Gates of Vienna News Feed 12/1/2013

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A Metro-Rail train derailed in the Bronx early this morning, killing four people and injuring dozens more. Five cars left the track, with some almost landing in the Hudson River. The train is thought to have been traveling too fast coming into a curve.

In other news, a new investigative report reveals that there is a thriving black market in China in which people pay large sums to have their names listed as co-authors of scientific research papers.

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

Thanks to Andy Bostom, C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, JP, Kitman, LS, 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.

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Getting Rid of the Danes

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A reader and commenter named ManoftheWest sends an excerpt from an account of the reign of Ethelred the Unready, and includes the following introductory note:

My wife recently picked up a copy of Our Island Story by Henrietta Elizabeth Marshall, originally published in 1905 and reprinted in recent years by Civitas, for whom Douglas Murray works.

When we read the attached section on the reign of Ethelred the Unready we both thought Gates of Vienna readers (especially those from the Isle of Albion) would appreciate the same resonances with our situation today as we did. I have let it speak for itself without any additional comment or interpretation from me.

[Note: The nickname “Ethelred the Unready” is derived from the Old English Æþelræd Unræd. The phrase was a pun on Ethelred’s name, which meant “noble-advised” in Anglo-Saxon. Unræd meant the opposite, “ill-advised”, so that the sardonic soubriquet for the king was “Noble-Advised the Ill-Advised”. The translation of Unræd as “Unready” is an error; the Anglo-Saxon word for “ready” was ræde, which may be a distant cognate of ræd, but bears a different meaning.]

The excerpt from Our Island Story, which was intended to be read by children:

In the Reign of Ethelred the Unready

Year by year the Danes were becoming more powerful in England. They not only came and went in their ships, but many more of them settled in the country. They made their homes in England and forgot about their own homes in Denmark. That would not have mattered much, if they had become good English subjects, willing to obey an English king. But that is what they did not do. Instead, they rebelled always against the king, and so wars and fighting went on.

Now you shall hear about the last of the “boy kings”. His name was Ethelred, and because he was foolish and slow, he was also called the Unready. He lived about a hundred years after Alfred.

In his reign everything seemed to go wrong. The Danes soon found out what a foolish man he was, and they came in greater numbers than ever. Ethelred had not spirit enough to be a good leader. He was never sure of what he wanted to do, so his soldiers lost heart and his captains quarrelled among themselves.

He built ships, but they were shattered by storms. The city of London caught fire by accident and was burnt to the ground. Everywhere there was misery and misfortune.

Then Ethelred thought of an unhappy plan for ridding the country of the Danes. He said to them, “I will give you a large sum of money if you will go away.”

The Danes, of course, were delighted at the idea of getting money so easily, and they gladly promised. Ethelred gave them the gold, and they sailed away and the English people rejoiced.

But the Danes, as you know, were never careful about keeping their promises. They went home, it is true, but when they had spent all the money which Ethelred had given them, they said, “Let us go to England again and rob the people. Perhaps their foolish king will give us more money.”

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CNN Arabic: Protecting the Sensibilities of Muslims

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As most readers already know, a redesign of the Saudi flag, along with an article by Geert Wilders, were published here a week ago. Since then we have posted texts of or links to the same essay translated into nineteen other languages.

An article published today at the CNN Arabic site takes note of Mr. Wilders’ creation. A machine translation (reproduced in its entirety at the bottom of this post) is somewhat garbled, but provides the gist of the text. For example, “Islam is a lie, Muhammad a criminal, the Koran is poison” becomes “Islam lied, and criminal Muhammad, and the Quran cm”.

The text seems to be a summary of Mr. Wilders’ essay, but it’s not clear whether the writer was referring to our Arabic translation, or worked directly from the original English.

The text refers to Mr. Wilders’ “article published on his official site ‘Vienna Gate’”, which makes for an entertaining notion.

Notice also that “CNN Arabic refrain from publishing the full picture of the Saudi flag as manipulation by Wilders.”

And indeed they did — take a look at the adjusted image of the flag published with the CNN article. They’re Islamophilic, and proud of it.

