A proposed mosque in a southern suburb of Glasgow in Scotland has been denied planning permission. The mosque would have been built on the grounds of a public school, but so many parents raised concerns that permission was refused by the local council.
In other news, three people were killed in a shooting at the Columbia Mall in Howard County, Maryland. One of the dead victims is thought to be the killer.
A personal note: I worked in that mall 41 years ago, as a sales clerk in a tuxedo-rental store on the second floor, although not close to the area of the shooting. It was one of the first malls in the area, and only the second I had ever seen (the other was the Galleria in Houston, if I remember rightly).
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fjordman, JD, JP, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.
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20 Early Warning Signs That We Are Approaching a Global Economic Meltdown
Have you been paying attention to what has been happening in Argentina, Venezuela, Brazil, Ukraine, Turkey and China? If you are like most Americans, you have not been. Most Americans don’t seem to really care too much about what is happening in the rest of the world, but they should.
In major cities all over the globe right now, there is looting, violence, shortages of basic supplies, and runs on the banks. We are not at a “global crisis” stage yet, but things are getting worse with each passing day. For a while, I have felt that 2014 would turn out to be a major “turning point” for the global economy, and so far that is exactly what it is turning out to be. The following are 20 early warning signs that we are rapidly approaching a global economic meltdown…
#1 The looting, violence and economic chaos that is happening in Argentina right now is a perfect example of what can happen when you print too much money…
#2 The value of the Argentine Peso is absolutely collapsing.
#3 Widespread shortages, looting and accelerating inflation are also causing huge problems in Venezuela…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Bank-Run Fears Continue; HSBC Restricts Large Cash Withdrawals
Following research last week suggesting that HSBC has a major capital shortfall, the fact that several farmer’s co-ops were unable to pay back depositors in China, and, of course, the liquidity crisis in China itself, news from The BBC that HSBC is imposing restrictions on large cash withdrawals raising a number of red flags. The BBC reports that some HSBC customers have been prevented from withdrawing large amounts of cash because they could not provide evidence of why they wanted it. HSBC admitted it has not informed customers of the change in policy, which was implemented in November for their own good: “We ask our customers about the purpose of large cash withdrawals when they are unusual… the reason being we have an obligation to protect our customers, and to minimise the opportunity for financial crime.” As one customer responded: “you shouldn’t have to explain to your bank why you want that money. It’s not theirs, it’s yours.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Financial Times: Demand Physical Gold Because Paper Price Manipulation Will End “Catastrophically”
What have we done: after a series of reports in late 2012 in which we showed, with no ambiguity, that not only might the Bundesbank’s offshore held gold be severely “diluted” (follow our 2012 exposes on German gold here, here, here, and here), but that on at least one occassion, the Fed and the Bank of England conspired against the Buba in returning subpar quality gold, the Bundesbank shocked everyone in early January 2013 when it announced it would repatriate 300 tons of gold helt in New York and all of its 374 tons of gold held in Paris.
But convincing the Bundebsbank to demand delivery was peanuts compared to changing the tune of the Financial Times — that bastion of fiat “money”, and where the word gold is mocked and ridiculed, and those who see the daily improprieties in the gold market as nothing but “conspiracy theorists” — to say the magic words: “Learn from Buba and demand delivery for true price of gold”, adding that “one day the ties that bind this pixelated gold may break, with potentially catastrophic results.”
In other words, precisely what we have been saying since the beginning.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Another dose of reality has trumped the Obama administration’s economic happy talk. According to data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), one-in-five Americans were on the food stamp program in 2013. A staggering 23,052,388 households needed supplemental food assistance in FY2013, an increase of 722,675 households compared to FY2012.
The cost of the program, known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), has also reached an all-time high. For fiscal year 2013, the SNAP program cost American taxpayers $79.6 billion. That represents a 36.8 percent increase in expenditures over the last five years.
And it’s not just households that have seen a huge jump in the SNAP participation rate. The monthly average for individual users of the program has also increased dramatically, as an additional 1,027,012 participants pushed the total number of individual users from 46,609,072 to 47,636,084 over the same time period. Since 2009, the number of individuals using the SNAP program has increased by 42.2 percent.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Is the China Bank Run Beginning? Farmers Co-Op Unable to Pay Depositors
While most of the attention in the Chinese shadow banking system is focused on the Credit Equals Gold #1 Trust’s default, as we first brought to investors’ attention here, and the PBOC has thrown nearly CNY 400 billion at the market in the last few days, there appears to be a bigger problem brewing. As China’s CNR reports, depositors in some of Yancheng City’s largest farmers’ co-operative mutual fund societies (“banks”) have been unable to withdraw “hundreds of millions” in deposits in the last few weeks. “Everyone wants to borrow and no one wants to save,” warned one ‘salesperson’, “and loan repayments are difficult to recover.” There is “no money” and the doors are locked.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
We cannot have a “recovery” with no jobs. There can be no “recovery” with a labor force participation rate of only 62.8 percent
It is becoming laughable to hear the Obama administration talk about a so-called “recovery.” Supposedly, this “recovery” started in June of 2009; however, in reality our economy is on life support and the latest jobs figures just confirm this horrible news.
In the government’s December labor report, the nation’s unemployment rate dropped to 6.7 percent, which is our lowest rate since October of 2008. While this may be heralded as good news, it is truly disturbing. Unfortunately, only 74,000 new jobs were added last month, the worst job growth numbers since January of 2011.
This is anemic job creation, a fraction of the 200,000+ new jobs needed each month just to keep pace with the nation’s population growth. It is even more shocking since most analysts predicted approximately 193,000 new jobs in December.
Even worse, of the new jobs, 40,000 were temporary positions, not what wage earners need to care for their families. Not surprisingly, the average work week for Americans dropped to only 34.4 hours. So, there are few full time jobs being created and on average Americans are working less. No wonder there are 47 million Americans on food stamps and over 50 million people who are considered poor.
The reason the unemployment rate dropped is that an astounding 347,000 Americans left the work force in December. This means that 5 times more Americans exited the labor pool than located new jobs. Our country now has 91.8 million Americans not in the work force. These are Americans who are receiving benefits, living off their savings or living on the streets. Many of these Americans have given up any hope of finding work and for these poor individuals; the hope of the American dream is over.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Army Continues Cover-up of Secret Experimentation 65 Years Later
The D.O.D. and U.S. Army are attempting to delay a court order that would force them to provide certain notice to Vietnam veterans disclosing the extent to which they had secretly been used as test subjects for experimentation during the Cold War. Under ‘Project Paperclip,’ the U.S. government recruited Nazi scientists for “postwar intelligence purposes.”
The federal lawsuit, filed by Vietnam Veterans of America as well as individual soldiers, has dragged on since January 2009, and requests the Army disclose details about covert testing performed during “Project Paperclip,” an operation through which the U.S. Office of Strategic Services recruited Nazi scientists for “postwar intelligence purposes.”
“With the help of Nazi scientists recruited through ‘Project Paperclip,’ the Army and CIA used at least 7,800 veterans as human guinea pigs at the Edgewood Arsenal, [Maryland] alone,” the veterans’ class action suit states.
Starting in the 50s, the Army casually went about using troops to research the effects of various psychoactive elements on the human mind. “[T]he U.S. government sought drugs to control human behavior, cause confusion, promote weakness or temporary loss of hearing and vision, induce hypnosis, and enhance a person’s ability to withstand torture,” the lawsuit states.
“These experiments also used civilian ‘volunteers’ such as college students, who were paid small sums to participate, or prisoners,” the complaint alleges.
Carried out under project names such as “Bluebird,” “Pandora,” “Monarch,” “Artichoke” and “MKUltra,” subjects were unknowingly “administered at least 250 and perhaps as many as 400 types of drugs, among them Sarin, one of the most deadly drugs known, amphetamines, barbiturates, mustard gas, phosgene gas and LSD,” in efforts to develop drugs that would produce the desired effects.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
(NaturalNews) Four days ago, the Associated Press reported that coal-fired power plants are dumping enormous quantities of pollutants into U.S. waterways. According to the Associated Press, the EPA says that coal-fired power plants are dumping nearly 2 million pounds of aluminum, 79,000 pounds of arsenic, 64,000 pounds of lead and even 2,820 pound of mercury each year into U.S. waterways.
This original story by the AP (dated January 18, 2014) was published, word-for-word, across the Denver Post, ABC News, the Washington Post, the San Jose Mercury News and even Salon.com.
There’s only one problem with all this reporting: nobody bothered to check their sources.
The original AP story turns out to have been “restructured” from old news, packaged to appear like breaking news for 2014 even though it actually traces back to 2009 (see below). AP actually featured the story in its “Big Story” section which implies that the stories published there are big, breaking news stories.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Community (Communist) Oriented Policing
The concept of the dialectic has been around for a long time. It is simply that of opposite positions: Thesis (position) vs. Antithesis (opposite position). In traditional logic, if my thesis was true, then all other positions were by definition untrue. For example, if my thesis is 2+2=4, then all other answers (antithesis) are false. Georg W.F. Hegel, the nineteenth century German philosopher, turned that concept upside down by equalizing Thesis and Antithesis. All things are now relative. There is no such thing as absolute truth to be found anywhere. Instead, “truth” is found in Synthesis, a compromise of Thesis and Antithesis. This is the heart and soul of the consensus process.
