Obama Endorses Global Taxes on Eve of U.N. Summit
In a classic case of misdirection, while the media are preoccupied with the fate of the Bush tax cuts, President Obama is preparing to attend a United Nations summit next week to endorse “innovative finance mechanisms” — -global taxes — -to drain even more wealth out of the U.S. economy.
A draft “outcome document” produced in advance of the September 20-22 U.N. Summit on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) commits the nations of the world to supporting “innovative financing mechanisms” to supplement foreign aid spending.
The term “innovative financing mechanisms” is a U.N. euphemism for global taxes. But the document actually goes further, praising the “Task Force on International Financial Transactions for Development” for its work on the subject of mobilizing additional “resources” for countries to achieve the MDGs. This is a body tasked with proposing and implementing global tax schemes.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: Banca Santander Buys 70% of Poland’s Zachodni Bank
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, SEPTEMBER 10 — Banca Santander has acquired 70.36% of the Polish bank Zachodni (BZ WBK) for around 2,938,000 euros in cash, according to a communique’ issued to the National Stock Exchange Commission.
The acquisition of BZ WBK will be realised by the institution under Emilio Botin via a public offer to purchase 100% of the capital, which will automatically be contended by AIB, sources inside the Spanish bank say. Following this, Santander will acquire the 50% stake that Ireland’s AIB holds in BZ WBK Asset Management for 150 million euros in cash.
The acquisition of the two packages of shares owned by AIB in the Polish bank and in BZ WBK Asset Management will generate a commercial fund for Santander worth around 2 billion euros and will have an estimated impact on the group’s core capital of around 40 base points.(ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
The Emerging Global Fed
The Federal Reserve has been a nightmare for the American people. It inflates the money supply, thereby devaluing already-existing money and placing a massive hidden tax on the people via rising prices. It also uses its monopoly power to cause interest rates to go up or down, usurping the rightful place of the market and causing massive malinvestment and generally an improper and unproductive allocation of resources.
The Fed also causes the boom-and-bust cycle through its manipulations of the currency and credit supply. It serves as the government’s partner in perpetually expanding the “welfare-warfare state,” allowing the state to spend far more than it could ever hope to reasonably raise through direct taxation. And of course, the fact that all Federal Reserve notes enter the economy as debt with interest attached (but never created) has led to a situation where it is literally mathematically impossible to pay off the debt. In sum, the consequences of such a system have been disastrous for average Americans — hence the growing calls to audit and even end the Fed.
But now, imagine such a system at the global level. And it isn’t just a mental exercise; the global central bank is already emerging. As bad as the Fed has been for America — and indeed the world — a similar system at the international level would be far worse. Disaster might even be an understatement.
One of the most serious threats posed by a global central bank and world fiat currency is the fact that it would allow the emerging planetary regime to print its own money and finance its activities independently. That means wealth could be secretly siphoned away from all of humanity to pay for armies, tax collectors, courts, bureaucracies, law enforcement, wealth redistribution, propaganda, and much more. With no limits. But to advocates of such a system, that is one of its primary benefits.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Bad Breath Sniffer to Hunt for Life on Mars
IF THERE’S life on Mars, we might smell it before we see it. A chemical involved in bad breath and flatulence in humans could lead us to alien microbes on the Red Planet.
The sulphur-containing molecule methyl mercaptan is naturally produced in significant quantities on Earth only by microbes, including some that make their pungent presence known in the human body. NASA’s next Mars rover is highly sensitive to the smelly chemical, which could betray the presence of Martian microbes, says Steven Vance of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
The instrument in question is the Tunable Laser Spectrometer, which will fly on the Curiosity rover — set to land on Mars in 2012. TLS was designed to analyse the carbon isotopes in Mars’s methane to search for signs that the gas has a biological origin. But the isotope tests might produce ambiguous results, so finding methyl mercaptan would help bolster the case for Martian microbes, Vance says. TLS should be able to detect the gas at concentrations below 100 parts per billion, according to his team’s tests on a similar spectrometer (Planetary and Space Science, DOI: 10.1016/ j.pss.2010.08.023).
The researchers are also planning to check TLS’s sensitivity to other gases produced by terrestrial microbes, like ethane. “We’re demonstrating its ability to look at additional biomarkers and hopefully that will help us in our search for life,” Vance says.
Kenneth Nealson at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, who was not involved in the study, says finding several potential indicators of life in the same place would make it a good target for follow-up missions. “I think you’d get pretty excited,” he says. “You’d want to make sure that the next lander would spend time at that site.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Diana West: Burned for Being American
Another Sept. 11 is behind us, leaving something new and disturbing, a dark spawn to examine with plenty of careful soul-searching.
That legacy begins with the reflexive, lockstep process by which an American citizen, Terry Jones, was simultaneously depicted and denounced as a raving lunatic for even conceiving of his plan to burn copies of the Koran to mark the ninth anniversary of demonstrably Koran-inspired attacks. In society’s fearful fervor to distance itself from Jones, there was evidence of that same politically correct lie that has plagued us from Day 1: that there exists no logical and discernible connection between what the Koran commands and what happened on 9/11. Thus, Jones’ lawful, harmless symbolic stunt making the connection — burning copies of the Koran at his Florida church — became a paralyzing taboo, and Terry Jones was demonized with impunity, even by many who defended his free-speech protections and constitutional rights.
It’s not that his plan required hosannas, ovations or even a Cracker Jack prize. But there was something alarming in the rush of invective that prefaced even arguments in the man’s defense. In these apparently obligatory denunciations, there was something very nearly dehumanizing — and particularly when the name-calling could be heard as sympathetic vibrations to the violent explosions of outrage over Jones that brought death and destruction to Islamic lands including (so far) Indonesia, Afghanistan and India.
Even with the Constitution on his side, Jones was in effect stripped of equal standing in the eyes of his fellow citizens. Little wonder, then, that his bank actually called in his church’s mortgage; his insurance company actually canceled his church’s policy; and his Internet server actually pulled the plug on his website — all repercussions of his planned 9/11 demonstration. Inside of a week, Jones achieved a state on nonpersonhood that exceeds that of most convicted criminals, despite the fact that the only law he contemplated breaking was Islam’s.
Jones’ state of disgrace was perhaps never more apparent than during a live appearance on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” Co-host Mika Brzezinski, worked up over the “blood” Jones personally, as she believed, would have on his hands, cued panelist Jon Meacham to deliver to Jones, standing by live, an honest-to-goodness New Testament homily on forgiveness — an MSNBC first? — and to appeal to him as a “fellow Christian” to drop his plans. Jones’ reply? He was never permitted to open his mouth.
“Well said, Jon Meacham,” said Mika Brzezinski as Meacham’s sermon ended. “And Pastor Terry Jones, we appeal to you to listen to that. And we don’t really need to hear anything else, so thanks.”
So thanks? Talk about potted palms…
| — Hat tip: Diana West | [Return to headlines] |
School Apologizes After Students Pray to Allah on Field Trip to Mosque
A Massachusetts school district has apologized to parents after a group of schoolchildren participated in midday Muslim prayers during a field trip to a Boston-area mosque.
The incident occurred in May when a social studies class from Wellesley Middle School toured the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center, one of the largest mosques in the Northeast.
Parents were told their children would be learning about the architecture of a mosque and they would be allowed to observe a prayer service. But the students wound up being given a lecture on the Prophet Muhammad, and some boys participated in a midday prayer service.
The field trip was videotaped by a parent whose child was on the trip. At one point, the video shows a spokeswoman for the mosque telling students, “You have to believe in Allah, and Allah is the one God, the only one worthy of worship, all forgiving, all merciful.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Shortage of Single Ladies Drives Men to Commit
Wedding bells ring sooner for women in places where single ladies are scarce, according to a new study of metropolitan areas in America.
Where single women are rare, women marry earlier, researchers reported Aug. 4 in the journal Evolutionary Psychology. The shift may be because the ladies have more men to choose from, while the men have extra motivation to put a ring on it.
“Women are basically getting snapped up, because the guys want to get her before somebody else does,” study author Daniel Kruger, an evolutionary psychologist at the University of Michigan, told LiveScience.
Attack of the single woman
Kruger first became interested in studying the effects of gender imbalance on the marriage market when he caught a glimpse of a magazine cover on a trip to New York City.
“It had this cover picture on it that said, ‘Attack of the Single Woman,’ and it had this giant woman with a big red dress like Godzilla tromping through the city,” Kruger recalled. “It made me wonder just what would happen to these relationship dynamics if there really was a surplus of single women.”
To find out, Kruger analyzed census data on marriage age and gender imbalances in the 50 largest metropolitan areas in America. Using the data, he calculated what’s called an operational sex ratio, which is the number of sexually available men per 100 sexually available women, multiplied by 100. A ratio of 100 means a balanced population, while numbers larger than 100 indicate a surplus of men. A ratio of 110, for example, means 11 men are available for every 10 women. A ratio of 90 would mean nine men are available for every 10 women.
After controlling for income and race, Kruger found that in areas where women were scarce, women married slightly earlier. Men’s average age of marriage didn’t change relative to the abundance of potential mates, but they did show more variability in the age when they married than women did. That’s likely because guys who can snag a women will settle down quickly, Kruger said, but because women can be more choosey, other men may have to build up their finances and social status before they can catch a bride.
“[Some guys will] settle down and take the women before other guys can,” Kruger said. “But other guys will have to work more and thus they’ll get married at later ages.”…
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
White House Science Czar Says He’d Use ‘Free Market’ To ‘De-Develop the United States’
[Video] From CNS News: In a video interview this week, White House Office of Science and Technology Director John P. Holdren told CNSNews.com that he would use the “free market economy” to implement the “massive campaign” he advocated along with Population Bomb author Paul Ehrlich to “de-develop the United States.”
