented as “entertainment” to acclimatize viewer to ideas that the viewer would normally find repugnant.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
NJ Supreme Court Rules State Can Seek Custody of Child Without Evidence of Abuse
The New Jersey Supreme Court ruled this week that authorities can seek custody of a child, even where there’s no evidence of abuse or neglect.
The case involved a divorced Camden County mother of 9-year-old twin girls. In 2007, she asked New Jersey’s Division of Child Protection and Permanency for help, claiming she was unable to care for the girls who had psychological and developmental disabilities and needed to be placed in residential care.
“You can turn to the Division for help, but it may come with a cost,” says Diana Autin, executive director of Statewide Parent Advocacy Network of New Jersey. The group filed an amicus brief in the case.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
No School Insurance if Teachers Have Guns
Allowing teachers and other employees to carry guns under a new state law would cost most school districts their insurance.
EMC Insurance Companies, the state’s main insurer of schools, won’t insure districts with armed employees under the new law, which takes effect July 1. Districts already insured by EMC wouldn’t have their policies renewed.
“We understand that school districts have every right to decide which way they want to go,” Bernie Zalaznik, EMC’s resident vice president in Wichita, said Monday. “But we have to make the decision based on what we perceive to be our best financial interest.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Obama Tells Germans: I’ll Use Executive Orders to Tackle Global Warming
I wonder if the Germans gave any thought as they were listening to this to what can happen when an elected executive consolidates too much power for himself under the guise of some sort of emergency or crucial imperative. Obama’s friends at the AP, when they’re not mad at him for snooping on their phone calls, report:
“The plan, with details expected to be revealed in coming weeks, comes as Obama has been under increasing pressure from environmental groups and lawmakers from states harmed by Superstorm Sandy to cut pollution from existing power plants, the largest source of climate-altering gases. Several major environmental groups and states have threatened to sue the administration to force cuts to power plant emissions. And just last week, former Vice President Al Gore, a prominent climate activist and fellow Democrat, pointedly called on Obama to go beyond “great words” to “great actions.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Senator Lamar Alexander: Neo-Con Trotskyite, Part 4
“Our guiding principle in the design of a choice system is this: Public authority must be put to use in creating a system that is almost entirely beyond the reach of public authority.” — John Chubb and Terry Moe
Total Control through CC, Charters, Vouchers/Choice
First, a little background of the restructuring of academic education in America to Skinnerian behavioral modification and dog training of our children. Remember, all the pieces fit together and the ultimate goal is for ALL EDUCATION to be funded by tax dollars. This will be accomplished by vouchers/choice/charters. Thus, all education will, by law, be under federal regulations, tests, assessments, outcomes, global workforce initiatives, etc.
In 1934, National Education Association (NEA) Former Executive Secretary Willard Givens warned that “…all of us, including the ‘owners’, must be subjected to a large degree of social control… An equitable distribution of income will be sought… the major function of the school is the social orientation of the individual. It must seek to give him understanding of the transition to a new social order.” (The Chronology of World Education by Dennis Cuddy)
Dr. Chester M. Pierce, Psychiatrist, in his address to the Childhood International Education Seminar, in 1973, said, “Every child in America entering school at the age of five is insane because he comes to school with certain allegiances to our founding fathers, toward our elected officials, toward his parents, toward a belief in a supernatural being, and toward the sovereignty of this nation as a separate entity. It’s up to you as teachers to make all these sick children well — by creating the international child of the future.”
In 1934, the Carnegie Corporation said we are going to use the schools to change the US from a free market system to a planned economy. In a planned economy, as in Communist countries, the administration chooses at an early age what your child will do all throughout their lives. They want your child to decide by 5th grade, or they will decide for them! [Link]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
(NaturalNews) Most people don’t know about the existence of quantum computers. Almost no one understands how they work, but theories include bizarre-sounding explanations like, “they reach into alternate universes to derive the correct answers to highly complex computational problems.”
Quantum computers are not made of simple transistors and logic gates like the CPU on your PC. They don’t even function in ways that seem rational to a typical computing engineer. Almost magically, quantum computers take logarithmic problems and transform them into “flat” computations whose answers seem to appear from an alternate dimension.
For example, a mathematical problem that might have 2 to the power of n possible solutions — where n is a large number like 1024 — might take a traditional computer longer than the age of the universe to solve. A quantum computer, on the other hand, might solve the same problem in mere minutes because it quite literally operates across multiple dimensions simultaneously.
The ultimate code breakers If you know anything about encryption, you probably also realize that quantum computers are the secret KEY to unlocking all encrypted files. As I wrote about last year here on Natural News, once quantum computers go into widespread use by the NSA, the CIA, Google, etc., there will be no more secrets kept from the government. All your files — even encrypted files — will be easily opened and read… According to an article published in Scientific American, Google and NASA have now teamed up to purchase a 512-qubit quantum computer from D-Wave. The computer is called “D-Wave Two” because it’s the second generation of the system. The first system was a 128-qubit computer. Gen two is now a 512-qubit computer.
This does not mean the gen two system is merely four times more powerful than the gen one system. Thanks to the nature of qubits, it’s actually 2 to the power of 384 times more powerful (2384) than the gen one system. In other words, it out-computes the first D-Wave computer by a factor so large that you can’t even imagine it in your human brain.
According to Google and NASA, this computer will be tasked with research in the realm of “machine learning” — i.e. machines learning how to think for themselves. It’s not just speech recognition, vision recognition and teaching robotic Humvees with .50-caliber machine guns how to stalk and shoot “enemy combatants” on the streets of America, either: it’s teaching machines how to learn and think for themselves.
Using your human brain, think for a moment about where such technology is most likely to be applied by a government that respects no human rights, no law and no limits on its power.
If you guessed “analyzing NSA surveillance data,” give yourself ten bonus points.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The CDC is Lying to You Again: Flu Fiction vs. Flu Reality
I now have the official CDC flu-death statistics for the year 2010.
They were provided to me by Martin Maloney, who, some years ago, contacted me to show how the CDC was lying all the way along the line about numbers of flu deaths. Many thanks, Martin, for your good work.
2010 is apparently the most recent year for which the CDC has issued a final report. It was released on May 13 of this year.
The report comes through a sub-agency of the CDC, the National Vital Statistics System (NVSS).
On page 89 of the report, “Deaths: Final Data for 2010,” in Table 10, we find the following:
Influenza and Pneumonia [deaths]: 50,097.
Influenza [deaths]: 500.
Pneumonia [deaths]: 49,597.
In 2010, the CDC reports 500 deaths from the flu.
But the CDC PR people have trumpeted, over and over, that 36,000 people die every year in the US from the flu.
They’ve hyped this number, to emphasize how dangerous the flu is. They use the 36,000 number as a way to promote the flu vaccine. They use it to work for their pimps in the pharmaceutical industry.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Dark Side of Ray Kurzweil’s Transhumanist Utopia
The elite’s obsessive pursuit of immortality is a new tool of class enslavement
Futurist Ray Kurzweil’s prediction that humans will be uploading their minds to computers by 2045 and that bodies will be replaced by machines before the end of the century, currently receiving a new wave of media attention, overlooks the fact that such technology will likely be monopolized by the elite as a way of enslaving the rest of humanity on an industrial scale.
Kurzweil, recently hired by Google, repeated his forecast at the Global Futures 2045 International Congress in New York this past weekend but newspaper reports concerning the issue were absent a key disclaimer which Kurzweil admits in his book — such technology will not be available to the general public and instead will be controlled by a technocratic elite who will attempt to become super beings by merging with machines…
People involved in unskilled labor will become superfluous when their jobs are replaced by machines and, “There is almost no human employment in production, agriculture, and transportation,” writes Kurzweil.
Humans who resist the pressure to alter their bodies by becoming part-cyborg or are unable to afford such procedures will be ostracized from society. “Humans who do not utilize such implants are unable to meaningfully participate in dialogues with those who do,” writes Kurzweil.
