Gates of Vienna News Feed 6/21/2015

The Troika and the Greek government have been eyeball to eyeball over the country’s debt for the last few weeks, and now, at the last moment, it looks like the Greeks have blinked. The Greek government has offered concessions to the ECB, but it is not clear yet how far it has acceded to the demanded cutbacks in spending and tax increases.

In other news, there are reports that the Islamic State has laid mines in the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra, a UNESCO world heritage site. It is known whether ISIS did so to deter a Syrian army offensive, or intends to blow up the city.

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

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Dean, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, RL, RRN, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.

Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.

Financial Crisis
» French Leftists Rally in Support of Greece Ahead of Monday Eurozone Summit
» Greece Offers New Proposals Ahead of Emergency Summit
» Greece Debt Crisis: EU Leaders Step Up Efforts for Deal
 
USA
» 1 Dead, 9 Injured During Shooting at Detroit Block Party
» 66 Surfers in California Set Record for Most People Riding Board at Once
» Bill Maher Says Matt Drudge, Fox News and Conservative Media Inspired Dylann Roof
» Church Killings Reignite Debate on South Carolina Flying Confederate Battle Flag
» Ex-Charity Exec Who Helped Expose $500G Clinton Foundation Donation Faces Legal Threats
» Hillary Clinton Denounces White Privilege, Calls for Taking Guns From ‘Those Whose Hearts Are Filled With Hate’
» NASA’s Europa Mission Approved for Next Development Stage
» Suboxone: The Psych Drug Behind the Charleston Church Shooting?
 
Europe and the EU
» Al-Jazeera Reporter Detained in Germany on Egyptian Warrant
» Average Italians’ New Car Cost 18,500 Euro in 2014: Report
» Denmark’s Social Democrats Tap Former Justice Minister as New Leader After Election Defeat
» Italy: Cardinal Says Kept 30-mn Move From Pope in Wiretap
» Italy: Contraband Cigarettes Up 20% in 2014
» Italy: Renzi Blasts M5S Citizens Income as ‘Unconstitutional’
» Italy: Pope Venerates Iconic Shroud of Turin
» Migration Crisis and Corruption Takes Toll on Italy’s Renzi
» Polish Opposition Leader Taps Deputy for Future Prime Minister
» Rain Dampens Swedish Midsummer Madness
» Sweden: Starfish Find Could Lead to ‘Fountain of Youth’
» Thousands Celebrate Summer Solstice at Britain’s Stonehenge
» Turkey Slams Belgian PM Over ‘Armenian Genocide’ Remarks
» UK: The Breeding Ground for Jihadis Where Even the Ice Cream Lady Wears a Burka
 
Israel and the Palestinians
» Arab Theater Turns to EU for Help After Israel Refuses to Subsidize Play ‘Tolerant to Terrorists’
» Netanyahu Slams Foreign ‘Dictates’ As France’s Fabius Visits Israel
» Rep. Gohmert: Obama Outed Active Israeli Iranian Spy Mission
 
Middle East
» Al Qaeda Points Finger at ISIS After US Drone Strikes Take Out Key Operatives
» Billions Already Spent on War Against ISIS Despite Strategy Concerns
» ILO Asks Qatar Airways to Scrap ‘Discriminatory’ Contracts
» Iran Parliament Votes to Limit Inspections Vital to Nuclear Deal, With Deadline Looming
» IS Lays Mines in Syria’s Ancient Palmyra Ruins: Monitor
» Islamic State Crisis: ‘Mines Planted in Syria’s Palmyra’
» Kuwait Court Orders Female Activist Jailed for Criticising Emir
» Technology Helps Muslims Keep Check of Ramadan Rituals
 
Russia
» China to Design New High-Speed Russian Railway Between Moscow and Kazan
» Sanctions on Russia Cost EU Up to 100bn Dollars, Says Putin
 
South Asia
» India Leads the Way on Yoga Day
» Toxic Moonshine Kills Scores of Slum Dwellers in India’s Mumbai
 
Far East
» China: Yulin Dog Meat Festival: Business ‘Booming’ Despite International Outcry Over Cruel Tradition
 
Sub-Saharan Africa
» S. Africa Ministers ‘Plotted to Protect Sudan’s Bashir’
» Zuma’s Own Police Helped Bashir Violate Court Order, Evade Justice
 
Latin America
» Argentine President Leaving Politics When Term Ends, Defying Speculation About Congress Bid
» Why is a Chinese Tycoon Building a $50 Billion Canal in Nicaragua That No One Wants?
 
Immigration
» France: Sarkozy in Hot Water Over Migrant Remarks
» France: European Protesters Say ‘Yes’ To Migrants
» French Invent Robots to Replace Border Police
» ‘Moral Duty’ To Save Mediterranean Migrants, Says Gauck
» Smugglers Operate Freely in Libya as Europe Struggles to Act on Mediterranean Migration
» Thousands of Right Wing Extremists Rally in Slovak Capital Against Refugees, Clash With Police
» Thousands Rally Against Immigration in Bratislava
 
Culture Wars
» Does U2’s Bono, A Professing Christian, Believe the Bible?
» Italy: Huge Rally in Rome Against Gay Unions
» Words Matter
 

French Leftists Rally in Support of Greece Ahead of Monday Eurozone Summit

Several thousand leftists have rallied in Paris to “give Greece a chance” two days ahead of a critical summit of eurozone leaders on a bailout.

For Communist Party leader Pierre Laurent, “it’s about knowing whether the democratic choice of a people … is the guiding law or (if it’s) the rule of austerity of the financial markets that governs the people.”

Greece’s new radical leftist government is in a stand-off with international creditors to reach a loan deal to avoid defaulting on debt payments at the end of the month, threatening an exit from the 19-nation eurozone.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Greece Offers New Proposals Ahead of Emergency Summit

ATHENS/BRUSSELS Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras made a new offer on a reforms package to foreign creditors on Sunday, signaling 11th-hour concessions to break a deadlock that has pushed Greece to the brink of bankruptcy.

