The United States, France, and Turkey all say that Bashar al-Assad’s Syrian regime has crossed the “red line” with its purported chemical attack. Russia, however, maintains that the attack was in fact a “false flag” operation staged by the Syrian rebels. Independent observers also question the timing of the event, which occurred just after international inspectors arrived in Syria, and was close to their base of operations.
In other news, hundreds of American Copts converged on Washington D.C. today to protest the Obama administration’s policy towards Egypt, and in particular its support for the Muslim Brotherhood and deposed President Mohamed Morsi.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to AR, C. Cantoni, ESW, Fjordman, Frontinus, Insubria, JD, Jerry Gordon, Kitman, KP, MC, 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.
Italy: Berlusconi Puts Time Limit on Govt to Fix Economy
‘Progress in 50 days or serious price to pay’
(ANSA) — Rome, August 22 — Ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi said Thursday that the fragile coalition government must make quick progress if the country is to pull out of recession. “In the next 50 days, either the government is able to give the country a positive boost, one that’s visible to all Italians, or we will continue to be bogged down by a recessive tendency,” he said in an interview with online daily Tempi. “And we certainly can’t get excited over some decimal point of improvement. Either Italy recovers and takes off, or we risk paying a very high price for the (economic crisis)”.
Italy is currently undergoing its worst recession in decades. The coalition government, of which Berlusconi’s center-right People of Freedom (PdL) party is a junior member, has pledged to make recovery a central focus. But differing views on how to do that, such as an ongoing row over reforming a controversial property tax known as IMU, have plagued the government since its unprecedented inception in April after two months of post-election gridlock in parliament.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Presidential Meeting Signals Catastrophic Event
“There Is a Crisis Unfolding Somewhere in the Background”
If there’s one thing we know about how the US government operates, it’s that the American people are often the last to know about serious problems that may be taking place behind the scenes.
This week, in a move that has spooked a lot of economic and financial analysts, President Barack Obama held a special, closed door meeting with the heads of the U.S. government’s financial, monetary and oversight agencies. It included members of the Federal Reserve, the FDIC, the CFTC, the SEC, and the Federal Housing Finance Agency.
This has left many wondering what is really going on — and if a serious event is about to take place yet again…
“But clearly if the President is having this meeting, there is a crisis unfolding somewhere in the background, and it could very well relate to the dollar, interest rates, and the massive derivatives market associated with interest rates…
“This surge in interest rates may have already seriously destabilized the entire financial system, and that’s why there is this meeting taking place in the White House today. The fact is that the vast majority of derivatives in the global financial system are related to interest rates.
“Now, the entire financial system may be on the precipice of some sort of catastrophic event unfolding because of what we have already seen in the bond market, and how the derivatives are so heavily intertwined. Meaning, we may be on the verge of another disastrous derivatives meltdown. “ John Embry — King World News via Steve Quayle
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Walter Russell Mead: New York, California, Illinois Hemorrhage Tax Dollars
Excerpt: A new study on state-by-state income migration from the Tax Foundation (h/t WSJ), found that New York, California, and Illinois—the largest blue states in the country—led the country in income flight during the last decade. New York was hit particularly hard, losing $46 billion dollars of taxable income to people leaving the state over the past ten years. And these states were not alone: blue stalwarts like Maryland, New Jersey, and Massachusetts were not far behind.
| — Hat tip: KP | [Return to headlines] |
Abandoned Dogs Roam Detroit in Packs as Humans Dwindle
As many as 50,000 stray dogs roam the streets and vacant homes of bankrupt Detroit, replacing residents, menacing humans who remain and overwhelming the city’s ability to find them homes or peaceful deaths.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
America: The Great Stupor Power (Video)
America is a stupor power. Our senses have been dulled. We can no longer logically decipher the truth. Let’s look at a few examples.
The other day I was speaking with a brilliant young man who had recently graduated from a prestigious law school and as is my nature I took the opportunity to dialogue with him on some of the weightier issues of the day.
After continually “heading him off at the pass” in regards to the legal bilge he was uttering I couldn’t help but stop him in mid sentence and asked him a question that completely knocked him off kilter.
“Pardon my blunt honesty, but when did you become so stupid? You used to be one of the sharpest young guys I knew and now all you do is repeat meaningless legal rhetoric. How much did you pay to become so stupid?”
No one talks like that anymore. Everyone is afraid to hurt somebody’s feelings…afraid to point out the foolishness of a belief that they espouse. It is the way the universities have trained them. Creating an argument displays a higher level of critical thinking whether or not the argument makes any logical sense. That is where they are now trying to take us with Common Core. Take 1 minute and view this stupidity from supposedly educated people.
Our educational system has dulled the senses of our children. It has taught them WHAT to think and not HOW to think.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
American Copts Protest Obama Administration Support for Muslim Brotherhood
Several hundred American Egyptian Copts boarded buses and private transportation streaming from across the East Coast to protest de facto Obama Administration and media support for the Muslim Brotherhood. Buses left Coptic Churches early this morning from New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Delaware, South Carolina, and North Carolina to reach Washington, DC for the 11:00AM kickoff of protests. The protest organizers reached out to secular and Muslim Egyptians in the US to join them, Protests were held at the White House, before the editorial offices of The Washington Post, CNN’s Washington studios and the Washington office of Muslim Brotherhood front group, Council for American Islamic Relations. As noted in a Washington Free Beacon story on the Coptic protests in DC, they consider CAIR’s national offices as the MB “embassy” in our nation’s capital. They also rallied at the office of the Egyptian Military attaché to thank Egyptian Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Sisi for ousting President Morsi, detaining Muslim Brotherhood leaders and fighting violence perpetrated by the group’s supporters against security personnel. Bat Ye’or, one of those 80,000 Egyptian Jews ejected in 1956 wrote the author today that what is occurring to Copts in Egypt is: “A very somber tragedy rarely mentioned by Western leaders”. Today’s Washington Coptic protest organizers are acutely aware of their fate. Their message to the White House and the media is the Muslim Brotherhood is both the Copts’ and our worst nightmare.
| — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon | [Return to headlines] |
Anthony Marshall, Brooke Astor’s Son, Is Granted Parole
The State Parole Board ruled on Thursday that Anthony D. Marshall, the 89-year-old son of the philanthropist and socialite Brooke Astor, has grown so frail and sick that he will be paroled from prison after serving about 60 days of his sentence of one to three years.
The decision was a stark turnaround from assurances by state and city correction officials two months ago that the prisons were well equipped to handle Mr. Marshall’s health care needs. After reviewing 900 pages of health records submitted by his lawyers, correction officials had said that caring for him would not be a challenge.
Several court decisions since Mr. Marshall was sentenced in 2009 had also held that Mr. Marshall’s age and health should not preclude him from serving his sentence.
His lawyers made the request for medical parole shortly after Mr. Marshall entered the prison system on June 21. They said he could not walk, stand, clean himself or dress himself and had potentially life-threatening swallowing issues. Mr. Marshall’s health problems include Parkinson’s disease and congestive heart failure.
Mr. Marshall and Francis X. Morrissey Jr., an Astor family lawyer, were convicted in 2009 of stealing tens of millions of dollars from Mrs. Astor. Prosecutors said the two tricked Mrs. Astor, who by then was over 100 years old and had Alzheimer’s disease, into altering her will to give to give the money to Mr. Marshall. She died in 2007 at 105.
| [Return to headlines] |
Corporate Media Portrays Michael Hastings as Meth User
The family of Michael Hastings has rejected a toxicology report claiming the deceased journalist had traces of amphetamine in his body.
“I can honestly say with absolute certainty that he wasn’t doing meth,” an anonymous family member told the WhoWhatWhy news website. “‘Methamphetamine’ can be nasal spray Sudafed, one of those upper drinks at the gas station, prescription amphetamines, etc.”
“The LAPD has done a really sloppy job investigating his case, and they were hoping for a mother lode of drugs in his system,” the family member continued. “When they didn’t get it in the toxicology lab results (science!), they had to insert speculation throughout their field report to compensate for their lack of an investigation. It’s so irresponsible.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Facial Scanning is Making Gains in Surveillance
The federal government is making progress on developing a surveillance system that would pair computers with video cameras to scan crowds and automatically identify people by their faces, according to newly disclosed documents and interviews with researchers working on the project.
The Department of Homeland Security tested a crowd-scanning project called the Biometric Optical Surveillance System — or BOSS — last fall after two years of government-financed development. Although the system is not ready for use, researchers say they are making significant advances. That alarms privacy advocates, who say that now is the time for the government to establish oversight rules and limits on how it will someday be used.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Gun Confiscation Begins in California
As reported by David Knight, California law enforcement is now confiscating legally purchased guns from registered gun owners who have been labeled “Armed Prohibited Persons” (APPs.)
Police shoved two M16s within inches of gun owner Joe Mendez’s face during a raid on his house to seize his legally-purchased firearms.
Fourteen officers total were involved.
Police even showed up later to lie to Mendez’s wife about the raid, saying that they were only taking a report after her car was involved in a “hit and run.”
