Gates of Vienna News Feed 2/27/2015

In posts on social media, an unidentified “Dane” said “Je Suis Omar” and praised Omar El-Hussein, the terrorist who murdered two people at a café and a synagogue earlier this month in Copenhagen. The Danish authorities will not prosecute him; however, they are attempting to ban Hizb ut-Tahrir. Also in Denmark: another accomplice of Omar El-Hussein has been arrested, reportedly the late terrorist’s younger brother.

In other news, the actor Leonard Nimoy, best known for his role as Mr. Spock in the first Star Trek series, has died at the age of 83.

To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Caroline Glick, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, Jerry Gordon, Nick, Papa Whiskey, Phyllis Chesler, 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.

Financial Crisis
» Anti-Government Clashes in Greece as Bailout Extended
» German Parliament Overwhelmingly Approves Greek Bailout Extension
» Greece: Scores of Left-Wing Hardliners Riot in Athens as PM Agrees to New Bailout Terms
» The Federal Reserve Has Unleashed a “Virus of Radical Monetary Policy”… and There’s No Going Back
» The Recovery, Unemployment, And Earnings Are All Based on Fraud and Accounting Gimmicks
 
USA
» “None of the Above”: Senator Wants Message of No Confidence on the Ballot
» 5 Facts That Prove Obama Hates the Second Amendment
» Adm. James Lyons Explains Obama, Muslim Brotherhood & ISIS Almost to the Depths
» Americans Are the Terrorists
» Ann Coulter Excluded From Speakers at CPAC
» As Congressional GOP Leaders UN-Man Themselves … Conservatives Must Now Seriously Organize
» As Obama Gets His Way — America is Losing Hers
» BATF Ammo Ban Violates Federal Law as Well as the Constitution
» Black Lawmakers Wonder Who Will Share in $1 Billion-a-Year Road Package
» Congressman: Obama Using His ‘Pen & Phone’ To Gut 2nd Amendment
» CPAC Attendees Plan to Walk Out on Jeb Bush
» Empowering Jihad: The Deadly Myth of a ‘Root Cause’
» Eric Holder’s Parting Shot: It’s Too Hard to Bring Civil Rights Cases
» FCC Launches War on Free Speech — Video
» Government Takeover of the Internet Begins
» Here is What Americans Spent Their “Gas Savings” On
» IRS Watchdog: ‘Potential Criminal Activity’ In Email Scandal
» ‘Knives Are Out’: Hawaii Dem Faces Backlash for Taking on Obama Over ‘Islamist’ Extremism
» Lyndon Johnson Was a Civil Rights Hero. But Also a Racist.
» Move to Ban a Bullet Adds to Its Appeal
» Obama’s Self-Professed “Confusion” About Islamic Terror
» Obama Taunts: I Will Veto Any Laws That Restrain Me — Video
» Obama Thanks Americans for Supporting Destruction of the Internet
» Obama Brags About Power Grab While Americans Debate Color of a Dress
» Oregon Senator Mandating Vaccines Gets a Dose of Her Own Hypocrisy
» Populist British Anti-EU Leader Fires Up U.S. Conservatives
» Posing for the Cameras While the Islamic Threat Grows
» Report: 100% of Corn in These Popular Chips is ‘Completely GMO’
» Ron Paul: Internet, RIP?
» Spoken Like the Dictator That He is: “We’ve Expanded MY Authorities, “ Obama Dares GOP, “Have a Vote … I Will Veto”
» Suspect Identified in Indiana’s ISIS-Related Terror Arrest
» ‘The Giver’ Shows Where ‘Net Neutrality’ Leads; Keeps on Giving if You Want it Too (Video)
» The War on Preppers: Obama Bans Ammo for the Most Popular Rifle in America
» Time to Silence Terrorists on Social Media
» Tsarnaev Lawyers Charge Jury Selection Was Slanted Toward Whites
» Video: Leonard Nimoy, Spock of ‘Star Trek, ‘ Dies at 83
» We Must Stop Dictator Obama! — Video
» Why Your Smartphone Records Everything You Say to It
 
Canada
» Canadian Judge Tells Muslim Woman She Will Not Hear Her Case Until She Removes Her Headscarf
» Muslim Teacher Denies Influencing 6 Canada Teens to Travel to Syria to Join ISIS
 
Europe and the EU
» Body Found in Snow-Clearing Machine After French Ski Resort Accident
» Czechia: Experiment Shows Islamophobia in Hiring
» Denmark: New Arrest in Copenhagen Terror Attacks
» Denmark Looks to Ban Hizb ut-Tahrir
» Eight Spaniards Arrested After Returning From Combat in Ukraine
» EU Unveils Plans for Historic Single Energy Market
» First Shelter for Belgium’s Abused Men
» German Historian, Rich Greeks Dodge Taxes Since 1830
» Greece: Clashes Between Police and Demonstrators in Athens
» Growing Risk of Women Terrorists in Italy, Europe
» Italy: Milan’s Sorin Says 2.4 Bn Euro Merger With Cyberonics
» Italy: Renzi Holds the Line on RaiWay
» Italy: Salvini Nixes Possible Berlusconi Alliance
» NATO Warms Up Its Engines: German Tank Battalion to be Activated
» No Charges Over Dane’s ‘Je Suis Omar’ Comment
» Norway Arrests Radical Preacher Who Praised Charlie Hebdo Killers
» Norway: Islamist Seized for Praising Paris Attacks
» Poland: Hundreds of Farmers Block Roads in Protest of Monsanto’s GMO Crops
» ‘Risk Has Gotten Greater’: German Jews Advised Against Wearing Kippah
» Sweden Artist Talk Halted After Terror Shootings
» Sweden: Researchers: Introduce Carbon Tax on Meat and Flights
» Third Man Arrested in Copenhagen Shooting
» UK: ‘Jihadi John’: Prime Minister Defends Security Services
» UK: 500 New Cases of Female Genital Mutilation in One Month Are ‘Just the Tip of the Iceberg’, Campaigners Warn
» UK: Gary Glitter Jailed for 16 Years
» UK: How Mohammed Emwazi Became ISIS’ Jihadi John: First Picture Revealed
» UK: Jimmy Savile Raped and Sexually Assaulted Victims at 41 NHS Hospitals
» UKIP Conference Gatecrashed by Nazi Dancing Troupe
» War Criminals Could Go Unpunished in Sweden
 
North Africa
» The Pain of the Families of the 21 Beheaded Egyptian Martyrs, Praise for Egypt’s Offensive in Libya
 
Israel and the Palestinians
» Caroline Glick: In Israel’s Hour of Need
» Italy: Gentiloni: Government Favours Palestine Recognition
 
Middle East
» Belgian Army Deployed Against IS
» Fatwa on Qatari Government Website: Execution by Burning is Permitted Under Certain Circumstances
» First Photo of ‘Jihadi John’ as Adult Revealed
» Former Muslim: ‘If I Were a Muslim Today, I Would be a Member of ISIS’
» ISIS: Christians Worse Than Murderers
» More Emerges on Obama’s Phased Nuclear Deal With Iran
» Onward Christian Soldiers: US Filmmaker, Self-Styled Revolutionary Trains Faithful to Fight ISIS
» Saudis’ Oil Price War is Paying Off
» Turkey: Booming Business at the Bosphorus
 
Russia
» 10,000-Year-Old Woolly Rhino Carcass Discovered With Fur, Eyes and Horns Still Intact
» Boris Nemtsov, Leading Putin Critic, Shot and Killed in Moscow
» China Just Sided With Russia Over the Ukraine Conflict
» In Midst of War, Ukraine Becomes Gateway for Jihad
» Married TV Actor Wakes Up to Find His Testicles Have Been Stolen
» Pro-Russian Rebels, Government Forces Withdraw Weapons From East Ukraine Front Line
 
South Asia
» American Blogger Hacked to Death by Muslim Mob for Criticizing Islamic Extremism in Bangladesh
» American Blogger Hacked to Death in Bangladesh
» Bangladesh: Assailants Hack to Death Writer Avijit Roy, Wife Injured
» Bangladeshi-American Writer Killed by Machete-Wielding Assailants
» Bangladesh: Index on Censorship Condemns Brutal Murder of Blogger Avijit Roy
» US-Bangladesh Blogger Avijit Roy Hacked to Death
 
Far East
» Condom Maker’s Shares Surge After South Korea Legalises Adultery
 
Sub-Saharan Africa
» Robert Mugabe Admits Zimbabwe’s Land Reform Flaws
 
Latin America
» Venezuela’s Military Can Now Legally Use Firearms Against Demonstrators
» Venezuelan Students Vow to Hit the Streets to Protest the Ongoing Violence
 
Immigration
» Greece: More Than 300 Migrants Released
» Obama: Immigration Will Get Solved Because There Will be a “President Rodriguez”
» Sweden: Asylum Seekers in Bus Protest
» Sweden’s National Job Agency Fires Its Entire Network of ‘Immigrant Resettlement Assistants’ Over Fears They Were Finding Them Jobs — as ISIS Militants
 
Culture Wars
» Al Sharpton: ‘Lower the Threshold’ For Federal Hate Crimes Cases
» Anti-Racism Mania at Elite Private Schools
» Common Core’s Communist Core
» Multiculturalism is a Cancer on Western Society
 
General
» ‘Big Brain’ Gene Found in Humans, Not Chimps
 

Anti-Government Clashes in Greece as Bailout Extended

Greek protesters have turned against the government for the first time since the far-left Syriza party came to power, just as the country is getting a four-month extension of its bailout, which would have expired Saturday (28 February).

Some 450 people took to the streets of Athens on Thursday to voice their anger at the government, with pockets of people hurling stones and petrol bombs at police and burning cars after the march was over.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

German Parliament Overwhelmingly Approves Greek Bailout Extension

The German parliament on Friday approved a four-month extension of Greece’s bailout, which would have otherwise run out on Saturday (28 February). A large majority — 542 MPs — voted in favour of the extension while 32 voted against and 13 abstained, reported Spiegel Online.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Greece: Scores of Left-Wing Hardliners Riot in Athens as PM Agrees to New Bailout Terms

Rioters threw petrol bombs and vandalised cars on Thursday night in Athens as left-wing supporters vented their anger over the newly elected government’s perceived capitulation to Brussels.

Approximately 450 people took part in the first anti-government march in Greece since the election of a coalition government, headed by radical left-wing party Syriza, took office.

Video capturing the scenes shows roughly 50 protesters throwing what appear to be Molotov cocktails, burning cars and vandalising the streets of Athens as police — in riot gear — attempt to contain them.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

The Federal Reserve Has Unleashed a “Virus of Radical Monetary Policy”… and There’s No Going Back

Jim Grant, publisher of the Grant’s Interest Rate Observer, has been calling out currency manipulation and interest rate manipulation for some time.

The main driver of these manipulations, from the shadows and out of the mind of the public, are the actions of the Federal Reserve, which affects other central bank actions and much of the global market.

Watch what Grant said on NBC News:

Grant called the Fed’s interventions a “virus of radical monetary policy.” And according to Grant, there’s no going back… their actions are pivotal to the entire marketplace. With below zero interest rates under QE1-3, that amounts to free money for the biggest banks and massive worldwide economic manipulation:

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

The Recovery, Unemployment, And Earnings Are All Based on Fraud and Accounting Gimmicks

For six years, we’ve been told that the US economy is in recovery.

This is a totally bogus narrative that was dreamt up by the Central Planners running the Fed. Remember the “green shoots” craze of 2009. It was BS. The US economy is a disaster and has been since 2009.

The bean counters in Washington fabricate a load of nonsense to “prove” otherwise, but telling someone who is 5’6” tall that they are actually 6” tall doesn’t change their height.

Similarly, telling Americans experiencing a REAL unemployment rate of 10+% and an underemployment rate in the high teens that the economy is “recovering” doesn’t change their real-world experience.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

“None of the Above”: Senator Wants Message of No Confidence on the Ballot

Trapped inside the two-party beast, where saying “no” to one candidate has often meant voting for the “lesser of two evils” can be downright disillusioning, particularly for those who feel the system is broken beyond all repair.

Sending a firm message of “no confidence” might do more good for the country than continuing to hand power to slick, PR-driven politicians who have continued to betray voter promises and sell out the country to corporate and special interests.

Well, now one state senator has introduced a bill to do just that:

A recent proposal by State Senator Branden Petersen (R-MN) would place “None of the Above” as an option in elections. Under Petersen’s plan (which would be binding in all but presidential contests), if such option were to receive the most votes in a November election, a special election would be held with new candidates in February. Any candidates who had been listed on the prior ballot would be excluded.

