Gates of Vienna News Feed 10/12/2013

The English Defence League staged a demonstration in Bradford today. Estimates of the number of demonstrators range from 750 to 1200, and there were reports that police turned back additional coach-loads of EDL supporters who were not allowed to enter the city. About 100 to 200 counter-demonstrators from UAF and its allies were on hand, some of whom threw rocks and bottles at EDL people as they left the demo.

In other news, Nigerian women increasingly purchase skin-lightening creams, despite the dangerous side-effects that such products sometimes cause.

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

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, Kitman, Steen, 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.

USA
» A Monsanto Moment
» ACORN Crooks on the March for ObamaCare
» Ben Carson: ObamaCare “Worst Thing” Since Slavery (Video)
» CAIR Now ‘Stalking’ Professor it Doesn’t Like
» California Gun Grab: Brown Signs Lead-Ammo Bill But Vetoes Ban on Hunting Rifles
» Cousin Arrested in ‘Baby Hope’ Killing
» Debt Talks Break Down Between House and Obama; Focus Now on Senate
» Final Flickering Flame for Freedom
» Google is Going to Include Your Face in Its New Ads
» Gym-Mat Death Shocker: Body Stuffed With Newspaper
» How Pornography Works: It Hijacks the Male Brain
» How the Media Are Shaping Obama’s Government Shutdown
» Is Red State America Seceding?
» John McAfee Predicts Hackers Will Empty ObamaCare Enrollees’ Bank Accounts
» Liberals in State of Shock as They Realize Free Health Care Was Another Obama Fairy Tale
» Maryland Secession: Anti-Government Anger Fuels Breakaway Bid
» Media Admits: If ObamaCare Isn’t Fixed in One Month, ‘Panic’ Will Ensue
» Now Anyone Can Find You on Facebook: Outrage as Site Removes Privacy Option for Users to Hide Their Profile in Search Results
» Obama Rejects: GOP Surrender Doesn’t Go Far Enough
» ‘Racist’ LA Police Dogs Only Bite Latinos and African-Americans
» Rock Star With Armed Bodyguards Says Turn in Your Guns (Video)
» The Soaring Cost of a Simple Breath
» Woman Robbed of iPhone, Urinated on in St. Paul
 
Europe and the EU
» A Communist French City Flirts With the Far Right
» EDL at Bradford
» France Charges Al-Qaeda 9/11 Suspect
» France: Mugged Pensioner in ‘Miracle’ Canal Rescue
» Italy: Police Arrest 25 in Latino Gang Round-Up in Milan
» Italy: Ingroia Investigated for Possible Leak
» Italy: Rome’s Former Mayor Faces Bribery Probe
» Italy: Milan Teen Gang ‘Used Pit Bull’ To Extort Money
» M5S Leader Opens Blog Forum on Italian President
» Napolitano Says Italy Has Only 8 Months for Prison Reform
» Norway: Utøya Survivor to be Expelled for Refugee Lies
» Norwegian Teen Stabs Three-Year-Old to Death
» Paedophile Hackers Are ‘Secretly Recording Victims in Their Bedrooms and Using Pictures to Blackmail Them’
» Shale Gas: There Will be No Revolution in Europe
» Sweden: Clinic Slammed for ‘Non- Nordic’ Baby Register
» The Exorcists: Four on Trial in France for Religion Inspired Kidnap and Torture
» UK: Hunt for Sex Offenders: Six Men Arrested
» UK: Millions of Households Will be Forced to Ration Their Heating This Winter as Price Hikes of Up to 10 Per Cent Hit Home, Campaigners Warned Last Night.
» UK: Paedophile Awarded £30,000 After Suing His Former Employers From His Prison Cell When They Refused to Pay Him Redundancy Money
 
Middle East
» Knights of Malta Open a New Syrian Refugee Camp in Kilis
» Report: Syrian Civilians Bore Brunt of Rebels’ Fury
» Syrian Rebels Executed 190 Civilians and Took 200 Hostages During a Single Military Offensive, Say Human Rights Watch
 
South Asia
» Karzai and Kerry Unable to Reach Agreement on Afghanistan
 
Far East
» China: Son of a Communist General Sentenced to Ten Years in Beijing for Rape
» China: An Increasingly International Yuan: Currency Exchanges With the European Central Bank
 
Sub-Saharan Africa
» Pretoria: The South African Government Has Failed to Uphold the Constitution, Afrikaans Singer and Activist Sunette Bridges Said on Thursday.
» Skin Bleaching Hot Trend for Nigerian Women
 
Immigration
» Catalonia: Two and a Half Years in Prison for Internet “Statements That Rejected Immigration and Multiculturalism”
» Commissioner Calls on EU to Strengthen Border Patrol Body
» Germany: Refugees Go on Hunger Strike in Berlin
» Italian PM Letta Announces Humanitarian Mission
» Italy: Around 200 People Saved From Migrant-Boat Wreck
» Italy: Letta in Favour of Abolishing Bossi-Fini Immigration Law
» Muslim Immigrants Get Community Service for Gang Rape of Twelve Year Old in Norway
» The New Iron Curtain Falls on Brenner
 
Culture Wars
» Judges on Track to Legalize Suicide-on-Demand?
» Los Angeles School District Wants Teachers to Wear Pro-Gay Badges
» Northern Ireland: Gay Blood Ban ‘Irrational’, Judge Rules
 
General
» Civilization’s New Trajectory, Part 2
 

A Monsanto Moment

There are many who might not know or understand the true business practices of a company named Monsanto — in fact there might be many who have never heard of them at all. Monsanto is a chemical and seed company (simply put) based in the eastern part of Missouri.

It was late April 2008 when my former boss brought to the airwaves a story from Vanity Fair, “Monsanto’s Harvest of Fear.” This was breaking news regarding Monsanto using Gestapo tactics against a Missouri elevator and the local farmers: The elevator is owned by a local co-op, the Pilot Grove Cooperative Elevator, which buys soybeans and corn from farmers in the fall, then ships out the grain over the winter. The co-op has seven full-time employees and four computers. One of the services practiced by the elevator (a long-time practice of farmers across the world) is cleaning seeds.

Monsanto was demanding all the names of those farmers having their seed cleaned. Now, cleaning seeds has been done for decades… but with this procedure it’s more likely (not necessarily) that a person is planning to keep seed back to plant another season. Farmers used to practice this all the time; grow a crop, sell some and save some back. However, with Monsanto’s patent protection, farmers do not own the seed they harvest; Monsanto does.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

ACORN Crooks on the March for ObamaCare

A corrupt union ringleader who orchestrated massive campaigns involving identity fraud in furtherance of voter fraud and who covered up a million-dollar embezzlement involving pension funds will soon have unfettered access to confidential information on thousands of people seeking health insurance.

