Fed Board Member’s Deflation Warning Hints at Policy Shift
James Bullard, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, warned on Thursday that the Fed’s current policies were putting the American economy at risk of becoming “enmeshed in a Japanese-style deflationary outcome within the next several years.”
The warning by Mr. Bullard, who is a voting member of the Fed committee that determines interest rates, comes days after Ben S. Bernanke, the Fed chairman, said the central bank was prepared to do more to stimulate the economy if needed, though it had no immediate plans to do so.
A subtle but significant shift appears to be occurring within the Federal Reserve over the course of monetary policy, amid increasing signs that the economic recovery is weakening. Mr. Bullard had been viewed as a centrist, and associated with the camp that saw inflation, the Fed’s historic enemy, as a greater threat than deflation.
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The Death of Paper Money
[…]
Each big inflation — whether the early 1920s in Germany, or the Korean and Vietnam wars in the US — starts with a passive expansion of the quantity money. This sits inert for a surprisingly long time. Asset prices may go up, but latent price inflation is disguised. The effect is much like lighter fuel on a camp fire before the match is struck.
People’s willingness to hold money can change suddenly for a “psychological and spontaneous reason” , causing a spike in the velocity of money. It can occur at lightning speed, over a few weeks. The shift invariably catches economists by surprise. They wait too long to drain the excess money.
[…]
As a signed-up member of the deflation camp, I think the Bank and the Fed are right to keep their nerve and delay the withdrawal of stimulus — though that case is easier to make in the US where core inflation has dropped to the lowest since the mid 1960s. But fact that O Parsson’s book is suddenly in demand in elite banking circles is itself a sign of the sort of behavioral change that can become self-fulfilling.
As it happens, another book from the 1970s entitled “When Money Dies: the Nightmare of The Weimar Hyper-Inflation” has just been reprinted. Written by former Tory MEP Adam Fergusson — endorsed by Warren Buffett as a must-read — it is a vivid account drawn from the diaries of those who lived through the turmoil in Germany, Austria, and Hungary as the empires were broken up.
Near civil war between town and country was a pervasive feature of this break-down in social order. Large mobs of half-starved and vindictive townsmen descended on villages to seize food from farmers accused of hoarding. The diary of one young woman described the scene at her cousin’s farm…
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The Flawed Assumption Behind Ending the Bush Tax Cut for the Rich
[…]
Leaving aside whether $200,000 makes one rich and leaving aside the problems with applying the Keynesian multiplier concept economy-wide rather that to the individual, such a conclusion is, as they say, fatally flawed. It is flawed mainly because it confuses saving with hoarding and assumes that income not spent in the first round on consumption is not spent at all, even in subsequent rounds…[T]his confusion…was the principle theme and flaw of the “under-consumption” theories held by Keynes’ intellectual predecessors.
While lower income people probably do spend a larger percentage of their marginal income on consumption in the short run, the income of higher income people usually gets spent, either directly on physical investment or indirectly on investment after financial intermediation. Buying stocks or bonds or depositing income in a bank or other financial intermediary doesn’t mean money not spent. It just means money not spent in the first round on consumption. It is usually spent in later rounds on investment.
If the marginal propensity to consume were 100 percent, there would be no investment, and, soon, no income.
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Will Gold Suffer the Fate of the 10,000 Bill?
Buried deep in the bowels of the 2,000 page health care bill is a new requirement for gold dealers to file Form 1099’s for all retail sales by individuals over $600.
Specifically, the measure can be found in section 9006 of the Patient Protection and Affordability Act of 2010. For foreign readers unencumbered by such concerns, Internal Revenue Service Form 1099’s are required to report miscellaneous income associated with services rendered by independent contractors and self employed individuals.
The IRS has long despised the barbaric relic (GLD) as an ideal medium to make invisible large transactions.
Did you ever wonder what happened to $500, $1,000, $5,000, and $10,000 bills?
Although the Federal Reserve claims on their website that they were withdrawn because of lack of use…the word at the time was that they disappeared to clamp down on the mafia.
In fact, the goal was to flush out income from the rest of us. Dan Lundgren, a republican from California’s 3rd congressional district, a rural gerrymander east of Sacramento that includes the gold bearing Sierras, has introduced legislation to repeal the requirement, claiming that it places an unaffordable burden on small business…
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An American Stasi?
The surveillance state.
The Fort Wayne Journal Gazette reported on July 25 that “there are 72 fusion centers around the nation, analyzing and disseminating data and information of all kinds. That is one for every state and others for large urban cities.”
What is a fusion center?
The answer depends on your perspective. If you work for the Department of Homeland Security, it is a federal, state, local, or regional data-coordination units, designed to improve the sharing of anti-terrorism and anti-crime data in order to make America safer. If you are privacy or civil-rights advocate, it is part of a powerful new domestic surveillance infrastructure that combines data from both the public and private sectors to track innocent people and so makes Americans less safe from their own government. In that respect, the fusion center is reminiscent of the East German stasi, which used tens of thousands of state police and hundreds of thousands of informers to monitor an estimated one-third of the population.
The history of fusion centers provides insight into which answer is correct.
Fusion centers began in 2003 under the administration of George W. Bush as a joint project between the departments of Justice and Homeland Security. The purpose (pdf) is to coordinate federal and local law enforcement by using the “800,000 plus law enforcement officers across the country” whose intimate awareness of their own communities makes them “best placed to function as the ‘eyes and ears’ of an extended national security community.” The fusion centers are hubs for the coordination. By April 2008 there were 58.
The growth has continued under the Obama administration. Indeed, Obama Obama has also continued Bush’s concealment of domestic intelligence activity by threatening to veto legislation that authorizes broader congressional oversight or review of intelligence agencies by the Government Accountability Office (GAO). As a result of that threat, the GAO provision was removed from the Intelligence Authorization Act.
Due to secrecy, it is difficult to describe a typical fusion center. But if the Indiana Intelligence Fusion Center is typical, this is what one looks like…
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Big Brother in Your … Underwear?
Just days ago, USA Today reported that Wal-Mart is introducing a new, more widespread RFID inventory tag system. “Wal-Mart Stores … is putting electronic identification tags on men’s clothing,” wrote Anne D’Innocenzio for the Associated Press. “But the move is raising eyebrows among privacy experts.” She goes on to explain, “The tags [which give Wal-Mart employees direct and real-time control over inventory levels] work by reflecting a weak radio signal to identify the product.” But as AP reported, Katherine Albrecht of Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering, worries that such inventory tags in individual clothing items could allow stores to track individual customer’s movements. The actual privacy risk of the inventory system, of course, hinges on whether the RFID tags are easily removable or somehow embedded in the clothing.
[…]
New RFID risks are as close as your back pocket. When my new New York state driver’s license arrived, this “enhanced” identification came with a built-in liability. It’s RFID-enabled, meaning its built-in chip contains an identification number that can be scanned wirelessly. The license arrived in a small foil-lined envelope with the words “RADIO FREQUENCY PROTECTIVE SLEEVE” emblazoned across it. Beneath this are the words:
“The RIFD tag does not include any personal information, only a unique reference number. Keep the card in sleeve when not in use.”
This begs the question: If the RFID chip in your driver’s license does not contain any personal information, why must it be protected by the sleeve at all?
Last year, Popular Mechanics ran an article on the unique security risks of RFID-enabled credit cards. “[A] team of researchers at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst,” wrote Joel Johnson, “was recently able to construct scanners capable of skimming both the cardholder name and card number from a variety of first-generation RFID credit cards. Then they found a way to transmit that data back to a card reader, tricking it into accepting a ‘purchase.’“ What’s worse, recounted Johnson, was that “many of the supposedly encrypted cards sent card numbers, expiration dates and cardholder names in plain text — which could be read through the envelopes the cards were mailed in.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Cap and Trade Alive and Kicking at EPA
When Senator Harry Reid announced last week that Cap and Trade was dead, did it feel like someone was walking over your grave?
While it is true that Cap and Trade doesn’t live in Congress anymore, it is very much alive and kicking over at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Worse, Harry Reid and Congress didn’t abandon Cap and Trade; they merely shifted it over to the EPA to guarantee its future.
Climatologist CFP columnist Dr. Tim Ball sounded the alarm that President Barack Obama was fast tracking Cap and Trade for money needed for the fundamental Transformation of America on June 22, 2009.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
FBI, Arlington Police Investigate Allegations of Arson, Hate Graffiti and Racial Slurs at Mosque
Allegations of arson, hate graffiti and racial slurs at an Arlington mosque are being investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Arlington police.
Mark White, spokesman for the Dallas FBI office, said agents are “aware of the situation. They are looking into it along with Arlington PD.”
Tiara Richard, spokeswoman for the Arlington Police Department, said officers are investigating the spray-painting last Friday of “explicit images” onto the surface of the parking lot of the Dar El-Eman Islamic Center. The officers, she said, are also investigating a fire early Sunday morning as a possible arson.
The fire damaged the center’s playground.
