A regional educational authority in Switzerland has ruled that students must shake their teacher’s hand at the beginning and end of classes. Previously, two culture-enriching teenaged brothers had refused to shake their female teacher’s hand, because the Koran forbade them to touch members of the opposite sex. However, the higher authority has now overruled their exemption, and the brothers must shake hands with their teacher, just as other students do.
In other news, more than 2,600 migrants were rescued by the Italian coast guard in the space of 24 hours.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to AF, Fjordman, JD, Matt Bracken, Steen, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.
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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.
Expert Warns of Venezuela-Style Hyperinflation: “This Will Not End Well for the United States”
Though completely outside the realm of possibility for an entertained, well fed, and oblivious American public dependent on ever-growing debt to make ends meet, there are serious economic, financial and monetary headwinds set to flip the entire system upside down. If there’s one thing we can learn from the collapse of monetary systems in Zimbabwe, Argentina, and most recently Venezuela, it’s that printing money only works until you lose the confidence of your creditors and the public at large, at which point the whole thing detonates with such velocity and speed that millions are left scrounging for even the most basic of necessities.
According to K92 Mining President Bryan Slusarchuk, this is exactly the kind of scenario Americans should be concerned with because central banks and governments around the world have not only printed obscene sums of money to keep the system afloat, but used even more worthless foreign currency reserves to further prop up their own. As Slusarchuk notes, there is absolutely nothing of real value backing any of it, which spells disaster for Western nations:
Western nations have central bankers colluding together trying to prop up eachother’s reserve with equally worthless foreign currency reserves that are fiat-based paper. Unfortunately, I just don’t think this ends well for Western countries like the United States and Canada who have lost sight of this…
In his latest interview with SGT Report, Slusarchuk explains why a hyperinflation scenario akin to what we are witnessing in Venezuela is a distinct possibility and what those who will take the brunt of the pain — the average people on the ground — can do to prepare themselves for this inevitable future reality. As Slusarchuk warns, most people won’t figure out what has happened until it’s already too late:
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
It seems that many voices within the federal government are quite concerned about the growing patriot movement throughout the country, and especially in rural strongholds where land and liberty go hand and hand.
More events like the Bundy Ranch standoff seem likely to occur, as the BLM and other agencies show no sign of changing policies, and more and more individuals are waking up to the abuses and tyrannies taking place.
It is isn’t just hypothetical — environmental regulations and bureaucratic land management continues to undermine ranchers and farmers who are, in many cases, forced out of business or taxed & penalized to death.
Many are refusing to take it lying down, and groups across the country are training and preparing in case of the worst — a standoff with the feds over land and their very way of life.
That virulent strain of resistance, despite being the very stuff the country was founded upon and which much of its character is made up of, has the government and its supporting voices quite worried.
The powers-that-be are downright freaked out that so many individuals are willing to put their life on the line for principled reasons… and recognize the historical dilemma between quelling a rebellion and creating martyrs that can, in turn, inspire more to stand up.
One thing that is common to nearly everyone is a sense of being fed up. People recognize that there is a problem, that tyranny is taking place, and are on watch for potential abuses from the government.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Black-on-Black Crime: Blame it on the System and Ignore the Evidence
Supporters of criminal justice and sentencing reform tell us that prisons are overloaded with minority inmates, proving that the criminal justice system is racist. President Obama talks about it repeatedly, as do the sponsors of legislation pending in Congress which would retroactively reduce mandatory minimum sentences for drug traffickers and other violent felons.
Because minorities — blacks and Hispanics — make up a disproportionate part of the prison population, their reasoning goes, it must be the police, prosecutors, judges, and juries whose innate racism prohibits minorities from fair treatment, resulting in their incarceration.
Liberal politicians, pandering to minority voters, echo these sentiments, as do the mainstream media in story after story about the awful racist criminal justice system. Black Lives Matter, based on the lie that the police are a bunch of bigots who shoot black men indiscriminately, has earned an honored spot among leftist politicians — including Obama and both contenders for the Democratic presidential nomination. To skew their reasoning even further, the same crowd claims that even though crime rates have dropped precipitously over the past twenty years, the fact that more people are in prison has little to do with the decline, but further demonstrates nothing more than the racism inherent in the system.
| — Hat tip: AF | [Return to headlines] |
Ken Star pretended it was a suicide rather than a murder to prevent Foster from spilling the beans.
Trump has come out calling the Vince Foster “suicide” very “fishy” to say the least. It has long been talked about behind the curtain that Vince Foster was murdered in the White House and his body was then moved to a park to ensure the non-controllable police would have jurisdiction. The murder was neatly called a suicide claiming Foster was prescribed the anti-depressant medication Trazodone over the phone by his Arkansas doctor, but a small dose that would not have helped. The next day, Foster was found dead in Fort Marcy Park, a federal park in Virginia where jurisdiction could be controlled.
