Abe won’t say if he’ll resign if election results fall short of target

http://www.japantoday.com/category/politics/view/abe-wont-say-if-hell-resign-if-election-results-fall-short-of-target

TOKYO —

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe would not say Saturday if he will step down if the ruling parties fail to win a majority of the seats up for grabs in the July 10 upper house election.

“We will win at the polls and, by all means, the ruling bloc will secure a majority (of the seats at stake). I’m obsessed with that,” Abe said in Kumamoto Prefecture when reporters asked whether he would resign if that target is not attained. Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party and its junior coalition partner Komeito form the ruling bloc.

In announcing on Wednesday the date for the House of Councillors election, Abe set forth a new goal for the number of seats he hoped the ruling coalition will win. He fixed that new target at a majority of the 121 seats up for grabs.

That target is higher than simply maintaining a majority in the upper house, which Abe earlier said he aimed at. Going into the election the LDP held 115 seats and Komeito 20 seats, or collectively 135 seats, in the 242-seat chamber.

Half those 242 seats are contested every three years, resulting in staggered six-year terms. Simply to maintain majority control of upper house, the LDP and Komeito collectively will need to win at least 46 of the 121 seats up for grabs, to add to the 76 they hold among the chamber’s seats not being contested in July.

Although the official campaign period starts June 22, the ruling and opposition parties were already engaging in a war of words Saturday, the first weekend since the election date was set.

Abe told reporters in Kumamoto that the election would renew the public mandate for his “Abenomics” policy mix featuring unprecedented monetary easing, expanded government spending and structural reforms, which together are meant to lift Japan out of deflation.

“This election is to decide whether to move ahead with Abenomics or to return to a situation we saw under (now-defunct) Democratic Party of Japan administration,” Abe said.

LDP Secretary General Sadakazu Tanigaki told a party gathering in Osaka that the ruling parties “must win” against the main opposition Democratic Party and the Japanese Communist Party, which are forging a rare alliance with other opposition parties in fielding candidates in electoral districts nationwide.

In Mie Prefecture, Democratic Party leader Katsuya Okada blasted Abe’s economic policies, pointing to the yen’s strength—which hurts exporters’ profits—as evidence of Abenomics failure.

Okada also warned that Abe’s “real goal” is to grab a two-thirds majority by the ruling parties and certain opposition parties, thereby positioning him to amend the Constitution for the first time ever.

“This is what we must prevent at all costs,” Okada said. But he did not indicate how many seats his party, which was formed through the merger of the DPJ and another opposition party in March, will aim to win.

In Kochi, Akira Koike, head of the JCP Secretariat, also said the main focus of the election is whether voters will empower Abe to move ahead with amending the Constitution, possibly by revising the war-renouncing Article 9.

© KYODO

Police arrest 21-year-old lesbian woman for alleged sexual crimes

CTV Montreal
Published Thursday, May 19, 2016 4:57PM EDT

Police in St. Jerome arrested a 21-year-old woman they say has committed a series of sex-based crimes on Thursday.

Roxanne Auger-Lapointe is facing charges including sexual assault, sexual contact, invitation to sexual touching, sexual exploitation, exhibitionism and Internet luring.

Police allege that Auger-Lapointe would park a car near high schools and talk to adolescents between the ages of 13 and 17. After earning their trust, she would allegedly have sex with teenage girls, sometimes without consent, with almost a dozen victims having come forward to date. Investigators said they are looking to identify more victims.

She also allegedly used social media to communicate with the girls.

The charges stem from incidents that took place over the course of three years.

The accused’s home has been searched by police and her computer seized.

http://montreal.ctvnews.ca/police-arrest-21-year-old-woman-for-alleged-sexual-crimes-1.2909574

Stereotypes Are Accurate (and Feminists at DePaul Are Man-Hating Witches)

Stereotypes Are Accurate (and Feminists at DePaul Are Man-Hating Witches)

Posted on | June 3, 2016 | 12 Comments

Kate Hardiman reports at the College Fix:

A Rutgers University social science professor set out to research how stereotypes are inaccurate so he could proclaim and promote that to the world with hard scientific data — but eventually made a startling discovery: most stereotypes are accurate.
Scholarly claims of “stereotype inaccuracy” are baseless, Dr. Lee Jussim told The College Fix in an interview.
“When I first began my research, I had assumed all those social scientists declaring stereotypes to be inaccurate were right, so I wanted to know the basis for those claims,” he said. “I would track down the source in an attempt to get the evidence. And slowly, over many years, I made a startling discovery — claims of stereotype inaccuracy were based on nothing.” . . .
Many researchers cite social psychologist Gordon Allport’s classic book “The Nature of Prejudice” in support of the claim that stereotypes are inaccurate or at least exaggerations of real differences. But Allport relied on a few anecdotes — hardly scientific evidence, Jussim said.
“Famous psychologists declaring stereotypes inaccurate without a citation or evidence meant anyone could likewise do so, therebycreating an illusion that pervasive stereotype inaccuracy was ‘settled science,’” Jussim said. “It was only if one looked for the empirical research underlying such claims did one discover that there was nothing there, just a black hole.” . . .

Read the whole thing. This is one of the ways “consensus” among intellectuals is harmful. Beliefs that are widely accepted in academia are never examined skeptically, and contradictory evidence is ignored or suppressed. A classic case was Dr. John Money’s theories of gender which were hugely influential in the 1970s and ’80s based on the so-called “John/Joan” case. Yet it turned out that Money’s research was fraudulent, and the “John/Joan” case actually proved the opposite of what he claimed. (See As Nature Made Him: The Boy Who Was Raised as a Girl by John Colapinto.) Still, the lessons of that case have not been fully learned, because feminists have politicized research to such an extent that no one in academia can speak the simple truth: Boys and girls are different (as Lawrence Summers learned at Harvard).

One of the books I most often recommend isThomas Sowell’s The Vision of the Anointed: Self-Congratulation as a Basis for Social Policy, which examines how certain liberal prejudices distort public policy discussions. Chapter Four, “The Irrelevance of Evidence” shows how liberal beliefs are simply immune to facts. For example, no matter how much evidence you produce showing that the breakdown of the family is a major cause of poverty, liberals insist that racism is the main reason for poverty in America, even though it can be shown that family breakdown causes poverty for white people, too.

The willingness of people to accept explanations that confirm their own prejudices produces myths of “settled science” that can endure for decades within the elite intelligentsia. In his book The Quest for Cosmic Justice, Sowell examines the claims made in Vladimir Lenin’sImperialism. Lenin asserted that the collapse of capitalism (which Marx had claimed was imminent in the mid-1800s) had been delayed because capitalists had found new sources of profit by exploiting the poor in undeveloped countries. It takes Sowell precisely two pages to destroy Lenin’s claim, showing that the “evidence” provided by Lenin was simply false. And yet, despite the demonstrable falsity of Lenin’s core thesis, and despite the subsequent failure of the Soviet economy, anti-capitalist ideas about “imperialism” and “exploitation” continue to be influential among intellectuals and policy makers. This is just one example of how the leftist prejudices in academia have prevented us from learning useful lessons from recent history. In fact, as John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr explain in their 2005 book In Denial: Historians, Communism, and Espionage, academics refuse even to admit the most basic truths of Cold War history, i.e., that the Communist Party in the United States was controlled by Moscow as an instrument of Soviet policy, used for espionage and subversion. The idea that “McCarthyism” was essentially paranoid — that there was no domestic threat from Soviet agents and that innocent liberals were wrongfully persecuted in a “witch hunt” — continues to be promoted in American universities, despite the abundant evidence that Joe McCarthy was basically right about the Communist menace. (See Blacklisted by History: The Untold Story of Senator Joe McCarthy and His Fight Against America’s Enemies by M. Stanton Evans.) The world looks much different when you are willing to examine facts that may contradict your own prejudices, but for decades the academic elite in America has ignored evidence that doesn’t conform to the “progressive” worldview.

DePaul University Is Decadent and Depraved

Those who dissent from the liberal consensus are routinely accused of “hate” — racism, sexism, homophobia, etc. — and critics are dismissed as “anti-intellectual,” a label that implies they are ignorant and opposed to education, per se. Deliberate slander is used to vilify opponents of political correctness, and we become accustomed to wildly inaccurate descriptions of academia’s critics. Just yesterday, the president of DePaul University issued an email describing Milo Yiannopoulos as “a speaker whose intent was to ignite racial tensions and demean those most marginalized.” The only possible response to such a bizarre smear is to quote George Orwell: “One has to belong to the intelligentsia to believe things like that: no ordinary man could be such a fool.”