All of the targeted APPs had purchased their firearms legally but the State of California declared afterwards that they were prohibited from gun ownership due to minor misdemeanor convictions or mental health concerns.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Has Washington, D.C., Become a Criminal Entity?
I realize that anyone who dares to contradict accepted politically correct dogma is demonized as being “radical,” “extremist,” or racist,” and some people have tried to characterize Dr. Roberts in that vein. But it should be obvious to any honest and objective person that Paul Craig Roberts has one of the most distinguished resumes of anyone in America today.
Paul recently wrote a column entitled, “Humanity Is Drowning In Washington’s Criminality.” I realize it is difficult for most Americans to conceive the idea that their federal government could actually be criminal, but the case Roberts makes in his column cannot be tossed aside as the ranting of some right-wing nut (as if there are no left-wing nuts).
Roberts writes, “Americans will soon be locked into an unaccountable police state unless US Representatives and Senators find the courage to ask questions and to sanction the executive branch officials who break the law, violate the Constitution, withhold information from Congress, and give false information about their crimes against law, the Constitution, the American people and those in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Somalia, Guantanamo, and elsewhere. Congress needs to use the impeachment power that the Constitution provides and cease being subservient to the lawless executive branch. The US faces no threat that justifies the lawlessness and abuse of police powers that characterize the executive branch in the 21st century.
“Impeachment is the most important power of Congress. Impeachment is what protects the citizens, the Constitution, and the other branches of government from abuse by the executive branch. If the power to remove abusive executive branch officials is not used, the power ceases to exist. An unused power is like a dead letter law. Its authority disappears. By acquiescing to executive branch lawlessness, Congress has allowed the executive branch to place itself above law and to escape accountability for its violations of law and the Constitution.
“National Intelligence Director James R. Clapper blatantly lied to Congress and remains in office. Keith B. Alexander, Director of the National Security Agency, has also misled Congress, and he remains in office. Attorney General Holder avoids telling Congress the truth on just about every subject, and he also remains in office. The same can be said for President Obama, one of the great deceivers of our time, who is so adverse to truth that truth seldom finds its way out of his mouth.
“If an American citizen lies to a federal investigator, even if not under oath, the citizen can be arrested, prosecuted, and sent to prison. Yet, these same federal personnel can lie to Congress and to citizens with impunity. Whatever the American political system is, it has nothing whatsoever to do with accountable government. In Amerika [Roberts’ spelling] no one is accountable but citizens, who are accountable not only to law but also to unaccountable charges for which no evidence is required.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
If You Could Make More Money by Going on Welfare Instead of Working, Would You Do it?
If you could stay home and relax all day and actually make more money than you do at your current job, would you do it? That sounds crazy, but this is actually a very real dilemma for millions upon millions of Americans. According to a shocking new study that was just released by the Cato Institute, people on welfare are actually better off than minimum wage workers in 35 U.S. states. And in 13 states, those on welfare actually do better than those making $15 an hour. So why bother? It is very difficult to find a job in this economy, especially a good one. As I mentioned yesterday, seven out of every eight jobs that have been “created” since Barack Obama has been president have been part-time jobs. Why slave away flipping burgers, stocking shelves for some retail giant or working for some temp agency when you could just sit home and make more money collecting government checks? Yes, there is definitely a minority of Americans that hate the idea of becoming dependent on the government and would never want to take advantage of the system like that, but that minority seems to be shrinking. At this point, about half the country gets money from the government each month anyway, so why not collect “your share”? If someone is offering to give you something for free, it is only human nature to be at least a little bit tempted. And right now the federal government is making it extremely tempting to give up on work entirely and become a permanent welfare check collector.
Before people start getting really upset, let me once again reiterate that most of the people that are receiving financial assistance from the government actually need it. Not everyone is abusing the system, and not everyone is using their food stamps to buy lobster…
If you want to get an idea of where we are headed, just look at Detroit. Once upon a time, Detroit actually had the highest per capita income in the entire country. But now it is a rotting, festering, bankrupt hellhole where tens of thousands of stray dogs freely roam the streets…
As many as 50,000 stray dogs roam the streets and vacant homes of bankrupt Detroit, replacing residents, menacing humans who remain and overwhelming the city’s ability to find them homes or peaceful deaths.
One Humane Society official that recently visited the city to help deal with the dog crisis described what she witnessed as “almost post-apocalyptic”…
But don’t laugh at Detroit.
The rest of the country is going down the exact same path.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Michael Hastings Feared His Mercedes Had Been Tampered With
Day before crash: “He was afraid to drive his own car”
The very day before a suspicious car crash claimed his life, journalist Michael Hastings feared his Mercedes had been tampered with and asked to borrow a friend’s vehicle, telling her that he was “scared and wanted to leave town.”
The revelation, which emerged in an LA Weekly interview with Jordanna Thigpen, re-emphasizes the fact that Hastings was fearful for his safety having complained of being under scrutiny by the FBI.
Helicopters often circle over the hills, but Hastings believed there were more of them around whenever he was at home, keeping an eye on him. He came to believe his Mercedes was being tampered with. “Nothing I could say could console him,” Thigpen says.
One night in June, he came to Thigpen’s apartment after midnight and urgently asked to borrow her Volvo. He said he was afraid to drive his own car. She declined, telling him her car was having mechanical problems.
“He was scared, and he wanted to leave town,” she says.
The next day, around 11:15 a.m., she got a call from her landlord, who told her Hastings had died early that morning. His car had crashed into a palm tree at 75 mph and exploded in a ball of fire.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
NSA Has Ability to Illegally Spy on 75% of All Internet Traffic
More evidence NSA surveils American people, not foreign terrorists
A would have us believe they only conduct surveillance on foreign terrorists, but this lie was recently put to rest in a Wall Street Journal article. In fact, according to current and former NSA officials, the agency has the ability to spy on 75 percent of all internet traffic in the United States, and probably more.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Randy Krehbiel: U.S. Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) Calls for National Constitutional Convention
Excerpt: Such a convention has never been called, largely because the Constitution itself was the product of a convention authorized only to amend the existing Articles of Confederation, but which replaced it entirely. Thus, political leaders and scholars have long held that such a convention could be dangerous and even destructive to the nation. But as conservative frustration with the Obama administration has grown, some factions have begun advocating for such a convention.
| — Hat tip: KP | [Return to headlines] |
Second Amendment Saves Iowa Couple Who Shot and Killed Escaped Inmate
Law enforcement authorities said Tuesday that an Iowa couple shot and killed an escaped inmate after being held in their home for four hours.
Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation Special Agent Mitch Mortvedt said Rodney Long forced his way into the couple’s home at 2609 Highland Avenue about 10:15 p.m. and held them for the next four hours.
Jerome and Carolyn Mauderly said Long was armed with a semi automatic handgun. He had also taken their phones.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Thug Culture That Killed Chris Lane
James Edwards, 15, Chancey Luna, 16, and Michael Jones, 17, have all been charged as adults in Lane’s death
In a testament to the depravity of thug culture, an Australian collegiate baseball player attending school in America was killed by three teenagers looking for fun, police reported. Christopher Lane, who was out for a jog in the town of Duncan, Oklahoma where his girlfriend and her family live, was targeted at random after he passed a home where the boys were staying. “They saw Christopher go by, and one of them said: ‘There’s our target,’“ said Police Chief Danny Ford. “The boy who has talked to us said, ‘We were bored and didn’t have anything to do, so we decided to kill somebody.’“
James Edwards, 15, Chancey Luna, 16, and Michael Jones, 17, have all been charged as adults in Lane’s death. Edwards and Luna, both black Americans, have been charged with first degree murder, and will be tried as adults per Oklahoma law. Jones, who is white, was charged with using a vehicle in the discharge of a weapon and with accessory to first-degree murder after the fact. He will also be tried in adult court, but is still considered a youthful offender. If convicted, Edwards and Luna face life in prison without parole. Jones, who wept in court as he tried to talk about the crime before being cut off by the judge, faces anywhere from two years to life in prison. Edwards and Luna are being held without bond. Jones’s bond is set at $1 million.
Police noted that Lane was jogging through an affluent section of Duncan around 3 p.m. local time when a car carrying the three teenagers pulled up behind him. In court, prosecutor Jason Hicks alleged that Luna was in the back seat, Edwards was in the passenger seat and Jones was driving the vehicle. Luna allegedly shot Lane in the back with a .22 caliber revolver that has yet to be recovered. “We were bored,” Luna reportedly admitted to authorities.
Hicks, who called the boys “thugs,” noted that Edwards found the slaying amusing. “I believe this man is a threat to the community and should not be let out,” Hicks said during the bail hearing. “He thinks it’s all a joke.” Edwards, who has had earlier run-ins with the law, had also been in court on Friday, apparently after the crime had been committed, to sign papers related to his juvenile probation…
Tweets on Edwards’ Twitter account suggest he is racist. On April 29, he tweeted “90% of white ppl are nasty. #HATE THEM.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
This Homeland Security Employee is Preparing for a Coming Race War
A Department of Homeland Security employee who works on, among other things, the procurement of guns and ammunition for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, spends his nights and weekends preparing for a coming race war and advocating for anti-gay causes, according to a new report from the Southern Poverty Law Center. Meet Ayo Kimathi, a.k.a. “the Irritated Genie,” who told his bosses at the DHS that his anti-white, anti-gay site, “War is on the Horizon,” was just an entertainment site that sells concert and lecture videos.
