Dymphna and I have been occupied with various infrastructure-related crises today here at Schloss Bodissey. That’s why posting has been light.
The big news of the day was the unexpectedly large margin of victory for Benjamin Netanyahu and Likud in today’s elections in Israel. Polls just before the vote had showed Likud trailing the Zionist Union, and the opposition mounted a massive ACORN-style “get out the vote” effort, busing Arab voters to the polls. Nevertheless, as we go to press tonight it looks like Likud won.
In other news, a frantic passenger who tried to rush the cockpit on a flight from Washington to Denver was wrestled to the floor by several of his fellow passengers, and held securely while the plane returned to Dulles.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, Phyllis Chesler, RL, Steen, 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.
Billionaire Warns: “Mother of All Collapses” Coming if Central Banks Stop Buying Bonds
Self-made billionaire and founder of Sprott, Inc. and Sprott Asset Management, Eric Sprott, gave a dire warning about the state of the system that makes clear the globe is hinged on little more than a little Dutch boy with his finger in the dyke.
Obviously, with a crack in the dam, the flood can’t be held back forever.
In an audio interview with King World News that can be heard here, Eric Sprott made clear that the central banks are the only ones holding up the illusion.
Case in point is the rise of negative interest rates, which Sprott called ‘preposterous.’ Offering negative returns to investors, the instruments are clearly unsustainable. Sprott told King World News:
“So who’s going to buy it? Who in their right mind would be buying bonds with a negative yield? It’s just so preposterous. And all of the sudden if the bond buyer is not there — we used to think it was so great that China would buy our bonds. They don’t buy our bonds (anymore). Russia used to buy our bonds — they (now) sell our bonds.
The only entities buying the bonds are the central banks. Well, you take the central bank out of it and there’s no bid. That’s why I use the phrase, ‘I hope we are not right one day,’ that all of the sudden it (the entire global financial system) just collapses. They (central banks) may just look in the cupboard and say, ‘It’s over. We’ve tried our best and it’s not working. We’ve got to stop buying these bonds because our (central bank) balance sheets are getting so torqued out.’
Quite simply, it is a game of musical chairs being played by the Federal Reserve and other central banks.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Italy, France, Germany in New Asian Investment Bank
AIIB ‘can play major role in funding infrastructure’
(ANSA) — Rome, March 17- France, Germany and Italy are set to become the founding members of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, the Treasury said Tuesday, confirming press reports on a bank seen as a potential rival to the World Bank and reportedly opposed by the United States. The AIIB “can perform a major role in funding Asia’s ample infrastructural requirements,” the Treasury said. The AIIB will work with existing multilateral development and investment banks to promote Asian economic and social development and help boost world growth, the Treasury said.
France, Germany and Italy, working in close liaison with European and international partners, the Treasury went on, “intend to work as founder members of the AIIB to build an institution that follows the best principles and best practices of company governance and (implements) policies to safeguard and sustain debt and project contracts,” it said.
The Financial Times said Tuesday the new bank would also feature the UK and was a “blow” to the administration of US President Barack Obama.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
There is No Way Around it: “The Manner in Which We Live Today is About to Drastically Change”
Consumer spending in the U.S. accounts for approximately 70 percent of gross domestic product, though it is important to note that the manner in which “official” GDP is calculated is highly inaccurate. For example, all government money used within the Medicare coverage system to pay for “consumer health demands,” as well as the now flailing Obamacare socialized welfare program, are counted toward GDP, despite the fact that such capital is created from thin air by the Federal Reserve and also generates debt for the average taxpayer. Government debt creation does not beget successful domestic production. If that was a reality, then all socialist and communist countries (same thing) would be wildly enriched today. This is simply not the case.
That said, the swift decline in manufacturing jobs in the U.S. over the past two decades, including a considerable 33 percent overall decline in manufacturing jobs from 2001 to 2010, leaves only the consumer and service sectors as the primary areas of employment and “production.” The service sector provides about three out of every four jobs available in America, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
It’s Official: Americans R Stupid
According to this new report from the Educational Testing Service, at this point American Millennials that have a four year college degree are essentially on the same intellectual level as young adults in Japan, Finland and the Netherlands that only have a high school degree…
“Americans born after 1980 are lagging their peers in countries ranging from Australia to Estonia, according to a new report from researchers at the Educational Testing Service (ETS). The study looked at scores for literacy and numeracy from a test called the Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies, which tested the abilities of people in 22 countries.
“The results are sobering, with dire implications for America. It hints that students may be falling behind not only in their early educational years but at the college level. Even though more Americans between the ages of 20 to 34 are achieving higher levels of education, they’re still falling behind their cohorts in other countries. In Japan, Finland and the Netherlands, young adults with only a high school degree scored on par with American Millennials holding four-year college degrees, the report said.”
How in the world is that possible?
I can tell you how that is possible — our colleges are a joke. But more on that in a moment.
Out of 22 countries, the report from the Educational Testing Service found that Americans were dead last in tech proficiency. We were also dead last in numeracy and only two countries performed worse than us when it came to literacy proficiency…
“Half of American Millennials score below the minimum standard of literacy proficiency. Only two countries scored worse by that measure: Italy (60 percent) and Spain (59 percent). The results were even worse for numeracy, with almost two-thirds of American Millennials failing to meet the minimum standard for understanding and working with numbers. That placed U.S. Millennials dead last for numeracy among the study’s 22 developed countries.”
It is in this type of environment that Coca-Cola can be marketed to Americans as “a healthy snack”.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
“If it were not for double-standards, liberals would have no standards at all.”
Recently a hero of mine passed away: conservative warrior M. Stanton Evans (1934-2015). Mr. Evans had a sharp wit, and an even sharper mind. He was a well-respected journalist, editor and author, and a true historian in his own right, in my opinion. Although I would suspect Stan Evans would take exception to my labeling him an “historian.” He instead preferred the title of “amateur historian.” But I think he deserves the title of historian, minus the “amateur” qualifier. But that’s just the kind of man Evans was—humble and genuine.
A native of Texas, M. Stanton Evans was a leader in the conservative movement for over four decades. He wrote for National Review, the Los Angeles Times Syndicate, and The Freeman, and served for 14 years as editor of the Indianapolis News. Mr. Evans was a political commentator for news organizations such as CBS and National Public Radio for over twenty years, and he founded the National Journalism Center in 1977. A former chairman of the American Conservative Union, he was also a professor of journalism at Troy University. He received numerous honorary degrees and awards.
Evans wrote nine books. And I would highly recommend any of his works. One book I read by M. Stanton Evans delved deeply into the untold story and history of Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy titled Blacklisted by History: The Untold Story of Senator Joe McCarthy and His Fight Against America’s Enemies. I must admit, after reading it, I’ve never been the same since. As a matter of fact, it took me a long time to get through all 600-plus pages because I kept stopping to do my own research on the astonishing revelations contained in his seminal work.
M. Stanton Evans pored over some 110,000 FBI documents concerning the McCarthy hearings for some 10 years before his book Blacklisted by History was officially published in 2007. It is meticulously researched. Evan’s book on McCarthy has been called “the Rosetta Stone of liberal lies.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Vaccine Culture War in America: Are You Ready?
Between 1963 and 1999, doctors gave live oral polio vaccine to millions of healthy American children, who became infected with vaccine strain polioviruses they shed in their body fluids and transmitted, sometimes causing other children and adults to contract vaccine strain polio paralysis and die.
Those with compromised immune systems were at special risk for getting vaccine strain polio and shedding vaccine strain poliovirus for longer periods of time than healthy persons. Yet, children recently given live oral polio vaccine were not excluded from attending school.
Calls for Societal Sanctions After Measles Diagnosed at Disneyland
We are being asked to discriminate against and condone extreme societal sanctions against fellow citizens,7 including removing religious and conscientious belief vaccine exemptions from state laws8,9 so children cannot attend school without 49 doses of 14 federally recommended vaccines by age six and 20 more vaccinations by age 18.10
But in 2015 after a handful of measles cases were identified at Disneyland, suddenly Americans are being asked to surrender civil liberties. How did a handful of measles cases at Disneyland turn into a full-scale assault on civil and human rights in America?…
After headlines like “What would Jesus do about measles?”60 and “God wants you to vaccinate your children”61 marked a new low in American journalism, it became clear that the so-called “vaccine war”62,63 is really a culture war64 on freedoms, values, and beliefs that have long defined who we are as a nation.65,66,67 How it is fought and where it ends will determine the kind of nation America will become in the 21st century.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
United Airlines Passenger Tackled by Fellow Fliers on Washington to Denver Flight
Flight 1074 to Denver, Colorado had to return to its departure airport in Dulles, Washington last night following a ‘disturbance on board’ and was met by officials at the gate.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
According to a new report from The Daily Mail former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s latest email scandal was leaked by none other than top White House operative and Obama confidant Valerie Jarrett in an effort to derail Clinton’s 2016 Presidential bid.
