A civilian contractor for the Navy who had clearance to be on ships at Naval Station Norfolk boarded the USS Mahan late last night, took the gun away from the officer on watch, and then shot and killed a security officer who responded to incident. The intruder was then shot and killed himself by other security personnel. The Navy is still investigating the incident, and has not yet released the names of the murdered sailor and the man who killed him.
In other news, the crown prince of Saudi Arabia says that the world has betrayed the Syrian rebels. He called for more support to tip the balance of power against the Assad regime.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, Jerry Gordon, JP, Kitman, Papa Whiskey, 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.
Banker Deaths Leave Industry Concerned as Coroners Probe
Coroners in London are preparing to investigate two apparent suicides as unexpected deaths by finance workers around the world have raised concerns about mental health and stress levels in the industry.
The inquest into the death of William Broeksmit, 58, a retired Deutsche Bank AG (DBK) risk executive found dead in his London home in January, will start tomorrow. The inquest for Gabriel Magee, a 39-year-old vice president in technology operations at JPMorgan Chase (JPM) & Co., who died after falling from the firm’s 33-story London headquarters, is scheduled for late May.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
China’s Central Bank Willing to Accept Some Debt Defaults
China’s central bank hinted Sunday that it was willing to accept some debt defaults in the $1.8 trillion wealth management market, as the world’s second-largest economy struggles to curb bad debts that pose a risk to the financial system.
“Under the premise of preventing systematic risks, allowing some default cases to happen naturally in compliance with market forces will… help rectify behaviours of product issuers and investors and benefit the healthy development of the wealth management market,” People’s Bank of China deputy governor Pan Gongsheng said at a forum in Shanghai.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Hundreds Rush to Rural Chinese Banks After Solvency Rumors
(Reuters) — Hundreds of people rushed on Tuesday to withdraw money from branches of two small Chinese banks after rumors spread about solvency at one of them, reflecting growing anxiety among investors as regulators signal greater tolerance for credit defaults.
The case highlights the urgency of plans to put in place a deposit insurance system to protect investors against bank insolvency, as Chinese grow increasingly nervous about the impact of slowing economic growth on financial institutions.
Domestic media reported, and a local official confirmed, that ordinary depositors swarmed a branch of Jiangsu Sheyang Rural Commercial Bank in Yancheng in economically troubled Jiangsu province on Monday.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: ‘More Suffering Ahead’ For the Unemployed Says Labor Min
Govt trying to overcome ‘tail dragging behind the crisis’
(ANSA) — Rome, March 25 — Italy’s labor minister on Tuesday warned that 2014 will likely be “another year of great suffering” with regard to unemployment. “Apart from certain factors tied to gross domestic product (GDP), dynamics surrounding employment will continue to be very difficult,” he side, likening the phenomenon to the “inevitable tail dragging behind the economic crisis”. “We’ll try to speed up the recovery as much as possible”. Unemployment in Italy currently stands at a record 12.9%, with youth unemployment well over 40%. Italy officially emerged from its worst recession since World War II in the second half of last year. Since then recovery has been slow.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Visco Against Austerity Budgets to Cut Debt
Bank of Italy governor calls for focus on growth
(ANSA) — Rome, March 25 — Bank of Italy Governor Ignazio Visco said Tuesday that boosting economic growth should be the main tool for cutting the country’s massive public debt rather than austerity budgets. “It’s necessary to focus on the growth of the real economy, and therefore a recovery of investments,” he said. “In this way corrective budgets of 40 to 50 billion euros a year (of fiscal adjustment) would not be necessary”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Russia Sees Chinese Yuan as World Reserve Currency
Following China’s unwillingness to vote against Russia at the UN and yesterday’s news that China will sue Ukraine for $3bn loan repayment, it seems Russia is returning the favor. Speaking at the Chinese Economic Development Forum, ITAR-TASS reports, the Chief Economist of Russia’s largest bank stated that “China’s Yuan may become the third reserve currency in the in the future.”
Managing Director and Chief Economist of investment company Sberbank Yevgeny Gavrilenkov said at the 15th governmental Chinese economic development forum in the Chinese capital on Sunday (via ITAR-TASS):
“China’s yuan (renminbi) may become a third reserve currency in the world in the future”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Alan Keyes: A Vote Felt ‘Round the World
This week, the Pledge-to-Impeach mobilization surpassed its first significant milestone. The Pledge-to-Impeach movement aims to turn the 2014 election into a vote of no confidence in the present administration of the U.S. government. More importantly, it aims to rouse grassroots Americans to challenge and circumvent the current sham party system, which has both parties in the grip of elitist forces bent on overthrowing constitutional government of, by, and for the American people.
Nothing confirms the intent of these elitists more decisively than the orchestration of public perception (propaganda) continually under way in the elitist faction media. After the parody of conservatism that was the recent “C”PAC gathering in Washington, D.C., I drew attention to the fact that the elitist faction leadership that presently controls the GOP has declared war to extinction on the authentic conservatives who make up the vital core of the party’s base. These are voters still loyal to the U.S. Constitution and its principles, as articulated in the American Declaration of Independence.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
America Deserves Better Than Clintons
Exclusive: Kathleen Willey suggests Hillary ‘consider retreating from public life’
“What difference does it make?”
Indeed, Madam Secretary, Madam Senator, former first lady and FLOA, it makes a very big difference.
The last time we saw Hillary Clinton as our secretary of state, she was testifying before a congressional committee about Benghazi. During that meeting on Jan. 22, 2013, we heard her shriek, “What difference does it make?”…
What difference does it make? It certainly makes a difference to the families and friends of the four men who died that night. When their bodies came home to Andrew Air Force Base, there was a grand display of solidarity and support for the families of the fallen, with Obama and Hillary leading the delegation of government and military officials. Looking oh-so distraught and sympathetic as she met with the families, she continued to blame the entire uprising on “that anti-Muslim video,” and she looked into the eyes of those families and vowed to bring the perpetrators to justice. Some may say that kind of follow-up should be in the hands of the “proper” authorities, not “hands on” by the secretary of state. Maybe. She made a promise. As a mother herself, she looked into the eyes of those mothers and promised results. So far, she’s done nothing but send up trial balloons about running for president. There are no committees, no valid reports, no interviews, nothing. Her word means nothing.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
America: The Train is Leaving, We Are About to be Left Behind
Communism and Socialism are evil and deadly twins who are way ahead of us all. Its name changes through out the years, hiding behind anything Americans have been conditioned to embrace. The last several years it is: ‘fairness for all’ ‘equality’ ‘Government taking care of all needs whether you work or not.’ It is now face lifted to the popular term — progressivism. It hides through out the Democrat party and even many posers in the GOP.
Communists know Americans now have been conditioned to view communism as a ‘thing of the past’ ‘a Chinese or North Korean thing’ ‘what the Russians were’ ‘something they heard about in history class with McCarthyism.’ How perfect…
Now called progressivism, it has been planted and hidden throughout our House-Senate, White House, many Court systems, schools and Entertainment machine. It has tragically and successfully taken over many of our Churches. We see the push for emptying the real Biblical message and creating instead false and seductive placebos for the people like ‘christlam.org (combining Christianity and Islam), turning the real message of Jesus into ‘social gospel’ ‘self esteem’ gospel’ ‘redistribution of wealth gospel’ essentially communism.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Brian Houston: “The Muslim and You, We Actually Serve the Same God”
Hillsong is famous all around the Christian world for their worship music. But what god does Hillsong worship? What god do they serve? Does your church sing Hillsong music? Do you find the songs generally vague and lacking scriptural substance in contrast to hymns?
Recently, Brian Houston stated that Christians and Muslims serve the same God. Watch him say it:…
If Brian Houston does indeed preach the Christian gospel as he claims, then he would know that the Muslim and Christian faiths are incompatible. But we know that he can’t preach the Christian gospel because he doesn’t know it. Brian Houston’s comment is just as offensive to Muslims as it is to Christians and is essentially doing more unjust damage to both faiths.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
DOD Military Training to ‘Scare the Crap Out of People’ In Florida
The Department of Defense is conducting military training in Broward County this week, with exercises involving low flying helicopters that will ‘scare the crap out of people’, according to one local reporter.
After residents in downtown Fort Lauderdale began reporting low flying military helicopters last night at around 8pm, news reports emerged hours later containing details of a DoD training drill that would be taking place from March 24-27, suggesting that residents were only informed of the exercise after it had already begun.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Florida ALAC Passes First Hearing at Senate Judiciary Committee in Tallahassee
There was a hearing of the Florida version of American Law for American Courts (ALAC) legislation, SB386: “acceptance of foreign laws in certain cases” before the Senate Judiciary Committee chaired by Republican Sen. Tom Lee.. The vote was on party lines, 6 Republicans to 3 Democrats. See who voted for the ALAC measure at the Florida Family Association website. The House version passed the first hearing on March 18th in the House Civil Justice Subcommittee. The House version of ALAC has also been referred to the Judiciary Committee for a hearing, the last stop before a House floor vote.
According to Sen. Alan Hays, Senate Sponsor of ALAC, the Family Law Section of the Florida Bar Association and a representative of Muslim Advocacy group , Emerge USA spoke in opposition. A contingent from Melbourne, Florida composed of retired senior military officers and an author waved testimony in favor of the measure. Watch this video of hearing on SB386 before the Senate Judiciary Committee beginning at time mark 111 minutes.
One of the Republicans who voted in favor of the ALAC legislation, Sen. John Thrasher, Chair of the Florida Senate Rules Committee approved the measure today. Clearance by the Rules Committee will be the final hearing before scheduling a Senate floor vote. The next Senate hearing will be conducted by the Florida Senate Government Oversight and Government Accountability Committee. Chairman and Deputy Chairman are Democrat Sen. Jeremy Ring and Republican and ALAC sponsor, Sen. Hays. Ring voted against SB386 at today’s Senate Judiciary Hearing.
