On today’s #NCFWhittle, we are joined by comedy legend Graham Linehan, best known as the creator of comedy hits Father Ted, The IT Crowd and Black Books, but also one of Britain’s most prominent campaigners to protect women-only spaces and safeguard children against harmful surgery. Graham’s latest book is Tough Crowd: How I Made and Lost a Career in Comedy. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Tough-Crowd-… THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER ‘A must-read. Funny and utterly compelling’ Jonathan Ross “Having cut his teeth in music journalism, Graham Linehan became the finest sitcom writer of his generation. He captured the comedy zeitgeist not just as the co-creator of Father Ted but also with The IT Crowd and Black Books, winning five Baftas and a lifetime achievement award. Then his life took an unexpected turn. When he championed an unfashionable cause, TV commissioners no longer returned his emails, showbiz pals lost his number and his marriage collapsed. In an emotionally charged memoir that is by turns hilarious and harrowing, he lets us into the secrets of the writing room and colourfully describes the high-octane atmosphere of a sitcom set. But he also berates an industry where there was no one to stand by his side when he needed help. Bruised but not beaten, he explains why he chose the hill of women and girls’ rights to die on – and why, despite the hardship of cancellation, he’s not coming down from it any time soon.” https://www.amazon.co.uk/Tough-Crowd-…
Month: December 2023
Since Hamas terror: More and more Muslim pupils in Berlin demand prayer rooms
Prayers towards Mecca. Demand at schools has been increasing since October 7. “In all types of schools, in different districts,” says Senator for Education Katharina Günther-Wünsch (40).
“When we think about a prayer room, we have to include all religious communities,” says the CDU politician.
Senate recommendations have now been sent to all schools:
► There is no right to be completely spared from foreign expressions of faith.
► Do not give in to a prayer request during lesson time. It is reasonable to refer pupils to break times.
► School peace must not be disturbed by prayer, regardless of whether the person praying is to blame.
► The school does not have to create a space for prayer.
The senator: “Where it causes disagreements or the prayer room is to be used in a missionary manner, schools have the opportunity to put a stop to demands.”
The Muslim pupil Yunus M. (then 14) from Diesterweg-Gymnasium in Wedding made headlines across Germany. He had prayed in the school corridor, which the headmistress forbade him to do at the time. He successfully appealed to the Berlin Administrative Court in 2008 and was allowed to roll out his prayer mat in the computer room at lunchtime.
However, the Senate then won at the Higher Administrative Court, which was confirmed by the highest judges in Leipzig. Despite religious freedom, the judgement was made in the name of academic freedom.
Is the Colorado Decision How a Civil War Begins? Imagine an election in which the presidential candidate from the opposing party doesn’t even appear on the ballots of the most states
Colorado’s Democrats announced that they get to determine who the Republican presidential candidates can and can’t be. California is trying to follow suit.
California may be the next state to ban former President Trump from its primary ballot over 14th Amendment concerns. Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis (D) requested Wednesday the state look into “every legal option” to do just that.
“Based on the Colorado Supreme Court’s ruling … I urge you to explore every legal option to remove former President Donald Trump from California’s 2024 presidential primary ballot,” Kounalakis wrote to California Secretary of State Shirley Weber (D).
“This decision is about honoring the rule of law in our country and protecting the fundamental pillars of democracy,” she continued.
Nothing says democracy like the ruling class preventing members of the opposition from voting for their candidates of choice.
State Republicans are starting to discuss the possibility of following suit.
Some Republican officials outraged by the Colorado Supreme Court’s decision to boot Donald Trump off the state’s primary ballot have suggested doing the same to President Biden in their states.
“Seeing what happened in Colorado makes me think — except we believe in democracy in Texas — maybe we should take Joe Biden off the ballot in Texas for allowing 8 million people to cross the border since he’s been president, disrupting our state far more than anything anyone else has done in recent history,” Lone Star State Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick told Fox News’ Laura Ingraham Tuesday night.
While condemning the Colorado decision, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis pondered aloud what the limiting principle would be for that policy.
“Could we just say that Biden can’t be on the ballot because he let in 8 million illegals into the country, and violated the Constitution?” he asked Wednesday at a campaign event in Iowa.
Push this further and you could end up with presidential race in which the presidential candidate from the opposing party doesn’t even appear on the ballots of the most Democrat and Republican states.
It’s a crazy scenario that is no longer entirely impossible. In some ways it wouldn’t even make that much of a difference.
The last Republican presidential candidate to win Colorado was Bush in ’04. Demographics and organization make it fairly unlikely that a Republican will win it again. Double ditto for California. So in terms of practical outcomes, this doesn’t much matter.
