The Islamic State has posted photos and addresses of about a hundred American military personnel, and called on its overseas adherents to find them and kill them. The Pentagon says it is investigating the matter, and has notified the service members’ families. Meanwhile the USA has pulled its remaining special forces out of Yemen, due to the worsening security situation.
In other news, a new French law mandates that the rooftops of all commercial buildings must be covered with either solar panels or plants.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, K, Papa Whiskey, Vlad Tepes, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.
Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.
Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.
An Islamic Center Comes to Santa Barbara
The ISSB was founded in 1984 and according to its website it is a 501(c)(3) independent organization. Their ideological commitments include teaching the Qur’an and the customs of the Prophet Mohammed, and they insist their approach to Islam is one in which they will “educate and remind,” rather than “compel, dictate, judge, or classify.”
Yet there is a bit of disingenuousness attached to one of their statements: “Islam is a set of philosophical and spiritual outlooks; ISSB does not engage in political activities.”
Not exactly. One of the members of their community is the Muslim Student Association (MSA), and the notion that the MSA does not engage in political activities is utterly preposterous. Since its inception at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in January of 1963, the MSA has expanded to nearly 600 chapters nationwide, including 150 affiliated with MSA National. It was founded by members of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB), a group established by Hasan al-Bannain Egypt in 1928. The MB spawned al-Qaeda and Hamas, spied for the Nazis in the Middle East, and fought for Hitler during WWII. The MB’s doctrines define Islamist jihadism as it is practiced by Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah, Hamas and the government of Iran.
The establishment of the MSA in America was one part of an initiative launched by Saudi Arabia in the ‘60s to spread the poisonous and violent Wahhabist ideology that animates Sunni terror groups. As Alex Alexiev of the Center for Security Policy explained in 2004, all of the groups set up by the Saudis “were tightly controlled and financed by the Saudi government and the Wahhabi clergy.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Berkeley Radicals Want to Honor Cop-Killing Communist
Disgruntled black students at the University of California at Berkeley are demanding a campus building be named after convicted cop-killing terrorist and fugitive from justice, Assata Shakur.
The reason for the demand? In the stated opinion of the school’s Black Student Union, blacks are disrespected on campus. BSU member Cori McGowens told reporters that “trying to excel academically is immensely difficult while coping with the issue of antiblackness on campus.”
“It troubles me that I have already been told countless times that antiblackness is not an issue to discuss within the context of the American political system,” said McGowens, a political science major. “My professors and graduate-student instructors have told me that I shouldn’t bring up the politics of race and the reality of my black experience.”
That politically correct, ultra-leftist UC Berkeley would be infected by “antiblackness” or that teachers there would tell any student of color to shut up about race is nearly impossible to believe. Viewing America through the Marxist lens of race, sex, and class, is all that today’s predominantly leftist academics spend their time doing. Professors can’t stop talking about race or any of the picayune peeves about which the Left constantly obsesses.
[Comment: 33yr jail sentence for murder, escaped from prison (likely by Cuban operatives), and now resides in Cuba having been granted asylum.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Breaking: Maine Introduces Bill to Label GMOs Now
Bill aims to begin labeling immediately.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
By Hook and by Crook, You Are Going to Pay for Climate Change
“Science has become the new stepchild of politics.”—Michael Savage
Representative Bill Flores (TX-17) addressed the global warming alarmism, pointing out that this administration has done everything in its power to stop domestic energy production in this country, spending billions of dollars for bankrupt solar energy producers like Solyndra. He enumerated the six “inconvenient truths” of those promoting the climate agenda:
- It kills U.S. jobs.
- It costs trillions of dollars.
- It’s based on junk science.
- It uses fantasy technology that is yet to be developed.
- It manipulates cost/benefit analysis by using junk economics.
- It fails the smell test.
Rep. Flores stated that Obama’s energy agenda, via EPA’s tightening regulations such as ozone levels and Waters of the U.S., kills 3 million American jobs, exporting them to China and India, and importing their pollution back to the United States. “By 2020, the EPA’s ozone regulations will eliminate $3.5 trillion of economic output.” There is no credible evidence that ozone levels cause increased health issues for Americans but poverty does, Rep. Flores added. Because the EPA knows that California cannot meet its stringent ozone standards, then California is excluded from the equation.
It is EPA regulatory malpractice, said Rep. Flores, as evidenced by the attempt to change the definition of water in the Waters of the U.S. from “navigable waters” to any puddle of rain that falls in a farmer’s field.
Tom Steyer, a “green” energy devotee, has pledged $100 million in 2014 to Democrats who oppose the Keystone pipeline and favor the disuse of fossil fuels over renewables. Steyer opposes coal in an attempt to boost the value of his solar projects. According to John Hinderaker, “Steyer owes his fortune in large part to the fact that he has been one of the world’s largest financiers of coal projects.”…
Gary Broadbent, representing Murray Energy Corporation, the largest privately held coal mine in the U.S., highlighted Obama’s “war on coal” via regulations passed by EPA alone in the last five years totaling 25,000 pages. Quoting Robert E. Murray, Chairman of Murray Energy Corporation, Broadbent said, “Prior to the election of President Obama, coal provided 52% of the electricity generation in our country. Today it is 37%. In our judgment, it will further decline to about 30%, at a maximum.”
Enumerating the 411 power plants designated for closure through 2016, “101,000 megawatts of the lowest cost electricity in America,” CEO Murray wrote that electricity, generated by coal at the plant cost of 4 cents per kWh, will be replaced by “Mr. Obama and his appointees” with 15 cent per kWh electricity from natural gas and 22 cent per kWh electricity from wind and solar power, not to mention the huge subsidies to solar power from American taxpayers.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Democrat Wants to Shut Down Austin Stores for Racist Sticker They Have Nothing to Do With
Political correctness and the race agenda were in full swing this week in Austin, Texas, as local activists and the NAACP went ballistic over a parody sticker affixed to store windows.
The sticker claims to be sponsored by the city of Austin. This alone should be evidence enough the sticker is a parody, but despite this activists and Democrats demand an explanation from the city and are also calling for shutting down a business where one of the stickers was placed.
Austin Mayor Steve Adler was obliged to state the obvious. In a statement he said the party responsible for making and placing the stickers did not receive permission to use the city logo or did the city sponsor the effort as stated on the stickers.
The stickers appeared on at least six Austin stores and makes the claim the establishments are”exclusively for white people.”
The NAACP is now involved.
Democrat Dawnna Dukes is calling for one of the stores to be run out of business for having the misfortune of receiving the sticker.
“Some jokes just are not funny,” Dukes wrote on her Facebook. “If this is a joke at all, it is tasteless. Pardon mon française mais, I will be damned if this will occur in my House Disrtict, disrtict 46 on my watch on 12th St. in this historical Black Community or any community. This morning, I have been in communication with the City Managers office, APD, PIO, et. al. This is NOT sponsored by the City of Austin and ACM Anthony Snipes is on top of it, all over it. Until then, refrain from supporting Unique Trends until ‘some explaining’ is done. If the explanation is unbelievable …. They need to be put out of business, ASAP! Update: Nelson Linder is on site. The entity is Rare Trends. Five other businesses are allegedly to have the same sign. They are claiming ‘vandalism.’“
Dukes seems to believe the stores in question either put the stickers up or approve of them and because of this need to be boycotted, in other words run out of business.
While many comments on the Facebook post take Dukes to task for insinuating the businesses in question are racist and should be driven out of business, others support the effort.
The incident is another example of the racist political agenda exploited by Obama and the Democrats taking a turn for the absurd. The stickers amount to simple vandalism, not some sort of insidious KKK-style racist campaign supported by white business owners.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
FDA Approves Genetically Engineered Potatoes, Apples as ‘Safe’
Potatoes that won’t bruise and apples that won’t brown are a step closer to grocery store aisles. The Food and Drug Administration on Friday approved the genetically engineered foods, saying they are “as safe and nutritious as their conventional counterparts.” The approval covers six varieties of potatoes by Boise, Idaho-based J. R. Simplot Co. and […]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Feds Send 30 Agents to Probe Death of Black Man Found Hanging From Tree
PORT GIBSON, Miss. (AP) — A black man found hanging from a tree in Mississippi was Otis Byrd, a convicted killer whose family reported him missing more than two weeks ago, the FBI said Friday.
Thirty federal agents are on the scene, interviewing Byrd’s friends and family, and searching through his home and a storage space as they try to determine whether it was homicide or suicide, FBI special agent Don Alway said.
[Comment By Bobinm: A white Mississippi girl was burned alive and it’s been unsolved for months. A white former Marine was beaten and kicked in the head by a black mob in Mississippi and I’m not aware of a single federal agent investigating. He will live but has brain damage. Nope, not a hate crime.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Follow the Money — Marijuana is Dangerous
Former education and drug czar Bill Bennett has co-authored a book with Robert White called GOING TO POT. They tell how the scientific evidence is overwhelmingly against the use of marijuana. Anyone with an ounce of common sense would be able to recognize this. Public education has been very successful in dumbing down the people. According to Major William E. Mayer, U.S. army psychiatrist and one of the army’s experts on brainwashing reported that one third of all the American soldiers who became prisoners in Korea succumbed to brainwashing by the enemy without any torture.[2] They became something called “progressives.” By the communists’ own definition, this meant that a man was either a Communist sympathizer or a collaborator — or both — during his stay in a prison camp and that my dear readers may explain why elected leaders come out of college “progressives” because that’s where the communists have strategically placed some professors.
