Another Eviction Suicide in Spain
52-year-old Malaga woman throws herself off 4th-floor balcony
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, DECEMBER 14 — A 52-year-old Spanish woman who was about to get evicted from her home threw herself off a fourth-floor balcony, local media reported Friday.
Dolores Garcia took her own life in the Los Corazones neighborhood of Malaga (Andalusia) three days after receiving an eviction notice for failure to make her mortgage payments, Malaga police reported. A former tobacconist who went bankrupt and sold her business to care for her ailing 96-year-old mother, Garcia was distressed about her imminent eviction, neighbors said. Garcia’s death brought the total of such suicides in crisis-ridden Spain to seven. On November 9, former Socialist city council member Amaya Egana, 53, threw herself off her balcony as marshals were coming up the stairs to evict her from her two-room flat, where she lived with her family. On November 28, a 59-year-old man in Santesteban in northern Navarre committed suicide while awaiting eviction for failure to pay 4,200 euros in back rent, and another three people took their lives in Granada and Valencia before being evicted for failed mortgage payments.
The government issued a moratorium on evictions for the neediest families, but it only covers 120,000 people.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Bank of Italy Says Top 10% Control 45.9% of Riches
Poorest half of Italians hold 9.4% of wealth, report says
(ANSA) — Rome, December 13 — The Bank of Italy said the top 10% of Italy’s richest families control almost half of the nation’s wealth, according to the regulator’s monthly bulletin report. The poorer half of the nation’s families own 9.4% of the country’s riches, the bank said, adding that the distribution of wealth in the euro zone’s third largest economy was “characterized by a high degree of concentration”.
The Bank of Italy indicated that the Gini index which measures the degree off inequality of wealth in the nation, is on the rise. The bank said Italian families’ wealth dropped 5.8% as a result of the economic crisis since 2007, the year in which it peaked in real terms.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Struggling Stores Slashing Prices by Up to 80 Per Cent
Struggling stores are slashing prices by up to 80 per cent as they launch the greatest Christmas sales ever seen to tempt back missing shoppers.
The number of customers in the high street and shopping centres is considerably down on last year and those who are out are spending less, according to the British Retail Consortium.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Employers, Doctors, Obamacare and US Supreme Court Cases
As the nightmare known as Obamacare continues to slap everyone across the face with its blatant unconstitutional sections, even the Marxists (aka Democrats) are starting to balk:
18 Democratic senators revolt against Harry Reid on Obamacare tax (12.12.12) — Do take the time to read that article.
We’re all aware of the indefensible decision by Chief Justice John Roberts where he hallucinated some mumbo-jumbo that the individual mandate is a tax.
Religious organizations have been fighting to stop implementation of certain provisions that violate their religious beliefs:
- Big ObamaCare setback: Little-noticed court ruling lets church challenges proceed
- Supreme Court Shocks Life Into Obamacare Challenge
But, what about employers and doctors who will be so negatively impacted by that monstrosity?
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Governor Must Obey Tennessee Law: No State Insurance Exchange
According to an article posted by Lesley Swann of the Tennessee Tenth Amendment Center, the federal obamacare Act doesn’t actually require The People to submit to obamacare.[1]
Accordingly, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sibelius is demanding that The States set up State Insurance Exchanges, by means of which The States will force The People into obamacare.
While 20 States have already given notice that they will not implement obamacare by setting up the State Exchanges; Tennessee’s RINO Governor, Bill Haslam, is “undecided” as to whether he will force Tennesseans to submit to obamacare.
But Haslam has no lawful authority to force The People of Tennessee into State Exchanges. If he does it anyway, he will commit the following five (5) violations of Tennessee Law:…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Gun-Control Laws Failed Connecticut Children
In the wake of the horrific school shooting in Newtown, Conn., voices across nation, and indeed across the globe, have been calling for stricter gun-control laws.
Yet what gun-control measure could have prevented this crime?
The state of Connecticut already has certain gun-control laws in place, at least three of which the shooter broke, as he could have only obtained the weapons through illegal means.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
[WARNING: Disturbing content.]
Adam Lanza used to be a mild-mannered student in high school, making the honor roll, and living a seemingly quiet life with his kindergarten teacher mother, Nancy Lanza, who in turn loved playing dice games and decorating their upscale home for the holidays.
But that very quiet, very thin boy who carried a black briefcase to his tenth grade Honors English class was the polar opposite from the monster dressed in black who yesterday slaughtered 26 people — including 20 children and his mother — before ultimately turning the gun on himself.
[Goth beliefs are nihilistic: (From Mirram-Webster online dictionary: 1: a viewpoint that traditional values and beliefs are unfounded and that existence is senseless and useless 2: a doctrine that denies any objective ground of truth and especially of moral truths). Google school shootings and goth, even Columbine years ago. The absorption of these nilhilistic beliefs can cause dramatic personality changes. Anti-depressants may also be a contributing factor. Some of these drugs even have a warning on the package insert — “may cause homocidal thoughts”.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Legislative Aide Quits Over Anti-Islam Group Link
A legislative staffer resigned Friday after an ethics panel recommended that she be fired after it found she used state resources to help an anti-Islamic group. The House Subcommittee of the Select Committee on Legislative Ethics also recommended that Karen Sawyer never work for the Legislature again. The panel found that Sawyer allowed David Heckert with a group called Stop Islamization of America, or SIOA, to use the Wasilla legislative information office and equipment for work related to his organization. It also found that Sawyer used state equipment to help plan activities related to a 2011 group conference, and that she failed to file a timely disclosure showing she was a member of the group’s board in 2011 and 2012…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
McCain Could be Key for Old Friend Hagel
Alana Goodman
It looks like Senator John McCain’s strong opposition to Susan Rice’s potential secretary of state nomination set off a chain of events that could end up leading to Chuck Hagel’s nomination for the top role at the Pentagon.
