A female journalist in Sudan defied the government, was convicted of indecency for wearing trousers, and then imprisoned for not paying her fine. But the Sudanese journalists’ union paid it for her, and she was released after serving only one day of her sentence.By the way — with all the talk floating around about “neo-Nazis” — if you want to see what a real neo-Nazi is like, check out the article about the Hitler-loving child-care woman in Belgium.
Thanks to Barry Rubin, CB, Diana West, JD, Sean O’Brian, TB, VH, and all the other tipsters who sent these in. Headlines and articles are below the fold.
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China Alarmed by US Money Printing
The US Federal Reserve’s policy of printing money to buy Treasury debt threatens to set off a serious decline of the dollar and compel China to redesign its foreign reserve policy, according to a top member of the Communist hierarchy.
Cheng Siwei, former vice-chairman of the Standing Committee and now head of China’s green energy drive, said Beijing was dismayed by the Fed’s recourse to “credit easing”.
“We hope there will be a change in monetary policy as soon as they have positive growth again,” he said at the Ambrosetti Workshop, a policy gathering on Lake Como.
“If they keep printing money to buy bonds it will lead to inflation, and after a year or two the dollar will fall hard. Most of our foreign reserves are in US bonds and this is very difficult to change, so we will diversify incremental reserves into euros, yen, and other currencies,” he said.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UN Says New Currency is Needed to Fix Broken ‘Confidence Game’
Sept. 7 (Bloomberg) — The dollar’s role in international trade should be reduced by establishing a new currency to protect emerging markets from the “confidence game” of financial speculation, the United Nations said.
UN countries should agree on the creation of a global reserve bank to issue the currency and to monitor the national exchange rates of its members, the Geneva-based UN Conference on Trade and Development said today in a report.
China, India, Brazil and Russia this year called for a replacement to the dollar as the main reserve currency after the financial crisis sparked by the collapse of the U.S. mortgage market led to the worst global recession since World War II. China, the world’s largest holder of dollar reserves, said a supranational currency such as the International Monetary Fund’s special drawing rights, or SDRs, may add stability.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Czars: Are They Constitutional?
How many more Communists are in the closet undermining and subverting our Constitution and sovereignty? Not only are they being elected to public office under false pretenses, these America haters are teaching in high end colleges and universities throughout the country. Your son or daughter is being taught the toxic and destructive doctrine called communitarianism (communist morality); see here.
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“The Republican National Committee’s conservative caucus recently passed a resolution expressing their concern noting that “The U.S. Constitution explicitly states government officers with significant authority (called ‘principal officers’) must be nominated by the President and are subject to a vote of the U.S. Senate.”
Obama’s appointments are clearly “principal officers” though it will be argued that they are only advisors to the office of the President. Clearly, Obama’s appointments are not heads of departments, but they appear to have been granted an unknown degree of influence and control as regards their responsibilities. They function “in the dark.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Hats Off to Wnd
Van Jones’ ouster has come on the heals of some truly magnificent reporting. Radio and TV host Glenn Beck has received a lot of credit for putting the pressure on the Obama Administration to cut Jones loose. We are all grateful to Beck for using his megaphone to take on such an important issue.
What many may not know is that Aaron Klein of WorldNetDaily.com is responsible for much of the original reporting on the now former Green Jobs Czar. A WND blog alert email was sent out today highlighting Klein’s work:
In April, Aaron Klein, Jerusalem bureau chief for WND.com, broke the first major story on Jones who was identified as a self-described radical communist and “rowdy black nationalist” who said his environmental activism was actually a means to fight for racial and class “justice.”
While talk radio and cable television picked up WND’s reporting and increased the pressure on the administration to cut Jones loose, there was no significant coverage of the scandal by the major U.S. news media until September.
Jones’ resignation represents a sea change in media. Decades ago, it would have been impossible to oust an administration official without major coverage voluntarily carried out by the network and print media. In more recent times, the new media has been able to pressure mainstream sources into covering a story which otherwise would have been ignored. The Van Jones story is the first situation where a high ranking political official was forced to resign without any pressure from major print newspapers or network TV coverage.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Kennedy and the KGB: The Story the Media Spiked
By Paul Kengor
[BrookesNews.Com] Shortly after the announcement of Ted Kennedy’s death, I had already received several interview requests. I declined them, not wanting to be uncharitable to the man upon his death. Since then, I’ve seen the need to step up and provide some clarification. The issue is a remarkable 1983 KGB document on Kennedy, which I published in my 2006 book, The Crusader: Ronald Reagan and the Fall of Communism (HarperCollins). The document is a May 14, 1983 memo from KGB head Victor Chebrikov to his boss, the odious Soviet General Secretary Yuri Andropov, designated with the highest classification. It concerns a confidential offer to the Soviet leadership by Senator Kennedy. The target: President Ronald Reagan. (A pdf file of the original Russian language document and an English translation are available here.)
With Kennedy’s death, this stunning revelation is again making the rounds, especially after Rush Limbaugh flagged it in his “Stack of Stuff.” I’m being inundated with emails, asking basically two questions: 1) is the document legitimate; and 2) what does it allege of Senator Kennedy? First off, yes, the document is legitimate. If it were not, I would have never reported it. Over the years, from my book to radio and web interviews, I’ve provided specifics. Briefly summarized, here are the basics:
The document was first reported in a February 2, 1992 article in the London Times, titled, Teddy, the KGB and the top secret file, by reporter Tim Sebastian. Russian President Boris Yeltsin had opened the Soviet archives. Sebastian discovered the document in the Central Committee archives specifically. When his article appeared in the Times, other on-site researchers dashed to the archives and grabbed their own copy. Those archives have been resealed.
The Times merely quoted the document and ran a tiny photo of its heading. Once I got ahold of it later, I published the entire text (English translation) in my book.
Importantly, when I published the document, Senator Kennedy’s office didn’t dispute its authenticity, instead ambiguously (and briefly) arguing with its “interpretation.” This was clever. The senator’s office didn’t specify whether this interpretation problem was a matter of my personal misunderstanding of the document or the misunderstanding of the document’s author, Chebrikov. Chebrikov couldn’t be reached for comment; he was dead.
So, what was the offer?
The subject head, carried under the words, “Special Importance,” read: “Regarding Senator Kennedy’s request to the General Secretary of the Communist Party Y. V. Andropov.” According to the memo, Senator Kennedy was “very troubled” by U.S.-Soviet relations, which Kennedy attributed not to the murderous tyrant running the USSR but to President Reagan. The problem was Reagan’s “belligerence.”
This was allegedly made worse by Reagan’s stubbornness. “According to Kennedy,” reported Chebrikov, “the current threat is due to the President’s refusal to engage any modification to his politics.” That refusal, said the memo, was exacerbated by Reagan’s political success, which made the president surer of his course, and more obstinate — and, worst of all, re-electable.
