Two “French” schoolboys have become the youngest Western mujahideen ever to travel to Syria to fight in the jihad. The two fifteen-year-olds from Toulouse are thought to have joined US-backed Al Qaeda affiliates attempting to overthrow the Assad regime.
In other news, the death toll in the Kabul restaurant bombing has risen to 21, including 14 foreigners. A Dane and two Britons — one of them a Labour MEP candidate — were among those killed.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, Jerry Gordon, JP, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.
Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.
Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.
IMF Warns These 4 European Nations Are “Potentially Destabilizing” To Global Economy
Europe is recovering, right? Wrong. As Nigel Farage raged last night, things are not what they seem and even the IMF is now beginning to get concerned again (especially after Lagarde’s call yesterday for moar from Draghi and every other central banker). As Bloomberg’s Niraj Shah notes, it’s not just the PIIGS we have to worry about (or not), Denmark, Finland, Norway and Poland have been added to the IMF’s list of countries with the potential to destabilize the global economy.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Ratings agency Moody’s has upgraded Irish government debt from junk status to investment grade. The upgrade is the latest in a series of positive economic reports for Ireland — the first eurozone country to exit a bailout programme since the regional debt crisis erupted in 2009.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The Hows and Whys of Gold Price Manipulation
The deregulation of the financial system during the Clinton and George W. Bush regimes had the predictable result: financial concentration and reckless behavior. A handful of banks grew so large that financial authorities declared them “too big to fail.” Removed from market discipline, the banks became wards of the government requiring massive creation of new money by the Federal Reserve in order to support through the policy of Quantitative Easing the prices of financial instruments on the banks’ balance sheets and in order to finance at low interest rates trillion dollar federal budget deficits associated with the long recession caused by the financial crisis.
The Fed’s policy of monetizing one trillion dollars of bonds annually put pressure on the US dollar, the value of which declined in terms of gold. When gold hit $1,900 per ounce in 2011, the Federal Reserve realized that $2,000 per ounce could have a psychological impact that would spread into the dollar’s exchange rate with other currencies, resulting in a run on the dollar as both foreign and domestic holders sold dollars to avoid the fall in value. Once this realization hit, the manipulation of the gold price moved beyond central bank leasing of gold to bullion dealers in order to create an artificial market supply to absorb demand that otherwise would have pushed gold prices higher. The manipulation consists of the Fed using bullion banks as its agents to sell naked gold shorts in the New York Comex futures market. Short selling drives down the gold price, triggers stop-loss orders and margin calls, and scares participants out of the gold trusts. The bullion banks purchase the deserted shares and present them to the trusts for redemption in bullion. The bullion can then be sold in the London physical gold market, where the sales both ratify the lower price that short-selling achieved on the Comex floor and provide a supply of bullion to meet Asian demands for physical gold as opposed to paper claims on gold.
The evidence of gold price manipulation is clear. In this article we present evidence and describe the process. We conclude that ability to manipulate the gold price is disappearing as physical gold moves from New York and London to Asia, leaving the West with paper claims to gold that greatly exceed the available supply…
Fractional reserve systems break down when too many depositors or holders of paper claims present them for delivery. Breakdown is occurring in the Fed’s fractional bullion operation. In the last few years the Asian markets — specifically and especially the Chinese — are demanding actual physical delivery of the bullion they buy. This has created a sense of urgency among the Fed, Treasury and the bullion banks to utilize any means possible to flush out as many weak holders of gold as possible with orchestrated price declines in order to acquire physical gold that can be delivered to Asian buyers.
[Comment: Good article.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Next Banking Crisis: An IT Meltdown?
Many senior banking executives today still view IT as a superfluous cost. As such, a number of banks still use technology that date back decades, with minor upgrades and maintenance over the years. The IT systems that hold up our every financial move are a disaster waiting to happen.
A KPMG report warned last year that the next systemic shock to UK banking could come from an as yet unforeseen event, such as a massive payment outage or a cyber attack. Since the IT systems in most banksare complex and some essential parts of these systems are very old, a system outage is almost inevitable. The IT systems that hold up our every financial move are a disaster waiting to happen.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The subject video covers an undercovered story on the missing German gold. Back in the 1950s Germany, along with several other nations sent their gold to the U.S. Federal Reserve. Several months ago, Germany asked that some of their gold be returned. The Fed refused. Germany then asked to inspect the gold. Again the Fed refused.
So what would you think? I would think they don’t have it. I would suspect they stole it. Of course those in Germany and other nations aren’t stupid. If there are any shenanigans going on, some in positions of power in those nations have to be in on it. Now, with at least 20 years of manipulation in the gold and silver markets, the chickens are coming home to roost. You can’t do this forever and you can’t keep it a secret forever.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
What Recovery? Sears and J.C. Penney Are Dying
Two of the largest retailers in America are steamrolling toward bankruptcy. Sears and J.C. Penney are both losing hundreds of millions of dollars each quarter, and both of them appear to be caught in the grip of a death spiral from which it will be impossible to escape. Once upon a time, Sears was actually the largest retailer in the United States, and even today Sears and J.C. Penney are “anchor stores” in malls all over the country. When I was growing up, my mother would take me to the mall when it was time to go clothes shopping, and there were usually just two options: Sears or J.C. Penney. When I got older, I actually worked for Sears for a little while. At the time, nobody would have ever imagined that Sears or J.C. Penney could go out of business someday. But that is precisely what is happening. They are both shutting down unprofitable stores and laying off employees in a desperate attempt to avoid bankruptcy, but everyone knows that they are just delaying the inevitable. These two great retail giants are dying, and they certainly won’t be the last to fall. This is just the beginning.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
74-Year-Old Man Victim of ‘Knockout Game’
It was nearly two weeks ago when an elderly man was beaten to the ground outside a Dallas restaurant. Now police in the city are investigating a similar incident.
The attack happened along Central Expressway near Knox-Henderson.
The manager of a Denny’s restaurant says he found 74-year-old Charles Pace lying face down, motionless and bleeding in the parking lot. It was two o’clock Friday morning.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Alabama Pastor Accused of Murdering Wife Wanted to Marry Boyfriend: Prosecutors
Prosecutors say Rev. Richard Lee Shahan, formerly of Birmingham’s First Baptist Church, had plans to flee to Europe to marry his boyfriend. The minister has been charged with murdering his wife, Karen Louise Shahan.
The Alabama pastor who is accused of stabbing his wife to death allegedly had a replacement in mind. Jefferson County prosecutors say Rev. Richard Lee Shahan attempted to flee the country on New Year’s Day and marry his boyfriend.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Ambien is becoming better known for triggering bizarre behavior than it is for treating insomnia.
On March 29, 2009, Robert Stewart, 45, stormed into the Pinelake Health and Rehab nursing home in Carthage, North Carolina and opened fire, killing eight people and wounding two. Stewart’s apparent target was his estranged wife, who worked as a nurse in the home. She hid in a bathroom and was unharmed. Stewart was charged with eight counts of first-degree murder; if convicted, he could face the death penalty. Even though there was evidence that Stewart’s actions were premeditated (he allegedly had a target), Stewart’s defense team successfully argued that since he was under the influence of Ambien, a sleep aid, at the time of the shooting, he was not in control of his actions. Instead of the charges sought by the prosecutors, Stewart was convicted on eight counts of second-degree murder. He received 142 — 179 years in prison.
Ambien, a member of the class of medications known as hypnotics, was approved by the FDA in 1992. It was designed for short term use to combat insomnia and was a welcome change from the prevailing sleep aid at the time, Halcion, which had been implicated in psychosis, suicide, and addiction and had been banned in half a dozen countries. Ambien works by activating the neurotransmitter GABA and binding it to the GABA receptors in the same location as the benzodiazepines such as Xanax and Valium. The extra GABA activity triggered by the drug inhibits the neuron activity that is associated with insomnia. In other words, it slows down the brain. Ambien is extremely effective at initiating sleep, usually working within 20 minutes. It does not, however, have an effect on sustaining sleep unless it is taken in the controlled release form.
Although the Ambien prescribing information warned, in small print, that medications in the hypnotic class had occasional side effects including sleep walking, “abnormal thinking,” and “strange behavior,” these behaviors were listed as extremely rare, and any anecdotal evidence of “sleep driving,” “sleep eating,” or “sleep shopping” — all behaviors now associated with Ambien blackouts — were characterized as unusual quirks, or attributed to mixing the medication with alcohol. It wasn’t until Patrick Kennedy’s 2006 middle-of-the-night car accident and subsequent explanation to arriving officers that he was running late for a vote that the bizarre side effects of Ambien began to receive national attention. Kennedy claimed that he had taken the sleep aid and had no recollection of the events that night.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Biotech Companies Are Waging a Chemical Arms Race on Our Food Supply
The Obama administration announced last week that it expects to approve corn and soybeans that have been genetically engineered by Dow Chemical company to tolerate the toxic herbicide — 2,4-D. They are planning this approval despite the fact that use of this herbicide is associated with increased rates of deadly immune system cancers, Parkinson’s disease, endocrine disruption, birth defects, and many other serious kinds of illness and reproductive problems.
Weed ecologists are unanimous in warning that approval of these crops will lead to vast increases in the use of this poisonous chemical. Researchers at Penn State say that in soybeans alone, planting of crops resistant to 2,4-D would increase the amount of 2,4-D sprayed on American fields to 100 million pounds per year — four times the current level. The researchers predict a cascade of negative environmental impacts, and add that the increasing use of the herbicide would actually worsen the epidemic of superweeds it is intended to address, by causing weeds to become resistant to multiple herbicides…
A recent study, conducted at Washington State University, provides a conclusive answer. The study was authored by agronomist Charles Benbrook, a former executive director of the National Academy of Sciences. Using official US Department of Agriculture data, he and his team of researchers looked at the effect on pesticide use of the first 13 years (from 1996 to 2008) of GM crop cultivation in the United States.
Their conclusion?
