Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News: offbeat

Showing posts with label offbeat. Show all posts

Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Mideast Place Names and Their Translations (cartoon)

I actually saw this on an antisemitic blog among lots of reprehensible cartoons. I don't think the blogger quite got the joke.

It originated at a wonderful blog called Diversity Lane that is unfortunately no longer active. But the cartoonist there is awesome. Check this out:

Funny Israeli Shabbat video

If you aren't a religious Jew you might miss some jokes, but it is still funny. English transcript below.

Narrator: Givat Shmuel, a heavily populated concrete jungle located in the heart of Gush Dan. A National Geographic camera crew is observing a typical pack of the wild “Dati” [Orthodox] tribe. It’s 5 o’clock on a Friday afternoon and the pack is preparing for its weekly gathering. The Sha–bat ceremony. The alpha male howls, apparently in order to signal that the time of the gathering is near.
Father to children: Tell me, are you normal?! Shabbat’s in one hour! Go take showers, you and your spacey brother!
Father to wife: Nechama, do me a favor, boil the water already. Come on!
Narrator: The female, Necha–Ma, defends the family nest by marking her territory [close-up on her sponja mop].
Mother: Nobody enters the hall now, I just washed the floor!
Narrator: It’s 8:30, and the pack gathers for the ceremony. Our crew must remain silent to hear the alpha male’s deep gutteral sounds aimed to prepare the pack for the upcoming meal.
[Father uses hand motions and sounds to request that somebody bring salt to the table for the challah]
Narrator: What’s that noise? Near the dati tribe lives a pack from a different tribe, the Chilonim [secular Jews]. This pack is also fascinating. Even though it’s a completely different pack, it also celebrates the Sha–bat ceremony.
Father:Shabbat shalom, family.
Daughter: [Making video with her phone] My mommy and daddy at the Shabbat table.
Father: Also film the kiddush cup!
Narrator: It’s 7 in the morning and the secular pack seeks grazing land to expand it’s territory. This is a demanding process requiring the pack’s approval.
[Mother suggests distant destinations around Israel for a family hike]
Mother: So, Chatzbani?
Children: Boring!
Mother: Yehudiya?
Children: Boring!
Mother: Ramon Crater?
Children: Boring!
Mother: OK, Nachal Amud?
Children: Boring!
Father: Honey, why don’t we just get out a movie?
Narrator: Much like the dati tribe, the female of the chiloni tribe clearly has the final say [mother leads family out to go to the hike]
Narrator: Suddenly, an astonishing thing happens. The Dati pack encounters the Chiloni pack. Each pack is fascinated by the other, and approaches it with its own dialect.
Religious mother: Shabbat Shalom. What do you say? Maybe we could sit together to eat one Shabbat in the evening.
Secular mother: You mean a meal on Saturday night?
Religious father: No, Erev Shabbat, on Friday at night.
Secular father: You mean a Friday-night dinner?
Religious mother and father: No, a Shabbat meal.
Religious father: Never mind…why don’t you come now?
Secular mother: With pleasure!
Religious father: Great! We live on the 13th floor.
Religious mother: Moti! The Shabbat elevator!
Religious father: The elevator! Run! Run! Come!
Narrator: These tribes share the same origin. And there’s more to bring them together than to set them apart.
Secular mother: What’s a Shabbat elevator?
[Both families crowd into small elevator]
Religious father: Only seven more flights to go!
Narrator: Our head researcher, Abba Kookoo, finds that they can even spend the Shabbat ceremony together.
[Around Shabbat table, religious father indicates for somebody to bring the salt for the Challah. Secular son starts drinking from the handwashing cup]
Secular mother: Yoni! What are you doing?! You don’t drink from that!
Religious father: It’s forbidden to talk right now…[they all start talking with hand motions and sounds]
Narrator: Nature is unpredictable and so are the animals trying to survive in it. It seems however that with tolerance and good will, the delicate balance of the circle of life is preserved.

