Gates of Vienna News Feed 11/12/2013

According to a recent report, 90% of disabled people in Saudi Arabia have been sexually abused at least once. There’s no word on whether this fact is in any way connected with the granting of a seat on the UN Human Rights Council to Saudi Arabia.

In other news, according to a new survey, students are prostituting themselves to other students in 14% of Italian high schools.

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

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, JP, Kitman, MC, 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.

Financial Crisis
» 10 Facts About the Growing Unemployment Crisis in America That Will Blow Your Mind
» Billionaires’ Fortunes Have Doubled Since Financial Crisis
» CISL Says Italians Have Each Lost 1,040 Euros Since 2007
» Easy Money: ECB Embarks on Risky Experiment
» Rate on 1-Yr Italian Bond Drops to All-Time Low at Auction
» Social Liberalism Create Fiscal Profligacy
» The Uncertain Future of Central Bank Supremacy
 
USA
» Bacon’s Study of Freud Sells for $142.4 Million
» Boy, 15, And His Three Friends ‘Killed Two in Shooting Spree They Launched for Fun and Slit a Man’s Throat After Promising Him Sex With a Female Accomplice’
» Can Conservatives Take Over the GOP?
» Christie the Dem’s Choice for GOP Presidential Candidate
» College Students on School Probation for Using Gun Against Intruder
» Congress Blocks Another Obama Appeals Court Nominee by Filibuster
» Daniel Greenfield: Apologies From Utopia
» DHS and FEMA Prepare for Power Grid Drill
» DNC Boss Wasserman Schultz: Dems Will Campaign on ObamaCare Failure
» Doubling Down on Carbon or Invest in Mouse Traps Now
» Feds Deploy National Spy System of Microphones Capable of Recording Conversations
» Gitmo Parting Gifts: Job Training & Islam Classes
» Grand Theft Obama: The Biggest Heist in U.S. History
» New Guidelines on Statins Drop Rigid Targets for Cholesterol
» Obama and Economic Suicide
» Sarah Palin’s Talk About Federal Debt Slavery Drives Liberals Crazy
» Saying Sorry When You Do Not Mean It
» Schumer: Chicken Slaughtered, Raised in China Could Pose Major Risk
» Secularism, Federalism, Interdependence and the New World Order
» The Bad Apple President
» The Chris Christie Circus!
» The Unspoken Success of ObamaCare
» Thugs Arrested in Racially Motivated Killing of New Jersey Homeless Man
» U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Opens Speech by Honoring Jane Fonda
 
Canada
» Watch: Massive Fireball Roars Through Suburban Power Lines, Blows Out Electricity
 
Europe and the EU
» Birth of a Police State: UK Police to be Granted Sweeping New Powers
» British Intelligence Reportedly Intercepted LinkedIn and Slashdot Traffic to Plant Malware
» ‘Capital of Rubbish’: Germans Blast Madrid
» Car Flies 45 Metres Over Swiss Border Hut
» Civil Court Orders Italian Government to Pay Victim’s Family
» Denmark: Carlsberg Appoints Heinz Veteran to Head Asia Region
» France: Armistice Day Humiliation for Hollande as He’s Booed at Arc De Triomphe Ceremony Where 70 Are Arrested in Violent Protests
» France Faces Threat of ‘Social Explosion’
» French Schools Hit by Strikes and Protests
» German Tourist Arrested With Samurai Sword in Naples
» Greek Supreme Court Puts Sharia Law Before Civil Law
» Helium-Filled Airplane Could Help in Disaster Zones
» Italian PM Has German Interests at Heart, Says M5S Leader
» Italy: Abruzzo Culture Councillor Arrested in Corruption Probe
» Italy: Grillo Compares Letta to Nazi ‘Collaborator’
» Italy: Excavation of Tunnel for High-Speed TAV Begins
» Italy: Anarchists Jailed for Shooting Ansaldo CEO
» Le Pen: Repackaging the National Front
» New German Government to Hold Referendums on EU Issues
» New Research Shows That the Holocaust May Have Been Even More Extensive
» Phantom Collector: The Mystery of the Munich Nazi Art Trove
» Physicists Plan to Build a Bigger LHC
» Safety Fears High Among Commuters in France
» Sex Sold in 14 Percent of Italian Schools — Survey
» Spain’s Solar Police to Kick in Your Door
» Swede Suspected of Urging Children to Go to War
» The Climate Charlatans Gather in Warsaw
» Trans-Atlantic Free Trade: US Pushes for Deal Despite NSA Scandal
» UK: Bungling Doctors Told Emily and Chelsea to Abort Their ‘Lifeless’ Babies. Thank God They Refused
» UK: Killer is Faking Sex Op Issue to Get an Easy Life in Prison, Claim Heartbroken Murder Victim’s Family
» UK: New Driver, 21, Ran Down and Killed Great-Grandmother at Crossing as She Revved Her Car in Frustration at Slow Pedestrians
» UK: Secret System of Gangs Giving Victims’ Families Cash in Exchange for Silence So They Avoid Jail
 
North Africa
» Algeria: Drought Continues, Crops at Risk
» Algeria: Country Hostage of Youth Violence
» Egypt’s Christians Close Ranks as Kidnappings Spike
» ENI: Italy-Libya Gas Pipeline Closed for Security Reasons
 
Middle East
» Al-Qaeda in Syria Raids Wedding Party, Warns Against Music and Singing
» Khamenei’s Conglomerate Thrived as Sanctions Squeezed Iran
» Napolitano Marks 10th Anniversary of Nassiriya ‘Savagery’
» Report: 90% Saudi Disabled People Suffer Sexual Abuse
» Saudi Arabia Wins U.N. Human Rights Council Seat
» Syria: Women Victimized by Both Regime and Rebel Troops
» Turkey’s Fix for the “Kurdish Problem”
 
Russia
» Pussy Riot Musician in Penal Colony in Siberia
 
South Asia
» Gunmen Kill Senior Leader of Al Qaeda-Linked Militant Group Fighting U.S. Troops in Afghanistan
» Indian Minister Hails Progress in Italian Marines Case
» Italy Raises Marines Case at Asia-Europe Conference in India
» Son of Islamist Haqqani Network Founder Killed in Pakistan
 
Sub-Saharan Africa
» Dig for Hominid Bones Begins in Cradle of Humankind
 
Latin America
» Venezuela: Fair Prices at Gunpoint
 
Immigration
» Britain is a Paradise for Poor Migrants, Say Angry French
» British Cities Could be Hit by Rioting Because of an Influx of Roma Migrants, David Blunkett Has Warned.
» Head of Banking Group Pushes Republicans to Back Immigration Reform
» ‘I’m a Fast Bowler’: What Asylum Seeker Dressed as Australian Cricketer Told Border Immigration Officials After Arriving on Christmas Island
» Morocco: 19 Algerian Migrants Arbitrarily Detained, Abused
» Operation Mare Nostrum Saving Lives, Says Navy
» Romanian Mayor Says Half the Population of Villages Are on Their Way to Britain for Higher Salaries and Generous Benefits
» UC Berkeley Student Government Bans Term ‘Illegal Immigrant’
» What America Will Look Like in 2050? Part 5
 
Culture Wars
» Do Teachers Really Know Best?
» Germany Gets an Assist From Obama, Cracks Down on Home Schooling
» OK to ‘Talk Dirty’ To Minors, Texas Court Rules
 
General
» Alien Life May Flourish on Purple Planets
» Are We Losing the War for the Soul of Islam?
» Cosmic Rays Zap a Planet’s Chances for Life
» Global Energy Market in Middle of Huge Upheaval, IEA Says
» Socialism: The Creed of Failure
 

10 Facts About the Growing Unemployment Crisis in America That Will Blow Your Mind

Did you know that there are more than 102 million working age Americans that do not have a job? Yes, I know that number sounds absolutely crazy, but it is true. Right now, there are more than 11 million Americans that are considered to be “officially unemployed”, and there are more than 91 million Americans that are not employed and that are considered to be “not in the labor force”.

When you add those two numbers together, the total is more than 102 million. Overall, the number of working age Americans that do not have a job has increased by about 27 million since the year 2000. But aren’t things getting better? After all, the mainstream media is full of headlines about how “good” the jobs numbers for October were. Sadly, the truth is that the mainstream media is not being straight with the American people. As you will see below, we are in the midst of a long-term unemployment crisis in America, and things got even worse last month.

In this day and age, it is absolutely imperative that people start thinking for themselves. Just because the media tells you that something is true does not mean that it actually is. If unemployment was actually going down, the percentage of the working age population that has a job should actually be going up. As you are about to see, that is simply not the case. The following are 10 facts about the growing unemployment crisis in America that will blow your mind…

[…]

The future of the middle class in America depends upon the creation of good jobs. It really doesn’t matter how far the quantitative easing that the Federal Reserve has been doing pumps up the current stock market bubble. The American people were told that “economic stimulus” was the reason for doing all of this reckless money printing, but the percentage of working age Americans with a job is now actually lower than it was four years ago. Quantitative easing has been a complete and total failure in the job creation department, and it is doing a tremendous amount of long-term damage to our financial system.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Billionaires’ Fortunes Have Doubled Since Financial Crisis

The global financial crisis was good for billionaires.

The combined fortune of the world’s billionaires has more than doubled, to $6.5 trillion, from $3.1 trillion in 2009, according to Wealth-X and UBS Global Billionaire Census 2013. Their fortunes have grown by $226 billion in the past year alone.

The group’s number also grew by 810 during the period, to 2,170.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

CISL Says Italians Have Each Lost 1,040 Euros Since 2007

Family spending power eroded by 5.8% due to taxes, inflation

(ANSA) — Rome, November 12 — Italians have lost an average of 1,040 euros each since 2007 due to rising taxes and inflation, according to a union survey released Tuesday.

Between 2007 and 2012, disposal income has been eroded by about 5.8% as a variety of taxes have climbed alongside the cost of living while take-home pay stagnates, according to CISL.

Based on a study of Italians’ tax returns, the union said that the middle-income earners — those whose salaries averaged between 10,000 euros and 55,000 euros last year — were the hardest hit.

Researchers, including economists from the University of Florence, found that those with an annual income above 55,000 euros were less affected, with almost no measurable effect for Italians with incomes above 150,000 euros.

The union says the findings show the necessity of more proportional increases in taxes to avoid further cuts to disposal income and spending, which are essential to economic growth.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Easy Money: ECB Embarks on Risky Experiment

Last week’s ECB interest rate cut was aimed at averting deflation and shows that the central bank is following the risky policy of monetary expansion adopted by Japan and the United States. Despite the latest figures, inflation is by no means banished.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Rate on 1-Yr Italian Bond Drops to All-Time Low at Auction

Treasury sells 6.5 billion euros of BOTs at 0.688%

(ANSA) — Rome, November 12 — The average interest rate on 12-month Italian bonds fell to an all-time low at an auction on Tuesday.

