A mob of angry local residents in the Sanliurfa district of southeastern Turkey confronted and attacked a group of Syrian refugees that live among them. The Turkish locals accused the Syrians of beating up two of their children when the latter went to buy bread. Police prevented the mob from setting fire to the refugees’ residence.
In other news, according to the World Health Organization, the Ebola outbreak in West Africa may be out of control, and could result in a humanitarian catastrophe.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Caroline Glick, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, Jerry Gordon, LH, Paul Weston, Phyllis Chesler, Srdja Trifkovic, 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.
Italy: Govt Denies Tensions With Spending-Review Chief
‘We’ll do it with or without Cottarelli’ says Renzi
(ANSA) — Rome, July 31 — The spending review will get done, with or without its commissioner, Premier Matteo Renzi said Thursday.
“I respect (Carlo) Cottarelli. He will do what he has to do. But he is not the point. We will carry out the spending review with or without him, and we will stand by the numbers,” Renzi said amid reports of a rift between the two.
“After our spending review, our 16-billion-euro budget will bring the deficit to 2.3% of GDP,” Renzi promised.
Cottarelli was appointed last fall by Renzi’s predecessor, Enrico Letta, who asked the spending review commissioner to find savings to fund a cut in labor taxes in a bid to boost employment and stimulate Italy’s stagnant economy as it struggles to come out of its longest post-war recession.
Since his appointment, Cottarelli has come up with 32 possible places to cut public spending, earning himself the nickname of Mr. Scissors.
These range from the salaries of senior public officials to expensive real estate rentals for public agencies to street lighting to pensions. One of the clashes between Renzi and Cottarelli occurred over how to raise billions of euros needed to cover Renzi’s 80-euro monthly tax bonus for low-income earners and a 10% cut in the IRAP regional business tax. Cottarelli expected pensions would be cut, but the premier removed that option.
On Thursday, Renzi went on to say that his 80-euro bonus will be extended to 2015, and the money is there to cover it.
“We are certain we can cover the bonus, in spite of the nay-sayers,” he said.
On Thursday, however, Cottarelli said he was still working on the spending review and had “nothing to report”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Southern Italy Risks ‘Human-Industrial Desertification’
Svimez report says Italy ‘divided country’
(ANSA) — Rome, July 30 — Italy is a “divided country” and its south is facing possible human and industrial desertification, according to an industry and employment report released on Wednesday.
Svimez, a private association for development in Italy’s south, called the area “a land at risk of human industrial desertification where people continue to relocate, don’t have children and become poor”.
It added that, without assistance, this could lead to permanent underdevelopment.
The Svimez report compared national and regional GDPs, noting that southern regions underperform compared with the rest of Italy.
It said the south’s GDP dropped 3.5% in 2013, when Italy was in recession, compared to a 1.4% drop for the north.
It added that southern Italy’s GDP fell 13.3% between the start of the global economic crisis in 2008 and last year. According to Svimenz, this continual underperformance has caused Italy to become is “divided and unequal where the south slips further into withdrawal”.
Notable losses in the South’s manufacturing and employment sectors were compared to the more prosperous center north and national average. Employment in Italy’s South was reported at 5.8 million, the lowest level since numbers available from 1977, with women continuing to hold even fewer jobs.
Svimez also cited more than double the number of impoverished families during 2007 to 2013, increasing from 443,000 to over one million.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
U.S. Adds 209,000 Jobs; Unemployment Inches Up to 6.2%
The economy continued to advance at a healthy pace in July, creating 209,000 jobs and adding to a string of positive economic news in recent weeks that suggests it is gaining momentum after years of lackluster growth following the recession.
The Labor Department said Friday that unemployment increased to 6.2 percent. Economists had been expecting the unemployment rate to hold steady at 6.1 percent. On the jobs numbers, the consensus among economists was an expectation of about 230,000 new jobs.
The average monthly gain in payrolls has been above 200,000 for the last six months, a healthy pace of job creation.
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Amerika: Imagine a World Without Her
by Servando Gonzalez
Dinesh D’Souza, the same guy who two years ago gave us the inane documentary film 2016: Obama’s America, now as given us another creation: America: Imagine A World Without Her.
According to D’Souza, there are two basic views of the United States: America the Oppressive Nation and America the Exceptional Nation. In the typical Hollywood-style, stupid documentary for the brainless sheeple, D’Souza, as he did in his previous film, shows interviews of select, high profile “liberals” who dogmatically hold the first view (the bad guys wearing black hats) and then interviews some “conservatives” (the good guys sporting white hats) who critique the first view and, like D’Souza himself, affirm the second.
A long time ago, the logical positivist philosophers stated that when two people don’t agree, it is because either they are calling two different things by the same name, or are using two different names to denote the same thing. According to them, all differences of opinion are based on semantics.
Though I don’t fully agree with them, I think that in this case their logic is sound. Both of the groups who seem to disagree are right about the subject of the polemic. The problem is that, contrary to what both “liberals” and “conservatives” believe, there are two Americas.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Communists Count Upon Internal Demoralization of the U.S
The Communists have fulfilled their 45 goals for the takeover of America with a “comfortable merger” between Capitalism and Communism into “World Socialism.” Channeling Reality.com says Mikhail Gorbachev, an avowed communist heads the Gorbachev Foundation that now resides in the Presidio in San Francisco- once a posh and desired military post in San Francisco for the Sixth US Army. However, it was AmicusVeritas.org that reported land-deal negotiations were being made possible by Nancy Pelosi — a scallywag and formerly Miss 1955 Lube Rack and her “partners.” Miss 1955 Lube Rack is now known in Congress as Nancy Pelosi who was elected in 1988 from that district. You’ll recall she is the representative that said we’d have to read the Affordable Health Care Act (Obamacare) so we’d know what was in it. She was known as Nancy D’Alesandro in 1955 and started at the gas station pumping ethyl with the boys and in one picture, she stands in a strapless swimming suit between four guys in appropriate lube uniforms.
Democrat Scallywags All Connected
And then before I could get this information included and sent off to be printed, there was more information about Cattleman Bundy in Nevada and how Senate Majoritry Leader Harry Reid and his son are accused of trying to make huge profits off of Bundy’s ranch in these land deals. And if you google the Tonopah Solar Company in Reid’s State of Nevada you’ll learn it is getting a $737 million loan from Obama’s Department of Energy that will produce a 110 megawatt power system and will employ 145 permanent workers costing the taxpayer just $16 million per job. One of the investment partners in this endeavor is Pacific Corporate Group (PCG) with Ron Pelosi, the brother to Nancy’s husband. And on 7/1/2014 Freebeacon.com had a story by Elizabeth Harrington about Nancy’s son, Paul Pelosi, Jr. charged with Securities Fraud. He cofounded a company called Natural Blue Resources claimed by the SEC as being run by criminals.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
I asked Jim, “Do you really think all this harmony and cooperation between the U.S. and the former Soviet Union is just an accident? I am going to give you a tape of Norman Dodd (staff director of the Congressional Special Committee to Investigate Tax-Exempt Foundations) revealing that in the Fall of 1953, Ford Foundation president H. Rowan Gaither told Dodd the following: ‘Of course, you know that we at the executive level here were, at one time or another, active in either the OSS, the State Department, or the European Economic Administration. During those times, and without exception, we operated under directives issued by the White House. We are continuing to be guided by just such directives…The substance (of these directives) was to the effect that we should make every effort to so alter life in the United States as to make possible a comfortable merger with the Soviet Union.”
“And the Gorbachev Foundation is part of the ‘comfortable merger’?” Jim asked. I nodded my head affirmatively and went on to explain the matter even further. “To get an idea of the mentality of these people,” I said, “do you remember that Gorby’s Foundation sponsored a ‘State of the World’ Forum?” Jim indicated that he had seen something about it in the news some years ago, so I said, “One of the speakers at the first Forum in 1995 was Sam Keen, and he evoked tremendous applause when he stated, ‘If we cut the world’s population by 90%, there won’t be enough people left to do ecological damage.’ Jim, think about what it would take to cut the world’s population by 90%.”