The union thug is disgraced ACORN founder Wade Rathke whose shady union will soon be helping people enroll in Obamacare exchanges.

Rathke’s labor vehicle, United Labor Unions (ULU) Local 100 in New Orleans, announced on its Facebook page Sept. 15 that it was gearing up “to do mass enrollment and help navigate people into the marketplaces in Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas under the Affordable Care Act!”…

The fact that Wade Rathke, a disreputable, radical left-wing community organizer, is allowed anywhere near the enrollment process ought to give all Americans pause. The only reason Rathke hasn’t been federally investigated for racketeering is because his allies control the federal law enforcement apparatus. President Obama pretends he has no connection to ACORN and Attorney General Eric Holder doesn’t care what laws have been broken because he approves of ACORN’s goals.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Ben Carson: ObamaCare “Worst Thing” Since Slavery (Video)

Dr. Ben Carson, a neurosurgeon-turned-conservative-activist, said Obamacare is the “worst thing” to happen to America since slavery, because “it is making all of us subservient to the government.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

CAIR Now ‘Stalking’ Professor it Doesn’t Like

Group upset over argument linking Muslim culture to radical Islamic terrorism

(Daily Caller) On top of its epic struggle to understand the First Amendment, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has now shown that it apparently doesn’t understand elementary trespassing law.

On October 1, Samantha L. Bowden, CAIR’s communication and outreach director in Florida, drove about 80 miles from Tampa, Fla. to Orlando, Fla. to “stalk” University of Central Florida (UCF) professor Jonathan Matusitz by impermissibly sitting in one of his scheduled classes, according to the website Family Security Matters.

“As I started teaching my class, I noticed that a female stranger was sitting at the back of the classroom. That person never asked me if she could enter my class and sit in the back of the classroom,” Matusitz explained, apparently in a police report.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

California Gun Grab: Brown Signs Lead-Ammo Bill But Vetoes Ban on Hunting Rifles

California Gov. Jerry Brown split the difference Friday on the pile of gun-control bills sitting on his desk, opting to sign five but veto seven, including a bill that would have banned the sale of many popular hunting rifles.

“The state of California already has some of the strictest gun laws in the country, including bans on military-style assault rifles and high-capacity ammunition magazines,” said Mr. Brown in his veto message. “While the author’s intent is to strengthen these restrictions, this bill goes much farther by banning any semi-automatic rifle with a detachable magazine.”

That measure, Senate Bill 374, was seen by gun-rights advocates as the worst of the bills passed this year by the Democrat-controlled state legislature, but California hunters didn’t dodge every bullet.

Among the bills signed by Mr. Brown was a measure to prohibit the use of lead ammunition for hunting, a proposal pushed by animal-rights and environmental groups but strongly opposed by outdoorsmen.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Cousin Arrested in ‘Baby Hope’ Killing

A cousin of the little girl known as Baby Hope, whose body was found in a cooler beside a highway in Upper Manhattan in 1991, has been arrested in her killing, Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly said on Saturday.

Mr. Kelly identified Baby Hope as Angelica Castillo and said she was born in April 1987. The cousin, Conrado Juarez, was arrested on Saturday morning, Mr. Kelly said. The arrest was first reported by DNAinfo.com.

The tip that reignited the investigation came over the summer, around the time the police were handing out fliers, tacking up posters and sending a van equipped with loudspeakers through Washington Heights in an effort to generate leads in the 22-year-old case.

[Return to headlines]
 

Debt Talks Break Down Between House and Obama; Focus Now on Senate

Budget negotiations broke down on Saturday — just days before the nation reaches its borrowing limit — as angry Republicans said that President Obama had rejected their latest offer.

“It’s now up to the Senate Republicans to stand up,” said Representative Raúl R. Labrador, Republican of Idaho, after House Republicans left a closed-door meeting in the Capitol.

With House Republicans insisting that they have all but run out of options, attention now turns to the Senate, where Republicans have spent the past several days trying to gin up Democratic support for a proposal that they hope could reopen the government and extend the debt ceiling through the end of January.

“The question is: What will Senate Republicans do, what will Senate Democrats do?” said Representative Adam Kinzinger, Republican of Illinois.

[Return to headlines]
 

Final Flickering Flame for Freedom

Is the freedom Americans enjoy in its last stages or is it already just an illusion? Does Liberty still exist in the U.S.A.?

Compared to most, if not all of the rest of the world, we still have remnants of freedom; but, compared to the America that existed following the Declaration of Independence, the War for Independence and the ratification of the Constitution; our freedom more resembles soft-core despotism.

We hail our founders and show a level of respect for the founding documents, almost on the level of them being two more chapters of sacred inspiration. But Americans, just like Christians, have been lax in their adherence to the law of the land and the Law of God. We have allowed those with ulterior motives into the highest positions of power in our government. We have forgotten the warnings which accompanied this country’s foundation:

John Adams — “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”

Benjamin Franklin — When asked what form of government they had formed by the Constitution, responded; “A Republic, if you can keep it.”

We love both quotes but failed to live by either. We the People have abandoned morality and God and have selected men and women for the highest offices of authority who are neither moral nor religious. They have proceeded to do just what the warning expected, taken advantage of their power to strip away areas of liberty.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Google is Going to Include Your Face in Its New Ads

Google (GOOG) is tinkering with the ever-delicate balance between selling advertisements and creeping its users out. On Friday the company said it would begin including recommendations that Google+ users make in advertisements. The new policy kicks in on Nov. 11.

Here’s how it works: You use Google+ to rate some product or service. It turns out the company behind that product wants to advertise on Google. When the company purchases an ad, your friends will see a version that includes your photo along with what you said about the product.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Gym-Mat Death Shocker: Body Stuffed With Newspaper

[WARNING: Disturbing content.]

‘When we buried Kendrick, we thought we were burying Kendrick, not half of Kendrick’

(CNN) The death of 17-year-old Kendrick Johnson was awful enough for his parents. Then came the doubts about investigators’ conclusion that it was an accident.

But the discovery that their son’s body and skull had been stuffed with newspaper before burial added a horrific new dimension to their anguish and further fueled their skepticism of the official findings.

