Free Republic

Gigantic mobile super city to make the whole world become China 17.09.2008 Source: Pravda.Ru URL: http://english.pravda.ru/science/tech/106379-superstar-0 The city of the future aims skyward in a new incredible concept designed by the Chinese company MAD Architects. The city, dubbed as The Superstar, will have a completely self-sufficient structure and will be capable of producing all necessary energy and raw materials by means of processing its own wastes. Designed as a future renovation of the contemporary Chinatown, The Superstar will be traveling over the world providing other ground-based cities with electric power, commercial and cultural activities, InFuture.ru website reports. The city, which...

Somalian woman who came to Norway more than 10 years ago is harshly criticizing her fellow Somalian immigrants and Norwegian authorities. In a new book, she claims Somalians themselves don't want to integrate into Norwegian society, and that Norwegian welfare programs make it easy for them to remain isolated. A Somalian immigrant in Oslo is blasting her fellow Somalians for resisting integration. The Norwegian welfare system lets them get away with it, she claims. She claims that resistance to integration is widespread especially among Somalian men, who fear losing their culture and religion. Many are afraid of Norwegians and view...

It is hard to imagine a Jewish gathering more unassuming and humble, yet more strategically critical for Jewish communal life, than the Conference on Alternatives in Jewish Education that took place last week in rainy Vermont. Some 230,000 American children receive their primary Jewish experiences in supplementary schools, or Hebrew schools, each week, at the same time connecting perhaps 460,000 parents to the synagogue and community. For the those who teach in these Hebrew schools - the interface between so many weakly-affiliated Jews and the organized community - CAJE is the sole major professional development conference. As American Jewry splits...

Labor Day Reinstated as Paid Holiday at Shelbyville, TN, Plant Tyson Foods Requested Change from Union ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Springdale, Arkansas - August 8, 2008 - Tyson Foods, Inc. announced today it has reached a new agreement with the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU), an American union, reinstating Labor Day as one of the designated paid holidays under the contract for covered employees in the Shelbyville, Tennessee, plant. Tyson made this request on behalf of its Shelbyville plant employees, some of whom had expressed concern about the new contract provisions relative to paid holidays. In an effort to be responsive,...

Food workers at the Shelbyville, Tenn., plant for Tyson Foods, which boasts on its corporate website that it strives "to honor God," will have time off for Eid al-Fitr, the Muslim holiday closing the month of Ramadan, instead of the American tradition Labor Day. Officials with the company told WND the labor union representing the 1,200 plant workers, including about 700 immigrants from Somalia who largely are Muslim, sought the holiday change in the new five-year contract, and the company agreed.

link only per rules: http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080725/METRO/807250385/1409/METRO

While to some folks the idea of dual citizenship might seem benign, it can greatly effect a person’s emotional attachment and identification with this country. Emotional attachment and identification with a country contributes greatly to a person’s willingness to make sacrifices and stand in harms way to defend our home, values and ideals. Still, dual citizenship has become acceptable because instead of promoting assimilation, diversity has become the mantra of our public institutions, undermining what traditionally binds us together; the shared values and political beliefs that make us one people… This notion and the idea that there are no consequences...

John McCain and Barack Obama both gave speeches at the League of United Latin American Citizens convention in Wash ington - and in the 4,600 words they spoke between them didn't mention assimilation once. Never mind that assimilation is the key to the historic success of American immigration. We all know how it classically works: An immigrant group comes to the US with low levels of education and income, living in ethnic enclaves and clinging to its original culture; then, its children improve their socio-economic lot, and the children-of-the-children get even further ahead, until they are all doctors and lawyers...

WASHINGTON -- Just in time for Independence Day, a conservative think tank has delivered a controversial report questioning whether America's national identity is eroding under the pressure of population diversity and educational slackness. The threat outlined by the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation in its report, "E Pluribus Unum" strikes me as a bit exaggerated. But at a time when Barack Obama and John McCain find themselves debating the "patriotism issue," having a coherent discussion of this matter -- and this short pamphlet is admirably written and well-researched -- is a useful contribution. The takeoff point for the argument is...

