Three young “Canadian” ladies were apprehended by Turkish authorities on their way to Syria, where they had intended to become brides of ISIS fighters. All three teenagers — who are of Somali origin — had taken flights from Toronto to Cairo, and then to Istanbul, before police picked them up after being notified by the girls’ parents.
In other news, Muslim women in Nepal are challenging tradition and Islamic law by defiantly going to mosques on Fridays to pray with the men, instead of staying secluded in their homes.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, Ivan Winters, JD, RL, Vlad Tepes, 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.
André Carson, Islamist Choice for the House of Representatives
by Daniel Pipes
In politics, the adage goes, follow the money. And so, data abound for contributions from trial lawyers, insurance brokers, and even optometrists.
But what about Islamists, those Muslims who seek to replace the Constitution with the Koran and apply Islamic law in its entirety and severity — who, in other words, seek not just to tweak the tax code but to change the nature of the United States?
Until now, their campaign contributions have been unknown. A new initiative of the Middle East Forum’s Islamist Watch provides a first look at the dimensions of this lobby, using a sortable database. The Islamist Money in Politics (IMIP) project finds that, over the past 15 years, prominent figures associated with six leading American Islamist organizations have donated almost $700,000 to federal U.S. candidates.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
CDC Ebola Protocol Fails Again as Another Dallas Hospital Worker Tests Positive for Deadly Disease
(NaturalNews) The federal government is once again to blame for potentially exposing hundreds of additional Americans to Ebola. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) told nurse Amber Jay Vinson, the second known case of Ebola in the U.S., that she could safely fly from Cleveland, Ohio, to Dallas, Texas, because her fever was below the official 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit threshold, only to later find out that she actually has Ebola.
Vinson, who provided care for the now-deceased Thomas Eric Duncan, the first known Ebola case to be diagnosed in the U.S., began to develop a slight fever while visiting her family near Akron. She had been planning her wedding there when she started to feel ill and proceeded to call the CDC to clarify whether or not it was safe for her to fly on a commercial airline.
Knowing that she had previously treated “patient zero” back in Dallas, a CDC representative reportedly told Vinson that, because her temperature was only 99.5 degrees F, she was not a risk to passengers. Vinson proceeded to travel as directed, only to later test positive for the deadly viral hemorrhagic disease. She is now being treated in the same isolation unit that missionaries Dr. Kent Brantly and Nancy Writebol were treated at in Atlanta, Georgia.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Charter School Gravy Train and Total Ruination of American Education, Part 1
Those of you who read my postings know I am trying to educate you on the dangers of Charter/Choice/Vouchers. Outside of it being the road to a Federal takeover of education, it is a proverbial “money tree” and they are using your children as “human collateral.” In this posting I have used Florida Charter School Management companies because it is where I live. My suggestion is that you check what is happening with the Charter schools in your state…
Charter schools are booming with the push of the federal and state governments. “There are now more than 6,400 in the United States, up from 2,500 a decade ago, educating a record 2.5 million children,” according to Reuters.
Charters have a limited admissions policy, and the applications can be as complex as those at private schools. But parents don’t pay tuition and support comes directly from the school district in which the charter is located. This is the same $$ allotted to each child attending a regular public school only at a lessor percentage. They are also lucrative, attracting players like the specialty real estate investment trust EPR Properties (EPR). Charter schools are in the firm’s $3 billion portfolio along with retail space and movie megaplexes.
Charter schools are frequently a way for politicians to reward their cronies. In Ohio, two firms operate 9% of the state’s charter schools and are collecting 38% of the state’s charter school funding increase this year. The operators of both firms donate generously to elect Republicans.
The Arizona Republic found that charters “bought a variety of goods and services from the companies of board members or administrators, including textbooks, air conditioning repairs and transportation services.” Most charters were exempt from a requirement to seek competitive bids on contracts over $5,000.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Congress: Stop Subsidizing Biased Middle East Studies
by Daniel Pipes
In return for receiving taxpayer funds for foreign regional studies, universities must agree, according to Title VI of the Higher Education Act (HAE), to conduct “public outreach” programs aimed at K-12 teachers and the general public.
Problem is, as shown in research by Campus Watch and others, the Middle East studies centers betray a relentless bias in their Outreach programs against the United States and its allies, especially Israel, while showing a willful blindness to radical Islam. Three examples:
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Ebola, The SS, And the Great Golf Club Swinger
Let’s see… we have drug cartels on the U.S.-Mexican border beheading people, and hanging their bodies from overpasses and billboards. The Great and Noble One’s solution? Open the borders wider while running guns to the very cartel members that are chopping off the heads. That will teach ‘em. Nothing like tough leadership. Then, you attempt to take away firearms from the American people so they are sitting ducks when the cartels run rampant slaughtering, killing, and extorting. Now that’s “change we can believe in”!
Ebola allegedly breaks out in Africa. The Great and Noble Club Swinger rushes to close the border and ban travel from the infected region, right? You silly, silly reader! The natural “solution” for the birth certificate-challenged Kenyan, is to bring in as many Latin American people as possible, many of whom are likely being trafficked from West Africa by human smuggling cartels that have set up shop in Africa. Would you expect any less? The community organizer’s “logical” response is to push amnesty even harder for thousands of foreigners, arrange for transportation for them throughout the country, so as to encourage as many of the diseased migrants to come as possible.
Then, he holds meetings with African leaders in Washington D.C. Was some secret deal cut? Why do we have allegedly infected people being flown into the United States, purportedly for “treatment”?
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Enemies on the Left, False Friends on the Right, Part 15
The United States has entered a new period as a country in decline, and that decline is now accelerating. Those who are now governing this nation are doing so without God, and without the principles of the Bible, and they are proving everyday how impossible it is to rightly govern without them.
The Council for National Policy claims to stand for traditional values, small government and a strong military, but they have cuddled with CFR members, with cultists/occultists, and with enemies of freedom and liberty. This was most obvious with the council members’ affiliations with Rev. Sun Myung Moon.
The CNP members claim to be Christians, but quite obviously their love of money is the motivating force behind their actions. Cultist Sun Myung Moon was deeply involved with the members of the Council for National Policy as well as the Heritage Foundation.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Incompetence Meets Mendacity in Obama Administration’s Ebola Response
by Andrew McCarthy
Americans are shaken by government’s inability to function.
Ebola is causing such anxiety that even alarm over an outbreak of enterovirus D-68 — far more prevalent and linked to the deaths of at least four children — has been crowded out. Ditto news of the Islamic State’s rampage, a stock-price rollercoaster, and the impending midterm elections. Understandably, two concerns dominate the public discussion.
One is incompetence. Lulled into ever more dependence on government by the metastasis of regulation in what used to be the realm of private action, Americans are shaken by Washington’s inability to function. It is bungling elementary tasks. There is a sense of unraveling, a sense that officials are not merely out of their depth in addressing problems but incapable of spotting the problems in the first place — or, even worse, responsible for creating the very problems that then explode into crises.
Intimately related is the other concern: dishonesty. People expect politicians to spin and, at times, to out-and-out lie. I’ve been contending for a while now that our politics are no longer rational but tribal. Being right is secondary to being on the “right” side, as that side is perceived by the popular culture. That culture has largely tuned out the news and is swayed more by character assassination than by linear, fact-based argument. Official dishonesty is the natural result. When it is more important that “our side” wins than that the sensible thing be done, it is to be expected that the partisans, especially those in power, will say whatever they need to say to get through the news cycle. After all, fewer people than ever care about the news part of the news cycle; they care about the drama and their sympathies will be with their heroes — the fibs told to escape the latest jam are more admired for craftiness than condemned as breaches of trust.
