New phase of violence between Egypt and the Muslim Brotherhood

In a major new development in the relationship between the state and the terrorist Muslim Brotherhood organisation, the second anniversary of the 30 June Revolution has brought fierce violence to Egypt. 

 It began with the assassination of Prosecutor-General Hisham Barakat and was followed by the killing of nine Muslim Brotherhood leaders in their homes in Sixth October City, according to the Interior Ministry, or 13 leaders, according to a Brotherhood statement. 

 These incidents are inseparable from events in Sinai, where 17 members of the Armed Forces were killed in an attack by operatives from the so-called Islamic State (IS) “Sinai Province.” The army quickly retaliated, killing at least 100 terrorists and bringing the situation under control. 

 These developments, occurring between 28 June and 2 July, have had numerous ramifications. Above all, they signal an escalation in violence on the part of the Muslim Brotherhood and its supporters. Moreover, according to a statement issued by the terrorist organisation following the deaths of its members in Sixth October City, there may be further violence to come. 

 In its statement, the Brotherhood said that the killing of 13 of its leaders “in cold blood” in Sixth October City ushered in “a new phase in which it will not be possible to control the anger of the oppressed and persecuted who will not accept to die in their homes amidst their families.” 

 Brotherhood spokesman Mohamed Muntasser said that the killing of the organisation’s members has created a “total minefield.” He called on the group’s supporters to take to the streets “in rebellion...

Iranian leader announces nuclear deal

All else aside, a close examination of the specific contents of this week’s nuclear deal between Iran’s Khomeinist regime and the United States reveals a meticulously structured bargain of explicit commitments, obligations, assurances, guarantees and timetables. It’s terribly complicated in spots, but it’s otherwise all perfectly straightforward. The Americans led the talks on behalf of China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and Germany, and, all else aside, the expectations of all the parties involved are satisfied. A good deal, then, all round.

But that happy evaluation can be made only by putting all else aside, which means leaving out all those things that matter to hundreds of millions of Iranians, Arabs, Israelis and others in the Middle East. It will mean leaving out all else that encompasses the criminal and expansionist belligerence of the Khomeinist regime in the region, and leaving out, particularly, the regime’s ceaseless oppression of the Iranian people themselves. Even if we could trust the regime to live up to its end of President Barack Obama’s legacy bargain — and only a fool would think the Khomeinists can be trusted — all else is what remains unresolved...

Christie Blatchford: Ruling in Twitter harassment trial could have enormous fallout for free speech

What’s believed to be the first case in Canada of alleged criminal harassment-via-Twitter is just a judge’s decision away from being over.

After hearing closing submissions Tuesday from Chris Murphy, who represents 54-year-old Greg Elliott, Ontario Court Judge Brent Knazan is expected to rule on Oct. 6.

In the balance rides enormous potential fallout for free speech online.

Elliott is charged with criminally harassing two Toronto female political activists, Steph Guthrie and Heather Reilly, in 2012.

Allegations involving a third woman were dropped.

The graphic artist and father of four lost his job shortly after his arrest, which was well-publicized online, and if convicted, could go to jail for six months.

These are astonishing repercussions given that it’s not alleged he ever threatened either woman (or any other, according to the testimony of the Toronto Police officer, Detective Jeff Bangild, who was in charge) or that he ever sexually harassed them...

See even more on this at GenuineWitty 

Paleobotanist discovers world's oldest sperm sample in Antarctic

Benjamin Bomfleur can’t help but laugh a little when talking about this latest, record-setting discovery.

“A 50-million-year-old worm sperm from Antarctica?” he said between chuckles. “Who would have thought that’s possible?”

And yet, what Bomfleur, of the Swedish Museum of Natural History, and other researchers stumbled upon was a serious discovery: the oldest animal sperm ever found...

Syria’s Butcher Really Won the Iran Deal

There’s one person ecstatic about the Iran deal and Washington would probably prefer he just keep his mouth shut: Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad. Professing in a cable to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei that the newly agreed upon nuclear accord between the world’s major powers was a “historic achievement,” Assad went on to note his satisfaction that this would only strengthen Iran’s work for “peace and stability…in the region and the world.” Translation: Iran will further finance and militarily bolster Assad’s crumbling regime, not to mention other affiliates and proxies.

