Archive for September, 2024
14th September 2024
Gothamist.
Police shot and killed a man inside a Brooklyn apartment on Friday evening whom they said they were seeking in connection with three recent homicides. The incident marks the 12th fatal NYPD shooting this year, according to data tracked by Gothamist.
Police identified the man as 38-year-old Vilmond Jean Baptiste and said officers fatally shot him just before 5:30 p.m. at 485 East 21st St. in Flatbush. Members of the NYPD’s fugitive enforcement unit arrived at the apartment with an open-bench warrant for Baptiste, according to officials. When police entered the apartment, they found Baptiste in a bathtub fully dressed in a hoodie, the NYPD said.
Officers instructed Baptiste to get out of the bathtub when they saw he was holding a knife, Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey said at a press conference on Friday night. They told him to drop the knife but he did not comply, according to Maddrey.
A sergeant at the scene tried to deploy his Taser to immobilize Baptise, but the effort did not work, Maddrey said. He said Baptiste at that point “jumped out of the tub and advanced on the officers.”
That will get you shot in most places. Stupidity is generally a capital crime. Think of it as evolution in action.
This story is, in itself, worth very little. People gather in cities; among those who gather are crazy people; crazy people often do crazy things; sometimes those crazy things get them shot by police.
I suspect, from the victim’s name and the location of the shooting, that he was Haitian. Of course, in these Woke times, any inquiry into the background of an alleged criminal, much less any revelation of that knowledge to the reading public, is Not Allowed if said alleged criminal is a member (or perceived member) of one of the plethora of Fashionable Victim Groups that hand-wringers just love to wring their hands about.
And, of course, crowds of Activists gather when such things occur, not because they’re just the traditional rubberneckers that customarily gather whenever something unusual occurs among the People Gathered In Cities, but because Activists are always on the hunt for things to be Activist about, such as a member of a Fashionable Victim Group getting inconvenienced (properly or not) by any Minions Of The Man, even when The Man and his (her? its?) minions are also members of a similar Fashionable Victim Group.
I predict that there will be Activists flocking to cameras, TV and Influencer, to decry a member of a Fashionable Victim Group being inconvenienced (properly or not), because that’s what Activists do. It doesn’t matter whether he was guilty or innocent–what matters is to what Political Tribe he can be useful.
Feh.
Posted in Dystopia Watch | Comments Off on NYPD Fatally Shoots Man Who Approached Officers With Knife in Brooklyn Apartment, Police Say
14th September 2024
The Register.
(Reminder: Yoda’s first language is Latin. The Reg is just bad at translating Latin.)
The Open Source Initiative (OSI) and its allies are getting closer to a definition of open source AI. If all goes well, Stefano Maffulli, the OSI’s executive director, expects to announce the OSI open source AI definition at All Things Open in late October. But some open source leaders already want nothing to do with it.
Let’s start with some background. Lots of companies – I’m looking at you, Meta – have been claiming that their AI models are open source. They’re not. They’re not even close.
So the OSI and a host of other companies and groups have been working on creating a comprehensive open source AI definition. After all, the OSI is the same organization that defines open source software with the Open Source Definition.
Posted in Dystopia Watch | Comments Off on Begun, the Open Source AI Wars Have
14th September 2024
Financial Times.
‘Loophole’ is Crust-speak for ‘Do what I want, not what I say’.
The Biden administration is moving to close a trade loophole used by platforms like Temu, Shein and AliExpress to flood the US with cheap Chinese products.
The China-founded ecommerce groups have supercharged their growth by shipping cheap packages direct to American consumers by air and claiming what is known as the de minimis exemption to skip paying import tariffs on the shipments.
But the White House on Friday proposed new rules that would exclude a wide array of goods from being able to claim the exemptions, which extends to shipments of less than $800 in value. The proposed regulations will also make claiming duty free status more complex.
If you try to follow the rules, they will change the rules on you, which means that there actually are no rules, just the will of our lords and masters.
The difference between a dictatorship and a democracy is that a dictator’s whims have limits.
Posted in Your tax dollars at work - and play. | Comments Off on US Targets Trade Loophole Used by Ecommerce Groups Temu and Shein
14th September 2024
CNN.
The two NASA astronauts who piloted the first crewed test flight of Boeing’s Starliner capsule — and were left behind on the space station as the beleaguered spacecraft returned to Earth — took questions on Friday for the first time in weeks.