The full text of the machine translation:

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An Addled Barroom Brawler

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A long-expected review by Andrew McCarthy of Diana West’s book American Betrayal was published this month in The New Criterion under the title “Red Herrings”. Outside the cohort of specialists in the history of Soviet espionage in the United States, Mr. McCarthy’s piece is the first even tentatively positive review published by a major writer. The reviewer is to be commended for his willingness to resist the overwhelming pressure that has been exerted on other writers not to display any public approval of Diana West’s book.

As mentioned in previous posts, I have not read American Betrayal, and am therefore not qualified to critique its arguments. Since all the uproar began back in August, my focus has been the process of the controversy, rather than the content. The egregiously uncivil ad-hominem attacks aimed at the author were the issue, rather than her conclusions — which may stand or fall on their merits, as with any other book. As a result this essay will focus on how Andrew McCarthy portrays Diana West and her critics, and analyze some of his arguments.

Mr. McCarthy has a number of good things to say about the book, although his review tends to praise it with faint damns. For example, coming from a former Team B-II co-author with Diana West who considers her a friend, his opening paragraph is somewhat perplexing:

Stumbling into a barroom brawl was the last thing I’d intended. Lined up on one side: sculptors of a hagiography that is now conventional wisdom crow about a noble conquest over totalitarian dictators. The other side bellows: “Nonsense! In defeating one monster, your heroes merely helped create another, sullying us with their atrocities and burdening us for decades with a global security nightmare.” The first side spews that its critics are deranged, defamatory conspiracy-mongers. The critics fire back that these “court historians” are in denial; their heroes did not really “win” the war, they just helped a different set of anti-American savages win—in the process striking a deal with the devil that blurred the lines between good and evil, rendering the world more dangerous and our nation more vulnerable.

Whether he realizes it or not, Mr. McCarthy is engaging in a traditional form of journalistic moral equivalence in this passage, something more commonly found on the Left than on the Right. A writer may choose to utilize the technique when, for whatever reason — expedience, fear, a reluctance to anger a powerful antagonist — he wants to create the appearance of engaging an important topic without actually taking a moral stance.

Lined up on one side… The other side bellows… The first side spews… The critics fire back…

Notice that the “other side”, the one he mostly agrees with, “bellows” its responses. Hmm… not what you would expect in a portrayal of his journalistic colleagues and friends.

This is the same rhetorical technique used by MSM journalists when describing Israel vs. Hamas, or the Nigerian government vs. Boko Haram. For example: “Attempts to get both sides to the negotiating table have been fruitless.” This device transforms each “side” into a mirror image of the other, and Side A (the victim) becomes just as responsible for the bloodshed as Side B (the aggressor). It spares the writer from having to say, “Side B is morally wrong. I stand with Side A.”

Note that the controversy over American Betrayal is labeled a “barroom brawl”. By implication Diana West is a barroom brawler — someone who decided to smash an empty whiskey bottle on the bar rail and lay into her fellow drinkers.

I object to this characterization.

A more apt metaphor would be: Diana West was hit from behind with a sucker punch by someone playing the “knockout game”. When she came to, a movie set of a Wild West saloon had been lowered around her — bar, mustachioed bartender, stools, glass mirror, bottles, etc. — and numerous unshaven thugs were hitting her with fists and chairs in preparation for throwing her through a sugar glass window out into the muddy street.

That’s the only way that Ms. West could ever be described as taking part in a metaphorical “barroom brawl”.

A further characterization of Ms. West may be found on page 2 of the article (page 80 of the magazine):

The matter especially addles West because of today’s paralyzing ambivalence about Muslim supremacism.

“Addles”? Really?

So Diana West is not only a barroom brawler, she is an addled barroom brawler?

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

If Mr. McCarthy had ignored the “barroom brawl” entirely and simply reviewed the contents of American Betrayal, there would have been no issue. He has given the book a positive appraisal, after all, and few people would join such a food fight voluntarily.

But he did not ignore it. In addition to the first paragraph of his review, there is this mention (p. 5/83):

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Gates of Vienna News Feed 11/30/2013

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“Black Friday” was even more chaotic and violent this year than in previous years, with tasers and gunfire featured among the incidents in shopping malls and retail outlets. Some Britons are concerned that the Black Friday fad seems to be spreading to the UK, despite the lack of a Thanksgiving holiday in the Old Country.

In other news, 3,300 warheads along with bullet-making machines were seized in a raid on a freighter in the harbor at Kingston, Jamaica.