In crafting a largely technical arms control agreement, the U.S. has therefore objectively empowered its traditional enemies—the so-called “Axis of Resistance”—at the expense of its traditional allies, the Sunni-led Gulf States and their satellites, in what may prove to be a new age of deadly sectarian wars in the Middle East, of which Syria, Iraq, and Yemen are only a foretaste. As ever in geopolitical wrangles, it’s civilians who stand to suffer first and most severely...

A trans trend from Transylvania

No, this is not from The Onion.  It's a new "other identity!" However, I think someone needs to explain to these people that if they cast a reflection in a mirror, or don't burn up in sunlight, then they're not vampires. Maybe they can get together with the "otherkins" who think they're mosquitoes to discuss common interests.

The only real question here is whether or not this means I can legally stick a stake through their hearts:

Sociology researchers are now insisting that we as a society start accepting people who choose to “identify as real vampires” — so that they can be open about the fact that they’re vampires without having to worry about facing discrimination from people who might think that that’s weird. 

The study, titled “Do We Always Practice What We Preach? Real Vampires’ Fears of Coming out of the Coffin to Social Workers and Helping Professionals” was conducted by researchers from Idaho State University and College of the Canyons and the Center for Positive Sexuality in Los Angeles. 

“Most vampires believe they were born that way; they don’t choose this,” said Dr. D. J. Williams, the study’s lead researcher and the director of sociology at Idaho State...

BS detector overloads on statements by Ontario government

...All the alarms on my BS detector went into the danger zone this week as I watched Finance Minister Charles Sousa tie himself in knots trying to make the credit downgrade by Standard and Poor’s appear to be good news.

Then Energy Minister Bob Chiarelli followed suit, dismissing real concerns about the cost of electricity raised by the Ontario Chamber of Commerce (OCC).

If spinning porkies were a Pan Am sport, Sousa would win gold...

University of Toronto's Dept. of Anthropology has been infiltrated by crackpots who teach that cancer is good

The U of Toronto's Department of Anthropology has been quietly infiltrated by crackpots and lunatics over the past few years.  It's become so extreme, that they have done enormous damage to the University's reputation.

One of Canada’s most prestigious universities has defended a course that promoted the benefits of cancer and taught students that vaccines are unsafe, because quantum mechanics. The department of Anthropology at the University of Toronto encouraged health science students to believe many things completely contrary to all scientific evidence, and the University has largely endorsed the course.

For the last two years, the university, which prides itself on its medical research, has run a course known as Alternative Health: Practice and Theory. The lecturer was Beth Landau, a homeopath who tells parents not to vaccinate their children.

Much of the course veered wildly away from the scientific mainstream, but it was week 9 that really attracted attention. Titling the week, “Vaccination- The King of Controversy”, Landau set a reading list entirely made up of comprehensively disproven claims about vaccination, including that it causes autism. She has also publicly stated that measles and chicken pox are great for children’s development (presumably not including the ones that die).

Far from “teaching the controversy,” Landau failed to set any reading from pro-vaccine sources. Readings that draw on peer-reviewed research were presented on epigenetics and beneficial bacteria, but were otherwise studiously avoided.

On the other hand, required reading and viewing requirements included material that appalled scientists from every field. As the National Post reports, the course description included the astounding line that quantum physics “offers clear explanations as to why homeopathic remedies with seemingly no chemical trace of the original substance are able to resolve chronic diseases.” The statement was news, to say the least, to the university’s physicists.

There is even a required reading paper titled, “Cancer is not a Disease – It’s a Survival Mechanism,” with no response from oncologists. This claims that cancer keeps people with “underlying sicknesses” alive...

"Scantily clad Zionist sluts," Kathleen Wynne is "an apology for a woman," and more deep thinking from Zafar Bangash's Institute of Contemporary Islamic Thought

The pro-Iran, Islamic Society of York Region's annual al Quds Day Anti-Slutwalk:
"If you aren't totally covered up, you are a slut!"

Avid supporters of the terrorist group Hezbollah took to the streets of Toronto this past weekend for their annual al Quds Day hate-fest, which is a call for the annihilation of Israel's Jews. 

Made up of Shite devotees of Iran's murderous Ayatollah Khomeini, accompanied by a few hard-left Jew-haters and a handful of mentally ill "Jews Against Israel" who tag along with Islamists so they can get some desperately needed attention, the Islamapalooza was a pretty dour event. Two thousand grubby men, most overdressed for the weather, accompanied by women shrouded in heavy, Islamic chadors, were bused in from the suburbs to chant slogans about blood and death on a sweltering, humid July afternoon.  The whole thing on their side consisted of furious speeches calling for the demise of the USA and the elimination of Israel, followed by a march in the hot sun. These are not fun, carefree, pleasant people.

