Fourteen suspects — thirteen Palestinians and one Israeli Bedouin — have been arrested for the bombing of a bus in Tel Aviv on December 22. An alert passenger spotted the bomb, and the bus was evacuated before the blast, so that no one was injured.
In other news, the first two articles of the new Tunisian constitution designate Islam as the county’s official religion, but specifically prohibit sharia as the source of law.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fjordman, JD, Jerry Gordon, JP, Kitman, MC, Nilk, 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.
China is No. 1 Risk for World Economy: Soros
Don’t worry too much about the U.S. or Europe, says George Soros.
The major uncertainty facing the world today is China, writes the billionaire investor in a column for the Project Syndicate website. He says: “There is an unresolved self-contradiction in China’s current policies: restarting the furnaces also reignites exponential debt growth, which cannot be sustained for much longer than a couple of years.”
The People’s Bank of China moved to rein in debt in 2012, but then the world’s No. 2 economy experienced “real distress,” Soros writes. So China’s Communist Party reasserted its supremacy, ordering steelmakers to restart their furnaces and bankers to ease credit.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
If NHS Was a Country it Would ‘Barely Have a Credit Rating’, Says BMA
[…]
“The NHS is struggling just to keep pace. A growing and ageing population, public health problems like obesity, and constant advances in treatment and technology are all contributing to push NHS costs well above general inflation.”
Dr Porter added: “The numbers overall are so bad that if the NHS were a country, it would barely have a credit rating at all. The Nuffield Trust has estimated that if the NHS budget continues only to keep pace with general inflation, there will be a shortfall of between £44 billion and £54 billion in England by 2021-2022, unless there are productivity gains.
“But even with a 4 per cent productivity gain every year, the funding gap would still grow to as much as £34 billion. It would take savage cuts to even begin to find this much money out of further ‘efficiency’ savings.”
He said that NHS staff have “borne the brunt” of the Government’s NHS efficiency drive — the health service has been charged with making £20 billion in efficiency savings by 2015.
“The National Audit Office said the NHS had made the ‘easiest’ savings first,” he said.
“They were certainly not easy for the doctors and other healthcare staff who were made to bear the brunt. And it was not easy for the patients and staff every time a vacancy is not filled, a ward is closed, or a clinic is cancelled.”…
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The Case of the Missing Recovery
Have you seen the economic recovery? I haven’t either. But it is bound to be around here somewhere, because the National Bureau of Economic Research spotted it in June 2009, four and one-half years ago.
It is a shy and reclusive recovery, like the “New Economy” and all those promised new economy jobs. I haven’t seen them either, but we know they are here, somewhere, because the economists said so.
Congress must have seen all those jobs before they went home for Christmas, because our representatives let extended unemployment benefits expire for 1.3 million unemployed Americans, who have not yet met up with those new economy jobs, or even with an old economy job for that matter.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Euro Zone’s Credit Crunch Will Get Worse
Another month, another grim data point on bank lending in the euro zone. The latest numbers, covering November (pdf), show that loans to companies in the euro zone are falling at a 3.9% annual pace, the fastest rate of decline in more than a decade. Loans to households are holding up better, but growth is still only barely positive.
As far as business lending goes, only Finland, Estonia and Belgium managed to eke out growth in November. In Spain, meanwhile, bank loans for businesses are falling by nearly 20% per year.
The lack of bank credit is pushing some companies to seek funds from new sources — witness the small Italian companies recently issuing “minibonds” directly to investors.
[Comment: The privately owned central banks withdraw credit to contract economy and furnish credit to expand economy. Central banks also use the tactic of attractive interest rates to entice smaller banks to park their money there instead of loaning it out. ]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
‘Affordable Care’ Meltdown: Patients Across the Nation Unable to Receive Care
Americans realizing Obama lied about more things than just “If you like your plan you can keep it”
The nation is quickly learning the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is neither protective nor affordable.
Weeks before the federal initiative’s deadline, Americans reeled from sticker shock as many saw their health care premiums double and even triple. Some even witnessed individual-market rates quadruple.
And that’s just the people that were able to keep their old plans. Millions of other Americans received letters of cancellation from their insurers telling them their plan no longer met federal guideline.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Bill Clinton Says Americans Will Get Used to Communism
Former president Bill Clinton is running interference for President Obama and laying the groundwork for Hillary’s 2016 presidential bid. Here’s what he said about the future of the response of Americans to ObamaCare:
“I just think that when all these dire predictions don’t come out, if they don’t — I believe that pretty soon, within the next several years, this will be like Medicare and Medicaid. And it’ll be a normal part of our life. And people will be glad it’s there.”
I’m sure every political tyrant said something similar. I can hear Fidel Castro, Hugo Chavez, and Vladimir Lenin telling their people. “In time you’ll learn to love Communism.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Citing ObamaCare, 40,000 Longshoremen Quit the AFL-CIO
In what is being reported as a surprise move, the 40,000 members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) announced that they have formally ended their association with the AFL-CIO, one of the nation’s largest private sector unions. The Longshoremen citied Obamacare and immigration reform as two important causes of their disaffiliation.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
DHS to Hire “Top Secret” Domestic Security Force
The Department of Homeland Security is to spend $19 million dollars on a private security force in Wisconsin and Minnesota, an armed unit that must have a “Top Secret” security clearance according to an official solicitation.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
FBI: Fire Likely Criminal Act, Not Terrorism Related
BEIJING, Jan. 4 (Xinhuanet) — A deputy spokesperson for the US State Department says the government is closely watching the investigation into Wednesday’s arson attack on the Chinese consulate general in San Francisco. “The United States is deeply concerned by report the Chinese Consulate in San Francisco was damaged after being targeted by an arsonist on Wednesday, January 1st. We take this incident very seriously. And the Bureau of the Diplomatic Security is working with the FBI and local authorities to investigate and apprehend the perpetrators.” said Mary Harf, dpty. spokesperson of US State Department…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Feds Preparing for Violence Targeting Social Security Buildings?
The Department of Homeland Security is spending up to $58 million dollars to hire armed guards to protect two Social Security buildings in Baltimore, measures which some see as preparation for upcoming civil unrest.
According to an announcement on the Federal Business Opportunities website, the DHS awarded Paragon Systems, Inc. a contract “not to exceed $58,620,338.99,” to provide “Protective Security Officer (PSO) services in support of the Social Security Administration (SSA) Wabash Street and Metro West locations within Baltimore, MD.”…
Recent indications suggest the feds are becoming increasingly concerned over Social Security buildings becoming a target for irate Americans. The DHS ran a controversial drill in January 2012 dubbed “Operation Shield,” during which FPS agents armed with semiautomatic guns were posted outside a Social Security office in Florida accompanied by sniffer dogs as they checked the ID’s of visitors. The exercise centered around “detecting the presence of unauthorized persons and potentially disruptive or dangerous activities.” DHS officials refused to speak to the media when asked about the drill.
$58 million dollars, even if stretched over a number of years, seems like an awful lot of money to protect just two Social Security buildings, but it fits the pattern of recent spending on armed guards to protect government buildings which led to concerns from some that the feds are gearing up for civil unrest in relation to restrictions in benefits and other entitlements.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Frozen Out: 98% of Stories Ignore That Ice-Bound Ship Was on Global Warming Mission
A group of climate change scientists were rescued by helicopter Jan. 2, after being stranded in the ice since Christmas morning. But the majority of the broadcast networks’ reports about the ice-locked climate researchers never mentioned climate change…
In fact, rather than point out the mission was to find evidence of climate change, the networks often referred to the stranded people as “passengers,” “trackers” and even “tourists,” without a word about climate change or global warming.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Gov SWAT Teams Target “Rugged Individuals” Who Grow Their Own Food, Produce Their Own Electricity
The dream of many Americans is to get out of the hustle and bustle of the daily city grind. And what better dream to have then to move your family outside of city limits to the countryside so that you can grow your own food, produce your own electricity with solar power, and live outside the purview of an ever expanding government apparatus?
That was the goal for hundreds of residents living on the outskirts of Los Angeles. Many own their land outright and have been living on it for decades without so much as a peep from their local government. They’ve built their homes using whatever means they had available to them. They planted their own fruits and vegetables. They even set up their own personal power production stations using solar panels and miniature wind farms.
And they’ve lived peacefully without violating the rights of those around them and leaving a very small “carbon footprint” to boot. For all intents and purposes, they achieved a life of independence and freedom.
But the tentacles of tyranny are everywhere and no one is protected from their grasp.
Recently, agents of the Los Angeles county government started paying visits to these rugged individualists. They claimed they were “here to help,” as one resident puts it. But, as is generally the case when the government comes knocking, they were there for exactly the opposite.
What was once a dream come true for many quickly turned into the new American nightmare.
Code enforcement agents for the county showed up in droves. But they didn’t come alone. Along with them came heavily armed “Nuisance Abatement Teams” who raided the homes and land of these peaceful residents as they would those of a terrorist…
Gallow says county officials told him that neighbors, whom they would not identify, had complained about unsightly structures on his property.