This video is an advertisement for “Israeli shabbat”(October 25th) when religious families around Israel invite secular families to join them for a Shabbat meal.

(h/t Yerushalimey)

The strange case of the Gaza Apollo statue (update)

Repubblica reports on a remarkable find made last month by a Gaza fisherman named Mounir. Caught in his fishing net was a life-size, gold colored statue of Apollo, that had been buried in the sand for some 2500 years.

His first concern was whether it was made out of pure gold that he could sell. Since one cannot secretly carry around a huge statue in Gaza, Mounir did the next best thing: he cut off the statue's finger, to be able to show it to experts to see what it was made out of.

Unfortunately for Mounir, it was bronze.

This is Gaza, however, and Hamas security is everywhere. Within hours of his showing the severed finger to dealers, he was arrested and the statue was seized.

But now Hamas has a dilemma.

Islam forbids making a human form in a statue. Worse yet, Apollo is not wearing clothing.

The article implies that Hamas has sold antiquities to the black market in the past. This statue would be worth a fortune, and Hamas is in bad financial shape now. The statue could make a dent in Hamas' budget.

According to the article, Hamas is now negotiating with black market dealers, and the statue could fetch as much as $20-40 million.

Even without the finger.

(h/t DM)

UPDATE: See here.

Rabbi brothers singing "Sounds of Silence" on Israeli talent show (video, updated)

This is very cool, although their accents sometimes get in the way:

Somehow, I don't think that they're going to cover "Ceclia" though...

UPDATE: They are apparently well-known street musicians, called The Breslov Brothers, and have even covered....Pink Floyd!

They don't have to worry about Roger Waters dropping by to listen, though!

Also check out their Tears in Heaven.

(h/t Malca)

Hatikva for Dummies

Silly stuff for Friday afternoon.

(h/t Yerushalimey)

People excited about Thanksgivnukah

The mainstream media has finally noticed:

It's a turkey. It's a menorah. It's Thanksgivukkah!

An extremely rare convergence this year of Thanksgiving and the start of Hanukkah has created a frenzy of Talmudic proportions.

There's the number crunching: The last time it happened was 1888, or at least the last time since Thanksgiving was declared a federal holiday by President Lincoln, and the next time may have Jews lighting their candles from spaceships 79,043 years from now, by one calculation.

There's the commerce: A 9-year-old New York boy invented the "Menurkey" and raised more than $48,000 on Kickstarter for his already trademarked, Turkey-shaped menorah. Woodstock-inspired T-shirts have a turkey perched on the neck of a guitar and implore "8 Days of Light, Liberty & Latkes." The creators nabbed the trademark to "Thanksgivukkah."

(I refuse to spell it with two "k"s.)

That article included an image from a funny poster by ModernTribe.com:

So before someone else came up with this similar idea, I decided to do a little Photoshopping myself, although it is more subtle:

Gulf states to consider "clinical tests" to ban homosexual visa seekers

From Kuwait Times:

Gulf states plan to study a project which will identify homosexuals and transgender individuals through a ‘clinical test’ which will be added to the list of medical tests one has to undergo to obtain a visa. If individuals are revealed to be homosexual or transgender, they will be denied entry into the country, a local daily reported yesterday, quoting a senior official in Kuwait’s Ministry of Health.

“Homosexuals and ‘third-sex’ individuals can be detected through clinical tests during the routine medical examination for visa”, Public Health Department Director Dr Yousuf Mendakar said. ‘Third-sex’ is a common term used in Gulf states to refer to transsexuals or people with gender identity disorder. The senior official added that an individual who is identified as homosexual will have ‘unfit’ stamped on his medical report; a term often used for people who fail medical tests which will automatically disqualify their visa application.

