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Syrians celebrate Christmas & hope for lasting peace as US troops pull out


RT
Mon, 24 Dec 2018 10:11 UTC
Damascus Christmas tree
© Reuters / Omar Sanadiki
Syria, which saw large parts of its territory liberated from Islamists this year, is celebrating Christmas with pre-war fervor, hoping that the fighting is nearing its end as militant control dwindles and foreign actors leave.

The bloodshed in Syria has affected everyone in the country, yet its religious minorities have undoubtedly seen the worst, having faced extreme persecution by the Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) terrorists and other hardline Islamists regarding their beliefs. In areas under IS rule, celebrating Christmas was out of the question. Now, as peaceful life returns to the country, things are changing for the better.

Recently, one of the country's tallest Christmas trees was unveiled in the capital city of Damascus. A large crowd of people, many dressed in Christmas costumes, gathered to celebrate the occasion, dancing and singing.
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Quenelle

States may be cracking down on the BDS movement for Palestinian rights - but cities are fighting back

Alex Kane
The Nation
Fri, 21 Dec 2018 16:55 UTC
BDS protest Durham, NC
© The Herald-Sun via AP / Bernard Thomas
Lydia Rose, right, participates at the Jewish Voice for Peace gathering on Hanukkah to challenge Islamophobia and fight against racism, December 11, 2015 in Durham, North Carolina.
From Durham to Northampton, activists are finding ways to end their cities' support for Israeli human rights abuses.

Rachel Weber knew she had to work fast.

Two months back, on October 19, the Northampton, Massachusetts, activist discovered through a public-records request that the police chief of her small liberal city planned to go to Israel on a police delegation sponsored by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). The trip, billed as an all-expenses-paid opportunity to learn counter-terrorism tactics from Israeli police officials, was planned for December.

That October day, Weber got in touch with local allies, and scrambled to plan a course of action against the junket, which she found troubling because of Israeli forces' involvement in a decades-long project of military occupation and dispossession of Palestinians.

"The folks on these visits, they go to sites where grave human-rights violations are occurring," said Weber.

Five weeks later, she got word from Northampton Mayor David Narkewicz: He was canceling police chief Jody Kasper's participation in the delegation.
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Info

Dr. Jordan Peterson: Leftists who turn to Marxism lack structure in their lives

Alana Mastrangelo
Breitbart
Fri, 21 Dec 2018 00:01 UTC
jordan peterson
Clinical psychologist and psychology professor Dr. Jordan Peterson told Breitbart News on Thursday that radical Leftists turn to Marxism because they lack a structural hierarchy.

"What's happening on the radical Left end of the spectrum, is that there's a concerted effort to criticize the structure of current hierarchy," said Dr. Peterson, "and maybe to criticize the idea of hierarchy itself, to consider the West and capitalistic structures as fundamentally as oppressive patriarchies."

"You need a hierarchy," he added, "You can't actually orient yourself in the world without a hierarchy."
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Cow

Vegan fail: Farmer sells out of turkeys after 'vegan mafia' sends him death threats

Hope Schreiber
Yahoo!
Sun, 23 Dec 2018 00:01 UTC
Turkey
© Facebook
A farmer is thanking “vegan mafia” for drawing attention to his flock of poultry for sale.
A U.K. poultry farmer was the victim of death threats after sharing a post on Facebook, but now he's thanking the "vegan mafia" for drawing attention to his establishment.

Come and pick your own Christmas turkey at the farm shop," the Nov. 4 Greendale Farm Shop post read: "We will put a name tag on it and you come and feed it and help look after it for the next 2 months. You won't need to get involved in any of the difficult bits at the end, and we will even bone and stuff it for you when you come and pick it up, in time for Christmas."

The post, which suggested that a buyer will take care of a turkey for two months before sending it to slaughter, was met with ire from vegans.

Comment: It seems vegans are actually good for something.