The Treasury sold 6.5 billion euros’ worth of BOTs at a yield of 0.688%, below the previous low of 0.703% in May and down from 0.999% at an equivalent auction in October.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Social Liberalism Create Fiscal Profligacy

Social liberalism creates fiscal profligacy in the long run. The consequences of upending values about life and marriage end up costing the state and the taxpayer in the long run.

A society based on “I want what I want, and that’s all that I want” will suffer nothing but want.

These disentanglements result from a mindset of protect my money, but live your life as you please. Frankly, a man’s fiscal conservatism will start tilting to the left with his social liberalism fairly quickly. Moreover, when there is no purpose beyond oneself, there is no courage to resist government expansion and financial mismanagement. If voters have no honor for life, no caring for their fellow man beyond their concerns about money, there is no power to stop moral decline.

The ancient Greek historian Polybius recorded the implosion of entire city states because of an accommodating political culture which disdained marriage, undid the family, and compensated citizens for not working. Ancient Rome testifies to this degradation of values beyond “Me First, and Do What You Please”. The City of Rome’s civic virtue gave way to unseemly grabbing from the Imperial Roman Empire, including salaries for shiftless layabouts. In 2013, London-based economist/historian Niall Ferguson reflected on the decimating consequences of modern life because of the lack of community and connections in our culture.

I have witnessed this downward trend in local politics, too.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

The Uncertain Future of Central Bank Supremacy

History is full of people and institutions that rose to positions of supremacy only to come crashing down. In most cases, hubris — a sense of invincibility fed by uncontested power — was their undoing. In other cases, however, both the rise and the fall stemmed more from the unwarranted expectations of those around them.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Bacon’s Study of Freud Sells for $142.4 Million

A 1969 triptych by Francis Bacon sold Tuesday night at Christie’s for $142.4 million, described as the highest price ever paid for an artwork at auction.

Seven bidders vied for the painting — “Three Studies of Lucian Freud” — that depicts Bacon’s friend and rival, Lucian Freud, sitting on a wooden chair against an orange background. It ended up selling for $142,405,000.

[Return to headlines]
 

Boy, 15, And His Three Friends ‘Killed Two in Shooting Spree They Launched for Fun and Slit a Man’s Throat After Promising Him Sex With a Female Accomplice’

[WARNING: Disturbing content.]

A 15-year-old boy from Florida went on a deadly shooting spree ‘for fun,’ killing one man at a bus stop and slitting another man’s throat after a friend shot the victim in the head, according to police.

Konrad Schafer of Kissimmee was arrested along with David Damus, 20, in connection with a string of 14 shootings, which left two men dead. Two additional suspects, Juan Sebastian Muriel, 20, and Victoria Rios, 17, were also arrested in connection with one of the brutal murders.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Can Conservatives Take Over the GOP?

The GOP is too tightly controled by the neoconservative elites. What this means is that runaway government cannot be stopped by voting conservatives into Congress and “taking over the GOP” because those that we manage to elect ultimately cave in to the party’s neocon ideology. They may start out as Jimmy Stewart characters in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, full of idealism and fervor to reform, but they don’t stay that way.

Here’s why. Newly elected Republicans to Congress soon see who has the power in the party and realize that going against the neoconservative elites would jeopardize their path to re-election. To run on substantive reforms designed to restore the Founders’ vision would ostracize them from the major donors of the Republican welfare-state establishment and bring criticism instead of praise from the neocon intellectuals. So they choose to appease the corporate donors, to support amnesty for illegals, to play ball with hegemonic foreign policy mavens, and to join with government expansionists. This is how they assure their re-election.

Ideology and money control politics, and the neocons control both in the Republican Party via organizations such as the Council on Foreign Relations, the Hudson Institute, the Foreign Policy Initiative, and other highly influential institutions that have been built to dominance in Washington and New York over many decades.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Christie the Dem’s Choice for GOP Presidential Candidate

The Mainstream Media, which is the propaganda arm of the Democratic Party, has already begun its less than subtle campaign to secure that position for Christie.

The President’s plan to utterly destroy the GOP is on the cusp of total success and having Christie as the 2016 GOP candidate for President would be the cherry on top.

Look. Christie is, at best, a moderate to liberal, progressive republican. This is the wing of the republican party that relegated the party to the wilderness for 40 years and is, in fact, doing it again — even as we write this piece.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

College Students on School Probation for Using Gun Against Intruder

Two seniors at Gonzaga University in Spokane, Wash. were placed on indefinite suspension after they used a gun to defend themselves from a six-time felon trying to break into their apartment.

The students face expulsion because the school banned guns from both its on-campus and off-campus housing.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Congress Blocks Another Obama Appeals Court Nominee by Filibuster

Senate Republicans blocked by a filibuster on Tuesday the nomination of President Obama’s nominee for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

By a vote of 56 to 41, the nomination of Cornelia T. L. Pillard, a Georgetown law professor, fell short of clearing the necessary 60-vote threshold.

It was the third White House nominee in two weeks blocked by Senate Republicans.

[Return to headlines]
 

Daniel Greenfield: Apologies From Utopia

Obama’s non-apology apology “I’m sorry that you’re unhappy” is typical of the passive aggressive apology of the twenty-first. What was once character has become branding. What was once manners has become damage control.

In the peculiar “I feel” grammar of the twenty-first century, “Sorry” has become ubiquitous and meaningless, it’s the new “Eh” or “Is that so.” The ubiquitous sorry assumes that everyone else is constantly being subjected to a torrent of grievances and acknowledges that while taking no responsibility for it.

To the millions of Americans kicked out of their health plans, Obama was offering an “Is that so”; not an admission of guilt or a confession of fault.

[…]

And so Obama has apologized. Not for lying, but for the inability of an idiotic public to understand that he has nothing to apologize for. In apologizing, Obama is really forgiving us for not being as smart as he is. He is condescending to our diminished intelligence by apologizing for our misunderstanding of him. He is sorry for how stupid we are that we actually believed him.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

DHS and FEMA Prepare for Power Grid Drill

The exercise will involve 5,800 major power plants and 450,000 miles of high-voltage transmission lines.

The Times reports that the federal government and private industry worked together to establish the Electricity Sub-Sector Coordinating Council comprised of high-level executives and federal officials.

GridEx II was “being planned as conferences, studies and even works of fiction are raising near-apocalyptic visions of catastrophes involving the grid,” the Times notes.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

DNC Boss Wasserman Schultz: Dems Will Campaign on ObamaCare Failure

In the Bizarro World of establishment politics, up is down, black is white, and Obamacare will be an advantage for Democrats.

“Americans have been feeling the benefits since 2010,” Debbie Wasserman Schultz told Candy Crowley on Sunday. “Democratic candidates will be able to run on Obamacare as an advantage in 2014.”

For Wasserman Schultz and the DNC, insurance companies didn’t cancel thousands of policies and astronomical rate hikes are actually lower rates. The establishment political class forges reality and we are obliged to follow or be labeled extremists or worse.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Doubling Down on Carbon or Invest in Mouse Traps Now

“Environmental Protection” is the new catch-all phrase that appears to enable the executive branches of various levels of government in the western world to do anything they ever dreamed of.

One of the latest Executive Orders (EOs) by President Obama (Preparing the United States for the Impacts of Climate Change) is a great example of the philosophy of “there is no way back.” In financial terminology the practice is called “doubling down.” Barring some rare occasion, it nearly always leads to total financial ruin. Many investors have learned that lesson the hard way. Don’t expect a different outcome in this case.

The particular EO on Preparing the United States for the Impacts of Climate Change begins as follows:…

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Feds Deploy National Spy System of Microphones Capable of Recording Conversations

Hidden in plain sight: The next level of NSA snooping will detect dissent via ubiquitous audio sensors.

The revelations of Edward Snowden shone fresh light on NSA spying targeting the American people, but what has gone largely unnoticed is the fact that a network of different spy systems which can record real time conversations are already in place throughout many urban areas of the United States, as well as in the technology products we buy and use on a regular basis.

These systems are no secret — they are hiding in plain view — and yet concerns about the monolithic potential for their abuse have been muted.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Gitmo Parting Gifts: Job Training & Islam Classes

In another triumph of idiocy, the Obama administration is negotiating with the Yemeni government to release Guantanamo Bay and Afghan terrorists to a “rehabilitation” facility to be constructed outside Yemen’s capital city of Sana’a.

According to the Los Angeles Times, the detainees “would undergo counseling, instruction in a peaceful form of Islam, and job training in Yemen before any decision on freeing them,” would be made.

The deal is part of the president’s ongoing effort to close Guantanamo Bay. He reiterated that intention on November 4, asking Congress to once again consider lifting restrictions on detainee transfers. Speaking on behalf of the president, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney contended that Congress has “significantly limited our ability to responsibly reduce the detainee population and ultimately close the facility.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Grand Theft Obama: The Biggest Heist in U.S. History

Our nation is being stolen before our very eyes. The American people are being robbed of their livelihoods, their security, and their freedom. President Obama makes grand sweeping gestures and delivers soaring rhetoric about helping the poor and achieving fairness. But he merely draws our attention away from the hand that is reaching deep into our pockets. Such is the nature of his extremist legislative agenda. Call it Grand Theft Obama, but it is no video game; this is for real.

And it is not merely monetary theft, as is apparent from Obamacare. America is being fundamentally transformed, as Obama promised. This is one promise that he clearly intends to keep, no matter how many people lose their health insurance policies, their jobs, or their productive futures.

Even the liberal media have been forced to acknowledge President Obama’s lies regarding the Affordable Care Act, especially the whopper about being able to keep your own health insurance policy.

Consider what we have learned so far as the lies are being exposed:

  • Despite repeatedly being told we could keep our healthcare plans and doctors, the White House estimated three years ago that 93 million people would lose their plans. Obama knew this and has been lying about it all along.
  • Obamacare provides millions of dollars to leftwing community organizers, including ACORN descendants. A radical illegal alien is running the NYC Obamacare “navigator” program.
  • Rather than provide healthcare, the Obamacare website is being used to boost low-income Democrat voter registration. Election integrity activists have called it “The biggest voter registration fraud scheme in history.” The Soros-funded Demos has bragged that Obamacare exchanges will register “68 million people to vote.”
  • Progressive activist Jeanne Lambrew, now in charge of Obamacare implementation, traded confidential taxpayer information with the IRS.

