The front-runner to lead the youth wing of the Christian Democrats in Norway thinks there are not enough Muslims in the party. He promises to work to attract more of them; he says the party needs them.
In other news, 60% of Italians cut their spending on food during the first six months of this year. Household spending power dropped 1.7% over the same period.
Oh, by the way: This blog was founded nine years ago today.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, KP, 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.
Global Financial Death Spiral?
While it can probably be said that there is no perfect economic model, Austrian economics and its variants probably come the closest according to an increasing minority of economists.
Austrian Economics is the opposite of Keynesian economics. In its purist form, Austrian economics centers on the culmination of human effort, which can be achieved only through the combined decisions and judgments of individuals and cannot be forced by an external agency such as a government. It emphasizes complete freedom of association and sovereignty of individual property rights.[1] Its other main tenets include (1) abolishment of central banks and return to the gold standard, (2) elimination of bank deposit insurance schemes so that bank failures punish bad investments and bad judgments of individuals.
The theory of Austrian economics was originally crystallized in 1871 in Vienna by Carl Menger. It went through several evolutions which were unified by Nobel laureate in economics, Friedrich von Hayek and Ludwig von Mises in the 20th century. Today Ludwig von Mises Institute is the primary promoter of Austrian economics in the U.S. Most of its recommendations have been fiercely opposed by the mainstream (both capitalist and socialist) economists who call it ‘anarchist economics,’ probably because economists would lose all god-like power to manipulate the Fed, making the Fed unnecessary. Opposition is beginning to change as it is becoming obvious that the Keynesian model has consistently failed.
One of the biggest problems today with Keynesian economics (at least for progressives) is the fundamentally incorrect idea that job creation is the primary reason for government stimulating business. In the Keynesian model, business is but a necessary evil to creating jobs. Since business (i.e. capitalism or free market enterprise) is fundamentally evil to progressives, then mountains of regulations must be imposed to protect labor and jobs, while somehow magically creating jobs through government stimulus.
It’s the proverbial”cart before the horse” problem that is inherent to progressives and other liberals. No matter how hard they try, a goal of job creation cannot by itself cause jobs to be created. Job creation is an outcome of creating a healthy business climate.It is business and industry that pulls the economy, not jobs. That should be a no-brainer, but progressives are blind to it, probably because of their hatred of free market enterprise. Because Keynesian economics has it backwards, it has always been bound to fail; no matter how many millions of words so-called brilliant economists write telling us otherwise.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Over Three-Fifths of Families Cut Food Spending in Jan-June
Rome, 8 Oct. (AKI) — A total 62 percent of families in recession-hit Italy slashed their food spending in the first half of the year and over 6.5 million families shopped in discount supermarkets to make ends meet, new data showed on Tuesday.
Food expenditure fell 1.8 percent in Italy from January to June and household spending power declined 1.7 percent over the period as as the two-year-long recession dragged on, according to data compiled by the Italian agricultural producers’ confederation.
“Today, the food Italians are eating is strictly low-cost,” the confederation said.
Households have cut the quality as well as the quantity of what they eat, it noted.
Spending on fish plummeted 18.4 percent in the first six months of the year, while that on pasta slumped by 9 percent. Other casualties were fresh milk (down 7.5 percent) and on red meat (down 4 percent), according to the confederation.
It urged a cut to VAT sales tax, which the government raised to 22 percent this month, in order reverse crumbling Italian consumer demand.
“Growth will be further depressed and economic recovery will remain more elusive if we keep going in the same direction,” it said.
The recent VAT hike will cost households 200-300 euros each annually, according to the confederation.
Consumer spending fell an annual 2.4 percent in August, according to data released on Tuesday by Italian retail association Confcommercio.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
New Fed Boss, Same Train Wreck Policies
Obama’s selection for Federal Reserve boss, Council on Foreign Relations member and Alan Greenspan protege Janet Yellen, has signaled that the fiat funny money printing presses will continue to roll.
Bankster minion Larry Summers, who worked closely with cohort Robert Rubin to dismantle the firewall between commercial and investment banking (Glass-Steagal) and allow derivatives to ruin the economy, was on the short list. His toxic background as a sleazeball at the Treasury Department (see Greg Palast’s article) got him dumped and paved the way for the president and Chief Executive Officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco to be appointed. The Senate indicated it would oppose the nomination of Summers, not because he was instrumental in creating the pseudo-securities wrecking ball designed to destroy national economies, but rather, if you can believe the New York Times and the rest of the Wall Street pimped Mockingbird media, he is mean to women.
Yellen is squeaky clean, that is if a high-level bankster official can be considered clean, and she is a staunch supporter of the Bernanke plan to create dangerous new asset bubbles through the printing of trillions of devalued dollars in funny money, a scheme called quantitative easing. Because of her blasé background as a macroeconomics academic, her nomination by the Senate will present few if any problems. She’s a shoo-in.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
“Shutdown Theater: “ Obama Admin Puts Seniors at Yellowstone Under Armed Guard — Updated With Audio!
Almost immediately, an armed ranger came by and ordered them to get back in, saying they couldn’t “recreate.” The tour guide, who had paid a $300 fee the day before to bring the group into the park, argued that the seniors weren’t “recreating,” just taking photos. “She responded and said, ‘Sir, you are recreating,’ and her tone became very aggressive,” Vaillancourt said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Ala. Police Dept. Receives $400k Armored Military Vehicle ‘Free’ From Feds
The Cullman Police Department added a new tool to their agency in the form of a 2007 armored military vehicle that required no out of pocket costs from the department, but was valued around $400,000.
The 40,000 pound Caiman MRAP (Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected) surplus military vehicle was picked up from Hattisburg, Miss., and driven to Cullman by investigator Matt Dean and officer David Nassetta on Monday. Cullman received it through the federal government 10-33 program. Police Chief Kenny Culpepper said this vehicle will be an asset to the department and specifically the tactical unit.
“Members of the community may take a look at this and think, ‘Why would the police department need something like that?,’“ Culpepper said. “We may receive a lot of criticism from the community saying it’s a waste and we will never use it. Well, I hope we never have to prove that we need it because that means some form of tragedy has struck, whether it be a natural disaster, school shooting or something else like it. In the office, we’ve had a heart defibrillator there for a long time and many people say it’s a waste, truth be told, I don’t want to have to use it. So, just like this vehicle, I hope for continued criticism. We don’t mind it.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
America: Swallowed Up by a Stink Hole
America, the country, the people, the culture, the freedom and liberty have been sinking slowly into the abyss of socialism and ultimate slavery, but the sinking has been imperceptible from generation to generation. A small percentage of the people, mostly over 65, have witnessed the slow sinking and are frantically crying out to other Americans with the warning that soon the iron grip of socialism and slavery will envelope their bodies and their minds and they will be forever entombed in the hell hole of mediocrity, laziness and dependency, never to see the light of freedom again. Their warnings seemingly go unnoticed in the general population, government, academia and by the news media.
But the hole that is swallowing up America and its people is not a hole in the earth’s crust. It is a Stink Hole brought about by evil and powerful men (and women) who exploit human weakness and ignorance for their own ends. It is a Stink Hole that smells of the stench of rotting flesh and the frustration and hopelessness of lost opportunities and lost dreams. This Stink Hole penalizes achievement and rewards mediocrity and laziness. The Hole is occupied by leaches, free loaders, ner-do-wells and permanent welfare recipients that continue to suck the life, wealth and exceptionalism out of America, all under the authority of those evil men and women who purport to represent ALL of the American people, supposedly bound by their solemn oath to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Congress to Probe Govt. Attacks on Homeowners, Businesses During Shutdown
As outrage and defiance against the Obama administration’s “shutdown” antics continue to escalate, lawmakers in Congress plan to investigate growing numbers of reports on the eviction of homeowners and the shuttering of businesses that sit on public lands. The uproar comes in the wake of media accounts and comments from public servants suggesting that the executive branch is trying to make the bogus “shutdown” — most of the federal government is still up and running — feel as painful as possible in an effort to extort taxpayer money to fund ObamaCare.
All across the country, business owners and residents on “federal property” — in other words, land that taxpayers are supposed own — are reportedly being ordered by armed bureaucrats to get out until the supposed “shutdown” ends. — From elderly homeowners near Lake Mead to businesses in North Carolina that do not cost taxpayers anything, the number of victims of the administration’s lawless efforts to make Americans submit to ObamaCare continues to grow. Citizens and their representatives, though, have had just about enough.
