Chimps Throwing Poop and 29 Other Mind Blowing Ways That the Government is Wasting Your Money
Why do chimpanzees throw poop? The federal government would like to know and is using your tax dollars to investigate the matter. Every single year, we all send huge amounts of our hard-earned money to the federal government.
We hope that they will spend that money wisely. Unfortunately, that is simply not the case. You are about to read some examples of how the government is wasting your money that are absolutely mind blowing. Anyone that claims that there is not a lot of waste that can be cut out of the federal budget is lying to you. Our politicians have racked up the biggest pile of debt in the history of the world and they are spending our money on some of the stupidest things imaginable. It is imperative that the American people be educated about all of this outrageous government waste, because right now the political will to change this corrupt system is simply not there among the current crop of politicians in Washington. We are stealing trillions of dollars from future generations and many of the things that our politicians are wasting that money on are almost too bizarre to believe.
The following are 30 mind blowing ways that the government is wasting your money…
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#6 If you can believe it, the federal government has actually spent $750,000 on a new soccer field for detainees held at Guantanamo Bay.
#7 The U.S. Agency for International Development spent 10 million dollars to create a version of “Sesame Street” for Pakistani television.
#8 The Obama administration has plans to spend between 16 and 20 million dollars to help students from Indonesia get master’s degrees.
#30 At this point, China is holding over a trillion dollars of U.S. government debt. But that didn’t stop the United States from sending 17.8 million dollars in foreign aid to China in 2011.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
China: Bankruptcy in Building Trade; State Companies Profits Plummet by 13.6 Percent
Two construction companies have declared bankruptcy because of inability to pay debts. 50% of buildings remain unsold and Chinese banks credit crunch prostrates cash-strapped companies. State-owned industries weighed down by decrease in demand from abroad. Some shipping companies see transport almost to zero and profits decline by almost 100%.
Beijing (AsiaNews) The signs of difficulty in the Chinese economy are growing more serious, with a series of bankruptcies declared by some construction companies in Guangdong and Hangzhou. At the same time, in first quarter State owned industries profits fell by 13.6%.
Guangdong in the south, Shunde’s Guangdeye Property development filed for bankruptcy two days ago because of inability to pay its debts. The private company has not built new projects since 2008, when it started having financial problems.
In Hangzhou, the Hangzhou Jinxiu Real Estate, engaged in construction of luxury apartments, has declared bankruptcy. In recent years, thanks to a loan facility of the State banks, construction companies have created projects above and beyond the real needs. According to economist Andy Xie, China now has more houses than needed. Already, the housing space per person, while serving 650 million urban residents, is higher than Europe and Japan. The amount of buildings could provide home ownership to another 200 million people, the equivalent of the increase in urban population over the next 15 years. In Beijing and Shanghai, the average price per square foot exceeds the value of five months’ average wages, and according to calculations a few months ago, at least 50% of new buildings remained empty and unsold. To curb the speculative bubble, the government has imposed limits on bank lending and the purchase of second and third homes, , prostrating the cash-strapped construction companies.
Analysts expect a wave of bankruptcies in Beijing and Shanghai.
Today, data on the profit margins of state firms were circulated, which in the first quarter of 2012 decreased by 13.6%. The weak result was expected given that companies like China Cosco, maritime transport experienced a loss in profits of 98.84 in the first quarter 2012, after a total loss in 2011.
The Chinese economy is suffering because of reduced demand from abroad, but also an obsolete model of development and authority’s corruption (see: 30/11/2011 As China’s govt cheats, its economy is “on the brink of bankruptcy”, Chinese scholar says “).
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Dutch Government on Brink of Collapse
The Dutch government is on the brink of collapse after politicians hit an impasse on implementing austerity measures required to secure a bailout.
As the economic and technical data points to financial Armageddon looming in Spain Dutch politicians are deadlocked over the decision to implement brutal austerity measures to secure an economic bailout or to tell the bankers to shove it and take the path of Iceland.
Dutch politicians have announced they can not come to an agreement on austerity limits required to secure the bailout to save the Dutch economy.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Monti: We Can Make it, But No Exceptions to Fiscal Rigour
(AGI) Milan — Mario Monti while paying a visit to Milan’s furniture trade show said that he is an optimist and “Italy can make it. It will soon restore growth”. Nevertheless he kept a low profile by saying that “there will be no exceptions to economic discipline”. He also ruled out another tax on property. The Italian Prime Minister and his wife paid a surprise visit to the show that is currently taking place in Milan’s exibition centre. He had lunch with Interior Minister Anna Maria Cancellieri and furniture industry’s businesspeople.
After an exchange of opinions with furniture industry’s businesspeople a press conference was organized. Monti did not hide that “some difficulties are still there” but he said that “Italy can make it”. He added that “We still need to be cautious about the country’s budget but there are some signs for hope and optimism”.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
One Nation Under Debt With Endless Debt Slavery for All
Debt is a “soft” form of slavery. In America today, it is not legal to bind people up with chains and force them to work for you, but that doesn’t mean that there are not millions upon millions of slaves in this country. When you borrow money, you willingly become a servant to the lender. Sadly, there are millions of Americans that will spend the rest of their lives working to pay off their debts but they will never escape the endless debt slavery that they have gotten themselves into. When you add up all forms of debt in the United States at this point, it comes to more than 54 trillion dollars. That is more than $178,000 for every man, woman and child in America. We truly are one nation under debt, and we have created the biggest debt bubble in the history of the planet. Unfortunately, all debt bubbles eventually burst, and when this one bursts the consequences are going to be unlike anything ever seen before.
When most Americans think of the “U.S. debt problem”, they tend to only think of the U.S. national debt. Well, that certainly is horrifying, but it is only a small part of the overall problem.
The chart posted below shows the growth of total debt in the United States over the last several decades. Total credit market debt owed was less than 5 trillion dollars back in 1980, but now it is over 54 trillion dollars…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
S&P Concerned About Banks’ Stability in Serious Crisis
Standard & Poor’s (S&P) analyst Alois Strasser has warned that a crisis worse than the most recent one could “totally demolish” Austrian finance institutes’ capital.
Strasser — who is in charge of the US American rating agency’s economic estimations for the Austrian economy — told Die Presse today (Fri) that the Republic of Austria could have to spend 23 per cent of the gross domestic product in such a dramatic scenario. Strasser explained that S&P assumed a recession of six per cent of the GDP, a 60 per cent collapse of stock market trading values and a rise in unemployment of 15 per cent. He admitted that such a situation would be “extreme”. Strasser claimed that S&P had to consider such circumstances to make predictions.
The Upper Austrian analyst warned that Austria’s banks — of which some are highly active in the Eastern European region (EE) — were weakly capitalised in international comparison. Speaking to Die Presse, Strasser said a scenario as dramatic as investigated by S&P for its effects on the state and the various banks was “not very likely” since the credit rating of Austria and the country’s banks would be much different otherwise.
S&P lowered Austria’s rating from the best possible estimation of AAA by one grade to AA+ in January. People’s Party (ÖVP) Vice Chancellor Michael Spindelegger labelled the decision as “wrong and unfair”. Austrian National Bank (OeNB) Governor Ewald Nowotny claimed in a first reaction to the step that the New York-based agency acted “politically motivated”. The OeNB chief said the decision must have political grounds as it was made public only a few days ahead of a crucial crisis gathering of the government and state leaders of the European Union’s (EU) 27 members in Brussels, Belgium.
