Gates of Vienna News Feed 12/11/2013

During the memorial service for Nelson Mandela in Johannesburg, the unidentified man who stood not far from President Obama and signed the latter’s speech is bogus, according to a South African spokesman for the deaf. No one knows how the impostor gained access to the stage — he’s not affiliated with the ANC — but the South African government reassured the world that there was no security issue as a result of his presence.

In other news, a panel of appeals court judges in the Netherlands has ruled that Volkert van der Graff, the killer of Pym Fortuyn, must be freed on parole.

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

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, Jerry Gordon, Kitman, Papa Whiskey, RR, TV, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.

Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.

Financial Crisis
» 37 Reasons Why “The Economic Recovery of 2013” Is a Giant Lie
» Greece: Unemployment Hits Record 27.4 Percent in September
» How Far Will Stocks Fall This Time When the Fed Decides to Slow Down Quantitative Easing?
» How the Fed Manipulates You Into Believing What it Wants You to Believe
» Italy Places 5.5 Bn Euros of One-Year Treasury Bonds
» Job Numbers Cooked to Keep Quantitative Easing Scam Rolling
» More Misleading Official Employment Statistics
» More Than 1m Italian Children Are in Poverty
» Reagan Advisor: Market Valuation Has Lost Every Anchor to the Real World
» The Most Homeless Children in New York City Since the Great Depression
 
USA
» “Solar Flares… Will Short Circuit Satellites, Power Grids, Ground Communication Equipment”
» A Private E-Mail Admission by Bill Ayers
» America’s Hidden Epidemic of Tropical Diseases
» ATF Using Mentally Disabled Teens to Run Drug-and-Gun Stings
» Barack Obama’s De Facto Totalitarian Nation
» Biometric Smartphones to be Mainstream in 2014: Ericsson
» Congress Investigates Obama’s Attempt to Become Dictator
» Cop Kills Unarmed Man After Sarcastic Remark
» Cop Who Killed 13-Year-Old Boy Armed With Plastic Bb Gun Back on Duty
» Defining Moment: Hillel International Confronts Swarthmore College Chapter on Zionism
» EPA Says Taking Over Private Property Will Benefit the Economy
» GCHQ and NSA ‘Track Google Cookies’
» Google Wants Microphones in Your Ceiling & Microchips in Your Head
» House Passes Plastic Gun Ban; Senate Looks to Expand Scope
» How the ATF Manufactures Crime
» Man Handcuffed at Walmart After Attempting to Price Match
» Obama Administration Issues Martial Law Directive
» ObamaCare Could Force Thousands of Volunteer Fire Departments to Close
» ‘Revenge Porn’ Site Owner Arrested in San Diego
» Rockefeller Attaches Cybersecurity Bill to National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) 2014
» Secularism, Federalism, Interdependence and the New World Order
» Study Suggests NSA Can Legally Access Majority of American Phone Data
» Teacher of the Year Gets 38 Years: Sex Case Lands Teacher in Prison
» The Publicity Pushing Obama as King of the World is a Marxist Orchestrated Cycle.
» This is What Tyranny Looks Like: Another Assault on the 2nd Amendment
» TSA Confiscates ‘Realistic’ Two Inch Toy Pistol From Sock Monkey
» Unions Hire Protesters to Impersonate Workers to Hurt Christmas Retail Sales
» Why Are Key Obama Policies Shrouded in Secrecy?
» WikiLeaks Releases New Documents Exposing Secret Trans-Pacific Partnership Talks
» Yellowstone Supervolcano ‘Even More Colossal’
 
Europe and the EU
» Austria Holds Up EU Talks to Combat Tax Evasion
» Belgium: Atomium Threatened by Syria Fighters?
» Cold Cases: Germany May Revise Up Statistics in Far-Right Killings
» Denmark: Thorning-Schmidt: “Selfie Shows Leaders Are Normal People”
» Denmark: Who is Helle Thorning-Schmidt?
» Forza Dudù — Berlusconi’s Animal Welfare Project
» France: Diner Attacks McDonald’s With Axe Over ‘Cold Fries’
» French Bureaucrats Send Letter to Napoleon
» French Court Case to Challenge Full-Face Veil Ban
» Germans Fall Out of Love With Lebkuchen
» Italian Riot Police Remove Helmets, Join Anti-EU Protesters
» Italy’s ‘Ecomafia’ Boss Arrested in Naples
» Netherlands: Judges Rule Killer of Pim Fortuyn Must be Let Out on Parole
» Netherlands: Teeven Must Allow Fortuyn’s Killer Parole, Legal Committee Rules
» Norway’s Richest Man ‘Gives Away’ Fortune
» Pope Francis Statuettes ‘Selling Like Hot Cakes’
» Pope Francis Named Time Magazine’s Person of the Year
» Pope Francis Named Time’s Person of the Year
» Spain: Smog Alert Issued for ‘Toxic’ Barcelona
» Sweden’s ‘Coolest’ Concert: An Igloo Full of Instruments Made of Ice
» Sweden Democrats: More Heads May Roll
» The Loneliness of the Sicilian Regional Executive
» UK: Baby-Faced Birmingham Gang’s Reign of Terror Ends in ASBO
» UK: Npower Boss Warns of Energy Blackouts Next Winter Due to Closures of Coal-Fired Power Plants
 
North Africa
» Judges Walk Out Again at Egypt Brotherhood Trial
» Report Details Horrors of Human Trafficking in the Sinai
 
Middle East
» Christians Are Being Burned Alive, Beheaded, Crucified, Tortured to Death & Imprisoned
» Corporate Media Ignores Evidence CIA’s Al-Nusra Responsible for Syrian Sarin Attack
» German Teen ‘Dies Fighting in Syria’
» Iran Starts Building 1st Commercial Plane
» Iraq: What’s in a Name? For Saddam Husseins, Only Trouble
» Kuwait: MP Demands Action Against Christmas Celebrations — ‘Strange to Islamic Society’
» Muslim Cleric Incites Children to ‘Slaughter’ Christians and Alawites in Syria
» NATO’s War on Syria Just Got Dirtier
» OIC Blames Free Speech for “Islamophobia” In West
» Syria: ‘We Believe Kidnapped Journalists Are Alive’
» Syria Regime Slams Gulf Interference in Conflict
» Turkey: Men Able to Justify Domestic Violence and Abuse With Variety of Excuses, NGO Report Shows
» US and UK Suspend Non-Lethal Aid for Syria Rebels
 
Russia
» Putin Makes it Official: RT is the New Pravda
» Russian Military to Recruit 500,000 Professional Soldiers by 2022
» Ukraine Police Stand Down After Clashing With Defiant Protesters
» Vladimir Putin Orders Military to Boost Presence in Arctic
 
Far East
» China October Gold Imports Surge to Second Highest Ever
» China-Japan Conflict Could Lead to World War III, Warns Former UN Ambassador
» China Residents Drink Pesticide to Protest Demolition of Homes
» Chinese Scientists Upbeat on Development of Invisibility Cloak
» General Electric Knew Its Reactor Design Was Unsafe … So Why Isn’t GE Getting Any Heat for Fukushima?
» Japanese Media Fears War With China Next Year
» South Korea Unveils Its Own Air Defense Zone, Overlapping China’s and Japan’s
» Three Years on From Japan’s Nuclear Emergency, The Fallout Continues to Spread
 
Sub-Saharan Africa
» Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s Home Robbed During Mandela Memorial
» Did Obama Know Date of Mandela’s Death Was June 26, 2013?
» Freund: Misrepresenting Mandela
» Mandela: What the Obits Omit
» Merkel Under Fire for Missing Mandela Tribute
» Nelson Mandela Memorial: ‘Bogus’ Interpreter Made Mockery of Barack Obama’s Tribute
» NYPD Report Into Kenya Mall Attack Suggests Only Four Shooters Involved, And All May Have Escaped
» Sign Language Interpreter Who Stood Next to Obama at Mandela Memorial Called a ‘Fake’
» Useful Idiots 2013 — Mandela Sings, ‘Kill Whites’
 
Latin America
» Mexico: Public Militia Takes Control of City, Arresting Corrupt Officials
» Uruguay Approves World’s First National Marketplace for Legal Marijuana
 
Immigration
» Children Used by Gangs as ‘Human Passports’ Rescued in Melilla
» Ethnic Norwegians in Population Decline
» ‘Parole in Place’: Obama’s Illegal-Immigration Order Stokes Amnesty Worries
» Swedes Aim to ‘Correct’ Paper’s ‘Xenophobic’ Ad
 
Culture Wars
» Hotels Set Aside Floors for Women
» Indian Supreme Court Upholds Homosexuality Ban
» Norway’s Priests Call for Gay Marriage Service
» Ron Paul: Hobby Lobby Case is About Rights, Not Contraceptives
» Santa Claus Should Not be a White Man Anymore
» Slate Writer: Let’s Ditch Santa Claus Because He’s White
» Sweden Warms to ‘Gender Equal’ Snow Ploughing
» Sweden: Lesbian Parents ‘Happier’ Than Straight Couples
 
General
» Dinosaur Asteroid ‘Sent Life to Mars’
» NASA Iris Satellite Shows Sun in Spectacular Detail
 

37 Reasons Why “The Economic Recovery of 2013” Is a Giant Lie

“If you repeat a lie often enough, people will believe it.” Sadly, that appears to be the approach that the Obama administration and the mainstream media are taking with the U.S. economy. They seem to believe that if they just keep telling the American people over and over that things are getting better, eventually the American people will believe that it is actually true.

On Friday, it was announced that the unemployment rate had fallen to “7 percent”, and the mainstream media responded with a mix of euphoria and jubilation. For example, one USA Today article declared that “with today’s jobs report, one really can say that our long national post-financial crisis nightmare is over.” But is that actually the truth? As you will see below, if you assume that the labor force participation rate in the U.S. is at the long-term average, the unemployment rate in the United States would actually be 11.5 percent instead of 7 percent. There has been absolutely no employment recovery. The percentage of Americans that are actually working has stayed between 58 and 59 percent for 51 months in a row. But most Americans don’t understand these things and they just take whatever the mainstream media tells them as the truth.

And of course the reality of the matter is that we should have seen some sort of an economic recovery by now. Those running our system have literally been mortgaging the future in a desperate attempt to try to pump up our economic numbers. The federal government has been on the greatest debt binge in U.S. history and the Federal Reserve has been printing money like crazed lunatics. All of that “stimulus” should have had some positive short-term effects on the economy.

Sadly, all of those “emergency measures” do not appear to have done much at all. The percentage of Americans that have a job has stayed remarkably flat since the end of 2009, median household income has fallen for five years in a row, and the rate of homeownership in the United States has fallen for eight years in a row. Anyone that claims that the U.S. economy is experiencing a “recovery” is simply not telling the truth. The following are 37 reasons why “the economic recovery of 2013” is a giant lie…

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Greece: Unemployment Hits Record 27.4 Percent in September

Greece’s unemployment rate rose to 27.4 percent in September, compared to 26 percent recorded in the same month the previous year and 27.3 percent recorded in August, 2013, according to figures released by the Hellenic Statistical Authority, ELSTAT, on Wednesday.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

How Far Will Stocks Fall This Time When the Fed Decides to Slow Down Quantitative Easing?

When QE1 ended there was a substantial stock market correction, and when QE2 ended there was a substantial stock market correction. And if you will remember, the financial markets threw a massive hissy fit a few months ago when Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke suggested that the Fed may soon start tapering QE3.

