Four “Britons” have been killed while fighting for the UK- and US-backed Al Qaeda-linked rebels in Syria. An estimated three hundred more have journeyed from Britain to Syria to join the jihad against the Assad regime.
In other news, two bystanders at a Newfoundland harbor intervened to save a beached shark from choking on a moose.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to Andy Bostom, C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, Jerry Gordon, JP, 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.
Greece: Man Wants to Sell His Kidney for Money
A note on the bulletin board of the hospital in Heraklion
(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, NOVEMBER 21 — A Greek father driven by desperation wrote the following note on the bulletin board of the General Hospital in Heraklion, on Crete island. “I want to sell my kidney so my children can survive.” The man from Heraklion, as GreekReporter writes, has been unemployed for two and a half years and is straining to find money to pay for basic necessities. The local news website IraklioLive came in contact with the man who is volunteering to sell his kidney for his children. It was a rather difficult and emotionally charged exchange, since the man stated from the beginning that he didn’t wish to be under the spotlight. Without divulging any information that would reveal his identity, he said that his life took a down-turn two and a half years ago when he became unemployed. As he stated, until then he had lived a very good life economically. For the last two and a half years, he has been anxiously looking for any kind of job, but with no result.
Today, he still remains unemployed. “We sold everything, furniture, electrical appliances and whatever else we had at home. There’s nothing left. We cannot live like this. That’s why I want to sell my kidney. For me this is nothing, I can live with just one kidney. I would sell my own head if someone would buy it. I live for my children but I cannot offer them the basic necessities. I would die for them. But I cannot offer them anything anymore.” Right before he hung up the phone the man said: “I don’t want any publicity, I just want someone to buy my kidney.”
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Greece Submits 2014 Budget Amid Troika Tensions
The Greek government has submitted its 2014 budget to parliament, seeking lawmakers’ approval for more spending cuts. But Greece’s creditors say the proposals are insufficient and have refused plan.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Genoa Wildcat Transit Strike Continues for Third Day
Unions claim widespread solidarity for cause
(ANSA) — Genoa, November 21 — Genoa on Thursday suffered the third day of a wildcat public transport strike that halted buses and paralyzed traffic over new austerity measures and plans to privatise a city-owned partial stake in AMT, Genoa’s financially struggling public transportation company. Union leader Andrea Gatto of Faisa-Cisal threatened the strike would go on until Genoa’s mayor and the regional governor agreed to talks with the unions “with concrete proposals”.
Mayor Marco Doria responded to the strike saying, “Cost-containment measures for AMT that protect jobs are necessary in a moment like this”. “Not a single AMT job is under discussion,” Doria added, speaking to local television Primocanale.
“In 2013, workers’ sacrifices allowed the company to survive. In 2014 we must find a balance in company accounts,” Doria continued. “My commitment as a stakeholder in AMT is that the company not go bankrupt,” Doria explained. Despite snarling traffic jams and other inconveniences, unions report widespread support among Genoan residents and other city workers.
A Facebook page dedicated to their cause received 3,000 “likes” 14 hours from being posted. Workers from garbage and maintenance companies, Aster and Amiu respectively, have joined the striking bus drivers in solidarity.
Genoa’s city council is meeting on Thursday to discuss companies in which the city is a stakeholder.
The meeting comes after a two-day suspension of city-council activity due to the transit strike. Demonstrators are expected to pack the 80-seat audience area to overflowing.
Meanwhile, Genoa Prefect Giovanni Balsamo said strikers will be punished.
“Today we sent the first notices to workers. We will apply all the sanctions provided for the interruption of public services,” said Balsamo.
“One must be aware that this behaviour has consequences. The fines range from 500 to 1,000 euros,” Balsamo added.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy Presents 10-12 Bln Euros of Privatizations
Proceeds to be divided between debt, gov’t projects
(by Sandra Cordon) (ANSAmed) — ROME — Italy will raise up to 12 billion euros from the sale of government stakes in several companies including oil and gas giant Eni, Premier Enrico Letta said Thursday. Half the proceeds from the sale, which should net between 10 billion euros and 12 billion euros, will be used to fund economic stimulus measures, said Letta.
The other half will be applied to reducing Italy’s debt, said Letta, who added that this privatization package was only the first with more sales likely in the future.
The country’s debt stands at about two trillion euros, or approximately 130% of gross domestic product (GDP).
Letta recently said that this would mark the first time in five years the Italian government has been in a position to pay down some of that debt.
Other investments to be sold in Thursday’s package include the State’s stake in STMicroelectronics, a 40% share in shipbuilding company Fincantieri, and a similar-sized share in Enav, the Italian air traffic control company. Holdings in Grandi Stazioni, a member of Italy’s railways group, will also be sold as well as a 60% stake in export credit agency Sace, and a stake in CDP Reti, a holding company owned by the Cassa Depositi e Prestiti (CDP).
Government plans for the sale of a portion of its stake in Eni has been in the news for some time, and the sale of 3% of its shares should net approximately 2 billion euros, said Economy Minister Fabrizio Saccomanni.
The complex transaction will allow the government to retain its holdings in the energy giant above 30% to maintain control.
The privatization plans come at the same time as the government’s special commissioner discussed his work overseeing a review of public spending aimed at saving billions of euros over the next three years.
The proceeds from that spending review will be applied to “further reduction of taxes on labour,” Letta pledged Thursday.
He also said that the combined efforts should help his government convince the European Commission to permit Italy to use its so-called “investment clause” which allows governments “extra margins of flexibility for 2014”.
Earlier in the day Olli Rehn, European economic and monetary affairs commissioner, suggested that if Italy can demonstrate it is dealing seriously with debt and deficits, it may be able to use the investment clause.
That contradicted a report just last week where the European Commission said Italy would not be permitted to use the clause because it had not done enough to ensure its debt-to-GDP ratio was narrowing sufficiently.
“Italy’s ability to use the investment clause will depend on the spending review and on other decisions that create space in the budget for the deficit-to-GDP ratio to go under 3%,” Rehn said Thursday. The privatization plans were slammed by five members of Letta’s own Democratic Party who said in a statement that although the privatization plan meant quick cash in the short run, it would hurt the economy longer term.
Recently Letta said that 2013 — which saw his fragile left-right government replace Mario Monti’s emergency technocrat administration in April — has been one of “political and economic transition” and that 2014 will be “decisive for Italy”.
The premier hopes Italy will enjoy a full year of growth next year as he is banking on the country pulling out of its longest recession in over two decades by the end of 2013.
Letta’s government has been criticised for not doing enough to combat the recession and its 2014 budget law has been dismissed as being too timid with tax cuts, especially those directed at labour.
Earlier in the day, Letta said the government will cancel its unpopular IMU tax at a cabinet meeting on Tuesday when it will also formalize its decision to allow banks to revalue their shares in the Bank of Italy.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
ObamaCare: The Neutron Bomb That Will Decimate the U.S. Economy
Longtime readers know I have repeatedly explained why healthcare, i.e. sickcare, will bankrupt the nation. ObamaCare simply speeds up the coming collapse. Here are two of the dozens of entries I’ve written on sickcare: America’s Hidden 8% VAT: Sickcare (May 10, 2012) Can Chronic Ill-Health Bring Down Great Nations? Yes It Can, Yes It Will (November 23, 2011)
I have also explained why ObamaCare’s “fixes” are simulacra reforms that don’t even address the systemic costs arising from the cartel-fiefdom structure of sickcare: Why “Healthcare Reform” Is Not Reform, Part I (December 28, 2009) Why “Healthcare Reform” Is Not Reform, Part II (December 29, 2009)
Sickcare is unsustainable for a number of interlocking reasons: defensive medicine in response to a broken malpractice system; opaque pricing; quasi-monopolies/cartels; systemic disconnect of health from food, diet and fitness; fraud and paperwork consume at least 40% of all sickcare funds; fee-for-service in a cartel system; employers being responsible for healthcare, and a fundamental absence of competition and transparency.
Please glance at these charts to see how the U.S. healthcare costs are double those of competing nations on a per capita basis. Japan provides care for a mere 36% per person of what the U.S. spends — yet millions of Americans remain uninsured or underinsured.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Administration Blocks Investigation Into Clearance for Navy Yard Shooter
The federal agency charged with screening employees for security clearance offered hints about how to cut corners, and its lax policies could have led to the clearance the Navy Yard shooter needed to access the base, the House’s top investigator said.
Rep. Darrell E. Issa, California Republican and chairman of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said his staffers have come across verbal and written policies from the Office of Personnel Management that indicate the security clearance process was short-circuited in the case of Aaron Alexis, the Navy Yard shooter.
But Mr. Issa says OPM is refusing to turn over those documents and allowing them to be viewed only behind closed doors. If he doesn’t have the documents by noon Thursday, he said, he will issue a subpoena.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Ambitious Mars Joy-Ride Cannot Succeed Without NASA
So much for being space cowboys. Dennis Tito, the multi-millionaire behind what was to be the first privately funded mission to Mars, has just knocked on NASA’s door asking for help. The development is a wake-up call to the most idealistic dreamers of the private spaceflight industry.
“They can’t do it all by themselves, particularly this kind of ambitious mission,” says John Logsdon, formerly of the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University in Washington DC. “It’s a recognition of reality.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
America’s Plan to Kill Online Privacy Rights Everywhere
The United States and its key intelligence allies are quietly working behind the scenes to kneecap a mounting movement in the United Nations to promote a universal human right to online privacy, according to diplomatic sources and an internal American government document obtained by The Cable.
