MFS - The Other News

                          Morning Posting.

• The makings of a trade war with China.No one familiar with the Smoot-Hawley tariff of 1930 should relish the prospect of a trade war with China -- but that seems to be where we're headed and probably should be where we are headed. Although the Smoot-Hawley tariff did not cause the Great Depression, it contributed to its severity by provoking widespread retaliation. Confronting China's export subsidies risks a similar tit-for-tat cycle at a time when the global economic recovery is weak. This is a risk, unfortunately, we need to take.Hmmm...is it wise to start a trade war with the country that holds almost 2 Trillion of US debt?Exactly ...I don't think so eighter!Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• UT campus given all-clear after Tuesday morning shooting.UT officials said the campus has been given the all clear and that all campus buildings have been opened.Officials have tightened the perimeter around the campus, but UT spokeswoman Rhonda Weldon didn’t have details other than to say it was around the Perry-Castaneda Library.Although police tape remains up, students can be seen walking around the campus.For the past hour, officers have been examining shell casings on the ground near the Sugar Shack barbecue stand in a parking lot just east of Whitis Street on the south side of 21st.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• HT:BigPeace.The Genesis of the Muslim Brotherhood.The aftermath of World War I, with the defeat of the Turkish Ottoman Empire, saw the destruction of the Islamic political authority called the “caliphate.” Mustapha Kemal Ataturk established post-Ottoman Turkey as a secular westernized state and abolished the caliphate. Among his reforms to dismantle the shariah system, Ataturk banned the tradition of growing beards by men and wearing headscarves by women, banned the call to prayer from the mosques, abolished the Turkish language’s script and replaced it with the Latin alphabet, and made the Turkish military the custodians of a new secular tradition.This did not sit well with Islamic traditionalists. Some became determined to restore the caliphate, if not in Turkey, then somewhere else. One such individual was Hassan al Banna, the son of a Muslim imam who lived outside Cairo, Egypt. In 1928, al Banna founded an organization called the al-Ikhwan al-Musilmin, known in English as the Society of Muslim Brothers or the Muslim Brotherhood (MB).How much a visionary character as Attaturk is needed right now.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• Scientists Clash Over Amount of Oil in Gulf.Scientists clashed Monday over whether oil from the BP PLC oil spill remains in the Gulf of Mexico and is breaking down quickly, in a sign of the challenges facing a presidential commission investigating the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history.A Florida State University professor said that more than half of the oil that spilled into the sea remains in the Gulf of Mexico and is a "highly durable material" that is now buried along the coast and on the sea floor. But an Energy Department scientist said that couldn't be true—and that conclusions should be put on hold until more data are gathered."It did not sink all to the bottom—it can't," Terry Hazen, a senior Energy Department scientist told reporters during a break in a hearing before the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling. He was elaborating on remarks made earlier to the panel. He said that initial data were being collected and it would be at least a month before the findings come out.Earlier, oceanographer Ian MacDonald had told the panel in prepared testimony that of the 4.1 million barrels of oil that weren't siphoned off into tankers, "the remaining fraction—over 50% of the total discharge—is a highly durable material that resists further dissipation." He said that "much of it is now buried in marine and coastal sediments. There is scant evidence for bacterial degradation of this material prior to burial." Read the full sticky story here.Click here for comments.

