Obama Consults Steve Jobs on Making America Great Again
Draconian anti-flatulence laws expected
Barack Obama called on Steve Jobs yesterday to discuss the challenges facing the US economy.
According to the AP, Obama’s wish list included solutions to boosting America’s competitiveness and crumbling education system. Energy independence and job creation were also on the agenda. No details have emerged on what pearls of wisdom were bestowed on the individual who will henceforth be known as the second most powerful man on the planet.
But we can imagine Jobs told him how the App store approval model could be harnessed to cut through the legislative log jam. While Apple’s in-house app approvers are no less capricious and obtuse in their pronouncements than Congress, they would probably be a lot cheaper and more efficient.
That way, perhaps, budgets and stimulus measures could be enacted much more quickly, as long as they don’t feature nudity or flatulence — common speed bumps in the existing system.
Arguably the US would even get more balanced laws — with anyone able to draft a law and subject it to the Cupertino commissars. Lobby groups and corporations would lose their stranglehold on the process.
As for education, iTunes U would certainly ensure that all of America’s youth gets access to the top minds in the country. That way kids could more efficiently get wasted and engage in incontinent sexual behaviour without leaving their home towns, thereby saving on accommodation costs and evening out property prices across the nation.
As for restoring the competitiveness of the United States? Well, Apple already depends on Chinese workers to build most of its kit. Perhaps Obama can look at shifting key US government technology production over there as well — missiles, nukes, and the like. It’s entirely likely the Chinese already have a pretty good idea of the blueprints anyway, so the US taxpayer might as well get the full benefit by getting the stuff built there as well.
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UK: Coalition Claims of ‘Pulling Britain Back From the Brink’ Are Nonsense
None of these descriptions is true. In reality, Wednesday’s CSR speech, while a compelling parliamentary occasion, told us little we didn’t already know. More seriously, the proposed fiscal retrenchment still looks inadequate, given the scale of the UK’s problem.
No one is denying that Britain’s Coalition government is about to implement a significant spending squeeze. The leaderships of both the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats are now speaking openly about the UK’s chronic fiscal position and putting forward measures designed to address it.
To mention that the senior Coalition politicians involved in the CSR, until relatively recently, failed to challenge the grotesque spending habits of former chancellor and prime minister, Gordon Brown, the fiscal vandal who got the UK into this mess, may be construed as churlish. But I don’t think so.
The fact that the Tories, in particular, spoke such nonsense about fiscal policy for so long — pledging to match Brown’s deeply irresponsible plans pound-for-pound — means they need to show even more resolve now if they’re to convince the UK’s all-important creditors they really are serious.
Amidst all the talk of “axe-wielding” and “amputation”, let us not lose sight of where we are. In September, UK Government borrowing was £16.2bn — another record high. Despite the retrenchment rhetoric, the state borrowed more last month than in September 2009 — or any September ever — despite last January’s VAT rise from 15pc to 17.5pc. This revenue boost was blown away, though, by £2.3bn of debt interest payments last month, 152pc higher than the same month the year before.
The 2010 budget deficit will be around 10pc of GDP — much more than when the UK went “cap-in-hand” to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in 1976. That doesn’t include the multi-billion pound bank bailouts — which the Tories have buried off balance-sheet, like Labour before them.
So, the UK is in genuine fiscal peril. No wonder the Coalition has been spin-doctoring headlines about “pulling Britain back from the brink”. But while we face an unprecedented problem, are we responding with a suitably bold solution? Well, not so far — as the September borrowing numbers show. And not in the years to come, if you look at the CSR fine print.
In essence, all that George Osborne did on Wednesday was to confirm the current expenditure totals he set out in his Emergency Budget in June. To appeal to Britain’s middle-classes, the Chancellor claimed that by 2014-15, the UK’s welfare bill will rise by £7bn less than expected. Note, we are talking about a slower rate of increase, not a cut. Combining that notional gain with “savings” of £3.5bn elsewhere allowed Osborne to say his squeeze will be less severe than announced in June, with departmental expenditure £10.3bn higher than previously forecast by 2014-15.
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| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Pound Forecast to Tumble on ‘Insane’ Spending Cuts
“I think what Britain is doing is absolutely insane” John Taylor, the founder of the $8bn FXConcepts fund, told The Sunday Telegraph. “The Conservatives will lose their stomach for this.”
Reducing Britain’s £156bn budget deficit is the cornerstone of the government’s plan for restoring the economy’s health. George Osborne, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, told Parliament last week that the £81bn in spending cuts would pull “Britain back from the brink.”
Although Mr Osborne’s plan has won support from many economists, there remains concern that it will damage a recovery that is already showing signs of faltering.
“The last retail sales numbers were pretty ugly and then we have to go through the VAT hit,” said Mr Taylor, who at 67 is one of the oldest operators in the foreign-exchange markets. The pound will fall below 1.40, possibly this year, he expects. Sterling reached 1.43, its weakest against the dollar this year in May.
The Bank of England has publicly welcomed sterling’s decline since the financial crisis erupted in 2008, but the central bank is not alone. Having already yanked hard on monetary and fiscal levers, an increasing number of governments are eyeing a weaker currency as a way of securing their share of an uneven global recovery.
Like many who trade currencies, Mr Taylor says that the US is keen to see the greenback fall further despite its official commitment to a strong dollar. That policy, which may be accomplished by a new round of quantitative easing — or printing money — next month, is like “throwing a rock into the glass window of the international monetary system,” said Mr Taylor, who founded FXConcepts in New York in 1981.
The dollar’s decline over the past three months has already prompted the Japanese, the Israelis and the South Koreans to intervene in an effort to prop up the greenback, and currency policy is likely to be high on the agenda when leaders of the G20 countries meet in South Korea next month.
However, Mr Taylor is sceptical that the dollar’s decline against the euro can be sustained. “The euro at 1.40 for six months will put Europe back in recession. I can’t believe the European authorities are being as stupid as this.”
Despite the headaches for policymakers, the increasing focus on currencies is creating opportunites for those who trade them. “Currency markets follow the trend right to the edge of the cliff and hopefully not over it,” explained Mr Taylor.
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Will Someone Please Shut Krugman Up
Sorry, a bit late on this one, but I see old Kruggers, Nobel prize winner and New York Times columnist, is at it again. Not content to lecture his own country’s administration about how they are not spending enough, Professor Krugman lambasts Britain’s coalition government in his latest column for its deficit reduction plan, which he reckons will condemn the UK to a depression.
Here’s a taste: “What happens now? Maybe Britain will get lucky, and something will come along to rescue the economy. But the best guess is that Britain in 2011 will look like Britain in 1931, or the United States in 1937, or Japan in 1997. That is, premature fiscal austerity will lead to a renewed economic slump. As always, those who refuse to learn from the past are doomed to repeat it”.
Good stuff, and who knows? Maybe he’s right. Yet the idea that you can more or less indefinitely keep putting off deficit reduction until the economy is firing on all cylinders again just looks like an excuse to me for continuing to spend at unaffordable levels. He accuses the Tories of being “ideological” in their single minded pursuit of deficit reduction, and of using the crisis to dismantle the welfare state, yet he conveniently skirts around the underlying issue, which is in essence that the country can no longer afford this expenditure.
Osborne’s fiscal consolidation is aimed only at removing the structural deficit — which is the bit that won’t go away when the economy returns to normal. The Obama Administration’s reluctance to take similar action in the US is extraordinarily irresponsible, and one of the reasons why the Democrats are so hopelessly down in the polls.
Surveys show that only about 20 per cent of Americans are Krugmanesque type liberals. Some 40 per cent count themselves as conservatives and the rest, the disenfranchised middle, reckon on being moderates. Yet as others have observed, if you asked the right questions the great bulk of Americans would say they are both liberal and conservative — socially liberal, that is, but fiscally conservative.
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| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
Drug-Addled Scooter Twock Teen Hit With Bizarre Crypto Ban
A 15-year-old Californian caught with a stolen scooter while high on drugs has been banned from using encryption — despite the lack of any computer crime element to his alleged offences. In fact, there was actually no computer involved in the commission of the crime at all.
