Today is the tenth anniversary of the Islamic terror bombings in Madrid, which killed 191 people and wounded upwards of 2,000 more. The occasion was marked with solemn remembrances throughout Spain. Meanwhile, Spanish authorities judge that the threat of another terror attack remains very high.
In other news, the Malaysian military is seriously considering the possibility that the missing Flight 370 jetliner changed course and was able to land somewhere in the west of the country.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, JP, KP, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.
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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.
Global Debt Exceeds $100 Trillion as Governments Binge, Bis Says
The amount of debt globally has soared more than 40 percent to $100 trillion since the first signs of the financial crisis as governments borrowed to pull their economies out of recession and companies took advantage of record low interest rates, according to the Bank for International Settlements.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Greece: Island Property Prices Have Dropped by 33% Since 2008
(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, MARCH 10 — Property prices on Greek islands have dropped significantly in recent years, presenting major investment opportunities, as Kathimerini online reports.
The average price of houses at popular island destinations has dropped by a total of 33% since 2008, according to estate agents, while on large properties and luxury homes the decline is as much as 40-50%. According to Ioannis Revythis, the president of the Hellenic Real Estate Agents Federation, the average rates in euros per square meter at major destinations are as follows: Myconos, 3,000 euros from 4,500 in 2008; Santorini, 3,300 euros from 5,000; Paros, 2,000 euros from 3,000; Naxos, 1,600 euros from 2,650; Serifos 1,500 euros from 2,200, and Hydra, 2,500 euros from 3,500 euros/sq.m. The bulk of buyers’ interest at the moment concerns the purchase of land for future development into holiday accommodation. “Nowadays 80% of buyers on islands are foreigners; just 20% are Greeks. Foreign nationals are also attracted by the capacity to obtain a residence permit with a purchase of over 250,000 euros,” explained Revythis.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Cost to Employ Worker Nearly Double Net Salary
EU tax burden declines, but Italy bucks trend
(ANSA) — Rome, March 11 — The cost of employing the average Italian worker amounts to nearly twice the employee’s take-home pay, the national statistics agency told a Senate hearing Tuesday. Workers in 2012 received an average of 16,153 euros a year, 49.1% less than total labor costs of 31,719 euros, Istat said.
The agency added that the tax burden across the European Union has declined by 0.5% since 2000, while in Italy it has grown by nearly 3%. Meanwhile family spending power dropped 4.7% in 2012, in the middle of Italy’s worst postwar recession, which began to end the second half of last year. Istat called the dip one of “exceptional magnitude” and blamed rising taxes for “significantly contributing to a sharp decline in the income”. Notably disposable income was down 2% in 2012, Istat said.
The data comes on the eve of Premier Matteo Renzi’s roll-out of a package of tax cuts and initiatives to boost growth and employment nationwide.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
More Than One Third of All Puerto Ricans on Food Stamps, Official Says
Thirty-five percent of the population in Puerto Rico receives food stamps, an abnormally large proportion due in part to a 31 percent increase in the number of Puerto Ricans over 60 who qualify for benefits.
Together, people in the over-60 and under-18 age cohorts total more than half of the food stamp recipients in the U.S. commonwealth, the director of Puerto Rico’s Administration for the Socioeconomic Development of the Family, Marta Elsa Fernández, told Efe.
By the standards of the U.S. mainland, 45 percent of Puerto Ricans are poor, Fernández said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Puerto Rico Sells $3.5b in General Obligation Bonds on High Demand
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Puerto Rico sold $3.5 billion in general obligation bonds on Tuesday in the largest issue of its kind for the U.S. territory, which is struggling to pay off $70 billion in public debt.
Puerto Rico’s credit rating was recently downgraded to junk status, and the bond sale was being closely watched by U.S. investors who feared last year that the U.S. territory would default as it braced for its eighth year in recession.
The sale will likely give Puerto Rico less than two years’ time to strengthen its economy, said Triet Nguyen, founder of Axios Advisors LLC, an Illinois-based independent municipal research and investment advisory company.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
We Are in Far Worse Shape Than We Were Just Prior to the Last Great Financial Crisis
None of the problems that caused the last financial crisis have been fixed. In fact, they have all gotten worse. The total amount of debt in the world has grown by more than 40 percent since 2007, the too big to fail banks have gotten 37 percent larger, and the colossal derivatives bubble has spiraled so far out of control that the only thing left to do is to watch the spectacular crash landing that is inevitably coming.
Unfortunately, most people do not know the information that I am about to share with you in this article. Most people just assume that the politicians and the central banks have fixed the issues that caused the last great financial crisis. But the truth is that we are in far worse shape than we were back then. When this financial bubble finally bursts, the devastation that we will witness is likely to be absolutely catastrophic.
Too Much Debt
One of the biggest financial problems that the world is facing is that there is simply way too much debt. Never before in world history has there ever been a debt binge anything like this.
You would have thought that we would have learned our lesson from 2008 and would have started to reduce debt levels.
Instead, we pushed the accelerator to the floor.
It is hard to believe that this could possibly be true, but according to the Bank for International Settlements the total amount of debt in the world has increased by more than 40 percent since 2007…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Austin chapter of Come and Take It Texas is holding an open carry march at South by Southwest (SXSW) in Austin, Texas this Wednesday, March 12 at high noon in response to the anti-gun event promoted by the internationally-known festival.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Californians Refuse to Turn in Newly-Banned Magazines
Despite a new city law in Sunnyvale, Cali., requiring gun owners get rid of their so-called “high capacity” magazines or face fines or arrest, none of the owners of said magazines have turned them in to police.
Magpul PMAG 30-round magazine
At midnight on Thursday, Sunnyvale began implementing a new law that requires residents with rifle magazines that hold more than 10 rounds of ammunition to dispose of them or else, but the law reportedly failed to produce the intended effect.
“The Oakland Tribune reported Saturday that since Sunnyvale’s ban went into effect midnight Thursday, not one of the now-illegal magazines has been turned in,” the Associated Press reports.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
CBS Journalist Resigns After Being Pressured Over ‘Anti-Obama’ Reporting
CBS journalist Sharyl Attkisson resigned today after facing pressure over reports she filed that were deemed to be overly critical of President Obama, but don’t expect the mainstream media to create a circus around Attkisson’s resignation like they did that of RT host Liz Wahl.
“Attkisson, who has been with CBS News for two decades, had grown frustrated with what she saw as the network’s liberal bias, an outsized influence by the network’s corporate partners and a lack of dedication to investigative reporting, several sources said. She increasingly felt like her work was no longer supported and that it was a struggle to get her reporting on air,” reports Politico, noting that Attkisson’s work was characterized as “agenda-driven” because she was hard on the Obama administration.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Conn. Cop: I Will Kick Down Doors to Confiscate Guns
In an exclusive interview with Storyleak, Cinque further detailed the disturbing comments made by Branford Police Officer Joseph Peterson, one of the state’s mostly highly decorated officers.
“It happened on facebook… he posted to a thread on my wall,” Cinque said. “I have known him personally for 20 years. He was interacting with other friends of mine and it was directly about the video.”…
Angered by comments pointing out the state’s unconstitutional law, Peterson goes as far as to say that he would love to knock down Smith’s door personally.
“I give my left nut to bang down your door and come for your gun,” Peterson said. “Hey everyone Cameron is a criminal law breaking psycho.”
Receiving considerable backlash, Peterson quietly disabled his Facebook page following the conversation, although a screenshot was obtained beforehand.
Despite the inability of some officers to understand what a constitutional law entails, Cinque revealed that countless Conn. officers are opposed to the state’s ruling.
“As for the cops who will stand with the people… there are many,” Cinque said. “None have spoken publicly but in private i know many who do not like this one bit… they realize they are being used.”
“They are supporters of the Constitutional rights of the people, but they need to speak publicly soon.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
CPAC — Conservative Division and Desperation on Parade
Thomas Jefferson warned — “If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.” — and he further explained, “We in America do not have government by the majority. We have government by the majority who participate.”
What is America’s future when the majority of those who participate are too ignorant to participate?
The international left is in the closing hours of their total destruction of the Constitutional Republic. Not a single member of the U.S. Congress has lifted a finger to stop the destruction that nearly every American is able to see today. Communists no longer have to work in the shadows. Under more progressive sounding titles like liberal, they are able to drive America off a cliff without so much as a fight…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Crony Capitalism and the Transcontinental Railroads
While none would argue that transcontinentals would not become economically feasible in the private market at some point, during the 1860s, as the first transcontinentals took shape, there was no economic justification. This is why the first transcontinentals were all creatures, not of capitalism or the private markets, but of government. There simply were not enough people, capital, manufactured goods, or crops between Missouri and the West coast to support a private-sector railroad.
As creatures of government and of taxpayer-funded schemes to subsidize the railroads and their wealthy owners through cheap loans and outright subsidies, the railroads quickly became scandal-ridden, wasteful, and contemptuous of the public they were supposed to serve.
This tale is told in grim detail in historian Richard White’s 2011 tome on the transcontinental railroads, Railroaded: The Transcontinentals and the Making of Modern America, which exposes the near-utter disconnect between the railroads and the true geography of the markets in the mid-nineteenth century.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Daunting Tests Await Admiral Named N.S.A. Chief
It is not hard to understand why veterans of the National Security Agency argue that 2013 was the worst year since Harry S. Truman got the place running 62 years ago.
