The Vicious Babushka

Doofus of the Day: Polish Ass-A-Chew Compares Israel's Security Fence to the Warsaw Ghetto

 Propaganda picture showing grafitti of a walled-in Christmas tree.

Sygmunt Bauman says Israel 'terrified of peace' and 'taking advantage of the Holocaust to legitimize unconscionable acts,' in interview with Polish weekly 'Politika.'

Sygmunt Bauman, the Jewish sociologist and one of the greatest philosophers of our time, castigated Israel harshly this week, saying it did not want peace and was afraid of it.

Bauman said Israel was "taking advantage of the Holocaust to legitimize unconscionable acts," and compared the separation fence to the walls surrounding the Warsaw Ghetto, in which hundreds of thousands of Jews perished in the Holocaust.

In a long interview to the important Polish weekly "Politika," Bauman said Israel was not interested in peace. "Israeli politicians are terrified of peace, they tremble with fear from the possibility of peace, because without war and without general mobilization they don't know how to live," he said.

"Israel does not see the missiles falling on communities along the border as a bad thing. On the contrary, they would be worried and even alarmed were it not for this fire," the Polish-British sociologist said.

Bauman, who lived in Israel briefly, referred to an article he wrote in Haaretz, in which he expressed concern that the younger Israeli generation was being raised on the understanding that the state of war and military alert were natural and unavoidable.

The Polish public has not heard such a diatribe against Zionism and Israel since the anti-Semitic propaganda campaign the Communist regime conducted after the Six-Day War.

Not surprisingly, leading Jewish figures came out against it.

"Politika" published the criticism alongside the letter of Israeli ambassador in Warsaw Zvi Bar, who rejected Bauman's "half truths" and "groundless generalizations."

Bauman, who was born in Poland in 1925, has been living in England since he left his lecturer's chair at Tel Aviv University in 1971.

He is seen as one of the greatest sociologists of our time and has dealt extensively with the ties between the Holocaust and modernism, globalization and consumer culture in the postmodern era.

Some of his books have been translated into Hebrew, including "Liquid Love."

Read more at Haaretz.

Neo-Nazi Vandals Scrawl "They Were Flammable" on Monument to Holocaust Victims

 A Nazi swastika is seen in Jedwabne, Poland, Thursday, Sept. 1, 2011, on the monument dedicated to Jews from the town of Jedwabne burned to death by their Polish neighbors in 1941. Police are trying to find the unknown perpetrators who desecrated the monument.
AP Photo.

 
 An inscription reading "They were Flammable" and a Nazi swastika are seen in Jedwabne, Poland, Thursday, Sept. 1, 2011, on the monument dedicated to Jews from the town of Jedwabne burned to death by their Polish neighbors in 1941. Police are trying to find the unknown perpetrators who desecrated the monument. AP Photo.

WARSAW (Reuters) - Vandals destroyed a monument to victims of a World War Two pogrom against Jews in Poland, covering it with racist inscriptions and swastikas in green paint, police said on Thursday.

It was the latest in a recent series of racist and xenophobic acts of vandalism targeting the small Jewish and Muslim communities in eastern Poland as well as the tiny Lithuanian minority.

At least 340 Jews were burned alive by their Polish neighbors in a barn in the 1941 pogrom in the eastern town of Jedwabne. The site was later turned into a memorial.

"On Wednesday a police patrol ran into the devastated site. We immediately started an investigation," said Andrzej Baranowski, police spokesman in the nearby city of Bialystok.

Vandals also smeared a wall surrounding the memorial with signs saying "I'm not sorry for Jedwabne" and "They were highly flammable." They obscured the Hebrew and Polish signs on the memorial itself with paint.

"This is a perfect example of vandalism and stupidity, but we don't know the exact motives yet," Baranowski added. [I think we can take a good guess. VB]

All the recent anti-Semitic and xenophobic incidents were probably perpetrated by the same people, Poland's interior ministry said this week, and they are all under investigation by the Bialystok police.

A 2001 Polish investigation concluded that the Jedwabne pogrom was inspired by Poland's then-Nazi occupiers and the case remains a traumatic memory for Jews and many Poles today.

Poland was home to Europe's largest Jewish population of some 2.5 million until World War Two, when most of its Jewish citizens perished in the Nazi-sponsored Holocaust.

The few who survived the war faced periodic oppression by the communist regime installed in Poland after 1945.

Read more at Reuters.

Soviet Statue Repainted to Feature Superman, Santa Claus & Ronald McDonald

"In Step with the Times"

There was Superman in red leather boots, Ronald McDonald clutching a bottle of beer, and Santa Claus about to look through a pair of binoculars.

A benign if motley bunch, you may think. But they were enough to provoke an international diplomatic rebuke, it emerged on Wednesday, after they featured in an impudent make-over of a Soviet war memorial. Members of Russia's government were said to be seething.

An unidentified street artist struck last weekend, daubing paint on a high-relief statue in Sofia, Bulgaria, to transform the monument's Red Army soldiers into a tableau of storybook characters. The artist's caption spray-painted on the statue read: "In step with the times."

Moscow was not amused. In a statement issued Wednesday, the foreign ministry urged Sofia to expose and punish the "hooligans behind the vandalism" and stop the "desecration of the memory of Soviet soldiers who fell in the name of freeing Bulgaria and Europe from Nazism".

