Displaying posts published in

2016

The EU-Progressive Paradigm Is Falling Apart The rise of populist and patriotic passions. Bruce Thornton

Long-developing cracks in the Western political establishment’s century-old paradigm suddenly widened this year. In the US Donald Trump, a reality television star and real estate developer, improbably became the Republican Party’s nominee for president. Bernie Sanders, a socialist and long-time Senate crank, challenged the Democrats’ pre-anointed nominee Hillary Clinton, who prevailed only by dint of money and un-democratic “super-delegates.” Meanwhile in Europe, the UK voted to leave the European Union, perhaps opening the flood-gates to more defections.

These three events share a common theme: populist and patriotic passions roused by arrogant elites have fueled a rejection of Western establishments and their un-democratic, autocratic, corrupt paradigm.

That political model can be simply defined as technocratic and transnational. Starting in the 19th century, the success of science and the shrinking of the world through technology and trade created the illusion that human nature, society, and politics could be similarly understood, managed, and improved by those trained and practiced in the new “human sciences.” This new “knowledge” said people are the same everywhere, and so all humans want the same things: peace with their neighbors, prosperity, and freedom. The absence of these boons, not a permanently flawed human nature, explains the history of war and conflict. National identities, along with religion and tradition, are impediments to institutionalizing this “harmony of interests.” International organizations and covenants can be created to enforce this harmony, shepherd the people towards the transnational utopia, and leave behind the misery and wars sparked by religious, ethnic, and nationalist passions.

Technocracy, however, is by definition anti-democratic. So how can the foundational belief of Western governments – the sovereignty of free people and their right to be ruled by their own consent–– coexist with an administrative state staffed by “experts” and armed with the coercive power of the state? Quite simply, it can’t. As for the transnational ideal of a “harmony of interests,” it was repudiated by the carnage of World War I, when the Entente and Central Powers sent their young to die under the flags of their nations on behalf of their particular national interests. Yet the West still codified that transnational ideal in the League of Nations, even as it enshrined the contrary ideal of national self-determination, the right of people to rule themselves free of imperial or colonial overlords.

UK Labour Party: Haven for Racists? by Robbie Travers

It is hard to believe that the party once led by Prime Minister Tony Blair, who assisted President Bush in leading the war on terror and fighting expansionist Islamist movements, is now being fought over and led by a man who voted against banning Al Qaeda as a terrorist organization.

The idea that a single totalitarian Caliphate would bring increased democracy and stability, let alone civil and political rights, to an increasingly factional, corrupt and unstable Middle East, appears more a childlike, logic-defying fantasy.

Isn’t it usually secular societies that protect the rights of religious minorities, including Muslims, to practice their faith?

I am not a Jew, and I have no links to Judaism. But if being a Jew offends antisemitic racists, then I am happy to call myself Jew, and to stand up and be counted with the Jews as a minority facing increased persecution across Europe.

The UK Labour Party, which once stood proudly in solidarity with the victims of terrorism, now, under the would-be leadership of Jeremy Corbyn, seems to have become a haven for antisemites, Islamists and their apologists.

It is hard to believe that the party once led by Prime Minister Tony Blair, who assisted President Bush in leading the war on terror and fighting expansionist Islamist movements, is now led by a man who voted against banning Al Qaeda as a terrorist organization months after more than 200 people were killed in the 1998 terrorist attacks on the American embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam.

