Rumors are abroad that the Gulf Arab states, China, Russia, Japan, and France have met and agreed to phase out the dollar as a reserve currency for oil transactions, replacing it with a “currency basket”. If this is true, it could mark the beginning of the great inflation. As a matter of fact, the price of gold has already begun to rise.In other news, several live sheep were hauled into the food storage area in the basement of a pizzeria in Sweden, and at least one of them was slaughtered on the premises, right there among the uncovered pizza supplies. Yum!
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Diana West, Fausta, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, Nilk, TB, Zenster, and all the other tipsters who sent these in. Headlines and articles are below the fold.
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Secret Meeting to Plan Dollar’s Demise?
Reports surfaced Tuesday of a conspiracy underway to bounce the dollar as the currency used to trade oil.
The chatter largely stemmed from an article in Britain’s “Independent” newspaper that said secret meetings were taking place between Arab states, China, Russia, Japan and France, to end dollar dealings for oil and moving instead to a basket of currencies.
And the newspaper goes on to say the nations intend to implement the change — in as little as 9 years.
Although the reports were later denied, the news helps explains the sudden surge in gold prices [US@GC.1 1038.6 —- UNCH (0) ] which would be included in the basket along with the Japanese yen and Chinese yuan, the euro, and a new, unified currency planned for nations in the Gulf Co-operation Council, including Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi, Kuwait and Qatar.”
Should you put any stock in this report?
“I’ve heard the story many times,” explains strategic investor Dennis Gartman on Fast Money. “But what’s different this time is that the story came out in the Independent, which is a pretty well respected newspaper.”
Also, there’s some new information in this report that makes it seem more credible. Specifically the fact that France and Japan were part of the discussion.
“Of course everybody denied being at the meeting, they have to,” says Gartman. “But do I doubt for a moment that those talks have taken place somewhere? That leaders have talked behind curtains about the fact the world needs to diversify away from the dollar?”
“I don’t doubt that for a moment,” Gartman says.
| [Return to headlines] |
The Demise of the Dollar
In the most profound financial change in recent Middle East history, Gulf Arabs are planning — along with China, Russia, Japan and France — to end dollar dealings for oil, moving instead to a basket of currencies including the Japanese yen and Chinese yuan, the euro, gold and a new, unified currency planned for nations in the Gulf Co-operation Council, including Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi, Kuwait and Qatar.
Secret meetings have already been held by finance ministers and central bank governors in Russia, China, Japan and Brazil to work on the scheme, which will mean that oil will no longer be priced in dollars.
[Comments from JD: Article is written by Robert Fisk.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
A Teachable Moment on Communist China
When I first heard it, I didn’t believe it. Alas, it’s true.
Last week, New York City’s Empire State Building was aglow in red and yellow. Why? To commemorate the 60th anniversary of the victorious revolution of the People’s Republic of China—i.e., the establishment of Mao’s Red China. (Click here for photo.)
I’m not kidding. This took place not in Beijing, or Pyongyang, or Havana, or, say, Moscow in the 1950s. It was done in New York City, in 2009, at its highest building, the very symbol of the Empire State.
In effect, New Yorkers basked in the glow of a nation that killed more people more quickly than any nation in world history—under the glorious colors of Chinese communism.
Had this happened in America 60 years ago, Harry Truman would have thrown a fit. Joe McCarthy would have called hearings to find out who was responsible. And that was before the Chinese killing-machine ramped up and got down to business.
Of course, I’m not shocked. For years, I’ve written and spoken about the appalling failure of American education, from public schools to our scandalous universities, to teach basic economics generally and the horrors of central planning and communism specifically.
Several years ago, I did a review of high-school “civics” texts used in public schools. What I found on China was awful. I’m not exaggerating when I say that portions of certain texts looked like they had been lifted from propaganda sheets churned out by the PRC’s Central Committee. There was nothing on the staggering death tolls generated by Red China, nor the stifling array of human-rights travesties.
To the contrary, there were rosy descriptions of life in the Chinese classroom, of “youth groups” and “children’s organizations” like the Young Pioneers, of the wonderful achievements for Chinese women under communism— with no mention of the repressive one-child policy. One text, titled, Global Insights, claimed that Mao’s Great Leap Forward enabled China to “make significant economic gains under communist rule. By the mid-1960s, it was ranked among the ten leading industrial nations in the world.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
ACORN Embezzlement Was $5 Million, La. Attorney General Says
Louisiana’s attorney general has broadened the scope of an investigation of ACORN to include a possible embezzlement of $5 million a decade ago within the community organization, five times more than previously reported.
ACORN Chief Executive Officer Bertha Lewis said the new reported amount is “completely false.”
[…]
“Current high-ranking members of ACORN have publicly acknowledged that embezzlement did in fact occur, but the exact amount of the embezzlement was unknown until it was recently acknowledged in a board of directors meeting on Oct. 17, 2008, by Bertha Lewis and Liz Wolf that an internal review had determined that the amount embezzled was $5 million, “ the new subpoena says.
The subpoena says, “It is still unclear if some of the monies embezzled are from state, federal or private funds.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Campaign Blasts Stuttering Youtube Attack as ‘Cheap Shot’
The mocking of Creigh Deeds’ occasional stuttering by the co-founder of the Black Entertainment Network is a “cheap shot and a new low” in the gubernatorial race, a spokesman for the Democratic candidate told FOXNews.com.
Virginia gubernatorial candidate Creigh Deeds’ campaign blasted the co-founder of Black Entertainment Television on Monday for mocking the Democrat’s occasional stuttering, calling it a “cheap shot and a new low” in the campaign.
Jared Leopold, Deeds’ press secretary, said a YouTube video depicting BET co-founder Sheila Johnson criticizing the candidate on his communication skills was a “divisive personal attack.”
“This is a cheap shot and a new low for this race,” Leopold told FOXNews.com in a statement. “Virginians deserve better than personal attacks like this.
“Creigh Deeds isn’t the smoothest speaker in the race, but when he speaks he is authentic and means what he says. That’s what people will respond to, not divisive personal attacks.”
In the 32-second YouTube video , shown on MyFOXDC.com, Johnson, who supports Republican candidate Bob McDonnell, is seen telling a group of wealthy donors that Virginians needs a governor “who can really communicate, and Bob McDonnell can communicate.”
Johnson then says, “The other people I talk to, especially his op-op-op-op-opponent, di-di-did this all through my interview with him.”
Groans and muted laughter can then be heard from the group of wealthy donors.
“He could not articulate what needed to be done,” Johnson continued. “So communication is hugely important.”
The Stuttering Foundation of America issued a statement condemning Johnson’s comments.
[Comments from JD: see article for link to video]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
CBS’s Smith Touts Green Couple Who Lived Year Without Toilet Paper
On Monday’s CBS Early Show, co-host Harry Smith promoted a new book and documentary about a New York City couple that spent a year without modern amenities, such as toilet paper and electricity, to limit their impact on the environment: “This is an amazing saga…when the lights were switched back on, Colin and Michelle clearly saw a year that meant so much more than living without toilet paper.”
[…]
BEAVAN: We weren’t saying anyone else should do it, but we — we discovered enormous joys and benefits by redesigning our lifestyle in a way that just wasn’t wasting and harmful to the planet either.
COLIN BEAVAN: And we discovered that, you know, there is a climate emergency happening and it is possible for us as citizens to actually take care and do-
SMITH: Did you feel like it made a difference?