This is diametrically opposed to the Judeo-Christian world-view prevalent in the Western world for the better part of two millennia that held that God existed, that He existed outside of the material creation and that man had a moral obligation to Him and His laws. God was transcendent and thus truth was absolute and transcendent, outside of our ability to manipulate it. This all changed with Hegel and modern man was born. Man could now challenge any authority and position, even God. Since there is no such thing as absolute truth, “my truth” is just as good as “your truth,” so don’t tell me what to think or how to behave. As Nietzsche, the “God is Dead” philosopher, would later say, “There is absolutely no absolute.” Now 2+2 can equal 5, or 17, or whatever you feel is right. (Hint: This is why our schools are failing. All teachers are certified on Benjamin Bloom’s work. He said “…we recognize the point of view that truth and knowledge are only relative and that there are no hard and fast truths which exist for all time and all places.”)
[Comment: Good article by police detective Phil Worts outlines the Hegelian dialectic being used to transform policing in America.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Conservation Easements for Unsuspecting Farmers
Property owners, farmers are fined, bullied, threatened based on zoning ordinances, environmental conservation easements with onerous requirements, inspections.
After Delegate Bobby Orrock introduced on January 8, 2014, HB 268 and Senator Richard Stuart filed a companion bill, SB51, Delegate Bob Marshall introduced on January 17, 2014, HB 1219.
The first two bills reintroduced the Right to Farm Act HB 1430 (Boneta Bill) which passed in the House but was defeated in the Virginia Senate last year. I have discussed the battle in my recent article, “Boneta Bill Part Deux.”
In case you wonder, why would anyone care what is happening in another state, rest assured that it is coming to your state or is already there. It is an important battle not just in Virginia. Property owners and farmers are fined, bullied, and threatened around the country based on zoning ordinances and environmental conservation easements with onerous requirements and inspections.
HB 268 addresses agricultural operations and local regulation of certain activities, “protecting customary agritourism activities from local bans in the absence of substantial impacts on the public welfare and requires certain localities to take certain factors into account when regulating agritourism activities.”
Because local boards of supervisors have abused their power in the past, “there has to be a basis in health, safety, or public welfare for a local ordinance to restrict activities such as agritourism, sale of agricultural or silvicultural products, related items, preparation or sale of foods that already comply with state laws, and other customary activities. Local boards are “prohibited from subjecting these activities to a special-use permit requirement.”
Delegate Bob Marshall’s bill HB 1219, introduced on January 17, 2014, “provides that local governments violating constitutional rights through zoning shall pay their victims (1) the amount of fines they sought to impose, and (2) actual damages including attorney fees. Local government officials who intentionally violate this law would also be liable.”
Had these bills been in place, Martha Boneta would not have been bullied and threatened with $5,000 fines per day by her county government when she held a pumpkin carving party for 10-year olds on her own property.
Mark Fitzgibbons, a Constitutional attorney, is of the opinion that “There is great but underutilized precedent for remedies against government officials who abuse their power to violate the rights of citizens. Virginians don’t need to go broke protecting their rights on their own property.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Consumer Report: Potential Carcinogen Found in Certain Soft Drinks
If you drink soda, we have some information about a possible health risk you need to know. Recent tests by Consumer Reports show that some soft drinks contain a potential carcinogen — and a couple have relatively high levels. The culprit? A chemical in the coloring that makes the drinks an enticing shade of brown.
Consumer Reports recently tested 110 samples of soft drinks bought in the New York area and in California, including iced tea, root beer, colas, and a non-alcoholic malt drink. The chemical, 4-MeI, which a government study found caused cancer in mice, showed up at varying levels across all brands tested that contained caramel coloring.
Some sodas were actually fairly low in their levels of 4-MeI, whereas some soft drinks were extremely high. The highest levels of 4-MeI that Consumer Reports found were in Malta Goya and in Pepsi One. Goya says it is looking into the matter. PepsiCo says its products sold in California meet that state’s regulations for 4-MeI and it is voluntarily applying those same standards to the rest of the country within the next month.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Corporate Billionaires Defend NSA
The government’s defense of its constant surveillance of the American public reached a new level of absurdity when Obama compared Paul Revere to the NSA. Now it’s time for the corporate billionaires to defend what their puppet Obama can’t.
Enter Bill Gates and Marc Andreesen to tell us that we need to trust the NSA and we’re too stupid to understand the technology.
Yet William Binney, former Technical Director of the NSA worldwide, understood the technology and has been telling us for years that the NSA is breaking the law.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Federal Agencies Target “Right” Groups Again
Maker of famed anti-Obama documentary 2016, Dinesh D’Souza, has been indicted on alleged violations of federal campaign finance laws. What was his alleged criminal act? — According to the indictment, D’Souza donated $20,000 to congressional candidate Wendy Long’s campaign by aggregating the money from various people and falsely reporting the source of the funds. In other words, D’Souza stands accused of being a “campaign bundler” for a conservative candidate.
Now, take a moment to view the Obama “campaign bundlers” for 2012. According to the linked report which accumulates and reports I.R.S. campaign data, Obama had at least 428 “campaign bundlers” providing over $108,700,000 to the Obama re-election campaign. 42 Hollywood leftist bundlers raised over $12,100,000 for Barack Obama in 2012. Nobody knows where any of these funds originated as they all came in from a “bundler” with no list of individual donors.
In addition, reports were filed with the U.S. Secret Service evidencing massive overseas money laundering and credit card fraud in the Obama campaign. No investigation has been launched into any of the Obama violations of campaign finance laws, involving more than $200 million in campaign funding.
Yet, Obama’s federal agencies have indicted D’Souza for an alleged $20,000 in “bundled” funds for a congressional race?
[…]
This is exactly what lawlessness looks like in a proletarian dictatorship. The full weight and power of the federal government is systematically used to silence any and all voices of dissent, where in the end, the silence is immediately reported as the “consent” of the people who have been silenced.
[…]
People are afraid to post on social networking sites, or email their friends, or talk on the phone or Skype about what is going on in our country, as the Obama administration has turned all of the federal intelligence community towards snooping on American Citizens instead of real enemies abroad.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Graphene Rival ‘Phosphorene’ Is Born to be a Transistor
It may have won its discovers the Nobel prize, but graphene now has a serious rival. “Phosphorene” — which has a similar structure to carbon-based graphene but is made of phosphorus atoms — is a natural semiconductor and so may be better at turbocharging the next generation of computers. The new material has already been used to make rudimentary transistors.
Discovered 10 years ago, graphene is a form of pure carbon just a few atoms thick. This thinness causes electrons to zip across it much faster than they do across silicon, the material at the heart of today’s computer chips. So the hope is that graphene chips could eventually replace silicon, leading to much faster computers.
But graphene has a fundamental limitation, says Peide Ye at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. It conducts electricity a little too well.
By contrast, silicon is a semiconductor, meaning it can be made to conduct electricity — or block its flow. This switching capability is the defining feature of transistors and makes possible the binary logic at the heart of a computer chip. “Because of that I don’t think graphene can really compete with silicon for integrated circuits,” says Ye.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Health Ranger Accused of Elaborate Hoax for Conducting Science Demonstration With Wheaties Cereal
(NaturalNews) Yesterday I posted what I thought would be a rather ho-hum video showing Wheaties flakes clinging to a common magnet. I then explained that Wheaties cereal contains ferrous metal fragments. Immediately, I was accused of staging an elaborate hoax.
P.R. Newswire, which hilariously bills itself as “the authoritative source of news and information for leading global media organizations,” totally refused to publish my food science demonstration, telling me they thought it must be a hoax of some sort. Or voodoo. Or special effects.
I was dumbfounded. And then I saw on Youtube and Facebook that people were accusing me of using elaborate computer graphics, a green screen, special effects or sleight of hand to “fake” the astonishing video which has already gone viral.
Seriously, I’ve come to the conclusion that people are incredibly stupid… too stupid to understand basic high school physics involving the action of magnets. Somehow, people believe pharmaceutical pills will make them healthy, but they can’t believe that breakfast cereals contain shards of metal which can be lifted by magnets. Hmmm…
Magnets are not voodoo or witchcraft. They really do operate using invisible force fields which can affect objects at a distance. That’s not a conspiracy theory; it’s basic fundamental physics. If magnets didn’t work, you wouldn’t even be reading this because the entire national power grid would not exist. Generators, in fact, turn mechanical rotary energy into alternative electrical current by using powerful magnets.
If you have a cereal like Wheaties which is full of metal fragments, and you use a high-powered magnet to manipulate them, you can cause tiny cereal flakes to leap off the table, or cling to the magnet, or even be repelled from the magnet if you push them to the correct region of the magnet. This isn’t rocket science. I personally didn’t even think this would be controversial.