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White House Solves the Problem of Global Warming Overnight… By Officially Changing the Phrase to ‘Global Climate Disruption’
Global warming could be a thing of the past, thanks to the Barack Obama administration.
No, the White House has not single-handedly managed to stop the apparent rising temperature — but it does think the terminology oversimplifies the problem.
According to U.S. science adviser John Holdren, the public should start using the phrase ‘global climate disruption’ because it makes the situation sound more dangerous.
During a speech in Oslo, Norway, Mr Holdren said global warming is a ‘dangerous misnomer’ and is not an accurate description of the issues facing the planet.
It comes as Congress prepares to adjourn for the season without completing work on the stalled climate bill, which, after facing a barrage of obstacles, was declared effectively dead in the Senate in July.
But advisers believe using the new terminology could help to drive the message to ordinary people — and put the bill back on the agenda for next year’s legislative session.
Referring to the Democrats launch of a new logo, Republican pollster Adam Geller told Fox News: ‘They’re trying to come up with more politically palatable ways to sell some of this stuff.’
Mr Geller added that the phrase ‘global warming’ is easy to criticise.
‘Every time we’re digging our cars out — what global warming? (Global climate disruption is) more of a sort of generic blanket term, I guess, that can apply in all weather conditions.’
Mr Holdren is not the first scientist to make the recommendations. In 2008, NASA said the term ‘global warming’ should be avoided because temperature change ‘isn’t the most severe effect of changing climate’.
‘Changes to precipitation patterns and sea levels are likely to have much greater human impact than the higher temperatures alone,’ its report said.
It’s not the first terminology change the White House has pushed for — previous examples include ‘man-caused disaster’ and ‘overseas contingency operation’.
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
White House: Global Warming Out, ‘Global Climate Disruption’ In
From the administration that brought you “man-caused disaster” and “overseas contingency operation,” another terminology change is in the pipeline.
The White House wants the public to start using the term “global climate disruption” in place of “global warming” — fearing the latter term oversimplifies the problem and makes it sound less dangerous than it really is.
White House science adviser John Holdren urged people to start using the phrase during a speech last week in Oslo, echoing a plea he made three years earlier. Holdren said global warming is a “dangerous misnomer” for a problem far more complicated than a rise in temperature.
[…]
“They’re trying to come up with more politically palatable ways to sell some of this stuff,” said Republican pollster Adam Geller, noting that Democrats also rolled out a new logo and now refer to the Bush tax cuts as “middle-class tax cuts.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Mosque Near North Pole Soon
(ANSAmed) — ROME, SEPTEMBER 15 -After a 4-thousand-kilometre-long land and river ways journey , the mosque called the “End of the World” will arrive on a ship at its destination, the Canadian town of Inuvik in the extreme far north of Canada, 200 kilometres from the North Pole.
The population of Inuvik is 4000 people including about one hundred Muslims. Muslims in the small town — reports Al Arabyya — had been used to praying in a small transportable building, said the architect Ahmed Alkhalef, who added that when the mosque arrives on September 24 the Muslims living in Inuvik will be able to pray together, whereas in the last prayer only about twenty people took part since the house-mosque did not have the space for everyone. The first prayer of the new mosque, built according to a Canadian architectural style and commissioned by a wealthy Saudi national (the total cost was about 100,000 dollars) is scheduled for November 1. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Counter-Terror Police Arrest Five ‘Algerian’ Street Cleaners in Dawn Raid Over Alleged Plot to Attack the Pope on UK Visit
Police arrested five street cleaners in a dawn raid today after receiving information they were allegedly plotting to harm the Pope.
The suspects were arrested by Scotland Yard at 5.45am at business premises in the centre of London and are now being questioned by counter-terror detectives.
They were working for Veolia Environmental Services, a contractor which employs 650 on-street staff to keep Westminster’s streets clean.
Searches are underway at properties across the capital but Benedict XVI’s schedule in the city is currently continuing as planned.
His security was reviewed following the arrests but so far it has not been altered and he went ahead with a service and appearance in Twickenham, west London, this morning.
The men, aged 26, 27, 36, 40 and 50, were arrested by officers from the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command as their shift was about to start.
They are being held under the Terrorism Act 2000 at a central London police station and will be questioned by detectives.
Some of the group are of North African origin, including Algerian.
Leith Penny, Westminster City Council’s director for city management, said: ‘Veolia and Westminster City Council work closely with the relevant authorities to constantly ensure that all the people working on their behalf are subject to right to work checks as prescribed by the Home Office to assess their eligibility to work in the country.
‘We are confident that these checks are robust and we will continue to work with the police and other authorities during this investigation.’
The suspects were held at Veolia’s Chiltern Street depot, where staff are responsible for cleaning streets in the Marylebone area.
The Pope was not set to visit anywhere in that area before leaving his Wimbledon base for Birmingham on Sunday morning.
The cleaning depot was searched by police as well as their homes in north and east London and the suspects will be questioned by counter-terrorism officers later today.
Sources said no weapons, bomb materials, maps, planning materials or other suspicious items have been found.
A Scotland Yard spokesman said: ‘Today’s arrests were made after police received information. Following initial inquiries by detectives, a decision was made to arrest the five men.
‘Following today’s arrests the policing arrangements for the Papal visit were reviewed and we are satisfied that our current policing plan remains appropriate. The itinerary has not changed. There is no change to the UK threat level.’
| — Hat tip: KGS | [Return to headlines] |
Drugs: From South America to Spain, ‘Brain Thief’ Arrives
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, SEPTEMBER 13 — It is known as ‘texe’ or even ‘basuco’, or the ‘brain thief’, as it has been dubbed by the mothers of South American drug addicts. A new, extremely cheap and devastating drug, made from the leftovers of cocaine production, which creates a near immediate addiction has arrived in Spain. After eating away at the health of the youth of the South American suburbs, ‘texe’ is spreading at a worrying rate in the city of Barcelona and Baix Llobregati and in the provinces of central Catalonia, according to warnings from police, healthcare and social workers, reports the Periodico de Catalunya today. It costs just 10-15 euros per gram, making it a widely consumed drug. The proof of how much it is being used, explained sources, is that many more of the pipes used to smoke the drug are being sold. Each gram yields about four or five doses, which has made it a true drug for the poor, with devastating effects on its consumers’ health.
“Currently, out of the 65 people that we have in drug addiction treatment in Catalonia, 18 have used basuco,” explained the director of the Progetto Uomo NGO, Oriol Esculies, while speaking to the daily. The association warned that many of ‘texe’ addicts are adolescents age 14-15 living in unstable conditions. Healthcare workers explained that the dangerous drug, since it is made from cocaine residue, contains few active principles and many toxic substances, such as hydrochloric acid, ammonia and kerosene. It has much more destructive effects on the health of users compared to cocaine. “When smoked, it has serious impacts on the respiratory system,” explained psychiatrist Carlos Roncero, the head of the drug treatment facility at the Vall d’Hebron Hospital in Barcelona. “Since it is mainly composed of chemical substances that are not suitable for human consumption, such as acid and kerosene, it can severely damage the nervous system,” he added.
Aggressive reactions, followed by euphoria and psychotic crisis are several of its effects. Since they quickly wear off, users immediately need to take another dose. Police and healthcare workers are warning people about the risks of this drug turning into a veritable social plague. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Berlin Denies Planning Roma Deportations
Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle on Friday repudiated statements by French President Nicolas Sarkozy that Germany is planning deportations of Roma people similar to the controversial programme in France.
“There are no such considerations,” Westerwelle told broadcaster Deutschlandfunk, adding he believe there had been a “misunderstanding.”
The foreign minister’s comments came after government spokesman Steffen Seibert also said Chancellor Angela Merkel had not told Sarkozy of such plans either at the European Council or in discussions on the sidelines, as the French President had recently claimed.
Meanwhile Green party EU parliamentarian Reinhard Bütikofer called on Merkel to come out with clear statements on the Roma issue.
In an interview with daily Frankfurter Rundschau he said she must “be clear with her close friend Sarkozy” that EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding has been right to compare the Roma expulsions with the fate of millions of Roma and Jews in German-occupied Europe in World War II.
France has been under fire for weeks over Sarkozy’s drive to deport Roma, previously called Gypsies, living in travelling communities in France back to Romania and Bulgaria, and Paris now faces the threat of European legal action.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy-Croatia: Exiled Requests Should be Reassessed, Frattini
(ANSAmed) — ZAGREB, SEPTEMBER 15 — “I hope that the pending requests [of those in exile] that were frozen can be reassessed” in light of new principles established by Croatia’s Supreme Court. So said the Italian Foreign Minister, Franco Frattini, who was speaking during a press conference following the second mixed commission meeting held today in Zagreb.
Frattini referred to August’s verdict by the Supreme Court in Zagreb, which favours extending the benefits of Croatian law on denationalisation to foreign citizens. The verdict recognises the parity of treatment between Croatian citizens and foreigners and constitutes an important step forward, albeit one limited to well defined categories of potential beneficiaries. Cases covered by international treaties such as the Treaty of Osimo in 1975, but positive developments to the question would allow the issue of indemnities due to Croatia over assets nationalised in the former Zone B to be resolved.
“My request is for full implementation of this verdict,” Frattini explained.
The Foreign Minister expressed his appreciation at constitutional developments made in favour of minorities in Croatia. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: ‘Most Thefts Done by Roma’, Says Bossi
League leader joins row after Berlusconi backs French expulsions
(ANSA) — Rome, September 16 — Northern League leader Umberto Bossi stomped into the row over France’s Gypsy expulsions Thursday, backing French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s controversial policy on the grounds that “most thefts are done by Roma”.
“Yes, Sarkozy is doing the right thing with the expulsions,” said the outspoken head of the regionalist party that frequently assumes extreme stances on immigration and is the junior partner in Silvio Berlusconi’s centre-right government.
