Contributor’s Links post for January 4th, 2019

Daily Links Post graphic

Each day at just after midnight Eastern, a post like this one is created for contributors and readers of this site to upload news links and video links on the issues that concern this site. Most notably, Islam and its effects on Classical Civilization, and various forms of leftism from Soviet era communism, to postmodernism and all the flavours of galloping statism and totalitarianism such as Nazism and Fascism which are increasingly snuffing out the classical liberalism which created our near, miraculous civilization the West has been building since the time of Socrates.

This document was written around the time this site was created, for those who wish to understand what this site is about. And while our understanding of the world and events has grown since then, the basic ideas remain sound and true to the purpose.

So please post all links, thoughts and ideas that you feel will benefit the readers of this site to the comments under this post each day. And thank you all for your contributions.

This is the new Samizdat. We muse use it while we can.

About Eeyore

Canadian artist and counter-jihad and freedom of speech activist as well as devout Schrödinger's catholic

133 Replies to “Contributor’s Links post for January 4th, 2019”

    • Ilhan Omar vows to make US live up to religious freedom (memo, Jan 4, 2019)
      https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20190104-ilhan-omar-vows-to-make-us-live-up-to-religious-freedom/

      “Ilhan Omar marked her first day in office by promising to make the US live up to its ideals of religious liberty, and she demanded the country reject divisiveness and hate, Anadolu Agency reports.

      Omar was sworn into the House of Representatives on Thursday, and joined Michigan’s Rashida Tlaib in becoming the first Muslim women in Congress. Omar is also the body’s first Somali-American member.

      “I am feeling very honored and really humble to represent the people of the 5th and get this opportunity to really work on restoring our democracy and fighting for the people,” Omar told Anadolu Agency, referring to Minnesota’s 5th district.

      The 36-year-old Omar used her grandfather’s copy of the Quran during her swearing-in ceremony, saying he inspired her to pursue a career in politics.

      “I know he would have loved to be here today. But I want to bring him with me. He was with us in spirit because I got a chance to get sworn on his Quran,” Omar added.

      She also wore a hijab for the ceremony — another first for Congress that previously banned any sort of headwear.

      “We are going to make this country one that lives up to its ideals of inclusion, of religious liberty,” Omar said to a crowd of supporters Thursday at a celebration after her swearing in. “One that recognizes this is a land that is stolen from indigenous people, built on the backs of black slaves, and one, one that welcomed immigrants so many years ago.

      “We believe in the politics of joy, and this isn’t the time for tip-toe politics. We are going to reject divisiveness. And we are going to reject hate. And we are going to reject people who want to destroy one of the greatest governments, one of the greatest democracies to exist on this earth.”

      Omar commended the diversity in the new Congress that now has 102 women and 55 black members. The new legislative body also sees the first Native American women as well as two of the youngest members in history.

      The congresswoman reflected on her roots as well, when she came to the US more than two decades ago as a refugee.

      “If this ban was happening 23 years ago. If the reduction of refugees being allowed in this country was happening 23 years ago, my family and I wouldn’t be here. I wouldn’t have the opportunity to get an education, start a family and now get to represent all of you in Congress,” Omar said.

      “Not only do we welcome refugees, but we send them to Washington to represent us,” she added, praising her district.”

  1. Rights group calls on UN to save thousands of civilian abductees in Iraq (memo, Jan 4, 2019)
    https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20190104-rights-group-calls-on-un-to-save-thousands-of-civilian-abductees-in-iraq/

    “An Iraqi human rights centre has called on the United Nations to intervene and save thousands of civilians who have been abducted and held in prisons run by militias.

    The Baghdad Centre for Human Rights said in a statement yesterday that nearly 4,000 civilians have been kidnapped from the province of Anbar while more than 2,000 people were abducted from the province of Saladin.

    According to the statement, they are being held “in secret prisons run by militias in the area of ??Jarf Al-Sakhr, north of the Babil governorate,” which used to be schools and houses occupied by the militias and were turned into detention centres…”

  2. Libyan authorities seeking 37 suspects over attacks on oil, military facilities (reuters, Jan 4, 2019)
    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-libya-security/libyan-authorities-seeking-37-suspects-over-attacks-on-oil-military-facilities-idUSKCN1OY1SC

    “Libyan authorities issued arrest warrants for 37 suspects over attacks on key oil ports in the east of the country and a military base in the south, a source in the attorney general’s office said on Friday.

    The source, who asked not to be named, confirmed the authenticity of the arrest warrants, which were dated Jan. 2 and were leaked on Facebook on Thursday.