Finally. It’s about time.

Maybe it’s not the solution everyone has been waiting for, but at least it sends the right message.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

5 Facts That Prove Obama Hates the Second Amendment

In light of the Obama administration’s move to outlaw ammo for one of the nation’s most popular rifles, a look back at the president’s various promises to dismantle the Second Amendment is in order.

Today we learned that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives would be recategorizing M855 AR-15 ammo as “armor piercing rounds,” despite the ammo containing lead which should exempt it from the law’s classification.

The ban would effectively dry up the ammo supply for the embattled, but still popular AR-15, and would be a devastating blow to gun owners and the Second Amendment, but the move isn’t unexpected from the Obama administration, who has consistently shown itself to be an enemy of gun rights.

1. Obama has a name for people who love the Second Amendment

In the run-up to the 2008 election, Obama had choice words regarding gun owners when he made a campaign stop in San Francisco, labeling people who support gun rights “bitter clingers.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Adm. James Lyons Explains Obama, Muslim Brotherhood & ISIS Almost to the Depths

This morning, Andrea Shea King conducted a brief (half-hour) and for the only major media -informed, very revelatory interview with retired Admiral James A. Lyons. It concerned the realities of Barack Hussein Obama, Muslim Brotherhood’ s Obama-accelerated but longstanding infiltration of American halls of power, the use of the U.S. Department of State, and just a smidge about “ our” corrupt (anti-)American exploits in “ Arab Spring” lands.

Of special interest to me, at the 16:40 point, Ms. King asks Adm. Lyons why the Gowdy committee on Benghazi is moving at a “ glacial pace,” and the latter gives more of the answer than one usually hears, about what has become obvious.

Why don’ t you listen to it, rather than my transcribing?…

Lyons has claimed the Muslim Brotherhood has infiltrated every US security agency under the Obama presidency and alleges that John Brennan, Director of the CIA, was a Muslim convert. Lyons alleges that the MB is planning to start a political party to influence American domestic politics.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Americans Are the Terrorists

When the DHS was initially organized, one of its early reports caused an uproar from millions of Americans. The agency named who they considered to be the most serious threats to national security: Conservatives, right-to-lifers, Evangelical Christians, 2nd Amendment adherents, Constitutionalists, as well as those who viewed the power of the Federal government as a threat to freedom. Nary a word about Muslims!

Anyone who is awake can see that the Globalists are actively dismantling the government of the United States so their totalitarian New World Order, headed by the Beast/Antichrist, can rise. They know they must subdue the American people because we won’t give up our freedoms without a fight, but every time they pull a false-flag attack to persuade us to give up our weapons, it backfires. Much to their consternation, we stubbornly run out and buy more guns and ammo.

Knowing this, the U.S. Army is preparing for what seems to be an inevitable showdown with the American people. In February 2014, Infowars.com reported that a 300 acre ‘fake city’ was built in Virginia, complete with a sports stadium, school, underground subway, bank, churches and road signs written in English, designed to train troops for future combat scenarios.

This complex, which cost taxpayers $96 million dollars and took two years to complete, was supposedly built to prepare troops to occupy foreign cities and train for house-to-house combat. In 2013, former Navy SEAL Ben Smith warned that the Obama administration asked top military commanders if they would be comfortable with disarming U.S. citizens, a litmus test that included firing on fellow Americans. Those who refused were forced out, resulting in the most prolific purge of top military officers from every branch of service in this nation’s history.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Ann Coulter Excluded From Speakers at CPAC

Author and conservative firebrand Ann Coulter was not invited to speak at this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference, marking the first time in several years that she was not scheduled to attend in an official capacity.

Coulter is usually a popular speaker at the annual conference — it’s the largest gathering of conservatives in the U.S. held this weekend just outside of Washington, D.C. — where she has delivered well-received speeches and signed her books for fans.

“I wasn’t invited,” Coulter confirmed in an email Thursday to the Washington Examiner media desk. “I might just show up anyway just to piss them off. I could be the Bibi Netanyahu of CPAC.” (The Netanyahu mention is a reference to a controversial invite from congressional Republicans to the Israeli prime minister to address Congress.)

Coulter, apparently confused by the snub from conference organizers, said she has been voted “best speaker” by attendees in previous years.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

As Congressional GOP Leaders UN-Man Themselves … Conservatives Must Now Seriously Organize

This week we have seen the Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell doing his worst.

But only last December, we detailed how John Boehner Enables Obama To Continue “Transforming America” —

“He did so by openly working with a skilled revolutionary who is president of the United States to secure House passage of a massive appropriations bill called the Cromnibus.

The measure gives the president’s regime money to pursue its transformative goals for our society through next September 30.

The most salient of these goals is — by lawless executive action — regularizing millions of illegal aliens and likely putting them on a path to citizenship.

This is a means of diluting our votes with those of the new citizens whom president Obama anticipates — putative new voters who already expect big government and are little used to liberty and civic order.

But the administration will also use the money approved by the House yesterday to advance the president’s many other objectives, among them:

Obamacare will sink its roots further.”

And now Breitbart’s Jonathan Strong and Caroline May declare “McConnell Caves, But Reid Wants Full Surrender From Boehner As Well” — —

“‘I’ve indicated to the Democratic leader that I’d be happy to have his cooperation to advance consideration of a clean DHS bill, which would carry us through September 30,’Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) told reporters Tuesday. ‘With Democratic cooperation on a position they have been advocating for the last two months, we could have that vote very quickly.’

‘This is a total victory for the Obama position,’ said a GOP senator unhappy with McConnell’s plan. ‘The House hasn’t passed it yet, so they might could come up with something. But that’s a grim prospect.’

ut Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid balked at the offer, saying Democrats would continue to filibuster the bill until House Speaker John Boehner indicated he was willing to also pass it through the House.”

The Conservative Review’s Gaston Mooney summed it up this morning in his “Bench McConnell” — —

“Ben Domenech, writing in this morning’s edition of The Transom, has a good run down of the current situation unfolding in the Senate.

So even when it comes to blocking funding for an executive order of dubious legality, which totally poisoned the ability to have a bipartisan immigration solution, which hasn’t even taken effect and is now the subject of a federal court injunction… Where the president did something he himself repeatedly said he didn’t have the authority to do and the federal court agreed… Republican leaders are still so afraid of the shutdown specter that they are willing to let a Democratic Senate minority have complete control over federal budget policy, so complete that they will go so far as to help Democrats avoid inconvenient conservative amendment votes to appease them. Why should Senate Democrats or Obama take the GOP leadership’s ‘ask’ on anything seriously? They have no ‘or else’. They have demonstrated repeatedly that they have no spine for these fights. They’d rather fight for things which serve their natural constituency — Washington — where the priority is Keystone, medical device taxes, and getting things done for the people who hired the money.” (Highlighting Forum’s.)

What Is To Be Done?

In our view, Maryland and Virginia conservatives should organize as conservatives on a statewide basis — not necessarily as a third party but as a third outside force through which conservative policy and program goals would be specified, conservative messages developed and disseminated, and conservative endorsements — a seal of approval — given only to worthy candidates.

As we have been saying, the biggest challenge might be to get conservatives behind the three core conservative concerns, not just that part of one of them with which they feel most congenial:

Upholding a broad range of values (not simply opposing abortion — but also strengthening the culture, defending traditional liberty, stopping Common Core, tracking taxpayer-funded school curricula and teacher training);

Right-sizing local, state, and the Federal government (more than lower taxes: seriously rolling back regulation by state and local government; espousing a pro-market but not a so-called “pro-business” or “crony-capitalist” agenda);

Strengthening homeland security (ranging from a prudent national defense, to maintaining our sovereignty by controlling immigration and our borders, to resisting national and local incursions from Civilization Jihad).

Now more than ever, however, so-called “single-issue conservatives” pursue a path to irrelevance if they do not work within the larger conservative movement. Unless they do so, they also help ensure that we shall all hang separately.

Whether conservatives of all inclinations come together on a statewide basis depends on how much they will recognize (not deny) the imminent danger. Stopping this accelerating and too-often bi-partisan transformation of America — in its Federal, state, and local versions — cannot wait until 2016.

[go to URL at top to see the embedded links]

[Return to headlines]
 

As Obama Gets His Way — America is Losing Hers

Once, or actually much more than once Obama gets his way at America’s expense. Recently, President Obama did not take long to veto the needed Keystone pipeline bill as he promised. At the very least, the necessary pipeline would have created many hundreds of construction and permanent jobs. The needed supply of oil would have also contributed to our nation’s petroleum inventory. Also America’s position as an oil exporting nation would have been enhanced. Unfortunately, because of an ignorant based choice of American voters, our republic is now enduring perhaps the most anti American president in our nation’s history. His biggest rival for most anti American president might be Woodrow Wilson. He supported the injurious Federal Reserve System we put up with today, along with the League of Nations and the promotion of harsh democrat party style racism. Wilson also supported a powerful centralized federal government.

I tried, but failed miserably to find at least one major decision or action that President Obama has taken that strongly benefits America. I even reached out to several Democrat Party supporters of Obama and requested that they please instruct me on any major policies of the president that has positively affected or strengthened America. (Crickets!!!!) HA! Even they were unable to even make anything up, let alone tell me something that Mr. Obama has actually done to benefit our nation.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

BATF Ammo Ban Violates Federal Law as Well as the Constitution

Obama and the BATF are collaborating to destroy the right of the people to keep and bear arms by banning ammunition.

The founders knew it would be a gradual process of infringement, and the process takes the next step with an attempt at an unconstitutional ban on “armor piercing” bullets that don’t match the legal definition. But why would we expect the feral government to care about the law?

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Black Lawmakers Wonder Who Will Share in $1 Billion-a-Year Road Package

When — or at this point, if — our Legislature passes a bill that would put an extra $1 billion or so each year into the maintenance of Georgia roads and bridges, certain paving companies would profit accordingly.

If the current pattern holds, 96 percent of those firms will be white-owned. Less than 3 percent of taxpayer dollars spent will make it into the hands of companies owned by African-Americans.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Congressman: Obama Using His ‘Pen & Phone’ To Gut 2nd Amendment

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte charged that Barack Obama was using his ‘pen and phone’ to gut the second amendment via an ammo ban that the Congressman vowed to challenge with lawsuits and defunding if necessary.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) has announced that it intends to prohibit the sale of steel-tipped 5.56-millimeter ammunition, traditionally used in AR-15 semi-auto rifles by sports shooters, in the name of protecting law enforcement officers from “the threat posed by ammunition capable of penetrating a protective vest.”

However, critics assert that the move is an underhanded ploy on behalf of the Obama administration to bypass Congress and achieve a de facto AR-15 gun ban.

“The president has tried to ban this rifle, but Congress has refused,” Goodlatte told Fox News, adding, “Now it appears he’s taking his pen and cell phone and, through the ATF, is trying to ban the second most popular ammunition that is used in that rifle.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

CPAC Attendees Plan to Walk Out on Jeb Bush

A movement is underway to stage an informal protest when former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush hits the CPAC stage Friday.

William Temple, a member of the Golden Isle Tea Party, told The Washington Times that the party doesn’t need another Bush in office, and said that the party should listen to the grass-roots activists that helped fuel their gains in the 2014 election.

“A lot of people were not going to come here because they heard Jeb Bush was speaking,” Mr. Temple said before laying out his plan at the Conservative Political Action Conference.

“We are going to get up en masse, and we are going to walk out on him,” the 64-year-old said. “We are not going to interrupt anyone’s speech, but we are all going to exercise our right to [use] the bathroom at the same time.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Empowering Jihad: The Deadly Myth of a ‘Root Cause’

by Phyllis Chesler

Reports that “Jihadi John,” the British-accented narrator of ISIS snuff videos, is Mohammed Emwazi — an educated young man from a middle-class background — ought to put the final stake in the pretense that poverty and a lack of education and opportunity fuel Islamist hate.

This mistaken idea seems to be Obama administration policy. Marie Harf, the US Department of State deputy spokesperson, recently said:

“We cannot win this war by killing [jihadists]. We need to go after the root causes that lead people to join these groups, whether it is lack of opportunity for jobs. . . We can work with countries around the world to help improve their governance. We can help them build their economies so they can have job opportunities for these people.”