BEAVAN: Yeah. I mean, thousands of-
SMITH: You just have to get 300 million people to do it.
BEAVAN: Yeah, that’s right. Thousands of people came to the blog and started working on it themselves, too.
[Comments from JD: Don’t shake their hands.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Cops to Conservative Talk: You’re Off the Air
Sheriff shuts down radio station in state government land battle
A conservative talk radio station has been forced off the air after years of wresting with the state and the courts over property rights, shut down by a reported 30 armed police officers who barged into the station in the middle of the owner’s radio show and showed him the door.
John Stokes is the owner of KGEZ-radio, a station whose headquarters sit on 6.5 acres and whose towers sit on a 160-acre easement of farmland in rural Kalispell, Mont. According to Stokes, KGEZ is America’s oldest independently owned radio station, on air since 1927.
But nine years ago, the Montana Department of Transportation decided it wanted to expand nearby U.S. Highway 93 … right through the middle of the radio station.
Stokes, a former real estate agent for 25 years, valued the cost of destroying his business with the new roadway at $2.5 million, but the state, he says, only offered him $100,000 in order to bulldoze it.
Now, after years of fighting both the state and private interests over the land his station sits on, Stokes is battling in bankruptcy court. And even though at least $3.8 million of his debt is from a questionable, defamation lawsuit still in appeals, the court has come to collect.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Diana West: More on Yale’s “Muslim Victory” Chaplain
Turns out, my IFPS colleagues noticed Omer Bajwa at Kurt Westergaard’s Yale talk. I previously mentioned Bajwa, billed as the Muslim chaplain of the Yale Muslim Student Association, for having told an Islamabad audience that “Muslims will win the final victory in the West if they conform to their beliefs and disseminate the message of Islam with wisdom and politeness.” No doubt Bajwa was conforming to and disseminating Islam’s message during his display at the Westergaard talk, but he did so with neither wisdom nor politeness.
First, Bajwa, whose official title is Yale’s “coordinator of Muslim life for the University,” made the baseless announcement that the “well-known Islamophobes Daniel Pipes and Geert Wilders” were behind Westergaard’s Yale appearance.
Well-known “Islamopobes”? Remember, this is a man of the (some) cloth speaking — the one who co-signed a letter in that same day’s Yale Daily News with Yale University Chaplain Sharon Kugler going on about achieving a community of “true religious understanding.” As Rabbi Housman would later note, “Lars Hedegaard, President of the IFPS, corrected this gentleman and remarked that neither Wilders nor Pipes were involved in any of the arrangements for Westergaard’s appearance and probably did not even know of his presence in the US.”
Bajwa also made another baseless declaration: namely, that he had read “in the New York Times” that the son of Kurt Westergaard had converted to islam, and what did the son think of the father’s cartoon? Answer: Westergaard’s son has not converted to Islam and there was no such story in the New York Times.
What is the point of such malevolent fantasy? Nothing good at all.
Bajwa, of course, is no stranger to fantasy. Here is an excerpt from an account of a 2006 Bajwa talk about Islam during “Cornell Islam Awareness Week.” It begins with a little background, and even includes the Danish Motoons…
| — Hat tip: Diana West | [Return to headlines] |
Do Not Blame Barack
Contrary to what my title indicates, I probably judge Barack Obama more harshly than most reading this. I don’t think he is just a misguided ideologue or merely a creature of expediency. I believe, practically speaking, that he is an evil man. That is to say, while he is largely ignorant like so many others, he has developed an affinity for evil. He mistakes it for good.
Yet, to be blunt, Obama doesn’t alarm me as much as the average American. To explain why, I’ll present something Roman philosopher and statesman Marcus Tullius Cicero said 2000 years ago when lamenting Julius Caesar’s rise to dictator:
“Do not blame Caesar, blame the people of Rome who have so enthusiastically acclaimed and adored him and rejoiced in their loss of freedom and danced in his path and gave him triumphal processions . . . . Blame the people who hail him when he speaks in the Forum of the ‘new, wonderful good society’ which shall now be Rome’s, interpreted to mean ‘more money, more ease, more security, more living fatly at the expense of the industrious.’ Julius was always an ambitious villain, but he is only one man.”
Barack Obama is only one man. A bad man, yes, but he is a symptom more than a cause. Without millions of fawning Americans, he would just be a community agitator, vainly preaching Alinsky principles from a soapbox. Of course, he is a symptom that exacerbates the underlying problem, and symptomatic treatment — to ease immediate pain and hardship — is certainly in order. But it is only the worst of physicians who focuses only on symptoms while ignoring the cancer eating away at the patient’s midst.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Liberty Has Given Way to Tyranny
Because Our Constitutional Republic Has Given Way to a Bureaucratic Oligarchy
When Obama promised change, many anticipated fundamental reformation of government. What they got, however, is no fundamental reformation but rather more (much more) of the same old government. The history of the United States from 1938 to the present, whether the people in power were Republicans or Democrats, is one of a transfer of governing power from the separate executive, legislative, and judicial repositories defined in the Constitution to the unelected heads of the federal bureaucracy, growing that bureaucracy into a monolithic giant. That dynamic continues at an accelerated pace in the Obama administration. Today over 90% of all new federal law is the product not of Congress, not of our elected representatives, but of unelected heads of federal agencies who are largely unaccountable to the courts, the Congress, and the American people. Year after year from 1938 to the present, the fundamental direction of the government has been toward greater oligarchic control by an ever mushrooming bureaucracy such that today we may truly say we are governed not by the republic the founding fathers created but by a bureaucratic oligarchy that the founding fathers condemned as the very definition of tyranny.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Missile Possibly Launched in Liberty County
HOUSTON — A missile may have just barely miss hitting a Continental Airlines flight on Friday.
Liberty County sheriff deputies are meeting with the FBI and FAA to discuss this incident.
Sheriff deputies say on Friday a missile may have been launched near Interstate 10 and mount Belview. A continental flight which had just taken off from Bush Intercontinental Airport may have been the target.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Mob Rule!: Under Obama, Chicago-Style Bullying and Intimidation Go Nationwide
Millions of Americans were shocked at the specter of two menacing thugs, one brandishing a nightstick, blocking the doorway to a Pennsylvania polling place on Election Day last November. They were even more shocked when the Obama Justice Department decided not to prosecute the most blatant, egregious case of voter intimidation in modern history.
But for those who understand the Obama administration, there was no surprise. Indeed, such shameless intimidation tactics are fast becoming the modus operandi of the Obama White House itself, as documented in November’s jarring issue of Whistleblower magazine, “MOB RULE: Under Obama, Chicago-style bullying and intimidation go nationwide.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Obama Eligibility Case Survives 1st Court Test
Judge hears arguments, refuses immediate dismissal demand
A federal judge in California today listened to government lawyers argue that a lawsuit over President Obama’s eligibility should be immediately dismissed but refused to grant their request, saying he would make his decision and announce it later.
The result came this morning from U.S. District Judge David Carter, who already has set a tentative trial date for the dispute Jan. 26, 2010. The judge also already had lawyers draw up a tentative schedule for hearings and deadlines in preparation for the trial.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Today’s Self-Indulgent ‘Teachers’
Recent videos of American children in school singing songs of praise for Barack Obama were a little much, especially for those of us old enough to remember pictures of children singing the praises of dictators like Hitler, Stalin and Mao.
