Two people were killed (some accounts say three) and dozens more were injured when two buildings collapsed and caught fire in East Harlem this morning, after what was reportedly a gas explosion. The front walls of the buildings were blown out over the street, covering the pavement and cars with bricks and other rubble.
In other news, the Chinese government says that it has satellite photos showing debris in the sea northeast of Malaysia, where Flight MH370 might have gone down. However, the Malaysian military says that it tracked an unidentified radar blob that crossed the width of the country traveling westward at a time consistent with the disappearance of the jetliner, assuming that it reversed direction after cutting off its transponders. The radar image eventually disappeared to the northwest, about two hundred miles off the coast in the Strait of Malacca, apparently heading for the Andaman Sea.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to Fjordman, Insubria, JD, Jerry Gordon, JP, KP, MC, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.
Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.
Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.
Borrowing Costs Hit Record Low in Italy One-Year Bond Sale
Fully seven billion euros of bonds sold
(ANSA) — Rome, March 12 — Borrowing costs in Italy fell to a record low Wednesday as one-year Italian bonds saw yields drop to an average of 0.592% with seven billion euros of bonds sold.
That was the full amount targeted for sale by the Treasury and suggests confidence in the health of the Italian economy may be slowly edging up.
The yield is also below the average of 0.676% recorded at a similar auction last month.
Shortly after the auction, the spread between Italy’s 10-year BTP and its German equivalent stood at 179 basis points, near Tuesday’s close of 175 basis points.
The yield on the 10-year bond stood at 3.40%.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Spending Review Chief Suggests Cutting Top Pensions
Cottarelli proposes changes affecting only 15% of allowances
(ANSA) — Rome, March 12 — Trimming spending on pensions “which are a very high” expenditure could free up billions of euros for other purposes including job creation, Spending Review Commissioner Carlo Cottarelli said Wednesday.
He suggested that only about 15% of pensions would be affected through “a temporary contribution for pensions above a certain threshold, to allow the recruitment of new people”. Speaking to the Senate budget committee, he also suggested that actual savings from the review could total about three billion euros this year, “if you do the right things and if there is an effort”.
Savings could rise to as much as 18 billion euros in 2015 and 34 billion for 2016, he said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Peter Schiff: US Economy ‘Screwed Up, ‘ Stock Market a ‘Bubble’ (+Video)
Watch Full Video Interview Here
Epoch Times: Mr. Schiff, what’s your view on the U.S. economy at this moment?
Peter Schiff: I think it’s a disaster. Very few people perceive just how big a disaster it is. Most people think the U.S. economy is recovering, maybe a bit more sluggish than they would like. People talk about a jobless recovery. But the reality is it’s not a recovery at all. We are not recovering from anything. The country is getting sicker.
The U.S. economy is really all screwed up. It’s the result of mainly monetary policy, but fiscal and regulatory policies are part of the problem. I think the major part of the problem is the central bank. The central bank is basically trying to accommodate bad fiscal policy, bad regulatory policy. They are trying to provide a stimulus to the economy to negate the sedative that is being applied by the government. But it’s actually making the problem worse.
Epoch Times: So what’s the problem?
Mr. Schiff: One of the problems we have in America is that interest rates are too low. We don’t save enough, we spend too much, we borrow too much, we don’t produce enough. So we have these huge external imbalances where we borrow from the rest of the world. We have to import goods, because we don’t invest in productivity.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Rehn Increases Pressure on Italy Over Reforms
Must boost recovery, create jobs, says EU economy commissioner
(ANSA) — Strasbourg, March 12 — European Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn on Wednesday called on Italy and France to pass economic reforms in order to boost growth.
“We expect further efforts on reforms to foster recovery and create jobs,” Rehn told a plenary session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg.
“The message given to large countries in the eurozone has been and continues to be that of a strong need for Italy and France to intensify economic reforms in order to attain growth, competitiveness and create jobs” while “there is a clear need to strengthen and stimulate internal demand in Germany, in particular public and private investments,” he said.
Last week Rehn told Rome to adopt urgent measures after the European Commission said Italy was under “specific monitoring” over its macroeconomic imbalances.
Italy’s longest postwar recession officially ended with flat growth in the third quarter of last year and a 0.1% rise in the last quarter, but unemployment is still running at a record high and businesses are struggling to recover.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Where Do We Find Money When We Are Broke?
Are we escalating our nation’s wellbeing to a point of no return, the fundamental transformation we were promised?
Where do we find money to fund so much out-of-control spending when we are so broke, our national debt ($17.5 trillion) with unfunded liabilities ($128.3 trillion) exceeds $145.8 trillion?
Where did the Democrats find almost $4 trillion to fund this year’s budget when Gross Domestic Product is $16.1 trillion and the total national assets are $112.1 trillion for almost 318 million Americans? usdebtclock.org
How did it happen that United States, a former power house of wealth and industry, now burdened by a national debt impossible to fathom and repay, can find money to send to Ukraine in order to protect its sovereignty but does not care about U.S. sovereignty?
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
At Least One Dead in East Harlem Building Collapse
At least one person was killed when two buildings collapsed in East Harlem on Wednesday morning, according to authorities, and a senior city official suggested that there would most likely be more fatalities.
Witnesses reported hearing what sounded like an explosion before the buildings collapsed. Flames and smoke could be seen billowing from the street, and the force of the damage blew out windows in neighboring buildings.
At least 16 people were injured, including four seriously, according to city officials. The police said that two residential buildings — 1644 and 1646 Park Avenue — had collapsed.
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Big Brother, Small City: River Islands Will Feature Heavy Surveillance
(Sacramento) A new, scenic development surrounded by winding waterways is billed as a safe haven.
Only four bridges lead in and out of the area with security checkpoints and a fiberoptic video surveillance program. Every license plate scanned on those roads will be cross-checked with a DMV database for stolen cars.
The first homes are already going up at River Islands, and the people who move in can expect to be part of a new era in policing.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Chinese Components Found in B-1 Bombers and F-16 Fighters
A Pentagon investigation has found that despite prohibitions by federal law, multiple US aircraft and weaponry are housing Chinese parts and raw materials.
The news comes a couple of months after it was initially revealed that Lockheed Martin’s F-35 fighter jet was using Chinese magnets in its new radar system. Despite concern over Chinese espionage efforts and military buildup, the Pentagon reportedly waived laws barring the parts in order to keep $392 billion program on schedule.
According to Reuters, the US Department of Defense said that in addition to the F-35, the B-1 bomber, the F-16 fighter jets, and the SM-3 IIA missile were also found to be housing Chinese components or raw material. Specifically, the Pentagon authorized waivers for the inclusion of specially manufactured magnets in the aircraft, while Chinese-sourced titanium may have been used in the missile’s construction.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
College Group Cancels Diversity ‘Happy Hour’ After Excluding White Staffers
OLYMPIA, Wash. — An attempt to fight racism at a community college may have backfired. A group of employees at South Puget Sound Community College sent out an invitation to all 300 staffers.
The “Staff, Faculty and Administrators of Color” encouraged employees to reply to the invitation to find out the confidential date and time of what was being called a “happy hour” to “build support and community” for people of color.
The invite made it clear white people were not invited. The email read: “If you want to create space for white folks to meet and work on racism, white supremacy, and white privilege to better our campus community and yourselves, please feel free to do just that.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Conn. Cop Suspended After Calls for Home Gun Confiscation
“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.”
Multiple screenshots captured the officer’s astonishing remarks regarding mass gun confiscation, which he defended as legitimate and lawful.
“But like I said I didn’t make the law. But if it comes down to that then I guess we see how you would respond…” Peterson told Cinque. “I’m not going for any warrants… but if my dept gets them and we have to serve them I will see you then.”
Peterson even went on to tell a second firefighter, who disagreed with the officer’s statements, that he could not wait to knock down his door personally.
“I give my left nut to bang down your door and come for your gun,” Peterson said.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
By Selwyn Duke
Excerpt: Cameron Smith: ‘A lot of news articles are putting my quote in of me saying he would put Jews in Ghettos as the reason he went off. He actually went off well before that. I literally asked him if a law was passed to put Jews in the Ghettos, would you? He literally said “Now you are being silly…but if its the law, I enforce it; I don’t make them.” To me THAT was the quote of the story that everyone is missing.’
| — Hat tip: KP | [Return to headlines] |
Cop: I’d Love to “Bang Down Your Door and Come for Your Gun”
An unjust law is no law at all
Even good people can live lives of contradiction and entertain ideas that simply aren’t true. For instance, if you’re a cop, it’s easy to justify an action by saying that your job is only to enforce the law, especially since, on paper, this is certainly so. But the implication that you enforce every law, across the board, every time, without discretion is absolutely untrue and you, I and everyone else knows it. You don’t ticket everyone driving 31 in a 30 zone, and many times even more egregious law-breakers get off with a warning. Some laws aren’t applied at all, such as a parking law in my town an officer told me was on the books but that “we don’t enforce.” You use discretion all the time.
As for legislation such as Connecticut’s new gun restrictions, ask yourself this question, guys: If I caught my brother, sister, father, mother, son or daughter with some legally acquired but now illegal 30-round magazines in his car trunk, would I slap him in cuffs, haul him in and put him in the system? Let’s face it, you know the answer. And, well, the person you would haul in and arrest for this newly minted “crime” would be someone else’s brother, sister, father, mother, son or daughter. Of course, this argument could justify refusal to enforce most any law, since family will virtually always receive special treatment. So is there a sound rationale for refusing to enforce a law across the board?