Vince Foster was from the Rose Law firm and knew everything about the Clintons. He was very upset about the investigation into them and was deeply afraid of having to testify. He appears to have been murdered in the White House and his body was then moved to the federal park. Foster was found with a gun in his hand and gunshot residue on that hand. An autopsy determined that he was shot in the mouth and no other wounds were found on his body. But that was just the start of the cover-up. What was withheld, according to investigators I personally know on Capitol Hill, was the fact that a piece of his head where the bullet came out the back was not there. This suggested his body had been removed. But that was just for starters.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Cyborgs 2030: The Military’s Vision of Remote Controlled Soldiers
(A Call to Actions) The following is a portion of an article written by Bobby Vaughn Jr. about the US Military’s plans to develop “cyborg humans” for use in warfare. To view the entire article please click here.
“Be All You Can Be” — the motto of Earth’s most aggressive and persistently violent team of death adders: The United States ARMY.
“The ARMY states this in a catchy way- convincing many that joining is the best you can do for yourself by improving yourself, upgrading yourself. Being all that you can be once you have raped sacred lands of all human dignity and enforced a terror state amongst the children and women? Is that the best the United States Citizen can be? Of course not, the military wants more & more! More, of course, in a techno-integro sense. What they want are cyborgs: Remotely-controlled man/machine trans-humans that have stripped away all dignity and will to the hands of war.”
[Comment: Basically a desire to turn human soldiers into BORG.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Frank Gaffney, founder and president of the Center for Security Policy, joined Wednesday’s Breitbart News Daily with SiriusXM host Stephen K. Bannon with a breaking news update about the ongoing battle between the Turkish government and the followers of Islamist guru Fethullah Gulen.
“The Wall Street Journal reports this morning that the Turkish government, through a law firm it’s retained in the States, has filed complaints against a group that most of us have never heard of. It’s known as the Gulen movement,” said Gaffney.
He described the Gulenists as “kind of a Turkish Islamic supremacist cult,” centered around Fethullah Gulen, who is based in the United States.
“Talk about ‘Clinton Cash,’“ said Gaffney, referring to Peter Schweizer’s book. “As a result of the Clintons allowing this guy into the United States some years ago, he is running a multi-billion-dollar enterprise, some of which has to do with real estate development, and construction, and media operations around the world, particularly in Turkey.”
Gulen also runs about 150 schools around the world, according to Gaffney, many of them located in the United States.
| — Hat tip: AF | [Return to headlines] |
Guess Who? — The Albuquerque Trump Protests Were 100% Organized Political Astroturf…
This Reuters Article describes the rioting mob from New Mexico last night:…
However, what the article doesn’t mention is that the protesting groups were 100% organized political astroturf. Notice the sign above, and see the caption “PSL”?
“PSL” stands for “Party for Socialism and Liberation”. Here’s a copy of their organizing flyer prior to last night’s protest rally:
The Last Refuge blog points out that many of the troublemakers were with PSL, short for “Party for Socialism and Liberation,” and “The Red Nation,” both communist. According to media reports, other protesters were Bernie Sanders supporters. Demonstrators also waved Mexican flags.
Who do you think is funding these endeavors?…
Yup.
George Soros.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Hacker Guccifer: Clinton’s Server Unprotected, ‘Like an Open Orchid’
During an interview with NBC News Senior Investigative Correspondent Cynthia McFadden for “Dateline on Assignment” broadcast on Wednesday’s “MSNBC Live,” Marcel Lazar Lehel, the hacker known as “Guccifer,” stated that he had access to Democratic presidential candidate former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s email server, which he described as “like an open orchid.”
Guccifer said, per a translator, that Clinton’s server was unprotected, and he had total access to the server that “was like an open orchid on the Internet, as many such servers are.”
McFadden added that Guccifer told her he had downloaded things from the server, but couldn’t provide those materials since he was in prison. She continued that an FBI official she spoke to on camera said that Guccifer had admitted to a federal crime on camera, and questioned why he would do so if it wasn’t true.
| — Hat tip: AF | [Return to headlines] |
‘Latino’ Rioters Injure Cops at Trump Rally
Anti-Donald Trump protests in Albuquerque, New Mexico, turned violent as hundreds of protesters, described by one CNN on-scene correspondent as mostly Hispanic, turned up the heat and tossed rocks, bottles and whatever else they could find at police at a time when they were supposed to be dispersing and heading home.
[Comment: Indoctrinated useful idiots, communists and la raza ramp up the destabilization.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Lead DePaul Protester Defends Actions: ‘Milo Threatens My Safety’, Could Cause Massacres
In an interview with Heat Street, the lead protester at last night’s event at DePaul University claimed that Breitbart Tech editor Milo Yiannopoulos’ lecture threatened his safety.
Since the event, the student has been identified as student and preacher Edward Ward. Speaking after the event, Ward claimed that Yiannopoulos’ hate speech threatened his safety and linked him to Charleston shooter, Dylann Roof.
In the interview, Ward claimed he was initially open to listening to Yiannopoulos’ lecture, but he decided to intervene when he felt that appropriate conversation turned into hate speech.
“But when it’s coming from a point of ignorance, when you make these blatant statements about feminists, when you make blatant statements about the LGBTQ community, when you make statements about black people — then it becomes a problem, because when you use this kind of hatred people like us end up dead.”
