Gates of Vienna News Feed 12/8/2013

A British man was arrested and held for eight hours after he posted jokes about Nelson Mandela online. The one-liners were posted while the former president of South Africa was still ill, before he died. Staffordshire police arrested the man who posted the jokes, and then released him after fingerprinting him and taking a DNA sample. Later he was informed that there was insufficient evidence to bring a charge against him.

In other news, six million Italians — about 10% of the population — are now living with job insecurity. About 25% of them have given up looking for work.

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

Thanks to Fjordman, Insubria, JD, Jerry Gordon, JP, Steen, Takuan Seiyo, 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
» Greenspan Says Bitcoin a Bubble Without Intrinsic Currency Value
» Italians Tightening Their Belts Due to Crisis, Says Censis
» Jobs Crisis Driving More Italians Abroad
» Obama: Hole U.S. ‘Digging out of’ Requires Billions More in Unemployment Benefits
» Survey Says Six Million Italians Living With Job Insecurity
» This is How You Create Jobs in America
» What is Bitcoin?
 
USA
» 70% of Calfornia’s Doctors Expected to Boycott ObamaCare
» Florida Cop, Marine Vet, Arrested for Wearing ‘Anonymous’ Mask Warns of ‘A War Coming’
» ‘He Was Not an American!’: Sheriff Defies Obama’s Order to Lower Flag for Mandela
» Obama Mum on Pearl Harbor, Still Working on Narcissistic Selfie
» Police State: County Censors Government Employee Who Dares Criticize ObamaCare
» Texas College Student Shot Dead by Campus Police Officer
» Those Who Can’t, Govern
 
Canada
» Why Canada and the U.S. Should Merge, Eh?
 
Europe and the EU
» Italian President Criticises Pessimism About the South
» Italy: CIA Snatch Imam Sentenced to Six Years for Terrorism
» Only 30% of Italian High School Students Go to University
» Pope Francis I: Your Exhortation is Marxist, Part 2
» UK: Locked up for Eight Hours for Telling Nelson Mandela Joke
» UK: Public Demands Leniency for Royal Marine Who Murdered Taliban Fighter: Poll Says He Should Have His Sentence Halved
 
North Africa
» Egyptians’ Right of Protest is Now Regulated or Obstructed?
 
Israel and the Palestinians
» A Thought Experiment: Role Playing as Israeli PM
 
Middle East
» Bomb Attacks Across Iraq Kill 30, Wound Nearly 100
» British Soldiers to Face 11 More ‘Trials’ Into the Deaths of Iraqi Civilians Following a ‘Human Rights’ Ruling by the High Court
» Mass Murder in the Middle East is Funded by Our Friends the Saudis
» Syria Mess May Spawn Islamic Emirate World Must Deal With, Says Iraq’s Top Diplomat
 
Australia — Pacific
» Aussie Halal Burger Chain Plans to Conquer the World
» Report Exposes Online Hate Targeting Muslims
 
Sub-Saharan Africa
» Kenya: Fresh Ethnic Violence Erupts in the North
» S. African Troops Ordered to “Urgently” Report for Duty
 
Immigration
» ‘Send Them All Back Home’: UKIP Councillor and Key Farage Ally in Astonishing Racist Video Rant… Then Insists: ‘I Stand by Every Word’
» UK Independence Party Councillor Smeared by British Press Mail
» UK: Ed Miliband Accused of Contempt for Voters After His Polling Guru Said Their Anti-Immigration Views Made Him ‘Depressed’
» UKIP Councillor Victoria Ayling Defends Immigrant Comments
 
Culture Wars
» “Robbing” And the “War on Christmas”
 
General
» Seed Diversity Has Collapsed More Than 12-Fold Since Early 1900s
» Volcanoes Melting Antarctic Ice
» You’ve Been Scheduled for Annihilation
 

Greenspan Says Bitcoin a Bubble Without Intrinsic Currency Value

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said Bitcoin prices are unsustainably high after surging 89-fold in a year and that the virtual money isn’t currency.”It’s a bubble,” Greenspan, 87, said today in a Bloomberg Television interview from Washington. “It has to have intrinsic value. You have to really stretch your imagination to infer what the intrinsic value of Bitcoin is. I haven’t been able to do it. Maybe somebody else can.”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Italians Tightening Their Belts Due to Crisis, Says Censis

Less spending on restaurants, movies, gas for cars and scooters

(ANSA) — Rome, December 6 — Italians have been tightening their belts because of the economic crisis, says a survey released Friday by the market researcher group Censis.

It found that more Italians are avoiding waste and finding ways to save money as Italy’s worst recession in 20 years continues, Censis said in its annual report.

“The crisis has brought a new sobriety,” to individuals’ budgets, said the report.

It found that 76% of people surveyed said they watched for bargains and promotions at the supermarket, while 53% said they were reducing their gas consumption by travelling less by car and scooters.

Another 68% said they were reducing spending on leisure activities including going to the movies and 45% have cut back on eating out in restaurants.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Jobs Crisis Driving More Italians Abroad

Country ‘profoundly weakened’ by economic crisis, says report

(By Sandra Cordon) (ANSA) — Rome, December 6 — The number of Italians who have moved abroad to seek work beyond their recession-bound country jumped by 28.8% last year compared with 2011, according to the annual report of the Censis research agency released Friday. In a wide-ranging report on employment, income, and household finances, the Censis research showed that over the past decade, the number of people leaving Italy more than doubled, reaching 106,000 from 50,000.

But the increase was particularly dramatic between 2011 and 2012, according to Censis, which surveyed 1,200 households.

That coincides with a period of serious crisis in Italy, as the worst recession in 20 years caught the nation in an economic vise of rising unemployment, rising costs and diminishing expectations and optimism among many.

Unemployment has been steadily rising to a record 12.5% in recent months, while joblessness among people under age 35 has skyrocketed to more than 40%.