Though President Bill Clinton lent his support to Barack Obama during the 2008 election, it appears that the Obamas and Clintons have a tenuous relationship at best. At worst, there is an all out war happening behind the scenes and members of the Democrat Party are no doubt being asked to take sides.
If reports are to be believed the President and Valerie Jarrett are prepared to eat their own and will stop at nothing to keep Hillary out of the White House.
The recent leak of details regarding Hillary Clinton’s use of personal email servers to send official and possibly classified information is just the tip of the iceberg.
The feud is so serious that there are currently six active probes into Hillary Clinton’s dealings during her tenure as Secretary of State, including investigations into foreign government funding of her and Bill’s Clinton Foundation in exchange for favors.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
More Than 52,000 Canadians Travelled Abroad for Health Care Last Year, Study Finds
The number of Canadian patients who travelled abroad in 2014 to receive non-emergency medical treatment increased 25% from 2013, according to a study conducted by the Fraser Institute, a Canadian independent research and education organization.
In 2014, 52,513 Canadians travelled beyond our borders to seek medical treatment, compared with 41,838 in 2013. The numbers suggest that the Canadian health care system could not comply with the needs and demands of a substantial number of Canadian patients, according to the study.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Belgium: 4,000 March “Together in Peace”
Almost 4,000 people from various religions marched together for peace in Brussels on Sunday afternoon. The idea behind the “Together in Peace” march was to bring together people from different faiths against mutual mistrust and terror.
The message sent out march’s organisers was clear: “We say no to terror and violence and yes to peaceful coexistence and freedom.” Those taking part in the “Together for Peace” march included the Head of the Roman Catholic Church in Belgium, Archbishop Léonard and the leader of the Flemish Christian democrat party Wouter Beke.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Britain’s VIP Pedophile Ring Exposed
Now that most of the major figures are dead, the truth is emerging about the systematic sexual abuse of children by members of the British government.
A newspaper editor was handed startling evidence that Britain’s top law enforcement official knew there was a VIP pedophile network in Westminster, at the heart of the British government.
What happened next in the summer of 1984 helps to explain how shocking allegations of rape and murder against some of the country’s most powerful men went unchecked for decades.
Less than 24 hours after starting to inquire about the dossier presented to him by a senior Labour Party politician, the editor was confronted in his office by a furious member of parliament who threatened him and demanded the documents. “He was frothing at the mouth and really shouting and spitting in my face,” Don Hale told The Daily Beast. “He was straight at me like a raging lion; he was ready to knock me through the wall.”
Despite the MP’s explosive intervention, Hale refused to hand over the papers which appeared to show that Leon Brittan, Margaret Thatcher’s Home Secretary, was fully aware of a pedophile network that included top politicians.
The editor’s resistance was futile; the following morning, police officers from the counter-terror and intelligence unit known as Special Branch burst into the newspaper office, seized the material and threatened to have Hale arrested if he ever reported what had been found.
More than 30 years later, an inquiry into allegations of child sex abuse rings, murder, and cover-ups has been launched by the British government after Scotland Yard detectives said they believed statements by victims who claimed they were systematically abused as young boys at sex abuse parties attended by judges, politicians, intelligence officers, and staff at the royal palaces.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
British Girls Raped by Muslim Gangs on “Industrial Scale”
by Soeren Kern
“Between acts of abuse sometimes stretching over a number of days, the Oxford men ensured girls were guarded so that they could not escape. In addition to being abused in various locations in Oxford, some of the girls were taken to other towns and cities such as London and Bournemouth for the same purpose.” — Oxfordshire Serious Case Review.
“I turned up at the police station at 2/3am, blood all over me, soaked through my trousers to the crotch. They dismissed it as me being naughty, a nuisance.” — Victim’s testimony, Oxfordshire Serious Case Review.
“I made a complaint about a man who trafficked me from a children’s home. He was arrested, released and trafficked me again.” — Victim’s testimony, Oxfordshire Serious Case Review.
“Police wouldn’t tell us addresses so we could go and bring her home.” — Victim’s parent’s testimony, Oxfordshire Serious Case Review.
“She was a minor but we were told it wasn’t our business.” — Victim’s parent’s testimony, Oxfordshire Serious Case Review.
The report holds no one responsible or accountable. It blames the failure to act on a “lack of knowledge” and “organizational failings.”
Local authorities across Britain are expending “considerable intellectual effort” into finding reasons not to conduct mandatory public investigations into child sexual abuse out of a fear of “negative publicity.” — The Telegraph.
Under new plans… teachers, social workers, police and elected officials would be required to act on suspicions of child sexual abuse or face up to five years in prison.
“Systemic failures have been condoned with silence, serial bunglers rewarded with promotion and whistle blowers shunned. Why is anything going to change now, after the event(s)?” — Simon Kent, British commentator.
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
Danish People’s Party: Help Muslims Leave Islam
The anti-immigration Danish People’s Party has called for a national programme that would help Muslims leave Islam.
Danish People’s Party (DF) spokesman Martin Henriksen wants to see the Danish state step in and offer help to Muslims who want to leave the religion but feel bullied into staying.
“We unfortunately have seen many examples of someone wanting to leave Islam but having a hard time doing it or not daring to do it because they fear reprisals from certain groups within the Muslim communities of Denmark. This is a way in which we can begin doing something about it,” Henriksen told Politiken.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Denmark: Copenhagen to Get New ‘Designer’ Mosque
Muslims in Copenhagen can look forward to getting a new place of worship as Copenhagen Municipality has approved a planning application for a new, modern-looking mosque this week by the Muslim faith group Islamisk Trossamfund.
The new mosque, which will be designed by the renowned architect firm Henning Larsen Architects, will replace a current mosque located on the corner of Dortheavej and Tomsgårdsvej in the Nordvest district of the city.
“With the proposal being designed by Henning Larsen Architects, the mosque will become more accessible to the city, while one of Copenhagen’s slightly forgotten districts receives a new architectonic pearl,” Morten Kabell, the city’s deputy mayor for technical and environmental issues, said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Denmark: Police Raid Copenhagen Homes in Terror Probe
Copenhagen Police carried out a large-scale operation Tuesday that included a search of the Nørrebro neighbourhood where the gunman behind last month’s fatal attacks grew up.
“We are still in the process of mapping the movements of the perpetrator and the accomplices and this morning’s raids should be seen in light of this,” police said in a statement. “We are looking for further clues in the case.”
Three accomplices have been detained since February 16 for allegedly helping El-Hussein, a Dane of Palestinian origin who was shot dead by police in a pre-dawn shootout following the attacks.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Draghi Calls for Greater Ties Between Eurozone Institutions
(FRANKFURT) — The president of the European Central Bank has called for a “quantum leap” in links between eurozone institutions, warning the region must not rest on its laurels even as he welcomed signs of a recovery.
Mario Draghi said he was “optimistic” about the outlook for the common currency zone, stating during a speech in Frankfurt that: “Most indicators suggest a sustained recovery is taking hold”.
“These effects look set to persist for some time, meaning we can rightly be optimistic about the outlook,” he continued.
“But this does not mean we should rest on our laurels. On the contrary, a nascent recovery provides us with a window of opportunity.”
For the union to be sustainable, he said, “there must be a quantum leap in institutional convergence”.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
EU Calls for Tracking Computers in All Vehicles to Monitor, Regulate Travel
(NaturalNews) The controlling surveillance state is deepening, prying further into people’s lives like a chisel carving its way through skin and bone. Governments have become opportunistic control freaks, centralizing their micromanagement powers whenever possible. Now the European Union is rolling out plans to monitor travel on all European roads, tracking drivers’ mileages and time traveled per vehicle. This controlling scheme is not for surveillance alone; it’s essentially a plan to tax every driver for the for the distance they travel on European roads.
Could you imagine being taxed for every quarter-mile you drive?
