Most of the schoolgirls abducted yesterday from a school in Chibok, Nigeria are still missing. Fourteen escaped from captivity and returned to their parents; the whereabouts of the rest are unknown. An earlier announcement by the Nigerian army that all but eight of the girls had been released now seems to have been false.
In other news, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) referred to the protesters at the standoff between the Bureau of Land Management and the family of Cliven Bundy as “domestic terrorists”. He then repeated his point by declaring that they had engaged in “domestic terrorism”.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, Jerry Gordon, JP, KGS, Steen, Takuan Seiyo, 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.
Investors Snap Up 20 Bn Euros in Italian Bonds
Yields fall as demand from institutional, retail investors rises
(ANSA) — Rome, April 17 — Italy’s Economy Ministry said Thursday it was closing a bond sale early after exceeding its goal for a 20 billion euro offering.
Institutional investors snapped up 10.49 billion euros worth of Italian bonds, following a 10-billion-euro sale of the new six-year April 2020 bonds to retail investors earlier in the week.
The inflation-linked bond offers a guaranteed minimum coupon of 1.65%.
The popularity of Italian paper has pushed down yields to lows not seen since the euro was introduced in 1999, with 10-year BTPs trading as low as 3.08% Thursday morning.
Analysts say that demand has been steadily rising for Italian paper, particularly since European Central Bank President Mario Draghi pledged in mid-2012 to take whatever action was needed to protect the common currency.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Economy Minister Justifies Delay in Balancing Budget
Padoan says recovery weak, govt needs to pay debts
(ANSA) — Rome, April 17 — Economy Minister Pier Carlo Padoan on Thursday justified the government’s controversial decision to inform the European Union that it was putting off the target of balancing the State budget in structural terms by a year until 2016.
The minister said the executive could not go too far with fiscal consolidation as the economic recovery is weak after the country emerged from its longest postwar recession in the second half of last year.
Another factor is the fact that the government has pledged to pay off scores of billions of euros of debts owed by various parts of the civil service and local governments to private-sector suppliers.
“Despite the signs of recovery this year, it is still fragile and the situation on the job market remains very difficult,” Padoan said referring to record unemployment levels of 13%, with over four in 10 under-25s out of work.
“To help the payment of civil-service debts, the government intends to made use of the exception procedure (to delay meeting the balanced-budget target)”.
Padoan was speaking in the Senate, which is set to vote on the government’s three-year economic blueprint, the Economic and Financial Document (DEF), on Thursday, as is the Lower House.
The DEF, which includes Premier Matteo Renzi’s ambitious programme of spending and tax cuts to help revive the economy, needs to be approved by parliament quickly so it can be delivered to the European Commission before the end of the month.
The plan includes 10 billion euros in income-tax cuts targeting low-earners.
Renzi has said the move will give people earning less than 25,000 euros a year an extra 80 euros in their monthly pay packets.
The executive is set to bring in the tax cut by approving a decree at a cabinet meeting on Friday.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Obama, Michigan in Talks to Free Up $100m to Aid Detroit Pension Deal
The Obama administration and state officials are in discussions on a deal that would free up an additional $100 million to soften the blow to Detroit pensioners, two people familiar with the talks told the Free Press late Tuesday.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
American Civil Unrest is Starting on Schedule
We have been warning that 2014 is the beginning of a new cycle that will see a highly unusual convergence between our domestic (civil unrest & revolution) data and our international war model. Both converge for the first time since the 1700s when there were US and French Revolutions and the fall of monarchy. This was the topic at our Cycle of War Conference (see also special report).
The civil unrest will develop first outside the USA and turn up more aggressively in the USA after 2015. Nonetheless, it still begins in 2014 for the USA as well. We are starting to see this in the West where memories of previous events still linger deep wounds from 1992.
The confrontation in Nevada between Cliven Bundy and the Bureau of Land Management, whose Director was Sen. Harry Reid’s (D-Nev.) former senior adviser, has turned into an issue of important cycle unrest. The government wants the land and demands Bundy gets his cattle off of the land his family has worked for over 140 years in order to make way for solar panel power stations. This dispute between a Nevada rancher and federal rangers over alleged illegal cattle grazing erupted into an Old West-style showdown on the open range this week, even prompting self-proclaimed members of militia groups from across the country to join the rancher in fighting what they say is U.S. “tyranny.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
ATF Attempts Bulk Collection of Customer Data From Gun Stores
Agency likely creating a centralized gun registry by fiat
Barely a month after the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms raided a California gun parts manufacturer for its customer data, the agency is now trying to force a Maine gun store owner out of business after he rejected an ATF agent’s demand for his customer records last year.
Despite not being charged with any crimes, Phil Chabot, the owner of Pac N Arms in Sanford, Maine, received a “notice of revocation” of his gun dealer license after he prevented ATF investigator Wayne Bettencourt from “scanning a copy of every page” of his customer records, according to Chabot’s attorney Penny Dean, who also added that the ATF has not even scheduled a hearing regarding the revocation.
“If he was really this bad person like ATF says he is, wouldn’t you have a hearing right away to revoke his license?” she said to the Portland Press Herald. “He has disputed every one of their allegations.”
“We say, ‘Show us the evidence.’“
The ATF accused Chabot of making “straw sales” to an intermediary on behalf of a convicted felon, but Chabot said that the ATF’s attempt at mass collection of his customer data during its investigation “appeared to be little more than a thinly veiled attempt to create a registry of my clientele.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
BAE Develops Google Glass App for Spies
Google Inc.’s internet-connected eyewear, which went on sale to the general public on April 15 for one day only, could also become a tactical and intelligence information sharing tool for first responders such as police or firefighters under a new plan by BAE Systems Inc., the U.S.-arm of Europe’s largest defense company.
BAE has developed an app called GXP Xplorer Snap that allows operatives and first-responders to take pictures using Google Glass and, through voice commands, transmit the photos along with detailed positional, time and other key tagging information, Rex Ballard, the company’s general manager for Geospatial Exploitation Products said in an interview.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
BLM — Tyranny of Taxation and Regulation Without Representation
The vilification of the Bundy family is in full force now by the mainstream media who are trying to paint Bundy as a law breaker, tax evader and label him as part of the Sovereign Citizen Movement, a hot button label that effectively puts a bounty on his head as a terrorist as far as law enforcement is concerned.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
BLM Committed Animal Atrocities, Shot Cows From Helicopters, Constructed Mass Graves at Bundy Ranch
[WARNING: Disturbing Content.]
(NaturalNews) It is now emerging that the Bureau of Land Management committed horrific atrocities against cattle during its armed occupation and siege of the Bundy Ranch near Bunkerville, Nevada. Photos are now emerging of the mass graves where BLM hastily tried to bury the cattle they killed. BLM agents used government helicopters to run down cattle in 90+ degree heat while shooting the cows that couldn’t keep up. The cattle that survived were then corralled into abusive “bovine concentration camps” that resulted in many cattle dying from dehydration and stress.
In an attempt to cover it up, BLM used machinery equipment to construct mass graves, but the arrival of armed citizens who faced off against the federal agents caused BLM to have to evacuate the area, leaving their cattle atrocities easily spotted by the public. (See photo below of one of the cows killed by BLM.)
[…]
Some have made a legal observation that the BLM, which falls under the U.S. Department of the Interior, may be guilty of racketeering under federal RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corruption Organization) statutes.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Bloomberg Attempts Fresh Start With New Gun Control Group
Comes months after MAIG gun confiscation agenda exposed
Today the billionaire announced he would invest $50 million merging his embattled Mayors Against Illegal Guns group with his other anti-Second Amendment venture, Mothers Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, to form a more inclusive “Everytown for Gun Safety.”…
In February, Infowars reported on former-MAIG member John Tkazyik’s damning OpEd claiming Bloomberg’s group was a front for a wider gun confiscation agenda.
“Under the guise of helping mayors facing a crime and drug epidemic, MAIG intended to promote confiscation of guns from law-abiding citizens,” Tkazyik said, confirming what many already suspected about the group. “Nearly 50 pro-Second Amendment mayors have left the organization. They left for the same reason I did,” he also added. Days later, three New York mayors scuttled to the group’s defense.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Federal Judge: BLM Engaged in a Criminal Conspiracy Against Ranchers
Court opinion exposes BLM’s true intent against Cliven Bundy
For over 20 years, the Bureau of Land Management engaged in a “literal, intentional conspiracy” against Nevada ranchers to force them out of business, according to a federal judge whose court opinion exposes the BLM’s true intent against rancher Cliven Bundy.
In his opinion of United States v. Estate of Hage, U.S. District Court Judge Robert C. Jones reveals that after late Nevada rancher E. Wayne Hage indicated on his 1993 grazing permit renewal that by signing the permit, he was not surrendering his family’s long-standing water and forage rights on the land, the BLM not only rejected the permit but also conspired for decades to both deny his family’s property rights and to destroy their cattle business.
“Based upon E. Wayne Hage’s declaration that he refused to waive his rights — a declaration that did not purport to change the substance of the grazing permit renewal for which he was applying, and which had no plausible legal effect other than to superfluously assert non-waiver of rights — the Government denied him a renewal grazing permit based upon its frankly nonsensical position that such an assertion of rights meant that the application had not been properly completed,” Judge Jones wrote. “After the BLM denied his renewal grazing permit for this reason by letter, the Hages indicated that they would take the issue to court, and they sued the Government in the CFC [Court of Federal Claims.]”
