aljazeera--2019-02-20--Vaticans first summit on child sex abuse What to expect

Vatican's first summit on child sex abuse: What to expect

Pope Francis has summoned senior bishops from all over the world to Rome for a landmark meeting on sexual abuse.  From Thursday to Sunday, 190 Catholic leaders, including 10 women, will gather in the Italian capital at the pope's request; the event marks the first time in history that a pope has called senior bishops to discuss sexual abuse.  Scandals have struck the Catholic Church for decades, with pressure increasing after journalistic and judicial investigations revealed patterns of sexual abuse and cover-ups.  Further cases in 2018 heightened the crisis - some senior bishops have said the issue puts the very credibility of the Catholic Church at stake.  It's a four-day gathering of about 190 Catholic leaders who will discuss how to resolve the issue of the sexual abuse of minors.  It takes place in the Vatican, in Rome, under the official title of "Protection of Minors in the Church".  The Vatican's press office has described the meeting's goal as making "absolutely clear" to bishops how to act to prevent and deal with sexual abuse.  It focuses on sharing best practices in dealing with abuse, educating bishops on the problem, and on bolstering transparency, responsibility and accountability in the church. It will not, crucially, focus on canon law reform.  The pope has asked those invited to pray for the coming meeting.  The summit is important for at least three reasons.  First, although similar meetings have taken place in the past, it is the first time that a pope has summoned senior bishops for it.  Second, Pope Francis has given more voice to survivors of clerical sexual abuse - he has met some of them and has urged bishops to do the same in their countries before leaving for Rome. Some survivors will also give their testimony at the summit.  Finally, the Vatican has acknowledged that sexual abuse is a global problem in the church, and not only an issue in some specific countries, as it had previously downplayed it.  Not everyone agrees on the summit's importance, but most people welcome it as a positive development.  "For survivors who have been around for 25 years, like me, this is an incredible achievement," says Peter Isely, a survivor, critic of the Vatican and founding member of Ending Clergy Abuse (ECA) Global. "Years ago, this was inconceivable."  Two cases, in particular, have shaken the Vatican in 2018.  In the United States, the grand jury of the state of Pennsylvania released a report that revealed the sexual abuse and systematic cover-up of more than 1,000 minors over 70 years, implicating some 300 clergymen.  After its release, at least 14 other US states have launched similar investigations, suggesting that more scandals are likely to surface in the next few years.  The other incident took place in Chile, where bishops and high prelates have come under pressure for covering up a sexual abuse crisis centred around Fernando Karadima.  While Karadima was sentenced to a "life of prayer and penance" in 2011, his case came back under the spotlight after Pope Francis spoke in support of one of the bishops involved in the cover-up, in early 2018.  Realising the mistake, the pope has since apologised and called the Chilean bishops to Rome. They offered their resignations en-masse, and five of them have been accepted.  Karadima has since been removed from the priesthood.  "I believe the Chilean case was decisive [for calling the summit]," says Paolo Rodari, Vatican analyst for the Italian newspaper La Repubblica. "It was a big blow for Pope Francis.  "My impression is that the pope realised that not everyone in the church grasps the seriousness of the problem," he says. "It signals that the pope has understood how serious this is."  Almost entirely, although some are not convinced.  Some victims, for example, don't support the summit because it doesn't promise canon law reform. They have even called it a media bluff.  "For us, this summit is meaningless," says Francesco Zanardi, a survivor who has campaigned on the issue for nine years. He is the president of Rete L'Abuso, an Italian association of survivors. "We are only going to Rome to protest."  Inside the church though, there is little outspoken opposition.  "Everybody in the church is against sexual abuse, that is not the question," says Rev Thomas Reese, a senior analyst with the Religious News Service.  "The question is that there are bishops, predominantly in the Global South, who don't think it is a problem in their countries."  He explains that this happens because scandals haven't struck all countries, so some bishops feel safe. But this often happens because of social stigma on the sexually abused in certain countries, or because survivors are not encouraged to come out - not because abuses haven't happened.  Actually not much, at least for now.  While this might lead to concrete results in the future, it's unlikely to produce ground-breaking new protocols in the short run.  Pope Francis has warned that expectations around the summit must be "deflated", and Vatican sources have called it a step in a 15-year journey.  These words have frustrated survivors and activists demanding an immediate end to clerical sexual abuse and cover-ups.  "Expecting a priest who sexually abuses a child and a bishop who covers it up to be removed from the priesthood is not an 'inflated' expectation," says Peter Isely of ECA Global. "It's a minimum expectation."  On Monday, Archbishop Charles Scicluna, the Vatican's leading investigator of clerical sexual abuse, confirmed that "this is not going to be a three-day wonder" and stressed the importance of follow-ups on the summit.  Survivors demand zero tolerance - that the Vatican remove from the priesthood not only any priest guilty of sexually abusing a child, but also any bishops and cardinals involved in covering him up and shuffling them to other posts.  Other demands include handing over priest offenders to civil authorities and ending alternative punishment such as sentences to a life of "penance and prayer" or retreat in religious institutions instead of jail.  All survivors pledge to carry on their battle. "We've lived with a lot of disappointments," says Peter Isely of ECA Global. "Expectation is not what drives us."  Juan Carlos Cruz, who is among the people abused by Karadima in Chile and has also met Pope Francis to discuss the problem, said: "[Bishops who deny the problem] are on borrowed time. If the summit turns out to be more of the same, survivors will keep fighting. It's a tsunami that no one will stop."  Some interviews were translated from Italian.


aljazeera--2019-03-21--Birmingham Muslims blame far-right extremism for mosque attacks

Birmingham Muslims blame 'far-right extremism' for mosque attacks

Four mosques in the English city of Birmingham were damaged overnight, police said on Thursday, in the latest in a spate of Islamophobic attacks in Britain since the murder of 50 people by a white supremacist at mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand.  West Midlands Police said detectives and counterterrorism officers are investigating after windows were smashed at four mosques in Birmingham.  The force said in a statement the incidents "are being treated as linked".  Officers responded after reports in the early hours of Thursday of a man seen shattering windows with a sledgehammer at one mosque, the police said.  "Neighbourhood officers are working closely with mosques around the West Midlands today," the force said.  "Since the tragic events in Christchurch, New Zealand, officers and staff from West Midlands Police have been working closely with our faith partners across the region to offer reassurance and support at mosques, churches and places of prayer," West Midlands Police Chief Constable Dave Thompson said in a statement.  "At the moment, we don't know the motive for last night's attacks," Thompson added. "At difficult times like this, it is incredibly important that everyone unites against those who seek to create discord, uncertainty and fear in our communities," he said.  Forensics experts are working to identify evidence at the scenes of the four attacks, while CCTV is also being examined.  Shabana Mahmood, a member of parliament for Birmingham, said the reported attacks were "truly terrible."  "I would urge all residents to remain calm and call [the police] with any info you may have," Mahmood tweeted.  A statement from the Birmingham Council of Mosques said: "We were deeply horrified to hear a number of mosques were vandalised during the early hours of this morning.  "Birmingham's mosques are a place of worship, serenity and a source of peace and tranquillity. We are appalled by such acts of hate/terror."  In August last year, Birmingham mosques were attacked with catapults during evening prayers.  The city, in the Midlands, is home to a large Muslim community.  "I think that all religious institutions do need access to a high security budget [from the government], in light of the fact that far-right extremists have been left for too long," Kamran Hussain, general manager at Birmingham's Green Lane Mosque and Community Centre, told Al Jazeera.  "Far-right extremism ... is now in Eastern Europe, it is in America, and it has been left unchangelled in many aspects. We haven't addressed it in the media or even at government level."  Hussain's mosque was not targeted, but is close to those that were, such as the Witton Islamic Centre.  "The risk from Islamophobia has been on the rise for many years now," said a Witton Islamic Centre spokesperson. "This form of hate has fallen under the radar in many aspects, including some parts of the media and our intelligence and security services. The tragic events from last week's attacks in Christchurch have caused great concern among the Muslim community."  Saddique Hussain, trustee at the Central Jamia Mosque Ghamkol Sharif, said it was impossible to fully secure a mosque.  "Trying to secure a building of this nature and calibre is extremely difficult, and not possible to do," he said. "A mosque needs to be an open place of worship. For example, we can't lock our doors when the prayers start because some people [are] late for prayers.  "To secure a place where the door is constantly open? ... You can’t."  Worshipper Ali, 26, said: "People see what is going on in the world because of social media and they get annoyed. They kind of believe it and take it the wrong way. If I die in the mosque, I would be blessed. So, I think there should be no security and the doors should remain open."


drudgereport--2019-05-03--Violence prompts houses of worship to beef up security

Violence prompts houses of worship to beef up security...