I also asked Jim to think about what it would take for the former CIA director William Colby (who disappeared some years ago and was found dead) to tell John DeCamp: “Sometimes there are forces too powerful for us to whip them individually, in the time frame that we would like…The best we might be able to do sometimes, is to point out the truth and then step aside. That is where I think we are now. For your own personal safety and survival, step aside.”
A “comfortable merger” between Capitalism and Communism into World Socialism would require the American society moving to the left. But to cause this movement to occur without arousing too much suspicion, the power elite developed a strategy of promoting radical left extremism so that its own initiatives would not appear to be leftist. In 1968, Random House published James Simon Kunen’s THE STRAWBERRY STATEMENT, in which Kunen tells of an SDS (Students for a Democratic Society) strategy meeting he attended where a student was giving a report about an SDS convention the student had recently attended. The student’s report revealed that “…men from Business International Roundtables…tried to buy up a few radicals. These men are the world’s industrialists and they convene to decide how our lives are gong to go. They’re the left wing of the ruling class. They offered to finance our demonstrations in Chicago. We were also offered ESSO (Rockefeller) money. They want us to make a lot of radical commotion so they can look more in the center as they move more to the left.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Dogs of War, Architects of Terror
“Military men are just dumb, stupid animals to be used as pawns in foreign policy.” — Henry Kissinger, former Secretary of State, as quoted by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein in “The Final Days”
All modern wars are engineered for profit, business posturing, and global imperialism. There are no “honest” wars today. This is one message that I’ve worked for years to instill within my listening audience. It is frivolity to sign up for the military and go to war because of blind patriotism and “love of country.” As great as it would be to be able to pronounce that fighting “enemies” abroad equates with “serving one’s country”, the truth is much different. “Enemies” are regularly defined — and redefined — by a government that has proven itself to be deceptive, hostile to human life and individual freedom, and hostile to the national interests of the American people. Anyone who doesn’t see this truth, is either a pitiful victim of the Establishment media propaganda outlets, or is choosing to live with their heads buried deep in the sand. If they don’t wake up soon, they may find themselves literally buried in the sand — perhaps, Middle Eastern sand.
We’ve oft heard the repeated adage that to understand the world around us, one only need to look at the players and “follow the money”. If trails of money and blood are to be followed, the drivers of the wagon, down that wellworn path, are a clan called the Kagans.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Enemies on the Left, False Friends on the Right, Part 6
Their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent blood: their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; wasting and destruction are in their paths. -Isaiah 59:7
Heritage and NAFTA
The idea of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) originated with Heritage Fellow and CNP member, Richard Allen, and has long been advocated by Heritage policy analysts. The idea of creating a North American free trade zone from the Yukon to the Yucatan was first proposed by Heritage Distinguished Fellow Richard Allen in the late 1970s, refined by then Presidential candidate Ronald Reagan, and further developed in a major 1986 Heritage Foundation study.
The Free Trade Agreement got the ball rolling for the development of skills standards by the newly formed National Skills Standards Board. It was endorsed by the U.S. Labor Department Secretary’s Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills (SCANS) study originated under Labor Secretary Elizabeth Dole. This eventually led to the School-to-Work Opportunities Act and the dumbing down of American education curriculum for the global workforce training.
With all of this emphasis on “standards” it should be pointed out that NAFTA allows exchanges of all categories of professionals, with those coming from Mexico and Canada having met their own countries’ standards, not necessarily equal to those required in the United States. If this process evolves the way most of these exchange processes have in the past, that disparity will be addressed in one of two ways — by changing U.S. standards to match foreign standards, or by altering both NAFTA nations’ standards to align with international standards like ISO 9000 or ISO 1400 monitored by UNESCO. This should be of concern to professional organizations in the United States. See page 315 in The Deliberate Dumbing Down of America to see the impact on education in the US by the signing the North American Free Trade Agreement.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Enemies on the Left, False Friends on the Right, Part 7
“There are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations.” — James Madison, Speech to the Virginia Ratifying Convention, June 16, 1788
American Legislative Exchange Council
Paul Weyrich also founded American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and was Director/President from 1975-1978. ALEC first came into being in 1973 in Chicago as the “Conservative Caucus of State Legislators.” In 1975, with the support of the American Conservative Union, ALEC registered as a federal non-profit agency. Through the corporate-funded American Legislative Exchange Council, global corporations and state politicians vote behind closed doors to try to rewrite state laws that govern your rights. These so-called “model bills” reach into almost every area of American life and, more often than not, directly benefit huge corporations. In ALEC’s own words, corporations have “a VOICE and a VOTE” on specific changes to the law that are then proposed in your state, and sometimes in the federal legislature.
The Madison Group, the predecessor to the State Policy Network (SPN — mini Heritage Foundation’s in each state), was “launched by ALEC,” and housed in the Chicago-based Heartland Institute, so says a 1991 report by the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy (NCRP). Heartland is funded by the Koch brothers, David and Charles, the former being a member of the globalist Aspen Institute. Remember Aspen Institute’s Director was none other than Maurice Strong, author and promoter of UN Agenda 21. NCRP also reported that the Madison Group’s annual meeting was, at that time, “sponsored by Heritage Foundation and the Free Congress Foundation,” which was led by Paul Weyrich…
ALEC has long promoted an Article V Constitutional Convention using the excuse that we need a Balanced Budget Amendment. If you’ve read Publius Huldah’s articles on same, here and here, then you understand what a terrible danger the BBA actually is to our Constitution. ALEC even produced a “Resolution for Limitations on Authority of Delegates to a ‘Convention for Proposing Amendments’ (Article V, United States of America Constitution).” ALEC claims this resolution will curtail and eliminate the possibility of a “runaway convention.” The resolution restricts delegates to work only on those amendments authorized in their legislative instructions and calls for the immediate recall of any delegate that works on an unauthorized amendment.” This is total balderdash! Once a Convention is opened, all is fair game!
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Eric Cantor: Ex-Majority Leader, To Leave Congress Early
Representative Eric Cantor, the Virginia Republican whose last day as House majority leader was Thursday, has told The Richmond Times-Dispatch that he is resigning his seat effective Aug. 18 in hopes that his successor will be able to participate in the lame-duck session after the November elections.
Mr. Cantor, 51, lost the Republican primary in his district in June to David Brat, a little-known and more conservative candidate with Tea Party backing. Days after that stunning loss, Mr. Cantor said he would resign as the No. 2 House Republican to prevent an intraparty fight from festering in the months before the midterm elections.
But the news that he would give up his seat early was a surprise.
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Obama’s Utopian Statism and the Lapdog Media
Christi Parsons, president of the White House Correspondents’ Association, emitted a toothless protest, saying: “We think these fundraisers ought to be open to at least some scrutiny, because the president’s participation in them is fundamentally public in nature. Denying access to him in that setting undermines the public’s ability to independently monitor and see what its government is doing.” You think?
Then why do you all continue to cover for this man and his policies? Why do you never hold him accountable for his ongoing whopper that he is running the “most transparent administration in history”?
The reason is that you are his ideological soul mates, and that trumps all else, including your sacred, selectively enforced motto, “The public has a right to know.”…
It was reported that he said at his Seattle fundraiser, “Part of people’s concern is just the sense that around the world, the old order isn’t holding and we’re not quite where we need to be in terms of a new order that’s based on a different set of principles, that’s based on a sense of common humanity, that’s based on economies that work for all people.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Tesla Breaks Ground as Nevada Takes Lead for New Factory
Tesla Motors Inc. said it’s broken ground near Reno for a $5 billion battery plant, signaling Nevada has vaulted to the lead of five states vying for the so-called gigafactory and its promise of 6,500 jobs.
The electric-car maker said it’s still reviewing sites in California, Texas, Arizona and New Mexico, each of which is competing to snare the economic development plum, described as the single biggest new industrial project in the U.S.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Humanity needs to take a look at the fascistic, utterly immoral objectives and practices of Islam, and understand that it is at war with us.
In the July 24 edition of The Wall Street Journal there was a commentary, “Wanted: Converts to Judaism” by the chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary, Arnold M. Eisen. I thought to myself that this was an extraordinary time to be suggesting conversion to a faith that is literally under attack in Israel and being attacked by the reemergence of anti-Semitism in Europe. Here in America we are witnessing the most pro-Islamic and anti-Semitic administration in the history of nation.