But because we now live in a society where people are unbelievably ignorant of basic scientific phenomena, I was forced to film a video response explaining all this and clearly showing absolute proof that Wheaties cereal can be manipulated, lifted or even briefly “levitated” using magnets. I also plan to send this to PR Newswire, so that they can be amazed by my “magic powers.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Hollywood Brainstorms ‘Portraying ObamaCare in TV & Film’
According to an email invitation sent out by the Writers Guild East and obtained by Breitbart News, members of the Hollywood elite and the Obama Administration will be gathering in the middle of next month for a panel titled, “The Affordable Care Act: Comedy, Drama & Reality — Portraying ObamaCare in TV & Film.” Julie Green Bataille, a director at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), will represent the Obama administration.
[Comment: I was watching the movie Elysium and in the opening few minutes the main character had to go to the local hospital. I remember thinking “this is what an obamacare hospital will be like”… (although I’m sure that was not the intent of the filmmakers.)]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
(NaturalNews) Lawmakers from the state of Illinois have proposed new medical marijuana rules that coerce patients to surrender their Second Amendment right in the application process.
The new medical marijuana “legalization” bill requires Illinois citizens to undergo a background check, be fingerprinted and pay an additional $150 fine for using marijuana for medical purposes.
On top of that and most disturbing of all, Illinois citizens will also be required to sign away their right to own a firearm in the application process.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Just Don’t Call Them Death Panels
When the government is in charge of health care, rationing happens, and some people are handed death sentences. The ObamaCare Left would prefer that this reality remain hidden for as long as possible, submerged in a warm bath of “healthcare for everyone” sentiment, but Sarah Palin eloquently summed up the actuality with the expression “death panels.”
Here is how it works in the Mother of All Nationalized Healthcare Systems. — – From Jenny Hope of the UK Daily Mail:
Pensioners with cancer are being written off as too old to treat, campaigners said yesterday.
They cited figures showing survival rates for British patients aged 75 and over are among the worst in Europe.
Young lung cancer sufferers are only 10 per cent more likely to die within five years than their continental counterparts.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Mall in Columbia on Lockdown; Police Say Three Are Dead
Howard County authorities say three people have been confirmed dead at the Mall in Columbia and the mall remains on lockdown as police investigate reports of an active shooter. Howard County police said that they have confirmed one dead person was located near gun and ammunition but that they have not yet identified the person.
Police said that the mall is “believed to be secure” but those inside have been instructed to wait for further guidance from authorities. Police said they believe one of those slain is the shooter, according to the department’s Twitter account.
Workers at stores in the mall said the building was still on lockdown as of 12:35 p.m. An employee at Rafet’s Hairmasters, who declined to be identified, said she heard the shooting had taken place near the mall’s Sears store, which is adjacent to the food court.
| [Return to headlines] |
Obama’s State of the Union Speech Will be All Lies
On January 28, the President of the United States will stand before a joint session of Congress and lie to them and to all Americans.
The mainstream media will treat it as a serious presentation and make no mention of the lies.
Following the State of the Union speech (SOTU) there will be a formal response by a Republican spokesman. It will be very polite and not likely to strongly expose the lies and oppose the President.
The “low information” Americans will take Barack Obama at his word. Nearly half of all Americans who might listen to the speech or read about it are on some form of government dole or entitlement program. They are interested in food stamps, unemployment compensation, their disability status, and an older generation will understandably want to ensure their Social Security checks keep coming and Medicare will continue to underwrite their medical costs.
Whatever Obama has to say about the Affordable Care Act — ObamaCare — will be a lie. His administration continues to lie about the number of those who have enrolled, but we know they are mostly the elderly while the younger generation wisely avoids it.
We live in a nation where more than 90 million Americans are out of work, cannot find work, or have given up looking for work. Anything Obama has to say about the economy will be a lie.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Orion’s Life-Support Module Prepares for Launch
Rockets get all the glory, but this unthrilling structure could be keeping astronauts alive in a few years’ time. It is the service module for NASA’s forthcoming deep-space capsule, Orion, which is being groomed to ferry astronauts to the moon, asteroids and perhaps even Mars.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Propaganda and the Conspiracy Against Our Constitution
The “Convention of States” (COS) Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) page contains 989 words — none of them true — except for these which appear in the first paragraph:
“The federal government is spending this country into the ground … It’s time American citizens took a stand and made a legitimate effort to curb the power … of the federal government.”
In my last paper, I showed how our Constitution itemizes what Congress is authorized to spend money on; and that we have a $17 trillion debt because everyone ignores the limits the Constitution places on Congress’ spending powers.
To curb the federal government, We must do things we have neglected for over 100 years: Reclaim our role as “the natural guardians of the Constitution”; earn our Founding Principles & Documents; enforce them with nullification and by rejecting candidates who don’t know them by heart; stop relying on politicians to handle things; reclaim personal responsibility; and get ready for a rocky road ahead.
But the “convention of states” conspirators say the only solution is a convention to “propose amendments” to the Constitution. They tell lies about nullification — the one remedy our Framers actually advised when the feds usurp powers. They say our Constitution is the problem.They say it contains “loopholes and vague phraseology” which politicians exploit. They suggest the States are victims of federal tyranny; are the ones to “fix”our Constitution; and that the States call and control the convention. They say it is impossible for the convention to force a new Constitution down our throats. But I submit that is precisely what they intend to do.
[Comment: Detailed article that lays out the hazards of constitutional convention, as proposed by several in media.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Rep. Scott DesJarlais Comments on Mosque Cemetery in Rutherford County
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — U.S. Representative Scott DesJarlais shared his concern about a decision to allow a cemetery at a Rutherford County mosque today. The congressman took to his Facebook Page and posted the following:
“Friends, I have received numerous calls over the last couple of weeks regarding the Murfreesboro mosque cemetery. Although this is a state issue, I am deeply concerned over the impact it might have on our community. Unfortunately the Tennessee Religious Freedom Act, passed by the TN General Assembly, may have played a key role in allowing this cemetery to be approved. There is a difference between legislation that would protect our religious freedoms and legislation that would allow for the circumvention of laws that other organizations comply with on a daily basis.”
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Revolt in Defence of the Constitution
It is not an exaggeration to name Barack Obama “a tyrant” or to state that America has entered a phase of soft tyranny under the Obama administration. Many would counter this assertion with examples of people still free to go to work, the stores, the movies and the daily routine of living, but tyranny never begins as cruel and oppressive; it starts out merely illegitimate and benign, just as so many of Obama’s executive orders and actions by Senator Harry Reid and the U.S. Senate have been in advancing the Progessive Movement’s agenda and shredding the U.S. Constitution.
Obama and the Progressive Democrats hate America. There can be no other explanation for their desire to fundamentally transform America from the greatest nation on earth, a nation that has helped to free much of the world both economically and physically, into a socialist/ authoritarian shadow of its former self, impoverished, with every single aspect of life ruled by legislation from a central governing body of so-called “elites.” When Obama speaks of “economic equality”, he is actually calling for an end to individuality and individual liberty: Remember, this is the President and First Lady who have bragged about “disrespecting the American flag” and attending “numerous flag burnings” in the past.
Central planning is not about rationality and reason or knowledge and experience. It is about illegitimately exercising power over others through the deceit of moral relativism and situationalism. It is coercive and requires non-stop social engineering, while it concedes no failures and tolerates no deviation from dogma. And this is why, even in the face of the utter and miserable failure of the ACA, the Progressives refuse to broach any serious discussion with Republicans that considers abandoning the ACA in part or whole, although they applaud Obama’s unilateral and unConstitutional seventeen changes to the ACA…
There is no limiting principle that Obama and the Progressives are not willing to violate, due to the fact that they are ideologically driven, and they are out of control, as they place the Progressive agenda over any sense of duty or allegiance to the people of America.
[Comment: Recommended reading.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Schumer’s Plan to Abolish the Tea Party
The Tea Party will continue to thrive as long as Americans believe that they, not unaccountable bureaucrats and leftist meddlers like Schumer, control their own destiny
The Democrats’ new much-vaunted master plan for annihilating the Tea Party movement calls for aggressive class warfare, demagoguery, and lying about the beliefs, motives, and goals of Tea Party supporters, Sen. Chuck Schumer revealed yesterday.
Echoing President Obama’s infamous “bitter clingers” remarks, the New York Democrat argued that Tea Party supporters are cartoonish figures who are easily ridiculed.
Invoking all the usual liberal cliches about conservatives, Schumer said the Tea Party is successor to “the Know-Nothings, Prohibitionists, Father Coughlin, and Huey Long.” In other words, he believes the movement is a collection of hicks, yahoos, neo-Luddites, fascists, male chauvinists, and racists fearful of what leftist academics might call The Other.
“Tea Party adherents see an America that’s not reflective of themselves, and the America they have known, and they just don’t like it.” They are bothered by changes in the “cultural, technological, and demographic makeup” of the nation. It angers them that “white Anglo-Saxon men are exclusively not running the country anymore.”
