Laigle’s Forum

Officials seek to terminate Johansson family’s parental rights 

Please Write

Both the ADF and HSLDA are asking for letters to be written in an attempt to renew attention to the Johanssons’ case. You can download a sample letter using either format below.

Download the sample letter in Microsoft Word >>

Download the sample letter as a PDF >>
(requires Adobe Acrobat Reader)

HSLDA has learned that Swedish officials on the Island of Gotland may be seeking to terminate the parental rights of Annie and Christer Johansson. Seven-year old Domenic Johansson was snatched by a fully armed Swedish police unit in June 2009 while on board an airplane bound for Annie’s homeland of India. Among the primary reasons given for the seizure was the fact that Domenic was homeschooled. His entire family has been denied any contact with their son for nearly a year. HSLDA and the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) filed a joint application on behalf of the Johansson family at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in June 2010 and have been working to support the family since shortly after Domenic’s seizure.

Both the ADF and HSLDA are asking for letters to be written in an attempt to renew attention to the family’s case and to encourage Swedish officials to release Domenic back to his family. The United States Supreme Court has called the termination of parental rights the family court equivalent of the death penalty. Annie and Christer have done nothing worthy of such a horrific outcome. Will you join us as fellow advocates and take a moment to write to the Swedish Social Services Committee in charge of Domenic’s custody situation? The Johansson family is grateful for your efforts on their behalf. ADF has prepared a sample letter or you may write your own letter to the committee. You can download a copy of the sample letter in Microsoft Word or as a PDF file.

Please mail letters to:

Swedish Social Services Committee
Socialnämnden
Gotlands Kommun
621 81 Visby
SWEDEN

A stamp for a standard weight letter to Sweden will cost $0.98 through the U.S. Postal Service.

Please also continue to keep the Johansson family in your prayers as they somehow endure this unbearable situation.

Our thanks to the HSLDA for this alert: http://hslda.org/hs/international/Sweden/default.asp

Email addresses of Swedish officials in charge of this case (they read English):

sofi.rosenqvist@gotland.se;

caroline.palmqvist@gotland.se;

lena.celion@gotland.se;

marika.gardell@gotland.se;

Western hypocrisy exposed

 

Don Hank

I have been debating with a friend over the issue of why Ghadaffi has been treated worse than other leaders of the same region. After all, what Muslim leader has not shown unusual cruelty in the course of his reign?

One thing that my friend brought up was that Ghadaffi had instituted Sharia law.

The problem is that, while Ghadaffi did in fact make a stab at using Sharia as a reference, or sort of Constitution, he soon found that it didn’t work in the real world, and he very shortly abandoned it (see link below).

On the other hand, Obama bowed obsequiously before King Abdullah during a visit not long ago but yet Saudi Arabia has one of the most inhumane treatments of prisoners of any country in the world – thanks to its reliance on Sharia law. So here you have Ghaddafi, who abolished cruel Sharia, vs. Abdullah, whose regime relies on Sharia, and whom do the Western elites (incl notably, Obama) call cruel?

Why, Ghadaffi, of course. (Not saying he wasn’t, but why single him out if other Middle East regimes are arguably more cruel?).

Then my friend, who avidly reads the MSM, said he had read that Ghadaffi had brought poverty to his nation. So I did some internet searches on Libyan poverty and found that the only articles claiming Libyans were poor had been written during the run-up to the Libyan rebellion, by reporters in countries whose leading politicians supported the ouster of Ghadaffi. Does anyone doubt that much of what the MSM reports, and the way they report it, is largely propaganda supportive of government policy, particularly that of increasingly authoritarian governments in Europe and the US?

On the other hand, I discovered that, in 2009, the year with the most complete reporting for all countries in the region, the average per capita income in Libya was several times that in neighboring countries, namely, $9,957 (up to $13,800 this year).

Here are some reference figures for average incomes in other countries that same year:

Afghanistan: $4,526

Iraq: $2,565

Kosovo: $3,080

Morocco: $2,808

Egypt: $2,699

Tunisia: $4,199

 

Now, you will note that Iraqis, who had been under US control since 2003, or about 5 years at the time of that compilation, had an average annual per capita income of only a third that of Libya, while Afghanis, who have been under Western Coalition control since 2001, or about 7 years at that time, earned less than half the income of Libyans. Kosovo, which was also created by the Western powers through war, had some of the lowest income in all of Europe, about one-third of what Libyans earned.

