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Ruth King

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Administrators Veto ‘Mine Shaft’ Nickname for Athletic Center Over Concerns That It’s ‘Rape Culture’ Katherine Timpf

By on July 20th, 2016

Students at the Colorado School of Mines selected “the Mine Shaft” as the nickname for its new athletic center — only for the administration to veto it over concern that it’s “rape culture.”

According to e-mail correspondence obtained by Heat Street, the administration decided to override the students’ overwhelming vote for the nickname because a student wrote an e-mail last August complaining that the name was “rape culture” and “phallic.”

Or, as that student spelled it, “phalic:”

“The idea behind the name, at least from the students [sic] perspective, was that the students could tell the opposing team they had been ‘shafted,’” the student, whose name had been redacted, wrote, continuing:

“The most common definition of the word means to get jipped out of a deal, which doesn’t make since [sic] for us to be telling another team. But the other and most disturbing definition is to be raped. Bottom line, I think the name supports rape culture. If Mines is truly trying to diversify the campus maybe they should not have the student section have such a phalic [sic] name.”

Um. Just a couple of things about that.

One: It’s interesting that this student used the word “jipped” — a term considered by many in social-justice circles to be “racially charged” — in an e-mail demanding political correctness perfection.

Two: This whole controversy is alarmingly stupid.

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What’s in a Name? Plenty, if It’s a ‘GMO.’ ‘Genetically modified organism’ is a meaningless category. By Henry I. Miller

By on July 20th, 2016

‘GMOs” get a lot of attention. Devotees of organic and “natural” food want to avoid them, on principle. Anti-technology activists prattle about their imaginary dangers. Pandering to special interests, confused members of Congress have been trying to find a way to require labels on them, which they finally accomplished with legislation last week. But that effort, like others, became fatally tangled up in terminology.

The problem is that there’s no such thing as a GMO, except in the fevered imagination of bureaucrats, legislators, and activists. The bipartisan “compromise” on GMO labeling passed last week includes a weird, unscientific, politically motivated hodge-podge of products that makes absolutely no sense. For example, corn or soybeans modified with recombinant-DNA (“gene-splicing”) techniques would need to be labeled, while oils from them would not.

That’s not the only flaw. Genetic engineering is a seamless continuum of techniques that have been used over millennia, including (among others) hybridization, mutagenesis, wide-cross hybridization (movement of genes across “natural breeding barriers”), recombinant DNA, and now gene-editing. But, inexplicably, the new legislation covers labeling only if a food “contains genetic material that has been modified through in vitro recombinant deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) techniques” and “for which the modification could not otherwise be obtained through conventional breeding or found in nature.” Older techniques and also anything modified with the newest gene-editing techniques would be exempt.

This is the proverbial legislative sausage-making at its worst.

The new law does accomplish one important thing — the preemption of individual states’ ability to impose other labeling requirements — which was the primary motivation for legislation in the first place. But that could easily have been accomplished without instituting mandatory labeling.

This confusion about terminology is not new. Three decades ago, on January 13, 1987, when I was special assistant to Food and Drug Administration head Frank Young, he and I co-authored a Wall Street Journal op-ed, “Biotechnology: A ‘Scientific’ Term in Name Only,” that began this way:

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The Trump-Proof Convention Message Ordinary Americans who suffered the consequences of bad policies take the stage. By Jim Geraghty

By on July 20th, 2016

“Time and again, President Obama, Hillary Clinton, and their allies prefer to turn away and ignore the ugly consequences when their policies go wrong. They hope that if they act like it’s not a big deal, the public will follow their lead. Donald Trump and his team have made a cavalcade of bad decisions this campaign season, but turning the spotlight on the ordinary Americans suffering those consequences was one of their best.”

Yes, Donald Trump is a flawed messenger for the case against Hillary Clinton, but that doesn’t make the message any less true or compelling. The decision by a lot of big-name Republican lawmakers to skip the Cleveland convention was a blessing in disguise, because it cleared the stage for ordinary Americans who suffered the cruel, random, and deadly consequences of the Obama administration’s policies.

The speeches from the non-politicians on Monday night weren’t always professionally polished or slick. During these presentations, the high-level media risers to the right of the stage seethed with exasperated sighs, gasps of disbelief, and eye-rolling groans. But the speakers told Americans stories they needed to hear — and while Monday’s effort to force a vote on the rule shows Republican delegates aren’t fully unified on the qualities of Donald Trump, the roaring arena showed they are united in fury at the thought of Hillary Clinton continuing the misrule from the Oval Office.

Some Americans might ask, “Why rehash the Fast and Furious scandal?” — and most other Americans won’t even remember the details of the wrongdoing. But Fast and Furious was an early, important example of the Obama administration’s culture of unaccountability.