In the wake of the Holocaust following World War Two what anti-Semitism existed in the U.S. gave way to an era of good will toward Jews. In Europe open expressions of anti-Semitism were out of favor. Eisen’s concern is the extensive inter-marriage between Christians and Jews in which Judaism is often abandoned in our historically Christian society. The news about Jews in the post-war years was largely about the nation of Israel and the wars it fought to re-establish and maintain the Jewish state.
What those wars should have told us was that Islamic hatred of Judaism extends to Christianity as well.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Britain First Leader Resigns Over ‘Unchristian’ Mosque Invasions
July 28, 2014: The founder of the far-right Britain First organization has resigned, cut funding and closed the group’s Belfast offices over its “unchristian” paramilitary-style “mosque invasions.”
Jim Dowson, a former church minister and British National Party (BNP) member, told the UK’s Mirror newspaper the raids are “provocative and counterproductive.”
He said “racists and extremists” were being attracted to the organization, which has become the biggest far-right group in the UK following the decline of the BNP and the English Defence League (EDL). Dowson left the BNP in 2010 to form the group, which identifies itself as a Christian organization opposing the rise of radical Islam.
Formed from other erstwhile BNP and EDL members, Britain First members made headlines recently by invading mosques dressed in paramilitary-style uniforms and threatening imams. A mosque in Crayford, Kent, was targeted for its separate entrances for men and women.
Dowson described the invasions as “unacceptable and unchristian,” adding: “Most of the Muslims in this country are fine. They are worried about extremists the same as us. So going into their mosques and stirring them up and provoking them is political madness and a bit rude,” he told the Mirror…
In Dowson’s official resignation letter, published on the Britain First website, he set out what had been his initial hopes for the group.
“Back when BF started, I was excited to see a Nazi-free, non-racist, sensible patriotic group emerge from the chaos of Britain’s right wing political wilderness and from the Godless, neo-Nazi, racist ranks of the NF (National Front) and BNP, and thankfully the rise of Britain First has sounded the death knell for the EDL/BNP and their likes,” Dowson wrote.
Britain First claimed Dowson was a victim of a media and far-left campaign against him, but admitted the invasion of mosques had triggered his resignation.
“The media have put him under enormous pressure recently regarding our invasions of mosques across Britain and understandably this has forced Jim to distance himself from these activities, notwithstanding the fact that these mosque invasions have cause considerable exposure of issues such as Muslim female genital mutilation, second class treatment of women, extremism and grooming gangs,” the group claimed.
| — Hat tip: LH | [Return to headlines] |
Displaced British Schoolchildren?
The recent allegations of a number of non faith UK Birmingham schools being infiltrated by Islamic extremists who sought to displace the staff, and their teaching methods, and impose their own, speaks of a religion who are very ‘dedicated’ and ‘motivated’ in teaching all British schoolchildren their Muslim values.
Choosing schools who had received a bad ofsted inspection, and using parents who were hard line Muslim supporters, it is reported that tactics were used to push out the staff by criticizing the leadership of the school, which could then ultimately turn the schools into ‘academies’ outside of local authority guidelines, and hence give more freedom to impose their own values.
It is reported, that some of the reasoning in urging Muslim supporters to take part in the ploy was that schools were teaching their children Christian prayer, teaching about homosexuality, and corrupting Muslim children with sex education…
One of the problems with the false claim of there being 33 million Christians in the UK, is that in reality the majority now only have some sort of ‘spiritual’ belief in a God or an afterlife. Most of the 33 million do not live according to the spiritual laws of right and wrong, cause and effect, but fed by the humanist religion, and the breakdown of the Christian faith, embrace mankind’s 10,000 permissible so called freedoms often taught to them in schools and presented to them as ‘equality’ or love for one another. What price has the UK paid for falling away from certain standards which were once in place?
Decency, respect, morality, integrity and self-control are the enemy and the terrorist that is persecuted in the school and the workplace today. They are virtues built upon the basis of Christianity, whether you consider yourself religious or not. It is Christianity that is the most hated, and despised, despite its non violent stance on issues which contradict its values.
The British Humanist Society focused on the very real danger of violent extremism and displacement displayed in the Muslim faith, to tar all religions with the same brush, and to distract society away from its own liberal indoctrination.
The next aim is to ban all faith schools.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Renzi Plays Down First Defeat Over Senate Reform
Amendment to contested bill extends powers to ‘ethical’ issues
(ANSA) — Rome, July 31 — Premier Matteo Renzi on Thursday played down his government’s first defeat over its bill to overhaul the Senate.
Earlier on Thursday the Upper House approved an amendment extending the responsibilities of the revamped assembly to “ethically sensitive issues” in a secret vote, with 154 Senators in favour, 147 against and two abstentions. Renzi had recently said he would not be surprised if secret votes enabled some lawmakers, including rebels within his centre-left Democratic Party (PD), to break the party line and help pass amendments contrasting with the executive’s position.
He said he was confident the government would be able to fix any “jokes” played on it when the bill reaches the Lower House.
So while admitting “bitterness” about the defeat, he stressed Thursday that he did not think the defeat was “an internal PD affair”.
“On the contrary, I’ll bet it was the others,” he said referring to opponents to bill within other parties backing it, including ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi’s opposition centre-right Forza Italia (FI) party. He added that there could be no comparisons to the dramatic internal revolt that saw 101 PD lawmakers sink the party’s official candidate to become Italian president, Romano Prodi, in a secret vote last year, paving the way for Giorgio Napolitano to reluctantly accept a second term as head of State. “This isn’t a remake of the 101, although it leaves a bitter taste in the mouth,” he said. Renzi wants the bill, which will see the Senate turned into a leaner assembly of local-government representatives with minimal lawmaking powers to save money and make passing legislation easier, to clear its first reading in the Upper House before parliament’s summer recess next month.
But the bill is facing staunch opposition from the left-wing SEL party and the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S), while minorities within the PD and FI are also against it.
The bill’s progress on the floor of the Senate has been badly hit by filibustering and the presentation of almost 8,000 amendments.
Senate Speaker Piero Grasso, however, has started to apply the kangaroo rule, which says that the outcome of voting on one amendment automatically counts for all similar amendments.
This made it possible to knock down over 1,800 of the amendments on Tuesday and Wednesday, amid furious protests from SEL and M5S lawmakers.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Renzi Denies Being Soft on Russia
Premier says allegation should be ‘returned to sender’
(ANSA) — Rome, July 31 — Premier Matteo Renzi on Thursday denied reports that his government was soft on Russia, after the EU increased sanctions against Moscow over its support for separatist rebels in Ukraine. “The accusations from some international newspapers that we are obliging to Russia is one to return to sender,” Renzi told a Democratic Party meeting.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Public Kindergartens Available in Just 50% of Municipalities
Facilities differ by geographical area
(ANSA) — Rome, July 29 — Families with small children can access public or subsidised kindergarten facilities in just over 50% of municipalities, national statistics agency Istat said in a report published Tuesday.
In the 2012-2013 school year 50.7% of municipalities offered such support to families, compared to 32.8% in 2003-2004, Istat said.
However the distribution of services varied according to geographical area, with the percentage of municipalities providing their own or subsidised kindergarten facilities ranging from 22.5% in the south to 76.3% in the north east.
The percentage of children aged 0-2 enrolled at public or subsidised kindergarten facilities also differed by area, from 3.6% in the south to 17.5% in the centre.
In absolute terms 198,705 children attended public or subsidised kindergarten facilities across Italy in the 2012-2013 school year, up 36% over 2003-2004, Istat said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Maradona 39-Mln Tax Bill Suspended Pending Court Hearing
Soccer star’s assets safe for now
(ANSA) — Naples, August 1 — Naples tax officials on Friday suspended Argentine soccer great Diego Maradona’s multi-million outstanding tax debt, pending a court decision on the matter.
The Italian inland revenue agency last October served Maradona with a bill for outstanding taxes of 39 million euros in unpaid taxes on off-the-books earnings in sponsorship and merchandising deals in his late 1980s glory-day earnings with Napoli.