Dr Mendakar’s statements did not specify the test or the people targeted in the new project. It was also unclear whether this excluded cross-dressers or included all homosexuals in general. He also did not explain how medical examiners intend to determine a visitor’s sexual orientation. “Expatriates undergo medical tests at local clinics, but the new procedure includes stricter measures to find out homosexuals and transgenders so that they are banned from entering Kuwait or any GCC state”, he added.

Dr Mendakar could not be reached immediately for further clarification. The new proposal will be discussed during a ‘Central Committee for Expatriate Labor Forces Program in the GCC’ meeting set to take place on November 11 in Oman, said Dr Mendakar. The meeting is expected to focus on regulations’ adjustments and the Kuwaiti official said that his proposal will be included in the list of amendments.

The elusive "G" chromosome!

Meanwhile, in "liberal" Lebanon, a documentary about gays was banned.

Lebanon has banned the screening of a film about homosexuality and another on short-term "pleasure marriages" practiced in some Muslim communities, in a blow to its reputation as a bastion of tolerance in a deeply conservative region.

The films, which had been due to be shown at the Beirut International Film Festival that opened last week, were blocked by a government censorship committee, festival organizers said.

Confirming the bans, an Interior Ministry spokesman cited a Lebanese news report which attributed the decision to "obscene scenes of kissing between gay men, philandering, naked men and sexual intercourse between men" in one film and "sex scenes that offend public opinion and obscene language" in the other.

Wow, it is almost as if you cannot find a tolerant, liberal state in the entire Middle East.

(h/t Ian)

The latest Zio-Bio-weapon: Settler Feces!

Hilarity from Palestine National News:

Israel Uses Settler Feces as Bio-Warfare

ISRAELI SOLDIERS USE FECES TO ATTACK HUNDREDS OF VILLAGERS AND PEACEFUL PROTESTERS OUTSIDE THE WEST BANK VILLAGE OF NABI SALEH.

Muki Najaer / PNN Exclusive

Israeli Occupation Force (IOF) uses feces of Israeli residents and settlers as a form of bio-warfare against Palestinian farmers in the villages of Wadi Fuqeen and Nahaleen. Additionally, the Israeli army has developed a large vehicle for spraying sewage waste and feces at Palestinian protestors and homes, reportedly, in the towns of Abu Dis, Aizariah, Bil’in and Nabi Saleh.

Spraying sewage waste has become so common a weapon used by the Israeli Army that the combination of sewage water, feces, and human urine has been named “skunk”. B'Tselem reports that ‘skunk’ and the vehicle used to disperse it, have been added to Israel's armory for crowd control.

On 3 June of this year, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported that the wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) js present in sewage samples collected from Israel. Additionally, human feces contain endless forms of bacterial and biological contaminants. Given this information, the intentional use of sewage waste against Palestinians qualifies as bio-warfare.

...Locals in the village of Abu Dis reported on September 25 that Israeli Occupation Force officials drove a large vehicle containing feces around main streets, and sprayed the sewage water ‘everywhere’ and on everything.

Locals reported, “It entered the houses and the kids’ rooms – and it didn’t clear like teargas does. It hung around in the fabric inside houses and made everyone fear for their health.” They added, “Rumors of possible viruses are going around.”

A similar story of intentional sewage spraying is reported to have occurred in the nearby town of Aizariah on September 20. In March of this year, Middle East Monitor reported that Israeli forces sprayed Palestinian homes in the village of Nabi Saleh as a punishment for organizing weekly protests against the Apartheid Wall.

The IOF is increasing its use of feces as a weapon of bio-warfare, annexation, and occupation.

The only true fact here is that the IDF uses a foul-smelling, but completely safe, liquid called "skunk" for riot control. Of course, it contains no feces, "settler" or otherwise. Details here.

(h/t Aryeh M)

"Jewish UN wants to destroy Syria to fulfill Isaiah prophecy, take over world"

Here's a new twist on the usual Arab antisemitic conspiracy theories.

The official Syrian RTV agency says that Syria is the last obstacle for Jews to finally take over the world.

