Gates of Vienna News Feed 1/6/2014

Turkey is building a tall concrete wall along its border with Syria to prevent people from entering the country illegally, without passing through the proper checkpoints. The problem of illegal immigration into Turkey has become particularly acute since the civil war in Syria began.

In other news, “Jihad Jane”, the Pennsylvania mujahidette who plotted to kill the Swedish artist Lars Vilks, has been sentenced to ten years in prison.

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

Thanks to C. Cantoni, DS, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, JP, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.

Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.

Financial Crisis
» 2014, The Eve of Destruction: Economic Collapse, Wolf of Wall Street, Or Rebirth of the American Dream?
» Cheaper Gold Inflates Swiss Central Bank Loss
» Italy: Annual Inflation Steady in December at 0.7% — Lowest Since 2009
» Italy: Country Can Breach EU Deficit Ceiling if it Reforms Says New Centre-Left Leader
» Slovenia: Statistical Office, In 2013 Deficit Was 15% of GDP
» The Federal Reserve is Hiring Lots of New Armed Police Officers
 
USA
» FBI’s Primary Mission is “National Security, “ Not Law Enforcement
» Film Puts Lives of Detroit-Area Muslims in Spotlight
» Freedom of Speech Wins in Oklahoma Court
» Gun Confiscations Have Begun (Video)
» Health Officials: ‘No Concern’ Over 500% Increase in Radiation Levels on Cali. Beach
» Historic Deep Freeze Across North America Conclusively Proves Global Warming is Getting Worse, Right?
» ‘Jihad Jane’ Gets 10 Years in Plot to Kill Artist
» Let’s Talk About ObamaCare Subsidies
» Life in the Electronic Concentration Camp: The Many Ways That You’re Being Tracked, Catalogued and Controlled
» Missouri Snow Found to Contain Radiation Double Normal Amount
» Monsanto’s Terrifying New Scheme: Massive Amounts of Data Collection
» Scientists: Risk of Supervolcano Eruption Big Enough to ‘Affect the World’ Far Greater Than Thought
» Secularism, Federalism, Interdependence and the New World Order, Part 5
» Senate Confirms Yellen as Chairwoman of Fed
» Senate Confirms Janet Yellen as Fed Chairman
» The ‘Jewels of Islam’
» The Government-Assigned Concrete Block Apartments
 
Europe and the EU
» Bishops Plea for Aid in Italy’s ‘Triangle of Death’
» Czech Police Find 12 Weapons at Palestinian Embassy
» Denmark: Politicians Want to Kill Seals
» Dieudonné: From Anti-Racist to Anti-Semitic Zealot
» France: Man Jailed for Having Rapist’s Name Gets Payout
» Frenchman Lands Job Thanks to Billboard CV
» Germany Started the Great War, But the Left Can’t Bear to Say So
» Germany: Merkel to Rule From Couch After Ski Accident
» In Europe, Elites Create the Atmosphere That Allows Popular Anti-Semitism to Grow
» Ireland: WIT Society Raises Islamic Awareness
» Italy: Union Urges Govt to Act After India Cancels €560m Chopper Contract
» Sweden: Flowers Replace Swastikas at Mosque
» UK: Convicted Kidnapper ‘Held Woman Jogger Captive for Nine Hours and Repeatedly Raped Her After Being Released Early From Prison’
» UK: EDL Plans Another “Peaceful” Protest Over Jesters Mosque Plans in Bristol
» UK: Green Light for Mosque on Old Jesters Comedy Club Site in Cheltenham Road, Bristol
» UK: MI6 Had ‘Blind Faith’ In Kim Philby for Years After Soviet Agent Fears
» UK: Michael Gove, Using History for Politicking is Tawdry
» UK: University Student Disguised in an Islamic Veil ‘Threw Sulphuric Acid Over Friend in Attack Inspired by Horrific Assault on Katie Piper Because She Was Jealous’
» UK: Would-be Suicide Bomber Among Seven Dangerous Al-Qaeda Suspects to be Freed From Curfew Within Days
» Vatican Riddled With Gays: Ex-Swiss Guard
 
North Africa
» Egypt: Slain Swiss Couple ‘Found Buried at Red Sea Villa’
 
Israel and the Palestinians
» Kerry Pushes for Israeli-Palestinian Framework Agreement: Palestinian Official
» Obama, Kerry Empowering Palestinians Who Reject Israel’s Right to Exist
 
Middle East
» Armed Man Storms Kuwait Mosque to Call for ‘Jihad’
» Iran’s Khamenei Bans Chatting Between Unrelated Men and Women
» Iran: The Return of the Twelfth Imam
» Police Units in Southeastern City Perform ‘Moral Profiling’ Of Students’ Private Lives
» Ron Paul: Iraq: The ‘Liberation’ Neocons Would Rather Forget
» Saudi Arabia: 1,300 Cameras Installed Around Prophet’s Mosque
» The EU and the US Saw the Deviation of the Ruling AKP Too Late, Turkish Journalist Says
» Turkey Builds New Wall Along Syria Border
» Turkey, Iran Aim to Boost Trade Volume to USD 30 Bln by 2015
» UAE Emirates Begins Test of Mandatory National ID System to Replace All Other Bank Cards, Seen as Pilot for International System
 
South Asia
» Afghanistan to Free 88 ‘Dangerous’ Prisoners
» Islamic Extremist Jailed for Myanmar Embassy Bomb Plot
» Malaysia: Muslims’ Sole Claim to “Allah”
 
Far East
» China: Mao’s Murders
 
Sub-Saharan Africa
» 5,000 Muslims Pray for Nigeria
» Nigeria: 2015 — Ango Abdullahi’s War Drums Won’t Stop Jonathan- — Onuesoke
 
Latin America
» Luis Fleischman: Chile: The Unrecognized Role Model of Latin America
» Why Does the UK Give £2m in Aid to Argentina? Revelation Comes as South Americans Launch Yet Another Diatribe on the Falklands
 
Immigration
» Italy: ‘Tunisian Arrested for Threatening to Behead Ex-Girlfriend’
» UK: The Public Deserves the Truth on Immigration… From Britain’s Politicians — and, Yes, My Own BBC
» Yes, I Welcomed Them in. But the More They Come, The Faster We Will Head for EU Exit, Writes Tory MP Mark Reckless
 
Culture Wars
» Pentagon’s New Warfare: Battle of the Sexes
» Supreme Court Blocks Same-Sex Marriage in Utah Pending Appeal
» The Left’s Cultural Jenga
 
General
» How Ethnic Conflict Could Dominate This Century
» Irony Alert: Global Warmists Get Stuck in Ice
 

2014, The Eve of Destruction: Economic Collapse, Wolf of Wall Street, Or Rebirth of the American Dream?

2014 is the single most important year in America’s history because if we make the wrong decisions it can lead to a 1930s style economic crisis and authoritarianism from the right or left to manage the chaos. The right decisions will move us toward a Great Awakening and the rebirth of the American Dream. Beliefs have consequences and America’s rapid decline is not the result of the actions of one particular political party or leader, but rather a widespread belief in statism…the virtual worship of government. America, and along with it the entire world, is in a death spiral that results from a faulty worldview which has infected the elite and entire masses of people with an ideological virus that produces a collective brain death. That faulty worldview can be summed up in one phrase: “The State is God,” attributed to Trotsky. But what many people do not understand is that the State is simply a front for a secretive elite.

The mass media in America focuses in on how many times the f-word is used in The Wolf of Wall Street, directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Leonardo DiCaprio. But that misses the main point of the movie, which brutally depicts the immorality and lawlessness in the Wall Street culture and the danger that represents to the economic well being of our nation and world. Like the State, Wall Street is simply a front for a hidden economic elite. The middle class in America have not had a real real pay increase since 1965, primarily because the actual value or buying power of the dollar is significantly less than it was in 1965. In the early 1960s, when I was going to P.S. 69 in Queens, New York, I used to walk across the street from the elementary school, which looked like a prison by the way, and go the pizza place and get two slices of pizza and a coke for a quarter. Today, that same purchase could easily cost me $8.00!

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Cheaper Gold Inflates Swiss Central Bank Loss

Switzerland’s central bank said on Monday that it expects to post a loss of around nine billion francs ($9.94 billion) for 2013, largely due to a significant decline in the value of its gold holdings. The Swiss National Bank said in a news release that from provisional calculations it expects to lose 15 billion francs from its reserves of bullion, which has recently tumbled in price.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Annual Inflation Steady in December at 0.7% — Lowest Since 2009

Rome, 3 January (AKI) — Italy’s annual inflation rate was unchanged at 0.7 percent in December, the lowest since 2009, central statistics agency Istat said in a preliminary estimate Friday.

“The stability of Italian inflation was mainly the result of opposite movements: on one hand, the acceleration of the annual dynamics of prices of food and non-alcoholic beverages, on the other hand, the slowdown of the annual growth of prices of restaurants and hotels,” Istat said.

Economists had forecast an annual inflation rate of 0.8 percent in December, up from 0.7 percent in November.

Prices rose 0.2 percent in December from November, ending a run of three previous month-on-month falls.

The average inflation rate dropped to 1.3 percent in 2013, compared with 3.3 percent in 2012, Istat said.