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Obama Withheld from Congress Another Secret Side Deal with the Iranians New tally of secret side deals: three. The next president should rip up the whole thing. By Fred Fleitz

By on July 20th, 2016

Veteran Associated Press IAEA reporter George Jahn made news yesterday by revealing a secret agreement to the July 2015 nuclear deal with Iran (the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA). This agreement says that in January 2027, Tehran will be allowed to replace the primitive 5,060 uranium centrifuges it is allowed to operate while the nuclear agreement is in effect with more-advanced designs, even though other restrictions on Iranian uranium enrichment remain in place for 15 years.

I believe this is a significant development because it represents another secret JCPOA side deal that the Obama administration illegally withheld from Congress.

This agreement means that in only eleven years, Iran will be permitted to substantially increase its capability to produce nuclear fuel faster and in larger amounts. Since Iran is permitted to conduct R&D on advanced centrifuges while the JCPOA is in place — and can expand this effort after eight and a half years — it probably will be able to quickly construct and install these advanced centrifuges.

Jahn reported that although this undisclosed, confidential agreement is “an integral part” of the JCPOA, Iran will not be permitted to accumulate more than 300 kilograms of low-enriched uranium for 15 years. In light of recent reports that the Iranians are already cheating on the nuclear agreement, it is hard to believe that they will continue to abide by this restriction after they install more-advanced centrifuges .

Some media outlets responded to Jahn’s story as a major revelation. I agree but for different reasons from what many are laying out. It’s not news that Iran can begin enriching under the JCPOA with advanced centrifuges after ten years. I reported this in my new book, Obamabomb: A Dangerous and Growing National Security Threat. I’ve also explained that there is no limit on the number of uranium centrifuges Iran can operate after ten years.

What is news is that the Obama administration is a party to another secret side deal to the JCPOA that explicitly recognizes Iran’s plan to greatly expand its uranium-enrichment program. Other secret side deals include one that allows Iran to inspect itself on possible nuclear-weapons-related work and another that possibly weakened IAEA reporting on Iran’s nuclear program.

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Muslim Stabs 8-Year-Old in France for Being “Scantily Dressed” Daniel Greenfield

By on July 20th, 2016

You may not be interested in Islamic law, but Islamic law is interested in you. And this is how it arrives, with one atrocity and murder after another. This is how it begins. But this is not how it ends. How it ends is up to us.

We can have a world where Muslim men stab 8-year-olds for being scantily dressed. Or we can have a free world. We can’t however have both.

An eight-year-old girl is fighting for her life after a mum and her three daughters were reportedly stabbed in a French holiday resort for being ‘scantily dressed’.

The family are said to have been targeted while holidaying in Garda-Colombe in the Hautes-Alpes near Montpellier in southern France.

The 46-year-old woman and the girls – aged eight, 12 and 14 – were all attacked before the knifeman fled the scene – according to police.

The 37-year-old man, who is said to be of Moroccan origin, has since been arrested following the incident at around 10am local time (9am UK time) this morning.

Police say the motive for the attack remains ‘vague’ but local media reports state the attacker had made references to the females being ‘too lightly dressed’.

Eye-witnesses said the mum and her daughters had been having breakfast when they were attacked.

The motive is of course unclear and confused. No doubt it will be discovered that he is a confused, secular and irreligious loner who doesn’t have a thing to do with Islam.

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The Iran Deal – A Blueprint for War Secret addendum to the JCPOA reveals an agreement even more flawed than initially believed. Ari Lieberman

By on July 20th, 2016

There’s an iconic scene in the Star Wars trilogy where the protagonistic smuggler, Lando Calrissian, bitterly notes that a deal he struck with the evil Darth Vader is “getting worse all the time.” That exasperated sentiment strikes the right tone for the way many now view the deeply flawed Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), alternatively known as the Iran Deal.

To refer to the Iran Deal as deeply flawed is in fact, a gross understatement. The JCPOA contained many disquieting clauses that many, including Obama’s supporters, saw as gravely dangerous. The deal made a mockery out of Obama’s claims that Iran’s nuclear facilities would be subjected to “anytime anywhere” inspections. In fact, under the deal, Iran is permitted to delay inspections by up to twenty-four days. Moreover, the opaque Parchin facility, where Iran has conducted its most secretive nuclear experiments, continues to remain largely off limits to international inspectors.

It now comes to light a secret addendum to the deal permits the Iranians to reduce their breakout time – the time needed to produce enough weapons-grade material sufficient for the manufacture of nuclear weapons – from one year to just six months or perhaps even less. According to a secret document obtained by the Associated Press, key restrictions on Iran’s ability to enrich uranium taper off after a decade. Under this addendum, the Iranians will be permitted to replace their older, inefficient centrifuges – the machines that enrich uranium – with more modern and efficient ones. The newer centrifuges are in fact up to five times more efficient than the models they would be replacing. Moreover, according to the document, the Iranians will be allowed to conduct research and development on even more advanced centrifuges.

