Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the Dutch apostate from Islam who fled the Netherlands in fear of her life, was awarded an honorary degree by Brandeis University in Massachusetts. However, the university has now succumbed to pressure and withdrawn the offer. Muslim student groups and some faculty members complained that awarding the degree to an “Islamophobe” such as Ms. Hirsi Ali would be a violation of everything that Brandeis stands for.
In other news, more than 4,000 migrants were rescued in the Mediterranean by Italy in the last 48 hours. Interior Minister Angelino Alfano called the emergency “serious”, and demanded help from the EU.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Egghead, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, Jerry Gordon, JP, RR, 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.
16 Signs That Most Americans Are Not Prepared for the Coming Economic Collapse
Over the past several years, the U.S. economy has been relatively stable. And that is a good thing. But it has also lulled millions upon millions of people into a false sense of security and complacency. At this point, most Americans consider 2008 to be a temporary bump in the road, and most assume that the U.S. economy will always be strong.
Unfortunately, that is not the truth. As I have written about previously, the long-term trends that are destroying our economy have continued to get worse since 2008, and none of the problems that caused the last financial crisis have been fixed.
We are steamrolling toward the edge of an economic cliff, and most people in our entertainment-addicted society are totally oblivious to what is going on. So they are not doing anything to get ready for the immense economic pain that is coming. The following are 16 signs that most Americans are completely unprepared for the coming economic collapse…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Change EU Rules After Italy Reforms Says Renzi
Rome needs credibility
(ANSA) — Rome, April 9 — Italy will try to change EU austerity rules once it has gained credibility by achieving structural reforms, Premier Matteo Renzi said Wednesday. “We want to change Europe’s rules…but until we have changed the Senate, the labour market and the civil service, what credibility can we take to Europe to demand change”, he said.
Renzi is set to make sweeping reforms to make government easier, kick start the economy and fight rampant unemployment and poverty after Italy’s longest postwar recession.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
More Americans Go Hungry Than All But 2 European Nations
Since 2007, when the financial crisis touched down across the world, the proportion of people going hungry in Europe has soared, according to the OECD. As Bloomberg’s Niraj Shah notes, the number has doubled in Greece alone from 8.9% in 2007 to almost 18% currently unable to afford food. Across the European Union, the proportion of people going hungry ranges from 4.6% in Germany to over 30% in (ironically) Hungary. However, before one gloats at the weakness in Europe and the cleanest dirty shirt the US pretends to be, at 21.1% of Americans unable to afford food, only Hungary and Estonia are in worst shape… USA USA USA…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Recession-Hit Italians Struggle to Pay for Funerals
Genoa funeral home owed 500,000 euros from last year
(ANSA) — Genoa, April 9 — Citizens hard-hit in the aftermath of Italy’s longest postwar recession are having trouble paying for their funerals, Genoa’s publicly owned funeral home ASEF said Wednesday.
ASEF is still owed some 500,000 euros on turnover over 10 million euros in 2013, when 9,260 funerals were held in the northwestern city, down from 9,383 the previous year.
Of the 2013 ceremonies, 36.16% were celebrated by ASEF, the company said.
Problems began in 2007, when the economic downturn first made itself felt and some 50,000 euros’ worth of funeral services were left unpaid, according to ASEF.
“The rise in outstanding debts is a testimony to the difficulty families face,” ASEF chief Franco Rossetti told a city council commission.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
“Pretended Legislation” Must Get No Rubber Stamp
The United States of America began when moral, God-fearing men realized and acted on the realization that legislation put forth by Parliament and King George, III, was not, in fact, legal.
The Stamp Act, the Townshend Acts, the Intolerable Acts, and other measures did not meet the standard required to make them “lawful.” Because of this, the authors of our Declaration of Independence labeled these measures as “pretended legislation.”
Our colonial legislatures then interposed on behalf of our people by declaring that these measures were null, void, and constituted NO LAW; this despite the fact that other levels, or branches, of government had declared them to be valid. Now let’s fast forward to today and to what is happening in our Country, our States and our Counties.
We are well aware that the national government in Washington, D.C., and the various state governments, have declared certain measures to be valid when they are not.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
12 Shocking Facts About the Dangers of Psychiatric Drugs
by Dr. Edward Group
Every day, doctors and psychiatrists dole out behavior-modifying medicines for a variety of psychiatric disorders. The disorders range from depression and ADHD (attention deficit hyperactive disorder) to bipolar and anxiety disorders. The sordid story behind how these medications work, how they come to market, and how they interfere with the lives of users is a complicated web. However, the next 12 facts will highlight the devastating story behind psychiatric drugs and how they affect millions of people in the United States alone.
1. No Physical Test Can Prove the Existence of a “Mental Disorder” No blood, urine, or chemical imbalance exam can test for the presence of a mental disease or illness. Even x-rays or brain scans can’t show the presence of a “mental disorder.” This leads many to believe that healthy patients have a great possibility of being diagnosed with supposed “disorders” even if they are only displaying minor symptoms. Many of these symptoms include stress and difficulty concentrating — issues that can often be chalked up as a natural response to everyday stress.
2. The Psychiatric Industry is a $330 Billion Industry That’s a huge number and many forces are at work to preserve and grow it. While most physicians are not mercenary in their approach to prescribing medications, there is an argument to be made for the possibility of a conflict of interest when it comes to the rise of psychiatric prescriptions.
3. Worldwide, Over 100 Million People Take Psychiatric Drugs That seems like an astoundingly high number. What’s going on that so many among us feel the need to be medicated?
4. U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs: 23 Soldiers and Vets Commit Suicide Every Day The most shocking part of this statistic is that it exists despite the use of antidepressants. These suicides are often due to post-traumatic stress disorder coupled with the inability to cope with civilian life. So far, the solution has just been more psychiatric drugs.
5. Worldwide, 17 Million Children Take Psychiatric Drugs To say that this is a dangerous epidemic is an understatement. Regulatory agencies in Europe, Australia, and the United States have issued warnings about the potential for anti-depressants to cause suicide or hostility and rage.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
American University Withdraws Honour for Dutch Islam Critic
America’s Brandeis University in Boston has withdrawn plans to grant an honorary degree to Dutch Islam critic Ayaan Hirsi Ali following protests from Muslim students.
The university planned to honour Hirsi Ali, a former Dutch parliamentarian, for her work supporting Muslim women.
However 85 of the university’s 350 members of staff signed a letter asking for Hirsi Ali to be taken off the honorary degree list and thousands of people signed a student led petition, news agency AP says.
The university said in a statement on Tuesday evening that Hirsi Ali would no longer receive the honorary degree, which it had planned to award her at the May 18 commencement.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Baise: EPA’s Water Police: Coming to Your Farm?
The EPA has just released a new definition of “Waters of the United States.” Critics are calling this the biggest government land grab ever. Senator David Vitter, R-La., and a member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee said, “The…(proposed) rule may be one of the most significant private property grabs in U. S. history.” Senator Murkowski, R-Alaska, claimed the EPA proposal “could result in serious collateral damage to our economy.” She also said, “If EPA is not careful, this rule could effectively give the federal government control of nearly all of our state — and prove to be a showstopper for both traditional access and new development.
This quote may apply to most of the states of the Union, and not just Alaska. This EPA proposal, if promulgated, will give it zoning authority over land use.
[Note from Egghead: This is a direct implementation of Marxist Communist Agenda 21 — giving the federal government the ability to 100% control all traditional access and new development — and thus all economic activity — in all states. The end goal is to move everyone off of their land and into cities — with restricted mobility outside of cities.]
| — Hat tip: Egghead | [Return to headlines] |
Before Nevada Cattle Rancher Standoff, BLM Killed Hundreds of Endangered Desert Tortoises
The BLM says they’re moving in, not to encroach on the man’s property rights, but because Bundy didn’t pay “grazing fees,” which the Bureau has imposed on land developers “who disturb tortoise habitat on public land,” according to the Associated Press.
Throughout the housing boom in the 2000s, the Bureau was earning enough to fund the Desert Tortoise Conservation Center (DTCC) in southern Las Vegas, a habitat “created in 1991 to house wild desert tortoises removed from the path of development and to use those tortoises to aid recovery of the species.” Its operating budget was about $1 million per year.
But the recession that followed dwindled the number of developers, and in turn funds for the DTCC.
So, facing the prospect of shutting their doors, the DTCC began releasing healthier turtles into the wild, and euthanizing some of the sick ones.