Clearly Wall Street does not like it when their supply of monetary heroin is interrupted. The Federal Reserve has tricked the American people into supporting quantitative easing by insisting that it is about “stimulating the economy”, but that has turned out to be a massive hoax. In fact, I just wrote an article that contained 37 statistics that prove that things just keep getting even worse for ordinary Americans. But quantitative easing has been exceptionally good for Wall Street. During QE1, the S&P 500 rose by about 300 points. During QE2, the S&P 500 rose by about 200 points. And during QE3, the S&P 500 has risen by about 400 points. The S&P 500 is now in unprecedented territory, and stock prices have become completely and totally divorced from reality. In essence, we are in the midst of the largest financial bubble this nation has ever seen. So what is going to happen when the Fed starts pulling back the monetary crack and the bubble bursts?

A lot of people out there are claiming that the Federal Reserve will never end this round of quantitative easing. They are suggesting that the Fed may hint at tapering from time to time, but that when push comes to shove they will just keep printing more money.

There is just one big problem with that theory.

The rest of the world is watching, and they are very troubled by quantitative easing. Therefore the Fed must end it at some point because they desperately need the rest of the world to keep playing our game.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

How the Fed Manipulates You Into Believing What it Wants You to Believe

Today the financial media — and the WSJ’s Jon Hilsenrath in particular — is the Fed’s Jericho Trumpet. Unlike the Luftwaffe, the Fed is not trying to inspire terror, but they are similarly trying to turn a powerful tactical weapon into a strategic weapon through psychological means. The Fed is now embracing the use of communication as a policy tool in a totally separate manner from whatever concrete actions the communication is ostensibly about, and they use Hilsenrath (and a few others) as a modern-day Joshua to blow the horn. The Fed is now playing the Common Knowledge game openly and directly, making public statements through their media intermediaries to tell you how ALL market participants perceive reality, even though in fact NO market participant has a clear view of reality. In the Common Knowledge game — whether it’s the Island of the Green-Eyed Tribe that modern game theorists write about, the Newspaper Beauty Contest that Keynes wrote about in the 1930’s, or the Emperor’s New Clothes that Hans Christian Andersen wrote about in the 1830’s — the strong public statement of what “everyone knows” creates a reality where it is rational behavior for everyone to act as if they, too, see this reality … even if they privately don’t see it at all…

The Fed, through Hilsenrath, is trying to tell you how you should think about tapering. Not by giving you a substantive argument, but simply by announcing to you in a very authoritative voice what everyone else thinks about tapering.

Hey, don’t worry about tapering. No one else is worried about tapering. You are totally out of step with all the smart people if you’re worried about tapering. It’s duration of ZIRP that matters, not QE. Don’t you know that? Everyone else knows that. Maybe you’re just not very smart if you can’t see that, too. Can you see it now? Ah, good.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Italy Places 5.5 Bn Euros of One-Year Treasury Bonds

Interest rates rise to 0.7%, demand slips from November

(ANSA) — Rome, December 11 — The Italian treasury on Wednesday placed 5.5 billion euros of one-year bonds.

Interest rates rose to 0.707%, up from 0.688% last month. Bidding was oversubscribed by a ratio of 1.63, down from 1.80 in November.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Job Numbers Cooked to Keep Quantitative Easing Scam Rolling

Fed cartel will never back off on the heavy bond purchases

On Friday, the establishment media hinted the Federal Reserve was about put the brakes on its bankster monetization program, otherwise known as helicopter quantitative easing, in response to what was touted as a significant reduction in unemployment. The privately owned cartel masquerading as a federal agency claims quantitative easing — purchasing between $85 billion to $65 billion a month in Treasury bonds — will “stimulate” the economy and somehow bring back millions of jobs outsourced to slave labor gulags in China and Asia.

Instead, QE is another scam designed to establish “the greatest backdoor Wall Street bailout of all time,” according to a former Wall Street employee, Andrew Huszar. “Having racked up hundreds of billions of dollars in opaque Fed subsidies, U.S. banks have seen their collective stock price triple since March 2009. The biggest ones have only become more of a cartel: 0.2% of them now control more than 70% of the U.S. bank assets,” Huszar wrote for the Wall Street Journal in November.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

More Misleading Official Employment Statistics

The payroll jobs report for November from the Bureau of Labor Statistics says that the US economy created 203,000 jobs in November. As it takes about 130,000 new jobs each month to keep up with population growth, if the payroll report is correct, then most of the new jobs would have been used up keeping the unemployment rate constant for the growth in the population of working age persons, and about 70,000 of the jobs would have slightly reduced the rate of unemployment. Yet, the unemployment rate (U3) fell from 7.3 to 7.0, which is too much for the job gain. It seems that the numbers and the news reports are not conveying correct information…

Before reviewing this, let’s first assume that the story of 203,000 new payroll jobs in November is correct. Where does the BLS say these jobs are? Are these the long-missing New Economy jobs that we were promised in exchange for giving China our well-paid manufacturing jobs and giving India our well-paid professional service jobs?

Unfortunately, no.

According to BLS, the jobs are mainly the same lowly-paid, part-time, nontradable domestic service jobs that I have been reporting for a decade or longer…

Think about this for a minute. The BLS admits that the US unemployment rate that includes people who have been discouraged about finding a job for less than one year is 13.2%. The official line is that the US economy has been enjoying a recovery since June 2009. How is there a recovery when 13.2% of the population is unemployed?

This question becomes even more pointed when the long-term — more than one year — discouraged workers who cannot find a job are included in the measure of unemployment. The US government does not provide such a measure. However, John Williams (shadowstats.com) does. His estimate produces a 23.2% rate of US unemployment. An increase in the number of long-term discouraged workers is consistent with the drop in the US labor force participation rate from 66% in December 2007 to 63% in November 2013.

There is no such thing as a recovery with 23.2% unemployment.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

More Than 1m Italian Children Are in Poverty

More than a million children in Italy, or one in ten, live in absolute poverty, according to figures from the children’s charity, Save the Children.

A combination of the economic crisis and benefit cuts have helped push 30 percent more children into poverty since 2012, the Italy SottoSopra report found.

A total of 1.344 million children — a jump from 500,000 since 2007 — now live in “extreme hardship”. With both parents usually unemployed, or having one income, the children lack access to good nutrition, proper healthcare and education, and often live in overcrowded conditions, the report found.

Valerio Neri, CEO of Save the Children Italy, said a “growing number of children are living in extreme hardship”, adding that the situation needs a “strong and structured” solution.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Reagan Advisor: Market Valuation Has Lost Every Anchor to the Real World

The current malaise of news, data, and spin is “meaningless,” David Stockman tells Bloomberg’s Tom Keene, adding that markets are exhibiting “the kind of speculative froth you get at the top of a cycle where valuation loses any anchor in the real world; from earnings or the prospects of the economy.”

As he argued before, “owning stocks here is very dangerous,” and despite Keene’s best efforts to denigrate Stockman’s “of course it’s a bubble,” perspective; the former inside-man exposes the hard mathematical truths of valuations, performance, and reality in this brief clip. Who is to blame — The Fed or Wall Street? “It is a question of who has taken whom hostage,” Stockman concludes ominously, “it’s a co-dependency… it’s very dangerous.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

The Most Homeless Children in New York City Since the Great Depression

At a time when Wall Street is absolutely swimming in wealth, New York City is experiencing an epidemic of homelessness. According to the New York Times, the last time there was this many homeless children in New York City was during the days of the Great Depression.

And the number of homeless children in the United States overall recently set a new all-time record. As I mentioned yesterday, there are now 1.2 million public school kids in America that are homeless, and that number has gone up by about 72 percent since the start of the last recession…

In the old days, big businesses actually needed our labor. But that is now no longer the case. Today, corporations are shipping millions of our jobs overseas and they are replacing as many of us with technology as they possibly can. The value of the labor of the working man is declining with each passing day.

As a result, the fortunes of big business and American workers are increasingly diverging. For example, the disconnect between employment levels and stock prices has never been greater in this country. If you doubt this, just check out this chart.

And instead of fixing things, Barack Obama is negotiating a secret treaty which will result in millions more American jobs being shipped overseas. The following is a brief excerpt about this secret treaty from an Australian news source…

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

“Solar Flares… Will Short Circuit Satellites, Power Grids, Ground Communication Equipment”

Researchers from the University of Colorado Boulder recently completed analyzing data from a Coronal Mass Ejection that took place in the summer of 2012. The CME, which was reportedly the most powerful electrical discharge ever recorded from the sun, narrowly missed earth. It was not “earth directed,” meaning the electro-magnetic mass was ejected by the sun when it was facing away from our planet. However, had it occurred just a week prior, the highly charged particles would have struck earth and, according to CU-Boulder Professor Daniel Baker, would have led to nothing short of a technological disaster across the globe.

The CME itself was massive… and its speed was unprecedented, clocking in at 7 million miles per hour.

While typical coronal mass ejections from the sun take two or three days to reach Earth, the 2012 event traveled from the sun’s surface to Earth in just 18 hours.

“The speed of this event was as fast or faster than anything that has been seen in the modern space age,” said Baker.

While early warning systems are capable of detecting CME’s and solar flares ahead of time, this particular event happened so quickly that it is unclear if monitoring groups at NASA’s Solar Shield Project would have been able to send alerts to emergency services teams in time.

Had it struck earth, says Baker, it would have caused damage so significant that modern electrical systems would have been fried.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

A Private E-Mail Admission by Bill Ayers

While your first reaction might be to dismiss this admission as a continuation of Ayers’ cagey, sarcastic and sometimes ‘playful’ responses to the seemingly omnipresent, rabid, right-wing ideologues who are often their own worst enemies, his reply should be considered in the context and within the venue it was made. It is here that a measure of critical thinking and analysis must be applied. Is this a genuine admission that Bill Ayers did, in fact, write Barack Obama’s most masterful work by comparison, Dreams From My Father, a book that Time magazine called “the best-written memoir ever produced by an American politician,” and where the New York Times heaped praise on Obama as “that rare politician who can write … and write movingly and genuinely about himself?”

The reason this issue is so important extends far beyond the obvious. It must not be equated with an average college student taking advantage of the more superior intellect of his classmate who completes an essay for his literary challenged peer. No, for it provides a window into Barack Obama as a man, as a leader, and as an icon to so many should this be the case. It represents the thin veil of an enormous lie, multiple lies, a veil that more and more people are beginning to penetrate the longer the lies persist. It also speaks to the mystery of Obama’s murky past, and some of those who helped elevate him to the messianic status he enjoys, only to be thrown under the proverbial bus once he had finished with them.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

America’s Hidden Epidemic of Tropical Diseases

WHEN the letter arrives, it must come as a shock. Would-be blood donors are politely rejected because they’ve tested positive for a deadly tropical infection — and their doctors aren’t much help. Kristy Murray at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, recalls one doctor telling a patient: “The test is wrong. That disease doesn’t exist in the US!”

But an estimated 330,000 US citizens, and possibly as many as a million, carry the parasite that causes Chagas disease. It is a chronic, silent infection that leads to lethal heart or gut damage in 40 per cent of cases. It is the most common parasitic disease in the Americas, and it can be treated — if the doctor is aware of it. Most US doctors aren’t.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

ATF Using Mentally Disabled Teens to Run Drug-and-Gun Stings

If you thought the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) couldn’t stoop any lower, you’d be wrong. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports that the agency responsible for setting off the events that led to Waco and were at the center of the Fast and Furious gun-walking scandal are using mentally disabled teenagers to advertise businessess that are actually fronts for ATF sting operations.