Jamal Qaddura, president of the DFW Islamic Educational Center, said the spray-painted obscenities were about 15 feet wide. Damage to the playground equipment, he said, was estimated at $20,000.
“This is a terrorist act,” Qaddura said. “This person or persons who committed this terrorist act are no different than the terrorist who attacked or tried to burn Times Square.”
Qaddura said worshippers at the mosque were subjected to slurs yelled by a carload of people after services Sunday evening.
“I don’t want to repeat them,” he said. “You don’t want to hear them. About our religion, and about us.”
He said he was pleased by the response of law enforcement officials. “They acted very swiftly,” he said.
The mosque has been at its Arlington location since 1998, Qaddura said.
“We are friends with all the churches around us. We have an excellent relationship among us.”
| — Hat tip: Lurker from Tulsa | [Return to headlines] |
HBO TKOs Muhammad Ali
Although it debuted last year, I just this week happened to catch the HBO documentary “Thriller in Manila.” As fate would have it, I was staying in the town in which the documentary’s antagonist, Muhammad Ali, was born and raised — Louisville, Ky.
You read that right, “antagonist.” Stunningly, John Dower’s documentary shows the Ali of his glory years for the cruel, racist, hypocritical, mind-numbed Nation of Islam zombie that he was.
It did not surprise me to learn, however, that “Thriller in Manila” is a British production. It is hard to imagine an American director making such a film.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Hillsdale Cotinues to Just Say ‘No’
As the federal government grows so much bigger and more powerful, it also becomes harder to avoid.
Larry Arnn, president of Hillsdale College, makes separation of education and state a core mission as he guides one of the only — perhaps the only — colleges in the country that doesn’t take a dime of taxpayer cash.
It isn’t easy. The federal government is like a schoolyard pusher, constantly trying to entice new users and menacing those who refuse its goodies.
Arnn recently wrote to supporters explaining the government takeover of the student loan program, which was tacked onto the recent health care legislation. The southern Michigan college isn’t directly affected because its students don’t get federally subsidized loans. But as the government takes over higher education, it ups the pressure on Hillsdale, which is competing with schools that receive up to a third of their tuition revenue from federal programs.
“We are in a competitive market, and we’re already at a disadvantage because we’re remote, we’re private, we’re in a cold climate and we’re difficult,” Arnn says. “Add in that it’s a lot cheaper to go somewhere else because of the government subsidies, and we have to do much more to make our students whole.”
Hillsdale, with 1,400 students, does that with a $280 million endowment that is used almost entirely to provide scholarships. Ninety percent of its students get tuition assistance either from the college or from its legion of supporters, who rally to Hillsdale’s in-your-face defiance of federal meddling.
Hillsdale doesn’t take taxpayer money because it doesn’t want to accept government strings. Arnn sees the entanglements growing ever tighter…
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Investigative Report: Exposing the Cordoba Islamic Center of Manhattan
For the last several months, I have been covertly investigating the people, power and money behind the proposed “9/11 mega mosque” planned for the old Burlington Coat Factory situated just two blocks from “Ground Zero” in lower Manhattan. In order to provide the most comprehensive and fact-based insight into this issue as possible, I deliberately postponed publishing any reports until my investigation, consisting of direct and indirect inquiries, procurement of records, and the use of operational assets to develop information was complete.
While any person of reasonable sensibilities and a working moral compass could legitimately find the construction of an Islamic center in such close proximity to the graveyard of thousands of innocent Americans of 9/11 objectionable, there are many proponents who argue that its construction will serve as an example of American understanding, tolerance, compassion and respect for a religion that has been maligned by the actions of a minority. The legitimacy of the argument on behalf of its placement should become moot by simply citing two basic but important concepts: historical precedent and the understanding that Islam is more than a religion. If those points fail to convince an ostensibly objective audience as they have to date, then the results of my investigation should cause anyone with the least bit of intellectual honesty to strongly object to any Islamic structure being built at the intended location.
With regard to historical precedent, the Dome of the Rock could serve as “Exhibit A” and the conversion of the former Byzantine basilica Hagia Sofia in Istanbul, Turkey as “Exhibit B” in the symbolism of Islamic conquest. In both instances, the mosques are perceived in the world of Islam as iconic symbols of victory over a beaten, subservient populace. Their importance in Islamic history and current significance relative to the stated objectives of Islam to dominate rather than coexist cannot be overstated, but is unfortunately overlooked or characterized as irrational hyperbole. Such oversight has always had longstanding adverse consequences to nations and their people who have failed to learn from history.
Based on a plethora of historical examples that include the foregoing, it should be clear that the building of a mosque or a mosque within an Islamic center so near the epicenter of the 9/11 attacks will be perceived as a symbol of Islamic conquest in the Muslim world, despite the perpetual denials by so-called moderate Muslims and regardless of modern sensibilities of “well reasoned” Western thought. Much like the Christians in the Ottoman Empire at the time of the conversion of the basilica to a mosque, the building of this mosque will most assuredly be perceived and promoted as a very special humiliation of the West. And as in the cases cited, this will only become clear after it is too late.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Nashville Rabbi Was Target of Failed Firebombing
Abdul Hakim Muhammad returned to Nashville last year with a history of violence and the belief that he was a soldier of God.
A convert to Islam, he was angry about the actions of American soldiers in the Middle East. He believed they had desecrated the Quran and wanted revenge. His target was a home on Mockingbird Lane in Nashville, not far from West End Synagogue.
Muhammad mistakenly thought an Orthodox rabbi lived there. He hoped to burn the house down with a Molotov cocktail, but the homemade bomb bounced off the glass.
“It didn’t go through,” Muhammad said, according to a psychiatric evaluation filed in a Little Rock, Ark., court Tuesday. He is awaiting trial there for murder.
The failed Nashville firebombing was the first step in a multi-state terror attack that culminated when he opened fire on two Army recruiters on June 1, 2009, killing Pvt. William Long and wounding Pvt. Quinton Ezeagwula.
Until Tuesday, the former Tennessee State University student’s Nashville attack and a subsequent failed attack at an Army recruiting station in Florence, Ky., were not public knowledge.
Rabbi Saul Strosberg of Congregation Sherith Israel, an Orthodox congregation in Nashville, said that Muhammad aimed at the wrong house. Strosberg said that he and his wife had moved from the home about a year before the attack.
The rabbi said he was shocked when he learned about the failed attack from the FBI last year, but was told by authorities to not talk about what was an ongoing investigation. He’s thankful that the firebombing failed but aware that it could have been deadly.
“He wasn’t really an expert at this Molotov cocktail business,” Strosberg said. “He was not very bright but was dangerous.”
The rabbi said he doesn’t know why he was a target, having never met Muhammad.
“The fact that it made sense in his mind to kill a rabbi is just nuts,” he said.
The failed firebombing isn’t the first time local Jews have been targeted for violence. In June 1990, members of the Ku Klux Klan opened fire at West End Synagogue in an early morning drive-by shooting.
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Obama’s Mask
As I said, this is common. How often, when reading about a school mass-shooting or other horrendous crime, have you heard eyewitnesses say, “At first, we thought it was a joke” or “I thought someone was setting off firecrackers” or even, “I thought maybe it was a rehearsal for a drama scene”? Our minds, at least for a moment, reach instinctively for a familiar, safe and sane explanation when utter insanity invades our personal world.
Hold on to that thought.
Right now, a year and a half after Barack Obama’s election as president, many Americans are experiencing what I experienced a second and a half after being confronted by an armed robber. Maybe in the broad sweep of history, years are like seconds. Or, perhaps we’ve all just been so indoctrinated and confused by leftist education, media and culture that it takes a while to quickly recognize a smiling revolutionary for what he really is. In any event, for millions of us, the two seconds of denial and wishful thinking are ending as we approach the November mid-terms, while finally coming to grips with the outrageous reality staring us in the face:
We’re being robbed. Though we’ve tried in vain to view what’s happening as something other than what it is, the truth is, our wealth, our liberty, our lives, our happiness — and our country itself — are being stolen. If you think that’s even a slight exaggeration, you really haven’t been paying attention.
Obama and the far-left leaders of Congress are standing before us, not with ski masks, but with the masks of arrogant deceivers. They smile, they reassure, they act as though they care about us — but it’s all one big cynical pretense. Virtually everything they do, and want to do, is irrational and destructive, violating the laws of the land, of economics and of common sense. They want to dramatically raise taxes during a deep recession. They want to make your electricity bill “skyrocket” (to use Obama’s word). They want to leave our children with a level of debt that is, quite literally, impossible to repay. They want to leave America’s southern border unprotected, even though there’s a full-scale invasion of our nation from the south, not to mention a full-scale drug-war raging just across the border, with tens of thousands dying — yes, you read it right, tens of thousands.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Obama’s Land Grab Nightmare
Abolition of all private property ownership and the application of all rents of land to public purposes
There are ten planks in the Communist Manifesto and it will come as no surprise to anyone to discover that they are being implemented by the Obama administration in league with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.