The data from Italy and from Spain highlighted concern at continuing weakness in prices in the euro zone, where the European Central Bank wants to prevent inflation entering a “danger zone” of less than one percent.

Consumer spending is being dampened by soaring unemployment and declining incomes in Italy and Spain, whose fragile economies are struggling to emerge from recession.

Italy’s economy stagnated in the third quarter of 2013, after contracting for the previous two years. It is only expected to return to weak growth this year.

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Country Can Breach EU Deficit Ceiling if it Reforms Says New Centre-Left Leader

Rome, 2 January (AKI) — The European Union will relax deficit rules for Italy if the country swifty enacts serious political and economic reforms, the recently elected leader of the centre-left Democratic Party said on Thursday.

Thirty-eight-year-old Matteo Renzi, the mayor of Florence who won a landslide victory in his party primary last month, said the EU’s stringent 3 percent deficit ceiling was “anachronistic”.

“It’s clear that this ceiling can be breached. It’s an anachronistic constraint that dates back 20 years,” Renzi told left-leaning daily Il Fatto Quotidiano.

He said Italy needed to show it was ready to amend its constitution, cut a billion euros from the the vast costs of its bloated political system, and pass a Jobs Act capable of attracting international investors and educational and other reforms.

“Then Europe will applaud, even if you breach the 3 percent. Europe needs an Italy that is alive,” Renzi said.

Italian Consumer confidence slumped in December to its lowest level since November 2011, underscoring the deep crisis facing Italy as its stagnant economy struggles to recover from a two-year recession.

Italy has experienced a double-dip recession in the past six years and its economic output has shrunk by over 9 percent since 2007 and over 1.8 million jobs have been lost.

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]
 

Slovenia: Statistical Office, In 2013 Deficit Was 15% of GDP

3 billion bank recapitalisation will be crucial

(ANSA) — LJUBLJANA — The state recapitalisation of the country’s three largest banks, amounting to 3 billion euros, will cause a steep rise in Slovenia’s deficit, making it grow to about 15% of GDP (in 2013). This is what emerges from the estimates made the Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia (SURS). The deficit which has been accumulated during the first three quarters was 1.4 billion euros, that is 5.5% of GDP. The 3 billion granted by the State in order to restructure the capital of Nlb , NKBM and Abanka amounted to about 10% of GDP. The last massive injection of capital into banks was not the only one in 2013. In the first two quarters of the year, recapitalisations were carried out, using more than 400 million euros. The state deficit, according to SURS data, will increase by about 100 million euros also because of wages in the public sector.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

The Federal Reserve is Hiring Lots of New Armed Police Officers

Mirroring a trend seen across the federal government, the Federal Reserve is hiring a raft of new police officers and security guards, developments that some see as preparation for civil unrest.

Despite only being as “federal” as Federal Express, the Federal Reserve central banking system has its own law enforcement arm, officers belonging to which are lawfully allowed to be armed both on and off duty, including with semi-automatic pistols, assault rifles and submachine guns.

Ads posted on job websites catering for the Federal Reserve suggest that demand for law enforcement personnel and protection officers is increasing.

“At last check, there were over 1000 sworn members of the Fed police force. And judging by the recent spike in appearances of such “help wanted” ads as those shown below, that number is too low,” reports Zero Hedge. “We expect many more job postings such as these to appear in the coming weeks and months: in fact, we are willing to predict that the closer we get to a “renormalization” of the Fed’s balance sheet, the faster the hiring of Fed cops.”

The hiring of new armed guards to protect infrastructure is an emerging trend being replicated across the federal government.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

FBI’s Primary Mission is “National Security, “ Not Law Enforcement

Kel McClanahan, a national security lawyer in Washington, noticed something last month after he filed a Freedom of Information request with the FBI. A fact sheet sent along with a response to his FOIA request contained a revision. It stated that the FBI’s primary mission is no longer law enforcement, but national security.

In the past, the FBI portrayed itself as a crime-fighting organization. In fact, since its inception as the Bureau of Investigation in 1908, the FBI has served as a political police force. Movies and cultural lore portray the FBI as dedicated to a fight against the Mafia, bank robbers and kidnappers, but in fact the agency was established as a political section within the Department of Justice. In 1917, Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer created the “Radical Division” and appointed a young J. Edgar Hoover to head it up.

Following the passage of the Espionage Act of 1917, Palmer’s radical division worked closely with the Military Intelligence Bureau to suppress opposition to war. In the mid-1970s, the Church Committee uncovered details on the agency’s long and sordid history of subverting the constitutional rights of American citizens. Beginning in the 1950s, the FBI’s COINTELPRO, short for counterintelligence program was established to “disrupt” political groups and “neutralize” individuals deemed to be threats to national security.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Film Puts Lives of Detroit-Area Muslims in Spotlight

‘The Education of Mohammad Hussein’ delves into the lives of young Muslim students.

DETROIT — Filmmakers Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady captured the economic crisis in Detroit with their acclaimed 2012 documentary Detropia.

Monday, HBO will debut another made-in-Detroit documentary from the two women. The Education of Mohammad Hussein is a 38-minute film that delves into the lives of young students at the Al-Ikhlas Training Academy, described as one of more than a dozen traditional Islamic schools in the area. In the film, which overlapped time-wise with Ewing and Grady’s work on Detropia, viewers get to meet tweens and teens, such as 10-year-old Mohammad, who face discrimination because of their Muslim faith…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Freedom of Speech Wins in Oklahoma Court

by David Yeagley

Attorney Joe Sibley just won my First Amendment court case, Friday, January 3, 2014 here in Oklahoma City. The Oklahoma District Court case (No. CJ-2011-5510), filed on August 8, 20011, was resolved with a summary judgment from Judge Thomas E. Prince. I filed against the protesters who interfered with my speaking engagement with American Renaissance. The story of the outcome of the case was presented in impressive detail by OccidentalCulture.com, then summaries appeared in AmericanRenaissance.com, and by VDARE.com. Many thanks to these sites and their watchful eyes. This is indeed a great occasion for lovers of free speech.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Gun Confiscations Have Begun (Video)

Alex covers the news that the White House has begun an end run on gun confiscations across the country and the true statistics behind gun crime in America from the actual FBI statistics.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Health Officials: ‘No Concern’ Over 500% Increase in Radiation Levels on Cali. Beach

Health officials in California are attempting to brush off public concern after a viral Youtube video showed a large increase in radiation levels on a Coastside beach last week.

The video, which has garnered nearly half a million views, shows radiation levels over five times above the normal background level, prompting fears over the ongoing Fukushima disaster…

According to Dave, after two years of measuring levels on the beach, the increase appeared almost overnight. Given estimates by physics experts that point to a massive radiation plume reaching the west coast by early 2014, some see the timing as more than coincidence.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Historic Deep Freeze Across North America Conclusively Proves Global Warming is Getting Worse, Right?

(NaturalNews) Global warming is getting worse. It’s so bad now that it has thrust most of North America into an historic deep freeze with plummeting temperatures that haven’t been seen in decades. This is absolute proof that global warming is worsening, and the way I know that is because the same people who told me that record HOT temperature last summer were caused by global warming — “See? It’s really, really hot!” — are now saying that record COLD temperatures are also caused by global warming. “See? It’s really, really cold!”

Global warming, in other words, is climate voodoo. Worshippers of the false science can invoke it to explain any event whatsoever: hurricanes (or lack of hurricanes), tornados (or lack of tornados), too much rainfall or too little rainfall, high temperatures, low temperatures, and basically any event that we used to simply call “weather.”

Well, gee, if ALL weather events are evidence of global warming, then you have to ask yourself this simple, commonsense question: Which weather evidence would be evidence of global cooling? The answer is “None.” Because ALL weather events are invoked as evidence of global warming.

It’s delusional thinking, in other words.

[…]

The global warming cultists are using the same kind of false science to spread fraudulent fear in order to sell something else: total government control over all emissions and, hence, all economic activity. If they can spread their doomsday theories far and wide enough, they can demand huge sums of money by forcing entire economies to pay “carbon taxes” which are nothing more than a high-level moneymaking scam.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

‘Jihad Jane’ Gets 10 Years in Plot to Kill Artist

A troubled Pennsylvania woman who called herself “Jihad Jane” online and plotted to kill a Swedish artist was sentenced Monday to 10 years in prison after telling a judge she had been consumed by thoughts of a Muslim holy war.

Colleen LaRose, 50, faced a potential life term. But Chief U.S. District Judge Petrese B. Tucker gave her credit for her guilty plea and her help in the indictment of two others. Prosecutors asked for decades in prison, fearing she remains highly vulnerable to manipulation. But LaRose told the judge, “I don’t want to be into jihad no more.”