The man chosen by Mr. Obama to navigate this bureaucratic, political and public relations disaster is Vice Adm. Michael S. Rogers, who on Tuesday will face members of the Senate at his confirmation hearing.
“Why would anyone in his right mind be director of N.S.A. right now?” asked John R. Schindler, a former N.S.A. officer who is now a professor at the Naval War College. “It’s a massive political headache.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
G.M. Said to Face Criminal Inquiry on Safety Problems
The Justice Department has begun a criminal investigation into the decade-long failure by General Motors to address deadly safety problems in its some of its cars before announcing a massive recall last month, according to a person briefed on the matter.
The preliminary inquiry by federal prosecutors in New York is expected to center on whether G.M., the nation’s largest automaker, failed to comply with laws requiring timely disclosure of vehicle defects.
The probe is the latest in a widening series of investigations of G.M.’s handling of faulty ignition switches in its Chevrolet Cobalt sedan and other cars that the company says are linked to 31 accidents and 13 deaths.
| [Return to headlines] |
Government Study Finds Toxic Roundup Herbicide in 75 Percent of Air, Rain Samples
(NaturalNews) You might not want to hold your tongue out to catch that enticing drop the next time it rains — you could end up inadvertently taking a swig of Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide. New research published in the journal Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry reveals that both air and rain are contaminated with Roundup and other toxic agricultural chemicals more than 75 percent of the time in some areas, exposing potentially hundreds of millions of people to small and perpetual doses of hidden chemical poisons.
For this research, a team of scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) collected air and rain samples weekly for 12 years during each growing season in the Mississippi Delta agricultural region, testing for glyphosate, the primary active ingredient in Roundup; atrazine; metolachlor; propanil, and a host of other pesticides and herbicides in common use between the years of 1995 and 2007 — the first genetically modified organisms (GMOs) were introduced in the U.S. in 1995.
Based on an analysis of the data collected over the years, the team identified detectable concentrations of at least seven agricultural chemicals, including atrazine, metolachlor and propanil, in more than 50 percent of air and rain samples collected throughout the region. And the percentages for glyphosate and its degradation product aminomethylphosphonic acid (AMPA) were found to be even higher, showing detectable concentrations in more than 75 percent of air and rain samples.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Green Energy Causes 18% Rise in Chicago’s Energy Bills
By Daniel Greenfield
Excerpt: Chicago, the inspiration for the current management team running America into the ground, has done it again as residential energy bills are set to rise sky high. Residential electric bills in Chicago will increase roughly 14 to 18 percent in June under a new deal the city has struck with its power supplier, Integrys Energy Services. That follows an increase in January thanks to higher delivery charges by Commonwealth Edison Co.
| — Hat tip: KP | [Return to headlines] |
Harvard Says Fluoridated Water is Causing Cognitive Disorders
A newly published study in Harvard’s The Lancet weighs in on the toxins causing autism and ADHD (attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder). Researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (ISMMS) say that along with these numerous environmental toxins, fluoridated water is adding to the higher incident of both cognitive and behavioral disorders.
Harvard had already published a study in 2006 that pointed to fluoride as a ‘developmental neurotoxicant’, and this newer study looks to over 27 additional investigations into the matter via meta analysis. In the previous study, it was already established that fluoride consumption lowered children’s IQ scores. The left-over from industry, passed off as ‘medicine,’ obstructs brain development, and can cause a full spectrum of serious health issues — from autism to dyslexia, ADHD, ADD, and more.
The study calls the effects from this chemical a ‘silent epidemic’ that mainstream media and many scientific papers have ignored.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Michelle Obama’s Food Police Take on Global Warming
By Daniel Greenfield
Excerpt: The political establishment of the Eastern Rome was consumed in complex rhetoric — what historians would later call “Byzantine debate.” Just days before the city fell to the Islamic armies that were surrounding its walls, a rabid debate was splitting the lawmakers and their respective intellectuals. “What is the sex of the angels? Are they males or females?”Fortunately we are a far more rational people. We focus on issues of genuinely serious importance. Like how to build nutritional food guidelines to include Global Warming
| — Hat tip: KP | [Return to headlines] |
More Testimony Expected From Shoe-Bomb Witness at NYC Terrorism Trial of Bin Laden Son-in-Law
A British man who was supposed to take down an airplane with a shoe bomb in 2001 until he backed out of the conspiracy is set to resume testimony in the trial of Osama bin Laden’s son-in-law with a description of what happened in the weeks after the terrorist attacks…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Park Service Knew World War II Veterans Would be Locked Out
Internal e-mails reveal Interior feared being blamed, bent rules for its own staff.
The Department of the Interior knew beforehand that two groups of aging veterans would be visiting the World War II Memorial as the partial government shutdown began on Oct. 1 but decided to barricade the site anyway, according to e-mails obtained by National Review Online.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Report: Mass Incarcerations Soon Coming to America (Video)
Judge Andrew Napolitano Goes #OffTheGrid with former Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Senate Intelligence Head Says CIA ‘Searched Computers’
The head of the US Senate intelligence committee has publicly accused the CIA of improperly accessing computers used by congressional staff.
Senator Dianne Feinstein said on the Senate floor that such activities “may have undermined the constitutional framework” of government oversight. The Senate panel was investigating allegations of abuse during a CIA detention and interrogation programme.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sotomayor: ‘I’m Very Optimistic About the Power of Minorities…’
On Monday, Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor stated that she believed that women and minorities had to crash the halls of power in order to “change the dialogue in this country.” She said that “money” was the obstacle to women and minorities having a say in government, adding, “we’re going to have to work the political system at the highest level.”
Sotomayor was speaking at the University of Washington, pushing her book, My Beloved Life. A student questioned if she was optimistic about the future of the country. She stated, “I’m very optimistic about the power of minorities to change the dialogue in this country.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Taser Drone Capable of Unleashing 80,000 Volts Debuted at SXSW
An Austin-based tech firm took SXSW by surprise this past weekend when it unveiled what it believes is the future of security technology — an unmanned aerial vehicle capable of deploying taser nodes and dishing out 80,000 electrifying volts.
Billed as a “personal security” drone, Chaotic Moon Studios’ CUPID UAV, an acronym for Chaotic Unmanned Personal Intercept Drone, proved Friday it is more than ready to indiscriminately fire on human targets deemed “threats.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Thomas Sowell: The Left Versus Minorities
If anyone wanted to pick a time and place where the political left’s avowed concern for minorities was definitively exposed as a fraud, it would be now — — and the place would be New York City, where far left Mayor Bill de Blasio has launched an attack on charter schools, cutting their funding, among other things.
These schools have given thousands of low income minority children their only shot at a decent education, which often means their only shot at a decent life. Last year 82 percent of the students at a charter school called Success Academy passed city-wide mathematics exams, compared to 30 percent of the students in the city as a whole.
Why would anybody who has any concern at all about minority young people — or even common decency — want to destroy what progress has already been made?
One big reason, of course, is the teachers’ union, one of Mayor de Blasio’s biggest supporters. But it may be more than that. For many of the true believers on the left, their ideology overrides any concern about the actual fate of flesh-and-blood human beings.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Ben Carson is just another one of the GOP’s ploys to say “look were not racist.” teabaggers will never elect him. #CPAC #CPAC2014 #tcot — Michael Rockwell (@MikeDRockwell) March 08, 2014
@chrisjohnson82 @bluetexasmoon Ben Carson suffers from the house slave syndrome. He’s forever indebted to Wha’ folks that helped him. — OneL (@AWiseLatina) March 08, 2014
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Wal-Mart Spreads Across America Like Epidemic Disease: Watch the Animation
Cheaper goods may sound alright at first, but when you consider that the Wal-Marts of the world have a tendency to drive mom-and-pop stores out of business, it becomes a little more “real,” so to speak. And that can be upsetting to some folks, especially those trying to make a living — in this economy — in Rural America.
The formula for destruction is always the same, according to Brandon Weber at Upworthy.com:
| 1) | Move in. | |
| 2) | Open doors with lower prices than anyone else. | |
| 3) | Get employees on welfare and Medicaid because you don’t want to pay well or provide medical insurance. | |
| 4) | Force smaller shops out of business. | |
| 5) | Raise prices, because now you’re the only game in town. | |
| 6) | Rinse, repeat 15 miles down the road. |
And while some of his stated formula may be subject for debate, the general principle — big box store beats out the competition — is nonetheless accurate.
It’s the sheer size and purchasing power of these giants that make them unbeatable for the little guy.
As for Wal-Mart in particular, its spread across the United States has been like that of a disease epidemic. Check out this graphic and see what I mean: click here (and scroll about halfway down the page).
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
We Don’t Need a Con Con, We Need a Series of International Nuremberg-Type Tribunals!
From a solely U. S. perspective, there is considerable discussion about convening a Constitutional Convention. On the surface, with all of the un-American, anti-American and unconstitutional actions being taken by elected politicians inside D. C. (the District of Corruption), both actively and passively, this reaction appears to be an appropriate course of action. Several questions beg to be asked about the possible repercussions of a Con Con, most importantly, regarding the possibility of the convention being hijacked.