The Major learned that during the brainwashing every fault of America was chalked in and every virtue of America was erased out (Sorta sounds like what President Obama would say); that the education of most Americans had failed to prepare them to meet the intellectual erosion and the political indoctrination. They had received no fundamental facts and no enduring principles from their “formal education” to counter the communist brainwashing — one major quality lacking: love of country and a sense of patriotism. Author of ten books on education, Samuel L. Blumenfeld in 1981 asked in his book: Is Public Education necessary? The unprecedented decline in academic quality has precipitated a veritable exodus of children from the government schools answers his question and now we have Common Core…
People are uninformed or misinformed at the very least about the nature of marijuana today. It is not what it was in the 60s, 70s or 80s says Bennett and White. During that period the THC- tetrahydrocannabinol, which is the psychoactive “hi” ingredient ran about 3% — maybe on the high side — up to 5% says Bennett and White. Today on an average of seized marijuana- that is marijuana which the authorities would interdict- runs 13% “but when you go to the dispensaries in Colorado and California as I have” says White, “you will routinely find THC contents of 20-25-30 and even 35%.“
It is dangerous. This can be compared to a 12 oz glass of beer to a 12 oz. glass of 80-proof vodka. While they are both alcohol and have the same volume, the impact on the body and the brain is dramatic. But not only does it impact the brain but leads to problems with lungs and the heart but particularly it impacts the developing brain of teens and young adults. It causes permanent damage for regular users on the average of an 8 point drop in I.Q.
[…]
Hashish or cnnabis acts only on the brain and nerves. At first the person is very much excited. He sees the visions. Following this he cannot walk, and finally he falls into a drunken sleep. After a person uses hashish for only a few months his eyelids become red and swollen. He is weak and becomes tired very easily. His appetite is poor and he does not sleep well. Before a great while he has difficulty in remembering things. From this time on, his mind becomes weaker and soon he is completely insane. In one insane asylum in India where many people use hashish, one fourth of the inmates or patients became insane by the use of this drug. Reports from other asylums in India and Egypt show about the same figures.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
From Minneapolis to ISIS: An American’s Path to Jihad
By Scott Shane
MINNEAPOLIS — Reading back over Abdi Nur’s Twitter feed, his chilling progression from the basketball courts of South Minneapolis to the battlefields of Syria is clear.
Early last year, he began posting stern religious pronouncements and snippets of scripture. By April 2, a day after turning 20, he hailed Islamic fighters: “If the sky would be proud of the existence of the stars, the land should be proud of the existence of the Mujahideen.”
On May 29, the day he disappeared, he posted, “I Thank Allah For Everything No Matter What!” Soon he was in Turkey, rebuffing his mother’s and sister’s anguished pleas to come home. In late July, he declared, “What A Beautiful Day in Raqqa,” the de facto capital of the Islamic State in Syria. Last Aug. 7, he posted a picture of himself online with his finger on the trigger of a Kalashnikov.
Mr. Nur had become one of a small number of Americans enticed by the apocalyptic religious promise of the self-described Islamic State, which has seized large sections of Syria and Iraq and claims to be building a caliphate.
A slightly built man with an easy smile, he is a rare example of an American fighting for the terror group whose story can be pieced together from online postings, interviews and public records. His case suggests that the Islamic State may rely on recruiters inside the United States and shows how hard it is to predict who will be swept away by ideological fervor.
[…]
Mr. Nur, or someone using his account, still occasionally posts on Twitter. If he has regrets, he does not acknowledge them. In January, he praised the two gunmen who attacked a satirical newspaper in Paris: “Well well well done Iqwah,” or brothers, he wrote.
[Mao Tse-tung’s dictum in action. This little fish easily swam in the Muslim “sea” imported to Minneapolis by the federal government and liberal church groups. — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
How ‘The Cloud’ Eats Away at Your Online Privacy (Video)
Tom Henderson, Principal Researcher at ExtremeLabs Inc., is not a cloud fan. He is a staunch privacy advocate, and this is the root of his distrust of companies that store your data in their memories instead of yours. You can get an idea of his (dis)like of vague cloud privacy protections and foggy vendor service agreements from the fact that his Network World columnn is called Thumping the Clouds. We called Tom specifically to ask him about a column entry titled The downside to mass data storage in the cloud.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Jay Leno on Political Correctness: ‘Being Anti-Guacamole is Not Racist!’
Discussing his stand-up comedy routine, Leno made specific note of the over-the-top political correctness exhibited by college students who frequent his shows.
“College kids now are so politically correct…” Leno said.
Citing a previous incident at the Tonight Show, Leno recalled being accused of racism by a college intern for stating that he did not want to eat Mexican food for lunch.
“No it’s not racist. Being anti-guacamole is not racist,” Leno said. “You have no idea what racism is. That’s not racist, you idiot! You moron! “
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
McDonald’s War on Americans Revealed
Behind the greasy smile of Ronald McDonald is a toxic soup of “food” that is served to the sheep daily.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Monica Lewinsky Gave a Really, Really Important Ted Talk on Bullying
By Chris Cillizza
It’s easy to banish Monica Lewinsky to a cultural corner — a remnant of a time in politics that most Americans would like to forget. The president and the intern. The blue dress. “I did not have sexual relations with that woman.” All of it feels so tawdry, so, well, gross. It was a little too much information even back then — and thinking about it now seems to serve absolutely no purpose.
What we all forget is that Monica Lewinsky was a White House intern back in the late 1990s. She was in her early 20s. While our gazes got diverted over the years — Kardashians! Anthony Weiner! Something else! — Lewinsky kept living her life. And now, at 41, she is re-emerging — not to remind us all of that time in her and our lives, but rather to testify from her very unique perspective about the dangers of political bullying.
Lewinsky gave a TED talk in Vancouver on Thursday, excerpts of which are now available on the TED site.
[…]
Here’s the critical piece of Lewinsky’s talk:
For nearly two decades now, we have slowly been sowing the seeds of shame and public humiliation in our cultural soil. Gossip Web sites, paparazzi, reality programming, politics, news outlets and sometimes hackers traffic in shame.
Public humiliation as a blood sport has to stop. We need to return to a long-held value of compassion and empathy.
[Don’t hold your breath, ma’am. But a worthy sentiment withal. — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
Pentagon Investigates ‘IS Online Threat’ To US Military
The US defence department says it is investigating an online threat allegedly made by Islamic State (IS) to about 100 of its military personnel.
A website claiming links with the militant group posted a list of names and addresses of Americans and called on IS supporters to kill them.
A Pentagon official said it could not confirm the validity of the message.
US officials told the ABC network that the families of those on the list were being notified.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Reports: New Orleans Airport Machete Suspect is Dead
Richard White, 63. the suspect believed to have carried out a machete attack Friday night in New Orleans, is dead, CNN and NBC News reported late Saturday.
White was shot three times at the Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport during his horrific attack and was pronounced dead at 5:02 pm Saturday.
Authorities say the suspect in the brazen machete attack may have been planning to bomb the site as well.
Jefferson Parish Sheriff Newell Normand said Richard White, 63, carried a bag with six gasoline-filled Molotov cocktails and a barbecue lighter when he assaulted Transportation Security Administration workers at Louis Armstrong International Airport.
Authorities also found an acetylene tank, smoke bombs and other supplies in his car, Normand said at a news conference Saturday afternoon.
| — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes | [Return to headlines] |
Sen. Rand Paul Calls for Americans to Boycott Saudi Arabia
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) called for a boycott of Saudi Arabia on Saturday, saying Americans should shun the kingdom as it did the apartheid regime in South Africa.
Paul’s comments came as he intensified his attack against Hillary Rodham Clinton, again calling on her to return gifts given to her family foundation by foreign countries, including Saudi Arabia. Paul singled out the kingdom for its treatment of women, citing the case of a woman who was gang-raped and later lashed for being in a car with a man who was not her husband.
“This is something that we shouldn’t tolerate. This is something we should be organizing a boycott of,” the senator said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Soros-Funded Media Matters Attacks O’Reilly for Exposing “Puppet Master” George Soros
Host claimed billionaire philanthropist has “his tentacles into political organizations.”
White House front group Media Matters labeled Fox News host Bill O’Reilly a racist anti-semite after he criticized billionaire philanthropist George Soros, who incidentally provides funding and support for the leftist organization.
Yesterday, the progressive media watchdog accused O’Reilly of employing “Anti-semitic Tropes” when he said that Soros, who he called a “shadow puppet master,” had “his tentacles into political organizations.”
“Soros has now taken his ill-gotten gains and is financing the most radical left-wing organizations in America,” the host said on the March 18 episode of The O’Reilly Factor, adding that the Hungarian-born investor “is behind much of the political strife in this country.”
“He is the shadow puppet master behind corrupt far-left groups like Media Matters,” O’Reilly said.
“Soros has his tentacles into political organizations like the Center for American Progress, which has provided operatives for the Obama administration, some of whom are now going over to Hillary Clinton’s campaign. Few Americans even know who Soros is, but the 84-year old uber-leftist is behind much of the political strife in this country.”
Media Matters asserts that O’Reilly’s use of the term “puppet master,” a broad, innocuous expression, was an “anti-Semitic [stereotype] that [goes] back decades.” However, despite the negative connotations the phrase aptly describes Soros.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Starbucks Survey: How Racist Are You?
#RaceTogether campaign provides “Race Relations Reality Check” questionnaire.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Ferguson Hoax and Media Truth-Telling
You know the standards of the media have hit rock bottom when a liberal commentator makes news for telling the truth. Jonathan Capehart of The Washington Post and MSNBC has become a media star for his belated recognition of the “Hands up, don’t shoot” lie out of Ferguson, Missouri. Better late than never, except for the fact that this liberal narrative was always in dispute. There was never any legitimate reason to believe that Police Officer Darren Wilson had simply fired on Michael Brown for no reason.