“Most thefts are done by Roma. Naturally they are not the devil, but working people come home and find it ransacked and that’s no fun”.
The comments come after Berlusconi threw his weight behind Sarkozy following a reprimand from European Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding, who compared the policy of sending Roma migrants back to Romania and Bulgaria to the Nazi Holocaust. “Reding would have done better to discuss this subject in private with French officials” Berlusconi said. “The Roma problem is not specific to France. It concerns all Europe”.
Sarkozy had already returned fire on Reding Wednesday, saying her home nation Luxembourg should take in the Roma to solve the problem if she did not like his approach.
Reding subsequently said she regretted the way her comments had been interpreted, but she won the backing of European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and the row threatens to overshadow Thursday’s summit of EU leaders in Brussels.
The Commission says the policy, which has been blasted by human rights groups, the Catholic Church and even members of Sarkozy’s government, breaks European law on free movement of people.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Xenophobic Party Tables Anti-Burqa Bill
Rome, 17 Sept. (AKI) — Italy’s anti-immigrant North League party on Friday introduced a bill to the lower house of parliament that would ban the burqa. Wearing the burqa will be punishable by a year in prison, fines of 150 to 300 euros for the wearer and 30,000 euros for anyone forcing a woman to don the face-concealing Islamic garment.
Anyone coercing a minor or a disabled woman into wearing a burqa will be eligible for a 60,000 euro fine.
If a woman is wearing the burqa of her own volition, the 150-300 euro fine can be reduced, if she agrees to do community service aimed at better integrating Muslim immigrants.
“This bill represents a step forward because we are not just facing a problem of public order, but — we believe — an offence to women’s dignity,” said Northern League member of parliament Carolina Lussana, presenting the bill to journalists.
“It is also a violation of the principle of equality between men and women enshrined in our Constitution,” she said.
The bill is likely to draw criticism from many Muslim immigrants, but 73 percent of Italians believe the burqa should not be allowed to be worn in public places, according to a recent poll by Panel Data.
The right-leaning Northern League’s bill came just days after France’s upper house of parliament, the Senate, voted by 246 to one to ban the burqa.
Under the new French law, women will be fined or jailed for covering their faces in public.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: EU Parliament VP to Organise Campaign for Iranian Woman
Rome, 17 Sept. (AKI) — European parliament vice-president Roberta Angelilli intends to help organise a Italian and European networks of women in support of an Iranian woman death-by-stoning has been suspended.
“We decided to build a network of women for Sakineh,” Angelilli told Adnkronos International (AKI) in an interview on Friday. “It would be a bipartisan grouping of diverse political interests on the European and national level.
“All politicians would be involved to keep interest going in this case and to try to bring forward a motion by the European Parliament that would guard the rights of women and all the people in Iran.”
AKI’s newly launched ‘Flowers not Stones!’ campaign aims to save the life of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, 43, a mother of two who has been sentenced to death by stoning for adultery and helping kill her husband.
Following international pressure, Iranian authorities have said they would not carry out the sentence for the time being, but she still faces execution by hanging.
Angelilli considers the suspended sentence an important victory for the international campaign because there is much more at stake than the life of one woman.
“Now we have to mobilze public opinion and consciousness even more because it can cause a crisis in the countries that are more sensitive to public opinion that a United Nations resolution. There are many women in the same situation who are less known that Sakineh…The mobilization that was launched for Sakineh was a positive message of peace that contrasted with stones.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Light Trapped on Curved Surfaces
LIGHT, which in everyday experience travels in straight beams, has been trapped on complex curved surfaces. The feat is not just a parlour trick — it could help people visualise how light travels in the curved fabric of space.
According to Einstein’s general theory of relativity, gravity is the result of an object’s mass deforming space itself, like a bowling ball on a trampoline. To model how light’s path would change in space curved by gravity, Ulf Peschel of the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg in Germany and colleagues constructed smooth 3D objects and sent laser beams shooting along their surfaces (Physical Review Letters, in press).
They took advantage of the fact that light bends, or refracts, when it moves from one medium to another. In their simplest experiment, they shot laser light at the edge of a solid glass sphere. The angle of the beam was chosen so that the light — initially travelling in air — would be bent just enough when it entered the glass that it would keep reflecting off the inside surface of the sphere, and so travel along it. When the light inside the sphere reflected off its inner surface, some was also transmitted through the glass, creating a glowing ring on the outside surface (see image).
The team also constructed an object shaped like two trumpet bells stuck end to end — called a hyperbolic surface. The object was made out of aluminium and then coated with oil. Light sent into the oil layer was confined there, bouncing between the metal and air boundaries. The beam spread out ever more quickly, generating a trumpet-shaped glow (see image).
For the light to be trapped in two dimensions, the object’s surface needed to be smooth enough to cleanly reflect most of the light into the oil layer rather than scattering it at all angles. That required diamond polishing machines that have only become available in the last 10 years or so, Peschel says.
The experiments help visualise how light travels in space warped by gravity. The sphere, for instance, represents how space is bent around a star or other mass — light passing through this warped space bends in an effect called gravitational lensing. The hyperbolic surface, which has so-called negative curvature because its surface curves up and down at the same time, like a saddle, just might represent the shape of the universe.
“It’s a beautiful fundamental experiment,” says Ulf Leonhardt of the University of St Andrews in the UK, who was not involved in the work. “It’s just fun, good physics.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Pope’s Battle to Save Christmas: Don’t Let Atheists Crush Your Traditions, Benedict Tells Britain
The Pope issued a clarion call to defend Christianity last night, saying Christmas was at risk of being struck from the calendar.
In a strongly worded speech delivered in Parliament, Benedict XVI bluntly told politicians not to ‘silence’ religion and discourage public celebration of its most important festivals.
And in a thinly veiled attack on controversial equality legislation, he said laws which forced Christians to act against their consciences were wrong.
‘There are those who would advocate that the voice of religion be silenced, or at least relegated to the purely private sphere,’ he told senior politicians and public figures.
‘There are those who argue that the public celebration of festivals such as Christmas should be discouraged, in the questionable belief that it might somehow offend those of other religions or none.’
He spoke as security was tightened around the Papal visit after the arrest of six central London street sweepers over a suspected terror plot to attack him.
Scotland Yard said there would be no change to his public itinerary, which will see him lead prayers in Hyde Park this evening and travel to Birmingham tomorrow.
In Westminster Hall, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown sat side by side for what was their first meeting in months — and which was probably a tricky encounter in light of Mr Blair’s explosive memoirs.
The pair chatted civilly as they waited for the Pope, but their body language at times told a different story.
Former Tory PMs Baroness Thatcher and John Major were also in the audience, which applauded the Pope vigorously before and after he spoke.
Benedict, who is now half way through his UK trip, insisted Christianity should not be forced to the sidelines and festivals including Christmas and Easter altered to avoid offence.
In his speech, the Pope said he was voicing his concern at the growing marginalisation of religion — particularly of Christianity — even in nations which place a great emphasis on tolerance.
‘There are those who would advocate that the voice of religion be silenced, or least relegated to the purely private sphere,’ he said.
‘There are those who argue that the public celebration of festivals such as Christmas should be discouraged, in the questionable belief that it might somehow offend those of other religions or none.
‘And there are those who argue — paradoxically, with the intention of eliminating discrimination — that Christians in public roles should be required at times to act against their conscience.
‘These are worrying signs of a failure to appreciate not only the rights of believers to freedom of conscience and freedom of religion, but also the legitimate role of religion in the public square.’
The Pope said a moral failure was to blame for the global financial crisis.
He said: ‘There is widespread agreement that the lack of a solid ethical foundation for economic activity has contributed to the grave difficulties now being experienced by millions of people throughout the world.’
And he said that, just as governments had come to the rescue of the banks, judged ‘too big to fail’, they must now act to help the world’s poorest people.
He said: ‘Here is an enterprise, worthy of the world’s attention, that is truly “too big to fail”.’
He then urged those present to use their ‘respective sphere of influence’ to ensure religion was involved in discourse ‘in every sphere of national life’.
The Pontiff spoke close to the spot where Sir Thomas More was sentenced to death, as he addressed a huge audience of 1,800 dignitaries including four former prime ministers.
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
Roma: EU Presidency Wants Union to Ensure France’s Respect
(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, SEPTEMBER 16 — The European Union must guarantee that France respect rights, said the EU presidency in reference to the issue of France’s deportation of Roma people. Reminding his partners of the EU Commission’s role as guardian of EU treaties, was outgoing premier Yves Leterme, whose country ensures the 6-monthly rotating presidency of the EU.
“All agree that it is the Commission which must keep watch over the correct application of the commitments made by France,” said Leterme on his arrival at the EU summit, where the issue of Roma communities and the clash between the French government and EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding are on the agenda.
“The Commission must take on its responsibilities,” said Leterme, also saying that European citizens who enjoy the right of circulation must in turn “show respect for property rights and for the rules which allow for free circulation.” Tension rose yesterday between France and EU Commissioner Viviane Reding after the latter’s statements on the controversial crackdown by President Nicholas Sarkozy on nomadic and Roma communities. Sarkozy reacted by suggesting that Reding take in the Roma into her country, Luxembourg. It was a statement meant to provoke and it served its purpose: in the evening the commissioner backed down a bit. In an official statement, the French government acknowledged Reding’s “apology”, especially as concerns “her outrageous statements against France” which compared the latter’s anti-nomad policy to that during WWII in a veiled manner.
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi sided with the French: Reding, who is also the vice president of the EU government, “would have been wiser to discuss the issue privately with French leaders, before expressing herself in public as she did,” the premier told French daily Le Figaro, expressing his hope that “Italian-French convergence will help to rouse Europe to deal with the issue of shared policies.” (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Roma: France: About 160 Deported to Romania
(ANSAmed) — BUCHAREST, SEPTEMBER 15 — About 160 people from France’s Roma community, including 12 children, landed in Bucharest yesterday evening on two flights from Marseilles and Paris. According to the Agerpres agency, French authorities have announced that the 160 Roma people had agreed to “voluntary deportation”, with the adults receiving 300 euros each and the children 100.