The first plank called for the abolition of all private property ownership and the application of all rents of land to public purposes.
The Constitution regards the ownership of private property to be of such importance that the Bill of Rights’ Fifth Amendment includes an injunction against the taking of private property for public use without just compensation. The object was to keep as much private property as private as possible.
Some of the other Communist goals included a heavy progressive or graduated income tax and abolition of all rights of inheritance. If the Bush tax cuts are not extended, the “death tax” on estates will partially implement the inheritance goal and, of course, everyone currently anticipates that income tax rates will rise.
[…]
Another land grab effort is an act called “America’s Commitment to Clean Water Act” that is in essence a Corps of Engineers and Environmental Protection Agency authorization to control every drop of water in the nation.
The original 1972 Clean Water Act applies only to “navigable” waters, i.e. bodies of water on which boats and ships can function, but the new bill would include wetlands and everywhere else water is found. In short, not just farmers and ranchers would be affected, but your backyard if it has puddles after a rainstorm. This has long been an EPA objective.
Would it surprise anyone to know that Carol Browner, the president’s chief advisor (czar) on environment and energy was a former high ranking member of Socialist International?
The Obama administration is filled with people for whom the environment is a kind of religion, devoid of any science to support its bad intentions, and willing to ignore the U.S. Constitution any time it might get in the way.
[…]
This is really bad legislation that must be defeated. Otherwise, as Rep. Paul warns, “it allows the Executive Branch to have powers that are constitutionally directed to Congress. So this bill not only diminishes private property, it also erodes the Constitutional separation of powers.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Obama’s Base Quits Blaming Bush
President’s poll numbers slip as ‘same problems’ continue
Support for Mr. Obama has eroded among whites, independents, men and now Hispanics, who were part of the coalition that powered him to the White House in 2008.
While the AP-Univision poll found that 57 percent of Hispanics still approve of Mr. Obama, it revealed deep skepticism among the key Democratic voting bloc. Only 43 percent of Hispanics said Mr. Obama is meeting their needs, according to the poll, while 32 percent were unsure and 21 percent said he has done a poor job.
The Reuters-Ipsos poll, also released Tuesday, found that an overwhelming majority of Americans — 67 percent — do not think Mr. Obama has focused enough on creating jobs, compared with the administration’s emphasis on overhauling health care and rewriting the nation’s financial rules. The survey said only 34 percent approved of the president’s handling of the economy and jobs while 46 percent rejected it as unsatisfactory…
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Southwest Airlines Posts $112 Million Profit in Second Quarter
Southwest Airlines Co. earned $112 million in the second quarter, compared to $91 million in net income a year earlier, as it rode strong revenue growth to higher profits.
The profit meant that eight of the nine largest U.S. carriers posted a profit in the second quarter, with only American Airlines Inc. parent AMR Corp. reporting a $10.7 million loss.
As a group, the nine carriers earned nearly $1.5 billion in the three months ended June 30. That’s an encouraging turnaround from second quarter 2009 when the same airlines collectively lost $555 million.
Southwest chairman, president and chief executive officer Gary Kelly credited record revenues for pushing the airline to increased earnings.
“Although business demand has not fully recovered, it has strengthened, and consumer travel demand is robust,” Kelly said.
The carrier earned 15 cents a share on revenues of $3.17 billion, compared to 12 cents a share on revenues of $2.62 billion in second quarter 2009.
Southwest’s results were dampened by the negative impact of fuel hedging accounting. Excluding special items, the carrier earned $216 million, or 29 cents a share, above analysts’ consensus of 27 cents a share.
| — Hat tip: Lurker from Tulsa | [Return to headlines] |
Space Farms Could Mine Minerals From Moon Dirt
Future manned missions to the moon or Mars could use plants as bio-harvesters to extract valuable elements from the alien soils, researchers say.
Now they hope to launch new experiments to follow up on tests done with plants and lunar regolith during NASA’s Apollo program that landed men on the moon.
Lunar regolith is a loose mixture of dust, soil, broken rock and other related materials that lie on top of solid bedrock. The Apollo-era research showed that returned lunar samples of the regolith did not have toxins or contain alien life-form contaminants that could threaten plants, animals or humans on Earth.
Yet limited use of the precious lunar regolith meant that scientists could not study how well plants fared when grown in regolith.
“In spite of the fact that we absolutely admire the innovative science done in the Apollo era, the question of whether a plant could grow if you plop a seed in lunar regolith hasn’t been answered,” said Robert Ferl, a geneticist at the University of Florida in Gainesville.
Ferl and Anna-Lisa Paul, another geneticist at the University of Florida, hope to pick up where the Apollo-era experiments left off. Renewed research could take advantage of the powerful tools developed in the past several decades for studying molecular biology and genetics, and see how plants react on a molecular level by turning on or off their genes in response to regolith.
New studies could also push the potential shown in how plants apparently derived some nutrients from lunar regolith. That could go beyond the dreams of lunar agriculture to transform plants into planetary harvesters, and ultimately help sustain human bases on alien soil.
“It’s not just about using lunar and Mars regolith to grow plants,” Paul explained. “It’s about capturing nutrients that might otherwise be lost to us.”
The review study of Apollo-era plant experiments was detailed in the April issue of the journal Astrobiology…
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sun Could Set Suddenly on Superpower as Debt Bites
by Niall Ferguson
WE have been raised to think of the historical process as an essentially cyclical one.
We naturally tend to assume that in our own time, too, history will move cyclically, and slowly.
Yet what if history is not cyclical and slow-moving but arhythmic, at times almost stationary, but also capable of accelerating suddenly, like a sports car? What if collapse does not arrive over a number of centuries but comes suddenly, like a thief in the night?
Great powers and empires are complex systems, which means their construction more resembles a termite hill than an Egyptian pyramid. They operate somewhere between order and disorder, on “the edge of chaos”, in the phrase of the computer scientist Christopher Langton.
Such systems can appear to operate quite stably for some time; they seem to be in equilibrium but are, in fact, constantly adapting.
But there comes a moment when complex systems “go critical”. A very small trigger can set off a phase transition from a benign equilibrium to a crisis.
Complex systems share certain characteristics. A small input to such a system can produce huge, often unanticipated changes, what scientists call the amplifier effect.
Empires exhibit many of the characteristics of other complex adaptive systems, including the tendency to move from stability to instability quite suddenly. But this fact is rarely recognised because of our addiction to cyclical theories of history. The Bourbon monarchy in France passed from triumph to terror with astonishing rapidity. The sun set on the British Empire almost as suddenly. The Suez crisis in 1956 proved that Britain could not act in defiance of the US in the Middle East, setting the seal on the end of empire.
What are the implications for the US today? The most obvious point is that imperial falls are associated with fiscal crises: sharp imbalances between revenues and expenditures, and the mounting cost of servicing a mountain of public debt.
Think of Spain in the 17th century: already by 1543 nearly two-thirds of ordinary revenue was going on interest on the juros, the loans by which the Habsburg monarchy financed itself.
Or think of France in the 18th century: between 1751 and 1788, the eve of Revolution, interest and amortisation payments rose from just over a quarter of tax revenue to 62 per cent.
Finally, consider Britain in the 20th century…
| — Hat tip: DS | [Return to headlines] |
Tennessee Politician’s Remarks on Islam Raise Uproar
NASHVILLE — Comments by Tennessee Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey suggesting that Islam might be a cult and that Muslims might not qualify for constitutionally guaranteed religious freedoms drew criticism from Islamic groups Tuesday and an eruption of national media attention.
Ramsey, a Republican candidate for governor, said at a mid-July campaign event in Chattanooga that he is “all about freedom of religion,” which is guaranteed by the First Amendment.
“But you cross the line when they start trying to bring Sharia law into the United States,” he said. “Now you could even argue whether being a Muslim is actually a religion, or is it a nationality, a way of life or cult, whatever you want to call it? We do protect our religions, but at the same time, this is something that we are going to have to face.”
[…]
In a phone interview, Ramsey tried to clarify his stance, saying he has “no problem — and I don’t think anyone in this country has a problem — with peace-loving, freedom-loving Muslims that move to this country and assimilate into our society.”
“But it’s undeniable that there’s a portion of Islam that’s been co-opted by a radical faction that promotes violence not only against Americans but around the world,” he said. “That’s what I’m talking about.”
But Mwafaq Mohammed, president of the Salahadeen Center of Nashville, said Ramsey is representative of “elements within the two (political) parties that are using … Islamophobia, the fear, for their own advantage.”
“It’s election season,” Mohammed said. “He doesn’t have the facts.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Updated Chart Shows Obamacare’s Bewildering Complexity
Download a PDF version of the chart below
Washington, DC — Four months after U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi famously declared “We have to pass the bill so you can find out what’s in it,” a congressional panel has released the first chart illustrating the 2,801 page health care law President Obama signed into law in March.
Developed by the Joint Economic Committee minority, led by U.S Senator Sam Brownback of Kansas and Rep. Kevin Brady of Texas, the detailed organization chart displays a bewildering array of new government agencies, regulations and mandates.