– From the AP, August 25, 2013:
Back at the conservation center, a large refrigerator labeled “carcass freezer” hummed in the desert sun as scientists examined the facility’s 1,400 inhabitants to find those hearty enough to release into the wild. Officials expect to euthanize more than half the animals in the coming months in preparation for closure at the end of 2014…
All of this illustrates how the BLM’s dispute with Mr. Bundy has nothing to do with saving or protecting tortoises (most of which were given to the facility by people who owned them as pets, and which the BLM is either killing or releasing into the wild — animals raised in captivity don’t usually fare well in the wild) as they claim, and everything to do with making an example out of Mr. Bundy for having the gall to stand up for his property, bullying him into submission by brute force.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Brandeis Cancels Honorary Degree for Ayaan Hirsi Ali at 2014 Commencement
Tuesday evening Brandeis University President Fred Lawrence rescinded an honorary doctorate that was to be conferred on Somali American women human rights advocate and author, Ayaan Hirsi Ali at the June 2014 Commencement. He succumbed to outcries of Islamophobe and Fatwas from the Waltham, Massachusetts campus Muslim Students Association chapter supported by a letter signed by 86 members of the university’s Near Eastern and Judaic studies faculty. Ali is currently embroiled in the lambasting by CAIR of the Clarion project film, Honor Diaries. Hirsi Ali, a former Dutch political figure was colleague of the late Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh, who was murdered on the streets of Amsterdam by a Dutch Moroccan. She wrote the script for the short film, Submission about the oppression of women under Islamic Sharia doctrine. Ali is the author of the acclaimed biographies, Infidel and Nomad. She has been a vigorous opponent of political Islam’s totalitarian oppression of women’s human rights, and culture espousing female genital mutilation and honor shame killings.
Lori Lowenthal Marcus, US correspondent for The Jewish Press, herself an honored graduate of Brandeis, Class of 1980, declared in an email: “there is no justice for Hirsi Ali” at her alma mater. In her Jewish Press article, on this latest example of dhimmitude at Brandeis, she noted the campus furor that forced the decision of President Lawrence:…
| — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon | [Return to headlines] |
Brandeis Rescinds Offer of Honorary Degree to Islam Critic
Ayaan Hirsi Ali, an advocate for women’s rights and outspoken critic of Islam, sharply criticized Brandeis University today for abruptly withdrawing its offer of an honorary degree. Facing public pressure, the Waltham university announced late Tuesday it would not honor the Somali-born activist, a week after announcing she would receive a degree at next month’s graduation ceremony.
In a pointed statement issued this afternoon, Hirsi Ali denounced Brandeis officials for bowing to critics who “simply wanted me to be silenced.”…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
British Businessman, 27, ‘Filmed Three-Day Sordid Encounter in Maine Motel With 13-Year-Old US Girl
[WARNING: Disturbing Content.]
A 27-year-old from the UK was jailed for 17 years on Monday after filming himself sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl from Maine who he befriended in a Harry Potter chat room while she was recovering from an illness’
Nicholas Cheese was found guilty of abusing the Levant girl over three days in a motel room in Bangor, Maine, in June last year.
As the judge jailed Cheese, from Wolvercote near Oxford, he condemned the businessman for subjecting the young girl to ‘a range of sexual experiences many adults would refuse to explore’.
Cheese, who worked in the dry cleaning industry, had befriended the victim, who has not been identified, through an online chat room for fans of the Harry Potter children’s books when she was 12.
He arranged to meet the girl at his motel room, when he traveled to the U.S. for a business trip, and admitted to police he knew she was only 13.
Cheese was found guilty of one count of producing pornography after filming his final encounter with the child.
Initial charges from his arrest on July 1, of gross sexual assault and sexual exploitation of a minor, were dismissed in September when his case moved from state to federal court.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Digital Bracelet Company May End Up in Court After Rash Reports
They thought they were buying a popular gadget to give them a better handle on their health. Instead, thousands of people ended up with a bad rash.
The Fitbit Force is a digital bracelet that measures your physical activity and sleep patterns, but it left some consumers with scars.
Now the company may end up in court.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Feds Declare War on Affordable and Plentiful Imported Ammunition
Back door attack by BATFE on Second Amendment
The feds recently used an obscure “vaporware” Polish firearm as an excuse to outlaw the importation of cheap and plentiful Russian ammo into the United States.
The BATFE has determined the 7N6 cartridge is armor piercing and therefore illegal under the Gun Control Act (GCA) of 1968 as amended in 1986.
As noted by The Bangswitch blog on Tuesday, the Russian ammo was not an issue with the federal government until the suspicious introduction of a 5.45×39 handgun on the U.S. market…
Unable to ram through draconian gun laws in Congress, the Obama administration and assorted federal government agencies are working behind the scenes to dry up and shut down the availability of ammunition.
If ammunition becomes unavailable and unaffordable, this will, in effect, render the Second Amendment a dead letter.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Fort Hood Survivor Blames “Gun Free Zone” For “Horrific Massacre”
“The only defensive posture I had left was to lie prostrate on the ground, and wait to die”
A survivor of the shooting on the Fort Hood military base in Texas has penned an emotional letter that describes how he warned for five years that keeping the base as a ‘gun free zone’ would end in another mass shooting tragedy.
In an open letter that was read out loud Tuesday at the Texas Senate Committee on Constitutional Carry, First Lieutenant Patrick Cook states that he can “still taste the blood” from trying to resuscitate a colleague who sacrificed himself to save others during the twenty minute rampage that ended with three dead and 16 seriously wounded.
In the letter, the soldier blasts the notion that the right to bear arms has become little more than a “government-issued privilege” and pleads with lawmakers to reverse the trend.
Here is First Lieutenant Patrick Cook’s full open letter addressing the Fort Hood shooting:…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
GOP Lawmaker Suggests Eric Holder Should ‘Be in Jail’ — To His Face!
Texas Republican congressman Blake Farenthold refused to ask Eric Holder questions during a Judiciary Committee hearing Tuesday, saying the attorney general should “be in jail” for ignoring congressional subpoenas instead of testifying before Congress.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Hank Aaron Compares Republicans That Oppose Obama to KKK
ATLANTA (CBS Atlanta/AP) — Baseball Hall of Famer Hank Aaron compared Republicans that oppose President Barack Obama to the Ku Klux Klan.
Speaking to USA Today Tuesday on the 40th anniversary of his then record-breaking 715th home run, the 80-year-old Aaron said that Republicans are hindering Obama’s job performance.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Heartbleed: Moving Toward Government Control of the Internet
Company that found bug has connections to Google, Obama, DHS, and FBI
Dire warnings about Heartbleed, a serious internet security risk affecting millions of websites, is echoing across the internet today. Described as a flaw in OpenSSL, the open source encryption technology used by the vast majority of web servers, Heartbleed is said to put HTTPS e-commerce websites at risk.
The bug “can give hackers access to personal data like credit card numbers, usernames, passwords, and, perhaps most importantly, cryptographic keys — which can allow hackers to impersonate or monitor a server,” writes Lily Hay Newman.
The risk was discovered by a Google researcher at Codenomicon, a Finnish company specializing in the development of “fuzzing tools” to ensure computer network security. The Codenomicon client base includes government and the defense industry and, as noted below, has suspicious connections to Obama, DHS, and the FBI.
The current buzz about Heartbleed plays into an ongoing government propaganda campaign to forge a public-private cybersecurity infrastructure.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
IRS Under Fire: Vote for Obama Stickers, Campaign Cheerleading Commonplace
Even as the IRS faces growing heat over Lois G. Lerner and the tea party targeting scandal, a government watchdog said Wednesday it’s pursuing cases against three other tax agency employees and offices suspected of illegal political activity in support of President Obama and fellow Democrats.
In one case the Office of Special Counsel, which investigates federal employees who conduct politics on government time, said it was “commonplace” in a Dallas IRS office for employees to have pro-Obama screensavers on their computers, and to have campaign-style buttons and stickers at their office.
In another case, a worker at the tax agency’s customer help line urged taxpayers “to re-elect President Obama in 2012 by repeatedly reciting a chant based on the spelling of his last name,” the Office of Special Counsel said in a statement.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Louisville Mayor to Concealed Carry Holders: Leave Your Guns at Home
In wake of recent violence in the city, Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer is asking that everyone — both law-abiding citizens and criminals alike — leave their guns at home during the Thunder Over Louisville airshow this weekend.
According to local media, Fischer’s plea came after rumors were heard of possible violence this weekend. Residents have already remained on edge since last month when a mob of about 200 teens began beating random victims and damaging property in what was described as an outbreak of violence like an angry virus spreading throughout the downtown area.
Determined to put an end to such acts of violence, Fischer released a three-page letter to the city’s residents last Friday revealing a plan of action and questioning who is accountable for the teens responsible for the violent acts.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Mystery: ATF Making Its Very Own Bombs
Bulk quantities of plastic explosives, blasting gear being purchased
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, or ATF, is planning to take possession of a 180-pound shipment of plastic explosives accompanied by blasting wire measuring hundreds of thousands of feet.
It won’t take place through an enforcement seizure, however, but via bulk direct purchase for its own use…
Specific bureau plans for the materials, however, remain undetermined. Calls to ATF’s Public and Government Affairs Unit seeking explanation were met with a busy signal.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
NASA ‘Flying Saucer’ For Mars to Land in Hawaii
In June, while beachgoers in Hawaii sit blissfully unaware, a flying saucer will descend over the island of Kauai. This is not a trailer for an alien invasion movie — NASA is gearing up to conduct the first test flight of a disc-shaped spacecraft designed to safely land heavy loads and one day people on the surface of Mars.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Nevada Governor Blasts Feds’ ‘First Amendment Area’ In Bundy Dispute
Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval has inserted himself into the escalating standoff between cattle rancher Cliven Bundy and federal officials by blasting the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) over their creation of a ‘First Amendment Area’ outside of which free speech is banned.