As Kurzweil entertains in his book, this will inevitably lead to the very situation described by none other than Unabomber Theodore Kaczynski — widely quoted by Kurzweil and fellow futurist Bill Joy — where the elite will see the mass of humanity as worthless parasites and either prevent them from reproducing via mass sterilization programs or simply slaughter them outright.
[Comment: Elitists wet dream is to transform into a “superior” human — what we would call a “borg”.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
TWA Flight 800 Crash Not Due to Gas Tank Explosion, Say Former Investigators
The producers of an upcoming documentary on TWA Flight 800 — which exploded and crashed into the waters off Long Island, N.Y., on July 17, 1996, killing all 230 people on board — claim to have proof that an explosion outside the Paris-bound flight caused the crash. And six former investigators who took part in the film say there was a cover-up and want the case reopened.
“There was a lack of coordination and willful denial of information,” Hank Hughes, a senior accident investigator for the National Transportation Safety Board, said on Wednesday during a conference call with reporters. “There were 755 witnesses. At no time was information provided by the witnesses shared by the FBI.”
Jim Speer, an accident investigator at the time of the crash for the Airline Pilots Association, who sifted through the recovered wreckage in a hangar, said he discovered holes consistent with those that would be formed by a high-energy blast in the right wing. He requested it be tested for explosives. When the test came back positive, he said, he was “physically removed” from a room by two CIA agents.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Belgium: Rochefort Trappist Beer Threatened?
The monks of the Notre-Dame Abbey of Saint-Remy are deeply concerned about the quality of their famous Trappist Beer Rochefort. The source providing the water for the making of the beer, is bound to dry up due to developments in a limestone quarry nearby. The abbey is situated 5 kilometres from Rochefort, in Namur province in the Ardennes.
The Walloon group Lhoist has been exploiting the limestone quarry since 1956. However, Lhoist has plans to extend its activities further and to make the quarry some 60 metres deeper. This will cause the source that the monks are using to make their beer, to dry up completely, studies reveal.
Lhoist wants to go ahead with its plans, and suggests creating three new wells nearby, in order to pump this water to the original source. However, the monks are afraid that this will not be the same. “We only have guarantees about the quantity, not about the quality of the water”, spokesman Christopher De Doncker told De Standaard. The monks are concerned that the taste of their beer will be affected.
As a compromise, Lhoist has offered to carry the extra cost of the new wells. However, the company still needs a permit to get the green light for deepening the quarry.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Conflict of Interest Concern Spurs (Irish Justice Minister) Shatter in Censor Move
Obscenity complaint lodged recently over novel Minister first published in 1989
Irish Minister for Justice Alan Shatter has said he transferred responsibility for book censorship from his department in order to avoid any possible perceived conflict of interest in light of a “steamy” book he published in 1989 being republished.
A recent complaint to the Censorship of Publications Board that his novel, Laura: A Story You Will Never Forget, was obscene and contravened laws on procurement of an abortion or miscarriage spurred Mr Shatter to shift the responsibility to Minister for the Arts Jimmy Deenihan’s department.
The novel deals with the private life of a fictional rural TD who tries to get his secretary, with whom he has an affair, to have an abortion.
The book was coming out again 24 years later because there had been some “unexpected” publicity about it in recent weeks, the Minister told RTÉ Radio’s Morning Ireland, as a result of which “a lot of people had been seeking to purchase it”.
Publishers Poolbeg Press had sought permission to republish and he had given this, he said, adding “it will become available early next week”.
Explaining the shift in responsibility, Mr Shatter said: “I was concerned as Minister for Justice that no question mark of any description could hang over the appointments to be made to the Censorship of Publications Board — there’s new appointments to be made to that board. They may have to consider whether or not a book I wrote should or should not be banned.
“I thought it was appropriate that the statutory functions of appointing that board should be transferred to my colleague [Jimmy Deenihan’s] department.
“Very outdated”
He said he thought it was “very outdated that it was an issue dealt with by the Department of Justice in the first place”.
As a matter of principle, he added, it was important for him that no suggestion could arise “that I had some vested interest in who could be appointed” to the board.
“I thought it was correct that some other Minister should deal with the matter,” he said, adding his Cabinet colleagues had concurred with this proposal yesterday.
Mr Shatter said he had not inquired into the precise nature of the complaint raised. “I don’t believe it is appropriate as Minister that I interfere in any way with the Censorship of Publications Board.”
The only function a Minister would have would be to appoint members to the board, which his department had now relinquished.
He had as yet received no notification from the board on any complaint. “I don’t know the identity of the individual” involved, he added.
“On a personal level, I find it quite odd that a book that was published 24 years ago” and that was available in public libraries should be complained of to the censorship board, he said.
“I presume that in so far as the matter is before the board, it will be for the board to deal with appropriately.”
| — Hat tip: McR | [Return to headlines] |
Croatian Electricity Market Opens to Foreigners
Slovenia’s GEN-I and Germany’s RWE break state monopoly
(ANSAmed) — TRIESTE, JUNE 18 — Slovenia’s leading gas and electricity distributor, GEN-I, has entered the retail power supply market of neighbouring Croatia, according to media reports. The company aims to gain a large market share by offering competitive rates of around 10-30% less than the current ones of the former state-owned monopoly HEP. Non-corporate consumers can now choose to transfer to GEN-I cost-free, say representatives of the power company. The Slovenian distributor aims to acquire a 17% market share in the next three years. Croatian state TV HRT reports that Germany’s RWE — through its local brand, RWE Energija — has officially announced its entrance into electricity distribution market, promising at least 12% savings from current rates.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Denmark: Biggest Viking Exhibition in 20 Years Opens — And This Time They’re Angry
Recent peaceful Viking rebrands are smashed in a vast and bloodthirsty show that will soon set sail for London
All around the hull of the longest Viking warship ever found there are swords and battle axes, many bearing the scars of long and bloody use, in an exhibition opening in Copenhagen that will smash decades of good public relations for the Vikings as mild-mannered traders and farmers.
“Some of my colleagues thought surely one sword is enough,” archaeologist and co-curator Anne Pedersen said, “but I said no, one can never have too many swords.”
The exhibition, simply called Viking, which will be opened at the National Museum by Queen Margrethe of Denmark on Thursday, and to the public on Saturday, will sail on to to London next year to launch the British Museum’s new exhibition space.
In contrast to recent exhibitions, which have concentrated on the Vikings as brilliant seafarers, highly gifted wood- and metal-workers, and builders of towns including York and Dublin, this returns to the more traditional image of ferocious raiders, spreading terror wherever the shallow keels of the best and fastest ships in Europe could reach, armed with magnificent swords, spears, battleaxes and lozenge-shaped arrows. “The arrow shape did more damage,” Pedersen explained, “the wounds were bigger and more difficult to heal than a straight-edged slit.”
Other powers employed the fearless warriors as mercenaries, including Byzantium and Jerusalem, but some were anxious to keep weapons of mass destruction out of their hands: a Frankish law forbade selling swords to Vikings. They got them anyway, as the exhibits prove.
A skull from a grave in Gotland bears the marks of many healed sword cuts, but also decorative parallel lines filed into the warrior’s teeth, like those recently found on teeth from a pit of decapitated bodies in Dorset, in what must have been an excruciating display of macho bravado.
“Probably only a small percentage of the Vikings ever went to sea on raiding parties, but I think those who stayed home would have told stories of great warriors, great ships and great swords they had known,” Pedersen said. “It was very much part of the culture.”
Some of the objects assembled from collections in 12 countries, such as a heap of walnut-sized pieces of amber, or jewellery made to incorporate Islamic and Byzantine coins, probably did come through trade. Others, such as a pair of brooches from the grave of a Viking woman made from gold intricately twisted into tiny animals, originally panels chopped up from a shrine made in Ireland to hold the relics of a saint, certainly were not.