“For Americans, as well as Congressional Democrats who didn’t bother to read the bill, this first look at the final health care law confirms what many fear, that reform morphed into a monstrosity of new bureaucracies, mandates, taxes and rationing that will drive up health care costs, hurt seniors and force our most intimate health care choices into the hands of Washington bureaucrats,“ said Brady, the committee’s senior House Republican. “If this is what passes for health care reform in America, then God help us all.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Denglish Über Alles
Denglish, the German answer to Franglais, should not be an excuse for schadenfreude.
If a German says he has seen a Dressman with a Handy at a Shooting, all he means by these sinister-sounding words is that there was a male model with a mobile phone at a photo-shoot. Like the French, Germans have happily absorbed English words into their funny old language without worrying unduly about their meaning. The result is called Denglish.
So the German Language Foundation (sorry, the Stiftung Deutsche Sprache) is to be congratulated on its efforts to popularise German ways of speaking German. It even launched a competition to find a German word for fast food, awarding the prize to Ruckizuckifutti, which may well be a more agreeable mouthful than the thing it represents. We should not, however, indulge in too much schadenfreude at this German angst about burgers unless we too launch our own blitz on the hinterland of our zeitgeist.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Italian Gag Law Threatens Bloggers With €25,000 Fines for ‘Incorrect’ Facts
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS — Bloggers, podcasters and even anyone who posts updates on social networks such as Facebook all face being slapped with fines of up to €25,000 for publishing incorrect facts, if a bill that journalists’ organisations are calling “authoritarian” currently before the Italian parliament is passed.
A provision within the government’s Media and Wiretapping Bill will extend Italy’s “obbligo di rettifica”, or rectification obligation — a law dating back to 1948 that requires newspapers to publish corrections — to the internet and indeed anyone “responsible for information websites”.
According to the draft law, bloggers and other online publishers — which lawyers believe includes users of Facebook and Myspace — will be obliged to post corrections within 48 hours of any complaint regarding their content.
If authors do not comply, they face fines of up to €25,000. European digital rights campaigners and Italian journalists warn that the move could darken much of Italian cyberspace as for small-scale bloggers, website owners and even those who comment on discussion pages, it would be a near impossibility to deal with a complaint within the alloted time span.
Furthermore, warns the European Digital Rights (EDRI), a pan-European coalition of online civil liberties advocacy organisations, the law implies that bloggers must register with a legal domicile with some authority, facing the same bureaucratic formalities as the written press and that they will have to connect to the internet every single day in order to check whether there is a request for correction and place the correction in due time.
Attempts to soften the law by extending the correction period and reducing the fine to €2500 were rejected last week by the head of the chamber’s justice committee.
EDRI warned on Wednesday in a statement that the law “will add new barriers to freedom of expression on the internet,” and “would discourage bloggers who will hesitate to write on economical or political issues that might bother certain personalities.”
The bill as a whole, whose main purpose is to restrict the use of wiretapping and the ability of publications to quote wiretap transcripts, has provoked an outcry by journalists.
The law proposes to prohibit the publication of transcripts of wiretap recordings, leaks of which in recent years have become something of a staple in the Italian press, particularly in cases of alleged government corruption and organised crime — and indeed Prime Minister Berlusconi.
Journalists or editors that publish such transcripts would face fines of up to €464,700.
The government defends the bill as a necessary to protect the privacy of individuals that are the targets of judicial investigations.
“In Italy, we are all spied on. There are 150,000 telephones that are tapped and it is intolerable,” Mr Berlusconi recently said, explaining why the law was required…
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Lutheran World Federation Misses the Mark on Work and Wealth
The eleventh General Assembly of the Lutheran World Federation wrapped up yesterday, and the theme of the conference was a petition from the Lord’s Prayer, “Give us today our daily bread”… There was a good deal of reflection and self-expression from the hundreds of delegates gathered in Stuttgart, Germany, on topics related to global poverty and hunger. And while the assembly’s introduction explicitly noted the contribution of the German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the LWF meeting would have been improved if there had been a more substantive integration of Bonhoeffer’s views on the ecumenical movement, poverty, and work, into its proceedings.
[…]
Rather than engage in the difficult work of providing a coherent and normative basis for responsible social proclamation, the LWF preferred instead — as is so often the case in the deliberations of mainline ecumenical groups — to point to “neoliberal globalization” as the structural injustice causing extreme poverty in the world. The missing element in the LWF’s poverty discussions, most recently at the General Assembly, has been a nuanced and comprehensive valuation of the role of creative work and entrepreneurship in the creation of material wealth. The social witness of ecumenical groups like the LWF have, for the better part of the past 50 years, consistently undermined work and labor as God’s order of blessings to provide material sustenance for humankind.
[…]
As the Reformed author Lester DeKoster writes in his little classic, Work: The Meaning of Your Life—A Christian Perspective, “Our working puts us in the service of others; the civilization that work creates puts others in the service of ourselves. Thus, work restores the broken family of humankind.” This connection of work to civilization is achieved through the kind of relationships made possible in a globalized world. And the ideological opposition to globalization manifest in the ecumenical movement would relegate the labor of those in the developing world to the margins of civilization itself…
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New EU Police Investigation Co-operation Alarms Civil Liberties Watchdogs
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS — Long a refusenik in the realm of European co-operation on justice and home affairs, the UK has decided to opt in to a proposal that will simplify requests by police in other EU member states to investigate suspects in criminal cases.
The British government is calling the move a new “invaluable tool” in the fight against transborder crime, but civil liberties watchdogs say that the move will force police to investigate individuals for acts that are not considered crimes in their home country.
On Tuesday, UK home secretary Teresa May told British MPs that the government was to opt in to the ‘European Investigation Order’, a proposal from eight EU member states led by Belgium.
Currently, European police may make requests for help in investigations via European ‘Mutual Legal Assistance’. The EIO, a directive initiated by Belgium, Bulgaria, Estonia, Spain, Luxembourg, Austria, Slovenia and Sweden, would replace and significantly streamline this system.
However, civil liberties groups worry that in the wording of the proposal, the main grounds that have in the past been available for authorities to refuse a request for mutual assistance will no longer be available.
In particular, Statewatch, the UK-based civil liberties monitor, says there is no longer a basis for refusal on the grounds of territoriality and what is called “dual criminality” — that the act for which information is sought must constitute a crime punishable in both states.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Single-Parent Families on the Rise in Germany
The number of single-parent families in Germany has risen over the past decade, with nearly one in five mothers and fathers now raising their children on their own, a national “microcensus” revealed Thursday.
The Microcensus 2009, released by the Federal Statistics Office, found that 19 percent of families with children aged under 18 had only one parent. In 1996, the figure was 14 percent — or about one in seven.
The total number of single-parent families rose over the same period by 20 percent, from 1.3 million to 1.6 million.
Yet at the same time, there are fewer families overall today than in times past. While there were 9.4 million families with children under 18 in 1996, there were just 8.2 million last year.
The figures are worrying because single parent families are more likely to live in poverty than those with both a mother and father. In 2009, some 31 percent of single-mother families lived on incomes of less than €1,100 per month — with mothers of children younger than three-years-old especially hard hit.
Some 62 percent had incomes of between €1,100 and €2,600 per month. For 31 percent of single mothers, welfare such as Hartz IV unemployment benefits was the main source of income.
A separate report from the Federal Statistics Office, titled “Life in Europe,” found that in 2008, nearly one in five single-parent families could not afford to properly heat their homes. Nearly three quarters said they were not in a position to pay unexpected bills such as a broken washing machine. More than half said they could not afford a one-week holiday requiring travel once a year.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: “Islamophobic” Bus Ban Story Refuted
Last week two Muslim students accused a bus driver of refusing to let them board because of their Islamic dress. Metroline, the company which operates the bus, has investigated and are refuting the allegation; indeed, as they describe it, the incident had little to do with Islamophobia and more to do with a lack of basic manners on both sides.
CCTV tape from the bus appears to show the two women banging on the door as the bus comes to a stop at Russell Square, its final destination. The two women then entered through the back door and remonstrated with the driver, before disembarking and waiting outside. When the bus driver opened the front doors, the students had another exchange with the driver; it is at this point they were ordered off.
A Metroline spokesperson said that one of the women was being “argumentative”. If this is the case, then the driver’s decision was justified; if the vehicle is out of service, they are not supposed to allow passengers on board, and nobody should have to be yelled at for just doing their job. However, without any sound to go with the video, it’s unclear whether the driver himself was also being verbally abusive.
Yasmin, one of the students, has said that she is “shocked” by Metroline’s version of the story, and is seeking the advice of lawyers. That the students were so keen to speak to the BBC and accuse the driver of bigotry doesn’t suggest that their motives were entirely honest, and the inflation of what appears to have been at best a minor disagreement into a story of racism and legal action is a sad affair.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Bus Company Rejects Islamophobia ‘Veil Ban’ Story
A bus driver accused of refusing two veiled women passage has been cleared by his bosses.