Support may be stronger for passing SB 0386 on this fourth try for Florida ALAC. Part of that is attributable to research by the American Public Policy Alliance that revealed nearly two dozen decisions that recognized foreign laws at both the lower and appellate court levels in the sunshine state. Further, this legal research has been bolstered by disclosures of abductions and removal of American children by Saudi parents to Saudi Arabia, in violation of state, federal and international laws criminalizing such parental abductions. These Saudi abductions were allegedly justified in accordance with Sharia doctrine. See our NER and Iconoclast interviews with former Arkansas State University professor Margaret McClain, An American Child Kidnapped in Accordance with Shariah, and a Floridian, Ms. Yasmeen A. Davis, rescued by her family , Rescue from An Abduction to Saudi Arabia. Ms. Davis coincidentally lives in Sen. Ring’s district in South Florida. Sen. Hays and Professor McClain were featured speakers at the Annual Leadership Prayer Breakfast on March 13th in Tallahassee, sponsored by the Christian Family Coalition of Miami (CFC). See our Iconoclast post, “Meet the Florida Citizen Lobbyists backing ALAC in the 2014 Legislative Session”. Anthony Verdugo, CFC executive director indicated that passage of ALAC is one of the group’s major legislative priorities in the 2014 Session of the Florida Legislature..
| — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon | [Return to headlines] |
Homeland Security Exercise Targets “Free Americans Against Socialist Tyranny”
Leaked documents reveal plan to counter online dissent during martial law
Leaked Homeland Security documents obtained by Infowars reveal details of a joint DHS/FEMA national exercise set to take place this week, one of the components of which revolves around an effort to counter online dissent by a group called “Free Americans Against Socialist Tyranny,” which is disgruntled at the imposition of martial law after an earthquake in Alaska.
The document again underscores the federal government’s obsession with characterizing libertarians and conservatives as some kind of extremist radical threat.
[…]
This is by no means the first time that the Department of Homeland Security has characterized anti-big government Americans as domestic extremists.
A study funded by the Department of Homeland Security, details of which emerged in 2012, characterized Americans who are “suspicious of centralized federal authority,” and “reverent of individual liberty” as “extreme right-wing” terrorists.
As we have exhaustively documented on numerous occasions, federal authorities and particularly the Department of Homeland Security have been involved in producing a deluge of literature which portrays liberty lovers and small government advocates as extremist radicals.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
JPMorgan Chase Bets $10.4 Billion on the Early Death of Workers
Families of young JPMorgan Chase workers who have experienced tragic deaths over the past four months, have been kept in the dark on many details, including the fact that the bank most likely held a life insurance policy on their loved one — payable to itself. Banks in the U.S., as well as other corporations, are allowed to make multi-billion dollar wagers that their profits from life insurance policies on employees will outstrip the cost of paying premiums and other fees. Early deaths help those wagers pay off.
According to the December 31, 2013 financial filing known as the Call Report that JPMorgan made with Federal regulators, it has tied up $10.4 billion in illiquid, long term bets on the death of a large segment of its employees.
The program is known among regulators as Bank Owned Life Insurance or BOLI. Federal regulators specifically exempted BOLI in passing the final version of the Volcker Rule in December of last year which disallowed most proprietary trading or betting for the house. Regulators stated in the rule that “Rather, these accounts permit the banking entity to effectively hedge and cover costs of providing benefits to employees through insurance policies related to key employees.” We have italicized the word “key” because regulators know very well from financial filings that the country’s mega banks are not just insuring key employees but a broad-base of their employees.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Man With Plans to Kill Non-Muslims Overseas Faces Judge
County man facing terrorism charges went before a judge Tuesday in Federal Court. Last week, the Federal Bureau of Investigation raided Akba Jihad Jordan’s apartment. A Federal criminal complaint says Avin Brown and Jordan had plans to kill non-Muslims in Syria or Yemen. During that search last week, agents found an AK-47 assault rifle, swords and other weapons…
[JP note: A bad case of JIM.]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Military, Police Declare Interest in Taser Drone
A video of the weapon in action included one of the developers being shocked by the taser bearing drone, and collapsing into an immobile state.
The developers clearly had more than personal security in mind, however, telling Fox 5 news that the device would be perfect for law enforcement use.
“If you imagine a S.W.A.T. raid and people running — why send officers, with gun blazing, down an alley way where they can shoot and harm an innocent person or whatever, when you could just have the drone follow them,” said Chaotic Moon co-founder, William “Whurley” Hurley.
Hurley added that police departments and even military officials have been expressing interest since the Austin video went viral online. He also declared that he has absolutely no intention of commercialising the device, and that the video was intended as “a wake-up call.”
“We, as a society, should all be involved in the conversation of technology governance, not just the legislators who often do a knee jerk reaction, or the inventors and entrepreneurs who often don’t think about some of the consequences of their technologies,” Hurley said.
He added that he intends to destroy the device soon, and that the publicity stunt was aimed at raising awareness of and debate surrounding such technology.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
MIT Engineers Create Manufacturing Materials Half-Inanimate, Half-Alive
Engineers at MIT have created “living materials,” combining the advantages of living cells with the functionality of nonliving materials.
Living cells are able to respond to their environment, synthesize new organic compounds, and are easily scalable. While inanimate materials can offer practical benefits, like light emission or electricity.
[Comment: “The Blob” lives again…]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Navy Continues to Investigate USS Mahan Shooting
NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) — Two people are dead after a shooting at Naval Station Norfolk Monday night.
Capt. Robert Clark, Commanding Officer at Naval Station Norfolk, said at a press conference the shooting happened on board USS Mahan at Pier 1. According to the U.S. Navy, the shooting happened around 11:20 p.m. when a male civilian shot and killed a Sailor. Security forces responding to reports of shots fired then killed the suspect.
[…]
Terri Davis with the U.S. Navy said the suspect approached the Quarterdeck of the ship and was confronted by security. At some point there was a struggle and the suspect disarmed the Petty Officer of the Watch. That weapon was used to kill the Sailor responding to help.
Security forces responding to the scene killed the suspect.
Later in the day Tuesday, Beth Baker with Naval Station Norfolk told WAVY.com the suspect arrived at the base not long before 11:20 p.m. and that the sequence of events “happened very rapidly.”
The identities of neither the suspect nor the Sailor have been released at this time.
[…]
Clark said the suspect did have authorization to be on the base.
[Random nutcase, or sudden jihad syndrome? — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
New Jersey Lawmaker Blasts Proposed Magazine Ban
“This body intends to treat otherwise law-abiding citizens the same way it treats sex offenders…”
During a speech at the Assembly Chamber in Trenton, NJ, Assemblyman Michael Patrick Carroll (R) questioned his fellow legislators’ intentions regarding a 10 round magazine limit while pointing out the bill’s more egregious aspects.
“Mr. Speaker, the question presented today is whether we as a body will substitute one completely arbitrary limit, for a smaller, even more arbitrary limit on magazine size, instantly turning millions of our fellow citizens… into second degree criminals, for the offense, Mr. Speaker, of possessing a metal box with a spring,” Carroll said. “This body intends to treat otherwise law-abiding citizens the same way it treats sex offenders, aggravated arsonists, burglars and kidnappers.”
“For the offense of peaceably owning an utterly harmless item, we will throw these peaceful citizens into jail for up to 10 years… and utterly destroy their lives, and for what? A public relations stunt, because that Mr. Speaker is what this bill is all about. It will do precisely nothing to save a single life but will ruin numerous other lives, all the while infringing on basic fundamental constitutional rights, all that some folks can say they are doing something.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
New York Uses Toll Tags to Track Motorists
For the past 20 years, multiple agencies have been tracking cars with E-ZPass tags no where near a toll booth
New York traffic agencies are tracking motorists across the state by connecting to their toll tags mounted to their windshields, even when the drivers are no where near a toll booth.
Both the New York City Department of Transportation and Transcom, a traffic management agency, admitted that for nearly 20 years they have been using antennas to connect to E-ZPass toll tags in vehicles driving across more than 3,000 miles of public, non-toll roads, not just in New York but neighboring states as well.
“We’re being watched in ways that I think none of us would have imagined,” Donna Lieberman, the executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, told WBGO.org. “It’s happening without any public scrutiny, without any decision that’s consistent with checks and balances.”
A privacy advocate discovered the massive size of the program after he created a device that alerted him every time his toll tag connected to an antenna.
“I took my E-ZPass and figured out how to let me know when it was transmitting,” he stated. “Then I reverse engineered the E-ZPass protocol radio.”
Even when he drove down roads no where near a toll booth, his device went off multiple times. He realized that the agencies were purposely installing toll tag readers hidden under regular traffic signs to track drivers as they drove through.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
NSA Director to Jimmy Carter: Agency Not Spying on Your Emails
The outgoing director of the National Security Agency wants former President Jimmy Carter to know: It’s safe to use email.
Gen. Keith Alexander, in an exclusive interview with Fox News’ Bret Baier, addressed concerns raised by the former president, who on Sunday said he uses snail mail to communicate with foreign leaders for fear his emails are being monitored.
“We’re not (monitoring the emails),” Alexander said. “So he can now go back to writing emails. The reality is, we don’t do that. And if we did, it would be illegal and we’d be … held accountable and responsible.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Open the Floodgates? Indiana Becomes First State to Scrap Common Core
Growing criticism over costs imposed by the program, as well as fears that by setting a national education standard, the program has already begun dictating curriculum, has made Common Core an increasingly polarizing issue. Although the program has both Republican and Democrat supporters, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence predicted his state will be the first of many to rethink participation.
“I believe when we reach the end of this process there are going to be many other states around the country that will take a hard look at the way Indiana has taken a step back, designed our own standards and done it in a way where we drew on educators, we drew on citizens, we drew on parents and developed standards that meet the needs of our people,” Pence said.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Pew: White Majority Over, Next Generation More Than 50% Non-White
For the first time in American history, non-whites will make up half or more of the next generation, likely pushing Washington toward a bigger government — and the GOP better tone down their anti-government rhetoric if they want to win them, according to a top polling outfit.
“This is a generation that is 41 percent non-white; the generation behind it is likely to be close to 50 if not more than 50 percent non-white, and the anti-government kind of tone is one that really doesn’t resonate with that non-white sector in particular,” said Dimock at the Ripon retreat.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Professor: 90% of News Stories to be Written by Computers by 2030
Professor of Computer Science Dr. Kristian Hammond predicts that by 2030, 90 per cent of all news stories will be written not by human reporters but by computer algorithms.
According to Singularity Hub’s Jason Dorrier, Professor Hammond, “thinks some 90% of the news could be written by computers by 2030.” And don’t think this will just be restricted to sports results or earthquakes. Hammond also believes that “a computer could write stories worthy of a Pulitzer Prize by 2017.”
This speaks to the increasingly redundant role of mainstream news reporters. Journalists working for the corporate press have abandoned their role as adversarial checks against the state to such a degree that they are now being replaced by computers.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Putin, Xi Jinping and Obama Are Tightening the Noose Around America’s Neck
What would you say if it were known that there was at least one prominent American politician and one Russian media outlet that accurately foretold the present crisis we find ourselves in over Ukraine if we elected Obama as President?