    The warrants showed that 31 members of the Chadian and Sudanese opposition based in Libya, along with six Libyan nationals, are wanted for attacks on the oil ‘crescent’ in the east of the country and on the Tamanhint military base as well as for their participation in fighting between Libyan rivals…”

  3. Shutdown could last ‘months and months,’ says Senate Republican
    by Al Weaver
    | January 03, 2019 01:50 PM

    Print this article

    A top Senate Republican warned Thursday the nearly two-week partial shutdown could go on for “months and months” as a resolution to the impasse between President Trump and congressional Democrats over border security grows more elusive.

    Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said that he is not optimistic that a deal could be struck between the two sides, after a White House meeting Wednesday between Trump and congressional Democratic leaders. Congressional leaders are expected to meet with Trump again on Friday.

    “I’m thinking we might be in for a long haul here,” Shelby told reporters at the Capitol. “I’m not optimistic now.”

    https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/congress/shutdown-could-last-months-and-months-says-senate-republican

    video at site

  4. Why I defended Asia Bibi in Pakistan (gulfnews, Jan 4, 2019)
    https://gulfnews.com/opinion/op-eds/why-i-defended-asia-bibi-in-pakistan-1.61172200

    “Asia Bibi spent Christmas in a safe house in Islamabad, Pakistan. I hope that’s the last time my client, a Catholic, must spend the holiday unable to live and worship in freedom. Two months ago, a three- justice panel of the Pakistani Supreme Court overturned her 2010 conviction and death sentence for blaspheming. Protests by religious hardliners over the possibility that she would be allowed to leave Pakistan prompted the government to bar her, at least temporarily, from departing.

    Prime Minister Imran Khan’s government appears determined to ensure the safety of Asia and her husband, Ashiq Masih, and the couple’s two daughters, until another country agrees to take them in. Canada is their most likely destination.

    Asia was still in prison, not in the courtroom, when the decision was handed down on October 31. Enraged protesters poured into the streets in several Pakistani cities. Police escorted me from the courthouse, and I spent three days in hiding, aided by friends in the diplomatic community, before I boarded a flight for the Netherlands still wearing my Pakistani lawyer’s uniform of a black suit and white shirt. I had insisted I wouldn’t leave without Asia, but my friends swore they would take good care of her. It was my life they feared for at that moment.

    My last meeting with Asia had taken place on October 10 at the women’s prison in Multan, about 400 kilometres from my home in the eastern city of Lahore,where she had been incarcerated for the past five years. Contrary to reports of her terrible treatment in prison, Asia seemed to have found a quiet life of sisterhood with her guards, who allowed her a television set and more time outside her cell than usually granted to death-row inmates. The relatively benign treatment might have resulted from pressure by Western governments, but I sensed it was because the guards recognised Asia’s bravery and human spirit.

    Asia is not a sophisticated person. She was born 47 years ago to a poor family in a dusty farming village in the Punjab province and never sat in a classroom for a single day of her life. But she was helped by her strong religious faith when she ran afoul of blasphemy laws often exploited by religious extremists and ordinary Pakistanis to settle personal scores.

    She was working on a berry farm in June 2009 with several Muslim women when a dispute broke out because Asia had filled a jug of water for her co- workers. The women refused to drink water from a utensil touched by a choorhi, a derogatory word for a Christian. Apparently incensed that a lowly Christian woman had argued with them, two of the women who later appeared as witnesses in the case said Asia had insulted the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) and the Quran. Local clerics began denouncing her. An enraged mob beat her and dragged her to a police station, saying she had confessed to blasphemy.

    Asia was sentenced to death by a district court in 2010. She had legal representation in name only, because competent lawyers often fear to take on blasphemy cases. At least 70 people, including defendants, lawyers and judges, have been killed by vigilantes or lynch mobs since blasphemy laws were strengthened in the 1980s under the military dictator Gen. Mohammed Zia ul-Haq. A lawyers group that offers free legal advice to complainants is known to pack courtrooms with clerics and raucous supporters who try to bully judges into handing out convictions.

    In 2011, Salman Taseer, the prominent governor of Punjab and a critic of the blasphemy laws who had visited Asia in prison and promised to lobby for her pardon, was assassinated by one of his own bodyguards. A few months later, Shahbaz Bhatti, a Christian and a cabinet minister for minorities who had also spoken up for Asia, was murdered. I took on Asia’s case in 2014. I’m a lawyer, and I do not want to see anyone falsely convicted of a crime, much less hanged for it. The Supreme Court granted a petition to appeal her case, and in 2015 the death sentence was suspended. In October, I was notified that the final appeal would be heard. The justices’ ruling for Asia, citing insufficient evidence, took great courage.