• Insurgent Group in Iraq, Declared Tamed, Roars.This spring, United States military commanders said that Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia was a group in disarray, all but finished as a formidable enemy after American and Iraqi troops had killed or captured more than three-quarters of its leaders.But even as officials in the United States and Iraq made public pronouncements that reveled in Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia’s demise, the Sunni insurgent group vowed “dark days colored in blood.”After seven years at war, Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia remains an enigma and has only about 200 “hard core” fighters, according to the United States military.Last month, Gen. Ray Odierno, then the commander of American forces in Iraq, expressed surprise at the group’s ability to coordinate attacks on a single day in 13 cities that killed more than 50 people and wounded 250.Operation "New Dawn" but for whom?Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• Dozens of Christians Beaten by Mob in Gujrat, Pakistan.A mob of Muslim extremists on Thursday shot at and beat dozens of Christians, including one cleared of “blasphemy” charges, in Punjab Province’s Gujrat district, Christian leaders said.The attack on Tariq Gill, exonerated of charges of blaspheming the Quran on Sept. 3, 2009, and on his father Murad Gill, his mother and the other Christian residents was the latest of more than 10 such assaults on the Christian colony of Mohalla Kalupura, Gujrat city, since Sept. 8, the Rev. Suleman Nasri Khan and Bishop Shamas Pervaiz told Compass.About 40 Islamists – some shooting Kalashnikovs and pistols at homes and individuals on the street, others brandishing axes and clubs – beat some of the Christians so badly that they left them for dead, Pastor Khan said. So far, 10 families have been targeted for the attacks.On Thursday, the assailants ripped the clothing off of Gill’s mother and dragged her nude through the streets, Pastor Khan said.Among the Christians attacked on Thursday were Rashid Masih and his family, he said. The critically injured Masih and his family members, Gill and his parents, and the other injured Christians were initially rushed to Aziz Bhatti hospital in Gujrat, Pastor Khan said, and then transferred to Abdullah Hospital in nearby Lalla Musa to receive more advanced care.“The injured Christians were under the observation of able doctors at Abdullah Hospital in Lalla Musa,” Pastor Khan told Compass by telephone."Islam the religion of peace"?Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• Israel commandos 'peacefully' board Jewish Gaza-bound aid boat.IDF says commandos peacefully intercepted the 'Irene', the latest vessel to try to breach an on the Palestinian territory in the wake of Israel's deadly flotilla raid in May."IDF naval forces recently boarded the yacht 'Irene', and it is currently being led to the Ashdod seaport along with its passengers," the military said in statement that branded the boat a "provocation yacht".Before boarding, the navy transmitted two warnings to the boat, which refused to turn back and sailed further into the blockade area, the IDF said.Shortly before, an Israeli warship had hailed the catamaran carrying Jewish activists toward the blockaded Gaza Strip, according to the group's website.An Israeli destroyer was cutting off the boat's path and another small boat was also approaching, the 'Jewish Boat to Gaza' website posted minutes before reports of the interception.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• Anti-terror chief tried to secure UK entry for Muslim preacher.Britain's counter terrorism chief said he would “put himself on the line” to secure entry to Britain for a radical Muslim preacher, days before he was over-ruled by Theresa May.Mrs May, the Home Secretary, banned Zakir Naik, an Indian television preacher, from a lecture tour in the UK in mid-June, saying his presence “would not be conducive to the public good”.Mrs May cited reported comments from Dr Naik such as “every Muslim should be a terrorist” and, on Osama Bin Laden, that “if he is fighting the enemies of Islam, I am for him” when she decided to ban him.Ms Khan, who worked for Mr Farr, was later reportedly suspended after allegedly criticised Mrs May in private for “a huge error of judgment” over the decision.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• White Women Dump the Dems.According to Gallup polling data exclusive to The Daily Beast, white women are deserting the Democratic Party in droves. Linda Hirshman on where the PUMAs are heading.No surprise with such a "strong -macho"leader?Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• HT:MichelleMalkin.Big Labor thug Trumka: Left must “take control of the national conversation”.From the AFL-CIO blog, violence-promoting labor chief Richard Trumka urged his fellow leftists to seize back power from the Tea Party movement and take back “control of the national conversation.”Of course, Trumka has been fighting with his gloves off for a long time. See my Labor Day retrospective of Trumka’s history of fomenting threats, intimidation, and physical violence against dissenters. And recall that Trumka and his union pals have pooled together an $88 million war chest and Marxist get-out-the-vote alliance to deploy this midterm election season.Be careful out there.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• Mexico Asks U.S. To Stop Deporting Serious Criminals.In a flabbergasting request, a coalition of Mexican lawmakers has asked the United States to stop deporting illegal immigrants who have been convicted of serious crimes in American courts.The preposterous demand was made at a recent southern California conference in which the mayors of four Mexican cities that border the U.S. gathered to discuss cross-border issues.The only American mayor who attended the biannual event was San Diego’s Jerry Sanders, evidently because his city hosted it this year at a fancy downtown hotel.The Obama Administration seems to be heeding to Mexico’s request by openly halting the deportation of hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants. Additionally, the administration has a “backdoor amnesty” plan to legalize millions of undocumented aliens in case Congress doesn’t pass legislation to do it.