The pessimism in the survey reflected those statistics and Censis said it found that “much of the country” is in a situation of “fragility” because of difficult economic circumstances. Said Censis: “The year 2013 ended with the sense of a pervasive uncertainty about the future”.

Censis also reported that about 72% of people who have left Italy said they moved for employment, and more than one million households said that at least one family member is living abroad. It also found that 44% of the young people living outside Italy have no plans to return to their home country to live while almost 25% are unsure what they will do.

Censis probed reasons why people had decided to move from Italy and almost 55% said they were frustrated by what they saw as an employment system based on personal relationships rather than merit.

A further 44% said they were troubled by what they saw as cronyism while others cited poor quality of services and a waste of public money as factors they dislike about Italy.

Meanwhile, fully one in four households said they were struggling to pay their bills and taxes, while fully 70% admitted they would have trouble coping with a unexpected and significant expense.

Economic uncertainty is causing “worry and unease” in many families, the report found, adding that 69% said their spending power has fallen this year.

It added that falling consumer spending was a symptom of a country that was “under stress”, “lost”, and “profoundly weakened” by the economic crisis that started five years ago.

Contributing to the stress felt by many Italians, fully six million people are believed to be living with job insecurity, including unstable contracts and under-employment, said Censis.

It added that another 4.3 million people actively searching for work cannot find employment, and about 1.6 million have given up the hunt.

Another 14% of Italian workers are afraid of losing their job, about 14.3% fear a reduction in their pay, and about 24.4% fear that conditions at work will worsen.

As a result, Italians have been tightening their belts with more people saying they are actively seeking ways to cut spending. Censis found that 76% of people surveyed said they watched for bargains and promotions at the supermarket, while 53% said they were reducing their gas consumption by travelling less by car and scooters.

Another 68% said they had reduced spending on leisure activities including going to the movies and 45% have cut back on eating out in restaurants “The crisis has brought a new sobriety,” to individuals’ budgets, said the report.

Its findings came at the same time the Bank of Italy announced that Italy’s tax burden climbed to 44% of gross domestic product in 2012, compared to 42.5% in 2011.

At that level, Italy had the fourth-highest tax burden in the eurozone, alongside Finland, and the sixth-highest in the European Union as a whole.

The high tax level is widely seen as a factor in the country’s poor economic performance over the last decade.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Obama: Hole U.S. ‘Digging out of’ Requires Billions More in Unemployment Benefits

Although the jobless rate in November fell to its lowest level since he took office, President Obama called on Republican lawmakers Saturday to spend tens of billions on unemployment benefits that are set to expire this month.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Survey Says Six Million Italians Living With Job Insecurity

4.3 million people searching for work, 1.6 million have given up

(ANSA) — Rome, December 6 — Six million Italians are living with job insecurity, including unstable contracts and under-employment, the Censis research agency said Friday. In its annual report, the agency said that another 4.3 million people actively searching for work cannot find employment, and about 1.6 million have given up the hunt.

“The year 2013 ended with the sense of a pervasive uncertainty about the future,” said Censis.

It added that 14% of Italian workers are afraid of losing their job, about 14.3% fear a reduction in their pay and about 24.4% fear that conditions at work will worsen.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

This is How You Create Jobs in America

“The measure of the wealth of a nation is indicated by the measure of its protection of its industry; the measure of the poverty of a nation is marked by the degree in which it neglects and abandons the care of its own industry, leaving it exposed to the action of foreign powers.” Congressman Henry Clay, 1824

[…]

Free trade. The toxic financial suicide that has killed our most important job sectors: manufacturing, industrial and agriculture. Over the past twenty years since NAFTA (No American Factories Taking Applications), Americans have continued to reelect the same traitors back to the Outlaw Congress (Boehner, Pelosi to name two) who have destroyed the middle class in this country while enriching themselves and their corporate campaign donors. Thank Newt Gingrich for pushing it through Congress, Comrade Bill Clinton for signing that unconstitutional “agreement” into law and Rush Limbaugh for pumping it’s passage on his radio show. Millions and millions and millions of good, secure jobs gone; NAFTA was just the beginning of the carnage as more and more “free” trade treaties have been passed.

China is NOT Our Friend

“If you believe that China is our “friend”, then you have been deceived. While U.S. politicians, the mainstream media and the U.S. military may consider China to be a “friend” and a “partner”, the Chinese see things very, very differently. As you will see below, documents produced at the highest levels of the Chinese government make it abundantly clear that China considers the United States to be a mortal enemy.”

Damn those members of the Outlaw Congress who granted MFN (Most Favored Nation) trade status to our mortal enemy, communist China. They scheme to financially ruin us while smiling for photo ops. They ship us products that make Americans sick if not kill them and our pets. It is the intention of Communist China to destroy the U.S. while the American people continue to throw buckets of money at them by buying the cheap crap they ship here. STUPID Americans who sell property and businesses to communists in China. All for filthy lucre while selling out their own country. Read the articles below:

[…]

The impostor in the White House is pushing like the Devil he is to finally destroy this country through a very secretive trade treaty. Make no mistake: Dirty Harry Reid and the other traitors in the U.S. Senate and likely John Boehner who has given Barry Soetoro aka Obama everything he’s wanted in trade treaties the past few years selling out his constituents in Ohio as well as the rest of America, will be happy to hand that Marxist what he wants:

Obama’s Super Secret Treaty Which Will Push The Deindustrialization Of America Into Overdrive — Trans-Pacific Partnership. So secret most members of the Outlaw Congress can’t even look at the language.