When members of the Bayside Shul gathered for Passover last month, it was behind the locked doors of the synagogue, an armed security guard patrolling its parking lot.  And when Milwaukee-area Muslims kneel in prayer for the start of Ramadan on Sunday, many local mosques will be taking those same precautions.  Seven years after a white supremacist killed six worshipers at the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin — after Charleston and Pittsburgh, Christchurch, Sri Lanka and now Poway — faith leaders are increasingly hardening their buildings against potential attacks.  Many are hiring off-duty police officers or armed security guards for services and special events. They are locking doors, installing cameras, taking active-shooter training and in some cases tacitly allowing the carrying of concealed weapons during services.  These are necessary precautions, they say. But they worry that they cut at the very heart of their faith traditions, which call on them to welcome the stranger, to open their doors as places of prayer and refuge.  "It is really disheartening," said Othman Atta of the Islamic Society of Milwaukee, which operates three mosques in Milwaukee and Brookfield.  "You don't want to be a fortress, where you're turning people away or creating a separation. But you don't want to be sitting targets either," he said. "This is something all religious institutions are really struggling with."  RELATED: Daughter of the rabbi injured in the San Diego synagogue shooting has a connection to the Milwaukee area  RELATED: 500 attended a vigil at the Islamic Center of Milwaukee for victims of the New Zealand mosque attacks  Last week's shooting at a San Diego-area synagogue was the latest in a series of deadly attacks on houses of worship in the United States and abroad in recent years. Last fall, 11 people were killed when a gunman opened fire at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh. This year, 50 people died when a white supremacist attacked mosques during Friday prayers in Christchurch, New Zealand. And more than 200 were killed in the Easter Sunday bombings of Catholic churches by Islamic militants in Sri Lanka.  At the same time, the FBI and other organizations have documented an increase in hate crimes, including those based on race and religion, and spikes in anti-Muslim and anti-Semitic incidents. In the most recent FBI report, hate crimes committed on the basis of religious identity jumped 23 percent, the biggest annual increase since 2001.  Many Milwaukee-area houses of worship began seriously evaluating their security after the Sikh Temple shooting in 2012, with the help of local and federal authorities. And they have added security measures over the years, driven at times by the most recent attack.  James Davis, an elder at New Testament Church in Milwaukee, said his church began hiring an armed security guard in 2015 after white supremacist Dylann Roof murdered nine people during a Bible study at an African American church in Charleston, S.C.  After Pittsburgh, Congregation Emanu-El B'Ne Jeshurun in River Hills, which had been securing its doors for a while, hired a full-time director of security — a first for a Milwaukee-area synagogue. And the Bayside Shul beefed up its security, locking doors at all times, installing new security cameras inside and out, and hiring armed security for services and events.  Some Milwaukee-area mosques have been using armed security guards for a while, but interest has increased over the last year, according to Atta.  "There's definitely a sadness that this had to happen," Rabbi Cheski Edelman said of the heightened measures at the Bayside Shul. "But people understand that this is the reality ... and that it's the best way to protect the community."  Some congregations have begun drafting their own members to assist in security, whether that's greeting newcomers at the door or patrolling their parking lots, with an eye toward spotting anyone who looks unfamiliar or out of place.  And some are turning a blind eye to the "no-weapons" signs they posted after Wisconsin passed its concealed carry law in 2011, believing that congregants who are trained and licensed to carry firearms could save lives in the minutes it takes for police to respond to an attack.  "It's kind of a don't-ask-don't-tell policy," said Noman Hussain, the imam at the Islamic Society's Masjid Al-Noor mosque in Brookfield, which has used an off-duty Waukesha County sheriff's deputy for security for about two year.  "But we're going to highly recommend that anyone who wants to carry makes sure they have multiple hours of training, so they don't do more harm than good," he said. "For now, we're not officially allowing guns. But if someone does and we don't know about it ..."  At New Testament, where several members work in law enforcement or other jobs in which they're licensed to carry firearms, church leaders are taking a more direct approach.  According to Davis, the church is developing a security "ministry" that would sanction the carrying of concealed firearms by certain qualified members. And it would revamp its "no-weapons" signage to make it clear that some members "have the permission of the board of elders to carry a concealed weapon."  "We want to do as much as we can to let folks know that this may be the wrong building to go after," said Davis.  Many faith leaders blame the increase in hate crimes on the rise of President Donald Trump, whose anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim rhetoric, they believe, has emboldened extremists, and the power of social media to amplify their views and inspire copycats.  "We live in a much more polarized society right now. And that's part of the problem," said Atta. "I think it's empowering more people to think they have free rein to say and do what they want to do."  There is a long history in African American churches of some members carrying firearms because of racist attacks, according to the Rev. Walter Lanier, pastor of Progressive Baptist Church on Milwaukee's northwest side. Still, he said, it is seen by some as a lack of faith that God will protect them.  Edelman, of the Bayside Shul, does not share that view.  "The Jewish tradition is pretty clear that we are partners with God. We have to do our part, and God will do His part," he said.  To illustrate, he shared the biblical story of Jacob's meeting with his brother, Esau, after two decades estranged.  "When Jacob was going to confront his brother, it says he prayed, but he also prepared for war," said Edelman. "He did both."  Contact Annysa Johnson at anjohnson@jrn.com or 414-224-2061. Follow her on Twitter at @JSEdbeat. And join the Journal Sentinel conversation about education issues at www.facebook.com/groups/WisconsinEducation.


france24--2019-04-16--World watches and weeps as Notre-Dame burns

World 'watches and weeps' as Notre-Dame burns

AFP | An aerial view shows Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris as flames tear through the building on Monday, APril 15, 2019.  Religious leaders and heads of state and government from around the world voiced their shock and sorrow as flames ravaged the iconic Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris Monday night.  As a fire swept across the top of the 12th-century cathedral in the heart of the French capital, statement and tweets came pouring in from across the globe while the international community united to express their sympathies over the loss of one of the world’s most historic monuments.  The Vatican said the fire as the "symbol of Christianity in France and in the world" had caused shock and sadness and that it was praying for the firefighters.  "We express our closeness with French Catholics and with the Parisian population. We pray for the firefighters and for all those who are trying their best to tackle this dramatic situation," said a Vatican spokesman.  Notre Dame 'belongs to the whole of humanity'  Notre-Dame "belongs to the whole of humanity. It has inspired writers, painters, philosophers and visitors who have come from all round the world", said EU Commission head Jean-Claude Juncker  "Horrified by the pictures coming from Paris with the fire engulfing Notre-Dame Cathedral -- a unique example of world heritage that has stood tall since the 14th century. My thoughts are with the people and government of France," said UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.  UK Prime Minister Theresa May said her thoughts "are with the people of France tonight" while German Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman Steffen Seibert said the images of the cathedral on fire were "painful".  "Notre-Dame is a symbol of France and of our European culture. Our thoughts are with our French friends," added Seibert.  US President Donald Trump, meanwhile, described the fire as "horrible" and suggested the emergency services used flying water tankers to put out the flames, an idea that was quickly dismissed by the authorities.  Former US president Barack Obama also expressed his sorrow to the people of France. In a Twitter post featuring a photograph of his family during a 2009 visit to the cathedral, Obama noted, "Notre Dame is one of the world's great treasures, and we're thinking of the people of France in your time of grief. It's in our nature to mourn when we see history lost -- but it's also in our nature to rebuild for tomorrow, as strong as we can."  Former first lady Michelle Obama said: "The majesty of Notre Dame -- the history, artistry, and spirituality -- took our breath away, lifting us to a higher understanding of who we are and who we can be. Being here in Paris tonight, my heart aches with the people of France. Yet I know that Notre Dame will soon awe us again."  In a message posted on Twitter, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said he was, "Saddened that Notre Dame -- that iconic monument dedicated to the worship of our one God & that brought all of us closer through Hugo's literary masterpiece -- is partially destroyed after standing through wars & revolution for 800 yrs. Our thoughts are w/ the French & all Catholics."  "The Arab Republic of Egypt affirms that it is following, with pain and sorrow, the Notre-Dame Cathedral catching fire, especially that this monument is of important cultural and historic significance for France and as part of the world's heritage," said an Egyptian foreign ministry statement.  Many non-Catholic religious institutions and leaders also offered their prayers to the people of France and the firefighters battling the blaze.  Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, head of the Anglican Church, said that "tonight we pray for the firefighters tackling the tragic Notre-Dame fire -- and for everyone in France and beyond who watches and weeps for this beautiful, sacred place where millions have met with Jesus Christ".  The World Jewish Congress also paid tribute to what its president Ronald S. Lauder said was "an inimitable icon, a symbol of the country's great culture and history".  "We pray that there are no injuries or loss of life in this tragedy, and that the destruction can be restored to allow this unparalleled structure to return to its position of symbolic majesty on the Parisian skyline," he said.


freebeacon--2019-10-11--Beto: Religious Institutions Should Lose Tax-Exempt Status for Same-Sex Marriage Opposition

Presidential candidate Beto O'Rourke (D., Texas) said he would strip religious institutions of their tax exempt status if they oppose same-sex marriage.  "We are going to stop those who are infringing upon the human rights of our fellow Americans," the former congressman said during CNN's Equality Town Hall on Thursday.  CNN host Don Lemon pressed O'Rourke on the particulars of his plan for LGBT Americans.  "Do you think religious institutions like colleges, churches, charities, should they lose their tax exempt status if they oppose same sex marriage?" Lemon asked.  O'Rourke answered with an unequivocal yes, and stressed that as president, he would make punishing religious organizations a priority.  "There can be no reward, no benefit, no tax break for anyone or any institution, any organization in America that denies the full human rights and the full civil rights of every single one of us," O'Rourke said.  His remarks sparked condemnation from Republican lawmakers. Sen. Ben Sasse (R., Neb.) said O'Rourke's approach would criminalize any and all "religious convictions [that] don’t fall in line with his progressive politics."  "This extreme intolerance is un-American," Sasse said in a statement. "This bigoted nonsense would target a lot of sincere Christians, Jews, and Muslims. Leaders from both political parties have a duty to flatly condemn this attack on very basic American freedoms."  Religious liberty groups said O'Rourke's proposal threatens fundamental constitutional rights. Luke Goodrich, an attorney with the nonprofit firm Becket Law, said the government should not target religions based upon their traditional beliefs.  "Stripping the tax-exempt status of religious groups simply because they hold beliefs that the government dislikes is blatantly unconstitutional,"Goodrich said in a statement. "It's also foolish because those groups provide billions of dollars in essential social services to their communities. Churches and ministries should be allowed to hold centuries-old beliefs without fear of government retribution."  O'Rourke has previously expressed his support for abortion up to the day before birth, telling a crowd at the College of Charleston, "this is a decision that neither you, nor I, nor the United States government should be making."  He is struggling to gain traction among Democratic voters, and faces the strong possibility of missing out on the fifth Democratic presidential debate in November due to weak polling.


freebeacon--2019-10-14--O’Rourke Doubles Down on Punishing Churches Opposed to Same-Sex Marriage

