Sharia push for Lakemba will be ... pushed out

Ibrahim Siddiq-Conlon is at it again ...

Don't count your sharia chickens too fast. The demography of Sydney is turning Asian/Indian, who are taking the professional jobs and pushing everyone else further out. From Cabramatta to Strathfield to Epping to the inner city, soon all the Asian dots will be joined up and Muslims won't be able to afford to live in Lakemba.

File under: demography is destiny.

Student hands in passport over road deaths

Student hands in passport over road deaths

Kuljeet Kang ... was over the legal blood-alcohol limit on Christmas Day when he lost control of his car on the Great Ocean Road near Princetown and slammed into a tree.

The accident killed both of his passengers.

Police opposed bail, citing previous cases where Indian nationals have fled from Australia while facing driving charges.

Now I know what you xenophobes are thinking again: the roads are no longer safe with foreigners on the roads, foreigners are excitable primitives doomed to repeat our hard-learned lessons in road safety, the issuing of drivers licences is corrupted, the country to going to ruin, etc.

But, once again, there is absolutely no evidence of such a pattern of accidents or corruption involving foreigners. None, nil, nada, zip, zilch, nix, goose egg, duck, nought.

File under: drink, drive, bloody ideologue.

Fjordman: Twilight or Dawn?

Fjordman, Twilight or Dawn?

Native Europeans are currently being displaced at a breathtaking pace in their own homelands, at least in the western half of the Continent. Western authorities and ruling elites are not very concerned about this fact, however. They are too busy worrying about carbon dioxide and what the weather will be like in the year 2089.

A century ago, European scientists had established the physical reality of atoms and molecules and were working out the inner structure of the atom itself. Innovative underground railways such as the London Tube or the Paris Metro were being copied elsewhere, from Budapest and Berlin to New York City and Moscow. With trams, trains, cars, motorcycles and buses, European inventions changed the face of every major city in the world.

Europe was more powerful than any single previous civilization had ever been in the history of mankind, and the first one to have a truly global impact. Other nations respected and sometimes feared European power and dynamism.

One hundred years later, Muslims and others prey upon European weakness, while Asians and Americans fear that the escalating debt crisis in Europe could drag down their own economies. From being the unquestioned center of the world economy, serious observers now question whether European civilization will even survive the twenty-first century in recognizable form...

Western Civilization will most likely enter a period of great turbulence in the near future and will probably not exist in its present form by the second half of this century. However, just as the optimists underestimated the calamities witnessed during the twentieth century that severely weakened European civilization, the pessimists today may underestimate the reservoirs of strength that still exist in the same civilization.

Europe has ancient roots that are not yet fully uprooted. Rebirths are messy affairs, and the European ones especially so. Perhaps out of the current troubles, a new era of European culture will dawn, a new European Renaissance.

File under: I quote Fjordman, and I vote.

Kiratiana's Travel Guide to Black Paris

Finally, the post-racial society has arrived! I knew we would get there if we all just pulled in the same direction. Behold, liberty and equality has brought us ... homogeneity! Wait a minute ...


File under: diversity is a train ride, we get off when we reach our black destination.

Germany: Sesame Street Dawa

The following clip is from a German version of the “Sesame Street” TV program for children. It is a blatant da’wa operation on behalf of Germany’s Islamic community. (via GatesOfVienna)


File under: J is for Jihad.

The 'My Tram Experience' Racism Double Standard

The videos cited are:

My Tram Experience - Emma West

My Tram Experience in France

File under: democracy is a train ride.

Refugee touched school girls at Darwin wave pool

Police are looking into allegations an asylum seeker assaulted a group of young girls at an aquatic complex in Darwin, Australia.


Detainee 'touched' girls: claim

AN IMMIGRATION detainee was kicked out of the Darwin wave pool after he allegedly tried to feel the breasts of six primary school girls.

... an inmate of the Northern Immigration Detention Centre who was on an excursion at the Darwin Wave Lagoon yesterday.

... at least 200 children were at the pool for the 10am to 2pm session and staff were flat out keeping an eye on them...

"The word got around quickly - watch this guy, he's touching kids," she said...

"What flabbergasted me was ... Serco didn't give a sh*t and neither did the wave pool," she said...

"When they found her, she said that they're trying to assimilate people into the community."

"They (Serco and the Wave Lagoon) didn't ring the cops. I rang police in the end."

Another day, another sexual assault brought to this country by the bleeding heart nation wreckers Bob Brown, Sarah Hanson-Young, Julia Gillard, Chris Bowen, and Kevin Rudd.

Well it's a good thing he is now detained again. But wait ...

States in revolt on refugee burden resulting from bridging visas

JULIA Gillard's plan to move thousands of asylum-seekers out of detention centres and into the community has triggered a war with the two largest states ...

... some of the unaccompanied "minors" released into the community appeared to be "significantly older" than their declared age of 16 or 17.

"In some cases these students appear to be in their 20s," the commission reported.

The commission went on to note that schools had a duty of care to their students and that it "may not be appropriate for numbers of 20-something adults to be in the same classroom with younger children".

That's right, not only are your kids now sharing a pool with refugees, they are also sitting next to them in the classroom.

File under: victims of the bleeding heart open-border ideologues.

Three refugee boys guilty of raping Bendigo woman

Three boys found guilty of raping woman

Three boys have been found guilty of raping a 21-year-old woman in Bendigo in central Victoria.

The boys aged 14, 16 and 17 were charged with counts of rape and assault over the attack in the woman's Flora Hill home in January...

Four men charged over the same incident are due to face court in April.

Happens every day. Nothing to see here, move along. But wait, here's an earlier report on the case...

Mum raped by seven as her kids slept nearby

A GROUP of young males trapped a 21-year-old woman in her laundry before raping her while her children slept nearby, a court has heard.

The seven males, aged between 14 and 21 and who came to Australia as refugees from Sudan or Afghanistan, yesterday applied for bail in the Bendigo Magistrates' and Children's courts.

Police told the hearings Mohammad Zaoli, 21, Aru Gar, 19, Mohammed El Nour, 18, and Akoak Manon, 18, and three youths aged 17, 16 and 14 came to Bendigo from Shepparton to go nightclubbing last Saturday.

Now I know you xenophobes/Islamophobes are drawing irrational stereotypes as we speak, but there is absolutely no evidence of persons named Mohammad being over-represented in sexual assault. None. Nada. Zip. Ziltch. And who's to know if Mohammad and Mohammad are actually Muslims? No pattern here, folks.

