MFS - The Other News

                         Afternoon Posting.

• California's Most Anti-Semitic College.Anti-Semitic incidents are common at the University of California at Irvine, and the Muslim Student Union is the major perpetrator. Although not all the antisemitic events at UCI, detailed recently by Kenneth Marcus in Commentary magazine, can be traced to the MSU, those that can include physical and verbal harassment of Jewish students, posters of the Star of David dripping with blood, inversion of Holocaust imagery in which Jews are the new Nazis, and sponsorship of public speakers who accuse Jews of not being able to exist equally with other human beings, as well as accusations that Jews deliberately kill non-Jewish children for nefarious purposes.Nevertheless, May 15, 2010, Chancellor Drake broke his usual silence regarding the bigoted content of the speech of MSU's invited lecturers. He condemned an endorsement of terrorism made by Imam Malik Ali, MSU's favorite guest speaker. One wonders whether the fact that the endorsement was caught on YouTube elicited the administration's response.Yet, the condemnation was startling in its appeasement of the MSU. Chancellor Drake's statement not only ignored Malik Ali saying that "You Jews... are the new Nazis", ignored the MSU posters with clear anti-Semitic imagery, but praised the MSU events as "the hallmark of an educational institution committed to an exchange of ideas."Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• Tajik Pressure Said To Be Growing Over Islamic Dress.A branch of the opposition Islamic Renaissance Party (IRP) in the southern Tajik city of Kulob has complained that authorities are pressuring women who wear the hijab, the Islamic head scarf.Local IRP leader Mahmadsharif Nabiev suggests that the harassment began after a visit to the region last month by President Emomali Rahmon.Rahmon was reportedly heard to make disparaging comments about women in "Islamic clothing" in Kulob.He also used tough language in describing the women who choose to wear head scarves, although an official transcript of his televised speech softened the language, likening such women to "black birds."While a ban on the hijab at schools and universities is nothing new in Tajikistan, a ban of the hijab in bazaars and other markets would be.Safarkhuja Qudratov, a merchant in the Kulob bazaar, confirms that local officials recently met with her and other female workers at the bazaar and instructed them not to wear Islamic clothes.But Tohir Odinaev, the deputy head of Kulob's main bazaar, says officials merely advised women to wear "national" clothes and did not say that anything is mandatory.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• Vanessa Redgrave's Chechen friend held in Poland as Russia seeks extradition.An alleged 'international terrorist' who has been living freely in London for seven years was arrested yesterday after setting foot in Poland.Akhmed Zakayev, a close friend of Left-wing actress Vanessa Redgrave, is a Chechen independence leader who is wanted by the Kremlin on kidnapping and murder charges. He now faces a probe in Poland over whether he should be handed over to the Russians.Moscow immediately demanded his extradition.Zakayev was arrested in Britain in 2002 and was later released on bail of £50,000 paid by Redgrave.He was subsequently given political asylum here.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• AP Source: Lohan fails court-ordered drug test.Lindsay Lohan has failed a court-ordered drug and alcohol screening test and could face a probation violation that might throw her back in jail.A person familiar with the case, who declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the matter, confirmed the positive test results Friday. The person declined to specify what substance triggered the positive result, which the source said occurred within the last month.A judge had threatened Lohan with 30 days in jail for each probation violation. A hearing would be conducted before Lohan could be returned to jail.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• The Success of ‘Economic Peace’ and Arab Rejectionism.Overshadowed by the announcement that Saudi Arabia will purchase a record-setting $60 billion in U.S. arms was news that the Saudis have given about $30 million (practically nothing compared to the defense outlay) so far this year to the Palestinian Authority.We know why the first statistic is noteworthy: It’s the largest weapons sale in U.S. history. But the latter number is significant. By this time last year, the Saudis had given about $241 million to the PA. (The United Arab Emirates drastically reduced its aid as well.) That is, now that negotiations between the Palestinians and Israel are underway, Arab nations are pulling their support for Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinians.Thus, at the slightest hint of progress, the Arab states pull back. They want distraction and destruction. It’s time to stop blaming Netanyahu, the one outsider who has actually helped average Palestinians find a better way of life, creating peace for Israel in the process.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• Russia to supply missiles to Syria, despite Israel protest.Russian defense minister says Moscow still intends to proceed with arms deal, that includes sale of P-800 missiles, amid objection from US, Israel.The Russian defense minister indicated that Russia would go ahead with the contract that was formulated in 2007, saying that "the matter of missile sales to Syria was raised during the talks with US Defense Secretary Robert Gates and undoubtedly, the Russian side of the contractwould be fulfilled."Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• Pakistani NGO’s Report: During 2009, Some 284 Women were Killed in the Name of 'DisHonor' in Sindh, 245 in Punjab, 14 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and 59 in Baluchistan.On June 30, 2010, the Aurat Publication and Information Service Foundation, a non-governmental organization (NGO) working for women’s rights in Pakistan, released a report on cases of violence against Pakistani women. Entitled ‘‘Violence against Women in Pakistan: A qualitative review of statistics for 2009,’’ the report noted a jump from 7,571 cases of violence against women in 2008 to 8,548 in 2009, a13 percent increase.Source : Memri.Click here for comments.