S&P’s decision to strip Austria of its AAA was succeeded by a disputed move of rival rating agency Moody’s.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: Asian Investments Up, EU Investments Down
(ANSAmed) — ISTANBUL, APRIL 20 — Investments of Asian countries were up while investments of European Union (EU) countries were down in Turkey in the first two months of 2012, as Anatolia news agency reports today. According to direct foreign investment figures, investments of EU countries in Turkey declined by 200 million USD while investments of Asian countries rose by 413 million USD year-on-year in the first two months of 2012. Capital inflow in Turkey was up 15% to 1.2 billion USD year-on-year in the first two months of the year.
Capital inflow from EU countries decreased 22% to 716 million USD. This figure was 913 million USD in January and February 2011. France was the country from where direct investments to Turkey declined the most among EU member states in the mentioned period. France, which made 193 million USD of investments in Turkey in January and February 2011, only made 8 million USD of investments in the first two months of this year. Capital inflow from Asian countries was up 34% from 21 million to 434 million USD in the first two months of 2012.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
[Photo] Earth Day 2012 — Measuring Cow Farts
This is an example of how stupid the entire cult of environmentalism is. Some “scientists” measured the amount of methane in cow farts by way of saving the Earth from something or other.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Chicagoans Warned to Evacuate Before Globalist Instigated Riot During NATO Summit
Residents of a Chicago condo received a letter from management last week informing them that they should move out of their homes during the upcoming NATO confab to be held in the Windy City next month. If the residents decide to remain, they will be subjected to a lockdown.
“In the event of a riot or the potential of one near the building,” the letter states, “all access doors will be locked including the garage door. For everyone’s safety we will be instructing anyone in the building to stay in his or her unit.”
Aaron Klein, writing for WorldNetDaily on Saturday, said radicals with ties to Obama plan to riot during the NATO summit.
In August of 2011, Klein said the founders of a “radical group that teaches tactics of direct action, confrontation and intimidation” were among a “slew of extremist organizations, some tied to President Obama, preparing protests to coincide with major NATO and G-8 summits in Chicago.”
Klein quoted Joe Losbaker of the United National Antiwar Committee, one of the groups planning protests, who warned, “The wars and economic policies of the NATO and G8 nations are not just and will be met by protest.”
Losbaker and his wife, Stephanie Weiner, worked as leaders of the Chicago New Party. It was formed by the Democratic Socialists of America, ACORN and the labor union SEIU. The Communist Party USA breakaway group Committees of Correspondence and the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) were also involved in forming the New Party.
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The IPS is a Marxist organization formed in the early 1960s. It has received funding from the banker James Warburg, the son of the infamous banker Paul Warbrug. The elder Warburg was instrumental in creating the Federal Reserve and was chosen by President Woodrow Wilson to serve as one of its first members.
It may seem odd for an international banker to fund a Marxist organization supposedly advocating the destruction of finance capital. “If one understands that socialism is not a share-the-wealth program, but is in reality a method to consolidate and control the wealth, then the seeming paradox of superrich men promoting socialism becomes no paradox at all,” writes the late Gary Allen. “Instead it becomes the logical, even the perfect tool of power-seeking megalomaniacs. Communism, or more accurately, socialism, is not a movement of the downtrodden masses, but of the economic elite.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Democrats Manipulated the 2008 Election Results
(Business Insider) John McCain’s 2008 campaign staff allegedly had evidence that Democrats stuffed ballot boxes in Pennsylvania and Ohio on election night, but McCain chose not to pursue voter fraud, according to internal Stratfor emails published by WikiLeaks.
In an email sent on November 7, 2008, and titled “ Insight — The Dems & Dirty Tricks ** Internal Use Only — Pls Do Not Forward **,” Stratfor vice president of intelligence Fred Burton wrote…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Department of Homeland Security Buying Up Enough Ammo to Wage Seven-Year War
(NaturalNews) As we recently reported, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), an agency that says its main purpose now is to thwart “homegrown terrorism,” has awarded a contract to ammunition manufacturer ATK for acquiring 450 million rounds of .40 caliber hollow point ammo. You can view the announcement of the ammunition purchase at this press release: www.marketwatch.com/story/atk-secures-40-caliber-ammunition-co…
Our initial coverage of the story is at: www.naturalnews.com/035607_government_checkpoints_Martial_Law…
Many NaturalNews readers may not know this, but “hollow point” ammunition is never purchased for practice or training. This ammunition is purchased for the sole purpose of being used in active fighting. At the same time, it is a violation of the Geneva Convention to use hollow point ammunition on the battle field.
This is crucial to understand. It means the occupying federal government is acquiring this ammunition to be used against the American people. Furthermore, DHS does not fight wars overseas. It is a domestic agency with domestic responsibilities. Its purchase of .40 ammunition is a clear and obvious indication that DHS plans to wage war on the American people.
How big of a war? Here’s where this investigation gets really interesting.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Forbes Writer Scoffs at Infowars “Freak Out” On Mandatory Black Boxes
Forbes writer Kashmir Hill responds to our report about black box data recorders becoming mandatory in all new cars under a bill set to be passed by the House by accusing Infowars of engaging in a “freak out” and claiming the legislation is “good for privacy” when in reality it destroys privacy.
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Hill’s attitude seems to stem from the mind set that the state has already eviscerated our privacy, so why should we bother fighting back to salvage what’s left of it? She brazenly dismisses fourth amendment rights as “roadkill” simply because having a black box in your vehicle might help the authorities work out who was responsible for an accident.
The most chilling aspect of this approach is that Hill bills herself as a privacy expert yet she has no idea about the ‘slippery slope’ principle and has seemingly failed to read the ‘Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act’ (MAP-21), on which her article is based.
The point of our original story was not that the black boxes will merely be in all new cars from 2015 onwards if this bill passes, it’s that it will be mandatory to activate them and anyone who attempts to deactivate them will be hit with civil penalties under section 31406 of the bill. This is about creating the groundwork for a future tax by the mile system which has been aggressively promoted by the Obama administration.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Green is Red
The news is out that Obama-Soetoro, his unindicted co-conspirators in the Democrat Party, and their running dog Republican toadies have, in just three years and a few months, run up a mindboggling $5,000,000,000,000.00 in new debt.
That is significantly more spending than was done by all previous presidents, from Washington to Bush. But what is really scary here, is how few people, including otherwise knowledgeable conservatives, understand that this was not simply Keynesian economics gone wild, or fiduciary irresponsibility, or incompetence, but a radical Marxist strategy aimed at ending free, capitalist America. That trillions have gone to line the pockets of corrupt, already filthy-rich Democrats, with jobs lost, rather than created, recession deepened, rather than abated, makes these traitors dance with glee, like the Palestinians after 9/11.
People who have failed to grasp this fairly obvious truth, also have, since it is an integral part of the strategy, been unable to understand why the Obama-Soetoro cabal has relentlessly attacked the oil, gas, and coal industries, and poured billions into worthless “green” energy schemes. They don’t understand why he has done zip, zero, nada to stem the rise of gas prices (or any of the myriad other rising prices, either). Jeez, Louise, he seems like such a nice guy…?
