Al Qaeda in Yemen has apologized for attacking a military hospital in Sanaa earlier this month, killing a number of doctors and nurses. It said that it made a mistake, and offered to pay blood money to the families of the victims.
In other news, the British grocery chain Marks & Spencer has instituted a new policy that permits its Muslim staff to refuse to serve customers who want to buy pork or alcohol.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, Jerry Gordon, Steen, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.
Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.
Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.
How the Paper Money Experiment Will End
A paper currency system contains the seeds of its own destruction. The temptation for the monopolist money producer to increase the money supply is almost irresistible. In such a system with a constantly increasing money supply and, as a consequence, constantly increasing prices, it does not make much sense to save in cash to purchase assets later. A better strategy, given this senario, is to go into debt to purchase assets and pay back the debts later with a devalued currency. Moreover, it makes sense to purchase assets that can later be pledged as collateral to obtain further bank loans. A paper money system leads to excessive debt.
This is especially true of players that can expect that they will be bailed out with newly produced money such as big businesses, banks, and the government.
We are now in a situation that looks like a dead end for the paper money system. After the last cycle, governments have bailed out malinvestments in the private sector and boosted their public welfare spending. Deficits and debts skyrocketed. Central banks printed money to buy public debts (or accept them as collateral in loans to the banking system) in unprecedented amounts. Interest rates were cut close to zero. Deficits remain large. No substantial real growth is in sight. At the same time banking systems and other financial players sit on large piles of public debt. A public default would immediately trigger the bankruptcy of the banking sector. Raising interest rates to more realistic levels or selling the assets purchased by the central bank would put into jeopardy the solvency of the banking sector, highly indebted companies, and the government. It looks like even the slowing down of money printing (now called “QE tapering”) could trigger a bankruptcy spiral. A drastic reduction of government spending and deficits does not seem very likely either, given the incentives for politicians in democracies.
So will money printing be a constant with interest rates close to zero until people lose their confidence in the paper currencies? Can the paper money system be maintained or will we necessarily get a hyperinflation sooner or later?
There are at least seven possibilities:
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Retail Sales, Including Food, Fall in Italy
Istat says spending continues to weaken
(ANSA) — Rome, December 20 — Retail sales, including shopping for food, fell in October by 1.6% compared with the same time last year, national statistical agency Istat reported Friday.
It also found that retail sales in October fell by 0.1% compared with the month before.
Food sales fell by 0.2% between September and October, and dropped by 0.6% compared with October 2012.
Istat also reported sales slipped by 3.6% for books, stationery, and newspapers during October compared with the same month last year; while sales of furniture fell by 3% on an annualized basis, and footwear by 2.6%.
The report comes as government officials have been expressing optimism that Italy is finally pulling out of its deepest recession since the Second World War.
Gross domestic product (GDP) was flat in the third quarter of this year after eight consecutive months of losses, leading to forecasts of modest growth to come in 2014.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
28 Pages Later: Shrouding an Act of War
According to the New York Post, Democratic Rep. Stephen Lynch and Republican Rep. Walter Jones have come forward with solid accusations claiming that 28 pages from the 2002 report on 9-11, were not only redacted, they were blank except for an on-going ellipsis. The 28 pages were purportedly removed by President Bush when the report was released, but are now leaking out 12 years later: …
Karl Denninger put it better than I can and got right to the heart of the matter:
It’s obvious given what happened, the logistical and funding requirements and where the hijackers came from along with inexplicable actions immediately following the attacks — unless our government explicitly let certain people flee.
Yet we went to war in Iraq and Afghanistan while helping the Saudis — the very people who attacked us.
And Obama, to this day, kisses the Saudi King…
It makes a very convincing case that the Saudi Government was involved in an act of war against the United States. Not simply terrorism — remember, the Pentagon, a military target, was one of the locations hit. The other intended target for the plane that went down in PA was the Capitol.
You awake yet America?
You damn well should be.
It’s about damn time that the mainstream media started talking about this — you’re only a decade late, *******s. And no, people like myself who have been saying this all along are not nuts.
We’re right…
Bill Doyle, who lost his son in the World Trade Center attacks and heads the Coalition of 9/11 Families, calls the suppression of Saudi evidence a “coverup beyond belief.” Last week, he sent out an e-mail to relatives urging them to phone their representatives in Congress to support the resolution and read for themselves the censored 28 pages.
Astonishing as that sounds, few lawmakers in fact have bothered to read the classified section of arguably the most important investigation in US history.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
A New 9/11 Revelation — Cover Up Continues
“After the 9/11 attacks, the public was told al Qaeda acted alone, with no state sponsors. But the White House never let it see an entire section of Congress’ investigative report on 9/11 dealing with “specific sources of foreign support” for the 19 hijackers, 15 of whom were Saudi nationals. It was kept secret and remains so today.
“President Bush inexplicably censored 28 full pages of the 800-page report. Text isn’t just blacked-out here and there in this critical-yet-missing middle section. The pages are completely blank, except for dotted lines where an estimated 7,200 words once stood (this story by comparison is about 1,000 words).