Who is the real threat to DePaul University students? DePaul is in Chicago, one of the most dangerous cities in America, where already1,500 people have been shot so far this year, and where 66 people were murdered last month. A few years ago, DePaul honor student Francisco “Frankie” Valencia was shot to death and his girlfriend Daisy Camacho wounded by a member of the Maniac Latin Disciples gang. How can anyone imagine that a speech by Milo Yiannopoulos is more harmful to DePaul students than the criminal violence that plagues Chicago?

Students pay annual tuition of $36,361 to attend DePaul University, and evidence suggests the “education” they receive there actually makes them more ignorant than they were before they enrolled at DePaul.

Women’s and Gender Studies emphasizes feminist and social justice theory with focuses on agency, social responsibility, advocacy and activism. We help you understand the interconnectedness of systems and structures of gender, race, class, sexuality, age, ability, culture, religion and nation within broader historical, social, global, and transnational contexts.

So, what sort of “feminist and social justice theory” do you suppose DePaul students learn from their Women’s and Gender Studies classes?

The director of the program, Professor Beth Catlett, is an anti-marriage activist whose academic specialty is demonizing males as perpetrators of rape and domestic violence. Professor Catlett is the author of such works as “Class-Based Masculinities: Fatherhood, Divorce, and Hegemonic Ideals,” which denounces married men for their alleged “dominance over their wives and children,” calling for “the reorganization of family relationships” as a “positive social change” to be accomplished by “a massive campaign across our social structure.” The graduate program in Women’s and Gender Studies at DePaul, meanwhile, is directed byProfessor Ann Russo, a militant lesbian who is co-author of a book praising the notorious man-hater Andrea Dworkin. In 2011, Professor Russo used her university email account to harass a Chicago restaurantthat was hosting a Tea Party event. In February this year, Professor Russo was a featured speaker at an event at DePaul University:

The Center for Identity, Inclusion & Social Change, LGBTQ Studies and the LGBTQ Faculty and Staff Network at DePaul University hosted an intergenerational discussion concerning the identity label “lesbian” Feb. 29 at DePaul University’s Student Center.
Faculty members Lourdes Torres (professor of Latin American and Latino Studies) and Ann Russo (associate professor and graduate program director in women’s and gender studies and director of LGBTQ Studies) facilitated the talk.
Also on hand were DePaul University students and staff members Katy Weseman (LGBTQA student services coordinator at the Center for Identity, Inclusion & Social Change), Sara Furr (director, Center for Intercultural Programs) and Suresh Mudragada (assistant director at the Center for Identity, Inclusion & Social Change), among others. . . .
Russo said she identifies as a “lesbian with queer politics and a queer vision.” She noted the work she’s done in the area of lesbian-centered scholarship and activism, including the Battered Lesbian Network (in Boston), Lesbians Against Racism and Dykes Against Oppression.

Yes, an activist with “Dykes Against Oppression” is director of LGBTQ Studies at DePaul University, an allegedly Catholic institution where (a) students march in the annual Chicago Pride parade, but (b) riot when a homosexual speaker like Milo Yiannopoulos appears on campus.

What becomes obvious, to those who are willing to take a skeptical view of academia, is that “progressive” intellectuals are only interested in issues of sexuality for the same reason they are interested in race and gender, namely to convince young people that (a) they are victims of oppression, and (b) the way to end their oppression is to vote for Democrats.

Just by the way, did you know there are witches in Chicago?

In real life, a trio of performance artists who call themselves WITCHwill confront gentrification by placing a “hex” on Logan Square, thereby putting a “protective spell” on the area. That hex is ostensibly meant to ward off the evil spirits better known as luxury apartments.
The trio said that their performance is a mixture of art and protest. “We are calling them actions because it brings a level of seriousness and attention to the social justice aspects,” Jessica Caponigro, told Chicagoist. “We’re not sitting around playing dress up.”
The performers hope to bring the witchcraft’s historic role in social movements to the forefront.

Thirty years ago, in April 1986, DePaul University hosted “Her Holiness: Maiden, Mother, Crone,” a celebration of the so-called “Triple Goddess” of neo-pagan Wicca sponsored by Limina, a heretical Chicago-based group of pro-abortion Catholic feminists (see p. 81 in Ungodly Rage: The Hidden Face of Catholic Feminism by Donna Steichen). Also, for more than 15 years, DePaul University employed the late Professor Patricia Monaghan, author of such works as Seasons of the Witch: Poetry and Songs to the Goddess (1992) and The Goddess Path: Myths, Invocations, and Rituals (1999). But all this is probably just a coincidence, I’m sure.