“We have been let down again,” his father, Kenneth Johnson, told CNN. “When we buried Kendrick, we thought we were burying Kendrick, not half of Kendrick.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

How Pornography Works: It Hijacks the Male Brain

To no one’s surprise, the vast majority of those who consume pornography are males. It is no trade secret that males are highly stimulated by visual images, whether still or video. That is not a new development, as ancient forms of pornography attest. What is new is all about access. Today’s men and boys are not looking at line pictures drawn on cave walls. They have almost instant access to countless forms of pornography in a myriad of formats.

But, even as technology has brought new avenues for the transmission of pornography, modern research also brings a new understanding of how pornography works in the male brain. While this research does nothing to reduce the moral culpability of males who consume pornography, it does help to explain how the habit becomes so addictive.

As William M. Struthers of Wheaton College explains, “Men seem to be wired in such a way that pornography hijacks the proper functioning of their brains and has a long-lasting effect on their thoughts and lives.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

How the Media Are Shaping Obama’s Government Shutdown

Despite a Friday afternoon meeting with GOP senators that has led to anticipation that a solution is near on both the partial government shutdown and the debt ceiling showdown, President Barack Obama remains in an intense public relations war with the Republican-led House of Representatives.

He believes that the compliant media will back up his most outrageous actions, even as he tries to magnify the crisis for the average American. The Wall Street Journal quoted a senior administration official last week as saying, “‘We are winning…It doesn’t really matter to us’ how long the shutdown lasts ‘because what matters is the end result.’“

The reason President Obama believes he is winning, and can continue to win the current showdown with Republicans over the partial government shutdown and the debt-ceiling hike, is his confidence that the media will continue to support him — no matter how irresponsibly he acts. And the October 8th presidential press conference demonstrated why he is justified in taking the media’s bias for granted. It was a shameful performance, by both Obama and the media.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Is Red State America Seceding?

What are the forces pulling nations apart? Ethnicity, culture, history and language — but now also economics. And separatist and secessionist movements are cropping up here in the United States.

While many Red State Americans are moving away from Blue State America, seeking kindred souls among whom to live, those who love where they live but not those who rule them are seeking to secede.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

John McAfee Predicts Hackers Will Empty ObamaCare Enrollees’ Bank Accounts

Internet security pioneer John McAfee said he could easily create a fake Obamacare exchange…

Obamacare websites have “no safeguards” to protect Americans who enroll in the health insurance exchanges from hackers who will “empty your bank account,” according to internet security pioneer John McAfee.

McAfee said he could create a fake Obamacare exchange website for “a couple hundred dollars” and expect a big return on the scam.

“I’ll ask you your social security, your date of birth, [so] an hour later I can empty your bank account,” he told Fox News’ Gretchen Carlson.

“And this is going to happen, it’s going to happen soon. Nothing in the Obamacare system safeguards against this,” he said.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Liberals in State of Shock as They Realize Free Health Care Was Another Obama Fairy Tale

(NaturalNews) Finally, though too late, the chickens have come home to roost for many Obama supporters and apologists.

It isn’t from the endless invasions and occupations, Wall Street bailouts, drones, increased gestapo security measures, NSA or several other corrupt episodes swept into the memory holes of mainstream media.

Nope. The wake-up call that has many on the other side of the aisle saying “I told you so” is Obama’s “Affordable Care Act” insurance premium price hikes for those whose private plans are now more expensive than before.

Already, there have been several reports of tremendous premium hikes from Obama supporters upon enrolling for Obamacare, even though they haven’t had major health issues or medical care. They are truly shocked.

A few sample horror stories

The San Francisco Bay Area is a liberal strong-hold. But the San Francisco Chronicle came out recently with the headline “Health Insurance Shoppers Suffer Sticker Shock.”

One example they cited was SF Bay Area resident 47-year-old Shelley Ross, self employed, who was looking forward to getting a better deal through Obamacare. After registering, she lamented that “every plan is going to cost more than what I pay now, and what I pay now is ridiculous.”

Another San Francisco resident, 63-year-old John Lonergan lost his reasonably priced Kaiser Permanente plan, because it can’t comply to Obamacare mandates. In order to maintain the same level of coverage with Obamacare that he had with Kaiser, his annual premium cost will increase by over $3,600.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Maryland Secession: Anti-Government Anger Fuels Breakaway Bid

Scott Strzelczyk is fed up with what he calls political slavery in Maryland and sees one way out — creating a breakaway state, a feat that has not been accomplished since the American Civil War.

Riding a wave of anti-government sentiment across the United States, the small-town information technology consultant has launched a long-shot bid to get Maryland’s five conservative western counties to secede from the state, one of the most liberal and Democratic in the country.

“We think we have irreconcilable differences, and we just want an amicable divorce,” Strzelczyk, 49, told Reuters after pitching secession to the We the People Tea Party group in Carroll County, a county he hopes will be part of the split.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Media Admits: If ObamaCare Isn’t Fixed in One Month, ‘Panic’ Will Ensue

(NaturalNews) The mainstream media is reluctantly coming around to the reality that the Healthcare.gov Obamacare exchange is fatally broken. At the same time, the media is also pushing a new story that claims mid-November is the “new deadline” for fixing what they call “Obamacare glitches.” See Reuters for an example.

The media is, of course, just as delusional about Obamacare as Obama worshippers themselves. Consider these three points:

1) The media is lying to you when they describe the problems with Healthcare.gov as “glitches.” In reality, the website suffers from disastrously failed computer code, critically flawed architecture and an astonishing lack of quality control testing. These cannot be fixed with “patches” or “updates” as the media is pretending.

2) It is now abundantly clear from my code analysis of the client-side Javascript that Healthcare.gov needs to be scrapped and redesigned from the start. That is at least a three-year project. Fixing the current code would probably take 3 — 5 years. Yet the absolute hard deadline for all this working is less than 3 months away: January 1, 2014. There is zero chance it will be fully functioning by January 1, 2014.

3) As a result, the IRS will be fining Americans for not purchasing a mandatory insurance product which they are unable to purchase because the government-run exchange system is broken. This is, of course, the epitome of failed government, reaching Orwellian heights of absurdity.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Now Anyone Can Find You on Facebook: Outrage as Site Removes Privacy Option for Users to Hide Their Profile in Search Results

Facebook is facing another backlash from users and privacy campaigners after announcing it is once again changing its privacy settings.

Up until now Facebook let people hide their profiles in search results using the ‘Who can look up your timeline by name?’ setting, but the social networking site is retiring this feature with almost immediate effect.