The deportations have come after the latest circular in which French Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux requested that prefects dismantle illegal camps. The measure has led to harsh criticism from EU Commission vice president Viviane Reding as concerns France’s policies on the Roma community. The commissioner, head of Justice and Fundamental Rights, has announced that an infraction procedure will soon be opened against France.
Meanwhile, Interior Minister Vasile Blaga has said that Romania’s entrance into the Schengen area, scheduled for 2011, cannot be conditioned by social inclusion of Roma people.
“Romania must comply with European directives even after its entrance into the Schengen zone: if an individual does not have the means with which to support himself after 90 days, any member state can send him home,” said Blaga, noting the government’s measures to speed up social integration of Roma.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Science Fraud in Swedish Transplantation Biology
A week ago, the Swedish Research Council’s expert panel for the investigation of suspected science fraud delivered its findings regarding Suchitra Holgersson, professor of transplantation biology in the Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg. The panel finds Holgersson, who joined the Academy two years ago, guilty of severe science fraud in several cases where she has fabricated data (published i.a. in the Blood journal) and distorted results, and also in that she has forged documents in attempts to mislead the expert panel itself during the investigation.
Professor Holgersson’s own PhD students blew the whistle on her. Being a woman and an immigrant isn’t any easier in science than anywhere else. But among Holgersson’s students, whose work has been compromised by her fabrications, are immigrant women too.
| — Hat tip: mriggs | [Return to headlines] |
Stakelbeck Interviews Former Spanish President Aznar About New Group
I was honored to sit down this week with the former President of Spain, Jose Maria Aznar, to discuss an important new group he recently founded called Friends of Israel.
It is an international initiative consisting of several global leaders who have come together to defend Israel’s right to exist.
You can watch part of my interview with President Aznar at the link above.
The entire interview will air on an upcoming episode of my new show, Stakelbeck on Terror.
| — Hat tip: Erick Stakelbeck | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden Democrat Fears Islamic Revolution
An Islamic revolution akin to the one that swept through Iran in 1979 could easily take place in Sweden, claims the second highest ranking member of the far-right Sweden Democrats.
“It can happen really fast,” said Sweden Democrat party secretary Björn Söder to the TT news agency.
Söder is number two behind party leader Jimmie Åkesson on the Sweden Democrat party list. As party secretary, his role is to stake out the party’s line on key issues.
The Iranian revolution came up as Söder was explaining statements made by Sweden Democrat international secretary Kent Ekeroth, who could also find himself with a seat in the Riksdag following Sunday’s vote.
Ekeroth said previously that “Sweden and western countries are at risk of going out with a whimper” because of the influence of Islam, drawing a connection to 1400 years of Muslim aggression.
Nor did Ekeroth see any real distinction between ordinary Muslims and militant Islamists.
“I think that he brings up a very timely problem and as I see it, Islamification is a question of destiny for the entire western wold,” Söder told TT.
According to Söder, all Muslims are “bearers of an ideology”.
“It’s a political ideology disguised as religion. And I think that it’s a very appropriate subject to address, otherwise we’ll be facing the same problem that Iran did in 1979. It can happen really fast.”
Söder explained his argument by pointing out that the socialists made common cause with the Islamists to overthrow the shah in Iran.
“But when the Islamists came to power, they wiped out the socialists too. And I’m saying that if we don’t take the Islamification that’s taking place in western Europe right now seriously, maybe history will repeat itself,” he said.
When asked to clarify whether he thought an Islamic revolution was possible in Sweden and other western countries, Söder answered in the affirmative.
“Yes, Sweden is being Islamified right now. We’ve taken up countless examples of how Sweden is adapting to Muslim demands and we’re seeing how mosques are popping up like mushrooms from the ground in Sweden and all over Europe. It’s not necessarily the case that we’ll all become Muslims, but that we will have to obey Sharia,” Söder said.
“Through Muslim immigration and rapid propagation, as well as through Turkey’s membership in the EU, Europe can become dominated by Muslims.”
The theory of a so-called “Eurabia” has been roundly rejected by scholars of Islam, who compare it to anti-Semitic views of an international Jewish conspiracy.
But Söder claims his view isn’t simply a conspiracy theory, and goes on to lament what he sees as Swedish culture’s weakened ability to keep Muslim influences out.
“Unfortunately, it’s been weakened through several decades of ridicule and belittling, which means that its very marginalized and threatened,” he said.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Man Comes Clean Over Elevator Urine Puddles
A man has expressed remorse to his neighbours over his habit of peeing in the lift in a block of rental flats in Borås in western Sweden over a period of several years in 2000s, reported the local Borås Tidning daily.
“I have a very bad conscience for the elderly man on one of the bottom floors who has had to take the blame,” the man wrote in a note posted in the block of flats, exposing his lewd practice.
The man continued his unneighbourly habit over a period two years. Despite having found alternative arrangements for the past four, he felt the time was right to come clean and posted the note in stairwell for all to see.
“Hi. It was me who urinated in the lift between 2004 and 2006. I know that there were a few grumpy faces and angry notes and I have a very bad conscience for the elderly man on one of the bottom floors who had to take the blame,” the man wrote.
The newspaper reported that the note has been verified as genuine by an acquaintance of the man, confirming that he is plagued with remorse and has promised to work to become a better person.
The man signed the note and also left his telephone number in case any of his neighbours felt the need to get in touch.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: 6 Arrested in Suspected Pope Terror Plot
Street cleaners detained ‘on suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism’
LONDON — British police staged a pre-dawn raid at a London garbage depot Friday, arresting five street cleaners in a suspected terrorist plot against Pope Benedict XVI on the second day of his state visit to Britain. A sixth person was arrested later in the day.
The Vatican said the pope was calm despite the arrests and planned no changes to his schedule. But the arrests overshadowed a major address by Benedict to British politicians, businessmen and cultural leaders about the need to restore faith and ethics to public policymaking.
The sixth man, aged 29, was arrested Friday afternoon at a home in north London, police said.
[…]
Police declined to say whether the men were British or give details of their ethnicity. However, the BBC reported the men were not British nationals. Sources told Sky News that the suspects were Algerian.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Exiled Pakistani Politician Fatally Stabbed in London
London and Karachi, 17 Sept. (AKI) — Pakistan’s largest city of Karachi was on Friday in mourning after an exiled leader of the MQM party was assassinated in London. Imran Farooq was stabbed and beaten to death outside his home in north London late on Thursday, according to police
Most shops and schools were closed and no public transport was available in Karachi, guns were fired across the city and some vehicles were torched after the MQM announced 10 days of mourning.
Farooq was a founding member of the MQM (Muttahida Quami Movement), a former opposition party which is now part of the ruling Pakistan People’s Party led alliance.
He not been active in politics for the past two years, but the MQM party is the most influential in the southern port city of Karachi, which is also Pakistan’s commercial capital.
An unidentified source cited by Pakistan’s Dawn News said a lone assailant had been lying in wait inside the apartment block where Farooq lived on the first floor. He was attacked with a knife as he climbed the stairs to his flat and beaten around the head.
Police said 50-year-old Farooq was treated by paramedics but was declared dead at the scene of the attack about an hour later. Police have opened an investigation into his murder.
Raza Haroon, a member of the MQM central coordination committee, said: “He was a gentleman, a very, very soft spoken person with a lot of knowledge, and who was very outspoken as well.
“It’s a very huge loss to the party to have lost a senior leader, in such a manner.
“This is an irreparable loss and a great tragedy for the MQM.”
Farooq had not been active in politics for about two years. He claimed asylum in Britain 11 years ago after more than seven years on the run from Pakistani police who accused him of involvement in murder and other serious crimes. He denied the charges.
There are fears his killing could spark fresh ethnic and political violence in Karachi, which has seen hundreds of targeted killings this year.
Up to 100 people were killed and hundreds wounded in several days of clashes in Karachi in August after MQM member Raza Haider, a Shia Muslim, was shot dead with his bodyguard while attending a funeral.
The MQM represents the descendants of Urdu-speaking migrants from India who settled in Pakistan after the partition of the Indian subcontinent at the end of British rule in 1947.
The MQM’s main rivals for power in Karachi are ethnic Pashtun politicians. The MQM leadership is based in the north London suburb of Barnet
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Leaders of 14 Unions Back November Demo Against Racism and Islamophobia
The general secretaries of the GMB general union and the UCU lecturers’ union have both signed up to support the national demo against racism, fascism and Islamophobia on Saturday 6 November.
Backing from Paul Kenny and Sally Hunt means that the leaders of 14 trade unions, representing millions of workers, have now signed up to support the demo called by UAF and backed by the TUC, the Muslim Council of Britain and Love Music Hate Racism.
Labour leadership rivals Ed Balls and Diane Abbott are also among those who have signed the statement backing the march and carnival, which will take place in central London.
Statement supporting the 6 November demo
We, the undersigned, are deeply concerned by the rise in fascism, Islamophobia, antisemitism and racism. The English Defence League has organised events across the country, stirring up hatred, Islamophobia and racism — running riot in some cases and provoking violent attacks on Muslim, black and Asian communities and on Mosques and Mandirs (Hindu temples).
Alongside this the British National Party has received unprecedented electoral support for a fascist organisation in Britain.
Despite losing many council seats in the elections this year, the BNP’s share of the vote overall continued to rise and it has two elected members of the European Parliament. This is in the context of a wave of Islamaphobia and racism in Europe and the USA, including threats to burn copies of the Qur’an, attacks on Mosques and Islamic cultural centres, bans on Muslim women’s full-face veils and the construction of minarets. In France, the Roma people have been singled out and subjected to mass expulsions. Now, more than ever, we must unite to turn back this tide of hatred.