May I repeat: this is all part of a radical Marxist strategy aimed at ending free, capitalist America.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Influential Senator Warned in ‘75: “NSA’s Capability Could be Turned Around on the American People”
Senator Frank Church — who chaired the famous “Church Committee” into the unlawful FBI Cointel program, and who chaired the Senate Foreign Relations Committee — said in 1975:
“Th[e National Security Agency’s] capability at any time could be turned around on the American people, and no American would have any privacy left, such is the capability to monitor everything: telephone conversations, telegrams, it doesn’t matter. There would be no place to hide. [If a dictator ever took over, the N.S.A.] could enable it to impose total tyranny, and there would be no way to fight back.”
Now, the NSA is building a $2 billion dollar facility in Utah which will use the world’s most powerful supercomputer to monitor virtually all phone calls, emails, internet usage, purchases and rentals, break all encryption, and then store everyone’s data permanently.
The former head of the program for the NSA recently held his thumb and forefinger close together, and said:
We are, like, that far from a turnkey totalitarian state
So Senator Church’s warning was prophetic.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Marijuana-Infused Wine Produced at Calif. Vineyards: Dangerous?
(CBS News) Just in time for 4/20, reports have surfaced that an increasing number of California winemakers are turning to another locally produced intoxicant. The Daily Beast reports several California winemakers are creating blends of marijuana-infused wines on the sly.
According to The Daily Beast, pot wine is made by placing a pound of marijuana in a cask of wine, leading to about 1.5 grams of marijuana per bottle. The fermentation process converts sugar from grapes into alcohol, and the alcohol extracts the THC from marijuana over a nine-month process.
TIME reports the process dates back to the 1980s when the drug was blended with rose. Now vintners are more likely to infuse marijuana cabernet and syrah.
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“This is a dangerous combination, with accentuates the effects of both substances,” Dr. Robert Glatter, an emergency medicine physician at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City, told HealthPop in an email.
Side effects of consuming the substances together may include nausea, vomiting, dizziness, agitation, and paranoid ideation, Glatter said.
According to Glatter, marijuana, a hallucinogen, and alcohol — a stimulant initially that is a potent depressant — may be dangerous together because the additive marijuana will likely allow people to consume more alcohol than they normally would, potentially leading to breathing difficulties and low blood pressure.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Suspect: I Beat Up White Man Because I Am Mad About Trayvon Martin Case
Alton L. Hayes III, a west suburban man charged with a hate crime, told police he was so upset about the Trayvon Martin case in Florida that he beat up a white man early Tuesday.
Hayes and a 15-year-old Chicago boy walked up behind the 19-year-old man victim and pinned his arms to his side, police said. Hayes, 18, then picked up a large tree branch, pointed it at the man and said, “Empty your pockets, white boy.”
The two allegedly rifled through the victim’s pockets, then threw him to the ground and punched him “numerous times” in the head and back before running away, police said. Hayes and the boy are black; the victim is white.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
TSA’s Mission Creep is Making the US a Police State
This callous disregard for travelers’ rights merely paraphrases the words of Homeland Security director Janet Napolitano, who shares, with the president, ultimate responsibility for all TSA travesties since 2009. In November 2010, with the groping policy only a few weeks old,Napolitano dismissed complaints by saying “people [who] want to travel by some other means” have that right. (In other words: if you don’t like it, don’t fly.)
But now TSA is invading travel by other means, too. No surprise, really: as soon as she established groping in airports, Napolitano expressed her desire to expand TSA jurisdiction over all forms of mass transit. In the past year, TSA’s snakelike VIPR (Visual Intermodal Prevention and Response) teams have been slithering into more and more bus and train stations — and even running checkpoints on highways — never in response to actual threats, but apparently more in an attempt to live up to the inspirational motto displayed at the TSA’s air marshal training center since the agency’s inception: “Dominate. Intimidate. Control.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Van Jones: ‘Progressives Have Another Century to Win!’
(Rolling Stone) Van Jones, one of the most effective organizers and strategists on the left, is out with a new book. Rebuild the Dream, which debuted last week on the New York Times bestseller list, takes its name from the organization Jones helped found a year ago to stir up a grass-roots insurgency against the plutocrats we now call “the 1 percent,” and which now seeks to harness the insurgent energies expressed by the Occupy movement into lasting institutional reform.
Jones has some harsh words for his critics, those he dismisses as “cheap patriots” …
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Why is it Necessary for the Federal Government to Turn the United States Into a Prison Camp?
The federal government could turn the entire country into one giant prison camp, but that would still not keep us safe. It is inevitable that bad stuff will happen in life. But we have a choice. We can choose to live in fear or we can choose to live as free men and women. Our forefathers intended to establish a nation where liberty and freedom would be maximized. But today we are told that we have to give up our liberties and our freedoms and our privacy for increased security. But is such a trade really worth it? Just think of the various totalitarian societies that we have seen down throughout history. Have any of them ever really thrived? Have their people been happy? Unfortunately, the U.S. federal government has decided that the entire country needs to be put on lock down. Nearly everything that we do today is watched and tracked, and personal privacy is rapidly becoming a thing of the past. Many of the things that George Orwell wrote about in 1984 are becoming a reality, and that is a very frightening thing. The United States is supposed to be the land of the free and the home of the brave. Sadly, we are rapidly becoming the exact opposite of that.
I don’t know about you, but I never signed up to live in North Korea. When I was growing up I was taught that repressive regimes such as North Korea are “the bad guys” and that America is where “the good guys” live.
So why do we want to be just like North Korea?
When they put in the naked body scanners at U.S. airports and started having TSA agents conduct “enhanced pat-downs” of travelers, I decided that I was not going to fly anymore unless absolutely necessary.
Then I heard about how “random bag checks” were being conducted at Metro train stations in the Washington D.C. area, and I was glad that I was no longer taking the train into D.C. anymore.
But now the TSA is showing up everywhere. Down in Houston, undercover TSA agents and police officers will now “ride buses, perform random bag checks, and conduct K-9 sweeps, as well as place uniformed and plainclothes officers at Transit Centers and rail platforms to detect, prevent and address latent criminal activity or behavior.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
100,000 British Women Mutilated
As many as 100,000 women in Britain have undergone female genital mutilations with medics in the UK offering to carry out the illegal procedure on girls as young as 10, it has been reported.
Investigators from The Sunday Times said they secretly filmed a doctor, dentist and alternative medicine practitioner who were allegedly willing to perform circumcisions or arrange for the operation to be carried out. The doctor and dentist deny any wrongdoing.
The practice, which involves the surgical removal of external genitalia and in some cases the stitching of the vaginal opening, is illegal in Britain and carries up to a 14 year prison sentence.
It is also against the law to arrange FGM.
Known as “cutting”, the procedure is traditionally carried out for cultural reasons and is widespread across Africa.
It is thought to be needed as proof of a girl’s “purity” for when she marries, but victims are rarely given anaesthetic and frequently suffer long-term damage and pain.
Research suggests that every year up to 6,000 girls in London are at risk of the potentially fatal procedure, and more than 22,000 in the UK as a whole.
The Metropolitan Police said since 2008, it had received 166 reports of people who fear they are at risk of FGM.
It is the same story for all 43 forces across England and Wales with no convictions for the offence ever taking place, according to The Sunday Times.
The newspaper added that only two doctors have been struck off by The General Medical Council since 1980.
According to Forward, a charity which campaigners against FGM, an estimated 100,000 women in the UK have undergone mutilation.
Supermodel Waris Dirie, who was mutilated as a child, is a vociferous opponent of the practice.
Calling for a crackdown on FGM, she said: “If a white girl is abused, the police come break down the door. If a black girl is mutilated, nobody takes care of her. This is what I call racism.”