Captain America and Batman's sidekick, Robin, also featured in the composition, which quickly became a tourist magnet.

Imposing socialist-realist war memorials have become painful reminders of Soviet rule for some countries that threw off their communist shackles in the late 1980s and early 1990s. In 2007 ethnic Russians rioted in Estonia when authorities there removed the Bronze Soldier statue. One man was stabbed to death and dozens were injured.

The statue in Sofia, built to mark the 10th anniversary of Russia's "liberation" of Bulgaria in 1944, has been cleaned up. Police say they are seeking the culprit.

Read more at Guardian.co.uk.

Der Spiegel Attempts to Connect Israel With Euro-Fascists

 Ayoud Kara, Druse politician, met with leaders of Austrian fascist party.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,777175,00.html

Islamophobic parties in Europe have established a tight network, stretching from Italy to Finland. But recently, they have extended their feelers to Israeli conservatives, enjoying a warm reception from members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition. Some in Israel believe that the populists are Europe's future.

Anders Breivik's 1,500-page manifesto is nothing if not thorough. Pages and pages of text outline in excruciating detail the ideological underpinnings of his worldview -- one which led him to kill 76 people in two terrible attacks in Norway last week.

It is a document which has led many to question Breivik's sanity. But it has also, due to its myriad citations and significant borrowing from several anti-immigration, Islamophobic blogs, highlighted the deeply entwined network of right-wing populist groups and parties across Europe -- from the Front National in France to Vlaams Belang in Belgium to the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ).

But recently it has become clear that Europe's populist parties aren't merely content to establish a network on the Continent. They are also looking further east. And have begun establishing tight relations with several conservative politicians in Israel -- first and foremost with Ayoob Kara, a parliamentarian with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party who is also deputy minister for development of the Negev and Galilee districts.

The reason for the growing focus on Israel is not difficult to divine. "On the one hand," Strache told SPIEGEL ONLINE in a recent interview, "we are seeing great revolutions taking place in the Middle East. But one can't be totally sure that other interests aren't behind them and that, in the end, we might see Islamist theocracies surrounding Israel and in Europe's backyard."

In other words, in the battle against what right-wing populists see as the creeping Islamization of Europe, Israel is on the front line.

'More Sensitive to the Dangers'

Many in Israel see it the same way. Eliezer Cohen, known in Israel by his nickname "Cheetah," says that leftist parties in both Europe and Israel have lost their way. Cohen, a decorated Israeli air force colonel now in retirement, is a former member of the Knesset with Yisrael Beiteinu, the hardline nationalist party led by Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman that currently governs together in a coalition with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party.

"Right-wing politicians in Europe are more sensitive to the dangers facing Israel," Cohen, who gave a keynote address during Dutch right-wing leader Geert Wilders' visit to Berlin last October, told SPIEGEL ONLINE. "They are talking the exact same language as Likud and others on the Israeli right. I'm too old for bullshitting -- we hope the right wing wins out in Europe."

Kara sounds no different. "I am looking for ways to lessen the Islamic influence in the world," Kara told the Israeli daily Maariv in June. "I believe that is the true Nazism in this world. I am the partner of everyone who believes in the existence of this war."

At first glance, the European populists' relationship with Israel would hardly appear to be a marriage built on love. Many see the FPÖ as being just one tiny step away from classic neo-Nazi groups and the same holds true for their partners throughout Europe. While such parties insist that they are not anti-Semitic -- Strache claims that he takes a close look at populist parties' stances toward Israel and Jews before he enters into partnerships with them -- it is not difficult to find indications of extreme, anti-Zionist and anti-Semitic vitriol from within the populist party membership rolls.

Andreas Mölzer, for example, a member of the European Parliament for the FPÖ who has recently changed his tune to defend Strache's approaches to Israel, edits a weekly called Zur Zeit which is replete with attacks on Israel. Following its incursion into the Gaza Strip in late 2008, the paper accused Israel of acting in "the Talmudic spirit of annihilation" and that it was trying to "finally annihilate the open-air concentration camp of the Gaza Strip in the spirit of the Old Testament."

[It is true that some right-wing Israeli politicians, affiliated with Lieberman's fascist party Yisrael Beiteinu, have extended welcomes to far-right European fascists, but it is not true that any of the Euro fascists are affiliated with the more mainstream Likud. Ayoob Kara is a Druse politician whose motives may be to stir crap up]

Read more at Der Spiegel.

Israel Chamber Orchestra Plays Wagner

BAYREUTH, Germany (Reuters) - The Israel Chamber Orchestra will play a work by Adolf Hitler's favorite composer Richard Wagner in Germany Tuesday, challenging a seven-decade taboo in their homeland.

Israeli ensembles rarely play Wagner because of the seminal 19th century composer's anti-Semitism and the appropriation of his music by the Nazis, calling it insensitive to Holocaust survivors.

But orchestra conductor Roberto Paternostro said Sunday it was time to separate Wagner's worldview from his music.

"Wagner's ideology and anti-Semitism was terrible, but on the other hand he was a great composer," he told Reuters. "The aim is in the year 2011 to divide the man from his art."