“Genetically engineered crops have been responsible for an increase of 383 million pounds of herbicide use in the U.S. over the first 13 years of commercial use of GE crops.”
There may be controversy over whether GMO foods are safe for human consumption. But there is virtually no controversy over the fact that herbicides, like all pesticides, are dangerous. The enormous increase in herbicide use that has occurred as a direct result of the planting of genetically engineered crops has not only poisoned the air, the water, the soil, and farm workers. It has also been directly responsible for the development of the super-weeds that now plague 50% of our agricultural acreage.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Congress Just Authorized $1.1 Trillion in Spending … and Nobody Read the Bill
We are so lucky to live in a country where we have representation. Think about it — we all get to choose someone to go to Washington DC and look out for our best interests. We all have a voice, and we can all rest assured that those elected officials will diligently work for us, their constituents.
Please note my sarcasm.
It’s triggered by the recent spending bill passed by Congress — all 1, 582 pages of it.
Wouldn’t you think that before authorizing something so massive that our members of Congress would have read it? Or at the very least, have hired someone to read it and summarize it for them?
Nope.
According to one very amused congressman, Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) nobody read this massive bill. Trust me, this is really funny. You’ll laugh too.
On Capitol Hill on Thursday, CNSNews.com asked Blumenauer: “The omnibus bill yesterday, it was 1,582 pages, did you have a chance to read all the pages before voting on it?”
Blumenauer laughed and said: “Nobody did!”
“Nobody did?” said the CNSNews.com reporter.
“Nope,” said Blumenauer.
(source)
This isn’t even “corruption.” It goes way beyond that. This is our elected representatives giving us the middle finger and then laughing about it. Because it’s all a big joke to them. They make salaries most of us can only dream about earning and they don’t even have enough respect for those of us who put them into office to, I don’t know, do their jobs!
How much do they make, you ask? Members of Congress are paid $174,000 per year for their “service.” Some with special jobs receive more. For Example, House Speaker John Boehner receives $223,500.
Then, of course, there is a budget for each office. Are you sitting down? Each office budgets between $1.27 million to $1.546 million. Congress has 535 members. So at the minimum, $679,450,000 is paid to run the offices of these people who do not care enough to read the bills that they are voting on…in our best interests, of course.
Almost $700 million dollars is spent on staffing and office expenses, and no one had time to read a bill before voting ‘yes’ and signing it into law.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Republican establishment, liberal progressive Democrats, Obama and other American subversives are combining efforts to build and protect drug cartels making an estimated 37 billion each year flowing across the borders, human trafficking networks and controlled slave labor voting blocks. Looking the other way on the border and slamming amnesty through will also allow ‘friends and alleys’ of Obama and his supporters to fulfill the bigger Obama purpose — plans for a ‘false flag’ event ignited by those who have also come across the border. Then Obama can manipulate martial law into place and control us like dogs sent to the slaughter if we growl or bite.
For the last few months I have been interviewing Andy Ramirez, President of Law Enforcement Officers Advocates Council, who has revealed mountains of sworn testimonies and perjury before Congress by top dogs peppered through the DHS and border security apparatus. These include, former Acting Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection from 2009-2013, David Aguilar, who was the Chief of the Border Patrol from 2004-2009; His principle supporter was Rep. Silvestre Reyes, Aguilar’s former boss in the Border Patrol. Reyes acted as cover for Aguilar until he lost his re-election bid in 2012, after serving 8 terms in Congress.
Listen to all the testimonies for yourself and make up your own mind — January 9th, 2014 scroll down and click on the date. We played testimony after testimony of DHS leadership lying before Congress…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Mark Levin opened his show today livid over Obama’s announcement that he will ignore the legislature and use his pen to write executive orders. He says the separation of powers are the key to our Republic and yet today Obama just announced that he would assume lawmaking powers via executive orders.
Mark Levin says what’s going on here is that we are witnessing a gradual, quiet coup:
He’s just announced that he is going to assume lawmaking powers. He does not recognize the majority in the House of Representatives. I don’t know how much more clearly he can say it. You know what this is folks? This is a gradual, quiet coup. That’s what is taking place. It’s gradual. It’s quiet, in the sense that it’s non-violent. But it’s a coup!
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Greenwald: Obama’s NSA ‘Reforms’ Are Little More Than a PR Attempt to Mollify the Public
In response to political scandal and public outrage, official Washington repeatedly uses the same well-worn tactic. It is the one that has been hauled out over decades in response to many of America’s most significant political scandals. Predictably, it is the same one that shaped President Obama’s much-heralded Friday speech to announce his proposals for “reforming” the National Security Agency in the wake of seven months of intense worldwide controversy.
The crux of this tactic is that US political leaders pretend to validate and even channel public anger by acknowledging that there are “serious questions that have been raised”. They vow changes to fix the system and ensure these problems never happen again. And they then set out, with their actions, to do exactly the opposite: to make the system prettier and more politically palatable with empty, cosmetic “reforms” so as to placate public anger while leaving the system fundamentally unchanged, even more immune than before to serious challenge.
This scam has been so frequently used that it is now easily recognizable.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Hackers Use ‘Smart’ Refrigerator to Send 750,000 Virus-Laced Emails
Call it the attack of the zombie refrigerators. Computer security researchers said this week they discovered a large “botnet” which infected Internet-connected home appliances and then delivered more than 750,000 malicious emails.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
MIT Professor Exposes Climate Change Hysteria
A world-renowned climate expert is speaking out against the government’s ridiculous and continued climate change hysteria.
Speaking in regards to Massachusetts’ new $50 million climate change proposal, MIT Professor Richard Lindzen, a leading figure in the climate change movement, pointed out the absurdity of blaming every weather event on global warming and climate change.
“The changes that have occurred due to global warning are too small to account for,” Lindzen told WBZ-TV. “It has nothing to do with global warming, it has to do with where we live.”
Although supporting the theory of man-made global warming, Lindzen admitted that rhetoric from the political class and green movement has been nothing more than over-the-top “catastrophism.”
“Even many of the people who are supportive of sounding the global warning alarm, back off from catastrophism,” Lindzen said. “It’s the politicians and the green movement that like to portray catastrophe.”
Even more surprising, Lindzen goes on to point out the government’s obvious use of climate change alarmism to push greater state control, even warning over politicians’ use of “crony capitalism.”
“Global warming, climate change, all these things are just a dream come true for politicians. The opportunities for taxation, for policies, for control, for crony capitalism are just immense, you can see their eyes bulge,” Lindzen said.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
NSA Scandal: Washington State Considers Cutting Off Electricity, Water for NSA
The Washington State campaign to cut off all utilities and services to the National Security Agency (NSA) facilities in that state achieved its first success on Wednesday, according to a national think-tank based in Los Angeles…
The bill, if passed and signed into law, would prohibit state and local agencies from providing any material support to the NSA within their jurisdiction. This includes prohibiting state government-owned utilities from providing water and electricity.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Obama Picks Soros Crony to Lead NSA Probe
When President Obama needs help, he can always turn to one of the Soros inner circle. In a speech on Jan. 17, Obama announced that his new Presidential Counsel John Podesta will lead a “comprehensive review of Big Data and privacy,” following the NSA privacy scandal that has dogged his administration.
What he didn’t mention was that Podesta is the founder of the liberal Center for American Progress. CAP has gotten $7.3 million from liberal billionaire George Soros since 2000 and was one of the keystone liberal think tanks founded after the Democrats lost the 2004 election.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Obama Speech on NSA Spying: “A Nothing Burger Served Hot and With a Sympathetic Smile”
President Obama did exactly what the American people predicted: made a pretty speech, but failed to rein in NSA spying.
CNN correctly notes:
Critics of U.S. intelligence practices barely waited for the speech to end before pouncing.
Representative Rush Holt says:
The President’s speech offered far less than meets the eye.
“His proposals continue to allow surveillance of Americans without requiring a Fourth Amendment determination of probable cause. They continue to regardAmericans as suspects first and citizens second. They continue to allow the government to build backdoors into computer software and hardware. They fail to strengthen protections for whistleblowers who uncover abusive spying.
“The President spoke about navigating ‘the balance between security and liberty.’ But this is a faulty and false choice. As Barack Obama himself urged in his first inaugural address, we must ‘reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals.’
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Oregon Federal Court: Bloggers Have 1st Amendment Protections
A federal appeals court ruled Friday that bloggers and the public have the same First Amendment protections as journalists when sued for defamation: If the issue is of public concern, plaintiffs have to prove negligence to win damages.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered a new trial in a defamation lawsuit brought by an Oregon bankruptcy trustee against a Montana blogger who wrote online that the court-appointed trustee criminally mishandled a bankruptcy case.
The appeals court ruled that the trustee was not a public figure, which could have invoked an even higher standard of showing the writer acted with malice, but the issue was of public concern, so the negligence standard applied…
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Target Breach May be Part of Wider Attack
The malware that may have infected Target may also have affected a “large number” of other retail information systems, according to a report Thursday from security researchers and government officials.
A brief summary of the report, posted by the Dallas-based iSight partners security firm, said that a piece of malicious software known as KAPTOXA is targeting retailers’ point-of-sale systems. The company did not name specific retailers, but indicated that its investigation began on Dec. 18, the day before Target first announced that a breach had affected as many as 40 million customers. The company later broadened its estimate to say that the attack may have compromised the information of up to 110 million customers.
The report indicates that the malware is designed to “hook” into payment application programs to spy on the information they store in certain parts of the systems’ memory. When payments are authorized, that information must be decrypted, and the malware is able to identify and take that information.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Next Tire to Drop on the US Economy
Detroit Auto Show is happening, and exuberance is boiling over. GM promised to pay a dividend. Tesla goosed its stock price with another one of its announcements. Ford stirred up excitement with visions of an aluminum-framed F-150. And gleaming models were on display, and industry insiders were cranking out hype at 80 mph.