On that, the fourth and fifth paragraphs of Chebrikov’s memo got to the thrust of Kennedy’s offer: The senator was apparently clinging to hope that President Reagan’s 1984 reelection bid could be thwarted. Of course, this seemed unlikely, given Reagan’s undeniable popularity. So, where was the president vulnerable? Alas, Kennedy had an answer, and suggestion, for his Soviet friends: In Chebrikov’s words,
The only real threats to Reagan are problems of war and peace and Soviet-American relations. These issues, according to the senator, will without a doubt become the most important of the election campaign.
Therein, Chebrikov got to the heart of the U.S. senator’s offer to the USSR’s general secretary:
Kennedy believes that, given the state of current affairs, and in the interest of peace, it would be prudent and timely to undertake the following steps to counter the militaristic politics of Reagan.
Of these, step one would be for Andropov to invite the senator to Moscow for a personal meeting. Said Chebrikov:
The main purpose of the meeting, according to the senator, would be to arm Soviet officials with explanations regarding problems of nuclear disarmament so they would be better prepared and more convincing during appearances in the USA.
The second step, the KGB head informed Andropov, was a Kennedy strategy to help the Soviets “influence Americans.” Chebrikov explained:
Kennedy believes that in order to influence Americans it would be important to organize in August-September of this year [1983], televised interviews with Y. V. Andropov in the USA.
The media savvy Massachusetts senator recommended to the Soviet dictator that he seek a “direct appeal” to the American people. And, on that, “Kennedy and his friends,” explained Chebrikov, were willing to help, listing Walter Cronkite and Barbara Walters (both listed by name in the memo) as good candidates for sit-down interviews with the dictator. Kennedy concluded that the Soviets needed, in effect, some PR help, given that Reagan was good at “propaganda” (the word used in the memo). The senator wanted them to know he was more than eager to lend a hand.
Kennedy wanted the Soviets to saturate the American media during such a visit. Chebrikov said Kennedy could arrange interviews not only for the dictator but for “lower level Soviet officials, particularly from the military,” who “would also have an opportunity to appeal directly to the American people about the peaceful intentions of the USSR.”
This was apparently deemed crucial because of the dangerous threat posed not by Andropov’s regime but — in Kennedy’s view — by Ronald Reagan and his administration. It was up to the Kremlin folks to “root out the threat of nuclear war,” “improve Soviet-American relations,” and “define the safety for the world.”
Quite contrary to the ludicrous assertions now being made about Ted Kennedy working jovially with Ronald Reagan, Kennedy, in truth, thought Reagan was a trigger-happy buffoon, and said so constantly, with vicious words of caricature and ridicule. The senator felt very differently about Yuri Andropov. As Chebrikov noted in his memo, “Kennedy is very impressed with the activities of Y. V. Andropov and other Soviet leaders.”
Alas, the memo concluded with a discussion of Kennedy’s own presidential prospects in 1984, and a note that Kennedy “underscored that he eagerly awaits a reply to his appeal.” What happened next? We will never know. None of the Kennedy admirers and court composers who serve as “journalists” bothered to ask, even with decades available to pose questions, beginning back in January 1992 when the highly reputable London Times broke the story.
In 2006, when my book was released, there was a virtual media blackout on coverage of the document, with the exception of conservative media: talk-radio, Rush Limbaugh, some websites, and mention on FoxNews by Brit Hume. Amazingly, I didn’t even get calls from mainstream reporters seeking to shoot down the story. I had prepared in great detail to be grilled on national television, picturing the likes of Katie Couric needling me. I didn’t need to worry. […]
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
Obama-Nation From the White House
Today, the usurper to the Oval Office, the occupier of the White House, Also Known As (AKA) Obama, plans to address children across the nation. We don’t know yet what he will say because the American people (nor parents) have not been provided a copy of his intended remarks. The White House has told us what he plans to say, but then, can we believe anything these purveyors of untruth tell us?
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Parents across the nation are protesting what amounts to AKA seeking to address a captive audience of youngsters while their parents aren’t around. If that were not the case, he would deliver his address on prime-time when children could view it with their parents. All the “race card” squalling of the liberals aside, that is truly the crux of the situation.
AKA will present his remarks from Wakefield High School, Arlington, Virginia. While one might assume Wakefield is in white suburbia, thus eviscerating the claim that AKA is a racist, that assumption would not be accurate. In the 2008-09 school year, Wakefield sported a 48.35% free and reduced price lunch line. The student body of Wakefield High School, in the 2008-09 school year, comprised a population that was 27.1% black, 47.0% Hispanic, and 14.4% white. Was Wakefield just a random choice? Hardly! AKA wanted a school that appeared (unless one looked closer) to be a more accurate representation of schools across the United States as opposed to a black inner-city school.
Last week we learned that while AKA refused to participate in the National Day of Prayer—a long-standing event paying homage to our Christian heritage, and hasn’t been to church since usurping the White House, AKA celebrated Ramadan in a big way, complete with a dinner at the White House on September 1, 2009 and a guest list long on Muslims and short on common sense. Not that he’s the first to do this; but that he has played to the Muslim religion at every chance while denigrating Christianity at every opportunity!
It’s been rumored, for some time, counter to the denials of Team AKA, that AKA was and really is a Muslim, the religion of his father and adopted father. Maybe all those good “Christians” who voted for him will finally get their eyes open.
So empowered does the Muslim population feel, having one of their own in the White House, that they are holding a march on Capitol Hill on September 25, 2009, bragging on their website that, “Our Time Has Come.” Their time has come for what? Can we look to other countries for what the Muslims in this country are after? Could it be that they are looking to institute Sharia law here as has happened in many European countries?
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Obama as National Papa is Unsettling Theater
The poignant image of Barack Obama offering himself as a Father of the Nation spooning up homilies to American children has created deep disquietude in everyday citizens. One hopes that as Obama presents himself as an all-American uncle, he does not realize such communist tyrants as Joseph Stalin were committed to this same kind of public fable.
That communism perpetually employed media to create massive cults of personality is well-known, the results being impressive biographies mined from veins of pure balderdash. But it is little noted communists were also extremely focused upon likewise inculcating the young in such schemes. Yet, there are dangers in any attempt to draw an intimate relationship between politicians and children. Such latter day propaganda in America could easily confuse the young as to our original commitment to building a society of laws and principles over personalities.
[…]
In communist regimes, propaganda was more planned for than for almost any other public policy undertaking. According to Heller and Nekrich’s, “Utopia in Power,” Bolshevik functionary Karl Radik had studied the propaganda theory and practice contrived for Adolph Hitler in great detail, and helped base the Stalin cult upon this. In Montefiore’s excellent work, “Stalin, Court of the Red Tsar,” the cultus surrounding the dictator is discussed. Described is the Leninist fixation on creating the “New Man” in which education is central to achieving the communist paradigm. In Marxist thinking, the Party becomes the uber-family, literally taking the place of the traditional family in importance. Overt education of the youth was how this transition was to be achieved.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Ready for Papa Barack to Dictate Your Lifestyle?