But you don’t need a dictator to make you feel queasy about the manipulation of children. The mindset that sees children in school as an opportunity for teachers to impose their own notions, instead of developing the child’s ability to think for himself or herself, is a dangerous distortion of education.
Parents send their children to school to acquire the knowledge that has come down to us as a legacy of our culture — whether it is mathematics, science, or whatever — so that those children can grow up and go out into the world equipped to face life’s challenges.
Too many “educators” see teaching not as a responsibility to the students but as an opportunity for themselves — whether to indoctrinate a captive audience with the teacher’s ideology, manipulate them in social experiments or just do fun things that make teaching easier, whether or not it really educates the child.
You can, of course, call anything that happens in a classroom “education” — but that does not make it education, except in the eyes of those who cannot think beyond words. Unfortunately, the dumbed-down education of previous generations means that many parents today see nothing wrong with their children being manipulated in school, instead of being educated.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Bundesbank Official Under Police Investigation After Blasting Turks
Dr Thilo Sarrazin, a member of the executive board and head of the bank’s risk control operations, told Europe’s culture magazine Lettre International that Turks with low IQs and poor child-rearing practices were “conquering Germany” by breeding two or three times as fast. “A large number of Arabs and Turks in this city, whose number has grown through bad policies, have no productive function other than as fruit and vegetable vendors,” he said. “Forty per cent of all births occur in the underclasses. Our educated population is becoming stupider from generation to generation. What’s more, they cultivate an aggressive and atavistic mentality. It’s a scandal that Turkish boys won’t listen to female teachers because that is what their culture tells them”, he said. “I’d rather have East European Jews with an IQ that is 15pc higher than the German population,” he said Dr Sarrazin has since apologised but his comments may have breached Germany’s anti-racism laws. The Bundesbank’s staff union said over the weekend that his position had become “untenable”.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
France: Telecom Suicides, Number Two Replaced
(ANSAmed) — PARIS, OCTOBER 5 — After a series of 24 suicides in a year and a half, there are changes at the top of France Telecom: the group’s number two, Louis-Pierre Wenes has been replaced by Stephane Richard, previously set to take the place of the current director general Didier Lombard in 2011. Richard is the former Chief of Staff for Minister of the Economy, Christine Lagarde. Last week the French government reaffirmed its “confidence” in the management team, while the opposition called for Lombard’s resignation. Meanwhile the management has announced that the freeze on the reorganisation will be extended until the end of the year (not until October 31 as announced a few days ago). Workers at France Telecom have announced a two-day strike tomorrow and Wednesday, in protest against the company’s malaise. A video published online in France, which has provoked widespread debate, shows Lombard speaking to workers in brusque, arrogant tones. Lombard uses extremely harsh words to convince the workers to “get used to today’s realities”, resulting in the Left calling for his resignation. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
France: Extreme Right, No Eiffel Tower With Turkish Colours
(ANSAmed) — PARIS, OCTOBER 6 — The French extreme right wing party National Front (FN) mobilised today against the illumination of the Eiffel Tower with the colours of the Turkish flag, part of the project ‘Turkish Season’ in France, which begins tomorrow. “No to the Turkish Eiffel Tower!”, declared a communication from the party led by Jean-Marie Le Pen which stressed its “attachment to a France that is blue, white and red” and its opposition to Turkey’s entrance into the European Union. The illumination of the tower that is the symbol of Paris with the Turkish flag is scheduled from tomorrow to Sunday. The city made it known that the expenses will be paid by Turkey and that the lights will not show the Islamic half-moon. ‘Turkish Season’ includes 400 events all over France over the next 9 months. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Heat Rises on Immunity Law
Constitutional Court expected to rule this week
(ANSA) — Rome, October 5 — Tension rose on Monday ahead of a ruling expected from the Constitutional Court later this week on a law that gives immunity from prosecution while in office to Italy’s top institutional figures including Premier Silvio Berlusconi.
Government politicians voiced optimism the law — one of the Berlusconi executive’s first acts when it came to power in April 2008 — would be OK’d.
“We are awaiting the Court’s decision with optimism,” said Justice Minister Angelino Alfano, the minister who in framing the law that took his name claimed he had overcome Constitutional objections that resulted in an earlier immunity law being revoked in 2004.
The 15 Constitutional judges are convening to assess the Alfano law Tuesday and are expected to reach a verdict by Thursday.
Opposition MPs confirmed they would protest if the law, which covers the Italian president, premier and parliamentary Speakers, passes muster at the Court.
Italy of Values (IdV), a party led by former graftbuster Antonio Di Pietro, said it would “take to the streets” and “immediately” go forward with a million-strong petition calling for the repeal of the law, which has been challenged by several prosecutors in Berlusconi cases because it allegedly breaks the Constitution’s provisions for equal justice for all.
The opposition claims that the law was made to rescue media magnate Berlusconi but the government claims it is only bringing Italy into line with other European countries like France.
However, some international anti-corruption bodies have criticised it.
On Monday the Council of Europe’s pointman on corruption, Drago Kos of Greece, said “this law has always concerned me and I don’t think it is an Italian contribution to a sincere fight against corruption”.
But Berlusconi denies such suggestions and has also hailed Alfano’s law as an ending to what he calls persecution by politically motivated prosecutors.
MEDUSA, MILLS COULD RESTART.
The first trial that would be reactivated if the law is deemed unconstitutional regards alleged financial irregularities in the sale of film rights by Berlusconi’s Medusa production company.
He is also expected to be readmitted to a trial in which he was originally a co-defendant with British corporate lawyer David Mills but struck out of proceedings when the Alfano law came into effect in July 2008.
Mills was sentenced to four and a half years in February, a verdict he is appealing, for perjury in two previous corruption trials involving the premier. The reasoning behind the February verdict was released in May and sparked a fresh challenge to the Alfano law because it spelled out that the judges thought the lawyer lied to protect Berlusconi’s business empire.
A motion to repeal the immunity law, filed by from the main opposition party, the Democratic Party, was defeated by 260 votes to 295.
There was a flap in August when it emerged that Berlusconi had dined with two judges who will rule Tuesday.
The opposition proposed recusing them but no action was eventually taken.
MONDADORI RULING UPS TEMPERATURE.
The political temperature ahead of this week’s ruling also rose over the weekend when a Milan civil court ordered Berlusconi’s holding company Fininvest to pay some 750 million euros in damages to long-term Berlusconi rival Carlo De Benedetti for a 1991 ruling which awarded Italy’s largest publishing company Mondadori to Fininvest.
Berlusconi’s long-time attorney and political appointee Cesare Previti is serving a six-year sentence, handed down in 2006, for bribing the judge.
On Monday the court’s reasoning emerged and found Berlusconi to have been “co-responsible” in the case, in which he was cleared because of the statute of limitations in 2001.
Italo Bocchino, a heavyweight in Berlusconi’s People of Freedom Party (PdL), said the timing of the Mondadori ruling was “suspicious”.
PdL members have accused the opposition, the media and judiciary of launching a fresh bid to bring the government down and have said they will hold a pro-government rally, partly in response to a huge freedom-of-information rally in Rome Saturday.
With a huge parliamentary majority and a continuing high standing in opinion polls, the premier has repeatedly made it clear he has no intention of stepping down even if the Constitutional Court rules against him.
But some analysts argue he will be further weakened amid controversy surrounding press revelations about his private life. Of Italy’s top four officials, the only one to have been previously affected by the Alfano law is Chamber of Deputies Speaker Gianfranco Fini.