The diplomatic battle is playing out in an obscure U.N. General Assembly committee that is considering a proposal by Brazil and Germany to place constraints on unchecked internet surveillance by the National Security Agency and other foreign intelligence services. American representatives have made it clear that they won’t tolerate such checks on their global surveillance network. The stakes are high, particularly in Washington — which is seeking to contain an international backlash against NSA spying — and in Brasilia, where Brazilian President Dilma Roussef is personally involved in monitoring the U.N. negotiations.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
A radical “artificial egg” backed by Paypal billionaire Peter Thiel and the “infamous” Bill Gates goes on sale in US supermarkets for the first time. Made from plants, it can replace eggs in everything from cakes to mayonnaise — – without a chicken in the equation whatsoever. The “Bio-tech food mutation” team today have already started selling their “plant egg”! It looks like it will be first sold at none other than the beloved “Whole Foods” in California — – and some say it could “soon be available in supermarkets worldwide.”
How many products will contain genetically modified “plant” eggs? What could you accidentally bake with this synthetic science mystery? Will you make cookies or brownies for the kids? Will you slop some “bio” mayonnaise on your next sandwich, or will you pour some synthetic salad dressing on your greens? Will it be in all the pasta and bread or lumped into muffins for that “bouncy” quality that stays “fresh” so long? This synthetic nightmare will contain no real egg whatsoever. You know they’ll call it something real nifty too, like “Beyond the Egg” mayonnaise, or the “Incredible Scramble!” The name has to reflect the opposite of what it’s really all about.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
(NaturalNews) A 15-year-old Connecticut girl remains held by Boston Children’s Hospital, a victim of the hospital’s “kidnap and ransom” operation, traditionally called “K&R.” K&R is not usually seen in hospitals, and that’s what makes this story so bizarre and disturbing.
Boston Children’s Hospital kidnapped the teen girl from her Connecticut family nearly 10 months ago under the excuse of a contrived medical diagnosis. Through legal maneuvering, the hospital managed to gain legal custody of the girl, and the “ransom demand” is the demand that the parents stop trying to remove the girl from the hospital so that Boston Children’s can generate maximum revenue from so-called “treatments” which have so far accomplished nothing…
The hospital cited “both parents’ resistance towards recommended treatment plans” as part of its justification for kidnapping the girl for nearly 10 months. Make sure you fully grasp what this means: IF YOU DO NOT AGREE with a doctor’s diagnosis of your child, the hospital will kidnap that child for an indefinite period, and local law enforcement authorities will very likely side with the hospital rather than the parents (because cops are easily intimidated by doctors).
The hospital is God. It is the ultimate authority and the owner of all your children. If you disagree with the hospital, you are stripped of your parenthood. Your child is taken from you by force — essentially at gunpoint — — and if you try to rescue your own child from the hospital, YOU will be charged with kidnapping your own child! (This isn’t fiction. We’ve already reported on this happening before.)…
Even if the hospital one day decides to release Justina Pelletier, it will almost certainly bill the parents for potentially millions of dollars in medical costs. That’s where the “ransom” part comes into play. The longer the hospital criminally holds the girl as a kidnapping victim, the more bills they rack up which they may try to charge to the parents — even though the parents never consented to the outrageous medical diagnosis and kidnapping in the first place!
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Convicted murderer Charles Manson is marrying a 25-year-old supporter, she has claimed. Star, a name given to her by the 79-year-old cult leader, moved next to California’s Corcoran State Prison when she was just 19 to be closer to him and has recently carved an X into her forehead to match his swastika.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Could Iranian Missiles Threaten Florida by 2015?
As P5+1 negotiations renewed in Geneva, November 20, 2013, seeking a possible interim agreement to temporarily freeze Iranian nuclear enrichment, a renewed concern has arisen about the threat to the US of long range ICBMs being developed by the Islamic Regime. Alleged development of Iranian rocket bases in Venezuela on the Paraguaná peninsula by construction companies controlled by Iranian Revolutionary Guards was reported in 2011 by Die Welt and the Jerusalem Post from Western security sources. These were disputed by both Venezuela and the US, according to a subsequent CNN report. Nonetheless, that apocalyptic prospect concerns me as both a Floridian and a US Army veteran who experienced the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962.. Two separate events in recent days eerily brought home that possibility.
One was an interview with Mark Regev, Israeli spokesperson for PM Netanyahu by Jake Tapper on CNN. The other was the response to questions about Iranian Missiles I posed to Israeli Brig. Gen. (ret.) Michael Herzog during a Clarion Project briefing about the Iran nuclear threat. Given this week’s conjunction of the renewed P5+1 Nuclear Iran talks, the Regev comments during the Tapper CNN interview and Israeli Gen. Herzog briefing comments on Iran’s Missile threat, Floridians and all Americans had best wake up about the real and present danger of this existential threat by the Islamic Regime…
| — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon | [Return to headlines] |
FBI Scrambles to Find Iraqi Terrorists Living Off U.S. Welfare
Federal investigators are sifting through the records of thousands of Iraqis who came to the United States as “war refugees” in recent years, trying to discern how many more are like the two they recently arrested: Admitted terrorists who left Iraq for America, accepted public housing and welfare assistance, then continued with their plots to kill.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
FBI Video Shows Al Qaeda in Kentucky Handling Heavy Weapons
An al Qaeda-linked terrorist, who was resettled in the U.S. as an Iraq War refugee after allegedly killing American soldiers, was caught on camera in Kentucky handling heavy weapons that the FBI said he believed would be sent to insurgents back in Iraq.
The 2010 video, obtained exclusively by ABC News, was part of a broader ABC News investigation into the flawed refugee vetting program, which officials said may have let “dozens” of terrorists into the country.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Gun Control Takes Colorado Governor From Unbeatable to Unpopular
By signing draconian gun control into law in March, Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper (D) went from being politically unbeatable in 2014 to politically unpopular.
According to Politico, a recent Quinnipiac shows that 49 percent of Coloradans do not believe Hickenlooper deserves another term. Only 42 percent say he does.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Homeland Insecurity: Al Qaeda ‘Refugees’ On Welfare
Unbelievably, the Obama administration finds itself embroiled in yet another scandal. ABC News is reporting that dozens of alleged Islamic terrorists with bomb-making skills may have been mistakenly allowed to take up residence in the United States, due to a flawed screening system.
Hundreds of FBI specialists have been assigned to an around-the-clock investigation of FBI archives that contain 100,000 improvised explosive devices (IEDs) retrieved from Iraq and Afghanistan. The investigation was prompted by the 2009 discovery of a pair of al Qaeda operatives living as war refugees in Bowling Green, Kentucky. The men subsequently admitted in court that they were terrorists who had attacked U.S. troops in Iraq.
A 2010 video shows one of the men, Waad Ramadan Alwan, 32, field stripping what the FBI revealed to be a Russian PKM machine gun. Subsequent surveillance videos show Alwan and accomplice Mohanad Shareef Hammadi, 26, with a Stinger missile launcher and and a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) launcher (rendered inoperable by the FBI) provided to them during a sting operation. Alwan was also known as a braggart who told an agent involved in the sting that he had killed American soldiers in Iraq. “He said he had them ‘for lunch and dinner,’“ FBI Louisville Supervisory Special Agent Tim Beam said, “meaning that he had killed them.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Homeland Security Ordered to Disclose ‘Internet Kill Switch’
A U.S. court has given the Department of Homeland Security 30 days to explain why it has not disclosed its plans for a rumored “Internet kill switch” that could shut down communications in a crisis.
The court order follows a back-and-forth between the department and the digital rights group Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), which has been pressuring the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to release the documents.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Judge Orders Skakel Released on $1.2 Million Bond
STAMFORD, Conn. — After spending more than a decade behind bars for the murder of a teenage girl in Greenwich, Conn., Michael C. Skakel was ordered free on bail on Thursday.
Stamford Superior Court Judge Gary White, speaking in a courtroom packed with family and friends of both Mr. Skakel and the victim, set bail at $1.2 million.
It was the latest twist in a case that has by turns captivated the public and confounded investigators ever since 1975, when the battered body of a 15-year-old girl named Martha Moxley was found beneath a tree in her family’s backyard, pieces of a broken 6-iron golf club by her side.
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Mainstream Media Finally Reports on U.S. Funding of Terror
“It’s like the United States government subsidizing the Taliban, al Qaeda, the Haqqani network, those groups that are trying to shoot and kill our soldiers,” Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), shown, told ABC News’ Diane Sawyer last week.
On July 30, a report issued by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) revealed the depth of the betrayal. According to SIGAR, there are at least 43 individuals and companies that are suspected of being “supporters of the Taliban, the Haqqani network, and al Qaeda,” that regularly receive millions of dollars from the U.S. military. To its credit, in the report SIGAR recommends immediately severing all relations to these organizations.
In what has to be one of the most ironic excuses offered by the federal government for maintaining its support for these “enemies of the state,” the SIGAR report claims that such a severance would be unacceptable as it might violate the “due process rights” of the alleged terrorist beneficiaries…
Remarkably, the Obama administration’s support for terror is not limited to Afghanistan, however.
On August 1, 2012, Reuters filed a report detailing a secret order signed by President Obama providing support to Syrian rebel forces opposing the regime of Bashar al-Assad. Reuters wrote: “Recent news reports from the region have suggested that the influence and numbers of Islamist militants, some of them connected to al Qaeda or its affiliates, have been growing among Assad’s opponents.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Massachusetts Teen Accused of Killing Teacher Indicted on Murder, Other Charges
(CNN) — A Massachusetts grand jury Thursday indicted 14-year-old Philip Chism on charges of murder, aggravated rape and armed robbery in connection with last month’s slaying of his algebra teacher, according to the Essex district attorney.