And at that point, Jones explained, the BLM refused to consider any further applications from Hage.
“The entire chain of events is the result of the Government’s arbitrary denial of E. Wayne Hage’s renewal permit for 1993 — 2003, and the effects of this due process violation are continuing,” he stated.
Judge Jones continued:…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Former US First Daughter Chelsea Clinton Pregnant
Chelsea Clinton, the daughter of former US President Bill Clinton and former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is pregnant with her first child. Ms Clinton, 34, and husband Marc Mezvinsky will welcome the new addition to their family later this year.
Ms Clinton currently serves as vice chair of the charitable Clinton Foundation, focusing on global health initiatives.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Genetically Modified Organisms: Sobering Consequences
Jeffrey Smith, www.organicconsumers.org, said, “Did you know GMO plants such as soybean, corn, cottonseed and canola have had foreign genes forced into their DNA. And the inserted genes come from species, such as bacteria and viruses that have never been in the human food supply.
“Did you know genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are not safe? They have been linked to thousands of toxic and allergenic reactions, thousands of sick, sterile and dead livestock, and damage to virtually every organ and system studied in lab animals.”
Why isn’t the FDA protecting us?
“In 1992, the Food and Drug Administration claimed that they had no information showing that GMO foods were substantially different from conventionally grown foods and therefore were safe to eat,” said Smith. “But internal memos made public by a lawsuit reveal that their position was staged by political appointees under orders from the White House to promote GMOs. FDA scientists, on the other hand, warned that GMOs can create unpredictable, hard-to-detect side effects, including allergies, toxins, new diseases, and nutritional problems.
“They urged long-term safety studies, but were ignored. The FDA does not require any safety evaluations for GMOs. Instead, biotech companies, who have been found guilty of hiding toxic effects of their chemical products, are now in charge of determining whether their GMO foods are safe.” (The FDA official in charge of creating this policy was Michael Taylor, Monsanto’s former attorney and later their vice president.)
[…]
The primary reason companies genetically engineer plants: to make them tolerant to their brand of herbicide. The four major GMO plants, soy, corn, canola, and cotton, are designed to survive an otherwise deadly dose of weed killer like Round-up or Weed-B-Gone. The second GM trait: built-in pesticide.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
GOP Fears Executive Order on Biometric Guns
Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) is warning the Obama administration to not issue an executive order requiring that all new guns be made with biometric technology, such as finger-print recognition or bracelets.
Cornyn raised the issue in a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder, who in testimony earlier this month highlighted biometric bracelets and fingerprint identification as a safety issue.
“Your testimony has raised serious concerns for my constituents given President Obama’s track-record of acting beyond the scope of his legal authority and your hostility to the individual right to self-defense under the Second Amendment,” Cornyn wrote. “Is the Obama administration currently exploring the possibility of an executive order requiring all firearms to possess the technology capabilities you referenced in your testimony?”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Harry Reid Calls Cliven Bundy Supporters “Domestic Terrorists”
“I repeat: what happened there was domestic terrorism”
Senator Harry Reid has escalated the war of words over the Cliven Bundy dispute, sensationally labeling the Nevada cattle rancher’s supporters “domestic terrorists” during an event in Las Vegas today.
Senator Harry Reid has escalated the war of words over the Cliven Bundy dispute, sensationally labeling the Nevada cattle rancher’s supporters “domestic terrorists” during an event in Las Vegas today.
During a ‘Hashtags & Headlines’ event at the Paris Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, Reid referred to Bundy supporters as “Nothing more than domestic terrorists,” adding, “I repeat: what happened there was domestic terrorism.”
Reid was referring to the stand off on Saturday in Bunkerville where Bundy supporters, some of whom were armed, forced Bureau of Land Management agents to back down and release around 380 head of cattle belonging to Bundy that had been seized over the course of the previous week.
Reid claimed that Bundy viewed the United States as a “foreign government,” while accusing his supporters of goading violence.
“There were hundreds, hundreds of people from around the country that came there,” Reid said. “They had sniper rifles in the freeway. They had weapons, automatic weapons. They had children lined up. They wanted to make sure they got hurt first … What if others tried the same thing?”
Despite Reid’s characterization of Bundy supporters as “domestic terrorists,” the only violence metered out during the dispute was when BLM agents tasered and assaulted Bundy supporters during an incident on April 9.
No matter where you stand on the Bundy issue, Reid’s characterization of American protesters as “domestic terrorists” is chilling and a massive backlash is almost certain to follow.
It also fits the narrative that the federal government has been pushing for years through literature such as the MIAC report, which framed Ron Paul supporters, libertarians, people who display bumper stickers, people who own gold, or even people who fly a U.S. flag, as potential terrorists. In 2012, a Homeland Security study was leaked which characterized Americans who are “suspicious of centralized federal authority,” and “reverent of individual liberty” as “extreme right-wing” terrorists.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
How Much More Anti-Americanism Can Harry Reid Exhibit in Public?
The Majority Leader of the U. S. Senate has been found once again flouting his uncommonly bad behavior in an ugly-smelling scandal involving his family and a very shady deal with Communist China in a land-grab-steal of American properties in his home state of Nevada right here in America. Talk about double-dealing bamboozlers and nepotists — Harry rates first class colors for that less than honorable slur.
He would give many other liberal Dems a good run for the sleaziest political scandal-monger in American political history. He is one of the most effective poster-boys for the adoption of TERM LIMITS. He is everything you would not want your representative or senator to be. In the most recent case involving “Dirty Harry”, he is bubbling over in nepotism in addition to the possibility of treasonous activities with a foreign potential capital enemy of the United States.
According to a Newsletter from TeaPartyArmy.com of April 15, 2014, Reid and his son Rory are dealing with Communist China to provide land in Nevada for that anti-American country to build a multi-billion dollar solar energy plant for unspecified reasons at this time, but it has to make every thinking American sit up and take notice. Why and for what purpose does the giant country of China want to buy land in the vicinity of $5+ billion dollars in OUR country to generate solar power? Doesn’t it intrigue you just a tad? A BIG TAD? is Dirty Harry finally showing his true and absolute un-American colors by securing a huge chunk of America for sale to a country that seldom if ever supports us in the United Nations?…
The Newsletter of the Tea Party Army said the federal officers from the Obama regime, who will not aim their guns at illegal aliens from the Mexican drug cartels, pointed sniper rifles and automatic weapons at these unarmed men and women and threatened to shoot them. This is the kind of dictatorial government you now have, my fellow Americans.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Is Your Home’s Energy Meter Spying on You?
Utility companies across the U.S. are installing smart meters in customers’ homes, touting the technology’s energy-saving ways, but opponents argue that the meters are opening a Pandora’s box of privacy concerns.
The smart energy meters read electric or gas usage, and enable a power company to collect detailed usage data on a particular home or building. But the readings also gather personal information that some critics argue is too intrusive.
The information gathered from smart meters includes unencrypted data that can, among other details, reveal when a homeowner is away from their residence for long periods of time. The electric wattage readings can even decipher what type of activities a customer is engaged in, such as watching TV, using a computer or even how long someone spends cooking.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Mass Civil Disobedience in New York Against ‘Safe Act’
The state of New York is refusing to say how many gun owners complied with a mandate to register their assault weapons under the Safe Act while a Sheriff says he will not enforce the measure, suggesting that just like a similar law in Connecticut, the gun control effort has been a total failure as Americans engage in mass civil disobedience against curbs on the Second Amendment.
Owners of assault-style weapons had until Tuesday to register their weapons under the new law, but firearms advocates say they expect less than 10 per cent have complied, while, “The state refuses to say how many were registered, claiming it is confidential information protected by the law,” reports the Buffalo News.
Meanwhile, Erie County Sheriff Timothy B. Howard said he would not ask his deputies to enforce the new law, stating, “I don’t know. I am not encouraging them to do it. At the same time, their own consciences should be their guide. I am not forcing my conscience on them. That is a decision they should make.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Meet the Inventors of a 3-D Printer for Hyper-Complicated Candy
People are buzzing about 3-D printing, but 3D System’s ChefJet is the only machine of its kind that can cause a literal sugar high: It can produce candies, cake toppers, and thoroughly modern confections in millions of colors. The only limitation is its build chamber, which can hold the equivalent of 4,200 sugar cubes or 105,000 calories.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Missouri Senate Panel Approves Nullification of Federal Gun Laws
By a 5-2 party-line vote yesterday, a Missouri senate committee passed House Bill 1439 (HB1439), the 2nd Amendment Preservation Act. This is an “emergency” bill that seeks to nullify virtually every federal gun control measure on the books, “whether past, present or future.” Introduced by Rep. Doug Funderburk (R-St. Charles), it previously passed the state house by a vote of 110-36.
“The foundational language of this bill comes right from Thomas Jefferson,” said Tenth Amendment Center communications director Mike Maharrey. “And when it comes to the 2nd Amendment, it’s hard to be in better company than Jefferson himself.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
News Items You May Have Missed
Due to my schedule, the items below will remain posted until around May 8th. It is a lot of information, but if you read one item a day and work your way through the couple of books, you will be able to share the information — the raw truth — with people you know. The upcoming primaries are critical at the state level because the destruction by both parties in the Outlaw Congress has to be stopped at home.