After months of wrangling and with anxious depositors pulling billions of euros out of Greek banks, Tsipras’s leftist government showed a new willingness this weekend to make concessions that would unlock frozen aid to avert default.

French President Francois Hollande, on a visit to Milan, confirmed Greece had offered new proposals although EU diplomats said no formal written proposal had arrived.

It was not immediately clear how far the new proposal yielded to creditors’ demands for additional spending cuts and tax hikes, but the offer was a ray of hope that a last-minute deal may yet be wrangled before Athens runs out of cash.

A day before emergency meetings including a summit of euro zone leaders in Brussels, Tsipras was holed up in a marathon cabinet meeting and discussed the new offer with the leaders of Germany, France and the European Commission by phone.

“The prime minister presented the three leaders Greece’s proposal for a mutually beneficial agreement that will give a definitive solution and not a postponement of addressing the problem,” a statement from Tsipras’s office said.

He is due to meet the Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, European Central Bank President Mario Draghi and IMF head Christine Lagarde on Monday morning before the meetings with euro zone leaders in the early afternoon…

           — Hat tip: Dean [Return to headlines]
 

Greece Debt Crisis: EU Leaders Step Up Efforts for Deal

European leaders have intensified their efforts to reach a deal over the Greek debt crisis, ahead of an emergency Brussels summit to break the deadlock.

French President Francois Hollande has warned that “everything must be done” to keep Greece in the eurozone.

Greek PM Alexis Tsipras set out new proposals in a bid to prevent a default on a €1.6bn (£1.1bn) IMF loan.

Greece must repay the loan by the end of June or risk crashing out of the single currency and possibly the EU.

Talks have been in deadlock for five months, with the European Commission, the IMF and the European Central Bank (ECB) unwilling to unlock the final €7.2bn tranche of bailout funds until Greece agrees to economic reforms they want to see introduced.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

1 Dead, 9 Injured During Shooting at Detroit Block Party

One person has died and nine other injured when someone opened fire at a neighborhood block party in Detroit Saturday night.

Asst. Police Chief Steve Dolunt said a 20-year-old man was killed. He hasn’t been identified.

Another man was critically injured and eight others, five men and three women, were listed as seriously injured. The victims ranged in age from 21 to 46, Dolunt said.

Dolunt said the shooting happened at a neighborhood party that included a barbecue attended by families with some small children in strollers.

“Through the grace of God no children were shot,” he said.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

66 Surfers in California Set Record for Most People Riding Board at Once

A group of surfers set a world record Saturday in Southern California for most people riding a board at one. Sixty-six people, including surf champions and local heroes, were among those who hung loose on a custom built 42-foot board off Huntington Beach. The Orange County Register reports the 66 surfers rode a wave for 12 seconds.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Bill Maher Says Matt Drudge, Fox News and Conservative Media Inspired Dylann Roof

Comedian Bill Maher said conservative media — including the Drudge Report, Fox News and The Daily Caller — may have a hand in inspiring Dylann Roof to shoot up a black church in Charleston, S.C. this week.

Maher was discussing the massacre with a panel on his HBO show, “Real Time with Bill Maher,” that included Daily Caller senior contributor Matt Lewis.

“We can never know why someone snaps, but I bet you I know where he got his news,” Maher said, referring to Roof, who killed nine people in the attack on Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal church.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Church Killings Reignite Debate on South Carolina Flying Confederate Battle Flag

The purportedly racially-motivated killings at a South Carolina church have re-ignited the political controversy over the Confederate battle flag still flying above the state house grounds.

Flag supporters say it is a symbol of Confederate and southern heritage while critics argued it is a relic of white supremacy.

In 2000, civil right activists got the flag removed from inside the South Carolina state house and from atop the capitol dome. However, the flag still flies on the capital grounds in Columbia, S.C.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Ex-Charity Exec Who Helped Expose $500G Clinton Foundation Donation Faces Legal Threats

A former charity executive who helped expose a questionable $500,000 donation to the Clinton Foundation is now being threatened by her old bosses with a lawsuit seeking tens of thousands of dollars, FoxNews.com has learned.

Sue Veres Royal, former executive director at the Happy Hearts Fund, was initially quoted in a May 29 New York Times article that said the charity lured Bill Clinton to a 2014 gala only after offering a $500,000 donation to The Clinton Foundation. His office previously had turned down the charity’s invitations, but this time he accepted; the accompanying donation amounted to almost a quarter of the gala’s net proceeds.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Hillary Clinton Denounces White Privilege, Calls for Taking Guns From ‘Those Whose Hearts Are Filled With Hate’

In an emotional speech that heaped scorn and blame on America for failing to pass gun control measures while it supposedly perpetuates racism, Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton said white Americans need to “question our own assumptions and privilege.”

“We still allow guns to fall into the hands of people whose hearts are filled with hate. You can’t watch massacre after massacre and not come to the conclusion that President Obama has said, ‘We must tackle this challenge with urgency and conviction,’“ she said to applause at the 83rd annual U.S. Conference of Mayors in San Francisco.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

NASA’s Europa Mission Approved for Next Development Stage

A plan to launch a spacecraft to Jupiter’s moon Europa in the 2020s passed a major hurdle, as NASA approved the mission concept and gave the go ahead to move forward into the formulation stage of development.

Sending a flyby mission to the icy moon of Jupiter is considered key in helping scientists determine how likely life is to exist there. If the probe shows that conditions on Europa would permit microbial life, other moons in the solar system, such as Saturn’s moon Enceladus, might host life as well.

The current plan would see the spacecraft do 45 flybys of Europa while orbiting Jupiter every two weeks. Science goals include taking images of the icy surface, as well as remotely probing the moon’s interior and composition.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Suboxone: The Psych Drug Behind the Charleston Church Shooting?