Defense lawyers called her the perfect target after a childhood marked by rape, incest, hunger and alcoholism at home. She was raped from the time she was 8, became a prostitute at 14 and lied about her age to marry a customer. Her marriages were marked by abuse, and she came to use crystal meth and other drugs, public defender Mark Wilson said.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Let’s Talk About ObamaCare Subsidies

As Obamacare continues to implode, one can listen to cable network gab fest anchors and their endless panels and guests from “both sides of the political spectrum” throw around the word subsidies as if it means nothing. True, while sometimes monitoring Megyn Kelly, a lawyer on FOX, she will throw in something like “we pay for it”. But, not enough time is being given to that catastrophic h-bomb to the economy nor do any of them discuss the issue of equal protection under the law which I covered in a recent column: Obamacare: New Lawsuits Should be Equal Protection Under the Law. If you haven’t read that column, please take the time to do so because those so-called Obamacare subsidies are nothing but another massive Ponzi scheme that WILL finally bankrupt what’s left of the middle class in this country.

For once the NY Times actually prints the truth: New York Times: Obamacare Decimates Middle Class

“But middle class Americans, with incomes much lower than the family of four in New Hampshire, will get decimated. An analysis by the Times found those in the middle class may have to pay nearly 20% of their income on Obamacare. To put that in perspective, “experts consider health insurance unaffordable once it exceeds 10 percent of annual income.” Consider these examples:…

Right now we’re only seeing the beginning of the tsunami. Just wait until those whopping 150 MILLION who have health plans through their employer kicks in and then we will see a massive financial bomb go off that will rock this country. Think I’m exaggerating? McDonald’s employs roughly 300,000 in the U.S. China (Wal) Mart 1.2 million in the U.S. The majority of those jobs are minimum wage. The jackals in the Outlaw Congress think they can force employers to not only provide health care (which they cannot), but force those employers and employees into a government run taxing scheme. Where will the BILLIONS come from for subsidies for all those minimum wage workers forced into a plan? You and me.

What about small businesses — the backbone of the American economy? You can take money to the bank (if you have any left) that small businesses will be devastated by massive increases in 2014:

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Life in the Electronic Concentration Camp: The Many Ways That You’re Being Tracked, Catalogued and Controlled

“[A security camera] doesn’t respond to complaint, threats, or insults. Instead, it just watches you in a forbidding manner. Today, the surveillance state is so deeply enmeshed in our data devices that we don’t even scream back because technology companies have convinced us that we need to be connected to them to be happy.” — Pratap Chatterjee, journalist

What is most striking about the American police state is not the mega-corporations running amok in the halls of Congress, the militarized police crashing through doors and shooting unarmed citizens, or the invasive surveillance regime which has come to dominate every aspect of our lives. No, what has been most disconcerting about the emergence of the American police state is the extent to which the citizenry appears content to passively wait for someone else to solve our nation’s many problems. Unless Americans are prepared to engage in militant nonviolent resistance in the spirit of Martin Luther King Jr. and Gandhi, true reform, if any, will be a long time coming.

Yet as I detail in my book A Government of Wolves: The Emerging American Police State, if we don’t act soon, all that is in need of fixing will soon be unfixable, especially as it relates to the police state that becomes more entrenched with each passing day. By “police state,” I am referring to more than a society overrun by the long arm of the police. I am referring to a society in which all aspects of a person’s life are policed by government agents, one in which all citizens are suspects, their activities monitored and regulated, their movements tracked, their communications spied upon, and their lives, liberties and pursuit of happiness dependent on the government’s say-so.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Missouri Snow Found to Contain Radiation Double Normal Amount

More concerns about possible impact of Fukushima

Readings taken from snow blanketing St. Louis, Missouri contains double the normal radiation amount, once again stoking concerns that the ongoing Fukushima crisis is now firmly impacting areas of America.

“The radiation return from the snow precipitation is returning DOUBLE the normal background amounts. Normal background in this area is approximately 30CPM,” writes YouTube user DutchSinse, alongside a video documenting the readings.

“This means small particles of radioactive material are indeed coming down in the precipitation. Past tests show around 30CPM in the same spot on a nice day with no precipitation,” he adds, noting that snowstorms in 2012 also showed alert level radiation readings.

As we reported earlier, Geiger counter readings taken on a beach in San Francisco returned results five times the safe level of normal background radiation, prompting federal officials to launch an investigation.

Whether such readings are linked to the ongoing Fukushima crisis is unknown, but the fact that officials in Japan have been duplicitous in downplaying the true scale of radiation releases at almost every turn has understandably fanned the flames of suspicion.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Monsanto’s Terrifying New Scheme: Massive Amounts of Data Collection

The big question is who exactly will end up owning all this data, and who gets to determine how it is used. On one side stand some of the largest corporations in agriculture, who are racing to gather and put their stamp on as much of this information as they can. Opposing them are farmers’ groups and small open-source technology start-ups, which want to ensure a farm’s data stays in the farmer’s control and serves the farmer’s interests. Who wins will determine not just who profits from the information, but who, at the end of the day, directs life and business on the farm. One recent round in this battle took place in October, when Monsanto spent close to $1 billion to buy the Climate Corporation, a data analytics firm. Last year the chemical and seed company also bought Precision Planting, another high-tech firm, and also launched a venture capital arm geared to fund tech start-ups.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Scientists: Risk of Supervolcano Eruption Big Enough to ‘Affect the World’ Far Greater Than Thought

The eruption of a “supervolcano” hundreds of times more powerful than conventional volcanoes — with the potential to wipe out civilisation as we know it — is more likely than previously thought, a study has found.

An analysis of the molten rock within the dormant supervolcano beneath Yellowstone National Park in the United States has revealed that an eruption is possible without any external trigger, scientists said.

Scientists previously believed many supervolcanic eruptions needed earthquakes to break open the Earth’s crust so magma could escape. But new research suggests that this can happen as a result of the build-up of pressure.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Secularism, Federalism, Interdependence and the New World Order, Part 5

In Part 5 of this series, I mentioned how television has been used by the Power Elite (PE) to manipulate the public. In the last few decades, there has been an increase in the number of TV ads that show flashing lights and quickly changing images. In Aldous Huxley’s THE DEVILS OF LOUDUN (1952), he explained that techniques like these could be used to manipulate the masses. The process, according to Bill Strittmatter, works something like this. Though most of life’s events are normal, our survival instinct causes us involuntarily to focus upon “highlighted moments” (e.g., a gun firing, a car screeching, a phone ringing). In the new TV ads over the last several decades, there are a number of “highlighted moments” per minute.

These may be zoom-in close-up shots of faces, flashing images of the product to be sold, etc. Your mind is involuntarily immersed in these quick changes, simply digesting the image. And because of this mental process, you cannot simultaneously engage in conscious objective thought and analysis about what you are seeing. You simply absorb the information in a manner similar to someone being hypnotized. And instead of the brain registering the sight (or mention) of a product only a few times as during a traditional 30-second or 60-second commercial, the flashing newer TV ads with quickly changing images may cause the brain to register the name of the product many times during the same 30-second or 60-second time period. Side effects from these types of ads are not only stress in viewers, but also a decline in attention span, and hyperactivity in children (many children begin to complain of being “bored” when not watching TV)…

Television can also manipulate people not only by what it shows them, but also by what it keeps from them. For example, before Russian leader Vladimir Putin guaranteed Syrian leader Assad’s chemical weapons would be turned over, not a day hardly would pass that the media would be showing the signs of atrocities committed by Assad’s forces. However, now there is hardly a mention of the fighting taking place in Syria. The fighting hasn’t stopped. It is just that the media now chooses not to cover it.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Senate Confirms Yellen as Chairwoman of Fed

Janet Yellen, currently the Fed’s vice chairwoman, will be the first woman to lead the country’s central bank in its 100-year history. She will also be the first Democratic nominee to run the Fed since President Jimmy Carter named Paul Volcker as chairman in 1979.

[Return to headlines]
 

Senate Confirms Janet Yellen as Fed Chairman

The Senate confirmed Janet Yellen as the next Federal Reserve chairman Monday, ensuring that the central bank’s pro-growth policies since the Great Recession will likely continue. The 56-26 vote for President Obama’s nominee was largely along party lines in the Democratic-controlled Senate.

Yellen, 67, the Fed’s vice chair since 2010, will become the first woman to head a major central bank when her four-year term begins Feb. 1. She will succeed Ben Bernanke, whose bold actions to pump money into the economy during the 2008 financial crisis are credited with helping the nation avoid a second Great Depression.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

The ‘Jewels of Islam’

PHILADELPHIA, Pa. (CBS) — The Jewels of Islam is an network of more than 120 women that provides support for aging women across faiths. It is believed to be one of the only Muslim women’s outreach organizations for seniors in Pennsylvania…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

The Government-Assigned Concrete Block Apartments

Agenda 21 at work: Stack-and-pack living quarters in the 200 square foot aPodments

An American diplomat who flew over communist Romania during Ceausescu’s reign of terror asked the innocent question, where are the farmers and their homes, I see nothing but fields of green everywhere?

The accompanying hosts looked at each other embarrassed and nobody answered the question. It was too undiplomatic and dangerous to explain to this westerner coming from the land of freedom and private property that the farmers’ land had been confiscated, collectivized, and the former owners moved by force to government assigned concrete block apartments ranging in size from 200-400 square feet.

These apartments were located in blocks with 2-4 entrances depending on whether they were five or nine stories high. The five-story buildings did not have elevators; the nine-story buildings had lifts that could safely carry two individuals at a time and were seldom operational. Renters of various ages and physical abilities had the joy of climbing stairs every day.