For those who scoff at this possibility, let’s review a few individuals who are currently in power within the SCOTUS, Congress, and state government. Did you ever believe that Chief Justice Roberts would uphold the constitutionality of ObamaCare? Wasn’t Justice Kennedy supposed to be the weak link regarding upholding the unconstitutionality of ObamaCare? Does it concern you that Justice Roberts authored two-thirds of what became the dissenting opinion, and then flipped his opinion? How this man sleeps is beyond comprehension, but, then again, maybe he wanted to continue awakening from his sleeping, and/or ensure that family members continued to awaken from their sleeping. Praetorian Guards to Obama, Boehner and McConnell
Consider the Praetorian Guards to Obama, Boehner and McConnell. Not only are they protecting our puppet president, but, also, they and protecting themselves and their crony capos from having the status quo upended. They and their crony capos (Cantor, McCarthy, Ryan, King, McCain, Flake, Graham, Rubio, Cornyn, etc.) attack those within their own party, elected and the electorate, for attempting to restore sanity and constitutionality to our federal government. Boehner and McConnell are only too happy to have Nurse Ratched Lerner and her crew attacking conservative groups, because they have as much to lose as the puppet president. Granted, Obama is only doing what he is being told to do by those much higher up the food chain than George Soros and Valerie Jarrett, but he is gutting our constitutional republic during the Boehner-McConnell watch, with little, to no, pushback…
Many patriots and puppets are pushing for a Con Con, but for polar-opposite reasons. Patriots seek to restore our constitutional form of government; the puppets see a Con Con as an opportunity to eviscerate our Constitution, en route to seizing our republic. If our elected ‘leaders’ are supposed to be the best our country has to offer, and they can be totally corrupted, why would anyone believe that the long arms of the puppeteers will not be able to hijack a Con Con, in a final attack to totally destroy our constitutional republic?
[Comment: Recommended reading.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
First Alien Rainbow Image Holds Clues to Venus Mystery
A rare type of rainbow called a “glory” has been spotted in Venus’s atmosphere, the first time such a ring of colour has been imaged on another planet. The glory’s shape and size could help solve a decades-old mystery about the hazy planet’s makeup.
“A full glory has never been seen before outside of the terrestrial environment,” says Wojciech Markiewicz at the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Gottingen, Germany, who was part of the team that spotted the glory on Venus.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
French President Threatened by Jihadist Network
Extremists to ‘wage war’ unless troops withdrawn from Mali
(ANSAmed) — PARIS, MARCH 11 — A jihadist network connected to Al-Qaeda has called for attacks on France and President Francois Hollande over French military operations in Mali and Central African Republic.
‘‘To our lone-wolves in France, assassinate the president of disbelief and criminality, terrify his cursed government, and bomb them and scare them as a support to the vulnerable in the Central African Republic,’’ reads one of the posters created by the militant Islamist website.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
French Arrest 8 in Crackdown on Citizens Seeking to Join Radical Muslim Fighters in Syrian War
PARIS — Prosecutors say seven men and a woman have been arrested in France on suspicion of planning to join radical Islamic groups fighting in Syria.
The prosecutor’s office says French intelligence agents are questioning the eight Tuesday, one day after their arrests in and around Paris. In France, terror suspects can be held for up to four days before being charged or freed.
More than 20 French citizens have been killed in Syria’s 3-year-old civil war. In November, France opened an investigation into more than 600 French people who either are preparing to join the fighting or are already there.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Police Discover 10-Mn-Euro Social Security Fraud in Puglia
Firms pretended to hire 831 farm hands for benefits
(ANSA) — Bari, March 10 — Police in Bari Monday said they had discovered a fraud that saw 10 million euros siphoned away from Italy’s social security agency INPS in connection with the fictitious employment of 831 farm hands in the southern Italian Puglia region.
A number of local companies pretended to hire the farm hands in order to get benefits such as unemployment, maternity checks and sick leave from INPS, which is the fund workers pay into for their retirement pensions and benefits.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Govt Says 21.5 Sq Kms in ‘Land of Fires’ Could be Toxic
Survey of 1,076 square kilometers under anti-Ecomafia law
(ANSA) — Rome, March 11 — Land to be checked for toxicity in the southern Campania region under an emergency law to stem environmental damage caused by the mafia amounts to 21.5 square kilometers, Italy’s government said Tuesday.
“We also identified 51 sites where safeguarding measures will be made a priority,” Agriculture Policies Minister Maurizio Martina told reporters at a joint news briefing with Health Minister Beatrice Lorenzin and Environment Minister Gian Luca Galletti.
A total of 1,076 square kilometers in 57 municipalities were mapped out for possible environmental cleanup, but just 2% of the total turned out to be suspect, the ministers said.
The Senate on February 5 ratified an emergency environmental law to deal with damage wrought to the environment by the mafia as well as industrial pollution from the ILVA steel plant in southern Italy.
The decree was introduced by the government in December to deal with the environmental crimes of the so-called Ecomafia in an area dubbed the “terra dei fuochi” or land of fires in the southern Campania region.
Under the law, burning rubbish without authorization becomes a crime.
It introduces tougher controls on agricultural land where waste is often illegally dumped, and calls for testing of toxicity levels in soil used for farming.
The new law also provides harsh penalties for those found guilty of burning waste, and allocates an additional 600 million euros to the 300 million euros previously granted to Campania to clear land used for illegal rubbish dumps.
The powerful Naples-based Camorra mafia has long infiltrated every part of the rubbish-collection industry and has raked in huge profits even as its illegal dumps and uncontrolled burning of waste and other toxic materials have been blamed for unusually high levels of cancer and other diseases linked to pollution.
In particular, its disposal of toxic waste, including burning, in the southern Campania region and the area between Naples and Caserta — the land of fires — has led to serious health warnings.
According to environmental group Legambiente, 14% of environmental crimes in Italy take place in Campania, where 6,000 illegal waste fires and 2,000 toxic dumps were reported between January last year and August 2013.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Tirreno Power Shuts Down Liguria Plant After Court Seizure
Company ‘negligent’, emissions data ‘unreliable’ says judge
(ANSA) — Genoa, March 11 — Italian electricity provider Tirreno Power began shutting down the coal-fired units at its Vado Ligure plant in Italy’s northwestern Liguria region on Tuesday after a judge ordered their seizure for allegedly exceeding emission limits.
In a move reminiscent of the case of the polluting ILVA steelworks in the southern port city of Taranto, Savona preliminary investigations judge Fiorenza Giorgi ordered the seizure of the Vado Ligure plant on grounds of alleged “negligent behaviour” by Tirreno Power and because the emissions data from the plant was deemed “unreliable”.
The shut-down was expected to take a total of 20 hours.
A separate gas-fired generator not subject to the restrictions set out in the plant’s integrated environmental authorisation (IEA) was to remain in operation. Meanwhile trade unions representing the power plant’s 700 workers called for an urgent meeting with Tirreno Power, the Liguria regional authorities and the local authorities to discuss the seizure. “We are shocked by the scope of the provision ordered by the court and requested by the prosecutor’s office,” said unions representative Maurizio Perozzi. “There are two aspects to the question facing the power station,” said his colleague Pino Congiu.
“One concerns the strict regulations imposed by the IEA.
The other concerns the economic crisis that has also been affecting this sector for a long time. We wouldn’t want this closure to have a serious impact on the workforce as well,” he added. Tirreno Power is controlled by the French multinational electric utility company Gdf Suez with 50% of shares.
A further 39% of the company is held by Sorgenia, a subsidiary of the CIR holding company controlled by Italian businessman Carlo De Benedetti, while the remaining 11% is divided equally between Italian multi-utility companies Hera and Iren.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Mussolini Grand-Daughter’s Husband in Prostitution Probe
A scandal over schoolgirls selling themselves for sex in Rome broadens to include the husband of Alessandra Mussolini, the grand-daughter of ‘Il Duce’
The grand-daughter of Benito Mussolini, Italy’s fascist leader, has been unwittingly caught up in an underage prostitution scandal that has shocked Rome.
Alessandra Mussolini’s husband is accused of being one of 20 clients of teenage schoolgirls who were selling themselves for sex in order to earn money for designer clothes and the latest mobile phones…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Natural Selection Has Altered the Appearance of Europeans Over the Past 5,000 Years
There has been much research into the factors that have influenced the human genome since the end of the last Ice Age. Anthropologists, geneticists and archaeologists have analyzed ancient DNA from skeletons and found that selection has had a significant effect on the human genome even in the past 5,000 years, resulting in sustained changes to the appearance of people.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Norway: Mother Tried for Drowning Child Live on MSN
A Norwegian woman on Monday pleaded not guilty to murdering her 22-month-old daughter at the opening of a trial where she is accused of drowning the child while following live online instructions.
Yasmin Chaudhry, 28, and Ammaz Omer Qureshi, 35, are accused of drowning the woman’s daughter from another relationship by plunging her head into a bucket of water in October 2010.
“I had to command respect from her. If not, she would turn into a typical Norwegian woman, just asking to be raped,” the woman told the court.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
South Tyrol Party Denies Sex-Toy Claims
Freiheitlichen ‘has never made improper use of public funds’
(ANSA) — Bolzano, March 11 — The political party at the centre of Italy’s latest expenses scandal on Tuesday denied using public money to pay for erotic toys.