But we do know they are refugees proudly brought to this country by the identity-free zombies occupying the bodies of Sarah Hanson-Young, Bob Brown, Julia Gillard, Immigration Minister Chris Bowen (a.k.a. The Boat Whisperer), and big Kevin Rudd, who have completely demolished our border security.

File under: victims of the bleeding heart open-borders ideologues.

Janet Levy: The Narrative of Defeat

Listen to Alan Jones of Radio 2GB interview Janet Levy about this article here.

Janet Levy, The Narrative of Defeat

It is now life-threatening to criticize or mock Islam in the United States of America. The creators of South Park ... a recent episode portraying Mohammed in a bear suit would have potentially risked life and limb if they had broadcast the original cartoon sketch... a Brooklyn-based Muslim group called Revolution Muslim posted a threat ... "We have to warn Matt and Trey that what they are doing is stupid, and they will probably end up like Theo van Gogh for airing this show," ...

The incident underscores the unceasing efforts by Islam to silence opposition and criticism in order to advance the establishment of a worldwide caliphate under Shari'ah law. Despite incidents like these, we in the West continue to react to Islam as if it were merely another variety of religious faith. Descriptions of Islam as a "religion of peace" and as "one of the three Abrahamic faiths" proliferate, obfuscating the need for further study and shielding the immutable, intolerant, militant, murderous doctrine from discovery. Although it's been almost nine years since 9/11, the level of knowledge and understanding of Islam is staggeringly low among the general population, let alone those sworn to protect us -- our military and intelligence services. At a time when the Western world should be intimately familiar with the concepts of jihad and dhimmitude, as well as the provisos of Shari'ah law, we are lulled back to sleep with platitudes of peaceful coexistence and shamed with charges of "Islamophobia" if we question the motives, demands, or practices of adherents to the Muslim faith...

... we exhibit suicidal insanity in our failure and unwillingness to connect the dots of Islam, jihad, and Shari'ah. We dither, apologize to the enemy, and shrink from rightful condemnations of their holy books, their religious practices, and their legal code.

No other religion on earth exists with a holy book dominated by hatred toward non-believers. The Islamic trilogy -- the Koran, the Sira (or biography of Mohammed), and the Hadith (the words and deeds of Mohammed) -- requires jihad, the killing of infidels, as the highest form of devotion to Allah. Islam is a theo-political-legal doctrine whose primary focus is not on the "goodness" of Muslims, but on others -- evildoers who do not share the Islamic belief system...

The Koran contains over four thousand verses of enmity toward non-believers. Over 63% of the Koran instructs Muslims to hate and avoid any association with non-Muslims. It teaches that non-Muslims should be held in contempt, killed, beheaded, humiliated, raped, enslaved, converted, or forced to pay the jizya or dhimmi tax. Eighty-five percent of the Sira -- the biography of Mohammed, the ideal man or moral icon for Muslims -- has to do with his battles against kuffars, or non-believers. This is a far cry from "Jesus died for your sins." Islamic teachings laud and require lying and deception, "taquiya," to advance the "ummah," or Islamic community. While Jews and Christians honor the Golden Rule, turn the other cheek and practice tolerance and inclusiveness, Muslims learn how to fight the Dar al-Harb, the infidel world of war, and practice the artistry of duplicity not only with impunity, but also with the highest praises from their god...

Muslim Brotherhood founder Hassan al-Banna said, "It is the nature of Islam to dominate, not to be dominated; to impose its law on all nations and to extend its power to the entire planet." The work of the Muslim Brotherhood in America is "a kind of grand Jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and 'sabotaging' its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and Allah's religion is made victorious over all other religions."

It is now five minutes to midnight in the global jihad that endeavors to destroy us and establish a worldwide caliphate under Shari'ah law. Instead of standing our ground and asserting the supremacy of our values, our fear and submissiveness have taken root to hasten our defeat. Will we wake up and face the enemy head-on before it is too late and all is lost?

File under: dialogue of the demented.

Tommy Robinson slapped in Muslim no-go zone

Tommy Robinson, leader of the English Defence League, drives a TV reporter through the Muslim no-go zone of Luton when he is approached and whacked in the face by a Muslim leader.


File under: now you understand, innit?

ABC’s Made in America feature

ABC News has a series on Made in America. An entire house is made in America and the journalists can't contain their smiles.




Subconsciously we know there is something wrong with free trade.

Julia Gillard, Barack Obama and Kevin Rudd: put that in your Trans-Pacific Partnership and smoke it!

File under: watch the ideology of free-trade die right before your very eyes.

H/T: tradereform.org

Ian Fletcher: Why Isn't the US Economy Recovering?

'Cause Obama is stoopid! That's why. Yes, we know that. But stated more eloquently, here is Ian Fletcher, author of Free Trade Doesn't Work.


The Australian economy is only saved from the same fate by our minerals exports, but that is sucking the life out of our manufacturing industry through the increased value of our dollar.

And our stoopid leader Julia Gillard announced the potential Trans-Pacific Partnership with: "There is a simple equation at work here: trade equals growth, equals jobs".

File under: the snotty, snobbish, mindless ideology of indiscriminate trade.

Iceland says no to huge Chinese land purchase

China tycoon slams Iceland over failed land bid

Iceland on Friday denied a request by property tycoon Huang Nubo to purchase a 300-square-kilometre (200-square-mile) swathe of land in the northern part of the island for a tourist resort.

"The denial reflects the unjust and parochial investment environment facing private Chinese enterprises abroad," Huang, founder of property company Zhongkun Group, said in an interview with the official China Daily newspaper...

"There are still double standards," he said, adding that foreign countries "encourage the opening of the Chinese market while they close their doors to Chinese investments."

In rejecting the request, Iceland's Interior Minister Ogmundur Jonasson said approval would set an unwelcome precedent.

"We are talking about a land purchase on such a large scale that if we had agreed to an exemption one could say that the law was null and void and... that anyone who applied for an exemption after this would be allowed to buy, simply because of such a precedent," he said...

China tycoon Huang Nubo angered by Iceland land move

Earlier this year Huang Nubo offered a billion krona (£5.4m; $8.8m) for the 300sq km (115 sq mile) Grimsstadir a Fjollum region.