It's amazing that vegans, who think themselves peaceful and caring, seem to be the first to issue death threats to people who don't share their twisted ideological views.

See also:

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Ice Cube

Arctic's first ever bank robber "arrested quite quickly"


TheLocal.no
Fri, 21 Dec 2018 12:00 UTC
arctic
© Bjørn Christian Tørrissen
It was always going to be a difficult getaway.
An armed man has robbed a bank in the world's northernmost settlement on Norway's remote Arctic archipelago of Svalbard but he was caught shortly afterwards, authorities said on Friday.

The heist was the first ever bank robbery in living memory in the territory, which is located in the Arctic Ocean, about halfway between continental Norway and the North Pole.

"There was an armed robbery at around 10:40 am (0940 GMT)," Terje Carlsen, a spokesman for the local governor, told AFP.

"A man with a gun seized a sum of money. He was arrested quite quickly" in the centre of Longyearbyen, the capital, he added.

Police said the suspected robber was a foreigner travelling in the region who was sent to the northern town of Tromso on the mainland where he will be questioned.

Authorities declined to give more details about the suspect's identity, the amount stolen or the weapon used in the robbery.

Comment: This is the latest in a number of incidents reported at Earth's poles recently:

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Attention

13 dead in Czech coal mine methane explosion


Deutsche Welle
Fri, 21 Dec 2018 12:00 UTC
mining
© reuters/stinger
Thirteen miners have died and about 10 others were injured after a blast at a mine in the Czech Republic.

Thirteen miners, including 12 Poles and one Czech, were killed in a methane blast more than 800 meters (875 yards) underground late on Thursday.

The explosion devastated areas of the CSM hard coal mine near the town of Karvina, which is located 300 kilometers (200 miles) east of Prague, according to the state-run OKD mining company, which operates the mine.

A network of methane sensors deployed in the mine had not detected anything unusual prior to the blast, OKD managing director Boleslav Kowalczyk said.

Worst mining disaster

Comment: Was this merely the usual hazard of the job or is it related to what appears to be an increase in similar incidents?

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Handcuffs

Previously caught pedophile gang member Mathew Law jailed for 20 years

Vikram Dodd
The Guardian
Thu, 20 Dec 2018 11:06 UTC
Law, 50, is last of eight-strong gang who groomed pregnant mother so they could attack her baby and film their abuse

National Crime Agency
© Dan Kitwood/Getty Images
National Crime Agency, which investigated the gang of eight, still cannot break into computers owned by Law, an IT expert.
A key member of one of Britain's worst ever paedophile gangs, which groomed a pregnant mother so they could attack her baby and film their abuse, has been jailed for 20 years.

Mathew Law had been previously caught and jailed for child sex offences but was released and later deemed not to need any special measures, the Guardian has learned.
Mathew Law
© SWNS
Mathew Law
Law, 50, was the last of the gang of eight men to be caught, convicted and now sentenced at Bristol crown court.

The horrific abuse by the gang and the extent to which members targeted one of their victims while he was in his mother's womb, and groomed his parents, has staggered experienced investigators.

The National Crime Agency, which investigated the gang of eight, still cannot break into computers owned by Law, an IT expert. He used TOR software to communicate securely.

Law was convicted of conspiring to rape a baby that was abused by gang members over a period of months. The baby was aged between six and 12 months at the time of the abuse.

Comment: See also:

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Brain

South African musician plays guitar while undergoing brain surgery


Fox News
Mon, 24 Dec 2018 11:00 UTC
brain surgery
© OnyekaValentine Ilorah for Department of Neurosurgery, Inks Albert Luthuli Central Hospital, via AP
In this photo supplied by the Department of Neurosurgery, Inkosi Albert Luthuli Central Hospital on Saturday, Dec. 22, 2018, taken earlier this month during surgery South African musician, Musa Manzini, plays a guitar during brain surgery.
His skull still open, a South African musician with a brain tumor played several notes on his guitar during a successful operation to remove most of the growth.

