Jonathan Turley, a Fox News contributor and George Washington University law professor, issued some stark warnings on the future of free speech.
During the July 12 episode of MRC UnCensored, MRC Free Speech America Vice President Dan Schneider spoke with Turley about his new book, The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage, and his observations about free speech and the media from a long and successful career.
Turley warned that journalism schools have abandoned long-held standards and young Americans have been indoctrinated against free speech. He made clear that a dangerous public-private partnership between powerful institutions threatened the future of the First Amendment.
“We are now in, what the book refers to as the most dangerous anti-free speech period in our history and the reason is indeed this alliance that has never formed before, of the government, corporations, academia [and] the media, all aligned against free speech,” he said.
Turley followed with a description of this alliance’s twisted rationale. “You now have on college campuses and in many media outlets, the unrelenting mantra that free speech is dangerous, that it is threatening us, threatening jobs, even threatening lives,” Turley said. “And the idea here is very simple, it’s hard to get a free people to give up freedom, you have to make them afraid, you have to make them very afraid. And that’s why you hear this echo chamber that its free speech that’s endangering us and if you just give the government more power over your speech you’ll be happy and safer.”
When Turley warned that the “wave” of censorship arriving in America “began in Europe,” Schneider lamented that American free speech had once inspired advocates of freedom in Europe and the world, such as Lech Wałęsa and Václav Havel. “And something has changed again, in Europe, in here, where people now see free speech as a threat to democracy, as a pose to the most important central element of democracy.”
Turley dug deep from his experience and observations to explain this state of affairs. He mentioned that he had poured 30 years of work into his book and observed the media make a massive turn for the worse during that period.
The Fox News contributor also noted that journalism schools have officially abandoned objectivity and neutrality. Turley made the point that the media had abandoned its principles in part because new graduates had been taught to abandon them: “J-schools now teach that, that objectivity and neutrality get in the way of social and political agendas. That’s what we’re producing from J-schools and its having an impact.”
To demonstrate just how radical newsrooms have become, Turley mentioned a recent conflagration at The Washington Post. Turley said thatemployees tried to get Post Publisher and CEO William Lewis fired for demanding changes to their unpopular and radical approach.
A recent survey of teachers shows exactly what critics of Islam have been warning about for years: Islamic girls are becoming younger and younger, forced by their families under the Muslim head cloth. ‘Girls dressed in Western clothes are considered ‘unclean’ or ‘haram’’. Now the alarmed educationalists are warning of ‘fatal consequences for the development of children’.
Teachers, school social workers and nursery school teachers are making frightening observations in their institutions. Presumably, these are the same educators who not so long ago were in a frenzy about Islam and were campaigning for equal treatment of the political ideology of Islam, the women’s rights organisation Terre des Femmes (TDF) reports alarmingly in its latest survey on the so-called children’s headscarf in schools. The Muslim headscarf is mostly worn as a symbol of demarcation. Often paired with other classic Muslim garments, it says. ‘Even more radical forms such as a chador are often seen from Year 5 or 6. Western-dressed girls are often considered ‘unclean’ or ‘haram’.’ There is a great deal of social control among Muslim pupils.
As a reward, the girls forced to wear the Islamic headscarf usually receive gifts and praise from male family members: ‘You are a particularly good daughter if you wear a headscarf. You strengthen our honour. We are proud of you. We love you.’ According to Terre des Femmes, a little girl can hardly resist, especially as the pressure and fear of rejection and rejection are too great. Another educator reports on a girl aged just nine who – allegedly completely voluntarily – put on the Islamic uniform. At first, the child was proud and found it exciting: ‘But now there is no turning back and she seems much more introverted and “grown-up” than before. I don’t think she realised what she was deciding to do, and now the path seems to be set,’ says the teacher.
All in all, what critics of Islam – such as Michael Stürzenberger, who nearly had to pay with his life for his educational work – have been warning about for years is now more than just visible to everyone. The more concessions are granted to Muslims and their backward religion, the larger their share of the population becomes, the more radical the followers of this political religion become. According to teachers, 44 per cent of Muslim girls now start wearing headscarves at the age of ten or eleven. Eleven per cent were even younger. 31 per cent of those surveyed felt that the decision was not made voluntarily by the children. More than half stated that the girls did not take part in sports or swimming lessons and school trips, while 35 per cent stayed away from sex education lessons – a figure that has risen since the previous survey.