In short, a government that promises to provide health care for its citizens begins to take a deep interest in the minutia of their personal lives. At first, this manifests itself in mildly intrusive ways, such as the U.K.’s campaign to get citizens to exercise while waiting for the bus or their more recent scheme to use taxpayers’ pounds to subsidize “fat camps” where infants will be put on “weight management” courses. But it quickly accelerates into a full-scale policing of individual health.
Consider that British parents are routinely threatened with having their children removed if they are too fat, while the “health and safety” cult increasingly restricts the range of legitimate activities Brits may or may not perform. Any behavior that might lead to disease or injury — from tree climbing to eating shellfish — becomes a matter, not merely of private health, but of public “health and safety.” The reason these things are a concern is because preventive action is seen as the most effective way to reduce the costs of an over-stretched health-care system.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Blogger Who Nailed Van Jones
If the Van Jones resignation is blamed on his statements about Republicans and 9/11, a great lesson will have been lost. As we argued in a previous column, “It’s the communism, stupid.” If people don’t recognize the dangers of having a communist in the White House, then the nature of the scandal will not have been understood. Blogger Trevor Loudon of New Zealand broke the story on April 6 and has some thoughts on what happened and where this story is heading.
His main point is that Van Jones and Barack Obama share the same Marxist ideology and background. Obama, however, is more careful and clever.
There’s an old saying, “If you don’t know where you’re going, it doesn’t matter which road you take.” As Trevor Loudon argues, Jones and Obama know precisely where they’re going. And the Jones resignation doesn’t mean that Obama will take a detour from the road that he wants to take the country on. Indeed, as Loudon explains, they are both on the same road.
The development of the scandal, which was seized upon by World Net Daily, Glenn Beck and other media outlets and personalities, began in Loudon’s research into the existence of communist networks. Loudon blogs at newzeal.blogspot.com. A compilation of his most important articles on Jones can be found here.
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Loudon concludes, “Jones’ resignation is a blow for the left and a victory for freedom, but it is only the beginning in unmasking a whole series of White house radicals. They may not have been as loud mouth and indiscrete as Van Jones—but that makes them more dangerous, not less. Millions of Americans now have some inkling of what is happening to their country. Now is the time to amp up the pressure and research.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The End Doesn’t Justify the Means When You Deliberately Deceive
A pattern has emerged in Obama’s policy initiatives. It’s not the change in ideas or methods promised and it isn’t new. It is pure demagoguery. A demagogue, is defined as, “A political leader who seeks support by appealing to popular desires and prejudices rather than by using rational argument.” Aristophanes (446-386 B.C.), a comic playwright, used it in a satire about a political leader, but there is nothing funny or satirical about what Obama is doing.
In modern times H.L.Mencken defined a demagogue as, “one who preaches doctrines he knows to be untrue to men he knows to be idiots.” Mencken also explains why he knows they are untrue. “The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.” Obama plays the game by finding a fault and inflating and conflating it to a catastrophe. It’s easy because, you can always find fault and elaboration is easy. Elaboration is always to the point where he can argue government intervention is the only solution. Here a third Mencken quote is relevant. “The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Marxist Roots of Black Liberation Theology
Black Liberation theologians James Cone and Cornel West have worked diligently to embed Marxist thought into the black church since the 1970s. For Cone, Marxism best addressed remedies to the condition of blacks as victims of white oppression. In For My People, Cone explains that “the Christian faith does not possess in its nature the means for analyzing the structure of capitalism. Marxism as a tool of social analysis can disclose the gap between appearance and reality, and thereby help Christians to see how things really are.”
In God of the Oppressed, Cone said that Marx’s chief contribution is “his disclosure of the ideological character of bourgeois thought, indicating the connections between the ‘ruling material force of society’ and the ‘ruling intellectual’ force.” Marx’s thought is useful and attractive to Cone because it allows black theologians to critique racism in America on the basis of power and revolution.
For Cone, integrating Marx into black theology helps theologians see just how much social perceptions determine theological questions and conclusions. Moreover, these questions and answers are “largely a reflection of the material condition of a given society.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
US Court: Free Speech Does Not Allow ‘Intifada T-Shirts’
(IsraelNN.com) A U.S. federal judge has confirmed that even freedom of speech has its limits. Last week, Judge Sidney H. Stein of Manhattan’s Federal District Court dismissed the case of a founding principal of an Arabic culture public school who was fired for defending “Intifada” t-shirts. Debbie Almontaser, the former principal of the Khalil Gibran International Academy, claimed that her rights were violated.
In August 2007, Almontaser told the New York Post that the T-shirt wording “Intifada NYC” was sold by Arab Women Active in the Arts and Media, a woman’s group that she allowed to use her school facilities. She claimed that the Arabic word intifada means “shaking off”, and had nothing to do with the violent uprisings of Arabs within Israel in the 1980s and 1990s.
“The word basically means ‘shaking off.’ That is the root word if you look it up in Arabic. I understand it is developing a negative connotation due to the uprising in the Palestinian-Israeli areas. I don’t believe the intention is to have any of that kind of [violence] in New York City. I think it’s pretty much an opportunity for girls to express that they are part of New York City society … and shaking off oppression,” Almontaser said in her interview.
Due to a “shake off” from complaining parents, the New York City Board of Education asked Almontaser to resign.
Shortly after her resignation, Almontaser sued the Department of Education, its chancellor, and New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg. She claimed that they not only violated her free speech rights, but also prevented her from regaining her job as a principal.
The Khalil Gibran International Academy is a public school in Brooklyn, New York City that opened in September 2007. It was the first public school to emphasize a curriculum of Arabic language and culture.
Daniel Pipes, a Middle East studies expert, objected to the school’s curriculum. “In principle it is a great idea — the United States needs more Arabic-speakers. In practice, however, Arabic instruction is heavy with Islamist and Arabist overtones and demands,” Pipes wrote ahead of the school’s opening.
Pipes later revealed that Almontaser received an award from the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and that the school was designed in part by the American-Arab Anti Discrimination Committee (ADC). CAIR is an Islamist group that the FBI has linked to funding the ourlawed Hamas terrorist organization.
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
Van Jones’ Departure Inspires: ‘Who’s Next?’
Holdren, Sunstein, Lloyd all linked to radical ideas
Former Obama green jobs czar Van Jones is gone, along with his views about whites directing poisons to minorities, his obscene condemnations of Republicans and his affiliation with the idea the U.S. government was behind 9/11.
Now critics of the cadre of unvetted political appointees charged by the president with “advising” on a broad range of critical issues are looking at some of the other names with White House access.
Jones’ midnight-on-a-holiday-weekend resignation came after pressure over his extremist history first exposed in WND reached critical mass, set off by a tape of him in an expletive-packed rant, directly attacking Republicans in the Senate who he said abused their majority position in the past to push legislation through.
