The Great Youth Depression: 16%+ Unemployment, Majority Underemployed, Salaries Down 10%
The Great Youth Depression is only getting bleaker and the ugly statistics keep piling up for the Obama administration.
Last year, we learned 85 percent of the 2011 college class moved in with their parents. This year, 53 percent of young Americans are either unemployed or underemployed.
And, the Obama administration has the worst summer youth jobs numbers ever recorded — youth unemployment has remained over 16 percent all four years.
And today, we learned from a PayScale.com survey that, of the 63 percent of young Americans who hold bachelor’s degrees, less than half of them have jobs requiring a college education. During this recession, youth salaries have dropped 10 percent as young people have been forced to take lower-paying jobs.
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The Obama administration has added more than $46 billion to the cost of regulations on businesses through bills like ObamaCare.
That’s the equivalent of more than 1 million jobs (with salaries at the national average). The government is spending more than $33,000 per taxpayer and sucking the lifeblood out of our economy.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
20,000 Muslims Warm-Up Act for Democratic National Convention
Will what Barack Obama calls “one of the prettiest sounds on earth at sunset”, the Muslim call to prayer end the first day of the kickoff to the Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Charlotte, NC?
According to the Charlotte DNC homepage, ‘The Jumah at the 2012 DNC’ will welcome some 20,000 Muslims to Charlotte, DEM-dubbed an “official event”.
‘Jumah at the 2012 DNC’ starts Friday afternoon, Aug. 31 jumah prayer followed by a myriad of other as yet unidentified programs and events, but leading up to the Islam Regal Banquet. (halal, of course).
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
21 Million Health Care Workers to be Unionized Under Obamacare
“It is clear that Big Labor is banking on the probability that all healthcare workers eventually become federal, state, and municipal healthcare employees,” Loos told Factor. That, he said, would make them eligible for involuntary unionization through public-sector unions like AFSCME and the SEIU.
“Obamacare is an SEIU and AFSCME membership ‘net,’“ Loos claimed, “designed to eventually capture 21 million forced-dues paying government workers.” New health care jobs created by Obamacare, he said, will eventually be filled by “federal, state, and municipal healthcare employees.”
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“For every million additional health care workers unionized in the 27 non-right-to-work states,” he told TheDC, “the unions stand to earn $1 billion in dues.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Apple Patent Victory Could Have Broad Implications for Mobile Industry
In a big legal victory for Apple that could have broad implications for the mobile business, a jury awarded the company more than $1 billion in damages Friday after finding that Samsung infringed on a series of Apple patents on smartphones and tablet computers.
The verdict could have a major impact on Android, the Google operating system used by Samsung and many other companies in their devices. Apple’s suit against Samsung, the world’s largest maker of smartphones, has partly been viewed as a proxy war against Google, which Apple executives have derided as a copycat.
A nine-person jury sided with Apple on most of its allegations, including patent claims involving the “bounce back” effect when a user scrolls to the end of a list, the pinch-to-zoom gesture that users make when they want to magnify an image, and the physical design of the iPhone.
The jury added some sting by finding in favor of Apple across the board in a countersuit by Samsung.
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Are People Being Thrown Into Psychiatric Wards for Their Political Views?
And authoritarian American psychologists are eager to label anyone “taking a cynical stance toward politics, mistrusting authority, endorsing democratic practices, … and displaying an inquisitive, imaginative outlook” as worthy of a trip to the insane asylum. (Those traits may also get one labeled as a potential terrorist.)
As prominent forensic psychiatrist James Knoll — psychiatry professor at SUNY-Syracuse and director of a forensic fellowship program — writes in the Psychiatric Times:
“When psychiatric science becomes co-opted by a political agenda, an unhealthy alliance may be created. It is science that will always be the host organism, to be taken over by political viruses… [P]sychiatry may come to resemble a new organism entirely — one that serves the ends of the criminal justice system.“
Even psychologists with good intentions can erroneously label people delusional simply because they themselves make bad assumptions.
There is even a label for this — the “Martha Mitchell Effect” — defined as:
The process by which a psychiatrist, psychologist, or other mental health clinician mistakes the patient’s perception of real events as delusional and misdiagnoses accordingly.
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Update: The stories of psychiatric commitment of political activists in China are horrendous .[url (warning: disturbing descriptions)]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Bob Dole Urges Mitt Romney to Confront Republican Party Right Wing
EXCLUSIVE: Bob Dole, the last Republican to challenge a Democratic president, has urged Mitt Romney to confront their party’s Right wing and likened the Romney-Ryan ticket to his own ultimately unsuccessful partnership with Jack Kemp in 1996.
Mr Dole, a former Kansas Senator defeated by Bill Clinton 16 years ago, said the party should follow his example of “mainstream” Republicanism and become more appealing to ethnic minorities and young people to secure its future. “We have got to be open,” he said in an interview with The Daily Telegraph. “We cannot be a single-issue party or single-philosophy party”. He added: “There’s a big split in our party. There’s this undercurrent of rigid conservatism where you don’t dare not toe the line”.
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| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Brooklyn Democratic Leader Censured for Sexual Harassment
Assemblyman Vito J. Lopez, the Brooklyn Democratic leader and longtime political power broker there, has been stripped of his committee chairmanship, barred from employing young people, and censured after an Assembly committee determined that he had sexually harassed two female employees this summer.
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Diana West: The GOP Akin Problem is Worse That They Think
Prediction: If the GOP establishment doesn’t follow Republican Rep. Todd Akin’s example with a big, fat apology — to Akin — the whole party goes down in flames come November.
I don’t mean every Republican will lose, but there is great political peril in not sealing the hole in Republican armor that has opened in Missouri and instead permitting it to remain a Democratic pressure point. Further, “for the good of the country” (the mantra accompanying the party-wide chorus of pleas to Akin to drop out of his U.S. Senate race), Republicans must resume funding Akin’s viable campaign ASAP, after cutting it off in a mad fit of political pique. Finally, every one of them — the party standard-bearer, party bosses, congressional delegations, allied pundits — should come together for a group smack on the head, as in, “What were we thinking?”
I can’t recall anything in public life more widely craven and uncalled for than the open panic and bullying set off across the Republican Party by the first replay of Akin’s perplexingly ignorant interview comments on rape and pregnancy. The veteran conservative lawmaker, former engineer, former businessman and grandfather of eight recanted these remarks. He apologized for them.
But as the left began to bay for blood over a Republican and, by preposterous extension, Republican Party it hopes to smear as “anti-woman,” Republicans across the board, incredibly, joined in…
| — Hat tip: Diana West | [Return to headlines] |
EPA Regulations Will Close Coal Plants, Raise Electricity Prices, GAO Says
New regulations issued by the Environmental Protection Agency will lead to the closure of older, coal-fired power plants and boost electricity prices in some parts of the country, according to a new report from the Government Accountability Office.
The GAO, at the behest of Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), reviewed a host of information from government sources such as the EPA and Energy Information Agency (EIA) as well as private energy-sector forecasters to determine the likely impact of four new EPA regulations aimed at coal-fired power plants.
None of the regulations has taken effect yet and two have yet to be finalized by EPA. In fact, one of the regulations — the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule — was struck down by a federal court on Tuesday, after the GAO issued its findings.
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GAO found that as many as 12 percent of coal-fired power plants may be closed because the EPA regulations make it too expensive for power companies to operate them, despite coal being one of world’s cheapest fuels.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
‘Fast and Furious’ ATF Official Granted Paid Leave to Take 6-Figure Job at JP Morgan
(CNSNews.com) — The long-awaited inspector general’s report on the Justice Department’s botched gun-running scheme is finished, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) said on Wednesday.