Then AutoNation CEO Mike Jackson poured cold water on it all. He should know. He runs the largest chain of dealerships in the country, an empire of 225 stores that sold 296,419 new retail units in 2013, about 2.24% of total US retail sales. He warned about the out-of-whack inventories.
Dealers were sitting on $100 billion in new vehicles — which automakers had already recognized as sales on their books. Channel stuffing. There were 3.45 million units waiting to be sold. While sixty days’ supply would be “an accepted inventory figure,” as he said, current levels are far above it. The figures were even worse with fleet sales taken out of the equation. He put his finger where it hurts, where it has always hurt.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Virginia Small Farm and Food Freedom Resolution
Boneta Bill Part Deux
Farming comprises less than three percent of an American labor force that feeds 307 million Americans and many other millions around the world yet government regulations are making it harder and harder for small farms to operate and bring wholesome foods to the market.
Why should farmers be subjected to “annual property monitoring visits and inspections” by environmental groups, environmental councils, and local supervisors beholden to international agencies, groups that have no idea how their food gets to the table nor do they care?
Virginians have fought back the NGO environmentalist assaults on their land, private property rights, and the right to farm by introducing HB 1430, The Right to Farm Act, better known as the Boneta Bill, which passed the House of Delegates 77-22 in February 2013 but was blocked by the Senate Agricultural Committee by a vote of 11-4. The sponsor of the bill, Delegate Scott Lingamfelter, promised to reintroduce the bill in 2014…
Martha Boneta found herself at the center of the battle for farm freedom and property rights when she held a birthday party for eight 10-year-old girls at her Paris Barns. Fauquier County deemed this party illegal because it lacked a permit. “Why would I need a permit for pumpkin carving?” Boneta said…
Faced with fines of $5,000 per violation under charges that she held a birthday party for eight 10-year-old girls without a permit and a “site plan,” advertised one wine tasting, sold postcards with pictures of her rescued farm animals, sold wool fiber products from her sheep and alpacas, and sold organic tea from herbs grown in her garden, even though she had a business license, Martha paid $500 to appeal these unjust administrative charges. “The county zoning administrator told her at the hearing that ‘Martha was out of line,’ for appealing these charges.”
When farm property owners can no longer hold a child’s birthday party without a permit, we are no longer free. In a letter dated January 8, 2012, Delegate L. Scott Lingamfelter said, “What’s next? A citation from the food police for serving cake and ice cream to the children? A user fee for every helium balloon inflated? It’s not outside the realm of possibility. Not anymore.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
John Beale was just sent to jail for fraud. He was in charge of the EPA. His wife Nancy Ketes wrote the Clear Air Act based on this fraud.
Using this fraud the EPA successfully managed to close industry after industry destroying the American economy.
Example: The lightbulb will now end its success due to Rep Fred UptonEnergy committee, following this fraud.
FYI: Call Uptons office and tell them to let the lightbulb live on.
Why is this important to you? Americans have been trained in school under fraud programs like NCLB and CCS, to listen to sound bytes, not connect the dots or seek the truth. This way one issue can be reported without anyone ever following cause and effect. So lets connect some dots.
Every Florida (American) business is being affected by the EPA fraud perpetrated by liar, John Beale (just indicted and sent to jail for fraud) and his lying wife. These liars lie and Americans are stuck picking up the cost for their destruction. Just look at the budget from early 1990s when these man made global warming fraud crippling policies became escalated. This Fraud was and is the start and end of our debt problem. Eliminate fraud, eliminate the debt.
EPA is Complacent. They knew about Beales lying and did nothing. Instead they fed this fraud to the Supreme Court and Congress to get favorable rulings putting American companies out of business.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Report: Tens of Thousands Fled Socialized Canadian Medicine in 2013
In 2013, 41,838 Canadians went outside the country to get medical treatment, down from 42,173 people leaving the country in 2012. This is interesting since wait times for patients who had consulted with a specialist till the time they got actual treatment increased from 9.3 weeks in 2012 to 9.6 weeks in 2013.
According to the report [Fraser Institute], there are many reasons why someone would leave Canada to seek treatment. Including “because of a lack of available resources or the fact that some procedures or equipment are not provided in their home jurisdiction” as well as “concerns about quality, seeking out more advanced healthcare facilities, higher tech medicine, or better outcomes.”
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French 15-Year-Olds Thought to be Youngest Western Jihadis After Travelling to Syria
Teenage boys from Toulouse are thought to be the youngest Westerners to have travelled to Syria to join al Qaeda
Two French schoolboys have travelled to Syria to become al Qaeda fighters, it emerged on Saturday. The 15-year-olds from Toulouse are believed to be the youngest ever jihadists to emerge from a country increasingly associated with Islamic radicalism…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Rory Gray and his brother Stuart called Dr Daniel Ubani (pictured) a ‘charlatan and killer’ during a conference. He was convicted of giving their father, David, a fatal injection of diamorphine when he was working in the UK.
A disgraced doctor who killed a British man due to an appalling blunder over his painkillers is suing the dead man’s son in Germany because he missed a post-conference dinner.
Rory Gray and his brother Stuart disrupted a speech he was giving at a conference on plastic surgery in the German town of Lindau in 2010, calling him a ‘charlatan and killer’…
His ability to work in Germany was never questioned despite the fact he was struck off by the GMC in Britain.
He refused to attend the inquest into his victim and the medical hearings which barred him from ever working in Britain again.
The German Doctors Chamber, the equivalent of the General Medical Council in the UK, still wants Ubani struck off — but they are powerless to force him to go while he still retains the support of the local authority which licenses him.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Greece: Anti-Smoking Law Tries to Return Once More
(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, JANUARY 16 — Greek under-secretary for Health, Zeta Makris has signed a memo in which it is highlighted that smoking in public places is prohibited, in an attempt to finally apply the anti-smoking law in Greece. The memo — as GreekReporter website writes — will be sent to all ministries, local authorities and other institutions. This is a “development in the implementation of a series of laws and regulations aimed towards the control of smoking, child protection from the harmful effects of tobacco smoke, and the new terms and conditions for premises operating under health regulations” stated the Ministry of Health. The need for more intense inspection by the authorities and for implementation of the existing legislation in terms of the smoking ban in all enclosed public places is underlined in the memo. Guidelines concerning inspections are also provided, such as the choice of inspection team, how premises will be assessed and marked, the inspection record and the planning of regular periodic inspections. Moreover, it is stressed that all auditing institutions (Directorates of Health and Social Welfare, Directorates of Environmental Health and Sanitary Inspections, Port Police, Police, Greek National Tourism Organization and Labor Inspectorate Body) need to support the implementation of the measures.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Renzi Faces Possible Party Revolt Over Berlusconi Deal
Left of PD furious at possible agreement over election law
(see related stories) (ANSA) — Rome, January 17 — Matteo Renzi, the new leader of the centre-left Democratic Party (PD), could face an internal revolt if he strikes a deal with ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi over a new election law.
Renzi said this week was considering meeting with the three-time premier to try to wrap up a deal on a new election system to replace the old one that was recently declared invalid by the Constitutional Court. The meeting may take place this weekend. Critics in Renzi’s own PD have said talks with Forza Italia leader Berlusconi, who was handed a binding conviction last year and expelled from parliament, would help rehabilitate his marred image. One senior lawmaker who is close to Renzi’s predecessor as PD chief, Pier Luigi Bersani, said many in the party would react to a deal by bring down the government led by another party member, Premier Enrico Letta.
“If a Berlusconi-Renzi pact that excludes all the other (political parties) is sealed tomorrow, the government majority ends tomorrow,” said PD MP Alfredo D’Attorre.
He added that parts of the PD would refuse to vote for a new election law modelled on the Spanish system, one of three proposals forwarded by Renzi and thought to be acceptable to Berlusconi.
“The Spanish system in an Italian sauce is Constitutionally and political impossible to vote for,” D’Attorre said. Renzi had defended his position, saying it is only logical to try to get the agreement of the main opposition party for a new election law.
His drive to seek a deal with Berlusconi’s party at the expense of other groups has caused problems for Letta’s government as it has upset the the main junior partner on the coalition, the New Centre Right of Interior Minister and Deputy Premier Angelino Alfano.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy in Running for 20-Mn-Euro EU Anti-Terrorism ‘Hub’
Part of money to go into guiding vulnerable away from extremism
(ANSA) — Brussels, January 15 — The European Commission is allocating 20 million euros over 2014-2020 for the creation of a new European “hub” against terrorism, that will monitor, study and coordinate anti-terrorism efforts, sources close to the European Commission (EC) said on Wednesday.
Italy is among a number of countries to express interest in hosting the centre, the sources said. Part of the funds are to be used for the Radicalisation Awareness Network (RAN), an EC-supported group of frontline people in direct contact with targeted individuals or vulnerable groups who work to stop them from getting involved in extremist activities.
The dossier regarding the new entity will be discussed at an informal meeting of European interior ministers in Athens January 23-24.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Police Allege 37 Involved in False Disability Fraud
Social services scam netted more than 1.6 million euros
(ANSA) — Rome, January 16 — Thirty-seven suspects were under investigation in a probe into an alleged disability fraud worth more than 1.6 million euros against Italy’s social security agency INPS, police in Rome said Thursday.
Authorities said that about 290 payments on false disability claims were made, dating back to 2006, using a computerized procedure for “miscellaneous” requests.
Rome’s prosecutors said that false claims came from people aged between about 20 and 30.
Bank accounts and property have been seized as part of the probe.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: M5S Says Computers in Parliament Broken Into Over Christmas
Political party says government must provide better security
(ANSA) — Rome, January 16 — Italy’s 5-Star Movement (M5S) said Thursday that their parliamentary office was broken into over the Christmas vacation and their computers tampered with.
The anti-establishment party said that documents stored on the hard drive were likely copied and demanded better security from parliamentary officials.