You can’t exactly blame Republican critics of Rice; they had legitimate concerns about her role in Benghazi. But some have speculated McCain’s long-time friendship with John Kerry—now the most likely candidate for secretary of state—may have also played a role.
McCain has also been very close with fellow Vietnam veteran Hagel, though it’s not clear how much that relationship was strained by the 2008 election, when Hagel became a vocal critic of McCain’s foreign policy.
Now that McCain has decided to stay on the Armed Services Committee, he will obviously play a role in the next secretary of defense confirmation hearings. As a hawk on Iran and a supporter of U.S. intervention in Syria, McCain could provide crucial cover for Hagel, who is considered soft on Iran and opposed to foreign intervention. Or McCain could do to Hagel what Hagel did to him in 2008. He repeatedly whacked McCain on foreign policy during the election, and promptly joined Obama’s national security advisory board once it was over.
“In good conscience, I could not enthusiastically—honestly—go out and endorse [McCain],” Hagel told the New Yorker in 2008. “when we so fundamentally disagree on the future course of our foreign policy and our role in the world.”
Hagel better hope his old friend doesn’t feel the same way.
| — Hat tip: DS | [Return to headlines] |
Newtown School Shooting Story Already Being Changed by the Media
To eliminate eyewitness reports of a second shooter
The national media is ablaze today with coverage of the tragic elementary school shooting in Newtown, CT, where 27 people have reportedly been killed, including 18 children.
As always, when violent shootings take place, honest journalists are forced to ask the question: “Does this fit the pattern of other staged shootings?”
One of the most important red flags of a staged shooting is a second gunman, indicating the shooting was coordinated and planned. There are often mind control elements at work in many of these shootings. The Aurora “Batman” shooter James Holmes, for example, was a graduate student actually working on mind control technologies funded by the U.S. government. There were also chemical mind control elements linked to Jared Lee Loughner, the shooter of Congresswomen Giffords in Arizona in 2011.
Today, the exact same thing is happening with the Newton, CT school shooting.
Eyewitness reports of a second shooter now being “scrubbed” from the news
As the story of this shooting was first breaking, the news was reporting a second gunman.
FoxNews reported that this second gunman was “led out of the woods by officers” and then questioned. The original source of this report was the Connecticut Post.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Parents Who Are Horrified by Real Violence Are Drowning Their Children in Simulated Violence
(NaturalNews) The great contradiction in the recent Newtown, Conn. elementary school shooting is that many of the parents who are horrified at violence directed at their children are the very same parents who allow their children to inundated with simulated violence from every imaginable direction.
Many of the very same kids who were seen crying after the shooting incident will go home and watch simulated murder on television, where mass murder is considered “normal” and “acceptable.”
Beyond simulated violence on television, children are also routinely exposed to violence through Hollywood movies. The violence in movies has dramatically escalated over the past two decades, to the point where movies that are considered PG-13 today would have been rated “R” just twenty years ago.
The message? It’s okay for children to witness mass murder on the big screen, over and over again, while dosing them up with mind-altering psychiatric drugs that we already know are linked to violent thoughts and suicidal behavior.
And then there’s video games. As it turns out, Adam Lanza was a video game player. He’s being described as “a loner who played video games” according to the Sun (UK) [url].
To truly understand the extent of the simulated mass murder in video games, you need to see it for yourself. The video at the bottom of this article shows a trailer from the latest popular video game being played by children: Far Cry 3.[url]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Real or Fake? “I’m Going to Kill Myself on Friday and it Will Make the News”
Did shooter post pre-massacre threat on Internet messageboard?
An Internet messageboard post made on Wednesday night by a user who threatened to kill himself on Friday morning and “make the news” could have been made by Connecticut school shooter Adam Lanza.
[WARNING: EXTREMELY GRAPHIC AND DISTURBING].
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
School Shooter Adam Lanza Likely on Meds; Labeled as Having ‘Personality Disorder’
In mass shootings involving guns and mind-altering medications, politicians immediately seek to blame guns but never the medication. Nearly every mass shooting that has taken place in America over the last two decades has a link to psychiatric medication, and it appears today’s tragic event is headed in the same direction.
According to ABC News, Adam Lanza, the alleged shooter, has been labeled as having “mental illness” and a “personality disorder.” These are precisely the words typically heard in a person who is being “treated” with mind-altering psychiatric drugs.
One of the most common side effects of psychiatric drugs is violent outbursts and thoughts of suicide.
The Columbine High School shooters were, of course, on psychiatric drugs at the time they shot their classmates in 1999. Suicidal tendencies and violent, destructive thoughts are some of the admitted behavioral side effects of mind-altering prescription medications.
No gun can, by itself, shoot anyone. It must be triggered by a person who makes a decision to use it. And while people like NY Mayor Bloomberg are predictably trying to exploit the deaths of these children to call for guns to be stripped from all law abiding citizens who have done nothing wrong whatsoever, nobody calls for medication control.
Why is that? After all, medication alters the mind that controls the finger that pulls the trigger.