    I think I will have to stay away from Pakistan for at least two years before it will be safe to return. Until then, I will live with friends in the Netherlands or with my daughter in Britain. But I yearn to return home to continue defending victims of the blasphemy laws. Asia had rarely ventured far from her village before being imprisoned, so beginning a new life in another country would be a challenge for her. But she has shown remarkable strength throughout this ordeal, and I am confident that she will succeed.

    Saif ul Malook, a lawyer, represented Asia Bibi in the successful appeal of her blasphemy conviction. Mehreen Zahra-Malik, a former Reuters correspondent based in Islamabad, assisted in the preparation of this op-ed.”

  5. Khiame: Swiss-Spanish Suspect Planned More Attacks with Imlil Suspects (moroccoworldnews, Jan 4, 2019)
    https://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2019/01/262449/khiame-swiss-spanish-imlil/

    “Moroccan police have arrested at least 23 people as suspects in the murders of Danish Louisa Vesterager Jespersen and Norwegian Maren Ueland, who were decapitated near Imlil in the Atlas Mountains.

    In a recent interview with Swiss news outlet Tribune de Geneve, the head of Morocco’s Central Bureau of Judicial Investigation (BCIJ), Abdelhak Khiame, said that the Swiss-Spanish suspect was not “directly involved in the assassination of the two students, but he knew the perpetrators.”

    Khiame added that the Swiss suspect and the other suspects had viewed ISIS propaganda films.

    “He was in contact with a Daesh operative in Syria via Telegram messaging,” Khiame added.

    According to Khiame, the suspect calls himself “Abu Yahia or Abdullah … He first tried to join a Qur’anic school in the south of the kingdom and then he moved to Marrakech.”

    The BCIJ chief added that the suspect was hesitating to choose between Algeria, Tunisia, and Morocco.

    He arrived in Morocco in 2015.

    After moving to Marrakech, he met with the self-styled “emir of the jihadist cell involved in the murder of two students.” The self-styled emir is the same person who decapitated one of the two victims. The Swiss suspect also participated “in several secret meetings with the members” of the cell.

    The suspect, according to Khiame, converted to Islam in the mosque of Petit-Saconnex near Geneva in 2011.

    The suspect attended sermons given by two French imams, both converts to Islam.

    Both imams “were expelled from the [mosque] for encouraging followers to jihad.”

    The suspect was planning to undermine Morocco’s stability through actions targeting security services and tourists when he was radicalized.

    “He led some members to practice shooting in a field with blank cartridges and even recruited sub-Saharans with whom he also planned to join Daesh in northern Mali.”

    The suspect will be prosecuted in accordance with the 2003 Anti-Terror Law for having ties with a group that planned to commit acts of terror in Morocco.

    War against terrorism continues

    In the interview, Khiame also spoke about the international security cooperation between Morocco and other countries.

    Speaking specifically about the international security between Morocco and Switzerland, he said, “ We are on good terms with the security services and I suppose our intelligence services are cooperating.”

    He said that the two countries will strengthen security cooperation in the aftermath of the double murders.

    “Without enhanced cooperation between all intelligence services we will not be able to defeat them,” Khiame added.

    Khiame also echoed a statement he made in a recent interview with Moroccan channel 2M, saying that “the disappearance of Daesh from the Syro-Iraqi zone does not signal the end of this ideology.”

    He added that the first threat is the return of some fighters to their homelands or other countries.

    “The second is the lost people who self-radicalized surfing the internet. The fight will be long,” he added.

    The bodies of the two Scandinavian tourists were found on December 17, 2018.

    The suspects arrested for the double murder appeared before the investigating judge pending their trial after the investigation was finalized.

    Suspects involved in terror crimes typically receive sentences ranging from 10 and 20 years in prison.”

  6. Moroccan Court Charges Salafi Abdelhamid Abounaim for Inciting Violence (moroccoworldnews, Jan 4, 2019)
    https://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2019/01/262454/moroccan-salafi-abdelhamid-abounaim-violence/

    “The Court of First Instance in Ain Sebaa, Casablanca, adjourned the hearing of Salafi Sheikh Abdelhamid Abounaim, suspected of inciting murder, on Thursday, until January 24.

    The Central Bureau of Judicial Investigation (BCIJ) heard Abdelhamid Abounaim, who was charged with terrorism, making death threats and apostasy charges, before bringing the case to the Casablanca court.

