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Good morning,
British MP Murder
The 25 yr old terrorist who attacked and killed British Member of Parliament David Amess Friday, was known to the authorities, and had been referred to a UK Government anti terror program known as Prevent. Prevent advertises itself as a program to prevent radicalization, focusing on theology and countering the politics of extremism. But many critics have said the program has little or no trust in the moslem communities of Britain.
In fact there have been three other terror attacks carried out in Britain terrorists who had been referred to the Prevent program.
Ali Harbi Ali, a British National with Somali roots, is being held on by counter terror police, after the Amess was stabbed 17 times in a church where he was meeting constituents.
British Security Chiefs are warning of a new wave of terror after more radicalization on social media, by young men who have been watching even more of this material because they were at home during the pandemic under lock down.
Texas Schools And The Holocaust
The new law in Texas, requires school boards to present opposing and balanced views on controversial topics such as slavery. The Carroll school board had recently reprimanded a fourth-grade teacher who had kept an anti-racism book in her classroom.
It gets worse. Because last week, a recording made by a teacher attending a training session in which school board executive director Gina Peddy is speaking about the new law, was leaked showing how jaw dropping stupid and dangerous this has become.
Peddy said “Just try to remember the concepts of [House Bill] 3979,” the curriculum director said. “And make sure that if you have a book on the Holocaust,” the director continued, “that you have one that has an opposing, that has other perspectives.”
“How do you oppose the Holocaust?” one teacher said.
“Believe me,” the director said. “That’s come up.”
Now Peddy is also the executive director of curriculum and instruction for the Carroll Independent School District in Southlake, Texas. A job she should immediately lose.
The holocaust was Nazi Germany’s systematic extermination of more than 6 million jews. One of the monstrous crimes of the last century. It was a horrific genocide that has no opposing views that should ever be taught to children let alone discussed at a school board coaching session for teachers.
Lane Ledbetter, superintendent for Carroll School District, apologized late Thursday and acknowledged the recording was real.
“During the conversations with teachers, comments made were in no way to convey the Holocaust was anything less than a terrible event in history,” Ledbetter said in a statement posted to Facebook. “Additionally, we recognize there are not two sides of the Holocaust.”
But the Texas law has included banning books on racism, the history of white supremacy, and the history of native Americans. It is putting a chill of censorship into teaching an open history of America, both good and bad.
And the law brings us idiotic school board officials questing to find the other side of a story on the holocaust.
Belarus-French Ambassador
The French Ambassador to Belarus has been expelled today. Ambassador Nicholas De Lacoste has never met the Dictator of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, and that’s really the point.
New Ambassadors must present credentials to the leader of a Country they are stationed in, but Europe doesn’t recognize Lukashenko’s election which was by all accounts a theft of democracy.
Since the election fraud Lukashenko has forced down an aircraft flying through Belarus’ airspace between to NATO Nations to arrest a political dissident. He has used migrants as weapons flooding Poland and Lithuanian with refugees. He has locked up and tortured thousands of his own people who have spoken out for opposition leaders who have been forced to flee, or been locked up themselves.
So The French Ambassador should consider his expulsion nothing short of a badge of honour, because why would you meet Lukashenko if you didn’t have to? The question is how many more diplomats will have to leave this country largely influenced by Russia which is threatening to ‘re-absorb’ Belarus as Russia fears the unrest in Belarus could spread through Russia.
Rabin of Israel
26 years ago, as a Canadian Correspondent based in Jerusalem, my pager started going off as I was completing a diving course in Eilat, Israel. The unthinkable had happened in Tel Aviv, where then Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin has been speaking at a peace rally.
A jewish extremist, targeted Rabin as he walked from the podium to his car, shooting him in the back. As I raced back from Eilat, going live by phone on Canadian breaking news specials, word came that Rabin had died from his wounds.
It was an inhuman thing that happened. Rabin had promoted peace between Palestinians and Israeli’s, and the opposition leader Netanyahu had branded him a traitor, and Netanyahu’s followers had spread that propaganda in the worst ways possible.
Netanyahu would later win the election to replace Rabin, and steer the peace process into the ditch. Today Israeli’s and Palestinian’s are further from making peace than ever before largely due to Netanyahu’s endless terms in office.
Today there will be many memorials to Rabin, and Netanyahu is no longer the Prime Minister. Israeli’s may think back to a time when peace was thought to be possible with their Palestinian neighbours, and could peace talks begin again?
Supply Chain Shortages
As container ships are stacked up waiting to dock because of the pandemic backlogs an interesting list of shortages in grocery stores in America;
-Ben and Jerry Ice cream flavours: Labour shortages
-Carbonate drinks: Fertilizer plants cutting back = CO2 shortages which out the bubbles in.
-Chicken: Fast food demand over home cooked meals creates unsustainable demands.
-Coffee: Drought in Brazil a major supplier of coffee.
-Diapers: Raw materials shortages and price increases.
-Fish Sticks; A trade dispute with Canada which supplies most of the pollack along with cross border restrictions.
And there are many more such as ketchup packets, hot pies, gourmet spices, Sour patch kids, and toilet papers.
Try to have a good Monday everyone! And as always links to original source articles are below.
Dana
https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2021/10/15/holocaust-texas-school-books-opposing/
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-58943184
https://eu.usatoday.com/story/money/2021/10/15/grocery-shortage-toilet-paper-coffee-chicken-hard-find/8455259002/
https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/rabin-commemoration-events-began-sunday-bennett-kippa-came-back-after-killing-682291
https://www.rferl.org/a/belarus-french-ambassador-lacoste-departs/31515897.html