All you need to do is read the Bible, the Talmud, and (of course) the Protocols of the elders of Zion, and it all makes perfect sense.

The pre-war on Syria, and the current war on Syria, is World War III. We live the war and pay for it and most of us do not know the reasons for it. ...The real reasons for war are written in the folds of old yellowing books.

What is happening today is not caused by the desire to establish democracy or freedom, or concern for the interests of the Syrian people. Control of the oil resources is the economic engine of the war prior to the final declaration of victory for Israel over the world and the establishment of a global state, which is the United Nations and its Supreme Council and the International Court of Justice, which brings together presidents and leaders to establish this state. To those who think this is just a conspiracy theory I invite them to read the Torah and the Talmud and the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, and specifically to read the policies included in the book of Isaiah 16: [sic - it is 17:]

1. The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap.
2. The cities of Aroer are forsaken; they shall be for flocks, which shall lie down, and none shall make them afraid.
3. The fortress also shall cease from Ephraim, and the kingdom from Damascus; and the remnant of Aram shall be as the glory of the children of Israel, saith the Lord of hosts.

(Apparently, Aroer is similar sounding to another Syrian city.)

The article goes on to claim that other prophecies say that every Jew will have 2300 non-Jewish slaves, and all of the wars in the world are meant to fulfill that promise to enslave a good part of the planet.

The reason America went to war in Iraq? Well, there is another [Koranic?] prophecy that Iraq would destroy Israel, so the Zionist puppets in the US moved to destroy Iraq before that could happen.

But America is also $15 trillion in debt, and that is how the Zionists plan to take over the US, that is already under their control. Or something like that.

In the end, the Jews were behind the destruction of the Soviet Union, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and Syria is the last piece of the massive puzzle before Jews can exert total global domination.

Again, this is in official Syrian government media.

Egyptian paper compares Islamists, unfavorably, with Jews

An article in al-Mogaz looks at the supposed similarities between Islamists and Israel.

After a brief history of how Arabs grabbed Jewish-controlled cities in Arabia ( if I am reading it correctly, he seems to imply that their actions were illegitimate!) he discusses how Israel exists, in his mind, by using religious justification and a feeling of superiority to justify its creation.

He then says that the Islamists, like the Muslim Brotherhood, have the exact same mindset of being always right and relying on their interpretation of religion to justify the creation of Islamist states.

However, there the comparison ends. Because, he says, Israel is a democracy, with among the best educational system in the world, a leader in information technology and in weapons development, and in agriculture. It is a society that does not interfere with people's faiths, and the State does not impose the lifestyle of "certain ideological members." It is also a free society for its citizens, all equal before the law.

The Islamists' idea of nationalism includes none of these.

It has really been amusing over the past few months to see how many articles discuss how the authors' ideological enemies are "even worse than the Jews." Here we have one of the biggest backhanded compliments I've ever seen in Arabic media towards Israel.

(h/t Ibn Boutros)

Saudi sheikh warns that driving damages women's ovaries

From Al Arabiya:

Saudi women seeking to challenge a de facto ban on driving should realize that this could affect their ovaries and pelvises, Sheikh Saleh bin Saad al-Luhaydan, a judicial and psychological consultant to the Gulf Psychological Association, told Saudi news website sabq.org.

Driving “could have a reverse physiological impact. Physiological science and functional medicine studied this side [and found] that it automatically affects ovaries and rolls up the pelvis. This is why we find for women who continuously drive cars their children are born with clinical disorders of varying degrees,” Sheikh al-Luhaydan said.

Saudi female activists have launched an online campaign urging women to drive on Oct. 26.

Al-Luhaydan's statement drew immediate reaction on social media, with many Saudis ridiculing his “great scientific discoveries.” An Arabic Twitter hashtag “Women_driving_affects_ovaries_and_pelvises” was created and is going viral among Arab users.