“A pair of lawmakers who recently read the redacted portion say they are “absolutely shocked” at the level of foreign state involvement in the attacks. “Reps. Walter Jones (R-NC) and Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.) can’t reveal the nation identified by it without violating federal law. So they’ve proposed Congress pass a resolution asking President Obama to declassify the entire 2002 report, “Joint Inquiry Into Intelligence Community Activities Before and After the Terrorist Attacks of September 11, 2001.”
Text of the “Joint Inquiry Into Intelligence Community Activities Before and After the Terrorist Attacks of September 11, 2001” 838 page whitewash is here. You will see a large number of redactions, but no gap of 28 pages, so one has to wonder exactly where and under what heading were the 28 pages pulled? Page 675 covers Joint Hearings and individuals. Too many are closed. On page 9 is a letter signed by two dishonorable individuals, former Rep. Bob Graham and Sen. Richard Shelby. It states unclassified portions of the report were being delivered to the late, dishonorable Sen. Robert Byrd. Then the cover up: “The remainder of the report contains highly classified and sensitive information and must be retained in the secure facilities of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, in accordance with past practicies regarding their retention by the committee of classified annexes.”
They know what’s in those 28 pages and decided to keep the truth from we the people for political expediency.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
A Tale of Christmas Past and Present
If you have not read the book School of Darkness, you should. It was published in 1954 and was written by Bella Dodd, an organizer for the Communist Party USA (CPUSA) from 1932-1948. For four years, Bella Dodd sat on that organization’s National Council.
Born in Italy, Dodd came to America at a young age and was educated in New York. She was a teacher and lawyer by profession. Reading her book made me realize that all churches have been fighting a program put in place in the 1930s by CPUSA. That ought to give everyone good insight as to where the funds come from to file law suits against Christmas displays or Christmas caroling groups and to remove the words “under God” from our Pledge of Allegiance.
Specifically, Mrs. Dodd (speaking of the Catholic Church) said: “In the 1930s we put eleven hundred men into the priesthood in order to destroy the Church from within.”
The idea was for these men to be ordained and progress to positions of influence and authority as Monsignors and Bishops. In 1960 (12 years before Vatican II was held), she said: “Right now they are in the highest places in the Church.” The plan was to weaken the Church’s effectiveness against Communism.
During a Fordham University lecture in 1950, Dodd talked of the chaos planned. A monk who attended the lecture is quoted from Christian Order:
“I listened to that woman for four hours and she had my hair standing on end. Everything she said has been fulfilled to the letter. You would think she was the world’s greatest prophet, but she was no prophet. She was merely exposing the step-by-step battle plan of Communist subversion of the Catholic Church.”
Still quoting the Monk from the Fordham University lecture: “She explained that of all the world’s religions, the Catholic Church was the only one feared by the Communists… The whole idea was to destroy, not the institution of the Church, but rather the Faith of the people, and even use the institution of the Church, if possible, to destroy the Faith through the promotion of a pseudo-religion: something that resembled Catholicism but was not the real thing. Once the Faith was destroyed, she explained that there would be a guilt complex introduced into the Church… to label the ‘Church of the past’ as being oppressive, authoritarian, full of prejudices, arrogant in claiming to be the sole possessor of truth, and responsible for the divisions of religious bodies throughout the centuries. This would be necessary in order to shame Church leaders into an ‘openness to the world,’ and to a more flexible attitude toward all religions and philosophies. The Communists would then exploit this openness in order to undermine the Church.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Atlantic City Cop Ordered to Pay $250,000 From Own Pocket to Citizen He Abused
We’ve seen so many police abuse lawsuits settled before making it to trial where cops admit no wrongdoing while guiltily dishing out thousands of taxpayer dollars that it’s surprising to see one actually make it to trial.
And it’s absolutely flabbergasting to see it result in a cop ordered personally liable.
The cop is none other than Sterling Wheaton of the Atlantic City Police Department, whom we became familiar with back in September when he drove up to a group of five fellow officers beating on a suspect and sicced his dog on him in an incident caught on surveillance video.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Congress Rushing to Approve 2014 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA)
For two years, the NDAA included provisions that purported to authorize the president of the United States to deploy the U.S. military to apprehend and indefinitely detain any person (including an American citizen) who he believes “represent[s] an enduring security threat to the United States.”
Such an immense grant of power is not only unconscionable, but unconstitutional, as well.
Regardless of promises to the contrary made every year since 2011 by President Obama, the language of the NDAA places every citizen of the United States within the universe of potential “covered persons.” Any American could one day find himself or herself branded a “belligerent” and thus subject to the complete confiscation of his or her constitutional civil liberties and to nearly never-ending incarceration in a military prison.
Finally, there is in the NDAA for 2014 a frightening fusion of the federal government’s constant surveillance of innocent Americans and the assistance it will give to justifying the indefinite detention of anyone labeled an enemy of the regime.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Feds Begin Killing Barred Owls to Help Save Spotted Owl
An experiment to see if killing invasive barred owls will help the threatened northern spotted owl reverse its decline toward extinction is underway in the forests of Northern California.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said Friday that specially trained biologists have shot 26 barred owls in a study area on the Hoopa Valley Indian Reservation northeast of Arcata, Calif.