Of course, the news about “Jihadi John” is only the latest evidence to the contrary. These terrorists are often well-educated and even wealthy. Osama bin Laden certainly was…

           — Hat tip: Phyllis Chesler [Return to headlines]
 

Eric Holder’s Parting Shot: It’s Too Hard to Bring Civil Rights Cases

Attorney General Eric Holder plans to push, during his final weeks in office, a new standard of proof for civil-rights offenses, saying in an exit interview with POLITICO that such a change would make the federal government “a better backstop” against discrimination in cases like Ferguson and Trayvon Martin.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

FCC Launches War on Free Speech — Video

Alex Jones breaks down how the FCC’s war for free speech has begun!

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Government Takeover of the Internet Begins

Immediately following yesterday’s vote, Wheeler tried to diffuse criticism. “No one, whether government or corporate, should control free and open access to the Internet,” he declared. “The Internet is too important to allow broadband providers to make the rules,” adding it was nonsense to characterize this effort as a secret plan to regulate the Internet. “This plan is no more a plan to regulate the Internet than the First Amendment is a plan to regulate free speech,” he insisted.

Quite simply, that is a lie. Title II is a series of requirements imposed by government on Internet Service Providers (ISPs) that prevent them from blocking or throttling applications and websites, and charging them for prioritized access to consumers. It also allows the FCC to impose fines on companies found to be employing “unreasonable” business practices‚Äîas defined by the FCC itself. And while the agency promises it won’t impose price controls, Title II allows it to do so. In short, net neutrality is nothing less than the Obama administration’s determination to impose “social justice” on private companies because it would be “unfair” for them to treat some customers (read less profitable) less favorably other customers (read more profitable)…

In her remarks, Commissioner Clyburn said the “framers” of America’s Constitution “would be pleased” with the FCC’s plan. Really? A plan kept completely secret until after it was voted on? One that imposes government controls where there were none before? Commissioner O’Rielly was far more accurate. “I see no need for net neutrality rules,” he said, adding that the FCC’s decision amounted to a “monumental and unlawful power grab.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Here is What Americans Spent Their “Gas Savings” On

Last quarter, in “This Is What Americans Spent The Most Money On In Q4” we showed that according to the first estimate of Q4 GDP data, the American consumer spent a whopping $20.4 billion in nominal dollars on healthcare, which also resulted in the biggest consumption contribution to GDP in years.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

IRS Watchdog: ‘Potential Criminal Activity’ In Email Scandal

The IRS’s inspector general confirmed Thursday it is conducting a criminal investigation into how Lois G. Lerner’s emails disappeared, saying it took only two weeks for investigators to find hundreds of tapes the agency’s chief had told Congress were irretrievably destroyed.

Investigators have already scoured 744 backup tapes and gleaned 32,774 unique emails, but just two weeks ago they found an additional 424 tapes that could contain even more Lerner emails, Deputy Inspector General Timothy P. Camus told the House Oversight Committee in a rare late-night hearing meant to look into the status of the investigation.

“There is potential criminal activity,” Mr. Camus said.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

‘Knives Are Out’: Hawaii Dem Faces Backlash for Taking on Obama Over ‘Islamist’ Extremism

She was Hawaii’s golden girl after winning a seat in Congress with support from top liberal groups, but now that Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard has been critical of President Obama, her political reputation in the bluest of blue states is taking a hit.

That isn’t stopping the twice-deployed 33-year-old Army veteran from continuing to challenge the president, her home state’s favorite son, over his refusal to identify terror groups like the Islamic State as driven by “radical Islam.”

“Every soldier knows this simple fact: If you don’t know your enemy, you will not be able to defeat him,” Gabbard told FoxNews.com. “Our leaders must clearly identify the enemy as Islamist extremists, understand the ideology that is motivating them and attracting new recruits, and focus on defeating that enemy both militarily and ideologically.”

Gabbard has been hitting this message for weeks now, putting her at odds with many in her party who toe the line that the Islamic State should not be associated with Islam.

[…]

Michael W. Perry, of Hawaii’s most popular KSSK Radio’s “Perry & Price Show,” said that “while Gabbard is correct in her ‘emperor has no clothes’ moment, she may have lost her future seat on Hawaii’s political bench.” He said she’s committed “a mortal sin” by challenging Obama, and “now the knives are out.”

[…]

Decorated intelligence officer and noted specialist on Islamic law, Stephen Coughlin, who authored the book “Catastrophic Failure: Blindfolding America in the Face of Jihad,” set for release in March, also sided with Gabbard. “Rep. Gabbard is correct as a matter of history, she is correct as a matter of current events, and she is correct of published Islamic law.”

[Young, telegenic, courageous — and right. If the Democratic Party has a future this is it. Gabbard in ‘16! Why not? She’ll be old enough by then. — PW]

           — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey [Return to headlines]
 

Lyndon Johnson Was a Civil Rights Hero. But Also a Racist.

by Adam Serwer

Lyndon Johnson said the word “nigger” a lot.

In Senate cloakrooms and staff meetings, Johnson was practically a connoisseur of the word. According to Johnson biographer Robert Caro, Johnson would calibrate his pronunciations by region, using “nigra” with some southern legislators and “negra” with others. Discussing civil rights legislation with men like Mississippi Democrat James Eastland, who committed most of his life to defending white supremacy, he’d simply call it “the nigger bill.”

Then in 1957, Johnson would help get the “nigger bill” passed, known to most as the Civil Rights Act of 1957. With the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act, the segregationists would go to their graves knowing the cause they’d given their lives to had been betrayed

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Move to Ban a Bullet Adds to Its Appeal

WASHINGTON — President Obama’s administration has proposed banning the manufacture and sale of one of the most popular bullets used in AR-15 semiautomatic rifles, a move that has enraged gun-rights advocates and caused a run on the ammunition at gun shops across the country.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said this month that it planned to restrict the armor-piercing 5.56-millimeter “M855 green tip” rifle bullet because of new handguns that use the ammunition and pose a greater threat to the police. Previously, the millions of inexpensive green-tip steel and lead bullets sold each year were only for rifles typically used by target shooters and hunters.

“With few exceptions, manufacturers will be unable to produce such armor-piercing ammunition, importers will be unable to import such ammunition, and manufacturers and importers will be prohibited from selling or distributing the ammunition,” the A.T.F. said in a highly technical 17-page submission on Feb. 13.

The proposal would allow people to use up the ammunition they have already bought. Gun shops and firearms organizations on Thursday said there had been a rush to snap up cases of the bullets since the National Rifle Association and other gun rights groups sent out urgent alerts to their members.

Those alerts accused Mr. Obama of seeking to enact by the backdoor gun control measures that he could not pass in Congress in 2013.

***Unclosed Item!***{True — but it should also be noted that green tip 5.56 mm ammo is on the civilian market in such profusion because it didn’t work all that well in combat. As the book “Blackhawk Down” relates, it tended to go right through enemy fighters, leaving them able to scamper away — and, of course, to return fire. And if you really want to pierce armor, you don’t shoot at it with a .223 carbine in the first place. — PW]

           — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey [Return to headlines]
 

Obama’s Self-Professed “Confusion” About Islamic Terror

by Raymond Ibrahim

During the National Prayer Breakfast earlier this month, U.S. President Obama tried to shield Islam from criticism by depicting Christianity as equally violent and intolerant (via comments about crusades, inquisitions, and “high horses”). Much lesser known is that he also tried to shield Islam by invoking Christian virtues.

In many ways, his comments on “humility” might be the strangest of his entire speech—to the point that Obama himself got visibly confused by his own lack of coherency and even admitted it.

[…]

Continues Obama:

And, first, we should start with some basic humility. I believe that the starting point of faith is some doubt—not being so full of yourself and so confident that you are right and that God speaks only to us, and doesn’t speak to others, that God only cares about us and doesn’t care about others, that somehow we alone are in possession of the truth.

These are surely some strange remarks in the context of this speech. Obama calls on Americans in general and Christians in particular to exercise some “humility” and “doubt”—and he treats the two as interchangeable in meaning, which they most certainly are not.

Humility, of course, is a well-recognized Christian virtue. It is the exact opposite of pride; a modest if not humble opinion of oneself, one’s shortcomings. But what does that—exercising humility—have to do with our understanding of Islamic violence and terrorism, which is, after all, the topic under discussion? Are we not to judge and condemn it—since we’re apparently no better; is this just a reiteration of the president’s “high horse” comment earlier?

Furthermore, while Christian humility encourages self-doubt, it does not encourage doubt concerning right and wrong, good and evil. The same Christ who advocated humility repeatedly condemned evil behavior and called on people to repent of their sins.

Finally, what exactly are we supposed to “doubt”—that the Islamic State is evil? That they too “are in possession of the truth”?

Due to the incoherency of this speech, Obama himself eventually crashed on his own words and was left dumbfounded for a few seconds—six long and awkward seconds to be precise:

Our job is not to ask that God respond to our notion of truth—our job is to be true to Him, His word, and His commandments. And we should assume humbly that [six-second pause] … we’re confused and don’t always know what we’re doing …

Be sure to watch the video (around the 11-minute mark) where it is clear that Obama’s own contradictory comments cause him to pause for an inordinate amount of time before he concludes that “we’re confused”—apparently a subconscious reference to his administration.

If Obama truly believed that “our job is to be true to Him, His word, and His commandments”—and assuming “He” is God of the Bible, not Allah of the Koran—then he would be speaking truth, calling a spade a spade, and coming to the aid of those countless innocents being slaughtered, raped, and enslaved by the Islamic State and in the name of Islam—just as the Crusades did one-thousand years ago (only to be demonized today, including by Obama).

In short, just as the American president misrepresented episodes from Christian history to exonerate Islamic terror during the National Prayer Breakfast, so too did he misrepresent Christian virtues like humility to create doubt and moral confusion concerning Islamic terror.

And in the end, it was he—the president of the United States—who was left confused by his own nonsensical platitudes.

[Being preached at about humility by the Head Narcissist In Charge was a stomach-turning experience in itself. — PW]

           — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey [Return to headlines]
 

Obama Taunts: I Will Veto Any Laws That Restrain Me — Video

After previously bragging to illegal immigrants and their advocates “I changed the law for you,” Obama made more outrageous statements at another amnesty meeting last night — that he’s expanded his authority and will veto any law that restrains him.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Obama Thanks Americans for Supporting Destruction of the Internet

In addition, the move will likely force online broadcasters and websites like Infowars.com and Drudge to provide “equal opportunities for political opponents.” The FCC is not shy about announcing this is what it plans to do.

Like the Golden Age of Television, the Golden Age of the Internet will be destroyed by the heavy hand of the federal government.

Kennedy’s Federal Communications Commission boss, Newton Minow, was responsible not only for destroying the Golden Age of Television, but also centralizing and placing more power in the hands of the big three television networks, which resulted in “reducing the range of choices in programs” and killing off creativity, as Paul Cantor notes.

[Comment:…forced to provide equal opportunity on a website that the owner designed and built with their own hard work.]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Obama Brags About Power Grab While Americans Debate Color of a Dress

While the Obama administration celebrates its latest power grab, the federal takeover of the Internet and the ATF’s unlawful ammo ban, Americans are debating the color of a woman’s dress which went viral over social media.

On Thursday, the Federal Communications Commission voted to declare the Internet a “public utility,” opening the door for feds to regulate on-line speech, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms announced its plan to illegally ban M855 AR-15 ammunition, and Americans are outraged — because they couldn’t decide if a dress posted on Tumblr was black and blue or white and gold.

The Obama administration’s takeover of the Internet is particularly concerning because the FCC consulted with self-described socialist activists to develop its “Net Neutrality” program, which was largely funded by billionaire George Soros, a Nazi collaborator who is also responsible for the current war in Ukraine.

“We need to do whatever we can to limit capitalist propaganda, regulate it, minimize it, and perhaps even eliminate it,” wrote Dr. Robert McChesney of the University of Illinois, whose work influenced the FCC. “The fight against hyper-commercialism becomes especially pronounced in the era of digital communications.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Oregon Senator Mandating Vaccines Gets a Dose of Her Own Hypocrisy

When State Senator Elizabeth Steiner Hayward, author of a bill to destroy informed consent and mandate vaccines, was confronted about medical choices she made against the advice and warnings of her physician and the pharmaceutical company, she became indignant.

Why do we tolerate hypocritical, medical tyrants like her?