Believe me when I tell you the Republicans have sold us down the road to one world government just like the Democratic/Communist Party USA. The Republicans held power of both houses of Congress for almost 14 years; 8 under Bush. They didn’t abolish one unconstitutional cabinet, agency, foreign aid or get rid of the millions of regulations choking the life blood out of Americans businesses, ranchers, loggers, you name it. “Smaller government” my foot.
While this column is from 2011, it should be read far and wide. Unfortunately, there are no constitutional militia in any state in the Union. The Cliven Bundy situation out in Nevada should make it crystal clear why getting the constitutional militia reconstituted by the state legislatures is imperative because if anyone thinks the federal dragoons are just going to go away and leave the Bundy family alone, ain’t going to happen.
1) New Mexico Sheriffs Standing Tall:
2) True v False Militia — Why the difference matters:
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
No One to Hear Mosque Cemetery Suit Yet: Circuit Court Judges Recuse Themselves From Taking Case
MURFREESBORO — All of Rutherford County’s Circuit Court judges eligible to hear the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro cemetery lawsuit have recently recused themselves, according to court records.
The case still awaits appointment of a judge to hear the lawsuit before it can return to court after Chancellor Robert Corlew III decided to recuse himself at the request of ICM attorney John Green of Murfreesboro during a March 24 hearing at the Rutherford County Judicial Building on the city’s Public Square…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
NYPD Disbands Muslim Surveillance Program: Dangerous for New Yorkers?
Tuesday, a news conference held by New York Police Commissioner William Bratton announced the dismantling of the NYPD Muslim community surveillance program; The Demographic Unit, renamed the Zone Assessment Unit. Department spokesperson Stephen Davis remarked:
Understanding certain local demographics can be a useful factor when assessing the threat information that comes into New York City virtually on a daily basis. In the future, we will gather that information, if necessary, through direct contact between the police precincts and the representatives of the communities they serve.
Democrat Mayor of New York, William Di Blasio called the move:
a critical step forward in easing tensions between the police and the communities they serve, so that our cops and our citizens can help one another go after the real bad guys.
CAIR New York Board Chairman, Ray Mahoney said:
CAIR-NY welcomes the closing of the NYPD Zone Assessment Unit. This is an important first step. However, the damage of unconstitutional mass spying on people solely on the basis of their religion has already been carried out and must be addressed. We need to hear from the mayor and NYPD officials that the policy itself has been ended and that the department will no longer apply mass surveillance or other forms of biased and predatory policing to any faith-based community.
Linda Sarsour of the Arab American Association of New York said:…
| — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon | [Return to headlines] |
NYPD Commissioner Disbands Unit Responsible for Spying on Muslim Communities
The end has come for the secretive NYPD unit that spied on innocent Muslims, outraging the religious community and civil libertarians, who argued the surveillance violated the Constitution.
The NYPD has disbanded the former Demographics Unit, which had been a main cog of the aggressive anti-terror strategy put in place by former NYPD Commissioner Raymond Kelly, city officials said Tuesday.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Obama Says 8 Million Have Signed Up for Health Insurance; 35% Under 35
President Obama on Thursday announced that eight million people have signed up for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act and that 35 percent are under the age of 35, countering the criticism that it would attract mainly older and sicker people.
Mr. Obama also said that millions of the enrollees had purchased private insurance for the first time, strengthening the administration’s case that the new health law was expanding coverage, not simply moving people from one insurance plan to another.
“This thing is working,” Mr. Obama said during his remarks, delivered in the White House briefing room.
| [Return to headlines] |
Obama Sets New Record for Regulations
Anyone wondering why the U.S. economy can’t seem to grow at its usual pace should examine one product category where production is booming: federal regulation.
Washington set a new record in 2013 by issuing final rules consuming 26,417 pages in the Federal Register. While plenty of government employees deserve credit for this milestone, leadership matters. And by this measure President Obama has never been surpassed in the Oval Office.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Portland Will Flush 38 Million Gallons of Water After Man Urinates in Mt. Tabor Reservoir
Portland administrators will flush 38 million gallons of water from Mt. Tabor Reservoir 5 after a 19-year-old man urinated in the city’s drinking supply.
“Even though there is very minimal public health risk, the bottom line is that our commitment is to serve water that’s clean, cold and constant,” said Water Bureau administrator David Shaff. “That doesn’t include pee. Not from people, at least.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Smallest Life-Friendly Exoplanet May be Lit by Auroras
Standing on the shore at dusk, you see four planets and an orange sun near the horizon. At night, dazzling ribbons of auroras snake across the sky. You are on Kepler-186f, the smallest known exoplanet thought capable of supporting life.
“Of all the planets we’ve seen, this is the one that reminds us most of home,” says Thomas Barclay at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California. Barclay and his colleagues spotted the planet in data from NASA’s Kepler space telescope. Only 10 per cent larger than Earth, it is the smallest world outside our solar system that is known to orbit in the habitable zone, the region around a star where liquid water can exist.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Taylor Wilson never just got interested in things. “He got obsessed,” says his father, Kenneth.
When Wilson was 11 he tried to build an atom smasher. At 14 he achieved nuclear fusion. Now 19, he is working with subatomic particles.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Tenth Grader Suspended Over Yellow Water Pistol
A student in Maine has been suspended for ten days after he brought a bright yellow water gun to school, in yet another case of zero tolerance insanity.
The unidentified boy was handed the punishment by officials at the Lewiston High School after the toy (pictured) fell out of his back pack in class this week.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Texas Department of Public Safety aka State Police have a website designed to report suspicious activities or suspected terrorism:…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Aspartame End Game… and What’s Next
For the last 17 years, I’ve warned that artificial sweeteners can wreck your health. Aspartame is among the worst of the bunch, and in general, people who consume aspartame tend to be in poorer health. They also tend to develop more of a sweet tooth.
I found the evidence against artificial sweeteners to be so compelling, and the hazards so disconcerting, I wrote an entire book on the subject called Sweet Deception, published in 2006. Now, years later, the research I presented in that book has been confirmed many times over, and the tide is finally beginning to turn against this toxic food additive.
Soda consumption is now in “freefall,” having dropped to its lowest point since 1995, according to Time Magazine,1 with diet sodas taking the greatest hit…
Despite being promoted for weight loss, foods and beverages with artificial sweeteners have never actually been proven to help weight loss. On the contrary, studies that look at this actually find artificial sweeteners promote weight gain. Part of the reason why artificial sweeteners don’t work as advertised (such as help you lose weight and manage your insulin) relates to the fact that your body is not fooled by sweet taste without accompanying calories.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
War on the West: Why More Bundy Standoffs Are Coming
The federal government’s over-the-top police action against the Bundy family ranch is an ominous portent of more to come, as rogue agencies and their corporate/NGO partners attempt to “cleanse” the West of ranchers, farmers, miners, loggers, and other determined property owners.
On Saturday, April 12, the federal bureaucrats backed down. Faced with hundreds of men and women on horseback and on foot who were armed with firearms and video cameras — as well as local television broadcast stations and independent media streaming live video and radio feeds across America — the Obama administration called off the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) operation to confiscate hundreds of cattle belonging to Cliven Bundy, the current patriarch of a respected pioneer family that has been ranching in Nevada’s Clark County since the 1800s.
Supporters from all across the United States had converged on the Bunkerville, Nevada, area in support of Bundy, who is the “last rancher standing” in Clark County, due to a decades-long campaign by federal agencies and allied enviro-activists to drive all ranchers off of the range. After a tense standoff, orders came down from above for the surrounded and outnumbered federal agents to “stand down” and turn loose the Bundy cattle that had been corralled.
[Comment: Good article. Read it all. Keep in mind a communist goal: Herd everyone into densely packed cities complete with panopticon surveillance and rewilding the former countryside. Then you’ll need internal passport to travel from one district to another — just like the Soviets.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Why Air Pollution is a Racial Issue
A study produced by the University of Minnesota concluded that race is a determining factor in who is most affected by air pollution. Specifically, non-white people breathe air that is substantially more polluted than the air that white people breathe.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Belgium: Between Two and Three Thefts From Churches Every Day
There are on average between two and three thefts from churches in Belgium every day. The figures come from the Interior Minister Joëlle Milquet (Francophone Christian democrat) in response to a written question tabled by the Flemish liberal Senator Guido De Padt. Vandalism is also an issue in the country’s churches with on average one incident of vandalism being reported every day.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Community Centres Shun Sweden Democrats
The group that runs many of Sweden’s community centres says its members should not rent rooms to the Sweden Democrat Party, due to its xenophobia.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
EU “Rights” Override of State Sovereignty Becoming Reality
by Diana West
There is nothing theoretical about the European Union’s plans to eradicate the nation-states of Europe as sovereign states. These plans are becoming “reality,” as the London Telegraph story below explains, and despite all assurances provided by any so-called “opt-out” clause. Meanhile, the emerging shape of federal Europe also shows Western concerns over Russian violations of Ukrainian “sovereignty” to be camouflage for something else. The last thing the EU empire wants to do is safeguard any state’s “sovereignty,” thus preserving its independence of Brussels.
