Society's ChildS


Cross

Russian Church: Constantinople lost the right to be called the heart of Orthodox faith


RT
Tue, 16 Oct 2018 15:06 UTC
jesus cross
© Reuters / Alkis Konstantinidis
By recognizing the independence of Ukrainian Orthodox сhurches from the Moscow Patriarchate, Constantinople lost the right to be called the heart of Orthodox faith, says the Russian Church's public relations chief.

Speaking on Russian TV, Metropolitan Hilarion, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church's External Relations Department, said the Constantinople Patriarchate's recognition of breakaway Ukrainian churches and the subsequent schism with Moscow has created "a new church reality."

Before now, Moscow and other Orthodox patriarchates would send representatives to gatherings organized by Constantinople, including the decades-long preparations for the monumental 2016 Pan-Orthodox Council, Hilarion said.

"But by invading the canonical domain of another autocephalous church, by legitimizing a schism, the Constantinople Patriarchate lost the right to be named a coordinating center for the Orthodox Church," he said.

No such center exists anymore, he concluded.

The Moscow Patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church broke off all ties with the Constantinople Patriarchate after deciding to grant recognition to two previously unrecognized Ukrainian Orthodox Church branches, and lift the Moscow-imposed anathema from Ukrainian Patriarch Filaret. Moscow refused to recognize the decisions and blamed Constantinople for initiating what could become the biggest church schism since the 11th century, when Orthodoxy and Catholicism split apart.
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People

City that never sleeps... or shoots? NYC enjoys first shooting-free weekend in decades


RT
Tue, 16 Oct 2018 14:42 UTC
NYC police NYPD
© Reuters / Brendan McDermid
The New York City Police Dept. has taken a victory lap after the Big Apple went the entire weekend without a shooting - a streak that hasn't been seen since at least 1993. Murders are up eight percent from last year, however.

From Thursday morning to Monday afternoon, New York City's 8.5 million inhabitants kept their fingers off their triggers, resulting in nearly 100 hours of relative serenity throughout the five boroughs.

The rare lull in shooting incidents can be attributed to the hard work of the NYPD and the public at large, NYPD Chief of Patrol Rodney Harrison tweeted on Monday.

"This past weekend #NYC had no shootings, a milestone we haven't reached in over a decade. My thanks to every member of the #NYPD for working hard to protect this city and to every member of the public who has helped us make this city so safe."

Comment: Whatever led to the shooting-free weekend, it's likely that the Mayor and NYPD Chief are giving more credit to the NYPD than is due them. Sometimes the stars just align.

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Info

Swastika flag, KKK outfit & 'baby Adolf': Couple accused of National Action membership


RT
Tue, 16 Oct 2018 14:25 UTC
Adam Thomas KKK
© West Midlands Police
A couple, accused of being part of a banned far-right group, posed for photographs with a Nazi swastika flag while holding their newborn child, who was allegedly named after German dictator Adolf Hitler, a UK court has heard.

Adam Thomas, 21, and his partner Claudia Patatas, 38, face terrorism offences after they were arrested in January by police investigating the banned far-right group National Action.

The pair are on trial alongside 27-year-old Daniel Bogunovic, who is also charged with being a member of the proscribed organisation. National Action was outlawed by the Home Office in 2016 because of its promotion of violence online. All three defendants deny the charges, reported the BBC.
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Propaganda

Public relations shill and political operative Alexis Grenell denounces white women for upholding the "patriarchy" in New York Times opinion piece

Genevieve Leigh
World Socialist Website
Fri, 12 Oct 2018 00:00 UTC
Alexis Grenell
In the wake of Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation to the US Supreme Court, the New York Times published an opinion piece by Alexis Grenell headlined "White women, come get your people."

