Displaying the most recent of 91396 posts written by

Ruth King

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Pope Francis, ‘The Song of Roland’ and Imam Al-Tayeb by Giulio Meotti

By on December 1st, 2019

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15228/pope-francis-imam-al-tayeb

“I have a family of Christians who do not want to convert, what do we do with them?”, a jihadist in Iraq asked his superior.

According a new report by Aid to the Church in Need, “over 245 million Christians [are] living in places where they experience high levels of persecution,” 4,305 Christians were killed for their faith from 2017 to 2019, and 1,847 churches and other Christian buildings were attacked in the same period. The report states that “within a generation, Iraq’s Christian population has shrunk by more than 90 percent.”

Christians in Burkina Faso are now being forced to “flee, convert or die”…. British Baroness Cox recently discovered, on a fact-finding mission to Nigeria, mass murders of Christians by Muslim extremists (more than 1,000 Christians killed since January and more than 6,000 since 2015).

“The astonishing ignorance of these basic teachings on the part of Pope Francis and his advisors doesn’t make for a more harmonious world: it makes for a more dangerous one. Those who buy into their fantasy view… are in for a rude surprise when they encounter the real thing”. — William Kilpatrick, Crisis, September 25, 2019.

In Cyprus, Turks have converted 78 churches into mosques. Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan himself has called to convert — again — Hagia Sophia into a mosque.

The West and its religious leaders need to stop repenting and face reality. For the Pope, the head of more than a billion Catholics, it means using his dialogue with Islam to challenge it and ask its leaders, such as Al-Tayeb, to stop threatening Christians. Now, please, in 2019, not in 1209, at the time of the “Song of Roland”.

Two recent incidents in the same week highlighted Pope Francis’s upside-down vision about a religion.

Recalling a scene from the famous 11th-century poem “The Song of Roland”, in which Christians in Spain threatened Muslims “to choose between baptism or death”, Pope Francis recently said, “We must beware of fundamentalist groups; each (religion) has their own. Fundamentalism is a plague and all religions have some fundamentalist first cousin”. A few days before that, Pope Francis received the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, Ahmed Al-Tayeb.

Continue reading →
WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Iran: Between Samson and Samsung by Amir Taheri

By on December 1st, 2019

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15231/iran-samson-samsung

The daily Kayhan, commonly believed to reflect Khamenei’s views, is even calling for gallows to be erected to hang “evil-doers” in public, regardless of the numbers involved.

Khamenei’s “Samson option” reminds one of Hermann Goering, the German Nazi grandee who boasted that whenever he faces a cultural problem he cannot understand he reaches for his gun.

One could call this “the Samsung option” as Jahromi, who masterminded the cutting of the Internet for several days to break the uprising’s momentum, has a plan to make it difficult if not impossible for millions of poor Iranians to use mobile phones and have access to the Internet. In other words, “Samsung” ought to be treated as a weapon only reserved for the 30 percent of the population that, according to Rouhani, are “content with the good life they have.”

As the latest wave of protests in Iran begins to subside, at least for the time being, the Khomeinist ruling elite still appear unable to decide what caused the uprising and how to deal with its consequences.

One faction, led by “Supreme Guide” Ali Khamenei, offers a standard analysis that has become the hallmark of the regime’s approach to all things political. Khamenei says the uprising was the result of “a deep, broad and very dangerous foreign conspiracy” and nothing else. Moreover, he insists that the only way to deal with its consequences is with an iron fist.

The daily Kayhan, commonly believed to reflect Khamenei’s views, is even calling for gallows to be erected to hang “evil-doers” in public, regardless of the numbers involved.

Continue reading →
WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Fellow Terrorist of London Bridge Also Released Early, Also Plotted AttackDaniel Greenfield

By on December 1st, 2019

https://www.frontpagemag.com/point/2019/12/fellow-terrorist-london-bridge-also-released-early-daniel-greenfield/

Usman Khan, the Pakistani Muslim terrorist who went on a stabbing spree near London Bridge, had been sent to jail in 2012 for his role in a massive terror plot, before being released in 2018. Another of his comrades, who was also released, had plotted his own terror attack.

A terrorist jailed with London Bridge knifeman Usman Khan over a plot to kill Boris Johnson and attack London landmarks left prison only to begin planning a Lee Rigby-style murder.