“Did you know that Barack Obama has been secretly negotiating the most important trade agreement since the formation of the World Trade Organization? Did you know that this agreement will impose very strict Internet copyright rules, ban all “Buy American” laws, give Wall Street banks much more freedom to trade risky derivatives and force even more domestic manufacturing offshore? If you have not heard about this treaty, don’t feel bad. Obama has refused to even give Congress a copy of the draft agreement and he has banned members of Congress from attending the negotiations. The plan is to keep this treaty secret until the very last minute and then to railroad it through Congress and have it signed into law by October.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

What is Bitcoin?

Bitcoin is a new currency that was created in 2009 by an unknown person using the alias Satoshi Nakamoto. Transactions are made with no middle men — meaning, no banks! There are no transaction fees and no need to give your real name. More merchants are beginning to accept them: You can buy webhosting services, pizza or even manicures.

Future in question

No one knows what will become of bitcoin. It is mostly unregulated, but that could change. Governments are concerned about taxation and their lack of control over the currency.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

70% of Calfornia’s Doctors Expected to Boycott ObamaCare

“We need some recognition that we’re doing a service to the community. But we can’t do it for free. And we can’t do it at a loss. No other business would do that,” exclaims the president of the California Medical Association, as The Washington Examiner reports, independent insurance brokers estimate 70% of California’s 104,000 licensed doctors are boycotting the exchange.

“The Covered California board says we have plenty of doctors, and they allege they have 85 percent of doctors participating, but they’ve shown no numbers,” and if a large number of doctors either balk at participating in the exchange or retire, the state’s medical system could be overwhelmed…

“Some physicians have been put in the network and they were included basically without their permission,” Lisa Folberg said. She is a CMA’s vice president of medical and regulatory Policy.

“They may be listed as actually participating, but not of their own volition,”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Florida Cop, Marine Vet, Arrested for Wearing ‘Anonymous’ Mask Warns of ‘A War Coming’

A veteran South Florida police officer and former Marine arrested late last month for refusing to remove his Guy Fawkes mask near an anti-Obamacare demonstration. He has now come forward to say what motivated him.

Ericson Harrell, 39, a 15-year veteran of the North Miami Beach Police Department who spent four years in the Marines, was driving through Plantation when he came upon the rally, according to the Sun Sentinel. He parked his vehicle, donned his cape and mask and grabbed his banner — an inverted U.S. flag, signifying distress. .

When police later stopped him and told him to remove the mask, Harrell said he politely refused, asserting his First Amendment rights to free speech and peaceful assembly.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

‘He Was Not an American!’: Sheriff Defies Obama’s Order to Lower Flag for Mandela

For one South Carolina sheriff, defying President Obama’s order to lower the American flag to half-staff in honor of former South African President Nelson Mandela is simple: Mandela “was not an American.”

Pickens County Sheriff Rick Clark took toFacebook Friday to explain to seemingly supportive residents why he will not lower the flag at the Sheriff’s Office for Mandela, despite Obama’s Dec. 5 Presidential Proclamation:

I usually don’t post political items, but today is different. I received this notification today, “As a mark of respect for the memory of Nelson Mandela, the President orders that the flag of the United States be flown at half-staff effective immediately until sunset, December 9, 2013.

Nelson Mandela did great things for his country and was a brave man but he was not an AMERICAN!!! The flag should be lowered at our Embassy in S. Africa, but not here. Our flag is at half staff today for a Deputy in the low country who died going to help his fellow Deputy. He deserves the honor. I have ordered that the flag here at my office back up after tomorrow’s mourning of Pearl Harbor Day!

On Thursday, Obama took the rare step of ordering all American flags on government buildings lowered to half-staff until Monday, Dec. 9 in honor of the death of a foreign leader.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Obama Mum on Pearl Harbor, Still Working on Narcissistic Selfie

Saturday marked the 72nd anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, and while the nation remembers the “day which will live in infamy,” apparently the Obama White House — not so much.

As of noon, neither the official Twitter account of the White House nor President Obama’s had acknowledged the attack on the base in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, even though that is the state of the president’s birth, and the state he will spend Christmas in.

Looking back at the tweets from the White House and Obama over the last month on days of remembrance, perhaps an easy explanation for the administration’s failure to recognize Pearl Harbor might be because there is no official photograph of the president at the site.

Consider the narcissist-in-chief‘s recent tweets, all with pictures of Obama, for:

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Police State: County Censors Government Employee Who Dares Criticize ObamaCare

A California county has banned a veteran employee from criticizing the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act because a coworker who overheard the criticism was offended.

The employee is Norina Mooney, who has logged some 20 years of work experience with Santa Clara County, the epicenter of Silicon Valley.

According to Mooney’s attorneys with the Pacific Justice Institute, she made some water-cooler talk with a fellow employee about the high number people who have had their insurance policies canceled under Obamacare.

Later, a supervisor called Mooney into a private meeting and allegedly dressed her down for the attempt at chitchat because an unidentified person had overheard the small talk and been offended.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Texas College Student Shot Dead by Campus Police Officer

A college student from Baytown is dead after a shooting involving a campus police officer at an off-campus apartment in San Antonio Thursday.

It’s news that has shocked two communities — the shooting death of 23-year-old Cameron Redus by an officer with the University of the Incarnate Word Police Department in San Antonio.

“He’s not an aggressive person at all, so the story just doesn’t really make sense to any of us,” said Sarah Davis, one of Redus’ longtime friends.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Those Who Can’t, Govern

For much of last year, a standard trope of President Obama’s speechwriters was that there were certain things only government could do. “That’s how we built this country — together,” he declared. “We constructed railroads and highways, the Hoover Dam and the Golden Gate Bridge. We did those things together.” As some of us pointed out, for the cost of Obama’s 2009 stimulus bill alone, you could have built 1,567 Golden Gate Bridges — or one mega — Golden Gate Bridge stretching from Boston to just off the coast of Ireland. Yet there isn’t a single bridge, or a single dam (“You will never see another federal dam,” his assistant secretary of the interior assured an audience of environmentalists). Across the land, there was not a thing for doting network correspondents in hard hats to stand in front of and say, “Obama built this.”