If there is to be any legitimate debate on so-called “gun control” in the aftermath of this shooting, the only idea that makes any sense at all would be to restrict gun purchases by people currently taking psychiatric medications. But even that restriction would of course be abused by the government to take guns away from perfectly healthy, law-abiding citizens who innocently seek treatment for mild depression and who honestly have no clue that psychiatric drugs can cause violent behavior.
A far better solution here would be to outlaw psychiatric drugs that cause the violent behavior in the first place.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Through the Valley of the Shadow
God help us if we allow ourselves to be compelled further, by fear, into surrendering our freedom in a frantic bid for security and safety.
It begins.
On December 5th, 2012, I wrote the following:
“Rest assured that at some point, in the not too distant future, there will be an incident in which large numbers of people will be victims of gun violence. THAT will be the catalyst, the trigger, to unleash the gun control tsunami. The Obama Regime never allows a good crisis to go to waste, even if THEY have to create the crisis.
The Obama assault on the Second Amendment is coming as surely as day follows night. If you don’t believe that—then you’re kidding yourself.”
There is absolutely NOTHING I can say that will ease the pain and suffering of the families of the killed in Connecticut. NOTHING.
Nothing will bring their loved ones back. They will live the remainder of their lives with that pain and that loss.
All we can do now is offer our support and our prayers.
[…]
This is NOT a gun control problem. This is a problem with mental illness that we, as a nation, have refused, thus far, to confront. So, as nearly always happens, the problem is confronting us.
Even as we grieve for the families in Connecticut suffering such profound loss today, we must be on guard that we do not allow those with certain political agendas to advance their policies that would, in the end, bring even more harm to the nation.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
To Stop School Shootings, We Should Let Criminals Have All the Guns, Argue Gun Control Advocates
(NaturalNews) If you’re shaking your head after reading the headline for this article, you’re not alone. The idea of taking away guns from all the law abiding citizens while concentrating them in the hands of deranged, psychopathic criminals isn’t my idea, however. It’s Obama’s. And Bloomberg’s. And Nancy Pelosi and everybody else who is now pushing for “gun control” legislation in the wake of the Newtown, Conn. elementary school shooting.
The problem with gun control laws is that only law-abiding citizens follow laws. This should be self-evident. So while a gun ban law would see law-abiding citizens turning their guns in, law-abiding citizens are not the source of violent shootings.
It’s the psychopathic criminals who are committing the violence. And because they are criminals, they will by definition ignore gun ban laws.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Video: Former FBI Informant: Obama Will Destroy America Once He Has All the Guns
Alex welcomes back Larry Grathwohl, a FBI informant who was undercover with the Weatherman and subsequently revealed plans by the Marxist terrorist group to kill millions of Americans.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Why is There a Canada Free Press?
I have spent a lifetime in science and politics, and with that background, I was extremely pleased to find this site.
For those who are new to Canada Free Press (CFP) which is dedicated to doing their best to get the facts out there in the public domain so that you are well informed, please understand that the Main Stream Media (MSM) has “worked overtime” to mislead you. Understanding that statement, would require an in depth study of the evolution of that which was once “The Fourth Estate” in that the news media formerly brought into public view the deeds of those who were writing and carrying out those laws they passed, but those days are LONG gone, and now the MSM has become the propaganda media with few exceptions. But there is a “shortcut” to understanding the MSM, which is quite simple, just ask this Question: Is that which the MSM told you last week, last month, last year, still true in the light of following events which you witnessed or did they lie to you?
A study of the “who, what, when and where” of the “News” media would reveal that those individuals who now control “our source” of information are dedicated to a form of government which is absolutely foreign to our system of government which is supposed to be a Constitutionally limited Republic and NOT a Democracy which the current purveyors of lies would like you to believe.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Evolution Stirs UK Muslim Debates
— A debate on Islam and evolution has been called off after stirring a torrent of opposition from Muslim students at one of the Britain’s top scientific universities.
“It’s symptomatic of a bigger problem in the Muslim world where people representing practical Muslims have to be seen to be more literalist,” Adam Deen, co-founder of the Deen Institute, told The Independent on Saturday, December 15.
“It’s almost like there’s an intellectual mafia movement who won’t allow any freedom of thought.”
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
‘Islamists’ Behind Botched Bonn Bombing
German prosecutors said on Friday they believed Islamist extremists were behind a botched bomb attack at Bonn train station. Media reports suggested the detonation device was triggered but for some reason the bomb did not go off.
The federal prosecutor said in a statement that there was enough evidence to suggest Monday’s incident was “an attempted explosives attack by a terrorist organisation with a radical Islamist bent.”
It added that there was serious evidence “that the suspicious person has connections in radical Islamist circles,” but gave no details. The prosecutor’s office, which is responsible for probing matters of terrorism, has taken over the investigation.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: PDL MP Investigated in 22-Million-Euro Public Funds Fraud
Verdini accused of illegally obtaining money for papers
(ANSA) — Florence, December 10 — A leading MP of the People of Freedom (PdL) party of former Premier Silvio Berlusconi was accused Monday, along with 24 others, of having orchestrated a 22-million-euro fraud against the State.
Denis Verdini was accused in Florence of aggravated fraud in a probe into public funds for newspapers from 2002 to 2012. Others accused in the alleged fraud include Massimo Parisi, another PdL MP, entrepreneurs and publishers.