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• President Obama has just issued a blackmail to Prime Minister Wen Jiabao of China: "You immediately revalue the yuan or else..." According to an article of David E. Senger in The New York Times dated September 23, 2010, the two leaders met at the United Nations in New York and spent most of their two-hour session in a spare conference room, usually used by members of the Security Council, to discuss the currency issue. The session ended by Obama's issuing an ultimatum that is bound to be followed by trade war. Surely, this is a most unseemly use to which the sacred grounds of the Security Council, dedicated as it is to the maintenance of peace and prevention of war, have ever been put.America can lose nothing, and can gain everything by playing the gold card first. The prodigal son, repentant, could return to his father, symbolized by the American Constitution, who is ready to forgive and embrace him. Not only will the opening the U.S. Mint to gold, as demanded by the Constitution, restore the government to fiscal sanity and financial health; it will also bring confidence back to the international monetary system.It will also help avoid trade wars, and prevent another wave of uncontrollable unemployment from engulfing the world.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• HT:DanielGreenfield.The Future of the War on Terror, is the War on Islam.Fighting a War on Islam means making a careful study of the structures and ways in which Islam is sustained and promoted, particularly on higher education for Muslim religious scholars and on the ways in which the dilettante sons of wealthy Muslim families become entangled in such projects. The Muslim religious school trains the terrorists of tomorrow and imbues them with dreams of creating a new Islamic reality. The boys and men who study in them and then go on to higher learning as Imams and Mullahs, form the core of Islamic terrorist ideology. The Mosque serves as the base for any Muslim community, particularly abroad where the Muslim preacher can incite violence. The Koran serves as the manual for terrorism in the name of an ideal Islamic world order. In order of importance, these are the real commanders and bases of the enemy. To the extent that they are pushed back, weakened, uprooted or destroyed-- we will have peace. To the extent that they prosper and spread, we will have nothing but war.We know who the enemy is. It is not simply the terrorists lurking at their base camps, it is the cleric in Al Azhar University who signs off on a Fatwa that legitimizes murdering our people. That cleric is a much better target than the terrorists, because the cleric provides the ideology that creates Islamic terrorism in the first place. If we are to use "Smart Strikes", than let us be really smart about it by making sure that we do not waste time striking at a tentacle of the octopus, when we can strike at the head instead.The War on Terror will not end by entering a bunker and finding the "Leader of Terrorism" dead. Islamic terrorism has no leader, it has motivation. Breaking Islam of its enthusiasm for power and expansionism is the only way we will win. Victory is possible. The only question is do we want it badly enough.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• Unidentified Muslim Men Attack Pentecostal Church in Karachi.Another shocking attack against Pakistani Christians has taken place, this time by a group of unidentified Muslim men who attacked the Nasri Pentecostal Church in Shah Latif Town, Karachi.The unprovoked violence took place at around midnight on Saturday, September 18, 2010, when a group of men cut the locks of the church and then, once inside, went on an orgy of violence.They piled up Bibles, hymnals (including Books of the Psalms), and musical instruments and then set them on fire and fled the scene of their crime.A case was registered against the unknown culprits at the nearby Shah Latif Town Police Station but , at the time of writing, they were still unidentified and at large.The police inspector told them that he pledged to the church leaders that “very soon” the Muslim men who allegedly devised and carried out this sinister plan would be “litigated” as he believed that their actions were “repugnant” to the basic human rights of Pakistani people and was also “against the constitution of Pakistan.” Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• Norway terror suspects 'plotted cartoon attacks'.Three men arrested in Norway in July are suspected of planning attacks to avenge cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad that appeared in a Danish newspaper, Norwegian and Danish police say.Denmark's police intelligence branch said the target may have been either the Jyllands-Posten newspaper itself or people linked to the cartoons.One of the suspects, an Iraqi Kurd, had confessed, police said.The 12 drawings sparked furious protests in Muslim countries in 2006."One of the suspects was questioned and, from what he said we extracted a confession about terror attack plans," Siv Alfsen, a spokeswoman for Norwegian security police told the AFP news agency."Based on his declarations, everything indicates that the target was the Jyllands-Posten newspaper in Denmark."The other two suspects are immigrants from China and Uzbekistan. All had been granted residency in Norway.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• U.S. should be able to shut Internet, former CIA chief says.Hayden said the president currently does not have the authority to shut down the Internet in an emergency."My personal view is that it is probably wise to legislate some authority to the President, to take emergency measures for limited periods of time, with clear reporting to Congress, when he feels as if he has to take these measures," he said in an interview on the weekend."But I would put the bar really high as to when these kinds of authorities might take place," he said.He likened cyberwarfare to a "frontier."Read the full story here.Click here for comments