Until now, that is. Obamacare is as close to a Hoover Dam as latter-day Big Government gets. Which is why its catastrophic launch is sobering even for those of us who’ve been saying for five years it would be a disaster. It’s as if at the ribbon-cutting the Hoover Dam cracked open and washed away the dignitaries; as if the Golden Gate Bridge was opened to traffic with its central span missing; as if Apollo 11 had taken off for the moon but landed on Newfoundland. Obama didn’t have to build a dam or a bridge or a spaceship, just a database and a website. This is his world, the guys he hangs with, the zeitgeist he surfs so dazzlingly, Apple and Google, apps and downloads. But his website’s a sclerotic dump, and the database is a hacker’s heaven, and all that’s left is the remorseless snail mail of millions and millions of cancellation letters.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Why Canada and the U.S. Should Merge, Eh?

It’s past time for the two countries to eliminate their border

When Americans think about Canada—and that doesn’t happen often—they usually think of us as the nice, predictable guy next door who never plays his stereo too loud. Even Rob Ford, Toronto’s ranting, crack-smoking mayor, has barely dented our squeaky-clean image. But Americans shouldn’t just think more about Canada. They should consider building on the two countries’ free-trade deal and forming a more perfect North American union.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Italian President Criticises Pessimism About the South

Says people should look at ‘positive side’

(ANSA) — Rome, December 6 — Italian President Giorgio Napolitano encouraged people to look at the “positive side of the situation” in Naples and southern Italy in an interview published Friday.

He said number of initiatives make him “look with confidence to the resources and potential of the country, and also Naples and the south, about which heavily diffused images too often tend toward cynicism,” said Napolitano, who was in Naples for the inauguration of a new office of the Telethon Institute of Genetics and Medicine, a national medical research centre. “I am thinking of the campaign sowing panic and discrediting Naples with serious consequences for its economy, which started from the grave facts of the Land of Fires,” Napolitano told Naples newspaper Il Mattino.

The Land of Fires is a nickname given to a stretch of territory between Naples and its northern neighbor Caserta which received the appellation from characteristic fires of burning waste.

The Neapolitan Camorra mafia — especially its Casalesi clan — has been accused of illegally dumping toxic industrial rubbish in fields or by the side of roads, and then often setting fires to dispose of it, spreading toxins through the air and on land, including dioxins. Illicit dumping of industrial waste, mainly hauled down from northern Italy and northern Europe, has gone on for many years and is thought to contribute to elevated cancer incidence in the Campania region as well as to contaminate produce grown there.

A 2011 report by the Campania regional environmental agency ARPA identified a three-million-square-metre area acutely tainted by toxic refuse. The nickname Land of Fires was picked up and widely diffused after Roberto Saviano wrote about it in his runaway bestselling non-fiction book “Gomorrah” (2006) about the Casalesi clan of the Naples-based Camorra mafia, which was later made into an award-winning film.

“The severity of this problem has been well-defined and confronted in a government decree with the Campania region,” said Napolitano. “I am pained by generalizations that stem from the extreme ease with which even the most dubious versions of certainly complex problems are presented in injurious terms and with total pessimism,” Napolitano added.

Napolitano also took offense at accusations that the ancient Roman ruins of Pompeii were being neglected when “a great restoration project” has been launched with public funds.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: CIA Snatch Imam Sentenced to Six Years for Terrorism

Nasr’s group ‘planned attacks in Italy and abroad’

(ANSA) — Milan, December 6 — A Muslim cleric whose extraordinary rendition by the CIA from Milan almost 11 years ago led to the world’s first judicial examination of the controversial practice in the so-called war on terror got a jail term of six years for international terrorism Friday. A Milan judge ruled the former imam in the northern Italian city, Hassan Mustafa Omar Nasr, also known as Abu Omar, was part of an association “which aimed to carry out acts of violence with terrorist ends in Italy and abroad”.

Nasr and 13 others, many of whom have been jailed, acted for the Ansar al Islam group which had “a criminal plan shared with similar organisations active in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East,” the judge said.

Nasr, who was snatched off a Milan street by US intelligence agents in February 2003, is in Egypt and did not attend the trial.

In September 2012 Italy’s top court of appeals upheld the convictions of 22 CIA agents and a former US air force officer, Joseph L. Romano, for the abduction.

The Court of Cassation confirmed the seven-year sentences for 22 of them and a nine-year term for former Milan station chief Robert Seldon Lady.

Italian President Giorgio Napolitano later pardoned Romano.

The CIA officers were formally facing extradition and Lady was arrested in Panama in July but freed a day later when the US government stepped in. He asked Italy for a pardon in September.

On December 16 the Cassation Court will start hearing the final appeals of the then head and No.2 of Italian secret service agency SISMI, Nicolò Pollari and Marco Mancini, respectively against a 10-year and a nine-year sentence.

Nasr, an Islamist suspected of recruiting jihadi fighters, disappeared from a Milan street on February 17, 2003 and emerged from an Egyptian prison four years later claiming he had been tortured.

Italian courts have awarded him one million euros in damages.

None of the CIA operatives has appeared in court.

Nasr was snatched by a team of CIA operatives with the help of SISMI — later renamed as AISE — and taken to a NATO base in Ramstein, Germany, en route to Cairo.

In the closely watched case, the agents’ terms were lengthened from 5-8 years to 7-9 years in December 2010.

The case caused friction between Italy and the United States, which voiced its “disappointment” with the 2010 verdict.

Extraordinary rendition was first authorised by former American president Bill Clinton in the 1990s and stepped up when his successor George W. Bush declared war on terror after the September 11, 2001 attacks by Al-Qaeda.

Successive Italian governments denied all knowledge of the case and consistently ruled out the possibility of extradition.