We stand against the rise of racism, fascism, Islamophobia and antisemitism and support the demonstration on Saturday 6 November.
Signed:
Derek Simpson joint general secretary, Unite the union, Tony Woodley joint general secretary, Unite the union, Keith Sonnet deputy general secretary Unison, Paul Kenny general secretary GMB Ed Balls MP, Diane Abbott MP, Billy Hayes general secretary, CWU, Tony Kearns deputy general secretary, CWU, Chris Keates general secretary, NASUWT, Christine Blower general secretary NUT, Kevin Courtney deputy general secretary, NUT, Sally Hunt general secretary UCU, Mark Serwotka general secretary PCS, Hugh Lanning deputy general secretary PCS, Matt Wrack general secretary FBU, Bob Crow general secretary, RMT, Jeremy Dear general secretary NUJ, Pete Murray president NUJ, Gerry Conlon Guildford Four, Paddy Hill Birmingham Six, Runnymede Trust, Napo, POA, Musicians Union
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Was the Taliban Behind Attack on Pakistani Politician Stabbed to Death Outside His London Home?
The Taliban may have ordered the brutal murder of an exiled Pakistani politician on the streets of London, it was feared last night.
The theory emerged as Scotland Yard’ s Counter Terrorism Command took charge of the investigation into the murder of Dr Imran Farooq.
Dr Farooq, a founding member of the Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM), was stabbed and beaten to death outside his north-west London home late on Thursday afternoon.
It is understood detectives are hunting a lone Asian man in connection with the attack, which was witnessed by several people.
Initially, the murder — in broad daylight — appeared to be a clumsy attack carried out by someone with a personal grudge.
But the possibility that Dr Farooq, 50, was the victim of a political assassination appeared to gather credence after MQM members in London claimed the Taliban had issued a fatwa against party officials for their staunch opposition to Islamic fundamentalism in Pakistan.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Bosnia: Kosovo Example Strengthens RS Separation, Serbs
(ANSAmed) — BELGRADE, SEPTEMBER 15 — The example of Kosovo, which has seen its independence legitimised by the International Court of Justice and by the resolution adopted by the UN, has strengthened the separatist drive of the Republika Srpska (RS) in Bosnia Herzegovina. This is according to Nebojsa Radmanovic, a Serbian member of the tripartite Bosnian Presidency.
“Following the verdict of the International Court of Justice and the positions taken up towards Kosovo by the major powers, nobody can cast doubt over the right of the Republika Srpska to separate from Bosnia Herzegovina,” said Radmanovic in an interview today with the Belgrade newspaper, Vecernje Novosti. In his opinion, “90% of Serbians and Croatians do not want to live in Bosnia Herzegovina as it is today. The reason for this is the desire of Bosnian Muslims to create a centralised state”.
“Attacks on the Republika Srpska strengthen its desire for independence,” added Radmanovic, who believes that the support of major powers for Kosovo’s independence has created numerous problems in Bosnia, in the Balkans as a whole, and in the rest of the world.
On the basis of the Dayton peace agreement that put an end to the war in 1995, Bosnia Herzegovina, where political elections are scheduled for October 3, is made up of two entities, the Republika Srpska, which has a mainly Serbian population, and the Croatian-Muslim Federation, with the two linked by weak central institutions.
The Serbian component of the RS in particular, concerned at losing its autonomy, is opposed to all efforts to strengthen the structure of the central state in Sarajevo, one of the conditions for the country to join the EU and NATO. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy-Croatia: Zagreb Soon in EU With Rome’s Support
(ANSAmed) — ZAGREB, SEPTEMBER 15 — The stabilisation of the western Balkans, strongly urged by Italy in a European perspective, is making another step forward with the upcoming membership of Croatia in the European Union, proposed by Foreign Minister Franco Frattini for the first six months of 2011. And even though negotiations with Brussels are still open on “sensitive chapters” such as justice and competitiveness, from Zagreb — where he was taking part in the second mixed commission — Frattini launched a message of optimism. Italy, said Frattini, “believes that Croatia can successfully sign the EU membership treaty by the end of the first half of 2011, so that 2012 will be the year of Croatia’s entry into the EU family” and he asked them to “actively deal with the final, most sensitive chapters relating to justice and competitiveness.” The European prospect remains “essential” for the “stability and prosperity” of the western Balkans, reads the joint statement signed by Frattini and his Croatian colleague Gordan Jandrokovic.
It is equally crucial to have “common willingness” to “strengthen regional cooperation” such as the Adriatic-Ionian Initiative and the Central European Initiative (CEI) also in view of a European Adriatic-Ionian macro-region. In this field, “we are committed,” explained Frattini, “to presenting joint projects to be financed with European funds”.
An European and a regional dimension, thus, but also bilateral, given the fact that economic relations between Rome and Zagreb are “excellent” and Italy is the primary partner of the Balkan country. From infrastructure to transport, from agriculture to the environment and energy: the sectors in which bilateral cooperation will be strengthened are extensive, reads the final statement from the mixed commission, which saw the participation of the Agriculture Minister Giancarlo Galan, and the Deputy Minister for Infrastructure, Roberto Castelli. Croatia, on the other hand, despite having some domestic difficulty in the fight against corruption and in economic recovery, is creating a regional role along the lines of “moderation” which appeals to Italy. As a supporter of the territorial integrity of Bosnia, Zagreb has intensified dialogue with Belgrade despite having immediately recognised the independence of Kosovo. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Libya: Al Jazeera, Revolutionary Committees Challenged
(ANSAmed) — ROME, SEPTEMBER 16 — Abolish the Libyan revolutionary committees because they are illegitimate, was the request that surfaced at a forum organised in Tripoli by the lawyers’ union and sponsored, according to Al Jazeera, by Saif Al Islam, one of the sons of Colonel Gaddafi. The request came from representatives and activists from Libyan society, according to whom, the committees are in conflict with the laws of the state.
“The revolutionary committees are illegitimate,” commented legal expert Omar Alhabbasi, who added that they are not based on the law. “I am not saying this against someone in particular,” said Alhabbasi, who added that his ideas are in agreement with the project of Saif Al Islam Gaddafi. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Sahel Military Leaders in Algiers
(ANSAmed) — ALGIERS, SEPTEMBER 15 — Security chiefs of Algeria, Mali, Mauritania and Niger are meeting in Algiers today in a bid to strengthen cooperation in the struggle against Al Qaeda for the Islamic Maghreb. Few little information has leaked out on the meeting, which will be a closed-door affair.
The Algerian press reports that the meeting will focus on the search for the huge sums of money that the North African branch of Al Qaeda has in its possession, as well as the creation of a joint security cell specialised in monitoring armed groups’ activities from all the countries involved. It is a cell which will plan special operations and widen the prerogatives of the Sahel Chiefs of Staff Committee, which was formed in April and is based in Tamanrasset in the Algerian Sahara.
“Al Qaeda has millions of euros at its disposal”, obtained though kidnapping Western nationals and an ever-growing smuggling trade in the Sahel, said a source close to Niger security services quoted by the press: “it is necessary to halt the money laundering of this money which Al Qaeda is attempting to invest in the region.” Over the past few years the terrorist organisation has built up a treasury of at least 50 million euros paid by Western countries for the release of their nationals taken hostage in the Saharan Sahel. According to Kamel Rezag Bara, advisor to the Algerian President, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, Spain is the country which has paid the most, about 8 million euros, followed by Italy, which for the release of the Cicala couple reportedly paid 3.6 million euros, and Austria, with 2.5 million euros.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: Rajoy Visit to Melilla is a ‘Provocation’ For Morocco
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, SEPTEMBER 15 — The Moroccan Prime Minister, Abas El Fasi, in his role as Secretary General of the nationalist Istiqlal party, has today described the visit to Melilla by the leader of the Spanish People’s Party, Mariano Rjoy, scheduled for tomorrow as a “provocation”. In a letter to Rajoy, published by MAP news agency and quoted on the online edition of El Mundo, El Fasi says that the trip represents “an open attack on the dignity and the national sentiment” of Moroccans. Rajoy’s visit to the Spanish enclave in Morocco risks opening a new chapter of tensions between the two countries after the conflict of recent weeks between Madrid and Rabat regarding border control between the two autonomous cities. A crisis which had been resolved with a joint cooperation development agreement following a meeting between King Mohamed VI and King Juan Carlos in the Moroccan capital. After the deal, the former PP Premier, Jose’ Maria Aznar, made a surprise visit to Melilla, triggering criticism and accusations of disloyalty and irresponsibility within the socialist ranks. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Caroline Glick: the Perils of Diplomatic Theater
The current flurry of diplomatic activity is deeply disturbing. It isn’t simply that the Obama administration has strong-armed Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu into participating in diplomatic theater with the PLO whose successful completion will leave Israel weaker and less defensible. It isn’t merely that the newest “peace process” diverts our leadership’s attention away from Iran and its nuclear weapons program.
The most disturbing aspect of the latest round of the diplomatic kabuki is that Israel’s leaders and Israel’s staunch friends in the US are enthusiastically participating in this dangerous project.
True, Netanyahu is in an unenviable position, situated as he is between US President Barack Obama’s rock and hard place. Instead of standing up to this hostile American leader, Netanyahu is desperately seeking a magical concession to get Obama off his back…
| — Hat tip: Caroline Glick | [Return to headlines] |
‘Hamas Commander’ Killed
Ramallah, 17 Sept. (AKI) — A Hamas commander in the West Bank was shot dead Friday by Israeli soldiers.
Iyad Shilbaya, a commander of the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, was killed during a raid to arrest him in the northern part of the occupied West Bank , according to an Israeli military official.
Hamas at the end of August claimed responsibility for the killing of four West Bank settlers but it isn’t clear if Shilbaya was involved.
