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Universities today: Elitists, crybabies and useless degrees

Kevin Sullivan and Mary Jordan
The Washington Post
Fri, 17 Nov 2017 20:23 UTC
california college campus
© Bonnie Jo MountCollege campus
Frank Antenori shot the head off a rattlesnake at his back door last summer - a deadeye pistol blast from 20 feet. No college professor taught him that. The U.S. Army trained him, as a marksman and a medic, on the "two-way rifle range" of Afghanistan and Iraq.

Useful skills. Smart return on taxpayers' investment. Not like the waste he sees at too many colleges and universities, where he says liberal professors teach "ridiculous" classes and indoctrinate students "who hang out and protest all day long and cry on our dime."

"Why does a kid go to a major university these days?" said Antenori, 51, a former Green Beret who served in the Arizona state legislature. "A lot of Republicans would say they go there to get brainwashed and learn how to become activists and basically go out in the world and cause trouble."
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Snakes in Suits

ABC News offers 'We note your concerns' reply to accusations of misreporting the Syrian conflict

David MacIlwain
21St Century Wire
Fri, 09 Mar 2018 00:00 UTC
WhiteHelmetbaby
© White Helmet imageWhite Helmet images allegedly from Eastern Ghouta invariably depict WH operative carrying baby or child with no mother in attendance. No context, no names, no record of the incident.
David Macilwain is an Australian journalist and peace activist whose battle against ABC's misrepresentation of the Syrian Conflict is a long and frustrating one. Macilwain recently wrote, again, to ABC to challenge their Eastern Ghouta narrative. Here is that letter that follows on from a previous correspondence between journalist Jeremy Salt and ABC. Salt received the bland response that began - "We note your concerns". Translation "ABC will not deviate from support for US Coalition regime change project in Syria":

Comment: Proving once again that MSM is part of the propaganda machine aimed at: creating news to fit a pre-determined agenda; pacifying a dumbed-down, happily ignorant public relieved of critical thinking.

See also:

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Magnify

'Some women have penises': New transgender support guide provided by Church of Scotland

Virginia Hale
Breitbart
Fri, 09 Mar 2018 00:00 UTC
Scotland Launches Transgender
"Some men have vaginas and some women have penises," congregations have been told in a Church of Scotland resource urging greater sensitivity towards transgender people.

The 30-page booklet, a copy of which was delivered to every Scottish church on Tuesday, asks ministers to consider using gender-neutral language for God as part of a range of measures to make their congregation more inclusive for individuals who identify as transgender.

Testimony featured in Diverse Gender Identities and Pastoral Care includes the demand for a "21st century" update to the "patriarchal" Scriptures, and complaints that "Christian culture" makes life hard for "gender nonconforming" individuals.

"I struggle with the wording of the Lord's Prayer because I see God as my parent not my father," writes Andrew, stating that: "God is genderless to me: it's not father God it is parent God."

"The Scriptures are very patriarchal; we need to update them for the 21st century," adds the churchgoer, who was born female but identifies as a man.

Comment: And this seems to be the problem with radical left ideology: it not only excludes many other possibilities for why things are the way they are - but insists on acceptance for radical change when some other solution might be much more beneficial to all, including themselves.

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Laptop

German political foundation 'attacked' - suspect Russian hacking group


RFE/RL
Fri, 09 Mar 2018 21:01 UTC
FancyBear
© GBHackers
German public prosecutors have opened an investigation into a suspected cyberattack on a Berlin-based political foundation carried out by a Russian hacking group, according to a report.

Authorities suspect the notorious Russian hacking group known as "Fancy Bear" or "APT28" was behind the December 2016 attack on the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP), according to a report by German news outlet Spiegel Online. The SWP advises the German government on foreign affairs.