 

The Dominican Republic jail false rape accusers

http://www.citynews.ca/2016/06/01/brampton-vacationers-recall-legal-nightmare-during-dominican-trip/

Angela Bauer and her boyfriend Collin Scott walked through the arrivals gate inside Pearson Airport, realizing their all-inclusive vacation in the Dominican Republic almost cost them their freedom.

“Literally, we’re in another country and no one is helping us right now,” Angela recalled.

The Brampton couple was staying at a resort in Punta Cana, when they were left to fend off charges after wrongfully accusing someone of harassment.

On Sunday, the pair, along with their friend Andrew, confronted a man they believed had sexually harassed two other girls who were staying at the same resort. They eventually realized it was the wrong person, and apologized. But to the man, who they say was in the local military, an apology wouldn’t suffice.

“He didn’t care, he called the police,” Angela said. “Apparently you can charge somebody over there for wrongfully accusing someone.”

US Muslim leader at Chicago conference: “Islam is here to dominate”

US Muslim leader at Chicago conference: “Islam is here to dominate”

“An American Hizb Ut-Tahrir Leader Exhorts Muslims to Refrain from Voting in U.S. Elections, Says: Islam Is Here to Dominate,” MEMRI, May 15, 2016:

Haitham Ibn Thbait, of the American chapter of Hizb Ut-Tahrir, recently exhorted American Muslims to avoid falling into the “electoral trap” and called upon them not to vote in the U.S. elections, saying that getting Muslims to vote was part of an effort to assimilate them and that they had been “tricked” into voting for Clinton, Bush, and Obama in the past. Speaking at the Khilafah 2016 conference, held in Chicago on May 15, Ibn Thbait further called Obama a “terrorist” and said that “Islam is here to dominate.” The address was posted on YouTube by Hizb Ut-Tahrir on May 20.

Following are excerpts

Haitham Ibn Thbait: The Prophet said: “There is no god but Allah.” Instead the [elites of Mecca] rejected. They offered the Prophet wealth, status, and political representation – a seat on the executive branch within Mecca’s secular order – all to avoid this statement and its implications. Yet he rejected their offers and continued his journey towards radical change, providing us with step-by-step instructions on how to make this religion supreme.

[…]

The elites of Mecca would use every possible measure to coerce or contain Muhammad’s call for change within specific parameters. Those parameters would permit the changing of anything that did not threaten their system and infringe on their power. But this message is not here to integrate. It is here to dominate. Islam is here to dominate! This was an ideological struggle, the sole purpose of which was to organize Man’s affairs in accordance with a system revealed by Allah.

Crowd member: Say: “Allah Akbar!”

Crowd: Allah Akbar!

Crowd member: Say: “Allah Akbar!”

Crowd: Allah Akbar!

Crowd member: Say: “Allah Akbar!”

Crowd: Allah Akbar!

Crowd member: Say: There is no god but Allah!

Crowd: There is no god but Allah!

Crowd member: Say: There is no god but Allah!

Crowd: There is no god but Allah!

Crowd member: Say: There is no god but Allah!

Crowd: There is no god but Allah!

Haitham Ibn Thbait: There was no room for compromise. Instead Allah revealed to the Prophet, saying: “Proclaim openly, as commanded, and turn away from those who associate others with Allah.” “Proclaim openly, as commanded by Allah” – this is our activism. It is free of polytheism, the polytheism of a secular system. Activism within a flawed infidel system is forbidden.

[…]

You cannot raise your hands to Allah, while extending your hands to men for legislation. Every four years, you do just that. Muslims are pressured to get out there and vote, believing somehow that their insignificant numbers have an impact. The effort to get Muslims out there to vote has never been about their significance. It is part of an effort to assimilate Muslims.

They have tricked Muslims into voting for Clinton, who went on to starve half a million children in Iraq to death. They tricked Muslims into voting for Bush, who went on to bomb two Muslim countries and kill millions. And they went on to trick Muslims to vote for Obama, who bombed seven Muslim countries and killed millions.

