Rudd sends home illegal immigrants from Indonesia

Rudd sends home 16 asylum seekers – National – the age.com.au
In a very clear cut case the Rudd government has acted properly in my view by sending home the asylum seeker to Indonesia. For the very first time this is a clear cut case of economic refugees, since they have stated that they had to flee their homes because they could not earn a living after they had been caught illegally fishing in Australian territorial waters.

The issue here is border security, and for this reason these Indonesians should be sent home. They are not in fear of their lives because of war, and they are not fleeing a one child policy. Neither are they facing persecution as Christians, Buddhists or Hindus as a result of Muslim intolerance.

There have been times when I have been clearly on the other side in this particular debate. I do believe that it was wrong to send the Chinese woman who was pregnant with her second child back to China. She was forced to undergo a late term abortion and then faced further punishment. Australia had a duty to protect her and her family from this kind of behaviour by the Chinese government because it was genuine persecution. I am only citing one case where I have believed that the refugees should have been allowed to stay and that the application of “economic refugee” has been incorrectly applied in the past. However, this is clearly not the case with these individuals.

It is for this reason that I stand against David Manne of the Refugee and Immigration Centre because he is talking about these illegals as not having the opportunity to put there case. Sorry, but where there is no war there is no case, and where there is clearly an economic motivation there is no case. These illegal immigrants were already guilty of entering Australian waters to fish illegally, why should they be allowed to remain in Australia as illegal immigrants. We need to take a tough stance, otherwise our borders will remain porous.

Germaine Greer totally sets aside her Catholic past

I have long been the critic of the feminist movement and this latest piece is one of the reasons that I continue to be critical of certain feminists, and in particular Germaine Greer.

The thing about Germaine Greer is that she was educated by the Presentation Sisters at the Star of the Sea convent in Elsternwick, Victoria. What is amusing to me is the fact that two of my teachers also taught Greer at least 10 years prior to my entering into high school level. Both of the nuns were quite exasperated because of the manner in which Greer expressed herself, but to give the good sisters their proper credit, they did not stifle her creativity.

The reason that I point to the Catholic background of Greer, is that I believe that the comments that she has expressed regarding rape in Darfur is probable evidence that Greer has totally forgotten her Christian roots. I find some of the comments to be very bothersome:

 

I then asked why it was that Western feminists seemed so reluctant to speak out against things such as honour killings.

Greer: “It’s very tricky. I am constantly being asked to go to Darfur to interview rape victims. I can talk to rape victims here. Why should I go to Darfur to talk to rape victims?”

Questioner (me): “Because it’s so much worse there.”

Greer: “Who says it is?”

Questioner: “I do, because I’ve been there.”

Greer: “Well, it is just very tricky to try to change another culture. We let down the victims of rape here. We haven’t got it right in our own courts. What good would it do for me to go over there and try to tell them what to do? I am just part of decadent Western culture and they think we’re all going to hell fast and maybe we are all going to hell fast.”

Too “tricky” to speak out against honor killings, and you can’t teach an old feminist new tricks.

What is so very bothersome is the fact that Greer says “it’s very tricky…. why should I go to Darfur to talk to rape victim?”

I do not think that the women of Darfur need Germaine Greer to come across and talk to them. What they need is women in the western world to be willing to speak up on their behalf and to show how the actions of the men of Darfur are contrary to the civil rights of women, and especially the rights of a rape victim.

One means that I have adopted in attempting to speak up for those who are so helpless because they do not have a voice on the world stage is to use the medium of blogging. In this way, I can scan media releases and the like that deal with the many serious issues that are continuing to emerge from countries that practice Sharia rule. In those countries a woman who has been raped can end up being stoned to death, imprisoned or being given at least 100 lashes.

The situation in the western world is entirely different from the situation in Islamic countries where women continue to be treated as though they are chattels, and continue to face punishment if they even show a little bit of ankle. Our justice system is not perfect but in recent times we have seen males being punished for gang rapes because the victims have been willing to confront their attackers in a court of law, and despite the ordeal they have managed to ensure that the attackers cannot make false allegations.

