Friday, June 29, 2012

Hey, The Lights Are Flickering!

*** UPDATE ***

We're alive and well. Juden was right. Strangest storm I've ever seen. Like King Lear on the heath but no rain for our parched ground. Winds from the south/southwest, dervishes swirling everywhere. And then it was gone...taking the light and water with it...

It's 100+freakin' Farenheit degrees right now...further update in a separate post. Blooger is being difficult...

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

If you don't see your comments go up, or if your mail isn't answered, here's why:

SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS MOVING RAPIDLY

* until 1030 PM EDT

* at 917 PM EDT... Doppler radar indicated a line of severe
thunderstorms capable of producing destructive winds in excess of
70 mph. This line was moving east at 75 mph.

The lights are flickering here but the radar shows only a heat zone and the rain over the mountains, some miles away...

The Febrile State of our Union: Only Citizens May Vote

The political ferment in the U.S. emanating from Washington since Obama’s election grows more intense by the week. Just to name three issues with huge implications for our immediate and long-term future:

  • The ruling by the Supreme Court on ObamaCare has set the chattering classes to working overtime but that’s merely the latest move in a long, fierce battle. Without the passage of ObamaCare, there would be no Tea Party;
  • The Department of Justice’s secret program, “Fast and Furious”, with Eric Holder at the head of it. Blowback from that has been intense and will continue;
  • Again, the Department of Justice’s cynical and openly racialist Civil Rights division. Holder is clutching the keys to that one, too.
There are many sub-issues spinning off from these three concerns. We’ll be seeing them play out for years, but for the moment, look at the last one: the DoJ's Civil Rights division’s racialist pursuits and the brake applied to them in Florida. We can only hope that the message from this particular ruling gets through to Attorney General Holder, currently playing at Disneyland...

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Federal Judge Rebuffs Justice Department

The Obama administration has encountered a setback in its attempt to stop Florida from removing non-citizens from the state’s voting rolls. On Tuesday, a federal judge rejected DOJ’s argument that the National Voter Registration Act bars the removal of non-citizens within 90 days of a federal election. Florida’s primary is on Aug. 14. U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle, a Clinton appointee, refused DOJ’s request for a temporary restraining order. Hinkle agreed that federal laws are designed to block states from removing eligible voters close to an election. But he said those rules are not designed to stop states from blocking voters who should have never been allowed to cast ballots in the first place, the Associated Press reported.

Florida Governor Rick Scott (Republican) has a response up on the Florida state website. On the home page the list of press releases includes this one, titled: Court: “Irreparable Harm” if Non-Citizens are Allowed to Vote:

Finally, Attorney General Holder Is Reined In

He has been charged with contempt of Congress, a first in American history.

The following is part of a signed analysis from the Washington Times of the doings on the floor of the house yesterday:

The House on Thursday cited Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. for contempt of Congress in a vote weighted with political significance — though it does little to break the stalemate over his decision to withhold documents over the Justice Department’s actions in a botched gun-walking operation.

The House voted 255-67 to hold him in criminal contempt in a vote that amounted to a political spanking for Mr. Holder and President Obama, underscored by the 17 Democrats who joined the GOP.

Most Democrats walked out of the vote in a protest led by the Congressional Black Caucus.
It was partisan politics, that walk-out. Great theater but not reality. I suspect the 17 who stayed to vote for censure will use their vote to demonstrate their bona fides back home during re-election time.

It marks the first time an attorney general has been held in contempt by a chamber of Congress.

“We’ve shown more than enough good faith, but the White House has chosen to invoke executive privilege. That leaves us no other options,” said House Speaker John A. Boehner. “The only recourse left for the House is to continue seeking the truth and to hold attorney general in contempt of Congress.”

Speaking in New Orleans after the vote, Mr. Holder called it “misguided and political” and said he ended the gun-walking program once he learned of it — though that was after guns involved were found at the site of a shootout that left a Border Patrol agent dead.

Mr. Holder said he thought Republicans were retaliating against him because he’s blocked voter-identification laws in Republican states, and he repeatedly chided the GOP for even making the attempt
Yep, there’s The Narrative again. Racist white folks trying to get us good people. Yawn. This lie is sooo old it has great-grandchildren by now.

Indisposed

I’d planned to surprise the Baron by putting up several posts today, but the Karma Dude had other ideas. Whadda joker he is…

In addition to living sans air conditioning in this wilting 96 F degree heat (supposed to be 100 tomorrow and for many days running), plus a non-working webmail page for hours (spam storm perhaps?), the final straw was the sudden onset of a full-blown and severe gastric attack. I don’t know what causes them, but the more severe ones leave me feeling drained for a right good while. They come, they go – assisted out the door by acid blockers and Bentyl and Pepto-Bismol. Perhaps my old h. pylori ulcer has returned? It was an awful six hours but it's over. As Isaak Dinesen said, there are only three ways we really know happiness and one of them is the euphoria that arrives when pain recedes. Ah, yes, definitely an animal pleasure.

At any rate, I apologize for the silence. I had several things in the hopper about Germany and Norway, but the news in the U.S. is big today, at least as far as Americans are concerned.

Definitely nothing to do with foreign policy - unless you count the fact that our government failed to tell the sovereign nation of Mexico about our swell plan to run thousands of guns down there in an on-going effort to break out with gun control laws here. We have only to look at Chicago, where owning guns isn't legal to know the consequences of that scheme.

I will deal with that tomorrow, health willing and electricity running. I say that because we were without any power for some houts on Wednesday. Never did find out why but I suspect these new, consumer-unfriendly 'sustainable' fuels are going to make our connectivity less reliable. Oh well, we can't say Obama didn't warn us he was determined to kill fossil fuels. A foolish man whose bright ideas are making life worse for us all. Though not for him, of course.

Meanwhile, thanks for your patience.

Oh, wait. Tomorrow is already here. Sharp pain does that - one loses track in the transitions. So that is amended: I will deal with our Attorney General later on today.

Stay cool, y'all.

Thursday, June 28, 2012

The Open Road

Haughty high horse with big wheelsI’ll be away from my desk for the next few days. The news feed will be suspended while I’m gone, and resume upon my return.

Dymphna will be minding the store in the meantime. Please be mild and kind one to another in my absence — or else!

And stock up on ice — I hear it’s going to be hot…

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Gates of Vienna News Feed 6/27/2012

Gates of Vienna News Feed 6/27/2012Ahmed Shafiq, the last Egyptian prime minister to serve under Hosni Mubarak — and recently defeated by Mohammed Morsi in the presidential election — has left Egypt for Abu Dhabi along with his entire family. Mubarak’s former head of intelligence has also moved his whole family to Abu Dhabi.

Also in Abu Dhabi, a British man who was convicted of selling less than an ounce of pot to an undercover agent has been sentenced to death.

In financial news, despite its attempt to obtain financial help from Russia, Cyprus has decided to accept a full bailout from the IMF.

To see the headlines and the articles, open the full news post.

Thanks to Fjordman, Insubria, JD, JP, McR, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.

Commenters are advised to leave their comments at this post (rather than with the news articles) so that they are more easily accessible.

Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.

Helga’s Bar and Brokerage *BOOM*

Monopoly banker

We have no idea where this originated. It arrived in our email sans a URL. If our readers have any information on its pedigree, we’d be glad to update this witty (and somewhat alarming)…allegory, perhaps? Whatever category you choose for the tale, certainly it is the most succinct and accessible explanation for the meltdown – oops, mixing metaphors again. But then, no one can tell us if the future is going to be Chinese water torture-type erosion (yeah, waaaycist too) or a financial Armageddon.

The finance boys were smart enough to get us here but they didn’t have a Plan B because they didn’t have to.

Thus, we present for your entertainment and edification,

A Dummies’ Guide to What Went Wrong in Greece and Therefore, in Europe

Helga is the proprietor of a taverna in Greece. She realizes that virtually all of her customers are unemployed Greek alcoholics and as such, can no longer afford to patronize her bar. To solve this problem she comes up with a new marketing plan that allows her customers to drink now, but pay later.
Helga keeps track of the drinks consumed on a ledger (thereby granting the customers’ “loans”).