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
East Harlem ‘Explosion’: Two Dead and at Least 20 Injured in New York City Building Collapse
Two people are dead and at least 20 injured after two apartment buildings in East Harlem partially collapsed following a massive gas explosion earlier today…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Facial Recognition Glasses to ‘Stop Crime Before it Happens’
A company has developed glasses that will give users not only an interactive, virtual 3-D display, but also the ability to spot individual faces among a crowd of people, something the company says will aid police in predicting and thwarting “future” crimes…
But in a recent interview with CBS Miami, the company’s founder, Allen Yang, touted the glasses as a new crime fighting tool that will give police eerie Minority Report-like future crime awareness…
And there’s no solace for people wishing to opt out of a face scan. Unlike other facial recognition software, Yang says the Atheer One’s technology will be so advanced it’ll be able to produce an image of a person’s face even when the face is distorted or only 60 percent visible.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Florida: Republicans Win First Election Showdown of the Year
By Paul Steinhauser, Deirdre Walsh and Dana Bash
Excerpt: Republican David Jolly edged out Democrat Alex Sink to win Tuesday’s special election in Florida’s 13th Congressional District. Jolly will fill out the term of his former boss, Republican Rep. Bill Young, who died in October. Young, first elected to Congress in 1970, was the longest-serving Republican in the House. With national Republicans framing the race as a referendum on Obamacare and a massive infusion of outside ad money to try to influence the outcome, pundits have looked to the Florida race as a bellwether for November’s midterm elections.
| — Hat tip: KP | [Return to headlines] |
Gates Foundation Targets Opponents of Massive Student Database
A new report published Tuesday by the New America Foundation criticizes several higher education lobbying associations for standing in the way of a proposed federal database that would provide more expansive data about how colleges are performing.
The report — “College Blackout: How the Higher Education Lobby Fought to Keep Students in the Dark” — outlines the history of a proposal to create a federal student-unit record system, which has been a lightning rod for controversy since it was first suggested by then-Education Secretary Margaret Spellings’s higher education commission in 2005.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Gov. Jan Brewer of Arizona Will Not Seek Re-Election
Gov. Jan Brewer of Arizona said Wednesday that she would not run for re-election, ending speculation about her plans.
Even though the Arizona Constitution limits governors to two terms, Ms. Brewer had talked lately about trying to find a way around it. Her first term came by appointment, after the governor at the time, Janet Napolitano, left to become President Obama’s Homeland Security secretary, and Ms. Brewer could make a case in court that although she has served two terms, one of them was not an elected term, so it should not count.
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Gun Activist Who Exposed ‘Bang Your Door Down’ Cop Receives Threats
Officer who couldn’t wait to “bang down your door and come for your gun” still under investigation.
The second amendment activist who brought light to a Facebook conversation in which a Connecticut police officer said he couldn’t wait to “bang down your door and come for your gun,” says he has received threats after the story gained national media attention.
As we highlighted on Monday, Navy veteran and firefighter John Cinque, who made national headlines after telling state lawmakers he would not comply with gun registration, went public with the details of a Facebook conversation in which Officer Joseph Peterson told another individual, “I give my left nut to bang down your door and come for your gun.”
The conversation centered on the second amendment showdown in Connecticut, where a vast majority of residents have refused to register their assault rifles and high capacity magazines in accordance with a new law that took effect on January 1.
Peterson was subsequently placed on extended leave by the Branford Police Department while the incident was placed under investigation.
In an interview with the New Haven Register, Cinque says he has received a deluge of messages since the story broke, including threats.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Homeland Security is Pre-Staging a Domestic Military Force
During the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars, the U.S. Army built 28,000 MRAPs (Mine-Resistant Ambush-Protected Trucks). Now the U.S. Army has announced that it is giving 13,000 of them away, for free. Who’s receiving the trucks? Homeland Security and U.S. Law Enforcement.
Instead of mothballing these MRAPs, Homeland Security is evidently pre-staging a domestic army of militarized agencies, police and law enforcement.
While Police and agencies say that all this military equipment from DHS grants will only be used against crime, the trust in many American alphabet agencies has been broken — now that we know some of the extent at which they are using technology to monitor and probe its own citizenry. DHS and many others, they’re stockpiling.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Homeland Security Snipers Terrorize Confused Residents During Raid
Department of Homeland Security snipers trained their weapons on frightened residents during a raid on a nearby apartment in East Williamsburg, with neighbors complaining of how they were “utterly confused and frankly terrorized” during the incident.
The combined federal/NYPD drugs bust started in the early hours of Sunday morning when a low flying helicopter startled East Williamsburg and Bushwick residents, before streets were blocked off, preventing people from going home.
“Witnesses spotted a big Department of Homeland Security truck as well as DHS agents toting machine guns as they raided 221 Devoe Street,” reports the Gothamist.
While the raid unfolded, DHS snipers aimed their guns at residents in nearby buildings, causing panic and confusion. “I literally had a flashlight-gun pointed at me from a sniper on top of the black armored truck the first time I opened our window to see what was going on,” said one neighbor.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Lynching the Koch Brothers: The Dems’ Strategy for 2014
As George Orwell envisioned in “1984,” statists need an enemy to distract people from the failures of their corrosive ideology. In that seminal novel, the enemy was Emmanuel Goldstein, and a period of “Two Minutes Hate” was staged by the ruling party to keep the public sufficiently distracted.
Democrats and their media allies, well aware they too must keep the public distracted from their failed policies heading into the 2014 elections, have created two Emmanuel Goldsteins of their very own: billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch.
A screed published Monday by the New York Times editorial board sets the tone.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
By Frances Martel
Excerpt: New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has been in office three months, but he has managed to make enemies of the Democratic Party establishment, far-left charter school opponents, beloved weatherman Al Roker, and beloved weatherrodent Punxsutawney Phil in that short time. Now, labor unions are turning on de Blasio’s call to ban horse-drawn carriages.
| — Hat tip: KP | [Return to headlines] |
NRA, 19 States, 34 Congressmen Sue New Jersey Over Gun Law
On February 12, 2014, the National Rifle Association (NRA), 19 states, and 34 members of the House of Representatives asked the Supreme Court to review a New Jersey court’s decision restricting Second Amendment rights of its citizens. Leading the requests is Attorney General of Wyoming, Peter Michael, who sees the danger in letting the decision by the 3rd District Court in New Jersey stand, as it could require that every other state with greater protections for its citizens reduce them substantially. In New Jersey, almost no one can obtain a concealed carry permit. In Wyoming, no one is required to have one.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Obama’s Surgeon General Pick: Guns Are a Public Health Issue
Murthy’s organization calls for doctors to interrogate patients about guns in the home
Dr. Vivek Hallegere Murthy, the man Obama wants to be America’s next Surgeon General, is a rabid anti-Second Amendment ideologue who believes firearms ownership is a public health issue. Murthy is the president and co-founder of Doctors for America, an organization that melds healthcare and support for gun control legislation.
Following Sandy Hook and attempts by Obama and Democrats in Congress to impose serious restrictions on the Second Amendment, Doctors for America demanded further erosion of the constitutional right to own a firearm, “including stronger gun laws, making sure doctors can counsel patients about gun safety, and tracking data on gun-related deaths and injuries just like any other public health issue.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Police Block Highway Lanes, Go Car-to-Car in Search of Bank Robbers
Interstate 270 was completely shut down in both directions between the spur and Montrose Road for more than a half hour police search for three people suspected of robbing a bank in Rockville Tuesday morning.
Montgomery County Police says the Wells Fargo Bank on King Farm Boulevard was robbed shortly after 10 a.m. Tuesday.
In less than 15 minutes the interstate had been completely shut down and officers with guns drawn began a car-to-car search for the suspects.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
From Speigel Online’s recent interview on Ukraine with Polish foreign minister Radek Sikoski:
Sikorski: The Americans have done even more — by relocating F-15 and F-16 jets to Eastern Europe, for example. In contrast to Europe, the US has a centralized government. We should learn from the current crisis that European integration must also continue when it comes to security policy.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Human beings only have two ways to deal with one another: reason and force. If you want me to do something for you, you have a choice of either convincing me via argument or forcing me to do your bidding under threat of force. Every human interaction falls into one of those two categories, without exception. Reason or force, that’s it.
In a truly moral and civilized society, people exclusively interact through persuasion. Force has no place as a valid method of social interaction and the only thing that removes force from the menu is the personal firearm, as paradoxical as it may sound to some.
When I carry a gun, you cannot deal with me by force. You have to use reason and try to persuade me, because I have a way to negate your threat or employment of force.
The gun is the only personal weapon that puts a 100-pound woman on equal footing with a 220-pound mugger, a 75-year old retiree on equal footing witha19-year old gang banger, and a single guy on equal footing with a car load of drunken guys with baseball bats.
The gun removes the disparity in physical strength, size, or numbers between a potential attacker and a defender.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
U.S. Border Patrol Agent Has Standoff With Armed Mexican Soldiers After Border Crossing
After a tense standoff with raised weapons, a U.S. border patrol agent turned back a pair of armed Mexican soldiers that had crossed the border on foot just outside Sasabe, Arizona, last January.
On the morning of Jan. 26, U.S. Border Patrol Agent David Olaya spotted two armed men walk onto U.S. soil nearly 2 1/2 miles west of the Sasabe Port of Entry. The lone agent confronted the subjects, who were wearing camouflage and appeared to be “Mexican personnel,” and after a harrowing standoff they lowered their Heckler & Koch G3 rifles and turned back towards Mexico, BuzzFeed reports.
The soldiers identified themselves as part of the Mexican military’s 80th Battalion, but the names they provided didn’t match the name on their uniforms. When Olaya questioned why they had crossed the international border, they said they “had been pursing [sic] three subjects that were seen in the area.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
U.S. State: 350,000 Gun Owners Suddenly Felons
Fight over weapons confiscation gets hot
Connecticut has created a crisis for itself: The possibility of having 350,000 new felons in the state — roughly 20 times its current prison population.