The teenager, who can’t be named for legal reasons, was slapped with an onerous order prohibiting him from using a computer except when working on a school assignment. Later, a panel of three appeal court judges took away some of the most onerous restrictions. He can now use a computer and is permitted to use social networking and instant messaging, technologies the original judge considered ought to be on the banned list for the youngster.
The blanket internet ban was “not tailored to [the young man’s] conviction of receiving stolen property, his history of drug abuse, or the juvenile’s court’s dual goals of rehabilitation and public safety”, the appeal judges concluded.
However, a restriction imposed on the 15-year-old not to use “encryption, hacking, cracking, scanning, keystroke monitoring, security testing, steganography, Trojan or virus software” was only slightly modified. Recognising that malware, sneaky thing that it is, tries to stay hidden on infected systems, this was modified to clarify that it was only “knowingly” using an infected computer that was bad. The restriction against using any kind of encryption software remains in place.
Since almost all web-enabled devices have encryption technologies built into them, this restriction amounts to preventing someone from using a computer, if it is applied to the letter of the law. This makes little sense, especially as the rascal himself has no history of computer crimes.
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Give Obama a Pat on the Back — Of Butter — He’s Toast
Barack’s Collapse Exposes the Profound Failure of Liberalism
But what is Liberalism and why did it fail Obama?
I. What is Liberalism?
There are two general movements in human history named “liberalism”—one beginning in the Reformation, the other, a modern pretender. We must always remember those of a general modern “Conservative” and “Libertarian” bent, hail back to the age of Classical Liberalism. Modern “liberalism” is actually a highly deceptive code word for socialism and leftism, and is not concerned with liberty, but redistribution of wealth and the control of the masses. A. Real Liberalism, “Classical Liberalism,” aka Liberty
Real “Liberalism” starts back with the Reformation, when Martin Luther began the revolution which challenged the Church over the basis of salvation. When the Church did not back down on Luther’s demands, the protesters tore the Church asunder. Eventually, the battle became one for control over human decision making in all spheres of life. The rallying cry for Luther and his supporters became “Freedom!”, according to John Witte in Law and Protestantism: The Legal Teachings of the Lutheran Reformation.
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One writer describes original, or Classical Liberalism,
Prior to the 20th century, classical liberalism was the dominant political philosophy in the United States. It was the political philosophy of Thomas Jefferson and the signers of the Declaration of Independence and it permeates the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the Federalist Papers and many other documents produced by the people who created the American system of government…Basically, classical liberalism is the belief in liberty.
B. Faux Liberalism: Chains of Bondage
Hundreds of years after classical liberalism emerged, and then found a high point in the works of John Locke, and others, socialism was picking up steam. Socialist and communist writers had long struggled with making their ideas more palatable to the average person. According to Doug Rossinow, in Visions of Progress: The Left-Liberal Tradition in America, a strategic connection between leftists and liberals resulted in what we now refer to as modern American liberalism. Rossinow describes this as “political zone where liberalism and radicalism overlapped.” This ultimately led to a misleading change of name, morphing from socialism, communism, or Marxism to “liberalism” created a lasting misconception. The confusion was understandable and continues to this day, comparable to re-branding the Atkins diet as “Veganism.” One writer describes the transition,
Most modern “liberals” as opposed to Classical Liberals are, in the end, merely soft-core fascists. The modern liberal agenda is to gain control of the institutional hierarchy of the state and then to use that power to implement their notions of what a just and humane society entails as they see it. How well has that worked out? Are today’s modern liberal democracies principally concerned with collective liberty, individual rights, the rule of law, and respect for property? Not really…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Man, 73, Stung to Death After Disturbing Killer Bees’ Nest
A 73-year-old man died after being attacked by a swarm of Africanised honey bees.
Curtis Davis was clearing land using a bulldozer when he disturbed the bees’ nest and received more than 100 stings in Dougherty County, Georgia, U.S.
The insects — colloquially known as killer bees — are highly-defensive and will swarm if their nests are attacked or disturbed.
Following the attack last week, tests were ordered to establish whether the bees were either the European honey type or the fearsome Africanised honey bees.
After the results showed they were the more aggressive insects, the state’s agricultural commissioner said: ‘This is the first record of Africanised honey bees in Georgia.’
Africanised honey bees were believed to have entered Texas in 1990 from Mexico and have since spread to about 10 other states from California to Florida.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Saving Your Nation
It is a sad commentary, but it’s true. Money runs the political process. That’s why I’m writing a Memo to Voters.
Protest carries only so much impact. Eventually, protesters must do something — or, lose credibility — or sound like perpetual whiners in need of government assistance.
Conservatives are at a tipping point. There is no doubt that our moment of dissonance as a nation drew many people, previously content to let government run things, to Tea Party and other activist groups. Political abuse forced people from apathy to involvement. Americans love their country and are not content to sit back while it is kidnapped by a bunch of oligarchs.
An oligarchy is a form of government where all power is held by a ruling or dominant class. It is government by the few over the many.
What makes me confident oligarchy is the direction our Republic is headed? An oligarchy is made up of two classes, the rich and the poor. One reason for America’s success is its independent middle class. It has, until now, prevented oligarch domination.
There is one important thing that separates the American middle class from that of most European nations. America’s middle class doesn’t work for the government. If you think that doesn’t make a difference, look at the recent Greek uprisings and the current ones in France. America consists of independent businesses. We are a nation with three distinct classes — the poor, an independent middle class, and the upper class. If you’re an upper-class elitist who wants an oligarchy, one objective is primary: Eliminate the independent middle class.
One way the independent nature of the middle class can be eliminated is by making a majority of workers government employees. They are then dependent for their survival on doing what they are told. We have seen much of that at Government Motors (GM) and other places since TARP and TALF.
Or, the middle class can be eliminated by dissolving the value of the single important asset that draws a line in the sand between poverty and middle class: Home equity value, the primary asset of American middle class wealth.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Shameless Obama Twists Lincoln’s Words to Support His Socialist Agenda
On Wednesday during a speech in Parma, Ohio, President Obama decided to quote a former President to help justify his policy initiatives:
“But in the words of the first Republican President, Abraham Lincoln, I also believe that government should do for the people what they cannot do better for themselves”.
I assume he was paraphrasing this actual quote from President Lincoln, but unfortunately he left out the most important part:
“The legitimate object of government, is to do for a community of people, whatever they need to have done, but can not do, at all, or can not, so well do, for themselves in their separate, and individual capacities. In all that the people can individually do as well for themselves, government ought not to interfere.“
Obama doesn’t get it. And he clearly doesn’t get Abraham Lincoln.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Video: “Marxism in America” By Lt. Gen. (Ret.) W.G. Boykin
In this video entitled “Marxism in America” General Jerry Boykin discusses his background and training in understanding Marxist insurgencies and how this parallels current government actions.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Politically Correct Lucy Van Oldenbarneveld Meets Tarek Fatah…
From Gay and right:
Yesterday, I went to see Tarek Fatah speak at the Writers Festival in Ottawa about his new book, “The Jew is Not My Enemy”.
He was terrific, to say the least. Funny, serious, and resolute in his defense of western values and the enlightenment. Scathing about radical Islam and pissed off that far too many people on the left don’t see the threat.
However, after his opening 15 minute talk, he then sat down for a discussion with Lucy van Oldenbarneveld, a CBC reporter.
She was horrible.
First Question: What’s wrong with women wearing a burka and other coverings?
Tarek answered that this was unacceptable for women to walk around in tents and that the thought process behind it was repugnant. Lucy’s second question was well, only a about one hundred women wear them, so why all the fuss. Fatah replied that you wouldn’t accept 100 people being kept as slaves -and that even one person being kept as a slave would be one too many.
Lucy wouldn’t give up. The next question was still on the same topic….perhaps we should recognize the courage these women have to wear the burka and show their independence.
By this time, Fatah was livid.
Van Oldenbarneveld decided to go on another tack — and the question was on Islamophobia in Canada. Fatah answered with a long list of Muslims who have been elected to public office, and who have high positions in government, etc.