But along with that news comes more questions: Issa and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) are demanding to know why a top ATF official involved in Operation Fast and Furious remains on paid leave from ATF — while simultaneously drawing a six-figure salary from J.P. Morgan, a major investment bank.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Feds Strike “None” From Nevada Ballots
In Nevada, if you decide to vote, you will have to vote for the establishment or one of the non-establishment parties allowed on the ballot by the establishment (after it is determined they can’t actually win).
Voting for “none” will no longer be allowed.
“U.S. District Judge Robert Jones ruled Wednesday in favor of a challenge to a state law adopted after the Watergate scandal, The New York Times reported. The plaintiffs included several Republicans backed by the Republican National Committee, two of Mitt Romney’s Electoral College electors, a registered Democrat and an independent,” the UPI reports.
Republicans and Democrats worked together to eliminate what was basically a protest vote. Republicans were miffed because the “none” voters helped defeat John Ensign and catapulted Harry Reid to victory. Reid is now the Democrat majority leader in the Senate.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
GOP Embraces Anti-Sharia
by Alex Seitz-Wald
The Republican Party platform will likely include a plank this year opposing the imagined threat of Islamic law
While leaders like Speaker Boehner and Sen. John McCain were rightly praised for taking a strong stand against Rep. Michele Bachmann’s witch hunt against Muslims in the U.S. government, don’t give the party of Lincoln a pass on Islamophobia just yet. In Tampa this week, GOP leaders adopted a plank to their platform supporting a ban on foreign law and aimed at Shariah, the Islamic religious law that many conservatives insist is secretly insinuating itself in the U.S. The platform still has to be approved by the entire convention in a vote next week, but generally, most things approved by the platform committee make it into the final platform.
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| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Guns ‘n’ Rose Colored Deals
The more research and investigation one does into the Obama-Napolitano-Holder ATF sanctioned Fast and Furious operation, greater is the stench that emanates from the ties between Obama, his minions and the global bankers. From claims of “executive privilege” by Obama to the outright persecution of whistleblowers trying to do the right thing, we are now seeing the actual unveiling of the incestuous ties between globalist bankers and the present power elite in Washington.
According to a letter sent Tuesday from Senator Chuck Grassley, Ranking member of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee and Representative Daryl Issa, Chairman of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, to ATF Acting Director B. Todd Jones, a key suspect (my word) in the Fast and Furious criminal operation has not only been on paid administrative leave for the last several months, but is concurrently working in the private sector and receiving income from that job as well.
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First, JP Morgan is the largest processor of food stamp benefits in the United States. They process food stamp debit cards in over half of the states and the District of Columbia in the U.S., and are paid for each transaction they process. Ultimately, the more people who become recipients of food stamps (actually, food debit cards), the more revenue that is generated by JP Morgan.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Islamic Beard Overshadows U.S. Military Code in Fort Hood Case
IBD Editorial
Jihadism: In 2009, Islamic fanaticism and political correctness resulted in the deaths of 13 soldiers at Fort Hood, Texas. Three years later, the evil twins have teamed up to deny justice for victims. The trial of jihadi mass murderer Maj. Nidal Hasan, scheduled for last Monday, is on hold again — because of an Islamic beard. Six times Hasan has refused to shave it, claiming his religion takes precedence over U.S. military code, and six times his court martial has been delayed. And now the case is stalled at the appellate level.
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| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Lance Armstrong Subject to Lifetime Ban and Fan Fallout
(CBS News) In a statement released late Thursday night, celebrated cyclist Lance Armstrong announced he would no longer fight charges that he used performance enhancing drugs throughout his esteemed career.
“There comes a point in every man’s life when he has to say, enough is enough,” Armstrong’s statement read. “For me, that time is now.”
Also on Thursday night, the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency said it will strip Armstrong of his seven Tour de France titles and Travis Tygart, USADA’s chief executive, said Armstrong would be subject to a lifetime ban from the sport.
Friday on “CBS This Morning,” CBS News chief investigative correspondent Armen Keteyian said the original charges brought against Armstrong in June were based on “non-analytical evidence” that he used performance enhancing drugs. This evidence reportedly included testimony from several former teammates, including Tyler Hamilton who told “60 Minutes” that he frequently saw Armstrong inject “EPO,” a banned naturally occurring hormone known as a blood booster.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Martin Scorsese Sued by Italy’s Cecchi Gori
Producer claims US director reneged on film deal
(ANSA) — New York, August 23 — Martin Scorsese is being sued by Italian film producer Vittorio Cecchi Gori for allegedly reneging on a contract to direct a film the two discussed 20 years ago. Cecchi Gori claims the US moviemaking great is not carrying out his obligation to develop the movie Silence, which tells the tale of Portuguese missionaries in Japan many hundreds of years ago investigating claims of Christian persecution on behalf of the Imperial family.
According to the legal claim, Scorsese had assured Cecchi Gori he would direct the film. So far Cecchi Gori says his production house has spent 750,000 on developing the film. photo: Scorsese with Golden Globe for Hugo
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Misunderstanding McCarthyism
Why do self-styled conservative media personalities feel it necessary to protect the President?
With more than four years of research into Davis, and more revelations coming, the burden of proof is on Barack Obama to prove that his communist connections, which continued from his growing-up years in Hawaii to college to Chicago, were the result of innocence or naïveté. That will be hard for him to do, since he concealed the identity of Davis in his memoir, Dreams from My Father, calling him just “Frank” and depicting him as a poet and writer. He knew that Frank Marshall Davis was an associate and mentor and that he had to protect his communist identity from public scrutiny.
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Obama isn’t the only one benefitting from this double-standard. It is because of the false charge of McCarthyism that conservatives find it so difficult to get concerned about State Department official Huma Abedin to be taken seriously by top Republican officials and candidates. Senator John McCain and House Speaker John Boehner both said questions about Abedin’s connections to the Muslim Brotherhood are not appropriate and even dangerous. Romney said his campaign didn’t want to talk about it.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Mosque Plan Divides a Diverse Town
Opponents of Michigan Islamic Center Raise Concerns Over Increased Traffic, Aesthetics-and Risk of Terrorist Links
WEST BLOOMFIELD, Mich.-This affluent Detroit suburb prides itself on its religious diversity, with 49 houses of worship within its 32 square miles, including at least 11 Jewish synagogues and 15 Protestant or Catholic churches. But a plan to convert a former public school into West Bloomfield’s first mosque has raised tensions and prompted a round of soul-searching here. Residents and activists say the plan has rankled some in West Bloomfield’s large Jewish community, while the sale of the school to a Muslim association has drawn opposition from some other residents and a prominent Christian-rights group.
[…]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Murder at a New York Icon
Man Shoots Ex-Colleague Outside Empire State Building; 9 Bystanders Wounded.
A laid-off apparel designer allegedly gunned down a former co-worker outside the Empire State Building on Friday morning, prompting a confrontation with New York police that killed the shooter but left nine others wounded on a crowded rush-hour Manhattan sidewalk, authorities said.
The bystanders were most likely wounded by police in the 9 a.m. incident in the shadow of one of the nation’s most recognizable landmarks, authorities said. All but one—a 35-year-old female tourist from North Carolina—are New York City residents. They are expected to live; six were discharged from the hospital Friday.
Tourists and harried commuters ran in fear when shots erupted in the packed Midtown district. “I heard the shooting and people started running toward here,” said Mohamad Ragab, a breakfast vendor. “I jumped outside my cart to take a look. I saw one body.”
New York Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly identified the gunman as Jeffrey Johnson, 58, a Manhattan man who was fired about a year ago as a designer at a women’s apparel firm, Hazan Import Corp., on West 33rd Street across from the Empire State Building. The victim was identified as Steven Ercolino, 41, a Hazan account executive, by his sister-in-law.