Word soon gets around about Helga’s “drink now, pay later” marketing strategy and as a result, increasing numbers of customers flood into Helga’s bar. Soon she has the largest sales volume (but no actual money) for any bar in town.

By providing her customers freedom from immediate payment demands Helga gets no resistance or complaint when, at regular intervals, she substantially increases her prices for wine and beer – the most commonly consumed beverages.

Consequently, Helga’s gross sales volumes and paper profits increase massively. A young and dynamic vice-president at the local bank recognises that these customer debts constitute valuable future assets and increases Helga’s borrowing limit. He sees no reason for any undue concern, since he has the debts of the unemployed alcoholics as collateral…

Fjordman: The Price of Immigration

Fjordman

Fjordman’s latest essay has been published at FrontPage Mag. Some excerpts are below:

In his 2008 book Et Delt Folk (“A Nation Divided”), The Danish historian and writer Morten Uhrskov Jensen carefully went through publicly available sources. He demonstrated that the opening up of his country for mass immigration was arranged by just part of the population, sometimes in the face of considerable popular opposition.

Roughly speaking, those representing the political and media establishment and the upper classes were in favor of open borders, whereas those from the lower classes were often opposed. This divide is viewed by those from the upper segments of society as caused mainly by racism, prejudice, ignorance and xenophobia.

Since the educated classes enjoyed a virtual hegemony over public debate, they were able to define all opposition as hate and intolerance, exemplified by people such as Pia Kjærsgaard of the Danish People’s Party. The well-to-do themselves rarely lived in areas with many immigrants and could afford to move, at least for a while, if that was needed. They focused on the abstract and allegedly humanitarian aspects of mass migration.

For poorer people, immigration was a concrete issue, as immigrants moved into their neighborhoods and went to school with their children. To put it bluntly, for those with money, globalization initially meant that they could travel on holidays to exotic lands and treat the world as their playground. For those who were less well off, it meant that the entire world suddenly moved into their street and took over their children’s local playground.

Pulling the Plug on Airport “Safety”

Cultural Enrichment News

Under normal circumstances I would have left this story from The New York Post for the news feed. However, interested readers should take a look at the text and note the name of the TSA employee whose job skills do so much to enrich the security of the American homeland.

JFK is not the only airport on which the benefits of cultural enrichment have been so amply bestowed. Do a little “profiling” of TSA employees the next time you pass through Dulles, Philly, Logan, or any number of other major international airports. And if you think it’s bad here, try flying into Heathrow.

Unplugged Metal Detector Triggers JFK Chaos

These fools are keeping us safe?!?


The TSA’s bungling reached a new low yesterday when a JFK Airport terminal had to be evacuated and hundreds of passengers marched back through security screening all because one dimwitted agent failed to realize his metal detector had been unplugged, sources told The Post.

The stunning error led to hours of delays, two planes called back from the runway and infinite frustration for furious passengers.

“The truth is, this is the failure of the most basic level of diligence,” a law-enforcement source said.

“How can you expect the public to feel confident of the mission of the TSA if they don’t even know if the lights are turned on?”

The chaos at Terminal 7 was caused by screener Alija Abdul Majed, who had manned Lane No. 1 during the morning shift with no idea his metal detector had no juice, sources said.

Amazingly, he failed to realize that alert lights never flashed once as streams of passengers filed through the dead detector, the sources said.

Majed was so clueless that he couldn’t even tell police how long the machine had been shut off or how it happened, the sources said. “It was simply an unplugged machine — the TSA doing its best,” another source said.

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Gates of Vienna News Feed 6/26/2012

Gates of Vienna News Feed 6/26/2012Three police officers were shot to death in Mexico City’s main airport. The victims had been in the process of attempting to arrest two other police officers, who were alleged to be involved in cocaine trafficking. The killers escaped, and the authorities are searching for them.

In other news, Christian and Muslim groups in Nigeria have come together in an interfaith initiative to reach out to each other’s followers and bring an end to sectarian violence. It is hoped that the program will eventually extend to joint preaching in churches and mosques.

To see the headlines and the articles, open the full news post.

Thanks to Fjordman, JP, Nilk, Seneca III, Steen, The Observer, TV, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.

Commenters are advised to leave their comments at this post (rather than with the news articles) so that they are more easily accessible.

Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.

The Real Story of the Muslim Brotherhood

In the video below, Michael Coren explains the realities of today’s Egypt in a clear and straightforward fashion.

Many thanks to Vlad Tepes for uploading this clip:

On the Power of Immigrants and the Upcoming Revolts

“When the euro collapses, the social service system for immigrants will fall apart. Then the old ethnic, religious, national and other prejudices will burst out so vividly that each population group will think first and foremost of itself.”

In an interview with Kopp Online, the German author and journalist Udo Ulfkotte discusses the grim times that lie ahead for Germany and the rest of Europe.

Many thanks to JLH and Hermes, who undertook the translation of this interview as a joint effort:

Ulfkotte: On the power of immigrants and the upcoming revolts

The journalist and writer Udo Ulfkotte was clearly right to have feared for years upcoming revolts between natives and immigrants refusing to integrate, and of criminal immigrants in Germany and Europe.

Dangerous clashes, in which the strength of the immigrants becomes more and more blatant, are on the rise. Meanwhile their numerous families and clans issue unscrupulous and open threats against state organs, journalists and victims. Is the situation in Germany already hopeless? An interview with Udo Ulfkotte.

Kopp: Mr. Ulfkotte, a recent case in North Germany is currently driving many people mad: three dangerous immigrant criminals attacked, beat and robbed a pensioner. However, the old man shot one of the criminals dead in self-defense. Then the numerous family members of the dead criminal put pressure on the government to prosecute the pensioner for manslaughter. The state attorney’s office from the town of Stade really has prosecuted him, reversing its original decision. How influential are these populous immigrant families, and where do they get their strength from?
Ulfkotte: This is not the only case. Some weeks earlier the whole of Berlin trembled because the immigrant Youssef El-A. was stabbed, also in self-defense. It was the biggest Islamic funeral Berlin has ever seen. And thousands of demonstrators demanded that victims of crimes who act in self-defense be imprisoned. The criminal was turned into a hero. Same happened in Sittensen. And the extended family always stands behind the criminals. In cities such as Bremen, journalists and police have been extorted for years to pay protection money for families such as that of the “Miris”. In Essen and other cities of the Ruhr, police were no longer allowed to intervene when these families offered children for sex in the backrooms of cultural associations. One was not allowed to talk about that. It’s this damned political correctness which has brought all of this on us.
Kopp: Journalists were also threatened in Uelzen in March while reporting about a process involving immigrants, as were many from Die Welt, Tagesspiegel and the Frankfurter Rundschau, who had to endure massive threats from Salafists in April because of having reported critically on the Koran-distribution campaign. What has suddenly happened here? Does it not sounds like extortion? And what do the judicial organs do to counteract this?
Ulfkotte: What should they do? They do nothing. They fear these groups. They have been giving way to them for years just like at the anti-authoritarian education. Always giving in to them. And now they are surprised that the grown-up pupils make fools of them. They laugh at us, and nothing more.
Kopp: Is this perhaps a reason why, in virtually all MSM reports on murder and killing committed by immigrants, for years we have not read nor heard names and countries of origin? Is this the fear of the journalists of being put under pressure? Or are these politically correct requirements from Berlin?
Ulfkotte: Again, it is this damned political correctness. Every year in Germany Immigrants commit more than 16,000 crimes involving physical injury. And what do we do? We constantly ask ourselves whether this is the product of their bad social situation, and we open our wallets (to give more money for integration). We pay the criminals. And we protect them. Yes, we journalists, politicians and judges have to protect the criminals. We no longer know how to describe the criminal groups, in order not to speak clearly. Police reports sometimes describe gypsies as “itinerant Europeans”, sometimes as “a mobile ethnic minority”, or “errant travelers”, “Sinti and Roma”, or simply “Bulgarians”, or “Romanians”, but never “Gypsies”. This is the somehow funny politically correct way.
Kopp: Has the so-called “looking away when it comes to immigrants” reinforced itself in the criminal justice system, or is there a visible rethinking in the settled practices of the judges?
Ulfkotte: A rethinking? I do not see that. Neither the judge Kirsten Heisig in Berlin nor Thilo Sarrazin have had any effect. Now we have sentences in which immigrants who have deviously obtained welfare payments can retain the money for themselves, because for them (what they have done) is an alleged cultural peculiarity. And we have sentences in which immigrant pedophiles go away without being punished because what they do is to be seen as something cultural. We are open to everything and strict against nothing.
Kopp: Which are the typical and most common criminal acts of immigrants and why do they commit them far more frequently than Europeans?
Ulfkotte: To this type belong all crimes involving brutal force. And of course rapes. Alice Schwarzer reported that in Koelln more than 70% of rapists are Turks. Of course, this has something to do with culture. And even more with respect. They show not even the slightest shade of respect towards us. We must give them welfare payments, asylum, housing, clothes, warm meals and leisure activities, but we should not expect any reciprocity from them. We are seen by immigrants as not deserving all this, as the ones to be ripped off and exploited.
Kopp: What is the state of morale of the police forces, in view of the continuously escalating attacks against police officers when, as not long ago happened in Berlin, a police car with agents inside is attacked at a traffic lamp with stones and set on fire?
Ulfkotte: All agents I know are fed up with this. The gas for the vehicles is rationed and the number of police units is being reduced. They have to endure insults and aggression every single day. And oh! they dare raise their voices, and immediately they have to undergo a disciplinary proceeding. For many young migrants police are the symbol of a society they hate and reject.
Kopp: Are migrant strongholds, and not only in big cities, to be called lost zones, so-called no-go areas?
Ulfkotte: Yes, the UN has already assessed this status for many European conurbations. This is not only a German phenomenon. In Brussels, the capital of the European Union, where more than a third of the population is Muslim and more than half of the pupils in the schools come from eastern countries, Islam is not allowed to be criticized. An Islamic ghetto stands all around the European (EU) District. It’s interesting that the European parliament is the only one in the world which has to operate a police station, where the delegates and their colleagues can report assaults against them. Of course, they have to go through the ghettos and are more and more frequently robbed. There are two possibilities: to build walls around the district or to clean it up. Things cannot go on like this for long. And this is not exclusive to Brussels. What about Duisburg-Marxloh? Politicians presented it to us as a model of integration. And now police patrols go there in fear.
Kopp: Gang rapes committed by immigrants against non-Muslims have become more common in the last two to three years, specially in the United Kingdom. While the British MSM are not able to report about the real identity of the perpetrators, German “quality media” seems to show an even stronger censorship. Are there similar precedents in Germany about the way jurisprudence looks in such cases?
Ulfkotte: I know many cases like that, but none in which the perpetrator would have got more that a suspended sentence. But as already said, we know what the situation is, and it was the same in UK. The gang rapes were known by the police as far back as 2002, I repeat, as far back as 2002. But nobody from the police wanted to help the raped white children, because that was of course not politically correct. Nowadays the majority of the Brits feel shame for having looked away in such a degree. We are now where the Brits were ten years ago concerning this issue.