Mohibur Rahman, 35, was one of nine terrorists, also including Khan, who were handed long sentences in 2012 for a plan to blow up famous sights in the capital including the London Eye and the London Stock Exchange.

Rahman was released in 2015 but while serving part of his sentence at Belmarsh top security prison in South-East London he became friends with two men from the West Midlands, Khobaib Hussain and Naweed Ali.

The trio formed a group that they called ‘The Three Musketeers’ and used that name to communicate with each other on encrypted social media apps.

Continue reading →
WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Pakistani Muslim London Stabber Was Let Out After Only 6 Years for Terror Plot Daniel Greenfield

By on December 1st, 2019

https://www.frontpagemag.com/point/2019/12/pakistani-muslim-london-stabber-was-let-out-after-daniel-greenfield/

The rule for Muslim terrorists in Europe is if at first you don’t succeed, file appeals, wait for the system to fail, and kill a bunch of people anyway.

That was what allowed Pakistani Muslim terrorist Usman Khan to wreak havoc with a stabbing spree in London.

Usman Khan was convicted on terrorism charges but let out of prison early. He attended a “Learning Together” conference for ex-offenders, and used the event to launch a bloody attack, stabbing two people to death and wounding three others.

Unsurprisingly, the conference didn’t help. Neither did the reported ankle bracelet. Keeping him in jail would have prevented this.

But he did win an appeal.

Khan, along with a number of others, was jailed in 2012 for plotting schemes including blowing up the London Stock Exchange.

However Khan, from Persia Walk in Tunstall, and others successfully had their sentences reduced to 16-year prison terms in 2013 – with Khan released on licence in 2018.

Khan’s barrister, Joel Bennathan QC, insisted that Khan’s indefinite term, from which he may never be released, was simply too tough for one so young. He also claimed the crown court judge was ‘wrong to promote his offence to a high level of sophistication.’

So the lesson here is that “deradicalization” is a scam that gets people killed.

Continue reading →
NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Genomic Science Kept My Boys from Going Blind A rare disease almost took their eyesight, but before their world went dark, a medical miracle happened. By Kristin Papiro

By on December 1st, 2019

https://www.wsj.com/articles/genomic-science-kept-my-boys-from-going-blind-11575063112?mod=opinion_lead_pos6

Nine years ago, my family attended a medical conference in Philadelphia for the genetically unblessed. My husband, Eddie, and I found kinship with the other parents there, born of shared purpose: We refused to accept the diagnosis that our child was going blind.

Not long after we brought my newborn son, Anthony, home from the hospital, we noticed his eyes kept darting to the nearest light. If left in a room alone, he couldn’t self-soothe unless we placed him beside a sunlit window out of which he would obsessively gaze. He was eventually diagnosed with Leber congenital amaurosis, or LCA, a rare retinal disease affecting one out of every 50,000 newborns.

If you think of your eye as a camera, LCA isn’t a problem with the lens; the camera itself is broken. The eye cannot properly transmit light and color to the brain. For Anthony, it was like viewing the world permanently through a pair of sunglasses. It was only a matter of time, the doctors agreed, before the lights went out completely.

In 2010 we had learned about promising animal research that was about to move into human clinical trials. At the conference we watched a presentation describing how scientists were injecting modified DNA into the eyes of dogs with LCA, stopping their vision loss. However, that research applied to only 8% of the patient population—those who had the RPE65 gene type.

We gathered in a breakout session with about 50 other parents after the presentation. A nice guy from a drug company went around the room, family by family, and chatted with us. Of all the LCA patients, he found only two kids with the lucky number 65 gene. One of them was ours.

Continue reading →
MEDIA Comments turned off

Newsweek Fires Anti-Trump Reporter Behind False Thanksgiving Story By Michael van der Galien

By on December 1st, 2019

https://pjmedia.com/trending/newsweek-fires-anti-trump-reporters-who-wrote-inaccurate-story-on-the-presidents-thanksgiving-plans/

Until today, Jessica Kwong was a political reporter for Newsweek. More specifically, it was her job to keep an eye on the Trump administration, the Trump family, and the 2020 race for president. This week, however, she was fired. The reason? On Thanksgiving Day, she published an article in which she claimed that the president and first lady planned to spend the holiday golfing, tweeting, “and more” some such. Sadly for her, President Trump secretly flew to Afghanistan, where he met the troops (and served them turkey).

