An “Australian” man named Afroz Ali is complaining that the Abbott government’s proposal to repeal of section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act will empower the Jews at the expense of other minorities. Mr. Ali is concerned that the “racist” government is attempting to enable “racists” like Andrew Bolt to express their “racist” opinions with impunity.
In other news, with its delivery of two more bronze statues of Robert Mugabe to Zimbabwe, North Korea has confirmed its status as the world’s largest manufacturer of statues of dictators.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to Andy Bostom, C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, JP, MC, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.
Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.
Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.
IMF: Everything You Have Will be Taken (Video)
David Knight covers the latest news, including developments in Ukraine as the country’s Parliament rejects the bankster IMF deal designed to impose suffocating austerity on the people and strip the nation of its wealth.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Intesa Posts 5.19 Billion Euro Loss for in Q4 2013
Stock jumps 5% on new business plan forecasts
(ANSA) — Milan, March 28 — Intesa Sanpaolo said Friday that it had posted a massive loss of 5.19 billion euros in the fourth quarter of 2013.
Still, Intesa stock jumped as much as 5% Friday morning after the lender forecast it will post a profit of 4.5 billion euros by the end of 2017, on top of dividend payouts of 10 billion euros in the 2014-2017 period, according to a new business plan revealed to journalists.
Dividend payouts are to be broken down into one billion euros for this year, two billion euros next year, three billion euros in 2016 and four billion euros in 2017.
The new plan was announced shortly after the bank Total writedowns last year were 6.8 billion euros.
Company management ruled out any acquisition plans or the repurchase of savings shares. Executives also excluded having any plans in the pipeline for a return to the stock market of its asset management unit, Banca Fideuram, adding that the lender currently has excess capital of eight billion euros and a Fideuram listing would boost this significantly, which it didn’t require at the moment.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
The First Russian Casualty: World’s Largest Aluminum Company, Rusal, Warns it May Default
While it is easy to blame western sanctions for the recent tribulations at the world’s largest aluminum company, Oleg Deripaska’s Rusal, the reality is that the industry specific issues plaguing aluminum makers, certainly including former Dow Jones Industrial Average member Alcoa, which involve a fair share of manipulation of physical inventories at assorted global warehouses are much more responsible than some theatrical rhetoric flaring up between the West and East in the past month.
Regardless of the cause, as FT reports, Rusal just announced it is on the verge of insolvency after it warned of “material uncertainty” about its future, and that it has asked its creditors to delay repayment on a maturity from its $10 billion debt pile due next month…
Rusal on Thursday “received a surprise boost when it won a court battle over proposed new London Metal Exchange trading rules, which the aluminium producer said had helped to push down prices.” In other words, if something does happen to Rusal, one can expect an accelerated discovery of just how the big banks and commodity trading firms are abusing commodity warehouses in and out of the US, in order to manipulate prices — something the Fed recently promised it too would look into, although nobody is holding their breath, as among the firms most directly impacted would be Goldman and JPMorgan, not to mention Swiss giant Glencore.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
3 Reasons Why I Am Skipping Out on “Noah”
by Abu Ibrahim
As you may or may not hear, movie theatres across America this weekend are premiering the movie, “Noah,” starring Russell Crowe. Several of my Muslim friends and colleagues have expressed interest and excitement about the movie and their desire to attend a showing of the film. Therefore, I felt it necessary to implore us to show restraint and not waste our time watching it. As Muslims, we should abhor that Hollywood or any entity would produce a movie depicting a Prophet…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
5.1 Earthquake Causes Damage; Some Flee From Homes
Authorities were tallying damage from a magnitude 5.1 earthquake that struck Southern California on Friday night.
Fullerton police said early Saturday that up to 50 people had been displaced because of home damage.
The quake, centered near La Habra, caused furniture to tumble, pictures to fall off walls and glass to break. Merchandise fell off store shelves, and there were reports of plate glass windows shattered.
In Brea, several people suffered minor injuries during a rock slide that overturned their car. Fullerton reported seven water main breaks. Carbon Canyon Road was closed.
Residents across Orange and Los Angeles counties and the Inland Empire reported swinging chandeliers, fireplaces dislodging from walls and lots of rattled nerves. The shake caused a rock slide in Carbon Canyon, causing a car to overturn, according to the Brea Police Department. Fullerton police received reports of water main breaks and windows shattering, but primarily had residents calling about burglar alarms being set off by the quake.
Third-grade teacher Barbara Castillo and her 7-year-old son had just calmed their nerves after an earlier 3.6 temblor and sat down in their La Habra home when their dogs started barking and the second, larger quake struck, causing cabinet doors to swing open, objects to fall off shelves and lights to flicker.
“It just would not stop, it was like an eternity,” said Castillo, an 18-year La Habra resident.
At Disneyland in Anaheim, all rides were halted as a precaution but no damage or injuries were reported — other than ceiling tiles falling in the police station, Sgt. Daron Wyatt said.
The first of a swarm of earthquakes hit the border of La Habra and Brea shortly after 8 p.m. with the 3.6 temblor. About an hour later, at 9:09 p.m., the 5.1 shock hit, followed by at least two more aftershocks in the magnitude-3 range in the next half hour. At least 20 aftershocks had been recorded by late Friday.
U.S. Geological Survey seismologist Lucy Jones said the 5.1 quake has a 5% chance of being a foreshock of a larger temblor.
“There could be even a larger earthquake in the next few hours or the next few days,” Jones said during a media briefing at Caltech…
| [Return to headlines] |
Facebook Moves to Create Virtual Reality World of Social Control
Control the environment and you control human behavior and, ultimately, the destiny of humanity
Earlier this week, Facebook dropped $2 billion to buy the virtual reality company Oculus Rift, described by Dave Thier of Forbes as “a bizarre, maddening and beguiling beast” that will reshape “conference calls, virtual tourism, goggle-sized home theaters and more.” The strap-on technology is, as well, Thier adds, “scary.”
Considering the murky history of Facebook, the adjective is appropriate. Facebook received start-up funding from Accel Parnters, a venture capital firm with deep connections to In-Q-Tel, the CIA’s technology investment outfit. It is also connected to the Defense Department and its Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), which is responsible for high-tech, high-end development. DARPA was instrumental in building the original internet. Later, when DARPA’s Information Awareness Office, a surveillance technology project, was exposed folks began to ask questions. Congress promised to defund the project and it was quietly rolled into the NSA.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Family Claims Hacker Taking Control of Cable Box, Sending Threats
A family claims they are being terrorized by their cable box. For more than a week, personal and harassing messages are showing up on their TVs.
Alana Meeks has no idea who’s behind it.
“This stuff is uncanny. I haven’t heard anything like this in my life,” she said. “He says he’s a stalker.”
Meeks said it started more than a week ago — “he” or someone has taken control of her AT&T cable box and typing messages on two of her TVs.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
FBI Severs Ties With Liberal, Domestic Terrorism-Inspiring Southern Poverty Law Center
The Federal Bureau of Investigations removed links to the Southern Poverty Law Center from the civil rights division’s web page last week, breaking ties with the group that inspired a would-be mass shooter with its “Hate Map.”
The SPLC — and the Anti-Defamation League, an outfit dedicated to fighting anti-Semitism — are no longer identified on the FBI’s hate crimes page as partners.
“Upon review, the Civil Rights program only provides links to resources within the federal government,” an FBI spokesman told The Daily Caller. “While we appreciate the tremendous support we receive from a variety of organizations, we have elected not to identify those groups on the civil rights page.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
FDA’s New Food Label Guidelines — A Sneak Attack on Your Dietary Supplements
In a glitzy roll-out last month featuring First Lady Michelle Obama and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Dr. Margaret Hamburg, the FDA proudly announced its first major changes to nutrition and supplement labeling in 20 years. If the FDA gets its way, you will see a large number of formatting and placement changes made to the current Nutrition Facts panel on food labels and to the Supplement Facts panel on dietary-supplement labels. The FDA’s example of their proposed changes appears below.
But while the food industry and everyone else is focusing on the format changes, new wording, and the snazzy design set forth in the 109 pages of the FDA’s Proposed Rulemaking, there — hidden in plain view like the Purloined Letter — is the real danger to our health: The FDA is harmonizing our vitamin-and-mineral levels down to the same ridiculous levels of Codex Alimentarius that NHF has fought at Codex for more than a decade. Not 100% harmonization, but mostly. Those dirty sneaks.
NHF First to Call Attention to This Danger
NHF was the first to raise the alarm about this danger with my article in Whole Foods Magazine, which drew the striking parallel between the FDA’s proposed new Reference Daily Intakes (RDIs) for vitamins and minerals and the Nutrient Reference Values (NRVs) being pushed globally at the Codex level. The FDA’s sneaky harmonization of vitamin-and-mineral daily levels downward to, in most cases, those miserably insufficient levels that the National Health Federation has fought at Codex meetings since 2004 is the biggest of all dangers in the new FDA Proposed Rulemaking for Food Labels.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Follow-Up on Our Corrupt U.S. Congress
At this time, our U.S. Congress rates a nine percent approval rating. It means nine percent of the American public registers “brain-dead.”
Those 535 members over the past 40 years deformed our nation from the largest creditor country in the world to the largest debtor nation in the world. We enjoyed less than $1 trillion in national debt to our current $18 trillion debt. That same Congress forced our young men and women into four hopeless, futile and asinine wars that killed tens of thousands of them and sent millions home with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, drugs and alcoholism. Not to mention dismembered limbs.
That Congress danced to the Military Industrial Complex’s tune of contrived wars benefiting the bankers and corporations that outfitted and fed those young soldiers. Those executives made millions while our kids came home in coffins or missing arms and legs and their minds.