Butch Wilmore, a Tennessee native and former Navy test pilot, said during the conversation that he and crewmate Suni Williams were “very fortunate” to have the ability to stay on the International Space Station a few more months and come home using a back-up option: hitching a ride on a SpaceX-made Crew Dragon vehicle.
“There’s many cases in the past where there have not been other options,” Wilmore said.
Posted in Think about it. | Comments Off on Boeing Starliner Astronaut: ‘We Found Some Things That We Just Could Not Get Comfortable With’
14th September 2024
You’ll be glad you did.
Posted in Think about it. | Comments Off on Thought for the Day
14th September 2024
Read it.
Although the media and newspapers are completely under government control in Iran, Wikipedia is not filtered at all. This is due to the extensive use of manipulation and censorship of Wikipedia content both domestically and internationally. It is not cost-effective for them to filter it.
Wikipedia as a whole is biased politically toward Wokeness. It ought to come as no surprise that the Iranian regime takes advantage of the double-think affection of the Woke toward hard-line Islam.
Posted in Living with Islam. | Comments Off on Iranian Regime Impacts Persian Wikipedia by Manipulation, Censorship
14th September 2024
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Researchers from the Sonia & Marco Nadler Institute of Archaeology at Tel Aviv University have used a range of modern technologies, including drones, remote sensing, and 3D digital modeling, to generate the first objective, quantified analysis of the Roman siege system at Masada. Findings indicate that, contrary to the widespread myth, the Roman army’s siege of Masada in 73 CE lasted no more than a few weeks.
Posted in Think about it. | Comments Off on The Roman Siege of Masada Lasted Just a Few Weeks, Not Several Years, Say Archaeologists
14th September 2024
Nature.
A century ago, the world’s first ‘wilderness area’ was established in the Gila Mountains of southern New Mexico, by the forester Aldo Leopold. He wasn’t concerned with preserving ancient wildlands or resurrecting a memory of the Pleistocene epoch. He wanted hunters to be able to take a two-week backpacking trip without encountering a road. Out of such pragmatic sentiments — and decades before the US Congress offered protections — grew a system of more than 800 wilderness areas on federal lands in the United States. Hundreds more have since sprung up worldwide.
The wilderness is widely seen as a place untrammelled by human activities. Not so, argues journalist Sophie Yeo in Nature’s Ghosts. Advocating lyrically for rebuilding a diverse natural world, she recognizes that, however wild a region might seem, human activities have left a mark in even the most isolated regions. People have been a part of nature as long as they’ve been around, coevolving with its ecosystems for millennia.
Posted in Axis of Drivel -- Adventures in Narrative Media | Comments Off on Fall of the Wild: Why Pristine Wilderness Is a Human-Made Myth
14th September 2024
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Nothing exposes the mythical thinking behind learned helplessness better than Stockholm syndrome: a diagnosis assigned to women who show affection for their captors, and a distrust of authority. It’s a classic throw-away line we use to describe the mental condition of domestic abuse victims, but it’s also a term that’s still taken seriously by some psychologists. ‘A classic example [of Stockholm syndrome] is domestic violence,’ says Oxford psychologist Jennifer Wild, ‘when someone – typically a woman – has a sense of dependency on her partner and stays with him.’
But Stockholm syndrome – a dubious pathology with no diagnostic criteria – is riddled with misogyny and founded on a lie. The psychiatrist who invented it, Nils Bejerot, never spoke to the woman he based it on, never bothered to ask her why she trusted her captors more than the authorities. More to the point, during the Swedish bank heist that inspired the syndrome, Bejerot was the psychiatrist leading the police response. He was the authority that Kristin Enmark – the first woman diagnosed with Stockholm syndrome – distrusted.
Posted in Think about it. | Comments Off on “Stockholm Syndrome” Was Invented by Police to Discredit a Female Hostage
13th September 2024
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The long-awaited European Vaccination Card (EVC) is finally here — the pilot project is about to be rolled out in five countries. What was considered a “conspiracy theory” a few years ago is now a publicly acknowledged fact.