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

Thanks to Andy Bostom, C. Cantoni, heroyalwhyness, Insubria, JD, Jerry Gordon, JP, Kitman, Vlad Tepes, 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.

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Let us Raise a Flag of Truth and Liberation: Farsi

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Note: this is a Farsi version of “Let us Raise a Flag of Truth and Liberation” by Geert Wilders, published here on November 24. Many thanks to Mirta for the translation.

بیائید پرچم حقیقت و آزادی را به احتزاز در بیاوریم . نوشته : گریک وایدر

• نه سال پیش در ماه نوامبر 2004، نیروهای پلیس که جلیقه های ضد گلوله پوشیده بودند اسلحه حمل میکردند من را از خانه ام به یک مکان امن بردند . این اتفاق دو روز پس ازآن بود که فیلمساز تئو ون گوگ منتقد اسلام توسط یک آدمکش اسلامی در روز روشن در خیابان آمستردام به قتل رسید. پلیس برای من ایمنی به ارمغان آورد چرا که جنایتکاران اسلامی برای کشتن من، خیلی تهدید کرده بود. از آنجا که من، بیش از حد، در مورد اسلام که آنرا بزرگترین تهدید برای آزادی و تمدن ما میدانم حرف میزدم .

از آن تاریخ شوم، نه سال پیش، من مجبور به زندگی تحت حفاظت پلیس بوده ام . من در سربازخانه ها، زندان ها و خانه های امن زندگی می کردم .تهدید ها تا به امروز ادامه داشته و من را از حریم خصوصی و آزادیم محروم کرده است . اما من به صحبت ادامه خواهم داد .

پرچم عربستان صعودی با افتخار به اعلامیه اسلامی شهادت میدهد: ” هیچ خدائی جز الله وجود ندارد و محمد رسول خدا است

به یاد نه سال گذشته، به یاد هزاران قربانی که در آن دوره توسط تروریستهای اسلامی… در مکان های بی شمار دیگر به قتل رسیدند در لندن در مسکو در بمبئی در نایروبی، و به یاد میلیون ها نفر از مردم – زنان، مرتد، غیر مسلمانان – که روزانه از تبعیض و تحقیر ایدئولوژی شیطانی از اسلام و قانون شریعت اسلامی سرکوبگر رنج میبرند ، من یک پرچم جدید را به جهان اسلام معرفی میکنم – یک پرچم با اعلام حقیقت و آزادی: «اسلام دروغ است ، محمد یک جانی ، قرآن سم است. “

تنها زمانی که جهان اسلام به درک این حقیقت پی ببرد ، قادر خواهد بود که خود را از شر آن آزاد، و جهان را به مکانی بهتر و امن تر برای همه انسان ها تبدیل کند .

تنها زمانی که جهان آزاد درک کند که اسلام عمدتا یک ایدئولوژی تمامیت خواه و نه یک دین است، آیا قادر به دفاع از آزادی و ارزش های آن خواهد بود ؟

Languages available for “Let us Raise a Flag of Truth and Liberation”:

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Flatline Europe

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Below are a week’s worth of entertaining news about the latest antics of the European Union as it attempts to micro-manage the affairs of its citizens in the most corrupt and incompetent ways imaginable.

Many thanks to JLH for translating this report from Die Preußische Allgemeine Zeitung:

It Stinks and Crumbles

The Week in Review with Hans Heckel
November 8, 2013

(How the EU follows us even into the toilet, what Washington and Brussels think, and how we will identify who is evil)

Crapping Out

It’s just impossible to keep up. First we had to stomach the EU vacuum cleaner ordinance.* And now the Eurocrats are following us into the bathroom. Say hello to the European toilet flushing ordinance! After a year of scientific effort, the EU experts have calculated how much flush water is needed to dispose of what we leave behind.

After countless meetings and practice tests, they concluded that 5 liters is enough. EU standardized toilets should not require more per use. However, just so they do not seem petty, the experts are willing to set an upper limit of 6 liters. Now that is something!

But what will the EU do, if unintelligent defecators sneakily circumvent the guidelines and flush twice? There is still a worthwhile investigative task here for the Brussels latrine committee.

Don’t laugh! They are not doing this for their own amusement, but to save the planet. Since it is dry in southern Spain, it is unconscionable that people in sopping wet Hamburg should waste any more water. To be sure, not one drop of the water available in Hamburg will get to Spain. But seen purely statistically, the situation would improve. And that is what interests us.