They plan to remove as many as 118 barred owls from the area, keeping the 55 known barred owl nesting sites open over the next five years to see if spotted owls increase, said Fish and Wildlife Service biologist Robin Bown. Contractors go to an area that barred owls are known to be in, play a digital caller to attract them, and shoot the birds with a shotgun.
The service is spending $3.5 million over six years to remove 3,600 barred owls from sites in Oregon, Washington and California.
[Comment: Was not the spotted owl decline used to attack the logging industry? All along it was known that the barred owl was the cause.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Obama Must be Forced to Resign
President who can use existing laws to declare martial law based on a manufactured crisis. Existing law would permit him to seize control of all aspects of life.
A December 17 Reuters article was titled, “Obama’s Current Approval Rating Is The Ugliest Since Nixon.”
“President Barack Obama is ending his fifth year in office with the lowest approval ratings at this point in the presidency since President Richard Nixon, according to a new Washington Post/ABC poll released Tuesday.”
Nixon was forced to resign on April 22, 1974, after two long years that followed the revelations about Watergate, a break-in of the Democratic Party offices in Washington, DC. The backlash against the horrors of ObamaCare, concerns about the “deal” with Iran, and a succession of scandals from Fast and Furious to Benghazi, have raised fear and anger over his judgment, competence, and behavior in office.
Having lived through the years that led to Nixon’s resignation, I am seeing the same national resistance that Obama’s five years in office have led to. Nixon was never a “popular” President, widely seen as “Tricky Dick”, but like Obama, he was twice elected to the office. His Vice President, Gerald Ford, who assumed the presidency was defeated by Jimmy Carter, a Democrat, and, four years later, an unhappy electorate defeated Carter and elected Ronald Reagan who would serve two terms. Even the popular Bill Clinton faced impeachment.
Not since the days of the Great Depression in the 1930s have Americans endured an economy that has failed to overcome slow growth despite Obama’s full first term in office and another year in his second term.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Pa. Town Latest to Force Drivers Over and Ask for Cheek Swabs for Federal Study
Drivers in a southeastern Pennsylvania town were forced off a local street and into a parking lot, so a federal contractor — aided by local police — could quiz them about their road habits and ask for a cheek swab, in a replay of an incident last month in Texas.
The checkpoint, in downtown Reading, was one of several conducted by the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation, which was hired by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. Although the questioning and cheek swab were voluntary, local residents said they were directed by police to pull over, and that the questioning was persistent, according to the Reading Eagle.
“I feel this incident is a gross abuse of power on many levels,” Reading resident Ricardo Nieves told City Council Monday, three days after being stopped.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Real-Life ‘Robocop’ May be Coming to a Street Near You
Robot security guards are staples of most futuristic sci-fi movies, video games and TV shows. They exist in real life as well, though the sight of a security robot patrolling the streets is far from common.
The K5 Beta, a just-unveiled prototype from California-based company Knightscope, might change all that.
A bullet-shaped robot that stands about 5 feet (1.5 meters) tall, the K5 looks a lot like the droid R2-D2 from the “Star Wars” films. The K5 might not have all the features of its counterpart from a galaxy far, far away. But what it does have, Knightscope representatives said, is an onboard sensor array that can see, hear, touch and smell its surroundings.
[Comment: Perhaps soon it will include tasers to stop shoppers whose legitimate purchase was not de-magnetized properly.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
White House Tries to Prevent Judge From Ruling on Surveillance Efforts
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration moved late Friday to prevent a federal judge in California from ruling on the constitutionality of warrantless surveillance programs authorized during the Bush administration, telling a court that recent disclosures about National Security Agency spying were not enough to undermine its claim that litigating the case would jeopardize state secrets.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Britain’s New ‘No Go’ Areas… to Warn Off Roma Rough Sleepers
New powers called Public Space Protection Orders (PSPOs) which come into operation next April will be deployed to stop gangs of homeless Eastern Europeans squatting around some of the country’ s most famous landmarks and transport hubs.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Geert Wilders’ 10-Point Plan to Save the West
Ladies and gentlemen, I am often asked whether I have any answers to the problem and what those might be. Well, I certainly have some answers. Here are ten things we would have to do to stop the Islamization of the West:
| 1. | Stop cultural relativism. We need an article in our constitutions that lays down that we have a Jewish-Christian and humanism culture. | |
| 2. | Stop pretending that Islam is a religion. Islam is a totalitarian ideology. In other words, the right to religious freedom should not apply to Islam. “Death for Apostasy” 4:89, Sahih Bukhari | |
| 3. | Stop mass immigration by people from Muslim countries. We have to end Al-Hijra. | |
| 4. | Encourage voluntary repatriation. | |
| 5. | Expel criminal foreigners and criminals with dual nationality, after denationalization, and send them back to their Arab countries. Likewise, expel all those who incite to a ‘violent jihad’… |
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Trial for Marines in India Hits New Snag
Napolitano says Indian elections interfering with fast trial
(ANSA) — Rome, December 20 — Italian President Giorgio Napolitano on Friday said the legal proceedings for two Italian marines held in India over the deaths of two fishermen has hit a new snag due to Indian elections.
“Sometimes it seems that we are the only nation where elections can create problems. (But) they also create trouble in India,” Napolitano told marines Massimiliano Latorre and Salvatore Girone through a long-distance video conference. “A (fast-track) trial had been proposed to us, a proper and swift trial which has now encountered difficulty because we are near the Indian elections,” the president added. He also tried to comfort the pair, telling them that the entire country is with them.