But late last week Iceland's interior ministry said the deal did not comply with land sale rules.

Mr Huang accused the West of double standards.

"The rejection sent a message to Chinese investors that you are welcome to emigrate, or to buy properties and luxury goods, but if you want to engage in anything related with natural resources, you're not welcome here," he told the Global Times newspaper.

"We always hear some Western countries urging China to be more open, but at the same time, they set up trade barriers and guard against Chinese investors and companies."

Mr Huang had wanted to turn the land - about 0.3% of Iceland's total land mass - into an eco-tourist resort and golf course...

"The ministry believes that it's not possible to look past how much land the company wanted to purchase," it said in a statement.

"There is no precedent for land on this scale being sold to foreigners."

An excellent decision. Sell him the volcano instead.

File under: a just, parochial, and welcome precedent.

Robert Spencer on tour in Australia

Forget Obama, forget Dolly Parton, this weekend a true star lands in Australia.

Robert Spencer, star of the blockbuster movie Islam: What The West Needs To Know, author of bestselling books such as The Truth About Muhammad: Founder of the World's Most Intolerant Religion, and tireless JihadWatch blogger, is about to start his Australian tour.

Tickets must be pre-booked, but time is running out. The cut-off times for internet bookings are:

* Melbourne SOLD OUT AND BOOKING CLOSED
* Perth BOOKING NOW CLOSED
* Sydney at 6PM on Saturday 26 November
* Brisbane at 6PM on Sunday 27 November
* Canberra at 6pm Monday 28 November
* Cairns at 6PM on Thursday 1 December

The actual speaking dates can be found at GatesOfVienna.
More info at Q Society.


File under: superhero.

Each week in America, 330 farmers leave their land

www.cultivatefoundation.org

"Abandoned" and its accompanying soundtrack were commissioned by The Chipotle Cultivate Foundation to raise awareness about the economic hardship family farmers face in the increasingly industrialized American agriculture system.

In the film, director David Altobelli tells the story of three boys exploring an empty house late one night. The boys break into a farmhouse that was clearly abandoned in a hurry some time ago. As the three explore the house - and even begin to vandalize it - one boy slowly comes to see that the family that lived there was not so different from his own. He realizes that the house they are trashing could foreshadow the future of his own family's farm and home. A frightening moment in the house sends the boys running back to the comfort of their still-functioning farms.

On the soundtrack, Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs covers Willie Nelson's country music classic "Mammas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to be Cowboys."

But fear not! Julia Gillard and Barack Obama are pushing on towards total free-trade prostration with the Trans-Pacific Partnership, as a step towards a seamless regional economy. And we know this will bring abundant wealth because Julia says so:

"We know that closed markets are never the answer.

"Above all, this is a time to keep breaking down barriers and opening the doors of trade. There is a simple equation at work here: trade equals growth, equals jobs."

File under: the ideology of simpletons fails to notice the closing farms.

Holroyd: oh what a beautiful ... stabbing

8:30am in the morning, walking to work in a diverse Sydney suburb ...

The boss of stabbed teen reveals details of his ordeal

Matthew McKinnon, 17, was stabbed in the lower back and the abdomen by two unknown attackers who approached him in a park in Holroyd.

The teenager was on his way to work at a nearby motorbike mechanics workshop where he is a first year apprentice...

Police are appealing to anyone who witnessed the attack in Gardens Park and who may have seen the two men of middle eastern appearance, to contact Crime Stoppers.

Ahem, we need to call Immigration Stoppers instead.

File under: victim of the bloody ideology of diversity.

Specialise, trade and ... call the Marines!

US Marine base for Darwin

BARACK OBAMA is to announce that the US will begin rotating Marines through an Australian base in Darwin in a permanent new military presence, intensifying the alliance in a sign of heightened concern about China.

He is scheduled to make the announcement with the Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, when they visit Darwin next Thursday during Mr Obama's first visit to Australia as president. The 26-hour visit will mark the 60th anniversary of the ANZUS alliance.

Our trade is facilitating the rise of China's military machine.

So, in response to this threat we can (a) stop trade with China or (b) prepare for conflict.

Now, what is the sane thing to do? The low risk or high risk option? The cheap or expensive option? The easy or hard option?

Don't answer that with common sense, that would be stupid.

No, we must consult the ideologies of free trade, globalisation, and white man's guilt. On all three counts, the verdict is: don't discriminate, don't be nationalist, and don't be racist. So there is no choice but the high risk, high cost, high stakes option.

File under: the genius of ideology versus common sense; Chinese goods are not cheap.

Niall Ferguson on the economy is ... stupid

Niall Ferguson: It's the Stupid Economy

Mr Obama hired some pretty good economists from both camps and he did more or less what they recommended... Well these measures helped us avoid a great depression, but they conspicuously failed to produce a sustained recovery. Right now, to be precise, the US economy isn't growing at all. Stupid economy! Dumb economy! ...

They say that generals are always fighting the last war. Maybe the problem today is that economists are fighting the last depression. What they just don't seem to get is that this depression is different. Unlike in the great depression, the world's economies remain open and interconnected. As a result, stimulus tends to leak across borders, boosting the price of pork in China instead of helping home owners in Nevada. It's really hard to predict how this kind of economic butterfly effect plays out...

He goes on to say the economy is stupid because the tax system is inefficient. But Blind Freddy can see that tax reform and productivity are merely tinkering at the margins, there are much bigger forces at work.

Ferguson himself identifies the problem: "It's really hard to predict how this kind of economic butterfly effect plays out". Bingo. Specialise, trade, and then what? Nobody knows what except for the giant sucking sound of jobs going offshore.

The problem is blind free-trade with no good endpoint in sight. We need an economics that is more predictable and stable.

File under: the brain-dead ideology of indiscriminate trade sucks all the butterflies to China.

Sacrificing the lives of young Australians for no purpose

Major-General Alan Stretton, Mission over in Afghanistan; time to bring troops home

With three more Australian deaths over the weekend and another seven wounded, how long will it be before both our political parties realise they are sacrificing the lives of young Australians for no purpose?

The spectacle of politicians from both parties agreeing to send our finest Australians to their deaths and then appearing on television offering their condolences to grieving widows and relatives is sickening.

The policy that we can train the Afghan army to take over security in Afghanistan is laughable. The Afghan government is corrupt, and its army has been penetrated by Taliban forces whose main activity is killing allied forces operating in their country.