The alleged fraud was centered on the newspapers Giornale della Toscana — which closed down earlier this year — Metropoli Day and Il Cittadino.
Prosecutors took aim at the cooperative which publishes the papers, Nuova Editoriale, claiming that it is “clearly (a) sham” created for the sole purpose of collecting state funds allocated to publications unable to finance themselves.
According to prosecutors Nuova Editoriale also issued false invoices and faked circulation figures in order to qualify for the funds.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy’s Bersani Tries to Dispel Doubts About Left-Wing Ally
Vendola is leader of pro-Europe party, says centre-left leader
(ANSA) — Rome, December 13 — Democratic Party leader Pier Luigi Bersani on Thursday sought to dispel doubts that he will not be able to effectively govern Italy if he wins upcoming general elections because of his alliance with the left-wing SEL party of Puglia Governor Nichi Vendola.
“Vendola is the governor of one of the most important Italian regions and he is the leader of a solidly pro-European party and he signed a pact with us,” Bersani told reporters at the Foreign Press Association in Rome. “SEL is a precious party that brings awareness about issues concerning the environment and rights”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Minetti: Bossi Jr Implicated in Lombardy Embezzlement Probe
Ex-regional councillor also in Berlusconi sex procurement trial
(ANSA) — Milan, December 14 — Ex-Lombardy regional councillor Nicole Minetti of former premier Silvio Berlusconi’s centre-right People of Freedom (PdL) party and Renzo Bossi of the right-wing Northern League were among dozens of centre-right politicians to be placed under investigation on suspicion of misusing party funds, it emerged Friday. Berlusconi’s former dental hygienist, 27, allegedly spent around 800 euros on food and drink at the five-star Principe di Savoia hotel in Milan. Renzo Bossi, otherwise known as ‘the trout’ because of his looks, is the son of the Northern League’s historic leader Umberto. On Friday Milan prosecutors announced a new corruption probe involving around 40 Lombardy regional councillors representing PdL and the Northern League. The investigation follows on the heels of earlier probes that led to the collapse of the Lombardy executive administration led by Roberto Formigoni, also of the PdL, in October. Lombardy is due to go to the polls to elect a new regional administration early next year. In a separate case, Minetti is on trial in Milan for allegedly procuring prostitutes for alleged sex parties at Berlusconi’s private residence at Arcore near Milan. Co-defendants in the case are bankrupt talent scout Lele Mora and former TV anchorman Emilio Fede. Berlusconi himself is on trial in a parallel case for allegedly paying for sex with a then underage Moroccan prostitute known as Ruby and allegedly getting police to release her from custody on an unrelated theft claim.
Both Ruby and Berlusconi deny having sex.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
One Out of 10 Italians Want Monti to Stay in Office
Over 40% would like to see premier remain as Life Senator
(ANSA) — Rome, December 14 — Approximately one out of 10 (11%) Italians would like to see Premier Mario Monti remain in office, a survey by the polling agency SWG released on Friday said.
Of those polled, 6% of the support for Monti’s return came from center-left voters and 5% from center-right constituents. Instead, 13% of those interviewed said that they would like to see Monti as President of the Republic. The survey also said that 44% of Italians are in favor of Monti continuing to serve his country as a Life Senator, a title he assumed shortly before taking the helm of a technocratic government in November.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Switzerland: Saudi Cleric Banned From Fribourg Islamic Meet
The federal government has cancelled the planned visit of a controversial Saudi preacher to an Islamic conference this weekend in Fribourg.
The federal migration office announced that Mohammed Al Arifii was banned from entering Switzerland or the Schengen area.
The preacher, whose planned visit to the conference had raised objections from critics who accused him of preaching violence and hatred.
He has been accused of anti-Semitism, insulting homosexuals and offering advice on wife-beating, among a range of condemnations.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Comedian Frankie Boyle Pledges to Use £50,000 Payout to Help Last Briton in Guantanamo Sue MI6
Controversial comedian Frankie Boyle has pledged to donate £50,000 he won in a libel victory to help a British resident languishing in Guantanamo Bay sue the intelligence services.
The television comedian, known for jokes about Rebecca Adlington, Katie Price’s disabled son and the Queen, has pledged to help the legal action by Shaker Aamer, the last remaining British resident in Guantanamo.
The Glaswegian comic has joined forces with charity Reprieve, which has represented inmates at Guatanamo and is helping Mr Aamer sue the intelligence services over accusations they have defamed him.
Aamer is the only British resident left in the centre in Cuba after being arrested in Afghanistan in 2001.
He has been cleared for released under both the Bush and Obama administrations and yet remains imprisoned.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: East London Men Charged Over Child Prostitution
Four men have been charge with a number of sexual offences including child prostitution and rape.
The group, all from from east London were arrested and charged by officers from the Metropolitan Police’s Trafficking and Prostitution Unit. Officers made the arrests in the early hours of Thursday morning, acting on intelligence from Essex Police. A statement from the Metropolitan Police said four victims aged between 16 and 18 have been identified.
Naeem Ahmed, 25, of Westminster Gardens, Barking, was charged with controlling child prostitution, inciting child prostitution and five counts of rape.
Anas Mir Iqbal, 25, from Newham Way, Newham, was charged with one count of paying a child prostitute for sexual services.
Nabeel Ahmed, 23, of Chadwell Heath Lane, Romford, was charged with six counts of rape, and Hassan Raza, 23, of Westminster Gardens, Barking, was charged with one count of sexual touching.