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Populist British Anti-EU Leader Fires Up U.S. Conservatives

National Harbor, Maryland (CNN)British euro-skeptic firebrand Nigel Farage touted his “revolution” against political elites and warned against mass immigration as shared the spotlight with the Republican Party’s top presidential hopefuls on Thursday.

Farage, whose UK Independence Party is tipped to eat into the vote of Prime Minister David Cameron’s Conservatives in the UK general election in May, also slammed the “cowardly” politics of multiculturalism before an appreciative audience of grass roots conservatives outside Washington.

“I am here today as the leader of an insurgent political force in the United Kingdom — a force that has taken on the political establishment and rocked them to the backs of their heels,” Farage declared at the Conservative Political Action Conference.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Posing for the Cameras While the Islamic Threat Grows

Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX), chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, says the danger is great that the thousands of Syrian refugees coming into the United States will include terrorists who want to kill Americans. So what is he doing about it? He told Sean Hannity of Fox News the other night that he has sent a letter!

He said, “I sent a letter to National Security Advisor Susan Rice asking her to explain why she’s doing this, and to try to stop this from happening. My job as chairman of Homeland Security is to protect the American people. I believe this will put Americans at risk.”

“Keep up the good work,” said Hannity.

It’s true. McCaul sent a letter to Obama National Security Advisor Susan Rice. But what is she going to do about it? Rice was part of the Benghazi cover-up.

This is the same Congressman McCaul who didn’t even respond to our letter two years ago asking for an investigation of Al Jazeera’s expansion into the United States.

A letter is not a substitute for a bill to stop this dangerous wave of immigration into the United States. But this is what passes for “action” from the Republican running the House Committee on Homeland Security…

We are now learning why McCaul is so reticent about doing anything of substance against the Islamic threat.

McCaul was recently exposed by Matthew Boyle of Breitbart News for having held a friendly meeting with an Islamic leader from the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) in Texas.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Report: 100% of Corn in These Popular Chips is ‘Completely GMO’

Bad news: Frito-Lays SunChips have just tested positive for weed killer and GMO ingredients. The chips are marketed as a ‘healthy’ alternative to regular chips as a means to lessen the chance of developing heart disease, but if your dining on Round Up (glyphosate residues) and GM Bt toxins found in most genetically modified corn, then ‘healthy’ as Frito-Lay defines it takes on a new meaning.

Samples were sent to a lab by GmoFreeUSA.org. They used quantitative PCR test verification by DNA analysis only to find that 100% of the chips contained DNA sequences known to be present in insecticide-producing Bt and Roundup Ready corn, as well as traces of the active ingredient known as glyphostae, used in Monsanto’s best-selling herbicide, Round Up.

That means BT toxins are inside your cells when you eat this product. It means you are eating a pesticide that has been registered with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

The glyphosate residue test was conducted by an accredited lab using the Specific LC/MS/MS testing method with a minimum detectable level of 0.02 ppm. This test proved the presence of glyphosate in SunChips at a level of 0.14 ppm, or 0.14 mg/kg. This is a significant enough level to cause concern, but really, any residue level at all, even in miniscule amounts, is linked to ill health.

Guess who owns Frito-Lay who makes SunChips? Pepsi-Co, one of the largest contributors to the Grocery Manufacturer’s Association (GMA), responsible for fighting GMO labeling in numerous states. They’ve donated millions to keep you from knowing this very information.

As GMOFreeUSA puts it:

“…$13,166,299 million is an obscene amount of money to spend fighting transparency and it makes you wonder what Pepsi is trying to hide. NOW WE KNOW.”

Looks like Pepsi’s dirty secret has been left out in the sun.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Ron Paul: Internet, RIP?

Today the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), a non-elected federal government agency, voted three-to-two to reclassify broadband Internet as a common carrier service under Title II of the Communications Act. This means that — without the vote of Congress, the peoples’ branch of government — a federal agency now claims the power to regulate the Internet. I am surprised that even among civil liberties groups, some claim the federal government increasing regulation of the Internet somehow increases our freedom and liberty.

The truth is very different. The adoption of these FCC rules on the Internet represents the largest regulatory power grab in recent history. The FCC’s newly adopted rule takes the most dynamic means of communication and imposes the regulatory structure designed for public utilities. Federal regulation could also open the door to de facto censorship of ideas perceived as threatening to the political class — ideas like the troops should be brought home, the PATRIOT Act should be repealed, military spending and corporate welfare should be cut, and the Federal Reserve should be audited and ended.

The one bright spot in this otherwise disastrous move is that federal regulations making it more difficult to use the Internet will cause more Americans to join our movement for liberty, peace, and prosperity. The federal government should keep its hands off of the Internet!

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Spoken Like the Dictator That He is: “We’ve Expanded MY Authorities, “ Obama Dares GOP, “Have a Vote … I Will Veto”

By Pamela Geller

Note the royal “we.” America went from 200 years of “We the people” to “We, Obama” in the blink of an eye.

The internet, bullets, and now this — and that’s just today.

Obama Dares GOP: Go Ahead, ‘Have a Vote on Whether What I’m Doing Is Legal…I Will Veto’ | MRCTV (thanks to Van)

Pres. Obama is daring Republicans to vote on whether or not his executive actions are legal.

[…]

Obama argued that he has merely “expanded my authorities” — not broken any laws:

“What we’ve done is we’ve expanded my authorities under executive action and prosecutorial discretion as far as we can legally under the existing statute, the existing law. And so now the question is, how can we get a law passed.”

[“… a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny …” — PW]

           — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey [Return to headlines]
 

Suspect Identified in Indiana’s ISIS-Related Terror Arrest

The Federal Bureau of Investigation confirms it arrested a man in central Indiana on Feb. 6, 2015, for allegedly helping ISIS terrorists.

13 Investigates first broke the story. We now have new details explaining how FBI agents caught their man.

His name is Nihad Rosic. He’s originally from Bosnia, and moved to the United States where he’s worked as a truck driver. But federal agents say he lives a double life and that he’s part of a group that’s been directly supporting ISIS terrorists in the Middle East.

As bloody battles rage on in Syria, the FBI and federal prosecutors have been working behind the scenes here in the United States.

Three weeks ago in St. Louis, prosecutors announced the indictment of six Bosnian nationals for conspiring to help ISIS terrorists. But what prosecutors did not announce is that one of the suspects was arrested in central Indiana.

13 Investigates has learned federal agents have been tracking Nihad Rosic for years.

[It will be recalled that the U.S. rescued Bosnia in the mid-90s from Serbian nationalists bent on genocide. This is the thanks we get. — PW]

           — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey [Return to headlines]
 

‘The Giver’ Shows Where ‘Net Neutrality’ Leads; Keeps on Giving if You Want it Too (Video)

A number of fantasies and sci-fi stories about children and adolescents have become more and more popular in recent years, following the jet stream created by Harry Potter and The Hunger Games.

One of the best became adapted from its original novel to a movie last year; and as it turns out, The Giver is to the FCC and budding United Nations regulatory control of communications technology, what The Hunger Games is to Agenda 21, “ sustainable development,” the EPA, and again, the UN. Have you seen the motion picture, yet? On disc or through an online service?

I just came across this brief set of Raymond Arroyo interviews, of its producer-star, Jeff Bridges, of producer Michael Flaherty, and of its author, Lois Lerner, from last August.

Gave it a micro-review without much spoiling of plot and showed a trailer last November: “ The Giver, the Movie, Out on Disc, Suggested.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

The War on Preppers: Obama Bans Ammo for the Most Popular Rifle in America

Because he can’t get Congress to approve the things that he wants to do, Barack Obama has apparently decided to rule by decree for the rest of his time in the White House. One of Obama’s latest moves is to try to ban some of the most popular ammunition for the most popular rifle in America. Previously, the Obama administration attempted unsuccessfully to ban the AR-15. That didn’t work, so now Obama is going after the ammunition. This is yet another example of the war on preppers that is going on all over the nation. Whether you are a gun owner or not, this assault on our constitutional rights should disturb you greatly. Barack Obama has promised to try to squeeze as much “change” as possible out of his last two years, and in the process he is “fundamentally transforming” America. But what will our country look like when he is done?

At the top of the Drudge Report today, there was a story from the Washington Examiner detailing this ammo ban…

As promised, President Obama is using executive actions to impose gun control on the nation, targeting the top-selling rifle in the country, the AR-15 style semi-automatic, with a ban on one of the most-used AR bullets by sportsmen and target shooters.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives this month revealed that it is proposing to put the ban on 5.56mm ammo on a fast track, immediately driving up the price of the bullets and prompting retailers, including the huge outdoors company Cabela’s, to urge sportsmen to urge Congress to stop the president.

And here is more on this ammo ban from the NRA…

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Time to Silence Terrorists on Social Media

By Rep. Ted Poe, R-Texas

Reports Wednesday that three men have been arrested over plans to travel from New York to join ISIS — and that one of them allegedly posted online about his desire to shoot the President of the United States — is simply the latest reminder that terrorist groups and their sympathizers are exploiting the freedom of cyberspace.

Earlier this month, ISIS posted a video of its horrific burning of a captured Jordanian pilot. Unfortunately, this was not the first time ISIS has used Twitter, an American social media company, to broadcast its barbaric acts to the world. In August, when ISIS released the gruesome beheading of American journalist James Foley, it also used social media. In fact, ISIS has been using Twitter for years.

Nor is ISIS the only terrorist group on Twitter.

Hamas, Hezbollah and the al Qaeda branch in Syria, al-Nusra Front, are all on Twitter. On January 14, the al Qaeda branch in Yemen, known as al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula or simply AQAP, claimed responsibility via Twitter for the terrorist attacks in Paris that killed 17 people. The group has two official accounts on Twitter.

There are many more examples from such groups, all of which have officially been listed as foreign designated terrorist organizations by the U.S. government. It’s with this reality in mind that on January 27, my subcommittee held a hearing on terrorists’ use of social media. At those hearings, experts detailed how terrorist use of social media platforms has long been a problem.

If social media is being used to help radicalize thousands of people and raise millions of dollars from many more, the question all this raises is this: Why is no one shutting them down?

[…]

So what needs to change?

For a start, social media companies themselves need to do more. It is not good enough to only pay attention when bad press threatens a company’s public image after something truly horrific is posted online. Instead, companies not only have a public responsibility but a legal obligation to do more. Section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act states that it is unlawful to provide a designated foreign terrorist organization with “material support or resources,” including “any property, tangible or intangible, or services.”

That’s about as comprehensive as you can get.

What’s more, most social media companies already have terms of service with prohibition of threats of violence that would preclude terrorist use of their platforms. But companies need to do a better job of enforcing their own terms. The lack of child pornography or stolen copyrighted material on social media platforms — content that is quickly removed if it appears at all — demonstrates what these companies can do.

With this in mind, they would do well to consider having dedicated teams that remove terrorist content, and also streamline reporting processes for offensive content so users can easily report terrorist use on their platforms. Companies have the technology and the resources to crack down on terrorists’ use of their platform; they just need the motivation to act.

[…]

It is mindboggling to think that those who behead and burn others alive are able to use our own companies against us to further their cause. But that is exactly what is occurring.

American newspapers would have never allowed the Nazis to place an ad for recruitment during World War II. Designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations should not be allowed to use private American companies to reach billions of people with their violent propaganda in an instant, all for free.

[Hear! Hear! — PW]

           — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey [Return to headlines]
 

Tsarnaev Lawyers Charge Jury Selection Was Slanted Toward Whites

By Laurel J. Sweet

Suggesting blacks, young and old people will be grievously underrepresented in favor of white, middle-aged faces when a jury is picked Tuesday, lawyers for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev filed papers this morning asking yet again that his trial be stopped from going forward next week and the 30-count indictment for which he faces death be dismissed.

With opening statements in the nearly 2-year-old case now just six days away, the accused Boston Marathon bomber’s defense team wants the jury wheel that led to the random selection of 1,373 possible jurors “reconstituted” and the process started all over again so the jury’s makeup fairly represents a cross-section of the state.

[…]

A similar motion by Tsarnaev’s defenders last fall questioning the makeup of the grand jury that indicted him was denied.

[As well it should have been. This PC nonsense is merely obstruction. Justice delayed is justice denied. Get on with it. — PW]

           — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey [Return to headlines]
 

Video: Leonard Nimoy, Spock of ‘Star Trek, ‘ Dies at 83

Leonard Nimoy, known for his iconic character Mr. Spock on “Star Trek,” has died, ABC News has confirmed via the actor’s granddaughter. He was 83.