In Congress, Republicans expressed outrage. “Many of these non-federally funded sites exist throughout the United States and operate with no staff or resources from the National Park Service,” said a statement issued by GOP lawmakers on the House Natural Resources Committee, who plan to investigate. “This is yet another example of the Obama administration attempting to make the government shutdown as painful as possible and forcing closures of private and nonprofit operators that did not happen during previous government shutdowns.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Well, Obamacare is now in effect. The decision by Congress to pass Obamacare into law back in 2010 ranks among the most draconian, most egregious, most horrific actions ever taken by the central government in Washington, D.C. This bill rocks the principles of liberty and constitutional government to the core. It changes fundamental foundations; it repudiates historic values. The same flag may fly on our flagpoles, the same monuments may grace our landscape, and the same National Anthem may be sung during our public ceremonies, but it is not the same America. For all intents and purposes, our nation now more resembles the socialist countries of the old communist East Bloc than it does the constitutional republic of the old land of the free.
I was honored to have been invited to be the keynote speaker at the annual meeting of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons recently in Denver. It was a very large gathering of physicians from all over the country. And I can tell you that the doctors I spoke with are all very, very concerned about the future of healthcare in the United States. Take a peek at the condition of healthcare in socialist countries throughout the world or take a peek at the condition of healthcare in our VA clinics and hospitals, and you will get a little feel for what healthcare is going to quickly look like in America.
On March 21, 2010, Congress passed, and on March 23, 2010, President Barack Obama signed the dreaded national health care bill into law, and as such, these dates join a list of dates that have contributed to the destruction of a free America. Of course, there are several such dates, but, in my opinion, the following are the most draconian…
December 23, 1913
This is the date when the Federal Reserve Act was passed. This Act placed oversight of America’s financial matters into the hands of a cabal of private international bankers, who have completely destroyed the constitutional principles of sound money and (for the most part) free enterprise. No longer would the marketplace (private consumption, thrift, growth, etc.) be the determinant of the US economy (which is what freedom is all about), but now a private, unaccountable international banking cartel would have total power and authority to micromanage (for their own private, parochial purposes) America’s financial sector. Virtually every recession, depression, and downturn (including the one we are now experiencing) has been the direct result of the Fed’s manipulation of the market. 1913 was not a good year for the United States…
October 22, 1968
This is the date when President Lyndon Baines Johnson signed the Gun Control Act of 1968. Before this Act, the 2nd Amendment was alive and well in the United States. The Gun Control Act of 1968 turned a right into a privilege and forever forced the American people to bow at the altar of government when seeking to arm themselves. Interestingly enough, this Gun Control Act mirrored Nazi Germany’s Gun Control Act of 1938. In fact, the Gun Control Act of 1968 is almost a verbatim copy of Hitler’s Gun Control Act of 1938.
The hundreds and hundreds of draconian gun control laws that have been inflicted upon the American people have all come about as a result of the Gun Control Act of 1968.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Dem Congresswoman Suggests “Martial Law” To End Government Shutdown (Video)
Democratic Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee used obscure language to characterize the push for a clean resolution which would end the government shutdown, labeling it a form of “martial law.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Democrats to America: We Own the Government!
In the current fight over the government shutdown, Republicans are simply representing the views of the American people.
Americans didn’t ask for Obamacare, they don’t want it, but now their insurance premiums are going through the roof, their doctors aren’t accepting it, and their employers are moving them into part-time work — or firing them — to avoid the law’s mandates.
Contrary to Obama’s promises, it turns out: You can’t keep your doctor, you can’t keep your insurance — you can’t even keep your job. In other words, it’s a typical government program, but this one wrecks your health care.
Also, the president did raise taxes on the middle class in defiance of his well-worn campaign promise not to. Indeed, Obamacare is the largest tax hike in U.S. history.
Among the other changes effected by this law are:
- Obamacare will allow insurers to charge 50 percent higher premiums for smokers, but prohibits insurers from increasing premiums for those with HIV/AIDS.
- Nationally, Obamacare will increase men’s individual insurance premiums by an average of 99 percent and women’s by 62 percent. In North Carolina, for example, individual insurance premiums will triple for women and quadruple for men.
- Health plans valued at $27,500 or more for a family of four will be taxed at a rate of 40 percent.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Diamond Drizzle Forecast for Saturn and Jupiter
Lightning storms create carbon soot that might be compressed into diamonds as it falls through the atmosphere.
Forget diamonds in the sky — it may actually be raining diamonds on Saturn and Jupiter, according to two planetary scientists.
Researchers have long wondered whether the high pressures inside the giant planets could turn carbon into diamond2, and even though some researchers dispute their claim, Mona Delitsky of California Specialty Engineering in Flintridge, and Kevin Baines of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, now say it is possible.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Extreme Hypocrisy! Obama Orders Federal Workers to “Make Life as Difficult for People as We Can”
Why would the president of the United States try to purposely hurt the American people? Well, in 2013 this is done in order to score political points and force the opposition in to doing what you want them to do. A few days ago, an angry Park Service ranger publicly admitted that he and his fellow rangers have been ordered to “make life as difficult for people as we can” during this government shutdown. That Park Service ranger would never have received such an order unless it came from the very top.
Apparently the Obama administration plans to cause as much pain as possible until Obama gets everything that he is demanding. In many cases, it is actually going to cost far more money to put up barricades and use guards to keep Americans from visiting open air memorials, driving on roads, and fishing in bodies of water than it would to put up a “closed” sign and simply go home. As you will see from the examples posted below, the Obama administration is being extremely spiteful and vindictive. And the level of hypocrisy that we are now witnessing is hard to fathom. For instance, the National Mall has been totally closed to the public, but the Obama administration is specifically reopening it for a massive pro-immigration rally that will benefit the Democrats politically. The abuse of power that is taking place is absolutely staggering, and the American people need to demand that those that are abusing it be held accountable when all of this is over.
The following are just a few examples of how Obama is using this shutdown to make life as difficult for people as possible…
#1 The Obama administration is doing all it can to keep Americans from even getting a glimpse of Mount Rushmore, but Barack Obama’s chefs have been deemed “essential” and are still preparing his meals.
#2 Small businesses cannot get loans, but the exclusive gyms that are only for members of Congress have been deemed “essential” and remain open.
[Comment: Summary of Obama’s attitude: “Let them eat cake!” ]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Flashback: What Do You Expect When Socialists Are Allowed to Serve in Congress?
People can’t figure out why so many millions of Americans have embraced socialism.
One only need look at the government’s indoctrination centers called public schools and two private organizations: NEA (National Education Association and the NTA (National Teachers Association). Their toxic influence has helped usher along the ultimate goal of a Soviet America.
One only need look at the curriculum the past 40 years in “public schools” across this country to see the product produced today. Civics is gone in most classrooms. Children have been recycled through institutions that teach dangerous propaganda like “for the common good” and “social justice”. Both staples of the communist party throughout the world.
One only need look at removal of any teaching of the history of this constitutional republic and substituting it with more propaganda about “our democracy”. Instead, children for almost two decades have been subjected to carefully crafted propaganda in text books offering up subtle suggestions meant to lead the student into embracing becoming a “global citizen”. Not a sovereign citizen with love for America.
Those good little global citizens had their minds washed in the dumbing down institutions of lower learning for at least a decade. Those students are now teachers, they serve in Congress, the state houses and on school boards. They are professors at “institutions of higher learning”, filling the minds of young Americans with the communitarian doctrine (communist morality).
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Head Fake! Is Healthcare.gov Only an Empty Shell Mockup of a Working ObamaCare Exchange?
As the days of glitches, snafus, down-time and critical errors mount up, evidence is mounting that the Healthcare.gov Obamacare exchange is not actually a fully-formed online application. More and more, it appears to be a mockup of a health care exchange enrollment system…
The Obama administration says that millions of people tried to sign up on the very first day. So, let’s ask a real simple question here of the administration: Out of those millions of people who tried to sign up, how many actually have insurance policies purchased through the exchange?
Anyone? …Anyone? … Bueller?
The answer appears to be ZERO. Even Kathleen Sebelius, the very top dog at HHS, can’t name a single person who has enrolled. Consider the nightmare qualities of this scenario for a second: Out of millions of people who tried, not ONE person is confirmed as enrolled? Seriously?
Obama tried to compare this to Apple rolling out a few minor updates. But that’s a laughable comparison. Apple actually produces devices that successfully function. They complete phone calls and run mapping apps. You can text people on an iPhone. By comparison, Healthcare.gov seems to have no real functionality at all. If Apple shipped a fake plastic toy phonewith a simulated screen and tried to call it a “working iPhone,” that would be more like what Obama is trying to pull off here…
Not long ago, in fact, California blew $200+ million on a DMV overhaul program that was such a complete screw-up, the whole thing ultimately had to be scrapped. The project took seven years to reach its point of implosion, wasting over $200 million in the process and leaving the California DMV in a state of legacy chaos.