The trial of Nasr claimed headlines worldwide and stoked discussion of rendition, which was extended by President Barack Obama in 2008 under the proviso that detainees’ rights should be respected.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Only 30% of Italian High School Students Go to University

17% drop out in first year

(ANSA) — Rome, December 6 — Only 30% of Italy’s high school graduates go to university and 17% of freshmen drop out in the first year, according to annual reports published on Friday by Censis research agency and association Almadiploma.

According to the survey carried out by Almadiploma, an association of Italian high schools which polls graduates to help them find work or choose colleges, about 44% of students regretted the high school they chose though 80% said they were nevertheless satisfied with their degree, which according to Almadiploma was a sign of the fact 19-year-olds value their education and work prospects more than their school experience per se.

The survey also found that 48% of high school graduates worked as trainees and 31% worked abroad, mostly in the UK, France, Spain and Ireland, during their five years in high school.

About 70% of graduates polled used Facebook or other social networks daily.

Roughly 50% of graduates said their knowledge of written English was ‘quite good’ while fluency in French, Spanish and German was more limited to, respectively, 14%, 11% and 3%.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Pope Francis I: Your Exhortation is Marxist, Part 2

It is obvious when reading the pre-Thanksgiving comments of Pope Francis I, that the words of President Ronald W. Reagan stuck in the new Pope’s mind as he notes the failed “trickle down” theories of the former President. The Pope attributes “trickle down” to capitalism and thus because it did not work it must be the fault of capitalism.

The question, of course, is: Did Reagan’s policies fail? Or did a corrupt political environment prevent them from being properly implemented?

The Pope said: “Some people continue to defend trickle-down theories which assume that economic growth, encouraged by a free market, will inevitably succeed in bringing about greater justice and inclusiveness in the world. This opinion, which has never been confirmed by the facts, expresses a crude and naïve trust in the goodness of those wielding economic power and in the sacralized workings of the prevailing economic system.”

So sayeth Pope Francis I of the Holy Mother Church. No liberal Marxist will disagree with such a statement… and a few who call themselves conservative (but are really just liberal Republicans) will agree, too.

Actually, the assumption that economic growth that is encouraged by a free market inevitably brings about greater justice and inclusiveness was tested through American history until the establishment of the Federal Reserve System in 1913. And this nation thrived under that system! The capitalist free market system created the most dynamic economy in world history, Pope Francis. Surely you are not a student of economic history if you are making such broadly inaccurate statements. The American capitalist economy you denigrate provided more jobs to Europe’s poor than any phenomenon in world history.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Locked up for Eight Hours for Telling Nelson Mandela Joke

A SHOP boss was arrested and quizzed by police for eight hours for cracking Nelson Mandela jokes on the internet.

Neil Phillips said he was fingerprinted, DNA-swabbed and had his computers seized.

The 44-year-old was held after posting: “My PC takes so long to shut down I’ve decided to call it Nelson Mandela.”

Another read: “Free Mandela — switch the power off.”

But police swooped after a councillor complained over the gags about the former South African leader, who passed away on Thursday, aged 95.

Mr Phillips who insisted he meant no harm, said: “It was an awful experience. I was fingerprinted, they took DNA and my computer.

“It was a couple of jokes, Bernard Manning type,” he added. “There was no hatred. What happened to freedom of speech? I think they over-reacted massively.”

Mr Phillips, who runs Crumbs sandwich shop in Rugeley, Staffs, was arrested after complaints by Cllr Tim Jones about the one-liners, aired when the anti-apartheid hero was critically ill…

           — Hat tip: Takuan Seiyo [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Public Demands Leniency for Royal Marine Who Murdered Taliban Fighter: Poll Says He Should Have His Sentence Halved

The Royal Marine jailed for at least ten years for murdering a badly wounded Taliban insurgent should have his sentence halved to a maximum of five years.

That is the overwhelming view of the public in a poll conducted for The Mail on Sunday — the first survey since the sentence was imposed on Sergeant Alexander Blackman…

Sir Gerald, MP for Army garrison town Aldershot, told The Mail on Sunday: ‘The Afghanistan war is as brutal as any we have seen — and only one side is fighting in accordance with the Geneva Convention. The Taliban routinely string the limbs of our dead soldiers up on trees.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Egyptians’ Right of Protest is Now Regulated or Obstructed?

Egypt’s new protest law went into use last week. The law has been divisive. Muslim Brotherhood thugs and Islamists are flat-out against it preferring chaos and spontaneity. Families are pleased because it safeguards their well-being. Pro-democracy protesters see the value in a law to protect citizens and don’t appear to be threatened, but there is disagreement…

In the five months since Morsi’s arrest in the name of liberty and the pursuit of a secular state, there has been no real effort to rid Egypt of the effects of Morsi’s rule and the Brotherhood’s hyper-religious focus to further Islamic supremacy. The reason for this is that following General Al Sisi alignment of the military with freedom fighters and arrest of Morsi in early July in accordance with majority sentiment, he appointed Egypt’s High Constitutional Court president, Adly Monsour, to lead the country. Al Sisi took his direction from Egypt’s former Sadat-Mubarak constitution ignoring Morsi’s constitution as a debacle.

Monsour then appointed Dr. El Baradei, a Muslim Brotherhood sympathizer, as his vice-president. The two proceeded to appoint the president of the new interim government, Prime Minister Hazem Beblawi — another Islamist sympathizer. The Prime Minister chose his cabinet — the majority with roots in the Islamic cause. They are insiders doing the bidding inside the government for the Muslim Brotherhood and are receptive to foreign interference pursuing the return of the Muslim Brotherhood to power.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

A Thought Experiment: Role Playing as Israeli PM

Fred Leder, from Fairfield, Connecticut issued a challenge for me to respond to a thought experiment. He asked that I play the role of Israel’s Prime Minister confronted with a deepening divide with the Obama Administration over the latter’s engagement with nuclear Iran and simultaneously endeavoring to facilitate a final status agreement resolving the dilemma of the Israeli Palestinian conflict. This thought experiment challenge came on the cusp of the 10th Annual Saban Forum at the Brookings Institution in Washington, DC with the topic: “Discussing U.S.-Israel Relations in a Dynamic Middle East”.