But if there's anything that makes miserable people even more miserable and angry, it's seeing their enemies right next to them having a good time at their expense.

That happened at al Quds Day when some counter-demonstrators, normal people, including young women who dress the way Canadian women do in summer, had a boisterous time showing their support for Israeli and Canadian freedom.

And wow, did that piss off Zafar Bangash, the chief impresario of Toronto's al Quds Day death cult!

Bangash is the head of the "Institute of Contemporary Islamic Thought" which produces a publication called Crescent Magazine International, for which he is the principal author.

In Bangash's summary of his al Quds Day Islamofascist jamboree, he published things that would be hilarious if they were written as parody by someone with a sense of humor. Zafar Bangash is not someone with a sense of humor.

Rather than describe it further, here are some examples:

"...thousands of men and women (young and old) as well as youth and children attended the annual event.

There were old men using walkers or in wheelchairs as well as babies in strollers.

This stood in sharp contrast to the Zionist thugs, the erroneously named Jewish Defence League (JDL)—actually the Jewish Offence League—that shouted obscenities at Quds Day rally participants.

They had even brought some scantily clad Zionist sluts thinking this would detract committed Muslims.

What these enemies of humanity do not realize is that committed Muslims are not attracted to such filth. "

Evidently, one of Bangash's contemporary Islamic thoughts is that if a woman isn't wearing a head-to-toe portable tent, like his congregants at the Islamic Society of York Region, they must be "sluts."

If you're waiting for cowardly "progressives" like Judy Rebick, Linda McQuaig, and Naomi Klein to denounce the rape culture and misogyny of our local Islamist leadership, don't hold your breath. Islamist rape-culture and misogyny get a free pass from them.

But what about Islamist homophobia? Here's what Crescent had to say about Kathleen Wynne, Canada's first openly lesbian provincial Premier:

"Kathleen Wynne, the Ontario premier and an apology for a woman, is an arch-Zionist."

An apology for a woman because she's a lesbian??? Hey, I've made fun of Kathleen Wynne plenty of times, often harshly, because of some terrible economic and education policies she's been behind, but that's political. Politics aside, she's actually a nice person.  But even if she weren't, saying in Canada that Wynne is "an apology for a woman" because she's a lesbian, coming from Bangash, an acolyte and spokesman for a regime that kills gays because of their sexuality, isn't cool.

I'm sure our "progressives" will be speaking out about that.  What?  Islamists also get a free pass for homophobia from "progressives"? Oh, well....

Hostel creator Eli Roth's new movie devours the hypocrisy of "Social Justice Warriors"

I met Eli Roth at an advance industry screening of Hostel at the Toronto Film Festival a year before its release. He seemed like a cool guy then, and obviously still is.

...The LA Times asked Roth what motivated him to write the story, and he explained it was all about SJWs online.

I wanted to write a movie that was about modern activism. I see that a lot of people want to care and want to help, but in general, I feel like people don’t really want to inconvenience their own lives. And I saw a lot of people just reacting to things on social media—these social justice warriors. ‘This is wrong, this is wrong, this is wrong.’ And they’re just tweeting and retweeting. They’re not actually doing anything. Or you see people get involved in a cause that they don’t really know a lot about, and they go crazy about it. I wanted to make a movie about kids like that.

Asked directly if the story was inspired by “the SJWs of Twitter,” Roth says, “Yeah.” He adds, “the SJW culture has gotten so out of control, that you feel like everyone—are they doing it because they believe in it? Or do they just want to look like good people?

The Green Inferno will be released in theaters on September 25, 2015.

It also seems to bear a certain resemblance to the plot of a South Park episode.

How Did Lewis and Tolkien Defend the Old West?

...[C.S.] Lewis was virulently anti-Nazi and anti-communist, and, like Tolkien, he also knew that democracy has its own risks. The West has bred all three political/economic systems. As an ideology, man-made and man-centered, bureaucratic democracy may appear as a brightly-colored package, more pleasing to the eye than the grittiness of socialism, but it too desires to make man a means to an end, to make him a mere cog in a machine...

Tolkien has proven to be one of the best selling authors of all time, selling the greatest number of his works in the very same century that he so much despised. Something in Tolkien’s world clearly resonated with many in the modern world. Dissidents of a sort.