The Journal Sentinel’s expose leads with the tale of Aaron Key, a 19-year-old stoner whose mind is not quite all there.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Barack Obama’s De Facto Totalitarian Nation

As the year 2013 approaches its conclusion, it is more obvious than ever before that the United States is a corporate-owned de facto totalitarian nation. It is, in reality, a 21st century U.S. fascist state under the auspices of Barack Obama and his Democrat and Republican cohorts.

The vast majority of this nation’s people have relinquished their constitutional, human, and political rights to the gods of consumerism, greed, apathy, cynicism, and manipulated fear. The ‘America’ about which the late great Langston Hughes wrote in his poem, ‘Let America Be America Again,’ has been all but utterly destroyed by insatiably greedy corporate vultures in concert with the lying, blood-sucking politicians of both the Democrat and Republican parties. The ‘rope and chain’ drone man, U.S. President Barack Obama, and his minions, have in a span of less than six years, in large measure, poisoned and massively distorted the very essence of the dreams once held by so many everyday ordinary Black, White, Brown, Red, and Yellow people throughout this land for transparent government and a more just society.

Many so called “liberals,” “progressives,” and “leftists” in the U.S. have demonstrated, and are continuing to demonstrate, cynicism and double standards in their hypocritical support for the indefensible internal and external policies of drone man Barack Obama and his cohorts.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Biometric Smartphones to be Mainstream in 2014: Ericsson

(Reuters) — Biometric smartphones are expected to become mainstream next year as leading handset makers follow the lead of Apple Inc. into fingerprint recognition technology, an Ericsson report on consumer trends showed on Wednesday. In September, Apple launched its iPhone 5S which was the first smartphone with a sensor to recognize fingerprints, improving security and ease of use.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Congress Investigates Obama’s Attempt to Become Dictator

If Obama’s complete disregard for the constitutional limits imposed on the presidency continues, it will create a precedent in which future presidents will act as absolute autocrats.

At a congressional hearing on Dec. 2, House Representative Trey Growdy (R-SC) asked what will stop Obama from not enforcing election laws considering his pattern of “prosecutorial discretion” of other standing laws.

During the same hearing, Michael Cannon, the Director of Health Policy Studies for the Cato Institute, said that Obama’s complete disregard for the Constitution could unfortunately lead to a revolt:

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Cop Kills Unarmed Man After Sarcastic Remark

Honor student’s last words were “Oh, you’re gonna shoot me?”

A campus police offer in San Antonio has been placed on paid leave following the shooting of an unarmed student who directed a sarcastic remark toward the officer.

The incident took place Friday morning during a traffic stop close to the University of the Incarnate Word. KSAT News reports that 23-year-old honor student Robert Cameron Redus was shot to death by Cpl. Christopher Carter at around around 2 a.m.

After pulling Redus over for speeding, according to the police report, witnesses said that the officer emptied his gun into the student, without warning and despite the fact he was unarmed.

“I didn’t hear him say anything like, ‘Get down on your hands and knees,’ you know? I didn’t hear him say anything. He just started shooting,” one witness said. “He emptied the gun on him… Boom, boom, boom.Six shots — five or six.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Cop Who Killed 13-Year-Old Boy Armed With Plastic Bb Gun Back on Duty

“This is very, very, very bad news”

A Sonoma County sheriff’s deputy is back on duty just six weeks after he shot a 13-year-old boy seven times for carrying a plastic BB gun…

Some have also pointed to a 2008 article written by Gelhaus which was published by SWAT magazine in which Gelhaus expressed trigger-happy sentiments.

“Today is the day you may need to kill someone in order to go home. If you cannot turn on the ‘mean gene’ for yourself, who will?… Taking some kind of action — any kind of action — is critical,” he wrote.

Two months before the shooting, Gelhaus also pointed his gun at the head of terrified Santa Rosa resident Jeffrey Westbrook during what should have been a routine traffic stop.

“This is very, very, very bad news,” said Michael Rothenberg, a member of the Andy Lopez Organizing Group. “A large part of Sonoma County think of Gelhaus as a murderer. They think he’s dangerous. And we’ve seen through investigation that he’s had problems out on the street.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Defining Moment: Hillel International Confronts Swarthmore College Chapter on Zionism

For more than a decade we have been witness to Hillel Chapters on college and university campuses drifting to a policy of tolerating leftist Jewish ‘progressive’ and Muslim groups advocating delegitimization of Israel. We have seen it in Hillel chapters abetting efforts of groups like Jewish Voice for Peace, Students for Justice for Palestine, Muslim Student Association chapters putting on annual Israel Apartheid Awareness Weeks on college campuses across the US. In too many instances they were supported by local Jewish Federations in programming activities, as well as Jewish and Israel studies programs and faculty. This ‘tolerance of the intolerant’ by Hillel campus chapters may have been supported in the past by Hillel International: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life (HI). However, with the arrival in April 2013 of HI’s new President and CEO, Eric Fingerhut, this legacy of former HI President Wayne Firestone has ended.

The confrontation between the Hillel Chapter at elite Swarthmore College near Philadelphia and Fingerhut over the chapter’s so-called Open Hillel policy of presenting speakers delegitimizing Israel marks a new and potentially important development for this Jewish campus organization. The controversy has come to a head when recently the Harvard College Hillel Chapter barred a presentation by former Knesset Speaker, Avraham Burg, co-sponsored by an anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions group. Burg is a controversial leftist proponent of delegitimizing Israel internationally, who lives in self imposed exile in France. The incident at Swarthmore also comes at a time when two academic associations in the US, Asian American Studies and Council of the American Studies Association endorsed resolutions calling for boycott of Israel universities akin to similar efforts in the UK and EU higher educational professional groups. These developments are the focus of two articles, “Going Rogue” in the Inside Higher Ed blog of The Chronicle of High Education and another in The Jewish Press by US Correspondent, Lori Lowenthal Marcus, “Hillel CEO: You can’t use our name if reject Zionism”…

           — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon [Return to headlines]
 

EPA Says Taking Over Private Property Will Benefit the Economy

Can the EPA run your property better than you? The Environmental Protection Agency says that its proposal to extend its regulatory powers over wetlands and waterways would produce economic benefits.

Republican lawmakers warn that the agency is trying to extend its power to regulate private property.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

GCHQ and NSA ‘Track Google Cookies’

The latest Snowden leak suggests US and UK cyberspies are taking advantage of Google’s proprietary cookie technology in an effort to track suspects. Documents published by the Washington Post refer to the NSA and GCHQ’s use of “GooglePrefIDs” — files containing a numeric code placed on computers to help the search firm remember users.

The paper said the US and UK spy agencies piggybacked the files to “home in” on targets already under suspicion.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Google Wants Microphones in Your Ceiling & Microchips in Your Head

Google engineering director Scott Huffman says that within five years people will have microphones attached to their ceilings and microchips embedded in their brains in order to perform quicker internet searches.

Image: Google Glass (Wikimedia Commons).

In an interview with the London Independent, Huffman said that Google was working towards a concept based around microphones hanging from the ceiling that would respond to verbal queries.

“Like a great personal assistant, it will interrupt you and say ‘ you’ve got to leave now’. It will bring you the information you want,” said Huffman, adding that “five years from now…Google will answer you the same way a person would answer.”

When challenged on the likelihood of such a system being vulnerable to NSA wiretapping, Huffman glibly responded that people should just trust Google (a company that allowed the NSA to mine data from its cloud network “at will”) to safeguard their information.

[…]

As we have previously highlighted, Google’s mission to become all pervasive to the point where it is listening to conversations in our own homes is part of the wider move towards the ‘Internet of things’ where every device is connected to the Internet and by extension becomes a de facto surveillance hub.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

House Passes Plastic Gun Ban; Senate Looks to Expand Scope

Although lawmakers in the House passed the bill, it did not include a provision calling for permanent metal pieces to be installed in the plastic guns produced by 3D printers, the technology referred to by Schumer (shown) in the press conference.

Remarkably, the National Rifle Association, an organization looked to by many as guardians of the right to keep and bear arms as guaranteed by the Second Amendment, has remained silent on the issue, refusing to call for its defeat.

There is one group not keeping mum, however, on the threat posed by the bill and the Schumer proposal: the Gun Owners of America (GOA).

In a call to action on its website, the GOA explains the danger to this fundamental right potentially lurking in a Schumer amendment:

But there is an even bigger danger: Chuck Schumer held a press conference the same day to indicate that he will use the House-passed bill as a vehicle to pass even more gun control. We don’t expect to know Schumer’s bill number or language before he actually offers it, but it will purport to deal with guns from 3-D printers, while actually being much broader.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

How the ATF Manufactures Crime

Since the president was reelected in November of last year, a good deal of poison has been poured into Washington’s grimy alphabet soup. Among the departments that have become embroiled in scandal are the IRS, the DOJ, the DOE, the EPA, the NSA, the USDA, and, of course, the ATF. This week, the lattermost is back in the news — and for good reason.

The U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) is probably best known these days for the failure of its disastrous Fast and Furious scheme — a botched initiative that aimed to give American guns to Mexican cartels first and to ask questions later. Under pressure, the administration was quick to imply that the mistake was an aberration. But a watchdog report, published last week by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, suggests that the caprice, carelessness, and downright incompetence that marked the disaster was no accident. In fact, that it is endemic in the ATF.

After a bungled sting attracted the suspicion of the Milwaukee press earlier this year, reporters started to examine similar enterprises in the rest of the country. What they found astonished them. Among the tactics they discovered ATF agents employing were using mentally disabled Americans to help run unnecessary sting operations; establishing agency-run “fronts” in “safe zones” such as schools and churches; providing alcohol, drugs, and sexual invitations to minors; destroying property and then expecting the owners to pick up the tab; and hiring felons to sell guns to legal purchasers. Worse, perhaps, in a wide range of cases, undercover agents specifically instructed individuals to behave in a certain manner — and then arrested and imprisoned them for doing so. This is government at its worst. And it appears to be standard operating procedure.

As with Fast and Furious, the primary objective of the ATF’s stings seems not to be to fight a known threat but instead to manufacture crime.

[This Gestapo agency should be disbanded and its legitimate functions handed over to others. — PW]

           — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey [Return to headlines]
 

Man Handcuffed at Walmart After Attempting to Price Match

However, when the customer service associate told him he couldn’t match prices, Cantrell, who had in the past performed numerous price matches with no difficulty, became understandably irate — and he let management know.

“When I left, he turned around and called the Pinal County Sheriff’s Office and said he felt intimidated and threatened. I was upset, but never once did I say anything to the gentleman,” Cantrell said.

He left the store and returned four days later. Pinal County Sheriff’s deputies were apparently waiting for him, and handcuffed him before handing over a court summons “and a notice banning him from any Walmart in the world for life,” according to ABC15.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Obama Administration Issues Martial Law Directive

Bureaucrats and politicians will never use the term Martial Law. Instead, the phrase ‘continuity of government’ is substituted. In reality, they’re the same thing. Last month, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence — the head of the entire US intelligence and security apparatus — released instructions for the implementation of Martial Law in America.