It’s all because the legislature adopted a law that bans some types of guns and weapons based on certain physical features.
There is no grandfathering for people who already possess the weapons. The only alternative is for the owner to submit an application with identifying information such as fingerprints.
It’s estimated that up to 350,000 residents didn’t meet the state’s deadline for submitting the information.
The result? They’re felons. No one has been charged or convicted yet, but the law allows no half-measures. Even possessing the weapon makes a person a felon.
And a judge who was asked to suspend the law while a challenge to its constitutionality is debated in the courts sided with the prosecution, refusing to make the allowance.
The result could be another civil war. Branford resident John Cinque challenged two of the members of the legislature, Sen. Leonard Fasano and Rep. Dave Yaccarino, both Republicans.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Voting Records Show Mummified Woman Found in Foreclosed Home Voted for 2 Years After She Died
Voting records are raising questions amid an investigation into the discovery of a woman’s mummified body in the garage of a foreclosed metro Detroit home.
The body found last Wednesday in Pontiac is that of Pia Farrenkopf — according to her sister, Paula Logan. Authorities investigating the case haven’t released her name, but they have said that the woman apparently died in 2008 at the age of 49.
According to a report in the Detroit Free Press, records show Farrenkopf as voting in the November 2010 gubernatorial election. Officials say, however, that it may represent an administrative error. Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard says the information must be checked out.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
By Mark Steyn
Excerpt: I watched Ezra Levant’s defamation trial in Toronto with an eye to my own defamation trial in Washington. Khurrum Awan, the Sole Surviving Sock from the original five Canadian Islamic Congress Sock Puppets who attempted to get my writing banned for life in Canada, is now suing Ezra for calling him a liar and an anti-Semite. Michael E Mann, the fake Nobel Laureate, is suing me, Rand Simberg and our respective publishers for calling his hockey stick “fraudulent” (that was me) and its creator a man who “tortured data” (that was Simberg). No two cases are entirely the same, but, as one defendant to another, I found Ezra’s day in court on Friday rather inspiring.
| — Hat tip: KP | [Return to headlines] |
Campari Buys Up Canada’s Forty Creek Whisky
Iconic Italian beverage giant moves in on North America
(ANSA) — Milan, March 12 — Italian beverage giant Campari has bought outright Forty Creek Distillery Ltd, Canada’s leading spirits company, for C$185.6 million (120.5 million euros), the companies announced Wednesday With the 100% acquisition, the iconic Italian brand enters the growing Canadian whisky market with a portfolio of premium products.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Breitbart London: BBC Panel “Bottle-Feeding Viewers With Left-Wing Propaganda” Says Tory MP
Excerpt: BBC Three’s ‘Free Speech’ programme, which airs tonight at 8pm from the Birmingham Central Mosque, consists of a panel including Huffington Post Political Editor Mehdi Hasan, Liberal Democrat Party Baroness Susan Kramer, left-wing activist Heydon Prowse, and transgender ‘journalist’ Paris Lees. The only other person on the panel is Shazia Awan, a centrist ex-Tory candidate who has “now left the Conservatives and is currently politically undecided”. Mehdi Hasan has previously called non-Muslims “people of no intelligence” and “cattle”, and was the political editor for the left-wing New Statesman magazine before joining the Huffington Post UK.
| — Hat tip: KP | [Return to headlines] |
Breitbart London: [UK Band] One Direction — Is Their Anything They Don’t Know About World Poverty?
By James Delingpole
Excerpt: Some commentators, such as Zambian-born Dambisa Moyo, have argued that foreign aid spending does more harm than good. In her book Dead Aid, she argues: “Foreign aid props up corrupt governments — providing them with freely usable cash. These corrupt governments interfere with the rule of law, the establishment of transparent civil institutions and the protection of civil liberties, making both domestic and foreign investment in poor countries unattractive. Greater opacity and fewer investments reduce economic growth, which leads to fewer job opportunities and increasing poverty levels. In response to growing poverty, donors give more aid, which continues the downward spiral of poverty.” But Dambisa Moyo only went to Harvard where she probably spent much of her time in libraries. One Direction, on the other hand, have travelled the world, performing in many of its biggest stadia and experiencing poverty at first hand when their maids knocked on their doors and asked whether they wanted their rooms serviced.
| — Hat tip: KP | [Return to headlines] |
Brussels Lays Out Plans to Counter ‘Systemic Threats’ To EU Rule of Law
In light of recent lurches toward authoritarianism in Hungary and Romania, the European Commission adopted today (11 March) a mechanism for addressing “systemic threats” to the rule of law in any of the EU’s 28 Member States.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
‘Dirty Jew, Go Home to Israel: ‘ Jewish Girl in France Attacked by Arab Mother and Daughter
A young Jewish woman was recently assaulted at a laundromat in a suburb of Lyon, France by a mother and daughter of Arab descent, according to Israeli daily Ma’ariv on Tuesday. The victim, named only as Candace, told the Europe-Israel news site that the mother grabbed and held her down while the daughter hit her several times in the face…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Greece: Christians and Muslims Unite for Cephalonia
An interesting initiative has been launched in Komotini to help the victims of the earthquake in Cephalonia. Both the Holy Bishopric of Maroneia and Komotini and the muftiate of Komotini, along with the Muslim Asset Management Committee, held a fundraiser to show their solidarity with the victims of the recent earthquake in Cephalonia, Greece…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
By Daniel Greenfield
Excerpt: To whom does the lowly hamburger belong? To the Germans whose urban name it carries, the Mongols who invented it, the Russians who introduced it to the Germans or the Wisconsin man who began selling it that way? It doesn’t really matter. What really matters is how the burger tastes. If the Jews and Greeks began calling in all their cultural debts, we would all be poorer for it. In recent years, cultural protectionism has gone from being the obsession of beleaguered European states doling out millions in absurd cultural grants to another weapon wielded by professionally outraged minority activists who lay exclusive claim to what they consider their culture.
| — Hat tip: KP | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Renzi Says Amendments ‘Attempts to Derail My Control’
Election reform set for final House vote
(ANSA) — Rome, March 12 — Premier Matteo Renzi’s landmark election reform appeared set Wednesday for a final vote in the House, where it was likely to pass after a series of failed efforts to tack on amendments guaranteeing gender parity in parliament that the young premier said were a veiled attempt to derail his control of the center-left majority. “In these days, nothing had anything to do with women (quotas). It was an attempted political move to show I can’t control the Democratic Party (PD),” Renzi told Italian daily La Repubblica. “Using secret ballots, some people were trying to get revenge and push me out, and they lost. The election law is going forward and it’s just the beginning”. On three attempts this week, amendments were put forth that would have imposed strict quotas on the number of women in parliament, each of which failed, one by only a small margin. After Renzi vowed to address the issue of gender parity once the bill passes to the Senate, the reform appeared set to pass the House Wednesday, moving the country towards a new election policy aimed at avoiding the type of political disarray witnessed this time last year.
After inconclusive February 2013 elections produced a virtual three-way tie between the center left, Silvio Berlusconi’s center right and the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement of Beppe Grillo, parliament was paralyzed amid two months of deadlock, which was broken by an unnatural left-right alliance. The resulting grand coalition government of Enrico Letta fell after only 10 months.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Renzi Govt Calls Confidence Vote on International Missions
YOung executive will collapse in case of defeat
(ANSA) — Rome, March 12 — Premier Matteo Renzi’s government announced Wednesday that it was putting a decree extending Italy’s international military missions, including its involvement in the NATO-led ISAF mission in Afghanistan, to a confidence vote in parliament. Italian governments often call confidence votes to limit debate and speed the passage of legislation through parliament.
But there is a risk, as Renzi’s government, which was sworn in last month, will collapse it if fails to win the vote, which will take place from 14:30 local time Thursday.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Accused of Unnecessary Surgeries, Doctor ‘Has Evil Nature’
Prosecutors say Brega Massone thought only of lining his pockets
(ANSA) — Milan, March 12 — A surgeon accused of carrying out 90 unnecessary operations, which led to the death of at least four elderly patients, “has an evil nature” and should be sentenced in life in prison, a prosecutor said Wednesday.
The former head of Milan’s Santa Rita Clinic, Pier Paolo Brega Massone, “did not hesitate” to perform unnecessary interventions and demonstrated a lack of compassion for other humans, said prosecutor Grazia Pradella in requesting the life sentence.
In October 2010, Brega Massone was sentenced in a previous trial to 15-and-a-half years in prison on the charges while his assistants, Fabio Pietro Presicci and Marco Pansera, were sentenced to ten years, and six years and nine months respectively. The scandal surrounding Milan’s Santa Rita Clinic — dubbed the “clinic of horrors” by Italian media — broke in May 2008, when Brega Massone and Presicci were jailed on murder charges.
Eleven other doctors and the owner of the clinic were, at the time, placed under house arrest for their role in performing superfluous and lucrative operations, including on some terminally ill patients.
In rejecting his plea to avoid preventive custody, the Court of Cassation said in 2009 that Brega Massone was “fully aware” of the risks involved in carrying out the unnecessary operations and did so for “no other reason than making a profit”.
The court had said he should remain in jail while awaiting trial, stressing that he had “decreed the patients’ deaths” with his behaviour.
Among the operations performed was the removal of a lung which allegedly caused a patient to die.
Another alleged murder case, investigators said, was that of an elderly woman who could have been saved by having a tumour wholly removed but instead underwent three separate operations which fatally weakened her while lining the doctors’ pockets.
At least two women, including a 19-year-old, were subjected to mastectomies for simple cysts as part of what prosecutors say was an ongoing “system” set up to claim reimbursements from the state health funds.