Obamacare seems a lot more complex than a driver’s license system, and it has to talk to hundreds of insurance companies, financial institutions and many other databases stored in remote locations. The complexity of this program is quite literally beyond the comprehension of any one engineer. Socialist government people, in particular, can’t make this work precisely because they tend to be delusional thinkers about reality. They literally believe they can wave a magic wand and decree something into existence. So they pronounce their plans with great fanfare — “Every person will have affordable insurance!” — but they have no idea that such promises actually require dedicated, intelligent work to transform into reality.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Listen to original 10.06.13 interview with Dr. Jim Garrow: How Obamacare Will Be Used To Destroy The US Constitution
On tonight’s The Wise Shall Understand Radio Broadcast, our guest was Dr. Jim Garrow whom you may remember shocked the world by saying this back on January 21, 2013:
“I have just been informed by a former senior military leader that Obama is using a new “litmus test” in determining who will stay and who must go in his military leaders. Get ready to explode folks. “The new litmus test of leadership in the military is if they will fire on US citizens or not”. Those who will not are being removed,” — source…
In addition to revealing that Andrew Breitbart had been killed under orders from Obama administration officials, he also said that spy thriller novelist Tom Clancy had also be killed in much the same way, and for the same reasons. Garrow said that Clancy had been spoon fed inside information for years from covert operatives for his novels, and he knew too much. Interestingly, when asked about where he got his ideas for his novels, Clancy had said this before he died:
“I hang my hat on getting as many things right as I can,” Mr. Clancy once said in an interview. “I’ve made up stuff that’s turned out to be real — that’s the spooky part.” NY Times
A little too real, as it turns out. Dr. Garrow said the reason no autopsy was performed for the first 5 days is that it ‘takes that long for the chemicals he was poisoned with to work their way out of his body’.
Lastly, he revealed that Obama’s administration was made up of Marxist Muslims who all take their orders from Senior Adviser to the President, Iranian-born Valerie Jarrett. Dr. Garrow said that it is well known to intelligence agencies all over the world that Obama is a foreign plant who was placed on the path to the presidency by ultra-rich Saudi nationals This is why, Garrow said, that all of Obama’s education records have been permanently sealed.
Garrow paints a bleak picture of a compromised America that is collapsing under internal attack from foreign forces.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
By Daniel Greenfield
Excerpt: Our government is so big that the nearly 3 million government employees should be their own state. The population of government employees is already larger than the populations of Rhode Island, Wyoming, Delaware, Alaska, Montana, North and South Dakota, New Hampshire, Maine, Hawaii, Idaho, West Virginia, Nebraska and New Mexico. It’s so big that if government employees formed their own state, it would be the 36th largest state in the union.
| — Hat tip: KP | [Return to headlines] |
More Men Are Raped in the US Than Women, Figures on Prison Assaults Reveal
More men are raped in the U.S. than woman, according to figures that include sexual abuse in prisons. In 2008, it was estimated 216,000 inmates were sexually assaulted while serving time, according to the Department of Justice figures. That is compared to 90,479 rape cases outside of prison.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
New Recall Effort in Colorado Targets Another Anti-Gun Lawmaker
With two victories now under their belt, gun rights activists in Colorado are refocusing their efforts to recall state Sen. Evie Hudak — despite a failed attempt less than six months ago.
“She has infringed upon our constitutional right to keep and bear arms. She has voted to make all citizens less safe and to drive hundreds of jobs from Colorado,” reads an excerpt of the petition emailed by Mike McAlpine, a spokesman for Recall Hudak, too.
The anti-gun senator also drew the ire of Second Amendment advocates after she lectured rape survivor Amanda Collins during a hearing on gun control in March. Collins had a concealed weapons permit but was not carrying due to her college’s gun-free zone policy. Katie reported on the exchange at the time:…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Obama’s Hometown Gov Dumps Part-Time Employees Into ObamaCare
By Daniel Greenfield
Excerpt: If you’re a local government and you don’t want to cover health care for your part timers, there’s always the signature legislative achievement of Barack Obama to toss them into. “Part-time government employees working for Cook County, Illinois — President Obama’s home county — may soon lose their employer-funded health insurance and instead have to move onto Obamacare’s healthcare exchanges.”
| — Hat tip: KP | [Return to headlines] |
ObamaCare: The Ticking Time Bomb in “Better Health”
Ask yourself this question: if you’re forced to buy a product, will the seller also want to make sure you use it?
The first part of the question is called a clue. Who forces you to buy a product? What kind of person or group?
Forced purchase and forced use go hand in hand.
So it will be, some day, with Obamacare.
Up the road, when the program really gets going, this means: take your psychiatric drugs after your diagnosis of clinical depression; submit to the installation of a pacemaker, whether you want it or not; hand your children over to the doctor so he can shoot them 60 times with vaccines.
In the trade, it’s called “patient compliance.”
We can already see the outline forming.
On September 22, 2011, the Department of health and Human Services issued a press release titled, “HHS announces $224 million to support evidence-based home visiting programs to help parents and children.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Obama: Time for Americans to Embrace My Dictatorship and Their Own Slavery, Or Else
Acting more and more like a cheap version of Josef Stalin or even Hugo Chavez and, increasingly, drunk on his personally perceived absolute power over US citizens, Obama is now openly attacking we Americans and all of our institutions.
His partial shutdown of the US government (aka “ObamaGov”) has allowed him to affect all manner of dark mischief against us and he is laughing even more voraciously at us, while he pretends to put on his ‘serious face’. As one angry Park Ranger put it: “It’s a cheap way to deal with the situation. We’ve been told to make life as difficult for people as we can. It’s disgusting!”
Catholic Military priests — ever since the Catholic Church went against Dictator-in-Chief Obama over his abortion demands in ObamaCare he has held a vendetta against it — have been told by Obama syndicate members that they will actually be arrested by his Gestapo if they attempt to minister to soldiers during the partial ObamaGov shutdown.
Veterans’ Memorials have been shut down by Obama and his syndicate, while elderly Vets have been threatened with arrest if they do not comply with the dictator’s commands. Access to other public sites has been banned…including Mount Rushmore where cones were placed in the streets to disallow American citizens to even stop and take pictures. In NYC, Vets were arrested because they visited the Vietnam Memorial. The ObamaGov does not own these, folks… We-the-People do! We PAY the federal government to maintain them. Maybe it’s time that our States begin taking them back and paid themselves to maintain their own national treasures and parks.
Residents are being forced out of their homes and, in one case, over 70 families were ordered to vacate their homes (built on federally maintained land) by armed Park Rangers. By the way, the residents PAY the government for use of the land…which is actually OUR land in the first place. No matter. If the people did not move — many of them elderly — they were, also, threatened with arrest by the Obama Gestapo members who had the guns and ammo in hand.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Occupy America! Park Visitors Storm the Barrycades
By Michelle Malkin
Excerpt: Across the country, ordinary Americans are rising up in revolt against the old Washington tactic of closing public parks and memorials during selective government “shutdowns” to score political points. Tax-paying tourists are tossing off the orange traffic cones and “Barrycades.” Enough is enough.
| — Hat tip: KP | [Return to headlines] |
OIG: 6,400 Foreigners Had Access to Nuclear Lab’s Restricted Areas
(CNSNews.com) — As many as 6,400 foreign visitors from China, India, Egypt, Pakistan, and other countries were allowed “unaccompanied access to numerous buildings” at a nuclear lab in Tennessee that is “the nation’s central repository for bomb-grade uranium” and is currently working on a $10 billion project to refurbish hundreds of aging B61 “bunker buster” bombs.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The set of six X-rays and a file of doctors’ notes that offer a partial medical history of the Gentlemen Prefer Blondes actress from 1950 to 1962, are expected to fetch between $15,000 and $30,000 at auction on November 9 and 10, said Julien’s Auctions in Beverly Hills, California.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Shutdown Cancels Entire US Antarctic Research Program
As scientists had feared, today (Oct. 8) the National Science Foundation announced it was canceling the U.S. Antarctic research program for this year because of the ongoing government shutdown.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Shutdown Goes Gestapo: Senior Citizens Roughhoused by Federal Employees at Yellowstone
(NaturalNews) The punitive nature of the Obama regime’s actions in closing down taxpayer-funded monuments and parks continues to get out of hand, as this report demonstrates.