Side-effects are of no interest to the experts in Brussels. Side-effects like the following. Population is shrinking in many German rural communities, so increasingly less water is being drawn from a water supply network that has remained constant, and the pipes are strained by that. Waterworks are already being forced to pump water through the pipes, simply to prevent decay. Water that never runs out of a tap or down a toilet. Brussels’ little trick will just make this worse.

It does not occur to the Eurocrats in Brussels that the same water conservation regulations for the Iberian semi-desert and the sopping wet regions of north Europe is nonsense. What we want, surely, is the most “similar” possible living conditions all across Europe. And for that we must have the same rules for everyone. Well, at least nature in Spain will be indebted to the EU… or not? The question is, is it really the toilets that use so much water? Or perhaps, the gigantic, artificially watered fields, created with juicy EU financial grants. Or hundreds of golf courses that owe their existence to EU incentives and must be watered every night so that the Andalusian sun does not turn them into steppes?

No, it’s the john! First, because visitors to the bathroom have no lobby, like the golf course developers or agribusiness and, second, because…well, it doesn’t matter. We will bravely bear this restriction too, even if the consequences stink to high heaven.

It’s Not the River Kwai

Europe doesn’t come cheap, but then, it does great things. For over a hundred years, the residents of the village Widin in the northwest tip of Bulgaria have dreamed of a bridge over the Danube connecting them with Rumanian Calafat.

Nothing happened until the EU came. Last June, EU Commissioner Johannes Hahn celebrated the opening of the three-and-a-half-kilometer engineering marvel. It was a true example of European cooperation: built by a Spanish construction firm with Spanish, Portuguese, Polish and a few Bulgarian construction workers and made possible by an EU grant of €106 million — mostly from Germany, as usual. So Hahn symbolically christened it “New Europe.” Applause.

Who “New Europe” connects to whom was lost in the euphoria. People are leaving this area in droves. So, soon hardly anyone will need the bridge.

But that is just as well. Just four months after the dedication, “New Europe” is falling apart. The Spanish firm was so sloppy that even the Balkan authorities are indignant. So the Spanish firm will have to pay damages, right?

Unfortunately, no. There was no guarantee in the contract. The construction firm just had to make sure while they were bumbling that their underhanded maneuvers did not come to light before the transfer of ownership. After that? Up yours! Of course it would be presumptuous and downright Europe-hostile to assume any kind of corruption here. But it is touching to learn that EU and local authorities have worked so closely with the construction firm that the firm could disappear without a shred of responsibility.

The Mouse That Squeaked

Above all, we should not let snafus like this confound our belief in the EU. Who would we be in the world if Europe did not speak with one voice? Faced with great powers like the USA, only the EU as a whole
can have an effect.

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Gates of Vienna News Feed 11/29/2013

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The government of Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott is planning to get rid of the country’s law against racist “hate speech”. The attorney-general will propose to parliament that relevant sections of the federal Racial Discrimination Act be amended where they concern speech that is considered insulting or offensive.

In other news, a police helicopter crashed into the roof of a pub tonight in Glasgow while a musical group was playing before a large crowd. At least three people — the pilot and passengers of the copter — are thought to be dead, and others are still trapped in the rubble.

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

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Caroline Glick, Fjordman, Gaia, Insubria, JD, Jerry Gordon, JP, Michael Laudahn, 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.

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Australians say “No” to Sharia

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The Q Society, a prominent anti-sharia organization in Australia, recently commissioned a poll to determine Australian attitudes towards Islam. The results are summarized below in a Q Society press release.

Morgan Poll Finds Majority of Australians Concerned About Islam

24 November 2013, Melbourne — According to a recent Morgan poll conducted on behalf of Q Society of Australia Inc., the majority of Australians are clearly concerned about Islam and 70% believe Australia is not a better place because of Islam. The survey, completed in late October, found a majority (53 per cent) of Australians want full face coverings banned from public spaces and 50.2 per cent want Islamic sharia law banned all together.

Australians over 65 are most concerned with 59 per cent in this age group stating that a growing Islamic population and Islamic immigration would be bad for Australia. Mature Australians and Liberal/National voters have a significantly negative view of Islam. Notably only 15 per cent of Australians think Islam and terrorism are not related. Multicultural advocates seeking to cancel Christmas, Easter or ANZAC Day celebrations in their quest to not offend other cultures should take note that 96.5 per cent of the population disagree.