How would you like to have been that prominent American politician that predicted Putin would invade Ukraine because he would be encouraged by Obama’s “indecision” and “moral equivalence” and would possibly become the flash point for World War III?
It turns out there was such a prediction and the person making it was mocked. Her statements were labeled as “strange” and representative of a “far-fetched scenario”. The person who made these stunningly accurate predictions was none other than Sarah Palin, and these statements were made during the Presidential campaign of 2008. Palin warned America about Obama and what would happen in Ukraine, and we would not listen.
The Russian Media Also Told the World What Was Coming
Was this just a lucky guess by Palin, or have there been other observers capable of foreseeing our current situation?
Some Russians apparently agreed with Palin on the possibility of Ukraine becoming a flash point if Obama were to be elected instead of McCain. Investment Watch obtained a Russian media statement, and by using Google Translator, produced evidence that the Russians were predicting a Putin invasion of Crimea if Obama was elected. The Russian article also appeared in 2008. Obama Has Left a Paper Trail Regarding His Ukrainian Intentions
Perhaps this contingent of the Russian media and Sarah Palin were wise to the fact that, then-Senator Obama, in 2005, participated in what became known as the creation of the second phase of the Budapest Document. The document intentionally weakened Ukraine, in 2005, at Obama’s urging, and was a major player in strongly encouraging, almost requiring, Ukraine to destroy its conventional weapons stockpiles as well. Therefore, Obama has helped to create the present crisis. It is likely that Obama was playing a well-defined role in weakening Ukraine in order to create the present crisis. By the way, the Budapest Document called for international protection of Ukraine, from invasion. if Ukraine disarmed. By protection, I mean military protection. The document did not provide for “sanctions” that Obama is presently employing which bans Russian officials from attending Disneyworld! And why isn’t the media asking Obama about these events?
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
As the on-ramp to the presidential election of 2016 approaches, the malingering effects of the Republican Party’s successful scheme to squelch dissenting voices within its own ranks are still a major concern to those who consider the GOP the party of the Constitution.
U.S. News reported March 11 on three rules adopted at the Republican National Convention in 2012 that will exert extraordinary control over the 2016 nomination process.
One of the rules highlighted in the story “cracks down on delegates who are inclined to peel away from the electoral outcome in their state.” Enactment of this RNC regulation was a direct response to the efforts of delegates committed to Ron Paul who felt disenfranchised at the convention held in Tampa two years ago.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Shock Video: Albuquerque Cops Open Fire on Man for Illegally Camping (Video)
[WARNING: Disturbing Content.]
APD stands by its use of force, while others label the shooting “murder”
You can add one more item to the list of things that will potentially get you killed by police: illegal camping.
New Mexico police are standing by their decision to shoot and kill 38-year-old homeless man James Boyd, who last Sunday made the ill-fated decision to shack up in the Sandia foothills due east of Albuquerque…
“Boyd was arguing with police for more [than] three hours last Sunday in the foothills after officers went to talk to him about illegally camping in open space,” reports KRQE.
But police soon grew weary of attempting to peacefully resolve the issue with the transient, who was approached as he was sleeping, and resorted instead to lobbing a flash-bang grenade, then firing a cascade of bullets as the man turned to escape, dispatching the supposed threat within a matter of seconds.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
State Senator’s Response to Second Amendment Concerns: “Go F**k Yourself” (Video)
Pro-gun control State Senator Josh Miller (D) has a message for second amendment advocates who are concerned the legislation he is backing would turn them into criminals; “Go f*ck yourself”.
Infowars correspondent Dan Bidondi approached Miller and other lawmakers at the Rhode Island State House where a slew of anti-second amendment legislation was set to be heard later that evening.
“The second amendment shall not be infringed, you people need to understand that,” Bidondi told Miller.
“Go f*ck yourself,” Miller responded as he smiled, before one of his staffers repeated the insult.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Study: Obama Most Well-Traveled, Expensive President in History Through Five Years
President Barack Obama has spent more time traveling abroad than other U.S. president in history at this point in their presidencies, according to a forthcoming study from the National Taxpayer Union Foundation (NTUF) provided exclusively to Breitbart News ahead of its public release.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Study: Blacks With White Friends Are ‘Less Black’
When Washington, D.C., councilman and former Mayor Marion Barry this week said that whites need to be “more open-minded” about African-American politicians, claiming “blacks are more open-minded than” whites, he was suggesting that whites can’t do what blacks do — embrace the other race.
But a new study of 212 black college students made available to Secrets found little open-mindedness: Blacks don’t like it when other blacks associate with whites, to the point of refusing help to an African-American experiencing “a run of bad luck” — just because they have white friends.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The Coming Enslavement of Communism
“…if ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animated contest of freedom, go from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen.” -Samuel Adams
A few weeks ago, my friend, Tom, sent me an email that I shared with my lists. It was profound, and it told about Tom’s conversation in a WalMart with an immigrant from communist Romania. It was my friend Tom, who originally wrote this up and sent it to his friends. The WalMart conversation was about our coming enslavement, and how very far down the road we’ve gone towards Communism. We’ve had Soviet agents and communists in our federal and state governments for decades. One need only read, Henry Kissinger, Soviet Agent, by Frank A. Capell, to see the depths of deception by the mass media, the elitists in power, and the puppet masters, in destroying our Republic.
I do believe the patriots of America have delayed the total conquest. Despite the daily destruction of our freedoms and liberties, their plans have been derailed and the delay has angered them. When you read the following story, I would hope it would encourage you to keep up the fight, to tell the truth to your friends and neighbors, and to pray to God to give us a Nineveh. As my friend Sally said to me this morning, “We either need a revival or another revolution.” You be the judge. Here is the story, entitled,
COMMUNISM AT WALMART
Dear Reader,
The following is a true story about a recent experience I had while shopping at the local WalMart. I hope you find it as eye-opening as I did.
[Comment: Read this article. ]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Profound Arrogant Ignorance and Stupidity of Liberals in Charge
The recent Twitter kerfuffle between Matt Drudge and the Obama/media/academic complex over the ObamaCare tax demonstrates in plain view and without question something many of us have known for years: while the organized left insist that they are the only ones smart enough to run the world, they remain astonishingly ignorant of how it works. They’re even ignorant of how the most fundamental parts of laws that they champion operate.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Uncensored Video: Police Execute Homeless Man for Camping
[WARNING: Disturbing Content.]
Media edits out shocking footage before shooting
The full uncensored footage of police killing 38-year-old homeless man James Boyd for camping is even more shocking than the edited version being shown by the media.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
US Military’s Xs-1 Space Plane Project Seeks $27 Million in 2015 Funding
The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency expects to spend some $800 million on space programs from 2015 through 2018, an increase of $130 million over what was projected at this time last year, Defense Department budget documents show.
Nearly all of the targeted increase for DARPA’s Space Programs and Technology Office is backloaded into the outyears, the documents show. For 2015, the office is seeking nearly $180 million, only $7.5 million more than this year’s funding level.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
What Would Happen if a Giant Tsunami Hit Florida?
Can you imagine the devastation that would be caused if a massive wall of water several hundred feet high slammed into Florida at more than 100 miles an hour? To many people such a scenario is impossible, but that is what people living along the Indian Ocean thought before the 2004 tsunami and that is what people living in Japan thought before the 2011 tsunami.
Throughout history, giant tsunamis have been relatively rare events, but they do happen. Scientists tell us that a mega-tsunami can race across the open ocean at up to 500 miles an hour, and when they reach shore they can produce waves that are hundreds of feet high. And even though authorities claim that the threat to Florida is “remote”, it might surprise you to learn that there are “Tsunami Hazard Zone” signs on Florida beaches. If a highly unusual event (such as a giant meteor hitting the Atlantic Ocean) caused a giant tsunami that hit Florida, the devastation would be absolutely unimaginable.
Most people don’t realize this, but almost the entire bottom half of Florida is just barely above sea level. If a giant tsunami did hit Florida, there would be nothing to stop it from sweeping across the entire state…
[…]
Of course the authorities do all that they can to play down this potential threat. They say that it is “highly unlikely” that a tsunami will ever hit Florida. The following comes from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection…
“Although it is highly unlikely that a tsunami will impact Florida, it is not impossible. Floridians may also travel to locations where tsunamis are more likely. It is vital to know (and instruct children) that if the ocean suddenly recedes from the shore do not stand and stare. It is necessary immediately to run uphill or away from the shore and go to the highest location possible which may mean up the stairs of a substantial building. Everyone should be aware that no matter where in the world they are, if the sea is observed to recede from the shore, they should immediately run for high ground.”
That last part is quite funny. There is no “high ground” until you get to north Florida. If a mega-tsunami strikes, there is going to be no place to hide.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Woman Hangs American Flag in Window, Gets Eviction Notice Over ‘Colored Drape’
An Oregon woman who was threatened with eviction if she did not remove the American flag from her front window has now been asked to place the “colored drape” on a flag pole.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Youth Vaccine Crackdown Advances in Colorado
Colorado parents seeking to exempt their children from vaccinations for personal reasons would face required education under a proposal that advanced in the state House Friday.
The proposal has sparked strong feelings among lawmakers about parental control.
Republican House Leader Brian DelGrosso told lawmakers that while he immunized his children, his younger brother doesn’t believe in vaccinations.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Canadian Patient Gets Ebola All-Clear After Liberia Return
Canada’s health ministry has said that the a recent returnee from Liberia is not infected with the Ebola virus. He was hospitalized and isolated on returning from West Africa with symptoms consistent with the virus.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Canada Red Alert!! RCMP Gun Grab in Effect! (Video)
Warning: some graphic language.
If Canadians don’t turn over their guns they could face 3 years in prison. Coming to Amerika next!
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
89% of Venetians Vote for Independence From Italy, Will Withhold Taxes to Rome
Inspired by Scotland’s hopes for independence and hot on the heels of Crime’a 95% preference for accession to Russia, 89% of the citizens of Venice voted for their own sovereign state in a ‘referendum’ on independence from Italy. As The Daily Mail reports, the proposed ‘Repubblica Veneta’ includes the five million inhabitants of the Veneto region and has been largely driven by the wealthy ‘who are tired of supporting the poor and crime-ridden south’ (Venice pays EUR71bn in taxes and receives only EUR21bn in services and investment). The ballot appointed a committee of ten who immediately declared independence from Italy. Venice may now start withholding taxes from Rome. Wonder why the US, Europe, and Japan have not announced the referendum “illegal” and announced sanctions yet?