The following video from The Netherlands discusses the implementation of the new digital vaccination card, more commonly known as a “vax passport”. As expected, it is being marketed for its “convenience”. Some of its notable features are:
- It can’t be falsified. Unlike the “yellow booklet”, it can’t be faked. Or, more accurately, it will be much harder to fake — you’ll have to pay a lot of money to a technically savvy accomplice (or a skilled hacker) to spoof a digital vaccine passport for you.
- It will be mandatory. It will no longer be optional; you will have to have an EVC if you want to travel. Yes, that violates the European Charter on the Fundamental Rights of the EU, but we don’t need no stinkin’ fundamental rights, do we?
- Vaccination records are just the beginning. The new passport will be expanded to include all health data, and will presumably eventually be merged with the Universal Digital ID.
- Centralized control is being removed from Brussels and transferred to the WHO. Like it or not, the UN is now in charge of the health of European citizens.
An American version will probably take a little longer to implement, but I’m certain the Powers That Be are working on it. It may take another “pandemic” to get the ball rolling. Or maybe a little bit of nuclear war, just to make sure.
Posted in Dystopia Watch | Comments Off on Papers, Please: “You No Longer Have the Right to Say No”
13th September 2024
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You may have seen the video of a Pro-Palestinian man who was arguing with some Pro-Israeli protesters in Massachusetts. He charges across the street and jumps one of the men from behind. In the ensuing scuffle, the attacked man pulls his pistol and shoots him in the stomach.
But wait, there’s more. The local DA has decided to charge the man who defended himself with crimes.
Posted in Democrats: Party of Fear--Party of Hate--Party of Death | Comments Off on Justice in America
13th September 2024
Navy Matters.
People keep wanting to believe that satellites can track every ship on the ocean in real time, with the data being tied directly to the launch buttons of anti-ship weapons. I keep refuting this idea but it persists. Here’s some relevant information on the subject from our space force.
Posted in Your tax dollars at work - and play. | Comments Off on Satellite Surveillance Reality
13th September 2024
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Irony–it’s not just for the Babylon Bee any more.
Posted in You can't make this stuff up. | Comments Off on UK Crime Minister Has Bag Stolen While Addressing Police Conference on Theft
13th September 2024
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Eleven months ago, Hamas murdered our daughter while she was dancing and celebrating life at a music festival in Re’im, Israel.
At 6:50 a.m. on Oct. 7, Gili messaged us that something was going on. She told us not to worry. More texts. Gunshots. She was hiding, warning friends to stay away from the area. At 9:14, she wrote: “Until now I wasn’t afraid. Now I’m scared.” By 9:35, we later learned, the terrorists found her. Within five minutes, they murdered Gili and nearly 30 other young people at point-blank range — a fraction of the 364 people who were killed at the festival.
The brutality with which Hamas murdered our Good Life Gili, our radiant, wonderful girl, at just 24 years old, echoes the evil of the recent execution of hostages Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Carmel Gat, Alexander Lobanov, Ori Danino, Eden Yerushalmi and Almog Sarusi. Five of these six beautiful souls were at the Nova music festival, like Gili. All of their families are processing the worst news of their lives.
Posted in Living with Islam. | Comments Off on Hamas Murdered Our Daughter. This Is What She’d Tell American Jews Right Now.
13th September 2024
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Swedish police have identified approximately 600 individuals engaged in organized crime aimed at Sweden from abroad, with some holding Swedish citizenship and operating from 57 different countries. According to the National Operational Department of the Swedish Police Authority (NOA), about 150 of these individuals are either in custody or internationally wanted.
“We have a serious and constantly evolving crime trend in Sweden where a large portion of crimes are ordered and directed from abroad. These individuals thus influence the crime we are now seeing in the country,” said Petra Lundh, National Police Commissioner.
The criminal actors have strategically positioned themselves internationally to boost their criminal activities and evade Swedish law enforcement. They are mainly involved in drug trafficking, violence, and money laundering, with additional crimes including arms trafficking and fraud.
No discussion of how many of these are not of Swedish extraction. I would guess, not many.
Getting rid of immigrants from non-European countries would seem like a no-brainer, but Swedish ‘authorities’ appear unable to do even that minimal effort.
Posted in Living with Islam. | Comments Off on Remote Control Crime? Gang Leaders Running Swedish Criminal Operations From Abroad
13th September 2024
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German authorities said Friday they had arrested a 27-year-old Syrian man planning an Islamist machete attack on army soldiers. The suspect had planned to attack Bundeswehr soldiers in Hof, northern Bavaria, during their lunch break, “aiming to kill as many of them as possible,” prosecutors in Munich said.