[Comment: Read it all… What he wants to accomplish reads like a Communist manifesto. It seems that Communists are positively foaming at the mouth now that they see their dream of a Socialist States of America coming to pass. That’s why they are trying to put the pedal to the metal. To complete the transformation before the public can wake up.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Smith & Wesson, Ruger Quit California Over Stamping Requirement
A new gun law proponents say helps law enforcement has driven Smith & Wesson and Sturm Ruger out of California, and affirmed the suspicions of firearms rights advocates that the measure is really about making handguns obsolete.
The two companies have announced they will stop selling their wares in the nation’s most populous state rather than try to comply with a law that requires some handguns to have technology that imprints a tiny stamp on the bullet so it can be traced back to the gun. The companies, and many gun enthusiasts, say so-called “microstamping” technology is unworkable in its present form and can actually impair a gun’s performance.
“Smith & Wesson does not and will not include microstamping in its firearms,” the Springfield, Mass.,-based manufacturer said in a statement. “A number of studies have indicated that microstamping is unreliable, serves no safety purpose, is cost prohibitive and, most importantly, is not proven to aid in preventing or solving crimes.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Spider-Man Robot Spins Own Web to Abseil Off a Cliff
Spider-Man can leap off tall buildings and swing through the New York skyline by shooting a dragline from his wrist. Now there is a spider-inspired robot that can perform the same trick. It could be used to explore rocky planets, spinning itself a line to abseil down when it comes to the edge of a cliff, for example.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Stethoscopes Could Become Extinct, Doctors Say
The image of a doctor with a stethoscope hanging around the neck may seem iconic, but in fact, this image may not last much longer, as hand-held ultrasound devices are predicted to replace 200-year-old stethoscopes in near future, doctors say.
These pocket-sized ultrasound machines look similar to smartphones, and can diagnose heart, lung and other problems more accurately than traditional stethoscopes, said doctors writing in an editorial published today (Jan. 23) in the journal Global Heart.
“With ultrasound devices, one can not only look at the heart, but all of the organs in the body,” said Dr. Jagat Narula, professor of cardiology at Mount Sinai School of Medicine and one of the authors of the editorial.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sugar Daddies for the Global Left
It turns out that abortion zealot Wendy Davis of Texas was put through law school by a wealthy husband who took care of her children. She had been depicted by the liberal media, including The Huffington Post, as a struggling single teenage mom who made it on her own. But the curiosities don’t end there. Arianna Huffington has her own sugar daddy — Nicolas Berggruen, a German-born billionaire who has just provided her with the big money for a new global media venture, The World Post .
The Huffington Post, a platform for advocates of abortion and homosexual rights and marijuana legalization, was named after Arianna Huffington’s ex-husband, Michael Huffington, who was born rich and then turned gay. She used his money from a divorce settlement to start the on-line news service in 2005.
One of her co-founders, the late Andrew Breitbart, left in disgust over its leftist tilt to start a conservative alternative, now called Breitbart News .
The Huffington Post specializes in covering alleged “shocking” statements by conservatives and Republicans, and demonizing those who disagree with the “progressive” agenda. It has been described by critics as a platform for “anti-Israel hate speech and anti-Semitism,” as well as a mouthpiece for Al Jazeera and various terrorist groups. It employs personnel from Al Jazeera and Moscow-funded Russia Today, and even hosts a blog written by Russian ruler Vladimir Putin.
In this case, with the launch of The World Post at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Huffington is really going global…
The World Post fits in nicely with the theme of this year’s meeting, outlined in the release of a document, “Global Risks 2014 ,” which complains that “weak or inadequate global institutions” have impeded attempts “to cooperate on addressing global risks.”
Translated into ordinary language, this means the convergence of the capitalist and communist systems, leading to some form of one world government. And The World Post is shaping up as the house organ for this new world order.
[Comment: Recommended reading. The world “Ministry of Truth” is being created.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
During the San Ferman festival in Pamplona, Spain, a few fighting bulls are set out free to run along the streets of the old city quarter on their way to the bull ring. As it has become a tradition since 1924, a group of daredevils run in front of the bulls. As their only protection, the runners are allowed to carry several rolled-up newspapers to fend off the bulls. If one of the bulls comes too close to a runner, he throws a newspaper in another direction, and the bull follows the newspaper instead of the runner.
Nothing better to illustrate this diversionary technique than the anthropogenic (human caused) global warming “theory.”
Global cooling, acid rain, the ozone hole, the greenhouse effect, and now global warming (later conveniently changed into “climate change”), have been the rolled-up newspapers thrown past the people’s eyes to divert them from the true cause of the problem. Once a “scientific” theory is discredited, they create another bogus one out of the blue as a new rolled-up newspaper to throw past the eyes of the American people to divert their attention from the true source of the problem.
So, the same people who were thirty years ago predicting a catastrophic global cooling are now crying wolf about an imminent global warming. Now, bringing scientific facts to show the “errors” of the supporters of global warming would be virtually the same as acting like a bull following the rolled-up newspaper, because global warming has absolutely nothing to do with science but with intelligence and espionage. Therefore, I will not delve into scientific facts but limit myself to the field of intelligence and psychological warfare…
British Fabian Bertrand Russell wrote that with the adequate brainwashing techniques the social psychologists of the future would be able to implant in the minds of school children the unshakable conviction that snow is black.
The fact that most young Americans currently believe that CO2 is a poisonous gas proves that Russell was right.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Persecution of Conservatives in Hollywood
I have friends in Hollywood and in the entertainment industry on both coasts. These people are good, moral individuals. They have strong conservative principles and I am honored to know each and every one of them. Now, Progressive fascism is stalking them and the TEA Party. How long until they find a way to get to each of us? To shut is up one way or another? They are using what they term “McCarthyism” to hunt us down because we are not Marxists. It is long past time that we turn their collective tables on them.
Hollywood is notoriously Leftist. Those few that are conservative, must meet in secret and keep their opinions to themselves for fear of being blacklisted and not being able to earn a living. Much like being a Jew in Hitler’s Germany, there are some things best not spoken of in public these days. I’m surprised they haven’t given them yellow stars.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Three People Are Killed in Shooting at Mall in Maryland, Police Say
Three people were killed in a shooting at a mall in Maryland on Saturday, officials said.
The shooting was reported around 11:15 a.m., and about an hour later law enforcement officials reported that there had been no additional shots heard and that they believed the episode was over. Three people were confirmed dead in the shooting, according to the Howard County Police Department, but it gave no further details or identities.
A spokesman for the Police Department, in a Twitter message, said: “One deceased subject located near gun and ammunition. ID unknown.”
People inside the mall were being asked to stay there until police officers could clear each area safely.
The mall, called The Mall in Columbia, is in Columbia, Md., between Washington and Baltimore. It is about 25 miles northeast of Washington.
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Wheaties Cereal Found to Contain So Many Metal Fragments That They Can be Levitated With Magnets
(NaturalNews) Wheaties breakfast cereal, manufactured by General Mills, has been found to contain so many microscopic fragments of metal that individual flakes can be lifted and carried using common magnets, a Natural News Forensic Food Lab investigation has found and documented. Photos of the microscopy investigation are posted now at labs.naturalnews.com
A video demonstrating Wheaties flakes clinging to magnets has also been posted at YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2jFace9D7o
The metal bits are added to Wheaties cereal to enhance the nutritional profile and claim a higher iron content on the label, but lab director and food scientist Mike Adams is skeptical of the formulation. “Adding shards of metal to a cereal is not nutritionally equivalent to nutritive minerals formed during the growth of grain-producing plants,” he explains. “Bioavailability is vastly different.”
Adams believes adding metal fragments to a cereal mix in an effort to claim a higher nutritional content on the box is “inherently deceptive” and points out that the manufacturer, General Mills, has also sold other deceptively-labeled cereals such as “TOTAL Blueberry Pomegranate” which contains no blueberries nor pomegranates.
Here’s the shocking video of Mike Adams revealing Wheaties to contain shards of metal fragments while being lifted by magnets:
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Britons Returning From Syria Face Arrest, Says Police Chief
Britons returning to the UK from Syria will be stopped at the border and face arrest, a senior police chief has said. Sir Peter Fahy, Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police, told the BBC there was “huge concern” that Britons arriving back after fighting in Syria posed a threat to the UK. Scotland Yard said its biggest concern was some could return as terrorists. This month 16 people have been arrested on suspicion of terror offences after travelling between Syria and the UK. This compares with 24 in the whole of 2013…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
France: Burgundy Winemakers Celebrate Feast of Patron Saint in Tradition With Roots in Middle Ages
SAINT-AUBIN, France — Oenophiles from across France have gathered in this tiny Burgundian village amid pre-dawn darkness to celebrate a medieval tradition to celebrate St. Vincent, the patron saint of winemakers.
In a ceremony with roots in the Middle Ages, several hundred winemakers from villages across Burgundy, some wearing bright red robes, formed an early morning procession carrying antique wooden statues of their patron saint through the vineyards in an annual rite known as the St. Vincent Tournante.
Around 40,000 people are expected for the two-day festival, which takes place in a different Burgundian village each year. Following the vineyard procession and a mass, local winemakers throw open their cellar doors for tastings of their chardonnays and pinot noirs. Organizers say 15,000 bottles of wine will be opened during the weekend.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
French President Reportedly Splits With First Lady
A French news agency reported Saturday that President Francois Hollande has ended his relationship with his companion of seven years, Valerie Trierweiler.