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
[WARNING: Disturbing Content.]
The absolute disgrace of modern medicine: babies as fuel for the furnace
What this practice shows is that, to the conventional medical system, the value of a living human baby is no more than that of a lump of coal.
An institution that claims to help save lives is actually in the business of routinely terminating them and shoveling the dead bodies in massive ovens to lower their own heating bills. This must make hospital administrators especially happy, knowing they can lower their operating costs (and boost profits!) by incinerating aborted babies to turn skin, bones, brain tissue and once-beating hearts into BTUs. Christmas bonus, anyone?
Just like Nazi crematoriums
If the image of bodies being incinerated in massive ovens seems familiar, that’s because the same atrocity took place during another dark era of human history: the Nazi-run Holocaust and attempted extermination of the Jews.
In concentration camps like Auschwitz, human bodies were incinerated in massive ovens, just like it has long been done in UK hospitals:
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
French Prison Ordered to Provide Halal Food to Muslims
LYON: A French prison has been ordered to provide halal meals for Muslim prisoners pending a definitive ruling on the latest issue to pit the country’s secular tradition against Islamic practice…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Has the National Front Broken France’s Two-Party System?
France’s far-right National Front (FN) claimed on Sunday it was now the “third force” in French politics and had destroyed France’s traditional left vs right political balance, following its strong showing in the first round of local elections.
“The National Front is taking root just as it wanted to do — and the crop is pretty exceptional,” FN leader Marine Le Pen told TF1 television. She added that Sunday’s strong performance “marked the end of the bipolarisation of French politics”.
Her claim was supported by several commentators in the French press. “Bipolar politics is dead” declared left-leaning daily “Le Monde” on Monday. “It has been replaced by a three-party system including the Socialists, UMP (centre-right opposition) and now the FN too.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: US Embassy Preps for Obama Visit With Social Media Humor
Video of president cutout posing with Totti, tourists
(ANSA) — Rome, March 25 — The US embassy has joined in the Italian capital’s preparations ahead of an official visit Thursday by US President Barack Obama by posting a humorous video on social media.
It features a montage of tourists having their picture taken with a life-size cardboard cutout of the American president in front of Rome’s best-known monuments.
It also includes a still of Obama posing with beloved Roma soccer team captain, Francesco Totti.
“Informal talks have begun already… what did Totti and President Obama talk about?” the US embassy tweeted Monday.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Luxottica Shares Rise 3.77% on News of Google Glass Deal
Analysts positive about growth potential of high-tech eyewear
(ANSA) — Milan, March 25 — Luxury eyewear company Luxottica did well in trading on the Milan bourse Tuesday in response to news of the partnership with global technology company Google for the development of the innovative wearable computer project Glass.
Shares in the world’s largest eyewear company, whose brand portfolio includes Ray-Ban, Oakley and Persol, rose 3.77% to 40.43 euros by early afternoon, partly thanks to a positive reception of the project from business analysts.
“The agreement allows Luxottica to maintain its leadership in a product area that is still at the embryonic stage but with strong opportunities for growth,” said investment banking firm Equita. Security brokerage firm Intermonte likewise said the partnership would give the eyewear company “access to a technology and to a product that could have huge potential if it becomes widely used”.
The first Google Glass products combining a tiny screen, camera and audio on a device worn at eye level are expected to go on sale in 2015.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Public-Sector Salary Caps Under Review, Govt Says
Premier wants no one making more than the president
(see related) (ANSA) — Rome, March 25 — Simplification Minister Marianna Madia said Tuesday that the supreme Court of Cassation was reviewing a government motion on salary caps for public-sector managers. Madia said the cap also covers public-sector pensions and annuities. Premier Matteo Renzi has said he plans to cap salaries below the quarter of a million euros Italian President Giorgio Napolitano gets.
Some of the fattest cats in Italy’s bloated public sector earn three or four times what the head of State is paid.
Giovanni Giorgio Tempini, CEO of government saving and loan trust Cassa Depositi e Prestiti takes home 1.035 million euros every year, compared to Napolitano’s annual stipend of 248,000 euros.
Italian railways chief Mauro Moretti gets 873,666 euros a year.
Speaking at a conference in Rome on public-sector pay, Madia said she wants to see “healthy, compulsory (job) mobility, where the rights of the worker are respected, where there are no bureaucratic obstacles”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Artist Ploughs Statue of Liberty With Cross for Obama, Pope
‘Sad face, cross of poverty’ says Dario Gambarin
(ANSA) — Verona, March 25 — A northern Italian land artist has ploughed a gigantic Statue of Liberty with a cross added to its crown in honour of Thursday’s historic meeting between Pope Francis and United States President Barack Obama.
Dario Gambarin said his work, carved into a 35,000-metre-square field near Verona, “has a sad and ironic face which underscores the historic moment we are going through, and it carries the cross of persistent poverty”.
Gambarin has in the past devoted huge ploughed works to both Francis and Obama, separately.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Salvini Proposes Alliance Against ‘Mass Immigration’
Northern League calls on European allies to join in opposition
(ANSA) — Rome, March 25 — Matteo Salvini, head of Italy’s regionalist Northern League, on Tuesday called on allies across Europe to join in fighting “mass immigration” in the lead up to May’s European Parliament elections.
“We will propose a European alliance against mass immigration,” said Salvini, adding he hoped to attract like-minded politicians from Austria, Denmark, Sweden and France.
“It will be a fundamental part of our program,” he added, one day after he said the League was encouraged by the weekend victory in French municipal elections of the far-right National Front led by Marine Le Pen.
Salvini, whose party has taken strong stances against immigration, said he was confident that such groups would unit in their opposition to the euro and European institutions to sweep elections in May. “The dinosaurs and Euro-bureaucrats are afraid! A wind of freedom is blowing from France,” Salvini said Monday.
He added that his anti-euro forces would prevail over European Union proponents including German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Italian president Giorgio Napolitano.
“(European elections) will be a nightmare for Merkel, Napolitano, and every fan of the euro. A different Europe is possible,” said Salvini in a statement on Facebook.
His position was buttressed by Le Pen who said in an interview with ANSA Monday: “I call on all the Euroskeptic forces in Europe to form an alliance in defense of national States, the return of democracy, the sovereignty of peoples and national identities”. During a news conference Tuesday, Salvini also complained that Premier Matteo Renzi and his Interior Minister Angelino Alfano have been too slack on the subject of immigration. The League had also been strong and vocal critics of Italy’s former integration minister Cecile Kyenge, herself an immigrant from the Democratic Republic of Congo.
“The incredible couple of Renzi-Alfano are succeeding in what not even Kyenge managed to do: fill us with illegal immigrants,” said Salvini. He also complained that Alfano has enforced “failed immigration policies”.
As well, the League presented a motion of no-confidence in Alfano on Tuesday on other law and order measures, accusing him of overseeing the “emptying of prisons…dismantling of security policy”. Immigration has been a hot-button topic in Italy as thousands of migrants arrived on the country’s southern most shores, fleeing violence in the Middle East and North Africa, often by rickety sea vessels.
Last week, Italian Navy ships rescued approximately 1,000 migrants in small boats off Italy’s southern coast in less than 24 hours.
That rescue operation came after more than 2,100 migrants were rescued days earlier by the Italian Navy and Coast Guard vessels, as they fled North African across the Channel of Sicily.
Tens of thousands of migrants arrive in Italy from North Africa every year and many others die attempting the crossing in often unstable vessels.
Boat arrivals in Italy more than tripled last year from the previous year, fuelled by the conflict in Syria and strife in the Horn of Africa.
Also last week, Northern League activists demonstrated against the arrival of a group of North African refugees, due to be sheltered in a local hotel in the town of San Genesio in the Pavia area south of Milan.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Mediaset SpA Returned to Profit in 2013
Dividends canceled but debt is down, company says in 2013 report
(ANSA) — Milan, March 25 — Italy’s largest commercial broadcaster, Mediaset SpA., on Tuesday posted its 2013 year-end financial results, saying it returned to profit by offsetting an 11.4% drop in advertising sales with cost-cutting measures at its Italian TV operations.
Net income in 2013 totaled 8.9 million euros compared with a net loss in 2012, the Milan-based company said in a statement.
Earnings before interest and taxes, or Ebit, totalled 246.3 million euros compared with a loss of 35.4 million euros in 2012.
The company founded in the 1970s by former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi also confirmed it canceled dividend distribution to shareholders. The company reported earnings at its Mediaset Premium pay TV of 552 million euros, up 6.6% over 2012.
“This is a positive result that bucks the trend in the pay TV market, where families are consuming less”, the company said in a statement.
Earnings at its EI Towers division were unchanged at 233 million.
Mediaset Italy advertising income “continued slightly negative,” in the first quarter of 2014, the company said. Results this year will depend on the Italian and Spanish advertising markets, which are difficult to forecast accurately right now, according to Mediaset.
Berlusconi controls Mediaset through his family holding company Fininvest. The group competes primarily against public broadcaster and market leader RAI, commercial channel La7, and 21st Century Fox’s Sky Italia.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Man Killed in Car-Bomb Explosion in Italy: Media
ROME, March 25 (Xinhua) — A 49-year-old car salesman under house arrest for alleged fraud was killed in a car-bomb blast in Italy’s island of Sardinia on Tuesday, local reports said. The explosion occurred in the province of Ogliastra in eastern Sardinia, when the man, Roberto Aresu, started up his economy car and a bomb made the vehicle blow up…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Netherlands: Senators Stick by Wilders as Anti-Moroccan Chant Row Rumbles on
Senators representing the anti-immigration PVV in the upper house of the Dutch parliament continue to fully support Geert Wilders despite the anti-Moroccan chanting of last week. Wilders has refused to apologise for leading supporters in an anti-Moroccan chant in the wake of Wednesday’s local elections.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Netherlands: Merkel Miffed at Barack Obama and David Cameron ‘Nuclear War Game’
World leaders played an interactive nuclear war game designed to test their responses to a terrorist atomic “dirty bomb” attack that threatened the lives of hundreds of thousands of people
David Cameron joined Barack Obama, Angela Merkel and Xi Jinping and other world leaders to play a “nukes on the loose” war game to see how they would cope with a terrorist nuclear attack. The German chancellor grumbled at being asked to play games and take tests with the Prime Minister, US and Chinese presidents around a table with dozens of heads of state at a nuclear summit in The Hague. Her complaints were overruled because Mr Obama was keen on the idea and in on the surprise…
[JP note: Safe hands.]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Norway: US Tourists Plan Trips to Disney’s Frozen Land
American tourists look set to descend on Norway by the planeload this summer to see with their own eyes the majestic landscape depicted in Disney’s Golden Globe-winning animation, Frozen, which has now taken more than $1 billion in the box office.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Poland is Quietly Mobilizing Its Army Reservists
It seems the words of Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk warning that “the world stands on the brink of conflict, the consequences of which are not foreseen… Not everyone in Europe is aware of this situation,” are a little more real than some (US equity buyers) might suspect.