The pair of Muslim students said the “bigoted” driver refused to let them board because they were wearing head scarf’s — however, Metroline have rejected the women’s complaints after studying CCTV footage. The bus operator says the incident has nothing to do with Islamophobia and a lot to do with a lack of manners. One of the women said she was “shocked” by the decision and is seeking legal advice.
Footage, which does not have sound, is said to show the women banging on the door as the bus comes to a stop at Russell Square, its final destination. The two women then entered through the back door and remonstrated with the driver, before disembarking and waiting outside. When the bus driver opened the front doors, the students had another exchange with the driver; it is at this point they were ordered off. A Metroline spokesperson said that one of the women was being “argumentative”.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Bus Firm Rejects Muslim Women’s London Bus Ride Refusal
A bus firm has rejected allegations one of its drivers refused two Muslim women from travelling onboard because one had her face covered by a veil. The students, from Slough, Berkshire, boarded a bus from Russell Square to Paddington, London, last Monday. They claimed the driver told them they were a “threat” to passengers. Metroline said they were denied entry due to “abusive behaviour” and rejected discrimination claims. The women said they were seeking legal advice. An investigation was started by the bus firm after the 22-year-old women, who asked the BBC not to reveal their full names, complained. Yasmin was wearing a hijab and her friend, Atoofa, was dressed in a niqab — which covers the face.
Yasmin claimed the driver told her he was not going to take them onboard because they were a “threat” to him and his passengers.
The bus firm, which operates the service on behalf of Transport for London (TfL), told the BBC it rejected the allegations. A spokesman said CCTV footage had been reviewed from the bus and the driver had been interviewed. He said the women were denied entry to the bus due to “abusive behaviour” towards the driver and other passengers. Yasmin said she boarded the bus from the back by mistake when it was out of service to ask for directions, and a recording shows her entering the vehicle. She said she was then told to “get off the bus” by the driver, who was on a break, and laughed because she thought it was funny to be told to get off. The driver claimed she was “argumentative.” It then pulled up to the bus stop. “When the two women board the bus again they begin to shout at the bus driver,” the spokesman added. “The women continue to be argumentative, even dismissing another passenger who tries to intervene, and at this point the bus driver refuses to allow them to board the bus.” Yasmin told the BBC she was “totally shocked” at what Metroline had to say and was taking legal advice.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Claim of ‘Islamic Veil Bus Ban’ Thrown Out
A bus driver accused by two students of banning them because of their Islamic dress has been cleared after CCTV showed he had actually barred them for their abusive behaviour.
An investigation by Metroline — which operates the No7 bus — found the driver, who could have faced the sack over the allegation, was justified in not allowing the women on his vehicle.
The 22-year-olds, Yasmin and Atoofa, from Slough, told the BBC that they had been refused access to the bus at Russell Square because of their dress. Yasmin was wearing a hijab and her face was uncovered while Atoofa was wearing a niqab, which covers the face. But the Standard has learned that the students, who asked for their full names not to be revealed, were denied entry “due to abusive behaviour towards bus driver and other passengers”.
On-board CCTV of the incident, on Monday last week, showed the women banging on the front doors and attempting to board the bus when it had come to the end of its run. They then get on through the rear doors and begin arguing with the driver. They get off and wait for the bus to start its journey back to Paddington — but another exchange follows, and the driver refuses to set off unless they disembark. Metroline said: “We have now reviewed the CCTV and interviewed the bus driver. The circumstances of this incident are not as represented by the bus passengers.”
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Caught in the Act: Airport Cleaners Filmed on CCTV Looting Passengers’ Suitcases for Valuables
It’s something many air travellers have long suspected was happening when their luggage was out of sight.
Now here is the proof that once your bags are checked in at the airport, there’s no telling whose hands it may fall into.
Anthony Currant, 65, and Abul Hussain, 30, were captured by covert police cameras over a six-week period helping themselves to travellers’ belongings worth thousands of pounds at Luton Airport.
The footage showed the cleaners patting bags to identify possessions such as cartons of tobacco, MP3 players or jewellery packed inside before pocketing the contents and closing the bags.
Bedfordshire Police are not sure how much the thieves stole prior to their investigation. But since the thieves were arrested on February 3, thefts have fallen by 77 per cent from 163 reported in February-June 2009 to 36 in the same period this year.
An airport insider said: ‘What these two were caught doing was probably the tip of the iceberg. Lots of people don’t report a missing carton of cigarettes because it’s not worth the bother or think they’ve left their iPod somewhere.’
Officers launched their sting operation after passengers reported a huge amount of valuables going missing from their checked-in luggage. Cameras were installed at the airport on December 8 and remained there until January 21.
They revealed the cleaners had been diverting bags from arrivals into another area where they were hidden from the view of other staff.
Luggage was then sent back out on to the arrivals carousel where passengers would walk away, usually not realising what had been stolen until they unpacked at home. When police raided Currant’s home in Luton, they found £32,000 in cash, 12,000 cigarettes and 66 packs of tobacco.
Hussain’s home in the town was also filled with stolen goods, including 4,800 cigarettes, 144 packs of tobacco, electrical items, jewellery and cash.
Currant, who had been selling cigarettes and tobacco to co-workers, was jailed for six months at Luton Crown Court on Friday, while Hussain received three months last month. Both pleaded guilty to theft.
Luton is Britain’s fifth busiest airport. An average of 700,000 passengers pass through it between February and June each year and the official theft rate is usually 0.023 per cent — around one per 4,300 pieces of luggage.
A Bedfordshire Police spokesman said yesterday: ‘As a lot of people do not report stolen goods from their baggage it is impossible to know how much was stolen.
However, the fact that crime has fallen by 77 per cent since their arrest suggests they were responsible for a large amount of thefts.’
Interserve, the firm which was contracted to provide the cleaners, yesterday said the incident was a ‘police matter’.
A spokesman added: ‘The two gentlemen concerned no longer work for Interserve. Their employment was terminated when the thefts came to light.’
An airport spokesman added: ‘London Luton Airport notes the court’s decision and is pleased that the matter has been brought to a satisfactory conclusion.’
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Cameron’s Despicable Toadying to Turkey
Cameron pandered to the radical Islamists
It is sadly unsurprising that Prime Minister Cameron’s highly publicized trip to Turkey went with no mention of that country’s continued denial of the Armenian Genocide, and its suppression of Kurdish and Armenian minorities. Indeed when Turkish leader Erdogan discussed his threats of ethnically cleansing Armenians in the UK, Gordon Brown made no more comment on the matter than if Erdogan had been discussing his favorite television programs.
It is in keeping with that conspiracy of silence, that Cameron made no mention of the thousands of political prisoners in Turkish jails, there often for merely expressing an opinion at odds with the state, for singing a folk song, or delivering an official speech in Kurdish. Naturally Cameron did not think to raise the issue of Leyla Zana, the first Kurdish woman elected to the Turkish parliament and a winner of the Sakharov Prize, who is still in jail today. Cameron could have at least raised the subject of Aysel TuÆ’üluk, a member of the Turkish Human Rights Association, who was illegally stripped of her parliamentary immunity and sent to jail for handing out leaflets in the Kurdish language, and is now due to be sent to jail yet again.
But rather than standing up for human rights, Cameron instead pandered to the radical Islamists who were his hosts, by feeding their appetite for hate directed at Israel. And it did not begin or end with Israel.
Instead Cameron sold out the rest of Europe, declaring that he was “angry” at how long the negotiations to bring Turkey into the EU were taking, and declaring himself the “strongest possible advocate for EU membership”. He slammed France and implicitly Germany, for refusing to rush forward to support bringing Turkey into the EU. Cameron sided with Turkey, over France and Germany, betraying allies for enemies. And worse was yet to come.
[…]
In his rambling speech, Cameron praised Turkey for fighting against terrorism. The reality however is that the only “terrorism” that Turkey fights against, is Kurdish guerrillas, from its large Kurdish minority who want to have their own state, or at least some basic human rights. And when Cameron shook hands with Erdogan, he was shaking hands with a man whose patron, Yassin Qadi, funneled millions of dollars to Al Queda, and whose own advisor, Cuneyt Zapsu, donated 300,000 dollars to Al Queda. Al Queda operates its magazine freely in Istanbul, which is convenient because Erdogan claims there’s no such thing as Islamic terrorism.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Egg-Throwing Extremist Who Shouted ‘Cameron’s Bitch’ at Muslim Tory Minister is Jailed
A Muslim convert who pelted a Tory peer with eggs was jailed for six weeks yesterday.
Gavin Reid, 23, targeted Baroness Warsi as Islamic extremists shouted abuse at her, including ‘Cameron’s bitch’, in a ‘planned and deliberate’ confrontation.
At least three eggs were hurled at the high-profile champion of Muslim women’s rights, one of which broke on her face, soiling her hair and jacket.
At the time of the attack last November, Baroness Warsi — now chairman of the Conservative Party and one of David Cameron’s rising stars — was on a visit to Luton with a Tory election candidate.