Republicans are not actually competitive in Colorado or California in 2024. But the symbolism and the precedent are both vitally important.
The most popular speech I ever gave was some years back at the South Carolina Tea Party convention in which I laid out the cold or slow civil war we were in.
How do civil wars happen?
Two or more sides disagree on who runs the country. And they can’t settle the question through elections because they don’t even agree that elections are how you decide who’s in charge. That’s the basic issue here. Who decides who runs the country? When you hate each other but accept the election results, you have a country. When you stop accepting election results, you have a countdown to a civil war.
The Mueller investigation is about removing President Trump from office and overturning the results of an election. We all know that. But it’s not the first time they’ve done this. The first time a Republican president was elected this century, they said he didn’t really win. The Supreme Court gave him the election. There’s a pattern here.
What do sure odds of the Democrats rejecting the next Republican president really mean? It means they don’t accept the results of any election that they don’t win. It means they don’t believe that transfers of power in this country are determined by elections. That’s a civil war.
The idea that the two parties transfer power through elections is on the verge of collapse. And there’s no sign that the pressure on that system is about to abate.
And the rest is just a matter of details.
Democrats decide to prevent Republicans from even appearing on ballots. It’s not just Trump. Look at Oregon.
While the proposal to ban Republicans from running for office had $2.5 million behind it, the opposition had none. A fifth of the votes in favor came out of Multnomah County: the home of Portland. Put in charge of determining what Measure 113 actually meant were Democratic officials appointed by Democrat governors who were serving as Secretary of State and State Attorney General: who of course decided that it meant what their party wanted it to mean.
The proposed purge of much of the Republican State Senate delegation is a demonstration of what democracy looks like when it’s uncoupled from constitutional protections, free and fair elections, multiparty representation and even handed laws.
Democrats keep talking about “democracy”, but they mean social democracy, not actual elections. If we’re not a republic or a democracy, what are we?
Project it forward and blocs of red and blue states bar the opposing party leaving a grouping of swing states that are still in contention to be fought over by wealth and talent from the other states. That starts looking a lot like Bleeding Kansas.
There is a slow-motion civil war underway. It’s still cold for now, but it’s heating up all the time.
https://www.frontpagemag.com/is-the-colorado-decision-how-a-civil-war-begins/
Transgender Pedophile Sentenced To 11 Years In Prison After Attempting To Meet Child For Sexual Abuse
CONTENT NOTICE: This article contains explicit references to child sexual abuse, as documented by the Federal Bureau of Investigations during a predator sting. Reader discretion is appreciated.
A transgender pedophile in Vermont has been sentenced to 11 years in federal prison after being caught in a law enforcement sting targeting predators. Scarlet Moon Shadows, also known as Dragongurl69, pleaded guilty to attempting to entice a minor into sexual activity.
As previously reported by Reduxx, Shadows, born Randy Emillion Goodreau, first appeared in federal court last year after being arrested in Albany, New York while trying to meet who he believed to be an 11-year-old girl for sexual abuse.
The incident began after Shadows messaged a social networking account established by the FBI seeking to attract predators. The profile was made to look as though it belonged to a woman in custody of an 11-year-old girl, and included a number of pedophilic “dog whistles” in the biography section. Shadows messaged the account, and, after a brief exchange in which he expressed interest in “teaching” the child sexual acts, the two moved their communications to an encrypted messenger.
While Shadows feigned confusion or reluctance at first, he quickly agreed to “help” the girl after gaining approval for his transgender status.
Shadows then asked to speak to the child directly, and began messaging with a second undercover agent posing as the girl.
According to an affidavit submitted by Special Agent Jenelle Bringuel, Shadows quickly offered to “date” the girl and introduce her to sexual acts. He also sent the girl several photos of his “breasts,” and plotted how to keep their relationship a secret from the public.
“We can be a real couple when we are home, but in public [kisses] have to be on the cheek. Can probably still hold hands though,” Shadows said, using text-lingo to convey his point to the minor. He continued: “We can kiss on the lips, like at home or in car rides depending how busy traffic is … at home [we] can do whatever you want. We can make love if you want to.”
At one point, while discussing sex with the child, Shadows mentioned his male genitalia and expressed a desire to penetrate the girl with it. He also explained that because he was on estrogen, there was a low chance of the girl getting pregnant if he orgasmed inside of her.