As The Week’s Crispin Black reports, at least 7,000 Polish workers in Europe have received call-up papers as army reservists in the last few weeks. Polish authorities dismiss it as “routine” but the men note this has never happened before.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
School Becomes First in Britain to Teach English as a Foreign Language
City of Leeds School in Yorkshire is taking the drastic step of introducing classes teaching English as a second language to each of its 350 pupils — including all its British-born pupils.
City of Leeds school has around 55 different nationalities among its cohort, including pupils from nations across Africa, Europe, parts of the Middle East and Asia.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Slovenia: After 44 Years, This European Country is Finally Getting Its First Mosque
After 44 years of petitions from the Islamic community, many in this tiny central European country hope that the opening of Slovenia’s first mosque marks the beginning of its farewell to religious intolerance. Behind a brewery and a railway station, the first stone for the Islamic Religio-Cultural Center was finally set in Ljubljana, Slovenia’s capital, last September. Though mosques and cultural centers like it are found throughout other former Yugoslav countries, predominantly Catholic Slovenia was late to the game, foiling local Muslims’ hopes for decades.
Like Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina has a significant Islamic population with its own cultural and religious touchstones. The Ottoman conquest reached almost to the eastern gates of Vienna in the 16th century, and Slovenia, south of Austria between Italy and Hungary, remained a holdout. As a result, she says, “there is still that idea of Islam as totally other, as dangerous, you know, with all these stereotypical ideas and images.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Spanish Court Rejects Catalan Independence Declaration
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, MARCH 25 — Spain’s Constitutional Court ruled on Tuesday that the declaration of independence passed by the Catalan parliament on January 23, 2013, was illegitimate due to the first paragraph, which declares the Catalan people to be a ‘‘sovereign political and juridical subject’’. The unanimous decision was made by the court on the first day of debate in a plenary session.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden Admits Endemic Discrimination of Roma
The Swedish government on Tuesday will publish its white paper on the historic treatment of Roma, detailing systemic abuse and police opinion that it would be best to kill them off.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Cake Shover, 60, On Trial for Åkesson Attack
A 60-year-old Swedish woman faced her first day on trial on Tuesday over the cake attack on Sweden Democrat leader Jimmie Åkesson last year. The politician wants the “nice-looking lady” to pay for his dry-cleaning.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Extremist Activists Treating the Mentally in the NHS
Imagine if you or your loved ones were suffering from depression, anxiety or another mental health related issue and, after seeking professional help, you were to be assessed and cared for by a healthcare professional. After being given advice and care by this individual imagine you learnt that they were a member of a far-right extremist group that hates your ethnic group, despises your values and actively works to destroy the foundations of the society you and your loved ones live in. This individual, outside of work hours, actively promotes hatred, sexism, homophobia and discrimination whilst supporting appalling human rights abuses against people of different ethnic and religious backgrounds…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
(Medical Xpress)—Children with both a common gene variant and lower thyroid hormone levels, which occurs in approximately 4% of the population, are four times more likely to have a low IQ, according to research presented today by the University at the Society for Endocrinology annual BES conference.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Hadrian’s Wall Trust to Close Within Six Months as Funding Evaporates
The trust set up to manage Hadrian’s Wall is to close in six months after funding dried up, leaving support for the World Heritage Site “uncertain”.
Hadrian’s Wall Trust revealed it is to close this week, with a series of organisations scrabbling to put funding in place to ensure one of Britain’s most famous monuments can be adequately maintained in the long term.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: My Muslim Daughter is Suspected of Being Christian Because She Likes Christmas
Ahead of Reza Aslan’s appearance in York this Wednesday, Yorkshire writer Syima Aslam explains how the scholar’s infamous clash with Fox News is echoed in Bradford’s playgrounds
It was in America where Reza Aslan — who will be discussing his book Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth at Writers at York on Wednesday — really reached the public consciousness.
YouTube will preserve forever the total incomprehension of Fox News presenter Lauren Green as to why Aslan, an internationally acclaimed writer and scholar of religions, who also happens to be an Iranian-American Muslim, would have any possible interest in Christianity…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
A senior Tory MP has accused Nigel Farage of ‘fake sincerity’ as he urged the Prime Minister not to try to ‘out-Ukip Ukip’ on immigration. Mark Field warned his party not to get into a bidding war with Ukip on the eve of the televised debate between Mr Farage and Nick Clegg. He said: ‘If you can fake sincerity, you’ve really got it made. There is a bit of that to the smoking a fag and having a pint of beer’…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Tories Make Ethnic Minority Voters Feel Like They Are a Mistake, MP Says
Conservative MP Mark Field calls on party to drop migration target and soften rhetoric, as growing numbers of ethnic minority voters shun Tories
The Conservatives risk electoral defeat because hostile rhetoric on immigration is driving away ethnic minority voters, one of the party’s MPs has warned. Polish-born voters now back Labour over the Conservative Party by a margin of three-to-one because of the Tories’ plans to bring down immigration. The party makes non-white voters feel like they are a “mistake”, Mark Field, the MP for Westminster and the City, said…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: VC Winner School Name Changed to Due to ‘Reputation With Failure’
A primary school named after Second World War soldier, John Baskeyfield VC, is changing its name in a bid to shake off its “reputation with failure”
A primary school named in honour of a Second World War hero killed in action while single-handedly fighting off Nazi tanks has been slammed for changing its name in a bid to shake off its “reputation with failure”. John Baskeyfield VC Primary School in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffs., has been renamed Saint Nathaniel’s Academy after it was placed into special measures in 2012…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Who Represents Muslims? The Answer is a Resounding — No One
by Iram Ramzan
Who represents, or who speaks for, Muslims? After countless debates and articles dedicated to this question, which is asked every so often (usually on a slow news day), it is posed once again. On Monday’s Newsnight, Quilliam Foundation’s Maajid Nawaz had just this debate with Huffington Post’s political editor (UK) Mehdi Hasan and Twitter celebrity Mohammed Ansar. Oxford academic Myriam Francois Cerrah was also supposed to be on the show but was dropped at the last minute for ‘editorial reasons’ in favour of another male (Mohammed Ansar)…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Vatican Cocaine-Filled Condoms Parcel Seized by German Customs Officers
German customs officials have intercepted a package addressed to the Vatican containing 14 condoms filled with cocaine.
A government spokesman said a box packed with 340 grammes of the drug, valued at €40,000 (£33,470), was seized in January at the international airport in the eastern city of Leipzig.
The cocaine, posted from an unnamed South American country, was in liquid form. It had been poured into the condoms and placed in the package addressed to the main postal centre at the Vatican.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
EIB Signs €150 Million Funding Deal to Modernise Moroccan Roads
The European Investment Bank (EIB) and the Moroccan Office for Road Funding (Caisse pour le Financement Routier) have signed a €150 million financing agreement for the development and modernisation of roads in Morocco.
The European Investment Bank (EIB) is the EU’s financing institution and the leading financial investor in the Mediterranean region through FEMIP (the Facility for Euro-Mediterranean Investment and Partnership), which was set up in 2002.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Another 700 Islamists Risk Death Sentence in Cairo
(AGI) Cairo, March 25 — The Egyptian court in Minya, where on Monday 529 members of the Muslim Brotherhood were sentenced to death causing outrage in the international community, is now hearing the case brought against a further 700 supporters of deposed president Mohamed Morsi. Those charged include Mohamed Badie, leader of the Islamist movement now once again banned in Egypt after the military junta resumed control of the situation that arose after Hosni Mubarak was removed from power. The court is expected to pass judgement on April 28.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Defense Boycotts New Egyptian Mass Trial, UN Condemns Series
Defense lawyers have boycotted a fresh mass trial in Minya, Egypt, while the United Nations says Monday’s mass death sentences of Muslim Brotherhood members violate international law.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: UN Says Mass Death Sentences Violate Human Rights
(ANSAmed) — GENEVA, MARCH 25 — The United Nations human rights office in Geneva on Tuesday said “mass” death sentences issued the previous day by an Egyptian court contravened human rights international law. A court in Egypt on Monday sentenced 529 members of the Muslim Brotherhood to death as part of a trial with over 1,200 defendants, Brotherhood supporters being tried over violence last August 14.
UN human rights spokesman Rupert Colville told a press conference in Geneva that the incredible number of people sentenced to death in this case was unprecedented in recent history.
“A mass trial of 529 people carried out over just two days cannot possibly have met even the most basic requirements for a fair trial”, he said.
“The mass imposition of the death penalty after a trial rife with procedural irregularities is in breach of international human rights law” Colville also said.
Charges pressed against defendants were not read out in court, which does not satisfy international criteria to inflict the death penalty. Death sentences can only be inflicted for the most serious crimes under international law and being part of a political group or taking part in demonstrations cannot certainly be considered among the gravest crimes, Colville noted.
Moreover, over three-fourths of defendants were tried in absentia.
Colville also said that “it is particularly worrying that there are thousands other defendants who have been detained since last August on similar charges”.
The Minya criminal court in southern Egypt on Tuesday is trying 600 people for being members of the Muslim Brotherhood, among other charges, he said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Sisi’s Incompetent Anti-Islamist Campaign
by Daniel Pipes
An Egyptian court in short order sentenced some 529 people to death today for the killing of a single police officer. News like this gives one pause.
Very tough treatment of Islamists is needed to repress this totalitarian movement, including rejection of their efforts to apply Islamic law, keeping them out of mainstream institutions, even excluding their parties from the democratic process. But Field Marshall Abdel Fattah el-Sisi’s extra-legal crackdown on Islamists will likely backfire and help the Islamist cause by winning them broad sympathy.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
27 People Killed in Iraq’s Violence
BAGHDAD, March 25 (Xinhua) — Iraqi police said 27 people were killed and 29 others wounded in violent attacks across the country on Tuesday.