The appropriate reaction to Capehart’s Damascus Road conversion to the truth should be: What took you so long? And what will you do to make sure you never fall for such a vicious lie again?
Don Irvine, the chairman of Accuracy in Media, notes in his blog on the AIM website that Capehart admitted the narrative was wrong after the Department of Justice found Wilson’s side of the story to be true. Capehart said, “What DOJ found made me ill.” Irvine commented, “I would be ill too if I had helped push a false narrative that gave fuel to the riots in Ferguson that have cost businesses and taxpayers millions of dollars, and ruined the career of Officer Wilson.”
The people who should be ill are those who depend on Capehart and others like him for the truth. Capehart is just trying to recover some of the credibility he never had in the first place…
Colin Flaherty, an award winning reporter and author of Don’t Make the Black Kids Angry: The hoax of black victimization and those who enable it, says that what happened in Ferguson was a carefully orchestrated hoax. He notes how in an amazing turnabout, the false claims about an unprovoked murder of a young black man became complaints about too many traffic tickets for black people.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
This Scientist Invented a Simple Way to Mass-Produce Graphene
Finally, a better method for making the material of the future
Caltech’s David Boyd has done what scientists have been struggling to do for years: He says he’s figured out a cheap, easy way to make graphene, and to make a lot of it. The kicker? He’s using technology from the 1960s.
Graphene was a wonder material first theorized in 1947 and not actually proven in the real world until years later, when scientists did it in the strangest of ways in 2003: by rubbing a pencil across some Scotch tape. Made of sheets of carbon just one atom thick, the stuff is tough, durable, and conductible. It’s the perfect material for not only super-conductors but also in all kinds of lightweight, high-strength futuristic materials. —solar panels, medical diagnostic devices, fuel cell extractors — ideas even as far-future as a tether for a space elevator.
So far, though, it’s been enormously inefficient to make in mass quantities, especially in a high-quality form.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Tsarnaev Jury Questionnaire Dug Into Siblings, Islamophobia
By Eric Levenson
Among the 101 questions that potential jurors in the Boston Marathon bombing trial were asked are queries on sibling relationships, feelings toward Islam, and social media proficiency.
Those 101 questions, released to the public on Wednesday, are decided upon ahead of time by both the defense and prosecutors. As such, they provide hints as to the main thrusts of the arguments made by both sides.
About 1,350 prospective jurors filled out the 28-page questionnaire. The judge, prosecution, and defense teams then used those answers to eliminate most jurors from the pool. Of those that passed that first round, dozens were called back in for further questioning in person. The final pool of 18 jurors was chosen after another round of eliminations.
[…]
“Do you believe the United States government acts unfairly towards Muslims in this country or in other parts of the world?” asks No. 60. “Do you believe the ‘war on terror’ unfairly targets Muslims?” reads No. 61. “Do you believe the ‘war on terror’ is overblown or exaggerated?” asks No. 62.
That focus on Islam has come up repeatedly so far in the trial. Prosecutor William Weinreb argued that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev acted out of a belief that “he was a soldier in a holy war against Americans.” There was also the message Tsarnaev wrote while inside the boat where he was ultimately captured.
“We Muslims are one body, you hurt one you hurt us all,” the message reads.
[This is exactly what then OIC head Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu stated in a 2008 speech at Columbia University: “The Muslim Ummah … brings Muslims together in an eternal brotherhood lock which transcends all other consideration of allegiance or loyalties or barriers of nationhood, ethnicity, geography or language.” — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
Bodies of Five Babies Found Hidden in House in South-Western France
[WARNING: Disturbing Content.]
Police made the macabre discovery after a 40-year-old father called them at 7am in the town of Louchats, in the south west, close to Bordeaux.
Officers searched the premises, and found four more babies in a large freezer regularly used by the family.
The man’s wife was immediately sedated and rushed to hospital, while the husband, who is a farmer, was arrested so he could be questioned at length. Neither has yet been identified.
‘The first body was a newborn,’ said a source close to the investigation which has been opened into the horrific case.
It is believed that the woman had ‘secretly given birth, within the last 48 hours’, without telling anybody.
The husband was said to be ‘absolutely devastated and shaking uncontrollably’ when the discoveries were made.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Dark Clouds Looming Over the Europe
Greek government is now raiding utilities to make their payments. Greek deposit outflows peak. Anti-austerity protests increasing throughout Europe. European government implements laws to shutdown websites. Ukrainian government is not sticking to the Minsk II agreement, preparing for war. UK to begin training of Ukrainian forces. John Kerry says that Assad must step down. US hyping propaganda to invade Syria. Embassies in Djibouti and Saudi Arabia are still closed.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
France Decrees New Rooftops Must be Covered in Plants or Solar Panels
Rooftops on new buildings built in commercial zones in France must either be partially covered in plants or solar panels, under a law approved on Thursday.
Green roofs have an isolating effect, helping reduce the amount of energy needed to heat a building in winter and cool it in summer
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Renzi Denies State ‘Slaps’ Judges, Rewards Corrupt
Reacts to Sabelli claim that State not functioning at its best
(ANSA) — Rome, March 17 — Premier Matteo Renzi denied Tuesday a judge’s allegations that too often, the Italian State “slaps” magistrates and rewards the corrupt.
“The State does not give a slap to magistrates and caresses the corrupt,” said Renzi.
“It is a statement that is false, unjust,” said Renzi, who added that such comments undermine confidence in the system.
He spoke after the head of the Italian National Magistrates Association (ANM) Rodolfo Sabelli said that too often in Italy the State has not reinforced judicial forces.
Sabelli said that a well-functioning State “should slap the corrupt and caress those who exercise control over legality”.
But, added Sabelli, too often “in Italy the opposite has occurred”.
Sabelli said in a television interview with RAI that for a long period in Italy, governments undermined the judiciary and rewrote laws to downgrade the severity of many crimes.
And he urged the government to now “spread a culture of legality” across Italy.
New measures introduced Monday by Renzi in an anti-corruption bill would once again would make false accounting, financial market fraud, and similar offenses criminal matters subject to stiff jail terms.
Under the former government of ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi, those crimes had been deeply downgraded and penalties significantly lightened.
Sabelli’s comments also came after police revealed a massive graft probe into public contracts for everything from the TAV high-speed rail project to Milan Expo, which all allegedly involved a top former manager at the infrastructure ministry.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Govt to Reduce Police Forces From 5 to 4
(ANSA) — Rome, March 17 — Civil Service Minister Marianna Madia said Wednesday the government will reduce Italy’s national law enforcement divisions from five to four. A civil service reform bill calls for forest rangers to be merged into the other divisions, which are Carabinieri paramilitary police, the finance guard tax police, prison police, and State police.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Sir Peter Fahy, one of the country’s leading counter terrorism officers, said families are more to blame for young jihadis who runaway to Syria than the police, schools or local authorities.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Scientists at Large Hadron Collider Hope to Make Contact With Parallel Universe in Days
The staggeringly complex LHC ‘atom smasher’ at the CERN centre in Geneva, Switzerland, will be fired up to its highest energy levels ever in a bid to detect — or even create — miniature black holes.
If successful a completely new universe will be revealed — rewriting not only the physics books but the philosophy books too.
It is even possible that gravity from our own universe may ‘leak’ into this parallel universe, scientists at the LHC say.
The experiment is sure to inflame alarmist critics of the LHC, many of whom initially warned the high energy particle collider would spell the end of our universe with the creation a black hole of its own.
[Comment: “The Mist (2007)” — people discover that they are under siege by blood-thirsty creatures from another dimension that have reached our planet through a window opened by a failed military research project. Movie has ridiculously over the top anti-christian portrayal in the movie.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden’s King ‘Worried’ About Saudi Row
Sweden’s King Carl XVI Gustaf is worried about his country’s diplomatic spat with Saudi Arabia and has offered to give his two cents in helping Sweden find a solution to the problem. Next week, he will meet Foreign Minister Margot Wallström to discuss the row.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden’s Foreign Minister Reviled as an Enemy of the Prophet
by Ingrid Carlqvist and Lars Hedegaard
Evidently, Sweden’s Foreign Minister was unaware that that by criticizing Islamic sharia customs, such as flogging a blogger a thousand times and the ill-treatment of women, she was, in fact, seen as turning against Islam itself.
There appears to be a genuine but concerning lack of knowledge in the Swedish government about Islam and Islamic affairs.
“It makes no difference what she says. In Islam, it is for Muslims to determine whether or not one has criticized their religion.” — Johannes J.G. Jansen, author and historian of Islam.
From a Muslim perspective, any criticism or infringement of sharia law and Muslims’ obligation to wage jihad (war in the service of Islam) is a violation of their freedom of religion.
In other words, it is incumbent on Muslims to “terrify” non-Muslims (referring to the Koran 8:60). But when they succeed, Muslim spokesmen accuse their frightened victims of suffering from “Islamophobia,” and demand that Western authorities denounce and persecute people beset by the psychiatric malady.
There is nothing, however, to indicate that Margot Wallström and other members of the Swedish government have been driven by fear. They have no knowledge of what orthodox Islam is about, and evidently believe that the religion is benevolent and peaceful, but unfortunately hijacked or misinterpreted by evil men.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The Most Authentic Irish Pub Outside Ireland Found in Italy
Bolzano wins St. Patrick’s Day award for authenticity
(ANSA) — Bolzano, March 17 — The most authentic Irish pub to be found outside of Ireland is located in the northern Italian city of Bolzano, according to awards announced on Tuesday, just in time for St. Patrick’s Day.