Approximately one month after beginning to communicate with the undercover agents, Shadows travelled from Vermont to Warren County, New York with the intention of having sex with the child. Shadows was arrested after arriving at a meet-up point, and was found to have had an engagement ring, condoms, and gifts for the child on his person. During questioning, he claimed the sexual texts were nothing more than “roleplaying.”
A psychosexual assessment of Shadows revealed that he was subjected to a viewing test which indicated his interests in juvenile females, adolescent boys, and very young girls. The assessment also revealed that he had a “high interest” in infant females.
A press release put out by the Department of Justice detailing the case referred to Shadows using she / her pronouns and gave no indication that he is male or that he identifies as transgender. According to the DOJ, the investigation was conducted by the FBI and its Child Exploitation Task Force, which includes members of federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies, including the Colonie Police Department and the New York State Police.
In April, Shadows pleaded guilty to Attempted Enticement and Coercion of a Minor. Shadows has been in FBI custody since, with a number of delays occurring during the hearing process. In October, his public defense attorney abruptly dropped his case, citing “conflict of interest,” and the case was put on hold until a new defense attorney could pick up the sentencing negotiations.
On December 20, Shadows was sentenced to 11 years, one year more than the mandatory minimum of 10 years the defense had been seeking.
Shadows was active on Facebook prior to his arrest, and made multiple posts utilizing the trans pride flag and calls to “cherish trans women.” He also uploaded his own poorly-drawn artwork to his account, some of which featured disturbing themes.
In one pen-work picture, Shadows shows what appears to be an older man with a much-smaller girl.
“We will never brake, not even from our darkest sin. The devil is no longer in charge. We are the new rulers of hell,” the picture reads.
While it is currently unknown where Shadows will be incarcerated, he will be under the jurisdiction of the federal Bureau of Prisons, which currently has a gender self-identification policy in place for housing transgender inmates.
On January 13 of 2022, the Bureau of Prisons revised its Transgender Offender Manual, which included guidelines previously scrubbed by the Trump administration with respect to gender self-identification for federal inmates. Under the Trump administration, inmates were housed based on biological sex as a sole consideration, but the Biden administration renewed Obama-era guidelines requiring gender identity be considered when making housing assignments.
There are currently 1,500 federal inmates who identify as transgender. According to Keep Prisons Single Sex USA, almost 50% of trans-identified male federal inmates are in custody for sex offences. This is compared to just 11% of the non-trans male federal inmate population.
Possible Islamist attacks on French Christmas markets thwarted
The operation was directed from Paris by the National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office (PNAT) and mobilised specialised services, which simultaneously arrested five people in Nancy, Toul and Vandœuvre-lès-Nancy on Friday morning. A preliminary investigation for “terrorist criminal organisation in preparation of one or more crimes against persons” is underway.
On Friday December 22, an anti-terrorist operation took place in Meurthe-et-Moselle, conducted from Paris by the National Anti-Terrorist Prosecutor’s Office (PNAT). Five people were arrested during simultaneous operations in Nancy, Vandœuvre-lès-Nancy and Toul.
The operation was deployed by police officers from various services specialising in counter-terrorism, such as the Sous-direction antiterroriste (SDAT) or the Direction générale de la sécurité intérieure (DGSI) and its Groupe d’appui opérationnel (GAO), which was specially mobilised for the arrest and transfer of people with a terrorist profile.
Shortly before 1 p.m., three vans of the task force positioned outside Nancy railway station – probably to take all or some of the detainees to the SDAT in Levallois-Perret by high-speed train – did not go unnoticed by the inhabitants of Nancy.
Against the backdrop of the tense international geopolitical situation and three days before the Christmas festivities: Did the intelligence gathered by the counter-terrorism services drive the operation in the Mortem-et-Moselle region because there was a potential risk that a crime could be committed? Or was it simply to dispel doubts about people under surveillance? The police custody of the suspects will allow a thorough review, both in terms of the items seized during the house searches and in terms of the profile of those arrested.
Was an attack on a Christmas market in a town in the department to be feared? It’s fair to ask. When asked, the Nancy public prosecutor’s office referred to the PNAT, which has national competences in the area of terrorism.
The PNAT confirmed to us on request that “an operation with arrests has taken place on the instructions of the PNAT. However, at this stage of the procedure, it is not possible to provide further information,” the PNAT said. “The police custody measures were taken as part of a preliminary investigation into allegations of terrorist association of offenders in preparation for one or more crimes against persons under Article 421-1(1) of the Criminal Code.”
We remember that on the 11th of December 2018, five people were killed and eleven injured in the terrorist attack on the Christmas market in Strasbourg. After a two-day manhunt in the Alsatian capital, the 29-year-old terrorist, who was known to be a radicalised Islamist, was shot dead by police in the Neudorf district. A trial before a special court (Cour d’Assises Spéciale) is to take place in Paris from February 29.