Major appearances by key figures in this Forum included Israel’s Foreign Minister, Avigdor Lieberman, US Secretary of State Kerry, President Obama and Israeli PM Netanyahu.

Watch their respective Saban Forum presentations and Question and Answer sessions here:…

           — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon [Return to headlines]
 

Bomb Attacks Across Iraq Kill 30, Wound Nearly 100

(Reuters) — Car bombs killed at least 30 people across Iraq on Sunday and wounded nearly a hundred, with attackers mainly targeting busy commercial streets in the capital, police sources said. The deadliest attack took place in the predominantly Shi’ite Muslim district of Bayaa in Baghdad when a bomb in a parked vehicle detonated near car workshops, killing seven and wounding 14, the sources said…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

British Soldiers to Face 11 More ‘Trials’ Into the Deaths of Iraqi Civilians Following a ‘Human Rights’ Ruling by the High Court

Eleven more inquiries are to be held into the conduct of British soldiers while serving in Iraq, it has emerged.

It comes after the High Court ruled that any allegations of Iraqi civilians dying in British custody must be investigated under human rights laws.

In response, the Ministry of Defence has ordered that inquest-style hearings are held into the deaths of 11 Iraqi civilians who were killed while British troops operated in the country after the invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein in 2003…

The High Court did reject demands for open inquiries but its ruled that the deaths must still be investigated under Article Two of the European Convention on Human Rights — the right to life.

This has now opened the way for 160 further cases of alleged British involvement in the deaths of Iraqis to be brought forward for inquiry.

Hearings could also be held into nearly 800 allegations that British troops broke Article Three of the Convention on Human Rights prohibiting torture…

Colonel Tim Collins, who led 1st Bn the Royal Irish Regiment during the Iraq invasion, told the Sunday Telegraph: ‘The Human Rights Act has a lot to answer for. It has turned into a bean feast for ambulance-chasing lawyers. They are trying to apply the rules that you would to a fairground, to Her Majesty’s Armed Forces.’

While Julian Brazier MP, a former SAS reservist who sits on the Commons defence committee, told the newspaper: ‘I am firmly in favour of the military processes that are in place examining allegations of breaches of the Geneva Convention. This feast for human rights lawyers is an abuse of process, demoralising for the Armed Forces.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Mass Murder in the Middle East is Funded by Our Friends the Saudis

World View: Everyone knows where al-Qa’ida gets its money, but while the violence is sectarian, the West does nothing

Donors in Saudi Arabia have notoriously played a pivotal role in creating and maintaining Sunni jihadist groups over the past 30 years. But, for all the supposed determination of the United States and its allies since 9/11 to fight “the war on terror”, they have showed astonishing restraint when it comes to pressuring Saudi Arabia and the Gulf monarchies to turn off the financial tap that keeps the jihadists in business.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Syria Mess May Spawn Islamic Emirate World Must Deal With, Says Iraq’s Top Diplomat

Iraq’s top diplomat says the “toxic” proliferation of extremist groups among Syria’s rebels raises the prospect of a jihadist-ruled territory at the heart of the region.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari told attendees at a security conference in Bahrain on Saturday that the increase in radical fighters in the armed opposition to Syrian President Bashar Assad is leading toward the creation of an ungovernable “Islamic emirate” that the world will have to deal with down the road.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Aussie Halal Burger Chain Plans to Conquer the World

Australian Halal burger chain Dougies Grill keeps going from success to success. With 4 new stores opening in the last 12 months and plans to expand nationally and internationally, Dougies is set to conquer more than just your taste buds. According to the owner Ali Daghram, Dougies Grill is not just another burger joint. It is a unique fresh concept that brings together the very best of authentic Mediterranean cuisine and the taste of Portuguese style chicken with an Australian touch to deliver a culinary experience he believes produces some of the best burgers in the world…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Report Exposes Online Hate Targeting Muslims

The Online Hate Prevention Institute (OHPI), an Australian charity dedicated to the growing problem of online hate, has announced the release of a major new report into the targeting of the Muslim community. The report, Islamophobia on the Internet: The growth of online hate targeting Muslims, is now available to journalists and bloggers by request. Parts of the report are publicly available on the OHPI website, and the full report will be available on 10 December to mark International Human Rights Day. The report examines anti-Muslim hate on Facebook and was produced by the OHPI in consultation with the Islamic Council of Victoria…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Kenya: Fresh Ethnic Violence Erupts in the North

Kenyan officials and relief workers say fresh clashes erupted between rival ethnic groups in the country’s north on Saturday, a day after the government moved to deploy troops to the troubled region. Officials say several people were killed on Saturday, in fighting near the town of Moyale…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

S. African Troops Ordered to “Urgently” Report for Duty

The South Africa National Defense Force (SANDF) on Saturday ordered all soldiers on leave to “urgently report for duty” and provide support for the funeral of former president Nelson Mandela.

“Members must report back to their units, bases or stations by at the latest 12 o’clock midnight on 7 December 2013,” the SANDF said in an emailed statement. The government has declared a state funeral for Mandela, who died on Dec. 5.

The funeral and multiple mourning events are expected to draw masses of people to the streets and leaders from around the world.

SANDF spokesman Siphiwe Dlamini said logistics support would be provided. “It’s a range of things that the defense force will be supporting from dignitaries to parades,” Dlamini said.