However, Fini last week said he would not take advantage of the law to protect himself from a slander suit from a prosecutor, and the prosecutor quickly dropped the action.
The Alfano law lasts for only one legislative term and cannot be extended.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Immunity Law
(factbox)
(ANSA) — Rome, October 5 — The Constitutional Court is this week expected to announce its decision on a controversial law granting immunity to top institutional figures while in office. The court has been asked by Milan and Rome prosecutors to rule on whether the so-called Alfano Law, which has frozen several trials against Premier Silvio Berlusconi, is constitutional. A full panel of 15 judges has been studying over 3,000 pages of submissions from leading jurists setting out the various arguments for both sides.
THE ALFANO LAW.
The so-called Alfano Law — named after Justice Minister Angelino Alfano — was passed in July 2008 and gives immunity to the president, the premier and the two parliamentary speakers while in office.
It was framed to overcome constitutional difficulties in an earlier piece of legislation passed in June 2003, the Schifani-Maccanico Law. The Constitutional Court ruled the Schifani-Maccanico Law unconstitutional in January 2004 but acknowledged that allowing top public figures to carry out their duties unhindered could be in the public interest provided certain safeguards were met.
Opposition politicians claim the law is tailor-made to help Berlusconi escape corruption trials but the government says the measure brings Italy in line with other European countries. The premier insists it is necessary to end what he claims is politically motivated persecution by the judiciary.
ARGUMENTS IN FAVOUR OF THE LAW.
Submissions in support of the Alfano Law were lodged by the Niccolo Ghedini-Pietro Longo law firm, representing Berlusconi in his personal capacity, and by the Deputy Advocate-General Glauco Nori, on behalf of the premier’s office. Ghedini argued that: — The underlying aim of the law is not to provide immunity but to safeguard the rights of defendants.
- The suspension of criminal trials is not automatic because the defendant can choose to renounce the right of suspension. — The law suspends trials for one legislative term only rather than permanently halting them.
- The law applies only to the four top institutional posts as these entail “unique responsibilities”, unlike ministers and MPs, whose duties can be performed by colleagues. Nori argued that: — The legislature has an obligation to intervene to prevent the official duties of the premier being damaged by any trials under way while in office. — Forcing a premier to undergo trial while in office would necessitate an unacceptable reduction or suspension of his official duties. ARGUMENTS AGAINST THE LAW.
Professor Alessandro Pace, President of the Association of Italian Constitutionalists, drafted submissions against the law on behalf of the Milan Public Prosecutor’s Office. He argued that: — The law continues to provide automatic immunity because the defendant, rather than prosecutors, has the right to “opt out” of the suspension. — Its far-reaching scope means it should not have been introduced as part of a standard law but instead using the special procedure required to change constitutional law, involving far greater scrutiny, higher voting majorities and referendums (see below). — It violates the principle of equality between premier and ministers, given that a minister can be tried for even a small administrative offence, while a premier can postpone facing serious criminal charges such as fraud and tax evasion. POSSIBLE OUTCOMES. The court’s 15 judges could decide “in favour” of the law, ruling the application by Milan and Rome prosecutors as “inadmissible or “unfounded”. If the court decides the law is not in violation of the constitution, it would stay in force and the trials against Berlusconi would remain frozen until the end of his term in office.
Alternatively they could decide against the law, holding it unconstitutional, either entirely or in part. In this case, the outcome would depend on which of the various arguments advanced by prosecutors they choose to adopt. Prosecutors have suggested the Alfano Law violates several articles of the constitution, among which article 111, requiring trials to be of a reasonable length, article 112, making criminal prosecution an obligation, and article 96, which establishes that ministers and premiers are not immune from prosecution for offences committed while in office. But the arguments that carry most weight and are of greatest concern to the premier’s camp are based on articles 3 and 138.
- ARTICLE 3 — This article establishes that everyone is equal before the law “without distinctions based on sex, race, language, religion, political opinion, personal condition or social status”. While Italian law allows for different treatment in different circumstances, the Alfano Law is tantamount to “different treatment in equal situations”, say prosecutors. They argue the law enshrines unequal treatment between the premier and ministers, and between parliamentary speakers and members of parliament. If the court upholds this argument, finding the law partly unconstitutional, one solution would be extending the immunity option to ministers and MPs. However, such a wide-ranging move could only be enacted with the more complicated, stricter constitutional procedure, would take a long time to pass and would probably meet with considerable outcry. — ARTICLE 138 — This article sets out the more complicated procedure for altering the constitution or constitutional laws, requiring two approval votes each by the House and Senate with at least three months between each vote and an absolute majority in each assembly during the second vote. Unless approved by a two thirds majority, the law must also be put to a referendum. Prosecutors argue the Alfano Law amounts to a constitutional amendment and should have been subject to these heightened procedures. As such, it violates article 138 and is illegal. If the court upholds this argument, one of the worst possible outcomes for Berlusconi, the law would be annulled in its entirety and the government would be forced to begin the approval process from scratch, using the lengthy, complicated constitutional procedure. At worst, the law would gain insufficient support in parliament or fall in a referendum. Even in a best-case scenario, if the law were approved by parliament with the required two-thirds majority, the re-approval process would require several months, during which period the trials against the premier would resume.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: ENEL Sees 1st Nuclear Plant in 2020
Target date defined as “realistic objective”
(ANSA) — Flamanville, October 5 — National electricity utility ENEL said on Monday that it expected to have its first new nuclear power plant up and running by July 2020.
ENEL explained that this target date was a “realistic objective” and that the other plants it planned to build with French partner EdF would open after intervals of 18 months from July 2020 for a total of four reactors in three plants.
The Italian government has promised to adopt the guidelines and criteria for choosing reactor sites by July 2010 and ENEL believes this will allow it to pick its first site by October 2010 with actual construction beginning in July 2015.
Italy abandoned nuclear power in 1987 after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster and is now the only leading western power without it.
This summer the Italian parliament gave its green light to a return to nuclear power through which Italy hopes to cover 25% of its energy needs in the future.
Italian Industry Minister Claudio Scajola said earlier this year that the government hoped construction on the first power plant could begin in 2013 and start producing energy by 2018.
Italy and France struck an accord last February to cooperate in the production of nuclear energy using the advanced third-generation European Pressurized Reactor (EPR) technology developed by EdF.
The agreement calls for the building of at least four nuclear reactor plants in Italy, using French technology, and the participation of Italian electricity utility ENEL in the construction of another five plants in France.
Last month Italy and the United States signed a five-year agreement for the development of 12 new-generation nuclear power plants in Italy and there is an option to extend the accord another five years.
According to ENEL, 40% of Italians are in favor of the concept of building nuclear power plants, but this percentage falls to 17% if the plant is build near where one lives.
During a meeting with EdF officials here on Monday, ENEL said that one of the problems in bringing nuclear power back to Italy was the lack of qualified nuclear engineers. This not because Italy was not producing them but because they were being offered lucrative jobs abroad and were employed within there months of receiving their degrees.
Because of this, the accord between Italy and the US not only allows for the exchange of know-how and materials, but also qualified personnel.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Netherlands Wants EU to Abolish Duties on Chinese Footwear
THE HAGUE, 06/10/09 — The Netherlands wants the EU to get rid of the duties on cheap shoes from countries like China and Vietnam.
