Castro, Chavez, and 'bad luck'; Death sentence for killers of Christian couple burned alive in Pakistan...more

Castro, Chavez, and 'bad luck'   ...Under capitalism, the rich grow powerful. Under socialism, the powerful grow rich — and everyone else grows poor.

Which brings me to the other story, the death of Cuban dictator-for-life Fidel Castro. Although many among Western political and entertainment elites still think of Fidel Castro fondly, such people are, at best, what Lenin called “useful idiots.” In fact, as Yale professor Carlos Eire notes in The Washington Post, Castro was not a benevolent patron of the poor, but a "brutal Big Brother” who crushed dissent, tortured, imprisoned and executed his critics, and stole everything he cared to steal from his island’s inhabitants. He lived the lifestyle of an emperor, while his people were subjected to poverty. He persecuted gay people and Christians, and exported war and terror.

Oh, he said things about equality and justice, but those were lies. In his country, as in socialist dictatorships everywhere, there were two sets of rules: Those for the connected elite, and those for the subjects. They talk about equality, but what they set up turns out to be an awful lot like a monarchy.

Both Venezuela and Cuba have suffered under leaders who enriched themselves and their families. Chavez’s daughter is the richest person in Venezuela, with a net worth in the billions, while in true “socialist equality” fashion, Cuba is now run by Castro’s brother, Raul...

Stop Victimising Christians, Says UK Equalities Chief   Bosses must stop victimising Christians for fear of offending other faiths, the UK's equalities chief will say next week.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission's (EHRC) major new report will lambast over-zealous employees who are afraid of references to Christmas or the Lord's Prayer. Seen by the Mail on Sunday, the report especially criticises a ban an advert featuring the Lord's Prayer...

Death sentence for killers of Christian couple burned alive in Pakistan  An Anti-Terrorism Court in Lahore, Pakistan yesterday (23 Nov.) sentenced five men to death for the murder of a Christian couple who were burned alive in November 2014 for setting fire to some pages from a Qur’an.

A mob of about 600 people beat to near-death Shahzad Masih, 26, and his five-months-pregnant wife Shama Bibi, 24, for their “blasphemous” act on 4 Nov. 2014, in a village 60 kilometres from Lahore, the capital of Pakistan’s Punjab region. The couple were then thrown into the large kiln where they worked as bonded labourers...

99% Muslim, 43,000 Somali refugees settled in US under Obama The Obama administration resettled 8,858 Somali refugees in the United States last year, and nearly 43,000 during Obama's eight years, a huge number that is now raising concerns after a Somali refugee led a one-man attack spree on the campus of Ohio State...

Signposts: A Conversation With Rosaria Butterfield