Scandal has rocked Saudi beauty competition with allegations of prohibited use of Botox and face “work” done of the contestants. What is a bit different is that this pageant is for camels and the annual Saudi “camel beauty contest” where owners have been accused of giving Botox to the dromedary.
Continue reading “Saudi Camel Beauty Contest Rocked By Botox Allegations”
The famous proverb stated that “the wicked flee though no one pursues, but the righteous are as bold as a lion.” That appears born out in a recent athlete competition in Siberia. Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) showed up unannounced at the regional competition in the Siberian city of Irkutsk and dozens of athletes immediately withdrew to avoid testing.
We have previously discussed the harsh limitations on free speech and free press in Thailand. Now, a leader scholar, Sulak Sivaraksa, 85, has been arrested for simply questioning the factual accuracy of the famed “elephant battle” held over 400 years ago. He merely responded to questions from fellow academics by cautioning “not to easily believe in things. Otherwise, you will fall prey to propaganda.” For that, he was charged with “lèse-majesté,” or defaming the monarchy — a ludicrous charge that could bring a 15-year prison sentence.
It appears that muggles in Canada are finally lifting the criminal sanction against all of the witches and wizards who have been hiding in Canadian counterparts to the Leaky Cauldron and Diagon Alley. Our neighbors are moving to rescind Section 365 of Canada’s criminal code, which made it crime to pretend to practice witchcraft, sorcery and fortune telling. Soon the streets of Canadian cities will be full of muggles and magicfolk alike.
Continue reading “Muggles Move To Lift Criminal Sanctions Against Witches and Wizards In Canada”
We have been following the train wreck following the arrival of our new ambassador, Pete Hoekstra, to the Netherlands. The former Republican congressman was confronted by reporters about a false statement that he made in 2015 when he said “the Islamic movement has now gotten to a point where they have put Europe into chaos. Chaos in the Netherlands, there are cars being burnt, there are politicians that are being burnt. And yes, there are no-go zones in the Netherlands.” When confronted by the reporters that no such chaos occurred, Hoekstra denied making the statement. He insisted “I didn’t say that. That is actually an incorrect statement. We would call it fake news. I never said that … it’s not what I said.” The reporter then played the tape and Hoekstra stumbled with “I didn’t call that fake news. I didn’t use the words today. I don’t think I did.” If Hoekstra thought that that would be the end of it, he was mistaken. This week he held his first press conference and and again refused to retract and apologize for the statement. The reporters reminded Hoekstra that in the Netherlands, reporters actually expect leaders to answer questions and continued to press him. Hoekstra was clearly used to reporters in the states who shrug and move on with questions as evasive responses. The problem is that it does not work in the Netherlands and now Hoekstra has painfully and belatedly apologized.
I have long been a critic of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his authoritarian predecessor President Hugo Chávez. Chávez remains an icon for many in the left in this country and around the world — despite his destruction of free speech and free press. Now Maduro has reached a new low after starving his country with moronic socialist policies of government controls and centralized powers. The international community has collected massive food donations for the starving populace but Maduro has stopped them at the border. He will not allow his people to eat unless the opposition recognized his internationally ridiculed National Constituent Assembly. He created the assembly to disband the constitutional legislative authority and assume authoritarian control over the government. Now he is turning to the ancient Roman tactic of offering bread to the masses in exchange for acquiescence for his disastrous rule.
Former Republican Congressman Peter Hoekstra had a rocky reception as the new ambassador to the Netherlands when reporters raised a false statement that he made in 2015 when he said “the Islamic movement has now gotten to a point where they have put Europe into chaos. Chaos in the Netherlands, there are cars being burnt, there are politicians that are being burnt. And yes, there are no-go zones in the Netherlands.” When confronted by the reporters that no such chaos occurred, Hoekstra denied making the statement. He insisted “I didn’t say that. That is actually an incorrect statement. We would call it fake news. I never said that … it’s not what I said.” The reporter then played the tape and Hoekstra stumbled with “I didn’t call that fake news. I didn’t use the words today. I don’t think I did.” If Hoekstra thought that that would be the end of it, he was mistaken. This week he held his first press conference and was in for a rude awakening.