GOOD NEWS FROM AMAZING ISRAEL: MICHAEL ORDMAN

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS

SACH saves its 4000th child. (TY Hazel) 4-year-old Sanusey was diagnosed with a congenital heart defect. The surgery needed to repair his heart is not available in Gambia. Sanusey is now recovering from open heart surgery at the Wolfson Medical Center in Holon, Israel. He is the 4,000th child saved by Israel’s Save a Child’s Heart organization. Other children currently being treated include five from Iraq and Zead from Gaza.
http://www.saveachildsheart.com/sach_news/save-childs-heart-saves-4000th-child/
http://www.timesofisrael.com/sanusey-4-is-4000th-child-helped-by-save-a-childs-heart/?
http://www.saveachildsheart.com/global/children-we-help/children-currently-in-israel/

Good trials of colon X-ray capsule. (TY Atid-EDI) I reported about Israel’s Check-cap previously (Feb 2012) that requires no prior preparation or hospital visit. After 4 years, trials on 54 participants of its ingestible and disposable low-dose 3D imaging capsule proved safe and well tolerated and detected small and large polyps.
http://ir.check-cap.com/2016-05-25-Check-Cap-Announces-Preliminary-Data-Evaluating-its-Preparation-Free-Colon-Screening-Capsule

US approves CT radiation safety system. (TY Atid-EDI) The SafeCT-29 solution from Israel’s Medic Vision Imaging Solutions produces high-quality medical scan images but reduces radiation doses by up to 80%. SafeCT-29 works with any CT scanner and has just been approved by the US FDA.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIxekstfs5k http://www.medicvision.com/en/home

Canada approves tremor treatment. (TY Atid-EDI) Canada’s federal department responsible for helping Canadians maintain and improve their health, Health Canada, has approved the Exablate Neuro system for the treatment of essential tremor developed by Israel’s Insightec. http://www.insightec.com/news-events/press-releases/2016/health-canada-approves-insightec-s-exablate-neuro-system-for-the-treatment-of-essential-tremor/

Skin stickers to monitor activity. A new medical innovation, developed at Tel Aviv University’s Center for Nanoscience & Nanotechnology, uses ‘stick it and forget it’ electrodes affixed to the skin, to monitor muscle activity. Applications include monitoring driver alertness and individuals with neuro-degenerative diseases.
http://unitedwithisrael.org/new-israeli-developed-stickers-can-detect-and-map-emotions/
http://mfa.gov.il/MFA/InnovativeIsrael/ScienceTech/Pages/New-electrode-maps-emotions-20-June-2016.aspx

The science of daydreaming. Scientists at Bar-Ilan University have used low-level electricity to increase the rate at which daydreams – or spontaneous, self-directed thoughts and associations – occur. They also discovered that daydreams have a positive effect on task performance.
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/289896.php

Help for patients and care-givers. Israeli Marni Mandell launched the startup CareHood to provide patients and care-givers with a website where they can learn what has helped other people in similar situations. They can then build a care package of services, gifts, tasks and errands that their friends and family can assist with.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/when-medical-crisis-strikes-carehood-tries-to-answer-how-can-i-help/

Monitoring cancer in the genes. Israel’s NovellusDx monitors the effect of cancer therapies on a patient’s genetic mutations. NovellusDx reports to the oncologist on the contribution of the driver mutations to the activation of the signaling pathways. NovellusDx has just received $2.5 million funds from the VC Orbimed.
http://www.globes.co.il/en/article-orbimed-invests-25m-in-cancer-profiling-co-novellusdx-1001133996 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zBQzAXFDrQ

Making any fabric antibacterial. I reported on Israel’s Nano Textile previously (Feb 2015) when it announced its antibacterial Zinc Oxide (ZnO) nano-coating for bed linen and clothing to prevent hospital infections. Nano Textile has now announced that it can make any fabric (natural or synthetic) antibacterial.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/nano-textile-says-it-can-make-any-fabric-antibacterial/
http://www.globes.co.il/en/article-israeli-co-nano-textile-introduces-antibacterial-fabric-1001131859

MICHAEL KUTTNER: BREXIT, THE EU, ISRAEL

Michael Kuttner is a Jewish New Zealander who for many years was actively involved with various communal organisations connected to Judaism and Israel. He now lives in Israel and is J-Wire’s correspondent in the region.http://www.jwire.com.au/state-of-the-union/#more-64484

By the time you read this, the results of the British referendum will be known…writes Michael Kuttner.Whether the UK remains or exits the European Union the repercussions of its decision will be felt by Israel and Jews in Europe alike. My observations are based on many discussions held with British Jews and observing past, current and potential actions emanating from the continent of Europe.

