Steam Valve

Now, here's an idea

If you work for the government, and waste a lot of resources on a bad idea, what happens?  You get in the newspaper. 

Why should you prosecute criminals who are religious fanatics if you can come up with a new, innovative program to let them avoid prosecution?  The Daily Mail reports

Islamic extremists could receive counselling instead of criminal charges under new Government plans to 'deradicalise' religious fanatics issued today.

The move is part of a £12.5m Home Office plan which give councils guidance about how to prevent extremism spreading.

People who fall under the influence of violent organisations will not  automatically face prosecution under the new plan.

Instead it will concentrate on a national 'deradicalisation' programme that will try to persuade extremists to change their views through therapy and counselling from community groups.

The scheme will seek to reverse the process of indoctrination carried out by al Qaida-related extremists, using unnamed 'specialised techniques'.

Community groups and councils in England and Wales will get cash from a £12.5m fund to implement the new measures.

Evil

Read about it here

Higher Education's Hidden Costs

University of California-Irvine, ranked by US News and World Report among the top fifty American Colleges, exacts greater costs from its students than its $7,556 in-state, $27,176 out-of-state tuition. 

It bows to the demands of its radical islamic elements while ignoring the rights of those with other beliefs.  This used to be viewed as a violation of the Bill of Rights, but the UCI administrators behave as though the Bill of Rights has been superceded by sharia law.

According to a Pajamas Media report:

The University of California-Irvine is a sprawling campus in Orange County. The institution, located between the Santa Ana Mountains and the shore of the Pacific Ocean, is not only home to some of the best minds in science and engineering, but also to some of the most virulent supporters of radical Islam in America — and a school administration bent on capitulating to them.
. . .

What’s alarming is the administration’s willingness to enforce the MSU’s prerogatives on other students who attend their events — hence the application of Sharia law where the Bill of Rights is applicable. For example, while videotaping Malik-Ali’s speech, we were confronted by a school administrator. Dean of Student Services Sally Peterson told us that, on behalf of the male students, we would have to stop filming the female activists, or as she called them “the sisters.” Aware of our rights, we refused her orders and continued covering the event.
. . .

A Christian preacher on campus, Michael Venyah, also had his rights violated last Thursday. This preacher, who believes that all people must accept Jesus in order to get into heaven, began preaching about the prophet Mohammad and his crimes. Evidently, MSU members didn’t like hearing what he had to say and opted for charging and running into him. This was clearly an incident of assault. The cops present did nothing, and Dean of Judicial Affairs Edgar Dormitorio suggested that Mr. Venyah should leave.

Another case of MSU’s vigilantism occurred when a young Jewish female was followed back to her car and surrounded by six members of the MSU. A community member who witnessed the harassment also had her civil rights violated when the Muslim students noticed her. As UC Irvine police offers stood idly by, the Muslim students proceeded to situate themselves on the hood of her car in order to photograph her face, her vehicle identification number, and her license plate. When she later called the police department for answers, they justified the criminal behavior as the culmination of a tit for tat ethnic squabble. Put simply, they justified the need for Muslim students to “vent,” as they were just getting back at the Jews.

Free Press Attacked

Will Mindy Greiling now call for the firing of the KSTP photojournalist who was attacked by school officials at the Tarik ibn Zayad Academy, or the Minnesota Dept. of Education employees who dared to direct the charter school to take appropriate corrective actions to change two areas related to religion at the school?

Good News: Thought Police Apologize

As we saw with libel terrorism, British citizens don't have freedom of speech as we know it.  Sky.com reports that after Britain's Channel 4 aired a documentary that exposed hate speech spewed by preachers and teachers in a British mosque, the police accused the station of misleading the public and stirring up racial hatred, alleging in a press release that footage of the speakers had been so “heavily edited” and taken out of context that it had “completely distorted” their meaning.

Some of the statements captured in the documentary "Undercover Mosque" by an undercover reporter:

Allah created the woman deficient

By the age of 10, it becomes an obligation on us to force her (young girls) to wear hijab and if she doesn't wear hijab, we hit her

Take that homosexual and throw him off the mountain

Whoever changes his religion from Al Islam to anything else - kill him in the Islamic state

Last year, an independent investigation by a broadcasting regulator concluded that the police charges were unfounded.

West Midlands Police have now admitted:

Following an independent investigation by the broadcasting regulator Ofcom, we now accept that we were wrong to make these allegations. We now accept that there was no evidence that the broadcaster or programme makers had misled the audience or that the programme was likely to encourage or incite criminal activity.

Actually, this admission occurred after Channel 4 decided to bring libel charges against the police. 

The police were hoisted by their own petard.  In that land without free speech, the police claimed the network misled the public, but when the independent regulatory agency found otherwise, the network suddenly had a made-to-order defense and could then turn the tables on the police, who would've had to prove the agency's findings wrong. 

Don't try this at home.

Science proves that religion is good

I remember when science and religion were viewed as opposite poles.  No more.  Science Daily reports that thinking about God leads to generosity.  The study hasn't been published yet, so we don't know any details.  But www.sciencedaily.com reports:

In a study to be published in the September issue of Psychological Science journal, researchers investigated how thinking about God and notions of a higher power influenced positive social behaviour, specifically cooperation with others and generosity to strangers.

We are not told whether the references that triggered the generosity were to "God" or "Allah," or both.