[…]
Instead, the DHS employee advocates for: — The mass murder of white people. His site says, “warfare is eminent, and in order for Black people to survive the 21st century, we are going to have to kill a lot of whites — more than our christian hearts can possibly count.” — A conspiracy theory arguing that white people are trying to “homosexualize” black men in order to make them more effeminate and therefore weaker. As part of this, Kimathi, praises a series of laws in some African countries that criminalize LGBT behavior and people. Kimathi also advocates for the supremacy of black men above black women — he offers tips on his site, for instance, “to help every Black woman in the world understand what she needs to do to keep a strong Black man happy.”
[Nota bene: “Kimathi,” this guy’s nom de guerre, was a leader of the Mau-Mau terror organization in Kenya who met a condign end at the end of a rope.]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
This Homeland Security Employee is Preparing for a Coming Race War
A Department of Homeland Security employee who works on, among other things, the procurement of guns and ammunition for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, spends his nights and weekends preparing for a coming race war and advocating for anti-gay causes, according to a new report from the Southern Poverty Law Center. Meet Ayo Kimathi, a.k.a. “the Irritated Genie,” who told his bosses at the DHS that his anti-white, anti-gay site, “War is on the Horizon,” was just an entertainment site that sells concert and lecture videos.
Instead, the DHS employee advocates for:
- The mass murder of white people. His site says, “warfare is eminent, and in order for Black people to survive the 21st century, we are going to have to kill a lot of whites — more than our christian hearts can possibly count.”
- A conspiracy theory arguing that white people are trying to “homosexualize” black men in order to make them more effeminate and therefore weaker. As part of this, Kimathi, praises a series of laws in some African countries that criminalize LGBT behavior and people. Kimathi also advocates for the supremacy of black men above black women — he offers tips on his site, for instance, “to help every Black woman in the world understand what she needs to do to keep a strong Black man happy.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Excerpt: ‘As far as I’m concerned, Hillary disqualified herself for the presidency in that fist-pounding moment at a congressional hearing when she said, “What difference does it make what we knew and when we knew it, Senator?” Democrats have got to shake off the Clinton albatross and find new blood. The escalating instability not just in Egypt but throughout the Mideast is very ominous.’
| — Hat tip: KP | [Return to headlines] |
We Killed Him for “The Fun of it”
[WARNING: Disturbing Content.]
This past Tuesday night, I sat in my chair watching NBC’s Lester Holt report on two black kids, 15 and 16, along with a bi-racial kid shoot and kill a 22 year old Australian college kid on a training run past their house in Duncan, Oklahoma.
The 16 year-old Luna said they were bored and killed Lane for “the fun of it.”
They shot him in the back after he ran past their house. I sat in my chair dumb-struck at the utter horror, stupidity and sickening savagery of the entire report. Lester Holt remained emotionless while speaking his words to millions of Americans. It turned my guts. It made me sick to my stomach. The killing left a gaping “why” in my brain.
Will millions of African-Americans protest in the streets because two black boys and a bi-racial boy killed an Australian white kid running past their house “for the fun of it”? Will they call for justice like they did in the Trayvon Martin case? Will white Americans protest the killings by taking to the streets and demanding justice?
Sadly, blacks and whites won’t even whimper a sound at the killing of the white Australian college man named Chris Lane. But I want to delve into this type of insanity a little deeper.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Welfare Pays More Than Work in 35 States
Looking for a good paying job? Well, look no further.
No, really, stop looking. In 35 states, welfare benefits pay more than a minimum wage job, according to a new study by the libertarian Cato Institute, and in 13 states welfare pays more than $15 per hour.
“One of the single best ways to climb out of poverty is taking a job, but as long as welfare provides a better standard of living than an entry-level job, recipients will continue to choose it over work,” said Michael Tanner, senior policy analyst and co-author of the study.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Q&A: Quebec’s Religious Garb Debate Intensifies
Philosopher Jocelyn Maclure on freedom of religion in a secular society
The Quebec government’s plan to introduce a “Charter of Quebec Values” has fanned the flames of an ongoing debate. For years, Quebec has been confronting the issue of reasonable accommodation with its many minority groups in a religiously diverse society.
According to the Journal de Montréal, the draft charter will prevent employees in public institutions like schools and hospitals from wearing religious symbols such as turbans, niqabs, kippas, hijabs and highly visible crucifixes.
These sorts of issues, about reasonable accommodation and secular societies, are at the heart of author and philosopher Jocelyn Maclure’s work.
Maclure teaches philosophy at Laval University in Quebec City, and was an expert adviser to the commission appointed in 2007 by then premier Jean Charest, best known as the Bouchard-Taylor Commission, after its co-chairs, sociologist Gérard Bouchard and philosopher Charles Taylor. (Taylor this week condemned the proposed charter, saying the idea of a blanket ban on the wearing of religious symbols “is like something we would see in Putin’s Russia.”)
In 2011, Maclure and Taylor co-authored, Secularism and Freedom of Conscience. And in 2003, Maclure’s book, Quebec Identity: The Challenge of Pluralism, was published in English translation.
In a telephone interview from his home in Montreal, Maclure told CBC News that “while some will say the reason why the debate is so intense and heated in Quebec is because there are some political and partisan reasons — the PQ needs some wedge issues, it wants to be seen as the champion of Quebec identity and so on, there’s some xenophobia or Islamophobia — this is all true but it’s not only that.”
As he sees it, “there are some very major philosophical disagreements within the Quebec citizenry right now” that are behind this current debate.
What’s more, he notes, Quebec is not alone in the Western world in grappling with these issues.
This is an edited transcript of the interview…
| — Hat tip: AR | [Return to headlines] |
Austria: Man Dies While Searching for Grasshoppers
A man has died after falling when out trying to collect grasshoppers in Pians, Tirol, Austria.
The 74-year-old was found dead after a search party was sent out to look for the man who had been reported missing by his son when he didn’t return from his walk as planned yesterday (Tuesday).
The man who lived with his son was last seen by his son at 12.30 yesterday (Tuesday).
Police and firemen began a search for the missing man but were unable to find him on Tuesday.
Police then received a call to say they had seen the man around 18.00 on Tuesday near his home.
This morning the search was resumed also with water rescuers. The rescuers then found the body of the man.
They claim he had been trying to catch grasshoppers in the field which he used as fishing bait.
Investigations into the circumstances of his death are ongoing but police believe he fell down a four-metre embankment to his death.
| — Hat tip: ESW | [Return to headlines] |
Author of Terror Law: UK Authorities Acted Illegally by Detaining Miranda
One of the authors of the UK’s Terrorism Act of 2000 has gone on record saying he believes that the British authorities, with the backing of the Home Office and knowledge of the White House, have acted illegally in detaining the partner of the journalist embroiled in the Edward Snowden/NSA stand off.
Lord Falconer, the former lord chancellor and the man who introduced the Terrorism Act in the House of Lords, wrote a piece for The Guardian today outlining the fact that the Metropolitan police had no legal basis to detain David Miranda under the legislation.
Falconer noted that the law is very clear cut, detailing that under the bill police may only hold someone in order to ascertain if they are involved in terrorism.
“I am very clear that this does not apply, either on its terms or in its spirit, to Mr Miranda.” Falconer wrote.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Denmark: Project Wants to Listen Closely to Wind Turbine Noise
Proposed research aims to determine once and for all if persistent humming from windmills makes people sick.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
France: ‘Roma Overdose’: Mag’s Cover Story Sparks Uproar
The cover story of a French magazine headlined “Roma overdose” about the problems caused by the Roma community caused outrage on Thursday and once again placed France’s fractured relationship with the minority under the spotlight.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
France: How to Solve a Problem Like Marseille?
As Marseille witnessed yet another brutal drugs related murder this week longstanding questions rose once again over how to deal with the violence in the Mediterranean city. One expert tells The Local old-fashioned ‘bobbies on the beat’ would be a good start.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Fascist-Era Road by Roman Forum ‘To Disappear’ Says Mayor
‘Portion may remain for cyclists, pedestrians’
(ANSA) — Rome, August 12 — The road that runs through the middle of the Roman and Imperial Forums and flanks the Colosseum will eventually disappear, says the mayor of Rome. “I imagine only a portion will remain,” added Ignazio Marino, who last week launched the first stage of blocking off the Fascist-era street to public vehicles. “Maybe a section will remain, perhaps for pedestrians and bicycles, maybe a tram, maybe we’ll keep maps of the Roman Empire there. We’ll wait and see what the final result is,” said the mayor in a recent interview with the Huffington Post. Eventually Marino, who was elected in June, aims to make the entire area the exclusive domain of pedestrians, cyclists and government vehicles.