“The Pacific”: A Regrettable Lack of Common Virtues

After a long hiatus, Apollon Zamp returns with guest-essay reviewing the television series “The Pacific”. In the wake of last night’s discussion of “Bomber” Harris, this post provides a look at the other major theater in World War Two — and the historical revisionism concerning it that has now become dominant in popular culture.

The Pacific

The Pacific: A Regrettable Lack of Common Virtues
by Apollon Zamp


I was fourteen years old when I saw Saving Private Ryan (against the express wishes of my parents). Having long been fascinated by World War Two history — I was perhaps the only twelve-year-old with a subscription to WWII Magazine — I was amazed by what Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg had managed to create. The visceral and horrific nature of war was plainly evident — as were the bonds that form between men who fight alongside each other, and the pain they share and struggle to repress when their buddies get wounded or killed. Spielberg was trying as hard as possible to re-create the realities of war, and many veterans have attested to his success in doing so.

The success of the film was part and parcel of a greater re-awakening of Americans’ interest in their country’s part in World War Two. Tom Brokaw’s The Greatest Generation and a slew of Second World War-themed video games bear witness to this. (Tycho Brahe, author of the gaming webcomic Penny Arcade, once remarked that “Normandy Beach is the new Hoth,” which indicates the intensity of the cult-like status that World War Two-themed material had gained.)

Spielberg and Hanks continued where they had left off with Saving Private Ryan with the HBO miniseries Band of Brothers. The series ties in briefly with Ryan — we see paratroopers from the 101st Airborne Division throughout the film, and the titular James Francis Ryan is himself a private in Baker Company, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment — one of the three regiments that formed the backbone of the 101st. However, whereas Ryan focused on the Normandy invasion as a whole — featuring troops from the 29th Infantry Division, the 2nd Rangers, and the 101st Airborne — Band of Brothers focused on one company — E (“Easy”) Company, 506th PIR, 101st Airborne — for the duration of the war.

One of the things that really stood out about Band of Brothers was the chemistry among the cast. This was not an accident, nor a fluke. Dale Dye, a retired Marine Corps officer, provides technical support for military movies, and is known for his adherence to realism and realistic portrayals of fighting men. He provided the technical direction for Ryan, during which he put the actors involved through a miniature two-week “boot camp.” Part of his method was to exclude Matt Damon, who played Ryan, from the training, thus creating a real element to the other characters’ dislike of Ryan which came through on the screen.

Dye’s methods were similarly applied to Band of Brothers. He put the men who were going to portray actual veterans (in some cases, veterans who were still alive) through a truncated version of parachute infantry school, complete with physical training, battlefield exercises, and simulated indoor jump exercises similar to what current airborne infantry troops go through during training. A chemistry naturally developed among the actors involved — a chemistry that was no doubt enhanced by Dye’s farewell speech at the end of the training period, reminding the men who were going to serve as the avatars of E/506th PIR that they had a responsibility and a privilege to represent those who had fought their way across Europe between June 1944 and May 1945.

This chemistry shone through for the entirety of the series, both in positive senses — the obvious camaraderie and brotherly devotion the men had for each other — as well as the negative — for example, the scenes that take place in Bastogne, which showed the hardships endured as young men barely out of their twenties watched each other get maimed, killed, or suffer nervous breakdowns. The skilled production, beautiful cinematography, and the almost kinetic spark of shared energy among the actors involved combined to make this an excellent series. To top it all off, the producers never aired any of the episodes until the veterans from Easy Company — who served as valuable sources of firsthand information — had watched and approved the content as historically accurate.

All of this served as a rather dramatic backdrop for The Pacific, which aired nine years after Band of Brothers. Once again, Hanks and Spielberg had partnered up, with Dale Dye once again providing technical direction, except this time they were covering a part of the war that had not been featured in either Ryan or Band of Brothers. The Pacific Theater — which, arguably, was a more far-flung and confusing theater than the European one — until that point had only been explored by mind- and posterior-numbing exercises in navel-gazing such as The Thin Red Line. Many people, myself included, couldn’t wait to see the Hanks/Spielberg/Dye take on the Pacific theater, complete with the same rich cinematography and sparkling character performances that their earlier works had showcased.

And then I watched it.

Resisting the Islamization of Football in Catalonia

FC Barcelona shirt: before and after
(The original FC Barcelona football shirt, and the improved version)

Platform for Catalonia (PxC) is one of the newest “identitarian”, or nationalist, parties to emerge in Europe. Its primary appeal is to Catalans, obviously, but its unabashed non-PC devotion to its own people has made it the model for the rest of Spain.

Our Spanish correspondent Hermes has translated an article published on June 21 on the Platform for Catalonia website about a controversy over the shirts worn by the Barcelona football club that advertise the Qatar Foundation:

Francesc Gesa: “Nowadays those who buy FC Barcelona football shirt are forced to make propaganda for an Islamic dictatorship”

Press release from PxC

The identitarian youth of Catalonia call the fans of the FCB on to erase the Qatar Foundation advertisement from the FCB football shirt

Vic | Newsroom — The identitarian youth of Catalonia (JIxC) has announced the starting of a campaign to force the FCB to allow anybody buying this football team’s shirt to erase the Qatar Foundation advertisement from it.

The goal of this initiative is to make fans realize what means to display the name of this organization on the shirt of the team they support: “Nowadays those who buy FC Barcelona football shirts are forced to make propaganda for an Islamic dictatorship”.