Brega Massone claimed in 2010 that he “always thought of the well-being of the patient and acted according to protocol and conscience”.
He said he was “the scapegoat” for the broader situation in Milan’s public health system.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Roma Flee Naples Camp Under Fire From Angry Neighbors
Rocks, flares launched after ‘violence attempt’ on teen
(ANSA) — Naples, March 12 — A group of Roma were fleeing their Naples camp by the dozens Wednesday as some nearby residents launched stones and fireworks at their homes in retaliation for alleged attempted violence against a Naples teen. Police said some 250 Roma, also known as Gypsies, have lived in the camp for four years. It was the latest attack on camp residents since Tuesday night, when a Rom playing the accordion was reportedly assaulted. Early Wednesday, roughly 50 Naples residents from the Poggioreale neighborhood formed a roadblock in protest of an alleged attempted attack on a 16-year-old girl by two men from the Roma camp. The camp is currently being surveilled by police. The neighborhood president has called for police to remove the camp.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Maths Teachers From China to be Flown to Britain
Maths teachers are to be flown in from China to help arrest declining standards in Britain. Sixty English-speaking teachers from Shanghai will be placed in schools from September to promote methods such as rigorous daily maths lessons and homework, ministers were to announce on Wednesday.
The move, brokered by Education Minister Liz Truss following a fact-finding trip to China, is the latest in a series of initiatives aimed at reversing a slide in maths standards.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Netherlands: Candidate Poses With Controversial UK Imam
Hassan Buyatui, PvdA candidate council member in Almere, was prominently present on a group photo with the controversial British Imam, Haitham al-Haddad. The photo raised more than eyebrows in his own party. The picture was taken during a visit the Imam paid to Muslim youth in Almere last month…
[JP note: Haitham al-Haddad was the hate preacher at the centre of the Legoland Windsor Resort mess.]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Reindeer Herd Closes Norway Highway
A giant herd of 2,000 reindeer has forced Norway’s National Road Authority to shut off a major road between Oslo and Bergen to prevent them being killed by passing cars.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The European Commission announced that future regulations regarding EU justice will aim to promote mobility, growth and mutual trust among the national judicial authorities. Commission announced that EU justice was improved in the recent years especially in cutting red tape, reducing the legal costs for citizens and firms and enforcing the free movement rights of the European citizens…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Police have apologised to the family of a severely-autistic man who was allegedly beaten by two officers as he helped put out the bins.
Faruk Ali, 33, who has had learning difficulties and severe autism since childhood, has always enjoyed helping binmen collect the rubbish outside his family’s home.
He was doing that on February 20 when his family claim he was attacked by two uniformed officers.
They allege he was hurled into the bins and and pinned down as he tried to get back inside his home in Luton, Beds.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Chinese Teachers to Show US How to Improve Pupils’ Maths
English-speaking teachers from Shanghai will be placed in schools from September to promote methods such as rigorous daily maths lessons and homework.
[Comment: In other words, the traditional method of teaching — before leftists destroyed the education system.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Former Thames Valley PC Jailed for Three-and-a-Half Years
A former Thames Valley police officer was jailed for three-and-a-half years this morning.
Pc Sugra Hanif, of Bretch Hill, Banbury, and her lover Raza Khan, 26, of Ivy Road, Handsworth, Birmingham, were found guilty in January of working together to obtain and disclose thousands of road crash victims’ details from the Thames Valley Police computer database. Hanif was sacked for misconduct earlier this month and was sentenced this morning.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
A man was arrested after a teenage girl he allegedly exposed himself to in Salford, Greater Manchester, chased him for half an hour until police arrived.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Pro EU Lobby Group Calls Eurosceptism a ‘Disease’
A pro European Union pressure group led by cabinet minister Kenneth Clarke, former EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson and Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander has described euroscepticism as a ‘disease’ in a blog post on its website…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Scrap Postal Votes or Elections Will be Fixed, Says Judge
Judge Richard Mawrey, who sits in judgment on election fraud cases, said widening postal voting failed to boost turnout and made Britain vulnerable to fraud ‘on an industrial scale’.
[Comment: What about the electronic voting machines?]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: The Political Classes Have Brought UKIP on Themselves
by Tim Wigmore
In a seminal referendum in California in 1978, the public endorsed Proposition 13, limiting property taxes. It was described as a “primal scream by the People against Big Government”. The British public are now delivering a primal scream of their own. Politicians, beware: only 23 per cent of people are satisfied with the way that MPs are doing their job…
[JP note: Includes discussion between Paul Weston and bloggers in the comments section — choose Disqus setting ‘best’ comments and scroll down to find the discussion quickly.]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Teacher Orders Boy, 10, To Remove Help for Heroes Wristband Worn in Memory of Lee Rigby
Tracy Tew was shocked when her son Charlie was put on a report card at Maldon Primary School in Essex after he refused to take off the charity rubber bracelet.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: We Don’t Want 330 Students Next Door in Mill Road, Says Cambridge Mosque
Supporters of Cambridge’s new mosque have said they don’t want more than 300 student flats to be built next door.
In a statement, Cambridge Muslim Academic Trust said a “concentration” of undergraduate accommodation on the former Priory Motors site in Mill Road “would not represent the best amenity value and is unlikely to be the development option most beneficial to local residents or mosque users”…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: No Need to Evacuate Britons From Sharm — Foreign Office
The British Foreign and Commonwealth said there is no need to evacuate British visitors from Sharm el-Sheikh. An advice on the website for Britons who would like to visit Egypt remains the same as before the recent bombing in South Sinai. The office advises against all but essential travel to South Sinai…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Imam’s Arrest Sparks Debate in Tunisia
The arrest of Khamis El Mejri has led to a critique of government control over mosques and imams.
Religious officials in Tunisia are divided over the recent arrest of a Salafi imam, who was detained earlier this week amidst what critics say is a government effort to control local mosques. Khamis El Mejri was arrested on Monday in a city north of the capital Tunis for “preaching without a permit,” according to Mongi Belaress, spokesperson for the first court of Bizerte…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Libya: Pro-Government Forces, Separatists Clash During Night
Contested oil- pro-government Misrata militias regain Sirte area
(ANSAmed) — TRIPOLI — Apparent calm reigned in and around Sirte after clashes during the night between pro-government forces and a separatist group from the east, reported Libyan news agency LANA. There were no injuries, the news source said.
The armed confrontation saw pro-government forces and government-affiliated militias from the city of Misrata retake control of the area about 450 km east of Tripoli. Pro-government forces coming from the city of Misrata were given a mandate from the parliamentary General National Congress (GNC) to fight the separatist group, which has blockaded four oil terminals since the end of July. One of the terminals is in the port of As Sidr, located in the Gulf of Sirte.
In recent days, the separatists announced their intention to sell crude oil independently of central authorities, and illegally loaded crude on a North Korean tanker in the port of As Sidr. The leader of the separatist group, Ibrahim Jadran, who was a frontline revolutionary during the revolt that deposed Muammar Gheddafi, has accused the current Libyan government of corruption on the sale of crude. After the 2011 war, Jadran became responsible for security forces at a number of oil facilities. But at the end of July, he exploited his position to lead protests blocking the countries’ biggest ports and asking to retain a larger share of the proceeds from the export of crude oil.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Libya: Ousted Prime Minister Ali Zeidan Flees to Germany
Govt orders rebels to end port blockade within two weeks
(ANSAmed) — VALLETTA — Ali Zeidan, the Libyan prime minister ousted in a no-confidence vote by parliament yesterday, arrived in Malta last night for a stopover lasting a few hours.
He then left for another European country, Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said in a television interview, and sources told ANSA that he is now in Germany. The Libyan prosecutor’s office yesterday had issued a travel ban for Zeidan. Maltese Premier Joseph Muscat said he briefly met with the ex-premier of Libya, Ali Zeidan, with whom he has “a personal friendship”. Maltese sources said the ex-premier arrived in a Libyan government airplane in the evening but the it left without Zeidan.
Libya’s highest political authority on Wednesday gave rebels blockading oil terminals two weeks to stand down voluntarily or face military action. The ultimatum by the General National Congress (GNC) was made to a separatist group that has been blockading ports and terminals in the eastern region of Cyrenaica and the Gulf of Sirte, preventing the central authorities from exporting oil. The decision was announced by GNC leader Nuri Abu Sahmain, who is also head of the armed forces. On Sunday he had announced the formation of a military force consisting of Libyan army units and militias from different areas but affiliated with the government, tasked with ending the blockade of the country’s largest ports and restoring central government control over them. The new formation would later be responsible for protecting oil facilities in future.
The decision was made after the separatist group began exporting oil without government authorization. The operation was the first of its kind by the Barqa (Arabic name for Cyrenaica) Political Office, which had in recent months declared regional autonomy. The new body was formed by a former revolutionary fighter, Ibrahim Jadran, who since late July has been leading the blockade on the country’s largest ports and demanding a greater share of export revenues, accusing the government of corruption in oil sales. The oil crisis has been a serious blow to the Libyan economy, bringing output down to 250,000 barrels per day (bpd) from a 1.6 million bpd in the Gaddafi period.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Libyan Ex-Premier Zeidan Flees to Europe
Former Libyan prime minister Ali Zeidan has fled to Europe. Unconfirmed reports that he flew via Malta to Germany have not been verified.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
‘Shut Up Your Mouse Obama’ Video Online Hit in Egypt
Rap song a success amid rising anti-Americanism
(ANSAmed) — CAIRO, MARCH 11 — A remix-rap video showing an Egyptian woman protesting against Barack Obama and hailing Field Marshall Abdel Fattah El Sisi, the Commander-in-Chief of the Egyptian Armed Forces marketed as the country’s next president, has become an instant online hit.