Some believe Fancy Bear has connections to Russia's GRU military intelligence agency and was accused of attacks on U.S. presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's 2016 campaign. Germany's parliament came under a major cyberattack in 2015 that was widely blamed on Fancy Bear. Fears that information gleaned from the attack would be leaked to influence last year's German elections never materialized, however.

Spiegel reported that the hackers who attacked the SWP sent an e-mail under the name of a former employee with file attachments containing malware. The SWP told Spiegel they did not believe the hack had been successful.

Comment: See also:

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Bad Guys

Der Spiegel investigation: No proof for fantastic claim of hundreds of Russians killed in US Syria strikes

Marko Marjanoviฤ‡
Checkpoint Asia
Thu, 08 Mar 2018 17:37 UTC
russians syria
Alleged photo of three Russian contractors posing with Syrian regime fighters in Latakia in January 2016
On February 7th the US bombed the Syrian army and allied forces in eastern Syria. The Americans claimed they had killed about 100 fighters, presumably mostly Syrians.

Yet in the coming days and weeks in the various corners of the internet, including on pages of Reuters and Bloomberg, there was talk of 200-300 Russian citizens killed in US Deir Ezzor strikes.

How come?

What really happened was that that anti-Putin Russians, liberals and nationalists alike, latched onto the credible reports that some Russians were among the dead and in the days that followed blew it out of all proportions, claiming that hundreds, possibly as many as 600 Russians had been killed in that one US airstrike.

Comment:

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Arrow Up

Report: Christian persecution and genocide worse now than at 'any time in history'

Christina Maza
Newsweek
Thu, 04 Jan 2018 11:42 UTC
ArmenianChurch
© Getty ImagesDamaged Armenian Catholic Church of the Martyrs, Raqqa, Syria
The persecution and genocide of Christians across the world is worse today "than at any time in history," and Western governments are failing to stop it, a report from a Catholic organization said.

The study by Aid to the Church in Need said the treatment of Christians has worsened substantially in the past two years compared with the two years prior, and has grown more violent than any other period in modern times. "Not only are Christians more persecuted than any other faith group, but ever-increasing numbers are experiencing the very worst forms of persecution," the report said.

The report examined the plight of Christians in China, Egypt, Eritrea, India, Iran, Iraq, Nigeria, North Korea, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria and Turkey over the period lasting from 2015 until 2017. The research showed that in that time, Christians suffered crimes against humanity, and some were hanged or crucified. The report found that Saudi Arabia was the only country where the situation for Christians did not get worse, and that was only because the situation couldn't get any worse than it already was.

Comment: "Trump administration will redirect aid money formerly granted to the United Nations to the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID, satisfying a long-standing conservative policy priority." "As with other USAID programs, this money will likely be granted to private NGOs." And, what do we know about CIA tool USAID?
See also:

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Bizarro Earth

Workers clean Santa Ana River homeless encampments: Tons of human waste, hazardous material and nearly 14,000 hypodermic needles

Theresa Walker
The Orange County Register
Fri, 09 Mar 2018 06:02 UTC
A syringe found by county workers
© Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNGA syringe found by county workers cleaning up trash around a homeless encampment along the Santa Ana River Trail in Anaheim, on Wednesday, February 14, 2018.
Orange County Public Works released eye-popping figures Thursday, March 8, on the total amount of debris, needles and hazardous waste removed when crews cleaned up the area along the Santa Ana River Trail once populated by the encampments of homeless people.

Here's what was collected between Jan. 22 and March 3 from a more than two-mile stretch of bike trail roughly from I-5 in Orange to Ball Road in Anaheim, according to OC Public Works spokesman Shannon Widor:
  • 404 tons of debris
  • 13,950 needles (approximate number based on what disposal containers hold)
  • 5,279 pounds of hazardous waste (human waste, propane, pesticides and other materials)
Before and after photographs published by the Register last week show stark differences at different spots along the trail, as does a video the county posted Feb. 28 on YouTube.


