Month: June 2021

There is something powerful and compelling about the faces of those who stand to recite the pledge of allegiance for the first time as naturalized American citizens. Having legally entered our nation, they have become some of the most ardent patriotic Americans who have earned the right to be called citizens. Yet they find themselves in a country that now too often seems distant and uncomfortable with displays of patriotism.

As a nation of immigrants there have been successive waves of newly naturalized citizens who would be the first to wave American flags along the Fourth of July parade. They would write the songs that celebrated America, the laborers who would build our cities, the scientists who gave us extraordinary inventions and doctors who saved lives. In return, these proud new citizens of America discovered the pleasures of life through their patriotism and by performing noble deeds. In doing so, they acquired the quiet self-respect of an immigrant in an adopted land where freedom, the rule of law, and opportunity remain woven into our national fabric.

That kind of peace cannot be found on a prescription, in a spa or with some self-proclaimed motivational speaker. Rather, it is the inner knowledge that America remains, as President Abraham Lincoln once said of our land, “the last best hope of earth.”

Yet we have entered a time when a neighborhood’s shared display of American flags along every light post can prompt criticism that it is some jingoist display. American history, when taught at all, is now being viewed through a political lens that polarizes rather than unites. And while patriotism may be smirked at by the cynic the pride one takes in one’s country — this country — our country — defines not just ourselves but the future of our nation.

America is about to observe yet another Fourth of July holiday. We will do so against a backdrop of rancor and political division. Our history suggests this is not unique and we have, in fact, weathered worse. But what has consistently bound our wounds and allowed us to realize our full potential as a democracy is the recognition that patriotism and noble deeds in a land that cherishes freedom remain among the rare pleasures of life meant to be embraced and enjoyed. Celebrate Independence Day this year in the knowledge that we remain “the last best hope of earth.”

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17517/patriotism-noble-deeds

During the pandemic, it was an article of faith that there was only one true science. And that it came down from the proper authorities. Any disagreement was “misinformation” which endangered lives and had to be stamped out lest people take to drinking bleach.

(As opposed to spraying it on their vegetables.)

Big Tech ruthlessly censored anyone who differed from the UN’s WHO and the US’ CDC. But now the WHO is calling for vaccinated people to wear masks, and some areas in the United States, including LA County, are following suit, while the CDC is telling people not to wear masks.

Both moves are transparently political with the Biden administration looking for a rapid reopening and the UN looking for a permanent crisis to shake down the developed world for more money, but the salient question is who gets censored?

Does YouTube censor the CDC for disagreeing with WHO guidance? Previously, YouTube had warned that anyone differing from WHO guidance will be censored. Or will Facebook, which had been censoring in the name of CDC guidance, censor WHO?

Neither absurd scenario will actually take place.

Contrary to the insane scientism we’re subjected to these days by Democrat activists, disagreement is the essence of science. And disagreement, in non-totalitarian societies, is healthy. It doesn’t magically produce the right answers, but it’s less likely to suppress them, which is almost as important. Especially because there isn’t necessarily one right answer. There may be many partially right answers.

Big Tech censorship wasn’t promoting science: it was inhibiting science. 

https://www.frontpagemag.com/point/2021/06/will-youtube-censor-cdc-opposing-whos-call-masks-daniel-greenfield/

Following on the heels of a Somali asylum seeker stabbing three women to death in a suspected terrorist attack in the German city of Würzburg, a new study  from the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) shows that serious crimes committed by migrants involving murder or attempted murder is on the rise.

The report, which was covered by Focus, shows that while number of crimes committed by migrants in Germany is generally declining, serious violent crimes are rising for migrants. 

According to information obtained by Focus, between 2016 and 2020, police registered approximately 2,000 murders where at least one of the perpetrators was a migrant. Migrants are considered people registered as asylum seekers, refugees, migrants with tolerated stay permits, or migrants with the status of illegal residence.

What the data does not show is how many people with a migration background are also involved in violent crimes. German citizens with a foreign background that often go back one or two generations are not counted as “migrants” in the statistics, and Germany keeps no crime data on this group of citizens. 

Last year alone, police in Germany recorded 370 serious violent crimes, where at least one migrant was treated as a suspect. It is 3.6 percent more than in 2019 (357 cases were registered that year), according to a BKA analysis entitled Crime in the Context of Immigration 2020.