Maradona, who played for the Italian club between 1984 and 1991, is revered in Naples for helping the city’s soccer team win two Serie A titles and the UEFA Cup.
The former player had a diamond-studded earring and a Rolex watch seized, among other assets, on past visits to Italy.
Bailiffs wanting to seize any more of the soccer star’s assets must now await a court hearing on his tax dispute case, set for October 9.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Swedes to Remove ‘The Concept of Race’ From All Legislation
The Swedish government plans to remove the concept of race from all legislation, claiming that accepting that there are different races means one race is superior to another.
However, the National Afro-Swedish Association has criticised the proposal, arguing that the concept of race is important in order to highlight discrimination.
Swedish Integration Minister Erik Ullenhag told Sveriges Television (SVT) this week that: “We know that there aren’t really different human races. We also know that the fundamental grounds of racism are based on the belief that there are different races, and that belonging to a race makes people behave in a certain way, and that some races are superior to others.”
He said the “concept of race” had a negative connotation and was likely to stir up prejudice. Therefore he will remove the word from Swedish legislation.
“Legislation should not include the word race, if we argue that there are not actually races. I have wanted to remove the concept of race for a long time,” the minister said…
However SVT reports that Zakaria Zouhir, a Left Party activist and President of the National Afro-Swedish Association (ASR), opposed the Government’s decision on the concept of race: “It is an important tool to highlight the structural discrimination that exists in society. And that affects a significant portion of society’s citizens, solely because of their skin colour.”
| — Hat tip: Paul Weston | [Return to headlines] |
Libya: 214 Dead: 1,000 Wounded in Clashes, Health Ministry
Over the past weeks in Tripoli and Benghazi
(ANSAmed) — ROME, AUGUST 1 — The number of victims from clashes in Tripoli and Benghazi over the past few weeks has risen to 214 while 981 others have been injured, the Libyan health ministry was quoted as saying by local reports on Friday.
The toll was reportedly last updated on July 30.
In particular, 102 people died in Tripoli, 77 in Benghazi and 35 in Marj. The data released by the ministry is based on the toll provided by local hospitals.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Libya: Cabinet, Parliament to Take Office Saturday in Tobruk
Security measures ahead of the session, death toll rises to 214
(ANSAmed) — ROME — The new Libyan House of Representatives elected on June 25 will probably take office Saturday in Tobruk, and not on August 4 in Tripoli, as requested Thursday by the outgoing National Congress.
Interim Premier Abdullah al Thani is in nearby al Bayda “to follow preparations for the meeting of the House of Representatives Saturday in Tobruk”, according to the interior ministry’s Facebook profile quoted by the Libya Herald.
The security department of the city, 50 km east of Benghazi, is also working on security ahead of the first session.
Meanwhile, according to reports posted on social networks, over 100 lawmakers have already reached Tobruk, the legal number required by the Constitution for the first sessions.
Initially the transfer of power had been scheduled on August 4 in Benghazi but violence in the main city of Cyrenaica led to the change in plans.
Meanwhile the number of victims from clashes in Tripoli and Benghazi over the past few weeks has risen to 214 while 981 others have been injured, the Libyan health ministry was quoted as saying by local reports on Friday. The toll was reportedly last updated on July 30. In particular, 102 people died in Tripoli, 77 in Benghazi and 35 in Marj. The data released by the ministry is based on the toll provided by local hospitals.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Caroline Glick: Congress, Obama and the Way to Defeat Hamas
Why did Hamas attack the Givati forces, kill two soldiers and capture 2nd. Lt. Hadar Goldin Friday morning in violation of the US-UN brokered 72-hour cease fire?
Hamas acted as it did, because it thinks it can get away with it. And Hamas thinks that it can get away with it because Hamas is convinced that it will win this war.
And as long as Hamas is convinced that it will win this war, it will continue to attack, no matter what its situation is on the ground in Gaza. It will continue to attack Israel no matter what Israel does.
As a consequence, there is no way for Israel to disengage. There can never be a ceasefire with Hamas for as long as Hamas is convinced that it will win this war.
To understand why Hamas is convinced that it will win, it is necessary to understand first why Hamas is fighting in the first place.
Hamas went to war with one goal, to reopen Gaza to the world.
Hamas is fighting to open Gaza’s border with Egypt, to end Israel’s maritime blockade of the Gaza coast, and to reinstate its lines of finance.
Today Hamas’s leadership, snug in their multi-million dollar villas in Qatar and well-equipped bunkers under Shifa Hospital in Gaza City are that they will achieve their goal. They will win.
And as a consequence, they will not stop attacking Israel…
| — Hat tip: Caroline Glick | [Return to headlines] |
Did Kidnapped Israeli Soldier Follow IDF Hannibal Protocol, Blow Himself and Kidnappers Up?
by Phyllis Chesler
Shortly after this latest exercise in futility (aka a cease-fire) began, Hamas fired at Israeli civilians and IDF targets, killing two Israeli soldiers—and perhaps kidnapping a third soldier, 23 year-old Second Lieutenant Hadar Goldin, from Kfar Saba.
A Hamas homicide (suicide) bomber near Rafah is suspected in this attack upon the Givati Brigade.
Secretary of State John Kerry found the kidnapping and truce-breaking “outrageous” and an “affront.” The EU did not condemn Hamas but “regrets the breakdown of the cease-fire.” Egypt has postponed the planned “peace” talks. The United Nations claims that it does not know which side is telling the truth.
However, Hamas may have captured a soldier who had orders to blow himself and his kidnappers up.
The IDF is resolved to avoid giving Hamas the “weapon” of an Israeli captive like Gilad Shalit, an IDF soldier kidnapped in 2006. Thus, Goldin may have not been captured— or, rather, may not have been captured alive. He may have been under orders to blow himself and his kidnappers up with his own grenade; IDF troops may have obeyed an order to fire upon the vehicle in which the kidnappers were fleeing. Goldin and his abductors may be wounded or dead. Or not. The exact scenario is not yet entirely clear. But one thing is: From now on, the Hannibal Protocol will be strictly enforced.
Earlier today, Israel Radio military correspondent, Carmella Menashe reported that “the moment it was realized that Second Lieutenant Hadar Goldin may have been kidnapped the IDF engaged in massive fire in the area where the terrorists might be with Goldin.”…
| — Hat tip: Phyllis Chesler | [Return to headlines] |
Gaza Cease-Fire Collapses; Israeli Soldier is Captured
A newly agreed cease-fire in the Gaza conflict collapsed hours after it came into effect on Friday with the Israeli military announcing that a soldier appeared to have been captured by Palestinian militants who emerged from a tunnel near Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.
Gaza health officials said that 27 Palestinians were killed and more than 100 wounded as Israeli forces bombarded the area. Palestinian witnesses said by telephone that Israeli tank shells hit eastern Rafah as residents returned to inspect homes that they had evacuated.
Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, a spokesman for the Israeli military, said that government forces were moving to destroy a tunnel, as the terms of the cease-fire allowed for, when several militants came out of the ground.
| [Return to headlines] |
Hamas Propaganda War Being Waged on World’s Main Street
Even thousands of miles away from Gaza, citizens live in fear. And that’s just the way Western leaders want it. With their people living in fear, Western leaders escape citizen wrath for their lack of leadership in failing world economies.
The world is changing and rarely for the better. One of the biggest changes being that public policy is drafted not in parliaments, not by the European Union, the United Nations or a White House consumed with the destruction of America, but out on the streets with masked activists wearing balaclavas and traditional Arab keffiyeh, chanting “Israel must die”, “Long Live Palestine” and throwing rocks.
Truth is still the first casualty of war. Virtually forgotten courtesy of screaming newspaper and website headlines, the word ‘defense’ is completely missing from what is taking place in Gaza:…
Proof of Obama’s links to the anti-Semitic mobs come with his documented association to the anti-Semitic Code Pink, an anti-war organization that both participated in the Gaza flotillas and whose radical members offered themselves as “human shields” to a declining Hamas.
