Fighting between police and terrorists continued into a second day in the Macedonian town of Kumanovo. The Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) has reportedly claimed responsibility for the attacks. There have been additional injuries, including an unspecified number of policemen.
In other news, according to the latest polls, a majority of citizens in the Czech Republic, Sweden, and Poland oppose the introduction of the euro in their countries.
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.
Schäuble Warns of “Sudden” Greek Default
The governments of Greece — new and old — screwed up. Other debt-sinner countries are able to borrow at near-zero or negative interest rates, simply taking money from investors with a promise to return it on a given day in the future if investors give it new money to do so. These investors, it must be said, had their brains washed by the ECB and other central banks in order to allow this to happen. But the governments of Greece somehow missed that gravy train.
Now, no one wants to lend Greece money at negative interest rates, least of all the Greeks themselves, who know their governments better than anyone else on the planet and have less trust in it than anyone else on the planet: they’re yanking their euros out of their banks even as the ECB is propping them up with fresh euros that ultimately belong to taxpayers elsewhere.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
“Government Wants to Control Your Car” And Prevent You From ‘Tinkering’ Under DMCA Copyright
The government wants to control your car — how it’s made, what it comes equipped with and (of course) how you’re allowed to drive it. Now comes the other half of the pincers:
The car companies want to prevent you from working on the thing.
Modifications — performance enhancements — and even routine maintenance are to become illegal via the application (and enforcement) of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) to cars…
Now, DMCA copyright laws will compound the already strict requirements on car manufacturers to hamstring the ability of an individual to work on or modify their own vehicle.
Doing so would be noticed by the vehicle tracking systems, and would violate these regulations — prompting fines, legal action or even vehicle kill switches, disabling the car and preventing the owner from using it at all.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
American Gladiators: How the Running Man is Our Reality
Cheesy 80s dystopian films constitute some of the best cinematic predictive programming, and 1987’s The Running Man is a fine specimen. Full of Schawrzenegger’s grunts and “aagghhhs” (as opposed to a script), even Bloodsport has a contender for wooden acting and silly fight choreography with Running Man. Nevertheless, Stephen King’s novel of the same name was transformed into an accurate description of where the U.S. is headed in full Hunger Games fashion: Although many dystopian novels and the films depict the great gladiatorial games scenario, but The Running Man has some unique insights that are worth highlighting.
[Comment: Violence as entertainment is indicative of the decline of the civilization.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
American Patriotism is Dying a Slow Death
There was a time not too long ago when Americans were so patriotic, it was palpable. You couldn’t throw a rock in any direction without hitting someone with stars and stripes in their eyes. There was a near unanimous belief that we were the shining city upon a hill, and that we were and always would be the greatest nation on Earth. While it was mostly found among conservatives, it did cross party lines to some extant. It was so pervasive that anyone who didn’t believe it was pegged an extremist, or just plain weird.
But now? Not so much. The sentiment is still there I suppose, but you can almost feel it evaporating a little bit every day. The pride Americans feel for their country is slipping away, and is now an undeniable fact. ZeroHedge recently posted a poll from the World Values Survey, which reveals the precipitous decline of our national pride. In terms of patriotism, we’ve fallen beneath the likes of Mexico, Rwanda, and Armenia.
Only 56% of Americans said they were “very proud” of their nation, according to World Values Survey data, down from over 62% in 2009 (71.1% in 2004, and 77% in 1999). Behind nations such as Libya, Nigeria, Egypt, and Poland, ‘exceptional’ America now ranks only 30th in the world for national pride…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Autonomous Truck Cleared to Drive on US Roads for the First Time
The next big thing in autonomous vehicles really is big. At a ceremony at the Hoover Dam last Wednesday, automotive manufacturer Daimler unveiled a self-driving truck — the first to be cleared to drive on US roads. For the freight industry, the Inspiration Truck holds the promise of a future with fewer accidents, lower fuel costs and well-rested drivers.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Court: Border Search of Businessman’s Laptop ‘Unreasonable’
A federal court has ruled that the government’s search of a traveling businessman’s laptop at the California border was unreasonable and violated his privacy.
In an opinion posted Friday, U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson suppressed evidence obtained from the computer of South Korean businessman Jae Shik Kim, undercutting the government’s case that he conspired to sell aircraft technology illegally to Iran. Jackson said that federal law enforcement improperly used Kim’s border crossing as an excuse to seize his computer and gather evidence it needed to prove suspected arms control violations.
The ruling was a sharply worded rebuke of the Obama administration’s treatment of laptops as containers like any other that can be searched without a warrant and without time limits to protect national security.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
DEA Steals Cash From Innocent Man Who They Claim ‘Must be a Drug Dealer’
They found no drugs on him whatsoever. They never saw him selling drugs or committing a crime of any sort. But the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) claims that they are “certain” that 22-year-old Joseph Rivers is a “drug dealer.”
What makes them so sure?
When the young African American man set out to make a music video in Hollywood, after scraping together the funds, the Michigan native had the $16,000 for the shoot on him.
That’s it. Nothing else. Having the money for this video on him, as he traveled from Michigan to Los Angeles was sufficient “evidence” that he was a drug dealer, even though no drugs were found on him, and even though there was no link made between him and any criminal element.
Just the mere existence of that much money in a young African American’s possession — on his way to try to make it big in Hollywood — was enough “evidence” for the DEA to rob him of his hard earned money, and the capital for his new business.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Ex-NSA Security Staffer: Apple Macs Are Wide Open to Malware
A former NSA staffer turned security researcher is warning that bypassing typical OS X security tools is trivial.
Patrick Wardle, a former NSA staffer and NASA intern who now heads up research at crowd-sourced security intelligence firm Synack, found that Apple’s defensive Gatekeeper technology can be bypassed allowing unsigned code to run. Apple’s Gatekeeper utility is pre-installed in Mac OS X PCs and used to verify code. The tool is designed so that by default it will only allow signed code to run or, depending on settings, only packages from the Mac App Store.
Apple’s built-in mechanisms — Gatekeeper, XProtect anti-malware, sandboxing and kernel code-signing requirements — are “easy to get around” and “trivially exploitable”, according to Wardle.