So it doesn’t look as though poverty is a viable argument against Ghadaffi, even though it was a favorite in the MSM in the run-up to his murder. After all, if impoverishment of one’s people is grounds for murdering a leader, then what should we do with the leaders (notably Western ones) responsible for countries poorer than Libya?

But when I articulated these arguments, my friend then said he thought it was more of an issue of wealth distribution, with Ghadaffi receiving vastly more than his share. However, the UN’s calculation of the Gini index, which is the best indicator of wealth distribution, was not collected for the countries that I wanted to study for my analysis, namely, Libya, Iran and Saudi Arabia.

So if there are no official data available, then apparently Western anti-Ghadaffi arguments were based solely on speculation and anecdotal evidence.  Yet, if you want to trade Libya anecdotes for Saudi Arabia anecdotes, for example, on the subject of wealth distribution you can swap stories ‘til you drop. Here’s a tofer for you, evidence of both human rights violations and poverty: A blogger was arrested this year in Saudi Arabia for posting evidence of poverty in that country. Not just a tad bit authoritarian? And not evidence that enough poverty exists that the government is scared word might get out.

You know what all this reminds me of?

A movie I once saw about a corrupt sheriff’s department in the south that stopped a car driven by a black northerner and tried to charge him but couldn’t think of a charge. They couldn’t get him for speeding because he wasn’t speeding. They couldn’t get him for drunk driving either because he was significantly more sober than a judge.

One of the deputies finally found a tail light out and they fined him on that flimsy charge.

That is the story of Libya’s Ghadaffi: a failed tail light and now he’s toast.

So what was the real motive behind the persecution and murder of Libya’s strong man, who had brought prosperity to his country and was apparently well enough liked that many of his countrymen laid down their lives for him?

The hypothesis that holds up best to scrutiny is that the Western power elite despises Western culture, especially the Judeo-Christian aspect, and here was an opportunity to rid the Middle East of another secular leader who tolerated Christians and Jews (he imported blacks from southern Africa as laborers and he cooperated with the West in its policies regarding Israel). After all, why else would the Ruling Class import millions and millions of Muslims to Europe knowing that they would not assimilate, that they would cause trouble, and that they oppose Christianity and its trappings? And why did every conflict with Western involvement – Iran, Kosovo, Iraq, Afghanistan, Ivory Coast, Egypt, etc. — ultimately wind up with almost all of the native Christians banished from their homeland of generally about 2000 years?

I have shown copious evidence of this anti-Judeo-Christian motive in numerous articles, and with each move that the West makes in the Middle East I become more and more convinced of it:

http://laiglesforum.com/i-told-you-so-again/2697.htm

http://laiglesforum.com/my-government-is-killing-me/2159.htm

http://laiglesforum.com/spare-me-the-crocodile-tears-when-northern-africa-explodes/2215.htm

http://laiglesforum.com/how-western-powers-abet-christian-persecution/2513.htm

http://laiglesforum.com/us-media-cover-up-ivory-coast-massacre-details/2398.htm

http://laiglesforum.com/why-i-am-not-on-our-side-any-more/2174.htm

http://laiglesforum.com/the-far-left-connection-to-the-near-east-rebellion/2224.htm

http://laiglesforum.com/2286/2286.htm

 

Check out these links showing the West’s extreme hypocrisy in the Ghadaffi saga:

http://www.thenational.ae/news/worldwide/africa/poverty-persists-in-libya-despite-oil-riches

Libyan average annual gross domestic product per capita has reached US$13,800 (Dh50,868) per year

(written after OBL killed, so very recent).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_%28nominal%29_per_capita

2009, Libya

 

http://www.google.com/publicdata/explore?ds=d5bncppjof8f9_&met_y=ny_gdp_pcap_cd&idim=country:IRQ&dl=en&hl=en&q=gdp+per+capita+iraq

Iraq: $2090 in 2009

 

http://www.google.com/publicdata/explore?ds=d5bncppjof8f9_&met_y=ny_gdp_pcap_cd&idim=country:AFG&dl=en&hl=en&q=gdp+per+capita+afghanistan

Afghanistan: $468 in 2009

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_%28nominal%29_per_capita

All 2009:

Average annual GDP per capita in Libya: $9,957

Afghanistan: $4,526

Iraq: $2,565

Kosovo: $3,080

Morocco: $2,808

Egypt: $2,699

Tunisia: $4,199

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_income_equality

Wealth distribution:

Gini index: NO DATA for Libya, Iraq, Saudi Arabia

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/17/business/worldbusiness/17iht-inflation.1.15359629.html?pagewanted=all

A January wage increase of 5 percent for government employees disappointed those Saudis who earn less than 10,000 riyals, or $2,666, a month, especially after other Gulf countries moved more quickly to raise wages by larger amounts.