Still, as we’ve previously observed, there is a breaking point. You can only abide politics as soap opera for so long because politics is actually about real life and real stakes. Reality cannot be scripted. Therefore, politics cannot forever be stage-managed as a “narrative” with “optics,” a daily show focused on how the lead character is affected by the latest crisis.
At a certain point, the reality of the crises hits us, and hits close to home. Am I threatened? Am I going to get sick? If I do get sick, am I going to have health coverage and the doctor I trust? Is the government doing its best to make sure I am not infected? Or shot? Or bombed? Or beheaded?
Where do we get the answers to these questions? From the government we’ve grown to depend on. And now the answers are so purposely, patently, and pervasively false, it suddenly seems as if nothing can be trusted — as if, even as our perils intensify, our government erects another house in its Potemkin village…
| — Hat tip: RL | [Return to headlines] |
Leon Panetta’s Phony Tough Guy Act
It’s amazing what people will do when they are selling books. Former Obama CIA director and Pentagon chief Leon Panetta is sounding like a war hawk in promoting Worthy Fights, his new book about the foreign policy disasters of the Obama administration.
Obama has “lost his way,” Panetta says, hoping people won’t notice how Panetta guided the way for much of the time, from one disaster to another.
When he took the CIA job, Panetta was known as a far-left California congressman who had worked feverishly to undermine President Ronald Reagan’s anti-communist policies. Panetta was naïve, to put it charitably, about the communist threat. As AIM reported, he even had communist connections. The book shows nothing has really changed.
Nevertheless, some have jumped on Panetta’s recent criticism of Obama’s Middle East policies, especially his comments about Obama’s no-win war against ISIS. This makes Panetta look tough, as he prepares to accept an award named after Ronald Reagan on November 15.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Living in the Age of Insanity, From Ebola to Radical Islam to Gay Marriage
America’s leaders are helping degrade the culture like it’s their job
If you’re a regular consumer of news, you may be feeling what I’m feeling right now.
We’re living in an age of insanity. Let’s start with Ebola.
The virus is tragically consuming thousands of people in West Africa, and yet America is still accepting flights from the affected countries. After the first patient death in Texas, the Obama administration says it has gotten around to tightening procedures for monitoring passengers into five airports, including Washington Dulles International Airport.
The Washington Post editorialized Thursday against stopping the flights, even while admitting that passenger checks “are not foolproof,” and “Ebola can incubate in a human for up to 21 days, and the infected person does not immediately show symptoms an infected person can go through multiple screenings without setting off alarms.”
On CNN, Centers for Disease Control Director Thomas Freiden avoided answering whether a sneeze may put another person at risk. When pressed, he said, “If you’re within three feet, that’s a situation we’d want to be concerned about.” Been in an airliner lately?
[Comment: According to a WHO report incubation period for 1 in 20 cases is 42 days. Clearing people based on an incubation period of only 21 days is creating a situation of brush fire epidemics — this is exactly what is happening in Africa. Authorities “clear” certain areas then the disease sprouts up again in those same areas. http://www.naturalnews.com/047267_Ebola_outbreak_incubation_period_viral_transmission.html]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
New York City Jail Violence Rises Despite More Spending: Report
Violence has increased in New York City’s jail system over the past seven years even as the city has spent more money to deal with a steadily declining inmate population, the city’s comptroller said in an analysis released on Friday.
The annual cost per inmate has increased by more than 42 percent to $96,232 since 2007, the analysis said, while the average daily population has decreased to about 11,400 inmates this year, from nearly 14,000.
In that same time, violent fights and assaults involving inmates or guards have increased. Inmate assaults on staff more than doubled to about 70 assaults per 1,000 inmates this year. Guards using force on inmates has nearly tripled to 370 instances per 1,000 inmates.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Obama Doesn’t Need an EO to Repeal the 2nd Amendment
In another attempt to limit the right to bear arms, proponents in Washington State have two opposing Initiatives on the November 2014 ballot, the Liberals Initiative to expand background checks for gun buyers at gun shows and private and Internet sales (I-594) and the Conservatives Initiative to preserve gun rights (I-591).
I-594 Background Checks: “This measure would apply the currently used criminal and public safety background checks by licensed dealers to all firearm sales and transfers, including gun show and online sales, with specific exceptions.”
I-591 Gun Rights Measure: “This measure would prohibit government agencies from confiscating guns or other firearms from citizens without due process, or from requiring background checks on firearm recipients unless a uniform national standard is required.”
The money pouring in for the Background Check initiative is running almost 8 to one for those opposing the Initiative. The $7,000,000 campaign funds supporting the expansion of “Background Checks” is coming from the likes of Ex-New York Mayor, Michael Bloomberg and Microsoft Billionaires Bill Gates and Paul Allen. The NRA so far, has only come up with under $1,000,000 to oppose I-594 and support I-591.
Sadly, the red counties of Washington State are totally disenfranchised by those large population blue counties west of the Cascade Mountains…
Ladies and gentlemen, if Americans voluntarily hand over their guns to the government, or allow very strict gun laws to be passed and implemented, or if the government confiscates our guns by force, it will spell the death of a free America. It will also open up the opportunity for a foreign government to take advantage of a country that now does not have a “gun behind every tree.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Straight Talk About an Article V Convention
The Congressional Research Service (CRS) Report cited in the speech was dated March 7, 2014. CRS’s revised Report, dated April 11, 2014, is HERE. The Report exposes as false the assurances that the States would be in control of a convention…
As the CRS Report states on page 27:
“In the final analysis, the question what sort of convention?” is not likely to be resolved unless or until the 34-state threshold has been crossed and a convention assembles.”
Do you see? But by then, it will be too late to stop it. HERE is former US Supreme Court Chief Justice Warren Burger’s letter confirming this.
The text of the “parental rights” amendment is HERE. For a discussion showing how Michael Farris’ proposed amendment delegates power over children to the federal and State governments, go HERE and HERE.
To see how six of Mark Levin’s so-called “liberty amendments” do the opposite of what he claims, go HERE…
HERE is Joe Wolverton’s article about the Socialists’ involvement in the push for a convention.
HERE is the Constitution for the New states of America. Article XII addresses ratification by a referendum called by the President. Read HERE about the proposed Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America. Read them and see what is being planned for you.
[Comment: A MUST READ article for Americans.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Supreme Court Upholds Texas Voter ID Law
The Supreme Court on Saturday allowed Texas to enforce its strict voter identification law in the November election.
The law, enacted in 2011, requires voters seeking to cast their ballots at the polls to present photo identification like a Texas driver’s or gun license, a military ID or a passport.
Critics say the law is the most exacting in the nation and would disenfranchise 600,000 registered voters, a disproportionate number of them black and Hispanic.
Texas officials disputed both points. They told the justices that Texas might not be the nation’s strictest law because the state accepts some forms of identification that others do not and the state makes allowances for disabled people and for older Americans.
| [Return to headlines] |
The Media Taboo: Reds Mobilize for Democrats
The Washington Post headline said the convoluted answer constituted “40 painful seconds of Alison Lundergan Grimes refusing to say whether she voted for President Obama.” The KentuckyDemocratic Senate candidate evaded direct questions from a newspaper’s editorial board about whether she had voted for Obama. It was truly an embarrassment. NBC’s Chuck Todd basically said she’s finished as a candidate.
But while Lundergan Grimes is avoiding the issue, and Obama is not even on the ballot this year, the Communist Party is openly organizing against the Republican Party in order to strengthen Obama’s ability to carry out his Marxist agenda in his final two years in office.