“The news reports do not correspond with the facts,” said the South Tyrolean Freiheitlichen after a local newspaper reported that finance police probing the accounts of all parties on the Bolzano provincial council had discovered a receipt for 64.92 euros for the purchase of a vibrator and two other sex gadgets, allegedly presented by the right-wing secessionist caucus as part of its expense claims.
“If Freiheitlichen has done anything illegal this must be announced by the prosecutor’s office” and not by the media, the party said in a statement, adding that it had never made improper use of public funds.
Prosecutors began probing spending by the council of the autonomous northern province otherwise known as South Tyrol in January after a member of the council reported an alleged abuse.
The investigation is just the latest in a series of probes involving alleged misuse of public funds by provincial and regional administrations across Italy.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: High Risk of New Islamist Attacks, Government Warns
Ten years after the March 11, 2004 terrorist bombings of a number of commuter trains in Madrid, there is a “high” risk of new Islamist attacks on Spanish soil, according to a government agency.
A report drafted two months ago by the National Center for Anti-terrorist Coordination (CNCA), which answers to the Interior Ministry, discusses “a probable risk of an attack,” which has led the government to activate a level 2 alert.
Since 1995, law enforcement agents have arrested 472 alleged Islamists, although full awareness of the real extent of the threat did not sink in until after the Madrid attacks, which killed 191 people and injured thousands more.
Right now, experts note that the main threats come from local, self-radicalized cells and from “lone wolves,” who find inspiration in the concept of global Jihad as preached by Al Qaeda. These individuals have no direct contact with organized terrorist groups.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Spain Marks 10th Anniversary of Madrid Train Bombings
650 church bells rung, royal family attends mass
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, MARCH 11 — Some 650 church bells rung out across Spain on Tuesday morning at exactly 7:37 AM, when bombs had gone off ten years ago in Madrid’s Atocha train station. The attack was the largest one by terrorists in the country since WWII, killed the most people of any one in Europe in recent years, and has been attributed to Al-Qaeda. Ten years after the bombings, which killed 191 and injured about 2,000, Spain commemorated the tragedy with a State ceremony in the Almudena cathedral in the presence of victims’ associations.
Three days after the attacks, the conservative government under Mariano Rajoy suffered a surprise defeat, leading to the withdrawal of the country’s troops from Iraq under the new premier, the socialist José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: ‘Vile’ Child Pornography Getting ‘More Extreme’, Warns Minister
Damian Green, the Home Office minister, says evidence shows younger and younger children are being subjected to ‘more sadistic’ sexual abuse
Child pornography is becoming “more extreme and violent” and the images feature increasingly young children, the policing minister has warned. Damian Green said a new computer database, being built with government backing, will attempt to speed up the way police can investigate the online images of child abuse…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Axe-Wielding Robber Wrestled to the Ground Near Buckingham Palace
Passerby managed to grab the driver of one of the getaway scooters by his hoodie, pulling him from his machine
A bystander wrestled an armed robber to the ground as a motorbike gang smashed their way into a jewellery shop with axes near Buckingham Palace. The four raiders — two riding pillion on the scooters — were foiled as they used axes to smash a toughened glass window at H Stain jewellers by London’s Victoria Station…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Al Qaeda Van Stunt in London
The Sunday Times stated: “The hate preacher Anjem Choudary and his followers could face prosecution under anti-terrorism laws after appearing to promote al-Qaeda-linked groups on a busy London high street while demanding the creation of an Islamic state.” But there has been no move so far to take action, Police are well aware of Choudary’s every movement, so it appears unlikely. Van coverage starts at 21 seconds
Police monitoring of Choudary was revealed last year after he claimed last summer that murdered soldier Lee Rigby will ‘burn in hellfire’ as a non-Muslim, while praising suspected killer Michael Adebolajo as a martyr. He was warned by police that he is being monitored ‘constantly’ to see if his ranting breaks the law.
But Britain seems to have got its priorities wrong. While the general public is now targeted by police sometimes for online speech that would be considered fair and free in America, someone who obviously works towards the promotion of terrorism continues to walk free year after year.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Counter-Terrorism Officers Arrest Three People Over Syria Links
Detectives held two men from Levenshulme, aged 29 and 18, and a 21-year-old woman from Trafford, during early morning raids.
Counter-terrorism officers have arrested three people in Manchester today after reports of individuals travelling to fight in war torn Syria. Detectives held two men from Levenshulme, aged 29 and 18, and a 21-year-old woman from Trafford, during early morning raids. They were detained on suspicion of of being concerned in the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism.
A team from the South East Counter Terrorism Unit (SECTU), supporting the North West Counter Terrorism Unit (NWCTU), also arrested a 29-year-old man from Oxford on suspicion of the same offence. All four are now in custody in Manchester to be interviewed by officers from NWCTU…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Doctors Forced to Become State Snitches to Spot “Radical” Patients
Doctors in Britain are being forced to become state snitches and spot “radical” patients under an NHS initiative that threatens to cut funding if a GP practice fails to take part in the program.
Under the new NHS England policy, every GP practice must send a member of staff on the “Prevent” counter terrorism course, during which they are trained to detect patients who are “vulnerable to radicalization,” before notifying authorities.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
[WARNING: Disturbing Content.]
A family were forced to flee their home and have it fumigated after finding hundreds of potentially deadly spiders — in a bunch of bananas.
Shocked father Jamie Roberts, 31, of Hednesford, Staffordshire, spotted white patches covering pieces of the fruit from a local shop after he put them in a bowl — but assumed this was mould.
However, upon closer inspection, he realised the fruit was infested with a spider nest — and immediately rang pest controllers who advised his family to leave their home immediately…
The spiders have not been officially identified but the family believe they could have been the world’s most poisonous Brazilian Wandering Spider…
Guinness World Records lists it as the most toxic spider on earth and its venom is said to be 30 times more powerful than that of a rattlesnake.
Humans bitten by one can suffer an irregular heartbeat, high blood pressure, vomiting and eventual death. Their scientific name is ‘phoneutria nigriventer’ — the first word being Greek for ‘murderess’.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Judges were accused of a ‘failure of duty’ last night after it emerged that four out of five serial burglars are escaping with a soft sentence.
Under supposedly tough laws passed by the last Government, housebreakers should be jailed for a minimum of three years if they have three or more convictions.
But figures unearthed by the Civitas think-tank show the ‘three strikes and you’re out’ punishment is being administered in only 22 per cent of cases.
Judges are either slashing the length of the sentence given in return for a guilty plea, or simply ignoring the guidelines.
Incredibly, one in ten of these burglars were not sent to prison at all. They instead received a suspended sentence or other ‘slap on the wrist’ sanction.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Muslim families in Britain are reporting their sons and brothers to police if they fear they will leave to fight in Syria, it was revealed today.
Scotland Yard has announced a large increase in arrests of world-be jihadists this year as it embarks on a more ‘sensitive’ and ‘less macho’ approach to fighting terrorism.
The London force says families, officers and community leaders are working better together — and this is being partly put down to an all-female leadership in Britain’s anti-terrorist police team.
More Syria-related arrests have happened since the start of 2014 than in all 2013, which police say is down to parents who would rather their sons were arrested in Britain than killed fighting.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
A state school allegedly infiltrated by Muslim fundamentalists had on its staff an extremist who was jailed for his involvement in a terror cell which planned to behead a British soldier, it emerged yesterday…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
A teenage drug dealer who sold a batch of ecstasy that killed a 15-year-old schoolgirl has been spared prison after a judge despaired at ‘the folly of youth’.
Alex Williams, 17, sold an ‘exceptionally’ pure version of the drug to a friend of GCSE pupil Martha Fernback. Martha died within hours of taking it.
Williams pleaded guilty to supplying ecstasy, but instead of the ten-year jail term he might have received, he was given a three-month curfew and an 18-month youth rehabilitation order.
A judge heard that Williams, an NVQ student with a previous police warning for cannabis possession, was ‘consumed by overwhelming guilt’…
Martha, a middle-class Oxford schoolgirl, took her fatal dose three days later. After his arrest, police pleaded with Williams to tell them who, if anyone else, he had sold it to so as to prevent more fatalities but he refused to comment.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Why Are Journalists So Scared of Giving People What They Want?
By James Delingpole
Excerpt: Since I landed my new job as executive editor at Breitbart London, my old Fleet Street friends and colleagues have reacted with a mix of envy and horror. The envy part comes from the fancy title and their ludicrously exaggerated idea of how much I’m being paid; the horror from the fact that I’ve gone and joined what’s known disparagingly in the trade as a ‘vertical’. A vertical — the opposite of a horizontal, obviously — is an online enterprise that caters to a niche audience: dog owners, say; or foot fetishists; or, in the case of Breitbart.com, readers of a mainly American persuasion who like their news curated and served up in an uncompromisingly right-wing way. So, for example, at Breitbart.com you won’t find too many stories on the shining genius of Barack Obama or the government’s lamentable failure to provide more social housing for one-armed lesbian single mothers. But you will find plenty on Sarah Palin, the Tea Party, Islamic extremism, enviro-lunacy, fake Republicans and all those other push-button issues guaranteed to send red-meat conservatives into paroxysms of ecstasy or righteous rage.
| — Hat tip: KP | [Return to headlines] |
What Most People Don’t Know About the Father of Vaccination and Why History is Repeating Itself
In 1789, Jenner decided (just after he had been elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society) to try immunizing (or what he thought was immunizing) his ten month old son, Edward, Jr, and two of his neighbor’s servants, by inoculating them with swinepox.