Suboxone is a powerful psychoactive drug which is utilized in breaking heroin and narcotic pain reliever addictions. Just like methadone*, suboxone has it downside risks and adverse side effects. It is a medication which contains two primary ingredients — buprenorphine and naloxone. Buprenorphine is a synthetic opiate; naloxone is drug that blocks feelings of euphoria.

*Methodone is such a dangerous drug that dedicated clinics were set up around the country because patients could not be trusted with more than one day’s dose at a time; hence, the daily visit to the methadone clinic. Methadone is actually more dangerous than all prescribed narcotic painkillers and can threaten a patient’s life with each dose. As a matter of fact, a methadone user doesn’t have to be addicted to methadone to die from it—the very first dose can kill, unlike both heroin and morphine.

These two ingredients — buprenorphine and naloxone —work in tandem assisting the addicted drug user in their intention to break a very strong habit. Like any drug that can successfully replace heroin, it is quite powerful and has some serious side effects. Just how does it work?

Buprenorphine is an opioid partial agonist. This means that, although buprenorphine is an opioid, and thus can produce typical opioid agonist effects and side effects such as euphoria and respiratory depression, its maximal effects are less than those of full agonists like heroin and methadone. At low doses buprenorphine produces sufficient agonist effect to enable opioid-addicted individuals to discontinue the misuse of opioids without experiencing withdrawal symptoms. [1]

As for adverse side effects, there are many and they can be severe. It has been reported that violent outbursts and aggressive acts of rage can be experienced while under the influence of Suboxone. There are other extreme and significant behavioral outcomes which can be exhibited by those who are under the influence of Suboxone which fit with the violent acts of the Charleston shooter.

Charleston church shooter Dylann Roof was a known drug user who was caught with the powerful mind-altering narcotic Suboxone when apprehended by police during an incident on Feb. 28.[2]

The bottom line here is that powerful psychoactive and/or psychotropic drugs can push young people into all sorts of highly anti-social and destructive behavior. The presence of these drugs is rarely, if ever, discussed in the mainstream media in the wake of events like Charleston. The focus is always on the usage of a gun(s), rather than the radically altered state of mind of the shooter.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Al-Jazeera Reporter Detained in Germany on Egyptian Warrant

A prominent Al-Jazeera Arabic journalist was detained Saturday in Germany over an Egyptian arrest warrant, the Qatar-based broadcaster reported, the latest in a long series of legal entanglements between Egypt and its satellite news channels.

Ahmed Mansour, a senior journalist with its Arabic service, was detained at 1320 GMT (9 a.m. EDT) while trying to board a Qatar Airways flight at Berlin’s Tegel airport heading to Doha, the station reported. It said he previously had been sentenced in absentia in Egypt to 15 years in prison over allegedly torturing an unnamed lawyer in Tahrir Square in 2011, a charge both he and the channel rejected.

While not identifying Mansour by name, German police spokesman Meik Grauer said authorities detained a 52-year-old Egyptian-British journalist and that prosecutors would look into the arrest warrant Sunday.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Average Italians’ New Car Cost 18,500 Euro in 2014: Report

Sales worth 25.4 billion euros, up 7.3 % on 2013

(ANSA) — Rome, June 12 — Italians spent on average as much as 18,527 euros in 2014 on purchasing a vehicle, creating sales worth 25.4 billion euros — an increase of 7.3% on 2013, according to research entitled Auto Market value 2014 presented Friday.

The most expensive brand of car purchased was Land Rover at a price of 51,507 euros, according to the study by the Fleet & Mobility studies centre.

Most in-demand car producers in 2014 were the same as in 2013 led by Fiat, with a 15.1% share of the value total and 20.3% of the volume total, followed by Volkswagen, BMW and Audi with value shares of 8.1%, 6.2% and 6%.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Denmark’s Social Democrats Tap Former Justice Minister as New Leader After Election Defeat

COPENHAGEN, Denmark — Denmark’s left-leaning Social Democratic Party has unanimously elected former Justice Minister Mette Frederiksen as its interim head.

The 37-year-old Frederiksen is expected to be formally tapped next weekend to replace Helle Thorning-Schmidt, who stepped down as prime minister and party leader following Thursday’s election defeat.

The vote for Frederiksen Saturday was expected since she has long been considered the party’s crown princess.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Cardinal Says Kept 30-mn Move From Pope in Wiretap

Bambino Gesù Children’s Hospital denies its funds were misused

(ANSA) — Rome, June 19 — An Italian cardinal has been caught on a police wiretap allegedly claiming he deliberately kept Pope Francis in the dark about a 30-million-euro financial move he was planning to make.

Although he is not under investigation and denies all wrongdoing, Cardinal Gisueppe Versaldi looks set to be embarrassed by the probe, which is linked to the allegedly fraudulent financial collapse of a southern Italian nursing-home chain run by an order of nuns.

Rome prosecutors have asked colleagues in the southern city of Trani for copies of the case papers, judicial sources said late Friday.

Police said Friday the wiretap of a conversation between Cardinal Versaldi and a manager is among those to feature in the probe into the alleged fraudulent bankruptcy of the Divina Provvidenza (Divine Providence) chain. In the conversation, Versaldi allegedly suggests the pope should not be informed that 30 million euros belonging to Rome’s Bambino Gesù children’s hospital and stemming from Italian public coffers were to be used for the acquisition of the IDI skin hospital company.

The sum was never eventually used for that or other financial moves, investigators said.

According to transcripts made available by police, Versaldi tells the manager: “You have to keep mum about this 30 million euros”.

Bambino Gesù Hospital denied any links to the Divina Provvidenza investigation.

“Bambino Gesù Hospital categorically denies that funds from its own budget or from public funding were ever used in the purchase of the IDI Hospital,” said Bambino Gesù Hospital President Mariella Enoc, who was nominated to her post in February by the Vatican’s Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin.

“Not even one euro (of the hospital’s money) is taken away from clinical, research, or organizational activities that regard the hospital and its patients,” Enoc said.