As a Christian I do feel concern for the women in Islamic countries and the way in which they are treated as second class citizens. At the same time I also feel disgust that a woman who was educated by the Presentation sisters in Melbourne can forget her own Christian roots to the point that she is not willing to speak up against the cruel practices against women that are found in Darfur as well as in other Islamic countries. There is nothing tricky about it, unless one is a coward, and a dhimmi at the same time.

More on my experiences with traffic exchanges

Over the past month or so I have been having a lot of fun with the traffic exchanges. Whilst I have cooled towards Royal Surf (mostly so that I can study the strategy necessary to always win against the “enemy” at the other end of the map), I have been finding more and more exchanges. My latest finds have included a very new exchange called Traffic Strike. As a member of another exchange and upon signing up, I was given a pro upgrade but on top of the upgrade was the challenge to enter 50 site URL’s 30 banners and 30 text ads, and be awarded a very generous number of credits. The text ads are a challenge but I rose to the whole challenge and fulfilled the request within 2 days of this exchange starting.

I am delighted with the fact that at Surfin Wild I now have 7 direct referrals, Abundant Hits there are 2 direct referrals, and I have some other direct referrals. The big one is at Big Ben Hits where I have been getting a variety of random referrals and these are now going down to the next level. For once I can see how there is benefit in having these referrals. I really do hope that someone will pay for an upgrade soon. I am hoping that I will end up with sufficient cash earnings to pay for my own upgrade on this particular exchange.

Now I was encouraged to join something like Clix Sense, even though I had resisted joining that particular exchange. I made the decision because it said I could be a free member. However, there is a very nasty catch with Clix Sense and it is one that I personally do not appreciate. What I discovered is that there is no way that free members are likely to earn large amounts of money at Clix Sense. In fact the free member is restricted to two views at a time, worth $0.01 each. There is the carrot that the upgraded members get to view over 500 ads waiting for them. However, with no money to use for such an endeavour and I must admit that my own sense of “is this a scam?” also comes into play here, I made the decision that this was a very bad deal. On top of that, someone else on another exchange has sent out a warning that the people who run Clix Sense are the same people behind Storm Pay. I am not familiar with the controversy, but it seems that Storm Pay does not pay its users, and so there is the real possibility that there is a scam going on. What is worse, Clix Sense does not include a means of deleting the account. Most other exchanges give me the option of deleting the account, but not Clix Sense. So I wrote them an email and yes, my account was deleted as requested.

There are alternatives to Clix Sense and they are better paying alternatives for the free member like myself. I found one called Commercial earnings, and the first most pleasant thing I discovered upon joining is the fact that the free member has access to more views than the 1 or 2 at Clix Sense. This is very encouraging. I am hoping to accumulate some cash into a Paypal account so that I can start paying for other things on the Internet, and drawn down the balance of any earnings. However, this might take a while….

More than 200 Saudi alleged terrorists arrested

Saudi Arabia has announced that following an investigation lasting several months more than 200 Saudi and foreign nationals have been arrested on suspicion of being involved in terrorism.

The arrests took place over the past few months but were kept secret so as not to jeopardize ongoing investigations, a Ministry of the Interior official said Wednesday.

Eight of those being held are accused of involvement in a plot to attack an oil facility in the Eastern Province, where much of the nation’s oil industry is based, and had set a date for the attack.

Another militant cell is alleged to have planned to assassinate Saudi religious figures and security officials, while a separate cell allegedly planned to smuggle eight shoulder-fired rockets into the kingdom from Yemen for terrorist operations.

The official said 112 of those arrested were “linked in with elements stationed abroad who facilitate the exit and travel of those to conflict zones” such as Iraq.

U.S. military officials have said that Saudis make up the largest contingent of foreign fighters in Iraq, while a Saudi Counterterrorism official noted that fighters returning from Iraq to Saudi Arabia represent a “troubling” phenomenon.