After President Trump had landed, pro-Trump Twitter users rightfully went after her. One of her fiercest critics was First Son Donald Trump Jr. “The President spends his Thanksgiving with American troops deployed in Afghanistan, including serving them lunch,” he wrote on Twitter. “Meanwhile, over at the Fake News…”…..

That tweet was retweeted over 8,000 times, which was a sure sign that the story about the Newsweek hoax had gone viral.Afterward — and when even Kwong and her Newsweek friends couldn’t deny President Trump’s presence in Afghanistan any longer — the story was updated, as was Kwong’s tweet in which she shared the original article.

It was, she wrote, “an honest mistake.” It wasn’t nice, no, but it could happen to anyone. Or something.

Continue reading →
ANTI-SEMITISM Comments turned off

Where Have All the Alphas Gone? By David Solway

By on December 1st, 2019

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/where-have-all-the-alphas-gone/

For some time now I have watched the immensely popular HGTV as a window on the culture—a large picture window letting in “lots of natural light,” as the rather silly and predictable house hunters are fond of saying—providing a cameo on the conventions of middle-class society. One notices, with few exceptions, that the wives tend to be voluble and bossy; they speak first, far more often, more insistently and more authoritatively. Their needs and desires are clearly predominant. The husbands, for their part, are mostly bland and subservient, almost leguminous in comparison, generally deferring to their wives with only the occasional mewl of protest.

One notes, too, the lack of genuine taste, the utter preoccupation with trivialities, and the cloying banality of conversation among the often obese participants. They are obviously hewing to script, but the ideas, habits, physical attributes, speech patterns, attitudes and expectations on display are close enough to the cultural norm to seem authentic. People recognize themselves and their aspirations in these TV episodes. Although the self-indulgence and broadly decorticate behavior one observes is certainly off-putting, the absence of gender parity, in favor of the wives, is perhaps the most conspicuous quality that affirms itself.

One might dismiss these observations as making too much of a mere reality TV show, but HGTV does let in a lot of natural light on a culture grown flaccid and critically disoriented. The ascendancy of the now-dominant, rule-giving female and the attendant decline of the proud and assertive male is the order of the day. The male essence is not a privilege but a fact of nature—that is, when nature is allowed to take its course. Yet, everywhere we look men are surrendering their right to be men—to be strong, confident, honest, unashamed and productive. I do not blame the vindictive and self-righteous feminists for the debacle. I blame the men who have allowed a social disaster to come to pass. We now see the gradual disappearance, or at least the alarming paucity, of alpha males in the social mix accompanied by the rising tide of beta males—apologists for their “toxic” nature, Michael Kimmel types— who are complicit with the feminist agenda.

Continue reading →
BOOKS, WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Palestinians: Victims of Islamic Delusion By Amil Imani

By on December 1st, 2019

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2019/11/palestinians_victims_of_islamic_delusion.html

It is said that it is a crime to remain silent in the face of evil, deceit, and deception.  Robert Spencer, one of the foremost authorities of Islamic law, has succinctly spoken unwelcome and little recognized truths in his new fact-based book: The Palestinian Delusion: The Catastrophic History of the Middle East Peace Process.  Spencer has painstakingly separated fact from fiction.

The Israeli-Palestinian Arab conflict is one of the world’s longest and most tragic conflicts, without any end in sight.  It should be noted that hundreds, if not thousands, of books and articles have been written about this willful tragedy of enormous historical and human misunderstanding and errors.  Spencer has penned a book that is both timely and highly educational.

From Chapter One, “How Israel came to be,” to the book’s final chapter, “What is to be done?,” Spencer has backed up his reports with highly credible sources that leave no doubt in the mind of the reader about Israel’s right to exist.  He gives solid answers to questions such as Why don’t the Palestinians have their own country? Is it the fault of Israel? Of the Palestinians? Of both parties?