Wardle said he worked closely with Apple’s internal security teams describing them as “responsive” while noting the wider consumer electronics firm had yet to embrace a culture where “comprehensive security is baked into their OS X systems” from the onset. By contrast to OS X, iOS has solid security baked in, according to Wardle.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Free Trade is Plutocratic Propaganda
With the looming Trans-Pacific Partnership dominating the headlines, now is a good time to revisit an old scam called “free trade.”
In 2003, Kevin Flanagan was an information technology employee at Bank of America. They told him he was being replaced with foreign labor, and he was ordered to train his replacement. After he completed his assignment, he was laid off. Then he went to the parking lot and shot himself.
That’s “free trade.”
Like The Ministry of Truth in George Orwell’s 1984, sometimes, the most effective way to lie is to use the most innocent words. No word is more susceptible to propaganda-leveraging than “freedom.” Attach that word to any concept, and all of a sudden, it’s unassailable. That’s exactly what happened with “free trade.”
Proponents of free trade will often use the simplest analogies to convey their point, as if you were retarded. The reason they have to resort to such caveman illustrations is because free trade does not exist in the real world. There is no such thing as equality of bargaining power. If someone has ten million dollars and you have zero dollars, anything above zero is an “improvement” in your situation. The free trade economists will say this person with zero dollars is “free” to work for $1 per hour, and they will do so because it improves their situation. This is what “freedom” means to free trade economists.
If you doubt the free trade economists, they will call you a “protectionist,” as if protecting your country’s economy were some kind of grievous transgression. In fact, nothing is more American than shunning free trade nonsense.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Government Protection Against Terrorism for Americans Doesn’t Exist Anymore
In a world where Islamic threats like: “we will send all our Lions to achieve her (Geller’s) slaughter,” go unanswered and where a president dubs nicknames like “JV” to terrorists, citizens who go about their daily lives are on their own.
Protection against terrorism for citizens doesn’t live in the U.S. any more.
Obama has opened the door wide to world caliphate-obsessed Islamic terrorists, some of whom are only waiting for the most opportune moment to strike from sleeper cells on American soil, while he has loudly slammed the door on protecting American citizens under dire Islamic threat.
To Obama and his legion of supporters, Islamic terrorists are not the enemy, Pamela Geller and any others who dare to take a public stand against Islamic terrorism are.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Yet another report has surfaced describing how tools created by the companies selling software that can damage and hack into people’s computers are being deployed by U.S. security services. While the coverage surrounding this story focuses primarily on federal agencies it’s important to step back for a moment and view the big picture. In particular, looking at who builds, operates, and profits from mass surveillance technology offers insight into the nature of the global panopticon.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Pamela Geller’s Critics Are Proving Her Point
By David French
Let’s be clear: The great freak-out over Pamela Geller’s “draw Muhammad” contest isn’t about love for Islam or for robust and respectful religious pluralism. Indeed, many of those expressing anguish over blasphemy against Islam show no such concern over even the most vile attacks on the Christian faith. Beyond that, they’re among the leaders in movements designed to banish religious liberty — including Muslim religious liberty — to the margins of American life. Instead, the fury against Pamela Geller is motivated mostly by fear — by the understanding that there are indeed many, many Muslims who believe that blasphemy should be punished with death, and who put that belief into practice. It’s motivated by the fear that our alliances with even “friendly” Muslim states and “allied” Muslim militias are so fragile that something so insignificant as a cartoon would drive them either to neutrality or straight into the arms of ISIS.
That’s why even the military brass will do something so unusual as call a fringe pastor of a tiny little church to beg him not to post a YouTube video. That’s why the president of the United States — ostensibly the most powerful man in the world — will personally appeal to that same pastor not to burn a Koran. They know that hundreds of millions of Muslims are not “moderate” by any reasonable definition of that word, and they will,in fact, allow themselves to be provoked by even the most insignificant and small-scale act of religious satire or defiance.
[…]
Unable or unwilling to formulate a strategy to comprehensively defeat jihad or even to adequately defend our nation, our elites adopt a strategy of cultural appeasement that only strengthens our enemy. Millions in the Muslim world are drawn to the “strong horse” (to use Osama bin Laden’s phrase), and when jihadists intimidate the West into silence and conformity, the jihadists show themselves strong.
In a sane world, our national elites would not only rally unequivocally around free speech, they would point to the events of Garland, Texas, as perfectly symbolic of the way we handle threats against our Constitution and our culture — by defeating our enemies and defending our liberty. Instead, they express fears that provocative speech not only threatens our troops abroad but our cities here at home.
[What they’re really doing is using the ‘fanatical frenzy” Muslims to attain an objective they would otherwise not be able to: the intimidation of the broader society into silence regarding a designated “Other” class. In a sense Muslims are serving as the American left’s “shock troops.” — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
SNL (Doesn’t) Draw the Line at Prophet Muhammad
By Dean Obeidallah
“Saturday Night Live” has really crossed the line this time! Last night this venerable comedy institution did something it had never tried before in its 40 years on the air: A comedy sketch about drawing the Prophet Mohammed.
Well they didn’t actually draw the Prophet and therein lies the comedy. In a very smart and very funny sketch, SNL gave us a parody of the game show, “Win, Lose or Draw.” As a refresher, in this game show contestants are assigned a movie, person, etc., to draw in hopes that their fellow contestant can guess it correctly and win a prize.
The SNL sketch began with the contestant being assigned the movie, “Gone Girl.” That was solved pretty quickly with one contestant drawing a girl running away.
The next contestant, played by SNL’s Bobby Moynihan, jumped up excitedly ready to draw. He’s handed the card with his assigned picture from the host. Moynihan looks at the card and his face quickly goes from all smiles to sheer horror. The audience then sees what Moynihan has to draw: “The Prophet Mohammed.”
Moynihan, to big laughs, hems and hews, offering excuses why he can’t draw anything. Then SNL’s Keenan Thompson bolts ups saying he will draw whatever it is. But when Thompson sees it’s the Prophet Mohammed, he “accidentally” drops his pen. Finally, this episode’s host Reese Witherspoon asks: “Is it the Prophet Mohammed?”