Democratic presidential candidate Beto O'Rourke doubled down on his proposal to revoke the tax-exempt status of religious institutions that do not support same-sex marriage.  The former Texas congressman reiterated his support for punitive tax measures against churches or affiliated services that believe marriage is between a man and a woman, a position he introduced at CNN's Equality Town Hall on Thursday evening. NBC host Geoff Bennett asked O'Rourke how he would implement this plan given that the government "can't just dole out punishments on theological grounds."  "You are free to believe anything that you want to in this country, to associate with whom you please, to practice your faith as you best see fit, but you are not allowed to discriminate against people in this country," O'Rourke said during a Sunday appearance. "What I'm talking about is making sure that we follow the letter and the spirit of the law, and that as president I will sign into law the Equality Act to make sure that we do not deny the civil rights and human rights of any of our fellow Americans based on their sexual orientation or gender identity."  House Democrats passed the Equality Act in May. Critics say that it will not just protect LGBT people, but punish those with traditional religious beliefs. The legislation could undermine Religious Freedom Restoration Acts at the state and federal level and would strike down "religious freedom protections for private citizens if they exercised their consciences in running their own businesses."  O'Rourke went on to say he believes any nonprofit organization that is going to deny equal treatment under the law to Americans in the "LGBTQ community" will be held accountable, saying he would withdraw their tax-exempt status.  Bennett pressed O'Rourke on the unintended consequences of this policy, noting that it could also be used to target "conservative black churches, mosques, Islamic organizations, orthodox Jewish communities, [and] a number of religiously affiliated HBCUs."  O'Rourke responded that a religious organization simply professing opposition to same-sex marriage would not be enough to void its tax-exempt status. Rather, religiously affiliated service providers—those in "higher education, or health care, or adoption services" for example—that "discriminate or deny equal treatment under the law based on someone's skin color or ethnicity or gender or sexual orientation" would be at risk.  "If one of these nonprofit institutions persisted in that kind of discriminant treatment of our fellow Americans, we would look at revoking their tax-exempt status," he said.  Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg, who is married to a man, criticized O'Rourke's proposal on Sunday, saying that O'Rourke does not understand its implications. During an appearance on CNN's State of the Union, he raised the same concerns Bennett had.  "That means going to war not only with churches, but I would think with mosques and a lot of organizations that may not have the same view of various religious principles that I do, but also, because of the separation of church and state, are recognized as non-profits in this country," Buttigieg said.  Buttigieg said that he supported anti-discrimination rules "for a school or an organization," but that targeting the tax-exempt status of religious institutions themselves would be destructive.  "Going after the tax exemption of churches, Islamic centers, or other religious facilities in this country, I think that's just going to deepen the divisions that we're already experiencing," he said.


mail--2019-05-03--Synagogue didnt get to fund security upgrades before attack

Synagogue didn't get to fund security upgrades before attack

"Obviously, we did not have a chance to start using the funds yet," rabbi Simcha Backman told The Associated Press. Backman, who oversees security grants for the 207 Chabad institutions across California, wouldn't give details on the planned enhancements or speculate whether they might have changed the outcome of Saturday's attack.  The gunman killed a woman and wounded an 8-year-old girl, her uncle and Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein, who was leading the service on the last day of Passover, a major Jewish holiday. Goldstein, who lost a finger, joined President Donald Trump on Thursday for the National Day of Prayer .  Republican state Sen. Brian Jones, whose district includes the synagogue near San Diego, said he wants to find a way to shorten the time it takes for security grant money to get to organizations. "Can we remove some bureaucratic steps here to help these organizations get these improvements done quicker?" he said.  The Poway synagogue doesn't have security guards. But rabbis of California's Chabad organization began asking members who were trained law enforcement professionals to carry their weapons at services after a gunman massacred 11 people at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh last October.  Goldstein also applied for a concealed carry permit, and the congregation received training from the city of Poway on responding to an active shooter. Houses of worship, like all institutions open to the public, face a balancing act in providing security while maintaining a welcoming atmosphere, said Jesus Villahermosa, a former law enforcement officer in Washington state who teaches classes nationwide on deterring and reacting to active shooters.  "All the mechanical security in the world isn't going to change that anyone in America can walk into any place in America and open fire," he said. "It's difficult because I don't think there is a perfect solution."  Even installing metal detectors merely makes those gathered there the potential initial target, he said. Villahermosa said synagogue leaders were wise to ask officers to come armed, but layers of security would be best, including professional armed guards at entrances, embedded in the congregation and at the front of the worship area.  On Saturday, an off-duty Border Patrol agent who attends the synagogue fired at the gunman as he fled, hitting his vehicle. The 19-year-old suspect, John T. Earnest, has pleaded not guilty to murder and attempted murder charges.  The synagogue was built two decades ago with security features including video surveillance, but leaders started beefing up those measures in 2010. They received and spent money from a $75,000 grant earmarked for a security assessment, 16 cameras, fencing and lighting, according to records reviewed by AP. One camera showed the gunman fumbling with his rifle before fleeing.  The synagogue applied for another grant in May 2018 to upgrade those cameras and add other enhancements. While the synagogue got approval in September, a workshop on the required documents wasn't held until late October and the synagogue submitted its first documents in early February, said Brad Alexander, a spokesman for the California Office of Emergency Services, which administers the program for the Federal Emergency Management Agency.  The state then requested additional information before awarding the money on March 22. New FEMA rules allow the grants to be spent on security guards, and state officials said recipients can seek a modification to existing grants to use the money that way. Backman said the synagogue is considering it and will find money to hire guards even if the government does not fund them.  Gov. Gavin Newsom is backing legislation that would change a similar state grant program to allow money for guards, citing the increase in hate crimes against Jews and other religious and racial minorities. He said institutions should decide whether those guards are armed.  In response to the increase in mass shootings, states from Florida to Texas are considering measures that would allow people to be armed in places of worship and study. Newsom announced Monday that he was budgeting $15 million to increase security for religious institutions and other vulnerable nonprofits. Last year, the program got $500,000.  Democratic Assemblyman Jesse Gabriel, vice chairman of the California Legislative Jewish Caucus, said lawmakers will have more control over how quickly the state money gets to institutions at risk of hate-motivated violence.  "Obviously, there's every reason in the world to get those funds out as quickly as possible," he said. Jewish-affiliated organizations in California received 79% of the 264 nonprofit security grants awarded under the federal and state programs since 2012. The remaining 21% went to institutions serving other faiths, hospitals, Planned Parenthood chapters, domestic violence shelters, museums and a university.  The goal is to help any at-risk institution, though Jewish organizations could be more aware of the program, Gabriel said. "There's a real sense of vulnerability right now in the Jewish community," he said.  Government help with security makes sense because millions of Americans attend places of worship, Backman said. "I understand the concern for separation of church and state, but this is not about the government supporting one religious institution over another," the rabbi said. "It's about the government protecting its citizens."  Thompson reported from Sacramento. Associated Press writer Adam Beam in Sacramento contributed to this story.


mercurynews--2019-04-02--Diocese of San Jose adds Paul Duggan former priest to list of clergy accused of sexual abuse

Diocese of San Jose adds Paul Duggan, former priest, to list of clergy accused of sexual abuse

SAN JOSE — Father Paul Emmet Duggan, a former Catholic priest with the Archdiocese of San Francisco, was added to a list of clergy accused of sexual misconduct for alleged abuse of a child at St. Patrick School during the 1950s.  The Diocese of San Jose, which covers Santa Clara County, added Duggan to the public list Tuesday.  Duggan was assigned to St. Patrick’s Cathedral in San Jose from 1951 to 1956, and St. William Parish in Los Altos from 1978 to 1981, before the Diocese of San Jose was formed, according to the list. He retired in 1983, and died in 2007 at the age of 82.  According to an obituary published in the Catholic Voice, a publication of the Diocese of Oakland, Duggan also served as associate pastor at St. Thomas the Apostle Parish in San Francisco and St. Jerome Parish in El Cerrito. After leaving St. Patrick in San Jose, he joined the faculty of Serra High School in San Mateo in 1956, according to the obituary.  The incident was reported in 2002, when the Archdiocese of San Francisco removed him as a priest, according to the list.  “With this updated list, the Diocese acknowledges and expresses our sorrow over the failings of the past and the damage done,” said Bishop Patrick J. McGrath in a statement. “I hope that this list demonstrates our commitment to do everything in the Diocese of San Jose’s power to confront the evil of clergy sexual abuse, to support and help victims, and to prevent abuse from happening in the future.”  The addition of Duggan’s name to the list is the result of a review of more than 1,000 clergy and religious files that began in November 2018, according to the diocese.  The Diocese of San Jose’s clergy abuse disclosure list includes all clergy with credible allegations of sexual abuse of children against them, who were assigned to a parish or diocesan ministry in Santa Clara County.  The Diocese also announced Tuesday that the list now includes clergy not affiliated with the Diocese who ever ministered within Santa Clara County, whether it occurred at an official institution or not, or who resided at a seminary, religious retirement home or other religious institutions within the county.  Duggan, from Berkeley, was the sixth of seven children, including three other siblings who went into religious life: Father Eugene F. Duggan, Father William E. Duggan and Sister Claire Duggan, according to the Catholic Voice.  He was a chaplain in the U.S. Air Force Reserve, and was a pastor of St. Augustine Parish in South San Francisco, Our Lady of Mercy Parish in Daly City and St. Cecilia Parish in Lagunitas, according to the Catholic Voice.  The list currently includes 16 individuals affiliated with the Diocese of San Jose and 23 unaffiliated individuals who ministered within Santa Clara County.


drudgereport--2019-03-31--Can Archaeological Dig Change Future of Jerusalem

Can Archaeological Dig Change Future of Jerusalem?