The option was removed from the accounts of people who hadn’t enabled it last year, and Facebook has announced it is removing the feature from everyone else’s accounts starting from now.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Obama Rejects: GOP Surrender Doesn’t Go Far Enough

President Obama used his weekly radio address to reject the latest offer from House Republicans to end the fiscal stalemate. The outline of their proposal was released Friday and would have reopened government through December and lifted the debt ceiling for six weeks.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

‘Racist’ LA Police Dogs Only Bite Latinos and African-Americans

Police officers in Los Angeles have long faced accusations of institutional racism, but now it appears their dogs may be unjustly discriminatory, too.

A new report focusing on the Canine Special Detail of the LA Sherriff’s Department (LASD) has uncovered a vast increase in the number of minority individuals bitten by police dogs since 2004.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Rock Star With Armed Bodyguards Says Turn in Your Guns (Video)

Pearl Jam lead singer Eddie Vedder had some harsh words for gun rights advocates last week.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

The Soaring Cost of a Simple Breath

The high price of commonly used medications for conditions like asthma contributes heavily to health care costs in the United States. Drugs account for 10 percent of the country’s $2.7 trillion annual health bill, even though the average American takes fewer prescription medicines than people in France or Canada, said Gerard Anderson, who studies medical pricing at the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University.

Being able to afford prescription medications in America often requires top-notch insurance or plenty of disposable income, and time to hunt for deals.

And unlike other countries, where the government directly or indirectly sets an allowed national wholesale price for each drug, the United States leaves prices to market competition among pharmaceutical companies, including generic drug makers. But competition is often a mirage in today’s health care arena — a surprising number of lifesaving drugs are made by only one manufacturer — and businesses often successfully blunt market forces.

[Return to headlines]
 

Woman Robbed of iPhone, Urinated on in St. Paul

the woman was approached by a silver-colored vehicle with four black men wearing wigs around 7:30 p.m. Tuesday. She was standing in the 500 block of Farrington Street talking on her phone. They pretended to ask for directions, and when the woman came closer they pulled her toward the car and took her iPhone.

Three other men got out of the vehicle and one of them pulled her by the hair to the sidewalk, pushed her to the ground, pulled her pants down and then urinated on her, the criminal complaint states. The woman reported she thought she was going to get raped. She heard one man say, “Mitch you took that white b****’s phone.”

           — Hat tip: Kitman [Return to headlines]
 

A Communist French City Flirts With the Far Right

The southern city of Brignoles has caught the French spotlight after the far right won half the votes in the first round of its local election last week. FRANCE 24 takes the town’s pulse before the October 13 run-off poll.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

EDL at Bradford

By Esmerelda Weatherwax

The EDL demonstrated in Bradford this afternoon, their first demo since Tommy Robinson and Kev Carroll left on Tuesday. The EDL is now being run by a committee of Regional Organisers under a chairman.

I wasn’t there but I am told that it went peacefully for the EDL’s part.. According to the local paper the Bradford Telegraph and Argus;

The counter-protest, organised by We Are Bradford, mainly made up of Unite Against Fascism members, started ahead of the EDL protest with a loud PA system booming out across the sparsely attended rally.

At its peak there were barely 200 in the audience listening to speakers including Bradford West MP, George Galloway.

The Telegraph and Argus thought that there were about 600 EDL members and that speeches ending after one hour meant a lack of interest. In fact EDL speakers are usually very concise; in situations like at Tower Hamlets where only half an hour was permitted by the police for three speakers and setting up the PA, longwinded speakers are not an asset.

Members who were present tell me that the police gave a figure of 750 attending. The New Daily Patriot who was there thinks there were nearer 1200. Coaches and minibuses were stopped on the motorways approaching Bradford but I do not know if any, and if so how many, were turned away. Divisions came from all over the country including Scotland. The Gay Division was well represented. The demo was heavily policed and everybody was given a Section 14 order limiting them to a 200 yard area of the city.

I understand that after the demo members of the UAF, presumably bored and cold after listening to George Galloway at greater length than human flesh and blood can bear, threw missiles at EDL cars as they departed. There were no arrests.

A lady I respect summed up the day thus:…

           — Hat tip: Steen [Return to headlines]
 

France Charges Al-Qaeda 9/11 Suspect

French-Algerian Naamen Meziche, who is suspected of Al-Qaeda ties and was deported from Pakistan this week, has been charged with terror offences French judicial officials said on Saturday.

Intelligence officials believe Naamen Meziche was once connected to Al-Qaeda’s so-called “Hamburg cell”, which planned the 9/11 attacks on the United States.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

France: Mugged Pensioner in ‘Miracle’ Canal Rescue

An 89-year-old French woman has told of her ordeal after she was reportedly assaulted, tied up, and stuffed into the boot of her car before the vehicle was dumped into a canal. The pensioner owes her life to a passing jogger who spotted her trying to escape.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Police Arrest 25 in Latino Gang Round-Up in Milan

Suspects mainly El Salvadoreans, ages 17 to 36

(ANSA) — Milan, October 8 — Italian police in Milan arrested 25 people early Tuesday morning for alleged roles in a Latino criminal gang, Ms13.

The defendants, mainly El Salvadoreans between the ages of 17 and 36, are accused of conspiracy to commit crime, robbery, injury, and the possession and carrying of bladed weapons. The criminal episodes allegedly took place from October 2010 to September 2012, when the suspects allegedly launched repeated assaults on victims and recruited new members among youths known to be difficult or hotheaded.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Ingroia Investigated for Possible Leak

Provenzano’s family accuse former prosecutor of releasing news

(ANSA) — Palermo, October 8 — Ex-mafia prosecutor Antonio Ingroia is under investigation for leaking news about former Cosa Nostra head Bernardo Provenzano, authorities said Tuesday.

Prosecutors in Palermo are investigating whether Ingroia leaked information about Provenzano following a complaint filed by Provenzano’s adult children and his lawyer.

They say that information was given to the media which only someone involved in interviews with Provenzano — such as the prosecutor — could have known.

Arrested in 2006 after 43 years on the run, Provenzano has been subjected to the so-called 41-bis treatment for Italy’s most dangerous criminals.

They can be kept in single-person cells in maximum-security jails, almost entirely cut off from the outside world in order to prevent further criminal activity.

The ex-mafia chieftain, once nicknamed “The Bulldozer”, is serving life for various murders including ordering fatal bomb attacks on anti-mafia prosecutors Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino in 1992.

Provenzano has been fighting for a transfer from the top-security prison regime due to his declining health.

However, his requests have been rejected.

Ingroia left his career as a prosecutor earlier this year following a disappointing foray into politics in February’s general elections.