This is not to put a gloss on Putin’s opportunism, however, or to recast his motives. It should, on the other hand, bring Brussels’ motives in Ukraine under more informed scrutiny…
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
EU Bill of Rights Becoming a Reality, Says European Commission
Justice Secretary Chris Grayling says he will go to court to halt spread of EU charter that would override British laws
An EU Bill of Rights that overrides British laws is becoming a “reality”, the vice-president of the European Commission has said.
Viviane Reding said that people in European member states will in future be able to “rely” on the EU charter of “fundamental rights”.
The European Commission wants to enforce the charter, which enshrines 54 basic rights in EU law, in all member states.
Senior British judges have warned that the EU charter has already taken hold in Britain by stealth and Chris Grayling, the Justice Secretary, has said he is prepared to go to court in an attempt to halt the spread of European human rights laws.
Mr Grayling reacted furiously to Mrs Reding’s comments and said they show “why we need a major re-think of our future relationship with the EU”.
Mrs Reding, a supporter of a future “United States of Europe”, hailed the increased use of the EU charter by Europe’s Court of Justice in Luxembourg as step towards a European “Bill of Rights” along the lines of America’s constitution.
She said: “I could imagine that one day citizens in the member states will be able to rely directly on the charter — without the need for a clear link to EU law. The charter should be Europe’s very own Bill of Rights.”
When he was Prime Minister, Tony Blair promised that he had secured an “opt-out” from the charter.
However, since the Lisbon Treaty entered into force in 2009, a flurry of EU court rulings relating to Britain’s implementation of European legislation have overruled national judges and called into question parliamentary sovereignty.
A European Commission report on Monday praised the EU courts for bypassing Britain’s “opt-out” of the Charter of Fundamental Rights by using it as a legal source in judgments that have primacy in British law.
Mr Grayling attacked Labour for failing to veto the EU rights charter during negotiations on the last European treaty five years ago.
“Comments like this just underline how determined some senior figures in Brussels are to create a single justice system for the whole EU,” he told the Telegraph.
“They also underline how much the Labour Party let down this country when they signed up to the charter.
“All this is why we need a major re-think of our future relationship with the EU, and to renegotiate our membership and let the British people decide in a referendum.”…
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
EU Hatches Legal Plan to Fight Invasive Species
Whether it’s the aggressive Asian hornets that have colonised France or the ravenous slugs slithering across Sweden, invasive species are a growing problem in Europe. New legislation agreed upon last week aims to step up the fight against the aliens.
Collectively, invasive species cause damage costing the European Union at least €12 billion a year. The aim of the new law is to strengthen and coordinate efforts across the EU to keep the worst culprits at bay.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The foreigner told the court he did not know that sex with a 13-year-old is a crime in Finland, according to the man, in his homeland you can get married with a 13-year-old.
| — Hat tip: KGS | [Return to headlines] |
France’s Front National Party Leader ‘Opens Arms’ To UKIP
The leader of the French far right-wing Front National (FN) party has said that she would welcome collaboration with UKIP with “open arms”. Marine Le Pen told BBC Newsnight ideas UKIP leader Nigel Farage defends were “very similar” to those of her party.
In a statement, UKIP said it was “not interested in any deal” with Ms Le Pen of her party because of “prejudice and anti-Semitism in particular” in the FN. UKIP this week appeared to align itself with a French Eurosceptic party.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Future Nokia Phones Could Send Quantum-Coded Texts
Quantum cryptography could be the star feature of your next cellphone. The first pocket-sized quantum encryption device has been created in collaboration with the Finnish phone-maker Nokia, and could let you send completely secure messages — although you will need to plug it into a quantum phone booth to do so.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Graphic photographs taken during the liberation of Denmark after five years of Nazi rule show how gangs of men rounded up and abused conspirators and women accused of sleeping with Germans.
The black and white images, taken after British paratroopers swept into the Scandinavian country in 1945, illustrate the anger and hatred the Danes felt towards the German occupiers.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Greece: Mayoral Candidates Clash Over Athens Mosque Plans
In an interview with Skai TV, Spiliotopoulos, a former education and tourism minister, slammed plans to build a Muslim place of worship at the heart of Athens saying that the capital does not need “another pole for illegal immigration.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italian Green Party Fails to Make EP Ticket
Hitch with signatures bars small group
(ANSA) — Rome, April 17 — The Italian Green Party has failed to get its ticket onto the roster for the May 25-26 European Parliament elections, parliamentary sources told ANSA Thursday.
There was a technical hitch with the required signatures for the small Green Italia-Verdi Europei party, they said.
The Italian Greens have never polled as high as their counterparts in most other European countries.
The Greens’ spokesman said they would appeal the disqualification.
The European Green Party has almost 20% of the vote in the EP, while the Italian Greens are polling at 2-3% and do not have a representative in parliament.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Tell EU ‘I Want My Money Back’ Like Thatcher — Berlusconi
‘We should say it in German’ says centre-right leader
(ANSA) — Rome, April 17 — Italy should press to reclaim some of its net contribution to the European Union like Britain’s Margaret Thatcher did in the 1980s, ex-premier and centre right leader Silvio Berlusconi said Thursday.
“You all probably remember Thatchcer’s phrase: I want my money back,” Berlusconi told candidates for next month’s European elections for his Forza Italia party.
“We should say it too. In fact, we should say it in German,” said the three-time premier.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Rome Mayor Authorizes Kids to Fine Parents Who Don’t Recycle
‘Taking the recycling culture from school into the home’
(ANSA) — Rome, April 17 — Rome is planning to turn children into recycling vigilantes within the home, Mayor Ignazio Marino said Thursday.
“Children are learning about trash recycling at school, and we want to enlist them in raising the awareness of their parents as well”, the mayor told a radio interviewer.
“We’re thinking about giving them a kind of mayor’s card, authorizing them to fine parents who neglect to separate their trash for recycling.
“We want to recycle more and more, and I thank citizens because we have reached a 40% level of trash separation for this purpose”, he added.
Rome authorities started a new citywide trash recycling program in 2012, distributing bins for paper, glass, plastic and metal, and non-recyclable trash.
Everyone is required by law to separate out their rubbish before taking it to curbside dumpsters, although often trash that should be separated is often contaminated with other materials.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: ‘Scrap EU Fiscal Treaties’ Says Berlusconi
‘My ban from politics favors the left’
(ANSA) — Rome, April 17 — Ex premier and tax-fraud convict Silvio Berlusconi said Thursday the fact that he is banned from standing in the next European Parliament elections is to the advantage of the left.
“Making my candidacy impossible puts wind in the sails of the left”, Berlusconi said while introducing his Forza Italia party MEP candidates. The media magnate also called for overhauling or scrapping the fiscal compact, an EU treaty that imposes budget discipline on EU members if their deficits become too high, and the European Stability and Growth Pact, which requires member States to maintain budget deficit-to-GDP ratios of 3% or less.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Catholic Church Disappointed Fewer Anglican Priests Defect
‘More vigour needed’ says prelate
(ANSA) — Rome, April 16 — The Roman Catholic Church needs to show more “vigour” to increase the number of Anglican priests defecting to Rome, according to the prelate in charge of a special body set up by former pope Benedict XVI to welcome clergy from the Church of England.
Monsignor Keith Newton, the former Anglican priest who heads the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham acknowledged that “more enthusiasm” is needed to increase the number of Anglican Clergy taking advantage of the special body, the Catholic weekly The Tablet quoted him saying in a homily.
“We have to be honest and say that the Ordinariate has not increased as much as we hoped it could. The project was not welcomed. We have to communicate our message more fully and with more vigour and enthusiasm,” he said. The group currently counts 85 former Anglican priests and some 1,500 lay members. The Ordinariate was created in 2011 amid expectations of mass defections by conservative Anglicans opposing the Church of England’s decision to begin the ordination of women.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Pope Washes Feet of 12 Disabled, Including a Muslim
Holy Thursday ritual took place at Catholic charity
(ANSA) — Rome, April 17 — Pope Francis washed and kissed the feet of 12 disabled youngsters and elderly people, including a young Libyan Muslim, in the traditional Holy Thursday Mass at a top Catholic clinic in Rome.
This year’s Holy Thursday liturgy, which recalls Jesus washing the feet of his apostles at the Last Supper shortly before the Crucifixion, took place at the Fondazione Don Carlo Gnocchi in Via Casal del Marmo in the Italian capital.
The Fondazione is one of Italy’s best-known bodies for the care of the elderly, including the terminally ill, and disabled children.
The 12 disabled people ranged from 16 to 86 years of age, and included three foreigners.
Before Mass began, the pope stopped to greet dozens of wheelchair-bound people sitting in the front rows, as well as their relatives, caregivers, and volunteers.
Francis, who has gained popularity by his humble, homey style, plain living, concern for those left behind by capitalism and his plans to reform a scandal-hit Church, made headlines at last year’s pre-Easter ritual by washing the feet of juvenile offenders, including female Muslims.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Health-Care Spending Could be Cut by 2.4 Billion Euros
Draft of govt document sets out cuts to fund new priorities
(See related) (ANSA) — Rome, April 17 — Cuts to health-care spending of up to 2.4 billion euros over two years were on the table Thursday as part of a broader plan to slash 10 billion euros in income taxes, according to a draft document.
The paper included plans to fund Premier Matteo Renzi’s ambitious spending and tax reduction programs via a cut of 868 million euros this year and 1.5 billion euros in 2015 from health-care budgets, as well as a reduction to salaries of public managers, judges, professors and military officials.