The women’s rights organisation ‘Terre des Femmes’ (TdF) has been calling for a ban on Muslim headscarves for girls under the age of 14 in state schools in Germany for years. TdF recognised the Muslim headscarf as a growing phenomenon in many schools and even kindergartens at an early stage. The Islamic veil stands for discrimination and sexualisation of minors. The organisation is therefore calling for a legal ban on the so-called ‘children’s headscarf’ in public spaces, especially in educational institutions for all underage girls. Terre des Femmes launched an online petition four years ago under the motto ‘Keep your head free’. Among the first signatories of the petition are Alice Schwarzer and Professor Dr Susanne Schröter, Director of the Frankfurt Research Centre for Global Islam, as well as the Green politician Boris Palmer, who is highly criticised in his own Green ranks, and the writer Monika Maron.
While teachers in educational institutions are sounding the alarm and warning against the misogynistic practices of Islam, CDU official Babett Schwede-Oldehus, councillor, chairwoman of the Women’s Union and chairwoman of the Social and Health Committee in Neumünster, is delighted that the first Muslim daycare centre there has been approved with her help: ‘In addition to Christian providers, there will now also be a Muslim provider of a daycare centre. I see this as a cultural enrichment.’
A US federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit brought forward by a transgender convicted killer who alleged that the Kansas Department of Corrections had discriminated against him. Thomas Preston Lamb, also known as Michelle Renee Lamb, 83, is serving three life sentences for crimes against women and is currently detained in a women’s facility in Topeka, Kansas. However, Lamb has been kept separate from the female inmates in a situation that he has complained is a form of discrimination which places his health at risk.
Last November, Lamb filed a legal complaint against Gov. Laura Kelly, as well as the prison warden and other staff at the Topeka Correctional Facility and the Kansas Department of Corrections, demanding immediate transfer into the women’s general population. Lamb also requested his security risk status be removed and expunged from his record.
In his complaint, Lamb argued that Gov. Kelly was “complicit” in “hate crimes” against him, which he alleged involved designating him a security risk and keeping him segregated from the female inmate population. Lamb repeatedly described himself as a “female transgender” person in the suit.
Lamb in 2018. Source: Kansas DOC
In a hand-written complaint dated September 2023, Lamb argued that his designation as a high security risk, which was established just two months after he was transferred into the women’s prison in January of last year, constituted a “hate crime” against him.
“This is a grievance against everyone involved in placing me on OSR [other security risk] and HR [housing restriction] status, and keeping me on this status for what is now six months,” Lamb wrote. “I request I be placed on general population status immediately, and all information used to place me on this OSR status be removed from my file.”
In a separate grievance letter filed the same month, Lamb claimed that the restrictions placed on him were so “severe” that he had been suffering from anxiety, had developed rashes and elevated blood pressure, and was at risk of death by heart attack or stroke. He also stated he had begun experiencing chronic diarrhea as a result of his lack of access to the women’s general population.
“I have had numerous bouts of diarrhea due to my high levels of depression, anxiety, and stress caused by this toxic and restrictive environment,” Lamb wrote. “I’m being treated as if I’m public enemy number one here at TCF, being escorted by two officers all the time. I feel miserable and wake up crying at night. I’m denied the most basic need, especially for us females: the need to have close contact and relationships with other females.”
On July 8, however, U.S. District Judge John Lungstrum dismissed Lamb’s lawsuit. The court decision referred to Lamb with feminine pronouns and stated that “Plaintiff has not shown that her housing assignment subjects her to atypical and significant hardship in relation to the ordinary incidents of prison life.”
🚨SCOOP🚨
A violent and "sexually sadistic" transgender inmate has filed a lawsuit with the help of the ACLU demanding to be turned loose in a women's prison.
Thomas "Michelle" Lamb is currently housed at a women's facility, but has been kept separate from the female inmates… pic.twitter.com/mbX8lDXSfH
In a last-ditch effort, Lamb responded by filing a motion for a preliminary injunction, which if successful, would have resulted in a temporary pause on proceedings. Though Lamb filed the motion four days after the ruling was already passed down, he dated the document July 8, the same day as the suit’s dismissal. Within the document, Lamb argued that his constitutional rights had been violated and that he would suffer “irreparable harm” should his requests not be granted.
Judge Lungstrum dismissed Lamb’s claim, stating, “Nothing in Plaintiff’s motion warrants reconsideration of the Court’s Memorandum and Order dismissing this case,” and the suit was ordered closed.