 

http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/10/19/saudi-video-blogger-reportedly-detained-for-showing-poverty-in-riyadh/?scp=2&sq=saudi&st=Search

Saudi Video Blogger Reportedly Detained for Showing Poverty in Riyadh

A popular Saudi video blogger was detained this week, along with his crew, after his report on poverty in the kingdom’s capital, Riyadh, was viewed hundreds of thousands of times on YouTube, human rights activists said.

The blogger, Feras Bugnah, was arrested on Sunday with his colleagues Hosam al-Deraiwish and Khaled al-Rasheed, in connection with the latest episode of their online show, “We Are Being Cheated,” according to the Saudi Civil and Political Rights Association.

 

http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/05/26/more-saudi-women-record-driving-videos/?scp=28&sq=saudi&st=Search

Saudi women may not drive

 

http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/saudi-arabia-executes-eight-bangladeshi-nationals-2011-10-07

Beheadings

The beheadings bring the number of executions in Saudi Arabia this year to at least 58, more than double than the 2010 figures. Twenty of those executed in 2011 were foreign nationals.

http://www.hrdc.net/sahrdc/hrfeatures/HRF133.htm

2005

And only those with a perverse sense of what constitutes justice would have approved of the news of an Indian man in Saudi Arabia facing the ‘punishment’ of having his eye gouged out.

http://lankapolity.blogspot.com/2011/06/inhuman-treatment-for-sri-lankan.html

6/07/2011

A Sri Lankan who was found guilty for selling liquor in a public place in Taif city Saudi Arabia while being drunk has been subjected to 430 lashes

Obama’s Libya:

I don’t mind one bit saying “I told you so” to all those — particularly journalists – who ignored my objective, fact-supported arguments against Western military and foreign policy in the Middle East and wound up with egg on their face as a result. (I have been trying to revive the nearly-lost scientific method and apply it to journalism, which has become nothing but a series of propaganda mills. So far, there seem to be no takers).

Obama and NATO must bear the responsibility for the fall of Kaddafi, and I have warned that this fall of a stable secular Middle Eastern leader will come back to bite the West hard in the butt.

Now Fox News and others are finally cautiously discussing the fact that the rebels are an unknown quantity and may not be as benign as they were portrayed back when they seemed to have much less chance of winning. Last night it was pointed out by Sean Hannity and Oliver North that they are a mix of tribal representatives and terrorists and their new proposed constitution already calls for sharia law, in stark contrast to Kadaffi’s secular constitution (miss him yet?).

Most telling was the remark: “Obama owns Libya.”

In case you have forgotten our direct military involvement in Libya, in addition to Obama’s repeated calls for Kadaffi (sp Gadhaffi in the linked article) to step down, here is the report on the joint French-American Operation Odyssey Dawn the day after it happened:

http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/news/x617854948/France-U-S-bomb-Libyan-positions

 Back in March, I found no mainstream commentators on the left or right criticizing the West’s role in this operation or in Egypt. In fact, there has been a steady stream of “conservative” criticism against Obama for not going after Kadaffi more resolutely. (The clueless candidates — most recently Bachmann — mostly followed their clueless lead, bleating similar statements). Generally, there is a dearth of substantive criticism of any Western military involvement by left or right, no doubt for political or career reasons (many fear appearing unpatriotic, even though honest and objective commentary would ultimately save Western lives and Western embarrassment), but also due to a serious shortage of brain power. Now that a Marxist is in the White House, mainstream conservatives are finally criticizing our involvement in a Middle East conflict, but mainly because they can pin the fallout on the Left. But none of them mentioned that the regimes in post-Carter Iran, post-Clinton Kosovo, post-Bush Iraq, post-rebellion Egypt and the Ivory Coast, once ruled by secularists, are now in the hands of democratically elected Islamist leaders or mobs who openly persecute and murder Christians wholesale  (see, for example, the 4th link below on the Ivory Coast massacre of Christians presided over by the UN) and do not believe in Israel’s right to exist. (A nation that allows Muslims to live within its boundaries, whereas Muslim nations typically forbid Israelis — or often any Jews — even to visit. How fair and democratic is that?).