That same Congress turned our nation from a rich manufacturing country into a multi-trillion dollar deficit nation where we import everything we once manufactured, to today where we buy everything from China to make their citizens rich. So rich, in fact, that we owe them $1.4 trillion in trade deficits. Ironically, China now owns many U.S. corporations and buys land for its own beachhead here in America, not to mention Vancouver, BC, Canada where it displaced most of the Canadians in the past 30 years. Chinese now dominates the language in once-English speaking Vancouver, BC.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
How the NSA Can Use Metadata to Predict Your Personality
The president and congressional leaders want to end NSA bulk metadata collection, but not the use of metadata, which may even be expanded. From a technical perspective, the question of what your metadata can reveal about you, or potential enemies, remains as important as it was since the Edward Snowden scandal. The answer is more than you might think.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
IBM Head: Stop Fighting and “Embrace” Total Biometric Surveillance Because it Cannot be Stopped
A leading IBM official has urged the world to “embrace” ubiquitous surveillance of the public through biometrics, because, he argues, it is too late to fight against it.
“…trying to stop this would be fighting the wrong battle.” said Peter Waggett, Programme Leader at IBM’s Emerging Technology Group.
“We’re fighting the wrong battle when we ask should we stop people being observed. That is not going to be feasible. We need to understand how to use that data better,” Waggett added, speaking at a Nesta panel debate on biometrics.
“The information is out of the bottle already — we have to deal with the issues surrounding it now. Embrace the challenge of what we’ve got, embrace understanding it and focus on what we can do with that new data.” he argued, urging people to stop worrying about preventing such surveillance from becoming a societal norm.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
IRS Slams Bitcoin With Retroactive Tax Rules… Is Gold Next?
A number of other countries, from Germany to Singapore, have already issued their own tax rules on Bitcoin and related virtual currency transactions. And yesterday the IRS finally issued their own.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
I about wrecked my car when I first saw the billboard.
One of my friends had sent me a picture of it but I had to go and see it for myself. There it was bigger than life!! JESUS IS MUSLIM!!
“What the heck?” I said under my breathe as I watched the electronic billboard switch messages. I don’t know if I have ever read a more ridiculous statement.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Louisiana Police Handcuff Firefighter During Emergency Call
A volunteer firefighter in New Roads, LA. was handcuffed and detained by police this week for refusing to move his vehicle during an emergency call.
Amber Porter,who needed help after fainting in her kitchen, detailed the experience as the firefighter attempted to render aid.
“I was laying on the floor,” Porter told WBRZ News. “They was calling my name. He was trying to sit me up off the floor.”
As Porter worked to regain her composure, a New Roads police officer suddenly appeared at her door, demanding the firefighter move his truck.
Refusing to leave Porter’s side, the firefighter was handcuffed and placed in the back of the officer’s vehicle.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Mosque Plan Hammered on Impact to Neighbors in Bernards Township, Reports Say
Concerns about impact on surrounding homes continued to pose challenges for a proposed mosque in Liberty Corner at the latest Planning Board hearing on Tuesday, March 4, according to newjerseyhills.com…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
NSA Had Over 300 Reports on Germany’s Merkel, Report Says
German magazine Der Spiegel has reported that the U.S. National Security Agency kept more than 300 reports on Chancellor Angela Merkel in a special databank about scores of foreign heads of state.
Earlier this month, German lawmakers agreed to launch an inquiry into surveillance conducted by the NSA and other foreign intelligence services, including the tapping of Merkel’s cellphone which was revealed in 2013.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Obama’s White House Opaque Not Transparent
Press Surprised At Censorship From Obama White House. WHY?
For decades, nay, for centuries, the press in America has been warned over, and over, and over again, that the political left, which they unreservedly serve, will come after them, first thing, should they (the Left) ever gain complete control of the US government. It is the nature of the Leftist beast.
To date, the US Mainstream Media has pooh-poohed all the warnings the political Right has issued, especially those warning that the free press will be the very first constitutional guarantee suddenly dissolved and done away with.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
ObamaCare is Just the Beginning of a Total Take Over of America
America must not and will not become the seduced German people in 1933. We will not stand by and watch Obama turn our country into Frankenstein’s laboratory, shredding our constitution, bill of rights and freedom as Hitler did with his country.
Tyrants and Dictators are predictably similar in how they take over. They ride in as the savior of change and hope. They offer health care, jobs for all, a refreshed national identity and protection from danger and harm…that is danger and harm they usually create to blame on enemies…you know those groups who didn’t vote for them. The rope circles around the seduced neck of the people only after the dictator bribes his way in or gets voted in.
One thing is for sure looking at recent history. Once a socialist/communist dictator gets into power, like terminal cancer he and his administration smother and take control of every aspect of the economy, educational system, health care system and military. They shred and control media, entertainment and religion.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Environmentalists Are Not Giving Up
The small farmers in Virginia rejoiced when Senate Bill 51 and House Bill 268, dubbed the “Boneta Bill,” passed both houses and the Democrat Governor Terry McAuliffe signed it. The bill gave farmers legal protection from overreaching and overzealous county bureaucrats who impose unreasonable requirements and unnecessary fees on small farmers.
The bills, sponsored by state Senator Richard Stuart (R-Montross) and state Delegate Bobby Orrock (R-Thornburg), protect “agricultural operations from local regulation” and limit the government’s ability to require “special-use permits” for farm activities. Among many things, “Martha’s bill prevents counties from imposing a $100 fee to grow tomatoes.”
Martha Boneta, the farmer at the center of this protracted battle in Virginia said, “No Virginian should be forced to lose everything when they fight city hall.” Her farm is embroiled in a costly legal battle with Fauquier County supervisors over the use of her own farmland…
Property owners and farmers are fined, bullied, threatened based not just on zoning ordinances, but also via environmental conservation easements with onerous requirements, and farm inspections.
[…]
Joel Sallatin warns American farmers and land owners about those “sincere conservation easements” because “Ultimately, these easements reduce farm viability and gradually turn Virginia’s pastoral landscape into a wilderness area.” This type of green environmental movement is probably not what the average American envisions. “Giving over farm decisions to people who neither farm nor adapt their approaches jeopardizes farmers’ livelihoods. Ultimately, preserving farmers is the only sustainable way to preserve farms.”
[Comment: Must read for Americans.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
What Did Kobe Bryant Say About Trayvon Martin That Has Liberals Shocked?
Kobe Bryant, the world-renowned shooting guard for the Los Angeles Lakers, admitted a position that is sure to irk liberals at a time when race relations in America remain incredibly low. At a time when black celebrities and political figures are routinely targeted by the left for any perceived lack of solidarity with leftist causes, Bryant recently sat down with The New Yorker to discuss a wide range of topics and admitted that he refuses to support Trayvon Martin simply because he’s black.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
British Islamists Drive Out Non-Muslim Teachers
by Anne Marie Waters
Taxpayer-funded Islamic groups are bent on “destroying enemies of Islam” in British schools in order to “produce adults who are able to serve the Muslim Ummah” — i.e., the nation of Islam. The government does nothing.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
French Voters Head to Polls on Sunday
(AGI) Paris, March 29 — French voters head to the polls for the second round of municipal elections on Sunday. The first round saw President Francois Hollande’s Socialist Party struggling while the extreme right National Front made significant gains.
As he waits for the figures confirming what looks like an inevitable defeat, Hollande is preparing for a government reshuffle that could see the departure of Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault, who is even less popular than Hollande.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
French Trade Minister Nicole Bricq Apologises for ‘Disgusting’ State Dinner Remark
French trade minister Nicole Bricq has apologised after being caught on an open mic saying the food served to China’s president was “disgusting”.
French officials spent weeks planning a lavish dinner for Chinese president Xi Jinping and his wife, but it seems Ms Bricq was unimpressed by the menu, which included foie gras, roast chicken with mushroom sauce and a chocolate dessert…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: United Against the European Union
EU critic and UKIP chairman, Nigel Farage, is finding fans in Germany, although the EU skeptics in the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party have ruled out collaborating with their British euroskeptic counterparts.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Judge Halpin said that he “had no intention of referring to, or offending Muslims or their religion,” apologized, and asked for “forgiveness.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Ireland: Judge Apologises for ‘Incorrect’ Muslim Remark
Anthony Halpin asks for ‘forgiveness’ over ‘hurt caused’ by ‘unfortunate’ reference made in court
A district court judge has apologised for an “unfortunate and incorrect remark” which he made about Muslims in court.
Judge Anthony Halpin made the remark that “Muslims think they can actually beat their wives,” in Tallaght District Court on Thursday. Civil liberties and migrant groups had yesterday urged him to withdraw the comments …
The Islamic Cultural Centre of Ireland said yesterday that in this case it was restricted in what it could say due to the limited nature of the comments as reported in the media.
Spokesman Dr Ali Selim explained he was “not fully aware of the full context of what was said” but added: “I firmly believe that a woman’s position is a source of pride for every Muslim woman according to Islam.”…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Italian Health Minister Slams Probe Into Autism-Vaccine Link
‘Scientific evidence not decided by the courts’
(ANSA) — Rome, March 25 — Italian Health Minister Beatrice Lorenzin slammed prosecutors in a southern city for opening a investigation into alleged links between autism and vaccines, saying their probe “goes against scientific evidence”. The investigation was opened by prosecutors over the weekend in the southern city of Trani after parents of two children with autism pressed charges against an unnamed defendant for administering a measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine. “Unfortunately scientific evidence isn’t decided by the courts, but by scientists through research and studies, and we adhere to scientific evidence,” said Lorenzin, speaking to Rome high school students. “Lets remember that without mass vaccinations, millions of children would die. “The alleged link between autism and vaccines dates back to the early ‘80s.