The success of the 15-second video — according to Al Arabiya Online — came after the woman’s words were remixed and transformed into a rap song with techno music. “Listen your Obama. We are Egyptian women. You are listen Obama. Shut up your mouse [mouth] Obama. Shut up your mouse Obama. Sisi yes. Sisi yes. Morsi no. Morsi no,” the woman is heard saying in ungrammatical English. Her words have become the song’s refrain, with images of the woman shown in the background. Anti-Americanism rose sharply in Egypt after the ousting of Muslim Brotherhood president Mohamed Morsi due to the widespread conviction that he was supported by the US, which has also been accused of hostility towards the new political direction taken by Field Marshall Sisi.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Israel and the Terrorist Rug Merchant
By Daniel Greenfield
Excerpt: Few figures in American political life have been as consistently wrong as often as John Kerry. The former Senator bet on every Communist leader and Middle Eastern tyrant he could find only to watch the wheels of history roll over his mistakes. And now as Secretary of State, Kerry is at it again. In between peddling a Syrian peace process that no one but him believes in, he took a break to peddle the even more discredited peace process between Israel and the terrorists.
| — Hat tip: KP | [Return to headlines] |
Lieberman Vows to ‘Reoccupy’ Gaza Strip After Rockets Shot
Islamic Jihad’s response to Israel’s killing of 3 of its members
(ANSAmed) — TEL AVIV, MARCH 12 — Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has said on television that it will be necessary to “reoccupy the Gaza Strip entirely” after a barrage of rockets from the territory landed in Israel on Wednesday. “We must put an end to this,” he said. “The population in southern Israel must not be left hostage to Palestinian terrorists.”
The Islamic Jihad has claimed responsibility for the barrage of rockets fired at Israeli towns just across the border from Gaza, report local sources. Israeli media said that about 30 rockets had been launched while the Islamic Jihad claims that some 50 rockets were shot and that it had ordered the attack in response to Israel’s killing of three of its members on Tuesday. Thousands of Israelis have sought the safety of bomb shelters.
Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu told the Knesset that the country would react “very forcefully”. Local sources in Gaza have denied that air strikes had been conducted in the Gaza Strip, news that had been reported by an Israeli television station.
Netanyahu told the Israeli parliament on Wednesday that “it’s time international pressure is also put on the Palestinians”. The statement was made prior to a speech by his British counterpart, David Cameron, on the latter’s visit to Israel. “Time is running out for them, too,” Netanyahu added, in reference to peace talks underway between Israelis and Palestinians. The Israeli premier blamed the Palestinians’ refusal “to recognize the Jewish State” for the conflict, saying it was not due to “Jewish villages in Judea and Samaria”, using the biblical names for the territory of the West Bank. The prime minister’s speech was interrupted repeatedly by the opposition and religious parties, in part on account of a law introducing a military draft for ultra-Orthodox Jews. He added that “peace requires Palestinians stop trying to fabricate the past.”
Cameron said that Great Britain was against all attempts to boycott Israeli products, adding that the UK fully supports Kerry’s efforts to forge a framework agreement towards a two-state solution. “The possibilities of peace are extraordinary,” he said. “Think of all the capitals in the Arab world that Israelis could travel to and do business in… Imagine a peace deal that would leave Israel more secure, not less secure … Imagine the agreements that could be signed off with every major trade bloc in the world.” Cameron called on the members of parliament gathered before him to imagine what the country could be like if a two-state solution were to be achieved, saying that peace would mean dignity for both Israelis and Palestinians. The British prime minister also said that, in his view, Israel “is not the cause of terrorism and radical Islam”, finishing off his speech by saying in Hebrew ‘we are together’.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Reports of Multiple Rocket Fire on Southern Israel
Rocket sirens sound in southern Israeli communities minutes after UK Prime Minister addresses Knesset…
In the last few minutes there have been reports of a string of Color Red sirens in southern Israeli communities, indicating a salvo of rockets launched from the Gaza Strip.
Residents of the Eshkol Region, as well as the towns of Sderot, Netivot and Ofakim, have reported at least 4 separate sirens in the past minutes…
[The drones are now overhead, IAF retaliation soon — poor Gazans, they have it worse than we do and they cannot speak out — no freedom of speech in Gaza! — MC]
| — Hat tip: MC | [Return to headlines] |
Terrorists Fire Rocket at Southern Israel
Gaza-based terrorists fired a Kassam rocket at southern Israel on Tuesday evening.
The rocket exploded in an open area in the Shaar Hanegev Regional Council, causing no physical injuries or damages.
Residents of Sderot and the surrounding area reported that they heard the “Red Alert” siren before the rocket exploded.
Last Wednesday, Gaza-based terrorists fired a rocket at Sderot. The rocket also exploded in an open field, causing no physical injuries or damages.
Two days earlier, on Monday, a Gaza rocket was fired into the Ashkelon coast. It, too, exploded in an open area, and no physical injuries or damages were reported.[..]
[Back to the same old, same old ‘religion of peace’ traditions; bully the weak and vulnerable. — MC]
| — Hat tip: MC | [Return to headlines] |
Archaeological Storehouses Looted in Syria
Storehouses with more than twenty years’ worth of finds from an archaeological dig in Syria have been ransacked amid the ongoing civil war, researchers say.
Archaeologists from Leiden University in the Netherlands had been excavating the ancient mounds at the northern Syrian site of Tell Sabi Abyad since 1986. The abrupt onset of war forced them to stop their research in 2011.
Many archaeologists who had worked in Syria before the war are struggling to assess the damage to their dig sites and other ruins in the historically rich region, which is home to the remains of early human settlements as well as the Assyrian, Persian and Akkadian and Roman empires.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
EU Parliament Concerned Over Recent Developments in Turkey
From bribes scandal to laws on the judiciary and the internet
(ANSAmed) — STRASBOURG, MARCH 12 — The European Parliament has expressed “serious concern” over recent developments in Turkey, from corruption scandals and the resulting “purges” to laws on the judiciary and the internet. The drafter of the progress report approved on Wednesday by the Strasbourg assembly with 475 votes in favor, 153 against and 43 abstentions, Ria Oomen-Ruijten (EPP, the Netherlands), said that Turkey was “moving backwards instead of forwards”. Oomen-Rujten said that measures limiting the freedom of citizens and the press were not in keeping with a modern society and democratic Rule of Law. The European MPs stated in the report that the unprecedented number of protests reflects legitimate aspirations for greater democracy and called on Turkish authorities to ensure liberty of religion and assembly for all. Ankara considers constitutional reform its top priority, while Member States must put forth “efforts” to open EU membership chapters on justice and fundamental rights. The European Parliament considers the purges of prosecutors and police tasked with anti-corruption investigations in Turkey to run counter to the principle of independent and impartial justice, “vital for a truly democratic state”. Oomen-Rujten said that recent developments in fundamental rights, freedom of expression, and other areas were a sources of “serious concern” for the European Parliament, urging Turkey to prove its commitment to a future in the EU and its founding values.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
In Libya and Yemen, Tribes With Flags
By Rami G. Khouri
In Libya and Yemen, two Arab countries that are experiencing complicated, slow-motion transitions to more representative and accountable rule, we can clearly see a structural issue of troubled statehood that may also bedevil other Arab countries.
Both countries face a problem of strong regional or tribal identities that never fully accepted their inclusion in the independent Arab countries that came into being in the 20th century.
In Libya, the problem has reached the point where rebel groups who seized control of oil export facilities in the eastern part of the country and have started shipping oil have now triggered an assault on them by the government in Tripoli.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Police in Turkey Clash With Protesters After Boy’s Funeral
Turkish police have fired water cannon and tear gas near Taksim Square in Istanbul during a protest triggered by the funeral of a teenage boy wounded in anti-government clashes last year. Earlier, tens of thousands of mourners chanted anti-government slogans as his coffin was carried through the streets. Clashes have also broken out in the capital, Ankara, and the city of Izmir.
Berkin Elvan, 15, spent nine months in a coma after being hit by a tear gas canister as he went to buy bread. His death on Tuesday triggered violent protests in at least 32 towns and cities across the country — reminiscent of last year’s unrest.
Many of the protesters echoed his mother’s assertion that Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan was to blame for the boy’s death.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Suicide Bombings Hit Hotel in Syria’s Northern City
DAMASCUS, March 11 (Xinhua) — Three suicide bombers wearing explosive belts detonated themselves at a hotel in the country’s northern city of Qamishli on Tuesday, leaving unknown number of casualties, the official SANA news agency reported on Tuesday…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
The Man From Martyrs Avenue Who Became a Suicide Bomber in Syria
On 6 February, Abdul Waheed Majeed, from Crawley in West Sussex, drove a truck bomb into the gates of a prison in Syria. Does his death represent everything that the government fears about radicalisation on a foreign battlefield?
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Thousands Gather to Mourn Turkey Protest Teenager’s Death
More than 10,000 people have gathered in central Istanbul for the funeral of a 15-year-old boy wounded during anti-government demonstrations in Gezi Park
Tens of thousands of people turned out Wednesday for the funeral of a teenage boy whose death from injuries suffered during last year’s anti-government protests sparked violent countrywide demonstrations…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: Demonstrations in Many Cities, 150 Arrests
Police crackdown, funeral today for 15-year-old Berkin Elvan
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA — More than 150 people were arrested last evening in dozens of demonstrations triggered by the death of 15-year-old Berkin Elvan, who was in a coma for nine months after being gravely wounded by police during protests in Gezi Park in June. The news was reported by the press in Ankara. The funeral for the teenager is scheduled today at midday in Istanbul. It will take place in a cemevi, a place of worship for the Alevi minority to which the teenager belonged. New demonstrations are expected.