He is set to start a new career as a defence lawyer in Rome.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Rome’s Former Mayor Faces Bribery Probe

Alemanno says his innocence will be proven

(ANSA) — Rome, October 9 — Rome’s former mayor Gianni Alemanno is under investigation in a bribery scandal involving large bus contracts, prosecutors said Wednesday.

Alemanno, who lost a municipal election last spring, is accused of receiving bribes from the Menarini Bus corporation in exchange for ensuring the firm received contracts with Rome’s Metropolitane transit system. Alemanno, a former parliamentarian with ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi’s People of Freedom (PdL) party, said the probe is old news and that he expects to be cleared of all charges.

“I feel calm and I have confidence in the work of the judiciary,” he said in a a statement.

Prosecutors say as much as 600,000 euros in bribes were paid to officials in exchange for contracts involving 45 buses.

The investigation, which began months ago, includes other city and regional officials as well as bus company executives, including Edoardo D’Inca’ Levis and Roberto Ceraudo.

Menarini Bus is a division of industrial giant Finmeccanica, which is controlled by the Italian government through the Ministry of the Economy.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Milan Teen Gang ‘Used Pit Bull’ To Extort Money

Three juveniles of Egyptian origin detained

(ANSA) — Milan, October 9 — A teen gang in Milan used a pitbull to intimidate youngsters into giving them money, a juvenile court said Wednesday.

Three teens of Egyptian origin were detained.

The gang used the dog on one occasion to extort 50 euros from a 16-year-old student, the court said.

On another occasion they attacked the boy’s father.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

M5S Leader Opens Blog Forum on Italian President

(AGI) Rome, Oct 9 — The leader of Italy’s anti-establishment Five Star Movement (M5S), Beppe Grillo has responded to remarks on the subject of amnesty and pardon by President Giorgio Napolitano by opening a forum on his blog. The blog carries the quote “Express your thoughts correctly. Avoid vilifying the head of state,” as well as video footage of Mr. Napolitano, who had said that the [M5S] had one-track minds and couldn’t care less about the problems of other people or of the country, which meant that they were oblivious to the terrible state the prisons were in.

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

Napolitano Says Italy Has Only 8 Months for Prison Reform

European human rights ordered improvements to Italy’s jails

(ANSA) — Rome, October 8 — Italy has only about eight months to comply with European orders that it improve its prison system, President Giorgio Napolitano warned Tuesday. In May, the European Court of Human Rights ordered Italy to make dramatic improvements to its prison system to stop overcrowding and undo violations against prison rights.

That order gave Italy a deadline of May 20, 2014, Napolitano said in a message to leaders of both Italy’s Senate and its Lower House demanding action.

Earlier this year, the Strasbourg court rejected Italy’s appeal against a sentence condemning Rome for the state of Italian jails.

Italy had formally challenged the Strasbourg-based court when it ordered Rome to correct the “degrading and inhumane conditions” in its prisons and to pay 100,000 euros in damages to seven inmates.

The country’s prison conditions have long been the source of criticism from human rights’ groups.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Norway: Utøya Survivor to be Expelled for Refugee Lies

A survivor of the Norway’s 2011 Utøya massacre is to be expelled from Norway, after it emerged that he lied his way into the country as a refugee eleven years ago.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Norwegian Teen Stabs Three-Year-Old to Death

A teenager in Norway has killed a three-year-old living in foster care with his family, in a rare case of juvenile crime in the country. The minor, 13, confessed to the crime but due to his young age cannot be prosecuted.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Paedophile Hackers Are ‘Secretly Recording Victims in Their Bedrooms and Using Pictures to Blackmail Them’

[WARNING: Disturbing Content.]

Paedophiles are blackmailing children into performing sex acts by secretly filming them and threatening to share the images if they don’t take part in sex games, a charity has claimed.

Abusers are using sites like Facebook, Skype and Chatroulette to help find youngsters who have access to webcams, before targeting hacking their PCs and laptops.

They exploit computer viruses which can grant access to a victim’s computer, enabling them to turn on the webcam of a bedroom computer and begin recording.

A charity has claimed that this type of crime is being reported to them more frequently as computers with in-built cameras become commonplace in homes.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Shale Gas: There Will be No Revolution in Europe

Les Echos Paris

This week, France confirmed its ban on shale gas exploitation and the European Parliament demanded environmental impact studies before all test drilling starts. More obstacles for a resource that may yet not be the solution to Europe’s energy problems.

Anne Feitz

Shale gas has become the object of all sorts of fantasies in France. According to the US Energy Information Administration, a US body that manages energy statistics, France is sitting atop considerable reserves of gas and oil from shale: 3,870 billion cubic metres of gas and 4.7 billion barrels of oil. That works out to nearly 80 years of gas supplies and nearly 60 years of oil. And it’s powering the wildest dreams. The French are not the only ones fantasising either: Poland is hoping to reduce its dependence on Russia, and Britain is counting on shale gas to offset the decline in its North Sea oil fields…

In the United States, it’s true, these non-conventional hydrocarbons have brought on a revolution. Between 2005 and 2012, gas production jumped by 33 per cent and oil by 28 per cent. According to a very recent study from IHS Cera (which advises the oil industry), this boom led in 2012 to the creation of 2.1 million jobs (including indirect and induced), generated $75bn in tax revenue, and increased household revenues by $1,200.

The country has doubly benefited from the “oil and shale gas” effect: not only has the US economy been boosted by the resurgence of activity in the oil industry itself, but it has also benefited from the dramatic decline in the price of gas associated with the increased production, which has fallen more than fourfold in six years. It’s a huge competitive advantage, which has benefited highly energy-intensive industries and sparked the phenomenon of reindustrialisation in the United States. Energy independence for the North American continent by the end of the decade is considered a plausible hypothesis.

Yet it is clear that Europe is not America. Even assuming that the doubts about the pollution involved in the operation are cleared up and that the technology used — the notorious hydraulic fracturing — will be allowed anywhere, shale gas will not cause an economic shock in Europe of a magnitude similar to that in the United States. The argument is regularly wheeled out by the opponents of drilling, but it is also widely shared by the oil and gas industry experts themselves.

Shale in perspective

No serious study has been carried out on the subject. The exercise is a kind of mission impossible, since nobody today has no idea of the real potential of Europe. The estimates put forward by US EIA or other national administrations are based on hydrocarbons already present in the ground, which depend on the geology of the formations, and not on those that would be recoverable at an acceptable cost. It is rare, though, for a recovery rate to be more than a few per cent. Even if it did reach an average of 10 per cent — a rather optimistic level — the potential production of shale gas would not exceed a total of 1,300 billion cubic metres in Europe. That is, over a production period of 25 years, barely five per cent of what Europe consumes each year. A very theoretical calculation, but it has the merit of giving a rough idea of the orders of magnitude. In the United States, in contrast, the unconventional gas accounted for 56 per cent of the consumption in 2012….