Palestinian and Israeli forces have arrested dozens of suspects following the killing including 12 people arrested late Thursday night.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Pentagon to Funnel US Arms to Yemen to Fight Al-Qaeda
The US State Department has reportedly raised concerns that with President Ali Abdullah Saleh facing rebellions in the north and south of the country he could divert the additional weaponry, coast patrol boats and aircraft from its intended purpose.
The terror threat from Yemen has escalated in the past 18 months, with estimates that about 300 al-Qaeda members or cells are operating there.
The gravity of the situation deepened after the failed Christmas Day attack on a flight heading for Detroit.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Saudi Arabia: Activist Calls for End of Male Control of Women
(ANSAmed) — ROME, SEPTEMBER 15 — Saudi Arabian women’s rights activist Wajeeha Alhuwaider has called for the political leadership in the country to abolish rules granting male authority over women, said Al Jazeera’s website, which stressed the controversy that the request has created. Alhuwaider’s requests were directed to the Saudi leaders, with a comments made in an American newspaper. Another request by the same activist, directed at American President Barak Obama, before meeting with the Saudi monarch in June, contributed to firing up the debate. In the most recent request, the Saudi activist described women in her country who are forced to cover their body as birds covered by the oil in the Gulf of Mexico. These birds can barely walk and consequently, continued Alhuwaider, they do not have control over their lives. A different stance was taken by Islamic activist and journalist Amira Salem, who believes that Alhuwaider’s and America’s requests are two sides of the same coin. Speaking with Al Jazeera, Amira Salem said that “the requests are an extension of the American strategy that is focussed on the rights of Saudi women. Riyadh is under constant pressure from the Americans,” continued Salem, “to implement reforms starting with women”. “There is an enormous project of Westernisation, based on the issue of Saudi women,” commented Islamic writer Ibraheem Assakran, who added that they are strongly insisting to put an end to Sharia law regarding women, which are in conflict with the West. “They want,” added Assakran, “women and men to see each other and become friends like in the West.” (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: Strasbourg Court, Ankara Guilty of Dink’s Death
(ANSAmed) — STRASBOURG, SEPTEMBER 14 — The European Court of human right today ruled against Turkey because it failed to protect the life of Hrant Dink, the Armenian journalist killed by nationalists on January 19, 2007. Turkey was also ruled against for having violated Dink’s freedom of speech, sentencing him for insulting Turkey’s identity. The Court then ruled that Ankara will have to pay 100,000 euros to Dink’s family for moral damages.
In their ruling, the Strasbourg judges emphasised how the facts not only prove that Turkey’s law enforcement authorities, which were informed about the imminent murder, did nothing to protect the journalist, and that, despite evidence against them collected by justice and investigation authorities, there was no trial. The Court then claimed that Ankara violated article 2 of the European Convention on human rights which sanctions the right of life, both in substantial and in procedural terms. The judges also ruled against Turkey for having violated Hrant Dink’s freedom of speech.
The Court stated that not only Ankara would have trouble proving that its ruling was provided by the law or that it pursued a legitimate purpose, but above all that it was needed in a democratic society. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Yemen: Motorcycles Banned in Southern Province
(ANSAmed) — ROME, SEPTEMBER 16 — In Yemen, authorities recently imposed a ban in several cities in the south of the country on motorcycles for security reasons, reports Al Sharq Al Awsat. The daily underlined that the decision coincides with the start of the trial against several suspected Al Qaeda members.
Citing local sources, the daily said that motorcycles cannot be used in the city of Zangibar, the capital of the province of Abin, and in Jiar, as well as other minor towns. The ban will remain in effect until a new order is issued. The use of motorcycles has increased significantly, according to the daily, in attacks on intelligence officials and security officers, during the last three months in the province of Abin. These terrorist acts have killed or injured a dozen people.
Authorities in Yemen began to register all motorcycles in the province of Abin in August. The total number of these vehicles is over 5,000. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
All the Time Necessary in Afghanistan, Zapatero
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, SEPTEMBER 15 — “We are in Afghanistan for the international security of our country and we will remain there for all of the time that is needed,” reiterated Spanish Premier Jose’ Luis Rodriguez Zapatero today, while speaking to Congress. The premier announced the arrest of four people linked to the murder of two Guardia Civil members and their interpreter on August 25 at the Spanish base of Qala i Naw in Afghanistan.
In today’s session on the participation of Spanish troops in the NATO mission in Afghanistan, Zapatero paid tribute to the 93 civilians and soldiers who have died in the country since 2002. He reiterated Spain’s commitment to the multilateral mission, which “has the political support of the EU” and is based on “broad international consensus”. “The objective of the instilling peace makes sense when peace does not exist,” he observed. The socialist leader did not mention any withdrawal date for Spanish troops: “We have to remain there, assuming responsibility as long as necessary, while the security of the country, global security and Spanish security are at risk.” Spain has deployed 1,500 military servicemen in Afghanistan and 40 Guardia Civil officers, who have the responsibility of training Afghan police. Zapatero said that military participation in NATO’s ISAF mission, which began in 2002, has cost over 1.9 billion euros, which add on to the 220 million euros allocated for civilian cooperation from 2006-2012. A decision will be made at the NATO summit in November in Lisbon on how and when the transition of the security of the country will be made to the Afghan armed forces, indicated by President Hamid Karzai as 2014. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
India: Kashmir: Muslims Try to Burn a Christian School (Only in Name)
It is the St Francis School, owned by Muslims, who use the Christian name to attract more students. Four dead and 19 injured in Mendhar, while protests spread in Kashmir. The influence of fundamentalist groups on the masses, dragged from their villages to demonstrate. Missionary priest Jim Borst under police protection.
Mendhar (AsiaNews) — A mob of Muslim radicals have tried to burn a school with a Christian name (St. Francis School), unaware that it is governed by Muslims and Christian in name only. The police managed to stop the arsonists, but fired into the crowd, killing four people and wounding 19. Christian leaders say “these people are being manipulated.
The protest against the “Burn the Koran” campaign is spreading in several areas of Kashmir and has already left 22 dead and hundreds injured. The events used the announced (but subsequently cancelled) desecration of the Koran in the United States, to increase the tension against the Indian government, which refuses to grant autonomy to the region, also disputed by Pakistan.
After three days of demonstrations and violence, protests erupted yesterday in Mendhar, about 60 km from Poonch near the border with Pakistan. From 10 am at least 3,000 people gathered also from nearby villages, marching towards the school of St Francis and the residences of teachers.
The crowd were stopped by the police who used firearms, batons and tear gas grenades. In the clashes four demonstrators were killed and 19 wounded. The mob destroyed dozens of government offices, the police station and burned at least eight cars.
The irony is that the school targeted is Christian in name only and is owned by local Muslims, even if the teaching staff is made up of Christians from Kerala.
Mgr. Peter Celestine, bishop of Srinagar tells AsiaNews: “The so-called St Francis School has nothing to do with Catholic Protestant or evangelical institutions. They only use the Christian name to attract students. This shows that even for the local Muslims, Christian educational institutions have a very high standard”.
“These people — he added —are rounded up from nearby villages and incited to attack, inflamed by religious zeal.”
In recent days, however, some Catholic schools were affected. Among them the Good Shepherd’s School of missionary Jim Borst, in Pulwama. The mob burned the main building and two other buildings were looted. Witnesses said the protesters were from villages under the influence of “Allahwales” and Devbandis “fundamentalist groups close to the Wahhabis.
Local people, Muslim, expressed solidarity with the missionary and say they are ready to help re-start the school. Fr. Jim, for his part, sent a letter to the families linked to the school, promising to reopen immediately as soon as the curfew ends. Meanwhile the priest is under police protection to prevent attacks against him.
On 14 September another school risked being burnt: it is the Christ School in Poonch. Only police intervention stopped the mob just 500 meters from the building.
Fr. Matthew, the principal told AsiaNews: “We have 1522 students and only 40 are Christians, 40% of the students are Muslims, then there are Hindus and Sikhs. We have always enjoyed a deep respect from the locals. Many Islamic authorities have expressed their displeasure at the attempt to burn the school and condemned the attack. But people are manipulated and have been driven to a frenzy by false news reports”.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Indonesia: Muslim Hardliner Suspended Over Attack on Church Leaders
Jakarta, 17 Sept. (AKI/Jakarta Post) — The hardline Islam Defenders Front (FPI) group has indefinitely suspended its chairman in Bekasi near Jakarta. The move came after police declared him a suspect for his alleged role in an attack on two local protestant church leaders last Sunday.
FPI leader Munarman said Muharli Barda’s suspension would enable the Bekasi chapter of the organisation to run unhindered.
“Muharli has become non-active since Wednesday. He has been replaced by Ustaz Abdul Qodir,” said Munarman, a former human rights activist.
Munarman said Muharli was in a mosque two kilometres away from the place where eight people attacked Batak Protestant Church (HKBP) pastors Asian Lumbuan Sihombing and Luspida Simanjuntak. Sihombing was stabbed in the abdomen, while Simanjuntak was beaten around the head.
The pastors required hospital treatment after the attack.
Munarman also demanded proof local people approved of a plan to build a HKBP church in Pondok Timur, Bekasi, which Munarman said was the root of the problem before the incident took place.
He said 60 local residents had signed their consent as required by the 2006 joint ministerial decree places of worship, but one of them claimed his signature had been falsified.
“This is a matter of law, not hatred against the HKBP,” Munarman said.
The hardline FPI group is known for raiding bars, attacking transvestites and going after those considered blasphemous. In Bekasi the group has been opposing establishment of churches, citing lack of locals’ consent.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Niger: French Nationals Abducted in North
Niamey, 16 Sept. (AKI) — Six people including five French nationals working for construction company, Vinci, and the nuclear energy firm, Areva, were kidnapped in northern Niger.