Now czar regime opponents are looking into names such as John Holdren, Cass Sunstein and Mark Lloyd.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Yale Criticized for Nixing Muslim Cartoons in Book
By JOHN CHRISTOFFERSEN, Associated Press Writer
NEW HAVEN, Conn. — Yale University has removed cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad from an upcoming book about how they caused outrage across the Muslim world, drawing criticism from prominent alumni and a national group of university professors.
Yale cited fears of violence.
Yale University Press, which the university owns, removed the 12 caricatures from the book “The Cartoons That Shook the World” by Brandeis University professor Jytte Klausen. The book is scheduled to be released next week.
A Danish newspaper originally published the cartoons — including one depicting Muhammad wearing a bomb-shaped turban — in 2005. Other Western publications reprinted them.
The following year, the cartoons triggered massive protests from Morocco to Indonesia. Rioters torched Danish and other Western diplomatic missions. Some Muslim countries boycotted Danish products.
Islamic law generally opposes any depiction of the prophet, even favorable, for fear it could lead to idolatry.
“I think it’s horrifying that the campus of Nathan Hale has become the first place where America surrenders to this kind of fear because of what extremists might possibly do,” said Michael Steinberg, an attorney and Yale graduate.
Steinberg was among 25 alumni who signed a protest letter sent Friday to Yale Alumni Magazine that urged the university to restore the drawings to the book. Other signers included John Bolton, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations under President George W. Bush, former Bush
administration speechwriter David Frum and Seth Corey, a liberal doctor.
“I think it’s intellectual cowardice,” Bolton said Thursday. “I think it’s very self defeating on Yale’s part. To me it’s just inexplicable.”
Cary Nelson, president of the American Association of University Professors, wrote in a recent letter that Yale’s decision effectively means: “We do not negotiate with terrorists. We just accede to their anticipated demands.”
In a statement explaining the decision, Yale University Press said it decided to exclude a Danish newspaper page of the cartoons and other depictions of Muhammad after asking the university for help on the issue. It said the university consulted counterterrorism officials, diplomats and the top Muslim official at the United Nations.
“The decision rested solely on the experts’ assessment that there existed a substantial likelihood of violence that might take the lives of innocent victims,” the statement said.
Republication of the cartoons has repeatedly resulted in violence around the world, leading to more than 200 deaths and hundreds of injuries, the statement said. It also noted that major newspapers in the United states and Britain have declined to print the cartoons.
“Yale and Yale University Press are deeply committed to freedom of speech and expression, so the issues raised here were difficult,” the statement said. “The press would never have reached the decision it did on the grounds that some might be offended by portrayals of the Prophet Muhammad.”
John Donatich, director of Yale University Press, said the critics are “grandstanding.” He said it was not a case of censorship because the university did not suppress original content that was not available in other places.
“I would never have agreed to censor original content,” Donatich said.
Klausen was surprised by the decision when she learned of it last week. She said scholarly reviewers and Yale’s publication committee comprised of faculty recommended the cartoons be included.
“I’m extremely upset about that,” Klausen said.
The experts Yale consulted did not read the manuscript, Klausen said. She said she consulted Muslim leaders and did not believe including the cartoons in a scholarly debate would spark violence.
Klausen said she reluctantly agreed to have the book published without the images because she did not believe any other university press would publish them, and she hopes Yale will include them in later editions. She argues in the book that there is a misperception that Muslims spontaneously arose in anger over the cartoons when they really were symbols manipulated by those already involved in violence.
Donatich said there wasn’t time for the experts to read the book, but they were told of the context. He said reviewers and the publications committee did not object, but were not asked about the security risk.
Many Muslim nations want to restrict speech to prevent insults to Islam they claim have proliferated since the terrorist attacks in the United States on Sept. 11, 2001.
Fareed Zakaria, editor of Newsweek International, a world affairs columnist and CNN host who serves on Yale’s governing board, said he told Yale that he believed publishing the images would have provoked violence.
“As a journalist and public commentator, I believe deeply in the First Amendment and academic freedom,” Zakaria said. “But in this instance Yale Press was confronted with a clear threat of violence and loss of life.”
| — Hat tip: Diana West | [Return to headlines] |
Al-Qaeda Targeting Germany for ‘Next 9/11’ — Within Weeks
(IsraelNN.com) Jihadists close to al-Qaeda explicitly warned in new communications that Germany will be the target of the next 9/11-scale terrorist attack. The timing of the strike, they say, will be within the next few weeks.
According to analysts with the Institute of Terrorism Research and Response (ITRR), a recently intercepted jihadist communication declares that “everyone knows” that the “next strike is very near, a strike that will surprise everyone in its effect, which will be much more shocking than that of 9/11/2001.” The writer of the chilling message notes that this is the Muslim month of Ramadan and that “we pray that it will indeed be in this month.”
After referring to a previous boast by Osama Bin-Laden, that the enemy is afraid and unable to prevent the next attack, the communication says:
“And the Germans, grandchildren of the Nazis, know more than everyone else that they will be the first ones to taste [the nightmare]. It is just a matter of time — that is, days or weeks — and God willing you’ll see things that you’ve never heard of before.”
While Germany and German assets have been singled out in the past, due to that nation’s involvement in the war in Afghanistan, the threats have been general and motivational in nature. According to ITRR, the latest jihadist communication was unusual in that it was very explicit and open in targeting the Germans, in discussing a coming attack, and in specifying its timing. Aside from Ramadan, which ends 19 September 2009, the upcoming German national election on September 27 has been marked as a “red flag date” by ITRR. Jihadists keen on disrupting and influencing European foreign policy are likely to attempt attacks around the time of the elections.
German security services have also been cited in local media discussing stepped up jihadist chatter, threats and intelligence warnings aimed at the German state in recent months. Earlier this year, video messages delivered in German by an al-Qaeda fighter going by the name of Abu Talha, purportedly in Afghanistan, called on Germans to convert to Islam and remove their several thousand troops from the Afghan theater. According to a June report by Der Spiegel weekly, American intelligence agencies believe that al-Qaeda’s leaders have decided to attack Germany, supposedly assigning the job to al-Qaeda of the Islamic Maghreb (North Africa).
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
Another Shocking Warning About Swine Flu Vaccine
Now, German lung specialist Wolfgang Wodarg has come out about even more potential health risks associated with the swine flu vaccine. Interestingly, Dr. Wodarg also holds political office, as the chairman of the health committee in the German parliament and European Council.
According to Dr. Wodarg, the swine flu vaccine contains animal cancer cells, and there’s no data indicating whether or not this may cause an allergic reaction when injected.
It also raises questions about the risk of contracting cancer.
He also told the German press that the widespread fear of the pandemic was an “orchestration,” stating,
“It is great business for the pharmaceutical industry. Swine flu is not very different from normal flu. On the contrary, if you look at the number of cases it is nothing compared to a normal flu outbreak.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Belgium Shocked by Neo-Fascist Child Care
A woman with extreme right-wing sympathies who takes care of children at her home has sparked an outcry in Belgium.
A portrait of Adolf Hitler hangs in the living room of her Antwerp home, along with the flag of banned neo-fascist organisation the Flemish Militant Order, VMO.