That, my friends, is a great comedy sketch that raises an important issue about freedom for expression and the fear some Americans have about drawing the Prophet Mohammed. It didn’t demonize Muslims like Pam Geller does for a living while masquerading as an advocate for freedom of expression.
I wasn’t surprised by the way SNL approached this touchy topic. SNL would never intentionally stoke the flames of hate against any minority group. I worked at SNL from the late 1990s to mid-2000s on the show’s production staff. The comedy about political and societal issue always punched up, not down, meaning the comedy took aim at people in power, not minority groups.
[…]
Being a passionate advocate of freedom of expression, I truly hope for day when SNL can actually draw an image of the Prophet Mohammed with the only concern being the typical objections via phone calls to NBC, emails, etc. And to be honest, I think we are just about there, at least from point of view of mainstream Muslims.
[Of course, this Muslim propagandist is not being honest at all — as witness the deceit of the terrorist-spawning Phoenix mosque whence the Texas cartoon attackers emerged. — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
‘Terrorism Has Gone Viral’: US Officials, Lawmakers Warn of Growing Jihad-Inspired Attacks
Top U.S. officials and lawmakers on Sunday intensified concerns about the growing threat of jihad-inspired terror attacks against the United States, after last week’s attempt in Texas and the dire FBI warning that followed.
“I think there’s been an uptick in the stream of threats out there,” Texas GOP Rep. Mike McCaul, chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, told “Fox News Sunday.” “We’re seeing these directives on almost a daily basis. It’s very concerning. Terrorism has gone viral.”
McCaul’s comments follow the May 3 attack by two gunmen outside a “Draw Muhammad” event in Garland, Texas.
Tweets by one of the two gunmen, killed by police in the attack, appear to link him to radical Islamic terror groups. And Internet chatter purportedly tipped off officials about a possible attack on the event.
On Thursday, FBI Director James Comey said the attack, in which a security officer was shot in the leg, highlights the difficulties the FBI faces — as social media facilitates communication between terror groups and potential homegrown extremists.
He also said the Islamic State terror group has thousands of English-language followers on Twitter, including many in the U.S.
The group also is increasingly steering followers into forums that allow for encrypted communications that can be harder for law enforcement officials to access.
[…]
Also on Sunday, Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said the U.S. is facing a new phase of terrorism in which a so-called lone-wolf terrorist, inspired by Islamic State propaganda on social media, could “strike at any moment.”
The Obama administration has said the attack in suburban Dallas last week was a “lone wolf” effort.
“We’re very definitely in a new environment, because of ISIL’s effective use of social media, the Internet, which has the ability to reach into the homeland and possibly inspire others,” Johnson said on ABC’s “This Week.”
[Lone wolf, schmone wolf. The Texas cartoon attackers attended a terrorist-spawning mosque and were taking their cues from terrorists overseas. They were terrorist “fish” swimming in the Muslim “sea,” as per Mao Tse-tung’s famous dictum. — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
The Economics of Tesla’s PowerWall Don’t Make Sense for Most Customers in North America
And while on the shiny surface, Musk once again did a great spin job of presenting the PowerWall as the next big thing in energy conservation and self-sustainability, the gloss promptly fades when one looks at the math behind the shiny facade.
Luckily, Catalytic Engineering has done just that, and has presented its Top Ten facts about Tesla’s $350/kWh battery. Its conclusion: the “economics don’t make sense for most customers in North America” and that “by itself, the Tesla PowerWall residential unit won’t disrupt the energy industry, as it’s looking like a niche product.”
In other words, just like the electric Tesla car was spun (more so by overeager sellside analysts even than management) as a niche product which will be adopted by everyone in the US (and the world) but increasingly appears that not only will this fad fade away only to be replaced by the next such attention-grabbing gimmick, so the PowerWall is a product that while clearly appealing to some 40,000 early adopters “it’s yet not clear that it will expand much beyond that.”
Which brings up an important point: is Elon Musk’s genius not in his inventor and developer abilities but merely his marketing skills. But that is the topic of a different post.
For now, here are the Top Ten Facts about Tesla’s $350/kWh (DC) PowerWall battery courtesy of Catalytic Engineering, by Bruce Lin and Matthew Klippenstein
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Great Unraveling of Globalization
“Even for the most successful multinationals, profit margins in international markets are on average lower than margins in the domestic market,” said Robert Salomon, aprofessor of international management at the NYU Stern School of Business. “It’s the liability of foreign markets. By virtue of the fact that you are foreign, you are at a disadvantage.”
That’s a far cry from the way globalization was pitched, as the strategic imperative du jour nearly two decades ago. It was supposed to act like a rising tide, lifting all boats in poor and rich countries alike. Buoyed by hundreds of thousands of new assembly line jobs courtesy of multinationals in emerging nations, the middle class would swell, which in turn would propel higher local consumption. More factories would be needed to meet the demand, further raising local standards of living and handing the largest non-domestic companies a vast and enthusiastic new customer base.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Unassailable Virtue of Victims: On the Rise of Hillary Clinton and Other Underdogs
By Joseph Epstein
Our virtues lose themselves in selfishness
as rivers are lost in the sea.
— La Rochefoucauld
If Hillary Clinton wins the presidency in 2016 she will not only be the nation’s first woman president but our second affirmative-action president. By affirmative-action president I mean that she, like Barack Obama, will have got into office partly for reasons extraneous to her political philosophy or to her merits, which, though fully tested while holding some of the highest offices in the land, have not been notably distinguished. In his election, Obama was aided by the far from enticing Republican candidates who opposed him, but a substantial portion of the electorate voted for him because having a biracial president seemed a way of redressing old injustices. They hoped his election would put the country’s racial problems on a different footing, which sadly, as we now know, it has failed to do. Many people voted for Obama, as many women can be expected to vote for Hillary Clinton, because it made them feel virtuous to do so. The element of self-virtue-of having an elevated feeling about oneself-is perhaps insufficiently appreciated in American politics.
