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from Al Jazeera
Why will Poland not take in any Muslims?
Poland's ultra-conservative Law and Justice Party (PiS) won a second term in office last month, a victory that critics fear will accelerate the country's slide towards authoritarianism. The PiS rose to power in 2015, following a campaign that focussed on social conservatism, along with a generous social spending programme. But the party's refusal to take in refugees, along with its attempts to reform the judiciary - critics say at the expense of independence - has put it at loggerheads with the European Union. Just this week, a top EU legal adviser said Warsaw broke the bloc's law by refusing to take in refugees during Europe's 2015 migrant crisis. But the PiS's Dominik Tarczynski insists his country did nothing wrong and says Poland stands by its immigration policy. “We don't want Poland being taken over by Muslims, Buddhists, or someone else ... and no one will ever force us to take Muslims, Buddhists, non-believers in huge numbers." Tarczynski says after living in the United Kingdom and the United States and experiencing life in a multicultural society, he does not see any value in it. "For me, multicultural society, it's not a value … it's not a virtue," the Polish MP said. "Christian culture, Roman law, Greek philosophers, these are the virtues for us."”
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from Hoover Institution
Nonprofit Organization in Stanford, California
Comrade, Can You Spare a Swine?
As the celebrations of the 70th anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) takeover of mainland China recede into recent history, a look at the Communists’ heritage suggests that for all its foreign-exchange reserves and tech manufacturing know-how, and despite its military hardware and far-flung infrastructure investment portfolio, China may not have come that far. On the eve of the military parade in Beijing that marked the anniversary parade, President Xi extolled the virtues of China’s communist heritage—at a village where nearly half the residents starved to death during the famine wrought by Mao’s Great Leap Forward. The choice of venue highlighted how Xi faces a similar crisis—the decimation of China’s hog stock by African swine fever. The price of pork, a staple on Chinese dinner tables, is soaring, and medicine to protect remaining hogs is in short supply. By some estimates, half the country’s breeding sows have died. Communist China at 70, which controls the economy from ministries in Beijing that pledge to make China the world leader in advanced technology by 2025, seems no more able to assure adequate food supplies for its citizens than Mao in the early years of Communist rule.
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from HumanProgress.org Education Website
Stuff of Progress, Pt. 3: Tungsten
Tungsten helped the manufacturing age to reach its apex. First isolated as a metal in 1783, tungsten has had a substantial impact on human progress. Starting in 1904, tungsten provided a metallic medium for incandescent lighting. Such was the advantage of using tungsten in electric lightbulbs that the metal is only now being phased out globally by more efficient lighting solutions. The value of inexpensive and clean lighting can scarcely be exaggerated. In 1900, four years prior to the advent of tungsten lighting, the cost of a million lumen hours of artificial light hovered around $285 (in today’s money). By the mid-2000s, the cost had dropped to less than $3. Tungsten’s unique properties make the metal of immense practical application, both as a tool and as an incorporated material.
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LEFT-CENTER BIAS, HIGH, Newspaper in Seattle, WA
‘The State of King’: To achieve the mass transit dream, it’s time for King County to go it alone
A state lawmaker, from Clark County down by the Columbia River, once suggested that the solution to our broken politics was to quarantine the people from you-know-where. “The people of King County are of a heterogeneous, heterologous, heteronomous and heteromorphistic nature,” alliterated Rep. A.W. Clark, in what rated as smack talk back in 1937. It causes “economic and political antagonisms and strifes” which are “not conducive to the peace and well-being of the citizens of the state.”
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from The Spokesman-Review
Newspaper in Spokane, Washington
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