A journalist from Flemish TV news programme Terzake filmed inside the woman’s home with a hidden camera, pretending to be a father looking for after-school care for his daughter.
Nothing to hide
The care facility is accredited by Child and Family, a national childcare organisation. The woman told the reporter, “I have nothing to hide. I don’t agree with the child care policies of Child and Family. They want the children to decide by themselves when they want to sleep.” She explained that she wanted “clear rules”.
“My husband is an old-style Nazi. Not pro-German, but very conservative. He is very interested in WWII.” The walls of the living room are lined with shelves filled with books on the Nazi occupation of Europe and fascist memorabilia. “Many parents don’t understand us,” the woman says. “They say, Heil Hitler, yuck!”
Immigrant problem
She told the reporter Hitler’s ideas were “phenomenal” and said that current trouble with Islamic immigrant families should be handled in the same way that Hitler handled the Jews. “We’ve got the same problem today. We’re being overrun by them.”
Children should be taught again to obey their parents, she added. “We should send all children to the Hitler Youth, then they will listen again.”
Flemish Welfare Minister Jo Vandeurzen has now launched an investigation into the Antwerp crèche. “I’m shocked by the images and I think this is unacceptable. It’s strange that someone whose living room is a tad too small is turned down as a childcarer by Child and Family, while someone who promotes fascist ideas is accepted.”
A spokesperson for Child and Family said she was “very surprised” by the report. “If there is a childcare problem, we will review the woman’s accreditation.”
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
EU: Battle Brewing Over Alcohol Restrictions
Efforts by Sweden to tackle alcohol abuse in Europe look set to come to the boil during the latter half of its six-month EU presidency. The drinks industry is gearing up for a counter-offensive against an expected push to increase prices and restrict alcohol advertising.
The Swedish Presidency has scheduled a major update of the EU’s alcohol strategy as one of the top priorities in its hectic autumn agenda, aiming to hammer out agreement ahead of a key meeting of European health ministers in Brussels in early December. In an effort to broaden the debate, the Brewers of Europe, which represents beer makers big and small, will publish a report by Ernst and Young on the contribution of the industry to the economy.
Europe’s beer industry claims to provide 2.5 million jobs and €57 billion worth of revenue for governments.
The brewers have also been circulating a pamphlet on the effects of beer consumption, highlighting research which shows the health benefits of moderate drinking.
However, Sweden is particularly concerned about the health and social impact of alcohol on younger people and unborn children, as well as the link between drinking and road traffic accidents.
The Swedes are believed to pushing for advertising limitations, saying young consumers need to be “better protected against increasing exposure to advertising and different forms of marketing”.
The industry prefers self-regulation and the enforcement of existing rules and is expected to resist major curbs on marketing practices.
Taxation is also on the agenda, with Sweden linking cost increases to a reduction in heavy drinking. “The significance of purchasing power and price for patterns of consumption and harm in the EU will be highlighted,” the presidency says.
However, the brewing industry is pointing to the experience of Finland, where higher consumption resulted from higher prices. Consumers tended to purchase cheap alcohol in supermarkets instead of drinking in pubs and cafe’s.
A number of meetings will be held in September as the debate intensifies, including a major meeting of experts on alcohol and health in Stockholm.
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
French Muslims Want Freedom to Wear Burka
Despite President Nicolas Sarkozy’s statement condemning the burka, or face veil, as “unwelcome” in France and MPs move to ban the traditional outfit, according to Interior Ministry statistics the number of French women that wear the burka is no more than 367.
Freedom to coverChristelle, born to French parents, converted to Islam 11 years ago. A year after becoming a Muslim she married an Algerian man and has five children with him.
Christelle, now called Soraya, defended her decision to cover her face and refuses to take it off as she says it is her right.
Soraya started by wearing the traditional veil that covers the hair but says she was harassed and decided to cover her face to protect herself.
“If France is the protector of freedoms, they should let me practice my own freedom,” she told Al Arabiya.
Soraya, who works as a hairdresser from home, is not the only woman who defends her right to wear the burka and even women outside France support the cause of Muslim French women.
Islamic scholars have repeatedly said the burka is not obligatory in Islam and in June Egypt’s Grand Imam Sheikh Mohammad Tantawi reacted to Sarkozy’s comments by saying “every state had a right to ban the face veil.”
Cultural practiceA tourist from the Gulf who was praying at the Grande Mosquée de Paris, the largest mosque in France which was built after World War I as a tribute to Muslim soldiers, said she was proud to hold on to her beliefs.
“I am not a defeatist,” the woman, who asked to remain unnamed, told Al Arabiya. “I hold on to my beliefs and am proud of being a woman who abides by the teachings of her religion.”
She called on all Arab tourists to wear the face veil if they felt so inclined.
A parliamentary committee comprised of 23 MPs is currently studying the possibility of issuing a law that bans the burka modeled after the religious symbols ban in 2004.
The 2004 law prohibits people from wearing religious symbols like the head scarf, the Jewish skull cap and big crosses.
The debate about the face veil is, however, attracting little attention in the Muslim community since few of them support the burka as a principle and most Muslims see it as a cultural practice not a religious one.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
German Government Advisor Proposes Personal CO2 Budget for Everyone on Planet
The top climate science advisor to the German government has proposed that everyone on the planet should have a personal CO2 budget and be forced to pay a tax if they exceed it, adding that westerners have already exceeded their allocations and should pay climate reparations to poorer countries.
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Ireland: Timely Wake-Up Call on Lisbon
PLUMMETING public confidence in Government, as reflected in the most recent polls, looks as though it may be undermining a swing in favour of the Lisbon Treaty. The latest opinion poll shows that support for the Lisbon Treaty has fallen considerably.
Over a few traumatic months, a significant number of previously unconvinced or disinterested voters had seemed to realise the importance of Europe to this economically weakened country,
But now it appears they may be about to allow their hearts to rule their heads in order to ‘punish’ an unpopular government.
Securing a ‘Yes’ to Lisbon is one of three great challenges facing the Government that could make the next three months the most crucial in living memory to the life of the country. The trend reported today is a bad omen. The possibility that the troublesome troika of NAMA, Budget and Lisbon might, singly or together, provoke an election is beginning to weigh heavily on the minds of at least some government figures.
The chairman of the Green Party suggested yesterday that a snap election could come in the next six months, arising from difficulties with the banking system and public finances.
In plain language, that means he can contemplate his party walking out on its Fianna Fail coalition partners if, between them, they fail to persuade the public that NAMA is in the taxpayers’ interests and is not simply a bail-out for bankers and developers, or if the December Budget measures prove so draconian as to make political suicide a preferred option.
The Minister for Science, Technology and Innovation, Conor Lenihan, chuckled amiably on radio yesterday as he admitted that ministers, including himself, would be likely to lose their seats in a snap election.