Ward claimed that Yiannopoulos’ rhetoric could lead to racially-motivated mass killings like the June 2015 shooting in Charleston, South Carolina. in “You get Charleston. These are what you get as a result of his type of speech and rhetoric.”
According to Ward, the protesters at the event didn’t feel that they were shutting down free speech. “This is not a point of shutting down free speech, it’s the point of shutting down hate speech” and promised to “continue to do so long as there’s anything that’s happening that threatens my safety.’
| — Hat tip: AF | [Return to headlines] |
Mexican Drug Cartel Assassins Poised to Murder Americans in Arizona
Donald Trump wants to declare war on drug cartels
Hikers and campers are taking heed after the Pinal County Sheriff’s Office in Arizona issued a warning about Mexican drug cartel assassins operating in the county.
Sheriff Paul Babeu suggested people using back roads, trails and campsites in wilderness areas be armed and vigilant over the Memorial Day weekend. His office says Mexican “sicarios” — assassination crews — are operating in the area. The assassins regularly target rival “rip crews” ferrying drugs over the border and steal their money and drugs.
Police have reported numerous instances of armed confrontations in southern Arizona between rival drug runners. Since March, gun battles have taken place on I-8 near Casa Grande, outside of Arizona City, and on the Tohono O’Odham reservation.
In late 2015, Pinal County deputies arrested 21 suspected members of the Sinaloa Cartel. 40 others evaded arrest and escaped. In addition to the smugglers, deputies, and Border Patrol agents target lookouts, scouts who camp in the mountains and help direct the drug traffic through the desert. Sheriff’s deputies have found scouts with numerous cell phones, solar panel chargers, binoculars, even encrypted radios, according to an ABC News report in November.
“We are taking this threat seriously and believe that the public and my deputies deserve to know that there is an elevated risk of encountering gun violence in certain areas of Pinal County,” Babeu said in a Monday press release.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Milo Mayhem: Activists Storm Stage, Threaten Milo at Depaul Event
Milo Yiannopoulos’ event at DePaul University had to be cut short Tuesday night after protesters stormed the stage, blew whistles, grabbed the microphone out of the interviewer’s hand, and threatened to punch Yiannopoulos in the face.
Yiannopoulos attempted to continue the event, but protesters refused to leave the stage and the group of security guards (which DePaul forced both the organisers and Breitbart to pay for) refused to intervene.
The male ringleader continued to pace along the stage with his whistle, refusing to let Yiannopoulos speak for extended amounts of time, while the female ringleader forcibly snatched the microphone from the interviewer’s hand and shouted at Yiannopoulos just inches away from his face.
The male ringleader screamed “Feel the Bern” and chanted against Donald Trump, whilst the female ringleader chanted “Black Lives Matter”.
The female ringleader also claimed that she had been silenced “for 200 years”, prompting Yiannopoulos to question how the supposed 200 year-old protester looked so young.
[Comment: Useful idiot communists…this was part of the planned destabiliazation — raise blacks on the teat of communism ideology and agitate blacks against whites Note the DePaul security guards did nothing. DuPaul provided this “security” and forced organizers and Brietbart to pay for them. Looks like they were instructed not to intervene.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
NBC: Your Children Will be Microchipped “Sooner Rather Than Later”
Americans will accept it just as they accepted the barcode
An NBC News report that promotes the microchipping of children asserts that it will happen “sooner rather than later” and that Americans will eventually accept the process as something just as normal as the barcode.
It goes on to highlight mother of three Steffany Rodroguez-Neely, who talks about how she briefly lost her daughter after she hid behind a rack of clothes, bringing to the fore, “every parent’s nightmare when you can’t find your child.”
“If it’ll save my kid, there’s no stuff that’s too extreme,” says Rodroguez-Neely. “Micro-chipping would be an extra layer of protection, if something bad does happen.”
Rodroguez-Neely goes on to explain how she has braved skepticism from members of the local Tampa Bay Moms Group, people like Kerri Levey, who are wary about implanting their own children.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Police, Protesters Clash Outside Trump’s California Rally; Arrests Made
Several protesters were arrested outside Donald Trump’s campaign rally Wednesday in Southern California, but a heavy police presence helped deter violence demonstrations like those that occurred the night before at a rally in New Mexico.
Police in Anaheim, Calif., where Wednesday’s event was held, had warned anti-Trump protesters about clashing with law enforcement.
About 100 officers, including some in riot gear, lined up in preparation outside the Anaheim Convention Center, including dozens on horses — a day after New Mexico protesters burned flags and pelted officers in riot gear with bottles and other debris.
After the event, officers stopped clashes between anti-Trump protesters and Trump supporters. And mounted police formed a line and pushed protesters, including some wearing masks and throwing rocks, away from the center.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The Ballot or the Bullet: The Real Agenda Behind Criminal Justice Reform Part Two
Make no mistake, however: the modern American left wants a socialist revolution and they don’t care if it comes through the ballot or the bullet.
Angela Davis wasn’t just remaining loyal to George Jackson by fighting for criminal justice reform, however; she’s also fighting for her mentor Herbert Marcuse’s idea of a ghetto uprising by violent thugs who learned Marxism in prison.