Some of the nation’s “Greatest Generation” were already humiliated and abused by federal Park Rangers at the World War II Monument in Washington, D.C., early in the current government shutdown, as the White House-directed closures of the people’s property expanded to include keeping the nation’s great war veterans from seeing the open-air site built exclusively to honor them.
Now, in Yellowstone National Park, more Gestapo-like tactics by the Park Service against senior citizens has taken place.
Scaring the foreign tourists who ‘thought they were under arrest’
As recently reported by the Newberry Port Daily News:
Pat Vaillancourt went on a trip last week that was intended to showcase some of America’s greatest treasures.
Instead, the Salisbury resident said she and others on her tour bus witnessed an ugly spectacle that made her embarrassed, angry and heartbroken for her country.
Vaillancourt was one of thousands of people who found themselves in a national park as the federal government shutdown went into effect on Oct. 1. For many hours her tour group, which included senior citizen visitors from Japan, Australia, Canada and the United States, were locked in a Yellowstone National Park hotel under armed guard.
[…]
Still think those federal rangers and agents are on your side?
For those of you who might be under the illusion that federal “gestapo” agents and officers won’t blindly and obediently follow their ruling class masters in D.C., take heed: This is a prime example demonstrating that you are mistaken. They will follow orders because, after all, it is the ruling masters who pay them (with your tax dollars, of course). Their livelihood depends on blind obedience.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Shutdown Insanity: Jogger Fined $100 for Exercising at Valley Forge National Park
(NaturalNews) Don’t look now, folks, but your country is slowly, quietly — but surely — slipping away from you as it is increasingly being governed by a punitive, capricious ruling class who despises you and seeks to punish you at every turn, just to keep you in line.
As the partial federal government shutdown stretches into its first week, it is becoming more and more obvious that President Obama is using the massive Bureaucratic State as a fourth branch of government to exert his will and influence over as much of the country as possible.
Paying the price of tyranny
Consider this report by CBSPhiladelphia as the latest exhibit of tyranny:
A marathoner says he was fined $100 for running in Valley Forge National Historical Park during the government shutdown.
John Bell, a 56-year-old realtor, said he parked his car on Sunday in a remote parking lot, not one blocked by a barrier.
Bell, of Chadds Ford, has competed in a marathon on every continent of the world, but one of his favorite places to run is Valley Forge.
“From a safety standpoint, I like running down there, along with the scenery,” he says.
Nevertheless, he says when he took his run recently a pair of two Park Rangers were waiting for him with their car lights flashing when he returned. For the high crime of disobeying the Great Obama, Bell was hit with a $100 citation…
As more of this insanity plays out, more Americans will discover why the federal government’s role in our lives should be substantially curbed. When ordinary activities on taxpayer-owned lands are fined or when it becomes impossible to earn a living because a petulant tyrant in the White House uses the power of the federal government to “shut down” your earning potential, the government has simply grown too intrusive and too large.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Ted Nugent: “The Government is So Out of Control”
“The government is so out of control,” legendary rocker Ted Nugent told the AP in an interview Monday. “It is so bloated and infested with fraud and deceit and corruption and abuse of power.”
In preparation for the debut of his live CD and DVD set Ultralive Ballisticrock, set to be released Oct. 22, Nugent is conducting interviews and throwing his two cents in about Obama’s role as president and his overall disappointment with the American public.
Labeling Obama a “monster in the White House,” who “wouldn’t qualify to drive my tour bus,” the 65-year-old Motor City guitarist and staunch Second Amendment advocate didn’t hold back his feelings toward the federal government.
“The American government today will go down and the American people, it breaks my heart to say… will go down as the dumbest, most unappreciative society in the history of humankind,” he stated.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Police today said the stabbing death of a white Army soldier allegedly at the hands of a group of African American comrades was not a hate crime — despite witnesses claiming they called him a ‘cracker’ during the confrontation.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Zullo: Obama an Empty Suit Who Rose Out of Nowhere
Mike Zullo continues his interview with Floyd Brown about investigating Obama’s birth certificate. The PDF released by the White House was created by fraudulent means intent on deceiving the public. If you missed it, watch Part 1 here.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Brits Lose Control of Nuke Reactors: “Unbelievable… Seriousness of a Major Radioactive Release”
After the world witnessed a widespread radioactive disaster following the Tsunami that took down power systems at the Fukushima nuclear facility in Japan you would think that nuclear regulators and operators would have taken the threat of unforeseen accidents seriously.
Apparently, this is not the case, according to a new report from the United Kingdom.
Nearly the exact same scenario played out in the Devonport Dockyard last summer, when the primary and secondary power sources for nuclear cooling fuel became inexplicably inoperable.
It was a situation kept secret because the implications were so serious that the entire country of Britain could have been turned to a radioactive wasteland overnight.
“ A major nuclear incident was narrowly averted at the heart of Britain’s Royal Navy submarine fleet, The Independent on Sunday can reveal. The failure of both the primary and secondary power sources of coolant for nuclear reactors at the Devonport dockyard in Plymouth on 29 July last year followed warnings in previous years of just such a situation.
Experts yesterday compared the crisis at the naval base, operated by the Ministry of Defence and government engineering contractors Babcock Marine, with the Fukushima Daiichi power-station meltdown in Japan in 2011.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Did Modern Jews Originate in Italy?
Modern Jews may traditionally trace their ancestry to the Holy Land, but a new genetic study finds otherwise. A detailed look at thousands of genomes finds that Ashkenazim—who make up roughly 80% of the world’s Jews, including 90% of those in America and half of those in Israel—ultimately came not from the Middle East, but from Western Europe, perhaps Italy.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
European Elections 2014: Fears of a Growing Protest Vote
Le Monde Paris
The success of Europhobic parties in member states will likely pave the way for a surge in support for Eurosceptics in next May’s European elections. Their favourite topics — immigration, austerity and the rejection of Brussels — already dominate the campaigns.
Alain Salles
The breakthrough by Germany’s anti-euro party, the far right push in Austria, the pressure exerted by Nigel Farage’s Europhobes on the British Conservative party, and the anti-austerity drubbing sustained by the ruling party in Portuguese local elections: all of these amount to a preamble for May 2014 European elections in which hostility to Brussels’ orthodoxy will likely have a major impact.
In addition to the traditional anti-immigration and anti-Brussels votes, which have fed Euroscepticism in previous elections, anti-Merkel and anti-troika groups, which have thrived amid the euro crisis and repeated austerity programmes, stand to make a strong showing. Different political strands are often intertwined on these “protest” fronts. The eurosceptics are worried about growing immigration, while austerity has encouraged rejection of a Europe ruled by liberal economics.
In a context where ruling parties are more concerned by national votes than by low-turnout European ballots, the protest parties are counting on the elections on May 22 and 25, 2014, to establish their influence. What is more, the surge in their support will come at a time when the European Parliament has won greater powers, notably with regard to its choice of the president of the future Commission.
Brussels’ battle of wills
The leader of the UK Independence Party (UKIP), Nigel Farage, has made European elections a priority in his bid to impose his views on the United Kingdom, which will open a new chapter in the battle of wills with Brussels. They are also a key objective for the True Finns and France’s Front national (FN), as they are for Beppe Grillo in Italy, and SYRIZA, Greece’s main opposition party. All of these groups are hoping to be the focus of a protest vote, which is more pronounced in EU polls. “European elections have traditionally favoured marginal parties,” explains political scientist Dominique Reynié. “They are characterised by proportional representation and a high level of abstention, especially among moderate voters.”…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Forensic Psychiatrist: Women Kill More Creatively Than Men
Women rarely commit murder, but forensic psychiatrist Sigrun Rossmanith has treated many female killers. She tells SPIEGEL ONLINE that women’s dark side is underestimated.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
France: ‘I Am Ready for Elysee’, Marine Le Pen Tells ANSAmed
FN leader says ‘polls not a surprise, we are ready and able’
(by Paolo Levi) (ANSAmed) — PARIS, OCTOBER 9 — National Front (FN) leader Marine Le Pen, 47, said Wednesday she is ready to be France’s next president.
Le Pen spoke in an interview with ANSAmed on the same day an IFOP survey for the Nouvel Observateur showed her right-wing party leading in the polls ahead of the 2014 European elections — an absolute first for France.
“Yes, I feel I am ready for the Elysee”, Le Pen assured ANSAmed over the phone. “I can’t stand those who say we’re not competent enough” to lead the country, she added.
She “is not surprised”, she says, at the results of the survey.
“Today we are the leading party. The Socialists and the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) can only win if they make a deal and form a pact of national unity”, added Jean-Marie Le Pen’s daughter, who came in third after current Socialist President Francois Hollande and outgoing UMP president Nicolas Sarkozy in the 2012 presidential elections.