Nimoy, who played first officer to William Shatner’s Captain Kirk on the Starship Enterprise in TV and movies, died Friday morning in Bel-Air, California, his granddaughter Madeleine Nimoy confirmed to ABC News.

His son Adam told the Associated Press that he died of end-stage chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

We Must Stop Dictator Obama! — Video

Alex Jones breaks down why we must stop Obama and his executive actions.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Why Your Smartphone Records Everything You Say to It

After controversy earlier this month over televisions recording owners and sending the clips to third parties, smartphone owners are now discovering that companies like Google, Apple and Microsoft are also recording voice commands and storing them for up to two years.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Canadian Judge Tells Muslim Woman She Will Not Hear Her Case Until She Removes Her Headscarf

A Muslim woman was reportedly told to remove her headscarf before a Canadian judge would hear her case.

Judge Eliana Marengo was said to have told Rania El-Alloul that the courtroom in Montreal is a secular place and she was not suitably dressed.

‘Hats and sunglasses for example, are not allowed. And I don’t see why scarves on the head would be either,’ it was claimed she said in a recording of proceedings, according to CBC News.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Muslim Teacher Denies Influencing 6 Canada Teens to Travel to Syria to Join ISIS

Six Canada teens missing since January have traveled to the Middle East to fight with Islamic State terrorists, Canadian media reports say.

Canadian authorities say they have lost track of the four men and two women — aged 18 and 19 — who left Quebec in January headed to Turkey with plans to enter Syria, where ISIS fighters have taken over large areas of the country, Reuters reported.

Four of the teens were students at Montreal’s College de Maisonneuve as recently as last fall, a school official confirmed to Canada’s Globe and Mail newspaper. At least one of the missing young men took a class from Muslim teacher Adil Charkaoui, once jailed as a threat to national security after authorities alleged he was an Al Qaeda sleeper agent.

Ottawa had claimed that Charkaoui — an outspoken advocate against Islamophobia — had trained at an Al Qaeda camp in Afghanistan.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Body Found in Snow-Clearing Machine After French Ski Resort Accident

French police say the corpse of a young woman was found inside a machine that scoops and sucks up snow at a ski resort in the Pyrenees.

The circumstances of the accident are unclear. The identity of the woman was not released.

Officials with the gendarme services and the administration for the Pyrenees-Orientales region said an investigation is underway into the accident Friday at the Les Angles ski resort, close to France’s border with Andorra and Spain.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Czechia: Experiment Shows Islamophobia in Hiring

Muslim women with hijab disadvantaged on Czech job market

Prague, Feb 26 (CTK) — A Muslim woman with a hijab has a much smaller chance of gaining a job than the rest, as shown by an experiment in which some firms were sent a CV with a photo of a female job seeker with or without the headscarf, activist Klára Popovová said at the seminar Muslim Bogeys.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Denmark: New Arrest in Copenhagen Terror Attacks

The man picked up this morning and charged with involvement in the terrorist attack in Copenhagen is the younger brother of the perpetrator Omar Abdel Hamid El-Hussein, DR Nyheder is reporting.

Police have yet to confirm that report that the man that they arrested is El-Hussein’s brother

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Denmark Looks to Ban Hizb ut-Tahrir

Danish politicians are once again making a push to ban Hizb ut-Tahrir, the Islamic group that openly supports the establishment of a caliphate and that has been at the centre of numerous controversies in Denmark.

A political majority is calling on the nation’s public prosecutor office (Rigsadvokaten) to explore the possibility of banning the pan-Islamic group Hizb ut-Tahrir, which is already banned in neighbouring Germany and a number of other countries including Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Turkey, Russia and China.

Politiken reports that Justice Minister Mette Frederiksen is leading the charge to get the group barred from Denmark.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Eight Spaniards Arrested After Returning From Combat in Ukraine

The National Police on Friday detained eight Spaniards suspected of fighting alongside pro-Russian forces in the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. The arrests took place in Asturias, Catalonia, Extremadura, Murcia, Navarre and Madrid. Three of the suspects are former members of the Spanish armed forces, and one is confirmed to have been on the frontline, according to anti-terrorist sources. The men are all aged between 20 and 30 years old.

The eight Spaniards belong to several different communist organizations, and had received support from an unofficial pro-Russian European network.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

EU Unveils Plans for Historic Single Energy Market

(BRUSSELS) — The EU unveiled plans Wednesday for a continent-wide single energy market to reduce its uneasy reliance on Russian supplies and cut a massive annual import bill of some 400 billion euros.

The proposals by the European Commission, the executive body of the 28-nation bloc, are timely as Russia once again threatens to cut gas deliveries to Ukraine, putting onward supply to Europe at risk.

“Today, we launch the most ambitious European energy project since the Coal and Steel Community,” said Maros Sefcovic, the Commission vice president in charge of the dossier, citing the 1951 precursor of the modern-day EU.

The European Union imported 53 percent of its energy needs last year at a cost of 400 billion euros ($455 billion), a dangerous vulnerability in itself at a time of growing global insecurity, not least tensions with Russia.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

First Shelter for Belgium’s Abused Men

Starting in March men who are victims of extreme domestic violence will be able to seek refuge in the country’s first shelter dedicated solely to male victims of abuse. Women’s shelters have existed in Belgium for many years, but the shelter to open in Mechelen is the first of its kind.

One in twenty men is believed to be the victim of domestic abuse in Belgium. This compares with a figure of one in ten for women.

Yolanda Switten of local social services explains: “Often men who have a partner with a different faith will face abuse. Sometimes the woman’s family has already lined up a different partner for the woman.”

Victims of domestic violence also include gay men.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

German Historian, Rich Greeks Dodge Taxes Since 1830

(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, FEBRUARY 27 — “The rich people were exempt from taxes since the birth of the Greek state in 1830,” said German historian Heinz Richter, criticizing Greek political parties. The German historian and author, as GreekReporter website underlines, is professor emeritus of modern Greek and Cypriot history at the University of Mannheim. He has written a book and several papers on Greece. Speaking to German Radio Deutschlandfunk, Richter spoke of a serious problem of political culture in Greece. In light of the new Greek government’s intention to create a more fair tax system by charging more to the high-income strata of Greek society, he said that this is impossible since rich Greeks are not paying their fair share of taxes since 1830. Richter put emphasis on another crucial aspect of Greek reality: “The political culture in Greece differs from the rest of Western Europe because it is based on clientelism.”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Greece: Clashes Between Police and Demonstrators in Athens

Violent clashes erupted in Athens in the vicinity of the Politechnic Thursday evening: a group of some 300 people, believed to be close to anti-establishment groups, confronted the police, said security sources. The incidents took place at the end of a protest march directed to the Parliament. Some demonstrators smashed the windows of a bank as well as other shop windows and hurled petrol bombs putting waste containers and a car on fire.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Growing Risk of Women Terrorists in Italy, Europe

‘New generation of mujahedeen in Europe’ say secret services

(ANSA) — Rome, February 27 — Italy’s secret services said Friday in a report to parliament that there is “a growing risk” of Islamic terror attacks in Italy and Europe. These could be carried out by the wives, girlfriends, and other female relatives of Islamic State (ISIS) combatants who are “attracted by the heroism of their menfolk”, the report said. The report went on to say “a new generation of jihadists” is growing in Europe. They are young, experts in computer science, and little schooled in doctrine, according to the report. The European Union is “permeable to proselytism and recruitment” and “there are multiplying signals of the ideological cooptation of aspiring mujahedeens,” the report said.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Milan’s Sorin Says 2.4 Bn Euro Merger With Cyberonics

Expect to create giant in medical technologies

(ANSA) — Milan, February 26 — Sorin Group SpA, a Milan based leader in medical technologies, said Thursday it would merge with Cyberonics Inc. of the United States in a 2.4-billion euro deal to create a new entity in the field of devices and treatments for health conditions. The new operation is to be based in London, the companies said, where the tax rates is lower. Sorin shares jumped by 22.13% in trading Thursday morning on the Milan stock exchange, trading at 2.68 euros.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Renzi Holds the Line on RaiWay

Wins 35th confidence vote in Senate

(ANSA) — Rome, February 26 — Premier Matteo Renzi said Thursday that he won’t change the rules set last year for ownership of RaiWay, which controls the transmission towers and antennas for public broadcaster RAI. “You have to consider (financial) market operations, not politics,” said Renzi. A company owned by ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi’s Mediaset, Ei Towers, has bid for a two-thirds control of RaiWay. However, when it was placed on financial markets last year, government rules said RAI must keep 51% ownership. “The government has put certain rules in place and it does not intend to modify them,” the center-left premier said. Mediaset had said Wednesday that its broadcasting network operator Ei Towers has made a cash and stock offer on RaiWay, valuing the target company at 4.50 euros a share or 1.22 billion euros.

Also on Thursday, Renzi won what is the 35th confidence vote since he took office last year when the Senate approved the government’s so-called ‘milleproroghe’ decree, making it into law. The motion passed in the 315-member Senate with 156 in favor, 78 against and one abstaining. The ‘milleproroghe’ traditionally follows the annual budget and contains a number of measures that need to be passed before the end of the year.

This year, the decree contains changes to the VAT tax and government financing for recession-hit small businesses, extends a grace period for people being evicted from their homes, and extends budget flexibility for regions hit by natural disasters, among other measures.

The opposition, regionalist Northern League and the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S) earlier said they would not participate in Thursday’s vote. “This decree more than any other, illustrates how the government mismanages public wealth,” League Senator Paolo Tosato said. “The government should remember that it is called the executive and that it should follow our (parliament’s) will,” said M5S Senator Andrea Cioffi. The government has reduced Senators to button-pushing “ectoplasms”, Cioffi said.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Salvini Nixes Possible Berlusconi Alliance

‘We’re against the euro and with Le Pen’ says League leader

(ANSA) — Florence, February 26 — Northern League leader Matteo Salvini ruled out Thursday an electoral accord with former premier Silvio Berlusconi because of differences on staying in the euro and on European allies.

“In Brusssels, we sit on different benches,” Salvini explained.

“(Berlusconi) defends the euro, which we consider a mistaken currency. He is with (German Chancellor Angela) Merkel and we are with (Front National leader Marine) Le Pen,” said Salvini.

“We have a completely different vision of Italy and Europe,” said the leader of the regionalist, anti-immigrant and anti-euro party.

The Northern League is an erstwhile government ally of Silvio Berlusconi’s now-defunct People of Freedom (PdL) party.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

NATO Warms Up Its Engines: German Tank Battalion to be Activated

In a magazine interview published on Friday, German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen said the tank battalion, based in Bergen in the state of Lower Saxony, would receive more equipment and personnel as part of efforts to redress what she called “an investment bottleneck.”

She also told the magazine, which is published by the German Bundeswehr, that already existing units would be equipped with more material and that the already close cooperation with the French, Polish and Dutch armies would be stepped up still further.

This cooperation could possibly include integrating Leopard tanks discarded by the Dutch army into the Bergen tank battalion, German security sources have said.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

No Charges Over Dane’s ‘Je Suis Omar’ Comment

Prosecutors decline to press charges against a 27-year-old who made comments on Facebook that seemed to be in support of Omar El-Hussein, the gunman behind the twin attacks that rocked Denmark two weeks ago.

The unidentified man had posted comments including “Je suis Omar” and “We are all Omar” on his Facebook page, referring to Omar El-Hussein, who killed two people in the twin shootings on February 14 and 15.

“Rest in peace our dear brother Omar Abdel El-Hussein,” he wrote in a caption to a picture of El-Hussein, which included in Arabic the phrase “May Allah have mercy on you”.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Norway Arrests Radical Preacher Who Praised Charlie Hebdo Killers

A radical Islamic preacher has been arrested in Norway after praising last month’s deadly attack on the Charlie Hebdo satirical weekly in Paris, police said Friday.

The Iraqi Kurd preacher known as Mullah Krekar said in a television interview broadcast on Wednesday that “those who draw caricatures of Mohammed must die”.

Krekar, who was only freed from prison late last month, was arrested Thursday night on accusations of inciting crime, police said.

“I am obviously happy with what happened in Paris,” the 58-year-old said in the interview with Norwegian channel NRK.

Krekar also responded “yes” when asked if he believed those who carried out the attack were heroes.

When a cartoonist “tramples on our dignity, our principles and our faith, he must die,” he said.