Qatar Air forces flight attendants to seek permission to get married

And can fire them when they get pregnant.

Qatar Airways has come under scrutiny on Wednesday after it was accused of forcing its female workers to seek permission from the company when they decide to get married.

In a report released by the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) on Tuesday, the airline was found to also mandate that women tell a supervisor if they become pregnant.

The airline then reserves the right to fire them upon the discovery, according to the ITF report, alleging the violation of the basic labor rights of Qatar Airway’s 28,000 employees.

According to the ITF, a standard hiring contract for thousands of the airline’s female workers reads: “You are required to obtain prior permission from the company, in case you wish to change your marital status and get married.

“The employee shall notify the employer in case of pregnancy from the date of her knowledge of its occurrence. The employer shall have the right to terminate the contract of employment from the date of notification of the pregnancy. Failure of employee to notify the employer or the concealment of the occurrence shall be considered a breach of contract.”

"Sex jihad" (updated x2 - a skeptical view)

From AFP:

Tunisia's women's ministry said Saturday it would come up with a plan to counter the growing number of women traveling to Syria to wage so-called "sex jihad" by comforting militants.

Interior Minister Lotfi ben Jeddou told the National Constituent Assembly on Thursday that Tunisian women had gone to Syria where "they have sexual relations with 20, 30, 100" militants.

"After the sexual liaisons they have there in the name of 'jihad al-nikah' – [sexual holy war, in Arabic] -- they come home pregnant," he told MPs.

Ben Jeddou did not elaborate on how many Tunisian women had returned to the country pregnant with the children of jihadist fighters.

On Saturday, the health ministry statement said it had noted "an increase in the number of young women leaving for so-called jihad al-nikah", although it did not give any figures.

Jihad al-nikah, permitting extramarital sexual relations with multiple partners, is considered by some hardline Sunni Muslim Salafists as a legitimate form of holy war.

Media reports have said hundreds of Tunisian women have gone to Syria for this purpose, in addition to hundreds of Tunisian men joining jihadists battling the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.

Earlier rumors of "sex jihad" in other contexts have been bitterly disputed and called hoaxes, but Tunisia's government seems to be confirming it in this case.

It is not hard to imagine that single Muslim women who have already lost their virginity might be interested in turning their statuses from potential outcasts to heroic jihadists.

UPDATE: MEMRI has the video of Jeddou's speech:

UPDATE 2: This post casts doubt on the story, and notes that no corroborating evidence has been found yet. (h/t Gidon)

Syria uses Shakespeare to identify as - a Jew?

From City AM:

The Syrian parliament appears to have dropped a reference to Shakespeare's "The Merchant of Venice" in a letter to UK MPs.

In the second paragraph of a document obtained by Sky News, Mohammad Jihad al-Laham, speaker of the people's assembly of Syria, writes:

We write to you as fathers and mothers, as members of families and communities really not so different to yours. We write to you as fellow human beings for, if you bomb us, shall we not bleed?
That line is curiously similar to one delivered by the Jewish money lender Shylock in Shakespeare's classic:

I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, arms, legs, senses, affections, desires? Are we not fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer as a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed?
If the intention was to draw a comparison between Syria and Shylock, it may not be taken as a very wise one, for in the play Shylock is a cruel character.

Of course, Shylock was also a Jew.

The idea that Syria is trying to paint itself as a persecuted (and despised) Jew is strange, to say the least!

It also shows an interesting and sharp divergence between Syria's strident tone in the media and how it talks to diplomats.

PalArab gets arrested for selling "Morsi" perfume

When you want to smell like an Islamist....

Palestinian security services have arrested an Islamist sympathizer in the West Bank for selling perfume named in honor of Egypt’s ousted President Mohammad Mursi, family members said on Thursday.

Islambuli Badir, a 36-year-old member of Islamist movement Hamas, was arrested during a raid on his perfume shop in the town of Tulkarem, his brother Abdel Fattah Badir told AFP.