The orchestra will play Wagner's Siegfried Idyll, an orchestral piece, in Bayreuth, Germany, famous for its annual Wagner opera festival in July and August.

It will be the first time an Israeli orchestra plays Wagner in Germany.

"It was a very difficult and rocky path to get to this point," Paternostro said earlier at a news conference. "There wasn't a moment when I had any doubts about this project."

"It was my greatest conviction to bring together these two sides -- Israel and Wagner," said Paternostro, who is Jewish and whose mother and other relatives were Holocaust survivors. "For me it wasn't much of a problem."

Attempts over the years by some musicians in Israel to perform Wagner's music have caused audience members to walk out in protest and have triggered heated public debate.

Wagner is also taboo on state-owned media in Israel which largely keep his work off the air.

Read more at Reuters.

It's about time! Wagner was a great composer and his music should not be banned just because Hitler Y"S enjoyed it. Was Wagner an anti-Semite? Maybe, but who cares? No one gives that kind of scrutiny to Mozart, or Bach, or Beethoven. Should we ban all composers except for Mendelssohn?

Anders Breivik and the Jews

 He looks just like "Foreskin Man"

From Harry's Place, by Joseph W.

I’d just like to deal with the nasty lie that somehow Anders Breivik was acting on behalf of Jews, Zionists, Israel, etc., because he is somehow pro-Jewish, and this somehow explains why he is a murderer.

Two quotes from his appalling document.

This:

“If the NSDAP had been isolationistic instead of imperialistic(expansionist) and just deported the Jews (to a liberated and Muslim free Zion) instead of massacring them, the anti-European hate ideology known as multiculturalism would have never been institutionalized in Western Europe, because the Marxists would never have been so radicalized to begin with.”

and this:

In any case; educate yourself and learn the difference. Today’s conservatives and wantto-be Nazis are ignorant when they obsess so much over the Jews. There is no Jewish problem in Western Europe (with the exception of the UK and France) as we only have 1 million in Western Europe, whereas 800 000 out of these 1 million live in France and the UK. The US on the other hand, with more than 6 million Jews (600% more than Europe) actually has a considerable Jewish problem.

He thinks that the Nazis should have “just” expelled the Jews, and the US probably has to think about expelling Jews.

He thinks that Palestine can only be free if there are no Muslims there.

Breivik is firstly an abominable child murderer.

He is also a racist. He thinks in a racist way.

On the “Nordic tribe”:

There are many non-Nordic that try to mimic Nordic beauty by dying their hair blond and wearing contacts. So why not offer our children the actual genetical gift instead, through repro-genetics, rather than spending thousands of Euro and thousands of hours on make-up trying to mimic the Nordic ideal? As the Nordic ideal obviously is still prevalent in this multiculturalist world it may not be too late to prevent the extinction of the Nordic tribes. We are still a strong tribe, representing the most numerous in Europe, counting more than 200 million individuals worldwide.

On inter-racial marriage:

Race-mixing leads to suicidal children with severe mental problems. The offspring of race-mixers will feel like outcasts and it is very common that these individuals suffer from severe psychological problems throughout their life. Their parents obviously do not care as it would appear that their children’s psychological health and general well being is irrelevant to them. The suicide rate among these individuals is extremely high, which reflects the suffering they are put through by not having an extended ethnic family. A majority of Europeans sees ethnic, blood-bonds as the most essential cultural factor and considers their ethnic tribe to be their extended family.

Read more at Harry's Place.

Paris is Occupied by Israel! Airport Swarm FAIL.

 
 Those on a "No Fly" list are not allowed to board aircraft! Unheard of! Ever!!

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Scores of pro-Palestinian protesters trying to reach Israel were blocked at airports in Europe and two American activists who arrived in Israel were deported early Friday, Israeli officials said.

Israel increased security at Ben-Gurion International Airport ahead of the activists' arrival and asked foreign airlines to prevent blacklisted travelers from boarding Israel-bound flights, as hundreds said they would travel to Israel to protest Israeli policies toward the Palestinians.

By midday Friday, no disruptions had been reported at the airport.

At Israel's request, several airlines barred about 200 would-be protesters from boarding flights to Israel from Europe, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said.

"The companies did not allow them on the airplanes because we told them clearly they wouldn't be able to enter Israel," Rosenfeld said.

One of the organizers, French activist Olivia Zemor, said her group planned only nonviolent activities. The group, "Welcome to Palestine," released a statement Friday calling the moves to prevent activists from reaching Israel "provocative, blackmailing and illegal." [This is total BS, any country in the world can deny entry to any foreigner deemed disruptive to law and order]

At Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris, several would-be protesters were turned away from check-in counters on Friday morning.

A list viewed at the airport by The Associated Press read: "Attached is a list of passengers who will be refused entry to Israel."

Protesters subsequently gathered in the terminal and shouted "Boycott Israel," as French police stood by.

Cynthia Beatt, a British citizen living in Germany, told the AP she had been barred from boarding a Lufthansa plane Friday morning in Berlin. She had planned to take part in the protest.

"Lufthansa called me last night and said I would not be allowed to board their plane because Israel denied me entry," Beatt said.

The detailed lists showed that Israel had been tracking the activists. According to the Israeli daily Haaretz, police and intelligence units had followed social networks used by the groups organizing the protest.