They were due to appear at Barking Magistrates’ Court.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
by Andrew C. McCarthy
Our fundamental rights are under attack.
Cairo on Wednesday, a Coptic Christian blogger named Alber Saber was convicted of blasphemy and “contempt of religion.” There’s a tragic irony: As any of the country’s Christians can tell you, contempt of religion is not merely permitted but encouraged in the new, post-Mubarak Egypt. What is criminal, what has become increasingly perilous, is any criticism of Islam. Nor is truth a defense. Another Egyptian court recently upheld the blasphemy conviction of Makarem Diab, also a Coptic Christian. Diab had gotten into a discussion with a Muslim acquaintance, Abd al-Hameed, who, in the course of mocking Diab’s faith, insisted that Jesus was a serial fornicator. Diab countered Hameed’s baseless taunt with an assertion most Islamic scholars regard as accurate: namely, that Mohammed had more than four wives. Yet, because the context of Diab’s assertion evinced an intention to cast Islam’s prophet in an unfavorable light, Diab was prosecuted for “insulting the prophet” and “provoking students.” He was sentenced to six years’ imprisonment.
This is now everyday life in Egypt. It is also certain to be the future of Egypt. The overwhelmingly Islamist population, having first elected Islamic supremacists led by the Muslim Brotherhood to top leadership positions, is now poised to adopt a constitution that is founded on sharia, Islam’s totalitarian legal framework, and that expressly enshrines these blasphemy standards. But the problem is not just sharia in Egypt. Sharia is here…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Egyptians Vote Into the Night in Divisive Referendum
Voting has been extended by four hours in Egypt’s controversial referendum on a new constitution, due to the strength of the turnout.
President Mohammed Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood have endorsed the draft document, which may define Egypt for years to come.
Opponents say it is poorly drafted and overly favours Islamists.
The opposition National Salvation Front coalition has accused the Muslim Brotherhood of trying to rig the vote.
However, the ballot, which is staggered over Saturday and a second day of voting in a week’s time, appears to be going smoothly.
BBC correspondents at polling stations report a relaxed mood. Many people said they were voting for the restoration of stability in Egypt.
Saturday’s ballot is taking place in Cairo, Alexandria and eight other provinces, a week before the rest of the country. Voting was extended to 23:00 (21:00 GMT).
Some 250,000 security personnel have been deployed to safeguard a referendum in which more than 51 million people are registered to vote…
| [Return to headlines] |
Foreign Minister Lieberman Resigns
Indicted for fraud and breach of trust
Avigdor Lieberman resigns as (ANSAmed) — TEL AVIV, DECEMBER 14 — Israel’s foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman has resigned, according to media reports. In a brief statement, the minister — who was charged with fraud and breach of trust yesterday — said that he had made the decision but had not been obliged to do so.Lieberman said in a statement that “today I have met with my lawyers and the members of the electoral campaign. Considering the nature of the charges and the circumstances of the case — despite the fact that, from a legal standpoint, I am not obliged to do so — I have decided to resign from my position.”
He went on to say that “I know that I have done nothing wrong, but out of a desire to leave all of this behind me, I have decided to offer my resignation as Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister and, as I said yesterday, I have given up my parliamentary immunity.” Lieberman (who is the head of the Israel Beitenu party, the largest ally of Netanyahu’s Likud) then added that “after 16 years of being subject to various inquiries, I have decided to put an end to this story without further delay and clear my name entirely.”
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Public Says U.S. Does Not Have Responsibility to Act in Syria
As fighting in Syria rages on between government forces and anti-government groups, the public continues to say that the U.S. does not have a responsibility to do something about the fighting there. And there continues to be substantial opposition to sending arms to anti-government forces in Syria.
The latest national survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, conducted Dec. 5-9 among 1,503 adults, also finds little change in the public’s sympathies in the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians: 50% say they sympathize more with Israel while just 10% sympathize more with the Palestinians.
Only about quarter of Americans (27%) say the U.S. has a responsibility to do something about the fighting in Syria; more than twice as many (63%) say it does not. These views are virtually unchanged from March.
Similarly, just 24% favor the U.S. and its allies sending arms and military supplies to anti-government groups in Syria, while 65% are opposed. These opinions also are little changed from March.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Shiite Ayatollah Launches Fatwa: Iraqi Christians, Conversion to Islam or Death
From an Egyptian TV Jihad leader Ahmad Al Baghdadi Al Hassani speaks of Christians as polytheists and friends of the Zionists. Sources tell AsiaNews: a grave fact, but the government is attentive to these claims. Card. Sandri reconsecrates the cathedral scene of the massacre in October 2010. The tears, said the cardinal, “are seeds of communion and witness”.
Baghdad (AsiaNews) — An Advent of light and shadow for Iraq’s Christians, who are celebrating the reopening of the cathedral of Baghdad but at the same time subjected to new — and heavy — threats from a radical Shiite Muslim leader. From studies of a television broadcaster based in Egypt, an Iraqi Ayatollah launches a fatwa against the religious minority on the eve of Christmas: “Conversion to Islam or death.” However, strength of faith overcomes the fear of violence as witnessed by celebrations for the “rebirth” of the Syrian Catholic cathedral in the capital, the scene of a bloody attack at the end of October 2010 (see AsiaNews 31/10/2010 Al Qaeda attack on Baghdad church ends in massacre)
In an interview last December 13 on Egyptian television Al Baghdadia, the Shiite ayatollah Ahmad Al Hassani Al Baghdadi issued a fatwa against Christians in Iraq. Labeling them as “polytheists” and “friends of the Zionists”, the extremist leader stressed that they must choose “or Islam or death,” while “their women and girls may legitimately be regarded wives of Muslims.” Al Baghdadi is known for his “jihad” positions and for attacking Americans in the past during their presence in the country, and today he lives in Syria, supporting the armed opposition.