The EU was originally conceived as a free trade union known as the Common Market. Its original intentions were laudable and designed to benefit all members and create a strong and peaceful cohesive trading bloc on a continent which in past generations had been torn apart by nationalistic tendencies. The United Kingdom did not join at first because the British were suspicious of getting too tangled up with European problems. However it soon became apparent that in order to safeguard the UK’s trade relationships and guarantee future beneficial trading deals joining this venture would be advisable. Thus in 1973 it joined and this action was confirmed in 1975 by a referendum. I still remember the chaos this caused in New Zealand because at one stroke the country’s preferential trade agreements with the UK were ditched and instead of Commonwealth solidarity the long and slippery slope towards a continent dominated by Germany commenced.

It is safe to say that the British public at that time generally were not overly enthusiastic about abandoning a traditional wariness of Europe and embracing a love affair with a continent which had in the past caused so much death and misery. However the prospect of enhanced trading partners and a better economic prospect replaced any uneasy feelings as to where it might all lead. Inevitably the Common Market morphed into something much bigger and its advocates made plans for what they envisaged to be a union with enormous centralised powers which would inevitably supersede national parliaments and dictate policies.

The introduction of a common currency presented the UK with a challenge and in a move which in hindsight was brilliantly perceptive the British Government decided against adopting the Euro and instead to retain Sterling as its currency.

Over time, slowly but inexorably, the Common Market mutated into the monstrous union it is today with unelected officials based in palatial buildings in Brussels dictating policies to member States. National Parliaments now find themselves unable to enact legislation which can be challenged by an EU Court and deemed incompatible with EU laws.

Today we have the spectacle of a widely disparate union ranging from the economic powerhouse of Germany to the economic basket cases of Greece and Spain sinking deep into a gigantic sinkhole of debt where its banks are owed billions and where there is not the slightest prospect of any of this debt ever being repaid. Undeniably one of the gravest threats to the EU’s long term survival was the insane removal of national border controls which was touted at the time as the end of nationalistic tendencies and the beginning of an era of universal love, tolerance and mutual cohesiveness. Those who warned of the perils associated with a free flow of criminals were vilified as fascists in much the same way that today’s opponents are called Islamaphobes. Not many foresaw the mortal dangers posed by terrorists having unrestricted access across the continent but now that this has hit the fan it is all too obvious, except to those who continue to deny reality.

How does all this impact on Israel and Jews?

At UNC, ‘Christmas vacation’ is now a microaggression By Rick Moran !!!????

We are rapidly getting to the point where any word in the English language uttered by a white male within earshot of an oppressed minority will be considered a microaggression.

Here’s the latest list of no-no words compiled by the University of North Carolina.

Daily Caller:

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill issued a guide this week which instructs students that Christmas vacations and telling a woman “I love your shoes!” are “microagressions.”

The taxpayer-funded guide — entitled “Career corner: Understanding microaggressions” — also identifies golf outings and the words “boyfriend” and “girlfriend” as microagressions.

The UNC Chapel Hill guide, published on Thursday, covers a wide range of menacing microaggressions — which are everyday words that radical leftists have decided to be angry or frustrated about.

Christmas vacations are a microagression, the public university pontificates, because “academic calendars and encouraged vacations” which “are organized around major religious observances” centralize “the Christian faith” and diminish “non-Christian spiritual rituals and observances.”

Interestingly, the long break between semesters at UNC Chapel Hill for the 2016-2017 academic year will last from December 17 to January 10 — thus covering Christmas as well as the New Year’s Day of the Gregorian calendar. The Gregorian calendar is named for Pope Gregory XIII. The Roman Catholic Church introduced the calendar in 1582.