The investigation of the two Italian marines stalled in recent months over testimony from four witnesses — fellow Italian marines thought to have seen what happened the night when two of their comrades allegedly killed the two Indian fishermen.
Indian authorities wanted to question the four in India; however, Italy had said that was unnecessary because Indian investigators could come to Italy or question the four by video conference.
The problem was overcome in November, when Indian investigators interrogated the witnesses via video conference in the Indian embassy in Rome.
The marines are accused of killing the fishermen on February 15, 2012, when the marines allegedly opened fire on their fishing trawler from privately-owned Italian-flagged oil-tanker MT Enrica Lexie.
The shooting occurred just off the coast of Kerala in southern India, near traditional Indian fishing grounds in the Laccadive Sea.
The incident sparked a diplomatic row between the governments of India and Italy, stemming from a conflict of opinions over legal jurisdiction and functional immunity.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Supreme Court Frees 8 Bn in Assets Seized From Riva Family
Family owns troubled ILVA steelworks
(ANSA) — Rome, December 20 — The Italian supreme Court of Cassation on Friday annulled an 8.1-billion-euro seizure of property and goods from the Riva family, owners of the holding company that controls the troubled ILVA steelworks in Taranto.
The seizure was ordered in May amid a probe into Emilio and Adriano Riva for suspected fraud against the State and fake money transfers.
The 8.1 billion euros in assets had been involved in a transfer when the family set up a spin-off company called Riva Forni Elettrici SpA.
ILVA has faced enormous problems since July 2012 when local magistrates ordered the partial closure of the Taranto plant due to serious health and environmental concerns.
The Riva group is the biggest iron and steel producer in Italy, the fourth-biggest in Europe and the 23rd-biggest in the world.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
[WARNING: Disturbing Content.]
A British woman with the mental age of a child was forced to marry a Pakistani immigrant and have his baby so that he could gain the right to live in Britain.
A secret court heard that the 37-year-old, who has a reading age of seven, was slapped around the face by her mother to make her smile for her wedding photograph.
The judge’s ruling, seen by The Mail on Sunday, reveals that fears were raised she was being ‘manipulated’ and her parents were being paid £20,000 to marry off their daughter to the Muslim student, who was facing deportation.
But despite concerns, registrars allowed the ceremony to go ahead and the woman’s husband, 33, is now using his human right to a family life as a reason to remain in the UK, despite the ‘grossly cruel’ ploy.
The case came to light in the Court of Protection — which has the power to make life-or-death decisions on behalf of people deemed to lack mental capacity — and can be revealed today after an anonymised judgment was published…
The court was told that the British woman, who had been a Sikh but later converted to Islam, had been married and divorced twice before.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Peter O’Toole’s Devoted Cat Sydney Says Goodbye to a Legend in Wake at Actor’s Home
During Friday night’s wake — where Peter O’Toole’s body was laid out in an open coffin — the legendary actor’s cat Sydney climbed on to his chest and stayed there for the evening.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Return of the Girl Guide and Their Pledge to God!
Secularism in on the march to remove Christian influence from the world in which we live and to marginalize Christianity in general!
The battle for freedom rages on was an opening line in the trailer for Return of the Jedi in 1983. Now the call from the wilderness is return of the Girl Guide and their pledge to God. Select British Girl Guide groups continue to defy the national organization by refusing to change the part of their pledge that says “to love my God”, and replacing it with “be true to myself and develop my beliefs.”
According to the Christian Institute the 37th Newcastle Guide Unit, who wants to give girls the choice of using either the traditional promise or the new version, has been told their membership will end at the end of this year if the choice is not withdrawn. This will affect all age groups — about one hundred girls.
Glynis Mackie, has led the group for over 25 years, and says “(the move) is an example of faith being sidelined in society. They are trying to force us out of Girl Guiding with no process. The girls are really incredibly angry and they just want their voices to be heard. This is the first substantial change to the promise in the 103-year history of the Girl Guides”…
Writer and TV presenter Victoria Coren said the phrase “be true to myself” does not mean anything, but carries a suggestion of something “utterly individualistic”, while commentator Melanie Phillips said the Guides’ change was “nothing other than secular totalitarianism”.
Coren hits the nail on the head! To be “true to myself” is a self-centered concept. It leaves the idea of what you should be totally fluid.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: ‘Lee Rigby’s Killer Raped Me When I Was 14’
Young mother tells of sex-attack ordeal at the hands of teenage Michael Adebolajo
[WARNING: Disturbing Content.]
A young mother has revealed that soldier killer Michael Adebolajo raped her when she was just 14 years old.
The victim, who is now in her 20s and living in London, said she passed out after Adebolajo drugged her with powerful cannabis, awaking from her stupor to find him on top of her.
‘I have looked in his eyes and seen the evil inside him,’ she told the Sunday Mirror. ‘I opened my eyes and his face was less than an inch from mine. I’ll never forget that moment as long as I live.
‘His teeth were discoloured and wonky. His eyes seemed to be burning. He smirked and his breath smelt foul and was hot on my face.’