The plan, including the income-tax reduction, was expected to be presented Friday for approval via a decree at a cabinet meeting.
Renzi has previously said he would not cut from the overall health budget, but might instead shift resources depending on new priorities within the department. Health Minister Beatrice Lorenzin has said her ministry will contribute to a government savings review by promoting better planning and efficiency, rather than across-the-board cuts.
A report on Wednesday suggested that corruption, inefficiency and waste in Italy’s health sector cost the State 23.6 billion euros a year, The Institute for the Promotion of Ethics in Health (IPSE) said that of Italy’s total health spending of around 114 billion euros in 2013, an estimated 6.4 billion euros went up in smoke because of graft alone. Other departments targeted by the formal spending-review process have included the Defence department, where officials have said that as much as three billion euros could be saved by reducing spending on the Lockheed Martin F-35 fighter jets’ budget.
As many as 385 military barracks could be sold to cut costs.
Renzi has also said that most public managers should not earn more than Italian President Giorgio Napolitano, whose salary is 238,000 euros annually.
Renzi’s economic blueprint, formally called the Economic and Financial Document (DEF), cleared the Senate earlier Thursday and was expected to win approval as well in the Lower House.
The DEF needs to be approved by parliament quickly so it can be delivered to the EC before the end of the month.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Archaeologists’ Findings May Prove Rome a Century Older Than Thought
It is already known as the eternal city, and if new archaeological findings prove correct Rome may turn out to be even more ancient than believed until now.
Next week, the city will celebrate its official, 2,767th birthday. According to a tradition going back to classic times, the brothers Romulus and Remus founded the city on 21 April in the year 753BC.
But on Sunday it was reported that evidence of infrastructure building had been found, dating from more than 100 years earlier.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: New Finds Make Roman Port ‘Bigger Than Pompeii’
A “secret” part of the ancient Roman port of Ostia Antica has been discovered, according to British archaeologists who unearthed it, making it bigger than Pompeii.
The team has discovered a building twice the size of a football field, a boundary wall and large defensive towers under fields near Rome airport — making the area 35 per cent larger than previously thought.
Often overlooked by visitors heading for Pompeii, Ostia is the second best-preserved ancient Roman town, with streets, houses and an amphitheatre on the banks of the Tiber River.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Norway: ‘They Loved Nature: That’s Why They Were There’
Henning Nilsen, 37, from Trondheim, has told Adressa.no of his grief at losing two of his best friends in the avalanche in the Sunndalsfjella mountains on Monday.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Pöttering: ‘There’s No Finish Line for Europe’
Hans-Gert Pöttering is the longest active member of the European Parliament. His first direct election took place in 1979. With that career coming to a close in July, Pöttering tells DW how things have changed.
Hans-Gert Pöttering: Politically speaking, I’d have to say, there’s no finish line for Europe, but we have certainly achieved a lot.
Acceptance of the EU by our citizens is not on par with the EU’s significance. We have to keep working on that.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
PVV Leads in the Polls for the European Elections
A TNS NIPO poll published today predicts that the PVV, the Party for Freedom of Geert Wilders, will become the biggest party in the European elections in the Netherlands.
According to the poll the PVV is going to win the European elections on 22 May with 18.1% of the votes, followed by the Liberal VVD of Prime Minister Mark Rutte with 16..2% and the liberal-democrat D66 party with 15.7%.
The losers of the European elections would be the Christian-Democrats and Labour.
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Swedish MP Ordered Chemtrail Probe
A Swedish MP who launched an official government investigation into the existence of chemtrails tells The Local why he thinks Swedes deserve the truth, even if it may leave some conspiracy theorists unsatisfied.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: 250 Year Old Wallpaper Uncovered at Woburn Abbey
Some of the earliest wallpaper used in Britain has been uncovered for the first time in nearly 250 years.
The rare 18th century Chinese paper was used to decorate the private bed chamber of the fourth Duke of Bedford at Woburn Abbey in Bedford, Beds. He imported the luxury wallcovering from China but after his death in 1771 it was papered over and forgotten until the recent discovery of an invoice dated 1751.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Anti-Muslim Suspicion in Britain Has a Whiff of McCarthyism About it
by Salma Yaqoob
Allegations of an Islamic takeover plot in Birmingham schools aren’t justified by the evidence — and the government response is way out of proportion
Allegations that 25 schools in Birmingham are at risk of an “Islamic takeover plot” reached new levels of hysteria recently. An announcement was made that a counter-terrorism expert has been drafted in to conduct yet another investigation. The minister responsible, Michael Gove, has managed at a stroke to increase fear and suspicion between Muslim and non-Muslim in the city. The fact that the chief constable of West Midlands police, Chris Sims, has denounced the decision as “desperately unfortunate”, itself an extraordinary move, gives an indication of the scale of the concern…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Infants ‘Unable to Use Toy Building Blocks’ Due to iPad Addiction
Rising numbers of infants lack the motor skills needed to play with building blocks because of an “addiction” to tablet computers and smartphones, according to teachers.
Many children aged just three or four can “swipe a screen” but have little or no dexterity in their fingers after spending hours glued to iPads, it was claimed.
Members of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers also warned how some older children were unable to complete traditional pen and paper exams because their memory had been eroded by overexposure to screen-based technology.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: London’s Culture War: Inside the Conflict Between Far-Right EDL and Pro-Islamic Radicals
A notorious British protest movement called The English Defense League has declared war on radical Islam, a battle they are taking to the streets in rowdy, often violent protests.
Their founder, Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, goes by the alias, “Tommy Robinson.” He claims that his group is not anti-Muslim, but several of his followers have been connected to hate attacks like mosque bombings.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: One Thousand Worshippers Gather for Mosque Opening
ONE THOUSAND people turned out for the grand opening of a mosque in Southend yesterday. The Essex Jamme Masjid Mosque, in Chelmsford Avenue, was formally opened by Southend mayor Brian Kelly.
A host of other dignitaries were in attendance. Southend MPs David Amess and James Duddridge were both guests, along with former MP Teddy Taylor, who gave a speech…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: University of East London Cancels Segregated Islamic Society Event
An Muslim student event at a Beckton university that would have segregated seating by gender has been cancelled by the university after equality activists intervened.
The dinner event, organised for tonight by the University of East London’s Islamic society, advertised it as a “segregated event”, and had separate booking phone numbers for “brothers” and “sisters”. But UEL pulled the event after human rights activist Peter Tatchell lobbied Vice-Chancellor John Joughin, warning the seating arrangement would breach equality law…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Video of British Muslims Dancing to Pharrell Williams’s Hit Happy Attacked as ‘Sinful’
They are male and female, young and old, black, white and Asian, with hijab and without, but they are all Muslims. And they are all happy. That’s the message of a new video which shows dozens of British Muslims dancing their hearts out, laughing, singing and smiling along to Pharrell Williams’ hit single “Happy”…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Worshippers From a Mosque and a Church in the Same Street Forge a Women’s Group
AT one end of the street is one of London’s most high profile mosques. At the other end is one of the area’s oldest Christian churches. After sharing the same street since the North London Central Mosque in Finsbury Park opened in 1994 links between the two centres of worship are being forged by a unique women’s group.
Worshippers from the mosque and St Thomas the Apostle Church, built in 1899, known as The Sisters, have been meeting for just over a year…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Woman ‘Terrified’ After Central London Belt Buckle Attack Leaves Her Blind in One Eye
A woman has described how she was left “terrified” after she was blinded in one eye by a man who whipped her in the face with a belt in central London.
The 22-year-old victim, who police said does not want to be named, said her life had “changed forever” following the violent attack in New Oxford Street in the early hours of Sunday, September 1 last year.
She was travelling home with three friends after a night out when the group were set upon by four men from a group of five at about 3.45am at the junction with Bainbridge Street. One man took off his belt and wrapped it around his fist before he swung it at the victim…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: We Might Move, Say Parents Who Missed Out in Scramble for Primary Places
Devastated parents whose children missed out in the scramble for school places today told how they are considering leaving London. New figures reveal that more than 5,000 families in the capital have been left without a school place or with one that was not on their list.
The number of four year olds needing places in London schools soared past 100,000 for the first time ever this year, but nearly one in five missed out on a place at their first choice school. It raised fears that a shortage of primary school places would trigger an educational exodus of families from the city…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Bosnia and Herzegovina: Turkish Agency Donates Funds to Rebuild Ferhadija Mosque
Uncertainty about the rebuilding of the Ferhadija Mosque in Banja Luka has ended, as the Turkish International Co-operation and Development Agency (TIKA) donated the money needed to complete the years-long project.
TIKA will finance all necessary reconstruction in order to restore the mosque, which was erased from the city landscape in May 1993. Ferhadija, which had stood since 1579, was one of 16 mosques in Banja Luka that were destroyed during the 1992-1995 conflict…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Centipede Bursts From Snake’s Stomach
A group of researchers stumbled upon a grisly scene during a field study in Macedonia last year: a dead nose-horned viper with a centipede’s head sticking out of its ruptured abdomen. After a post-mortem, the scientists think it’s possible that the centipede quite literally eviscerated the snake from the inside out.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
EU-Funded Migration Management Programme Holds Its Interstate Meeting in Cairo
A regional inter-state meeting was held in Cairo last week in order to advance cooperation among Egypt, Tunisia and Libya in addressing the challenges and opportunities of migration governance. The meeting was held by the International Organization for Migration within the scope of its ongoing EU-funded project on “Stabilizing at-risk communities and enhancing migration management to enable smooth transitions in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya” (START).
