The Italian coast guard rescued almost 8,500 migrants off the coast of Italy between Friday April 10 and Monday April 13. Most of the would-be refugees were from Syria or sub-Saharan Africa.
In other news, Ramadi, the capital of Anbar Province in Iraq, is currently besieged by the Islamic State and may soon fall.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, Papa Whiskey, 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.
57 Nations Approved as Founder Members of China-Led AIIB
The China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) has officially approved 57 nations as prospective founding members, making Sweden, Israel, Poland and South Africa the last group of nations to be included.
The AIIB is the first Asian bank to have a new international banking system that is independent from the dominance of founding member states of the international Bretton Woods banking system.
Countries that have been accepted as founding members of the AIIB include China, India, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, Kazakhstan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Philippines, Vietnam, Mongolia, Uzbekistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Maldives, New Zealand, Jordan, Tajikistan, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Britain, Australia, Austria, Brazil, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands and Spain.
The United States and Japan are the two major nations to have abstained from joining the AIIB.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
China Grows at Slowest Pace Since Financial Crisis
China’s economy grew at its slowest pace since the global financial crisis in the first quarter, official data showed on Wednesday, building the case for further stimulus from policymakers.
Gross domestic product (GDP) expanded 7 percent in the three months to March from the year ago period, according to figures from the National Bureau of Statistics, in line with the forecast in a Reuters poll and lower than the 7.3 percent print in the previous quarter.
This is the worst showing since first quarter of 2009, during the height of the financial crisis, when growth pace slowed to 6.6 percent.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
EU: ‘Internal Market to Receive Same Treatment as Fiscal Rules’
The European Commission is planning much stronger emphasis on integrating the EU’s internal market in a bid to get member states focussing on practical issues after years of squabbling over how to address the economic crisis.
“We need something which is common for everybody after being in crisis management mode for seven to eight years now. I feel very strongly that this could be very good for the European project,” said Jyrki Katainen, vice-president of the European Commission.
Speaking to a group of journalists, the Finnish commissioner, in charge of growth and jobs, indicated this could heal the divisions that have arisen over the eurozone crisis, noting there is “no border line between south and north when it comes to internal market-related issues”.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germany Allegedly Planning for a Greek Default, Press
The German newspaper Die Zeit has claimed that the German Ministry of Finances is examining plans that would allow Greece to default within the Eurozone, with the assistance of the European Central Bank. According to the newspaper article, as reported today by To Vima online, the main condition for such a default would be for the Greek government to commit to the implementation of all reforms that are agreed upon. When asked to respond, the German Ministry of Finances refused to comment.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Norway Joins China Bank Despite Nobel Spat
A total of 57 countries have been approved as founding members of a new Chinese-backed infrastructure bank, Beijing said Wednesday, including Norway, despite relations being in a diplomatic deep freeze since a Chinese dissident won a Nobel prize.
The latest seven countries approved as founding members by Wednesday’s deadline were named by China’s finance ministry as Sweden, Israel, South Africa, Azerbaijan, Iceland, Portugal and Poland.
They bring the total number of founding members to 57, including four of the United Nations Security Council’s permanent five, 14 of the 28 European Union countries, and 21 members of the 34-strong Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
2 TSA Officers Fired After Plotting to Grope Attractive Men, Police Say
(CNN)Two Transportation Security Administration screeners have been fired after conspiring to grope attractive men at Denver International Airport, Denver police said.
Here’s how police say the scheme worked: When the male TSA officer noticed a man he found attractive, he would alert a female TSA officer.
The female officer would then tell the screening machine that a female passenger — not a male — was walking through. And that information would trigger a machine to register an anomaly in the groin area, prompting the male TSA officer to pat down the passenger, police said, citing a TSA investigation.
But during the patdown, the male TSA officer used the palms of his hands to touch the passenger’s front groin area and buttocks, which violates TSA policy.
All this came to light after an anonymous tip from a TSA employee in November. The agency launched an investigation, and investigator Chris Higgins monitored the two TSA officers in question, Denver police said in a report.
Higgins watched the plan being carried out on February 9. He interviewed the female TSA officer, who said she had done this with her colleague at least 10 other times, police said.
[You have Islam, the creed in whose name and in accordance with whose scripture the 9/11 atrocity was carried out, to thank for this grotesque ritual. — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
Ask Smithsonian: Could the Volcano Beneath Yellowstone National Park Ever Erupt?
There are certainties and uncertainties in geology, but one definite is that if the massive volcano that lies beneath Yellowstone National Park ever blows, it will likely be the biggest explosion ever recorded by humans.
That’s the bad news. But geologists say that such an explosion—which would be near-apocalyptic for all life within hundreds of miles and would also deeply impact the global climate—is not likely. And on a geologic timeframe, it’s not likely any time in the near future—like maybe not for 100,000 years. At least that’s the conclusion based on all current evidence.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Twenty-five years after launch, the wild success of the space telescope argues for a new era of bold exploration in the face of tight budgets, says Mario Livio.
On 24 April, it will be 25 years since the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, into low-Earth orbit aboard the space shuttle Discovery.
As well as revolutionizing astrophysics, the first major optical observatory in space — built by NASA with contributions from the European Space Agency (ESA) — has brought the excitement of scientific discovery into millions of homes. Ask people to name a telescope and most will probably say “Hubble”.
Circling the Earth every hour and a half, the observatory has completed more than 130,000 orbits and taken more than 1 million exposures of astronomical objects, from dust clouds to distant galaxies. More than 12,800 scientific articles have used HST results, and have been cited more than 550,000 times, making the telescope one of the most productive scientific instruments ever built.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
At Kodak, Clinging to a Future Beyond Film
By Quentin Hardy
What happens after a tech company is left for dead but the people left behind refuse to give up the fight? At Kodak the answer is to dig deep into a legacy of innovation in the photography business and see if its remaining talent in optics and chemistry can be turned into new money in other industries.
Once a household name as big in its day as Apple and Microsoft have been for later generations, Kodak was part of everyday life, its film — sold in a yellow box — recording births, vacations, weddings. And then Kodak became a cautionary tale about what happens when a tech company is slow to change. For Kodak, the advent of digital photography was ruinous. Today it has $2 billion in annual sales, compared with $19 billion in 1990 when consumer film was king. It now has 8,000 employees worldwide; it had 145,000 at its peak.
Since emerging from bankruptcy, the company has mostly served niche film markets — there are still a few die-hard directors who refuse to shoot digital — and provides equipment for printing newspapers, on packaging and the like. Much of its revenue comes from legacy businesses.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Caught: Role Players Are “Sovereign Citizens” In Bomb Drill
David Knight talks with Keith Johnson of couragesowers.com about some shocking footage he captured showing the military preparing to fight sovereign citizens.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Does Obama’s UN Carbon Pledge Threaten Much More US Economic Pain?
The Obama Administration’s pledge of 26 to 28 percent cuts in U.S. carbon emissions by 2025 is coming under heavy fire from business and scientific experts, who charge the radical goals were not backed up by any concrete planning, likely to cause energy-intensive industries to flee the country at a heavy cost in jobs, and unlikely to make any difference at all to global carbon emissions—or to climate.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Back in 2013, a lot of attention focused on a Third Amendment claim against Henderson, Nevada police officers. I wrote about the case here. The Third Amendment, which forbids the “quartering” of “soldiers” in private homes without the owner’s consent, is often the butt of jokes because it is so rarely litigated. But in this case, a Nevada family claimed that local police had violated the Amendment by forcibly occupying their home in order to gain a “tactical advantage” against suspected criminals in the neighboring house.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Five Disturbing Things About the FBI and Local Police Stingray Surveillance Programs
Thanks to the ACLU, independent privacy researchers, and journalists, the iron wall of state secrecy surrounding local police deployments of stingray cell phone surveillance is slowly melting away. Here are five things you need to know about stingray spying.
| 1. | Police obtain stingrays for “terrorism” purposes but use them overwhelmingly in routine criminal investigations, which usually means drug war related missions. Most police departments have refused to release any information about how often stingrays are used, or in what kinds of investiations, but rare records from the Tacoma PD show that stingray surveillance tracks like all other state spying: it’s primarily drug war related. | |
| 2. | Police have been using stingrays for nearly a decade in complete secrecy, thanks in part to the FBI. In Baltimore, police used stingrays over 4,300 times since 2007, meaning officers used the device on average more than once per day. The Baltimore police kept secret their use of stingrays in all of these cases, not simply from surveillance targets but also from prosecutors (fellow law enforcement officials) and judges. | |
| 3. | The FBI has forced police departments to sign non-disclosure agreements in order to obtain stingray technology, forbidding cops from talking about the technology. As part of these non-disclosure agreements, police are required to drop criminal prosecutions if there is any danger information about stingray surveillance might be disclosed in court. |
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
For U.S. Airlines, Home is Where the Money Is
A strong dollar is hurting U.S. airlines abroad, with flight cuts to follow
U.S. carriers face a panoply of problems abroad: economic turmoil in Brazil and China, uneven fiscal recoveries in Europe, an isolated Russian economy, and above all, a robust dollar that makes tickets on U.S. carriers less affordable. All of which means that the only “sure” money these days comes from domestic routes and trips catering to American tourists looking to enjoy relative bargains this summer, afforded by a weakened euro.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Four Students Arrested Protesting American Sniper Friday Night Movie
By Mona Beydoun
Four students were arrested after disrupting the planned showing of “American Sniper” Friday evening in the EMU Student Center Auditorium. The film had begun but was stopped and eventually cancelled. The 10 p.m. showing was cancelled as well.