Enter The Dragon: The Black Guerrilla Family
A Marxist prison gang called the Black Guerrilla Family gang or BGF remains one of George Jackson’s most enduring legacies.
Jackson co-founded the gang in the 1960s and they still exist to this day.
As InsidesPrison.com explains:
The BGF have been identified by crossed sabers, machetes, rifles and shotguns as common tattoos, as well as an image of a black dragon overtaking a prison, a prison tower or prison guard.
The Black Guerrilla Family has an ideological doctrine that considers all blacks political prisoners, and has attempted to organized black advocacy by the imposition of their commands upon other inmates.
Prison tattoo and logos of the Black Guerrilla Family. pic.twitter.com/9zZ4uhTEhl
— Lee Stranahan (@stranahan) May 3, 2016
The dragon that’s part of the Black Guerrilla Family tattoo is significant—it comes from a quote from Ho Chi Minh.
George Jackson was a Maoist, like the Weathermen faction of Students for a Democratic Society and the Black Panther Party. During the Vietnam war, these 1960s radicals were on the side of America’s enemy North Vietnam and its leader, Ho Chi Minh.
The dragon imagery of the tattoo comes from a quote from Ho Chi Minh, who said: “When the prison doors are opened, the real dragon will fly out.”
Angela Davis is carrying on that communist influenced black liberation goal to this day, using to release as many prisoners as possible to become the street troops for the bloody revolution that America’s radical left has fantasized about for fifty years.
The advocates for ending “mass incarceration” want to release open the prison doors completely and let loose the Dragon.
| — Hat tip: AF | [Return to headlines] |
The Organized Left Riots Against Donald Trump in New Mexico
Organized left-wing groups launched violent protests in Albuquerque, New Mexico on Tuesday evening outside a speech by Republican frontrunner Donald Trump.
Protests turn violent outside Trump rally in #Albuquerque https://t.co/ls7x7KeTlp pic.twitter.com/CSsGMJTj5V
— FOX & Friends (@foxandfriends) May 25, 2016
Every time #TrumpProtesters wave the Mexican flag they reinforce EVERYTHING #Trump has been saying. #Albuquerque pic.twitter.com/jS9uUDHWMm
— Joe Prich (@JoePrich) May 25, 2016
As demonstrators waved the Mexican flag, shots were fired — reportedly by a pellet gun — while police cars were vandalized, rocks and bottles were thrown, and Trump supporters were threatened and beaten.
| — Hat tip: AF | [Return to headlines] |
The Truth Behind the Push for Criminal Justice Reform [Part 1.]
However, as bad as the bill is on its face, it’s really just a step in a wider plan that the American radical left has been working on for five decades: the release of all prisoners. As bizarre as that sounds, the truth is that it wants to release as many prisoners as possible because for the left, opening the the prison doors door is the key to set the Revolution in motion.
If you want to understand the revolutionary left’s zeal for prison reform, a man named George Jackson is the place you need to start.
George Jackson
Although he’s virtually unknown to the general public today, in his time George Jackson was a best-selling author, a well-known and influential leader in the black liberation movement and a dangerous thug.
George Jackson: thug, communist, hero to #BlackLivesMatter & the spiritual father of “criminal justice reform.” pic.twitter.com/KLxQlnPvwU
— Lee Stranahan (@stranahan) May 3, 2016
The left-wing website The Black Agenda Report tells its readers that if they don’t know George Jackson, “you have had a very incomplete education on the Black Liberation Movement.” It describes Jackson in glowing terms:
Jackson was an African convict who became an activist, Marxist, author, a member of the Black Panther Party, and co-founder of the Black Guerrilla Family prison organization. He achieved global fame as one of the Soledad Brothers before his execution by prison guards in San Quentin Prison. George and his younger brother Jonathan Jackson and Khatari Gaulden are central to understanding Black August.
Jackson was an African born in America who became a Field Marshal of the Black Panther Party while in prison, where he spent the last 12 years of his life. His book of published letters, Soledad Brother, became an instant classic.
That’s a good summary of how the left see George Jackson, but the truth is far uglier.
| — Hat tip: AF | [Return to headlines] |
Why Was Hillary Trying to Reach Vince Foster on Day He Died?
GOP presidential frontrunner Donald Trump thrust the name of Vince Foster back into the spotlight Tuesday more than two decades after his case was ruled a suicide, saying the Clinton aide’s death in 1993 was “fishy” and deserved to be taken “very seriously.”
And that’s a sore spot in the campaign of rival Democratic Party front-runner Hillary Clinton. So sore, in fact, that in February when WND emailed questions to the Clinton campaign about an investigative piece it was preparing on Foster’s death, the campaign refused to respond.
A look at Foster’s final day shows Hillary Clinton was desperately trying to reach him before his body was discovered by Park Police. She asked her chief of staff three times to contact Foster and have him call her. But she has never been asked why she was so eager to talk to him on the day his body turned up dead in Fort Marcy Park outside of Washington, D.C., on July 20, 1993.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
A Portrait in Courage: Flemming Rose
Danish journalist stands up to attempts to suppress unpopular opinions. Both around the world and here at home, free speech is under assault. From the Charlie Hebdo massacre in Paris to the “unexplained” deaths of critics of Russian president Vladimir Putin, people who express unpopular opinions or report the truth are in danger. Worldwide, more than 110 journalists were killed in 2015, bringing the total to 787 since 2005, according to Reporters without Borders.