In northern Iraq, gunmen in civilian cars attacked an army checkpoint in Ain-Jahash area, just south of Nineveh’s provincial capital city of Mosul, some 400 km north of Baghdad, leaving five soldiers killed, a provincial police source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt, Saudi Arabia to Pressure Qatar at Arab Summit Over Its Support for Muslim Brotherhood
An assortment of Arab nations will likely use an Arab summit this week to try to pressure the tiny but wealthy Gulf nation of Qatar to stop supporting the Muslim Brotherhood and other opposition movements throughout the region.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Islamist Rebels Seize First Coastal Village in North Syria
(Reuters) — Islamist rebels captured a village on Syria’s Mediterranean coast for the first time and battled to hold territory abutting the nearby Turkish border taken from President Bashar al-Assad’s forces, activists said on Tuesday…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
NATO’s Turkey Providing Air Support for Al Qaeda in Northern Syria
The downing of a Syrian jet by Turkey was not an isolated incident but part of a major offensive by Al Qaeda affiliated groups Jabhat Al Nusra (designated a terrorist organization by the US State Department) and Ahrar Al Sham against a northwestern Syrian-Turkish border crossing. Turkey has been supporting Al Qaeda’s attack on the Kassab border crossing, the only crossing that was still held by the Syrian military. While the AFP did report that the group involved in the attack was the AlQaeda faction Jabhat Al Nusra , this fact has not made it to any mainstream media headline.
Jabhat Al Nusra, are also actively being given safe haven by Turkey. The map below shows the Al Qaeda Camp within the Turkish border from which the attack on the Kassab border crossing came. AlQaeda militants also brazenly videotaped themselves walking right through the Turkish Kassab border gate into Syria without any harassment from Turkish guards.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Qaeda Women Using Websites to Entice Youth
RIYADH — The Ministry of Islamic Affairs’ dialogue initiative called ‘Assakina’ has found that female Al-Qaeda members are using websites to recruit young people, Al-Hayat daily reported on Wednesday. Their aim is to target young men and women who surf these websites, particularly sports and music sites.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Saudi Says World Has ‘Betrayed’ Syria Rebels
Saudi Arabia’s crown prince on Tuesday said the international community had “betrayed” Syrian rebels by being slow to provide them with arms as they fight to topple President Bashar al-Assad’s regime.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Syria: Saudi Arabia: ‘Balance of Power Must Change’
Heir prince tells Arab League summit in Kuwait
(ANSAmed) — BEIRUT, MARCH 25 — “Changing the balance of power on the ground” in Syria by providing more aid to rebels is necessary to get out of the crisis, Saudi heir prince, Salman bin Abdulaziz, said in Kuwait, where he opened the annual Arab League summit, al Arabiya reported Tuesday. The Saudi representative also called for the Syrian coalition of opposition forces to be offered the seat representing Damascus within the Arab League.
The Syrian regime has been suspended from the Arab League since November 2011 but the seat has not been given to the opposition yet due to reservations expressed by some members, in particular Iraq, Lebanon and Algeria.
Ahmad Jarba, the head of the opposition National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces, addressed the opening session of the summit on Tuesday, asking once again to be allocated the seat. “Leaving Syria’s seat empty means sending a precise signal to Bashar al Assad: kill, kill, the seat is waiting for you once the war is over”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Syria: Assad’s Cousin Killed in Kasab Battle
(ANSAmed) — BEIRUT, MARCH 24 — Hilal al-Assad, a cousin of Syrian Presiden Bashar al-Assad, was killed by Islamic rebels in Kasab, near the Turkish border. The area has been contested for the last four days in a battle between loyalist forces and insurgents. The news, released by a rebel group and by the non-governmental organization National Observatory for Human Rights, was confirmed by the government news agency SANA.
Hilal al-Assad, head of the paramilitary forces for local defence, was killed along with seven other militia members under circumstances that are still unclear.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Turmoil in Turkey and Washington’s Short Leash
With Crimea now independent and beginning the integration process with the Russian Federation, the West has attempted to consolidate and bolster the regime it itself has installed in Kiev, Ukraine. To do this, the West has leveled sanctions against Russians and Ukrainians perceived as enemies of the newly installed regime, as well as begun the process of arming and aiding the regime ahead of inevitable uprisings sure to challenge their undemocratic grip on power.
These measures appear to be futile, and to strengthen its hand, the West has been mobilizing its media to manipulate and shake the confidence of investors regarding Russia’s economy, as well as raise legal questions regarding the status of Crimea in relation to Turkey. As preposterous as it may seem, articles from AL Jazeera, Foreign Policy, Al Monitor, Hurriyet Daily News, and the International Business Times have taken multiple angles to explain how Turkey now somehow has a role in deciding the fate of Crimea, rather than simply respecting the democratic referendum already carried out last week.
And indeed, in each article, Erdogan’s reluctance to damage ties with Moscow are cited as reasons why Turkey “should,” but “isn’t” moving against Russia regarding Crimea. Enter CHP’s street mobs and the growing dissent now making headlines.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
U.S. Keeps Saudi Arabia’s Worst Secret
The most comprehensive study of Saudi textbooks ever commissioned by the U.S. government was completed at the end of 2012, but to this date the State Department has kept it from the public.
As President Obama prepares for his first visit of his second term to Saudi Arabia, pressure is mounting on the State Department to publish the most comprehensive U.S. government study of the Kingdom’s textbooks.
While the study has been finished since the end of 2012, it has nonetheless been kept from the public, according to a new report by the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a center-right think tank in Washington.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Depardieu ‘Proud to be Russian’ In Luxury Watch Ad
French actor Gérard Depardieu, who left France in disgust at high taxes, has teamed up with Swiss watchmaker Cvstos to be the advertising face of their “Proud to be Russian” line of high-end timepieces.
Depardieu was made a Russian citizen last year after he very publicly quit France in anger at a proposed 75 percent tax rate for France’s biggest earners, himself included.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
G7 Leaders ‘Reckless’ To Exclude Russia, Says Berlusconi
Ex-premier says ruling out Moscow runs counter to diplomacy
(ANSA) — Rome, March 25 — Leaders of the Group of Seven leading industrialized nations made a “counterproductive” and “reckless” decision when they suspended Russia, ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi said Tuesday.
On Monday, the G7 leaders, who had expanded the group to include Russia and become the G8 in 1998, agreed to suspend Moscow from the G8 over its rapid annexation of Crimea after the region voted to separate from Ukraine.
The G7, which includes Italy, also announced plans to boycott a G8 meeting that had been planned for Sochi, the Russia city that recently played host to the Winter Olympics, and would instead meet in June in Brussels.
“I find it counterproductive and anti-historical, the decision of the leaders…to rule out Russia from the G8,” Berlusconi said in a statement.
“I find it really reckless and far away from the spirit of constructive (diplomacy),” he added.
Berlusconi struck up a friendship with Russian President Vladimir Putin more than a decade ago, and Putin invited Berlusconi to his 60th birthday party in St. Petersburg in 2012.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Paul Starobin: “The History of Odessa Does Not Change”
A proud city maintains its individuality—and seeks new vistas—amid Ukraine’s turmoil.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Problems With West Brings Russia Closer to India
A friend in need is a friend indeed. This phrase is highly applicable in case of relations between Russia and India in the current political scenario.
Just a day after India backed Russia over the Crimea issue saying that the international community should think twice before imposing sanctions on Moscow as all the attempts to isolate Russia over Ukraine would certainly be counter-productive in the coming days, Moscow offered New Delhi crude oil supplies. Moscow also offered India stakes in its oil blocks.
At a time when the US and Europe are trying hard to isolate Moscow over its action in Crimea, President Vladimir Putin’s most trusted lieutenant Igor Sechin has held talks with top Indian officials in the Indian capital.
During their meeting, the Russian official said that his country was ready to give access of its vast crude oil reserves to the South Asian country. According to him, the Indian companies are also welcome to explore Russian oil and gas acreages. “India is a very important country for Russia. We have a very efficiently run project with India’s state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC). Now, we want to expand our co-operation,” Sechin told the Indian media on Monday evening.
Sechin said that the Russian state oil major has already offered ONGC a stake in nine offshore oil and gas blocks in the Barents Sea and one in the Black Sea. “We are (also) looking at supplying crude oil to Indian refineries,” he stressed, adding that Rosneft currently produces 200 million tonnes of crude oil per year.
India, which still has no firm contract to import crude oil from Russia, welcomed Sechin’s announcement, saying that the senior Indian officials would soon visit Moscow for working out the logistics for importing oil from Rosneft’s oil fields. “We may have to lay some pipelines to transport the crude. We have decided to form a working group to study how this can progress,” an Indian official told reporters. Meanwhile, the official stressed that out of the nine blocks in the Barents Sea offered by Russia, five were not lucrative and of the remaining four, India would like to take part in two. However, New Delhi will make a final decision on this issue in June only after receiving data on these blocks from Rosneft. In the past, the Russian company had offered ONGC a 4.27% a stake in the Magadan 2 and Magadan 3 exploration blocks on the Sea of Okhotsk.
Political experts are of the opinion that Russia is strengthening its ties with India to counter the US and Europe’s move to isolate Moscow for annexing Crimea from Ukraine. Last week, Sechin visited Tokyo to bolster ties with Japan.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Ukraine’s Tymoshenko Says ‘Nuke’ Tape a Montage
Kiev — Ukraine’s former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko on Tuesday denounced as a montage a tape broadcast by Russian state television where she is heard urging the “wiping out” of Russians and President Vladimir Putin.
Tymoshenko, a hugely controversial figure in her own country and also in Russia who was released from jail after the fall of president Viktor Yanukovych, confirmed the voice was hers but said the comments had been manipulated.
“This really crosses all the boundaries,” Tymoshenko is heard to say in the leaked phone call posted on YouTube and broadcast extensively Monday evening on Russian television.
“One has to take up arms and go wipe out these damn ‘katsaps’ together with their leader,” the voice said in Russian, without mentioning President Putin by name.
The word “katsap” is a derogatory Ukrainian term for Russians.
During the conversation, Tymoshenko is said to discuss Russia’s seizing of Ukraine’s Russian-speaking peninsula of Crimea with Ukrainian MP and former government official Nestor Shufrych.