A senior European politician is doing just that, calling on all European vehicles to be installed with road-pricing systems. This would include mandatory installation of a computer that would track how long one has driven on European roads and how far. This plan would serve as a built-in tax, harmonizing all road toll charges across the EU. The plan would end road-side tollss and replace them with time-tracking and/or distance-tracking toll micromanagement systems…
The built in pay-by-the-mile scheme was slammed by UKIP transport spokesman Jill Seymour MEP.
She said, “[L]ook how the EU overrides the democratic decision of the British people: an unelected Slovenian bureaucrat in Brussels announces in a German newspaper interview that she wants to force all British drivers to fit computers in their cars which will count every mile they drive.”
She pointed out, “Britain will be forced into an EU-wide scheme in which Commissioner Bulc will force all drivers to pay for using our own roads, and the money will go straight to Brussels.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
German Coalition Politicians Break Ranks on Greek WWII Reparations
Leaders from the junior partner in Germany’s coalition government have lent their support for Greek war reparations. They said Germany’s moral and legal duties should be separated from the Greek debt debate.
In an interview with German news magazine Der Spiegel published Tuesday, leading politicians from the junior partner in Germany’s governing coalition have lent their support to the idea that Germany should pay reparations from World War II to Greece.
“It’s about recognizing the fact that we committed a serious injustice in Greece,” Gesine Schwan, chairwoman of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) values committee, told Spiegel.
The damages in question date back more than 70 years. Under the German occupation in WWII, thousands of Greeks were murdered, infrastructure was destroyed, and Greece’s central bank was forced into giving Germany a loan. Germany never reimbursed individual claims.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Report of Planned Attack on Bremen Cathedral, Synagogue
A potential Islamist attack on the cathedral and synagogue in Bremen, Germany, was averted following action by police on February 28, a Belgian newspaper reported. Numerous police guarded the cathedral and synagogue and searched a local Muslim cultural center, according to the report.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Hungary: Orban to Pursue National Sovereignty
Thousands of Hungarians joined national day demonstrations on Sunday to either support or protest against PM Viktor Orban. In a speech, Orban said he would pursue national sovereignty rather than push for further integration EU integration. “Europe today is full of questions and Hungary is full of answers,” he said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italian Bishops’ Leader ‘Amazed’ At Dolce & Gabbana Furore
‘In view of constant talk of freedom of speech’ says Bagnasco
(ANSA) — Genoa, March 17 — Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, head of the Italian bishops’ conference (CEI) and archbishop of Genoa, said Tuesday he is “amazed” at the furore sparked by Dolce and Gabbana’s defence of heterosexual families.
“I am amazed by this fact (because) there is constant talk of freedom of expression,” said Bagnasco of the outcry that followed when openly gay fashion designer Domenico Dolce upheld heterosexual family values and criticised in vitro fertilization and surrogate motherhood, both techniques sometimes used by gay couples who want children.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Graft Suspects Gave Suit, Rolex to Minister Lupi, Son
Infrastructure minister’s son given Rolex ‘graduation present’
(ANSA) Florence, March 16 — Suspects arrested Monday in a mushrooming graft scandal gave a tailor-made suit to Infrastructure Minister Mauruzio Lupi and a Rolex watch to his son as a graduation present, judicial officials said.
Franco Cavallo, one of the four arrested men said to have a “close relationship” with Lupi, arranged for a tailor, Vincenzo Barbato, to cut the suit to measure for the minister, according to telephone calls cited in the order written by a Florence judge for the arrest of the four.
Also mentioned in the warrant was a gift by engineer Stefano Perotti and his wife of a Rolex watch worth 10,350 euros to the minister’s son Luca that was allegedly delivered by Cavallo.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: We Won’t be Blackmailed, Greece Tells Dijsselbloem
(ANSAmed) — ROME, MARCH 17 — Greece on Tuesday responded sharply to Eurogroup chief Jeroen Dijsselbloem’s thinly veiled threat to impose controls on the movement of capital, with a government spokesman saying he should respect his institutional role and Athens would not be “blackmailed”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Juncker: ‘Time to Deepen European Integration’
There is never going to be a United States of Europe, but the EU needs to show its partners where it is heading if it wants to be taken seriously, EU commission president Jean-Claude Juncker said Monday (16 March).
“We have to deepen economic and monetary union for a simple reason: Our monetary union is not optimal. We have an independent central bank. But we don’t have a European government. So we have to have rules to replace the non-existent European government,” said Juncker.
He indicated that simple facts on the ground may soon leave the EU without the luxury of debating where it wants to go and its position in the world.
By the middle of the century, he noted, Europeans will represent just seven percent of the world’s population. “We are the smallest continent. Our relative part of the global GDP will shrink. Not one single European country will be a member of the G7 in 25 years from now. We will disappear in terms of our economic weight.”
“So the time has come to deepen European integration instead of re-introducing national divisions.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Muslim Party Runs in Spain Elections
MADRID — Seeking a larger place in political life, Spain’s first Muslim-oriented party has announced its intention to run in upcoming early elections as well as municipal and regional elections in Andalusia.
“Our objective is to carry the voice of our people as high as possible, whether they are gypsies, foreigners, Muslims or Jews,” one of the party’s promoters, Manuel Bugeiro, a Spaniard who reverted to Islam, told ANSA on Monday, March 16.
“We fight against racism, discrimination and Islamophobia,” Bugeiro continued.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Snowden ‘Changed Nothing’: Norway Spy
The leak of top secret documents by US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden has resulted in “very few changes” to the way the US’s National Security Agency and its partners operate, Norway’s top spy has declared.
Kjell Grandhagen, the outgoing head of the Norwegian Intelligence Service, itself the subject of phone monitoring revelations in files Snowden released, downplayed the impact of the leaks.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: Cervantes Has Been Found… Or Has He?
Researchers have cautiously confirmed that they believe they have located the remains of Spanish author Miguel de Cervantes in the crypt of a Madrid convent almost 400 years after his death.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: The Digital Superhighway to Heaven
In 1966, there were 6,695 novices in Spain, according to the conservative daily Abc. By 1980 there were fewer than 750 candidates to join a religious order; these days that figure is under 250.
At a time when many Spanish convents, faced with closure due to their members’ advanced age, have had to “import” younger nuns from other countries, there is one salient exception.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
‘Strong Moralizing’: A Legal Look at Greek Reparations Demands
Athens has demanded that Germany pay Greece billions in World War II reparations. Berlin, though, has ignored the requests. International law professor Frank Schorkopf says that Germany has already fulfilled its obligations through wealth transfers.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
‘Sweden Must be Able to Attract Global Talent’
If Sweden wants to take full advantage of globalization, it should rethink its strategy for reaching international talent, and even make English an official language, argues Maria Rankka, CEO of Stockholm Chamber of Commerce.
The government recently announced it is working on an export strategy, which is supposed to help reach the goal that Sweden until the year 2020 should have the lowest unemployment rate in the EU.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Police Protection for Vilks Lecture
Controversial Swedish artist Lars Vilks made his first public appearance Tuesday following last month’s Copenhagen attacks. There’s a large police presence for his lecture in Karlstad.
Vilks has been under death threats for several years because of his caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK Demands for EU Treaty Change Are ‘Mission Impossible’
Renegotiating the EU treaties to appease UK demands for a possible exit from the EU is “mission impossible”, according to EU council chief Donald Tusk.
The Polish politician made the comments in an interview over the weekend to a series of European newspapers.
“My intuition is that treaty change is close to mission impossible today because it’s not only about rationality, about good argument,” said Tusk.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Alison Wilson Dead After Being Attacked When She Stepped in to Help Out in Street Row
Alison Wilson, 36, stopped to help break up a late-night street row between a man and a woman with a baby in Widnes, Cheshire, but died from serious injuries after being attacked in the incident.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Cyril Smith Spared Court Because He Would Have Exposed Other High-Profile Child Abusers
Lancashire detective Jack Tasker spent years compiling evidence on the 29-stone Liberal MP’s child abuse only to have his investigation shut down and threatened with the sack himself.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Metropolitan Police Investigated Over Claims it Covered Up Child Sex Abuse
Officers allegedly protected ‘untouchable’ figures by shutting down inquiries that reached the heart of government. It threatens to be the biggest probe into police corruption since the 70s.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The schoolgirl who was groomed and abducted by paedophile teacher Jeremy Forrest has been offered the chance to meet him by social workers.
Forrest was jailed after he had sex with the girl, then 15, and fled to France with her — finally being arrested after a week on the run.
In the case that followed — during which the child at first pledged to stand by the maths teacher and professed her love for him — it emerged Forrest had begun grooming her when she was just 14.