Self-styled soldier of Islam Adebolajo was this week convicted alongside Michael Adebowale of the brutal murder of Fusilier Lee Rigby, who was hacked to death in the street close to Woolwich barracks.
Incredibly, just two days before the kiling in May, his rape victim bumped into him in a chance encounter and he tried to force her into his car — the same vehicle used to run down the 25-year-old soldier.
She was only able to get away after pleading with him to let her go. The next she saw of him was on television, clutching a meat cleaver and ranting about why he had murdered Fusilier Rigby.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Agony of Lee Rigby’s Fiancée
Wife-to-be speaks for first time of frantic calls to soldier as he lay dying in the street — and the horrific moment she knew it was him as she watched TV
[WARNING: Disturbing Content.]
The fiancee of murdered soldier Lee Rigby has spoken for the first time about the ‘unending pain’ of losing the man she loved in an atrocity which appalled the world.
In a deeply moving interview, Aimee West, a former Royal Military Policewoman, reveals her desperate attempts to contact her husband-to-be on the day he died, before discovering to her horror that she had been calling his mobile phone just minutes after he had been hacked to death.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Dozens of Hate Clerics Face Being Silenced by New Anti-Terror Asbos
Government officials have identified 25 hate preachers who face being silenced with new ‘Asbo’ style anti-terror orders, it has today been revealed.
Downing Street is to introduce the new civil powers, based on a dramatically revised definition of extremism, to target preachers who radicalise others.
The orders will bar people from preaching messages of terror and hate, associating with named individuals thought vulnerable to radicalisation, and from entering specific venues, such as mosques or community halls — in a similar manner to the orders used to ban yobs from certain areas.
The measures are part of an anti-extremism task force set up by David Cameron after the death of Drummer Lee Rigby in Woolwich.
Muslim converts Michael Adebolajo, 29, and Michael Adebowale, 22, have been convicted of the brutal murder of the young soldier.
The pair were told they face life behind bars and will be sentenced in the new year.
The Sunday Times reports that Haitham al-Haddad, an Islamic scholar, is one preacher under scrutiny according to Whitehall officials…
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Muslim Staff at Marks & Spencer Can Refuse to Sell Alcohol and Pork
Muslim staff working for Marks & Spencer have been given permission to refuse to serve customers buying alcohol or pork products. Its policy decision has highlighted a split among the big food retailers over whether religious staff should be excused certain jobs.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Marks & Spencer Tells Muslim Staff They Can Refuse to Serve Customers Buying Alcohol or Pork
Marks & Spencer has told Muslim staff they can refuse to serve shoppers buying alcohol or pork, it has been revealed.
The chain has granted checkout workers in more than 700 stores permission to politely decline to serve customers for religious reasons.
Instead, shoppers are being asked to wait to pay for certain items at a different till.
The policy highlights a divide among the mainstream food retailers over whether religious staff should be excused from certain tasks.
In contrast to M&S, Sainsbury’s has told Muslim staff that there is no reason why they cannot handle goods such as alcohol and pork — even if they are not allowed to eat or drink the products.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
[WARNING: Disturbing Content.]
Mrs Justice Parker (pictured) admitted it was a ‘ drastic’ step but agreed with a local council that the child was in ‘ grave danger’ from its mother.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Michele Bachmann: Israel Must Never be Betrayed
Unfortunately, recent actions of the Obama administration represent a sharp reversal of the historical precedent of unshakable support to the Jewish state.
Look no further than the recently negotiated “diplomatic resolution” with Iran to see where the Obama administration’s priorities lie. The proposed framework does little if anything to stop Iran from continuing to enrich uranium, does little if anything to comprehensively halt construction of the Iran heavy water plutonium reactor, does little if anything to permanently change Iran’s belligerent posturing, and does not require the dismantling of Iran’s centrifuges.
In short, this agreement does next to nothing to benefit Israel or the United States. In the words of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, “This is a very, very bad deal.”
And for Iran, it is the deal of the century. Quite a gift for the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Al Qaeda Says Attack on Yemen Military Hospital Was a ‘Mistake’
The Yemeni wing of al Qaeda has said a deadly attack on a military hospital by its fighters earlier this month was a mistake. It offered to pay “blood money” to the families of people killed in the attack.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Erdogan Suggests “International Plot” Attacking Controversial Turkish Corruption Probe
The corruption probe in Turkey pitting two former Islamist allies, the Gulen Movement (GM) versus the inner circle of the AKP party of Premier Erdogan, has roiled the Middle East country and its economy. Premier Erdogan suggested that an international plot was behind the alleged corruption probe, saying at a rally in Samsun, Turkey, “an ill-intentioned move of local and foreign actors targeting the government. This is an operation with international dimensions and local sub-contractors”.. US Ambassador to Ankara Francis T. Ricciardo issued a statement refuting the allegation that the US was behind the graft probe to which the Turkish Foreign Ministry concurred. Thursday, we posted a denial of involvement issued by expatriate leader of the GM, Sheikh Muhammad Fethullah Gulen who resides in a fortified complex in the Poconos Mountains of Eastern Pennsylvania. The state-run Andalou News Agency cited the range of arrests and detentions, the outgrowth of a two year investigation:
| — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon | [Return to headlines] |
Syrian Surprise: Al-Qaeda Branch Kills Rebel Leaders; Invades Oil Field
“While the U.S. Commander in Chief Barack Hussein Obama tours the U.S. like a snake-oil salesman pushing Obamacare on people who don’t trust him, al-Qaeda continues to create havoc in the Middle East and Africa,” said Islamic terrorism expert and former police task force member Gerald O’Halleran.