The identitarian youth of Catalonia have highlighted the viability of this proposal due to the fact that “years ago the club granted the opportunity to erase the number and the name of a player who left the team in order to join the arch-enemy of the club. Now it should do the same regarding this more universal issue.”

Those Valiant Bomber Crews

Former Spook has a post up about a memorial to the Bomber Command crews of World War II. It is appropriately titled “At Last”.

We may have this in the news feed somewhere — I can never keep up — but it needs to be repeated. It needs to be shouted from the rooftops:

After decades of controversy, debate and false starts, a memorial to the Bomber Command crews of World War II will finally be dedicated in London. Queen Elizabeth will lead the official party, and Britons should be thankful she has enjoyed such a long reign. Given the political correctness that affects certain members of the Royal Family (paging Prince Charles) one wonders if the next monarch would show up for such a lightning-rod event.

Hard to believe, but sixty-seven years after the last Lancaster returned from the final bombing mission of World War II, there is outrage over the notion of honoring the crews who took the war to the German homeland…

He talks about the addled and dangerous (my description) revisionists who have done their work so well

among the major elements of the British armed forces that fought in World War II, Bomber Command is the only one that was never honored with a campaign medal; its most famous leader (Air Marshal Sir Arthur Harris) was denied post-war honors and the memorial comes decades after others were dedicated.

Damned tossers are in charge and they’re killing history. Kinda like Islam does…the same thing is happening in this country and Obama has made it worse, even vetoing Congressional approval of the Purple Heart for those soldiers slaughtered at Fort Hood. He “plays” to his own Leftist base, and base it is. But his weasel word is not the final one by far. There are too many people determined to see justice done.

Go over to see the picture of that Bomber Memorial. Brits have probably already seen it in The Telegraph...

I'm with Former Spook on this one:

Monday, June 25, 2012

Gates of Vienna News Feed 6/25/2012

Gates of Vienna News Feed 6/25/2012A 26-year-old Chinese soccer fan died of exhaustion after staying awake for eleven days straight to watch the European soccer finals on television. Some sources say that tobacco and alcohol, in addition to sleep deprivation, were causative factors in his death.

In other news, middle school students visiting the 9-11 World Trade Center site in New York City desecrated the memorial by throwing soda bottles and baseballs into the reflecting pools. There was evidence that they also brought .33-calibre ammunition to the site.

To see the headlines and the articles, open the full news post.

Thanks to Barry Rubin, CSP, Fjordman, Gaia, JP, LT, McR, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.

Commenters are advised to leave their comments at this post (rather than with the news articles) so that they are more easily accessible.

Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.

Sweden Explodes

Ummah Sweden

The article below about Modern Multicultural Sweden (and Denmark) was written for yesterday’s print edition of the Danish newspaper Ekstrabladet by Bent Falbert, the retired editor-in-chief of the paper. Steen sent us a pdf of the piece, so I don’t have a URL for the original. But our Danish correspondent Kepiblanc has kindly translated it:

Sweden explodes

Sweden is becoming a great nation. Her population recently passed 9.5 million. During the past seven years it grew by 500,000 persons, among them almost 400,000 immigrants, mainly Somalis, Afghans and Iraqis.

The explosion goes on. A new Swedish ruling implies that immigration and family reunions are facilitated substantially. Hitherto the authorities could reject foreigners without papers, but the new verdict forbids that, because people in chaotic countries might find it hard to obtain sufficient authentication.

Young pathfinders

Asylum-seekers tend to send unattended children ahead to Sweden. Insofar they are under 18 they have a legal right to public housing and a new life in Sweden. The authorities try to sort out cheaters who are probably 18-20 years old, and accordingly should be rejected right away, but exact determination of their age is tricky without papers. The Swedes have to accept their claims. Confidence is better than control.

Supporting these young people at institutions costs up to 5,000 SKr. per day. The municipalities get their costs refunded by the state, but cannot refuse to accept the ‘children’.

In the next phase the bigger children’s families in e.g. Somalia follow in order to obtain family reunion in Sweden. Such family reunions are expected to increase by 15,000 persons annually, which brings the total to something like 50,000-60,000 per year.

Everything surges

Swedish taxpayers’ expenses to all their new compatriots from warmer countries are surging. Just food, housing, administration etc. until they are granted asylum will amount to eight billion DKr. in 2012.

The generous Swedish subsidy rates and sabbaticals for families are also in themselves expensive, and they were not intended for asylum-seekers without jobs but with many children.

“Daily care for one asylum-seeker costs Swedes up to 5,000 SKr. per day”

The total influx of asylum-seekers is expected to be 90,000 persons annually. The prognoses are constantly adjusted, especially since rumors in for example Somalia and Afghanistan now say that becoming a Swede is easy. One need not even work, which half of them do not anyway.

Criticism forbidden

Incredible as it is, the enormous immigration from distant countries all over the globe has not has not resulted in any Swedish debate worth mentioning. Among politicians, it is considered racist and inappropriate to air concerns, let alone to criticize Sweden’s rapid transformation into the world’s proportionally greatest immigrant country. Well, there is plenty of room in the huge forests…

Likewise, Swedish media are dominated by pious, cowed editors, who carefully remove any criticism of immigration and its consequences from their dailies, websites and broadcasts.

Danish numbers

It’s not like that in Denmark, where discussions of a fair asylum policy is permitted in public. Then, how are things in Denmark?

An Alternative Media Reality in Syria?

In the Humpty-Dumpty world of 21st-century global geopolitics, words mean just what the media and official government press secretaries choose them to mean — neither more nor less. And not just words, but events as well: if the following article from Kopp Online is accurate, both Syrian rebels and cynical Western political leaders have successfully mastered the deceptive media-manipulation techniques pioneered by “Pallywood”.

Note: the journalist quoted in this article was interviewed before the downing of the Turkish jet in Syrian coastal waters — an event that adds another layer of intrigue to what is described below.

Many thanks to Hermes for the translation:

Eyewitness account: Media lies about Syria unveiled in an interview

by Natalia Mihailova

The independent journalist Anhar Kochnewa has been living and working for more than ten years in Syria. According to her descriptions, the situation in Syria is by no means that which the mainstream media depicts in their reports. Kochnewa was born in Russia, and speaks Arabic fluently. Her friends and neighbors are completely normal Syrians. She travels the same streets and districts of Damascus and also goes shopping there like any other of the locals in the Syrian capital. We talked with her not long ago, and also asked her about the reasons for the unrests which have been raging for so long in Syria.

The so-called Demonstrations


Were there any deep reasons for the crisis in Syria?

Anhar Kochnewa: One year ago there were no signs of crisis. Even in March 2011 there was nothing extraordinary. The events began as criminal activity. I always get very angry when journalists claim that during the past months there have been mass protests and demonstrations in Syria. This is simply not true. I’ve been residing continuously in Syria for the past seven months, and I’ve experienced just three so-called “demonstrations”. And I say “so-called” because they were staged by very few people, and they were clearly there to stage a demonstration for the journalists. These protests were then filmed for 5-10 minutes, and after that those people dispersed at once. In some cities criminals took control for a while and forced people to join the demonstrations.

I’ve been living in Syria since the end of the nineties. To tell the truth, at that time I did not like the country. I’ve been living for a long while in this country, and I must say, that something has changed. The living conditions and the people have changed. many have opened their own businesses and made a relatively good living for themselves.

From this point of view, people would perhaps have supported the protests ten years ago, but now not. Nowadays people want stability. There’s unnecessary chaos and revolts. People were used to living in a peaceful country. Syria was one of the safest countries in the region. If one left a wallet with money somewhere and returned there two days after, he would have found it exactly in the same place. Nowadays this is no longer the case. People are worried. They have lost something they were proud of.

Who hides behind the bomb attacks, the shootings and the destruction of buildings?

Some weeks ago I was in Homs, the alleged “stronghold of the rebels”, in the already famous Baba Amr district. The majority of inhabitants have left their houses and flats. My friends lived 800 metres away from Baba Amr. They told me that it was not the army but criminals who shoot at their houses. The Syrian army does not kill people. It only reacts when the situation escalates.