Party members added that their offices have been broken into before, and called on House Speaker Laura Boldrini to guarantee greater security.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Berlusconi Talks Like Handing Refugees to Neo-Nazis — Grillo
M5S comments on possible talks between Renzi, ex-premier
(ANSA) — Rome, January 17 — Beppe Grillo, the leader of the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S), said Friday that negotiating with ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi was like handing refugees to neo-Nazis.
The comedian-turned-politician was commenting on the possibility that Matteo Renzi, the new leader of the centre-left Democratic Party, will meet Berlusconi for talks this weekend on a new election law.
Italy needs a new system after the Constitutional Court ruled that the much-criticised previous one, passed in 2005 by the second of Berlusconi’s three centre-right governments, was declared invalid by the Constitutional Court.
The old election law, nicknamed the ‘pigsty’, has been blamed for contributing to the inconclusive outcome to last year’s general election.
“Asking Berlusconi, the creator of the pigsty, to make a new election law… is like asking a group of Neo-Nazis to protect a refugee reception centre,” Grillo commented on his popular blog.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Ryanair to Cancel Flights Between Milan and Rome
High-speed rail link beats low-cost flights
(ANSA) — Bergamo, January 17 — Discount airline Ryanair is cancelling service between Milan and Rome due to increasing competition from high-speed rail, sources close to the matter told ANSA on Friday.
Starting in April, Ryanair will no longer fly from its Milan hub, the Orio al Serio airport in Bergamo, to Rome’s Ciampino airport.
The last day in which service between the two airports will be guaranteed is March 29. Ryanair’s intention to move flights from Rome’s Ciampino airport to the Fiumicino airport initially was thought to be due to technical issues, but no connecting flights have been scheduled for the summer between Milan and the Italian capital, the source said. It turns out that managers of the Irish airline are no longer convinced the Milan-Rome connection is economically strategic, given the growing tendency of passengers to book tickets on the high-speed rail connection between the two cities, the source added.
Neither Ryanair nor Sacbo, the company that manages the airline’s Orio al Serio hub, would comment.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
More Swedish Passports Reported “Missing”
An increasing number of Swedish passports are being registered lost or stolen, Swedish television SVT reports. A total of 177,000 passports are now unaccounted for. Police suspect some of them are ending up in the hands of criminal gangs and people smugglers.
“Swedish passports are safe, they aren’t often forged. Instead people use ‘look-a-likes’“, deputy police commissioner Sören Clerton from the National Criminal Police tells SVT, “they sell the passport to someone that looks like the person on the passport photo, so they can get into Sweden”, he adds.
Passports can sell for as much as SEK 80,000, according to SVT. 46,000 passports were reported missing in 2008, last year that number had grown to over 60,000.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Nun in Italy to Keep Newborn Baby ‘Francis’
‘Wasn’t aware of pregnancy’
(ANSA) — Rieti, January 17 — A 32-year-old nun gave birth late Tuesday to a baby boy at the S. Camillo De Lellis hospital in Rieti, central Italy on Friday. The sister, originally from El Salvador, was taken to the emergency ward of the hospital after strong pain she felt in her belly raised concern among her fellow nuns, who called an ambulance, according to unnamed sources. The baby weighed three and a half kilograms.
The nun told hospital staff she was not aware of being pregnant, thinking that the pain she was in was just a severe belly-ache. She had in fact for many years been interning as a nun in the Campomoro convent, where the Piccole Discepole di Gesù (Small Disciples of Christ) manage an old people’s home. She plans to keep the baby, according to other mothers in the maternity ward that coordinated donations to buy the child clothes. The hospital staff, who are still not available to give official confirmation of the event, sought to protect the nun’s privacy by keeping her away from other patients. Even so, news of the unique birth spread quickly on social networking sites.
The mother reportedly named the boy Francesco (Francis).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Pope Francis Fires All But One Cardinals Who Run Vatican Bank
The Vatican bank was caught in a money-laundering row in 2010 after Italian prosecutors uncovered allegedly suspicious financial activity within the organisation.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Pope Benedict XVI Defrocked 400 Priests for Sexual Abuse of Children in Just 2 Years
The huge increase in the number of clerics being removed from their positions between 2011 and 2012 was revealed in a document highlighted by a UN human rights committee in Geneva, Switzerland, this week.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Rome Tops Italian City Destinations for Foreign Tourists
Italians prefer visiting London among international cities
(ANSA) — Rome, January 17 — Foreign tourists visiting Italy preferred Rome as a top city destination, while travelling Italians favoured London, a study conducted by Hotels.com revealed Friday.
The online hotel-booking site found people visiting from outside Italy flocked to the country’s cultural heritage cities once again in 2013. An analysis of data from the site’s Hotel Price Index concluded that Italy’s top three destinations for foreign visitors were Rome, Venice and Milan, followed by Florence and Bologna. Also in the top 10 were Naples, Sorrento, Pisa, Palermo, Palermo and Verona.
The top foreign destination for Italians using the site was London in 2013. Paris came second, followed by New York, Berlin, Barcelona, Amsterdam and Miami.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Two French schoolboys have travelled to Syria to become Al Qaeda fighters, it emerged today. The 15-year-olds, from Toulouse, in the south west, are believed to be the youngest ever Jihadists to emerge from a country increasingly associated with Islamic radicalism.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Demonstrations Call for New Rape Legislation
Several large demonstrations are being held around the country Saturday against rape and sexual violence. Up to 3000 took part in a demo in central Stockholm.
Protesters want Swedish rape law changed so that a “consent” paragraph is included. That could mean that rape suspects would have to prove that the victim consented to have sex with them for no crime to have been committed.
Current legislation means that in some cases prosecutors have to prove that the suspect knew that the victim did not want to have sex, for it to be classed as rape.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The Economist Imagines an Obama-Jennifer Aniston Affair
(AGI) Rome, Jan 18 — British weekly The Economist, in its usual provocative manner, drew inspiration from the recent Hollande-Gayet affair to imagine an adulterous love affair at the White House. “The current issue of People magazine has revealed what le tout Washington knew anyway: that Barack Obama has been having an affair with Jennifer Aniston”, the magazine wrote. Across the Atlantic, everything occurs exactly as in the Hexagone: “He travelled to Ms Aniston’s flat in the evening and left in the morning (after bagels had been brought by the Secret Service instead of croissants) on a scooter, wearing a helmet with the visor down to conceal his face.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
The new tobacco. A ticking time-bomb. The hidden menace.
I’m referring, of course, to sugar.
Yes, these are just some of the recent descriptions of the essential ingredient in everything from Mary Berry’s classic Victoria sponge to a tin of Heinz tomato soup. Addictive: Health experts warn we have spent too long worrying about fat rather than sugar
Addictive: Health experts warn we have spent too long worrying about fat rather than sugar
And while you might expect sugar to be a substantial component of the former, who knew that the latter had four teaspoons of sugar per serving?
But it’s precisely because such large quantities of sugar have made their way into everything from sliced bread to fat-free yoghurts that so many of us unknowingly suffer from an out-and-out sugar addiction.
Just last week, a group of eminent doctors and academics insisted that food manufacturers must reduce the level of sugar in processed foods by up to 30 per cent to halt a wave of disease and death…
Because if you analyse the nutritional evidence correctly, it is incontrovertible: sugar and refined carbohydrates such as bread and pasta — which are rapidly turned into sugar by our bodies — are our number one dietary enemy. Not fat…
For in an effort to make their beloved low-fat products edible, the food industry has upped the sugar levels in both sweet and savoury foods.
So why did they do this? Well, manufacturers realised that by putting sugars directly into processed foods, they could manipulate the amount we ate by making our desire for sweetness override our ‘full’ sensors.
[…]
In 2009 French scientists tested this theory on rats. Their study found that the rodents chose sugar eight times more often than cocaine — which is pretty shocking when you learn that they used rats who were already addicted to cocaine.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: ‘Alternative’ Policing in Some Minority Communities
Tom Winsor, the Chief Inspector of Constabulary, said some communities never call police in cases as serious as murder, instead administering their own justice
Police are never called by certain minority communities because they administer their own justice even in cases as serious as murder and sexual assaults on children, the Chief Inspector of Constabulary, Tom Winsor has said.
He said offences including “honour” killings and violence, domestic abuse, sexual assaults on children and female genital mutilation were among those not reported to police because communities wanted to deal with them themselves.
Rio de Janeiro’s Christ the Redeemer struck by lightning
Iconic statue of Christ overlooking Rio de Janeiro sees right thumb damaged by lightning strike
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Blackmailer Who Raped Muslim Woman and Stole Her Savings is Jailed for 17 Years
Daood Hussain, 28, threatened to advertise the woman as a prostitute if she refused his demands, the judge at Birmingham Crown Court was told.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Chief Police Inspector’s Comments on Ethnic Vigilantism Condemned by Justice Experts
Criminal justice experts have criticised claims by Tom Winsor, HM Chief Inspector of Constabulary, that vigilantism existed in some ethnic community areas in Britain…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Communities ‘Take Law in Own Hands’
Parts of Britain are operating their own forms of justice as some minority communities take the law into their own hands, the Chief Inspector of Constabulary has claimed
Tom Winsor said that some ethnic communities are turning their backs on police and rarely, if ever, call them to deal with crimes as serious as murder and sexual assaults against children, instead dealing with them in their own way.
In an interview with The Times Mr Winsor praised the enrichment multiculturalism brings to the UK, but said that “when it comes to criminal justice we have one system and everyone, wherever they come from, is equal under the law and entitled to fair treatment by law enforcement agencies.”…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Keeping Black Country Mosque Bomber in Jail Could Cost £1.1m
Keeping a Black Country mosque bomber in jail could cost UK taxpayers around £1.1 million, it has emerged, leading to calls for him to be deported.