The Temple Bar, located in the historic centre of Bolzano in the Alto Adige (South Tyrol) region, was named most authentic by the Irish Pubs Global Federation, a Dublin-based organization of 6,500 pub owners and managers.
That has given Irish native Stephen Tierney, who opened the bar in 2006, an extra reason to celebrate: both winning an award and marking the day in honour of Ireland’s patron saint, St.
Patrick.
The federation said that it honoured the Italian entry because “in the opinion of the judges, (it) is the most authentic Irish Pub experience outside of Ireland, including design, atmosphere, staff and offering overall”.
St. Patrick’s Day is a public holiday in the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland, and the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Two Months After Attack, Charlie Hebdo Divided Over Money
(AGI) Paris, Mar 20 — Two months after the attack on Charlie Hebdo, tension returned to the French satirical weekly, divided over the fate of the nearly 30 million euros received in the wake of the massacre. Eleven journalists have asked for all employees to become equal shareholders in the magazine, arguing that a more equitable division allows for greater “transparency”. “The wider the control, the more decisions will be taken collectively and that’s better for everyone,” wrote journalist Laurent Leger, backed among others by leader writer Patrick Pelloux. Currently, Charlie Hebdo is 40 percent owned by the parents of Charb, the former director of the magazine who was killed in the Jan. 7 attacks, 40 percent by cartoonist Riss, who is recovering in hospital from shoulder wounds and 20 percent by joint manager Eric Portheault. Before the terrorist attack, Charlie Hebdo was teetering on the verge of bankruptcy and was selling only around 30,000 copies a week.
But a “survivors’ issue” published a week after the attacks flew off the shelves and ended up selling seven million copies and the magazine was inundated with donations. It is this new found wealth that has sparked divisions. “All this money is doing more harm than good,” said a lawyer attorney representing the magazine’s management. “Our first thought has to be to get a paper out every Wednesday. Then we have tax issues to resolve, as donations are taxed at 60 percent,” he continued.
“The donations are going to the victims’ families. The proceeds from the sales are going into the magazine’s coffers. They will be used to create a foundation, notably to teach freedom of expression in schools.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Conman Keith Cameron Scammed Dying Architect Out of £500k Forcing Widow to Move
This is the ‘despicable man’ who conned nearly £500,000 out of a friend who was dying of stomach cancer. Keith Cameron convinced terminally ill Jonathan Speirs to handover the money.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
A key Tory Election candidate was suspended last night after plotting with far-Right extremists to stir up racial hatred in a cynical bid to win votes.
Afzal Amin hatched a scheme to persuade the English Defence League to announce an inflammatory march against a new £18million ‘mega-mosque’. But — as he revealed in secretly filmed footage obtained by The Mail on Sunday — the plan was that the demonstration would never actually go ahead.
And when the phoney rally was called off, the fiercely ambitious Amin, a Muslim, intended to take credit for defusing the situation — winning over voters, and police, in the marginal seat of Dudley North.
In return for going along with the scheme, the former Army captain promised the EDL members he would be their ‘unshakeable ally’ who would help bring their extreme views into the mainstream if he was elected to Parliament.
Amin also wanted EDL members to be paid to canvass on his behalf in Dudley — against election law.
But his devious plot was secretly filmed by former EDL leader Tommy Robinson, who blew the whistle on Amin’s scheme because he objected to being used as a pawn in his bizarre power game.
Amin, who has been described on his Tory Party website as a former Army education officer to Princes William and Harry, outlined his plan at an Indian restaurant in Birmingham on Monday.
There he made an apparent offer to Robinson and current EDL chairman Steve Eddowes to covertly pay EDL members to canvass on his behalf. But they were even more shocked by 40-year-old Amin proposing a phantom protest only weeks after a real demonstration in Dudley by 600 EDL supporters led to ugly flashpoints and 30 arrests.
In The Mail on Sunday’s sensational tapes Amin — who openly covets the Prime Minister’s job:…
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UK: Ex-Chief Constable Who Says Cyril Smith Cover-Up Went Right to the Top
[WARNING: Disturbing Content.]
Albert Laugharne, former Chief Constable of Lancashire Police, said that in the 1970s he was asked to lie about Cyril Smith’s (pictured) alleged sexual abuse of a boy.
Smith was reportedly taken to a police station in Westminster. But instead of being remanded in custody and later charged, as the officers on the operation expected, the MP was almost immediately released without bail.
The officers’ astonishment was compounded when they were summoned to a meeting and told to hand over all evidence they had gathered on Smith — including notebooks and incriminating video film — and to say nothing more of the affair.
If they did speak out they might be prosecuted under the Official Secrets Act. They would be the miscreants, not the morbidly obese child molester.
The same day this report was aired, the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) announced that the Met had asked it to look into 14 claims of police corruption or dereliction linked to historical allegations of child sex abuse by members of the Establishment…
Earlier this month, Lord Brittan’s former homes in London and North Yorkshire were reportedly searched by detectives working for Operation Midland, an investigation into allegations of paedophile sex rings at Westminster, including stories that boys were killed at sex parties held at Dolphin Square, where many MPs have flats. Brittan had always denied any involvement in child sex offences.
The Mail understands there is yet another, previously unreported allegation of a historical police operation being closed down without explanation, having caught a senior politician in a compromising situation.
This newspaper has been told that a surveillance squad targeting a paedophile ring providing rent boys for orgies photographed Leon Brittan entering premises where the parties were believed to have been held on at least two occasions. At the time he was a minister in the Home Office.
[Comment: Clearly organized paedophilia at the highest levels; politicians, judges, lawyers.etc]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Hundreds of Kurds Mob Hearse Carrying Ex-Marine Killed Fighting ISIS
Konstandinos Erik Scurfield, 25, from Barnsley, South Yorkshire, became the first Briton to be killed fighting the terror group in Syria when he was brought down by mortar fire on March 2.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Paper Section of Driving License to be Scrapped and Replaced by Online System
From June, the so-called ‘paper counterpart’ of the UK driving licence will be replaced with a new online system that holds the details of all licenced drivers.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Twin of Jamila Henry Arrested at Luton ‘For Trying to Join ISIS’ Tells of Sister
Jamila Henry, 21, was arrested at Luton airport after landing on a flight from Istanbul having fled the Middle East after the breakdown of her marriage with an ISIS militant.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Was Crufts Dog Jagger Poisoned by a Serial Cat Killer?
Locals in his Belgian hometown say string of suspicious pet deaths points to sinister connection
The mystery surrounding the demise of Jagger — an Irish setter which died under suspicious circumstances after returning from a dog show in Birmingham — could finally be solved.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
How ISIS Attack Threat Hangs Over Holidaymakers
With the Easter holidays near, many British people must now question whether once apparently safe destinations have been infected by the barbaric Islamic State ideology.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
‘We are keen on a strategic relationship with the U.S. above everything else,’ says Egypt’s new president. ‘And we will never turn our backs on you—even if you turn your backs on us.’
By Bret Stephens
When then-Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi appointed a little-known general named Abdel Fattah Al Sisi to be his new defense minister in August 2012, rumors swirled that the officer was chosen for his sympathy with the teachings of Mr. Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood. One telltale sign, people said, was the zabiba on the general’s forehead—the darkened patch of skin that is the result of frequent and fervent prayer.
A pious Muslim must surely also be a political Islamist—or so Mr. Morsi apparently assumed. But the general would soon give the world a lesson in the difference between religious devotion and radicalism.
“There are misconceptions and misperceptions about the real Islam,” now-President Sisi tells me during a two-hour interview in his ornate, century-old presidential palace in Heliopolis. “Religion is guarded by its spirit, by its core, not by human beings. Human beings only take the core and deviate it to the right or left.”
| — Hat tip: K | [Return to headlines] |
Jihadi Media Company Praises Tunisia Attack, Calls for More Attacks on Western Tourists
Following the deadly March 18, 2015 attack at the Bardo National Museum in Tunisia, in which 17 tourists and two Tunisians were killed, the Ifriqiyya media company, which is associated with jihad organizations in North Africa, released an article titled “Just Another Day — Commentary on the Blessed Attack on Bardo Museum.” The article states that the gunmen who carried out the attack, Yassine Laabidi and Hatem Khachnaoui, focused on killing infidels and “apostate” policemen and soldiers, and urges Muslims to carry out similar attacks, especially against tourists, with emphasis on French, British, American and Israeli nationals. It also suggests ways to kill tourists, suggesting to “drown them in the ocean, poison their food, bash their skulls with a rock, or suffocate them with pillows in their (hotel) rooms.” It lists what is calls the great achievements of the attack, including the harm to Tunisia’s tourism industry and economy, and threatens that additional attacks will be carried out soon, on unexpected targets throughout the country.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Tunisia: ‘The Taxi-Driver Made a Throat-Slitting Gesture and Said Eight Tourists Dead’
British couple tell of lucky escape from Tunisian massacre
Terry Burton and Paula Ayres from King’s Lynn in Norfolk survived Wednesday’s Tunisian terror attack because they went on €60 taxi tour instead of the bus to the Bardo museum.
A British couple survived Wednesday’s terrorist massacre at a Tunisian museum after they decided to take a taxi tour instead of going to see the ancient artifacts.
Terry Burton, 53, and Paula Ayres, 56, from King’s Lynn in Norfolk were in the taxi when the driver warned them about the attack and they immediately returned to the ship.
Mr Burton said they were in the city of Carthage when the news of the deadly attack was broadcast in Arabic over the radio.
Translating from Arabic, their taxi driver told them what had happened before racing them back to their boat telling them: ‘it’s not safe, we need to get out of here.’