The microagression of liking shoes occurs when someone says “I love your shoes!” “to a woman in leadership during a Q & A after a speech.” So it’s a very specific microagression. The problem, the University of North Carolina document declares, is that the shoe admirer values appearances “more than” “intellectual contributions.”

Cuba open to all Americans except for… By Silvio Canto, Jr.

We’ve been hearing a great deal about how opening Cuba will bring in Americans with their dollars and democratic ways. Well, not all Americans are welcomed by the Castro regime, as The Hill reports:

“At a time when the Obama Administration is rolling out the red carpet for Havana, the Cuban government refuses to be open and transparent with the peoples’ Representatives,” McCaul said in a statement on Friday.

“Sadly, it appears to be easier for Cubans to come to the United States than for Members of the House Homeland Security Committee to get to Cuba.”

Other lawmakers who were planning to visit Cuba include Reps. John Katko (R-N.Y.), Martha McSally (R-Ariz.), Richard Hudson (R-N.C.) and Henry Cuellar (D-Texas).

“The Administration is eager to have as many people as possible visit Cuba — except for those who are attempting to examine Cuban security infrastructure,” said Katko, chairman of the transportation security subcommittee.

“We still don’t know if Cuba has the adequate body scanners and explosive detection systems in place, whether it has the technology to screen for fraudulent passports or ID, whether or how aviation workers are screened, and if Federal Air Marshals will be allowed to fly missions to Cuba on commercial flights.”

Quantico: ABC’s FBI and Israel By Rabbi Elliot B. Gertel

ABC’s Quantico is TV’s most multicultural and multiethnic soap opera, and its formula is a nod to ABC’s lucrative Thursday night Shonda Rhimes dramas.

Created by Joshua Safran, Quantico focuses on FBI recruits and their instructors. Most of the students have dark family or personal secrets. Trainees quickly pair off into love affairs among themselves and sometimes with instructors who have already engaged in illicit faculty love affairs. Has anyone here been vetted…ever?

By these “standards,” the most “qualified” trainee is Simon Asher (Tate Ellington), who happens to be the lone Jewish recruit, and who served with the Israeli Army in Gaza. Simon is introduced as a gay man, but soon (10-25-2015, written by Jake Coburn and Justin Brenneman), his gay classmate Elias (depicted as a coward and turncoat) asks him outright, “Are you a patriot? Are you Jewish? Are you even gay?… The only thing real about you is the way you look at Nimah Amin [a Lebanese-born classmate] when you think that no one is looking.”

Only when threatened with exposure by Elias, Simon responds:

“You’re right about me. I am dangerous…. I was in the Israeli Defense Forces. They sent me into Gaza. I didn’t just see things, I did things, things that haunt me every single day of my life. After I got back, living under cover was the only way I could cope with what I did. So I made myself a lie.”

Nimah (Yasmine Al Massri), too, will question Simon’s claims to be gay, and will grill him, “Simon Asher, you’re a Conservative Jew from a…Zionist family, but for years ago you traveled to Gaza to live with the Palestinians, and to this day you never told anyone.”

What is Simon Asher hiding? In the aforementioned dialogue Elias tells Simon, upon learning that he is not gay, “The only thing that bugs me is the lengths you’re willing to go to maintain your façade. You’re dangerous.”

Nimah is hiding something, as well. Simon is literally knocked over when he discovers that she has a twin sister. Has he unknowingly been involved with both? The twins are already being used to infiltrate an Islamic terrorist group. They conceal things because of patriotism, which is demonstrated, as well, by foreign-accented recruit Alex Parrish (Priyanka Chopra) even when she is falsely accused of terrorism.

Simon is depicted as having the most to hide of any of the trainees. Early on in his relationship with Nimah, he tells her: “It became easier to let people believe I was gay, so I wouldn’t show them who I really was. It gave me boundaries, just like you have boundaries.” (11-1-15, by Shafran and Beth Schacter) The “boundaries” refer to the Muslim faith in which the twins were raised. The writers’ message appears to be that soap opera love affairs may save the world since they are the best therapy to connect with the “other” and thus to learn about oneself.