Five of the people abducted late Wednesday are French nationals, French foreign ministry spokesman Bernard Valero told reporters.
A Vinci spokeswoman said its employees had been working on an earth-moving project under Areva’s supervision.
The companies have bolstered security in the region of the West African country and say they are working with French and Niger authorities to secure the release of the hostages.
A local branch of Al-Qaeda is known to operate in northern Niger and neighbouring Mali.
Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb is believed to earn money from ransom payments for the return of hostages.
French director Michel Germaneau was abducted in Niger and executed in July in nearby Mauritania.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
The Streets of Neukölln: Has Integration Failed?
Thilo Sarrazin’s controversial book has sparked a heated debate about immigration. But what’s it really like on the streets of Germany’s integration flash points? David Wroe and Ruth Michaelson report from Berlin’s Neukölln district.
Ersun Karaduman’s life just doesn’t jibe with the statistics so often cited by Thilo Sarrazin.
The outgoing Bundesbank board member Sarrazin claims in his inflammatory new book that unintelligent Muslim immigrants are largely incompatible with German society, but Karaduman says with some pride that his German is better than his Turkish.
Born in Berlin, the 20-year-old still helps out at his father’s store on Neukölln’s Donaustrasse while finishing his degree in international marketing. And though he does not yet have German citizenship, he plans to apply for it soon.
His father may fit the stereotype of the small retailer which the now disgraced Sarrazin used to dismiss many Arabs and Turks as being good only for selling fruit and vegetables, but Karaduman is happy to have inherited his father’s aspirational drive.
“My father is my hero … He had nothing when he came from Turkey. Eight years later he was married to my mother, he worked every day, we had food and clothing and a home,” he says. “He’s shown my brothers and me what is possible, and my mother reminds us all the time that we can’t risk everything he’s done for us.”
Of Sarrazin, Karaduman says: “He doesn’t know Neukölln; he doesn’t know us.”
Neukölln, the heavily Turkish and Arabic district in southern Berlin, is the area that Sarrazin and other integration critics most often point to when the subject of Germany’s immigration problems arise. Roughly one in five Neukölln residents is unemployed and that figure rises to 30 percent when restricted to the immigrant population.
Social problems are reportedly twice as high as in Berlin on whole, and some 40 percent of youths there have no post-high school education, even vocational training.
CLICK HERE FOR A PHOTO GALLERY OF BERLIN’S NEUKÖLLN DISTRICT
The district’s mayor, Heinz Buschkowsky, is blunt in admitting the challenges he faces.
“Our society is hurtling towards a massive problem and we can no longer afford to rely on powers of persuasion,” he told Berlin daily Tagesspiegel recently. “We are sleepwalking into a crisis.”
Nobody denies there are problems in Neukölln, but people who spoke to The Local on the streets, in the shops and on the housing estates of the district this week were adamant that there is as much cause for optimism as despair. Sarrazin and his numerous supporters among ordinary Germans are wrong to claim that immigrant communities are not interested in integrating with mainstream society, these people say.
This view was poignantly illustrated in June by the harassment of Ibrahim Bassal, an immigrant Neukölln shopkeeper who proudly hung up a 20 metre-long German flag during the football World Cup to support the country’s national team only to have it torn down by leftist extremists.
Indeed, there are many people working and striving to lift these communities out of the welfare traps, the education failures, high crime rates and cultural gulfs that now beset them.
A new role model
Eighteen-year-old Merve, a tall woman of Turkish descent, and remarkable maturity and poise, has a hard-headed and unvarnished view of the problems facing her district. There is too much dependency on Hartz IV welfare benefits, she says. Parents are failing as role models and children are growing up with no expectations.
“Hartz IV is very comfortable for their parents,” she says. “The children see their parents unemployed and they think that is life — ‘I’ll be unemployed too.’ They turn to stealing, to graffiti, to making weapons. Even I get offered drugs … and I wear a headscarf.”
But Merve herself is an example of her young generation’s potential. Despite not having the crucial Abitur school qualification that allows entry to university, she is doing a special two-year early childhood development course to become a kindergarten teacher.
“Things have to change and that’s why I want to become a kindergarten teacher,” she says. “Parents need to motivate their children and push them more. But also politicians and businesses need to help — they need to focus on getting the youth into jobs and make sure there are enough apprenticeships.”
Sezen Tatlici is a member of Deukische Generation, a young German-Turkish group that advocates integration. She agrees that having better role models is vital for immigrant youths in Neukölln, because many are growing up without any pressure to succeed.
“When you have low expectations of people, those people will live down to those expectations,” the 27-year-old says, explaining how she was told by a teacher she wouldn’t achieve Abitur or make it to a university-track high school. “Some teachers think the Turkish and Arabic kids are not as intelligent as the other kids. A lot of kids don’t have the self-confidence to get over that.”
Hopes dashed
Moussa El-Ghazi, a 20-year-old of Palestinian background who works at a fast-food chicken restaurant on Neukölln’s Sonnenallee, is one of those who feels rejected and disenfranchised. El-Ghazi says he sent out 80 applications to get a vocational training place after he finished school and was either turned down or heard no answer at all.
“I feel like shit about it,” he says. “You don’t want to write any more (applications) after that. You don’t have any confidence and motivation after 80 people turn you down. I had the qualifications, so I have to think it was prejudice.”
There are figures to back up his suspicions. In February, researchers at the Bonn-based Institute for the Study of Labour (IZA) found that Turkish job applicants were clearly discriminated against. Job applications bearing German-sounding names were 14 percent more likely to receive a phone call response from an employer, and 24 percent more likely in the case of smaller firms — evidence of “statistical discrimination,” the researchers said.
A fearsome reputation
El-Ghazi went to Neukölln’s infamous Rütli School, which made headlines in 2006 when teachers wrote a letter to the city government saying the school should be closed because they could no longer control the violent students.
There was, no doubt, a serious problem. But a security guard — a native German — outside the school this week said he talks to the students every day and they are, for most part, good kids. He subscribes to the widely-held view that some tabloid newspaper reporters paid students to behave violently during the media frenzy over conditions at the school.
Indeed, the question arises as to what extent Neukölln deserves its reputation. Many people in the area say the area has been unfairly written off and that politicians like Sarrazin, along with sensation-seeking journalists, come down hard the moment something goes wrong, when in fact there are problems all over Berlin as with any big city.
Certainly, Neukölln’s problems, particularly when it comes to crime and public safety, are modest compared parts of London or Paris.
British librarian Mark Ellis, 46, who moved to Neukölln from the notoriously tough east London suburb of Stepney nine months ago, says he’s aware of the reputation of the area, but thinks it is overblown.
“I do understand there are problems here,” said Ellis, who was drinking in a pub near the Neukölln town hall. “I had my lunch in the park the other day and there was this guy circling in front of me, just going back and forth until he finally came over and said, ‘Are you the police?’ And I said, ‘What are you talking about? I’m a librarian eating my sandwiches.’
“But after five years of living in Stepney, I don’t feel in the least bit scared or intimidated in Neukölln.”
Integration from the grass roots up
Tatlici from Deukische Generation says the single most important thing that can be done to overcome the problems in Neukölln is German language education from a young age. She also shares the view of Mayor Buschkowsky that day care should be firmly enforced from a young age.
That way, immigrant children are speaking German and mixing with German children even as toddlers — a crucial step to improving their language skills and thereby their education prospects. It’s a view shared by a majority of education experts.
“People say (the youths) speak Turkish instead of German,” she says. “But you should hear their Turkish — it’s not good either. They’re between two identities.”
Until such a policy is put in place, Neukölln residents are doing some of the work themselves. On the ground floor of a building on a rather grim housing estate building on Morusstrasse, a group called Kinderclub Rollberg, part of the Arabic Culture Institute, runs integration programs for children and families.
“We speak German here … language is the important first step,” explains Mohammad Jamil, a Palestinian who helps run the project. “The kids speak German to each other. We don’t talk about religion and politics — those are fine, but we leave them at home. We don’t want the kids to feel like outsiders.”
Instead, the project encourages children from all backgrounds to join in sports, art, music and recreation activities. It offers language and integration courses — some for women only — and holds events where officials from the police or the city’s youth services officials come to explain how these institutions work.
It’s hard for the likes of Jamil and co-worker T.N. Gunaratnam, a Tamil from Sri Lanka, to stomach the sweeping statements by commentators like Sarrazin that immigrants in Neukölln don’t want to integrate.
“We want to integrate with the German people,” he said. “Not for Sarrazin or Angela Merkel, but for ourselves.”
David Wroe/Ruth Michaelson (david.wroe@thelocal.de)
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Foreigners to Have a Say on Voting Reform: Commonwealth Citizens to Take Part in Referendum
Hundreds of thousands of foreigners could help decide the future of Britain’s electoral system in next year’s referendum on voting reform.
More than half a million Commonwealth citizens in the UK will have a right to vote on whether Britain swaps first-past-the-post elections for an alternate-vote system, data released under freedom of information laws reveals.
Ministers have confirmed that anyone eligible to vote in Westminster elections can also have their say in next May’s vote.
That includes citizens from 53 Commonwealth countries, just 14 of which give Britons any say in their elections.
Voting rights for Commonwealth citizens stem from the days of colonial rule.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
8-Year-Old Expelled From Two Years of School for Bringing Toy Gun in Backpack
Samuel Burgos has fond memories of his friends at school, but he only gets to see them in pictures now.
The 8-year-old boy hasn’t been in school for a year and will likely miss another year if the Broward County School Board has its way.