The federal government’s planning for Martial Law in America stopped being a conspiracy theory after the attacks on 9/11. Numerous Executive Orders, Presidential Directives, and other unilateral dictates by the Executive Branch have spelled out in great detail how Martial Law can and will be enforced in the event of a national emergency. But the timing of the latest Intelligence Directive — November 12, 2013 — makes many Americans wonder what exactly the Obama administration knows that the rest of us don’t.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

ObamaCare Could Force Thousands of Volunteer Fire Departments to Close

Volunteer fire departments all across the U.S. could find themselves out of money and unable to operate unless Congress or the Obama Administration exempts them from the Affordable Care Act.

‘I thought the kinks were worked out of Obamacare at the first of the month,’ Central Florida volunteer firefighter Carl Fabrizi told Sunshine State News.

‘Man, oh, man, this could potentially destroy some real good companies in Florida.’

The U.S. Department of Labor takes the term ‘volunteer’ literally, but the IRS says volunteer firefighters are technically employees if they’re on the job more than 30 hours per week, making them subject to Obamacare’s employee-mandate rules.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

‘Revenge Porn’ Site Owner Arrested in San Diego

A 27-year-old man has been arrested in connection with the running of a “revenge porn” website. Kevin Bollaert is accused of being behind UGotPosted, a site that published intimate photographs of people against their wishes. It would link to relevant social networks of the subjects pictured. Prosecutors said the website also sought to extort money from the people featured on the site by charging a fee to have pictures taken down.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Rockefeller Attaches Cybersecurity Bill to National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) 2014

Call your senator and tell them to vote no to the Cyber Security Amendment attached to the 2014 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) Bill. COPY AND PASTE THIS INFORMATION below into BOTH OF YOUR SENATORS EMAILS! They must know we KNOW WHAT THEY ARE UP TO AND ARE EXPOSING THEM!!! SENATOR MAIN NUMBER IS 202 224 3121 and their email can be found here… http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

Jay Rockefeller (D WVA) has attached a cyber-security amendment (I attached it below) to the NDAA 2014 bill in Congress to mandate that precautions be taken to protect America’s cyber infrastructure and private entities. Those of us who represent private entities, will soon find our free access to the internet eliminated. The fact that this internet control bill is attached to the NDAA is no accident because this means that dissidents, posting anti-government rhetoric on the internet, can be snatched off the street and held indefinitely for their “terrorist” views. There is a second and equally disturbing development in that the government has declared that the people of this country do not have the right to challenge the government on its unconstitutional actions. This is a position which fully exposes the fact that America is no longer a democratic republic, but rather a dictatorship which serves the elite. At issue is the ACLU’s right to sue the NSA for the unconstitutional and unwarranted intrusions into the private lives of all Americans by spying on their every communication and their web-surfing habits. This position, taken by the government, validates that we have no rights and are living under a dictatorship. BILLS-113s1353is

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Secularism, Federalism, Interdependence and the New World Order

Because of the difficulties in selling the concept of a World Federal Government in which the maintenance of national sovereignty is open to question, the Power Elite are utilizing an economic “end run” around national sovereignty to facilitate their objective. This concept of an “end run” comes from Rhodes scholar, Trilateralist and Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) member Richard Gardner’s “The Hard Road to World Order,” published in the CFR’s FOREIGN AFFAIRS (April 1974), in which he stated that “the ‘house of world order’ will have to be built from the bottom up rather than from the top down…but an end run around national sovereignty, eroding it piece by piece, will accomplish much more than the old-fashioned frontal assault.

The year after H.G. Wells wrote THE NEW WORLD ORDER (1939) describing a one-world socialist government for the future, Graeme Howard wrote AMERICA AND THE NEW WORLD ORDER, in which he stated that to “form the framework of support of the new world order,…promising both a more ethical and realistic solution is the formation of regional economic entities…Cooperative regionalism (will) bring about a better world order through internationally balanced economic and political regional blocs.” And in P.E. Corbett’s POST-WAR WORLDS (1942), published under the auspices of the leftist Institute of Pacific Relations, one reads that “A world association binding together the coordinating regional groupings of states may evolve toward one universal federal government, as in the past loose confederations have grown into federal unions.” In other words, to achieve a World Federal Government, one might first perform an “end run” of forming “regional economic entities, like the current European Union, ASEAN, and NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement). Political union will be much easier to accomplish after the economies of nations within regional grouping have become almost inextricably intertwined.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Study Suggests NSA Can Legally Access Majority of American Phone Data

A new study published by the Center for Internet and Society (CIS) at Stanford Law School suggests that the methods the NSA uses to determine reasonable and articulable suspicion (RAS) of terrorist activity may authorize the agency to examine the call records of more American citizens than previously believed.

The standard for NSA phone record acquisition, as defined by the Foreign Surveillance Intelligence Court, permits analysts to target individuals “three hops” from a terror suspect. In other words, a person who is talking to someone, who is talking to someone, who is talking to the suspect.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Teacher of the Year Gets 38 Years: Sex Case Lands Teacher in Prison

“Teacher of the year” Ethel Anderson was sentenced to 38 years in prison in a sex case out of Tampa, Fla. On Dec. 9, My Fox Tampa Bay reported that Anderson will spend the next 38 years of her life behind bars after having a sexual relationship with a 12-year-old boy. Despite pleading with the judge for “mercy,” the teacher was given a stiff sentence.

The “Teacher of the year” gets 38 years in prison story has caused controversy across the country — some people believing that her punishment was actually too steep. But with nine counts of molestation against her, the ruling seems fair to others. Although it appears as though Anderson, 31, was sorry, the judge explained to her that having sex with a minor is a crime and that she would have to be punished for what she did — sorry or not.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

The Publicity Pushing Obama as King of the World is a Marxist Orchestrated Cycle.

Like the rest of him, Barack Obama’s mass circulated photos from photo-ops like yesterday’s Mandela Memorial, are phony.

The photo of Obama tweeted by the White House on Dec. 5 in response to Nelson Mandela’s death was taken six months earlier at the Robben Island prison where Mandela spent 27 years of his life.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

This is What Tyranny Looks Like: Another Assault on the 2nd Amendment

There are very few things that are predictable in this country.

One thing that is predictable is: You can always count on the Obama administration to do the dishonorable thing.

The latest example of this fact is the Justice Department’s recent attempt to prosecute law-abiding citizens who purchase a gun and later sell that gun to another law-abiding citizen.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

TSA Confiscates ‘Realistic’ Two Inch Toy Pistol From Sock Monkey

After digging through May’s possessions, TSA officers located Monkburn’s trusted toy sidearm, immediately confronting May over the discovery.

“She said ‘this is a gun.’ I said no, it’s not a gun, it’s a prop for my monkey,” May said.

Incredibly, the TSA agent went on to claim that the toy pistol was so realistic, that no one would be able to tell the miniature toy gun from a real one.

“She said ‘If I held it up to your neck, you wouldn’t know if it was real or not,’“ May said.

The toy gun was quickly confiscated, but not before TSA agents threatened to call the police, alleging that TSA protocol required them to do so.

“And I said really? You’re kidding me right, and she said ‘no it looks like a gun,’“ May said. “I said well go ahead.”

Amazingly, TSA decided not to carry the already ridiculous situation any further, opting to let May go ahead without police involvement. The miniature toy pistol would stay in TSA custody.

“Rooster Monkburn has been disarmed so I’m sure everyone on the plane was safe,” May said sarcastically. “I understand she was doing her job but at some point doesn’t common sense prevail?”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Unions Hire Protesters to Impersonate Workers to Hurt Christmas Retail Sales

During the busy shopping weekend, that began with Black Friday through the Thanksgiving holiday-weekend on into Christmas, many bargain-hunters were — and continue to be — subjected to loud, boisterous labor demonstrations in front of department stores such as the Wal-Mart chain and other non-union retailers, according to numerous national and local media stories.

What few media outlets covered were the allegations and evidence that union front groups are staging these holiday shopping protests in cities and towns throughout the country in order to generate biased news coverage and publicity and to disrupt holiday shopping in their quest for a negative PR campaign against retail employers, according to officials from the non-partisan Worker Center Watch.

The organization offers disturbing proof that very few current employees of retailers being targeted are involved in the protests and demonstrations. They claim that “union members, their worker center activist allies and professional protesters sing songs, carry signs and chant through bullhorns in protests more focused on generating media attention than helping workers.”

“The deceptive Black Friday campaign, designed to look like a worker uprisings, has been planned for weeks, including designating protesters in big media markets for arrest,” Worker Center Watch officials allege.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Why Are Key Obama Policies Shrouded in Secrecy?

“Everything secret degenerates, even the administration of justice; nothing is safe that does not show how it can bear discussion and publicity.” — Lord Acton

Beyond the violations of the Fourth Amendment evident in the NSA’s dragnet surveillance turning citizens into suspects, there are several other significant examples of President Obama’s fierce determination to keep Americans in the dark when it comes to policies and programs that pose the most potent threats to their freedom.

One of the most egregious examples is the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). Every round of negotiations are conducted in secret and even the content of the draft agreement itself would be completely unknown were it not for a WikiLeaks project that resulted in the publication of a chapter on intellectual property.

William F. Jasper, writing for The New American, explains how and why President Obama is keeping details of the TPP trade pact under wraps.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

WikiLeaks Releases New Documents Exposing Secret Trans-Pacific Partnership Talks

In November, WikiLeaks published a rare draft of the secretive Trans-Pacific Partnership treaty — revealing the United States’ covert international push for stronger intellectual property rights. Now, nearly a month after the first documents were published, the group is back on the case, publishing a new raft of documents from the TPP negotiations currently taking place in Singapore. The revelations are mostly the same, with the United States leading the charge for SOPA-like penalties on file-sharing and stringent patent reforms, but the new documents suggest that the public outcry against these proposals has had little effect on the negotiations.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Yellowstone Supervolcano ‘Even More Colossal’

The supervolcano that lies beneath Yellowstone National Park in the US is far larger than was previously thought, scientists report. A study shows that the magma chamber is about 2.5 times bigger than earlier estimates suggested. A team found the cavern stretches for more than 90km (55 miles) and contains 200-600 cubic km of molten rock.

If the Yellowstone supervolcano were to blow today, the consequences would be catastrophic.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Austria Holds Up EU Talks to Combat Tax Evasion

Efforts to combat tax fraud and evasion in Europe have been held up by the Austrian finance minister as he will not agree to reforms to increase transparent tax reporting. Along with Luxembourg, Austria said they will block plans until agreements about banking secrecy between the European Union and tax havens Liechtenstein and Switzerland are worked out.

Being discussed at the meeting between EU finance ministers in Brussels on Tuesday was the Savings Tax Directive, one of ‘the key actions of the EU Commission’s plan to fight tax fraud and evasion’. The proposal aims to close loopholes in the system and increase the automatic exchange of information between countries.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Belgium: Atomium Threatened by Syria Fighters?

A video has surfaced on the internet that airs threats of bloody attacks against targets in Belgium. The video was posted on Brian De Mulder’s YouTube account. Brian is a young man from Antwerp who has gone to Syria to take part in the armed uprising against the Assad regime.

At this point, it’s still unclear whether the fighter posted the video himself. He is said to be in the city of Aleppo in northern Syria, where the rebels have clashed with government troops.

One of the sites named as a potential target for a murderous outrage is the Atomium, a Brussels landmark. The text reads: “Bombs are falling. Atomium, I hear a bang. Body parts everywhere!”