He wondered….where is all the Islamophobia??…
| — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes | [Return to headlines] |
French Perfume House Guerlain Faces Legal Action Over Racist Comments
Anti-racism groups in France are to sue the perfume house Guerlain after one of its best known perfumiers said he “worked like a nigger” to create a new scent.
Around 100 protesters gathered outside the Guerlain store on the Champs Elysées this weekend, calling for a worldwide boycott of the perfume house and its owner, the luxury brand, Louis Vuitton-Moet Hennessy, because of the racist slur.
Jean-Paul Guerlain, 73, a descendent of the perfume house’s founder, was interviewed on French state TV last week, and asked about the creation of a new perfume, Samsara. He replied: “I worked like a nigger. I don’t know if niggers have always worked like that, but anyway.”
Patrick Lozes, of France’s Representative Council of Black Associations, said the French word “negre” used by Guerlain was an “extremely pejorative” and “racist” term equivalent to “nigger” in English.
He said that the fact Guerlain felt so at ease using it on national TV was symptom of the “deep sickness” of racism in French society. He condemned LVMH and the Guerlain company for not reacting to the comments quickly enough.
US civil rights leaders, including Al Sharpton, who will visit France next month, are to ask for a meeting with Nicolas Sarkozy to discuss Guerlain’s comments.
Guerlain, a famous “nose”, or perfume developer, retired from the company in 2002 but acts as a consultant to their top perfumier. He issued a statement apologising for his “shocking words” and said he took full responsibility.
Guerlain head office said his words were unacceptable. LVMH released a statement condemning “all forms of racism”. Christine Lagarde, France’s finance minister, said Guerlain’s comments were “pathetic”.
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
Heady Rise in Popularity for True Finns
The nationalistic True Finns party continues to enjoy a heady increase in popularity among the electorate. The results of a fresh poll commissioned by YLE and released Friday show that more than 14.3 percent of voters back the True Finns, a rise of nearly two percentage points in one month.
The increase in support for the party chaired by European Parliamentarian Timo Soini signalled declining approval ratings for the other major political parties.
The governing Centre Party, led by Prime Minister Mari Kiviniemi, reflected this reversal, mustering the support of just 17.6 percent of poll respondents, down from 19 percent last month.
The erosion of support for the Centre means that its approval rating is now at its lowest level in recent memory. The figures make for a bitter pill for the governing coalition leader, which hoped to regain lost ground with last summer’s departure of former premier Matti Vanhanen, and the anointing of Kiviniemi as the new party leader and head of government.
The Centre is not the only party suffering from voter disaffection. Support for the main opposition party, the Social Democrats, also plunged to a record low, leaving the party reeling with 19.1 percent of voters saying they’d vote SDP, compared to 19.8 percent last month.
The conservative National Coalition Party remains the leader in the poll with a support level of 21.7 percent, although gains by the True Finns have also made inroads into their popularity, recorded at 21.9 in September.
Approval for the True Finns has far surpassed support for the Green League and the Swedish People’s Party, the other partners in government.
The poll did not reveal any appreciable change in support for the smaller parties, including the Christian Democratic Party, which enjoyed a surge in support following controversial statements by party chair Päivi Räsänen, which were perceived as homophobic.
The survey interviewed nearly 3,900 respondents and was conducted by research firm Taloustutkimus. The margin of error in the results posted for the largest parties was plus or minus 1.4 percentage points.
| — Hat tip: KGS | [Return to headlines] |
Netherlands: Top Judge Says Wilders Undermines Judiciary
The president of the Supreme Court says remarks made by anti-Islam MP Geert Wilders “undermine” the judiciary.
Speaking on television, Supreme Court President Geert Corstens said statements such as those made by Mr Wilders about his hate-speech trial “address in an erroneous manner” feelings living among the public.
Mr Wilders has repeatedly denounced his hate-speech trial as a “political trial” aimed at limiting the freedom of expression. On Friday he said he had “lost all confidence” in the judges trying him on charges of group insult, inciting hatred and discrimination. A review panel later that day granted his lawyer’s request to have the judges dismissed for creating an appearance of bias.
The Supreme Court president said undermining the judiciary was all the more serious in the case of an MP such as Mr Wilders. Mr Corsten said it was an MP’s task to help ensure the stability of the constitutional state.
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Swedish Police Hunt for Gunmen Targeting Immigrants
Sweden’s third largest city was on alert on Friday following two more shootings police said could be the work of one shooter or several gunmen targeting people of immigrant origin.
“As citizens of Malmo, regardless of nationality or origin, we must have public safety in mind,” Aasa Palmqvist of the Malmo police told reporters on Friday.
Police this week said they were setting up a task force of up to 50 police officers to look into around 15 unsolved shootings in the southern city of Malmo over the past year which could be motivated by racism.
The crimes bear a chilling similarity to the case of an immigrant-shooting sniper in Stockholm in the early 1990s.
Police were cautious in drawing parallels between the two cases, but the Swedish press quickly picked up on the similarities, with the country’s two largest tabloids on Friday saying that police were searching for “a new laserman.”
“Laserman” was the nickname given to John Ausonius, who shot 11 people of immigrant origin, killing one, in and around Stockholm from August 1991 to January 1992.
Ausonius, who in many of the attacks used a rifle equipped with a laser sight, was sentenced to life behind bars in 1994 and remains in prison.
The Daily Dagens Nyheter newspaper reported on Friday the profiler who helped solve that case had joined the investigation team in Malmo.
Police in Malmo did not divulge the details of the investigation, only telling a large crowd of reporters — some them from Denmark and Norway — they were receiving help from various Swedish police corps.
They also warned residents against panic, stressing a text message appearing to come from police that had been circulating urging people to stay indoors was fake.
On Thursday two women, aged 26 and 34, were slightly injured when someone shot them through a kitchen window. A teenager driving a moped was also shot at in broad daylight earlier in the day, but was not hit.
In both cases, the victims were of immigrant origin, police said.
Boerje Sjoestroem of the Malmo police said there was a risk of more shootings in the city, but stressed Malmo was still safe.
“For an individual person, the risk is extremely small,” he said.
In many of the unsolved shootings over the past year, the victims had not adopted risky behaviour and were simply going about their daily business, he said.
“Many of those who were affected were in completely normal situations. It is not risky behaviour to work out at the gym or to wait for the bus,” Mr Sjoestroem said, insisting that “the worst thing people can do is to lock themselves in and capitulate.”
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
The Lost Cause Against Wilders
When even the prosecution calls for a defendant’s acquittal and the trial judges have been disqualified for the appearance of bias, maybe it’s time to drop the charges. Rather than a retrial, a dismissal would be the best outcome in the case of Geert Wilders, the Dutch lawmaker accused of insulting and inciting hatred against Muslims.
Mr. Wilders is not shy in his criticism of Islam. He has called for banning the Quran, which he has compared to Hitler’s “Mein Kampf.” Mr. Wilders became famous by making a short film, “Fitna,” which juxtaposes Quranic verses calling for jihad with footage of the aftermath of Islamist terror attacks.
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Then the politically charged trial took another twist last week when one of Mr. Wilders’ expert witnesses, the Arabist Hans Jansen, wrote on his website that a member of the judiciary had tried to influence him. He said that at a dinner party before he was supposed to testify, one of the appeals judges whose decision compelled the prosecutors to press charges tried to “convince me of the correctness of the decision to take Wilders to court.”
To further complicate matters, the trial judges then denied a defense request to question Mr. Jansen in court about his allegations. An oversight panel of jurists finally granted the defense’s request to dismiss the presiding judges, calling their colleagues’ refusal to hear the witness “incomprehensible.” The trial, which was supposed to end next month, theoretically must start over with new judges.
Prosecuting Mr. Wilders has backfired in every way imaginable, not least politically. The trial has seemed to confirm his charge that avoiding debate over the implications of Muslim immigration leads to the erosion of Western freedoms, most notably freedom of speech. Despite, or perhaps because of, the trial, Mr. Wilders’ Party for Freedom became the third-strongest parliamentary faction in last June’s elections. This allowed Mr. Wilders to become a political king-maker by backing the new center-right minority government.