Code Pink co-founder Jodie Evans, an Obama bundler, was personally thanked by Obama at the White House on January 8, 2010, days after Code Pink’s Hamas trip. (Breitbart)
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Infant Among Casualties as Hamas Continues to Stage Attacks Using Human Shields
A baby was said to be among the fifteen killed when rocket fire hit a UN-school in the northern Gaza Strip city of Beit Hanoun. What remains unclear is whether the UNRWA school was hit by an IDF shell or Hamas rockets.
An IDF spokesman said of the incident, “The IDF is currently in the midst of combat with Hamas terrorists in Beit Hanoun who are using civilian infrastructure and international symbols as human shield. In the course of the afternoon, several rockets fired by Hamas from within the Gaza Strip landed in the Beit Hanoun area. The IDF is currently reviewing the incident.
According to IDF spokesperson Peter Lerner, the UNRWA facility had been ignoring demands to evacuate the shelter for the past three days. Additionally, Israel had provided a four hour humanitarian window between 10AM — 2PM local time specifically so UNRWA could evacuate the premises.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
We are witnessing Arab and Muslim war crimes on a never ending spiral of horror inflicted upon Israel’s civilian population as endless salvos of missiles fired by the Hamas occupiers of Gaza rein down upon Israeli villages, towns and cities — and the world yawns.
But then, remarkably, it awakens when the Jews have the unmitigated gall, temerity and chutzpah to defend themselves.
It is then that an outpouring of brutish and irrational hatred towards the Jewish state explodes in much of the morally bankrupt mainstream media, and among the thousands of hate filled Muslims who take to the streets of European capitals in violent displays of terminal intolerance.
Tragically, too many duped non-Muslim dhimmis join with them in the anti-Jewish hate fest. For them, just as among the mainstream media mavens of NPR, CNN, the BBC and other media outlets, ignorance is not bliss.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
ISIS to Christians — Leave, Convert to Islam or be Killed
Message to ISIS — Leave, Don’t Convert to Christianity and burn in hell
This week we have heard the bold announcement from ISIS ravaging Iraq that Christians best be getting out of Iraq’s second largest city, convert to Islam by Saturday or they will be killed. Megyn Kelly and Family Research Council President Tony Perkins were dumbfounded with the silence of the Obama administration, which is simply the Obama legacy — total silence when Jews or Christians are being slaughtered. I don’t know why they are surprised. ISIS is doing what fundamentalist; obedient Muslims do…threaten, torture, and kill. They are simply following Chapter 9 guidelines in the Koran which gives the infidels 3 choices, A) Convert to Islam B) Submit to the high tax they collect, just to keep alive or…3) Be killed. Certainly, ISIS is forgetting option B and collection of tax via the Koran…bad murderers.
As usual, President Obama has nothing to say about any of his seeming allies murdering, raping and torturing Christians…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Mosab Hassan Yousef: Israel is Doing Gazan Arabs “The Biggest Favor” By Destroying Hamas €º€º
Qatar’s Cyberwarfare Support of Hamas in the War with Israel
by Jerry Gordon
There is more behind Israeli Prime Minister’s objection to Qatar as a go between with the Administration seeking to gain leverage with Hamas for the current 72 hour truce. Qatar’s contribution to Hamas goes beyond the hundreds of millions of dollars diverted to build the terror tunnels. It also encompasses a hitherto unrevealed cyberwarfare effort by Qatar to design and build a high tech system to automatically launch rockets and missiles against Israeli civilians and IDF forces. Start-Up Israel, a publication of The Times of Israel, had an article about the Qatari high tech role in Hamas’ war with Israel in today’s edition authored by journalist David Shamah, “Qatari tech helps Hamas in tunnels, rockets: Expert”.
The question is who in Qatar, the tiny gas-rich peninsula off Saudi Arabia in the Persian Gulf, are building these sophisticated cyber warfare capabilities. Qatar has only 280,000 citizens supported by nearly 2 million foreign workers, largely from South Asia and the Indonesian and Philippine archipelagoes. Have they sent their best and brightest for technical education in the West or could it be foreign contractors? The US Administration signed an $11 billion arms deal with Qatar shortly after the start of Israel’s Operation Protective Edge. We question what that arms deal may include. Watch out, Egypt…
| — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: Angry Crowd Attacks Homes of Syrian Refugees
In Sanliurfa over alleged beating of two children
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, AUGUST 1 — An angry crowd attacked a building inhabited by Syrians late July 31 in the Turkish southeastern province of Sanliurfa after rumors spread that two children had been allegedly beaten by the refugees as they were going to buy bread, as daily Hurriyet online reports. The incident took place at the Baglarbasi neighborhood, where a high number of refugees fleeing the war in their country have taken shelter in the last months. According to Dogan News Agency, two children between the ages of 12 and 14 were beaten by young Syrians as they were coming out from a bakery. A fight erupted over the incident between the Syrians and locals who witnessed the beating, prompting a group of 20 refugees to gather and loot the bakery and another shop in the neighborhood. Tension further escalated when locals gathered in the evening hours, throwing stones at a building where the Syrians were residing. Police dispatched at the scene prevented the locals from setting the building on fire. Locals from the neighborhood told the police that they didn’t want Syrians to settle in the area, the report said. The incident is the first of this scale in Sanliurfa, but similar tension has already broken out in the provinces of Gaziantep and Kahramanmaras. The number of Syrians who have taken shelter in Turkey has exceeded one million, as hundreds of thousands of refugees have settled in the outskirts of cities to find jobs and make a living.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Women Should Not Laugh in Public, Turkish Deputy PM Says
Women should not laugh out loud in public, Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arinç has said while complaining about “moral corruption” in Turkey.
Speaking during an Eid el-Fitr meeting on July 28, Arinç described his ideal of the chaste man or woman, saying they should both have a sense of shame and honor.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Intelligence Insider on Ukraine: The Other Road to World War III
Like misanthropic serial killers, they will not stop until they’ve accomplished their objectives of the wholesale slaughter of a misled and myopic population.
The plain and simple truth that few are willing to address publicly is that we are being led into World War III by globalists who are busily setting fires to the geopolitical dry tinder spread across the Middle East, North Africa and now Ukraine to create global conflagration. World War III needs to happen at any cost, and the environment is such that the slightest misstep, mistake or event by design could ignite a global conflict that will change the world forever. It’s just that simple.
Those who dutifully watch the network news channels, listen to political talk radio, or read the analysis of political and news pundits in print will fall perilously short of understanding the bigger picture of world events. We are watching a target rich environment of increasingly dire headlines, each seemingly fundamentally different and unrelated. A more extensive investigation into each event, however, suggests otherwise. World events, despite their geographical distance and categorical differences , do not happen in a vacuum. The world superpowers are actively engaged in asymmetrical warfare by proxy. War by proxy, however, could change in an instant. We’re already seeing countries choosing sides in the coming global conflict.
[Comment: Recommended reading.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
‘Moscow Needs More Mosques!’ — Muftis
July 28, 2014: A senior spokesperson for Russia’s Council of Muftis has urged Moscow authorities to build more mosques in the city, saying this would prevent the overcrowding of city streets on major holidays.
“Believers deserve more mosques in Moscow. We are suggesting ten mosques for the whole of Moscow, one for each administrative district. …” Gulnur Gaziyeva was quoted as saying by RSN radio on Monday.
… Muslim officials raise the issue of new mosques several times every year as the economic boom has drawn thousands of migrant workers from predominantly Muslim Central Asian states to the Russian capital.
However, in November last year Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin rejected the idea in a press interview saying that the majority of mosque-goers were not permanent residents of the city, but migrants who should go home once their working contracts expire.
The Mayor said the existing three mosques could very well serve the needs of the permanent residents of Moscow who follow the Muslim faith.
In 2012 the Echo of Moscow radio quoted Sobyanin as saying that no new mosques will be built in the city under his rule. …
| — Hat tip: LH | [Return to headlines] |
Russia and the West: The Tragedy of 1204 Redux
By Srdja Trifkovic
In April 2008 I published this article on our website (the link is no longer available). In view of the crisis in and over Ukraine and the ongoing overall deterioration of relations between “the West” and Russia, its key points are even more pertinent today — over six years later — than they were then.