The Syrian, an “alleged follower of a radical Islamic ideology”, was arrested on Thursday on charges of planning “a serious act of violence endangering the state”.
The man had acquired two heavy knives “around 40 centimetres in length” in recent days, prosecutors said.”The accused wanted to attract attention and create a feeling of insecurity among the population,” they said.
Notice how news stories never refer to ‘Christianist attacks’ or ‘Judaist attacks’.
Posted in Living with Islam. | Comments Off on German Authorities Arrest Syrian Planning Islamist Attack on Soldiers
13th September 2024
Posted in Think about it. | Comments Off on Thought for the Day
13th September 2024
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Largely shedding Joe Biden’s canard that Trump must be defeated to save democracy, Kamala Harris’ conceit is that she prosecutes criminals and Donald Trump is one. “I know Donald Trump’s type,” she sneers.
As San Francisco district attorney and then California attorney general, Harris supported jailing parents of truants, suppressed evidence, keeping an innocent man on death row, repeatedly covered up misconduct, leading to the dismissal of more than 600 cases, incarcerated prisoners beyond their sentences, violated Federal laws that protect donor privacy, and failed to disclose conflicts of interest arising from her personal relationships. Her record of abusing prosecutorial power fits perfectly with Democrat lawfare against Trump and his advisers.
Now, following setbacks for prosecutors, Trump will have a reprieve in further substantive proceedings until after the election.
Posted in The Hunt for Heretics and Sinners | Comments Off on Lawfare Collapsing Amidst Harris’ Vow To Prosecute Trump
13th September 2024
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Thank you, Joe Biden.
Posted in Your tax dollars at work - and play. | Comments Off on Venezuelan Illegal Alien Gang Activity Wreaking Havoc in US
13th September 2024
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Although Judge Scott McAfee of the Fulton County Superior Court declined to throw out the whole indictment under the Constitution’s supremacy clause, he found that some charges did “lie beyond this state’s jurisdiction,” including the two counts against Trump and another against his co-defendants.
Willis indicted Trump and 18 others in August 2023, alleging that they interfered in the 2020 presidential election in Georgia.
“President Trump and his legal team in Georgia have prevailed once again,” Steve Sadow, lead counsel for Trump in the Fulton County case, said in a formal statement. “The trial court has decided that counts 15 and 27 in the indictment must be quashed/dismissed.”
Posted in The Hunt for Heretics and Sinners | Comments Off on Judge Tosses 2 Counts Against Trump in Fani Willis’ Indictment
13th September 2024
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Several anti-Israel organizations that formed an illegal blockade across the highway leading to Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport are facing a class action lawsuit from travelers who were trapped in the traffic jam.
Left-wing groups, including the Tides Center—a George Soros-funded dark money network—Community Justice Exchange, and National Students for Justice in Palestine, among others, coordinated a “multi-city economic blockade” on April 15 targeting major airports, highways, and bridges. In one instance, activists shut down access to O’Hare, backing up traffic and forcing some travelers to walk with their luggage to the airport.
Keffiyeh-clad activists handcuffed themselves, linked arms with drain pipes, and later sat side-by-side on Interstate 190 leading to the Chicago airport. The Hamilton Lincoln Law Institute filed a lawsuit on Monday against the organizers for “imprisoning” thousands of travelers in vehicles on their way to O’Hare, according to the complaint.
Posted in Living with Islam. | Comments Off on Anti-Israel Groups Hit With Class Action Lawsuit Over Coordinated Traffic Blockade
13th September 2024
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Thank you, Joe Biden.
Posted in Dystopia Watch | Comments Off on Venezuelan Gang Unleashes Crime Wave in US
13th September 2024
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The U.S. budget deficit reached $1.897 trillion for the first 11 months of the 2024 fiscal year, the Treasury Department said Thursday, as annual interest costs on the public debt topped $1 trillion for the first time.
Posted in Your tax dollars at work - and play. | Comments Off on Interest on US Debt Tops $1 Trillion for the First Time
13th September 2024
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Most Islamic cultures keep women secluded and/or under guard by their male relatives. Wealthier men amass multiple wives and sex slaves, which means that the poorer guys have to do without. Which also means that when the lesser males have “sexual emergencies”, other males — especially young boys — are the ones who have to take up the slack.