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| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Extremists Blamed for Muslim Poster Attacks
EXTREMISTS have been blamed for a series of “wanted” posters put up around part of Derby, attacking three of the city’s Muslim community leaders.
Dozens of the flyers, which feature photographs of Shokat Lal, Fareed Hussain and Gulfraz Nawaz, were discovered pasted around Normanton yesterday morning.
The posters accused Pakistani community leader Mr Lal, Derby City Councillor Mr Hussain and former Jamia mosque secretary Mr Nawaz of a series of allegations.
They include “supporting homosexuality”, being “police informants”, and backing the war in Afghanistan.
Police are investigating whether a crime has been committed by whoever was behind the posters.
Mr Lal said he believed they had been put up by Muslim extremists.
He said: “I worry what it might inspire in people.
“We know Derby is a national hotspot for extremism. If we leave this unchallenged, the consequences could be quite severe.
“In Derby, there is a real undercurrent of radical views and it could lead to a fracturing of the society. They seem to want to isolate the Muslim community and undo the work we have done to unite people.”
Mr Hussain, who represents Arboretum ward for the council, said it was not the first time the three had been targeted by extremists.
Mr Hussain said: “But it is the first time they have done it in this manner.
“We need to get people to understand just how extreme these people are — it is just because we have challenged some of their ideas.”
Mr Lal added: “I think it is time we exposed this group of people who are more than prepared to benefit from the British way of life but only the bits that suit them.”
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| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Patients’ Anger After They Are Unable to Opt Out of Swine Flu Vaccine Despite Fears of Side Effects
Patients’ groups have expressed anger over this year’s seasonal flu jab programme because people are unable to opt out of having the swine flu vaccine.
The H1N1 vaccine will be the dominant of three flu strains included in the shot, meaning millions of elderly and vulnerable patients will get it automatically.
Yet many people refused to have the swine flu vaccine when it was offered last year because of fears it may cause serious side effects.
The Mail on Sunday revealed last week that Government experts are examining a possible association between the H1N1 swine flu jab and the paralysing nerve disease Guillain-Barre Syndrome.
The vaccine has also been linked to fevers in young children, temporary paralysis and narcolepsy.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Speed Camera Jammer Banned
A Porsche driver caught using a laser jammer to disable police speed guns has been banned in a landmark court ruling.
Jamie Shreeve, 21, was handed a 30-day driving ban on Wednesday after he was stopped by police and caught red-handed.
Shreeve, of Caister, near Great Yarmouth, is only the second motorist in Norfolk to be prosecuted for using the sophisticated hi-tech device.
He is the first in the county to be given a driving ban for it.
Shreeve’s benchmark ban was last night welcomed by two road traffic police officers who have been spearheading a crackdown on hi-tech speeders.
The James Bond-style jammers are fixed to the outside of cars and wired up under the dashboard with an on-off switch.
Sgt Geoff Bowers and PC Chris Harris only became aware of them when they stopped a high-powered, turbo-charged Porsche 911 on the A47 in Norfolk in March.
The two road cops have since come across dozens of the gadgets, costing up to £500 and sold on the internet as ‘parking sensors’.
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UK: Talking to the Enemy by Scott Atran — Review
The story of the 7/7 bombings in London in 2005 has been told many times. We know, for example, that Shehzad Tanweer, an 18-year-old from Leeds, was unable to detonate his device and telephoned his three co-conspirators even though he knew that they were almost certainly dead. He then went on to kill himself and 13 others on the top deck of a bus.
We know also that the bombers were in a “euphoric” and “celebratory” mood, hugging each other before going on their separate, final journeys, as Joseph Martoccia, a Cambridge businessman who came across the men gathered in a huddle in a busy corridor at King’s Cross station, recently told the inquest into the attacks. But the details continue to fascinate, such as the fact that Mohammad Sidique Khan, the leader of the plotters, postponed the bombings by a day to take his pregnant wife to hospital. Insights like this raise an obvious question: what makes apparently ordinary men (and some women) commit such atrocious acts?
Scott Atran, an American anthropologist, believes he has some of the answers. Terrorists, he tells us, are social beings influenced by social connections and values familiar to all of us. They are members of school clubs, sports teams or community organisations; they are proud fathers and difficult teenagers. They do not, Atran maintains, die for a cause; they die for each other.
Back in 2002 or 2003, this would have been radical stuff. Atran has been one of the leading proponents of a social science-based approach to militancy for many years and his approach was long considered very much left field. Countering terrorism was seen as the work of the “counter-terrorist community” and the last thing needed was woolly-haired, woolly thinking, wool-shirted academics banging on about group dynamics or the ordinariness of killers.
In those early years, the focus was on al-Qaida master terrorists and recruiters sent from overseas, or “sleeper cells” implanted by al-Qaida which could be activated when needed on orders from Osama bin Laden. The idea that young Britons themselves could be a threat was barely imagined. According to Stella Rimington, former head of MI5, the threat came from “networks of individuals … that blend into society … who live normal, routine lives until called upon for specific tasks by another part of the network.” She might as well have been describing aliens.
[…]
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
Morocco: Israeli Guests at Culture Fest Rile Islamists
Rabat, 22 Oct. (AKI) — Israeli intellectuals, artists and scientists attending a series of conferences in the southern beach resort of Agadir have angered Islamists in Morocco, according to daily al-Tajdid.
The Islamists, many from the country’s hardline Justice and Development party accuse Agadir’s authorities of “seeking to normalise relations with Israel.”
“They are using invitations to Israelis to attend cultural and intellectual events to normalise relations with the Jewish state,” the Islamists said in a statement cited by al-Tajdid.
“Meanwhile, the occupation of Palestine continues and cruel crimes are carrried out by the Zionists,” the statement continued.
Only a handful of Muslim countries have full diplomatic ties with the Jewish state.
Israeli scientist Naomi Tilzer’s attendance at a cactus conference has especially rankled with the Islamists, al-Tajdid said without elaborating.
Last week, a group of Israeli athletes took part in an international meet and a Jewish singer gave a concert in Agadir.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Gaza Hardliners Launch Arson Attack on Family Leisure Park
Crazy Water Park had already been closed down for two weeks by the Hamas government, over an “unlicensed water whirl”, when 40 armed arsonists struck in the middle of the night last month.
They set fire to the resort’s two main buildings and a tented mosque, causing more than $300,000 (£191,000) worth of damage and leading the owners to wonder whether it was a doomed project.
The theme park, on the fringes of Gaza City, had suffered a previous arson attack on 20 August during Ramadan, following false rumours that it was hosting mixed-gender parties, and had to close for three days because of the damage.
Then, on 5 September, the Hamas attorney-general ordered the resort’s closure for another three weeks. “We were informed there was an unlicensed water whirl,” said Ala’aeddin al-Araj, one of the park’s five investors. “But it was not the real reason, because there are about 20,000 unlicensed water whirls in the Gaza Strip.”
On 19 September came the biggest attack. Despite the lockdown that Hamas security forces have on Gaza City, a large group of gunmen moved unhindered through checkpoints and, according to Araj, spent considerable time setting fires at the resort. “It was well organised,” he said. “We know the attack took place under government eyes.”
The idea behind Crazy Water Park, a landscaped garden with pools, water chutes and a cafe, was to provide a place for family enjoyment amid the grinding oppression of blockaded Gaza. Its owners were careful to respect the mores of socially conservative Gaza: family areas were kept separate from a men-only section; only girls under the age of 12 were permitted to swim; places were provided for prayer.
The resort opened on 16 June and was instantly popular, with long queues forming outside. The 10 shekels (£1.70) entrance fee (free for children under six) made it accessible as a treat for many Gaza families. It hired 110 workers in a place with 40% unemployment — one of the highest rates in the world. There were ambitious plans for expansion. Now, said Araj, the attacks have made its backers lose confidence.