Authorities said Mr. Johnson blamed Mr. Ercolino for the loss of his job, accusing him of not doing enough to sell the T-shirts and women’s accessories that Mr. Johnson designed. A building official said the men once had a physical altercation in the building, and Mr. Kelly said the two men had filed formal harassment complaints against each other in April 2011…
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New Audio Surfaces of Obama Defending Infanticide in Illinois
That President Barack Obama was the only member of the Illinois legislature to not support a bill to provide medical care for newborns who survived failed late-term abortions is one of the key reasons pro-life voters will never support him.
Now, Weekly Standard reporter John McCormack has uncovered new audio of Obama, as a state legislator in Illinois in 2003, defending his position. Obama essentially argues that there is no need for the law because he trusts abortion practitioners to provide medical care for the baby they unsuccessfully tried to kill in an abortion.
The transcript of the video McCormack unearthed follows:…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Obama’s 2nd-Term Assault on U.S. Military
A handful of key progressive organizations behind much of Obama’s first-term agenda have now submitted even more radical proposals to the White House to “transform” the U.S. military.
If these progressive groups have their way, U.S. armed forces will be reduced to a social work-style organization designed to combat “global warming,” fight global poverty, remedy “injustice,” bolster the United Nations and increase “peacekeeping” forces worldwide. The massive, second-term slashes to the military budget are to be used, shockingly, to invest in a defense posture based on “sustainable energy” and fighting worldwide climate change. There is also a plan to wrest control of the military budget from Congress.
This progressive wish list matters because Obama’s first-term agenda did not materialize out of thin air. The president’s signature policies — including his first-term defense cutbacks, the $800 billion “stimulus” and even Obamacare — were crafted over years by the same major progressive organizations and activists now hard at work planning Obama’s second-term strategy on jobs, wages, health care, immigration, electoral “reform” — and national defense.
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Poll: GOP Really Dislikes Muslims
by Alex Seitz-Wald
A new survey shows just how uncomfortable the Republican base is with Muslim and Arab people
Anyone wondering why Rep. Michele Bachmann would launch a witch hunt against Muslims or why the Republican Party would add a plank to its platform opposing Shariah law need look no further than a new poll conducted by the Arab American Institute. The poll, released today, asked Americans for their views on various religious groups, as well as on Arabs and Arab-Americans. It also asked respondents how confident they would be that a Muslim or Arab-American holding a position of influence in government could do their job without letting “ethnic loyalty … influence their decision-making.”
The results are split sharply along partisan lines. Overall, Republican voters hold strongly negative views of Muslims, with 57 percent saying they view them unfavorably and just 26 saying they view them favorably — more than double. The numbers are similar for Arabs, whom Republican respondents view negatively by a slightly smaller margin of 26 percent, 53 to 27 percent. When asked about “Muslim Americans” and “Arab Americans,” the numbers improved slightly, with a 12 and 15 percent net unfavorable rating, respectively.
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| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
The Psychotics in Power Are Calling Us Mentally Ill
Obama and his goons are making everything back to front and upside down. Good is bad and bad is good. If you are Christian and a gun owning patriot you are mentally ill, dangerous and should be taken away. This week we heard and followed what felt like the unbelievable in our country but the stories were true. Sane people practicing their 1st amendment rights are being identified as ‘risks’ ‘mentally ill’ ‘dangerous and needing treatment.’
Just some of these evolving cases of mental illness and danger
Doug Hagmann, Director of Northeast Intelligence Network and veteran private investigator exposed how one of his listeners and callers had been literally picked up by cops after a ‘mystery’ friend called in a mental health concern. This lead to Jason Egroff, being forcibly whisked away by cops, probed, questioned, humiliated and searched for 18 hours, then released. Hagmann found that the alleged friend who turned him in was far different than represented and Jason was not mentally ill or a danger at all. The only apparent danger and crime Jason committed was exercising his first amendment rights and daring to share concerns about the Government and 9/11. So what? Many people have concerns about 9/11 who are not insane.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Thomas Sowell: A Powerful Movie
Years, and sometimes decades, pass between my visits to movie theaters. But I drove 30 miles to see the movie “2016,” based on Dinesh D’Souza’s best-selling book, “The Roots of Obama’s Rage.” Where I live is so politically correct that such a movie would not even be mentioned, much less shown.
Every seat in the theater was filled, even though there had been an earlier showing that day, and more showings were scheduled for the rest of the afternoon and evening. I had to sit on a staircase in the balcony, but it was worth it.
The audience was riveted. You could barely hear a sound from them, or detect a movement, and certainly not smell popcorn. Yet the movie had no bombast, no violence, no sex and no spectacular visual effects.
The documentary itself was fascinating, as Dinesh D’Souza presented the story of Barack Obama’s life and view of the world, in a very conversational sort of way, illustrating it with visits to people and places around the world that played a role in the way Obama’s ideas and beliefs evolved.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Thought Police Victim Brandon Raub Ordered Released From Psychiatric Prison; Govt. Agents Kidnapped and Detained Him for Facebook Posts
(NaturalNews) The thought police are hard at work in America, crushing anyone who expresses ideas of liberty and freedom. The latest case involves U.S. veteran Brandon Raub, who posted text on Facebook saying, among other things, that 9/11 was an inside job, that the country is being run by an evil cabal of insiders, and that the global elite are pedophiles who rape children.
Pointing to these opinion statements, the FBI, U.S. Secret Service and local law enforcement authorities in Virginia raided his home, kidnapped the 26-year-old, and stuffed him into a psychiatric hospital where he was to be detained for any number of weeks, months or even years. Raub was not charged with a crime, was never read any Miranda rights, and was never given a hearing in front of a judge. No judge, no jury, no rights, no nothing. He was simply targeted, kidnapped, stuffed and cuffed because of his free speech posted on Facebook.
Today, a circuit court judge has ordered the Marine veteran released from the psychiatric hospital, saying that law enforcement had no grounds to hold him. This has been reported by CBS 6 News and published in BusinessInsider.com.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Veteran Declared ‘Mentally Defective, ‘ Has Guns Seized
Just a day after Brandon Raub was released following his incarceration in a psychiatric ward over political Facebook posts, news has emerged of a similar case involving a veteran who had his guns seized after being labeled a “mental defective’ and faces being committed by a judge.
Radio host Steve Quayle was sent news of an Army combat veteran and Purple Heart recipient in west central Ohio who was the victim of a police raid on the evening of August 22nd during which Miami County Ohio Sheriff’s deputies executed a search warrant to seize the man’s firearms for the “safety of the defendant and the general public,” according to the warrant.
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Whitehead warned that there were 20,000 recent cases in Virginia alone of people being snatched from their homes having been declared mentally defective by the state with virtually no due process whatsoever and with the victim having committed no crime.
Given the fact that the Department of Homeland Security has repeatedly demonized veterans as likely domestic terrorists, it’s clear that former servicemen are being targeted as part of an effort to chill free speech and discourage other veterans from being politically active.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Caroline Glick: Israel Faces the Cynical World
This week a German doctor in Bavaria filed a criminal complaint against Rabbi David Goldberg.
Rabbi Goldberg’s “crime”? He performs ritual circumcisions on Jewish male infants in accordance with Jewish law.
The doctor’s complaint came shortly after a ruling by a court in Cologne outlawing the practice of male circumcision.
The Austrians and the Swiss also took the ruling to heart and have banned infant male circumcision in several hospitals in Switzerland as well as in the Austrian state of Vorarlberg. Denmark and Scandinavian governments are also considering limiting the practice of circumcision which has constituted one of the foundational rituals of Judaism for four thousand years.
Meanwhile, in Norway Dr. Anne Lindboe has come up with the perfect way out of the artificial crisis. Lindboe serves a Norway’s ombudsman for children’s rights. And she proposes that we Jews just change our religion to satisfy anti-Jewish sensitivities. She suggests we replace circumcision with “a symbolic, nonsurgical ritual.”