* * *
As the demographic, geopolitical and ideological challenge of global Jihad to the shrinking remnant of Christendom looms ever larger, the West appears hell-bent on cordoning off, fragmenting, and eventually destroying the only Christian power that could and therefore should be its partner in the joint struggle. In the name of lofty ideals, but in truth roused by avarice, blinkered by ideology, and driven by raw cultural prejudice, Western leaders are endangering their own nations by forcing a key potential ally into resentful, and potentially menacing, acceptance of its “otherness.”
No, I am not talking about Byzantium in 1204, although the above description would be apt enough. The tragedy of over eight centuries ago is being repeated with Russia today, not as a farce but as a potentially even greater tragedy.
Back then the endeavor was conducted under the cover of the Fourth Crusade. In the name of Christendom, and with the stated goal of liberating the Holy Land from the Muslim yoke—the existential enemy—the Frankoi embarked on a campaign that had the conquest and sack of Christian Constantinople as its end result. Today the idiocy and hypocrisy is no less audacious, yet depressingly familiar. In the early 2000’s, in the name of “democracy,” a massive joint Euro-American disinformation and electoral manipulation campaign was undertaken to secure the victory of the chosen faction in Geogria, and to try and mould the Ukraine into a mirror image of its morbidly Russophobic western third. In the name of “human rights,” the West is supporting the church-burning, dope-dealing terrorists of Pristina today, just as they had found alibis for the child murderers of Beslan in 2003, ridiculing Russia’s claim to be battling the same enemy that caused 9-11.
With some differences of emphasis—most recently over NATO’s expansion along the Black Sea—the policy-making, academic and media class in Europe and America displays a surprising identity of cultural assumptions and ideological preferences. The tone and substance of their rhetoric and propaganda have been replicated at both ends of the political spectrum—neoliberal and neoconservative—here and abroad…
| — Hat tip: Srdja Trifkovic | [Return to headlines] |
Afghanistan Has Cost the U.S. More Than the Marshall Plan
The U.S. has now spent more on the reconstruction of Afghanistan than it spent on the Marshall Plan, which resuscitated Europe after World War II, according to a special inspector general.
The Marshall Plan delivered $103 billion in today’s dollars to 16 European countries between 1948 and 1952. That has now been topped by congressional appropriations for reconstruction in Afghanistan, which so far have come to $109 billion in today’s dollars. The difference: The Marshall Plan helped Europe get back on its feet, while Afghanistan is a chaotic mess.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Indonesia: Moluccas: Fresh Fears of Muslim-Christian Clashes: 4 Dead, Dozens of Homes Ablaze
In Ambon, security forces intervene in riot gear. The fear is that this is a flashback of the violence that, until 2002, divided Islamists and Protestant Christians, causing thousands of innocent deaths.
Ambon (AsiaNews) — The sectarian violence that rocked Ambon, the capital of the Indonesian province of Maluku, yesterday has left 4 people dead and at least 20 homes burned to the ground, which fortunately had been evacuated before the fire. It is still unclear what caused the outbreak of tension that pitted the two groups of local residents against each other, but the government was forced to send 300 soldiers in riot gear in an effort to minimize the damage.
The two groups clashed in the village of Seith, on the coastline of the sub-district of Leihitu: they attacked each other with stones and sharp weapons, then set the homes of their rivals on fire. The day before, similar violence exploded in the village of Way Galih, but without causing casualties.
Authorities fear that the violence could be a throwback to the long period of tensions between the Islamists and the Protestant Christian community, which left thousands dead on both sides and churches and mosques destroyed. In 2002 political authorities succeeded in quelling the violence and in persuading the parties to sign a peace agreement that until now seemed to have held up well.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Indonesia’s New Mega-Rich Spend it Big as Inequality Grows
“My bags can cost you anywhere from $1,000 to $6,000, or even $50,000,” she tells me in her studio in central Jakarta.
“I know it seems ridiculous but this kind of extravagance exists in Indonesia. A branded bag is not simply a luxury item for these women. It’s a status symbol.
“We could buy a car or a decent house in Jakarta for that price — and sometimes it doesn’t make sense to me, why they want to spend that kind of money, but they do. But it’s great for my business.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Fried Cat and Cold Beer, Vietnam’s Favourite New Snack
The consumption of cat meat is up exponentially: fried in garlic and served as a snack before meals. A medium-to-large adult cat can fetch up to US$ 70. A veterinarian explains that it is not cruelty. “The country was once very poor, and we had a long war”. Eating anything “became a habit”.
Hanoi (AsiaNews) — Despite an official ban by the authorities, cat meat has become a new favourite snack in Vietnam.
Cat’s growing popularity is particularly worrisome for cat owners who live in constant fear of seeing their pets disappear. A healthy and medium-to-large size cat sells in Hanoi for US$ 50 and 70, more than the average wage of a farmer.
For consumers, “It’s sweeter and tenderer than dog meat’ and it is perfect with a cold beer.
At a restaurant in central Hanoi, a cat is prepared for hungry clients: drowned, shaved and burnt to remove all fur before being cut up and fried with garlic.
“A lot of people eat cat meat. It’s a novelty. They want to try it,” the establishment’s manager To Van Dung, 35, told AFP.
Officially, Vietnam has forbidden the consumption of cats in an effort to encourage their ownership and keep the cities’ rat population under control.
However, such is the demand from restaurants that cats are sometimes smuggled across the border from Thailand and Laos.
Vietnam’s penchant for eating animals that are considered pets in many other countries came about largely as a result of circumstance, said Hoang Ngoc Bau, one of Hanoi’s few trained vets.
“The country was once very poor, and we had a long war. We ate everything we could to stay alive,” he said. “Insects, dogs, cats, even rats … It became a habit.”
Chef Le Ngoc Thien, who has a cat at home as a pet, agrees. He keeps a cat as a pet — but when it is big enough he will cook it and get a new kitten to repeat the cycle.
“When my cats become old we kill them because according to our tradition when a cat gets old we need to change it and get a younger one,” he said.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Japanese Airports Make Themselves Muslim Friendly
30 Mar, 2014: Motivated by an increase in visitors from Islamic countries, Japan’s major airports are falling over themselves to find ways to capitalize on their new clients by proudly proclaiming themselves “Muslim-friendly.” …
Behind their collective eagerness to roll out the red carpet is the rise of Muslims as a portion of all visitors to Japan — a benefit of the relaxed visa requirements that took effect in July 2013 to make it easier for people from Southeast Asia to visit.
Statistics released in January by the Japan National Tourist Organization show that the number of tourists from Malaysia surged to 28,500 in December 2013, up 65.5 percent from the previous year, while Indonesian visitors totaled 17,000 the same month, up 27.3 percent. …
Being Muslim himself, Hideaki Yotsutsuji, spokesman for the Japan Halal Association, said Muslim communities in Japan by and large welcome the airports’ attempts to improve hospitality toward Muslims. He also noted that such moves may help reverse the largely negative way Muslims have been perceived by Japanese since the 9/11 attacks in the United States.
“I think Japanese people and Muslims have a very positive affinity. They’re by nature both modest, shy and hospitable,” Yotsutsuji said, …
But Yotsutsuji also warned airports to keep in mind that trumpeting their pursuit of Muslim-friendliness could backfire if they failed to meet the strict expectations of Islam’s more devout adherents.
“By touting your place as ‘Muslim-friendly,’ you’re basically getting their hopes high,” he said.
“No matter how ‘friendly’ you think your place is, some of the Muslims will feel betrayed just by, say, finding a person next to them drinking alcohol,” he warned.
| — Hat tip: LH | [Return to headlines] |
Japan: Foreign Residents Can’t Claim Welfare Benefits: Supreme Court
Jul 18, 2014: The Supreme Court ruled Friday that foreigners with permanent residency status are ineligible for welfare benefits, overturning a decision by the Fukuoka High Court that had acknowledged their eligibility under the public assistance law.
The decision by the top court’s Second Petit Bench concerned a lawsuit filed by an 82-year-old Chinese woman with permanent residency who was born and grew up in Japan. …
| — Hat tip: LH | [Return to headlines] |
Ebola Crisis: Virus Spreading Too Fast, Says WHO
The Ebola outbreak in West Africa is spreading faster than efforts to control it, World Health Organization (WHO) head Margaret Chan has said.