“Such alarmism is damaging to people’s health.
“Before you launch campaigns against vaccines, you have to be really sure”. The alleged link between vaccines and autism has long been debunked. However a fraudulent 1998 report in the esteemed Lancet medical journal, which was later retracted, has helped fuel conspiracy theories ever since.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italian Navy Fleet Dwindles Due to Cuts Across the Board
(AGI) Genoa, March 29 — The Italian Navy’s fleet is dwindling, Navy Chief of Staff Giuseppe De Giorgi said during the launching ceremony for the new frigate MM Carabiniere. “Cuts across the board have hampered the Navy’s efficacy.
Notwithstanding its 10 FREMM multimission frigates, by 2024 the Italian Navy’s fleet will have shrunk by 60 percent. Soon the Navy will have lost the ability to do its job. Though we are currently operative, we are mired in bureaucracy. If we could build just three ships a year, our branch would be safe. But the average is only one a year.” .
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Istria Contended From the Secret Agent Cionci
The story behind the scenes in the book “The Last Witness”
by Pierluigi Franco
(ANSA) — TRIESTE — It is maybe the most charming part of the Old Yugoslavia. Even before it was known as ‘province of Trieste’, Habsburg for centuries and then Italian. Istria, a land contended for long time, is today Croatian and Slovenian, fully in the European Union. However, its history in the twentieth century has been also formed by brutal fights, of Nazi massacres, revenges from the men of Titus, and, at last, of the escape of the Italian exiles still known as ‘Istrians’. It is right in this land, difficult and fascinating, that takes place the story of Sergio Cionci, today ninety three years old, born and grown in Pola since the exodus of the Italians , began after the Treaty of Paris in 1947.
Cionci passed from cadet of the Direct aviation to partisan in the Istrian anti-fascist formations, and was recruited from the Italian secret Services for which he performed activities as agent between Trieste and Istria, since 1947 until 1952. To tell his story, in the only book about the Italian espionage during the ‘Cold War’, is Andrea Romoli, journalist of Rai. He collected the evidence of Cionci succeding to produce the story, narrated by the main character, as a charming tale that develops with a simple and linear style.
Cionci in one one of the 28 thousand Italians constricted to leave the native Pola. The recruitment in the secret Services occurs after the exodus and it is the easiest reaction to the wrongs suffered from the Istrian Italians. Today, after so many years away, the ex agent decided to make known that part of history remained behind the scenes. With an incredible memory, despite the years, Cionci reveals to the reader an unpublished slice of the Eastern border at the beginning of the Cold War.
Everything passes through the mysterious Mario Casale, director of the Corresponding office of the ‘Venezie’. An inexistent press agency with a single unknown address: Casella postale Gorizia 72. This is the cover with which Cionci builds, and keeps up for five years, an informatics net which will frequently attack the powerful apparatus of the secret Yugoslavian Police. Agents, exiles double agents, infiltrated and courageous women are the checkers through which Cionci works. Today they relive in the pages of ‘The Last Witness’ with unpublished events and back stages often surprising.
ANDREA ROMOLI, “L’ULTIMO TESTIMONE — STORIA DELL’AGENTE SEGRETO SERGIO CIONCI E DEGLI ISTRIANI NELLA GUERRA FREDDA” (GASPARI EDIZIONI, PP 175 — 15,00 EURO)
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Soccer: Cellino to Appeal After Leeds Utd Takeover Halted
Football League intervenes after tax conviction
(ANSA) — Rome, March 25 — Cagliari Chairman Massimo Cellino said Tuesday that he would appeal after the English Football League blocked his takeover of Championship (second-tier) English side Leeds United.
The League said Monday Cellino had failed its test to be a “fit and proper” owner after he was convicted last week for failing to pay value added tax (VAT) in Italy on a yacht he bought in the United States.
“I have to appeal,” Cellino told the BBC. “I feel a responsibility to the fans who I am proud to say wanted me. “I am feeling embarrassed, ashamed and down. It’s not nice to say. I feel lost. I am not a crook. I didn’t come to Leeds to do anything bad.
“I cannot blame the League. The only thing that I can blame is that they have just been taking too much time to give an answer. If they give an answer after one month, two months ago, it would have been better for everyone”.
Cellino reached an agreement to buying a 75% stake from the Middle East-based group that is currently in charge of Leeds last month.
He has been supporting the cash-strapped club financial for some time and has reportedly ploughed around seven million euros into them so far.
“I did everything with a good purpose because I think everything would be all right, like the movies with a beautiful ending,” he said. “Now it’s becoming a nightmare.” Some Leeds fans had expressed doubts about Cellino even before the yacht sentence as he also has a 2001 conviction for false accounting.
An unorthodox character who sometimes plays guitar in a band, he failed in a bid to buy top-flight English side West Ham United in 2010.
The 57-year-old has a reputation for being a “coach-eating” chairman in Italy for the high turnover of bosses at Serie A side Cagliari.
Cellino had said he was trying to sell Cagliari after 22 years in charge and has come under fire from fans of the Sardinian team for allegedly abandoning them.
Leeds have won three English league championships and two Inter-Cities Fairs Cup and reached the 1975 European Cup final, losing 2-0 to Bayern Munich.
But their recent history has been troubled and they dropped to the third-tier of English football in 2007 after going into administration.
They returned to the Championship in 2010.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Adopt a Stray Dog, Get a 50% Tax Break
Italian mayor recruits animal lovers with trash discounts
(ANSA) — Fiumicino, March 25 — Residents of the coastal town of Fiumicino, near Rome, will get a 50% discount on their trash collection tax if they adopt a dog or a cat from the local pound, local authorities have announced.
The measure is part of the town’s 2014 budget, which was approved by the center-left town council on Monday.
“This was in addition to exemptions and tax breaks for disadvantaged categories,” said Mayor Esterino Montino, who is from the center-left Democratic Party (PD).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Singing Nun Becomes Internet Sensation
The Voice’s Sister Cristina Scuccia heads for Psy record
(ANSAmed) — ROME — An Italian singing nun has become an Internet sensation and is looking to overtake South Korean rapper Psy’s all-time YouTube record with Gangnam Style. Sister Cristina Scuccia, 25, wowed judges on Italy’s version of TV talent show The Voice last Wednesday with her rendition of Alicia Key’s No One.
The Sicilian nun’s performance attracted 13 million views in three days.
Gangnam Style remains the most watched video on YouTube, with almost two billion hits. But when it was first published, it took 18 days — rather than three — to pass the 10-million-hits mark.
By Monday afternoon, the number of views for Sister Cristina’s video had jumped to over 30 million. The unlikely TV contestant has been praised by Alicia Keys herself. “Now, THAT’S what beautiful, pure energy looks like! Sing it, sister Christina!” the US singer posted on Twitter, along with a link to the nun’s video.
Sister Cristina appeared on The Voice of Italy on Wednesday night.
She told judges that she was happy to share her “gift” with them, and said she was “definitely expecting a call from Pope Francis”.
Considering the pontiff’s penchant for making random phone calls to nuns, that doesn’t seem so far-fetched.
She said taking part in talent shows was just another way of spreading the Gospel — in line with Francis’ pastoral recommendation for priests to get “dirty” and “bruised,” by reaching out to people in the street. “Who said that a nun cannot perform? It gives out a strong signal if a young woman who has consecrated her life to God continues to do things that any person of my age would do,” Cristina was quoted as saying by Italian daily La Repubblica.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Inadequate Human Resources in Public Sector, Says Union
‘Education mismatch’ between employees and positions in govt
(ANSA) — Rome, March 28 — The union representing public-sector employees said Friday that it has found serious weaknesses in how the Italian government manages its workers.
Aran said that public-sector workers are poorly organized and badly utilized by their management, which is not always well-trained.
Weak human resource policies have meant that management is sometimes poorly trained and often becomes stagnant, the union said in a report.
Surveys in 2012 also found a high degree of under-trained administrative and technical staff — only about 51% of jobs that required a university education were actually filled by graduates, said the union.
Yet university graduates were often found working in jobs for which they were overqualified, the union noted.
It described an “educational mismatch” and called for more thorough human resource policies in government.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Ex-Industry Minister May Face Trial Again for Home Scandal
Scajola acquitted, but prosecutors appeal ‘disregard of facts’
(ANSA) — Rome, March 27 — Italy’s former industry minister Claudio Scajola may face trial again for charges related to a shady real-estate deal involving an expensive home with a view on Rome’s iconic Colosseum.
In January a judge acquitted him and his co-defendant, businessman Diego Anemone, because Scajola “did not know” how the flat had been paid for.
On Thursday prosecutors submitted an appeal to that ruling, arguing it was made with an “utter disregard of the evidence”.
Prosecutors had originally asked that they both be given three-year jail sentences and fined two million euros each on charges of illicit funding.
Scajola defended himself by saying that others paid for his home in 2004 “without his knowledge”.
A member of ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi’s People of Freedom (PdL) party at the time, Scajola was forced to resign in 2010.
The case against Anemone was timed out by the statute of limitations.
The property was allegedly bought by Anemone, who is said to have paid 1.1 million euros of a total of 1.7 million euros through architect Angelo Zampolini for the purchase, as well as paying 100,000 euros for renovations.
The case was part of a broader investigation into alleged illegal activities by Anemone that emerged following the 2009 Group of Eight (G8) summit in Italy.
The meeting of G8 international leaders was initially scheduled to be held in La Maddalena in Sardinia before being moved to the earthquake-stricken town of L’Aquila.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Calabria Governor Sentenced to Six Years in Jail
Defense ‘disappointed’ at ruling
(ANSA) — Reggio Calabria, March 28 — Calabria Governor Giuseppe Scopelliti was sentenced to six years in prison and permanently banned from public office late on Thursday. Scopelliti was found guilty of abuse of office and misinformation while serving as mayor of Reggio Calabria in events related to the 2010 suicide of a former finance manager for the city, Orsola Fallaro.