Burgos was suspended from school in November after a teacher found a toy gun in his backpack. But when the boy went to register to go back to Pembroke Pines Charter School, he was told he will be expelled for this school year, too, as part of the county’s zero tolerance weapons policy.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Is Your Child a “Prehomosexual”? Forecasting Adult Sexual Orientation
There are signs, some would say omens, glimmering in certain children’s demeanors that, probably ever since there were children, have caused parents’ brows to crinkle with worry, precipitated forced conversations with nosy mothers-in-law, strained marriages and ushered untold numbers into the deep covenant of sexual denial. We all know the stereotypes: an unusually light, delicate, effeminate air in a little boy’s step, often coupled with solitary bookishness, or a limp wrist, an interest in dolls, makeup, princesses, dresses and a staunch distaste for rough play with other boys; in little girls, there is the outwardly boyish stance, perhaps a penchant for tools, a lumbering gait, a square-jawed readiness for physical tussles with boys, an aversion to all the perfumed, delicate, laced trappings of femininity.
So let’s get down to brass tacks. It’s what these behaviors signal to parents about their child’s incipient sexuality that makes them so undesirable—these behavioral patterns are feared, loathed and often spoken of directly as harbingers of adult homosexuality.
However, it is only relatively recently that developmental scientists have conducted controlled studies with one clear aim in mind, which is to go beyond mere stereotypes and accurately identity the most reliable signs of later homosexuality. In looking carefully at the childhoods of now-gay adults, researchers are finding an intriguing set of early behavioral indicators that homosexuals seem to have in common. And, curiously enough, the age-old homophobic fears of parents seem to have some genuine predictive currency.
In their technical writings, researchers in this area simply refer to pint-sized prospective gays and lesbians as “prehomosexual.” This term isn’t perfect—it manages to achieve both an uncomfortable air of biological determinism and clinical interventionism simultaneously. But it is, at least, probably fairly accurate.
Although not the first scientists to investigate the earliest antecedents of same-sex attraction, J. Michael Bailey, a psychologist from Northwestern University, and Canadian psychiatrist Kenneth Zucker published the seminal paper on childhood markers of homosexuality with their controversial 1995 review article in Developmental Psychology . The explicit aim of this paper, according to the authors, “was to review the evidence concerning the possible association between childhood sex-typed behavior and adult sexual orientation.” So one thing to keep in mind is that this particular work isn’t about identifying the causes of homosexuality, per se, but instead it’s about indexing the childhood correlates of same-sex attraction. In other words, nobody is disputing the genetic factors underlying adult homosexuality or the well-established prenatal influences; but the present work is orthogonal to those causal models. Instead, it is simply meant to index the nonerotic behavioral clues that best predict which children are most likely to be attracted, as adults, to those of the same sex, and which are not.
By “sex-typed behaviors,” Bailey and Zucker are referring to that long, now scientifically canonical, list of innate sex differences in the behaviors of young males versus young females. In innumerable studies, scientists have documented that these sex differences are largely impervious to learning and found in every culture examined (even, some researchers believe, in youngsters of other primate species). Now before that argumentative streak in you starts whipping up exceptions to the rule—obviously there is variance both between and within individual children—I hasten to add that it’s only when comparing the aggregate data that sex differences leap into the stratosphere of statistical significance. The most salient among these differences are observed in the domain of play. Boys engage in what developmental psychologists refer to as “rough-and-tumble play,” which is pretty much exactly what it sounds like, whereas girls shy away from wrestling and play-fighting, instead preferring the company of dolls to a knee in the ribs.
In fact, toy interests are another key sex difference, with boys gravitating towards things like toy machine guns and monster trucks and girls orienting towards neotenous dolls and hyperfeminized figurines. Young children of both sexes enjoy fantasy—or pretend—play, but the roles that the two sexes take on within the fantasy context are already clearly gender-segregated by as early as two years of age, with girls enacting the role of, say, cooing mothers, ballerinas or fairy princesses and boys strongly preferring more masculine characters, such as soldiers and superheroes. Not surprisingly, therefore, boys naturally select other boys for playmates, and girls would much rather play with other girls than with boys.
So on the basis of some earlier, shakier research, along with a good dose of common sense, Bailey and Zucker hypothesized that homosexuals would show an inverted pattern of sex-typed childhood behaviors (little boys preferring girls as playmates and infatuated with their mothers’ make-up kits; little girls strangely enamoured by field hockey or professional wrestling…that sort of thing)…
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Pink News Misrepresents Qaradawi’s Views on Homosexuality
There’s a report published today at Pink News entitled “Ken Livingstone promises new gay rights measures if elected London mayor”. Having given a sympathetic account of Ken’s newly announced policies in support of the LGBT community, the article ends:
“He has a good gay rights record, implementing the first civil partnerships register for gay couples in London in 2001. However, he was criticised in 2005 for inviting to London and embracing the homophobic Islamist cleric Dr Yusuf al-Qaradawi, who has called for gays and lesbians to be killed.”
Leaving aside the fact that Ken didn’t invite Qaradawi to London, and that the visit took place in 2004, let us state one more time: Qaradawi does not call for “gays and lesbians to be killed”. The source for this accusation is a passage in his book The Lawful and the Prohibited in Islam, which was written in the late 1950s when Qaradawi was a young, orthodox, Al-Azhar trained scholar who had not yet developed his own distinctive interpretations of Islam, and in that book he restricted himself to providing a summary of traditional rulings by Islamic jurists on a range of issues.
The offending passage on homosexuality reads as follows: “The jurists of Islam have held differing opinions concerning the punishment for this abominable practice. Should it be the same as the punishment for fornication, or should both the active and passive participants be put to death? While such punishments may seem cruel, they have been suggested to maintain the purity of the Islamic society and to keep it clean of perverted elements.”
On the face of it, this does sound horrendous. If Qaradawi was not himself calling for homosexuals to be executed, he was apparently unwilling to criticise Islamic scholars who did. But this is to misunderstand the nature of the punishments that Qaradawi was referring to. Under the various schools of sharia law homosexuality is treated as a sub-section of adultery. The Islamic jurists who formulated the legal position on this issue in the years following the Prophet’s death were trying to put a stop to the barbaric practices associated with a backward tribal society which did lead to individuals (mainly women) being killed in order to defend the “honour” of the family or community.
These early jurists ruled that it wasn’t adultery, and by extension homosexuality, that was a crime but rather the sexual act itself, and further that four independent witnesses to the sexual act were required for a conviction. The result was to preserve the draconian punishments — stoning etc — as a symbol of extreme social disapproval while raising the evidential requirements so high that in practice it was impossible to sentence anyone to those punishments. So when Qaradawi was discussing the penalties for gay sex in The Lawful and the Prohibited in Islam it was these symbolic punishments he was referring to. In a 2006 interview on Al Jazeera, when asked about the Islamic position on homosexuality, Qaradawi again summarised the views of the early Islamic jurists:
“The schools of thought differed over the punishment. Some of them would punish as they would the fornicator/adulterer, so distinguishing between married and unmarried men, and between married and unmarried women. And some of them said the punishment of the two is equal. And some of them said we throw them from a high place, like our Lord did to the People of Lot. And some of them said we burn them.”
But Qaradawi continued: “There is disagreement, so it is possible for us to choose from them in our era what is most appropriate, and what is lightest, recognising how widespread the tribulation is: because tribulations and sins being widespread is something in Islamic legal theory that causes things to be lightened.” So it would appear that Qaradawi’s view now is that in the modern world the draconian punishments are no longer applicable, even symbolically, to the “crime” of gay sex.
Indeed, in this 2006 interview Qaradawi went on to state that “we don’t lock the doors before the homosexuals. No! They have committed sins, but it is within their ability to repent to God”. Which is much the sort of thing you would expect to hear from, say, Vincent Nichols or Jonathan Sacks. Does it really sound like someone who believes gay men and lesbians should be killed?
Yet, basing themselves on a partial and distorted translation of this 2006 interview by the Middle East Media Research Institute, a hardline right-wing Zionist organisation with a record of misrepresenting Qaradawi, Pink News reported it at the time under the headline “Muslim cleric backs gay burnings”!
So by all means criticise Qaradawi’s opinions on homosexuality, which like those of many leading religious figures are reprehensible. But the LGBT community shouldn’t fall into the trap of attributing to Qaradawi views he doesn’t hold and thereby contributing to the prevailing hysterical right-wing discourse about the Islamic threat to western civilisation.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Do You Know When You’re Wrong? Gray Matter Shows Introspective Ability is Not Black and White
Differences in people’s ability to gauge their own accuracy may be linked to having more volume—and more connections—in the prefrontal cortex
When answering a question, your accuracy in assessing whether you have gotten the answer right—or wrong—might depend on the volume of gray matter in a certain part of your brain, according to a new study.
Introspection—or metacognition, self-awareness about one’s thinking—is a high-level mental process. “Accurate introspection requires discriminating correct decisions from incorrect ones, a capacity that varies substantially across individuals,” researchers behind the new findings explained in their study.
For the study, researchers used simple visual stimuli to test 32 healthy subjects’ perception—and how confident they felt about their assessment of a geometric image. The tests were customized to each individual’s level of perceptual skill, in order to keep each subject’s accuracy score at 71 percent, so that the test was consistently difficult for all subjects.
“Someone who has good introspective ability will accurately be able to know” if they were correct in their assessment of an image, explains Steven Fleming, a cognitive neuroscientist at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging at University College London and co-author of the new study.
The study team found “considerable variation” in subjects’ accuracy in assessing their own evaluations of the images, which was to be expected based on previous research. Fleming and his colleagues used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to evaluate the subjects’ whole brains for differences in structure and composition in order to look for correlations with introspective ability.
Test subjects’ accuracy in assessing their own performance “was significantly correlated with gray-matter volume” in the right anterior prefrontal cortex, the team wrote in their study report, published online September 16 in Science. Subjects with more accurate introspective assessments also tended to have denser connections between that area of gray matter and the axon-filled white matter that connected it.
“We were surprised that we could find differences in the structure in this region that were linked to something high-level like introspective ability,” Fleming says…
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
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