Displaying posts published in

2016

Brown University Students Flip Out After White Person Sings Hindu Chants : Blake Neff

A simple musical performance at Brown University became a source of tremendous controversy Thursday night after student protesters denounced it for having Hindu chants sung by a white woman.

Carrie Grossman, a 2000 Brown graduate, performed in “An Evening of Devotional Music,” which organizers touted as an “intimate evening of inquiry, music and meditation.” Grossman’s performance was a kirtan, a form of traditional chanting that originates in the Indian subcontinent.

But to some students, it was actually an intimate evening of gruesome cultural appropriation, because Grossman had the temerity to sing chants from India despite being white.“How does your whiteness impact how you engage with these cultures?” a student asked Grossman prior to her performance, according to The Brown Daily Herald. Another denounced her for “disturbing and appropriative language” on her website.

Eventually, Grossman’s performance began, but the protesters in the audience continued to shout out questions, which caused attendees who actually wanted to hear the performance to turn around and tell them to be quiet. Students were induced to move outside after announcing they would hold their own competing kirtan (notably, a photo of the protesters suggested only a handful were ethnically Indian).

In Asia, a Dance for Five Partners Pivoting right past Asia By Kevin D. Williamson

In 2012 Barack Obama announced a “pivot” to Asia, which lasted for about five minutes until he pivoted right back to his forte, which is picking largely symbolic culture-war fights with Republicans over domestic issues that play well among affluent white suburbanites.

The “pivot” was, in fact, intended to be the beginning of a marketing push for the presidential campaign of Hillary Rodham Clinton, who outlined the essentials of the program in an article in Foreign Policy. The path in this case is sixfold: expanding bilateral security commitments with Asian partners; raising the American profile in Asia’s international institutions; expanding trade; increasing the U.S. military presence in the Pacific; taking a leadership role in Asian human-rights issues; and generally renewing our diplomatic efforts to cultivate richer relationships with China and with Asian powers worried about being dominated by China.

The main policy outcome so far has been the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade-liberalization pact that Mrs. Clinton has been walking sideways away from for months. TPP is a proposal that is good and necessary in its generalities, worrisome and sometimes unpersuasive in its particulars, and currently caught between a Democratic electorate that hates free trade per se and a Republican electorate that is one-third composed of people who hate free trade per se and otherwise dominated by those who believe, not without some reason, that President Obama would not put forth such an agreement without a rascally purpose, occult though it may be. This leaves the United States in the very difficult position of needing to make the case for free trade abroad when it is a minority taste at home.

North Korea Fires a Sub-Launched Ballistic Missile By Rick Moran

The South Korean military says that North Korea fired a submarine-launched ballistic missile off its eastern coast on Saturday. The missile flew about 30 miles before crashing in the ocean.

Reuters:

North Korea will hold a congress of its ruling Workers’ Party in early May for the first time in 36 years, at which its leader Kim Jong Un is expected to say the country is a strong military power and a nuclear state.

The missile flew for about 30 km (18 miles), a South Korean Defence Ministry official said by telephone, adding its military was trying to determine whether the launch may have been a failure for unspecified reasons.

South Korea’s Yonhap news agency said the missile flew “for a few minutes”, citing a government source.

The U.S. State Department in Washington said it was aware of reports the North had launched what appeared to be a ballistic missile.

“Launches using ballistic missile technology are a clear violation of multiple U.N. Security Council resolutions,” said State Department spokesman John Kirby.

The North first attempted a launch of the submarine-based missile last year and was seen to be in the early stages of developing such a weapons system, which could pose a new threat to its neighbours and the United States if it is perfected.

However, follow-up test launches were believed to have fallen short of the North’s expectations as its state media footage appeared to have been edited to fake success, according experts who have seen the visuals.

Can’t Miss Cataclysm Cinema By James Jay Carafano

It all started with “Airport” (1970). Then there was disaster at sea with “The Poseidon Adventure” (1972). And, of course, chaos on land followed with “Earthquake” and “The Towering Inferno”—both came out in 1974. All cashed in at the box office.

Hollywood’s addiction to disaster movies was born.

Over time, the Tinsel Town formula turned formulaic. Assemble a cast of well-known actors. String together a plot of people in peril. Stir in some stirring special effects. The results have ranged from decent movies like “Twister” (1996) to awful cinematic trash like the recent disaster of a disaster flix—”San Andreas” (2015).