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Tunis Museum Attack: Footage Shows Gunmen
The Tunisian government has released footage showing gunmen walking through the Bardo museum during the attack that killed 25 people on Wednesday.
At one point it shows the two attackers bumping into another man who is allowed to flee after the brief encounter.
Authorities said they had arrested more suspects in connection with the attack in the capital, Tunis.
The gunmen are said to have been trained in Libya in an area controlled by Islamic State (IS) militants.
IS has said it was behind the attack on the museum, which is next to the country’s parliament.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Obama May Throw Israel to the UN Wolves
After seeing their hopes for regime change in Israel go up in smoke, Obama administration officials have been attacking what White House spokesman Josh Earnest called Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s “divisive rhetoric” during the election campaign. They did not like that the prime minister rejected a two-state solution as they envision it should be designed.
They were unhappy with likely plans by a new Netanyahu government for more settlement construction. And they objected to the prime minister’s last minute efforts to rally his supporters to come to the polls by telling them, in a video posted on social media, that they could lose the election because “Arab voters are streaming in huge quantities to the polling stations.” Finally, Obama is still smarting from Mr. Netanyahu’s historic speech before a joint session of Congress warning about the perils of the bad nuclear deal with Iran that may be in the offing.
For his part, Prime Minister Netanyahu has tried since the election to qualify what he had said during the campaign that appeared to some as rejecting a two-state solution outright. He told MSNBC that what he wants is “a sustainable, peaceful two-state solution” when the circumstances permit. He told Fox News’ Megyn Kelly that the right conditions for such a two-state solution are not achievable just now, citing as one reason security concerns arising from terrorists occupying territory that Israel gives up. He added: “I didn’t retract any of the things I said in my speech six years ago, calling for a solution in which a demilitarized Palestinian state recognizes a Jewish state.”
It may be too late for such qualifications and clarifications as far as the Obama administration is concerned. It is leaving the door open to throwing Israel to the wolves in the United Nations.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Iraq Kurd Leader Vows to Avenge Beheaded Fighters
Massud Barzani, the president of Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region, vowed on Saturday to avenge three peshmerga fighters beheaded by the Islamic State jihadist group.
“We promise the families of these martyrs that their blood will not be wasted and that we will avenge them,” Barzani said in an online statement.
“Those who martyr the peshmerga in this way, before, now and in the future, will see how the hand of the heroic peshmerga will reach them,” he said.
A video showing IS jihadists beheading three members of the peshmerga security forces was posted online earlier this week…
One militant addressed Barzani directly in the video, saying that with “every rocket you launch against the Muslims… you will kill one of your prisoners with your hands”.
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ISIS Publishes Booklet With Details of Safe Houses and Routes for Western Wannabe Jihadists to Syria
The 50-page manual circulating online is called Hijrah, or ‘holy emigration’, and is like a gap year travel guide aimed at young Western wannabe jihadists looking for a way to join the fledgling caliphate.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
ISIS Claim Responsibility for Devastating Suicide Bomb Attack in Yemen
WARNING GRAPHIC CONTENT: Four bombers attacked the Badr and al-Hashoosh mosques in Sanaa around midday. A further 351 people have been wounded, medical officials reported.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
By Jason Molinet
Islamic State hackers have posted the personal details of 100 U.S. service members they claim took part in the bombing of ISIS targets in Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Somalia and Afghanistan — and called on homegrown radicals to strike back.
The group calling itself Islamic State Hacking Division allegedly gathered the dossier from cracked military databases and made an open call for “jihad against the crusaders” using JustPaste.it, a Polish-based social network favored by ISIS propagandists.
“These Kuffar that drop bombs over Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Khurasan and Somalia are from the same lands that you reside in, so when will you take action?” the group asks. “Know that it is wajib for you to kill these kuffar! and now we have made it easy for you by giving you addresses, all you need to do is take the final step, so what are you waiting for? Kill them in their own lands, behead them in their own homes, stab them to death as they walk their streets thinking they are safe…”
The black flag entry is a self-styled terrorist WikiLeaks titled “Target: United States Military.”
It lists the name, unit and address of 100 U.S. Air Force, Navy and Marines — many of them pilots — along with headshots of each. One of the targeted is a Navy aviator from upstate New York.
[Be it noted that two can play at that game. — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
ISIS Campaign of Executing Homosexuals
By Stoning, Shooting, Throwing Off Roofs, Public Torture: In Accordance With Shari’a Law As Explained By Influential Mainstream Islamic Preachers, Scholars On Leading Arab Media Outlets, Including Al-Jazeera, Hamas’s Al-Aqsa TV — WARNING — GRAPHIC IMAGES
In recent months, the Islamic State (ISIS) has publicly executed men they have convicted of homosexuality in Iraq and Syria, including by burning them alive and by stoning them to death. The most common method of execution, however, has been throwing them off tall buildings; if they survive, they are usually shot or stoned, sometimes by the crowd of observers. This punishment for homosexuals was detailed, featured, and praised in the latest issue (published February 2015) of ISIS’s English-language magazine Dabiq, in an article titled “Clamping Down on Sexual Deviance.”
According to majority interpretations of Islamic shari’a law, homosexuality is indeed punishable by death; this has been clearly stated by well-known and highly influential Sunni Muslim authorities, sheikhs, professors, and Muslim Brotherhood leaders. These have included leading Sunni authority and head of the International Union of Muslim Scholars Sheikh Yousuf Al-Qaradhawi; highly influential Kuwaiti Islamic preacher and Muslim Brotherhood leader Tareq Al-Suweidan; Saudi cleric and Islamic University professor ‘Abd Al-Qader Shiba Al-Hamad; and many others.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The recent bulldozing by the Islamic State (ISIS) of the ancient cities of Nimrud, Hatra, and Korsabad, three of the world’s greatest archaeological and cultural sites, is just this group latest round of assaults across the large area under its control. Since January 2014, the flamboyantly barbaric ISIS has blown up Shi’i mosques, bulldozed churches, pulverized shrines, and plundered museums.
Worse, the ISIS record fits into an old and common pattern of destruction of historical artifacts by Muslims.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Islamic State Posts Pictures of 100 US Pilots and Call on Backers to Kill Them
Islamic State has posted online what it says are the names, US addresses and photos of 100 American military service members, and called upon its “brothers residing in America” to kill them.
The Pentagon said after the information was posted on the Internet that it was investigating the matter. “I can’t confirm the validity of the information, but we are looking into it,” a US defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said on Saturday.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Jamila Henry Took Son to ISIS in Syria Despite MI5 Being in Regular Contact
Jamila Henry, from south London, was questioned by the intelligence service after she returned from a previous seven-month stay in the war-torn country, according to a relative.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Iran is an opportunity, not a threat; it’s a potential partner, not an enemy.
By Stephen F. Hayes
For more than six years, this view of the Islamic Republic has guided the decisions made by Barack Obama. The president has repeatedly declared his eagerness to welcome Iran into the community of civilized nations. His words sometimes suggest that Iran has a choice to make, that their acceptance into this mythical community depends in some way on their behavior. But there’s little over those six years to indicate that he means it. Instead, Obama has made clear that in his eagerness to salvage anything from his tattered foreign policy legacy he is willing to gamble the security of the United States on a blind and irrational hope that Iran will someday change for the better.
To this end, he has abandoned more than three decades of bipartisan U.S. policy towards Iran—on its nuclear weapons program, on its regional ambitions, and on its support for terrorism.
These are radical departures. The Obama administration’s goal in nuclear talks is no longer preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons at all costs, but managing the process by which Iran becomes a nuclear state. The Obama administration no longer seeks to thwart Iran’s expansionist aims in the region and in many respects is now facilitating its aggression. On terrorism, the Obama administration has cast aside inconvenient realities about Iran’s support for jihadists of all kinds and has chosen instead to pretend that to the extent there any longer exists a war on terror, Washington and Tehran are on the same side…
| — Hat tip: K | [Return to headlines] |
Obama: ‘Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei Has Issued Fatwa Against Development of Nuclear Weapons’
(CNSNews.com) — President Barack Obama said this week that the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of Iran, has isued a fatwa against the development of nuclear weapons.
“Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei has issued a fatwa against the development of nuclear weapons, and President Rouhani has said that Iran would never develop a nuclear weapon,” Obama said.
Other administration officials — including Secretary of State John Kerry and Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes — have previously referred to the ayatollah’s reported fatwa in the context of the ongoing nuclear negotations with Iran.
Last month, in a speech to his air force commanders, the ayatollah boasted of Iran’s achievement in enriching uranium to the 20-percent level. Twice during the speech, according a transcript made by the BBC, the air force commanders chanted: “Death to America.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sources: U.S. Pulling Last of Its Special Operations Forces Out of Yemen
Sanaa, Yemen (CNN) The U.S. military is in the process of evacuating about 100 Special Operations forces members from the Al Anad airbase in Yemen due to that country’s deteriorating security situation, sources in the region familiar with the situation told CNN.
Those being evacuated are the last American troops stationed in the Arab nation, which is home to al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the terrorist group also known as AQAP. The United States closed its embassy in Sanaa last month, after Houthi rebels took over the Yemeni capital.
For years, the U.S. military has worked closely with Yemen’s government to go after AQAP, together carrying out numerous attacks like the 2011 drone strike that killed prominent al Qaeda figure Anwar al-Awlaki. And U.S. President Barack Obama has hailed this cooperation as a pillar in his anti-terrorism campaign.
[“The tide of war is receding,” as Barry Hussein told us endlessly during his 2012 campaign. So it is — on our side, anyway. — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
Swedish Anti-ISIS Troops to Iraq ‘Before Summer’
Up to 30 Swedish troops are likely to join the US-led coalition against the militant Islamist group ISIS in Iraq before the summer, government sources said Saturday, upping both the number of soldiers and speeding up the timetable for their deployment.