He could keep his land, they told him, but would not be allowed to live on it.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Historic Deep Freeze Could Break Midwest Temp Records
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — It has been decades since parts of the Midwest experienced a deep freeze like the one expected to arrive Sunday, with potential record-low temperatures heightening fears of frostbite and hypothermia even in a region where residents are accustomed to bundling up.
This “polar vortex,” as one meteorologist calls it, is caused by a counterclockwise-rotating pool of cold, dense air. The frigid air, piled up at the North Pole, will be pushed down to the U.S., funneling it as far south as the Gulf Coast.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
‘Jihad Jane’ Faces Decades in Prison for Role in 2009 Murder Plot
The Pennsylvania woman who called herself Jihad Jane and a teenage accomplice from Maryland provided “very significant” assistance to US authorities in several terrorism investigations but still remain threats to the public, prosecutors say in new court filings.
Prosecutors said Colleen LaRose, 50, should be sentenced to “decades behind bars” for her role in a failed 2009 plot to kill Lars Vilks, a Swedish artist who offended many Muslims by drawing the Prophet Mohammed on the head of a dog.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Mark Levin Wants to Play Russian Roulette With the Constitution
So why is it that so many are being called on by self-proclaimed conservative leaders to promote a Con Con (also known as an Article 5 Constitutional Convention)? As cruel as they are, the leaders are often heard pulling on the heart strings of Americans by claiming that that this is a way to immediately put an end to things such as abortion, American flag burning, and an unbalanced federal budget. Mark Levin, leader of the push for a Con Con, pulls on the heart strings of Americans without warning them of the real dangers of a Constitutional Convention. He does this by telling Americans that the Constitution will only be reasonably amended because we can “trust” conservative Republicans to do what is right for us at an Article 5 Constitutional Convention.
According to Washington Times columnist Michael Lotfi’s column titled “Nullification vs. Article V Constitutional Convention: Why Levin Is Wrong”, Mark Levin is incorrect when he says that it authorizes a “state convention process.” This is because Article V only allows states to apply for Congress to call a convention. In other words, Congress gets to choose the delegates not the states. Lotfi told BenSwann.com directly that “The idea that a Congress with a 5% approval rating could effectively choose delegates, which would protect our Constitution, is almost laughable.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
New York State is Set to Loosen Marijuana Laws
Joining a growing group of states that have loosened restrictions on marijuana, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York plans this week to announce an executive action that would allow limited use of the drug by those with serious illnesses, state officials say.
The turnabout by Mr. Cuomo, who had long resisted legalizing medical marijuana, comes as other states are taking increasingly liberal positions on it — most notably Colorado, where thousands have flocked to buy the drug for recreational use since it became legal on Jan. 1.
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North Dakota Oil Train Conflagration Prompts Increased Federal Scrutiny
by John Daly
The year 2013 has ended on a worrying note for oil producers in North America’s Bakken region, as a series of recent train incidents in both Canada and the U.S. have highlighted the hazards of moving crude oil by rail.
On 30 December at 2:12 p.m. a mile-long train of 106 tankers carrying Bakken crude collided with a derailed 112 car westbound grain train carrying soybeans about a mile west of Casselton, a city of 2,432 people about 20 miles west of Fargo. The crash triggered a series of massive explosions sending toxic fumes into the air…
[…]
The North Dakota derailment was the fourth incident in 2013 with a train carrying crude oil catching fire.
On 6 July a Montreal, Maine & Atlantic train carrying 72 tank cars filled with Bakken crude exploded after its brakes apparently failed, sending it rolling into Lac-Mégantic, igniting a conflagration that killed 47 people and leveled more than 30 buildings, roughly half of the downtown area.
On 19 October residents were forced from their homes in Gainford, Alberta after a CN train derailment caused fireballs to shoot into the sky and set off a state of emergency 53 miles west of the provincial capital Edmonton. CN Rail spokesman Warren Chandler said that 13 tanker cars derailed, with nine of them containing liquefied petroleum gas, the others — crude oil.
South of the border, on 8 November twenty-five of an oil train’s 90 cars derailed near a 60 foot-long wooden trestle bridge in Aliceville, Alabama, with several oil tank cars bursting into flames. The train operator was Genesee & Wyoming Inc. The conflagration sent flames hundreds of feet high that could be seen from over 10 miles away. While no injuries were reported, an unknown amount of crude oil spilled into an adjacent marshland…[…]
Why the plethora of rail accidents?
Increased production.
In North Dakota’s Bakken region, hydraulic fracturing has unlocked vast petroleum reserves, propelling the State to become America’s No. 2 oil producer behind Texas and dropping Alaska to third place. North Dakota will shortly be producing one million barrels of oil a day, on a par with Azerbaijan, and about 70 percent of it moves by rail. U.S. railroads are now transporting 25 times more crude than they did just five years ago, often in trains with more than 100 tank cars that each transport 30,000 gallons apiece.
[…]
Such regulation is needed, as four incidents in six months, or one every six weeks on average, have signally proven the inability of Canadian and U.S. railways to provide safety to communities alongside their train tracks, and unless such regulation is implemented, with a 2,500 percent increase in hydrocarbon transit in the past five years, another Lac-Mégantic tragedy is seemingly inevitable.
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NSA Working on Quantum Computer to Defeat Encryption
If the NSA is successful, data will never be safe from surveillance
According to a story published today by the Washington Post, documents provided by whistleblower Edward Snowden reveal an effort by the NSA to build “a cryptologically useful quantum computer” capable of breaking any kind of encryption used to protect banking, medical, business and government records. The research is part of $79.7 million classified program paid for by the American tax payer.
Quantum computers use quantum-mechanical phenomena, or physical phenomena occurring on a microscopic scale, to perform operations on data. The experimental super computers are capable of solving problems more rapidly than traditional computers and are therefore more suited to breaking encryption codes.
In order to keep the research secret, the NSA is working in Faraday cages, shielded rooms designed to prevent electromagnetic energy from going in or out and thus “keep delicate quantum computing experiments running,” according to the documents provided by Snowden.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Nullification vs. Article V Constitutional Convention: Why Levin is Wrong
Americans must ask themselves: Is the Constitution ineffective, or do we have a lawless, disobedient federal government? If the answer is the latter, which it is, then Americans should see little refuge in additional amendments, which the lawless, disobedient feds will simply continue to ignore.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
NYT, Hillary and Obama’s War on a Mom
In a shameless glaring act of hypocrisy to rehabilitate Hillary Clinton’s presidential aspirations, the New York Times published an article doubling down on the Obama Administration’s lie that the attack on our consulate in Benghazi was due to an anti-Islam video.
Meanwhile, the NYT, Hillary and Obama have displayed a “Pat who” attitude towards Pat Smith, the mother of Sean Smith who was killed in the Benghazi attack on Hillary’s watch as Secretary of State.
What makes the attitudes of these superior, arrogant and pompous liberals so hard to stomach is that they falsely portray themselves as champions of women.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
ObamaCare Fell Off the Website
A few days ago, somebody told me a story — most likely a joker’s fabrication — that a true specialist had offered Obama his help to fix the Obamacare website. His name is Mamadú Ubunto, a famous witch doctor from Nigeria. Mr. Ubunto promised Obama that just by killing a white goat, five black chickens and doing some chanting in front of the White House, he would have the Obamacare website fixed in no time.
Well, even though I have my doubts about Mr. Ubunto’s powers to fix the website, I sincerely suggest Mr. Obama to at least give it a try. Otherwise, nobody will be able to fix it. The Obamacare website is like Humpty Dumpty, no computer programmer can put it together again.
Why I am so sure? Because, contrary to common belief, computer programming is not an exact science, but an art. Every computer programmer has his own style and usage, which he is the only one to fully understand…
The Denver International Airport in Denver, Colorado, is the largest airport in the U.S. It was scheduled to open on May 15, 1994. The best computer programmers at the time designed its fully computerized baggage transport system…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
More than 2 million people have signed up for new private health plans that took effect on Wednesday under the Affordable Care Act, popularly known as Obamacare. While some of those consumers were already lining up doctor visits last month, early reports from providers and an online medical booking service show the demand for care has been modest so far.
Within the Obama administration, officials fear a surge of patients in the coming weeks could spotlight cases where consumers who signed up for insurance can’t immediately get care due to technical failures on the government’s HealthCare.gov enrollment website.
Already on Friday, Senate Republicans opposed to the law seized on scattered media reports of a handful of people having difficulty confirming their new insurance policies, feeding into a narrative of Obamacare’s harms that is expected to intensify ahead of Congressional elections in November.
Central Ohio Primary Care, a 250-physician practice, is holding off on filing claims for patients who say they bought plans through the HealthCare.gov exchange, said Chief Executive Officer Dr. William Wulf.