Le Pen junior took over from her father as party chairman in a congress in Tours in 2011, and has been trying to change the party’s image from one of racism and xenophobia to a more moderate version ever since.
“The French are clear-headed. A lot of people are becoming aware” of France’s true situation, she said. Which explains the support of personalities such as actor Alain Delon, who publicly announced he favors the FN in an interview with Swiss daily Le Matin. Le Pen went on to explain that hers “is not an extreme right party” but rather a “patriotic, extremely democratic one”. It stands for more “popular referendums” with a “Gaullist vision” of national sovereignty and independence.
“Also, we are not against a market economy”, she continued.
Asked whether she thinks her party resembles Italy’s anti-establishment, anti-euro 5-Star Movement (M5S), Le Pen said that “there is no movement like ours right now. Ours is a mature party, with 40 years of history behind it. The M5S movement is a recent one, born of citizens’ exasperation at the current crisis”.
Le Pen, who opposes the EU and the single currency, reiterated the need to liberate France from the yoke of the Brussels technocrats — and of others.
“It’s time to put an end to the status quo. We no longer want to be vassals of the United States or the Gulf monarchies”, she warned.
The FN leader rejected the idea that her party lacks a leadership that is competent enough to rule the French republic.
“Bollocks”, she said matter-of-factly. “Today we can count on a lot of people who are willing to work with us. And they are highly trained, too”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
French Socialists Support Schulz for Commission Chief
The French Socialist Party said Tuesday it would support European Parliament chief Martin Schulz to be the European Socialist Party’s candidate for the commission presidency post, reports AFP. Rumours of the German national’s interest in the post, to be decided after the 2014 EU elections, have been circulating for months.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Greece: Golden Dawn’s Finances to be Investigated
Judges seek access to MPs’ bank accounts, ask Parliament to lift immunity of three more lawmakers
Magistrates handling an investigation into whether Golden Dawn has been operating as a criminal organization Tuesday sought the help of the Financial Crimes Squad (SDOE) and an independent anti-money laundering committee to access the bank accounts of MPs and officials of the ultra-right party.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Higgs Boson’s Nobel Nod Marks ‘Fantastic Day’ For Particle Physics
The Nobel Prize in physics was awarded today (Oct. 8) to two physicists who predicted the existence of the renowned Higgs boson particle nearly 50 years ago, and scientists around the world were quick to offer their praise, calling it “a fantastic day for particle physics.”
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the Nobel Prize to Francois Englert, of Belgium, and Peter Higgs, of the United Kingdom, for their independent research in 1964 on the theory of particle masses. Their studies led the way to the discovery of the particle, which is thought to explain how other fundamental particles get their mass, by two experiments (dubbed CMS and ATLAS) at the CERN lab in 2012.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Internal Dispute Behind Nobel Physics Delay
A fight over how to allocate credit for the discovery of the Higgs particle was the cause of an hour-long delay in the announcement of the Nobel Prize in physics on Tuesday, a member of the Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences has confirmed.
While Higgs and Englert laid the theoretical groundwork for the discovery, some members of the Royal Academy thought the prize should be shared by those who actually conducted the experiments that helped confirm the existence of the Higgs particle. “I think it’s incredibly unjust,” Anders Bárány, a professor emeritus of physics at Stockholm University and a member of the Royal Academy, told Sveriges Radio (SR).
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Many Young Britons Do Not Trust Muslims, Poll Finds
More than a quarter of young adults in Britain mistrust Muslims, a BBC survey shows.
Some 27% of the thousand 18 to 24-year-olds questioned said they did not trust them, while fewer than three in 10 (29%) thought Muslims were doing enough to tackle extremism in their communities. A similar proportion of the young people polled (28%) said the country would be better off with fewer Muslims and almost half (44%) felt Muslims did not share the same values as everyone else.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Martin Karplus: Michael Levitt and Arieh Warshel Win Nobel Prize in Chemistry
This year’s Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to three researchers for computer simulations that enable the closer study of complex reactions like photosynthesis and combustion, and the design of new drugs.
Martin Karplus of the University of Strasbourg in France and Harvard University, Michael Levitt of Stanford University, and Arieh Warshel of the University of Southern California share the honor and the approximately $1.2 million that accompanies it.
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MI5 Chief Warns British Public of Terror Threat
New Intelligence agency boss says thousands of Islamic extremists see British public as a legitimate target.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Norway: Christian Democrat Wants Muslims in Party
The leading candidate to lead the youth wing of Norway’s Christian Democrats is pushing for Muslims to join the party. “We should not just be a party for Christians but also for Muslims,” Emil André Erstad (22), told Dagsavisen.”I will work to bring more Muslim members into the party and to get them elected, because the party needs it.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Poland to Scrap TV and Radio Licence Fee by 2015
Minister of Culture Bodgan Zdrojewski has stated that the replacement for Poland’s TV and radio license fee should be enforced by the close of 2014.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Soccer: Italy’s ‘Regional Racism’ Rules Under Fire
Milan face stadium ban after fans abused Neapolitans
(By Paul Virgo) (ANSA) — Milan, October 9 — Serie A clubs have asked the Italian Soccer Federation (FIGC) to change its tough new anti-racism regulations after AC Milan were handed a stadium ban because their fans abused Neapolitans. “We have formally sent a letter requesting the regulation on regional discrimination be modified,” Maurizio Beretta, the president of the League of top-flight clubs, said Wednesday. The FIGC’s new regulations, which were brought in at the end of last season in line with directives from European soccer’s governing body UEFA, put “regional discrimination” on a par with abuse that refers to people’s skin colour or ethnic origin.
Milan had a section of their home ground closed for a recent game after their fans taunted Napoli supporters for their southern Italian origins in a defeat at the San Siro stadium last month.
The insults were repeated by Milan fans at last weekend’s 3-2 defeat to Juventus, prompting Serie A’s sporting judge to order the team’s next home game, against Udinese on October 19, to be played behind closed doors.
Milan risk being docked three points in Serie A if their fans re-offend. Club executives have said the punishments mean teams can be held hostage by small groups of fans.
Milan chief executive Adriano Galliani said Wednesday that the seven-time European champions would appeal to “all the forums possible against the stadium closure”. Inter Milan fans, meanwhile, showed solidarity with Milan Tuesday by calling on supporters across the country to sing “discriminatory chants” during the next set of Serie A fixtures to see if the authorities take action against everyone.
Even some Napoli supporters backed Milan’s hard-core ‘ultra’ fans, with one group showing a banner that read “Napoli Cholera. Now close our stand” during their team’s 4-0 win over Livorno at the weekend.
A group of Genoa fans put out a statement Wednesday saying that the ban on regional discrimination means they cannot even indulge in a little leg-pulling.
Italy and Juventus captain Gianluigi Buffon said the issue had taken Italian football into a “minefield”.
“It’s a fine line between local rivalries, making fun, offending and discrimination and, as in any minefield, there is the risk of an explosion,” Buffon told reporters at the Azzurri’s training camp ahead of their upcoming matches against Denmark and Armenia. Graziano Delrio, the minister for regional affairs and sport, even commented on the issue during a question-time session in parliament on Wednesday. Delrio said there was a need to “distinguish between fans’ chants that are offensive or racist and those that are humourous to avoid excessive punishment”. The FIGC adopted the new rules after fining clubs for racism by fans proved ineffective.
Italian soccer has been battling the problem for many years and last season was marred by several high-profile incidents of racism.
Ironically, Milan players were victims in many cases, especially Italy forward Mario Balotelli, who has Ghanaian roots. In January a walk-off by AC Milan in a friendly against a lower-tier team hit headlines worldwide.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
UK: GCHQ Leaks Have ‘Gifted’ Terrorists Ability to Attack ‘At Will’, Warns Spy Chief
The leaks of thousands of GCHQ files by CIA spy Edward Snowden have caused “enormous damage” and handed terrorists the “gift” to attack the UK “at will”, the new head of MI5 has warned.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Vying for Top EU Jobs: Bidding Begins for European Commission
Next spring, a new European Commission head will be chosen. The conservatives and the left are already lining up candidates, including Social Democrat Martin Schulz, the current president of the European Parliament. Can Angela Merkel hinder him?
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Croatia: ‘First Stock-Taking After 100 Days in the EU’
Vecernji list, 7 October 2013
Almost 100 days after Croatia’s official entry into the EU on July 1, Vecernji list examines the mixed results of accession.