JERUSALEM — I want to tell you about a piece of clay the size of my pinkie fingernail and the color of ash. It is called a bulla, and it is what the people of the ancient Near East used before the invention of rubber bands or paper clips. They would roll up their papyrus, wrap cords around the bundle and secure it all with a bit of clay. The clay would then be stamped with a seal — the primitive version of a John Hancock.  This particular bulla was dug out of the ground in October by an archaeologist named Yuval Gadot. In the many years he’s been spading the earth in this city, Dr. Gadot, a professor at Tel Aviv University, has found several bullas.  [This one is special](https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/30/opinion/sunday/bible- josiah-david-seal.html). “This bulla connects to a whole context, a whole world, that we have been uncovering in this spot,” Dr. Gadot explained.  The spot he’s talking about is the City of David — the mound of ancient Jerusalem — which archaeologists have been trying to uncover for 150 years.  When most people think of Jerusalem they think of the walled Old City: the place that contains the Western Wall and the Aqsa Mosque and the Via Dolorosa and inspires more religious fervor than perhaps anywhere else on earth. But the Jerusalem of the Bible is a modest, narrow ridge just outside the walls. Yuval Baruch, the Jerusalem regional archaeologist of the Israel Antiquities Authority, described it this way: “Jerusalem was the capital of Judean kings and that capital was located in what we call today the City of David.”  Archaeologists have been engaged in a [ferocious debate](https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2010/12/david-and- solomon/) about whether a king named David literally built his palace here. Dr. Gadot, who belongs to the school of archaeology known as biblical minimalism, is skeptical. But almost all agree on the big picture, which is that the 11-acre mound is the seat of the Davidic dynasty, which begot what we now call Jewish civilization.  ![Yuval Gadot](https://static01.nyt.com/packages/flash/multimedia/ICONS/transparent.png)  Yuval Gadot at the edge of the Givati Parking Lot dig, where he found the bulla. Mauricio Lima for The New York Times  “You cannot cast doubts over the importance of this place. This is the acropolis of Israel,” Dr. Gadot said.  There is just one problem. The acropolis of Israel is being unearthed in East Jerusalem, which much of the world does not regard as belonging to the state of Israel. And it is being unearthed, at least in part,[ ](https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/israel-unearths-a-sacred-roman-road-in- east-jerusalem-unsettling-a-palestinian-neighborhood/2019/01/24/8918dfa0-19ac- 11e9-b8e6-567190c2fd08_story.html)[beneath the homes of Palestinians](https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/israel-unearths-a-sacred- roman-road-in-east-jerusalem-unsettling-a-palestinian- neighborhood/2019/01/24/8918dfa0-19ac-11e9-b8e6-567190c2fd08_story.html), from land that those Palestinians want to be incorporated into their future state.  If any archaeological dig in this part of the world is bound to hit on ethnic, national and religious fault lines, this one is the Middle Eastern equivalent of the San Andreas. Because in Jerusalem, the contest over the city’s past is part of the war over its future.  Workers on the afternoon shift, digging underneath houses near the Shiloach Pool, in the Silwan neighborhood. Mauricio Lima for The New York Times  The archaeologists hard at work uncovering ancient Jerusalem are not consumed with borders and politics. They aren’t looking up. They are looking down, at olive pits and shards of clay, and thinking about what they tell us about the past.  They say this latest find, this bulla (the discovery of which has not been previously reported), is from the middle of the seventh or beginning of the sixth century B.C., judging by the style of writing on it and the pottery found next to it. This was the period when the First Temple stood in Jerusalem, the heyday of the Judaic monarchy. It was the period when Jews were not yet Jews but Judahites, when they worshiped their God by slaughtering animals, when many among them still secretly practiced magic and prayed to idols — more than 500 years before the Jew now known as Jesus was born.  A name has been stamped into its surface. If you read ancient Hebrew, the words are easily decipherable: “l’Natan-Melech Eved haMelech,” or “to Natan- Melech, the king’s servant.” Natan-Melech[ ](https://biblehub.com/2_kings/23-11.htm)[appears in the second Book of Kings](https://biblehub.com/2_kings/23-11.htm) as a chamberlain in King Josiah’s court.  “Natan-Melech himself is a kind of a mystery,” said Dr. Gadot. “But what he was a part of — a very developed monarchy that expressed itself through bureaucracy and writing — is hugely significant. We hear about the big empires in Mesopotamia, but for the creation of our civilization, this is the cradle.”  ![](https://static01.nyt.com/packages/flash/multimedia/ICONS/transparent.png)  David Be’eri on the underground Pilgrim’s Road. Mauricio Lima for The New York Times  Queen Victoria dispatched Charles Warren to dig here in 1867, and archaeologists have been digging ever since. Starting in the 1960s, excavations became more systematic and a clear vision of the city in its different historical periods began to emerge.  Among the bonanza of finds: bullas with the names of two characters from the Book of Jeremiah; a large stone building from the 10th century B.C. that some have theorized was [King David’s palace](https://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/05/world/africa/king-davids-fabled- palace-is-this-it.html); a pool from the first century A.D. that many believe is the pool of Siloam, mentioned in the Gospel of John as the place where Jesus healed the blind man; eggplant seeds from the early Islamic period; coins, cooking vessels and an engraving of a menorah left behind in a 2,000 -year-old drainage channel by Jewish rebels hiding from the Romans; an ancient Roman road that may have taken hundreds of thousands of Jewish pilgrims up to the Second Temple.  Donations have poured in, including from Americans, both liberals like the tech entrepreneur Marc Benioff and conservatives like the financier Roger Hertog. Rabbi Erica Gerson, who has given over $1 million to the project with her husband, Mark, said, “There is no other sight in Israel that can as effectively and authentically bring to life the 3,000-year-old connection between the Jewish people and our homeland.”  Before he was assassinated, Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin[ ](https://mfa.gov.il/mfa/mfa- archive/1993/pages/jerusalem%203000-%20city%20of%20david%201996.aspx)[declared](https://mfa.gov.il/mfa /mfa-archive/1993/pages/jerusalem%203000-%20city%20of%20david%201996.aspx) that 1996 would be celebrated as the “Trimillennium of Jerusalem” — in other words, the 3,000th anniversary of King David conquering the Jebusite city and establishing the capital of his kingdom. When I asked David Friedman, the current American ambassador to Israel and a religious Jew, what the place meant to him, he said, without hesitating, “Everything.”  Jerusalem was a divided city after Israel’s 1948 war for independence. The West was Israeli. The East was a Jordanian-ruled Palestinian city.  Then came June 1967, and the Arab-Israeli War that tripled the size of Israel and transformed its national psychology. Israel annexed East Jerusalem and overnight, Jerusalem became a united, ethnically divided, city.  According to Israel, all of Jerusalem is its capital. According to international law, East Jerusalem is occupied territory.  The area is majority Palestinian.  And that’s precisely where the dig is located.  Yet as far as the state of Israel is concerned, “East Jerusalem is the equivalent of Tel Aviv,” said Daniel Seidemann, an Israeli lawyer who founded Terrestrial Jerusalem, which supports dividing the city as part of a future two-state solution.  Those Jewish Israelis for whom Jerusalem means something far more than territory are determined to keep all of the city under Israel sovereignty. And they are willing to undertake extreme measures to make it so.  That is where the City of David Foundation comes in.  Ultra-Orthodox Jews praying at the Western Wall and Palestinians at prayer at Lyon's Gate, both in the Old City of Jerusalem. Mauricio Lima for The New York Times  This nationalist, religious organization plays three roles, which many see as deeply contradictory. First, it established and operates the City of David national park; more than 600,000 tourists visited last year to view the excavations. Second, though the archaeological dig is carried out under the auspices of the Israel Antiquities Authority, the foundation — together with the government of Israel, the Jerusalem Municipality, the Ministry of Tourism and the prime minister’s office — underwrites it.  Third, and most controversially, it acquires homes to help settle Jewish families in Arab neighborhoods in East Jerusalem, especially Wadi Hilweh, where the dig is located.  David Be’eri founded the organization in 1986, and everyone who lives here knows his name. Some think he sees himself as a modern successor to King David himself — down to the fact that his wife, like the biblical king’s first wife, is named Michal. Those who despise him and those who adore him agree on one thing: He is a visionary who has transformed this city’s landscape and, perhaps, its future borders.  When you try to figure out just how he pulled it off, things get very muddy very quickly.  ![David Be'eri](https://static01.nyt.com/packages/flash/multimedia/ICONS/transparent.png)  David Be'eri at home in the City of David. Mauricio Lima for The New York Times  Mr. Be’eri, who is 65, was born in Israel to parents who survived Auschwitz. When he was a young man, he served in Sayeret Matkal, the most prestigious unit of the Israeli military. His commander was[ ](https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/05/world/middleeast/netanyahu-entebbe- israel-africa-terrorism-brother-yoni.html)[Yoni Netanyahu](https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/05/world/middleeast/netanyahu- entebbe-israel-africa-terrorism-brother-yoni.html), the prime minister’s older brother.  In the 1980s, he was asked to help command a new, elite counterterrorism unit, **** called Duvdevan, which would send Israeli soldiers undercover as Arabs to Palestinian neighborhoods. (If you’ve seen the TV series “Fauda” you get the picture.) The village of Silwan, which includes the neighborhood known variously as the City of David and Wadi Hilweh, was one of the main places he would patrol.  It was a dangerous job. **** But he’ll also tell you that those years were a gift. “I heard from the Arabs about King Solomon, King David. They knew the historical meaning of this place,” he told me.  “One day I came to Michal and I said: Michal, this is the City of David. This is our historical capital. And here I cannot walk here as a Jew? I’m going to change it. I’m going to leave the army and bring back tourists and visitors to this place. One day we are going to live here.”  School children visiting the City of David, which has become a tourist attraction. Mauricio Lima for The New York Times  More than 20 years later, he does. The Be’eris live inside the national park, in a home above an ancient cistern.  Mr. Be’eri rarely gives interviews, but he has made headlines twice in the past decade. Once in 2010, when he ran over two Palestinian boys who were part of a group throwing stones at his car with his 12-year-old son. (The boys survived their injuries; Mr. Be’eri said he[ ](https://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10/16/rashomon-in-east- jerusalem/)[feared](https://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10/16/rashomon-in- east-jerusalem/) for his life.) He made news again in 2017, when Israel’s right-wing government awarded Mr. Be’eri the Israel Prize — the country’s equivalent of the Medal of Honor — hailed as “one of the greatest builders of Jerusalem during the modern era.”  Mr. Be’eri said that when he moved to the neighborhood in 1991, he was the first Jewish resident there since the 1930s. Today, because of his organization, there are around 1,000 Jews living among some 5,000 Palestinians.  Jawad Siyam, a prominent Palestinian activist who runs the Wadi Hilweh Information Center and lives just across the street from the entrance to the City of David site, told me that in Jerusalem, Mr. Be’eri “is more powerful than Netanyahu himself.”  ![Jawad Siyam](https://static01.nyt.com/packages/flash/multimedia/ICONS/transparent.png)  Jawad Siyam, a Palestinian activist, standing near a partially collapsed lot next to one of the entrances to the excavation site. Mauricio Lima for The New York Times  The official City of David Foundation story is that the acquisition of the land for the dig was all kosher. The people who work for the group will show you photographs from the 1910s and 1930s in which the ridge looks sparsely populated. They will tell you that the Palestinians who live there now are squatters. They will say that much of the land was bought in the 1920s by the philanthropist Baron Edmond de Rothschild and that the foundation reclaimed lands that were rightly his.  ![](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhCgAKAIAAAB8fHwAAACH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAAKAAoAAAIIhI+py+0PYysAOw==)  Approximate  extent  of dig site  Approximate  extent of  dig site  ![](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhCgAKAIAAAB8fHwAAACH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAAKAAoAAAIIhI+py+0PYysAOw==)  Approximate  extent  of dig site  Approximate  extent of  dig site  The Library of Congress (1936 photo); 2016 photo courtesy of the City of David Archive  They will insist that the way they acquired homes was completely legal. That they were bought outright from East Jerusalem Palestinians (local Palestinians will tell you stories of bags with dollars handed over in the dead of night; of sellers jailed or beaten as “collaborators” by other Palestinians), or that they relied on Israel’s Absentee Property Law, which was passed in 1950 as a way of allowing the state to acquire Palestinian homes that were abandoned after 1948.  ![TK](https://static01.nyt.com/packages/flash/multimedia/ICONS/transparent.png)  A partial view of the East Jerusalem village of Silwan. Mauricio Lima for The New York Times  They tend to talk about the project as the kind of gentrification, typical of any cosmopolitan city, where one wealthier group pushes out a poorer one.  Suffice it to say that this is not how many legal experts, local monitoring groups or the Palestinian residents see things.  For starters, they believe that archaeology is being used as cover for a land grab. “The archaeological site is the tool to delete the village that is here,” said Yonatan Mizrahi, who runs the anti-occupation group Emek Shaveh and gives his own critical tours of the site.  The foundation, he said, “has degraded archaeology in Jerusalem from science that can teach us about our shared past into a divisive tool which pits peoples and ethnic and religious groups against each another.”  Second, they see the convergence of the government, which is meant to look out for all Jerusalemites, and the City of David Foundation, which has a clear political agenda, as inherently corrupt. They say that the Absentee Property Law was abused by both the government and the foundation.  “The law, which in Israel’s fledgling years was a necessary evil, became an unmitigated evil. The abuse of power was so stark in East Jerusalem that the Israeli Supreme Court[ ](http://t-j.org.il/LatestDevelopments/tabid/1370/currentpage/1/articleID/763/Default.aspx)[recently acknowledged this](http://t-j.org.il/LatestDevelopments/tabid/1370/currentpage/1/articleID/763/Default.aspx) and restricted its application somewhat,” said Mr. Seidemann, the lawyer. Indeed, in 1992, the Rabin government issued a report that exposed collusion over property transfers between the state and various nationalist organizations, including the City of David Foundation.  But even if it is all technically legal, where is the justice or political wisdom in such a strategy? “It’s hard to overstate how moving it is for Jews to connect to David’s Jerusalem,” said Dan Shapiro, an ambassador to Israel under President Barack Obama. “But any project that seeks to embed Jewish families in Arab neighborhoods of East Jerusalem, in the absence of any progress toward two states and a plan to share the city, has a clear political intent, which is to cement permanent Israeli control. And that isn’t good for anyone who still has hope for a resolution.”  That view, once reliably centrist, now seems left-wing in Jerusalem politics, where the City of David Foundation seems to have unalloyed backing. When I asked Nir Barkat, the former mayor of Jerusalem and a leading Likud politician, if he sees the Jewish families of the City of David as settlers, he called the label “absurd.” (Mr. Siyam, the activist, called the former mayor “a slave of David Be‘eri.”)  “From my perspective Jews can live anywhere they want in the world,” Mr. Barkat told me. “They can live in Pittsburgh, they can live in Jerusalem, they can live in Paris. They can buy property anywhere they want in the world. And you want to tell me they can’t do that in Jerusalem? I will defend any Jew who wants to live anywhere he wants in the world. Including and firstly in the capital of the state of Israel.”  The difference is that when a Jew buys an apartment in the 18th arrondissement, her presence does nothing to hurt her neighbor’s national aspirations. What’s more, Jewish and Muslim neighbors in Paris, at least in theory, have the same rights and representation.  ![TK](https://static01.nyt.com/packages/flash/multimedia/ICONS/transparent.png)  A Palestinian youth near the Al-Aqsa Mosque in the Old City. Mauricio Lima for The New York Times  This is not the case for the more than 300,000 Palestinians of East Jerusalem, of whom a vast majority remain in legal limbo, citizens of no country. They are considered “permanent residents” of Jerusalem, which entitles them to the same social services and health care as other Israelis, but they cannot vote in national elections. They[ ](https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/11/19/why- theres-no-palestinian-protest-vote-in-jerusalem-israel-municipal-palestinian- authority-ramadan-dabash-aziz-abu-sarah/)[can vote](https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/11/19/why-theres-no-palestinian-protest- vote-in-jerusalem-israel-municipal-palestinian-authority-ramadan-dabash-aziz- abu-sarah/) in municipal ones and[ ](https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/10/opinion/ramadan-dabash-jerusalem- palestinians.html)[run for city council](https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/10/opinion/ramadan-dabash-jerusalem- palestinians.html), and since they constitute[ ](https://www.haaretz.com /israel-news/palestinians-now-make-up-some-40-percent-of- jerusalem-s-population-1.6077642)[almost 40 percent](https://www.haaretz.com /israel-news/palestinians-now-make-up-some-40-percent-of- jerusalem-s-population-1.6077642) of the population of the city, they could be a major force. But 99 percent boycott the vote.  None of this — especially the fact that the City of David Foundation is also a settlement enterprise — makes the archaeologists who work or have worked on the dig happy. They are quick to point out their independence, that their salaries are paid by their universities, and that their job is not tourism, but to carry out a dig to the highest possible scientific standards.  Archaeology is always political, said[ ](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/what-is-beneath-the-temple- mount-920764/)[Gabriel Barkay](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/what-is- beneath-the-temple-mount-920764/), a prominent Israeli archaeologist: “Sneezing in Jerusalem is an intensive political activity. You can do it into the face of an Arab, into the face of a Christian, into the face of a Jew. To the left or the right.”  But Mr. Barkay, a Holocaust survivor and no dove, thinks that the City of David Foundation has made a serious error in pushing for Jewish settlement in the neighborhood. “Archaeological sites are cultural treasures,” he said. “No one should live there.”  Miryam Basher, a Palestinian high-school math teacher, is one of them. Her house is just down the road and a world away from the entrance to the City of David.  Though she has several heavily laden lemon trees in her front yard, the walls of her home have gaping cracks — the result, she told me, of the digging taking place beneath her feet to uncover the[ ](https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/israel-unearths-a-sacred-roman-road-in- east-jerusalem-unsettling-a-palestinian-neighborhood/2019/01/24/8918dfa0-19ac- 11e9-b8e6-567190c2fd08_story.html?utm_term=.3c0be5a5ec4b)[underground Pilgrim’s Road](https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/israel-unearths-a-sacred- roman-road-in-east-jerusalem-unsettling-a-palestinian- neighborhood/2019/01/24/8918dfa0-19ac- 11e9-b8e6-567190c2fd08_story.html?utm_term=.3c0be5a5ec4b), which the foundation hopes to open to the public in a few years.  Ms. Basher said her parents built the house in 1963 and that the cracks started appearing only three years ago. She has moved a large armoire against the wall with the biggest one because she is nervous it will cave in.  ![Miryam Basher, whose house has been affected by the ongoing excavation underneath, shows cracks inside her house in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan, which is right outside the walls of the Old City.](https://static01.nyt.com/packages/flash/multimedia/ICONS/transparent.png)  Miryam Basher showing cracks in the walls of her home in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Wadi Hilweh. Mauricio Lima for The New York Times  “There was injustice before and after the dig,” she told me over homemade lemonade. “But now you feel the occupation in your house. You don’t feel comfortable in your home. I’m not sure your readers can imagine our lives.”  Why not move? Given the location of her home, I suspect it would fetch a high price. Would she ever consider selling it?  “They could give me a million dollars and even if they demolished this house I’d live on the stones,” she replied.  Shoshi Tropper is a Jewish mother of five who lives down the road from Ms. Basher. She and her husband moved to the City of David 11 years ago because, she told me, “we wanted to live somewhere meaningful.” Though her car has been stoned more than once, she said, “It’s a normal life” and “we really love it.”  ![Shoshi Tropper holds her newborn baby next to her husband at home.](https://static01.nyt.com/packages/flash/multimedia/ICONS/transparent.png)  Shoshi Tropper, a Jewish mother of five, moved with her husband to the City of David 11 years ago. Mauricio Lima for The New York Times  “From outside maybe we seem like fanatics, as settlers, full of hate. But in our life, we are liberal, full of love.” What of her relationships with her neighbors? “We’re a Jewish community and we live inside a big Arab community. We’re neighbors,” she said, and “we get along well.” She showed me a red sweater that she said a Palestinian neighbor had knitted for her daughter.  “They are talking about coexistence,” said Mr. Siyam when I asked him about relationships between the Jewish and Palestinian residents. “You know what kind of coexistence? The kind you have with your donkey or your dog.”  “I don’t know how to argue about whether King David was here or not,” he continued. “That doesn’t give them the right to kick me out of this neighborhood.”  There is a strong case to be made that the modern should always trump the ancient, even on an archaeological gold mine. That the needs of people living in a particular spot in the here and now are far more important than uncovering the lives of those who once did.  Fakhri Abu Diab is a 57-year-old Palestinian resident of Silwan and an activist who once served more than a year in jail for[ ](http://www.silwanic.net/index.php/article/news/38352)[protesting the dig](http://www.silwanic.net/index.php/article/news/38352). His home, like dozens of others in his part of the village, is under[ ](https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2010/0915/How-Israeli- Palestinian-battle-for-Jerusalem-plays-out-in-one-neighborhood)[threat of demolition](https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2010/0915/How-Israeli- Palestinian-battle-for-Jerusalem-plays-out-in-one-neighborhood) because it was built without a permit — a permit he said he spent years trying in vain to get.  He has nothing against King David, he said. “If King David lived here 2,000 years ago,” he said, then “I am the grandchild of King David” — an idea he considered “an honor.” But he argued that the history doesn't justify what is happening to his neighborhood today.  “People are much more important than stones,” he told me.  But what happens when the prerequisite for agreeing to a compromise with people in the present is a renunciation of the stones that are the legacy of your people’s past?  Many of the opponents of the dig aren’t just arguing that it is unjust and an abuse of the law. They are saying that the archaeological discoveries have been faked and that there is no evidence of a Jewish civilization here.  “All of it is lies,” said Iman Rajabi, who lives 300 feet downhill from the Pool of Siloam, at the bottom of the dig. We sat at her mother-in-law’s house and drank tea. “All of it is Islamic. There are no Jewish antiquities. They dig. They place stuff. And they convince the world. It’s all lies.”  As for the Temple, she insisted that there never was one. “For sure the Jews are lying. This is the pretext for taking Al Aqsa,” the mosque that was built on the spot where the ancient Jewish temples once stood, and is the third holiest site in Islam.  ![](https://static01.nyt.com/packages/flash/multimedia/ICONS/transparent.png)  Relatives of Iman Rajabi at their home. Mauricio Lima for The New York Times  When I asked Jawad Siyam’s deputy at the Wadi Hilweh Information Center, Sahar Abbasi, about ancient Jewish roots in Jerusalem, she said: “You should for sure focus on if, if, if — if there is any kind of history. Because with Israeli archaeology, nothing was proved.”  Even a graduate of Birzeit University, the[ ](https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20180611-palestines-birzeit-ranked-as-one- of-worlds-best/)[top Palestinian university](https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20180611-palestines-birzeit- ranked-as-one-of-worlds-best/), standing with me at the Western Wall — the remnant of the retaining wall of the Second Temple — told me she could not utter the word “temple,” because it would give credence to a Jewish claim. “It’s like saying the word ‘cancer,’” she said.  It wasn’t always this way. A 1925 booklet put out by the Waqf, the Jordanian authority that oversees the Temple Mount, marketed Al Aqsa Mosque thus: “Its identity with the site of Solomon’s Temple is beyond dispute.”  Blame goes to Yasir Arafat for planting the lie about Jewish history. During the Camp David summit in 2000, he reportedly said to President Bill Clinton that Solomon’s Temple was not in Jerusalem, but in Nablus, deep in the West Bank. In 2010, a senior Palestinian Authority official[ ](https://www.haaretz.com/1.5144129)[put out a report](https://www.haaretz.com/1.5144129) saying that the Western Wall “has never been a part of what is called the Jewish Temple.”  And a softened version of it has[ ](https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium- liberal-jews-should-condemn-denial-of-jewish-ties-to-temple- mt-1.5450731)[trickled down](https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-liberal- jews-should-condemn-denial-of-jewish-ties-to-temple-mt-1.5450731) to purportedly neutral organizations like Unesco, which in a[ ](https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/full-text-of-unesco-s-resolution-on- jerusalem-1.5450617)[2016 resolution on Jerusalem](https://www.haaretz.com /israel-news/full-text-of-unesco-s-resolution-on-jerusalem-1.5450617) referred to the holy site solely as “Al Aqsa Mosque/Al Haram al Sharif,” put references to the Western Wall in scare quotes, and called on Israel to stop all archaeological excavations.  For Western liberals who like to imagine that this conflict is exclusively about borders, this denialism is a wake-up call. Some people I spoke to compared it to the denial of the Holocaust.  Mr. Barkay, the archaeologist, who survived the Budapest ghetto, even thinks that “Temple denial is more serious than Holocaust denial.”  Perhaps that is because what is at stake is the Jewish indigenous claim to the land of Israel.  “If someone comes to me and denies the Holocaust, do I have a question? No. Because I saw the number of my father, his number from Auschwitz,” Mr. Be’eri told me. “I want the next generation to be like I was with the number of my father. I want them to dig, to find. When you find a coin and you can read the date you have no question. It’s not a story I tell you.”  Mr. Seidemann, the lawyer, believes that the City of David should not be part of sovereign Israel in a two-state solution. “David Be‘eri and I will oppose each other and say your dream is my nightmare and my nightmare is your dream.” he said. “They are blind to the cruelty of occupation.” But the finds are another story. “The reason we can engage is that I see what they see. That’s my Mayflower. That’s my Plymouth Rock.”  There is a concept in Judaism of “Jerusalem shel-malah” and “Jerusalem shel- matah”: Jerusalem of above and Jerusalem of below, referring to the distinction between the heavenly and earthly cities. Humanists like me tend to believe that the earthly Jerusalem has suffered brutally at the hands of those zealous about the heavenly one.  It is why I always loved[ ](http://famouspoetsandpoems.com/poets/yehuda_amichai/poems/52.html)[the poem](http://famouspoetsandpoems.com/poets/yehuda_amichai/poems/52.html) “Tourists” by Israel’s former poet laureate, Yehuda Amichai, which is set by a gate at David’s Tower in Jerusalem:  “‘You see that man with the baskets? Just right of his head there’s an arch from the Roman period. Just right of his head.’ ‘But he’s moving, he’s moving!’ I said to myself: redemption will come only if their guide tells them, ‘You see that arch from the Roman period? It’s not important: but next to it, left and down a bit, there sits a man who’s bought fruit and vegetables for his family.’”  But a week in this place made me think a bit differently about the relationship between the two Jerusalems. The earthly one divided, but the heavenly one — at least some of it — is not. After all, one man, David, is both the king of Israel, a prophet of the Muslims and the progenitor of the line that gave the world Jesus.  Every person I spoke to sounded as if they knew him. He was a stone-thrower; a hero; a statesman; a sinner; a poet; a warrior; a romantic; a lying, cheating bastard.  Perhaps King David himself is the shared territory — a flawed shepherd who once united a nation and is claimed by everyone who wakes and sleeps in Zion.  ![](https://static01.nyt.com/packages/flash/multimedia/ICONS/transparent.png)  The archaeologists hard at work uncovering ancient Jerusalem are not consumed with borders and politics. They aren’t looking up. They are looking down. Mauricio Lima for The New York Times