           — Hat tip: Nick [Return to headlines]
 

Norway: Islamist Seized for Praising Paris Attacks

Norwegian islamist Mullah Krekar was arrested at his home in Oslo on Thursday evening after telling Norway’s NRK that the Charlie Hebdo terror attacks made him “happy” and that anyone who made cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed deserved to die.

Krekar, an Iraqi Kurd whose real name is Najmuddin Faraj Ahmad, was charged for “inciting criminal offences” for the extreme statements, which caused uproar in Norway when the interview was aired on Wednesday.

“The cartoonist has become an infidel at war, and therefore it is permissible to kill him,” Krekar told the interviewer, arguing the attacks were justified under Islamic law.

“As he has trampled on our dignity, our principles and beliefs, so he must die. Anyone who does not respect 30 percent of the world’s population has no right to live.”

As a result he said, he saw the in January attack on the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, which left eleven dead, as something to be celebrated.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Poland: Hundreds of Farmers Block Roads in Protest of Monsanto’s GMO Crops

Poland’s largest farmer uprising ever has occurred as convoys of tractors took to the roads recently in protest of GMO infiltration and land grabs by biotech and Big Ag corporations.

More than 150 farmers blocked roadways and held numerous demonstrations in order to bring attention to the important issue of food sovereignty in Poland. Their focus is a ban on GMOs and a restoration of small farmer’s rights after decades of oppressive health and safety regulations which take rights away from small farms and give them to mono-cropping, poisoning Big Ag mega-companies.

The farmers have been stalwart — refusing to call off their demonstrations until their demands are met. Rallies and demonstrations have littered the country — in over 50 locations. Hundreds are picketing government offices in addition to the road blockades.

In the largest organized farmer’s protest the country has likely ever seen, the farmers are demanding that legislators protect the small farmer from exploitation by monopolizing companies and refuse the sell off of their country’s land to these behemoths. As the farmers point out, once the land is sold, the Big Ag model can’t be stopped, and the land is forever lost.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

‘Risk Has Gotten Greater’: German Jews Advised Against Wearing Kippah

How anti-Semitic is Germany? The Central Council of Jews is warning members of the community against wearing traditional head coverings. It is a precaution that 26-year-old Mark Krasnov has been taking for some time.

The question of Jewish safety in Germany became the subject of public debate on Thursday after Josef Schuster, president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, wondered in a radio interview whether it “really made sense” in “problem neighborhoods with large Muslim populations to make one’s self recognizable as a Jew by wearing a kippah?” He suggested that it “might be better to choose a different head covering” in such instances.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Sweden Artist Talk Halted After Terror Shootings

A planned lecture at Sweden’s Karlstad University by the controversial Swedish cartoonist Lars Vilks, the presumed target of the terror attack at a cultural event in Copenhagen earlier this month, has been scrapped by organisers.

Karlstad University in central Sweden announced on Friday that it was cancelling the lecture because it could not guarantee the safety of the audience in the wake of the recent shootings in Denmark and France.

“We have done a security check and decided that it is too high a risk to have this arrangement in our building,” Jan Ganbreng, head of security for the university told The Local.

“It has been cancelled, not postponed. But perhaps another building will offer to hold it,” he added.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Sweden: Researchers: Introduce Carbon Tax on Meat and Flights

The amount of carbon dioxide emissions within Swedish borders has decreased, but the total amount of emissions caused by Swedish consumers has increased because of things like meat eating and airplane flights. Researchers now recommend a carbon tax on both of these.

A new report from environmental researchers at Chalmers University of Technology was presented in a debate article in the newspaper Dagens Nyheter on Friday.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Third Man Arrested in Copenhagen Shooting

A man has been arrested for “complicity” in the Copenhagen shootings that killed two people earlier this month.

Copenhagen Police on Friday announced a new arrest connected to the twin shootings on February 14-15 that left two men dead.

Police said in a short press release that the “young man” is “charged with complicity in the perpetrator’s actions” and will appear before a judge on Saturday for a custody hearing.

Public broadcaster DR reported that the arrestee is the brother of gunman Omar El-Hussein, but that was not neither confirmed nor denied by police.

Two other men who allegedly helped El-Hussein were arrested shortly after the shooting attacks and have been ordered to be detained until March 26. According to DR, all three men arrested are from the Mjølnerparken housing estate in Copenhagen, where El-Hussein grew up.

El-Hussein was shot dead by police after his shooting spree that sent fresh shockwaves across Europe after the Islamist attacks in Paris in January.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

UK: ‘Jihadi John’: Prime Minister Defends Security Services

The prime minister has defended the security services amid criticisms they failed to stop Mohammed Emwazi, known as ‘Jihadi John’, from joining Islamic State in Syria.

David Cameron said the security services made “incredibly difficult judgements” on the UK’s behalf.

His comments came after it emerged Emwazi was known to authorities.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

UK: 500 New Cases of Female Genital Mutilation in One Month Are ‘Just the Tip of the Iceberg’, Campaigners Warn

Five hundred women and girls living in England have been identified as victims of female genital mutilation in just one month, new figures show.

And campaigners have warned the numbers represent ‘just the tip of the iceberg’, estimating more than 130,000 women and girls in the country are affected by the issue.

Female genital mutilation (FGM), is a harmful traditional practice that involves the partial or total removal of the female genitalia.

Campaigners told MailOnline today these figures will ‘increase significantly’ as more women access health care.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Gary Glitter Jailed for 16 Years

Former pop star Gary Glitter has been jailed for a total of 16 years for sexually abusing three young girls between 1975 and 1980.

Glitter, whose real name is Paul Gadd, was sentenced for attempted rape, four counts of indecent assault and one of having sex with a girl under 13.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

UK: How Mohammed Emwazi Became ISIS’ Jihadi John: First Picture Revealed

Pictured here for the first time without his notorious black mask, ISIS terrorist Mohammed Emwazi smiles at the camera as he sits with classmates in West London…

It was only after he won a place studying computing at the University of Westminster that his behaviour began to change.

The university has since been linked with several proponents of radical Islam, and Emwazi appeared to have fallen under their sway…

The younger brother of Mohammed Emwazi is a small-time criminal with hardline and outspoken Islamist views.

It emerged yesterday that the 21-year-old from London follows a radical Muslim cleric — while his younger sister is a media student who once made a short film about a ‘hooded serial killer’.

Emwazi’s brother — whom the Mail had decided not to name — is a member of the Woolwich Dawah group, who once harboured the killers of Lee Rigby.

The university graduate, who like his sibling has taken a keen interest in computer networks, listens to the teachings of radical preacher Khalid Yasin…

Jihadi John’s former university was a ‘hotbed of radicalism’ where students ‘celebrated 9/11’, it has been claimed.

A former student two years older than the Islamic State executioner has lifted the lid on his time at the university — as it’s also revealed a talk by a Muslim extremist has been postponed due to ‘security concerns’.

‘Universities across the country, the University of Westminster in particular, are being targeted by radical recruiters.’

A University of Westminster spokesman said: ‘We take these allegations very seriously. We condemn any behaviour that promotes terrorism and violence on any of our campuses.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Jimmy Savile Raped and Sexually Assaulted Victims at 41 NHS Hospitals

[WARNING: Disturbing Content.]

The paedophile DJ attacked 60 NHS patients at Stoke Mandeville Hospital alone, where he was given his own private bedroom.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

UKIP Conference Gatecrashed by Nazi Dancing Troupe

Performers in hot pants, jackboots and Nazi insignia goose-stepped to ‘Springtime For Hitler’ as delegates arrived in the Kent seaside town

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

War Criminals Could Go Unpunished in Sweden

War criminals could walk free in Sweden because there are too few police officers to investigate the suspected offences, prosecutors have warned.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

The Pain of the Families of the 21 Beheaded Egyptian Martyrs, Praise for Egypt’s Offensive in Libya

This is the story of the last conversations the families had with the 21 Egyptian Copts killed by Islamic State militants. Some of them were planning to go home, fearing tensions and growing extremist violence. Family members express regret that the prime minister and village authorities did not visit.

Cairo (AsiaNews) — This is the third and final instalment in a report by our correspondent in Egypt. The events of the last few days include the devastation of several churches and villages in Syria, the rape and murder of women, the abduction of more than 150 Assyrian Christians, including women, children and the elderly by of the Islamic State (IS) militants.

Against the backdrop of the growing tensions in the Islamic world, the families of the 21 martyred Egyptian Copts mourn the death of their loved ones, united in prayer and remembrance. Those who were killed had gone to Libya seeking work, and left behind their poor villages to provide a better education to their children and build a better future for their families. (For the first part click here; for the second, click here).

The parents of Mild Sber, the martyr who invoked the name of Jesus Christ at the moment of his decapitation, live in the remote and godforsaken village of Menbal, devastated by grief. They are peasants.

His mother recalls the last phone call from her son. “Usually my husband takes his cell phone with him to the fields. This day, he forgot the device at home. Therefore, I decided to bring it to him. On my way to the fields, the phone rang, I answer and my beloved son asked, ‘Mother, do you need anything?’ I answered, ‘I want everything to be good with you. We are told the situation is not good there, come back my son.’ He answered, ‘Don’t worry Mother. Let God protect us and whatever is set for us shall happen.’

Sporting a pained smile, she adds, “Having one of ours as a martyr in heaven is a huge blessing and a big grace that we don’t deserve. . . I will not forget his last words, ‘I am coming back, Mother, bless me and find me a beautiful wife . . .’.”

Mild was the third one of four sons. The elder son, Hani, said that he got his secondary diploma in trade in 2010 and went to Libya early in 2010 to be a painter in construction. His workday used to start at 7.00 in the morning until sunset and he lived along with eight Egyptian Coptic fellows in a small flat of three rooms, seven kilometres west of Sirte. “I am sad not to have been able to join him because of lack of place.”

In the distant village of Dafash lives the family of Ezzat Boshra Nassîf, who was also a painter in construction in Libya. His widow, Myriam says, “Our house was tiny. He hoped to enlarge it. He especially hoped to send our daughter Jouvanya to a private school, because he had to stop his studies after six years of primary school.”

The phone calls between them never stopped because of the Viber programme that allows long conversations without any fees. Myriam was sending him dozens of pictures of their daughter. In their last call, he told her, “I am leaving at ten o’clock this morning. I am bringing some sweets and chocolates for our daughter as well as a TV, a rug, a bedcover made of good wool and many cell phone devices. The moment I reach the border at As Solloum, I’ll call you. Please prepare some grilled chicken for me because I am bored with the dull menus of exile. I am looking forward to seeing our angel Jojoe”. But fate decided differently.

“Our daughter is asking me: ‘Why is Jorje wearing black clothes.’ I answer: ‘Because the other ones have to be washed.’ She answers: ‘No, it is because my father is flying to heaven”. . .

In Al-Souby village, the family of Malk Farag Abrm, who had a diploma in agriculture and died before he reached 30, is united in mourning. His father explains that Malk had married a year and a half ago and that he had to go to Libya while his wife was pregnant for a few months. “Their daughter is about nine month old now,” he said. “He decided to go to work in Libya in order to help me and his sister who has been engaged recently as well as his young brother. I did not want him to go, because of the situation there. But he reassured me, telling me that the trouble are in Tripoli and not in Sirte where the situation is quiet. He was always asking about his daughter: ‘Is she pretty, to whom does she look like?’ I told him: ‘Like your sister Madonna.’ He was happy with that, but unfortunately, we were not able to send him any pictures.”

Maqrius village is farther away. There in a small house of two rooms built with mud bricks. Lots of people are surrounding Smeh Salh’s widow who is telling them about her last contact with him. “He wanted to talk to his sister and see her through the phone. He asked her to wake up her son Shenuda, because he wanted to see him. Then he asked for our daughter Marianne, 14 months old. He begged me to pray for him, as if he felt he would never see us again.” Next to her is sitting Smeh’s uncle who took care of his nephew since his childhood after his father died and his mother went away to remarry. “We had always heard about the era of the martyrs,” he said, “Now, we are living it concretely.”

The small neighbouring village of Samsoum shelters the family of Guergues Samîr, the eldest of its children. “He was so good, without any mischievousness,” says his mother. “We got him engaged to my sister’s daughter and we bought the gold needed. I wanted him to come back because his marriage was set for eight months from now. But he told me: ‘It is better I work hard during this period’. We did not have the opportunity to give him our wishes for Christmas, but he is now in Paradise”.

“His father remembers how his son used to climb with his cousin behind me on the donkey and I would bring them to school every day in another village. I would like so much to have a school built here in our village. We would call it the “School of the Martyrs”. He could not go the Saudi Arabia because all of us suffer from Hepatitis B.”