He had learned well from his famous teacher, Dr John Hunter, that one will learn more by “trying the experiment” rather than by just speculating about it. So Jenner performed the experiment by making a small scratch on the servants’ and the baby’s arms with a lancet and then infecting the scratch “with matter from a pustule of the baby’s nurse, who had caught the swinepox infection.” Eight days later baby Edward took sick and developed sores, but he did eventually recover.
Then, two years later, Jenner again challenged his son with smallpox again, this time, with unhappy results. This time there was a reaction, and a severe one. But he quickly recovered, and a year later Jenner inoculated him with smallpox once again.
Unfortunately, however, in the years following these experiments, young Edward “became a sickly child and exhibited signs of mild mental retardation,” likely due to neurological damage.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
You Know Who Else Collected Metadata? The Stasi.
The East German secret police, known as the Stasi, were an infamously intrusive secret police force. They amassed dossiers on about one quarter of the population of the country during the Communist regime.
But their spycraft — while incredibly invasive — was also technologically primitive by today’s standards. While researching my book Dragnet Nation, I obtained the above hand drawn social network graph and other files from the Stasi Archive in Berlin, where German citizens can see files kept about them and media can access some files, with the names of the people who were monitored removed.
The graphic shows forty-six connections, linking a target to various people (an “aunt,” “Operational Case Jentzsch,” presumably Bernd Jentzsch, an East German poet who defected to the West in 1976), places (“church”), and meetings (“by post, by phone, meeting in Hungary”).
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Crimea MPs Vote in Favour of Independence From Ukraine
Ukraine’s parliament has warned Crimea’s regional assembly it will be dissolved unless it cancels a referendum over joining Russia. Kyiv said Crimea had until Wednesday to call it off.
Meanwhile the Crimean Parliament stated on Tuesday it would declare itself an independent state if people vote in favour of joining Russia. It would then officially ask to become part of the Russian federation.
In a secret sitting, MPs voted 78 to 3 in favour of a declaration of independence from Ukraine. The declaration cites Kosovo’s separation from Serbia as a legal precedent.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Al-Qaeda Cell Planning US Embassy Attack Dismantled in Egypt
Plotting attack on French diplomatic offices as well
(ANSAmed) — CAIRO, MARCH 11 — An Al-Qaeda cell that had planned but not executed attacks on US and French embassies in Egypt has been dismantled, reported the country’s general prosecutor’s office on Tuesday. The office added that four people — three of whom arrested — had maps of the Suez region, the northern Nile Delta and the Sinai peninsula, as well as information on the movements of the armed forces. The office did not say when the three had been arrested. A fourth man is being sought by the authorities.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Benghazi Was a Planned Tragedy
According to my source’s in-country contacts, there never was any intention to kill Stevens. He was supposed to be kidnapped and held as a hostage in exchange for the release of the blind sheik, Omar Abdel Rahman. It should be recalled that this was the No. 1 objective of then-Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi in his Washington visit in 2012.
All the unanswered questions and the truth of what actually took place at our Benghazi compound that cost the lives of four Americans can only be resolved by the formation of a special committee with subpoena powers.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Bomb Explodes Outside Israeli Embassy in Cairo
A home-made bomb exploded in front of the Israeli embassy in Cairo on Tuesday, Reuters reported, citing security sources and the website of the local Al-Ahram newspaper. Security sources said the explosion targeted a police car parked near the embassy, rather than the embassy itself. No one was hurt in the explosion, according to the report.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Israel Expresses Regret Over Death of Jordanian Judge
Israel’s prime minister on Tuesday expressed sorrow over the fatal shooting of a Jordanian judge and announced a joint investigation into the incident, seeking to ease tensions with its key Arab ally.
The statement of regret by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reflected the importance that Israel places on its relations with Jordan, one of just two Arab countries that have peace agreements with Israel. The two countries signed their peace deal in 1994 and maintain strong security ties.
The death of Raed Zueter, a Jordanian magistrate of Palestinian descent, has caused an uproar in Jordan.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Israel Tightens Blockade on Al-Aqsa Mosque
Jerusalem, March 11 (Petra) — Israeli occupation authorities on Tuesday tightened the blockade on the Al-Aqsa Mosque in conjunction with a conference on the Jewish sovereignty over the so called “Temple Mount” that kicked off today…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Israeli Troops Gun Down Jordanian Judge Who ‘Tried to Seize a Soldier’s Weapon’
A Jordanian judge was shot dead at the Allenby border crossing on Monday, after he reportedly tried to snatch a weapon from an Israeli soldier.
The Israel Defense Forces said that the soldier opened fire on the man after he tried to attack him and steal his rifle. The border crossing has been temporarily closed.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK Funding NGO Lawfare on Israel’s Legal System
NGO Monitor report reveals UK and EU giving $20 million to NGO sabotaging Israeli legal processes.
The UK, along with the European Union (EU) and other European governments, has been investing massive public funds in an NGO engaged in lawfare against Israel’s legal system, reports research institute NGO Monitor…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
14 Killed in Insurgent Violence in Iraq
BAGHDAD, March 11 (Xinhua) — Up to 14 people were killed and 14 others wounded in shootings and bombings, mainly targeting security forces, in Iraq on Tuesday, police said.
In Iraq’s western province of Anbar, four soldiers were killed and three others wounded when a land mine struck their patrol in Amriyat al-Fallujah area, near the city of Fallujah, some 50 km west of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, a provincial police source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
At Least 5 Dead After Suicide Bombers Strike Syrian Town
Three suicide bombers detonated their explosives belts in a local administration building in a Kurdish town in northeastern Syria Tuesday, killing at least five people, the state-run news agency and a Kurdish official said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Chaldean Patriarchate and Caritas Iraq Aid Muslim Families Fleeing Violence
A delegation led by Mar Sako visited the Sunni mosque of Umm al- Qura , west of the capital , and distributed food and medicine. His Beatitude expresses “solidarity” with the displaced from Fallujah and Ramadi who have fled from the al Qaeda militias. He invites all to pray to God “so the country may return to normal”. Muslim leader : “Fraternity , characteristic of Iraqi Christians”.
Baghdad ( AsiaNews) — “We have come to express our solidarity with our displaced brothers and sisters of Fallujah and Ramadi”, and “help them in their suffering”. These are the words of His Beatitude Mar Louis Raphael I Sako describing the recent initiative promoted of the Chaldean Patriarchate , in collaboration with Caritas Iraq . On 9 March, a Christian delegation visited the Sunni mosque of Umm al- Qura , in the west of Baghdad. There they offered food aid, basic necessities and medicines to more than a thousand families of refugees , fleeing the sectarian violence that has bloodied Fallujah and Ramadi, both in the west of the country now under the control of al Qaeda. The Patriarch was accompanied by the auxiliary bishop of the capital Msgr. Shlemon Warduni, Fr. Pios Qasha, Fr. Albert Hisham and Nabeel Afram , director of the local branch of Caritas.
“We Christians — said Mar Sako — do not look at the person according to his ethnic or religious identity , but as someone in need to whom we must give a hand. We are men of peace, in this country where people emigrate in difficult circumstances”. His Beatitude has also asked all those present to “pray to God for the country to return to normal, that its prestige be restored and that the government be able to protect everyone”.
Illustrating the meaning of charitable initiative promoted by the leaders of the Chaldean Patriarchate in collaboration with Caritas Iraq , Mar Sako then added that it “ expresses national unity , humanity and citizenship that bind us to one another “ .. “ Our homes and our churches are open to all — he continued — we are in the season of Lent and this act is an act of gratuitous aid to our Muslim brothers and sisters in need.” Our Lord Jesus Christ , concluded the Patriarch , “taught us solidarity with concrete actions , not just words”.
The Christian delegation was welcomed to the most important Sunni Muslim place of worship in the capital by the Islamic leader Ali Mahmood Ahmed Al- Falahi , a member of the Sunni Endowments in Baghdad. Thanking the Chaldean Patriarch , the delegation and all Christians for “this fraternal initiative” , he added that the spirit of mutual aid “is the hallmark of Iraqi Christians”. “It is a visible expression of brotherhood — said the Muslim leader — and solidarity”, who hoped that Iraqis “remain brothers and sisters who are able to love one another”. Part of this effort is a project to create a commission for dialogue and discussion between the Sunni Endowments and the Catholic leadership of Iraq.
General elections are due to be held in April and the population fears a rise in attacks. 2013 was the most violent year in Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003, surpassing even the terrible violence of the biennium 2006-2007. According to government figures, in the month of February over a thousand people were killed in attacks aimed at government targets or Shiites . The Christian community has suffered the consequences of violence in the country. Before the American invasion and the fall of Saddam Hussein, the faithful were more than one million but today, according to recent estimates, there are only about 300 thousand.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt’s El-Sissi Visits UAE in First Official Trip to the Gulf Since Toppling Government
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — The official news agency of the United Arab Emirates says Egypt’s military chief, Field Marshal Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, is in the country attending the closing ceremony of joint military exercises.