How have we come to the point where we elect presidents of the United States not on their intrinsic qualities but because of the accidents of their birth: because they are black, or women, or, one day doubtless, gay, or disabled-not, in other words, for themselves but for the causes they seem to embody or represent, for their status as members of a victim group? It’s a long but not, I think, a boring story.
In recent decades, vast numbers of people have clamored to establish themselves or the ethnic group or sexual identity or even gender to which they belong as victims of prejudice, oppression, and injustice generally. E.?M. Forster wrote of “the aristocracy of the sensitive, the considerate, and the plucky.” Owing to the spread of victimhood, we have today a large aristocracy of the suffering, the put-upon, and the unlucky. Blacks, gays, women, American Indians, Hispanics, the obese, Vietnam veterans, illegal immigrants, the handicapped, single parents, fast-food workers, the homeless, poets, and anyone else able to establish underdog bona fides can now claim to be victims. Many years ago, I watched a show on television that invited us to consider the plight of unwed fathers. We are, it sometimes seems, a nation of victims.
Victims of an earlier time viewed themselves as supplicants, throwing themselves on the conscience if not mercy of those in power to raise them from their downtrodden condition. The contemporary victim tends to be angry, suspicious, above all progress-denying. He or she is ever on the lookout for that touch of racism, sexism, homophobia, or insensitivity that might show up in a stray opinion, an odd locution, an uninformed misnomer. People who count themselves victims require enemies. Forces high and low block their progress: The economy disfavors them; society is organized against them; the malevolent, who are always in ample supply, conspire to keep them down; the system precludes them. Asked some years ago by an interviewer in Time magazine about violence in schools that are all-black-that is, violence by blacks against blacks-the novelist Toni Morrison, a connoisseur of victimhood whose novels deal with little else, replied, “None of those things can take place, you know, without the complicity of the people who run the schools and the city.”
Public pronouncements from victims can take on a slightly menacing quality, in which, somehow, the roles of victim and supposed antagonist are reversed. Today it is the victim who is doing the bullying-threatening boycott, riot, career-destroying social media condemnation-and frequently making good on their threats. Victims often seem actively to enjoy their victimhood-enjoy above all the moral advantage it gives them.
[…]
In the next presidential election, Hillary Clinton figures to have pole position as the victim candidate. Behind her platform, her discrete policies, the merits of her case, her campaign for the presidency will stress, either blatantly or subtly, the great bonus in virtue that awaits, in the cant phrase, shattering the glass ceiling of politics by putting a woman in the White House. Whatever her baggage of malfeasance, her wealth and glittery résumé of good schools and top jobs, she retains, and will doubtless insist upon, her victim status. Even her most dubious supporters, Michael Tomasky writes in the Daily Beast, “want to see her succeed. They yearn for her to slay the beasts of sexism and gender-role definitions that she has taken it upon herself to battle.” Hillary Clinton’s victory would mean a great triumph for victimhood, no doubt about it. What it might mean for the country is of course another question altogether.
[It would mean, among other things, a complete capitulation to the Muslim ummah on the cardinal issue of free speech, as the execrable “Instanbul process” in whose launch she collaborated as secretary of state comes to fruition. — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
Witness Pulled Gun on Burglary Suspect Who Was Beating OKC Officer
By Matthew Nuttle
OKLAHOMA CITY — New information is coming out regarding the rookie Oklahoma City police officer who was beaten by a suspect with his own baton following a burglary on the northwest side of the metro. An armed witness may have been the only thing that kept that officer from a more serious beating, or worse.
It happened just after 2 p.m. Tuesday in the 2800 block of W. Park Pl. Rookie Officer Adam Eller and field training officer Sgt. Michael Lambert were responding to the burglary call.
The two suspects in the burglary, Tremaine and Jermaine Williams, are twin brothers. Police say Tremaine was already gone when they arrived, but Jermaine was there and when he saw the officers he took off on foot.
During the chase the two officers became separated. Eller found himself alone when he caught up to Jermaine in a driveway of a nearby home and as he tried to place him under arrest, a fight ensued. During the struggle, Jermaine was able to take Eller’s police baton and then proceeded to strike him over the head somewhere between six and 12 times.
According to a report, that’s when a witness nearby charged up with his weapon drawn and told Jermaine he would shoot him if he did not stop hitting Eller. That heroic witness has not been identified.
Both Tremaine and Jermaine Williams were eventually taken into custody and booked into the Oklahoma County jail Tuesday night. Eller was rushed from the scene to OU Medical Center with serious injuries, but was released on Wednesday and is expected to make a full recovery.
[Each of these creatures had an evil twin! — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
Chinese Billionaire Li Jinyuan Takes 6,400 Staff on Holiday to France
Chinese billionaire Li Jinyuan, President of the Tiens Group, has treated over half of his company’s 12,000 workforce to a four-day holiday to Paris and the South of France — at a total cost of around €33m (£24m).
Jinyuan booked up 140 Paris hotels for 6,400 of his workforce, who were treated to tours of local sightseeing attractions including the Louvre and Eiffel Tower. He then booked 7,600 TGV seats for the trip south to the Cote d’Azur, meaning extra trains had to be booked and extra staff hired at Gare de Lyon.
Around 4,760 rooms were booked in four- and five-star hotels in Monaco and Cannes for the workforce, 5,400 of whom were from China and the remainder from other locations around the world. In total, Jinyuan booked 30,000 hotel rooms over four nights.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Datagate: US-German Intelligence Service Scandal is Widening
Berlin agents monitored more than 25,000 unlawful key selectors
(ANSA) — BERLIN — The number of unlawful key selectors, namely search keys improperly used by German intelligence service (BND) on behalf of US intelligence to monitor Internet traffic, would be about 25,000, almost double than previously thought. This news was reported by Dpa news agency, quoting sources of the Intelligence Audit Committee, which is dealing with the case.