The move has drawn loud complaints from a number of shopkeepers and businesses in the area who say it will hurt local commerce.
Surveys say surrounding residents are 80% in favor of the vehicle ban, which also aims to reduce smog in the area that has created a thick layer of soot on the Colosseum’s exterior. In addition to improving the quality of life for Romans, Marino says the change will also make the 2,000-year-old monument and the surrounding area more tourist-friendly. “I think we can double the number of tourists who come.
We’re shooting for over 20 million per year,” he says. The center-left mayor from the Democratic Party (PD), who has been accused of wanting to remove the street because it was built by Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, said there was “nothing anti-Fascist about the move”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Govt Looks Doomed Amid Stalemate, Berlusconi Office Ban
Convicted ex-premier likens cabinet to ‘capsizing ship’
(By Christopher Livesay) (ANSA) — Rome, August 22 — The fragile coalition government looked doomed Thursday after a meeting between Premier Enrico Letta and Silvio Berlusconi’s No.2, Deputy Premier Angelino Alfano, failed to produce an agreement on how to proceed following a conviction against Berlusconi for tax fraud and a pending ban from office. “They’ll say it’s my fault if the ministers (from my party) consider pulling government support…But if two friends are in a boat and one throws the other overboard, who’s to blame if the boat tips over?” said Berlusconi in an interview with online daily Tempi.
In a late-night, two-hour meeting Wednesday, Alfano told Letta, from the center-left Democratic Party (PD), that the PdL could not countenance staying in the government if the center left votes his party leader out of the Senate. The Senate, where the PD has a majority, is set to vote September 9 on stripping three-time premier and media magnate Berlusconi of his place in the upper house according to a new anti-corruption law that kicked in after his August 1 conviction for tax fraud, his first definitive sentence in almost 20 years of battles with magistrates he accuses of left-wing bias. The conviction also came with a four-year jail term, commuted to one year of house arrest or community service, something Berlusconi must decide by next month. Holding onto political power is his primary concern. “I will not accept blackmail or ultimatums,” said Letta after the meeting adjourned in an apparent stalemate. Renato Schifani, the PdL’s Senate whip, said Thursday the party did not “intend to pull the plug on the government,” but insisted that the PD reconsider the law that would have Berlusconi ejected from parliament. The PdL claims subjecting Berlusconi to the law, passed by Mario Monti’s previous government with backing from the PD and PdL, would breach the Constitution because it would allegedly be applied retroactively.
Berlusconi said Thursday that “the Constitution and good sense offer many routes” for finding a “solution” to his pending ban. “If I wanted to smile, I could say that political and institutional figures can’t not know that. The same applies to all of them,” he added.
Speaking in Rimini Thursday, Alfano appealed to the center left to reconsider their interpretation of the law, adding he was “very worried” by what he saw as “preventative justice by the PD”. “There are independent legal experts, even in the cultural left, who maintain a basic principle for all democratic legal systems — that punitive, afflictive laws, both administrative and criminal, are not applied retroactively,” Alfano said.
“We reiterate our request to the PD”. Dario Franceschini, the PD’s minister for relations with parliament, slammed what he considered attempts from the the PdL to “bargain” with the stability of the government in an attempt to win favors for their leader. “To all the threats and ultimatums, just answer with this simple principle: you cannot bargain to swap lawfulness and respect for the rules in exchange for government stability.
Never,” he said. By midday, Italian President Giorgio Napolitano called a snap meeting with Letta, roughly 100 days after he nodded the moderate lawmaker to lead the unprecedented left-right government, conceived in April after inconclusive elections spawned two months of stalemate.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Kick it Up a Notch! Ancient Europeans Spiced Their Food
Prehistoric human civilizations in northern Europe may have enjoyed their food with a spicy kick, using a garlic-mustard-type seasoning to flavor their dishes, thousands of years before the height of the prolific global spice trade, a new study finds.
A team of researchers studied blackened deposits inside ancient cooking pots and found traces of spices on the shards of pottery. The charred pots were excavated from archaeological sites in Denmark and Germany, and date back to the Neolithic Period, roughly 6,200 to 5,900 years ago, said study lead author Hayley Saul, an archaeologist at the BioArCH research center at the University of York in the United Kingdom.
“It was during the transition from hunter-gatherer to agriculture when we first started to be domesticated,” Saul told LiveScience. “This takes the way people looked at food in prehistory in a completely different direction.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
LSD is Good for You, Say Norway Researchers
Tales of debilitating acid flash-backs and permanently frazzled synapses are just myths, according to a new scientific report which concludes LSD use may even be beneficial.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The manager of a holiday park in Limburg has written an open letter to campers in an attempt to encourage goodwill towards tourists from Arab countries.
Bas Hoogland, commercial director of the Landal GreenParks chain, told De Volkskrant the letter aimed to dispel common myths and misconceptions. “We’re trying to promote understanding,” he said. “We Dutch aren’t always so tolerant.”
He said the presence of large groups of men and women in traditional Middle Eastern clothes, including women in burkas, prompted questions from other holidaymakers that sometimes went beyond mere curiosity.
“Some thought that this was about asylum seekers staying at the government’s expense. That’s why we explained that they are paying holidaymakers who observe different customs. That’s not discrimination, it’s communication.”
Minor cultural differences, such as more relaxed attitudes to dropping litter and the habit of tugging on a waiter’s sleeve in the restaurant to grab their attention, have also caused tension between some holidaymakers, but Hoogland insisted the Arab visitors remain “highly valued guests.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Poland Railways Present First New Train ‘Pendolino’
Made by Alstom, will take service in 2014
(ANSA) — WARSAW — The first new train “Pendolino” has been presented by Polish Railways in Wroclaw. It will bring about a revolution in railway transportation in Poland. A trip from Warsaw to Krakow will take two hours and fifteen minutes, shaving off an hour from the current journey time.
In Poland, the Pendolino train is named “Eic Premium” (Express InterCity Premium). The Express InterCity Premium trains will start to run on the Polish network from December 2014 and will connect northern and southern Poland, linking the Tricity, Warsaw, Cracow, and Katowice. It inherits the famous front end designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro, the renowned Italian car designer. The train graphics, colour range and interior were made by maradDesign in collaboration with Alstom. To date, 430 Pendolinos were conceived and produced in Savigliano (Cuneo).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Structural Racism ‘Still a Problem’ In Sweden
Sweden has failed to address the problems of structural racism, discrimination, and hate crimes despite ten years of criticism, the head of the country’s United Nations Association has warned ahead of meeting with a UN anti-racism body in Geneva.
https://sverigesradio.se/sida/artikel.aspx?programid=2054&artikel=5624129
Royals targets of Karlstad car bomb threats
A handwritten letter delivered to local newspaper Nya-Wermlands Tidningen says the king and queen will be the target of “4 big bomb 1.5 tons fertiliser” in cars during this afternoon’s visit to Karlstad.
But police say there is no threat to the public.
The bomb threat, in poor English, expresses “big sympathy four our leader” (sic) Breivik, and was published the newspaper’s website.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Ex-Serial Killer to Stay Behind Bars: Council
Sture Bergwall, known as self-confessed serial killer Thomas Quick who retracted all his confessions, will not be let out of psychiatric care. Bergwall dubbed the decision “Soviet” in its “disregard for justice”.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Swedish Royals in ‘Breivik Group’ Bomb Threat
Share on redditMore Sharing ServicesPolice in Sweden are on high alert after a letter in English was sent to a regional Swedish paper warning about “four big bombs” that would be detonated on Thursday night at the royal family’s residence in central Sweden.
The letter was sent to the Nya-Wermlands Tidningen newspaper, written in caps in poor English. It was signed by the “Anders Behring Breivik Sympati Group North Europa”. Excepts below are copied verbatim.
“We will detonation a large bomb outside the residense of Karlstad. We inn our group have big sympaty four our leader Anders Beiring Breivik from Norway who gave ous big hope for the feuture,” the letter read.
“We coming with 3 big bombs 1.5 tonne fertiliser… we give this informationn because the swedish polise is not so effectiv.”
The group also claimed responsibility for the murder of Sweden’s then-Prime Minister Olof Palme in 1986.
“A dead kind and queen is a good king and queen,” the letter continued. “Also, homesexual and lesbian people will be our target inn the feature.”
Swedish police are taking the threat seriously, however, and have cordoned off a large area around the Karlstad residence, where Sweden’s King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia are set to arrive on late Thursday afternoon.
“We have taken in bomb dogs, forensic teams are on the way, and we have investigators looking into it. We are treating this as a real bomb threat against the king’s visit,” Rolf Sandberg of the Värmland police told the Aftonbladet newspaper.
The police added that they see no threat to the public, and the royal visit has been scheduled to continue as planned.
| — Hat tip: Frontinus | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Guardian Editor on Miranda Detention: ‘Terror and Journalism Being Aligned’
The UK government created a “lawless bit of Britain” under the terror act which suspends all checks and balances, Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger said in an interview, adding that the paper is financing David Miranda’s lawsuit against the Home Office.