The delay will allow insurers more time to confirm membership information and avert any erroneous claim denials, Wulf said.
Such a grace period “surely is not desirable long term,” he said, but the number of patients with Obamacare plans has so far been low and represents only a small fraction of the practice’s patients.
“What we’re doing is we’re seeing the patients, trusting they are in fact going to pay for insurance and just not sending a bill yet,” Wulf said.
Contrary to fears that Obamacare enrollees would be sicker than other Americans, with serious and expensive pent-up medical needs, so far they are not much different from other Americans, according to data from ZocDoc, a six-year-old closely held company that allows patients to find a doctor who accepts their insurance and make an appointment online…
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Op-Ed: Inside the American Police State
For decades, activists have warned of the advancing police state in the United States. The police state arrived, not amidst a storm of riot police, but through the completely unmitigated expansion of total surveillance.
Edward Snowden’s continued leaks have given the world a look at exactly how far the National Security Agency’s assault on freedom has gone. Each new revelation demonstrates that the Agency that was set up in the 1950s to streamline cryptography and communications efforts in America’s fight to preserve liberty against the threat of the Soviet Union has become a larger threat to the freedom of the American people than the Soviet Union ever was. Other federal agencies continue to expand their power beyond the scope of moral conscience and law, and the legislature has no desire to curb the aggressive expansion of federal power.
A brief overview of the Snowden revelations demonstrates clearly that the NSA has extended its surveillance apparatus to levels that George Orwell could never have envisioned. The truly terrifying part is the fact that only a fraction of the documents Snowden has in his possession have been released.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Oral Cholera Vaccine Loaded With GMOs to be Tested on Babies Worldwide
(NaturalNews) California-based vaccine manufacturer PaxVax has reportedly submitted an application to begin international trials of a novel oral cholera vaccine that contains live, genetically modified (GM) bacteria. VacTruth.com reports that the new vaccine is set to be tested on more than 1,000 individuals, many of whom are young children, in a three-part clinical trial series to take place throughout Australia.
In a recent application filing with the Australian Government, PaxVax makes plain its intent to administer the live, GM bacteria in both young and old and in every region of the country. Participants will be instructed to literally consume a cocktail of mercury-resistant, GM Shigella flexneri NR1 bacteria derived from the Vibrio cholera bacterial strain, which is recognized as the causative agent of the gastroenteritis disease known as cholera.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Oregon and Other States See Health Insurance Cancellations Due to ObamaCare
An “Inside the Beltway” legal watchdog released Oregon state records revealing a staggering high number of health insurance policy cancellations as a direct result of requirements of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) of 2010, also known as ObamaCare.
According to the group’s findings, over 140,000 Oregon residents will lose their healthcare coverage as a result of ObamaCare in the beginning of 2014 and many more may lose their coverage when the employee-mandate kicks in.
Statements in the Judicial Watch obtained records, which include filings by health insurance companies with state regulators, directly contradict claims by the Obama administration and its allies that ObamaCare was not responsible for Americans losing health insurance coverage.
[…]
In addition to the records from Oregon, Judicial Watch has received the following cancellation information from six other states to date:…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Phil Everly of the Everly Brothers Dies at 74
Phil Everly, who with his brother, Don, made up the most revered vocal duo of the rock-music era, their exquisite harmonies profoundly influencing the Beatles, the Beach Boys, the Byrds and countless younger-generation rock, folk and country singers, died Friday in Burbank of complications from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, his wife, Patti Everly, told The Times. He was 74.
“We are absolutely heartbroken,” she said, noting that the disease was the result of a lifetime of cigarette smoking. “He fought long and hard.”
During the height of their popularity in the late 1950s and early 1960s, they charted nearly three dozen hits on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, among them “Cathy’s Clown,” “Wake Up Little Susie,” “Bye Bye Love,” “When Will I Be Loved” and “All I Have to Do Is Dream.” The Everly Brothers were among the first 10 performers inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame when it got off the ground in 1986.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Producers Panic as Ethanol Mandate Loses Support
Ethanol producers are panicking amid speculation that the ethanol mandate could be drastically reduced or scrapped entirely this year as the biofuel loses its allure and bipartisan allies and former friends team up against it.
December saw California Democrat Dianne Feinstein—a renewable fuel champion—coordinate efforts with Oklahoma Republican Tom Coburn to come up with a Senate bill to get rid of ethanol from the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), citing fears that corn-based fuel production mandates will harm livestock producers.
[…]
Two years ago the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) approved the E15 blend, which contains 15% ethanol and 85% gasoline, for vehicles manufactured in 2001 or later. There has been little progress towards widespread use of E15 though, and today’s blend is commonly E10.
The problem is that the RFS set its parameters too far ahead and predictions are a tricky thing. Flexibility is necessary and this is being learnt the hard way and will certainly have repercussions and this initial lack of flexibility—of RFS ranges—was a policy misstep on the part of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
The problem is that the current and future ethanol mandates were created back in 2005 with the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), at a time when gas demand predictions were expected to be different. Now we have better fuel economy and demand for gas that is increasing slower than forecast. In 2007, it looked like gas demand would continue to rise every year; instead, it peaked in 2008.
Beyond that, poultry companies are going bankrupt due to rising prices of feedstock as crops are diverted to ethanol. The rising costs of farming and egg production are taking their toll on states like Minnesota.
[Read the rest for the other side of the argument: Iowa’s take via The Iowa Renewable Fuels Association…]
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Quinnipiac Study: Concealed Carry Results in Fewer Murders
In what will certainly be gun control advocates’ new least favorite study, Quinnipiac University’s Mark Gius found not only that states with restrictive concealed weapons laws had higher gun-related murder rates, but that assault weapons bans had no significant impact on murder rates at the state level.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) is leading a class-action lawsuit with hundreds of thousands of Americans against President Barack Obama’s National Security Agency (NSA) over its spying on the American people, Breitbart News has learned.
Sen. Paul will be discussing the lawsuit in an exclusive appearance on Fox News with host Eric Bolling at 10 PM ET on Friday. Breitbart News has learned that Paul will file the class action lawsuit soon in the D.C. District Court and that he will be filing it as an individual, not as a U.S. Senator. For a U.S. Senator to file a such a class action lawsuit against the President of the United States would be extremely rare.
With regard to NSA spying, this is the first class action lawsuit against such activity. This allows the American people to join together in a grassroots manner against President Obama’s NSA for the first time in the legal system, as all other lawsuits have been individuals suing against the agency…
| — Hat tip: MC | [Return to headlines] |
Ripping Off the “Progressive” Mask
In a column on the “remarkable lives” of some people who passed away in 2013, Republican strategist Karl Rove writes that British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, in concert with Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, and Pope John Paul II, “transformed the world.” He’s right that Reagan, Bush, Thatcher and the Pope did transform the world. In saying that Thatcher stood up to Soviet communism, however, he neglected to mention that the Soviet Communists fought back, attempting to assassinate Pope John Paul II. The Soviets lied about their involvement in this plot.
Referring to Nelson Mandela, Rove says he “spent 26 years in prison before emerging to end apartheid and serve as the first president of a multiracial South African democracy. “However, Mandela’s debt to Soviet communism, which armed his movement, went unmentioned in Rove’s Wall Street Journal column. Rove also failed to note that the communists who run South Africa today counted Mandela as one of their own. The “democratic” South Africa of today is effectively a one-party state, and the white minority is under siege and facing genocide…
It is a sad fact that telling a lie these days has become more convenient than telling the truth. This is a terrible commentary on those with access to our major media.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Great Italian Auto Bailout — Courtesy of U.S. Taxpayers
At the beginning of 2014, Detroit may be bankrupt, but they’re cheering the five-year-old U.S. auto bailout in Italy.
That’s because after being the beneficiary of billions in U.S. taxpayer largesse, Fiat, the leading Italian auto company, is going to buy its final stake in Chrysler from that other big bailout recipient, the United Auto Workers (UAW).
“Chrysler’s Now Fully an Italian Auto Company,” reads the Time magazine online headline. But wait a minute! Wasn’t the bailout supposed to be about saving the American auto industry?