The conservative daily deplores “the threat of sanctions prompted by the “lex Perkovic” on the European Arrest Warrant. It further notes that “instead of cheap loans, the ratings agencies have downgraded Croatian debt to speculative grade. There are no more customs duties, but prices have not fallen. The visa system has chased away thousands of Turkish, Russian and Ukrainian tourists.” Worse still, Croatia is being “monitored by the Union for its soaring public spending deficit.”
The only positive points reported by Vecernji list are “crossing the border is easier, and telephone calls are cheaper”.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt’s Morsi to Stand Trial for Inciting Murder in November
Trial date set for Egypt’s former president Mohamed Morsi’s trial for inciting murder and violence
Egypt’s deposed president, Mohammed Morsi, is to go on trial next month accused of inciting the killings of protesters, a mirror image of the case against his predecessor Hosni Mubarak.
Mr Morsi is to face a court on November 4 along with fourteen other senior Muslim Brotherhood figures, bringing to an end a period of legal limbo for the toppled leader. His whereabouts have been secret since he disappeared on July 3, when the defence minister, Gen Abdulfattah al-Sisi, announced he had been removed from office.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
First Evidence of Comet Striking Earth Found in Egypt
A team of scientists claims to have found the first-ever definitive evidence of a comet striking Earth. After conducting a series of analyses, the researchers determined that a mysterious black pebble discovered years ago in the Egyptian desert is a piece of a comet nucleus — the first ever discovered.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Greece, Israel Look to New Era of Strategic Cooperation
(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, OCTOBER 9 — Athens and Tel Aviv have agreed to strengthen bilateral ties, the leaders of the two Mediterranean countries said on Tuesday as reported by daily Kathimerini. During an official visit by Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras in Israel on Tuesday, in which he is accompanied by eight of his ministers including Foreign Minister Evangelos Venizelos, the two states signed a number of agreements and collaboration protocols in their first-ever government-to-government meeting.
The talks between Environment Minister Yiannis Maniatis and his counterpart Uzi Landau focused on major energy infrastructure projects, including the construction of a gas pipeline between Israel, Cyprus and Greece, and the transport of liquefied gas with Greek ships.
In comments made after his meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Samaras emphasized the need for strategic cooperation between the two countries. He said that Greece and Cyprus, both members of the European Union, could gradually become Israel’s link with the bloc. “A lot remains to be done; this is still the beginning,” Samaras said. Netanyahu praised Greece’s conservative premier for his handling of the country’s ongoing debt crisis which, he said, “required courage and strength. Something is changing in Greece. I am encouraging Israeli (businesses) to invest in Greece,” Netanyahu said. The Israeli leader also congratulated Samaras for the government’s efforts to clamp down on far right extremism. Greek sources said Iran did not come up during the two leaders’ talks.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Egyptian-Emirati Muslim Brotherhood Cell Trial Set
Pictures, maps, hard disk stolen from government department among evidence found
Abu Dhabi: A trial of 30 suspects allegedly belonging to an Egyptian-Emirati Muslim Brotherhood cell will commence on November 5, the Federal Supreme Court announced as it continues to prepare for the proceedings. The cell, which was reportedly discovered late last year, consists of 14 Emiratis and 16 Egyptians.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Greek FM Slams Turkish PM Over Orthodox Seminary
Greece asked to offer 2 concessions in order to have it reopened
(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, OCTOBER 9 — Greek Foreign Minister and Deputy Premier Evangelos Venizelos on Tuesday issued a firm response to statements by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan repeating Ankara’s “conditions” for the reopening of the Orthodox Seminary in Halki, off Istanbul, as daily Kathimerini reported.
“Greece’s position on the issue is crystal clear and in accordance with international law, and it has been expressed repeatedly,” Venizelos said. “Any further public discussion of the issue would be counterproductive,” said the Greek Deputy Premier, who is on an official visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories.
Athens has repeatedly underlined that the reopening of the Halki seminary and the protection of the Istanbul-based Ecumenical Patriarchate are not issues for bilateral negotiation but issues that relate to the rights and religious freedoms of Turkish citizens.
Speaking to the parliamentary group of his Justice and Development Party (AKP) Tuesday, Erdogan repeated assertions made over the weekend according to which Greece should offer two concessions to Ankara in exchange for the reopening of the Halki seminary near Istanbul: allowing the Muslim community in Thrace to appoint its own religious leader, or mufti, rather than the government in Athens doing so; and allowing two Ottoman mosques in Athens to be rebuilt.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Iran: Court Jails Prominent Dissident and Blogger for Six Years
Tehran, 8 Oct. (AKI) — A revolutionary court has jailed prominent dissident and blogger Mehdi Khazali for six years for endangering national security and for propaganda, the semi-official Fars news agency reported Tuesday, citing Khazali’s lawyer.
He will appeal the verdict, his lawyer Mostafa Tork Hamedani said.
Khazali was released on bail in June after being arrested in January and is the son of ultraconservative ayatollah Abolqasem Khazali, a member of the Assembly of Experts, the clerical body that oversees supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s work.
Khazali was convicted of the same charges in February last year and was handed sentences including 14 years in jail, according to human rights organisations. He was re-arrested earlier this year and bailed in June.
He sharply criticised Iran’s previous president, the hardline Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his allies, especially after Iran’s Guardian Council excluded him from running as a candidate in the 2008 parliamentary elections.
Khazali was arrested for his role in the protests over Ahmadinejad’s disputed re-election in 2009 and several times in the following years.
He spent 70 days in Tehran’s Evin prison in 2012 before being released after a long hunger-strike.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Syria: Army of Islam Continues to Expand
A commander from the armed rebels unit, operating in the mountainous region of Al Kabon west of Damascus, has recently announced his enlistment into the “Army of Islam,” a new military coalition comprised of 50 or more rebel combat units seeking to topple Syrian President Bashar Al Assad.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: Court Upholds Convictions of Top Brass Over Coup Plot
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, OCTOBER 9 — A higher court in Turkey upheld Wednesday prison sentences for more than 230 military officers including two force commanders in a trial on an alleged military coup plot back in 2003, as World Bulletin website reports. The Supreme Court of Appeals also approved the acquittal of 36 in the coup plot case dubbed as “the Sledgehammer” while overturning the convictions of 88 officers.
Those whose sentences upheld by the court include retired gen. Cetin Dogan, commander of the esteemed First Army; former air forces commander gen. Halil Ibrahim Firtina; retired admiral Ozden Ornek, the former commander of the naval forces; and retired general Engin Alan who was elected to parliament in 2011 as a member of the opposition Nationalist Movement Party. Sledgehammer (“Balyoz” in Turkish) is an alleged military coup plan by a junta in the Turkish Armed Forces which reportedly dates back to 2003, a year after the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) came to power. The plot allegedly sought to undermine the government, laying the groundwork for a military takeover. The convicts are accused of a failed attempt to overthrow the elected government. According to the plan, the military was to systematically foment chaos in society through sensational plots including bombing of mosques in Istanbul and downing of a Turkish warplane over the Aegean. The Sledgehammer documents were the basis of a presentation given by the then 1st Army commander during a military conference from March 5-7, 2003 held at the Selimiye Barracks in Istanbul. According to the court, military officers brainstormed a coup plan during the conference, which the defendants argued was held as part of a series of regular “war seminars.” The Sledgehammer case started on February 21, 2010 with operations in nine provinces during which many people — including officers on active duty, retired admirals, generals and colonels — were detained. The first trial session took place on December 21, 2010.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Turkish TV Presenter Fired for Revealing Cleavage
A Turkish TV presenter has been dismissed after coming under fire from a spokesman for the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) for wearing a low-cut top, which he called “unacceptable”.
AKP spokesperson Hüseyin Çelik criticised the presenter’s costume during the “Veliaht” TV program without naming her, but saying he found the outfit “extreme” because it revealed cleavage.
“We don’t intervene against anyone, but this is too much. It is unacceptable,” he said.
Following Çelik’s remarks, it was revealed that the host in question was Gözde Kansu, and rumours spread that she had been fired…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Two French Journalists Held Hostage in Syria
Two French journalists are being held hostage in Syria, France’s Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault revealed on Wednesday. Although the journalists were abducted in June, their families initially wished to keep their plight out of the media spotlight.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Meteorites From Russian Meteor Explosion Reveal Signs of Cosmic Crashes
Meteorites that fell to Earth when a fireball exploded over Russia earlier this year show evidence of earlier cosmic collisions, a new study reveals. Some fragments of the Russian meteor explosion over the city of Chelyabinsk on Feb. 15 — which injured more than 1,000 people — revealed melting and crushing that came from older impacts.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
While the incidents Greenpeace stages are intended to draw attention to it, most people are unaware of how large the organization is. It has offices in more than forty nations as it pursues its campaigns devoted to global warming, deforestration, overfishing, commercial whaling, genetic engineering, and anti-nuclear issues…
Greenpeace says it depends on 2.9 million individual supporters and on foundation grants, but a recent article by Nick Nichols, a retired crisis management expert and author of “Rules for Corporate Warriors,” examined the cost of tax exemptions noting that “three tax-exempt Greenpeace organizations in the U.S. reported $39.2 million in revenue and $20.6 million in assets in 2011.” Other environmental groups such as the Environmental Defense Fund and the Natural Resources Defense Council also were worth millions and were exempted from taxes.