Organizers of the protest said a total of about 600 people were scheduled to take part, and Israeli officials said they expected more to land later in the day.

Two activists arrived in Israel from Greece overnight and were deported, said Foreign Ministry official Oded Ben-Hur. He identified them as Americans who had initially planned to join a protest flotilla that had intended to sail to the Gaza Strip but was foiled by the Greek government.

Ben-Hur also said an unspecified number of activists had been allowed through the terminal without incident. Israel has not publicized its criteria for denying entry, but has said peaceful visitors will not be deported.

Read more at Associated Press.

Guess what, "activists"? There is no "International right to travel" to any country. Each nation can decide who to admit as a tourist. When visiting the Russian Federation several years ago, Babushka was required to apply for a tourist visa 90 days in advance. Individuals who have been designated as troublemakers are routinely banned from entering the United States, the UK, and Canada (for example, radio nutball Michael Savage may not visit the UK)

Flotilla Follies: Supporters Plan Airport Swarm if Blockade Run Fails

Not talented enough for American Idol, ageing attention queens line up for Flotilla Follies audition.

Israel was making intense preparations on Monday to foil plans by hundreds of activists to flood Israel's Ben Gurion international airport on Friday in a show of solidarity with the Palestinians.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch to coordinate all law enforcement and aviation authorities, said a statement from Netanyahu's office.

Israeli media reported that flights landing on Friday from Europe would be taken to a separate terminal and all passengers carefully screened.

"This planned provocation will be dealt with in accordance with Israeli law and international law and conventions," the statement from the premier's office said, without giving further details.

Pro-Palestinian activists have said they plan to arrive in their hundreds at Ben Gurion airport outside Tel Aviv on July 8 to protest against Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip.

"We have responded to a call from Palestinian associations and about 500 hundred of us, women, men and children, will leave on July 8 to show them the world hasn't forgotten them," organisers said on the website www.bienvenuepalestine.com.

The group is said to include about 300 French and others from Belgium, Germany, Italy and the United States.

"We are not going to hide the fact that we are coming to visit our Palestinian friends," the website remarks said.

"The Israel government has no right to refuse us entry to the occupied Palestinian territories."

The move comes as a flotilla of international activists that had planned to try and breach the blockade failed to get permission to set sail from Greece, apparently as a result of Israeli diplomatic pressure.

"Hundreds of internationals on their way to visit Palestinians in Gaza have been prevented from departing from the ports in Greece," Elsa Rassbach, one of the activists, wrote in a statement received by AFP on Sunday.

"However, we hope that hundreds of others of us from many countries will succeed in reaching Palestine by flying to Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv.

"Supporting our visit to Palestine will be one small step towards bringing about the freedom of movement for all the peoples of Israel/Palestine that is essential for peace and justice in the Middle East," she said.

Israel on Sunday slammed the plan.

Read more at AFP.

Ad for Swiss Event Features a Jewish Figure Killed "William Tell" Style

Save Switzerland: Shoot Straight! 
August 1st at Bazinga ONC
Concerts, Barbeques, beer and more!

Jewish community outraged: Anti-Semitic group in Geneva distributes ad for independence day party showing doll wearing yarmulke with arrow on its head, Israeli flag painted on

Ads promoting an independence party in Geneva featured a doll of a man wearing a yarmulke with an arrow in its head and an Israeli flag painted on it, Swiss media reported Friday.
 
According to Swiss reports, a local anti-Semitic and anti-Israel group, the GNC, is behind the ad. Last week, a Swiss politician called for a ban on products made in Israel.

The anti-Semitic ads incurred the wrath of members of the Jewish community in the country. "This is a call for the murder of Jews," said Jonah Gurfinkel. Sabine Simkhovitch-Dreyfus, deputy director of the Jewish community federation said: "A red line has been crossed."

A GNC member claimed the ad was directed against the Israeli government, but Dreyfus rejected his claims saying, "Sadly the arrow on the forehead does not leave a shadow of a doubt." Jewish groups are now considering a lawsuit against the GNC.

Read more at YNet.

Geert Wilders in Favor of Dutch Law Banning Kosher and Halal Animal Slaughter

 Jews and Muslims need to work together.

The Dutch parliament voted Tuesday to ban the slaughter of livestock without stunning, or anesthetizing, the animals first, in a move that would make Islamic halal and Jewish kosher methods of butchering animals illegal.

The bill, proposed by the Party for the Animals, the first animal-rights group that is represented in a European legislature, passed the lower house of parliament by 116 votes to 30. It still must be approved by the upper house before becoming law, according to Reuters.

In a rare display of unity, Jews and Muslims strongly denounced the move as a violation of religious freedom. If the law is enacted and enforced, it's likely that observant Jews and Muslims, who butcher animals according to stringent centuries-old rules, would have to import meat from abroad, stop eating it altogether, or leave the country, the Australian reported.

The Netherlands is home to about one million Muslims, mostly immigrants from Turkey and Morocco, while the Jewish community numbers 40,000-50,000.