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
100,000 Women Undergo Brutal Genital Mutilation Illegally in Britain (And Some of the Victims Are as Young as Ten)
As many as 100,000 women in Britain have undergone female genital mutilations with medics in the UK offering to carry out the illegal procedure on girls as young as 10, it has been reported.
Investigators from The Sunday Times said they secretly filmed a doctor, dentist and alternative medicine practitioner who were allegedly willing to perform circumcisions or arrange for the operation to be carried out.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
British National Party Leaders Hook Up to Produce Book on the ‘Islamization of Europe’
The British National Party have announced that they are selling a “great new book on the Muslim tide, and how to turn it”. The book is titled Inch’Allah? The Islamization of Europe, its author is Vlaams Belang leader Filip Dewinter, and the English version is translated and edited by none other than the BNP’s own would-be führer Nick Griffin. Indeed, it would appear that Griffin’s role in the production of the book went even further than that — he is now boasting about the new sections he introduced to improve Dewinter’s original text.
(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) — Enthusiasm for Inch’Allah? evidently transcends the deep divisions within the BNP itself. Griffin’s leading political opponent in the party, Andrew Brons, has published a glowing review of the book on his own Nationalist Unity Forum, hailing it as “one of the most comprehensive and well-researched works on the Islamic colonisation of Europe yet published on the continent”. Mind you, that may have been before Brons realised Griffin had a hand in writing it.
Some of us will recall that the US Islamophobic bloggers Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer were sharply criticised by their former ally Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs for their participation at the Counterjihad Brussels 2007 conference alongside Filip Dewinter. Johnson accused Vlaams Belang of being white nationalists with fascist links.
Geller and Spencer indignantly denied this. Geller argued that “Vlaams Belang is the only party that has gone out of its way to support Israel. No political party in Belgium has supported Israel. Vlaams Belang has been the only party staunchly behind Israel for the past 10 years.” Spencer agreed that VB are “the only ones in Flanders standing against the jihad and for Israel”.
Given these expressions of support for Vlaams Belang, and their shared views on the threatened “Islamization” of the West, will Geller and Spencer be promoting the English edition of Dewinter/Griffin’s book in the US? And if not, why not? I think we should be told.
| — Hat tip: TV | [Return to headlines] |
France 2012: Anti-Politics in the Streets in Paris
(AGI) Paris — On the day of pre-elections silence, on the eve of presidential elections, youth go down in the streets in Paris.In the heart of Paris an anti-politics demonstration was set up by a crowd made up mostly of young people who walked across the city heralding, “They do not represent us!”, referring to the ten official candidates running to lead the Elysee .
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Seven Arrested After October Riots in Rome
‘Day of Rage’ left dozens hurt
(ANSA) — Rome, April 20 — Italian police on Friday arrested seven people across Italy in connection with a rampage in Rome in October in which anti-capitalists torched cars and broke windows in the worst violence in the Italian capital for years.
The October 15 rioting by groups linking themselves to the so-called Indignati (Indignant Ones) staging a ‘Day of Rage’ against global financial elites left dozens of police and demonstrators hurt. On Friday security police raided homes in Rome, Teramo, Ancona, Civitanova Marche, Padua and Cosenza, targeting known anarchists as well as soccer hooligans.
“It’s an operation that will shine light on what happened,” said Interior Minister Annamaria Cancellieri.
A warrant issued by a preliminary-investigations judge said the arrests could lead to charges of “attempted homicide” for one incident, an attack on a police armoured car, which was torched.
Among those arrested in Teramo was a leftist militant, Davide Rossi, who narrowly failed to win a place in council elections for the Communist Refoundation party last year.
The seven taken into custody were later released to house arrest.
Another six were served orders not to leave their cities of residence.
Probes since the October violence have led to a total of 34 arrests and eight convictions but investigators intend to track down more people suspected of being involved in the trouble.
Rome Mayor Gianni Alemanno thanked the police and prosecutors for their work on finding the perpetrators.
“This shows that even months after the event it is possible to find the culprits for these deeds, which must never happen in our city again,” Alemanno said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Alfredo’s: Rome Eatery With Heroic Past, Delicious Present
Owners helped Jewish families during World War II
(ANSA) — Rome — Italians named Alfredo often hear the glib exclamation Fettuccine! when they introduce themselves to foreigners, especially North Americans.
Alfredo Di Lelio, a Roman chef and restaurant owner from the early 1900s, may not have invented pasta al burro (pasta with butter), but his interpretation, the iconic Fettuccine Alfredo, carries his name and has been savored worldwide since the 20s. Millions of recipes are floating around, including one in the classic US cookbook Joy of Cooking and many believe that the creamy sauce is an invention of Italian Americans. “Not so,” the current owner of Rome’s famous Vero Alfredo restaurant, Isa Di Lelio, granddaughter of Alfredo I, told ANSA.
“My grandfather Alfredo’s pasta, made even richer with three parts butter instead of two, was prepared for his wife when she was pregnant with my father, before he added it to his restaurant’s menu in 1908”. Yet Alfredo’s rich and nutritious creation went on to feed much more than his wife and the paying public. “We went underground in 1944 when occupying forces in Rome began to round up Jewish families,” one of those people, 84-year old Donatella Limentani, told ANSA. “We had no game plan, no extra food supplies, we just knew that our only chance to live was to go into hiding”.
Alfredo’s son Armando, later known as Alfredo II, was a long-time friend of Limentani’s uncle Bruno and did not hesitate to help the family, along with many others in need. “The risks were not only imprisonment, but torture and even death. Regardless, they made sure we had food,” recalled Limentani, her voice wrought with emotion after more than 50 years. “In the worst of times, they may have only had two spoonfuls themselves, but one went to us”. Before the war, Armando and Bruno had been the classic, bon vivant friends, arm-in-arm, reveling in the finer side of Rome’s social life. It was, after all, a time when Hollywood stars flocked to the city and entertainment poured from the city’s many venues.
As early as the 1920s Hollywood personalities began to frequent Alfredo’s. Among the first were Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks, who gifted the golden fork and spoon to Alfredo that have now become part of the restaurant’s logo. Upon returning to Hollywood, they gushed about Alfredo’s culinary finesse so much that the restaurant became a “must do” on the list of stars and VIPs visiting the Eternal City.
Some 90 years later, the significance of the golden cutlery has become even more symbolic. Eliana Pavoncello, daughter of Donatella Limentani, told ANSA: “I had been working with the restaurant for events, looking at the logo every day and seeing their cutlery, then, one day at my mother’s. “I realized that the knife I was about to set the table with was the same design as the one used at Alfredo’s — identical to the original gift from Pickford and Fairbanks,” she said, smiling. “It was like a bulb lighting up. One of the cornerstone symbols of the restaurant came from my grandparent’s store, Limentani’s. “Our families were somehow bonded even before they knew it”. To celebrate the daily sustenance they received as children in hiding, then 14-year old Limentani and her seven-year-old brother wrote a rhyme they would sing when their aunt Margaret would return from Alfredo’s restaurant with their daily bread. “It is a children’s song,” she reminisced. “But it was part of our ritual that kept us hopeful. It let our minds feel free… hunger is a physical sensation, but also the lack of freedom was insatiable. “In a time when it was hard to know who was truly your friend the proof of one family’s friendship came to us every day wrapped in a checkered table cloth”. Di Lelio said simply that: “my father was a generous person. I am moved by stories I hear about him to this day”. Fettuccine Alfredo is a ubiquitous part of Italian cuisine worldwide. Just as the restaurant on Piazza Augusto Imperatore, with its volumes of guest books and snapshots of stars, politicians and personalities spanning 10 decades, is engraved into Roman culinary history, so will Alfredo and son remain in the unwavering memories of the families they helped save. Rhyme by Donatella Limentani while in hiding, 1944: Dring Dring Dring Di chi e’ la suonatina Che sentiamo ogni mattina? E’ la tua Margaretina Con la borsa col faggoto Tu di corsa entri in cucina E ci porti da mangiare Con amore Margaretina.