It is el-Sissi’s second official trip abroad since he ousted President Mohammed Morsi from power after massive protests last summer. El-Sissi, who is defense minister, visited Moscow last month.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Iranian Cleric: Albert Einstein Was a Shiite Muslim
An Iranian cleric claims that the Albert Einstein, the great 20th century scientist who developed the Theory of Relativity, was a Shiite Muslim, Israel Radio reported on Saturday.
In the video, Kani quotes Einstein as saying that when he heard about the ascension of the prophet Mohammed, “a process which was faster than the speed of light,” he realized “this is the very same relativity movement that Einstein had understood.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Iraqi Officials Say Bombings, Shooting Kill 5 People in Baghdad
Officials in Iraq say bombings and a shooting around the country’s capital, Baghdad have killed at least five people. Police officials say an adhesive “sticky bomb” attached to a minibus exploded in the Shiite neighborhood of Sadr City in eastern Baghdad, killing two passengers and wounding five others.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Jordan: Anger Mounts Over Death of Judge by Israeli Soldier
Protesters in Amman call for ending diplomatic ties
(ANSAmed) — AMMAN, MARCH 11 — Tension is escalating in Jordan after an Israeli soldier killed a Jordanian national while travelling to the West Bank, with protesters calling for ending diplomatic ties with Israel.
Lawyers and judges in Amman main court on Tuesday protested killing of the 38 year old Raid Zueiter by observing an hour work stoppage and chanting anti-Israel slogans. Additionally, several political parties also gathered in front of the parliament on Tuesday to protest the incident. Student unions also held protests at public universities, burning the Israeli flags and vowing revenge, according to eye witnesses.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Rouhani Has Not Increased Freedoms in Iran, U.N. Chief Says
(Reuters) — Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has failed to fulfil campaign promises to allow greater freedom of expression and there has been a sharp rise in executions since his election, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Tuesday.
Rouhani, who won a landslide in June, led Iran to an initial nuclear deal with world powers. But, perhaps wary of further antagonizing powerful hardliners, he has not made significant reforms at home that moderate voters had hoped for.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey Clashes After Boy Hurt at Istanbul Protest Dies
Clashes have erupted at a hospital in Istanbul where a boy has died nine months after he was struck on the head by a tear-gas canister fired by police. In Ankara, police fired tear gas to disperse some 2,000 protesters.
The boy, Berkin Elvan, 15, was wounded while on his way to buy bread in June. He had been in a coma ever since.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UAE: Saudi Blacklist of Brotherhood Will ‘Usher in Peace’
Saudi Arabia’s labelling of Muslim Brotherhood as terrorist group ‘will unite Muslim nations’
Abu Dhabi: Saudi Arabia’s naming of the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organisation will unify Muslim nations and spread peace and stability across the Muslim communities, scholars said yesterday.
“Saudi Arabia’s designation of the Muslim Brotherhood and other organisations claiming to promote Islamic doctrine and thought will eventually unite the Muslim nations and spread peace and stability across the Muslim Ummah,” Dr Nasr Farid Wasil, former Mufti of Egypt, told Gulf News on the sidelines of the Promoting Peace in Muslim Societies forum held in Abu Dhabi…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UAE’s Halal Scheme a Boon for Muslims — And Marketers
The UAE takes the lead in creating a unified global halal standard
Are you sure that’s halal? That’s one question that has bothered followers of the faith ever since technological and trade developments over the past centuries significantly altered the way food arrives on our table, raising the necessity for ensuring its halal-ness.
Making matters more complicated is the fact that contaminated products often find their way into supermarket shelves even after a product is labelled as halal, and many unknowingly consume what is not permissible…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UN: 2.8m Syrian Children Out of School Due to Civil War
The number of Syrian children affected by the civil war in their homeland has doubled in the past year to at least 5.5 million — more than half the country’s children — with devastating effects on the health, education and psychological well-being of an entire generation, the United Nations children’s agency said Thursday.
The conflict, which enters its fourth year this month, has unleashed massive suffering across all segments of Syrian society, but the impact on children has been especially acute, according to a new report by UNICEF.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
“Little Green Men” Or “Russian Invaders”?
The internet has no shortage of photographs and videos showing armed men in Crimea who look like members of the Russian military. Their guns are the same as those used by the Russian army, their lorries have Russian number plates and they speak in Russian accents.
Yet according to President Vladimir Putin, they are in fact members of “self-defence groups” organised by the locals who bought all their uniforms and hardware in a shop.
This poses a challenge to the media covering the crisis: what do you call people who are officially not there?
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Could Muslim Extremists Move Into Disputed Crimea?
The possibility of Ukraine’s Muslim minority community radicalizing may become reality if Russia takes a stronger position in the disputed Crimean peninsula, according to a foreign policy expert.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Debunked: The State Department’s Little List of 10 Lies Against Putin
The US State Department put out a catchy compendium of deceptions in recent days, being ten statements attributed to “Mr Putin says,” answered by misleading “facts” of their own. Here we examine the fiction, facts and propaganda of these 10 points, plus one big one they somehow left out, in countdown order from 10 to zero.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Newly Found Megalithic Ruins in Russia Contain the Largest Blocks of Stone Ever Discovered
An incredible discovery that was recently made in Russia threatens to shatter conventional theories about the history of the planet. On Mount Shoria in southern Siberia, researchers have found an absolutely massive wall of granite stones.
Some of these gigantic granite stones are estimated to weigh more than 3,000 tons, and as you will see below, many of them were cut “with flat surfaces, right angles, and sharp corners”. Nothing of this magnitude has ever been discovered before. The largest stone found at the megalithic ruins at Baalbek, Lebanon is less than 1,500 tons. So how in the world did someone cut 3,000 ton granite stones with extreme precision, transport them up the side of a mountain and stack them 40 meters high? According to the commonly accepted version of history, it would be impossible for ancient humans with very limited technology to accomplish such a thing. Could it be possible that there is much more to the history of this planet than we are being taught?
For years, historians and archaeologists have absolutely marveled at the incredibly huge stones found at Baalbek. But some of these stones in Russia are reportedly more than twice the size. Needless to say, a lot of people are getting very excited about this discovery. The following comes from a Mysterious Universe article…
[Comment: Check out the photos.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Russians Enter Town North of Crimea, Say Ukrainians
Ukrainians in the Kherson province just north of Crimea say Russian operatives have moved into the territory, an incursion which, if true, could show Vladimir Putin has more than just the Black Sea peninsula in his sights.
Residents of the village of Chonhar, in the Kherson region of Ukraine, say Russian troops showed up last week in armored personnel carriers, prompting the dispatch of Ukrainian troops and a standoff. The suspected Russian troops pulled back and established a checkpoint on a major road leading north from the Crimean capital of Simferopol.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Ukraine Crisis: Just Another Globalist-Engineered Powder Keg
Some revolutions are quite real in their intent and motivations. But many either become co-opted by elites through financing, or they are created from thin air from the very beginning. Usually, the rebellions that are completely fabricated tend to lean toward extreme zealotry.
The Syrian insurgency is rife with, if not entirely dominated by, men associated with al-Qaida. Governments in the U.S. and Israel continue to support the insurgency despite their open affiliation with a group that is supposedly our greatest enemy. Syrian insurgents have been recorded committing numerous atrocities, including mass execution, the torture of civilians and even the cannibalism of human organs.
The revolution in Ukraine is run primarily by the Svoboda Party, a National Socialist (fascist) organization headed by Oleh Tyahnybok. Here is a photo of Tyahnybok giving a familiar salute:
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Was the Price of Ukraine’s “Liberation” The Handover of Its Gold to the Fed?
A curious story, and one which should be taken with a mine of salt, has surfaced out of the pro-Russian newspaper Iskra, which reports — so far on an entirely unsubstantiated basis — that last Friday, in a mysterious operation under the cover of night, Ukraine’s gold reserves were promptly loaded onboard an unmarked plane, which subsequently took the gold to the US.
From the source:…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Afghanistan: Swedish Radio Reporter Shot Dead in Kabul
Swedish reporter Nils Horner was killed in Kabul on Tuesday. The journalist was reportedly shot in the back of the head while carrying out street interviews.
Reports came through early on Tuesday that a foreign national had been killed in the Afghan capital near a restaurant where 21 people, including 13 foreigners, were murdered in January.
Sveriges Radio (SR) later confirmed that the man was their South Asia correspondent Nils Horner. SR added later that the 51-year-old Swede was shot in the back of the head while conducting street interviews.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Authorities are investigating the possibility that the pilot of the missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH 370 committed suicide, the director of the CIA has revealed.
John Brennan, head of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), said: ‘I think you cannot discount any theory’, when asked if it was possible the pilot deliberately crashed the Boeing 777.
His intervention came as Malaysian police say they are carrying out psychological profiles of everyone on board the plane, which vanished on Saturday carrying 239 people after taking off from Kuala Lumpur en route to Beijing.
The theory could offer an explanation as to how the plane ‘disappeared’ from civilian radar tracking its movements, as the pilot could simply have switched off the transponder shortly before it vanished.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Malaysia’s military says it is investigating reports that a missing Boeing 777 jetliner headed to Beijing changed course and made it to the Malacca Strait, hundreds of miles away from the last location reported by civilian authorities.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Man With Stolen Passport on Missing Malaysia Jet is Asylum Seeker
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — A man traveling with a stolen passport on a missing Malaysia Airlines jetliner was an Iranian teenager trying to migrate to Germany, and is not believed to have any terrorist links, police said Tuesday.