The businessman — who as a moderate independent was minister for national economics in the first Hamas government from March 2006 to March 2007 — believes that Hamas has commercial objections to Crazy Water Park, which is in competition with the government’s own enterprises. This has led it to turn a blind eye to attacks by extremists who have moral objections. “I believe the extremists are not the majority in Hamas, but they have the power,” said Araj.
The experience of Crazy Water Park is part of a wider attempt to impose “good behaviour” on Gaza’s population, according to Hamdi Shaqqura of the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR). He cites restrictions on internet cafes, the closure of beach-front restaurants over the summer, a ban on women smoking shisha pipes in public and a prohibition on the display of lingerie in shop windows. Head teachers have been told they may impose Islamic dress codes on girls, and men have been banned from teaching in girls’ high schools. Some say that women have been reprimanded for sitting with crossed legs in public.
[…]
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
Afghanistan: Al Qaeda Commander Behind Ken Bigley Murder Escaped From British Special Forces After Helicopter Ran Out of Fuel
An Al Qaeda leader went on to kill hundreds of people after British helicopter troops who were moments from capturing him ran out of fuel, it has been revealed.
Soldiers desperately stalked Abu Musab al-Zarqawi by air when his car was spotted around 60 miles south of Basra.
They were just seconds from swooping on the militant leader whose gunmen were responsible for killing British hostage Ken Bigley in 2004.
But after the chopper followed al-Zarqawi for 15 minutes it was forced to return to a British-run airbase to refuel.
Troops later filed in on foot and raided buildings close to where Zarqawi’s car had been but he was lost and the search was called off.
The terrorist commander survived to launch a wave of revenge killings that lasted for half-a-year and bring Iraq to the brink of civil war before he was killed by American troops in 2006.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Did British Troops Kill 8-Year-Old Iraqi Girl? Wikileaks Release of 400,000 Reports Leads to Accusations of Human Rights Abuses
A British soldier shot dead an eight-year-old Iraqi girl as she played with her friends in a street, it was claimed yesterday.
The allegation was made by human rights lawyer Phil Shiner as the founder of whistleblowing website WikiLeaks defended the release of almost 400,000 classified US documents about the war in Iraq.
Offering only sketchy details, Mr Shiner, of Birmingham-based Public Interest Lawyers, claimed the girl was inexplicably targeted while playing in a district of Basra where British troops had routinely handed out sweets in an effort to win ‘hearts and minds’.
[…]
It is thought Mr Shiner was referring to the case of eight-year-old Hanan Saleh Matrud, who was shot dead by a British soldier outside her home in Qarmat Ali on August 21, 2003.
Two months later a letter from the British military admitted a soldier from B Company, 1st Battalion the King’s Regiment had fired a ‘warning shot into the air’ near the child’s home that day.
The letter refused to apologise for the killing and said it was only ‘a possibility’ that a British bullet had killed the child.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Iran: Thief Hand Cut Off ‘Before Inmates’
Authorities in Iran have amputated the hand of a convicted thief in front of other prisoners, state radio is reporting. The report did not identify the 32-year-old convict, whose hand was reportedly cut off in the central city of Yazad, or provide details of his crime. Iran’s judiciary uses a strict interpretation of Islamic law in handing down such sentences. Cutting off the hands of thieves has been rare in the past, but the amputation was the second this month. A week ago, a judge ordered the same punishment for a man who stole from a sweet shop. Critics say amputations, public executions and floggings hurt Iran’s image and reflect badly on Islam. A death-by-stoning sentence for a woman convicted of adultery has also sparked an international outcry.
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
Iraq War Logs: US Turned Over Captives to Iraqi Torture Squads
Fresh evidence that US soldiers handed over detainees to a notorious Iraqi torture squad has emerged in army logs published by WikiLeaks.
The 400,000 field reports published by the whistleblowing website at the weekend contain an official account of deliberate threats by a military interrogator to turn his captive over to the Iraqi “Wolf Brigade”.
The interrogator told the prisoner in explicit terms that: “He would be subject to all the pain and agony that the Wolf battalion is known to exact upon its detainees.”
The evidence emerged as the deputy prime minister, Nick Clegg, said the allegations of killings, torture and abuse in Iraq were “extremely serious” and “needed to be looked at”.
Clegg, speaking on BBC1’s Andrew Marr Show, did not rule out an inquiry into the actions of British forces in Iraq, but said it was up to the US administration to answer for the actions of its forces. His comments contrasted with a statement from the Ministry of Defence today, which warned that the posting of classified US military logs on the WikiLeaks website could endanger the lives of British forces.
Clegg said: “We can bemoan how these leaks occurred, but I think the nature of the allegations made are extraordinarily serious. They are distressing to read about and they are very serious. I am assuming the US administration will want to provide its own answer. It’s not for us to tell them how to do that.”
Asked if there should be an inquiry into the role of British troops, he said: “I think anything that suggests that basic rules of war, conflict and engagement have been broken or that torture has been in any way condoned are extremely serious and need to be looked at.
“People will want to hear what the answer is to what are very, very serious allegations of a nature which I think everybody will find quite shocking.”
A Channel 4 Dispatches programme tomorrow night is expected to add further details based on the logs of alleged abuse directly by coalition forces. Only two cases of alleged involvement of British troops have so far been mentioned.
Within the huge leaked archive is contained a batch of secret field reports from the town of Samarra. They corroborate previous allegations that the US military turned over many prisoners to the Wolf Brigade, the feared 2nd battalion of the interior ministry’s special commandos.
[…]
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
Pope Seeks Religious Liberty in Muslim Mideast
Pope Benedict called on Islamic countries in the Middle East on Sunday to guarantee freedom of worship to non-Muslims and said peace in the region was the best remedy for a worrying exodus of Christians.
He made his a appeal at a solemn mass in St Peter’s Basilica ending a two week Vatican summit of bishops from the Middle East, whose final document criticized Israel and urged the Jewish state to end its occupation of Palestinian territories.
In his sermon at the gathering’s ceremonial end, the pope said freedom of religion was “one of the fundamental human rights that each state should always respect.”
He said that while some states in the Middle East allowed freedom of belief, “the space given to the freedom to practice religion is often quite limited.”
At least 3.5 million Christians of all denominations live in the Gulf Arab region, the birthplace of Islam and home to some of the most conservative Arab Muslim societies in the world.
The freedom to practice Christianity — or any religion other than Islam — is not always a given in the Gulf and varies from country to country. Saudi Arabia, which applies an austere form of Sunni Islam, has by far the tightest restrictions.
The Pope said all citizens in Middle Eastern countries would benefit from greater freedom of religion and backed a call by the synod participants for Muslims and Christians to open an “urgent and useful” dialogue on the thorny issue.
In Saudi Arabia, home to Islam’s holiest sites, any form of non-Muslim worship takes place in private. Converting Muslims is punishable by death, although such sentences are rare.
Services and prayer meetings often are held in diplomats’ homes, but access to these is very limited, so Christians meet to worship in hotel conference rooms — at great risk.
[…]
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
Russia: Controversy in Moscow: Stalin Icon Revered
The initiatives of some Russian parishes that exhibit portraits of the Soviet dictator alongside those of proclaimed saints stirs controversy.
Moscow (AsiaNews) — The figure of Stalin continues stir controversy in Russia, where the bloodthirsty dictator has left behind him a confusing tangle of veneration and rejection. Icons of the Red Tsar are still present throughout the country and rumours that some see him as a saint. The latest in a series of sacred representation of the “little father” has appeared in Moscow in the church of Saint Nicholas (Starovagankovsky lane): the icon depicts the life of Matriona, the blind saint, in an alleged meeting between her and Joseph Stalin. The Soviet dictator is not depicted in a religious manner, but he is placed next to the famous ascetic. An aspect that makes the story even more grotesque, is that Matriona (1885-1952) was forced to live in hiding to avoid arrest by communist regime. According to a legend, which was rejected by the Orthodox Church, Stalin visited Matriona in 1941, who predicted victory over the Nazis. In July of that year he is said to have addressed the nation on radio using the traditional greeting of the Orthodox Church “brothers and sisters”. Almost a sign of his change of attitude towards Christianity.