According to court documents, Lamb was designated as a security risk just two months after being transferred in to the women’s facility on January 27, 2023. Prison officials had intended to place him among the women in the general population, but became concerned after he refused to answer questions about his past crimes during an intake evaluation.
Within weeks it was reported that Lamb had repeatedly asked a corrections officer if his genitals “looked good and natural” as a result of the surgery he had, and posed questions to a different officer about her own anatomy and sexual habits. The ongoing sexual remarks led to an order from supervisor Major Dona Hook that Lamb must always be escorted by two female prison officers.
Lamb has also had three disciplinary reports lodged against him. One of the complaints involves violating a rule against lewd activity by giving a female inmate “a hug that continue[d] through another squeeze — appearing to be a ‘double hug.’”
Throughout the legal proceedings, Lamb displayed malicious behavior which included attempts to threaten and blackmail female prison officials.
In July of 2023, Lamb sent three letters to TCF Reentry Coordinator Angela Golightley, and the supervisor for his Unit Team Manager Linda Hull-Viera, who had filed the disciplinary report against him. In the letters, Lamb complained that his health was seriously impaired by his restrictions and offered an out-of-court settlement to his demands.
The letters expressed that if Golightley removed Lamb’s security risk status, expunged the history from his record, supported him for a parole release within the year, and transferred him into the general population, “it will all go away.”
If the administrators did not comply with his wishes, Lamb threatened to “send the ACLU a copy of my lawsuit.” The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has been behind multiple lawsuits across the United States which have resulted in male rapists and criminals being transferred into women’s prisons.
Lamb, in a sinister tone, encouraged Golightley to personally meet with him: “Come see me so we can come to an agreement, and this can all stop now. It’s up to you.” He further threatened to pass information about his lawsuit on to a reporter, Blaise Mesa, for Kansas City Beacon, “so he can do the story he wants to do… It will not make you look good. I have his word.”
Handwritten letter from Lamb threatening Golightley.
Lamb, who is described as “female” in the state Criminal Justice Information System and referred to as a “transgender female” in court records, was convicted of kidnapping and murdering Karen Sue Kemmerly, a 24 year-old student at the University of Kansas-Missouri, around December 5, 1969.
Reduxx uncovered news reports from that time and revealed that Lamb had murdered Kemmerly after she commented he was a “handsome man,” and told him he was “very capable sexually,” which sent him into a violent rage as he saw himself as a woman. Lamb strangled the woman to death, and left her nude corpse in a cornfield. The young student’s body was found approximately five days after her death on December 7.
In addition to Kemmerly, Lamb was also convicted on charges of kidnapping 18-year-old Patricia Ann Childs on January 15, 1970. Childs was returned to her family after her father paid out a $3,500 ransom demanded by Lamb. During the ordeal, Lamb bound Childs’ hands and raped her, according to court documents, though he was never formally charged for the sexual assault.
Lamb told Dr. Joseph Satten, a psychiatrist specializing in criminology at the Menninger Foundation in Topeka, that he “thought he was a girl” when he carried out the crimes against the two women. It was Satten’s view that Lamb was “intelligent” and aware of the crimes he committed. However, he emphasized “peculiarities” in his personality.
Olathe News, 27 May 1970
“At times, during the course of the kidnappings, there must have been some awareness that what he was doing was wrong. But during both of the kidnappings, he was in a peculiar state of mind in which he felt himself to be a girl,” Satten said.
The doctor went on to blame the “female version” of Lamb for the crimes, insinuating that the “male version” of Lamb was not mentally present during the time of the offenses.
Lamb was ultimately convicted of two counts of kidnapping and one count of first degree murder, and is now serving three consecutive life sentences in prison. While in prison, Thomas Preston Lamb began going by Michelle Renee Lamb, and in July 2006, filed for a legal name change.
As previously reported by Reduxx, the convicted killer has repeatedly used the legal system to his advantage. In a 2017 motion filed by Lamb against the KDOC, he alleged that his Eighth Amendment rights against cruel and unusual punishment were being violated. Lamb had demanded “more comprehensive treatment of [his] gender dysphoria, access to more female items in prison, recognition of [his] name change, and transfer to a female-only prison facility.”
Lamb’s original 2017 request to be transferred to a women’s correctional facility was initially denied by District Judge Eric Melgren. In the decision, it was stated that “Lamb is not entitled to transfer to a female facility.”