The writers do give Simon rare strength and courage. In an episode written by show creator Safran (12-13-15) he withstands efforts to frame him. Simon manages to retain his cool even while being literally hooked to a bomb. Once Simon is convinced that Alex Parrish is being framed in some terrorist conspiracy (by which Simon himself has been victimized), he does everything possible to help her, aiding her with his vast technical knowledge and skills, even hacking into a computer used by a classmate.

ANDREW BOLT: WORTH FIGHTING FOR SEE NOTE PLEASE

THIS BOOK IS ONLY AVAILABLE FROM THE PUBLISHER

http://www.wilkinsonpublishing.com.au/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=500

Perhaps you have had the experience: enter a bookshop, ask for a politically incorrect tome and be told, quite possibly by some pierced young thing with a tattoo and a sneer, that such books are not welcome on the premises. Or, if the shop is carrying the title, you’ll be directed to a rear shelf where a single copy is displayed spine-out on the shelf and very hard to find.

Andrew Bolt is Australia’s most prominent and controversial commentator. In this second book of columns and reflections, Bolt is again in the front lines of our most urgent political and social debates, from Islam and immigration to the green movement and the rise of the slacktivist. But he also reveals his more personal side – the experiences that have shaped his values and love for this country. For some this book is ammunition. For others it’s fair warning. But for everyone it’s a test of their own values – and the reasons they hold them. Bolt’s columns are published nationally in News Corp newspapers, including Melbourne’s Herald Sun, Sydney’s Daily Telegraph and Brisbane’s Courier Mail. He also runs Australia’s most-read political blog and hosts two week night shows – The Bolt Report on Sky News and a national Macquarie Radio show with Steve Price.

From the author of Still Not Sorry.

John O’Sullivan: Get used to the new Europe

When Lord Cornwallis surrendered to George Washington following the decisive American victory at Yorktown, the British military band retreating from the scene played an old drinking song The World Turned Upside Down. That may be a myth; the story was originally told by someone who hadn’t been at Yorktown. But it’s a myth that has lasted right down to the present (being referenced most recently in the Broadway hit musical Hamilton) because it captures the widespread and serious consequences of Cornwallis’s defeat.

Well, it’s a bigger world today, but Brexit looks to be turning pretty much all of it upside down. Just consider some of the leading players and institutions hit by it:

David Cameron: He had been walking a tightrope as the Europhile leader of a Eurosceptic party who hoped to finesse the issue of Europe indefinitely. In order to fend off UKIP and a Tory rebellion, he promised a referendum, hoping that his coalition partners, the Liberal Democrats, would nix it in the next coalition. But he won an outright majority and had to keep the promise. Then, wanting the referendum out of the way, he held quick talks with the EU, asked for little, got less, and returned to London boasting of trivial concessions. Finally, he fought a tough campaign against half of his own party and lost it. It turned out that his Eurosceptic Tory opponents had a better sense of the Tory faithful (and U.K. voters generally) than he did. He fell off the tightrope with dignity, however, and will resign to allow a Eurosceptic to be elected Tory leader and prime minister who can conduct Brexit negotiations more plausibly than a Europhile.

Angela Merkel, Jean-Claude Juncker, and the European Commission: If the European leaders negotiating with Prime Minister David Cameron over his package of concessions had been only slightly more generous, he might well have won yesterday’s referendum. A reformed Europe or a Europe à la carte was acceptable to many Brits who disliked an over-centralized and undemocratic one. Such a looser Europe would also have solved or ameliorated their other problems such as the euro. But the Eurocrats calculated either that Mr. Cameron was bluffing or that the Brits would always halt at the brink of withdrawal. As a result Britain will soon be out of the EU, other euro-problems are growing worse, and the “contagion” of Euroscepticism has been given a boost throughout Europe.