Now comes a film that does not follow the formula. “The Wave” (“Bolgen” in Norwegian) is a new movie from Norwegian filmmaker Roar Uthaug. Last year, it was submitted for Oscar consideration as the best foreign film. Inexplicably, the movie didn’t get nominated. Now, “The Wave” is playing in limited theatrical release around the United States and Canada.

What is at risk from the “wave” in the movie isn’t some metropolis. No—under peril is the picturesque tourist town of Geiranger overlooked by an ominous mountain. Kristian is part of tiny team monitoring the unstable Åkerneset, because when the hillside slides into the narrow adjacent fjord the rock debris will trigger a tsunami. Ten minutes later the wave will wipe out the village. The job of Kristian’s team is to warn the town before the unthinkable (but inevitable) occurs.

Obama Threatens, Lectures Brits About Leaving the EU By Rick Moran

President Obama stuck his nose in the Brexit question in Great Britain, provoking outrage and scorn when he threatened the Brits by warning that if they left the EU, the UK would be “at the back of the queue” on any trade deal.

Obama claimed that his threat wasn’t a threat but rather he was trying to “enhance the debate.”

At a press conference with Prime Minister Cameron, a BBC reporter asked the president if it was any of his business whether the UK remained in the EU.

“Thank you, Mr. President. You’ve made your views very plain on the fact that British voters should choose to stay in the E.U. But in the interest of good friends always being honest, are you also saying that our decades-old special relationship, that’s been through so much, would be fundamentally damaged and changed by our exit? If so, how? And are you also, do you have any sympathy with people who think this is none of your business?” the reporter asked.

“And Prime Minister, to you, if I may, some of your colleagues believe it’s utterly wrong that you have dragged our closest ally in the E.U. referendum campaign, what do you say to them?” the reporter asked. “And is it appropriate for the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, to have brought up President Obama’s Kenyan ancestry in the context of this debate?”

Obama’s lecture to the Brits included references to World War II and the creation of NATO as examples of how America and Great Britain have cooperated in the past. But the president had people shaking their heads in disbelief because the U.S. had nothing to do with the creation of the EU.

The U.S. president said he feels it’s his prerogative to clarify the U.S. position rather than have it defined by British politicians.

President Obama’s advice to Great Britain on the EU Referendum: Obama threatens Britain on trade if they exit the EU By Anthony Bright-Paul

So President Obama has come right out in assuring us Brits that the special relationship with Great Britain is alive and well, – so well in fact that if we voted out of the EU, we Brits would be at the back of a the queue for a trade deal with the USA. Funny! I did not think we needed a trade deal, when our relationship was so special.

The President is clearly unaware that the EU Energy Directive adds 40% to our energy bills. By a Directive! This Directive has greater force of law than the laws promulgated at Westminster in the Houses of Parliament. Can you imagine Mexico or Venezuela or Brazil issuing a Directive that had more force than a law passed by Congress?

This is a principle reason that our Steel Industry is in such dire straits. In normal circumstances the British Government would step in to help the industry out, but does President Obama realise that under EU rules State Aid is forbidden? Our Prime Minister’s hands are tied. Can you imagine Canada telling the mighty USA what it can or cannot do? It is inconceivable.

While all eyes are on the Middle East, Alexis Tsipras of Greece has to make a terrible decision. He was elected by the Greeks on an anti-austerity ticket and now he is being forced by German Bankers into furthermore draconian austerity. The only alternative is to leave the Eurozone and go back to the Drachma. Undoubtedly this is the only sensible solution, already suggested by Nigel Farage in the Parliament at Strasbourg months ago. He has until next Wednesday to decide. What would be President Obama’s advice to Alexis Tsipras?

The truth is that the dominant power in the EU is Germany. Perhaps the President has forgotten that together we fought two World Wars against the imperial dreams of the would-be master race. Even now Germany is forming a European Army together with the Dutch and Czechs. Does President Obama comprehend that danger?

Meanwhile the US Secretary of State has used his God-like powers to sign off an agreement to limit the rise of Global Temperature to just 2 degrees Celsius. Just how deluded can we get?