According to the results so far, the secret service agents might have operated on behalf of the NSA, spying, maybe unwittingly, political allies and many companies across Europe. Among the 25,000 selectors mentioned by the DPA, however, there would not be targets of industrial espionage. An analysis conducted after Edward Snowden’s surveillance revelations in 2013, disclosed that 25,000 selectors might have been unlawfully monitored — not complying with the agreements between the US and Germany — in the field of cooperation between intelligence services.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Don’t Forget How the Soviet Union Saved the World From Hitler
By Ishaan Tharoor
In the Western popular imagination — particularly the American one — World War II is a conflict we won. It was fought on the beaches of Normandy and Iwo Jima, through the rubble of recaptured French towns and capped by sepia-toned scenes of joy and young love in New York. It was a victory shaped by the steeliness of Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, the moral fiber of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and the awesome power of an atomic bomb.
But that narrative shifts dramatically when you go to Russia, where World War II is called the Great Patriotic War and is remembered in a vastly different light.
[…]
Unfairly or not, the current tensions obscure the scale of what’s being commemorated: Starting in 1941, the Soviet Union bore the brunt of the Nazi war machine and played perhaps the most important role in the Allies’ defeat of Hitler. By one calculation, for every single American soldier killed fighting the Germans, 80 Soviet soldiers died doing the same.
[…]
For Russia’s neighbors, it’s hard to separate the Soviet triumph from the decades of Cold War domination that followed. One can also lament the way the sacrifices of the past inform the muscular Russian nationalism now peddled by Putin and his Kremlin allies. But we shouldn’t forget how the Soviets won World War II in Europe.
[Oh? And how much strategic bombing of Nazi war industry did they do? And how many Nazi submarines did they destroy, even as those subs were striving to choke off vital Western aid to Soviet armies? Very little of the first and virtually none of the second. The idea that “the Soviets won” is not only revisionist bunk but an insult to our fathers who struggled so bravely and effectively against the Nazi war machine. The truth is that all the allies pitched in and got ‘er done. Would that the world could work like that today. — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Red Blood Cells Found in Ötzi the Iceman
BOLZANO, ITALY—Phys.org reports that a team of researchers from the Institute for Mummies and the Iceman used a nano-sized probe to search the cuts on the body of Ötzi the Iceman, who died some 5,300 years ago in the Alps, for red blood cells. As it moved, the probe captured 3-D images of doughnut-shaped cells. These cells were confirmed to be red blood cells with a laser that tested their molecular composition. Raman spectroscopy was then used to detect traces of fibrin, a clotting agent made by the body immediately after an injury occurs. The team of researchers, including Marek Janko, Robert W. Stark, and Albert Zink, suggests in the open-access Journal of the Royal Society that Ötzi died shortly after he received these wounds, since fibrin is quickly absorbed by the body as other agents take over healing.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Trenord and Expo: “Extraordinary Plan, Also for Commuters”
Three hundred and seventy nine journeys by Trenord trains per day, to reach Expo, an extraordinary plan that will also affect commuters. “There will be 180 extra journeys, new services and greater security.”
Three hundred and seventy nine trains per day, with 180,000 seats, 180 extra journeys, for a total of 1.5 million additional kilometres. These are the numbers revealed by Trenord’s CEO, Cinzia Farisè, that relate to the plan with which regional transport is getting ready for Expo. “Every day, at least 40,000 people will choose the train to travel to the World Fair,” Farisè explained, “and this is why we’ve implemented an extraordinary plan that will also bring benefits for the ordinary service.”
The expansion will affect many lines of the regional service and will enable passengers to reach the Rho site from every town in Lombardy, “with a maximum of one change,” with a widespread service that will bring one train through that station “every three minutes, like the underground.” Click here, to read the complete plan of the extraordinary service for Expo.
COMMUTERS — The new Trenord guide looked upon Expo “as an opportunity to speed up the service, also for our commuters,” and for this reason, “we’ve reorganised the whole My Link Point at Cadorna Station; we’ve redone the entrance of the railway link at Garibaldi Station, creating a genuine piazza, and we’ve invested a lot on security.” Indeed, on the one hand, an extraordinary plan against graffiti on trains has begun, and on the other, security on the carriages has been enhanced with dedicated staff constantly travelling on them. This has all been accompanied by the renewal of the fleet, by interventions to improve punctuality and by the launch of a new app. “In the next few days, the new service will enable passengers to monitor the progress of trains, receive information and purchase tickets and season tickets directly from their smartphones.”
THE REGION — This important investment included a substantial contribution from the Region. “Without out help,” the President of Lombardy, Roberto Maroni, explained, “not only would the expansion not have taken place, but we would have had to cut services and increase ticket prices; it would have been chaos.” However, in view of Expo, the Region’s financial contribution has led Maroni to rejoice. “We came, willing to guarantee the maximum efficiency of our rail transport.”
di Translated by Prof. Rolf Cook
Pubblicato il 28 aprile 2015
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Majority in Czech Republic, Sweden and Poland Against Euro
most in favour are in Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria and Croatia
(ANSA) — BRUSSELS — In Czech Republic (70%), Sweden (66%) and Poland (53%) a majority of citizens is against introducing the euro, while in Romania (68%), Hungary (60%), Bulgaria (55%) and Croatia (53%) is in favour. These are the data of the survey carried out from 20 to 22 April in seven EU Member States that have yet to join the euro — Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Croatia, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and for the first time, Sweden. The survey did not cover Denmark and the UK, which have opted out of the common currency.
Views on the benefits of the euro again vary significantly in the individual countries: 54% of respondents in Romania said they expected positive consequence for their country, compared to 50% in Hungary, 40% in Bulgaria, 39% in Poland, 38% in Sweden and just 26% in the Czech Republic. When asked whether they thought their countries were ready to adopt the euro, 79% said that they did not think their country was ready. This feeling was supported by majorities in all seven countries, ranging from 69% in Romania, to 76% in Sweden, to 86% in Poland.
The majority anyway (81%) would personally manage to adapt to the euro as new currency.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey’s Erdogan Feted at Rally in Germany, Urges Compatriots to Vote Ahead of Election
Speaking in Germany, Turkey’s president has urged his countrymen to preserve their homeland’s values and language and to vote in the upcoming Turkish election.