To reach Al-Gably village, also known as Manqatîn, one has to get on the back of a semi-truck, the only way to reach the village, where everyone is united in the Church mourning the two martyrs of the village, Louq Nagty and Essm Baddr. The priest is repeating some verses from the Scriptures. Next to the Church is Louq’s small house, where many women surround his widow, which is not yet 20. Smiling, she says with emotion and a bright face: “We were a real close couple, in total fusion, united in Christ. He was so nice and tender and dreamt of a better life for us. Here is our daughter of eleven months. We got married on the 16th of June 2013. We lived together for four months and six days and he remained in Libya for one year and a half”.

Next to Louq’s father stands Essm’s father. Both of them said they regretted that no official paid a visit to the mourning village. Still, everybody is satisfied with the states reprisals against the martyrs’ killers.

As Hni Sber said in Menbal, expressing the feeling of all the people in the other villages, “It is a pity that the prime minister did not come to our village. It would have been nice to see him reach out to our villages and see how people live here, see the precariousness of the roads and understand why young people here feel the need to go to work in Libya or elsewhere”.

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]
 

Caroline Glick: In Israel’s Hour of Need

It is hard to get your arms around the stubborn determination of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today. For most of the nine years he has served as Israel’s leader, first from 1996 to 1999 and now since 2009, Netanyahu shied away from confrontations or buckled under pressure. He signed deals with the Palestinians he knew the Palestinians would never uphold in the hopes of winning the support of hostile US administrations and a fair shake from the pathologically hateful Israeli media.

In recent years he released terrorist murderers from prison. He abrogated Jewish property rights in Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria. He agreed to support the establishment of a Palestinian state west of the Jordan River. He agreed to keep giving the Palestinians of Gaza free electricity while they waged war against Israel. He did all of these things in a bid to accommodate US President Barack Obama and win over the media, while keeping the leftist parties in his coalitions happy.

For his part, for the past six years Obama has undermined Israel’s national security. He has publicly humiliated Netanyahu repeatedly.

He has delegitimized Israel’s very existence, embracing the jihadist lie that Israel’s existence is the product of post-Holocaust European guilt rather than 4,000 years of Jewish history…

           — Hat tip: Caroline Glick [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Gentiloni: Government Favours Palestine Recognition

Parliament initiative is positive, negotiations should reopen

(ANSAmed) — ROME, FEBRUARY 27 — “The government considers the parliamentary initiative to promote the recognition of the state of Palestine positively and will make every effort to ensure that negotiations between the parties reopen”, said Italian Foreign Minister, Paolo Gentiloni addressing the House. “There is a right for Palestinians to have their country, and their is a right for the state of Israel to live in peace and security despite the fact that some charters would like to delete its existence. Within this framework, the government views favourably the parliamentary initiative for the promotion of a Palestinian state and will make every effort to ensure that negotiations between the parties reopen”, said Gentiloni.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Belgian Army Deployed Against IS

Belgium is dispatching 35 members of the armed forces to Iraq this week as the country steps up its efforts against the group calling itself IS, but the Belgians will not be involved in combat operations.

Twenty Belgian instructors will help to train members of the Iraqi army. A further 15 soldiers are going along as support staff and to ensure the Belgians’ safety. The Belgians will be stationed at Bagdad Airport where they will instruct Iraqi forces.

Belgium has earmarked two million euros for the project that is set to last six months. Earlier Belgium sent F-16 fighter jets to join the coalition against IS.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Fatwa on Qatari Government Website: Execution by Burning is Permitted Under Certain Circumstances

On February 4, 2015, the Egyptian news website Akhbarak.net reported that the Qatari Fatwa Center, a body belonging to the Qatari government, had removed from its website a fatwa permitting execution by burning. The Fatwa Center is part of Qatar’s Religious Da’wa and Guidance Authority, which belongs to this country’s ministry of religious endowments and Islamic affairs. According to Akhbarak, the Fatwa Center removed the fatwa from its website, Islamweb.net, a few hours after the burning of the Jordanian pilot, Mu’adh Al-Kasasbeh, by the Islamic State (ISIS) became known. However, a search of this site reveals that the fatwa, issued in June 2009, is still available on another part of the Qatari website, as well as two earlier fatwas that make a similar point.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

First Photo of ‘Jihadi John’ as Adult Revealed

The first known photograph has emerged of Mohammed Emwazi — the Islamic State militant known as “Jihadi John” — as an adult.

Showing him with a goatee beard and wearing a Pittsburgh Pirates baseball cap, the image is revealed in student records from his time at the University of Westminster.

It comes after the 26-year-old who became the masked face of the notorious terror organisation was identified as the figure seen in several videos of hostages being beheaded.

[…]

After completing his degree he went on to become a computer programmer before travelling to Syria in 2013 and later joining IS.

Advocacy group CAGE said the Kuwaiti-born Briton was “extremely kind” and “extremely gentle” but had been harassed by the UK security services.

[Poor lamb! No wonder he murdered all those people by slow torture! — PW]

           — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey [Return to headlines]
 

Former Muslim: ‘If I Were a Muslim Today, I Would be a Member of ISIS’

Why young men and some young women join the brutal ranks of Isis, is something that’s hard for Westerners to understand. But native Saudi Al Fadi, has an interesting explanation. It’s because they want to.

Fadi, founder of the Center for Islamic Research and Awareness told FoxNews.com’s “Spirited Debate’ it’s a complication situation. He left the Muslim faith fifteen years ago and he says of himself, “If I were a Muslim today, I would have been a member of ISIS.”

Fadi grew up in the Madrassas or Islamic schools, which thousands of Muslims attend today.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

ISIS: Christians Worse Than Murderers

This week’s alleged kidnapping of 90 Syrian Christians sent shock waves around the world, but the young men of the Islamic State have been flagging for months now a simple idea: They follow an interpretation of Islam that blesses a 7th-century Quranic war strategy (9:5) to “capture and besiege” anyone who is a mushrikun, or “polytheist,” and Christians, in the world view of the Islamic State, fall into that category.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

More Emerges on Obama’s Phased Nuclear Deal With Iran

When we posted late Monday night, February 23, 2015, on breaking news about the phased deal resulting from bilateral discussions between US Secretary of State Kerry and Iranian Foreign Minister Zarif, we knew from our sources that more shoes would be likely to drop. Last night we received information from these reliable sources on the extent to which the Administration had strayed from its original mandate. The information was:

Secretary of State John Kerry is poised to sign a secret Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the US and Iran that was completed by negotiators on Saturday, February 14.

The State Department has received a decision from Eric Holder’s Department of Justice that the MoU does not require approval by the US Senate in the Constitutionally defined process of Advise and Consent for treaties between the United States and other nations, and that therefore Congress will not be consulted.

The agreement does not cover the subject of inspections, removing the requirements of having inspections at any of the sites covered by the memorandum.

The agreement will allow Iran to have 10,000 enhanced centrifuges that will increase their nuclear program capacity by upwards of 50%.

Of the 10,000 centrifuges allotted, all of Iran’s 6,000 existing centrifuges will be converted to the enhanced, next generation versions. The conversion can begin immediately after the agreement is signed. This will enable Iran to achieve a nuclear threshold state in less than two years. The balance of 4,000 centrifuges will, according to our sources, be supplied by Russia.

What the US must learn — and fast — is that this is not an enemy one can toy with. As in most Middle East politics, the weak are despised and the game goes to the powerful. As the secrets of Obama’s secret negotiations are revealed (or leaked), and the truth comes out about our feckless policies of negotiations and appeasement, the outcome is likely to be devastating for the region and the world. Iran revels in its possible conquest of American might and moves a giant step closer to achieving its nuclear ambitions with America’s assistance — and blessings.

           — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon [Return to headlines]
 

Onward Christian Soldiers: US Filmmaker, Self-Styled Revolutionary Trains Faithful to Fight ISIS

Just 12 miles north of the ISIS-controlled city of Mosul, an American filmmaker and self-styled revolutionary is running a boot camp for Christians willing and able to fight for their lives and faith against the murderous Islamic terror organization.

Matthew VanDyke, an award-winning documentary filmmaker who escaped a Libyan prison after going there to help overthrow Col. Muammar Qaddafi in 2011, is helping to train hundreds of long-persecuted Assyrian Christians in everything from firearms to close quarters combat. VanDyke, who founded the security contracting firm company Sons of Liberty (SOLI), is working with an unnamed U.S. military veteran to get the Christian conscripts who range in age from 18 to 60 or older, ready to take on the ominous black clad army that lies dug in to Iraq’s second-largest city just over the horizon. Earlier this week, the first battalion of the Nineveh Plain Protection Units (NPU) graduated from the boot camp.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Saudis’ Oil Price War is Paying Off

(Bloomberg) — Three months after Saudi Arabia made clear it was going to let oil prices keep tumbling, the strategy is showing signs of working.

U.S. drillers are idling rigs at a record pace, gutting investment plans and laying off thousands of workers.

Those steps highlight how the Saudi-led OPEC decision on Nov. 27 to maintain output levels and protect its market share is having the desired effect — pushing prices down so far that they threaten to curb output in the U.S. and other non-OPEC countries. Saudi Arabia, the most powerful member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, will maintain that tack when the group next meets in June, according to some of the world’s biggest banks.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Turkey: Booming Business at the Bosphorus

Bigger, more, better. Those words are just buzzing around the Istanbul headquarters of Turkish Airlines. A decade ago, this carrier still had some issues with safety reports and it was suffering from a negative image as a dull and inefficient state-run company. Today Turkish Airlines boasts an enormous growth and is a symbol for a rising self-confidence of the regional superpower Turkey.

The boardroom of Turkish Airlines seems more like a trophy room of a Champions League winner: everywhere you look, you see trophies, awards and certificates.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

10,000-Year-Old Woolly Rhino Carcass Discovered With Fur, Eyes and Horns Still Intact

The frozen remains of a baby woolly rhinoceros thought to be over 10,000 years old have been discovered in one of the coldest parts of northern Russia.

The remains of the 18-month-old rhino named “Sasha”, which are the first of their type to ever be found, have been preserved so well in Siberia’s permafrost that an ear, an eye, a skull and the majority of its fur, have remained intact on the carcass.

A set of small horns were also found preserved on top of the creature’s head.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Boris Nemtsov, Leading Putin Critic, Shot and Killed in Moscow

A top political nemesis of President Vladimir Putin was shot and killed early Saturday in central Moscow, Russian police said, one day before an opposition rally was scheduled to take place.

Boris Nemtsov, 55, a former deputy prime minister, was shot four times from a passing car as he was walking on a bridge just outside the Kremlin. The Kremlin said that Putin will personally oversee the investigation into his death.

The shooting potentially could create a political crisis in Russia, regardless of the motive or who was behind the shooting.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

China Just Sided With Russia Over the Ukraine Conflict

Xinhua reported that late on Thursday Qu Xing, China’s ambassador to Belgium, was quoted as blaming competition between Russia and the West for the Ukraine crisis, urging Western powers to “abandon the zero-sum mentality” with Russia.

Cited by Reuters, Xing said that Western powers should take into consideration Russia’s legitimate security concerns over Ukraine.

Reuters’ assessment of Xing speech: “an unusually frank and open display of support for Moscow’s position in the crisis.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

In Midst of War, Ukraine Becomes Gateway for Jihad

In the West, most look at the war in Ukraine as simply a battle between Russian-backed separatists and the Ukrainian government. But the truth on the ground is now far more complex, particularly when it comes to the volunteer battalions fighting on the side of Ukraine. Ostensibly state-sanctioned, but not necessarily state-controlled, some have been supported by Ukrainian oligarchs, and others by private citizens. Less talked about, however, is the Dudayev battalion, named after the first president of Chechnya, Dzhokhar Dudayev, and founded by Isa Munayev, a Chechen commander who fought in two wars against Russia.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Married TV Actor Wakes Up to Find His Testicles Have Been Stolen

Police in Russia are tracking a gang — apparently including a doctor — who drugged a TV soap actor and removed his testicles.

Dmitry Nikolaev, 30, had a drink with a ‘young blonde woman’ who approached him at a bar after he finished a performance at a small Moscow theatre.

Flirting with him, she invited him to a sauna, and though he was married, he agreed to go with her.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Pro-Russian Rebels, Government Forces Withdraw Weapons From East Ukraine Front Line

The piecemeal pullback of heavy weapons Friday from the line separating government and rebel forces in Ukraine has boosted the prospects for peace, although both sides are warning of their readiness to resume fighting if necessary.