In the last weeks it was mostly Syrian soldiers who fell victim (to the clashes). The so-called rebels fight in the streets, show videos and burn tires. If one sees “black smoke” on a video made with a cellphone, this smoke is not the product of artillery activity, but of burning tires.

One month ago I was in Zabadani, in southwestern Syria. Criminal gangs had the whole city in fear. The MSM frequently reports about the humanitarian catastrophe in Syria. It is indeed a humanitarian catastrophe, when a whole city is in the hands of criminals.

My colleagues and I were caught by criminals. They showed us a rusty Panzer and explained that it was what had shot at the town. But both destroyed houses were in the middle of the town. I just don’t understand how the Panzer managed to shoot, from the air or from the next corner. After that, they gathered some people and organized for us a small demonstration as an extra show. I observed the faces of that people and I saw fear and hate on their faces. They feared the criminals and hated them.

You always talk about “criminals”. What is it about, insurgents or the opposition?

Sunday, June 24, 2012

Gates of Vienna News Feed 6/24/2012

Gates of Vienna News Feed 6/24/2012The news feed is light tonight, for some reason.

The most significant event of the day is, of course, the certification of the election of Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohamed Morsi (or Mursi, depending on who is spelling it) as president of Egypt. President Obama sent his congratulations and promises of assistance to the new president, and Mr. Morsi has vowed to uphold Egypt’s international obligations, which most people assume to mean the 1979 peace treaty with Israel.

In other news, Turkey summoned its NATO allies for talks to discuss the downing of a Turkish military jet by Syria over Syrian coastal waters.

To see the headlines and the articles, open the full news post.

Thanks to Fjordman, JD, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.

Commenters are advised to leave their comments at this post (rather than with the news articles) so that they are more easily accessible.

Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.

Democracy and Free Speech Behind an Iron Cordon in Stavanger

Our Norwegian correspondent The Observer reported last night on the SIAN demonstration in Stavanger, in which the protesters were vastly outnumbered by the “anti-racist” counter-demonstrators, and were contained within an iron police cordon as if they were dangerous terrorists.

The Observer has compiled a more lengthy report based on material from multiple sources, and includes this introduction:

SIAN, the Norwegian branch of Stop the Islamisation of Europe (SIOE), was established on February 16, 2008.

SIAN is rumoured to have about 10,000 Norwegian members (Facebook subscribers). Their strongest local Norwegian branch is in Stavanger. SIAN runs a weekly two-hour show on one of the local radio channels in the city.

Arne Tumyr is the leader of SIAN. He is also a former/current member (possibly leader) of the Norwegian humanist association (atheist organisation). He has previously stated that:

“The Allah-infected brain needs to be scrubbed clean with ammonium.”

That’s pretty hardcore stuff, especially for Norway!

Below is a translated post written by Arne Tumyr about the demonstration in Stavanger yesterday. The original Norwegian version is posted on SIAN’s homepage. It sheds some much-needed light on why so few people attended the demo.

It is a standard tactic of the Left in Norway to announce well in advance its intention to ‘disrupt’ — oops, I mean to ‘arrange counter-demonstrations’ — whenever conservatives in Norway plan to stage demonstrations against immigration, Multiculturalism and Islam.

The Left does this because it serves two purposes:

1. It sends out a warning to ordinary people that they should stay well clear because the left considers the demonstrations and its organizers to be unpalatable and racist.
2. It’s a thinly-veiled threat to people that they may be physically attacked, and that they run the risk of being ‘outed’ as evil racists in the media if they show up, which can lead to very unpleasant consequences.

I can’t think of a single ‘announced’ demonstration against immigration and Islam in the last 30 years that hasn’t been ‘disrupted’ by the left, and people in Norway are acutely aware of this fact.

Also worth mentioning about the demonstration in Stavanger is that it was confined to an area of the city which isn’t normally visited by its residents (on the wharf next to a busy ring road and an oil museum). Most political stands are held in the city square, where the counter-demonstration was held, and where shoppers and residents who visit the city centre on the weekend tend to walk past.

In addition to the Tumyr post, I have translated a couple of paragraphs from the article in Aftenbladet, and one comment from the comments section.

From SIAN’s website:

“There is no doubt that ‘New SOS-Racism’ would have attacked Sian and NDL members if the opportunity had arisen”.

NDL and Sian trapped inside police iron cordon

Participants searched

By Arne Tumyr

While 1,000 individuals from politically correct Norway were able to congregate freely in the city square in Stavanger on Saturday, 40 anti-Islamists from the NDL and Sian were literally trapped inside a police iron cordon — which hardly anyone was allowed to pass through. In other words, it was an act of social and operational discrimination by the police. While the 1000 politically correct representatives enjoyed democracy and freedom of expression in all its glory, the anti-Islamists had to accept that this privilege wasn’t granted to them.

The media and the so-called anti-racists took great joy in the fact that so few attended the anti-Islamic demonstration, but they willfully fail to mention that most normal people don’t have the energy to defy an iron-tight police cordon with police checkpoints where body searches are mandatory — just to attend what is basically a political stand. Warning lights should begin to flash, because in this context freedom of speech is lying on a hard wooden bunk — while politically correct Norway has granted Islam and “The Prophet” a bed with silk sheets.

The absurdity of the situation is perhaps best described by “Torstein”:

Saturday, June 23, 2012

Gates of Vienna News Feed 6/23/2012

Gates of Vienna News Feed 6/23/2012Peter Sutherland, the UN’s special representative for migration, told the House of Lords that the European Union must undermine the national homogeneity of its member states if it is to further the goals of Multiculturalism. He said that demographic decline in Europe requires the importation of more migrants into the EU.

In other news, the Saudi government is reportedly planning to pay the salaries of Syrian rebel soldiers in an attempt to undermine the regime of Bashar al-Assad.

To see the headlines and the articles, open the full news post.

Thanks to Fjordman, JP, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.

Commenters are advised to leave their comments at this post (rather than with the news articles) so that they are more easily accessible.

Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.

A Political Voice Box… For the Facts

BF meeting, July 21 2012

On Thursday July 21 local members of the British Freedom Party gathered in Somerset to greet their chairman, Paul Weston, and two new members of the Executive Committee, Tommy Robinson and Kevin Carroll.

Here’s a report on the event from the British Freedom website:

On Thursday night British Freedom held its first regional meeting in Somerset, chaired by the Local Party Organiser Hamilton Chant. The meeting was extremely positive and well attended by 80+ British Freedom and EDL members, most of whom were from the South West region.

Speakers included the joint Vice Chairmen Stephen Lennon and Kevin Carroll, as well as Party Chairman Paul Weston.

Stephen and Kevin both spoke about the advantages British Freedom can bring to the EDL, whilst Paul outlined the violent thousand-year Jihad Islam has waged against Europe.

Videos of the speakers can be viewed below — please share them far and wide and help us to spread the good word of Freedom.

I’ll do just as BF suggests. Many thanks to Vlad Tepes for uploading these videos and improving the audio.

First, here’s Kevin Carroll opening the event:



Next, Tommy Robinson:

Twenty-Five to One

That was the ratio of counter-demonstrators to demonstrators today at an anti-Islamization demonstration in Norway.

Our Norwegian correspondent The Observer didn’t have time to translate the full news report on what happened, but he sent this summary:

The Norwegian Defence League (NDL) and Stop Islamisation of Norway (SIAN) held a demonstration in Stavanger (west coast of Norway) on Saturday.

Approximately a hundred police officers in riot gear had to protect the meeting out of fear that ‘anti-racists’ would ‘disrupt’ the demo.

NDL and SIAN were cordoned off in a designated area and no one was allowed in once it kicked off, which kept the anti-NDL crowd at bay, but it also stopped ordinary people from entering the area and listening to the message of the demonstrators.

There were approximately forty people from NDL and SIAN present, and approximately a thousand counter-demonstrators. At lot of people who are sympathetic to the NDL and SIAN probably stayed away, fearing violent confrontations. The Left in Norway is renowned for physically attacking conservatives at demos.

See the article in Aftenbladet for the full story.

The Continuation of War by Other Means

Under the auspices of the Center for Security Policy, Kevin Freeman presents this in-depth briefing on the deliberate economic warfare being waged against the United States and the rest of the West.