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: Sharm El-Sheikh Hotels Empty as Tourists Fear Violence
Violence in Egypt has prompted 15 countries to issue travel warnings since its first democratically elected president was overthrown in a military coup last July.
This week, the fallout became clear — according to the tourism ministry, revenue dropped by almost half in the first quarter of 2014, compared with the same period last year.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Rate of Christian Girls Abducted and Attacked by Extremists on the Rise in Egypt
Young Christian women are facing a greater risk of being kidnapped by extremists, tortured, and even forced to convert to Islam since the Arab Spring ended in 2011.
This year already has seen a spike in the incidents, according to a report by the non-profit advocacy group International Christian Concern. It has been estimated by the ICC and other watchdog groups in the region that there have been 500 reported cases of young women being attacked by Muslim men since 2011, but unreported cases could send the figure much higher.
The girls are often assaulted, raped, kidnapped, forced to change their faith and sometimes killed, the ICC said.Making matter worse, nothing is being done by local authorities to prevent it in provinces across Egypt, according to officials from both the ICC and the Clarion Project, a US-based non-profit think tank and advocacy group.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
15 Killed in Insurgent Attacks in Northern Iraq
MOSUL, Iraq, April 17 (Xinhua) — Fifteen people were killed overnight Thursday in separate attacks by insurgents in Iraq’s northern province of Nineveh, security sources said.
The deadliest attack occurred late Wednesday when dozens of gunmen attacked an army base in al-Mahallabiyah area in west of the provincial capital city of Mosul, some 400 km north of Baghdad, an army source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.
The attackers came riding more than 20 vehicles and fought a fierce clash with the soldiers for three hours, the source said. The battle caused 13 killed including five soldiers and five others wounded, the source added…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
The exit of Saudi’s spy chief was the result of US pressure over his stance on Syria but does not signal a shift in Riyadh’s goal of toppling the Damascus regime, experts say.
Riyadh, as is usual, did not elaborate on its statement this week that Prince Bandar bin Sultan was being replaced, saying only that the veteran diplomat had asked to step down.
But a Saudi expert said that Washington — irritated for some time by Prince Bandar’s handling of the Syria dossier — had in December demanded his removal.
[Comment: Basically sacked for failure to install a Muslim Brotherhood government in Syria.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Gulf Arab States Strike Deal With Qatar in Saudi Arabia to Heal Rifts After Ambassadors Row
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — A statement by the Gulf Cooperation Council says the bloc has agreed on the mechanisms to implement a security pact, marking a possible first step toward bridging deep rifts among its six energy-rich Arab states.
The visit marked his first trip to Saudi Arabia since the kingdom, along with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, withdrew their ambassadors from Qatar in an unprecedented public protest spurned by Doha’s support for the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood group in the region.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Iran Murder Victim’s Mother Forgives Killer, Stops Hanging
A convicted killer due to be hanged for murder has been spared after the victim’s mother had a last-minute change of heart. The 18-year-old victim’s parents were expected to kick away the chair supporting the condemned man, named as Balal, at the public execution and send him to his death.
But once he was blindfolded and the noose put around his neck, she instead slapped his face and said she forgave him.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: Erdogan’s Theological Justification for His Dictatorial Stance
by Timon Dias
“Both materially, and in essence, sovereignty unconditionally and always belongs to Allah.” — Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Prime Minister, Turkey.
What is surprising is that so many Western politicians, including EU-minded ones, apparently still ignore what the consequences could be of such an ideology. Do they really assume it could never happen to them?
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
CIA Working on Proxy War Against Russia in Ukraine
The primary reason CIA boss John Brennan went to Kyiv on Sunday was not to talk about intelligence sharing as the establishment media has reported. This was the paper thin cover story floated by Rep. Mike Rogers, the out-going chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. It is propaganda.
Brennan went to Ukraine to work on logistics for the next phase of the crisis — a proxy war against Russia similar to the successful one in Afghanistan that defeated the Soviet Union.
THe CIA, of course, denies this, and also denies it made the trip to spur the coup onward and upward to victory, a dim prospect at best due to the fact so many Ukrainians are less than thrilled about being ruled by ultra-nationalists and Right Sector brownshirts. Even Ukrainian soldiers are less not pumped up about attacking their fellow countrymen: they have surrendered to unarmed activists in Donetsk and Sloviansk.
“The claim that Director Brennan encouraged Ukrainian authorities to conduct tactical operations inside Ukraine is completely false. Like other senior U.S. officials, Director Brennan strongly believes that a diplomatic solution is the only way to resolve the crisis between Russia and Ukraine,” said a CIA spokesperson in a statement.
The Pentagon has officially announced it will provide the regime with “non-lethal aid.” The Obama administration is playing the same game in Syria while behind the scenes encouraging Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar to send in boatloads of cash, arms, and, most importantly, fanatical al-Qaeda and al-Nusra mercenaries willing to slaughter unarmed civilians and even Christian priests…
Leaflets ordering Jews to register in Donetsk are more than likely part of a CIA operation or one launched by the real anti-Semites in Kyiv (who are primarily members of Svoboda and Right Sector). This is an obvious disinformation campaign designed to dovetail with Kerry’s handshaking photo op with Lavrov in Geneva.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Diplomatic Pact Commits Russia and Ukraine to Ease Tensions
Leaders of a high-level diplomatic effort to defuse the spiraling tensions over Ukraine reached an agreement on Thursday over ways to start de-escalating the crisis.
The agreement, which grants amnesty to members of armed groups who agree to leave the public buildings they have ben occupying, was reached by Secretary of State John Kerry and his counterparts from Russia, Ukraine and the European Union after more than five hours of talks here.
“The Geneva meeting on the situation in Ukraine agreed on initial concrete steps to de-escalate tensions and restore security for all citizens,” they said in a joint statement.
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Establishment Begins Mass Marketing Campaign for World War III
Corpse of Cold War propaganda enthusiastically resurrected by mainstream media
The establishment has begun a new mass marketing campaign for World War III, equating Vladimir Putin with Adolf Hitler.
The fact that the current crisis in Ukraine was instigated by a US-backed coup which toppled a democratically elected government has been conveniently forgotten.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Initial Agreement Reached to De-Escalate Ukraine Crisis
GENEVA — Top diplomats from the United States, European Union, Russia and Ukraine reached agreement after marathon talks Thursday on immediate steps to ease the crisis in Ukraine.
The tentative agreement puts on hold — for now at least — additional economic sanctions the West had prepared to impose on Russia if the talks were fruitless. And that will ease international pressure both on Moscow and nervous European Union nations that depend on Russia for their energy.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry called the deal the result of a “good day’s work” but emphasized that the words on paper must be followed by concrete actions.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Jews Ordered to Register in East Ukraine
The leaflet begins, “Dear Ukraine citizens of Jewish nationality,” and states that all people of Jewish descent over 16 years old must report to the Commissioner for Nationalities in the Donetsk Regional Administration building and “register.”
It says the reason is because the leaders of the Jewish community of Ukraine supported Bandery Junta, a reference to Stepan Bandera, the leader of the Ukrainian nationalist movement that fought for Ukrainian independence at the end of World War II, “and oppose the pro-Slavic People’s Republic of Donetsk,” a name adopted by the militant leadership.
| — Hat tip: Takuan Seiyo | [Return to headlines] |
Latvian MEP: ‘Putin’s Politics Are Imperialistic’
Former Latvian Economics Minister Krisjanis Karins approves of the move to increase NATO troops on the military alliance’s eastern border. Baltic countries need to know they can rely on NATO, he tells Deutschlandfunk.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Obama Approves ‘Non-Lethal’ Military Aid to Ukraine
Helmets, cots, medicine en route to Kiev
(see related) (ANSA) — Washington, April 17 — United States President Barack Obama on Thursday approved sending “non-lethal” military aid to Ukraine.
The aid consists of helmets, cots, water-purification systems, tents and medicine for the Ukrainian army.
Talks have opened in Geneva between Russia, Ukraine, the EU and US, the first since Moscow annexed Crimea.
Meanwhile on Wednesday three pro-Russian protesters were reportedly killed in a clash in the eastern Ukraine city of Mariupol.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Putin Says Italy Will Help Improve Europe-Russia Relations
President confident in Italian role in rotating presidency of EU
(ANSA) — Moscow, April 17 — Italy’s turn in the rotating presidency of the European Union in the second half of 2014 will provide a boost to relations between the EU and Russia, President Vladimir Putin said Thursday.
During a Russian call-in program, Putin expressed optimism about the role Italy will play as leader of the EU between July and December.
Russia has been hit with sanctions from the EU and its allies including the United States over Moscow’s role in the crisis in Ukraine.
However, many European countries have been cautious about alienating Russia, which is a crucial energy provider for the continent.
Russia and Italy have had a special relationship due to the personal connection between Putin and three-time former Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi.
In fact, in March Berlusconi spoke up for Putin after Group of Seven (G7) world leaders, who had expanded the group to include Russia and become the G8 in 1998, decided to suspend Moscow from the G8 over its rapid annexation of Crimea after the region voted to separate from Ukraine.