• NASA showdown looms as shuttle workers face layoffs.With more than 1,500 space shuttle workers facing layoffs this week, legislators say they will take a final shot at passing a blueprint for the U.S. human space program before adjourning ahead of the November 2 congressional elections.With the shuttle program winding down, prime shuttle contractor United Space Alliance reports 1,222 employees - 877 in Florida, 333 in Texas and 12 in Alabama -- will be laid off on Friday. Another 350 shuttle contractor jobs also are expected to end on Friday.United Space Alliance is a joint venture between the Boeing Co and Lockheed Martin Corp.What the Russians couldn't do Obama just did.R.I.P. America's Space conquest!Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• HT:BacktoBasics.Is Iceland Preparing To Blow Again?It has been a while since Iceland’s unpronounceable volcano shut down European airspace for a week. This could be about to change, because as FromTheOld demonstrates, the seismic activity at the base of Bárðarbunga stratovolcano, which also happens to be the highest mountain in Iceland, has picked up materially over the last 48 hours. As a reminder (courtesy of Wikipedia), Bárðarbunga “The largest lava flow in Iceland and the entire earth from a single eruption is originated from Bárðarbunga about 8500 years ago (causing mass extinctions).” Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• HT:IslaminEurope.Amsterdam: Salafis pose threat to Muslim women, says alderman.Though orthodox Muslims might not be a danger to society, they're a threat to the personal freedom of Muslim girls and women, Amsterdam diversity alderman, Andrée van Es (GroenLinks), said in response to a recent study on Salafism.The report concluded that strictly orthodox Muslims are not a threat to Dutch society. This is also due to the enormous social control in Salafist communities: the faithful consistently check each other, and continuously speak of what is allowed and what isn't."The Netherlands now heaves a sigh of relief," says Van Es, "But we don't care what this means for the women in those orthodox communities. I speak so often with Islamic women and girls who say that they're not free. They tell of women they know - never about themselves - who have been married very young and that nobody is happy. Or that they're afraid to drink a glass of wine on the terrace or light a cigarette. And those are the little examples. There are also women who don't have freedom to get the education they want, or choose their own partner.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• Gold is the final refuge against universal currency debasement.States accounting for two-thirds of the global economy are either holding down their exchange rates by direct intervention or steering currencies lower in an attempt to shift problems on to somebody else, each with their own plausible justification. Nothing like this has been seen since the 1930s.“We live in an amazing world. Everybody has big budget deficits and big easy money but somehow the world as a whole cannot fully employ itself,” said former Fed chair Paul Volcker in Chris Whalen’s new book Inflated: How Money and Debt Built the American Dream.“It is a serious question. We are no longer talking about a single country having a big depression but the entire world.” We have a new world order where China and India are buying gold on every dip, where the West faces an ageing crisis, and where the sovereign states of the US, Japan, and most of Western Europe have public debt trajectories near or beyond the point of no return. Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• HT:WeaselZippers.Oops He Did It Again: For Second Time, Obama Omits “Creator” When Speaking of “Inalienable Rights” Cited in Declaration of Independence.Just seven days after he sparked controversy by omitting the word “Creator” when he closely paraphrased the passage from the Declaration of Independence that says all men “are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights,” President Barack Obama again omitted the Creator when speaking about the “inalienable rights” that “everybody is endowed with.”Hmmm....perhaps because he thinks he is God?Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• The Tilting of the Earth Changes Everything!Vatic Note: There is a "Chinese Curse" that says: "MAY YOU LIVE IN INTERESTING TIMES". And given all this below, I believe the curse must have taken hold. As you can see we have begun to track changes to the earth and the various events unfolding that affect not only our planet but the sun, and the entire solar system. So, lets recap what we have learned.Or just apply the laws of physics to all the ice that's melting! Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• Glenn Beck, 9.27.2010: Fascism Is Alive In America.Glenn covers the amount of control the federal government now has over our lives ranging from the indoctrination that American children receive in the public school system that has only been controlled by the DOE since 1979, to the Energy Department’s nudging of green issues, to Cass Sunstein’s belief that the Constitution is irrelevant because it cannot keep up with the times.Read and see the full story here.Click here for comments.