When it comes to the expression of power and dominance, the resemblance to prison culture really kicks in. In the Islamic world, a man who is lower in the hierarchy is punished and humiliated by being raped by the more powerful, dominant men.
The following video reports on an incident in North Rhine-Westphalia, when an Iranian man was gang-raped by a group of other Iranians (who reportedly have Danish and Dutch citizenship). The victim was publicly critical of the Islamic Republic of Iran, so it’s quite possible that his total humiliation may have been ordered by the regime in Tehran.
Posted in Living with Islam. | Comments Off on Gang Rape as an Expression of the Power of an Islamic State
13th September 2024
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Six months ago Kamala Harris was the butt of a joke in American politics. Disliked and distrusted by the US electorate, and marginalized by Biden’s inner circle, the Vice President had found herself dogged by a steady rhythm of negative stories and headlines. In 2023, the Telegraph pronounced Harris “the least popular vice president in history.” “A Kamala Harris staff exodus reignites questions about her leadership style — and her future ambitions,” declared a 2021 Washington Post headline. “Kamala Harris one year: Where did it go wrong for her?,” wondered the BBC. Other outlets were barely more charitable: “Exasperation and dysfunction: Inside Kamala Harris’ frustrating start as vice president” (CNN); “Not a healthy environment: Kamala Harris’ office rife with dissent” (Politico); “Kamala Harris’ staff turnover driven by burnout and apprehension of being labeled a ‘Harris person’” (Business Insider). A book on the Biden administration from Atlantic Staff Writer and DNC asset Franklin Foer described, according to New York Magazine, “an administration where Harris is a comparatively minor player and seemingly manages to always put the wrong foot forward despite her best efforts.”
How did Harris go from a beleaguered and unpopular vice president to the inspiring, celebrity-backed, girlboss of the future? The explanation is simple. The press did not need to flatter Harris during her tenure as vice president, but once she became the standard-bearer for their 2024 political ambitions, the calculus changed.
It is a familiar refrain on the Right that the media is a “wing of the Democratic Party,” but the truth is closer to the reverse: The Democratic Party is the handmaiden of the media, academia, major foundations, and activist groups, as well as various other left-wing authorities that exist in the liminal space between the government and civil society.
Posted in Axis of Drivel -- Adventures in Narrative Media | Comments Off on Fortresses and Earthworks
13th September 2024
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Israel destroyed a secretive missile production facility in northwest Syria last week in an attack that included inserting special operations forces by helicopter to retrieve equipment and documents, media outlets are reporting. The new details shed light on an attack initially described as only an airstrike. Not only did the raid strike at the heart of the Iranian military presence in Syria, but it also sent a clear message to Tehran that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) can and will attack deep underground complexes with ground troops that it otherwise cannot destroy from the air.
The raid, which took place September 9, “obliterated” the facility, located in northwestern Syria near the Lebanese border, The New York Times reported, citing unnamed American and other Western officials. “A number of people” were killed at the site, those sources said. It is located about 140 miles north of Israel.
Posted in News You Can Use. | Comments Off on Israeli Commando Raid in Syria Sends a Message to Iran That Its Underground Bases Are Not Untouchable
12th September 2024
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‘Vigilante’ organizations are always a response to government failing to do it’s primary job, keep the peace.
Posted in Dystopia Watch | Comments Off on Inside Oakland’s Vigilante Resistance
12th September 2024
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Texas authorities say they are shutting down a crime-ridden hotel housing Tren de Aragua gang members and investigating the gang’s criminal involvement in other cities.
Reluctantly, it would seem.
Posted in Your tax dollars at work - and play. | Comments Off on Texas City Shuts Down Hotel Occupied by Venezuelan Gang After 693 Police Calls
12th September 2024
Babylon Bee.
In an attempt to sway voters away from voting for former President Donald Trump, a group of well-known leaders from different fields — politics, religion, and entertainment — came together to publicly voice their support for their chosen candidate.
Posted in Think about it. | Comments Off on ‘We’re Republicans and We’re Voting for Kamala,’ Say Democrats
12th September 2024
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Many of us on the Right are aware of the war being waged on European Union member states’ sovereignty behind the scenes, but far fewer can account for exactly how it is happening. Why do capitals seem increasingly weak at defending their interests every year, despite the lack of obvious structural reforms being implemented that would explain this encroachment?