[Comment: Long and very informative article. Recommended reading.]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

New Guidelines on Statins Drop Rigid Targets for Cholesterol

The nation’s leading heart organizations, the American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology, released new guidelines Tuesday that will fundamentally reshape the use of cholesterol-lowering statin medicines that are now prescribed for a quarter of Americans over 40. Patients on statins will no longer need to lower their cholesterol levels to specific numerical targets monitored by regular blood tests, as has been recommended for decades. Simply taking the right dose of a statin will be sufficient, the guidelines say.

The new guidelines, based on a four-year review of the evidence, also simplify the current complex, five-step process for evaluating who needs to take statins. In a significant departure, the new method also counts strokes as well as heart attacks in its risk calculations, a step that will likely make more people candidates for the drugs.

[Return to headlines]
 

Obama and Economic Suicide

Churchville, VA — President Obama is demanding, by Executive Order, what congress will not give him by vote. With winter approaching and the “ObamaCare” mess hanging over his shoulder, he is now ordering the U.S. economy to hitch itself to more and more of the costly and erratic “renewable” energy sources. These have already bankrupted Spain and are about to bankrupt Great Britain and Germany.

Spain, Britain, and Germany are already years further down the road to the “renewable” blackouts President Obama now demands for America. Spain is already broke, and Britain is heading for mass energy poverty for its people. German industries meanwhile threaten to flee their country in favor of markets where they can get electricity that competes with coal in China and India.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Sarah Palin’s Talk About Federal Debt Slavery Drives Liberals Crazy

Sarah Palin makes sense and liberal Democrats hate it.

Palin compares the national debt to slavery. “Our free stuff today is being paid for by taking money from our children and borrowing from China,” she said in Iowa on Saturday. “When that money comes due… it’ll be like slavery when that note is due. We are going to beholden to the foreign master.”

For the libs at Salon, the online magazine that has squandered $83.6 million since its inception, Palin’s comment about servitude harks back to the Old South, plantations, whip crackers and slavery.

“Once again, Sarah Palin appears confused about United States history. In a speech at the Iowa Faith & Freedom Coalition’s fall fundraiser over the weekend, the former Alaska governor and Republican vice presidential candidate likened the federal debt to slavery,” Jenny Kutner leads off.

Democrats invariably liken any criticism of Obama, Democrats in Congress, socialism and the policies of the federal government to racism. It’s really the only weapon they have when faced with reality.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Saying Sorry When You Do Not Mean It

Obama’s apology is a pathetic response. That apology does not begin to make amends for the hardships he has caused over 4.2 million Americans to suffer. Sorry does not cut it when you deprive a person of the insurance they need to get medical help. To make matters worse, those who have lost their insurance have only one recourse under Obamacare, to buy more expensive insurance that contains coverages they do not want and deductibles that are higher than they had in the canceled plans.

Worse still, Obama did not exhibit a truly heart felt sense of sorry, of remorse. He demonstrated no apparent mortification at all. It is hard to say sorry when you do not mean it. Instead, when he made his apology on NBC, he did so as if desirous of consolation from the audience (as if he is sorry that America does not understand his “wonderful” plan). You see, it is all about Obama. It always has been an Obamacentric universe for this President. Loyalty and truth are readily dispensed with if it means Obama can gain an advantage.

Americans by an overwhelming majority believe the President lied to them when he said over twenty times “if you like your health care plan, you can keep it” and “if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor.” It apparently means little to this President that he did lie, that he destroyed whatever trust folks out there may have placed in him. Who among us can defend betrayal?

Americans by a growing majority want Obamacare repealed. Fox News and NBC have reported that the White House was on notice in 2010 that some 7 million people would lose their health insurance as a result of Obamacare. The President knew his repeated assurances to the contrary were lies when he gave them.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Schumer: Chicken Slaughtered, Raised in China Could Pose Major Risk

Chicken from China has officials on alert, including U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.)

As WCBS 880’s Jim Smith reported Sunday, Schumer said first, the U.S. Department of Agriculture only allowed chickens that had been processed in China to be sold in the U.S. Now, he said the USDA plans to green-light poultry raised and slaughtered in China.

This has never happened before, and it is a bad idea, Schumer argued.

“China has a terrible record on health safety, and chickens are one of the things that need the most care and inspections,” he said.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Secularism, Federalism, Interdependence and the New World Order

The author of the Supreme Court’s Abington v. Schempp decision (1963) outlawing school prayer wrote that “the state may not establish a ‘religion of secularism’ in the sense of affirmatively opposing or showing hostility to religion, thus ‘preferring those who believe in no religion over those who do believe.’“ Unfortunately, however, this is exactly what has happened in the United States — -the establishment of the “religion of secularism.”

After the Supreme Court’s Abington v. Schempp decision, the High Court in 1965 allowed to stand an Appeals Court’s Stein v. Oshinsky ruling which indicated the state does not even have to permit student-initiated (voluntary) school prayer. This was followed by the Burger Court’s 3-pronged test regarding the Establishment Clause in our Constitution, one of which was that there must be “a secular legislative purpose.” However, this seems to have evolved into the interpretation that the “secular purpose” should be the “only purpose” of any law or action.

For example, some years ago, the Supreme Court ruled that Nazis had the “freedom of expression” to march in largely Jewish, Skokie, Illinois, despite the obvious provocative nature of this “free speech.” In 1992, though, the Court held that Rabbi Leslie Gutterman did not have the freedom of speech to say “Thank You, God” at a high school graduation ceremony. The Court went to great pains to rationalize that these were students (though technically they were not, given that they had fulfilled their graduation requirements prior to the ceremony), and had they not been students, the Court would have looked at the matter differently. The Justices’ disingenuousness can be seen here by noting that the same day they handed down this decision (Lee v. Weisman), they also allowed to stand an Appeals Court ruling in favor of the Civil Liberties Union indicating that a judge could not begin his session with non-sectarian prayer, even though the Supreme Court had noted in its earlier Marsh v.Chambers ruling that most courts (including the High Court itself) begin with the invocation “God save the United States and this honorable court.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

The Bad Apple President

The American people are being lied to every day by a bad apple president who covers up one lie with another lie and pastes an even crazier lie on top.

The people losing their plans didn’t have substandard plans. They had a wide variety of plans from light to bulletproof. The insurance marketplace wasn’t unregulated. There is no such thing as an unregulated marketplace except when your neighbor’s kid start selling lemonade from a box crate; and even then the local authorities have been known to come by and demand a business license.

It isn’t a small sliver of the population that’s affected; even assuming that the population of a European country could be classified as a small sliver. Once the employer-based plans are affected, nearly 100 million people will lose their health plans. Or in Obamaspeak, will be transitioned to a new opportunity with higher premiums and deductibles for less coverage.

The forced cancellation of health plans for nearly 100 million people is not routine marketplace churn. It’s the result of regulations written for ObamaCare by Obama’s bureaucracy which are calculated to disqualify as many grandfathered plans as possible.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

The Chris Christie Circus!

Christie: A genuine Republican and someone you would trust, or just another fraud, bully puppet with a selfish, narcissistic agenda

The inevitable speculation regarding Chris Christie has begun. Isn’t it amazing how the puppeteer elites, including their puppet-politicians and media appendages, choreographed the entire Chris Christie circus? Most everyone is chomping on the bait offered by the media and both ‘major’ political parties, regarding the ‘resounding’ Christie victory at the polls, but let’s step back to see the entire forest, not just the trees.

Should people be buying into a misdirection maneuver that approximates General Schwarzkopf’s grand scheme during Desert Storm? Is there not a ‘fundamental transformation’ being scripted for Christie to switch political parties, enabling him to be the puppeteer elites’ ‘Plan A’ Democrat Presidential candidate in 2016?

Didn’t Christie run against a mannequin-like Democrat in the race to be re-elected as Governor? Wasn’t she just a window display for the Democrat Party throughout the election? Didn’t Obama pass on campaigning for her? Didn’t this weaken an already weak candidate? Doesn’t this bolster the belief that, at least in the penthouse of American politics, there is no separation of political parties and ideologies?

A quick review of Christie reveals that he assisted Obama twice when the Obama magic was on the wane. Christie has appointed a Muslim to the judiciary of New Jersey. He pulled a John Kerry on same-sex marriage; he was against it before he endorsed it. There have been months when his political campaign coffers were enriched, more from Democrat donors than Republican donors. Aren’t parents suing Christie, because he enacted a ban on gay conversion therapy earlier this year? Hasn’t Christie attacked conservatives within his current political party, who were attempting to save us from the devastation embedded within ObamaCare, and didn’t he refuse to assist Ken Cuccinelli, who was facing a stacked deck in his bid to win the Governor’s office in Virginia? Christie offered Obama advice on how to attempt to escape the wrath of millions of people who believed his incessant series of lies regarding ObamaCare. When you listen to the faux and offensive ‘apology’ uttered by Obama, it appears Obama took Christie’s advice.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

The Unspoken Success of ObamaCare

To understand what you are seeing unfold, one simply has to understand the Hegelian Dialectic. Simply put, it is a method where a crisis or problem is manufactured, and that problem causes chaos within the system. This chaos was intentionally orchestrated by the Obama regime and their globalist handlers, and is exactly what we are now witnessing. The success of ObamaCare is, in part, dependent on the failure of the website and the resultant chaos.

Now that chaos surrounding the website exists and “threatens” the entire program, it is important to understand that the architects of this massive power transfer have already created a number of various predetermined solutions to advance their objectives. Their ultimate objective is to completely nationalize the entire health care industry of the United States, thus completely taking over one-sixth of the U.S. economy. Their goal all along has been to implement a single-payer system, where the federal government alone collects all fees for health care services, pays all costs, and has complete control. They are using the Hegelian Dialectic to accomplish exactly that.

[…]

Once you understand that ObamaCare is not about providing a workable system of healthcare, and understand the Marxist tactics that are currently being used for its implementation as it was initially designed, the next logical step would be to identify the true objectives of the plan.

ObamaCare is the Pandora’s Box that will facilitate a number of objectives dear to the globalists. It will result in an unprecedented consolidation of power to the Executive Branch of the government.

It will serve to essentially nullify the Bill of Rights, subjugating the citizens of the United States to offenses more egregious than those that caused the American Revolution. It will give the federal government (and its agents) direct access to all of your private and personal information, including your health records, your personal financial information, and your employment records. It will also serve as a conduit to abolish your right to own and possess a firearm.

It will advance eugenics, or population control that is near and dear to the Fabian Socialists from which this regime has its roots. If you find that difficult to believe, simply refer to the father of Fabian Socialism himself, George Bernard Shaw, in this short video here. While viewing, keep in mind the “conspiracy of the death panels” associated with ObamaCare, and how we were marginalized for even suggesting such a thing.

[Comment: Highly Recommended Article.]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Thugs Arrested in Racially Motivated Killing of New Jersey Homeless Man

Several black teens have been arrested for the murder of a white New Jersey homeless man. They turned themselves in after surveillance video was made public.