It’s worth mentioning that circumcision isn’t the only Jewish ritual these enlightened Europeans find objectionable. Sweden, Norway and Switzerland have already banned kosher slaughter.
Attacking circumcision isn’t just a European fetish. The urge to curb Jewish religious freedom has reached the US as well. Last year San Francisco’s Jewish Community Relations Council had to sue the city to strike a measure from last November’s ballot that would have banned circumcision if passed. The measure’s sponsor gathered the requisite 12,000 signatures to enter the proposition on the ballot. Circumcising males under the age of 18 would have been classified as a misdemeanor punishable by a $1,000 fine and up to a year in prison. Sponsors of the measure distributed anti-Semitic materials depicting rabbis performing circumcisions as villains…
| — Hat tip: Caroline Glick | [Return to headlines] |
France: Toulouse Gunman Could Possibly be Not Alone
The French newspaper has received access to materials of the police investigation on the case of “Toulouse gunman” Mohammed Merah. According to new data he could have tens or even hundreds of associates around the world — in Egypt, Morocco, Kenya, Kazakhstan, Saudi Arabia, Bhutan and even in the UK. According to the newspaper, the 24-year-old Merah, who had been shot dead in an attempted arrest, had extensive connections in 20 countries, including Egypt, Morocco, Kazakhstan and Saudi Arabia. The newspaper reports that the criminal made more than 1800 calls to these countries. Merah also made several trips to the Middle East and Afghanistan, BBC reports. This March, Merah, 24, killed three Jewish children and their father rabbi near a Jewish school in Toulouse, and also three servicemen. After that he was shot dead by police during the storming of his apartment.
Friday, 24 August 2012
Voice of Russia
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| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
German Circumcision Debate Flares Up After Probe on Rabbi
The debate over the German ban on circumcision has come under the spotlight again, as a doctor files suit against a rabbi. Another rabbi says that doctors should test the competence of people who perform the operation. The circumcision debate in Germany has flared up again, as a rabbi has faced a criminal charge by a doctor after performing a circumcision on a baby. Another rabbi claims that doctors should test the medical competence of people who perform circumcisions.
[…]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Norway: Anders Breivik Verdict: Live
Anders Behring Breivik has been declared sane, and faces 21 years in prison for killing 77 people in twin attacks in Oslo and Utoya, a Norwegian court has judged. Live coverage.
Latest
9.35am The judge talks about Breivik’s self-declared crusader description. She refers to the fact that his “Knights Templar” group does not seem to exist and that has been used by the prosecution as a sign of his insanity. Breivik was in Liberia but not to meet a Serbian nationalists, but rather to buy diamonds. He was also in London to meet Knights Templar members.
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| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Norway: Anders Behring Breivik Spent Years Training and Plotting for Oslo Massacre
Before declaring him sane, Norwegian court heard about killer’s ruthless attention to detail when planning mass murder
When Anders Behring Breivik announced in the spring of 2011 that he was moving out of Oslo to become a farmer, his friends were pleased. After five years dossing about unemployed at his mum’s flat, including a whole 12 months playing video games day and night, Breivik finally appeared to have found some direction. In April 2011, just before he left the capital, the then 32-year-old hosted a barbecue for six friends. He was upping sticks to a farm near Rena, a town two hours north-east of Oslo, to grow sugar beet, he said. It was a bit of a curveball, but not totally out of character.
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| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Norway Hails Breivik Verdict
Relieved survivors of Anders Behring Breivik’s massacres took to Twitter on Friday to express their delight moments after he was sentenced to 21 years in prison for killing 77 people last year.
Defence lawyers said that Breivik would not appeal the verdict, although the prosecution still has the right to do so.
“If there’s no appeal, it means we will have peace, there’ll be no need to mobilize for a new trial,” Marcussen said. “We can then mourn more deeply … it’ll be good to put it all behind us.”
Other reactions from abroad on Twitter were more mixed, but mainly saying they could not understand that Breivik was given “only” 21 years in jail.
Under Norwegian law his sentence, though it is the maximum for the charges against him, can be extended indefinitely for as long as he is deemed to be a danger to society.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Norway Court Deems Breivik Sane, Sentences Killer to Prison
A Norwegian court sentenced Anders Behring Breivik to prison on Friday, denying prosecutors the insanity ruling they hoped would show that his massacre of 77 people was the work of a madman, not part of an anti-Muslim crusade.
Breivik smiled with apparent satisfaction when Judge Wenche Elisabeth Arntzen read the ruling, declaring him sane enough to be held criminally responsible and sentencing him to “preventive detention,” which means it is unlikely he will ever be released.
The sentence brings a form of closure to Norway, which was shaken to its core by the bomb and gun attacks on July 22, 2011, because Breivik’s lawyers said before the ruling that he would not appeal any ruling that did not declare him insane.
But it also means Breivik got what he wanted: a ruling that paints him as a political terrorist instead of a psychotic mass murderer. Since his arrest, Breivik has said the attacks were meant to draw attention to his extreme right-wing ideology and to inspire a multi-decade uprising by “militant nationalists” across Europe.
Prosecutors had argued Breivik was insane as he plotted his attacks to draw attention to a rambling “manifesto” that blamed Muslim immigration for the disintegration of European society.
Breivik argued that authorities were trying to cast him as sick to cast doubt on his political views, and said during the trial that being sent to an insane asylum would be the worst thing that could happen to him.
“He has always seen himself as sane so he isn’t surprised by the ruling,” Breivik’s defense lawyer Geir Lippestad said.
The five-judge panel in the Oslo district court unanimously convicted Breivik, 33, of terrorism and premeditated murder and ordered him imprisoned for a period between 10 and 21 years, the maximum allowed under Norwegian law. Such sentences can be extended as long as an inmate is considered too dangerous to be released, and legal experts say Breivik will almost certainly spend the rest of his life in prison.
It was not clear whether prosecutors would appeal the ruling. If not, and if Breivik sticks to his word not to appeal a prison term, the legal process for one of the darkest chapters in Norwegian history will have come to a close.
Survivors of the attacks and relatives of victims welcomed the ruling.
“I am very relieved and happy about the outcome,” said Tore Sinding Bekkedal, who survived the Utoya shooting.
“I believe he is mad, but it is political madness and not psychiatric madness,” Bekkedal said. “He is a pathetic and sad little person.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Norway: Breivik Sane: Oslo Court
Norway’s mass killer Anders Behring Breivik was found sane and sentenced to 21 years in prison on Friday for a bloodbath that left 77 people dead and traumatised the normally tranquil nation.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: EDL’s Swedish Cousins Show Their True Colours
At the beginning of this month Stockholm hosted an international “Counter Jihad” meeting that saw racists and bigots from around the globe gather in the Swedish capital city. The EDL sent their usual comedy double act of Tommy Robinson and Kevin Carroll along with British Freedom’s chairman Paul Weston. The Swedish Defence League as hosts were instrumental in organising the events in Stockholm yet a noticeable absentee from the list of speakers was the SDL leader Isak Nygren.There is growing speculation that the EDL leadership are a little embarrassed and annoyed when it comes to Nygren and his Swedish Defence League friends.
[…]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: ‘Iftar With the Stars’ Event
On the evening of 11 August, the Muslim Council hosted various international Muslim Olympians at a special ‘Iftar’ event to mark the end of the fasting day during Ramadan.
Amongst the Olympians who attended were the Pakistani Paralympic Team, whose leader praised LOCOG for treating Paralympians as fully-fledged athletes. Guests also heard from Professor Salim al-Hassani, founder of the Islamic Foundation for Science and Technology, on the historical contribution of Muslims to modern sports. His words were echoed by the Revd. Canon Duncan Green, head of Multi-Faith Chaplaincy Services at the Olympics. He noted how the Athletes Village had 204 nations living side-by-side, with mosques, synagogues, churches and temples all represented by their respective clergy. Attendees worshiped, ate and played together. “If we can do it for three to four weeks, why can’t we do it for many more years to come?”