That’s why the renowned conservative think tank MCC Brussels has published a new report entitled “The Silent Coup: the European Commission’s power grab.” It was written by British journalist Thomas Fazi, the author of such books as The Battle for Europe: How an Elite Hijacked a Continent—and How We Can Take It Back (2014), and The Covid Consensus: The Global Assault on Democracy and the Poor—A Critique from the Left (2023).
Posted in Dystopia Watch | Comments Off on “Silent Coup”: How the EU Hijacks Crises to Erode National Sovereignty
12th September 2024
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A school of political science founded in Lyon by Marion Maréchal MEP has been vandalised by Antifa-style militants, protesting the visit of Transmania author Marguerite Stern, who was scheduled to give a lecture on transgender ideology.
The Institute of Social, Economic and Political Sciences (Institut de Sciences Sociales, Economiques et Politiques, or ISSEP) set itself the goal of training a new elite of committed people who are off the beaten track of ‘woke’ correctness—allowing Maréchal to continue her political struggle by other means. It boasts a teaching team keen to host personalities who speak a different political language.
Stern’s visit is scheduled for Thursday, September 19th. In an attempt to prevent the conference from taking place, antifascist groups in Lyon launched an intimidation campaign against the university. After sending threats by email and on social media, the activists took action by spray-painting graffiti on the façade of the institute, which read, among other things, “hi, trans fight back!”, or “Stern get lost”.
Posted in The Hunt for Heretics and Sinners | Comments Off on Antifa Vandalises Conservative School of Political Science in Lyon
12th September 2024
Posted in Think about it. | Comments Off on Thought for the Day
12th September 2024
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Who would have guessed that EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s embarrassing (and frankly, undemocratic) obsession with reaching the desired gender balance in her new cabinet would backfire so spectacularly that it might even cripple the entire formation process? Well, nearly everyone but her, apparently. Coupled with von der Leyen’s biggest weakness, transparency—or the lack thereof—the political storm she stirred up in Slovenia perfectly encapsulates everything that’s wrong with her rule.
As we explained in several articles before, von der Leyen began forming her second Commission by pleading with member states to nominate both male and female candidates for her to choose from, even though the treaties say that should be none of her business. When she inevitably got “a middle finger” from countries instead, as one diplomat put it, she began pressuring smaller and politically weaker member states to change their picks to women by dangling more influential portfolios in front of them if they did.
She did manage to persuade one country—Romania—before the official deadline for nominations came to pass, and later, another one—Slovenia—but only after its initial male candidate, Tomaž Vesel, was locked in and the liberal PM Robert Golob said he was “confident” he was the right man for the job.
Posted in The Hunt for Heretics and Sinners | Comments Off on Brussels’ Gender Blackmail Leads to Deadlock in Forming New Commission
12th September 2024
Associated Press.
More women chose to have their tubes tied after Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022, a new study shows, and the biggest increases were in states that ban abortion.
A research letter published Wednesday in JAMA examined insurance claims data from 2021 and 2022 for around 4.8 million women who got tubal ligations, which are surgeries to close the fallopian tubes so the patient can no longer get pregnant. The data came from 36 states and Washington, D.C., and researchers categorized these places as “banned,” “limited” or “protected,” based on their abortion policies.
In the 18 months before the Dobbs decision in late June 2022, tubal ligations remained stable in all three groups of states. But in the latter half of 2022, the procedure rose in all three groups. Researchers also looked at sustained change in the numbers over time, finding that tubal ligations rose by 3% each month in banned states.
Good. Excising their defective genes from the gene pool is a welcome development. Think of it as evolution in action.
Posted in Axis of Drivel -- Adventures in Narrative Media | Comments Off on More Women Had Their Tubes Tied After Roe v. Wade Was Overturned
12th September 2024
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I’ve written in the past about the Greater Idaho movement, whose goal is the secession of a number of counties in eastern Oregon and their merger with Idaho, their eastern neighbor.
Oregon is not the only state where counties are looking to secede: a group of counties in southern Illinois wants to escape the death grip of the Chicago metropolitan area. According to the website Red-State Secession (“Preserving the American parts of America”), seven counties in southern Illinois are voting on whether to secede.