Citing Massachusetts law, prosecutors said they would ask that Chism be tried in an adult court.
“The indictments … detail horrific and unspeakable acts,” District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett said in a statement.
In a statement, the Ritzer family said: “We are devastated and heartbroken by the details of the horrific circumstances surrounding the death of our beautiful daughter and sister, Colleen.”
[If Obama had a son … — PW]
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New Jersey Looks to Impose RFID on Firearms
New Jersey wants to make it more difficult to use a gun in an act of self defense. An article posted by the Wall Street Journal reports how the state plans to implement technology that will impose RFID and fingerprint technology for firearms.
Imagine having to strap on an RFID watch before you can confront an intruder at 3 AM.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
NHTSA May Mandate That New Cars Broadcast Location, Number of Passengers, Direction and Speed
Before the end of this year, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration will decide whether or not to begin the rulemaking process to mandate that newly manufactured cars include what is being called “vehicle-to-vehicle” (V2V) communications technology that constantly broadcasts via radio wave the car’s location, direction, speed and, possibly, even the number of passengers it is carrying.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
ObamaCare Website Opens Door for Mass Identity Theft
The nightmare world of propaganda and psych ops the Obama administration uses to frighten its citizens into mass subjugation has just exploded into daytime reality.
In an era where Identity Theft is ruining lives, the headline warning from yesterday’s INVESTORS.com is the ObamaCare Website is Like ‘IdentityTheft.Gov.
“Security: Computer security experts testify that the unfinished health care marketplace portal places the personal information of millions at risk on a poorly designed and built site that is a hacker’s dream.” (INVESTORS.com, Nov. 20, 2013)
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
One Lawmaker is Literally Smashing the Belongings of the Homeless With a Sledgehammer
There is a war on compassion in America today. You are about to read about a Hawaii lawmaker that has used a sledgehammer to smash up at least 30 shopping carts that homeless people were using. Yes, you read that correctly. He is actually carrying a sledgehammer around so that he can destroy the belongings of homeless people. He claims that it is his intention “to do something practical that will really clean up the streets”. But as crazy as that sounds, the truth is that he is not alone. As you will read about below, there are dozens of major cities all over the country where feeding the homeless has been banned. In many of these instances, public officials are very open about the fact that the goal is to make their cities “cleaner” and “safer” places to live. They simply do not want the homeless around. In fact, there are some cities such as San Diego and San Francisco where social workers are actually giving homeless people one-way bus tickets out of town. If you doubt this, just keep reading. The United States is becoming a very cold, heartless place, and homeless people are increasingly being treated like human garbage in this country. So how bad will the treatment of the homeless become when the economy gets really bad?
When I first heard about a state representative out in Hawaii that was using a sledgehammer to go after homeless people, I could hardly believe it. But it is actually true. The following is a short excerpt from an RT article that was published earlier this week…
“State Representative Tom Brower (D) is currently dedicated to dealing out his own personal brand of “justice” by seeking out homeless people and destroying their possessions. Brower estimates that he has used the sledgehammer to smash at least 30 shopping carts, rendering them useless by bashing in the front wheels.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Phoenix Residents Freak Out Over DoD Military Exercises
The Department of Defense has been conducting training exercises in several cities in Arizona in preparation for “urban operations,” unbeknownst to its citizens.
“Right now the military is in the middle of a big training exercise over Phoenix for the second night in a row. People are calling the 3TV News room wondering what’s happening,” claimed the 3TV news anchor.
Phoenix residents were so alarmed to hear swarms of military helicopters flying overhead that they phoned their local news outlet to ask if they had somehow crossed over into a warzone.
“They were very close to the buildings,” one witness told 3TV News. “…they would go back up and they would take off and just fly and then they would stop and then go again.” The interviewee was unable to tell what type of helicopters were used as the exercises were conducted under cover of night.
Phoenix PD confirmed to 3TV News that the DoD was indeed conducting training exercises “trying to get military personnel certified in urban operations so that when they go overseas they are prepared.”
That the military owns plenty of abandoned buildings and mock towns for training purposes was not questioned by local news.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Prairies, Wind Turbines, Solar Panels, And Fried Birds
The green energy policy in the United States which requires blending gasoline with ethanol produced from corn has expanded the corn fields to the detriment of prairies. According to AP, more than 1.2 million acres of grassland were lost to the federal requirement of blending gas with 10 percent ethanol, soon to be 15 percent ethanol. These former prairies are now planted with corn and soybeans.
The unintended consequence of this green energy policy is the release of more carbon dioxide naturally locked in the soil when the virgin grasslands are plowed, the sky rocketing of corn prices, the scarcity of corn in countries where it is the main staple, food riots and famine resulting from such shortage in third world countries. Moving to 15 percent ethanol will clog and destroy car engines.
South Dakota lost “370,000 acres of grassland in addition to the 5 million acres of farmland set aside for conservation.” This is more acreage, said Brokaw and Gillum, than “Yellowstone, Everglades, and Yosemite National Parks combined that have vanished since Obama took office.”
“Scientists warned that America’s corn-for-ethanol policy would fail as an anti-global warming strategy if too many farmers plowed over virgin land.” (Chet Brokaw and Jack Gillum, November 13, 2013, AP)
These are some of the hidden costs of green energy. Thousands of birds, some protected species, even the Bald Eagle, are killed by wind turbine farms. A rare species, white-throated needletail that had not been seen in twenty-two years was tracked by bird watchers in Britain when, to their horror, the bird flew into turbine blades and was chopped up…
There are many parts of a wind turbine that use electricity: yaw mechanism, the turbine housing and blades, blade-pitch control, lights, controllers, communication, sensors, metering, data collection, heating the blades, heating and dehumidifying the turbine housing, oil heater, pump, cooler, and filtering system in gear box, hydraulic brakes to lock blades in high wind, etc.
It is estimated that “at times a turbine consumes more than 50 percent of its rated capacity in its own operation. The 25 percent rated capacity means that a “turbine would then use (for free) twice as much electricity as it produces and sells.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Senate Banking Committee Approves Yellen for Fed Chairwoman
Janet L. Yellen took a giant step on Thursday toward becoming the first woman to lead the Federal Reserve Board when the Senate Banking Committee sent her nomination to the full Senate with a 14-8 vote.
The committee’s vote showed how the Federal Reserve’s policies to keep money flowing to the ailing economy has made the Fed a part of the ongoing partisan wars in Washington. It broke largely along party lines, with three Republican senators — Bob Corker of Tennessee, Mark Kirk of Illinois and Tom Coburn of Oklahoma — voting in favor of her nomination. One Democrat, Senator Joe Manchin III of West Virginia, voted against her.
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Senate Approves Change to Filibuster Rules on Nominees
The Senate voted on Thursday to eliminate the use of the filibuster against most presidential nominees, a move that will break the Republican blockade of President Obama’s picks to cabinet posts and the federal judiciary. The change is the most fundamental shift in the way the Senate functions in more than a generation.
The vote was one that members of both parties had threatened for the better part of a decade, but had always stopped short of carrying out. This time, with little left of the bipartisan spirit that helped seal compromises on filibuster rule changes in the past, there was no last-minute deal to be struck.
The vote was 52 to 48.
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Senate Democrats Eliminate Filibusters for Most Presidential Nominations
The partisan battles that have paralyzed Washington in recent years took a historic turn on Thursday, when Senate Democrats eliminated filibusters for most presidential nominations, severely curtailing the political leverage of the Republican minority in the Senate and assuring an escalation of partisan warfare.
The rule change means federal judge nominees and executive-office appointments can be confirmed by a simple majority of senators, rather than the 60-vote super majority that has been required for more than two centuries.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Senate Dems Weaken GOP Power With Major Filibuster Rule Change
Senate Democrats bowled over Republicans on Thursday to win approval for a highly controversial rule change which would limit the GOP’s ability to block nominees, in a move Republicans called a “raw power grab.” “It’s a sad day in the history of the Senate,” Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said after the vote.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Two Men Save Shark From Choking on Moose
According to CBC.ca, two Newfoundland men saved a shark from choking on a moose. Derrick Chaulk was driving by the Norris Arm North harbor and thought he saw a beached whale. But when he went closer to investigate, Chaulk realized it was a Greenland shark. And it was choking.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Fighters for different wars around the globe were trained in three remote Bosnian villages, reports Glas Srpske, the paper in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The paper claims the money to finance this training has in recent months arrived from Vienna, the capital of Austria. The same source insists that Islamic militants were trained in central villages of Gornja Maoca, Gornja Dubnica and Osve.
Not going into details, Glas Srpske insists that the money was donated by Turkish origin Foundation for Human Rights, Freedom and Humanitarian Aid.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
British Security Officer: ‘Government Committed to Protecting Mosques, Religious Institutions’
Our country is an amazingly diverse place to live, and home to people from a variety of different backgrounds. A special message by the Security Minister James Brokenshire.
Whenever I come to Manchester I see for myself the valuable contribution people from a range of faiths and cultures make to our society.
That richness and diversity is something we must protect.
But sadly, as Security Minister, I am only too aware that there are those who seek to challenge it. Over the summer we saw appalling attacks against mosques and Islamic centers around the country.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
British Police Rescue 3 Women Allegedly Held as Slaves, One Reportedly for 30 Years
Three women have been rescued from a London house after one of them called a charity to say she had been held against her will for more than 30 years, British police said.