The girl’s mother told BBC Radio 5 Live Daily that social workers had approached her daughter, who is almost 18, and offered her the chance to meet Forrest.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Trevor Phillips is the Bravest Man in the Universe, Writes Richard Littlejohn
Trevor Phillips, a prominent Labour supporter and former head of the Commission for Racial Equality, is currently reaping the whirlwind of Left-wing reaction, writes RICHARD LITTLEJOHN.
On Thursday night, he is presenting a Channel 4 documentary called Things We Won’t Say About Race That Are True, which rips apart the shibboleths of the ‘diversity’ industry. The gist of it appeared in yesterday’s Daily Mail.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK’s Hoped-for Treaty Change Almost Impossible: EU Head
EU president Donald Tusk warned Sunday that British Prime Minister David Cameron’s plans to amend the bloc’s treaties to secure a new deal for Britain in Europe were virtually “mission impossible”.
“My intuition is that treaty change is close to mission impossible today because it’s not only about rationality, about good argument,” Tusk said in an interview with The Guardian newspaper published online.
“We need unanimity between 28 member states, in the European parliament, in 28 national parliaments in the process of ratification. To say that it is a Pandora’s Box is too little.”
If he is re-elected in May’s general election, Cameron has promised to renegotiate Britain’s membership of the European Union, notably to introduce tighter controls on immigration, and hold an in or out referendum by 2017.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Posing with an AK47 assault rifle over each shoulder, Raphael Hostey, 22, has been named as a ‘senior Islamic State commander’ responsible for recruiting hundreds of his countrymen.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Bosnian Prosecutors Want to Keep Bomb Suspects in Custody
Prosecutors in Bosnia want to remand in custody four men suspected of planning some kind of attack in Scandinavia, Swedish news agency TT reports.
They were taken into custody on Friday, and are all known to the Swedish police. Swedish police and prosecutors think they were planning to use explosives in an ongoing gang war in Malmö, rather than in any terrorist attack.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Bosnian Court Asked to Hold ‘Terror Plot’ Swede
A Sarajevo court has been asked to remand a Swedish man in custody over claims he was plotting a terrorist attack in Scandinavia along with three other men.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
EU Clears Way for Bosnia to Submit Membership Bid
(BRUSSELS) — EU foreign ministers approved Monday the next step on Bosnia’s tortured road to membership after its fractious politicians agreed a series of reforms demanded by the bloc.
Bosnian political leaders settled long-standing differences last month over a proposed Stabilisation and Association Agreement with Brussels, paving the way for the country to submit a formal membership bid after years of deadlock.
The 28 European Union foreign ministers said the pact could now go ahead but warned Bosnia it will have to meet commitments to bring the country up to EU norms on human rights, democracy and political and economic freedoms if it wants to actually join the bloc.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt Seeks Death Penalty for Muslim Brotherhood Leader
An Egyptian court has condemned Muslim Brotherhood spiritual leader Mohammed Badie and 13 other people to death for planning attacks on police and army institutions that were “aimed at sowing chaos.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt Accuses Muslim Brotherhood for Stadium Killings
Charges filed for 22 deaths in violence last month
(ANSAmed) — CAIRO, MARCH 17 — The Egypt public prosecutor’s office charged the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood organization with involvement in the violence that occurred last month at a stadium in the Egyptian capital in which 22 people died. Charges were filed against 16 fans including 12 from the Muslim Brotherhood who allegedly “provided funds and explosive material” to “demolish the state’s foundations”, according to a statement issued by the prosecutor’s office. The aim was allegedly to get the football championship suspended again and cause the economic conference held last week in Sharm El Sheikh to fail — a conference in which Egypt raked in tens of billions of dollars in investment. The February 8 clashes between ‘White Knights’ fans and the police sparked a clash that ended in the death of 22 fans (some reports say 19, but the official figure from the prosecutor’s office is 22). The Egyptian championship was suspended indefinitely after the deaths and at the end of month a committee was announced that was tasked with organizing a resumption. The incidents that had preceded the premier league match between the Zamalek and Enppi teams happened only a week after the period of closed-door matches — imposed after an even more serious football massacre in Port Said in which 74 were killed in February 2012 — had ended. The killings were allegedly linked to mostly political reasons, as the attackers were mostly supporters of former president Hosni Mubarak (who had been ousted a year before) and the Ahlawy Ultras killed were famous for their revolutionary slogans.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
EU Backs Planning for Possible Libya Security Mission
EU foreign ministers gave the green light Monday for the bloc to prepare a possible security mission in Libya once the country’s warring factions agree a national unity government.
“As soon as there is an agreement on a government of national unity and related security arrangements, the EU stands ready to enhance its support to Libya and contribute to the successful implementation of the agreements,” they said in a statement after meeting in Brussels.
They said they had asked EU foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini “to present as soon as possible proposals on possible Common Security and Defence Policy activities in support of the security arrangements.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Islamic State Relied on Egyptian Salafi Book to Slaughter 21 Copts in Libya
By Raymond Ibrahim
Dr. Ahmed Karima, professor of Sharia at Al Azhar University, Egypt, recently exposed the fact that the Islamic State received its justification to slaughter 21 Coptic Christians in Libya from a book titled (in translation) Christians in the Koran. The author of said book is Mahmoud Lutfi ‘Amr—president of Damanhur’s Ansar al-Sunna al-Muhammadiya, that is, “The Supporters of Muhammad’s Example.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Libya: ISIS Can Pass Into Italy, Lift Arms Embargo
Tobruk Parliament President, hope Italy role in naval blockade
(ANSAmed) — CAIRO, MARCH 17 — President of the Libyan House of Representative Aguila Saleh confirmed to Ansa on Tuesday that “Isis and al Qaida can pass from Libya to Italy and this is a big danger since many terrorists are in Libya. We hope to get support from Italy in the fight against terrorism”.
“Italy must lift the embargo imposed on the legal export of weapons to Libya. Italy must support Libya in training its army and ensure military support to Libya. We expect that Italy will play its role in lifting the embargo of weapons to Libya and in training our armed forces and security services”.
To the objection that a delivery of weapons could trigger yet greater conflict in Tobruk and Tripoli, Saleh said that “it is not a war between Libyans, not be afraid of an internal Libyan war occurring. Libyans do not go to war. They are tribes who cooperate . Once the terrorists leave the country, they will be friends again”. Saleh underlined that “what is happening in Libya is not an internal Libyan war but a war between the Libyan army and terrorism. Our army is legitimate, it answers and obeys the Chief of the Armed Forces, who is the chairman of the House of Representatives”, referring to himself.
Saleh added that General Khalifa Haftar, armed forces chief “plays no political role” and is limiting himself to fight “terrorists”.
“Haftar’s forces are regular, legitimate, which do not intervene on the action of the Libyan government” Saleh said.
The Chairman of the Libyan parliament of Tobruk said that he hoped that “Italy plays an important role” in any Mediterranean patrol to prevent weapons going to terrorist groups.
“We hope for a serious and clear attitude from Italy and we were reassured in this sense when the Italian Foreign Minister met with his Libyan counterpart,” Saleh said, referring to last Saturday’s meeting in Rome between Paolo Gentiloni and Libyan colleague Mohamed al-Dairy. “When the Italian Prime Minister spoke in Sharm el Sheikh,” Saleh said, referring to Italy’s PM Matteo Renzi speech at Friday’s Egytp Economic Development Conference in Cairo, “he said Italy supports Egypt in its policy on Libya, which means that Italy supports Libya in its fight against terrorism”.
“There is an international consensus that terrorism is a threat to the whole world: if terrorists enter Libya, they will go to Rome and Egypt and everywhere,” the head of the Tobruk parliament said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Libya: Sources Say Dozens of Families Flee Sirte
ISIS threatens inhabitants ‘do not support Misurata militias’
(ANSAmed) — CAIRO, MARCH 17- “Dozens” of families left Sirte, Libya fearing further deterioration in its security since Saturday’s ongoing battles between militants of the Misurata Brigades and ISIS jihadists who control the city, Libyan sources said.
Citing witnesses, sources said that ISIS have threatened inhabitants, intimating them to not give support to the militia.
Lines were seen in front of Sirte’s only gas station. The town lacks food and some medicine.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Libya: Sources Say Dozens of Families Flee Sirte
“Dozens” of families left Sirte, Libya fearing further deterioration in its security since Saturday’s ongoing battles between militants of the Misurata Brigades and ISIS jihadists who control the city, Libyan sources said.