The vote came after months of bitter debate in the Netherlands over the apparent contradiction between the country’s tradition of religious tolerance and its concerns about animal welfare, according to the Financial Times. Observant Jews and Muslims denounced it as the latest in a series of what were perceived as European anti-Islamic initiatives such as the French ban on wearing veils in public and the Swiss ban on minarets. In this case, the issue would affect traditional Jewish practices as well.

According to Reuters:

Netherlands Chief Rabbi Binyomin Jacobs told Reuters. “Those who survived the (second world) war remember the very first law made by the Germans in Holland was the banning of schechita or the Jewish way of slaughtering animals.”

The law got support from centrist parties on secular scientific grounds, and from the far-right Party for Freedom of Geert Wilders, an anti-Islamic group.

Read more at GlobalPost.

English Defence League Leader Discovers the Protocols

 John "Snowy" Shaw

The leader of the EDL's “Infidels” faction, John “Snowy” Shaw, has spoke out in support of the notoriously antisemitic book, the Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion.

Hot on the heels of praise for the Book of Revelations, Shaw announced yesterday that his head is being turned by another historical document, the “The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion”.

With “the Protocols” Shaw has immersed himself in one of the most vile and dangerous forgeries of all time.

According to Shaw, the book has already begun to make things “click” in his head, and he advises “all true British patriots take the time to read this”.

Despite the book being discovered as a forgery, it has long been viewed as definitive proof of a Jewish conspiracy by Nazis and antisemites ever since. Adolf Hitler even had put it in the school curriculum in Nazi Germany. More recently, it was even among a selection of books that the BNP recommended for “patriots” during the 1980’s because they insisted it was still of historical interest.

The book is a crude record of the supposed minutes of a meeting of the Jewish community in the late 19th Century where plans for their world domination are discussed.

The book first surfaced in Russia in the early 1900’s and was used as a justification by antisemites to carry out pogroms against the Jewish community. It’s popularity spread as far as notorious Jew-Hater Henry Ford of Ford Motor car fame, who had a further 500,000 printed for distribution in the United States.

Having opened the book, Shaw is convinced by its authenticity. He is now adamant that both Jews and Muslims are conspiring together and that he “must stop them destroying our country”.

Read more at HOPE not hate.

NOW will all the Jews who have been cheering the EDL realize that they are not friends?

Gender is Banned at Swedish Preschool

 Storm, Jazz and Keo would fit right in here.

STOCKHOLM – At the "Egalia" preschool, staff avoid using words like "him" or "her" and address the 33 kids as "friends" rather than girls and boys.

From the color and placement of toys to the choice of books, every detail has been carefully planned to make sure the children don't fall into gender stereotypes.

"Society expects girls to be girlie, nice and pretty and boys to be manly, rough and outgoing," says Jenny Johnsson, a 31-year-old teacher. "Egalia gives them a fantastic opportunity to be whoever they want to be."

The taxpayer-funded preschool which opened last year in the liberal Sodermalm district of Stockholm for kids aged 1 to 6 is among the most radical examples of Sweden's efforts to engineer equality between the sexes from childhood onward.

Breaking down gender roles is a core mission in the national curriculum for preschools, underpinned by the theory that even in highly egalitarian-minded Sweden, society gives boys an unfair edge.

To even things out, many preschools have hired "gender pedagogues" to help staff identify language and behavior that risk reinforcing stereotypes.

Some parents worry things have gone too far. An obsession with obliterating gender roles, they say, could make the children confused and ill-prepared to face the world outside kindergarten.

"Different gender roles aren't problematic as long as they are equally valued," says Tanja Bergkvist, a 37-year-old blogger and a leading voice against what she calls "gender madness" in Sweden.

Those bent on shattering gender roles "say there's a hierarchy where everything that boys do is given higher value, but I wonder who decides that it has higher value," she says. "Why is there higher value in playing with cars?"

At Egalia — the title connotes "equality" — boys and girls play together with a toy kitchen, waving plastic utensils and pretending to cook. One boy hides inside the toy stove, his head popping out through a hole.

Lego bricks and other building blocks are intentionally placed next to the kitchen, to make sure the children draw no mental barriers between cooking and construction.

Director Lotta Rajalin notes that Egalia places a special emphasis on fostering an environment tolerant of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people. From a bookcase she pulls out a story about two male giraffes who are sad to be childless — until they come across an abandoned crocodile egg.

Nearly all the children's books deal with homosexual couples, single parents or adopted children. There are no "Snow White," "Cinderella" or other classic fairy tales seen as cementing stereotypes.

Read more at Associated Press.

Jews and Muslims Appeal Dutch Law Requiring Animals to be Stunned Before Slaughter

Jewish and Muslim representatives Thursday appealed to Dutch lawmakers not to enforce plans requiring animals to be stunned before halaal and kosher slaughtering rituals.

"We are against any form of stunning because it's against our religion," Yusuf Altuntas, president of the CMO -- an organisation that links the Muslim community with the Dutch government -- told a parliamentary commission.

"One of the first measures taken during the Occupation (during World War II) was the closing of kosher abattoirs," Dutch Chief Rabbi Binyomin Jacobs added during the debate in The Hague.

Dutch law required animals to be stunned before being slaughtered but made an exception for ritual halaal and kosher slaughters.

The country's Party for Animals (PvdD) which holds two seats in the 150-seat Dutch parliament, has submitted a proposal, if implemented, would see this exception abolished.