Grenell's article is a politically unhinged rant that accuses female Republican senators and other women who didn't support the anti-Kavanaugh movement of betraying their sex, accuses "white women" in general of benefiting from "patriarchy" and of participating in a "blood pact" with "privileged" white men, and pours scorn on presumption of innocence and other elementary democratic rights. Her piece is an extreme example of the obsession with gender and race that has infected the upper middle class and the pages of the New York Times .

Grenell is a journalist, a Democratic Party supporter and as a co-founder of Pythia Public Affairs, a public relations firm in New York, a consultant to politicians and corporations. That is, she is a political propagandist by trade and writes like one.
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No Entry

Palestinian olive farmers navigating new illegal restrictions imposed on them by Israel

Entsar Abu Jahal
Al-Monitor
Fri, 12 Oct 2018 00:00 UTC
olive farmers
Dozens of farmers and other residents of West Bank villages rallied Sept. 22 in front of the Israeli gate by the separation wall near Araqah, seeking access to their lands on the Israeli side of the barrier that have been under Israeli sovereignty since the wall was built in 2003.

The protesters came from towns in southwest Jenin province including Araqah, Nazlet Zeid, Tawra and at-Tarem. They demanded unrestricted access to their land and denounced what they called the arbitrary measures Israel enacted Sept. 22 to stop farmers from harvesting their olives. Israel has been denying farmers permits, citing supposed security concerns and saying some parcels are too small to qualify for access.

The new measures come atop other conditions that Israel has imposed for years, such as age restrictions and limited hours of access. Now, any farmer seeking a land-access permit must produce a land title issued in 2018 and a new deed from the Beit Salem camp or, if the owner has died, a deed transfer to determine the heirs' shares of the land. No permit is issued if the land or share of land is less than 380 square meters (454 square yards). In those cases, Israel seizes the parcels.

Comment: Not a day goes by, it seems, when the Palestinians aren't suffering some new tactic Israel comes up with that makes their lives impossible.

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Quenelle - Golden

India's #MeToo: Minister accused of multiple sexual harassment files defamation lawsuit


RT
Tue, 16 Oct 2018 07:33 UTC
Indian Minister MJ Akbar
© Reuters/ Thilo Schmuelgen
An Indian minister has slammed allegations of sexual misconduct leveled at him by at least 10 women as "lies" and has filed a lawsuit against the first one who accused him of harassment.

Junior Foreign Minister MJ Akbar, 67, filed a defamation suit against journalist Priya Ramani after she publicly accused him on Twitter of sexually harassing her.


Remaining silent on the allegations until he got back from a trip to Nigeria last week, the minister on Sunday blasted the allegations made against him by the group of women, branding them "false and fabricated."

"Accusation without evidence has become a viral fever among some sections.

Comment: Perhaps in light of the Kavanaugh debacle, accusers may want to reconsider the strength of their evidence and the perception of their motivations.

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Propaganda

Daily Beast slammed for smearing Ivanka Trump in 'exposé' on Transcendental Meditation


RT
Tue, 16 Oct 2018 10:52 UTC
Ivanka Trump
© Reuters / Jason CohnIvanka Trump poses with members of the Girls of Steel Robotics initiative.
The Daily Beast was blamed for using Ivanka Trump's name to lure readers into reading their 'exposé' of the weirder aspects of the Transcendental Meditation (TM) movement. The daughter of the US president barely figures in it.

TM started as a mantra meditation technique taught by guru Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and has turned into a world-wide movement since the 1950s. Millions of people use it to deal with anxiety. Some believe there is more to it, and that by practicing they can learn how to meditate or even reduce violence on a global scale. Some are wealthy and powerful people, who can and do spend lavish sums of money on the hobby.
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Attention

Man claiming ISIS allegiance injures woman in hostage situation at Cologne's central station


RT
Mon, 15 Oct 2018 07:29 UTC
cologne hostage situation
© Reuters / Thilo Schmuelgen
A hostage situation broke out near the main railway station in Cologne, German police confirmed, while local media say there is heavy presence of officers armed with submachine guns.