Agence France Presse reported that Hollande said in a telephone conversation with the news agency Saturday evening that “I make it known that I have put an end” to the relationship with Trierweiler, who was the country’s first lady, two weeks after a tabloid report that Hollande was having an affair with a French actress.
A presidential aide who request anonymity to discuss private matters confirmed that the president had called AFP to announce the relationship’s end. Hollande told the news agency that he was speaking in a personal capacity and not as head of state.
Hollande has four children with former presidential candidate Segolene Royal. He and Trierweiler have lived together since 2007.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italian Treasury Lost 5 Billion to Fraud and Waste in 2013
(AGI) Rome, Jan 25 — The Italian finance police uncovered fraud and waste to the tune of five billion euros in a public spending inquiry in 2013. More than 19,000 suspects were reported to the legal authorities. Most of the cases were in the healthcare sector. So far 309 million euros in property, cash and accounts have been confiscated by the police.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Almost €52bln Euros of Revenue Untaxed Last Year
Rome, 23 January (AKI) — Close to 52 billion euros of undeclared income went untaxed last year, almost a third of which was taken out of Italy, according to the country’s finance police.
Capital transferred abroad to tax havens, and foreign-based companies’ income earned in Italy subject to taxation here accounted for 15.1 billion euros of the total, finance police said.
More than 12,000 company officials were responsible for the tax dodging, which took a variety of forms, finance police said. The offences included carousel fraud (not paying tax to the government on items sold with VAT) and issuing or using false invoices.
Procedures have begun for the seizure of 4.6 billion euros and 202 company officials have been arrested according to finance police.
Over 8,300 people hid income or nor did not file a tax return, dodging 16.1 billion euros of taxes, according to finance police.
Finance police also reported over 14,200 workers employed completely off the books and nearly 13,400 who were “irregular”
An estimated 130 billion euros is evaded annually in Italy, head of Italy’s tax agency reported last month.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Scotland: Mosque Plan at School Site Abandoned Due to Parent Fears
Council chiefs said the proposals, for Newton Mearns, south of Glasgow, had created a significant public response and that it was being abandoned, in part, due to criticism of the move.
A report on wider proposals for the East Renfrewshire area, which is expected to be agreed next week, says: “In view of the volume of representations received, the sensitivity concerning the proposal and the extremely wide range of issues raised, it is recommended that this proposed modification be pursued no further and is not included in the plan.”…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Experts Warn Ian Brady is ‘Still Extremely Dangerous’
As report finds the 76-year-old serial killer is suffering from ‘chronic psychotic illness’
Moors Murderer Ian Brady is still a danger to the public despite his age, according to a report by mental health experts
Brady, who murdered five children in the 1960s with his lover Myra Hindley, was jailed for life in 1966. He will remain a patient at maximum-security Ashworth Hospital on Merseyside.
A report released as part of the child killer’s failed bid to be sent to a mainstream prison yesterday described him as ‘an untreated violent and sexual offender’ who is suffering from a ‘chronic psychotic illness’.
Leading clinical psychologist Professor Peter Kinderman, from Liverpool University, told the Mail that killers ‘don’t simply stop being a threat at 76 years old.
Many people would quibble that is particularly old. They can do still things that can be extremely dangerous.’
He added that the report appears to indicate Brady has a volatile nature. He said: ‘He has a difficult and confrontational relationship with staff.’
The ruling quoted from his medical history, citing case notes prior to his sentence in 1966 by Dr Lindsay Neustatter, senior physician in psychological medicine, describing Brady as ‘a ruthless individual, cold and unemotional, without conscience or remorse… he showed a pathological admiration of power and unscrupulousness’.
Another medical officer later wrote that he is a ‘schizoid psychopath of utter untruthfulness who has the rather unusual ability in this type of personality of dissociating himself from the crimes of which he has been convicted… increasingly I feel that it is a symptom of the terrifying intensity of his psychopathy, and that he is not defending against recalling his offences but that, as far as he is concerned, they fail to rise above his mental horizon.’
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Divided Egypt Marks Third Anniversary of Uprising
Hundreds of Egyptians were trickling into Tahrir Square on Saturday morning to mark the third anniversary of the Arab Spring revolt that has violently split the country, the day after a string of bombings and clashes killed at least 18 people.
Saturday’s festivities unfolded amid tight security under the threat of street-level riots and fresh terror attacks. Helicopters circled overhead as security personnel frisked revelers filing into the iconic protest center in downtown Cairo where a sound stage had been erected Friday evening.
Celebrations were already marred by a small explosion in front of a police training center early on Saturday morning in the dense Cairo neighborhood of Ain Shams, according to Egyptian state media. No casualties were reported from the attack.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Egyptian Embassy Staff Kidnapped in Libya
At least four Egyptian embassy personnel have been kidnapped in the Libyan capital Tripoli, the Libyan foreign ministry says.
Another embassy official was seized in the Libyan capital on Friday.
Several kidnappings of officials in Libya recently have been blamed on militias. They are often paid by the government, but their allegiance and who controls them remain in doubt.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Ethnic Clashes in Libya Kill 88
(AGI) Tripoli, Jan 25 — Ethnic clashes in the southern Libyan town of Sebha have left 88 people dead and 130 injured in the past two weeks, hospital director Abdallah Ouheida said. The fighting was between the Arab Awled Sleiman tribe and their Toubou neighbours.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Forbes Magazine Gets it Wrong on Egypt
Cairo, Egypt-With all due respect to Doug Bandow, who writes about faraway Egypt in the venerable Forbes Magazine, from someone born, raised and still eking out a life in Cairo, Egypt, you are wrong. From my mostly lonely post as CFP’s only Cairo-based columnist, let me count the ways:
Bandow boldy claims that Gen. Abdel Fata al-Sisi pretended to be the savior of democracy while his forces are detaining and killing the opposition, and that the arrests and shooting continued during the referendum on the constitution last week.
Perhaps Bandow didn’t know that these forces don’t shoot political opponents, who protest with words, or carry out political actions. They do shoot those who are carrying arms of the Muslim Brotherhood and their militias. Bandow doesn’t seem to realize that the security forces never start fire, but are exposed on a daily basis to terrorist attacks, bombings and kidnappings in the Sinai Peninsula and throughout Egypt. Police forces are not even allowed to carry weapons unless on duty at demonstrations. Then they only carry tear gas with which to defend themselves, the public and private properties. It should be worthy of note that the Muslim Brotherhood tried to disrupt the referendum on the Constitution in various ways and even issued fatwas to shed the blood of police and army officers right down to the referendum wire.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Protesters Killed in Clashes Across Egypt on Anniversary of 2011 Uprising
Violence erupts in several cities as pro and anti-government demonstrators take to the streets, the day after Cairo was rocked by multiple bomb blasts
At least seven protesters were killed in clashes during anti-government marches across Egypt and a bomb attack was reported near a police building in Suez, as opposing forces rallied on the anniversary of the 2011 revolution on Saturday…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
US Embassy Urges Its Citizens’ Caution on Egypt’s Revolution Anniversary
On Egypt’s third anniversary of the 25 January 2011 revolution, the US embassy warns its citizens from ‘gathering in both celebrations and protest’
The US Embassy in Cairo has released a security message warning its citizens of potential clashes on Saturday, the third anniversary of the 25 January 2011 revolution.
Four explosions rocked Cairo on Friday, the eve of the anniversary, all of which targeted police institutions and left six dead and at least 80 injured.
An Al-Qaeda-inspired group, Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis (Partisans of Jerusalem), claimed responsibility for Friday’s early-morning bombing of the Cairo Security Directorate. The group, which has claimed the deadliest militant attacks since former president Mohamed Morsi’s ouster in July, warned Egyptians in an audio statement not to take to the streets on Saturday.
The Muslim Brotherhood, labeled a terrorist organisation by Egypt’s interim government, denied any ties with Friday’s explosions. The group stated that it is planning nationwide protests against what they deem a coup against Morsi, who hails from its ranks.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) Thousands of British Muslims and non-Muslims answered the call of a British-based international relief and development NGO to walk for Gaza, demonstrating their support to the Palestinian cause and raising funds to help the war-stricken strip.
“Saving Gaza children is essentially saving Gaza,” one of Walk for Gaza’s organizers said. Wrapped up warm with maps and refreshments, thousands of British people will take on the 5 miles of chilly terrain to raise funds for the children of Gaza on Saturday, January 25.