Rusbridger called ports and airport transit lounges a “stateless bit of Britain,” where a government can use the word “terror” to “suspend all the normal rules.”
The comment was made in reference to UK authorities detaining and questioning David Miranda, the partner of Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald, for nine hours in London’s Heathrow airport on Sunday under Schedule 7 of the UK’s anti-terrorism law.
Miranda told the BBC in an interview that he felt threatened during his 9-hour detention and as if “he were naked in front of a crowd.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Algeria: Mosque Funds Under Investigation
Over suspicions the money is used to train, arm militants
(ANSAmed) — TUNIS, AUGUST 22 — Algeria’s interior ministry has opened a probe into the management of money donated to mosques over suspicions it is used for terrorist activities, Arab-language daily el-Khabar reported on Thursday. The newspaper, which publishes well-informed reports on terrorism, said authorities have strong suspicions that zakat — ritual donations which are one of the three ‘pillars’ of Islam — are used to support youths, train and arm them so they can be sent to Syria and Libya to fight as militants.
According to the first results of the investigation, whose conclusions have reportedly not been sent to magistrates yet, a number of charities collected funding to sponsor Islamic terrorism.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Ann Coulter: Arab Spring: Worst Soap Ever
Excerpt: Democrats are so opposed to promoting the United States’ interests around the globe, it doesn’t occur to them that, sometimes, our national interests might coincide with the interests of other people. Liberals made fun of Sarah Palin for not being able to define “the Bush doctrine.” Can Obama tell us what “the Obama doctrine” is?
| — Hat tip: KP | [Return to headlines] |
Daniel Greenfield: Who Needs a Democratic Egypt?
Excerpt: We may want Egypt to be democratic, because it fits our notions of how countries should work, but that isn’t something that we actually need. The editorial writers and foreign policy experts who never got beyond the expat bars of Cairo will try to blame Egypt’s lack of democracy for our terrorism problem, and Obama and McCain may even echo their idiocy, but just like the attempts to blame Israel for Islamic terrorism, it’s not a policy, it’s a hollow apologetic for terrorism.. If anything, Egypt’s original unwillingness to bow to the Brotherhood nearly redirected Al Qaeda away from its war against America as the Egyptian faction sought to fight an internal war of the kind that Al Qaeda in Iraq and Syria are now fighting.
| — Hat tip: KP | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: As Beardless Leaders Are Arrested Fleeing, Brotherhood Members Allowed to Shave
Compared to what was expected by their movement, arrested Brotherhood leaders sport a new cleaner chin. As beards can cause public disorder, clerical leaders debate Islamists’ “new” look. One important cleric issues fatwas allowing Muslims to trim their beards “in order to bluff the army and the police”.
Cairo (AsiaNews/Agencies) — Egyptian authorities yesterday arrested Safwat el-Hegazy and Ali Mourad, two prominent Muslim Brotherhood figures, as they tried to flee abroad. The first, with a trimmed beard and wearing a niqab, a female Islamic garment that leaves only the eyes uncovered, was arrested near Siwa, not far from the border with Libya. The second, wearing western clothing, was caught trying to leave the country on a direct flight to Rome.
The anti-Muslim Brotherhood crackdown that began on Monday with the incarceration of the supreme leader Mohammed Badie is pushing some less important leaders of the movement to leave the country. Dressed Western-styled with shaved beards, many are removing all visible signs of their affiliation with the Brotherhood.
A local news website yesterday said that when el-Hegazy was captured the fact that he wore a trimmed beard (pictured) was purely a coincidence. Nevertheless, Mouahmmad Abdulmaksoud, a respected Egyptian cleric, recently issued a fatwa allowing Muslims to shave their beard “in order to bluff the army and the police and arrive safely at pro-Morsi demonstrations”
Among Muslims, wearing an unkept beard has always been a mark of affiliation with radical groups like the Brotherhood, even in a country like Egypt, traditionally more pluralistic and less sectarian in religious terms.
For his part Egypt’s Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa issued a fatwa in January saying that growing a beard, or shaving it off, are both unrelated to Sharia (Islamic law).
In a city under a curfew like Cairo, where groups easily retaliate against each other, even trivial signs like the length of one’s beard can have violent consequences.
For some residents of the capital, wearing a beard can spark attacks from pro-military Cairenes against Morsi supporters patrolling some areas of the city.
“People who wear a beard are paying the price for those members of the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamist groups who have resorted to violence”, said May Moujib, professor of political science at Cairo University.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Europe Suspends Export of Arms, Other Equipment to Egypt
European nations agreed Wednesday to suspend the export of any equipment to Egypt that its security forces could use to suppress opposition to the military-backed government, but they will continue to provide economic aid to the turmoil-ridden Arab nation.
“We do believe that the recent operations of the security forces have been disproportionate,” said Cathy Ashton, the top diplomat of the European Union.
But she called Egypt “a crucial partner” whose people deserved continued economic assistance, especially the “most vulnerable” residents and those trying to build civil society.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Former President Mubarak of Egypt is Freed From Prison and Flown to Hospital, Officials Say
Egypt’s military-appointed government removed former president Hosni Mubarak from a Cairo prison on Thursday, a day after an Egyptian court ruled that he could no longer be incarcerated, injecting a volatile new element into the political crisis that has been roiling the country.
Egyptian state media said a helicopter carrying Mr. Mubarak took him from the Tora Prison to the Maadi Military Hospital. He was transferred exactly seven weeks after his Islamist successor, Mohamed Morsi, the country’s first democratically elected president, was deposed by the armed forces and detained indefinitely.
A small crowd of supporters outside the Tora Prison cheered and waved Egyptian flags as the helicopter took off.
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Libya: Italy-Funded Mega Highway Construction OK’d
Salini Impregilo beat out Saipem (Eni) for contract
(ANSAmed) — MILAN — Five years after it was signed by former Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi and ex Libyan strongman Muammar Gaddafi, the bilateral Friendship, Partnership and Cooperation Agreement has borne its first and principal fruit in the shape of a contract to build a new 1,700-kilometer coastal highway crossing Libya from east to west.
Libya’s Ras Ejder-Emssad Expressway Project Management Committee (REEMP) has awarded an Italian business consortium led by Salini Impregilo a 963-million-euro contract, which will employ 2,000 people to build a first 400-kilometer section of the highway linking the city of Benghazi to the Egyptian border.
Part of Italian reparations for damage caused Libya during colonial rule, the bilateral agreement is financed by a tax levy on partly state-controlled Italian energy giant ENI. It involves payouts of 5 billion euros, with 3 billion earmarked for the highway. ENI last year paid an extra 154 million euros in revenue tax, company records show.
Following a visit by Berlusconi’s former foreign minister Giulio Terzi, the contract was originally going to be awarded to a consortium led by Italian oil and gas industry contractor Saipem, which is partly controlled by ENI. REEMP subsequently renegotiated the deal.
Shares in Salini Impregilo, which has a 58% stake in the winning consortium, jumped 2.5% on the news. The consortium also includes Società Italiana per Condotte d’Acqua, Impresa Pizzarotti & C. and Cooperativa Muratori & Cementisti — C.M.C.
Work is slated to begin within a few months, pending finalization of financial and workplace security issues with the Libyan government.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Matthew Philbin: Egypt: Churches Burned, Christians Murdered, Networks Barely Mention
Excerpt: In the media’s wall-to-wall Egypt coverage, one important facet of the ongoing crisis has gotten short shrift: the deadly plight of that nation’s Christians. The three broadcast networks in particular have buried the anti-Christian violence, devoting just 5 percent of Egypt reporting to it since last week. Six days ago, supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood and deposed President Mohammed Morsi launched what some are calling a “pogrom” and “jihad” against Egypt’s Christian population.
| — Hat tip: KP | [Return to headlines] |
Four Rockets Fired at Northern Israel
The red alert siren sounded in the cities of Nahariya, Acre, and Kiryat Shmona, and residents reported hearing explosions.
Three of the rockets fell in a field near the Nahariya.
An Israeli Iron Dome battery intercepted one rocket, Channel 2 reported.
Several residents were treated for shock.
Lebanese media reported that two volleys of rockets had been fired from a Palestinian refugee camp near Tyre into Israel..[..]
| — Hat tip: MC | [Return to headlines] |
Al Qaeda: The Reports of Its Demise Are Premature
Earlier today I watched a C-SPAN reprise of a Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) panel that featuring FDD Senior fellow, Tom Joscelyn, director of The Long War Journal, and Eli Lake, senior national security correspondent for Newsweek/The Daily Beast. Watch the C-Span FDD panel: “A Look at Al Qaeda and its Affiilates”. I caught a discussion by Eli Lake about a story that both he and colleague Josh Rogin had broken at The Daily Beast. It concerned, “an electronic conference between leaders of al Qaeda’s regional branches featuring advanced encryption methods with video, voice, and chat capabilities.” MEMRI had posted a related story out of Lahore, Pakistan that an Al Qaeda “data hub” with a similar command and control net connecting what the Obama Administration has taken to call the “core” of Al Qaeda with its ‘affiliates’. The latter includes the alphabet soup of AQAP in Yemen, AQIM in the Maghreb, Book Harem in Nigeria, Al Shabaab in Somalia and the latest Jihadi group in Syria, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.