“I am pushing in the EU for maintaining open markets and free trade under fair competition conditions, as that benefits Dutch companies, employees and consumers most. This means that anti-dumping measures (…) should only be imposed if this is in the broader interests of the European Community,” Economic Affairs State Secretary Frank Heemskerk stated yesterday.
As an example, Heemskerk refers to the anti-dumping duties on footwear from China and Vietnam. “The Netherlands has opposed this from the beginning because the advantages for a limited number of European producers are outweighed by the disadvantages for importers, wholesalers, retailers, consumers and companies involved within the EU with marketing, research and design and producing outside Europe.”
“We will decide shortly within Europe whether or not these duties should be extended. My approach is clear: The Netherlands wants to get rid of duties on shoes.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Schools: France, Go-Ahead for First Schools Protection Squad
(ANSAmed) — PARIS, OCTOBER 5 — France has abandoned the idea of video cameras inside schools, and has decided to respond to feelings of insecurity among teaching staff by creating a special ad hoc body. Former gendarmes, retired soldiers, gym and psychology teachers will make up the first mobile security force (Ems), which was introduced today at the ‘Jean-Zay’ secondary school in the Seine-Saint-Denis area of Paris, one of the hot-spots in the northern suburbs, in the presence of Minister for Education Luc Chatel, and Minister for the Interior, Brice Hortefeux. Equipped with green jackets, walkie-talkies, but no weapons, the members of the Ems will patrol the classrooms and corridors of the school, preventing intruders from coming into the building; in March 2008 an armed group entered another school in the same area and wounded ten people. The Ems special force is also there to reassure the increasingly frightened teachers, who witness violent and unpredictable behaviour on the part of the students. This is why the force also includes psychologists. Luc Chatal’s predecessor, Xavier Darcos, had proposed introducing ‘mobile security squads’ by the end of 2009, made up of 30-50 police under the authority of school heads and appointed by the Ministry for National Education. >From now until the end of the year, 500 personnel will be enlisted into the Ems, said Minister Chatel today.(ANSAmed)
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Suspected Sheep Slaughter in Pizzeria
Authorities in central Sweden have shuttered a pizzeria after a witness reported seeing four live sheep being led into the establishment’s basement. Police suspect one of the animals may have been slaughtered.
Police were tipped off on Sunday that live sheep had been seen entering a pizzeria in Tidaholm in central Sweden.
When police arrived 90 minutes later to search the premises, they found three live male sheep in the basement, as well as the remains of a fourth which they believe had been slaughtered.
“There were three six-month-old sheep right in the middle of a room filled with fresh food like vegetables and other goods,” said Tidaholm food inspector Britt Svensson to the local Skaraborgs Allehanda newspaper.
Police took pictures of blood and animal remains, evidence which has strengthened suspicions that a slaughtering took place in basement of the pizzeria.
But one of the owners continues to deny any slaughter took place.
“The owner said that they intended to slaughter the sheep somewhere else and that they had been brought down to the basement because he felt bad about leaving them waiting in the vehicle. But that doesn’t matter. You can’t keep sheep in areas with food in this way,” Svensson told TV4.
The three living sheep have been taken back to their breeder.
“My wife is terribly upset because of all of this. She’s done everything right; she sold the animals living, as it were. You sell live sheep to someone else so they can grow up or be slaughtered later when it’s time,” the breeder told the TT news agency.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Toys”R”US Scolded for Gender Discrimination
US-based toy retailer Toys”R”Us has been reprimanded for gender discrimination following a complaint filed by a group of Swedish sixth graders about the store’s 2008 Christmas catalogue.
Last winter, a sixth grade class at Gustavslund school in Växjö in south central Sweden reported Toys”R”Us to the Reklamombudsmannen (Ro), a self-regulatory agency which polices marketing and advertising communications in Sweden to ensure they are in line with guidelines set out by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC).
According to the youngsters, the Toys”R”Us Christmas catalogue featured “outdated gender roles because boys and girls were shown playing with different types of toys, whereby the boys were portrayed as active and the girls as passive”, according to a statement from Ro.
The group’s teacher explained to the local Smålandsposten newspaper that filing the complaint was the culmination of more than two years of “long-term work” by the students on gender roles.
Thumbing through the catalogue, 13-year-old Hannes Psajd explained that he and his twin sister had always shared the same toys and that he was concerned about the message sent by the Toys”R”Us publication.
“Small girls in princess stuff…and here are boys dressed as super heroes. It’s obvious that you get affected by this,” he told the newspaper.
“When I see that only girls play with certain things then, as a guy, I don’t want it.”
Classmate Moa Averin emphasized the importance of children being able to be who they want even if “guys want to be princesses sometimes”.
Upon reviewing the case, the Reklamombudsmannen agreed with the sixth-graders complaint, and on Tuesday issued a public reprimand of the toy retailer.
According to the Ro’s advisory committee (Opinionsnämnden), the Toys”R”Us catalogue “discriminates based on gender and counteracts positive social behaviour, lifestyles, and attitudes”.
Specifically, the committee found that the catalogue feature boys “playing in action filled environments” while girls “are shown sitting or standing in passive poses”.
“Taken together, the catalogue portrays children’s games and choice of toys in a narrow-minded way, and this exclusion of boys and girls from different types of toys is, in itself, degrading to both genders,” Ro said in a statement.
The public reprimand has no accompanying sanctions for Toys”R”Us, as the Ro has no authority to formally punish the companies it finds at fault.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
UK: £2m a Year Bill to Guard Tony Blair… The Former PM Who Has Made £15m Since Leaving Office
Tony Blair is running up a bill of at least £2million a year for a police protection team bigger than the Prime Minister’s, it emerged last night.
The former Premier — who is estimated to have earned £15million on leaving office and hopes to be appointed first president of Europe — has a 16-strong Scotland Yard ‘close protection team’ which follows him around the world.
Up to 12 more Met officers are responsible for providing 24-hour armed protection at his £3.5million home in Central London — even though he is often overseas in his role as Middle East envoy and pursuing his business interests.
[…]
The Blairs are fast becoming known as ‘Boney Blair’ and ‘Cherie Antoinette’ for their respective ambition and love of fine things.
Mr Blair’s home in Connaught Square, Central London has a 24-hour armed guard provided by the Met’s CO6 Diplomatic Protection unit.
At any one time, up to four officers are on duty — two at the front and two at the rear.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: The Blind Seven-Year-Old ‘Bat Boy’ Who Sees the World by Clicking His Tongue and Listening for the Echoes
Ever since he was born Lucas Murray has been unable to see.
But thanks to a technique using a form of sonar the seven-year-old can now visualise his surroundings for the very first time.
By clicking his tongue on the roof of his mouth the youngster can discover where and how big objects are by deciphering the echoes that bounce back.
[…]
He is among the first youngsters to use the technique in Britain.