Go where you’re treated best.
Posted in News You Can Use. | Comments Off on If At First You Don’t Secede, Try Again
12th September 2024
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Sanija Ameti is a Bosnian Muslim who lives in Switzerland. Her parents were refugees who fled the Yugoslavian wars in the 1990s and settled in the Zurich area when Sanija was a small child. Her adopted home has been kind to her: she is now a well-known activist and provocateur, and is the vice president of the Zurich Liberal Greens Party.
Or was vice president, until one of her provocations got her into a spot of bother last Sunday. It seems that Ms. Ameti was doing a little target practice with her gun, and just happened to tear out a page from an art catalogue to use as a target. The only problem was that the page featured a photo of an icon of the Virgin Mary and Jesus, both of whom got riddled with bullets.
Whoops.
Ms. Ameti claimed she had no idea her target had religious significance until afterwards, and apologized profusely. It did her no good; she was forced to resign as vice president, and may end up being expelled from the Liberal Greens Party. Evidently there are some iconoclasms that are too much even for the Greens.
Posted in Living with Islam. | Comments Off on Drawing a Bead on Jesus
12th September 2024
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The tiny emirate of Qatar—a former British colony in the Persian Gulf—is where the Evil Empire narrative, used by Western Liberals to admonish themselves and their voters, finally comes full circle.
Ordered into a modern state and given the tools to become the richest society on earth, Qatar used its 1971 independence to return to its feudal ways, to challenge every last liberal shibboleth that the enlightened West cherishes, and to exert its cultural influence abroad.
Yet, while left-wing commentators beat themselves with straws of white privilege, women’s persecution, and workers’ exploitation to explain the inequalities of wealth among their own populations, they have no problem promoting those same vices in Qatar in return for the diminishing rewards of Qatari political allegiance.
The calculation seems simple: as long as Doha provides gas, Western governments will forget every postured principle they use as an excuse to raise your taxes.
Posted in Living with Islam. | Comments Off on The Axis of Good People Doing Nothing
12th September 2024
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In short, supply and demand have been replaced by judges and labor boards with the authority to deem which jobs are “equal” and therefore should be paid equally. And the labor boards do so based on vague and subjective considerations that do not change with changing circumstances. Imagine replacing “jobs” with “condiments” and having judges decide whether ketchup and mustard should be priced equally because they are similar, broadly comparable, or rated equivalent in terms of the effort, skill, and decision-making that went into their production.
Posted in Dystopia Watch | Comments Off on Equality Act 2010
12th September 2024
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Europe is facing a widespread voter revolt. This wave of discontent is not an isolated phenomenon but a common thread running through the continent—a collective frustration with leadership that appears more interested in enforcing rigid regulations and promoting ideological agendas than in solving real-world problems.
It is clear that the backlash stems from a disconnect between lawmakers and the everyday struggles of citizens. The technocratic elite have prioritized centralized control over the sovereignty and unique needs of member states, while elected officials remain blind. This disconnection has fueled the rise of populist and eurosceptic movements, which will only continue to grow, driven by the electorate’s increasing dissatisfaction.
The ongoing migrant crisis is perhaps the most glaring example of the EU’s technocratic mismanagement. Rather than crafting practical, locally tailored solutions that respect member states’ sovereignty and address security concerns, Brussels has consistently imposed top-down mandates. In Italy, the success of right-wing parties like Brothers of Italy and the League can be directly linked to the electorate’s dissatisfaction with EU-imposed migration policies. Yet European leaders remain puzzled, seeking scapegoats rather than acknowledging the obvious erosion of confidence caused by their own wayward leadership.
Posted in Dystopia Watch | Comments Off on Clueless Politicians Fuel Europe-Wide Rebellion
11th September 2024
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Multispectral imaging is a way of capturing a digital image using non-visible wavelengths such as ultraviolet and infrared (click here to learn more). Where medieval manuscripts are concerned, UV imaging in particular can make faded or effaced text legible. This is because most medieval inks (including that used to write the Voynich Manuscript) have a significant iron component. This allows the ink to “bite” into the surface of the parchment rather than sliding off of it. When ink is scraped away or fades, the molecular bond remains, and the faded text may therefore fluoresce when exposed to UV bandwidths. This technology has proven invaluable in helping scholars read palimpsests and damaged manuscripts such as the Archimedes Palimpsest and the Syriac Galen Palimpsest. Could such imaging of the Voynich Manuscript help reveal its secrets?