Racially motivated black on white mob attacks in New Jersey are exploding in frequency. However, the media is aggressively downplaying black on white racially motivated violence as “a game.” They refuse to mention that the perpetrators are black and the assaults target whites, and sometime Asians.

           — Hat tip: Kitman [Return to headlines]
 

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Opens Speech by Honoring Jane Fonda

Apparently, Samantha Power is a big fan of Hanoi Jane

Yes, the Obama administration’s hand-picked UN Ambassador decided that the best way to launch a speech was by praising an American traitor.

Keep in mind that Fonda was never your average, run-of-the-mill, liberal. The actress was a committed commie who used to roam around American universities saying “If you understood what communism was, you would hope, you would pray on your knees that we would someday become communist. I, a socialist, think that we should strive toward a socialist society, all the way to communism.”

Oh wait. …Maybe she is a run-of-the-mill liberal.

Of course, that was in the late 60’s, just before she began her modeling career in North Vietnam…

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Watch: Massive Fireball Roars Through Suburban Power Lines, Blows Out Electricity

If you’ve ever wondered what a massive electrical surge from an electro-magnetic pulse weapon, solar flare or cyber attack might look like, then take a look at this footage shot in Montreal.

In this instance the surge caused a cascading electrical outage across one neighborhood. Imagine what such an event would look like across the entire national power grid.

Then consider how long it would take to bring essential services like hospitals, communication system, commerce processing, and banks back online.

According to former Congressman Roscoe Bartlett, we’re talking not days or weeks, but months and years before utility workers would be able to repair key transformers and nodes.

“For instance, if when the power grid went down some of our large transformers were destroyed, damaged beyond use, we don’t make any of those in this country. They’re made overseas and you order one and 18 months to two years later they will deliver it.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Birth of a Police State: UK Police to be Granted Sweeping New Powers

The UK Government is about to pass legislation which will make any behaviour perceived to potentially ‘cause nuisance or annoyance’ a criminal offence. The Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Bill also grants local authorities, police and even private security firms sweeping powers to bar citizens from assembling lawfully in public spaces. The Bill has successfully passed through the House of Commons without issue, and is now in the latter stages of review by the House of Lords, after which it will receive Royal Assent and become Law. Those who refuse orders under the new rules will face arrest, fines and even prison time.

Since the Crime and Disorder Act 1998, which introduced Anti-Social Behaviour Orders (ASBOs) the government has invented and legislated for a litany of such orders covering everything from dog poo to drug addiction, including but not limited to: Control Orders; Terrorism Prevention and Investigation Measures Orders; Intervention Orders; Crack House Closure Orders; Premise Closure Orders; Brothel Closure Orders; Gang Related Violence Injunctions; Designated Public Place Orders; Special Interim Management Orders; Gating Orders; Dog Control Orders; Letter Clearing Notices; Noise Abatement Orders; Graffiti/Defacement Removal Notices; Directions to Leave and Dispersal Orders.

The Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Bill, purports to simplify this legacy of New Labour’s legislative promiscuity. In reality, it creates a series of wildly ambiguous, generic orders which grant officers of the state and private sector even greater powers to issue tougher sentences, with fewer checks and balances to protect citizens.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

British Intelligence Reportedly Intercepted LinkedIn and Slashdot Traffic to Plant Malware

German newspaper Der Spiegel reports that British spy agency GCHQ set up fake LinkedIn and Slashdot pages to plant malware within Belgacom, a Belgian telecommunications company. Using a method called “quantum insert,” the GCHQ was reportedly able to preempt legitimate access to the websites, redirecting the employees to fake sites that compromised their computers. Der Spiegel reports that the GCHQ and NSA were also able to infiltrate the Vienna headquarters of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). The report is the latest based on documents provided by whistleblower Edward Snowden.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

‘Capital of Rubbish’: Germans Blast Madrid

A leading German newspaper has labelled Madrid “the capital of rubbish” as the city’s street cleaners’ strike enters its second week with no end in sight.

“Madrid has no money left, not even for cleaning the streets,” Germany’s influential Frankfurter Allgemeine newspaper wrote on Tuesday. The daily said people in Madrid are “suffering their way through the garbage strike”.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Car Flies 45 Metres Over Swiss Border Hut

The driver of a speeding car miraculously escaped serious injury when the vehicle soared 45 metres in the air after striking a barrier at the French border crossing into Geneva, the Swiss Border Guard said on Tuesday.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Civil Court Orders Italian Government to Pay Victim’s Family

Compensation ordered after killer buried pregnant lover alive

(ANSA) — Milan, November 11 — A civil court in Rome ordered the Italian government Monday to pay 80,000 euros in compensation to the mother of a young woman who was buried alive and died during the final month of her pregnancy.

The court ordered compensation for Anna Maria Giannone, mother of Jennifer Zacconi, 22, from the town of Olmo di Martellago near Venice.

Zacconi was buried alive in 2006 by her ex-lover Lucio Niero, a 34-year-old married man who was desperate to keep news of his infidelity from his wife.

Niero was sentenced to 30 years in prison for the murder.

He had been ordered to pay compensation to the family of the victim, and when it was shown that he did not have the money, the family unsuccessfully requested compensation from the Italian government instead.

The European Union pointed out that under an EU directive, victims of violent, deliberate crime who cannot obtain compensation from the offender are eligible for money from the State.

It ordered the Italian government to follow that regulation.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Denmark: Carlsberg Appoints Heinz Veteran to Head Asia Region

(Reuters) — Denmark’s Carlsberg (CARLb.CO) has appointed former Heinz top executive, Christopher Warmoth, to head the brewer’s operations in Asia where it is searching for acquisitions, it said in a statement on Tuesday.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

France: Armistice Day Humiliation for Hollande as He’s Booed at Arc De Triomphe Ceremony Where 70 Are Arrested in Violent Protests

At least 70 people were arrested at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris during violent protests against Francois Hollande as he commemorated France’s war dead. The disturbing scenes are a massive humiliation to the 59-year-old Socialist president, who is by far the most unpopular head of state in his country’s recent history.

As millions watched live TV broadcasts, protestors started booing and then shouted ‘Hollande resign!’

There were also chants about Hollande being in charge of a left wing ‘dictatorship’ in which unpopular laws were being passed without consultation with ordinary people. Fighting then broke out on the Champs Elysee as armed police tried to arrest those responsible for the disturbances.

It was then that Hollande and his fellow ministers were rushed away in a waiting limousine, accompanied by police sirens and whistles.

           — Hat tip: Kitman [Return to headlines]
 

France Faces Threat of ‘Social Explosion’

France faced a rising tide of social discontent and rebellion on Tuesday, that was described as “explosive” in some quarters. With yet more strikes and protests planned for this week President François Hollande is under pressure to act to quell the uprising.

France’s government lurched towards a crisis on Tuesday, amid what one union leader dubbed an “explosive” atmosphere in the country, as President Hollande — less popular than ever in the polls — faces a tax revolt in Brittany and protests by teachers and self-employed tradespeople.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

French Schools Hit by Strikes and Protests

Schools across France will be hit by strike action this week as staff protest at changes to the school timetable. The walk-outs are the latest show of dissent against an unpopular reform by France’s Socialist government.

Another flagship reform by France’s ruling socialists is set to provoke unrest this week, with schools being the latest battleground for a show of dissent against the government of President François Hollande.

Staff at schools across the country are to take industrial action over the next three days in a show of opposition against Education Minister Vincent Peillon’s reform of the primary school week.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

German Tourist Arrested With Samurai Sword in Naples

Man says weapon for self-defence

(ANSA) — Naples, November 11 — Italian police on Monday arrested a German tourist for carrying a samurai sword near a popular Catholic shrine to the Virgin Mary in Naples.

The man, 62, said he had the ‘katana’, in a case on his back, to defend himself.

Carabinieri stopped the tourist outside the shrine of the Blessed Virgin of the Rosary in the Naples suburb of Pompei.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Greek Supreme Court Puts Sharia Law Before Civil Law

The Greek Supreme Court has annulled the last will and testament of a deceased Greek Muslim man as it was not compliant with sharia law. The decision overturns the rights of Greek minority Muslims in Thrace to prepare wills under Greek civil law.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Helium-Filled Airplane Could Help in Disaster Zones

What do you get if you cross an airplane, a blimp, a helicopter and a hovercraft? A pot-bellied plane filled with helium that can take off and land on super-short runways. The design will allow it to ferry emergency supplies to disaster zones where roads and runways may be wrecked.

The peculiar aircraft is currently undergoing feasibility tests in the European Commission’s Extremely Short Take Off and Landing On any Surface (ESTOLAS) project.

Led by Alexander Gamaleyev at Riga Technical University in Latvia and Dimitris Drikakis at Cranfield University in the UK, the research team envisage a squat, propeller-powered aircraft made of ultralight carbon fibre. But instead of an airplane’s usual long, thin fuselage it will have a bloated central void that can be filled with helium gas to make the aircraft lighter.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Italian PM Has German Interests at Heart, Says M5S Leader

(AGI) Rome, Nov 12 — Beppe Grillo, leader of Italy’s anti-establishment Five Star Movement (M5S), has attacked Prime Minister Enrico Letta and the government in his blog. He has accused Mr Letta of being less than truthful and giving priority to the interests of the country’s international creditors, particularly Germany.

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

Italy: Abruzzo Culture Councillor Arrested in Corruption Probe

Luigi De Fanis and his secretary accused of bribery and fraud

(ANSA) — Pescara, November 12 — The culture councilor of the Abruzzo region in central Italy was put under house-arrest on Tuesday along with his secretary in relation to a corruption probe.

Luigi De Fanis, a member of Silvio Berlusconi’s People of Freedom (PdL) party, and Lucia Zingariello are suspected of bribery, fraud and aggravated embezzlement of public money regarding regional funds used toward commemorative events in honor of Italian pre-WWII poet, writer, soldier and aristocrat Gabriele D’Annunzio.

Prosecutor Giuseppe Bellelli, located in Abruzzo’s largest city Pescara, requested the arrests. The court also ordered limitations on the movements of a regional official and the head of a non-profit organization.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Grillo Compares Letta to Nazi ‘Collaborator’

M5S leader says premier is in Germany’s pocket

(ANSA) — Rome, November 12 — Beppe Grillo, the leader of the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S), on Tuesday accused Premier Enrico Letta of being in Germany’s pocket and compared him to a Nazi collaborator.

The comedian-turned-politician said Letta’s policies, like those of his predecessor Mario Monti, were primarily aimed at satisfying Berlin’s demands for budget discipline, while Italian business struggles during the country’s longest recession in over two decades. “He is the new Italian Quisling,” Grillo wrote on his popular blog referring to Vidkun Quisling, the Nazi’s puppet president of Norway during World War II. “His (Letta’s) is a puppet government that represents the interests of foreign States and not of Italy”. Grillo, whose group is the third-largest in parliament after its strong showing in February’s inconclusive general election, also accused Letta of being a “polite liar”.