Gerald Frost A Chance to Correct an Error of Historic Magnitude

Almost twenty years ago Margaret Thatcher wrote:

That such an unnecessary and irrational project as building a European super-state was ever embarked on will be seen in future years to be perhaps the greatest folly of the modern era. And that Britain, with her traditional strengths and global destiny, should ever have been part of it will appear a political error of historic magnitude. There is, though, still time to choose a different and a better course.
Is Brexit, the issue on which the British public will vote in a referendum on June 23, the doomed dream of those who wish to restore British national sovereignty? Or is it the nation’s political destiny? At the time of writing, two weeks after David Cameron returned from Brussels with a deal to change the terms of British membership of the European Union, online polling suggests roughly equal support for the Leave and Remain campaigns, while telephone surveys—which proved to be a more accurate guide to Britain’s 2015 general election outcome—point to the probability of a vote to remain. All polls indicate that many voters still have not decided.

The level of support enjoyed by the Remain campaign should not be taken as a reflection of enthusiasm for the European project; there is ample polling data to show that most people in Britain neither trust nor like the EU. Nor do many people think much of Cameron’s deal, which falls far short of his earlier promises to bring about fundamental change in Britain’s relations with the EU and to get back powers ceded to Brussels. It is also clear that the modest concessions he achieved are not secure, since they must be confirmed in subsequent treaties which the twenty-seven other EU members must approve and because British law remains subordinate to European law. No, it is clear that the main reason people give for saying they will probably vote to remain is that they believe leaving would represent a step into the unknown.

Remain campaigners do not sing the virtues of the EU, or promise that continued membership will lead to a golden economic future. Given the troubles in the Eurozone and the migrant crisis which has effectively killed the Schengen Agreement, such claims would not merely lack credibility; they would invite derision. Instead, while admitting that the EU has its faults and requires further change, they have launched what Eurosceptics have come to refer to as “Project Fear”, dire predictions that Britain would face a series of disasters on leaving: British families living in Europe would no longer qualify for state health care; collective security would be undermined; international co-operation to fight jihadists would be jeopardised; three million jobs would be lost; migrants in Calais would no longer be restrained from reaching Britain; air fares would rise; UK residents would be expelled from Portugal.

Much of the scare-mongering has been successfully dealt with by Leave campaigners and the Eurosceptic sections of the media. When Downing Street issued a letter signed by thirteen senior ex-military officers suggesting that Britain would be safer remaining in the EU, one of the officers protested that he hadn’t signed it and disagreed with its content, another said he had signed “only under pressure”, while other senior military men made known their opposition to it. Major-General Julian Thompson, a military historian who led the Royal Marines during the Falklands War, argued that membership had damaged Britain’s security and that intelligence—the key to effective anti-terrorist activities—could be more reliably shared with members of the Anglosphere than with members of the EU.

Murray Walters: The Fairness Industrial Complex

It’s good work if you can get it, this business of lecturing others on what they are morally obliged to do (and pay) if the poor/diseased/downtrodden/oppressed masses of whatever dismal variety you prefer are to be lifted from their benighted misery. The trick is not to get caught being inauthentic.
You might recall the story of the white-as-snow Rachel Dolezal, who lied about her ethnicity and culture to assume the mask, moral privileges and kudos of an oppressed African-American activist. She was an ordinary white woman who, by appropriating the culture and physical appearance of an ethnic group with a goldmine of victimhood cachet, made herself feel very special indeed. Think here of private school kids getting tribal tattoos or Prince Harry affecting the odd glottal-stop or a bit of H-withholding, as in to ‘ow much ‘e ‘ungers for a lager with the lads. It’s the classic case of the outsiders wanting membership of a club to which, presenting as themselves, they can never belong.

Now, with an election looming it’s time to get ready for another cast of political thespians trying to be what they are not, sneaking into our lives and pockets via the belly of the Trojan horse of the Fairness Industrial Complex (FIC). For those who don’t know, the FIC is like the Qantas Club for PFS Operatives — Professional Fairness Spruikers. This is a comfy place where cake-eating clipboard carriers, meeting-minuters, shiny-suited private-school union lawyers, progressive politicians, publicly funded activists and lanyard-wearing, conference-attending, frequent-flyer-points-accruing public servants can relax and thrive in comfort, all courtesy of the proceeds of the FIC and the support it wrings out of others, mostly the taxpayers.

The FIC, unlike its cousin the Military Industrial Complex, is proud to peddle its influence and does so openly. Its foot soldiers often live together and work together, as seen at the ABC, where sharing a bed and daily breakfast with someone already on the national broadcaster’s payroll is always a recommendation on any job application. Their strength is in their numbers. For instance: alone, one member might be thought a poseur or a grievance monger; but as part of the many, an activist or a social justice warrior is more than a mere and clamorous pest. Rich, greedy and lazy, the Western world shrugs and indulges the snivels of what amounts social-issue hypochondria. Should anyone raise an eyebrow or dare to disagree with the narrative, cue a mob pile-on, maybe even a lynching. Supporters of, say, traditional marriage are howled down, interrupted ceaselessly in mid-sentence by Tony Jones, branded “homophobes” for daring to disagree, no matter how politely, with such a fashionable cause and meme.