Social engineers had decided that land was better used in co-operative farms owned by the communist government. Private homes located on farm land were bulldozed and people were moved either in a compact village attached to the collective farm, with little room between single homes, or in the densely populated cities with grey concrete apartments mushrooming overnight.

The communist party elites had decided that having too much private space was bourgeois, the socialist men needed just enough space to eat and sleep, the rest of the time had to be spent at work.

This brings me to the current trend in the U.S. to reduce Americans’ living space to as little as possible by changing zoning laws without their consent, using visioning committees composed of local agreeable supervisors and outside non-governmental organizations (NGOs) with lots of available grant money from HUD and other government agencies.

[Possible future Government drone yells, “Next!…Ah, yes, Citizen comrade 875604, you are assigned to sector Paradise, level 340, pod #302. No, no elevators comrade! Don’t you want your State to save power!? Are you a GWD? (Global Warning Denier)…Are you sure?…OK then…Move Along! Next!”]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Bishops Plea for Aid in Italy’s ‘Triangle of Death’

A cardinal and bishops in Italy’s so-called “Triangle of Death” have called for urgent action to tackle toxic mafia dumps blamed for rising cancer rates near Naples. “Act quickly. We urge the authorities to intervene and be decisive, to stop the spread of worry, fears and ills,” Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe, Archbishop of Naples, wrote in an open appeal to Italian President Giorgio Napolitano, along with bishops from the affected areas.

The local Camorra crime syndicate has been burning and secretly burying millions of tonnes of waste in the Campania countryside for decades but the extent of the problem has only recently been revealed — sparking furious protests from citizens who insist the government take action.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Czech Police Find 12 Weapons at Palestinian Embassy

PRAGUE, Jan. 5 (Xinhua) — Czech police have found 12 weapons, including pistols and submachine guns at the Palestinian embassy in Prague after a blast killed its ambassador on Wednesday, Czech police head Martin Cervicek said on Sunday…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Denmark: Politicians Want to Kill Seals

Scandinavian nature organisations argue that fishermen need to learn to live with seals instead

They may be cute, but the seal populations have now grown to such numbers that a majority of politicians want to regulate their population. Fishermen have complained that the booming number of grey and spotted seals threaten their livelihoods by competing for the already limited fish stocks and destroying their nets for an easy meal.

Politiken newspaper now reports that Venstre, Socialdemokraterne and Radikale support culling the adorable aquatic mammals to reduce the pressure on the fishing industry.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Dieudonné: From Anti-Racist to Anti-Semitic Zealot

by Sam Ball

Anti-establishment comedian to some, anti-Semitic and far-right extremist to others — the name Dieudonné M’bala M’bala is one that provokes strong and often contradictory opinions among the French public.

Known usually by his first name, Dieudonné has been no stranger to controversy throughout a career that began in comedy and acting, but has drifted increasingly into political activism.

Recent events, however, have seen the 47-year-old catapulted to the subject of impassioned debate both at home and abroad. First there was the announcement by French Interior Minister Manuel Valls that he would try to legally ban Dieudonné’s performances, then there was the use of his trademark ‘quenelle’ gesture by French footballer Nicolas Anelka during a football match in the English Premier League — bringing Dieudonné to wider international attention.

But it was not always this way for Dieudonné, whose early career was characterised by strong anti-racist and largely left-wing views, in both his political activism and comedy routines.

Tackling the far right

The Paris-born son of a Cameroonian father and French mother, he first began writing and performing in the 1990s with his childhood friend, Jewish comedian and actor Élie Semoun, and their sketches tackled such issues as everyday racism and discrimination in France…

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]
 

France: Man Jailed for Having Rapist’s Name Gets Payout

The French state paid out €45,000 compensation on Monday to an innocent man, mistakenly jailed just because he had the same name as a convicted child rapist. The shocking legal error is believed to be the first of its kind in France.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Frenchman Lands Job Thanks to Billboard CV

Finding a job in France these days can be tricky so it pays to make your CV stand out from the crowd. And that’s exactly what unemployed Frenchman Laurent Lebret did to great success.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Germany Started the Great War, But the Left Can’t Bear to Say So

by Boris Johnson

In this centennial year, it’s more important than ever that we treat the truth with respect

One of the reasons I am a Conservative is that, in the end, I just can’t stand the intellectual dishonesty of the Left. In my late teens I found I had come to hate the way Lefties always seemed to be trying to cover up embarrassing facts about human nature, or to refuse to express simple truths — and I disliked the pious way in which they took offence, and tried to shoosh you into silence, if you blurted such a truth.

Let me give you a current example of this type of proposition. It is a sad but undeniable fact that the First World War — in all its murderous horror — was overwhelmingly the result of German expansionism and aggression. That is a truism that has recently been restated by Max Hastings, in an excellent book, and that has been echoed by Michael Gove, the Education Secretary. I believe that analysis to be basically correct, and that it is all the more important, in this centenary year, that we remember it.

That fact is, alas, not one that the modern Labour Party believes it is polite to mention. According to the party’s education spokesman, Tristram Hunt, it is “crass” and “ugly” to say any such thing. It was “shocking”, he said in an article in yesterday’s Observer, that we continued to have this unacceptable focus on a “militaristic Germany bent on warmongering and imperial aggression”.

He went on — in a piece that deserves a Nobel prize for Tripe — to mount what appeared to be a kind of cock-eyed exculpation of the Kaiser and his generals. He pointed the finger, mystifyingly, at the Serbs. He blamed the Russians. He blamed the Turks for failing to keep the Ottoman empire together, and at one stage he suggested that we were too hard on the bellicose Junker class. He claimed that “modern scholarship” now believes that we have “underplayed the internal opposition to the Kaiser’s ideas within the German establishment” — as if that made things any better.

Perhaps there was some more “internal opposition” to the Kaiser, as Hunt thinks. Whoever they were, these internal opponents, they weren’t much blooming use, were they? It was Germany that pushed Austria to make war on Serbia. It was Germany that declared war on Russia, on August 1 1914. It was Germany that decided it was necessary to invade Luxembourg, and it was Germany that deployed the Schlieffen plan (devised in 1905, incidentally) and sent her troops smashing through neutral Belgium and into France.

Why was it necessary to follow up some rumpus in Sarajevo by invading France, for heaven’s sake? It wasn’t. The driving force behind the carnage was the desire of the German regime to express Germany’s destiny as a great European power, and to acquire the prestige and international clout that went with having an empire. That is why Tirpitz kept increasing the size of the German fleet — in spite of British efforts to end the arms race. That’s why they tried to bully the French by sending a gunboat to Agadir in 1911.

That, in a nutshell, is why millions died in the trenches of the western front and elsewhere, 15 million in all. It was an even greater tragedy for Germany, and for the world, that within two decades of the end of that conflict there should arise another German leader who decided to revive what was essentially the same military/political objective — a massive expansion of German influence in Europe and beyond; and though Hitler was admittedly even more nasty and militaristic than the Kaiser, it was no coincidence that he used a very similar plan: first take out France and the Low Countries, then go for Russia.

In both wars, huge numbers of British people, military and civilian, lost their lives in the struggle to frustrate these deranged ambitions. They were, in essence, fighting on the right side, and it should not be forbidden to state that fact. The Second World War arose inexorably out of the first, and in both wars I am afraid the burden of responsibility lies overwhelmingly on German shoulders. That is a fact that we should not be forbidden from stating today — not just for the sake of the truth, but for the sake of Germany in 2014.

Hunt is guilty of talking total twaddle, but beneath his mushy-minded blether about “multiple histories” there is what he imagines is a kindly instinct. These wars were utterly horrific for the Germans as well as for everyone else, and the Germans today are very much our friends. He doesn’t want the 1914 commemorations to pander to xenophobia, or nationalism, or Kraut-bashing; and I am totally with him on that.

We all want to think of the Germans as they are today — a wonderful, peaceful, democratic country; one of our most important global friends and partners; a country with stunning technological attainments; a place of incomparable cultural richness and civilisation. What Hunt fails to understand — in his fastidious Lefty obfuscation of the truth — is that he is insulting the immense spiritual achievement of modern Germany.

The Germans are as they are today because they have been frank with themselves, and because over the past 60 years they have been agonisingly thorough in acknowledging the horror of what they did. They don’t try to brush it aside. They don’t blame the Serbs for the 1914-18 war. They don’t blame the Russians or the Turks. They know the price they paid for the militarism of the 20th century.

They don’t try to mitigate, palliate, or spread the blame for the conflict. They tried that in the Thirties, and they know that way lies madness. The Germans know the truth about the world wars, and their role. They have learnt, and they have changed. It would be a disaster if that truth became blurred today. I can hardly believe that the author of this fatuous Observer article is proposing to oversee the teaching of history in our schools.

If Tristram Hunt seriously denies that German militarism was at the root of the First World War, then he is not fit to do his job, either in opposition or in government, and should resign. If he does not deny that fact, he should issue a clarification now.