The group of ten protesters shouted abuse in English and Urdu at the Dewsbury-born former solicitor, accusing her of not being a proper Muslim and supporting the deaths of civilians in Afghanistan. They also demanded the introduction of Sharia law, the Islamic code of conduct, in Britain.
Former removals man Reid, of Luton, was found guilty of an offence under the Public Order Act yesterday at City of Westminster Magistrates Court in London.
Sentencing, District Judge Elizabeth-Roscoe said: ‘Throwing eggs goes beyond legitimate political protest and is quite clearly disorderly behaviour, and it is also threatening, abusive and insulting behaviour.’
It is thought Reid is of Jamaican origin and converted to Islam two years ago while serving a 42-month prison sentence for GBH.
Last night Sayful Islam, who was at the protest in Luton last November and is a spokesman for Islam4UK — the group led by so-called hate preacher Anjem Choudary — admitted he knew Reid.
But he claimed Reid was not a member of Islam4UK and denied that the group members had shouted the abuse.
The court heard that Reid was identified as the egg-thrower from BBC footage despite his face being hidden by his jacket hood. He was arrested 15 days later and gave a ‘no comment’ interview to police.
He later conceded that he threw an egg at the peer but he denied the charge against him.
James Walker, representing Reid, argued that to be found guilty, prosecutors had to prove his actions had caused ‘harassment, alarm or distress’.
Baroness Warsi, 39, the first female Muslim Cabinet minister, did not give evidence in the trial. Mr Walker said she ‘might not have been in the same league as John Prescott’ who infamously gave a right hook to an egg-thrower, but he described her as ‘no shrinking violet’.
The judge said she could not be sure that the peer ‘felt any harassment, alarm or distress’.
However, she concluded Reid’s actions did meet the criteria for conviction as they had irritated and angered Baroness Warsi’s companions.
The judge said Reid had already served the sentence during his time on remand since May.
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
UK: It’s Heartbreaking How the Banks Are Starving Businesses of Cash, Says King
Bank of England governor Mervyn King yesterday attacked the banks for destroying small firms by starving them of cash.
He told MPs it was ‘heartbreaking’ to see so many businesses going under because lenders refused to supply them with the essential funds they need to function.
Small businesses are being repeatedly refused funds from the very banks that have been propped up by their taxes.
Mr King was particularly critical of modern banking practices, where face-to-face contact has been replaced with computer generated mail-shots.
Today the Daily Mail backs his condemnation and launches a ‘Make the Banks Lend’ campaign to expose the ruthless treatment of small firms at the hands of their banks.
Despite billions of pounds being pumped into the economy, up to 500 small businesses a week are being forced to the wall by banks which are obsessed with rebuilding their balance sheets.
Mr King said he leaves his office in London every month to visit bosses nationwide and hears the same horror stories.
Many have had a business account with the same bank for ‘60, 80 years’, Mr King told the Treasury Select Committee yesterday.
But the banks often show no loyalty or understanding about the impact of their decisions, such as rejecting a loan application or raising its charges.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Muslim Brides Becoming Virgins Again With Hymen Replacement Operations on the NHS
Increasing numbers of Muslim brides are having taxpayer-funded ‘virginity repair’ operations before marriage.
There were 116 hymen replacement operations carried out on the NHS between 2005 and 2009. The total for 2009 was 30, up 25 per cent from 24 in 2005.
The health service figures echo a trend reported by private clinics, which are seeing a huge surge in demand for the procedure from Muslim women paying up to £4,000.
One Harley Street clinic said that demand for its half-hour procedure had tripled in recent months.
Doctors say patients are under pressure from future husbands or relatives who insist that they should be virgins on their wedding night.
Critics, including moderate Muslim groups, have condemned the trend as a sign of the spread of Islamic fundamentalism in the West.
During the hymenoplasty procedure — viewed by some as invasive and degrading — the hymen is stitched or reconstructed so that it will tear again and bleed on the woman’s wedding night.
In some cases, the vaginal lining can be used to create a false hymen. A blood capsule can then be inserted into the lining to ensure realistic blood flow when the membrane is broken.
Consultant gynaecologist Dr Magdy Hend performs hymenoplasty under local anaesthetic at his Regency Clinic on Harley Street. He charges £1,850 for the half-hour procedure and says that most of his clients are Muslim women.
He said: ‘In the past, we would do one or two hymen reconstruction operations a week. Sometimes now, we get two or three women a day. Demand has tripled.
‘Our Muslim clients worry about having had sex, and their fiance and family knowing that they have been touched before.
‘It is more cultural rather than religious. If the bride is not a virgin and does not bleed on the wedding night, it is a big shame on the family. There have been honour killings in extreme cases.
‘It is simple surgery that takes only half an hour. They can have it done at lunchtime and do not have to give their real names and addresses.’
Imam Dr Taj Hargey, chairman of the Muslim Educational Centre in Oxford, called on the Muslim community to try to reverse the trend.
He said: ‘The situation is very common in the Middle East where there is a huge scandal that can lead to divorce or even honour killings if there are not bloodstained bed sheets after the wedding night.
‘It is very disappointing that Muslim women in this country feel they need to lead a double life, resorting to subterfuge surgery.
‘That is not conducive to either their psychological or spiritual health and it is hypocrisy and double standards because Muslim men are doing as they please with women.’
There have been calls for a ban on NHS surgeons carrying out the operations for women wanting to marry as virgins.
But a Department of Health spokesman insisted that hymen repair operations take place on the NHS only to ensure a patient’s physical or psychological health.
She said: ‘The NHS does not fund hymen repair operations for cultural reasons. All operations on the NHS are on the basis of clinical need.
‘Operations to repair the hymen are only carried out exceptionally to secure physical or psychological health.’
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Veiled Women Kicked Off London Bus
An investigation has been launched in response to allegations by two Muslim students that they were banned from boarding a London bus because of their veils. The two Muslim students claim that the driver of a Metroline bus refused them entry onto the bus, claiming they posed “a threat,” The Independent reported on Saturday. One of the women was wearing a hijab while her friend, Atoofa, was wearing a niqab which covers the face.
One woman, Yasmin, told the BBC, “When I went forward to show my ticket, he said, ‘Get off the bus.’ I presumed he was still angry because I got on the bus before. “He said, ‘I am not going to take you on the bus because you two are a threat.’ I realized… this may be a racist attack.” Yasmin then began to film the driver with her mobile phone and said he covered his face with a magazine. “I said, ‘It’s OK for you to cover your face on my recording, but it’s not OK for my friend to cover her face out of choice,’“ the London Evening Standard quoted her as saying.
The Muslim Council of Britain stated it was “deeply concerned” about the allegations. Metroline has now launched an “urgent” investigation into the incident. Atoofa, who wears the niqab, said she hoped the driver would be educated about her religion rather than fired, the BBC reported. “I would like him to understand why we wear it and I think I would like an apology,” she said. “I want him to sit there and talk to me about why he felt the way he felt and maybe to understand where we are coming from.”
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Barack Obama and Moammar Gadhafi
It now appears the release of al-Megrahi was part of a deal brokered by BP for a lucrative oil contract with Libya.
The scandal stinks no matter how you look at it. It’s a story of politicians doing what they do without regard to the safety, security and best interests of their constituents — unless those constituents happen to be multinational oil conglomerates and terrorist mass murderers.
But what were Obama’s motivations? Consider this mini-history review of Obama’s odd links with Libya’s Moammar Gadhafi:
- Gadhafi received Obama’s Kenyan grandmother, Sarah Obama, in Tripoli last December. She went to see Gadhafi to congratulate him on his efforts to unify the African continent, the official JANA news agency said. According to the JANA news agency, she told Gadhafi she had come “to tell him of her pride as an African citizen in the efforts he has made to unify the African continent and his humanitarian initiatives for Africans.”
- Obama’s pastor of 20 years, Jeremiah Wright, met with Gadhafi in Libya in 1984 on a trip with Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan.
- After the freeing of al-Megrahi, the Obama administration gave $400,000 to a Libyan charity run by the Gadhafi family. The money went to two foundations — $200,000 to the Gadhafi Development Foundation, run by Gadhafi’s son, Saif, and another $200,000 to Wa Attassimou, an organization run by Gadhafi’s daughter, Aisha. Saif Gadhafi, by the way, brokered the prisoner exchange with BP oil officials.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Egyptian Governor Suspends Church Rebuilding Until Bishop’s Home is Torn Down
After nearly three and a half years of negotiations and appeals to President Mubarak, an agreement was reached early March 2010, between the Governor and the Bishop. The signed conditions were that the old buildings of the Coptic Diocese of Maghagha including the falling-apart church, which was built in 1934 through a Royal decree, were to be pulled down and in exchange the Governor of Minya would issue a licence for the renewal of the Diocese on adjacent land owned by the Church.
