The EU should be stronger and more united. Great Britain should belong to the Union.
Die EU sollte stärker und geeinter sein. Großbritannien sollte der Union angehören.
L'UE devrait être plus forte et plus unie. La Grande-Bretagne devrait appartenir à l'Union.
Wednesday, August 04, 2010
Thirty US Billionaires Pledge to Give Away Half Their Fortunes to Charity
THE GUARDIAN: Bill Gates's and Warren Buffett's campaign draws in top names including George Lucas and Michael Bloomberg
Bill and Melinda Gates with Warren Buffett (right), who has decided to give away most of his fortune. Photograph: The Guardian
The world of philanthropy got a huge financial boost today as more than 30 American billionaires pledged to give away at least half of their fortunes to charitable causes, signing up to a campaign launched by Warren Buffett and Bill Gates.
In an unprecedented mass commitment, top figures including New York's mayor Michael Bloomberg, the hotel heir Barron Hilton, CNN media mogul Ted Turner, and the Star Wars director George Lucas lent their names to the "giving pledge", an initiative founded last month to encourage America's richest families to commit money to "society's most pressing problems".
The pledge is not a legally binding contract but is described as a moral commitment. Buffett, the legendary Nebraska-based financier known as the "sage of Omaha", welcomed the influx of support: "At its core, the giving pledge is about asking wealthy families to have important conversations about their wealth and how it will be used. We're delighted that so many people are doing that." >>> Andrew Clark in New York | Wednesday, August 04, 2010
CANADA FREE PRESS: Words are tricky things. Virtually every tyrant, no matter how bloody, has talked about his plans for conquest in terms of “peace”. For example in 1939, Nazi Germany and the USSR signed a declaration in which they described their conquest of Poland as creating “a sure foundation for a lasting peace in Eastern Europe”. The same year that Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait, he delivered a speech at the Amman Summit in which he insisted that; “the Arabs seek peace and justice throughout the world”. And how can one argue with peace?
The Romans had the Pax Romana, which meant peace under Roman dominion. The “peace” that Hitler, Stalin and Saddam had in mind, was of that same nature. Dictators and tyrannies, national or ideological, frame the world as chaotic and requiring order. Only under their leadership and only their way will the world finally experience peace.
When Lenin stated that; “without overthrowing capital it is impossible to end the war by a truly democratic peace”, he was laying out the same basic thesis of every tyrant, and of Islam as well. That there can be no “true peace”, without the creation of a society that follows his ideology. For Lenin, everyone had to submit to Communism. For Hitler, to Nazism. For Mohammed, to Islam. Each spoke about peace, but they defined peace only in terms of their own ideology and rule.
When apologists insist that Islam is a religion of peace, they are correct. Insofar as it believes in peace through conquest, and its intended state of peace is to reduce non-Muslims to second class status. But since Islam is global and it recognizes no limit to its borders—its form of “peace” is to engage in constant wars to conquer the territory of non-Muslims and Muslims whose legitimacy they do not recognize in order to achieve “peace”.
Islam’s peace has as much in common with what most people think of as peace, as Hitler and Stalin’s assurance that they had laid a foundation for a lasting peace, by conquering Poland does with reality. Islam’s peace, like Hitler’s peace, was and is an expression of a Will to Power, a belief that the world would not be right without Mohammed or Adolf, or their followers running it. >>>Daniel Greenfield | Wednesday, August 04, 2010
Nihad Awad Doesn’t CAIR! – Ground Zero Mosque Sensitivities
No Words Can Ease the Heartache of Ground Zero “Mega Mosque”
CANADA FREE PRESS: There’s a pox on your house, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf and your Mrs.[,] Daisy Khan. And it’s a pox that will long outlast the in-your-face insult of the intent to celebrate the groundbreaking of your mosque at Ground Zero on Sept. 11, 2011.
Rauf and Khan mimic the dialectic of the cunning Marxists now running America. But then again radical Islam and Marxism go hand in hand.