Translation: Jingle jingle jing Whose is that ring We hear every morning? It is yours, little Margaret With your purse and tiffin you rush to the kitchen And you bring us our food With love, little Margaret.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Renaissance Library Impounded After Massive Book Theft
Thousands of volumes missing from Girolamini in Naples
(ANSA) — Naples, April 19 — One of Italy’s oldest libraries was impounded Thursday as part of a police investigation into thousands of stolen antique books. The Girolamini Library, known for its vast collection of writings on theology and philosophy, lost the books several days ago, according to Director Marino Massimo De Caro who reported the incident to police. Management of the building has fallen under the auspices of the director of the Vittorio Emanuele III National Museum in Naples for the time being. First opened in 1586, it contains roughly 160,000 volumes, 5,000 of which date back to the 16th century.
The library, which was famously frequented by 18th-century political philosopher Giambattista Vico, adjoins the Girolamini church complex and convent.
In addition to its trove of rare volumes, the library is treasured for four well-preserved 18th-century rooms. photo: archive pic of police in a library
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Balduzzi Signs Decree, C Bracket Drugs Also in Shops
(AGI) Rome — Medecines in the C bracket will be sold also in shops, not only in pharmacies, but only when “delisted”, which means when the obligation to have a prescription is abolished.
Health Minister Renato Balduzzi, signed today, within the 120 days deadline as the law prescribes, the decree implementing art. 32 of the “Salva Italia” decree-law, concerning the sale of C bracket medecines, which are those paid directly by the citizens. The decree was signed after technical assessment by the AIFA, the Italian agency for medecines.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Father of Pakistani Baby Girl Killed in Modena Arrested
(AGI) Modena — 32-years old Mohammad Tubassam ended up in jail accused of murdering his 2-years-old Pakistani daugther. The baby girl died on wednesday at Modena’s hospital after 13 days of sufferings. The baby girl had already been hospitalized in Miralndola last january for head injuries due to a fall. She came to Modena’s hospital with very serious injuries all over her bodies, including her head, that were immediately considered as incompatible with an accidental fall in the bathroom, as the mother said. The mother is now under investigation for child injury and abuse, but according to the evidence gathered she was in another room of the family’s house in Concordia. Police investigators are persuaded that the man acted on his own, once he was back from work and the baby girl was crying. He took the baby girl to the hospital himself, denying any abuse and supporting the mother’s version.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Bossi: Maroni Good for Party, Those Who Took Money, Out
(AGI) Rome — In a surprise visit to Roberto Maroni’s electoral meeting Bossi declared, “They want to try and break the League.” The “Senatur” defended Maroni, “He is good for the League.” He then remarked, “We were a bit ashamed of what happened, but the people understood. If something went wrong it’s because there was deception.” “We believe in the League and the project. I resigned, a first step, but to tell the truth I’ve gone up in rank, from Secretary I’ve become President….”, explained the former Reform Minister, “We must be strong and show that it won’t pass. Our enemy is the centralism of Rome. Today the League is compact and is returniing to be a principal political force in the country.” Umberto Bossi continued, “If one gets to the bottom of things they discover than no-one has gotten rich. But for those who have taken money, it is right that they step aside.” . .
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Bossi Seeks Lega Nord Unity and Agreement With Maroni
(AGI) Arese — Asked whether he is planning to leave his Lega Nord party, Umberto Bossi said he actually wants to unite it.
“I want to unite the Lega Nord”, Umberto Bossi said when asked whether or not he is planning to leave the party and found a new one. “I want to reach an agreement with Maroni”, he added.
Bossi also confirmed that he has not yet decided whether or not to stand as candidate for federal secretary of the party.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: US Securities and Deposit Certificates Confiscated in Rome
(AGI) Rome — US securities with a face value of 1,5 billion Dollars and deposit certificates amounting to about 1000 tons of gold. This is the result of an operation performed by Rome’s tax police dubbed “Million Dollar” triggered by the suspicion that they were of doubtful origin. The operation took place both in the provinces of Rome and Viterbo and led to the reporting to judicial authorities of a man, 70, persistant offender, allegedly accused for introducing into Italy currency and securities which are probably forged.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Right Wingers in Europe Just Fired Off Two Huge Torpedoes
The big news out of the French election: Marine Le-Pen, the head of the far right wing National Front party, secured 20% of the vote in the first round of voting.
Le-Pen is now out of the race (the runoff on May 6 will be between Sarkozy and Socialist challenger Hollande), but a 20% showing for the anti-immigration, Euroskeptic candidate is a lightning bolt for France and all of Europe.
Sarkozy is now in a desperate situation, where he may have to pander to hardliner in order to win (a move that could alienate more moderate voters).
The other big event in Europe this weekend was int he Netherdlands, where a budget deal collapsed thanks to a revolt lead by another right winger: Geert Wilders.
From AFP:…
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
Senior British Diplomat Loses Eye After Being Mugged as He Walks Through a London Cemetery
A senior British diplomat has lost the sight in one eye after being attacked as he walked through a cemetery.
Bermuda’s new governor George Fergusson took a short cut through Hammersmith Cemetery at 7.30pm on Friday evening as he was late for a dinner party where his wife was waiting.
Keen to make up time, the father-of-three was searching for the address on his BlackBerry when he was punched so hard he fell to the ground.
The attacker failed to prise the mobile phone from his hand, but made off with a small quantity of cash, police said.
The 56-year-old, whose family has a proud history in the British Army and diplomacy, was left dazed and bleeding from his left eye.
The old Etonian was able to get to feet and call his wife Margaret to excuse his absence from the party before staggering to Charing Cross hospital for help.
Yesterday, he underwent surgery at the Western eye hospital in London, but it was too late to save his eye, it was reported in the Sunday Times.
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
U.K. Police Refused to Chase Quad Bike Gang Who Stole Kayak … Because Thieves Had No Helmets
When Rebecca Jones directed police towards a gang of thieves making their getaway on quad bikes she naturally expected officers to tear off in hot pursuit.
But she was left speechless when they called off the chase moments later — on the grounds of health and safety.
They told her that they did not want to risk causing an accident because the gang were not wearing crash helmets and were driving wildly.
Instead, the officers simply gave up and let the thieves disappear into the distance with the £700 kayak they had stolen from Miss Jones.
The legal executive said the gang struck as she and her boyfriend joined her parents on the water of a weir on the River Dearne at Harlington, in South Yorkshire.
As the group prepared to set off, the quad bikers raced up and snatched her kayak before driving off with it strapped to one of their machines.
Miss Jones, 28, and her boyfriend, Mark Skirrow, 27, gave chase and tracked the thieves across fields in the hope that the police would take over once they arrived. ‘The police were called immediately and they also followed the gang and caught up with them on the road,’ said Miss Jones, from Swinton, near Rotherham.
‘But they had to abandon the pursuit because of health and safety concerns as the quad bikers were driving erratically and not wearing helmets.