Citing witnesses, sources said that ISIS have threatened inhabitants, intimating them to not give support to the militia.
Lines were seen in front of Sirte’s only gas station. The town lacks food and some medicine.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
In Israeli Election, It’s ‘Guns vs. Butter’
As Israelis head to the polls, many are more concerned with paying the rent than the threat from Iran. And that could cost premier Benjamin Netanyahu the election, economist Paul Rivlin of Tel Aviv University tells DW.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Israel’s Netanyahu Declares Victory in Tight Race
JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has declared victory after a tight national election appeared to give him the upper hand in forming the country’s next coalition government.
In a statement released on Twitter, Netanyahu says that “against all odds” his Likud party and the nationalist camp secured a “great victory.”
Initial exit polls showed Netanyahu’s Likud Party deadlocked with the center-left Zionist Union.
But the results indicated that Netanyahu will have an easier time cobbling together a majority coalition with hard-line and religious allies.
Netanyahu said he had already begun to call potential partners.
| [Return to headlines] |
Israeli PM Lashes Out at Electoral Commission Veto
‘No one will shut us up’
(ANSAmed) — TEL AVIV, MARCH 17 — Israeli prime minister Benyamin Netanyahu has spoken out against the central electoral commission’s decision to halt the showing of his live press conference once the voting had already started, calling it “illegal election propaganda”. Netanyahu reportedly wrote on his Facebook profile that other politicians — such as Herzog, Livni and Lapid — had spoken “at every possible television studio and engaged in election propaganda”.
He added that “the only one to have been banned from speaking with the media is me”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Israel’s Arabs Vote En Masse to End Netanyahu Era
Arab Israelis formed long lines outside polling stations Tuesday as they turned out to cast their ballots hoping to end the six-year reign of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“This is the first time that I’ve seen so many people here to vote,” said Ehab Hamam, 37, as he waited with some 50 people at a polling station in Haifa, a mixed Jewish-Arab city.
“For the Arabs, voting in this election is saying to the right: We are here,” he told AFP.
…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Netanyahu: V15 and Foreign NGOs Busing in Arab Voters for Israeli Election
by Phyllis Chesler
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has just warned that Israeli Arab voters are being brought to the polling booth by V15 (Victory 2015) and other NGOS funded from abroad. He said: “We do not have NGOs. We do not have V15.”
V15 has been organized by Jeremy Bird, who was President Obama’s national campaign field director in 2012. According to lawyer and journalist Lori Lowenthal Marcus, this funding runs afoul of American tax laws for not-for-profit organizations. Marcus and others allege that funding for V15 includes State Department monies.
Netanyahu is “very worried” about these reports of busing Arabs to the voting booths. “If we do not wake up, if we do not bring everyone out… a left-wing government will be established,” he warned.
Often, Muslim-world votes are fixed, corrupt, and dangerous to undertake. Voting booths are heavily guarded by the military. Think about voting in Iran, Iraq, or Afghanistan. Think about Syria— where President Bashar al-Assad was re-elected in 2014 in an election that was a “foregone conclusion.” U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry called this election “a big Zero.”
Yes, this is the same Kerry who has now stated his willingness to negotiate with Al-Assad.
Those Arabs who live on the West Bank and under the control of the Palestinian Authority do not vote in Israeli elections. (The matter is complicated and best left for a discussion elsewhere.) Those Muslim Arabs who live in Gaza under Hamas’s control consider themselves “Palestinians;” Gazans live under an Islamist dictatorship and do not vote.
| — Hat tip: Phyllis Chesler | [Return to headlines] |
US Fails to Renew Emergency Oil Supply Pact With Israel.
The agreement guaranteeing Israel’s oil supplies in wartime was first signed in 1975.
The US has not renewed a historic agreement under which it guaranteed a supply of oil to Israel in emergencies, that is, instances in which Israel might be cut off from its regular commercial sources of oil because of war or closure of sea lanes. The agreement expired in November 2014, and since then the US administration has done nothing to renew it, Washington sources told “Globes”.
The sources said that it was not clear whether this was a deliberate step by the administration, stemming perhaps from renewed friction between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the White House, or a matter of bureaucratic inertia in Washington…
| — Hat tip: RL | [Return to headlines] |
Authorities Investigate Kidnapping of Children, 7 and 8, Now in Syria
The public prosecution department in Limburg is investigating the kidnapping of two children who have allegedly been taken by their mother to Syria, against their father’s will. Local newspapers say the 33-year-old mother has taken her children, aged seven and eight, with her. The woman is said to come from Chechenya and all three are probably travelling on stolen documents, the Dagblad de Limburger says. The children have Dutch nationality. The woman left Maastricht at the end of October and is thought to have arrived in Raqqa several weeks ago after spending some time in Turkey. The authorities were aware the woman had contact with jihadis and had questioned her several times.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Chechen Woman Abducts Her Dutch Children to Join IS
Two young children have been kidnapped from the Netherlands by their Chechen mother, who took them to Syria to join the “Islamic State.” According to authorities, the woman has dodged an international arrest warrant.
The kidnapping is the first known case in the Netherlands where a parent has taken their children to join the militant group, prosecutors said Monday. The unnamed women in her early 30s, originally from the Russian province of Chechnya, fled the country with her 8-year-old son and 7-year-old daughter, possibly using false passports.
The woman and her children had been living in the southern city of Maastricht, where they were last seen on October 29.
“She is most likely in Syria now. We are probing a kidnapping case,” Elsbeth Kleibeuker, a spokeswoman for the public prosecution service, told the AFP news agency.
The children, both Dutch nationals, were photographed as their mother withdrew cash from an ATM in Istanbul in mid-December, the Dutch Limburger newspaper reported on Monday.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
EU Names New Middle East Special Envoy
EU foreign ministers named Fernando Gentilini on Monday as new special representative for the Middle East, filling a post vacant since early 2014 in the hope of getting the stalled peace process back on track, officials said.
Gentilini — an Italian, as is EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini — currently heads the EU’s Western Balkans and Turkey division and his appointment will have to be confirmed by member states.
The Middle East position was created in 1996 after the Oslo Accords offered the prospect of real progress towards a Israel-Palestinian peace deal.
Mogherini’s predecessor, Briton Catherine Ashton, abolished the office in a controversial move aimed at bringing the European Union’s peace efforts under one roof in its external affairs arm.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Iran: UN Report Describes a Worsening Human Rights Situation in Iran
In his report to the Human Rights Council, the UN special rapporteur laments the increase in executions: 753 last year — including 25 women and 13 minors — and 252 so far this year. Journalists, activists, lawyers and political opponents continue to be persecuted.
Geneva (AsiaNews) — The human rights situation in Iran has worsened since 2013 when Hassan Rouhani was elected president, said yesterday the UN special rapporteur on Iran, Ahmed Shaheed, before he presented his report to the United Nations Human Rights Council.
Shaheed spoke to reporters about the growing numbers of executions and the jailing of journalists and activists in the Islamic country. In his press briefing, he warned that new legislation under discussion could increase discrimination against women and minorities.
According to his report, Iran executed at least 753 people, including 25 women and 13 minors, last year alone, a 12-year-high.
Shaheed noted that if one added the 252 executions carried out so far this year, Iran has executed more than a thousand people since January 2014.
The UN expert, a former foreign minister of the Maldives, also lamented that Iranian authorities “continue to harass, arrest, prosecute and imprison many members of society who express criticism of the government or publically deviate from officially sanctioned narratives.”
In fact, he explained, journalists, as well as activists, lawyers and opposition politicians are often charged with breaching a number of national security laws, including engaging in propaganda against the system, and offending government leaders.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Over 1,400 French Nationals Fighting in Syria
Over 1,400 French nationals are fighting in Syria, according to France’s ministry of interior, reports Le Figaro newspaper. The figure dates from the end of February this year. Some 413 are fighting under the Islamic state banner. Around 80 have been killed in action.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Replacing Christian Crosses With the Black Flag of ISIS
Shocking new images released today have shown ISIS terrorists toppling crosses, smashing Christian relics with hammers and erecting the black ISIS flag on churches in Nineveh, northern Iraq.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Saudi Arabia Wooing Fired U.S. Shale Workers to ‘Join Our Team’
Workers fired from U.S. shale fields after the collapse in oil prices could soon have a new boss: the nation some blame for driving that decline.