Consider the furor of the Internal Revenue Service’s targeting of Tea Party movement groups seeking a similar tax exemption, it tells you just how agenda-driven the IRS is when it comes to groups that claim they are charitable or educational. Nichols notes that both New Zealand and Canada have stripped Greenpeace of its charity status.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Who Wants to be a Russian Billionaire?
In the days of the Soviet Union, the country boasted that all its citizens shared the wealth equally, but a new report has found that a mere 20 years after the end of Communism, wealth disparity has soared with 35% of the country’s entire wealth now in the hands of just 110 people.
“Russia has the highest level of wealth inequality in the world, apart from small Caribbean nations with resident billionaires,” Credit Suisse’s annual global wealth report says.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
A British man was killed when the pilot of a light aircraft — who was banned from flying commercially — suffered an epileptic fit and crashed from 10,000ft into the Pacific Ocean.
Ian Lovell, 35, had been enjoying the holiday of a lifetime with his Australian girlfriend, Samantha Hare, 32, when the tragedy struck off the Australian coast in 2008.
Ms Hare had bought the breathtaking flight across picturesque Morton Bay and Stradbroke Island in Queensland as a birthday present for her boyfriend.
What she did not know was that the pilot of the $492 flight, 60-year-old Barry Hempel, who also died in the incident, had been stripped of his commercial license after breaching a string of aviation rules in 2001.
An inquest at Queensland Coroner’s Court Friday heard that Hempel had continued to fly his own private aircraft despite the commercial ban.
It emerged during the hearing that Hempel was known to Australian Civil Aviation Safety Authority as suffering from epileptic fits, but they allowed him to keep his private pilot’s license regardless.
On August 31, 2008 — six days after turning 35 — Mr Lovell climbed on board the two-seater aircraft with Hempel.
But 13 minutes into the flight Hempel suffered an epileptic fit in the cockpit and plunged the Yak-52 Warbird into the Pacific Ocean.
A horrified Ms Hare watched the drama from the shoreline.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Haiti Cholera Victims Ask for UN Compensation
(AGI) London, Oct 9 — Haiti’s cholera victims have asked the United Nations for tens of thousands of dollars in compensation. The 2010 epidemic killed 8,000 people and 650,000 were infected. According to the people of Haiti, cholera was brought to the country by UN troops coming from Nepal who had unloaded toxic waste into the Artibonite River, used for washing and drinking. According to the Daily Mail, allegations have been supported in a 2010 report by specialist Renaud Piarroux from Marseille Hospital.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
California Makes U.S. Citizenship Obsolete
On Saturday, California Gov. Jerry Brown signed the Trust Act. It prohibits illegal aliens from being turned over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) authorities for possible deportation unless they have been charged with or convicted of a serious offense. “While Washington waffles on immigration, California’s forging ahead,” Brown said. “I’m not waiting.”
California is indeed forging ahead. Last Thursday, Brown signed a bill allowing illegal aliens to obtain drivers’ licenses. “Millions of immigrant families have been looking forward to this day,” said Democratic Assemblyman Luis Alejo, who sponsored the bill. “It will allow them to go to work, go to school, take their kids to a doctor’s appointment without fear that they are going to have their car taken away from them, or worse, be put into immigration proceedings.”
Not “immigrant families.” Illegal immigrant families.
Brown was even busier on Saturday. In addition to the Trust Act, he signed another seven bills aimed at blurring, if not eradicating the distinction between law-abiding legal immigrants and their illegal counterparts. The measures included imposing restrictions on those who charge fees to help illegals gain legal status — and the ability to criminally charge employers who threaten to report an individual’s immigration status, if that threat is used to “induce fear.” Given that it is against the law to hire illegals, Brown and his fellow Democrats have essentially given illegals the power to threaten their employers.
Even more remarkably, Brown also signed a bill that permits the California Supreme Court to grant law licenses to illegal aliens.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Frontex Making Italy Priority, Exhausts Budget for 2013
Border agency extending Hermes operation till November
(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS — The European Union’s border agency Frontex said Wednesday that it is beefing up its work around Italy after last week’s migrant-boat disaster off Lampedusa, adding that it has had to exhaust its budget for the year to do so.
“We’ve decided to reallocate two million euros from our budget, giving priority to Italy and cutting other activities, to extend the Hermes operation until November,” Frontex Deputy Executive Director Gil Arias told ANSA referring the agency’s central Mediterranean mission. “But to do this we emptied our pockets. Our funds for 2013 are now exhausted”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Interior Minister Welcomes EU Migrant Rescue Proposal
Rome, 8 Oct. (AKI) — Italian interior minister and deputy prime minister Angelino Alfano on Tuesday backed a European Commission plan to rescue migrants from the southern Mediterranean, urging other EU states to do more to save lives.
“We are in the middle of the Mediterranean: we have saved thousands and thousands of people — now we are asking the EU for a hand in strengthening border control,” said Alfano.
His remarks came after EU home affairs commissoner Cecilia Malmstroem on Tuesday said she would propose a search and rescue operation “from Cyprus to Spain” to save migrants after the tragic drownings of over 300 Africans when their boat sank off the Italian island of Lampedusa on Thursday.
The EU borders agency Frontex is already helping Italy intercept migrant boats, but the two current EU operations in the southern Mediterranean have limited resources — a total of four ships, two helicopters and two planes.
Malmstroem’s spokesman Michele Cercone told journalists on Tuesday that an expanded Frontex mission could help prevent tragedies “like the Lampedusa one,” but warned the agency would need additional resources from member states for such an operation.
Tens of thousands of migrants attempt the perilous crossing from North Africa to Sicily and other Italian islands each year. Almost 20,000 people are recorded as having lost their lives in an effort to reach Europe’s southern borders from Africa and the Middle East over the past two decades.
EU states have for years been unable to reach agreement on a common migration and asylum policy amid the influx, despite numerous appeals from ‘frontline’ countries notably Italy, Malta and Greece.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy Set to Pass EU Migrant Directive
Government says migrants will have longer-term protections
(ANSA) — Rome, October 9 — Migrants such as the survivors of last week’s shipwreck off the Italian coast will be granted longer-term residency permits that will let them work and study in Europe, the cabinet said in unveiling a decree Wednesday.
The decree meets the European Union’s Directive 51.
Italy faced infraction proceedings because it had not enacted the directive.
The decree allows greater freedom and protections for the 155 survivors of last Thursday’s migrant boat disaster.
The permits also give the survivors mobility rights within the European Union so they can study or seek work in countries beyond Italy.
The survivors had been facing formal investigation as undocumented migrants, a criminal offence under Italian law.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Kenyan Parliament Re-Thinking Somali Immigration After Bloody Mall Carnage
By Daniel Greenfield
Excerpt: It’s something that we should be thinking seriously about as well. We’ve already had a major Somali attempted terror attack here. That one was intercepted and prevented, but we can only get lucky so many times before we have our own Westgate.
| — Hat tip: KP | [Return to headlines] |
Lampedusa Disaster: ‘Germany Refuses to Welcome More Refugees’
Die Welt, 8 October 2013
At a time when President of the European Parliament Martin Schulz, has called for a fairer sharing of the burden of refugees in Europe, “Germany is refusing to welcome more refugees and take the pressure off Italy,” reports Die Welt Kompakt.
Only days after the disastrous shipwreck off Lampedusa, in which 235 migrants perished, Berlin has explained that “Germany has already provided a refuge for the maximum number of people, given its size and number of inhabitants.” In 2012, Germany welcomed 65,000 asylum seekers, while Italy took in 15,000, noted an Interior Ministry spokesman.