The Obama administration has repeatedly stated that its goal was to hold Iran to a one-year breakout period. Any timeframe less than that would represent a serious threat to national security and would endanger allies. But Obama, faced with multiple foreign policy failures, badly needed to secure at least one success and consequently, shoved a badly flawed agreement – the worst in U.S. diplomatic history, down America’s throat.

He employed his unscrupulous shills, including the notorious Ben Rhodes, to feed lies and falsehoods to the American people. Those fabrications were then skillfully magnified by manipulating elements within the media to repeat the administration’s talking points. Organizations like the anti-Israel J-Street were also employed for this dastardly task. “We created an echo chamber,” a smug Rhodes admitted with self-satisfaction.

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Huma Abedin and the Declassified Saudi Arabia 9/11 Revelations Newly released pages raise troubling questions about the Clinton confidante’s own jihadist connections. Joseph Klein

By on July 20th, 2016

The 28 classified pages of the “Congressional Joint Inquiry into Intelligence Community Activities Before and After the Terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001” (“Report”) have been finally de-classified and released, with some redactions, to the public. The material in these pages points to evidence of connections between Saudi individuals and groups affiliated in some way with the Saudi government or its funded entities and terrorist organizations. Individuals named in the Report include Omar Al-Bayoumi, Osama Bassnan, Shakyh al-Thumiary, Saleh Hussayen and Osama Bin Laden’s half-brother Abdullah Bin Laden. The Report also mentions groups such as the World Arab Muslim Youth Association (WAMY), based in Saudi Arabia, which the FBI believes is ‘closely associated with funding and financing of international terrorist activities.”

The information in the Report details the activities of these Saudi individuals and related groups, including in the United States. There is a network of links to Saudi government entities, Saudi-funded front groups espousing radical Islam and jihad on the Wahhabist model, and terrorist organizations or individuals. A study of organizations in this network, with the Saudi government agencies or front groups at its hub, is very instructive in itself. But it reveals something else, highly relevant to this year’s presidential election. There are direct links of Islamic organizations in the network to those to which Hillary Clinton’s top aide and confidante Huma Abedin has belonged. To be clear, Huma Abedin is not named in the Report. However, her associations with groups linked to what is referenced in the Report is highly troubling, to say the least.

The Muslim Student Association was founded by members of the Muslim Brotherhood. It spreads radical Islamist propaganda. FrontPage Magazine has documented the MSA’s indoctrination activities on U.S. campuses in an essay entitled “The Muslim Students Association and the Jihad Network.” The MSA has had close ties with the Muslim World League (MWL), an organization with ties to jihadist terrorist groups, including Hamas and al Qaeda. MWL was founded by members of the Saudi government. The MSA also has close ties with WAMY, one of the organizations mentioned specifically in the Report and which is the youth wing of the Muslim World League. The Report referenced the FBI’s account of the connections of Osama bin Laden’s half-brother, Abdullah Bin Laden, to terrorist organizations. Mentioned specifically was the fact that he was “the President and Director of the World Arab Muslim Youth Association (WAMY) and the Institute of Islamic and Arabic Science in America.”

A cable released by WikiLeaks under then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s name stated that, according to intelligence, the Muslim World League and the World Assembly of Muslim Youth “continue to send money overseas and, at times, fund extremism overseas.”

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The Black Heroes Who Took Down the Freddie Gray Hoax They stood between the #BlackLivesMatter lynch mob and the police. Daniel Greenfield

By on July 20th, 2016

Once again, Judge Barry G. Williams handed the Freddie Gray lynch mob a decisive defeat, shredding the prosecution’s case against Lt. Brian Rice, the highest ranking police officer targeted by the mob.

Judge Williams stated firmly that, the court “cannot be swayed by sympathy, prejudice or public opinion.” Instead he insisted that it had to follow the law. Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby, who became a national figure by heading the Freddie Gray lynch mob, did not even bother to show up. She knew what was coming. And she had no interest in following the law.

Unlike Mosby, who quickly became a national figure by championing the prosecution of six police officers after the accidental death of Freddie Gray, a drug dealer injured while being transported to the police station, or Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, who supported giving the Baltimore rioters and looters supposedly angry over Gray’s death “space to destroy,” Williams remains strictly local.

And there’s a very good reason for that. It’s the same reason why the media that helped cause the Baltimore riots with their non-stop coverage of the Freddie Gray death haven’t been covering the trials.

Not only is their Freddie Gray hoax being destroyed, trial by trial, based on the lack of evidence, but the destroyer is an articulate and principled African-American judge. Worse still, Judge Williams had prosecuted police misconduct cases for the Justice Department. And when he takes apart the Gray hoax, as he has done in multiple trials, it’s from the standpoint of a uniquely qualified expert.