Elements of the Australian Defence Force have now been in Afghanistan for over 10 years -- surely this is long enough.

Major-General Alan Stretton (ret), Batemans Bay, NSW

Yes, Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott, how many more lives have to be sacrificed before stopping this madness?

We are sacrificing the lives of young Australians rather than (a) admitting the mistake of Muslim immigration into the West and (b) recognising that clear-eyed anti-terrorism begins by containing our local Muslim population.

File under: the body count of the ideology of diversity.

What kind of person ignores a dying civilisation?

Tory Shepherd, What kind of person ignores a dying two-year-old girl?

It’s hard to pick the most disturbing moment. Is it when the van hits two-year-old Yueyue, pauses, then drives off? Is it the mother and small child who detour around her prone body? Or is it the sheer number of people who clearly see her and do nothing?

The video of the Chinese toddler, who wandered away from her mother and into trouble, makes you heartsick. It makes you question humanity. It makes you want to shake those people - shake them until their teeth rattle.

... it makes you wonder whether a similar evil negligence could happen here, or whether life is cheaper in places where it’s so much more abundant...

We can hope that nothing like this would happen here, we can be horrified from a distance. But we can’t be complacent.

Actually the most disturbing moment is when journalists ask the myopic questions at the expense of the bigger questions.

The answer to the question "what kind of person ...?" is the person we are surrendering economic and military supremacy over to.

It's the kind of person that pollyannic imbeciles like Kevin Rudd thinks we can control with a regional and global rules-based order.

It's the kind of person Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Treasurer Wayne Swan have already fatalistically conceded defeat to and are left pondering what the "Asian Century" holds in store for them.

It's the kind of person who laughs at Western follies of diversity and trade-induced economic decline.

Tanveer Ahmed, A flare of power rises in the East
‎

The government's announcement that they will hold an inquiry into the importance of Asia to Australia is testament that, from learning their languages to sending them our diplomats, what Asians think of Westerners has never been more important.

While the ravages of colonialism and Western perceptions of the East shaped so much of the modern, developing world, recent history, and the century ahead, is more likely to be shaped by Asian cultures peering at, and perhaps even imposing their views and prejudices on, the West...

Chinese tourists now flock to Europe and are told by their guides not to consume the local food as they meditate on the wonders of medieval architecture and the region's slow economic decline...

...there are growing fears that we are living through the twilight of Western predominance...

What happens in the minds of Asians ... matters. It is important to us because it will surely spill over into our suburbs and our boardrooms. If we play our cards right, they might even find us exotic and desirable.

So that's it? Our national security is now a crapshoot dependent on the whim of Asian empathy? This is insane.

What I find disturbing is the ideologically-driven paralysis that cannot question our trade policies because it might offend another country or be seen as discriminatory.

What I find disturbing is the kind of person who thinks that making China rich is a good idea, or that they will be a benevolent superpower who won't be tempted to exert their power once they are dominant.

File under: when a van is a metaphor.

Wall Street protester talks ... sense!

Just when you thought all Wall Street protesters were socialist ferals, along comes a voice in the wilderness.

Chris Savvinidis AKA CptnMidnite wants to:
- stop printing money
- bring production back to America
- restore power to the states


I'm no economic expert but it sounds mostly right to me.
(Though I'm not a fan of libertarian Ron Paul).

Dick Smith Foods' last stand

Dick Smith is relaunching his Australian-made foods brand, saying it is now more important than ever to support local farmers unable to compete in a price war.


We ain't beet yet: saviour comes to the rescue in vegetable price war

Aldi has started selling own-brand tins of beetroot for just 75 cents, forcing Woolworths and Coles to follow suit. But farmers and the only Australian-owned cannery, Windsor Farm Foods, have warned the prices are not sustainable.

One of the country's few beetroot farmers, the Fagan family in Cowra, were considering ploughing their large crop back into the soil because they could not can their beetroot cheaply enough to compete with Aldi's prices.

Determined to save the vegetable that is rarely missing from a hamburger, the entrepreneur, Dick Smith, stepped in this week and bought the Fagan's beetroot crop for almost $80,000 and will have it canned...

Ed Fagan, a fifth-generation farmer, said importing vegetables were increasingly making their way into Australia.

''We are struggling to find people to grow for,'' Mr Fagan said.

www.dicksmithfoods.com.au
www.youtube.com/user/DickSmithFoods

"Specialise, trade, close your eyes, and hope for the best" is not a plan, it's brain-dead ideology.

File under: suicidal paralysis by blind aherence to free-trade dogma always and everywhere.

Climate science is ... like a court case in China

Andrew Bolt talks to three scientists skeptical of climate science on The Bolt Report:

Professor Bob Carter, Environmental Scientist.
Professor Peter Ridd, Marine Physicist.
Professor Garth Paltridge, Atmospheric Physicist.


Peter Ridd:

All this boils down to looking at these big models that predict the climate and when you look at the details, the uncertainties involved in those ... in fact they have no predictive value whatsoever ...

In our court system we have a prosecution, we have a defence, and by making the two sides argue we can get to the truth ... Now in science at the moment we only hear one side, and one side is funded, the other side is not funded. So ... it's like a court case in China and therefore the public actually can't have a great deal of faith in science at the moment. We need scientific reform, in fact, before we go and do things to our economy.

File under: faith in science.

Media turns ... without a momentary shiver of embarrassment

Lawrence Auster, Times: “Activists marching under the banner of Islam are on the verge … of achieving decisive power across the region”

If you had any doubts that we live in a full-blown Orwellian world, the lead story in today’s New York Times, “Activists in Arab World Vie to Define Islamic State,” should have dispelled them. The Times simply announces, as an established, non-controversial fact, that the democratic revolts in Tunisia, Egypt, and other Muslim countries are leading to Islamist (i.e., Islamic) rule, and that the only remaining controversy is not between Islamism and secular democracy, but between different varieties of Islamism. Last winter, the Times and the entire liberal West sang a swelling song of thanks and praise for “freedom” and “democracy” in North Africa, while Islam-critical websites such as VFR kept warning that democratic elections in Muslim countries would automatically mean Islamic rule and the end of any Western notions of democracy. The Islam critics were of course ignored, and the freedom song continued. Now “freedom” has turned out to mean Islam (translation: submission) and the Times accepts and puts its seal on the new reality without a momentary shiver of embarrassment.