    Abounaim called Moroccan activist Ahmed Assid an “apostate” after Assid said that verses of the Qur’an regarding armed jihad do not apply to modern times.

    “We are against terrorism, subversion, and corruption,” Abounaim said in a Facebook video showing him leaving the court. “The greatest wrong is insulting the prophet, the sharia, and attacking religion.

    The Casablanca Court of First Instance ruled in 2017 in favor of Abounaim in a case against 2M channel, after he described the Moroccan channel as “the devil.” A court handed Abounaim a suspended one-month jail sentence in 2014 for accusing politician Driss Lachgar of apostasy after he called for a ban on polygamy.”

  7. Pakistan’s decision to declare Gulen group a banned outfit pleases Erdogan (tribune, Jan 4, 2019)
    https://tribune.com.pk/story/1881563/1-expecting-turkish-cooperation-economy-areas-pm-imran/

    “Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday expressed his pleasure over the Supreme Court of Pakistan’s decision of declaring Pak-Turk Education Foundation – a group backed by Fethullah Gulen – a banned outfit.

    The apex court had ordered to hand over custody of all 28 Pak-Turk schools in Pakistan to the Turkiye Maarif Foundation (TMF) last month.

    Addressing a joint press conference in Ankara with Prime Minister Imran Khan, who is on two day visit to Turkey, President Erdogan lauded the leadership role of PM Imran in the world of cricket.

    He said transfer of Pak-Turk schools to the TMF was a great example of strong relationships between the two countries. He thanked the people and government of Pakistan for that gesture…”

  8. 2 Turkish students found killed in Ukraine (hurriyetdailynews, Jan 4, 2019)
    http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/2-turkish-students-found-killed-in-ukraine-140265

    “Two Turkish female university students, aged 20 and 22, have been found killed in their apartment in Ukraine’s northeastern city of Kharkiv.

    The bodies of Buket Y?ld?z and Zeynep Hüsünbeyi were discovered on Jan. 3 after one of the victims’ friends went to the police after failing to reach them.

    Their friends said the last time they heard from them was on Dec. 31, 2018.

    Following the friend’s complaint, police found both women dead in their apartment.

    The findings of an initial examination revealed that the students’ throats were cut and both were stabbed multiple times.

    The apartment’s entrance door was not forced, the police said, leading to the possibility that the murderer was an acquaintance.

    A probable suspect is the ex-boyfriend of one of the women, who is also a Turkish citizen, Ukrainian authorities have said.

    The investigation unveiled that the victim was complaining to her family about how her ex-boyfriend was stalking her…”

    • I wish the China Uncensored team would cover some other Formosan culinary delights and the establishments that serve them. Like:

      Shu Hai Fu Long (The Dragon that Swims in Four Oceans)

      House specialty: A combination guo ti and gyoza “pot sticker”. In 2001 they were five or ten for a dollar. Forearmed, I had brought my La Yu fire (toasted sesame and chili) oil with me from the states. Several drops of this into a teacup of soy sauce and the dipping frenzy was set to begin.

      All that remained were sufficiently chilled quantities of the precious amber fluid (which SHFL doesn’t sell). Not to worry. Just trot across the street to your corner 7-11 and snag a quart bottle of excellent Taiwan beer. With the soup appetizer drained and somewhere about around six or eight frogskins later, you’re out the door and waddling ever-so-slightly.

      Of Sea and Sky (Asian Buffet)

      While their sushi and Chinese offerings were mediocre at best, this eatery had one particularly distinguishing feature. Out in the main dining area was a strategically positioned self-serve tapper of San Miguel lager, one of Asia’s best.

      The house specialty was cho dofu, a sort of fermented tofu whose aroma could only be compared to a full diaper. Despite numerous assurances that it tasted better than it smelled (something almost unimaginable to me), even this adventurous diner had to take a pass. I guess that this wouldn’t be the best time to mention the establishment’s pit toilets. Essentially, a shower stall with handrails, also known as a “Turkish toilet” in Middle Europe.

      But the beer was real, real good…

      Then there was this quaint little family resto in Taoyuan that had some of the finest Chinese food I’ve ever tasted.

      Happy Mouth (Traditional Chinese Cooking)

      This humble place had the sort of menu a blind man could order from and walk away happy. You couldn’t make a bad choice there. Everything was delicious and modestly priced.

      Shrimp Omelet: Fluffy eggs dotted with fresh peas and folded around just-peeled, small succulent prawns.

      Tangerine Pork: This was sweet and sour pork with a PhD. It took me years to figure out that the sauce required heavy reduction and relied upon a tight balance between fresh Mandarin citrus juice and lightly seasoned chicken stock to get the requisite acid–sugar harmony.