She told a summit of regional leaders that failure to contain Ebola could be “catastrophic” in terms of lives lost.
But she said the virus, which has claimed 729 lives in four West African countries since February, could be stopped if well managed.
Ebola kills up to 90% of those infected.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Largest Class Action Suit in South African History Given Green Light
31 July 2014: Two Transnet pensioners were on Thursday given leave to institute an R80 billion class action suit against the parastatal and their pension funds.
Judge Ephraim Makgoba granted an order in the High Court in Pretoria to pensioners Johan Pretorius and Johan Kruger to launch a class action on behalf of Transnet’s 62,000 impoverished pensioners, in an attempt to recover close to R80bn in assets and interest.
The group has accused Transnet of stripping the Transnet Pension Fund and Transnet Second Defined Benefit Fund (TSBF) of its assets and mismanaging them to such an extent that the funds were unable to meet their obligations to members.
They have also accused Transnet of attempting to dissolve the pension fund.
Increases to pensions have been limited to two percent for close to the past decade, reducing most of the pensioners to poverty.
The court was told that numerous pensioners received only R1 per month.
Currently 80 percent earned less than R4000 per month and 62 percent less than R2500 per month.
Most of them were between 70 and 90 years old and could no longer find employment.
The vast majority often had to beg for the most basic means and a number had committed suicide as a result of being unable to live with dignity.
About 30 percent of the Transnet pensioners were black. …
| — Hat tip: LH | [Return to headlines] |
Robert Mugabe’s Wife Joins Fray Over Zimbabwe Succession
31 July 2014: The surprise nomination of President Robert Mugabe’s wife to head the ruling party’s powerful women’s wing has injected new intrigue into the fight to succeed the 90-year-old strongman.
Confirmation of her position as leader of the ZANU-PF women’s league at the party congress in December would propel Grace Mugabe, 49, into the party’s powerful politburo.
As a member of the supreme decision-making body the former presidential typist will play an active role in the faction-riven battle to succeed her husband, who took power in 1980 on Zimbabwe’s independence from Britain.
Speculation over the thinking behind the elevation of a woman who has previously taken a back seat in the ZANU-PF drama has gripped Zimbabwe since her nomination was announced at the weekend.
Some analysts have expressed concern that a Mugabe dynasty could be in the making. …
| — Hat tip: LH | [Return to headlines] |
Kirchner Continues to Manipulate Argentine Emotions: Risks Escalating Conflict Over the Falklands
For the past year or so Argentinean President Cristina Kirchner has been making the most popular of noises in her homeland as well as on the international stage, that of ‘repatriation’ of the Falkland Isles or as Argentina prefers — Islas Malvinas.
Argentina has long suffered from not quite attaining first world status, choosing instead to permit various forms of corruption that keep a small ruling class wealthy while the rest of the people are denied opportunity and the economy stagnates.
The government though has a trump card in the Falklands that other South American nations lack, a British territory sitting three hundred plus miles off their coast that geographically couldn’t belong to anybody else unless it declared independence. Campaigning about Islas Malvinas keeps the people unified and not thinking about how corrupt the government is.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Obama Warns Republicans He Will Act on His Own to Address Immigration
President Obama warned Friday that he will act on his own to address immigration challenges along the southern border, as Congress prepared to leave for the August recess without sending a bill to his desk.
The House continues to work on passing some version of legislation to address the border crisis, but the Senate already has adjourned without passing a bill and has no votes scheduled until September.
“While they’re out on vacation, I’m going to have to make some tough choices to meet the challenge, with or without Congress,” Obama said Friday, speaking to reporters in the the White House briefing room.
He later added: “I’m going to have to act alone, because we don’t have enough resources.”
Unclear is whether Obama plans to use executive authority to achieve narrowly tailored goals, like sending additional resources to the border, or pursue broader and more controversial changes like suspending deportations for illegal immigrants.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Switzerland Reconsiders Immigration Policy and May Vote Again on Ties With the European Union.
31 July 2014: The non-EU nation borders four EU member states. Swiss voters in February approved a referendum limiting non-Swiss nationals into the country, including EU nationals.
Last week the EU dismissed extending a pact allowing Swiss workers free movement across the bloc. …
“I just spoke in Italy with the Presidency of the EU for the coming months,” [President Didier Burkhalter said]. There is a clear understanding that the matters concerning immigration have to be discussed, that there’s a need to find a balanced solution.
“If we don’t find it, we may find ourselves in the need of withdrawing from the agreement on free movement of persons,” said the president in a televised interview.
February’s vote was initiated by the right-wing Swiss People’s Party and passed by less than 20,000 votes.
Two major companies have already pulled out of Switzerland and set up into Ireland, in part because of the new immigration rules.
| — Hat tip: LH | [Return to headlines] |
Nearly eight years ago, I wrote The Third World Cometh…and Soon. The third world has now arrived, and America — as you and I know it — is all but gone.
The Obama-engineered “humanitarian” border crisis is the latest shameful example of just how far the government that is supposed to protect its own citizens will go, in order to further the total destruction of a once great nation. Once again the politically correct have pulled out a well-worn page from their playbook to implore that it is “for the children”- children who are “undocumented.” Many of these so-called “undocumented children” are disease ridden with scabies, lice and worse. In addition, it has been reported that a number of them are teenagers who are members of criminal gangs such as MS13 or members of jihadist terrorist groups.
In fact, former US Border Patrol Deputy Chief Ronald Coburn has stated that 1 in 5 illegal aliens crossing our border has a criminal record:…
An excellent recent column from Pat Buchanan, “Balkanization Beckons” speaks to the coming breakup of this nation if current trends continue:
[Comment: This is all part of the planned destruction of America from within using Cloward-Piven strategies to accelerate the process.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Veteran Border Patrol Agent Exposes the Horrors at U.S. Borders
This week, a career U.S. Border Patrol agent, Zach Taylor, now retired, released a YouTube video that’s going viral on the Internet and that slams the feeble attempts by the U.S. government to control the nation’s southwest border. (see video below)
[…]
According to Taylor, this current so-called border crisis is a manufactured crisis that has been going on since at least the year 1986 when the Reagan administration was in power, and this is what as known as Asymmetrical Warfare.
[Comment: The migration is by design, to ensure a Communist Democrat lock on government.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Anti-LGBT Attacks Rising Sharply in Spain
235 in 6 months; 75% of victims do not report it to police
(ANSAmed) — MADRID — Spain, a frontrunner in recognizing lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights and same-sex civil unions, is widely believed to be a place where sexual orientation and identity are not a reason for concern on the part of security forces and public opinion. The reality is different, however, as evinced from the number of hate crimes recorded between 2013 and 2014 by the police and Guardia Civil. According to a report soon to be released and discussed on Monday by the radio station Cadena Ser, anti-LGBT attacks are frequent than those stemming from racism or xenophobia or those targeting the disabled.
In the first six months of 2014 alone, some 235 anti-LGBT attacks were recorded. However, according to the report, the number is but a small fraction of those that have actually occurred, since 75% of the victims do not report the incidents out of fear or shame, said the special prosecutor for hate crimes and discrimination in Catalonia, Miguel Angel Aguilar, who called for attacks to be reported to the authorities. In 2013 anti-LGBT attacks were the most numerous of the categories cited above, with 452 cases of abuse, acts of aggression, bodily harm or threats were ascertained. The figures from the first six months of this year confirm a rising trend of incidents originating in hate due to sexual orientation or identity, according to the report. The report covers a wide range of discriminatory conduct including acts of homophobia, racism, xenophobia, discrimination towards the disabled and those on the basis of religious belief.