[JP note: See also http://www.telegraph.co.uk/history/10552365/Rice-pudding-today-but-Bert-was-killed-…html ]

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Germany: Merkel to Rule From Couch After Ski Accident

Chancellor Angela Merkel has fractured her pelvis in a cross-country skiing accident, her spokesman said on Monday, meaning she will have to cut back on some government duties over the next three weeks.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

In Europe, Elites Create the Atmosphere That Allows Popular Anti-Semitism to Grow

by Deborah E. Lipstadt

The furor over the ‘quenelle’ salute mirrors the refusal of Olympic officials to commemorate murdered Israeli athletes

Over the past few years, I have repeatedly been approached by a broad array of Jews worried about developments in Europe. They have pointed to anti-Israel protests, shootings, and the rising tide of extreme religious identification among young Muslims born and raised in the West; some worried over rumors, all false, that Britain had banned the teaching of the Holocaust. All asked, “Is this 1939 redux? Is it over—once again—for European Jews?” Recognizing their genuine fears, I have tried not to scoff, instead reassuring each that, while some of what we see is indeed disturbing, analogies to the years preceding the Holocaust are way out of line—and historically invalid, since the Holocaust was a unique episode in both human and Jewish history.

Yet some recent developments have left me unsettled. This week, a French soccer player named Nicolas Anelka sparked a firestorm by publicly giving the quenelle salute—a sort of reverse of the Nazi Sieg Heil, in which one stiffly extends the right hand towards the ground and with the left hand touches the right shoulder—after scoring a goal during a match. Created by Dieudonné M’bala M’bala, a French comedian who has been repeatedly condemned and fined by French courts for his anti-Semitic remarks, it has quietly become a phenomenon in the past year: The Internet is festooned with pictures of people making the gesture. It’s been used by athletes in France, the United Kingdom, and even the United States, where San Antonio Spurs guard Tony Parker gave a public apology earlier this week after a photograph surfaced of him making the gesture with Dieudonné…

[JP note: See also http://www.lefigaro.fr/actualite-france/2014/01/05/01016-20140105ARTFIG00160-la-pression-monte-sur-plusieurs-fronts-contre-dieudonne.php ]

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Ireland: WIT Society Raises Islamic Awareness

The Federation of Student Islamic Societies (FOSIS) Ireland awarded WIT Islamic Society “The Best Islamic Society in Ireland” title for the month of December due to its efforts during charity week.

A newly established Islamic society in Ireland’s south east city of Waterford has been nominated the best Islamic society in Ireland for December, 2013, in recognition of their efforts to offer help to Muslim students, raise funds, and increase Islamic awareness.

“Overall, [the week] was quite successful, considering it was during the mid-term exams. Our aim at the start was to try raise around €1000, so due to the grace of God, we accomplished just that,” Ahmed Mohmed, the president of Waterford Institute of Technology (WIT) Islamic Society, said. “But in Islam, it’s not always about the results, but about the intention and the action that follows it.”…

[JP: Nothing less than mayhem, murder, bloody carnage.]

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Union Urges Govt to Act After India Cancels €560m Chopper Contract

Rome, 3 January (AKI) — Trade unions on Friday urged the Italian government to intervene after New Delhi cancelled a 560 million helicopter deal that was hit by graft allegations.

In a statement, the Fim-Cisl union’s national coordinator Paolo Carini said Rome “must “roll out a diplomatic initiative towards the Indian government on an issue that has been dragging on for many months.”

New Delhi announced Wednesday that it was terminating a contract for 12 high-end helicopters from Italy’s state-controlled defence and aeropspace giant Finmeccanica’s helicopter division AgustaWestland following alleged bribery by the Italian group in order to secure the contract.

“India’s latest decision could seriously jeopardise AgustaWestland’s industrial, employment and economic prospects,” Carini’s statement continued.

The division employs more than 6,000 people in Italy and 12,000 worldwide, Carini said.

The Italian treasury is the main shareholder in Finmeccanica, which wholly owns AgustaWestland and cannot “exempt itself” from “a serious problem affecting Italy’s main industrial group,” Carini said.

Carini described as “contradictory” the Indian government’s announcement that it had appointed retired Justice B P Jeevan Reddy as an arbitrator.

In a statement on Thursday, Finmeccanica said it welcomed India’s nomination of Reddy but noted that “neither the termination notice by the Ministry of Defence nor the show cause notice€‰.€‰.€‰.€‰offers adequate basis to take any action against the company”.

Finmeccanica also warned that the cancellation of the deal could lead to job cuts.

Three out of the 12 AW-101 helicopters were supplied to the Indian government in December 2012, and three more were due to be delivered.

The company said that it remained “committed to perform the remaining obligations under the agreement” and would support the helicopters operated by the Indian Air Force.

Finmeccanica added that was ready to introduce a “mitigation plan”, which includes labour force cuts and “the reallocation of existing working capital,” without giving further details.

It said it had introduced “stringent ethical procedures common to all Group companies” that were “reviewed regularly”.

“AgustaWestland applies the same strict procedures to prevent corruption in accordance with the updated Finmeccanica policies,” it said.

Finmeccanica’s former chief executive Giuseppe Orsi and Bruno Spagnoli, CEO of Finmeccanica’s helicopter division AgustaWestland are on trial for corruption and fraud over the 560 million euro chopper deal with India.

The two executives are accused of paying Indian officials 51 million euros in bribes to win a 2010 contract to supply 12 AW1010 helicopters to the Indian government.

Relations between Italy and India — an important customer — have been further strained by the case of two Italian marines facing trial in India for the killings of two fisherman last year in a case in which Italy claims jurisdiction.

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]
 

Sweden: Flowers Replace Swastikas at Mosque

The Stockholm mosque, whose doors were vandalised with hateful graffiti of nazi symbols last week, got a more pleasant surprise Monday morning as someone had hung flowers on the door instead. There was also a note left outside of the entrance saying: “For every hate crime there’s a flower. Each attack on you is an attack on Sweden. We stand together”.

It was on Thursday morning that the Stockholm mosque discovered eight black swastikas on their front doors and reported the vandalism to the police. Other churches in the area were subjected to similar graffiti and have also found flowers outside of their front doors.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Convicted Kidnapper ‘Held Woman Jogger Captive for Nine Hours and Repeatedly Raped Her After Being Released Early From Prison’

[WARNING: Disturbing Content.]

A convicted kidnapper raped a woman jogger just 48 hours after he was released early from prison, a court has heard.

Peter Watton, 38, pounced on the 44-year-old victim while she was out running with her dog close to the Duke of Westminster’s estate, in Chester, a jury was told.

The 6ft 3in well-built convict allegedly held the terrified woman captive for nine hours as he repeatedly raped her.

He carried out the terrifying attack just two days after he was released on licence halfway through a six-year prison sentence for kidnap and robbery, Chester Crown Court heard.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

UK: EDL Plans Another “Peaceful” Protest Over Jesters Mosque Plans in Bristol

Members of the English Defence League (EDL) are planning to stage a “peaceful” protest over plans to turn the former Jesters comedy club in Bristol into a mosque. The plans for the site in Cheltenham Road have been approved by the city council. They were criticised by the far-left group, who have now decided to protest outside City Hall on Tuesday evening, according to their Facebook page.

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Green Light for Mosque on Old Jesters Comedy Club Site in Cheltenham Road, Bristol

CONTROVERSIAL plans to convert a former Bristol comedy club into a mosque have been approved. The disused Jesters building in Cheltenham Road will be transformed into an Islamic Centre, comprising a mosque, community facilities, a café and a flat.

The plans, submitted to the city council on behalf of the Assahaba Centre in September last year, were criticised by far-right political group the English Defence League (EDL). The application attracted 23 objections as well as a 388-name petition in support. A further 52 letters of objection — including some believed to have submitted by EDL supporters — were discounted as they were deemed racist…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

UK: MI6 Had ‘Blind Faith’ In Kim Philby for Years After Soviet Agent Fears

The head of the Secret Intelligence Service said it would be “un-English” to brand Philby a traitor on suspicion alone, pointing out that the master-spy had helped unmask other Soviet agents, including Maclean

MI6 continued actively to protest the innocence of Kim Philby for years after he helped fellow Soviet agents Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean to flee to Russia, according to a newly released Downing Street file. The head of the Secret Intelligence Service said it would be “un-English” to brand Philby a traitor on suspicion alone, pointing out that the master-spy had helped unmask other Soviet agents, including Maclean.

“It is entirely contrary to the English tradition for a man to have to prove his innocence even when the prosecution is in possession of hard facts,” argued Major-General Sir John Sinclair, chief of the SIS in the mid-1950s. “In a case where the prosecution has nothing but suspicion to go upon there is even less reason for him, even if he were able to do so, to prove his innocence.”

The blind faith placed in Philby by his old service despite compelling evidence of his treachery is disclosed in documents prepared in 1963 for Harold Macmillan, the prime minister, after Philby’s defection to the Soviet Union from Beirut in January of that year. Sinclair’s defence, dating from 1955, is contained in the previously Top Secret file.