Meanwhile a centre-right Senator who has been linked to the probe on Friday presented an appeal against an arrest warrant which an immunity panel in the Italian parliament has yet to rule on.

A lawyer acting for the chair of the Senate’s budget committee, Antonio Azzollini, presented the request Friday for the annulment of the arrest warrant.

In the document presented to the Bari warrant review court, Azzollini’s lawyer challenged Puglian prosecutors’ assertion that there is “grave evidence” against the politician from the New Centre Right (NCD) in relation to the bilking of the funds used by the Order of Divine Providence for a string of nursing homes for old people and the mentally ill.

The arrest warrant was passed by judicial authorities to the upper house June 10 and a special parliamentary panel will decide in coming days whether to recommend that Azzollini’s parliamentary immunity be stripped, a decision that will have to be ratified by a parliamentary vote.

Azzollini faces charges of criminal conspiracy for fraudulent bankruptcy and corruption.

In the probe, on June 10, two nuns were arrested and a request to arrest Azzolini filed, prompting investigators to say the case highlighted the progress made by the Vatican Bank towards full transparency of its formerly opaque affairs.

“The IOR’s collaboration was precious,” prosecutors told reporters.

“From today I’m the one in charge here,” Azzolini is heard saying in a wiretap obtained in the case, when he allegedly took over running the chain.

Azzolini’s “reign of terror”, investigators said, was marked by a spate of “wild and totally indiscriminate hirings of chain staff linked to him”.

He was also prone to “vulgar intimidation of the sisters,” they said, allegedly saying he would “piss” on them if they ignored his orders.

Azzolini denied making the statements published in the wiretaps.

The two nuns arrested in the probe in Puglia were among the most senior members of the Ancelle Congregation of Divine Providence.

Also arrested were a former director general, administrators and consultants of the order. In all as many as 25 people are under investigation on charges of embezzling funds from the foundation.

Established to give a voice to the voiceless by helping old people unable to look after themselves, the religious order “seems to have completely reneged on its founding canons,” a statement by the prosecutor’s office in Bari said.

Investigators said the Institute for Religious Works (IOR), the Vatican Bank, allowed investigators to “close the circle” in their probe.

Replies supplied by the Holy See bankers allowed investigators in Puglia to undertake “a more pregnant technical examination” of financial flows through bank account data in which assets of the Congregation of Divine Providence had been hidden, judicial sources said.

Meanwhile it was disclosed that a Socialist MP, Raffaele Di Gioia, was also among those under investigation in the probe which appeared to be widening.

Finance police confiscated 32 million euros and a building that the nuns were planning to turn into a private clinic in Guidonia in Rome province.

The money and the building were held in the names of parallel church orders run by nuns from the Divine Providence congregation.

As much as 350 million euros of the total debts of half a billion euros run up by the congregation were debts to the Italian state.

The order also had a secret bank account in which donations from the faithful were stashed.

Part of the money was used to finance a campaign for the beatification by the Church of the founder of the order, Don Uva.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Contraband Cigarettes Up 20% in 2014

Illegal cigs make up 5.6% of market

(ANSA) — Naples, June 18 — The number of contraband cigarettes on the Italian market increased 20% in 2014, according to figures in a report by auditors KPMG presented on Thursday at a two-day conference organised by British American Tobacco.

It said some 4.42 billion illegal cigarettes were consumed in Italy last year, with a loss of tax revenues of 770 million euros for the State.

KPMG estimated that illegal cigarettes accounted for 5.6% of the overall market, up from 4.7% in 2013. The situation is even worse in many parts of the rest of Europe. The report said that some 56.6 billion illegal cigarettes were consumed in the European Union last year, 10.4% of the overall market.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Renzi Blasts M5S Citizens Income as ‘Unconstitutional’

Italian premier praises justice minister on talk show

(ANSA) — Rome, June 16 — Italian Premier Matteo Renzi blasted the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement’s (M5S) proposal for a ‘citizens’ income’.

Renzi called the M5S proposal, a system of benefits for low-income families included in a bill before the Senate, as “unconstitutional and wrong” during an interview on television talk show Porta a Porta.

“I don’t believe this is the task of politics. We don’t give money for staying at home,” Renzi said.

Meanwhile, the premier said his government was praised for cutting the number of trials “by 20%”.

He said the praise came Tuesday at a European Council meeting of justice ministers in Luxembourg.

Justice remains a government priority, along with streamlining public administration and reducing fiscal pressure.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Pope Venerates Iconic Shroud of Turin

Pope Francis prayed on Sunday before the mysterious Shroud of Turin, believed by Christians to be the burial cloth of Jesus but held by sceptics to be a medieval fake.

On the Argentine pontiff’s first pastoral visit to northern Italy, Francis — whose father grew up there — was met by crowds of enthusiastic faithful, before making his way to the city’s cathedral where the shroud is on display.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Migration Crisis and Corruption Takes Toll on Italy’s Renzi

Italian prime minister Matteo Renzi’s popularity and public trust in his centre-left party have been damaged by corruption scandals and the immigration crisis, a new poll showed Saturday.

The survey, carried out by the Demos polling institute and published in La Repubblica daily, showed support for his Democratic Party (PD) had dropped to 32 percent, down almost 9.0 percent on the European elections in May last year.

Although 41 percent of Italians said they no longer believed any political party could be clean of corruption, support for the anti-establishment Five Star party, founded by former comic Beppe Grillo, rose to its highest ever, at 26.1 percent…

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

Polish Opposition Leader Taps Deputy for Future Prime Minister

The leader of Poland’s conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, created surprise on Saturday by nominating his deputy to become prime minister in the event of a conservative victory in autumn elections.

Addressing a PiS congress, Kaczynski said deputy president Beata Szydlo, 52, represented the party’s best chance for “a big victory.”