“Everything he says as false as a coin with a hole in,” added the M5S leader.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Excavation of Tunnel for High-Speed TAV Begins

Proponent says rail project has gone too far to be stopped

(ANSA) — Chiomonte (Turin), November 12 — Excavation work began Tuesday on a large exploratory tunnel as part of construction of a controversial high-speed rail link between northern Italy and France.

Proponents of the link between Turin and Lyon said by reaching this stage of construction, it’s clear that the project has gone too far now to be halted.

“Any person with common sense and intellectual honesty is aware of the irreversibility of the work,” said Mario Virano, government commissioner of the project.

Excavation of the exploratory tunnel, which is part of a larger tunnel project, is expected to take two years.

The Lyon-Turin high-speed link in the Susa Valley, a joint Italy-France project, has triggered protests throughout Italy for several years, some involving violent clashes with police, vandalism, threats and disruption of highway traffic.

Opponents say the project threatens sensitive environmental areas and will cost too much public money, while supporters argue it will cut down on vehicle traffic and pollution.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Anarchists Jailed for Shooting Ansaldo CEO

Two men have been sentenced to prison by a Genoa court for kneecapping the chief executive of Ansaldo Nucleare, the nuclear subsidiary of the Italian aerospace and defence giant Finmeccanica.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Le Pen: Repackaging the National Front

The National Front has become a real option for French voters under Marine Le Pen. The far-right party’s upswing is following a European trend, and Le Pen now has her eyes on the European Parliament election.

Marine Le Pen appears to be on a roll. A local by-election win in mid-October left her socialist and conservative competitors in the dust, and she’s attained record-breaking popularity: 42 percent of recently polled voters have a positive opinion of her, compared to 35 percent for Socialist President Francois Hollande. And polling in France for the next European Parliament vote put Le Pen’s National Front party in first place.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

New German Government to Hold Referendums on EU Issues

(AGI) Berlin, Nov 12 — The future Merkel Grosse Koalition government intends to hold referendums on issues such as “the entry of new countries into the EU, the transfer of significant powers to Brussels, or the financial burden for Germany at the European level”, revealed newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung. The newspaper is in possession of a document drafted by the CDU/CSU and SPD working group, chaired by outgoing Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich (CSU) and the head of the Social Democratic parliamentary group in the Bundestag, Thomas Oppermann.

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

New Research Shows That the Holocaust May Have Been Even More Extensive

The scale of Nazi atrocities was at least six times worse than previously thought, new research has revealed this week.

Geoffrey Megargee and British academic Martin Dean, who are based at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, are midway through a 25-year project to catalogue the Nazi campaign in the years before and during the Final Solution.

They have now released the second volume of their research, in which they cite evidence of 42,500 Nazi sites in operation between 1933 and 1945, including “killing centres”, ghettos, forced labour camps and other sites of persecution and murder.

“When we started this research back in 2000 we had an estimate of between 5,000 and 7,000 sites, which I thought was astounding,” said Dr Megargee. “But the actual number proved to be far beyond any estimates.”

It is not possible for people to say they did not know what was going on in the Shoah

Their research corresponds to a death toll of six million Jews but Dr Megargee said it suggested that up to 20 million — Jews and non-Jews — went though the system, even if not all were murdered.[…]

           — Hat tip: MC [Return to headlines]
 

Phantom Collector: The Mystery of the Munich Nazi Art Trove

The world has been captivated by the discovery of more than 1,400 works of art in a Munich apartment, among them many lost masterpieces stolen by the Nazis. The mystery surrounding the paintings reveals much about the great tragedies of the 20th century — and Germany’s attempt to grapple with its past.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Physicists Plan to Build a Bigger LHC

Accelerator ring would be 100 kilometres around and run at seven times the energy of the Large Hadron Collider.

When Europe’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC) started up in 2008, particle physicists would not have dreamt of asking for something bigger until they got their US$5-billion machine to work. But with the 2012 discovery of the Higgs boson, the LHC has fulfilled its original promise — and physicists are beginning to get excited about designing a machine that might one day succeed it: the Very Large Hadron Collider (VLHC).

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Safety Fears High Among Commuters in France

Do you feel unsafe on public transport in France? Well if so, you’re not alone. Half of public transport users feel uneasy taking trains and buses in France, a new survey revealed on Tuesday with women, young people and Parisians fearing most for their personal safety.

After a series of high profile attacks and muggings on trains and buses in France, commuters may be forgiven for feeling a little concerned while using public transport.

Levels of fear among travellers in France, however, are even higher than might have been expected, according to a survey released on Tuesday which showed that one in every two commuters doesn’t feel safe when using France’s public transport network.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Sex Sold in 14 Percent of Italian Schools — Survey

Students are prostituting themselves to classmates in 14.4 percent of Italian high schools, a new survey has found.

Child prostitution is a regular occurrence in 8.9 percent of schools, while isolated incidents have happened in a further 5.5 percent, according to the poll by student website Skuola.net. Three thousand people responded to the online survey, released on Tuesday, which came after reports surface

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Spain’s Solar Police to Kick in Your Door

The latest nail in the coffin for Spain’s solar energy producers is an Energy Law amendment which allows inspectors to enter private properties without a court order. It’s a move lawyers believe could set a worrying precedent.

As if Spaniards had not already been dissuaded by the potential €60 million fines they face for illegally generating their own solar power, they now have to look forward to a knock on the door from the ‘solar police’.

A change to the ruling Popular Party’s (PP) Energy Law allows inspectors to “raid” properties they are suspicious of, armed only with administrative authorization.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Swede Suspected of Urging Children to Go to War

A video has emerged showing a Swedish man in his fifties talking about jihad in front of a group of children in a mosque outside the city of Aleppo in Syria.

In the video, the man discusses the virtues of dying for Allah and praises the Muslim Brotherhood, of which he is a member.

Swedish Radio News showed the video to Syrians living in Sweden and to legal experts. Some said it indicates that the man is recruiting children as soldiers.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

The Climate Charlatans Gather in Warsaw

Happily, there are observers at the Warsaw conference who make it their business to expose the global warming lies and monitor the climate change movement at home and abroad. As this is being written, former Apollo VII astronaut, Walter Cunningham, is leading a delegation from CFACT — the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow — a think tank that maintains the award-winning website, ClimateDepot.com. Its editor, Marc Morano, is among the group watching the machinations of COP-19.

CFACT’s Executive Director, Craig Rucker, has joined with Poland’s Globalization Institute, Instytut Piotra Skargi, the European Institute for Climate and Energy, and others to produce three climate forums for Polish citizens and policy makers.

This all may seem a bit esoteric. What does a conference in Warsaw have to do with the many other problems facing Americans these days? As Rucker points out, President Obama is looking to shift the public debate from Obamacare to climate change, announcing “a huge new emphasis on global warming at Georgetown (University) in June. In early November, he unleashed an executive order “directly federal bureaucrats to dramatically expand his global warming agenda.” Obama is moving on from health care to “the next legacy of his radical administration — namely, climate alarmism.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Trans-Atlantic Free Trade: US Pushes for Deal Despite NSA Scandal

The NSA spying scandal has many in Europe calling for the suspension of negotiations on an EU-US free-trade deal. Officials in Washington are undeterred, and continue to push forward with talks despite growing skepticism this side of the Atlantic.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Bungling Doctors Told Emily and Chelsea to Abort Their ‘Lifeless’ Babies. Thank God They Refused

‘When they told me they couldn’t detect a heartbeat for the baby and that he or she was dead, I couldn’t take it in and burst into tears,’ recalls Emily.

‘A midwife told me I could either go home and wait for two weeks for the foetus to come out naturally or that I could take medication to speed it up there and then.

‘My sister was with me and she comforted me as best she could, but I was in a state of shock. I didn’t know what to do. All I wanted was my mother. As soon as I’d composed myself sufficiently I called her.’

And, today, a year and a half on, the gurgling tot bouncing up and down on her lap is a joyful reminder of the consequences of that split-second decision — and her mother’s response.

‘Call it “mother’s instinct” if you like but Mum knew me and knew in her heart that my baby was still alive,’ continues Emily. ‘She said I had to get a second opinion immediately and I was not to take the medication under any circumstances.’

So the following day Emily did as instructed and, at a different NHS hospital, she underwent another scan.

Within minutes a consultant was informing her that the first hospital had made a mistake and that she was, indeed, still pregnant…

It would be nice to be able to dismiss what happened to Emily, who lives in Monmouth, South Wales, as a one-off. But that is not the case.

For while her treatment at the first hospital undoubtedly fell well short of what it should have been, her near-miss story is not as rare as might be imagined. And mothers like her — whose babies are saved — are the lucky ones.

What is unknown is how many take medics’ advice on medication or undergo surgical procedures, to terminate what is, in fact, a viable pregnancy.

Research two years ago found that wrongly interpreted ultrasound scans could lead to 400 healthy pregnancies being misdiagnosed as miscarriages each year in Britain.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Killer is Faking Sex Op Issue to Get an Easy Life in Prison, Claim Heartbroken Murder Victim’s Family

THE family of murdered Rab Shankland have started a campaign urging the authorities to move his sex-swap killer to a men’s jail.

A MURDERED man’s family have started a campaign to get his sex-swap killer moved to a men’s jail.

Rab Shankland’s relatives believe sadistic Paris Green, who was born Peter Laing, is faking his gender issues.

           — Hat tip: Kitman [Return to headlines]
 

UK: New Driver, 21, Ran Down and Killed Great-Grandmother at Crossing as She Revved Her Car in Frustration at Slow Pedestrians

A motorist has been jailed for killing an elderly woman because she was distracted by revving her car in anger at two pedestrians who were crossing the road.

Natalie Foulser pressed down on the accelerator because she thought a man and woman were walking deliberately slowly across a dual carriageway.

The 21-year-old driver, who had only recently qualified, continued to stare at the pedestrians, meaning that she failed to see that great-grandmother Averil Monks was still using the crossing.

The 75-year-old former nurse died at the scene after being hit by Miss Foulser at 35mph on the 30mph road in Marton, Lancashire in June last year.

The young woman was seen at the roadside in floods of tears, crying for her father and saying: ‘I can’t believe I’ve just killed someone.’

