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Friday, November 24, 2023

News of the World

I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving. Mine was quiet: it was just me, my wife and our kids who still live at home. 

    Anyway, although I come across a lot of interesting news articles, I cannot hope to write and post about them all. So I thought I would collect at least some of them from the past couple weeks:

    Applications for gun permits have soared across Israel since October 7, when Hamas gunmen stormed through the highly militarised border with the Gaza Strip, with many civilians having to defend themselves while waiting for the army to respond.

    The worst-ever attack against the country has shattered any sense of security Israelis had, and civilians have rushed to arm themselves against future threats as the most right-wing government in Israel's history loosens gun licensing norms.

    "Every time my children play in the park I think 'what will I do if someone comes to attack us?'" Riki Tal, 31, told AFP, picking up an unloaded pistol from the collection at the counter.

    "I want something light and comfortable in my hand," the school teacher said, placing her finger on the trigger, "for self-protection".

    The basement store forbade photography and declined interview requests but the scrum at the counter was testament to the surging interest in weapons among ordinary civilians.

    A mother-daughter pair counted crisp bank notes to pay for a Glock and a man wearing a Jewish kippah yanked up his shirt to feel a Smith & Wesson tucked into his jeans.

    A shelf behind the saleswoman at the counter was lined with souvenirs such as replica bullets and a grenade next to a bevy of figurines with pictures of Israel's dead enemies: Osama bin Laden, Saddam Hussein and Moamer Kadhafi.


    A creche worker who stepped in to prevent a knifeman from attacking children is among those seriously injured following an incident in Dublin on Thursday that saw the city burn as 'far-right' rioters took to the streets in anger.

    The woman, thought to be in her 30s, was seriously injured after she ran to the aid of a five-year-old girl attacked by a man in his 50s. Sources told Irish national press that her actions may have saved two other children aged five and six from serious harm.

    Following the attack outside Gaelscoil Colaiste Mhuire in Parnell Square East, unsubstantiated reports began spreading on social media that the suspect was a foreign national. Anti-immigration protesters then flooded the Irish capital.

    In ugly, violent scenes, vehicles were torched and shops including a Foot Locker were looted; a hotel that was alleged to be hosting asylum seekers was also attacked and riot squads were sent in to quell the disturbance.

    As of 10pm, gardai say city centre streets are 'mainly calm' - but police chiefs and Irish leaders have condemned those who they say allegedly weaponised the attack for 'reprehensible' means.

    A man thought to be in his 50s who was injured in the attacks is being treated as a person of interest. No statement has been made on the suspect's nationality - but gardai say they are satisfied the incident is not terror related. 

Wow, that was an incredibly fast investigation. I can just imagine how it went. "Why did you attack the children?" Algerian suspect: "Because they were infidel who Allah has commanded must be converted by the sword or die. Allah Akbar! Islam is at war with the Great Satan and his people. Someday you will be gone and Islam shall rule over the whole world." Officer checks with Islamic expert on force who assures him that real Islam is not about violence. "Well, then," the officer concludes, "the guy must be crazy." 

    The Irish Independent reports that he is an Irish citizen who, while not born in the country, had lived there for a number of years. Detectives are said to be following a line of inquiry that he may have suffered a 'psychotic episode' prior to the attack.

    A source told the Irish Independent that the creche worker's actions may have stopped the other children from suffering more grievous injuries.

    They said: 'She defended those children with all her strength – all that she was doing was trying to protect those little kids and people in what was is a very built up area in the city centre saw what was happening when they passed the school.'

    Police chiefs say 'far-right' thugs are responsible for the civil unrest that followed; prolific social media accounts associated with the far-right have made as-yet-unsubstantiated claims that the attacker is an 'immigrant'. 

    Michael D. Higgins, the president of Ireland, has hit out at rioters, accusing them of weaponising the attacks in a 'reprehensible' manner.

Anyone who opposes mass immigration is always termed "far right" from those intent on replacing the population with one that they believe will be more malleable. 

    Anti-Islam populist Geert Wilders said Thursday that he is ready to join the next Dutch coalition government after he surged to a huge election victory that marked a stunning lurch to the far right for a nation once famed as a beacon of tolerance. 
 
    The result is sending shockwaves through Europe, where extremist nationalist ideology is putting pressure on democracies that now face the possibility of having to deal with the first far-right prime minister of the Netherlands. 
 
    Wilders’ election program included calls for a referendum on the Netherlands leaving the European Union, a total halt to accepting asylum-seekers and migrant pushbacks at Dutch borders.

    It also advocates the “de-Islamization” of the Netherlands. He says he wants no mosques or Islamic schools in the country, although he has been milder about Islam during this election campaign than in the past.

What, a Netherlands that looks first after the interests of the native Dutch! Outrageous! Next thing you know, the Dutch will be wanting the U.S. to give them tons of money and material support to bomb and shell a Muslim enclave after a terrorist attack from those same Muslims.

    The BBC notes that Wilders' "Freedom party (PVV) is set to win 37 seats, well ahead of his nearest rival, a left-wing alliance." 

    But to fulfil his pledge to be "prime minister for everyone", he will have to persuade other parties to join him in a coalition. His target is 76 seats in the 150-seat parliament.