Ahmed Abbas, earning his Ph.D. in psychology, Layali Alsadah, junior majoring in psychology, Jenna Hamed, senior majoring in apparel and textiles merchandise, and Sabreen Dari, junior majoring in psychology, worked with 35 other students to shut down the 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. showings of the Academy Award-winning film.
The protesters filed onto the stage under the screen and held up two signs. One read, “Is this your idea of dialogue?” and the other one had the definition of propaganda.
Hamed began speaking to the crowd about why the protesters where there.
“Do you want me to play a movie painting your people this way?” Hamed asked the crowd.
Members of the audience began yelling at the protesters, “Tell us after.”
Department of Public Safety officers were called to escort the students out. According to Sergeant Shana Thompson, four students were arrested for disturbing the peace. They were released 40 minutes later and no charges were filed.
[…]
“The reality is, this is about a process of not allowing cultural appropriation for the movies being allowed into the university,” Abbas said. “This is not about freedom of speech, this is not about freedom of expression, this is about pubic safety and people being respected with dignity.”
[This is about a gaggle of Muslim brownshirts demanding that something that offends them be suppressed. Same spirit that drove the Charlie Hebdo murderers. — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
Gardasil Vaccine Now Promoted to 12-Year Old Boys for Mouth and Throat Cancers to Double the Market
What’s the best way to attract new patients for a vaccine heavily marketed to only girls? Why open up the market to boys of course. The HPV vaccine is possibly the biggest vaccine hoax in the last century being nothing more than a worldwide exercise in profiteering at the expense of children’s health. Another massively flawed study (basically routine for the HPV vaccine) will give Gardasil manufacturer, Merck & Co., the green light to once again create a vaccine awareness campaign on the pretext that it prevents mouth and throat cancers…
As adverse side effects from the new vaccine continue to mount, the opposition to the vaccine has grown. A lead researcher, Diane Harper, a scientist and physician who has spent 20 years developing the vaccine for human papillomavirus, says the HPV vaccine is not for younger girls, and that it is “silly” for states to be mandating them.
Adverse Effects
Here are just a few of the potential side effects caused by the HPV vaccine:
- convulsions [which are serious reactions with risks of serious brain injury];
- grand mal seizures and convulsions;
- deafness
- circulatory collapse;
- blood problems, leading to unexplained bruising or bleeding
- acquired colour blindness;
- fainting or brief loss of consciousness
- Guillain Barre syndrome
- head banging;
- lymphadenopathy
- chronic fatigue syndrome
- foaming at mouth;
- transient blindness;
- transient deafness
Mercola reports on 213 women who took Gardasil and suffered permanent disability. Multiple-sclerosis-like symptoms and neurological complications, including seizures, paralysis and speech problems, are being reported by increasing numbers of girls and women following Gardasil vaccination.
Consider some of the facts related to cervical cancer and the HPV vaccine: …
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Lawyer Matthew Campbell of North Little Rock says he became suspicious when he received the hard drive by Federal Express in June 2014 from a lawyer for the Fort Smith Police Department, the Northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette reports. Previous evidence in the police whistleblower case had been provided by email or a cloud-based Internet storage service, or had been shipped through the U.S. Postal Service.
“I thought ‘I’m not plugging that into my computer,’ “ Campbell told the Northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette. “Something didn’t add up in the way they approached it, so I sent it to my software guy first.”
The technology expert found four Trojans on the hard drive. “These Trojans were designed to steal passwords, install malicious software, and give someone else command and control of the infected computer,” Campbell says in a brief supporting his motion for sanctions (PDF).
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Obama’s Christianity: A Political Tool to Silence Christians
By Raymond Ibrahim
Here in the United States, where Americans are used to hearing their president always invoke Christianity in a manner that silences Christians, United Kingdom Prime Minister David Cameron’s recent Easter message was moderately refreshing.
Among other things, Cameron made it a point to say “that we should feel proud to say, ‘This is a Christian country.’ Yes, we’re a nation that embraces, welcomes and accepts all faiths and none, but we are still a Christian country.”
The context of Cameron’s statement, it should be recalled, is a UK with a large, intolerant, and aggressive Muslim populace—a populace that increasingly seeks to treat the UK’s indigenous Christians the way the Islamic world’s indigenous Christians are habitually treated, that is, subjugated, enslaved, raped, and murdered.
In fact, Cameron touched on the phenomenon of Christian persecution in mostly Muslim lands:
We have a duty to speak out about the persecution of Christians around the world too. It is truly shocking that in 2015 there are still Christians being threatened, tortured, even killed because of their faith. From Egypt to Nigeria, Libya to North Korea. Across the Middle East Christians have been hounded out of their homes, forced to flee from village to village; many of them forced to renounce their faith or brutally murdered. To all those brave Christians in Iraq and Syria who practice their faith or shelter others, we will say, “We stand with you.”
While one may argue that Cameron is all talk—after all, the UK’s foreign policies, like America’s, have only exacerbated the plight of Christians in the Middle East—it is still refreshing to hear such honest talk, since here in the U.S., one seldom gets even that from President Obama.
Consider what Obama—who is on record saying “we are no longer a Christian nation,” who never notes the Islamic identity of murderers or the Christian identity of their victims, and who ignored a recent UN session on Christian persecution—had to say about Christians at the Easter Prayer Breakfast: “On Easter, I do reflect on the fact that as a Christian, I am supposed to love. And I have to say that sometimes when I listen to less than loving expressions by Christians, I get concerned.”
[Barry Hussein is emphatically not a Christian, any more than he is a Muslim. Being either would require him to venerate something besides himself. — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
Questions Swirl Over Bizarre Walmart Closures
Employees and customers are not buying Walmart’s explanation that it is closing five nationwide stores for six months due to “plumbing” issues, with questions swirling about the sudden closures that left hundreds of workers unemployed.
As we reported yesterday, Walmart stores in Pico Rivera, California, Livingston, Texas, Midland, Texas, Brandon, Florida, and Tulsa, Oklahoma, all announced that they were abruptly closing for the exact same reason — plumbing problems that would take six months to resolve. The explanation caused consternation given that entire Walmart stores have been built within the same time frame. Employees were told the same day that they were going to be laid off, prompting questions as to why the repair work was not planned in advance. Director of Public Works James Enriquez said a Walmart in Pico Rivera, California, had not even notified authorities of plumbing problems, despite the fact that the company would be required to pull permits before undertaking extensive work.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
San Francisco Most Sought After Location for Chinese Buyers
San Francisco is the most sought after location for Chinese buyers looking to buy properties offshore, attracted by its sound economic foundations, quality education opportunities and existing presence of the Chinese diaspora, a study has found.
“Affluent Chinese property buyers are becoming an increasingly significant demographic,” online real estate marketing and data services company Propgoluxury.com said in a report. It based its finding on searches for properties valued at HK$10 million or above by visitors to its website in the first three months of this year.
San Francisco, which ranked seventh in the survey in the fourth quarter of last year, was the most sought after location for Chinese buyers, with London, Tuscany, New York and Paris rounding out the top five.
Ten of the top 20 locations were in North America, the survey found.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
SCLC Director Calls on Black Families to Arm Themselves
By Christian Boone
The head of the Georgia chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, founded by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to promote nonviolent social change, on Tuesday advocated African-American families “exercise their Second Amendment rights” in response to recent police shootings of unarmed black men.
“You stand there, (police) shoot. You run, they shoot. We’re going to have to take a different tack,” Samuel Mosteller, longtime president of the Georgia SCLC, told reporters.
The remarks came one week after 23-year-old Goodyear employee Nicholas Thomas was fatally shot by Smyrna police serving an arrest warrant on a probation violation. Police say Thomas tried to run them over in a customer’s Maserati, though lawyers hired by the dead man’s family have challenged the official account.
[Now check out what really happened in the other story of this incident, headed “Smyrna police say man drove Maserati recklessly before shooting.” — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
Sharpton’s Call for National Police Force Ill-Advised
By John Fund
Al Sharpton gave a sermon at a South Carolina church service on Sunday that mourned the death of Walter Scott, who was killed by a North Charleston police officer last week. A video shot by a bystander showed Scott being shot in the back while fleeing. The police officer involved is in jail while the killing is investigated.
Sharpton was uncharacteristically subdued in his sermon, in part because the family of Walter Scott asked him not into inject himself into the tragedy.