For example, this week the Free Syrian Army and its largest contingent known as the Al-Nusra Front managed to take over the Al-Omar oil field in Deir ez-Zor, after a battle with Syrian government forces that lasted several days, according to a report released by Israel’s non-governmental agency (NGO) Meir Amit Information Center, an anti-terrorism think-tank.
Syrian rebels, mostly members of the al-Qaeda’s Syrian branch the Al-Nusra Front, drove a tank with “Al-Omar oil field” written on it, forcing the Syrian government guards to withdraw from the oil field. The rebels then seized seven military tanks and other weapons at the oil field. However, the Syrian government-controlled news media failed to report the invasion and occupation of Syria’s largest oil field.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Khodorkovsky Expresses Thanks to Germany, The Media
At a Berlin press conference, former Russian oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky has thanked all who helped in his release from prison. But he said time had been too short to decide on his future.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Putin Launches Russia as the Global Guarantor of “Traditional Values”
In the annual speech to both Houses of Parliament, the head of the Kremlin criticizes amoral and anti-democratic West and defends the conservative policies of Russia. The defense of Christian values in the world, Moscow’s new weapon of soft power.
Moscow (AsiaNews) — In his annual address to the nation on December 12 , President Vladimir Putin has defended the “conservative nature” of Russian politics and promoted the country as a champion of the international “traditional values” , against a West that “is reviewing its norms of morality. “ For some it is becoming clearer that the Kremlin is increasingly focusing on these issues as only true weapon of soft powe , after years of being unable to compete against the leitmotif of American “export of democracy “ .
Putin defended the national policies in defense of the child and the family, as well as the controversial law against ‘ gay propaganda ‘ , which has attracted much criticism in the international community .. “We know that there is’ a growing number of people in the world, which supports our position on the need to defend the traditional values €‹€‹that have formed the foundation of every civilized nation for thousands of years ,” he said, speaking in front of the Houses of Parliament and numerous guests such as the Patriarch of Moscow , Kirill . “Today, many countries are revising their moral and ethical norms, erasing their national traditions and the differences between nations and cultures” he said.
A criticism directed not only towards the U.S., but also Europe, where same-sex marriages have been legalized, and more generally those countries where society is required to recognize not only “the equivalence of different opinions and political views ,” but also “ the recognition of equivalence of good and evil.” “This destruction of traditional values from above not only entails negative consequences for society, but is also inherently anti-democratic because it is based on an abstract notion and runs counter to the will of the majority of people”, he warned. .” Russia , by contrast, “has a conservative point of view “ , but conservatism does not stop society from progressing but “prevents it from falling backward into chaotic darkness and the state of primitive man.”, citing philosopher Nikolai Berdyaev .
Claiming a role as a moral leader , the head of the Kremlin was keen to stress the substantial Moscow’s difference to its eternal rival America. Russia” does not aspire to be called some kind of superpower, understanding that as a claim to world or regional hegemony “ or “ to teach to others how to live”
Putin is a professed Christian Orthodox, but has only firmly promoted traditional values €‹€‹and the Orthodox Church itself as the foundation of the “successes “ of the country and the basis of its unity in recent years. For some analysts, it is in defense of Christian values €‹€‹that today’s Russia is trying to rediscover its historical function of a universal character , which has always characterized it — from its aspiration to being the Third Rome, to that of being the home of international communism — and that fatigue find after the collapse of the USSR.
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Russia Announces Upgrades to Nuclear Arsenal With New ‘Satan’ ICBM
Russia will begin deploying a new type of long-range missile in 2018 to replace a cold war standby known in the west as ‘Satan’, a military commander said on Tuesday in a signal to the United States that Moscow is improving its nuclear arsenal. A new intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) called the Sarmat is being developed to supplant the RS-20B Voyevoda, the Interfax news agency quoted the commander of Russia’s strategic missile forces, General Sergei Karakayev, as saying. The new ICBM can easily reach the U.S. “We are counting on being armed with this qualitatively new missile system … by 2018-20,” he said. The Voyevoda, which is known within Nato as the SS-18 Satan, was developed in the 1970s and the missiles are approaching the end of their service life, although some of the ICBMs will remain in service until 2022.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Russia Plans Rail-Mounted Missiles to Counter US Global Strike Program
Russia will draft a plan in the coming year to deploy rail-mounted nuclear missiles as a potential response to the United States’ Prompt Global Strike program, the commander of its Strategic Missile Force said on Wednesday. “A Defense Ministry report has been submitted to the president and the order has been given to develop a preliminary design of a rail-mounted missile system,” Lt. Gen. Sergei Karakaev said. The work will be carried out by the Moscow Institute of Thermal Technology — the developer of the submarine-launched Bulava nuclear missile — in the first half of next year. Karakaev added that defense officials, after analyzing the American system, concluded “there is a need to reconsider the issue of a rail-mounted missile system given its increased survivability and the extent of our railway network.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Thai Protesters Return to Streets of Bangkok
Tens of thousands of people have rallied in Bangkok, calling for the resignation of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra. The main opposition plans to boycott upcoming snap elections.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
US Sailors, Assisting With Fukushima Clean Up, Crippled by Cancer
Back in December 2012, we wrote that it was only a matter of time before Japan’s criminal lying about the radioactive exposure in the aftermath of the Fukushima catastrophe caught up with it, as well as with countless numbers of people who would soon succumb to radiation induced cancers and other diseases. What we found surprising back then, before the full scale of the Fukushima catastrophe become clear and before even Tepco admitted that the situation is completely out of control, is that those holding Japan accountable were not its own citizens but eight US sailors who have then filed a suit against semi-nationalized energy operator TEPCO — the company which repeatedly ignored internal warnings about the ability of the Fukushima NPP to withstand an earthquake/tsunami — seeking $110 million in damages…
What is sad is that while everyone in the alternative media was repeatedly warning about the radiation exposure being misrepresented by both TEPCO and various Japanese ministries, it was the mainstream media that was constantly complicit in disseminating official and unofficial lies that there is nothing to fear.