Membership of this house of smarm and sinecure has its privileges, but there are rules. First and foremost is the possession of a compassionate ‘false self.’ Now we all have ‘false selves’ – split-off bits of our character that represent the sort of people we’d most like to be and be seen to be. Con artists knowingly cultivate such personas for the purpose of criminal enterprise, which at least blesses the then the virtue of honest self-knowledge. Fairness spruikers, by contrast, are often blissfully unaware of their impostiture; they think their false selves represent the totality of their personhood.

Lebanon, Christians, Under Islamist Threat by Shadi Khalloul

Islamic jihadist groups are threatening Lebanese Christians and demanding that they submit to Islam. Lebanon’s Christians, descendants of Aramaic Syriacs, were the majority in the country a mere 100 years ago.

Saad Hariri, a Sunni Muslim politician supported by Saudi Arabia, has invited every Lebanese party to his office to sign a document confirming that Lebanon is an Arab state. This is clearly intended to turn Lebanon into yet another officially Arab Muslim state.

The next step will be to ask that the constitution of Lebanon be changed so that the country be ruled by Sharia law, as with many other Arab and Islamic states, including the Palestinian Authority (PA). The PA constitution declares: “The principles of Islamic Sharia shall be the main source of legislation.”

Recent upheavals in Lebanon are making local Christians communities worry about their existence as heirs and descendants of the first Christians. Christians in the Middle East now are facing a huge genocide — similar to the Christian genocide the followed the Islamic conquest of the Middle East in the 7th century A.D.

Islamic jihadist groups are threatening Lebanese Christians and demanding that they submit to Islam. Lebanon’s Christians, descendants of Aramaic Syriacs, were the majority in the country a mere 100 years ago.

The demand for Christians to convert to Islam was one of the declarations issued by ISIS and other Islamic groups hiding in the mountainous border between Syria and Lebanon.

Saad Hariri, a Saudi-backed Sunni Muslim politician and the son of assassinated Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, recently invited every Lebanese party to his office to sign a document confirming that Lebanon is an Arab state. Arab state equals Islamic laws, as with all members of the Arab League. Why is it so important to Hariri or to the Sunni and Islamic world to include Lebanon as an Arab state and cancel its current name as a Lebanese state only?

Turkey Blackmails Europe on Visa-Free Travel by Soeren Kern

The European Union now finds itself in a classic catch-22 situation. Large numbers of Muslim migrants will flow to Europe regardless of whether or not the EU approves the visa waiver for Turkey.

“If visa requirements are lifted completely, each of these persons could buy a cheap plane ticket to any German airport, utter the word ‘asylum,’ and trigger a years-long judicial process with a good chance of ending in a residency permit.” — German analyst Andrew Hammel.

In their haste to stanch the rush of migrants, European officials effectively allowed Turkey to conflate the two very separate issues of a) uncontrolled migration into Europe and b) an end to visa restrictions for Turkish nationals.

“Why should a peaceful, stable, prosperous country like Germany import from some remote corner of some faraway land a violent ethnic conflict which has nothing whatsoever to do with Germany and which 98% Germans do not understand or care about?” — German analyst Andrew Hammel.

“Democracy, freedom and the rule of law…. For us, these words have absolutely no value any longer.” — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Turkey has threatened to renege on a landmark deal to curb illegal migration to the European Union if the bloc fails to grant visa-free travel to Europe for Turkey’s 78 million citizens by the end of June.

If Ankara follows through on its threat, it would reopen the floodgates and allow potentially millions of migrants from Africa, Asia and the Middle East to flow from Turkey into the European Union.

Under the terms of the EU-Turkey deal, which entered into effect on March 20, Turkey agreed to take back migrants and refugees who illegally cross the Aegean Sea from Turkey to Greece. In exchange, the European Union agreed to resettle up to 72,000 Syrian refugees living in Turkey, and pledged up to 6 billion euros ($6.8 billion) in aid to Turkey during the next four years.

European officials also promised to restart Turkey’s stalled EU membership talks by the end of July 2016, and to fast-track visa-free access for Turkish nationals to the Schengen (open-bordered) passport-free zone by June 30.