      If I had another hour, I’d tell you all about musical garbage trucks and this would close with the tale of Arthur and Ann, a pair of soon-to-be-marrieds who insisted that I join them and friends during my last lunch at Happy Mouth. Out of the blue, they invited me to accompany them as they sampled prospective wedding cakes.

      Taiwanese wedding cakes are a wee bit different in that they are small and individually mailed to those being invited as a sort of prelude to the real celebration. If you’re expecting traditional wedding cake flavors … just don’t. Try, wild mushroom and herbs, or red bean paste with pickled vegetables (the fruitcake from hell). The secret? Lots of tea. Lots and lots of tea.

      Then this pair of lovebirds took me to the old town sector’s woodworking district and one of the larger temples. It being “ghost month” when ancestral graves are spiffed up and offerings made, the temple’s doorway was almost totally obstructed by a table groaning with delicacies. This gweilo fried Arthur’s mind by observing how the spirits couldn’t possibly enter or exit the temple without having to wriggle past the feast.

      Dropping me off later at the transit center, so that I could return to my hotel, this charming pair bought me my return bus ticket and would not hear of being repaid for it.

      Fortunately, I’d studied Asian culture for years and knew well enough to buy one or two red envelopes on my way to the airport. Just in time for the wedding there arrived a gift of NT$200 ($60 USD) to pin on the bride’s dress.

      I suppose it might be wise to omit any sordid details about getting the trots from some dubious street food (duck heart skewers).

  9. French literary rebel Houellebecq releases ‘Serotonin,’ a novel that echoes ‘Yellow Vest’ protests (france24, Jan 4, 2019)
    https://www.france24.com/en/20190104-french-literary-rebel-michel-houellebecq-releases-novel-serotonin-yellow-vest-protests

    “Provocative French author Michel Houellebecq gives voice to the simmering anger behind the rural “Yellow Vest” revolt in his eagerly awaited, prophetic new novel which was published Friday to rave reviews.

    Houellebecq, a fierce eurosceptic, became a pin-up of the far right after his last book, “Submission”, which envisioned a France subject to sharia law after electing a Muslim president in 2022.

    The deeply depressed hero of his latest book “Serotonin” is an agricultural engineer who returns to his roots in a provincial France devastated by globalisation and European agricultural policies.

    He finds a resentful rural populace who are “virtually dead” yet ripe for rebellion and who rise up to block motorways, much as the “Yellow Vest” movement has done for real since late November.

    Houellebecq’s seventh novel, written long before protesters in high-visibility vests began barricading roads to protest against President Emmanuel Macron, has been hailed by critics as one of his best.

    Flammarion publishing house has issued a first print run of 320,000 copies for the French language edition — 64 times that of the average novel.

    The book, which will be published in German, Spanish and Italian next week, comes out in English in September.

    The 62-year-old author shot to worldwide fame with nihilistic novels depicting misogynistic men trapped in loveless existences and hooked on casual sex.

    The theme of Western decline runs throughout his work and his latest book is no exception.

    In “Serotonin”, Houellebecq who was awarded the Legion of Honour on January 1 for his services to French literature, rails against politicians who “do not fight for the interests of their people but are ready to die to defend free trade”.

    His hero — a typically Houellebecqian narrator called Florent-Claude Labrouste who is a thinly veiled cipher for the author — also blames feminism for what he sees as the West’s demise.

    “This is how a civilisation dies, without dangers or drama and very little carnage,” says Labrouste, a 46-year-old “dying of sadness” whose Japanese partner hates him and whose career is all but over.

    In his native Normandy, where he goes in search of his ex-wife who left him when he slept with another woman, Labrouste finds factory workers being laid off and failing farmers committing suicide.

    He says at one point that what is happening in France is a huge hidden plan to clear the countryside “to meet European levels… people are disappearing without ever making headlines”.

    France’s L’Obs magazine has called “Serotonin” — a reference to the antidepressant the narrator takes — Houellebecq’s best book, “a beautiful work of infinite sadness”.

    Germany’s Die Zeit weekly said it had long seen the “anti-liberal convictions of France’s greatest living author as a literary device”.

    “Now, he must be taken seriously,” it wrote.

    Catholic nostalgia

    Houellebecq revels in his role as literary arch-provocateur.

    In October he raised eyebrows by presenting the Oswald Spengler prize, named after the German fascist philosopher who wrote “The Decline of the West”.

    At the ceremony he said France should leave the euro, that “Muslims were a problem” in Europe, and it would be better if “the Catholic Church were back on top”.