"We assume that a hostage has been taken, either at McDonald's or at a nearby pharmacy," a police spokeswoman told Reuters.

"A woman is probably being held but we don't have any further details," she added.

The suspect seems to be armed, but his identity is yet to be established, police said. It is unknown at this stage if the perpetrator has any terrorist connections. Nevertheless, the police counter-terrorism team are gearing up for the possible hostage rescue, local media said.
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Alarm Clock

A terrible college case shows the high cost of 'believe women'

David French
National Review
Sat, 13 Oct 2018 05:30 UTC
believe
© Reuters/Jonathan ErnstWomen with "Believe" and other words written on their hands outside the U.S. Supreme Court after the vote to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, October 6, 2018.
There is no substitute for evidence and due process.

Through much of the last month, the American people have been treated to a version of the emotional and ideological argument that's dominated the American academy for much of the last ten years. The argument goes something like this: Women rarely lie about rape. Thus, the failure of criminal or civil justice systems to achieve overwhelming rates of conviction or impose liability at the rates of predation means that fundamental reform is mandatory.

Consequently, we must make it easier for women to bring claims, protect them from the rigors of proving claims, and utilize decision-makers trained to understand and respond to the unique trauma of victims. Moreover, when considering sexual-assault claims outside of courts, understand that due process is less important when a man's liberty isn't at stake. After all, a campus court isn't a criminal trial. It's an evaluation of academic suitability.

The result of this argument has been wholesale national reform - part of it mandated by the Obama administration's Department of Education, and part of it willingly undertaken by colleges themselves - that has caused universities to lower burdens of proof, channel serious claims into summary proceedings, restrict the ability to cross-examine witnesses, and even limit access to evidence in an effort to streamline the process of punishing sex offenders.
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Star of David

Diluting the master race? Israeli MPs condemn celebrity mixed marriage as effort to 'hurt our state'

Jonathan Ofir
Mondoweiss
Mon, 15 Oct 2018 20:33 UTC
Lucy Aharish Tzahi Halevy
© Channel 10News anchor Lucy Aharish and 'Fauda' actor Tzahi Halevy at their wedding on October 10, 2018.
On Wednesday, the Israeli-Arab-Muslim TV host Lucy Aharish (the first to host a Hebrew-speaking show) and Israeli-Jewish actor Tzahi Halevy (known from Netflix TV series Fauda), got married.

Their ceremony was what could only be considered unofficial in Israel, at the beach in Hadera. This is because Israeli law does not permit interfaith marriage. The option left to such couples is to conduct an unofficial ceremony in Israel, but do the actual official marriage in another country, where this then gets retroactively recognized by the state. Aharish and Halevy have held the relationship under the radar for some three years, to avoid the backlash - which surely came. Various politicians from the right condemned and bemoaned the marriage. Minister of Interior Arye Deri said:
"pain of assimilation worldwide is consuming the Jewish people. It's their own private affair. But, as a Jew, I have to tell you that I'm against such things because we must preserve the Jewish people. (Their) children will grow up, go to school and later want to get married, and then they'll face difficult problems. If she [Aharish] desires Judaism, then there's the process of conversion".
Likud Lawmaker Oren Hazan was more vitriolic on Facebook and Twitter:
"I don't blame Lucy Aharish for seducing the soul of a Jewish man in order to hurt our state and prevent more Jewish offspring from continuing the Jewish lineage. On the contrary, she's welcomed to convert to Judaism. I do blame Tsahi the IslamLevi, who took (TV show) Fauda one step too far. Bro, snap out of it. Lucy, it's not personal, but know that Tsahi is my brother and the people of Israel are my people. No more assimilation."

Comment: Those pesky Arab Muslim women, seducing poor Jewish men in an evil plot to hurt Israel and its racial purity. For all the Western furor over practically non-existent white nationalism and supremacy, you'd think there would be a tad more said about the very prominent Jewish nationalism and supremacy in Israel...

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