Catholic sources in the capital tell AsiaNews that it is “a very serious fatwa,” but “it is unlikely that people will be upset too much.” The government pays “attention” to these proclamations by extremists, however it is possible that such words could “create panic in some areas of the capital,” where there are now “very few” Christians.
This morning meanwhile Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, prefect of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches, presided over the rededication ceremony of the restored Syrian Catholic Cathedral of Our Lady of Perpetual Help. The place which reopened yesterday to worship and to the faithful, was the scene October 31, 2010 of a massacre carried out by a group of al Qaeda, which killed about 50 faithful and two priests.
During the homily, the cardinal immediately recalled the “testimony offered by many of our brothers and sisters” who “preceded by two young and heroic priests” united forever “their lives to Jesus Christ.” He highlighted the “honorable sacrifices” that have allowed the reopening of the cathedral and pointed out that, through the comfort and hope “the Lord encourages Eastern Christians, and especially those of Iraq, to ??communion and testimony.” Bringing the greetings of Pope Benedict XVI, Cardinal Sandri invoked the Lord, so that “the tears shed in this sacred place, become the good seed of communion and witness and bear much fruit.”
The Vatican cardinal is in Iraq for a five-day official visit, which began on December 13, in addition to the consecration, Cardinal Sandri took part in the Christmas concert organized for the Year of Faith in the Armenian cathedral in the capital, while over the next days he will visit Kirkuk and Erbil in the north.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey is the World’s Leader in Jailing Journalists
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has just issued a report finding that the number of journalists imprisoned worldwide reached a record high this year, many of whom were jailed on the untenable pretext that they were terrorist sympathizers.
The world’s leading jailer of journalists- even exceeding Iran and China, which came in second and third respectively — is Turkey. Its ruler is the Islamist Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who once said “Democracy is like a train. We shall get out when we arrive at the station we want.”
Turkey, like Iran and China, “made extensive use of vague anti-state laws to silence dissenting political views, including those expressed by ethnic minorities,” the CPJ report concluded.
In Turkey’s case, according to the CPJ, “the authorities held dozens of Kurdish reporters and editors on terror-related charges and a number of other journalists on charges of involvement in anti-government plots.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Turkish Archives Show Genocide Planning by Central Government: Scholar
A capacity audience gathered to hear Prof. Taner Akçamç speak about his most recent book, The Young Turks’ Crime against Humanity: The Armenian Genocide and Ethnic Cleansing in the Ottoman Empire, at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, the Arenian Mirror Spectator reports. Akçam is the only scholar of Turkish descent who chairs an Armenian studies department and one of only a handful of Armenian Genocide scholars researching in the Turkish archives. He has mined the archives extensively, with his latest book significantly contributing to the field. “At the risk of sounding immodest, this is a first in many ways,” Akçam said of the book, noting that he is presenting new theses to explain the Genocide. He said there are two issues: what happened and why did it happen. “As to why,” he said, “We still have a long way to go.” The latest book is based on more than 600 documents from the Ottoman archives.
There are two contradictory views, he explained. Armenians who suggest that the Ottoman archives cannot be trusted because they were fabricated by those in power, either during Ottoman or Turkish Republic rule, and Turks who deny the Genocide and suggest that only Ottoman and Turkish sources can be trusted while any Armenian or Western material on the Genocide is suspect. With this new work, Akçam said he hopes to prove that “Ottoman material shows us the same information as the German, American and British archives. It is different material on the same perspective.”
“Talaat [Pasha] used his home as a private post office. He could send telegrams from his home,” he said, including many directly spelling out the genocidal policies. In fact, he noted that in a 1982 interview only published in 2010, Talaat’s widow revealed that the interior minister used the more secure home telegraph line to order the deportation of the Armenians. Similarly, Akçam said that there is information about the ethnic cleansings of the Greeks, village by village.
Akçam said there was a direct correlation between reform movements in the Ottoman era and the start of mass killings; the first waves of the Genocide started in 1894, while the reform government came into power in 1895. The government sent out representatives to assess the population and wherever those representatives went, Akçam said, killings took place. He offered some historical context, explaining that the period immediately preceding the main wave of the Genocide occurred at the end of the Balkan wars of 1912-1913, during which the Ottoman Empire had lost more than 80 percent of its European territories and more than 70 percent of its European population. In return, hundreds of thousands of Muslims migrated to the Ottoman lands from Europe and were relocated in the Christian-majority Anatolia region, home of the Armenians.
Beginning in 1913, he said, the non-Muslim population of Anatolia was referred to as “tumors” that needed to be removed, and therefore the government embarked upon a “radical restructuring of Anatolia’s demographic character.” In other words, the Christians, including the Armenians, Greeks and Assyrians, were removed and the non-Turkish Muslims were relocated and dispersed among the Turkish Muslims to take their place. Akçam said the removal policy was first tried out on the Greek minority. The Ottoman government came to an agreement, albeit illegal by the standards of international law, with Romania, Bulgaria and Greece and enacted a population exchange in 1913.
