We have another alleged “honor killing” in Europe. Rokstan M. is a woman who was gang raped by three Syrian soldiers and fled for freedom in the West. Her family however treated her as unclean and guilty for being gang raped. She reportedly feared being killed by her father and brothers. The young pregnant woman was found stabbed to death and her Syrian father is believed to have fled back to Syria. Police are also seeking her brothers who are believed to have participated in the savage murder. Rokstan wrote on social media shortly before her death that “I am awaiting death. But I am too young to die.”
Continue reading ““I Am Too Young To Die”: Pregnant Syrian Rape Victim Allegedly Murdered By Father And Brothers in Muslim “Honor Killing””
The irony is truly crushing. Elephants may be the key to eradicating cancer in humans, according to new research. Yet, humans continue to wipe out elephants to fuel Chinese ivory and herbal medicine markets. More elephants were poisoned this week and four rangers protecting them were murdered. These same criminals like the recently arrested Chinese “Ivory Queen” could well benefit from the cancer key found in elephants . . . assuming they leave any alive for study.
By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor
It only took a few minutes for Home Depot to tell the world I visited its website. Now, my home computer reminds me of the mistake I made in providing Home Depot the chance to earn my business. I went to look at one of their products and got spammed as a result. It is truly a sign of disrespect Home Depot shows its customers for walking into its digital doors. Well, I can now add Home Depot to my list of “Fired Corporations Replaced By Small Businesses.”
It seems that window shopping is best left to actual windows instead of Microsoft Windows.
By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor
The issue of abortion is at the very least highly contentious. Decades of heated arguments are not likely to end this discussion soon even in light of various statutory and common law mandates laying out a legal framework for which it is permitted or denied. The matter is a perennial source of political maneuvering, and litmus tests that can in some areas make or break the careers of politicians. This article will not discuss the ethical or legal aspects of abortion but rather the perspective and moral position of those who support pro-life, and why they cannot abandon their cause. It is an exercise in empathy that is applicable to other subjects in ethical studies.
Continue reading “Ethical Certainties: Why Pro-Life Supporters Cannot Morally Abandon Their Cause”
By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor
In another low in the animal poaching world poachers are reportedly starting to utilize cyanide in hunting protected elephants.
Rangers for the Hwange National Park stated they discovered six elephant carcasses having their tusks removed. A week later, four more died but had not yet suffered the harvesting of their ivory. Necropsies and pathology tests of the animals’ kidneys and livers revealed the presence of cyanide. Matusadona National Park later lost three elephants to the same fate. Historically, cyanide is used in poaching of exotic fish.
The effect of cyanide often leads to deaths involving convulsions and considerable suffering if death is not immediate, adding to the cruel ordeal poachers exact upon the elephants.
Continue reading “Ivory Poachers In Zimbabwe Reportedly Using Cyanide Laced Food As Bait”
We have often discussed how universities have become battle grounds over so-called “microaggressions” and offensive terms or images involving race, religion, or culture. Some of these efforts raise serious questions of the erosion of free speech as well as double standards applied to faculty and students. The example of the sensitivity toward such objections was evident this week at Clemson University, which apologizes for racial or cultural insensitivity for holding “Maximum Mexican” night featuring Mexican cuisine. Two students were offended and the university has apologized.
Continue reading “Clemson University Apologizes For Holding Mexican Food Night”
The plight of servants in Saudi Arabia is well-documented as foreign workers particularly are beaten and sexual assaulted with little apparent repercussions from the Kingdom. Women generally are denied basic rights and freedoms in the country which follows the medieval Sharia legal system. Now a wife is facing imprisonment because she filmed her husband sexually assaulting a maid and posted it. Such filming is viewed as defamation and subject to imprisonment in the draconian legal system in Saudi Arabia.
We previously discussed the truly bizarre scene of having Saudi Arabia sit on the UN Human Rights Council despite being one of the most infamous violators of human rights. As if to remind the world of the crushing irony, Saudi Arabia has issued a statement telling the world that it has no business objecting to the planned execution of a religious dissent. The Saudi Arabian embassy in the UK has denounced “any form of interference in its internal affairs” regarding the case of 21-year-old dissident Ali Mohammed al-Nimr, who has been sentenced to death by beheading for engaging in pro-democracy protests.
Police have finally nabbed one of the most infamous environmental criminals in the world. Chinese national Yang Feng Glan (known as the “Ivory Queen”) was arrested in Tanzania on charges of poaching and smuggling ring. Glan is responsible for countless kills of elephants for their ivory. Glan, 66, would travel between China and the killing fields in open defiance of international and environmental laws. Despite her notoriety and serving an insatiable Chinese market for ivory, Chinese officials never arrested Glan.
There is another controversy brewing in California over allegations that the University of California at Berkeley is again trying to circumvent a state law that bars the use of race in educational decisions. Berkeley has announced a $20 million fund to endow scholarships for African-American students and to hire a diverse faculty. Critics say that it clearly runs afoul of the law and is another example the refusal of administrators to comply with a state policy for absolute racially blind decision-making in admissions and other educations decision making.
Continue reading “Berkeley Under Fire For New Race-Based Program”
Dr. Ben Carson is learning the perils of rising in the polls in a presidential election. This week, the National Enquirer produced an article detailing what it says is a pattern of malpractice by Carson, including leaving a sponge in the head of a patient. Some of the harshest commentary however have come from liberal African Americans. Much like some of the criticism faced by Clarence Thomas, Carson has been attacked as being a type of traitor to the black community despite the fact that he is a hugely successful doctor and mentor for many. University of Pennsylvania Professor Anthea Butler however took that criticism to a new low in calling Carson a “coon.” While such a racial slur would normally be followed by demands for terminations from a white professor, the response to the slur has been at best muted.
Continue reading “UPenn Professor Under Fire For Reportedly Calling Ben Carson A “Coon””
House GOP primary candidate Kay Daly is challenging Rep. Renee Ellmers in North Carolina clearly has a different view of what constitutes a high calibre candidate. The former N.C. GOP spokeswoman and congressional aide is running an advertisement that says that she does not just oppose RINOs (“Republican In Name Only”) but wants to bag them . . . literally.
Continue reading “Gun-Toting North Carolina Candidate Pledges To Hunt Down “Rinos” In Political Ad”
Yes, it has happened. The Cubs shut out the Pirates 4-0 just minutes ago. For Cubbies, this has been long in coming. Years of all of the ribbing and jeering about the “lovable losers.” Well, there is a wave of Cubbie blue heading for the St. Louis Cardinals and this is going to be one heck of a series.
Bahar Mustafa, of the University of London is facing criminal charges for sending a threatening communication. Mustafa attracted international condemnation for her use of a Twitter hashtag #killallwhitemen and asked for white men not to come to certain university events. Despite her unmitigated racism and sexism, an effort to remove her failed after only 165 people signed a petition for her removal. The retention of Mustafa at the university is a disgrace for both the university and academia as a whole.
State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez in Chicago has long been criticized for her efforts to bar the public filming of police officers, bizarre positions, and anti-civil liberties positions. Now she is again under fire for refusing to re-open four cases that were identified in an independent investigation as “more likely than not” resulting in the conviction of innocent men.