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

Sweden: Clinic Slammed for ‘Non- Nordic’ Baby Register

A children’s health clinic in western Sweden has come under fire after it came to light that it routinely registered babies as having a “non-Nordic origins”.

“As far as I know, this is not in accordance with PUL to register ‘origin’, that is, ethnicity for a person in healthcare, if there is not reason,” he wrote in his complaint.

“This is deeply worrying and risks strengthening the mistrust between different groups of Swedes,” he continued.

When probed by data privacy watchdog, the county health board defended the practice by explaining the “non-Nordic” registry helped alert authorities to families that could belong to certain risk groups

           — Hat tip: Kitman [Return to headlines]
 

The Exorcists: Four on Trial in France for Religion Inspired Kidnap and Torture

The trial of three men and a woman, all of French Caribbean origin, kicked off on Monday, with the group being charged with kidnapping, acts of torture and barbarism, reports AFP.

They are accused of tying up the young Cameroonian woman, Antoinette, in the position of Jesus Christ on the cross and keeping her bound to a mattress for a week.

When police found Antoinette in Grigny, a southern Paris suburb, she was dehydrated, emaciated and showed signs of having been beaten. The woman later told investigators that her captors fed her small amounts of oil and gave her water just to keep her alive.

           — Hat tip: Kitman [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Hunt for Sex Offenders: Six Men Arrested

SIX men have been arrested in police raids aimed at uncovering people involved with alleged sexual offences, grooming and blackmail against a young girl.

Around 40 officers swooped on seven addresses around Burton yesterday morning and picked up six men aged between 17 and 21.

Another man, aged 28 and from Pakistan, was arrested by officers from the UK Border Agency for immigration offences.

The raids were part of a coordinated operation involving local policing teams and the child exploitation unit from Staffordshire Police.

           — Hat tip: Kitman [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Millions of Households Will be Forced to Ration Their Heating This Winter as Price Hikes of Up to 10 Per Cent Hit Home, Campaigners Warned Last Night.

Energy giant SSE “opened the floodgates” by announcing a price rise of 8.2 per cent yesterday.

It will send gas and electricity bills rocketing by more than £100 — and there is expected to be a domino effect in the next few days with other major suppliers also slapping hefty rises on the average dual fuel bill.

Pensioner groups said the elderly will be hardest hit, with many forced to decide whether to “eat or heat” as the weather turns colder.

           — Hat tip: Kitman [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Paedophile Awarded £30,000 After Suing His Former Employers From His Prison Cell When They Refused to Pay Him Redundancy Money

[WARNING: Disturbing Content.]

A convicted paedophile serving time in prison has been awarded more than £30,000 after suing his former employers from his prison cell.

Robert Wills took RWE Npower to a tribunal after they refused to pay him a redundancy settlement after reading about his sentence for child pornography in the local paper.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Knights of Malta Open a New Syrian Refugee Camp in Kilis

The area , in southeast Turkey, will hold thousands of refugees from Syria. On its opening day camp registers more than 4 thousand. Most of the refugees are in critical health due to cold, disease and injuries from bombings.

Kilis (AsiaNews) — The flow of refugees from Syria is paralyzing the camps on the border with Turkey, where essential goods, shelter and medicines are now lacking. Malteser International, the Order of the Knights of Malta’s organization for humanitarian aid, has created a new camp for the reception of refugees near the town of Kilis ( Southeastern Anatolia ). For months thousands of people have been living in the region in makeshift shelters and in its first day of opening the field registered more than 4 thousand entrances. In the coming days another 1000 refugees are expected to arrive. The camp also has a clinic , where at the moment about 80 refugees have been admitted in critical condition. There are mostly pregnant women. Malteser International has been active in Syria, Turkey and Lebanon since August 2012 . It currently provides emergency aid for more than 30 thousand people .

Sandra Harlass , adviser to the organization, said : “The people coming into the camp have spent many days and nights on the run, sleeping in the open with nightly temperatures down to six degrees, in poor hygiene conditions — this causes diarrhea, respiratory infections and skin diseases. Some have injuries such as broken bones or wounds”.

Together with the organization Turkish Blue Crescent, Malteser International has already distributed a relief kits consisting of food rations and medicines to refugees, especially suited to treat children . The most serious cases are sent to the field hospital set up in the inner city of Kilis , with 28 beds that supports the local polyclinic . In the coming months the organization has plans to open two other mobile medical stations , which serve the areas near the Turkish border , offering a refugees health care.

According to data from the UN agency for refugees (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees , UNHCR) there are nearly 2 million refugees fleeing from Syria. At least 1 million of these are children and more than 740 thousand are under 11 years of age. With the arrival of winter, the situation is likely to worsen and the United Nations estimate that , as early as next January, 50% the population still in Syria will not be able to fend for itself ..

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

Report: Syrian Civilians Bore Brunt of Rebels’ Fury

‘We have up to now not documented anything approaching this scale of abuse’

[WARNING: Disturbing content.]

(New York Times) Before dawn on Aug. 4, Raed Shakouhi, an olive and walnut farmer in a government-held hilltop village near the Syrian coast, just across a valley from rebel territory, was woken by gunshots and cries of “God is great.”

Mr. Shakouhi, 42, hid among nearby trees with his wife and four young children. The next day, he emerged to find his uncle shot dead, his family’s possessions stolen or destroyed, and the streets littered with bloodstains and the carcasses of farm animals, he recalled last month in an interview in the state-run shelter where he now lives. Many of his neighbors here in Latakia and in the surrounding villages, mostly members of Syria’s minority Alawite sect, fared even worse.

In a coordinated attack, numerous rebel groups fought off a small garrison of government troops and swept into the villages, killing 190 people, according to a Human Rights Watch report to be released on Friday. At least 67 of the dead appeared to have been shot or stabbed while unarmed or fleeing, including 48 women and 11 children, the report said. More than 200 civilians are still being held hostage.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Syrian Rebels Executed 190 Civilians and Took 200 Hostages During a Single Military Offensive, Say Human Rights Watch

[Warning: Disturbing Content.]

Syrian rebels have killed at least 190 civilians and taken 200 hostages as the country’s bitter civil war rages, Human Rights Watch claimed today.