The video includes threats against the Belgian Defence Minister Pieter De Crem and the right wing Dutch lawmaker Geert Wilders: “De Crem, Wilders, the traitors are falling, watch out for cars loaded with explosives.”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Cold Cases: Germany May Revise Up Statistics in Far-Right Killings

German authorities may have to sharply revise statistics for the number of people killed by right-wing extremists since 1990. The official figure is around 60, but police combing through unsolved cases have identified a further 746 suspicious slayings or attacks.

           — Hat tip: Kitman [Return to headlines]
 

Denmark: Thorning-Schmidt: “Selfie Shows Leaders Are Normal People”

Condemnation was swift after Danish PM Helle Thorning-Schmidt was captured taking a so-called “selfie” together with US president Barack Obama and British PM David Cameron at Nelson Mandela’s memorial service yesterday. But the Danish PM argues that there was nothing inappropriate about the photo and that the mood in the stadium was “festive”.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Denmark: Who is Helle Thorning-Schmidt?

President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron caused a stir Tuesday when they took a selfie at Nelson Mandela’s funeral in South Africa, but the picture also included a third, lesser known leader: Helle Thorning-Schmidt.

Thorning-Schmidt, 46, is Denmark’s prime minister. She took office in 2011 and prior to that was the leader of Denmark’s Social Democrats political party.

Thorning-Schmidt holds masters degrees in political science and European studies from the University of Copenhagen and Belgium’s College of Europe. She’s married to Stephen Kinnock, the son of former British Labour Party leader Neil Kinnock, and has two children.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Forza Dudù — Berlusconi’s Animal Welfare Project

“We have to do something for puppies less fortunate than Dudù”

ROME — The inside scoop at Silvio Berlusconi’s Arcore residence is that the former prime minister has a growing penchant for expressions like “we have to do something for puppies less fortunate than Dudù”. He is also rumoured to harbour a genuine hatred of furs, dating from the days when he backed his minister Michela Vittoria Brambilla’s animal welfare campaigns. In private, “il Cavaliere” [“The Knight”, Mr Berlusconi’s nickname — Trans.] confides that a fur coat is “a gift I would never give to a woman”. Put these two clues together with the evidence of the Forza Dudù website Mr Berlusconi announced on Sunday and you begin to see the animal welfare campaign that the former PM is planning alongside the relaunch of Forza Italia. Mr Berlusconi’s organisation plan for his new clubs features a “listening and support point” for anyone with pet-related difficulties, from legal advice to upkeep.

Overseeing this area, which has been extended to include environmental issues, will be Ms Brambilla, the former tourism minister who today chairs the Italian animal and environmental defence league. “Fifty-five per cent of Italians have a pet they view as one of the family. In that respect, there is no difference between any Signora Maria and Silvio Berlusconi with his Dudù” said Ms Brambilla. “There are issues that interest politicians and issues that interest ordinary people. This is an issue that interests ordinary people”…

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

France: Diner Attacks McDonald’s With Axe Over ‘Cold Fries’

A diner at a McDonald’s drive-thru near Paris skipped the usual customer complaints procedure recently, after being served fries he deemed too cold. Instead, the man grabbed an axe and launched into a violent and terrifying attack, according to Le Parisien.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

French Bureaucrats Send Letter to Napoleon

The agency behind France’s census was left red-faced this week after sending out a letter to a French citizen who died almost 200 years ago. As if that wasn’t bad enough, the recipient was none other than Napoleon Bonaparte himself.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

French Court Case to Challenge Full-Face Veil Ban

A French court will begin hearing arguments Wednesday in a case that will challenge the country’s ban on wearing full-face veils in public, with lawyers arguing that the 2011 veil ban is discriminatory and unconstitutional.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Germans Fall Out of Love With Lebkuchen

Sales of Germany’s famous Christmas treat, Lebkuchen, have collapsed due to falling domestic demand with a 22 percent decline in production in three years, the national statistics office said on Tuesday.

Almost 102,500 tonnes of the gingerbread pastry was produced in 2009, but just 80,200 tonnes in 2012 — a fall of almost 22 percent. With foreign exports of Lebkuchen remaining stable, the decline in consumption can be almost entirely accounted for Germans losing their appetite for the Christmas staple.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Italian Riot Police Remove Helmets, Join Anti-EU Protesters

A remarkable video shows Italian riot police removing their helmets in solidarity with anti-EU demonstrators in Turin who are protesting against the state of the economy, the single currency and fuel prices.

The demonstrators are an eclectic amalgamation of Italians, from truckers to students. The origin of the protests stems from the ‘Pitchfork Movement’, which began as a group of Sicilian farmers pushing for government reforms but grew into a nationwide revolt against banks, the Italian tax collection agency Equitalia, the European Union, and the Socialist-backed minority government, which is moving to privatize higher education.

“Many share the protesters’ anger and at one point police officers in Turin took off their helmets, in a show of solidarity,” reports Euronews.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Italy’s ‘Ecomafia’ Boss Arrested in Naples

Police on Tuesday arrested a mafia boss accused of being the mastermind behind two decades of illegal toxic waste dumping, which has been blamed for increasing cancer rates in the area around Naples in southern Italy.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Netherlands: Judges Rule Killer of Pim Fortuyn Must be Let Out on Parole

The killer of politician Pim Fortuyn has been granted parole under strict conditions ahead of his release next May, after a judicial panel overruled deputy justice minister Fred Teeven for a second time.

A statue to Pim Fortuyn in his home city of Rotterdam.The Council for the Administration of Criminal Justice and Protection of Juveniles (RSJ) rejected Teeven’s argument that rehabilitating Volkert van der Graaf in the community risked causing social unrest.

The decision was condemned by members of Fortuyn’s family and by Freedom Party (PVV) leader Geert Wilders, who said: “It’s as if Mr Fortuyn has been murdered again today.”

Prime Minister Mark Rutte said he disagreed with the panel but would respect its decision. “I’m not a dicator, I can’t push judges aside,” he said.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Netherlands: Teeven Must Allow Fortuyn’s Killer Parole, Legal Committee Rules

Junior justice minister Fred Teeven has been ordered by a legal appeal committee to allow the killer of Pim Fortuyn parole. Teeven earlier refused to allow Volkert van der Graff out of jail on trial home leave to help him acclimatise to normal society again, saying there would be a serious risk of public disorder and Van der Graaf and his family could also be under threat.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Norway’s Richest Man ‘Gives Away’ Fortune

Norway’s richest man has given his 26 billion kroner ($4.3bn) fortune to a new foundation, which will oversee his businesses and distribute part of the profits to charitable causes.

Olav Thon, a real estate magnate who Forbes Magazine ranks as Norway’s richest man, said he expected the foundation to give some 50m kroner a year to research in maths, science and medicine.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Pope Francis Statuettes ‘Selling Like Hot Cakes’

Nativity scene artisans in Italy have taken Pope Francis’s social message to heart this Christmas, giving a bigger role to ordinary people in their work and reviving the tradition’s simple origins.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Pope Francis Named Time Magazine’s Person of the Year

Pope Francis has been named Person of the Year by Time magazine. During his nine months in office, the Pope had pulled “the papacy out of the palace and into the streets”, managing editor Nancy Gibbs said. “Rarely has a new player on the world stage captured so much attention so quickly — young and old, faithful and cynical,” she added.

NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden was runner-up.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Pope Francis Named Time’s Person of the Year

Time magazine selected Pope Francis as its Person of the Year on Wednesday, saying the Catholic Church’s new leader has changed the perception of the 2,000-year-old institution in an extraordinary way in a short time. The pope beat out NSA leaker Edward Snowden for the distinction, which the newsmagazine has been giving each year since 1927.

The former Argentine Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio was elected in March as the first pope from Latin America and the first Jesuit.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Spain: Smog Alert Issued for ‘Toxic’ Barcelona

Authorities have raised an air pollution alert for the Spanish city of Barcelona, a major tourist draw which has lain for days under a toxic grey mist, an official said on Tuesday.

“High atmospheric pressure and a lack of wind are preventing the dispersal of polluting emissions, which are accumulating over the city,” said a spokeswoman for the Catalonia regional government.

As the mist obscured the city skyline, the government issued an alert in a bid to reduce gas emissions, said the spokeswoman, who asked not to be named. It lowered the speed limit for traffic, urged citizens to use public transport and asked factories to reduce their activity in the city of 1.6 million residents.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Sweden’s ‘Coolest’ Concert: An Igloo Full of Instruments Made of Ice

A team in Luleå is in the process of putting together a long-running musical event to be performed on instruments made out of ice in what has been touted as the biggest ice concert in an igloo that Sweden has ever seen.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Sweden Democrats: More Heads May Roll

Several more politicians risk being kicked out of the Sweden Democrat party following revelations that they posted xenophobic and insulting messages on various far-right websites.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

The Loneliness of the Sicilian Regional Executive

Sicily has 1,818 managers, one for every nine workers. Other special-statute regions have one for every nineteen

Astonishing as it may seem, there is something even more jaw-dropping than the shocking — as we are frequently reminded — number itself. What is truly amazing is that one of the Sicilian regional authority’s 1,776 executives (that’s roughly as many as all the top managers in the other fifteen special-statue regions) has only himself to manage. Out on the island paradise of Pantelleria, the archaeological park’s only employee is also a top-ranking executive.

Just like his colleague at the Morgantina, another of the island’s archaeological parks, and it’s the same story at the Buseto Palazzolo branch of the “technical assistance operational section” of the region’s agricultural office. These executives make their own honest if small contribution to bumping up the average. With 17,531 workers on open-ended contracts, including 1,776 executives plus forty-one outside consultants for a total of 1,818, the Sicilian regional authority is an army with fewer than nine soldiers for every officer. It’s an abnormal ratio, as the average of one executive per nineteen workers for the other special-statute regions shows. Yet none of the other authorities have ever been particularly stingy about handing out top jobs…

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

UK: Baby-Faced Birmingham Gang’s Reign of Terror Ends in ASBO

A gang of baby-faced thugs — including one aged just 13 — have been banned from two Birmingham neighbourhoods for throwing rocks at terrified passersby.

The schoolboy yobs struck fear into the hearts of law-abiding residents in Washwood Heath and Bordesley Green and laughed at the law despite being arrested dozens of times.

They also hurled racial insults at community members, vandalised buses and verbally abused other passengers.

None of the thugs was older than 15 and the youngest — 13-year-old Sajeer Khan — looked younger still on a West Midlands Police mug shot.

           — Hat tip: Kitman [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Npower Boss Warns of Energy Blackouts Next Winter Due to Closures of Coal-Fired Power Plants

Britain could be at risk of blackouts by next winter, the boss of one of the Big Six energy companies has warned, as old power plants are closed and have not yet been replaced.

Npower chief executive Paul Massara said Britain needs new energy infrastructure as the country’s amount of spare generation at peak times had fallen from 15 per cent to five per cent this year.