The Committee for Union and Progress (CUP), he said, which was in charge, would draw up plans for such removals and exterminations nationally but would later present them as the spontaneous actions of local populations throughout the empire. The demographic policy was then used on the Armenians, with the plan to reduce the Armenian population to a “governable number.” That number, he said, was deemed to be “5 to 10 percent” of the general population and no more than that. If they formed a bigger share, the Ottoman authorities suggested, they would be less easily governable.
Thus, the officials conducted demographic surveys to find out the percentage of Armenians in various locales in Anatolia. For example, in the Kayseri Province, 49,947 Armenians were registered. Most were deported to Aleppo, Damascus and Mosul and the population was reduced to 5 percent. In the Eastern Provinces, the policy was “not a single Armenian was allowed to remain there.” The Armenians were deported to Der Zor and by the beginning of 1916, a second wave of the Genocide started, during which an additional 200,000 Armenians were killed in the Syrian provinces in order to maintain the numbers below 10 percent. The authorities, he said, never expected as many to survive the forced marches in the desert…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Afghanistan: Private Matthew Thornton Died After Being Lured to Sight of Taliban Bomb
Soldiers told an inquest in Sheffield how he had been patrolling with colleagues from First Battalion The Yorkshire Regiment north of Checkpoint Loy Mandeh, in Lashkar Gah when they came under attack on November 9 last year.
They took cover behind a wall as Taliban insurgents threw grenades and fired small arms.
But there was a huge explosion after Pte Thornton stepped on a pressure plate-activated improvised explosive device that was hidden in the undergrowth.
His body was later found around 30ft up in a tree.
Major Stephen Sutherland, a bomb disposal expert called to the scene in the aftermath, said: ‘The improvised explosive device had been placed in undergrowth beneath the wall and it could be the grenade rounds were thrown to push the soldiers into the area.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
American soldiers should brace for a “social-cultural shock” when meeting Afghan soldiers and avoid potentially fatal confrontations by steering clear of subjects including women’s rights, religion and Taliban misdeeds, according to a controversial draft of a military handbook being prepared for troops heading to the region.
The proposed Army handbook suggests that Western ignorance of Afghan culture, not Taliban infiltration, has helped drive the recent spike in deadly attacks by Afghan soldiers against the coalition forces.
“Many of the confrontations occur because of [coalition] ignorance of, or lack of empathy for, Muslim and/or Afghan cultural norms, resulting in a violent reaction from the [Afghan security force] member,” according to the draft handbook prepared by Army researchers.
The 75-page manual, reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, is part of a continuing effort by the U.S. military to combat a rise in attacks by Afghan security forces aimed at coalition troops.
But it has drawn criticism from U.S. Marine Gen. John Allen, the top military commander in Afghanistan, who aides said hasn’t—and wouldn’t—endorse the manual as written. Gen. Allen also rejected a proposed foreword that Army officials drafted in his name. . . .
The proposed handbook embraces a hotly debated theory that American cultural ignorance has sparked many so-called insider attacks—more than three dozen of which have claimed the lives of some 63 members of the U.S.-led coalition this year.
[…]
[NOTE: see links to MSM report at the URL]
| [Return to headlines] |
India Becomes Latest Nation to Succumb to S&M Craze as Conservative Nation Opens Up About Sex
India may have a reputation as a conservative society where sex is still a taboo subject, but that image could be fading fast.
The Asian giant is yet another nation to be swept up in the Fifty Shades of Grey craze, with the best-selling erotic trilogy encouraging S&M fans to come out of the closet for the first time.
A group of middle-class activists have formed The Kinky Collective, a Delhi-based group which provides support for lovers of bondage, domination, sadism and masochism (BDSM).
The runaway success of the Fifty Shades trilogy has brought BDSM out into the open throughout the world with its tale of a wealthy executive’s torrid relationship with a young graduate.
[…]
However, one doctor has warned that there is a dark side to India’s new BDSM craze, as he says he frequently encounters patients who have been abused by their partners while having rough sex.
[The book and the mass media blitz around is designed to “normalize” S&M behaviour into the target population.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Leaning casually on the table with a cigarette in one hand as he watches his country’s satellite soar into space, Kim Jong Un’s pose is oddly familiar.
Worryingly familiar, in fact — for it lends him a distinct resemblance to Dr No, the original Bond villain. North Korea’s rocket launch on Wednesday earned Kim virtual global condemnation, alienating even long-standing allies such as China and Russia, while reports in the US suggested that the spacecraft might be ‘tumbling out of control’.
One official described an earlier Korean rocket design as ‘a dishwasher wrapped in tin foil’. But at home, the 28-year-old dictator’s gamble was being hailed as a major triumph, with tens of thousands staging a mass rally in the capital, Pyongyang, as a tribute.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
African Migrants Face ‘Impossible’ Life in Greece
Stuck in a small Athens flat all day to avoid being caught by police, earning another stint in prison and possibly a beating, 29-year-old Cameroonian Eugene Manaa rues the day he came to Greece.
“Life is not just difficult here. It’s impossible,” says Manaa (photo), who recently spent two months in prison on the island of Crete for illegal entry into Greece.
“There’s no work, no money, no housing,” he tells AFP. “There are fifteen of us sharing a flat, we face police checks at every corner, we are subjected to racism and we cannot go to another country.”
Like many of his compatriots, Manaa is among tens of thousands of undocumented migrants caught in a vicious trap.