[…]
“The real outrage arising from the 2009 Chrysler bailout is not that its parent company, Fiat, is planning to build plants in China. It’s that the politicized bankruptcy process limited Chrysler’s growth potential by tying it to an Italian dinosaur in the midst of the European fiscal crisis. The Obama administration literally gave away ownership of one of the Big Three American auto manufacturers to an Italian car maker struggling with labor and productivity issues worse than those that drove Chrysler to near-liquidation.“
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Psychological Dark Side of Gmail
What spooked EPIC even more: Google was not simply scanning people’s emails for advertising keywords, but had developed underlying technology [12] to compile sophisticated dossiers of everyone who came through its email system. All communication was subject to deep linguistic analysis; conversations were parsed for keywords, meaning and even tone [13]; individuals were matched to real identities using contact information stored in a user’s Gmail address book; attached documents were scraped for intel — that info was then cross-referenced with previous email interactions and combined with stuff gleamed from other Google services, as well as third-party sources…
Here’s are some of the things that Google would use to construct its profiles, gleamed from two [14] patents [12] company filed prior to launching its Gmail service:
- Concepts and topics discussed in email, as well as email attachments
- The content of websites that users have visited
- Demographic information — including income, sex, race, marital status
- Geographic information
- Psychographic information — personality type, values, attitudes, interests and lifestyle interests
- Previous searches users have made
- Information about documents a user viewed and or edited by the users
- Browsing activity
- Previous purchases
To EPIC, Google’s interception and use of such detailed personal information was clearly violation of California law, and the organization called on California’s Attorney General promised to investigate [15] Google’s Gmail service. The Attorney General promise to look into the matter, but nothing much happened.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Thieves Are Using “Mystery Gadgets” To Electronically Unlock Cars and Steal What is Inside
All over America, criminals are using improvised electronic devices to electronically unlock vehicles and steal whatever they find inside. These “mystery gadgets” reportedly recreate the same signals that the key fobs that so many of us carry around send out.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
US Gun Magazine Producer to Leave Colorado Over Gun Laws
One of the largest producers of gun magazines in the U.S. is leaving Colorado because of its new gun laws and moving its operations to Texas and Wyoming.
Magpul Industries, based in Erie, Colorado, announced Thursday that it was moving its production, distribution and shipping operations to Cheyenne and its headquarters to Texas, making good on a vow it made to leave Colorado during last year’s heated gun control debate.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
USDA Goes Forward With Herbicide-Resistant GMO Seeds
The commercial use of new herbicide-resistant, genetically modified corn and soybean seeds moved one step closer to reality on Friday when the United States Department of Agriculture announced their introduction in limited quantities.
The new seeds have been genetically engineered by Dow AgroSciences to survive the hefty application of 2,4-D, a widely used weed killer that’s commonly known as one of the ingredients in the Vietnam War-era herbicide Agent Orange.
According to a report by the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, these modified seeds will be used in restricted field trials while the agency continues to evaluate the possibility that it will deregulate the product altogether, despite concerns regarding a surge in herbicide use.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
White House Announces New Executive Actions on Background Checks for Guns
The White House announced two new executive actions Friday that would expand the government’s access to mental health information during background checks on gun buyers.
The two new actions clarify what constitutes a mental health problem that might prohibit gun ownership and allow states more wiggle room in disclosing such personal medical information.
One executive action frees states from some of the privacy laws that prohibit the disclosure of patients’ medical information, allowing institutions to input mental health information relevant to gun ownership into the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, otherwise known as NICS.
[Possible future>Government comrade drone: “What, you disagree with policies of dear leader!? Believe in the Constitution? Clearly you have a mental problem and need to see a State appointed psychiatrist. Only when this psychiatrist allows it, will you be allowed a permit.”]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Why Oil is Mightier Than the Sword for U.S. Foreign Policy
The American Petroleum Institute said the United States is emerging as a superpower in terms of energy and should use that leverage by exporting crude oil overseas. Some U.S. lawmakers pressing for tighter sanctions on Iran, meanwhile, oppose the export drive, suggesting potential superpower influence may run up against protectionist policies.
U.S. crude oil exports are restricted under legislation enacted in response to the 1970s Arab oil embargo. Now, with the U.S. Energy Information Administration predicting crude oil production will reach 9.5 million barrels per day by 2016, the industry and its supporters said it’s time to reverse that policy.
API in February said the United States was an “energy superpower” thanks in part to shale oil and natural gas developments. Erik Milito, director of upstream operations for API, said the oil lobbying group plans to reach out to U.S. legislators to help remove obstacles to U.S. crude oil exports. The decision lies with President Obama, but API said any effort needed to lift export restrictions requires a bubble-up strategy.
API welcomed mid-December statements from U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz saying the export ban deserves “some new analysis and examination.” That didn’t sit well with some legislators worried about the economic affects at home, however.
“Crude oil produced in the U.S. should be used to lower prices here at home, not sent to the other side of the world ,” Robert Menendez, D-N.J., chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said in a letter to Obama. “Easing this ban might be a win for Big Oil, but it would hurt American consumers,”
Menendez, meanwhile, has pressed hard for tougher economic pressure on Iran. Along with Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., the New Jersey lawmaker said “a credible threat of future sanctions” will keep Iran’s feet to the fire in terms of nuclear negotiations.
Oil is a global economic commodity. Before the U.S. economic meltdown, Walter Russell Mead, editor-at-large for The American Interest magazine, wrote that U.S. influence in the international community was inextricably linked to its economic power. Because of the size of the U.S. economy, its trade relations, something he calls “sticky power,” are more influential and durable than military conquests. More leverage is gained with a U.S. economic presence in the world than without, he said. Without the oil export ban, that economic presence would only expand…
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Bringing Home the Bacon: Tiny Denmark is an Agricultural Superpower
EVERY weekday 20,000 pigs are delivered to the Danish Crown company’s slaughterhouse in Horsens, in central Denmark. They trot into the stunning room, guided by workers armed with giant fly swats. They are hung upside down, divided in two, shaved of their bristles and scalded clean. A machine cuts them into pieces, which are then cooled, boned and packed.
The slaughterhouse is enormous, ten football pitches long with 11km of conveyor belts. Its managers attend to the tiniest detail. The fly-swatting workers wear green rather than white because this puts the pigs in a better mood. The cutting machine photographs a carcass before adjusting its blades to its exact contours. The company calibrates not only how to carve the flesh, but also where the various parts will fetch the highest prices: the bacon goes to Britain and the trotters to China.
Denmark is a tiny country, with 5.6m people and wallet-draining labour costs. But it is an agricultural giant, home to 30m pigs and a quiverful of global brands. In 2011 farm products made up 20% of its goods exports. The value of food exports grew from €4 billion ($5.5 billion) in 2001 to €16.1 billion in 2011. The government expects it to rise by a further €6.7 billion by 2020.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
England: Drug Companies Accused of Holding Back Complete Information on Clinical Trials
Clinical trial results are being routinely withheld from doctors, undermining their ability to make informed decisions about how to treat patients, an influential parliamentary committee has claimed.
MPs have expressed “extreme concern” that drug manufacturers appear to only publish around 50% of completed trial results and warned that the practice has “ramifications for the whole of medicine”.
Their conclusions have emerged in a public accounts committee report which examined the Department of Health’s decision to spend £424m on stockpiling the flu drug Tamiflu, before writing off £74m because of poor record keeping.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Netherlands: One Third of the Hague’s Street Criminals Are Under 16, Say Police
One in three street thieves in The Hague is under the age of 16, according to the city’s police force. The news that so many youngsters are involved in street crime is ‘extremely worrying’, Cevdet Aydin, coordinator of the city’s special street crime task force, told the AD.
The youngsters are not selling-on stolen telephones and other goods but ‘doing it for kicks’, the spokesman said. ‘They tell us they are being egged on by their friends and they want to show… they are tough.’
Youth crime researcher Henk Ferwerda told the paper the youngsters see mugging someone or snatching their telephone as an easy crime. ‘They do not realise that courts hand down tough sentences for mugging and that such crimes have a serious impact on their victims, especially if they use violence,’ he said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Netherlands: Suspected Leader of Mexican Drug Cartel Nabbed at Amsterdam Airport
A suspected leader of a Mexican drug cartel was arrested at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol at the request of the United States.
Jose Rodrigo Arechiga Gamboa, 33, was taken into custody Monday after he disembarked from a plane from Mexico City, said the US Attorney’s Office in San Diego, which is seeking his extradition.
Arechiga Gamboa, who was travelling under a false name, is accused of being a top enforcer for the Sinaloa Cartel, headquartered in the western Mexican state of Sinaloa.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Abbas Khan Funeral: Family Pay Tribute to British Doctor Who Died in Syria
Service at London Central Mosque hears tributes to 32-year-old surgeon who died in Syrian prison last month
The brother of a British doctor who died while being held in custody in Syria has paid a moving tribute to him at a funeral prayer service, describing him as “our star”. Dr Abbas Khan was on the verge of being released when his family were told of his death. The Syrian regime claimed he took his own life, but his family claim he was murdered. The 32-year-old orthopaedic surgeon from London was captured in November last year in Aleppo after travelling from Turkey to help victims of hospital bombings. His death was announced on 17 December.
At the packed service at London Central Mosque in Regent’s Park, his brother Shahnawaz Khan said: “Last night I sat down to undertake the morbid task of writing a eulogy for my brother … My brother, to us, was our star. His star shone on our family.”…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Primary School Gives Children a Two-Week October Half-Term So Pupils Can Go to Asia
A primary school adding an extra week to its October half-term holiday so Asian families can take their children abroad when temperatures are cooler there. The Church of England academy has announced it will be breaking up for a fortnight — instead of the usual week — during the autumn term following requests from parents.