One magnificent silver collar found in Norway has an inscription in runes saying the Vikings came to Frisia and “exchanged war garments with them” — but that may be a black joke. Iron slave collars from Dublin confirm that the wealth they sought wasn’t always gold and silver.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Denmark: Government to Crack Down on Syrian Fighters
Figthers going to Syria could face being charged with terrorism when they return home to Denmark
The government and secret police agency PET have launched a new strategy aimed at preventing Danes from travelling to Syria to participate in the country’s on-going civil war.
PET teamed up with the Justice Ministry, who fear that the combat training and radicalisation experienced by foreign fighters in Syria make them a national security risk when they return home.
“There is no doubt that the issue is one of the most serious security risks to the Danish society at the moment,” Jakob Scharf, the head of PET, told Politiken newspaper.
PET’s latest threat assessment revealed that at least 65 people are currently, or have in the past, participated in the conflict in Syria. Five of them are known to have been killed.
The strategy will abide by existing laws, but the fighters face dire consequences when they return home.
“We keep an eye on the fighters who leave and when they return. They need to understand that it is immensely dangerous to go over there and they also risk legal prosecution when they return home,” the justice minister, Morten Bødskov, told Politiken.
PET said that once it becomes aware a Dane is fighting in Syria, it will inform the tax authorities, Skat, and find out where the money for their journey stems from. Council governments will also see if the fighters are receiving public assistance.
PET is also looking into whether it will be able to deport foreigners with permanent residence in Denmark if they are deemed to be a threat to society, while they will also work towards charging Danes who have fought in Syria with violating terrorism laws.
“That’s a very strong and powerful statement. The risk of radicalisation is so great that such a reaction is necessary,” Magnus Ranstorp, a Swedish terrorism expert, told Politiken, pointing to the many fighters joining up with Al-Nusra, which is considered by the UN to be a terrorist organisation. “That means these people can no longer be treated as freedom fighters and Denmark should prosecute them.”
And PET believes that the Danish terrorism laws offer enough grounds to prosecute the fighters who join Al-Nusra.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
France: Marine Le Pen to Face Prosecution for Comparing Muslims to Nazis
Marine Le Pen faces prosecution for comparing Muslim immigration to the Nazi occupation of France after the European Parliament’s legal committee recommended that the far-Right leader be stripped of her immunity.
The full parliament is now expected to formally lift her protection from prosecution as an MEP after a vote on the recommendation on July 3, clearing the way for her to face race hate charges in a French court.
Sajjad Karim, a British Tory MEP on the parliament’s legal affairs committee, voted in favour Ms Le Pen losing her parliamentary immunity.
“There is a red line between freedom of speech and inciting racial hatred,” he said. “I, along with many other MEPs, today voted to drop Ms Le Pen’s immunity and I am confident that the majority of the European Parliament will follow our lead in July.”
| — Hat tip: Kitman | [Return to headlines] |
France: Far Right’s Le Pen Faces Prospect of Prosecution
A decision by an EU parliament committee on Wednesday increased the prospect of France’s far right leader, Marine le Pen, facing prosecution for previous remarks she made likening Islamic prayers to the Nazi occupation
The European Parliament’s judicial committee on Wednesday gave its green light to the possible lifting of the immunity of far-right French MEP Marine Le Pen ahead of a vote in July.
In a closed-door hearing the committee agreed to a report proposing the lifting by 11 votes in favour, one against and four abstentions, opening the way to a vote in plenary session in the French city of Strasbourg on July 2.
French authorities asked the parliament in November to lift Le Pen’s immunity as a lawmaker so she can be prosecuted for remarks likening Islamic prayers to the Nazi occupation.
The remarks were made in a speech to National Front (FN) supporters in December 2010.
In the speech she denounced the holding of Muslim prayers in the streets of France — where a dearth of mosques has forced many to pray outside — saying:
“For those who like to talk about World War II, to talk about occupation, we could talk about, for once, the occupation of our territory.”
“There are no armoured vehicles, no soldiers, but it is an occupation all the same and it weighs on people.”
Prosecutors in Lyon, where the speech took place, opened an investigation into the remarks for “inciting racial hatred”.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Heat Wave Simmers Across Italy
Health warnings scattered across the peninsula
(ANSA) — Rome, June 20 — Summer is giving Italians an overly warm embrace as hot muggy weather on Thursday continued to prevail across most of the country.
Temperatures simmered in the mid-30s (degrees celsius) particularly in the centre and south, but also in northeastern Italy on the border of Austria, sparking health warnings in many areas of the peninsula.
The humid heat wave hitting central Italy, brought on by the weather system ‘Ada’, prompted authorities in the port city Pescara to call a level-three health-alert, meaning that healthy, active people were at risk as well as vulnerable categories like the elderly, small children and chronically ill.
The perceived temperature in Pescara is expected to reach 36C on Thursday.
Meanwhile, temperatures in the region of Puglia — the heel of Italy’s boot — are could touch 38 degrees celsius. But storms are bringing relief at least to northwestern Italy, knocking temperatures down to well under 30 degrees in cities like Turin, Milan and Genoa. No rain is forecast in the coming days for southern Italy, but thunder-showers are expected Monday in the eastern parts of north and central Italy.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy Has World’s Second-Largest Underground Economy
Audit court head warns that 50 billion euros lost from taxation
(ANSA) — Rome, June 19 — Italy’s underground economy has become so large that it is second only to Greece in international rankings, a senior audit official said Wednesday.
The size of the economy that exists outside the legal tax system is “significant” — up to 18% of national GDP, said Luigi Giampaolino, president of the national Audit Court.
Put another way, avoidance of such taxes as the VAT meant that as much as 50 billion euros slipped away from the taxman in 2011, he said.
“That places our country in second place in the international rankings (of tax avoidance) led by Greece,” Giampaolino told a parliamentary hearing.
There is a “high propensity to avoid declaring taxes”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Finance Police General, Builder Indicted for G8 Fraud
‘Bribery, corruption’ linked to Sardinian venue
(ANSA) — Rome, June 19 — A general in Italy’s finance police and a construction businessman were indicted Wednesday for alleged corruption related to building contracts for the venue of the 2009 Group of Eight summit. Diego Anemone, owner of the Anemone construction group, is accused of bribing General Francesco Pittorru with 700,000 euros to buy and remodel a home in Rome. In exchange his company was allegedly given favor in bids for building contracts on the Sardinian island of La Maddalena, where the G8 was originally scheduled but was moved at the last minute to Abruzzo to honour the 309 people killed in a devastating earthquake earlier that year.
The trial has been scheduled to start November 13 in Rome.
Finance police are investigating a total of five people in connection with alleged fraud totalling 166 million euros related to G8 construction.
Finance specialists say they have found parallel accounting and numerous other kinds of fraudulent activity, such as work paid for but never completed, related to public contracts handled by the Anemone group.
The group faces numerous other investigations related to fraudulent activities on other public contracts.
Anemone was arrested in February 2010 for alleged graft in public tenders for work on other State venues as well as private real-estate deals involving politicians.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Berlusconi Says He’s Not ‘Europe’s Enemy’
Ex-premier says call for Italy to break rules is ‘defence of EU’
(see related story) (ANSA) — Rome, June 18 — Silvio Berlusconi said Tuesday that he was falsely being depicted as an enemy of Europe after causing a furore by suggesting Italian Premier Enrico Letta should not be afraid to break the EU’s budget rules.
“They are trying to make me appear like an enemy of the euro and of Europe. Nothing could be falser,” three-time premier Berlusconi said.
“What I said yesterday was a defence of Europe, it wasn’t against it”. Berlusconi, whose centre-right People of Freedom (PdL) party helps sustain Letta’s government, said his position on the need to drop austerity policies and promote growth in Europe was backed by eminent economists such as Nobel laureate Paul Krugman.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Rome Horse-Drawn Carriages Raise Concern Due to Heat
Police to carry out checks on work conditions
(ANSA) — Rome, June 20 — Italian law enforcement authorities have said they will initiate a series of checks on Thursday and Friday to ensure horses used to draw carriages through Rome for tourist entertainment are working under acceptable conditions during the heat wave the Italian capital is suffering.