As one might imagine, the literati have not been pleased. “Tolkien–that’s for children, isn’t it? Or the adult slow,” wrote one British critic. “It just shows the folly of these polls, the folly of teaching people to read.” English reviewer Andrew Rissik dismisses Tolkien’s relevance:

After the annihilating traumas of the last century, it’s merely perverse to ascribe greatness to this airy but strangely simplified mock-Teutonic never-never land, where races and species intermingle at will and great battles are fought but there is never any remotely convincing treatment of those fundamental human concerns through which all societies ultimately define themselves–religion, philosophy, politics and the conduct of sexual relationships.

Feminist critic Germaine Greer contends that Tolkien’s works dismiss the “great struggles of the twentieth century”–such as “politics, war, the black movement, and [the] sexual revolution.”

The British are not alone in their criticism. Famed American literature professor Harold Bloom contends that the Lord of the Rings is simply a period piece that “met a need in the early days of the Counter-Culture.” That is, Tolkien’s Middle-earth provided one of the many escapist fads for the hippies of the 1960s and early 1970s. They desired escape by any means necessary: drugs, music, or Tolkien. Further, Bloom contends, the protagonist of the story, Frodo, is not a hero, and his sage companion, Gandalf, is “self-important” and rude

And, yet, Tolkien and the Inklings were doing exactly what their critics claimed they weren’t: They were attempting to confront the monstrosities of the twentieth century through the vehicle of myth, a vehicle that allows one to see reality from a new perspective—perhaps a higher reality that goes beyond mere facts, at least at the pragmatists defined them... 

h/t Andrew Klaven

When a mob of Twitter idiots can ruin a Nobel-winning scientist's career over a joke, something is seriously wrong

On June 8, a shocking sexism-in-science scandal erupted on Twitter and spilled quickly into the mainstream media: British biochemist and Nobel laureate Sir Tim Hunt, reports said, had told a mostly female audience at an international science journalists’ conference in Seoul, Korea that “girls” in the laboratory are liable to cry and cause romantic turmoil—and advocated sex segregation.

The next day, Dr. Hunt, 72, resigned his honorary post at University College London; he also stepped down from committees and advisory boards of the Royal Society (Britain’s academy of sciences) and the European Research Council. Yet the embattled scientist has found a growing chorus of supporters who see him as the victim of a witch hunt. And an examination of the facts strongly suggests that Dr. Hunt’s champions are right: the real scandal in this story is Twitter mob rule compounded by sloppy and biased journalism...

Everything Bill Maher says about Islamic extremism was confirmed at Toronto's al Quds Day rally

If two thousand vicious, swastika-waving neo-Nazis blocked traffic for an hour marching by the Legislature in downtown Toronto, while chanting through loudspeakers about destroying America and shouting insane conspiracy theories about Jews, you can bet your life the mainstream media would report it.

Toronto did have two thousand bloodthirsty, fascist maniacs doing just that on Saturday afternoon. But instead of reporting about it, the mainstream media went out of their way to ignore it, or distort it to try to create sympathy for those who rallied to promote hatred and violence. Because it wasn't old fashioned Nazis rallying on Saturday. It was the new Nazis; the Islamic fascist cult of Iran's deranged Ayatollah Khomeini, with their al Quds Day rally, which is a call for a genocide of Jews in Israel and to murder Americans in order to bring Iranian dominance to the middle east.

These are the Nazis that the media is afraid to criticize, for fear of being called Islamophobic. One Toronto media outlet,  NOW Magazine, a free weekly that professes to be "progressive" while it hypocritically makes large sums of money from the exploitation of sex slaves, actually promoted the Khomeinist hate festival as a "can't miss event." Calling it a "protest against Islamophobia," as NOW did, is only accurate if objecting to the promotion of terrorist groups like Hezbollah and denouncing calls for the mass murders of Jews is "Islamophobic."

The al Quds Day rallies don't change much from year-to-year. They feature the same speakers, all fanatics who desperately want the destruction of Israel, who claim that Iran, under its murderous ayatollahs, is a beacon of human rights, and exhibit religiously-inspired depravity that seems indistinguishable from severe mental illness.

Brandishing portraits of the leader of  the
terror group Hezbollah

Anyone who doubts Bill Maher and Sam Harris' assertion that "Islam is the motherload of bad ideas" only needs to attend an al Quds Day rally to see it confirmed. No, most Muslims in Canada and the US are not represented by the savage Khomeinists at al Quds Day. But it's also not just a small handful. The al Quds Day Islamofascists are bused in by the thousands from their Islamic Centres, mosques, and madrassahs and it highlights the need for immigration reform to prevent more such poison from infecting Canadian cities.