Thomas Hegghammer, a terror expert at the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment, told news agency TT that the move could raise the threat level against Sweden.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Russia’s ambassador to Denmark said Saturday that the NATO country’s navy could be targeted by nuclear missiles if it joins the Western alliance’s anti-missile shield.
The threat made by Ambassador Mikhail Vanin in an opinion piece he wrote for the Danish daily Jyllands-Posten sparked an angry reaction and came amid an increasingly Cold War-style standoff between Moscow and the West.
“I do not think that the Danes fully understand the consequences of what happens if Denmark joins the US-led missile defence,” Ambassador Mikhail Vanin wrote in the daily.
“If this happens Danish warships become targets for Russian nuclear missiles.”
Russia has long opposed NATO’s missile shield — launched in 2010 and due to be fully operational by 2025 — in which member countries contribute radar and weaponry to protect Europe against missile attacks.
Denmark has pledged to supply one or more frigates equipped with advanced radar to track incoming missiles.
The chairwoman of the Danish parliament’s foreign affairs, Mette Gjerskov told AFP that the comments were “very threatening and not necessary” as the missile shield was simply an “intruder alarm” and no danger to Russia.
“This is a way of escalating the verbal tone between Russia and NATO,” she said, adding that the comments were also aimed at Russian public opinion.
“But it doesn’t change the fact that we’re not afraid.”
Denmark’s Foreign Minister Martin Lidegaard said the remarks were “unacceptable rhetoric” and “completely out of proportion”.
“One should not threaten such serious things as the ambassador has done here,” he told news agency Ritzau.
Tensions between Russia and the Nordic countries have risen in recent years with reports of increased Russian airforce incursions in the Baltic region.
Holger K. Nielsen, defence spokesman for the Socialist People’s Party, which is opposed to Denmark’s involvement in the NATO shield, called the ambassador’s comments “crazy”…
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Christian Schools Give Nepal’s Female Students an Edge Over Males
Christians were the first to open co-educational schools for boys and girls in the country. Owing to the work of the Jesuits and the missionaries, more female students will take the exam than male students this year. Education Minister praises Christians for their role in promoting gender equality in education, one of the UN Millennium Goals.
Kathmandu (AsiaNews) — For the first time is Nepal’s history, female graduates will outnumber male graduates this year, this according to data released by the Exam Controller’s Office (OCE). Christian schools are the main contributing factor.
Created 80 years ago, the School Leaving Certificate (SLC) is issued by an examination board. Nepal’s schools go up to Grade 10.
In a statement, the OCE noted that this year 213,710 girls (50.14 per cent) will take their final exams compared to 212,504 boys. The number of students taking the exam rose by 4.8 percent over last year.
Nepal’s Education Ministry also reports that school enrolment for girls has risen faster than that for boys, in both primary and secondary school.
For experts, this is a clear indication that Nepal has made strides towards gender equality in education. According Bishnu Karki, an expert in the field, the merit is due to the recent work of Jesuit-run Catholic schools and missionary groups.
In a context characterised by limited government action, these schools have actively promoted the development of female education.
Karki told AsiaNews that “Christians, both Catholics and non-Catholics, who run mixed schools, encouraged female participation.”
“Once Christians started to encourage their enrolment, many parents understood the value of education for their daughters,” he said.
“In traditional Hindu societies like Nepal’s, girls tend to be denied the opportunity to learn how to read and write. Families prefer early marriage, sometimes even before the girls are fully developed physically.”
Education Minister Chitralekha Yadav agrees. The latter has praised Christians for their contribution to the country’s rising literacy rate, one of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals established in 2000.
“Perhaps Catholics were the first to introduce co-education for both boys and girls in the country. Before that, schools were not meant for girls,” Ms Yadav said.
“Now the government is also undertaking various initiatives to promote women’s education,” the minister said, including rewarding the best students with computers, hiring more female teachers and installing separate washrooms in schools.
The contribution by Catholics to the nation’s education is crucial for the country. For Sister Jessy, who heads the St Mary School in Lalitpur (south of the capital), “Women’s education is the basis of our society,” and “We have always paid great attention to education as the basis of a society’s development.”
In Nepal, Jesuit-run Catholic schools, which include university-level colleges, are renowned for their quality of teaching. Christians support about a hundred schools, 20 of which are run by Catholics.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
India Arrests Hundreds Over Bihar School Cheating
About 300 people have been arrested in the Indian state of Bihar, authorities say, after reports emerged of blatant cheating in school exams.
Parents and friends of students were photographed climbing school walls to pass on answers.
Many of those arrested were parents. At least 750 students have been expelled.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Thousands of Nepali Women “Disappear” In the Byways of Human Trafficking
A study by Kailali District police highlights an alarming trend. According to Kamala Bhatta, of the Nepali police, every year “5,000 women disappear as a result of human trafficking related to prostitution and organ harvesting.” Often, the victims are sold by their own families. For Catholic activist Rupa Rai, “The government must seriously address the issue.”
Kathmandu (AsiaNews) — In 2013, 103 women disappeared in Kailali district, in western Nepal. In 2014, 118 suffered the same fate in the same district. Just in the last eight months, 69 women vanished. In Tanahun, central Nepal, 82 women and children disappeared in the past seven months, this according to a report by police in Kailali District
These findings underlie a worrisome trend. For most experts, women and children are disappearing at an alarming rate because of human trafficking activities related to prostitution and human organ harvesting.
Once the victims go missing, they simply vanish; very few ever make it home (for Kailali district, 19 in 2013 and 24 in 2014). In many cases, families do not even report the disappearance for fear of being accused by the authorities.
For Kamala Bhatta, who is responsible for women’s affairs in the local police, not only “their families often do not report their disappearance,” but “Most of the missing women are under 40.”
The disturbing thing is that only 30-40 per cent of them go to the police “because they do not have enough money to get to the police station or are afraid of being accused of selling missing persons”.
According to her, the number of missing women and girl each year should be 5,000.
Research indicates that the women and girls who go missing end up in the world’s prostitution rings, or have their organs “harvested” for donations, in particular kidneys, lungs and eyes.
Often poor families resort to selling their daughters to criminal organisations, lawmaker and activist Sapana Malla Pradahn told AsiaNews. But harvesting human organs from poor girls to sell to rich people is an “intolerable social crime.” Sadly, “It would seem that women from humble backgrounds do not have the right to live,” she noted.
“Maina Tamang, a young woman from the village of Ghirling (in Tanahun district), said her mother and two sisters vanished this way. “One evening they did not come home. We went to the police but they told us to wait a few days. We did not hear from them for two years. “
Many have called on the government to do something about the problem. “The government must come up with new policies that effectively punish traffickers,” said Rupa Rai, a Catholic activist who works with Caritas Nepal. “At the same time, police must take steps to prevent such crimes.”
For Regional Deputy Inspector General of Police Ram Kumar Khanal, the authorities have to better co-ordinate their actions with stakeholders, including ordinary citizens.
In order to curb crimes related to human trafficking and human rights violations, “Nepali police has taken various steps,” he explained; “however, people from every walk of life must actively join in to ensure their success.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
China Outlines New Rockets, Space Station and Moon Plans
Rocket builders in China are slated to augment their Long March family of boosters this year and in 2016. According to Chinese news services, the country will soon fly their Long March 6 — likely in the middle of this year.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
North Korean Ambassador Claims Country Has Nuclear Missiles
North Korea has nuclear missiles and is prepared to use them at any time, an envoy for the country said in a recent interview.
North Korean Ambassador to Britain Hyun Hak Bong told Sky News that his government would use the missiles in response to a nuclear attack by the U.S.
Asked whether North Korea has the ability now to launch a nuclear missile, Hyun replied: “Any time. Any time. Yes.”
“If the United States strike us, we should strike back,” he said.
The ambassador reaffirmed that the country does not “want war, but we are not afraid of war.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Nothing to Toast Between China and the Vatican: Beijing Wants Complete Control
For the Global Times (the People’s Daily) China does not like the “Vietnamese model” of agreed episcopal ordinations. The Chinese Foreign Ministry’s embarrassment in front of the Holy See’s countless efforts. China wants the Vatican to accept all excommunicated bishops and to keep silent on those who are underground and imprisoned. The case of Msgr. Cosma Shi Enxiang. Without religious freedom, diplomatic relations are pointless. The work of mission and the unity of Catholics in China. A task for Xi Jinping: implement the anti-corruption campaign in the Ministry of Religious Affairs and the Patriotic Association, which have grown rich over the decades on the backs of Christians.
Rome (AsiaNews) — We do not know whether to laugh or cry, whether to toast or grieve over the statements expressed by Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei, published in the Global Times on 13 March. The Global Times is the magazine of the “People’s Daily”, the official Chinese Communist Party newspaper.
The statement reads: “China is always sincere in improving ties with the Vatican and has been making continuing efforts to this end. We are willing to have constructive dialogue with the Vatican … We hope the Vatican can create favorable conditions for the improving of relations”.
These words provoked celebration in some quarters, suffering in others. For those who greeted them with enthusiasm they represent a conciliatory sign, China’s obvious desire to be engaged in dialogue with the Holy See to reach the much longed diplomatic relations.
But perhaps it is early yet to uncork the champagne. It must be said that Hong Lei spoke after the Vatican Press Office director, Fr. Federico Lombardi, had given a long interview with Phoenix TV, a Hong Kong based television station, but one closely linked to the circles of power in Beijing.