    In a recent essay in Harper’s Magazine, a New York-based monthly, he praised US President Donald Trump for his protectionist trade policies, calling him “one of the best American presidents”.

    His last book “Submission” came out on the same day in January 2015 that jihadists attacked the Paris offices of Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine, killing 12 people, including a close friend of Houellebecq.

    It immediately shot to the top of the bestseller list, selling nearly 800,000 copies in French and over half a million in German.

    In September, the author who has written that “love makes one weak”, married Qianyum Lysis Li, a woman of Chinese origin 20 years his junior.”

    • “His hero — a typically Houellebecqian narrator called Florent-Claude Labrouste who is a thinly veiled cipher for the author — also blames feminism for what he sees as the West’s demise.

      “This is how a civilisation dies, without dangers or drama and very little carnage,” says Labrouste, a 46-year-old “dying of sadness” whose Japanese partner hates him and whose career is all but over.

      In his native Normandy, where he goes in search of his ex-wife who left him when he slept with another woman, Labrouste finds factory workers being laid off and failing farmers committing suicide.”

      This hero is a piece of garbage.

      Of course he blames Feminism and Free Trade – because he can’t load the dice own way.

      • • “dying of sadness”
        • France’s greatest living author
        awarded the Legion of Honour on January 1 for his services to French literature

        A question I ask periodically:
        Have we reached peak decadence yet?

      • The French in France are best suited for guttersniping. The French Dystopian for telling us what we owe them.

  10. LONDON BLOODBATH: Horrific Barking attack leaves man with brutal slash wounds to the face (express, Jan 4, 2019)
    https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1067499/london-crime-london-stabbing-barking-stabbing-barking-police-man-injured

    “A BRUTAL knife attack in Barking, London, left a man with serious “slash injuries” to the face on Friday night, police have confirmed.

    In a statement, Barking and Dagenham police said: “Police are on scene at the Barking Dog Public House, Station Parade, Barking where a male has sustained slash injuries to his face following an assault with a knife. He is being assessed by London Ambulance Clinicians Response Unit. The suspect has been arrested.

    “A crime scene is in place.

    “Enquiries continue.”

    Scotland Yard said that Police were called at 9.50pm to reports of a fight on Wakering Road, within the vicinity of the Barking Dog pub.

    The suspect was arrested on suspicion of causing grievous bodily harm.

    A Met Police spokesman said: “Police were called at 9.50pm on Friday, 4 January to reports of a fight on Wakering Road at the junction with Station Parade in Barking.

    “Officers attended and found a man suffering from slash injuries.

    “He was treated by the London Ambulance Service.

    “One man has been arrested on suspicion of causing grievous bodily harm.”

    The Barking Dog pub is a popular Wetherspoons establishment that attracts scores of punters every night.

    More to follow…”

  11. DAILY MAIL – Man is accused of raping a goat in Malawi (though he claims he asked the animal’s permission first)

    Kennedy Kambani, 21, allegedly caught having sex with goat in Malawi, Africa
    Kambani was captured and taken to a police station and charged with bestiality
    He claimed he had asked the animal’s permission first to have sex with it

    A man has been accused of raping a goat in a field – after asking it permission for the vile act.

    The animal’s owner initially suspected Kennedy Kambani was trying to steal the goat.

    But when he returned with neighbours to nab the 21-year-old they caught him having sex with the creature in Malawi, Africa, he told police.

    Police Inspector Lubrino Kaitano said: ‘The owner Mr. Pemphero Mwakhulika thought Kambani was stealing it.

    ‘So he alerted the people.

    ‘When they arrived at the scene they were shocked to see him having sexual intercourse with the goat.’

    Kambani was apprehended and taken to a police station and charged with bestiality.

    He reportedly claimed he had asked the animal’s permission first to have sex with it.

    The goat had been part of a grazing flock on the outskirts of Mchinji.

    The gender of the goat has not been disclosed.

    Last November, in neighbouring Zambia, sicko Reuben Mwaba, 22, was caged for 15 years hard labour after he was caught naked raping his pal’s pregnant goat in Kasama.

    And earlier the same month twisted brickie Feselani Mcube, 33, was convicted of raping his neighbour’s pregnant goat in his bed in Winterveldt, South Africa.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6556363/Man-accused-raping-goat-Malawi-claims-asked-animals-permission-first.html

    • !! The gender of the goat has not been disclosed.
      !!