Mrs Monks’ widower George, 76, was left so devastated by his wife’s death that he refused to sleep in their bedroom, and he died in August.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Secret System of Gangs Giving Victims’ Families Cash in Exchange for Silence So They Avoid Jail

CRIMINALS are making secret “blood money” settlements with victims and their families in a back-channel justice system designed to help them avoid jail. The blood debts are a relic of tribal Middle Eastern communities and are routinely used to settle violent disputes between families, senior police have revealed.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Algeria: Drought Continues, Crops at Risk

(ANSAmed) — TUNIS, NOVEMBER 11 — Algerian farmers are worried that an ongoing drought could continue, seriously damaging the whole agricultural sector. National authorities and the minister for agriculture and rural development, Abdelwahab Nouri, are monitoring the situation.

Several areas of the country have had no rain for months and many crops, especially traditional ones, are on the line.

The situation will improve only after a network of artificial lagoons will be built to bring water to areas at high risk of desertification.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Algeria: Country Hostage of Youth Violence

Young Algerians from slums control streets

(by Diego Minuti) (ANSAmed) — TUNIS, NOVEMBER 12 — Residents of the new suburb of Ali Mendjeli outside Constantine in Algeria woke up on Monday morning in shock after a night of violence fuelled by dozens of youths who acted with impunity. They discovered that security in Algeria has become a vague concept and, until the State will not intervene with all means at its disposal, roads will be traps where everyone could risk their lives.

In Algeria, youth violence is constantly on the rise with the slums’ increasing social marginalization to blame for the phenomenon as young people there grow up dreaming of ways to make money easily and fast and therefore choose theft and robbery as a way to make their dream come true.

Sometimes they also turn against those who symbolize authority, even if they are teachers. Attacks against professors who are abducted from their classes and thrown out of school amid cheers are multiplying as if they were the enemies instead of a society deeply divided in different economic and social classes.

Violence doesn’t only target teachers but schools where windows, desks and teaching materials are often destroyed.

Rival gangs also fight one another to control a street or to gain respect among affiliates. And when these fights take place, often at night, anything can happen as knives are often used.

Retailers in areas at risk — also on the outskirts of Algiers, where security is tight — feel abandoned while gangs crash their shops’ windows to steal goods.

Territorial supremacy isn’t the only issue at stake as drug trafficking is another growing problem in spite of the optimistic outlook of authorities who are trying to downplay the phenomenon.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Egypt’s Christians Close Ranks as Kidnappings Spike

Close to 100 Christians have been kidnapped for ransom in southern Egypt since the 2011 revolution. Frustrated by police indifference, Christians are now demanding action.

Hani Abdel Malek, a chicken farmer, stands in the sugar cane fields at sunset on June 20, 2013 near Naga Hamadi, Egypt. Malek was kidnapped and held for ransom in the sugar cane fields near Naga Hamadi. Tensions between Coptic Christians and Muslims in the region have been high with an attack on a local church in 2010 and subsequent kidnappings of Coptic Christians for ransom.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

ENI: Italy-Libya Gas Pipeline Closed for Security Reasons

Mellitah terminal stops functioning due to protesters

(ANSAmed) — PALERMO — The underwater gas pipeline ‘Greenstream’ connecting Sicily with Libya’s natural gas fields has been closed for security reasons.

On Monday at around 2 pm local time the major natural gas terminal of Mellitah, located 60 km from Tripoli and operated by Italian energy giant Eni, stopped supplying gas to the Gela station, near Caltanissetta in Sicily, as armed protesters were threatening the safety of personnel operating at the terminal, reportedly including Italian technicians.

The protesters from Libya’s minority Amazigh Berber ethnic group are demanding government attention to cultural and minority issues. Last month, armed militants gained control of the port in Mellitah which serves the industrial terminal jointly run by Eni and the Libyan National Oil corporation (Noc), blocking oil exports.

Gela is still receiving gas which was still present in the 520-km-long pipeline.

Once the pipeline is depressurized, the valves at the Sicilian terminal will be closed.

Eni chief executive Paolo Scaroni had announced five days ago that Libyan supplies could be blocked but said Italy will not have gas supply problems.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Al-Qaeda in Syria Raids Wedding Party, Warns Against Music and Singing

Al-Qaeda’s main branch in Syria, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), has raided a wedding party in the suburb of Aleppo and ordered stopping music and singing, the Asharq al-Awsat reported, quoting Syrian activists.

“One leader of the Islamic State warned residents that if a music band is invited to a wedding again, the person responsible will be arrested because this is immoral,” the newspaper reported, citing an internet page of the Syrian Revolution in Menbej.

The al-Qaeda leader reportedly asked the man in charge of the wedding to memorize a verse of the Quran and attend several religious courses at al-Qaeda’s center in Maskana, near Aleppo.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Khamenei’s Conglomerate Thrived as Sanctions Squeezed Iran

An organization controlled by Iran’s supreme leader generates billions of dollars a year, helping to solidify his control over a country hobbled by sanctions.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Napolitano Marks 10th Anniversary of Nassiriya ‘Savagery’

President says victims symbol of effort for peace, human rights

(ANSA) — Rome, November 12 — Italian President Giorgio Napolitano on Tuesday led commemorations for the 10th anniversary of a bomb attack in Iraq that caused Italy’s heaviest military losses since World War II.

A total of 27 people were killed on November 12, 2003 when two vehicles loaded with explosives drove into the Italian Nassiriya base and exploded.

The base hosted the bulk of the Italian contingent in Iraq at the time and, of those killed, 19 were Italians — 12 Carabinieri military police, five army soldiers and two civilians, including documentary filmmaker Stefano Rolla.

Napolitano said that they were the victims of “cowardly, unacceptable savagery”.

He added that they were a symbol of a country that “believes in the need for a common effort for security and stability.

“They are the symbol of a strong commitment to protect human rights and peaceful cooperation between peoples,” he added.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Report: 90% Saudi Disabled People Suffer Sexual Abuse

Saudi Arabia’s al-Iqtissadiya wrote in a report on Saturday that disabled people are the most vulnerable group in the country that suffer from sexual abuse.

According to experts cited in the report, the mentally disabled have the highest number of victims, with at least 90 percent of them having been abused at least once.

The number of abuse victims is relatively lower in physically disables which stands at 20 percent.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Saudi Arabia Wins U.N. Human Rights Council Seat

Saudi Arabia on Tuesday won a seat at the Human Rights Council, the U.N.’s highest rights monitoring body, Al Arabiya correspondent reported. China, Russia and Cuba were also elected, raising speculations of potential battles over human right issues to be considered by the council in the future.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Syria: Women Victimized by Both Regime and Rebel Troops

Egypt worse Arab country for women,Thomson Reuters says

(ANSAmed) — LONDON — The ongoing Syrian civil war has been devastating for women, according to a Thomson Reuters Foundation report on the condition of women in 22 Arab League member States.

Syria placed 19th out of 22 in terms of its treatment of women, who are being targeted by both regime and rebel forces, especially the radical Islamist elements among them, the report showed.

An estimated 3-4,000 women are currently being held in regime prisons, where they are subjected to all kinds of violence, including torture and rape. “None of them possessed arms or was fighting against government troops”, said Damascus human rights lawyer Anwar al-Bunni.

Many of the women detainees have allegedly died due to beatings and terrible incarceration conditions, including being held in underground cells with no natural light. Many others are imprisoned along with their small children, the report said.

According to the Thomson Reuters Foundation study, Egypt is the worst country in the Arab world in which to be a woman, amongst the 22 Arab League member States. Rights violations, sexual abuse, record numbers of female genital mutilation placed Egypt last, behind Saudi Arabia and Iraq, the study showed.

Hopes that the Arab Spring would usher in an improvement in women’s rights have been dashed, and indeed the situation has worsened: for example, women’s representation in Parliament decreased from 12% to 2% with the abolition of female quotas. Egypt also holds the sad world record in terms of female genital mutilation, with 27.2 million women forced by their families to undergo the surgery. Rape and sexual assaults have also increased, with practically every single woman in the country having been a victim at least once. “We are talking about women being surrounded by crowds of men in public, having their clothes torn off, being manhandles and sometimes raped”, said Diana Eltahawy from Amnesty International.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Turkey’s Fix for the “Kurdish Problem”

Ankara’s Challenges

by Robert Hatem and Mark Dohrmann

From the beginnings of modern Turkey, the Kurds have been considered outsiders, often not even allowed to speak their own language without the threat of punishment. With Mustafa Kemal Atatürk modeling the nascent republic on the somewhat ethnically homogeneous European nation-states of the time, and the constitution declaring that “the Turkish state, with its territory and nation, is an indivisible entity,” there was little room for permitting, and certainly not encouraging, the open expression of disparate ethnic or national identities within Turkey’s borders.

Instead, Ankara’s answer to the “Kurdish question” has been, more often than not, to deny the existence of the Kurds altogether and simultaneously to attempt to pacify the region militarily, crushing all dissent while forcibly assimilating its “mountain Turk,” that is Kurdish, population.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Pussy Riot Musician in Penal Colony in Siberia

Husband says young woman had disappeared for three weeks

(ANSA) — Moscow, November 12 — Jailed Pussy Riot punk musician Nadezdha (Nadia) Tolokonnikova has arrived at a penal colony in eastern Siberia to finish serving her jail term for performing a protest song against Russian President Vladimir Putin, the country’s human rights commissioner said Tuesday.

The young leader of the punk band has complained of conditions at the colony in the region of Krasnoyarsk, nearly 4,400 kilometres from Moscow, where she was previously held.

Vladimir Lukin, Russia’s human rights commissioner, said the Siberian site was chosen to help her with her “resocialization”.

Her husband Piotr Verzilov had said that he had no news of Tolokonnikova for three weeks while she was being transferred to the Siberian camp.

Band members were convicted in August 2012 of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred and sentenced to two years in jail after staging an allegedly blasphemous protest against Putin in Moscow’s main cathedral in February 2012.

One of the three band members was released on probation in October 2012.

The jail sentence raised a chorus of international criticism with top-level diplomats describing it as disproportionate and expressing concern about the conditions in which the women would be imprisoned.

The band’s cause has been publicly endorsed by musicians including Madonna, Bjork, Peter Gabriel and Green Day.

Russian Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev has said he believed the women should not have been sent to jail.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Gunmen Kill Senior Leader of Al Qaeda-Linked Militant Group Fighting U.S. Troops in Afghanistan

Gunmen on the outskirts of Islamabad shot dead a senior leader of one of the most feared Al Qaeda-linked militant groups fighting U.S. troops in Afghanistan, a Pakistani Taliban commander and an intelligence official said Monday.

Nasiruddin Haqqani, a key financier of the Haqqani network, was gunned down by armed men riding a motorcycle on Sunday night in a residential area called Bhara Kahu, which is only a few kilometers (a couple of miles) from the U.S. Embassy.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Indian Minister Hails Progress in Italian Marines Case

‘Investigation into fishermen deaths nearly done’

(ANSA) — Gurgaon, November 12 — Indian Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid on Tuesday expressed confidence that resolution was near in the case of two Italian marines held for the deaths of two Indian fishermen off the coast of southern India 20 months ago. Investigators from India’s National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Monday questioned four Italian Navy riflemen as witnesses in the shooting deaths of the two Indian fishermen, the Italian premier’s office said in a note.

