Mario Draghi, the president of the European Central Bank, criticized President Donald Trump’s loosening of U.S. banking regulations. Mr. Draghi said that less regulation was the last thing the world economy needed.
In other Trump-related news, more than a hundred demonstrators gathered in Stockholm to protest Donald Trump’s proposed immigration restrictions. The protesters feared that similar things could happen in Sweden, making Muslim people, Jewish people, and LGBTQRJXPWV people feel unsafe.
OK, so I added a few letters to that last acronym. But still…
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to DV, Fjordman, JD, Reader from Chicago, Seneca III, 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.
Congress Targets Federal Reserve’s Globalist Scheming
A senior Republican lawmaker is putting Federal Reserve System boss Janet Yellen on notice: There’s a new sheriff in town, so America and American interests had better come first from now on. Citing the victory of President Donald Trump, Congressman Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.), the vice chairman of the powerful House Financial Services Committee, sent a letter to Yellen demanding an end to secretive negotiations with unaccountable foreign entities plotting to impose ever more burdensome regulations on Americans. In the letter, the congressman calls such scheming “unacceptable” and demands that it be stopped.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
ECB’s Draghi Lambasts Trump’s Banking Deregulation
ECB president Mario Draghi has rejected a plan by Donald Trump to soften US banking regulation adopted in the wake of the financial crisis, saying laxer rules are “the last thing we need” in financial markets.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
How Trump Could Win the Currency War
President must clean up Obama’s economic messes
Let’s start with the comment by President Trump’s top trade advisor Peter Navarro that “Germany is using a grossly undervalued euro to exploit the US and its EU partners.” The underlying reality is that Chancellor Merkel in the defence of the European status quo (including European Monetary Union [EMU] in its present form) has backed ECB chief Draghi pursuing policies of radical monetary ease. She could have said no. She did not.
Indeed the evidence points to a war conspiracy. Finance Minister Schaeuble admitted in a recent newspaper interview (inTagesspiegel) that Berlin agreed (back in 2014) not to express in public its disquiet about radical monetary policies of the ECB on the understanding that the ECB would take responsibility for the widening German trade surplus. In effect Berlin would plead innocence on the basis of ECB independence and Chief Draghi would back that plea. The conspirators did not reckon with the rise of Donald Trump.
German and Japanese Monetary Scheming
No doubt the government in Berlin did reckon correctly that radical ECB policies would become growingly unpopular with big sections of the German public. Points of resentment would include the substantially negative real rates on savings and the transfer of huge volumes of capital via the ECB into weak sovereigns and banks (most of all in Italy). There are also, however, many citizens who have gained from the export boom (fuelled by the weak euro) and the property construction boom.
In effect, the cheap euro has provided an essential political lifeline to Europe’s present-day Chancellor Metternich (Merkel). Undeclared currency warfare by the unloving Merkel-Draghi couple has been the means of restraining the forces of domestic political resentment in Germany against the growing costs of EMU.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Arizona’s Newest Roadside Sideshow is Out of This World
CASA GRANDE, AZ (3TV/CBS 5) — Cars zoom along Interstate 10 just as they do every day as they drive past Casa Grande, but on Monday a stretch of farmland looked a little different.
“It looks like it came out of maybe an engine or alien,” said Denise Meyers, of Tempe, as she described what she saw when she was driving back from Tucson Monday morning. Her companion, Marc Washington, then stopped the car.
“And I said, ‘What are you going to do, pull over to the side and jump the fence?’ He’s like, ‘Yeah,’“ Meyers said.
“It’s nothing that you see on the side of the 10,” Washington said.
You’ve heard of space junk, but what about space art? Last week, Scottsdale-based artist Jack Millard was doing exactly what Meyers was doing -— driving along I-10 when he saw potential sitting on someone’s property.
[RELATED: Was a space capsule found near Casa Grande? Kind of ]
“This is an old, dilapidated, rusted-out cement mixer that had been abandoned here 30-some years ago,” Millard said. “I saw that as a piece of junk and I looked into it and saw that it could be created into something interesting and provocative.”
Now, he’s turned that rusted-out piece of equipment into a must-stop, pull-over, out-of-this-world attraction.
“I’m calling it, right now, ‘The Capsule’ and the hallowed ground that we are standing on right now is called the ‘Crash Site,’“ Millard said.
| — Hat tip: DV | [Return to headlines] |
Charlottesville, Va Moves to Tear Down Robert E. Lee Statue, Rename Park
“These people have no shame.”
The Charlottesville City Council is expected to vote to remove a statue of Robert E. Lee and rename the park after a vote last month ended in a tie.
Councilman Bob Fenwick, who abstained from voting on the measure during a Jan. 17 meeting, told The Caviler Daily he now plans to vote to remove the statue and rename Lee Park at the Virginia council’s meeting today.
Fenwick said he initially abstained from voting because he was unsure about the consequences for the move, slated to cost $300,000, and wanted time to consider input from a Blue Ribbon Commission on Race, Memorials and Public Spaces.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
‘Dilbert’ Creator, A Berkeley Alum, Yanks Support
Scott Adams, the creative genius behind the popular comic “Dilbert,” is no longer a fan of his alma mater: UC Berkeley.
“I’m ending my financial and other support for #UCBerkeley (for my safety),” Adams announced on Twitter on Friday.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Federal Scientist Cooked Climate Change Books Ahead of Obama Presentation, Whistle Blower Charges
A key Obama administration scientist brushed aside inconvenient data that showed a slowdown in global warming in compiling an alarming 2015 report that coincided with the White House participation in the Paris Climate Conference, a whistle blower is alleging.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), in a major 2013 report, concluded global temperatures had shown a smaller increase from 1998 to 2012 than any similar period over the past 30 to 60 years. But a blockbuster, June 2015 paper by a team of federal scientists led by Thomas Karl, published in the journal Science in June 2015 and later known as the “pausebuster” paper sought to discredit the notion of a slowdown in warming.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
‘Five Pillars of Islam’ Worksheet for Six-Graders Angers in South Carolina
A South Carolina elementary school is under the microscope after a parent realized her six-grade child was tasked with a “Five Pillars of Islam” worksheet.
Alston Middle School in Summerville has a class called “Survey of Civilization,” which includes lesson plans on different religions, economies, and geographic regions. A local CBS affiliate was recently sent a classroom assignment that has some parents angry that they weren’t given more details beforehand.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
In Their Own Words: Anti-Trump ‘Resistance’ Leaders Say They Want to Make America ‘Ungovernable’
Behind the mass protests, choreographed chants and acts of violence, leaders of anti-Trump “resistance” efforts are communicating the same simple but dark message: they want to make America “ungovernable” for the president of the United States.