[…]
Sharpton may have shown restraint in the Scott case while in South Carolina, but back in New York City last week he used the platform of his annual National Action Network convention to take his demands to a new level.
“There must be national policy and national law on policing,” Sharpton thundered at the event’s kickoff. “We can’t go from state to state, we’ve got to have national law to protect people against these continued questions.”
After his audience gave him thunderous applause, he continued: “We cannot have a justice system that hopes we have a mayor in the right city or a police chief. We have to have one policy that is national.”
Despite local incidents that are often are disturbing or outrageous, the last thing the country needs is a national police policy.
[A national police, run from Washington by guys like Eric Holder. What could go wrong? — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
Small Aircraft Lands on Capitol Lawn; Pilot Arrested
Questions are swirling about how a postal worker from Florida managed to land a small gyrocopter Wednesday on the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol without being shot out of the sky by authorities.
Mailman Doug Hughes took responsibility for the stunt on a website where he said he was delivering letters to all 535 members of Congress in order to draw attention to campaign finance corruption.
“As I have informed the authorities, I have no violence inclinations or intent,” Hughes wrote on his website, the democracyclub.org. “An ultralight aircraft poses no major physical threat — it may present a political threat to graft. I hope so. There’s no need to worry — I’m just delivering the mail.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Smyrna Police Say Man Drove Maserati Recklessly Before Shooting
Mike Morris and Alexis Stevens
A 25-year-old man drove a Maserati recklessly Tuesday afternoon and sped toward officers, prompting them to shoot the car, the Smyrna police department said Wednesday.
Initially, one officer fired into the moving car, which came to a stop, Sgt. E.R. Cason said. Officers then ordered Nicholas Taft Thomas out of the car, but got no response, Cason said in an emailed statement.
“Due to heavy window tint on the vehicle, officers could not see into the car,” Cason said. “Thus, the officers used less than lethal bean bag rounds in an attempt to break out the passenger side window and look into the car. This was done to increase visibility into the vehicle with the ultimate goal of ensuring officer safety and rendering first aid to Mr. Thomas.”
Thomas was pronounced dead at the scene.
[…]
Thomas was convicted last year of felony charges, but avoided prison time. Instead, he was sentenced to seven years, including 56 days in jail and the rest on probation, for aggravated assault against a police officer.
But Thomas had allegedly violated his probation, and an arrest warrant was issued for him, according to police. Smyrna and Cobb police both arrived Tuesday around 1:30 p.m. to serve the warrant to Thomas at the Goodyear store on Cumberland Parkway, where he worked.
That’s when, according to police, Thomas got into a white, four-door Maserati and drove around the building several times at a high rate of speed.
Minutes later, Thomas was dead. He was shot and killed by Smyrna police, who said Thomas tried to run down the officers.
Thomas had a history of running from police, according to records obtained from metro police agencies. And, in at least one prior case, he drove a car toward an officer.
[…]
Court and jail documents show that Thomas has numerous arrests in several metro Atlanta jurisdictions, and that he pleaded guilty last year in Cobb County Superior Court to a March 2013 charge of aggravated assault on a peace officer.
In that case, the grand jury alleged that Thomas assaulted a Kennesaw State University police officer by “driving and accelerating his motor vehicle at” the officer after Officer S.A. Feinauer attempted a traffic stop on Thomas for speeding.
Thomas also pleaded guilty to two counts of attempting to elude police, driving with a suspended license, having no proof of insurance and having an improper license plate in connection with that incident, and was sentenced to seven years, with 56 days in jail and the rest on probation.
[…]
Also in Thomas’ criminal past, he was arrested by Forest Park police and charged with burglary and obstructing an officer in September 2013.
Two years earlier, he was arrested by Atlanta police on 16 traffic charges that included leaving the scene of an accident, fleeing and attempting to elude police, reckless driving and aggressive driving.
Thomas was also booked into the Fulton County Jail in May 2012 on an unspecified charge by Lawrenceville police, in June 2012 on a charge by Atlanta police of theft by receiving stolen property, and in September 2013 for failing to appear in court on identity theft charges.
He was booked into the Gwinnett County Jail in July 2011 on charges of possession of less than an ounce of marijuana and operating a vehicle without a tag or decal and in May 2012 for violating probation.
It was not known Wednesday who owned the high-end luxury car that Thomas was in when he was killed.
[A poor little innocent victim with a long record of roguery and mayhem. — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
SpaceX Rocket Landing Attempt: Close Again, But No Cigar
It’s “close again, but no cigar” for SpaceX in its latest ambitious attempt to land a booster rocket on a floating platform off the coast of Florida.
“Ascent successful. Dragon enroute to Space Station. Rocket landed on droneship, but too hard for survival,” tweeted SpaceX CEO Elon Musk Tuesday, shortly after the Falcon 9 rocket launched the Dragon spacecraft.
“Looks like Falcon landed fine, but excess lateral velocity caused it to tip over post landing,” he added, in a subsequent tweet.
Musk maintains that recovering and reusing rockets is essential for bringing down launch costs and speeding up operations.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The Wedding Rings That Went to Hubble
A personal token was sent to the space telescope to celebrate one astronomer’s contributions to its mission.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
TSA Workers Caught Manipulating Body Scanners to Grope Genitals for Sexual Gratification
Two TSA screeners working at Denver International Airport have been fired after it emerged that they had concocted a perverted scheme in order to purposefully grope the genitals of men they found attractive for their own sexual gratification.
A CBS4 investigation found that a male TSA worker was working in cahoots with a female TSA worker to allow the man to pull aside and feel up male passengers he found attractive.
“He related that when a male he finds attractive comes to be screened by the scanning machine he will alert another TSA screener to indicate to the scanning computer that the party being screened is a female. When the screener does this, the scanning machine will indicate an anomaly in the genital area and this allows (the male TSA screener) to conduct a pat-down search of that area.”
The incident that highlights just how easy it is for perverts and sickos working for the TSA to manipulate the scanning machines and take advantage of the pat down procedure for their own twisted pleasure.
Worse still, CBS reports that while “TSA learned of the accusation on Nov. 18, 2014 via an anonymous tip from one of the agency’s own employees, reports show that it would be nearly three months before anything was done.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Why Garry Trudeau is Wrong About Charlie Hebdo
By David Frum
One of the most attractive features of Anglo-American liberalism is its instinct to sympathize with the underdog. This is not a universal human norm. Across much of the modern world, human beings still follow the ancient Roman rule, vae victis — woe to the loser. But the liberal tradition appealingly sees its core task as standing up for the weak against the powerful:
“‘Hold off, Cuff; don’t bully that child any more; or I’ll—’
‘Or you’ll what?’ Cuff asked in amazement at this interruption. ‘Hold out your hand, you little beast.’
‘I’ll give you the worst thrashing you ever had in your life,’ Dobbin said, in reply to the first part of Cuff’s sentence; and little Osborne, gasping and in tears, looked up with wonder and incredulity at seeing this amazing champion put up suddenly to defend him: while Cuff’s astonishment was scarcely less. Fancy our late monarch George III when he heard of the revolt of the North American colonies: fancy brazen Goliath when little David stepped forward and claimed a meeting; and you have the feelings of Mr. Reginald Cuff …”
I wonder if that famous scene from Thackeray’s great novel Vanity Fair echoed in Garry Trudeau’s mind as he stepped forward to deliver his acceptance speech at the Polk Awards last week. In thanks for an award honoring his lifetime of achievement as a cartoonist, Trudeau used the occasion to denounce the murdered cartoonists and editors of Charlie Hebdo. The Atlantic posted his remarks. I’m glad we did, because they deserve to be read and carefully considered. They perfectly express and encapsulate a point of view held by many influential people in our society and especially in our media.
[…]
Almost exactly three months have passed since two heavily armed gunmen killed 11 people and wounded 11 more to punish a satirical weekly for publishing images they did not like. At the same time, two associates took hostages in a Parisian kosher supermarket, leading to the deaths of four shoppers. About a month later, a sympathizer with the Charlie Hebdo killers opened fire upon a meeting in Copenhagen attended by another cartoonist. One person was killed; three police officers were wounded. That same killer then proceeded to Copenhagen’s main synagogue, where he murdered a volunteer security guard and wounded two more police. For this long record of death and destruction—and for many other deaths as well—Garry Trudeau blamed the people who drew and published the offending cartoons.
[…]
[…] it’s hard to ignore that many whom Trudeau regards as European victims are simultaneously engaged in large-scale violence against people they regard as their enemies. As Jeffrey Goldberg reported in a disturbing cover story for last month’s Atlantic, Europe is witnessing a surge of violent anti-Semitism.
[Excellent deconstruction of Trudeau and his odious denunciation. Very well worth a read. — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
Why Nuclear Power is All But Dead in the U.S.
The Obama administration supported a bill yesterday, April 14, that would give Congress a chance to review a nuclear power agreement with Iran, if the two countries clinch a deal before their June 30 deadline.