therussophileorg--2019-04-07--Lunatics Taking Over the Asylum by Lance Welton

Lunatics Taking Over the Asylum, by Lance Welton

This  [post](http://www.unz.com/article/lunatics-taking-over-the-asylum/)  was originally published on  [this site](http://www.unz.com/)[]()  Recently, all Wikipedia pages in German, Danish, Czech and Slovak were blacked out. This wasn’t a technical error. It was Wikipedia’s protest against the European Parliament for once doing something debatably useful: updating copyright laws to stop people from stealing digital intellectual content. [ _[Why Four Versions of Wikipedia Have Deliberately Gone Dark,](http://fortune.com/2019/03/21/wikipedia-dark-eu-copyright-protest/ "http://fortune.com/2019/03/21/wikipedia-dark-eu-copyright-protest/")_ By David Meyer, _Fortune,_ March 21, 2019] It should be no surprise that the controllers of Wikipedia, and even more so its woke competitor Rational Wiki, should object to such outdated and likely racist concepts as law and private property: to a fatal extent, they are crazed Social Justice Warriors—and a growing threat to political and scientific discourse.  [![](https://i0.wp.com/www.therussophile.org/wp- content/uploads/2017/07/ASAMI-1-728x90.jpg?fit=728%2C90&ssl=1)![](https://i0.wp.com/www.therussophile.org /wp- content/uploads/2017/07/ASAMI-1-728x90.jpg?fit=728%2C90&ssl=1)](https://www.therussophile.org/linkout/1067590)  In the ongoing war between reasonable people and Leftism, there is a vital battle being waged on Wikipedia, which, like it or not, is a latter-day oracle of information. Control the fourth-most popular website in the Western world ([according](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=List_of_most_popular_websites&oldid=890789629 "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=List_of_most_popular_websites&oldid=890789629") to Wikipedia itself) and you, at least partly, control the Western mind. For this reason, online skirmishes over Wikipedia’s non-PC topics are particularly vicious, and the murky manipulators prepared to devote their time to the struggle take fanaticism, and even insanity, to levels that defy belief.  Of course, most of us like to think that we’re above relying on something as obviously untrustworthy as an anonymously-written encyclopedia dependent on non-expert contributors. But scientists really do read Wikipedia entries and reuse the citations in their peer-reviewed articles. [[ _Science is Shaped by Wikipedia: Evidence From a Randomized Control Trial_ ,](https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3039505 "https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3039505") by Neil Thompson & Douglas Hanley, MIT Sloan Research Paper, 2017] Which means that the SJWs who control Wikipedia actually help to shape science itself.  It’s fiendishly difficult for thinking people to edit articles on areas like as “race” so that they conform to scientific standards, because Wikipedia’s gatekeepers have instituted a raft of tendentious rules in order to stop this happening. [[ _Wikipedia Is Shockingly Biased: 5 Lessons From An Admin,_](http://www.cracked.com/personal-experiences-2344-5-ugly-realities- wikipedia-i-learned-as-admin.html "http://www.cracked.com/personal- experiences-2344-5-ugly-realities-wikipedia-i-learned-as-admin.html") by Mark Hill, _Cracked_ , July 11, 2016]  Wikipedia both reflects and drives a society that seems to be [decreasingly interested in empirical truth](https://vdare.com/articles/it-s-official-even- hard-science-entering-new-dark-age "https://vdare.com/articles/it-s-official- even-hard-science-entering-new-dark-age"). As Mark Hill noted in _Cracked_ , Wikipedia also attracts a very specific kind of person. In order to get anywhere in the Wikipedia Wars, you have to be highly computer-literate. The editor must be prepared to spend inordinate amounts of time fighting with anonymous enemies, who will alter his changes, and with “vandals,” who will play around with entries they dislike to make them seem ridiculous.  These petty rivalries have sometimes gotten completely out of hand, with editors using their computer wizardry to work out who their opponents are and then “doxing” them; revealing their true identities and everything they can discover about them. [‘[ _Despicable lies’: Rep. Maxine Waters denies her staff doxed Republicans on Wikipedia, b_](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2018/09/30/despicable-lies-rep- maxine-waters-denies-her-staff-doxed-republicans- wikipedia/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.a0f8fc956e3b "https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2018/09/30/despicable-lies-rep- maxine-waters-denies-her-staff-doxed-republicans- wikipedia/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.a0f8fc956e3b") y Alex Horton and Reis Thebault, _Washington Post,_ September 30, 2018]  For some SJWs, controlling Wikipedia is simply not good enough, because Wikipedia does at least maintain something vaguely akin to academic standards—see Wikipedia’s [own list of “Reliable Sources”](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Reliable_sources "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Reliable_sources"). Accordingly, in 2007, they created a rival, the ironically-named Rational Wiki.  Rational Wiki is a nakedly Cultural Marxist project, its entries openly mocking their subjects, not even pretending to be neutral. According to [_RationalWiki: What is a RationalWiki article?_](https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/RationalWiki:What_is_a_RationalWiki_article%3F#SPOV "https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/RationalWiki:What_is_a_RationalWiki_article%3F#SPOV") _,_ [accessed January 11, 2019] they have instead of an NPOV or “Neutral Point Of View” (as claimed, but not achieved, by Wikipedia itself), they have an SPOV, with the “S” standing for either Scientific or Snarky.  But because of [search engine optimization](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Search_engine_optimization "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Search_engine_optimization") tricks Rational Wiki entries appear very high on Google’s rankings. If a “controversial” scientist lacks a Wikipedia entry, then his Rational Wiki combination of lampoon and defamation will rank first when his name is Googled; potentially damaging his reputation. And the entry is also likely to be taken seriously by less skeptical readers.  So, who are these Nerdish Leftists who dedicate their spare time to anonymously fighting in our increasingly violent Culture War?  A particularly diligent and prolific one has been revealed to be a 28-year-old Englishman called Oliver D. Smith. [[ _Rationalwiki’s (Oliver D. Smith’s) attack page about me_ ,](http://emilkirkegaard.dk/en/?page_id=7034 "http://emilkirkegaard.dk/en/?page_id=7034") by Emil Kirkegaard, _Clear Language, Clear Mind,_ January 10, 2018]. Smith is a truly amazing character; you really couldn’t make him up.  According to British public records, “Oliver Dean Smith” lives with his father, Peter Smith, and Peter’s wife, Sandra, in the picturesque village of Radlett in Hertfordshire; specifically, in “[Primrose Cottages.”](https://britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/101103645-primrose-cottages- aldenham "https://britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/101103645-primrose-cottages- aldenham") This “listed (historically important) building” is opposite an old “pub” called The Red Lion. [[Google Maps Link](https://www.google.com.ph/maps/@51.6831841,-0.3170686,126a,35y,343.2h,45t/data=!3m1!1e3 "https://www.google.com.ph/maps/@51.6831841,-0.3170686,126a,35y,343.2h,45t/data=!3m1!1e3")] Hertfordshire is a wealthy county in the southeast of England and Smith’s father—whom birth and marriage records mysteriously imply has different forenames from those on the property records—is the [director of a construction company](https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/01266089/officers "https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/01266089/officers") .  Oliver D. Smith, who is unemployed, has a twin brother called “Darryl” and [appears](http://coldfusioncommunity.net/tag/oliver-d-smith/%5D "http://coldfusioncommunity.net/tag/oliver-d-smith/%5d") to sometimes write under his brother’s name. One of Smith’s internet enemies has actually been in direct contact with Smith’s mother (or possibly step-mother; the public records are confusing) about her son’s online behavior [[ _Oliver Smith, Autistic Legion of Doom_](https://encyclopediadramatica.rs/Autistic_Legion_of_Doom#Oliver_Smith "https://encyclopediadramatica.rs/Autistic_Legion_of_Doom#Oliver_Smith") _,_ Encyclopedia Dramatica, accessed January 11, 2019]  In 2013, Smith graduated with a degree in “Classical Civilization” from London’s [Roehampton University](http://coldfusioncommunity.net/anglo- pyramidologist/identity "http://coldfusioncommunity.net/anglo- pyramidologist/identity"), a relatively mediocre school, ranked [70th](https://www.timeshighereducation.com/world-university-rankings /university-roehampton "https://www.timeshighereducation.com/world-university- rankings/university-roehampton") in the UK. Various nerds with whom Smith has clashed seem to have spent a great deal of time using their “weaponized autism” to work out, from his “sock puppets” (internet false identities), exactly who he is. [[ _The Smiths’ Dark Entanglement, a criminal report,_](http://wikipediawehaveaproblem.com/2017/03/oliver-smith-dark- entanglement/ "http://wikipediawehaveaproblem.com/2017/03/oliver-smith-dark- entanglement/") WikipediaWeHaveAProblem.com, March 17, 2017] It is geeks and faceless internet obsessives, albeit on our side of the lines, who have exposed Smith, but they are open about the sources and reasoning that have led them to him.  Smith wields a particular grudge against a Danish computer type, 29-year-old Emil Kirkegaard. Kirkegaard runs the online academic journal [_Open Psych_](https://openpsych.net/about "https://openpsych.net/about") and has published in high-impact journals, such as _Intelligence_ [[ _Are Headstart gains on the_ g _factor?