Ground Zero Mosque Imam Builds Bridges with Conspiracy Theories and the “N” Word

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Here’s the mighty “moderate” Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf in an interview overseas claiming America has killed more Muslims than Al-Qaeda among other preposterous claims. He also drops the N-word in there at one point in the interview. Sounds like he’s building bridges, eh?

For preppers, the takeaway here is that a 13-story fortified mosque in a port city where a large number of cargo containers don’t get inspected is probably going to be a flash point for civil unrest and with a Imam this radical will become a hard point for Islamist terror operations. Be prepared.

h/t Atlas Shrugs

Giant Rats Terrorizing Britain!

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Ratzilla!

A man hunting rats with an airgun (one of the only kinds of hunting you can still get away with in England I guess) was surprised by cat sized rats who have caused a panic in the sleepy hamlet of Ravenscliffe. From The Sun:

HORRIFIED neighbours told yesterday how their homes are being invaded by giant rats – including a 30-INCH LONG monster that was shot dead.

The rodents, twice the size of common types, are plaguing an estate in Bradford, West Yorks, often appearing in kitchens and lounges.

It is feared some could be “super rats” from South America.

[…]

But the shaken man who shot it in the head – 31-year-old Brandon Goddard – yesterday revealed FOUR others of the same size scuttled away to safety.

And he said: “They were more like Ratzillas than rats.

“I got out of there as fast as I could. Who knows how many there will be if they’ve been breeding?”

The shot rat, feared to be from a species native to South America, is TWICE as big as common British types and the largest seen here.

The residents of Ravenscliffe estate in Bradford, West Yorks, are used to seeing massive rodents that sometimes appear in their kitchens and lounges.

[…]

Brandon toted an air rifle as he went “ratting” with pals on the edge of the estate – which they had heard was rife with rodents.

The group heard “rustling and scrabbling” before the five huge rats shot out from behind a wall. Brandon, a manager at a cleaning firm, said: “The first went right past but we got the second one. Then three more got away.

“I’ve seen thousands of rats during the course of my work and go shooting a couple of times a week. But I’ve never seen any as big as this. The one I shot was absolutely terrifying. I was shaking. Goodness knows where the others went. I’m glad I don’t live there.”

After taking the photo, the ratters dumped the shot rodent in undergrowth. It is thought it was eaten by a fox.

The estate has long had a monster rat problem. Rebecca told how her cat Marie cornered one in her lounge. But it stood and fought as it was just as big as the moggy.

A neighbour clobbered it with a baseball bat.

And he and Marie took five dead rats to the local council’s offices, tipping them over a desk to demand action.

Rebecca said: “They came quickly, blocked holes and put down poison. But people still see them outside regularly.”

Neighbour Julie Briggs, 28, told how she and partner Andrew Denton, 24, hear rats fighting and squealing in the walls of their rented semi, which stands opposite open countryside.

Mum-of-six Julie said: “I find droppings on the cooker when they get into the house. I’ve seen them in the lounge as we watch TV.

“At night you can hear them chasing each other in the loft. They sound like drag racing cars as they screech across the rafters.”

Last night experts called the shot rat “extraordinary” and said the colony was worth investigating.

I should say so. There’s been much talk of this being an exotic South American species but the picture looks like a regular rat to me. When I heard about this story I thought it could be a muskrat, but that looks more like a Bronx sewer rat … on steroids.

About 60 miles away two large rats were caught in a East Midlands factory that were identified as common brown rats. Each was two feet long, approximately twice the normal size.

Britain isn’t alone however. In 2009 a giant rat was caught in China that weighed about six pounds. It was tentatively identified as a Bamboo Rat and six pounds would be it’s normal size, but the creature was found far outside it’s natural territory.

Are Britain’s giant rats hybrids of exotics with native species, or evidence of a crumbling empire whose sedentary urban populace has allowed vermin to grow to brutish proportions? Either way a hunting season should be declared before these filthy beasts spread a disease or eat a baby.

Philadelphia Requiring Bloggers to Pay $300 for “Business License”

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The narrative here is that Philly is just so cash strapped they’re going after anyone they can get, but frankly this is more about a city descending into chaos cracking down on reporters they can’t control. But concentrating on this one hobby blogger distracts from this point:

For the past three years, Marilyn Bess has operated MS Philly Organic,  a small, low-traffic blog that features occasional posts about green living, out of her Manayunk home. Between her blog and infrequent contributions to ehow.com, over the last few years she says she’s made about $50. To Bess, her website is a hobby. To the city of Philadelphia, it’s a potential moneymaker, and the city wants its cut.
In May, the city sent Bess a letter demanding that she pay $300, the price of a business privilege license.