Acting recently as an expert witness in a murder trial, I became aware of a small legal problem caused by the increasingly multicultural nature of our society. According to English law, a man is guilty of murder if he kills someone with the intention either to kill or to injure seriously. But he is guilty of the lesser crime of manslaughter if he has been sufficiently provoked or if his state of mind at the time was abnormal enough to reduce his responsibility. The legal test here is a comparison with the supposedly ordinary man—the man on the Clapham omnibus,...

Public concern about the impact of new immigration on America has reached a pitch not seen since the early 20th century. Americans have experienced an immigration surge unprecedented in their lifetimes. This is an unsurprising coincidence in light of the fact that our immigrant population of 37 million is, in absolute numbers, greater than it has been at any time in our history. It’s nearly as large a percentage, 12.5%, of the population as it was at its historic peak at 14.5% in 1890. Today, there are more immigrants from Mexico than there were foreign-born residents from all countries in...

Cheap Tomatoes And Cheap Labor CHEAP TOMATOES? This should make everyone think, be you Democrat, Republican or Independent. From a California school teacher - - - 'As you listen to the news about the student protests over illegal immigration, there are some things that you should be aware of: I am in charge of the English-as-a-second-language department at a large southern California high school which is designated a Title 1 school, meaning that its students average lower social economic and income levels. Most of the schools you are hearing about, South Gate High, Bell Gardens , Huntington Park , etc.,...

Pa. judge sentences 3 men to learn English or go to jail The Associated Press WILKES-BARRE, Pa. - An eastern Pennsylvania judge known for creative sentencing has ordered three men to learn English or go to jail. Luzerne County Judge Peter Paul Olszewski Jr. said the men, who faced prison for criminal conspiracy to commit robbery, can remain on parole if they learn to read and write English, earn their GEDs and get full-time jobs. Olszewski noted that the three men, Luis Reyes, Ricardo Dominguez and Rafael Guzman-Mateo, plus a fourth defendant, Kelvin Reyes-Rosario, all needed translators in court when...

PROVIDENCE — A new initiative borne of a recent incident between a Providence storeowner and two Spanish-speaking customers is asking all Rhode Islanders to help stop hate speech and violence directed at “immigrants and communities of color.” The “We Can Stop the Hate” campaign was announced at the University of Rhode Island’s downtown campus, a week after published reports about a March 1 encounter between two Dominican natives who are also U.S. citizens, and David C. Richardson, owner of Rhode Island Refrigeration. The incident provoked accusations against Richardson of racial profiling and committing a hate crime. The “stop the hate”...

Angry Chicago Latino parents threatened Tuesday to keep their kids home on test day next month if state education officials insist on giving students who are still learning English an achievement test in English.(snip) Speaking through a Spanish-English translator, parent Erika Soto said her third-grade daughter is “very smart, but because of this test, she is going to be labeled a failure. So how is she going to feel?’’Parents raised their hands in agreement Tuesday when asked if they would keep their children home rather than have them take the new test.“We have to push them to pay attention and...

I don't mean to be a downer, but we've lost. And I don't mean the primary. The popularity of Obama among all groups and the increased support for liberalism and Democrats especially among the youth portend disaster. Even if Conservatives were to magically retake the GOP, we are losing the country. Although individual conservative ideas are still popular, the American people want the nanny state to protect them, the government to provide or regulate health insurance at magically low cost, increased spending on all sorts of social programs and pork. The failure of "big government" in the late 1960s to...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 11, 2008 – A Defense Department employee was among three people arrested today for espionage after allegedly passing classified U.S. government documents and information to the People’s Republic of China, Justice Department officials announced. Gregg William Bergersen, 51, a weapons system policy analyst at the Arlington, Va. -based Defense Security Cooperation Agency, is accused of being the source of the classified information. Much of the information related to U.S. military sales to Taiwan, Justice Department officials said. Bergersen allegedly passed the information between January 2006 and this month to Tai Shen Kuo, 58, a naturalized U.S. citizen and...