After the church was pulled down, the Bishop and congregation celebrate masses since March 16, 2010, in a make shift tent in the summer heat exceeding 45C. “Where stones are hurled inside the tent at us by Muslims,” said one local Copt.” Ever since the Islamist governor Ahmed Dia-Eldin took office in Minya in April 2008, Copts have only seen misery and persecution,” said one of those interviewed at the rally, who wanted to remain anonymous. “Minya has now become the centre of Islamists and terrorists. Churches are destroyed, minor girls are abducted, never to be seen again, Copts are attacked and forcibly evicted from their villages, to be replaced by Muslims.”
In an interview with Freecopts advocacy, the Bishop said that he believes that the Governor suspended the renewal licence because during the negotiations, he tried to seize the land of the pulled down old diocese, insisting that the land has be donated to the governorate. “When we refused, explaining that this land is an endowment to the Church and cannot be donated further, he held a grudge against us because of our refusal he suspended the license later.”
It was agreed that this vacant land is to be used, subject to the Church’s financial circumstances, for erecting a free health care centre to be used by Christians and Muslims alike, as is always the case with Church services.
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Palestine’s Nakba Obsession
The Nakba is the heart of the Palestinians’ backward-looking national narrative, which depicts the creation of the State of Israel in 1948 as the original sin that dispossessed the land’s native people. Every year, on the anniversary of Israel’s independence, more and more Palestinians (including Arab citizens of Israel) commemorate the Nakba with pageants that express longing for a lost paradise. Every year, the legend grows of the crimes committed against the Palestinians in 1948, crimes now routinely equated with the Holocaust. Echoing the Nakba narrative is an international coalition of leftists that celebrates the Palestinians as the quintessential Other, the last victims of Western racism and colonialism.
There is only one just compensation for the long history of suffering, say the Palestinians and their allies: turning the clock back to 1948. This would entail ending the “Zionist hegemony” and replacing it with a single, secular, democratic state shared by Arabs and Jews. All Palestinian refugees—not just those still alive of the hundreds of thousands who fled in 1948, but their millions of descendants as well—would be allowed to return to Jaffa, Haifa, the Galilee, and all the villages that Palestinian Arabs once occupied.
Such a step would mean suicide for Israel as a Jewish state, which is why Israel would never countenance it. At the very least, then, the Nakba narrative precludes Middle East peace. But it’s also, as it happens, a myth—a radical distortion of history…
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How Not to Conduct Diplomacy: A Case Study: UK PM in Turkey
by Barry Rubin
This e-mail contains two separate articles:
British Prime Minister David Cameron’s July 27 speech in Turkey will not live on in history. But it should, as an example of the decline of Western diplomacy, of suicide by Political Correctness, as a textbook example of how not to conduct international affairs.
It crossed my mind that the speech was written by the Foreign Office for the express purpose of making Cameron look foolish, but then I realized that he and his top advisors probably have no idea why it was such a disaster.
Suppose you are the British prime minister going to Turkey, or to just about any country, what should you say? The theme should be: We can cooperate and do mutually beneficial things. Here’s what I can do for you, here’s what I’d like you to do for me. And here’s what you must not do in order to reap the benefits of my friendship and favor.
Obviously, you need to dress that up in appropriate language. But everything should be conditional. The message to be delivered is that it is in your interest to respect my interests.
Cameron did the precise and exact opposite. His message was: The UK needs Turkey. Turkey is wonderful. Its behavior has been perfect. We are desperate for your help.
What is the effect? A man goes into a bazaar, points to a carpet and says: That is the most beautiful carpet I have ever seen. I must have it no matter what the price! How much is it?
In addition, Cameron committed some other howling mistakes, several of which will amaze you…
| — Hat tip: Barry Rubin | [Return to headlines] |
Iran: Pimp Your Mosque!
By using just the right words, an Iranian mosque goes brothel, takes a 5% pimp cut, and stays holy. But don’t laugh: PC language codes have us doing the same thing here.
Holy Shiite! Pious pilgrimage just got more exciting at Imam Reza’s shrine in Iran, where for a reasonable fee (see price list below) a mullah can join any eager pilgrim in holy matrimony of “temporary marriage” with his choice of a lovely, fully hijabed, and properly veiled prostitute for a period between 5 hours to 10 days. Pedophiles welcome: girls as young as 12 years of age are standing by. Not to worry, the mullahs got them covered: all “temps” under 14 must show a written consent from their fathers or male guardians (no doubt on advice from the recently fired, now freelancing ACORN specialists).
We are not making this up.
According to a document obtained by Planet-Iran.com, the mullahs are doing it not for the money (what’s a 5% pimp cut for a holy shrine?), but out of the noble desire “to elevate the spiritual atmosphere, create proper psychological conditions and tranquility of mind” of “those brothers who are on pilgrimage to the shrine.” Verily, what true believer can maintain tranquility of mind and not succumb to sexual yearning while away from his other wives for nearly a week? No pious man should have to suffer such inhumanity. Here’s how it works:
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Turkish Banks Interested in Establishing New Banks in Syria
(ANSAmed) — DAMASCUS, JULY 29 — Turkish state-owned bank Ziraat, privately owned lenders Akbank and Kuveyt Turk are seeking chance to set up banks in neighboring Syria, Anatolia news agency reports. These banks are continuing feasibility studies on structure of possible new banks to be established in Syria.
Turkish and Syrian governments have expressed their support for joint banks between Turkish and Syrian financial institutions to strengthen economic ties between the two countries. Turkish Finance Minister Mehmet Simsek, in a bid to improve economic ties with Syria, travelled to Damascus together with Turkish bankers to meet Syrian officials. Simsek and his Syrian counterpart Muhammad al-Husayn got together with Turkish and Syrian bankers on Thursday. At the meeting, Simsek said that one or more financial institutions should be involved in efforts to accomplish the economic potential between Turkey and Syria. “Turkish banking industry has made great progress in recent years. We are ready to share this experience with our sister country Syria,” Simsek said. Syrian minister al-Husayn said penetration of Turkish banks into Syrian market could make contribution to relations. He said Turkish state-owned bank Ziraat was expected to enter Syrian market soon, and added that Akbank and Kuveyt Turk would also be welcome. Syrian banking law has been amended recently. Under new arrangements, foreign banks are able to own 60% of a bank in Syria. Al-Husayn said news banks would be established as private banks, adding that Syrian businessmen were ready for partnership with Turkish banks. Syrian banking law requires at least $200 million in capital for a new bank, however Turkish lenders believe it is too much.
“The biggest obstacle for us is the high capital,” said Ertan Altikulac, a senior official of Ziraat Bank. “It makes things difficult for us to decide,” he said. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Russian Court Bans Youtube Over Extremist Videos
MOSCOW — A court banned access to popular video site YouTube in Russia’s Far East because it contained a video that the Justice Ministry declared extremist, Russian newspapers reported Thursday.
The court in the city of Komsomolsk-Na-Amure ruled that a local provider should block YouTube because it included a video called “Russia for the Russians” that was declared extremist in 2009.
It also told the provider to block access to three web sites that it said gave access to Hitler’s “Mein Kampf,” which is also on the extremist literature list.
The Justice Ministry did not give details of the video, whose title is listed in English, except that it was banned by a court in the central Russian city of Samara.
A video of that title featuring the emblem of banned ultra-nationalist group the Slavic Union shows its members making Nazi salutes, wearing swastika armbands and kneeling beside a photograph of Hitler.
The decision was widely derided on Thursday. “The global YouTube has been closed by the protocol of a district court,” wrote business daily Kommersant.
The Internet is a vital forum for political debate in Russia, as almost all newspapers and television channels present bland pro-Kremlin coverage, and most prominent analysts and liberal politicians contribute to blogs and news sites. The court in Komsomolsk-na-Amure, a city best known for making Sukhoi planes, also told the provider to block access to three web sites that it said gave access to Hitler’s “Mein Kampf,” also banned in Russia as extremist.
The provider said Wednesday that it had launched an appeal to the decision, which was issued on July 16 but widely publicised this week.
A spokesman for the Russian branch of Google, which owns YouTube, called the ban unconstitutional.
“We consider that the decision of the Central district court in Komsomolsk-na-Amure, breaches the Russian Constitution,” told the RIA Novosti news agency on Wednesday.
She cited the Constitution’s clause on freedom of information and pointed out that the ban on YouTube would also block the Kremlin’s official channel on the website.
| — Hat tip: Henrik | [Return to headlines] |
‘Snake’ Rudd Behind Cabinet Leaks: Latham
FORMER Labor leader Mark Latham insisted last night that Kevin Rudd was behind damaging leaks against Julia Gillard and condemned the behaviour as cowardly, “the snake’s way”, unmanly and “beneath an Aussie bloke”.
Mr Latham told Sky News no prime minister had loved the job more than Mr Rudd, who greatly enjoyed meeting foreign leaders such as US President Barack Obama. Labor was living with the consequence of taking away from Mr Rudd the thing he loved most, Mr Latham said.
And he said Mr Rudd was humiliated by being left on the back bench by Ms Gillard.
“If he can’t have it, no one else will,” Mr Latham said. “There’s also a cowardice to it.”