Metropolitan Police said a 67-year-old man and a 67-year-old woman were arrested on Thursday at a home in south London as part of an investigation into slavery and domestic servitude.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Czechia: Repekt: Prague School’s Hijab Ban Request Unfortunate
Prague, Nov 18 (CTK) — It is unfortunate that a Prague secondary nursing school rejected the request of its two students, Muslim girls, who asked for a permission to wear a headscarf in their classes, Tomas Brolik writes in weekly Respekt out yeterday.
The two girls then left the school on their own to study elsewhere. There was no drama, no extreme emotions, yet the case led to the first “hijab affair” in the Czech Republic, Brolik says.
He notes that the school head Ivanka Kohoutova politely rejected the request, arguing that the school rules permit a covered head neither for students nor for teachers.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Dreaming of Europe, Sweden and the Jihad
If you are stuck in a warzone like Syria and have the means, luck and courage to get out, then Sweden is not only the polar opposite to the country you’re running from, it is also the country most likely to welcome you.
The place is safe and friendly. The healthcare is world class. The education is renowned. Apart from some long winter nights and knotty Swedish grammar, you really couldn’t imagine a nicer home on paper.
What’s more, since the 1970s Sweden has had perhaps the most open asylum policy of any country in the world.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Erdogan’s Comment on Cyprus Irks Athens
Greek and Cypriot government officials on Tuesday expressed shock and anger at claims by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday that “there is no country named Cyprus” ahead of a fresh effort by the United Nations to broker a deal between the two communities on the divided island.
The Greek Foreign Ministry issued a terse response. “The Turkish prime minister’s disputing the very existence of the Republic of Cyprus should finally awaken the international community as to Turkey’s true intentions regarding the Cyprus issue,” ministry spokesperson Constantinos Koutras said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Former Italian Prime Minister Berlusconi ‘Directed’ Sex Parties, Court Says
The court that convicted Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi of paying an underage prostitute for sex at his infamous Bunga Bunga sex parties said Thursday that proof of intercourse was not necessary to find him guilty.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Nutcracker Makers Get Ready for Christmas Rush
As December draws closer, Germany’s nutcracker manufacturers are gearing up for the Christmas season. Near the Baltic coast, one man is keeping to traditional techniques to make figurines with a nautical twist.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: ‘Mr Electric Razor’ Artur Braun Dies
Artur Braun, one of the fathers of the Braun electric razor, died this month aged 88. His firm’s innovative designs turned a family business into a global household name. An industrial pioneer, he is The Local’s German of the Week. The Braun company is best known for its shavers, radios and kitchen appliances and gained a reputation for its elegant yet functional design choices.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Greece: The Merchant Fleet is ‘Sinking’, ELSTAT Says
(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, NOVEMBER 21 — The merchant vessels registered at the Greek merchant navy hardly reach the number of 1,909 and this number shows that there was a loss in the power of the Greek merchant navy by 2.7% within the last year, GreekReporter website writes today quoting data from the Hellenic Statistical Authority (Elstat). The decrease that the Greek merchant navy suffered was smaller concerning last year’s percentage of loss. For the period 2011-2012 the percentage of the decrease was 3%, while for the period 2012-2013 was 2.7%. In addition, Elstat report shows that Greek vessels (ships of 100 or more register tons) can store up to 44,241,594 register tons in total. That means that the storage capacity of the Greek vessels has increased by 0.6% for the period 2012-2013.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Greece: Golden Dawn Threatens Anti-Mosque Rallies Following Construction Contract
Golden Dawn has pledged to organize mass protests against the construction of a mosque in central Athens after the tender for the project was awarded earlier this week.
The neofascist party said the awarding of the contract was an “unprecedented provocation” and that it would use its position “within Parliament and mainly through mass, powerful demonstrations” to prevent the mosque being built.
The right-wing anti-bailout party Independent Greeks also issued a statement condemning the project, saying it was against Greece’s national interests.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Greece Urges Turkey to Withdraw Forces From Cyprus
Greece has urged Turkey to comply with international law and to withdraw its occupying forces from Cyprus.
In a statement released on Friday, which marks the 30th anniversary of the establishment of the breakaway regime in the occupied part of the country, the Greek foreign ministry urged Ankara to review its policy on Cyprus and act in line with United Nations Security Council resolutions regarding the divided island.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italian Premier Slams No-TAV Railway Protests
Letta says demonstrators exceeded all limits
(ANSA) — Rome, November 21 — Italian Premier Enrico Letta no Thursday slammed protests in Rome on Wednesday over a planned high-speed railway connecting Italy to France, saying demonstrators exceeded all limits.
“The limit has been surpassed, and I don’t think (the protests) can be justifiable in any way,” Letta said, referring to scenes of violence near the French embassy, as French President Francois Hollande was in Rome, miles away with Letta. Attacks were also carried out on the headquarters of the center-left Democratic Party, which Letta called particularly troubling.
Hollande was meeting with Letta to discuss the TAV rail line and other pressing economic issues. Opponents argue the project linking Turin to Lyon is wasteful of public funds and destroys pristine countryside. Supporters say it will cut down on automobile and truck pollution and make shipping and transit more efficient.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Enel Green Power: Legacoop Sign Biomass Generator Deal
‘To create renewable energy generators all over Italy’
(ANSA) — Rome, November 20 — Renewable energy corporation Enel Green Power S.p.A. and the Italian Legacoop cooperative federation on Wednesday signed an agreement to jointly develop a network of biomass renewable energy microgenerators all over the national territory. “They represent a great opportunity for our country because they will recycle agricultural and forest waste, reduce the risk of floods and landslides, promote economic development and create jobs in our rural and mountain areas,” Enel Green Power said in a note.
Biomass generators use agricultural and municipal waste as well as forest residues such as dead trees, branches and tree stumps, yard clippings, and wood chips.
Legacoop is made up of 15,000 cooperatives operating in every region and every economic sector.
Enel Green Power is a subsidiary of Enel electric utility company.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Judges Explain Berlusconi ‘Ruby’ Guilty Verdict
‘Paid for sex with minor, pressured police, paid witnesses’
(ANSA) — Milan, November 21 — A court in Milan on Thursday explained its June guilty verdict of ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi, ruling he knowingly paid an underage prostitute for sex, pressured police in an attempt to cover it up, then paid witnesses in the trial against him. “In exchange for major sums of money and other goods such as jewels,” said the court, prosecutors “proved” the three-time premier paid Karima ‘Ruby’ El Mahroug for sex, and that he knew she was a minor “beyond any reasonable doubt”.
A Moroccan runaway, Ruby was part of a “known system of prostitution in Arcore,” the town outside Milan where the ex-premier’s villa is located, the court added. “He was the director” of “Bunga, Bunga” sexual exhibitions during parties at his home “in which female guests operated to satisfy the will of the accused”.
In June the court sentenced Berlusconi to one year in prison for the crime of paying an underage prostitute, plus another six years for abusing his office to cover it up. The three-time premier and media magnate told the police Ruby, held on a theft claim, was the niece of former Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak and said he intervened to avoid a diplomatic incident.
In their explanation judges found Berlusconi put “heavy pressure” on police to release her while she was in custody to “protect himself” and to hide that she was a prostitute.
By the time the case went to court in 2010, the former premier paid some witnesses “large sums of money” during the trial, and his “criminal behavior” led him to “systematically contaminate” proceedings.
The media magnate also got a life ban from office in the case, one of several in what he calls a 20-year campaign by left-wing magistrates. The Senate is set to vote next week to eject Berlusconi for his first definitive conviction, in an unrelated case for tax fraud.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy Spent Most on Pensions, Least on Poor Among EU Members
About 61% of Italian social spending earmarked for pensions
(ANSA) — Brussels, November 21 — Italy spent the largest percentage of its social spending budget on pensions among European nations in 2011, but that left it little for housing and other aid for its poorest citizens, a report on social protection said Thursday.
Pensions absorbed 61% of social spending in Italy, well above the European average of 46% and more than double the average in Ireland which, at 23%, spent the least on pensions, according to Eurostat data from 2011.
Poland spent the next highest, at 58%, followed by Portugal, Latvia and Malta at 55%.
Among the 28 EU member states, 4% of social spending was the average earmarked for housing and social welfare for the poor. However, in Italy the average was less than 1%, the report found. Health care and disability benefits accounted for an average of 37% of total social benefit spending among EU members in 2011, with the largest shares reported in Germany, Ireland, Croatia and the Netherlands.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Fiscal Judge Arrested by Police for ‘6,000-Euro Bribe’
Man ‘asked for money to help lawyer’s son’
(ANSA) — Rome, November 21 — A fiscal judge has been arrested by police in Rome for receiving a 6,000-euro bribe for allegedly assisting the son of a lawyer. The judge, after repeated phone contact with the lawyer, demanded the sum from the lawyer, police said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: 21 Judicial Officers Indicted for Puglia Bribe-Taking
Some ‘got oysters and champagne to rig cases’
(ANSA) — Bari, November 21 — A group of 21 justices of the peace, lawyers and intermediaries in the southern Italian region of Puglia were indicted Thursday for allegedly taking bribes to rig cases.
Some received oysters and champagne for favourable sentences, police said.
The group was from the city of Bari and the towns of Modugno, Bitonto, Altamura and Corato, they said.