Police intervened with force last night in various cities, using teargas, pepper spray, and water cannons against demonstrators. There were incidents in Istanbul, Ankara, Adana, Mersin, Izmir, Eskisehir, Antioch, Antalya and Bursa. At least 20 were injured, two of whom are reported in serious condition after being hit by police vehicles.
There were also protests yesterday in various foreign capitals, especially in Paris, London, Vienna, New York, Berlin and Stockholm. The new blaze of unrest is taking place less than 20 days from crucial elections on March 30, and as Turkish Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan finds himself mired in corruption scandals that exploded December 17 with the Bosphorus bribery scandal.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Turkish Police Use Tear Gas to Block Taksim Square
Thousands take part in 15-year-old’s funeral procession
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA — Turkish police have used water cannons and tear gas to prevent the thousands taking part in a funeral procession for Berkin Elvan from entering Istanbul’s central Taksim Square. Four armored police vehicles backed by dozens of officers in anti-riot gear faced off against several hundred protestors in an access street towards Taksim Sqyare in the Osmanbay area. The police used tear gas and water cannons to disperse the crowd. Tens of thousands of people took part in the afternoon funeral procession for Berkin Elvan, a 15-year-old who died on Tuesday after almost 300 days in a coma following an injury during last year’s Gezi Park protests, through the European area of Istanbul. A large number of them went back to the Taksim area after the boy was buried in the Ferikoy cemetery. Hurriyet Online reports that about 50,000 people were on Halaskargazi Street in Osmanbay, which leads to Taksim, on Wednesday afternoon. A massive police presence surrounded the square that became the symbol of an uprising by the country’s youth in the spring of last year against Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government. The police pushed passers-by from the square and set up a security cordon of anti-riot police around Taksim. The Osmanbay area was clouded in tear gas.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
U.S. Drone Kills 3 Al-Qaida Suspects in Yemen
SANAA, March 12 (Xinhua) — A U.S. drone strike killed three suspected al-Qaida militants in Yemen’s northeastern province of al-Jawf on Wednesday, Yemeni officials said. “The drone strike targeted a vehicle carrying three militants in Om Shukah area in al-Jawf near the border of Saudi Arabia,” the official said. This is the fifth such drone strike this month…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UN Says Ancient Christian and Muslim Sites in Syria Are Under Attack and Urges Immediate Halt
The United Nations warned Wednesday that ancient Christian and Muslim sites in Syria are under attack and demanded an immediate halt to the destruction of the country’s cultural heritage.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova and the joint U.N.-Arab League mediator on Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi, issued a joint statement citing “alarming reports” that Syria’s heritage is being deliberately targeted for ideological reasons.
“Human representations in art are being destroyed by extremist groups intent on eradicating unique testimonies of Syria’s rich cultural diversity,” the officials said. “Archaeological sites are being systematically looted and the illicit trafficking of cultural objects has reached unprecedented levels.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Merkel and Poland’s Tusk Vow Help for Ukraine, Warn Russia
German Chancellor Merkel and Polish Prime Minister Tusk have vowed to help Ukraine, beginning with the swift signing of an EU association agreement. They also said they were preparing more sanctions against Moscow.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Obama Exploiting Ukraine to Empower IMF and Dictatorships
The globalist establishment, Russian authorities, and the Obama administration are pushing hard for a series of controversial “reforms” aimed at massively expanding the power and resources of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) while further scaling back U.S. influence at the institution. Using various pretexts — and especially the crisis in Ukraine — governments and dictatorships, including Vladimir Putin’s Russia, are even threatening to proceed with the radical plot to empower the IMF whether the U.S. Congress approves it or not.
The most important and far-reaching elements of the “reform” agenda include a doubling of taxpayer resources available to the IMF. Member governments would have to supply twice as much taxpayer funding to meet their “quota” under the agreement. Even more important, the reforms would also dramatically reduce U.S. influence while handing more power to what propagandists refer to as “emerging markets.” In reality, “emerging markets” would continue to have no influence whatsoever at the powerful globalist institution. The dictators and governments that rule them, however, would be given far more authority to dictate IMF policy and decisions.
Chief among the regimes that would be empowered under the “reforms” is the communist dictatorship ruling over mainland China, which for years has been calling for the IMF to become a sort of planetary central bank in charge of a global currency. Other governments that would have more influence include those ruling over the rest of the so-called BRICS — primarily socialist and communist regimes in Brazil, Russia, India, and South Africa. All of the “BRICS” regimes have been strongly pushing for more control over the IMF in recent years, even as they push to radically expand its mandate to include a planetary currency.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
By Steve Sailer
Excerpt: For example, Russian grand strategy has traditionally been obsessed with making the country less of a land power by obtaining non-Arctic ports such as St. Petersburg, Vladivostok, Port Arthur, and Sochi, which is why Sevastopol in Crimea is such an emotional subject for them.
And yet the land-bound Russians never achieved their ultimate goal of taking Constantinople and thus securing a sea route to the Mediterranean. In contrast, the nautical British have held the strategically comparable Rock of Gibraltar at the opposite entrance to the Mediterranean for 310 years, and they appear to be in no hurry to give it back to Spain.
| — Hat tip: KP | [Return to headlines] |
Red Line Crossing: Ukraine Effectively Gifts Crimea to Russia, Says “Will Not Intervene Militarily”
It May be time for Obama to explain to Putin the whole thing about “costs” and “red lines” one more time, maybe over a two hour phone call this time so the former KGB spy finally gets it, because while Russia has been seemingly confused for the past two weeks, Moscow just successfully annexed Crimea, without spilling a drop of blood. Which is what Ukraine essentially just confirmed after its acting president, who attained his position after a violent coup and remains unrecognized by Russia, told AFP in an exclusive interview saying Ukraine will not attempt a military move to prevent the southern Crimean peninsula’s breakaway in order not to expose its eastern border.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Western Media is a Lie Factory
Someone is lying to us. Is it the New York Times and the Guardian, or is it Julie Hyland?
Julie Hyland describes the neo-nazi forces that Washington’s Ukrainian coup either by intention or incompetence has installed in the violent seizure of power. Washington describes this unelected government, whose words and deeds have caused Crimea to declare its independence from the coup government in Kiev and have caused widespread protests against the coup government in Russian speaking eastern Ukraine, as a “democracy.” If so, it is the first unelected democracy.
The New York Times and the UK Guardian, indeed, practically the entire Western media, have taken the position that there is no fascist or neo-nazi element in the coup government. However, I have seen the videos available on the Internet (and some are linked in my previous columns) of the thugs threatening government ministers in one location and assaulting a public prosecutor in another. There are also videos of the ultra-right decked out in nazi symbols and armed with weapons.
My opinion is that it is the Western media that is lying, and that Julie Hyland is telling it like it is. You can read her account here[url]:
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Yatsenyuk Visits Washington: Ukraine Will ‘Never Surrender’
Interim Ukrainian Prime Minister Yatsenyuk has said his country won’t “surrender” in its fight for sovereignty. The comments were made during his visit with US President Obama amid a diplomatic crisis with Russia.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Chinese Government Website Says it Has Images of Suspected Plane Debris
China’s official Xinhua News Agency reported late Wednesday a government website has satellite images of suspected debris from the Malaysia Airlines plane that vanished last week with 239 aboard.
According to the report, the satellite images from the morning of March 9 appear to show “three suspected floating objects” of varying sizes in the sea off the southern tip of Vietnam and east of Malaysia — a part of the original search area for the aircraft, which was en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.
However, there was no immediate confirmation of the reported debris from the airline or Malaysian authorities.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Could Malaysian Air Flight MH370 be Another Version of Egyptian Air Flight 990?
I watched the confused early morning US live broadcast of press conference held by Malaysian military and civilian aviation authorities. They were endeavoring to answer questions of an international press perplexed by the conflicting information about the final moments and whereabouts of Malaysian Air Flight MH 370 with 227 passengers and 12 crew on board departed Saturday, March 9th from Kuala Lumpur bound for Beijing. The Boeing 777 aircraft has redundant electrical and communications systems on board and a near faultless safety record, as does the operator Malaysian Air. Only three such aircraft have had accidents in an otherwise impressive airworthiness history. At today’s press briefing a Malaysian military spokesperson said that defense radars had last placed Flight 370 200 miles northwest of Penang Island. The search area has been extended to both sides of the Malaysian Peninsula covering 47,000 square miles .An international flotilla of more than 43 ships and 39 aircraft are involved in searching for the debris of the downed aircraft.
Watch this CBS News report on the disappearance of Malaysian Flight MH370:
The confusion that I witnessed must have further perplexed the relatives of more than 14 nationalities aboard, the majority were Chinese passengers. Both the families of Chinese passengers and Chinese government officials have badgered Malaysian airline staff in Beijing requesting information on the ‘disappearance’ of Flight 370. Doubtless that also would have been the response of the families of the other international travelers including Australians and three Americans on board the flight.
Regarding the matter of passengers with stolen passports, we know that neighboring Thailand is a major center for trafficking in such stolen documents. Two Iranian nationals had obtained these stolen passports. These Iranians were cleared by US counterterrorism authorities of having any nefarious terrorist connections. They were bound ultimately for destinations in Europe and were on not on any no fly or watch lists.. While Interpol maintains a data base of such purloined passports, it is not entirely fool proof. Thus, local photographic and biometric screening of departing passengers’ documentation is the only way to effectively identify and screen them for possible untoward missions.