One of the Church of England's most senior bishops says he fears Islamic extremists are creating "no-go areas" across Britain for non-Muslims. The right Reverend Michael Nazir-Ali, the Church's only Asian bishop, says people of a different race or faith face being attacked in some Muslim areas. In the Sunday Telegraph he criticises the doctrine of multiculturalism for creating separate communities which fail to integrate in to the mainstream of society. In a wide-ranging attack, Dr Nazir-Ali, the Bishop of Rochester, compares intimidation by Muslim radicals to that by far-Right extremists. He questions whether elements of Sharia law are applicable...

Lubbock Hispanic Chamber of Commerce officials say a proposed merger with the Lubbock Chamber of Commerce will fix the Hispanic group's financial problems and allow it to better serve its members. But some residents and members are concerned that merging could mean Hispanics will lose their voice, allowing their needs and interests to disappear in the system. The Hispanic chamber held a public forum Saturday morning to discuss the pros and cons of a merger, which has to be approved by members and accepted by the Lubbock chamber to happen. If the two chambers merge, the Hispanic chamber, which has...

The Netherlands, one reads, has come to accept that magistrates require a generous range of motion to prevent radical clerics from "exercising their profession." But empowering judges will clearly not suffice to promote the "integration" of imams, or to groom a crop of clerics attuned to Western values. So while lawmakers across the Continent consider means to douse inflammatory speech and detain troublemakers "constitutionally," it's time again to consider l'exception française.France, far from those "Cheese-eating surrender monkeys" depicted in "The Simpsons," has distinguished itself (since the Paris terror bombings of 1986, especially) as a nation uniquely disposed to trample toes...

In Chandler Arizona (a suburb of Phoenix) there is a serial rapist on the loose. All of the 12-15 year old girls who have been raped by this man have given a similar description. The suspect is described as Hispanic, 5-feet-8, wearing a white t-shirt and jeans and boots. The police are sharing this information with all the local media in the hopes of getting some information from the public that will help catch this son-of-a-bitch. But local Spanish language radio stations are refusing to include the word “Hispanic” in the description because they feel it unfairly targets the Hispanic...

The Muslim Students Association at UTSC has ignited a fierce debate on the particulars of halal food on campus, refusing to support a long-awaited halal option at a Bluff’s, a UTSC campus restaurant. The result of numerous faculty, staff and student requests, the new menu was introduced to the campus on May 29, making all chicken and beef options certified halal. Despite this, many MSA members say that any establishment that also serves alcohol and plays dance music is an unsuitable environment for their dietary needs. This disagreement between the MSA and the university is not the first. Halal food...

AMERICANA, Brazil Now well past 90, Judith MacKnight Jones is suffering from Alzheimer's disease, the illness that robbed her of all of her memory, her most precious asset. She has been lying here for the past 11 years, covered by a patchwork blanket, made from pieces her great-grandmother brought from the United States between 1865 and 1885, after the Confederacy lost the Civil War. Unable to speak or remember now, her book "Soldado Descanso" ("Rest Soldier") is written in Portuguese, but soon will be translated into English, as the publisher thinks Americans should know about the proud history of Confederate...

After the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Muslim immigrants were seen as a potential threat in the United States. They have since become model citizens -- and now they want a greater say in politics. Why shouldn't we wear head scarves? It is almost 1 p.m., time for noon prayers, and Abdul Malik Mujahid, 55, is in his office on the second floor of Chicago's Downtown Islamic Center, preparing for his sermon. On his desk are a Koran, a pad of paper and a Blackberry. A telephone rings in the next room as people hurry through the corridors. Soon Mujahid...