But an election in the next three months would not only be bad news for the ‘knowledge society minister’ and some of his colleagues, it would likely prove bad news for the rest of us too. Former Fine Gael leader and Taoiseach Garret FitzGerald, nailing his colours to the NAMA mast last week, a little reluctantly perhaps, warned his old party that bringing down NAMA in the Dail would be a disaster.
He believes that failure by the Government to get through the Dail, by early December, its NAMA strategy and its budget measures would undermine the country’s capacity to continue borrowing the huge sums we need to keep going.
N obody needs to be reminded how many borrowed millions go to pay public service wages and social welfare payments every day. Nobody needs to be reminded that we are already paying interest rates way above the odds for those borrowed millions.
Yet the public remains suspicious and sceptical.
Proponents of the Fine Gael model of a national recovery bank and the Labour plan for immediate nationalisation argue their cases convincingly. Respected economists like Sean Barrett and David McWilliams tell us that NAMA cannot work. And people remain confused. We want to know how much the Government intends to pay for those bank loans and how they will be valued.
We will find that out on September 16, when the Minister for Finance unveils the legislation to create NAMA. What we do know is that, in many cases, the State will pay more than the current depressed market value.
As things stand, there appears to be no alternative to the NAMA approach, albeit with adjustments which would make it more acceptable to the Opposition and to the public. The suggestion by Prof Patrick Honohan, new governor of the Central Bank, that the Government should pay lenders in two stages for risky property loans being transferred to NAMA, so as to minimise the risk to taxpayers, was one good contribution. The Government has much persuading to do in the months ahead.
NAMA and the Budget are waiting in the wings. More immediately, centre stage, a significant number of the 25pc of voters who now say they don’t know how they will vote on Lisbon will have to be persuaded to go with their heads rather than their hearts.
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Netherlands: Ex-Muslim Jami Joins Wilders
THE HAGUE, 08/09/09 — Ehsan Jami may become a council-member for the Party for Freedom (PVV). He took part in a session on Saturday in which party leader Geert Wilders was grooming candidate council members for the two cities in which the party is running in the approaching local elections.
The meeting, like the earlier sessions that Wilders held for his future council members, took place in secrecy. In the Lower House building, where little or nothing generally happens on Saturday morning, Wilders himself gave lessons to the candidates who will be on the electoral lists in The Hague and Almere for his party in the March 2010 local elections, Algemeen Dagblad reported yesterday.
It is unclear what role Jami wants to and can play in the party. Neither Wilders nor Jami responded to questions on this, the newspaper added.
Jami got onto the council of Leidschendam-Voorburg for Labour (PvdA) in 2006. He became nationally known when he announced he was setting up a Committee for Ex-Muslims. The PvdA subsequently booted him out.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
UK: ‘Uppity’ Parents Who Challenge the Authorities ‘Risk Having Children Taken Away’
“Uppity” parents who challenge doctors or councils over their children’s upbringing are increasingly at risk of having them taken away, it has been claimed.
Local authorities are using proceedings in the family courts as “retaliation” against parents who question doctors’ diagnoses of their children or challenge other decisions, according to an MP.
John Hemming, the Liberal Democrat MP for Birmingham Yardley, who coordinates a campaign called Justice for Families, which calls for reform of the family court system, said that the practice was becoming common.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: ‘Let Worst Killers Die in Prison’
Scotland’s most senior law officer has called for the country’s worst killers to face sentences that could see them die behind bars.
Lord Advocate Elish Angiolini QC wants appeal judges to increase the upper limit of the minimum jail term which must be served by murderers.
The Crown has taken the cases of three men convicted of murder to the Court of Criminal Appeal in Edinburgh.
It claimed that the sentences they received were “unduly lenient”.
Anyone convicted of murder gets an automatic life sentence, but the sentencing judge has to fix a period — known as a “punishment part” — which must be served prior to the killer becoming eligible to apply for parole.
The punishment part of the sentence was brought in following the adoption of the European Convention on Human Rights and informs the murderer of the minimum time he or she must serve in jail.
Mrs Angiolini told the court that an appeal case in 2002 had led to an understanding that the range of punishment parts available to reflect the seriousness of the crime was “a relatively compressed scale from 12 years to 30 years”.
In the benchmark case, former Royal Scots corporal Andrew Walker, who gunned down three people in an Army payroll robbery, had his minimum term reduced from 30 years to 27 years.
Mrs Angiolini said: “As lord advocate I consider that is inadequate to reflect the wide range of conduct which may amount to murder and fails to reflect adequately the exceptionally serious cases of murder, particularly those involving multiple victims, terrorism or persistent sexual violence against vulnerable adults or children.
“I am asking the court to consider issuing a guideline opinion which will recognise that 30 years is not the absolute maximum punishment part and recognises explicitly that in some exceptional cases a punishment part which exceeds the natural life expectancy may be appropriate.”
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Genocide: How Islamic Colonisation Destroys Your Heritage
[See link for the appalling photos]
The bloodless genocide and ethnic cleansing of the British people and culture continues apace with the latest example being the ripping up of a century old Christian cemetery to make way for a mosque in Manchester.
The grave desecrations, being carried out with a large Komatsu earthmover in the graveyard of the St John the Apostle and Evangelist church at the corner of Holmfirth Street and St John’s Road, is part of the re-opening of this nineteenth century church as the Dar-ul-Ulum Qadria Jilania “Islamic Centre.”
A sign on the door says clearly that the “Islamic Centre” is already “open for prayer” — showing that by Islamic centre the colonisers actually mean mosque.
The conversion of this church (founded in 1845 on a site donated by Sir J. W. H. Anson) into a mosque has been made possible by the displacement of the local indigenous British population by waves of Third World immigration into Manchester.
As this policy gathered pace under successive Tory and Labour governments, the numbers of Third World colonisers grew to the point where they have now totally displaced the indigenous population.
As there were no more white British people in the local area, the Grade II listed status church closed down — only now to be re-opened as a mosque.
This church — formerly the largest Church of England parish in Longsight, was the only one in the area with a graveyard.
These Christian British graves — the only remnant of the now ethnically cleansed British people in the area — are obviously offensive to the Muslim colonisers, who have brought in the earthmoving machine to smash up the gravestones which are being literally crushed to rubble.
St John the Apostle and Evangelist church is a real time history lesson of what will happen to Britain unless the insane multicultural Lib/Lab/Con genocidal policies of mass Third World immigration are not only brought to an end, but reversed.
The British National Party is the only party which speaks up on this critical issue which directly affects the very future existence of this nation — and is also the only party which has the policies to stop this extermination of our folk and nation.
The British voters will soon be faced with a choice between their continued extermination at the hands of the Lib/Lab/Con ethnic cleansing party, or their survival as a free and independent indigenous people with the BNP.
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The Limits of Polite Discourse: Exposing People to Evil Ideas or Exposing Evil Ideas as…Evil?
by Barry Rubin
After publishing an op-ed by a radical Israeli professor urging a boycott of Israel, Los Angeles Times editorial page editor, Jim Newton, said, “Had Hitler submitted an excerpt from Mein Kampf in the late 1930’s [I would have published it] because the world would have benefitted from exposure to evil ideas.”