Dutch media widely reported that the PvdD's proposal was expected to get a majority nod from parliamentarians, but a timeframe was not given.

"The animals suffer more and are more distressed if they are not stunned," Esther Ouwehand, a PvdD parliamentarian told AFP.

"By getting this modification in the law, we hope to inspire other countries," she added, pointing out that in Norway and Sweden these measures had already been taken.

More than two million animals -- mainly sheep and chickens -- were being subjected to ritual slaughter every year in the Netherlands, the PvdD added.

Abdelfattah Ali-Salah, director of Halal Correct, the organisation which issues halaal certificates in the country, however called the figure "inexact".

He said some 250,000 animals were slaughtered yearly without being stunned beforehand.

Jewish and Muslim representatives Thursday insisted ritual slaughter respected the animals' welfare, notably restriction methods used to limit suffering and that those slaughtering received expert training.

Read more at AFP.

Can someone explain how "stunning" is "more humane" than instantly slicing through the carotid artery? Stunning is basically this: the animal is tased until it becomes unconscious. Frequently the electrocution must be applied repeatedly because animal skulls are thick and one application of the taser is not always sufficient.

Austrian State TV "Regrets" Broadcast of 1930's Racist Disney Video

  
"Jewish beggar" segment at about 6:05 into the video. (h/t: Guest)

VIENNA — Austria's State TV is apologizing for broadcasting a 1930s Walt Disney cartoon that critics say reinforces anti-Semitic stereotypes of the era.

"The Three Little Pigs" depicts the Big Bad Wolf disguised as a Jewish beggar, complete with a long nose, beard and caftan, as he tries to gain entry to one of the pigs' homes. The Austria Press Agency says it was seen last week on one of the network's children's programs.

Program director Wolfgang Lorenz expressed his "great" regrets Tuesday that the cartoon was broadcast. He spoke of a slip-up that evaded the "strictest quality criteria," and said he would make sure that "such a mistake ... will not occur again."

Criticism was first voiced by the weekly "Falter" magazine.

Read more at Washington Post.

Food Terrorism? 16 Dead in Europe From Contaminated Vegetables

 How did European vegetables get contaminated with deadly e.Coli?

BERLIN – A massive and unprecedented outbreak of bacterial infections linked to contaminated vegetables claimed two more lives in Europe on Tuesday, driving the death toll to 16. The number of sick rose to more than 1,150 people in at least eight nations.

Nearly 400 people in Germany were battling a severe and potentially fatal version of the infection that attacks the kidneys. A U.S. expert said doctors had never seen so many cases of the condition, hemolytic uremic syndrome, tied to a foodborne illness outbreak before.

Investigators across Europe were frantically trying to determine how many vegetables were contaminated with enterohaemorrhagic E.coli — an unusual, toxic strain of the common E. coli bacterium — and where in the long journey from farm to grocery store the contamination occurred.

The highly politicized mystery over the source of the E. coli contamination deepened in the light of new evidence that two strains of the bacterium may be involved. German officials said they were still looking at Spanish produce but Spain said the discovery was proof its farms were not the source.

E. coli is found in large quantities in the digestive systems of humans, cows and other mammals. It has been responsible for a large number of food contamination outbreaks in a wide variety of countries. In most cases, it causes non-lethal stomach ailments.

But enterohaemorrhagic E.coli, or EHEC, causes more severe symptoms, ranging from bloody diarrhea to the rare hemolytic uremic syndrome. In Germany, at least 373 people have come down with the syndrome, or HUS, in which E. coli infection attacks the kidneys, sometimes causing seizures, strokes and comas.

"The idea of an outbreak of over 300 hemolytic uremic syndrome cases is absolutely extraordinary," said Dr. Robert Tauxe, deputy director of foodborne, waterborne and environmental diseases at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control.

"There has not been such an outbreak before that we know of in the history of public health," Tauxe said, adding that the German strain of E. coli has not been seen in the United States.

German officials say that investigations including interviews with patients have shown people were likely infected by eating raw cucumbers, tomatoes or lettuce, and they are warning consumers to avoid those vegetables.

European Union officials say Germany has identified cucumbers from the Spanish regions of Almeria and Malaga as possible sources of contamination. They say a third suspect batch, originating either in the Netherlands or in Denmark and sold in Germany, was also under investigation.

They noted that imported cucumbers could have been contaminated at any point on the long route to retail customers. Denmark said that no traces of EHEC bacteria were found in tests of vegetables conducted there over the weekend. Exports of Dutch cucumber to Germany were halted but authorities said tests of a cucumber grower and a warehouse found no EHEC. bacteria there either.

Authorities in Hamburg said last week that they had detected EHEC on four cucumbers, three of them imported from Spain and the fourth of unclear origin, which were on sale in a market in the city.

On Tuesday, however, officials said they had found a slightly different type of EHEC on the cucumbers than the type detected in the feces of sick people in Germany, though reiterated that even though that meant those vegetables did not cause the outbreak, they still posed a health risk.

Read more at Associated Press.

Dutchman Builds Noah's Ark, Has to Deal With Zoning Codes and Angry Neighbors

Johan Huibers' Ark

DORDRECHT, the Netherlands — If Noah had run into the modern nanny state, or nimby, or a few of the other obstacles that Johan Huibers has been facing, the animal kingdom might look a lot different today.