Chancellor George Osborne, (Canadian) Governor of the Bank of England Mark Carney, the Lords of H.M. Treasury, the IMF, OECD, etc., etc.: Both men and institutions (and Christine Lagarde for the IMF) made extravagant predictions of the economic and financial disasters that would descend upon Britain following Brexit. One Tory commentator described Mr. Osborne as the first Chancellor to try to spook the markets. The financial markets were duly spooked – as always happens in response to a major uncertainty – but they seem now to be stabilizing. The reputations of institutions and their leaders are now on the line, however. If their long-term predictions (which were widely derided as simply made up) prove false, exaggerated, or misleading, they may need to follow Mr. Cameron into other professions.

President Barack Obama and the U.S. State Department: Pressure on the U.K. to participate in an integrated European political entity has been a sustained theme in U.S. foreign policy since the early 1950s. Much of the time the Brits were reluctant or even hostile; Washington kept pressing. This time Mr. Obama made it personal. But the implied deal – you surrender your independence in order to advance our interests within the EU – is obviously a tad one-sided. And the referendum result is now an insuperable obstacle to Washington taking it up in future. Mr. Obama will simply have to learn several European telephone numbers – if only to ring more than one of the EU’s five presidents.

Christopher Carr It’s Not Britain That Should Be Worried

The fact of the matter is that Britain contributes around 21% of EU net receipts. In other words, membership has been a drain, never a gain. And in the unlikely event that an independent Scotland were to rejoin Europe, that would be one more burden off the Exchequer’s books.
In the aftermath of the Brexit referendum the usual suspects were out in full force. The United Kingdom would be the big financial loser. Its economy would shrink. And yes, the financial markets were in turmoil. The big financial houses had bet the wrong way. But did you observe some figures at the close of trading in major European stock markets on Friday?

The London FTSE 100 index was down 3.15%. But across the channel, the German DAX index was down 6.82% and the Paris CAC index was down 8.04%. The EURO STOXX 50 index was down 8.62% and the EURONEXT 100 index was down 6.72%. In other words, the percentage drop of leading stock indexes in the rest of the European Union was, on average, more than double that of the London index. In passing, we might observe that the Swiss stock index dropped by 3.4%. It so happens that Switzerland, shortly before the Brexit vote, formally withdrew its application to join the European Union.

Amidst all the hyperventilation from financial pundits, what might these figures be suggesting? Contrary to the propagated bunk that Britain would suffer economically from withdrawal from the European Union is the simple fact that Britain is a net contributor to the European Union. According to published figures, it appears Britain contributes around 21% of European Union net receipts. In other words, membership of the European Union is a net drain on British finances. Could the markets be telling us that it is the Eurozone, not the United Kingdom, which is facing a financial crisis?

One should not have to spell out the bleeding obvious: where was the benefit in being shackled to a sclerotic, economically comatose bloc which appears unable to conclude a trade agreement with the United States? By contrast, Britain will be free to conclude trade agreements with the US and East Asian countries, as well as renewing relations, both political and economic, with countries such as Australia and New Zealand.

As for the push by the Scottish National Party Government, led by Nicola Sturgeon, for a second independence referendum, a reality check is in order. First, Scotland’s solvency is dependent on continued subsidies from the British government in London. In the aftermath of the British withdrawal, it is hard to imagine the European Union welcoming a new member which, from day one, would be net dependent on subsidies from Brussels. Under the rules of the European Union, Scotland would have to make a fresh application for membership. Second, any application for membership has to meet with the unanimous consent of all existing member states. Would Spain agree to an application from a breakaway state, thereby ceding legitimacy to the Basque claim for secession from Spain? I suspect that moves for any Scottish breakaway from the United Kingdom will suffer a similar fate as those moves, some years back, by French-speaking nationalists in Quebec.