News agency dpa said President Recep Tayyip Erdogan received a warm welcome Sunday from over 14,000 people in the southwestern German city of Karlsruhe. Germany has a large ethnic Turkish minority, including many Turkish citizens who can vote in the June 7 parliamentary election.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Anjem Choudary Should Have His Own Television Show
Radical UK imam, Anjem Choudary, made an appearance on Hannity last week. Choudary appeared alongside Pamela Geller to discuss the latter’s cartoon contest held in Garland, Texas, that saw two noble practitioners of the religion of peace shot dead by a Garland traffic cop. A security guard was shot and received minor wounds in what was by those able to understand what is going on in the world, a terrorist attack.
Many people do not think Hannity should have the imam on his show, arguing Choudary should not be given an opportunity to express his radical views. These appearances might, so it is said, lead to some people watching becoming radicalized.
Ironically, some of those who object to Choudary being given air time are the same people who argue Geller was right to put on her event in the name of free speech.
Hell, Choudary should not be appearing in tiny segments of shows. He should get his own show, preferably on MSNBC. An advantage of having a show on MSNBC is that the imam would never have to pay income tax if he didn’t want to.
To those who argue someone like Choudary should not be given any time on US television let alone his own show because he is a vile and despicable, there is a two word answer to that—Al Sharpton. Sharpton, who has his own MSNBC show, poses a greater direct threat to Americans, especially police officers, than Choudary ever could. Sharpton, with the support of Obama and his administration, has done more damage in the United States than Choudary ever could by encouraging the thugs who occupied the streets of Baltimore to riot.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
US Encourages Greece to Stick to Non-Russia Pipeline Project
Talks between Washington and Athens on gas
(ANSA/AP) — ATHENS — The United States is encouraging Greece to move forward with a pipeline bringing natural gas from Azerbaijan to Europe via Greece, rather than setting its hopes on a different project that would pipe Russian gas through Turkey.
The U.S. State Department’s special envoy on energy affairs, Amos Hochstein, said Friday he had discussed energy resources with a number of Greek officials during a visit to Athens and that the two sides “agreed on more than we disagreed.” Greece’s new left-wing government has expressed interest in a Moscow-backed pipeline project dubbed Turkish Stream that would bring natural gas across the Black Sea to Turkey and from there to Europe, potentially through Greece. The U.S. has been encouraging the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline, that will take Azeri gas from the Caspian Sea to Italy.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Fighting Continues for 2nd Day in Northern Macedonian Town
Five police officers were killed and over 30 injured
(ANSA-AP) — SKOPJE — Fighting between police forces and members of an armed group has continued for a second day in the northern Macedonian town of Kumanovo.
Five police officers were killed and over 30 injured in an exchange of fire with the armed group in the town on Saturday.
Early Sunday, ambulances in Kumanovo were seen carrying more wounded policemen.
Interior minister Gordana Jankulovska told reporters late Saturday that over 20 members of the armed group had surrendered, but that others refused to give up arms and were holed up in houses in Diva Naselba, a neighborhood in western Kumanovo. She said the “terrorist group,” which had entered Macedonia from an unspecified neighboring country, planned plan to “use the current political situation to perform attacks on state institutions.”
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Liberland President Arrested by Croatia for Trespassing in ‘No Man’s Land’
A Czech politician, who declared himself president of a tiny nation established on what he claims is a 2.7-square-mile “no man’s land” along the Danube River, was arrested Saturday by Croatian authorities who said he and his self-styled fellow founding fathers of Liberland are trespassing.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Macedonia Blames Kosovans for Deadly Kumanovo Clashes
Macedonia says five Kosovans led the armed group which was involved in deadly clashes with security forces in the northern town of Kumanovo.
Eight officers and 14 gunmen were killed in the fighting, Interior ministry spokesman Ivo Kotevski said.
Those named were members of the now dismantled Kosovo Liberation Army.
Mr Kotevski said the operation near the Serbian-Kosovan border was now over and the armed group had been “neutralised”, with a large amount of weapons seized.
Last month, about 40 ethnic Albanians from Kosovo briefly took over a Macedonian police station in the village of Gosince near the border, demanding the creation of an Albanian state within Macedonia.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Algerian Writer and Politician: ‘Hitler Was a Genius’
By Committing Suicide, He Proved ‘He Was A Man To The End’
Algerian writer and politician Dr. Muhi Al-Din ‘Amimour, who has held a series of senior official positions in the country, published an article on December 17, 2014 praising Nazi leader Adolf Hitler. ‘Amimour called Hitler’s rise from a simple sergeant to German Chancellor a “miracle,” praised his success in transforming Germany into a superpower that nearly ruled the world, and called him “clever” and “a genius.” He also said Hitler was “a man to the end,” choosing suicide over humiliation by his enemies. ‘Amimour accused “Jewish organizations” of demonizing Hitler since the 1940s to the point that he became “a global bogeyman” whose name is used as a pejorative and applied to third-world tyrannical rulers.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
New Front in Sinai: Will Tribes Join the ‘War on Terrorism’?
The announcement by the Tarabin, the largest of Sinai’s Bedouin tribes, that they would enter the fight against terrorism in Sinai alongside the government, changes the course of the battle that erupted following the fall of the Muslim Brotherhood.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
A New Hope: First Arab Mars Probe Given Mission to Track Water
The United Arab Emirates has announced details of its uncrewed Mars probe, which it plans to launch in 2020 to monitor the planet’s atmosphere from orbit. The spacecraft, named Hope, will be a big step up from the country’s previous space activities as it attempts to compete with other emerging space powers like India and China.
“The UAE Mars probe represents the Islamic world’s entry into the era of space exploration,” said UAE president Khalifa bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan last year when the probe was first announced. Now UAE has announced its scientific goals for the mission, which include mapping the planet’s weather and studying its atmosphere.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
ISIS Sets ‘Honey Traps’ To Ensnare and Execute Homosexuals
By Thomas D. Williams
In its crusade against homosexuals, the Islamic State is now resorting to sting operations, using jihadists posing as gay men to coax out offenders and execute them.
According to reports, a special unit of militia has been formed within ISIS to deal specifically with the eradication of homosexuals from Syria, Iraq and Libya. One method employed is for militiamen of the Caliphate to send anonymous invitations for blind dates for men only; those who respond are summarily executed.