Following a frenzy of fury they directed at the US consulate, Islamists admiringly carried portraits of Khomeini and Hezbollah leader Nasrallah as they snaked their way up University Avenue and around Queen's Park Circle . Among the al Quds Day organizers was Ali Mallah, a former leader of the Canadian Arab Federation, an organization which a federal judge ruled is both a supporter of terrorism and is anti-Semitic. Mallah is a nexus of the grotesque wedding between radical leftists masquerading as peace activists and fanatical, pro-terrorist Islamists. In addition to his involvement with radical Islamists, he has served on the boards of socialist organizations opposed to Israel's survival, such as the so-called Canadian Peace Alliance and Alternatives International.  Mallah is also a former vice-President of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, who used his union position to try to suppress criticism of the genocide in Darfur, because according to him, drawing attention to it is also Islamophobic.

Ali Mallah

The main impresario of Toronto's al Quds Day is a local Islamic leader named Zafar Bangash.  He is president of the Islamic Society of York Region and an avid acolyte of Iran's psychopathic ayatollahs. This person who equates Zionism with racism refers to US President Barack Obama as "a perfect Uncle Tom" and "that black man in the White House."

Taking the microphone at the rally, Bangash became apoplectic when speaking about Stephen Harper. The detestation Bangash has for the Canadian Prime Minister is palpable. It's understandable, since Harper is the representation of the opposite of everything Bangash stands for: Harper is a democratic leader on the global stage, Bangash is a two-bit toady for a totalitarian, theocratic oligarchy; Harper is working to combat terrorism, Bangash wants to normalize relations with terror groups like Hezbollah; and worst of all, Harper is very supportive of Israel, a country that protects gay rights and women's rights, while Bangash is in the service of its arch-enemy, Iran.

Sensitive to charges of racism and bigotry, Bangash tried to deflect the obvious anti-Semitism of al Quds Day by drawing attention to "the honorable rabbis" who were there in solidarity with the Khomeinists. Being called 'honorable' by Zafar Bangash is not unlike being called a rational thinker by Charlie Manson. The 'rabbis' to whom he referred were four characters from a bizarre, inbred, apocalyptic cult called Neutrei Karta. The pathetic souls who are members of that sect often bear the physical and mental deformities of that inbreeding. Looking like extras from a repertoire company performing Fiddler on the Roof that had been cast from circus geeks, Neutrei Karta are anxious to hasten an Armageddon which they believe will usher in the era of the messiah. That apocalyptic aspiration is something Neutrei Karta shares with the Khomeinists, who believe bringing about the ultimate end of days catastrophe will conjure a mythical twelfth Imam.

Something the counter-protest had that
the al Quds maniacs did not - attractive women

There were also counter-demonstrators at the al Quds Day hate-fest, organized in large part by the Jewish Defense League. Many carried signs mocking the Khomeinists and their brutal regime in Iran. Among the counter-protest signs were some reading, "Happy al Quds Day! Death to Israeli Zionists for treating women as equals" and "We do not have gay people in Iran - since 1979." That seemed to really get up the nose of Zafar Bangash. At his closing speech at Queen's Park, Bangash ranted and raved about the Jewish Defense League, and invented weird lies about them, such as that they had bribed people with beer to attend the counter protest. (N.B. - if that's true JDL, you owe me a beer!)

There are many of the Jewish Defense League's positions and approaches with which I take issue. But they deserve a great deal of credit for actually taking a stand and confronting the degenerate hatemongers of al Quds Day on the streets, while the "Official Jews" who run major, better financed organizations are too timid to do so.  The extent to which they infuriated a vile fanatic like Zafar Bangash is of itself ample reason to support them.

It was interesting to note the presence of police surveillance taking video and pictures of the Khomeinists. That precaution makes a great deal of sense. If the al Quds Day cultists are prepared to take to the streets in support of terrorism, then what they may be getting up to away from the public eye could be vastly more worrisome.

Getting a record of Iran's proxies in Canada

Neutrei Karta nutters and their Khomeinist wrangler
via BCF

Chants of "Blood red, green and white, Palestine will always fight!" over loudspeakers accompanied these terror-supporting marchers. They were upset that Palestinian missiles launched from Gaza were not as successful at murdering as many Israelis as they would have liked.

How you change the world just by looking at it

Fascinating.