He continued, referring to Lamb with feminine pronouns: “Thomas was ordered to serve three life sentences so that he would never kill or hurt another woman again. Thomas is now Michelle, but Michelle is still a convicted kidnapper and murderer of women, and the justification for her sentence has not changed.”
However, Lamb’s attempts at a transfer to a female facility were realized in January 2023, after he underwent a genital surgery at the University of Kansas that he claims he obtained with the assistance of the ACLU.
Press and half a dozen TV crews were on the scene, similar to the staged FBI-CNN arrest of Roger Stone. The weapons seized in the alleged coup involved several hunting rifles, a crossbow, and a 13th-century cutlass. The trial began in May after a year and a half in custody.
Beginning in 2024, Faeser’s national head of secret political police, Thomas Haldenwang, briefed government-friendly journalists on a campaign by left-wing NGO “Correctiv” to frame AfD (“Alternative for Germany”) members for alleged plans to “deport millions of foreigners and German citizens”. It turned out “Correctiv,” which is funded by CIA cutouts Open Society and Pierre Omidyar, and the German and EU taxpayer had no evidence of its claims and had to retract in court.
Now Faeser ordered German police to raid and shut down Germany’s leading right-wing monthly “Compact” (with a circulation of 40,000) because it “incites hatred against Jews, foreigners, and our parliamentary Democracy.”
“Compact” publisher Jürgen Elsässer was raided by police at 6 am in his home and office in Falkensee, Brandenburg, and photographed by journalists being arrested in his bathrobe.
A TV crew belonging to public broadcaster ARD’s left-wing news format “Kontraste” was also present. The editor-in-chief of “Kontraste” Georg Heil is the brother of labor secretary Hubertus Heil (Social Democrat). Georg Heil was apparently also informed of the “Reichsbürger” raid 2022. Police leaking personal information to the press is a crime in Germany, attorney Christian Konrad noted.
Police even removed the furniture from Elsässer’s office, as the desks and chairs evidently pose a threat to democracy.
Herrn Elsässer räumt man das Haus aus, wegen des „bösen“ #Compact-Magazins, aber Migranten, die Frauen vergewaltigen, sind am nächsten Tag wieder auf freiem Fuß.
Now, the politically motivated persecution of right-wing media seems to be backfiring, however. Renowned conservative legal scholar Rupert Scholz and free-speech lawyer Jürgen Steinhöfel both called the shutdown “obviously unconstitutional.”
Constitutional lawyer Prof. Volker Boehme-Nesler said the raid shows ‘”methods of authoritarian states against freedom of the press” by the Antifa minister.
Even left-wing MP Dieter Dehm of the former East German Communist party (“The Left”) compared Faeser to “McCarthy” and warned: “The noose of those who think they know everything is tightening ever more around the neck of diversity and freedom of expression! The Left must show solidarity with Compact and Jürgen Elsässer!”
Elon Musk chimed in, accusing the German government of “crushing freedom of speech under a jackboot”.
Crushing freedom of speech under a jackboot is what that government is doing
“Compact” Publisher Jürgen Elsässer has announced he will counter-sue and is expected to win: “Today, Mrs. Faeser drove the nail in her political coffin.”
“In that case, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser must resign or be fired”, Attorney Steinhöfel told publisher Roland Tichy.
If Thomas Matthew Crooks had succeeded, America would have plunged into civil war.
What is the moral lesson of the shooting of Donald Trump?
This article appeared in the Washington Post: “With each passing day, it will become increasingly difficult and dangerous to stop Trump by any means, legal or illegal”.
By any means, legal or illegal? So why not act accordingly? And didn’t actors like Johnny Depp imagine they could “kill Trump”?
In 2022, Joe Biden gave a controversial speech in front of Independence Hall where he denounced Trump supporters as enemies of the people. Biden embraced the claim that this could be our last democratic election. As soon as Trump was elected, unbridled anger became the norm, as in the case of Kathy Griffin who showed up holding Trump’s severed and bloody head.
Just recently, another celebrity, actress Lea DeLaria, implored Biden to “blow up [Trump]”. For months, people have heard politicians and the press calling Trump “Hitler” and the GOP a Nazi movement. Up to threats against conservative Supreme Court justices before the plot to assassinate Brett Kavanaugh.