The MCB’s former secretary general, Dr. Muhammad Abdul Bari, shared his reasons for joining LOCOG as a board member. He highlighted the legacy of the Games for developing some of London’s most deprived areas, and bringing communities together for a common national purpose. “It has been a stupendous fortnight,” Farooq Murad concluded. “Let all of us — people and politicians alike — make sure that spirit of London 2012, the spirit and energy of ‘togetherness’ and success, continues for decades to come.”
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: A New Partnership Between Islamic Relief and Govt
Islamic Relief and the Foreign Office hosted an Iftari (breaking of the fast) gathering on July 26. The event was held to celebrate the launch a new partnership between Department of International Development (Dfid) and Islamic Relief. Keynote speaker, Dfid Secretary, Andrew Mitchell, announced at the event that the Government is to match all donations to Islamic Relief’s 2012 Ramadan appeal pound for pound, up to a maximum of £5 million. “This will help hundreds of thousands of the world’s poorest, most vulnerable people — parents in the Sahel struggling to feed their children, and farmers in areas of Bangladesh and Pakistan whose crops are threatened by flooding or drought caused by climate change. It will help both to meet people’s immediate needs and to give them the resources they need to lift themselves out of poverty,” he said.
CEO of Islamic Relief, Dr Mohamed Ashmawey, said: “We are delighted to receive this support from the Government for Islamic Relief’s Ramadan appeal. This means that our supporters can double their donations and we can double the impact of our work to support poor communities and lift people out of poverty.” Foreign Office Minister, Alistair Burt, supporting the partnership, said the UK’s development assistance “will stand as a sign of our commitment to charity and compassion at a time when Muslim families and friends celebrate these values.” Islamic Relief plans to use the funds raised through this years Ramadan appeal to support projects around the world, particularly the communities which are facing severe droughts, floods and food crises as a result of climate change.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Campaigners Who Are Against a March by the Far-Right English Defence League (EDL) In Walthamstow …
CAMPAIGNERS who are against a march by the far-right English Defence League (EDL) next month have criticised police for not trying to ban it. The extremist group, which describes itself as a movement against Islamic extremism but which critics say is racist, is set to protest in Walthamstow on Saturday September 1. Last September Waltham Forest was one of five London boroughs where all marches were temporarily banned by the government following concerns about a proposed EDL demo in Tower Hamlets.
[…]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Knowledge Exchange Conference: Far Right Extremism
by Nick Lowles
Really pleased to have been invited to speak at the Knowledge Exchange Conference on Far Right Extremism, which will be held in London on 14 September. The conference, which is supported by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG), will present the latest research on far right extremism, as well as underlying tensions relating to immigration and integration. It will bring together 80-100 national and local policy-makers, academics and researchers, and practitioners and the topics include: public attitudes toward core far right issues such as immigration; recent developments and trends within the far right, and likely future directions; the profiles and attitudes of supporters; assessing the impact of far right extremism; current and possible policy responses; and local models of experience. This conference marks the beginning of a six-month knowledge exchange partnership, which is geared toward strengthening links between academics, policy-makers and practitioners and as such appears a really important event.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Revised Plans for York Mosque Approved
Revised plans for a new £1m mosque in York have been approved, after being withdrawn amid flooding concerns.
Last year religious leaders behind the mosque pulled plans for a site on Bull Lane, after the Environment Agency said it would be vulnerable to flooding. Mosque secretary, Shazad Hussain, said it was a “great relief” that the plans had now been approved. He said the new design was much more practical, and that flooding and parking were no longer an issue.
Mr Hussain said only a small amount of the two-storey building would be on the flood zone in the new plans. “It will mostly be built on the site of the current building,” he said. “We have been here for 27 years and have never flooded.”
[…]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: The Strange Death of BNP England
by Ed West
The BNP looks like it is coming to the end of its existence, the political party’s decline and fall having a suitable touch of comedy. Having collapsed in the polls since their 2009 heyday, party leader Nick Griffin is now displaying the most obvious symptom of a movement in disarray — turning his energy on rivals. As Matthew Goodwin of Nottingham University explains, Griffin has produced a report on the English Defence League, “claiming that behind the EDL lie a number of shadowy neoconservatives and ‘Zionist terrorists’ who are seeking to manipulate public concern over Islam to launch new wars and split the far right nationalist scene”.
[…]
In the worldview of the NF’s leaders, Jews were the enemy, as was America, a mongrel capitalist nation dominated by Jews; naturally, then, many were drawn into contact with radical Muslims, including Colonel Gaddafi (to be fair, Griffin was not the only person to be taken in by Gaddafi’s “third way” economics). But after the Bradford riots and 9/11, Griffin accepted that race was perhaps less important than religion, and the main area of concern to potential followers was the growth of Muslim populations, especially from Pakistan and Bangladesh, and their failure to integrate, not to mention some of the extreme views that were flourishing in those communities.
It was in that atmosphere that the English Defence League came about, a group more sectarian than racist. The EDL does not have any objection to Jewish intellectuals nor race-mixing, the two bugbears of the far Right, and focuses on the fear people have about large-scale settlement of alien people into their neighbourhoods, the fear they feel in those areas, and especially the hostility of some young Muslim men to this country and its armed forces. (Stephen Lennon was radicalised by the sight of Taliban supporters openly recruiting outside Luton’s main shopping centre from 2001, while British troops were fighting in Afghanistan). Unlike the NF or BNP, it is almost exclusively working-class, one of the reasons that leads Griffin to suspect there are shadowy forces behind it.
Whatever the EDL’s problems, it at least understands that, since Israel is mostly loathed both by multicultural Leftists and Islamists, they should support Israel. For the BNP the old hatred for “Zionists” still overcomes any desire for electoral advantage, to such an extent that they wish to be enemies with their enemy’s enemy. With their world collapsing around them, the BNP continue to expound precious energy on attacking the Jews. Sounds, er, familiar.
[…]
[Reader comment by danoconnor on 23 August 2012 at 6:42 pm.]
Contemporary Western (exluding the former Soviet block nations of Russia and Eastern Europe) CAFE post-Communism, Cultural Marxism LEFTISM, Liberalism, Progressivism, soft-Leftism, Left Neo-Conservatism ect ect, or whatever one wishes to label it , is really just another word for Anti-White-ism because the economic, cultural, political and demographic policies behind it are all immensley destructive to white societies, their social capital, identity and their continued existence. The Left (anti-White-ism), who spent the last 6 decades 24/7 drawing up a collective blanket indictment against the white man and all his future off spring for “crimes against humanity”, spends the other half of his time describing any white people who point out this unhealthy obession of the Left, as “ far-right wing ridiculous hysterical paranoia.” While continuing with their blantantly anti-white rhetoric.
“Ha ha ha, I am White, How can I possibly be anti-white” — they say. Good question Mr Cafe Lefty. How do you manage it?
Cafe Leftism (Hippyology) is not based on the real world and the harsh realities of human existence, human nature and human imperfectiblity, but on how the Hippyologists want the world to be. The thing that the Hippyologists hate most and consider to be a far-right wing fascist ideology, is the idea that there is such a thing as human nature. Moralism has replaced Factualism “Hate-Facts”.
If all humáns (code for= White people) are not infinately pliable, then how can the revolutionary radical Left take humans (code for White people) and punish them until all those
“obscene — primitive — social -constructs “ are forced out of them and they become de-ethnicized, de-racialized, de-nationalized, de-culturalized — so that the Holocaust and Hitler (never Stalin,Mao,or Mohammed who made greater atrocities) can never happen again.