The checks will involve not only temperature controls to ensure tours are not being run in moments of peak heat conditions, but also that the horses are being properly looked after, and allowed to rest and drink. In addition, local law states horses cannot draw public carriages for more than 6 hours a day, and that they must rest in the shade between one tour and another. Police will also ensure animals are allowed to drink sufficient water to combat the heat, that they are not pulling excessive weight and that they don’t run during the banned hours of 1 pm to 5 pm during the day.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Armani Unveils New ‘Islamic’ Ramadan Chocolates
Available in Arab countries during the month-long fast
(ANSAmed) — MILAN — In an homage to the yearly Islamic month of fasting, Armani has designed chocolate pralines named Ramadan. They are alcohol-free, covered in milk chocolate, filled with dried fruits and honey and decorated in emerald green sugar.
Inspired by the refinements of Islamic art, the chocolates are incised with a stylized open lotus flower and come wrapped in gold paper that feels like silk. The box is sealed with a silk ribbon and an emerald-green gem in the center.
The new product will be sold in Armani/Dolci shops in Kuwait City, Dubai, Barhain, Doha, Malaysia, New York and Milan. It will be released in time for this year’s Ramadan, which lasts from July 9 to August 8. Ramadan chocolates will be available through the end of August and online on www.armanidolci.com.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Undersecretary Threatens Taking Berlusconi Appeal to Europe
Biancofiore chides Italy’s ‘network of political judges’
(ANSA) — Rome, June 20 — An undersecretary in the Italian government said Thursday she would turn to the European Court of Justice over a ruling in Italy to reject ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi’s appeal to a fraud charge. “Yesterday the basic principle of democracy, that is the sincere cooperation between powers, failed. I will appeal, if (Berlusconi) will give me the green light, to the Court of Justice so that there can have a fair trial,” Michaela Biancofiore, undersecretary for public administration and simplification, told Italian radio. On Wednesday the Constitutional Court rejected the media mogul’s plea to overturn a conviction for tax fraud on film rights at his Mediaset empire, which came with a four-year jail sentence and a five-year ban from public office. The ruling, which Berlusconi will appeal at the supreme Court of Cassation, sparked fears that members of Berlusconi’s center-right People of Freedom (PdL) party could act out to upset the fragile left-right coalition government, headed by Premier Enrico Letta of the center-left Democratic Party (PD).
“He cannot sleep tight,” said Biancofiore, a PdL member. She went on to criticize the Constitutional Court for its system of taking on new magistrates, some of whom are nominated by the magistrature itself, and others who are nominated by politicians. “It’s unthinkable that magistrates can be nominated by politicians, especially those in high-ranking positions,” she said, echoing Berlusconi’s long-running accusations that parts of the Italian judiciary is politically motivated against him, in this case and many other current and past ones. “There is undoubtedly a network of judges who actually have founded a virtual political party that went beyond public morals and, not surprisingly, there are a lot of judges who took to politics and who consider their robes their strength”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Muslim Community Distances Self From Italian Combatant
‘I don’t believe he was converted here’ says UCOI president
(see related) (ANSA) — Genoa, June 18 — The head of the Italian Union of Islamic Communities and Organizations (UCOI en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UCOII) on Tuesday distanced his group from the Italian Muslim convert who was killed fighting alongside extremist rebels in Syria. “Our role as men and women of faith, just as other faiths, is to work together to send a message of co-existence and not to leave space for personal interpretations of divine messages,” said Ezzedine Elzir. “I don’t know this boy, and I know that (the Muslim community) in Genoa didn’t know him…
“I don’t believe he was converted here in Italy”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Netherlands: Coalition Divided Over Wind Power: Report Says ‘Stop Building Turbines’
The ruling parties VVD and Labour are divided over the future of wind power following the publication of a new report which called for a five-year moratorium on plans to build more wind turbines.
The cabinet and provinces agreed earlier this year to build at least 1,000 new wind turbines but the VVD now wants to drop the plan, Nos television reports.
The macro-economic planning bureau CPB said in its report there should be a halt in the wind turbine programme because the economic crisis has depressed demand for electricity. ‘There is also talk of overcapacity, and every expansion would be loss-making,’ the CPB said.
Commitment
The VVD wants to follow the CPB’s recommendations but Labour is opposed. In the coalition agreement, the two parties committed themselves to ensuring 16% of the energy used in the Netherlands comes from sustainable sources by 2020. Green power currently accounts for just 4.5% of energy use.
‘We have a social contract,’ Labour MP Jan Vos is quoted as saying by Nos television. ‘Building schools costs money as well.’
MPs are due to debate the wind turbine programme with ministers on Thursday.
Overhaul
The Dutch environmental assessment agency PBL said on Monday the Netherlands’ environmental policy needs a complete overhaul because it is out of date in many areas.
The policy of successive governments has been short-term without a vision for the future, the report said.
For example, old coal-fired power stations are being used to burn biomass to meet 2020 green energy targets but nothing is being invested in developing a long-term sustainable energy supply, the report stated.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Paris Guidebook to Improve Politeness Towards Tourists
Teams to hand out info on cultural norms
(ANSAmed) — PARIS, JUNE 18 — One of the most widely visited cities in the world but also known for the rudeness of its citizens towards tourists, the French capital has launched a campaign entitled “Do you Speak touriste”, aiming to improve the reception of foreign visitors and the city’s reputation.
“We need to make sure that professionals (in the field of tourism, restaurants and hotels, Ed.) are better prepared to respond more effectively to the wishes of foreign clientele,” said Jean-Pierre Blat, general director of the regional tourism committee.
Blat noted that “one should not treat a Japanese and an Italian in the same way. There are cultural norms to respect and one needs to adapt to the situation.” However, despite the less-than-polite character of Parisians, one should keep in mind that “50% of tourists come back and the rate of satisfaction of tourists in this region tops in at 97%”, he noted. Beginning on Tuesday, several specialised teams will go around Paris and the surrounding region to hand out to shopkeepers and those working in the field of tourism information on the several different nationalities in Ile-de-France: the kind of typical purchases made, the length of stay, and the behavioural norms of every nationality. The guide provides shopkeepers with basic expressions in several different languages including Italian, such as “good morning”, “welcome”, “thanks”, and “goodbye”. There is also an internet site part of the campaign: ‘Doyouspeaktouriste.fr’.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
British consumers are being forced to subsidize an energy programme which loses money, blights the landscape and is dangerous to wildlife. Industry and employers also pay the ‘tax’ with households paying an average of £47/year.
British government and industry figures show that wind turbine operators were paid £1.2billion in subsidies via electric bill subsidies from March 1st 2012 — February 28th 2013. The employment of 12,000 people in the industry translates into £100,000 consumer sponsorship per employee.
This is the same kind of wastage seen on the other side of the Atlantic as the Obama Administration threw money at solar power companies, only for them to lose it all and file for bankruptcy.
The wind industry though claims it is economically viable, creating jobs, and saving the planet with cleaner energy. Renewable UK, the industry trade body says on its website “We aim to create thousands of jobs across a wide range of business sectors.”
But an owner of multiple wind farms speaking to the Daily Telegraph had a different account saying “Anybody trying to justify subsidies on the basis of jobs created is talking nonsense. Wind farms are not labour intensive.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Cheltenham Man Henry Juggins, 20, Charged With Mosque ‘Hate Crime’
A CHELTENHAM man has been charged with conspiracy to commit arson following a “hate crime” at a mosque. Ashley Henry Juggins, 20, of Brooklyn Road will appear before magistrates today following the blaze in Gloucester…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
US President Undermines Catholic Schools After Vatican Prefect Praised Them
President Barack Obama repeated the oft disproved claim that Catholic education increases division in front of an audience of 2000 young people, including many Catholics, at Belfast’s Waterfront hall when he arrived in the country this morning.