Mealy mouthed politicians like Mayor Michael Bloomberg never own up to cowardice, filthy lucre or political power by allowing a “mega mosque” to arise from the ashes of Ground Zero. Instead they describe 9-0 votes from their Landmarks Preservation Commission as being “an important test of the separation of church and state”.
Your honeyed, hackneyed words of “peace”, Imam Rauf are about as meaningful as President Barack Obama’s, who told those who had lost loved ones on September 11, 2001 at last year’s eighth anniversary, “No words can ease the ache of your hearts.” In any faith, interfaith or otherwise, actions always speak louder than words.
Obama was nowhere around to ease the hearts of the walking wounded yesterday. Instead he was preparing to go to Chicago where he will celebrate his 49th birthday, making some of us who still dare to think wonder whether America’s most pro-Islamist Mayor was giving America’s most pro-Islamist President a birthday present by green-lighting your ABC News-described “Islamic community center, including a prayer room”.
ABC and the mainstream media have been ever so snide in their reportage on the mosque that could not possibly be built anywhere in the entire Big Apple but in a place that would tower over terrorism’s killing field of 2,752 innocents.
But the courageous Pamela Geller of AtlasShrugs had already pointed out that Imam Rauf is no ordinary Imam, but the one who has refused to classify Hamas as a terrorist group and the one who has said that U.S. foreign policy was an “accessory” to the Sept. 11 attacks. >>> Judi McLeod | Wednesday, August 04, 2010
Landmark Commission Votes on Status of 45-47 Park Place
Ground Zero Mosque: The Lethal Letter of the Law
GATES OF VIENNA: Fox News has reported that the New York City Landmarks and Preservation Commission has voted against granting “landmark status” to the building near Ground Zero which Muslims have chosen to plant their so-called Cordoba Mosque Initiative.
The news didn’t come as a surprise, but it is deeply wounding nonetheless. In fact, even after all these months it's hard to grasp the idea that this nightmare could become a reality.
If they actually were what they claim - i.e., “moderates”, they’d be sensitive enough to know that putting a mosque in that spot makes a mockery of the very notion of “moderation”. There is nothing moderate about building a triumphal edifice to Islam on the graveyard of three thousand people who were brutally slaughtered solely by Muslims.
These innocent souls were incinerated, or asphyxiated, or jumped to their deaths on September 11th, 2001. They all died horribly and Ground Zero is their cemetery. No amount of Kumbayah and toxic tolerance can make those ashes disappear or bring back all those mothers and fathers and sons and daughters.
How dare the blunted human beings pushing for their “initiative” be permitted to erect this sacrilege? They can proclaim their innocence all they want to the Western press (who will eat it up), but Muslims in other countries read their message loud and clear: the killers of 9/11 have triumphed. Continue reading and comment >>> Dymphna | Wednesday, August 04, 2010
From The Koran. Image: Google Images
Islamic Police Smash 80,000 Beer Bottles in Nigeria
YAHOO! NEWS: KANO, Nigeria – Islamic police smashed 80,000 bottles of beer in the Nigerian city of Kano on Tuesday to enforce a sharia law ban on consumption of alcohol that exists in much of the country's north.
Over a dozen veiled female sharia police, called Hisbah, destroyed the beer bottles with sticks amid shouts of "Allahu Akbar" (God is Great) on the outskirts of the northern city in a ceremony.
The ceremony was attended by government officials as part of "efforts to rid the state of immorality," said Kano state Hisbah chief Saidu Dukawa. Kano city is the capital of the state by the same name.
"The sale and consumption of alcohol, like all forms of drugs and intoxicants, is illegal in Kano state, which practices sharia law and by this event we are enforcing that ban," Dukawa told AFP. >>> AFP | Tuesday, August 03, 2010
Levi Johnston and Bristol Palin. Photos: People.com
Bristol Palin to Levi Johnston: 'It's Over'
PEOPLE.COM: And just like that, they were off again. "It's over. I broke up with him," Bristol Palin tells PEOPLE exclusively of her second try at an engagement to Levi Johnston, father of her 19-month-old son Tripp.
Palin, 19, says the relationship soured on July 14, the very same day they announced their marriage intentions to the world. Palin says he told her that evening he might have fathered a baby with another teenage girl. (Palin did not name the young woman, but a pregnant former girlfriend of Johnston's has since publicly denied his paternity.)