According to dissident groups working in the area, ISIS religious police have also begun pretending to be gay men in order to ferret others out, before arresting and executing them.
The ISIS regime views sodomy as the most deplorable practice, one punishable by death.
The terrorist group has already published a series of graphic videos showing the murder of supposed gay men, who are often thrown from tall buildings and stoned to death. Some clips show large crowds gathered to watch the executions and pelt the men with stones.
[This is the dystopia to which Muslims are flocking by thousands, and for which they’re eager to fight and die. — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
Syrian Troops Attack Northwestern Town Recently Captured by Muslim Militants
Syria’s state media is reporting that government forces are attacking Muslim militants on the outskirts of the northwestern town of Jisr al-Shughour. State TV said says government forces have closed all roads leading to the town, which was captured by Muslim militants late last month.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Syria Rebels Storm Besieged Regime Loyalists: Monitor
Rebels including Al-Qaeda loyalists stormed a complex in northwestern Syria on Sunday where some 250 regime loyalists have been trapped for two weeks, a monitoring group said.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said rebels had entered the hospital complex in the town of Jisr al-Shughur, the rest of which they captured a fortnight ago.
“The fighters this morning stormed the hospital complex on the southwestern edge of Jisr al-Shughur,” Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.
“They entered one of the buildings and are engaged in heavy fighting with soldiers inside the complex.”…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Yemen’s Shiite Insurgents, Army Rebels Back 5-Day Cease-Fire
SANAA, Yemen — Yemen’s Shiite rebels and their allies in the country’s splintered armed forces said Sunday they would accept a five-day humanitarian cease-fire to allow aid to reach civilians after more than a month of daily airstrikes from a Saudi-led military coalition.
The cease-fire, scheduled to begin Tuesday, would help ease the suffering of civilians in the Arab world’s poorest country who increasingly lack food, fuel and medicine since the bombing campaign began March 26.
However, all sides in a conflict that’s seen the exile of Saudi- and Western-backed President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi have warned they’ll retaliate if the cease-fire is broken.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Chinese Leader in Belarus to Sign Multibillion-Dollar Deals, Build Silk Road Economic Vision
MINSK, Belarus — Chinese President Xi Jinping is in Belarus to sign dozens of deals worth a total of $15 billion as Beijing looks to build greater inroads into Europe’s economy.
Xi said Sunday that Belarus could become a key hub for China’s much-vaunted Silk Road vision — a project to bridge Europe and Asia through a series of transportation and energy links. The Chinese leader is visiting Belarus for the first time in 14 years and is scheduled to stay until Tuesday.
The economy of Belarus is intensely reliant on Russia, where growth has been suffocated by a combination of falling oil prices and Western sanctions. That has pushed Belarus to vary its economic relations, although its options with western Europe remained constrained by diplomatic tensions.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
China Preparing for Drone Warfare
By Bill Gertz
China’s military plans to produce nearly 42,000 land-based and sea-based unmanned weapons and sensor platforms as part of its continuing, large-scale military buildup, the Pentagon’s annual report on the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) disclosed Friday.
China currently operates several armed and unarmed drone aircraft and is developing long-range range unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for both intelligence gathering and bombing attacks.
“The acquisition and development of longer-range UAVs will increase China’s ability to conduct long-range reconnaissance and strike operations,” the report said.
China’s ability to use drones is increasing and the report said China “plans to produce upwards of 41,800 land- and sea-based unmanned systems, worth about $10.5 billion, between 2014 and 2023.”
[…]
Regarding regional maritime disputes, the report said China is using its military and coast guard for “low-intensity coercion” in the South China Sea against Vietnam and Philippines and against Japan in in the East China Sea over the disputed Senkaku Islands.
The report also revealed that China’s reliance on imported energy resources is increasing, raising concerns China will continued to expand its power to control waterways and areas of the world that provide oil and gas resources.
China last year imported about 60 percent of its oil supply and the figure is expected to grow to 80 percent by 2035.
Chinese nationalism is also on the rise. The report said Communist leaders are exploiting nationalist sentiment among the Chinese “to bolster the legitimacy of the Party, deflect domestic criticism, and justify their own inflexibility in dialogues with foreign interlocutors.”
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
ONI Report Highlights Rapidly Growing Chinese Navy
A new report by the Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) sheds further light on China’s People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLA(N)). According to the authors, China’s naval ambitions extend towards a global presence—thereby seeking to place it alongside the U.S. Navy as the only other nation with a worldwide seaborne military reach:
Since our last publication in 2009, the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLA(N)) has made significant strides in operationalizing as well as modernizing its force. Although the PLA(N)’s primary focus remains in the East Asia region, where China faces multiple disputes over the sovereignty of various maritime features and associated maritime rights, in recent years, the PLA(N) has increased its focus on developing blue-water naval capabilities. Over the long term, Beijing aspires to sustain naval missions far from China’s shores.
This transition will come rapidly. “In the next decade, China will complete its transition from a coastal navy to a navy capable of multiple missions around the world,” the ONI report said.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Australian Doctor Denies He Was Brainwashed Into Joining ISIS
By Ariel Bogle
An Australian doctor who recently appeared in a propaganda video for the Islamic State (ISIS) denies he was brainwashed and vows never to return home in a letter sent to a nationwide health agency that is investigating his medical registration.
In the May 8 letter sent to the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency, Dr. Tareq Kamleh — who now calls himself Abu Yousef Al-Australie — denied ISIS was a “death cult.” The 29-year-old also published the letter on his Facebook profile.
“The only death that I have had to deal with since being here has been from either pathology or Coalition drone strikes,” he wrote. “Interestingly the 2 drone strikes that have occurred since I have been here have not claimed the life of a single male, let alone a solider….good work “Team Australia”!!…from what I’ve seen you have more blood on your hands that ISIS has on their knives…”
Dr. Kamleh made headlines in April when a video of him appearing to work in a paediatric hospital in Raqqa, Syria was uploaded to ISIS-linked social media accounts.
In the clip, he tells the camera he wishes he had not delayed his decision to travel to territory controlled by the Islamic State, and urges other medical professionals to join him.