Thirty-two individuals — Saudis and non-Saudis — were arrested for allegedly providing financial support to other militants; 16 others were arrested for alleged involvement in the publication of a militant newsletter called Sada Alrafidain.

According to the Saudi counter-terrorism official, the number of arrests is the largest ever announced by the ministry.

The Saudi official said the Saudi government released the information before the Hajj pilgrimage season, when 2 million pilgrims travel to the holy sites of Mecca and Medina, in order “to alert the public of the ongoing threat to security in the kingdom.

It should be noted that Yemen has close links with Al Qaeda, therefore the arrests could represent a very big blow to the efforts of Al Qaeda to gain world domination via the setting up of a world wide caliphate which is one of the aims of Osama Bin Laden.

More on the Israeli strike on Syria

I have reported on this issue a few times and here is some further information from the Counterterrorism blog on why Israel felt that it was necessary to strike the nuclear facility inside the Syrian border:

Interestingly, while North Korea has been mentioned many times, the role of Iran has not been scrutinized.
I just wrote a piece for the Middle East Times on that topic.
Here is an excerpt:
Israel has been providing intelligence and satellite images to the U.S. about a secret Syrian nuclear program for several months, according to media reports. Discussions between Israel and the United States took place last summer regarding a possible strike. But when Israel found the matter so pressing that when they realized the U.S. was not ready to act, on September 6 they attacked a Syrian nuclear site. Hence the question: what is Syria really up to or more to the point what is Iran up to?

First, let’s start with an underreported explosion that occurred in a Syrian military base outside Aleppo on July 26. Jane’s Defense Weekly reported, citing Syrian defense sources, as saying the explosion took place during a test to fit a “Scud C” missile with a mustard-gas warhead. It quoted the sources as saying the explosion occurred when fuel caught fire in the missile production laboratory.

But there might be another explanation. Kuwait’s Al Seyassah newspaper recently reported that a Shiite Lebanese religious cleric claimed the Iranians were allegedly supervising a chemical weapons manufacturing program and that tens of Iranian experts and engineers died as a result of that explosion. He also said Israelis attacked the base. He added that Western officials told him they received proof from Israel on the Syrian chemical weapons program. Even if Israel’s involvement is not proven, what remains sure is that it must be very happy that a chemical weapons facility in Syria has been partly destroyed.

You can read the story here

Archaeologists claim that they have found the Lupercale in Rome

For those of us who are familiar with the story concerning the founders of Rome, Romulus and Remus, the announcement that the Lupercale has probably been found is most interesting. The site was revered by ancient Romans as being the site where a wolf suckled the twins Romulus and Remus after they were found abandoned in the river Tiber. The site itself was revered by Augustus Caesar who was the Roman Emperor at the time of the birth of Jesus Christ.

 

ROME, Italy (AP) – Archaeologists on Tuesday unveiled an underground grotto believed to have been revered by ancient Romans as the place where a wolf nursed the city’s legendary founder Romulus and his twin brother Remus.

The vaulted sanctuary is buried inside Palatine hill, the palatial center of power in imperial Rome.

Technorati Tags: Augustus Casear, Lupercale, Romulus and Remus, Palatine Hill, Rome

A symbol of the Roman Empire was found atop the sanctuary’s vault.

 

 

Decorated with seashells and colored marble, the vaulted sanctuary is buried 52 feet inside the Palatine hill, the palatial center of power in imperial Rome, the archaeologists said at a news conference.

In the past two years, experts have been probing the space with endoscopes and laser scanners, fearing that the fragile grotto, already partially caved-in, would not survive a full-scale dig, said Giorgio Croci, an engineer who worked on the site.

The archaeologists are convinced that they have found the place of worship where Romans believed a she-wolf suckled Romulus and Remus, the twin sons of the god of war Mars who were abandoned in a basket and left adrift on the Tiber.