And so we go from Spike Lee’s “Trump is like the Nazis and Mussolini” to Sir David Attenborough’s “we could shoot him”. Mickey Rourke had said that he would like “30 seconds in a room with Trump.” Madonna shouted in front of thousands of people at the Women’s March on Washington that she had thought a lot about “blowing up the White House”. Robert De Niro that he would like to “punch Trump in the face”.
The May 16 edition of the once-venerated New Republic depicted Trump as Hitler on the cover. The argument that Trump posed a Hitler-level threat to American democracy can be traced back to the first outbreak of Trump Derangement Syndrome among left-wing journalists in 2016.
Ruth Sent Us, the left-wing pro-abortion group, published the home addresses of conservative judges and informed its followers that Judge Amy Coney Barrett “goes to church every day” and that her children attend a certain school. In other words, here’s where she’s hiding for anyone who wants to take her out.
Kavanaugh narrowly escaped an activist who tried to break into his home with a semi-automatic pistol, a knife, a hammer and a screwdriver. Arrested, the attacker confessed that he wanted to kill the judge “because he is against abortion”. Silence in the media: just think if, with roles reversed, a white supremacist had tried to massacre a progressive judge.
In 2017 James Hodgkinson, a 66-year-old volunteer at the campaign committee of Bernie Sanders, the socialist senator, shot Republican senator Steve Scalise. “I hate Trump,” Hodgkinson said.
Political violence is also spreading in Europe and the latest avatar is the attempted assassination of Robert Fico. The man who shot Fico, Juraj Cintula, is just a “pensioner”, a “poet”, a “pacifist”, an “activist”, while the Slovak prime minister he tried to kill is a “xenophobic populist”.
It was May 6, 2002, when at the Media Park in Hilversum, Holland, nine days before the parliamentary elections in which it had grown to become the second strongest party in the country, Pim Fortuyn was assassinated by a fanatical ecologist, Volkert van der Graaf. To the judge who interrogated him, the killer said that he saw in Fortuyn “a danger for the weakest groups in society”, the Muslim immigrants.
Fortuyn was eliminated after a campaign of political and press demonization unprecedented in Western Europe. Journalist Maty Verkamman said: “Professor, you have the mind of Hitler and the charm of Himmler”. Jan Bloker, columnist for the left-wing newspaper Volkskrant: “Fortuyn will be the Mussolini of the 21st century”. Minister Marcel van Dam on television, pointing the finger at Fortuyn, said: “You are less than a human being”.
If Salman Rushdie “offends Islam”, as the journalistic milieu has been repeating for decades, why shouldn’t an Iranian assassin have killed him? The same goes for an “Islamophobe” speaking in a square in Mannheim, Germany.
In this mad West there is reason to be proud these days of being an inoffensive conservative, but sad to see civilization going adrift.
Jürgen Elsässer during a speech on an LEGIDA demonstration on 26 October 2015. Photo: Alexander Böhm, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser “has shown us the ugly face of dictatorship,” says Jürgen Elsässer, founder and editor-in-chief of the right-wing magazine Compact, which was banned by the interior ministry on Tuesday, July 16th. In an interview for Junge Freiheit, Elsässer says the accusations made against his magazine are unsubstantiated, and that the move to ban the publication without any legal grounds is a blow against press freedom—meaning that any news outlet can be targeted from now on.
Wenige Stunden, nachdem sein Magazin verboten wird, meldet sich #Compact-Chef Jürgen Elsässer mit einem ersten Statement zu Wort. Er äußert heftige Kritik und spricht von „diktatorischen Maßnahmen des Regimes“. Wir haben ihn zuhause vor seiner Haustür angetroffen und sahen, was… pic.twitter.com/EEDnIY4csY
As we reported previously, Nancy Faeser claims the ban is justified by saying that Compact and its affiliated organisations “are directed against the constitutional order” and that the magazine “agitates in an unspeakable way against Jews, Muslims, and against our democracy.”
Compact is an anti-establishment, anti-immigration publication which was established in 2010. It had a circulation of 40,000; it has an X account that now counts 45,400 followers and a YouTube channel with 348,000 subscribers—the latter two numbers rose by 3,000 following the censorship announcement. The magazine’s website and online shop are already inaccessible due to Tuesday’s ban, but its YouTube and X accounts remain public and active.