Pavlo Lapshyn was only in the country for five days before launching a 90-day terror campaign. He stabbed Mohammed Saleem three times in the back as he left his mosque in Birmingham before going on to plant three bombs outside mosques in Wolverhampton, Tipton and Walsall…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Live: East Anglian Patriots Anti-Mosque Demonstration in Lincoln
An anti-mosque demonstration by the East Anglian Patriots is taking place today in Lincoln city centre. The group, who also protested about the proposed mosque in Boultham Park Road last June, are holding a rally in City Square from 12.45pm…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Parts of the UK are becoming no-go areas for police because minority communities are operating their own justice systems, according to the Chief Inspector of Constabulary. The rise in ‘community justice’ means crimes as serious as murder and sexual abuse are going unreported — a situation reminiscent of Belfast in the height of the Troubles.
Tom Winsor said police officers were simply never called to some neighbourhoods, where law-abiding people rather than criminals administer their own form of justice
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
by Esmerelda Weatherwax
Tom Winsor is the first person from a non-police background to hold the position of Chief Inspector of Constabulary. From the reaction of the of West Midland’s Police this seems to be a classic example of the old saying ‘the onlooker sees all’. Because his interview is behind the paywall at The Times I am taking this story from the Daily Mail and the Telegraph.
Police are never called by certain minority communities because they administer their own justice even in cases as serious as murder and sexual assaults on children, the Chief Inspector of Constabulary, Tom Winsor has said. Mr Winsor (who) became chief inspector in October 2012 and is the first person from a non-police background to hold the post. His first annual assessment of the state of British policing in England and Wales is due to be published in the next few weeks…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Paula Andrew was playing on the promenade in Scarborough with her nine-month-old daughter Maddy when a police van and two officers turned up and began to question her.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Terror Suspects to Remain Anonymous Despite Controls on Them Lifted
Seven men who pose threat to national security to be freed from court restrictions but their identity remains a secret
Britain’s most dangerous terror suspects who are being freed from strict court controls will be allowed to live anonymously in communities — to protect their human rights…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Sajid Hussain, 26 (pictured), and Shahid Sadik, 24 tricked Michael Irvine and his girlfriend Louise Cogle into travelling from their home in the Shetland Islands to buy a car.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Two Women Arrested Boarding Plane at Heathrow Airport on Suspicion of Terror Offences
Both women arrested on suspicion of being involved in the commission, preparation and instigation of acts of terrorism. A ‘large quantity’ of money was seized.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: West Midlands Police Chief Denies Communities Take Law Into Own Hands
The West Midlands’ most senior policeman today hit back at claims that parts of Britain are operating their own forms of justice as some minority communities take the law into their own hands.
Chris Sims said there was “no evidence” to support Chief Inspector of Constabulary Tom Winsor’s claims. Mr Winsor said that some ethnic communities were turning their backs on police and rarely, if ever, call them to deal with crimes as serious as murder and sexual assaults against children, instead dealing with them in their own way. But in an unsual move, Chief Constable Mr Sims issued a lengthy statement today rejecting the suggestion…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Nailed: Here’s What the Benghazi Report Did NOT Say [Full Report Attached]
We’ve become so disgusted by our government official’s lawlessness, that we can almost predict they will cover up any and all scandals, regardless of the magnitude of the crime, the number of victims or deaths, or the overwhelming amount of indisputable evidence.
The Senate Report on Benghazi has been released, and attached is the full report provided as a courtesy.
Here’s a brief summary of a very extensive investigation and collection of CIA and FBI Whistleblower testimony which reveals the following information which never made it into the report:
1) Hillary Clinton has committed treason against the United States by knowingly negotiating a buyback of MANPADS from AlQaeda in Libya — to be shipped to Al-Qaeda in Syria. On September 16th, 2012, shortly after her Ambassador was killed trying to set the deal up with the assistance of the CIA, the shipment was made. She knows all about it. Ambassador Stevens was striking a deal to take powerful, shoulder-fired weapons away from Al Qaeda in Libya, and the attack on his compound may have been an attempt to stop it. We’ll never know the truth about what caused the attacks, but we now know that our Senators are also involved in the coverup. This report is proof , and they should get prepared for the wave of whistleblowers who will soon come forward. Please read this report and listen to the audio of a CIA whistle blower’s account of what he knew from being on the ground in Libya 3 days after the attack.
2) Hillary Clinton and General Petraeus never testified under oath. Why wasn’t Hillary Clinton and General Petraeus been brought before Congress to testify under oath? How could this report ever be complete without their sworn testimony? FBI and CIA whistleblowers were waiting in the wings for that moment and it never happened.
Even our Senators are committing treason. They certainly cannot blame it on incompetence, especially since most of them are skilled lawyers.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Senate Report: Benghazi Murders Were “Preventable”
Hillary cut the security at the US embassy in Benghazi just weeks before the terrorist attack; she replaced them with an al Qaeda-affliated “security team” shortly after; she ignored their requests for help… then lied about it to Congress.
Recently declassified documents prove Obama knew within minutes that the attack wasn’t some spontaneous protest to a YouTube video, that it was a planned terrorist attack. He lied to the world — to the families of the victims — about it anyway. The claim that nearby agents were told to “stand down” and not lend any help to the besieged was confirmed as truth; a former ambassador said that order could have only come from Obama himself.
[…]
The report also notes, chillingly, that the FBI’s investigation into the attacks has been hampered inside Libya, and that 15 people “supporting the investigation or otherwise helpful to the United States” have since been killed in Benghazi. The report says it is unclear whether those killings were related to the investigation.
You can read their full report here.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Tunisia: Italy Commercial Partner Second Only to France
Italian exports on Tunisian market up 60% 2001-2012
(by Virginia Di Marco) (ANSAmed) — ROME — Tunisian companies co-owned by Italian entrepreneurs recorded revenues worth 3 billion euros. The numbers describing Italy’s presence in the North African country concern its impact on employment, estimated at 60,000 jobs, and the total of firms in Tunisia with Italian capitals, some 750. The results were published in a new study on “Italian business in Tunisia” carried out by the research institute on the south, a think tank linked to bank Intesa San Paolo.
‘Italy is second in a ranking of Tunisia’s commercial partners (right after France) with a bilateral commercial value worth 5.4 billion euros and a trade balance worth over one billion euros’. In 2012, the year analyzed by the research, Italian exports to Tunisia ‘touched their historic level with a value of about 3.3 billion euros, up more than 20% from the previous year (and growing 60.8% from 2001). In other words, after France, Italy is the second provider of Tunisia as second top client: imports in Italy were worth 2.1 billion euros. Here however the opposite trend was registered with a 23.5% drop from 2011.
However Italian-Tunisian relations go beyong import and export.
Italy is an important investor and various factors are attracting Italian capitals to Tunisia. First of all human resources are a key factor with a young, educated population attracting foreign investors in general and Italians in particular. Moreover ‘a climate traditionally benefiting business’ and a ‘good pace of economic growth’ help, with GDP in 2012 growing 3.6%, ‘the best performance among North African countries’. Pro-capita GDP (8,760 euros in 2012) ‘is the highest after Libya’, the research noted.
Policies are also effective in attracting foreign investors in a successful mix, the research noted: ‘The stock of direct foreign investments in Tunisia totaled 26.2 billion euros in 2012, with a pro-capita value of over 2,400 euros (the highest among countries in North Africa) and a 74% impact on GDP’.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Son of Hamas Documentary Opens Sundance Film Festival
The Green Prince was the code name for Shin Bet agent, Mosab Hasan Yousef, whose exploits were chronicled in his 2010 biography, Son of Hamas. An engrossing documentary based on his biography opened the annual Sundance Film festival this past Thursday evening. Yousef is the son of Sheikh Hassan Yousef, a Hamas co-founder. Mosab was captur] at 17, imprisoned and deftly turned into an effective agent by his Shin Bet handler, Gonen Ben Yitzhak. The Green Prince is a documentary thriller rivaling in certain passages some of the psychological elements of the Bourne Legacy film series. The documentary like his biography illustrates graphically Mosab’s betrayal of his family, his transformation into a double agent and ultimate conversion to Christianity. A conversion which would mark Mosab as an apostate under Sharia subject to death fatwas. The docudrama was written and directed by Israeli Nadav Schirman. Schirman has produced other films in the espionage/terrorism genre. The Champagne Spy (2007) was about the son of a Mossad agent. In the Dark Room (2012) he portrayed an interview with the wife of the arch terrorist “Carlos the Jackal”, Magdalena Kopp. The Schirman documentary , The Green Prince was reviewed in Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, The Times of Israel , Hit Fix , and The Guardian. Doubtless there will be more reviews following this opening weekend for the Park City, Utah film festival founded by legendary Hollywood film actor and director, Robert Redford.
Here is a sampling of some of the review comments…
| — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon | [Return to headlines] |
The Two-State Solution is Dead. Long Live What?
Ted Belman, editor and publisher of the blog Israpundit writes:
The Two-State Solution is dead. All that remains is for the US to declare it so.
Palestinians leaders and Israeli leaders have made it clear.
In a speech on Jan 10/14, Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas made it crystal clear that he would never abandon the “right of return”, would never recognize Israel as a Jewish state and would never make a deal unless East Jerusalem was given to the Palestinians as their capital, all of which cross Israel’s red lines.
When the latest “peace process was getting started, Israeli leaders kept referring to Abbas as a moderate, contrary to the truth, and even referred to him as a partner in peace, also not the truth. No more.
Upon Israel’s release of the third batch of murderers in December and in response to the leaders of the PA celebrating them as heroes, PM Netanyahu said:
“Murderers are not heroes. [..] This is no way to educate toward peace. This is no way to make peace. Peace can be achieved only when the education toward incitement and toward the destruction of Israel is stopped. There will be peace only if our security and settlement interests are ensured. Peace will be established only if we could defend ourselves, by ourselves, against any threat.”While the left, the EU and the USA continue to threaten Israel with claims that Israel is losing the demographic war, the opposite is the truth. Amb (ret) Yoram Ettinger has been studying the demographics in Israel for a decade and has often written that the demographic trend supports Israel now in the foreseeable future. According to him, Jews outnumber Arabs from the river to the sea, excluding Gaza, by a 2:1 majority and the numbers will only get better.