A church is a strange place to find Stalin, who, despite his education at a seminary in Georgia, was responsible for a brutal religious repression in the USSR.
The author of the icon ins unknown but according to the priest in charge of churches in the district Fr. Vladimir, “is likely to have been donated to the parish.”
The small church of Saint Nicholas is not the only one to exhibit the image of Stalin next to the icon of a proclaimed saint, like Matriona. In the winter of 2008 the story of Fr.Yevstafy Zhakov, pastor of St. Olga Strel’na near St. Petersburg caused uproar after he hung a portrait of the dictator among other sacred images. “I remember him on appropriate occasions — the priest had declared- the day of his birthday, his death and that of Victory (World War II, ed.) He was a true believer”.
Among Russians there are even those who call for his beatification, but the Orthodox Church is in firm in its niet. “Some consider him a monster and a murderer — says Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, Director of External Relations of the Patriarchate of Moscow — for others it was as if he were a zealous orthodox.” The positions of the church hierarchy are clear: “He never even had a moment of repentance,” says Chaplin. A few weeks after the controversy, the Patriarchate of Moscow forced Fr. Yevstafy to remove the controversial icon from his parish.
Meanwhile, however, outside the church of St. Olga, and in various cities across the country holy cards are still distributed that depict the bloody politician with a halo. For those who already consider Stalin a saint.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Allies Abandoned Our Diggers
THE special forces patrol drove headlong into a massive ambush.
The intelligence was strong, but what it didn’t say was that 150 heavily armed insurgents would stage a rolling ambush in a bold bid to wipe out the Australian, US and Afghan “hunter killer” patrol.
Soon after, as they fought the fight of their lives and as the first casualties began to fall, the Diggers spotted two Dutch Apache helicopters escorting a Chinook chopper to a nearby forward operating base.
“Salvation” they thought as the joint terminal air controller (JTAC) responsible for guiding air support radioed the pilots asking them to bring their Hellfire laser-guided missiles and 30mm cannons to the fight near the village of Khaz Oruzgan. As the call went out the soldiers on the ground endured withering enemy mortar, small arms and rocket-propelled grenade fire. The casualties grew.
“We’re in an absolute doozy of a shit fight. We need your assistance as we’re taking casualties,” the JTAC — known only by his initials of SG — told the Dutch pilots.
He gave the Dutch target indicators but the chopper pilots refused to drop under their “safe” height of 5000m. Below that level aircraft are vulnerable to small arms fire, but the armour-plated Apaches are designed to operate under heavy fire at very low altitudes.
In a book entitled SAS Sniper to be released next week, former SAS soldier and ex-Royal Marine Rob Maylor, who sustained serious shrapnel wounds during the battle, reveals intricate details of the ambush and the lack of Dutch help.
“They wouldn’t open up on the Taliban for fear they might draw some fire themselves,” Maylor said of the September 2008 battle that cost the life of one US soldier and left seven SAS soldiers and two sappers badly wounded.
“I honestly thought that we wouldn’t get out of there alive. If the bad guys had got any closer it would have been all over for us,” he said.
As the Special Forces patrol was being pounded from all sides, another SAS soldier marked targets for the choppers using a .50 calibre heavy machinegun to kick up dust clouds close to enemy positions.
“They still wouldn’t engage. SG had had enough so he told them, ‘If you’re not going to engage then you might as well f. .k off’ and they did. Cheers boys,” Maylor wrote.
The revelations add weight to the views of Australian soldiers on the frontline, including one whose email appeal for greater fire support was published by The Daily Telegraph, that they need more firepower.
Top brass and politicians have stepped up their campaign to discredit troops and others calling for more help, with Defence Minister Stephen Smith repeating the mantra of Lieutenant-General Mark Evans that such claims were “inaccurate and ill-informed”.
“Capabilities such as artillery, mortars and attack helicopters are available through our partners,” Mr Smith told Parliament.
One of the specific complaints in the email concerned a lack of helicopter support during another deadly battle that claimed the life of Private Jared Mackinney.
Australia asked the departing Dutch to keep five Apaches in Tarin Kowt until mid-November because our own Tiger attack choppers won’t be ready to deploy until mid-2011.
Speaking yesterday Maylor, who retired in January, said he was surprised that the Dutch Apaches had refused to fight.
“They do have tight rules of engagement but we needed all the help we could get” he said.
His wounds were patched up by Trooper Mark Donaldson, who would be awarded a VC for gallantry that day for rescuing a wounded interpreter from the battlefield.
As the battle raged, SG was shot through the chest and was saved only by the prompt action of a US medic who pushed a large needle between his ribs to relieve air pressure in his chest cavity.
Eventually two F/A-18 Hornet jet fighters from a US aircraft carrier in the Arabian Gulf provided close air support in the form of two 250kg bombs and cannon fire.
In the excitement the American JTAC forgot an airburst bomb was inbound until just before it struck.
“Shit that was close, but it neutralised the mortars and we were thankful for that,” Maylor said.
| — Hat tip: Esther | [Return to headlines] |
Indonesia: Islamic Fundamentalists Against Church Named After Mother Teresa
Plans to build a Catholic place of worship in Cikarang, some 60 kilometres east of Jakarta, is generating opposition among Muslim groups. At least six churches were attacked since last year. Several Protestant clergymen were also assaulted. The authorities have been criticised for failing to stem the wave of intolerance.
Jakarta (AsiaNews) — Anti-Christian intolerance is raising its ugly head again. Islamic fundamentalist groups are increasingly trying to stop the construction of churches in areas where the Catholic Church is present. Government slowness in reacting to such phenomena has come under fire because it effectively adds more fuel to the flames of intolerance fanned by such groups (See Mathias Hariyadi, “Religious intolerance rising among Indonesian Muslims,” in AsiaNews 5 October 2010)
The most recent example of this trend involves the Saint Mother Teresa Parish in Cikarang, some 60 kilometres east of Jakarta. The situation here is the more worrisome since Indonesian authorities have shown little or no desire to intervene in the matter, and this despite sharp criticism from inter-faith and human rights groups.
In recent days, some provocative banners opposing plans to build a new church in Cikarang have appeared. “The Islamic Group Ukuwah Islamiyah rejects any plan to construct a church in Bunda Teresa Cikarang,” read one banner displayed in front of a local mosque in Taman Sentosa Cikarang.
Another one on Bandung Street, in Cinere, carried the same message but against another Christian place of worship slated for construction only 200 metres from a local police station.
In both cases, it is clear that the lack of action by the authorities against this kind of protests to ensure a spirit of harmony between religions has fuelled intolerance.
Opposition to the Mother Teresa Church in Cikarang started in September when someone began spreading rumours about the potential “Christianisation” of the Bekasi Regency (district), a predominantly Muslim area.
According to the rumour, a church and other buildings would be built that together would constitute the largest Christian centre in Asia.
Opponents to the Church charged that the latter would become a magnet for proselytising, thus threatening the district’s Muslim majority.
Saint Mother Teresa Parish was founded in 2004 and has a congregation of some 6,000 members. It does not have a church building, and has to celebrate Mass in the gym of a local Catholic school.
In recent weeks, Bekasi Regency has seen a number of episodes of intolerance directed at Christians from different confessions. Since 2009, at least six churches have been attacked and several Protestant clergymen have been the victims of assault.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Indonesia: Malaysian Arrested With 7,000 Detonators
Jakarta, 21 Oct. (AKI/Jakarta Post) — South Sulawesi police have arrested a Malaysian national for carrying 7,000 detonators as he arrived at the Pare-pare seaport from Nunukan in East Kalimantan.
Pare-pare police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Pratama said on Thursday that the police had been questioning the suspect since arresting him on Monday.
The police, however, have not found evidence the detonators would be supplied to terrorists operating in the country.
Pratama said the Malaysian had wrapped the explosive materials in dozens of sacks he carried aboard a passenger ship connecting the town near the border with Malaysia and the South Sulawesi town.
During questioning he said he brought the explosives into Pare-pare for local fishermen, who would then use the materials to assemble fish bombs.