‘My boat was stolen and there is nothing much I can do about it.’
The police are not understood to have made any arrests.
Miss Jones and her boyfriend had gone to meet up with her parents, both retired teachers, when the thieves pounced during the Easter holidays.
‘I stayed at Mark’s house and we went out for a few drinks,’ she said yesterday. ‘When we woke up the following morning the weather was so nice we decided to take our kayaks to the weir on the River Dearne. After arriving at the car park we unloaded our boats and got changed.’
She said they were never more than ten yards from their boats.
‘Moments later a group of quad bikers came tearing down the road and made off with my brand new boat. I was only standing on the other side of a single lane carriageway. After another member of the public had spotted them, we followed the group, who made off across the fields still with my kayak tied to the front of their bike.
‘The police were called immediately and they followed the gang and caught up with them on the road but then they called it off.’
Health and safety rules have been blamed for inaction by the emergency services in a number of incidents — many of them much more serious.
[…]
A South Yorkshire Police spokesman said of the kayak theft: ‘Officers were instructed not to begin a pursuit. An area search was conducted and all lines of enquiry were explored, unfortunately without gain.
‘South Yorkshire Police perform a risk assessment based on the circumstances of each incident.’
| — Hat tip: McR | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Bundling Bearded Windbags on to Jets Won’t Solve Anything
Theresa May, one of nature’s soppy liberals, is struggling to seem decisive over the deportation of the Bethlehem-born windbag Abu Qatada. The trouble is, Mrs May isn’t even any good at pretending to be tough.
[…]
It has all gone wrong for Mrs May because she and her department are not very good at what they do. But really the British people ought to have seen through this fake controversy by now.
The real Islamist threat to Britain and the rest of Europe comes from uncontrolled mass migration from Muslim countries. Combined with our national refusal to defend our British, Christian culture, this is rapidly creating a powerful and influential Muslim vote which will increasingly change our country.
Given a few more decades, it will have profoundly altered this country. I have long suspected that this island will be more or less Muslim within a century, and it will be the fault of this generation. It would be perfectly legitimate for a respectable, law-abiding and civilised political party to act now to prevent this.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The New Anti-Semitism
by Moshe Dann
It’s Jew-hating time, again. No cross-burnings or bomb-wearing psychos screaming for Allah. It’s sophisticated, draped by UN and EU glitz, banal reports about Israeli atrocities, and Palestinian liberation. It’s so holy, so morally pompous, and fashionable.
Criticizing Israel doesn’t lack for issues: “apartheid,” “war crimes,” “stealing Palestinian land,” “oppressing Palestinians,” “the occupation,” etc.
NGOs funded by European governments, the UN, and most Arab and Muslim organizations and countries, condemn Israel as a pariah state, unworthy of existence. In this pogrom of conscience they wear no hoods. Their masks are self-righteousness.
The mechanism for vilification and de-legitimization, Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) campaigns, is coordinated by the Palestinian BDS National Committee, an umbrella organization for dozens of Palestinian organizations, located in Ramallah and supported by the Palestinian Authority. A global movement, it is behind the spread of anti-Israel actions by churches, unions and student groups.
The mantra chants are easy: “End the Occupation,” “Justice for the Palestinians,” “Peace Now.” No need to think about complicated issues; just blame Israel. And Hate. Hate.
Anti-Israel campaigns overlap anti-Jewish sentiments. This explains why hate-Israel campaigns garner support from atheists, anarchists and even some Christians, why young people wrap themselves in checkered scarves, like Arafat, and come to Israel in order to fight alongside Arabs, some placing themselves in danger, and why EU countries with hard-hit economies spend hundreds of millions of Euros every year supporting anti-Israel organizations.
Backed by Islamists, especially Muslim Brotherhood-supported student organizations, hating Israel has become the campus rage. Meanwhile, university administrators have been obsessively neutral and Jewish organizations, excessively polite.
In addition, Israel has produced its own uber-critics — columnists who condemn Israel as “racist,” editors who recommend “raping” Israel, academics, literary figures, and artists who support BDS against Jews living in Judea and Samaria.
Hence, in order to understand de-legitimization, we need to distinguish between those who seek Israel’s destruction, in one form or another, and those with legitimate, honest criticism. As one of the pillars of democracy is freedom of speech, drawing the line between what is acceptable, and what is not, is often difficult. Self-criticism is essential; without it there cannot be growth. But self-criticism without limit, unbalanced and exaggerated, is self-destructive.
Challenging Israel’s identity as a nominally Jewish state might be acceptable if all states with official religions were rejected. Singling out Israel, therefore, is not only bigoted; it is a form of de-legitimization, a softer denial of Israel’s right to exist.
State-sponsored immorality
The soft deniers protest their link with hard-line de-legitimizers, arguing that they support Israel, but are critical of its “racist policies,” its “illegal occupation of Arab lands,” its “colonialism.” But the connection between criticism and full-blown hatred deepens when biased news stories and distorted rhetoric about Israeli “atrocities” and “war crimes” become self-defined truths, distortions of reality.
Decrying “the occupation as a moral disaster” for Israel therefore identifies Jews as immoral, a state-sponsored immorality, a legal and historical fraud that sharpens the sword of de-legitimization, justifies BDS campaigns, and anti-Jewish violence.
When the Gaza Strip is portrayed as “a vast prison,” for example, then attacking the warders is heroic, overthrowing the system that produced that prison is justified, and Hamas missiles become “self-defense.”…
| — Hat tip: TV | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: Coming Soon: ‘Feline Big Brother’ For Van Cats
Rare cats, two colour eyes, stars of reality show
(by Rodolfo Calo’) (ANSAmed) — ANKARA — Next month will see the launch of a kind of cat version of ‘Big Brother’ to celebrate this specially telegenic cat. The multimedia potential of the breed has been explained to ANSAmed by a leading expert in the field, Professor Fetih Gulyuz, director of the research centre dedicated to the Van at the ‘Centenary University’ on the banks of a very blue lake, that bears the same name as the cat, in eastern Turkey. As the professor said, “as far as we know, there are no other” breeds apart from the “Van Cat” having herterchromia of the eyes. The characteristic is apparently due to “a genetic anomaly” Prof.
Gulyuz notes, pointing out that “Van kedisi” has three kinds of pupil coloration: both yellow, both blue, and — most characteristic — “one blue and one yellow”. This rare feature is in danger of disappearing. As the Professor told the Anadolu press agency, the Van research centre was created specifically to safeguard the Van kedisi from extinction. As you can see from the Wikipedia article on this cat, the completely white version has not yet received recognition in Europe as a breed apart from the more common versions whose heads and tails are of a different colour. Although the rare white exemplars are rare, we will soon be able to enjoy watching them on the internet. As Prof. Gulyuz announces: “within the next two months”, a “live transmission” will start on a website currently under construction. According to the centre’s deputy in charge, Mehmet Karaca, twelve TV cameras will be located in various parts of the kennels. Dating back to 1997, there are just over one hundred cat residents at the moment and cameras will concentrate on interaction between the “mothers” (there are around eighty of these) and their kits. A two-storey building set next to two roofed-over cage compounds, the breeding kennel did not suffer any damage in the two earthquakes of last October and November that led to nearly 650 deaths and left 60,000 local families without their homes in the province of Van, which lies on Turkey’s border with Iran. As soon as four hours after the quakes, “the cats were back to their normal behaviour” the Professor says, and three of the four staff members “continued to feed them as ever: there was no problem here”. Throughout the human ordeal, the cats were never neglected. This cat is the symbol of the region of Van: its face is to be seen in the luminous displays on the entrance to the city and there is a four-metre high statue of the cat in the main thoroughfare. So proud is Turkey of this cat that even Ankara chose its dual-coloured eyes as a logo for a recent tourism campaign. The myth of the Van cat is further fed by the belief that — unlike any other cat — these ones love water. There is a tradition that it learned to swim by jumping off Noah’s Ark even before the Ark docked at its berth by Mount Ararat, and there are plenty of references to it on the Web as the “swimming cat”. But the Prof. is sceptical: “In my opinion, it’s a myth.