In this we see the Orwellian essence of modern liberalism, how liberals move in a radical direction, say, toward Pig Dictatorship (see Orwell’s Animal Farm), while putting a moderate, reassuring face on it, “All animals are equal.” And when the time comes to take off the mask and reveal the radicalism and tyranny that have been the true and fated destination of the exercise all along, there is no shock, there is no admission of a lie, there is no admission of a mistake. No. There is just a bland, “That’s the way it is, folks. Some animals are more equal than others.” And this reversal of all previous assurances is accepted by everyone without dissent or protest. Liberalism doesn’t just produce radicalism and tyranny; it produces mass mindlessness—the death of reason.

File under: lemmings over the cliff.

Sydney police launch clampdown on ... party boats

Police launch clampdown on Pyrmont party boats

Police will consider stricter regulation of "party boats" after a series of drunken brawls, including one at the weekend that involved 60 men – and left one with facial fractures.

... police were "fed up" dealing with "highly intoxicated, and highly emotional" people who get off these boats at Pyrmont...

On the agenda, is forcing "floating pubs" to declare their arrival and departure time so that police can check how intoxicated people are when they board and disembark.

Face smashed during 60-man Pyrmont brawl

A man found lying in a gutter with severe facial injuries had been on a harbour cruise visiting Sydney when he was assaulted in a brawl involving 60 men.

The 37-year-old man belonged to a group of 40 men from Wollongong, who had fought with a rival group outside The Star casino in Pyrmont...

The brawl started shortly after 1am yesterday, when the Wollongong-based group had alighted from a party boat at the casino wharf and were waiting for a bus...

"We are advised that as a result of a verbal altercation involving both groups, a large-scale brawl followed," he told reporters.

Behold the logic of political correctness. Groups party all night long with loads of alcohol, yet they don't fight within the group. But as soon as they meet a rival group, it's mayhem.

So do we state the obvious and question the wisdom of diversity? Nope, we just crack down on alcohol because that unlocks the reservoir of politically incorrect thoughts, and we work overtime to keep groups apart.


The group from Wollongong are probably whites who don't come to Sydney often.

File under: to protect and serve the brain-dead and emotion-neutered ideology of diversity.

Stephen Goeman: President of Tufts Militant Inclusionist Society

If this kid is the future of white America, we are in deep doo doo.

Tufts Freethought Society's president Stephen Goeman reflects on how nonreligious individuals respond to terrorism & Islamaphobia. Transcript below.


Stephen Goeman, A Humanist Reflection on 9/11

I'm Stephen Goeman, President of the Tufts Freethought Society, and I am a secular Humanist. The Humanist Manifesto describes Humanism as a lifestance that, without supernaturalism, affirms our responsibility to lead ethical lives of fulfillment that aspire to the greater good of humanity. Humanism has no shared text, and few discernable public faces. As such, we are left to find solace and resolution in times of tragedy through introspection. This afternoon, I will reflect on how the nonreligious find inspiration in the religious pluralism which has developed in the wake of the September 11th devastation.

Like most people I know in the class of 2013, I was only 10 when the attacks of September 11th took place. What I remember most is asking my teachers and family members how and why this could happen, and the resulting silence. The authority figures in my life could barely rationalize the loss for themselves, let alone to someone in grade school. My father, now the Commander of the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio, was absent for months on end aiding the fight against a vague enemy, the rationale for which I didn't understand. It took years to comprehend the loss and our nation's reaction to it.

At the ten year mark, we seem to have accomplished closure. Osama bin Laden has been brought to justice and America has established itself as a force which liberates countries savaged by dictatorship. There is still much work to be done. There is a disturbing double standard present in American religiosity which reveals a dark side to our coping mechanism. According to a study released last month by Brookings and the Public Religion Research Institute titled "What It Means to Be An American; Attitudes in an increasingly diverse America 10 years after 9/11," 48% of Americans believe that Muslim extremists who commit violent acts represent their religion, while 83% believe that Christian extremists do not exemplify their faith. We are all familiar with the struggles "the ground zero mosque" has faced (despite being neither located at ground zero nor a mosque). Yesterday outside Tisch library, I witnessed one student react in disbelief upon viewing a flyer for the Muslim Students Association's meeting tonight—Is this a joke? She asked, flabbergasted that Muslims would dare commune and exist on this day. The grasp of Islamaphobia is great.

There is hope. Felix Adler, a hero of early Humanism, compelled all individuals to speak out against injustice against groups we ourselves do not belong to. Adler asserted, 'Every outcry against the oppression of some people by other people, or against what is morally hideous is the affirmation of the principle that a human being is not to be violated. A human being is to be respected and revered.' I have observed this to be a principle shared by my friends of faith, and a principle set in action by interfaith coalitions such as the Interfaith Youth Core and the Pluralism Project. Slowly, we are coming together as a nation of diverse religious backgrounds.

We are at war with an exclusionist ideology which seeks to divide our country, and the assaults against liberty aren't always hijacked planes and improvised explosives. Intolerance directed at any group of individuals must be vehemently opposed lest the principles of freedom and tolerance we uphold cease to carry meaning. Victory in the war on bigotry is a long way off, and will require the united spirit of every American. I have hope for the future, and faith in the ability of American citizens to do and be better together. As President Barack Obama put it, "We are the people we've been waiting for."

Meanwhile back on planet Earth, let's take a reality check on contemporary humanism, and Islam ...

Michael Lind, Secular humanists on the real planet of the apes

For all the variations, the common theory of human nature underlying contemporary secular humanism seems to be cosmopolitan utilitarianism, the conviction that human beings, if liberated from superstition by science, would behave less like selfish, scheming social apes and more like self-sacrificing social insects, giving their all for the good of the 7 billion members of the global human hive. "Life’s fulfillment emerges from individual participation in the service of human ideals…" says Humanist Manifesto III. "Working to benefit society maximizes individual happiness."

The secular humanist movement avoids the difficult question of the coexistence of in-group altruism and inter-group rivalries by imagining, with John Lennon, that conflicts would vanish if only people stopped being religious and patriotic...

Unfortunately for Humanist Lennonism, evolutionary biology does not provide much hope for the sort of altruistic personal commitment to planetary solidarity that secular humanists want to encourage. Humanist Manifesto III claims that the joy in Stakhanovite that enlightened human beings liberated from religion are expected to feel -- an "ought" -- can be derived from an "is" -- biological fact. "Humans are social by nature and find meaning in relationships."