The omnibus poll conducted by Roy Morgan Research Ltd has an error margin of 4 per cent.

Q Society spokesman Mr Andrew Horwood said the poll results validate the need for new strategies and policies. While followers of most religions seem to get along well, Australian politicians must acknowledge Islam is not just another religion and the growing concern is not a fringe issue. Q Society offers a proposed Charter of Muslim Understanding, written by former Muslim scholar and sharia expert Sam Solomon as a starting point for developing strategies and policies.

The president of Q Society, Mrs Debbie Robinson, invites political leaders to address the problem with an open mind and consult with non-Muslim experts on Islam and secular ex-Muslims for guidance. Mrs Robinson points out that it is dishonest and counterproductive to discredit concerned Australians as ‘racists’ or ‘islamophobic’.
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Champion of an Independent Austria

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Josef Maria Müller, the eminent and highly respected leader of the Wiener Akademikerbund (Viennese Federation of Academics), died last week at the age of 90. Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff, who is a member of the Akademikerbund and knew him well, sends her reminiscences of the late Professor Müller:

As a member of the board of the Wiener Akademikerbund, I am deeply saddened to report the death of our beloved president of the board, Josef Maria Müller.

I was always awed by his bravery in standing up to the National Socialists, and it is his inside knowledge of the machinations of this socialist and deadly ideology that motivated him in his continuous criticism of the open totalitarian tendencies we are witnessing not only in Austria and the European Union, but also in the United States, and indeed the entire West.

Despite his age and failing health, he was tireless: he chaired meeting, produced papers warning about the latest EU shenanigans, and most importantly, he cared deeply about the Akademikerbund.

I am deeply grateful for his support in my darkest times during my trial and I pray he will be with us on December 11. The truth must remain the truth.

Thank you, Mr. Senatsrat.

Many thanks to JLH for translating this eulogy from Christian Zeitz and Wienerakademikerbund :

Wienerakademikerbund
1080 Wien, Schlösselgasse 11

Vienna, November 22, 2013

Senate Councilor Professor Josef Maria Müller
August 11, 1923 — November 16, 2013
Head of Viennese Federation of Academics, 1997-2013.

He was a pioneer and comrade-in-arms in the fight for freedom, for the retention of our inheritance from Christian culture and against the Islamization of Europe, as well as for the expansion of democracy as a bulwark against the omnicompetent EU super state. Senate Councilor Professor Josef Maria Müller — our universally loved and respected chief — died on Saturday, November 16, 2013. God, the only Lord of life and death, decided to call “our senate councilor” to eternity — not unprepared, but unexpectedly.

His death creates a wound that literally cannot be healed and throws us all into deep mourning. Senate Councilor Müller resisted the increasing attacks on his health calmly and with exemplary courage. He did not give in to age. His heart was dedicated to his own, among them the Akademikerbund and its activists and members. To his last moments, he was crafting plans for the advancement of our group and preparing lectures and publications of his own.

Josef Maria Müller was born on August 11, 1923 to an old Austrian-Bavarian family. His father was first a sea captain and then director of the KuK Danube Steamship Company. An artistically gifted caregiver, his mother — Sophie Reichsfreifrau Weichs-Glon — raised her children in the Christian faith. She was the first piano teacher for young Josef Maria.

By grade school, multi-sided interests began to appear — some of a cultural nature, others philosophical and theological. Beyond that, he was interested in the engineering technicalities of transport, and especially shipping.

In 1938 his father lost his position for political reasons. As a free spirit, Josef Maria Müller could not accommodate himself to the National Socialist disaster, and came into the crosshairs of the brown dictatorship. In 1940 there was a prohibition from studying, and later a trial for high treason. Only the intervention of a highly placed relative spared him death row. Müller spent the rest of the war underground, studying under the organist for the Graz cathedral, Rudolf von Weis-Osborn, and acquired a comprehensive knowledge of musical theory.

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You Won’t See This on Mainstream TV

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Our Polish correspondent Green Infidel sends this belated report about this year’s Independence Day march in Warsaw, which took place on November 11:

Greetings from Warsaw, where another Independence Day has passed, on the 11th of this month, and with it another independence march — with this year’s highlights including an attack on an Antifa squat, the burning of a “rainbow” artwork in one of Warsaw’s main squares (described by its creator as having “no meaning” but widely seen as a symbol of the GLBT lobby), and an attack on one of the outer buildings of the Russian embassy.