Out of the last year’s 370 crimes, the most prevalent were homicide related which involved 247 cases, of which approximately 88 percent remained in the phase of attempted homicide, and murder with 94 cases. During the investigation of these acts, 452 migrants were detained, 14 of whom were suspected of several murders.

The analysis shows that the share of detained suspected migrants is increasing, accounting for 12.4 percent of the total number of serious criminal offenders in Germany, or 3,649 people. That is the highest number in all groups of crimes, the analysis points out.

In the case of sexual offenses, this proportion is 8.5 percent (5,185 migrants out of the total of 60,992 offenders) and 7.2 percent in the category of drug offenses (20,479 migrants out of the total of 284,723 offenders).

Experts in the analysis point out that although the number of the most serious crimes involving migrants increased in 2020, their involvement in other crimes decreased.

Last year, migrants from Syria (27,561 people), Afghanistan (14,750), and Iraq (9,835) were the most common perpetrators from abroad. Immigrants from these three countries form the largest share of asylum seekers in Germany, specifically 57.6 percent. The share of people from Algeria and Morocco totaled at 5.1 percent of the migrants and was roughly at the previous year’s level.

The most common offenders were men (86.2 percent), of whom about 60 percent were under the age of 30. According to the analysis, the exact age distribution is as follows: 2.7 percent are children, 6.8 percent are teenagers, 11 percent are minors, and 79.5 percent are adults.

https://rmx.news/article/article/migrants-in-germany-increase-violent-crimes-rate-according-to-new-study

A French court sentenced Afghan migrant Mohammed Rahman Arsala to a 15-year prison sentence for the rape of a 12-year-old boy that occurred on Aug. 25, 2018, in Saint-Brieuc. During the sentencing, the convicted man’s lawyer tried to argue that it was an Afghan custom known as Bacha Bazi and that the man should not be held fully responsible for his actions due to common practice of men sexually assaulting young boys in his native homeland.

The prosecutor on the other hand argued that the boy’s life had been ruined due to the sexual assault, which necessitates a harsh sentence.

“We have to think about what the journey of a child victim is like,” explained the Advocate General, Grégory Martin-Dit-Neuville. “He had to tell the police what he’s been through, once, twice, three times. Then to the doctor. He had to take preventive treatments for sexually transmitted diseases. Then, there is the psychological counseling and so on. The child also had to explain the crime to his parents.”

The cultural factor

“He never went back to play in the park again. Childhood, for him, stopped there,” the lawyer of the convicted man, Me Le Goardet-Prigent, said in front of the Assize Court of Côtes-d’Armor on Monday afternoon. The lawyer was referring to the incident on Aug. 25, 2018, when the 12-year-old boy was raped in an abandoned house in the city center of Saint-Brieuc, not far from the Promenades playground where he was heading. Prigent does not deny that it was a heinous crime, but argues that the cultural factors should lead to a reduced sentence. 

“He tells us that if he had been married, this would never have happened because he would have had a wife to satisfy his needs,” claimed Me Le Goardet-Prigent.

Prigent claimed that experts have questioned how dangerous Arsala truly is, and that he never fully seemed to understand that his actions were wrong because he came from the culture of Afghanistan. 

The cultural factor and the practice of “Bacha Bazi” were also raised during the trial, which is common in Afghanistan and consists of making young boys sex slaves.

“Custom is not a law, and yet, we must take into account the cultural element,” defense attorney said. “Because we are all the product of cultural standards, of a story. And he was born a hundred kilometers from Kabul. We don’t know what his story is.”

A disturbing past

But Arsala’s stay in France was marked by worrying signals even before the sexual attack. In April 2018, he invited a young girl to his home and sexually assaulted her.

“I just wanted to learn the language,” Arsala explained. Arsala was also arrested for masturbating in front of a group of girls on a beach. He was also arrested by police for taking photos of girls front of a school, which he claimed he was simply posting on Facebook for innocent reasons. 

He was also transferred from the Saint-Brieuc center to that of Brest because the nurse reported inappropriate behavior. After he was incarcerated in Brest, a fellow prisoner complained about Arsala sexually assaulting him. Arsala offered no explanation in the courtroom for the sexual assault he is accused of conducting in prison.

Arsala has been found guilty of the rape of a minor, and sentenced after two hours of deliberation to 15 years of criminal imprisonment. He will also be definitively banned from entering France again.

https://rmx.news/article/article/france-afghan-sentenced-for-raping-12-year-old-boy-lawyer-claims-afghan-culture-of-bacha-bazi-helps-excuse-attack