In 1951, Philby had been forced to resign from his position as the senior SIS liaison officer in Washington following the disappearance of his fellow Cambridge spies, but there was insufficient evidence to bring him to trial. Suspicion lingered, however, and in 1955 fresh evidence implicating him as the so-called Third Man surfaced in Australia from a Soviet defector. A question was duly tabled in Parliament naming Philby as the Third Man…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Michael Gove, Using History for Politicking is Tawdry

by Tristram Hunt

The British left supported the 1914-18 conflict — which was far more complex in its origins than the education secretary’s simplistic assertions admit

Two days after Michael Morpurgo, author of War Horse, published a beautiful essay calling for this year’s First World War commemorations to “honour those who died” and “celebrate the peace we now share”, Michael Gove has delivered the government’s response. In an essay for the Daily Mail, the education secretary announced that the 1914 centenary should be about “battling leftwing myths that belittle Britain” and denouncing historians who “denigrate patriotism”. It is shocking stuff…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

UK: University Student Disguised in an Islamic Veil ‘Threw Sulphuric Acid Over Friend in Attack Inspired by Horrific Assault on Katie Piper Because She Was Jealous’

[WARNING: Disturbing Content.]

A jealous university student threw sulphuric acid over her friend in an attack inspired by the horrific assault on Katie Piper, a court today heard.

Mary Konye, 21, disguised herself in an Islamic veil showing only her eyes, and followed Naomi Oni home in East London before allegedly dousing her in the corrosive acid.

Ms Oni, 21, who worked at Victoria’s Secret lingerie shop, suffered horrific burns on her face and chest, lost her hair and eyelashes and was left scarred for life in the alleged attack on December 30 2012.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Would-be Suicide Bomber Among Seven Dangerous Al-Qaeda Suspects to be Freed From Curfew Within Days

Seven dangerous Al-Qaeda suspects are to be freed from Government curfews and able to walk the streets within days, it has emerged. The men, some of whom are suspected of plotting to kill thousands on transatlantic airliners, will no longer be bound by electronic tags or curfew restrictions after the terrorism prevention orders are lifted.

The measures were introduced in 2012 to replace Labour government rules which, according to the Liberal Democrats, undermined the suspects’ human rights. However they only last two years unless the government can prove the suspects have engaged in ‘new’ terrorist-related activity…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Vatican Riddled With Gays: Ex-Swiss Guard

A former member of the Swiss Guard, the force responsible for the pope’s safety, alleges that he was solicited for gay sex by cardinals, bishops, priests and other officials in the Vatican several years ago, a report published on Sunday says.

The former guard told weekly newspaper Schweiz am Sonntag that he received up to 20 “unambiguous requests” from members of the clergy, including a dignitary close to Pope John Paul II.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Egypt: Slain Swiss Couple ‘Found Buried at Red Sea Villa’

Hurgada, 3 January (AKI) — Egyptian police found a murdered Swiss couple at at a villa in the Red Sea resort town of Hurgada, Switzerland’s foreign ministry confirmed to the Swiss news agency ATS on Thursday.

The couple, who disappeared a week ago, were found buried in the garden of the villa, Egypt’s Al-Ahram Online quoted a security official as saying.

Investigators consider a security guard at the villa and two of his friends to be the prime suspects in the murders, acording to the official. It is believed the trio wanted to rob the couple, who were Hurgada residents.

The corpses were transferred to the morgue at Hurgada’s general hospital “in a complete state of putrescence,” officials at the hospital were cited as saying.

Located on Egypt’s eastern coast, Hurgada is a prime tourist destination that has been untouched by the unrest in Egypt since longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak’s 2011 ouster in a popular revolt.

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]
 

Kerry Pushes for Israeli-Palestinian Framework Agreement: Palestinian Official

RAMALLAH, Jan. 5 (Xinhua) — In the marathon meetings with Israeli and Palestinian leaders, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry tried to make the two sides reach a framework agreement to push the peace talks ahead, an official of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) told Xinhua Sunday.

Kerry on Sunday wrapped up a three-day visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories. Before leaving for Jordan, Kerry was quoted by Israel Radio as saying that the United States and President Barack Obama are committed to presenting a “fair and balanced” peace plan for the Middle East and improving security for all nations in the region…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Obama, Kerry Empowering Palestinians Who Reject Israel’s Right to Exist

US Secretary of State John Kerry will arrive in Israel for his 14th visit this week. And to assure that his stay will be a happy one, Saturday night the government approved the release of 26 more Palestinian mass murderers from prison. This will please Kerry because today a core goal of US Middle East policy is to secure the release of Palestinian mass murderers from Israeli prisons. That’s right. The same America that until a few years ago led the free world in the global war against terror, now conditions its support for Israel, its chief regional ally in that war, on the Jewish state’s willingness to release unrepentant, mass murdering terrorists back into Palestinian society. Not to put too fine a point on it, but it ought to go without saying that this policy hinders, rather than advances the cause of peace. It is impossible to rationally claim that by coercing Israel into releasing people like Juma Ibrahim Juma Adam and Mahmoud Salam Saliman Abu Karbish that the US is advancing the cause of peace.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Armed Man Storms Kuwait Mosque to Call for ‘Jihad’

An armed Kuwaiti eluded police and stormed a packed mosque in the oil-rich Gulf emirate to call for jihad (holy struggle) before he was overpowered and arrested by cops waiting outside, a newspaper reported on Sunday.

Police had tried to stop the man when they saw the gun in his hand but let him drive away after he started to shoot in the air and threaten passers-by. As they chased him, he stopped his car near a mosque which was packed for Friday’s prayers and stormed in still waving the gun at them.

“It’s time for jihad… it’s time for jihad… let’s go,” the man shouted to hundreds of worshippers inside the mosque, according to Al Anba newspaper. It said the man fled the mosque after he was chased by worshippers, adding that he was overpowered and arrested by police men waiting outside for him.

The paper quoted a police spokesman as saying the man had been convicted by a court in a financial case and that tests showed he had no drinks or drugs. “His behavior is not justified. This is strange but we are interrogating him,” he said.

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Iran’s Khamenei Bans Chatting Between Unrelated Men and Women

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has issued a religious edict (fatwa) banning online chatting between unrelated men and men, Iranian media reported on Monday, quoting Khamenei’s website: www.khamenei.ir. The ruling came in response to a question sent to the supreme leader on his Website. His answer was: “Given the immorality that often applies to this, it is not permitted.”

The ruling came days after Iranian authorities blocked WeChat, a popular messaging app that enables smart phone users to access online social networks.

The authorities in Tehran are sensitive to social media and have blocked access to many social networking websites, including Facebook and Twitter, used by activists to stage protests after the 2009 controversial presidential vote. But many Iranian internet users are relying on proxies to circumvent the government censorship.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Iran: The Return of the Twelfth Imam

by David Solway

In a fascinating article for FrontPage Magazine titled “Now the Twelfth Imam Can Come,” scholar of Islam Robert Spencer provides a crash course on the nature of Twelver Shi’ite theology, with particular reference to a nuclearizing Iran. Shi’ites believe in the return of the so-called Twelfth Imam who is descended from Mohammed’s son-in-law Ali ibn Abni Talib, the fourth caliph assassinated in 661 in a succession war, after which the split between Sunnis and Shi’ites eventually became permanent. As Spencer explains, the Shi’ites continued a line of imams, “members of Muhammad’s household and his prophetic heirs. Each one in turn, over two centuries, was poisoned.…According to the traditions of Twelver Shi’ism, the official religion of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the twelfth of these Imams, a boy of five years old, disappeared under mysterious and disputed circumstances in the year 874 — but remained alive.” Though communicating with the world through various agents, he entered the state of “occultation” in 941, promising to return when the time would be propitious…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Police Units in Southeastern City Perform ‘Moral Profiling’ Of Students’ Private Lives

Security officials in Turkey’s southeastern province of Gaziantep have carried out a thorough “moral profiling” of their students’ private lives, including their political, social activities and their relationships, daily Milliyet reported Jan. 6.

The profiling targeted students studying at faculties and schools of higher education affiliated to Gaziantep University and located in the Islahiye district, which lies 80 kilometers west of Gaziantep’s urban center.

The profile details on students provided even the most intimate and trivial information about their private lives, as some of the files obtained by daily Milliyet showed.

“[Male student] has a sentimental friendship with A. who lives in the same school. They allegedly separated because A. was a Kurd, but the brother of the girl came and currently there is no unfavorable situation,” said one of the profiles.

“[Female student] was embroiled into a fight inside the school. The fight broke out due to a sentimental relationship. Close with second year student K. It has been determined that their friendship continues,” said another.

Among the examples given by the report, one of the students was profiled for his involvement with the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) while another was followed for being close to a group of people engaged with the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP).

Male and female students are even profiled for “going out,” “hanging out together arm in arm” and “living in the same house.”

University administrators deny knowledge

Administrators of Gaziantep university’s campuses at Islahiye denied having any knowledge about the profiling, adding that it was solely carried out by police and gendarmerie, according to Milliyet.

However, students maintained that the administrators knew about the activities of the security officials. Sources told the daily that the profiling files were found in the computers of the university.

They also added that security officials regularly shared their information about the students with the administrators.

Although the files date back to 2010 and 2011, sources also say that profiling activities still continue.

Profiling in Turkey is a method long-used by the security forces and decried by human rights observers. Scholars, journalists and bureaucrats are being regularly profiled, according to recent reports.