The march was labeled by Western media as “far right”, by Antifa as (gasp) “fascist”, and by Polish liberal media as being “full of radical youth opposed to immigrants and Islam”. However, here is something that wasn’t reported quite as loudly — a recording of the full march (over 30 minutes long!) of the “far right”, “fascists” and “Islamophobes”.

The first photo [at the top of this post] shows a peaceful crowd at the start of the march, the second the crowd as it marched, while the last shows the burning rainbow… as the photographer put it, quite an artistic sight in itself.

Vlad Tepes has compiled excerpts from the longer video of the march:

The full 36-minute video is available here.

Transcript of the opening video titles:

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Gates of Vienna News Feed 11/28/2013

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Responding to questions about the controversial proposal that would allow women to drive, the grand mufti of Saudi Arabia said that the issue was not a major concern. He said it was necessary to keep women from driving in order protect the country from “social evil”.

In other news, after the Italian senate voted to eject him, former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said the occasion marked the “death of democracy”.

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

Thanks to Fjordman, Insubria, JD, JP, Michael Laudahn, 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.

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An Angry Young Man

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We reported yesterday about Yahya Hassan, the 18-year-old poet in Denmark who has “an immigrant background”. Mr. Hassan has severely criticized members of his own ethnic and religious group, and as a result has been assaulted, received death threats, and is forced to give his poetry readings under police protection.

Below is an article about Yahya Hassan that was published on November 21 in the Swiss newspaper Tages Anzeiger. Many thanks to JLH for the translation.

Note: The obscene word used in this article — which I have elided with asterisks — appears in its full English spelling in the original, including the article’s URL:

Young and “F***ing Mad”

by Enver Robelli

In his poems, the teenager Yahya Hassan attacks the moral double standard of Muslim men in Denmark. Now he has been beaten up in Copenhagen.

Calling his childhood difficult would be an understatement. The Palestinian Yahya Hassan grew up in a foreigners’ ghetto in the Danish city of Aarhus. He stole, robbed, toked and endured a physically abusive father, who had lived for years in a Lebanese refugee camp until he and his family found a new home in Denmark. At 13, Hassan ran away from school. He became a ward of the state, because he wanted nothing more to do with his parents. He is the child of a dysfunctional family.

Now the 18-year-old has struck back with a volume of poetry. He is settling accounts with his father and his sanctimonious mother. Above all, he attacks the Muslim immigrants “who go to Friday prayers, but spend every other day stealing, fencing stolen goods, boozing and whoring.” Hassan is apparently speaking for the younger generation of Muslim “New Danes” who do not choose to live in the monotony of their misery and do not know what use Allah is.

“I am f***ing mad at my parents’ generation,” he said in an interview for the daily paper, “Policies,” which became the most widely read article in Denmark’s social media. Hassan criticizes the immigrants’ lack of preparation to integrate. One of his poems says, “We had no plan, because Allah had plans for us.” He rages against the older generation, “which defrauds welfare” and “beats its children.”

This enraged tone has made Hassan the youngest star on the Danish literary scene. While other poets are happy to sell 200 books Hassan has a bestseller. His ca. 150 poems went on sale on October 17th and in four weeks have sold 40,000 copies, as reported by the daily newspaper Jyllands-Posten.

The Hostility of the Fanatics

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Thanksgiving Day in America, 2013

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Thanksgiving.

Gratitude.

A determination to practice the habit of finding the good in our lives. A decision of the heart to set aside at least one day in which we can step back to let the True, the Good, and the Beautiful take center stage in an increasingly dysphoric world.

Those three qualities are hardwired into our human make-up. Despite the many setbacks we are witness to, we continue to hold out hope for the triumph of good over evil. We can only work on our small part of the world, but that is work enough.

There are many versions of this Harvest Hymn (Purcell’s music). I chose this one for the Baron, just because the scenes are from his home during his high school years. It was obviously a bountiful season for Harrogate’s Annual Autumn Flower Show:

There is much to be thankful for this year at Schloss Bodissey. Here are just the recent highlights — our own personal perspective:

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