Musa Manzini's guitar-playing helped guide the medical team in their delicate task while preserving neural pathways, said Dr. Rohen Harrichandparsad, one of the neurosurgeons. Manzini was given local anesthetic during what doctors call an "awake craniotomy" this month at Inkosi Albert Luthuli Central Hospital in Durban.

"It increased the margin of safety for us, in that we could have real-time feedback on what we were doing intraoperatively," Harrichandparsad said Saturday in a telephone interview with The Associated Press.

The procedure is not uncommon, and there have been several cases in other countries of musicians playing an instrument or singing during similar operations. The intention was to test Manzini's "ability to produce music," which requires the complex interaction of pathways in the brain, the doctor said.

Comment: See also: Flutist plays during operation as doctors cut out her brain tumor

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Black Magic

Sharia law must come first: Germany declares law banning child marriages unconstitutional

Soeren Kern
Gatestone Institute
Sat, 22 Dec 2018 10:15 UTC
Bundesgerichtshof building
© Andreas Praefcke/Wikimedia Commons
The Federal Court of Justice (Bundesgerichtshof), Germany's highest court, has ruled that a new law that bans child marriage may be unconstitutional because all marriages, including Sharia-based child marriages, are protected by Germany's Basic Law. Pictured: The Bundesgerichtshof building in Karlsruhe, Germany.
  • The ruling, which effectively opens the door to legalizing Sharia-based child marriages in Germany, is one of a growing number of instances in which German courts are - wittingly or unwittingly - promoting the establishment of a parallel Islamic legal system in the country.
  • "Germany cannot, on the one hand, be against child marriages internationally, and on the other hand, be for such marriages in our own country. The best interests of the child cannot be compromised in this case. (...) This is about the constitutionally established protection of children and minors!" - Winfried Bausback, Bavarian lawmaker who helped draft the law against child marriage.
  • "We should consider one more thing: judgments are made 'in the name of the people.' This people has clearly expressed through its representatives in the Bundestag that it no longer wants to recognize child marriage." - Commentator Andreas von Delhaes-Guenther.
The Federal Court of Justice (Bundesgerichtshof, BGH), Germany's highest court of civil and criminal jurisdiction, has ruled that a new law that bans child marriage may be unconstitutional because all marriages, including Sharia-based child marriages, are protected by Germany's Basic Law (Grundgesetz).

The ruling, which effectively opens the door to legalizing Sharia-based child marriages in Germany, is one of a growing number of instances in which German courts are - wittingly or unwittingly - promoting the establishment of a parallel Islamic legal system in the country.

Comment: This is what happens when you have an overabundance of SJW minded judges in the courts. Law is only there to be deconstructed and turned into an avenue to further shape the 'utopian' agenda. The cost is the degradation of a country's sovereignty and cultural identity. The misguided notion that more 'tolerance' will lead to more 'understanding' will have exactly the opposite effect. Say goodbye Germany. France and the UK are right behind you. See also:

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Arrow Down

Patreon's partisan censorship costing content creators big bucks as users drop the site

Charlie Nash
Breitbart News
Sun, 23 Dec 2018 22:05 UTC
empty cash register
© Keystone/Getty
Creators on crowdfunding site Patreon are reporting heavy losses in financial backers as users are fleeing the platform in protest over its censorship of political commentators, including Sargon of Akkad.

On Thursday, popular author Jordan B. Peterson declared, "I have lost about 2000 Patreons @Patreon since the debacle with Sargon of Akkad. I know [Dave Rubin] is having the same trouble."


Comment: Jack Conte's high-handed interference with his company's state raison d'etre ("a membership platform that provides business tools for creators to run a subscription content service as well as ways for artists to build relationships and provide exclusive experiences to their subscribers, or "patrons.") will cost him in the end. In the not too distant future, other services that will perform the same function, but without bias, will supplant Patreon.

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