Such popularity online is a moot point, however, the publisher says. Jürgen Elsässer claims that his media organisation—which employs more than 20 people—is currently unable to publish any new content, as the company’s laptops, mobile phones, and equipment from its TV studio were all confiscated by the police in house raids conducted on Tuesday. Unsold magazines were also taken away, depriving the organisation of vital income.
The editor-in-chief listed previously existing difficulties, such as having his magazine banned from stores in train stations and its bank account terminated. Elsässer got through these hardships thanks to supporters. “That’s probably what angered Faeser and Haldenwang,” that’s why they went ahead with the ban, he said, referring to Faeser and Thomas Haldenwang, the head of the domestic intelligence agency, the Bundesverfassungsschutz (BfV), which in 2021 classified the magazine as extremist, nationalist and anti-minority. The agency has also been instrumental in the witch hunt against the second most popular party in Germany, the anti-globalist Alternative für Deutschland (AfD).
Jürgen Elsässer rejects the negative labels pinned on his organisation, saying he is neither racist, nor antisemitic, and the magazine has never incited hatred or violence. There have been no successful court cases brought against Compact that substantiate these accusations. Elsässer even won two lawsuits against Jutta Ditfurth, a left-wing sociologist and politician who accused him of being an antisemite. But all this “doesn’t matter because the state can do what it pleases,” says Elsässer, adding it is the government that is the enemy of the democratic order, not him.
The editor-in-chief also criticised the ministry for banning the magazine as though it were an association. Banning an association is not so difficult because it is not protected by the freedom of the press, constitutional law professor Volker Boehme-Neßle toldDie Welt. Nancy Faeser played a “trick” because even though Compact is clearly a media organisation, the company that publishes it, Compact-Magazin GmbH can be viewed as an association. According to Volker Boehme-Neßle:
This is something very problematic and very sensitive. Namely: a government bans a media outlet that is critical of the government. These things happen in authoritarian states.
Jürgen Elsässer says he has contacted his lawyers, and will take the case to court. “Faeser is stretching the law, possibly even overstretching it. In the end, it will most likely be a court that will have to make a decision,” writesDie Zeit in its opinion piece.
With less than six months to go before Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris is due to reopen, the controversy surrounding the restoration of the building hit by a violent fire in April 2019 continues unabated. After the highly controversial choice of liturgical furnishings, it is now the stained glass windows’ turn to cause a stir. There are plans to remove some of the 19th-century stained glass windows and replace them with contemporary ones. The heritage committee is unanimously in favour of them being maintained, but the minister for culture does not seem inclined to listen to its advice.
A few months ago, President Emmanuel Macron spoke out in favour of removing a series of so-called grisaille stained glass windows dating from the 19th century and designed by the architect Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, located in the nave of the cathedral, in favour of new windows designed by contemporary artists. He was supported in this initiative by the archbishop of Paris, Msgr. Ulrich, who was also in favour of a ‘contemporary gesture’ as part of the restoration of Notre Dame.
The project provoked fierce opposition in France and abroad. The website La Tribune de l’Art, which specialises in preserving France’s heritage against all forms of private and public vandalism that threaten it, launched a petition to oppose the project, which attracted almost 150,000 signatures in the space of a few days. The man behind the petition, Didier Rykner, explained in December 2023:
We are in favour of preserving the 19th-century fittings at Notre-Dame de Paris because they have great heritage value, because they withstood the fire and have even been restored, because they form part of a coherent architectural whole and, finally, for those who would be put off by these obvious facts, because they are protected by a historic monument classification, which implies, according to the law, their ‘conservation because they present a public interest from the point of view of history or art.’
Following the petition, the Commission nationale du patrimoine et de l’architecture (CNPA), a public body under the aegis of the Ministry of Culture, took up the issue. Although it was not due to be consulted until November, i.e., after the winning artist had been chosen for the contemporary stained glass project, it chose to speed up its timetable, and on July 11th ruled against the installation of stained glass windows to replace those by Viollet-le-Duc. The commission’s decision was unambiguous: it voted unanimously to reject the project. Such unanimity is very rare.
The commission’s opinions are normally purely consultative. But the message sent is very clear: the contemporary developments desired by the President of the Republic and the Archbishop of Paris have no place in the restoration of Notre Dame.