Mr. Freeman is the author of Secret Weapon: How Economic Terrorism Brought Down the U.S. Stock Market and Why It Can Happen Again.

His presentation draws together the disparate elements that are attempting to sabotage the economic systems of Europe and the USA via electronic means. Islamic radicals, Marxist globalists, Iran, China, and Russia are all targeting our economies. And, based on Kevin Freeman’s research, they have already scored several major victories in their war to bring down the West.

Many thanks to CSP for making this material available:

Running Afoul of Norton

We just received this email from a reader in Norway:

I add a screen shot of what happens when I try to access your web page. It claims your web page has been known to be fraudulent and does not want me accessing it.

I am a regular reader and have had this program running on my computer for 6 months, this is the first time it has tried to stop me from viewing your webpage.

Can you tell me if you have been hacked, or the page has suffered from a virus? Or is this another attempt at trying to stop people from hearing the other side?

Its really making me a bit paranoid now, but I am wanting to know what this is all about.

I will be hesitant to access your webpage again for the reason that I really don’t wish to have viruses on my computer. Could you tell me if there actually has been a breech of security?

So I asked friends in the USA, Canada, and Denmark to try loading Gates of Vienna. They had no problems.

Then, as soon as I sent off a reply to the Norwegian reader, I received another email, presumably from the United States:

Friday, June 22, 2012

Gates of Vienna News Feed 6/22/2012

Gates of Vienna News Feed 6/22/2012The trial of Anders Behring Breivik came to an end today in Oslo. The Butcher of Utøya was given a substantial block of time for final pronouncements on topics of his choice. Some of the spectators in the courtroom, including representatives of the survivors’ families, walked out early in protest.

In other news, Islamic terrorists shot their way into a resort in Afghanistan, and at least 26 people were killed, including 15 civilians, several police officers, and the seven killers themselves. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, saying that the women at the resort were behaving shamelessly by dancing and so on, in violation of Islamic law.

Meanwhile, elsewhere in Afghanistan, at a conference about women’s issues the Afghan justice minister said that women who ran away to shelters for abused women were “prostitutes”. EU foreign minister Baroness Catherine Ashton said she was “deeply troubled” by her fellow minister’s comments.

To see the headlines and the articles, open the full news post.

Thanks to Andy Bostom, Fjordman, Jerry Gordon, JP, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.

Commenters are advised to leave their comments at this post (rather than with the news articles) so that they are more easily accessible.

Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.

Sweden’s National Day (Of Self-Loathing)

It’s a pleasure to introduce our new Swedish correspondent PMP to Gates of Vienna readers. In his first essay for us, PMP takes a look at the culture of self-hatred that has arisen in Sweden in recent decades, as reflected in the masochistic celebration of the country’s National Day.

Swedish National Day: 'Det gamla och det nya sverige', by August Malmström, 1897

Sweden’s National Day (of self-loathing)
by PMP


By studying how Swedish politicians and media ideologically attack Sweden on its own National Day, this essay will reveal how Sweden has ceased to exist as a proud and tolerant nation. It will show how an anti-nationalist, Marxist line of thought is being propagated all the way from top officials, including the Royal Family, to the vast majority of Sweden’s various media outlets and research institutions.

In his essay, ‘The Case of Sweden’, Fjordman spoke of the country as a nasty and ‘frightening example of Political Correctness and self-loathing and can as such serve as a warning to others’. He also noted that Sweden is self-destructing at an unprecedented pace, for example referring to how Swedes will become an ethnic minority in their own lands within a few decades. Whilst this is very likely, the deconstruction is not only happening in terms of physical immigration and demographic changes. It is also about the deconstruction of traditional Swedish values and perceptions.

We are talking about a monster, with tentacles consisting of journalists, politicians, officials and researchers.
An unfortunately superb time to witness this beast appear out of the dark is when it annually seeks to attack Sweden’s National Day, which takes place around the 6th of June. Every year during this day we are reminded of how far the establishment and media have pushed their ‘anti-indigenous’ agenda. This day is, apparently, a great time to criticise exactly what the day is intended to celebrate — being Swedish and being proud of Sweden.

In the case of Sweden, there are many past examples of a type of dislike and critique of being Swedish. The former leader of the Social Democrats, Mona Sahlin, expressed this at a conference, stating that she could ‘not think of anything resembling Swedish culture.’ And that this further ‘makes Swedes jealous of immigrants who have a culture, identity and a history which unite them.’ This, ‘whilst Swedes only have midsummer celebration and such ridiculous things.’

The current prime minister of Sweden, Fredrik Reinfeldt of the Moderate Party (‘Conservatives’ in Sweden), stated in 2006 that ‘the only feature of Swedish culture is barbarism, whilst everything else is thanks to immigration’.

The list of such statements is lengthy, especially when studying the writings of the country’s journalists. If one looks at how the establishment is tightly inter-linked politically with the media, the large amounts of this criticism does make sense. The celebrated anonymous author Julia Caesar has written about the bias of the Swedish media. She means that, whilst around 40% of the Swedish population sympathizes with the red-green (left) parties of the country, those holding such views make up at least 70% of Sweden’s journalists. According to a study by professor Kent Asp of Gothenburg University, 56% of Swedish journalists sympathise with the extreme left party ‘Vänsterpartiet’, and 41% with the Environmental Party. According to Asp, however, the State-funded television and radio, SVT and SR, win by far — over 83% of their journalists sympathise with these two leftist parties.

Let’s break this Nation down

Thus, to witness politicians, journalists and researchers arguing a line of cultural deconstruction on the country’s National Day should not come as a surprise. And so they did. On National Day the media did not make us wait for this criticism. On the early morning news, Channel 4 launched a ‘discussion’, on the topic ‘What is Swedishness? Is there such a thing?’. There were three participants in the discussion — None of whom viewed themselves as ‘ Swedish’. The TV show’s host asked whether if they felt the day meant anything special to them, resulting in their bursting into laughter. One of them, Qaizar Mahmood, said that he ‘wished it might mean something, but it really didn’t.’ Mahmood then went on to describe Swedishness as an onion, made out of different layers. One of these layers, was ‘the passivity (read cowardice) of the Swedes, which was shown during WWII,’ when Sweden did not take a stand against the Germans. He continued, asserting that ‘There are new layers constantly added to this onion, but if you peel these off, there is no core of Swedishness or of being a Swede.’ In other words, there is nothing to celebrate as there is nothing or no one who is Swedish in the end.

Gimme Your Loot

Richie Rich

Obama wants your birthday presents and your wedding gifts.

No joke. On the Obama-Biden website (and by now twittered all over cyberspace), they have “the very latest” — their wording, not mine — fundraising effort:

The Obama Event Registry

“Got a birthday, anniversary, or wedding coming up?

Let your friends know how important this election is to you — register with Obama 2012, and ask for a donation in lieu of a gift. It’s a great way to support the President on your big day. Plus, it’s a gift that we can all appreciate — and goes a lot further than a gravy bowl.

Setting up and sharing your registry page is easy—so get started today.

This grab goes “a lot further than a gravy bowl“, does it? Well, they’ve got that right: it goes straight to the heart of Obama’s shameless greed and mendacity. It's the Chicago Way... and Obama is the Truth and the Light, see? So how could you refuse?

As any Southerner could will tell you, the man wasn’t raised right. Anyone this clueless should be doing something else with his life besides taking up room on the Oval Office couch watching ESPN.

Let's see how the Lefticides will spin this tasteless, gobsmackingly tacky grab.

Oh, and what do you want to bet he goes after your child’s piggy bank next? Or even better...

Motive? Unknown!

In Texas last Friday, a man originally from Lebanon attempted to kill his daughter, her boyfriend, and his estranged wife. He told police that he didn’t like the fact that his daughter was dating a non-Muslim.

Yet the police and the media are certain there must have been a different motive that doesn’t involve Islam; they are determined that the gunman’s “religious beliefs will not be taken into account.”

Of course they won’t be. He obviously must have done it for some other reason. We must ignore the poor man’s statement about his own motivations; he was under stress when he said that, and is clearly not in his right mind.

Many thanks to Vlad Tepes for uploading this video:


Below is the accompanying article from the local TV news site:

Mission triple shooting not being classified as attempted “honor killing”

by Rafael Carranza


Authorities are saying that they are not treating the shooting of three people in Mission as an attempted “honor killing.”