Fallaro was paid fees of 750,000 euros while working on Reggio’s tax commission.
The ruling is longer than the Prosecutor Sara Ombra’s request for five years imprisonment and a five-year ban from office. The case stems from an investigation into Reggio’s finances between 2008 to 2010.
The conviction will have political consequences as Scopelliti will have to step down as governor, even though he can appeal and the conviction is not definitive, because of 2012 anti-corruption law. The court rejected Scopelliti lawyer Aldo Labate’s request to show new records that he argued would demonstrate balance- sheet debts were attributable to before Scopelliti’s tenure.
“Denying preconceived evidence limits the rights of the defense”, commented Scopelitti’s legal advisor Senator Nico D’Ascola, who added that there was “a vacuum of evidence that the prosecutor failed to fill”.
Scopelliti was also ordered to pay a 120,000-euro fine.
Former auditors Carmelo Stracuzi, Domenico D’Amico and Ruggero De Medici received three-year sentences.
Upon hearing the sentence, Labate commented: “We are obviously disappointed. We are waiting for the written explanation of the verdict”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Probe Into Former Vatican Bank Chief Shelved
Ettore Gotti Tedeschi resigned from IOR in 2012
(ANSA) — Rome, March 28 — A Rome judge on Friday upheld a request from prosecutors to shelve an investigation into the former head of the Vatican Bank, Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, over alleged money laundering. In 2010 the probe led in to the freezing of 23 million euros over two cash transfers involving the bank that were deemed suspicious.
Gotti Tedeschi resigned from the bank, whose official name is the Institute for Works of Religion (IOR), in May 2012 following a no-confidence vote by the supervisory board, amid reported disagreements on efforts to get the Vatican on the white list of financially transparent countries.
The image of the bank has been hit by a series of scandals over the years.
Italian banks effectively stopped dealing with the IOR in 2010 after the Bank of Italy ordered them to enforce strict anti-money laundering criteria to continue working with it.
From January 1 to February 12 last year the Bank of Italy froze all credit-card and ATM transactions inside the Vatican City over its failure to fully implement international anti-money-laundering standards.
The Vatican has made several reforms to introduce greater financial transparency and fight money laundering since Pope Francis was elected to the helm of the Catholic Church last year.
In December the Council of Europe’s Moneyval agency, a monitoring group of financial experts, praised the Vatican’s progress, as it seeks to get on the list of countries with strong credentials on combatting financial crime.
But it also stressed that more work needed to be done.
In January the Vatican bank said it was ready to resume normal relations with Italy after making progress in measures to prevent money laundering and other financial crimes.
“The IOR looks forward to a resumption of full interaction with Italian financial institutions pending review by Italian regulatory authorities of the Holy See/Vatican City State’s anti -money laundering provisions,” read a IOR press release on a status report on the reform process by its Board of Superintendence.
“The IOR has implemented further reforms to enhance its overall risk management function and to allow for a high level of transparency for the overall process”.
In June Francis nominated a pontifical commission to make proposals on the future of the bank.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Norway: Man Tattoos McDonald’s Receipt on His Arm
Talk about strange tattoos! A man in Norway got his McDonald’s receipt tattooed on his arm. According to a video report by HuffPost Live, Stian Ytterdahl, 18, said that his friends basically told him that he was too lucky in the “girl department” so they gave him a choice — he could either get a Barbie tattoo on his butt or a tattoo of his latest fast food receipt on his arm… and he chose the latter.
“Now I’m a living billboard. But I think all this is just fun. Maybe it won’t be as fun when I’m 50 or 60 years old, but it’s my choice,” said Ytterdahl.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: BBC Faces £1million Racism Lawsuit Over Jeremy Clarkson’s ‘Slope’ Quip on Top Gear Burma Special
An actress is suing the BBC for up to £1million after Top Gear host Jeremy Clarkson allegedly made a racist remark during the series finale of the show.
Indian-born Somi Guha, 36, has instructed lawyers after Clarkson used the word ‘slope’ — a derogatory term for people of Asian descent — in the Top Gear Burma special.
Ms Guha claims that broadcasting Clarkson’s comment amounts to unlawful discrimination by a public body.
Her lawyers, Equal Justice, claim her action could cost the BBC £1 million in punitive damages under equality laws unless it apologises and takes the hit motoring show off the air.
They say she is one of a group of people who were offended by the term — and so sought legal advice from the firm, who previously worked on racism allegations surrounding reality show Celebrity Big Brother.
A BBC spokeswoman for Top Gear said the Corporation had no comment on Miss Guha’s action.
Clarkson used his Twitter account today to respond to the allegation, and said: ‘I’m not a racist. I am currently sitting in a bar with a man who lives quite near Wales.’ […]
[A “slopehead” is a US English (US Army) slang word for a VietCong “Charlie” in the sixties. It has, as far as I know, never been part of ‘English’ English. It is the Indian ‘lady’ who is a racist not Clarkson, she is looking to make trouble for (and profit from) a ‘white’ male, using the perverted stupidity of the vile PC/MC contra-culture. The BBC should counter sue… — MC]
| — Hat tip: MC | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Five People Charged Over Alleged Woking Election Fraud
Five people from New Haw have been charged with conspiracy to defraud in relation to a by-election held in Maybury and Sheerwater in May 2012
Five people have been charged in connection with alleged election fraud in Woking. Surrey Police said five people, all from New Haw, had been charged on Thursday (March 27) with conspiracy to defraud in relation to an election which was held in Maybury and Sheerwater in May 2012.
Shaukat Ali, 56, Parveen Akhtar, 48, Shamraiz Ali, 28, Sobia Ali Akhtar, 23, and Abid Hussain, 40, have been released on bail. They are due to appear before Guildford Magistrates’ Court on April 15.
[JP note: High Ali co-efficient.]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Horse Troops Forced to Wear High Visibility Vests on Streets of London
It appears that even the Queen’s own bodyguard are not immune from absurd health and safety rules after these Household Cavalry troops were pictured wearing high visibility jackets on the streets of central London.
The photograph was taken in Kensington, close to Hyde Park where the Household Cavalry is based, and shows around half a dozen riders wearing the safety clothing as they rode along a busy street.
One onlooker said: ‘It’s bizarre and hardly very dignified for these soldiers. It’s not like you can miss them anyway, they’re on massive great horses and they’re taking up a whole lane.’
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: London Authorities Brand Giant Whale “Too Religious”
A London park authority has stopped plans to put a giant inflatable whale bedside the Thames because it would be “too religious”. The Bible Society had hoped to place the mock 50ft sperm whale in a park opposite Tower Bridge to illustrate the story of Jonah…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Number of Muslims in Prison Doubles in Decade to 12,000
The number of Muslims in the prison population has more than doubled to nearly 12,000 in a decade, figures from the Ministry of Justice show. The dramatic rise prompted calls for ministers to investigate whether police and the courts are treating Muslims more harshly, with some suggesting the rise is due to Islamophobia…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Six Arrests at Protest Against New Mosque in Sunderland
Six people have been arrested on suspicion of disorder at a protest against a planned new mosque in Sunderland. Northumbria Police said there was “minor public disorder” before the demonstration, but said the vast majority of the 100 people who took part did so calmly and sensibly. Officers thanked people in the local communities for behaving “with great dignity”.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
White House Says Renzi ‘Promising, Energetic Leader’
Obama ‘struck’ by Italian premier’s reform plans
(ANSA) — New York, March 28 — A White House spokesperson said Friday that Italian Premier Matteo Renzi is a “very promising, energetic young leader,” after United States President Barack Obama met him in Rome Thursday. The White House said Obama was “struck” by Renzi’s reform plans and “his commitment to Europe and the Atlantic Alliance”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Croatia: Vukovar: Destruction of Bilingual Signs Continues
VUKOVAR — A bilingual sign has been stolen from the wall of the building of the Municipal Court in Vukovar, while another 9 signs on other government institutions have been damaged, the local police have stated.
Unidentified individuals damaged the signs placed on the national health insurance institution, county prosecutor’s office and court, misdemeanor court and state geodesic administration.
The signs, which were written in Latin and Cyrillic scripts, that were placed on the office of the national administration and Defence Ministry were also damaged, the Croatian news agency Hina has reported.
The destruction of Cyrillic signs started in Croatia last year, after the decision to place them on buildings.
The right-wing organization Headquarters for the Defence of the Croatian Vukovar initiated at the time protests against the Cyrillic script, during which the destruction of the signs began.
The organization also collectedsignatures for a referendum that would allow the use of the Cyrillic only in areas where the Serbs make up more than 50 percent of the population.
The Croatian parliament has not given an opinion on that initiative, but the state authorities think that constitutional changes should prevent a referendum that would reduce or revoke minority rights, according to European principles.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: Italy Donates 56 Firefighting Vehicles
Ambassador Massari: Egypt’s success is our success
Maurizio Massari, Italy’s Ambassador to Egypt, and deputy Interior minister Sami Youssef during the ceremony for the delivery of the 56 firefighting vehicles
(ANSAmed) — CAIRO, MARCH 24 — Italy donated to Egypt a total of 56 firefighting vehicles worth roughly 11 million euros, as part of the balance of payments aid programme called ‘commodity aid’ of the Italian Development Cooperation to support transition and development in Egypt. The use of this aid and development tool, financed by the Italian foreign ministry, has the double objective of promoting “Made in Italy” in export markets and of supporting imports such as firefighting vehicles to countries like Egypt, which do not have any type of industrial production. Italian Ambassador Maurizio Massari was present at the vehicle delivery ceremony directed by Italy’s Civil Protection in Cairo.