Wensley Fold Primary School in Blackburn has around 300 pupils, a high proportion of whom come from Asian backgrounds.
One parent, who asked not to be named, said October was the best time to visit family in Pakistan due to the more reasonable temperatures.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: The NHS is Cursed by a Devotion to Dogma
A small refundable charge would be worth it for a better A&E
Anybody who has been to A&E with a genuine complaint will understand the frustrations of overcrowding. Departments can be filled with people who need not necessarily be there. A survey of family doctors offers a new solution: charge people £10 per visit. One third of GPs said that such a proposal could ease the crisis in emergency care by discouraging those with minor ailments. It was also suggested that refunds should be offered if the trip proved necessary.
The idea of charging patients for visits is bound to cause an outcry. British attitudes towards health care have barely moved on from the Forties, and the mantra of “free at the point of use” continues to determine our idea of how the NHS should be run. Yet the evidence suggests that it has substantial problems that won’t be solved by ageing dogma…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Briton Gunned Down in Libya While Having a Picnic
The Foreign Office calls on the Libyan authorities to hunt down the killers of a Briton who was shot dead on a beach
A British oil worker has been shot dead in Libya while having a picnic on a beach with a female companion. The couple were gunned down near the coastal town of Zuwarah, 60 miles west of Tripoli and their bodies were left lying face down on the sand. Foreign Office officials confirmed that his family had been informed of the tragedy said they were calling on the Libyan authorities to carry out a thorough investigation into the murder.
Both victims were thought to be oil workers with Mellitah Oil and Gas company, which is co-owned by the Italian company ENI. A graphic photograph published on a social networking site appeared to show the victims lying face down in a pool of blood on a beach beside a picnic blanket…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: We Strike With Iron Fist on Terrorism Hotbeds — Interior Minister
In an important press conference on the ongoing investigations into the recent acts of violence, Interior Minister Mohamed Ibrahim said that Initial investigations revealed the involvement of the terrorist Muslim Brotherhood (MB) group in recent violent events in the country…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: 24 Muslim Brotherhood Members Investigated for Attacking House of Anti-Morsi Activist
Twenty-four Muslim Brotherhood members arrested Friday are accused of forming a terrorist cell and attacking the home of Tamarod co-founder Mahmoud Badr
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Murdered New Zealander Was on a Visit to Libya
Ministry said it categorises most of Libya as an “extreme risk”
Wellington: A New Zealand woman found murdered with a British companion in Libya was visiting the country at the time of her death, New Zealand’s foreign ministry said Saturday, adding an investigation would be held by Libyan officials. Libyan troops found the bodies on a beach in Mellitah, near the city of Sabratha, on Thursday. They had both been shot. “The exact circumstance of their deaths is not yet clear and will be subject to an investigation by the Libyan authorities,” the foreign ministry statement said…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Qatar Criticises Egypt’s Crackdown on Islamist Protesters
Qatar said on Saturday the decision by Egypt to designate the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist group was “a prelude to a shoot-to-kill policy” against demonstrators.
Qatar was a firm supporter of Egypt’s former Islamist President Mohamed Morsi and ties with Cairo have deteriorated since the army deposed him in July following mass protests against his year-long rule.
Egypt accuses Qatar and its Doha-based Al Jazeera television channel of backing the Muslim Brotherhood, which it declared a terrorist organisation on 25 December. Thousands of its members have been arrested.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
State Crackdown in Egypt Sparks Deadly Clashes
In Egypt, more than a dozen people have been shot dead following a day of bloody violence across the country. In the capital Cairo, street battles between police and supporters of the now banned Muslim Brotherhood continued late into the night…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Tunisian Parliament Rules Out Sharia as Source of Law
(AGI) Tunis, Jan 4 — Tunisia’s parliament approved the first two articles of the country’s new constitution declaring that Tunisia’s religion is Islam but not making Islamic sharia law the main source of the country’s legislation. According to Article One of the charter, approved by 146 of the 149 voters, “Tunisia is a free, independent and sovereign state. Islam is its religion, Arabic is its language and it is a republic. This article cannot be amended.” .
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
With Tens of Thousands of Visitors Every Year, Beijing Boosts Tourism in Egypt
In 2012 about 67 thousand of 700 thousand tourists were Chinese nationals . The figure is still growing. In Cairo, a meeting between the Ministry of Tourism and major Chinese tourist agencies for the development of the sector among the hardest hit of the Egyptian economy
Cairo ( AsiaNews / Angezie ) — Beijing is becoming one of the major tourism partners in Egypt, with more than 67 thousand visitors in 2012 alone , according to the World Tourism Organisation .. Compared to Western countries that have placed Egypt on the list of countries at ‘high risk’ , China has lifted the travel ban on Cairo in September.
On January 1 Nasser Abdelal , a consultant for Asia of the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism welcomed the delegation of the leaders of the most important Chinese tourist agencies who arrived in the country to kick off a collaboration aimed at increasing incentives in the industry and ensure the safety foreign visitors . Abdelal states that the attacks and cases of violence in recent months have taken place at the local level and there were never any danger to foreign tourists.
The tourism sector accounts for 11.3 % of the GDP of Egypt , and for years has employed nearly 3 million people. The collaboration with Beijing in the future could allow new investments in the sector that has declined steadily since 2011. According to data of the World Trade Organization, every year tourists to Egypt fell by 20%
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Israel Makes Arrests Over Tel Aviv Bus Bomb Attack
Israeli security forces have arrested 13 Palestinians and an Israeli Bedouin, believed to be behind the bombing of a bus in Bat Yam, south of Tel Aviv, on December 22. After gag order was lifted yesterday, it emerged that among those arrested was the man accused of planting the bomb, 20-year-old Palestinian Sami Harimi. Harimi was arrested in Bethlehem on December 26, and is believed to have confessed to his role in the attack…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Kerry Meets Abbas Pushing Ahead Framework Deal
RAMALLAH, Jan. 3 (Xinhua) — U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry started a meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas Friday evening in the West Bank city of Ramallah, where people demonstrated against his plan of framework deal with Israel.
Azzam el-Ahmad, an official in Abbas’s Fatah Party, ruled out that the Palestinians would accept the framework agreement, which envisions the outlines of a broader agreement between Israel and the Palestinians in the future…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
St James’ Church Praises “Beautiful Resistance”
by Raphael
This Christmas, St James’ Church Piccadilly has built a “wall”, inspired by the Kairos Palestine document. The Kairos document claims in its Introduction that: “The document also holds a clear position that non-violent resistance to this injustice is a right and duty for all Palestinians including Christians.” In article 1.4, Kairos blames Israel for Palestinian terrorism, which it calls “resistance”, saying: “if there were no occupation, there would be no resistance.”…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
St James’s Church, I Hate Your Hatred
by Kay Wilson
A true story
“And it came to pass that in December 2010, two Palestinian shepherds left their little town near Bethlehem and set out to walk ten miles across the Judean Hills. There in the forest, they kept watch by night. The following day, at about the 6th hour (3pm) the shepherds saw two women walking along the Israel National Trail. With great fervour they took out their knives and attacked the women. Their serrated blades glinted int he sun, shining all around as the shepherds held the girls and pinned them to the ground. With knives to their throats, the women dare not move…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
A New Year and Turkey is Still in Turmoil
I had a conversation this morning with a confidential European source and keen observer of the Turkish scene. Some of his astute observations were convered in the January NER, article, “Could the Crisis in Turkey Impact US Policy in the Middle East?” It was prompted by a Gatestone Institute article, published today, “Where is Turkey Going?” by Veli Sirin, who is German director of the Center for Islamic Pluralism. Sirin is another worthy observer and author of analyses on what is occurring in Turkey. He was discussing further developments with regard to the public wrangling between two former Islamist allies, Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan and ex-patriate Turkish Sheikh Mohammad Fethulleh Gulen, which we have covered in our NER article. […]
we mused on the silence from the Obama White House about accusations of American involvement in fostering the Turkish public prosecutors’ graft investigations with implied threats to expel the US Ambassador. Those accusations were vigorously denied by the US Ambassador Francis T. Ricciardone. Could it be the alleged graft investigation directed by public prosecutors against the core of AKP in the regime of Turkish Premier Erdogan is an embarrassment to the Administration that touted him as a partner for peace in the Middle East? In May 2013 when Premier Erdogan visited the White Rose, President Obama said in a rainy Rose Garden setting, “I value so much the partnership that I’ve been able to develop with Prime Minister Erdogan”. Stay tuned for developments.
| — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon | [Return to headlines] |
Al Qaeda Controls Iraqi City of Fallujah
(AGI) Baghdad, Jan 4 — Al Qaeda fighters held control of the Iraqi city of Fallujah, repelling efforts by troops with air support to regain control. “Fallujah is in the hands of the (jihadist group) Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant”, said a security officer.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Bahrain Names Bahraini Living in Iran as Suspect in Foiled Attacks
Bahrain has named a Bahraini citizen who lives in Iran as a main suspect in what it called planned “terrorist acts” and said he and his collaborators had received training and other help from Tehran. Bahrain, home to the U.S. Fifth Fleet, said last Monday it had foiled an attempt to smuggle arms and explosives, some made in Iran and Syria, into the country by boat.