"The histories of bilingual and bicultural societies that do not assimilate are histories of turmoil, tension, and tragedy." - Sociologist Seymour Martin Lipset Americans have an almost blind faith in the melting pot. Not without reason. Our greatest national achievement is fashioning a common identity out of a wide variety of races, nationalities and ethnic groups. The melting pot melted and we became (with a few lumps) one nation and one people. We did not create a perfect world, but we became a unified nation with a common identity, common language and common allegiances. E Pluribus Unum (From Many, One)...

U.S.-Born Students Are Going Back to Their Family Roots As the first day of school approached this month, Brian Agugoesi, 13, packed his bags with pens..He also included Honeycomb cereal, which is impossible to get at his school, and tablets to fend off malaria...The Randallstown, Md., boy was packing for his second year at Grundtvig International Secondary School in...Nigeria, an institution that, according to its Web site, boasts a water borehole and "network of tarred roads" on a 10-hectare campus... Brian's parents, Rita and Charles Agugoesi, chuckled at that story on the recent eve of Brian's flight to Lagos. It...

frontenac — Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., asserted Friday that his anti-immigration message, which brought a crowd here to its feet, is also dragging down his Republican bid for the White House. Why? "Money," or rather, lack of it, replied Tancredo, as he mingled with the audience of activists with Eagle Forum, a social conservative group holding a national meeting this weekend at the Frontenac Hilton. The major presidential fundraisers, regardless of party, "are taking money from executives with corporations that have a very big stake in this,'' Tancredo said. They oppose his candidacy, he said, because big business favors "massive...

Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani stood by Congressman Peter King, a homeland security adviser to his campaign, over his comment that there are “too many mosques” in the country. Giuliani told reporters late Thursday afternoon, “I know exactly what Pete meant. I knew what he meant before I heard the clarification.” The political web site, Politico, reported King said in an interview this week , “Unfortunately we have too many mosques in this country, there's too many people who are sympathetic to radical Islam. We should be looking at them more carefully, we should be finding out how we can...

Young American Jews are feeling increasingly alienated and disconnected from Israel, according to a study to be released Thursday by Professors Steven M. Cohen and Ari Y. Kelman. Based on the responses of more than 1,700 non-Orthodox American Jews of all ages, the study indicates that successively younger age groups show a greater detachment from the State of Israel. According to the report, which was based on statistics collected as part of the 2007 National Survey of American Jews between December 20, 2006, and January 28, 2007, less than half of Jews under the age of 35 believe Israel's destruction...

Hallway rape went unreported by neighbors Surveillance video shows that five to 10 people in the St. Paul apartment building saw a man attack a woman - but did nothing. By Anthony Lonetree and Pat Pheifer, Star Tribune Last update: August 24, 2007 – 8:37 AM The video shows what most witnesses in a St. Paul apartment building apparently didn't tell. A man beat a woman, removed his pants and sexually assaulted her in a hall, and five to 10 people saw at least part of the attack but did nothing to intervene or help, according to investigators and court...

The Federal Government has released a draft copy of its new citizenship guidelines, which include a test requiring migrants to answer questions about Australian society and culture. Among the values laid out in the document are tolerance and compassion, freedom of speech and a respect for Australia's British heritage. Migrants will be expected to correctly name Australia's first prime minister and know the year of federation. Those topics are among a list of 200 questions that will not be revealed publicly. The Federal Government says its new citizenship tests could be in use by the end of next month, if...

The Boy Scouts of America recently tapped into a new vein of American youth, launching programs in Latino communities across the nation. With national enrollment down nearly 10 percent since 1998, the Boy Scouts looked to Latino communities to help reverse their plummeting numbers and the new source seems to be working

With national enrollment down nearly 10 percent since 1998, the Boy Scouts looked to Latino communities to help reverse their plummeting numbers and the new source seems to be working

Comes now a blockbuster report by political scientist Robert Putnam, author of the runaway bestseller "Bowling Alone." Putnam provides supporting fire from Harvard Yard for those who say America needs a time-out from mass immigration, be it legal or illegal, like the immigration moratorium we had from 1924-1965. "E Pluribus Unum: Diversity and Community in the 21st Century" is the title of Putnam's five-year study, which makes hash out of the politically correct cliché, "Our diversity is our strength." After 30,000 interviews, Putnam concludes and reports, against his own progressive convictions, that ethnic and racial diversity can be devastating to...