The Spanish LGTM network, COLEGAS, has asked for a law on equal treatment and non-discrimination, which would result in harsher sentences for those behind this type of attack. “We are pleased that this type of crime is finally being counted, as it was not previously included in official statistics,” said Paco Ramirez, head of LGBT COLEGAS. “Even if between 60 and 90% of victims do not report the attacks, according to the EU’s Agency of Fundamental Rights.” He added that “many do not report them as they think that perpetrators will end up not being punished or will receive a minimum sentence, or due to a fear of retaliation, as well as due to hostility or lack of interest shown by some of the police in relation to this type of crime. Then, there is also the fear of speaking about the fact that they are homosexual to their family members if they haven’t already,” Ramirez said. To curb homophobic attacks, LGTB COLEGAS has sent a proposal to the to the Secretary of State for Security for specific training for the police to stop and deal with this type of attack and to help the victims.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
In my 2011 book Strained Relations: The Challenge of Homosexuality I detailed just what is at stake with the rise of the militant homosexual agenda. In that volume — which is now in its fourth printing — I examined in detail the many myths put out by the activists (“It’s all genetic,” “Ten per cent of population is homosexual,” etc.). I also warned of the various attacks on marriage and family, looked at their various strategies, and rebuffed the theological revisionists.
Little did I realise however how quickly all this would escalate, and how much worse things would become in such a very short period of time. Since writing my first volume the attacks on faith, freedom and family have especially taken off, with new horror stories appearing almost on a daily basis all around the Western world. And so too have the demands of other activist minority groups, emboldened as they are by the successes of the homosexual activists. Now all sorts of other fringe sexualities are being championed by various activist groups.
While my first volume covered just about all the bases in the homosexual debate, much more can always be said. This follow-up volume to Strained Relations will act as a supplement to what was presented there, and include new information and material to further round out my case.
Chapter One of Dangerous Relations looks at the many cases of homosexual intolerance of anyone and anything that dares to resist their radical and militant agenda. And I can say right now that as soon as this book goes to the printers, it will already be out of date in this area. There will be many dozens — perhaps hundreds — of new cases of anti-faith and anti-family bigotry which will have occurred in the short period of time needed to produce this book at the printers.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Global ‘Gay’ Children and Gender — Free Restrooms: NEA Teachers Union More Extreme Than Ever
The National Education Association wrapped up another radical convention early in July. The delegates in Denver focused modestly on education and a lot more on far-left issues like pushing homosexuality on kids, defending the influx of illegal immigrants, and supporting breastfeeding teachers while staunchly maintaining the organization’s advocacy to abort children.
Welcome to America’s confused teaching profession…
The NEA delegates also passed New Business Item 52 to launch a global “gay” education effort, partnering with GLSEN, the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network; the Human Rights Campaign’s pro-homosexual program for elementary grades called Welcoming Schools; and GALE, the Global Alliance for LGBT Education, a Netherlands-based pressure group affiliated with UNESCO. GALE is also associated with ILGA, the International Lesbian and Gay Association. GALE receives funding from ARCUS Foundation in Michigan, whose notorious executive director, Kevin Jennings, was the founder of GLSEN.
Maybe it’s just me, but when I hear “Netherlands” and “gay” in the same sentence, it immediately brings another word to mind: pedophilia. And sure enough, GALE’s affiliate, ILGA, is a highly controversial group with ties in the past to several pro-pedophile groups, including NAMBLA, the North American Man-Boy Love Association.
In other words, America’s largest union will be joining other radicals with child corruption track records to promote these deviant behaviors to schoolchildren throughout the globe.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Japan: Vagina Artist Wins Release, Urges Public to Challenge Taboos
Jul 19, 2014: An artist arrested for distributing 3-D data of her vagina online urged the public to outgrow the perception that female genitalia are taboo or shameful, after being released from police custody on Friday. … “I have always stuck to my artistic principles,” which she said are aimed at toppling the entrenched idea that female genitalia are obscene. The perception verges on sexism, she added.
Igarashi, 42, was arrested July 12 for emailing the data to her fans, which allowed those with 3-D printers to make a precise model of her vagina, in return for crowd-funding donations that helped her complete her latest genitalia-inspired art project. She was subsequently held until the Tokyo District Court on Friday annulled her arrest and set her free late Friday night. …
| — Hat tip: LH | [Return to headlines] |
As I and others have documented countless times now, Barack Hussein Obama is arguably the worst US President ever. He is certainly the most pro-Islam POTUS ever. He is certainly the most pro-abortion POTUS ever. He is certainly the most pro-homosexual POTUS ever. And he is certainly the most anti-Christian POTUS ever.
Those last two descriptions were again fully on display as Obama on Monday signed into law a “discrimination” order giving homosexuals even more special rights and power, while taking away the rights of ordinary Americans. This is yet another attack on freedom of religion and freedom of conscience, and part of an ongoing campaign to fully silence all those who seek to uphold biblical faith in the public arena.
Many commentators have already spoken about this frightening bit of legislation. Let me highlight the words of just two of them. First, some thoughts from Ryan Anderson:
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Slavery at the Hands of Environmental Fascists
We have come to the sad realization that there is very little difference between radical environmentalism and Islamo-Fascism, except in method. Both are fanatical religions (cults) and both seek dominance over human behavior, based on their invalid and arrogant assumptions that “their way” is the only “right way” and all else must capitulate to “their right way”, or suffer the full wrath of “their” law, or their “justice” of barbarous Jihad. Any means to enforce compliance through intimidation, lies, distortions and propaganda justifies their devilish ends.
Evidence of radical environmentalism abounds, especially in western countries. If we believed in conspiracy theories, we could easily connect the dots between radical environmentalism and radical Islam, each with the sole purpose of bringing down the West. Each of these religious cults seeks dominance for their own agenda and each will use any “weapon” at hand to reach their goal. In the case of western countries, radical environmentalists use incessant lobbying for legislation, (law) or file multiple lawsuits to achieve court decisions in their favor, with the force of law. They obtain grant monies from government (our tax money) then turn around and sue the government with our money. In contrast, radical Islam uses physical force, barbarism, intimidation and threats of death and outright mass murder to ensure compliance. The net result is the same, subjugation of people, cultures and entire countries for a phantom objective that has nothing to do with science, reason, logic, human rights or freedom and everything to do with med-evil cultism and top-down, tyrannical control by an elite few.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Five Fatal Flaws of Solar Energy
If it were possible to anchor a solar collector one meter square at the top of the atmosphere, aligned continuously to face the sun, and never shadowed by the earth or the moon, it would receive solar energy at the rate of 1,366 Watts per square metre (W/m2) — that would power 13 light bulbs each using 100 watts.
If that panel were located on the surface, at the equator, under clear skies, aligned continuously to face the sun, and never shaded by the earth or the moon, solar energy dissipated by the atmosphere would reduce energy received to 1,000 watts.
In the real rotating world, where sunshine only reaches usable intensity for about 25% of the time, the best located panel would have a capacity factor of about 17% — it would receive 170 watts of energy — not quite 2 light bulbs.
PV solar panels convert solar energy to electrical energy at an efficiency factor of about 15%. Thus our panel, at the equator, year round, should deliver 25.5 watts of electrical energy — one very dim light bulb.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Regarding the Turks and Syrians, when it gets to the point that Islamists can’t stand living next door to the Islamists, that pretty much means the entire planet is doomed.
Maybe Mars is THE answer!
I wish.
It is the nature of Islam to keep rooting out the “heretics”. They’ll have to kill off one another when they’re done with us…
With organized religion you mostly have ‘splitters’ – i.e., people who keep refining further and further the original idea. Here in the U.S., especially in the south and west, there are hundreds of denominations.
Ain’t human nature wonderful?
Re the “Five fatal flaws of solar energy”, how is it that Germany collects so much it’s exporting the surplus to its neighbours?
I looked at the original essay at the link. It *may* have had some good information in there but the writing style was so poor I wasn’t willing to wade through looking for these enumerated flaws – #1, #2, and so on.
However, if you click the link you’ll see the author’s email address at the bottom of her piece. I’ll bet she would welcome your question.
Be sure to source your assertion, though…i.e., give her a link to the info about Germany’s surplus.
BTW, if you ever have solar panels installed, they’re saying now NOT to put them facing south but to use a west exposure. Experientially that makes sense. The south side of our house is a sun room. The west side is a living room and bedroom. While the sun room has lots of light, it’s those west windows that heat up the space, sometimes uncomfortably so. IIRC, the report was in the Telegraph.,
FYI, the CV at the end of the article indicates that Viv is a man. Mark H may wish to amend any emails sent Viv’s way accordingly.
oh dear. I’m gender careless.
Thanks both. Alas, though I saw the article re Germany online only a few days ago, can I find it now?