Gates of Vienna News Feed 12/25/2013

The mujahideen of Iraq celebrated Christmas by setting off three separate bombs in Christian areas of Baghdad. At least 37 people were killed, and dozens more wounded.

In other news, the Egyptian government has officially declared the Muslim Brotherhood to be a terrorist organization.

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

Thanks to Fjordman, Insubria, JD, Jerry Gordon, 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.

USA
» A Dying Girl’s Last Wish is ‘To Hear Some Carolers.’ 10,000 People Show Up to Sing. (Video)
» Boston Jewish Leadership Caught in Deception Over Newton Schools Disputed Texts
» Laney Brown Dies on Christmas Morning
» McDonald’s Employee Site Bashes Fast Food
» Special African-American Santa Holds Court at Macy’s
» Sweet Lucy
» Target Hackers Stole Encrypted Bank PINs
» The Birth of Christ and the Birth of America Are Linked
» The Political and Legal Significance of Christmas
» Why Couldn’t Healthcare.gov Validate Obama’s Identity?
 
Europe and the EU
» Expelled Dissident’s Wife Regains Freedom, Thanks Italy
 
North Africa
» Egypt Declares the Muslim Brotherhood a Terrorist Organization; Will the US Follow?
» Egypt Labels Muslim Brotherhood a Terrorist Group
» Egypt: We Thwarted a Hamas Attack
 
Israel and the Palestinians
» Bethlehem Strives for a Normal Christmas
 
Middle East
» Bomb Attacks on Christians Kill 37 in Baghdad
» Christmas in Iraq: Dead Christians
» Dubai Promises Record-Breaking New Year’s Eve Firework Show
» Iranian Majlis (Parliament) Drafts Law to Accelerate Uranium Enrichment to 60%
» Turkey Ministers Caglayan, Guler and Bayraktar Resign Amid Scandal
 
Russia
» Moscow: Warmest Weather in a Century
» Ukraine Activist and Journalist Tetyana Chornovil Beaten
 
Far East
» Chinese Smugglers ‘Dig Tunnel to Hong Kong’
» In China, Chairman Mao Still Bigger Than Jesus
» Korea Execution is Tied to Clash Over Businesses
» Lung Cancer: A Cloud on China’s Polluted Horizon
 
Sub-Saharan Africa
» Zuma Tells South Africa’s Main Broadcaster Not to Report on Calls for Him to Stand Down From Presidency
 
Immigration
» Hunger Strike at Rome Migrants’ Centre Escalates
 
Culture Wars
» Militant Homosexual Larry Brinkin Hopes That You Forget
» VA Hospital Refuses Cards Saying ‘Merry Christmas’
 

A Dying Girl’s Last Wish is ‘To Hear Some Carolers.’ 10,000 People Show Up to Sing. (Video)

Over the weekend, something amazing happened in West Reading, Pennsylvania. Last week, doctors told eight year old Laney Brown that she had just two weeks to live. She’s been fighting a valiant battle against leukemia but, according to her physicians, this will be her last Christmas.

She was asked if she had any holiday wishes.

She offered two requests. First, she wanted to meet her musical idol, Taylor Swift. On Friday, as news of the little girl’s plight spread across the internet, Swift called and the two chatted via Facetime. One down. Her second wish was that, perhaps, a few carolers could come by the house and sing some Christmas songs for her and her family. Saturday night, in the street outside her home, the carolers appeared.

…all 10,000 of them.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Boston Jewish Leadership Caught in Deception Over Newton Schools Disputed Texts

Questions on the integrity of Boston Jewish communal groups, the regional office of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), Combined Jewish Philanthropies (CJP) and its affiliate, the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) were raised in a Boston Jewish newspaper report released this week. The investigation was prompted by a raging dispute with Americans for Peace and Tolerance (APT) over the Newton, Massachusetts School Board use of controversial anti-Israel and Muslim proselytizing high school texts.

The Boston Jewish Advocate (The Advocate), the weekly Jewish community newspaper of record, has published an investigation of this latest development in an 18 month battle brought to the community’s attention by Dr. Charles Jacobs and his team at Americans for Peace and Tolerance (APT), “ADL, CJP Newton reaction raises questions of integrity”. We posted on The Iconoclast about this simmering dispute in late October 2013, when Jacobs and APT took out ads in several local and regional newspapers. These were about the troubling world history course texts used by the Newton School Board in 9th and 10th grades; “The Arab World Studies Notebook” and “A Muslim Primer”.