In the interview, Fr. Lombardi recalls that the Holy See is eager to reach a consensus on the issue of the ordination of bishops and suggested China consider the way in which they occur in the relations between the Vatican and Vietnam, while admitting that “China is not Vietnam”.
The “Vietnamese” model for episcopal ordinations is based on the Vatican choosing a name from suitable candidates and submitting it to the Government for approval. If Hanoi agrees, then the Holy See officially appoints the bishop; if Vietnam refuses, the Vatican is forced to submit another name, and so on until a consensus is reached bilaterally.
Apparently, Beijing has rejected even this model and indeed, demands that the Holy See accept at face value the format of self-election and self-appointment of bishops launched in China after Mao Zedong’s rise to power: the bishops are elected and appointed by a committee made up of diocesan priests, nuns and lay people, but the name is “suggested” — in reality imposed — by the Patriotic Association.
In fact, the Global Times reports this very significant sentence: “Beijing on Thursday [March 12] urged the Vatican to face [realize, or accept] the historical tradition and reality of Catholics in China, after the Vatican reportedly suggested a joint review on bishop ordination”.
The versions of several optimistic commentators completely omit this sentence, which not only represents a condemnation of the “Vietnamese” method but is further affirmation that China, while willing — at least in words — to enter into dialogue with the Vatican, will not compromise on episcopal elections remaining firmly in China’s hands, in the style of “self-appointed, self-election”.
By omitting the above mentioned sentence, all that remains are the beautiful words of China’s willingness for a “constructive dialogue with the Vatican”.
It would be worthwhile to weigh up these beautiful words. They are part of the made to measure statements of the Foreign Ministry spokesman. Similar phrases were used when Pope Francis, returning from South Korea, last August, sent a telegram to President Xi Jinping (v. The declaration of Hua Chunying, spokesman for the Foreign Ministry expressed August 19), or when after the papal trip to the Philippines, again expressed by Hua Chunying (reported by Xinhua January 21, 2015). In each instance the term is China “is eager to have a constructive dialogue with the Vatican.”
What does this “eagerness” actually mean? My impression is that the Foreign Ministry’s pre-packaged response hides an increasing embarrassment at the countless signals that both the Holy See and the Pope himself have been sending over the past several months: telegrams from Pope Francis to Xi Jinping; his words about wanting to go to Beijing “tomorrow”; his appreciation of the “noble people of China”; his desire to institute fraternal, not even necessarily “diplomatic”, relations with China …. Added to this are the “signals” of previous popes, also full of love for the “noble Chinese people” (John Paul II and Benedict XVI); openness to dialogue with the authorities on episcopal ordinations and cooperation in society, as stated in Benedict XVI’s letter to Chinese Catholics, which Francis termed as “current” and not in the least outdated (as some are prone to thinking).
Faced with all of these gestures of friendship and openness, the Foreign Ministry is groping around because it knows that by refusing relations with the Vatican, China is revealing itself to be totally out of step with history. However, there is also a fringe in China that uses Stalinism as a smoke screen and continuously threatens illicit episcopal ordinations, while rebuking the Holy See over relations with Taiwan and vindicating ecclesial autonomy which are — in the words of Benedict XVI — “incompatible with Catholic doctrine” . This fringe is part of the United Front, the Patriotic Association, the Ministry of Religious Affairs that only a few months ago said it was planning a number of new episcopal ordinations without papal mandate (“independent”) for 2015.
According to information from China, recently the foreign ministry in its diplomatically floral language, proposed the following to the Vatican: dialogue for diplomatic relations in exchange for the Holy See’s silence about episcopal ordinations; silence about underground bishops; acceptance of bishops already ordained by the Party and those who de facto excommunicated.
In particular, the Vatican must remain silent about bishops who have been imprisoned for decades because of their fidelity to the pope, as well as those who have disappeared in police custody and are probably dead, those who the government cares so little about they refuse to even hand over their body or ashes to relatives, as is the case of Msgr. Cosma Shi Enxiang. And this just as not a week goes by without Pope Francis remembering the martyrs, those who are killed “because they are Christians,” those who are deprived of the freedom to express their faith. Only this week in his Angelus of March 15, he again stressed that “Christians are persecuted and the world tries to hide it.”
Just how much China takes the lives of its citizens to heart is evident from one simple fact: for over a month AsiaNews has requested a meeting with the Chinese Ambassador to Italy to have some news of Msgr. Cosma Shi Enxiang. We have received no response, or reason or excuse for the delay, for example: “Right now we are too busy with the Chinese New Year” (sic); or “Right now the ambassador is very busy”; or “The communications officer is unavailable at the moment”.
Apparently, in China’s proposal to the Holy See, the Vatican is not only invited to take the “first step” towards dialogue (it has already taken countless steps!), but to take the final step, handing the Chinese Church over to the government, in the name of the establishment of diplomatic relations.
Some bishops from China, interviewed by AsiaNews, simply say that without true religious freedom (including the freedom to meet the Pope and ordain bishops without Party influence) diplomatic relations are pointless. It would be far better to focus on enhancing the Chinese faithful in their mission in society, even going underground with ordinations, until better times for diplomatic relations. Moreover, Pope Francis himself asked his nuncios and the Curia to use their diplomacy to further the mission of the Church and not for fleeting successes to make newspaper headlines.
So does this mean that we should sit around twiddling our thumbs waiting for the future? No, there is a task that we Catholics can do right now: help the unity of the Church in China, reconciling unofficial and official communities; help the unity of these faithful with the universal Church, visiting them, supporting them, and denouncing the violence they suffer. It must be borne in mind that China long ago signed the UN Conventions on civil liberties so that, when we ask Beijing to respect religious freedom, we are asking it to do something that t has already agreed in principle. There is also plenty to do in the formation of lay people and priests, especially in assimilating the basic elements of the Church’s social doctrine and ecclesiology.
There is also a job to do for China, and in particular for Xi Jinping: in his fight against corruption he needs to investigate the way in which members of the United Front, the Ministry of Religious Affairs and the Patriotic Association have become rich off the Church, hiding a pragmatic acumen in business and expropriation behind a smokescreen of Stalinist radicalism.
As already shown many times, the Patriotic Association and the Ministry of Religious Affairs have seized goods and money from the Church to the tune of at least 13 billion euro, which under Chinese law should be returned to its rightful owners. Persecution in China is no longer based on ideological reasons, but in the name of greed and the idol of unjust wealth. Which is exactly what both Pope Francis and Xi Jinping condemn.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Australian Bishop ‘Covered for Priest’
Philip Wilson charged with hiding child sex abuse
(ANSA-AP) — Canberra, March 17 — A Roman Catholic archbishop in Australia was charged Tuesday with covering up for a pedophile priest during the 1970s.
Archbishop of Adelaide Philip Wilson said he was disappointed that New South Wales state police had decided to charge him with concealing a serious child sexual abuse offence.
Wilson said he would fight the charge, which carries a potential two-year prison sentence.
The charge alleges the 64-year-old failed to report child sex abuse carried out by priest James Fletcher during the 1970s when they both served in the town of Maitland, north of Sydney.
Fletcher died in prison aged 65 in 2006, a year into an almost eight-year sentence for raping an altar boy between 1989 and 1991.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Defying US Warning, Australia Close to Joining China’s Alternative to IMF
Australia is on the brink of joining the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), adding to the list of US allies who have defied White House warnings.
The Australian Cabinet’s National Security Committee cleared the way on Friday for the country to invest as much as $3 billion to join AIIB. Australia has until the end of March to join the bank if it wants to be considered a foundation member, and Canberra is expected to make a formal decision on Monday over whether or not to join several of its other regional allies, including New Zealand, India, Singapore, and Indonesia, and sign up.
Australian Treasurer Joe Hockey says no final decision has been made, but that the issue was being given careful consideration.
Speaking to a radio station in Brisbane, Hockey said “More than 30 countries have already signed up. This is going to operate in our region, in our neighborhood.” “There is a lot of merit in it,” He added, “but we want to make sure that there are proper governance procedures. That there’s transparency, that no one country is able to control the entity.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
A border patrol agent has testified that the Department of Homeland Security is deliberately fudging data to hoodwink the American public into believing that the border is secure, when in reality it is overrun, with 60 percent of all illegal crossers going uncaptured.
Breitbart news has acquired an advance of senior research fellow Heritage foundation Robert Rector’s upcoming testimony before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. The lifetime costs of Social Security and Medicare benefits of illegal immigrant beneficiaries of President Obama’s executive amnesty would be well over a trillion dollars.
Jon Bowne breaks down the massive taxpayer debt bomb facing America on our southern borders.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
EU Seeks to Deter Mediterranean Refugees
The number of asylum applicants to European nations rose by 44 percent last year, with the total reaching 626,000, according to EU statistics. Meanwhile, the EU is planning to intercept refugees in the Mediterranean.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Immigration Causes England’s Population to Rise by Over Half a MILLION in Three Years
Approximately two thirds of the 565,000 migrants who are thought to have arrived in the country between 2011 and 2014 were born in European Union countries, experts from the University of Oxford’s Migration Observatory claimed.
The greatest increase in the number of foreign-born residents has been in London — with its migrant population growing by 200,000 from 2011 to last year.
The second-great increase was seen in the south-east of the country, with a rise of around 79,000.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: CGIL’s Camusso Says May 1 Demo in Ragusa for Migrants
Joint event with FIOM at end of March
(ANSA) — Rome, March 18 — Susanna Camusso, head of the CGIL trade union federation, says that a joint demonstration with CISL and UIL will be held on May 1 in Ragusa.
The Sicilian city was chosen to honour migrant rights, she said.