Glick advises:
“I brief the members of the House of Representatives and the Senate several times every year. Each time I present this plan on Capitol Hill, the response borders on euphoria. In the United States, just as in Israel, there are millions of people who understand that the ‘Two-State’ solution is a disaster. They are just waiting for someone to tell them that they can abandon it. My book gives them, and the Israeli public as well, the alternative that they are waiting for.”
Let’s hope they adopt it.
| — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon | [Return to headlines] |
2014, Designated Year for Middle East Peace
Notice how no one talks about Jews forced out of Arab lands (Iraq, Egypt, Syria, Yemen) or that,with creation of the State of Israel, 870 thousand Arab Jew refugees (Mizrahi) fled to Israel. While more Arabs than Jews occupied the Jewish portion, Jews were legally barred from settling in the thirty-five thousand square miles of Palestinian Transjordan (eventually, Jordon); and present day Israel, including the West Bank and Gaza, comprises only twenty-two percent of Palestine.
Nor do “peacebuilders” entertain Bernice Sacks and Lewis Edward Lipkin’s alternate two-state solution: Twenty-two Arab League states, boasting 42% more land than the entire United States, could easily accommodate a new state without making so much as a dent in Arab land holdings. Palestina would afford a homeland ten times the size of Israel (representing less than 0.1% of Middle Eastern land) for Palestinian Arabs currently crammed into refugee camps and in the Territories. Throughout the transition, Palestina would receive EU, UNRWA and the U.S. funds presently earmarked for Arab refugees. Once joined by the large population of refugee Arabs with ideas of their own, Hamas, Fatah, and the Territory Arabs together could establish for themselves expanded opportunities and better living quarters safely distanced from the object of Iran’s nuclear threats.[5] A win-win situation, no?
– — – From ancient times, through the dark ages, and thereon, anti-Jewish sentiment has given form to a sort of pseudo-history that blames Jews for virtually everything. Astoundingly, anti-Israeli activist-educator Knopf-Newman fingers anti-Semitism as a tool of censorship to suppress discussion of Palestine[6] when, plainly, the root problem has less to do with “occupied” territories, and more to do with viral hatred of Jews…
Keep in mind that a state of Palestine never existed; Israel, on the other hand, became a nation some two thousand years before the rise of Islam (around 1450 B.C.).[8] At the beginning of the twentieth century, Jews were recorded in nearly every town that today is considered “purely Arab”; and for a period of 1,637 years, Jews comprised its primary population.[9] For three thousand years, dating back to Joshua, Jewish people have lived continuously in the land they occupy.[10] After World War 1, the San Remo Peace Conference legally recognized a continuous chain of Jewish possession.
No matter. In lockstep with Socialist International and Europe, President Obama’s plan is to give Israel “the basic right to exist,” but without “permanent occupation” of their own titled land.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Desert Swing: A January of Golf in the Arabian Peninsula
Starting Thursday in Abu Dhabi, Italy’s Manassero also competing
(ANSAmed) — NAPLES, JANUARY 14 — A round of international golf events known as ‘desert swing’ are about to kick off Thursday for three weeks across golf courses in the Arabian peninsula’s desert. The first world golf tournaments will take place in the east, with the Abu Dhabi Golf Championship scheduled on January 16-19, followed by the Qatar Masters in Doha on January 22-25 and the Dubai Desert Classics on January 30-February 2.
The Abu Dhabi event is the richest with prizes worth 2.7 million dollars. Henrik Stenson, who has climbed to number 3 in world rankings, is hoping to win and is returning to the Arabian peninsula as a top contender after winning last year ‘Race to Dubai’, the 2013 circuit of European golf which wrapped up in the other emirate of the UAE.
He will face major competition given that the Abu Dhabi Championship will see four of the world’s top ten golfers compete including ex-number one Phil Mickelson, who ranks now fifth after conquering five major tournaments, another former number one player until Sergio Garcia, Rory McIlory, and Martin Kaymer, who has already won three times in Abu Dhabi.
Welsh player Jamie Donaldson will seek to defend the Falcon trophy conquered last year. Italy’s Matteo Manassero, 21, a native of Verona, is growing as an athlete and vying to make it among the world’s top golfers. The Italian has the advantage of having tried last October the new 18-hole golf course hosting the tournament, which has reached its ninth edition.
The three-day golf event in Abu Dhabi also has a clear commercial interest as the emirate is seeking to become a top international destination for tourists also in the sport sector.
According to data from the International Association of Golf Tour Operators (IAGTO), Dubai and Abu Dhabi are growing more than any other Middle Eastern and Arabian peninsula destination: the UAE are eighth in the world in terms of growth rate of golf destinations. Anyone staying at a hotel in Abu Dhabi during the tournament will have a free ticket to watch it.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
One Killed in Renewed Clashes in Lebanon’s Tripoli
BEIRUT, Jan. 17 (Xinhua) — One person was killed and five others injured on Friday when fierce clashes erupted in Lebanon’s northern port city of Tripoli between two rival neighborhoods of Sunni Bab el-Tebbaneh and Alawite Jaba, Mohsen, a security source said…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Saudi Religious Cops Tell Women Not to Use Swings
Also: Restaurants shut over gender-mixing
Saudi Arabia’s feared religious police entered a public park in the Gulf Kingdom and told women to stop using swings, an act that drew applause and criticism by viewers of a picture showing the men warning some women at the swings.
The picture went viral on social networks in Saudi Arabia before it was published by newspapers showing two men from the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice warning women against using the swings.
Saudi Arabia’s influential religious police shut a restaurant in the conservative Gulf kingdom for massive violations including allowing gender-mixing.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The Putin Regime Fears a Free Press
Journalist David Satter, denied a visa to report from Russia, writes in The Wall Street Journal that recent terrorist bombings in Russia may be modeled after the 1999 apartment bombings that served to solidify Vladimir Putin’s control of the country and justify the war against the former Soviet republic of Chechnya. The 1999 bombings, Satter notes, were blamed on Islamic terrorists, but were proven to be the work of agents of the Federal Security Service, or FSB, a successor to the old KGB.
Regarding the December terror bombings in Volgograd, Satter says “The outlines of the story follow a pattern in Russia of Islamists being freed from [police] custody shortly before committing terrorist acts.” He says these episodes “merit close scrutiny by the press.”
But Satter, an adviser to Radio Liberty hoping to help investigate these matters, will not be allowed to do so in Russia.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
18 Dead in Stampede After India Muslim Leader Dies
MUMBAI, India (AP) — A pre-dawn stampede killed 18 people Saturday as tens of thousands of people gathered to mourn the death of a Muslim spiritual leader in India’s financial capital, police said.
At least 40 other people were injured in the stampede when mourners thronged the home of Syedna Mohammed Burhanuddin, the head of the Dawoodi Bohra Muslim community, Mumbai Police Commissioner Satya Pal Singh said. Burhanuddin died Friday at the age of 102…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Afghanistan: Two Britons Killed in Kabul Restaurant Attack
Taliban say they carried out terrorist assault in revenge for airstrike that killed civilians, as death toll rises to 21, including two Britons
The death toll from a Taliban suicide attack in the Afghan capital Kabul rose to 21, according to police on Saturday, including two Britons in a violent assault on a fortified restaurant. One of the Britons was a close protection officer working for the European Union in the city.
Catherine Ashton, European foreign policy chief, paid tribute to him and a Danish member of the EU police mission to Afghanistan who also died.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Afghanistan: Labour MEP Candidate Killed in Kabul Restaurant Attack
Two Britons — including Labour MEP candidate — killed in suicide bomb and gunman attack on Kabul restaurant raising security fears in Afghan capital
A Labour candidate for the European Parliament was one of two Britons shot dead when the Taliban launched a suicide attack on a Kabul restaurant popular with Westerners. Senior party figures paid tribute to Del Singh, 39, who had spent a decade working as a development consultant in some of the world’s most troubled regions and was due to stand for the South East in May’s European election…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
‘An American Bride in Kabul’ Wins National Jewish Book Award
The National Jewish Book Council (NJBC) announced on January 15, 2014 its 2013 awards for books in several categories. Dr. Phyllis Chesler’s memoir, An American Bride in Kabul published by Palgrave Macmillan won The Krauss Family Award in Memory of Simon & Shulamith (Sofi) Goldberg in the category of Biography, Autobiography and Memoir. We reviewed Dr. Chesler’s memoir in the January 2014 New English Review edition, Flight from an Afghan Seraglio. In our introduction to the review we noted:…
| — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon | [Return to headlines] |
Dane Killed in Kabul Terror Attack
14 foreigners among 21 people killed in a Taleban attack on a restaurant yesterday
A Danish woman was killed in a Taleban terror attack on a Lebanese restaurant in Kabul, Afghanistan, yesterday. The woman, 34, had arrived in January to work with the EU’s police mission in Afghanistan, EUPOL, and had previously worked in Afghanistan for the UN, Ritzau reports. According to AFP, 21 people died during the attack — 14 of them foreigners — while five remain injured.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The stampede took place outside the home of Syedna Mohammed Burhanuddin, the spiritual leader of the Dawoodi Bohra Muslim community, in Malabar Hill, a wealthy part of the city, police said.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Pro-Islamist Reporters Arrested in Bangladesh
The journalists are accused of writing a false story accusing the government of letting Indian troops into the country to contain domestic violence. Those arrested work for Bangla daily Inqilab, which openly backs Islamist party.
Dhaka (AsiaNews) — Bangladeshi police arrested four pro-Islamist journalists after they wrote a false story on the government and the recent general election.
In their article, they claimed that Indian troops helped Dhaka contain violence unleashed during the recent election.
“They published [. . ..] sensational news that goes against the country’s sovereignty despite being aware that it was false and baseless,” Dhaka police spokesman Monirul Islam said.