The police also found a fake Indonesian ID card, which identifies MN as a resident of the South Sulawesi regency of Bone. The man said he obtained the ID card from his relative in Bone.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Taliban Peace Talks With Hamid Karzai Are ‘Mostly Hype’
Recent widely-reported contacts between senior Taliban and the Kabul government have little to do with a peace settlement and involve scarcely more than exchanges of cash and prisoners, diplomats and observers have told the Guardian.
They say contacts with the Taliban have been under way for several years and reflect how war is waged in Afghanistan, where talking and fighting at the same time are common. But the encounters have been hyped as signs of a move towards peace as part of a misinformation campaign aimed at the Taliban leadership, or to reinforce the impression that Nato and Afghan forces are making strategic gains.
Anticipation of a breakthrough rose earlier this month after Nato officers and Afghan officials briefed journalists that there had been high-level contacts between President Hamid Karzai and senior Taliban members.
Karzai claimed to “have had personal meetings with some Taliban leaders” and has set up a high peace council with the aim of pursuing a political settlement.
Nato officials spoke of meetings with four Taliban commanders, including a top member of the movement claiming to express its “collective will” with the approval of its leader, Mullah Omar.
The US and Nato commander in Afghanistan, General David Petraeus, even said his forces had facilitated the talks by allowing Taliban officials to fly to the meetings in safety.
But according to officials briefed on the talks, there is, in the words of one source, “less than meets the eye”.
The Taliban member who flew to Kabul to meet Karzai was influential, but not a member of the Quetta Shura leadership council, and probably did not represent its views. Karzai did not raise the prospect of power-sharing or division of territory, but rather sought to buy his Taliban interlocutors off one by one by offering cash.
In each case, the Taliban commanders asked for small amounts of money, gave no undertakings on future actions, and returned to their havens in Pakistan.
The New York Times today quoted unnamed officials as alleging the Karzai government was using a slush fund supplied by Iran to buy the loyalty of Taliban commanders, and to bribe members of the Afghan parliament as well as tribal elders. According to one source, the Taliban participants also asked for the release of family members and friends from Afghan prisons.
[…]
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
A NWO History of Mongolia
Situated between Russia and China, Mongolia is the least densely populated country in world, with three million people living in a country the size of Western Europe.
Over thousands of years, the Mongol people have perfected a nomadic lifestyle to thrive in Siberian winters, acrid deserts and barren steppes. Despite recent urbanization, half the population continues to live a nomadic lifestyle.
The warring tribes of the region were once merged under the leadership of Genghis Khan and used their innovative military tactics to create the great Mongol empire.
Yet despite their famed indigenous culture, the United Nations classifies Mongolia as a developing country. By ‘development’, the UN means the integration of Mongolia into a world government.
The Soviet Era
The start of Mongolia’s ‘development’ was a Soviet invasion in 1921, which radically altered Mongol culture and laid the foundations for a modern international state.
After an initial settling in period, the Soviets went about destroying Mongol identity to bring in the new. Buddhism was top of their hit list. They murdered 30,000 monks and liquidized over 750 monasteries.
Their next target was nomadism. Stalin’s forces worked to destroy any independence from government. They even went in search of Kazakh groups in the Western mountain regions who hunt prey with eagles, but couldn’t track them down.
The plan was to replace nomadic lifestyle with collective agriculture, with all proceeds going to the state.
This was not easy, as Stephen Bodio writes, ‘nomads have always valued freedom, and Mongolia has always been a society of nomads. Soviet puppet leader Choibalsan’s attempt at collective agriculture failed when rural residents killed their livestock rather than submit.’
| [Return to headlines] |
Burundi Albino Boy ‘Dismembered’
The dismembered body of a young albino boy has been found in a river on the Burundi-Tanzania border, reports say.
The boy, aged nine, was taken from Makamba province in Burundi by a gang that crossed the border, the head of Burundi’s albino association said.
Kassim Kazungu told AFP the remains had been recovered from the Malagarazi river and given a formal burial.
Albino body parts are prized in parts of Africa, with witch-doctors claiming they have special powers.
Mr Kazungu told the AFP news agency that Tanzanian police had arrested five people, although there was no official confirmation from Tanzania.
In Tanzania, the body parts of people living with albinism are used by witch-doctors for potions which they tell clients will help make them rich or healthy.
Dozens of albinos have been killed, and the killings have spread to neighbouring Burundi.
In August a court in Tanzania sentenced a Kenyan accused of trying to sell an albino to 17 years in jail and a fine of more than $50,000 (£41,200).
Tanzanian authorities have promised to crack down on albino traffickers, and several people have been sentenced to death in connection with killings.
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: ‘Multiculturalism Has Failed’
In Germany, the tea party has a name: Thilo Sarrazin. A one-man populist revolt, he has been ridiculed by the political establishment. He has been forced off the executive board of Germany’s central bank. His fellow Social Democrats want to expel him from the party. And he is crying all the way to the bank. Sales of his book “Germany Does Away With Itself” are expected to top one million copies by Christmas.
On 464 pages, Mr. Sarrazin explains why the country is doomed: too many immigrants of the wrong kind, mainly Muslim. These folks are under-gifted and under-trained, hence a permanent under-class both unable and unwilling to assimilate. And they will outbreed the locals so that 100 years from now only 20 million “real” Germans will be left.
Chancellor Angela Merkel originally called the book “not helpful,” even “totally unacceptable.” Others bad-mouthed Mr. Sarrazin as crypto-fascist and racist. But like the tea party in the U.S., he had struck a chord with his assault on the liberal consensus. And lo, eight weeks into the free-for-all, Mrs. Merkel and her Christian Democrats have changed signals. She now calls multiculturalism “failed, totally failed.” Her colleague Horst Seehofer, the head of the Bavarian wing, wants to stop immigration from “other cultures.” A resolution for next month’s party congress invokes “tougher sanctions” for those who refuse to integrate.
As went Europe, so now goes Germany? From France to Scandinavia, the resentment of Muslim immigration has thrust parties into parliaments that clamor for enforced assimilation, a halt to immigration, or even “voluntary” resettlement. The latest newcomers are the “Sweden Democrats” who scored 20 seats in September. Yet a Le Pen (France) or a Geert Wilders (Holland) won’t happen here.
Germany is different because it is . . . well, Germany. The country that took racism to genocidal heights will not tolerate a right-wing, xenophobe party. Anti-Nazism, you might say, is now part of the German DNA — even though some 20% of those polled might like a “party to the right of the Christian Democrats.” Such polls are Exhibit A in the foreign commentary that sees Germany going “Wilders.” But to the “right of the Christian Democrats” targets a party that has moved steadily to the left during the Merkel years. It means the kind of cultural conservatism that is perfectly respectable in the Anglo-Saxon world. “Real” right-wing parties stay below 1% in German national elections.
The more appropriate comparison is with the American tea party — a populist insurgency against the liberal consensus. The issue is not “tax and spend,” but a set of pieties on immigration. The left put its faith in happy, colorful multiculturalism. Let’s all live together and respect our differences. The right thought the issue would go away or stay nicely confined in the inner-cities. That’s why those who are foreign-born used to be called “guest workers.” Now, they are “migrants” rather than “immigrants.” In fact, you cannot “immigrate” into Germany as you can into the U.S. or Australia. You can come if you have a job or follow a spouse, and eventually you can become a citizen. Since 2004, naturalization has become easier, but in the past, you were better off with a German shepherd in your family than with a Ph.D. in German literature.
The problem, as elsewhere in Europe, is not “outbreeding,” for immigrant fertility rates will soon come down to the majority level. It is open borders plus a lavish welfare system. So the American model — sweat your way up from the Lower East Side to midtown to the suburbs — does not work in Germany. The problem three generations later is a perverse trend with the grandchildren of the “guest workers,” particularly among those four million Muslims, being worse off than their forbears.
[…]
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
UK: One Third of ‘Brain Surgeon’ Immigrants in Unskilled Jobs
Labour laws designed to bring highly-qualified foreign workers such as brain surgeons into the UK were used by immigrants to get jobs as shop assistants and security guards, the Coalition claimed last night.