Szydlo, who is also a member of parliament, managed the campaign of Andrzej Duda, a conservative lawyer who staged an upset victory last month over popular incumbent Bronislaw Komorowski in presidential elections…

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

Rain Dampens Swedish Midsummer Madness

According to the Swedish police, Midsummer celebrations were unusually trouble-free this year, mainly due to the inclement weather in many parts of the country.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Sweden: Starfish Find Could Lead to ‘Fountain of Youth’

Researchers at the University of Gothenburg have discovered that starfish which reproduce through cloning age much more slowly than those which reproduce sexually.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Thousands Celebrate Summer Solstice at Britain’s Stonehenge

Thousands of people have marked the summer solstice at the ancient stone circle of Stonehenge on Salisbury Plain in southern England. Police say the event was a success, with only a few drug-related arrests.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Turkey Slams Belgian PM Over ‘Armenian Genocide’ Remarks

Turkey on Saturday lashed out at Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel for recognising the massacres of Armenians by Ottoman Turkish forces during World War I as genocide.

Michel, the youngest prime minister in Belgium’s history, said during a parliamentary session on Wednesday that the 1915 mass killings “must be viewed as a genocide.”

The Turkish foreign ministry said in a statement that the remarks were “neither acceptable nor excusable”, adding that the Belgian leader had “politicised” the issue.

The remarks “distort the historical facts and overlook the law,” the ministry said, warning of consequences for Ankara’s relations with Brussels…

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

UK: The Breeding Ground for Jihadis Where Even the Ice Cream Lady Wears a Burka

How Dewsbury, the once great textile town of the North, has undergone a terrifying transformation

Few of her friends or relatives live in this part of town any more. Jean is one of only 48 white Britons who have stayed on, while all the other 4,033 Savile Town residents, according to the latest 2011 census, are of Pakistani or Indian heritage.

Their forebears were enticed here as cheap paid labour for back-breaking jobs in the wool mills in the late 1950s. Hard-working, they were soon buying up the terraced houses, building their own mosques and opening corner shops selling burkas, prayer mats and perfumes containing no alcohol, in line with the strict teachings of the Islamic Holy Book the Koran.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Arab Theater Turns to EU for Help After Israel Refuses to Subsidize Play ‘Tolerant to Terrorists’

Israel’s largest Arab theater plans to turn to the EU for financial aid after Israel said it would no longer sponsor the play about a Palestinian man who killed an IDF soldier, alleging it represents “tolerance of the murder,” local media reported.

Earlier this month, Israeli Education Minister Naftali Bennett has pledged to cut state funding for A Parallel Time play, running at the Al-Midan theater in Haifa, founded in 1994 by the Israeli Minister of Education during Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin’s government. The much talked-about production, which the theater started running last year, has been largely inspired by the life of Walid Daka, an Israeli Arab imprisoned for abducting and killing Israeli soldier Moshe Tamam in 1984.

The family of the killed soldier has been flabbergasted by the play being shown to high school students as part of their state-funded culture and arts program.

“We are just saying a very simple thing: Don’t fund this play. Our government shouldn’t be the one to fund this play and honestly I don’t understand all those people who think that someone who kidnapped a 19-year-old kid should be called a hero,” Ortal Tamam, the soldier’s niece, told AP.

Al-Midan Theater’s hall (image from wikipedia.org)

Her call immediately found support from the Israeli government.

“I support pluralism and have no desire to interfere with culture and arts,” the education minister told AP. “The question here is whether the Ministry of Education in Israel should pay for school children to go see a play that shows sympathy to a murderer and a terrorist.”

“And my answer is no; I wouldn’t expect America to send its school children to a play that shows sympathy with Osama Bin Laden and so the same thing will not happen in Israel,” Bennet, who is also the head of the Jewish Home party, added.

In early June he ordered to “immediately remove the play from the culture basket”, with Israel’s Arutz Sheva 7 quoting him as saying that “a play that portrays tolerance to the murder of soldiers guarding over me is not education.”

The theater’s program describes the play as “an attempt to discover the man behind the prisoner, and not the cliché that turns him into a symbol and a statistic, which leads one to forget that he is a person with a life story, desires and dreams,” according to Ynet, an Israeli news website.

The writer and director of the banned show, Bashar Murkus, argues that his play shows the “human angle” of the prisoner.

Bashar Murkus, author and director of ‘A Parallel Time” (Reuters / Nir Elias)

“Neither side treats him as a human being, but on stage it’s beautiful and important to look at the human depth of each prisoner,” Murkus told AP.

Israeli Culture Minister Miri Regev has also subscribed to the idea to review state funding to the Al-Midan theater and froze it on Tuesday. Earlier this month she already defunded Jaffa-based Elmina Theater for Jewish and Arab children after its founder, an Arab Israeli actor Norman Issa, refused to perform in a play to be put on in a West Bank settlement in the Jordan Valley.

Midan Theater’s manager, Adnan Tarbasha, told Ynet that “due to Haifa Municipality’s decision to freeze its support, I cannot pay employees’ salaries. It hurts me that people who work for culture for all ages, regardless of color, religion, race and nationality, can’t make a living.”

An Arab-Muslim Israeli politician and leader of the Arab Movement for Change party, Ahmad Tibi, told a protest meeting at Al-Midan on Saturday that “we cannot give up government funding [for the theater], which is a civil right,” the Jerusalem Times reported.

Tibi, who serves as a member of the Knesset, suggested creating a national fund “not remain dependent on the good graces of Minister Regev and the cruelty of the government.”

“Minister Regev decided to cut off funding for Al-Midan Theater because she views the artists and actors of Al-Midan just like the Israel Police view Arabs — as enemies that need to be cut down to size and fought and not as citizens,” he said.

Tibi added: “We have in this government an education minister, Naftali Bennett, who once referred to Palestinians as ‘shrapnel in the posterior’ and a culture minister who referred to Israel’s artists as ‘arrogant’.

This is a skewed state of affairs,” he said.