The threats to free speech in this country don’t rise to that level, of course. But Hillary Clinton wants to change the First Amendment to limit political speech, and Donald Trump wants to rewrite libel laws so that he can sue media critics. Meanwhile, colleges routinely punish those who take unpopular stands and reject speakers who might challenge student orthodoxy.
That’s one reason why it is significant that the Cato Institute will award the eighth biennial Milton Friedman Prize for Advancing Liberty to a true champion of free speech, the Danish journalist and author Flemming Rose. Rose came to the world’s attention in 2005, when, as an editor at the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten, he published a series of twelve cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad. Rose did so, not because he sought to be offensive, he said, but to challenge the growing wave of “self-censorship in Europe caused by widening fears and feelings of intimidation in dealing with issues related to Islam.” Rose’s decision to publish the cartoons sparked riots in Europe and across the Islamic world. A price was put on Rose’s head, and he has received numerous credible death threats. A plot to assassinate him was disrupted by the FBI in 2009. Still, he firmly rejects the idea, so prevalent these days, that “you have a right not to be insulted or offended.” While he came to prominence as a result of the Muhammad cartoons, Rose is not a provocateur but a defender of free speech as a matter of principle. In fact, he has recently undertaken a new cause: standing up for Muslims targeted by some of Europe’s new anti-terror laws, and fighting restrictions on religious speech deemed “extreme” by authorities. He has condemned Dutch politician Geert Wilders’s call to ban the Quran. Rose has spoken out against groups ranging from Russian Orthodox authorities to Hindu nationalists who have been attacking free expression, sometimes under the color of law, sometimes violently. He has criticized U.S. corporate and campus speech codes. In November 2014, he released The Tyranny of Silence, which recounts his experience with the Muhammad cartoons and goes on to make a spirited case against censorship anywhere in the world. Rose traces his dedication to free speech to experiences he had as a reporter covering the fall of the Soviet Union. “The dissidents in the Soviet Union made a strong impression on me,” he told an interviewer for The Atlantic in March, because they showed him just “how important it is to have the right to attack ideas, no matter what.” His experiences in the Soviet Union also left him a critic of government power and socialism generally; he told The Atlantic that the Soviet Union showed “what a real socialist society looked like: dysfunctional, authoritarian, and murderous.” In announcing the award, Cato president Peter Goettler declared that it represented a recognition that “freedom of expression and speech is fundamental to the advancement of civilization and is critical in protecting the values of liberty and limited government.” The Friedman Prize, which carries with it a $250,000 cash award, was established in 2002 and is presented every two years, following deliberation by a distinguished board from around the world. The previous winners are: former deputy prime minister and finance minister of Poland Leszek Balcerowicz; dissident Chinese economist Mao Yushi; Iranian writer and journalist Akbar Ganji; a leader of the Venezuelan student pro-democracy movement, Yon Goicoechea; former prime minister of Estonia Mart Laar; Peruvian property-rights reformer Hernando de Soto; and the late British economist Peter Bauer. The right and ability to challenge orthodoxy, to speak truth to power, is essential to preserving our freedom…
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
Jihadis Working at Paris Airports?
(DAILY BEAST) PARIS — The fear that some of the 85,000 employees working at Paris airports might have terrorist sympathies, or be terrorists themselves, goes back at least a decade.
In December of last year, after attacks at other locations in Paris, about 70 airport employees with access to planes on the ground reportedly had their “red badges” lifted because they fell under police suspicion. And in years past, more quietly, police have broken up several criminal networks among baggage handlers with radical Islamist connections.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Neanderthals Built Cave Structures — And No One Knows Why
Walls of stalagmites in a French cave might have had a domestic or a ceremonial use.
Neanderthals built one of the world’s oldest constructions — 176,000-year-old semicircular walls of stalagmites in the bowels of a cave in southwest France. The walls are currently the best evidence that Neanderthals built substantial structures and ventured deep into caves, but researchers are wary of concluding much more.
“The big question is why they made it,” says Jean-Jacques Hublin, a palaeoanthropologist at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany who was not involved in the study, which is published online in Nature on 25 May. “Some people will come up with interpretations of ritual or religion or symbolism. Why not? But how to prove it?”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Rome Calls on Companies and the Rich to Adopt Crumbling Ancient Sites
Rome has issued a €500m (£380m) SOS to companies, wealthy philanthropists and its own citizens to help restore many of the Italian capital’s historic sites and prevent others from falling into ruin.
The Roman Forum, the Circus Maximus and the walls, aqueducts and sewerage system of what was once the most powerful city on Earth have all been earmarked as needing help ranging from a relatively minor clean up to full-blown structural works.
Saddled with debts of some €12bn, Rome cannot afford to do it on its own.
