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December 2015

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Abuse of the J-1 Visa Was a Sidelight of San Bernardino Attacks A Russian woman was in U.S. illegally when she married Enrique Marquez Jr., accused of buying rifles By Miriam Jordan

By on December 27th, 2015

The San Bernardino attacks this month put the spotlight on a type of visa issued to a wide swath of foreigners, from camp counselors to physicians, and how easy it is for recipients to remain in the U.S. after the visa has expired.

A Russian woman who married Enrique Marquez Jr., the man accused of buying rifles used in the Dec. 2 attack, entered the U.S. six years ago on a three-month educational-exchange visa, known as a J-1 visa.

Once that visa expired, she remained for several years in the U.S. without legal status, according to law-enforcement officials.

In late 2014, Mariya Chernykh and Mr. Marquez were married, according to Riverside County, Calif., records. Last week, Mr. Marquez was charged with entering into a sham marriage to enable her to apply for permanent residency in the U.S. Mr. Marquez is also charged with conspiring to support terrorism.

Ms. Chernykh isn’t suspected of involvement in the attack, according to law-enforcement officials. But her case highlights the challenge to deter and identify visa overstays, those who enter the country legally and fail to leave by the stipulated date.

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ANTI-SEMITISM Comments turned off

MARILYN PENN: A REVIEW OF THE MOVIE “45 YEARS”

By on December 27th, 2015

There are strong parallels between “45 Years” and “Away From Her,” a movie starring Julie Christie, written and directed by Sarah Polley and based on a short story by Alice Munro (”The Bear Came Over the Mountain”). “45Years” stars two other well-known actors from the 60’s – Charlotte Rampling and Tom Courtenay, was written and directed by Andrew Haigh and adapted from a short story by David Constantine (”In Another Country”). Furthering the link, viewers of a certain age will remember an exuberant Tom Courtenay and an exhilarating Julie Christie in a breakout performance in “Billy Liar.” Both “45 Years” and “Away From Her” deal with the dissolving threads of a long marriage; one triggered by the unexpected imposition of a tragic past love and one by the torments of dementia as it robs its victim of her very identity.

“45 Years” centers on the quiet intimacy between Kate and Geoff Mercer, a retired couple whose lives consist of walks with their dog, shared meals and time spent at home listening to music and reading. When a letter written in German arrives, we see the power of a withheld secret begin to erode the bond between husband and wife and eat away at each of them differently. All the action and revelations take place within one week that is scheduled to culminate in a party for their 45th wedding anniversary. These two are portrayed as very low-keyed, unpretentious people who don’t like to socialize much and who, at their own wedding, resented the notion of a special table for the bride and groom. One of the changes made in the screen adaption was framing a story about internal emotions around a too-large, too-festive party. These characters wouldn’t have wanted to even attend such an event, much less host it. It becomes difficult to reconcile the cranky personality of the scruffy husband with the tuxedo-clad bon vivant willing to make public proclamations about his feelings for his wife. Similarly one wonders who created the invitation list for this party – surely not the solitary, introverted Kate who eschewed the demands of raising children because her life consisted of a very tiny bond of two.

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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION, WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Producer of film Hillary Clinton blamed for Benghazi terror attack interviewed by CB editor Jim Kouri

By on December 27th, 2015

Following the Islamist terror group’s attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya on Sept. 11, 2012, Conservative Base’s editor, Jim Kouri, interviewed one of the principles involved in producing the motion picture that Secretary Hillary Clinton blamed for the terrorist attack that killed four Americans including a U.S. ambassador. Kouri interviewed former U.S. Marine Major Steven Klein for NewswithViews.com in May 2013. Below is that interview:

As U.S. lawmakers continue to peel away layers of the Benghazi cover up, the partisan politics involved during the Congressional probes that have been twisted and maligned by members of the news media appear to be the only stories most news organizations are covering.

For example, little attention is being paid to the mysterious filmmaker who created the motion picture, “Innocence of Muslims,” which President Barack Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and other administration minions blamed for the deaths of a U.S. ambassador and three other Americans in Benghazi, Libya, according to a former U.S. Marine, who worked on the now famous motion picture, in an exclusive interview with NewsWithViews.com.

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WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Open Letter to President Obama about Christmas Bells Falling by Silent Mark Durie

By on December 27th, 2015

Mark Durie is a theologian, a Shillman-Ginsburg Writing Fellow at the Middle East Forum, and author of The Third Choice: Islam, Dhimmitude and Freedom.

President Obama was mistaken in his Christmas message: it is not true that church bells have been ringing in the Middle East for centuries.

Dear President Obama,

In your recent statement on persecuted Christians at Christmas you stated: In some areas of the Middle East where church bells have rung for centuries on Christmas Day, this year they will be silent; this silence bears tragic witness to the brutal atrocities committed against these communities by ISIL. When you say that ‘church bells have rung for centuries’ you are not speaking the truth. Bells have rung in Syria and Iraq for not much more than a hundred years, at most.