But social animals are not altruists. Nor are they strict individualists. They are nepotists. As a rule social animals, like wolves, deer, humans and chimps, show favoritism to their relatives and friends and allies, with little or no concern for members of their own species with whom they have no close connection. Abrahamic monotheism insists on the brotherhood of man under the fatherhood of God. Darwinism insists at best on the distant cousinhood of humanity.

Among humans, nepotistic solidarity can be transferred, with difficulty, to political units larger than the extended family. But national patriotism is much harder to promote than city-state patriotism, and global patriotism may be a bridge too far.

The illogical leap from the acceptance of evolutionary science to the call for world government and world taxation is typical of the intellectual legerdemain practiced by secular humanists. They assert scientific naturalism leads to the currently fashionable attitudes of North Atlantic left-liberals, but they never provide any convincing arguments for the thesis that if you believe in Darwin, you must follow Dewey...

Note, this is only a problem with contemporary left-liberal humanism, a more conservative humanism would avoid these delusions of grandeur.

Sam Harris, The Problem with Islamic Fundamentalism are the Fundamentals of Islam

There is ... a religion of peace in this world, but it's not Islam. To call Islam a religion of peace ... is completely delusional ...

The problem is not religious extremism, because extremism is not a problem if your core beliefs are truly non-violent. The problem isn't fundamentalism ... the only problem with Islamic fundamentalism are the fundamentals of Islam ...

Osama bin Laden ... is ... giving a very plausible version of the faith ...

Osama bin Laden ... is giving a truly straightforward version of Islam, and you really have to be an acrobat to figure out how he is distorting the faith.

Sam Harris, The End of Faith - Chapter 4: The Problem With Islam

While there are undoubtedly some “moderate” Muslims who have decided to overlook the irrescindable militancy of their religion, Islam is undeniably a religion of conquest. The only future devout Muslims can envisage—as Muslims—is one in which all infidels have been converted to Islam, subjugated, or killed.

File under: "And when we are tolerant, we must know whether it is because of convenience or conviction" -- Denmark's Queen Margrethe; and What Stephen Goeman Needs To Know.

R U OK with diversity?

I watched the 7pm Project on TV last night which promoted R U OK? Day aimed at reducing depression and suicide. They mentioned some scary statistics about suicide rates. But what spoke most was the vision of Sydney streets they used. Here's some screen grabs:



Could such pictures have been used a few decades ago when Sydney was still largely an Anglo population? Not likely, because the association between a city street and depression would not make much sense. But in today's world, misery is a normal and understood reaction to a diverse city.

Professor Jonathan Haidt, What Can Liberals Learn From Conservatives?

... liberals desperately need to read some conservative theory to understand that a world of freedom, mobility and diversity is a recipe for a world of chaos, anomie and social disillusion.

File under: the ideology of diversity is blind to reality.

Swiss MP Oskar Freysinger: Have We Gone MAD?!

Oskar Freysinger, a member of the Swiss People's Party, recently spoke in Germany to support the new Freedom Party along with Geert Wilders.


TRANSCRIPT:

Europe is an idea, a cultural landscape, an intellectual space shaped by history. Europe is the cradle of the modern constitutional democracy, the treasure-house of human rights, of freedom of opinion and expression. Or at least it used to be that, until recently.

This has increasingly been put into danger as our political elite bend their necks before a certain religious dogma which is completely alien to our intellectual history, our values and rule of law. This dogma is gnawing away at the pillars of our system of laws, wherever it is granted the space to do so. This dogma demands total obedience from its followers. "They should never integrate into our system of values". That would be "treason" to them and is even be punishable by death.

They are supposed to conquer and subdue our western world. Not with tanks, rockets or riflemen. Something they could never accomplish, anyway. Not through brutal revolt. No, Islam is in no hurry. It has an eternity. A long process of demoralization and slowmotion occupation of our weakened child-poor society is foreseen.

The Islamic doctrine is intended to creep into our everyday life bit by bit and make Fortress Europe crumble from within. Just think of how the Serbs lost Kosovo. Through demographic development and the help of NATO, which aided the founding of the first Islamic state on European soil. What a suicidal undertaking. What an ominous sign. The Islamic dogma is now imposing itself everywhere.

In Turkey, the Islamists are gradually occupying all judicial and army posts, in order to obliterate the heritage of Kemal Atatürk. Lebanon will become an Islamic state in the next decades. The Arab Spring is on the point of being taken over by the Islamists. In Iraq, Egypt and Pakistan, the last Christian communities are facing extinction.

And what are we doing? We are allowing this violent doctrine in to subvert our rule of law, wholly unhindered in our cultural ghettos. Have we gone mad?! Now is the time to stand up! Come on!

We just shrug our shoulders when girls are forced into marriage and integrated Muslims are pressured and threatened. And we look the other way, as the women are beaten and whole city districts taken over.

We think we can soften the power-lusting "holy warriors" with social benefits. We think we can buy our way to peace of mind! What lunacy! The prophet´s beard is not for fondling! Fanatics cannot be bought. Germany should know this, more so than any other country in the world.

My dear friends in the audience, we are not fighting against people, we are fighting FOR people! We are fighting against a dogma that despises all humanity and wants to push us back into barbarity. We will not easily give up the freedom, for which we have fought so hard over the centuries.

Dear Berliners, here I stand. I cannot do otherwise! Because no one in Europe will stand up even for the very pillar of our civilization, our rule of law, our humanity, the transcendental, unconditional "Love thy neighbor", THAT is the pillar!

Come on Cory Bernardi, now is the time to stand up! We know you're dying to quit the Liberal Party and start an Australian Freedom Party. Let's go.

H/T: SarahMaidofAlbion.

GetUp! - Don't risk Coal Seam Gas

It's a sad day when I have to post something from GetUp! (the left-liberal loon activist organisation). But they make quality videos, and everyone should be outraged by the invasion of coal seam gas exploration into sensitive areas like farmland.



Bob Irwin: "this is the greatest threat to our country that I've seen."
Petition
Donate to get the ad on TV.

Apparently donations are campaign specific: "If you donate towards a particular campaign, we'll only put that money towards the issue you're passionate about."

File under: let's stop this insanity now.

John Cleese: London is no longer an English city

File under: the suicidal paralysis of blind adherence to non-discriminatory immigration.