The Gulf Arab kingdom has been rattled by bouts of unrest since February 2011, when protests led by members of its Shiite majority population demanded that the Sunni ruling family give up ultimate power to an elected parliament.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Danish, Norwegian Warships Sail to Syria in Chemical Arsenal Operation
NICOSIA, Jan. 3 (Xinhua) — Two warships, which will provide security for cargo vessels that will carry Syria’s chemical arsenal out of the port of Latakia, sailed out of the Cypriot port of Limassol on Friday heading towards the Syrian coast, according to reliable port sources. The sources told Xinhua on condition of anonymity that Danish frigate Esbern Snare and Norwegian frigate Helge Ingstad will accompany two cargo vessels, one from each Nordic country, which will take delivery of 500 tons of dangerous chemicals in Latakia…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Experts Fear Mounting Al-Qaida Resurgence
More than two and a half years after the death of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, American experts and counter-terrorism officials say his organization remains a major threat across the Middle East and North Africa. That assessment comes as several recent news reports say U.S. lawmakers and American intelligence officials are expressing growing concerns over al-Qaida’s expanding manpower, particularly in the Middle East and Africa.
James Mattis is no stranger to al-Qaida having led the U.S. Marines in Iraq during the 2011 war and later overseeing American operations across the Middle East, the Horn of Africa and Afghanistan as the general in charge of the United States Central Command. Now retired, he remains anxious about the course of the struggle against al-Qaida. “Violent jihad, al-Qaida in particular is growing in adherence right now. It is not shrinking,” he said recently. “It is actually gaining ground and they are exploiting new opportunities”
Mattis spoke at a terrorism conference in Washington in December sponsored by the U.S.-based think tank the Jamestown Foundation. He said the West is failing to understand al-Qaida and as a result has not been able to fashion an effective operational and propaganda strategy to defeat the terror organization. “Certainly our efforts to date have not been sufficient. We defend today more than a geographic realm; we defend a realm of ideas,” Mattis said. “For us in the West they grew out of the Enlightenment and they have to do with freedom and the dignity of the individual and a whole lot of things like that. Since Tony Blair left office I don’t know that we have had any Western politician able to stand up and to explain the nobility of what we are trying to keep alive in terms of our civilization’s values,” he added.…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Fallujah Falls Under Al-Qaeda Control in Blow for Iraq Security
Key Iraqi city has fallen into the hands of Al-Qaeda group ISIL after days of fierce fighting
The Iraqi government has lost control of Fallujah to Al-Qaeda-linked militants, a senior security official said Saturday, after days of fighting sparked by an anti-government protest camp’s removal. Parts of the cities of Ramadi and Fallujah, west of Baghdad, have been held by militants for days, harkening back to the years after the 2003 US-led invasion when both were insurgent strongholds…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Iraq’s Army and Tribes Are Battling Al Qaeda Right Now for the Future of the Country
Sunni Muslim tribesmen backed by Iraqi troops fought al Qaeda-linked militants for control of Iraq’s western province of Anbar on Friday in a critical test of strength for the Shi’ite-led government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.
Dressed in black and waving al Qaeda flags, hundreds of Islamist insurgents using machine guns and pick-up trucks mounted with anti-aircraft guns battled tribesmen in the streets of the city of Ramadi on Friday, witnesses, security officials and tribal sources said.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Iraq: Al Qaeda-Linked Militants Capture Fallujah During Violent Outbreak
After fighting in a bloody three-day war, Al Qaeda-affiliated militants captured the western city of Fallujah, and raised its flag over government buildings in the city previously secured by U.S. forces before withdrawing from the country two years later. Hadi Razeij, head of the Anbar province police force, said police had left the city center entirely and had positioned themselves on the edge of town.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Rebels Clash With Al Qaeda-Linked Group in Syria
An alliance of Syrian rebels have launched a “revolution” against an Islamist extremist group linked to al Qaeda, highlighting deepening divisions within the country’s armed opposition against President Bashar al-Assad.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Saudi Government Bans Imams From Preaching About Politics
Concern about extremist tendencies. The Minister of Islamic Affairs says that imams who “politicize” sermons will not be allowed to continue to promote attitudes that divide the community and create hatred.
Riyadh (AsiaNews) — Concerned about possible extremist tendencies, Saudi Arabia is trying to remove politics from the mosques. The Minister of Islamic Affairs, Saleh Al- Asheikh , has said imams who “ politicize” sermons will not be allowed to continue to promote such attitudes . “ We have set up — he declared — a legal committee to advise these imams. If they respond positively and follow the guidelines , they will be allowed to continue . If not, then we will say that they are not suitable to preach”. “The use of political sermons divides the community and creates hatred among people”, instead preachers should spread the word of Allah and “encourage people to worship”.
The minister’s concern comes from the fact that traditionally the Friday sermon addresses not only religious issues, but also issues of all kinds, including those of custom and social questions, which are borderline with political issues.
The minister added that he will continue to monitor all the mosques and imams to ensure that no one violates the rules, even if he did not hide the difficulty of following all the existing 80 thousand mosques in the Kingdom.
The words of Al- Asheikh , however , have not found unanimous support. Arab News reports the reaction of a teacher who declares that “The mosque and other platforms should be used for the benefit of people. Following moderation is the best way. Efforts must be made to correct the wrong impressions created by extremists” . But the same newspaper also the opinion of Fuad Kawther , a Saudi involved in the propagation of Islam, according to who the minister’s strategy contradicts the example of the Prophet , as the mosque of Medina was the center of the Islamic state: “Isolating Islam from different aspects of life will lead to secularization.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Russia’s Gazprom Hits Record Gas Exports to Europe
Russian state-run gas giant Gazprom is exporting record volumes of gas to Europe and Turkey, with lower prices and colder weather boosting demand.
After slumping in 2012, Gazprom Export volumes reached 161.5 billion cubic meters in 2013—with the biggest increases to Germany, Italy and the UK—beating its last record in 2008, when it exported 160 billion cubic meters.
Helping to drive the spike in demand in Europe are lower gas prices clinched under long-term supply contracts, coupled with reduced supplies in Europe as cargoes of liquefied natural gas (LNG) are diverted to the more lucrative Asian markets, where they fetch a higher price.
Average prices for 2013 were just over $380 per 1,000 cubic meters, down from about $385 in 2012.
Germany remains the largest Gazprom customer in the European Union, and for 2013 the country increased its purchases of Gazprom gas by over 20%, while Italy’s imports spiked by more than 60%.
Gazprom supplies over 25% of Europe’s entire gas needs, registering over 150 billion cubic meters of exports to Europe annually.
Russia is now working on the South Stream pipeline project, which will bring Caspian gas to Europe by piping it to northeast Italy through the Black Sea, which should be realized at the end of 2015.
Europe’s own Caspian pipeline preference, the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) will pump Azeri gas through a pipeline running across Greece and into Italy. The pipeline plan was green-lighted in December, but in the end will only pump 10 billion cubic meters of gas annually into Europe. Gazprom transits 15 times that amount into Europe, so it won’t put much of a dent in the monopoly.
In November, Gazprom won a long-term deal with Turkey to export gas to private companies.
Helping to drive the spike in demand in Europe are lower gas prices clinched under long-term supply contracts, coupled with reduced supplies in Europe as cargoes of liquefied natural gas (LNG) are diverted to the more lucrative Asian markets, where they fetch a higher price.
Average prices for 2013 were just over $380 per 1,000 cubic meters, down from about $385 in 2012.
Germany remains the largest Gazprom customer in the European Union, and for 2013 the country increased its purchases of Gazprom gas by over 20%, while Italy’s imports spiked by more than 60%.
Gazprom supplies over 25% of Europe’s entire gas needs, registering over 150 billion cubic meters of exports to Europe annually.
Russia is now working on the South Stream pipeline project, which will bring Caspian gas to Europe by piping it to northeast Italy through the Black Sea, which should be realized at the end of 2015.
Europe’s own Caspian pipeline preference, the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) will pump Azeri gas through a pipeline running across Greece and into Italy. The pipeline plan was green-lighted in December, but in the end will only pump 10 billion cubic meters of gas annually into Europe. Gazprom transits 15 times that amount into Europe, so it won’t put much of a dent in the monopoly.