Image: First Amendment Area (YouTube).
The ‘First Amendment Area’ set up by BLM agents is a crudely taped off piece of land inside which supporters of Bundy, who is engaged in a long running dispute with feds over grazing rights on a 600,000 acre expanse in northeastern Clark County, are allowed to express their free speech.
However, protesters have completely ignored the area, instead staging large demonstrations on Bundy’s ranch. The only presence inside the ‘First Amendment Area’ are signs which read “1st Amendment is not an area” and another that states, “Welcome to Amerika — Wake Up” alongside a hammer and sickle logo.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
New Foreign Operated Charter School State Legislation Introduced in 2014
The Gulen Movement (GM) connection here in the US is of interest, because of the controversy over the movement’s control of dozens of Math and Science academies operating with US taxpayer funding as charter schools. According to one source there are more than 135 Gulen charter schools with an enrollment of 45,000 students in over 20 states in the US. The staffs of these US charter schools are manned by Turkish Gulenists who enter the US under the H-1B visa program. There have been exposes on the US Gulen science academies in Texas and elsewhere published by the New York Times. The Gulen Harmony Schools in Texas received a $30 million grant from the US Department of Education Race to the Top program.We posted on an FBI raid of a Gulen science academy in Louisiana. Because of the problems with the Gulen charter schools, many states have either passed or are considering legislation that would control the proportion of H-1B Visa staff employed at Gulen-sponsored charter schools. Fast forward to the current 2014 legislative session in Baton Rouge and the re-introduction of restrictive legislation aimed at employment of non-immigrant Turkish workers in Louisiana charter schools. HB 1243 was introduced by Reps. Hodges and Pope, in the Louisiana legislature in late March 2014. The bill’s purposes are to establish conditions for “approval of certain charter school proposals and provides relative to prohibitions on the employment of non-immigrant foreign workers in charter schools, with exceptions.” Similar legislation was introduced in the 2014 Mississippi legislature. HB510 contains similar bars against employment of non-immigrant foreign workers. Section 37-28-47 1. (b) of the, Mississippi Code of 1972, would be amended…
| — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon | [Return to headlines] |
Police in Iowa City With Population of 7,000 Acquire Military Tank
Sometimes the news is just so drearily awful that you have to sit back and almost appreciate the pure comedy induced by it.
Take this item from Washington, Iowa, where the local police have recently acquired an MRAP vehicle (short for Mine Resistance Ambush Protected) through a Defense Department program that donates excess vehicles originally produced for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to local police departments across the United States, including other Iowa towns such as Mason City and Storm Lake.
The MRAP weighs an impressive 49,000 pounds, stands 10-feet tall, and possesses a whopping six-wheel drive. Originally designed to resist landmines and IEDs, it sure seems like the MRAP will come in handy for the notorious war zone otherwise known as Washington County, Iowa.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Quest for ‘Racial Equity’ In Parks Has Some Wary
Faced with numbers showing that its parks are underused by minorities and having spent millions to develop parks in largely white suburbs, the Metropolitan Council is moving to impose a “racial-equity” filter as it forms its latest long-term plan for transportation, land use and recreation.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Russians Withheld Information on Boston Bombing Suspect, Report Finds
The Russian government withheld from the F.B.I. significant information that it had about one of the Boston marathon bombing suspects two years before the attack, according to an inspector general’s review of how federal agencies could have thwarted the bombing.
After an initial investigation by F.B.I. agents in Boston, the Russians rebuffed several requests for additional information that they had about Tamerlan Tsarnaev.
The new inspector general’s report found that it was only after the bombing occurred last April that the Russians shared with the F.B.I. the additional intelligence, including information from a telephone conversation the Russian authorities had intercepted between Mr. Tsarnaev and his mother in which they discussed Islamic jihad.
| [Return to headlines] |
Sheriffs Warn of Violence From Mexican Cartels Deep Into Interior of U.S.
Outmanned and outgunned, local law enforcement officers are alarmed by the drug and human trafficking, prostitution, kidnapping and money laundering that Mexican drug cartels are conducting in the U.S. far from the border. U.S. sheriffs say that securing the border is a growing concern to law enforcement agencies throughout the country, not just those near the U.S.-Mexico boundary.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Tennessee Wants to Ban the U.N. From Monitoring Its Elections
When you think of the type of countries the United Nations might want to keep an eye on, you probably think of, say, Libya, whose citizens voted for the first time in over 40 years in 2012.
But newly democratized countries aren’t the only subjects of U.N. election oversight. In 2012, civil-rights groups voiced their concern to the U.N. that state voter-ID laws would lead to voter suppression. The U.N. sent 44 of its election monitors to states — including Tennessee — and drew much ire from conservative groups in the process.
Now, the Republican-controlled Legislature in Tennessee is fighting back against the international governing body. On Tuesday, the state Senate passed a bill banning U.N. elections monitors from overseeing state elections — unless they have express permission from the U.S. Senate to be there. The legislation now sits on Republican Gov. Bill Haslam’s desk, waiting to be signed.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
America is currently undergoing a revolution in efforts to turn its own economy from capitalism into socialism. And while this is not a particularly remarkable development in and of itself, what makes it remarkable is that for the first time in history socialism is being imposed on the people by its existing ruling class. The process to achieve this isn’t necessarily one involving violent revolution, but the end result will undoubtedly be as if it had.
Take for example the imposition of a draconian national healthcare regime. Designed to provide coverage for some 10% of the American population that did not have healthcare coverage, the regime was imposed on the other 90% that did. And while the administration crows hollowly about this Brobdingnagian victory, evidence of its harm is everywhere.
No rational individual could possibly believe that 7 million Americans actually signed on to this outlandish and expensive scheme, but it was necessary for the administration to postulate this lie, if for no other reason than to offset the over 6 million Americans that were documented having lost their existing healthcare coverage because of the new healthcare law.
But healthcare isn’t the only area in which socialism is being imposed on the nation from the top down. In other areas, such as finance, industry and agriculture the socialist hordes in the form of government regulators are running rampant and wreaking havoc in their wake.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Obama Administration Wants Gun Owners to Wear RFID Tracking Bracelets?
Attorney General Eric Holder says that gun owners in the United States could eventually be forced to wear RFID tracking bracelets. In fact, in recent testimony in front of Congress he gave the impression that this was something that the Obama administration has been thinking about for quite a long time.
Holder seems to think that this would advance the cause of “gun safety” and that gun owners wouldn’t mind having an RFID microchip tracking their every movement. Apparently he does not know gun owners very well, because most of the gun owners that I know would be extremely resistant to the idea of being “chipped”. But this is yet another example of how the Obama administration plans to erode Second Amendment rights. They want to put up as many obstacles as possible to owning and using guns.
When I first came across the testimony by Eric Holder that I am about to share with you, I could hardly believe it. This seemed like something that you would see on “The Onion” or on some other satire website. But this is very, very real. Eric Holder really does seem quite interested in having gun owners wear RFID tracking bracelets. Just check out the following quotes from Holder that come from a recent Free Beacon article…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Unintended Consequences of Political Good Intentions
“Concentrated power is not rendered harmless by the good intentions of those who create it.” — Milton Friedman
Finally, government, in spite of its good intentions, can come to fear 315,000,000 people, as it only takes a small fraction of that 315,000,000 to upset the applecart. So government makes plans on how to handle that unruly fraction in order to prevent a disabling uprising. In America, there are two such ways that government can draft these plans with the force of law. The first is by passage of a law or laws by Congress, or our massive bureaucracy. The second is by presidential executive order. On February 16, 1962, President John F. Kennedy passed ten (10) executive orders to deal with just such an uprising, under the constitutional power of the president to declare a national emergency.
No. 10995 — Authorized the appropriate federal agency to seize and operate all communications media in an “emergency”.
No. 10997 — Provided for the federal seizure of all electric power, oil and gas, fuels, and minerals.
No. 10998 — Authorized the seizure of all food resources and farms, including all farm equipment.
No. 10999 — Authorized the seizure of the means of transportation, and federal control of highways and seaports.
No. 11000 — Provided for the mobilization of all civilians into a federal work force.
No. 11001 — Provided for the federal takeover of all health, education, and welfare activities.
No. 11002 — Authorized the Postmaster General to conduct a national registration of all persons.
No. 11003 — Authorized the federal government to seize all airports and aircraft.
No. 11004 — Authorized a Housing and Home Finance Agency to re-locate communities, build new housing with public funds, designate areas to be abandoned as unsafe, and establish new locations for populations.
No. 11005 — Allowed the government to seize and operate all railroads, inland waterways, and public storage facilities.
All presidents since have renewed these executive orders and added more sections to increase the president’s power.