With elections just a month away, the Communists have made it plain, once again, that they favor Democrats over Republicans.
While Lundergan Grimes’s ridiculous evasions are getting some media attention, the nature of Obama’s “progressive” base will get glossed over because it’s not politically correct to talk about communists involved in the political process. That’s considered McCarthyism.
Communist support for Obama is definitely a taboo subject for the press.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
United Airlines Attempts to Track Down Hundreds of Passengers Who Were Exposed to Ebola
(NaturalNews) The first stray Ebola patient to enter the US, identified as Thomas Eric Duncan, flew into the country undetected on United Airlines Flight 951. The previous week he had been helping an Ebola-afflicted pregnant woman in Liberia. No one recognized this as Duncan left Liberia, and his eventual entry into the US didn’t raise any red flags either.
After leaving Liberia, Duncan headed to Brussels, boarding United Airlines Flight 951. From there, he zipped his way across the Atlantic Ocean to the Washington Dulles International Airport. After passing through customs and coming into contact with an unknown amount of people, he hopped onto United Flight 822 and headed to Dallas/Fort Worth. At this time, no one knew that Duncan was carrying around Ebola, because he was showing no symptoms. No one questioned where he was coming from or what he had been doing the week prior.
After admitting himself to the hospital, Duncan was returned home with useless medication. No one at the hospital flagged his condition, and he went back into the city of Dallas, coming into contact with several other people. Upon returning to the hospital a second time severely ill, doctors confirmed that he was infected with Ebola. When the news broke out, panic began setting in. Now, United Airlines is scrambling to alert hundreds of their passengers who might have come in contact with Duncan.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Voting Hasn’t Worked. So, Now What?
If you can believe the statistics, 65,918,507 Democrats voted for Barack Obama and 60,934,407 Republicans voted for Mitt Romney in the 2012 general election. A little over 2,000,000 voted for third party candidates, bringing the total votes to 129,235,558. This represents only 53.6% of the total voting age population of 240,926,957. So roughly, a little over one half of the voting age population found it important enough to cast their vote for president of the United States. 111.6 million didn’t.
But these statistics don’t even begin to tell the real story, why did the people vote in the first place? Below are a few of the reasons why people vote, especially for a male president. The list is in no particular order of importance.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Female Genital Mutilation and the Hypocrisy of the Left
[WARNING: Disturbing Content.]
The left are extremely selective when speaking out against the persecution of Christians.
A family from Cameroon, illegally in Canada, is in the process of being deported and some on the left are absolutely apoplectic. These are the same people who wince at the thought of their government using military force against the Islamic State, who are inflicting the same and much worse type of atrocities on thousands and thousands of people in Iraq and Syria.
Hilary Fuh-Cham and his wife and daughter fled their native Cameroon in 2007 and came to Canada where Fuh-Cham’s wife gave birth to two more children. After making unsuccessful refugee claims and applications to remain in Canada on humanitarian and compassionate grounds, the family is scheduled to be removed from Canada on Oct. 9.
Fuh-Cham’s father was a sub-chief in the small village where they lived. After his death, Fuh-Cham was to replace him in this capacity. Those in the village, including his father, hold indigenous beliefs and engage in indigenous practises. When Fuh-Cham was relatively young, he converted to Christianity and became a Roman Catholic.
Upon his father’s death, the new sub-chief was told he must conform to indigenous practises including female genital mutilation. His wife and daughter would have to undergo female circumcision. According to Fuh-Cham, he fears he will be killed if returned to the village and his wife and now two daughters would be forced to undergo mutilation.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Three Toronto Teenagers Attempt to Join ISIS
Three teenage girls from Toronto attempted to join ISIS, the Toronto Daily Star reported Friday, in order to become the brides of Islamist terrorists.
All three girls, aged 15-18, are of Somali heritage, according to the daily; two were sisters.
The three attempted to enter Syria via Turkey — boarding a flight from Toronto to Cairo, then from Cairo to Istanbul — before being apprehended by border officials in Turkey after the girls’ parents alerted authorities.
Canadian officials praised the parents for taking quick action.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Cottarelli Says Too Many Municipalities in Italy
Spending czar says amalgamation would save public money
(ANSA) — Rome, October 15 — Spending czar Carlo Cottarelli said Wednesday that Italy has too many municipalities, boosting costs unnecessarily.
Rewarding towns and cities that amalgamate services would reduce expenses, he said on the same day Premier Matteo Renzi introduces his 2015 budget.
“Eight thousand municipalities are too many, you should think about a reduction that makes it easier to coordinate,” Cottarelli told a parliamentary hearing.
Offering fiscal rewards for towns and city that choose to share services or amalgamate would provide incentives, he said.
Cottarelli, who confirmed his plans to resign later this month, has previously called for consolidation of many municipal services to cut duplication.
He told the hearing that his proposals for consolidation initially drew some interest from the premier’s office but more recently, seem to have fallen from the government’s agenda.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
EU Hangs on With Hookers, Drug Dealers & Gun Runners
The questionable accounting gimmick countries are using to claim economic progress. Calculating the economic output of hookers, gunrunners and drug dealers to boost GDP
Karl Marx was wrong about virtually everything, but he was spot on when he said, “history repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce.” For the third time in six years, the European Union (EU) is on the verge of recession, a tragedy fueled by slow or non-existent growth, a strong possibility of continent-wide deflation, and debt burdens that remain onerous, if not catastrophic.
Enter farce: the economic doyens of the EU have determined that Italy is no longer in recession due to a new way of measuring economic growth and GDP — one that counts illegal activities such as drug trafficking, prostitution and arms smuggling as part of the mix.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Mayor Among 26 ‘Ndrangheta Arrests
PD official detained along with M5S councillor
(ANSA) — Reggio Calabria, October 14 — The mayor of a Calabrian coastal town was among 26 people arrested in an operation against the local ‘Ndrangheta mafia Tuesday. San Ferdinando Mayor Domenico Madafferi, of the ruling Democratic Party, was vociferous in his opposition earlier this year to the government using the giant Mob-ridden container port of Gioia Tauro to tranship Syrian chemical weapons.
He is accused of external mafia association.
A deputy mayor who belongs to a local civic list and a councillor from the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement were also arrested.
‘Ndrangheta, which controls the European cocaine trade, is the richest and most dangerous Italian mafia.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Tax Police Colonel Arrested in Naples Graft Probe
General under investigation
(ANSA) — Naples, October 14 — A tax police colonel and a pharmaceuticals entrepreneur were arrested Tuesday in a probe into alleged corruption in Naples. Finance Guard Colonel Fabrizio Giaccone and businessman Nazario Matacchione were detained in a probe into allegedly receiving bribes including Rolex watches for soft tax inspections.
Finance Guard General Vito Bardi has been placed under investigation.
In the same probe, in July, Finance Guard Colonel Fabio Massimo Mendella was arrested for suspected irregularities in tax checks.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Prosecutor Asks Sentence of 5 Yrs 8 Mos for Podesta’
Lombardy election rigging case called ‘wound to democracy’
(ANSA) — Milan, October 17 — Prosecutor Alfredo Robledo asked a judge to sentence the president of the province of Milan, Guido Podesta’, to five years and eight months for rigging the 2010 regional elections in Lombardy.
Robledo requested sentences ranging from four years to four years and eight months for four provincial councilors who are also defendants in the case.
Lawyers for civil complainants sought one million euros to be paid by the group of defendants for causing a “severe wound to democracy” by “secretly taking away freedom of choice” in political representation.