As The Counter Jihad Report quoted Jocelyn saying,” It’s indisputable that [al Qaeda has] made more gains now than at any point in their history.”
The FDD panel was endeavoring to assess the validity of the 2012 Obama Presidential meme of “bin Laden is dead and Al Qaeda is on the run”. Clearly, given the spate of AQ prison breaks across the Ummah in Libya, Iraq, Pakistan and Yemen, releasing thousands of fighters the Jihadist group has not been flattened. This despite the Obama Administration conduct of counterterrorism, drone and special ops and secret war campaigns. AQ appears to be alive and flourishing…
| — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon | [Return to headlines] |
Corporate Media Begins Chemical Attack Propaganda Ahead of Syrian Invasion
Media sources base conclusions on information by CIA’s FSA and terror organizations al-Nusra and al-Qaeda.
The propaganda effort that will likely result in a U.S. and NATO invasion of Syria, with similar deadly after effects witnessed in Libya (30,000 dead), is being led by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the Local Coordination Committees in Syria, and the Syrian National Coalition.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights is a one-man operation based in London run by Rami Abdulrahman, an anti-Assad activist. “Clearly for real journalists, Abdulrahman is a useless, utterly compromised source of information who has every reason to twist reality to suit his admittedly politically-motivated agenda of overthrowing the Syrian government,” writes Tony Cartalucci. “However, for a propagandist, he is a goldmine.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Experts: Syria Chemical Weapons Attack “Suspicious”
Impartial analysts cast doubt on timing of story
Impartial experts are casting doubt of the veracity of today’s alleged chemical weapons attack in Syria, with numerous observers labeling the timing of the story “suspicious”.
…several impartial experts have cast doubt on the narrative behind the footage, noting its all too convenient emergence just as UN inspectors enter the country.
“Firstly, the timing is odd, bordering on suspicious,” writes BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner. “Why would the Assad government, which has recently been retaking ground from the rebels, carry out a chemical attack while UN weapons inspectors are in the country?”
His suspicions are shared by Swedish diplomat and former UN weapons inspector Rolf Ekeus, who told Reuters, “It would be very peculiar if it was the government to do this at the exact moment the international inspectors come into the country…at the least, it wouldn’t be very clever.”
Swedish chemical weapons expert Ake Sellstrom, who is leading the current UN inspection in Syria, told Swedish broadcaster SVT that the high number of those killed and wounded sounded “suspicious.”
Charles Lister, an analyst at IHS Jane’s Terrorism and Insurgency Center, told the Jerusalem Post that the timing of such an attack is confusing. “Logically, it would make little sense for the Syrian government to employ chemical agents at such a time, particularly given the relatively close proximity of the targeted towns (to the UN team),” he said.
It is important to stress that none of the individuals casting doubt on the alleged “gas attack” are Bashar Al-Assad supporters.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Hundreds Dead in Syrian Chemical Attack as Even Impartial Experts Allege “False Flag”
[WARNING: Disturbing Content.]
Overnight, it wasn’t Egypt but Syria that woke up to the latest massacre, this time in a chemical weapons-induced slaughter when more than 200 people were killed shortly after 3 am local time, in what would be by far the worst reported use of chemical arms in the two-year-old civil war. Naturally, Syrian activists promptly accused the President al-Assad of conducting the attack that killed numerous women and children even though it was their chemicial weapons warehouse in the Damascus area that was uncovered just over a month ago.
Not surprisingly the state TV and Syrian emissaries abroad promptly denied any responsibility for the attack. And, as on previous occasions, the traditional narrative of penning this wholesale murder of civilians on the ruling administration leaves much to be desired. So much so that even experts are now wondering if it wasn’t merely the latest provocation attempt by the US (and Al-Qaeda) -supported rebels to push public opinion further against Assad and permit the greenlighting of an eventual military escalation.
– — From Reuters:
The timing and location of the reported chemical weapons use — just three days after the team of U.N. chemical experts checked in to a Damascus hotel a few km (miles) to the east at the start of their mission — was surprising.
“It would be very peculiar if it was the government to do this at the exact moment the international inspectors come into the country,” said Rolf Ekeus, a retired Swedish diplomat who headed a team of UN weapons inspectors in Iraq in the 1990s.
“At the least, it wouldn’t be very clever.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Korean Consortium to Build Jordan’s First Nuclear Reactor
(ANSAmed) — AMMAN, AUGUST 21 — Jordan has named South Korean consortium to construct the kingdom’s first nuclear reactor at a cost of 130 million, officials said today.
The reactor will have a capacity of 5-megawatt and will be set up in the northern part of the kingdom, Jordan Atomic Energy Commission said in a statement.
Companies taking part in the consortium include Korean Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI) and Daewoo.
Jordan hopes the ground breaking project will be up and running by year 2016, where it will help reduce dependence on Egyptian gas to generate electricity.
The government is currently using heavy fuel to generate electricity stations, raising the cost of providing light to the nation by USD 1.4 million a day, according to government figures.
Jordan imports Egyptian gas to power its electric plants, but the recent months of upheaval in Egypt, saw Jordan exposed after gas supply from Sinai peninsula was cut due to sabotage.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
There has been a lot of commentary about a U.S intervention in Syria since a number of YouTube video have been posted by the rebels regarding a gas attack allegedly launched by Assad’s forces that is supposed to have killed 500 people.
When seeing this stuff, its important to remember that both Muslim regimes and Islamist groups like al-Qaeda, the Palestinian Authority, Lashker e Tiaba, Hamas, Hezbollah, et al are very good at staging these sorts of things.. al-Jazeera is based on this kind of propaganda.
The Arabs who refer to themselves as Palestinians are particularly noted for their use of propaganda, thus giving rise to the phrase ‘Pallywood’. Among many examples I could cite, during the so-called ‘Jenin Massacre’ ( heavily pushed by the BBC, which still has yet to apologize) a camera man actually caught a lot of the ‘corpses’ on their way to ‘mass graves’ jumping off stretchers and taking off.. Maybe they thought someone yelled ‘cut’.
There was also ‘Green Hat Guy’, a Hezbollah operative who was caught carrying the same ‘corpse’ of a child at about a dozen sites during the 2006 war.
Assad’s people would also tell you that the Muslim Brotherhood and al-Qaeda rebels in al-Nusra have used gas on their forces. It is impossible to sort out the truth, especially from a bunch of YouTube videos.
And what if the gas attacks actually happened? If Syria’s Christians weren’t deemed worthy of a humanitarian intervention when al-Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood were ethnically cleansing them, why should America get involved now on behalf of the Islamists?
With the alleged gas attacks, there’s a new push on to get the U.S to intervene, and I’m personally convinced this is no accident. Now that the Muslim Brotherhood has been crushed in Egypt, the president is planing to use U.S. blood and treasure to help the Islamists take over Syria.
I’ve already reported about the 1,800 U.S. Marines we have deployed on Jordan’s border with Syria that came off the USS Kearsage. According to my sources, not only is President Obama considering sending these troops into battle, we also have advanced plans ready for a no fly zone to use American air power against Assad’s forces to give the al-Qaeda and Muslim Brotherhood rebels a haven where they can be supplied and launch attacks from.
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Martin Dempsey, who last surfaced calling for the U..S. to arm Hezbollah is in Jordan as I write this setting up a war room for CENTCOM’s command staff. Over 3,000 Muslim Brotherhood rebels will occupy an enclave extending from the Jordanian border to front lines on the outskirts of Damascus, with Assad’s forces kept at bay by drones, missiles and a squadron of U.S. F-16s I’m told is based in Jordan that nominally belong to Jordan but will be manned by U.S. pilots.
Our troops will be training and arming Muslim Brotherhood and al-Qaeda forces like the al-Nusrah Front. And openly this time, not via clandestine operations like the failed Benghazi arms smuggling that cost 4 Americans their lives.
What Obama is trying to do here is what he tried to do in Libya..put an Islamist regime in power.
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Syria Gas Attack Story Has Whiff of Saudi War Propaganda
The reports of massive chemical attacks in Syria might become the “red line” for the US for active military intervention. But even rudimentary analysis of the story shows it is too early to believe its credibility.
The Middle Eastern newspaper, Al Arabiya, reports that “At least 1,300 people have been killed in a nerve gas attack on Syria’s Ghouta region, leading opposition figure George Sabra said on Wednesday…” The paper went on to claim that the Government of President Bashar al Assad was responsible for the attacks. If confirmed it could be the “red line” that US President Obama previously stated would tip the US into active military intervention in Syria, using No Fly Zones and active military steps to depose Assad.
That in turn could erupt into a conflagration across the Middle East and a Super Power confrontation with Russia and China and Iran on one side, and the USA, UK, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar on the opposite side. Not a happy prospect for world peace at all.