“Italy is on Egypt’s side and that of the Egyptian people in this political and economic context,” said Massari, adding that “Egypt’s success is our success”.
The vehicles — seven small, 46 medium and 3 large vehicles destined for particular emergency operations for the recovery of fire victims by stretcher — were delivered to various governors of the country and were furnished by IVECO and by Brescia Antincendi International (BAI). The two companies were represented by their respective heads of Middle East sales, Marco Roselli and Guido Formisano. Italy also supplied technical assistance and training for Egyptian personnel through courses in Italy and in Egypt, Massari said.
“Support to Egypt is a support for the entire process of political and economic consolidation, because for us Egypt’s success is fundamental. Your country is crucial for the stability of the entire region,” explained Massari. The Egyptian deputy interior minister, General Sami Youssef, was also present at the ceremony. He expressed gratitude to the Italian government.
In addition to the 56 vehicles mentioned above, Italy also donated 20 vehicles in 2002, 13 vehicles in 2007 and another in 2011, for a total of 90 firefighting vehicles worth 17 million euros. Support to Italian industry is an element that is of first importance in this kind of initiative, as the intergovernmental agreement between Italy and Egypt imposes the production of goods on Italian territory.
At the same time, the importance of this type of programme is crucial in this delicate phase of Egypt’s transition, as it allows Egypt to acquire essential goods — like firefighting vehicles — without having to draw on its hard currency reserves of US dollars or euros, which thus remain available to the government as a strategic factor in the social and economic stabilization process, as well as the pacification of the country.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: Death Penalty for Muslim Brotherhood Youth Killers
(AGI) Cairo, March 29 — A court in Alexandria has sentenced two members of the Muslim Brotherhood to the death penalty for their part in the deaths of several youths last summer. The youths were thrown from the top of a building during the unrest following the ousting of President Mohammad Morsi. Another 52 people have been handed down the same sentence over the last few days.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: Brotherhood Killed Journalist in Clashes, Says Government
(AGI) Cairo, March 29 — The journalist Mayada Ashraf, who was killed during clashes in Cairo on Friday, was already a Muslim Brotherhood target, Interior Ministry spokesman General Hani Abdul Latif said, describing her as a martyr. The Egyptian government, which took over after the military coup that ousted the previous Muslim Brotherhood and President Mohammad Morsi in June, is headed by General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, a presidential candidate at the forthcoming elections.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt Sentences Additional Morsi Supporters to Death
Following the wave of death sentences given out this week to over 500 Islamists in Egypt, two more men have been slated for the country’s death row. The men were convicted of throwing youths of a roof.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: Teargas Fired at Clashes Between El-Sisi and Sabahi Supporters in Alexandria
Police fire teargas to disperse supporters of rival presidential candidates
Clashes erupted on Saturday between supporters of rival presidential candidates Hamdeen Sabahi and Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi in Alexandria. Dozens of supporters of Nasserist Sabahi were rallying in the Mahatet El-Raml district of the city when they clashed El-Sisi supporters passing by the area, Al-Ahram Arabic website reported. Police dispersed the crowds using teargas…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: Muslim Brotherhood Supporters Attack Church, Four Dead
By Raymond Ibrahim
Among other forms of “retaliatory terrorism,” some 80 Christian churches were attacked in Egypt immediately after the June 30 Revolution, which saw the ousting of Muslim Brotherhood president Morsi.
And now that Egypt has sentenced to death hundreds of Muslim Brotherhood supporters for the widespread terror they launched on the nation after the people’s revolution, the Brotherhood and its supporters are, once again, retaliating by attacking Coptic Christian minorities and their churches.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Jerusalem: Journalists Injured in Arab Riots
Arab rioters mark ‘Land Day’ by clashing with Israeli police; journalists reportedly lightly injured as riots dispersed.
Israeli police used force on Saturday to break up a riot by Arab extremists in Jerusalem, injuring several people including two journalists, news photographers said.
Several rioters and four journalists — among them a photographer from Agence France-Presse and another from Reuters — were slightly injured by projectiles fired by police during the incident, near the walled Old City’s Damascus Gate…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
17 Killed in Violence in Iraq’s Anbar Province
A total of 17 people were killed and 23 others wounded on Saturday in separate attacks across Iraq, including the volatile province of Anbar, police said, Xinhua reported.
Four soldiers were killed and two members of a government- backed Sahwa paramilitary group wounded when gunmen using mortars and machineguns attacked their base in Albu Delma, just northwest of the provincial capital city Ramadi, some 110 km west of Baghdad…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Mass Media Censors Shocking Admission of Turkish False Flag
Corporate press brazenly lies about bombshell audio tape
The mainstream media has spun, mischaracterized and outright lied about a shocking leaked audio tape in which top Turkish military and political officials brazenly plan to stage a false flag attack on their own country in order to create a pretext for war on Syria…
To be clear, this confirmed audio tape represents ‘caught red handed’ concrete evidence of Turkish officials planning attacks on their own country to be blamed on Syria as a pretext for military invasion.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Municipal Vote in Turkey Turns Into Referendum on Erdogan
(AGI) Istanbul, March 29 — Municipal elections in Turkey have turned into a referendum on Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Polling stations will open at 7 a.m. on Sunday and will close at 5 p.m. The voters called to elect their mayors number 53 million. Erdogan, who is the promoter of an imposing modernisation process, started unveiling his uncompromising nature last summer, revealing his hard-shelled and authoritarian character. Everything started with the violent clampdown on Gezi Park protesters in Istanbul, up to his recent claim of being the victim of a conspiracy.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Soldiers Killed by Lebanon Car Bomb
A car bomb has exploded near a Lebanese army checkpoint near the Syrian border, killing at least two soldiers, reports say.
Several more soldiers were reported wounded in the blast on the outskirts of the town of Arsal…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Syrian Army Advances Towards Lebanese Border
(AGI) Cairo, March 29 — Syrian troops gained ground in the strategic Qalamoun area near the Lebanese border on Saturday, seizing two villages from rebels, Lebanese newspaper Daily Star quoted a military source as saying. “The army took control this morning of the villages of Ras al-Maarra and Flita, after bombing the last groups of armed terrorists there,” the source said. In November President Bashar al-Assad’s troops, backed by fighters from Lebanon’s Hezbollah, launched a vast campaign against rebel positions in Qalamoun, north of Damascus.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: Erdogan’s Fate to be Decided in Tomorrow’s Local Elections
The elections take place in a highly tense climate after Gezi Park protests and the corruption scandals involving AKP ministers and even the prime minister’s son. Erdogan’s wrath against Twitter and Youtube, but especially against Fetullah Gulen. Conflicting predictions: the opposition says that the AKP will lose up to 15% of the vote. The ruling party is hoping for a solid 38%. Almost no women candidates.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
US to Build Naval Base in Southern Yemen
Baku-APA. A website for Yemen’s Houthi community says the US army is planning to set up a naval base in a strategic area in the country’s southern Lahij Province, APA reports quoting Press TV.
According to the recent report by Ansar Allah website, the naval base, which is to be established in Khor al-Umaira in southern Yemen near strategic Bab-el Mandeb, will include a floating dock, a training center and shooting ranges…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Washington Abandons Old Middle Eastern Allies
by Zvi Mazel
America is disengaging itself from the Middle East while seemingly encouraging extremist forces. It is a well-known fact that nature abhors a vacuum. What happens next is anybody’s guess.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Crimea Tartar Community Votes to Seek Ethnic and Territorial Autonomy
The minority Muslim Tartar community in Crimea have taken the first steps toward seeking autonomy. An assembly vote follows Crimea’s annexation by Russia.
The Crimean Tatars make up about 12 percent of the peninsula’s population.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Metropolitan Hilarion, head of the Department for External Church Relations, slams Catholic Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk of Kyiv for his positions. He also says he asked the Holy See for explanations. Diplomacy is faltering over the religious divisions.
Moscow (AsiaNews) — The Moscow Patriarchate strongly condemned the Greek-Catholic (Uniate) Church in Ukraine for “meddling” in politics, in the current crisis in the country. For its part, Russia continues to accuse the Ukraine of “religious intolerance,” a charge the latter sharply rejects, noting instead how all religious denominations have come together to oppose violence and express support for Europe.
For Metropolitan Hilarion, head of the Synodal Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, Sviatoslav Shevchuk, major archbishop of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, and his predecessor, Lubomyr Husar, took a “very clear position from the beginning of the civil conflict, which grew unfortunately into an armed bloody conflict”.
In his view, the Uniates not only advocated integration with Europe, “but even called for Western countries to intervene more decisively in the situation in Ukraine.”
Speaking on The Church and the world, a programme on the Russia-24 TV channel, Hilarion also noted that “Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk and [. . .] Filaret (Denisenko) even went to the United States, [. . .] to the State Department and asked for US intervention in Ukrainian affairs.”
Excommunicated by the Moscow Patriarchate, Filaret is the head of the breakaway Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Kyiv Patriarchate.
In early February, Archbishop Shevchuk spoke before the US Congress. On that occasion, he said that the Ukraine situation transcended politics and asked for US mediation to resolve the crisis.
Conversely, for Hilarion, the Greek-Catholic Church is a major obstacle in relations between the Moscow Patriarchate and the Holy See.
The Orthodox, he said, have always perceived the Uniates in a very negative light, “as a special project by the Catholic Church,” because “they dress like Orthodox, follow Orthodox rituals, but are in fact Catholic,” which gives them and the Vatican a certain leeway.
When he asked a Catholic official for an explanation about the show of support from the Greek-Catholic Church for the breakaway Orthodox Church, the only answer Hilarion said he got was “We do not control them.”