The trial is scheduled to start in Lecce on February 3.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: PD Rome Offices to Get Closer Guard After Assault
Protection to be beefed up after ‘no-TAV’ violence
(ANSA) — Rome, November 21 — The head of the Rome police force said Thursday that security would be beefed up at all offices of the centre-left Democratic Party (PD) in the capital after premises were assaulted during clashes between police and anti-capitalists Wednesday.
Violent protests broke out in Rome on Wednesday over a planned high-speed train (TAV) link in an Alpine valley connecting Italy to France.
Clashes between ‘no-TAV’ demonstrators and police spread from outside the French Embassy in Piazza Farnese to the nearby Campo de’ Fiori square and, just up the road, to the local section of the PD.
“They were like beasts,” the office head told ANSA by phone while cowering inside as protesters ripped everything they could off the outside of the building and defaced it. Rome police chief Fulvio Della Rocca announced the move after a meeting with Interior Minister Angelino Alfano.
Opponents argue the project linking Turin to Lyon wastes public funds and destroys pristine countryside. Supporters say it will cut down on automobile and truck pollution and make shipping and transit more efficient.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Toxic Mafia Dumps Sow Panic Near Naples
Anger is boiling over near Naples after revelations about toxic mafia dumps blamed for rising cancer rates that have prompted accusations the state is ignoring a vast public health crisis.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Berlusconi ‘Paid Off Witnesses’ In Sex Trial
Italy’s Silvio Berlusconi, found guilty in June of paying for sex with an underage prostitute, falsified evidence and corrupted dozens of witnesses in a bid to escape jail, a court report said on Thursday.
Judges discovered “persistent delinquency… consisting of the systematic falsification of evidence… and the paying off of witnesses,” the court said in a sum-up of its decision to sentence the former premier to seven years behind bars and ban him from public office.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Monty Python Crew Pledge Mix of Old and New in Comeback
And now for something curiously familiar: It’s Monty Python’s comeback stage show. The five surviving members of the iconic British comedy troupe have discussed their impending return in public.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Netherlands: Brooms for Beer: Amsterdam Enlists Alcoholic Street Cleaners
Amsterdam has begun employing alcoholics to clean the city’s streets, paying them in cash, tobacco and beer. City authorities say it’s solving the problems related to public drunkenness. Critics question whether the program unethically enables addiction.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Norway: Breivik Drops Out of All Three University Courses
Anders Breivik, the Norwegian far-right terrorist, has dropped out of the three courses he has been studying at the University of Oslo, opting not to take any of the end of term exams.
“We recently received notification that he was not going to take any exams with us,” Dag Harald Claes, the head of the university’s political department, told VG.
Breivik has been studying three basic courses: an introductory course in political theory, one in international politics, and one in public policy and administration. As he never graduated from upper secondary school, he was not eligible for a degree programme, but he would have qualified for 30 course credits.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Norway Surges Ahead on Electric Car Usage
While the Scandinavian country of Norway may be one of the largest oil producers in Europe, it also has more electric cars per capita than any other country. State incentives have been the key to success, experts say.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
‘Paris Shooter’ Dekhar Was Already Infamous in France
Abdelhakim Dekhar, the gunman behind the series of shootings that terrorised Paris this week, is the same man who helped a young couple go on a “Bonnie and Clyde” style shooting spree in 1994.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Paris Gunman ‘Has Lived in London for Years’ And Was Married in Redbridge
Abdelhakim Dekhar, who left letters slamming media and capitalist plot to bring fascism to France, had extensive links to Britain, having lived on and off in Greater London for last 13 years.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: Couple Beat Aristocrat in Row Over 13th Century Tax
A couple from Majorca have won a case against an aristocrat who tried to hit them with a 13th century feudal tax for owning a property which is on her ancestors’ land.
Xus and Beatriz were left flabbergasted after a local marchioness opened a lawsuit against them, claiming they owed her €1,800 as part of a tax which has existed on the Balearic island for nearly 800 years.
The noblewoman demanded two percent of the €90,000 Beatriz had paid her brother-in-law when buying half of the property off him, alleging she had the right to claim that sum from any buying or selling on her land.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Spain Still Divided Over Long-Dead Dictator
Thirty-eight years after the dictator Francisco Franco died, Spaniards remain divided over the final resting place of his body, which lies in a controversial monument carved into a mountain near Madrid.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The suspected gunman arrested for shooting a newspaper photographer in Paris was previously jailed for his role in a Bonnie-and-Clyde-style multiple murder that gripped France two decades ago.
Abdelhakim Dekhar, 46, was held on Wednesday after a major manhunt following Monday’s attack at left-wing newspaper Liberation and a subsequent shooting outside the offices of bank Societe Generale.
Police say his DNA matched samples from the scene of the attacks.
Dekhar was convicted in 1998 of buying a gun used in the so-called Rey-Maupin affair which saw three policemen, a taxi driver killed along with shooter Audry Maupin in in October 1994.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Another Shooting Incident in Gothenburg
The city of Gothenburg experienced another shooting incident last night, the 55th this year. In the suburb of Hjällbo, a man in his 20s was discovered alone outside with a gunshot wound to his leg. The police are appealing for witnesses. Last weekend, a 20-year-old man was shot in the leg behind a nursery school in Hjällbo.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Switzerland Seeks EU Deal on Tax Evasion
(GENEVA) — Switzerland wants “to settle the past” with the EU and begin settling disputes over Swiss bank accounts hidden from European tax authorities, the country’s finance minister said Thursday.
“We want to reach an overall deal with the EU,” Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf told a workshop on the Swiss financial sector, according to the ATS news agency.
Switzerland is pushing for a framework that would pave the way to full negotiations on “bilateral deals to settle the past with all of the important EU countries,” she said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The Resurgence of European Patriotism
How to ruin the day of bureaucrats and politicians in Brussels.
By Geert Wilders
Here is a tip if you want to ruin the day of the bureaucrats and politicians in Brussels. Just mention next year’s European elections and they will become extremely nervous and agitated. They will fume with anger and warn you about rising populism, a threat to democracy.
Next May’s European elections, in which almost 400 million people in the 28 EU member states will be allowed to cast their votes, will in all likelihood produce a landslide against the Eurocrats. What will manifest itself, however, is not a rise of populism, but a victory for democracy.
For decades, Brussels has been able to do what it pleases. That period is over.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Top Economists Debate: The ECB’s Controversial Euro Crisis Strategy
In a joint interview, economists Marcel Fratzscher and Hans-Werner Sinn evaluate the ECB’s policy of lowering interest rates and the euro-zone rescue strategy, and arrive at completely different conclusions. Fratzscher sees the ECB’s strategy as the solution. Sinn sees it as part of the problem.
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Tymoshenko Stays: Ukraine Halts Plan to Sign EU Trade Deal
Kiev has put a stop to negotiations on signing a landmark trade pact with the EU. The announcement came hours after the country’s parliament rejected the release of imprisoned Ukrainian opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko so she can receive medical treatment abroad.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK Allowed US to Trawl Data of Britons
BRUSSELS — The former UK government under Tony Blair granted the US intelligence service, the National Security Agency (NSA), permission to spy on millions of Britons not suspected of any wrongdoing.
A joint investigation by The Guardian and Channel 4 News revealed on Wednesday (20 November) that the electronic dragnet swept up emails, IP addresses, fax and mobile numbers.
A memo dated from 2007, leaked by former US intelligent agent Edward Snowden, says UK officials secretly agreed to widen the American intelligence gathering trawl by allowing the NSA to store the personal data details of ordinary Britons.
Both nations belong to the so-called “Five Eyes” snooping club of English-speaking nations, which also includes Australia, Canada, and New Zealand.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
A minister in the House of Lords used quotes from hit US political drama The West Wing to slap down a former UKIP leader’s warning of a “dark side” pervading British Islam. Lord Malcolm Pearson of Rannoch tabled a debate in the Lords yesterday to raise his fears over the role of Muslims in British communities. “I fear that the dark side is moving strongly within Islam,” warned Lord Pearson, who led the right-wing party from 2009 to 2010. We see large and growing Muslim communities which are set against integration with the rest of us; we see thousands of home-grown potential terrorists; we see Sharia law running de facto in our land; and we see a birth rate several times higher than ours, to which our democracy is already exposed.”
Baroness Sayeeda Warsi, the Conservative minister for faith and a life peer in the Lords, responded by quoting extensively from the West Wing, in which Martin Sheen plays the fictional US President Jed Bartlet as he struggles to balance liberal values with those of his Catholic faith. “As a political anorak, I shall step away from theology and talk TV political drama,” Baroness Warsi announced, before quoting a section of the drama in which President Bartlett defends his views on homosexuality against a TV presenter who challenged him on religious grounds.
In the extract, President Bartlet pointedly says: “I’m interested in selling my youngest daughter into slavery as sanctioned in Exodus 21:7. She’s a Georgetown sophomore, speaks fluent Italian, always cleared the table when it was her turn. What would a good price for her be? My Chief of Staff, Leo McGarry, insists on working on the Sabbath. Exodus 35:2 clearly says he should be put to death. Am I morally obligated to kill him myself or is it okay to call the police?”…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
[WARNING: Disturbing Content.]
Laura Wilson was just 17-years-old when she was stabbed to death next to a canal in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, in 2010.
This wasn’t a mugging gone wrong, or a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. In fact, the mother-of-one was the victim of Britain’s first white honour killing. Her death was premeditated murder, plotted and committed by the boyfriend she was madly in love with.