Could this be government paranoia? How many of you knew that these executive orders even existed, or are listed in the Federal Register, or have the force of law? How many of you doubt that government will use these laws in just such an emergency? How many of you know that there are other plans to implement the use of the U. S. Military on our own soil, in direct violation of Posse Comitatus statutes (18 USC Para. 1385)? If this potential to assume ABSOLUTE power by the United States government doesn’t scare you, it is quite possible that your head is firmly buried in the sand.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Ultimate Warrior, WWE Superstar, Is Dead at 54
The pro wrestler, whose given name was James Brian Hellwig, collapsed in front of his Arizona hotel room and was pronounced dead at hospital.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: ‘White Man Tried to Tussle With Me So I Shot Him’
First picture of boy, 16, charged with murdering newlywed Nathan Trapuzzano after ‘confessing to friend’
A 16-year-old was today arrested and charged over the murder of Nathan Trapuzzano, the newlywed who was shot dead as he took a morning walk.
Simeon Adams, known by the nickname ‘Red’, is alleged to have confessed to a friend that he shot Nathan once in the stomach — after the newlywed, who was expecting his first child, reached down to his shoes as Adams made him strip during the robbery.
Robinson told detectives Adams made Nathan strip, according to the court papers. ‘When he told Nathan to take his pants off the victim started reaching for his shoes and Simeon asked him (Nathan) “Why you reaching for your shoes?”. Simeon said the “white man tried to tussle with me so I shot him”‘.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Muslims Call on Quebec to Mend Fences
MONTREAL — Muslim groups in the Canadian province of Quebec are calling on the newly elected Liberal government to promote an inclusive and welcoming Quebec for all residents…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
British Minister Resigns in Expenses Scandal
(AGI) London, April 9 — Britain’s Culture Minister Maria Miller has been forced to resign after days of political pressure, adverse public opinion and media attacks in an expenses scandal. Miller had offered a 32-second apology to parliament last week for having supplied limited information in an inquiry into a mortgage on a second house in Wimbledon bought in the 1990s. Miller was absolved in an earlier procedure for having applied for a reimbursement made by her parents.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Denmark: Shipworms Threaten Thousands of Underwater Archaeological Finds
More than 40,000 archaeological finds on the Danish seabed are threatened to be destroyed by shipworms, according to a new report published by the science journal Aktuel Naturvidenskab.
Shipworms are actually not worms at all but long worm-looking clams that are notorious for boring into and eventually destroying wood submerged in water. They spend most of their lives living in wood that it eats and uses as protection.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
EU States Lose Up to One-Third of Honeybees Per Year
The first major Europe-wide survey of honeybee colonies has revealed that some countries are losing as many as one-third of their colonies every winter, but the result is still better than some feared.
Declines in bee numbers have received huge public attention in recent years, with numerous hives succumbing to ‘colony collapse disorder’. The blame has been pinned on parasites, insecticide use and changed farming practises. But detailed information on the true level of decline in bee numbers has been scarce.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: ‘Stand Firm Against Treachery’ Berlusconi Tells Supporters
‘The left conspires to keep me from running in EU elections’
(ANSA) — Rome, April 9 — Ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi on Wednesday urged supporters from his Forza Italia (FI) party to maintain unity in the face of left-wing attempts to keep him from campaigning for upcoming European Parliament (EP) elections.
The media magnate became ineligible to stand or to vote in the May 25 poll following a binding conviction for tax fraud at his media empire last year. He was also ejected from the Italian Senate as a result.
“In this delicate moment in which the left, using its judicial arm, wishes to keep me from running, Forza Italia is enduring clumsy attempts to snatch its votes through confusion and treachery,” Berlusconi said.
The party must remain united, he added.
“There is no room in FI for currents, territorial claims, or personal ambitions. FI is one”.
Berlusconi has lodged an appeal with the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) against a six-year ban from office incurred under a 2012 anti-corruption law following his tax fraud conviction.
The ECHR on Tuesday rebuffed a petition signed by some 3,900 people asking for Berlusconi to be allowed to run for the EP anyway.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Cops Nab Suspect in Abduction of Teenage Pakistani Girl
Arranged marriage the motive, police say
(ANSA) — Rome, April 9 — Police have arrested a Pakistani-Italian man on charges of kidnapping a 16-year-old Pakistani girl and taking her to his country of origin for an arranged marriage, police sources said Wednesday. The Italian-born girl in November 2013 was abducted from the town of Ariccia, near Rome.
She lived there with her Pakistani parents, who immediately reported her missing.
The alleged kidnapper, a Pakistani who has acquired Italian citizenship, lives in the town of Zagarolo, also near Rome.
He was arrested when he got off a plane at Rome’s Fiumicino airport.
A search of his luggage turned up the missing girl’s ID documents and a copy of her marriage certificate. The girl’s whereabouts remain unknown, police said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Ban on Donor Sperm: Eggs Ruled Unconstitutional
‘Violated right to procreate’ advocates say
(updates previous) (ANSA) — Rome, April 8 — A ban on the use of donor sperm and eggs, which is part of Italy’s controversial law limiting assisted-fertility treatments, has been struck down as invalid by the Constitutional Court, ANSA sources said Wednesday.
The ruling also found the punishment for breaching so-called law 40 — a 300,000-600,000-euro fine — was unconstitutional. “It was an outdated ban that penalized and discriminated…against the right to procreate, as is sanctioned in national legislation and international declarations,” said a statement from Filomena Gallo and Gianni Baldini, the lawyers representing the couple who brought the case before the court. The law has already been rejected by the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg in 2012, which said that Italy had infringed upon two provisions of its convention for the protection of human rights.
The issues surrounding reproductive rights and laws is a hot political potato in overwhelmingly Catholic Italy.
Opinion polls have said that most Italians found the law too harsh and believed it forced too many people, at least the ones who can afford it, to resort to foreign clinics.
“The elimination of the ban on donor sperm and eggs finally allows Italy to move on from the shameful phenomena of procreative tourism,” said attorneys Gallo and Baldini. The law was originally passed by a cross-party alliance of Catholics in a battle which also pitted male MPs against female MPs.
“The framers of the Constitution must be rolling in their graves, after an interpretation that permits assisted fertility via laboratory cocktails made of the genes from multiple parents,” said Maurizio Sacconi, Senate whip for the New Center Right (NCD). Other parts of Italy’s controversial reproductive laws, which remain under court review, forbid the screening of embryos for abnormalities or genetic disorders, even for couples with a history of genetic disease.
As well, single parents, same-sex couples and women beyond child-bearing age are banned from using assisted-fertility techniques, which are limited to sterile heterosexual couples who are married or live together.
The law also bans embryos from being frozen or used for scientific research.
It allows a maximum of three eggs to be fertilised at one time and requires them all to be transferred to the womb simultaneously.
The law goes much further with regard to human cloning and manipulation of human embryos, issuing stiff fines and jail terms of up to 20 years.
After the Constitutional Court ruled to lift the ban on donor sperm and eggs, Italian Health Minister Beatrice Lorenzin said that parliament must now intervene to write a new policy.
“The law is gutted. It requires parliament to intervene,” she said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: ‘Horror Clinic’ Surgeon Sentenced to Life Behind Bars
Performed 90 unnecessary operations, killing four patients
(ANSA) — Milan, April 9 — A Milan court on Wednesday sentenced a former thoracic surgeon to life in prison for first-degree murder in the deaths of four elderly patients.
Police arrested the former head of Milan’s Santa Rita Clinic, Pier Paolo Brega Massone, after the sentencing.
The former surgeon “has an evil nature” and “did not hesitate” to perform some 90 unnecessary surgeries with utter lack of compassion for others, prosecutor Grazia Pradella said in requesting the life sentence.
In October 2010, Brega Massone was sentenced in a previous trial to 15-and-a-half years in prison on the charges while his assistants, Fabio Pietro Presicci and Marco Pansera, were sentenced to 10 years, and six years and nine months respectively.
The scandal surrounding the Santa Rita Clinic — dubbed the “clinic of horrors” by Italian media — broke in May 2008, when Brega Massone and Presicci were jailed on murder charges.
Eleven other doctors and the owner of the clinic were, at the time, placed under house arrest for their role in performing superfluous and lucrative operations, including on some terminally ill patients.
In rejecting his plea to avoid preventive custody, the Court of Cassation said in 2009 that Brega Massone was “fully aware” of the risks involved in carrying out the unnecessary operations and did so for “no other reason than making a profit”.
The court had said he should remain in jail while awaiting trial, stressing that he had “decreed the patients’ deaths” with his conduct.
Among the operations performed was the removal of a lung, which allegedly caused the patient to die.
Another alleged murder case, investigators said, was that of an elderly woman who could have been saved by having a tumour wholly removed but instead underwent three separate operations, which fatally weakened her while lining doctors’ pockets.
At least two women, including a 19-year-old, were subjected to mastectomies for simple cysts as part of what prosecutors said was an ongoing “system” set up to claim reimbursements from the State health fund.
Brega Massone claimed in 2010 that he “always thought of the well-being of the patient and acted according to protocol and conscience”.