The state-owned Saudi Arabian Oil Co., also known as Saudi Aramco, is posting new job ads online aiming to snap up experts in extracting oil from shale as the country seeks to become a leader in that rapidly expanding effort. Tens of thousands of U.S. workers have been fired since November as oil prices plunged because of oversupplies, driven in part by an OPEC decision supported by Saudi Arabia.
That’s now giving Saudi Aramco a better chance to lure experienced workers to its own shale formations. Difficult living conditions had previously made the country a hard sell, said Tobias Read, chief executive officer of Swift Worldwide Resources, a recruiting firm.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Saudi Arabia Defends Rights After Sweden Row
Saudi Arabia’s Islamic-based legal system ensures “justice for all”, the kingdom’s cabinet has affirmed, responding to criticism by Sweden’s foreign minister, while Bahrain has waded into the diplomatic dispute.
The Arab nation last week recalled its ambassador to Stockholm after what it called “flagrant interference in internal affairs” by Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallström.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Saudi Arabia Modernizing But No to Interference, Ambassador
Saudi ambassador to Rome Rayed Khalid A. Krimly told ANSAmed on Tuesday that his nation was ‘‘doing its best to evolve and modernize’’.
He underscored, however, that it was doing so ‘‘in line with the aspirations and demands of its population’’ and without external interference, since ‘‘no one can interfere with our legal system’’.
Krimly discussed human rights in his country and the friction with Sweden that led Stockholm to give up its military cooperation agreement with Riyadh. Sweden’s foreign minister, Margot Wallstrom, said that the country did not respect human rights and pointed to the case of imprisoned blogger Raif Badawi as an example. The Saudi ambassador to Sweden was then recalled after the military agreement was not renewed. ‘‘We do not interfere with the internal affairs of others,’’ the diplomat said repeatedly. ‘‘We are an Islamic country, our legal system is based on the Sharia and we are an independent nation that has never been colonized,’’ he said, adding that change in Saudi Arabia was ‘‘gradual and cannot be dictated from abroad.’’ Saudi society, he said, ‘‘is the only one that can decide the extent of the transformation and modernization.’’ ‘‘We are doing our best,’’ he added. Fifty years ago, he noted, ‘‘women were not allowed in schools. A half a century later there are more women than men in our schools.’’ However, women are not allowed to drive or attend physical education classes in public schools. Saudi Arabia ‘‘chose to open education and the labor market up to women when the decision was very unpopular in society.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Former General on Fox News: We Must ‘Start Killing Russians’
Fox’s ‘expert’ was suggesting to kill Russian troops inside Ukraine, which wouldn’t have been quite as heartless as what the Obama-coup-regime in Ukraine is actually doing (and which Fox and all of U.S. TV ignore): slaughtering the residents in the conflict-zone. The only snafu with that idea of killing Russian troops in the conflict-zone is: they aren’t there.
The few Russian soldiers that actually had been in the conflict-zone, briefly, back in August of 2014, soon left and are no longer there. On 29 January 2015, Ukraine’s top general admitted, “No Russian Troops Are Fighting Against Us,” though mercenaries and/or volunteer fighters from many countries (including from the U.S.) were fighting on both sides (America’s were mercenaries, fighting for the Ukrainian Government). So: Fox’s ‘information’ was six months out-of-date, and had been valid only seven months ago, and for less than a month even then. That’s the trash that Fox Noise puts forth, but it’s really not much worse than CNN etc. American national ‘news’ media are virtually all propaganda-media.
The Fox commentator simply cannot fathom that when the Ukrainian Government started bombing the cities and villages in the region of Ukraine that rejected the coup-government — the Donbass region — many of its men took up arms and became unwilling soldiers in order to protect their families, friends, and towns and villages, against the bombers and the other invaders. The Donbass defenders are not Russian soldiers. They’re overwhelmingly the natives there — the ones that are still alive and haven’t fled.
Such commentators as this crude and callous man at Fox have no idea, no concept, how much higher is the motivation to fight when what one is fighting against is invaders, and what one is fighting for is the land on which one has lived one’s whole life and where one’s parents spent their whole lives. Bullies don’t think about things from the victim’s standpoint. And Fox’s commentator viewed things from a bully’s perspective.
Yes, Russia provides military advice and training (to the victims’ side), just as the U.S. provides military advice and training (to the invading side), but is that a crime when Russia does it?
It’s a crime when America does it, because America (via its stooge-regime) is the invader, and because Ukraine (by virtue of its proximity to Russia) has at least as much strategic importance to Russia today as Cuba did to the United States during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Christian Leader: Hindu Radicals Are a Danger to the Women of India
The President of the Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC) slams the mind-set of people like Surendra Jain, joint secretary of the fundamentalist group Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP). Speaking of the gang rape of a 72-year-old nun in, he accused Christians of “notoriously abusing nuns”. Speaking about acts of vandalism against a church, he said, “When they [Christians] let us do that [build a temple in the Vatican], we will ask them to choose any place in India to build a church”.
Mumbai (AsiaNews) — “Vile, vulgar and deliberately malicious comments show how dangerous the mind-set of Hindu radicals is. Our women are a risk with such elements in Indian society,” said Sajan George, president of the Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC), as he spoke to AsiaNews about recent statements made by Surendra Jain, joint secretary of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), a Hindu fundamentalist group.
In comments about the attack and gang rape of a 72-year-old superior in Ranagath, West Bengal, Jain said, “It is part of Christian culture to exploit sexually the sisters. We Hindus do not do such things.”
Last Friday, some men broke into the convent of the Religious of Jesus and Mary in Ranagath (West Bengal), for the purpose of robbery. They also raped the superior, who had tried to stop them, and then destroyed sacred objects in the chapel. Police arrested six people in connection with the case.
“We condemn in the strongest possible terms the comments made by the VHP joint general secretary Surendra Jain,” George said. “How low he can get shows how dangerous he is. Rape is wrong, a terrible and despicable act.”
In 2008, when Hindu radicals went on a frenzy during the anti-Christian pogroms in Kandhamal (Orissa), they attacked people, and destroyed their property and places of worship. Several women were raped, including Sister Meena Barwa, who spoke publicly about the attack to avoid a police cover-up.
Jain is “a radical element that sows division in Indian society”, said the GCIC president. This is further demonstrated by some of his statements concerning acts of vandalism against a Pentecostal church in Haryana.
On 6 March, in the village of Kaimri (Hisar district), a group of young people got inside a local church where they placed an idol representing Hanuman, Hinduism’s monkey god. Police arrested 14 people in connection with the act of “vandalism”.
Surendra Jain justified what happened in Haryana as a “spontaneous reaction of the local population. There are no Christians in the village or in the surrounding area. Why build a church? Would Christians allow us to build a temple to Hanuman in the Vatican? When they let us do that, then we will ask them to choose any place in India to build a church, and we will fund it.”
According to its constitution, India is a secular country in which there is full freedom of religion, expression and conscience.
On his tweeter account, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a Hindu nationalist leader, criticised the violence against the nun and the attack on the Haryana church.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Indonesia Calls Off Search for Bodies From AirAsia Crash
Indonesia says the search for passengers from AirAsia Flight QZ 8501 that crashed into the Java Sea on December 28 has been called off.
There were no survivors among the 162 people travelling from Indonesia’s second-biggest city Surabaya to Singapore.
Salvage teams have recovered 106 bodies but the remains of the other 56 people on board are still unaccounted for.
It is thought the Airbus A320 climbed abruptly from its cruising height — trying to fly above a storm — when it stalled, or lost lift, and then plunged into the sea.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Islamic Scholars in Indonesia Push for Death Penalty for Sex Abuse and Gay and Lesbian ‘Crimes’
Indonesia’s council of Islamic scholars is recommending the government allow the death penalty for a range of sex crimes including abuse, indecency and gay and lesbian “activities”. The country’s Ulema Council or MUI has issued a Fatwa banning gay and lesbian activities, due to what it calls an “increasing number of sex abuse cases”.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Myanmar Court Jails Three Over ‘Insult to Buddhism’
A Myanmar court has sentenced a New Zealand man and two local colleagues to more than two years in jail for breaking a religious law. The men had used a picture of Buddha wearing headphones for an online promotion.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Turkmenistan Might Close Afghan Border to Stop the Islamic State
Ashgabat is taking a number of steps to boost border controls with Afghanistan, including calling up 1,200 reservists. Since 1995, the country has had a policy of neutrality, recognised by the United Nations; however, the threat of Muslim fundamentalism is pushing the country to review its stance.
Ashgabat (AsiaNews) — Turkmenistan might close its border with Afghanistan because of the growing presence of the Islamic State group.