Comment: The problem of homelessness in California (which happens to have one of the largest economies in the US) has reached a critical stage, and the state's civil leaders are scrambling to address the myriad of problems the state is faced with - but the way to achieve this is anything but clear.

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Bad Guys

East Ghouta: Woman and 3 children reportedly killed as militants open fire on civilians


RT
Sat, 10 Mar 2018 18:45 UTC
Eastern Ghouta
© Sputnik
A woman and three children were killed as militants opened fire on civilians to prevent them leaving Syria's Eastern Ghouta, the Syrian SANA news agency reports. The victims were attempting to escape via a safe passage.

The four civilians were trying to pass through a recently opened humanitarian corridor from Jisrein to Mlekha during the twelfth humanitarian pause, SANA reported citing its journalist on the ground on Saturday.

The same area saw an increased number of confrontations between locals and militants after the opening of Jisrein-Mlekha checkpoint on Thursday, according to spokesman for the Russian Center for Reconciliation in Syria, Major General Vladimir Zolotukhin.

Comment: The Russian Center for Syrian reconciliation is holding talks with the leaders of the illegal armed units on the withdrawal of the second group of militants from the Damascus' suburb of Eastern Ghouta, the center's spokesman, Maj. Gen. Vladimir Zolotukhin, said.
"The intensive negotiations between the representatives of the Center for Syrian reconciliation and the leaders of the illegal armed units of the Syrian opposition are underway in order to reach the agreement on the withdrawal of the second group of militants from the Eastern Ghouta de-escalation zone," Maj. Gen. Vladimir Zolotukhin said.

The Russian official pointed out that the situation remained tense.

"The shelling of Damascus residential areas and its closest suburbs is underway. Militants from Eastern Ghouta fired 12 mortar shells of the 120-mm caliber within the last 24 hours. There are massive damages, one person was killed and nine civilians were injured," Zolotukhin stated.
Militants in Eastern Ghouta plan staging a chemical attack on March 11 to accuse of it the Syrian governmental forces, Syria's Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mehdad told reporters on Saturday.
"We have received information that militants in Eastern Ghouta plan staging a chemical attack between Misraba and Bitsava," he said. "For that, the Tahrir al-Sham militants plan killing several women, and we expect this "performance" may take place on March 11."


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Footprints

Who is the demon? German man imprisoned for trampling daughter to death during exorcism


RT
Sat, 10 Mar 2018 17:04 UTC
Court
© Chris Ryan / Getty Images
A German man has been jailed in Switzerland for trampling his mentally-challenged daughter to death while trying to exorcise a demon. The 50-year-old was also accused of sexually assaulting his daughter in an effort to revive her.

The unnamed man told the Frauenfeld District Court in the canton of Thurgau, Switzerland, that he was simply giving his daughter a "massage" to drive out a demon during the night in question in January 2016, DW reports.
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Handcuffs

'Pharma bro' price-gouger Martin Shkreli sentenced to 7 years in prison


RT
Sat, 10 Mar 2018 17:25 UTC
Shkreli
© Amr Alfiky / ReutersMartin Shkreli arrives at U.S. District Court on August 2, 2017.
Disgraced pharma executive Martin Shkreli will spend 84 months behind bars and forfeit $7.4 million, a New York judge ruled after hearing his tearful plea. The prosecutors asked for 15 years in prison for defrauding investors.

Shkreli, 34, was sentenced by US District Judge Kiyo Matsumoto in a Brooklyn federal court on Friday. He was convicted last year of three counts of security fraud after misleading investors in two failed hedge funds. During the trial, his defense team had argued that many of his investors made hefty profits anyway.

Shkreli became notorious in 2015, after acquiring the rights to the antiparasitic medication Daraprim and raised its price by more than 5,000 percent. The drug was being used to treat AIDS patients. The price hike earned him the moniker "the most hated man in America."

Comment: Notice that Shkreli was convicted of defrauding his investors, NOT for callously pricing his products out of the reach of most of his clients.

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