For his part, Shevchuk, who recently met with Pope Francis, bemoans the disappearances of people in Ukraine, who were “abducted and tortured” by the Berkut, the special police in the government of ousted president Yanukovych.
Moscow and Kyiv also continue to trade barbs over religion. The Ukrainian Ministry of Culture has rejected Russian accusations of “religious intolerance” with regards to alleged threats and seizure of parishes that are under the jurisdiction of the Moscow Patriarchate in Ukraine.
According to the ministry’s Religious Affairs Department, no such actions have taken place. On the contrary, during protests at Maiden (Independence) Square, “all the churches, including the Ukrainian Orthodox Church,” came out to defend the people and show their support for a pro-European orientation in the country’s development.
Likewise, Kyiv has denied claims by the Moscow Patriarchate and the Russian government that the country is in a civil war.
Instead, Russia continues to be under diplomatic pressure to avoid a wider Ukrainian crisis, following its annexation of the Crimea.
In fact, US President Barack Obama is in Brussels for a summit with EU leaders Barroso and Van Rompuy to discuss possible new sanctions.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Obama Downplays Russian Threat
Analyst Toby Westerman has put together a list of examples of how international communist ideology still guides the conduct of Russian President Vladimir Putin, a former KGB officer and one-time head of its successor agency, the FSB. “I don’t see why it is so difficult to see the ideology behind Putin,” Westerman says, noting that Putin has declared, “There is no such thing as a former Chekist.” The Cheka was the forerunner to the KGB and stood for the All-Russian Commission for Combating Counter-Revolution and Sabotage.
“The mission of the Cheka was to defend the Communist Revolution and to destroy its enemies,” notes Westerman. “[Cheka head] Felix Dzerzhinsky carried out his task with stunning brutality and efficiency. The Cheka developed what became a legendary reputation for kidnapping, torture, and murder. In its first years of operation, Cheka victims numbered in the hundreds of thousands. Although officially dissolved in 1922, the Cheka’s methods and mission continue to the present. All current and “retired” Russian intelligence officers consider themselves as Chekists. Today, Russia is controlled by the Chekist Putin, and his spy associates. Russia is, in reality, a ‘spyocracy.’“
Other examples of the Soviet KGB’s living legacy include:…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Putin & Obama Working Together to Split Up the Spoils After the War?
If Obama is so angry with Putin and is “sanctioning” members of his government, why is the US supplying military equipment to Russia?
Ever since Obama’s “open-mic moment” when he told then Russian President Dmitry Medvedev that “Vlad” needed to be patient with: “On all these issues, particularly on missile defense, this, this can be solved but it’s important for him to give me space” which was followed by his continuing with “this is my last election.
After my election I have more flexibility.” Many still continue to state — even well-known talk show hosts — that Obama meant only missile defense. But that’s not what he said. Instead, Obama stated “On ALL of these issues…” That means the deal between the two — Obama and Putin — involved a great deal more than Obama deleting the USA’s missile defense. I believe we are now deeply entrenched in Obama’s promised “flexibility”…to our great detriment.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Moments ago the White House made a fine point of announcing that — for the first time since the Ukraine crisis erupted and led to the unanswered annexation of Crimea by Russia — Putin called the White House first to discuss what was vaguely enough described as “a diplomatic resolution to the crisis in Ukraine.” However a more detailed read through of what actually happened reveals that there is less here than meets the eye (as a rational person would suspect since any truly good news would have been divulged during market trading hours).
As the Kremlin’s own interpretation of the call between the two leaders discloses, “Vladimir Putin drew Barack Obama’s attention to continued rampage of extremists who are committing acts of intimidation towards peaceful residents, government authorities and law enforcement agencies in various regions and in Kiev with impunity.”
Here, Putin undoubtedly is focusing on last night’s storming of the parliament by the “Right Sector” neonazis, which initially had been insturmental in the violent Ukraine coup and have now become a huge nuisance to the acting government. Which, as we noted yesterday, meant they suddenly had become Putin’s best friend. Because in bringing attention to their actions, the Kremlin makes it quite clear that the Russian case of neofascists running rampant in Kiev, was in fact at least partially accurate.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Russia Sees No Need for Ukraine Incursion, Tatars Seek Autonomy
Russia said on Saturday it had no intention of invading eastern Ukraine following its annexation of Crimea, while the Black Sea peninsula’s Muslim Tatars demanded autonomy.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will meet on Sunday in Paris, the State Department said, as both sides moved to ease tensions in the worst East-West standoff since the Cold War.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Why the Soviets Transferred the Crimea to the Ukrainian SSR in February 1954
“The Transfer of the Crimea to the Ukraine” From: Bulletin of the Institute for the Study of the History and Culture of the USSR (Munich), vol. 1, no. 1 (April 1954): 30-33. Unsigned article.
This transfer reveals the long term policy. The Ukraine, as the largest republic outside of the RSFSR, is quite understandably the republic with local sentiments which all the other republics listen to. It is the center in which, as it were, all the republics are united in their national aspirations. The Central Committee of the KPSU had in mind, as well, the idea of weakening the significance of the Ukraine as such a center when it ordered the Supreme Soviet to issue this decree. In the first place, the Ukraine, having received the Crimea, an area which in fact belongs to the Crimean Tatars, at the same time makes itself an empire to a certain degree, for now it possesses lands without justification based on ethnographic principles. Therefore, it is the Ukraine and not the RSFSR which turns up as a party to the dispute over the lands of the Crimean Tatars. This places all the republics of Central Asia—the whole Moslem world of the USSR—in opposition to the Ukraine.
Full essay here.
| — Hat tip: Andy Bostom | [Return to headlines] |
Chinese Ships Search for Flight MH370 in New Area West of Australia
Two Chinese ships are searching a new area of the Indian Ocean west of Australia in their hunt for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370. More objects have been spotted by rescue planes.
The rescuers believe they have about a week to find the so-called black box flight recorders onboard the jet before their batteries fade and the signals give out.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Ex-British Premier Says International Donors Will Give Pakistan $1 Billion in Education Aid
Former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown says international donors have pledged to provide Pakistan with about a billion dollars over the next three years to help it provide education to millions of out-of-school children.
Now a United Nations special envoy on global education, Brown said Saturday in Islamabad that the global community will partner with Pakistan in financing the biggest education expansion in the country’s history.
Brown says the goal is to provide education to more than 55 million people over ten years old who are illiterate in Pakistan.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Flight MH370: Chinese and Australian Ships Draw Blank
A Chinese and an Australian ship have failed to identify remains from the missing Malaysia Airlines flight after their first day in a new search area.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Gordon Brown: Create Pakistan Child Marriage-Free Zones
Former prime minister Gordon Brown has announced that “child marriage-free zones” are to be set up in Pakistan. Mr Brown, the UN’s special envoy on global education, said the practice of forcing girls into marriage is “not acceptable in the modern world”. “It deprives a girl of her education and her childhood,” he told the BBC.
Speaking on a visit to Islamabad, he revealed the UN is giving $10m (£6m), and the EU 100m euros (£83m), to get more Pakistani children into education.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Malaysian Flight More Newsworthy Than 8,000 Veteran Suicides
Since March 8, CNN and FOX News have been reporting the air disaster non-stop. As a result, we’re forced to watch countless “airline experts” guess and theorize at what might have happened, compounded by countless politicians who are even more clueless.
Since March 8, an estimated 418 of our Military Veterans have committed suicide on American soil. That’s 415 more than the number of American passengers who perished on Flight 370.
A study by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) reports that that an average of 22 Veterans commit suicide every day
There’s never been any mention on any news station anywhere about the greatest human disaster in American history, which is the catastrophic loss of 8,000 lives annually by suicide of those who defended our Nation’s freedom.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Some Objects Found in Search Area Not Related to Jet
Objects retrieved by Chinese and Australian ships on Friday are not related to missing Malaysia Airlines jet, Chinese state media said. But more objects found Saturday have not been ruled out as having a connection to the plane.
Objects were retrieved by a Chinese ship during Friday’s search operations, but China’s state broadcaster CCTV said that they were merely garbage.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Taliban Attack Afghan Electoral Commission HQ in Kabul
Five Taliban fighters killed during four-hour gun battle in latest in spate of attacks ahead of 5 April presidential election
Five Taliban fighters were killed after they launched an assault on the Kabul headquarters of the Afghanistan’s independent election commission (IEC) headquarters on Saturday, the latest in a spate of attacks before next week’s presidential vote. Two police officers were injured in the ensuing four-hour gun battle.
It was first thought that four male fighters disguised as women in burqas approached the election offices, but there now appear to have been five fighters…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
China: Four Uygur Militants Charged in Kunming Knife Attack Case
Four Uygur militants, including a woman, were on Saturday charged in connection with the brutal knife attack at a railway station in China’s Kunming city that left 33 people dead.
The four suspects in the Kunming knife attack case were charged with crimes of organising, leading, taking part in a terrorist attack and intentional homicide, the Yunnan provincial procuratorate announced…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Italian Mortadella to be Exported to China Under New Deal
Prepared meat products included in trade arrangement
(ANSA) — Rome, March 27 — Italy has received approvals to export mortadella sausage, as well as other prepared pork products, to China after 10 years of talks, the industry’s association announced Thursday.
Ham and other meat products are included in the deal announced by Assica, the industrial association of meat and sausage producers and pig slaughterers, which is also part of major business employers association Confindustria.
Cooked ham — known in Italy in proscutto cotto — as well as mortadella and other types of sausages have been approved for export after health authorities in both Italy and China endorsed the trade deal.
Negotiations began 10 years ago between Rome and Beijing to open the Chinese market to production from pigs born, reared and slaughtered in Italy.