The authorities have in fact increased border controls, called up reservists for training exercises, and last month sent the country’s Deputy Foreign Minister to Afghanistan to talk to local ethnic Turkmen.
The goal of such recent steps is to prop up the 462-mile long border with Afghanistan.
In doing so, Turkmenistan appears to be moving away from its stated policy of neutrality, however slightly. In 1995, the United Nations General Assembly formally recognised the Central Asian nation’s neutrality.
Over the years, the Afghan-Turkmenistan border has become a problem because of the presence of the Taliban, and more recently, the Islamic State group.
Turkmenistan’s Deputy Foreign Minister Vepa Hajiyev headed a government delegation to conduct secret negotiations with ethnic-Turkmen elders living in Afghanistan to dissuade them from taking up arms with the Taliban.
In a recent report, the Jamestown Foundation has in fact noted that Islamic fundamentalists carried out a recent attack on a power pylon in Dawlat Abad district (Faryab province, northern Afghanistan), which transmits electricity produced in Turkmenistan.
Turkmenistani authorities have reiterated their country’s neutrality, a stance that was restated at a regional security conference organised by the government of Turkmenistan in cooperation with the NATO Liaison Office for Central Asia.
Titled “Issues of peace and stability in Central Asia and Afghanistan: a view from neutral Turkmenistan,” the regional conference of experts provided Turkmenistan with a venue to engage foreign partners, most notably the European Union and the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).
These partners could help Ashgabat maintain internal security and foster regional stability against the growing threat of Islamic terrorism.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
The German Road: Congo Project Shows Pitfalls of Development Aid
One of Germany’s largest relief organizations has built a road through the jungle leading from war-torn North Kivu to a major river in the Congo. The project has demonstrated the limits of development aid in a stateless region.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Almost a Million People Across Brazil Demand President Rousseff’s Impeachment
The protests add to the pressure on Rousseff, who is facing political and economic crises as the economy stalls and politicians are probed in a ‘kickback’ scheme at a state-run oil firm.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Croatian Shot Wife Then Fled to UK But Judges Refuse to Send Him Back
Branko Loncar, 55, has won a long legal battle against being returned to Croatia to serve four years in prison for attempted murder, despite committing further crimes, while living in London.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
EU Set for Further Talks on Overseas Asylum Centres
EU ministers of justice and foreign affairs are set to meet in July to discuss an Italian-led proposal to offshore asylum claims to centres in northern Africa.
The issue was discussed Monday (16 March) at a meeting of foreign affairs ministers in Brussels but no decisions were made.
However, the EU’s policy chief Federica Mogherini told reporters in Brussels that the proposal will be explored at another meeting.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
France: Far-Right Vandals Target Immigration Museum
The recently inaugurated Museum of the History of Immigration has been vandalised twice by far-right groups, a sign of the rise in hate and extremism in France, according to the museum chief. When president François Hollande formally inaugurated the Museum of the History of Immigration in Paris last December, he urged the French not to give in to “scaremongers and prophets of doom” who dream of a “smaller and more spiteful France”.
Posters against immigration and multiculturalism were plastered around the building’s entrance on Sunday. They read “multiculturalism is a failure and is leading France into civil war” and “mass immigration threatens our civilisation”.
The incident came just days after a previous incident saw graffiti daubed outside the building.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Frenchman Hides Russian Bride in Suitcase
A French pensioner has been arrested after he tried to get his young Russian wife into the EU by hiding her in a suitcase on a train. It turns out she risked a bout of serious cramp for nothing.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
French Pensioner Arrested Trying to Smuggle His Young Russian Bride Home in a Suitcase
The Frenchman, in his 60s, ‘folded’ his Russian wife into a suitcase and placed her in the luggage rack of a train as he set off back to Nice, in southern France, but they were caught by border guards.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Greece Could be Shut Out of Schengen Over Migration Threat: Dutch Prime Minister
If Greece goes ahead and allows large numbers of migrants into the rest of Europe, serious consideration should be given to expelling Greece from the Schengen zone, Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte told parliament on Monday. Earlier this month, Greek defence minister Panos Kammenos threatened to open the country’s borders to refugees unless Athens is given debt crisis support. The Greek government also wants to open the borders with Turkey and close its detention centres for migrants without proper paperwork. Rutte described the threat on Monday as ‘idiotic’ and unacceptable.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Refugee Offices Open in Ceuta and Melilla
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, MARCH 17 — Spanish Interior Minister Jorge Fernandez Diez inaugurated two international protection offices at the borders of Ceuta and Melilla to facilitate asylum requests by migrants trying to illegally enter the two Spanish enclaves in Morocco.
Fifteen Guardia Civil agents were assigned to each of the two offices, Tarajal and Beni-Enzar border gates, to identify immigrants entitled to request international protection and ensure the start of the asylum applicant process “in a period of eight days.” The initiative, Fernandez Diaz told media, is “a step of enormous significance to facilitate access to international procedure at the border, and bring international and European legislation to the subject.” Applications will be reviewed and resolved, as is the case so far, by the Interior Ministry’s Office of Asylum and Refugees.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Ryanair Flying to ‘Ghost Airport’ Partly to Serve Spanish Migrants
The airport at Castellon was built in 2011 at the tail end of Spain’s property boom at a cost of more than £100m, but up until now it has yet to see a single passenger through its gates.
Despite no other airline being brave enough to land there, Kenny Rogers, Ryanair’s chief marketing officer, believes there is a strong demand for travel in and out of the region. This, he said, was based partly on seasonal traffic and partly because of a significant number of young migrants leaving Spain to find work in the UK.
“London is the number one destination for unemployed Spanish youth,” Rogers told Telegraph Travel. “There is a strong demand for a route from Castellon which we will meet and will be the first commercial airline to fly there.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: Supreme Court Questions Police Use of Firearms at Immigrant Holding Centers
Spain’s Supreme Court on Monday questioned the government’s decision to allow law enforcement personnel to carry firearms while on duty inside the country’s immigrant holding centers (CIE).
In a ruling that strikes down various articles in the CIE regulations book, the court’s administrative chamber said it was “not appropriate” for security officials to be walking around with weapons “under normal circumstances” inside the centers. But the court stopped short of banning them from bearing firearms altogether.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: Migrant Boat Capizes, 5 Dead
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, MARCH 17 — A boat carrying 16 illegal immigrants capsized off the Turkish coast of Bodrum in the Aegean Sea on Monday, leaving five dead and three missing, Turkish media confirmed on Tuesday.
The boat was heading towards the Greek island of Kos, not far from the Turkish coast.
The stretch of sea between the Turkish Aegean coast and the Greek islands is a popular ‘route’ for those seeking illegal entry into the European Union.
To this date, Turkey has welcomed more than 1.5 million Syrian refugees.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Lord Michael Bates Says There is a ‘Need to Reduce Immigration’
Home Office Minister Lord Michael Bates said too many babies are being born to immigrant mothers in the UK. He said: ‘That is why we need to reduce immigration.’
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Euthanasia Deaths Double in Belgium
The number of people undergoing euthanasia in Belgium has doubled in only six years. In 2007 only 2% of deaths were attributed to euthanasia. By 2013 the figure had jumped to 4.6% according to figures produced by a research group linked to the universities of Ghent and Brussels (VUB).
Researchers from the Care Research Group see two grounds for the rise: more and more people are requesting the procedure, while more and more doctors are prepared to carry it out.
In only six years the number of people requesting euthanasia soared from 3.5% of the number of deaths in 2007 to 6% in 2013. In 2013 three-quarters of requests were met, while in 2007 the figure was only half.
The researchers point to growing acceptance of euthanasia in society at large. Researcher Luc Deliens: “For the first time the figures are higher in Belgium, though the Netherlands has a longer history with the practice.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Half-Machine, Half-Beetle Takes to the Air for the Very First Time
Squadrons of “cyborg beetles” may sound like science fiction, but could soon become reality after the mid-air movements of real free-flying insects were controlled by scientists for the first time.
Beetles were made to take off and land, fly to the right or left, and even hover in mid-flight thanks to a radio transmitter and a miniature backpack of electronics attached to the insects.
If the technology can be further refined, it would be possible in the future to use flying insects as miniature drones loaded with tiny electronic sensors for flying over and searching difficult terrain, they said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The passengers found their guts from the example of flight 93–part of America is still alive!
The predictions of economic collapse have been with us for a long time–most of my adulthood, in fact.