Podesta’ and the others are accused of padding a petition with 926 false signatures to put centre-right incumbent governor Roberto Formigoni and his People of Freedom (PDL) allies on the regional ballot.
The case became a battle-horse for the civil-rights-centred Radical party fought in Milanese civil, criminal and administrative courts.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Two Roman Tax Inspectors Arrested for Graft
Accused of seeking 50,000 bribe to clear penalties from audit
(ANSA) — Rome, October 17 — Finance police on Friday arrested two Roman tax inspectors for allegedly seeking bribes. The inspectors were jailed, while a third man was placed under house arrest.
Tax inspectors Giuseppe Costantini and Alberto Mario Gloria are accused of asking 50,000 euros to “fix” a tax audit to prevent dispute over a business income declaration. The third man, Costantini’s cousin Antonio Beltri, allegedly acted as an intermediary. A restaurant owner in Rome told police that the two tax inspectors came to conduct a tax audit. After a set of preliminary checks, the inspectors allegedly told the restaurant owner that they were finding unreported revenue of roughly one million euros. Gloria then said the discrepancy could be reduced or eliminated with a payment of 25,000 euros, which was later raised to 50,000 euros, according to the arrest order.
“Later investigations confirmed…that the episode was only the ‘tip of the iceberg’ of unfair conduct on the part of officers of the homeland revenue agency,” wrote a judge on the arrest order.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Soccer Stadiums Decree Passed Into Law
Includes move to make clubs pay for police overtime
(ANSA) — Rome, October 16 — The Italian Senate has passed into law a government decree to make Italian soccer stadiums more hostile to hooligans and friendlier for families.
The law beefs up measures the authorities can use to combat hooliganism, including the possibility to ban whole groups of fans, rather than just individual trouble makers.
It will also be possible for the authorities to impose deferred arrests on hooligans, which will come into force in the case of repeat offences.
Stadium police will get to use taser stun guns in a trial basis too.
The decree also includes a controversial move to make clubs pay part of the overtime of police officers working on match days with a levy of from 1% to 3% of ticket sales.
The clubs say this is unfair.
Italy has a long-running problem with hooliganism. A Napoli fan was shot and subsequently died in hospital after clashes before last season’s Italian Cup final in May.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Over 30,000 People Trafficked in EU in 2010-2012
69% trafficked for sex trade, 1,000 of them minors
(ANSA) — Brussels, October 17 — The European Union has identified 30,146 victims of human trafficking and prosecuted 8,551 human traffickers in 2010-2012, EU Internal Affairs Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom said Friday.
Of the victims, 80% were women, 16% were minors, and 69% were trafficked for purposes of sexual exploitation. Of those trafficked for sex, 95% were women and 1,000 were minors, Malmstrom said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
UK: West Midlands Police Report Reveals 75 Per Cent of Known on-Street Child Sex Groomers Are Asian
Confidential report also says 82 per cent of victims, aged 14 to 16, are white
A bombshell police report has revealed 75 per cent of known on-street child sex groomers in the West Midlands are Asian — with 82 per cent of victims, aged 14 to 16, being white.
And a Birmingham Mail investigation has discovered how police, councils and social services have been failing vulnerable victims in a new abuse scandal which follows those identified in Rotherham, Rochdale and Derbyshire.
The shocking statistics are contained in a confidential report from West Midlands Police.
Another report identified 111 youngsters at risk of child sexual exploitation in Birmingham last year, with the youngest aged just 11, and almost half of them under 15 years old.
The Children’s Society has also previously warned that vulnerable children were being taken to hotels in the West Midlands and abused by gangs after being plied with drugs and alcohol.
The Mail has discovered how children across the region have been failed by police, councils and social services — with some known offenders not being prosecuted and victims being locked away in secure accommodation to protect them.
The sickening situation was revealed by Birmingham Safeguarding Children Board (BSCB) in a Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE) Prevention and Intervention Strategy published in September 2013. It was sent to partner agencies, including West Midlands Police, but was never issued to the media…
| — Hat tip: Ivan Winters | [Return to headlines] |
Three Killed in Suicide Attack on Benghazi Checkpoint
(AGI) Benghazi, Oct 18 — Three people were killed and several injured in a suicide attack in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi, aimed at citizens fighting alongside government forces against Islamist groups, witnesses said. The attack targeted residents of the central Benghazi area of Boudhima, who had apparently set up a roadblock at the entrance to their neighbourhood.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
US-Israeli Relations: National Security Trauma
Here is another unfamiliar result of Operation Protective Edge: the Israeli defense establishment will reduce the production of weapon systems in the USA in the context of joint Israeli-American projects, and will rely more heavily on Israeli-made products. Under a veil of secrecy, a decision has already been made at IMOD not to enable the production of at least one highly sensitive weapon system on US soil, despite the fact that the manufacture of said system in the USA may be funded through US defense aid instead of being paid for in NIS with Israeli taxpayer money.
The Israeli defense establishment will also intensify the manufacture of Israeli missiles that can substitute US-made munitions. The decision, in itself, will not have a substantial effect on Israel’s security status, but it represents a major trauma in US-Israeli defense relations: things that had been taken for granted until Operation Protective Edge, like the fact that Israel could always count on a US airlift of ammunition in a time of trouble, are no longer certain at all.
The cause of this trauma was, naturally, the decision by the USA not to enable the shipping of ammunition to Israel during Operation Protective Edge. The story was revealed for the first time by Wall Street Journal, which reported that a shipment of Hellfire missiles for helicopters was withheld, based on US sources.
The full truth, revealed here for the first time, is much more severe: apparently, during Operation Protective Edge, the USA had completely stopped all connections with Israel’s defense procurement delegation based in the USA. For days, no item whatsoever could be shipped. The expected airlift of US ammunition had never even arrived at its point of departure.
The crisis began about ten days into Operation Protective Edge, pursuant to allegations that the percentage of uninvolved civilian deaths in the Gaza Strip was extremely high (IDF admitted that about one half of all Palestinian deaths were probably civilians who had not been involved in the fighting).
At that stage, the Israeli defense establishment submitted to the USA a request for various types of munitions, including Hellfire missiles, to replenish the dwindling inventories of IDF.
The urgent request was submitted using a procedure that the Israeli defense establishment practices as part of every training exercise and wartime scenario — through the European Command of the US military (EUCOM).
The order to stop the processing of all Israeli requests came from a senior echelon — probably the White House, among other reasons, because Israel had ignored the initiatives of Secretary of State John Kerry and preferred to end the operation through a direct channel with the Egyptians. The State Department had been annoyed with Israel for several months, since it was revealed that Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon had referred to Kerry as ‘Messianic’ in closed sessions…
| — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes | [Return to headlines] |
Gulf Countries Ready for a Joint Defence Navy
“Navy Security Group 81” to defend waters shared with Iran
(ANSAmed) — ROME, OCT 16 — Gulf countries are determined to establish a joint naval force in a bid to defend waters shared with neighbouring Iran, the Middle East website reported Thursday.
General Ahmed Yousef Al-Mulla, adviser of the Kuwaiti ministry of defence, was quoted by news-agency Kuna as saying that naval and military commands of the Gulf region are seeking approval for a joint security naval system and are currently working out strategic and operational details. According to Al-Mulla, the creation of a Gulf naval force which will be called Navy Security Group 81, shall be announced in the next few months. The system — adds Al-Mulla — will be similar to the ground force denominated “ Aljazeera shield” , with the difference of being naval. The main objective of naval and ground operations — he says — is the security and stability of the Gulf area.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
by Daniel Pipes
Only twelve years ago, the Republic of Turkey was correctly seen as a stalwart NATO ally, the model of a pro-Western Muslim state, and a bridge between Europe and the Middle East. A strong military bond with the Pentagon undergirded broader economic and cultural ties with Americans. For those of us who work on the Middle East, time in Istanbul, Ankara, and other Turkish cities was a refreshing oasis from the turmoil of the region.