It was pioneered by blind 41-year-old Daniel Kish, from California. He created the ‘No Limits Mobility’ programme and spent three days working with Lucas and his family.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Serbia-Russia: Moscow Grants Credit to Help Budget Deficit
(ANSAmed) — BELGRADE, OCTOBER 5 — Russia is planning to provide Serbia with up to one billion dollars credit to support the country’s budget deficit and encourage major infrastructure projects. The press in Belgrade report that Moscow’s willingness to grant the credit was announced by the Finance Minister, Aleksiei Kudrin, during a meeting in Istanbul yesterday with his Serbian counterpart, Diana Dragutinovic, on the sidelines of the annual meeting of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. The credit, the conditions of which will be announced shortly, will be granted by the end of this year. The announcement coincides with talks which the Serbian Foreign Minister, Vuk Jeremic, has scheduled for today in Moscow, ahead of an official visit to Belgrade by Russian President Dmitri Medvedev on October 20, as part of celebrations to mark the 65th anniversary of the liberation of Belgrade from Nazism. Several agreements for bilateral cooperation in the political, economic, cultural and security spheres will be signed during the visit. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Israel Minister Calls Off Visit to Britain Over Fear of Arrest Over ‘War Crimes’
An Israeli Cabinet minister has called off a visit to Britain because of concerns he could be arrested on suspicion of committing war crimes.
The decision by Moshe Yaalon, a former military chief who is now a vice prime minister, came a week after Palestinian activists tried unsuccessfully to have Israel’s defence minister arrested during a visit to Britain.
A spokesman said Mr Yaalon decided not to take up his invitation to a charity fundraising event ‘to avoid playing into the hands of anti-Israel propaganda’.
Several Israeli officials have been threatened with legal action in Britain under the legal principle of ‘universal jurisdiction’, which states that the most serious crimes can be prosecuted here, even if they were allegedly committed abroad.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
“The Virgins in Paradise Are White”
A Saudi cleric named Sheikh Muhammad al-Munajid has promised on Saudi TV that the virgins we Muslims will get in paradise will be white. If you blow yourself up in a martyrdom operation, you’ll be rewarded with 72 pure women, and not one of them will be black or Indian, or even Arab or Iranian.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
MI6 Confirms Ahmadinejad’s Jewish Roots
Iranian Embassy: ‘It’s not something we would ever talk about’
LONDON — MI6, Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service, has established that the greatest living Holocaust denier, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, comes from a Jewish family whose genetic line stretches back hundreds of years and whose members came to Iran when Cyrus the Great liberated them from slavery in Babylon in 593 BC, according to a report from Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: Six Police Officers Suspended for Brutality
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, OCTOBER 6 — The Turkish Interior Ministry has asked for disciplinary action against six police officers in the Beyoglu district of Istanbul, who allegedly beat four members of the same family who had asked for their help, daily Radikal reports. This is the first such action taken before the conclusion of the criminal investigation into police brutality. According to reports, Mehmet Sah Aras asked for police assistance to remove a garbage truck from his street on the night of 30 October 2008. An argument between Aras and the police officers led to a scuffle where Aras, his wife and two sons were beaten by the police. When the story hit the papers, the Parliament Human Rights Commission decided to intervene, asking for information from the Interior Ministry. The commission later prepared a report about the case noting that the Beyoglu Police Department had made a habit out of incarcerating and punishing people indiscriminately stressing that “those responsible for brutality are given some sort of immunity”. In a note sent to the Commission, Interior Ministry Deputy Undersecretary, Alim Barut, said inspectors had come to the conclusion that six police officers had beaten Aras, his wife and two sons and were suspended for tarnishing the reputation of the force.(ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: Two Gay and Lesbian Web Sites Shut Down by Censorship
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, OCTOBER 6 — Turkey’s two largest gay and lesbian Internet communities, hadigayri.com and gabile.com, have been shut down by the Telecommunication Directorate (TIB), daily Radikal reports. The Web sites have more than 200,000 members combined and according to its administrators and members, the sites do not contain any pornographic or criminal content. “The Directorate blocked the sites without providing any information to the owners or issuing a demand to take down certain content”, site managers said, calling the action “unlawful and arbitrary”. The judiciary previously refused the demand to close down Lambda Istanbul and Kaos GL, the city’s two main gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender organizations. Site managers said the new decision came after previous attempts to close down the online networks of members of these organizations. “Both sites have a wide variety of content with sections such as gay news, commentary, film, literature, radio, health and forums. The number of members of both sites from Turkey is around 225,000. The Directorate is forcing members of these sites to appeal this decision”, a joint statement from the sites said. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Pilots and Crew Allegedly Brawl on Flight
(Oct. 4) — An Indian airliner launched an investigation Sunday into an alleged mid-air brawl between pilots and crew members aboard a flight that was packed with more than 100 passengers, BBC News reported.
The incident is said to have taken place over Pakistan Saturday aboard an Air India flight en route from the United Arab Emirates to Delhi. The scuffle supposedly began as an argument in the plane’s cockpit over claims of sexual harassment. The fight then continued outside, startling passengers.
The flight attendants alleged that the plane’s two pilots sexually harassed a 24-year-old air hostess, who filed a complaint once the plane landed.
“Basically her (the air hostess) complaint had said that she had been abused, manhandled, assaulted in an undignified way. So the content of the complaint made out a case under these sections,” a police official told The Times of India.
One pilot and one flight attendant suffered bruises in the melee.
An Air India spokesperson called the incident “a clear case of indiscipline” and said the airline would take action, The Times reported. All the staff involved have been suspended until the investigation is completed.
| — Hat tip: Zenster | [Return to headlines] |
The Generals’ War
If I don’t get the troops to reverse the Taliban gains, said McChrystal, we face “mission failure.” A Saigon ending to the Afghan war. Word was quickly out that McChrystal wanted 40,000 troops, to bring U.S. force levels to 110,000 and coalition forces to 140,000.
Last week, a three-hour review was held at the White House. McChrystal participated by teleconference. His strategy — fight a counterinsurgency against the Taliban by taking and holding population centers, protecting the Afghan people and building up Kabul’s army, economy and government — was challenged.
Among those urging a smaller U.S. footprint and a strategic shift from fighting the Taliban to killing al-Qaida in Pakistan with drone and Special Forces strikes was Joe Biden.
McChrystal answered Biden in a speech and Q-and-A session in London, all but saying Joe ought to stick to the rubber-chicken circuit and leave war to the warriors. A “counter-terrorist focus” like the Biden strategy, said McChrystal, would lead straight to “Chaos-istan.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Why Should Polygamy be a Crime?
By KEYSAR TRAD
Polygamy can end the hurt caused by husband’s cheating, says an Islamic scholar.
In June last year, Triple J’s current affairs program Hack ran an item on plural relationships. The ABC’s youth broadcaster interviewed me about polygyny, a form of polygamous marriage in which a man has more than one wife at the same time. A bisexual couple were also interviewed.
To my surprise, I was reported on the ABC’s respected current affairs program AM the next morning. Without speaking to me again and after seeking comments from the Attorney-General’s office, AM ran the line: “Undeterred Keysar Trad says he’s hoping to find another wife to join his family. To do so, he says, would be to honour his first wife.”
No such comment had aired on Hack. The media then spent more than a week mocking the practice of a husband having two or more wives simultaneously. No one took issue with the bisexual relationship, which involved one man and his female partner, who also had a relationship with another woman.
At the end of an interview on 2UE, Mike Carlton declared that, as a Judeo-Christian nation, we marry one person for life. After a pause, he added that we just have lots of affairs on the side.
In Western society, the “other woman” in an affair is stigmatised. She faces significant pressure to keep the relationship secret to protect her man because modern society frowns on plural heterosexual relations. If she fell pregnant, society — including her partner — could place great pressure on her to have an abortion.
The mistress in an affair should have rights. She needs to be protected if she decides to end the relationship because the man refuses to live up to her expectations and leave his wife.
The Attorney-General, Robert McClelland, must have been paying attention. A few months later, he introduced legislation granting rights to the second woman so that she could also share the assets of her married lover.