These protesters say they will do whatever it takes to keep Trump from enacting his agenda, and many of them have shown a willingness to destroy public property, assault law enforcement officers and inflict violence upon their fellow citizens.
This is terrorism.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
San Francisco Police End Relationship With FBI Joint Terrorism Taskforce
Has ultra-liberal San Francisco gone completely nuts? Probably. Despite being a top terror target because of its famous structures — just think Golden Gate Bridge and TransAmerica building — the city’s Police Department recently ended its partnership with the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The left embraces the far left — in this case, the Antifa. But the average rightwing conservative, Republican, or tea partier, abhors both the far left and the far right. Fidel, Mao, Stalin, Hitler, Goebbels, David Duke, and chameleon-opportunists who fit in nowhere and anywhere like Lyndon LaRouche have no place in the conservative agenda. All are equal-opportunity despots under whose rule none of us wants to live.
But the left doesn’t understand that — they think conservatives are allied with Nazis or Nazi-sympathizers. They cast mainstream conservatives in with these monsters, knowing full well that the only commonality the two share is what appears to be a random and meaningless placement on the right side of the political spectrum.
Hillary Clinton was the mastermind behind this mindset: she conflated mainstream conservatives — especially those who supported Trump — with neo-Nazis and White Supremacists in her August 2016 Reno campaign speech. She singlehandedly primed the pump for the radical Pussy Hat March, Inauguration Day violence, and the Berkeley riots.
Falsely accusing mainstream conservatives of being members of the far right is akin to saying the Jews drank the blood of Christian children. Blaming the Berkeley chaos on conservatives is like blaming the Jews for killing Jesus. Such blood libels do not end well for the victims, as charismatic rabble-rousers — whether in the Pale of Settlement or Berkeley, CA — rile up hysterical mobs that scapegoat their misery on the targeted group and ransack on demand.
Rights become malleable or irrelevant in such situations. And, as reported in Berkeleyside.com, the freedoms to speak and assemble only apply to those who agree with the mob:
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Prosecute the Berkeley rioters by enforcing federal law
The rioting was all too predictable. Berkeley campus police gave the rioters permission to run amok by following a no-arrest policy, Yiannopoulos’s tour security coordinator Tej Gill told Breitbart News Daily on SiriusXM satellite radio. “The police effectively did nothing, nothing while we were there,” he said.
Gill, a U.S. Navy SEAL, continued:
It just fuels the fire, the no arrest thing, hands off policy, every time they do this and they do it successfully with no arrest, no trouble, there’s no consequences and if there’s no consequences why stop? Each time they’re gonna get stronger and stronger.
Preventing riots isn’t hard, according to Gill.
It’s simple, enforce the law. That’s it. Just enforce the law. When we go to the conservative campuses the police departments there are amazing, the shows go off without a hitch, they’re orderly, they give the protesters room to protest and they give the Milo supporters room to support Milo then they keep everybody separated. Liberal campuses have effectively emasculated the police forces there. They’ve totally been politicized, they don’t let them do their job, they actually have a hands off and no arrests policy, one of the guys at Berkeley told me this. […]
Police are not powerless in the face of left-wing protesters hell-bent on destruction, but their political masters refuse to let them do their jobs.
For too long rioters have been cloaking themselves in the First Amendment while they destroy the democratic underpinnings of our free society. And police have been reluctant to interfere by restoring order.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UC Berkeley Investigating Alleged Employee Who Participated in Riots, Assaults
Man bragged about injuring victims on social media
UC Berkeley are investigating Ian Dabney Miller, who is allegedly an employee at the university, after he was caught bragging about and celebrating the assault of a MILO fan during the Breitbart senior editor’s event on Wednesday.
Miller, who attended the protest-turned-riot on Wednesday, uploaded several pictures to his since-privatized Twitter account, including one of an injured attendee lying on the floor with the caption “hey come get your boy, he got ROCKED #miloatcal.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Canada’s Trudeau Sets Up “War Room” To Monitor Not Jihad Terrorists, But Donald Trump
President Donald Trump has so unnerved Justin Trudeau that the Canadian prime minister has set-up a “war room” within his office to monitor what Liberal government insiders are calling “the unpredictable U.S. president” and to respond at a moment’s notice.
The team is led by long-time Liberal advisor Brian Clow, formerly chief of staff to foreign affairs minister Chrystia Freeland, and is designed to provide advice and quick responses to Trump’s trade policy, especially with regard to NAFTA.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
“France First” — Le Pen Hits Out at Islamism and Globalisation
Marine Le Pen, the presidential candidate for France’s populist National Front (FN), has pledged to put France first, hitting out at “financial globalisation”, “mass immigration”, and “Islamic fundamentalism” in a landmark speech.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
50,000 Women in Germany Have Suffered Genital Mutilation: Report
Thousands of girls in Germany face genital mutilation on top of the tens of thousands of women who have already suffered it, a new government report claims.
The study, published on Monday by the Family Affairs Ministry, found that 48,000 woman and girls living in Germany have been victims of female genital mutilation (FGM), an increase of 30 percent since 2014.
According to the authors, between 1,600 and 5,700 girls in Germany are faced with undergoing the illegal operation to remove external parts of their genitalia.
The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reported other estimates which claim that up to 9,000 adolescent women face having this illegal operation.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Austrian Parliament Says Turkish Hackers Claim Cyber Attack
Austria’s parliament said on Tuesday that a Turkish hackers’ group had claimed responsibility for a cyber attack that brought down its website for 20 minutes this weekend.
Aslan Neferler Tim (ANT), or Lion Soldiers Team, whose website says it defends the homeland, Islam, the nation and flag, without any party political links, claimed the attack, a parliamentary spokeswoman said.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
DNA Suggests Baltic Hunter-Gatherers Learned to Farm
Genome Web reports that researchers from Trinity College Dublin, the University of Cambridge, and University College Dublin analyzed human remains from Latvia and Ukraine ranging in age from 8,300 to 4,800 years old, and found little change in the Baltic hunter-gatherer genome through the Neolithic period. The study suggests that farmers from the Middle East, who migrated into Central and Western Europe, where they interbred with hunter-gatherers and eventually replaced them, did not expand into the Baltic.