The journalists arrested are Rabiullah Rabi, Mohammad Rafiq, Aitikur Rahman and Afzal Bari, all employed by Inqilab, a Bangla-language newspaper founded by notorious war criminal Maulana Abdul Mannan.
The paper’s steering committee openly backs Jamaat-e-Islami, the country’s main Islamist party, which has been responsible for serious acts of violence for over a year.
Police sealed the newspaper’s headquarters, its printing press and computers.
Inqilab suspended its print publication today. The newspaper editor said in the online edition that they are ‘sorry’ for false reporting.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Reality Check for US’ Indian Partner
What happened in the US-Indian diplomatic row over the arrest and detention of Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade in New York and her return to Delhi last week is fairly straightforward: the US intelligence made a concerted attempt to “recruit” an Indian career diplomat, and Delhi successfully thwarted it.
The American side has been taken by surprise. Their perception of the working of the Indian foreign and security policy establishment turned out to be way off the mark. In the recent decade when glaring espionage activities by the CIA surfaced — when they smuggled out a top intelligence official (2004) or when they breached the security perimeters of India’s National Security Council [NSC] in 2006 — the spooks in the American embassy in Delhi got away scot-free.
Any country with self-respect would have reacted strongly when such subversive acts by a foreign power surfaced, but India chose to shove the incidents under the carpet for reasons that are beyond comprehension. Whether it was because of the sense of vulnerability on the part of the Indian functionaries holding fort in the foreign policy and security establishment at that time or because of political interference — Delhi was negotiating the nuclear deal during those years — remains anybody’s guess. All that can be said is that if the Americans developed a sneering contempt toward the Indian establishment, it wasn’t entirely their fault.
The Americans got the impression that the Indian establishment was impotent and highly vulnerable to US pressure and the elites were lacking in integrity and a sense of honor. Delhi must be one of the few capitals where minor flunkeys of the American embassy take undue freedom to backslap cabinet ministers at public receptions. Arguably, a point has been reached where it has become difficult to lend credence to media reporting — from Delhi or Washington-based reporters alike — on matters affecting the US-Indian “defining partnership”.
In the present case too, there were big attempts at media management by the US embassy with a view to push back the Indian establishment.
Thus, a coloring was given that the Khobragade affair was a matter of ‘human-trafficking’ and ‘visa fraud’; that a rogue element in the American embassy mishandled the matter (really?); that Khobragade is a wealthy woman (so what?); that the Indian Foreign Service thinks no end of itself and so on — but, ultimately, none of this worked and Delhi kept up relentless pressure on Washington to ensure that the Indian diplomat returned to India without being forced to stand trial in New York on framed-up charges.
The heart of the matter is that the Indian diplomat spurned the overtures by the US intelligence and reported to her superiors, which in turn alerted the Indian counter-intelligence and prompted Delhi to demand that the diplomat’s housemaid (who is an Indian official passport holder, by the way) should be forthwith repatriated to India.
Evidently, the US intelligence was caught on the wrong foot because the housemaid is a valuable “asset” who could spill the beans regarding the modus operandi of the US embassy set-up in Delhi as well as the plot to compromise the Indian diplomat. The only way out for the CIA has been to ‘rehabilitate’ not only the Indian housemaid but also her entire family (as insisted upon by her) in America…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Beijing Citizens, Shrouded in Pollution, Flock to Giant Screens to View Artificial Sunrise
You know it’s bad when…The smog has become so thick in Beijing that the city’s natural light-starved masses have begun flocking to huge digital commercial television screens across the city to observe virtual sunrises. Following this week’s practical shutdown of the city of “beyond index” levels of pollution, as The Mail Online reports, residents donned air masks and left their homes to watch the only place where the sun would hail over the horizon that morning…
The futuristic screens installed in the Chinese capital usually advertize tourist destinations, but as the season’s first wave of extremely dangerous smog hit, this happened…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Taiwan: Iruan’s Story: Country Embraces Young Man Who Lost His Parents
Born to a Brazilian mother and a Taiwanese father, the young man is back in Taiwan after losing his family in South America. Through the efforts of the Taiwan Catholic Mission Foundation, he was able to close a long chapter in his life. He can always come “when he wants to visit the place where his Dad is buried.”
Taipei (AsiaNews) — After an absence of ten years, a litany of misfortunes and countless legal problems, a young man born to a Brazilian mother and a Taiwanese father was able to return to the island to pray at the grave of his father, who died in 2001. Through the Taiwan Catholic Mission Foundation, he was able to overcome many hurdles in a story that has touched the country. Iruan was born in Brazil 18 years ago, but sadly, his mother died when he was only three years old. His maternal grandmother then took him in to care for him.
In 2001, he travelled to Taiwan with his father on a short trip, but the latter was struck down by a heart attack after two weeks. His paternal uncle tried to gain custody of the child, but eventually, after a long legal battle, lost in 2004, when a Taiwanese court recognised the boy’s maternal grandmother in Brazil as his legal guardian. When she fell ill, a German couple living in Brazil adopted Iruan five years ago. The grandmother passed away in late 2013. Iruan was able to come back to Taiwan mainly thanks to help provided by the Taiwan Catholic Mission Foundation, which took care of all the red tape, put in touch biological and adoptive families, and got Taiwan’s Foreign Affairs Ministry to sponsor the trip.
Foundation president Mr Ou feels very much involved in this meeting, which comes after many years of absence. For him, “It is important that Iruan visit his father’s grave, be with his uncle’s family for a period of time and nurture family relations that marked three years of his childhood in Taiwan. For the Catholic community, making this meeting possible is important for two reasons: Because we believe that maintaining relations can improve the understanding between families and because it can help Iruan remember the important period of time he spent here when he was not yet grown up. As a Christian, I believe that working for reconciliation is always the most important thing.”
The day after he arrived, Iruan not only met his family but also his old friends from the neighbourhood. Despite losing his parents, he has found serenity in Brazil and with his Taiwanese relatives. Here, “He can always fell at home,” said his uncle, moved by the reunion. “The doors will always be open for him when he wants to visit the place where his Dad is buried.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Thanks to Al Gore & Maurice Strong Only Sun in China is a Digital One
United Nations climate chief Christiana Figueres: Democracy is a poor political system for fighting global warming, Communist China is the best model. The outrageous Big Lie of China leading the world in tackling climate change is there for all to see in Beijing, where the pretend sunrise has to be televised on giant TV screens because smog is completely wiping out all natural light.
“The smog has become so thick in Beijing that the city’s natural light-starved masses have begun flocking to huge digital commercial television screens across the city to observe virtual sunrises.” (Daily Mail, January 17, 2014).
It should go without saying there’s no Vitamin D benefits or sun ray reality in government-digitalized sunrises…
Will anyone hold the mainstream media in both the U.S. and Canada accountable for spreading the big lie that China leads the world in successfully tackling climate change?
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Analyst — New Nigeria Military Chief ‘New Strategy’ Against Boko Haram
Abuja — After Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan fired his top military chiefs this week, some analysts said it signified a failure of the old guard to beat Islamist militants in the north. Some say a fresh approach to the security crisis is one of several changes the president appears to be making ahead of elections next year. Three states in northern Nigeria have been virtually occupied by military forces for eight months now, but insurgent attacks continue…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Half of Crimes in Angola Are Murders, Says Study
(AGI) Luanda, Jan 17 — Half of all crimes committed in Angola are murders, including 9 percent relating to witchcraft, according to a study by Ferndandes Manuel, a forensic psychologist who has published a book on the topic. “This should lead us to make a serious reflection,” Manuel stated in an interview. The author claims that higher population densities are conducive to a higher rate of crime and this is why the province of Luanda has the country’s highest murder rates, followed by Benguela, Huila and Huambo. The study also focuses on the motives of these murders: “The highest percentage of these crimes consists of manslaughter within the family unit, followed by witchcraft-linked murders, and immediately after by premeditated murder. But the most worrying aspect is that most of these murders were committed under the effects of alcohol or by people suffering from serious mental disorders.” The author also explained that these behaviours are what led to the 27-year long war that has devastated the country. “The war affects personalities and the integrity of society,” Manuel explained, going on to say: “I think that after every conflict, in addition to infrastructure, it is necessary to rebuild people’s minds; the government must recognise this and the reasons underlying these crimes”.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
South Africa: Kidnapped SA Man is Alive
Johannesburg — A South African man kidnapped by Al-Qaeda militants in Yemen was alive, disaster relief organisation The Gift of the Givers Foundation said on Saturday. The militants had threatened to execute him on Friday if they were not given US3 million (about R32.5m) in exchange for his safe return. “Pierre is alive,” foundation head Imtiaz Sooliman said in a statement. “We have achieved a stay-in-execution for now. We have been granted a three-week extension [to raise the ransom].”…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Brazil: Rio De Janeiro’s Christ the Redeemer Struck by Lightning
The iconic statue of Christ overlooking Rio de Janeiro has been damaged during a storm. Officials said Friday that the right thumb was chipped, apparently by a lightning strike Thursday night. The middle finger of the right hand had been chipped during a storm last month.
The 125-foot Christ the Redeemer statue sits atop a steep mountain and is often hit by strikes. The statue underwent a $4 million renovation in 2010 to repair badly eroded parts of its face and hands.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italian Govt Keeping Close Watch on Panama Canal Dispute
Italy’s Salini Impregilo working on expansion
(ANSA) — Rome, January 17 — The Italian government said Friday that it was paying “maximum attention” to the dispute between the Panama Canal Authority and the consortium that is working on a huge expansion of the canal.
An Italian company, Salini Impregilo, is part of the mostly European consortium that has the $5.25 billion contract to do the expansion.
The consortium has said work will stop next week if the authority fails to cover $1.6 billion in cost overruns.