Commenting on the contribution of the interrogations to the investigation, Kurshid told reporters, “I am content that we were able to make progress (and that) the impasse has been overcome”.

“The stage can now be reached” in which investigators can complete their work and “the judge can dispose of the matter,” Kurshid added, speaking from a press conference in Gurgaon, in the periphery of New Dehli.

“It is our desire and interest that the question be concluded at the earliest possible moment,” Kurshid went on. The minister also said he hoped the latest developments in the investigation would create “a climate of greater trust and reciprocal understanding” between India and Italy. Ajesh Binki and Valentine aka Gelastine were shot dead on February 15, 2012, when Italian Navy Marines Massimiliano Latorre and Salvatore Girone allegedly opened fire on their fishing trawler from privately owned Italian-flagged oil-tanker MT Enrica Lexie.

The shooting occurred just off the coast of Kerala in southern India and sparked a diplomatic row between the governments of India and Italy over conflicting opinions on jurisdiction and immunity.

The two marines have since been extradited to India, where they could face murder charges.

Navy riflemen Massimo Andronico, Alessandro Conte, Antonio Fontana and Renato Voglino, who were detached to the MT Enrica Lexie along with the two marines, were heard in video-conference at the Indian embassy in Rome.

“This was a significant development as we near the end of the investigation”, Italian Premier Enrico Letta said. “We will continue working step by step, with maximum commitment and determination, until we reach a positive conclusion to this episode”.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy Raises Marines Case at Asia-Europe Conference in India

Expresses worry over delays

(ANSA) — Gurgaon, November 12 — Italy on Tuesday raised the case of two Italian marines held in India over the deaths of two Indian fishermen and questions of maritime security at the Asia-Europe ASEM conference in Gurgaon, located in the periphery of New Dehli. The Italian foreign ministry’s central director for Asia, Andrea Perugini, highlighted Italy’s commitment in the fight against piracy, diplomatic sources at the conference told ANSA. Perugini also expressed worry over the accumulated delays in the resolution of the Indian court case centred on Italian Navy Marines Massimiliano Latorre and Salvatore Girone, the sources said.

The two are accused of killing Ajesh Binki and Valentine aka Gelastine on February 15, 2012, when the marines allegedly opened fire on a fishing trawler from the privately owned Italian-flagged oil-tanker MT Enrica Lexie.

Italy says the marines were on an anti-piracy mission at the time.

Representatives of 51 member countries participated in ASEM, an interregional forum born in 1996 to encourage dialogue between Asia and Europe. Member countries represent 60% of the world population.

This year’s conference was dedicated to sustainable growth and development.

ASEM next year will be hosted in Milan, Italy.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Son of Islamist Haqqani Network Founder Killed in Pakistan

(AGI) Islamabad, Nov 11 — Nasiruddin Haqqani, son of the founder of the Haqqani network, a jihadist group allied to the Taliban, has died in an ambush in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad. The 36-year-old was driving home on Sunday night when he was shot by unknown attackers. He was hit by at least four bullets according to some sources. So far no one has claimed responsibility for the attack against Nasiruddin, son of Taliban leader Jalaluddin Haqqani and head of fundraising for the terror group, very active against allied troops in Afghanistan.

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

Dig for Hominid Bones Begins in Cradle of Humankind

An expedition to probe the deep recesses of a cave that may contain fossilized specimens of early humans is currently underway in South Africa.

An international team of paleoanthropologists is exploring the Rising Star Cave at a site in South Africa dubbed the Cradle of Humankind, which is located roughly 25 miles (40 kilometers) north of Johannesburg. The Cradle of Humankind is one of the richest fossil sites in Africa, and was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1999.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Venezuela: Fair Prices at Gunpoint

Socialism. You gotta love it. In Venezuela the government of Nicolás Maduro has sent the military into Daka, a popular electronics store similar to Best Buy.

Soldiers will now make sure customers are charged a fair price for plasma televisions, washing machines and other imported appliances.

“Members of Venezuela’s National Guard, some of whom carried assault rifles, kept order at the stores as bargain hunters rushed to get inside,” reports USA Today.

“Daka’s store managers, according to Maduro, have been arrested and are being held by the country’s security services. Neither Daka nor the government responded to requests for comment.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Britain is a Paradise for Poor Migrants, Say Angry French

A FRENCH politician has slammed Britain’s “grotesque and hypocritical” immigration policies for leaving Calais overrun with migrants.

Mr Mignonet said: “We are facing a grotesque British immigration policy, if not hypocritical. Britain says, ‘We don’t want immigrants’ but does nothing to prevent the black economy. Two million people work in the black economy in Britain.”

He claimed 400 migrants from Africa and Asia were currently squatting in dilapidated buildings or in tents in Calais city centre. And he warned they will soon number thousands in the region as a whole.

           — Hat tip: Kitman [Return to headlines]
 

British Cities Could be Hit by Rioting Because of an Influx of Roma Migrants, David Blunkett Has Warned.

The former Home Secretary said ‘frictions’ with local people could lead racial tensions to ‘explode’ in a repeat of the riots that rocked Northern towns in the summer of 2001.

Mr Blunkett called on Roma migrants from Slovakia to ‘change their culture’ because their dumping of rubbish and refusal to send their children to school had caused ‘understandable tensions’ with residents in his home city of Sheffield.

Sheffield citizens have already set up street patrols to combat anti-social behaviour by the Roma. Britain is home to more than 200,000 Roma migrants, most of them from Eastern Europe.

           — Hat tip: Kitman [Return to headlines]
 

Head of Banking Group Pushes Republicans to Back Immigration Reform

The head of the American Bankers Assn., who is a former GOP governor, made a strong pitch Monday to his fellow Republicans to support the bipartisan Senate immigration reform legislation by invoking party hero Ronald Reagan.

Frank Keating, president of the group since 2011, said in a Times opinion article that Reagan would say “it’s time to open the doors” to immigrants to boost the economy.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

‘I’m a Fast Bowler’: What Asylum Seeker Dressed as Australian Cricketer Told Border Immigration Officials After Arriving on Christmas Island

An asylum seeker arrived by boat on Australian shores dressed in the bright yellow uniform of an Aussie cricketer.

And when asked who he was, he told immigration officials: ‘I’m a fast bowler’.

The man’s arrival on Christmas Island, where he was among about 60 asylum seekers who had to be rescued from their boat, caused great amusement among immigration officials.

But the fast bowler will soon hear the bad news that he will be transferred away from the Australian territory, despite his creative methods.

The man, whose nationality has yet to be revealed, donned the yellow one-day cricket uniform for his attempt to start a new life in Australia — perhaps as a cricketer.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Morocco: 19 Algerian Migrants Arbitrarily Detained, Abused

According to the Algerian League for the Defense of Human Rights

(ANSAmed) — TUNIS, NOVEMBER 12 — Morocco is verbally and physically abusing 19 Algerian migrants it illegally detained last year, the Algerian League for the Defense of Human Rights charged Tuesday.

Th Moroccan coast guard intercepted the migrants last year as they were trying to reach Spain illegally aboard an unseaworthy vessel.

The human rights group also charged conditions of their detention have become harsher following recent tensions between Algeria and Morocco after President Abdelaziz Bouteflika and King Mohamed VI traded barbs over each other’s human rights record, among other issues.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Operation Mare Nostrum Saving Lives, Says Navy

16 interventions and 3,374 rescued

(ANSAmed) — VALLETTA, NOVEMBER 11 — Since the Operation Mare Nostrum began on October 18 after the latest tragedy off Lampedusa, 16 rescue operations have made it possible to help 3,374 people. Some 1,993 have been taken onboard, including 215 women and 259 children, and “we haven’t had any more deaths at sea”, said Admiral Giuseppe De Giorgi in Malta, who alongside Italian Defense Minister Mario Mauro took part in a visit called for by Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta — on the sidelines of his visit to Valletta — to the ship Durand De La Penne to express appreciation for the commitment shown by Italian soldiers. In illustrating the figures of the operation De Giorgi said that the operation had made it possible to “retake control” of the sea. There have now been 8,065 people rescued since the beginning of 2013.

“All the boats carrying migrants have been intercepted before getting to our coasts”, thus serving to combat migrant trafficking, as shown by a recent operation in which 16 traffickers were captured. The “capture of the mother ships is one of the main objectives” of the mission, continued De Giorgi, reiterating that “we cannot accept that the sea becomes a place of death, where traffickers can continue to conduct their dirty business”. He noted that the operation makes use of five naval units with helicopters and aircraft on the ground, including a drone from Sicily or Apulia that monitors an area of operation of about 43 square kilometres, from the coasts of Tunisia to the waters off Libya and stretching towards the eastern Mediterranean, through “a system that brings together all the agencies in Italy working at sea”. The operation is also requiring “the use of larger ships able to stay at sea during bad weather conditions, due to a substantial increase in the number of migrants per boat”. The key, he concluded, is “to intervene early to prevent shipwrecks”.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Romanian Mayor Says Half the Population of Villages Are on Their Way to Britain for Higher Salaries and Generous Benefits

The mayor of two Romanian villages has claimed that up to half of their residents will move to the UK when restrictions are lifted in January.

‘In January, the only thing left will be the goat’: Romanian father-of-seven’s boast as mayor says half the population of his villages are on their way to Britain for the higher salaries and generous benefits

Koller Gabriel-Adrian said he believed ‘50 per cent’ of the 1,100 people in poverty-stricken Berini and Uliuc could travel to Britain in search of higher salaries — and the generous welfare system — in the New Year.

Many have already moved to France, Italy and Spain, but the mayor said the UK would soon become a more attractive destination, with ‘better conditions’, when the borders are relaxed.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

UC Berkeley Student Government Bans Term ‘Illegal Immigrant’

The UC Berkeley student government has banned the term “illegal immigrant” from its discourse, deeming the phrase racist, offensive, unfair and derogatory.

In an unanimous vote, student senators passed a resolution that stated the word “illegal” is “racially charged,” “dehumanizes” people, and contributes to “punitive and discriminatory actions aimed primarily at immigrants and communities of color.”

The “resolution in support of drop the I-word campaign” was approved 18 to 0 with one abstention.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

What America Will Look Like in 2050? Part 5

Within 37 years, demographic experts project an additional 100 million legal immigrants flowing into the United States of America. They expect to arrive from Africa, Indonesia, India, China, the Middle East, Mexico, Central America, South America and many of the poverty-stricken countries of the world. Their impact on America: they will force the addition, in sheer numbers, of an additional population enough to duplicate our 20 top metropolitan cities in the U.S. in 2013.