• War in the Kremlin: President Medvedev sacks Moscow mayor in Russian power war.The Russian government have sacked Moscow's mayor today after nearly two decades in charge, due to a 'loss of confidence'.Yury Luzhkov, who has ruled over Russia's capital for 18 years, has been forced out of office by president Dmitry Medvedev following a number of high-profile disagreements, the Kremlin admitted.The Kremlin's website said President Medvedev signed a decree, which is effective as of today, relieving the flat-cap-wearing 74-year-old mayor of his duties.The order read: 'I decree that Yury Mikhailovich Luzhkov be dismissed from his position as mayor of Moscow due to a loss of confidence in him by the president.'Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• Chechnya Coerces Women on Dress, Activists Say.Women in Chechnya are under pressure to adopt Islamic dress, according to human rights activists and an Islamic fundamentalist video circulating on the Internet in the latest example of deteriorating women’s rights under Ramzan A. Kadyrov, the president of the restive southern Russian republic.Activists in Chechnya, where Russia has waged two wars against separatists in the past 16 years, said intimidation reached a peak during the fasting month of Ramadan. There was also a crackdown on violations of Islamic law such as the sale of food before sundown and any sale of alcohol, they said.The activists who spoke from Chechnya insisted on anonymity because they said they feared reprisals.Chechen television reported on September 16 about a march in Grozny of female students of an Islamic university in Islamic dress. The event, organized by a club called “Ramzan” and a government agency responsible for “spiritual and moral education,” was dubbed “Beauty of the Chechen Woman.” “Every person must strive to beauty, and a young woman who puts on a hijab looks beautiful, as befits the dictates of the Almighty,” Sado Meserbiyev, the chairman of “Ramzan,” said. Footage on the Internet shows women in dresses with short sleeves and no headscarves being sprayed with paint from passing cars. Mr. Kadyrov told Chechen television in July that he approved of such action.“Even if it was done with my permission, I wouldn’t be ashamed,” he said. “It turns out that the girls who were sprayed with paint had been warned several times previously. After such an incident, a girl should just disappear from the face of the earth, lock herself in the house and not go out because she behaved so inappropriately that such a thing happened to her.”Mr. Kadyrov made similar comments after seven women were found shot and killed in Grozny in 2008. No official explanation of the deaths was ever offered, but Chechens speculated at the time that the women might have been victims of “Dishonor killings” after they were accused of immoral behavior. Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• Is Cattelan giving business the finger in Milan?A marble sculpture of a cut-off hand with the middle finger stuck up has gone on display in front of the Milan Stock Exchange, provoking a lively debate in Italy's financial capital.The 11-meter high installation, called "L.O.V.E." and unveiled for the first time in Milan, is part of a retrospective dedicated to the Italian contemporary artist Maurizio Cattelan, whose provocative works include a sculpture of Pope John Paul being hit by a meteorite.Read and see the full story here.Click here for comments.

• Revealed: The truth about the Bosnian brunette who claims she bedded Beckham.Posing proudly with members of her family, this is the glamorous brunette at the centre of lurid claims that she slept with David Beckham.Irma Nici told the U.S. magazine In Touch last week that she had enjoyed a series of trysts with the former England captain.Beckham denies the affair and is suing for libel. It has also emerged today that the former England captain hired a private detectives to track her down and serve her personally with the £5million writ for damages.But now The Mail on Sunday can reveal that she was born Irma Nezirovic, and is a former refugee who is said to have witnessed atrocities in a Bosnian internment camp.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• Video: Egyptian Islamic Scholar Dr. Suad Saleh: Women Should Not Wear Bathing Suits.