In other words, if the diplomatic hurdles are surmounted, nuclear power may have a smoother ride in Iran than in the U.S.
“No question,” said Judd Gregg, the former New Hampshire Republican senator and governor and current co-chairman of Nuclear Matters, a bipartisan nonprofit group that promotes keeping nuclear alive in the U.S. “There are 150 plants on the drawing board around the world. There are five on the drawing board in the United States.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Damning Report Reveals Spike in Violent Anti-Semitism in Europe
A new research study released its findings on Wednesday, exposing how acts of violent anti-Semitism in Europe positively skyrocketed in 2014.
The report, conducted by the Kantor Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry at Tel Aviv University, was prepared together with the European Jewish Congress (EJC).
It found a full 766 violent anti-Semitic acts in Europe last year, committed either with or without weapons and via arson, vandalism, or direct threats against Jews or Jewish institutions such as synagogues, schools, community centers and others.
The findings constitute a rapid increase of 38% when compared to the results of 2013, in which 554 violent anti-Semitic incidents were reported.
EJC President Dr. Moshe Kantor discussed the results, saying “many streets in our European cities have become hunting grounds for Jews, and some Jews are now forced to avoid community institutions and synagogues as a result.”
“Some are choosing to leave the continent, many are afraid to walk the streets and even more are retreating behind high walls and barbed wire. This has become the new reality of Jewish life in Europe,” said Kantor.
[So much for the execrable Garry Trudeau’s characterization of European Muslims as “a powerless, disenfranchised minority.” So “powerless” are they that their declared, despised Jewish enemy daren’t even walk the streets. — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
Denmark: Turkey Angered by Copenhagen Sculpture
Plans to install a sculpture commemorating the Armenian Genocide in one of Copenhagen’s busiest squares have Turkish officials up in arms.
The plans have elicited a protest from the Turkish Embassy in Copenhagen.
“We are disappointed that a sculpture that describes the actions of 1915 as a ‘genocide’ will be displayed in one of Copenhagen’s large squares,” the embassy wrote in an email to Politiken, adding that the sculpture is “morally indefensible”.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Denmark Refuses to Recognise Armenian Genocide
This year, Armenia is marking the centenary of events that it claims were a genocide of 1.5 million Armenians carried out by the Ottoman Empire in 1915. But Denmark continues to refuse to recognise the term ‘Armenian genocide’.
The foreign minister, Martin Lidegaard, contended that the Danish government wasn’t trying to conceal the scope of the tragic events in 1915, but it hasn’t officially recognised the events as a genocide.
“Our viewpoint is that it should be left to the historians to answer the question of what actually happened and whether the events in 1915 can justifiably be considered a genocide,” Lidegaard told Kristeligt Dagblad.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Draghi Sprayed With Confetti by Protestor
ECB President Mario Draghi had confetti and paper thrown at him by a female protestor shouting “end ECB dictatorship” as he delivered his opening speech following the bank’s governing council meeting on Wednesday. The 21-year-old activist jumped onto the podium before being restrained by officials and then arrested.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
EP Says No to Armenian ‘Genocide’ Denial
Praises pope for message
(ANSA) — Brussels, April 15 — The European Parliament on Wednesday unanimously passed a resolution recognising the murder of as many as 1.5 million Armenians in 1915 as genocide.
The resolution also deplored all attempts to deny the genocide, as Turkey does, and praised Pope Francis for describing it as the first genocide of the 20th century in a message to the Armenian Catholic church earlier this week.
Some 22 countries as well as most non-Turkish scholars recognise the slaughter as genocide.
The countries include Argentina, Belgium, Canada, France, Italy, Russia and Uruguay.
Turkey refutes the use of the word and maintains that many of the dead were killed in clashes during World War One, while ethnic Turks also suffered in the conflict.
Turkish officials have slammed the pope for making the “mistake” of referring to the killings as genocide.
Francis made his comments at a Mass on Sunday in the Armenian Catholic rite at Peter’s Basilica, attended by the Armenian president and church leaders.
He said that humanity had lived through “three massive and unprecedented tragedies” in the last century.
“The first, which is widely considered ‘the first genocide of the 20th Century’, struck your own Armenian people,” he said, in a form of words used by a declaration by Pope John Paul II in 2001.
Francis also referred to the crimes “perpetrated by Nazism and Stalinism” and said other genocides had followed in Cambodia, Rwanda, Burundi and Bosnia.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
EU Accuses Google Shopping of Search ‘Abuse’
The European Union has filed a complaint against Google over its alleged anti-competitive behaviour.
The competition commissioner said she had issued a “statement of objections”, stating that the firm’s promotion of its own shopping links amounted to an abuse of its dominance in search.
Margrethe Vestager said Google now had 10 weeks to respond.
The firm said it “strongly disagreed” with the allegations and looked forward to making its case.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Finns Aren’t What They Used to be
No international education conference is complete without a reference to Finland.
Ever since it appeared at the top of international league tables more than a decade ago, it has been endlessly hailed as how to run an education system.
But is the gloss coming off the image of Finland as an education superpower?
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
France: More Women Than Men Leaving for Jihad
(ANSAmed) — PARIS — For the first time in March the number of French young women leaving to fight the jihad has exceeded that of men. The trend, according to government sources in Paris, is due to growing propaganda through which the Islamic state targets women.
Since April 2014 — according to the inter-ministerial committee for crime prevention — 3,670 departures of jihad fighters have been reported. The data is mainly based on cases reported by families dealing with the Islamic radicalization of a member to a help line set up by authorities.
In March 2015, the trend changed with 136 young women against 125 men reported to be travelling to Arab countries for the Islamic holy war.
The interior ministry said the phenomenon was due to the fact that ISIS is aiming its propaganda at women, also through videos to convince them to leave and even seduce them. ‘‘These organizations have the power to convince women that they are an essential component because they will give birth to future fighters’’, said Delphine Bergere-Ducote, of the directorate to protect youth.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
German Federal Security Council OKs Submarine Delivery to Israel
The German body that monitors the export of military goods, the Federal Security Council, has given the green light for the delivery of another submarine to Israel. The decision could be a contentious one.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
In France, Lessons in Secularism to Confront Radical Islam
The French government wants to send imams to classes in secularism and religious freedom as a measure to prevent home-grown extremism. Elizabeth Bryant reports from Lyon on a program that is paving the way.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
A young woman has managed to find her doppelgänger after launching a campaign on Facebook as a social experiment — and their likeness is mind-blowing.
Niamh Geaney, a 26-year-old TV presenter from Dublin, teamed up with two male friends on a project they dubbed Twin Strangers to see who could find their closest lookalike within 28 days, and were soon inundated with submissions from all over the world.
Incredibly, Niamh found her match in Karen Branigan, 29, a fellow Ireland native who lives just an hour down the road, making it easy for the pair to meet in real life and take some eerily twin-like photos together.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Jihadist Rapper Threatens German Charlie Hebdo
In a newly-released video from the Isis terrorist group, former Berlin rapper Denis Cuspert threatens Germany with an attack by a jihadist sleeper cell to match January’s mass shootings in France.
“In France deeds were done, in Germany the sleepers are waiting,” Cuspert sings in the three-minute recording. “We want your blood”.
The slickly-produced video contains footage of the men behind the attacks against the Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine and a Jewish supermarket in January, as well as news footage from the scene.
Cuspert calls on Isis supporters in Germany to emulate the French terrorists.
“Even if you’re in Europe, wage your jihad,” he sings. “Allah will reward you, put an end to the filthy ones.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Neanderthal Chefs May Have Spiced Up Menus With Wild Herbs
THE image of a Stone-Age man grasping the bony end of a bloody mammoth leg and chomping down on it with powerful gnashers is taking a bit of a battering. We already know that Neanderthals were partial to delicacies such as fish and small birds, with a healthy helping of plants. Now some are saying they might have flavoured their meaty feasts with wild herbs, too.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Scores of prostitutes have taken to the streets of Amsterdam to protest moves to rejuvenate the city’s famed Red Light District by shuttering windows where scantily-clad sex workers pose to attract clients. The prostitutes say that the closures are depriving them of safe places to work.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Newlyweds Create Heart-Shaped Flight Path Over Malta
Love is in the air.
A newly-married pilot and his cabin crew wife were treated to a heart-shaped flight around Malta Tuesday — confusing aviation trackers on Twitter.