Thanks to the wolf, a symbol of Rome to this day, the twins survived, and Romulus founded the city, becoming its first king after killing Remus in a power struggle.

Ancient texts say the grotto known as the “Lupercale” — from “lupa,” Latin for she-wolf — was near the palace of Augustus, Rome’s first emperor, who was said to have restored it, and was decorated with a white eagle.

That symbol of the Roman Empire was found atop the sanctuary’s vault, which lies just below the ruins of the palace built by Augustus, said Irene Iacopi, the archaeologist in charge of the Palatine and the nearby Roman Forum.

Augustus, who ruled from the late 1st century B.C. to his death in the year 14, was keen on being close to the places of Rome’s mythical foundation and used the city’s religious traditions to bolster his hold on power, Iacopi said.

“The Lupercale must have had an important role in Augustus’ policies,” she said. “He saw himself as a new Romulus.”

Andrea Carandini, a professor of archaeology at Rome’s La Sapienza University and an expert on the Palatine, said the grotto is almost certainly the “Lupercale.”

“The chances that it’s not are minimal,” said Carandini, who did not take part in the dig. “It’s one of the greatest discoveries ever made.”

Most of the sanctuary is filled with earth, but laser scans allowed experts to estimate that the circular structure has a height of 26 feet and a diameter of 24 feet, Croci said.

Archaeologists at the news conference were divided on how to gain access to the “Lupercale.”

Iacopi said a new dig would start soon to find the grotto’s original entrance at the bottom of the hill. Carandini suggested enlarging the hole at the top through which probes have been lowered so far, saying that burrowing at the base of the hill could disturb the foundations of other ruins.

The Palatine is honeycombed with palaces and other ancient monuments, from the 8th-century B.C. remains of Rome’s first fledgling huts to a medieval fortress and Renaissance villas. But the remains are fragile and plagued by collapses, leaving more than half of the hill, including Augustus’ palace, closed to the public.

Culture Minister Francesco Rutelli said the first area to benefit from an extensive, $17.5 million restoration of the hills’ ruins will be Augustus’ palace, scheduled to reopen in February after being closed for decades.

 

 

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Paris Riots Redux – Sarkozy denounces those who shot at police

 

The French President has made it clear that the rioting that broke out after two minors who had stolen a motorcycle and drove it into the path of a police car died at the scene of the accident.

To date there has been three days of rioting in scenes that remind us of the previous riots caused by the minority rabble of Paris.

PARIS, France (AP) — French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Wednesday that rioters who shot at police would be brought to justice and called the violence that rocked Paris suburbs “absolutely unacceptable.”

Technorati Tags: paris riots

It was the first time Sarkozy, who had just returned from China, entered the fray since the rioting broke out Sunday night.

The violence ebbed Tuesday night after police were deployed in force and quickly rounded up youths lobbing Molotov cocktails and setting cars ablaze.

The violence has drawn comparisons with riots that raged through suburbs nationwide in 2005, and has shown that anger still smolders in poor housing projects where many Arabs, blacks and other minorities live largely isolated from the rest of society.

“We will find the shooters,” and they will “be brought to account before justice,” Sarkozy said after meeting with a wounded police captain hospitalized in Eaubonne north of Paris.

The violence erupted Sunday after the deaths of two minority teens whose motorscooter collided with a police car in Villiers-le-Bel, a blue-collar town on Paris’ northern edge.

Residents claimed the officers left without helping the teens. Prosecutor Marie-Therese de Givry denied that, saying police stayed on the scene until firefighters arrived.

Sarkozy described the teens’ deaths as “distressing.” But he added: “Shooting at police has no link to this incident.”

The French president was meeting Wednesday morning with the families of the two teens who died, and with the mayor of Villiers-le-Bel before having a security meeting with his top ministers.

While cars were set ablaze for a third night Tuesday, officials said the violence was less intense than the two previous nights. Interior Minister Michele Alliot-Marie said the overall situation was “calm.” Still, she said on Europe-1 radio, police presence would remain reinforced “as long as necessary.”