Berlusconi called that decision by the G7 “counterproductive” and “reckless”.
Berlusconi struck up a friendship with Putin more than a decade ago, and Putin invited Berlusconi to his 60th birthday party in St. Petersburg in 2012.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Ukraine Army Column in East Disarms Before Pro-Russians
The soldiers in the town of Kramatorsk handed over the firing mechanisms of their rifles to a pro-Moscow protest leader.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Ukraine Crisis: Deal to ‘De-Escalate’ Agreed in Geneva
Russia, Ukraine, the US and the European Union have said that all sides have agreed to steps to “de-escalate” the crisis in eastern Ukraine. Their foreign ministers were speaking at the end of talks between Russia, Ukraine, the EU and US in the Swiss city of Geneva.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Bangladesh: Tribal Catholic Gang Raped: Christians and Muslims Demand Justice
The rapists were four Muslim youths. The victim , 21, survived and reported her rapists , “I want them to go on trial”. Student activist denounces : “When it comes to tribal women police do not want to deal with the case .”
Dhaka (AsiaNews) — More than 100 Christians and Muslims demonstrated yesterday in Dhaka against the gang rape suffered by a young Catholic woman. The violence took place on April 14 in Mohammadour , a district of the capital, during the celebration of the Bengali New Year. She was attacked by four Muslim boys . The victim, a 21-year old ethnic Garo , survived and reported them.
The young woman called Mary Thigidi Purnima and is native of the parish of Mariamnagar , in the diocese of Mymensingh . She works in Dhaka as a beautician in the “Person” beauty center.
On the day of the attack the victim was going to celebrate with a cousin when four Muslim boys accosted her, dragged her away and raped her. After the violence Purnima was able to call her brother in law, who was looking for her . After finding her, the girl filed a complaint against her attackers and one of them — Alif Ahmed — has already been arrested . The police is on the trail of the others.
The girl and her family do not feel protected: the relatives of the rapists continue to threaten them, warning them to drop the charges. But Purnima explains: “Many girls do not report rapes out of fear, but that’s why so many perpetrators remain free. Instead I want them to be brought before the courts”.
Among those present at yesterday’s event were many Christian students, and even some Muslims. The protest was organized by the Bangladesh Garo Chatra Sangathan (BGCS), a Garo tribal student organization. The President Sabuj Nokrek told AsiaNews : “ If the tribal women are raped , the police do not want to deal with the case. The don’t investigate properly or provide security to the families of the victims. This worries us”.
According to data released during the protest , since the beginning of 2014 at least nine tribal women have suffered sexual violence , and two of them were killed after the attack . In 2013, a total of 67 tribal women and girls were raped .
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Cheating Pervades India’s Education System
India’s schools are renowned for producing hordes of talented math and science graduates, tens of thousands of whom go on to excel at universities in the United States and worldwide. But an emphasis on rote learning and the overriding importance of the exams have also spawned an inveterate tradition of cheating.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Malaysia: ‘Huge’ Hindu, Buddhist Statues Against Islam, Ex-Judge Says
KUALA LUMPUR, April 16 — The “huge” statues at a Hindu temple in Batu Caves and Buddhist temple in Penang are an affront to Islam as the religion forbids idolatry, a retired Court of Appeals judge said.
Datuk Mohd Noor Abdullah stressed that such sculptures of non-Muslim deities should not be built in the open, but should be placed within an enclosed building instead.
“With such a huge statue, you’re showing that your religion is all mighty and powerful,” Mohd Noor told The Malay Mail Online and Bernama in an joint interview yesterday, referring to the 42.7-metre high statue of Lord Murugan, the Hindu warrior god, at Batu Caves in Selangor.
Pointing to the Federal Constitution which states that Islam is the religion of the federation, the former judge insisted Islam is above other faiths.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Report: Thailand Thwarts Hezbollah Plot to Attack Israeli Tourists
Thai authorities thwarted a plan by Hezbollah agents to attack Israeli tourists during this Passover season, a Thailand-based newspaper is reporting on Thursday.
According to the Bangkok Post, investigators in Thailand managed to extract a confession from one of two suspected terrorists held in custody for allegedly planning to strike at Israelis in the country.
Two of the men — Daoud Farhat, a French-Lebanese national, and Youssef Ayad, who is of Lebanese-Filipino extraction — were arrested for alleged ties to Hezbollah, the Bangkok Post reported.
According to the report, Thai law enforcement agencies arrested the two men while acting on intelligence passed to them by Israel.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Taliban Kill 4 Afghan Policemen South of Kabul
KABUL, Afghanistan — Taliban militants stopped a car carrying several Afghan police officers on the road to Kabul and killed at least four of them, authorities said Thursday.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack that took place Wednesday in Wardak province south of the capital, although there were conflicting reports about the number of policemen — if any — who managed to escape…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
16% of China’s Soil is Polluted
BEIJING (Reuters) — A nationwide investigation has shown that as much as 16 percent of China’s soil contains higher-than-permitted levels of pollution, the environment ministry said on Thursday.
China is desperate to tackle the impact of rapid industrialization and urbanization on its food supplies, with the aim of maintaining self-sufficiency and reducing its dependence on grain imports amid soaring demand.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
by Gordon G. Chang
The second thing we get wrong about China is that it is safe to ignore periodic Chinese threats to incinerate our cities and wage war on us. They employ salami-slicing tactics, as with Scarborough Shoal… so that they do not invite retaliation.
If we cannot say these things clearly and publicly, the Chinese will think we are afraid of them. If they think we are afraid of them, they will act accordingly.
Chinese leaders do not distrust us because they have insufficient contact with us. They distrust us because they see themselves as protectors of an ideology threatened by free societies.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Doomed Teens Texted Parents From Sinking Korean Ferry
With water quickly flooding the decks and a mammoth South Korean ferry about to sink, desperate students took to their smartphones Wednesday to text their last goodbyes. “Mom, I want to say this before it’s too late,” one student wrote. “I love you.”
That student is among the 290 reported still missing.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Evacuation Came Too Late for Many on Sinking Ferry Off South Korea
An evacuation order was not immediately issued for the ferry that sank off the South Korean coast because officers on the bridge were trying to stabilize the vessel after it started to list amid confusion and chaos, a crew member said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Hopes Fade After South Korean Ferry Capsize as Poor Weather Hinders Search
Hopes are fading for 290 missing occupants of an overturned South Korean ferry. Poor visibility and strong currents are hampering rescuers who have hammered on the upturned hull, hoping for signs of life.
South Korea’s death toll from its major ferry capsize rose to nine Thursday as search teams faced poor weather condition. The rapid capsize remains unexplained.
Aboard the ferry Sewol had been 475 people. Only 179 were rescued from cold waters near the holiday island Jeju, southwest of the mainland, on Wednesday. Many passengers were high school students from Ansan, a city near Seoul.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
How Japan Copied American Culture and Made it Better
If you’re looking for some of America’s best bourbon, denim and burgers, go to Japan, where designers are re-engineering our culture in loving detail.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
S Korea Ferry: Bad Weather Hampers Search for Survivors
Bad weather, murky water and strong currents are hampering the search for survivors of the South Korean ferry disaster. Emergency services say 25 people are confirmed dead and 271 missing after the ship carrying 475 passengers and crew capsized on Wednesday.
Officials say 179 people have been rescued. Most of the passengers were pupils at the same high school.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Slow-Motion Tremors Make Tokyo Megaquake More Likely
The people of Tokyo have long lived in fear of another great earthquake, and those fears are increasingly justified. Slow-motion earthquakes have become more common beneath the city in the last few years, causing tectonic stresses to build up.
Based on that increase, a study last year estimated a 17 per cent probability of a large shock under Tokyo between March 2013 and March 2018.
Four tectonic plates meet in the Tokyo area, and as a result it has suffered several quakes above magnitude 7 in the past four centuries.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Belgian Emmanuel De Merode Shot in Dr Congo Ambush
The Belgian director of Africa’s oldest national park — Virunga in the Democratic Republic of Congo — has been shot and wounded in an ambush.
Emmanuel de Merode’s vehicle came under fire as he was travelling from the eastern city of Goma to the town of Rumangabo, according to a statement issued by the park. Some of eastern DR Congo’s numerous armed groups are based in the park. More than 130 park rangers have been killed in Virunga since 1996…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
German Court Jails Somali Pirate
A German court has jailed a Somali pirate for 12 years over his role in the hijacking of a tanker in 2010. The man later tried to come to Germany as a refugee.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Fate of Abducted Nigerian Female Students Unclear
Headteacher says over 100 still missing
(ANSA) — Rome, April 17 — The fate of a group of female students abducted by the Islamist group Boko Haram in northeast Nigeria remained unclear on Thursday amid conflicting reports concerning the number of girls that had been freed.
The headteacher of their school in Borno State said over 100 of the 129 girls kidnapped on Monday evening remained unaccounted for.
Earlier Nigerian army sources cited by CNN said only eight students were still missing.
The statement by the headteacher supported earlier claims by parents — reported by the BBC — that many of the girls were still missing.
The abducted girls are thought to have been taken by the militants into forest near the border with Cameroon, the British broadcaster added.
Boko Haram is waging a violent campaign for the creation of an Islamist state in northern Nigeria, often targeting girls’ schools and Christians.