The Advocate’s expose was triggered by a November 15, 2013 letter signed by the heads of the regional ADL, the CJP and its affiliate, the JCRC, published in the newspaper, alleging that they had conducted their own investigation on the troubling Newton school board texts.

Once again, Jacobs and the APT team as well as independent investigators have caught the Boston Jewish community leaders in a web of deception abetting anti-Israelism in both the local schools and in the public debate. This does not come as a surprise to us, nor is it an isolated case. For example, we can point to our investigations of the controversial Olive Tree Initiative at UCAL Irvine funded by an affiliate of the local Orange County, California Jewish Federation.

How can we trust Boston Jewish leaders to defend both Israel and the Jewish People?…

           — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon [Return to headlines]
 

Laney Brown Dies on Christmas Morning

Delaney ‘Laney’ Brown, 8, of West Reading, Pennsylvania passed away early Christmas morning just days after thousands sang carols to her from the street.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

McDonald’s Employee Site Bashes Fast Food

McDonald’s employee resources website once again is giving out worker advice that doesn’t seem to fit. This time, it’s about the industry it helped make ubiquitous — fast food.

“Fast foods are quick, reasonably priced, and readily available alternatives to home cooking. While convenient and economical for a busy lifestyle, fast foods are typically high in calories, fat, saturated fat, sugar, and salt and may put people at risk for becoming overweight,” reads one post on the site, which includes a picture of a hamburger and fries, two items that the fast-food giant specializes in selling.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Special African-American Santa Holds Court at Macy’s

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — Crowds in the know have been drawn to Macy’s to see the “special Santa,” an African-American Santa Claus tucked away in Santaland at the Macy’s flagship store in Herald Square. As CBS 2’s Tracee Carrasco reported, the special Santa only appears by request. But he was the sole reason Elizabeth Kittles and her family made the trip from the Bronx Monday night.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Sweet Lucy

Lucy is still full of life on the inside but her body is failing her and so is the scant and careless medical care she receives — she is too old, they say.

Sweet Lucy moves painstakingly slow and carefully, her arthritis twisting her back in pain, forcing her to slow down. The sunshine turns her hair into a fiery mane, warming and soothing her painful arthritic joints. She sits down in her favorite chair on the patio, taking in the gentle breeze with a sigh of elation and a smile when she notices the ducks floating on the nearby pond.

The first 48 years of her life were very hard and deprived under communism. When she arrived here in 1980, she was so thin and malnourished — she looked like a skeleton, with sunken eyes and pallid skin. She never returned to Romania except for brief visits. Her life was so much easier here and my beautiful daughters became our lives and her universe.

She looked back many times on her decision, analyzing everything; sometimes she had regrets, missing her siblings, but most of the time was happy to be free. She used to jump every time there was a knock on the door. She thought it was the police looking for her, although she had done nothing wrong. She was re-living the totalitarian state and the dreadful treatment of its citizens under the brutal regime of Ceausescu.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Target Hackers Stole Encrypted Bank PINs

The hackers who attacked Target Corp and compromised up to 40 million credit cards and debit cards also managed to steal encrypted personal identification numbers (PINs), according to a senior payments executive familiar with the situation.

One major U.S. bank fears that the thieves would be able to crack the encryption code and make fraudulent withdrawals from consumer bank accounts, said the executive, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the data breach is still under investigation.

Target spokeswoman Molly Snyder said “no unencrypted PIN data was accessed” and there was no evidence that PIN data has been “compromised.” She confirmed that some “encrypted data” was stolen, but declined to say if that included encrypted PINs.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

The Birth of Christ and the Birth of America Are Linked

On this, the eve of the day in which we commemorate Christ’s birth, I am reminded of a quote by John Quincy Adams. On July 4, 1837, he spoke these words:

“Why is it that, next to the birthday of the Savior of the world, your most joyous and most venerated festival returns on this day? … Is it not that, in the chain of human events, the birthday of the nation is indissolubly linked with the birthday of the Savior? That it forms a leading event in the progress of the Gospel dispensation? Is it not that the Declaration of Independence first organized the social compact on the foundation of the Redeemer’s mission upon earth. That it laid the cornerstone of human government upon the first precepts of Christianity, and gave to the world the first irrevocable pledge of the fulfillment of the prophecies announced directly from Heaven at the birth of the Savior and predicted by the greatest of the Hebrew prophets six hundred years before?”