In an emotional phone interview with PEOPLE, Palin spoke through tears about feeling heartbroken, humiliated and trapped – while Johnston acted cool. "There's been no remorse," she says, adding that she's seen him only once in the past three weeks.
"The final straw was him flying to Hollywood for what he told me was to see some hunting show but come to find out it was that music video mocking my family," she says. "He's just obsessed with the limelight and I got played." Continue reading and comment >>> Sandra Sobieraj Westfall | Tuesday, August 03, 2010
The plague outbreak is close to Chicama beach, a popular draw for tourists to Peru. Photo: The Telegraph
Peru Suffers Deadly Outbreak of Bubonic and Pneumonic Plague
THE TELEGRAPH: An outbreak of bubonic and pneumonic plague in Peru has killed a 14-year-old boy and infected at least 31 people in a northern coastal province.
Oscar Ugarte, the health minister, said authorities were screening sugar and fish meal exports from Ascope province, located about 325 miles north-west of Lima.
Chicama beach, a popular draw for tourists to Peru, is not far away.
Mr Ugarte said the boy, who had Down syndrome, died of bubonic plague on July 26.
He said on Monday that most of the infections were bubonic plague, with four cases of pneumonic plague. >>> | Tuesday, August 03, 2010
Video Shows French Police Dragging Pregnant Women and Children Along Ground
THE TELEGRAPH: A video showing an immigrant pregnant women and children being dragged along the ground by police has provoked outrage across France.
The footage – which shows the officers trying to get rid of African squatters from a Paris housing estate – shows at least one woman fainting and young children screaming.
All were being targeted by officers from the elite CRS riot squad, who were armed and wearing body armour.
No female police were involved, and there was no medical assistance on hand.
The emergence of the video, filmed on July 21st, comes at the worst possible time for French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
He is currently trying to get rid of thousands of unwanted immigrants to his country, including gipsies and foreign criminals.
Mr Sarkozy has always been a firm believer in tough policing. >>> Peter Allen in Paris | Monday, August 02, 2010
Customers queue good-naturedly at a branch of the Trustee Savings Bank in 1956. Photo: The Telegraph
British No Longer Willing to Queue
THE TELEGRAPH: Queuing, along with warm beer and afternoon tea, was once a quintessential British trait. But it would seem we are no longer prepared to wait in line.
Two minutes is the longest many British consumers are prepared to queue, down from five minutes just six years ago.
Two-thirds of us have walked away from buying something in a shop because we were so fed up with queuing, the survey also found.
Queuing patiently was once considered a typically British trait, fostered during the era of rationing. It was deemed a sign of civility that consumers were prepared to wait a long time, sometimes only to discover the shop had run out of butter or meat.
British buses, with only one place to hop on, are also believed to be a key reason why we have been more prepared to queue than our European cousins – where the predominant form of public transport was the tram, with multiple doors, which discouraged the single, disciplined line. >>> Harry Wallop, Consumer Affairs Editor | Wednesday, August 04, 2010
Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Survives 'Assassination Attempt'
THE TELEGRAPH: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president, has survived a bomb attack on his convoy, according to reports.
Al Arabiya television said an attacker threw a bomb at Mr Ahmadinejad's convoy before being detained.
A home-made bomb exploded near the convoy, a source from the president's office told Reuters, but Mr Ahmadinejad, who was travelling from an airport in the western city of Hamadan to give a speech in a sports arena, was unharmed. >>> | Wednesday, August 04, 2010
SCHWEIZER FERNSEHEN: An der libanesisch-israelischen Grenze kam es zu einem Feuergefecht, bei dem vier Menschen getötet wurden. Einschätzungen von Bernhard Lichte, ZDF-Korrespondent, in Tel Aviv
Helmut Schmidt vergleicht Obama mit Hitler
Indonesien: Sex-Schock im Parlaments-TV
BILD: Porno statt Politik! Indonesische Abgeordneten und Journalisten bekamen am Montag in Jakarta so richtig eingeheizt. Grund: Das Parlaments-TV zeigte nicht die angekündigte Politik-Debatte, sondern einen Sex-Film!