According to the artistic adviser of al-Midan, Salwa Nakkara, some 700 students had seen the play. She said its critics simply hadn’t seen it, their views putting freedom of expression in jeopardy. “This is contradicts a state that considers itself democratic.”

Earlier this year over a thousand prominent artists pledged to accept no professional invitations to Israel or funding from institutions linked to the Israeli government “until it complies with international law and universal principles of human rights.” The group of artists (British filmmaker Ken Loach and Pink Floyd co-founder Roger Waters among them) said that since summer of 2014, which saw an estimated 2,100 deaths in the Gaza Strip, Palestinians have enjoyed “no respite from Israel’s unrelenting attack on their land, their livelihood, their right to political existence.”

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

Netanyahu Slams Foreign ‘Dictates’ As France’s Fabius Visits Israel

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday rejected “international dictates” ahead of a visit by France’s top diplomat, with Paris advocating a UN resolution laying out parameters for peace talks.

With negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians stalled for more than a year, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius was to hold separate talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders Sunday in a push to revive talks.

France has argued in favour of a UN resolution that would guide negotiations leading to an independent Palestinian state and which could include a timeframe for talks…

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

Rep. Gohmert: Obama Outed Active Israeli Iranian Spy Mission

Congressman also blasts White House for disclosing possible use of Azerbaijani airspace by Israel in Iran strike.

United States Congressman Louie Gohmert revealed Thursday that the Obama administration had “outed” an active Israeli spy mission in Iran. Israel, he said, had infiltrated Israeli spies into mainland Iran via cargo boats.

He dropped the bombshell in a speech at EMET’s 9th annual “Rays of Light in the Darkness” gala dinner.

Rep. Gohmert, who is one Israel’s fiercest and truest friends on Capitol Hill, stated: “We are on the brink of disaster.”

He listed a stream of virulently anti-Israel actions taken by President Obama which included the “outing” of the Israeli spy mission, and the Obama Administration’s disclosing of possible use of Azerbaijani airspace by Israel.

Rep. Gohmert did not elaborate on whether Obama’s disclosure of Israeli covert operations had resulted in the capture or death of any of Israel’s Iranian spies…

           — Hat tip: RL [Return to headlines]
 

Al Qaeda Points Finger at ISIS After US Drone Strikes Take Out Key Operatives

Key leaders of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula have been killed in recent weeks by well-timed CIA drone strikes so precise that they have stoked suspicions that rival terrorist organization ISIS is secretly leaking information to the U.S.

The paranoia spreading within AQAP was fully exposed this week when the members of that branch of Al Qaeda’s international organization publicly executed four men in Yemen who they accused of being “spies” for the U.S. and Saudi Arabia.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Billions Already Spent on War Against ISIS Despite Strategy Concerns

WASHINGTON — Despite mounting concerns in Congress over the Obama administration’s strategy for defeating the Islamic State, the U.S. already has spent billions on the war — with recent Pentagon figures showing just how costly and complicated the operation has become.

A Pentagon breakdown shows the military has spent more than $2.74 billion on the fight against ISIS, amounting to about $9.1 million a day, from August 2014 through early June 2015. The breakdown of operational costs is only part of the picture. Pentagon officials testified to Congress earlier this week that the military’s training and airstrike missions make up just two planks of the administration’s nine-point strategy for confronting ISIS — a strategy that involves several other departments.

But, even as lawmakers continue to debate the legality and funding for the war, the billions already spent may be just a drop in the bucket.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

ILO Asks Qatar Airways to Scrap ‘Discriminatory’ Contracts

The International Labour Organization on Tuesday called on Qatar Airways to scrap contracts allowing the state-owned airline to sack female crew members who fell pregnant, saying such measures were discriminatory.

The UN agency also rapped the airline for stipulating that women crew members could only be picked up from work by their father, brother or husband.

The ILO had looked into the Doha-based airline’s employment rules after the International Transport Workers’ Federation and the International Trade Union Confederation brought the case to the UN agency…

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

Iran Parliament Votes to Limit Inspections Vital to Nuclear Deal, With Deadline Looming

Iran’s parliament voted Sunday to oppose the inspections of government military sites as part of a pending, multi-nation agreement to curb the country’ nuclear program — potentially complicating a final deal ahead of a June 30 deadline.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

IS Lays Mines in Syria’s Ancient Palmyra Ruins: Monitor

Islamic State group militants have laid landmines and explosives at the site of the ancient ruins in Syria’s Palmyra, a monitor said Sunday, adding the purpose of the move was unclear.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which relies on a network of sources on the ground, said explosives were laid at the site of the Roman ruins at the town in central Homs province on Saturday.

“But it is not known if the purpose is to blow up the ruins or to prevent regime forces from advancing into the town,” said Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman.

He said regime forces had launched heavy air strikes against the residential part of Palmyra in the past three days, killing at least 11 people…

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

Islamic State Crisis: ‘Mines Planted in Syria’s Palmyra’

Islamic State (IS) militants have planted landmines and explosives around the ancient Palmyra ruins, according to a group that monitors the war in Syria.

Activists said it was unclear whether IS had laid the bombs to destroy the ruins or make the site secure from Syrian government forces.

IS fighters seized the city, which is one of the most important historic sites in the Middle East, in May.

Government forces are reported to be planning a bid to recapture the site.

The director of the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdel Rahman, told reporters that Syrian soldiers outside the city have brought in reinforcements in recent days, “suggesting they may be planning an operation”.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Kuwait Court Orders Female Activist Jailed for Criticising Emir

A Kuwaiti court sentenced a female rights activist to three years in jail on Sunday after convicting her in absentia of publicly criticising the oil-rich Gulf state’s ruler.

The lower court convicted Rana Jassem al-Saadun of repeating parts of a speech made by prominent opposition leader Mussallam al-Barrak for which he is serving a two-year jail term, according to the ruling.