Lured to the European Union from war-torn homes in search of safety and a better future, they find themselves in Greece at the worst possible moment in the country’s postwar history.
Near-bankruptcy, recession and soaring unemployment have created a hostile environment for migrants and refugees who are seen to be taking jobs from suffering, law-abiding, tax-paying Greeks.
For the past few months, the government has been rounding up migrants who cannot prove residency and placing them in detention centers for repatriation. Over 61,000 people have been inspected since August and over 4,000 have been detained according to police figures.
Ironically, the operation is code-named Xenios Zeus, named after supreme ancient Greek god Zeus, protector of guests.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
At Least 18 Die After Immigrant Boat Sinks Off Lesvos
Greek coast guards have retrieved the bodies of at least 18 people off the coast of Lesvos island in the eastern Aegean sea, following the sinking of a vessel carrying illegal migrants.
A survivor reportedly told coast guards that more than 20 people were on the boat, including two smugglers of Turkish origin.
The search for more survivors continues.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
‘If Someone Asks, I’m British, End of Story’
by Andrew Gilligan
As Ed Miliband apologises for Labour’s failure to stop segregation among immigrant communities, we look at two vastly different approaches to integration in east London
In the Eighties, journalists used to write about a south London road that formed the border between two very different councils. One side was the then hard-Left Lambeth, with hopeless public services and the capital’s highest local tax bills. The identical houses opposite were in Thatcherite Wandsworth, with highly efficient public services and at one point no local taxes at all. That sort of divide is much less sharp than it was. The political spectrum has narrowed. Thanks to New Labour and gentrification, Lambeth and many other formerly extreme Left‒wing councils have sharply raised their game. But in the east of London, beside the Olympic Park, runs a new dividing line between two local authorities — neighbouring councils with completely different approaches to what may be the defining issue of this quarter-century, as the state versus the free market was in the last. The issue is race and national identity…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Labour Has No Right to Lecture on Immigration
Telegraph View
Labour leader Ed Miliband’s call for a ‘strategy for integration’ is just so much hot air
Exactly 10 years ago, a tiny campaign group captured the headlines with a startling prediction that net immigration to the UK would grow by two million over the next decade. Since this was four times more than occurred in the previous decade, the forecast was rubbished by the Home Office. Moreover, the people behind the group, Migration Watch UK, were denounced as closet racists for even raising the subject. Yet everything that Migration Watch foresaw came true; indeed, as the figures published this week from the 2011 census show, they were overly cautious…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
How Conservatives Defeated Progressives in Liberal California
[WARNING: Disturbing content (the crimes of killers on death row).]
Amy Goodman, the host of the far-left radio and TV show “Democracy Now!,” which has become “one of public broadcasting’s fastest growing programs,” thinks she knows why the progressives are winning elections. “Missed by the mainstream media, but churning at the heart of our democracy, are social movements, movements without which President Obama would not have been re-elected,” she says. What she doesn’t say is that many of these “social movements” are bought and paid for by George Soros. One of them—the campaign to abolish the death penalty—has been a pet project of Soros for decades.
But this is also an Achilles heel for the progressives, who stand exposed as people who want to save the lives of serial killers, cop killers, traitors, and those who rape and murder women and children. In a major setback, they lost the battle over Proposition 34 in liberal California on November 6. Proposition 34 would have abolished the death penalty.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Adults have raced to snap up the steamy Fifty Shades of Grey books, making the erotic novels a publishing sensation.
But it would appear that it’s not just the older generation who are clamouring to read the sexually-charged books.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, hormonal-charged teenagers are desperate to read the book about an S&M relationship by British author EL James.
And publishers have wasted no time in supplying to the demand and produced ‘steamies’ — essentially erotic literature for teenagers, The Independent reported.
Gone are the days of classic teenage romance ‘Forever’ by Judy Blume, which after being published in 1975 was banned for giving a frank account of teenage sexuality.
Now publishers are keen to push out ‘escapist romances’ which explore sex and teenage romance, knowing that the titles will be snapped out without fear of censorship.
[Comment: Children (and some publishers) are being manipulated by what is in essence a “psyop” designed to change culture.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Black Doll Cut From Swedish Disney Mash-Up
Disney has deleted scenes from the old Santa’s Workshop reel, Sveriges Television announced on Friday, cutting out the stereotypical black doll from Sweden’s traditional Christmas Eve broadcast of the Disney mash-up.
SVT said that at least two scenes will be cut from this year’s staple diet of Christmas television programming.
One scene features a black doll parading before Santa Claus before stamping herself on the behind with Santa’s ‘OK’ quality stamp. The doll has dreadlocks and oversized red lips, corresponding broadly to stereotypes that many find offensive.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
When Conservatives Forget How to be Conservative, They Lose
by Charles Moore
David Cameron’s proposals for gay marriage show that he hasn’t thought very hard about it
Since I am opposed to gay marriage, I would like to be able to prove that David Cameron is making a political mistake by trying to push it through. Politicians think much more about electoral success and personal survival than anything else, so the only way to make them pay attention is to convince them that these precious things are threatened by their actions.
It is certainly the case that Mr Cameron has annoyed his grassroots supporters more by his backing for same-sex marriage than by anything else he has ever done. Most of them are against it in principle and bewildered about why their leader thinks it urgent. Conservative MPs, including some in favour of the change, tell me that they haven’t encountered such resistance and such upset on any issue since he took over in 2005…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
0 comments:
Post a Comment