Despite the clarity of the signal sent out, it would unfortunately seem that we should be wary of rejoicing too quickly. Rachida Dati, the Minister of Culture who came from the centre-right and has been poached by Emmanuel Macron, who may support her as a candidate for mayor of Paris, clearly has no intention of listening to the commission’s wise advice, as can be seen from a press release issued by her office shortly after the announcement of the unfavourable opinion. It essentially explains that the project is going ahead and that the commission will be consulted again in a few months’ time, once the artist who created the stained glass has been chosen.
It is interesting to note that one of the groups of artists who were to take part in the selection, respecting the commission’s choice, has indicated that they are withdrawing from the race—which is to their credit, as they demonstrate their great respect for heritage and its preservation.
Rachida Dati’s decision to go ahead could be challenged in the administrative court, given that the commission delivered an opinion unanimously by its members. This attitude can only be a cause for concern, coming from a woman who aspires to replace the socialist Anne Hidalgo at the head of France’s capital, but who has already demonstrated, by leaving the Right to join the government, her astonishing ability to sacrifice a few convictions to her personal ambition. Parisians are definitely out of luck—and heritage is once again being sacrificed on the altar of contemporary ideology.
As the Paris Olympics approach, it is unclear if the River Seine will be clean enough for athletes to use.
The sporting extravaganza, set to begin on July 26, may not feature events in the river due to high levels of E Coli bacteria in the water, which is often linked to fecal bacteria.
Nosta Lgia
Using the 2024 Games as a springboard, Paris invested €1.4 billion in building infrastructure to catch more stormwater when it rains — the same water that contains bacteria-laden waste liquid that enters the river during heavy downpours and 2024 has been a particularly wet year.
The city’s efforts, though, seem to have fallen short ahead of the start of the Olympics.
Recent testing of the water showed it was still unsafe and polluted on most days, potentially creating health problems for athletes in triathlon and marathon Olympic swimming events due to to take place in the Seine.
Ingesting water contaminated with E. coli and enterococci bacteria can lead to serious health issues, including diarrhoea, urinary tract infections, pneumonia and sepsis. The latest tests have revealed unsafe levels of these fecal-related bacteria in the Seine for three consecutive weeks.
Nosta Lgia
Among the financial investments by Paris was the construction of a huge underground water-storage basin designed to catch excess rainwater and keep it from entering the Seine.
Such efforts do not appear to be enough to have got rid of all the E coli bacteria and the levels still exceed the norms that the World Triathlon Federation has determined as safe for competitions by tenfold.
As the sun’s ultraviolet rays kill bacteria like E coli in water, some hope there will be enough sunlight over the next two weeks to mean competition could go ahead as planned.
Critics say there are other problems to take into account. Lionel Cheylus, representing the environmental non-profit Surfrider Europe, conducted separate water tests and said there were concerns about other, unmonitored contaminants.
Nosta Lgia
“European regulations only mandate testing for these two bacteria,” he told USA Today earlier in July. “They don’t address pharmaceutical, industrial, or chemical pollution. So when authorities declare water ‘swimmable’, they’re only confirming the absence of these specific bacteria, not overall water quality.”
That did not stop politicians from claiming the water was perfectly safe.
Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo assured France Inter radio listeners on July 10: “I will personally swim in the Seine next week. We are confident that the water will be adequately treated and safe by then.”
On July 13, French sports minister Amélie Oudéa-Castéra took a dip in the river in a bid to assure all of its cleanliness.
“Promise kept!,” she posted afterwards on X, together with some relevant images.
Many French citizens were unimpressed and under the post warned her to get ready to go to hospital or take some medicine against gastrointestinal diseases and diarrhoea.
One poster commented that it reminded him of Bhagwant Mann, an Indian minister who in 2022 drank from the River Ganges to make a point about its cleanliness and needed urgent medical aid shortly after.
A less glamorous clip of Oudéa-Castéra entering the water was also shared widely online.
A heterodox Swiss Catholic lay organization has published a list of parishes that offer “blessings” for same-sex couples and others in objectively sinful relationships.
Alliance Equally Catholic, which is based in Lucerne, includes individuals, organizations, parishes, and “other associations that share the vision of an equal Catholic Church.” The group published its list of parishes yesterday.
“The principle of #EqualDignityEqualRights must apply to all people, regardless of their lifestyle. For the Alliance Equally Catholic (AGK), it is therefore self-evident that all consensual relationships must be regarded and treated as equal,” AGK writes.
“The AGK already said this at the end of 2023 in response to the Vatican’s declaration on blessings,” it states on its website, referring to Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernandez’ heterodox Fiducia Supplicans which allows the “blessings” of couples in “irregular situations” under certain conditions.