The announcement is likely to dampen, at least for now, speculation that the disappearance of the Boeing 777 was linked to terrorism. Police said a second passenger also traveling with a stolen passport has not been identified. Both bought their tickets in Thailand and entered Malaysia together.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Japanese Airline Accused of Enciting Sexual Harassment With Mini-Skirt Uniforms
A Japanese budget airline has faced criticism over revealing new uniforms for its female flight attendants, with some calling the miniskirts sexual harassment…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Taiwan Warned of Possible Terrorist Attack Days Before Flight Disappeared
Taiwan authorities have said they received information about a possible terrorist attack on Beijing’s airport just four days before the Malaysian flight disappeared. They believe it is unrelated but are still investigating…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Vietnam, the Philippines and Malaysia Find Common Ground Against Beijing’s “Imperialism”
Southeast Asian nations are increasingly concerned over repeated attacks by Chinese (paramilitary) boats against their fishing and commercial vessels. Hanoi stands with Manila as the latter sues China over maritime boundaries in an international court. Malaysia also join the fray, worried over Chinese incursion near James Island.
Hanoi (AsiaNews) — Kuala Lumpur, Hanoi and Manila are boosting their ties to counter Beijing’s hegemony in the South China Sea, reacting to the Chinese Navy’s unremitting violations of the rights of Vietnamese, Filipino and Malaysian commercial ships or fishing vessels in disputed waters.
The United States back the claims of South Asian nations. For Washington, China’s “cow tongue line” is both illegal and irrational.
The Philippines continues its lawsuit against China after the international court accepted its case, asking Manila to present legal arguments and evidence on 3 March 2014.
Vietnam and the Philippines have been increasingly alarmed by Beijing’s “imperialism” in the South and East China Seas, largely claimed by China (almost 80 per cent of the area), which include islands also claimed by Vietnam, Taiwan, the Philippines, Brunei and Malaysia.
In recent months, China has tried to use political, economic and diplomatic means to interfere with foreign fishing or boats in disputed waters.
Such a show of force is unacceptable to many of the region’s nations, who have begun to band together to counter the claims of the Asian superpower.
China has deployed paramilitary forces to harass and chase Filipino, Vietnamese or Malaysian boats and small vessels.
On 27 January, Chinese ships used water cannons against Filipino fishing vessels. On 1 March, a Vietnamese trawler was attacked by Chinese paramilitary forces, its fish catch seized and the crew mistreated. The owner of the vessel said that he was beaten and tasered.
On 4 March, the Filipino daily Inquirer reported that Vietnam is backing the Philippines in its case against China before the international court.
China’s hegemonic designs have also started to worry Malaysia after Chinese vessels crossed into the waters of James Island, just 80 kilometres off the coast of Malaysia.
Such incidents have prompted Kuala Lumpur to seek cooperation with the Philippines and Vietnam to defend their common interests and uphold international law.
In Vietnam, activists and members of civil society hope that the “Chinese regime” will rein in its foreign expansionist designs, whilst allowing more (political and religious) rights at home, removing the danger of force and violence once and for all.
In the East China Sea, China is equally at loggerheads with Japan over the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands and with the Philippines over the Scarborough Shoal.
In the South China Sea Beijing claims sovereignty over the Spratly and Paracel Islands, which are also claimed by Vietnam, Brunei, Philippines, Malaysia and Taiwan.
Beijing’s hegemony is strategic in nature with regards to trade and oil and natural gas seabed development, in a region crossed by two thirds of the world’s maritime trade.
The resource-rich islands are almost uninhabited, but are thought to hold large reserves of oil and natural gas, and other raw materials.
India, Australia and the United States are also involved in the dispute to varying degrees, with cross-cutting interests and alliances in the Asia-Pacific region, one of the world’s main geopolitical hotspots.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Australia Suggested to Play Larger Role in Asian Food Security
CANBERRA, March 11 (Xinhua) — Australia will benefit from and can play a larger role in providing high-quality food to Asia, especially to those fast developing nations like China and India, said a report by the Economist Intelligent Unit (EIU) launched Tuesday here…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
When Muslims Are Faced With Haram Foods
Another riveting series of MasterChef Australia has reached its finale and with it comes an end to weeks of nail-biting challenges that have made it compulsive viewing for thousands across the Middle East…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Maghreb Jihadists Killed in Mali Airstrike
Nouakchott — Al-Qaeda fighters from Libya, Algeria and Mauritania died during multiple military raids in Mali over the past fortnight. “We located a dozen jihadists handling some rockets near an arms cache in the Adrar,” the French defence minister announced on Thursday (March 6th).
Reaper drones, along with Chad-based Mirage 2000 fighters and Tiger helicopters from Mali “made it possible to neutralise” the terrorists in the March 4th operation, Jean-Yves Le Drian told Le Figaro. France recently acquired the two American-made drones. They are based in Niamey, Niger…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Somali, AU Troops Retake Towns From Al-Shabab
Nairobi — Somali government and African Union forces say they have recaptured territory that was held by the al-Qaida-linked militant group al-Shabab. A government official says the offensive is just the start of a fresh effort to oust the group from its remaining strongholds in Somalia…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Caribbean States Demand Reparations From European Powers for Slave Trade
Most of the Caribbean nations have adopted a single plan to solicit from former slaving nations an apology, more aid and damages for 300 years of slavery, which they say have hobbled their economies and public health
A coalition of Caribbean countries has unveiled its demands for reparations from Britain and other European nations for the enduring legacy of the slave trade…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Mexican Vigilante Movement Riven by Disputes Between Leaders
Mexico’s vigilante “self-defense” groups have been riven by internal disputes after driving the vicious Knights Templar drug cartel out of much of the western state of Michoacan.
The vigilantes are now the de-facto authorities in about 15 of the state’s townships, and several top drug cartel leaders have been arrested or killed.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Amnesty for All, Jobs for None
By Daniel Greenfield
Excerpt: Paul Ryan, who can do the math for everything else, loses his calculator when it comes to counting the impact of a population that is already a disproportionate drain on social services and enthusiastically supports big government spending. But big business has always supported cheap labor, which is why the Republican establishment may spend 5 minutes at home with its base before heading back to D.C. for a lecture on how illegal alien amnesty will turn the economy around. Illegal alien amnesty is even more damaging to the voting base of the Democrats than of the Republicans, but that hasn’t stopped the AFL-CIO and the NAACP, organizations whose members will take a severe beating from an illegal alien amnesty, from selling out the people they claim to speak for and joining the amnesty parade.
| — Hat tip: KP | [Return to headlines] |
Britain is Not Getting the Immigrants it Deserves: They Are Far Too Good for This Country
By Cristina Odone
Britain is not getting the immigrants it deserves. Given how spitefully xenophobic the debate on immigration has become, the UK deserves a wave of ignorant, unskilled and feckless immigrants. They are here to steal our jobs and milk our social services. They keep our children from learning because their children can’t speak English and keep interrupting Teacher. They are grabbing the best council homes (10,000 of them according to the tabloids) because they know how to scam the local council. As for hospitals, they’re bed-blockers: their elderly and infirm as well as their pregnant women stuff every ward…
[Reader comment by licjjs on 11 March 2014.]
I object both to the content and the tone of this article. The British people have every right, indeed a duty, to object to the laissez faire policies which have brought massive uncertainty, not to say, unhappiness to so many of the poorest in our country. This country has had its good will trampled upon by the greediest of other nations — not the most deserving or talented.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Human Traffickers Stopped With 15 Migrants in False Bottom
Seven minors among Somalis, Pakistanis at Brindisi port
(ANSA) — Brindisi, March 11 — Police arrested two men charged with human trafficking in the southern Italian port city of Brindisi Tuesday for smuggling 15 migrants in false bottoms of two freight trucks, among whom seven were minors. The migrants consisted of 13 Somalis and two Pakistanis, police said. They were uncovered during customs checks after the trucks exited a ferry from Igoumenitsa, northwestern Greece. The minors were taken to an immigration center in Italy, while the adult migrants were being sent back to Greece, according to EU protocol which says migrants must register in the European country in which they first set foot.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Netherlands: Migrants More Likely to be Jobless and Living in Poverty
The unemployment rate among Dutch people with an ethnic minority background is more than triple that of the white Dutch, according to a new report by the government’s socio-cultural think tank SCP. Hardest hit are youngsters of Moroccan origin who left school without any qualifications — more than half of them are without a job.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: Sea Swallows the Stories of Africans Drowned at Ceuta
Malaga, Spain — “Who will speak for them now? Who will tell their stories to their families in Cameroon or Ivory Coast?” asked Edmund Okeke, a Nigerian, about the 16 migrants who died while trying to swim to the shore of the Spanish city of Ceuta from Morocco…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Big ‘Gay’ Brother is Watching You
Doublethink means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one’s mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them. ~ George Orwell, 1984
In Orwell’s classic dystopian novel, the fascist government of Oceania and its enigmatic dictator Big Brother attempt to brainwash the masses to accept non sequiturs like “war is peace” and “ignorance is strength.” But in the real world such paradoxical memes inevitably lead to mindlessness — or madness — or are forced to eventually give way to the constraints of cognitive dissonance: the psychological stress that results from holding conflicting ideas or values simultaneously. Hundreds of peer-reviewed studies have shown that people are profoundly motivated, consciously or subconsciously, to achieve consonance — to reduce this conflict or dissonance — by eliminating or at least suppressing one of the conflicting ideas.