      “If one commits an act of sodomy with a cow, a ewe, or a camel, their urine and their excrements become impure, and even their milk may no longer be consumed. The animal must then be killed as quickly as possible and burned, and the price of it paid to its owner by him who sodomized it.”
      – Ayatollah Khomeini

      The Little Green Book: Chpt 10, “On Eating and Drinking”. p. 25. (Bantam Books, 1985).

      • Thank you, yucki. Few people realize what an unlettered, backwater peasant Khomeini really was. Iran under the Peacock Throne was set to become one of the MME’s few success stories. Instead, it was dragged backwards a solid century.

  12. North Korea: Thousands rally in support of Kim Jong-un’s New Year speech in Pyongyang

    Tens of thousands of North Korean citizens, as well as senior regime officials, attended a mass rally in Pyongyang on Friday to demonstrate their support for the goals set out by the country’s leader Kim Jong-un in his New Year address.

    The event was held in the city’s vast Kim Il-sung Square and featured speeches from North Korean leaders encouraging support for the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea and its leader Kim Jong-un.

      • Show up and support Kim or die.

        Show up and support Kim or die slowly.

        There, fixed that.

        NOTE: Even denizens of VTB may be unaware of North Korea’s “three generations” policy.

        If you are unfortunate enough to be detained for dissident or subversive activities, it isn’t just you who gets to vacation at one of the government’s numerous day spas and recreational resorts (read: Death Camps). You, your parents, AND YOUR CHILDREN, get an all-expenses-paid trip to (barely) living hell.

        It’s just the ticket to ensure that adoring masses throng those otherwise empty sidewalks and enthusiastically cheer on yet another one of the Kim family’s masturbatory excesses.

        In this there is peculiar resonance between North Korea and the terrorist $h!thølés Islamic wonderlands they trade with and proliferate to:

        Both are perfectly happy with being adored by people who have been forcibly converted a figurative (if not real) gun to their head.

        This false sense of obviously contrived popularity is a principal driver for some of the most bloated, corrupt, and vicious police states that this world has ever seen. It makes the Nazi fackelparaden (torchlight parades) look like sincere, unprompted, outpourings of popular sentiment—which, sadly, way too many of them were.

  13. What is Being Taught at the “Islamic University of Europe” in the Netherlands?
    https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/13490/islamic-university-europe-netherlands

    A recent development in a two-year-old corruption scandal — involving the so-called “Islamic University of Europe” in the Netherlands — has renewed public interest in the institution, involving tax fraud.
    Its rector, professor Nedim Bahçekap?l?, has gone missing after Dutch prosecutors decided to arrest him as part of an investigation addressing the school’s “tax evasion of millions of Euros, corruption, and opening fraudulent classes.” The Dutch Ministry of Justice and Security said that the rector could not be found and is believed to have left the country.
    Less attention has been paid, however, to the dangerous course content of the Rotterdam-based school, which, in 2016, was stripped by the Dutch Parliament of its “university” status for financial reasons.
    [..]
    The school’s former rector, professor Ahmet Akgündüz, has been equally open. In 2013, it was reported that he called Erdogan’s opponents “enemies of Islam” and stated that stoning people to death is “one of the prescribed punishments within Islam.”
    Recently Akgündüz was in the Dutch news once again. On December 16, on the Islamist Akit TV, the former rector said that the Koran “considers it permissible to kill those who rebel against the state.”
    According to the news website Haberdar, what Akgündüz meant was that the members of the Fethullah Gülen movement, which the Turkish government accuses of organizing the coup attempt in 2016, may be killed.

  14. Another woman decapitad in Morocco! This time it’s a local woman:

    Police Arrest Man Suspected of Decapitating Moroccan Woman in Ifrane
    https://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2018/12/262014/police-man-decapitating-moroccan-woman-ifrane/

    The suspect is a 38-year-old shepherd in the forests of the Atlas Mountains. He reportedly disappeared suddenly after the crime. His personal connection to the victim, if any, remains unclear.
    The body of the 24-year-old Moroccan woman was found on December 28.
    The woman was a divorcee, mother of a 7-year-old daughter. She was living with her parents.

    • Police Arrest Man Suspected of Decapitating Moroccan Woman in Ifrane

      Monkey see … terrorist do.

  15. Radio-Canada parody mocking Trudeau’s India trip blasted as racist, ‘completely disrespectful’

    One critic said she was ‘appalled’ that a government-funded public broadcaster would be so careless with its depictions of Indian culture

    MONTREAL — A character playing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau takes a drag from a joint and is suddenly transported into a fantasy world where he is dressed in traditional Indian clothing as talking cows are knocked over by a gorilla with Donald Trump’s signature hair and red tie.