“In the same communication, the AGK called on Swiss parishes to offer new or continued blessings for unmarried, remarried and queer couples and to organize them creatively and in a way that is appropriate for the situation of the couple concerned: respectfully, carefully, personally.”
The group notes that in “many places in Switzerland, it is already established practice for pastors to bless unmarried, remarried and queer couples.”
AGK laments that “unmarried, remarried, and queer couples are still not considered equal by the Vatican.”
“This often makes it difficult for interested couples to make contact, as it is not always clear at first glance whether a parish and its staff are open to all couples and ‘queer-friendly,’” the AGK said. “To make it easier for them to find and make contact, the AGK maintains a list of pastors and parishes that offer the blessing for everyone.”
The list, which will be “continuously updated” currently contains more than 20 Swiss parishes and almost 40 “pastors” who offer “blessings” for same-sex couples and others living in objectively sinful relationships. However, the “pastors” listed by the heterodox group are almost exclusively laymen and women working in parishes, and the “blessings” would, therefore, not be proper liturgical blessings that can only be conferred by a priest.
The AGK provides parishes that offer these “blessings” with a “Blessing for All” badge that can be displayed on their websites or physically as a sticker.
As Cardinal Gerhard Müller, the former prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), has noted while commenting on Fiducia Supplicans, “blessing” a homosexual “couple” necessarily approves their relationship in contradiction to Catholic teaching. “Indeed, if one blesses the couple qua couple, that is, as united by a sexual relationship other than marriage, then one is approving that union, since it is the union that constitutes them as such a couple,” he wrote in an essay.
Accordingly, Fiducia Supplicans, which was approved and signed by Pope Francis, has sparked opposition from orthodox Catholic prelates, priests, and lay people worldwide.
Basing itself on Sacred Scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity, tradition has always declared that ‘homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered.’ They are contrary to the natural law. They close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved.
The charges brought against 23-year-old Ibrahima B. by the Vienna public prosecutor’s office in their six-page indictment are staggering. As reported, the unemployed man, who was born in Guinea, is believed to have become radicalised during a stay abroad in France. He visited Muslim friends there and, on his return to Austria, wanted his girlfriend Elsa I. (name changed) to live the way he thought was the right way. The suspect had already met the South American-born woman, who had been in Austria for more than two decades, in a club near Schwedenplatz in September 2023. She was currently divorced and was initially looking forward to some carefree hours and some affection. But after the trip to France, her boyfriend became unbearable and acted as a ‘’guardian of public morals‘’, forcing her to wear a headscarf, checking her mobile phone and tracking her. When she was looking for a place to go out on Instagram, Ibrahima B. finally went completely berserk. In a shocking orgy of violence, he allegedly punched her 20 times in the face – alternately with his right and left fist – and broke her nose. Even when blood was spurting, he did not let go of his victim and is said to have choked her four times almost to the point of unconsciousness.
‘You’ll see what I’ll do to you,’ he is said to have intimidated the woman and then pulled a pair of pliers out from under the bed. ‘I’ll rip your teeth out,’ he threatened, according to the indictment. When the woman turned onto her stomach, he pulled out her hair in clumps and recorded it on film – to always remind her ‘what will happen if you don’t obey’.
The 23-year-old: ‘No matter where you are, look, I’ll always be here and even if it’s been a year, I’ll destroy you. You might not even remember me, but I will destroy you!’
The public prosecutor commented on the suspect’s alleged offences: ‘He always acted with the intention of hurting his victim and using violence to make her submissive.’ Elsa I. is said to have been raped several times in recent months – sometimes her ordeal lasted hours. She is said to have been scratched, beaten and bitten.
Particularly disgusting: Ibrahima B. whispered that although he loved his girlfriend, he would kill her. After she actually found a pistol in the box one day, Elsa I. confided in a friend in mortal fear and filed a complaint. Ibrahima B. has been in custody in Vienna-Josefstadt prison since the beginning of June.
He denied everything to the police, but after two interviews with the victim and findings from the Floridsdorf clinic, the investigators had no doubts about the statements made by the woman, who is being legally represented by star lawyer Philipp Wolm. Her tormentor Ibrahima B. will soon have to answer to a lay judge in Vienna. He faces up to ten years in prison. The presumption of innocence applies.