An Air Malta spokeswoman told Sky News the couple, both employed by Air Malta, had been married earlier in the day at the airport.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Norway Accuses Iran of Academic ‘Cheating’
Norway’s intelligence services have accused Iran of coordinating academic cheating aimed at getting Iranian students into Norwegian institutions where they can steal technological secrets for weapons development back home.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Paris: Icon Edith Piaf Celebrated at Exhibit
Her soaring, emotion-wracked voice remains the defining soundtrack of old, romantic France and her colourful life the stuff of legend. Edith Piaf may have passed away in 1963 but this year — the year she would have turned 100 — the memory of “the Little Sparrow” is just as strong as ever and enshrined as one of France’s most enduring icons.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Poll Says UK Split on EU Membership
A Populus poll for the FT published Wednesday says 39% of British voters want to leave the EU and 40% want to stay. The ruling Conservative Party has promised an in/out referendum by 2017 if it wins the election in May. It has also promised to push for EU reforms.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Pope Francis Greets Asia Bibi Family Members
Pakistani Christian on death row since 2010 for ‘blasphemy’
(ANSA) — Vatican City, April 15 — Pope Francis greeted the husband and daughter of Pakistani Christian death row inmate Asia Bibi during a general hearing Wednesday, the Vatican press office said.
The mother of five was sentenced to death by hanging in November 2010 under Pakistan’s blasphemy laws.
She remains imprisoned despite a worldwide campaign for her liberation.
Her family arrived in Rome with their lawyer Tuesday with the help of CitizenGO — an internet activism platform that promotes Christian causes — to plead with Italian and European leaders to press for Bibi’s release.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Researchers Map and Unlock New Secrets of Dark Matter
Swiss scientists have helped uncover a series of recent findings about the nature of dark matter in the universe, working on a team that found dark matter behaving in new ways and leading a project mapping its locations.
By observing four galaxies colliding simultaneously, a group of researchers from six countries, including Switzerland, revealed on Wednesday that for the first time, they had found dark matter interacting with itself through a force other than gravity.
Scientists had identified that dark matter creates gravity and is affected by gravity, but what it is made of and how other forces affect it have remained a mystery.
When observing the colliding galaxies from the European Southern Observatory in Chile, researchers saw something unusual: one clump of dark matter lagging 5,000 light-years behind the galaxy it surrounded. Such a lag during galaxy collisions only happens when the dark matter is interacting with a force other than gravity, a phenomenon that has never been observed by scientists until now.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: The Stockholm Suburb Which Has Become a Mini-Middle East
The flood of new arrivals has cemented Södertälje’s status as a mini-Middle East, with Levantine churches (the city has four Middle Eastern bishops), clubs and companies now dotting the streetscape. But for all their confessed sympathy for the refugees’ plight, local Swedes are voting with their feet. In three municipal schools, 90% of children now come from immigrant families. Indeed, immigrant old-timers tell Newsweek that families like them now move their children from municipal to private schools — free, thanks to Sweden’s school voucher system — because of the large number of refugee children in municipal schools. “Lots of kids in Södertälje don’t learn Swedish because they never get a chance to use the language”, laments Mayor Boel Godner.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Evidence Emerges That Soviet Wartime Fortune Was Lost by Accident in the Clyde River
Evidence has emerged of a wartime blunder that resulted in millions of pounds of Russian bullion, supposedly bound for America, being lost in the Clyde.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Harrow Pub Landlord Jailed for Raping Drinker Who Fell Asleep in Bar
John Coyne, 56, who ran the Prince of Wales pub in Harrow Road, central London, attacked his 25-year-old victim after he had fallen unconscious after a night of drinking in October last year.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: James Ward’s Finger Chopped Off With an Axe in ‘Horrific’ Attack
WARNING: Graphic content. James Ward, 31, of Burnley, Lancashire, was left with a severed finger and wounds all over of his body after being attacked at his home by axe-wielding intruders.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Liverpool FC is set to take action against a fan who said that two Muslim men praying at the club’s stadium were a ‘disgrace’.
Stephen Dodd caused outrage when he posted a photograph online showing solicitors Asif Bodi and Abubakar Bhula worshipping during half-time of a FA Cup game.
Now club authorities say they will ‘take appropriate action’ against the supporter, which could include banning him from matches.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Police Raid Mosque as Second Man is Arrested Over Killing of Preacher
Officers searched the An Noor community centre in west London last night after a businessman appeared in court charged with murdering Abdul Hadi Arwani.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Senior Doctors Say ‘Incredible’ Pressures Are Forcing Them to Quit
A poll of 15,560 family doctors also found that one in six is considering going part-time and 7 per cent are contemplating quitting altogether.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Why New Spying Powers Should Worry the French
French MPs are set to overwhelmingly back a draft law that would give intelligence services the capability to sweep up masses of data on suspected terrorists. Here three civil liberties experts explain why the French public should be very, very concerned.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Are Radical Muslims the Result of What’s Taught at Islam’s Most Prestigious School?
Al Mu’tasim Billah, Sufyan al Omari and Omar al Masri are 21-year-old students at Cairo’s al Azhar University, the oldest and most prestigious institute of Sunni Islamic learning in the world. But none of them is planning to graduate.
“The Islamic State is only putting into practice what we have been taught by al Azhar,” said al Omari. “It is doing what people always hoped al Azhar would do one day if they were not a mouthpiece of the ruling regime.”
Al Azhar is more than just a local university. It sends imams to Islamic centers all over the world. It offers scholarships to thousands of foreign students to study Shariah — Islamic law — in Cairo. It decides which religious books may be published. In Egypt, it recommends which films can be shown and holds classes beginning in elementary school years.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Egyptian Court Rules Police Can Deport Foreign Homosexuals
And stop them from entering the country
(ANSAmed) — CAIRO, APRIL 14 — Egyptian police have the right to deport foreign homosexuals and stop them from entering the country, reported the daily Al Ahram on its website. “Egypt’s Administrative Court rejected on Tuesday an appeal against a decision by the interior ministry to deport a Libyan national on the grounds that he was alleged to be homosexual, and upheld what it said was the right of the ministry to deport homosexual foreigners and ban them from entering Egypt,” reported the website. Homosexuality is not a crime subject to prosecution as such in Egypt, but “those accused of homosexual behavior or activity are often charged under laws that criminalise ‘debauchery’ or the corruption of public morals”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Gaza: Egypt Responsible for Weapons Shortage
by Khaled Abu Toameh
This week, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi signed a new law, according to which anyone who digs a tunnel along Egypt’s borders would face life imprisonment.
Sisi has shown real guts and determination in his war to drain the swamps of terrorists.
The tough measures he has taken along Egypt’s border with the Gaza Strip have proven to be even more effective than Israel’s military operations against the smuggling tunnels.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Christians Who Use the Language of Jesus Being Uprooted by Islamic State
By Hugh Naylor
BEIRUT — Suhail Gabriel was in bed when Islamic State militants stormed his village in eastern Syria, firing machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades. Gabriel rushed his wife and daughter onto his motorcycle and sped through the early-morning darkness, he later recalled.
“We left in our pajamas,” Gabriel said. “We didn’t even have time to put on clothes.”
He was among the thousands of people from an ancient community of Christians, known as Assyrians, who fled 35 farming villages in Syria’s Khabur River area in February because of attacks by the extremist Sunni Muslim group. The militants desecrated churches and religious symbols during the offensive and kidnapped about 250 of the Assyrians, including women and children.
Over the past decade, Assyrians have joined waves of Christians who have fled Syria and Iraq because of war and persecution by extremist Muslims. But the latest attacks have added to concerns that this unique Mesopotamian people are in danger of disappearing from the region.
Assyrians in Iraq and Syria belong to the last communities of significant size to speak the language of Jesus — Aramaic. Many of them are being forced to move outside the Middle East, where it becomes less likely the tongue will be maintained, said Eden Naby, a Middle East historian and expert on Assyrian culture.
Aramaic is the oldest continuously written and spoken language in the Middle East, she said. It was once also used by some other religious communities, including Jews. “Assyrians remain the last Aramaic-speaking of people of the world. So the disappearance and displacement of these people pretty much spells the closing chapter of Aramaic use in the world,” Naby said.
[The left loves to yowl about “cultural genocide.” Here it is in action, perpetrated by one of their pet “Other” groups. — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt, Saudi Arabia Mull Military Exercises Amid Yemen Airstrikes
Egypt and Saudi Arabia are considering whether to hold joint military exercises in the kingdom as airstrikes by a Saudi-led coalition pounded Shiite rebels in Yemen on Wednesday.
The airstrikes targeting Yemeni rebels known as Houthis began on March 26 in an effort to halt their advance across the Arab world’s poorest country. Hundreds have been killed and over 121,000 have been displaced amid the turmoil.
The Houthis have captured Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, and forced Western- and Gulf-backed President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi to flee the country.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Erdogan Ridicules EU Parliament
Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Wednesday that an EU parliament resolution urging recognition of the Armenian genocide will “go in one ear and out from the other”. The European Commission and the EU Council in their statements declined to use the word genocide, as did the US on Tuesday.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Erdogan Threatens to Deport 100,000 Armenians
The over 100,000 Armenians working in Turkey are not Turkish citizens and ‘‘we can deport them, even if we haven’t yet’’, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was quoted on Wednesday by Today’s Zaman and Hurriyet as saying.