(Source: Pew Research Center, U.S. Population Projections by Fogel/Martin and the U.S. Census Bureau document those demographic facts.)

But what most Americans fail to understand stems from the fact that world human population expires at 57 million annually. Humans not only replace 57 million people, but also add an additional 80 million, net gain, to the planet annually. Total: 7.1 billion people in 2013. That’s 137 million new babies that need to be watered, fed, housed, warmed, medicated and educated annually. Unfortunately, those countries with those fecundity rates cannot educate that many new children annually. They lack teachers, books, supplies and schools. Tragically, over 10 million children starve to death annually. (Source: United Nations Population figures.)

The tragedy of America’s 1965 immigration bill added 100 million immigrants within 40 years; then, the 1986 amnesty accelerated the speed of the onslaught and now the proposed S744 amnesty bill expects to add another 100 million immigrants within 35 years or less. Those desperate immigrants will pour into America at 200,000 every 30 days, along with their birth rates, diversity visas and chain-migration…

Today in Jackson, Mississippi, with a 90 percent African-American population, they elected a mayor who promotes changing five southern states of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina into a separate Republic of New Black Afrika.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Do Teachers Really Know Best?

Education tends to reward teachers who rave about other primitive cultures as superior while maligning, diminishing, or ignoring our own American culture.

Do teachers really know best? Etymologically speaking, they “show, point out, guide, give instruction” to their charges but some of them go beyond their call of duty for better or for worse. Teachers are able to instruct to the extent of their level of education, actual comprehension and knowledge of the subject matter, and their level and type of ideological programming. As a student I’ve had some fantastic professors and some atrocious indoctrinators.

A teacher has the opportunity eight hours a day to mold a child’s mind, the proverbial brain “full of mush,” independently of their parents’ wishes. They have your child’s rapt attention. Young pupils believe their teachers to be the ultimate authority on everything and are never wrong.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Germany Gets an Assist From Obama, Cracks Down on Home Schooling

Germany has followed up its arrest of home-schooling parents in Darmstadt with apparent back channel communication to Washington, leading to a move to deport the Romeike family, who claimed asylum in 2008 in Tennessee so that they could home school their kids.

German couple Uwe and Hanalore Romeike immigrated to America in order to educate their seven children at home, instead of in the German public school system where home schooling is illegal. Tennessee must have seemed relatively ideal compared to their previous experiences.

Uwe Romeike explained his reason for moving to America: “We are being persecuted, as are many other home schooling families in Germany. Parents should have the right to choose the best education for their children. That’s what’s lacking in Germany. We don’t have freedom of education. We started home schooling because our two oldest children were in public school for a few years and from the beginning had problems. Our daughter started having headaches and stomach aches, our son’s personality changed. After we started home schooling all these symptoms disappeared. We didn’t want to stop.”

Originally a federal immigration judge, Lawrence Burman, granted asylum to the family stating: “We can’t expect every country to follow our Constitution. The world might be a better place if it did. However, the rights being violated here are basic human rights that no country has a right to violate.”

But the Obama Administration appealed through the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE), and an appeals court viewed their position favorably. ICE cited the Konrad case in the European Court of Human Rights stating “the public education laws of Germany do not violate basic human rights.” The subsequent ruling inferred that parents had no right to direct the education of their own children because that was a responsibility of the State. The case is now on hold to see if the US Supreme Court will hear it.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

OK to ‘Talk Dirty’ To Minors, Texas Court Rules

[WARNING: Disturbing content.]

Citing the First Amendment, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals struck down a law that banned sexually explicit Internet communication between an adult and minor.

“Perverts will be free to bombard our children with salacious emails and text messages, and parents and law enforcement would be unable to stop it,” state lawyers argued in the ruling, The Austin Statesman reported.

The state’s highest court, however, upheld a law that banned sexual solicitation of minors.

“Perverts will be free to bombard our children with salacious emails and text messages.” — – State lawyers

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Alien Life May Flourish on Purple Planets

Find a purple planet, and you may have spotted alien life. Some of the first Earthlings were purple bacteria that ruled the planet about 3 billion years ago. If any Earth-like exoplanets host similar microbes, their distinctive hue will be visible from space.

Previous work showed that we might be able to detect the infrared signature of vegetation on exoplanets, based on the signal given off by trees and other plants on modern Earth. Other studies suggest sniffing for gases in alien atmospheres that would only be given off by life.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Are We Losing the War for the Soul of Islam?

by Douglas Murray

I have been studying and thinking about Islam for almost half my life. I got a slight head start on much of the rest of the world thanks to a Sufi Muslim friend. From her I learned, in those pre-9/11 days, about the horrors of the Wahhabis and the Salafis, the Deobandis and the Khomeinists. And I heard about one thing in particular which I have since observed: how moderate movements in Islam have repeatedly lost out to the hardliners and how some of the most enlightened people you might meet can be trampled over by the most barbaric. It was a timely lesson. In the struggle for an enlightened form of Islam one can find many Muslim allies.. But their organised history is one of repeated failure.

If the discussion about the future of Islam once used to be confined to an exotic theology, it no longer is. The future of Islam and the future of the West are now inextricably linked. If disentangling them was ever possible it is almost certainly not now. What happens to Islam will affect what happens to Europe. Before travelling over some of the possible paths it is worth remembering one key fact — as Bernard Lewis among others has said — there are essentially three Islams. There is the Islam of the Koran, Hadith and life of Muhammad. Then there is the extrapolation of this into the system of law known as sharia. And then there is a third Islam — Muslims themselves, what they do and how they live.

[…]

As I said at the outset, in the battle for the soul of Islam the extremists tend to win. There may be nothing we can do to stop this. And while the moderates and progressives will still deserve our good wishes and help where we can give it — and we should certainly wish them luck — we must also accept at least the possibility that they might lose. There was a time when this loss would just have been a loss within Islam. At one stage I hoped that the West might insulate itself from the repercussions of this loss. But I now think that hope was wild-eyed in its optimism. If Islam falls over the cliff it will do so in our embrace. Too late to disentangle ourselves, if it falls backwards here, it is now inconceivable that we will not all go over the cliff together.

[Reader comment by Annonymous on 5 November 2013 at 3.11 pm.]

I admire Douglas Murray tremendously. Few intellectuals in Britain possess his moral and physical courage. I think however that the title of his incisive essay indicates that his perspective is somewhat wrongheaded. The ‘soul of Islam’ is not ours to lose. My thesis is simple: any lasting change in Islam can only come from within. The ‘Religion of Peace’ (said with heavy sarcasm) is the bane of our time. The 20th century was nearly destroyed by political totalitarianism in the form of Communism, Fascism and Nazism. The 21st century risks being turned into a wasteland by Islamofascism. Political and religious totalitarianism rolled into one. Due to (principally) Labour’s calamitous immigration policies between 1997 and 2010, we will tragically find out ourselves whether ‘demographics is destiny’ — or at least those of us unfortunate enough to live into the fourth or fifth decades of this century. Only an Islamic Reformation and Enlightenment — from within — can change Islam. Sadly Murray’s essay and the writings of others like Raymond Ibrahim indicate that such an evolution is exceedingly unlikely. Tragically this century might see the death of the Enlightenment West and the birth of a cultural Frankenstein’s monster: Eurabia.

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Cosmic Rays Zap a Planet’s Chances for Life

Mysterious cosmic rays constantly bombard Earth from outer space. Now scientists find these energetic particles could limit where life as we know it might exist on alien planets.

Cosmic rays continue to baffle scientists more than a century after they were first discovered. These charged subatomic particles zip through space at nearly the speed of light, a few strangely with energies up to 100 million times beyond what is possible from the most powerful particle accelerator on Earth. Cosmic rays are believed to be atomic nuclei, with the vast majority being protons, or hydrogen nuclei.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Global Energy Market in Middle of Huge Upheaval, IEA Says

The International Energy Agency has said the fuel map of the globe is changing rapidly on a vast upheaval of energy markets. It forecast widening regional differences in energy costs, with an impact on competitiveness.

In its global energy demand outlook, the IEA said Tuesday that new reserves of fossil fuels, notably resources of shale in the US and Canada, would compensate for the decline of existing conventional gas and oil fields, raising the competitiveness of nations which used them.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Socialism: The Creed of Failure

“Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.” — Winston Churchill

This is probably one of the most well-known quotes about socialism, and there’s a reason for that. It so succinctly sums up what “progressivism” is really all about — it’s about tearing down those who have worked hard, it is about creating jealously and envy against those who have succeeded in overcoming the trials of life, it is about dragging people down to the lowest common denominator instead of encouraging them to aspire to greater things. Churchill’s apt definition describes not only the socialistic tendency towards wealth redistribution and dependence on the almighty state, but also helps to describe the psychology and mindset of those on the Left. It’s not just that they want to drag down the productive classes economically, they also want to hobble individuals so that they will prefer to limit themselves instead of trying to be the best that they can be.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

4 thoughts on “Gates of Vienna News Feed 11/12/2013

  1. According to a recent report, 90% of disabled people in Saudi Arabia have been sexually abused at least once.

    The obvious solution is for Saudi Arabia to become an Islamic country, because — as we in Britain heard very clearly during the rape-gang trials (and will hear again) — such behaviour is totally against the principles of Islam. Totally. All true Muslims are as one in proclaiming this.

  2. P.S.

    A spectacular mistake on immigration: Straw finally admits Labour ‘messed up’ by letting in one million East Europeans

    With the EDL “decapitated” the Left attempt to capture the working class anti-immigration voter base. Blunkett and Straw with the help of Cameron and Farage are pushing and pulling the debate away from Third World jihad immigration and turning the immigration debate into one of anti-white and anti-European (self-) loathing.

  3. Socialism – Creed of failure. Churchill’s definition has some merit but my favourite one comes from an English music hall comedian of the 1940/50 era. He stated that a communist is a man who wants all the money in the world shared out equally between all the people in the world and, when he has spent his, he wants it all shared out again. The comedian’s name, I believe, was Charlie Chester.

  4. Hey new dramatic news from Basra /Iraq
    Those thugs and criminals that US & Brits went to give them freedom and democracy see what they done with poor Britt citizen (wish him fast recovery and hope he got his court case heard and excited the criminals

    Note: some from their they said the Sudanese holding US citizenship, and Egyptians guy holding British citizenship behind the igniting the incident!!
    First thing I hope both US & Britt’s strip those guys from their citizenship send them back to their home country.

    [CAVEAT inserted by the Baron: the videos linked below are violent, graphic, and disturbing.]

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tufvpjjWmSA&feature=youtu.be

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I02KTlmffic&feature=youtu.be

    Article in (Arabic Text)

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