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]
 

Ron Paul: Iraq: The ‘Liberation’ Neocons Would Rather Forget

Remember Fallujah? Shortly after the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the US military fired on unarmed protestors, killing as many as 20 and wounding dozens. In retaliation, local Iraqis attacked a convoy of US military contractors, killing four. The US then launched a full attack on Fallujah to regain control, which left perhaps 700 Iraqis dead and the city virtually destroyed.

According to press reports last weekend, Fallujah is now under the control of al-Qaeda affiliates. The Anbar province, where Fallujah is located, is under siege by al-Qaeda. During the 2007 “surge,” more than 1,000 US troops were killed “pacifying” the Anbar province. Although al-Qaeda was not in Iraq before the US invasion, it is now conducting its own surge in Anbar.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Saudi Arabia: 1,300 Cameras Installed Around Prophet’s Mosque

Commander of the Prophet’s Mosque security force Brig. Gen. Naif bin Mohammad Al-Jahni has said the security set up in the Mosque was a deterrent to anyone who thinks of breaching security, with surveillance cameras scanning everything in a radius of seven km.

Al-Jahni said the Mosque’s security was active round the clock and its cameras record everything around it. Security forces have thwarted theft attempts, and they operate under a comprehensive system. The Haia helps the security in educating people against wrong beliefs.

Stating that the security operations room in the Prophet’s Mosque was one of the biggest in the Middle East, he said it has more than 1,300 surveillance cameras that work under all weather conditions. Cameras cover the Mosque, its extensions, the roof and Al-Baqe’ cemetery…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

The EU and the US Saw the Deviation of the Ruling AKP Too Late, Turkish Journalist Says

The West failed to detect the changes that surfaced during the second tenure of the AKP government after 2007, according to journalist Sedat Ergin. As Europeans and Americans had blinkers, they were unable to see the steps that were incompatible with the values of liberal democracy, says Ergin

The EU and the US failed to detect the ruling Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) deviation from democratic values early enough, according to journalist Sedat Ergin. The Europeans and the Americans did not help Turkish democracy with their complacent attitude, Ergin said, adding that on the contrary this attitude inflicted damage.

What has been happening since Dec. 17?

Turkey has entered a new period. This is an open ended process, we don’t know how it will unfold. But when it comes to its final stage, it is very probable that the political landscape and the legal framework will look somewhat different than today. Sometimes a constellation of events triggers a momentum that changes the course of history. Therefore, I see a new momentum that will profoundly impact Turkey’s political and legal structures in the future.

Can you elaborate?…

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]
 

Turkey Builds New Wall Along Syria Border

Turkey is building a four-meter high wall along part of its border with Syria to try to stop people from illegally bypassing its checkpoints.

The construction in the Karkamis district of southeastern province of Gaziantep will continue for some time, officials said. The wall will span just a fraction of the 900-kilometer border, but highlights Ankara’s growing concern about the spillover of violence from northern Syria.

Turkey has vowed to maintain its “open door” policy to those fleeing the fighting, although it has closed border crossings from time to time following clashes near the frontier.

Refugees, smugglers and rebel fighters have been able to cross the border undetected in many remote areas, bypassing the main gates and leaving Turkey with a major security challenge.

The construction of a two-meters high wall between Nusaybin and Qamishli further east along the Syrian border on October had resulted in protests on both sides of the frontier, prompting the mayor of the Sirnak district to start a hunger strike.

Turkey had also previously announced the construction of a 2.5-kilometer-long wall along the Cilvegözü border gate with Syria to prevent smuggling activities.

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]
 

Turkey, Iran Aim to Boost Trade Volume to USD 30 Bln by 2015

(ANSAmed) — ISTANBUL, JANUARY 6 — Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu met with his Iranian counterpart Javad Zarif on Saturday night in Istanbul, talked on bilateral relations and other regional issues focusing on Syria and Iraq as, as Anadolu Agency reports, held a joint press conference after the meeting.

Expressing his concerns over the escalating violence in Syria despite calls for ceasefire from both countries, Davutoglu said “We are ready to stop the intensifying humanitarian crisis in Aleppo and put out all of Syria’s misery and pain.” Davutoglu also said the two countries are aimed at increasing the trade volume up to USD 30 billion by 2015 and raise it to USD 50 billion while the necessary legal framework is being set, adding that they decided to establish a “High-Level Cooperation Council” with an eye to improve commercial relations.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

UAE Emirates Begins Test of Mandatory National ID System to Replace All Other Bank Cards, Seen as Pilot for International System

Are you tired of carrying multiple bank cards and remembering personal identification numbers (PIN)? Your plight will end soon. The national ID card issued by Emirates Identity Authority (Emirates ID) will soon replace ATM and credit cards. National ID cards will be used for financial transactions as part of a cooperation agreement between Emirates ID and financial institutions, a senior official told Gulf News on Monday. “The ID card will be used for authentication processes to verify the identity of the cardholder. The ATMs [machines] or credit card terminals will process the financial transactions,” Dr Ali Al Khoury, Director General of Emirates ID, said. “We expect ID cardholders to carry out ID-based financial transactions anywhere in the world. Emirates ID is exploring ID authentication services with Visa and MasterCard to integrate their services for global use,” Al Khoury said. This national ID card is mandatory…

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Afghanistan to Free 88 ‘Dangerous’ Prisoners

US claims prisoners held at Bagram pose security threat and there is proof of their involvement in deaths of foreign troops

Afghanistan is to release 88 prisoners even though the US considers them dangerous and wants them to remain in detention, the board reviewing their cases has said. The prisoners are being held at a jail at the Bagram air base north of Kabul. The US only recently transferred the prison to Afghan control after it had become a serious source of tension with the Afghan government…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Islamic Extremist Jailed for Myanmar Embassy Bomb Plot

JAKARTA — An Indonesian court jailed an Islamic extremist for seven and a half years Monday over an “evil” plot to bomb the Myanmar embassy to avenge the killing of Rohingya Muslims. Achmad Taufiq is one of several men to have gone on trial over the May plot, which came amid anger in Muslim-majority Indonesia at persecution of the stateless Rohingya in mainly Buddhist Myanmar.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Malaysia: Muslims’ Sole Claim to “Allah”

The name controversy between Malaysian Christians and Muslims is escalating: In an attack, organized Muslims seized Bibles from Christian groups. They wanted to put a stop to the alleged abuse of the word “Allah”. The regime party classifies this action as legal.

The country which is generally considered as a model example of an “islamic democracy” is slipping more strongly into a climate of intolerance and fanaticism.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

China: Mao’s Murders

The most memorable historical book I have read in the last few years is Frank Dikötter’s Mao’s Great Famine: The History of China’s Most Devastating Catastrophe, 1958-62 about the manmade famine responsible for tens of millions of deaths in Communist China. (I reviewed the book here). Dikötter has recently had published the prequel: The Tragedy of Liberation: A History of the Chinese Revolution 1945-57. It reads like a horror story but sadly it is true…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

5,000 Muslims Pray for Nigeria

No fewer than 5,000 Muslims gathered on Sunday at the Tafawa Balewa Square in Lagos to pray for the unity, peace and development of Nigeria.

The worshippers came from different Islamic organisations under the aegies of the Joint Muslim Forum. Prominent among the organisations are Ansar-d-Deen Society of Nigeria; NASFAT; Federation of Muslim Women Association of Nigeria; Muslim Students’ Society of Nigeria; The Muslim Congress; Al-Muminat; Council of Alasalatu; imams and spiritual leaders in Lagos State…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Nigeria: 2015 — Ango Abdullahi’s War Drums Won’t Stop Jonathan- — Onuesoke

A Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship aspirant in 2007 general elections and currently Special Project Director in the office of Delta State Governor, Chief Sunny Onuesoke, says Professor Ango Abdullahi and his northern associates threat of war should President Goodluck Jonathan contest in 2015 will not stop the president from contesting…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Luis Fleischman: Chile: The Unrecognized Role Model of Latin America

In a run- off election on December 15thpresidential candidate Michelle Bachelet, who was Chile’s president from 2006 to 2010, was again voted into office. The victory was overwhelming as Bachelet took more than 60% of the vote against her opponent Evelyn Mathei of the conservative Independent Democratic Union party, who is also a childhood friend of Bachelet.

Bachelet ran on a platform that responded directly to the student protests and other strikes that the country experienced in the last several years. Indeed, popular protests that brought tens of thousands of protestors to the streets demanded lowers costs for higher education along with improvement in the quality of education. These demonstrations caught fire as they expanded to other social sectors. In a remote area of Chilean Patagonia, protestors blocked roads demanding cheaper petrol. Likewise, there were demonstrations in opposition to a new fishing law. Previously there were strikes by copper miners demanding a fairer share of the production profits. Port workers also participated in strikes, demanding better working conditions. There were also hunger strikes by imprisoned indigenous activists. Environmentalists protested a hydroelectric project. There were also protests over high levels of inequality despite the considerable reduction of poverty Chile experienced in the last quarter of a century…

[Return to headlines]
 

Why Does the UK Give £2m in Aid to Argentina? Revelation Comes as South Americans Launch Yet Another Diatribe on the Falklands

Britain is sending more than £2million in aid to Argentina — even as Buenos Aires cranks up its hostility over the Falklands.