The argument used was always the “lesser of evils.” So now, killing millions of Muslims is a “lesser evil.” “What is the matter with you? How do you judge?” [Quran 68:36] The ballots have brought you nothing but disgrace, and have soaked you with the blood of your Muslim brothers and sisters. The problem with their system is not the scores of dead. It is deeper than that. It is their secular faith. It is in direct opposition with our creed, when Allah says: “Legislation belongs to none other than Allah.”

Muhammad and his companions established for us a political system where sovereignty belongs to Allah and not to the elites, where politics meant caring for the affairs of Mankind, not only the elites, where da’wa was conveyed to the whole of society, not only to the oppressed and excluding the elites. This system was not for the 99% or the 1%. This system was for the 100%. For those of us in the West, Allah granted us the opportunity to be amidst a people so misinformed that the truth we offer will resonate. Our voice is our greatest weapon, and our silence is our worst enemy.

[…]

We have seen Obama in Cairo, and later in Baltimore, reinforcing what type of Islam is acceptable. Brothers and sisters, Obama is not an Islamic reference. He is a terrorist. He represents a system of terrorism. How dare we allow him to teach us what Islam is?

Crowd member: Say: “Allah Akbar!”

Crowd: Allah Akbar!

Crowd member: Say: “Allah Akbar!”

Crowd: Allah Akbar!

Crowd member: Say: “Allah Akbar!”

Crowd: Allah Akbar!

Crowd member: Allah is our Lord, and the infidels have no lord.

Crowd: Allah is our Lord, and the infidels have no lord.

[…]
They want to entice you and intimidate you into embracing their way of life. They want to change our Islam We are not their puppets. We are a cure and a mercy. We carry a comprehensive system of solutions for Mankind, and we should act accordingly. Muslims in the West are a part of this struggle. We should not underestimate our impact in this global effort. We need to be honest about who we are, what our global program is, and advocate for the system of Islam, wherever we may be, and explain it to Muslims and non-Muslims alike. Don’t fall into the electoral trap.

MPD Union Leader: ‘Black Lives Matter Is A Terrorist Organization’

http://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2016/06/01/kroll-blm-terrorists/?cid=facebook_WCCO-TV_%7C_CBS_Minnesota

 

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — The president of the Minneapolis Police union says the officers involved in the fatal shooting of Jamar Clark are vindicated after a federal investigation cleared them of any wrongdoing.

Lt. Bob Kroll spoke at a press conference Wednesday afternoon, where he blasted Mayor Betsy Hodges and Minneapolis City Council members Alondra Cano, Cam Gordon and Lisa Bender for creating what he called a “dangerous and unproductive atmosphere.”

He also said they were “contributing to the disruption and takeover of the 4th Precinct” in the aftermath of the November shooting.

“They let the process play out, and they were wrong,” Kroll said. “The officers’ actions were justified.”

He called the shooting “unfortunate and tragic,” but put the blame squarely on Clark.

“Jamar Clark dictated the circumstances that night,” he said.

Kroll’s harshest words were pointed at Black Lives Matter, who he described as a “terrorist organization.”

“I don’t see Black Lives Matter as a voice for the black community in Minneapolis,” he said. “The disruption, the, you know, they firebombed the precinct. There were shootings outside the precinct, hundreds of thousands of dollars [of damage] to the precinct and squad cars.”

Kroll said Officers Mark Ringgenberg and Dustin Schwarze, and their families, were all victims of the “obtrusive” investigation — all for “going to a 911 call and doing their job.”

“It’s a happy day for them. The truth came out and they prevailed,” he said.

Kroll ended the conference by criticizing the fact that the officers are now in the midst of a third investigation, at the hands of Minneapolis Police.

“What other career do you get investigated three times for the same incident?” Kroll said.

Ringgenberg and Schwarze have been cleared by two investigations: one by the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, and one by the FBI.

Nagaland government says man dragged from jail and lynched in Dimapur was FALSELY accused of rape

The Nagaland government has informed the Centre that rape allegations against Syed Sarif Khan, who was lynched after being dragged out of jail in Dimapur, were false.

However, a report by the state government has not given any explanation on how the mob reached the jail and identified him.

Nagaland Chief Minister T.R. Zeliang met Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Wednesday and apprised him about the situation in the state.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/indiahome/indianews/article-2990518/Nagaland-government-says-man-dragged-jail-lynched-Dimapur-FALSELY-accused-rape.html#ixzz4Abvx5nPJ
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