“I saw this as part of my jihad for Islam, to help the Muslims ummah in the area that I could, which is the medical field,” he said.
Dr. Kamleh, who worked in hospitals in Western Australia, Queensland and the Northern Territory, also wrote in the letter that he had not been brainwashed into joining ISIS, adding his choice to travel to Syria has been a “very well educated and calculated decision.”
Dubbed a “party boy” by some of the Australian press, reports in Fairfax Media and other outlets suggested Dr. Kamleh, who studied at Adelaide University, had been known by former colleagues and fellow students for his promiscuity and alcohol consumption.
“I think he is just caught up in a wild ride and is enjoying the attention without really thinking about the path he is taking,” a former co-worker of Dr. Kamleh told The Advertiser. “Even in the video you can see he is smug with the attention — he was always an attention-seeking loose cannon.”
[Rather like the Texas cartoon attackers. — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
Liberia is Declared Ebola Free
The World Health Organization announces the end of Ebola in Liberia, but the epidemic continues in nearby Sierra Leone and Guinea.
Liberia is the first of the three main countries affected by Ebola to be free of the disease, the World Health Organization (WHO) said today (9 May), marking the end of the 15-month-long epidemic in the country. But the epidemic continues in nearby Sierra Leone and Guinea, and the WHO is warning against complacency, highlighting the risk of further flare ups and geographical spread.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Fidel Castro Exposed by Former Bodyguard
Communism is a ruse which allowed Fidel Castro to force ten million Cubans to work for $20 a month in the name of socialism while he amassed $900 million from drug trafficking and corruption. Cuba was the Spain of the New World. But after the revolution, it was frozen in time; Havana a city in decay. Why do US liberals idolize this evil and ruthless dictator?
A private luxury island estate with yacht, palatial home and top-of-the-line amenities. A royal lifestyle. Mistresses and illegitimate children. A drug empire. Murder of loyal subordinates for political expediency. These are some of the revelations in a new book, The Double Life of Fidel Castro: My 17 Years as Personal Bodyguard to El Lider Maximo by Juan Reinaldo Sanchez. Published in France last year, it is being released in English on May 12 by St. Martin’s Press.
For the better part of six decades, communist dictator Fidel Castro (shown) has been the darling of the Hollywood glitter set, the tenured radicals of academia, and the establishment media gallery. Even when forced by unavoidable facts to acknowledge his despotic tendencies and the oppressive nature of his regime, Castro’s apologists have always sought to soften all criticism by claims that “El Jefe” (The Chief) is a “man of the people,” a “beloved leader,” a “tireless worker,” a true son of the revolution. A central part of that scripted myth is that the selfless “Lider Maximo” (Maximum Leader), now 88 years old, lives an austere lifestyle, in solidarity with the economic hardships endured by the Cuban people in their Castro-imposed socialist sinkhole.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Huffington Post Writer: Celebrate Mother’s Day by Aborting Your Baby
In a bizarre move, a Huffington Post blogger is wishing women a “Happy Mother’s Day!” — by calling for an end to mothers’ “unwanted” babies.
In a May 6 Huffington Post piece, blogger Kristine Holmgren argued for “No More Angry Mothers; Embracing Accessible Abortion and Affordable Contraception.” In it, she announced that before “safe, affordable, accessible abortion” existed, most mothers were “angry mothers.” To prevent future “angry mothers,” Holmgren declared that women should “protect our liberties,” including “our birthright” to abortion this Mother’s Day.
[Comment: Idiot. No mention of link between breast cancer and abortion.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
I Won Human Rights for a Chimpanzee
Chimps in research units deserve the same legal protection as detainees, says lawyer Steven Wise — and a US court seems to agree
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
A leading psychologist has warned that young men are facing a crisis of masculinity due to excessive use of video games and pornography.
Psychologist and professor emeritus at Stanford University Phillip Zimbardo has made the warnings, which form a major part of his latest book, Man (Dis)Connected.
In an interview on the BBC World Service’s Weekend programme, Zimbardo spoke about the results of his study, an in-depth look into the lives of 20,000 young men and their relationships with video games and pornography.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Global Warming/Climate Change Hoax
How Can So Many World Leaders Be So Wrong?
In a recent Daily Caller article, Michael Bastach took note of “25 Years of predicting The Global Warming ‘Tipping Point’.” This is the message that the Earth is warming rapidly and, if we don’t abandon the use of fossil fuels for power, it will arrive to wreak destruction on the human race and all life on the planet.
It is astounding how many past and present world leaders are telling everyone this despite the total lack of any real science, nor any actual warming—the Earth has been in a natural cooling cycle since 1997!
At the heart of the global warming—now called climate change—”crisis” has been the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that has been issuing apocalyptic predictions since its inception in 1988. None of its predictions have come true. How could they, based as they are on the false science of computer models, not that based on observable climate events and trends?
To this day our own government through its meteorological agencies has been caught manipulating the data gathered over the years to conform with the “warming” scenario. The worst has been the Environmental Protection Agency which is engaged in an effort to shut down coal-fired utilities and access to every other energy source on which we depend to power the nation.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Junk Food Kills Bacteria That Protect Against Obesity, Heart Disease and Cancer, Study Finds
Eating junk food kills stomach bacteria which protect against obesity, diabetes, cancer, heart disease, inflammatory bowel conditions and autism, fresh studies have found.
The human gut contains around 3,500 difference microbial species, which together make up some three pounds in weight.
Scientists now believe a diet based on a limited range of highly processed foods, rather than those found in a balanced, healthy diet, can wipe out the number of stomach flora by more than a third.
The discovery could explain why some people put on weight while others don’t, despite eating roughly similar amounts of fat, sugar, protein and carbohydrates.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Oh those Russians! Anyone who knows their world history would also know that without the Lend Lease arrangement organized by Britain and the United States to supply Uncle Joe with much needed War materiel, the Russians would have been fighting Hitler’s Wermacht and Luftwaffe from the borderlands with Manchuria.
We are doomed.
This recent series available on Utube sounds true: ‘Soviet Storm: WW2 In The East’