Tymoshenko, who spent three years in jail on what her supporters say were politically motivated charges before being freed last month, said if she were in power Moscow would not be able to take the peninsula…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Ukraine Sets Deadline for Militias to Surrender Illegal Guns
KIEV, Ukraine — In an effort to stabilize Ukraine and extend its authority, the interim government has set a deadline of Friday for turning in the illegal firearms that are now carried openly by so-called self-defense groups in Independence Square, the politically important plaza in the center of the capital.
The order was seconded on Thursday by the French ambassador to Ukraine, Alain Rémy, who said the disarmament of the militias that helped overthrow the former government is a central requirement for the European Union to begin disbursing financial aid, along with the government fighting corruption.
| — Hat tip: Kitman | [Return to headlines] |
US, Allies Sideline Russia From G8; Moscow Shrugs Off Summit Snub
The U.S. and its allies announced Monday that they would, for now, exclude Russia from the G8 and boycott a planned summit in Sochi in retaliation over its Crimea takeover — though Russia’s government shrugged off the latest efforts to isolate the country.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, on the sidelines of a nuclear security summit at The Hague, reportedly said it would not be a “big problem” if the G8 does not convene.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
17 Killed in Two Attacks in Afghanistan
KABUL, March 25 (Xinhua) — Two militant attacks in the Afghan capital Kabul and the Kunar provincial capital of Assadabad left 17 people dead and 19 others injured on Tuesday, officials confirmed.
The militants armed with suicide bomb vests and firearms raided the sub-office of Afghan election commission in Darul Aman area in western Kabul at 11:30 a.m. local time leaving 10 people including five attackers dead…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
After Flight 370, Chinese Travelers Vow: No More Malaysia
Many Chinese spectators who have watched the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 unfold are emphatic about one thing: the tragedy has made it less likely they’ll include Malaysia in future travel plans.
On Monday night, Malaysian authorities announced they had concluded that Flight 370, bound from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing and carrying 239 people—153 of whom were Chinese—had crashed in the Indian Ocean. The announcement capped more than two weeks of waiting for news by families, some of whom have accused the airline of failing to release information in a timely fashion.
As of Tuesday morning, an online Sina poll found that 77% of more than 38,400 respondents said the incident had influenced whether they’d be likely to travel to Malaysia in the future.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Bad Weather Forces Suspension of Search for Malaysian Airliner, Prompts Protests
Bad weather has forced a halt to the search for the wreckage of a Malaysian jet that went missing more than a fortnight ago. The news prompted relatives of the missing to march on the Malaysian embassy in Beijing.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Indian Engineer Dies in Honour Killing
The parents of an IT engineer who married her low caste boyfriend lured her home with the promise of a family wedding reception and then allegedly strangled her. A 25 year old software engineer’s traditional bride’s mehendi tattoo was still fresh on her hands when her body was discovered at her family home near Hyderabad.
The death has highlighted the rising number of honour killings in India as more mixed caste-couples form relationships in defiance of their families.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Malaysia Airlines Crash: Suicide Mission Theory of MH370 Investigators
Sources close to investigation tell Telegraph that team working on MH370 mystery believe it was crashed deliberately
Flight MH370 crashed into the Indian Ocean in an apparent suicide mission, well-placed sources have revealed, as Malaysia’s prime minister announced that everyone on the missing aircraft had died.
The team investigating the Boeing 777’s disappearance believe no malfunction or fire was capable of causing the aircraft’s unusual flight or the disabling of its communications system before it veered wildly off course on a seven-hour silent flight into the sea. An analysis of the flight’s routing, signalling and communications shows that it was flown “in a rational way”…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Malaysia: MH370: Britain Finds Itself at Centre of Blame Game Over Crucial Delays
Air Accidents Investigation Branch and Inmarsat played crucial role in search for missing plane
With all hope now lost of finding their loved ones alive, relatives of the 239 people on board flight MH370 were increasingly expressing anger and resentment towards those they believe are to blame for the failure to locate the missing aircraft…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
(NaturalNews) The “official” story of what happened to Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 is now a blatant cover-up. After an endless stream of wild incompetence from the Malaysian military and government concerning the radar signature of the missing flight, we are now told by the Malaysian government that the flight “went down over the southern Indian Ocean” and that all lives are lost.
This explanation smacks of an obvious cover-up for several crucial reasons, all of which are now being utterly ignored by the conventional press:…
Most likely explanation at this point: The aircraft is being turned into a weapon:
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Monsanto Package Admits Seeds Treated With ‘Poison, ‘ Advises Against Human Consumption
(NaturalNews) Images are surfacing across the internet that illustrate the true dangers associated with genetically modified (GM) seeds, as admitted by the seeds’ manufacturers. The Food Warrior Network recently posted a photo of a seed package distributed by Monsanto India Limited, for instance, that warns users not to consume the seeds or use them as food, oil or animal feed, because they are poisonous.
This shocking photo is sparking controversy among many health advocates, particularly as the biotechnology industry ramps up the propaganda machine to reassure the public that GMOs are safe and no different from natural organisms. On the contrary, GM seeds are admittedly dangerous and not safe for human consumption, which means the widespread industry claim that they are substantially identical to natural seeds is wholly false.
“Caution: Seeds treated with poison,” reads the package warning accompanying the seeds. “Do not use for food, feed or oil purpose.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Mystery of Flight MH370 ‘May Never be Unraveled’
Over two weeks into the disappearance of flight MH370, new satellite data has revealed the jet crashed in the Indian Ocean. Still, expert Chris Yates tells DW that we may never fully find out what happened on the plane.
Many questions remain, but it seems to me the aircraft was either hijacked by either a suicidal pilot or others. Several of the very few facts in this case lead to this view. For instance, it is known that someone deliberately disabled the plane’s ACARS transmissions and turned off the transponder just after hand off to Vietnamese air traffic control.
The airliner was then turned around, flown back over Malaysia and then on a north westerly track, before heading west and then south. Such action had to be taken by someone actually at the controls of the aircraft.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Race is on to Find Flight 370’s Black Boxes Before Batteries Die; Searchers Must ‘Get Lucky’
Time is running out to find the crucial keys that could solve the mystery of how and why Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 went down. After the excruciating 17-day wait for confirmation that the Boeing 777 crashed into the southern Indian Ocean, searchers are racing to locate the so-called black boxes before a battery-powered ping they emit fades away.
By law, the boxes with must be able to send those signals for at least 30 days following a crash. But experts say they can continue making noise for another 15 days or so beyond that, depending upon the strength of the black box battery at the time of the crash.
“We’ve got to get lucky,” said John Goglia, a former member of the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board. “It’s a race to get to the area in time to catch the black box pinger while it’s still working.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Taliban Gunmen Attack Afghan Election Office Near Candidate’s Home
Suicide bombers and gunmen attacked an election commission office near the home of Afghan presidential candidate Ashraf Ghani in the capital Kabul on Tuesday, engaging in a protracted gun battle with security forces.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Chinese Families Clash With Police, Slam Malaysia Over Lost Plane
(Reuters) — Dozens of angry relatives of passengers on a lost Malaysian jetliner clashed with police in Beijing on Tuesday, accusing the Southeast Asian country of “delays and deception” a day after it confirmed the plane crashed in remote seas off Australia.
About 20 to 30 protesters threw water bottles at the Malaysian embassy and tried to storm the building, demanding to meet the ambassador, witnesses said. Earlier, the relatives, many with tear-stained faces, had linked arms and chanted “Malaysian government has cheated us” and “Malaysia, return our relatives” as they marched peacefully and held banners.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Man’s Inhumanity to Man: Cannibalism in China
[WARNING: Disturbing Content.]
Writer Zheng Yi detailed cases of cannibalism in Guangxi province in his book, Scarlet Memorial (1993). During the Cultural Revolution, “in some high schools, students killed their principals and then cooked and ate the bodies to celebrate a triumph over ‘counter-revolutionaries.’“
Zheng found a document, “Significant Events During the Cultural Revolution in Wuxuan County” which details that 75 people were killed and then their hearts and livers were extracted and eaten. The cannibals received minor punishments such as expulsion from the party (91 members), suspension (39 non-party members) from administrative positions, demotion, or salary reduction. Nobody was criminally prosecuted.
Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution, destroyed basic moral principles of humanity in Chinese society
The Laogai Research Foundation concluded in its 81 page report drawn from official records and published in October 2013, “Cannibalism in Communist China,” that the gruesome, widespread, and unspeakable acts of cannibalism during the Cultural Revolution were “motivated not by hunger nor by psychopathic illness but by an eagerness to prove one’s loyalty to the Party and Mao.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Relatives of Lost Passengers Vent Anger at Malaysia Embassy
Angry relatives and friends of many of the Chinese passengers onboard Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 tried to force their way past police at Malaysia’s embassy in Beijing on Tuesday, accusing the Malaysian government of “deception”.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Kenya: Nature Red in Tooth and Claw
Hungry lioness takes on a river of crocodiles in a fight over the body of dead hippo
It is a brutal example nature in action — a hungry lioness charges into a pack of crocodiles, swiping with its claws as the huge reptiles snap back in anger.
Despite being completely outnumbered, the ravenous predator still takes on the crocodile gang in an attempt to force them back from the overturned body of a nearby hippo.
These stunning images, taken in a Kenyan nature reserve, show the moment the animals clash in an attempt to win a meal from the carcass.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Nigeria: 14 Killed in Taraba, Plateau
In another round of mindless killings, 14 people have been killed in Taraba and Plateau states. About seven persons were killed on Sunday night and several houses burnt during an attack on Buwa village in Ibi local government area of Taraba State by armed men suspected to be Fulani herdsmen…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Puntland Leader Accuses Somaliland of Financing Al Shabaab
Bossaso — The President of Somalia’s Northeastern State of Puntland Dr. Abdiweli Mohamed Ali Gaas for the first time disclosed at public meeting in the port city of Bossaso that Somaliland’s separatist administration finances Al Qaeda linked Al Shabaab group on Monday, Garowe Online reports…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Scientist Who Discovered Ebola Frustrated by Deadly Guinea Outbreak
Peter Piot was 27, newly qualified and working in a microbiology lab in Antwerp when he received a flask of human blood contaminated with a mysterious pathogen that had been killing people in the forests of Zaire.
If he’d known then what he was to discover — that inside was Ebola, one of the most lethal infectious diseases now known in humans — he would have taken more safety precautions.
“Fundamentally, Ebola is easy to contain,” he said. “It’s not a question of needing high technology.” “It’s about respecting the basics of hygiene, and about isolation, quarantine and protecting yourself — in particular protecting healthcare workers, because they are very exposed.”