On October 8, European interior ministers are meeting to debate the question of immigrants, which is also on the agenda for the European Council meeting planned for the end of October, adds the daily.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Over 100 Migrants Land Near Siracusa
(AGI) Siracusa, Oct 8 — Over 100 migrants have landed at Portopalo di Capo Passero, near Siracusa, including 28 women and 24 children. Almost all the 112 migrants are Syrians and had crossed the Mediterranean in an old fishing vessel found by Coast Guard boats off southeast Sicily. The seven Egyptians on the boat are suspected of being the people-traffickers. One woman has been taken to hospital.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
An Australian doctor could be struck off for refusing to abort a baby girl because the child’s parents only wanted to have a boy.
Mark Hobart said the couple’s request to terminate the 19-week-old foetus ‘offended my moral conscience’ and refused to consider carrying out the procedure.
But officials claim he had a duty to refer the couple to another doctor for help and advice — and now he could have his medical licence revoked following an investigation into his conduct.
Dr Hobart, 55, has been practising as a GP in Sunshine, a suburb of Melbourne, for nearly three decades.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Girl Scouts and Reproductive Rights: It’s No Laughing Matter
Have you heard the one about the Girl Scouts and reproductive rights?
If you’re waiting for the punch line…there isn’t one. Because this isn’t a joke, but the sad reality of an iconic institution that has experienced a 20% membership decline over the past decade as an increasing number of families exit the program upon discovering Girl Scouts’ multi-faceted ties to the reproductive rights agenda…
One of many examples of this concerning content can be found in Mission Sisterhood, which thanks “women’s rights activist Gloria Steinem” for her “visionary contributions.” Ms. Steinem has certainly made significant contributions as a women’s rights activist. Contributions not too many pro-lifers are thankful for.
Another book, Your Voice Your World, encourages girls to “check out some of the careers that can have advocacy as a key element: [like a] lawyer, such as for the American Civil Liberties Union.” Yep, the ACLU advocates alright — for expanding abortion rights and enforcing the HHS mandate…
Then there’s GSUSA’s website and social media accounts, the primary mode of communication for a generation of girls growing up in an online world. Recently, GSUSA (and many local councils) blogged, posted, and tweeted a link to the MAKERS: Women Who Make America documentary, encouraging girls to view the profile of GSUSA CEO Anna Maria Chavez and “other esteemed women.” Women like Amy Richards, who proudly shares her decision to selectively reduce 2 of her 3 triplets through abortion, and many, many other MAKERS women who share their pro-abortion, pro-contraception perspectives among other concerning topics. And if linking to concerning content isn’t enough for some readers, consider this: GSUSA tweeted a live Girl Scout hosted screening of the MAKERS documentary, followed by a panel discussion featuring Amy Richards, where she was identified as the founder of the abortion funding feminist group Third Wave. Nope, no position on abortion here. Scouts honor.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
‘Brain Training’ May Boost Working Memory, But Not Intelligence
Brain training games, apps, and websites are popular and it’s not hard to see why—who wouldn’t want to give their mental abilities a boost? New research suggests that brain training programs might strengthen your ability to hold information in mind, but they won’t bring any benefits to the kind of intelligence that helps you reason and solve problems. The findings are published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Supernova Echoes Found Trapped in Meteorite Metals
Fireworks marked the solar system’s birth, and we have found echoes of one of the blasts. The oldest known minerals in the solar system show unusual chemical traces that indicate a supernova explosion happened nearby within a million years of their formation. That blast could even have been the one that triggered the birth of our sun.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The Specter of Islam is Haunting the Free World
By Geert Wilders http://www.jihadwatch.org
“A specter is haunting Europe — the specter of Communism,” Karl Marx once famously wrote. It took Europe almost a century to liberate itself from this scourge. Today, another specter is haunting not just Europe, but the entire world — the specter of Islam.
The biggest danger confronting the West today is not the economic situation, nor is it youth unemployment, nor the dire budget situation of our governments; the biggest danger is one of which we are reminded on an almost daily basis. And, yet, many politicians seem to fail to notice.
On the last day of September, 50 students of an agricultural college in Nigeria were gunned down in their dormitories by terrorists from the Islamic organization Boko Haram. Earlier in September, terrorists from the Islamic organization al-Shabaab killed at least 67 civilians, and probably many more, in a shopping mall in Nairobi. They separated Muslims from non-Muslims, allowed the Muslims to leave and then tortured, mutilated and killed the non-Muslims. Even children were murdered in the most vicious and cruel way.
In Egypt, every week dozens of Christians are being harassed, kidnapped and assassinated by Islamic thugs from the Muslim Brotherhood. In Syria, Islamic rebels terrorize and murder Christians. In Lebanon and in Iraq, too, indigenous Christian communities whose ties to their native lands are many centuries older than those of the Muslim communities, are victims of ethnic cleansing.
Even in the West, we are not immune to Islamic terror. Europe experienced this last May, when two assassins with meat-cleavers decapitated a soldier in London. America experienced it last April, when Islamic murderers ignited pressure cooker bombs during the Boston Marathon and killed 3 people and injured hundreds.
Like the specter of Communism in the past, the danger of Islam is political. Islam is mainly a political ideology because its aim is political. What the London and Boston killers, Boko Haram, al-Shabaab, the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas, Hezbollah, al-Qaeda and other individuals and groups, causing pain and misery all over the globe, have in common is that, inspired by the Koran, they want to impose Islamic sharia law on the whole world.
They share this goal with an organization that is being held in the highest esteem by Western governments: the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). The OIC counts 57 member-states and forms the largest voting bloc in the United Nations. In 1990, it superseded the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights with its own Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam. The Cairo Declaration is a document of unabashed Islamic supremacism. It explicitly states that all human rights and freedoms “are subject to the Islamic Sharia.”
Islamic law is barbaric and cruel. Flogging, mutilation and other corporal punishments, stoning and even crucifixion are permitted penalties under sharia law. It discriminates women, apostates and non-Muslims, who have fewer rights or no rights at all. In 2003, the European Court of Human Rights declared that “sharia is incompatible with the fundamental principles of democracy.” And yet, few Western leaders seem to worry about the attempts to replace our basic liberties with sharia law.
Last July, German Chancellor Merkel called youth unemployment “perhaps the most pressing problem facing Europe.” A few years ago, President Obama called “cyber threat one of the most serious security challenges we face as a nation.” Today, the partial federal shutdown is claiming all the attention of America’s politicians. In Europe, the crisis surrounding the euro and the sovereign debts of the EU member states, is causing its politicians the biggest headaches. But neither of these serious problems endangers the liberties and values of Western civilization so fundamentally as the political aim of Islam to impose its laws on the entire world. And yet, not a single Western leader has dared to say that Islam is “the most pressing problem” or “the most serious security challenge” that the free world currently faces.
On the contrary, whenever confronted with horrible atrocities, Western leaders downplay the role of Islam. They claim, as British Prime Minister Cameron did after last May’s London killing, that “there is nothing in Islam that justifies these dreadful acts.” However, the justification of the dreadful acts is in the Koran. Verse 8:12 leaves no the followers of Islam in no doubt about what to do with infidels: “Strike off their heads, maim them in every limb!” it says. Muhammad’s book is full of similar verses that incite its Islamic readers to commit hostile and violent acts against non-Muslims.
Winston Churchill once said that “The people of Asia were slaves, because they had not learned how to pronounce the word ‘no’.” Today, the West must learn to say ‘no’ or it, too, will be enslaved. A specter is haunting the free world. Let us have the courage to call its by its name: It is the radical ideology of Islam with its political aim to abolish our freedoms and our democracy. It is by far the most serious evil afflicting the world today. And it is a much bigger threat to our civilization than all the other problems our politicians currently worry about and devote so much attention to.
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
We’ll Run Out of Cocoa in Just Seven Years!
CHOCAHOLICS beware, there’s just seven years worth of the stuff left.
The world will officially run out on October 2, 2020. Industry experts met in London last week to discuss the impending meltdown. Confectionery giants revealed there are just not enough cocoa plantations across the globe to feed the demand.
They warned we would need the equivalent of another planet Earth to fill the gap needed to keep the chocolate industry going. Prices are set to soar over the next few years as chocolate becomes harder to get hold of.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Happy Anniversary, Baron and Dymphna and many thanks for your tireless service
Congratulations and thanks to both of you. I guess my first visits here were around the time, when some innocent motoons in my local newspaper made headlines around the world; now the Gates of Vienna has become the entrance to the world of internet news.
I wish you both good health in the coming years. May God bless you.
Dymphna, Baron, and the whole team: Thanks for your efforts to create this source of information – invariably thought-provoking and relevant. Your selfless work shall not be in vain.
Congratulations on the anniversary of GOV. I have come to depend on this blog for so much information about events around the globe. Baron, Dymphna, your tireless efforts are much appreciated. May you enjoy many more anniversaries.