As determined by Islamic law, church bells did not sound throughout the Middle East for more than a thousand years from the 7th century conquests until modern times (except under the Crusaders). This was due to the conditions set by the Pact of the Caliph Umar, by which Christians of Syria surrendered to Islamic conquest in the 7th century AD. In this pact the Christians agreed that “We will not sound the bells in our churches.” Churches in regions controlled by Muslims used semantrons (also calls nakos) instead of the forbidden church bells. Examples of these are still visible in Jerusalem to this day, e.g. see here.

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WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Former King wanted England bombed and an Anglo-German alliance, archives reveal Was Edward VIII a Nazi sympathizer? Damning evidence indicates this is true… By: Karina Urbach

By on December 27th, 2015

King Edward VIII was forced to abdicate in 1936, and soon took the title of the Duke of Windsor. He has always been known for his pro-Nazi sympathies. However, the extent of his betrayal could never be fully verified due to the secrecy of the Royal Archives.

The Royal Archives have always ensured that letters from German relatives of the royal family in the run up to World War II remain closed. Naturally, such censorship has led to endless conspiracy theories.

But over the past eight years I have accumulated damning evidence by sifting through 30 archives all over the world that are open. Intelligence reports and German, Spanish and Russian documents show members of the British royal family were indeed far closer to Nazi Germany than has previously been recognised. I present this in full in my new book Go-Betweens for HitlerExternal link .

One key to this Anglo-German network is Charles Edward Duke of Coburg (1884-1954). In a Channel 4 programmeExternal link on him in 2007, I called Coburg “a Nazi who got away with it”, but I had no idea about the magnitude of his crimes at the time.

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BOOKS Comments turned off

GOOD NEWS FROM AMAZING ISRAEL FROM MICHAEL ORDMAN

By on December 27th, 2015

www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com
http://blogs.jpost.com/users/just-look-us-now
ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS

New molecule kills cancer cells. (TY Nevet) Researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have developed a molecule known as NT157 which targets metastatic human melanoma and colon cancer. The molecule has been licensed to Israeli startup TyrNovo for medical trials.
https://www.afhu.org/internationally-acclaimed-researchers-discover-a-double-anti-cancer-agent/news/

Software to stop that stutter. Israel’s Novotalk is the only app that includes a therapy aspect for stuttering intervention. Novotalk’s fluency shaping therapy has a 90% success rate. Approximately 1% of the world’s adult population stutters – approximately 70 million people. http://novotalk.com/
http://www.janglo.net/index.php?option=com_adsmanager&page=display&catid=99&tid=377059

Don’t let your blood sugar levels spike. Scientists at Israel’s Weizmann Institute have published a study showing the danger to health from eating foods that cause the blood sugar level to rise quickly. These foods vary for each individual and Weizmann wants more Israelis to join its Personalized Nutrition Project.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/will-ice-cream-make-you-gain-weight-it-depends-on-your-gut-study-finds/
http://www.cell.com/cell/abstract/S0092-8674%2815%2901481-6

Treatment for diabetics in China. Israel’s Oramed has signed a deal worth $50 million that gives China’s Hefei Life Science & Technology (HLST) the rights to Oramed’s oral insulin capsule ORMD-0801 in China, Hong Kong and Macau. ORMD-0801 will help treat the large and growing numbers of diabetics in China.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/oramed-inks-huge-50m-deal-with-chinese-pharma-firm/

Sleep is key to success of bone marrow transplants. A clinical study by Professor Asya Rolls of Israel’s Technion has shown that the donor needs to sleep well in the four hours prior to donating their stem cells. If not, the success of the transplant decreases by 50%.
http://pard.technion.ac.il/2015/11/04/sleep-well-for-stem-cells/

Non-invasive procedure wins $10,000 prize. Three students from Israel’s Technion, won the $10,000 first prize at the BizTEC Entrepreneurship Competition held at Microsoft’s Herzliya R&D center. Their product solves the major problem of collecting urine samples from millions of babies each year.
http://www.technion.ac.il/en/2015/10/peekaboo-group-1st-in-biztec-2015/

Keep your hair. A team of students from Israel’s Technion have developed a treatment for hair loss, without side-effects. It won them “Best New Application” at the 2015 international iGEM synthetic biology competition in Massachusetts.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/203768#.VnLYlFnn-Ug

Tech for first responders. The Israel-US Binational Industrial Research and Development (BIRD) Foundation has granted $12 million over the next 3 years to Israeli-American projects that develop advanced technologies for first responders. The “NextGen” collaboration is expected to produce many lifesaving solutions.
http://jewishbusinessnews.com/2015/12/21/us-israel-to-co-develop-technologies-for-first-responders/

Highest birthrate, lowest C-section rate. The childbirth rate of Israeli women is the highest among the 34 OECD countries, while its rate of cesarean sections is the lowest. The Israeli birthrate of 3.0 compares to the OECD average of 1.7. The Israeli cesarean rate is 154.3 per 1,000 births whilst the OECD figure is 258.7.
http://www.jpost.com/Business-and-Innovation/Health-and-Science/Israel-has-lowest-C-section-rate-in-OECD-436014

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