The Winter Walk for Gaza, held for the sixth year, has been organized by Muslim Hands in London, Manchester, Birmingham and Leicester to finance its charitable programs in eastern Gaza…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Harper in Israel: A Great Moment for Canada
by Conrad Black
Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s address to the Israeli Knesset this week was one of the greatest speeches ever delivered by a Canadian leader, ranking (in content if not delivery, though that was quite adequate) with Sir John Macdonald’s defence of his conduct in the Pacific scandal in 1873, Sir Wilfrid Laurier’s parliamentary response to conscription in 1917, and Pierre E. Trudeau’s speech at the end of the Quebec sovereignty referendum campaign in 1980…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Oxfam Unhappy Over Scarlett Johansson Connection to Israeli Firm
A British charity supported by Hollywood actress Scarlett Johansson says it objects to her new role as a spokesperson for the Israeli firm SodaStream…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Evidence of European Sea Peoples in Jordan Valley
Swedish archaeologists in Jordan led by Professor Peter M. Fischer from the University of Gothenburg have excavated a nearly 60-metre long well-preserved building from 1100 B.C. in the ancient settlement Tell Abu al-Kharaz. The building is from an era characterised by major migration.
New finds support the theory that groups of the so-called Sea Peoples emigrated to Tell Abu al-Kharaz. They derive from Southern or Eastern Europe and settled in the Eastern Mediterranean region all the way to the Jordan Valley.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Freedom and Rights in Turkey Declining, US Think Tank Says
Turkey is declining in terms of freedoms and rights, according to the annual report from U.S. think tank Freedom House. The report made particular reference to the harsh police crackdown on protesters during the nationwide Gezi Park protests and the increase in political pressure exerted by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Geneva II: West Engaged in Terrorism Against Syria (Video)
[WARNING: Disturbing Content.]
The international conference on Syria, Geneva2, kicked off on Wednesday morning with the participation of Syria’s official delegation, headed by Deputy Premier, Foreign and Expatriates Minister, Walid al-Moallem.
Finally, today, the moment of truth; the truth that many have systematically tried to bury in a series of campaigns of misinformation, deception and fabrication leading to killing and terror. A truth that refused to be buried, a truth clear for all to see — the delegation of the Syrian Arab Republic representing the Syrian people, the government, the state, the Army and the President — Bashar al-Assad.
It is regrettable, Ladies and Gentlemen, that seated amongst us today in this room, are representatives of countries that have the blood of Syrians on their hands, countries that have exported terrorism along with clemency for the perpetrators, as if it was their God given right to determine who will go to heaven and who will go to hell. Countries that have prevented believers from visiting holy places of worship whilst abetting, financing and supporting terrorists. Countries that gave themselves the authority to grant and deny legitimacy to others as they saw fit, never looking at their own archaic glasshouses before throwing stones at acclaimed fortified towers. Countries that shamelessly lecture us in democracy, in development and in progress whilst drowning in their own ignorance and medieval norms. Countries that have become accustomed to being entirely owned by kings and princes who have the sole right to distribute their national wealth granting their associates whilst denying those who fall out of favor.
They lectured Syria — a distinguished, virtuous, sovereign state, they lectured her on honour whilst they themselves were immersed in the mud of enslavement, infanticide and other medieval practices. After all their efforts and subsequent failures, their masks fell from their quivering faces, to reveal their perverse ambitions. A desire to destabilize and destroy Syria by exporting their national product: terrorism. They used their petrodollars to buy weapons, recruit mercenaries and saturate airtime covering up their mindless brutality with lies under the guise of the so-called “ Syrian revolution that will fulfill the aspirations of the Syrian people.”
Ladies and Gentlemen, how is what has happened and continues to plague Syria, meeting these aspirations? How can a Chechen, Afghani, Saudi, Turkish or even French and English terrorists deliver on the aspirations of the Syrian people, and with what? An Islamic state that knows nothing of Islam except perverse Wahhabism? Who declared anyway that the Syrian people aspire to live thousands of years in the past?
In Syria, Ladies and Gentlemen, the wombs of pregnant women are butchered and their foetuses killed; women are raped, dead or alive, in practices so heinous, so vile and repulsive that they can only be attributed to their perverse doctrine. In Syria, Ladies and Gentlemen, men are slaughtered in front of their children in the name of this revolution; worse still, this is done whilst the children of these foreign perpetrators sing and dance. In Syria, how can so-called revolutionaries cannibalize a man’s heart and claim to promote freedom, democracy and a better life?
[Comment: Well worth reading.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Iraqi Leader: Nation on Course for Syria-Style Civil War
The highest-ranking elected Sunni leader in Iraq painted a bleak picture of his nation’s future Thursday, telling an audience in Washington that without serious and quick reconciliation between sectarian political parties, the country could be swallowed by a war comparable to the one now raging in Syria.
“Iraq at this point is at a crossroads,” said Usama al-Nujayfi, the speaker of Iraq’s Council of Representatives and an influential voices in Baghdad, where Iraq’s federal government is dominated by parties aligned with the nation’s Shiite Prime Minister.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Kidnapped Iranian Diplomat Found Beheaded in Yemen
(AGI) Sana’a, Jan 25 — The body of the Iranian diplomat kidnapped last July was found beheaded in central Yemen, reported local official sources.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Liberté, Egalité, Jihad: Why Are Disaffected French Youth Exchanging France for Syria?
by Theodore Dalrymple
What would induce the citizens of a prosperous and peaceful country to leave for an increasingly impoverished and violent living hell? Why would anyone exchange France for Syria?
The French Ministry of the Interior is concerned that the number of French citizens going to Syria to participate in jihad has increased recently, and it fears what they might do when they return home. So far, 18 French jihadis have been killed in Syria, 70 have returned, and 220 (four times as any as in May 2013) are thought to be on the ground there. Another 200 to 300 might be preparing to go. About 80 percent are of North African descent, usually young men who ignored the precepts of their ancestral religion and indulged in debauchery until they were “born again” into a life of puritanical fanaticism. The other 20 percent are French converts.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Over 30,000 Al-Qaeda Linked Fighters’ in Syria, Israeli Official Claims
Sharp increase in numbers of jihadists and radicals in Syria is forcing Israel to reevaluate policy of neutrality in conflict, senior intelligence official says
The number of al-Qaeda linked fighters active in Syria has mushroomed from 2,000 to more than 30,000 in just two years, a senior Israeli intelligence official has warned, prompting the Jewish state to re-evaluate its policy of neutrality in the conflict which now threatens to spill over the borders…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
The Good and Bad of Ahrar Al-Sham: An Al Qaeda—linked Group Worth Befriending
The al Qaeda of yesterday is gone. What is left is a collection of many different splinter organizations, some of which have their own — and profoundly local — agendas.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Threats at Sochi Expose “A Larger Agenda, “ Says Intelligence Source
Terrorism is a tactic, a tool that is being used by nations to advance their geopolitical aims
“Knowing about the terror threat to the Olympic games at Sochi is one thing. Understanding the threat and what’s behind it is quite another. There’s a very important back-story that no one is reporting,” stated this source. “Understanding what’s happening behind the scenes will put things into a certain perspective, and it’s a perspective from which nightmares are born,” he added…
First, it must be understood that the Arab Spring was not a spontaneous event, but was planned in advance. Secondly, it is important to understand what was taking place in Benghazi that led to the attack on the CIA operations center. It was a weapons running operation to arm the anti-Assad terrorists, spearheaded by the U.S. in collusion with the British, French and others. My previous reports contain sufficient documentation to support these assertions…
It’s also important to understand what’s going on in the Al Anbar province of Iraq, particularly with the terror group ISIS. Putin correctly understands that ISIS, a Western backed group, is being fortified during this Olympic window. They are consolidating their forces to take their attacks against Assad to new levels, by opening a new front from the southeastern border of Syria. The U.S. is allowing this to happen by affirming that we would not engage ISIS militarily, per U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry.
The Western objective, from the Arab Spring to Benghazi through the present is to topple the Assad government and replace it with a Muslim Brotherhood regime, much like Egypt. The consequences, through active intervention (think Benghazi) or in this case, by a hands-off approach, will result in a serious destabilization of the region.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Ukrainian President Offers Concessions and Top Posts to Opposition Leaders
Maneuvering to defuse the civil uprising that has gripped Ukraine, President Viktor F. Yanukovych on Saturday offered to install opposition leaders in top posts in a reshaped government, proposing one of them, Arseniy P. Yatsenyuk, as prime minister and another, the former boxing champion Vitali Klitschko, as a vice prime minister for humanitarian affairs.
Many protesters who have taken to the streets of Kiev, the capital, including some involved in violent clashes with the police, have been demanding Mr. Yanukovych’s resignation, which he did not offer. In addition, some of the most aggressive demonstrators have been supporters of the nationalist Svoboda Party and its leader, Oleg Tyagnibok, who was apparently not offered a position.
There was no immediate reaction from the three opposition leaders, but there were immediate indications that the proposal was not being well received on the street.
Yet in a move that suggested that the offers were more than theatrics aimed at dividing the opposition, Mr. Yanukovych also said he would be willing to roll back constitutional changes made at his direction that had sharply expanded the powers of the presidency. He also agreed to make changes to a package of new laws that broadly suppress political dissent, including freedoms of speech and assembly, that Mr. Yanukovych’s backers rammed through Parliament on Jan. 16.