Eight years ago, Chinese authorities, including veterinary officials, first visited Italian facilities to inspect processes, said Assica.
The group applauded the trade arrangement, although its president said she hoped it would be widened to include more products including fresh pork as negotiations continue.
“This is a significant opening, although unfortunately it is still limited for our companies,” said Lisa Ferrarini, president of Assica.
“Our next goals are bringing Chinese authorities to Italy for a new mission in order to obtain the authorization to export for other companies, and to expand the range of exportable goods to include other products made of seasoned pork, such as salami, coppa, pancetta, as well as the export of fresh pork,” she said.
Ferrarini estimates the trade arrangement has the potential to be worth 25 million euros annually, based on exports last year to Hong Kong worth five million euros.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
North Korea is World’s Largest Manufacturer of Statues of Dictators
The government of Kim Jong-un has completed and is set to ship two large statues of Zimbabwean dictator Robert Mugabe to Africa. Pyongyang a leader in the industry: its foundries have molded bronze effigies of Stalin, Pol Pot , Mao , and of course homegrown dictators.
Seoul ( AsiaNews) — The North Korean government has completed two large bronze statues of Zimbabwe’s dictator Robert Mugabe, which are set to leave for the African country in time for the 90th birthday of the political leader. Mugabe turned 90 on February 21, but the Harare government has announced a year of celebrations for the leader nationwide.
The two giants in bronze statutes cost 5 million US dollars: the largest statue — 3.5 million — will be erected in the capital Harare, the smaller one — from 1.5 million — in the rural village of Zvimba, the birthplace of the longest-serving head of state on the African continent. The construction of the statue began in 2009 in Pyongyang: both will be transported by sea.
It is not the first time that the two countries have signed “artistic” deals, in addition to the well-known military and commercial agreements. Ironically, the last bronze statue commissioned by Zimbabwe from North Korea commemorated Joshua Nkomo. He was the leader of the Zapu independence movement and Mugabe’s bitter enemy, who called him “a snake in the house, to be crushed without mercy”. In fact, Mugabe’s Fifth Brigade Army — trained by North Korea — crushed the supporters of Nkomo in 1987, killing around 20 thousand civilians.
Following the massacre, Nkomo withdrew from the political struggle and died in 1999. Mugabe declared him a “national hero” and ordered “a huge statue [see photo] that witnesses to his moral and political greatness” from Pyongyang. The work of art was delivered in December 2013, and is now visible near the Parliament in Harare.
The trade in works of art, dedicated mostly to dictators living or dead, is one of the last profitable business for the government led by Kim Jong-un along with cartoon designs. In 1960’s North Korea made about a hundred bronze statues of Stalin and some works on behalf of the Cambodian government led by Pol Pot as well as at least ten statues of Mao still standing in China.
Nor should we forget the internal market. In the country there are about 34 thousand statues — always in bronze — that portray the “eternal president” Kim Il-sung , and at least 900 dedicated to his son, “the Dear Leader” Kim Jong -il. Made in the northern province of Pyongyang, these statues are considered of excellent quality. One exception in the market for dictators is the work commissioned by Abdoulaye Wade, Senegal’s former president, who in 2010 ordered a huge statue dedicated to the “African Renaissance” from Pyongyang’s artists.
The work cost 27 million dollars. It was commissioned for the 50th anniversary of the independence of Senegal, and was designed by Wade himself. With the typical elements of socialist realism it depicts a muscular man, a child and a woman climbing a hill — “freeing themselves” from the shackles of capitalism and the market economy — looking with hope towards the Atlantic Ocean.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
North Korea Envoy to UN on Rights Abuse Allegations: ‘Mind Your Own Business’
A North Korea envoy drew laughter at a United Nations human rights meeting Friday in Geneva when he told diplomats to “mind your own business” during a vote to hold his country responsible for crimes against humanity.
The strange moment came as the UN Human Rights Council voted for actions against the rogue country for crimes investigators likened to Nazi-style atrocities, Reuters reported. Allegations of abuse may reach as far as Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un, the report said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Jews ‘Favoured While Other Minorities Unprotected’
A WESTERN Sydney imam believes the Abbott government’s proposed repeal of section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act will create a situation that favours Jews and discriminates against indigenous Australians and other minority groups.
Afroz Ali, the president of the al-Ghazzali Centre for Islamic Sciences and Human Development and founding member of the Australian Religious Response to Climate Change, warned on his Facebook page yesterday that Tony Abbott and Attorney-General George Brandis were trying to “have their racist ways to protect prejudiced sophists like Andrew Bolt and such ilk of hate-speech spreaders”…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Nigeria: Jihad — Misunderstood Concept
By Umar Jibrilu Gwandu
One of the most misunderstood concepts in Islam is jihad. Many do not know that Islam is against bloodshed (Qur’an 5:32). Jihad does not mean fighting or killing non-believers. The use of “holy war” to define jihad is a misnomer. The Arabic equivalent for holy war is “harb Al-Muqaddass” which is nowhere to be found in the Islamic literature…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Spanish-Led Consortium Wins Bid to Build $5.4 Billion Subway Lines in Peru’s Capital
A consortium including Spanish construction companies ACS and FCC says it has been awarded a 3.9 billion-euro ($5.4 billion) contract to build and operate a subway line in Peru’s capital.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
In One Week, Mexico Finds 370 Child Migrants Apparently Abandoned by Traffickers
Authorities in Mexico say that in one week they found 370 migrant children who had apparently been abandoned by the traffickers they paid to take them to the United States.
The National Migration Institute says the children were rescued in 14 Mexican states between March 17 and 24, and the youngest was 9 years old.
The institute said in a statement Saturday that the children told officials the traffickers abandoned them after being paid between $3,000 and $5,000.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Abortion ‘Begs for God’s Vengeance’ Says Italian Cardinal
Bagnasco lashes out at gender-equality education and divorce
(ANSA) — Rome, March 24 — Catholic Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, an outspoken opponent of same-sex marriage and abortion, on Monday said the way children are treated in the world today begs for “God’s vengeance” and that gender equality will turn schools into “re-education camps”.
“Today, the child is reduced to fodder for human trafficking, to slavery, to a cruel spectacle or into a weapon of war, when not exposed to abortion or the tragic possibility of euthanasia,” the cardinal told the powerful Italian Bishops Conference (CEI), which he presides.
Bagnasco went on to lash out against a new pamphlet titled “Educating for Diversity” aimed at stemming bullying and discrimination in Italy’s primary and secondary schools.
The pamphlet uses gender issues to install “an outright dictatorship aimed at flattening diversity,” said the cardinal. “It tries to instill in children preconceived notions against the family, against religious faith, against the difference between father and mother”. “Do we want our schools to turn into reeducation or indoctrination camps?” he asked rhetorically.
He went on to blame economic hardship and soured relationships between parents and children on divorce.
“The breakdown of conjugal ties is leading to serious and increasing difficulties, in terms of employment as well as housing,” the cardinal said.
He cited data from a soon-to-be-released report by Caritas Catholic charity, which shows that 66.1% of separated couples have trouble buying basic goods, and 68% said separating from their spouse made relating to their kids harder. Bagnasco in 2007 sparked an outcry when he compared granting gay rights to legalizing incest.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Art Exhibit at University of Michigan Honors Abortion as Awesome ‘Life-Sustaining’ Act
[WARNING: ** Disturbing Content **]
An art exhibit currently on showcase at the University of Michigan charts the glamorous history of abortion.
The “4000 Years for Choice” exhibit celebrates abortion as a “life-sustaining act,” reports The College Fix. Previously, the artist has called the practice “a gift from God.”
A University of Michigan webpage describes the exhibit as “an exhibition of posters about the age-old practices of abortion and contraception as a means to reclaim reproductive freedom as a deeply personal and life-sustaining act existing throughout all of human history.”
The webpage is sponsored by the women’s studies department.
The artist behind the artwork is pro-abortion activist Heather Ault, who has committed her professional life to the exultation of the joys of abortion.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Common Core Emerges as Potent Election Issue for Fed-Up Parents
Parents disgusted that their children are practically being taught 2 + 2 = 5.
Parents across the country may hold the key to this year’s mid-term elections as they vent their anger over the implementation of a controversial education achievement measure called the Common Core State Standards Initiative.
Forty-five states and the District of Columbia have adopted the initiative in a bid, they say, to improve education standards in Math and English, and give new life to what many view as a sagging education system. Indiana recently voted to back out of Common Core.
But many parents see the initiative as a bid by the federal government to take over the education system. They are also angry over the “data mining” of students’ personal information, and say the stepped-up standards are not age-appropriate and are leading to anxiety and depression in their children.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Gay Activists Hurl Feces at German Parents Protesting Pro-Gay School Curriculum: Report
GERMANY, March 28, 2014 (LifeSiteNews.com) — As parents in Germany have protested a new pro-homosexual “sexual diversity” curriculum in their schools, homosexual activists have attacked them by hurling feces and destroying their property, according to the Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination against Christians, which documents anti-Christian incidents in Europe…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Government Warned Not to Undermine Parents
Scottish plan facing legal challenge for installing bureaucrats in families
The Scottish government has been notified formally of a legal challenge to its plan to insert government bureaucrats into the decision-making of families with children.
The Christian Institute, which is pursuing the action, said its lawyers have sent a letter to the government detailing the case, charging lawmakers are overstepping their authority.
The scheme, described by the institute as “invasive” of families, was adopted by lawmakers. It would appoint a “named person” for every child born in Scotland that would be granted authority to monitor children and make decisions about their lives.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Pelosi Getting Award Named for Woman Who Said ‘Most Merciful’ To Kill ‘Infant’
Planned Parenthood on Thursday will give House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) its Margaret Sanger Award, named for a woman who advocated eugenics and who wrote that large families would be doing what was “most merciful” if they killed one of their infants.