Mr. Huibers, 60, the successful owner of a big construction company, has spent the last few years building an ark, identical in size to the one Noah is said in the book of Genesis to have built: 300 cubits in length, or 450 feet; 30 cubits high, or about three stories; and 50 cubits, or 75 feet, wide. The cubit of the Bible, Mr. Huibers said, was the distance between finger tips and elbow, or in his case roughly 18 inches.

He is building the ark out of Swedish pine, because some versions of the Bible describe the wood God ordered Noah to use as “resin wood,” which Mr. Huibers says is pine.

“We should finish by the middle of July,” he said, leading a visitor through the ark’s cavernous decks, still rich with the smell of fresh pine. “Maybe later.”

Unlike Noah, Mr. Huibers had to conform to Dutch fire safety standards. To do so, he installed a special anchor that qualifies the 2,970-ton ark as a building, rather than a vessel. Moreover, he will have to paint the ark, inside and out, with three coats of fire-retardant varnish. (Noah covered his ark with pitch, making it waterproof but hardly fire retardant.)

And then there are the neighbors.

“The ship takes away our view,” complained Gerrit Kruythoff, 65, who has lived with his wife and family for 42 years in the trim brick row house next to the disused shipyard where Mr. Huibers is toiling, with the help of two of his three children and a handful of friends.

“We used to have a view all the way to the river,” Mr. Kruythoff, a retired employee of the big DuPont chemical works here said. “You could see the ships passing by.”

He has not lodged a formal complaint, he said, because his home, with those of several neighbors, will soon be torn down anyway, to make way for a new residential development on the site of the former shipyard where the unfinished ark stands. By then, the ark will have sailed.

Actually, this ark is not the first that Mr. Huibers has built. He first began dreaming of an ark in 1992, shortly after a heavy storm lashed the coastal region north of Amsterdam where he lives. His wife, Bianca, a police officer, opposed the idea.

“She said no, but by 2004 I had built a smaller ark, 225 feet long, to sail through the Dutch canals,” he said. It became a minor sensation. He charged adult visitors $7 to board it.

Read more at NY Times.

Obama Visits Warsaw Ghetto Memorial

 
U.S. President Barack Obama stands with Jewish community leaders and Holocaust survivors before the future site of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews during his visit to Warsaw, Poland May 27, 2011. Obama is on the final leg of a four-nation visit to Europe.
Reuters Photo.

 
President Barack Obama speaks with Jewish leaders and Holocaust survivors after laying a wreath at the Warsaw Ghetto Memorial in Warsaw, Poland, Friday, May 27, 2011. AP Photo. [Just wait for the Obama-haters to get all outrageously outraged over Obama smiling at a Holocaust Memorial site--VB]

President Barack Obama meets Jewish leaders after laying a wreath at the Warsaw Ghetto Memorial in Warsaw, Poland, Friday, May 27, 2011. AP Photo.

WARSAW, Poland — President Barack Obama on Friday honored the memories of those slain in the Warsaw Ghetto uprising against Nazis, telling one elderly man that the memorial was a “reminder of the nightmare” of the Holocaust in which six millions Jews were killed.

In the final phase of his European trip, the president greeted Holocaust survivors and leaders of Poland’s Jewish community at the Monument to the Ghetto Heroes. He smiled, shook hands and hugged those gathered under a light rain, including some who shared memories of having met Obama at earlier times.

“What a wonderful visit. I’ll have to bring my daughters,” Obama said as he exited the memorial. The monument in the former Jewish ghetto commemorates the tens of thousands of Jews killed in a 1943 uprising against the Nazis during Germany’s brutal occupation of Poland during World War II.

Most of the insurgents in that uprising were killed, but the event bears great importance in Jewish history as an example of Jews bravely taking up arms to defend themselves against the Nazis. It’s also a key memorial in a country that before the Holocaust was home to Europe’s largest Jewish community.

Among those Obama met was Halina Szpilman, the widow of Wladyslaw Szpilman, the Holocaust survivor featured in Roman Polanski’s Oscar-winning film “The Pianist.” Obama kissed Szpilman, a retired doctor who lost her husband in 2000, on both cheeks. A leading member of the Jewish communist, Monika Krawczyk, was heard urging Obama to do all he can to support Israel, saying, “It’s the only Jewish state we have.” Obama assured her that the United States would be there for Israel.

 Read more at Washington Post.

Israeli Books Banned in Scotland

Worst of all, they're banning all the leftists' books!

Scotland: Glasgow districts boycott Israeli books

Several districts in southwest Scotland expands boycott on Israeli products, bar stores from carrying English translations of Israeli books. 'A place that boycotts books isn't far from a place that burns them,' says Ambassador Ron Prosor

LONDON – Scottish citizens might not be able to purchase English translations of Israeli masterpieces such as "A tale of love and darkness" by Amos Oz and "Someone to run with" by David Grossman, due to a boycott on Israeli books.

Two and a half years ago, shortly after Operation Cast Lead, the West Dunbartonshire Regional Council, located west of Glasgow, approved a bill that called to boycott goods produced in Israel.