“If towns remain divided—if Catholics have their schools and buildings and Protestants have theirs, if we can’t see ourselves in one another and fear or resentment are allowed to harden—that too encourages division and discourages cooperation,” the US president said.
[Question, Mr. President: Does this also apply to Muslim separatism and Islamic schools? Somehow I’ll bet it doesn’t. The latter, after all, are evidence of the “rich diversity of our multicultural society,” blah blah blah. — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: Erdogan in Maghreb Boosts Economic Influence
While Gezi Park revolt heats up, ‘sultan’ cherishes his empire
(by Stefano Secondino) (ANSAmed) — ROME — Clamour over Gezi Park protests and criticism of Turkish Premier Recep Tayyp Erdogan have shadowed the recent trip taken by the prime minister to Maghreb. Erdogan travelled to Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia on June 3-6 to promote Turkey’s investments in yet another demonstration of the dynamism of the Turkish economy and its international ambitions, in particular in former Ottoman empire countries. It is no mystery the visit is part of ‘sultan’ Erdogan’s policy to re-build Ankara’s power based on the economy rather than military strength, moving ‘to where our ancestors’ horses arrived’, as he said in a famous speech.
The Turkish premier was accompanied by a number of ministers and entrepreneurs. In Morocco, Prime Minister Abdelilah Benkirane launched an appeal, together with his counterpart, on businessmen from the two countries to foster closer relations. The 75 Turkish companies currently operating in Morocco have invested some 250 million dollars and are employing approximately 6.200 Moroccan workers.
In Algeria Erdogan met Premier Abdelmalek Sellal and spoke to lawmakers at the national congress. He also took part in a forum on Turkish-Algerian business to develop partnership opportunities in the textile, car making and agricultural sectors. Erdogan finally visited a gas plant in Arzew and a new factory built by the local branch of Turkey’s Tosyali.
Ankara’s premier then travelled to Tunisia where he announced the signing of 21 new agreements and protocols and offered his country’s financial support for the development of local infrastructures in healthcare, housing, training and utilities. Tunisian Prime Minister Ali Larayedh said ‘the results of Erdogan’s visit to Tunisia reflect a real and strategic development of bilateral relations’.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Netherlands Threatens Veto on Israeli Sanctions
THE HAGUE, 20/06/13 — Foreign Minister Frans Timmermans will use his veto on possible EU sanctions against Israel, he said Wednesday.
The European Union is threatening measures against Israel if it goes ahead with the building of settlements on the disputed E1 location east of Jerusalem. According to Timmermans, European sanctions are now not on the agenda at all, but he will block them if necessary.
Building on E1 will however have a negative effect on the bilateral relations between the Netherlands and Israel, he added. E1 is the strongly contested area next to Jerusalem, where Israel announced last autumn it wanted to start building. Israel was criticised worldwide for the building plans, which have not yet been carried out.
Timmermans has held talks in the past two days with Israeli and Palestinian leaders. The chances of a resumption of peace negotiations would be lost with sanctions, and he wants to avoid this.
Timmermans considers it extremely important for US State Secretary John Kerry to get a chance to bring Palestinians and Israelis back to the negotiating table. “The initiative of President Obama and Minister Kerry is not only the best but also the only option for getting the peace process underway again,” says the minister.
Timmermans also reacted to statements by the Israeli Economic Affairs Minister that the Palestinians’ desire for their own state is hopeless and Israel must annex the Palestinian Territories. “Everyone here always calls for everything. I will not now intervene between the parties that must come together at the (negotiating) table. But the Dutch position is that the illegal settlements are an essential point in the negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. I have also strongly emphasised this in my talks with Israeli colleagues,” said Timmermans.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Afghan Delegation in Rome as Taliban Raise Flag in Qatar
Country’s challenges and progress discussed
(By Shelly Kittleson) (ANSA) — Rome, June 20 — In meeting with Italian members of parliament this week, representatives of Afghan civil society asked that the country not be ‘abandoned’. The head of the Kabul juvenile court and the current director of a prestigious Afghan research centre discussed the challenges faced by the country and stressed the fragility of the progress achieved over the past 12 years in meeting with about 20 members of parliament on Tuesday.
Judge Homa Alizoy, also a member of the Afghan Women’s Network, and former MP and current Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit (AREU) director Mir Ahmad Joyenda discussed the vast changes brought to the condition of women, education and media in the country. Alizoy, who visited Italy before as part of justice sector training — Italy was tasked with coordinating Afghan justice sector reform at the 2002 Tokyo conference and has remained active in this field in the country — noted the continuing challenges to women’s rights in the country. However, in speaking to ANSA, she stressed that during the years of the Taliban she was not even allowed to work outside of her house, much less as top judge in a Kabul court. The warning of what stands to be lost gained poignancy after the Taliban opened a political office in Qatar on Tuesday, during which the fundamentalist group cut a celebratory ribbon and raised the well-known flag of the insurgency above a nameplate that reads ‘The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan’. Only after intervention by US Secretary of State John Kerry were both the flag and the nameplate removed late Wednesday evening.
The US was forced to get involved after Afghan President Hamid Karzai balked at what seemed to be tantamount to the setting up of a parallel embassy to that of the Afghan government, and made it known that talks on a new Afghan-US security agreement which would allow some American troops to stay in the country after the international combat mission comes to an end would be suspended as a result.
Also on Tuesday, a ceremonial handover of security leadership to Afghan national forces was held to mark the beginning of the final phase of the transition, which culminates in December 2014. Joyenda and the head of Italy’s Afghan network, Emanuele Giordana, met with Senate Foreign Affairs Committee Vice President Paolo Corsini on Wednesday. During the discussion, the AREU director made the network’s request for the Italian government to continue supporting the creation of a House of Civil Society in Kabul as “a sort of insurance” against all the efforts of the past 12 years going to waste. It was also noted that Afghanistan continues to lobby for 30% of what Italy will save on military expenditure to be rerouted to civilian initiatives post-2014.
Italy currently has some 3,000 troops on the ground — mostly in the western part of the country near the border with Iran — and plans to keep them there through 2014 and the Afghan presidential elections scheduled that year. Afterwards, however, to what extent government funding and support will continue for civilian development in Afghanistan remains uncertain.
Corsini noted that while he had been present at “heated debate” among MPs whenever the issue of the Italian military presence in Afghanistan was brought up — with some calling for troops to be brought home immediately — backing within the Parliament for continuing civilian support even after the withdrawal had instead always been “unanimous”. He also said that he had long held that “any peace process should not damage (Afghan) society’s ability to develop”, which the delegates feel is what talking to the Taliban while they continue to carry out attacks may be doing.
And, in any case, Joyenda said, “the elected Afghan government cannot be sidelined during the process”. The Italian senator assured the delegates, however, that Italian government support for Afghanistan would be “steadfast” and “lasting”.
Many Afghans have voiced concerns that justice may be sacrificed in the name of ‘peace’ in this period. Joyenda stressed that the peace process as it stands is bypassing the elected Afghan government and dealing with an insurgent group that, “according to the latest survey, only 7% of the Afghan population support”.
He also warned of growing regional dangers from not only Pakistan, which closed “20,000 madrasas, mostly from the FATA area, to send their students to plant IEDs and carry out attacks in Afghanistan”, but also Iran. Despite the relief with which the recent election of ‘moderate’ Hassan Rouhani in Iran has met with internationally, Joyenda noted that the “president is one thing and the Pasdaran quite another”. The reference to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards was to draw a similar comparison with the elected government in Pakistan and the alleged independent involvement of the latter country’s secret services body, the ISI, in training and recruiting insurgents. Reports of an Iranian-funded media network in Afghanistan existing solely to “push the Iranian agenda” worry a number of Afghans, and the much publicized Shia Personal Status law of 2011 — heavily contested by women’s rights activists and which legalises what has been termed ‘spousal rape’- was written by an Iranian trained cleric. Meanwhile, more recently the Taliban sent a high-level delegation to Iran, presenting the visit as “a meeting between two governments”.