“The real kick in the pants is that I don’t even have a full-time job, so for the city to tell me to pony up $300 for a business privilege license, pay wage tax, business privilege tax, net profits tax on a handful of money is outrageous,” Bess says.

It would be one thing if Bess’ website were, well, an actual business, or if the amount of money the city wanted didn’t outpace her earnings six-fold. Sure, the city has its rules; and yes, cash-strapped cities can’t very well ignore potential sources of income. But at the same time, there must be some room for discretion and common sense.

When Bess pressed her case to officials with the city’s now-closed tax amnesty program, she says, “I was told to hire an accountant.”

They talk about another blogger who raked in a whopping $11 over two years. Clearly the city does not hope these people will continue paying, but it will be hoping to limit the number of bloggers covering their inability to control “flash mobs” and other criminality.

Riot at Earth, Wind and Fire Concert?

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This doesn’t sound right, but S.W.A.T. teams had to fire tear gas into a violent crowd who went on a rampage after hearing Earth Wind and Fire play a set at some arts and crafts festival:

Fort Collins police fired tear gas to disperse a mob, and when that didn’t work, called in a SWAT team to bring rioters under control in the Old Town area early this morning.

Police responded at about 1 a.m. to three separate fights involving large crowds in the area of the Bohemian Nights at NewWest Fest, a music and arts and crafts festival, is underway this weekend.

As officers moved in to break up the fights members of the crowd dispersed. About 400 people gathered at the intersection of Mountain and College Avenues, police said.

Members of the mob threw beer bottles, patio furniture and other objects at police, damaged cars, stole items from festival vendor’s tents and set trash cans on fire.

Several were injured and two people who were thrown through a plate glass window had to be taken to a hospital for treatment.

Police said they did not know the extent of the injuries. No police officers were injured.

The crowd ignored numerous warnings to leave the area or face tear gas, police said.

The mob continued its rampage after tear gas was fired. SWAT and Mobile Field Force teams moved in.

[…]

It was the second of three nights of music at Bohemian Nights at NewWestFest. The riot followed a performance by Grammy winning R&B and Soul band Earth, Wind & Fire.

I was born in ’71 and raised in a house where Eath Wind and Fire were played regularly. This is not music to riot by:

I point this out because it seems more likely that the people in this riot went to the festival planning on rioting. No one can listen to Earth, Wind and Fire and want to break windows. And no one is going to get so amped up by Shining Star that they’re willing to ignore tear gas. It is a summer of discontent and civil order is breaking down.

Surprise! Obama’s Home Mortgage Program a Failure

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Not quite a dismal failure yet, as only 50% of people are dropping out. For people who don’t understand economics (lefties) this is acceptable:

WASHINGTON  (AP) – Nearly half of the 1.3 million homeowners who enrolled in the Obama administration’s flagship mortgage-relief program have fallen out.

The program is intended to help those at risk of foreclosure by lowering their monthly mortgage payments. Friday’s report from the Treasury Department suggests the $75 billion government effort is failing to slow the tide of foreclosures in the United States, economists say.

More than 2.3 million homes have fallen into foreclosure since the recession began in December 2007, according to foreclosure listing service RealtyTrac Inc. Economists expect the number of foreclosures to grow well into next year.

“The government program as currently structured is petering out. It is taking in fewer homeowners, more are dropping out and fewer people are ending up in permanent modifications,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics.

Besides forcing people from their homes, foreclosures and distressed home sales have pushed down on home values and crippled the broader housing industry. They have made it difficult for homebuilders to compete with the depressed prices and discouraged potential sellers from putting their homes on the market.

Approximately 630,000 people who had tried to get their monthly mortgage payments lowered through the government program have been cut loose through July, according to the Treasury report. That’s about 48 percent of the those who had enrolled since March 2009. And it is up from more than 40 percent through June.

Another 421,804, or roughly 32 percent of those who started the program, have received permanent loan modifications and are making their payments on time.

RealtyTrac reported that the number of U.S. homes lost to foreclosure surged in July to 92,858 properties, up 9 percent from June. The pace of repossessions has been increasing and the nation is now on track to having more than 1 million homes lost to foreclosure by the end of the year. That would eclipse the more than 900,000 homes repossessed in 2009, the firm says.

Lenders have historically taken over about 100,000 homes a year, according to RealtyTrac.

In other words, this was throwing away tax payer money to help people who put themselves in positions it was impossible to fix. Makes sense.

The economy is getting better though, right?