Laura’s crime was to bring dishonour on her Muslim lover Ashtiaq Ashgar, 21, who is now serving a life sentence for the brutal murder.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Islamophobia Awareness Month — November 2013
This November sees the launch of the second Islamophobia Awareness Month, first in 2012. The month-long campaign will see activities and projects held throughout Britain to combat the continuing rising tide of Islamophobia. Islamophobia or anti-Muslim hatred is reaching worrying heights in Britain, across Europe and globally. Racist and fascist fringe parties are gaining ground amidst economic crisis, and mainstream parties increasingly catering to populist, nativist and xenophobic electoral agendas fanned by sensationalist media scaremongering. From the niqab ban and anti-sharia legislation, to erosion of civil liberties and racist discrimination in housing and employment, Islamophobic prejudice is now prevalent in the mainstream, on display in political life, in the media and in the attitudes of the police and the courts…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: MPs Open Biggest Ever Probe Into FGM Scandal
An official inquiry into female genital mutilation is to be launched by one of Parliament’s most powerful committees in a new attempt to end the barbaric practice in Britain. The Commons Home Affairs Select Committee will investigate why no charges have been brought against “cutters” or others who arrange for girls to be mutilated. A series of parliamentary hearings beginning in January will also probe whether NHS staff, schools and social workers are doing enough to tackle the problem…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
‘World War I Created New Culture of Mourning’
In an interview with DW, historian Jay M. Winter explains how the First World War permanently changed the culture of mourning. Whether Verdun, Shoa, or 9/11, what remains of the deceased is often only a name.
Fundamentally, the First World War was the moment when the first phase of globalization was destroyed. Now we are in a second phase of globalization and European reunification shows in some respects what might have happened had there been no First World War. Then 1914 happened, the economic crisis, the Nazis. It has taken us an entire century to get back to where we were in 1914.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Serbs Still Find it Hard Living in Kosovo
Mitrovica is a Kosovan city divided in two: Serbs live in the north, Albanians in the south. It’s the flashpoint for Serb reluctance to be living in a Kosovan state.
Today, the name Mitrovica is synonymous with division. The Ibar River has become a de facto border since the war in Kosovo ended in 1999, separating a mainly Albanian population in the south from majority Serb North Mitrovica.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Mali: French Forces Kill Islamist Chief Belmokhtar’s No. 2
French forces in Mali have killed the No. 2 in command of the militant group, led by Islamist chief Mokhtar Belmokhtar, that claimed a January attack on an Algerian gas plant and the bombing of an Areva mine in Niger in May.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Militias Pull Out of Libya’s Capital, Tripoli; Government Vows to Enforce No-Arms Policy
Militias from a string of Libyan cities have left the capital, Tripoli, nearly a week after more than 40 people protesting their presence in the city were killed by militiamen.
Thursday’s withdrawal is a triumph for the residents of Tripoli, who on Nov. 15 held a mass protest against the militias, which have fueled lawlessness nationwide since the 2011 fall of longtime leader Moammar Gadhafi.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
25 Killed in Car Bomb Attack in Iraq’s Diyala
BAQUBA, Iraq, Nov. 21 (Xinhua) — At least 25 people were killed and 35 wounded in a car bomb attack in Iraq’s eastern province of Diyala on Thursday, a provincial police said.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Four British Jihadists ‘Killed Fighting for Al-Qaeda in Syria’
Home-grown extremists died battling President Bashar al-Assad’s forces as fears grow that the Syrian conflict could be a breeding ground for British terrorists, it has been claimed
Four British citizens have died fighting for Syrian rebels linked to al-Qaeda, amid fears that the country’s civil war is increasingly attracting Islamic radicals from the UK. Government estimates suggest as many as 300 Britons have joined the campaign to topple President Bashar al-Assad, elements of which have fallen under the influence of Islamic extremists.
Three of the Britons, believed to be from London, were killed fighting pro-Assad forces near Aleppo while a fourth was shot a fortnight later, according to The Times. They were part of 10 British extremists who fought together and had joined 20 more Britons to battle with the al-Nusra Front, which has links with al-Qaeda, it was claimed. The paper named one of the men as Mohammed el-Araj, a 23-year-old from Ladbroke Grove, west London and said he was previously jailed for 18 months after violent protests outside the Israeli embassy in 2010…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Iran: Would You Trust This Man?
by Douglas Murray
In Geneva, America and her allies are limbering up for another round of negotiations over Iran’s nuclear project. In a sign of the thaw Barack Obama and our own Prime Minister seem desperate to declare, David Cameron has spoken directly with President Rouhani for the first time. According to a Downing Street spokesman, the two men ‘agreed to continue efforts to improve the relationship’. Meantime, ahead of the Geneva talks, the man with the power in Iran, the Supreme Leader, has just given a speech to 50,000Baseejis (government militia). Here is some of what he said
[…]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
‘Largest Massacre of Christians in Syria’ Ignored
by Raymond Ibrahim
One of the worst Christian massacres—complete with mass graves, tortured-to-death women and children, and destroyed churches—recently took place in Syria, at the hands of the U.S.-supported jihadi “rebels”; and the U.S. government and its “mainstream media” mouthpiece are, as usual, silent (that is, when not actively trying to minimize matters).
The massacre took place in Sadad, an ancient Syriac Orthodox Christian habitation, so old as to be mentioned in the Old Testament.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Pope Francis Says Worried About Middle Eastern Christians
Concerned about Syria, Iraq and other conflict zones
(ANSAmed) — VATICAN CITY, NOVEMBER 21 — Pope Francis on Thursday called for respect of human rights and the end of persecution for Christians in the Middle East.
“The living conditions of Christians arouse great worry, who in many parts of the Middle East endure the consequences of current tensions and conflicts in a particularly burdensome manner,” said the pontiff, naming Syria, Iraq, Egypt and “other parts of the Holy Land that sometimes drip with blood”.
The pope called for “respect for everyone’s right to a dignified life and freedom to profess their own religion” in the Middle East.
“The Bishop of Rome will not rest as long as there are men and women of any religion with injured dignity, deprived of life’s necessities, robbed of their futures, forced to the status of refugees and displaced persons,” declared Pope Francis in a hearing at the plenary session of the Congregation of Oriental Catholic Churches.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Saudi Man Arrested for Giving Free Hugs
Man inspired by viral Youtube video tries giving free hugs, arrested by Saudi religious police for ‘exotic practices.’
Abdulrahman al-Khayyal was arrested by Saudi religious police after offering free hugs in the capital city of Riyadh. He apparently was inspired by a viral Youtube video of a fellow Saudi, Bandr al-Swed, offering free hugs. The clip has garnered nearly 1.5 million views in three days.
Al-Khayyal announced on Twitter that he was going to offer free hugs in Tahliya, one of Riyadh’s main shopping streets. However, he and a friend who accompanied him were arrested by the Saudi religious police and had their “free hug” signs seized, reports The Independent.
The two were arrested for engaging in “exotic practices,” and made to sign a pledge not to do it again.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Syria: Pro-Assad Jordanian Activists Injured by Bomb
(ANSAmed) — AMMAN, NOVEMBER 21 — Several Jordanian activists were injured on Thursday when their bus was targeted by a road side bomb on the way from Damascus to Amman after completing a visit to express support to Syrian president Bashar al Assad, official sources said.
“The attack was carried out near the border. The injured received treatment at a health centre near the border before they were moved to the Jordanian side of the border,” said Moafaq Mahadin, head of Jordan writers Association.
The delegation of 20 writers was hit by a roadside bomb 16 km from Jaber border crossing with Syria, but no fatalities were reported, said a government source operating at the borders.
“At least four people were injured, most of them with light injuries in the head,” Mahadin said.
Syrian rebels control a large part of the southern Syria district of Deraa, but government forces remain in control of the international road linking the troubled city with Damascus.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: Ankara Sued Over Animal Deaths During Gezi Protests
By an ecologist community for the defense of nature
(ANSAmed) — ISTANBUL, NOVEMBER 21 — A group of activists have applied to the International Court of Justice for Animal Rights over the death and suffering of animals during the Gezi Park protests in Istanbul last June due to the police crackdowns involving intense tear gas and chemical-filled water. As daily Hurriyet reports, members of the Association for the Freedom of the Earth, an ecologist community for the defense of nature and wildlife, justified their application emphasizing that scores of stray dogs and cats died after being exposed to tear gas, while hundreds were left with permanent damage. “We ask for the exposing of the Turkish officials who have asphyxiated the [animals] with gas, transformed them into a target and cause death. We urge the condemnation of those responsible for these inconceivable, humiliating crimes against animals,” the application file said. The association also called for the banning of tear gas to prevent similar events. The application file reportedly contained a large amount of documentation, with photographs and videos showing street animals in distress during the severe crackdowns that mostly took place around Taksim Square, one of Istanbul’s busiest areas. Many protesters were memorably seen helping street dogs and cats against the effects of tear gas and water fired from police’s water cannon trucks in pictures taken during the protests back in May and June. The rulings of the court, which was established in 1979 and has its seat in Geneva, are not binding and are largely morally symbolic in value. The verdicts can nevertheless condemn government officials and leaders.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: Study: One Family Out of 4 Says Kids Can be Beaten
Corporal punishment is considered as a key disciplining tool
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, NOVEMBER 21 — In Turkey around 40% of families say the children cannot be disciplined without being scared by parents, while around 24.7% of them think children can be beaten without intention of hurting, daily Hurriyet reports quoting a research conducted by Hacettepe University Public Health Institute. Although only 67.5% of Turkish families think of corporal punishment as completely harmful for minors, the survey study conducted with 464 families revealed a considerable segment of society considered it as a key disciplining tool. More than 10% of the families said beating kids or pulling their ears is better than shouting at them whereas 57% of them thought using physical force against children should be completely banned.