Adams was exactly right. In fact, the United States of America is the only nation in human history established by Christian people, founded upon Biblical Natural Law principles, and dedicated to the purpose of religious liberty. This truth is easily observed within America’s earliest history.

America’s forebears first established a written covenant with God as early as November 11, 1620, when they penned The Mayflower Compact. It states in part:

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

The Political and Legal Significance of Christmas

In their effort to make a point, those who discuss law and government and politics for a living often miss the most critical — the most crucial point of all. So, as we celebrate Christmas, this is a good time to take a deep breath and revisit first principles.

We should remember the political significance of Christmas. Now don’t get distracted by arguments that early Christians latched onto a pre-existing pagan holiday to establish the date of Christmas. That may be true, but it is a distraction from what’s truly important. The important thing is the birth of the Savior, Jesus Christ.

The birth of the Savior is the most significant political event in human history. This bears repeating. The birth of Jesus Christ is the most significant political event in the history of the universe.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Why Couldn’t Healthcare.gov Validate Obama’s Identity?

The White House appears to have dropped a bombshell when it explained to the press why White House staff in Washington enrolled President Obama in Obamacare instead of Obama himself.

Officials said it was because HealthCare.gov could not verify Obama’s identity.

Here is what Ed Henry, Fox News White House correspondent, reported on air:…

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Expelled Dissident’s Wife Regains Freedom, Thanks Italy

Shalabayeva free to leave Kazakhstan

(By Paul Virgo) (ANSA) — Rome, December 24 — The wife of Kazakh oligarch and political dissident Mukhtar Ablyazov thanked Italy on Tuesday after Kazakhstan’s foreign ministry said she was free to leave the country.

Alma Shalabayeva and her then six-year-old daughter were deported on a private jet to Kazakhstan after they were seized in May in a raid on a villa in Rome by Italian police following pressure from Kazakstan, causing a major international scandal.

Italy repealed her expulsion order after it emerged Shalabayeva had the legal right to reside here.

Shalabayeva thanked Rome for its role in helping to persuade the Kazak authorities to give her back her freedom of movement in a phone call with Italian Foreign Minister Emma Bonino Tuesday. Bonino expressed “great satisfaction” and said that Italy’s embassy in Astana will “follow (the case) step by step until her departure (from Kazakstan) with her little daughter Adua”.

She said an embassy official had gone to the city of Almaty to accompany her to Astana and give the woman a visa that will enable her to return to Europe. “She’ll decide where she wants to settle,” said Bonino, who explained that she had written to her Kazak counterpart about the case.

“It’s the positive end to an affair that the (Italian) foreign ministry was working on after the (media) spotlight was turned off.

“The fact that Mrs Shalabayeva has regained her freedom of movement closes a circle that opened with the repeal of the expulsion order on July 12”. The chief of staff at the interior ministry resigned over the expulsion after it emerged that the Kazakh ambassador in Rome pressured security officials to make the raid, having ignored the normal channels via the foreign ministry.

Interior Minister and Deputy Premier Angelino Alfano survived a confidence vote in parliament over the case after he vowed that neither he, nor any other minister, knew about the expulsion until after it happened.

Earlier this month Rome prosecutors opened a probe after investigative TV program Report broadcast an anonymous interview with an alleged manager of Eni, which has extensive investments in resource-rich Kazakhstan.

In the interview, the source said Eni was pressured to act in the eventual arrest and deportation of Ablyazov’s family after Kazakh officials learned of their whereabouts in Rome this spring.

The case caused diplomatic tension between Rome and Astana, with Bonino condemning the measures taken by the Kazakh ambassador as “intrusive” and “unacceptable”.

At one point the Kazak government threatened to retaliate after there was talk that the country’s ambassador to Rome could be expelled.