One year after our report, the lies are not only catching up (and overtaking), but are ruining and dooming innocent lives. As Fox reports, dozens of US soldiers who participated in the Fukushima cleanup effort, are succumbing to numerous radiation-related illnesses, including cancer, and their only error was believing the official media lies.
[Comment: Check out the radiation fallout map.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Mandela’s Legacy: The Freefall of South Africa
Rapes, murders, disease, corruption, poverty, communism rampant — and maybe genocide
The horror stories about life in South Africa under apartheid are endless, of course, and the fall of that morally repugnant political system is universally hailed as a triumph.
But two decades after the white-led government relinquished power, and especially in the afterglow of worldwide praise for the nation’s former president Nelson Mandela after his passing at age 95, an objective look at South Africa today is very disturbing.
In fact, even among the harshest critics of apartheid and racial oppression, there is an acknowledgement that in many ways the “rainbow nation,” under African National Congress and South African Communist Party rule, is heading downhill.
Fast.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Mass Wedding in Nigeria Sees 1,000 Muslim Couples Tie the Knot
The elaborate event in Nigeria’s second city of Kano was part of a government programme aimed at promoting stable families.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The forecasts come at a time of political concern over immigration and the need for large-scale housing construction.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Atheists Smug as Hindus Join Satanists to Demand Display at Oklahoma
Statehouse First came the Christians, then the Satanists. And now come the Hindus — the latest group to fight for First Amendment freedoms and demand equal display access at Oklahoma’s Capitol. And the ensuing political frenzy is leaving some atheists laughing, calling the quandary “beautiful.” The issue started when state Rep. Mike Ritze donated $10,000 and raised a matching $10,000 in private funds to put up a 7-foot-tall monument of the Ten Commandments in November on the Capitol grounds, Raw Story reported. The American Civil Liberties Union sued to have the monument taken down, while members of a Satanist group, with headquarters in New York, petitioned for their own display, right next to the Judeo-Christian monument. The proposal from the Satanists outraged some lawmakers, with one saying that “this is a faith-based nation and a faith-based state,” Raw Story reported. So now a Hindu group joined the fray…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Cracker Barrel Puts ‘Duck Dynasty’ Items Back on Shelves
Cracker Barrel Old Country Store reversed course Sunday, putting back on its shelves the products it had removed because they were tied to a star of the cable hit “Duck Dynasty.”
In a statement on its Facebook page, Cracker Barrel said, “When we made the decision to remove and evaluate certain Duck Dynasty items, we offended many of our loyal customers. Our intent was to avoid offending, but that’s just what we’ve done.
“You told us we made a mistake. And, you weren’t shy about it. You wrote, you called and you took to social media to express your thoughts and feelings. You flat out told us we were wrong.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Duck Dynasty Dystopia: Pandemonium of Putrefied Political Correctness
When Phil Robertson, patriarch of the Duck Dynasty Empire, opined to Gentleman’s Quarterly magazine that homosexuality was a sin, his goose was cooked. The powers that be, the elites, the croaking mandarins and the enforcers of cultural homogeneity demanded his sacrifice to the gods of the age.
Our society is now inflamed, engulfed in the midst of a colossal Kulturkampf — a battle over who defines morals and mores — church, state or other entities. In Nathaniel West’s novel The Day of the Locust, Hollywood, empty dreamers and their depraved morality is examined. Yet today, added to LA’s unlettered leftism, the media and higher education join politicians in the corrupt sleaze-fest of our politically correct societal cesspool.
As the societal blitzkrieg builds, increasing numbers realize the PC elites take no prisoners, ignoring the victims while defending America’s almighty sex cult. Hubert Kennedy, in Homosexuality and Male Bonding in Pre-Nazi Germany: the youth movement, the gay movement, and male bonding before Hitler’s rise, claims the seeds of the modern gay liberation movement were planted in Germany just before 1900. But has Western gay liberation now trumped every other form of human bonding? If so, at what cost?