Moreover, 38.6% of parents said they regarded corporal punishment as a last resort which could be used when every method failed to maintain control. The classification families made to distinguish “beatable” and “unbeatable” kids is also noteworthy. While 14.3% of parents said boys could be beaten if they defied their parents but girls could not be as they were “more fragile,” 6.7% of respondents said punishment of small kids by smacking them was fine, but older children could not be hit.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
A meeting between the Turkish prime minister and the president of the autonomous Kurdish region in Northern Iraq is being seen as historic. For the first time, Prime Minister Erdogan referred to Kurdistan by name.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
6 Killed, 5 Injured in U.S. Drone Strike in NW Pakistan
ISLAMABAD, Nov. 21 (Xinhua) — At least six people were killed when U.S. drones fired missiles at a seminary in Pakistan’s northwest Hangu district on Thursday morning, local officials said. Iftikhar Ahmad, district police officer Hangu said that a religious school “Madrassa Dar-ul-Uloom” was targeted by the U.S. drones, and the killed people include four students and two Islamic scholars who were believed to be associated with banned militant outfit Haqqani Network. He said that the killed scholars included Mufti Hameed Ullah and Mufti Ahmad Jan who had very good relations with Haqqani network…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Distrustful Karzai Still Endorses Afghan Security Pact With US
Afghan President Hamid Karzai has told a major meeting of tribal elders and politicians that they should support a new security pact with the US — even though he also said he did not really trust Washington.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
India’s Polluted Ganges River Threatens People’s Livelihoods
The Ganges is India’s holiest river, considered a source of spiritual purification for devout Hindus. But today the river is among the world’s most polluted, struggling under the pressures of modern India.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Maoists Trumped in Nepal Elections. Victory for Congress Democrats
The results are preliminary, but exit polls point to third place for the Unified Communist Party of Nepal ( UCPN -M ). Victory for Congress Party (Socialist and Democrat) , followed by the Communist Party. Prachanda , Maoist leader, announces they “do not accept the vote”.
Kathmandu ( AsiaNews) — From once the largest party in the country to a small minority : the Maoists of the Unified Communist Party of Nepal ( UCPN -M ) have lost the elections for the Constituent Assembly . According to provisional results, the Congress Party ( Socialist Party and Democrat) won a majority in almost all constituencies , followed by the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist , UML ) . The UCPN- M of Pushpakamal Dahal, more commonly known as Prachanda , is struggling to win the third place.
In a press conference, Prachanda announced they will not accept the result: “A conspiracy was organized against the Maoists”. The political leader also demanded a halt to the counting of votes , threatening to boycott the drafting of the new democratic constitution.
Despite the violence of recent days, there is an atmosphere of calm in Nepal. Nilkantha Upreti , President of the Electoral Commission , told AsiaNews that “the elections were conducted in a peaceful manner , and that’s good . We will investigate for errors , but we will not stop the process and declare the results as soon as the counting of the votes is complete”.
The international community has lauded the “peaceful conduct of the elections”. “The new Constituent Assembly — said the spokesman for Ban Ki- moon, Secretary General of the United Nations — will have the historical responsibility of completing a new constitution, based on the impressive successes thus far, and as a result promoting national dialogue and genuine reconciliation “ .
The elections took place after five years of political chaos and four coalition governments, who have continuously postponed the drafting of a democratic constitution, after centuries of Hindu monarchy .
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Mystical Islam ‘Under Threat’ In Pakistan
European experts of mystical Islam fear for the future of religious diversity under growing extremism in Pakistan. Mystical Islam, they say, does not play a big role in people’s lives now as it did in the past.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Security Pact Gets Mixed Reactions From Afghans
While a meeting of tribal leaders and politicians — the Loya Jirga — convenes in Kabul, the people of Afghanistan have mixed reactions about the joint security agreement with the US.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Activist Wants North Korea Exports Termed ‘Blood Minerals’
Defectors from North Korea tell of slaves forced to labor in mines to earn hard currency for the regime, but so far Pyongyang has evaded international sanctions because minerals are not covered by UN resolutions.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
China Arrested Dozens of North Korean Defectors, Says South Korean Media
Chinese authorities arrested some 35 North Korean refugees this month, reported the Seoul-based Chosun Ilbo
China has arrested more than 30 North Korean defectors since the beginning of November, reported one of South Korea’s main newspapers on Thursday.
Recently, in order to clamp down on North Korean defectors, China distributed guidelines to front-line public security officials instructing them to handle North Korean refugees in the same manner as they would treat major criminals against the state, a source in North Korea told the Seoul-based paper.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Curious About Reforms, Europeans Head to China for Summit
The EU and China were barely able to avoid a trade war this summer, but now European and Chinese leaders are meeting in Beijing. Europeans want to find out more about China’s recently announced reforms.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Worsening fighting between Muslim former rebels and Christian vigilantes could deteriorate unless up to 9,000 blue berets are sent in, says Ban Ki-moon
Thousands of United Nations peacekeepers should be dispatched urgently to halt Christian-Muslim fighting in the Central African Republic that risks spiralling into genocide, Ban Ki-moon and aid agencies have said. Months of violence have pushed the country into near-anarchy with thousands of people killed or kidnapped and over half a million forced to flee their homes. On Tuesday, Amnesty International warned there was “no time to wait” in deploying a UN mission, citing large scale human rights abuses and possible “crimes against humanity”.
The group’s call came after the UN secretary-general urged the Security Council to immediately authorise the dispatch of 6,000 blue berets to bolster an existing but ineffective force of 2,500 African peacekeepers, which is all that currently stands between Muslim former rebels and Christian vigilante groups. A further 3,000 UN peacekeepers should be on standby in case the situation deteriorates, Mr Ban told the Security Council late on Monday. “This cycle, if not addressed now, threatens to degenerate into a country-wide religious and ethnic divide, with the potential to spiral into an uncontrollable situation, including atrocity crimes, with serious national and regional implications,” Mr Ban warned…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
‘Asylum-Friendly Sweden a Soft-Power Superpower’
Sweden is once again in the top ten in a soft-power rating by Monocle magazine, which credits the “boring stuff” like gender equality, but also applauds the Swedish asylum stance that “shames its European neighbours”.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Gauck: Germany ‘Can Do More’ For Syria Refugees
German President Joachim Gauck has urged Germany’s future government to do more to assist refugees fleeing the Syrian conflict. He visited Germany’s Friedland refugee camp where an initial 5,000 Syrians will be based.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
More than half the survivors of the Lampedusa shipwreck have fled Italy for northern Europe- a day after being transferred to the mainland.
The 89 migrants, including one woman, all from Eritrea, had been provided with accommodation in Rome, where they could stay for six months after their horrific ordeal.
But just 24 hours after they arrived in the Italian capital, they all vanished without a trace, according to the city’s social services department.
Under EU rules migrants are not allowed to move away from the country of arrival.
But in practice many sneak across the border into Germany or France and onwards to the UK or Scandinavia where benefits are generous.
More…
Some 20 per cent of those arriving by boat in Italy settle in Britain, investigators say.
More than 330 North Africans, including many women and children, perished after their boat caught fire half a mile off the coast of Lampedusa.
The island, closer to Tunisia than mainland Europe, is the first port of call for many would-be-migrants seeking a new home in Europe.
Tens of thousands have made the crossing since the beginning of the Arab Spring as swathes of North Africa descended into chaos.
After the tragic shipwreck the migrants were accommodated on the island or in Sicily.
But once they had recovered from their ordeal, the group of young Eritreans were offered a home at the Teresa Gerini Institute, a welcome centre in Rome, for those awaiting confirmation of their refugee status.
After arriving last Tuesday, on a special flight, they were greeted personally by the Mayor of Rome Ignazio Marino, and received a welcome phone call from Pope Francis.
Each was promised Euro 35 a day for basic living expenses.
When they arrived in the city, they were each given a welcome letter, an international phone card, a map, and a wash-kit consisting of shampoo, soap and a towel.
But a day later the centre was deserted — with the new arrivals thought to have headed to join family in the UK or Germany.
The Rome mayor’s office told the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera: ‘Between Sunday and Monday, all the refugees, in several tranches, abandoned the centre where we had hosted them.
‘We do not know why, because we had offered them the best welcome possible.
‘Many of them wanted to reach Northern Europe, where some already have relatives.
‘They generally move in groups, so that would explain the mass departure.’
The ship had arrived within sight of Lampedusa after two days of sailing from Libya when in sank in October.
The capsizing tossed hundreds of people into the sea, many of whom could not swim.
It sank after a fire was set on board to attract the attention of passing boats or people onshore when it ran into trouble.
Tens of thousands of migrants from African and the Middle East try to cross the Mediterranean Sea each year, seeking a better life in Europe. Hundreds die in the process.
It had travelled for two full days from the Libyan port of Misrata and those aboard thought they had reached safety when they saw the lights of Lampedusa.
It is thought to have capsized when everyone moved to one side. Some of the survivors were in the water for three hours clinging to anything buoyant — even empty bottles.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Tunisia: A Thousand Traps for Aspiring Legal Migrants
From wranglers to foreign lawyers and prostitution rings
(by Diego Minuti) (ANSAmed) — TUNIS — Hundreds of Tunisians have chosen to emigrate illegally, often risking their lives. But as many try to do leave their country and emigrate respecting the rules and law.