In the speech, delivered at a public rally in October 2012, Barrak warned Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah against amending the electoral law to help the government control parliament…

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

Technology Helps Muslims Keep Check of Ramadan Rituals

With more than 1.5 million Muslims observing Ramadan, it’s no surprise that a range of apps and websites have been launched to meet the needs of the market. New technology and religion go hand-in-hand for many Muslims.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

China to Design New High-Speed Russian Railway Between Moscow and Kazan

China has agreed to design a high-speed railway between Moscow and Kazan in Russia, and will likely build the £12.35 billion project.

A unit of Russia’s state-owned JSC Russian Railways signed a contract Thursday with the design unit of China’s state-controlled China Railway Group to come up with the plans for a 770 kilometer high-speed rail between the two Russian cities.

China Railway Group will work alongside two Russian companies on the designs for a total cost of 20.8 billion rubles (£242 million) over the next two years.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Sanctions on Russia Cost EU Up to 100bn Dollars, Says Putin

(AGI) St. Petersburg, June 19 — Sanctions against Russia may have cost the European Union up to 100 billion dollars, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin affirmed on Friday at the International Economics Forum in St. Petersburg. “Our European partners have run various calculations,” he said. “Some spoke of 40 to 50 billion dollars in losses for European partners.

The last data I heard from Europe indicates that the losses could come close to 100 billion dollars.” Putin blamed “global decisions” rather than local conflicts for the current threat of another Cold War, and denounced the U.S.’s decision to withdraw from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty (ABM).

Responding to questions regarding Russia’s role in the Ukrainian crisis, the Kremlin leader once again urged the West to push Kiev towards solving the crisis “together”. The situation “cannot be resolved unilaterally”, he stated, adding that accusations against Russia’s “necessary influence in the south-east” have become a “mantra”. “It is not possible to solve the problem helped by our influence alone. Influence must be exerted on Kiev’s current authorities as well, but we cannot be the ones who do this. It’s up to our western partners to pursue that path,” he concluded.

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

India Leads the Way on Yoga Day

Enthusiasts around the world have marked the first International Yoga Day. In India, the likely birthplace of the ancient practice, Prime Minister Narendra Modi led a mass outdoor session in the capital.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Toxic Moonshine Kills Scores of Slum Dwellers in India’s Mumbai

More than 90 people are reported to have died from drinking toxic homemade liquor in a slum district of Mumbai, with the death toll likely to rise. An investigation is underway, with a number of arrests already made.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

China: Yulin Dog Meat Festival: Business ‘Booming’ Despite International Outcry Over Cruel Tradition

Dog and cat meat traders at Yulin festival in China have said that business is booming, despite calls for it to close amid animal cruelty accusations.

It is expected that thousands of cats and dogs will be slaughtered this weekend to mark the summer solstice on Sunday in Yulin, washed down with lycee wine.

Government officials have ostensibly “banned” the controversial annual Yulin Dog Meat Festival after it attracted protesters and criticism from around the world.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

S. Africa Ministers ‘Plotted to Protect Sudan’s Bashir’

The South African government secretly plotted to ensure safe passage out of the country for Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir despite an international warrant for his arrest on war crimes charges, a newspaper reported on Sunday.

Bashir, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity over the conflict in Darfur, was able to fly out of Pretoria last Monday despite a court order blocking his departure.

South Africa’s Sunday Times newspaper, revealing what it said was a secret meeting of top ministers to discuss protecting Bashir, said he was escorted to his plane by President Jacob Zuma’s own police.

The ICC had called on South Africa — which is a signatory to the court — to detain Bashir while he was in the country for an African Union summit…

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

Zuma’s Own Police Helped Bashir Violate Court Order, Evade Justice

The South African government secretly plotted to ensure safe passage out of the country for Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir despite an international warrant for his arrest on war crimes charges.

Bashir, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity over the conflict in Darfur, was able to fly out of Pretoria last Monday despite a court order blocking his departure.

The Sunday Times , revealing what it said was a secret meeting of top ministers to discuss protecting Bashir, said he was escorted to his plane by President Jacob Zuma’s own police.

The ICC had called on South Africa — which is a signatory to the court — to detain Bashir while he was in the country for an African Union summit.

But security ministers agreed at a meeting before the Sudanese leader arrived that South Africa would “protect Bashir by any means necessary — even if it meant flouting court rulings and undermining the constitution”, the Sunday Times said, quoting a senior government source…

           — Hat tip: RRN [Return to headlines]
 

Argentine President Leaving Politics When Term Ends, Defying Speculation About Congress Bid

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — President Cristina Fernandez of Argentina will be putting aside politics when her second term ends Dec. 10, defying recent speculation she might run for congress.

With the passage of the filing deadline at midnight Saturday, Fernandez’s name did not appear on any list of candidates. She is barred by Argentina’s constitution from seeking a third presidential term.

Expectations had been rising that Fernandez might not be willing to get out of politics completely after holding public offices for more than two decades and could decide to lead the congressional slate in Buenos Aires province.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Why is a Chinese Tycoon Building a $50 Billion Canal in Nicaragua That No One Wants?

A Chinese billionaire is building one of the world’s largest engineering projects, a canal in Nicaragua that is three times the size of world’s largest, the Panama Canal, and is estimated to cost at least $50 billion. Of the many Chinese infrastructure projects spanning the globe, the new canal seems to make the least commercial sense.

Few shipping industry observers forecast a need for a second canal in the region, and the canal is being built to accommodate extra-large bulk cargo ships that aren’t commonly used yet, and may never be popular. As initial construction for the project gets underway, violent protests are breaking out among Nicaraguans who object to losing their land or seeing Central America’s largest freshwater lake, Lake Nicaragua, be dredged.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

France: Sarkozy in Hot Water Over Migrant Remarks

Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy came under fire in France and Italy on Friday over comments he made comparing the influx of migrants into Europe to water gushing from a burst pipe.

Current President Francois Hollande called for gravity and restraint in public debate.