The delegates went on to note that until the composition of the High Peace Council is changed, no tangible results could be expected of it. Set up to act as a mediator in the peace process but “impartial and unrepresentative”, as it is made up mostly of mujahedeen leaders who fought against the Taliban, the AREU director asked the Italian government to put pressure on its Afghan counterpart so that it instead include civil society representatives and those who have not been engaged in previous conflicts.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Dubai to Have ‘Holy Quran Park’ Next Year
Plans to construct a unique public park project called ‘Holy Quran Park’ have been announced by the General Projects Department of Dubai Municipality.
The project is expected to be completed by September 2014, according to Eng. Mohammed Nour Mashroum, the Director of General Projects Department, who disclosed the details of the proposed project on the occasion of celebrating the 1000th meeting of the technical committee of Dubai Municipality. The meeting was held at municipality’s main building in Deira, Dubai.
The theme park located in Al Khawaneej has been specially designed from an Islamic perspective to introduce the miracles of Quran through a variety of surprises for the visitors, DM said in a press release.
The 60-hectare park will have all available plants mentioned in the Holy Quran along with facilities such as an attractive main entrance, an administration building, an Islamic garden, children’s play areas, Umrah corner, an outdoor theatre, areas for showing the miracles of the Quran, fountains, bathrooms, a glass building, a desert garden, a palm oasis, a lake, a running track, a cycling track and a sandy walking track.
The plants mentioned in the Holy Quran are 54 and include fig, pomegranate, olive, corn, leek, garlic, onion, lentil, barley, wheat, ginger, pumpkin, watermelon, tamarind, seders, vineyards, bananas, cucumbers and basil.
“The glass building will accommodate of 15 items of plants, and other items will be planted in different specific gardens. These plants are expected to stimulate the visitors to think about the reason behind mentioning the names of these plans in the Quran,” Mashroum said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
by Douglas Murray
I don’t think, so far as I can remember, that I have ever previously found any sympathy with the sayings of top Islamist cleric Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi. But I do appreciate his recent sentiment that Hezbollah is in fact not the ‘Army of God’ but rather the ‘Army of Satan.’ And I can find only one fault in his recent rallying cry, backed by the Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia, Abdul Aziz al-Asheik (with whom he has usually disagreed), that ‘every Muslim trained to fight and capable of doing that [must] make himself available’ for Jihad in Syria against Bashar al-Assad and Hezbollah.
The powerful downside, of course, is the continuing civilian tragedy in Syria. So might not all sides — endorsed by Shia and Sunni leaders alike — agree that the innocent Syrian people do not need to get caught up in this fight? Perhaps they can find a piece of ground outside any civilian areas where this grand jihad can take place. Then the extremists who follow Sheikh Qaradawi ought certainly to take up his call and really go for it. If Sunni extremists of an al-Qaeda bent wish to fight to the death with Hezbollah, then who are we to stand in their way?
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Syria: The Calm Before the Jihadi Storm
by Ramond Ibrahim
The same U.S. policies that helped created al-Qaeda in Afghanistan in the 1980s are today creating many al-Qaedas in many Muslim countries, promising to deliver future terror strikes that will make 9/11 seem like child’s play. To understand this dire prediction, we must first examine the United States’ history of empowering Islamic jihadis—only to be attacked by those same jihadis many years later—and the shortsightedness of American policymakers, whose policies are based on their brief tenure, not America’s long-term wellbeing.
[…]
And now in Syria, Obama has decided to arm foreign jihadis. One report indicates that foreigners make up 95% of Syria’s so-called “opposition.” As in Libya—and as in Afghanistan in the ‘80s—foreign jihadis are flooding Syria, terrorizing non-Muslims and cleansing the nation of Christians in their bid to create another base, another qaeda. One of them recently declared, “When we finish with Assad, we will fight the U.S.!”—precisely al-Qaeda’s thinking in the ‘80s-’90s when it was supported by the U.S. against the U.S.S.R.
[…]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Syrian Rebels Get First Heavy Weapons on the Front Line of Aleppo
The first new heavy weapons have arrived on Syria’s front lines following President Barack Obama’s decision to put Western military might behind the official opposition, rebels have told The Daily Telegraph.
Rebel sources said Russian-made “Konkurs” anti-tank missiles had been supplied by America’s key Gulf ally, Saudi Arabia. They have already been used to destructive effect and may have held up a promised regime assault on Aleppo.
A handful of the missiles were already in use and in high demand after opposition forces looted them from captured regime bases.
More have now arrived, confirming reports that the White House has lifted an unofficial embargo on its Gulf allies sending heavy weapons to the rebels. Last week, the White House said it would send military support to Syria’s opposition after concluding that President Bashar al-Assad’s regime had used chemical agents against them. Unlike rocket-propelled grenades, the Konkurs — Contest in English — can penetrate the regime’s most advanced tanks, Russian-made T72s.
[…]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Syrian Al-Qaeda Sidelines More Secular Mercenaries
During a 10-day journey through rebel-held territory in Syria, Reuters journalists found that radical Islamist units are sidelining more moderate groups that do not share the Islamists’ goal of establishing a supreme religious leadership in the country.
The moderates, often underfunded, fragmented and chaotic, appear no match for Islamist units, which include fighters from organizations designated “terrorist” by the United States.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Japan Finds Highly Toxic Strontium-90 in Fukushima Groundwater
High levels of a toxic substance called strontium-90 have been found in groundwater at the devastated Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan, the utility that operates the facility said on Wednesday.
Strontium-90 is a by-product of the fission of uranium and plutonium in nuclear reactors as well as nuclear weapons, according to the website of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
The discovery of rising levels of such radioactive material is likely to complicate efforts by the utility, Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO), to get approval to release what it describes as water contaminated with low levels of radiation into the Pacific Ocean.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Card John Onayekam: Religion and Terrorist Violence in Nigeria
There is no “war of religion” in Nigeria but a series of terrorist attacks by locals and foreigners. Christians and Muslims alike criticise Boko Haram. The government’s ineptitude has accentuated the problem. The Archbishop of Abuja speaks on the matter at the Oasis Conference.
Milan (AsiaNews) — Card John Onayekam, archbishop of Abuja, speaks about the situation in Nigeria at the annual meeting of the Oasis Centre (for more click here and here).. In his sweeping analysis, the cardinal indicates how Boko Haram, a terrorist organisation responsible for several massacres of Christians, represents a minority view that has foreign support but one that is criticised by local Muslims. In his address, the prelate outlined a path toward reconciliation in the country.
Let us begin with the general observation that there is violence in the Nigerian culture and I imagine like in every culture. Apart from the history of the inter-tribal wars in the past and of the colonial conquest of our land as well as the resistance to that conquest, our independent Nigeria has also seen the experience of the Nigerian Civil War in which there was a lot of violence and killing. Following this experience, the country has had to deal very much with criminals, armed robbers, militants and kidnappers, most of which are a carry-over from the situation of violence in the last decades. There is also the communal violence that has been in the country every now and then between different ethnic groups, between social groups, even between political groups. Our elections have often been marred by serious violence. In this context therefore, the religious dimension simply falls into a relatively “normal” pattern. People quarrel and fight over many things, including over their religion.