And, archaeological evidence supports the idea that the transition to farming occurred slowly in the Baltic. Hunter-gatherers there are thought to have adopted domesticated livestock, the cultivation of grains, and pottery through trade and cultural contact with farming communities. The study did detect a possible migration of people from the Pontic Steppe to the East some 5,000 to 7,000 years ago. These people may have brought early Slavic languages to the Baltic with them.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Estonia: Delivery Robots in Tallinn
Estonia has made a name in the field of technology and innovation, and is home to start-ups testing new gadgets. Robots are part of daily life in the capital Tallinn, where they’re popular for take-out deliveries.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
France: Anti-Christian Attacks Rise 245 Percent
While racist, anti-Muslim, and anti-Semitic attacks have seen a huge fall since 2008, those on Christian places of worship more than doubled in this period of time, France’s interior ministry reported last week.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
France: Sarkozy ‘To be Put on Trial’ Over Campaign Fraud Allegations
Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy is to face trial over the allegedly fraudulent financing of his doomed 2012 bid for re-election, a legal source told AFP on Tuesday.
The prosecution claims Sarkozy greatly exceeded a spending limit of €22.5 million ($24 million) by using false billing from a public relations firm called Bygmalion.
The source said one of two judges in charge of the case, Serge Tournaire, had decided on February 3 that the case should go to trial after the failure of Sarkozy’s legal efforts to prevent it in December.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Gangster Islam: The Problem Europe Ignores
The Dutch-Moroccan rapper Ismo stating: “I believe nothing blindly except the Quran” “I hate the Jews even more than the Nazis” and “I won’t shake hands with faggots” / screenshot YT
For over a decade, Europe’s struggle to successfully integrate its Muslim population has been evident. But throughout the years a new and distinctly European phenomenon arose, which is as significant as it is underreported: Gangster Islam. It entails the conflation of the seemingly a-religious street culture of youths from a Muslim background on the one hand, and elements of the Islamic religion on the other.
The German publication Der Spiegel once very briefly touched on the matter, a Danish documentary highlighted Islamic extremists recruiting gang members from a Muslim background, and a Dutch terrorism expert pointed out how Syrian returnees were more likely to live a life of crime in order to finance the jihad, than to actually commit a terror attack.
One would think that after having spent millions of euros on interreligious dialogues, cultural sensitivity trainings and moral diversity classes, Europe’s social scientists would have punctured the surface by now. But a fundamental discussion on how and why street culture and religion conflate, and what the implications of this new hybrid culture are, seems thus far to have been shied away from.
The analyses that have been made conclude gang members and jihadist mostly resemble one another in their tendency towards and fascination for violence. However, the resemblances between seemingly a-religious street youths from a Muslim background and Islamists, are actually more numerous and more fundamental. Their main parallels are:
1- Both harbour subversive intentions toward their European host societies
2- Both primarily identify themselves as Muslim
3- Both are vocal in their hatred for Jews
4- Both glorify violence
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Shock Poll Shows Merkel Losing Chancellorship if Elections Held Today; JPMorgan Stunned
Overnight we reported that Germany’s default swaps spiked to the highest level since Brexit as a recent poll showed that Merkel’s lead in the polls had slid to multi-year lows ahead of Germany’s elections later in the year, provoking some concerns that a formerly unthinkable “tail risk” outcome was becoming more likely. However, according to new data unveiled today, Merkel’s headaches are only just starting, because in a brand new poll released this afternoon, the CDU would get 30% of the vote, while the suddenly resurgent SPD would get 31%. This means that the SPD’s new head, Martin Schulz, would enter any coalition talks as the leader of the largest party, hence becoming Chancellor, leading to a stunned reaction by JPMorgan.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Police Arrest Syrian ISIS Suspect Accused of Rape
Police on Tuesday arrested a Syrian man on suspicion of belonging to terror group Isis, and of raping a woman as she attempted to flee an Isis-held area in Syria with her children, officials said.
The 31-year-old suspect, named as Akram A., was detained in the northeastern state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, the federal prosecutor’s office said in a statement.
Prosecutors allege that he manned a checkpoint in Syria that sought to prevent citizens from escaping Isis-controlled territory.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The vast majority of left-wing protesters arrested on suspicion of politically-fuelled offences in Berlin are young men who live with their parents, a new report found.
The figures, which were published in daily newspaper Bild revealed that 873 suspects were investigated by authorities between 2003 and 2013.
Of these 84 per cent were men, and 72 per cent were aged between 18 and 29.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Huge Gas Finds Can Keep Europe Warm if the Arguing Stops
That’s true across the Eastern Mediterranean, where nations have watched enviously over the decades as energy finds a bit further east made their Gulf peers rich. Now it’s got riches of its own, as it becomes clear that Delek’s discoveries were just a start. The whole area from Cyprus to Lebanon and Egypt may be sitting on even bigger gas fields. The United States Geological Survey estimates they could hold more than 340 trillion cubic feet, an amount that would surpass U.S. proven reserves, though many in the industry think the actual volume may be lower.
There’s an ideal market nearby in Europe — rich, mostly lacking its own fuels, and desperate to wean itself off energy dependence on Russia. It’s just that getting the gas there will require collaboration between countries with a history of feuding or fighting.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Iron Age Secrets Exhumed From Riches-Filled Crypt
Discoveries in a richly appointed 2,600-year-old burial chamber point to surprisingly close ties between Central Europe’s earliest cities and Mediterranean societies. Dated to 583 B.C., this grave also helps pin down when people inhabited what may have been the first city north of the Alps.
An array of fine jewelry, luxury goods and even a rare piece of horse armor found in the grave indicates that “there were craftsmen working in the early Celtic centers north of the Alps who learned their crafts south of the Alps,” says archaeologist Dirk Krausse of the Archaeological State Office of Baden-Württemberg, Germany.
Previous research has established that speakers of Celtic languages inhabited parts of Europe as early as 3,300 years ago. Celtic iron makers appeared in Central Europe by around 2,700 years ago — marking the beginning of that region’s Iron Age — and founded what’s now called the Hallstatt culture.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Jihadist Duo Linked to Islamic State Arrested in Northeastern Spain
Two men suspected of links to the Islamic State group have been arrested in Badalona, Catalonia.
Spain’s Guardia Civil carried out a dawn raid on an apartment in the town of Badalona, north of Barcelona in the northeastern region of Catalonia.