By contrast, I (who have nothing to lose, am not being paid for this and answer to no one) was warning repeatedly about the error in our involvement in the Middle East, not just by Democrat presidents, notably Obama, but also by Republicans (BTW, Reagan, who pulled us out of Lebanon, was an exception), and pointing out then-unheeded facts to state my case, reminding, for example, that the local Christian populations were always the ones who paid the biggest price when a stable secular leader was replaced by a mob, which eventually, inevitably, turned into an Islamic-led government with significantly less freedom for the people than under the “cruel dictators” we replaced – as well as vastly less diversity, which, oddly, Western powers prize in their countries. Israel, of course, came closer to the brink of war with each successive “win” and Iran was given a permanent pass by the West, as though these merciless enforcers of brutal Sharia law, who execute countless people for sexual misdeeds and inappropriate clothing, were lily-white defenders of human rights (as we speak, there are 2 Americans jailed in Iran for “spying,” on flimsy evidence). I sent links to each of my articles on this subject to thousands of potential readers, including major news outlets, inclucing to all Fox News personalities. News people typically do not respond, but judging by last night’s commentary by Sean, perhaps they had read some of what I said here:

http://laiglesforum.com/my-government-is-killing-me/2159.htm

here

http://laiglesforum.com/spare-me-the-crocodile-tears-when-northern-africa-explodes/2215.htm

here

http://laiglesforum.com/how-western-powers-abet-christian-persecution/2513.htm

here

http://laiglesforum.com/us-media-cover-up-ivory-coast-massacre-details/2398.htm

here

http://laiglesforum.com/why-i-am-not-on-our-side-any-more/2174.htm

here

http://laiglesforum.com/the-far-left-connection-to-the-near-east-rebellion/2224.htm

and here

http://laiglesforum.com/2286/2286.htm

 

Olavo de Carvalho also warned you here:

http://laiglesforum.com/strengthening-the-enemies/2126.htm

Look, I don’t mind people calling me crazy. But you journalists who lead the Western world by providing information to decision makers, should know by now that, in the long run, ignoring warnings about the West’s disastrous involvement in the Middle East is going to hurt you a whole lot more than it does the warning party.

Don Hank

 

by Don Hank

If the latest report by Debkafile is true, then the Libyan war is unofficially over, Obama has made Russia the peacemaker, and NATO has ended its air strikes. A reasonable layperson’s analysis of this report might be this:

The EU has overextended itself politically, economically and militarily.

1–Politically: It has always been a de facto dictatorship. It was originally touted as a strictly economic scheme and the trusting nations of Europe bought it on that basis. Then, surprise, it started adding massive bureaucratic trappings, mostly of a political nature – a court of justice, a Constitution, a Parliament, a Commission, a ministry of foreign affairs, etc, whose functions went far beyond the economic realm and into the everyday lives of every European. Result: It now looks a lot like an empire, but without the usual sense of nationhood that has typically supported empires in the past.

No one loves the European flag. Yet, oblivious to the fact that people can be controlled indefinitely only if they love their nation or have some traditional loyalties to it, the EU has threatened UK groups who refuse to fly the EU flag on Europe Day.

They have also made and enforced laws favoring the Muslim minority but discriminating against the Christian majority.

Because of its strong-arm tactics and its contempt for the people the EU pretends to rule, euroskeptics are gathering strength everywhere and the popularity of the European central government is on the wane. UK citizens in a recent poll have said they want out. The analogies with the USSR are too numerous to mention.

2–Economically: The EU started pushing for an end to national currencies. For example, it pushed aside the Deutschmark, which if left intact today, would easily outperform the euro. Then it started taking from the rich nations to give to the poor nations. Keen observers knew, for example, that Greece was not really eligible to join ranks with richer nations with a more mature sense of fiscal responsibility. But the motive was not to have peers join together in common cause but rather to redistribute the wealth Marxian style. Most were deceived into believing the “communism is dead” narrative and couldn’t quite grasp that Marx’s wealth redistribution scheme doesn’t have to apply only to individuals or groups within nations. It can — and did — apply on a nation-to-nation level. The EU Comrades gave “to each [nation] according to its need” without concern for the corollary: ”from each according to its ability.” Italy is the latest domino to have fallen in a cascading collapse and there is no one left to bail it out.

3–Militarily: The EU joined forces with the UN and the US to oust stable leaders in the Middle East and replace them with whoever screamed the loudest, destroyed more property and burned more tires. De facto, parading as “democracy” or “freedom,” it was a veritable blood bath for Christians.  The Assyrian Christians were forced to flee Iraq. The Copts are fleeing Egypt. 1000 Christians were slaughtered in the Ivory Coast in an area under UN control. And so on. The last nation they attacked, Libya, resisted, and now they — and their US partners — are out of options.