This is an interesting subject for discussion but first it should be noted that Newton misworded his answer, a rather serious mistake for a professional journalist and editor. Perhaps it is even a Freudian slip.
Presumably the world would have benefitted from the exposure of Hitler’s arguments as evil and dishonest. But does the world, to take Newton’s own phrase, benefit “from exposure to evil ideas,” that is, just giving them a bigger audience?
No. After all, those who spread evil ideas do so precisely to win over those who hear them. The world did get exposed to the evil ideas of fascism. One of the main results was a lot of support for it by millions of people in many countries.
And that’s certainly happening a lot nowadays for the contemporary equivalent evil ideas.
The media not only publicizes but reinforces evil ideas on many occasions. Newton’s error shows the problem: the media does not expose evil ideas as evil. It often portrays them as correct and accurate or good or at least just another credible opinion.
Newton’s point also raises another issue: the limits of what has been called “polite discourse.”…
| — Hat tip: Barry Rubin | [Return to headlines] |
Saudi Cleric Urges Prayer Reform
A leading Saudi cleric has called on Muslims not to pray for the destruction of unbelievers.
A supplication to that effect is often reiterated at the end of every Friday prayer in Arab countries, something critics say can radicalise youth.
Sheikh Salman al-Awda said such prayers were against Islamic sharia.
But he added they were permissible if the interests of Muslims were harmed, so his words may have little effect on radicals who oppose the US or Israel.
Reform issue
It is very common for the Friday prayer in Arab societies to end with the Imam calling for the destruction of the “kuffar”, the un-believers, to which the worshippers respond “Amen”.
Such public display of hostility to other cultures was picked up by critics as an example of how mainstream Islamic preaching contributes, perhaps inadvertently, to the radicalisation of Muslim youths.
The issue moved centre-stage in the debate about reform in Islam after the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington eight years ago by 19 Muslim men, most of whom came from Saudi Arabia.
The question of reform is more urgent for Saudi society, where a puritanical interpretation of Islamic faith encourages hostility to other faiths, including even Muslim sects, such as the Shias, who complain of severe discrimination in the predominantly conservative Sunni kingdom.
Limited impact
Sheikh Salman is a respected cleric and a member of the International Association of Muslim Scholars, so his appeal should, at least in theory, should carry some weight.
He said praying for the destruction of the unbelievers runs against God’s law, or Islamic sharia.
However, he added that praying for their destruction should be allowed only if they were harming the interests of Muslims.
But in a climate where Muslims are widely perceived to be under attack in Afghanistan, Iraq and the Palestinian territories, Sheikh Salman’s appeal will have little or no impact on those who think that jihad against the Americans or the Israelis is a perfectly legitimate exercise.
For them the problem is not Islamic preaching, but rather an unjust world where Muslims are oppressed by foreign powers.
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
Swedes Might Have Been Apprehended in Pakistan
[Translated by CB]
The Swedish embassy in Pakistan investigates media information claiming that three Swedes have been apprehended by Pakistani military.
“We have the information that is in Pakistani media, saying that they are apparently three Swedish citizens, but we haven’t had it confirmed by Pakistani authorities,” says Ellinor Lundmark, at State departments (UD) press service.
The Swedes are claimed to have been arrested a week ago in the country’s eastern province, Punjab, together with seven Turks and one Russian, writes Expressen.
A police officer says in the Pakistani TV-channel Press TV that the apprehended men have suspected connections to the terror network al-Qaida.
No statements have been confirmed so far to the Swedish State Department.
“We shall wait and see what the embassy can dig up,” says Ellinor Lundmark.
Stockholm, TT
| — Hat tip: CB | [Return to headlines] |
Sudan ‘Trousers Woman’ Released
A female Sudanese journalist, jailed for a month after being convicted of “dressing indecently” by wearing trousers, has been freed after one day.
Lubna Ahmed Hussein was sent to prison after refusing to pay a fine of about $200 (£122), saying she did not want to “give the verdict any legitimacy”.
Mohedinne Titawi, of the Sudanese Union of Journalists, said the union had paid the fine to secure her release.
Ms Hussein, in her 30s, had faced a penalty of up to 40 lashes.
International rights groups criticised the trial from the start, with the UN on Tuesday saying the charges against her breached international law.
Crowds of protesters
Before the verdict, Ms Hussein had said she wanted her trial to become a test case for women’s rights.
She resigned from her job at the UN, which would have given her immunity.
During the sentencing hearing on Monday dozens of people gathered outside the court — some supporting Ms Hussein, others objecting to her stand.
She was arrested in July together with 12 other women who were wearing trousers.
Ms Hussein said several of the women pleaded guilty and were given 10 lashes immediately.
She said several of those punished were from the mainly Christian and animist south, even though non-Muslims are not supposed to be subject to Islamic law.
During the trial, Ms Hussein argued that she had done nothing wrong under Sudan’s indecency law.
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
Uganda Pursues Rebels Into CAR
Ugandan soldiers have taken their fight against the notorious Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) into the Central African Republic (CAR), the army has confirmed.
A military commander said the operation had been going on for a month with the permission of the CAR government.
The LRA’s 20-year insurgency has spilt over several borders as it fights to overthrow Uganda’s government and install a Bible-based theocracy.
The rebels are infamous for carrying out mutilations, kidnappings and rapes.
Tens of thousands of people have died and many more have been made homeless as LRA fighters have marauded throughout central Africa.
‘Doing the job’
Although Ugandan troops have previously fought rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo, it is thought to be the first time Kampala has confirmed its soldiers are in the CAR.
“The offensive is going on,” said army spokesman Lt Col Felix Kulayigye.
“The Central African Republic authorised us to pursue the LRA in its territory. Our boys are there and are doing the job.”
He said several dozen intelligence officers were operating in CAR and eastern DR Congo.
He said Kampala believes LRA leader Joseph Kony is making to the western Darfur region in Sudan.
The Ugandan rebel group is said to have killed people in several CAR towns in recent months, forcing many others to flee.
And the town of Ezo in southern Sudan was also attacked recently by the LRA.
Earlier this month the World Food Programme said it had provided food aid to 60,000 people fleeing LRA attacks this year.
The rebel group’s leaders, notorious for capturing children and using them as fighters and sex slaves, are wanted by the International Criminal Court.
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
Netherlands: Better-Integrated Moroccans Are More Criminal
Dutch-Moroccan teenagers who commit offences turn out to be better integrated into society than their peers who stay out of trouble with the police, research by Utrecht University has found.
Sociologists Gonneke Stevens, Violaine Veen and Wilma Volleberg say in a report that well-integrated Moroccan boys become frustrated because they are often not accepted in Dutch society. The report will be presented in Amsterdam on Tuesday.