“The most merciful thing that the large family does to one of its infant members is to kill it,” wrote Sanger.
Planned Parenthood is giving Pelosi, a Catholic, its Margaret Sanger Award because of her “leadership, excellence, and outstanding contributions to the reproductive health and rights movement over the course of her career.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Brian Sewell: ‘Why I’m No Convert to Gay Marriage’
As the first same-sex weddings take place, a leading art critic argues that campaigners for equality have picked the wrong battle
I am queer — an old-fashioned term with which I am more comfortable than gay, which seems a silly and unsuitable word for my predicament. I have always been queer — my first enlightenment when I was eight. I have never lied about it, never denied it, but I did learn to dissemble, which is why I think of it as a predicament, a menacing situation…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Rainbow Flag Flies Above Cabinet Office to Celebrate Same-Sex Marriage
The multi-coloured rainbow flag, adopted as a symbol of the gay community in the 1970s, is raised above the Cabinet Office, as same-sex marriage is set to become legal in England and Wales
A rainblow flag fluttered above the Cabinet Office today ahead of the historic change to the law allowing same-sex marriages…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Same-Sex Marriage Now Legal as First Couples Wed
The first same-sex weddings have taken place after gay marriage became legal in England and Wales at midnight. Politicians from the main parties have hailed the change in the law.
David Cameron said the move sent a message that people were now equal “whether gay or straight”, but some religious groups remain opposed.
Scotland passed a similar law in February; the first same-sex marriages are expected there in October.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Orthodox Churches Will Hold First Ecumenical Council in 1,200 Years in Istanbul
Twelve heads of autonomous Orthodox churches, the second-largest family of Christian churches, also agreed to hold a summit of bishops, or ecumenical council, in 2016, which will be the first in over 1,200 years.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
We are again on the road to World War. One hundred years ago the creation of a world war by a few had to be done under the cover of deception. Germany had to be caught off guard. The British had to be manipulated and, of course, people in all the countries involved had to be propagandized and brainwashed.
Today the drive to war is blatantly obvious. The lies are obvious, and the entire West is participating, both media and governments.
The American puppet, Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper, openly lied on Canadian TV that Russian President Putin had invaded Crimea, threatened Ukraine, and was restarting the Cold War. The host of the TV program sat and nodded his head in agreement with these bald-faced lies.
The script that Washington handed to its Canadian puppet has been handed to all of Washington’s puppets, and everywhere in the West the message is the same. “Putin invaded and annexed Crimea, Putin is determined to rebuild the Soviet Empire, Putin must be stopped.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
World Leaders Wear Bizarre Illuminati Pyramid at Nuclear Summit (Video)
World leaders at this week’s Nuclear Security Summit wore bizarre illuminati pyramid lapel pins while gathered around a giant eye with a floating holographic pyramid suspended above.
Interestingly enough, President Barack Obama was one of the few world leaders not to wear the pyramid symbol.
Is the symbol an innocent motif designed to express unity around the issue of nuclear security, or does it represent an occult display of power?
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
What is wrong with racism?
Why is it considered to be such a heinous crime? More to the point, what does it mean?
To me, it means treating people differently, purely on the basis of their ethnic origin, without taking the trouble to get to know them as individuals. This is ignorant, arrogant and (*redacted) rude.
*Saved you the trouble, Dymphna!
I no longer want immigration from Morocco, as Morrocan immigrants have failed to live up to the standard I expect from immigrants.This means I reject immigrants on the basis of their ethnic origin, without taking the trouble to get to know them as individuals. According to your definition, I am now a evil racist. In reality, I try to shield my culture, society and my fellow citizens from more damage inflicted by new Morrocan immigrants.
It might be your opinion, for what that is worth, but the term racism has no universally acknowledged definition, so why is it considered to be so heinous?
This was a response to Mark not to Oz
“Racism” is a subset of heinous “intolerance”.
The variously-hued professional grievance mongers make a good living by raising a umm…hue & cry against signs of the slightest dissent from their official “consensus” dogma, which isn’t consensual at all. However, publicly deviating from its slightest jot or tittle can cost you your job, reputation, and social circle.
The ever-hungry media, which must be sustained on scary stories, cooperates fully in a 24/7 dissemination of the seeming varieties of codswallop. By the workings of osmosis people come to believe that what they’re consuming is Truth. Goebbels told us how to do it.
Ergo, avoid media if at all possible.
Mark H: It is not possible to be ‘racist’ as the term implies because we are all members of the same race. How then is it possible to be ‘racist’ against your own kind?
Humans have an inherent ability to determine by their own judgement those cultures and ethnicities that are either of benefit to embrace or reject as anathema to one’s own culture.
It’s a matter of basic human survival instincts.
That ability is what is being denied to us through the UN policies of Multiculturalism and political correctness and that have been firmly embraced by the Collectivists to be used as a sledgehammer against those who can see the fallacy of those UN policies.
The definition of ‘racism’ is a false term that undermines our ability to determine our future as individual nations through selective immigration, hiring employees and what may be uttered in public when the subject concerns ‘minorities’.
The term as applied is being used selectively by the Collective against the white man while denying that other ethnicities also have the same discriminating ability.
And in most instances it will be found that those who scream ‘racist’ the loudest are generally the biggest ‘racists’ of all!
I’ve lived in MC London for 44 years, and found good and bad people in all groups. The word “prejudice” is from the Latin, meaning to pre-judge, and I maintain that such an attitude is lazy and indeed racist.
You maintain it because you refuse to see solid reasons for doing otherwise, probably because your environment has stimulated to take a good deal of pride for acting ”tolerant”. I instruct the older members of my family not to be ashamed to not open the door if a Moroccan is standing at the door, because in terms of safety, this has proven to be a wise choice. You must prefer the many violent home invasions which started out similarly.I also always tell girlfriends to prefer a Dutch cabdriver, as usually sexual intimidation or worse, is done by Muslim cabdrivers.
Prejudice is healthy.
Oz, this is an excellent point.
Under the banner of a faux-tolerance the left has ratcheted up the stakes on ever exhibiting normal behavior. Behind their bright red lines lurks a great deal of hatred against groups they don’t like for their own doctrinal reasons. The loudly proclaimed profession of tolerance is accompanied by equally vociferous speech against those groups which don’t meet their standards of who ‘deserves’ to be tolerantly treated. White men are not among their protected species – which means the white men who want to belong to their club – Larry Summers is one – have to crawl and beg before being re-admitted to the club if they stray by speaking a common truth.
Future historians will surely compare this period to The Inquisition. But we’re so civilized that there is less blood this time around. Or at least for the moment.
I should hardly need to mention this here, but ISLAM IS NOT A RACE! And most Moroccans are Muslims.
What is it about identifying a culture or ethnicity as the complete antithesis to what one knows is right and worth keeping, and therefore to avoid, and as in your words, is being prejudiced and racist?
And why use both prejudice and racist when the word prejudice would suit?
The word racist is a misnomer, a made up term to sledge those who identify certain cultures and ethnicities in general as not worth knowing, let alone doing business with.
Is that kind of discrimination wrong or is there a self-defence mechanism at work there?
Like I have previously stated and to which you have not answered – except to allude to my own prejudice – every person has the innate ability to discriminate between those cultures and ethnicities that are beneficial and those that are not. That is a natural ability that Multiculturalism is trying to stifle – and in your case it seems to have worked. Your own experience in London would alert you to those who are best avoided in the street or in other places – and if you are honest to yourself you would readily admit to your own prejudices in that regard.
So tell me Mark H, when selecting fruit to eat, or food to cook with, do you choose fresh over stale, good over bad, or is that also being prejudiced?
Appreciate your thoughtful reply, Nemesis. I understand (I believe) people’s inclination to feel more comfortable with others from their own group, though my (part-Quaker) mother encouraged us to look more deeply, and I think my life has been enriched by this.
There are immigrant communities, sometimes second or third generation now, who mainly integrate and mix well- West Indians, most other Europeans, Brits from the “white” Commonwealth, Jewish refugees from persecution dating back at least to the 19th century.
There are others who tend to keep a degree of distance, but contribute economically and don’t usually cause friction: West Africans, East Asians, non-Muslim South Asians, Latin Americans, ultra-orthodox Jews. Maybe some of these would try to impose their standards if they were more numerous, but this isn’t a major problem now.
And there are the ones who are a serious threat and problem: some Muslims in particular, some Roma, a few east & central Africans who are “Christian” & kill and torture children because they’re “possessed”.
There are council estates (social housing) I’d think twice about entering, especially at night, but I wouldn’t care whether a potential assailant was black or white. They’d be unlikely to be South Asian, Muslims included.
And Somi Kuha is who exactly, apart from a grievance mongering, attention seeking asian nobody with a monumental chip on her shoulder?
An opportunist, perhaps?
Yes and she still has that chip on her shoulder.
NBC news Sunday, big article about FGM in the US. Never once mentioned Islam.
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/horrific-taboo-female-circumcision-rise-u-s-n66226
Saw the BBC “Top Gear” programme from Burma, and watched the clip again just now. It would never have occurred to me that Jeremy Clarkson’s “slope” comment referred to anything other than the bridge itself.
There’s an old Yorkshire expression, “out at elbows”, referring to the kind of man who stands in a crowded pub, holding his pint with elbow extended; when someone accidentally jogs it and spills his beer, he picks a fight with them. In other words, he’s looking to be offended where no offence was intended. I hope GoVers will feel free to quote this when dealing with outraged Muslims!
Nice one Mark. It reminds me of when I was growing up in Portsmouth. The extended elbow quite often resulted in a fight and it was intended to do so.