And then, starting with the still-astonishing election of 2002, the country dramatically changed course. Slowly at first and then with increasing velocity since mid-2011, the government began breaking its own laws, turned autocratic, and allied with the enemies of the United States. Even those most reluctant to recognize this shift have been forced to do so. If Barack Obama listed Turkey’s dominant political leader, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, as one of his five best foreign friends in 2012, he showed a quite different attitude by having a mere chargé d’affaires represent him at Erdogan’s presidential inauguration a few weeks ago — a public slap in the face.
What caused this shift? Why did Turkey go rotten?
[Comment: Recommended reading.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Iraqi Authorities Impose Curfew in Ramadi
(AGI) Baghdad, Oct 18 — Iraqi authorities imposed a curfew in the western city of Ramadi on Friday, fearing that the Islamic State (IS) group was planning to advance on the city, government sources said. The curfew is part of an effort to limit movement in and out of the city as government forces prepared to combat pockets of resistance there, the chairman of the Anbar provincial council said. IS has been gaining ground in recent weeks around Ramadi, the capital of the Sunni-dominated province of Anbar, 115 kilometres west of Baghdad.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
ISIS Justifies Its Yazidi Slaves
by Daniel Pipes
That the Islamic State (ISIS) has enslaved Yazidi women and children it captured is an established fact; for example, a United Nations report found that “300 [Yazidi] women had been forced into slavery.” Now, in its slick multi-language journal, ISIS offers its theological justification for this practice.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Jordan: 382 Mln Euros From EU for Projects Over Next 3 Years
Agreement signed by Commissioner Stefan Fule
(ANSAmed) — AMMAN, OCTOBER 14 — Jordan and the European Union have signed an agreement for financial interventions worth 382 million euros in favor of the Hashemite Kingdom over the next three years. The accord was signed by the Jordanian Minister of Water and Irrigation, Hazem Nasser, and EU Commissioner for Enlargement and Neighbourhood Policy, Stefan Fule.
It follows another agreement providing for European funding worth 60 million dollars to support legislative reform.
Fule told a press conference that Jordan is “a very important partner for the EU and we remain strong supporters of political reforms in Jordan aimed at strengthening democracy, the rule of law and human rights”. The commissioner also recognized the “vital role” of Jordan in providing assistance and hospitality to Syrian refugees, as well as support and solidarity for Palestinian refugees.
“We are aware of the challenges posed to Jordan by the Syrian crisis and try to be of help”, added Fule.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Lebanon to Get Eur 130 Mln From EU for 2014-16 Projects
MoU signed during Fule’s visit to Beirut
(ANSAmed) — BEIRUT, OCTOBER 15 — The European Union on Wednesday pledged 130 million euros in funding to Lebanon for projects running through 2016 in the justice, security, social cohesion and sustainable natural resources sectors. The Memorandum of Understanding was signed in Beirut by European enlargement and neighborhood policy chief Stefan Fule and by Lebanon’s economy minister, Alain Hakim.
“This is one more demonstration of the European Union’s deep engagement with Lebanon at this critical juncture. Indeed, the EU is well aware that Lebanon is facing extraordinary security, political, humanitarian, social and economic challenges,” Fule told Lebanese reporters in a press briefing, referring to the tensions in the country resulting from the civil war in Syria across the border and the over one million refugees that have entered the country since the conflict began.
Angelina Eichhorst, head of the EU delegation in Lebanon, said that special attention would be given in the justice sector to projects to improve prison conditions. The issue has gained greater attention recently, given the high number of jihadist detainees trying to convert their fellow inmates in the Rumieh prison near the Lebanese capital. In meeting with Fule, Lebanese prime minister Tammam Salam asked Western countries to accept a larger number of Syrian refugees, underscoring the difficulties that Lebanon faces in hosting a number of refugees equal to over 25% of its entire population.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Taliban Adopts Islamic State Terror Tactics as U.S. Troops Exit Afghanistan
The Islamic State army’s unleashing of terror bombings and assassinations in Iraq last year is being played out by insurgents in Afghanistan who want to intimidate and destroy local forces as American troops exit.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: Old Greek Daily Closes Office Due to Money Problems
(ANSAmed) — ISTANBUL, OCTOBER 13 — Editors of one of Turkey’s two oldest newspapers, the Greek-language ‘Apoyevmatini’ (Afternoon) published in Istanbul, which has long been struggling to survive, have had to shut down their office due to financial problems. The newspaper was founded on 12 July 1925 and is still being published until today. Following the centre-left Turkish daily newspaper Cumhuriyet (‘The Republic’, founded on 7 May 1924 by journalist Yunus Nadi Abalioglu), Apoyevmatini is the second most senior daily newspaper founded after the Republic of Turkey came into existence, its readers being mostly Greeks living in Turkey. The newspaper — as the Cihan News Agency reported — will be run from the house of Mihail Vassiliadis, editor-in-chief of the daily, which has been in publication since 1925. The 75-year-old Vassiliadis announced in August that the paper was leaving its office in the Suriye Pasaji just off Istanbul’s Istiklal Street, where the paper has been run for 90 years. If Apoyevmatini’s economic situation does not improve, the newspaper will cease publication by July of next year, the journalist said. The daily has a circulation of 600, which reaches most of the Greek community in Turkey.
Vassiliadis also distributes the paper in electronic format to former members of the Greek community of Turkey now living abroad, but this does not require a paid subscription.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Dashain and Deepawali Could “Bankrupt” Nepal
Economists and experts point out the eight days off for Hindu festivals are too many. The country is still developing and cannot afford to have shops and businesses close down. A Protestant clergyman proposes a single day of celebration for each religion, including Christianity and Buddhism.
Kathmandu (AsiaNews) — The Hindu festivals of Dashain and Deepawali — the most important in the country — are great for the soul of the people but a real drain on the economy of Nepal, costing 150 million rupees (US$ 1.5 million) a day.
Multiplied by eight, which is the number of days of the business holiday, and the economy is forced to put a break. For economists, a poor nation developing country like Nepal cannot afford such a cost.
If all business activities remained closed for the entire the 15-day period of the Dashain festival that just ended, and the upcoming five-day Deepawali, “the country’s economy would go bankrupt,” Prof Bishwambhar Pyakurel told AsiaNews.
However, even the eight days of holiday break (five for Dashain and three for Deepawali) weighs heavily on Nepal, which still has problems of political instability, unemployment, backwardness and a low GDP.
According to the economist, “businesses should never close, but find replacements for their employees.”
What is more, he adds, “since Nepal is a multicultural and multi-religious country, all communities should be able to celebrate in the same way, with no obstacles to economic activities.”
Rev Isu Karki agrees. For the Protestant clergyman, “On these issues, the government is still partial. Until seven years ago, minorities’ festivities were not recognised.”
Since the country became secular, Christians have been able to celebrate Christmas and Easter, but the great place reserved for the Dashain and Deepawali shows that Hinduism is still dominant.