But they too are at risk not only of losing a small capital — a concrete possibility — but also, for example, of falling in the hands of pimps recruiting girls in international prostitution rings. This has become a serious, and perhaps a very grave problem, because according to the professional training and employment ministry, wranglers acting on behalf of these rings operate in a number of illegal emigration centres set up without authorization or control.
Exploiting the desperation of young Tunisian women who are often cut off the labour market, they offer allegedly good jobs in companies, hotels or as house maids, bringing them out of Tunisia and then making them work as prostitutes.
‘When I was offered the possibility to work as an accountant in a Gulf country, at first I was happy but then everything seemed to simple and beautiful — a good salary, rent-free housing a career potential’, Amina, an accountant who is about to get a university degree in administration, told ANSA. ‘I suspected something and fortunately was able not to get trapped’, she said.
Many have reported stories of girls who officially left for a job abroad and then disappeared but only now the professional training ministry has specifically denounced the phenomenon. But the desperation of young Tunisians can be a source of revenue also for those, like foreign lawyers, who can provide a visa to enter rich Western countries.
Newspapers and websites regularly publish these lawyers’ ads as they organize recruiting sessions for those hoping to legally emigrate towards Francophone countries like the Canadian province of Quebec.
The cost of such an ambition is very high, at least by Tunisian standards — a few thousand dollars — and cannot be sustained by youths looking for a job. ‘They asked me to pay 3,000 dollars as a guarantee to obtain residence papers’, said Mohamed, who is about to graduate in Literature. ‘But if I had such a sum I would not need to leave. I am almost 30 and can’t ask my father for a loan’, he said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
What America Will Look Like in 2050? Part 8
At the current rate of immigration, America faces 100 million more people from all around the world by 2050 — 37 scant years from now. That equals to 20 of our most populated cities being duplicated into 20 more of them. That means 100 million more people to water, feed, house, transport, warm and work. It means accelerated environmental devastation to our natural world.
That kind of demographic addition means those people face smooching, smashing and cramming into every nook and cranny of our already bursting concrete jungles, skyscrapers, walls of glass, gridlocked traffic and air-polluted cities that crush the human spirit.
New York City may look pretty on the television with a colorful light-filled skyline at night, but it’s not pretty in reality. It houses 8.3 million people smashed onto subways all day long. The Big Apple faces gridlocked streets and highly toxic air pollution. The “City that Never Sleeps” features 250 square foot apartments, the size of two car parking spaces, for couples that cost a fortune. Within 36 years, it faces from 2 to 5 million more people added to its burgeoning concrete jungles.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Norman Doidge on Pornography and Neuroplasticity
Porn has rewired the brains of millions of men. They have become inured to normal sexual and emotional cues.
A number of men reported increasing difficulty in being turned on by their actual sexual partners, spouses or girlfriends, though they still considered them objectively attractive.
When I asked if this phenomenon had any relationship to viewing pornography, they answered that it initially helped them get more excited during sex but over time had the opposite effect. Now, instead of using their senses to enjoy being in bed, in the present, with their partners, lovemaking increasingly required them to fantasize that they were part of a porn script. Some gently tried to persuade their lovers to act like porn stars, and they were increasingly interested in “f**king” as opposed to “making love.”
Their sexual fantasy lives were increasingly dominated by the scenarios that they had, so to speak downloaded into their brains, and these new scripts were often more primitive and more violent than their previous sexual fantasies. I got the impression that any sexual creativity these men had was dying and that they were becoming addicted to Internet porn.
The changes I observed are not confined to a few people in therapy. A social shift is occurring.
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Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich is Racist, Says Portland School Official
Did you know that eating or even talking about a peanut butter and jelly sandwich could be considered racist?
That’s right.
Apparently, it’s because people in some cultures don’t eat sandwich bread. Verenice Gutierrez, principal of Harvey Scott K-8 School in Portland explained in and interview with the Portland Tribune:
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Scotland: Police Probe Golliwog in 1936 School Mural After Parent Complains
Police are investigating a complaint about a mural in a primary school which features a golliwog.
The Alice in Wonderland painting in Wardie primary school, Edinburgh, is said to date back to 1936 and was recently restored with money from the Heritage Lottery Fund. The golliwog is sitting on an alcove ledge above the Alice in Wonderland figure in the mural’s central panel. It has emerged that a prospective parent lodged a complaint about the mural after seeing it while touring the school.
Edinburgh City Council said it takes issues of diversity and anti-racism extremely seriously.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Hedenhös Book Pulled Due to “Outdated” Values
Swedish Television’s advent calendar for children this year centres on a family from the stone ages, with the four main characters taken from a series of children’s books that has been read by generations of Swedes.
But. The renewed interest has also reminded of the distinctly stuffy gender roles in the original books — and a kind of colonial racism. Yesterday, the publisher announced it will no longer print one of the stories due to its out-dated values.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Department Store Apologises for Racist Stereotype in Christmas Catalogue
A picture of two black toy figures with red lips dressed in servants uniforms that appeared in the Christmas catalogue edition of Swedish department store chain Åhléns has caused upset. Management at Åhléns have removed the catalogues from the stores and apologised for causing offence.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Brightest Explosion in the Universe Ever Seen Defies Astronomy Theories
A mysterious blast of light spotted earlier this year near the constellation Leo was actually the brightest gamma-ray burst ever recorded, and was triggered by an extremely powerful stellar explosion, new research reports.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sunni Muslim Pope Sanctions Islamic Jew-Hatred Based Upon Koran 5,82
by Andrew Bostom
Since its founding in 973 C.E., Al Azhar University (and its mosque) have represented a pinnacle of Islamic religious education, which evolved into the de facto Vatican of Sunni Islam. Unfortunately, during that same millennium, through the present era, Al Azhar and its leading clerics have represented and espoused the unreformed, unrepentant jihad bellicosity and infidel hatred at the core of mainstream, institutional Islam.
Al Azhar’s contemporary espousal of sacralized Islamic animosity has been directed, unsurprisingly, against Jews and Israel, dating back to the 20th century origins, and ultimate creation, of the modern Jewish State. Despite nearly universal willful blindness by media, academic, and policymaking elites, this critical issue of sacralized incitement of Muslim Jew-hatred by Islam’s Sunni Muslim Vatican, remains center stage.
Ahmad Al-Tayeb, as current Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, is the Sunni Muslim Papal equivalent. During an interview with Al-Tayeb, which recently aired on Channel 1, Egyptian TV, October 25, 2013, the Al-Azhar Grand Imam gave a brief explanation of the ongoing relevance of the
Koranic verse 5:82 (sura, or chapter 5, verse 82) has been invoked—”successfully”—to inspire Muslim hatred of Jews since the advent of Islam:…
| — Hat tip: Andy Bostom | [Return to headlines] |
This Should be Obvious, But Islam and Catholicism Are Very Different
By William Kilpatrick
Have you heard of the counter-jihad movement? It’s not an official organization, but simply a loosely connected collection of individuals and groups who are concerned about the dangers of Islamic expansion. One of the interesting aspects of the movement is that although its members are often invited to speak to evangelical and Jewish groups, they are rarely invited to speak to Catholic groups.
Do evangelicals know something about Islam that Catholics don’t know? Or do Catholics already know all they need to know about Islam? Or, to put it another way, why are Catholics seemingly less worried about the threat from Islam?
The answer, I believe, is that although Catholics don’t know much about Islam, they are pretty sure about what they do know because it comes with an official stamp. The treatment accorded to Islam in the Catechism of the Catholic Church and in two Vatican II documents (Lumen Gentium and Nostra Ætate) is quite brief, but at the same time reassuring. A quick read of these documents gives the impression that Muslim beliefs are just like ours. Therefore, one can safely conclude that there is nothing inherently threatening about Islam.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
“A special message by the Security Minister James Brokenshire.
Well, we’ve run across this clown before, haven’t we Baron?
May we assume that the second news item is a metaphor for the first? If so, how can we identify these two bystanders?
Hey there,
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Two “Swedish” jihadies killed in Syria, are being hailed as “martyrs” on social media (GT)
http://www.expressen.se/gt/svenska-jihadister-doda-i-strider-i-syrien/
Libération shooter Abdelhakim Dekhar in custody, after DNA test proves he was behind the shooting in the French newspaper in Paris last Monday
Those “Swedish” jihadis are jihadists because of what they are and not because of their religion. We fail to grasp this at our peril.
Islam is an expression of the spirit of Muslims – not the other way round. Islam is how Muslims relate to the great unknown, just as Sharia is their practical interpretation of justice.
I can’t remember where I heard it, but this sentence encapsulates my point: “Religion has never altered the style of an existence.”
Think of the Hagia Mosque in Istanbul. Once upon a time it was a church – but even then it was more mosque architecturally than it was ‘church’. It wasn’t a cathedral in our Gothic sense, it was a cathedral that expressed Christianity as understood by the Magian spirit – hence its domed mosque-like structure; the Turks converted it into a mosque without having to make too many alterations to it.
My guess is that were it possible to model a situation where Islam replaced Christianity in every aspect of West, the development of the mosque would very much mirror the development of the church, both in the architectural and in the spiritual sense.
Religion is a facet of culture. Culture is the manifestation of a people’s interaction with nature.
Islam is an expression of the Muslim spirit. It is a manifestation of how Muslims view the world. It’s a kind of anti-nature.