• Ground Zero: Russian Offers $10M for Muslim Center Site to Build Chess Center.The Russian president of the World Chess Federation is offering $10 million to buy the site of the controversial Muslim community center near Ground Zero in order to build an international chess center instead of the controversial mosque."I believe that international conflicts are extremely dangerous in complex times such as ours," Ilyumzhinov wrote in the letter to Bloomberg. "As the president of the World Chess Federation (FIDE) and as a person who has always supported interreligious understanding, I propose the construction of an International Chess Center at the suggested site of the mosque."Correct me if I'm wrong isn't he the guy who claimed claimed on television to have been visited by aliens in 1997?Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• Michele Bachmann Accuses Obama of "Infantilism".The Tea Party movement is "the largest political movement we have seen in modern times," Republican Rep. Michele Bachmann said today.The movement is not about "red" or "blue" politics, she said -- "It's really about red, white and blue.""People are reclaiming our inalienable rights given to us by almighty God, and they're deciding to alter their government," she said. "Liberty will be refreshed in our country."Speaking about President Obama's interpretation of constitutional rights and understanding of governance, Bachmann accused the president of "infantilism" -- a childish mindset.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• HT:TheBlaze. Awkward Argument: Jesse Jackson Says America Shouldn’t Be English Only — Jesus Didn’t Speak English.Ok.....As far as i know there’s only one school left who still teaches Aramaic,so let all 308 Million Americans move there ?Read and see the full story here.Click here for comments.

• Security forces on high alert as Israelis mark Yom Kippur.West Bank checkpoints temporarily closed until after Day of Atonement ends; 300 policemen deployed in Acre; train and bus services ceased.Security and rescue forces will be on high alert during Yom Kippur which begins Friday afternoon and will end Saturday at dusk.Security crossings into Israel from the West Bank were temporarily closed Thursday night and will open again at midnight on Saturday in accordance with security assessments adopted by the IDF.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• Geert Wilders to spread his anti-Muslim movement west.Dutch far-right politician forms international alliance to attempt to ban immigration from Islamic countries.Geert Wilders, leader of the Freedom party, told the Associated Press that he would launch the movement late this year, initially in five countries: the US, Canada, Britain, France and Germany."The message, 'stop Islam, defend freedom', is a message that's not only important for the Netherlands but for the whole free Western world," Wilders said at the Dutch parliament.Wilders declined to name any of the other founders of the organisation he is calling the Geert Wilders International Freedom Alliance."The fight for freedom and (against) Islamisation as I see it is a worldwide phenomenon and problem to be solved," he said.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• OBAMA WARNS OF 'CORPORATE TAKEOVER OF OUR DEMOCRACY'.Barack Obama urging us to prevent a corporate takeover of our government.Is he for real or what?Now I've really heard it all.The end of times is near!Read the full scandal story here.Click here for comments.

• Church Controversy Fuels Fresh Turkey-Armenia Tensions.It was meant to be a day of spirituality and reconciliation, a symbol of warming ties between two historical foes.Instead, a planned religious service at an Armenian church in eastern Turkey is threatening to descend into a major dispute between the two nations, still bitterly divided over their troubled history.Christian Armenians initially welcomed Turkey's decision to approve a one-day religious service at the former Cathedral of Surb Khach, or Holy Cross, on September 19 -- the first to be held at the site in nearly a century.Many now accuse Turkish authorities of reneging on a promise to place a cross on the church's dome ahead of the much-awaited mass, prompting hundreds of pilgrims to cancel their visit. Critics say the mass is merely a campaign to improve Turkey's image and promote its bid to join the European Union.Many Armenians living in Turkey say they intend to attend the mass despite the missing cross, but Armenia's pilgrims have cancelled their visit en masse.Yerevan-based travel agent Vladimir Arushanian, whose agency Ani Tour had planned to bring some 100 pilgrims from Armenia, says it has called off its excursions to Van."Organizing a pilgrimage on that day would not be right because the Turks failed to keep their word," he says. "The main reason people wanted to attend that ceremony was to see the cross back in its place.""They are using this issue very skillfully to show the whole world that the Turkish Justice and Development Party and their leader [Recep Tayyip] Erdogan are moving closer to Europe," said Eduard Sharmazanov, a spokesman for Armenia's ruling Republican Party. "Especially after their constitutional reform, they need to show that they uphold European values."Religious freedom in Turkey?Perhaps they should try to practice what they preach?Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• HT:WeaselZippers.WH Spokesmen Still Mum on Study Linking Shariah Proponents to Al Qaeda.Story on Obama Administration’s “incorrect assumptions” on political Islam picked up by IBD and Washington Times this morning. Silence from lefty rags.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• Child Still Expelled for Toy Gun - a Year Later.Parents want their child back in school. School board says no way.The 8-year-old boy hasn't been in school for a year and will likely miss another year if the Broward County School Board has its way.Burgos was suspended from school in November after a teacher found a toy gun in his backpack. But when the boy went to register to go back to Pembroke Pines Charter School, he was told he will be expelled for this school year, too, as part of the county's zero tolerance weapons policy."He made a mistake, but why the severe punishment? I don't understand that," said Magdiel Burgos, Sam's dad."This is in his backpack and it's a toy. It's not a real gun. It's a toy," said Magdiel Burgos, twirling a plastic gun.The school board said they would admit Samuel into a correctional school for problem children who have been expelled located in Hallandale Beach.The parents refused and believe their son has already paid for his mistake enough. Samuel has since been home-schooled, but his parents want him back in public school."I can't sit here and allow them to send my kid to a school where students have committed actual crimes," Burgos said. "He hasn't committed a crime."Read the full story here.Click here for comments,what's your take on this case?I Believe kids will be kids did they expel kids from school in our days for a futile reason like this?