As well, the CGIL join the FIOM, led by Maurizio Landini, at a protest on March 28, said Camusso.
The two had met earlier in the week to discuss coordination on social policy committee, while Camusso insisted that the CGIL was not interested in being a political organization.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Asylum Requests up 143% in 2014
Third in EU after Germany, Sweden
(ANSA) — Brussels, March 20 — Requests for asylum in Italy rose 143% between 2013 and 2014, the biggest rise in the EU where the average gain was 44%, Eurostat said Friday. Italy is among the top three countries for asylum seekers after Germany and Sweden. But the ratio of inhabitants to asylum seekers is 1.1 compared to an EU average of 1.2.
Requests for asylum surged last year amid conflicts in Syria, Iraq and Libya as well as wars in Africa.
Italy picked up some 150,000 migrants in the now-defunct Mare Nostrum search-and-rescue operation.
The country with the highest number of asylum seekers in the EU was Germany with 202,700 requests, followed by Sweden with 81,200 requests.
Italy came in third highest overall with 64,600 requests.
The highest increase in the EU overall after Italy’s 143% gain from 2013 to 2014 was in Hungary, where requests rose 126%, followed by Denmark, with a 105% increase.
When compared to the local population, the ratio of asylum seekers was highest in Sweden (8.4 requests per 1,000 residents), with Hungary in second place (4.3 requests per 1,000 residents) and Austria rounding out the top three (3.3 requests per 1,000 residents).
The majority of asylum seekers were Syrian (122,800), representing 20% of the overall total, followed by those of Afghan origin (41,300), 7% of the total.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: PD Bill Envisages Same-Sex Stepchild Adoption
Proposal seen as opening by party toward gay adoption
(ANSA) — Rome, March 18 — The Democratic Party (PD) appears to be moving towards same-sex couple adoption but only for a biological child from one partner in the couple, a party Senator said Wednesday.
The opening, dubbed “stepchild adoption,” is contained in the text of a document on civil unions presented to the parliamentary justice commission by PD Senator Monica Cirinna.
Her draft law also introduces cohabitation contracts that would govern the rules of unmarried heterosexuals living together.
“This concerns the extension of parental responsibility to the child of the partner, envisaged in article 44 of the law on adoptions where after the word ‘spouse’ are inserted the words ‘or by civil union between people of the same sex,” said Cirinna.
The Senator said she hopes the discussion on civil unions will start next week so that it can reach the Lower House within a reasonable time frame.
Cirinna’s bill also calls for same sex-civil unions to be registered by municipalities and institutes a series of juridical rights such as inheritance protection.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
McDonald’s Sick Mutant Baby Art Psyop Exposed
[WARNING: Disturbing Content.]
Dying corporation’s artwork eerily similar to photos of deformed babies.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Year of Satan — Who Shall Lead?
Christians, are you prepared to turn away from the Father, Son & Holy Ghost? Are you prepared to face a One World Religion that says your God and Allah are one in the same? Are you prepared to fight for the right to worship as the Founding Fathers supported and then gave you the Constitutional rights to do?
To remind you, in a recent address Pope Francis made it a point to say that he believes that Muslims and Christians worship and pray to the “one God” that he also worships. This “all roads lead to the same God” philosophy is a hallmark of the one world religion that the global elite have been slowly building toward for decades. This in itself should be sending up all kinds of warning signals and a fear the world is really spinning out of control.
Now the Vatican is in full damage control mode after Pope Francis once again justifies and supports Muslim terrorists in regard to their attack on Paris. When speaking about the Charlie Hebdo murders Francis stated: “You cannot provoke, you cannot insult the faith of others,” Really? They do that to Christians and Catholics all the time and we don’t murder them!
On a flight to the Philippines a French reporter asked about the attack at Charlie Hebdo because of the paper’s mocking of the prophet Muhammad and Francis condemned those who kill in the name of religion, but then said, “If my good friend says a curse word against my mother, he can expect a punch. It’s normal.” Really Pope Francis?
First of all a punch is a far cry from murder and those deaths were at the hands of Islamic terrorists in the name of their PROPHET not Islam. Francis was obviously saying that the Islamists were justified in doing what they did because their “prophet” was insulted, hence the reference to his own mother being insulted.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Brain Structure Varies Depending on How Trusting People Are of Others, Study Shows
Brain structure varies according to how trusting people are of others, scientists say. This research may have implications for future treatments of psychological conditions such as autism, said the study’s lead author. Each autism diagnosis is on a spectrum and varies, but some diagnosed with the condition exhibit problems trusting other people.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
How the Dark Web Spurs a Spying ‘Arms Race’
It’s a technological arms race, pure and simple.
That’s how Jamie Bartlett, author of The Dark Net, sums up the constantly evolving battle in cyberspace between terrorists and the intelligence agencies trying to discover their hidden communications.
“The unbelievable growth in widely available (encryption) software will make their job much harder,” he said.
“What it will mean is a shift away from large-scale traffic network analysis to almost old-fashioned intelligence work to infiltrate groups — more and people on the ground as opposed to someone on a computer in Cheltenham.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Mystery Dust Cloud and Aurora Spotted on Mars
MAVEN spacecraft discovers surprises in the planet’s upper atmosphere.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Who is the Top Violator of Women’s Rights Around the World, According to the UN?
By Pamela Geller
Let’s review, shall we:
Kabul, Afghanistan:1973 and 2013
Cairo University, Egypt: Classes of 1959, 1978, and 1994
Iran: 1970 and 2009
[A few pictures are worth thousands of words.The Islamic world’s women: uncovered in the ‘70s, now enshrouded by clerical diktat. — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
I’m not buying the idea that parents have nothing to do with their kids running off to join ISIS. If they told their kids anything like “living under sharia law would be like paradise” or anything else resembling Islamic Utopianism then they’re most certainly to blame, even if they didnt specifically endorse ISIS.
Really, though, belief in Islamic Utopianism among Muslims is so widespread that the parents are responsible if they didn’t do anything to explicitly counteract that sort of belief. In other words, utopian belief has to be assumed by default, and it has to be assumed that anyone with an underlying belief in Islamic Utopianism stands a significant chance of supporting ISIS somehow whether it’s moral support, material support, or physically joining them.
I would not disagree with your assessment of the current crop of Jihadists, but one must also remember that it is the ineffective policy of government that flat out refuses to acknowledge what the drivers of jihad are and where the motivation for such action is encouraged – the Mosque and other fundamentalist male Muslims.
There are too many instances of genuine denunciation by Muslim parents of their Jihadist son for taking up the Jihad for it not to be recognized that not all parents can be held responsible for incitement to Jihad. And the most worrying aspect to all this is that those charged with our protection from the mad Jihadi assume that ‘radicalization’ is a process that can be countered by the very people who incite the Jihadist in the first place – the Muslim cleric.
Now that kind of stupidity just takes my breath away.
Under the subheading:
“Politicians have guaranteed the premature death of the Folk’s Home = Folkhrmmet ”
can all downtuned Swedes today read some wise words quoated by Julia Ceasar from the 2013 GoV article: https://gatesofvienna.net/2013/05/goodbye-sweden-that-was/
– – – – – –
IQ less than the(ir) waist size (circumference in cm) is a better measurement of Swedish Politican’s Spirituality than
IQ less than roomtemperature (<22 Celsius), which becomes a bit unrealistically too low.
——————————————–
Edward May (Baron Bodissey) skrev om Sverige på bloggen Gates of Vienna i maj 2013
https://gatesofvienna.net/2013/05/goodbye-sweden-that-was/
“Varför var det så svårt att förstå att somalier och irakier och Kosovobor inte alls är som svenskar? Hur skulle någon med en IQ över midjemåttet kunna misslyckas med att förutse att nykomlingarna skulle suga åt sig allt de rimligtvis kunde från de svenska välfärdssystemen, samtidigt som de bidrog så lite som möjligt?”
“Genom att bjuda in hundratusentals icke assimilerbara parasiter från tredje världen har politikerna garanterat Folkhemmets för tidiga död och förhindrat möjligheten till en mjuklandning för den svenska välfärdsstaten.”
“De kommer från rovdjurskulturer” Vad är det för fel på politikerna, undrar Edward May. Hur kunde de någonsin tro att deras idé skulle fungera?
“Att bjuda in tredje världen är inte samma sak som att importera finländare eller norrmän eller ens danskar. De ”nya svenskarna” kommer huvudsakligen från rovdjurskulturer, de oupplysta samhällen där alla utanför stammen, eller den närmaste klanen, är objekt som ska exploateras.
Ur deras perspektiv är det svenska välfärdssystemet manna från himlen, en gåva som bara väntar på att skördas och konsumeras av familjen och klanen. Vilket byte! Vilket överflöd! Ingen i Puntland eller Karbala eller Pristina hade någonsin upplevt ett sådant överflöd av rikedom, som bara låg där och väntade på att plockas.”
– – – – – – – –
These true words have been dutifully spread:
http://thoralf.bloggplatsen.se/2015/03/22/11051772-sprider-lakare-islamistisk-propaganda-pa-facebook/
I need to comment because this story merits far more than a line item in the daily news feed:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3004574/Incredible-moment-hundreds-Kurds-mob-hearse-carrying-ex-Marine-killed-fighting-ISIS-body-arrives-Manchester-Airport.html
Never forget the sacrifice of Mr. Scurfield, who upheld the highest traditions of duty and honor by voluntarily making the ultimate sacrifice to prevent us from living in a world of hatred, misery, oppression, pain, torture, and death.
RIP to a true hero.
I agree.
What a man. Too bad there aren’t more who are willing to take on ISIS as it needs to be taken on.