“Now that the case is closed, we have to refasten relations between Italy and Kazakhstan after a period of prolonged coolness,” added Bonino. Ablyazov, a former energy minister, was arrested in France on July 31 at his sister’s house near Cannes. He has been in detention in the French city of Aix-en-Provence since, pending extradition requests from Kazakhstan, Russia and Ukraine.

Ablyazov fled to the UK in 2011, where he obtained political asylum, but was labeled a fugitive after he failed to attend hearings in an embezzlement case against him involving the BTA Bank he once ran.

He was reportedly fined 400 million dollars in damages.

Ablyazov has denied all charges against him, which he claims are aimed at removing him as a political rival to authoritarian Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Egypt Declares the Muslim Brotherhood a Terrorist Organization; Will the US Follow?

After a powerful devastating suicide bombing that tore apart a police station in Mansoura, Egypt on Tuesday Egypt’s interim government Wednesday declared the Muslim Brotherhood (MB), a terrorist organization. An Al Qaeda affiliated group that claimed responsibility for the Mansoura bombing suggested further retribution would befall Egyptian military who did not desert. The MB has reverted to violence that it had foresworn before the in June 2012 election of former President Mohammed Morsi. Morsi, along with hundreds of other MB leaders were jailed following the July 3, 2013 ouster by the Egyptian interim government. They are being brought to trial on charges of conspiracy and incitement to commit violence.[…]

           — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon [Return to headlines]
 

Egypt Labels Muslim Brotherhood a Terrorist Group

Flag_of_the_Muslim_BrotherhoodEgypt’s military-run government has declared the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist group.

The move comes months after the military removed Mohammed Morsi from the presidency. Morsi was the Muslim Brotherhood’s candidate in the 2012 election.

The new government’s minister of education read a statement announcing the decision, which will give more power to authorities to crack down on the group.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Egypt: We Thwarted a Hamas Attack

Egyptian army claims they arrested Hamas terrorist planning to plant car bomb near security target; Hamas denies allegations.

The Egyptian Army announced Wednesday that it had apprehended a Hamas terrorist in the northern Sinai Desert, Al-Arabiya reports. The terrorist was named as Jumaa Khamis Mohammed Brayha, who claimed to stem from a family powerful in Hamas’s ranks.

Hamas has denied that the detainee was among its ranks and says his name is not even included in the register of residents of the Gaza Strip.

Relations between Egypt and Hamas have deteriorated, after the ouster of terrorist faction Muslim Brotherhood from power via a military coup in July 2013.

The Egyptian government officially designated the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization earlier Wednesday, after Tuesday’s deadly attack on a security building in the city of Mansoura killed 14 people and wounded more than 100 others.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Bethlehem Strives for a Normal Christmas

As Bethlehem gears up for the biggest day of the year when thousands of tourists flock to the West Bank’s cradle of Christianity, the West Bank town is still reeling from a severe storm and economic uncertainty.

Issa Giacaman recalls when the city’s economy fell victim to extreme violence. In March, 2002, the Israeli Defense Force rolled into Bethlehem two days after a Palestinian suicide bomber killed 30 Israelis and injured 160 in Netanya. Two hundred gunmen, mostly Fatah and Palestinian Authority policemen, took refuge in the Church of the Nativity, holding 46 clergymen and up to 200 civilians hostage as the IDF closed in on the sacred site.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Bomb Attacks on Christians Kill 37 in Baghdad

Militants in Iraq targeted Christians in three separate Christmas Day bombings in Baghdad, killing at least 37 people, officials said Wednesday.

In one attack, a car bomb went off near a church in the capital’s southern Dora neighborhood, killing at least 26 people and wounding 38, a police officer said.

Earlier, two bombs ripped through a nearby outdoor market simultaneously in the Christian section of Athorien, killing 11 people and wounding 21, the officer said.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Christmas in Iraq: Dead Christians

by Raymond Ibrahim

As expected, Christmas could not pass the Islamic world without church attacks and slaughtered Christians. It’s a tradition there, from the dawn of Islam down to this very Christmas.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Dubai Promises Record-Breaking New Year’s Eve Firework Show

Dubai has promised to celebrate New Year’s Eve with a record-breaking extravaganza featuring over 400,000 fireworks, the largest display the world has ever seen, its government said.