Therefore the story is worth analyzing carefully. When we do, several things jump out as suspicious.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Taki Theodoracopulos: Democracy’s Dhimmis and Dummies
Excerpt: We went to war 22 years ago on behalf of the Gulf States that feared Saddam. Saddam was the West’s patsy, doing our dirty work against Iran. The Gulf States and Qatar paid us back by enriching al-Qaeda and the Brotherhood in return for their safety. Is there no one in Washington, London, Paris, or Berlin who doesn’t see that?
| — Hat tip: KP | [Return to headlines] |
Turkish Foreign Minister Says “Red Line Crossed” In Syria
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said Thursday a “red line was crossed” in Syria and called for international action following reports of a massacre involving chemical weapons.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
US Has “Strong Indications” Assad Used Chemical Weapons; Russia Says Rebel False Flag
The US is back at it again.
For a while it seemed as if the Egyptian situation would promptly escalate to all out war, and necessitate the US “liberation” of this or that interest or ideology (and certainly putting the Suez canal under US-controlled lockdown) until following a series of epically bungled missteps, Obama and John Kerry managed to alienate the Saudis and the Israelis who are firmly behind the new military countercoup government in Egypt, while the US still has to admit a coup ever happened. Which means only Plan B for middle-east escalation remains: Syria.
Sure enough, this morning we woke up to the horrible news that hundreds of people had died following the use of nerve gas in an area close to Damascus in an attack that the “democratic” media, and the Qatari mercenaries, scrambled to pin on the Assad regime. Just like in June the US “found” Assad had used chemcial weapons, only for the UN and Russia to accuse the US of fabricating the data, and for the chemical weapon warehouse of the rebels to be uncovered shortly thereafter, which meant the Syria narrative would have to be put on hiatus for a few months: after all the lies were getting perilously close to those used by Bush in the Iraqi WMD fiasco.
Well, the administration appears certain enough time has passed by and has relaunched the old “blame Assad” plotline, with the WSJ reporting minutes ago that the US “sees strong indications” that Syria’s government used chemical weapons in the attacks. What those are it is unclear as the US does not actually have presence on the ground, and neither have any UN inspectors been able to investigate. But why not go for round two of the false flag fabrication: maybe this time it will fly?
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
West War Crimes in Syria Exposed
There was a time during the 30-month covert dirty war on Syria when the Western governments and mainstream media would make a clamor over reported massacres.
Now, despicably, these governments and media just ignore such atrocities.
Why? Because it is increasingly clear that the groups committing these crimes against thousands of Syrian civilians are the foreign-backed mercenaries, whom the Western media and their governments have tried to lionize as “rebels” fighting for “democratic freedom”.
That charade is rapidly disintegrating, exposing not just criminal Western governments sponsoring the violence against civilians, but an entire media industry that is also guilty of war crimes through its willful complicity.
This is not mere hyperbole. To disseminate false information and lies about conflict — under the guise of independent news — is to be complicit in covering up war crimes. You can hardly get more serious misconduct than to tell lies about crimes against humanity.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Members of a radical group want Susan Jasmine Zulkifli, a Protestant, dismissed from her post as Lenteng Agung sub-district chief. Fundamentalists present unreliable petition. The real targets of the political attack are the capital’s governor and his Christian deputy.
Jakarta (AsiaNews) — Municipal authorities have confirmed the appointment of Susan Jasmine Zulkifli, a Protestant, as head of Lenteng Agung, a largely Muslim sub-district, rejecting requests made by a small part of the Islamic community that she be dismissed.
“She is officially and legally Lenteng Agung’s sub-district chief, despite the fact that she is not Muslim,” said Eko Haryadi, a spokesman for the Jakarta Municipal Authority. “All procedures and administrative requirements needed to undergo a selection to become sub-district chief have been properly and well done,” he added, thus putting an end to a controversy that has raged for two days.
The case broke out on Tuesday when Naser Nasrullahe, a Muslim resident of the sub-district, claimed that he had a list of at least 2,300 names, 1,500 backed with ID information, of people who wanted her dismissal.
The fact that the sub-district chief was a Christian was the main reason since the area is predominantly Muslim as evinced by its 22 mosques, 59 prayer centres and hundreds of smaller sites for Qur’an reading.
However, the request for resignation was phoney, local sources noted because no official petition was ever presented to the City of Jakarta, which alone can dismiss local officials.
More importantly, an element of doubt surrounds the list of names of people supposedly in favour of the sub-district chief’s dismissal. In fact, for most Indonesians, the request was an “unfounded pretext” to satisfy Muslim extremists.
Over the past couple of days, more and more people on the Internet and on social networks have come to Susan Jasmine Zulkifli’s defence, including human rights organisations like the Lenteng Agung Residents for Reformation Forum (Formala), which reiterated its support for the woman.
It is clear that, in the world’s most populous Muslim country, Muslim extremists behind the attack are trying to delegitimise Christian leaders who have carved a wider political space for themselves.
Although religious freedom and equality are guaranteed under Indonesia’s constitution and stand as the foundations of the Indonesian state, they have not always been respected.
Among political leaders, the one who has attracted the greatest Islamist resentment is Jakarta Deputy Governor Tjahaja Basuki Purnama, a Protestant better known by his nickname of Ahok.
Together, Ahok and Jakarta Governor Joko Widodo (Jokowi) have formed a duo that has improved the quality of life in the capital, adopting a series of measures that won high praise from the population.
Therefore, some people in the country are using religion for purely political reasons to attack and discredit opponents in order to regain lost support.
In the coming months, such attacks will likely increase, Indonesia experts warn, with Jakarta’s governor and deputy governor as the main targets.
Islamists intensely dislike seeing Christian and Muslim leaders work together, even and especially when they get great results as in Jakarta.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Malaysia: Authorities Again Stop Catholics From Using the Word Allah
The controversy has raged for some years. Today, the Court of Appeal accepted to hear an appeal on 10 September from the Home Ministry against a lower court’s decision in Christians’ favour. For the court, “It is still a live issue”. Fearing fresh violence, the Archdiocese of Kuala Lumpur calls on the authorities to “take the necessary measures.”
Kuala Lumpur (AsiaNews) — Malaysia’s Court of Appeal dismissed a request by Catholic leaders to dismiss an appeal filed by the government against a 2009 High Court decision allowing the use of the word Allah in Christian media.
The three-member bench of justices issued their ruling after a morning of deliberation, saying that appeal hearings would start 10 September to resolve the dispute between The Herald, a Malaysian Catholic weekly, and the Home Ministry.
With scores of Muslims waiting outside for the ruling, Court of Appeal Justice Datuk Abu Samah said the matter “is still a live issue and the controversy has yet to be resolved. Thus we dismiss this application”, this despite a ten-point letter issued by Prime Minister Najib Razak on 11 April 2011, allowing Bahasa Malaysia Bibles to use the word Allah.
For the justice, “It is a drastic action to strike out an appeal that has been properly filed before this court and to deny the appellants the right to an appeal”. In fact, the government insists that the Arabic word “Allah” should be for the exclusive use of Muslims.
In a statement issued yesterday, the Archdiocese of Kuala Lumpur expressed fear that the controversy could trigger possible violence, fed by vitriolic statements from Islamist movements.
“Many of these claims,” Catholic leaders note, “are fomenting racial clashes and creating religious tensions in the country.” People should wait until “justice takes its course,” they said. for their part, the authorities should “take the necessary measures to prevent violence.”
The controversy over the use of the name “Allah” for the Christian God in the media and books, like the Bible, in Bahasa Malaysia broke out in 2008, when the Home Ministry threatened to revoke The Herald’s license to publish. In response, Catholic Church leaders sued the government for violating rights enshrined in the Constitution.
In 2009, the High Court granted Catholics the right to use the term “Allah”, a ruling that shocked and angered Muslims, who consider the word exclusive to Islam.
This was followed by a wave of violence with attacks and improvised explosive devices used against churches and other places of worship.
In an attempt to stem the tide and appease extremist Islamists, the Malaysian government decided to appeal the High Court ruling.
Malaysia, a Southeast Asian nation of some 28 million with a Muslim majority, Christians are the third largest religious group (after Buddhists) with about 2.6 million members.
When a 400-year-old Latin-Malay dictionary was recently republished, it showed that the word “Allah” was used from the start to name the biblical God in the local language.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Somalia Shooting a Possible Kidnap Attempt
The Swedish politician Ann-Margarethe Livh, who was shot in the chest on Wednesday in Mogadishu in an attack that claimed two colleagues’ lives, said the gunmen tried to abduct her.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Alfano Says Origin Countries Should Pay for Jailed Migrants
‘At least for food and lodging’ says deputy premier
(ANSA) — Rimini, August 22 — Italian Deputy Premier Angelino Alfano on Thursday said other countries should pay for the detention of immigrant prisoners in Italy. “Immigrants who are in prison undermine the pact with the State where they decided to go live. Let’s make the States of origin pay at least for the board and lodging of immigrant detainees,” Alfano said. Alfano is the No.2 in Silvio Berlusconi’s center-right People of Freedom (PdL) party, a historic political ally of the anti-immigrant Northern League party.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Undocumented Migrant Farm Worker Dies of Heart Failure
Employer cited for using illegal immigrants
(ANSA) — Foggia, August 22 — An undocumented migrant labourer died on a Puglia farm Thursday and police cited the owner for using illegal immigrants.