Prime Minister Manuel Valls said that “political life deserves better than such stigmatising phrases.”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

France: European Protesters Say ‘Yes’ To Migrants

Thousands of people took to the streets in several European cities, including Berlin, Paris and Rome, on Saturday, in a show of solidarity with migrants seeking refuge in Europe and against austerity measures in debt-ridden Greece.

Thousands of people took to the streets in several European cities on Saturday, in a show of solidarity with migrants seeking refuge in Europe and against austerity measures in debt-ridden Greece.

In Berlin, some 3,700 turned out according to local police, while organisers said 10,000 participated in a protest held on World Refugee Day, that had been called by German opposition parties Die Linke (The Left) and Gruenen (The Greens).

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

French Invent Robots to Replace Border Police

New airport technology unveiled at the Paris Air Show this week by French company Thales promises robots to replace immigration officers.

French electrical systems company Thales premiered its new equipment designed to speed up passage through airports.

In their vision of the future, passengers will no longer deal with check-in desks — an innovation already making inroads in many airports.

To take that even further, Thales has designed a machine that not only scans passports and prints boarding passes, but also records an image of the passenger’s face and iris, which are then shared with computers around the airport.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

‘Moral Duty’ To Save Mediterranean Migrants, Says Gauck

The German president has called for more compassion toward migrants in view of Germany’s own experiences with forced migration after WWII. He said providing them with sanctuary was ‘non-negotiable.’

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Smugglers Operate Freely in Libya as Europe Struggles to Act on Mediterranean Migration

With the EU struggling to take action against risky migration in the Mediterranean, traffickers are using Libya’s power vacuum to their advantage. As Marine Olivesi found, while migrants are caught, the smugglers escape.

Zubeir says he pockets up to 17,600 euros ($20,000) in fares for a boat of 80. While sizable for a single man, his net profit represents a drop in the $170 million generated by Libyan smugglers last year for sea crossings alone according to a recent United Nations report.

Other coastal towns have cashed in the business. In Zuara alone, he says at least three dozen smugglers operate like he does, right under the nose of local authorities. “I’ve never had to hide my job from friends or family,” Zubeir says. “It’s been absolutely fine.”

Officially, not a single smuggler has been arrested in Zuara this year.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Thousands of Right Wing Extremists Rally in Slovak Capital Against Refugees, Clash With Police

BRATISLAVA, Slovakia — Thousands of people have rallied in Bratislava against what they call an “Islamization of Europe” and to oppose a European Union plan for member states to share the burden of hosting a surge of asylum-seekers.

The protesters condemned an EU plan to divide up refugees arriving largely in Italy and Greece between member states.

Slovakia is expected to accept 785, although the government opposes it.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Thousands Rally Against Immigration in Bratislava

Thousands of people protested against immigration and EU quotas on migrant numbers at a rally organised by an anti-Islam movement in Bratislava on Saturday.

The rally organised by a group called Stop the Islamisation of Europe drew up to 8,000 people, according to Slovakian media, while the police declined to give an estimate.

Protesters included Marian Kotleba, the governor of a central Slovakian region and founder of the far-right People’s Party Our Slovakia.

“I wish you a nice, white day… we are here to save Slovakia,” Kotleba told the crowd…

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

Does U2’s Bono, A Professing Christian, Believe the Bible?

Any [teaching] that is good is in the Word of God, and any that is not in the Word of God is not good. I am a Bible Christian and if an archangel with a wingspread as broad as a constellation shining like the sun were to come and offer me some new truth, I’d ask him for a reference. If he could not show me where it is found in the Bible, I would bow him out and say, “I’m awfully sorry, you don’t bring any references with you.” ~ A.W. Tozier

There’s an ongoing debate as to whether or not Bono, U2 front man and one of the world’s most recognized rock stars, is an authentic Christian, although he states that he is. Many Bible believing Christians have looked at the evidence and have come out and said that, although he professes Christ, he’s not a true Christian.

So let’s examine the evidence.

On his belief about Jesus Christ, Bono said this:…

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Huge Rally in Rome Against Gay Unions

Hundreds of thousands of Italians gathered in Rome on Saturday to demonstrate against gay unions and the teaching of gender theories in schools, as Prime Minister Matteo Renzi tries to push a civil union bill through parliament.

Holding aloft banners reading “The family will save the world” and “Let’sdefend our children”, a sea of people crammed into the San Giovanni square near the Italian capital’s historic centre to support family values.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Words Matter

One of the virulent anti-Christian forces in the world during the last two centuries has been communism. Many people falsely believe it was defeated with the fall of the Berlin wall but that is not so. What took place is that the obvious militaristic branch lost. So that the danger of hot war or cold war against a regime bent on military world conquest seemed to evaporate. Nonetheless, there was a more insidious branch represented by Italian Antonio Gramsci.

“In Marxist philosophy, the expression “cultural hegemony” refers to the beliefs, explanations, perceptions, values and moral norms of a ruling class whose worldview is accepted as the cultural norm or “universally valid dominant ideology.” According to the student radicals of 1968, the ruling classes of western societies had for centuries promoted Christianity as their dominant ideology, not because it is true, but because it served their political and economic interests. Thus, in order to destroy their power, it followed that one had to undermine the so-called cultural hegemony of Christianity itself.

Different Marxist factions had different ideas about how best to go about this. The Italian Communist Antonio Gramsci drew a distinction between what he called a “war of manoeuvre” and a “war of position.” The war of manoeuvre was the Stalinist model. One simply used political violence to achieve one’s ends. But Gramsci thought this would not work in the more highly developed Western countries. For these countries, he recommended a war of position. A war of position is one in which one first identifies “switch-points of social power” and then one seeks to peacefully take control of those switch-points. The switch-points all relate to the field of cultural values — in particular, the arts and education. The most important switch-points of power are positions like school principal, university professor, government policy maker, education department bureaucrat and journalist.

[Comment: Recommended reading.]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]