The erosion of free speech in Russia under Vladimir Putin has been an unfolding tragedy for Russia. As is often the case, the loss of freedom of speech often goes hand-in-hand with the loss of academic freedom. However, the arrest of a Russian historian, Yuri Dmitriev, 61, is particularly chilling and raises legitimate comparisons with the Stalinist period. That is fitting given the fact that Dmitriev is being forced into psychiatric testing after writing about the discovery of thousands of bodies from the 1930s — victims of Joe Stalin. Putin has ordered a revisionist history on Stalin to glorify his reign and downplay the millions killed by the bloodsoaked dictator.
We have been discussing how Germany has led the West in the criminalization of speech, an anti-free speech trend that is now raging in England, France, Canada and other Western nations. Germany has continued its plunge into censorship and criminalization despite the failure of its speech laws to curtail extremism. Now even Germany’s justice minister has been censored under the laws that he and his colleagues have fostered. Heiko Maas has been notified that a tweet in 2010 is now considered improper and thus barred on Twitter. The offense? He called an author “an idiot.”We have been discussing how Germany has led the West in the criminalization of speech, an anti-free speech trend that is now raging in England, France, Canada and other Western nations. Germany has continued its plunge into censorship and criminalization despite the failure of its speech laws to curtail extremism. The most recent case involves a 32-year-old German neo-Nazi who has been sentenced to 18 months in prison for incitement after posting picture of a miniature of the Auschwitz death camp on Facebook with an offensive caption.
Our close ally Egypt has long been a symbol of religious intolerance and anti-free speech values — a government partially subsidized by billions in U.S. aid. Now, Amr Hamroush, the head of parliament’s religious committee, has announced that Egypt is moving toward the criminalization of disbelieving in God. That’s right, you will be committing a crime in Egypt if you do not believe. Akin to the policy of the “beatings will continue until morale improves,” Egypt may soon instill belief in God by jailing people for not believing.
Continue reading “Pray or Perish: Egypt Moves Toward Criminalizing The Disbelief In God”
The opening of ANWAR to drilling by President Donald Trump was a major loss for environmentalists. My views in favor of preserving such areas are well known. However, the opening up of the entire coastline of the United States has angered even Republican governors and politicians. The position of the White House is that the drilling is too valuable to pass up, but now tiny Belize has shown the alternative view: the nation has permanently suspended oil operations in its ocean waters to protect the ocean.
Continue reading “Belize Permanently Stops All Drilling To Protect Ocean”
We recently discussed a controversy at the GW International School where the Administration told faculty that panels had to be gender diverse or face cancelation. Now there is an analogous controversy in Sweden where Professor Erik Ringmar, a senior political science lecturer at Lund University, is under attack for refusing to include an author on his curriculum solely because of her gender. Critics have objected to the school gender quota as an attack on academic freedom.
The founders of Fusion GPS (which compiled the Trump dossier with money from Hillary Clinton and the DNC) has caused a stir with an op-ed in The New York Times calling for Congress to release transcripts of their testimony last summer. I favor such a release to give greater transparency on the facts underlying the allegations over both the Trump and Clinton campaigns. I have criticized both parties for managing the information and pushing investigations on one side while obstructing investigations on the other side. However, six words in the op-ed raise a far more interesting prospect: they say that there may have been an insider cooperating with the FBI during the campaign. That would be a highly significant development if the source was a true cooperative witness funneling information to the Bureau during the presidential campaign.Continue reading “Did the FBI Have A Source In The Trump Campaign?”
Pudit Kittithradilok, 34, was found guilty to running a Ponzi scheme based on investors artificially high financial returns. A defendant would normally be delighted by a fifty percent reduction in his sentence, but Kittithradilok was sentenced to more than 13,000 years in prison. His reduction left him with a hefty remainder of 6,637 years and six months. Even with regular workouts in the prison yard, it would seem difficult to serve that time.