An Italian government statement that the administration had “activated contacts with the governments of the countries interested and the European and international financial institutions that are financing the project”. European Industry Commissioner Antonio Tajani told ANSA that the EU was “ready to intervene” if “all the European firms involved request this”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Obama-Backed Mexican Troops Disarm and Massacre More Civilians
Obama administration-backed Mexican troops opened fire this week on a group of civilians seeking to keep their weapons and rein in ruthless government-linked drug cartels, which have terrorized their communities in the state of Michoacán. The attack sparked an international outcry on behalf of the citizens, who have suffered non-stop brutality at the hands of both government officials and criminal syndicates. News reports, some of which conflict with each other, suggest that around a dozen people were shot and at least four were killed in the massacre, including an 11-year-old girl. A Mexican paper reported that a dozen civilians died in the clash.
Multiple reports and local witnesses said that Mexican forces opened fire on an unarmed crowd, though officials would not confirm that to foreign reporters. Community leaders quoted in press reports said the government was trying to protect cartels. Authorities also claimed not to know exactly how many people had been killed in the clashes, which reportedly began Monday, January 13, when a group of unarmed citizens tried to stop a convoy of heavily armed government functionaries from entering the town of Antunez and disarming residents.
However, journalists and news reports confirmed that there were multiple bodies in the area, and at least several locals reported that their family members had been slain in attacks by government troops. The federal assault came days after local self-defense groups managed to drive out criminal syndicates from more and more towns in the region over the weekend.. Spokesmen for local communities said the biggest confrontation involved around 60 to 80 government troops, although hundreds were in the area.
Officials claim they were trying to bring “security” to the region by disarming the civilians, whom they refer to as “vigilantes” for seeking to drive cartels out of their beleaguered communities. Also part of the scheme was enforcing Mexico’s draconian gun-control regime, which critics say violates the human rights of law-abiding Mexicans while contributing heavily to the ongoing reign of terror and murder across much of the nation. “There will be no tolerance for anyone caught with firearms,” decreed Government Secretary Miguel Angel Osorio Chong.
Other top Mexican officials made similar statements, demanding that citizens surrender their weapons and essentially submit to whatever group or cartel happens to be terrorizing the public at that moment.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Amnesty: The Next GOP Leadership Betrayal
So what’s the difference between Boehner and Pelosi and McConnell and Reid? Answer: The Democratic leadership honors its promises. Republican leaders have abandoned theirs.
This House GOP leadership betrayal is passage of an amnesty bill, probably before the November election. Erosion in GOP leadership backbones started with Paul Ryan (R — Cheese Brains) when he began talking about a path to citizenship for illegals. Speaker John Boehner (R — Tanning Bed) went back and forth on “immigration reform.” And now House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R — Sellout) says the leadership supports an amnesty bill for 12 million illegals that includes tighter border enforcement as a sop to conservatives.
This means Boehner and his merry men pay far more attention to agitation from people who shouldn’t be in the country than they do to conservative citizens. And unprincipled businessmen who want a steady supply of imported serfs to compete with and lower the wages of US citizens are far more influential than mere voters.
National Republicans are forever pursuing the ‘independent voter’ at the expense of the base. GOP campaigns downplay ‘social issues’ in an effort to appeal to the uncommitted vote. Democrats on the other hand solidify their base first and then move to the independents. You think that might be why they win elections?
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Sen. Sessions: House Last Line of Defense for American Workers Against Amnesty
On Friday, Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) said the House was the last line of defense for the millions of Americans whose wages and livelihood will be put at risk by amnesty and comprehensive immigration reform.
He urged House Republicans to put the interests of American workers ahead of those of the consultant class, lobbyists, and Democrats who want cheaper labor and more potential votes.
House Republican leaders are preparing to unveil their “immigration principles” which will include amnesty provisions that the Congressional Budget Office determined would lower the wages of American workers. Sessions, the ranking Member of the Budget Committee, said that Obama and Senate Democrats have “uniformly embraced an immigration plan that would devastate wages and working conditions for millions of struggling Americans to benefit a small cadre of lobbyists and CEOs.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Asylum seekers got their own sports facility at Campsfield House, Kidlington, Oxfordshire, to use while they are waiting to be deported.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
WSJ: Boehner’s Amnesty ‘Principles’ Support ‘Major Planks’ Of Senate Immigration Bill
The forthcoming House GOP leadership immigration “principles” will reflect much of what was in the Senate “Gang of Eight” immigration bill that passed last year, the Wall Street Journal reports.
House Speaker John Boehner, Majority Leader Eric Cantor, Budget Committee chairman Paul Ryan, and Judiciary Committee chairman Bob Goodlatte, among others, are developing the “principles” in a process coordinated by Boehner’s new top immigration adviser, Becky Tallent. Tallent worked for Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), a member of the Senate Gang of Eight, for years, having helped write the failed immigration bill McCain pushed with the late Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA) in the final years of the Bush administration.
The “principles,” the Wall Street Journal wrote, will grant legalization — amnesty — to illegal aliens and would give corporate CEOs exactly what they want: more cheap labor in the form of more tech visas, more importing of low-skilled labor, and other measures that would harm the over 100 million American workers out of the workforce right now.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Charlotte Iserbyt Explains Havelock’s Change Agent Training
Charlotte comments on her “training in Maine in 1976 on how to become a change agent, using Havelock’s Guide. Mainers should be aware of what has been going on and why their children no longer have “their” values.“
This is Charlotte’s comment related to Bole’s email to her (posted below). “ Bole is from Bosnia, former Yugoslavia, and knows what he is talking about. He wants a copy of Havelock’s “Innovations in Educaton — A Change Agents’ Guide” which is about impossible to get except for a couple copies at Amazon (expensive).”
“I (Charlotte Iserbyt) went through Havelock’s Change Agent Training, to which Bole from Bosnia, refers, in 1976 in Maine and was trained to “identify the resisters in my community” (those parents who resisted all the values destroying programs being implemented in Maine schools) coming out of the National Diffusion Network, U.S. Dept. of Education, and pushed by the Maine Facilitator Center in Gardner, Maine. Being trained to basically “identify myself” — since I was resisting these programs as a school board member in Camden. This federally-funded Marxist teacher training was enough to get me started researching American education and to never, never stop researching and writing about it. It is ironic that I ended up being the Senior Policy Advisor in the office in the U.S. Dept. of Education which was promoting, funding and distributing this information WORLDWIDE, not just into Maine. The very office which had originally financially, with your tax money, and supported Havelock’s work and his book “Innovations in Education — A Change Agent’s Guide”. By the way, the State of Maine received a gold medal for having accepted the greatest number of these values-destroying programs nationwide. And, of UTMOST importance, the Guidance Counsellor’s journal stated in a special issue it published in May 1977on “death education” that all these programs which had “education” hanging off the end of them: “sex, drugs, alcohol, death, bullying”, etc. were designed to do the opposite of what they told the parents and taxpayers they were designed to do. They were designed TO CHANGE THE CHILDREN’S VALUES FROM ABSOLUTES TO NO ABSOLUTES! (NO RIGHT, NO WRONG)“
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Cuomo: No Place in New York for Extreme Conservatives
Gov. Andrew Cuomo said ‘‘extreme conservatives’’ don’t fit in with most New Yorkers. ‘‘If they are extreme conservatives, they have no place in the state of New York,’’ Cuomo said in a radio interview Friday. Cuomo defined ‘‘extreme conservatism’’ as being ‘‘anti-gay’’ by opposing same-sex marriage rights, opposed to abortion rights and favoring legalization of assault weapons.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Haribo Pulls “Racist” Liquorice After Complaints
German sweet manufacturer Haribo will stop producing blackface liquorice sweets after Swedish customers protested on social media, complaining that the sweets play on racist stereotypes.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Scientists warn the Sun has ‘gone to sleep’ and say it could cause temperatures to plunge
The Sun’s activity is at its lowest for 100 years, scientists have warned. They say the conditions are eerily similar to those before the Maunder Minimum, a time in 1645 when a mini ice age hit, Freezing London’s River Thames. Researcher believe the solar lull could cause major changes, and say there is a 20% chance it could lead to ‘major changes’ in temperatures.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Finder claims to have spotted similar mystery structure in Antarctica
Is it part of an alien spaceship nestled under the dust of the moon, or a secret moonbase occupied by humans?
Speculation has exploded over these controversial images which appear to show something unexplained on the surface of the moon.
The triangular anomaly, spotted on Google’s map of the moon, has rows of seven light-like dots along its edge that have been likened to an alien base or spaceship.
It can be found on the Google Moon viewer at coordinates 22042’38.46N and 142034’44.52E
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
“Two “French” schoolboys have become the youngest Western mujahideen ever to travel to Syria to fight in the jihad. The two fifteen-year-olds from Toulouse are thought to have joined US-backed Al Qaeda affiliates attempting to overthrow the Assad regime.”
good. let them die before they breed.
Quote:
Parts of the UK are becoming no-go areas for police because minority communities are operating their own justice systems, according to the Chief Inspector of Constabulary.
end
Parts of the UK have been invaded and conquered by foreigners.
This is what the sentence should read.
Wherever the law is undermined, the territory no longer remains the sovereign possession of the UK, Britain, or whatever.
No sympathy.
Who’d think the English would fight so hard in the mid-20th century to defend their “island, no matter the cost” just to lose it 70 years later?
Idiots.
goethechosemercy, calling a whole population – most who have been hoodwinked by a very clever conspiracy to defraud a people of their nation through a massive colonization process – collective idiots, is beyond the pale.
They’ve been stealthily disarmed, severely regulated under fascist Human Rights legislation, discriminated against by their own elected officials and bureaucrats and made into a second class citizenry.
Yes, there may be some genuine ‘idiots’ who cannot see that they now have their collective backs to the wall and must fight, but there are many more who will not hesitate to fight back when the time is right.
@Nemesis,
” … discriminated against by their own elected officials and bureaucrats and made into a second class citizenry.”
What they have disparaged and lost they now seek in the customs, laws and values of the other, they have become the enemy within.
Yes, the Traitor Class. May God give us the longevity to deal with these swine at some time in the future.