In Meurthe-et-Moselle, the prefecture announced in October that 55 people had been given an S file ( in the sense of ” risky for the security of the state “) and were registered in the FSPRT file ( for the prevention of radicalisation of a terrorist nature ). The prefect explained that “more than half” of the 55 people were already behind bars.
Christmas party at Italian primary school: “Jesus” is replaced with “cuckoo”
In consideration of the feelings of non-Christian children, passages from Christmas carols have been unceremoniously changed in a primary school in northern Italy. This caused a great deal of anger among the parents.
The cuckoo is sung instead of Jesus. This did not even go unnoticed by the German news portal focus.de, which referred to a TV report from RAI in its report. The episode took place in a primary school in the municipality of Agna, where fundamental changes were made to the lyrics of a song for the annual Christmas party. Instead of “Jesus will soon be born”, the children had to sing “Cuckoo is made from above”. And furthermore, the passage “Where the angels prepare Jesus’ birth” was replaced with “All together prepare a feast in the blue sky”.
With these changes, the school reportedly wanted to show consideration for the feelings of non-Christian children and parents. However, the educational institution has provoked a great deal of anger from some parents. According to the headteacher’s attempts to explain, it was a misunderstanding, as the amended draft text had not yet been finalised. In the meantime, however, the children had already learnt the text by heart.
Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s party had previously introduced a bill in parliament to protect Christmas at schools and universities, reports focus.de. The right-wing party Fratelli d’Italia (Brothers of Italy) wants to prevent Christmas celebrations from being renamed “winter festivals”.
Italienische Grundschule / Weihnachtsfeier: „Jesus“ wird mit „Kuckuck“ ausgetauscht – UnserTirol24
Racist Nonsense! White Men “Fantasize About Being Genetically Equal to Black Men”?!
The Government Department for Business & Trade has used taxpayer money to place an advert in a Black History magazine whose accompanying Black History website has branded white people as “genetically defective descendants of albino mutants” and which also included the claim that a white man can “fantasise that he is genetically equal to the black male”. To make matters worse, whilst the Department of Business & Trade advert celebrates ethnically diverse role models and lists some ethnic minority members – it fails to mention the Business & Trade Minister, Kemi Badenoch, who is also Women & Equalities Minister. This has led some to claim she was omitted because of her opposition to the Civil Service’s ideological diversity agenda. Our Senior Fellow Rafe Heydel-Mankoo discussed the story on Talk TV with former Conservative Party Chairman Jake Berry MP.
France: An Islamist wanted by the police intrudes into a Paris synagogue and recites from the Quran
A man on record for Islamist radicalisation forced his way into a synagogue in the 15th arrondissement in Paris at around 12.45 p.m. on Thursday, according to a police source. Inside, he began praying in Arabic and reciting the Quran. He had gone to the place of worship earlier in the morning.
After the inspection, he was registered in the file of persons wanted by the police (FPR) as an “individual linked to the Islamist movement of Île-de-France who could possibly travel to a foreign country”, a file card issued in 2019 by the Directorate of Intelligence of the Prefecture of Police (DRPP), according to a police source.
The synagogue was inspected and no suspicious objects were found. Its director reserves the right to press charges. The perpetrator had already been checked on December 9 when he was praying in front of the Israeli embassy in Paris. The Paris prosecutor’s office, which was contacted by Valeurs actuelles, has not yet responded.
German police raid church facility with battering ram and chainsaw to deport 2 Afghan migrants
Police in the city of Schwerin entered a church with a battering ram on Wednesday to detain two Afghan men and deport them to Spain; however, the police operation went awry when the mother threatened violence against herself and her family.
German churches have blocked thousands of deportations by offering “church asylum” to migrants, which police and the state informally recognize, but which lacks formal legal codification.
According to the police, the 47-year-old mother of the 18-year-old and 22-year-old men threatened to use violence against herself and her children in response to the police actions. The family of six was located inside an apartment building on the premises of the Protestant Petrus parish in Schwerin.
In response to her threats, police special forces and ambulances arrived on scene and a tense standoff ensued, with the police attempting to negotiate. Police say that when they heard glass shatter inside the building, they decided to enter the premises with a battering ram and chainsaw, according to the German news outlet NDR. Police used these tools because they believed the family had barricaded themselves inside.