The United Arab Emirates city state, home to the world’s tallest tower, largest man-made island and one of the world’s busiest airports, will “break the Guinness World Record for the ‘Largest Firework Display’,” a government statement said.

The six-minute show over two of its manmade islands — The Palm Jumeirah and The World — will “feature over 400,000 colourful fireworks and a series of amazing scenes designed exclusively for the event and set to a specially choreographed musical soundtrack.”

The display will be overseen by more than 200 pyrotechnicians, and the fireworks will be launched from 400 locations, it added.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Iranian Majlis (Parliament) Drafts Law to Accelerate Uranium Enrichment to 60%

In response to the introduction of the bi-partisan Nuclear Weapons Free Iran Act of 2013 last Thursday in the US Senate co-sponsored by 26 Senators, see our Iconoclast post here, the Iranian government struck back. Press TV filed a story Wednesday that 100 MPs in the Majlis, the Iranian Parliament, signed legislation to accelerate enrichment and completion of construction of the Arak heavy water reactor for production of fissile plutonium, should the Nuclear Weapons Free Iran Act be passed “Iran MPs draft bill on 60% uranium enrichment”. Press TV reported:

Iranian lawmakers have drafted a bill that would oblige the government to produce 60-percent enriched uranium in line with the requirements of the nation’s ‘civilian’ nuclear program.

Signed by 100 legislators, the draft was presented to the Presiding Board of Majlis on Wednesday.

“If the bill is approved, the government will be obliged to complete nuclear infrastructure at Fordo and Natanz [facilities] if sanctions [against Iran] are ratcheted up, new sanctions are imposed, the country’s nuclear rights are violated and the Islamic Republic of Iran’s ‘peaceful’ nuclear rights are ignored by members of P5+1,” Iranian lawmaker Seyyed Mehdi Mousavinejad said on Wednesday. […]

The Islamic regime never ceases to threaten that they will not be deterred in achievement of their nuclear program objectives. That may be triggered by possible passage of new strengthened sanctions legislation or breakdowns in negotiations towards a final agreement based in part on the P5+1 Interim Agreement reached in Geneva on November 24, 2013. Skepticism abounds about possible achievement of such a final agreement. Hence, concerns about possible military action should the process breakdown…

           — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon [Return to headlines]
 

Turkey Ministers Caglayan, Guler and Bayraktar Resign Amid Scandal

One of three Turkish cabinet ministers who have resigned over a corruption scandal, Environment Minister Erdogan Bayraktar, has urged Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to step down. Mr Bayraktar, Economy Minister Zafer Caglayan and Interior Minister Muammer Guler quit after their sons were taken into custody. All three deny any wrongdoing.

Police are investigating allegations of illicit money transfers to Iran and bribery for construction projects.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Moscow: Warmest Weather in a Century

People living in Moscow welcomed mild weather on Wednesday as the warmest Christmas Day in 100 years was recorded. The temperature in the Russian capital stayed above zero and many people went without hats and gloves and said it was positively spring-like.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Ukraine Activist and Journalist Tetyana Chornovil Beaten

A Ukrainian activist and journalist taking part in a project for DW has been assaulted after writing an article about government officials’ assets. Tetyana Chornovil was pulled from her car, beaten and left in a ditch.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Chinese Smugglers ‘Dig Tunnel to Hong Kong’

Chinese authorities have uncovered a tunnel from the mainland to Hong Kong, apparently built by smugglers. The tunnel, with concrete walls and interior lighting, started under a garage near the city of Shenzhen and stretched for 40m (130ft) under a river and into reed-beds in Hong Kong.

The authorities believe gangs intended to use it to import mobile phones and other electrical goods into Hong Kong. The semi-autonomous zone has different tariffs to the mainland. The smugglers could make huge profits by avoiding border fees and taxes.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

In China, Chairman Mao Still Bigger Than Jesus

Hundreds of thousands expected at Chairman Mao’s home village for the 120th anniversary of his birth

In this small, perfectly manicured village in the heart of the Chinese countryside, Christmas Day meant nothing. The real celebration is tomorrow, Boxing Day. For Thursday is the 120th anniversary of the birth, in the spacious home of a prosperous landowner, of the village’s most famous son: Chairman Mao.