As it is written.
The last 60 years of Left Hippyologist hysteria about the rise of the next Hitler, will in the end do far more harm to the West than Hitler could ever have dreamed of. 70 years ago, the people of the West were told they might have to die to prevent the Nazis from taking over their countries. Today, 70 years later, they are told that they may have to die out to prevent the Nazis from taking over their countries. Since the end of WW2, and especiallly since the 60’s, the West, and in particular those mini-North Koreas we know as Western universities has begun to lose its collective mind. It has worked itself into a Zeitgeist of obsessive white guilt mea-culp, hand-wringing self-flaggelation and apologetic atonement for all the worlds injustices and evils. It is impossible to use reason,wisdom, common sense and logic to argue the Left out of this mind-lock, because they never used reason, common sense, wisdom and logic to get into it in the first place. Leftism, is a permanent middel class 16 year old 1st year student hippy brat tantrum virtue ego-glow on how the world should be, and should work if it was perfect.
In former times this self-appointed priesthood guardians of our collective moral conscience were recruited from the clergy. Today they are recruited from Western academia. The tragic/comedy irony of ironies, is that the Lefteratti, who consider themselves so much more morally and intellectually superior to their right wing enemies, and so fearful of the horrors of the 20th century repeating themselves, that like an army of termite ants they have been busy for the last 5 decades in concocting the ideal demographic conditions to bring those horrors about. The West is now one big Liberal Progressive Stoned-Out Hippy mental asylum run by the inmates.
(edited by the author)
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Urgent Announcement [Cancellation of Islamia Village at Thorpe Underwood Estate]
As Salamu Alaikum Wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuhu,
We at Islamic Network would first like to extend Eid greetings to you and your families and may Allah accept our fasting, qiyaam and good deeds during the month of Ramadaan.
Ameen
We wanted to bring to your attention recent vulgar activities (by racist and Islamophobic groups such as EDL, Harry’s Place, Quilliam Foundation and others) that have transpired over the last few weeks in the United Kingdom blogosphere to pressurise our venue host to succumb to the cancellation of Islamia Village. The campaign had intensified at the beginning of the week, whereby such groups had threatened to cause violence at this weekend’s event. Threats of burning down the venue with the people in it have also been made publicly by some supporters of this campaign. The team at Islamic Network have been working tirelessly for the past 15 months right up until the last few moments, whereby our first batch of volunteers and guest speakers have arrived on-site in preparation.
We at Islamic Network are very disappointed to announce that due to the aforementioned pressure the venue has cancelled the event. Islamic Network have held a diverse range of dawah activities over a period of fourteen years (since 1998) and our most recent events, Steps to Allah 2011 and Steps to Allah 2012, attracted a total of over 2,000 attendees. Alhamdulilah these have been successful, all with a similar line up of speakers to those at Islamia Village. Similar threats of protest, etc, were also made regarding these previous events, but both events passed with no problems, Alhamdulilah.
We are naturally disappointed at the owner of the venue who succumbed to the threats made by racist thugs who — in other comments in various forums and blogs — have themselves shown their hatred towards Muslims. Furthermore, Islamic Network as a registered charity will incur a substantial financial loss due to the cancellation of Islamia Village, in addition to the countless time and effort spent by our volunteers, may Allah reward them.
[…]
Wa Jazakum Allahu Khayrun
Wa As Salamu Alaikum wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuhu
Islamia Village Team
Islamic Network
[JP note: Vulgar indeed.]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Waltham Forest Council of Mosques Backs Walthamstow Demo
The Waltham Forest Council of Mosques has thrown its weight behind the Unite Against Fascism (UAF) and ‘We Are Waltham Forest’ demonstration against the English Defence League (EDL).
The EDL is planning to march in Walthamstow, north east London on Saturday 1 September. It is a violent group of racist thugs who want to whip up hatred against Muslims, and spread intolerance in our multicultural community. The ‘We Are Waltham Forest’ campaign, which is supported by all the major local trade unions and community groups, has now received backing from the Waltham Forest Council of Mosques. The EDL had planned to march on 18 August, the same day as the Muslim Eid festival. After overwhelming public opposition the EDL postponed its original march.
[…]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Why Norway’s Maximum Sentence is Just 21 Years
Norway’s maximum prison sentence is 21 years, after it abolished life in prison in 1971 as part of its goal of rehabilitating and reintegrating criminals into society, a Norwegian law professor told AFP.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt’s “Crucifixion” Hoax Becomes an Instant Internet Myth
by Jonathan Kay
Have you heard the one about how Christians are being nailed up on crucifixes and left to die in front of the Egyptian presidential place? It’s a story worth dissecting — not because it’s true (it isn’t), but because it is a textbook example of how the Internet, once thought to be the perfect medium of truth-seeking, has been co-opted by culture warriors as a weapon to fire up the naïve masses with lies and urban legends. The Egyptian crucifixion story gained critical mass five days ago, when WorldNetDaily, a popular right-wing web site that promotes anti-gay and anti-Muslim conspiracy theories from an Evangelical perspective, published a story entitled “Arab Spring run amok: [Mulsim] Brotherhood starts crucifixions.”
[…]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Tourists Should Beware of Islamist Mobs in Tunisia, Warns French Politician
Tunisia is falling prey to violent Islamist mobs, a Franco-Tunisian politician from the Loire valley has warned, after he narrowly escaped a “lynching” when he returned to his native town for a family holiday.
Jamel Gharbi, 62, a Socialist regional councillor, said was set upon in Bizerte, northern Tunisia, on August 16 by a gang of 50 sword-wielding Salafists furious that his wife and 12-year old daughter were wearing shorts and T-shirts. “I saw that they were looking at my wife and daughter in a hateful way due to their summer clothes, which were in no way provocative,” he told Le Figaro. They told us that we were in an Islamist country and I quickly understood that it was going to degenerate. I shouted to my wife and daughter to flee and the assailants laid into me to punch me and hit me with sticks. It was a lynching, it was horrible. My daughter shouted: ‘They’re going to kill daddy’ as I was covered in blood, but the worst thing was that nobody budged, nobody came to my aid, I was left to fend for myself.” He added: “If I had fallen on the floor, I think they would have finished me off.” But he managed to break free and reach his residence, where he barricaded himself and his family in.
Suffering from cuts and severe bruising, he cut short the holiday to return to France, vowing not to return to Tunisia anytime soon. “As soon as you leave the gilded prison of hotels and beaches you are at the mercy of gang of Salafists who rein with terror,” he said. “People who see eye-catching adverts for white beaches for 299 euros should see what goes on behind the scenes. They mustn’t fall into these people’s claws.”
[…]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
BBC Censors Video Showing Syrian Rebels Forcing Prisoner to Become Suicide Bomber
The BBC has sensationally censored a news story and a video showing Syrian rebels forcing a prisoner to become a suicide bomber, a war crime under the Geneva Conventions, presumably because it reflected badly on establishment media efforts to portray the FSA as glorious freedom fighters.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Dubai: World’s Most Expensive Cupcake, Covered in Gold
Golden Phoenix costs 800 euros, 50% donated to WFP
(ANSAMed) — DUBAI, AUGUST 23 — The world’s most expensive cupcake can be had for 800 euros at Bloomsbury’s in the Dubai Mall. Covered in 24-karat gold scales, the Golden Phoenix, as this delicacy is called, is made out of Italian chocolate, Ugandan vanilla, and organic butter, flour, and strawberries. The gold is edible, and this is what makes the Golden Phoenix stand out from the competition, which includes a diamond-studded version. Coming on a plate with gold details and a gold spoon with chocolate mousse and gold-glazed strawberries, the opulent cupcake has been available in what is the Middle East’s biggest mall for about a month. Orders, however, have been slow. This may be due to the long turn-around time — 48 hours — its hefty price tag, or even a consciousness of world hunger in a time of economic crisis.