Ruka talks about race

This video by atheist HeyRuka is a bit rambling, but it's not every day that a voice breaks through the mindless pro-diversity groupthink, and speaks of race realism and the value of ethno-nationalism, that matches pretty closely my own views.


Ruka:

I support homogeneous states, racially homogeneous, and voluntary separatism with a multicultural option for those who want to opt out, I don't want to force anybody. And, as impractical and idealistic as this sounds, that is my ideal. Segregation is naturally occuring, it happens without force. I'm not intolerant of other races, but I would like to see different racial groups existing as their own people independently.

File under: homogenius.

Dr Aron Paul: the end of the intellectuals

Dr Aron Paul is a Melbourne based historian and writer. Well, the sort of "historian" that comes out of today's demented universities.

Dr Aron Paul, The end of the Orientalists

Humanist and Palestinian scholar the late Edward Said wrote in his essay 'Islam through Western Eyes' that:

"The general basis of Orientalist thought is an imaginative geography dividing the word into two unequal parts, the larger and "different" one called the Orient, the other, also known as our world, called the Occident or the West... only if we get beyond politicised labels like "East" and "West" will we be able to reach the real world at all."

This is the promise of the Arab Revolutions, that in their success they and the revolutions that are yet to come can finally shatter the myth of fundamental cultural difference ... Our hope should be that in its place we can all come to recognise the fundamental similarity of cultures and peoples. That we should all be governed the same way, as equal citizens in democracies, will be the ultimate statement of universal human equality and the end of Orientalism. Once all people have reclaimed their dignity as equal citizens, the imaginative geography of 'East' and 'West' so reinforced by the political divides between the two spheres will finally lose its political meaning, and the humiliation and fear that flows from it will no longer imperil the progress of humanity.

Meanwhile, back on planet Earth, now for a history lesson ...

A.J. Caschetta reviews Ibn Warraq's monumental deconstruction of the work of the single individual who was most responsible for the effacing of honest discussion about Islam and jihad from America's universities: Defending the West: A Critique of Edward Said's Orientalism:

It is now five years after the death of Edward Said, the man who made it cool to hate the West, and the reevaluation of his thought and work is thankfully well underway. Said forged a career out of revisiting the past, "deconstructing" what he found and writing it anew. Defending the West: A Critique of Edward Said's Orientalism by Ibn Warraq, founder of the Institute for the Secularisation of Islamic Society, reveals just how massive a fabrication Said's version of history is. The book spells out in great detail Said's deeply flawed writings and his legacy: the modern academic fetish for examining microscopically the flaws and failings (real and imagined) of the West while simultaneously portraying an ever-peaceful East perpetually victimized by the technologically superior but, of course, morally benighted West. This is the fashionable narrative in the humanities departments of virtually every college and university in America, if not in all of Western academia...

The author lays bare Said's methods of obfuscation, which often use nonsensical and impenetrable prose, insinuation, and outright falsification. Said's ad hominem attacks against those who criticized his work are recounted, demonstrating that Said was both a metaphorical as well as a literal stone-thrower. And the growing list of Said's "historical howlers" (obvious inaccuracies and misstatements of fact) unmasks an amateur historian who was either extremely sloppy or just plain dishonest...

Bat Ye'or, Europe and the Ambiguities of Multiculturalism

... the politization of history initiated by Edward Said has obfuscated the root causes of Islam’s traditional hostility toward Jews and Christians from the seven century onward. Edward Said ... endeavored to destroy the whole scientific accumulation of Orientalist knowledge of Islam and replace it with a culture of Western guilt and inferiority toward Muslims victims. The obliteration of the historical truth that he constantly pursued from 1978 – starting with his book Orientalism – as well as his hostility to Israel, has prevented an understanding and the resolution of problems that today assail Europe and challenge its own survival.

Robert Spencer and Bat Ye'or on Edward Said ...




As for the Arab Spring, I'll write more about that insanity later.

File under: doctors without brains, historians without facts, writers with an ethnic bias masquerading as moral superiors, and dialogue of the demented.

Ralph Martel is well and truly riled up

Coal explorers not welcome in cattle country

IT takes a lot to ruffle grazier Ralph Martel's feathers, but even he admits he's well and truly riled up.

The 65-year-old has been running cattle on prime fattening country, north of Clermont, in central Queensland, for most of his life. He is grooming his 20-year-old son, Carl, to take over the family business when he retires...

The Martels were recently served with an entry notice from Blackwood Coal ...

Mr Martel said he predicted a rebellion in the region, similar to the groundswell of opposition from farmers in southern Queensland against the coal-seam gas industry...

"... Why can't we have the power to stop them? They are going into this beautiful blue-ribbon cattle country and turning it upside down for coal."

Mr Martel said the federal and state governments should "get their values in order" to recognise the importance of productive agricultural land...

Anna Bligh, Julia Gillard, and Barry O'Farrell, sanctimonious climate change moralists, are raping rural Australia one farm at a time, because they're so "concerned" about the environment.

File under: it's a sickening irony when those who preach the doom of far-off climate change simultaneously oversee the destruction of fertile agricultural land all over eastern Australia.

Vandals steal World Word II memorial - Sydney

Vandals steal World Word II memorial

THIEVES have stolen a bronze plaque in Beecroft which commemorated the end of World War II in the Pacific.

The incident occurred just days before the anniversary of Victory of the Pacific Day, which marks the day in August 1945 when the Allies declared victory over Japan ...

"It looks like a crowbar was used to rip the plaque off the memorial," Cr Berman said.

"It’s absolutely shocking that someone could be so disrespectful." ...

The war memorial is in full view of the Copeland Rd, Cr Berman said...

He said a spate of thefts of metal items in the Shire indicated they were being stolen for scrap metal...

Beecroft is rapidly being Asianised, but I'm sure that has nothing to do with it. This sort of crime happens always and everywhere, doesn't it?

File under: memorial of decline.

Australia lifts ban on NZ apple imports

Sacrificed on the altar of free trade by Joe Ludwig, Craig Emerson, Julia Gillard and Kevin Rudd.

All hail the brain-dead and emotion-neutered "global rules-based order"!

File under: ideologically driven cost-benefit paralysis.