They arrested two men, aged 25 and 27, from Morocco, according to a statement released by Spain’s Interior Ministry.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
LHC Sees Matter and Antimatter Misbehaving in Alternate Particle
A hint of matter and antimatter behaving differently to each other has been spotted in a new particle for the first time. If the find bears out, it could help explain the existence of all the matter in the universe, and why it was not snuffed out by antimatter long ago.
Physicists think that the big bang should have produced equal amounts of matter and antimatter. But these contrasting particles annihilate each other in a puff of energy whenever they meet, so they should have destroyed each other long ago.
The fact that there is enough matter in the universe today for us to exist and wonder why, means that some mechanism must have favoured matter over antimatter.
“Today we have this complete imbalance between matter and antimatter. We have no evidence of antimatter in the universe,” says Nicola Neri of the National Institute for Nuclear Physics in Milan, Italy. “This is one of the main questions we’d like to answer.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Netherlands: Ethnic Minorities Desert Labour, Turn to Denk Ahead of March Vote
Ethnic minority voters are turning their backs on the Labour party and many plan to vote for Denk, the party set up by two former Labour MPs with a Turkish background, according to new research. A poll of nearly 1,800 ethnic minority voters found 20% plan to vote for the Labour party, compared with 40% four years ago, the AD reported on Monday.
The poll was carried out by market researcher Aziz El Kaddouri. He found 40% of Dutch Turks and 34% of Dutch Moroccans plan to vote for Denk. Labour is still favourite among people of Surinamese and Antillean descent.
‘Denk is the party of the angry brown man,’ El Kaddouri told the paper. ‘It is extremely popular with Turkish and Moroccan youngsters. And they have an influence on their families because they are often better educated and better informed.’ Amsterdam University political scientist Floris Vermeulen told the paper that religion and country of origin are having an impact on ethnic minority voting.
Labour, for example, is very critical of Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdo?an, he pointed out. ‘So these voters are looking for another party and Denk has filled the gap,’ Vermeulen said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Nigel Farage: Brexit, Trump Was the Beginning of a Political Revolution
On Monday, Speaker of the House of Commons John Bercow expressed his strong opposition for the newly appointed President of the United States, Donald Trump to speak at Parliament.
The Speaker claimed it is “an earned honor” for foreign leaders to address Westminster Hall, adding, “After the imposition of the migrant ban by President Trump, I am even more strongly opposed to an address by President Trump in Westminster Hall.”
During an interview with Varney on the Fox Business Network, former leader of the UK Independence Party, Nigel Farage expressed his utter distaste for Speaker Bercow’s actions, calling him a “disgrace.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Poland Officially Recognizes Trading in Bitcoin and Other Cryptocurrencies
Poland has officially recognized the trading and mining of virtual currencies as an ‘official economic activity’ according to the Central Statistical Office of Poland, hereinafter GUS. GUS is Poland’s executive agency dealing with national statistics and reports directly to the Polish Prime Minister’s office.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Progressive Muslims Take on Rightwards Shift in Dutch Politics
With far-right leader Geert Wilders ahead in the polls, local party inspired by Islam hopes to counter new populism
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: 2 Alleged is Recruiters Detained Near Barcelona
MADRID (AP) — Spain’s Interior Ministry says two Moroccan men who are accused of indoctrination in Islamist extremism and recruiting others have been detained in Barcelona.
The ministry said in a statement that the men, aged 25 and 27, allegedly raised money through drug trafficking and theft to support the Islamic State group.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: ‘It Could Happen Here Too’: Stockholmers Protest Trump’s Travel Ban
The turnout was lower than hoped, but hundreds still took to the streets of Stockholm to protest Donald Trump’s controversial travel ban.
“We are going to get to the point in Sweden where Muslim people, Jewish people, LGBTQ+ people, are not going to feel safe.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Switzerland: Few Veiled Women Fined in Ticino
Six women have been fined since a so-called burka ban went into effect in the southern Swiss canton of Ticino last summer.
Ticino’s security authorities released the figures on Monday, noting that in another ten instances, the police had merely issued warnings. Many cases involved foreign visitors who were unaware of the law and who readily removed their veils.
The ban prohibits people from wearing clothing that covers the face in public. In 2013, local voters accepted an initiative calling for a ban on such clothing, typically worn by Muslim women. On the first day of the ban, a Swiss woman who had converted to Islam staged a protest in Locarno. Wearing a blue niqab — which covers everything but the eyes — she was the first person to be fined.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Pamela Anderson Dating Julian Assange? Visited Him Five Times in Four Months
Baywatch star Pamela Anderson is rumoured to be in a romantic relationship with Wikileaks founder Julian Assange.
According to a report in Daily Mail, the TV actor visited Assange five times in four months at his Ecuadorean Embassy in London, where he has been holed up for five years.
“She seems to be wearing sexier outfits every time she visits,” one political activist told Page Six.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Why Dutch Populist Geert Wilders is Scenting Victory
When Dutch populist Geert Wilders promises to stop Islam and make the Netherlands great again, his message finds a ready audience in the country’s newest city of Almere.
“It’s too easy for people to come here,” says Joost, a 60-year-old market trader. “Too many guys from Turkey and Morocco, economic migrants. I have three small children, what kind of world will they grow up in?”
Dutch voters go to the polls on 15 March and Mr Wilders’ Freedom Party (PVV) may win most seats.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Israel Edges Out South Korea for Top Spot in Research Investment
Two countries vie to invest more of their economy into research than anyone else.
Israel has just nudged ahead of South Korea as the world’s most research-intensive economy, according to figures released on 7 February by the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
Last year, the OECD reported that South Korea was opening up a clear lead — but its latest data, which reveal 2015 investments and make revisions to earlier years, suggest that the two countries are still neck and neck. In 2015, Israel invested 4.25% of its gross domestic product (GDP) in research and development (R&D), marginally more than South Korea, which dipped to 4.23%.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Contractor Evacuated From Iraq After Speaking Out on Islam
I was evacuated because of death threats, he says
Contractor Steven Gern claims he was removed from Iraq after a testimonial on Islam he released last week went ultra-viral.
Gern, a former Marine and current security contractor, posted a video to his Facebook in which he described a purported conversation between himself and local Iraqis regarding how an unaccompanied, unarmed American might be treated by locals.
The video amassed well over 50 million views across multiple accounts and platforms, as it correlated directly with the fake “Muslim ban” that had enraged leftists and Islamists around the world.
In a series of recent updates, Gern states that he was forced to flee back to the United States due to death threats.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Headaches, bad backs and general malaise are plaguing the ranks of ISIS, with jihadists calling out sick from the fight to save their caliphate, according to a report.