You could feed 1850 children for the price of one Golden Phoenix, according to the World Food Programme (WFP). But the news is not all bad, as Bloomsbury’s is donating 50% of Golden Phoenix earnings to the WFP.
The United Arab Emirates, and Dubai in particular, are no strangers to extravagance on every scale. From the luxurious seven-star Burj al-Arab hotel, also known as The Sail, to gold skin tattoos, to the Madeleine au Truffe, a chocolate-covered truffle lying on a bed of sugar pearls within a gold, silk-lined box, which retails at 250 dollars.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Afghanistan: Police: Insurgents Kidnap, Kill 3 Afghan Soldiers
KABUL, Afghanistan — Insurgents kidnapped three Afghan soldiers and another man from a bus in eastern Afghanistan and killed all four, authorities said Friday, in another challenge to the government and its security forces.Militants stopped the bus as it was traveling in Paktia province’s Ahmad Khil district and forced the four men off the vehicle Thursday, provincial deputy police chief Mohammad Zaman said. Their bullet-ridden bodies were found lying on a road later in the day.
[…]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Afghans Kill Three NATO, Three US Soldiers in One Day
An Afghan working on an installation shared by Afghan and foreign forces shot and killed three NATO soldiers on Friday — raising to six the number of international troops killed by their Afghan partners in 24 hours, officials said.
The attack announced Saturday comes as the number of these so-called “green-on-blue” incidents — carried out by Afghan police or soldiers or those disguised in their uniforms — is on the rise. But the U.S.-led coalition has said that they are not impeding ongoing work to hand over security to Afghan forces by the end of 2014.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Afghan Policeman Kills Two U.S. Troops Minutes After They Hand Him a Gun
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — A newly recruited Afghan village policeman opened fire on his American allies on Friday, minutes after they gave him a new weapon as a present, killing two U.S. service members. It was the latest in a disturbing string of attacks by Afghan security forces on the international troops training them.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Christian Boy Tortured and Killed in Pakistan
The tortured body of an 11 year old Christian boy has been found in a town in Punjab, Pakistan, days after a young Christian girl was arrested on blasphemy charges.
Detectives in Faisalabad, around 60 miles from Lahore, said they were investigating whether accusations of blasphemy had also been made against the boy. Human rights campaigners condemned the killing of Samuel Yaqoob whose burned and tortured body body was discovered on Eid, the celebration which marks the end of the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan. His lips and nose had been sliced off, his stomach removed and there was evidence that his legs had been mutilated too. The boy had been missing since Monday when he left his home in the town’s Christian Colony to visit a local market. His relatives identified his body from a distinctive mark on his forehead. Yaquub was reported to be an orphan but in local newspaper reports his mother Asia Bibi was quoted denying he had been accused of blasphemy. “We neither received any phone call for ransom nor were we told that Samuel had committed blasphemy,” she said.
[….]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistani Muslims: Disabled 11 Yr-Old Christian Should be Punished
Muslim leader: no one can desecrate the Koran. And the faithful in the mosque call for the application of the “black law”. Appeal of Bishop of Islamabad for unity among Christians “around the child.” APMA lawyer speaks of “delicate matter” but is optimistic to have “good news soon.” Families forced to flee denounce their abandonment by government.
Islamabad (AsiaNews) — If guilty of blasphemy, the child should be punished according to the laws of the country. This is a widespread view among Muslims in Pakistan, whether laymen or religious leaders, regarding the tragedy of an 11 year old Christian girl who is disabled and was recently charged under the “black law”. To date the child is being detained under lock and key in a reform school — pending a full hearing for release on bail — for desecrating a few pages of a book that conatined verses from the Koran (see AsiaNews 19/08/2012 An 11-year-old disabled Christian girl arrested for blasphemy, 300 families flee). Interviewed by AsiaNews on the issue scholar Mehmood Ahmed Khan, a member of the Islamic Ideology Council (IIc), said that “Rimsha is a minor, but if she is mentally stable and committed the crime, child or not she should be punished.” He adds, “no one can be allowed to desecrate the Koran.”
Several human rights organizations, including the Masihi Foundation and Life for All, along with the Catholic Church of Pakistan have announced a demonstration tomorrow in Lahore on August 25, demanding the release of Rimsha Masih — this is the name of the girl, arrested on blasphemy charges — and who faces up to life in prison. The incident occurred on August 17 in Umara Jaffar, G-12 Islamabad, where the family of the minor live. In response, a mob of local Muslims — egged on by the imams — attacked the Christian community, forcing hundreds of families to flee.
Bishop Rufin Anthony of Islamabad-Rawalpindi has launched a call: “it is time for the entire Christian community to unite and string around the child. Sunday — adds the prelate — our voices will be heard in support thereof.” Meanwhile, the All Pakistan Minorities Alliance (APMA) has appointed parliamentarian Tahir Naveed Chaudhry lawyer to Rimsha. He assures us that “we will defend the rights of the oppressed” and has prepared “a panel of experts to plead the case.” It is a “delicate matter,” says the lawyer, but he is optimistic and promises “good news soon.”
However, sources say that the APMA lawyer was not allowed meet the child in prison. Now the goal is to get her out of jail and put it in a safe place, since the vast majority of blasphemy deaths are the result of extra-judicial killings, even in prison under the gaze of guards (see AsiaNews 17/09 / 2009 Punjab: young Christian man accused of blasphemy killed in prison). The Christian NGO World Vision in Progress has filed an appeal for bail, which will be discussed on 28 August.
Meanwhile, hundreds of Christian families forced to flee in fear of extremist attacks, accuse the government of neglect and disinterest, despite government proclamations in recent days that ensured comfort and help. Islamabad has announced the distribution of food aid, but so far “has not done anything,” says a witness. There is a climate of “insecurity” among the people and they do not “trust to return to their homes.” Meanwhile, the police have opened an investigation against 150 people suspected of the assault on the Christian Quarter of the capital when word got out of the blasphemy case.
Among the Muslims of Islamabad feelings toward the religious minority are mixed: some are willing to “accept” the return of the Christians in their homes, others do not. But on one point I agree the faithful who flock to mosques around the capital: if the girl is guilty, “to be punished according to law.” No discounts or extenuating circumstances.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
US Drone Raid Kills 16 Militants in Pakistani Waziristan
(AGI) Wana — At least 16 militants were killed in a new US drone raid in South Waziristan. Pakistani intelligence sources said that a remote-controlled spy plane, perhaps supported by one other more drones, fired six air-to-ground missiles at the village of Tundar in a tribal area of Pakistan’s north-west, near Afghanistan
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
China Could Penetrate US With New Huge Missile
News first emerged of the planned ‘super missile’ from defence industry bible Jane’s Defence Weekly last week, according to South China Morning Post.
It apparently claimed that a Dongfeng-41 (DF-41) intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), had been fired in testing last month by the PLA’s Second Artillery Corps.
This third-generation missile, US military sources told Jane’s, contain multiple independently targetable re-entry vehicles (MIRVs) — effectively multiple warheads — meaning they would be almost impossible for current US defences to take down.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Moz Allows Headscarves in Schools
Mozambique’s government on Thursday said Muslim schoolgirls are free to wear headscarves after angering the Islamic community over a requirement that pupils seek permission to cover their hair. Senior government ministers met with Muslim leaders to try to calm tensions after the education ministry issued a notice during the holy fasting month of Ramadan that girls must first seek authorisation.