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Understanding the Olympic Terror Threat
Syria, Russia, Prince of the Mujahideen and the Sochi Games
The Winter Olympics in Sochi will begin on February 7, 2014, and last for 17 days. Many news organizations have said that Russia’s President Vladimir Putin’s reputation is on the line as the upcoming games will be the most expensive in the history of the Olympics — $50 billion and rising, compared to the 2008 winter games in Beijing that cost an estimated $40 billion. Putin’s detractors have suggested that billions are “missing” and cannot be accounted for, which is something to keep in mind as you consider the “back story.” Here is what you are not being told by an obedient American press and their paid pundits.
It was last August when Saudi intelligence chief Prince Bandar bin Sultan visited Putin in Moscow in his capacity as the “Prince of the Mujahideen” in Syria, including those who hail from Chechnya, Dagestan, and the Caucasus in Russia’s backyard, according to FARS News Agency. You might recall Bandar bin Sultan as the infamous “Bandar Bush” in earlier times, but that’s another column.
Last August, Bandar was in Moscow to specifically discuss the Syrian issue. At that time, Bandar tried to bribe Putin into changing his policy on Syria by promising him “a safe and secure winter Olympics in Sochi” if he would stop the material support of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. He offered Russia other incentives in exchange for withdrawing his support for Assad, “including a major arms deal and a pledge not to challenge Russian gas sales if Moscow scales back support for the Syrian government,” as noted by the FARS News Agency.
The future of Syria, in the eyes of Putin, is not negotiable. I have written many times that Syria is Putin’s red line in the sand and that Syria, not Iran, will be the tripwire for World War III. Yet, the U.S., Saudi Arabia, Israel and others are hell-bent on toppling Assad by all available means, which leads back to the September 11, 2012 attacks in Benghazi. It’s interesting how we can see a pattern emerging, and how the Benghazi attacks suddenly make sense when the truth is exposed.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Afghanistan-US Deal ‘Hinges on Taliban Peace Talks’
Afghan President Hamid Karzai has reiterated his refusal to sign a key US security pact until a peace process is under way with the Taliban. “Afghanistan will absolutely not accept or sign anything under pressure,” he said at a news conference on Saturday…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Afghan President Says U.S. Should Start Talks With Taliban or Leave
(Reuters) — President Hamid Karzai appeared to stiffen his resolve on Saturday not to sign a security pact with Washington, saying the United States should leave Afghanistan unless it could restart peace talks with the Taliban.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
India: For Christian Leader, Graham Staines’ Death is Warning Against Hindu Fundamentalism
Mumbai (AsiaNews) — The martyrdom of Rev Graham Staines and his two sons reminds us that “it is vital to consider seriously the challenges posed by Hindu fundamentalism”, especially in view of the upcoming general election, said Sajan George, president of the Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC), who spoke to AsiaNews on the anniversary of the death of the Australian missionary, killed at night on 22-23 January 1999.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
India Still Tops the World in 2014 in New Cases of Leprosy
New Delhi (AsiaNews) — Two days from now will be World Leprosy Day and India still ranks first in new cases of leprosy. The latest available data from the World Health Organisation (WHO) indicate that India accounted for 134,752 new cases in 2012 out of a total worldwide of 232,857. According to the Italian Association of the Friends of Raoul Follereau (AIFO), India had more than 12 million people with leprosy between 1991 and 2007.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Nepal: Lumbini: Major Dig Into the Buddha’s Life Gets Underway
UNESCO, the Nepali government and experts from various world universities start a dig in Siddhartha’s birthplace. His year birth is moved up by two centuries earlier.
Kathmandu (AsiaNews) — For the first time in the history of Buddhism, a team of international archaeologists, scientists and scholars have begun an excavation project in Lumbini to find evidence of Siddhartha Gautama’s life, starting with his birth.
According to tradition, Prince Gautama was born around the 4th century BC, but some archaeologists now claim he was born two centuries earlier, at the end of the sixth century BC.
Supporting evidence for this hypothesis was found amid the ruins of a palace in Tilaurakot, which is where, according to tradition, Siddhartha lived.
The finding has sparked controversy and criticism among Buddhists, pushing the Nepali government and UNESCO to undertake a dig, which began yesterday, in the Buddha’s birthplace.
Expected to last two months, the excavation project has been divided into three sites within the sacred area of Lumbini, which was identified as the Buddha’s birthplace in the 19th century and which is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The recent dig brought to light the ruins of a hitherto unknown wooden structure and a number of brick temples.
What has prompted archaeologists to backdate Siddhartha’s birth is an open space that could be connected to the tree where, according to tradition, Siddhartha’s mother MahÄmÄyÄ gave birth.
The investigation will also cover the ruins of the city of Tilaurakot, where the palace of King Shudhodan, Gautama’s father, is located. The founder of Buddhism spent the first 29 years of his life at the palace, which he fled to start his preaching.
Archaeologists are trying to bring into view the architecture of the palace and the city.
“Very little is known about the life of the Buddha, except through textual sources and oral tradition,” said archaeologist Robin Coningham of Durham University in Britain who is co-leading the investigation.
At present, “We are digging to reveal the reality about Buddha’s life as our former investigation two months ago, for the first time, had an archaeological sequence at Lumbini that shows a building there as early as the sixth century BC,” Coningham explained.
The 18-member team includes consultants, experts and archaeologists from UNESCO, Department of Archaeology, the Lumbini Development Trust, Durham and Sterling Universities and 13 students doing their master in culture at Tribhuvan University.
Discovered by archaeologists in 1897, Lumbini has become one of Buddhism’s most important locations, as well as an UNESCO World Heritage site.
Although recognised only by some of Asia’s Buddhist communities, millions of pilgrims visit it every year.
Construction is banned out of respect for the monasteries that surrounded it.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistan: Rawalpindi, British Citizen Sentenced to Death for Blasphemy
Islamabad ( AsiaNews) — A court in Rawalpindi has sentenced Mohammad Asghar , a British citizen aged 70 , who was arrested for blasphemy in 2010, to death. Of Pakistani origin but resident in Edinburgh, the man had written several letters to police officers in which he declared himself a prophet.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Laotian Farmers Defy Police and Chinese Companies in Defense of Disputed Land
Vientiane ( AsiaNews / Agencies) — In one of the rare episodes of civil resistance, a dozen rice farmers from northern Laos have challenged the police ordered them to leave the crops. The area has long been at the center of a dispute between farmers and local authorities, after a Chinese company forcibly expropriated the land — with the consent of Vientiane — to build an airport. The project is part of a wider development plan to create a “special economic zone” devoted to casino gambling, which is expected to attract a crowd of visitors across the border.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Money Still Can’t Buy My Love, Says Gigi Chao After Tycoon Father Doubles ‘Dowry’ To Hk1billion
Even a billion dollars would not be enough to find a man that Gigi Chao, the lesbian daughter of property tycoon Cecil Chao Sze-tsung, would be willing to marry.
“I don’t think my dad’s offering of any amount of money would be able to attract a man I would find attractive,” she told the South China Morning Post after her father announced he had doubled the HK$500 million “dowry” that he had earlier offered in an effort to find her a husband.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
On the Brink of Bankruptcy, Kim Jong-un Writes to Seoul Calling for an End to Hostility
Seoul (AsiaNews) — The North Korean regime has sent an unusual open letter to the South Korean government calling for joint steps towards reconciliation, a stop to “all hostile military acts” and the reopening as soon as possible of communication channels along on the 38th parallel. In the South, the letter was met with scepticism with many asking for “deeds, not words.” According to the media of both nations, the letter was dated 16 January.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Philippine Gov’t, Muslim Rebels Complete Annexes of Framework Agreement on Bangsamoro
MANILA, Jan. 25 (Xinhua) — The Philippines government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) completed Saturday all the four annexes of the Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro (FAB), which will pave the way for the signing of a comprehensive agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB)…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
US Pacific Commander Warns “Risks Are Growing” Between China & Japan
While it is becoming increasingly clear that tensions between Japan and China (and in fact most of the Asian nations) are escalating; the fact that Admiral Samuel Locklear — commander of US forces in the Pacific — believes “risk calculations are growing,” as the two large powers have a disagreement but are not willing to talk to each other, shows this is more than just talk.
As The AP reports, Washington’s treaty obligations to its ally Japan mean it could be sucked into a conflict.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Christian Ministry Forced Out to Make Way for Mosque
A STRANGE tale of friction between two Christian ministries in Toowoomba has emerged following the establishment of the city’s first mosque. In a nutshell, a Christian church was renting its building from another ministry for 14 years until it was sold to make way for a mosque…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Central African Republic Attack Kills Muslim Ex-Leader
Amnesty International urges peacekeepers to step up efforts to secure anarchic countryside
Christian militiamen killed a prominent Muslim former government minister who supported last year’s rebellion, officials said, raising the spectre of further sectarian bloodshed as tensions deepened Friday…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Zimbabwe: Rowdy Zanu-PF Youths Disrupt U.S Embassy Event
About 30 rowdy ZANU PF youths Wednesday barged into a US Embassy function in Masvingo, disturbed the proceedings and assaulted one journalist forcing the event to end prematurely, reports said Friday.