Foreign fighters in particular seem to be going soft in the face of an offensive led by the Iraqi national military, Kurdish fighters and international forces. Documents discovered in recently liberated sections of Mosul show how the fair-weather jihadists go to great lengths to get out of combat.
The Washington Post reported that Iraqi forces who took over an ISIS base in Mosul found a document lamenting 14 “problem” fighters from the Tariq Bin Ziyad battalion. On the surface, reports that militants are on the ropes in former stronghold cities appears to be a good thing, but some disenfranchised members may work their way back to Europe.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
A ten-year-old Iraqi girl was bitten to death with a medieval torture device, lined with poison, by ISIS ‘morality police’ in front of her horrified mother.
The youngster, named Faten, was punished after stepping over the threshold of her home while cleaning.
Under strict rules imposed by the fundamentalists in the city of Mosul, women were banned from leaving home on their own.
Russian outlet Sputnik reports that the girl’s mother was asked by the Hisbah police whether she or her daughter should endure the cruel punishment.
Believing that a ‘bite’ would be administered by a person, the mother elected to let the young girl face the treatment.
But members of the female al-Khansa brigade produced the torture device, and Faten bled to death from her wounds, a witness claimed…
| — Hat tip: Seneca III | [Return to headlines] |
‘Open, Police!’ The Day a Turkish Writer’s Life Changed
“My whole life changed with one sentence: ‘Open, police!’,” says award-winning Turkish writer Asli Erdogan, her soft voice in stark contrast to the dramatic scene she describes.
Detained in August last year, she is one of many Turkish intellectuals facing criminal charges since the failed coup in July 2015.
In the crackdown following last year’s coup attempt, some 40,000 people have been jailed. Many others have been imprisoned for allegedly having links to the PKK.
Turkey is currently the world’s biggest jailer of journalists — with some 150 behind bars. Over 140 newspapers, magazines and television channels have also been banned since a state of emergency was declared after the failed coup.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
A 12-year-old girl died after being drugged, raped and drowned in a canal, her family claim as they accuse police in Pakistan of failing to investigate her death.
Police ruled the child, named in reports as Tania, committed suicide, according to Christian news websites.
Reports from Pakistan say the youngster died on January 23, when her body was found in the Upper Chenab Canal in the east of the country.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UN Expert Urges Thailand to Stop Banning Insults to Monarchy
An outside expert for the U.N. human rights office is urging Thailand’s government to halt the use of laws that make it illegal to criticize the monarchy, calling them “a political tool to stifle critical speech.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Water Scarcity in Pakistan — A Bigger Threat Than Terrorism
A UNDP report says that Pakistani authorities are negligent about an impending water crisis that is posing a serious threat to the country’s stability. Experts say the South Asian country is likely to dry up by 2025.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
New Radiation Level at Fukushima Dwarfs the Highest Peak at Chernobyl
We noted a few days after the Japanese earthquake that the amount of radioactive fuel at Fukushima dwarfs that at Chernobyl … and that the cesium fallout from Fukushima already rivaled Chernobyl (we also noted that Fukushima radiation could end up on the West Coast of North America. And see this.).
The next month, we notes that Tepco admitted that the radiation from Fukushima could exceed that from Chernobyl.
And that Fukushima’s reactors had actually suffered something much worse than a total meltdown: nuclear melt-throughs, where the nuclear fuel melted through the containment vessels and into the ground. A few months later, we reported that radiation will pollute the area around Chernobyl for 5 to 10 times longer than models predicted — between 180 and 320 years.
The following year, we pointed out that the operator of the Fukushima plant admitted that they couldn’t find the melted fuel from Fukushima reactor number 2 … and that the technology doesn’t yet even exist to clean up Fukushima. Highest Radiation Level At Fukushima Now Dwarfs That At Chernobyl
The highest radiation levels ever measured at Chernobyl were 300 sieverts per hour … an incomprehensibly high dose which can kill a man almost instantly.
But a radiation level of 530 sieverts per hour has just been measure at Fukushima’s number 2 reactor.
This new record at Fukushima is 70% higher than that of Chernobyl. (The highest level previously measured at Fukushima was 73 sieverts per hour, in March 2012.)
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Radiation inside one of the damaged reactors at the Fukushima nuclear power facility has reached an “unimaginable” level according to experts. Because so much nuclear material from Fukushima escaped into the Pacific Ocean, there are many scientists that believe that it was the worst environmental disaster in human history, but most people in the general population seem to think that since the mainstream media really doesn’t talk about it anymore that everything must be under control. Unfortunately, that is not true at all. In fact, PBS reported just last year that “it is incorrect to say that Fukushima is under control when levels of radioactivity in the ocean indicate ongoing leaks”. And now we have just learned that the radiation level inside reactor 2 is so high that no human could possibly survive being exposed to it.
According to the Japan Times, the level of radiation inside the containment vessel of reactor 2 is now estimated to be “530 sieverts per hour”…
The radiation level in the containment vessel of reactor 2 at the crippled Fukushima No. 1 power plant has reached a maximum of 530 sieverts per hour, the highest since the triple core meltdown in March 2011, Tokyo Electric Power Co. Holdings Inc. said.
Tepco said on Thursday that the blazing radiation reading was taken near the entrance to the space just below the pressure vessel, which contains the reactor core.
The high figure indicates that some of the melted fuel that escaped the pressure vessel is nearby.
It is hard to find the words to convey how serious this is.
If you were exposed to a radiation level of just 10 sieverts per hour, that would mean almost certain death. So 530 sieverts per hour is simply off the charts. According to the Guardian, this recent measurement is being described by scientists as “unimaginable”…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Vatican Defends China Invite to Organ Trafficking Summit
The Vatican has defended its decision to invite China to a conference on organ trafficking despite its record of using executed inmates as organ donors.
The head of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences (PAS) admitted he did not know whether the practice was continuing but said he hoped to encourage change.
Human rights groups say China is still using executed prisoners as a source of organ transplants.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
‘Jihadi Bonnie and Clyde’ Teens Charged With Planning Sydney Terrorist Attack
A teenage husband and wife who allegedly expressed a desire to become a “jihadi Bonnie and Clyde” have been charged with planning to carry out a terrorist act in Sydney.
Sameh Bayda and his wife Alo-Bridget Namoa, both aged 19, have been in custody since early last year, and are facing new charges of “conspiracy to do an act, or acts in preparation for, or planning, a terrorist act or acts”.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Interest in Bitcoin Continues to Climb in Turkey, Colombia and Venezuela
Bitcoin’s continued strength against major currencies amid global geopolitical and economic uncertainty is prompting an increasing number of nervous investors to seek security in the digital currency.