Does modern liberalism promote a death culture? Are the tenets of socialism, communism, and other forms of Marxism compatible with the growth of a healthy and vibrant society? All attendant studies of history would suggest no…
The current kulturkampf, or culture war, may seem fixated on the issues of rights of homosexuals and the definition of marriage, but it is actually much bigger. There is a colossal battle over the soul of the culture which will result in either the Bible, or humanistic Marxism, winning the day. This battle encompasses a myriad of topics, including feminism versus tradition, socialism versus capitalism, free speech, property rights versus redistribution, scientific integrity, honesty in journalism, ideology versus factual orientation, freedom of religion, and even notions about justice, love, truth and God.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
By Mark Steyn
[…]
…It is a matter of some regret to me that my own editor at this publication does not regard this sort of thing [Mr Steyn refers here to the hardball tactics used by GLAAD to bring the wayward back into line] as creepy and repellent rather than part of the vibrant tapestry of what he calls an “awakening to a greater civility”. I’m not inclined to euphemize intimidation and bullying as a lively exchange of ideas — “the use of speech to criticize other speech”, as Mr Steorts absurdly dignifies it.[…] In the early days of my free-speech battles in Canada, my friend Ezra Levant used a particular word to me: “de-normalize”. Our enemies didn’t particularly care whether they won in court. Whatever the verdict, they’d succeed in “de-normalizing” us — that’s to say, putting us beyond the pale of polite society and mainstream culture. “De-normalizing” is the business GLAAD and the other enforcers are in. You’ll recall Paula Deen’s accuser eventually lost in court — but the verdict came too late for Ms Deen’s book deal, and TV show, and endorsement contracts.
Up north, Ezra and I decided that, if they were going to “de-normalize” us, we’d “de-normalize” them. So we pushed back, and got the entire racket discredited and, eventually, the law repealed. It’s rough stuff, and exhausting, but the alternative is to let the control-freaks shrivel the bounds of public discourse remorselessly so that soon enough you lack even the words to mount an opposing argument. As this commenter to Mr Steorts noted, the point about unearthing two “derogatory” “puerile” yet weirdly prescient gags is that, pace Marx, these days comedy repeats as tragedy.
I am sorry my editor at NR does not grasp the stakes. Indeed, he seems inclined to “normalize” what GLAAD is doing. But, if he truly finds my “derogatory language” offensive, I’d rather he just indefinitely suspend me than twist himself into a soggy pretzel of ambivalent inertia trying to avoid the central point — that a society where lives are ruined over an aside because some identity-group don decides it must be so is ugly and profoundly illiberal…
[NOTE: post has 900 comments]
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Schools Prepare for Transgender Law
Transgender students in Kings County could see a few changes for them on campus next year.
School districts are working toward making sure all of their policies and programs are aligned with AB 1266, the new state transgender law which goes into effect Jan. 1. However, there is still some uncertainty amongst administrators about what they have to do to comply and how exactly schools will be affected by the law.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
IBM Reveals Its Five Predictions for Our World in 2018
According to the annual IBM 5 in 5 report, in the next five years:
The classroom will learn you — smarter classrooms will use cloud data to learn about students and identify learning disorders immediately.
Buying local will beat online — shops will combine the convenience of online shopping in physical stores and same-day delivery will improve.
Doctors will routinely use your DNA to keep you well — By using advancements in DNA research, doctors will be able to uniquely identify how a certain cancer or disease will affect a person. Treatments and medications will become more tailored and waiting times will drop.
A digital guardian will protect you online — Passwords will be replaced by devices that learn who a person is, how they behave and what sites they use. They will grant access automatically to that person, but also be able to identify unusual or suspicious activity automatically.
The city will help you live in it — Governments will be able to use data about its residents movements, needs and more to improve cities and towns, including schools and transport routes.
The report then breaks down the predictions into five categories and predicts that each of them will happen by 2018.
[Comment: Child-like illustrations and “isn’t this wonderful” slant to the article glosses over all privacy implications of this future 1984 society.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Nobody Really Knows Why Saturn’s Rings Exist (Video)
Ever wonder how the heck Saturn got to have such enormous, perfectly flat rings? In this cool video from Universe Today’s Fraser Cain, you’ll discover that astronomers are wondering the same thing. In fact, it’s a huge debate.
Scientists like Kevin Grazier, who worked on NASA’s Cassini probe to Saturn, are stumped by the rings. Are they new or old? How do they remain in such a perfect shape, rather than plunging into Saturn’s gravity well and burning up in the gas giant’s atmosphere? Watch this terrific video to find out what the latest theories are.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Sun Will ‘Flip Upside Down’ Within Weeks, Say Scientists
The sun is set to “flip upside down” within weeks as its magnetic field reverses polarity in an event that will send ripple effects throughout the solar system. Although it may sound like a catastrophic occurrence, there’s no need to run for cover. The sun switches its polarity, flipping its magnetic north and south, once every eleven years through an internal mechanism about which little is understood. The swap could however cause intergalactic weather fronts such as geomagnetic storms, which can interfere with satellites and cause radio blackouts. The impact of the transfer will be widespread as the sun’s magnetic field exerts influence well beyond Pluto, past Nasa’s Voyager probes positioned near the edge of interstellar space.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
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