The problem of deception, however, does not go away. Why in the liberal 21st century must we live a lie in relationships? And why do we continue to maintain a facade that monogamy is a perfect institution, when studies consistently reveal that most men admit to having affairs? Monogamy is great, but it is clearly not for everybody.
Islam openly acknowledges this fact of human nature and stipulates a regulatory framework for plural relations. But modern Western society, suspicious of all things Islamic, fails to recognise the qualities of Muslim marriage and family.
Legally enforceable monogamy was introduced by Emperor Justinian in the year 534. Justinian himself kept a courtesan as a mistress. He married her after the death of his wife, Euphemia, and only after he convinced Justin, his predecessor, to change the law so that senators could marry actresses and courtesans.
Justinian is said to have criminalised plural unions under the influence of St Augustine, though Augustine clearly stated in his treatise on marriage that having several wives is not “contrary to the nature of marriage”. Yet like other church fathers, Augustine preferred celibacy, or monogamous marriage if one could not be celibate.
Over the years, I have counselled adulterers from different faith backgrounds. I never tried to punish, hurt or expose them. I tried to guide them to mend their ways. I tried to help them understand that sex outside marriage was neither in their best interests nor in the best interests of society. If they were married, I did my best to ensure that their marriage remained safe and stable. Had they been in plural unions that conformed to the Islamic regulatory framework, such relationships would not have been adulterous, but divinely sanctioned unions.
Australian law has maintained the Justinian facade that a marriage is one man and one woman, and that every other relationship must be kept secret. Under Australian law, bigamy attracts penalties of up to seven years’ imprisonment. On the other hand, polygamous marriages conducted overseas are recognised under family law for the purpose of property settlements.
When a couple marry in a Christian church, it indicates they want their marriage to be governed by the rules of that church. The same applies for unions conducted under Muslim rules. For a marriage to be valid under Islam, it requires the consent of both parties, at least two witnesses and a dowry paid by the groom to the bride as a gift for her to use as she pleases.
There is no requirement for such a union to be “legally” registered with a secular body that does not recognise the clauses in a Muslim union. Plural relations of this nature that take place in Australia are treated like de facto relationships and are not registered. This keeps them outside the ambit of the nation’s criminal and marriage laws. Such unions are not considered adulterous because they follow the rules of an Islamic union. They are not secret and they carry no stigma under God.
This is not to say that people are actively encouraged to enter such unions. Islam stipulates very strict equality in the treatment of wives. If a man cannot treat his wives equally, the Koran says he should have only one. Monogamy is the norm in Muslim communities. However, men who are capable of supporting more than one partner equally are advised to be open, honest and accountable in their relationships and to treat their wives fairly.
Yes, polygyny may lead to jealousy. We are all human. But in a caring and sharing world where we become euphoric when we give to those in need, sponsor orphans and provide foster care, the ultimate in giving is for a woman to give a fraction of her husband’s time and affection to another woman who is willing to share with her. It is a spiritually rewarding experience that allows women to grow while the husband toils to provide for more than one partner.
In most cases, the husband ends up providing separate accommodation. The women can agree to share dwellings — it’s entirely up to them. Many men in Western society complain about their mother-in-law or a “nagging” wife. If his wife and in-laws were difficult, would he seek more of the same? The willingness of a man to take on another wife is in fact a form of praise to his first wife.
While Islam sanctions polygyny, it does not condone threesomes. Islam also does not permit polyandry, a form of relationship in which a wife takes more than one husband. There are many reasons for this. Some are medical, some relate to paternity. Others pertain to the sexual proclivities of the different genders. The sex therapist Bettina Arndt, promoting her book Sex Diaries, outlined the merits of women saying “yes” more often to sex with their husbands. If Arndt’s research is reflective of a greater portion of the population, a monogamous relationship leads to reduced interest in sex among women and a perpetual state of conjugal frustration among men.
If men in monogamous relations are not satiated, by its very nature polyandry creates an overwhelming burden for a woman in long-term relationships.
Who someone marries first is an accident of history. If a man who has an affair had met his mistress before his wife, he may have married her. Why maintain the facade that is the Justinian doctrine of monogamy knowing it has failed as a social experiment?
A man can have multiple girlfriends. Why not formalise that into a commitment for life? Why should “bigamy” be a crime?
Keysar Trad is president of the Islamic Friendship Association of Australia. He was a guest speaker on why polygamy and other Islamic values are good for Australia at the Festival of Dangerous Ideas in Sydney.
| — Hat tip: Nilk | [Return to headlines] |
Video: Venezuelan Farm Stolen by Chavez
A group of red shirt-wearing Chavista thugs show up at a farm and seize the farm in the name of the government, under the pretext that the 103 hectare farm is “idle land” and that the law allows them to take it over for “food production.”
The farmer protests politely, explaining that he’s been raising cattle on his farm for 23 years. He is rebuffed by another guy, who says, “this is not going to be a debate; this is a public act approved by the Venezuelan people. I’m governor and I’m here to ensure public order. There won’t be a debate, I ask you to listen to the document, after which the public will take charge of the land.”
When the farmer’s wife protests, he tells her to discuss it in court.
Chavez controls the judiciary.
The farmer is told to sign the form, and then to gather the animals so they can be accounted for.
When another one of the people who lived at the farm tries to ask a question, the man who identified himself as the governor insists that “this is not a debate, this is not a meeting, and if there’s any disruption, the public force is here,” pointing to the crowd in red shirts.
Shane emailed this link to Gateway Pundit’s post — you can watch the whole shameful procedure (in Spanish) here:
[see link for video]
| — Hat tip: Fausta | [Return to headlines] |
Feldblum: What About ‘Nonsexual Domestic Partners’?
EEOC nominee equates ‘two sisters living together’ with married couple
Just as it supports traditional marriage, the government has an obligation to recognize and support a daughter caring for a mother, siblings living together, or older men or women retiring together, argues President Obama’s nominee to become commissioner for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
Chai Feldblum, Obama’s nominee, explained: “There are numerous intimate social arrangements that exist today among individuals for purposes of support and connection which include no sex at all. I call these individuals ‘nonsexual domestic partners’ (NSDPs).”
“The same moral duty that requires the state to support marriage relationships and non-marital sexual relationships should be extended to support NSDPs,” Feldblum wrote.
Feldblum, an outspoken homosexual rights activist and Georgetown law professor, set forth her argument in a legal paper she authored titled, “Gay is good: The moral case for marriage equality and more.”
[Comments from JD: It’s all about dilution. Include everything, then it stands for nothing. This tactic is used in many places.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
France: Muslim Football Team Boycotts Tournament Over ‘Gay’ Club
Paris, 6 October (AKI) — An amateur football team in France made up of Muslims refused to play against another team on Sunday because of their name which included the word ‘gay’.
“Sorry, but from the name of your team and in accordance with the principles of our team, a team of practising Muslims, we can not play against you. Our beliefs are far more important than a football match, once again sorry we have warned you so late,” said an e-mail statement by the amateur club Creteil Bebel to the Paris Foot Gay club (PFG).
PFG quickly denounced the message, saying that their team is not only open to gay people, but also heterosexuals, blacks, and people from all religions.
“This team (Creteil Bebel) has simply refused to play against homosexuals. Remember that the Paris Foot Gay is not a communal club. It is open to all, heterosexuals, gays and anyone who is happy to fight together against prejudice and discrimination,” said the statement.