Moroccan El Mardi Ahmed, 44, collapsed while working a field near Foggia.
He is believed to have suffered heart failure.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Mike Flynn: Catholic Church Plans Massive Push for Amnesty
Excerpt: If you attend Mass on September 8th, it is likely the priest’s homily will be less about spiritual matters and more about the political imperative of passing an amnesty law for the nation’s 11 million illegal immigrants. Last week, the Catholic Church announced a massive, coordinated effort to press Congress to pass comprehensive immigration reform, including a pathway to citizenship. Catholics make up the largest single religious group in Congress.
| — Hat tip: KP | [Return to headlines] |
Norway: African ‘Boat People’ Planned to Sail to Canada
Three North African men caught with a stolen yacht in Trondheim, planned to sail all the way to Canada, where they wanted to emigrate, police have said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Republican Treachery as Amnesty Draws Near
“Stand Up; You Look Pathetic” is great advice from Mike Ditka, but eight turncoats in the House of Representatives must not be watching his ads on Sports Central. Led by Paul “Loser” Ryan, these top Republicans are “conspiring with Obama on Amnesty for Illegals” according to the Americans for Legal Immigration PAC. The following turncoats will look to turn the tide in an October surprise that will drop conservatives on their heads and if not stopped will push amnesty through before the 2014 election cycle heats up! What is so upsetting is “that many of these turncoats have campaigned on promises to oppose Amnesty.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Air Force Master Sergeant Reassigned for His Religious Views Opposing Gay Marriage
“People of faith don’t have a place in the military anymore”
Houston Senior Air Force master sergeant Philip Monk, is seeking redress against the Air Force after his claim that he was discriminated against for his views on gay marriage, reports KTRK.
In his Military Equal Opportunity Complaint, Monk says that while on duty his female commander asked whether “he could agree that a verbal statement expressing religious or moral opposition to same-sex marriage was discrimination. Monk answered he did not agree that it was discrimination.”
Monk says when he failed to agree with his commander’s viewpoints, he was immediately relieved, stripped of his position and reassigned. The report states that Monk was then banned from reentering the unit building where he served in the 326th training squadron at the Lackland Air Force base.
Monk’s legal representative, Michael Berry of the Liberty Institute, said the Air Force’s reaction sends the message that “People of faith don’t have a place in the Air Force anymore.”
Monk has served his country loyally for 19 years, but believes he was treated unfairly for his religious beliefs.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Bradley Manning Says He Wants to Live as a Woman
FORT MEADE, Md. (AP) — Bradley Manning plans to live as a woman named Chelsea and wants to begin hormone therapy as soon as possible, the soldier said Thursday, a day after being sentenced to 35 years in prison for sending classified material to WikiLeaks. Manning announced the decision in a written statement provided to NBC’s “Today” show, asking supporters to refer to him by his new name and the feminine pronoun. The statement was signed “Chelsea E. Manning.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The Barren Wombs of Smart Women
A statistical analysis from England suggests that a woman’s IQ is inversely proportional to her desire to breed.
Controlling for variables such as education and income, he reached the following conclusions:
- With each increase of 15 IQ points, a woman’s urge to reproduce is diminished by 25%.
- The average IQ of women who want children is 5.6 points lower than those who don’t want them.
- Among all 45-year-old women in England, 20% are childless, but this figure rises to 43% among those with college degrees.
The paradox is that women who are measurably more intelligent based on IQ tests are dumber in terms of evolutionary survival instincts.
| — Hat tip: Kitman | [Return to headlines] |
Satires are not supposed to come true. When Jonathan Swift wrote “A Modest Proposal,” he would have been appalled if the government had gone ahead and made Irish toddlers a legal entrée for the British dinner table.
Back on July 26, 2011, right here at NewsWithViews.com, I published a little satire entitled, “A New Bible for a New Age.” In it I exaggerated liberal churchmen’s and ministerettes’ penchant for spinning God’s Word to make it conform to their words. I had them rewriting the Bible, cover to cover. Their Bible even had a New New Testament.
Some readers accused me of going too far, but I pushed the gag as far as it would go: not just for comic effect, but to make the point that these people play so fast and loose with Christianity, that they might as well rewrite the Bible.
I am sorry to report that, behold, they have.
They’ve even called it “A New New Testament.” They have actually used the title I made up.
My satire has come true. God save us. I’m sorry I doubted those readers who never believed it was a satire, something I made up, but insisted it was real. How did they know?
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Climate Theories Crumble as Data and Experts Suggest Global Cooling
So-called global-warming alarmists are in a frenzy after the latest climate data confirmed the Earth actually appears to be entering a potential cooling trend, sea-ice cover in Antarctica is growing to record levels, tornadoes and hurricanes are at record lows, and more. According to experts, the most recent revelations continue to make a mockery of alarmist claims — debunking United Nations theories about human-caused global warming and the wildly inaccurate supposed “climate models” used to forecast doom and gloom by forces seeking carbon taxes and more centralized government.
Proponents of what is known as “anthropogenic global warming” theories, which claim that human activity is to blame for alleged warming, have long warned that increasing levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere would lead to “catastrophic” warming. The problem is that even based on data gathered by the planet’s premier climate alarmists — the U.K. Met Office, for example, or various U.S. agencies — shows that global warming stopped more than a decade and a half ago, as The New American reported last year…
Already, in an apparent effort to save face — and perhaps huge amounts of taxpayer funding — NOAA was caught using cherry-picked “scattered weather anecdotes” as “evidence” that the globe is warming. “If you think scientists just couldn’t get any more incompetent, then think again,” Gosselin continued in his report demolishing the government’s bogus claims.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Greenwald Slams “State-Loyal” Meek Journalists for Defending “Empire”
“If you want to start criminalizing (journalism), it means that you’re asking, as a citizen, to be kept ignorant and to allow people in power to conceal what they’re doing behind a wall of secrecy and to have no accountability or transparency,” he said. “Journalism is not a crime and it is not terrorism.”
Greenwald added that every single major news organisation in the world has classified information. “Reporting on what governments do in secret is what journalism is about.” he stated.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Jon Swartz: Mark Zuckerberg Unveils Internet Plans for All
Excerpt: Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg late Tuesday announced on his Facebook profile page the formation of a partnership with Samsung Electronics, Nokia, Qualcomm and others to make Internet access available to everyone on Earth. The group — Internet.org — intends to make the Internet an option for the 5 billion people who don’t have it. Only about one-third of the world’s population — 2.7 billion — has Internet access.
[They mean they are going to make it compulsory, doncha think? — KP]
| — Hat tip: KP | [Return to headlines] |
I am astonished to see your apparent solidarity with Paul Craig Roberts in this news feed. You ever bothered to read what he says about Israel? Put Google to some use – here are a few examples:
http://www.counterpunch.org/2009/05/07/criminalizing-criticism-of-israel/
http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2013/02/17/america-shamed-again-a-colonized-people-paul-craig-roberts/
For a right-wing nut, he sure sounds like the ultra-leftists you always criticize.
Cy —
You need to read my disclaimer, which appears near the top of every news feed:
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.
That is: the material that appears in the news feed does not necessarily represent the opinions and position’s of this blog’s owners. It is simply a selection of material that our readers found interesting and chose to send to us, and which we don’t have time to use, or even examine closely.
If I had to check everything in the news feed to make sure it is ideologically acceptable, there would be no news feed — the whole point of it is that this is where I can offload material I don’t have time to look at in detail.
I glance at it to make sure it is not obscene, does not advocate exterminating this or that group, and does not otherwise violate the guidelines for material at our blog. If it passes scrutiny, it goes in.
I actually like the variety of opinions and positions represented in the news feed. I don’t feel the need to agree with everything that’s posted here.
This is the joy of REAL diversity.
@Abandoned Dogs Roam Detroit in Packs as Humans Dwindle
Highly recommend the Google street view European armchair tour of Detroit – a trip you won’t soon forget.
The decline and fall of the western civilization???
I did the real,live tour of Detroit a few years back, when visiting acquaintances there. The offices near the waterfront looked very glossy, although the view near the train station resembled the aftermath of a nuclear attack…
Here in Poland, the ever-so-fair-and-balanced gazeta.pl web portal and TVN24 news TV station both had headline news screaming “Syrian regime kills 1000 people in gas attack!”. I’m curious as to how they managed to get hold of evidence proving this, in such a short space of time??
‘I know some people in the world would like to say this is some kind of conspiracy brought about by the opposition in Syria – I think the chances of that are vanishingly small. So we do believe this is a chemical attack by the Assad regime on a large scale.’ –Source
William Hague (British Foreign Secretary) champing at the bit to invade Syria on behalf of his clients.
Remember this – ‘Credible Western intelligence reports say that Muammar Gaddafi has fled Libya and is on his way to exile in Venezuela, according to William Hague, the foreign secretary.’