The suspect Talal Nimer is facing attempted murder charges after shooting his estranged wife, their daughter and their daughter’s boyfriend.

Mission police the gunman’s Muslim faith did not play a role in their investigation.

But when quizzed on why he did it, the Lebanese man admitted that he didn’t like that his daughter was dating someone who’s not Muslim.

He also felt his daughter’s boyfriend was taking over as the man of the house.

Technical Difficulties in a Vienna Courtroom

After being interrupted by a series of technical difficulties, a trial of accused terror supporters in Vienna has resumed. Many thanks to JLH for translating this article from Vienna Online:

Trial of Islamists in Vienna Plagued by Technical Glitches

June 18, 2012

The Viennese Islamists trial is having technical glitches. On Monday, besides a video conference that crashed, there were also problems playing DVDs with recorded witnesses’ statements.

When the local justice system makes use of technical aids, there are frequently glitches: DVDs with contradictory interrogations turn out to be impossible to play back in the courtroom because the DVD is damaged, or the quality of the recording is so debased that they are barely usable.

Video conference with St. Pölten not possible

First, a video conference with the prison at St. Pölten was planned. A man there was to be questioned as a witness, who, according to the state’s attorney’s office, had intended to travel to Somalia with the main defendant, Thomas Al J., to participate there in the armed jihad.

Thursday, June 21, 2012

Gates of Vienna News Feed 6/21/2012

Gates of Vienna News Feed 6/21/2012According to the Vatican and other Christian organizations, US-backed Islamic extremist rebels in Syria are targeting Christians. Anti-government fighters are killing Christians in the streets, burning their churches, businesses, and homes, and driving them out of the country.

In other news, Sweden’s nuclear power plants were put on high alert after explosives were found on a truck in an industrial area near a nuclear plant.

To see the headlines and the articles, open the full news post.

Thanks to Fjordman, Gaia, JP, RR, Steen, TV, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.

Commenters are advised to leave their comments at this post (rather than with the news articles) so that they are more easily accessible.

Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.

Slouching Towards Weimar

NSDAP 1933: The end of the Weimar Republic

The twilight world of Western Civilization in the early 21st century is often compared with the lambent autumnal glow of Weimar Germany in the late 1920s and early 1930s. M. Sattler, writing in Politically Incorrect, examines the analogy in some detail as it is being played out today in Germany itself.

Many thanks to K. from Germany for the translation:

Escape Into Dictatorship

Now, for the second time in German history, we witness the parliamentarians’ willing relinquishment of their democratic power. In a manner similar to the empowerment of the NSDAP by the parliament of the Weimar Republic, the empowerment of the EUSSR by the parliament of the Federal Republic takes place once again in a situation seemingly “without alternative”. So why do democratically elected parliamentarians in extreme political situations have such a preference for seeking salvation in an escape into dictatorship?

by M. Sattler

Of course the empowerment acts of 1933 and 2009-2012 are not directly comparable. In 1933 the Weimar parliament transferred its power on a single day, the 23rd of March, to the NSDAP. Today we witness the formation of a dictatorship in slow motion. The Bundestag transfers power speedily, yet step by step to the EUSSR, without receiving democratic compensation or even asking for any. The EU “parliament” remains as powerless as ever, despite ESM [the European Stability Mechanism, commonly known as the “Eurozone bailout fund”] and other EU mechanisms of authority. And, without question, the character traits of the NSDAP and EUSSR dictatorships are vastly different. Comparable, however, are the democratic processes of abdication themselves: The willingness to relinquish democratic power in the Bundestag nowadays is at a similar level to what it was in the Reichstag of 1933, perhaps even higher, because the empowerment act of 1933 received only about 70% approval, while the empowerment acts toward the EUSSR are regularly approved by over 90%. The general set-ups are also comparable: Both self-disempowerments fall within a phase of utmost economic complexity and seemingly “unresolvable” challenges. At the beginning of the year 1933, Germany was still — despite incipient economic recovery — massively affected by the consequences of the financial crisis of 1929-1932. Likewise today: The Great Merkelian Coup of 2009-2012 is happening alongside a financial crisis and its effects on the overall economic situation. And as Hitler did back in 1933, today Merkel, as a representative of Brussels, argues in her promotion of more dictatorship that there is an “absence of alternatives” in the situation: Only a strongman liberated of the annoying bickering of democratic parties, specifically only a strong centralist executive authority in Brussels without democratic shackles, would be capable of getting a grip on these unprecedentedly difficult realities. That the executive prefers to reign without a legislative check lies in the nature of power. Therefore both Hitler’s and Merkel’s arguments, from their perspectives as representatives of the executive branch, are completely understandable. But why did the legislature in 1933, just as is occurring today, so willingly accede to the establishment of dictatorship? Why did it, in 1933 as today, betray its own vested authority?

The Shmoos Will Get Us All Killed

Y’all get around more than we do, so no doubt you’ve seen this video. The first time I saw it was when someone sent it with a notice that Campus Reform is outing it as a genuine promotion by the academianoids at the University of Minnesota-Duluth (unfortunately, when all those Scandinavians resettled in Minnesota they brought their shmoo culture with them).

This “ad campaign” is merely one more sad example of the eternally childish Left’s holy refrain, “No Fair!” They are determined to undermine the evil white “privilege” you see on their faces:


What prompted me to show you the video is what I discovered as I read the comments on YouTube. This excrescence cannot be flagged as racial hatred because it does not attack a “protected” group — “Protected”? That’s You Tube’s word for those it has been conned into thinking are Underdogs.

A reasonable person might infer that You Tube believes not all human groups are worth treating with dignity, and that inference would be correct. White people seem to lead the category of humans not worth “protecting” — hatred expressed against them, even by members of their own group, appears to be within the rules of discourse on You Tube. Are there any other unprotected groups? I don’t think so. Oh, wait: men are another group who can do nothing right.

Facts Are Stubborn Things…

…So perhaps the Canadian state broadcaster CBC is opposed to stubbornness, and that’s why it doesn’t like facts. Especially not stubborn facts about Hamas and its firing of rockets into Israel from Gaza.

Vlad Tepes sets the record straight with factual information and his own commentary interspersed with TV news clips:

Norway Expresses its Love

Breivik at the microphone

The trial of Anders Behring Breivik is now entering its final phase in Oslo. Our Norwegian correspondent The Observer has translated a bizarre coda to the whole ugly and murderous affair, as described in an article from Nettavisen.

The translator notes:

This concerns a very nutty Norwegian professor who sincerely hopes that Anders Behring Breivik will be given the chance to return to society at some stage.

Notice also the dishonest reference about Norway having dealt with the attacks in a ‘loving’ manner, whatever that means.

The fact of the matter is that the only one the authorities have shown any concern for is the psychopathic lowlife who committed these acts. He can now look forward to a nice cushy stay in a five-star accommodation with three meals a day, TV, and possibly internet in his cell. The authorities are actually in the process of custom-building a wing just for him where he will have access to a gym, a study, and a games room.

Others who have no culpability in the actions of this madman whatsoever, such as Fjordman, have not been treated in a very ‘loving’ manner at all. Fjordman has practically been run out of the country and stigmatized as a terrorist ‘mentor’. Numerous others have been labelled as Breivik admirers and mental cases.

The really sad thing is that this professor and others like him are indoctrinating young people in Norway to see the world through their very biased goggles.

God help us all. And I’m not even a religious person!

The translated article:

My hope is that Anders Behring Breivik eventually will return to society

The professor is hopeful that mass murderer Anders B. Breivik (32) will get the opportunity to lead a normal life again.

On July 22 terror finally came to Norway and Utøya: 77 innocent people were killed. Most of the victims were young people.

The man responsible for the attacks was 32-year-old Oslo native Anders Behring Breivik. He is the only one that has been charged with the atrocities.

Professor of criminology at the University of Oslo Nils Christie tells Nettavisen that he is hopeful that Behring Breivik eventually will be release back into society.

“My hope is that he will return to society,” Christie says.

Could you elaborate on that?

“It is a basic instinct to want to show people who have completely turned the rules of our society upside down the craziness of their actions, and to eventually see them return to society as ordinary citizens,” Christie tells Nettavisen.