UND DAS AUSGERECHNET IM MUSLIMISCHEN INDONESIEN!
Üblicherweise sind auf den Monitoren die Tagesordnung des Parlaments und andere politische Informationen für Besucher zu sehen. Doch am Montag offensichtlich nicht! >>> | Dienstag, 03. August 2010
Fox News: The Islamification of Europe
Mark Steyn: The End of the World as We Know It
Pat Condell: Freedom Is My Religion
Mosque Near 9/11 Site Likely to Go Ahead Despite Rightwing Fury*
The proposed site of the Islamic community centre to be operated by a group called the Cordoba Initiative. Photograph: The Guardian
THE GUARDIAN: A plan to build a mosque and a Muslim community centre within two blocks of Ground Zero cleared a major hurdle today amid an intensifying groundswell of opposition from rightwing pundits and politicians.
The $100m project would see a 13-storey centre, replete with prayer space, swimming pool and restaurant, rise in Park Place, just north of the World Trade Centre where al-Qaida terrorists struck on 11 September 2001.
Opponents turned to the Landmarks Commission of New York City, that has the power to order the preservation of historic buildings, in the hope that it would put a stop to the plans by blocking the demolition of the existing building on the site.
Today the commission unanimously declined to preserve the building, an 1850s Italianate structure that was damaged on 9/11 and has been disused ever since. It said there was nothing sufficiently distinguished about its design that earned it landmark status.
The decision removes an important possible barrier to the plans going ahead, though critics have vowed to continue their fight. A group of protesters were present at the commission vote, including one man carrying a banner that said: "No 9/11 victory mosque". >>> Ed Pilkington in New York | Tuesday, August 03, 2010
Sharif El-Gamal, chief executive of SoHo Properties, the developer of the project, center, praised the commission’s decision. Photograph: The New York Times
THE NEW YORK TIMES: After a protracted battle that set off a national debate over freedom of religion, a Muslim center and mosque to be built two blocks from ground zero surmounted a final hurdle on Tuesday.
The city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission voted 9 to 0 against granting historic protection to the building at 45-47 Park Place in Lower Manhattan, where the $100 million center would be built.
That decision clears the way for the construction of Park51, a tower of as many as 15 stories that will house a mosque, a 500-seat auditorium, and a pool. Its leaders say it will be modeled on the Y.M.C.A. and Jewish Community Center in Manhattan.
The vote on Tuesday was free of much of the vitriol that had been part of previous hearings. One by one, members of the commission debated the aesthetic significance of the building, designed in the Italian Renaissance Palazzo style by an unknown architect.
Later in the day, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg*, who has forcefully defended the planned mosque, praised the landmarks commission’s vote. >>> Javier C. Hernandez | Tuesday, August 03, 2010
Music Fails to Chime with Islamic Values, Says Iran's Supreme Leader
THE GUARDIAN: Ayatollah Ali Khamenei claims the promotion and teaching of the artform is not compatible with country's sacred regime
Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said today that music is "not compatible" with the values of the Islamic republic, and should not be practised or taught in the country.
In some of the most extreme comments by a senior regime figure since the 1979 revolution, Khamenei said: "Although music is halal, promoting and teaching it is not compatible with the highest values of the sacred regime of the Islamic Republic."
Khamenei's comments came in response to a request for a ruling by a 21-year-old follower of his, who was thinking of starting music lessons, but wanted to know if they were acceptable according to Islam, the semi-official Fars news agency reported. "It's better that our dear youth spend their valuable time in learning science and essential and useful skills and fill their time with sport and healthy recreations instead of music," he said.
Unlike other clerics in Iran, whose religious rulings are practised by their own followers, Khamenei's views are interpreted as administrative orders for the whole country, which must be obeyed by the government. Last month Khamenei issued a controversial fatwa in which he likened his leadership to that of the Prophet Muhammad and obliged all Iranians to obey his orders. >>> Saeed Kamali Dehghan | Monday, August 02, 2010