Perhaps contributing to the confusion in locating Flight 370, is whether the impact occurred on land or more likely in the relative shallow depths of the Gulf of Thailand. There is also the matter of opacities in the international civil aviation radar coverage, especially in relatively undeveloped areas. Airline safety experts, both former National Transportation Safety Board officials and International Civil Aviation Organization and independent experts said that the sudden disappearance of Flight 370 transponder communications might be due to a possible criminal act, either from terrorist actions or a rogue pilot. We know from a report of an Australian tourists that the co-pilot on Flight 370 had left the cockpit door open so that curious passengers on board might come up to the flight deck to see how the flight was being handled. If the case, that is a violation of international flight safety rules requiring the cockpit to be locked down s following the 9/11 skyjackings and suicide attacks in New York, Northern Virginia and southwestern Pennsylvania.
One example of a plausible criminal act is what occurred with the loss of Egyptian Air 990 that went down 60 Miles off Nantucket in late August 1999 with 217 passengers aboard. As Flight 990, a Boeing 767, crashed in international waters the Egyptian Civil Aviation Authority (ECAA) was the responsible for conducting the investigation. The ECAA initially denied that the relief pilot aboard might have deliberately plunged Flight 990 into the Atlantic. Cockpit recordings and recovery of the flight recorders, the so-called black boxes, verified the sudden deliberate violent changes in flight controls.
Note this Wikipedia report on Flight 990:…
| — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon | [Return to headlines] |
Death Toll of Pakistan’s Karachi Bombing Rises to 15
ISLAMABAD, March 12 (Xinhua) — Death toll of Wednesday morning ‘s hand grenade blasts and firing in Pakistan’s southern port city of Karachi has risen to 15, local media and police said.
Faisal Bashir, superintendent police, said that the violent incident that happened on Wednesday morning was an outcome of a clash between two rival groups that killed 15 people including the gang leader’s brother and four women and injured over 30 people including school children.
The violence broke out when members of two rival gangs opened fire and hurled hand grenades at each other after exchanging harsh words in Jhat Pat market of Karachi city…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
EMP Weapon: The Weapon That Can Make a Plane “Disappear” *Videos*
Over a dozen nations have now mobilized search teams for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. The mysterious disappearance has left investigators all over the world wondering what could have happened. This is a huge investigation, as evidenced by the fact that China has re-tasked ten satellites to search for the wreckage, suggesting that the People’s Republic really wants to get to the bottom of what happened here.
There is no debris to be found. The black box, which is supposed to be indestructible in a large explosion and should broadcast a homing signal for up to 30 days, has gone dark. Moreover, INTERPOL is looking into several passengers who boarded the plane using false passports, and whose tickets were reportedly purchased by an unknown Iranian benefactor.
Several theories have emerged as to what could have caused the flight to “vanish” out of thin air. None of them are, as of yet, conclusive.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Flag Lowered as Canada’s Mission in Afghanistan Formally Ends
After 12 years, the loss of 162 lives and endless debate at home, Canada’s military mission in Afghanistan formally ended Wednesday with a ceremony in Kabul. Canadian and international dignitaries looked on as the army took down the Canadian flag at NATO headquarters, still under heavy guard in the war-ravaged country. The withdrawal of the last 100 Canadian soldiers, who stayed behind to train Afghan National Security Forces, will be completed over the next few days…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
India Maoists Kill 16 Policemen in Chhattisgarh
Maoist rebels have killed at least 16 policemen in the Indian state of Chhattisgarh, police say.
The patrol was on its way to provide security to workers building a road in Sukma district when rebels fired at them, officials say.
Twenty-five policemen were injured in the attack, senior police officer Mukesh Gupta told BBC Hindi.
Chhattisgarh is a stronghold of the rebels who say they are fighting for the rights of the poor.
The Maoists are active in more than a third of India’s 600 districts and control large areas of several states in a “red corridor” stretching from north-east to central India.
[Comment: China has been busy in India, India’s caste system is playing right into the hands of Communists.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Indonesia Population Approaching U.S. Revives Birth Control
As Indonesia’s growth slows, the world’s fourth-most-populous nation isn’t generating enough quality jobs to keep up with the population, the International Labour Organization said.
That prospect has brought the revival of a birth-control program begun 46 years ago by former President Suharto, who managed to halve the fertility rate to about 2.6, where it’s been stuck ever since. The government wants to cut the rate to the replacement level of 2.1 within two years to prevent the 250 million population doubling by 2060.
“We have to go back to the policies of the Suharto era, to make strong campaigns and bring the fertility rate down,” said M Sairi Hasbullah, head of Indonesia’s statistics bureau for East Java province. “It’s not going to be easy to provide food, education, health facilities and infrastructure for 500 million people. It’s a big danger for Indonesia.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Malaysia: Missing Plane Mystery Deepens After Fifth Day of Fruitless Search
Malaysia is now expanding its search for the jetliner missing since Saturday. It has emerged that military radar may have detected the aircraft travelling hundreds of miles off course, in a completely different direction to its intended flight plan.
More countries have joined the search, which is now being extended to the northern Malacca Strait.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Malaysia Airlines MH370: China in New ‘Debris’ Clue
Satellite images of possible debris from the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 have been released on a Chinese government website.
The three images show what appear to be large, floating objects in the South China Sea. Previous sightings of possible debris have proved fruitless.
The China-bound plane went missing on Friday with 239 people on board. It vanished about an hour after it took off from Kuala Lumpur as it flew south of Vietnam’s Ca Mau peninsula. No distress signal or message was sent.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Missing Malaysia Flight Similar to Lost 007 McDonald Flight
The mystery of Flight 370 stirs memories of the 1983 disappearance of Flight 007, which led to the death of a Congressman
The current mystery of the missing Malaysia Airlines flight has striking similarities to the 1983 disappearance of a Korean airliner carrying the late Congressman Larry McDonald, which also went missing in Asia.
Investigators trying to determine what happened to Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 after it was reported missing in the Gulf of Thailand on March 8 have had little to go on: no distress signal from the flight, no wreckage found and no severe weather reported in the vicinity that could have caused a crash.
Even the oil slick previously attributed to the flight turned out to be a false lead.
More shocking, the passengers’ relatives said that they were able to call the cell phones of those missing and hear a ringing tone, which should have been impossible if the plane crashed into the ocean.
[Comment: Read the mysterious details of flight 007.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Top American Commander Warns Afghanistan Would Deteriorate Quickly if US Completely Withdraws
The top American commander in Afghanistan warned Wednesday the country would deteriorate quickly if the U.S. withdraws completely by the end of this year.
Testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee in a nearly empty hearing room, Gen. Joseph Dunford said the Taliban would view the withdrawal as a victory, Al Qaeda would be inspired to return, women would suffer, and the Afghan security forces would not be able to complete necessary training.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
China’s Share in Rare Earths Mining Declines Amid Falling Demand
While retaining its dominance in the mining of rare earth elements, China’s share in global production has decreased steadily in recent years. A fresh study showing a drastic drop in prices has shocked the industry.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Nuclear Regulatory Commission Blatantly Covered Up Significance of Fukushima
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is owned, captured and controlled by the nuclear industry.
It uses faulty models which put us all at risk, and pushes propaganda for the nuclear industry.
While the NRC was extremely worried about the U.S. West Coast getting hit by Fukushima radiation, itpublicly said that everything was safe and under control…
In fact, NRC whistleblowers say that the risk of a meltdown in the U.S. is even higher than it was at Fukushima.
Yet the NRC has not implemented any of the emergency measures which its staff urgently recommended, and has actually weakened safety standards for U.S. nuclear reactors after the Fukushima disaster.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
More People Fleeing as Deadly Attacks Reported in Nigeria’s Lake Chad Region
The United Nations refugee agency said today it is increasingly alarmed at the humanitarian impact of continuing violence in north-eastern Nigeria and stressed the importance of protecting civilians.
Newly arrived refugees interviewed by the staff of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Niger have spoken of atrocities on the islands and shores of Lake Chad in north-east Nigeria’s Borno state…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Somalia: Gov’t Soldier Who Previously Assassinated a Journalist is Executed in Mogadishu
The Military court of Somalia today executed three soldiers in Mogadishu who were charged and convicted of killing soldiers and a journalist in Mogadishu last year.
The Somali army firing squad executed the three soldiers who were blindfolded and handcuffed. One of the three has previously assassinated a Somali journalist late Mustaf Hussein Qanyare on the outskirts of Mogadishu in September last year, according to military court chief Liban Ali Yarow.
Hundreds of people came to witness the early morning execution which took place at Somali Police Academy grounds in Mogadishu’s Hamarjajab neighborhood…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Caribbean Adopts Plan to Seek Slavery Reparations
KINGSTOWN, St. Vincent (AP) — Leaders of Caribbean nations on Monday unanimously adopted a broad plan on seeking reparations from European nations for what they say are the lingering ill effects of the Atlantic slave trade on the region.
A British human rights law firm hired by the Caribbean Community grouping of nations announced that prime ministers had authorized a 10-point plan that would seek a formal apology and debt cancellation from former colonizers such as Britain, France and the Netherlands. The decision came at a closed-door meeting in St. Vincent & the Grenadines.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
University Student, National Guard Captain Among 3 Killed in Venezuela, Others Wounded
A university student, a National Guard captain and a third man were shot to death in separate incidents Wednesday as anti-government protests roiled the central Venezuelan city of Valencia. Three National Guardsmen and several protesters were wounded.
