Refugees Riot
Muslim migrants at a French refugee camp in Calais are rioting and, for the past two nights, they have literally burned the camp to the ground. Why would they do that?
The camp they are at now is not exactly the most welcoming place. Known as "The Jungle," it's essentially just a tent city housing about six thousand people. Crammed into such squalid conditions, you might expect people to get upset.
So the French government, at a cost of more than $21 million, built better temporary housing with heat, showers, beds and electricity.
As French authorities prepared to relocate migrants to the newer and nicer facilities, they had just one condition: The migrants had to be fingerprinted. That's when things got ugly.
"Personally, I wouldn't go because they are requiring fingerprints," said one Iraqi migrant.
Now why on earth would that be a problem? In the wake of the Paris attacks and the Istanbul bombing, not to mention our own experiences, you can certainly appreciate why European officials would want fingerprints. Refugees looking for a better life should welcome the opportunity to cooperate with authorities. But not those in The Jungle.
By the way, we told you yesterday about the assaults by migrant Muslim men against Muslim women and children refugees. It turns out that German authorities are having to create separate housing facilities for homosexual and transsexual migrants because of widespread violence from Muslims migrants.
First it was rapes. Now it's riots. Will anything wake Europe from its slumber and convince the bureaucrats to take control of the borders and defend Judeo-Christian civilization?
2015: A Record Year
It was virtually impossible while browsing the news yesterday to miss what a record year 2015 was. Here are few headlines:
"2015 Was Hottest Year Ever" -- Fox News
"A 'Scorcher': 2015 Shatters Record As Warmest Year" -- National Public Radio
"2015 Is Warmest Year On Record" -- CNN
That sounds ominous, doesn't it? But let's put that term "on record" in its proper context.
Consider this excerpt from a report about the temperature in Orlando, Florida, last year: "Orlando's highest average yearlong temperature reached 75.5 degrees, or 2.7 degrees higher than normal based on records dating to 1892."
Did you get that? The "record" is only 124 years. That's not even a blip in geologic terms.
Go back a few thousand years, long before the industrial age and the use of fossil fuels, and studies indicate the earth was hotter than it is today. But I digress.
While the media were hyperventilating over global warming, it was somewhat hard to find stories about another record: 2015 was a record year for Christian persecution around the world.
According to the latest report from Open Doors, 2015 witnessed an "unprecedented escalation of violence against Christians, making this past year the most violent and sustained attack on Christian faith in modern history."
North Korea's Stalinist regime once again topped the list of the world's worst violators of religious freedom. But the report found that "Islamic extremism is by far the most significant persecution engine" and "40 of the 50 countries on the World Watch List are affected by this kind of persecution."
Explaining Trump
As Donald Trump continues to dominate Republican primary polls, pundits are scrambling to explain the attraction of someone who is routinely described as "arrogant," "bombastic," and "a blowhard." Rush Limbaugh offered this interesting take on Trump's appeal:
"What's happening here, nationalism, dirty word, ooh, people hate it, populism, even dirtier word. Nationalism and populism have overtaken conservatism in terms of appeal. . . 'Where is conservatism in Washington?' they're asking. Where is it? The Republican Party isn't conservative. . . They don't see it."
Rush went on to suggest that many conservatives feel the GOP has failed to adequately respond to Obama, so voters are looking elsewhere for an anti-Obama. And while Trump may be running as a Republican, he is not a politician and is certainly not someone generally associated with the GOP establishment.
In fact, it is easy to question Trump's conservative credentials. But his major themes -- securing our borders, defending our culture and restoring America's greatness -- are popular. For some conservatives, that may be enough in this post-Obama era.