If he wanted to, the layperson might also point out, as an aside, that the EU is failing on the propaganda front as well.

The EU was the biggest donor to the Climatic Research Centre of the University of East Anglia, which was purportedly charged with compiling and analyzing world climate data over the decades, but de facto, knew that its real job was to prop up the “global warming” narrative to support the policies of the EU and most Western national governments. A group of hackers revealed this real mission to the world.

The latest propaganda effort is a worldwide campaign to foist the EU’s latest scheme to legalize drugs on an unsuspecting world, based on a report originally issued by the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction, purportedly showing that Portugal’s decriminalization experiment is a “resounding success” in reducing drug use in that country. The EMCDDA is wholly owned and operated by the EU. Like the global warming “research,” this report is also unraveling, thanks to the efforts of a valiant group of Portuguese doctors who have shown that drug use is actually on the increase in their country. (See the last 7 reports at Laigle’s Forum).

On the whole, the sum total of the EU’s efforts has amounted to a stinging defeat on all fronts.

Economically, militarily and politically – not to mention propaganda-wise – the EU looks to be headed for the dust bin of history.

Anyone who is paying attention nowadays knows that the Ruling Class in the West, from the White House to Sarkozy and Cameron in Europe, has a strong interest in supporting radical Islam. In Egypt and Libya, the military coalition is now supporting groups of street thugs riddled with Islamic radicals (who will inevitably gain the upper hand if we “win”) in a continuation of an anti-Western foreign policy typified by President Carter’s pressure on the Shah in the 70s. In Europe, the Ruling Class, dominated in large part by the anti-Christian Fabian Society, has been importing Western culture-hating, Christian-hating Muslims for decades. Most Europeans were fine with that at first, having been indoctrinated by this same Ruling Class in the media, the universities, the schools and professions to believe that Christianity is the most dangerous religion in the world (many still erroneously believe Hitler was a Christian). As a result of their policies, a Muslim majority is expected within as little as 15-20 years in some areas. A big boat load of undocumented Muslims just arrived recently at the Italian island of Lampedusa and they will be allowed to stay somewhere in the EU and refuse to assimilate as usual.

Two things happened recently that provide clues as to our future.

1—A Muslim reader of Laigle’s Forum started emailing me from somewhere in the Middle East and dunning me for my response to the burning of the Koran by a misguided Florida pastor. The reader, whom we shall call Mahmoud, kept politely insisting in each of several emails that the US government must make a law against this and suggested that the attack in Iraq on civilians at the UN headquarters were justified.

Mahmoud keeps angrily insisting in each email the US should make a law banning blasphemy against the Prophet. Now, when an American makes a demand on government, that is possibly just one petulant American griping. But in terms of politics regarding East-West relations, and demands on the West, the Muslim world is practically a monolith. A demand from one is essentially a demand from all. And Western governments are dhimmis. Under enough pressure from a voter block, they will eventually cave, at variance with the Constitution. (My response to Mahmoud is here).

2—A UK friend sent m e a video of a protest in the UK where Muslims were suggesting that Dutch parliamentarian Geert Wilders should be executed under Shariah law.

Because Europe can be expected to have a Muslim majority in the foreseeable future, and because the same Ruling Class dominates both the US and Europe, these two events suggest that, unless God intervenes, at some point in time, there will be strict laws everywhere in the West banning verbal offenses against Muslims and Mohammed. But Europe already has laws banning allusions to those parts of the Bible that spell out condemnation against homosexual behavior. The goal is to have Christians on the run and eventually make them go underground or abandon their faith.

Friends, it is not just one party or a number of treacherous politicians (including many who claim to be Christians), that must be eliminated.

The work ahead of us is tantamount to cleaning out the Augean stables. And the stench is just as bad.

Muslims talking like they own us:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=det7TUsLy8U&feature=related

Great fighting words from a patriotic American (calls Lindsay Graham a jackass! AMEN, sister!):

Just as I predicted. Mahmoud’s letter was a harbinger of a campaign to silence Americans who oppose Islamism. Weak-minded Lindsay Graham jumps on the bandwagon to muzzle us:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qeyrp-V3Jvc&feature=player_embedded

“Christian” pastors doing their part in distorting the scriptures:

http://www.crossroad.to/articles2/011/bell.htm