Two of the deaths came in the opposition-dominated Isabelica neighborhood, where residents unhappy with the scarcity of basic items and rising unemployment from the closure of some businesses in the area have protested for weeks by blocking streets and throwing rocks at police.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Citizenship Law Debated Again in Germany
A plan by Chancellor Angela Merkel’s coalition to slightly modify Germany’s strict citizenship law for young residents of foreign origin has been criticized by opposition parties. They say the move is insufficient.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Stolen IDs Ferry Asylum Seekers to Sweden
The man on the missing Malaysian Air plane who was reportedly travelling to Sweden has illustrated the trade in stolen passports. Seven percent of asylum seekers to Sweden present false ID documents to the authorities.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Another Day, Another Fake Anti-Gay Hate Crime
By Daniel Greenfield
Excerpt: Between the homophobic birthday invitation (fake), the lesbian waitress receipt (fake) and Matthew Shepard (fake)… there seem to be more fake gay hate crimes than real ones. A UNC-Chapel Hill freshman who told police he was attacked by a man who burned his hand and called him an anti-gay slur made a false report. A lesbian couple spray painted the phrase “kill the gay” on their own garage. Floyd Elliott, of Independence, told police that two attackers cut him in the stomach, branded him with a hot knife, and attempted to carve the word “Fag” on his forehead. Later, Elliott admitted to police that the injuries were self-inflicted.
| — Hat tip: KP | [Return to headlines] |
Feminist Studies Professor Accused of Assaulting Teenaged Prolife Demonstrator
By Jennifer Kabbany
Excerpt: Much of the scuffle was recorded on a smartphone by the 16-year-old, Thrin Short. The yet-to-be-released video is now in the custody of Santa Barbara law enforcement officials, who are investigating the March 4 incident.
The professor at the heart of the controversy is Mireille Miller-Young, an associate professor whose area of emphasis is black cultural studies, pornography and sex work, according to her faculty webpage. She could not be reached for comment Tuesday by The College Fix. The confrontation took place at the coastal, public university’s “free speech” area, a heavily traversed part of the quad.
| — Hat tip: KP | [Return to headlines] |
Feminist Control Freaks Want to Ban the Word “Bossy”
Campaign backed by banks, oil companies, transnational corporations
Feminism is a top down tool of the establishment which is used to promote cultural marxism, create thought criminals and police language.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
By Mark Steyn
Excerpt: So the other night I saw the movie Non-Stop, because who doesn’t enjoy watching Liam Neeson kill large numbers of people for a couple of hours? Unfortunately, it was set on a transatlantic jet flying a mere couple of hundred passengers to London, and he doesn’t even get to kill all of them. So it was a bit small potatoes after Taken, where he kills approximately 30 per cent of the population of Paris, and Taken 2, where he kills approximately 40 per cent of the population of Istanbul, and, between the two pictures, kills approximately 70 per cent of the population of Albania. My favorite line in Taken 2 was Liam Neeson’s advice to his daughter in an emergency: Go to the US Embassy. You’ll be safe there. It opened the week after Benghazi.
| — Hat tip: KP | [Return to headlines] |
A drama student who became an internet sensation after claiming he was savagely beaten up for being gay has admitted he caused his injuries himself when he tripped on the pavement.
Richard Kennedy, 18, from Blackpool, told police he was set upon by a gang of homophobes when he left a gay nightclub in Preston, Lancashire, prompting officers to appeal for information about what they called a ‘particularly nasty assault’.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
12 Years a Slave, 150 Years a Whiner
By Taki Theodoracopulos
Excerpt:
Now, don’t for a minute think I’m defending slavery. We Greeks didn’t have slaves in modern times, just 2,500 years ago. We stopped after Jesus Christ told us we were all equals in the eyes of God. The fact that Arabs and Africans did not, however, is something Hollywood sharks have chosen to ignore. “The fact that slavery is still practiced in Africa seems to have escaped the film industry.” Anyway, had I lived in the American South back then, I would have freed my slaves had I inherited any. Free men work better, as do well-paid domestic servants. I don’t mistreat or fire people, except the odd Frog captain of my boat who was so busy impregnating women he was always with below decks while I spent my time unsuccessfully screaming for him to surface. (He then got a job with an English gent, who asked me for a reference and got a good one. When I eventually met the Englishman, he told me that the captain to whom I gave a great reference had tried to murder him and was at that moment residing in a St. Tropez jail.)
| — Hat tip: KP | [Return to headlines] |
Environmentalism — Building Block of Global Government
One of the easiest ways to control or manipulate the average individual is to create a straw man argument and then convince that individual with strained logic, or all kinds of scientific mumbo-jumbo, that the argument is true. The uninformed individual will buy the argument because he has insufficient knowledge to refute it. The next easiest way to control or manipulate the average individual is to make them feel guilty about their actions and how those actions impact the straw man (fallacy) argument. Since the average individual is not very well informed, straw man arguments are very effective.
Use of the straw man argument to control the population of an entire planet is not that difficult. Those wishing to control the planet, for whatever reason, (usually power and money) first invent the straw man, then they create the guilt attached to the straw man. The first invented straw man was the earth’s environment and how man is impacting the environment by his alleged damaging behavior, thus creating “GUILT.” The second invented straw man was Social Justice and how the wealthy nations and individuals should feel guilty about all the poor people in the world and the absolute obligation of the wealthy to share (by force) their alleged “ill-gotten” wealth with the poor … more “GUILT.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
GMOs Will Unleash Global Killer ‘Ecocide’ Across the Planet, Warns Prominent Scientist
(NaturalNews) A top scientist and “risk engineering” expert is now publicly warning that GMOs pose a dire, genuine threat to the continuation of life on Earth. Nassim Taleb, author of The Black Swan and Fooled by Randomness, says that GMOs have the potential to cause “an irreversible termination of life at some scale, which could be the planet.”
His full explanation is presented in this public paper which describes how even a small risk per crop species can still result in global ecocide if pursued with abandon. As Taleb explains, “The risk of ruin is not sustainable, like a resource that gets depleted in the long term (even in the short term). By the ruin theorems, if you incur a tiny probability of ruin, as a “one-off” risk, survive it, then repeat the exposure, you will eventually go bust with probability 1.” (Where “probability 1” means a 100% chance.)
This sober, scientific conclusion is of course entirely rational and founded in clear thinking. Self-deluded GMO zealots and paid Monsanto trolls predictably try to gloss over these risks in their quest for profits and power, but that does not mean such risks do not exist.
In fact, as Taleb convincingly argues, genetically engineered crops are specifically designed to have a survival advantage over conventional crops, allowing them to better resist droughts or infestations of pests or weeds. This survival advantage — if it’s as real as seed manipulators claim — means genetically engineered plants can out-compete non-GMO crops in open fields. The genetic pollution which is already underway across North America will only get worse, therefore, and there’s no reversing it because all living systems — even genetically engineered ones — have a natural drive to spread, multiply and survive.
The result is that GMO crops will out-compete and thereby displace non-GMO crops over time. Why does this matter? Because the rise of GMOs is nearly synonymous with the collapse of genetic diversity in seeds and food crops. You don’t have to go back very far in history to find examples of mono-cultured food crops failing due to lack of genetic diversity, either:
[Comment: Recommended reading.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Largest Ever Yellow Star is 1300 Times Bigger Than Sun
A monster version of our sun has been found, the largest known member of the family of yellow stars to which our sun belongs.
The whopper sun emits light in similar wavelengths as our sun but its diameter is over 1300 times larger. That means it would engulf all the planets between Mercury and Jupiter if placed at the centre of our solar system. The star’s size also means it is touching its smaller, companion star.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
‘Nothing is Perfect’: Tim Berners-Lee on 25 Years of the Web
Twenty-five years ago today, Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web. In an interview, he looks back on his creation — its strengths, the threats it poses and how Edward Snowden’s revelations have raised awareness about Internet integrity.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The Future of the Internet: Dark and Ubiquitous
In the future, the Internet will be like electricity coursing through our everyday lives — more ubiquitous but also more invisible.
At least, that’s the vision many experts gave to researchers in a recent survey by the Pew Research Center Internet Project. The survey, done on the 25th anniversary of the creation of the World Wide Web, asked 1,867 experts in privacy, technology and cybersecurity what the future of the Internet will look like in 2025.
Most experts agree the Internet will become seamlessly integrated into the background of day-to-day life and that wearable technologies will become the norm. But many experts also see danger looming on the horizon. Some worry the digital divide will worsen inequality. Others believe privacy will become a luxury of the rich, and that governments and corporations will strengthen their use of surveillance and social control.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The Real Roads to Hell: Interactive Map Reveals the World’s 22 Most Deadly Highways
The map by Hertfordshire-based firm Driving Experiences includes ‘fear factor’ ratings for different routes and is designed to highlight the perils of driving.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
By Mark Fischetti
In March 1989, Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee proposed a way to link together documents on different computers that were connected to the Internet. He sent a brief proposal to his boss at CERN, the high-energy physics lab in Geneva, and it sat on a shelf for 14 months. Berners-Lee recirculated the pitch, got an okay to spend work time on the project, and after a flurry of programming, he and a few dedicated colleagues took the “world wide web” live on Dec. 25, 1990.
Despite that date, online media and the World Wide Web Consortium are trumpeting today as “the 25th birthday of the Web,” because it’s the date Berners-Lee filed his proposal. I guess that works, if you consider the moment of conception as your birthday, rather than the moment you came gasping out of the womb into the world.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
I think it’s interesting to contrast how the authorities handle this natural gas explosion and how they treated the “NG” explosion in Minneapolis. Here the Nat’l Safety Transportation Board was called in; there, the highly politicized Dep’t of Homeland Security was rushed to the scene. It will also be interesting to compare how long it took the authorities in both cases to determine it was a NG explosion.
Spain
A nine-year-old girl who went missing seven months ago has been rescued from captivity deep in Bolivia’s Amazon rainforest.
Her parents, Moroccan residents in the Catalan city of Hospitalet de Llobregat, allowed her to go on holiday with a Bolivian neighbour they were friends with.
He told local television stations he had permission from the girl’s parents to marry her as he was a Muslim convert.
http://www.thelocal.es/20140312/kidnapped-barcelona-girl-found-in-the-amazon