• D.C. ABC Affiliate Fires Longtime Anchorman After He Pointed Out Obama Took Campaign Cash From BP During Oil Spill Protests.WJLA-TV has fired veteran anchorman Doug McKelway for a verbal confrontation this summer with the station's news director that came after McKelway broadcast a sharply worded live report about Congressional Democrats and President Obama, reports The Post's Paul Farhi.In his piece, McKelway said the sparsely attended event attracted protesters "largely representing far-left environmental groups." He went on to say the protest "may be a risky strategy because the one man who has more campaign contributions from BP than anybody else in history is now sitting in the Oval Office, President Barack Obama, who accepted $77,051 in campaign contributions from BP."Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• Everybody Draw Mohammed Day 2: Electric Boogaloo.New group at Facebook. This group is apparently a response to Seattle cartoonist Molly Ivins fatwa which caused her to go into hiding on the advice of the FBI.Read and see the full story here.Click here for comments.

• Public finally gets to try out new 'saddle class' seats (however, some found it a rather tight fit).Potential passengers were given the chance to 'saddle up' and try out a plane seat which brings a new meaning to the term cattle class - but it doesn't look as though they enjoyed the ride.Appearing rather squashed, people were strapped into the 'Skyrider', which could be used by budget airlines to cram more passengers on board, as it was unveiled in America.Those behind the design claim they have not compromised on comfort. But, with the chair in front just 23 inches from their faces - seven inches less than the current average - these flyers seemed far from impressed.In July this year, Ryanair's O'Leary said his airline would offer vertical seats - essentially passengers would perch on a narrow shelf and lean against a flat padded backboard - for as little as £4 each way. The company's colourful chief executive said he would remove the back ten rows of seats from 250 planes and replace them with 15 rows of so-called ‘vertical seating’.They would be restrained with a strap stretching over their shoulder, the budget airline said.But the bizarre initiative ran into an immediate obstacle. European aviation safety regulators said the perches would not.As i said before:"more passengers - more baggage - more weight - more consumption - more expensive = Cheaper seats?Hmmmm."Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• 'It's ridiculously huge': Fraser River fishermen net massive sturgeon.A group of sports fishermen struggling for an hour and a half to land a Fraser River sturgeon suspected it was big — but they had no idea how big until they got it to shore near Mission.The five men took turns with the rod and 130-pound test line, spelling each other off every 10 minutes, to eventually wrangle the monster.It measured out at almost twice the length of two of them, and outweighed three or four of them put together.It was so large that it took 10 grown men to hold it up for the photo shoot.“It was so thick around the middle, you couldn’t get your arms around it,” said Calderone.Officially, it measured 11 feet, three inches, or 3.4 metres — the length of a compact car. And it likely weighed more than 700 pounds, or 320 kilograms, based on its girth.Calderone, Norm Young, Charles Belanger, Brad Allan — the one who hooked the fish — and guide Tom Pearce shared in the glory of the trophy during the quick catch-and-release, required for the designated “species of concern” caught on the Fraser.“We let it go after about two minutes,” said Calderone. “And they were always splashing it with water.”The average sturgeon is two to four feet long, although fishermen regularly catch seven- to eight-footers, according to STS Guide Services owner Vic Carrao.This latest catch was shy of the all-time record of 11 feet, nine inches, he said.Read and see the whole story here.Click here for comments.