    The scene mocking the prime minister’s ill-fated trip to India last February was part of Radio-Canada’s annual end-of-year parody show, during which the national broadcaster satirizes the year’s newsmakers. Called “Bye bye,” the show draws millions of viewers New Year’s Eve and is considered the television event of the holiday season in Quebec.

    But this year the French arm of the CBC is on the defensive after a barrage of online criticism from people claiming the sketch was racist and made a mockery of Indian culture.

    “This video is completely disrespectful to our cultures. Kicking down cows, ‘imitating’ our dances. Not cool,” Ina Bhowmick, the founder and director of the Montreal cultural company Bollywood Blast, commented under the video on Radio-Canada’s Facebook page.

    “I’ve experienced a lot of ignorance and racism growing up,” another Facebook user, Maaha Khan, wrote. “However, I’ve never in my life been as <offended as I am after watching this video. (Congratulations) Radio-Canada for creating the most disgusting video of all time.”

    The “Bye bye” sketch was taking aim at Trudeau’s trip to India last February during which he came under criticism for his frequent wearing of traditional Indian clothing. The online publication Outlook India referred to his outfits as “too Indian even for an Indian.”

    Trudeau was also embarrassed during the visit after Jaspal Atwal — convicted of the 1986 attempted murder of an Indian cabinet minister on Vancouver Island in a plot organized by a Sikh separatist extremist group — was invited to two receptions.

    Aside from the talking cows — the animal is considered sacred in Hinduism — critics of the sketch targeted the scene in which the Trudeau character is seated and plays a flute as gasoline-pump hoses rise from baskets on either side of him.

    “Snake charming has a very ancient history, and this depiction was a mockery of them — they are traditional healers,” Bhowmick said in an interview Thursday.

    She said she was “appalled” that a government-funded public broadcaster would be so careless with its depictions of Indian culture. Bhowmick added the French CBC’s response to the criticism made matters worse, and she is considering filing an official complaint.

    Radio-Canada posted the sketch on its Facebook page Jan. 1, and it has received more than 68,000 views and hundreds of reactions. In addition to the criticism, there have been comments from people wondering what the fuss was all about.

    The broadcaster said its intention “was in no way to disrespect the Indian community or Indian traditions or culture.” Writing on Facebook, it said the creators of the skit “were poking fun at Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his apparent fondness for superficially ’embracing’ traditional Indian culture via his clothes and, of course, his dancing to traditional Indian music in February.”

    Bhowmick said the response ignores the impact of the spoof on Indo-Canadians. “If there are so many of us who are not feeling good about this, then there must be a legitimate reason, and the trick is to listen,” she said.

    She also said she didn’t understand why so many pundits in Canada ridiculed Trudeau and his family for wearing traditional Indian clothing during last February’s visit to the country. The prime minister’s Montreal riding comprises a significant Indian-Canadian population, she said, and Trudeau has for years attended events in the community, sometimes wearing traditional clothing.

    While Radio-Canada’s sketch was an example of cultural appropriation, Trudeau’s traditional dress is not, she said.

    “There is a difference between appropriation and appreciation,” Bhowmick said.

    The Prime Minister’s Office had “no comment” on the controversy, a spokesperson said Thursday.

    https://nationalpost.com/news/politics/radio-canada-accused-of-racism-for-parody-mocking-pms-india-trip

      • Effing brilliant, Martin. Thank you!

        Too bad, so sad that, from the looks of it, “Indo-Canadians” seem to be a bunch of unperceptive, humorless twits—a ridiculously successful formula nowadays.

        These whinging fools appear incapable of grasping how all of the ridiculously offensive, iconoclastic portrayals are entirely within the addled, vacuous skull of Justine Trudeau.

        In their rush to play the race card take instantaneous offense, these hopelessly non-assimilating, high-context habitues and economic tourists “immigrants” simply cannot reach past their own patiently exposed nerve endings and take a farking joke purchase a clue about how the West delightedly skewers its own haughty mannequins d’épée.

  16. Turkey Asks US for Support in Syria to Take Over Fight Against Daesh – Reports (sputniknews, Jan 5, 2019)
    https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201901051071231164-usa-turkey-syria-daesh-fight-support/

    “Turkey has asked the United States to provide military support so that Ankara can take over the responsibility of fighting the Daesh terror group in Syria, media reported on Friday.

    The Turkish government is requesting that the United States provide military support, including air strikes, transport and logistics, so that it can take on the responsibility of fighting the Daesh in Syria, the Wall Street Journal reported citing senior US officials…”