Mr Massara said the shortfall raised concerns over the possibility of blackouts as soon as next year.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Judges Walk Out Again at Egypt Brotherhood Trial

A trial in Egypt of top Muslim Brotherhood leaders accused of inciting deadly violence at anti-Islamist protests has ended shortly after it started. It is the second time judges in the trial have recused themselves.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Report Details Horrors of Human Trafficking in the Sinai

Presented in Rome; thousands of refugees tortured, held hostage

(by Luciana Borsatti)(ANSAmed) — ROME, DECEMBER 11 — The report ‘The Human Trafficking Cycle: Sinai and Beyond’ was presented in Rome on Wednesday in the presence of Chamber of Deputies Speaker Laura Boldrini. Through interviews with some of the thousands of refugees from the Horn of Africa abducted and held for ransom in the Sinai Peninsula, the report seeks to “understand the motives and mechanisms that drive the refugees, as well as the perpetrators, and to identify potential solutions”. The report stresses from the very first lines that the world should be made aware of the fact that millions of people are fleeing violence, extreme poverty or ethnic cleansing, or are victims of human trafficking for the purposes of being exploited or forced into slavery, or have been abducted for ransom.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Christians Are Being Burned Alive, Beheaded, Crucified, Tortured to Death & Imprisoned

[WARNING: *Disturbing Content.*]

The “coming persecution of Christians” has already begun. It is already here. So why is the mainstream media in the United States almost totally silent about this phenomenon? When some politician somewhere around the globe inadvertently offends homosexuals or Muslims, it instantly makes headline news.

But very few Americans are even aware that it has been estimated that 100 million Christians are currently facing persecution and thatapproximately 100,000 Christians die for their faith each year. As you are about to see, Christians all over the world are being burned alive, beheaded, crucified, tortured to death and imprisoned in metal shipping containers just because of what they believe. This persecution goes on year after year and it is steadily intensifying. But the governments of the western world and the mainstream media are almost entirely ignoring what is happening.

The information shared below is extremely graphic. Some of the websites that normally run my articles may want to think twice before posting this one. The reason why I have included such graphic information is because I believe that it is very important to accurately communicate what is truly going on out there. People need to know the reality of the holocaust that is happening. The following are short excerpts from news stories about incidents of Christian persecution that took place in 12 different countries around the planet. Sadly, the vast majority of Americans have never even heard about any of these stories…

#1 Christian Taxi Driver Pulled Out Of His Cab And Beheaded In Egypt: One attack involved taxi driver Rafaat Aziz Mina, who was slaughtered in an Alexandria street just because he was Christian. In his early twenties, he was killed on 16 August by a mob of Islamists who took to the streets after news reached them about the military’s action against their camps in Cairo.

An amateur video shot by a resident shows a mob blocking cars, checking the passengers inside. When Aziz’s taxi was stopped, one of the protesters noted a cross hanging from the rear view mirror. Quickly, the young man was dragged out and kicked, punched and beaten to death. For several minutes, the extremists defiled the lifeless body kicking and spitting on it, concluding their performance by cutting off his head, which they left on the sidewalk.

#2 Tortured To Death By U.S.-Backed Al-Qaeda Rebels In Syria: In late October, the U.S-supported “opposition” invaded and occupied Sadad for over a week, till ousted by the nation’s military. Among other atrocities, 45 Christians — including women and children — were killed, several tortured to death; Sadad’s 14 churches, some ancient, were ransacked and destroyed; the bodies of six people from one family, ranging from ages 16 to 90, were found at the bottom of a well (an increasingly common fate for “subhuman” Christians).

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Corporate Media Ignores Evidence CIA’s Al-Nusra Responsible for Syrian Sarin Attack

Further evidence demonstrating establishment control of corporate media

The establishment media ignored Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh’s latest article indicating al-Nusra was behind sarin attacks in Syria.

Al-Nusra is a brutal Sunni jihadist mercenary group linked to al-Qaeda. It is micromanaged by the CIA and financed by fossilized monarchies in Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

Although Hersh is a freelance journalist, his articles have consistently appeared in The New Yorker. He told The Huffington Post “there was little interest” for the story at The New Yorker. Hersh then took the story to the Washington Post, but the newspaper decided not to publish it. The New Yorker and the Washington Post did not respond to media inquiries asking for an explanation, BuzzFeed reported on Sunday. Hersh’s story, Whose Sarin?, eventually found its way to the London Review of Books.

Hersh’s inability to get the story published provides further evidence revealing establishment control of the corporate media and its dictation of information to be made public.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

German Teen ‘Dies Fighting in Syria’

A German teenager has died in Syria just days after arriving to fight on side of rebels opposing the forces of President Bashar al-Assad, it has been reported.

The 16-year-old German-Turkish boy from Frankfurt is already being celebrated as a martyr on internet forums, Die Welt newspaper wrote on Wednesday. It said there were photo montages on the web which included a picture of a young boy holding a gun which might be him.

Others were critical that such a young boy had died. “A 16-year-old should not be in Syria. Look at how his parents are doing now,” one wrote. The paper said it had photos of the dead boy in bloody clothing.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Iran Starts Building 1st Commercial Plane

Iran has started building its first commercial passenger airplane, a twin-engine turbojet aircraft, which can accommodate 150 passengers, Press TV reports.

The Iranian Aviation Industries Organization (IAIO) along with Iran’s Civil Aircraft Design Center (CADC) plans to finish the first phase of the 3-phase project by March 2014, a Press TV correspondent reported on Sunday.

“There are countries from four continents involved in this project…Within the next decade, Iran will be an exporter of commercial airplanes in the region,” said Manouchehr Manteqi, the managing director of the IAIO.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Iraq: What’s in a Name? For Saddam Husseins, Only Trouble

AFP — In a predominantly Shiite town near Baghdad, Saddam Hussein roams the streets unmolested, joking with checkpoint guards and shaking the hands of passers-by, proudly announcing his name. “You didn’t execute me,” he often tells policemen, laughing. “That was one of my body doubles!”

But the man, clad in a long black robe and leather jacket, is not the Saddam known the world over. He is one of many nationwide cursed as the namesakes of a brutal dictator who ruled the country with an iron fist for nearly a quarter century.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Kuwait: MP Demands Action Against Christmas Celebrations — ‘Strange to Islamic Society’

A tribal lawmaker demanded government action to stop Christmas celebrations in Kuwait, and warned authorities against ‘showing leniency’ in this regard. “Allowing activities that promote occasions that are strange to our Islamic society is ridiculous and an offence to our religious teachings,” MP Hamdan Al-Azmi said in a statement made available to the press yesterday.

He demanded action from the Ministry of Commerce to ban local shops from selling Christmas merchandise, and from the Interior Ministry to “monitor camps and chalets during Christmas and New Year”. Azmi issued a similar statement in October demanding action against shops selling Halloween items which he compared to ‘Satanism’. No action was taken by the authorities to remove Halloween-related items from local shops, however, and several private Halloween parties took place without police intervention.

           — Hat tip: RR [Return to headlines]
 

Muslim Cleric Incites Children to ‘Slaughter’ Christians and Alawites in Syria

By Raymond Ibrahim

A video recently appeared of an Islamic Sunni cleric in Syria inciting Muslim schoolboys, most of whom appear to be between the ages of five-twelve, to hate and kill Christians and others.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

NATO’s War on Syria Just Got Dirtier

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh, who had warned as early as 2007 of US-Israeli-Saudi plans to use Al Qaeda as proxies to overthrow the Syrian government, has published another groundbreaking report titled, “Whose Sarin?” In it, Hersh states (emphasis added):

“Barack Obama did not tell the whole story this autumn when he tried to make the case that Bashar al-Assad was responsible for the chemical weapons attack near Damascus on 21 August. In some instances, he omitted important intelligence, and in others he presented assumptions as facts. Most significant, he failed to acknowledge something known to the US intelligence community: that the Syrian army is not the only party in the country’s civil war with access to sarin, the nerve agent that a UN study concluded — without assessing responsibility — had been used in the rocket attack. In the months before the attack, the American intelligence agencies produced a series of highly classified reports, culminating in a formal Operations Order — a planning document that precedes a ground invasion — citing evidence that the al-Nusra Front, a jihadi group affiliated with al-Qaida, had mastered the mechanics of creating sarin and was capable of manufacturing it in quantity. When the attack occurred al-Nusra should have been a suspect, but the administration cherry-picked intelligence to justify a strike against Assad.”

The lengthy report goes on in detail, covering the manner in which Western leaders intentionally manipulated or even outright fabricated intelligence to justify military intervention in Syria…

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

OIC Blames Free Speech for “Islamophobia” In West

by Soeren Kern

The Organization of Islamic Cooperation, an influential bloc of 57 Muslim countries, has released the latest edition of its annual “Islamophobia” report.

The “Sixth OIC Observatory Report on Islamophobia: October 2012-September 2013” is a 94-page document purporting to “offer a comprehensive picture of Islamophobia, as it exists mainly in contemporary Western societies.”

But the primary objective of the OIC—headquartered in Saudi Arabia and funded by dozens of Muslim countries that systematically persecute Christians and Jews—has long been to pressure Western countries into passing laws that would ban “negative stereotyping of Islam.”

[…]

The common thread that binds the entire document together is the OIC’s repeated insistence that the main culprit responsible for “the institutionalization of Islamophobia” in Western countries is freedom of speech, which the OIC claims has “contributed enormously to snowball Islamophobia and manipulate the mindset of ordinary Western people to develop a ‘phobia’ of Islam and Muslims.”

According to the OIC, freedom of expression is shielding “the perpetrators of Islamophobia, who seek to propagate irrational fear and intolerance of Islam, [who] have time and again aroused unwarranted tension, suspicion and unrest in societies by slandering the Islamic faith through gross distortions and misrepresentations and by encroaching on and denigrating the religious sentiments of Muslims.”

[In other words, the “perpetrators” have had the temerity to expose, analyze, criticize and mock this arrogant, dictatorial cult of war. — PW]

           — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey [Return to headlines]
 

Syria: ‘We Believe Kidnapped Journalists Are Alive’

Colleagues and relatives of two Spanish reporters kidnapped by Al-Qaeda-linked radicals in Syria said on Tuesday they believed the pair were alive and well and urged their captors to free them.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Syria Regime Slams Gulf Interference in Conflict

Syria’s government on Wednesday slammed the Gulf Cooperation Council for interfering in the country’s conflict and condemned the bloc for what it called “inflammatory rhetoric”.

Gulf states, including Qatar and Saudi Arabia, actively support the uprising against Assad’s government and have been fiercely criticised by Damascus for backing what it described as “terrorists”. “Those who participated today in the summit in Kuwait, first among them the Saudi regime, have contributed in large part to the killing of Syrians and the destruction of their country,” the ministry said.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Turkey: Men Able to Justify Domestic Violence and Abuse With Variety of Excuses, NGO Report Shows

A local NGO has revealed the results of a long-running research investigation into how men justified domestic violence, based on interviews conducted with over 20,000 female victims of abuse, between 1995 and 2013. The report prepared by Sefkat-Der, a civil association founded to help marginalized segments of society, showed that men would use a variety of excuses to justify both physical and psychological abuse toward their partners.

The report also cited “going outside without asking permission,” “calling the national domestic violence hotline,” “asking to continue their studies,” “refusing to give the salary to the husband” and “the meal not being prepared at fast-breaking time during Ramadan” as other frequent reasons used by men to justify violence against their wives.

Violent acts towards women included beating, strangling, burning with boiled water, burning with cigarettes, cutting with blades or wounding with knives. Psychological violence, including insults, threats and blackmail, was also frequently used.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

US and UK Suspend Non-Lethal Aid for Syria Rebels

The US and UK have suspended all “non-lethal” support for rebels in northern Syria, but not humanitarian aid. A US spokesman said it was concerned about reports that Islamist rebels had seized bases belonging to the Western-backed Free Syrian Army (FSA).