The academics’ research has also shown that boys of Moroccan immigrant origin break the law more often than their Dutch peers, but that the offences are less serious. Dutch-Moroccan youths are more frequently involved in offences against property, but less so in serious violence and in sex crimes, the researchers say.
Frustration
Or could there be another explanation? Do the young Dutch-Moroccans give in to the temptations of money and possessions? This is what Sadik Harchaoui, the director of the multicultural interest organisation Forum, thinks:
“If the core issue is social frustration, as the researchers say, then I would rather expect these teenagers to smash in a telephone booth or to molest a passer-by. But in fact they are focusing on money, because they want to be part of society they try to increase their social status. And they they think they can do so by possessing lots of money and beautiful objects.”
What we have, is actually an “integration paradox”, Mr Harchaoui says: “The better your socio-cultural integration, the more likely you are to resort to thieving while you have no job.”
So find a job or stay at school, appears to be the best approach, given that unemployment among young Dutch-Moroccans is about to reach 30 percent. Many of them leave school prematurely.
Higher social status
In the survey, 150 Dutch-Moroccan and 150 Dutch teenage boys between the ages of 12 and 18 held in precautionary detention were compared to 500 non-detainees. The researchers also had access to data supplied by the Justice Ministry, and spoke to the parents of each of the teenagers.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
US: 83% Say Proof of Citizenship Should be Required to Get Government Health Aid
The health care plan proposed by President Obama and congressional Democrats contains many controversial items that divide the general public. However, one area of consensus among the public is the desire to restrict government health care benefits to U.S. citizens only.
Eighty-three percent (83%) of voters nationwide say that people should be required to prove they are a citizen of the United States before receiving government health care subsidies. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just 12% disagree and five percent (5%) are not sure.
The desire to limit the benefits to U.S. citizens is found across demographic and partisan lines. It is held by 95% of Republicans, 70% of Democrats and 87% of those not affiliated with either major party. It is favored by nine-out-of-10 conservatives and moderates, along with 56% of those who consider themselves politically liberal. But 32% of liberals hold the opposite view.
There is a dispute as to whether or not the current proposals before Congress would allow illegal immigrants to receive benefits. Advocates of the congressional plan point to language saying that those in the country illegally are not covered. However, others note that there is no enforcement mechanism or requirement to check for citizenship.
In June, 80% were opposed to providing health care benefits to illegal immigrants.
As the president prepares for a major Wednesday night address to push his health care reform initiative, 53% of voters oppose the plan working its way through Congress. One reason is that 68% believe passage of health care reform will increase the deficit. Another is skepticism over whether political leaders even know what they are doing. Just 22% believe Congress has a good understanding of the health care legislation. The president fares a bit better: 47% believe he has a good understanding of the proposal.
Town hall meetings held by members of Congress this summer heated up with legislators often struggling to be heard. Most voters say that the town hall meetings should be for congressmen to listen, not speak.
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
Killing Girls is Bad, Killing Boys is Okay
However, Secretary Clinton, a supporter of unrestricted abortion, appears disturbed by the logical outcome of her policy preferences. In commenting on her international agenda for women, she observed that in some nations “girl babies are still being put out to die.” Moreover, she explained: “Obviously, there’s work to be done in both India and China, because the infanticide rate of girl babies is still overwhelmingly high, and unfortunately with technology, parents are able to use sonograms to determine the sex of a baby, and to abort girl children simply because they’d rather have a boy. And those are deeply set attitudes.”
[…]
Yet Secretary Clinton challenged two fundamental precepts of the case for legalized abortion. First, she tied the “infanticide rate of girl babies” to sex selection abortions. If sex-based infanticide and abortion are morally equivalent, then non-discriminatory infanticide and abortion should be morally equivalent as well. Secretary Clinton has raised the core moral challenge of abortion: once we enter the continuum of life, our essential humanity has been established. The moment of birth has no obvious moral distinction. Else why would Secretary Clinton be as upset with those who abort baby girls as with those who put newborn girls out to die?
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Marc Garlasco — is HRW’s Anti-Israel Investigator a Nazi-Obsessed Collector?
There are two Marc Garlascos on the Internet. One is a top human rights investigator who, having joined Human Rights Watch after several years with the Pentagon, has become known for his shrill attacks on Israel. The other is a Marc Garlasco who’s obsessed with the color and pageantry of Nazism, has published a detailed 430 page book on Nazi war paraphernalia, and participates in forums for Nazi souvenir collectors.
Both Marc Garlascos were born on September 4, 1970. Both have Ernst as their middle name. Both live in New York, NY. Both have a maternal grandfather who fought for the Nazis. I’ve put links and screenshots on all this after the jump, and you can click through for full-sized versions. It’s hard to escape the conclusion that both Marc Garlascos are the same person.
Bloggers and activists concerned about Israel have been baffled and frustrated by the first Garlasco almost since he joined HRW. On his public photography site he posts gratuitous Palestinian and Lebanese death porn in between galleries of cute Western-looking kids playing soccer (no link — keeping his kids out of it). He provides a seemingly never-ending stream of interviews to all kinds of outlets, where he spins tales about ostensible Israeli atrocities. The only problem is that many of these tales — per Soccer Dad and IsraPundit and Elder of Ziyon and NGO Monitor and CAMERA and LGF — are biased and inaccurate. That doesn’t stop Garlasco from putting them into the kind of HRW reports that make their way into international anti-Israel condemnations and academic anti-Israel dissertations.
Then there’s the second Marc Garlasco, who I caught wind of from Elder of Ziyon. Elder had just finished tearing apart another one of HRW Garlasco’s anti-Israel reports when he found the Amazon profile of collector Garlasco. This Garlasco’s Amazon book reviews show a nearly obsessive knowledge of Nazi-era Luftwaffe Flak and Army Flak. A little more searching revealed that he’s written a gigantic book on the subject that retails for over $100. He regularly participates in forums about Nazi medals under the handle Flak 88, where he posts galleries of his prizes and admires what others have managed to collect. On those forums he uses the email marc@garlasco.com, which points to a family genealogy site he set up in 2002.
If both Garlascos are the same, Human Rights Watch almost certainly knows about his creepy hobby. It took me less than an hour on Google to confirm Elder’s hunch to my satisfaction, and not much longer to lock the whole thing down. There’s even an Amazon widget displaying Garlasco’s book at the bottom of his Huffington Post article, though that may be automatically generated. The book might even be listed on his CV because, after all, none of this is illegal. Just potentially unseemly.
The collector Marc Garlasco certainly doesn’t keep his day job secret from his fellow memorabilia collectors. There are at least two public references to his life as an HRW investigator on the forums. In one thread he posts dozens upon dozens of pictures from his collection at the end of 2007, which he describes as having been a “very lucky” year. A friend responds “Jeez Louise!! I had no idea HRW paid the big bucks!!” In another thread he comments on a badge and gushes “I would kill for that — WOW!” A friend responds “now now, HRW boy, don’t go overboard!”
So we have to assume he’s not leading a double life and that his employers know about his extracurriculars…
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