“On our team we have blacks, whites, beurs (French citzens of North African origin) and people from all religions. It is symptomatic that the communal groupings of some clubs do not offend anyone, but the mere mention of the word “Gay” in the middle of football inspires contempt or fear,” said the statement.
Meanwhile, the football association that organised the amateur tournament expressed its “astonishment” at Creteil Bebel’s decision not to play and has summoned the team for possible sanctions.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
High Court to Decide if War Memorial Violates Constitution
CIMA, California — Driving along a pockmarked road amid rocks and Joshua trees in a lonely southern California desert, religious controversy might be the last thing you’d expect to encounter. A judge ruled the Mojave Cross must be covered until a First Amendment issue can be resolved.
A judge ruled the Mojave Cross must be covered until a First Amendment issue can be resolved.
And if you don’t look too closely, you’re likely to zip right past the focus of a hotly contested Supreme Court battle.
A federal judge has ordered the Mojave Cross, a war memorial erected by a veterans group 75 years ago, to be covered. It’s boxed in plywood.
The issue is less about what the cross symbolizes and more about where it sits: In the middle of the Mojave National Preserve, which is government land.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Letter to Congress: Lose ‘Gay’ Radical Jennings
‘It is clear he wants to remake public education the way he personally sees fit’
Kevin Jennings, President Obama’s choice to run the Department of Education’s Office of Safe Schools, has made a career connecting the idea of “safety” and advocacy for homosexual behavioral choices, and as such “has shown that he cannot be trusted with this position and should be removed from it as soon as possible.”
The criticism of Obama’s selection to oversee safety programs for public schools in the United States came today from the American Principles Project, a group dedicated to preserving and propagating the fundamental principles on which the United States was founded. It has set up a website program through which concerned parents and others can send a message with their concern to members of Congress.
Robert George, the McCormick professor of jurisprudence at Princeton University and organization founder, explains the problem in this video:
[…]
At least one member of Congress already has the message. According to a report in the Washington Examiner, Iowa Republican Rep. Steve King already is calling on Obama to fire gay activist Jennings.
The report said Jennings not only has no background in anti-drug work, his experience in education has focused not on school safety but on how to introduce the topic of homosexuality into the classroom, including in elementary schools.
“The totality of his life has been the promotion of homosexuality, and much of it within education,” said King. “He has focused on nothing else during the last two decades, and that is not the focus that our schools need to be on.”
[…]
“Jennings’ personal actions and statements also demonstrate a lack of fitness for the position. He has demonstrated open hostility to those with contrary views (especially people of faith), calling them everything from ‘hard-core bigots’ to saying that those who oppose the promotion of homosexuality ought to ‘drop dead!’“ the foundation said.
“It is clear that Mr. Jennings wants to remake public education in the way he personally sees fit. He has said that all teachers ought to be required to complete coursework in which they examine their own ‘bias’ against LGBT persons before they are allowed to teach. He has gone as far as to say that someone without such training is ‘a threat to children,’“ the foundation said.
“On the contrary, the real threat to children is Mr. Jennings and his radical agenda,” the group said.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Perversion 101: Kids Taught ‘Gay’ Sex, Rape, Bestiality
High school teacher keeps job after handing out pornographic ‘banned book’
A father of a high-school student is infuriated after he said a teacher provided “banned books” to her 11th-grade students, including at least one with explicit descriptions of homosexual sex acts, rape, masturbation, profane language and even bestiality.
John Davis, father of an 11th-grade student at William Byrd High School in Vinton, Va., told WND that English teacher Kathleen Renard provided her personal copy of a book called “Perks of Being a Wallflower” by Stephen Chbosky to one of her English students, and it was passed to his son. The book is published by MTV Books.
Davis found the book in his son’s possession, along with a bookmark that said, “Read banned books. They’re your ticket to freedom.”
“My son was reading the book and stated it was a school assignment,” Davis told WND. “He was embarrassed that I began to peruse through the book and discovered its contents. He advised that the book belongs to his English teacher, Mrs. Kathleen Renard.”
Upon reading the book, Davis discovered the following:
- sex acts between teenagers
- male and female masturbation
- suicide
- oral sex
- extensive use of profanity, especially the “F”-word
- multiple cases of homosexual acts between teenage boys, including kissing, seduction and anal sex
- illegal drug and alcohol use, including smoking marijuana, dropping acid and LSD usage
- anonymous homosexual acts between men and boys
- rape of a teenage girl while she cried
- molestation of a young boy by a woman
- molestation of a young girl by an older man
- how hitting a girl can turn her on and make her love a boy
- attempted sex between a boy and a dog
Davis confiscated the book and arranged to meet with Renard and William Byrd High School Principal Richard Turner.
[…]
Davis is still in possession of the book and has chosen not to give it back to the instructor because he said he doesn’t want it back in the hands of students.
“This is one of the better schools around,” he told WND. “People need to wake up and start questioning some of the things that are going on in the schools. They wonder why we’re having so many problems with teens. A lot of it has to do with what goes on in the schools.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Polanski Deserves the Scalpel
Content WARNING: This column contains a graphic description of child molestation.
Child molester, rapist, celebrated pedophile, movie producer and director Roman Polanski has finally been captured, and hopefully justice will be served. Polanski raped a child. That in no way means I find the rape of an adult more acceptable, but this was a 13-year-old little girl — and he sadistically raped her.
[…]
Polanski’s ability to say, “action,” “roll camera,” “that’s a wrap” and “cut,” doesn’t place him above the law. The duplicitous double standards that the liberal elites are shamelessly attempting to apply are appalling. In the real world, Hollywood doesn’t get to decide who and/or on what grounds someone should be adjudicated based on his paradigm of tolerant/intolerant acceptability. Woody Allen, Harvey Weinstein, Martin Scorsese and Whoopi Goldberg may be among the ruling elite of their kingdom, but in our world, people like Polanski go to jail — where the ophiophagouses would welcome him.
But don’t think this is only about Hollywood — it is an indictment of our press and institutions. It is an indictment against what America has become and is becoming. People such as the Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski — who happens to be the husband of Anne Applebaum of the Washington Post — is pressuring US authorities to drop all charges.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
4 comments:
Re " Secret Meeting to Plan Dollar's Demise?"
As usual, the French are involved making some mischief. They should never have been given a permanent seat on the UN Security Council,after all France's contribution to the defeat of the Axis was negligible.
@mace
You just gave me the explanation about the presence of the French in this meeting...
How come a soon-to-be-third-world African islamic country was invited to this so-called secret meeting ?
Answer : Saudi Arabia's puppet
Mischief indeed. The frog-eaters has never been anglophiles. They despise the english language and british and american culture. They have always elevated their own culture above everyone else's. I think they're hot on deconstructing Europe. I say, let them become a caliphate, serves them right. Only problem with that is that they have NUKES.
Tom&Robin Shadowes,
Yes,they are a nuisance aren't they. I know little about internal European affairs and I could be accused of having an "Anglo -Saxon" bias(I'm Australian). However, from news reports,I get the impression that, in international negotiations,if there's an obstacle to settlement the French will probably be the cause.
I agree that because of their inflated idea of national power,France can be manipulated by the Islamists. Given that(1)there are 6 million Moslems in France already and (2)the French have a tendency to surrender if the going gets tough,Europe has a problem.
I really don't understand why the rest of Europe puts up with them.
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