Erdogan had previously made the same threat in 2010, Today’s Zaman noted. Speaking at the Ankara airport prior to leaving for an official visit to Kazakhstan, he noted that in addition to Turkish citizens of Armenian origins there were about 100,000 immigrant workers and that the state ‘‘has never discriminated against the Armenian population’’. Turkey behaves generously, he said, by not deporting the 100,000 Armenian workers, but it could if it wanted to. The international community’s position as concerns Turkey and the Armenian genocide are unacceptable for a country that has offered the immigrants access to all public services, he said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Fierce Clashes in Iraq as ISIS Takes Control of Villages Near Ramadi
The Islamic State group launched an offensive in Iraq’s western Anbar province on Wednesday, capturing three villages near the provincial capital of Ramadi and forcing villagers to flee from their homes as fierce clashes were underway between the extremists and government troops, residents said.
The militants’ push comes after the Islamic State was dealt a major blow earlier this month, when Iraqi troops routed the group from Tikrit, Saddam Hussein’s hometown. Wednesday’s fighting could also further threaten Ramadi, 70 miles west of Baghdad. The city is mostly held by government forces but militants control some parts of it, mainly on the outskirts.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Hamas, PA Could be Next Pawns in Saudi-Iranian Proxy War
Top Palestinian Authority officials are appealing to Saudi Arabia to use an “iron hand” toward Iranian-backed rival Hamas, a development that underscores the ill will within the so-called unity government and could become the latest front for the proxy war between the Middle East powers.
With the Saudis indirectly engaging Iran in Yemen, where the Kingdom is trying to help the government put down the rebellion by the Iranian-supported Houthis, PA officials are asking the Saudis to do the same to Hamas. The PA, which claims to represent all Palestinians, governs the West Bank, while Hamas controls Gaza. The uneasy alliance between the two has degenerated into rancor in recent months, especially after Hamas declared in November that their unity government had ended.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Infowars Releases New Mini-Documentary on YouTube: Killing ISIS
Ruthless cold blooded killers on a mission to wage war. To annihilate millions of people. We are their enemy and they will stop at nothing to destroy us. All measures must be taken in our defense that always will we remember the character of the onslaught against us.
Who is arming, funding and training ISIS? An InfoWars.com exclusive report by Darrin McBreen.
Once again, the growth of ISIS can be traced directly back to our government’s insane policy of aiding terrorists, who went on to join ISIS after the destabilization of the secular governments of Libya and Syria.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Man Charged With ‘Insulting Islam’ In Dubai Over Facebook Post on ISIS Violence in Iraq
An Indian man has reportedly been charged with “insulting Islam” in Dubai over a Facebook post.
The 41-year-old man, who has not been named, has appeared before the Court of First Instance in the United Emirates (UAE), the Khaleej Times reported.
He allegedly made the offending comments in conversations and posts on the social network in July last year, after watching a video about the escalating violence in Iraq as Isis swept through the country.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Ramadi Could Fall as ISIS Militants Lay Siege, Iraqi Official Warns
By Hamdi Alkhshali, Arwa Damon and Jethro Mullen
West of Baghdad, Iraq (CNN) Falih Essawi shouted on the phone as he described his situation. From his point of view, ISIS militants might be just hours away from taking the key Iraqi city of Ramadi.
Fierce fighting has engulfed Ramadi, which lies only about 70 miles (113 kilometers) west of Baghdad and is the capital of Anbar province, Iraq’s Sunni heartland.
Essawi, the deputy head of the Anbar Provincial Council, told CNN from inside the city Wednesday that it’s unclear how much longer government troops can hold their front lines against the ISIS offensive.
The politician said he was on a front line himself, armed with a machine gun. Security was “collapsing rapidly in the city,” and he begged the Iraqi government for reinforcements and the U.S.-led coalition against ISIS for air support.
“This is what we warned Baghdad of what’s going to happen,” Essawi told CNN by phone, referring to the Iraqi government at the capital. “Where is Baghdad? Where is al-Abadi?”
His plea for help comes the day after Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi met with U.S. President Barack Obama in Washington to seek more support for the fight against ISIS.
“Just Allah knows if we will survive this,” Essawi said.
The extremist group’s offensive in Ramadi shows its resilience despite months of U.S.-led airstrikes and its recent defeat by Iraqi forces in the northern city of Tikrit.
[But . but … “the tide of war is receding!” Dear Leader said so, again and again! I heard him in 2012! On teevee! — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
Saudi Arabia Leads OPEC Oil Boom as U.S. Shale Growth Slows
Saudi Arabia pumped close to a record amount of crude oil last month, leading the biggest surge in OPEC output in almost four years just as the U.S. shale boom shows signs of slowing, the International Energy Agency said.
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries may extend its biggest output gain since June 2011 into next month as recovery in Libya and Iraq adds to the Saudi increase, the IEA said. Average U.S. oil production of 12.6 million barrels a day in the first six months of 2015 will slide to 12.5 million by the fourth quarter as companies curb drilling, the agency said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Waheed Ahmed’s Relatives Also Accused of Trying to Sneak Into Syria Are Arrested
They were among eight relatives stopped at the Turkish border with Syria on April 1 with university student Waheed Ahmed, pictured, the 21-year-old son of Labour councillor Shakil Ahmed.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Former Ally of Deposed Ukrainian President Yanukovych Shot to Death in His Home
A former ally of deposed Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych has been found shot to death in his home in Kiev.
The Ukrainian Interior Ministry said Oleg Kalashnikov, a former member of the Ukrainian parliament, was found dead Wednesday evening. It said the he had died of gunshot wounds but did not say whether it was believed to be homicide or suicide.
Kalashnikov was a deputy for the Party of Regions in Ukraine’s previous parliament.
At least six former Ukrainian government officials from Yanukovych’s time have died over the past two months in various circumstances that police have said were most likely suicides.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Russian Veterans Group to Display Fragment of Malaysian Plane Shot Down Over Ukraine
A Russian veterans organization is planning to display a piece of the Malaysia Airlines passenger jet shot down over Ukraine at a museum.
The fragment was given to veterans organization Boyevogo Bratstva in the town Yeisk by residents near the crash site as a sign of respect, the head of the group, Finat Shaikhulin told the Ekho Moskvy radio station Tuesday.
It will be displayed alongside Russian military history items.
Controversy continues over who shot down the plane last summer, killing all 298 people aboard.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
By Sara Carter
On April 27, 2011, Afghan Air Force Col. Ahmed Gul opened fire inside air force headquarters at Kabul’s international airport, killing nine Americans in the deadliest insider attack on coalition forces of the Afghanistan War.
It was the fourth such “green on blue” attack on NATO coalition members by a member of the Afghan security forces in one month.
Now, TheBlaze has learned that new evidence suggests Gul received more than $250,000 to carry out the attack.
Family members of the victims who spoke to TheBlaze TV’s For the Record believe senior U.S. military officials lied to them about Gul’s true motive, which would have revealed ongoing corruption and criminal connections within Afghanistan’s military and government.
[…]
For the Record learned that a joint investigation conducted by then-U.S. Task Force 2010, charged at the time with tracing terror financing in Afghanistan and the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, found that Gul had received a large deposit in a family bank account and that all of his debts were wiped clean just one week before the killings.
Thomas Creal, who served as the lead expert for Task Force 2010, investigated the killer’s finances and found evidence he says overwhelmingly points to Gul’s connection to criminal networks.
This report has never been made public.
“There was extensive corruption inside the Afghan military and investigations were cut short, hampered by ranking personnel at the State Department and military,” Creal said. “The insider killings don’t need to continue. We can take steps to mitigate these suicidal hits but we can’t do it if evidence is ignored.”
[…]
“What Gul did fits in with what was happening there. Mullah Omar would instruct his lieutenants to pay certain people. So, I pay you and I own you for a future attack. It was common practice,” said Creal, referring to Mullah Mohammad Omar, the leader of the Taliban.
[Appalling. These cover-ups by military brass are getting to be as bad as they were during Nam. — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
Indonesia’s Advancing Sharia: Ban on Alcohol Sales Nationwide
Shops, malls and stalls cannot sell alcoholic beverages. For the Minister of Trade the measure is to protect young people, the biggest consumers of alcohol. The hole in the state coffers (over 460 million) covered by a tax increase on alcohol served in bars and restaurants. Moderate and Islamist parties united in the fight against alcohol.
Jakarta (AsiaNews) — As of tomorrow, April 16, the display and sale of beer to the public will be prohibited on the Indonesian archipelago; a ban that applies to all commercial sales activities, including shops, malls and street stalls.
The Minister for Trade (and in the electronics magnate) Rachmat Gobel, explains that the ban was voted on 16 January and that it has taken four months for the phased implementation of the new norm. Now, there will be no more “changes” or exceptions: offenders will be punished according to law.
For decades, the Indonesians have been consumers of discrete quantities of alcohol, both traditional and imported or “Western” drinks, such as beer, champagne, vodka and wine. While for some drinking alcohol is part of socializing in their free time, in certain areas (Kalimantan and other regions) the consumption of homemade alcohol has cultural and traditional roots. However, there are those, as in other parts of the world, whose idea of drinking “for fun” means getting “drunk”.