For individuals who find themselves experiencing erotic, same-sex desires for the first time — and let’s acknowledge that for most these feelings are involuntary — cognitive dissonance in the form of guilt or shame is very common. A good example of this was described by Robert Bauman, a conservative, pro-family Republican who served as a Congressman from 1973 until he lost re-election in 1980 following a scandal involving a sixteen-year-old male prostitute. In his 1986 autobiography, Baumann recalls the homosexual feelings that later began to emerge when, at the tender age of five, he was molested by a twelve-year-old neighbor, thus joining the hundreds of thousands of other victims of sexual abuse who would come to experience same-sex attractions.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Get ‘em While They’Re Young: Promoting Homosexuality in Public Schools
Funded by our tax dollars, every year the National Education Association promotes what most Christians consider sinful behavior in government-run schools across the country. This year, the Day of Silence (DOS) will be Friday, April 11. Under the guise of “Anti-bullying,” thousands of public schools allow students to participate by remaining silent throughout an entire day even during instructional time. The DOS is sponsored by GLSEN (Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network), and is a political action in public schools that promotes the homosexual movement. Some suggest you keep your children home on that day.
Flashback to May 23, 2011, when the resignation of [Obama appointee] Kevin Jennings was completely ignored by the media. Jennings was the “Safe Schools Czar” for the Obama administration, and after I read what he promoted in public schools, it almost made me sick to my stomach.
Jennings was the founder of the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), and one look at GLSEN’s recommended reading list should cause alarm. There are books encouraging the sexualization of children regardless of “orientation” and a sexed-up reading list for teachers on down to grade schoolers. Kevin Jennings had been known to encourage sex between adults and minors. CNS News reported:
“In April, he spoke at an assembly at a public school in Maryland where he compared those who oppose homosexuality to supporters of slavery and racial segregation.”
During his fourteen-year tenure at GLSEN, Jennings touted his homosexual activism and included the fact that since 1995, he increased the number of public school-based and student-led pro-homosexual clubs, such as Gay-Straight Alliances, from 50 to 4,300 today. Did you get that number? With the NEA’s cooperation, Jennings was responsible for adding more than 4,200 new clubs in public schools that promote homosexuality.
GLSEN’s goal for the Day Of Silence is to encourage sympathy and support for not only homosexual and lesbian students but also those involved in cross-dressing behaviors. Behind the veil, DOS is not led by students at all.
Linda Harvey of Mission America writes:
“GLSEN describes itself as ‘championing LGBT issues in K-12 education since 1990.’ Did you catch that — ‘K through 12’? Younger and younger students are the target of this group. The younger, the better because they are easier to manipulate.“…
In 2011, President Obama awarded Kevin Jennings $410 million to promote homosexuality in the public schools. National recession? No problem, this was important! Jennings received an increase of $45 million for his work to push through his agenda on school children regardless of the fact that America has massive federal budget deficits.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Nanny State’s Stranglehold on Civilization
French historian Alexis de Tocqueville articulated what he foresaw shaping up in the early 1800s. Tocqueville saw it as a “democratic authoritarianism”. He wrote,
“Over these men stands an immense tutelary power, which assumes sole responsibility for securing their pleasure and watching over their fate. It is absolute, meticulous, regular, provident, and mild. It would resemble paternal authority if only its purpose were the same, namely, to prepare men for manhood. But on the contrary, it seeks only to keep them in childhood irrevocably. It likes citizens to rejoice, provided they think only of rejoicing. It works willingly for their happiness but wants to be the sole agent and only arbiter of that happiness. It provides for their security, foresees and takes care of their needs, facilitates their pleasures, manages their most important affairs, directs their industry, regulates their successions, and divides their inheritances. Why not relieve them entirely of the trouble of thinking and the difficulty of living?”
Camille Paglia echoed Tocqueville’s warning in a recent interview with the Wall Street Journal. Paglia, herself a lesbian, is daring to say what a large percent of men in the emasculated western world have not even dared to think. In Paglia’s words, the politically correct atmosphere that we are bathed in is choking off the life energy of men, and in turn women. The education system douses out the electric energy of young boys with command and control systems and psychotropic drugs like Ritalin.
“What you’re seeing is how a civilization commits suicide,” Paglia told the WSJ. On the schooling system, she says, “They’re making a toxic environment for boys. Primary education does everything in its power to turn boys into neuters.” The political correctness of our era is all about the “neutralization of maleness.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Student Journalists Attacked for Challenging Homophobic Speakers
Last week both Yusuf Chambers of the Islamic Education and Research Academy (IERA) and Uthman Lateef appeared at the University of Nottingham as part of ‘Discover Islam Week’. Given that both these speakers have a record of expressing homophobic sentiment, student journalists both approached LGBT Network members and questioned the two men on their beliefs. Calls for intolerant speakers to be allowed to speak in order for their bigotry to be exposed are common from students, so you would think that this would have been acceptable behaviour…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Al-Qaeda Unveils English-Language Terror Magazine
The terrorist organization’s first English-language Web magazine is introduced with an online video and will be called ‘Resurgence’
Al-Qaeda’s media wing has announced the upcoming launch of Resurgence, a terror magazine for English-speakers.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Does an App Called Spritz Really Triple Your Reading Speed?
Have you seen the new speed-reading app? It’s pretty cool. Turns out there’s something odd about the way our eyes move over words, and a group of app creators, having clocked this, have been able to produce something that can — they say — triple reading speed. Yes, triple it.
The secret is that we only need a quick glance at the “optimal recognition point” of a word to understand it — that’s the two or three letters in the centre. This is the discovery behind Spritz, an app that flashes up words at breakneck speed, with the ORP highlighted in red.
The words flash up so fast that it feels almost miraculous you can follow them. You can, though. You can triple your reading speed.
It’s just a shame that the new app cuts out another feature of eye movement. Not only do our eyes dart over words in a specific way, you see, there’s also a pattern when it comes to moving over phrases.
We don’t move smoothly along from left to right at one pace, but take in clumps of text at a single glance (a “fixation”, 0.25s), then move to the next one (a “saccade”, 0.1s). We then go back and repeat this once or twice, before pausing so we can take the information in (0.3s).
It’s not for nothing we do this. It’s how we understand what we read. Back in 1985, a psychologist called Ronald Carver got a bit sceptical of John F Kennedy’s claim that he could read 1,200 words per minute. He took a group of the fastest readers he could find and put them through their paces. No one, he found, could read faster than 600 words per minute and retain more than 75 per cent of it. (Spritz claims to help you take in 1,000 words a minute). His conclusion was inescapable: JFK was probably mostly skimming.
Research in this field is pretty limited, but what there is — like Keith Rayner’s “Eye movements and information processing during reading” — says the same thing: speed reading is limited by speed of comprehension.
And Carver found those limits extend to other media too: people can’t recall spoken words if they are much faster than the average reading speed, 300 words per minute. Flashing words up on a screen with the middle part highlighted won’t change that.
Incidentally, the rhythm at which our eyes move also determines the voice we hear in our heads. Present words one by one as Spritz does (“Hey-how-are-you-my-name-is” etc) and you can’t help your inner voice taking on a robot-like intonation.
What Spritz is facilitating is not reading but skimming, and weirdly robotic skimming at that. I’m not sure how useful it will actually turn out to be.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Females Are Genetically Protected From Autism
It takes more mutations to trigger autism in women than in men, which may explain why men are four times more likely to have the disorder.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sharp or Flat: Gene Clues Into Musical Ability
In a study published on Tuesday that compared hundreds of individuals, scientists said the first step towards answering the question may lie in DNA—in several genes that detect and interpret sounds.
Researchers took blood samples from 767 people from 76 families, ranging in age from seven to 94 years. Some families had a strong musical tradition, boasting several professional players.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
This 14-Year-Old Boy Just Wrote an Outstanding Poem
If you’ve ever lost faith in this generation or the next one, this 14-year-old boy may give you just enough hope to get through the day.
Derek Nichols decided to post a poem written by his younger brother, Jordan, who seems to be wise beyond his years.
Here’s the transcript of the poem:…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Transatlantic Great White Shark ‘May be Pregnant’
The first great white shark seen to cross from one side of the Atlantic to the other may be pregnant, says the head of the expedition tracking her.
At the weekend, the satellite-tagged fish, called Lydia, crossed the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, which marks a rough boundary line between east and west. She has now turned towards the UK, but it is unclear where she will go next.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
MH 370: If cell phones rang, then they were logged into a certain cell. The administrators of the host networks (Malaysia?) as well as the home networks (China) can tell the coordinates of the base station – this is the way the system works. Assuming the plane is near the phones, then all they would have to do (according to my understanding) is zoom some satellite onto that area. And they keep on telling us they still have no idea where the plane is? The truth must be awful if they still conceal it from us.
So Caribbeans are demanding financial reparations for slavery. It seems that grievance mongering has once again trumped common sense. No-one living in Europe today can be held accountable for the slavery that occurred 150 years ago and furthermore how can anyone living in the Caribbean today blame slavery for his or her failings when they, themselves, were not enslaved? All the while the East African slave trade whereby East Africans are transported to the Arabian peninsula continues unabated and without comment.