He said an angry Mr Rudd had clearly “got on the blower to Laurie Oakes” with his allegations.
Mr Latham said he’d been critical of his opponents, “but at least I’m putting my name to it”.
He said he was convinced Mr Rudd had leaked sensitive information. “It’s the snake’s way,” he said. “It’s unmanly and beneath an Aussie bloke to act this way.”
Mr Latham said it would have been much better for Labor to have made Mr Rudd foreign minister or defence minister and sent him to Afghanistan.
On climate change, Mr Latham said Ms Gillard’s plan for a people’s assembly was a cop-out and a political tactic that came from former Bob Carr staffers.
Such assemblies had their place but not on an issue as important as climate change, he said.
But Mr Latham said Labor could still win the election, and voters would give a first-time Labor government a second chance.
He believed the government would be returned with about the same majority: “Labor hasn’t got a lot to worry about.”
| — Hat tip: Nilk | [Return to headlines] |
As Oil Rapidly Disappears, Crews Prepare to Kill the Well
It is becoming almost impossible for oil cleanup crews on the Gulf of Mexico to find any oil to clean up — both onshore and offshore. It seems that nature is a lot better at cleaning up oil in the warm waters of the Gulf than academics, plaintiff’s attorneys, and political activists have been claiming. Meanwhile crews are preparing to kill the shut-in Macondo well from both the top (static kill via new sealing cap) and the bottom (bottom kill via relief well).
Retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen says Monday that the so-called “static kill” — in which mud and cement are blasted into the top of the well — should start on Aug. 2.
If all goes well, the final stage — in which mud and cement are blasted in from deep underground — could begin Aug. 7.
BP has said the bottom kill could take days or weeks, depending on how well the static kill works. _al.com
For those who are still a bit uncertain about the planned “static kill”, here is a Q&A to explain just what to expect…
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Nicole Ferrand: Peru Today
It is hard to believe that just twenty years ago, Peru was going through one of its worst crises in its history. After years of irresponsible economic policies and public spending, the nation was isolated, plagued by a soaring hyperinflation, widespread terrorism, insurmountable debt, high unemployment, falling wages and a sense of hopelessness that made looking into the future extremely dim. Peru ended the 1980s with one of the worst recessions in Latin America, including an inflation rate of 7,000 percent, one of the highest in the world. Access to credit, foreign or local, was unattainable and the country was in desperate need of order and change. But thanks to tough measures taken in the 90’s to correct the nation’s course, Peru today is a totally different country.
Upon arrival at Jorge Chavez’s International Airport, one can sense that the economy is thriving. The airport is extremely modern with high-end stores and duty-free businesses full of people actualy buying. Leaving the airport is just as easy and fast, with modern routes, national and international stores along the way that have replaced the tanks and military personnel which not too long ago guarded the city day and night.
In the streets of Lima, construction of modern and expensive residential buildings and offices is everywhere and local businesses are enjoying better wages and access to credit. For instance, it is practically impossible to go to eat in one of the city’s restaurant without a reservation. More shopping malls with internationally renowned stores are being built in several districts and international firms have opened their doors in Lima. Analysts already say that Peru has become one of the most open investment regimes in the world and, despite the current economic turmoil that has engulfed the globe, it is enjoying excellent economic growth…
| — Hat tip: CSP | [Return to headlines] |
Are Illegals Infesting U.S. Military Bases?
Sheriff Joe hunts aliens working at Army intelligence post
Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio is warning that illegal aliens may have gained access to a U.S. Army installation in Arizona that also serves as the nation’s largest military intelligence-training center.
“I have deep concerns that people who come into our country illegally have managed to gain access onto an active U.S. military installation,” Arpaio said in a statement today. “This cause for concern goes well beyond the argument that people are only committing the crime of wanting to work in this country.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Book Review: Government’s Plan to Dissolve America’s Sovereignty
Corsi documents shocking reasson U.S. won’t secure border with Mexico
In “The Late Great USA,” Corsi shows how the Security and Prosperity Partnership, or SPP, an agreement signed in 2005 by President George W. Bush, Paul Martin of Canada and Vicente Fox of Mexico, is nothing less than a full-frontal assault on American sovereignty.
This aim to create a North American Union between the United States, Mexico and Canada is the real reason behind “comprehensive immigration reform.”
Says Corsi, “Bush’s goal to create a North American Union — with no borders, a shared currency, and utterly no voice for average Americans in their own futures — is the real reason he won’t enforce immigration laws.”
Utilizing thousands of documents released as a result of the Freedom of Information Act, “The Late Great USA” shows how unelected bureaucrats in faceless agencies such as the Department of Commerce have been given the power to foist the NAU on the American public incrementally.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
NEA: Let’s Celebrate Communism!
Teachers’ union promotes Mao’s launch of ‘People’s Republic’
The National Education Association is suggesting its teachers and NEA-connected schools celebrate China on the anniversary of the repressive communist regime’s violent founding.
The NEA’s website has a page called Diversity Events and lists Oct. 1 as the day to celebrate Chairman Mao’s successful revolution.
University of North Carolina-Wilmington Criminal Justice professor Mike Adams says the NEA’s position is borne out of intellectual arrogance.
[…]
Worldview Weekend President Brannon Howse says the NEA is also advocating multiculturalism.
“Today we call it political correctness, but the real term is cultural Marxism. It’s also multi-culturalism, which is a denigration of the foundational Western worldview,” Howse explained.
Adams believes the NEA’s willing advocacy of cultural Marxism means it is anti-Western.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Standing Still, Praying Gets Man ‘Disorderly Conduct’ Rap
Attorney charges Chicago authorities trying to intimidate Christians
Two Chicago-area men have been accused of “disorderly conduct” for standing on a public sidewalk outside an influential abortion business and praying, and the move appears to be a deliberate attempt by officials to intimidate Christians, according to a law firm.
“This arrest was about one thing: trying to scare pro-life people away from Planned Parenthood,” said Peter Breen, executive director and legal counsel for the Thomas More Society.
The organization is representing David Avignone and Joe Holland, whose “offense” was captured in a video:
[…]
Breen confirmed to WND Holland was engaged solely in prayer activity and not in leafleting, picketing or “sidewalk counseling.” Holland was cuffed, taken into custody and booked at a police station for an offense that carries no possibility of jail time and is similar to offenses addressed by an officer handing out a citation.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Race Card is Losing Its Punch
The phrase “two Americas,” generally credited to former senator and all-around reptile John Edwards, ostensibly refers to America’s “haves” and “have-nots.” The idiom has been widely employed by progressives since then, which isn’t entirely surprising, as it easily evokes whatever dismal specter of inequity the user wishes to impart, that being one of the key wares in the inventory of the political left.
As the topic of race relations engages in a rousing game of “Whack-a-Mole” with the press and America’s consciousness, it has made plain that there are indeed two Americas in parallel universes, as it were, with regard to the subject of race. There is the America that most of us see, wherein people go about their lives and business, attempting to make the best of things, just like the next guy. Race really doesn’t count for much and seldom enters into one’s mind unless someone else brings it up.
There are two reasons for this: One is that we’ve been conditioned to engage our intellect to overcome our innate tendencies toward xenophobia — which we all do possess. This has resulted in a sort of collective cultural maturity. Some, like myself, argue that this conditioning has been to a fault, in that it’s given rise to hypersensitivity and inordinate psychological malleability.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Marsupials Not From Down Under After All
All living marsupials — such as wallabies, kangaroos and opossums — all originated in South America, a new genetic study suggests.
Yep — the animals most famous for populating Australia actually started out on another continent altogether. But marsupials — a group of mammals known for toting their young in belly pouches on the females — are still common in South America, too.
The recent study used new genetic data about some of these species to trace the family tree.
“The two recently sequenced marsupial genomes of the South American opossum (Monodelphis domestica) and a kangaroo, the Australian tammar wallaby (Macropus eugenii), provide a unique opportunity to apply a completely new approach to resolve marsupial relationships,” the researchers, led by Maria A. Nilsson of Germany’s University of Munster, wrote in a paper published July 27 in the journal PLoS Biology.
The South American opossum (commonly called simply “possum”) looks like a large, furry mouse. Meanwhile, the Australian tammar wallaby is a small member of the kangaroo family that hops around on two legs.
The scientists analyzed genes from these species for special genetic markers called retroposons that can reveal how much the two genomes share in common. They found that these animals — and all living members of the marsupial family — must have originated from one branch of mammals, because they all share special retroposon patterns that no other mammals have.
The results suggests marsupials started out from a common ancestor in South America, and one major branching-off took place long ago when South America, Antarctica and Australia were all connected to each other as part of a large landmass called Gondwana. This fork would have allowed the animals to populate Australia.
This finding goes against previous ideas that marsupials originated in Australia. Under this scenario, some groups of marsupials would have split off when the landmasses of South America, Antarctica and Australia split around 80 million years ago. The situation is complicated by a lack of strong fossil evidence of this group from ancient times.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
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