Last week, bitcoin trading volumes on LocalBitcoins in Colombia, Venezuela and Turkey, hit a new all-time high.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Mexican Deputies Toughen Up Femicide Legislation
Mexico’s Chamber of Deputies has approved a reform to make femicide a serious crime meriting preventive prison. Under current legislation, a suspect may be released pending trial, creating a risk for witnesses and other potential victims, according to human rights groups.
Mexico’s response to violence against women is still deficient, which leads to a lack of faith in the authorities, said Deputy Claudia Anaya Mota, who introduced the initiative in the lower house of Mexico’s Congress.
The National Observatory against Femicides estimates that 60% of female killings in the country go unpunished.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Austria Ready to Send Troops to Other European Countries to Keep Migrants Out
The government in Vienna is working on amendments to Austrian laws that would allow troops to be sent to other European countries to help them “protect their borders” from illegal migrants and refugees, the Austrian defense minister has said.
“We do not believe that the European external borders have been sufficiently protected by the EU so far,” Austrian Defense Minister Hans Peter Doskozil told Germany’s Die Welt daily.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
California State Senate President Says “Half of My Family” Eligible for Deportation
Speaking before the California State Senate Public Safety Committee on January 31, State Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de Léon (D-Los Angeles), shown, said that “half his family” was in the country illegally, using false documents, and eligible for deportation under President Trump’s new executive order against “sanctuary” jurisdictions. De Léon’s admission came in the middle of hearings on the bill he introduced last December, SB54 (the California Values Act), which would prohibit state and local agencies from enforcing immigration laws or from working with immigration enforcement agencies. The legislation, if passed, would effectively make California a “sanctuary state.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
In testimony provided before the California Senate’s Public Safety Committee, Senate President Pro Tem Kevin De Leon (D-Los Angeles) decided to admit that “half of his family” is residing in the United States illegally and with the possession of falsified Social Security Cards and green cards. Lest you think we’re exaggerating, here is the exact quote:
“…I can tell you half of my family would be eligible for deportation under [President Donald Trump’s] executive order, because if they got a false Social Security card, if they got a false identification, if they got a false driver’s license prior to us passing AB60, if they got a false green card, and anyone who has family members, you know, who are undocumented knows that almost entirely everybody has secured some sort of false identification. That’s what you need to survive, to work. They are eligible for massive deportation.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Migrant Breaks Girl’s Nose for Refusing Sex Advances — Then Knocks Out Her Rescuer
The Congolese migrant approached the girl, aged 17, at Dortmund’s main train station but she rejected him, witnesses said.
According to police the migrant then hit her in the face, breaking her nose, before a German man ran to help her.
The Good Samaritan from Kalkar was then hit the migrant, and was also knocked out by the blow.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Migrant Muggers Pick on Schoolgirl — But Are Given a Hiding as She’s a Martial Arts Expert
A TRIO of migrant muggers were caught unawares by a 16-year-old girl after discovering their target was a black belt in jiu-jitsu.
The girl was walking to her home in Trescore Balneario, Northern Italy in broad daylight when three men in their 20s approached her and tried to steal her phone.
But as the attacker lunged into her pocket to grab the mobile, the young girl fought back — blocking her assailant and immobilising him.
Realising they were facing more than they had bargained for the other two attackers instantly fled the scene, leaving their fellow mugger behind.
[Comment: That is a heart warming story.]
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
More Than 900 Migrants Carried Out German NYE Sex Attacks
A “MASS sex attack” by over 900 drunk refugees led to women being sexually harassed on New Year’s Eve in Frankfurt, according to a report.
The allegations of sexual assaults emerged from pub owners and revellers located in the central business district of the German banking capital.
One of the victims, Irina A., 27, said: “I can be happy that I wore sheer tights. They [the migrants] grabbed me under the skirt, between my legs, my breasts, everywhere.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Nexit — Geert Wilders Criticises EU’s Mogherini Over Migrant Crisis Comments
POPULIST leader Geert Wilders today laid into a senior EU official after she suggested that the bloc will “collapse” unless it maintains high levels of immigration.
The anti-Islam politician said the remarks by Federica Mogherini, Brussels’ effective foreign minister, showed that his country must leave the EU after its elections in March.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Poll: Clear Majority of Europeans Want Total Ban on Muslim Immigration
An extensive new poll has found that 55 per cent of Europeans want to stop immigration from Muslim countries, with just 20 per cent supporting its continuation.
A survey carried out by the Royal Institute of International Affairs think tank asked 10,000 Europeans in ten different countries if they agreed with the statement, “All further migration from mainly Muslim countries should be stopped.”
55 per cent answered in the affirmative, 25% said they don’t know and just 20% said they disagreed with the statement.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Saudi Arabia Deports Thousands of Pakistanis in Four Months
Over 39,000 Pakistanis have been deported from Saudi Arabia in the last four months, the Saudi Gazette reported on Tuesday.
The deportations were attributed to visa violations, crime and security concerns linking the deportees to terrorist organisations, but come amid a background of migrant worker unrest that has plagued the kingdom over the past year.
Citing “informed security sources”, the Saudi Gazette said that a number of the Pakistanis deported were linked to Islamic state group or terrorist activities.
Others were deported over crimes including drug trafficking, theft, forgery and physical assault.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Second Swedish Police Officer Blows the Whistle on Migrant Crime Cover-Up
“The public has to be told all the facts now”
A second Swedish police officer has gone public to blow the whistle on how authorities are covering up a migrant crime wave just days after another top cop was reported as a “racist” for making similar comments.
Last week Peter Springare, police investigator and former deputy head of the division for serious crimes at the police in Örebro, made headlines after he wrote a Facebook post in which he detailed how the country was in “chaos” due to a never ending epidemic of serious crimes being committed by Muslim migrants.
Springare may now face charges under Sweden’s strict hate crime laws simply for accurately identifying the problem after he was reported to authorities over the remarks.
However, Springare has also received a deluge of support from both the public and his fellow police officers, one of whom came forward to validate his concerns.
In a Facebook message posted on a page set up to support Springare that currently has over 92,000 likes, Tomas Åsenlöv, a police officer for Greater Gothenburg, exposed how police have been told to implement a “Code 291” procedure in order to cover-up information about crimes committed by migrants.