In Indonesia, the most populous Muslim country in the world where in some areas such as Aceh province sharia (Islamic law), is in force the public sale of beer and drinks with less than 5% of content alcohol has been allowed for over three decades. Young people are the target audience of these products and the largest consumers of beer and soft drinks, as opposed to the older population who are the closest observers of Islamic morals and consume only tea and mineral water.
According to some observers, the new law will deal a severe blow to the state coffers, since 6 trillion Indonesian rupiahs per year (over 460 million dollars) come from revenue on alcohol sales. The minister replied, however, that the government prefers to “save the future of our young generation.” Rachmat Gobel adds that the loss caused by the lost revenue would be offset by an increase in taxation from 10 to 11% in the consumption of alcoholic beverages in cafes, restaurants and hotels.
The story concerning the ban on sale of alcohol is not only significant from the economic or social, point of view but there are also elements of a religious nature because it is a long-running battle that has united parties that are more or less pro-Islamists.
Moreover, last week the two Muslim inspired parties — the moderate United Development Party (PPP), and the more radical Justice and Prosperous Party (PKS), — signed the bill aimed at prohibiting the sale of alcohol. For offenders there is a sentence between three months and two years in prison and the message of the legislators is clear: the ban on the sale of alcohol is nationwide, because “58% of the crimes occur due to consumption of alcohol and drugs”.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Malawi to Evacuate Citizens From South Africa
Malawi says it will repatriate its nationals from South Africa, following an upsurge in xenophobic violence.
At least five foreigners, including a 14-year-old boy, have been killed in attacks in South Africa’s coastal city of Durban since last week.
Some foreign-owned shops in the main city Johannesburg have shut amid fears that the violence could spread.
Zimbabwe has also condemned the attacks, blamed on locals who accuse foreigners of taking their jobs.
Tens of thousands of foreigners, mostly from other African states and Asia, have moved to South Africa since white-minority rule ended in 1994.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
ISIS camps have now been discovered directly across the U.S. border with Mexico, ISIS operatives have been captured illegally entering the United States, and ISIS is threatening to conduct a massive campaign of terror against U.S. targets, and yet Barack Obama and his underlings continue to insist that “right-wing extremists” are the greatest terror threat that this nation is facing.
One recent survey found that 84 percent of all Americans believe that ISIS is a “direct threat to the USA”, but Obama refuses to secure our borders and he is even allowing dozens of American citizens that fought for ISIS overseas to come back into this country.
What in the world is Obama thinking? Even though ISIS has promised to drown all of us in our own blood, the Obama administrationhas purged virtually all references to Islam out of government terror training materials. Meanwhile, as you will see below, Obama’s political enemies have been regularly labeled as “potential terrorists” in official government documents during the Obama era. This includes “patriots”, “conspiracy theorists”, “evangelical Christians” and “general right-wing extremists”.
[Comment: Infiltration intentionally allowed since it will be used as an excuse to clamp down on “Enemies Of The Glorious State”.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Obama Officially Asks Congress to Remove Cuba From Terror List
Obama submitted the report and certification documents to Congress that are legally required to officially remove Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism, the White House National Security Council tweeted Tuesday.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Brace for ‘Heavy’ Migrant Season Says EC
‘Holistic approach’ to be unveiled next month
(ANSA) — Brussels, April 14 — Europe must brace “to cope with a heavy migratory season” with thousands of migrants poised to take to the Mediterranean this summer, the European Commission said Tuesday.
The EC is ready to “play its part” and its new “holistic approach” will be unveiled next month, European Immigration Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos said.
Estimates of the desperate migrants who will try the dangerous crossing this summer range from 250,000 to 500,000.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
CDU Leader: Germany Can Take More Refugees
The leader of Angela Merkel’s conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) in the Bundestag (German parliament) said on Wednesday that Germany can and should take on more refugees.
“In Kurdistan five million inhabitants live together with a million refugees,” Volker Kauder told Bild.
“We can take more refugees in Germany. We can and must afford this humaneness!”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Dutch Must Continue Helping Undocumented Refugees: Council of Europe
The Netherlands must offer food and shelter to refugees without proper paperwork but can decide itself how best to do this, according to the human rights organisation Council of Europe. The Netherlands has a policy of evicting failed asylum seekers from refugee centres if they refuse to cooperate with their deportation. Refugee organisation Vluchtelingenwerk estimates some 5,000 would-be refugees are turned out onto the street every year. Many of them remain in the country and live illegally. Several hundred high profile failed asylum seekers are currently squatting or living in temporary accommodation in Amsterdam and other cities. The Council of Europe last year said the Netherlands should ensure everyone living in the country has food, clothes and shelter and that includes failed asylum seekers who are not cooperating with efforts to deport them.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italian Coast Guard Says 8,480 Migrants Rescued
(ANSA) — Rome, April 14 — As many as 8,480 migrants were rescued in the four days between Friday and Monday in waters off Italy, the Italian Coast Guard said on Tuesday.
In the Strait of Sicily, 5,629 people were plucked from small boats, rafts and dinghies over the weekend, officials said. On Sunday alone the coast guard rescued 22 migrant boats. Another 2,851 individuals were rescued on Monday, they added.
In one dinghy, a dead body was recovered.
Coast Guard officials said that many of the migrants were Syrians while numerous others were fleeing sub-Saharan Africa aboard about 16 boats and four rafts.
Many were found after distress calls were made via satellite phones, a frequent procedure with human traffickers who call for help before abandoning migrants who had paid thousands of euros each for passage to Europe.
Four Coast Guard patrol boats as well as three boats from the finance police assisted the European Union’s Frontex border patrol craft.
Several commercial tugboats as well as an Icelandic patrol board were also pressed into rescue service on Monday, with aircraft and helicopters operated by the Coast Guard brought in to help.
Italy has seen a sharp increase this year in the already enormous flow of migrants arriving on its coast from North Africa. Authorities have said that they are braced for even more arrivals due to the improved weather and sea conditions that have come with spring.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy Rescued 1,500 Migrants in Mediterranean on Tuesday
(ANSAmed) — ROME — Some 1,511 migrants were rescued on Tuesday in 12 separate operations coordinated by the Rome Coast Guard National Rescue Center. In recent days, another 8,480 were rescued, bringing the total to almost ten thousand, reports the port authorities. On Tuesday, the Dattilo ship of the Coast Guard brought on shore 503 migrants from 5 rafts, 131 people were rescued by a motorboat, 88 by another Coast Guard unit and 86 from another motor boat that transshiped the migrants from the Shah ship, which had been rerouted for rescue purposes. The Norman Corona merchant ship collaborated with the operations and brought 95 people to a motorboat to be taken ashore. A Financial Police unit rescued 89 and two Italian navy ships rescued a total of 519 people.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Dead Man ‘Thrown to Sharks’ In New Migrant Horror
Italian Coast Guard say 8,480 migrants rescued in four days
(ANSA) — Rome, April 14 — An alleged human trafficker threw the body of a dead migrant overboard to sharks following their dinghy during a sea crossing from North Africa, police in the Sicilian city of Ragusa said Tuesday.
The accused, who is from Guinea, arrived with a group of migrants on Monday, said officials who reported almost 8,500 people were rescued in waters off Italy over the previous four days.
A further 1,169 arrived on Tuesday and with Italian reception centres packed, more migrants may be sent by train to northern Europe, officials said.
As many as 11 bodies were recovered from among the migrants rescued in recent days, an EU migration official said.
The mass arrivals have heightened concerns that even larger numbers than in previous years will be making the extremely dangerous passage from Africa and the Middle East to Europe.
Too many fall into the hands of human traffickers who take the migrants’ money and abandon them on the seas.
Police said the migrant thrown to the sharks likely died after he inhaled fumes from petrol that spilled over him in the open boat on rough seas.
Witnesses on the vessel said they were terrified by the sharks following the small boat, which disappeared after they were thrown the body.
Europe must brace “to cope with a heavy migratory season” with thousands of migrants poised to take to the Mediterranean this summer, the European Commission warned from Brussels.
The EC is ready to “play its part” and its new “holistic approach” will be unveiled next month, European Immigration Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos said.
Estimates of the desperate migrants who will try the dangerous crossing this summer range from 250,000 to 500,000. Authorities have said that they are braced for even more arrivals due to the improved weather and sea conditions that have come with spring.
As many as 8,480 migrants were rescued in only four days between Friday and Monday in waters off Italy, the Italian Coast Guard said on Tuesday.
In the Strait of Sicily, 5,629 people were plucked from small boats, rafts and dinghies over the weekend, officials said. On Sunday alone the Coast Guard rescued 22 migrant boats. Another 2,851 individuals were rescued on Monday, they added.
In one dinghy, a dead body was recovered.
Coast Guard officials said that many of the migrants were Syrians while numerous others were fleeing sub-Saharan Africa aboard about 16 boats and four rafts.