Posted in News You Can Use. | Comments Off on Multispectral Imaging and the Voynich Manuscript
11th September 2024
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Presidential debates have often been compared to professional wrestling matches, but the ABC News debate between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris more closely resembled a handicap match, with Trump taking on three opponents at once: Harris and both moderators.
As “World News Tonight” anchor David Muir and ABC News Live “Prime” anchor Linsey Davis regularly fact-checked Trump in real time, they allowed Harris to get by with numerous evasions and false statements on such issues as late-term abortions, post-birth executions, government pregnancy monitors, the economy, and haggard canards about “very fine people” at Charlottesville.
Here are a few of Harris’ misstatements that the ABC News moderators let her get away with.
Posted in Democrats: Party of Fear--Party of Hate--Party of Death | Comments Off on The 10 Harris Lies Moderators Let Slide at the ABC Debate
11th September 2024
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“In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Most Compassionate,” a terrorist declares on the Flight 93 cockpit recording. That’s followed by the sounds of the terrorists assaulting a passenger.
“Please don’t hurt me,” he pleads. “Oh God.”
As the passengers rush the cabin, a Muslim terrorist proclaims, “In the name of Allah.”
Posted in Living with Islam. | Comments Off on It’s Not Over
11th September 2024
Posted in Think about it. | Comments Off on Bonus Thought for the Day
11th September 2024
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The main takeaway from the ABC News ambus— er, presidential debate last night? That someone should sue the network for creating a hostile workplace environment.
The evening was supposed to offer Kamala Harris and Donald Trump an opportunity expose themselves to the public and explain their positions on various policy matters that are important to the public.
In the event, it was an event in which the immoderators, David Muir and Linsey Davis, repeatedly pecked at and corrected, or pretended to correct, one candidate, Donald Trump, while passing over lie after lie after lie emitted by Kamala Harris.
My, what a surprise. Aren’t you surprised? I’m sure surprised.
Posted in Axis of Drivel -- Adventures in Narrative Media | Comments Off on Abc News Is the Big Loser of the Trump-Harris Debate
11th September 2024
The American Mind.
On the 23rd anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, it’s appropriate to ask: Are we safer today than we were before September 11, 2001? Unfortunately, the answer to that all-important question is no. A similar attack on the American homeland is more likely now than at any time since 2001.
This is not just my assessment as the former acting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security—members of the Biden-Harris Administration have reached similar conclusions. In March, Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines warned that terrorism is “evolving,” and in April, FBI Director Christopher Wray warned of “the potential for a coordinated attack here in the homeland.” In June, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas observed “a resurgence in recruiting of ISIS, ISIS’s public communications and efforts to galvanize individuals to divide us.”
What should especially concern the American people is the urgency of these statements.
Posted in Dystopia Watch | Comments Off on Could Another 9/11 Happen?
11th September 2024
Posted in Dystopia Watch | Comments Off on ‘No Conservatives’: EU Socialists Issue Ultimatum to Commission President
11th September 2024
Posted in Dystopia Watch | Comments Off on “Transgender Women Are Women” According to Prospective Leaders of UK’s Women & Equalities Committee
11th September 2024
Posted in Think about it. | Comments Off on Thought for the Day
11th September 2024
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Go right to the source and ask the horse….
There’s an old joke about a guy who goes home and tells his mother with excitement “Mom! I’m a pilot!” She looks at him and says, “To you, you’re a pilot. Maybe to me you’re a pilot. But! To a pilot, are you a pilot?” I guess we can say that, to a progressive, Jambalaya is a progressive. Good to know.
(Apparently ‘pragmatic’ is the New Dishonest.)
Posted in Democrats: Party of Fear--Party of Hate--Party of Death | Comments Off on “I Do Consider Her a Progressive”: Bernie Sanders Dismisses Kamala Harris’ Performative Flip-Flops as “Pragmatic”
11th September 2024
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The Maldives’ remarkable investments in infrastructure and the scientific evidence of island geomorphology suggest that the only thing sinking is the fearmongering stories of nations disappearing because of climate change.
Posted in Think about it. | Comments Off on Rising Runways, Sinking Narratives: Maldives Debunk Climate Fears