As a chemical watchdog won the Nobel Peace Prize today for overseeing the destruction of Syria’s chemical weapons stockpile, government forces and rebels clashed across the country with conventional weapons.

HRW said many of the dead had been executed by militant groups, some linked to al Qaeda, who overran army positions at dawn on August 4 and then moved into 10 villages nearby where members of President Bashar al-Assad’s Alawite sect lived.

In some cases, entire families were executed or gunned down as they fled, according to a report titled ‘You Can Still See Their Blood’.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Karzai and Kerry Unable to Reach Agreement on Afghanistan

(AGI) Kabul, Oct 12 — Afghanistan’s President Hamid Karzai announced that an agreement on bilateral security was not reached with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, who has been in Afghanistan for two days. Kerry explained that there was agreement on many points, but not on the key issue of immunity for U.S. soldiers who will stay past 2014 to aid Afghan security forces. The lack of an agreement would force the U.S.

to withdraw all U.S. and NATO troops — including Italy’s — from Afghanistan, like in Iraq in 2011.

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

China: Son of a Communist General Sentenced to Ten Years in Beijing for Rape

Li Tianyi is the son of PLA singers Shuangjiang Li and Meng Ge. The three are well-known to the general public because they have performed for years. The 17-year-old has already spent one year in reform school for assault.

Beijing (AsiaNews/Agencies) — A Beijing court sentenced Li Tianyi to ten years in prison for raping a girl along with four friends in Haidian District. He is the son of General Li Shuangjiang, a famous singer with the People’s Liberation Army (PLA).

The accused, who is now 17, has already spent a year in reform school for attacking a couple in a car that was blocking his BMW sport. At the time, he was 15 and was driving without a license.

His conviction is one of the first of its kind against a ‘princeling’, one of the children of the Communist Party elite.

Under Xi Jinping, China’s new leadership has repeatedly indicated that it would not make any exception for the children of high ranking officials. However, the so-called “princelings” continue to cause scandal in the country because of their lavish lifestyle and contempt for the law.

The defence tried to avoid the conviction by arguing that the woman involved, whose name was withheld, was a prostitute.

The other four defendants were sentenced to terms ranging from 3 to 12 years. They were also ordered to compensate the victim 150,000 yuan (about US$ 25,000) each.

Li’s mother Meng Ge, also a well-known PLA singer, still insists her son is innocent despite the conviction.

The family trio is well known to the Chinese public since they have performed in military displays for a lifetime (pictured).

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

China: An Increasingly International Yuan: Currency Exchanges With the European Central Bank

Agreement for three years for the exchange of up to 45 billion EUR and 350 billion Yuan. A step towards full convertibility of the Chinese currency.

Beijing ( AsiaNews / Agencies) — The Chinese central bank (People’s Bank of China, PBOC ) has signed an agreement with the European Central Bank (ECB ) for a currency swap line, widening even more the use of the Yuan Renminbi in the international community.

The spread of the yuan will be possible throughout the euro area.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Pretoria: The South African Government Has Failed to Uphold the Constitution, Afrikaans Singer and Activist Sunette Bridges Said on Thursday.

She led a group of mostly Afrikaners, called Red October, in Pretoria, in a march to the Union Buildings to lament the killing of white South Africans.

“The South African government has a constitutional obligation to safeguard its citizens. Yet we live in a country that is now hailed as the murder and rape capital of the world.”

In the memorandum the group said they had the right to be in charge of their own schools and to maintain the standard of education accustomed to in accordance with their culture.

[Return to headlines]
 

Skin Bleaching Hot Trend for Nigerian Women

Many women in Nigeria make this clear: they want to have lighter-colored skin. Cosmetic skin bleaches are all the vogue, but the risks may outweigh the perceived benefits.

Fair and white, that’s exactly what Lilian Irek would like to be. And the makers of fair and white and other skin lightening creams tell us that business has never been better.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Catalonia: Two and a Half Years in Prison for Internet “Statements That Rejected Immigration and Multiculturalism”

A judge in Vilanova i la Geltrú (Barcelona) has sentenced each of the three officials of an association that was linked to the party Alianza Nacional [National Alliance] to two and a half years in prison for incitement to hatred and discrimination by spreading their Nazi ideology on the internet.

[…]

The judgement maintains that the group committed incitement to hatred and discrimination by disseminating on its web page “statements that rejected immigration and multiculturalism” and that blamed foreigners for taking jobs and housing from Spanish people, as well as fomenting crime and drug-trafficking.

           — Hat tip: Kitman [Return to headlines]
 

Commissioner Calls on EU to Strengthen Border Patrol Body

(AGI) Brussels, Oct 12 — Following the latest shipwreck off the coast of Lampedusa, EU Home Affairs Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom called on the EU’s member states to act urgently to strengthen Frontex, the EU’s border patrol agency. Malmstrom said that she renewed her appeal to all member states immediately to make available the necessary funding to enable Frontex to finalise the details of a search and rescue operation in the Mediterranean, Cyprus and Spain, in order to identify and assist boats in need better.

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

Germany: Refugees Go on Hunger Strike in Berlin

Refugees began a hunger strike at Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate on Wednesday evening. Watched by police officers and tourists, they told The Local why they had given up food to fight for their rights.

Akili Jules-Sawa, 29, from Congo, had been on hunger strike for three days. “We’ll stay until we get our rights — acceptance in society,” he said.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Italian PM Letta Announces Humanitarian Mission

(AGI) Rome, Oct 12 — Italy’s prime minister has announced a humanitarian mission to limit the loss of lives of immigrants trying to reach Europe over the Mediterranean Sea. “We started thinking about it the days after the Lampedusa shipwreck and we have come up with a plan. On Monday, we’ll launch an Italian military humanitarian mission”, Prime Minister Enrico Letta said from Venice. “The goal of the mission is to make the Mediterranean Sea safer in those areas that have become a cemetery. We’ll spend a lot of money to triple the number of ships and planes we are using now,” the premier added in an interview with La Repubblica editor Ezio Mauro.

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

Italy: Around 200 People Saved From Migrant-Boat Wreck

Some 150 on Maltese ship, 50 on Italian navy vessel

(ANSA) — Rome, October 11 — Around 200 people have been saved so far after a boat carrying an estimated 250 migrants sank in the Channel of Sicily on Friday, sources among the rescuers said. Around 150 survivors are on a Maltese ship and around 50 are on a Italian Navy vessel, the sources said. Dead bodies have been seen in the area of the wreck.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Letta in Favour of Abolishing Bossi-Fini Immigration Law

(AGI) Rome, Oct 12 — Italy’s Prime Minister Enrico Letta said he is in favour of abolishing an immigration law which has been criticised for its asylum-granting procedures and which allows the forcible expulsion of clandestine immigrants. “Would Letta the man abolish the Bossi-Fini law?” the prime minister was asked on a talk show. “Letta the politician would too”, he replied. When a journalist noted the contradiction that Deputy Prime Minister Angelino Alfano is against changing the Bossi-Fini law, Letta replied: “We’re a large coalition, there are many issues we don’t agree on”.