That doesn’t make them wrong–indeed, after the 2008 Implosion the warnings/predictions are all too believable.
I’ve developed, to the extent I personally can, a set of pre-industrial/post-collapse personal skills. There are other skills, of course, and parents would need a whole ‘nother list in addition to mine, but here’s the kind of thing I’m talking about:
–growing food (“gardening” is what this is sometimes called, but we EAT the food)
–spinning yarn from fiber (I know a wool/sheep breeder and can buy fleeces if 50 miles is still a drive-able distance)
–crocheting and/or knitting wearable items from said spun yarn
–limited hand-weaving
–good sewing skills, both for mending and for constructing clothing
–cooking from scratch (this includes canning. It also includes freezing, but I’d really rather not depend on the electrical grid for my food supply, so I’m investigating pressure canning more deeply.)
–animal grooming and pet first aid
–human first aid
–basic plumbing and carpentry (some of the carpentry relies on electrical tools. Due to hand problems, I can no longer rely solely on hand-powered tools.)
–painting, basic building of garden-related structures & fence repair
–patchwork and quilting for warm bedding. I have a large supply of batting laid in, and of course sheep fleece (washed!) can be used as the warm, puffy layer of a quilt.
–My bicycle is in good repair. My body is not, but in emergencies I can ride the bike as transportation for nearby errands.
–we have “sharing equipment” relationships with a few of our neighbors so that we don’t all need our very own X; we can borrow someone else’s briefly.
Because I live in a single-family house, there’s really no way for DH and me to be self-sufficient w/regard to water or electricity. We’re still debating solar panels ($), though, which would be a big step in that direction. At my insistence, the past two years have been devoted to performing ALL the delayed/deferred maintenance on the house (l-o-n-g list), so that it can carry us for as long as possible. Also:
–We have disability/safety bars in both bathrooms (think about the possibility of breaking an ankle/knee/leg).
–Our stove/oven and hot-water tank run on gas rather than electricity so that, in a storm or other loss of electrical power 🙂 we can cook and wash dishes, assuming the water system is functional. (During the Oakland Firestorm of October 1991, we lived in the same water district but in a different town [Berkeley!]. The water system was *not* functional for part of that weekend; the water was needed elsewhere.)
–We’ve replaced the old fences with new, sturdy ones. Now we just need a gate across the driveway and we’ll have basic site containment.
–We’re known locally to have large dogs in residence. For vermin control, we also have cats. For compost production, we have a pet bunny. He helps with weeds, too! I pull ’em, he eats ’em.
–We have a large personal reference library of BOOKS.
Most of the maintenance work was already underway by (and before) January 2015, when I first discovered GoV after the Charlie Hebdo massacre, but the references to “Schloss Bodissey” gave me a new frame of reference for my own domicile and, although abstractly many think “my home is my castle,” actually *seeing the phrase* has helped me push through some resistance by DH to make this house more “castle”-feeling: the kind of home one can be proud of.
Thank you so much! 🙂
What other basic skills do people feel necessary in the city/small old-time suburb?
Cynthia, I truly admire your resolution; reminds me of such “survivalists” as the late Robert Heinlein and his wife (I liked his novels more than his politics).
But… I’m in my 60s, have (sadly) no children, and if everything really does go pear-shaped, whether due to terrorism or an EMP, I’d rather not survive. Of course I may react differently if it happens, but none of us knows that until it does.
Living in the Bay area I guess your weather is quite temperate so you don’t have a big need for heating. Where I live heat is very important!
During Sandy I was here alone without electricity for 8 days. I learned to build roaring fires that would last for hours.
My husband splits the wood mostly but I taught myself how to do it. (muttering to myself in the garage while trying to find his tools)
We can’t grow food anymore because the deer eat the plants. 10 years ago that wasn’t the case but the rise in the deer pop. (I now have my own little herd) has made it impossible to grow anything that deer might like to eat.
It is against the law to shoot the deer or in any way to kill them. The powers that be would rather they be run over by a car causing extreme damage and possibly death to the occupant of the car.
I can tell you that after this winter the deer will be very hungry and I don’t blame them. It’s been a horribly cold and snowy winter here and I often wondered what the deer were eating? My husband says they eat bark. So, any herb or tomato I might plant would be pure heaven to them.
Cover the plants with hot sauce diluted in a hose-end sprayer. Even though we can shoot them, the darn things LIE DOWN in our yard, visit with each other. There is a very good product, Skyyd, which really repels them. Pig blood. No joke.
I looked it up on Amazon. Thanks for the tip as I so love home grown veggies and have been absolutely wiped out the last 3 years; they even ate my strawberry plants and, by that I mean the entire plant! They eat entire tomato plants and all the hostas (they can have them…) I guess the stuff is really stinky but I’ll give it a go. The comments on the product were amusing; one woman mixes up a “brew” a few weeks in advance!
http://www.amazon.com/Plantskydd-Deer-Repellent-2-2-pounds/dp/B0009PKDYO
The other thing to consider is putting up a few lights around the garden that flash when deer cross their path.
I know one person who has the ultimate deer-proof garden. The secret to keeping deer away is measured in number of feet of fencing, and that number is eight. Thus you can have an eight foot fence as a barrier, or you can have two fences of four feet each, one placed inside the other at a distance of eight feet between them. Deer can jump amazing distances, but they cannot jump eight feet high. They also cannot jump a span of the same distance.
When I daydream about a deer proof garden, I like the four feet twice. It’s sturdier, for one thing. And you can utilize the ground between the two with things like raspberry canes. I’d never be able to afford such a feature, but it’s nice to dream…
BTW, one of the fences should be buried about two feet so as to rabbit proof the area.
Deer and rabbits keep eating the tender green heads off my new raspberry canes if I forget to spray them with pepper/garlic/skyyd spray.
One last thought: you can buy garden tubs on wheels and move them around the periphery of the house. Kind of like those movable chicken coops the Amish build to protect fowl from coyotes and such. Again, they’re pricey, but you can grown intensively in them.
As a fun, not too expensive experiment, try straw bale gardening. Those could be fenced in a makeshift way just for the growing season and later turned to mulch. It takes about a month to six weeks to prepare them and it’s a good idea to start small – i.e., a few bales – to see how you like it, and how it works. Look at Gardener’s Supply online and compare shop at local hardware places or big box stores.
A very thoughtful post there Cynthia. You seem to have left a reliable water supply out, maybe that slipped your mind – that should be the first on the list and a well or suitable tanks feeding off your house roof like mine do, can give you a fairly reliable source of moisture – that is unless you are in drought as most of California is today.
And don’t forget a good supply of toilet paper – unless of course you have a ready supply of faces in newspapers you would like to treat?
That bicycle you mention – ever thought about marrying that bike up with a lawn mower motor to drive the thing up hills?
Babs and Dymphna raise the Deer problem – well have you gals thought about a sling shot with metal ball bearings as a Deer deterrent – they really hurt when they hit and are effective in keeping them away as I have proven to myself with the local Wallabies and Kangaroos trying to eat what I grow – one just needs to be constantly vigilant as to their visits.
Mark, if ever the crunch comes, I’m sure there will not be one cat or dog or even a squirrel left within 30 miles of London after a few weeks of no food on supermarket shelves.
re. Deer Hunting: There’s a new understanding–at least in some states–of the threat uncontrolled deer pose to humans as well as to other animals. Laws re. deer hunting/taking have been changed in many states and cities. (This was a cover article in Time magazine either late 2013 or mid-2014; I can’t remember right off the top of my head.)
This website belonging to Urban Deer Hunt ( http://www.urbandeerhunt.com/ ) probably has all the information and links one would need to find out where hunting is allowed and under what conditions. I remember from the Time article that New Jersey now has a brief bear hunt once a year due to the threat black (?) bears posed to people and other animals: the very high density of bears per square kilometer meant that bears, even in suburbs and close-in areas, were breaking into houses to get food. This is something California people with houses up in the *mountains* deal with, but–New Jersey?!
I’ve seen Dymphna’s suggestions before, on a gardening forum I used to help moderate, and almost everyone who put up the recommended fencing had good things to say about it. 🙂
I imagine that having a well-butchered deer in the freezer, hunted by oneself or one’s own “family” (or extended family/friends) group, would go a long way towards supporting one’s food security.
Amazing how a comment can spark off such an interesting train of thought.
Here in central London, the nearest deer are several miles away, even if I had a gun! We have foxes, but they look pretty mangy & probably disease-ridden, like the pigeons.