“It would be fairer, he adds, “for the country’s religions and economy, if the longer holidays were reduced to just one day of vacation, whether it is Christmas, Easter, Dashain, Deepawali, Buddha’s birthday or any other”.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Former Military Among Myanmar’s 3,000 Pardoned Prisoners
(AGI) Rangoon, Oct 7 — Burmese authorities have begun releasing more than 3,000 prisoners following a humanitarian pardon by President Thein Sein. It is the biggest pardon in the history of Myanmar and benefits 3,073 detainees, including former military intelligence officers and 58 foreign nationals. It is not clear whether political prisoners will be released.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Nepal: Muslim Women Defy Tradition and Pray in Public
by Christopher Sharma
Sexual discrimination within the Islamic community is a big problem in the country. Human rights activists denounce: “This leads to a lack of education and poverty.” The first signs of rebellion on the occasion of Friday prayers: dozens of women leave home and go to the mosque.
Kathmandu (AsiaNews) — Nepal’s Muslim women have begun to challenge the social taboo and, in a first gesture of independence, have joined the rest of the Islamic faithful to prayer Namaj (Friday prayers, one of the five pillars Islam) in public. Nisha Jaitun says: “Muslim women are able to do what men do. And for the first time have decided to leave their villages, challenging the tradition that women should be locked in the house for prayer and we joined the others. We are ready to protest against male domination of Islam. “
Although in the Muslim world there is no dogmatic discrimination between the sexes, in Nepal — where Islam is applied with strict social rules — Muslim women were forbidden from going to a mosque. Ayesha Khatun, from Taulihawa, adds: “We also learned from the Nobel Peace Laureate Malala. A young girl who fights for education is a great example. If she had been forced to submitto Islamic taboos, and had remained between the four walls of her homes, she would never have reached this great achievement”.
At Namaj, dozens of women prayed with the men near the Badi mosque. Mohana Ansari, a leader of Muslim women and human rights activist, believes that these discriminatory practices lead to the subjection of women in Nepal: “In Islam, the role of women is very submissive, and this also creates social discrimination. Many women have no education and cannot find work. This is why whoever breaks the mold makes a good first step towards progress and development in this part of the country “
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Tibet: Demolition Campaign Against the Sacred Places of Buddhism
Stupa, monks’ retreat centers and prayer stones torn down. The fear is that the shrines reminded people of those who have self-immolated against Beijing oppression. Even Buddhist education for children under 12 forbidden. In southern China, destruction of Christian churches and crosses continues.
Dharamsala (AsiaNews) — The local government of Tibet has launched a “Rectification and Cleansing” campaign which involves the destruction of religious buildings and places of Buddhist prayer “built too recently”. The authorities have banned the monasteries from accepting young people under 12, and the hundreds of children who are already studying as is tradition in places of worship “have to return home, or be forcibly deported”.
The campaign that is seeking to supress the Tibetan religion — led by the Dalai Lama in exile — started on 20 September and will end on 20 October 2014. A 30 page document was distributed to the local Communist officials to explain their new “instructions”. The epicenter is the Driru, county considered a hotbed of Tibetan resistance to the Chinese presence in the province.
A local source, speaking to the Tibetan daily Phayul, says: “ All new stupas, mounds of mani stones [stones displaying carved mantras], and shrines built after 2010 have been declared illegal and must be destroyed by a specified deadline”. The destruction “ those who have originally built all religious structures must take them down, failing which the government would bring them down. It has also been ordered that retreat facilities built after Nov. 1, 2011, including houses for individual retreatants, must be torn down”.
The dates set are not random. The county that is being targeted by the campaign was home to several monks who also self-immolated in the provincial capital, Lhasa: suicides by fire have spiked since 2010. The stupas are “spiritual buildings” typical of Buddhism, and usually house the relics of Buddhist saints and martyrs, and the government believes that in the new places of worship are the remains of those who killed themselves in protest against Beijing oppression. This is why they want to see them destroyed before they can become symbols of resistance.
However, authorities are also targeting tradition Tibetan education. The government has ordered all monks under 12 years of age to return home — by October 29th — or they will be forcibly removed from the monasteries where they live. In Buddhist tradition young boys are sent to the monasteries to receive a basic grounding in the faith: once they reach puberty they decide whether they wish to remain to become a monk or return home.
This latest campaign against the Buddhist places and symbols echoes the demolition campaign against Christian churches and crosses in Southern China, where in the name of urban redevelopment protestant and catholic places of worship that had all of their documents and permits in order are being destroyed.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Over 100 Boko Haram Militants Killed in Northern Cameroon
(AGI) Yaounde’, Oct 17 — Eight Cameroon soldiers and 107 Boko Haram militants have been killed in fighting in the north of Cameroon, near the Nigerian border, the defense ministry said in a statement. Boko Haram has created a ‘Caliphate’ in the northeast of Nigeria and frequently crosses into Cameroon in an attempt to expand the area it controls. Cameroon shares 1,700 kilometres of border with Nigeria and has deployed troops to fight the jihadists. In the past days, Boko Haram released 27 hostages, including the Cameroonian deputy premier’s wife.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Shock W.H.O. Report: Ebola Has 42-Day Incubation Period, Not 21 Days!
A shocking report just issued by the W.H.O. says that 1 in 20 Ebola victims could incubate the virus for up to SIX weeks (42 days) before showing symptoms.
Yet all along, we’ve all been told the incubation period is only 21 days. See what else the W.H.O. is now saying that calls many Ebola assumptions into question:…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
What Happens After Someone Survives Ebola?
Learning more about patients who’ve recovered from Ebola — as well as people who are naturally immune — could save lives.
While most of the recent coverage of the ongoing Ebola outbreak has focused on rising death tolls and a few infected U.S. citizens, other segments of the population have passed mostly unnoticed from the harsh glare of the media spotlight: Survivors, and those who are seemingly immune to Ebola.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Captivity of Marine Sgt. Andrew Tahmooressi shall go down in history as one of the more reprehensible chapters written by this presidency. Administration’s cowardly disenfranchising.
My dissertation today deals with none other than the saga of Marine Sgt. Andrew Tahmooressi, spinelessly arrested in Mexico on March 31st, 2014, charged with the unlawful entry into that country while in possession of unauthorized loaded weaponry — a serious violation of Mexican law, for which he is now on trial, albeit the fact that Sgt. Tahmooressi’s crossing of the Mexican border was as innocuous as taking a taking a wrong turn in a poorly marked border-entry road.
After six months of imprisonment, Tahmooressi’s mother Jill continues to plea her son’s case to deaf ears in the Obama administration. Jill’s doleful expressions of frustration and fear for her son’s wellbeing continue to tug at my heartstrings, if yet, her pleas seem to go unheeded by an insensitive administration and a hearing-impaired John Kerry’s State Department, as the latter chooses simply turn their backs, while one of Americas’ sons is held captive by Mexico, one of the most corrupt countries in the world — ironically, the one nation ultimately responsible and accountable for most, if not all, of the U.S.’s immigration problems — a sinister and disturbing parallel of immeasurable hypocrisy.
It is humorously unthinkable that, for one, of all people, it would be Mexico the one holding captive one of America’s favorite sons for derisively breaking that country’s immigration laws as just a few weeks ago, the United States was projecting 60,000 unaccompanied minors would attempt to illegally cross the U.S.-Mexico border by the end of the year — a projection which has now soared to 90,000, and might still be surpassed.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Danish Immigrant Party Challenges Populist Right
The National Party is fronted by three brothers of Pakistani heritage who want to challenge the right-wing’s seeming lock on “Danish values”.
A political party targeting the immigrant vote by advocating looser immigration laws and “a ban on banning” religious symbols has launched in Denmark amid record support for the populist right.
“We are Danish. I feel in Danish, I think in Danish and I dream in Danish,” said Ahmad, who is of Pakistani heritage and co-founded the organisation with his two brothers.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Let’s Stop Being a Country of Immigrants
Today, 48 million Americans survive on food stamps and taxpayer paid housing and services.