In November, Gazprom won a long-term deal with Turkey to export gas to private companies…
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Bangladesh: Polling Stations Torched on Eve of Election
At least 30 polling stations in Bangladesh have been torched ahead of Sunday’s controversial election. The violence came as the opposition, which is boycotting the vote, began a two-day strike in protest at what it called a “scandalous farce”. At least 100 people have been killed during weeks of election violence. The opposition wants a neutral caretaker administration to oversee the election, as in previous years — something the government has refused…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Elections in Bangladesh: Strikes and Violence Push Christians and Hindus Not to Vote
Christians, Hindus and Buddhists speak of nationalists threats not to go to the polls . The opposition led by Khaleda Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party ( BNP) began a new 48-hour strike today. The aim is to disrupt the parliamentary elections tomorrow and unleash chaos in the country. Polling stations and vehicles set on fire in Dhaka, Dinajpur and Feni .
Dhaka (AsiaNews) — Christians , Buddhists and Hindus fear for their safety ahead of nationwide parliamentary elections scheduled for tomorrow. What especially worries minorities are the violent strikes recently organized by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party ( BNP) of Khaleda Zia who are bringing the entire country to its knees . Today, the BNP launched 48 hour general strike in response to the refusal of the government led by premier Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League to invoke a neutral party as a guarantor of the vote.
Many Christians state they will not vote like Buddhists and Hindus members of religious minorities. “I will not vote — explains Joachim Costa a Catholic of 55 — the elections will not be free and fair and we already know who will win .” The woman explains that people are afraid to go to the polls because of the constant threats of the opposition party . Even the Hindus will not go to vote . Raton Das , 42, told AsiaNews that the elections “ are for a single party and it is useless to vote. Unfortunately there is no alternative”. The population is discouraged by the contrast between the government and opposition, which instead of dialogue has taken the hard line of constant protest. The man explains that the streets there are even campaign posters to attract people to vote , “usually the campaign should take place in a festive atmosphere .”
Since January 1, BNP supporters have blocked roads, railways and waterways and in recent days there have been numerous incidents of violence and clashes with the police. Acts of guerrilla warfare, including the explosion of rudimentary bombs and the burning of automobiles, took place in Dhaka, Narayanganj , Bogra , Lakshmipur , Jhenaidah , Pabna , and Comilla . In Dinajpur ( North of the country ), two people died in a blaze of a truck set on fire by supporters of the BNP . Yesterday at Feni ( on the border with India ), five polling stations were set on fire .
According to the population , the now rampant and systematic violence is the worst the country has ever experienced in 40 years since Independence . Tensions rose after the opposition leader Khaleda Zia rejected an offer from Prime Minister Hasina to join the oversight committee for the voting format of all parties. In 2013, over 500 people were killed in violence related to politics.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Jihad is “The Most Misunderstood Concept of Islam,” Says Indian Muslim Historian
“Everything is a jihad — pursuit of education, earning a living and fighting your egos. But, now, it is the most misunderstood concept of Islam.” This recalls Hamas-linked CAIR’s cynical and deceptive ad campaign saying that jihad was taking the kids to school and getting in one’s exercise. This was widely taken as evidence of “reform” and “moderation,” and Pamela Geller and I were excoriated for criticizing the campaign.
However, the central fallacy is this: the fact that jihad can be “pursuit of education, earning a living and fighting your egos” doesn’t mean that it is not also what a manual of Islamic law certified by the foremost authority in Sunni Islam, al-Azhar, as a reliable guide to Sunni orthodoxy said it is: “Jihad means to war against non-Muslims” (‘Umdat al-Salik o9.0).
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
NATO Soldier, 6 Militants Killed in Attack at Military Camp in Afghanistan
JALALABAD, Afghanistan, Jan. 4 (Xinhua) — One NATO soldier and six militants were killed Saturday morning in an attack at a joint military camp of the Afghan forces and the coalition troops in the eastern Nangarhar province, a police source said. “Six militants were involved in the attack. They approached to the military base in Ghani Khil district of eastern Nangarhar province at around 7:30 a.m. (local time). First they detonated an explosive-laden vehicle close to the compound,” the provincial police spokesman Hazrat Husain Mashriqiwal told Xinhua. The blast walls of the compound absorbed the force of the explosion, the spokesman said, adding a gunfight followed the blast, which lasted for nearly half an hour…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
China in Drug Seizure Operation at Guangdong Village
Police in China have confiscated three tonnes of the drug methamphetamine and arrested 182 people during raids at a village, officials say. The drug, also known as crystal meth or “ice”, was seized in Boshe village, Lufeng city, Guangdong province.
Police told state media that more than a third of China’s methamphetamine came from Lufeng in the last three years. The raids involved at least 3,000 police operatives, two helicopters and speedboats, an official statement said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Academic With a Murky Past Stirs Fresh Controversy With Trip to Damascus
By Christian Kerr
THE University of Sydney is our nation’s oldest. It is one of the most prestigious. It is ranked as the third best in the country and makes the international top 40.
Yet it also has a centre that refuses to deal with fellow academics on the basis of their nationality and, as The Australian revealed this week, a senior lecturer who has just made a pilgrimage to honour a dictator who has been waging war on his own population for close to three years.
Stories on the university’s Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, its head Jake Lynch and its academic boycott of Israel — despite the university’s well-established and flourishing links with institutions in that nation — have been running strong for more than a year.
The centre is now the subject of Federal Court action over its support for the anti-Israeli boycott, divestment and sanctions movement, which explicitly equates the Jewish state with apartheid-era South Africa, alleging it is breaching the Racial Discrimination Act.
The civil rights law group behind the action has likened the policy to a bar owner putting up a sign saying “No Jews or blacks allowed”.
Inquirer is aware of concerns among university authorities that the centre’s stand is damaging their fundraising abilities…
| — Hat tip: Nilk | [Return to headlines] |
Extremist Boffins ‘Risk’ To Uni Repute
By Christian Kerr
ACADEMIC extremism risks damaging the standing of Australia’s universities, says Education Minister Christopher Pyne.
His comments come in the wake of the controversy over the support for the anti-Israel boycott, divestment and sanctions movement by Sydney University’s Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies and The Australian’s revelations this week that a Sydney University senior lecturer was part of a WikiLeaks Party delegation granted an audience with Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, where they affirmed “the solidarity of the Australian people.
“The commonwealth government’s highest priority in higher education is quality,” Mr Pyne said in a carefully coded caution.
“Every vice-chancellor should always be reviewing whether their university is meeting high standards of quality in order to protect its reputation but also Australia’s international reputation in education.”
Mr Pyne hinted that Sydney University vice-chancellor Michael Spence and bodies such as its senate, which had a string of left-leaning celebrity candidates including columnist Peter FitzSimons, ABC broadcaster Andrew West and former state minister Verity Firth recently elected to its ranks, should act.
“Each university is responsible for its own governance, but universities should avoid needless controversies that damage their reputation (and) also make Australia look less respectable to our potential international student market,” he said…
| — Hat tip: Nilk | [Return to headlines] |
How I Lost Faith in Multiculturalism
by Greg Sheridan
IN 1993, my family and I moved into Belmore in southwest Sydney. It is the next suburb to Lakemba. When I first moved there I loved it.
We bought a house just behind Belmore Sports Ground, in those days the home of my beloved Bulldogs rugby league team. Transport was great, 20 minutes to the city in the train, 20 minutes to the airport.
On the other side of Belmore, away from Lakemba, there were lots of Chinese, plenty of Koreans, growing numbers of Indians, and on the Lakemba side lots of Lebanese and other Arabs.
That was an attraction, too. I like Middle Eastern food. I like Middle Eastern people. The suburb still had the remnants of its once big Greek community and a commanding Greek Orthodox church.
But in the nearly 15 years we lived there the suburb changed, and much for the worse.
Three dynamics interacted in a noxious fashion: the growth of a macho, misogynist culture among young men that often found expression in extremely violent crime; a pervasive atmosphere of anti-social behaviour in the streets; and the simultaneous growth of Islamist extremism and jihadi culture.
This is my story, our story and the story of a failed policy…
| — Hat tip: Nilk | [Return to headlines] |
Militant Islam Threatens Nigeria First, Then All Africa, Catholic Bishop Warns
“If Nigeria falls to Islamic extremists, all of Africa will be at risk,” a Nigerian Catholic bishop has warned. In an interview with Aid to the Church in Need, Bishop Hyacinth Egbebo, administrator of Bomadi, said that the terrorist group Boko Haram is pushing for the institution of Islamic Shari’a law in Nigeria. “If they should overrun Nigeria,” he said, “it will be a stepping stone to conquering smaller countries.”
Nigeria is Africa’s most populous nation, with 160 million people, of whom half ar Christian. Boko Haram has targeted the Christian population in its terror campaign, and in the past 2 years nearly 2,000 Christians have died…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Nigeria: Woman Gives Birth to Baby With Strange Islamic Sign Shaped Ears in Ondo [Photos]
When the little Mahmud Kosija was delivered by his mother, Hajia Abibat Kosija two months ago, he came to this world with mysteries which had been attracting several residents of Ondo Kingdom and its neighbouring communities to their family house at Igbomoba Street, beside a central mosque.