_](https://emilkirkegaard.dk/en/?p=4361 "https://emilkirkegaard.dk/en/?p=4361") _,_ by Jan te Nijenhuis, Birthe Jongeneel-Grimen  & Emil Kirkegaard, _Intelligence,_ 2014]. Smith’s fury with Kirkegaard extends to anyone who, like his Danish nemesis, attended the London Conference on Intelligence at University College London, on which I’ve [reported](https://vdare.com/posts/then-they-came-for-the-london-conference- on-intelligence "https://vdare.com/posts/then-they-came-for-the-london- conference-on-intelligence") before, meaning that Smith has created Rational Wiki articles about most of the academics involved. The Rational Wiki page [London Conference on Intelligence](https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/London_Conference_on_Intelligence "https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/London_Conference_on_Intelligence") [accessed January 11, 2019] starts “London Conference on Intelligence were a series of controversial [pseudoscientific](https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Pseudoscience "https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Pseudoscience")[ [3]](https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/London_Conference_on_Intelligence#cite_note-3 "https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/London_Conference_on_Intelligence#cite_note-3") conferences held annually at University College London (UCL) from 2014-2017, attended by [far-right](https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Far-right "https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Far-right") speakers, including [white supremacists](https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/White_supremacists "https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/White_supremacists") and most notoriously, [Emil Kirkegaard](https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Emil_Kirkegaard "https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Emil_Kirkegaard")…” and gets worse from there.  Kirkegaard’s own [summary](http://emilkirkegaard.dk/en/?page_id=7034 "http://emilkirkegaard.dk/en/?page_id=7034") of the research into Smith’s background is most enlightening. Smith first appears online, at the age of about 15, with the posting on a forum whose administrators, for whatever reason, added the word “pedophile” to the user description on his name. The [following year,](https://archive.is/anRwH%23selection-2801.187-2794.3 "https://archive.is/anRwH%23selection-2801.187-2794.3") Smith [wrote](https://www.tombraiderforums.com/showpost.php?s=fe912f7811f430903a4c08f2ce05ad52&p=1175112&postcount=89 "https://www.tombraiderforums.com/showpost.php?s=fe912f7811f430903a4c08f2ce05ad52&p=1175112&postcount=89") of the Columbine killers [that](https://archive.is/anRwH#selection-2801.187-2794.3 "https://archive.is/anRwH#selection-2801.187-2794.3"), “It’s not their fault at all i mean if you were bullied all day by non-whites of course you would join a right wing organisation online [ _sic._ ]”.  In various online forums, Smith has admitted to being a [pathological liar who suffers from schizophrenia](http://archive.is/6cbg4 "http://archive.is/6cbg4") , though he has then used sock puppets to [claim](http://coldfusioncommunity.net/tag/oliver-d-smith/%5D "http://coldfusioncommunity.net/tag/oliver-d-smith/%5d") he made this up. Schizophrenia is strongly consistent with his Leftist bias, as schizophrenics tend to be very low in systematizing but so high in “empathy”—reading signals of people’s minds—that they become paranoid and delusional [[ _Mentalism and Mechanism_](http://www.thegreatdebate.org.uk/MentalismCB.html "http://www.thegreatdebate.org.uk/MentalismCB.html") _,_ by Christopher Badcock, _Human Nature and Social Values,_ 2003]  Early in his online career, Smith posted about his “autism” on the radical Right website Stormfront. Some symptoms of autism cross ,over with those of schizophrenia meaning that certain kinds of autistic are sometimes wrongly diagnosed with a mild form of schizophrenia, known as a schizotypal disorder. [[ _Autism spectrum disorders, schizophrenia and diagnostic confusion,_ by](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2928288/ "https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2928288/") Marc Woodbury-Smith et al., _Journal of Psychiatry and Neuroscience,_ 2010] Smith also denied the Holocaust, advocated a bizarre form of white supremacy, claimed to be a “conservative Christian” and wrote for assorted right-wing online encyclopedias.  It seems, however that he became an SJW at the beginning of 2012. Numerous Wikipedia accounts of his have ended up being shut down leading him to move on to Rational Wiki. (See [_Encyclopediadramatica.se/Oliver_D._Smith_Brothers_](https://encyclopediadramatica.se/Oliver_D._Smith_Brothers "https://encyclopediadramatica.se/Oliver_D._Smith_Brothers") _,_ July 13, 2012.) Autistics are prone to an unstable and weak sense of self and thus to dramatic identity changes. [ _[Poor recognition of ‘self’ found in high functioning people with autism](https://medicalxpress.com/news/2008-02-poor- recognition-high-functioning-people.html "https://medicalxpress.com/news/2008-02-poor-recognition-high-functioning- people.html"), Medical Express,_ February 6, 2008].  Smith is interested in Atlantis, to the extent of having publishing academic articles on it. [[Oliver D. Smith](https://scholar.google.es/citations?user=LOlJIzgAAAAJ&hl=en "https://scholar.google.es/citations?user=LOlJIzgAAAAJ&hl=en"), Independent Scholar, Google Scholar Page, accessed January 11, 2019]. Atlantis-fascination is an example of a “Sensational Interest.” Having sensational interests seems to be associated with aspects of “psychopathic” personality [[ _Sensational interests and general personality traits_ ,](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09585189908402160 "https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09585189908402160") by Vince Egan et al, _Journal of Forensic Psychiatry,_ 1999] which correlates with proneness to schizophrenia [[ _Psychopathy and violent behavior among patients with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder,_](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10375148 "https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10375148") by K. Nolan et al., _Psychiatric Services,_ 1999] and autism. [[ _Comorbid Psychopathology in Autism Spectrum Disorder_](https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40489-014-0012-y "https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40489-014-0012-y") _,_ by Arlene Mannion et al., _Review Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders,_ 2014]  Smith has claimed to be, in a nuanced way, asexual (see [_Emil O. W. Kirkegaard’s lies and defamation about me,_](http://archive.is/lGOXN "http://archive.is/lGOXN") AtlantisOliver.wordpress.com November 25, 2018], though he has a passion for violent and sexual movies such as [_Cannibal Holocaust_ ,](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannibal_Holocaust "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannibal_Holocaust") and also for pornographic videos such as _Naked Tomb Raider._ [[ _Sites with evidence and claims_](http://coldfusioncommunity.net/anglo-pyramidologist/sites-with- evidence-and-claims/ "http://coldfusioncommunity.net/anglo-pyramidologist /sites-with-evidence-and-claims/") _,_ Anglo Pyramidologist – Cold Fusion Community, May 2, 2018]. Hyposexuality is common among schizophrenics, a side effect of the medications they take [[ _Sexual disorders in non/acute psychiatric outpatients_ ,](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0010440X96900528 "https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0010440X96900528") by G. Kockott et al. _Comprehensive Psychiatry,_ 1996]  Clearly, Oliver D. Smith is, well, odd. He would seem to exemplify the phenomenon of “negative Social Epistasis,” whereby, in our world of weakened selection against the accumulation of deleterious mutations, mutants attain positions of social influence and are able to potentially corrupt the norms of civilization, causing others to behave in a maladaptive way in the process.  Online, these disturbed individuals can potentially involve very large numbers of people who, ordinarily, would never come into contact with them, in their delusions. When such “spiteful mutants” become numerous, the rapid collapse of complex societies ensues. I have [written](https://vdare.com/articles/of-mice- and-men-spiteful-mutations-look-bad-for-the-west "https://vdare.com/articles /of-mice-and-men-spiteful-mutations-look-bad-for-the-west") previously about the research of a group of scientists who have linked this with the work of John Calhoun, and the rapid collapse of his Mouse Utopia, through new experimental data.  And there’s reason to think that Smith may actually be an—albeit exaggerated to the point of satire—archetype of a “Wikipedean.” Research on Wikipedeans has found they are substantially motivated by “ideology,” specifically of an egalitarian kind [[ _What Motivates Wikipedeans?_](https://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1297798 "https://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1297798") by Oded Nov, _Communications of the ACM,_ 2007]. They are lower than are non-Wikipedeans in the personality traits of Openness (which fits, because Openness predicts being ‘arty’ rather than a Nerd) but also in Agreeableness (altruism) and Conscientiousness (impulse control) [[ _Personality characteristics of Wikipedia members_ ,](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18954273 "https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18954273") by Y. Amichai-Hamburger et al., _Cyberpsychological Behavior,_ 2008].  When these psychopathic personality traits are put together with a childlike rejection of authority and of traditional purity rules based around sex [[ _Jonathan Haidt: The moral roots of liberals and conservatives,_](https://en.tiny.ted.com/talks/jonathan_haidt_on_the_moral_mind "https://en.tiny.ted.com/talks/jonathan_haidt_on_the_moral_mind") by Jonathan Haidt, _TED_ , 2008], then you have the typical Wikipedia writer.  In other words, the store of human knowledge is now being—at least to some extent—censored, manipulated, and even directed by anonymous, mentally unstable malcontents, quite a few of them _literally_ living in their moms’ basements. And many of them, are likely, only marginally less bizarre than Oliver D. Smith.  Such people can spend all of their spare time focused on their own little contribution to destroying Western civilization, facing no consequences whatsoever. In contrast, a patriot who makes a throwaway remark online can lose his job.  In this war, we need to know our enemies and Smith’s targets have done an excellent job in unearthing exactly who is directing a particular “Black Op” of the many that are underway. Hopefully more of this will follow.  And hopefully, as these counter-operations continue, people will increasingly realize that Wikipedia and similar Wiki-type projects must be treated with caution. These are not “Democratic Encyclopedia(s).” They are a democracy that has been overthrown by schizophrenics, psychopaths, deviants, and people who’ve never really grown up.  from http://www.unz.com/article/lunatics-taking-over-the-asylum/