The Senate’s phone system crashed last month during immigration reform debates, when thousands of people and anti-immigrant activists called their senators to protest the legalization of millions of undocumented immigrants. The massive, unprecedented telephone campaign was sparked by a range of complex motives based on social and economic issues. Among them was a theme that promises to reappear if the issue is revisited: the perception that Latinos are too different to assimilate, do not learn English, and are unraveling the fabric of the identity of a nation that was, ironically, created by immigrants. “It is one of the ideas that...

Let us for a moment not worry about the health of the economy or the justice of kicking out the millions of illegal aliens we have let in with a wink and a nod. There will be plenty of time for those concerns in the months ahead. Instead, let us recognize the crisis of American citizenship itself, accelerated by 40 years of unchecked illegal immigration and deeply flawed attempts at immigration reform.

Islamofascism is fast over taking the immigrant communities of old Europe. Now, by "immigrant community" Europeans mean Muslim immigrants, of course. Whether they be Moroccans, or Africans or what have you, large segments of Europe's immigrants are from Muslim countries and these insular communities are long past the point of being merely troublesome already having become an outright danger. It has been a long time coming, but some Europeans are finally getting to the point of having had enough. More and more are finally beginning to speak out. But Europe’s empty PC attitudes and platitudes are hard in dying. We...

France on Monday fixed itself a target according to which economic immigration will represent 50 percent of the registered immigrants who wish to settle permanently in France. France will authorize a certain number of immigrants to settle in the country, while insisting on them to "respect our values" and "controlling the extent of migratory waves," according to a " letter of mission" from French President Nicolas Sarkozy which was submitted to French immigration and national identity minister Brice Hortefeux. Family groupings in France will be subordinate, from then onwards, to having an accommodation and sufficient incomes to sustain a family....

Canadian creed and culture By Jordan Michael Smith Ottawa Sun, Monday, July 9, 2007 Martin Luther King, Jr. argued in 1962 that "integration is the ultimate goal of our national community." A desegregated society that is not integrated leads to "physical proximity without spiritual affinity," he said. "It gives us a society where men are physically desegregated and spiritually segregated, where elbows are together and hearts are apart." These words remain as true as when they were spoken, and perhaps a great deal truer, for the simple reason that we are witnessing the disastrous results of a desegregated society...

America can't afford to lose its common language. It is late afternoon in Manhattan on the Fourth of July, and I'm walking along on Lexington and 59th, in front of Bloomingdale's. Suddenly in my sight there's a young woman standing on a street grate. She is short, about 5 feet tall, and stocky, with a broad brown face. She is, I think, Latin American, maybe of Indian blood. She has a big pile of advertisements in her hand, and puts one toward me. "MENS SUITS NEW YORK--40% to 60% Off Sale!--Armani, Canali, Hugo Boss, DKNY, Zegna. TAILOR ON PREMISES. EXCELLENT...

AMNESTY is dead. Now, let's talk about the other "A" word. It's the word and the concept completely abandoned during the immigration debate: assimilation.........if the open-borders advocates would actually read American history instead of revising it, they would see that the Founding Fathers were emphatically insistent on protecting the country against indiscriminate mass immigration. * George Washington, in a letter to John Adams, stated that immigrants should be absorbed into American life so that "by an intermixture with our people, they, or their descendants, get assimilated to our customs, measures, laws: in a word soon become one people." * The...

Amnesty is dead. Now, let's talk about the other "A" word. It's the word and the concept completely abandoned during the immigration debate: assimilation. Over the last year, hundreds of thousands of illegal alien demonstrators took to the streets lobbying for amnesty. Marchers waved "Amnestia Ahora!" placards in one hand, the flags of their native countries in the other. Open-borders strategists quickly replaced the foreign flags with Old Glory after militant activists caused a public backlash last year. National newspapers played dutiful propagandists and splashed patriotic photo-ops of the "undocumented" masses wrapped in red, white and blue to drum up...