The problem in Guinea, and in other countries in Africa where Ebola has reared up in the past few decades, is that health systems are in bad shape, he said, communications are limited, and the people are fairly mobile and very poor.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Venezuela Unveils New Currency Market; Opponents Call it Devaluation
President Nicolas Maduro’s cash-strapped government unveiled a new currency market Monday that allows Venezuelans to buy and sell dollars legally for the first time since 2010.
Maduro’s government has been increasingly safeguarding its shrinking supply of dollars as oil production declines and deficit spending remains high. That’s led it to fall behind on payments to foreign airlines and carmakers, exacerbating a shortage of imported goods.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Almost 100 Migrants Rescued Off Calabria
Boat got into difficulty due to rough seas
(ANSAmed) — REGGIO CALABRIA, MARCH 25 — A boat carrying 98 migrants, including 10 women and one minor, was rescued by the Italian coast guard early Tuesday in rough seas. One military and two coast guard vessels were deployed in the operation off Italy’s southern Calabria region, where force-5 winds threatened to sink the migrants’ boat. The migrants, thought to be of various nationalities, were transferred to one of the coast guard ships and taken to Roccella Jonica on Calabria’s Ionian coast.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
DHS Giving Illegal Immigrant ‘Petty’ Criminals Second Chance in Waiver Application Process
Are you an illegal immigrant whose waiver to stay in the country was denied because of your criminal past? Well, you’re in luck, because the Obama Administration may let you stay in the country anyway.
In a guidance distributed to congressional offices and obtained by The Daily Caller, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced that it is reopening cases in which applications for provisional unlawful presence waivers were denied to criminals.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germany Plans to Curb EU Migrants’ Benefits to Stop ‘Welfare Tourism’
GERMANY is set to introduce strict new laws to tackle “welfare tourism”, including giving migrants just three months to find a job before being kicked out.
A special panel was set up earlier this year to investigate welfare abuse in the country, and tomorrow its report is due to be published. Among its recommendations are proposals to expel those who commit benefit fraud and limiting child allowance to EU citizens who are registered taxpayers in Germany. But concerns have already been raised that the proposals would be against EU law, and could not therefore be implemented…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Migrants Must Spend Less Time in Detention, Alfano Says
Calls for quicker response to asylum requests
(ANSA) — Rome, March 25 — Interior Minister Angelino Alfano on Tuesday called for a reduction in the time spent by undocumented migrants in detention centres in Italy. “Legislation is needed to reduce the time spent in centres for identification and expulsion (CIE)” by speeding up procedures, said Alfano.
The government also intends to boost the system for asylum seekers so responses to applications “arrive sooner”, the minister, who is also the leader of the New Centre Right (NCD) party, said.
“We must protect the Mediterranean border, which is a European border, and therefore avoid free (migrant) landings,” said Alfano.
“On the other hand we must identify the migrants, grant asylum rights to those who are fleeing war and expel those who enter illegally”. Introduced under the 1998 Turco-Napolitano immigration law, Italy’s centres for identification and expulsion — initially known as temporary reception centres (CPT) — have come under repeated criticism for alleged inhumanity and abuses of migrants’ rights.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden Demands EU Shares Out Asylum Seekers Burden
With numbers of asylum seekers in Europe reaching a two-decade high, Sweden’s immigration minister said many member states were sitting on the sidelines and warned the EU needed to share out the burden of immigrants.
| — Hat tip: Kitman | [Return to headlines] |
Franklin Graham: World Vision Doesn’t Believe in Bible
Franklin Graham, president of Samaritan’s Purse, issued a scathing rebuke of World Vision, during an appearance the Family Research Council’s Washington Watch radio program.
“It’s obvious World Vision doesn’t believe in the Bible,” said Graham. “I am sickened and heartbroken.”
Graham was reacting to World Vision’s announced that they would begin hiring employees in same-sex marriages. The new policy was first reported by Christianity Today.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Gays Face Tough Road to Asylum
For people persecuted for their gender identity, getting refugee status in Switzerland is a tall order because of vaguer asylum definitions than elsewhere in Europe. However, sensitivity to the issue is slowly increasing.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Planned Parenthood Organizing Huge Supreme Court Rally to Deny Hobby Lobby’s Religious Freedom
The Planned Parenthood abortion business is planning a massive rally on Tuesday in front of the Supreme Court as it hears debate on the major religious liberties cases from Hobby Lobby and Conestoga Wood seeking relief from the pro-abortion HHS mandate.
“I’ve just learned that Planned Parenthood is planning their own big rally at the Supreme Court in support of the HHS Mandate on March 25,” says Eri Scheidler of the Pro-Life Action League. “Word is that Planned Parenthood has a huge rally of their own planned, with a massive banner, signs, the whole nine.”
But Scheidler’s group and pro-life advcoates are pushing their own pro-life rally to support Hobby Lobby. He tells LifeNews these cases are vitally important for pro-life people to support.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Schoolchildren’s ‘Psycho-Social Checklist’ Asks First-Grader’s ‘Sexual Identity Issues’
A mother of a first-grader in Louisiana posted a photo online showing a “psycho-social checklist” sent home from school that asks if her child has “sexual identity issues.”…
The checklist that Central Community School System in Baton Rouge, La. sent home asks parents to complete the form and check off any “stressors” their child may have or experienced…
But the one invasive question that incited this anonymous parent was, “Sexual identity issues.” She circled it on the checklist and wrote:
This is for a first grader! 1st graders shouldn’t even know what this is!…
These questions are part of the unconstitutional Common Core and have nothing to do with teaching him proper speech techniques.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Suppressing the Black Diaspora at Stanford
Recently Stanford University joined the list of colleges embroiled in debates about free speech, hate speech, and homosexuality. Unfortunately, I am caught in the middle of this particular controversy.
The Stanford Anscombe Society organized an April conference designed around media strategies for defenders of traditional families. Since I have been internationally active in defending three children’s rights — (1) a child’s right to be born free, not bought or sold, (2) a child’s right to a mom and dad, and (3) a child’s right to connect with their origins — the organizers invited me to deliver a keynote on the first night of the conference.
A melee ensued, incited by queer students who spent little time thinking about rights #1 and #3 and immediately zeroed in on my advocacy for children’s rights to a mother and father. I have often looked at slavery as a parallel to the market for trafficked children and gametes, a market encouraged by gay parenting advocates. In accordance with the anti-intellectual press releases issued by GLAAD, festooned with historical ignorance and political hysteria, I was deemed anti-gay and my presence itself discriminatory.
My scholarly expertise is in early American literature and I have studied a great deal about slavery. Because of this, I have critiqued the notion of a legal “right to have a child” in the context of past excesses.
In the most recent Michigan court case over gay marriage, the whole fight over the “right to marry” was predicated on two lesbians’ “right to adopt” each others’ children. This means that marriage rights imply the right to have authority (control) over a human being who isn’t one’s child, whether the child wants to be subject to such authority or not. I’ve been clear that such jurisprudence echoes the original Article IV of the US Constitution which, prior to the abolition of slavery, guaranteed citizens the right to own other people.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Twitter Feminists Campaign to #killallmen
Violent, ugly, authoritarian face of mainstream feminism exposed yet again
Underscoring once again how many feminists have misappropriated the women’s rights movement into an excuse for hating men, Twitter was once again flooded yesterday by a number of users who expressed their desire to #killallmen.
Imagine the outrage if a group of male bigots had descended on the social network to promote the trend #killallwomen — accounts would be deleted and feminists would be up in arms at such a brazen display of misogyny.
However, when the shoe is on the other foot, violent man-hating rhetoric is apparently perfectly acceptable.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker Refuses to Take Down Religious Tweet
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker believes he can do all things through Christ, but an atheist group charges that he cannot do all things through Christ on his official social media platforms.
The Freedom From Religion Foundation has demanded Walker remove posts from his official Facebook and Twitter feeds that read, “Philippians 4:13.”
“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me,” the verse reads.
[Comment: Good for Gov. Walker for not backing down. Establishment of religion is done through an act of Congress. No such act has been passed. The tweet falls under freedom of religion — not “freedom from religion” as some falsely parrot. This is regardless of whether the individual is in office or not. The fact that Walker is in public office does not mean his expression is an “establishment of religion”. Using lawfare and media disapproval, critics are doing an end run to “establish” through courts a secular humanism “religion” and to stamp out any public expression of religion — especially Christianity.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
World Vision: Why We’re Hiring Gay Christians in Same-Sex Marriages
The president of World Vision says hiring gay leaders is a”symbol of Christian ‘unity’ not ‘compromise.’“
World Vision’s American branch will no longer require its more than 1,100 employees to restrict their sexual activity to marriage between one man and one woman.
Abstinence outside of marriage remains a rule. But a policy change announced Monday [March 24] will now permit gay Christians in legal same-sex marriages to be employed at one of America’s largest Christian charities.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
7 Million Deaths Annually Linked to Air Pollution
In new estimates released, WHO reports that in 2012 around 7 million people died — one in eight of total global deaths — as a result of air pollution exposure. This finding more than doubles previous estimates and confirms that air pollution is now the world’s largest single environmental health risk. Reducing air pollution could save millions of lives.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
This week, Tartèse et al announced in Geology that new analyses of lunar soil samples demonstrates that basalts from the Moon’s mantle contain hydrogen from water indigenous to Earth.
According to the authors, their work is “challenging the paradigm of a “dry” Moon, and arguing that some portions of the lunar interior are as wet as some regions of the Earth’s mantle.”
The Moon’s origin is believed to be the Earth itself, which gave rise to the Moon when a Mars-sized object impacted our planet around 4.5 billion years ago. The Earth’s mantle is known to be partially water.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
For decades anthropologists have debated when and how our ancestors became skilled hunters. Recent discoveries have yielded surprising new insights.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
WHO: Air Pollution Linked to Seven Million Deaths in 2012
Roughly seven million people have died from air pollution, a report by the World Health Organization says. The analysis linked dirty air not only to lung disease, but also to heart disease and cancer of the bladder.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
World Vision was once a respected organization that did much good throughout the impoverished regions of the Globe. Unfortunately, World Vision now stands for the ultimate perversion of Christianity!
“In other news, the crown prince of Saudi Arabia says that the world has betrayed the Syrian rebels. ”
the rebels betrayed themselves and the revolution
far too much arrogance and lust for power amongst the chosen it seems.