But the villagers, and the busloads of Maoists flocking to Shaoshan, many of them accessorising their designer clothes and iPhones with green revolutionary army caps, are finding it difficult to contain their enthusiasm.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Korea Execution is Tied to Clash Over Businesses

The execution of the uncle of Kim Jong-un, North Korea’s leader, had its roots in a firefight between forces loyal to Mr. Kim and those supporting the man who was supposed to be his regent, according to accounts that are being pieced together by South Korean and American officials. The clash was over who would profit from North Korea’s most lucrative exports: coal, clams and crabs.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Lung Cancer: A Cloud on China’s Polluted Horizon

China’s doctors are beginning to speak of a link between air pollution and lung cancer. Children as young as 8 have been treated.

The youngest known lung cancer patient in eastern China is an 8-year-old girl whose home is next to a dust-choked road in heavily industrialized Jiangsu province. Another patient was a 14-year-old girl from Shanghai, the daughter of two nonsmokers with no family history of lung cancer.

“When I see patients who are not smokers with no other risk factors, we have to assume that the most probable cause is pollution,” said Bai, who works at Shanghai’s Zhongshan Hospital and is chairman of the Shanghai Respiratory Research Institute.

From 2002 to 2011, the incidence of lung cancer in Beijing rose to 63 cases per 100,000, from 39.6, according to municipal health authorities. Nationwide in the last three decades, an era in which China opened up its economy and industrialized, deaths from lung cancer have risen 465%.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Zuma Tells South Africa’s Main Broadcaster Not to Report on Calls for Him to Stand Down From Presidency

The South African public broadcaster has been warned not to report on calls for Jacob Zuma to step down as president, according to campaign groups.

A spokesman from the country’s Right2Know group said the interference ‘makes a mockery of the principle of freedom of expression’.

The claim, which is denied by the South African Broadcasting Corporation, was reported by Right2Know and fellow campaign group SOS Coalition.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Hunger Strike at Rome Migrants’ Centre Escalates

Italian officials say changes coming to immigration laws

(See related) (ANSA) — Rome, December 24 — As the number of migrants on a hunger strike at a centre in Rome continued to rise on Tuesday, a government official suggested a law should be put in place to limit the amount of time newcomers must spend in detention centres.

Deputy interior minister Filippo Bubbico told Avvenire, a Catholic newspaper, that secondary detention centers (CIE) can be a “powderkeg” for violence when migrants are held too long without determining their backgrounds. “The CIE are a powderkeg, since they contain both migrants who have not committed any crime and foreign former detainees who have not yet been identified,” said Bubbico. “The latter need to be separated from other migrants and quickly sent back to their own countries”.

He explained that under Italian law, migrants can be held for up to 18 months, which exceeds European regulations.

It is also an affront to the dignity of migrants, he added.

As Bubbico spoke, migrants continued their protest on Tuesday in the CIE in Ponte Galeria, near the Italian capital.

Nine migrants sewed their mouths shut on Monday to draw attention to conditions in the centers. As well, the number of migrants on a hunger strike in the Ponte Galeria center rose to 37 on Tuesday from 30 on Monday.

Vincenzo Lutrelli, the director of the center, said the situation was calm Tuesday morning despite the growing numbers of protestors.

He suggested the migrants refusing food are drinking healthy beverages and “are being sustained by nourishment provided by the center. “Since the protest has been underway since Saturday, I can assure that none of them are in critical condition”.

Lutrelli added that he hopes the protesters would call a halt for Christmas on Wednesday, especially following pledges by Prime Minister Enrico Letta to act quickly on changing the country’s immigration laws.

On Monday, Letta promised to add to the government’s January agenda the subject of revising current immigration law and the country’s system for receiving migrants.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Militant Homosexual Larry Brinkin Hopes That You Forget

[WARNING: Disturbing Content.]

Just the other day I was scanning the Internet to see what was going on in our world, and lo and behold a man named Larry Brinkin popped up before my eyes. For those that do not know his name, Larry Brinkin is a “gay rights” icon.

Brinkin is a career lawyer and a homosexual activist who was crowned by the homosexual community when he led the effort to legalize same-sex “marriage” in California. He is also the man that was making $135,000 per year working for the human rights commission in San Francisco. As a matter of fact, the board of supervisors even established a “Larry Brinkin” week in February of 2010 in his honor.