Happy Fourth of July. To mark this Wednesday's holiday, I share a small moment that happened a year ago in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. I was at a wake for an old family friend named Anthony Coppola, a retired security guard who'd been my uncle Johnny's best friend from childhood. All the old neighborhood people were there from Clinton Avenue and from other streets in Brooklyn, and Anthony's sisters Tessie and Angie and Gloria invited a priest in to say some prayers. About a hundred of us sat in chairs in a little side chapel in the funeral home.

The vast majority of people in the United States believe everybody who calls themselves an American citizen should speak the national language, according to a poll by Hart/Newhouse released by the Wall Street Journal and NBC News. 89 per cent of respondents support having all immigrants applying for citizenship being required to learn English. In May 2006, U.S. president George W. Bush addressed the nation to discuss his immigration proposals. Bush outlined five clear objectives: securing the borders, creating a temporary worker program, holding employers to account for the workers they hire, allowing illegal immigrants "who have roots" in the...

For Immediate ReleaseOffice of the Press SecretaryJune 23, 2007 President's Radio Address   President's Radio Address  Audio  En Español       In Focus: Immigration THE PRESIDENT: Good morning. This week, Senate leaders introduced revised legislation on comprehensive immigration reform. I thank leaders from both parties for their bipartisan effort to fix our immigration system so it can meet the needs of our Nation in the 21st century. As the Senate takes up this critical bill, I understand that many Americans have concerns about immigration reform -- especially about the federal government's ability to secure the border. So this bill puts the enforcement tools...

« The Duck Nips The Tiger At Oakmont | Main June 19, 2007 Excuse Me, For A Simple Opinion The 2008 Presidential Election should be a SINGLE issue election, in my opinion. Immigration. Period. End of list of problems to handle for the next 4 years. Let’s not muddy the water with anything else. Sure, terrorism is an issue. But we’ve had almost 7 years now to re-adjust to this new world reality. Let’s put it aside, just for now. The issue of what is “America” all about and what it means to be an American needs to be addressed...

Go deeper. That's what I keep thinking as Americans fight the Washington establishment (the Republican Party, the Democratic Party, their big contributors) on immigration. Go deeper. Look at the real emotions driving the struggle as opposed to what politicians and the media claim are "the high emotions surrounding this issue."

SAN JOSE — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's views about civilian border patrols, immigration reform and undocumented immigrants were put to the test Wednesday when he was grilled by Latino journalists gathered for an annual convention. Schwarzenegger's appearance in the historic California Theatre at the start of the National Assn. of Hispanic Journalists' 25th anniversary convention aimed to improve his image among Latinos, an important segment of the California electorate. Whether his big grin and conciliatory responses won over critics remains to be seen. The governor drew gasps from some of the 700 people in the audience by suggesting that undocumented immigrants...

Foreigners who want to join their families in France will soon have to pass a test on the French language and national values before leaving their home countries under the first move by President Sarkozy to curb immigration. Rights groups and the Socialist opposition have denounced the draft law, which will go to Parliament next month, as populist and xenophobic. It aims to tighten curbs on family reunification that were imposed by Mr Sarkozy when he was Interior Minister before his election to the presidency. These included an integration test for applicants for long-term residence permits. ...The link between national...

Queens Community House in Jackson Heights, N.Y., doesn't advertise its free English courses, but for many years its lotteries for places in the class drew hordes that required police presence. A new system has eliminated the crowds -- and the need for cops -- but competition for spaces remains fierce: Three out of four interested applicants are turned away. "People plead and cry on the day the names are posted," says director K.C. Williams, an 18-year veteran of English-language programs. "You cannot imagine how much these immigrants want to learn English. Demand is off the charts." English classes are crowded...