naturalnews--2019-11-20--America is flying blind into a potentially disastrous health catastrophe: The '5G revolution' could

America is flying blind into a potentially disastrous health catastrophe: The '5G revolution' could bring the '5G apocalypse'

(Natural News) While globalists happily push 5G into America and now on a fast-track with words like ‘5G Revolution‘ being tossed around, the website Scientific American recently put out this story within which they warned “We Have No Reason to Believe 5G Is Safe“. As this story Steve Quayle linked to Sunday over at the Mind Unleashed reports of the Scientific American story, of particular significance is the fact that SciAm is the oldest continuously published monthly magazine in the United States, founded by inventor and publisher Rufus M. Porter in 1845, and running monthly since 1921. It is a highly influential publication, widely reputed for its rigorous scientific standards, and lauded by today’s fact-checkers as highly credible and staunchly pro-science.  With the Scientific American story reporting that “the technology is coming, but contrary to what some people say, there could be health risks“, their story confirmed much of what the independent media has been reporting for the past couple of years about 5G, that America is flying blind into a potentially disastrous health mess with potential damages to human beings including:  Millimeter waves are mostly absorbed within a few millimeters of human skin and in the surface layers of the cornea. Short-term exposure can have adverse physiological effects in the peripheral nervous system, the immune system and the cardiovascular system. The research suggests that long-term exposure may pose health risks to the skin (e.g., melanoma), the eyes (e.g., ocular melanoma) and the testes (e.g., sterility).  And as we’ve reported numerous times previously on ANP, with 5G technology using the same millimeter waves as the Pentagon’s Crowd-Control Active Denial Systems, we’re not surprised that one so-called ‘conspiracy theorist‘ in the UK recently took apart a 5G streetlight that was sent to him by a whistleblower and found technology equivalent to a weapon’s system.  Since we know that not everyone is going to take the word of a ‘conspiracy theorist‘ about the dangers of 5G, before we go any further, let’s take a look at a recent warning given by one Medical doctor, Dr. Martin Pall, in this story titled “5G and the Wireless Revolution: When Progress Becomes a Death Sentence“. Much more below including how we can go about protecting ourselves from 5G and other wireless radiation as also heard in the final video at the bottom of this story. These quotes from Dr. Pall are mind boggling.  “Without any 5G, without any expansion of 4G, without putting any radar units in cars, all of these things are being planned for us, I believe we’ll be going…our reproduction will crash essentially to zero within probably about 2-3 years….5G, it could be months…”  “The regulatory agencies around the world have been corrupted by the industry and are serving the goals of the industry, and are not serving the goals of the people that they’re supposed to be protecting.”  You can hear directly from Dr. Pall in the 3rd video at the bottom of this story in which he expands upon those thoughts above and much more, warning the fast-tracking of 5G across America is absolutely insane.  While the FCC continues over and over and over again to say that 5G is safe, the extended excerpt below which comes to us from this story over at Global Research titled “5G Danger: 13 Reasons 5G Wireless Technology Will Be a Catastrophe for Humanity” gives us many reasons to believe otherwise.  The 5G danger can’t be overstated. 5G (5th Generation) is now being actively rolled out in many cities around the world. Simultaneously, as awareness over its horrific health and privacy impacts is rising, many places are issuing moratoriums on it or banning it, such as the entire nation of Belgium, the city of Vaud (Switzerland) and San Francisco (USA). Radiofrequency radiation (RF or RFR) and electromagnetic fields (EMF) are being increasingly recognized as new types of pollution – environmental pollution.  Read more at: AllNewsPipeline.com and 5GAlert.com.