But Claudio Parisi Presicce, the city cultural superintendent, said he believed the city could call in some of the reserves of goodwill given Rome’s central role in the construction of Western civilisation.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Switzerland: Muslim Students Must Shake Teacher’s Hand
Muslim students in Switzerland must shake their teacher’s hand at the beginning and end of lessons, a regional authority has ruled.
A controversial exemption from the tradition had been granted for two teenage brothers whose interpretation of the Koran meant they were unwilling to touch a member of the opposite sex.
If they continue to refuse, their parents could face a fine.
The regional authority said teachers “had the right” to demand handshakes.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Saudi Arabia Hopes for Religious Tourism Boost
With Saudi Arabia’s government announcing reforms aimed at moving the kingdom away from its dependence on oil, another source of income looks set to become a major contributor to the economy — religious tourism.
The authorities plan to relax restrictions governing visas for Muslim pilgrims, meaning those travelling to Mecca and Medina will be able to extend their stay and visit non-religious cultural cities and sites.
The tourism industry currently generates about 2.7% of Saudi Arabia’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), with religious tourists making up the largest group of visitors to the kingdom.
The Hajj pilgrimage, which takes place in the 12th month of the Islamic lunar calendar, and lesser Umrah pilgrimages, which can be performed at any time of the year, contribute $12bn annually.
That is projected to rise to more than $20bn within the next four years, according to the Council for Economic and Development Affairs.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Saudi Press: U.S. Blew up World Trade Center to Create ‘War on Terror’
Al-Shammari claims that the U.S. chooses to keep some cards close to its chest in order to use them at a later date. One example is choosing not to invade Iraq in the 1990s and keeping its leader, Saddam Hussein, alive to use as “a bargaining chip” against other Gulf States. Only once Shi’ism threatened to sweep the region did America act to get rid of Hussein “since they no longer saw him as an ace up their sleeve.”
He claims that the 9/11 attacks were another such card, enabling the U.S. to blame whoever suited its needs at a particular time; first it blamed Al-Qaeda and the Taliban, then Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq, and now Saudi Arabia.
September 11 is one of winning cards in the American archives, because all the wise people in the world who are experts on American policy and who analyze the images and the videos [of 9/11] agree unanimously that what happened in the [Twin] Towers was a purely American action, planned and carried out within the U.S. Proof of this is the sequence of continuous explosions that dramatically ripped through both buildings. … Expert structural engineers demolished them with explosives, while the planes crashing [into them] only gave the green light for the detonation — they were not the reason for the collapse. But the U.S. still spreads blame in all directions.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Almost 3,000 Russians Left Country to Join Terrorist Groups
About 3,000 Russian citizens have gone to join terrorist organizations abroad, Russian National Antiterrorism Committee (NAC) deputy head Yevgeny Ilyin said Wednesday.
Those joining terror groups are mainly from Russia’s North Caucasus region.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
China is Executing to Plan: Foxconn Replaces 60,000 Workers With Robots
Last month we discussed the fact that officials had approved the latest Five Year Plan for China’s economy.
The ultimate goal of the plan is to overtake Germany, Japan, and the United States in terms of manufacturing sophistication by 2049, the 100th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
2,600 Migrants Come to Italy in Just 24 Hours
Italy rescued more than 2,600 migrants from the sea in just 24 hours yesterday, raising fears of another large influx this coming summer.
Two weeks ago, the European Union (EU) claimed its £4.7 billion deal with Turkey had cut the number of migrants crossing the Aegean Sea by 90 per cent. However, the number of migrants crossing to Italy from North Africa is now starting to rise sharply.
The Italian coastguard said had helped save 2,000 people floating in 14 rubber dinghies, bringing them ashore in Italy. Another 636 were picked up from two boats off the Maltese coast.
Meanwhile, Libyan authorities also detained a further 550 people trying to cross illegally into Europe. They said the nationalities of those detained included “several African countries”, and included children and women, eight of whom were pregnant.
EU officials are predicting that up to half a million people will cross the Mediterranean from Libya alone this year, intensifying the migrant crisis once again and possibly raising social tensions on the European continent.
| — Hat tip: AF | [Return to headlines] |
Daniel Greenfield: The Muslim World is a Permanent Refugee Crisis
It’s never going to stop unless we shut the door.
Forget the Syrian Civil War for a moment. Even without the Sunnis and Shiites competing to give each other machete haircuts every sunny morning, there would still be a permanent Muslim refugee crisis.
The vast majority of civil wars over the last ten years have taken place in Muslim countries. Muslim countries are also some of the poorest in the world. And Muslim countries also have high birth rates.
Combine violence and poverty with a population boom and you get a permanent migration crisis.
No matter what happens in Syria or Libya next year, that permanent migration crisis isn’t going away.
The Muslim world is expanding unsustainably. In the Middle East and Asia, Muslims tend to underperform their non-Muslim neighbors both educationally and economically. Oil is the only asset that gave Muslims any advantage and in the age of fracking, its value is a lot shakier than it used to be.
The Muslim world had lost its old role as the intermediary between Asia and the West. And it has no economic function in the new world except to blackmail it by spreading violence and instability…
| — Hat tip: Matt Bracken | [Return to headlines] |
European Migrant Crisis: Capsized Boat Horror Caught on Camera
The deadly capsizing of a migrant boat in the Mediterranean has been caught on camera by the Italian navy as it rescued 562 people.