Continue reading →
ENVIRONMENT AND JUNK SCIENCE Comments turned off

Republicans Will Live to Regret Joining Climate Alarmists By Gamaliel Isaac

By on December 1st, 2019

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2019/11/republicans_will_live_to_regret_joining_climate_alarmists.html

Anxiety about global warming is skyrocketing in the Western world to the point one psychiatrist says, “I believe that everyone now has some climate anxiety.”  It’s no wonder.  Western leaders stoke the fires.  On November 28, 2019, the European parliament declared a global climate emergency.  Its members were responding in part to a children’s crusade to save the planet.  In March 2019, millions of children in over 120 countries skipped school to embark on what has become a series of “climate strikes.”  Young speakers raised alarming scenarios like what would happen when people without food and water “sought sanctuary and were faced with cages and guns instead.”

“Climate crisis” and “climate emergency” are replacing the neutral-sounding “climate change.”  Then there’s the threatening “extreme weather,” which has become a major focus as warming has stalled over the last two decades.  Climate alarmists blame rising, man-made CO2 emissions for supposedly ever more frequent and intense hurricanes, tornadoes, volcanic activity, drought, flooding, and snowstorms.  (Never mind that twenty years ago, David Viner, a senior research scientist of the climatic research unit of the University of East Anglia, predicted that “children just aren’t going to know what snow is.”)

 Tony Heller, a contributor to realclimatechange.com, made a video showing news clips of “extreme weather” from the 1930s, when carbon dioxide levels were low.  He narrated: “It was by far the hottest decade on record in the United States.  The deadliest flooding in human history occurred in China in the 1930s[.] … The worst droughts in U.S. history also occurred in the 1930s.  Eighty percent of the U.S. was in drought during July 85 years ago.  The heat and drought led to massive dust storms.  The U.S. also had some of its worst flooding on record during the 1930s. … The most intense hurricane in modern U.S. history occurred in 1935[.] … Climatologists simply omit the 1930s from their graphs.”

Continue reading →
ANTI-SEMITISM Comments turned off

Sic Transit Gloria Mundi by Marilyn Penn

By on December 1st, 2019

http://politicalmavens.com/index.php/topic/politics/

The Metropolitan Museum of Art was founded in 1870 and moved to its present location on Fifth Avenue ten years later. It has benefited from the work of many illustrious architects from the 19th century on – all adding to the elegance and majesty of America’s premiere neo-classical palace of Art. Its collections are priceless, ranging from ancient Egyptian, Greek, Roman, Assyrian, Chinese and many other cultures to contemporary painting and sculpture with an emphasis on international presentation of art in all its myriad forms.

Each season, the museum publishes a brochure called What’s On that features descriptions of the temporary exhibitions as well as gallery talks, tours, concerts, talks by the artists, conversations with curators and art historians It’s an excellent way to get acquainted with activities you might not know about and parts of the vast museum you might never have visited. It undoubtedly has an international mailing to members and patrons and perhaps an even broader audience online; as such it represents the grandeur and diversity of the museum itself.

In the current Winter brochure, there is a description of the Great Hall Commission which consists of two monumental paintings by Kent Monkman, a Cree artist, which will be on view in the Great Hall from December to April. According to the brochure “Central to his work are themes of colonization, sexuality, loss, and resilience, and he often enlists his gender-fluid alter ego, Miss Chief Eagle Testickle, a time-traveling, shape-shifting, supernatural being, to challenge notions of history and indigenous peoples.” I’m not sure who wrote this but it sounds a lot like a sophomoric college student majoring in Gender Studies. In the Welcome article on the first page of the brochure, the new director of the Met, Max Hollein, had this to say about the artist: “His two monumental paintings are the latest in a series of contemporary commissions in which we invite artists to create new works inspired by the Met collection. Monkman’s themes of migrations and displacement, provocatively expressed with the help of his alter-ego, Miss Chief, disrupt our notions of history while recalling iconic American and European works.” You will notice that he left out Miss Chief’s name, a wise decision to overrule either the artist’s own words or those of his agent or the decision of a trendy-wannabe editor of What’s On.

In another location, The Museum of Sex for example, Monkman’s feeble attempt at humor or p.c. obedience might not stand out, but at the Met, it sounds as silly and crude as a child shouting curse words at church. It rings shallow and hollow under the rubric of the pinnacle of American Culture. Whoever allowed it to remain has cheapened the dignity of the Met and sadly, unlike an inappropriate comment that is spoken, this one will stand out in black print for five months. Sic transit gloria mundi………

Continue reading →