Immigration Minister Damian Green unveiled research showing that nearly one in three immigrants in the Labour Government’s ‘tier one’ category for top-level applicants last year ended up doing ordinary unskilled jobs.
Tier one immigrants are categorised as doctors, scientists and entrepreneurs so skilled they could enter the UK without a job offer, said Mr Green
‘These are meant to be absolutely the brightest and the best,’ he said in a BBC interview.
But the anomalies had been revealed after a sample was analysed. ‘We have discovered that of the visas we issued last year 29 per cent are doing unskilled jobs,’ he said. ‘
They’re shop assistants, security guards, supermarket cashiers — all absolutely essential jobs we need for our economy.
‘But at a time when we have a couple of million unemployed people in this country and we have 300,000 unemployed graduates, it seems to me pretty perverse if we say we’ve got to keep bringing in unlimited people because we think they are very highly skilled.’
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Body Worlds: Culture of Death
In recent years “BODIES… The Exhibition” has been touring all across North America, from Winnipeg to Tampa, from Albuquerque to Quebec City.
From its title you might think it’s a waxworks display like Madame Tussaud’s — or maybe soft-core porn parading as art.
But this exhibit — which pretends to be cultural and educational — is more than nudity, more than anatomical display. Much more.
It’s a display of naked human cadavers — real cadavers — many of them dissected, and preserved by using transparent liquid silicone rubber.
You can see a cadaver playing basketball, you can see one conducting an orchestra. You also get to see various body systems (digestive, urinary, reproductive, etc.). You see body parts, and organs, and fetuses (unborn babies), all real, all dead.
If this exhibit were installed in a medical school, for the education of medical students, there would be no problem. But it’s aggressively marketed to the public, including elementary school children taken on a “field trip.” Instead of looking at Monet and Matisse, they’re exposed to real corpses.
Naturally (according to Premier Exhibitors, Inc., the promoters) this is “an educational experience” that you can “celebrate,” that will “enlighten, inform, inspire.”
In truth it’s more like a “snuff film,” both pornographic and ghoulish.
WHOSE BODIES?
Since these are real human bodies, the question arises: who are they, who were they? Where do they come from?
Answer: the cadavers were “donated” by China. Does this mean the men and women whose bodies are on display donated them for this purpose, much as many of us donate our organs for medical purposes upon death? I’m afraid not.
The exhibitor discreetly informs us that “the bodies were not formally donated by people who agreed to be displayed.”
Formally? Are we to infer from this that it was all agreed to on a handshake?
No, the Chinese government claims these are people who died having no close kin to claim the body. Unfortunately there’s no documentation to support this.
As a result, it’s widely believed by human rights activists (such as Harry Wu, who spent 19 years in a Chinese labor camp) that these are the bodies of Chinese prisoners, prisoners who may have been tortured and executed by the government.
The Chinese treatment of prisoners is notorious. For example, there have long been serious charges of persecution of a Chinese religious movement, the Falun Gong, involving organ harvesting from live members. (See the report by former Canadian parliamentarian David Kilgour and human rights lawyer David Matas.)
This is why Premier Exhibitors, Inc., offers a disclaimer: “Premier relies solely on the representations of its Chinese partners and cannot independently verify that they (the bodies) do not belong to prisoners executed while incarcerated in Chinese prisons.”
This legal disclaimer is well advised. China, after all, is not only notorious for its cruelty to animals. It’s the land of the “one-child” policy and forced abortion, of brutal political and religious persecution and ethnic cleansing (ask the Tibetans and the Uighurs). It harvests organs on a massive scale for commercial purposes.
This exhibit is not unique. We see the same thing in current films and TV shows, which in the past couple years have begun, unannounced, to routinely exhibit human corpses in grotesque and graphic ways.
For example, the characters in shows such as NCIS casually pick up and handle body parts from a cadaver being dissected in a lab, while the camera dwells on the grisly voyeuristic details.
These programs, and the traveling exhibit of human corpses, force us to focus on things that would naturally shock and repel us, in order to desensitize us. We are being conditioned to regard the human body as something that has no spiritual significance.
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Head Teacher Says Schoolchildren Do Not Need Books and Recommends Wikipedia
The head teacher of a school in New York is facing calls to resign after he sent out an error-strewn letter claiming that children did not need books, while he also recommended Wikipedia.
Andrew Buck, the principal of The Middle School for Art and Philosophy, Brooklyn, wrote to his teachers to defend the school’s policy of not providing textbooks, which had been criticised by some parents.
His memo contained so many spelling mistakes, grammatical errors and non-sequiturs that a concerned member of staff passed it on to parents, who began handing out copies at the school gates.
Mr Buck, who is paid $130,000 (£83,000) a year, wrote: “Text books are the soup de jour, the *sine qua non*, the nut and bolts of teaching and learning in high school and college so to speak.” However, he added, “just because student have a text book, doesn’t mean she or she will be able to read it Additionally students can’t use a text book to learn how to learn from a textbook.
“Are text books necessary? No. Are text books important? Yes. Can a teacher sufficiently teach a course without them? Yes, but conditionally.”
Mr Buck went on to say that not being able to answer questions in his own school textbooks made him feel “dumb and inadequate” when he was a boy.
“Personal experience aside, which surfaces a concern about the potential adverse affects of textbooks to students learning, let’s return to the essential question of learning and how it is best achieved,” he wrote.
After listing the names of educational theorists whose work, he said, would back up his claims, Mr Buck wrote: “Check out Wikipedia if you want to learn more about learning theory”.
Pupils at the school, where only one in eight 14-year-olds passed state reading exams last year, are given no textbooks for some classes and have to share in others. The school has no library.
Paulette Brown, a nursing assistant with a daughter at the school, told local reporters: “Our principal denies us books and then he sends this nonsense. You can’t understand what he’s saying in the letter. He has to go.”
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The Frankfurt School: Conspiracy to Corrupt
Western civilization at the present day is passing through a crisis which is essentially different from anything that has been previously experienced. Other societies in the past have changed their social institutions or their religious beliefs under the influence of external forces or the slow development of internal growth. But none, like our own, has ever consciously faced the prospect of a fundamental alteration of the beliefs and institutions on which the whole fabric of social life rests … Civilization is being uprooted from its foundations in nature and tradition and is being reconstituted in a new organisation which is as artificial and mechanical as a modern factory.
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The Tea Party Warns of a New Elite. They’re Right.
Charles Murray
[…]
Far from spending their college years in a meritocratic melting pot, the New Elite spend school with people who are mostly just like them — which might not be so bad, except that so many of them have been ensconced in affluent suburbs from birth and have never been outside the bubble of privilege. Few of them grew up in the small cities, towns or rural areas where more than a third of all Americans still live.
[…]
There so many quintessentially American things that few members of the New Elite have experienced. They probably haven’t ever attended a meeting of a Kiwanis Club or Rotary Club, or lived for at least a year in a small town (college doesn’t count) or in an urban neighborhood in which most of their neighbors did not have college degrees (gentrifying neighborhoods don’t count). They are unlikely to have spent at least a year with a family income less than twice the poverty line (graduate school doesn’t count) or to have a close friend who is an evangelical Christian. They are unlikely to have even visited a factory floor, let alone worked on one.
Taken individually, members of the New Elite are isolated from mainstream America as a result of lifestyle choices that are nobody’s business but their own. But add them all up, and they mean that the New Elite lives in a world that doesn’t intersect with mainstream America in many important ways. When the tea party says the New Elite doesn’t get America, there is some truth in the accusation.
Part of the isolation is political. In that Harvard survey I mentioned, 72 percent of Harvard seniors said their beliefs were to the left of the nation as a whole, compared with 10 percent who said theirs were to the right of it. The political preferences of academics and journalists among the New Elite also conform to the suspicions of the tea party.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
1 comments:
I like body worlds. Maybe if more people viewed the human body, more might be inspired to become doctors...
I don't believe china supplies the bodies. When BW came to toronto, people were signing up to be plastinated.
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