The trawler overturned apparently as a result of people on board rushing to one side after spotting a rescue ship, and five were found dead.
People clung desperately to the deck or dropped into the sea.
Italy’s Bettica patrol boat threw life rafts and jackets while another Italian ship sent rescue boats.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Hundreds of Syrian Refugees Flood in Monday
(WASHINGTON TIMES) — The State Department admitted 80 Syrian refugees on Tuesday and 225 on Monday, setting a single-day record, as President Obama tries to meet his target of 10,000 approvals this year — renewing fears among security analysts who say the administration is cutting corners to meet a political goal.
Officials insist they are moving faster because of improvements in screening and say they are still running all the traps on applicants.
But the spike is stunning, with more people accepted Monday alone than in the entire months of January or February.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Report: Swedish Police Excuse Migrant Rape, Blame ‘Nordic Alcohol Culture’ And ‘Ignorance’
The report notes that Sweden has the worst rates of physical and sexual violence committed against women in the European Union (EU), according to a survey by the EU’s rights agency.
Titled: The Current Situation of Sexual Molestation and Proposals for Action, the document seeks to explain these statistics, and concludes on page 34:
“Sweden tops the new EU Statistics on physical and sexual violence against women, sexual harassment and stalking. The conclusion is that the results are a consequence of Nordic alcohol culture, but also of non-traditional gender roles.”
It explains, on page 20, that the “background to the men who commit sexual molestation is multifaceted.”
Migrants, it says, might not be able to “handle the alcohol,” simply feel “horny,” have “ignorance of the consequences for the girls,” “have misplaced feelings,” be “expressing anger in this way” or be acting due to “peer pressure.”
“Some argue that sexual molestation is part of bullying, or the means for men to demonstrate their power over girls,” claims the next paragraph.
The report also documents how girls in Sweden have been called “whores” and abused for “their clothes,” leaving many fearful to walk the streets.
The explicitly feminist analysis places a strong emphasis on the “problem” of “masculinity,” rather that the non-Western values held by many migrants. Part of the conclusion reads:
“Studies have shown that the use of violence in intimate relationships can be a means of strengthening the perpetrator’s sense of masculinity and forcing the victim to submission.
“Control is exercised over women through violence, thus shaping her according to the man’s idealised vision of femininity. During the exercise of violence, men can feel they embody a typical ‘male.’ Attributes: aggressiveness, strength and control.
“In other words, the violence makes possible what is considered masculine and can provide ‘benefits’ for the perpetrator.”
The report opens by mentioning the mass “planned” sex attack by migrants on New Years’ Eve seen across Europe, and the gang molestations committed by Afghan migrants at the “We Are Stockholm” teenage festival in 2014 and 2015.
“For these reasons, it was decided by the National Commissioner that the vulnerability to sexual molestation among young people would be investigated,” the report explains, noting that “the majority of the victims are girls who are younger than fifteen years old.”
Shortly after the German police were accused of attempting to cover up the Cologne sex attack, it began to be reported that Swedish police had been obscuring the nature of sex attacks in Stockholm for years.
| — Hat tip: AF | [Return to headlines] |
Planned Parenthood Lawyer Got Insider Details in Baby Body-Parts Case
An affidavit in one of the court cases resulting from an undercover video investigation of Planned Parenthood’s for-profit sale of the body parts of unborn babies reveals a Texas prosecutor shared confidential details with Planned Parenthood during the investigation.
“The recent filings by the Harris County district attorney confirm that the DA shared confidential documents and information with abortion provider Planned Parenthood, colluding with it in the prosecution of David Daleiden,” said Daleiden’s attorney, Thomas More Society special counsel Peter Breen.
“These filings also include evidence that appears to show that the DA’s office worked with Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast to undermine the Texas attorney general’s independent investigation of that abortion provider. The conduct of Harris County prosecutors in this case is outrageous and illegal. We look forward to pressing our motion to quash this indictment in court.”
It was Daleiden, through his Center for Medical Progress, who set up a fake company and sent investigators with concealed video cameras to Planned Parenthood clinics. In the videos released throughout 2015, Planned Parenthood doctors and managers were caught haggling over the price of baby body parts. A number of them talked about being paid per item, how they could adjust abortion procedures to salvage requested body parts and how they could create a revenue stream from such transactions.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Why Are Americans Getting Married an Average of 7 Years Later Than They Did in the 1950s?
In America today, the average woman is getting married 7.0 years later than she did in 1956, and the average man is getting married 6.7 years later than he did back then.
Americans are getting married later and later in life these days. So precisely why is this happening?
As you will see below, the average age when men and women first get married in the United States is getting perilously close to 30, but in the middle of the last century it was close to 20. There has been a dramatic cultural shift, and this has resulted in a whole host of unintended consequences. Because even though people are getting married later, they are still engaging in behaviors that in previous generations were considered reserved for those that had made a permanent commitment. The family has always been one of the foundational institutions in society, but now it is breaking down at a very alarming pace. Our young people have been trained to think that getting married, having children and raising a family are not important priorities, and this is showing up in a myriad of various ways.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
No doubt there will be a publicly funded, successful appeal, reversing the imminently sensible initial judgement, to ensure that these two ingrates do not have to shake hands with a female teacher, justified on cultural differences of course. I would suggest that instead the biggest male teacher available should shake them by the throats at least twice a day.