Auster in orbit over Perry

Lawrence Auster, Conservative columnist says Perry is the man

In other words, Perry is (as I've been saying) like Bush in 2000: he has the broad appeal to win the election, but he will continue the dissolution of the American nation--abroad through the democratization of Muslims and other non-Westerners, and at home through the mass immigration of Muslims and other non-Westerners. Kuhner plainly lusts for a second George W. Bush presidency, or at least he lusts so much for the defeat of Obama that he will gladly accept a second George W. Bush presidency. My gorge rises at the thought. I'd rather get on a spaceship to another planet than go through all that again.

File under: curb your enthusiasm.

Bill Shorten: thoughtless farm wrecker

Abbott criticised over CSG 'thought bubble'

Federal Assistant Treasurer Bill Shorten says Tony Abbott has put a sovereign risk into mining investment by backing the rights of farmers to deny access to their land...

Mr Abbott said while he wants the coal seam gas industry to flourish, anything that prejudiced prime agricultural land should not be allowed.

But Mr Shorten told the ABC's Insiders program Mr Abbott's comment was ill-considered.

"If you're going to upend the whole way of doing business in Australia here in the mining sector, I wouldn't do it with some reckless, risky thought bubble," he said.

"It doesn't matter what is a popular headline on a radio show. We need foreign investment in this country...

The Greens say they will introduce legislation in the Senate which would give farmers the right to stop coal seam gas miners accessing their land.

Greens leader Bob Brown says he has written to Mr Abbott asking him to work with the Greens so the legislation can succeed.

"It's a power that the Commonwealth has, and when you look at the configuration in Parliament with the Coalition, the Greens would be able to get this legislation through and into law before Christmas," he said.

This is one policy the Greens have got right. Unless it's a national emergency, farmers should have the right to tell miners to bugger off. And they shouldn't be mining near fertile land anyway. So come on Abbott, you can pass this legislation. It's irrelevant that the Greens are reckless and dangerous in almost every other way. On this issue they are right.

Tony Abbott wedged over mines

Mr Abbott found himself in the unaccustomed position of being backed by Greens leader Bob Brown, who applauded him for putting farmers' rights first.

"If you don't want something to happen on your land you ought to have a right to say no," Mr Abbott told Sydney radio host Alan Jones yesterday.

"Now, OK, under certain circumstances the government ought to be able to resume your land, but it's got to be done at a fair price." ... "people are entitled to be concerned about any situation where miners are coming on to land against the wishes of landholders"...

Queensland-based Nationals Senate leader Barnaby Joyce welcomed Mr Abbott's support for farmers ... "What people on the land are finding is that someone can cut their fences and come on to their place and put down new roads and charge around, despite the fact that this is a property that's been bought and paid for," Senator Joyce said.

File under: Bill Shorten - one bubble short of a thought.

Shock! Politician links national security to economic power!

Holy heart failure, Batman! What sort of parallel universe have I stumbled into? A politician, none other than our Liar-in-Chief Julia Gillard, links economic and military strength.

American recovery vital for Pacific security: Gillard

The Prime Minister has told Australian and American leaders gathered in Perth that the United States must regain its economic stability if it is to continue to underpin security in the Asia Pacific region...

"This battle is not just about the economy and jobs. US global leadership and its influence in a rapidly changing Asia Pacific depend on a continued economic strength," she said.

"Ultimately, it is economic power that underpins strategic power."

But she expressed her faith that America would overcome its current economic difficulties as it faced what she described as a "great test".

Finally her monkey speech writers typed something that makes sense, until the last line when they reverted to the dumb-as-Obama policy of "faith" that things will get better.

Here's a lesson in maths for the Liar-in-Chief and her monkeys: relative economic strength does not rely solely on one side of the equation i.e. we should also be working to limit the economic strength of China by way of containment via a Not Made In China policy.

Memo to Liar-in-Chief: have your monkeys talk to your Deputy-Liar-in-Chief Treasurer Wayne Swan because he has already economically surrendered to China by hitching our economic wagon to the "Asian Century".

It's not rocket science: it's far easier to deal with the China side of the equation by simply boycotting it i.e. no trade, no minerals, no buying our farms. It can't be that hard to find someone else to make all our cheap stuff. Hey, we could even make it ourself. The economics of comparative advantage is literally blown out of the water by the logic of: specialise, trade and get bombed! The price of Chinese goods is a missile pointed in your direction.

But, no, apparently we already can't say "boo!" to China, let alone boycott it. If so, we have already surrendered. If our minds and voices are already sealed, our fate is also sealed. Game over.

File under: relative strength has two variables, not one.

On the Radicalization of Anders Behring Breivik

The first 4 mins of the video exposes the double standards of the media, and then it references Breivik's manifesto to show the steps of his radicalisation.


File under: real media.

Olivia Newton John: The cold hard fracks

Olivia Newton-John, The cold hard fracks

There are serious risks to human health and the environment associated with coal seam gas (CSG) mining and hydraulic fracturing. ''Fracking'' ...

The process has been banned in France, is subject to a moratorium in South Africa ... New Jersey led the way, voting overwhelmingly to ban fracking...

Here is a frightening fact. Did you know that if a gas company thinks there is gas under your land, you do not have any legal right to stop them entering your land to explore it and, if you try to stop them, they can take you to court? And, when they finally leave your land, which could be 20 years from now, your property may be a toxic wasteland...

We should be demanding our politicians call a halt to coal seam mining and fracking until we know what harm these chemicals will do ...

Other celebrities probably agree ...

Coal hunt at Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban's Australian retreat

NICOLE Kidman's multi-million dollar rural idyll is set to be shattered, with plans for a coal exploration test bore on the front and rear borders of her Sutton Forest, NSW property.

It is understood Korean-owned Cockatoo Coal will begin drilling 120 holes and has advised the 424 land owners in the area, including Kidman and husband Keith Urban.

Many residents have strongly objected, fearing the potential mining will not only destroy the area's peace but also contaminate underground water reserves.

New front opened in mining war

KEN Sullivan's fourth-generation family property ... The 4600ha wheat and legume farm in central Queensland is in the heart of one of the nation's richest food bowls. But the property is also in the sights of minerals exploration firm Bandanna Energy, which has proposed a new underground coalmine...

Under the deal, the mine will be permitted to "permanently alienate" prime cropping land provided it attempts to "mitigate or minimise" whatever damage is caused.

Land is deemed to be permanently alienated when other activities prevent cropping for 50 years or more...

File under: fracking with the future.