“The Swedish public has to be told all the facts now,” writes Åsenlöv, adding that Code 291 is used to hide “all information about the immigration-related crime,” including a ban on publicly releasing photos of migrant suspects.
“I understand that the younger officers may not dare to go out and criticize the leaders, or go out openly and support Peter. Then it is over for a future career. Then, when they apply for jobs, they will be classed as disloyal to the employer,” explains Åsenlöv.
Referring to the reaction to the story, Åsenlöv wrote, “Now I believe that the ball has started rolling and maybe we can get the leaders to open their eyes and no longer deny the truth.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Second Swedish Cop Opens Up About Migrants Destroying His Country
Yesterday Gatestone wrote about courageous policeman Peter Springare, who decided to blow the lid of the cesspool that hides beneath Sweden’s political correctness:
“I’m so f***** tired. What I’m writing here isn’t politically correct. But I don’t care. Our pensioners are on their knees, the schools are a mess, healthcare is an inferno, the police is completely destroyed. Everyone knows why, but none dares or wants to say why.”
In response, Swedish newspapers have published on the issue, and a Facebook page called “Stand up for Peter Springare“ has gathered the support of over 85.000 people from all over the world. One of many people leaving a message of support is fellow policeman Tomas Åsenlöv.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Serbia: Gang of Migrants Attack Young Mum and Try to Snatch Her Baby in Horror Daytime Attack
A TRAUMATISED mum has told how four migrants tried to kidnap her baby as she pushed him in a pram.
Her brother Predrag Velimirovic, whose two children were walking with Mrs Blazic at the time of the attack, says that he no longer feels safe in his hometown.
Mr Velimirovic says: “The citizens here are suffering horrors since the floods in 2014. Now they are hostages in their own town. My son, who was with Ana at the time of the attack, is eight years old. He said to me: ‘Dad, you have no idea how scary it was’.”
According to Serbian police, four suspects have been arrested. They are from Afghanistan and Pakistan. They were seen at a bureau de change just before the attack.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Muslim Migrant Anally Rapes Teenager, Gets Only Two Months Jail
Trump is right: Migrant crimes underreported in mainstream media
A Swedish court sentenced a Muslim migrant to only two months in jail after being convicted of anally raping a 13-year-old girl.
The court also ordered Mohammed to pay the equivalent of $2800 to the victim and also gave him probation, claiming his sentences for child rape and sexual exploitation should be lenient because the Syrian migrant claimed he was 17 when the rape occurred in Dec. 2016 at a school in Jämtland County, which is in the middle of Sweden.
“The then-17-year-old man, who since turned 18, pulled a 13-year-old girl on one of the school’s toilets, locked the door and then raped her,” reported the Swedish newspaper Expressen. “During the trial, the convicted rapist’s age has been a major issue.”
“His personal shows that he was born in 1998, and was 18 years old when the crimes were committed, but by his own admission he was born in 1999.”
In other words, the Swedish court somehow accepted “Syrian papers” Mohammed presented claiming he was 17, despite Swedish documents showing he was 18 when he entered the country.
The paper also explains that in Sweden, the sentence for a juvenile is typically 1/3 of an adult’s.
Mohammed was also charged with another rape of a 14-year-old under similar circumstances, but the District Court claimed it was child abuse, not rape, because of the “degree of reciprocity.”
Interestingly, it seems none of the Swedish media outlets reporting the crime have published English-language versions of their articles, meaning the rapes will go underreported globally — and President Trump recently said that migrant crimes, especially terrorist attacks, were being underreported by the mainstream media.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
These heart-wrenching images show a mountain of life jackets piled on the Greek island of Lesbos, acting as a sombre memorial to the hundreds of refugees who have drowned while attempting the treacherous crossing to Europe.
Shockingly, the majority of the life jackets are fake, and some are even made from sponge, which means they quickly soak up water before dragging their wearer underwater.
British expatriate Eric Kempson, who along with his family is helping to tackle the humanitarian issue on the doorstep of their home in the town of Eftalou on the island, has warned that the crisis is far from over.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
U.S. Must Go on Taking Refugees, EU Migration Chief to Say in Washington
The European Union’s top migration official will tell the new U.S. Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly in Washington on Wednesday that the United States cannot shut its doors on refugees despite President Donald Trump’s orders.
The EU’s migration commissioner, Dimitris Avramopoulos, will be the first senior Brussels official to visit Washington since Trump’s inauguration more than two weeks ago.
Much of this time has been dominated by uproar over Trump’s decision to stop allowing refugees into the United States and barring almost any travel from seven Muslim-majority countries, a move he said was needed to ensure his nation’s safety.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Tunnels of Oppression Expose ‘Privileged’ Students to ‘Dehumanization’
Several schools are hosting “Tunnels of Oppression,” where students experience simulated acts of racism, misogyny, and more so that they can “recognize their own privilege.”
Lee University’s Residential Life and Housing and Student Leadership Council will be hosting its fourth annual iteration of the event on Friday, during which participants will go on an interactive tour that exposes them to a different type of oppression in each room, including “racial, sexual, mental, and societal oppression.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
I see the Israelis in a country of around four million have taken the lead in technology over that of South Korea, a country with a population of over 50 million.
That to me says a lot about Jewish intelligence and inventiveness.
It appears that the cops in Sweden have finally had enough of their fascist government. Let us all hope that this is the start of the Swedish brand of Globalist fascism’s downfall that has just about destroyed Sweden as a homogenous nation.
‘Five Pillars of Islam’ Worksheet for Six-Graders Angers in South Carolina
I wonder if the parents could embrace the schools “Five Pillars of Islam” worksheet, and actually ask to add to that part of the curriculum.
Prove the point, bring a koran to the class room, show, discuss the Meccan and Medina verses, and point out abrogation.
To find some simple explanations of Mohammad’s behaviour, talking to angels etc. and of course how peaceful he was, but like any King, dictator, tyrant, propagandist, became hungry for more power. That would be a real life’s lesson.
Well all that is true ! ! …..and of course some real history lessons of where battles were fought and how to divide up the booty and slaves.
Like the first 2oo years of “glorious” expansion.
No, no; the crusades did not happen in the first 200 years, but if you wish that should be taught, right up to the Barbary Wars.
Great lessons could be learned for all. ! !
as also teaching “Tunnels of Oppression Expose ‘Privileged’ Students to ‘Dehumanization’ ”
Just how would you feel being living on the coast of France Spain or Ireland, and being removed to a hot climate on the Barbary Coast. The change of food, the work involved, etc.