[…]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Nigeria: Group Wants Muslims’ Lives Reformed
The coordinator of a Muslim non-governmental organisation, “Talking Islam”, Hajia Qudrah Sulaiman, has said that there is the need to reform the lives of Muslims through Islamic ethics. In a statement, Sulaiman stressed the urgent need to carry out a holistic reform in the society geared towards solving the myriads of problems in the country. “Our programmes are basically seminars, workshops and interactive sessions, where everyone is given the opportunity to express their mind,” she said.
[…]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
South Africa: Anger at Bar Next to Bo-Kaap Mosque
A liquor licence granted to an establishment a metre from one of the country’s oldest mosques has raised the ire of Bo-Kaap residents, who vowed to have the licence withdrawn.
Legislation forbids the granting of a liquor licence to a bottle store or bar within the vicinity of schools or places of worship. About 100 residents demonstrated on Wednesday outside Abantu Restaurant and Bar on the corner of Buitengragt and Wale Street to express their anger at a licence granted in January to the establishment previously named Time and Place Restaurant and Bar. It is situated right next to the Nurul Islam mosque, built in 1834.
[…]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
The Day the Music Died: Mali Muslims Ban Radio Songs
From AFP and the Jerusalem Post
BAMAKO — Islamist extremists occupying northern Mali on Wednesday banned all music except the singing of Koranic verses on private radio stations, in line with sharia, the strict Islamic law they are enforcing. Whether Madonna, Rihanna or Youssou Ndour, all non-Muslim lyrics have been declared Satanic. “We have already spoken to people who own the radio stations,” said Oussama Ould Abdel Kader, a spokesman for the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO). “We no longer want Satan’s music. Instead there must be verses of the Koran. Western music is Satanic music. We, the mujahideen of Gao, Timbuktu and Kidal from now on refuse the broadcasting of all Western music on radios on Islamic land,” said Oussama Ould Abdel Kader, a spokesman for the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO). Radio station managers contacted by AFP said they could do nothing about the order.
The best known musicians in Mali are the blues band Tinariwen, known for their mix of electric blues guitars with traditional instruments, men and women (no veils, pretty hair, bright eyes and laughing faces) dancing singing and playing together on stage and in the audience. Can’t be having that now!
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Global Banks Are the Financial Services Wing of the Drug Cartels
Last week, managers from Britain’s biggest bank, HSBC, lined up before the Senate’s permanent sub-committee on investigations — just across the Potomac river from the scene of Dorsey’s crime — to be asked questions such as: “It took three or four years to close a suspicious account. Is there any way that should be allowed to happen?”
The “suspicious account” was that of a “casa de cambio”, a currency exchange house operated in Mexico on behalf of the largest criminal syndicate in the world and one of the most savage, the Sinaloa drug-trafficking cartel. The dealings had been flagged up to HSBC bosses by an anti-money laundering officer, but to no avail — the dirty business continued. “No, senator,” came the reply from a bespectacled Brit called Paul Thurston, chief executive, retail banking and wealth management, HSBC Holdings plc.
The same casa de cambio, called Puebla, was known to be under investigation in another case involving the Wachovia bank during the time HSBC was entertaining its money. US authorities had seized $11m from Wachovia’s Miami office, on the way to securing the biggest settlement in banking history with Wachovia in March 2010, detailed in this newspaper last year.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: ‘Thousands of Underage Refugees Risk Exploitation in Italy’
Save the Children says trend is growing
(ANSA) — Rome, August 21 — There are thousands of unaccompanied underage refugees in Italy who have become victims of human trafficking and exploitation, according to a report released Tuesday by Save the Children Italy, in what the group says is becoming a growing trend in the G8 nation.
The phenomenon is on the rise also due to a constant and unstoppable flow of underage refugees arriving on Italian shores, the report says. This group is particularly at risk of exploitation, according to a report called Small Invisible Slaves of 2012.
There are millions of similar victims around the globe, the association added in its report. Save the Children Italy issued the study two days after UNESCO held a day of remembrance of the slave trade and its abolition, the anniversary of which is August 23.
The number of underage victims of human trafficking total 1.2 million in the world, though the total increases to 5.5 million when factoring in sexual or work-related exploitation. The group says it estimates that there are as many as 2,000 underage prostitutes in Italy today, mainly the result of the practise of human trafficking and exploitation it identified.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
The Immigration Factor: Inviting Additional 100 Million Into USA
Part1: inviting 100 million people into USA
Exactly 38 years from now, if Congress and the American people continue to do nothing, our country will house an additional 100 million third world immigrants. It may not affect those Americans over 40 because you will be dead, but it will definitely affect anyone under 40. It will affect all races, creeds and colors. It will especially affect the poor, illiterate and disenfranchised. It will destroy our middle class. It will affect the rich as to our degraded civilization and it will affect our environment in ways we cannot imagine, but we are getting a peek each summer with drought, gas prices, food prices, water shortages, tornadoes, wildfires and aberrant weather patterns.
This four part series is going to curl your eyebrows and it will sober a lifelong drunk. It will make mothers cry and create anguish in fathers who see their children’s lives diminished beyond comprehension. It’s going to cost our civilization its prosperity, its freedoms and its cohesiveness. Adding another 100 million immigrants to America will change the very foundation of our culture, language and way of life.
Adding 100 million more immigrants will create water, energy, food and resource nightmares beyond understanding. It will create limits on our freedoms such as visiting national parks, driving a car, ability to choose a college, buying a home, attempting to work at a job we enjoy and dozens of other consequences. We can ignore reality for a little while longer, but reality will not ignore us.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Liberal Talk Show Host Blames FRC Shooting on ‘Gutter Christians’ Who Went ‘Too Far’
The “filthy, degenerate, gutter Christians” at the Family Research Council inspired last week’s shooting by “going too far” with their pro-family activism, according to a nationally syndicated liberal talk show host.
“You filthy, filthy right-wing b——-ds, you’re going too far!” Mike Malloy told his audience last week. “One of these days somebody’s going to go berserk and walk into one of your filthy holes of religious insanity with a gun.”
Switching to a mocking tone, Malloy said, “Oh. I think that happened today.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
On Not Understanding Muslims
by Alan Caruba
What if Christmas was a traditional time for Christians to set about bombing one another? We might find that strange, but the recent “holy” month of Ramadan in Iraq was celebrated with bombings and shootings that killed 409 people and wounded 975 according to an August 20 Agence France Press report from Baghdad. Apparently if you are an observant Muslim, abstaining from food, drink, smoking and sex during the day of the “holy” month, the best way to work out your stress is to kill fellow Muslims. This was the case of Ramadan which ended on August 18 this year or a day later depending on whether you were a Shiite or a Sunni.
[…]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
The Cemented Image of Islam
by Nazneen Akbari
Prejudice against Muslims, in the West, continues to mushroom under the umbrella of ignorance and stereotypes. But how much of a role does the media play in this? Minutes after the 2011 Norway massacre, several news outlets reported the crime as an attack by ‘Islamist extremists’. The New York Times highlighted ‘expert’ comments from Terrorism Analyst, Will McCants, who blamed the attack on a terror group, ‘Helpers of the Global Jihad’. Fox News, tagged it ‘some sort of al-Qaeda-related incident.’ Most ludicrous was the coverage by The Sun, “We do not know if it was the work of Al Qaeda, which has threatened Norway, or Libyan Madman Gaddafi”.
Such assumptions, despite unverifiable information and careful judgments by several media outlets reflects a disturbing reality — the cemented image of Islam as a pejorative.
And this image of Muslims continues to dampen despite the community harbouring increasingly well-educated affluent individuals, successful entrepreneurs, celebrities, authors and accomplished professionals. What’s troubling is that the West is cultivating ill feelings towards a community they do not know much about. A CNN report, US Split on Muslim Allies, claimed that 53 per cent of Americans don’t personally know a Muslim and 55 per cent lack the basic understanding of Islam.
[…]
[JP note: Not understanding Islam is probably the optimum option.]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
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