It hasn’t been proven by any scientific study” that this cat loves water. There is, the Professor says, no substance to the story that its soft fur sheds water. Just like a dog, finding itself in water, it will do its best not to drown, “but does that mean it enjoys swimming?”. Professor Gulyuz elaborates: Van cats “are sensitive”: “they love being treasured” and they enjoy the domestic life: but they are also very fond of “their freedom” and so “they have the need to wander,” in the garden, for example. The breeding station attached to the university is the only official breeding kennel for this cat. There are bureaucratic obstacles to exporting Van cats and the centre sells just 10-15 kittens a year at between 85 and 210 euros apiece. Private citizens or pet shops in the area have them on offer for around 50-60 euros.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italian-Russian Fuel Deal Applauded by Terzi
‘Step forward’ for bilateral ties
(ANSA) — Moscow, April 20 — Italian Foreign Minister Giulio Terzi said on Friday that the deal by Italian fuel giant Eni and electricity group Enel for natural gas production in Siberia represents a “step ahead” in bilateral relations between Italy and Russia.
Gas from the acrtic field in the autonomous district of Yamals-Nenets, located more that 3,000 kilometers from Moscow, could fill one-third of Italy’s annual fuel needs, said Terzi. But Terzi specified that the gas from the Eni and Enel joint-venture with Russian counterparts Novatek and Gazpromneft, called Severenergia, is not necessarily destined for the Italian market.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Nepalese Muslims Claim Their Rights in New Constitution
A campaign to raise awareness among political parties. Fear of anti-conversion laws. Muslims, Catholics and Protestants united against discrimination and persecution.
Kathmandu (AsiaNews) — Nepali Muslims have launched campaign to defend and respect the rights of all minorities in the new constitution. They threaten protests if the new constitution does not comply with such requests. In view of the deadline for submission of the text intended for May 27, Muslim community leaders have launched the National Muslim Alliance (Nmsa). The group consists of 31 representatives of various organizations and politics. Among them are also members of the Maoist and the Nepali Congress Party (Conservative Party). Yesterday, leaders of Nmsa handed over a memorandum to the Constituent Assembly complaining about the marginalization of minorities, including Christians, Catholics and Protestants.
Rahamutullah Miya, Nmsa secretary, said that “for years Muslims and Christians, were the country’s most affected minorities. The new constitution must secure our identity and our rights in the name of the secular state. Nepal is a confessional country, but the religions other than Hinduism continue to be persecuted. “ “The various religious groups — he adds — must unite into a single force. We invite all religious minorities, including Christians, to fight this battle with us.”
With the fall of the Hindu monarchy in 2007, Nepal became a secular state. The interim constitution guarantees freedom of worship, but prohibits proselytizing. However in recent years there have been several murders and attacks against religious minorities, usually at the hands of Hindu extremists. In 2008, gunmen of Nepal Defense Army (NDA) shot dead Fr. Prakah John, a Jesuit priest. On 26 April 2008, the NDA detonated a bomb inside the Birantnagar mosque, killing two people. On May 23, 2009, the same group, placed a bomb in the Catholic Cathedral of the Assumption in Kathmandu. The toll was two dead and 13 wounded. The threat of anti-conversion laws, proposed by some conservative parties, are also hanging over minority communities, which if approved will be included in the new penal code under consideration in parliament together with the constitution. The penalties include arrest and sentence of five years for those who preach and disseminate religious material that might offend the Hindu religion. Among the acts that could lead to arrest is the slaughter of cattle near Hindu sacred areas.
Before proposing the new laws the government failed to consult the religious minorities. The Catholic Church has learned of the law from the Nepali media. To lobby the authorities and raise public awareness, Catholics, Protestants, Muslims and Baha’is organized several events in 2011 and handed over a memorandum to the authorities asking for a revision of laws. In August, the Catholic Church translated the drafts of the new code and circulated the articles that violate religious freedom on the Internet.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
UK Aid Helps to Fund Forced Sterilisation of India’s Poor
Money from the UK’s Department for International Development has helped pay for a controversial programme that has led to miscarriages and even deaths after botched operations
Tens of millions of pounds of UK aid money have been spent on a programme that has forcibly sterilised Indian women and men, the Observer has learned. Many have died as a result of botched operations, while others have been left bleeding and in agony. A number of pregnant women selected for sterilisation suffered miscarriages and lost their babies.
The UK agreed to give India £166m to fund the programme, despite allegations that the money would be used to sterilise the poor in an attempt to curb the country’s burgeoning population of 1.2 billion people.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Untested Vaccines Causing New Wave of Polio-Like Paralysis Across India
(NaturalNews) The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is financially backing and publicly endorsing mass polio virus vaccinations in India. In case you didn’t hear him yourself, Bill Gates publicly announced that vaccines could help reduce the world population by 15%.
Gates also proclaimed that every newborn should be registered for vaccinations immediately to assure the goal of 90% of the population getting vaccinated for his “century of the vaccination.”
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation program in India was promoted as “The Last Mile: Eradicating polio in India.” The promotional video displayed numbers showing thousands of cases of polio in India decades ago, with the number of cases dropping to 42 by 2010. But it appears that wild polio virus stats have been traded for polio from vaccines and non-polio acute flaccid paralysis (NPAFP).
In India, over 47,000 cases of NPAFP were reported in 2011. The paralysis symptoms of NPAFP are practically the same as what’s attributed to “eradicated” wild virus polio. Apparently, vaccine polio viruses also cause polio paralysis.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Fukushima is Falling Apart: Are You Ready?
Thirteen months have passed since the Fukushima reactors exploded, and a U.S. Senator finally got off his ass and went to Japan to see what is going on over there.
What he saw was horrific.
And now he is saying that we are in big trouble.
See the letter he sent to U.S. Ambassador to Japan Ichiro Fujisaki, Secretary of Energy Steven Chu, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and NRC’s Chairman Gregory Jaczko here.
But what is so ironic about this is that we have been in this heap of trouble since March of 2011. March 17th, to be exact, when the plume of radioactive materials began bombarding the west coast of California.
And Oregon. And Washington. And British Columbia. And later Maine, Europe, and everywhere in between.
Independent researchers, nuke experts, and scientists, from oceanography to entomology and everywhere in between, having been trying to sound the alarm ever since.
The scientists most upset are those who have studied the effects of radiation on health. I’ll say it again, so its really clear: we are in big trouble.
[…]
The Tokyo Electric Power Company, or TEPCO, has only recently confirmed that there were three meltdowns, and they have been ongoing, unabated, for thirteen months, and no effort has been made to contain them.
[…]
In fact the kelp from Corona del Mar contained 40,000,000 bcq/kg of radioactive iodine, as reported in Scientific American several weeks ago.