He said he was “the scapegoat” for the broader situation in Milan’s public health system.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Netherlands: Wilders: Put in Police Complaints About Labor Party Leaders
Five thousand people have submitted complaints to the police about Geert Wilders’ remarks that there should be less Moroccans in the Netherlands. Thereupon, Wilders has called on his supporters to submit complaints against Labor Party leader Samson, who is quoted as having said that Moroccans have an “ethnic monopoly” on causing a nuisance. Labor Party Chairman Spekman has said that he wants Moroccans who cause nuisances, “to be humiliated in the eyes of their own people.”
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Netherlands: Explosive Growth in Discrimination Reports, Says Human Rights Council
There has been ‘explosive growth’ in the number of reports about discrimination in the Netherlands over the past year, according to the Dutch human rights council College Rechten van de Mens.
Of the discrimination reports, the council was asked to make a ruling in almost 500 cases. It made rulings in 183 cases. Of those, 22% dealt with sex discrimination, 18% were race or origin based, and 17% concerned both age and/or discrimination against people with a handicap.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
No Longer Banned in the British Library!
by Daniel Pipes
The British Library, I documented yesterday, had blocked my website and those of the Middle East Forum while letting through some of the most foul antisemitic and Islamist sites. The article ended with mention of my writing to the library, a government institution, to request that the blocks be removed. Also, a substantial number of readers wrote to the library in protest.
As a result, I am happy to report, the blocks have been removed. A representative of the library’s Electronic Services wrote me:
Apologies for the fact that the websites you listed below were blocked by the Library’s WiFi service. … I am writing to inform you that all sites listed are now available via the Library’s WiFi.
The library’s press office (@BLpressoffice) announced the end of the block on Twitter.
@DanielPipes re. your websites being blocked erroneously by @britishlibrary wifi: these have now been unblocked. Apologies for the mistake.
So, the library owned up to its mistake and corrected it expeditiously. I am pleased and reassured by this response.
But its replies raise deeper questions: Why did it take a library patron trying to access DanielPipes.org to learn about this problem? How could a major British governmental agency block these high-quality mainstream, informational, sites? How could it simultaneously give access to extremist, antisemitic, radical, Islamist, and jihadi websites?
The library informs me that it relies on an automated filtering software made by a company called Smoothwall; it adds that it is “unable to advise [me] on the details of the algorithm” which Smoothwall utilizes for deciding which sites to block.
But that does not suffice. Even if unintended, this pattern of banning the friend and letting in the enemy sends a powerful and distressing signal. I therefore pursued this matter with further questions:
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Spain Faces Divide After Blocking Catalan Referendum
Barcelona (AFP) — Spain faced a national divide Wednesday after its lawmakers overwhelmingly shot down Catalonia’s bid for an independence referendum.
Spain’s parliament refused the northeastern region’s request to hold a November 9 referendum by a landslide 299 votes to 47 after a seven-hour debate Tuesday.
Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy led parliament in spurning Catalonia’s secessionist bid, refusing to countenance a breakup of Spain.
His ruling conservative Popular Party (PP), the main opposition Socialists and the centrist Union for Progress and Democracy all voted to block the Catalan petition.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The United Kingdom’s Continuing Koran Censorship
by Andrew Harrod
Mark Stephenson confessed at a February 28, 2014, United Kingdom trial “threatening behavior” while watching a December 7, 2013, Birmingham soccer game. Stephenson’s behavior involved Koran desecration, merely the latest case demonstrating deferential British censorship with respect to Islam’s holy book.
According to one news account, a woman gave pages of a Koran taken from her handbag to Stephenson and about 20 other soccer fans during the game. Stephenson ripped the pages and pretended to burn them with a lighter while saying to a stadium worker that he had the “Muslim bible, we hate Muslims.” Another worker overheard fans shouting “Koran, Muslims and burning.”
Stephenson received a £235 fine for a “religiously-aggravated public order offence,” a British hate crime that, among things, encompasses “threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour, or disorderly behavior.” “We hope that in the future you will not ever, ever participate in any such incident,” Judge Ronald Healey declared in sentencing Stephenson. It is “considered extremely offensive to some members of the community.”
“It’s disgraceful to allow pure hatred to come to an area like” Birmingham “with a high Muslim population,” Muslim Member of Parliament Khalid Mahmood had said of the incident in his hometown in December. The “culprits should be dealt with severely and be charged with incitement,” he demanded. A Middlesbrough Football Club spokesperson also condemned the incident involving the club’s Koran-desecrating fans as violating a desire to “eradicate racism in all its forms.”…
| [Return to headlines] |
Cyril Edmonds had been toasting fallen comrades at his local pub before he was set upon by 22-year-old Gary Mills, 22, and 17-year-old Matthew Putson on his way home in Middlesbrough.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: ‘Outstanding’ Head Teacher Allegedly Targeted by Muslim Radicals Confirms That She’s Retiring
by Andrew Gilligan
Lindsey Clark, the respected executive head of Park View, one of the Birmingham schools targeted in the alleged “Trojan Horse” plot by Muslim radicals, has confirmed that she is to retire. She becomes the fifth non-Muslim headteacher to leave one of the schools linked to the plot over the last six months. The others are Balwant Bains (Saltley), Tina Ireland (Regent’s Park), Bhupinder Kondal (Oldknow), and Peter Slough (Small Heath). A sixth head, Golden Hillock’s Matthew Scarrott, left a little earlier…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Cameron Promotes Javid to Cabinet, Names Morgan to Treasury Job
(Reuters) — Prime Minister David Cameron appointed former banker Sajid Javid as the country’s new culture minister, replacing Maria Miller who resigned earlier on Wednesday over an expenses scandal…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Doreen Lawrence Named ‘Most Powerful Woman’ In the UK
Tireless anti-racism campaigner tops Women’s Hour Power List
Doreen Lawrence, the tireless anti-racism campaigner and mother of murdered teenager Stephen Lawrence, has been named the most powerful woman in the UK (scroll down to see the gallery list in full)…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: PC Keith Blakelock Murder Trial: Questions for Met Police as Nicky Jacobs Cleared
Old Bailey jury acquits defendant who was 16 at the time of the murder of Pc Keith Blakelock during the 1985 Broadwater Farm riots
Scotland Yard’s decision to grant immunity and cash rewards to men who attacked Pc Keith Blakelock has come under fire amid fears the officer’s killers may never be brought to justice. Two key prosecution witnesses were part of a mob which killed the officer during the Broadwater Farm riots more than 28 years ago — and who admitted kicking the stricken officer multiple times…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
[WARNING: Disturbing Content.]
A son stabbed his own 86-year-old mother to death then hanged himself, writing that he was unable to ‘cope with life anymore’, an inquest heard.
Stephen Dohoney, 55, killed Ethel Dohoney in the home they shared after wrongly concluding that he had cancer, and that his mother would not be able to survive without his care.
Investigators called to the scene of the murder in Wythenshawe, Greater Manchester last November found a note Dohoney had written explained why he ‘sent her to heaven’.
They found three family photographs lying beside the old lady’s body — one her late husband Jack, a second of her late son Kenneth and a third of herself as a younger woman.
An inquest in Manchester today heard how Dohoney, a civil servant at the Department for Work and Pensions, was terrified of succumbing to cancer, which had also killed his older brother.
However, he did not have any form of the disease, nor was there any medical evidence to suggest he did.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Teen Assaulted by Men Outside Mosque
Thames Valley Police is releasing a CCTV image of men they would like to speak to in connection with an assault on a teenager outside a mosque in High Wycombe
The assault happened outside the mosque in Rutland Avenue at the junction with Booker Lane, at 10.36pm on 31 March. The victim, a 15-year-old boy, was leaving the mosque with a friend when the pair saw three men who they thought they knew and approached them. After a brief exchange one of these men punched the victim to the side of the head…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Winnie the Two, The First Cloned Dog From Britain
The puppy is the first British dog to be cloned and was born in a laboratory in Seoul, South Korea, after DNA was taken from a west London dachshund and fused into an embryo.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: Mary, Martyr for the Cross; Obama, Muslim Brotherhood Enabler
[WARNING: Disturbing Content.]
The horrific, only-days-ago murder of Coptic Christian Mary Sameh George, in a suburb of Cairo, can honestly be laid at the feet of shameful Muslim Brotherhood booster President Barack Hussein Obama.
A true evil that should be shouted from rooftops, it went down with neither whisper nor whimper in the nothing-to-lose Mainstream Media of the Free West, with only the courageous, American columnist/author Raymond Ibrahim calling attention to it.
Rioting Muslim Brotherhood supporters attacked the Virgin Mary and Archangel Michael Coptic Orthodox Church, opening fire on it and setting parked cars aflame on March 28. Four innocents died in the attack.
Parked by the church, where she was delivering medicine to an elderly, sick woman, Mary Sameh George was savagely mauled and molested before being murdered — all because a cross hanging on her rear view mirror easily identified her as a Christian.