Mahmud, a son of an Islamic cleric was said to have been born with a strange ear-shape, with an Islamic inscription. He was said to have shouted “Allah” “Allah”‘ immediately he was delivered at the Mother and Child Hospital in Ondo Town…
[JP note: Poor little mite.]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Somalia: Puntland Election 2014 Campaign Intensifies
Garowe — Puntland Presidential candidates are intensifying their election campaign to shore up support for their political agendas as the election date draws closer, Garowe Online reports. With five days left to of January 2014, when the forthcoming presidential election will be held, the campaign seems very intense in the state capital Garowe…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
South Sudan: Finding Shelter by the Nile
The tens of thousands of people who fled Bor town and crossed the Nile dragging what few possessions they could carry, landed in Awerial county and found the nearest tree to set up camp. Now, for miles along the river bank, every tree is taken…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
The Netherlands to Send 14 Soldiers to Mali on Monday
THE HAGUE, Jan. 3 (Xinhua) — The first dispatch of Dutch soldiers to go to Mali will depart from Schiphol on Monday, the Dutch Ministry of Defence announced in a press release on Friday. The group consists of 14 soldiers. Their main task is to build a Dutch camp and to ensure that logistics, infrastructure and equipment are ready at the time that the other soldiers arrive in March, the statement said. In total, the Dutch government will send around 380 military officers to Mali to support the UN mission MINUSMA…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UN Says Almost 1 Million Displaced in C. African Republic
(AGI) Geneva, Jan 3 — There are over 935,000 displaced people in the Central African Republic, roughly one-fifth of the overall population, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. The UNHCR reckons that this situation is the aftermath of the coup d’etat of March 2013. It was carried out by the Islamic rebels of the Seleka Front, who put their leader, Michel Djotodia, in power. He is the first Muslim president in the history of a country with a large Christian majority.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Finland Receives 149 Asylum Applications From Syrians, Sweden 16,300
Finland received 149 asylum applications from Syrians displaced by continuing violence in the country, reveal preliminary statistics given to Helsingin Sanomat by the Finnish Immigration Service.
As expected, the figures published by the Swedish Migration Board look very different: 16,300 Syrian refugees applied for asylum in Sweden last year.
The growing number of Syrians forced to flee the country is in conflict with the number of asylum applications received by Finland, with the figure having gone down from 183 in 2012.
The Syrian crisis escalated in 2013, forcing 1.3 million people to leave their homes during the first half of the year alone, according to statistics compiled by the UN.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
No Green Card? No Problem — Undocumented Immigrant Can Practice Law, Court Says
Sergio Garcia’s parents brought him to the United States from Mexico nearly two decades ago. He’s been waiting for a green card ever since.
But there’s one thing the undocumented immigrant no longer has to wait for, according to a California Supreme Court ruling on Thursday: his law license.
Garcia can be admitted to California’s state bar and legally practice as a lawyer there, the court ruled.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Rubbish Strewn Caravan Sites That Blight Sweden
The rubbish-strewn caravan sites that have become the blight of Sweden as temporary Romanian camps sprang up after migration restrictions were eased
These stark pictures show a Romanian caravan park located just outside the city of Hogdalen, Stockholm.
There are around 30 similar settlements in the area where shacks, dilapidated caravans and tents serve as people’s temporary homes.
There are approximately six mobile homes and several more primitive homemade shacks in the make-shift town.
| — Hat tip: Kitman | [Return to headlines] |
Charlotte Iserbyt on the Perils of Common Core (Video)
Alex invites former Senior Policy Advisor for the U.S. Department of Education, Charlotte Thomson Iserbyt, to analyze how socialism is subtly promoted in American schools and textbooks.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Pedophilia the Next ‘Sexual-Rights’ Revolution?
Academics, psychologists expanding LGBT argument to ‘minor-attracted persons’
Once considered taboo, psychologists are beginning to walk down the same path LGBT activists established more than 50 years ago, insisting that pedophilia is an inborn “sexual orientation,” not a learned sexual behavior.
If people are born with a sexual attraction to minors, the argument goes, their “orientation” should be accepted as normative and not stigmatized.
James Cantor, Ph.D., a clinical psychologist in the Law and Mental Health Program at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health
Cantor says his research concludes pedophiles share distinct characteristics of “brain wiring.” He contends some 1 to 5 percent of all men are predisposed to be primarily sexually attracted to children.
In a New York Times report on Cantor’s work Dec. 22, reporter Laura Kane noted pedophilia “has been widely viewed as a psychological disorder triggered by early childhood trauma.”
However, many experts now, she wrote, “see it as a biologically rooted condition that does not change — like a sexual orientation — thanks largely to a decade of research by Dr. James Cantor at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health.”
Read more at
| — Hat tip: Kitman | [Return to headlines] |
IFJ Says 108 Journalists Killed in 2013
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) Thursday issued a desperate appeal for governments across the world to end impunity for violence against journalists and media staff, after posting 108 killings for 2013. Fifteen more lost their lives in accidents while on assignments. According to the list released Thursday by the IFJ, at least 108 journalists and media staff lost their lives in targeted attacks, bomb attacks and other cross fire incidents around the world.
The 23rd annual IFJ list shows that the deadliest regions for journalists were Asia Pacific, with 29% of the killings and the Middle East and Arab World with 27%. The number of killings is slightly down by 10% on last year’s.
The ongoing turmoil in Syria means it tops the list of the world’s most dangerous countries for media in 2013, while violence and corruption in the Philippines, insurgents in Pakistan, and terrorism and organised crime in Iraq and India have accounted for high fatalities of journalists in these countries…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Intermittent Fasting: The Good Things it Did to My Body
Many of the changes in my body when I took part in the clinical trial of an intermittent fasting diet were no surprise. Eating very little for five days each month, I lost weight, and I felt hungry. I also felt more alert a lot of the time, though I tired easily. But there were other effects too that were possibly more important.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
by Ibn Warraq
The following is an excerpt from Ibn Warraq’s new book, Sir Walter Scott’s Crusades and Other Fantasies.
Edward Said wrote that George Eliot was no different from John Stuart Mill and Karl Marx, “both of them seemed to have believed that such ideas as liberty, representative government, and individual happiness must not be applied in the Orient for reasons that today we would call racist.”1 Marxists, such as Said himself, can grapple with their Savior’s feet of clay, but Mill is well worth defending. I hope these few remarks will go someway towards fulfilling that task, pointing readers to fuller discussions in some recent studies.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Re Paedophilia: Most paedophiles were sexually abused as children, but not all victims of such abuse become paedophiles. Adults are responsible for their own actions.
re Obamacare incompetence – – Both my son and my daughter are computer programmers. They work at companies where all the managers and the CEOs have degrees in IT. Only the CFOs and some (but not all) of the human resources people lack IT degrees.
Now look at the people in charge of IT for Obamacare. First off, they hire, without competitive bidding, CGI, a Canadian company with a lousy reputation. The branch of that Canadian Co which contracts with the US Government is called CGI Federal. Donna Ryan, the President of CGI Federal, has a degree in education (!) and has earned one “certificate” in IT. CGI’s senior VP, Cheryl Campbell (she’s the black woman who recently spoke for CGI before Congress) has a lengthy bio on the CGI Federal site. That bio lists lots of honors and boards and committees, mostly dealing with the role of women in IT. It makes no mention whatever of her education. Is she some kind of IT “community organizer?” Barbara Fast, another CGI Federal VP, has a masters in education and an MBA. No mention of an IT degree. Then there’s the famous Toni Townes-Whitley. Ms Townes-Whitley, a big donor and bundler for Obama’s campaign, is the CGI Federal VP directly in charge of the Obamacare contract. She graduated Princeton the same year as Michelle Obama and belonged to the same (radical) black student organizations. Her degree is from Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School of public service. No mention of any IT credentials!
Not that this problem is confined to the federal government. Oregon’s state health exchange, which has performed disastrously, was headed until recently by CIO Carolyn Lawson. Although Ms Lawson relied on better IT cos (like Oracle) than the feds did, she, like the feds, did not delegate much authority to the private sector, preferring to act herself as a sort of “general contractor” orchestrating the entire operation. She was paid by Oregon taxpayers a salary of $178,992 annually and oversaw a budget of over $100 million. What were her qualifications? So far, my internet searches have been unable to find any mention of an undergraduate or graduate degree. Her LinkedIn page says she “pursued an MIS” at the “Harvard University Extension” from 2009 to 2011. “pusued” not “attained!” (And remember, the Harvard Extension is an open enrollment school very unlike Harvard itself.) – – Back off, you say? Bill Gates doesn’t have a college degree either? Well, my programmer son and daughter know a few of those types, too. Brilliant uncredentialed programmers usually have bios bristling with impenetrable technical jargon and lists of verifiable accomplishments. Ms. Lawson, by contrast, lists a personal quote: “Lead by laughter. Whatever you do, don’t hurt the humans.” A nice sentiment, especially if your job is teaching kindergarten.