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

Muslim Immigrants Get Community Service for Gang Rape of Twelve Year Old in Norway

A 12 year old girl from Namsos, Norway was gang raped twice by four Muslim immigrants aged 15 to 18. All four perpetrator confessed, and argued that the twelve year old victim consented. The victim was gang raped on an elementary school playground.

The thugs were convicted of aggravated rape, but prosecutor Kaja Strandjord only asked the court for community service for the perpetrators

           — Hat tip: Kitman [Return to headlines]
 

The New Iron Curtain Falls on Brenner

L’Espresso Rome

The pass between Austria and Italy is one of the fracture points of EU immigration policy: on one side, the Austrian police try by all means to block migrants who are headed north; on the other side, Italian agents happily shut one eye.

Paolo Cagnan

“Nein”. The decision of the Austrian policeman allows for no appeal: “Die Flüchtlinge bleiben in Italian” [The refugees remain in Italy]. Here, they shall not pass.

Migrants who want to scale Fortress Europe are stonewalled at the Brenner Pass. And “nein” means “nein”, period. No point in trying to move the guard to compassion: rules are rules. Schengen or no Schengen. Especially here, at the Brenner Pass, 1,400 metres above sea level. Lampedusa is 1,836 kilometres away, at the other end of the boot of Italy: they have crossed the country in the hope of climbing to the north and getting into Germany or Scandinavia and their legendary welfare states.

There was a time where this border was real. With police officers, Carabinieri, the Guardia di Finanza, and customs officers. Fences, metal gates, surveillance cameras. There were controls, and all vehicles were stopped at the border. A passport was needed. The turning point came in April 1998, when the barriers were lifted for good. Today, if not for some signs, you would even not realise you had crossed into Austria.

Forty thousand vehicles pass though here every day, or 14.6 million every year. Seventy per cent are cars and motorcycles, and heavy trucks make up the remaining 30 per cent. And who stops the migrants crammed into cars (up to six people, not counting the smuggler) or hidden in the trucks? No one, clearly.

Austria the inpenetrable

For those who choose the train, things are different. Very different. Austria has become impenetrable, a little like Switzerland. And the constant rejections at the border, with no stirrings of mercy, reveal a Europe that shows little regard for Italy, for its coasts, for “its” migrants. But we, at least, do not expel the vulnerable: women, children, the elderly, the disabled….

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

Judges on Track to Legalize Suicide-on-Demand?

European court escalates fight over ‘right’ to death

Judges in the European Union are on track to legalize suicide-on-demand through the case of a healthy Swiss woman who decided she wanted to die and sued when doctors refused to prescribe poison.

The dispute is between Alda Gross and her Swiss government, which already allows doctor-prescribed death under certain circumstances.

Gross decided she wanted to die but could not find a doctor prepared to prescribe the poison, sodium pentobarbital. Swiss law requires that a doctor do an examination and prescribe the drug for people wanting to kill themselves.

Swiss courts had ruled that restrictions placed on the drug are there to prevent abuse and cannot be overridden without a medical prescription. However, a sub-panel of the European Court of Human Rights said the ruling violated the demand in the European Convention on Human Rights to respect the “private life” of an individual.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Los Angeles School District Wants Teachers to Wear Pro-Gay Badges

Los Angeles public schools are encouraging teachers and staff to wear badges that identify them as “LGBT allies” and supporters of the pro-gay movement.

Superintendent John Deasy kicked off the effort Thursday, which he said was necessary to prevent gay kids from being bullied…

In an interview with CBS News, Deasy made clear that he wanted school staff to be not just tolerant of gay kids, but accepting.

“It is safe to be you. We are proud of who you are,” he said. “Our campuses don’t want tolerance, we want acceptance.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Northern Ireland: Gay Blood Ban ‘Irrational’, Judge Rules

Stormont’s health minister did not have the power to keep an “irrational” lifetime ban on gay men giving blood in Northern Ireland, a judge has ruled.

A gay man granted anonymity due to his perceived vulnerability launched a judicial review challenge to Mr Poots’ position on blood donation.

The judge heard claims that the minister had displayed apparent bias that went beyond religious beliefs and into the realms of prejudice.

Attorney General John Larkin QC, the chief legal adviser to the Stormont Executive, questioned the legitimacy of the challenge.

He claimed the challenge was a waste of time because the applicant had previously had sex for money.

           — Hat tip: Kitman [Return to headlines]
 

Civilization’s New Trajectory, Part 2

How easily we forget and, then, ignore government action that identifies, demonizes, and disables anyone deemed a potential ‘threat.’“[5] Apparently not learning from history, 21st century America is repeating it. Increasingly, citizens forfeit basic freedoms and constitutional rights ensured by the founders.[6] Accepting that evolution is true (and creation, a myth), they misguidedly trust in man’s ability, through technology, to shape the direction of human evolution.[7]

With computer-enhanced, godlike meta-intelligence, the New Man hopes to free himself of biological restraints and, then, find his rightful fit in an anticipated socialistic utopia. Sliding core values bridge the techno-spiritual gap between trans- (or post-) humanism and technocratic global governance for which this New Man is suited.[8]

* Feudalism Begets Socialism (Egalitarianism)

Followers of Marx and Engels viewed the feudal stage as a necessary prerequisite for emerging socialism. Broadly defined, feudalism describes Europe’s medieval system of structuring society around relationships derived from “haves” (those holding land) in exchange for service of “have-nots.”[9] Fomented class warfare pits “slave owner against slave, landlord against tenant, corporation against worker, rich against poor.” As a result, forced redistribution of wealth, if not revolution, “levels the playing field.” Egalitarianism — i.e., naked socialism — provides a transition stage between capitalism (free market; open competition) and communism (common ownership of production means; absence of social classes).[10]

* Pseudo-Egalitarianism Begets Nepotism[11]

Collectivist society demands an oligarchy — namely, government by an exceptional ruling elite guaranteed the right to rule over less gifted masses. In Marx’s view, “democratization” means that government allows certain individuals to partake in some discussions relating to a particular policy proposal, but only those who support that policy may participate.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

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