Many were found after distress calls were made via satellite phones, a frequent procedure with human traffickers who call for help before abandoning migrants who had paid thousands of euros each for passage to Europe.
Four Coast Guard patrol boats as well as three boats from the finance police and Navy vessels assisted the European Union’s Frontex border patrol craft.
Several commercial tugboats as well as an Icelandic patrol board were also involved in Monday’s rescue, with aircraft and helicopters operated by the Coast Guard brought in to help.
Italy has seen a sharp increase this year in the already enormous flow of migrants arriving on its coast from North Africa. It has been on the front lines, rescuing migrants who are headed for other parts of Europe but arrive first in Italy because the country’s southernmost points are close to the North African coast of Libya.
That has triggered some security concerns, but Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni said Tuesday that there has been no intelligence information to date suggesting that potential terrorists could be among the boatloads of migrants.
“No one can rule it out in theory, but for now we do not have intelligence information” to this effect, Gentiloni told Radio 24.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Labor Department Pledges $13 Million to Promote Youth Employment in El Salvador, Honduras
Government brings in illegal immigrants as poor Americans suffer.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Libya Migrants: Sight of Rescuers ‘Led to Capsize’
A shipwreck in which about 400 migrants are feared to have died off Libya this week was caused by excitement at the sight of rescuers, survivors say. They told officials that the boat capsized when many migrants moved to one side as a rescue ship approached. Monday’s sinking is among the worst migrant tragedies in the Mediterranean.
Almost 10,000 people have been picked up in recent days, and more boats are heading for the Italian coast.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Netherlands: Amsterdam Tells Refugees to Dismantle Camp on Building Land
Amsterdam city council has told a group of refugees who set up camp on building land in the city’s Pijp district they have to move on. While the group are on land which is accessible to the public, ‘it is not allowed to put up tents and sleep in public areas’, the council said on Tuesday. Some of the group, all of whom have lost their right to stay in the Netherlands, put up the tents on Monday after being evicted from a car park where they had been squatting. Around 120 people were living in the car park, dubbed the Vluchtgarage. Many come from Somalia, Congo and Yemen and have been living in squats all over the city since 2012, including abandoned offices and a church.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Spain Illegal Immigration Jumps by Two-Thirds
The number of illegal immigrants arriving in Spain jumped by 68 percent during 2014, the majority entering via Spain’s north African territories using fake documentation.
The number of illegal immigrants entering Spain through Ceuta and Melilla alone increased by more than half during 2014 compared to the year before with a surge in refugees arriving from Syria.
But although the headlines have given the most attention to those attempting to cross into the enclaves by climbing the fences, the majority of those who entered Spain did so with forged documentaton presented at the border.
The total of 12,549 illegal immigrants in 2014 was a big jump from the year before when 7,472 entered Spain illegally, according to Spanish Interior Ministry information.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Why Do Nations Extinguish Themselves?
by Diana West
Once upon a time in 1970, fewer than 1 in 21 residents in the USA was foreign-born.
Now we approach a ratio more like 1 in 7, or even 1 in 6, or even higher.
What kind of “nation” is that? No nation. No wonder the social engineers implementing this deographic war on our nation have effectively erased our borders.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Pope Challenges Gender Theory in General Audience
Frances says women, like men, created in God’s image
(ANSA) — Vatican City, April 15 — Gender theory aims to make everyone the same by eliminating differences, and this is actually “the problem, not the solution,” Pope Francis said Wednesday.
Gender theory, according to Francis, aims to try to eliminate sexual differences but that instead may give rise to frustration and resignation, Francis said in his general audience in St. Peter’s Square.
Therefore, “removing the difference (between women and men) is the problem, not the solution,” the pope added in his comments before some 25,000 people in the square.
Both men and women alike were created “in the image and likeness of God,” Francis said, urging more “creativity and boldness” in recognizing “female genius”.
“God created man in His own image…male and female, He created them,” so that both man and woman bear the image and likeness of God — both as individuals and also together, Francis said in his weekly general audience in St. Peter’s Square.
The differences between the sexes “is not for opposition or subordination, but for communion,” he added.
The pope also said that the world must apply more “creativity and boldness” in recognizing “feminine genius”.
In this way woman are not only listened to, actually heard with their voices given weight and authority recognized by society.
Man and woman are “made to listen to each other”, in order to work together. The pope said that the voice of women must not only be heard in the Church and society, but listened to closely and given weight and authority.
“It is necessary, in fact, that the woman is not only the most listened to, but that her voice has a real weight, an authority recognized in society and in the Church,” said the pope.
“We have not yet understood in depth what are the things that the genius of women can give us, things that women can do in society,” he added.
“This is the path to follow, with creativity and boldness,” the pope said.
In the Bible, said Francis, Jesus “shines a powerful light on a long road still to be tread, a road upon which we have only taken a few steps”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: State-Funded LGBT-Organization Put on a Wetsex Show for 15 Year Old Students
Peeing on a naked woman. That’s the kind of show that the state-funded Swedish LGBT-organisation RFSL put on for 15 year old students in Stockholm to promote “love”.
The state funded organization RFSL (“The Swedish Federation for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights”) arranged, together with a few students, a “Pride Week” at Kungsholmen Gymnasium (Kungsholmen High School). The week was supposed to “spread a sense of openness and love in the school”.
The Pride Week ended with a “happening” in the schools auditorium where a few people put on a show. But this was no Shakespeare; it was the “love” and “openness” of the LBGT-lobby. A woman on stage undressed herself, got beaten by a man and after she fell to the ground, the man started… peeing on her.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Antisemitism Rose Sharply in 2014 Says Israeli Report
By 38% with France and UK in the lead; doubled in Italy
(ANSAmed) — TEL AVIV — The year 2014 was one of the worst in the past decade concerning Antisemitism, with an almost 40% rise in ‘violent acts’ against Jews and/or Jewish institutions, especially in Western Europe and North America. The Kantor Center report presented on Wednesday at the University of Tel Aviv puts the number at 766, a 38% rise on 2013. Most of the cases occurred in France (164) or the UK (141), while the number almost doubled in Italy from 12 to 23. The presentation was on occasion of Yom HaShoah, which in Israel commemorates the mass killing of Jews by Nazis. “Jews realized, especially in Europe, that there are no more taboos and restrictions when it comes to antisemitic manifestations,” states the report, asking what sort of future the communities and individuals will have and calling for greater security ensured by the state. The center warned that Antisemitism seems to be rising in 2015 as well.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
I have to believe that we have the finest fighting force in the world. If I didn’t believe that then I would say that we are doomed.
Should have sunk the boat far out at sea and blamed gypsies…
Naughty. Do the others even let gypsies board with them?
We ( i.e. the west ) have the best fighting force. True. All muslim countries buy our weapons and sometimes use them against us. But we suffer from confusion, illusions, fantasies, we embrace unrealities, we are disconnected from our surroundings, especially when we deal with muslims. When dealings with muslims our Traitor Class decisions are as strange as chimera. We see how their decisions affect our lives and how negative they are and are designed to hurt us and benefit the muslims, and we can’t do anything about that, and we can’t change that.
Muslims are gloating and laughing up their sleeves and in their beards at our empty values, values that are paving the way to our destruction.
We in the west have no meaningful values to defend at all. Values die when faith dies. To cover that ugly [posterior] we import invaders, and posit it as a value, we surrender our nations to muslims, we promote halal food, we install muslims jihadis in high positions, we change our curricula and teach islam instead, courts grant money to any muslims who files a frivolous suit. We talk about muslim poverty incessantly in Africa and Asia and we blame ourselves for not feeding 34 kids born of 4 wives. These are not values. These are abject products of sick thinking.
Can anyone from outside the west come and diagnose our deadly ailment? namely: our kissing of muslim feet and following their diktats. How can we talk about freedom when we voluntarily enslave ourselves to jihadi muslims. We have tied our hands and cut our tongue when dealing with muslims. We can’t do that because we don’t have a normal person left.
Italians don’t like to be invaded by muslims, and they can’t do anything. How many millions of muslims can Italy and Europe absorb ? Why a simple question like this does not occur to those “genius officials” and the stupid bimbo who appeared on CNN yesterday talking about “the root cause of migration” . These little souls talk about great HUGE unachievable ideas to stupefy us with their illegible jargon, and it has worked for the last 50 years.
Are people waking up to the hell around us created by out “elected peerless choice rulers” ?
EU was created to end the incessant wars in Europe. Today EU is evil devil which is creating every suitable condition for future disasters, that will consume Europe.
How could rulers be so mentally blind? They have eyes that cannot see and ears that cannot hear.
Who has the power ans ability to save us from our abject malignant rulers?
Perhaps most people have to be above a certain age to see the disaster that is coming our way. They are old enough to have a sense of history.
We can only hope that the continuing change in demography will awake more people and they will respond like a poked hornets nest. But we can’t be sure that this will happen as younger generations might just view massive immigration from muslim countries as business as usual.