Terrorism is something new in our country. By terrorism, we mean violent actions that entail indiscriminate killing of innocent people, with no clear logical reasons. The terrorism that we see presently in Northern Nigeria, especially the Boko Haram in North East Nigeria, is therefore an anomaly in our nation. The members are mainly local elements. But they have definitely foreign links and backing. It is suggested that the leaders themselves have been part of terrorist cells and movements outside Nigeria, in the hot spots of world Islamic terrorism like Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Somalia, and more recently, Mali. Sometimes the terrorists target specific people, for example, government institutions and sad to say, churches and Christians. Whether the attack against churches and Christians is specifically religious and if so for what purpose, it is still very difficult to understand. We note however that they sometimes speak of their desire to impose by force on the whole of Nigeria an Islamic state governed by a strict form of the Sharia. At other times, they have ordered all non-Muslims to vacate their section of the country, a futile call that fails to recognize the complexity of the Muslim-Christian presence on the Nigerian territory. In all this, the terrorism we are noticing has brought in a new level of virulence in the damage they cause to human lives and properties.
To talk of religious terrorism in Nigeria, we must say a little bit of religion in Nigeria. It is often said that Nigeria has three religions — African Traditional Religion, Islam and Christianity. But most Nigerians, we will say more than 90%, claim to be either Christians or Muslims. But at the same time, most of them retain their firm root in the African Traditional Religion. The distribution of the different faith is anything but even. Although the North is largely Muslim, the South East is largely Christian and the South West and Middle Belt are very mixed. That is about all one can say. To speak of a Muslim North and a Christian South is to say the least very inaccurate. The fact is that every part of Nigeria has some elements of both Islam and Christianity.
Generally, relationship between Nigerians of different faiths is cordial and good and still remains so despite the recent events. It is precisely on the basis of this good relationship that we are building our efforts to overcome our present challenges. The terrorist tensions that we are now experiencing are surely an anomaly that we believe will be overcome, sooner than later. Already, in recent weeks, there is much talk and debate about dialogue with those who are ready to lay down their arms, in view of the possibility of the offer of an amnesty, under conditions still to be determined. Of recent, the Federal Government has set up a committee made up mostly of devout Muslim to reach out to the militants with a view to working out any possible modalities for such an amnesty program. The committee is still to come out with any tangible result.
Religious Violence in Nigeria is very often with mixed motives. What appears as religious violence may actually be due to ethnic, political or socio-economic reasons. For example, where two neighbouring or even overlapping ethnic groups are fighting over scarce resources, if one is largely Christian and the other is largely Muslim, their struggles and their battles become battles between Christians and Muslims, even though religion may have little or no part to play in the origin and course of the conflict. In this regard, there are many cases now where communities of farmers who are generally Christians are having to engage groups of nomadic Muslim cattle herders. The age-old antagonism between farmers and pastors, the story of Cain and Abel, is continuing even today. Because one side is seen as Christian and the other group is perceived as Muslim, the conflict is seen as a religious war. Cases where we have violence for purely religious reasons are indeed very rare. What is important now is to make sure that religion, which is a very important aspect of the life of Nigerians, is deployed as effectively as possible for peace all across the board.
Now let us talk specifically about the terrorist group in the North East of Nigeria generally called “Boko Haram” and their impact on religion in Nigeria. On the surface, they are perceived as religious. Everybody calls them “Islamic Terrorists”, an appellation that many Nigerian Muslims resent, on the ground that their activities are against the tenets of Islam. The fact however is that they are clearly Muslims and call themselves so. Not only that: in their exploits and attacks especially against Christians, they always shout the Islamic slogan “Allah u Akbar”. Therefore, the Muslim community in Nigeria cannot deny them, as it has tried to do for long, even though it is encouraging to know that they do not represent the authentic face of Islam in our country. That is why we believe that religious leaders have a role to play in containing and eventually solving this problem. The recent call of the Sultan of Sokoto, the most visible leader of the Nigerian Islamic community, for an amnesty for the terrorists, and the support that his proposal is receiving from some of us Christian leaders, has generated a debate that I believe will be very fruitful. In this regard, I have already mentioned the step taken by government to set up a committee to study this issue and offer recommendations for useful action.
On the whole, it would seem that the action of the government lacks coherence. For a long time, government tended to underestimate the seriousness of the phenomenon and approached it in the spirit of maintaining law and order. First, the police, then the army were sent to deal with them. Despite vigorous efforts in this line, the terrorists seemed to be waxing stronger and growing in number by the day. It has been alleged that the crude methods used by the security agents have often alienated the communities among whom the terrorists live and operate thus making their task ever more problematic. How does a soldier deal “nicely” with armed militants without uniform, melting with the people in the villages and practically turning the innocent civilian populations into a human shield? This has opened our government to some harsh criticism from some human rights organizations.
This may be why the government decided to try the approach of dialogue and offer of amnesty to militants who are ready to lay down their arms and embrace reconciliation. There is a great problem of who is going to negotiate with whom? The olive branch of government has been rejected outright by someone who claims to be speaking on behalf of Boko Haram. It is hoped that at least some others will accept the offer of peace.
For a long time, the Nigerian political class tended to political capital from the tragedy of a bloody insecurity. Government accused the opposition of fomenting the rebellion. The opposition condemned the government as incompetent and unable to rule the nation. In the midst of the finger pointing, Nigerians continued to be killed, and economic and social life were grinding to a halt in the more affected areas. It seems however that of recent there are signs of political cooperation at the highest level. A clear demonstration of this is the way a state of emergency was declared in three states along the north east borders of Nigeria, which are most affected by the insurgency: Borno, Yobe and Adamawa. In all these states, the democratic structures have been left in place, which means that the state governments of Borno and Yobe, under an opposition political party, is cooperating with the Federal Government in addressing the common danger.
With the state of emergency, the government has launched a vigorous and robust military action, which is already succeeding in dislodging and scattering the militants from their camps and installations. Very little news is coming from the battlegrounds. The military action involves both Nigerian and non-Nigerian troops from our neighbouring countries. It is also rumoured that our country has accepted specialized assistance of expertise and equipment from far away nations like Britain, USA and Israel. We are waiting and hoping for the best.
As the military action is going on, we need to think of what comes next after this phase of military engagement. We are still waiting to see what plans we have for genuine reconciliation, rehabilitation and re-orientation of the many who have been convinced to turn against their nation. I believe this is where religious communities will have an important role to play. These few years of sectarian violence has done a lot of harm on our hard earned and fragile climate of good relations between Muslims and Christians in Nigeria. Both communities will need to work hard to restore and promote mutual understanding and respect. This calls for hard work and patience especially on the part of the religious leaders in both camps.
Having said all the above, we must stress that the Boko Haram is a complex phenomenon. There are social, political and ethnic dimensions. All these factors must be addressed along with the religious dimension. Religion therefore becomes one among the many approaches to its solution. This religious approach should start with “the house of Islam”, doing all it can to put its own house in order. We Christians, on our part, need to have positive attitude to Islam in general, so that along with our brother Muslims, we can jointly face the challenge of Islamic Terrorism. It means seeking common grounds, stressing the things that bind us together, and emphasizing what we hold as shared religious values. Furthermore, we can jointly work to address the challenges that face us all, in terms of poverty, bad governance, sickness, etc. When we look at all these and we act together, we shall be able to build a community that can work and walk together as one body, one community, one nation, despite our different religions.
In all this, there is need for coordination of all our efforts. I believe this is where the responsibility of the government largely lies, a responsibility that, unfortunately, we have so far not been seeing much evidence of.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Swede Jailed for Life in Historic Genocide Case
A Swedish man became the first person in the country to be convicted of genocide, as he was sentenced to life in prison on Thursday for participating in the 1994 massacre of Tutsis in Rwanda.
“The accused has had an informal role as a leader and has himself fired at the crowd with an automatic weapon,” the district court stated in its verdict.
Stanislas Mbanenande, 54, a Swedish citizen of Rwandan origin and an ethnic Hutu, allegedly took part in massacres in his homeland between April 6th and June 30th, 1994 that left thousands dead.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
A potentially disastrous foreign policy situation for the U.S. has arisen: Communist China now appears to have all but purchased the Central American nation of Nicaragua.
Central America was once considered part of America’s “backyard.”