You can see why the media is staying away.

The better part of Judge Williams’ verdicts can be summed up as laying out all the ways in which the prosecution failed to prove its case, did not even bother to prove its case or did not even understand what case it was trying to prove. As in Officer Nero’s verdict where Williams politely mentions that, “In order to convict the defendant of any of the charges under the theory of accomplice liability, the state would have to prove that a crime occurred… The state’s theory from the beginning has been one of negligence, recklessness and disregard for duty and orders by this defendant. There has been no information presented at this trial that the defendant intended for any crime to happen.”

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The Hostage Air Base – and Its Hydrogen Bombs By Stephen D. Bryen and Shoshana Bryen

By on July 20th, 2016

The United States runs its air operations against ISIS in Iraq from Incirlik Air Base in Turkey. The base, used by other NATO forces as well, is not American. It is Turkish, and the U.S. needs government permission to fly from there. Since the 15 July coup attempt in Ankara, U.S. forces at Incirlik are essentially hostages to the Turkish government. The Turkish base commander and his aides have been arrested; U.S. personnel are confined to base; outside power has been cut off; and while the U.S. has been permitted to resume operations over Iraq and Syria, it is working under adverse conditions, to say the least. Most worrisome, about 50 hydrogen bombs are stored by the U.S. at Incirlik, ostensibly on behalf of NATO. These bombs are “protected” by Turkish troops and to some degree their potential use is shared with the Turkish Air Force.

The deployment goes back more than 50 years, begun as an effort to counter the Soviet military buildup as an offset to quantitatively larger Soviet ground forces facing Europe. But by the mid-1980s the U.S. put more emphasis on “tactical” missiles, largely to counter the Soviet Union’s deployment of SS-20’s, a short to medium range missile with multiple, independently targeted warheads (MIRV) in the second and third versions of the SS-20. In 1987 the Intermediate and Short-range Missile Nuclear Treaty (INF) was signed and the Russians and the U.S. began removing their missiles. By 1991, all the missiles of concern on both sides were eliminated.

With the collapse of the Soviet Union and the expansion of NATO, one can ask why tactical nuclear weapons in NATO were retained as times and conditions have changed. The U.S. now finds itself escalating operations out of Incirlik as it increases the fight against ISIS, al Nusra, and al Qaeda. Turkey itself is increasingly authoritarian and increasingly involved in the wars in Syria and Iraq as well as fighting Kurdish separatists. But only late in 2015 did Incirlik see the beginning of security upgrades for its nuclear stockpile.

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Sharia in Denmark – Part II by Judith Bergman

By on July 20th, 2016

“All the bullying happens in Arabic… The hierarchy of the Arab boys creates a very violent environment. … I have filmed the particularly vile bullying of a Somali boy. You can see the tears in his eyes. They are destroying him; it is very violent. ” — From a dissertation by Jalal El Derbas, Ph.D.

Danish teachers are the least respected and are spoken of in denigrating and humiliating terms.

“I am not saying that all the Arab children did ugly things, but we witnessed on a regular basis… using derogatory Arabic language towards Somalis and girls.” — Lise Egholm, former head of the Rådmandsgade school in Copenhagen.

Whether Danish parliamentarians wish to acknowledge this problem or not, they are up against far wider issues than that of religious incitement in mosques by radical preachers.

After the television documentary, “Sharia in Denmark”, embarrassed Danish authorities by revealing how widespread the preaching of sharia is in mosques in Denmark, the Danish government, in May, concluded a political agreement about “initiatives directed against religious preachers who seek to undermine Danish laws and values and who support parallel legal systems”.

“We are doing everything we can without compromising the constitution and international agreements,” Bertel Haarder, the Minister for Culture and Church, said about the political agreement.

The agreement centers on a number of initiatives, which are supposed to compensate for the detrimental effects of all the years in which sharia was allowed to spread in Denmark while most authorities paid only scant attention to what was happening. Part of the new effort, therefore, will be the mapping of all existing mosques in Denmark.

It will now be obligatory, according to the agreement, for all priests, imams and others who are not part of the Church of Denmark, and who wish to be able to perform weddings — as well as for foreign preachers who apply for residence permits — to learn about Danish family law, freedom and democracy. At the end of the course, all will have to sign a statement that they will accept Danish law, including freedom of speech and religion, gender equality, freedom of sexual orientation, non-discrimination and women’s rights.

The government will examine how to create more transparency in foreign donations to faith communities in Denmark, including controlling and, if necessary, preventing such donations. As part of this work, on May 4 the government presented a law making it a crime to receive funding from a terror organization to establish or run an institution in Denmark, including schools and mosques.

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