Police discovered knives hidden on the mother, the 22-year-old son, and even a 13-year-old daughter. In addition, the 22-year-old son was found with cut marks on his body, which police believe were self-inflicted. The police say that everyone was detained with “simple physical force” and no weapons were used during the entry. The mother was charged with making threats and obstructing police activities.
According to the Refugee Council, the deportation was suspended. Ulrike Seemann-Katz, who works for the council, claimed the police actions to enforce lawful deportation orders were “brutal.”
She told the NDR that the police had crossed a “red line,” and it was the first time in the German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern that the police had violated the “church asylum.”
She argued that police were sending a “frightening signal to all those seeking protection,” as well as “church organizations offering refuge.”
Although the family is Muslim, she complained that they did not feel safe at Christmas time.
Churches are increasingly offering asylum to migrants slated for deportation. There were only 500 people under church protection in 2020, now there are 2,000. A total of 6,000 cases have been blocked due to church actions, including Catholic and Protestant denominations.
Former Vatican Chief: Blessing Gay Couples ‘Trivializes Sin,’ ‘Confuses the Faithful’
Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller, the former head of the Vatican’s doctrinal office, has issued a searing critique of the Vatican’s recent text allowing the blessing of homosexual couples.
The Vatican document, titled Fiducia Supplicans (FS), has made “an affirmation that has no precedent in the teaching of the Catholic Church,” Cardinal Müller writes in an essay published Thursday in The Pillar Catholic, namely that it is possible for a priest to bless “couples who live in a sexual relationship outside of marriage, including same-sex couples.”
Müller, prefect of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) from 2012 until 2017, said that no biblical texts or texts of the Fathers and Doctors of the Church or previous magisterial documents “support the conclusions of FS,” which constitutes “not a development but a doctrinal leap.”
The new text directly contradicts the last magisterial pronouncement on this matter, a 2021 document that “categorically rejected the possibility of blessing these unions,” he writes.
To get around the obvious problem of reversing the prior teaching by allowing the blessing of situations that are contrary to the Gospel, the Vatican “proposes an original solution: to broaden the concept of a blessing,” Müller notes.
Yet while the Church can add new sacramentals to existing ones, “she cannot change their meaning in such a way as to trivialize sin, especially in an ideologically charged cultural situation that also misleads the faithful,” he observes.
“And this change of meaning is precisely what happens in FS, which invents a new category of blessings beyond those associated with either a sacrament or a blessing as the Church has understood them,” he adds.
The new blessings proposed by FS would be pastoral blessings, that could be applied not only to persons in sin, “but also to things, places, or circumstances that are contrary to the Gospel,” he writes.
The Church already allowed a priest to bless someone who lives in sin, but the new “pastoral” blessing would allow for blessing “a reality that is contrary to God’s law, such as an extramarital relationship.
“In fact, according to the criterion of this type of blessings, one could even bless an abortion clinic or a mafia group,” he reasons.
It seems that the innovative pastoral blessing “is created ad hoc to bless situations that are contrary to the law or spirit of the gospel,” he says.
“Notice that not only sinful persons are blessed here, but that by blessing the couple, it is the sinful relationship itself that is blessed,” he underscores.
This leads to the fundamental problem with the new Vatican text, Müller insists, since “God cannot send his grace upon a relationship that is directly opposed to him and cannot be ordered toward him.”
“Sexual intercourse outside of marriage, qua sexual intercourse, cannot bring people closer to God and therefore cannot open itself to God’s blessing,” he explains.
“Therefore, if this blessing were given, its only effect would be to confuse the people who receive it or who attend it,” he warns. “They would think that God has blessed what He cannot bless.”
While one could argue that it is not the union that is blessed, but the couple, such a distinction is meaningless, “since what defines a couple as couple is precisely their being a union.”
Moreover, blessing a reality that is contrary to creation “is not only impossible, it is blasphemy,” he contends.
In asking for a blessing for themselves as a couple, the two “implicitly or explicitly seek to justify their relationship itself before God, without realizing that it is precisely their relationship that distances them from God,” the cardinal adds.
The defining characteristic of a gay couple is “the sharing of sexual activity,” and this can “in no case can be directed towards God,” he writes.
The new document is, in fact, scandalous, he notes, since it is “precisely the simple people, whom the document wishes to favor by promoting popular piety, who are most susceptible to being deceived by a symbolic deed that contradicts doctrine, since they intuitively grasp the doctrinal content of the deed.”
The only way that a person can accept that it is good to bless gay couples, he concludes, “if one believes that such unions are not objectively contrary to the law of God.”
It follows therefore that teaching of FS is “self-contradictory” and thus requires “further clarification,” he states.