But every 30 days, our Congress imports 100,000 immigrants from 150 countries around the world. Exactly what benefit does that do to our schools, hospitals, cities and welfare rolls? What about our quality of life?
Earlier this year, 60,000 children from Central and South America overran our southern border. Today, Brian Williams, David Muir and Scott Pelley tell us about a “mysterious disease” affecting our children across the country. Not once does anyone mention that 60,000 foreign kids swamped this country with no chance to check them for diseases south of the border. Thus, how do you think that “mysterious disease” spread throughout the USA?
Right now, our first Ebola case hit the Texas area. We face sending 3,000 military troops to Africa to help contain the virus. Are we out of our minds or what?
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Bumps in the Road to the New Gay World Order
By Servando Gonzalez
There are strong indications that the full, worldwide implementation of the New Gay World Order (NGWO) is facing a severe setback. Evidence of this is that several key CFR agents have publicly admitted that the NGWO machinery has stalled.
Currently, three main bumps on the road to the NGWO are making the conspirators’ plans difficult to accomplish: the Internet, the new Russia and awakened Americans.
The Internet
Very early in their criminal careers, the oil magnates and Wall Street bankers pushing their NGWO realized that the best way to control people was by controlling their minds — what is now called “psychological warfare.” So, using their money and power, they made a powerful grab to control the American free press. This maneuver was kept secret, and we know about it thanks to a patriotic politician, Congressman Oscar Callaway, whose statement was included in the Congressional Record. Congressman Callaway’s statement is so important that I am quoting it in detail,
On March, 1915, the J.P. Morgan interests, the steel, shipbuilding, and powder interests, and their subsidiary organizations, got together 12 men high up in the newspaper world and employed them to select the most influential newspapers in the United States and sufficient number of them to control generally the policy of the daily press of the United States.
They have resorted to anything necessary to commercialize public sentiment and sandbag the national congress into making extravagant and wasteful appropriations for the Army and Navy under the false pretense that it was necessary. Their stock argument is that it is “patriotism.” They are playing on every prejudice and passion of the American people.
This almost total control of the U.S. mainstream press has continued almost uninterrupted to this day. Speaking at the Bilderberg meeting in Baden-Baden, Germany, June 5, 1991, CFR honcho David Rockefeller thanked the sycophantic press for doing a good job in keeping the American people in the dark about the treasonous activities of the Wall Street bankers and other conspirators in the Council on Foreign relations.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Christian College Forms Board to Review Policy Prohibiting Homosexual Behavior
SALEM, Mass. — A Christian college in Massachusetts has announced that it will take at least a year to review its policy prohibiting homosexual behavior in light of scrutiny from a local accreditation board.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Houston’s Mayor is a Villain, Not a Hero
This week the country learned that in the politically red state of Texas is the liberal, blue city of Houston, which is led by Mayor Annise Parker, an avowed lesbian.
In May, Mayor Parker rammed through the city council a controversial transgender rights measure called the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance (HERO), otherwise known as the “bathroom bill.” It would allow men who self identify as females to use the women’s bathroom and vice versa. Obviously, the ordinance was controversial and five local pastors mounted a successful campaign to gather 50,000 signatures to oppose the measure. This was more than three times the number of signatures necessary to force a voter referendum on the ordinance.
Despite the overwhelming number of signatures gathered, the Houston city attorney dismissed the petitions claiming that there were “irregularities.” Thereafter, a lawsuit was filed by four citizens outraged at such disregard for public sentiment. A court date has been set for January 19, 2015 to decide this matter.
In the name of fighting discrimination, Houston is engaged in discrimination against heterosexual citizens who are not confused about their gender. Of special concern should be the women of Houston who should not have to encounter individuals, regardless of their sexual confusion, with male “equipment” in their bathrooms.
In the meantime, an upset Mayor Parker decided to make these pastors pay for their obstinacy. Her attorneys sent them a subpoena demanding that they turn over any sermons or communications that discussed the Mayor, homosexuality, gender identity or related issues.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
How the Pro-Family Movement Helped Spread “Gay Marriage” Across America
Analysis of the Oct. 6 Supreme Court announcement
The “gay marriage” steamroller is in the news again, with another big win in the courts. Pro-family people across the country are wringing their hands in anguish. How is this happening? Well, it’s about time we started being honest with ourselves. In many ways, the biggest help to the homosexual cause has been the dishonesty, incompetence, and cowardliness of the pro-family movement itself in dealing with this issue.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
‘I Refuse to be Silent’: Writer Says Homosexuality ‘Shattered’ Her Marriage, Family
A mother and writer has generated much discussion following the publication of an article in which she shares her personal story of how homosexuality and same-sex “marriage” shattered her own marriage and family.
“I refuse to be silent,” wrote Janna Darnelle (a pen named used to protect her family’s identity), who states that behind many of the happy photographs in reports on same-sex “marriage,” there are untold stories of sorrow and pain. “I represent one of those real life stories that are kept in the shadows. I have personally felt the pain and devastation wrought by the propaganda that destroys natural families.”…
She said that when the matter went to court, her husband sought primary custody of the couple’s children, and asserted that he deserved everything that he wanted in the divorce because he was a homosexual. He was granted his request, and later went on to “marry” his male partner with the children present — a photograph that was featured in USA Today.
“Commenters exclaimed at how beautiful this gay family was and congratulated my ex-husband and his new partner on the family that they ‘created,’“ Darnelle recalled. “But there is a significant person missing from those pictures: the mother and abandoned wife. . . . I am missing. But I am real, and I represent hundreds upon thousands of spouses who have been betrayed and rejected.”
She later expressed concern about the life that he children are now exposed to and how it might affect their psyche as they try to understand their own manhood and womanhood. Her husband and children live in a condo with sixteen other homosexual men…
Rivka Edelman reports that Darnelle has been the subject of much hostility and harassment following the publication of her now viral article, and that once one reader learned of her identity, he contacted her employer in an attempt to have her fired.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: ‘No New Gay Rights Bill Being Written’ Says Undersecretary
‘Premier wants civil unions for gays however’ says Scalfarotto
(see related)(ANSA) — Rome, October 15 — A cabinet undersecretary on Wednesday appeared to deny reports that Premier Matteo Renzi’s government is at work on a gay civil unions bill.
“I have no record of a government bill on civil unions between gays, but the premier has been saying for a while that he wants German-style civil partnerships (in Italy),” Ivan Scalfarotto told ANSA.
People should not view such a bill as a privilege for a minority, he added.
“Gay people can’t choose between marriage and cohabitation while heterosexuals can,” Scalfarotto pointed out.
Gay activists and some MPs earlier welcomed reports that the Renzi administration is at work on a bill legalizing gay marriage and the adoption of children by the non-biological parent within the couple. The bill reportedly to be presented to the cabinet by the end of the month would de facto legalize gay marriage in all but name.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Sacrificing Common Sense on the Altar of Political Correctness
The teller and listeners accept as likely, or plausible, even the fictional narrative of a good legend. Arising from within a specific tradition of indoctrination, a convincing, evolving legend gains notoriety until, over time, its credence becomes nonnegotiable. In the case of political correctness, value-free, culturally inclusive, and gender-neutral language is memorialized in the Official Politically Correct Dictionary and Handbook (1993).