Nightmarish in impact, the eyewitness details of Mary’s death on the Egyptian program 90 Minutes, is not for the fainthearted:
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Libya: Suspension of Alitalia Flights Continues Till April 15
Same decision by Astrian Airlines, British Airways, Lufthansa
(ANSAmed) — TRIPOLI, APRIL 8 — Italian carrier Alitalia has prolonged a suspension of flights to and from Tripoli until April 15 included, sources told ANSA on Tuesday.
The same decision was taken by British Airways which is suspending all flights till April 17 included. Another two companies, Austrian Airlines and Germany’s Lufthansa, have instead decided to suspend flights indefinitely for security reasons. The two companies however have said they are in contact with authorities and could re-consider the decision.
Three weeks ago, two blasts damaged the main runway of the capital’s international airport. A few sources said two missiles caused the damage while others blamed two bombs. It is still unclear who was behind the attack.
Since then, Lufthansa, Austrian, British Airways and Alitalia have suspended all connections to the capital.
The carriers were among the very few European companies flying to the North African country. Air Malta is continuing to operate flights to Tripoli.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Libya: Is Derna Becoming an Islamist Emirate?
Benghazi — A group calling itself the “Shura Council of Islamist Youth in Derna” says it plans to impose Sharia law in the eastern Libyan town. The jihadist group paraded through the coastal city on Friday (April 4th), AFP reported. Photos on the group’s Facebook page show dozens of pickup trucks with heavily armed men in uniforms, their faces obscured by masks.
With the absence of state institutions, the region is fertile ground for extremist organisations looking to grow and thrive. The Shura council declared their hostility to about anyone who, in their view, antagonises God and the Prophet…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Israel Offers Deal to Rescue Peace Talks
Israeli minister tells The Telegraph that 26 prisoners could be freed if the Palestinians ‘cancel’ a bid to join international conventions. Yuval Steinitz says that Arab Israelis could be released from jail — but only if America frees an Israeli spy
Israel has proposed a deal to rescue the peace talks, offering to release 26 prisoners if the Palestinian leadership “cancels” its bid for greater international recognition. Yuval Steinitz, the Israeli intelligence and strategic affairs minister, told The Daily Telegraph that this exchange could be a way of continuing the negotiations brokered by John Kerry, the US secretary of state…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
5 Killed, 32 Wounded in Car Bombs in Iraq
BAGHDAD, April 9 (Xinhua) — Five people were killed and 32 others wounded in four car bomb explosions across Iraq’s eastern province of Wasit on Wednesday, a provincial medical source said…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Abandoned Church-Mosque in Istanbul’s Old City Turned Into Makeshift Refuge
The church-mosque of Vefa, also known as the Molla Gürani mosque, has become the latest victim of the authorities’ failure to preserve historical buildings in Istanbul’s old city, as the structure was badly worn down by families taking refuge inside the ramshackle complex…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
British Jihadi ‘In Syria Fighting for Islam’
A British man who says he is a fighter in Syria said there were “many reasons” to go and fight with the rebels against the Assad regime, but his main motivation was religious. Speaking on a mobile phone, he told ITV News…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Gang Smuggling Syrians to Europe Busted in Kuwait
KUWAIT: State security officers at Kuwait International Airport busted an international network that helped smuggle Syrian nationals with forged passports to Europe through Kuwait. The officers worked with Migration General Department detectives after receiving information about a Turkish national who helped fugitives and people looking to seek political asylum in Europe by providing them with forged Turkish and Bulgarian passports to travel, using Kuwait as a transit station. The man was detected at the airport and arrested with three Syrian men at the exit gate.
Police found forged passports with the men, who said they each paid euro 10,000 to get the passports from the prime suspect. They added during questioning that they came to Kuwait through Iraq and Iran, with Europe intended as their final destination. Police found forged stamps and other tools used for forgery with the Turkish man. Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Sheikh Mohammad Al-Khalid Al-Sabah was reportedly informed about the case, and ordered that the four be held at the Farwaniya Prosecution Department on charges of smuggling, forgery and forming a network for smuggling people.
| — Hat tip: RR | [Return to headlines] |
Islamic Jihad and the Doctrine of Abrogation
by Raymond Ibrahim
While other scriptures contain contradictions, the Koran is the only holy book whose commentators have evolved a doctrine to account for the very visible shifts which occur from one injunction to another. No careful reader will remain unaware of the many contradictory verses in the Koran, most specifically the way in which peaceful and tolerant verses lie almost side by side with violent and intolerant ones…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Syria: Embarassment in Turkey After US Journalist Revelations
Investigative piece by Hersh, 2013 massacre to spur US attack
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA — A recently published reconstruction of the August 21, 2013, chemical attack blamed on Syrian regime forces has sparked heated debate in the US and Western nations. According to alleged intelligence revelations, rebel forces assisted by the Turkish government were the ones to use sarin gas on a Damascus suburb to provoke a US attack on Syria. The journalist to make the claim was the Pulitzer-prize winning Seymour Hersh, and his investigative piece was reported on in Turkish media on Wednesday. Hersh’s reconstruction — which caused both Ankara and Washington to issue immediate denials — is based on revelations made by an unnamed US secret agent. Hersh (who won a Pulitzer in 1970 for a reportage on the 1968 My Lai massacre in Vietnam by US troops) claims that the August 2013 attack was a trap orchestrated by Turkish intelligence to convince US president Barack Obama to order an attack on Damascus. The US president had repeatedly referred to the use of chemical weapons by the Assad regime as a ‘red line’ beyond which military force would be used. Despite Damascus’s denial of involvement and its placing of the blame (with the support of Russia and Iran) on rebel forces, Hersh said that the US president gave the Pentagon orders to ready an attack by September 2. Two days before, however, a report by the British secret services — Hersh wrote — showed the Americans that the deadly sarin gas used in Damascus was not of the same kind as that in the regime arsenal. Thus, on August 31, Obama began cautiously backing away from any potential use of military force and said that Congress would be deciding on the matter (it subsequently voted against it). The White House then initiated a chemical disarmament program for Syria with Russian involvement and no military action was taken. The unnamed former US secret agent said that military intelligence had learned that the sarin gas had got into rebel hands from Turkey, and that Ankara had provided training in the use of chemical weapons. Erdogan, who at the beginning of the Syrian conflict broke off ties with his former ally Assad and backed the mostly Sunni rebel fighters, has been accused by the Turkish opposition of backing jihadist groups with links to Al-Qaeda. In late March, a recording appeared on YouTube of an alleged secret meeting of Turkish leaders discussing possible military intervention in Syria. In the meeting, secret services chief Hakan Fidan, who has links to Erdogan, said that he was prepared to send his men to Syria to launch missiles at Turkish territory to justify an attack by the Turkish army.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: Stadium Not Named After Sukur After Rift With Erdogan
Former Turkish football star is now independent MP
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, APRIL 9 — The former star of the Turkish soccer national team, and of top league teams Galatasaray, Torino and Inter, Hakan Sukur, who is today a lawmaker, saw his name scrapped from the Istanbul stadium after he distanced himself from Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan and stepped down as member of the Islamic AKP part, local media reported on Wednesday.
Sukur, 42, who was elected in 2011 wirh Erdogan’s party, resigned in December from the party and is now an independent lawmaker. Hurriyet online reported that on Tuesday employees with the Sancaktepe municipality, led by the AKP, took off the tag with the ex-footballer’s name from the stadium’s main entrance. The ‘Hakan Sukur Stadium’ inaugurated in 2012 is now called ‘Sancaktepe Municipality Stadium’. Sukur left the Islamic party in December, criticizing the premier’s authoritarian drive and the strategyadopted by Erdogan towards former allies with the Islamic brotherhood Hizmet of preacher Fetullah Gullen. The former soccer player is believed to be close to the brotherhood.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Twin Bombings Kill 25 in Syria’s Homs
DAMASCUS, April 9 (Xinhua) — At least 25 people were killed and 107 others wounded on Wednesday by two car bombs that tore through a neighborhood of the country’s central province of Homs, the pro-government Sham FM radio reported…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Russian Military Spending Soars
Russia has announced that it will increase defense spending by some 18 percent this year despite its worsening economic outlook.
According to a report in Jane’s Defence Weekly, the Russian Federal Treasury announced late last month that “Expenditure on National Defense” will rise from 2,101.4 billion rubles ($58.2 billion) in 2013 to 2,488.1 billion rubles in 2014. This is projected to be about 3.4 percent of Russia’s GDP but over 20 percent of government spending. Another 16.5 percent of the government budget will go to national security and law enforcement.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Russia Warns of Civil War if Ukraine Uses Force to Quell Eastern Revolts
Russia warned Tuesday that any use of force in Ukraine’s eastern region could lead to civil war, as Kiev seeks to regain control after pro-Moscow uprisings in three cities.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Many people from the north-east of India now live in big cities like Delhi. This ethnically and culturally distinct group have often found themselves the victims of racism and hate crime. Nido Taniam, a 20-year-old man, died after a brawl with a group of strangers who mocked his appearance.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
More Pings Raise Hopes That Plane Wreckage Will be Found Soon
Two more underwater signals had been detected in the hunt for flight MH370, officials said yesterday, raising hopes that wreckage of the plane would be found within days.