Fighters from the Islamic Front, a new alliance of rebel groups, ousted FSA-aligned fighters from the Bab al-Hawa border crossing with Turkey last week. The non-lethal aid includes medicine, vehicles and communications equipment.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Putin Makes it Official: RT is the New Pravda

by Daniel Greenfield

RT has proven to be successful enough that it’s about to become the official public face of the Russian regime. If you’ve seen the green RT logo on videos, you probably already know why.

RT has occasionally tried to pretend that it’s independent. It’s not. And now it becomes the official propaganda apparatus of the Putin regime.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Russian Military to Recruit 500,000 Professional Soldiers by 2022

Russia’s military will have 500,000 soldiers serving on professional contracts within a decade, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Tuesday.

Half of the armed forces will be made up of professional service personnel by 2022 under plans to shift away from conscripts and more than double the number of contract soldiers from the present 220,000…

Russia is undertaking major reform of the military that includes plans to spend $650 billion by 2020 on new equipment and a transition from a conscript army to a largely professional force.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Ukraine Police Stand Down After Clashing With Defiant Protesters

Several thousand police in riot gear pulled back after clashing with protesters in the central square of the Ukrainian capital Wednesday following an overnight confrontation in which police scuffled with demonstrators as they dismantled barricades and evicted protesters from tents.

Police tore down barricades surrounding the camp at Independence Square in Kiev early Wednesday, but were forced to move back after fierce resistance from thousands of protesters, whose ranks swelled as the night went on.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Vladimir Putin Orders Military to Boost Presence in Arctic

Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his military to make bolstering its presence in the Arctic a top priority. Mr. Putin said the build-up was to protect its national interests in the region, especially Russia’s recently restored airfield, BBC reported. He made the announcement on the heels of Canada’s claim to the continental shelf near the North Pole.

This isn’t the first time Mr. Putin has expressed a desire for his military to control the Arctic. But this is the first time he directly ordered the military to boost its presence there, the BBC said.

His direct order is seen as a sign of the growing tensions among nations to claim and exploit the resource-rich area, the BBC said. The Arctic is home to 30 percent of the world’s untapped gas and 15 percent of its untapped oil.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

China October Gold Imports Surge to Second Highest Ever

According to Hong Kong customs data, in the month of October (with the usual one month delay), China imported 148 total tons of gold in a month in which the price of gold, once again plunged. Curiously, unlike momentum chasers of paper ETF promises to get gold delivery, China continues to BTFD in gold, and the 148 tons of import in the past month was the second highest monthly import ever through Hong Kong, second only to the 224 tons imported in March of 2013.Compared to a year ago, when the price of gold was over 30% higher, China has imported over 200% more than the 48 tons it bought through Hong Kong a year ago. At least someone is grateful for plunging gold prices.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

China-Japan Conflict Could Lead to World War III, Warns Former UN Ambassador

Former Chinese Ambassador to the United Nations Sha Zukang has warned that the dispute between Japan and China over the Senkaku Islands could lead to World War III.

Citing a Chinese-language piece written by Zukang for the the pro-regime Global Times, a report in the China Times says that Zukang warned of the futility of going to war over “those two tiny rocks,” a reference to the disputed islands which have become the center of a geopolitical tug of war between China and Japan, with the United States and South Korea also becoming embroiled.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

China Residents Drink Pesticide to Protest Demolition of Homes

A dozen residents of a central Chinese city protested the demolition of their homes by drinking pesticide in Beijing in a desperate bid for attention that underscores the failures of a decades-old petitioning system. The 12 survived the protest Tuesday near a historic watchtower in the heart of China’s capital after police sent them to a hospital, where they were being treated Wednesday for poisoning, said Wang Yuping, one of the residents.

Chinese petitioners sometimes are driven to extreme measures as their frustration boils over after years of unresolved grievances and routine beatings by local authorities.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Chinese Scientists Upbeat on Development of Invisibility Cloak

Mainland scientists are increasingly confident of developing the world’s first invisibility cloak, using technology to hide objects from view and make them “disappear”.

The central government has funded at least 40 research teams over the past three years to develop the idea, which until now has largely been the stuff of science fiction and fantasy novels like the Harry Potter series.

The technology would have obvious military uses such as developing stealth aircraft, but Beijing believes the research could lead to wider technological breakthroughs with broader uses, scientists involved in the research said. The teams involved include researchers at Tsinghua University and the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

General Electric Knew Its Reactor Design Was Unsafe … So Why Isn’t GE Getting Any Heat for Fukushima?

5 of the 6 nuclear reactors at Fukushima are General Electric Mark 1 reactors.

GE knew decades ago that the design was faulty.

ABC News reported in 2011:

Thirty-five years ago, Dale G. Bridenbaugh and two of his colleagues at General Electric resigned from their jobs after becoming increasingly convinced that the nuclear reactor design they were reviewing — the Mark 1 — was so flawed it could lead to a devastating accident.

Questions persisted for decades about the ability of the Mark 1 to handle the immense pressures that would result if the reactor lost cooling power, and today that design is being put to the ultimate test in Japan. Five of the six reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, which has been wracked since Friday’s earthquake with explosions and radiation leaks, are Mark 1s.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Japanese Media Fears War With China Next Year

“The game of chicken between two great superpowers is about to begin”

Japanese media outlets have been feverishly dreaming up scenarios of war with China as soon as next year in response to Beijing’s imposition of an air defense zone over the disputed Senkaku Islands.

As the Japan Times notes, “Five out of nine weekly magazines that went on sale last Monday and Tuesday contained scenarios that raised the possibility of a shooting war.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

South Korea Unveils Its Own Air Defense Zone, Overlapping China’s and Japan’s

As fear and nationalism rise in Japan (and Abe’s grip on the people founders amid falling approval ratings and underperforming economic indicators such as GDP tonight), so another party has joined the debacle in the East China Sea. As NHK World reports, South Korea has officially announced that it will expand its air defense identification zone, making it partially overlap those of Japan and China. The game of chicken over small islands (and submerged rocks!) in the middle of nowhere continues…

The ‘triangle’ of doom in the East China Sea…

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Three Years on From Japan’s Nuclear Emergency, The Fallout Continues to Spread

WELCOME to Fukushima, where the radiation’s so bad it can be fatal within 20 minutes. The tsunami may have happened some 33 months ago, but the fallout just keeps getting worse.

Japanese media is reporting that the intensity of radiation levels in the nuclear powerplant devastated by the earthquake — and subsequent tidal waves — of March 2011 is now at its highest levels ever.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s Home Robbed During Mandela Memorial

Police in South Africa say retired Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s home was robbed while he was away to attend a memorial honoring Nelson Mandela.

The 82-year-old Tutu had his home robbed in August as he and his wife slept inside. Both were unhurt. Burglaries and home-invasions frequently occur in South Africa.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Did Obama Know Date of Mandela’s Death Was June 26, 2013?

President Barack Obama may have already known the real date of Nelson Mandela’s death and studiously planned funeral when he made his June 2013 African trip — and was even able to take the photo he would later Tweet on the day of Mandela’s officially announced death while he was still in South Africa.

Claiming to defer to Mandela family members on visiting the ailing Mandela during his June 28-30 whistle-stop trip through Johannesburg, Obama instead met with South African President Jacob Zuma.

Zuma was one of the key figures who kept the news that doctors had been keeping Mandela alive in a vegetative state, a top world secret.

Among thousands of news outlets, only one newspaper made a valiant attempt to get the true story out and keep it there.

According to the read-by-millions Las Vegas Guardian Express, Mandela died on June 26th, 2013, but was kept on life support until December 2013.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Freund: Misrepresenting Mandela

Neither Israel’s President Shimon Peres nor Prime Minister Benaymin Netanyahu could attend the state funeral for the late South African President and liberation leader, Nelson Mandela. According to the Jerusalem Post they cited finance and security reasons instead sending a delegation headed by Speaker Yuli Edelstein and Knesset members as noted:…

           — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon [Return to headlines]
 

Mandela: What the Obits Omit

by Jim Goad

When the kind-faced mocha Yoda named Nelson Mandela passed into the great beyond last week, the world joined hands like one big giant Coca-Cola commercial to canonize and lionize and deify and sanctify his memory. The torrent of treacly encomiums and mawkish panegyrics hurled at Mandela’s glowing feet surrounded his legacy with a force field of such pulsating holiness that anyone who’s remotely skeptical or inquisitive would be able to discern it was all a mountain of shit.

This isn’t to say there was nothing to admire about the man. His stoic perseverance against all odds is the stuff of which heroic legends are made. But to keep such legends unsullied requires a vigilant and ruthless pruning of inconvenient facts that would undermine the carefully sculpted image of Human Goodness Incarnate that surrounds what was possibly the world’s most famous man…

           — Hat tip: TV [Return to headlines]
 

Merkel Under Fire for Missing Mandela Tribute

Chancellor Angela Merkel has come under fire for missing Nelson Mandela’s memorial in Johannesburg on Tuesday. Although dozens of world leaders made the trip, she stayed in Berlin.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Nelson Mandela Memorial: ‘Bogus’ Interpreter Made Mockery of Barack Obama’s Tribute

The key address in the memorial service for Nelson Mandela was given by Barack Obama, whose words were brought to life for deaf spectators and TV viewers by a “sign language interpreter”, who could be seen gesturing energetically behind the sombre US President.

Mr Duchen told the Associated Press “there was no meaning in what he used his hands for”. He and other language experts pointed out that the man was not signing in South African or American sign languages and could not have been signing in any other known sign language because there was no structure to his arm and hand movements.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

NYPD Report Into Kenya Mall Attack Suggests Only Four Shooters Involved, And All May Have Escaped

A report by the New York Police Department into the September terror attacks at an upscale shopping mall in Nairobi, Kenya suggests that only four gunmen were involved — and all four may have escaped the clutches of the Kenyan police and armed forces.

The report, released Tuesday, casts new doubts on the official story of the attack, which began September 21 when gunmen from the Al Qaeda-linked Somali terror group Al-Shabab attacked the mall, a popular spot among Western diplomats and tourists.

The report does back testimony of eyewitnesses who claimed the gunmen targeted non-Muslims for killing, asking them to recite Muslim prayers and name the mother of the Muslim prophet Muhammad.

The report also acknowledges “significant” evidence that Kenyan soldiers looted the mall during and following the siege.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Sign Language Interpreter Who Stood Next to Obama at Mandela Memorial Called a ‘Fake’

A man who stood close to President Barack Obama and other heads of state while providing sign language interpretation at Nelson Mandela’s memorial Tuesday was a “fake” who was making up his own gestures, sign language experts say, raising questions about the security at the event.

“(He) was moving his hands around, but there was no meaning in what he used his hands for,” Bruno Druchen, the Deaf Federation of South Africa’s national director, told The Associated Press Wednesday.

Druchen said a fresh complaint will be filed to the ANC about the interpreter he called a “fake” with a demand for an urgent meeting. “It was horrible, an absolute circus, really, really bad,” Nicole Du Toit, an official sign language interpreter who also watched the broadcast, told The Associated Press.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Useful Idiots 2013 — Mandela Sings, ‘Kill Whites’

Those in the leadership of the Comintern apparat had a name for those naïve fools who fell for their disinformation propaganda — “useful idiots.”

As this article demonstrates that there are still celebrity “useful idiots” among us.

At the Nelson Mandela Memorial Service President Obama praised Mandela as “the last great liberator of the 20th century” and urged the world to continue his life’s work for justice and equality. What exactly did he mean by this?