On Monday the militant group also attacked a bus stop in the capital Abuja Monday, killing 71.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Kenya: Lawyers Warned Against Crackdown Hatred
Nairobi Kenya — The National Steering Committee on Media Monitoring has revealed that it has written to four prominent lawyers warning them against hate speech over the ongoing anti-terror crackdown…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Machete-Wielding Thugs Attack Opposition Party Congress in Nigeria, Dozens Wounded
Nigerian officials say machete-wielding thugs have attacked delegates at a meeting of Nigeria’s main opposition coalition, wounding scores in the northern city of Kaduna.
Aisha Umar of the National Electoral Commission says the attackers on Thursday hacked off the arm of a man carrying a ballot box. Scores of people were hospitalized.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Nigeria: ‘Military Lied Over Chibok Abducted Girls’ — School Principal
Mrs Asabe Kwambura, the Principal of GGSS Chibok in Borno State where over 100 female students were abducted by suspected Boko Haram terrorists today said she was shocked when she heard of claims by Nigerian military authorities that only eight girls are yet to be found.
Kwambura said both teachers and parents of the missing students are still confused as to the whereabout of the abducted girls who were loaded in a truck and Hilux vehicles.
“There is nothing in the military statement that is true about our abducted girls. Up till now we are still waiting and praying for the safe return of the students; all I know is that we have only 14 of them, and the security people especially the Vigilante and the well meaning volunteers of Gwoza are still out searching for them…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Nobel Prize-Winning Author Gabriel García Márquez Dies at 87
Gabriel García Márquez, the Colombian novelist whose “One Hundred Years of Solitude” established him as a giant of 20th-century literature, died on Thursday at his home in Mexico City. He was 87.
His death was confirmed by Cristóbal Pera, his former editor at Random House.
Mr. García Márquez, who received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1982, wrote fiction rooted in a mythical Latin American landscape of his own creation, but his appeal was universal. His books were translated into dozens of languages. He was among a select roster of canonical writers — Dickens, Tolstoy and Hemingway among them — who were embraced both by critics and by a mass audience.
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Nobel Laureate Gabriel Garcia Marquez Dies at 87
Gabriel Garcia Marquez, the Nobel laureate whose novels and short stories exposed tens of millions of readers to Latin America’s passion, superstition, violence and inequality, died at home in Mexico City around midday, according to people close to his family. He was 87.
Widely considered the most popular Spanish-language writer since Miguel de Cervantes in the 17th century, Garcia Marquez achieved literary celebrity that spawned comparisons to Mark Twain and Charles Dickens.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
ACLU Attacks Conservative Americans on Behalf of Illegal Aliens
In what they claim is a ‘witch hunt,’ a public-interest, anti-government-corruption organization said on Monday that the American Civil Liberties Union filed multi-subpoenas against a number of conservative organizations and individuals for their support of Arizona’s controversial immigration law.
The subpoenas are part of the ACLU’s full-court-press against Arizona’s “Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act” (SB 1070) and to help push a left-wing “open borders” policy.
The Inside-the-Beltway, nonpartisan Judicial Watch is one of the organizations being targeted by the ACLU in its quest to curtail U.S. sovereignty. Judicial Watch’s President Tom Fitton accused the ACLU’s latest attack on Americans as being a “move of breathtaking hypocrisy.”
In Judicial Watch’s press statement, Fitton alleged that the ACLU calls itself the “nation’s guardian of liberty” while at the same time it is fighting to “chill the First Amendment [rights] to speech, association and assembly.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Duncan on Mexican Women Who Cross U.S. Border to Give Birth: ‘These Are Our Kids’
(CNSNews.com) — Education Secretary Arne Duncan visited an elementary school in Columbus, N.M. last year where 75 percent of the students live in Mexico but are being educated in the United States because their mothers crossed the border to seek medical help, and their birth here makes them U.S. citizens.
“These are our kids and they’re trying to get a great education,” Duncan said during a visit to the school, which was part of his 2013 school bus tour. “These are children and families who are trying to live the American dream of putting everything, everything on the line to get a great education. “And it’s frankly inspiring,” Duncan said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Northern League MP Ejected From House Over Immigration Row
‘You want migrants’ deaths’ says interior minister
(ANSA) — Rome, April 16 — An MP from the anti-immigrant Northern League was ejected from the House Wednesday for refusing to yield the floor during a rancorous session on undocumented immigration. Emanuele Prataviera was kicked out by House Speaker Laura Boldrini after yelling at Interior Minister Angelino Alfano, who was briefing MPs on measures to deal with thousands of incoming migrants from across the Mediterranean, including setting up emergency reception centers through local police departments. MPs from the League interrupted Alfano throughout his address. At one point the leader of the New Center Right (NCR) party responded by accusing the League of “wanting the deaths” of migrants at sea, recalling League founder Umberto Bossi’s infamous call to “open fire” on vessels with immigrants aboard. After a brief suspension, the session reopened with League MPs absent in protest.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Nigeria: Preacher, Helen Ukpabio, Faces UK Ban
Nollywood actress turned preacher, Helen Ukpabio, may be deported and banned from the United Kingdom for her sermons which have been deemed harmful to youngsters and the public, the U.K. Daily Mail has reported.
According to U.K. Daily Mail, posters advertising one of Ms. Ukpabio’s most recent talks claims to offer help to people who are under ‘witchcraft attack, ancestral spirit attack or mermaid spirit attack’ and claims to help ‘disconnect’ them.
The Witchcraft and Human Rights Information Network, WHRIN, the Bar Human Rights Committee of England and Wales and the International Humanist and Ethical Union, IHEU, have reportedly lodged a complaint to the Home Secretary, asking for the deportation of Ms. Ukpabio, under the U.K. Immigration Act 1971. The groups stated that Ms. Ukpabio’s presence in the U.K. was not conducive to the public good, the Daily Mail reported…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Obama Administration Planning Fixes to Immigration Law in Coming Weeks
House Democrats, who are stepping up the pressure on Republicans to take up comprehensive immigration reform legislation, said Tuesday the Obama administration is getting ready to take executive action on the matter very soon.
Johnson is currently reviewing the Obama administration’s deportation policies amid criticism and pressure from immigration reform advocates who say Obama has deported more illegal immigrants than any other president.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Does Traditional College Debate Reinforce White Privilege?
Minority participants aren’t just debating resolutions—they’re challenging the terms of the debate itself.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Finland’s Erotic Tom Stamps Raise Temperatures Worldwide
A recent set of postage stamps commemorating Finland’s master of gay erotica known as Tom of Finland has aroused attention worldwide. The designer of the stamps told Yle that he was drawn by the calm faces depicted in Tom’s art, but one particularly well-formed posterior also caught his eye.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Norway PM Backs Gay Church Weddings
Norway’s Prime Minister has declared her support for gay church weddings, although she argues the decision on whether to allow them is up to the Church of Norway.
“Personally, I believe that gays should be allowed to marry in church,” Erna Solberg, the leader of the country’s Conservative Party told Norway’s NRK network on Wednesday. “This is the way I, as a church member, want the church to go.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
“Jesus was a humanist!” declares a person whose opinion I do not respect.
For one thing, I’m not sure he knows what a humanist is. Do you? But we can easily find out from the humanists themselves. We need only visit the American Humanist Association website and read their prize exhibit, Humanist Manifesto II.
This extraordinary document, composed in 1973 by Paul Kurtz and Edwin H. Wilson, is by no means out of date. It’s every bit as asinine today as it was 41 years ago. It was signed by all the smartest people in the world, including dozens of Nobel Prize-winning scientists and not a few addled churchmen who wanted the scientists to think well of them.
In their own words, the humanists tell us what they’re all about:
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Artists ‘Have Structurally Different Brains’
Artists have structurally different brains compared with non-artists, a study has found. Participants’ brain scans revealed that artists had increased neural matter in areas relating to fine motor movements and visual imagery.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Found! First Earth-Size Planet That Could Support Life
For the first time, scientists have discovered an Earth-size alien planet in the habitable zone of its host star, an “Earth cousin” that just might have liquid water and the right conditions for life.
The newfound planet, called Kepler-186f, was first spotted by NASA’s Kepler space telescope and circles a dim red dwarf star about 490 light-years from Earth.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Epigenetic maps help to explain how archaic humans differed from modern ones despite having very similar DNA sequences.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Islam is the Final Expression of Adam’s Religion
A winner of the 2003 Wilbur Award for best book of the year on a religious theme, author and poet appearing on Ted Koppel’s “Nightline” documenting the Haj, Michael Wolfe describes his motivations for accepting Islam…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Longest Experiment Sees Pitch Drop After 84-Year Wait
The pitch has dropped — again. This time, the glimpse of a falling blob of tar, also called pitch, represents the first result for the world’s longest-running experiment.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Possibly Habitable Earth-Sized Planet Discovered
Exoplanets are fun and all, but those hot Jupiters and super Neptunes and such are kind of beside the point. Everyone knows the real search is for a planet like ours: rocky, smallish, and capable of hosting liquid water. And now scientists have found one, named Kepler-186f — an Earth-sized planet in its star’s habitable zone, the area where conditions aren’t too hot or too cold, but just right, for liquid water to be possible.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Re: “Is your Home’s Energy Meter Spying on You?” -This post gives paranoiacs a bad name!