The Quran forbidding the touching female flesh didn’t have much of a deterrent effect during the dreadful NYE mass assaults on women and girls in Cologne and elsewhere did it?
I love the quote by the Czech woman, such a brave one to, who stated that the question to be asked of Muslim ” migrants” should be “do you want to live” and not “do you want to live with US”
Wake up Europe the more you give in,the more the third world invaders, aided and abetted by the lunatics Merkel, Hollande & Cameron, will push the envelope. In Wuppertal, Germany they are already employing unscreened Muslim migrants in the Police force. Next thing you know there will be religious police patrolling telling you what to wear and not to drink and listen to music.
For all the good it will do (probably none) I would like to point out that here in America there is FREE SPEECH and “hate” speech is part of FREE SPEECH. I have a right to hate things, love things, disapprove of things and cheer things. I use things interchangeably with people and actions, the whoe shebang. When did we silently swallow this malarkey about “hate” speech? It is about one of the most stupid things I’ve seen in my long life in America. When I first arrived on these shores, it was considered right to hate communismn. Later it was considered right to hate racism. Now we are not allowed to hate anything or anyone? Pardon me while I continue to hate Hitler, Mao, and Stalin. Pardon me while I continue to dislike stupid bigoted people. I am free to think and speak my mind. And so is everyone else. Amen. I have spoken and I am sure I am right in this. and even if I’m wrong, I also have a right to be wrong — now chew on that for awhile.
Good on you Maria. I prefer Mediterranean type women over Saxon/British/German type women. Is that preference still allowed? The Irishman.
A regional educational authority in Switzerland has ruled that students must shake their teacher’s hand at the beginning and end of classes.
Refusing to shake hands is not a sign of piety of discipline. In Europe it is a sign of political message, assertiveness and “you are dirty infidel”.
They will still refuse to shake the dirty infidel hands. And why is the female teacher so eager to shake hands with snakes followers of the Pirate?
If they want to shake hands with her she should refuse. Refusing to shake hands with scorpions and sending them back to their hellholes is a sign of maturity. We need another 1435 years for the westerners to discover and understand that.
500 years not bad.
Let the female teacher whisper in his ear and suggest to have and spend a night at her apartment. IS HE GOING TO SAY NO THAT’S ADULTERY SO HARAM?
To hell with elected traitors who do not know about hijra to Medina and hijra to the west (invited with open arms). God rejected from the west allah and pirate welcomed. A sign of humanity, human rights, and noble values.
Independent Pollster now showing a shift towards BREXIT. This is not reported anywhere in the MSM.
http://www.tns-bmrb.co.uk/press-release/one-five-voters-still-undecided-eu-referendum
I hope you have a look at this , please see what you think. Another disgraceful example of bashing the indigenous population.
I’m sorry if it’s in the wrong place but I don’t know how to post info to you.
Keep up the great work!
http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/673858/EU-referendum-advert-Operation-Black-Vote-white-thug-asian-woman
A great phone in about this today, on a great podcast radio show, with Jon Gaunt. Listen to the guy squirm!
https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-jon-gaunt-show/id980963118?mt=2#episodeGuid=tag%3Aaudioboo.fm%2C2016-05-26%3A%2Fboos%2F4617633
This is exactly the right place to post things when you’re not sure where they should go. The comments section of the New Feed is the correct repository…
I looked at that jornolist’s reportage in The Express. Illiterate is the nicest thing I can say about it. Here’s my favorite quote:
But Ukip leader Nigel Farage said the advertising campaign was divisive and instead took us down “a root [sic] of a sectarian politics”.
No doubt Mr. Farage said “route” but don’t tell the jornolist.
———————
My Chomebook doesn’t support iTunes. Can you tell me something about Jon Gaunt? (yes, I do get the historical nudge)
To CeltictotheBone
Yes, of course. Why not? Freedom is freedom, as I tried to express above. I am so depressed to see so many people misunderstand freedom.
Freedom means you get to think what you want, say what you want, do what you want (within the law) and so on and so forth. What is so hard to understand here? Or is that an American thing, which the rest of the world does not understand? We in America take freedom as a natural right. Europeans are still struggling with the concept. Angela Merkel should be jailed since she doesn’t know how to spell freedom in German, let alone English.
I wish we could resurrect Winston Churchill — he would set the world straight. That tells you what camp I’m coming from, and it is not The Camp of The Saints (Jean Raspail) which I started and couldn’t bear to finish. Maybe I can do it someday. But he certainly seemed to foresee at least some of Europe’s future, based on the first couple of chapters I did read.
Anyway, to CeltictotheBone, preserve your freedom as best you can. This future is starting to look like 1984 and we will all be called upon to preserve our freedoms.
Thank you for listing. Sincerely Maria