Here is a photo [above] of Winnie Mandela, Nelson Mandela, and long-time leader of the South African Communist Party Joe Slovo at an African National Congress rally, 1990. All three are shown engaged in the raised clenched fist salute which for a century has been the salute of Communists. In the background is the hammer and sickle symbol appearing on a red star. This has been the symbol of the international Communist movement since 1917, and was featured on the flags of the Soviet Union, the People’s Republic of China, and Communist parties throughout the world…

African National Congress (ANC) President Nelson Mandela (R) presents a medal for bravery to James April, member of the Umkhonto We Sizwe (armed wing of the ANC) during the 32nd anniversary celebrations of the ANC army in Soweto, South Africa, in December 1993. Beginning in 1994, the state disarmed the general population so the communist ANC militia could carry out reprisals unchallenged. Under communism, gun control is only for the slave peasants.

Watch this brief YouTube video, Nelson Mandela kill Whites, where Mandela is shown with fellow MK members singing an anthem about killing whites while raising their fists in the Communist salute. After his death, the Communist Party and the ANC confirmed that Mandela was a covert member of the Central Executive Committee of the South African Communist Party at the time he was arrested as a terrorist in 1962.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Mexico: Public Militia Takes Control of City, Arresting Corrupt Officials

On Monday March 25th volunteer community forces took control of a town on a highway in the state of Guerrero, Mexico. Numbering in the hundreds, they arrested local police officers and searched homes after one of their leaders was killed.

The self-described “community police” were stopping traffic Wednesday at improvised checkpoints in the town of Tierra Colorado. The Associated Press reported that several of these men opened fire on a car headed to the beach. They arrested 12 police and the former director of public security in response to the slain leader.

Corruption and violence have run rampant while the Mexican government has struggled to come up with solutions.

The President of Mexico, Enrique Pena Nieto, has promised to focus more on the robberies, extortion and violence that affect ordinary Mexicans. While the government is attempting to focus on local policing matter, the citizens are not sitting around waiting for help.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Uruguay Approves World’s First National Marketplace for Legal Marijuana

Uruguay has become the first country to create a national marketplace for legal marijuana, with the government regulating the production, sales and use of pot in a bold bid to control addiction and drug violence.

The Senate gave final legislative approval to the bill late Tuesday, and President Jose Mujica, who campaigned for the legislation, is expected to sign it into law. The 78-year-old president has said he wants the market to begin operating next year.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Children Used by Gangs as ‘Human Passports’ Rescued in Melilla

Youngsters were sold to migrants who passed them off as their own to enter Spain

Operation Herodoto was set up in 2011 when the Civil Guard detected that international gangs were using a new method of illegally getting immigrants into the Spanish north African exclave of Melilla. For a prior payment of 1,500 to 2,000 euros, they would place a child with a woman on one of the flimsy patera boats used by illegal migrants, who would then try to pass them off as their own offspring at Spanish border control.

The traffickers abused the vulnerability of the children, who were normally under 10 years of age, and did not hesitate to put their personal safety at risk.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Ethnic Norwegians in Population Decline

The number of ethnic Norwegians has dropped over the past decade, with Norway’s population growth attributable solely to immigration and children born to Norwegians with an immigrant background, according to figures from Statistics Norway.

“The group without any element of immigration, either from their parents of grandparents, has declined in recent years,” Minja Dzmarija, a researcher at Statistics Norway, told Aftenposten. “This means that among ethnic Norwegians there are more who die or move abroad than those who are born or move back to Norway.”

According to her article in Samfunnsspeilet, Statistics’s Norway’s in-house magazine, the number of ethnic Norwegians has declined by 4,400 people over the past nine years, while the total population has grown from 4.6 million to 5.1 million people.

The proportion of immigrants in the country has increased from 15 percent in 2004 to 23 percent today.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

‘Parole in Place’: Obama’s Illegal-Immigration Order Stokes Amnesty Worries

Facing intense pressure from immigrant advocates who want the president to do more to limit deportations, the Obama administration has quietly issued a directive to help undocumented immigrants who are closely related to military personnel stay in the country.

The effort is called “parole in place,” and it aims to end rampant confusion among immigration officials about how to treat the parents, spouses, and minor children of those in active duty as well as veterans and reservists. Under parole in place, these relatives no longer have to leave the country to apply for legal US status — a situation that often resulted in the applicants being barred from reentering the US for years.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Swedes Aim to ‘Correct’ Paper’s ‘Xenophobic’ Ad

After a leading Swedish newspaper published an ad for a book critical of multiculturalism and immigration, Swedes are raising money for a counter-ad in an attempt to correct what they see as errors and to set the record straight.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Hotels Set Aside Floors for Women

The Hamilton Crowne Plaza is one of a small, but growing number of hotels offering floors dedicated to female travelers. These hotels are particularly trying to appeal to female business travelers, who are moving up the career ladder and hitting the road more often.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Indian Supreme Court Upholds Homosexuality Ban

India’s Supreme Court voted Wednesday to uphold a colonial-era law that criminalises homosexuality, cancelling a 2009 Delhi High Court ruling that the law infringed on an individual’s fundamental rights.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Norway’s Priests Call for Gay Marriage Service

Norway’s priests have called on the country’s church authorities to draw up a marriage service suitable for gay and lesbian couples. The Norwegian Association of Clergy, which represents 95 percent of the country’s priests, said the call, issued in a statement on Wednesday morning, had the unanimous backing of its central board.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Ron Paul: Hobby Lobby Case is About Rights, Not Contraceptives

One of the most important cases the US Supreme Court will consider this term is Hobby Lobby’s lawsuit challenging the Obamacare mandate that employer-provided health care plans must cover abortion and contraceptives. Hobby Lobby, a corporation owned and managed by a traditional Christian family, argues that the mandate violates their First Amendment rights.

Much of the discussion has focused on whether a corporation such as Hobby Lobby can even have First Amendment rights. But the issue of “corporate personhood” is a smokescreen. Hobby Lobby’s corporate status has no bearing on whether under Obamacare, Hobby Lobby’s owners, about whose personhood there is no doubt, have a right to run their business in a manner consistent with their moral beliefs. If the form by which Hobby Lobby did business was relevant to its right to operate free of federal interference, then Hobby Lobby could avoid the Obamacare mandate by simply reorganizing itself as a partnership or sole proprietorship.

Some Obamacare supporters cast this case as a conflict between Hobby Lobby’s First Amendment rights and the rights of its employees to contraception and abortion. Hobby Lobby is not trying to stop its employees from obtaining contraceptives and abortions; it is simply asking that the government not force it to pay for them.

Forcing Hobby Lobby to pay for abortion services is especially offensive because Hobby Lobby’s owners consider abortion a form of murder. Those who, like me, agree that abortion is an act of violence against an innocent person, will side with Hobby Lobby. However, this case is not about the legality of abortion. It is about whether someone can have a “right” to force someone else to provide him with a good or service. Therefore, even those who support legal abortion should at least support a business’s right to choose to not subsidize it.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Santa Claus Should Not be a White Man Anymore

It’s time to give St. Nick his long overdue makeover.

By Aisha Harris

America is less and less white, but a melanin-deficient Santa remains the default in commercials, mall casting calls, and movies. Isn’t it time that our image of Santa better serve all the children he delights each Christmas?

Yes, it is. And so I propose that America abandon Santa-as-fat-old-white-man and create a new symbol of Christmas cheer. From here on out, Santa Claus should be a penguin.

That’s right: a penguin.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Slate Writer: Let’s Ditch Santa Claus Because He’s White

In yet another example of the insanity of political correctness and racial division, a writer for Slate magazine recently stated that Santa Claus “should not be a white man” anymore and proposed re-branding Kris Kringle into a penguin. The Slate writer seems more concerned with Santa’s race than his altruism.

In a piece entitled Santa Claus Should Not Be a White Man Anymore, Slate culture blogger Aisha Harris urged America to “abandon Santa-as-fat-old-white-man” and replace him with a gift-giving penguin…

Harris also doesn’t seem to realize that Santa Claus is based primarily on Saint Nicholas, also known as Nikolaos of Myra, a fourth century Greek Bishop who lived in the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) province of Lycia in what is now southwestern Turkey.

[Comment: Better idea: ditch Slate magazine instead.]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Sweden Warms to ‘Gender Equal’ Snow Ploughing

Stockholm’s snow ploughing system may soon be overhauled to ensure a fairer balance between how easy it is for both men and women to get around during the winter months, the latest development in an emerging trend in Sweden to implement “gender-equal” snow removal.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Sweden: Lesbian Parents ‘Happier’ Than Straight Couples

Lesbian couples who start families with donated sperm show fewer signs of stress upon becoming parents compared to heterosexual couples using IVF. They are also happier in their romantic life, a new study has shown.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Dinosaur Asteroid ‘Sent Life to Mars’

The asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs may have catapulted life to Mars and the moons of Jupiter, US researchers say. They calculated how many Earth rocks big enough to shelter life were ejected by asteroids in the last 3.5bn years.

The Chicxulub impact was strong enough to fire chunks of debris all the way to Europa, they write in Astrobiology. Thousands of potentially life-bearing rocks also made it to Mars, which may once have been habitable, they add.

“We find that rock capable of carrying life has likely transferred from both Earth and Mars to all of the terrestrial planets in the solar system and Jupiter,” says lead author Rachel Worth, of Penn State University.

“Any missions to search for life on Titan or the moons of Jupiter will have to consider whether biological material is of independent origin, or another branch in Earth’s family tree.”

Panspermia — the idea that organisms can “hitchhike” around the solar system on comets and debris from meteor strikes — has long fascinated astronomers.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

NASA Iris Satellite Shows Sun in Spectacular Detail

Nasa’s Iris mission has observed the region between the Sun’s surface and its outer layers, where temperatures reach 2,000,000C. The satellite has detected explosions of plasma travelling at hundreds of kilometres an hour. The findings were presented at the American Geophysics Union’s Fall Meeting in San Francisco.

The team hope data from Iris, which launched earlier this year, will help them to get a better understanding of, and predict, “space weather”. Storms and flares on the Sun’s surface have the potential to disrupt power supplies, transport and communications systems back on Earth.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

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

  1. under Dutch law, v.d.Graaf is indeed due for parole automatically after 2/3 of his sentence has been completed.
    Like it or not (and I don’t), that means he has to be released. Anything else would require a change of the law, and a change that applies in retrospect to all people currently undergoing sentences. If we start down that path, we soon end up with people getting demands to pay again for speeding tickets they received 10 years ago because the fines have gone up since then…

  2. The Signer was translating Disingenuous White Liberal into Bantu Babble.

    Comedy Gold.

    Delusional Whites and Special Needs collide AKA Post Apartheid South Africa.

  3. … the number of ethnic Norwegians has declined by 4,400 people over the past nine years …

    Yes, and the number of personnel assisted abortions per YEAR in the same population is around 15.000.

  4. The German cold case files mentioning that more murders may be attributed to ‘far right’ extremists, the National Socialist Underground (Nazis) demonstrates just how perverted political thinking has been made by the collectivists now running the SSM (Soviet Style Media) throughout the West!

  5. At the risk of sounding like what I am, I felt like a diabetic in a lolly shop being bombarded with all this gushing about the death of Mendela. (I wonder if I would get a burning tire around my neck for such lack of whatever). I must say I found it very funny that the signaler was a fake – the perfect metaphor for what was happening. hehehe

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