“This is a category-one funeral, so there will be a lot of activities that involve the defense force. Security is a police responsibility, with the defense force providing support.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

‘Send Them All Back Home’: UKIP Councillor and Key Farage Ally in Astonishing Racist Video Rant… Then Insists: ‘I Stand by Every Word’

A high-profile UKIP politician is facing a racism storm after being caught on camera saying all immigrants to Britain should be sent back home.

Victoria Ayling, who made headlines when she defected from the Tories in March, made the inflammatory comments in a 20-minute video seen by The Mail on Sunday.

On the subject of immigration she talks about restricting the numbers of foreigners entering the UK, but then adds: ‘I just want to send the lot back, but I can’t say that.’

She then goes on to joke that her controversial remark could one day come back to haunt her. She said: ‘[It could be used for] some future get back at me. Bribery, blackmail — we need the blackmail music don’t we.’

Last night one MP said he was ‘disgusted’ by the comments that had ‘no place in front line politics’.

More…

Mrs Ayling, 54, became a high-profile recruit to UKIP when she confronted David Cameron during this year’s Tory conference and told him she was leaving the party.

She has been called a ‘trusted ally’ of UKIP leader Nigel Farage, so her comments will come as a blow to the party following a year of controversies. Earlier this year, MEP Godfrey Bloom provoked anger after referring to ‘Bongo Bongo Land’ in a speech about foreign aid. He later resigned from the party after he called some female activists ‘sluts’.

Mr Farage last night said that Mrs Ayling’s comments were ‘slightly odd’. He added: ‘I have met her two or three times and I have discussed policy at length before accepting her into the party.

‘I had no reason to believe she held views that were extreme or inconsistent with ours. While this comment looks odd and unpleasant there may be a context here that is slightly different to the way it appears.’

UKIP want to end ‘mass, uncontrolled immigration’ but does not call for repatriation of legal immigrants.

The video was shot in 2008 — but Mrs Ayling last night said she stood by the comments.

Mrs Ayling’s husband, Rob, from whom she has since divorced, helped shoot the footage to promote her political career. In one take, she said: ‘We must basically repatriate those that shouldn’t be here. That’s not quite policy yet. Maybe I should soften it a bit.’ She then added: ‘OK. Send them back.’

Rob is then heard to mutter: ‘National Front.’

In the very next take, Mrs Ayling — a Lincolnshire County councillor and deputy leader of the local UKIP party — says : ‘Multiculturalism is dead, I’m allowed to say that, but maybe Britishness is waving the National Front flag a bit.

‘We must control immigration. We cannot sustain the numbers coming in; the strains on our infrastructure are enormous. Control should be done fairly and the points system like they have in Australia and all those coming here should be encouraged to speak English so they can integrate.’

She adds: ‘I just want to send the lot back but I can’t say that.’

Last night, Mrs Ayling insisted her comments were taken ‘out of context’ and she was only referring to illegal immigrants.

           — Hat tip: Steen [Return to headlines]
 

UK Independence Party Councillor Smeared by British Press Mail

The headline in Britain’s Mail On Sunday, its lead story, shows a key leader of the right-wing UKIP party saying “send them all back home”. UKIP councilor Victoria Ayling is speaking on immigration matters. But The Mail incorrectly identifies this as a racist rant and falsely states that Ayling wants to repatriate all immigrants.

The Mail and its ideological sister The Telegraph are caught up in a contradiction. They generally support the policies of the UK Independence Party but their allegiances lie with the Britain’s centre-right Conservative Party. Thus the papers occasionally get caught up in attacking UKIP over something they actually believe in. In this case the Mail specifically attacks UKIP when the said video was in fact made for the Conservatives.

Five years ago, when Ayling was a member of the Conservative Party, the video in question was shot by her then husband Rob whose occasional directing and prompting comments can be heard from behind the camera. Presumably he is the source of the video.

Rob Ayling is quoted as saying “Victoria said during the divorce she would never be entering national politics again. Now, with her being a rising star of UKIP, I think it is a public interest story in terms of the electorate knowing what kind of a woman she is.” And with that it seems he decided to release something from their marriage that he deemed would be damaging to her. The couple divorced after he left her for Kristian Darling, a former American beauty queen and 1987 Miss America finalist.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Ed Miliband Accused of Contempt for Voters After His Polling Guru Said Their Anti-Immigration Views Made Him ‘Depressed’

Ed Miliband was last night accused of displaying contempt for voters after his polling guru said their anti-immigration views made him ‘depressed’.

James Morris made a series of scornful remarks after holding a focus group meeting intended to help the party devise Election-winning policies on the issue.

Mr Morris, a key member of the Labour leader’s strategy unit, dismissed the views of those present as ‘fill jobs with Brits’.

His outburst reflects tensions among Mr Miliband’s team over immigration. The party is haunted by claims that the last Labour Government was responsible for mass immigration from Eastern Europe — and divided over whether Mr Miliband should take a stronger line…

Last night, Conservative MP Nadhim Zahawi said of Mr Morris’s remarks: ‘This shows the contempt Labour and Ed Miliband have for the public. They don’t want to hear people’s views about immigration.

‘Instead they want to censor and shut down any sensible and rational debate on an extremely important subject.

‘It’s the same old Labour. Anyone who doesn’t share their world view is mocked and attacked.’

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

UKIP Councillor Victoria Ayling Defends Immigrant Comments

A UK Independence party councillor has insisted comments about immigrants that were attributed to her in a Sunday paper have been taken “out of context”.

The Mail on Sunday reported it had seen a video from 2008 in which Victoria Ayling said: “I just want to send the lot back, but I can’t say that.” She told the BBC she was referring to illegal immigrants and the paper based its story on “snippets” of the film.