Angus Houston, who is leading the search operation, said sounds detected in the same area last week had been analysed and were “consistent with the specification and description of a flight data recorder”.
“I’m now optimistic that we will find the aircraft or what is left of the aircraft in the not too distant future, but we haven’t found it yet because this is a very challenging business.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistan: Death Toll of Islamabad Blast Rises to 21
ISLAMABAD, April 9 (Xinhua) — Death toll of a blast that hit a fruit market in Pakistan’s capital Islamabad on Monday morning has risen to 21, officials said. Chaudhry Nisar, federal interior minister, visited the blast site and said that investigations into the incident are being carried out and security of the capital would be further beefed up…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Ultrasonic ‘Pings’ Now Strongest Clue in MH370 Hunt
Underwater “pings” are the strongest clues yet to the whereabouts of the missing Malaysian plane, flight MH370. Two batches of these ultrasound signals have now been detected by an Australian ship 1600 kilometres north-west of Perth.
“I believe we are now searching in the right area,” said Angus Houston, head of the Joint Agency Coordination Centre that is managing the multinational search operation from Perth, at a press conference this morning.
Planes carry two flight recorders — the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) and the flight data recorder (FDR). Both are equipped with an underwater location device that emits regular ultrasound pulses, aka pings, for 30 days after they are submerged.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Cleaner May Have Thrown Away £2.1 Million Painting
On Monday, a delicate ink painting called “Snowy Mountain” by the Chinese artist Cui Ruzhuo sold for HK$28.8M (£2.1 million) in Hong Kong. By Tuesday, the painting had been lost and closed circuit television suggested it had been thrown out by a cleaner. Hong Kong police are now searching for it in a rubbish dump in the city’s northern district of Tuen Mun.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Japan’s Olympus Faces Lawsuits From Six Trust Banks
Seeking total compensation of $273 mn
(ANSA) — Rome, April 9 — Japanese optical equipment giant Olympus is facing lawsuits from six trust banks who want compensation over false financial statements from 2000 to 2011.
The financial institutions are seeking a total of 28 billion yen or $273 million.
Olympus was entangled in one of Japan’s biggest accounting scandals which emerged in October 2011. Chief executive Michael Woodford turned whistleblower and revealed investment losses which had been hidden for many years.
The six banks include Mitsubishi UFJ Trust and Banking, the Nomura Trust and State Street Trust.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Iron-Ore Bear Market Deepens as Aussie Mines Expand: Commodities
The world is mining more iron ore than steelmakers need. Australia, the largest supplier, sent 504 ships from Port Hedland during the first quarter carrying enough iron-ore exports to build more than 700 Golden Gate Bridges. Shipments jumped 35 percent to the biggest buyer, China, where inventories have ballooned to the highest ever.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Kenya: Couple Charged Over Likoni Church Attack
Mombasa — A couple suspected to have been involved in the March 23 Likoni church gun attack that left six people dead and 15 others seriously injured have been charged in court. Juma Hamisi Hassan and his wife Misaid Athman are accused of being involved in the attack after they were found with materials linked with terrorism. Prosecutor, Ngina Mutua said police recovered nine CDs and DVDs that advocated jihad while others contained paramilitary training…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Nigeria: Military Raises the Alarm — Herdsmen Targeting Abuja
The military yesterday alleged that the herdsmen that have been killing innocent people in some states in the north are targeting Abuja, the seat of the government, and cautions the populace against identifying with them.
The herdsmen, who have been operating under the cover of the night, according to the military, were hired by some unscrupulous faceless people to unleash terror on the populace. The terrorists have killed about 2, 000 innocent people in the last few weeks…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Volcanoes All Over the Ring of Fire Are Erupting Right Now — Is the U.S. Next?
Last month, we had a whole bunch of major earthquakes along the Ring of Fire, and this month volcanoes all over the Ring of Fire are erupting. Of course there has always been seismic activity within this giant band that stretches around the Pacific Ocean. After all, approximately 75 percent of all volcanoes are located in the Ring of Fire and approximately 90 percent of all global earthquakes occur along the Ring of Fire. But what is alarming is that the level of activity appears to be rising. Chile is experiencing almost constant shaking by earthquakes, a volcano in Peru just awakened for the first time in 40 years, and major volcanic eruptions have just taken place in Ecuador, the Kamchatka peninsula and off the coast of Japan. The west coast of the United States also lies along the Ring of Fire, but so far it has gotten off easy. Yes, there has been a little bit of shaking in southern California in recent weeks, but it hasn’t been too bad. But scientists assure us that will change. At some point, there will be a major seismic event along the west coast. It is only a matter of time.
Unfortunately, the mainstream media in the United States pays very little attention to seismic activity around the rest of the world unless it happens in a heavily populated area. But the truth is that we have been witnessing some very unusual things lately.
For example, a volcanic eruption off the coast of Japan has created a brand new Island called “Niijima” that is literally eating another small volcanic island next to it…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Dramatic Decline in Muslim Refugees Accepted Into Denmark
The Danish government has largely stopped allowing refugees from Muslim countries into Denmark as part of its yearly refugee since 2006, according to a new Justice Ministry report. The report showed that Muslim refugees are almost never among the 500 refugees the Scandinavian country accepts each year as part of its refugee quota list compiled by UNHRC…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Italy Has Rescued 4,000 Migrants in 48 Hours
Alfano says emergency ‘increasingly serious’
(ANSA) — Rome, April 9 — The Italian authorities have rescued around 4,000 migrants over the past 48 hours, Interior Minister Angelino Alfano said early on Wednesday. The minister added that at least one person had been found dead aboard one of the multitude of rescued boats. Late on Tuesday Alfano organized a meeting with police, Navy and coast guard officials participating in the rescue-and-surveillance Mare Nostrum operation to deal with the emergency caused by a upswing in mass migrant arrivals in recent days.
“There is no stop to the arrivals and the emergency is increasingly serious,” Alfano said on Italian radio. Tens of thousands of migrants arrive in Italy from North Africa every year, and many others die attempting the hazardous crossing, which they often try in rickety, overcrowded boats.
Following two migrant-boat disasters in October 2013 in which around 400 people died, Italy set up the Mare Nostrum operation to prevent further deaths at sea.
Alfano said Wednesday that a total of 15,000 migrants have landed on Italy’s coasts since the beginning of this year. He said that an estimated 300,000-600,000 more are currently ready to depart from Libya, adding that “this is a conservative estimate, as confirmed by European (Home Affairs) Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom”.
Late Tuesday The Italian Navy’s San Giorgio ship helped four overcrowded boats with port authority vessels, rescuing over 1,000 people including women and children, who did not have life jackets.
The patrol vessel Siro rescued 113 people with the help of merchant ship City of Sylon.
The Espero frigate declared a situation of emergency overnight when a boat with 261 people onboard sent out a distress signal. The immigrants were rescued early Wednesday.
The San Giorgio is sailing towards the Sicilian port of Augusta to drop off the migrants.
Coast guard vessels also rescued 200 people, including women and children, on a rickety boat off Calabria.
Someone on board the boat called port authorities to ask for help and the vessel was rescued off Roccella Jonica, where the immigrants are scheduled to arrive on Wednesday.
Furthermore, late on Tuesday the ships Maestrale, Euro and Foscari took to the ports of Pozzallo and Augusta 1,049 migrants rescued on April 7 and 8.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy Rescues 4,000 Migrants in 48 Hours, Calls for Help From EU
(ANSAmed) — ROME — Italy issued a fresh call for help from the European Union Wednesday after rescuing more than 4,000 migrants in 48 hours. Interior Minister Angelino Alfano said in a radio interview that most migrants now disembarking on Italy’s shores are political asylum seekers, and Europe must give Italy a bigger hand in processing and relocating them. “Hundreds of thousands are in Libya waiting to get on a boat”, Alfano told Sole 24 Ore financial paper’s Radio24.
The minister’s comments followed on news that Italian authorities rescued some 4,000 migrants off several unseaworthy boats in the past 48 hours. Every year, tens of thousands of migrants arrive in Italy, which is the first landfall for those trying to reach Europe by boat from North Africa. Many die while attempting the hazardous crossing in rickety, overcrowded vessels after being charged exorbitant prices by human traffickers.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Mediterranean Illegal Italian Navy Takes 4,000 People on Boats
With the better weather in the spring, the number of refugees in the Mediterranean is growing rapidly. In the last two days alone, attacked the Italian Navy 4000 people from partially unseaworthy boats. “The state of emergency is getting bigger,” complains Interior Minister Alfano.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Voices: Another Wave of Illegal Immigration May be Near
Meanwhile, there is growing consensus that changes in the economies of Latin America and the U.S. are creating the perfect climate for another wave of undocumented immigrants racing north.
A report released last week by the Inter-American Development Bank raises serious questions about the future of Latin American economies.
