For those of us who are fans of the the Monty Python film Monty Python and the Holy Grail, archeologists appear to have done the impossible: find the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch. The Crusader hand grenade was uncovered by the late Marcel Mazliah, a worker at the Hadera power plant in northern Israel. Other artifacts originate from eras 3,500 years in the past.
Category: International
For years, European Union advocates denied allegations that they were trying to erase national borders and create a single country with a shared military. Then recently proposals for a single military emerged — just before Britain left the EU. One of the most effective criticisms made against the EU before Brexit was to challenge voters to actually name the people in charge of the EU and policies affecting their lives. Now, the head of the EU has gone out of his way to confirm the worst suspicions of critics. The much-maligned EU chief Jean-Claude Juncker has publicly denounced the very concept of national borders as the “worst invention ever.”
Saudi Arabia continues to remind the world of its continued belief in primitive superstitions and its adherence to a medieval Sharia legal system. A Saudi court has reportedly sentenced an Egyptian man to six years on charges of attempting to disturb public order, violating the kingdom’s labor laws and communicating with a sorcerer to bewitch his employer. That’s right, sorcery to bewitch his employer. On top of those charges, the Saudis reportedly charged the Egyptian of acquiring a secret military document listing the movements and names of Saudi troops and of emailing this document to the Iranian Embassy in Lebanon.
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We continue to be served a steady diet of Ryan Lochte stories from his being dropped by sponsors to continued investigations. Given his long history of immature conduct and comments, the exhaustive media attention for Lochte may be much to do about nothing. A far more worthy subject is Polish Olympian Piotr Malachowski who is auctioning silver medal for boy with rare cancer. Malachowski has shown the true character of a Olympian.
Continue reading “Enough About Ryan Lochte . . . Meet Piotr Malachowski”
The world is full of male fences for stolen goods. However, some items can be a tad more difficult to fence than others. Take the massive inflatable clown from Adelaide’s Loritz Circus.
We previously discussed the Islamic extremists who destroyed priceless artifacts within Timbuktu in Mali. Now one of the culprits, Ahmad al-Faqi al-Mahdi, pleaded guilty to destroying religious monuments in the ancient city. After destroying centuries of artifacts, al-Mahdi now expresses remorse before the International Criminal Court.
Ismail Berdiyev, a leading mufti from Russia’s North Caucasus region, has called for the universal use of clitoridectomy, or female genital mutilation, for “all women to reduce lechery” and “sexuality.” The shocking and disgusting proclamation by Berdiyev is magnified by the the supportive public statement by a senior priest in the Russian Orthodox Church, Vsevolod Chaplin, who wrote on Facebook: “My sympathies for the mufti. I hope he doesn’t retreat from his position because of the howls and hysterics which will start now.”
Nice has added its famous beaches to the list of resort areas where the burkini is banned. Like the ban on the veil, it is hard to see how such bans are not openly discriminatory towards Muslims. I fail to understand the rationale for such a ban, particularly when many people now adopt full covering (especially for child) to protect against the damaging sun rays.
Continue reading “Burkinis Are Not Nice: French Resort Latest To Ban Muslim Swimming Suit”
We have discussed (with no small amount of mirth) the Islamic fatwas against Pokemon. Now an Italian bishop appear intent upon showing that Christians can be equally absurd. Antonio Stagliano, the bishop of the southern town of Noto in Sicily, has declared the game to be “diabolical” and is going to court to try to block the game which he insists turns people into the “walking dead.” Better undead than brain dead, in my view.
A father was most likely spared a rape conviction by a lawyer’s crash reading of the best-selling sadomasochistic sex novel Fifty Shades of Grey. The accuser was his daughter who admitted that she made the allegation to get back at her father. As we have previously discussed, such false rape case often do not result in charges for the false victim. In this case, there is no reference for such charges.
Indian clerics have issued a fatwa asking Muslims that they must not eat Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC), which is now deemed a sin against Islamic law. The reason is the failure to kill chickens in front of Muslims.
Like many Muslim countries, Turkey has a long and troubling history of child brides and arranged marriages. Some Islamic clerics have maintained that there can be no age limitation on child brides. They often note that Muhammad married Aisha when she was seven and consummated the marriage at nine years old.Just as Pakistan recently struck down its protection for girls from such abuse, the Turkish Constitutional Court annulled a provision that punishes all sexual acts against children under the age of 15 as “sexual abuse.” It is a major set back for girls and women in Turkey and another example of how the Islamic fundamentalists have taken over this once secular country under the authoritarian rule of our ally Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
Cartoons and Muslim countries have a long and troubling history, including the Danish cartoons that led to a global spasm of violence where Muslims killed Christians and burned churches in retaliation of an insult to Mohammad. The fact that cartoons are satire or that this is an exercise of free speech has little meaning in countries that punish blasphemy and many which follow medieval Sharia law. Many view Jordan as one of the more progressive Arab countries, but that reputation has been severely undermined by a ridiculous and abusive arrest of Jordanian writer Nahed Hattar for merely sharing a cartoon deemed offensive to Muslims. Notably, the cartoon actually mocked terrorists and their expectations of virgins and heavenly rewards for murdering people. Mocking the terrorists over such beliefs was deemed as a criminal insult to Islam.
As made clear in a recent column, I am no fan of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) or its manifestly negligent decision to choose Rio as the location of this year’s Olympics. For the last year, the IOC has been in the full denial mode as various experts detailed the gross failures of Brazil to address shortfalls in pollution control and infrastructure (including the recent controversy over pools turning green and smelly). Even with the health of athletes at stake, IOC officials have dismissed every health warning concerning the raw sewage in the water events and the rampant crime around the Olympic facilities. The most recent example came with the latest robbery of athletes. In this case, an Olympic star and three other athletes were held and robbed at gunpoint at a gasoline station. Despite public accounts coming from Lochte and his mother, the IOC assured the world media that the story was absolutely false. Nothing to see here. Of course, the story was true but the IOC seems to put truth just behind the health of athletes on the list of its priorities. UPDATE: The police have released videotapes and accounts that sharply contradict the account of Lochte and his friends.
I have long been a critic of military tribunals as constitutionally dubious and practically ineffectual institutions. The tribunals at Guantanamo Bay have resulted in few actual trials and undermined the standing of the United States as a nation committed to the rule of law. The principle rationale cited by former officials in defense of Gitmo has been that it would not be used to try citizens. Now in a deeply disturbing interview, GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump has stated that he might try citizens at Gitmo — maintaining a shadow court system for stripping citizens of basic rights of due process just a few miles off the United States shore.
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