Often laughable, politically correct (PC) terminology boosts bias favoring some veiled agenda that propels it. For example, a dead person is distinguished as “an environmentally-correct human” and a delicatessen, “a corpse farm.” Unfortunately, the practice of sacrificing common sense on the altar of political correctness can turn lethal whenever folks accede to fantastical delusion — this, by: abandoning traditional ideals and moral law, forfeiting sound knowledge and principles gleaned from history, favoring appeasement, and embracing legends…
Diversity is touted as tolerance designed to wipe out (1) Western culture defined by Judeo-Christian ethic and (2) national sovereignty, worldwide system of checks and balances based on nation-states. Democratic Socialists of America agree that “now is the time to press for subordination of national sovereignty to democratic transnationalism” (Eco-Socialist Review, Summer 1991). What more effective way than by means of the Diversity Visa program whereupon applicants from around the globe participate in an annual, random lottery?
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Seattle Changes Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples’ Day
While the rest of the country is celebrating Columbus Day on Monday, Seattle will be holding its first Indigenous Peoples’ Day. Kshama Sawant, a member of the council, said that Christopher Columbus had a ‘‘pivotal role’’ in the extermination of millions of Native Americans.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Vindication of Antonin Scalia — A Sad Milestone for Marriage and Morality
A giant milestone in the moral revolution passed today when the U.S. Supreme Court turned down every single appeal from several states on the issue of same-sex marriage. This decision not to take at least one case under consideration stunned both sides in the same-sex marriage battle. Last weekend’s edition of USA Today featured a front-page story that declared the virtual certainty that the Court would take at least one of the cases and declared same-sex marriage to be “a cause whose time has come.”…
But the Court’s decision also sent another even more powerful message. The remaining federal courts were put on notice that same-sex marriage is now the expectation of the Supreme Court and that no appeal on the question is likely to be successful, or even heard. You can expect the lower courts to hear that message loudly and clearly — and fast.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Comet Siding Spring at Mars: How a Rare Celestial Event Was Discovered
A comet that was born before the Earth formed is flying in from the edge of the solar system, bound for a dramatic date with Mars on Sunday (Oct. 19).
Comet Siding Spring — unknown and undiscovered until 2013 — will zoom past the Red Planet Sunday afternoon in an encounter that could help scientists better understand how the solar system came to be.
Siding Spring will fly 87,000 miles (139,500 kilometers) from Mars at 2:27 p.m. EDT (1827 GMT) Sunday, about one-third of the distance from the Earth to the moon. Researchers will observe the close encounter with the fleet of orbiters and rovers at the Red Planet.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
[Note: Regarding my NewsWithViews series of articles titled “The Power Elite and the Secret Nazi Plan” (and book by the same title with additional material), I have referred to groups like Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Palestinian police giving the Nazi salute. Now, concerning ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria), if you look at MEMRI-TV’s website under “Mosque-Goers Pledge Allegiance to ISIS Leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi following Al-Raqqah Sermon,” you will see in this video people giving the Nazi salute as a sign of their loyalty to al-Baghdadi. Look at my previous NewsWithViews column, titled “Suspicions About Baghdadi,” and remember that the secret Nazi plan is a subpart of the larger Power Elite’s plan.
Relevant to my assertion over the years that the Power Elite uses a dialectical process to achieve it ultimate goal of a World Socialist Government by synthesizing Western Capitalism and Eastern Communism, in Henry Kissinger’s new 2014 book WORLD ORDER, he remarks that “the statesman must distill (that vision) by analyzing and shaping an array of ambiguous, often conflicting pressures into a coherent and purposeful direction.”]
I asked Jim, “Why didn’t more people become concerned when Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) member Ted Koppel on ABC’s ‘Nightline’ referred to ‘nationalism’ as a ‘virus’?” As a serious look of concern came upon Jim’s face, I showed him an article titled “Winners and Losers in the Informational Age” in the November/December 1996 edition of SOCIETY. It was written by Ian Angell of the London School of Economics and Political Science (established by Fabian Socialists), who proclaimed: “Individuals and companies are setting up large transnational networks that pay absolutely no heed to national boundaries and barriers…Those who wrap themselves in the flag can soon expect to be buried in it…We can expect massive civil unrest and disorder…Governments, like all other organizations, will have to survive economically on the efforts of an elite few — — and no nation-state has an automatic right to exist…Governments will have no other choice other than to acquiesce to the will of global enterprise…As far as global enterprises are concerned, liberal democracy is an artifact…(which) will soon mutate into an irrelevancy. It will be merely the means of governing the immobile and dependent social workers. That citizens elect their slave masters makes democracy none the less…The masses will not win the national selection for dominance of an increasingly elitist world.”
[Comment: Dr. Dennis Cuddy’s series of article is very informative.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
To demonstrate the extent to which President Clinton would have gone to pursue a world government (initially via the U.N.), I asked Jim if he recalled hearing about Army Specialist Michael New, who had refused to wear U.N. insignia over his American uniform when asked (ultimately by President Clinton) to do so as part of his assignment to Macedonia (formerly part of Yugoslavia). When Jim said he had heard about the controversy on the national news some time ago, I told him that the young soldier had captured the irony of the situation in his statement that “He (Clinton) refused to wear the U.S. military uniform (in the Vietnam War) and was elected President of the United States), but when I refused to surrender my U.S. Army uniform to wear the uniform of another government (the U.N.) he had me court-martialed.”
Eager to learn more, Jim said, “OK, that’s the type of thing they’ve been doing in foreign affairs. What about domestic affairs?” “Well,” I told him, “perhaps the best description of what’s been going on comes from Anatoliy Golitsyn THE PERESTROIKA DECEPTION (1995).” I informed Jim that Golitsyn was a Soviet KGB agent who defected to the U.S., and related that in Christopher Story’s (editor) Foreword to Golitsyn’s book, Story wrote: “Control of the Western mind is to be achieved not only by means of the dishonest use of language, but also through operations to demoralize the West — -through corrosive attacks on society’s institutions, the active promotion of drug abuse, and the spread of agnosticism, nihilism, permissiveness and coerced attacks on the family in order to destabilize society. Religion and the traditional culture and moral hegemony must first be destroyed, before the revolution can be successful — -a message stated unequivocally by the American activist Ellen Willis, who had written that ‘feminism is not just an issue or a group of issues; it is the cutting edge of a revolution in cultural and moral values…The objective of every feminist reform, from legal abortion to the E.R.A. to child-care programs, is to undermine traditional family values…’ (see THE NATION, November 14, 1981)…The strategists assume that with Western society ‘deconstructed,’ its leaders will meekly accept and cooperate with the Soviet plan for a ‘New World Social Order,’ or World Government.”
“In order the have a World Socialist Government,” I told Jim, “each nation must first be moved toward Socialism, and to accomplish that, key areas must be ‘national’-ized. That’s why you hear about national service, a national police force, national education standards like under Common Core, and national health care like Obamacare.”
[Comment: Dr. Dennis Cuddy’s series of article is very informative.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
SWEDISH KINDERGARTEN
From the chamber of the SwedishParliament, commie member (since 2002),
Rossana Andrea Dinamarca, originally from Chile, performing in sweater marked
Sweden Democrats = racists.
http://allavaljare.se/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/140930_dinamarca.jpg
http://www.exponerat.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/2014-06-15-17-41-23_rosanna_dinamarca_v-630×343.jpg
Ethnicity and gender does not matter to me – but at the same
time, I think there are too much white men in my party.
(bad Schwedisch)
They be called young Canadian ladies of Somali origin, but they are not Canadian. They may have been given sanctuary in Canada, educated with our own children in our own schools at Canadian expense, but they are not deserving of the honour of being called Canadian. They absorbed nothing of Canada. They absorbed Islam and chose Islam. Canadians must choose never to welcome back traitors such as these. I don’t care how old they are, they are traitors and not welcome back to my beloved Canada.