According to the law, the council and all public bodies under its jurisdiction are forbidden to sell goods that originated from Israel.

Following the botched raid on the Turkish Flotilla to Gaza last May, the council expanded the boycott to include a ban on the purchase of English translations of Israeli books and the distribution of these books in public libraries throughout the council's jurisdiction.

West Dunbartonshire was joined by the large Scottish city Dundee, which decided to issue a recommendation to boycott all goods produced in Israel.

Legal advisers instructed Dundee's mayor to refrain from legally enforcing the boycott in order to avoid future lawsuits. Instead, the municipality plans to distribute posters throughout the city, calling on some 150,000 residents to refrain from buying Israeli goods, and will also apply a special mark on Israeli products, in order to make them easily identifiable.

Israel yes, Iran no

The European Union prohibits its member-nations from boycotting products from countries that are not under an official embargo imposed by the EU.

Unlike Iran, which is not subjected to a boycott in Britain despite being issued sanctions by the EU, Israel "enjoys" special scrutiny.

"The municipality will not boycott Israeli books printed in Britain, only books that were printed in Israel," said West Dunbartonshire Regional Council Spokesperson Malcolm Bennie.

Bennie admitted that Israel is the only country being boycotted by the council, adding that the municipality had no intention of issuing a ban on products originating from Iran, Syria or Libya.

"A place that boycotts books is not far from a place that burns them," Israel's Ambassador to the UK Ron Prosor said in response. "The council stained the reputation of its members and shamed the good citizens of Scotland," he added.

The announcement of the Scottish boycott on Israeli books stirred a storm among Israeli authors whose books were translated into English and sold throughout the British Kingdom.

"I think it is a despicable decision," said award-winning author Amos Oz, whose books are widely distributed to international audiences.

"I think it's a mistake to boycott literature and authors, because they represent the sane side of society," said "The House of Dajani" author Alon Hilu.

"I am invited to a book festival in Edinburgh this August and I hope they don’t boycott me there as well," he noted.

Read more at YNet.

Demjanjuk: Guilty!

Five years in prison for the man who enabled thousands of murders

MUNICH – Retired Ohio autoworker John Demjanjuk was convicted of thousands of counts of acting as an accessory to murder at a Nazi death camp and sentenced on Thursday to five years in prison — closing one chapter in a decades-long legal battle.

It was not immediately how much credit the 91-year-old native of Ukraine he would get for time served.

Demjanjuk was charged with 28,060 counts of being an accessory to murder, one for each person who died during the time he was accused of being a guard at the Sobibor camp in Nazi-occupied Poland. There was no evidence he committed a specific crime. The prosecution was based on the theory that if Demjanjuk was at the camp, he was a participant in the killing — the first time such a legal argument has been made in German courts.

Demjanjuk sat in a wheelchair in front of the judges as they announced their verdict, but showed no reaction. Earlier Thursday, he had declined the opportunity to make a final statement to the court.

"The court is convinced that the defendant ... served as a guard at Sobibor from 27 March 1943 to mid September 1943," presiding Judge Ralph Alt said as he announced the verdict.

Read more at Associated Press.

EPIC FAIL: Baker of Nazi Pastry Apologizes, With "Jewish" Easter Cake

Baker Manfred Klaschka with "Jewish decorated" Easter Cake

VIENNA – An Austrian pastry shop owner whose cakes adorned with Nazi designs caused a nationwide stir sought to make amends Friday by giving a traditional Easter bun decorated with Jewish and Christian symbols to a member of a Holocaust awareness group that publicized the case.

The group, the Mauthausen Committee, said baker Manfred Klaschka exchanged gifts with committee member Willi Mernyi, with Klaschka presenting the pastry and Mernyi giving Klaschka a book describing Nazi crimes in Austria's Mauthausen concentration camp.

Mernyi said he arranged the meeting because he is convinced Klaschka is "not a right-wing baker" and that he is sorry for making the cakes.

Klaschka, who had previously apologized, did so again Friday.

"I recognize that this was a mistake," a Mauthausen Committee statement quoted him as saying. "I am no Nazi."

The Mauthausen Committee first drew attention to the cakes early this month saying Klaschka's bakery, in the village of Maria Enzersdorf, near Vienna, displayed photos of tortes adorned with swastikas and other Nazi era symbols, including an arm raised in a Hitler salute. The pictures, it added, were contained in a binder showcasing previously produced baked goods that clients can flip through.

Klaschka subsequently told Austrian media the cakes were made about eight years ago and he never expected such a commotion.

The case is under investigation after Merny's group asked the regional public prosecutors' office to see if the display constituted grounds to lay charges under Austrian law banning the glorification of the Nazi era and any attempt to diminish, deny or justify the Holocaust. Police confiscated the binder after Mernyi's group sounded the alarm.

Merny on Friday suggested his group now was convinced the baker meant no harm, saying "Mr. Klaschka was obviously not aware of the significance of his actions."

The Nazis shot, gassed, beat or worked to death about half the 200,000 inmates in Mauthausen's main camp or its affiliates. The camp got its name from the nearby town of Mauthausen, about 155 kilometers (nearly 100 miles) west of Vienna.

Read more at Associated Press.

Just in time for Passover! FAIL.