She said 39 people were arrested in the Paris region Tuesday night.

Bands of young people set more cars on fire Tuesday in and around Villiers-le-Bel. In the southern city of Toulouse, 20 cars were set ablaze, and fires at two libraries were quickly brought under control, police said.

The previous night, 82 officers were injured, 10 of them by buckshot and pellets, the police force said. The use of firearms — rare in 2005 — added a dangerous dimension.

This is one very ugly bride and terror suspect

In Baghdad, soldiers at a checkpoint stopped what looked like a wedding convoy. The soldiers became suspicious because all of the convoy except the “bride” were male. The suspicions were confirmed when it was discovered that the bride was not a woman but a man dressed up as the bride.

You have to agree with me, but that is just one very ugly “bride”!!

Both “bride” and groom were wanted by the authorities in relation to terrorist activities.

Hamas will most likely not honour any peace settlement that is brokered by George Bush

The BBC reports that the Islamist movement HAMAS has reportedly stated that Palestinians will not be bound by any decisions taken at this weeks US-backed Middle East Peace talks. Ismail Haniya, the leader of HAMAS in Gaza, who is not attending the talks, has described the discussions as “fruitless”.

 

Several of the Hamas leaders met at the Palestinian Parliament in Gaza city to sign a document stating that Mr Abbas had no right to make concessions in any peace deal.

“The people believe that this conference is fruitless and that any recommendations or commitments made in the conference that harm our rights will not be binding for our people,” Mr Haniya said as he entered the building.

“It will be binding only for those who sign it.”

Mr Haniya was dismissed by Abbas from his position of prime minister of a national unity government in June, shortly after Hamas seized control of the Gaza strip from the president’s Fatah movement.

Hamas is designated a terrorist organization by the USA and Israel and is not represented at Annapolis.

It seems that Hamas is only interested in perpetuating the myth that Israel is occupying Palestinian land, but this is clearly not true. Historically, the Palestinians did not exist until around the 1920s. Gaza was won in the 6 day war, and Israel was entitled to occupy that territory. The same goes for East Jerusalem. It does not belong to the Palestinians. Therefore, we should take heed of the following (threatening) words of Mahmoud Zahhar:

Another senior Hamas leader in Gaza, Mahmoud Zahhar, told the BBC that even if the group had been invited, it would be pointless participating because Israel was not prepared to end the occupation of Palestinian land.

“We are very proud that we are not involved in this conference which will bring for us nothing,” he told the BBC World Service.

“We don’t believe that this is a real peace process, because without fulfilling our basic demand it will be just as previous agreements reached and unable to be practised practically on the ground,” he added.

“Abu Mazen [Mahmoud Abbas] is not representing the majority of the Palestinian people.”

Palestinian officials say, however, that as chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), Mr Abbas is entitled to negotiate on behalf of Palestinians. Agreements are signed between Israel and the PLO.

Saudis claim "rape victim" was guilty of adultery

As a follow up to the story about the woman who has been sentenced to 200 lashes and 6 months in jail because she was raped, the Saudi authorities have now claimed that the young woman has confessed to having an affair with her male companion, even though she was recently married.

Considering the way in which women are treated in a country such as Saudi Arabia, I feel certain that torturing a person can get a confession even if the confession is not true. We have no reliable way of proving that the young woman did in fact confess to “adultery”, or whether she was tortured in order to obtain the confession. Such a confession, though has nothing at all to do with the fact that she and her companion were raped by 4 men.

It is a very barbaric society where women who have been raped end up being punished viz 200 lashes, or 6 months in jail. The message that is being sent to these young women is that they do not have the right to legally complain about rape because they will end up being punished, and probably tortured in order to extract a false confession.

Whilst I am against adultery, I do not believe in these barbaric punishments that are meted out under Sharia law. Everything is against the woman, and the perpetrators are allowed to get off with their crime. However, in this case the perpetrators had their sentences increased as well.