UKIP leader Nigel Farage said he accepted Mrs Ayling’s explanation…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

“Robbing” And the “War on Christmas”

Psychological projection was described by Sigmund Freud as an immature “defense mechanism in which a person unconsciously rejects his or her own unacceptable attributes by ascribing them to objects or persons in the outside world.” (Sigmund Freud, Case Histories II, p. 132)

So it is that Democracy for America, the progressive organizational arm of the Democrat Party, agitating their voting constituents against the rest of the country, has sent out a memo, accusing Republicans of waging a War on Christmas…

…the Democrat Party and its leadership blame Republicans for being heartless at Christmas and not extending the 99 weeks of unemployment benefits, in a blatant attempt to cover up the monumental economic failure of this administration that has caused unemployment to deepen beyond imaginable levels, particularly among the young and recent college graduates.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Seed Diversity Has Collapsed More Than 12-Fold Since Early 1900s

(NaturalNews) From the looks of an average produce section in a typical American supermarket, it might seem like modern society has access to basically every major type of fruit, vegetable and herb one could want. But a survey conducted by the U.S. National Seed Storage Laboratory back in 1983 found that the diversity of our food supply has been progressively shrinking since 1903 when a previous seed stock inventory was taken, with fewer than one-twelfth the number of unique crop varieties available today compared to 100 years ago.

Known today as the National Center for Genetic Resources Preservation (NCGRP), the laboratory collected seed data on 10 common produce items: beets, cabbages, sweet corn, lettuces, muskmelons, peas, radishes, squashes, tomatoes and cucumbers. NCGRP compared the availability of seeds for each of these items in 1903 to their availability in 1983, which was still long before the time genetically modified organisms (GMOs) hit the scene.

Based on the data, seed stocks have shrunk dramatically over the course of the past century, with many heirloom varieties of produce disappearing from the commercial seed supply. According to National Geographic, which recently put out an “infographic” illustrating this decline in seed diversity, many heirloom varieties of common fruits and vegetables that were cultivated by generations before us have gone completely extinct…

Cabbage, for instance, used to have some 544 known varieties available on the commercial market back in 1903. At the time when the survey was conducted in 1983, there were only 28 varieties remaining, with likely even fewer remaining today. The same goes for lettuces, which had about 497 varieties back in 1903. Today, there are only 36 commercially available varieties of lettuce on the market.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Volcanoes Melting Antarctic Ice

Poor Global Warming just can’t catch a break. Planetary temperatures aren’t cooperating, nor is the rate of sea level rise, and now even West Antarctica seems to be gouging James Hansen in the eye.

Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis have discovered a chain of active volcanoes under the West Antarctic ice sheet (WAIS).

This is interesting because West Antarctica is the region that Global Warming hysterics (the Gang Green) point to as “proof” that Global Warming is happening to the southernmost polar region. Now we see there may be another reason for ice loss in WAIS.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

You’ve Been Scheduled for Annihilation

One out of five women in the West remains childless compared to one out of twenty in China and only one out of thirty in India. Such glaring differences have nothing to do with culture or sexual norms and everything to do with the separate methods of population control used by these countries.

Nearly one in four children in the West suffer from developmental disorders, allergies and asthma, compared to at most one in twenty in the developing world. This is not because western children are feebler than children elsewhere, but because western governments were the first to use chemical and biological agents to undermine human fertility and have in the process done irreparable harm to their people’s genetic and intellectual endowments. Yes, our children’s intelligence is affected too, which is why China has a three-fold higher incidence of genius among its children than western countries. Judging by our historical dominance in science and technology this could not have always been the case and explains why we are losing ground.

More than half of all adults in Western countries suffer from illnesses conveniently attributed to poor diet and lack of physical activity — heart disease, diabetes, obesity, and cancer — but are in fact the result of endocrine disrupting poisons deliberately fed to us through the basic elements of life, food and water.

These are but the most obvious results of the Global Depopulation Policy, which I expose in all its hideous complexity in my recently published and ardently censored book

“Killing Us Softly: Causes and Consequences of the Global Depopulation Policy”.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

10 thoughts on “Gates of Vienna News Feed 12/8/2013

  1. Would you get jailed for pointing out that Mandela was jailed for conspiring to start a Race War in SA by importing 500 tonnes of weapons and explosives into SA from the USSR? Or that his family and party killed many more dissenting blacks since 1989 than Apartheid did in 40 years? From 48 to 89 Apartheid is associated with 7,000 deaths. After 89 until 94 14,000 dead. Since 94 there have been 68,000 whites killed and about 500,000 blacks. Colonial style Authoritarianism has a certain way of restraining the excesses of human nature.

    • Take a zero of the 68,000 should be 6,800.

      Take a zero off the 500,000 too. My apologies. I double tapped the 0.

  2. Fingerprints and DNA? What the hell has Britain become? ENGSOC?

    Are they destroyed due to no charges?

    What next, colonoscopy for dropping litter?

    • Colonoscopy for dropping litter? No, speaking only as a new British citizen and Nigerian Muslim Benefits Tourist the next step (next! what I m I talking about?) is public beheading for having the audacity to belong to a culture that does not accept the ascendance of the Religion of Peace. This is our land now, and don’t you forget it, Honkey.

  3. If anyone had any doubt that ALL Western nations have become police states that story from Britain about the joke teller must surely put paid to those doubts.

  4. The story about the British guy who got in trouble for posting jokes about Mandela reveals something very important: blasphemy laws are alive and well in the post-Christian West, for there remain certain gods of whom speak ill to our own social peril.

    My own thoughts on Mandela at http://www.unclecephas.blogspot.com

  5. No the blasphemy laws are dead and gone what there is now is tyranny Mandella is with the devil where he belongs, its well documented and he admitted it, I suspect the 500000 it a bit shy of the truth all communists leave a trail of the dead!

  6. Chris Edwards, my point is that these “emancipated” people who have no fear of God instill fear of petty and vicious men in its place.

Comments are closed.