But did you know …

The San Francisco Weekly reported, “Larry Brinkin, San Francisco’s well-known gay rights activist, appeared in court this afternoon where he pleaded not guilty to six felony charges of sending and receiving images of child pornography…

So maybe you are asking yourself like I am, what was the court’s verdict? Where has he been jailed? I even took the time to call the San Francisco Police Department to ask the question, all to no avail!

They simply said that they had no idea.

As I Googled results on Larry Brinkin for an update, I couldn’t find anything but one lone outlet that had the same questions I did — only to find that Larry Brinkin is a close associate of State Sen. Mark Leno, another homosexual and dedicated gay-rights activist, who has for many years kept the laws in California soft on child molesters and child pornography.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

VA Hospital Refuses Cards Saying ‘Merry Christmas’

“Merry Christmas” cards are banned because the VA will only accept “non-religious cards.”

Boys and girls at Grace Academy in Prosper, Tex., spent most of last Friday making homemade Christmas cards for bedridden veterans at the VA hospital in Dallas.

Fourth-grader Gracie Brown was especially proud of her card, hoping it would “make their day because their family might live far away, and they might not have somebody to celebrate Christmas with.”

“I’d like them to know they’ve not been forgotten and somebody wanted to say thank you,” Gracie told MyFoxDFW.com.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

15 thoughts on “Gates of Vienna News Feed 12/25/2013

  1. In Iraq, Christians once again have become victims of Islamic fanatics. How much more Christian blood must be spilled before the ruling elites and mainstream media of the West pay some attention to this? So far, they have been much more concerned with the (largely mythical) perils of ‘Islamophobia’.

  2. “The mujahideen of Iraq celebrated Christmas by setting off three separate bombs in Christian areas of Baghdad. At least 37 people were killed, and dozens more wounded.”

    The Neo-Con legacy…

    • I looked at the photo, this woman really looks like she were taking part in a satanist ritual.

      I wonder what makes her tick? What sort of psychological problems must she be suffering from to behave in such an insane and revolting fashion? It would be most interesting to have her examined and to read the experts’ report.

      What is more amazing, how can such obviously deviant behaviour be tolerated and even encouraged in a civilised country?

  3. This is a shame. I greatly admire Femen for their campaigns against Islamist misogyny, and the Cardinal has some antiquated ideas, but this was not the time or place.

    • Don’t you think that these poor women are simply mad? Would any sane person behave in such a way? And doesn’t the obsessive wish to take off one’s clothes in public constitute a symptom of a mental disease?

  4. Quote:
    (See related) (ANSA) — Rome, December 24 — As the number of migrants on a hunger strike at a centre in Rome continued to rise on Tuesday, a government official suggested a law should be put in place to limit the amount of time newcomers must spend in detention centres.
    end

    What are they protesting?
    Not being European?
    Since when does Europe have the capacity to absorb migrants?
    Why did they think their space, culturally and otherwise, was infinite?
    One small peninsula is supposed to support hordes and hordes and hordes of “refugees” and “migrants.”

  5. The hunger strike is a great idea, keep it up for a few months and the world will be a better place!
    As for the queer activist they are calling for the lowering of the age of consent! soon we will be called pedaphobes!

  6. I cry for my fellow vets., but most of all I cry for the little children who have been confused and rebutted for trying to give love and comfort to those whose courage and sacrifice have made it possible for them to have their Christmases within the warmth, freedom and safety of a caring family.

    Who, I ask as a secular humanist, has such a hard heart and such a fear of offending those whom are the enemy of my Christian brothers and sisters that they could do this thing to caring, innocent minds.

    How are those of us who are the children’s parents, relatives, friends and fellow citizens going to explain this to them.? And why must we!?

    It may well be the ‘season of good will and peace to all men’ but I suspect that that is no longer the way forward, and there I will leave it. For the moment.

  7. It reminds me that the phrase in the Gloria is no longer:
    “peace on earth, good will towards men”
    the phrase goes now:
    “on earth, peace to men of good will.”
    The Church was correct to change its liturgy to make it conform better to the writing of Jerome.

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