If you don’t know your becquerels, its a lot. That’s what your pacific fish feed on. And that was only ONE isotope reported. There were up to 1600 different isotopes that have been floating around in our air, pouring out of the reactors, and steaming out of the ground, every second of every day, for 13 months.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Japan: TEPCO: Not Enough Money to Handle Fukushima Nuclear Reactor 4 Problems
The problems at reactor 4 are the greatest short-term threat to humanity and has the potential to destroy our world and TEPCO doesn’t have the money to fix them.
The problem at Fukushima nuclear reactor 4 which is being dubbed as the greatest short-term threat to humanity and has the potential to destroy our world and civilization as we know it.
Now nuclear engineer Arnie Gundersen who is one of the only people providing objective scientific analysis about the Fukushima nuclear fallout believes based on his analysis of the problems that TEPCO simply doesn’t have enough money to deal with the issues there.
He says this at about 25:00 minutes into a recent program on WBAI’s Five O’Clock Shadow.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Taiwan Will Buy 4 US Warships to Deter China
(AGI) Taipei — Taiwan is ready to buy 4 warships from the US to face China’s menace. According to local media, a meeting took place last month between the US Defense secretary and president Ma Ying-jeou. If the deal will go through, Taipei’s navy will count 12 warships in total. This move could stiffen again the relationship with China, which had improved at the start of Ma Ying-jeou’s presidency in 2008.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Drug-Related Shooting in Mexico, 15 Killed in a Bar
(AGI) Ciudad Juarez — In Chihuahua, Northern Mexico, 15 people were killed in a bar. An armed commando entered the bar and opened fire on a group of people, potential rivals, perhaps, in the drug-trafficking control. This phenomenon, which has buckled Mexico, caused two more crimes in another bar, with a total death toll of 17. Since 2008, Chihuahua, and especially Ciudad Juarez on the border with Texas, are the cities where the war between gangs has been most atrocious, following by the attempt of repression trigerred by President Felipe Calderon two years before.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Second Hate Cleric is Allowed to Stay — and He’s So Dangerous He Was Banned From as-Level Chemistry
An Iraqi Muslim cleric suspected of being involved with Al Qaeda and radicalising young Britons has used the Human Rights Act to continue to live in the UK — despite Government efforts to deport him.
Taha Muhammad is regarded as one of Britain’s most dangerous security threats. He was even banned from studying AS-level chemistry because of fears he would use the knowledge to commit terrorist acts.
The decision to let him stay is another setback for Home Secretary Theresa May, already under pressure after attempts to deport Abu Qatada to Jordan descended into chaos.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
All the Morals of a Bulldozer
To be genuinely outraged about something, you need to actually believe in something. Without principles, outrage is just tactical anger, or bullying in plainer language. Principles, values and codes, are universal. That is if you are angry about a dog being mistreated by riding on top of a car, then you should at least be equally angry at dogs being eaten.
If a man shooting another man after a confrontation and not being charged for it angers you, then it should anger you regardless of the color of his skin. For that matter, if racism or sexism offends you, then it should offend you regardless of whether it is directed at a woman or a black man who is a liberal or a conservative.
It’s child play to notice that the game doesn’t work this way anymore. That the media engages in displays of tactical anger, serious-face inquiries into issues that they are concerned about only when they benefit their side, manufactured outrage that is not based on any deeply held beliefs, but only on the need to score some points.
[…]
Boiled down to its essence, the liberal message is that “we are good people, because they are bad people”. The new Democrats sticker which reads, “Not a Republican” aptly sums up this void. It follows that good people cannot be bad and that bad people cannot be good, and once you accept this message, no further ethics or morals are needed. The very goodness of your side is all the moral code you need.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Treacherous Treaties
So the interesting question is, do all treaties reduce the sovereignties of the nations that enter into them? I am certain the answer is yes. Treaties which are entered into in hopes of preventing wars ultimately expand them and nations find themselves fighting wars they never conceived of because an insignificant member of a treaty can somehow start a war that then extends to all of the treaty’s signatories.
In fact, World War I started in exactly that way. The war which killed more than 15 million and wounded more than 20 million was started by the assassination on June 28, 1914 of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, by a Yugoslav nationalist. Because of it, Austria went to war with Serbia. Alliances formed over previous decades, brought the major powers into the war within weeks. How many of these nations would have gone to war over that assassination had the treaties not existed? No one will ever know!
None of the nations except Austria had a hand in deciding to go to war. The decision for every nation involved, except perhaps the United States, was made in Vienna. By signing these treaties, each of these nations gave up their sovereignties. They were no longer masters of their own fates.
[…]
However balance of power treaties are not the only culprits. Trade agreements are just as bad. Look at what the Maastricht Treaty which established the European Union has done to Greece and threatens to do to other European countries. Today’s Quisling Greek government is now little more than a tool of Europe’s more prosperous states. When Greece’s former socialist Prime Minister George Papandreou proposed a popular referendum on the Greek sovereign debt bailout, the European Union scotched it. Now Greece no longer has the power to call an election that the Union objects to. Greece has even lost its democracy.
But the effect of trade agreements is far more extensive than the EU.
[…]
“According to the W.T.O., 125 of its 153 member countries have made varying degrees of commitments to the financial services agreement. Now, these pledges could easily be used to undermine new rules intended to make financial systems safer.”
So now, nations may not even have the power to regulate their financial institutions which, in fact, extends to their economies as a whole. The World Trade Organization rules all.
So how did that happen? Well, people have been trying to create a world government for a long time. To do that, nation states must be rendered effete. Consider what David Rockefeller said at a Bilderberg meeting in 1991:
“We are grateful to the Washington Post, The New York Times, Time Magazine and other great publications whose directors have attended our meetings and respected their promises of discretion for almost 40 years. It would have been impossible for us to develop our plan for the world if we had been subjected to the lights of publicity during those years. But the world is more sophisticated and prepared to march towards a world government. The supranational sovereignty of an intellectual elite and world bankers is surely preferable to the national auto-determination practiced in past centuries.”
Well given what the “intellectual elite and world bankers” did to the global economy in 2008, do you really want them to rule all? World government, in order to work, requires that ethnic and religious distinctions be expunged.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Trinity Versus Tyranny — Final Battle Over Fate of Man
We have a conundrum. While today Muslim nations are repressive, yet Islam boasts a rich history of intellectual achievements. So which claim is true? In fact, both represent certain historical facts. Islam was an incubator of past innovations, technologies and arts, as well as heirs of the Greek classical literary canon. But whether Islam was a creator of unique intellectual achievement is a different story.
According to Edward Hungerford, in an essay in the Atlantic Monthly, The Intellectual Mission of the Saracens, the legend of Islam’s creativity is overstated. Instead, he claims as Islam swept across the Middle East, etc, Muslims preserved learning. But for original scholarship they left practically zero record of novel discoveries or intellectual breakthroughs. Their innovations were borrowed from previous cultures. Hungerford states,
“The heights of culture actually attained were reached in spite of the restraints of Islam rather than through encouragement given by it. The religion of Mohammed, founded in opposition to liberal learning, never ceased to oppose that learning. Science made headway against a religious fanaticism which manifested itself in the destruction of libraries, the burning of condemned books, the persecution of philosophers. Imprisonment, banishment, popular violence, threats of house-burning, fears of death,—to these were men exposed who cultivated the ancient learning under the rule of princes, who, actuated either by their own prejudices or by the desire of popular favor, used their influence in the interest of religious intolerance.”
But, if true—Why would this be?
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
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