A slowdown in the Chinese economy would lower commodity prices around the world, which would hammer Latin American countries that for years have reaped profits selling to the Chinese.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
‘Gender Gap’ Fraud Backfires on Obama
The so-called wage gap is the ultimate apples-to-oranges comparison, using data compiled in a 2010 report by the U.S. Census Bureau. The major problem with the report is that it lumped the data on all jobs together, making no distinction between professions, or other controlling factors such as experience, age, educational level, marital status or personal choice.
When such control factors are introduced, as a 2009 study compiled by the Labor Department analyzing more than 50 peer-reviewed papers reveals, any existing wage gap virtually disappears. In fact for the Millennial Generation, a childless woman in her 20s living in a metropolitan setting makes about 8 percent more than her male counterpart. The 2009 research corroborates a 2005 study by the National Bureau of Economic Research.
Not that it matters to Democrats or the president.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Netherlands: Amsterdam Gets First Home Care Organisation for Gay Patients
A special home nursing organisation for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender patients is being launched in Amsterdam on Thursday. Gay Care Amsterdam says it wants to help people who feel they have to hide photographs of their dead partner or face discriminatory remarks from home helps.
‘In a traditional home nursing, you can end up with helps who don’t accept you because of their religion or culture and are not afraid of letting you know it,’ the Volkskrant quotes company founder Ed Sinke as saying.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Thinking About a Majority-Minority Shift Leads to More Conservative Views
Facing the prospect of racial minority groups becoming the overall majority in the United States leads White Americans to lean more toward the conservative end of the political spectrum, according to research. The findings suggest that increased diversity in the United States could actually lead to a wider partisan divide, with more White Americans expressing support for conservative policies.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
With disasters around the world— wars, earthquakes, epidemics, famines— one would assume that the UN had its hands full. Instead, the UN gives priority to promoting abortion, homosexuality and birth control.
The UN agency, UN Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA) is the paramount agency at the UN pushing sexual issues. Without exaggeration, the UNFPA is downright sinister. In 2008, UNPPA spent $165.1 million on “reproductive health” (i.e. abortion.)
In December, 2012, UNFPA hosted a “Global Youth Forum”in Bali. The final declaration featured a call for abortion-on-demand, “gay, lesbian and transgender rights,” and legalized prostitution.
When UNFPA presented these results to the UN General Assembly, which is more representative of the popular will, the latter barely even acknowledged the document. In fact, UN diplomats refused to even officially “take note” of the document. They knew it was a set up by UNFPA.
Delegates to the UN General Assembly have become weary of the UNFPA’s harsh manipulation and insistence that abortion and sexual rights be introduced into countries which have no wish to go in this direction. Yet UNFPA continues relentlessly in pursuit of these issues.
This UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights has an obsession with lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and trans- gender (LGBT) rights.
The agency employs more than 850 staff and includes a work force of some 240 international human rights officers. OHCHR has produced a 60-page booklet entitled: Born Free and Equal which falsely states that UN treaties provide “core legal obligations” regarding homosexuality, which included asylum for LGBT people, as well a requirement to extend marriage to same-sex couples.
| [Return to headlines] |
Heartbleed Internet Bug: Pretext for Web Lockdown?
The Heartbleed bug is being described as the most critical security flaw to hit the web since its inception, a crisis that could lay the groundwork for massive government regulation and censorship of the Internet.
“Millions of websites may have been leaking critically sensitive data for the past two years, thanks to a devastating flaw in the OpenSSL software many sites use to encrypt and transmit data,” reports Yahoo Tech, as experts warned web users to change all their passwords immediately in a bid to protect themselves from a vulnerability that could have allowed hackers to infiltrate millions of email accounts, sensitive tax records and a myriad of other private data.
“Catastrophic is the right word. On the scale of one to 10, this is an 11,” said security expert Bruce Schneier.
However, virtually no one has mentioned the elephant in the living room — the possibility that Heartbleed could have been the dirty work of the NSA and the US government, launched as both a massive snooping tool and as a pretext to implement draconian web regulation and censorship.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Heartbleed Bug: Public Urged to Reset All Passwords
Several tech firms are urging people to change all their passwords after the discovery of a major security flaw.
The Yahoo blogging platform Tumblr has advised the public to “change your passwords everywhere — especially your high-security services like email, file storage and banking”.
Security advisers have given similar warnings about the Heartbleed Bug.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Is Lying About Climate Change Okay?
The price tag reveals the IPCC’s real agenda, the transfer of funds from industrial nations to those less developed. It’s about the money and always has been.
As the latest IPCC summary of its report has garnered the usual verbatim media coverage of its outlandish predictions, The Heartland Institute has released its own 1,062 page report from the “Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change (NIPCC) called “Climate Change Reconsidered II: Biological Impacts. An 18-page summery is available.
Among its findings:
- Atmospheric carbon dioxide is not a pollutant.
- There is little or no risk of increasing food insecurity due to global warming or rising atmospheric CO2 levels.
- Rising temperatures and atmospheric CO2 levels do not pose a significant threat to aquatic life.
- A modest warming of the planet will result in a net reduction of human mortality from temperature-related events.
Based on hundreds of peer-reviewed studies, the NIPCC report is free of the lies that are found in the IPCC report whose studies have been, at best, dubious, and at worst, deliberately deceptive.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Meet Your Unborn Child — Before it’s Even Conceived
A service that creates digital embryos by virtually mixing two people’s DNA will allow parents to screen out genetic disorders — and perhaps much more.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Squirting Moons Face Off in Race to Find Alien Life
Ice-bound seas just keep getting hotter — at least as candidates for life beyond Earth. Fresh discoveries have put two moons in our solar system neck and neck in the race.
In December, astronomers announced hints of watery plumes spurting from Jupiter’s large moon Europa, potentially giving us a peek into a vast ocean likely to exist beneath its ice. Saturn’s moon Enceladus stole back the limelight last week, when NASA reported firm evidence of an ocean linked to geysers at its south pole.
“Europa is a good-sized moon, but Enceladus is tiny. That thing should be frozen solid and dead as a doorbell,” says NASA program scientist Curt Niebur, who heads the committee that will evaluate science instruments for a Europa mission. “Instead it’s incredibly lively. That’s amazing.
“They’re both unbelievably good candidates, which is the shocking thing: that we have not just one but two candidates for seeking life beyond Earth.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Why Does Airline Food Taste So Bad? Turns Out it’s Your Fault
Why does airplane food taste so bad? No matter what it is—fish, chicken, even pasta—every meal served in the air seems to taste undeniably worse than its on-the-ground counterpart. To get to the bottom of this dilemma, we consulted Grant Mickels, the executive chef for culinary development of Lufthansa’s LSG Sky Chefs—who had some surprising revelations. Namely: That the food’s not really the problem here.
“At 35,000 feet, the first thing that goes is your sense of taste,” explained Mickels. He explained that the quality of the food and its ingredients isn’t to blame, it’s the way you experience it. It’s even been tested.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Will We Ever… Detect Other Universes?
We think of our Universe as everything there ever was, is, and will be.
But according to some researchers, there might not just be many universes, but an infinite number of them. This notion of multiple universes — sometimes dubbed the multiverse for short — isn’t some crazy idea concocted by bored physicists. While the science is undeniably speculative, they emerge from fairly well-grounded theories. And recent discoveries have made headlines for supporting the idea. There’s a lot that physicists don’t yet know, but the existence of the multiverse is possible, and some might say probable.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
So, the University of Brandeis has withdrawn its award of an Honorary Degree to Ayaan Hirsi Ali. While the strength of the growing islamic lobby in the US is disturbing, it should be no surprise that it is Brandeis that is involved. It should be recalled that in the mid 1930s. Brandeis was one of the US Universities to which the Frankfurt School socialists fled after they were driven out of Germany by Hitler. Once established, they continued to formulate the philosophy of cultural marxism which, presumably that university still espouses today. I am upset at the insult to Ms Hirsi Ali who clearly deserves better.
For what it’s worth, this is what I wrote to the president of Brandeis:
Frederick Lawrence
President
Brandeis University
Dear Mr. Lawrence:
Your recent decision to rescind the honorary doctorate for Ayaan Hirsi Ali was wrong. By doing so, Brandeis University has bolstered the forces that would stifle our free speech, and in particular, has made the reasoned and articulate criticism of Islam, for which Hirsi Ali is well known, exceedingly difficult and costly—both on a personal and professional level.
Does Brandeis similarly censor speech critical of other ideologies? A look at the former recipients of honorary degrees indicates that the answer is negative.
If civilization is to make any progress at all, we must have open and frank discussions about the forces at work in the world today, not the least of which is Islam. The fruits of Islam are evident in the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia. Hirsi Ali has described this well, and she has personally suffered under an Islam-dominated society. She is abundantly qualified to speak and write as she does.
“Islamophobia” is a contrived term, designed to stifle any speech critical of Islam. The fact that Hirsi Ali’s detractors apply this term to her is evidence of their motivation, and also deflects any true discussion of the issues at hand. Personal and religious grievance mongering have no place in a university supposedly dedicated to pursuing religious freedom and free expression.
Brandeis University owes an apology to the dignified and eloquent Ayaan Hirsi Ali.