The withdrawals are in compliance with a cease-fire agreement that also envisions the mass release of captives — including those Ukrainian soldiers still being used as labor for the grisly task of recovering the bodies of fallen fellow troops.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

American Blogger Hacked to Death by Muslim Mob for Criticizing Islamic Extremism in Bangladesh

An American blogger has been hacked to death by a “knife-wielding mob” in Dhaka, Bangladesh, police have said. Avijit Roy, an atheist, is believed to have been attacked for promoting secularism and criticizing religious extremism online, which has angered hardline Islamic groups.

“Avijit Roy has been killed the way other free thinker writers were killed in Bangladesh. No freethinker is safe in Bangladesh,” blogger Taslima Nasreen, who left Bangladesh in the mid-1990s after receiving death threats from extremists, said about the killing.

“Islamic terrorists can do whatever they like. They can kill people with no qualms whatsoever.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

American Blogger Hacked to Death in Bangladesh

A U.S. blogger in Bangladesh known for his prominent stance against religious fundamentalism was hacked to death by unidentified attackers in the country’s capital Thursday night, police said.

Avijit Roy and his wife Rafida Ahmed were attacked late Thursday night in Dhaka as they were returning from a book fair at Dhaka University. Ahmed was seriously hurt in the attack.

Roy’s family said he was a prominent voice against religious fanatics and had received threats in the past.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Bangladesh: Assailants Hack to Death Writer Avijit Roy, Wife Injured

Unidentified assailants have hacked to death writer Avijit Roy and seriously injured his blogger wife Rafida Ahmed Bonya.

Police said the couple came under assault near TSC intersection at Dhaka University around 9:30pm on Thursday.

Witnesses said they were on a rickshaw returning from the Amar Ekushey Book Fair when two attackers stopped it, dragged them onto the footpath and started hacking them.

They were rushed to the Dhaka Medical College and Hospital (DMCH) where doctors declared Avijit dead during an emergency surgery, its police outpost Inspector Mozzamel Haque told bdnews24.com.

Islamist zealots have been threatening Avijit, a bioengineer and a naturalised US citizen, for his active campaign against Islamist radicals.

Avijit has been a regular bdnews24.com columnist and the founder of popular blog Mukto-mona.

He is the son of well-known physicist Ajay Roy who has taught at Dhaka University for a long time.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Bangladeshi-American Writer Killed by Machete-Wielding Assailants

DHAKA, Bangladesh — A Bangladeshi-American blogger known for his antipathy to religion was hacked to death on the street in this capital city by two assailants wielding machetes, the police said on Friday.

The victim, Avijit Roy, who the local news media said was about 40, was leaving a book fair with his wife on Thursday evening when his attackers approached him from behind, according to the police. His wife, Rafida Ahmed, suffered a blow to the head and was in critical condition in a Dhaka hospital, said Sirajul Islam, an officer at the Shahbag police station, where Mr. Roy’s father reported the assault.

The police have not named any suspects.

Mr. Roy, an American citizen, was a prolific writer on secularism and condemned religious extremism, particularly through his blog, Mukto-Mona, which is Bengali for Free Mind

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Bangladesh: Index on Censorship Condemns Brutal Murder of Blogger Avijit Roy

Index on Censorship condemns the brutal murder of US-Bangladeshi blogger Avijit Roy. Roy, an atheist who advocated secularism, was hacked to death by a knife-wielding mob in Dhaka as he walked back from a book fair. Index CEO Jodie Ginsberg said: “Our sympathies are with the family of Avijit Roy. Roy was targeted simply for expressing his own beliefs and we are appalled by his death and condemn all such killings.”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

US-Bangladesh Blogger Avijit Roy Hacked to Death

A knife-wielding mob has hacked to death a US-Bangladeshi blogger whose writing on religion had brought threats from Islamist hardliners.

Avijit Roy, an atheist who advocated secularism, was attacked in Dhaka as he walked back from a book fair with his wife, who was hurt in the attack.

No-one has been arrested but police say they are investigating a local Islamist group that praised the killing.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Condom Maker’s Shares Surge After South Korea Legalises Adultery

In South Korea, extramarital sex just got a whole lot safer, after the country’s highest court overturned a law banning adultery.

The abolition of the 62-year-old law on Thursday saw the share price of the country’s biggest condom maker, Unidus, surge 15% — the daily limit on the country’s Kosdaq market.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Robert Mugabe Admits Zimbabwe’s Land Reform Flaws

Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe has admitted failures in the country’s controversial land reform programme.

“I think the farms we gave to people are too large. They can’t manage them,” the 91-year-old leader said in unusually candid comments.

In the past he has tended to blame poor agricultural productivity on the weather and Western sanctions.

The seizure of land from white farmers is seen as a key factor in Zimbabwe’s economic collapse since 2000.

The BBC’s Brian Hungwe in the capital, Harare, says it is not the first time President Mugabe has criticised new black farmers — but his comments are surprisingly frank.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Venezuela’s Military Can Now Legally Use Firearms Against Demonstrators

Venezuela’s Ministry of Defense has authorized the military to use firearms against demonstrators as a last resort in the demonstrations taking place in the country.

Released through a regulation published in the Official Gazette on 27 January, the measure seeks “to avoid disorder, to support the legitimately constituted authority and to reject any aggression, facing it immediately and with the necessary means”.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Venezuelan Students Vow to Hit the Streets to Protest the Ongoing Violence

Venezuelan students announced that they will take to the streets in different major cities in the coming days to protest the shooting death of a 14-year-old demonstrator by police and the ongoing violence in the country.

Demonstrations were held on Wednesday throughout the country, including Caracas, where a large group gathered in front of the Interior Ministry.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Greece: More Than 300 Migrants Released

More immigrants and asylum seekers were released from detention centers across Greece on Thursday as the government seeks to make good on a campaign pledge to close down such facilities, citing “inhuman” living conditions.

Until Thursday, 315 persons had been released from a total of six camps. The figure included 17 unaccompanied minors who were transferred to a reception center in Volos, central Greece.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Obama: Immigration Will Get Solved Because There Will be a “President Rodriguez”

PRESIDENT OBAMA: Now, let me get the broader question that you asked, which is, what would I ask for the next president of the United States. One of the things I’ve learned in this position is that as the only office in which you are the president of all the people, not just some, you have to be thinking not just in terms of short-term politics, you have to be thinking about what’s good for the country over the long term.

Now, over the long term, this is going to get solved because at some point there’s going to be a President Rodriguez or there’s going to be a President Chen, or there’s going to be —

( applause )

The country is a nation of immigrants, and ultimately it will reflect who we are, and its politics will reflect who we are. And that’s not something to be afraid of, that’s something to welcome because that’s always how we have stayed dynamic and stay cutting edge and be youthful.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Sweden: Asylum Seekers in Bus Protest

Thirteen asylum seekers, who do not want to move into asylum housing in Långserud in central Sweden, have stayed on a bus all throughout Thursday night in a parking lot outside the police station in Karlstad.

According to newspaper Värmlandsnytt, the asylum seekers said that the housing is too rundown and is situated way out in the forest.

Lisselott Anderberg, from the Migration Board in Karlstad, told Swedish Television that the asylum seekers have been offered what is available.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Sweden’s National Job Agency Fires Its Entire Network of ‘Immigrant Resettlement Assistants’ Over Fears They Were Finding Them Jobs — as ISIS Militants

The Swedish government has been forced shut down an assimilation guide service after discovering that several aides may have been trying to recruit newly arrived immigrants to ISIS.

The assimilation guides, a service provided by the Swedish state job agency, have been accused of taking bribes from migrant job-seekers and making ‘recruitment attempts to militant fighting groups’.

The state job agency, Arbetsformedlingen, has fired the entire network of assimilation guides with immediate effect following the reports.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Al Sharpton: ‘Lower the Threshold’ For Federal Hate Crimes Cases

Civil rights activist Al Sharpton is lamenting the “impossible bar to reach” in order to prosecute federal hate crimes and is proposing to lower the threshold to try them.

Sharpton made the remarks during an interview with talk radio host Tom Joyner on Wednesday. The MSNBC host was upset with the Justice Department’s announcement that it was dropping its case against George Zimmerman in the Feb. 26, 2012, shooting death of Trayvon Martin.

“Unless we change that legislation, we end up where we are in terms of the Trayvon Martin case,” Sharpton told talk radio host Tom Joyner on Wednesday.

“Clearly, I’m disappointed,” he continued.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Anti-Racism Mania at Elite Private Schools

by Robert Weissberg

For over half a century America has struggled to improve race relations and progress is modest, at best. But optimism soldiers on although failure only seems to breed desperation. A recent New York Times article recounts the latest crackpot panacea. The article tells how wealthy white children enrolled in some of New York City’s toniest and expensive private schools are being detoxified of their poisonous white racism. The message is that these youngsters must develop “anti-racist thinking” as a skill, a competency necessary for the 21st century. It exaggerates only slightly to compare this process with Maoist self-criticism where people publicly confessed to crimes, many imaginary, and then admit remorse as the first step in “voluntarily” embracing the party line (see here).

Typical was a daylong session (“A Day of Concern”) at Manhattan’s upscale and largely white Friends Seminary where speakers lead the workshop discussion about social justice and its relationship to racial/ethnic identify, gender, and most of all, privilege and power

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Common Core’s Communist Core

We’ll deal with the data mining later. First the curriculum which is a deliberate sabotage and dumbing down of the population:

The New American’s assessment of the proposed history standards describes the ideological bias of the proposed history curriculum this way:

“Instead of focusing on actual U.S. history, for example, critics say the radical new Advanced Placement (AP) history curriculum represents hard-core Marxist indoctrination…the new scheme hypes and exaggerates real or imagined wrongs while presenting everything in a collectivist mold. Meanwhile, it downplays and ignores virtues and goodness in America’s historical development and its experiments with liberty and self-government.

Language and math lessons propagandize environmental and political agendas that vested interests would like young minds to absorb. Think re-education in the best tradition of Mao.

The primary creators of the curriculum refer to the Common Core competencies as “cognitive and psychological aptitudes”. We’ve finally turned our educational system over to the psychologists lock, stock and barrel.

[…]

Mathematics takes on a bizarre new structure…even parents will have trouble learning this new, unnecessarily complicated method even of doing simple addition. Many children are experiencing high levels of stress as they go through the lessons and the examinations. Manifestations … include vomiting, sobbing, involuntary urination, panic attacks and illness… If students come up with the wrong answer to a math question but can explain the reasoning they used to get this (wrong) answer, they might not be corrected. In other words, the emphasis has shifted from the answer to the procedure. Students are expected to be able to show five different types of visual reasoning to arrive at the answer to a simple mathematics problem rather than just learning direct subtraction or addition…

These standards and the educational system they drive are nearly inescapable. The Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT), the standard test for admission to higher education, is being modified to align with this system. This means that students wishing to continue on into colleges or universities will need to score well on these tests — that reflect the Common Core curriculum…

Some states have rejected the CC due to parent and educator demand, even though it had initially been accepted and implementation was in progress. However, some parents are now finding that modified versions of the same curriculums are being implemented in states that have professed their disagreement with CC. The standards and curriculum were simply put in a new dress and given a new name.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Multiculturalism is a Cancer on Western Society

A vision that sees a moral equivalency between what Christians did centuries ago and today’s Islamic savagery is quite prevalent in academia. It’s part of what’s worshipped on most college campuses as diversity and multiculturalism.

College campus idiots — and that includes faculty members and administrators — call for the celebration of and respect for all cultures. In their eyes, it’s racist Eurocentrism to think that Western values and culture are superior to others. But that’s the height of stupidity.

Ask your campus multiculturalist who believes in cultural equivalency: Is forcible female genital mutilation, as practiced in nearly 30 sub-Saharan African and Middle Eastern countries, a morally equivalent cultural value? Slavery is practiced in Sudan and Niger; is that a cultural equivalent?

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

‘Big Brain’ Gene Found in Humans, Not Chimps

A single gene may have paved the way for the rise of human intelligence by dramatically increasing the number of brain cells found in a key brain region.

This gene seems to be uniquely human: It is found in modern-day humans, Neanderthals and another branch of extinct humans called Denisovans, but not in chimpanzees.

By allowing the brain region called the neocortex to contain many more neurons, the tiny snippet of DNA may have laid the foundation for the human brain’s massive expansion.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]