The revelation provoked a furious reaction from Tory MPs last night and is an embarrassment for David Cameron, who only last month was accusing Argentina of ‘shameful’ attempts to bully the islands.

To mark the 180th anniversary of British rule of the Falklands yesterday, the Argentine government issued a five-page rant by foreign minister Hector Timerman, in which he accuses the UK of ‘colonial and military occupation of Argentine territory’.

Mr Timerman said that after years of UK defence cuts, Argentina is no longer afraid of our defence forces. ‘The lion roars, but does not inspire fear any more,’ he claimed.

He highlighted Mr Cameron’s bid to intervene in the Syrian conflict last year as evidence of Britain’s ‘aggression’. And he directly criticised the Prime Minister’s Christmas pledge to defend the Falklands.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: ‘Tunisian Arrested for Threatening to Behead Ex-Girlfriend’

Cagliari, 3 January (AKI) — Police on Friday arrested an unemployed Tunisian immigrant on suspicion of stalking his Italian ex-girlfriend for nearly two years and threatening to cut off her head, reports said.

Police arrested 36-year-old Valid Smiri, as he tried to climb over a gate and enter his ex-girlfriend’s apartment building in the town of Quartu, near Cagliari, the Unione Sarda newspaper reported.

Witnesses said Smiri was shouting: “I’ll kill you, I am an Arab, you don’t know me. Even if they arrest me, I’ll come back and kill you. I’ll cut off your head!”

As police led him away, Smiri also railed against the Italian government.

The 47-year-old woman ended a three-month relationship with Smiri in 2012, a decision he had refused to accept.

She reported Smiri to police three times after he kept bombarding her with phone-calls and text messages begging her to get back together with him or else, investigators said.

He also hung around outside the woman’s apartment building and hurled insults at her and threatened to kill her each time he saw her go in or out, saying she was “his”, according to investigators.

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]
 

UK: The Public Deserves the Truth on Immigration… From Britain’s Politicians — and, Yes, My Own BBC

To see the problems that mass immigration can cause, I visited St Mark’s primary school in Southampton, a city which has seen its immigrant population double in ten years.

Only one in four children at the school are white British, more than 42 languages are spoken and the school is full to bursting, with many classes taking place in portable buildings.

Local Labour MP John Denham told me that he’d written to Gordon Brown in 2006 to say he’d seen a dramatic fall in wages within the construction sector and in hospital A&Es and that, overall, there was a rapid change in the community feeling of the city. For years these problems were denied or ignored in Whitehall and Westminster.

Politicians are no longer trusted to tell the truth about immigration. Voters feel they’ve been misled and their concerns ignored.

My documentary uncovers the mistakes and the miscalculations which led Ministers in the last Labour Government to predict that just 13,000 Poles and other Eastern Europeans would come here each year when their countries joined the EU in 2004.

The true figure turned out to be ten times as many as that every year.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Yes, I Welcomed Them in. But the More They Come, The Faster We Will Head for EU Exit, Writes Tory MP Mark Reckless

I might be a member of a Commons committee that deals with immigration, but the decisions about who can come here, and whether they can work or claim benefits, are made not in London but in Brussels — and enforced by the European Union.

The perennial complaint I receive from constituents about mass immigration is that ‘no one asked us’. But that may soon change. By the end of 2017, David Cameron has promised the British people a referendum on our membership of the EU — assuming we win the next Election, of course.

For many, the key will be whether we regain the most basic of powers: control of our own borders so we decide for ourselves who we let into our country, and who we keep out.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Pentagon’s New Warfare: Battle of the Sexes

By Rowan Scarborough

As the armed forces shrink and withdraw from some global hot spots, their agenda for the battle of the sexes grows.

The Pentagon under the Obama administration has devoted considerable hours in public and private to sorting out same-sex relationships, the roles of women in the foxhole and ways to stop sexual assaults. Now, another issue has arisen: gender transformation.

The sexual revolution has some traditionalists wondering whether the Pentagon is taking its eye off the ball — the enemy.

“Every conceivable form of PC is being enforced upon our hard-pressed military with a zeal that only a Russian army zampolit — a political officer — would truly appreciate,” said Ken Allard, a retired Army colonel and commentator. “We are seemingly concerned about everything except the most basic thing: how to fight and win the nation’s wars. If we have forgotten that constraint, let me assure you that our enemies have not, from the Taliban to the drug cartels to the Iranian Quds Force.”

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has made stamping out sex abuse a top priority, having met with President Obama, delivered public statements and appointed a board to recommend fixes.

Meanwhile, the Army, Marine Corps and U.S. Special Operations Command have immersed themselves in surveys and studies to evaluate physical standards for direct ground combat. It’s a two-year lead-up to putting women in infantry, tank and commando units…

           — Hat tip: DS [Return to headlines]
 

Supreme Court Blocks Same-Sex Marriage in Utah Pending Appeal

The Supreme Court on Monday blocked further same-sex marriages in Utah while state officials appeal a decision allowing such unions.

The terse order, from the full court, issued a stay “pending final disposition” of an appeal to the federal appeals court in Denver. It offered no reasoning.

The Supreme Court acted more than two weeks after a federal judge in Salt Lake City on Dec. 20 struck down Utah’s ban on same-sex marriage, saying it violated principles of equal protection and due process. Judge Robert J. Shelby of Federal District Court refused to stay his decision while it was appealed, as did the United States Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit, in Denver.

[Return to headlines]
 

The Left’s Cultural Jenga

by Andrew Klavan

City Journal’s Heather MacDonald is one of the best reporters in the country, one of our most courageous writers and a consistently moral voice. Last year, she gave the Manhattan Institute’s prestigious Wriston Lecture and last Saturday, the Wall Street Journal published an adaptation of that lecture under the headline “The Humanities Have Forgotten Their Humanity.” A fuller version of this brilliant piece will be in CJ’s Winter number. Get your hands on it. Read it.

Heather MacDonald begins by noting that the leftist academic buffoons at UCLA no longer require that the university’s English majors read Shakespeare, Chaucer or Milton. They do, however, require these students take courses in leftist theories on gender, race, ethnicity and other meaningless subjects whose names I slept through…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

How Ethnic Conflict Could Dominate This Century

By Damian Thompson

Here is a vision of the future that freaked me out when I read it. The 21st century will witness “the withering away of central governments, the rise of tribal and regional domains, the unchecked spread of disease, and the growing pervasiveness of war”.

Living in the West will feel like travelling through a ghetto in a limousine; don’t dare open that door. “Outside would be a crowded planet of skinhead Cossacks and juju warriors, influenced by the worst refuse of Western pop culture and ancient tribal hatreds, and battling over scraps of overused earth in guerrilla conflicts that ripple across continents…

“War-making entities will no longer be restricted to a specific territory. Loose and shadowy organisms such as Islamic terrorist organisations suggest why borders will mean little and sedimentary layers of tribalistic identity and control will mean more.”

These quotes are taken from “The Coming Anarchy”, an essay by the foreign affairs analyst Robert D Kaplan, writing in The Atlantic magazine in February 1994.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Irony Alert: Global Warmists Get Stuck in Ice

As regular readers of “the news,” you will no doubt already know that sometimes, you just can’t make this stuff up.

Case in point: A ship full of “global warmists” heads off on an expedition to Antarctica to prove that the ice shelf there is melting so fast that every beachfront house in the world will soon be swept away by a massive tsunami.

But instead of finding a sad polar bear stuck on a tiny ice sheet, the adventurers found their ship stuck — in ice.

Wait, it gets better: A ship sent to free the stuck ship also got trapped in the ice. And over the weekend, the U.S. announced that it would send a heavy icebreaker to free the ships — so, of course, as usual, you taxpayers will foot the bill.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

4 thoughts on “Gates of Vienna News Feed 1/6/2014

  1. Boris Johnson is the biggest hypocrite walking the earth – remember how he lied after those two jihadists murdered an unarmed British soldier on the streets of London? He’s no better than the people he’s (more or less accurately) describing.

  2. Re the Yellowstone super volcano: Bill Bryson warned of this in “A Short History of Nearly Everything” ten years ago (I read all the scientific journals), so it’s hardly news! Which doesn’t make it any less scary…

  3. A bit of news from Brittany
    http://www.breizh-info.com/6138/actualite-societale/kersiam-dinan-grande-mosquee-paris/
    It seems that a school is organizing a trip to Paris, that includes a visit to the grand mosque… It is headed “fight against discrimination”. Cough splutter…

    It has been received by the parents in exactly the same way as a school trip in the UK. It has to be noted that this was the only event of a religious character planned of all of the places mentioned. It boils down to that fact that the mosque segregates women from men. As result, people have protested about it.
    “A place that discriminates at every prayer, with the separation of women from men”
    “Had you envisaged visits to 3 places of worship, Christian, Jewish and Muslim, I wouldn’t have been shocked…

    This has to be seen in the context of recent incidents at the mosque, due to changes in the way women prayers are accommodated.

    Another extract talks about ” we need to stop with what is connected more often to propaganda”

    The best word that I saw in the comments section is this: fascistoïdes…

    A lot of sarcasm is vented in the comments about Islam. A commenter called Dante gets spot on when talks about the political, judicial economic nature of a mosque, incompatible with the values of the Republic.

    The comments sections are great!

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