Forgiveness for everything

He points out that Norway has neither capital punishment nor lifetime prison sentences.

“I cannot wish for Breivik to be trapped forever. It goes against my basic values that there should not be some form of forgiveness, even for the most heinous acts.”

The professor sees it from a long-term perspective:

“At the moment everybody hates this man. I hope that this will eventually change. We don’t have lifetime sentences in Norway and therefore we are spared the horrors that we see in other countries, namely, adult prisoners who have no hope of ever being released.”

Proud to be Norwegian

“It is important to guard our basic values even when we’re dealing with the most atrocious crimes,” Christie says.

These days he’s proud to be a Norwegian:

“It looks like we are going to get through this.

“I believe that we will get through this incident with a deep sense of sorrow for what has happened, but also with a sense of happiness for being able to do so, realizing that Norway could become a better country for all of us.”

Together in love

What are your thoughts?

“What we have witnessed in the aftermath of the attacks is a great manifestation of love. Just to give an example: ‘If one man can exhibit so much hate, imagine how much love all of us are capable of showing’,” Christie says, citing a female AUF member who impressed CNN and the rest of the world with her perspective.

“It is a beautiful thing to see so many people come together in love. I receive inquiries from abroad from people wondering how we are able to cope with it all. It is very important as a message to the world that we get through this.”

Should realize what he has done

Can Anders Behring Breivik ever become a normal human being?

“You and I have probably similar views, and by that I mean that we’re both able to see the errors of our ways. If Breivik is unable to see his, our system will see to it that he is not released.

“I sincerely hope that he will be able to see his mistakes, and when he does it will be horrible for him,” Christie adds.

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Gates of Vienna News Feed 6/20/2012

Gates of Vienna News Feed 6/20/2012A culturally enriched young man with a gun entered a bank in Toulouse, France, demanded money, and after being refused, fired a shot and took four hostages. The standoff was eventually resolved with no casualties among the hostages or bystanders. Some reports said the gunman was wounded. The would-be robber announced that he was connected with Al Qaeda, and had attempted his crime for religious reasons rather than for money.

In other news, a military judge in Texas excluded Maj. Nidal Hasan, the killer shrink of Ft. Hood, from courtroom preparations for his trial because he did not shave off his beard. Maj. Hasan’s lead counsel explained that the beard was a deeply felt expression of her client’s religious faith.

To see the headlines and the articles, open the full news post.

Thanks to Fausta, JP, Seneca III, Steen, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.

Commenters are advised to leave their comments at this post (rather than with the news articles) so that they are more easily accessible.

Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.

The Oracle of the Wise

The Melting Euro

Despite the success of the “pro-bailout” parties in last weekend’s Greek elections, Greece is not yet out of the fiscal woods. JLH has translated an article outlining the German perspective on the Greek meltdown. He includes this note:

Here is a short article that was published yesterday at the German-language blog about Greece that reveals for the first time — to me at least — the existence of a German committee of “five wise ones” who are tasked with assessing the future.

One of the members of this group of five, who each serve for five years, has laid the blame for Greece’s problems at the door of the “Troika”, which refers to the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund, acting in concert.

The Five Wise Ones and the all-powerful Troika… Even the Grimms could not have created a more fabulous power structure! But wait. Wait until you hear the wisdom that flows from this moment of reflection. Just think, to create this much confusion in the USA, all we have is our president and Ben Bernanke.

The translated article from the Griechenland-Blog:

The Recommendations of the Troika Are Primarily Responsible for the Greek Crisis

June 19, 2012

Peter Bofinger, a member of the federal government’s “Council of the Wise,” lays the burden of the Greek crisis on the false prescriptions of the Troika.

“Not only Greece itself, but the economic prescriptions of the Troika are responsible for the deepening of the crisis in Greece,” emphasized the member of the federal government’s “Council of the Wise Ones” on economic matters, Peter Bofinger, and he notes: Exiting the crisis requires as an outcome the changing of the prescriptions, and not merely their cosmetic improvement.

“Greece must be saved. Brussels cannot whistle past the graveyard and watch as the country slides into anarchy and catastrophe. On the contrary, Brussels has a vital interest in helping Greece get back on its feet, chiefly through stimulus programs. Besides, the negative developments in Spain and Italy show that Greece is not the only party responsible for the crisis. The false prescriptions for its therapy bear the most responsibility for the crisis,” Bofinger said to the Sunday edition (June 17, 2012) of the Greek newspaper To Vima.

An Epidemic of Arson at Norwegian Asylum Centers

We’ve reported in the past about violence and arson at asylum centers in Norway. Our Norwegian correspondent The Observer has abbreviated and translated this article about the ongoing epidemic of fires at asylum centers, an undetermined number of which have been deliberately set.

The translator includes this note:

This article deals with the many ‘spontaneous combustion’ incidents at various Norwegian asylum centres.

With incidents such as these — and mind you, these fires are just a very tiny part of the massive problems associated with these centres — it’s no wonder that Norwegians don’t want these cultural enrichment facilities on their doorsteps.

In other news the FrP (The Progress Party, or maybe the “Feisty Rhetoric Party”?) is demanding that the government introduce tougher requirements on who gets to stay in Norway. They are demanding that asylum seekers who don’t dress like Norwegians, speak Norwegian, have a job, respect Norwegian customs and traditions, have outstanding alimony payments and don’t have a clean police record should be denied permanent residency in Norway.

They also say that BBs (Burqa Birds) shouldn’t receive unemployment benefits as their attire pretty much excludes them from the job market. Very few employers in Norway would consider hiring a walking tarpaulin.

The English version of the article is at The Local.

Norwegian voters are advised not to take this political proclamation too seriously, however. The FrP is all talk and very little action. They have demonstrated many times that when it comes down to it, looking after Norwegian interests is of secondary importance to them, and that their real priority is to solidify their newly-gained power as a respectable political party.

The translated article from today’s VG Nett:

Concerned about fires in asylum centres

So far this year two people have died in fires at Norwegian asylum centres.

There have been seven fires in total at Norwegian asylum centres so far in 2012. In one a mother and her child lost their lives.

“There has been an overall decrease in the number of fires, but the fires have been more severe,” Ahmed Bozgil, director of Hero Norway, tells VG.

Acid Attacks Come to Spain

Cultural Enrichment News

We’ve become accustomed to the grotesque and horrifying reports of acid attacks against women in Pakistan or Afghanistan, at the hands of their irate husbands or spurned suitors. Now the same technique for avenging wounded honor has migrated to Spain along with cultural enrichment.

Many thanks to our Spanish correspondent Hermes for translating this article from today’s Alerta Digital:

A man of Arab background threw sulfuric acid on the face of his Spanish wife

A man of Arab background threw sulfuric acid in his wife’s face. This happened this morning at the door of the victim’s home in Rio Ulla street, no. 9, in the Pueblo Nuevo neighborhood in Ciudad Lineal district, Madrid. The victim was a 29-year-old Spanish woman who had never previously made any legal complaints of mistreatment directed against her. She had, however, filed for a separation from her husband.

The woman was sprinkled with sulfuric acid while screaming in pain, but she did not lose consciousness, so that she could identify her ex-partner, an Arab man. The assailant was confronted by several passers-by, who were also injured during the attack. They rushed to her aid while shouting for help. Among them was a female pharmacist who noticed what was happening just at the moment the victim was attacked.

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Gates of Vienna News Feed 6/19/2012

Gates of Vienna News Feed 6/19/2012Three Afghan assassins dressed in police uniforms turned their guns on American soldiers in southern Afghanistan, killing one of them and injuring several others. The attackers escaped, and police are searching for them. It isn’t clear yet whether the murderers really were policemen, or were simply wearing police uniforms.

In other news, former president Hosni Mubarak was said to be “clinically dead” today when his vital signs ceased after he was rushed to the hospital. Later reports said that Mr. Mubarak had never been declared clinically dead, but was in fact in critical condition.

To see the headlines and the articles, open the full news post.

Thanks to Andy Bostom, JD, JLH, JP, Nilk, RR, Steen, TV, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.

Commenters are advised to leave their comments at this post (rather than with the news articles) so that they are more easily accessible.

Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.