    At a party meeting on Thursday, Mr Wilders, 60, was cheered and toasted by party members in a room crammed with TV cameras.

    He told the BBC that "of course" he was willing to negotiate and compromise with other parties to become prime minister.

    The PVV leader won after harnessing widespread frustration about migration, promising "borders closed" and putting on hold his promise to ban the Koran.

    Before the vote, the three other big parties ruled out taking part in a Wilders-led government because of his far-right policies. But that might change because of the scale of his victory.

    The left-wing alliance under ex-EU commissioner Frans Timmermans has come a distant second with 25 seats, according to a forecast based on 94% of the vote.

    He made clear he would have nothing to do with a Wilders-led government, promising to defend Dutch democracy and rule of law. "We won't let anyone in the Netherlands go. In the Netherlands everyone is equal," he told supporters.

    That leaves third-placed centre-right liberal VVD under new leader Dilan Yesilgöz, and a brand new party formed by whistleblower MP Pieter Omtzigt in fourth - both have congratulated him on the result.

    Although Ms Yesilgöz doubts Mr Wilders will be able to find the numbers he needs, she says it is up to her party colleagues to decide how to respond. Before the election she insisted she would not serve in a Wilders-led cabinet, but did not rule out working with him if she won.

    Mr Omtzigt said initially his New Social Contract party would not work with Mr Wilders, but now says they are "available to turn this trust [of voters] into action".

    The war, which the Finance Ministry estimates is costing the economy around $270 million every day, will come with a fiscal price tag estimated at 180 billion shekels ($48 billion) in 2023-2024, according to Leader Capital Markets, a financial advisory powerhouse in Israel.

    Israel will likely be on the hook for two-thirds of the total costs, Leader said, with the US paying for the rest.

  • While on this topic, Candice Owens showed insufficient support for spending tax dollars on Israel instead of securing our own border: "David Horowitz group cuts ties with Candace Owens over Israel"--New York Post. The article notes that "Owens has been a vocal critic of Israel as well as the US government’s support for the country’s military operations in Gaza, which were launched in response to the Oct. 7 surprise assault by Hamas terrorists that killed at least 1,200 Israelis." 

    “No government anywhere has a right to commit a genocide, ever,” Owens wrote on her X account earlier this month. She didn’t mention Israel, though this was implied.

    “There is no justification for a genocide. I can’t believe this even needs to be said or is even considered the least bit controversial to state.”

I can't believe that Owens bought into all the garbage about how bad it is to settle a land and kill off its natives--that only ever applied to Europeans. 

    All of our institutions—government, education, media, professions, and industry—are formally and fully committed to “social justice,” the explicit specifics of which are diversity, equity, and inclusion, with the quiet part being the elimination of Jews. 

The more vocal part has always been the elimination of straight, white men.

    The quiet part is not often said explicitly, except during the infamous “Israel Apartheid Week” celebrations at our universities. But after Hamas's sadistic atrocities against Israelis on 7 October, the widespread and enthusiastic celebrations on American campuses and in our streets shouted out the quiet part. 

    “From the [Jordan] River to the [Mediterranean] Sea, Palestine Shall Be Free [of Jews].” Hamas, the heroes of the day for “social justice” warriors, states explicitly in its founding charter that not only would it destroy the State of Israel, but that it would kill all Jews, not only in Israel but around the world! 

    How is it that all of our institutions have signed up for genocidal antisemitism? The “social justice” political analysis is founded on the Marxist conviction that society is divided into two classes: oppressors and victims. The corresponding “social justice” ethic is that victims must be raised up and celebrated and that oppressors must be suppressed and eliminated.

    We can thank feminists for initiating this Marxist reinterpretation of our society with their reduction of social life to the class conflict between the “patriarchy” and all females. Race activists followed with blacks vs. whites, and homosexuals followed with gays vs. straights. The plea was for “equality,” but the true goal was to flip the classes, with the currently oppressed becoming the privileged dominant classes.  

    How the “social justice” categories are defined is by now familiar to all of us: whites, males, heterosexuals, the able-bodied, the well-to-do, Christians, Jews, and Asians are oppressors, while BIPOC (black, indigenous, people of color [except Asians], females, LGBTQ2S++, the otherwise abled, the poor [except poor whites, Christians, Asians, and Jews], and Muslims are oppressed.

    In the intersectional calculous, the more victim categories a person can claim, the more oppressed they are deemed to be. Famously, the most esteemed is the disabled black lesbian. On the other side, the more oppressor categories a person can be identified with, the more “privileged” he/she/it/they are deemed. “Privilege” is, in all cases, assessed as unearned. 

Yes, its unfair how Jews are now being treated like white Christians by the Marxists. 

5 comments:

  1. Agree with you on the timing of the new "mystery illness." Covid-19 came about in the Fall of 2019...roughly a year before the big Presidential election. And now this...the same pattern. What a coincidence...ehh?

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    Replies
    1. Of course it is a coincidence (wink, wink, nod, nod)

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  2. Wilder's Freedom Party (note the apostrophe change) has a nice ring to it . . . :)

    ReplyDelete