A Southern Eye report said the youths, who were apparently drunk, stormed the venue of the US President Barack Obama’s Washington Fellowship Young African Leaders initiative at a local theater. They then mobbed Corra-Leigh Magiya, an embassy official who was speaking at the time, and demanded that Washington lift the targeted sanctions imposed on President Mugabe and his inner circle…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Homeland Security Secretary: Illegals Have ‘Earned Right to be Citizens’
Speaking at the United States Conference of Mayors on Friday, Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said the approximately 11 million people who are in the country illegally have “earned the right to be citizens.”
“An earned path to citizenship for those currently present in this country is a matter of, in my view, homeland security to encourage people to come out from the shadows,” said Johnson, in what he remarked was one of his first public speeches since being confirmed as the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) chief in December.
“It is also, frankly, in my judgment, a matter of who we are as Americans,” he said, “to offer the opportunity to those who want to be citizens, who’ve earned the right to be citizens, who are present in this country — many of whom came here as children — to have the opportunity that we all have to try to become American citizens.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Abortion: America’s National Holocaust
Yesterday marked the 41st anniversary of the infamous US Supreme Court Roe v. Wade decision, which, in effect, legalized abortion-on-demand nationwide. The aftermath of this tragic ruling is the deaths of over 55 million innocent unborn babies. It is no hyperbole to say abortion-on-demand is America’s national holocaust. Think about it, every American citizen today, 41 years old or younger, has never known a country that respected and protected innocent human life in the womb.
Consider this, too: when Hitler’s Third Reich was at its zenith, the abortion rate in Germany was 40%. Guess what? The abortion rate in America today is right at 40%. In fact, statistically speaking, the most dangerous place to be in America is not in an automobile without wearing a seat belt, or on a commercial airliner with a potential terrorist on board, but in the womb of one’s mother.
Dr. Bernard Nathanson once headed America’s largest abortion clinic in New York City. He admitted superintending over the killing of 75,000 unborn babies. He later recanted his pro-abortion activity and wrote what may be the quintessential book defending an unborn child’s right to life, “Aborting America.” Dr. Nathanson said, “There is no longer serious doubt in my mind that human life exists within the womb from the very onset of pregnancy.”…
As Schaeffer and Koop pointed out in their book, “Whatever Happened to the Human Race?” “The Declaration of Geneva (adopted in September 1948 by the General Assembly of the World Medical Organization and modeled closely on the Hippocratic Oath) became used as the graduation oath by more and more medical schools. It includes: ‘I will maintain the utmost respect for human life from the time of conception.’ This concept of the preservation of human life has been the basis of the medical profession and society in general. It is significant that when the University of Pittsburgh changed from the Hippocratic Oath to the Declaration of Geneva in 1971, the students deleted ‘from the time of conception’ from the clause.”
…each year, former Congressman Ron Paul (R-TX) would introduce the Sanctity of Life Act. And each year, the bill would sit in the document room of the Capitol Building and gather dust. What would Rep. Paul’s bill have done? (1) It would have defined unborn babies as persons under the law. (2) Under the authority of Article. III. Section. 2. of the US Constitution, it would have removed abortion from the jurisdiction of the court. Had the “pro-life” Republican congress passed Dr. Paul’s bill, and the “pro-life” President, G. W. Bush, signed it into law, Roe v. Wade would have been effectively overturned.
So, why didn’t President Bush trumpet the bill? Where was the Republican leader in the Senate? Where was the Republican Speaker of the House? Where was Orrin Hatch? Where was John McCain? Where was Lindsey Graham? Where was the National Right to Life Committee? Where were the tens of thousands of “pro-life” pastors and Christians?
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Church Must Call for Exodus From Public Schools
At an elementary school in Riverside, California, a little girl was fulfilling a show-and-tell assignment to “share your family’s Christmas tradition.” She displayed her family’s “Star of Bethlehem” and started to read the Bible verse explaining what the star is all about — and the “teacher” stopped her cold, ordering her back to her seat. Because she was the only one to address the actual meaning of Christmas — which is, after all, beyond all possible dispute — she was the only child the “teacher” silenced.
When the girl’s parents objected, and anti-discrimination lawyers cruised into the picture, school officials courageously declined to comment.
If you want your kids to be exposed, day-in and day-out, to “gender coaching,” earth worship, the joys of Big Government, coercive redistribution of wealth, and hissing, spitting hatred of Christianity, you can’t do better than the public schools. By all means send them there, if that’s what you want; because that’s what you’re gonna get, and in great big doses.
Why is the Church in America, all denominations (well, maybe not all of them), not crying out for a mass exodus of Christian children from the public schools? Would the churches be just as silent, just as inert, if their congregants were sending their children to Islamic schools? On second thought, don’t answer that. It might turn out to be a “yes.”
The Church in America is timorous, flaccid, pietistic. The Church in America is blah. It can hardly be called a church at all, according to Biblical standards. It sits there like a wax dummy while its children, by the millions, are herded off to the anti-Christian public schools to be taught that homosexuality is a virtue, abortion is a right, Evolution is the truth, government is the answer, and, above all, that the Bible is a hate-filled collection of fictional stories and is wrong, wrong, wrong about everything.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Fashion Fires Salvo in War Against Men
The goal of these feminazi engineers isn’t to turn men gay — it’s to do away with ‘gender consciousness’ entirely. These lunatics want a ‘gender free society’. Heterosexuals are oblivious to this vicious hate-filled attack on their identity and purpose in life.
“The Future of Menswear Is Feminine”, says the tampon tabloid ‘JEZEBEL’ this week.
I laughed at these photos from London Fashion Week. THEY ARE NONSENSE. The designers are all women. Not surprisingly the emasculation of men goes part and parcel with feminism.
Feminist ideology has twisted our society into a pretzel of me-ism and influenced lifestyle for the worst. We must remember the women’s movement of the 60-70s perpetrated a lie that there is no difference between males and females.
Of course, no men were consulted as to whether we want this new fashion direction. Any man can tell you that they are repugnant. Even the sissies modelling these things look embarrassed.
Since the 1950’s, the “leader” country in this race to the bottom of degradation of humanity has been Sweden. I don’t think the Swedes are especially perverse naturally. There’s just something in their nature that made them highly vulnerable to social engineering.
bulliy-bait.jpg(Left, this is a boy.)
Yes, the Swedish government has been sponsoring ‘beta schools’ where girls and boys both wear ‘gender neutral’ clothes. The only way to describe it is “munchkin land” from the 1939 Judy Garland movie “Wizard of Oz”. The boys clothing is definitely feminized beyond recognition.
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Queering of Society Funded by Taxpayers
Have you ever wondered what keeps feminist and homosexual activists in Canada beavering away doing relentless “research” promoting their cause? The answer is the Social Sciences and humanities Research Council (SShRC), a division of Industry Canada, which provides funding for them to do so. It is a true gold mine for feminist and homosexual activists.
The SSHRC is a division of Industry Canada, which was created by Liberal Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, in 1977. It now has an annual budget of $698M. According to its website, it is funding research that “can help change the world” (to a left-wing only perspective, it might have accurately added). [Makow- “Change the world” is code for NWO tyranny and satanism.]
Although there is legitimate research carried out under this program, some of it is profoundly bizarre, such as that conducted since 1998 under the Women and Gender Issues funding categories .Some of the bizarre feminist research topics funded by SShRC include:
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By Heather MacDonald
Don’t listen to today’s narcissistic academics—the West’s cultural inheritance is indispensable.
In 2011, the University of California at Los Angeles decimated its English major. Such a development may seem insignificant, compared with, say, the federal takeover of health care. It is not. What happened at UCLA is part of a momentous shift in our culture that bears on our relationship to the past—and to civilization itself…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Hegelian Dialectics for Dummies
Why should you care about the Hegelian Dialectic? How does it affect me? The dialectical philosophy devised by Georg Hegel underpins the entire political and social strategy of the radical left. The dialectical approach to “consensus-building” (compromise) and “conflict resolution” (dialog) is the process with which the radical left attempts to control and manipulate outcomes…
Hegelian dialectical theory is simply a philosophy, a way of thinking — a thought process. But when taken to its extreme, and applied by unscrupulous characters, it is a very dangerous and lethal strategy. For it is not a new strategy or idea, but an ancient one. And it takes many forms. Indeed, it can be difficult to expose the strategy, even by those deeply familiar with it, because the agenda is hidden, and the predetermined ends are kept secret by those employing the strategy.
[…]
Today’s self-described liberals and progressives both knowingly and unknowingly promote historicism, relativism, idealism and collectivism. Dialectical philosophy provides the foundational rationalization for the theory of Marxian socialism. The dialectical approach is also central to modern-day “community organizing.” The “equality of outcome” often demanded by the left has its roots in Hegel’s dialectic.
Of course, the formulaic strategy of the Hegelian dialectic is certainly nothing new. One can see its roots snaking all the way back to Plato’s Republic, and I would suspect it goes farther back than that.
[Comment: Informative article.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Re: Global warming. The jury may be out on whether this is due to human activity, but bundling it with the hole in the ozone layer, and acid rain, which are down to us, is hardly helpful- indeed it makes the case for objective consideration of the reasons for global warming, if it exists, more difficult.