It's this simple: either John Tory keeps his promise to privatize garbage collection east of Yonge, or he lied to get into office

Garbage collection has improved substantially in the side of Toronto west of Yonge Street since the service on that half of the city was contracted out to a private enterprise. Complaints about garbage collection have fallen 10% since privatization. Meanwhile, complaints have risen by 29% over the same period on the east side of Yonge where garbage is still collected by City employees.

According to the Toronto Star:

The city points to its older garbage trucks as a possible culprit.

“We are seeing a trend that our fleet is aging, so that may be a key factor in the east side of things,” said Beth Goodger, general manager of the city’s solid waste division. “Our fleet is getting older and we need to replace it.

“Other than that, there is no obvious reason.”

No other obvious reason????!!! How about the fact that CUPE, the union representing most civic employees, is one of the most useless, corrupt unions in Canada?

When John Tory ran for mayor, he made a big deal about privatizing garbage pick-up east of Yonge, indeed mocking his socialist, union-backed rival Olivia Chow for her refusal to consider doing it.

Almost a year into his term, Tory has still left the garbage file untouched. Telling the public one thing to get elected and doing something absolutely different while in office is an old politicians' trick, one which is why so many people are cynical about the political process.

For all his failings, former mayor Rob Ford was always honest about what he wanted to do as far as municipal policies went.

John Tory? The jury's still out.

Obama's directive to halt deportations of illegal immigrants hits legal setback

President Barack Obama appears likely to lose – again – in the protracted legal fight over his executive actions on immigration.

Two of the three appeals court judges who heard oral arguments Friday on the Obama administration’s immigration programs were skeptical about the legal merits of the directive, which could halt deportations for more than 4 million immigrants here illegally who have family ties in the United States.

The chilly reception from the three-judge panel in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals on whether Obama had legal authority to take such action seems to indicate that a lower court decision blocking the new programs would stay in place.

George Jonas: In the face of evil, find no comfort in pacifism

What excuses, or at least mitigates, U.S. President Barack Obama and his negotiating team’s inability to get to first base in trying to convince the current rulers of Iran to give up the idea of developing nuclear weapons, is the near-certainty that no one could.

As several pundits pointed out — most recently Reuel Marc Gerecht and Mark Dubowitz, writing in The Wall Street Journal — the ayatollahs of Tehran are resolved to have the Bomb. The only deal worthy of the name would be one that would prevent them from having it. This is an impasse that cannot be resolved by the give-and-take of negotiations, only by the imperative of force.

To avoid misunderstanding, the imperative of force doesn’t necessarily mean military measures. It means going to the negotiating table with the same resolve to withhold the Bomb from the leaders of the Islamic Revolution and their Revolutionary Guard as they have to acquire it. In this negotiating stance, military measures aren’t on the table as an option, but as the only option unless the opponent submits...

Do you like Big Macs? And do you like Black Sabbath? Then you'll love MacSabbath

A McDonalds-themed Black Sabbath tribute band.

Now you can die mchappy:



It sort of reminds me of HR Puffinstuff. Here's Mama Cass singing in a very strange episode (if such a description is possible):





If you enjoyed that, you'll like this musical weirdness.

h/t Rick McGinnis

Hey, stupid Toronto politicians, thanks for spending $2.5 Billion on Pan Am Games that no one gives a crap about

Seriously, besides the athletes competing in it, no one really wanted this thing but our narcissistic politicians (and their developer/contractor donors who are making a killing at taxpayer expense).

The Troubling Question in the French Jewish Community: Is It Time to Leave?

How can anyone be allowed to paint a swastika on the statue of Marianne, the goddess of French liberty, in the very center of the Place de la République?”

That was what the chairman of one of France’s most celebrated luxury brands was thinking last July, when a tall man in a black shirt and a kaffiyeh leapt to the ledge of Marianne’s pedestal and scrawled a black swastika. All around him, thousands of angry demonstrators were swarming the square with fake rockets, Palestinian and Hamas flags, even the black-and-white banners of ISIS. Here, barely a mile and a half from the Galeries Lafayette, the heart of bourgeois Paris, the chants: “MORT AUX JUIFS! MORT AUX JUIFS!” Death to the Jews. It was Saturday, July 26, 2014, and a pro-Palestinian demonstration turned into a day of terror in one of the most fashionable neighborhoods of the city.

“Do something! Do you see what is happening here?” the chairman said to a line of police officers watching the demonstration build to a frenzy. “What do you expect us to do?” one officer said, then looked away...