Wang Jing, the president of Hong Kong-based HKND Group, recently signed an agreement with Nicaraguan president (and former Communist guerrilla) Daniel Ortega to build a canal connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. The 100-year canal agreement was quickly passed by the Nicaraguan legislature, which is controlled by Ortega’s Marxist Sandinista party.
Wang is also heads the Beijing-based Xinwei Telecom Enterprise Group. In January of 2013 the Xinwei group acquired the right to operate Nicaragua’s cellphone and Internet services.
One of the stated priorities of the canal is to relieve the high level of poverty in Nicaragua, but the terms of the agreement are so favorable to China that Nicaragua appears to have bargained away its sovereignty, and in the process insured that Ortega will stay in power for many years.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Minister Says ‘Cultural Change’ Underway in Italy
Italy’s new Integration Minister Cecile Kyenge said on Wednesday that the country is “changing its approach” to immigration.
Kyenge, Italy’s first black minister, said the country is on the path towards greater protection of the rights of children born to immigrant parents.
Prime Minister Enrico Letta’s decision to create an integration ministry is in itself a “sign of fundamental change.”
“The idea is to bring attention back to people and their rights,” the Italian Congolese-born minister told a press conference with foreign journalists.
On her first official trip abroad Tuesday, Kyenge travelled to Geneva to explain to the UN “the importance of the cultural change that Italy is going through”, which she said would continue even if the unusual and uneasy centre-left, centre-right coalition government fails to last.
Kyenge, who emigrated to Italy in the 1980s to study medicine, has been the target of multiple verbal attacks and death threats since taking up the post of minister in April. “I am not scared,” she said, though her security detail has been bolstered since the threats began.
“The insults and threats are aimed at me because of my public image, but they really concern all those who are fighting against racism and for a society without violence,” she said. The 48-year-old said she did not think Italy was a racist country, but admitted that “there is a visible lack of knowledge …and a lack of culture about immigration.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
French Schools to Teach 6-Year-Olds About Sex Education and Gender Equality
In the new school year, a new subject, mandatory sex education, will be introduced in all French schools. Children will be educated from the age of six. Sex education is intended to completely shift the perception of the traditional biological roles of males and females in the children’s minds, replacing them with the ideas about the so-called social gender.
France has become a field for growing new unnatural humanity. Hollande’s government has incredible perseverance in the introduction of gay marriage and allowing same-sex couples to adopt children, supplemented by systemic measures to educate the young generation who will have no concept of a man and a woman.
The democratic government provides no alternative. The subject will be introduced in all French schools, including private and religious ones.
| — Hat tip: Kitman | [Return to headlines] |
The Devil Went to the G8 and Nobody Slammed the Door in His Face
Obama is full tilt in his mission to take down the Catholic Church, the only bastion still standing against Communism and radical Islam
In front of a captive audience of about 2,000 young people — his signature audience that leaves out adults — Obama claimed that Catholic education divides people and blocks peace, according to the Scottish Catholic Observer.
“If towns remain divided — if Catholics have their schools and buildings and Protestants have theirs, if we can’t see ourselves in one another and fear or resentment are allowed to harden — that too encourages division and discourages cooperation,” Obama said.
Spoken like the true son of the Satan-Alinsky cult.
Divisive words from a politician on ground where epic battles between Catholics and Protestants claimed so many lives. This from a politician who has ignored the division and slaughter from madrases and mosques so studiously that there are many who suspect him of being Muslim…
Nobody joins the dots between the Catholic Church support of Saul Alinsky and his loyal disciples Obama and Ayers more concisely than Michael Voris of churchmilitanttv, formerly RealCatholicTV.
It’s a story that should make you shudder because it’s how Barack Obama captured America like the proverbial fox in the henhouse.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Dropping the notion of serving God and country from the Girl Guides’ pledge is perplexing
After 103 years, the Girl Guides are dropping “God” and “country” from their pledge. Chief Guide Gill Slocombe hopes this will encourage more girls to join and the National Secular Society says that it will make the organisation “truly inclusive and relevant to the reality of 21st-century Britain”. Certainly, it will make it more politically correct. Painfully so.
Consider the bizarre language that replaces love of God. The Guides are now encouraged to “be true to myself and develop my beliefs” — a bland, morally relativistic statement that belongs more to a self-help therapy course than an organisation that is supposed to mould character and instil some sense of deference to higher truths.
Likewise, the decision to drop the notion of serving country from the pledge involves some perplexing logic. We can infer that the leadership of the Guides reason that some children may fail to identify with the nation state and so, in order to encourage them to join up, the old language must be purged. But this inept attempt to appear more inclusive is actually rather exclusive, for it implies that Britishness is not for everyone. Instead, the girls will now pledge to serve “my community”. What this “community” comprises is unclear (a postcode, a town, a golf club?) but the term is traditionally associated with minority ethnic identities. Again, a ham-fisted attempt to be open to all actually reinforces a sense of difference.
And while jettisoning religion and country, the Guides will continue to pledge allegiance to the Queen. They won’t serve “anachronisms” like God or Britain, but they will serve a hereditary monarch. Vapidly right-on and inconsistent: this new pledge says a lot about the paradoxical views of some in our liberal “community”.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Former GMO Engineer Drops Biotech and Goes Organic
Thierry Vrain, Ph.D., a former genetic engineer who speaks out against the risks of genetically engineered foods.
KR: You say that the science behind genetic engineering is based on a misunderstanding. Please elaborate on this.
Vrain: When we started with genetic engineering in the 1980s, the science was based on the theory that one gene produces one protein. But we now know, since the human genome project, that a gene can create more than one protein. The insertion of genes in the genome through genetic engineering interrupts the coding sequence of the DNA, creating truncated, rogue proteins, which can cause unintended effects. It’s an invasive technology.
Biotech companies ignore these rogue proteins; they say they are background noise. But we should pay attention to them. It must be verified that they produce no negative effects.
A key point is that the concern about genetic engineering should be about the proteins. Many plants and animals are not edible because their proteins are toxic or poisonous. To test for the safety of Bt crops, scientists have mostly fed the pure protein to rats, and there may be no problem. But it’s different if you feed rats the whole GM plant because they are getting these rogue proteins that could cause harm.
[…]
KR: What are some of the other risks you see with GMOs?
Vrain: When I hear we need genetic engineering to feed the world, I cringe. It turns out that there is no increase in yield, no decrease use of pesticides, and the process is of highly questioned safety.
Even if genetic engineering was perfectly safe, I still question it because of genetic pollution. Organic crops and foods are becoming contaminated.
I’m also concerned about contamination of the environment with antibiotic resistant genes. Every GM crop has these genes. The preliminary evidence we have is that bacteria in the soil and in the human gut are capable of picking those genes up. Considering the alarm I hear from medical people about losing antibiotics, I think this should be a serious concern.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
So sorry to hear of your several health troubles. And what a lot of winter and summer power outages you’ve had to contend with! My sincere wishes that the rest of the year for you will be a little less character-forming.
Any idea what has happened to the New English Review? I found one account about eight days ago, which said the NER was suffering a DDOS attack. Have you heard anything?
The NER was taken down by a massive DDOS. They were supposed to be back up this week, on a dedicated server. Something must have delayed the process; I haven’t heard anything new.
“Occupation” is a perfectly valid term for blocking the streets for whole periods. It is an offence to block the highway. Occupation of streets (by any group) proves failure by the authorities to uphold the law.
The Muslim Brotherhood allied themselves to the Nazis. The Mufti of Jerusalem helped Hitler design the Holocaust. The SS had a muslim section. See the photograph of modern day Jihadis giving the Nazi salute. These “soldiers of Allah”, are standing in military formation, and dressed in matching (“uniform”) clothing.
“….no one can regard any field of his affairs as personal and private. … the Islamic State bears a kind of resemblance to the Fascist and Communist states.”
Maududi, famous Islamic scholar (www.CitizenWarrior.com 20 June 2011)