Or being a male child and luckily surviving as a eunuch, with all those beautiful woman in the glorious city in the Middle East.
Just why can not the parents extend the curriculum just a little? Take the opportunity.
If some research is done. Who can deny the truth?
We really need the kids to know some of the basic truths!
Surely teachers should teach the truth.
This “feelings” way of teaching should be grasped and used.
You misspelt it. It’s LGBTQWERTYALPHABETSOUP.
I demand to know what happened to the rights of the Z population?
It’s Z-ism if you ask me.
Z-ism I say…..
Clever, but still not an acronym. An acronym is a (pronounceable–and pronounced) word created from abbreviations. NASA is an acronym; FBI is not. Nor is CIA, as it is not pronounced as a word. It seems everybody’s getting that wrong in these heady days, including or inestimable host, BB.
(The amazing country of Israel, btw, has a population of 8 million [not 4 million], of which 6 million are Jews.)
According to Merriam-Webster (which I prefer to Wiktionary or Wikipedia), an acronym is “a word (such as NATO, radar, or laser) formed from the initial letter or letters of each of the successive parts or major parts of a compound term; also an abbreviation (such as FBI) formed from initial letters”.
Nothing about its being pronounceable. I didn’t get it wrong.
Your definition may well be the British one. Merriam-Webster is an American dictionary, and I’m American, so I’ll stick with it.
Thanks. I am American, too–and Israeli. But, I prefer the American Heritage Dictionary:
1. A word formed by combining the initial letters of a multipart name, such as NATO from North Atlantic Treaty Organization or by combining the initial letters or parts of a series of words, such as radar from radio detecting and ranging.
2. Usage Problem An initialism
Usage Note: Acronyms are often distinguished from initialisms like FBI and NIH, whose individual letters are pronounced as separate syllables. While observing this distinction has some virtue in precision, it may be lost on many people, for whom the term acronym refers to both kinds of abbreviations.
Let’s leave it as a difference in preference. We counterjihadists have bigger fish to fry–although I do enjoy and value discussions about language.
I think, perhaps, initialisms have come to be labeled as acronyms because of the latter’s profusion in this age of restricted-space social media. Assuming such…as a ‘traditionalist’, I tend to value the prescriptive over the descriptive role of dictionaries.
Meant to be acronymous and NOT acrimonious.
The entire American Heritage “Usage Note”:
Usage Note: In strict usage, the term acronym refers to a word made from the initial letters or parts of other words, such as sonar from so(und) na(vigation and) r(anging). The distinguishing feature of an acronym is that it is pronounced as if it were a single word, in the manner of NATO and NASA. Acronyms are often distinguished from initialisms like FBI and NIH, whose individual letters are pronounced as separate syllables. While observing this distinction has some virtue in precision, it may be lost on many people, for whom the term acronym refers to both kinds of abbreviations.
It’s not just preference — it’s rival authority. Merriam-Webster is authoritative.
When I was young (many, many years ago) acronyms definitely did NOT have to be pronounceable. So either the usage has changed (which is possible, but I’m a hidebound curmudgeon who clings bitterly to the traditional definitions, along with his guns and religion), or what you quote is British usage.
I’ll have to side with the Baron on acronym. My “Collins New Zealand School Dictionary” (clearly an authority) tells me an acronym is “a word made up of the initial letters of a phrase. An example of an acronym is “BAFTA” which stands for British Academy of Film and Television Arts.” No mention of the need to be pronounceable, though BAFTA is. If it wasn’t it would still be an acronym.
You have to spell out ‘L-G-B-T’ (as happens in ‘real life’) and then ‘QWERTY’ and ‘ALPHABETSOUP’ can be pronounced as words.
Off topics (?):
It seems it may not do much good to base discussions on Muhammad/Mohamed. Someone correct me here if I have this all wrong:
Going much farther back in time, God told Abraham to leave Ur. …Which might have amounted Abe sitting there one day and realizing that having a family of importance (which apparently it was) was a nice feeling but if he was going to maintain a conviction of there being just one God, not many, he had to go live elsewhere. So, he gathers up those that would be agreeable and let him be in charge (followers for whatever reason, including servants) and leaves.
The basic culture couldn’t have been too picky about marriage if Sarah could tell him to quit bothering her about having a kid and go see Hagar about it. However, apparently it could be picky about who owns what, and if Hagar (who incidentally was Egyptian) was going to raise a fuss about her kid being the eldest, she could just take him and leave. And, Arabs are his descendants, and since he was the eldest, obviously what the descendants of Isaac (the Jews) have rightfully belongs to the Arab world.
If that weren’t enough, a Jew (Jesus, the Christ) came along and claimed to be the Son of God. People kept preaching this for a few hundred years. It’s not surprising someone (an Arab, Muhammad) would come along and say God sent him an angel to correct things.
The video says that muslims will take over Europe and USA by “population Jihad.” Recently, a imam in India asked all muslims to wed 4 times and produce 40 children so that in 50 years they will be a majority in India. This video is on the same theme:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sv4I9eDmm9w
RE: Mario Draghi’s comments on Trump’s wish for deregulation
There’s a theory out there that Trump is being setup as the patsy for the coming economic collapse. Draghi’s (being the central bank globalist that he is) comments play into that fear or plan if you’re a globalist looking for a scapegoat to burst the global debt scheme put upon us all. Regulation is a joke to begin with, so I’m not sure what needs or doesn’t need easing. It doesn’t stop Draghi and his ilk from printing to ad infinitum globally.
Regulation is designed to fine-tune the flow of profits towards the associates (and donors) of those who make the regulations.
When the wrong people are getting rich, it’s time for new regulations.
Simple, really.
>> But a radiation level of 530 sieverts per hour has just been measure at Fukushima’s number 2 reactor.
It appears that we have another problem … or solution, depending on the time-line or your point of view. Forget about the ice melting underneath the polar bears. Before that, their fur will have fallen out and they’ll have died, coughing up blood from ulcers caused by ingesting “glowing” seal meat. Who knows; perhaps this will even help with the reduction of the “dreaded” carbon dioxide? We live on a self-correcting mechanism.
530 Sv/hr is still much less than the inside of a running reactor, so the term “unimaginable” can only be characterized as a deliberate attempt to exploit FUD — Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt.
You can find a much more even handed review of the Fukushima clean-up issues here:
http://www.hiroshimasyndrome.com/fukushima-accident-updates.html
The situation is far from “good”. However, there is no reason to believe it is threatening anyone outside the facility fence line.