“Men from the security services on Tuesday raided my brother’s shop and confiscated all the perfume bottles that were labeled ‘Mursi,’ then arrested Islambuli and also seized his laptop,” said Abdel Fattah.

“The day after the arrest, my younger brother Qassam, 24, put a sign up on the shop door saying: An apology to customers -- our Mohammad Mursi perfume has been seized by the authorities.”

Arab media report that the perfume was created after the Egyptian coup, and it was a best seller in the West Bank.

I'm not sure if the target market is women or men.

SpongeBob found a new job

Baruch Hashem, Spongebob Squarepants managed to land on his freakishly tiny feet.

Last we saw, Spongebob was reduced to begging for money while withering in the heat of Las Vegas after he was suddenly fired from his job at Elder of Ziyon.

Well, I placed a few calls within the International Zionist Web, and found a great gig for him - as spokes-sponge for Sabra hummus!

Here is was spotted in a Nashville supermarket:

No comment yet from the BDS crowd as to whether they will boycott him now.

(h/t L. King)

Heavy metal peace

From CNN:

Khalas performing in Tel Aviv

Two Israeli bands, one Jewish and one Arab, are joining together in "metal brotherhood" to spread a message of peace through rock 'n roll.

Arab group Khalas (Arabic for "Enough") and Jewish band Orphaned Land are heading out on an 18-day European tour that they hope will foster tolerance between the two sides in the Arab-Israeli conflict.

"We want to share the stage together, we want to show co-existence," said Kobi Farhi, Orphaned Land's vocalist.

The bands will also share a tour bus for three weeks. What more perfect example of co-existence, asks Farhi.

"We will snore at each other, we will do laundry together, we will make coffee for each other," he said.

Among those on the tour bus will be Abed Hathout, Khalas' guitarist and band manager. "If we can do this co-existence on a bus, why can't we do it all over this country," he said.

...Farhi recounts a[n] incident when Orphaned Land played with a Tunisian band on their last tour. The Tunisian band's manager received emails asking them to boycott the tour.

"If you want to interpret (touring with an Israeli band) as legitimizing, that's your interpretation ... we simply have a message that we love each other and we want to live together."

Orphaned Land's lyrics are often political, observing the Middle East's governments and religion. Khalas' latest album features metal covers of '80s Arab wedding songs.

"Khalas doesn't deal with politics ... it's not because we are not connected to our people or we don't care, but there are so many people talking about the occupation.

"I have the right to write about having fun and love and drinking beer."

Sounds like Khalas is an Arab Christian band. I don't think any Muslim group will sing about drinking beer!

Here's Khalas in concert with some heavy metal belly dancing:

Israelis and Palestinian Arabs agree on....K-Pop?

From Al Arabiya:

While Israeli and Palestinian delegates return to the negotiating table in a new attempt to find common ground in the Middle East’s most intractable conflict, an entirely different phenomenon is uniting young people in the region, BBC News reported earlier this week.

Researchers at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem, say the Korean Wave, or the “Hallyu” movement, is taking off in Israel and the Palestinian territories, the BBC reported Israel daily Calcalist as saying.

There are around 5,000 K-pop followers in Israel and 3,000 in the Palestinian territories, according to researchers’ estimates. They hope to bring together fans from across the divide, according to the reports. Calcalist quotes Arab student Alaa Abid saying: “It’s something that gives you hope, and in Jerusalem it is sometimes hard to find hope.”

Calcalist newspaper quotes Dr. Nissim Atmazgin from the Hebrew University as saying that young people in Israel and Palestine see K-pop (South Korean pop) as “cultural capital” because it makes them stand out from the crowd.

Hallyu refers to the interest in South Korean popular culture including K-pop, K-dramas, K-fashion and K-beauty. The Hallyu movement began with the spread of South Korean dramas to its South East Asian neighbors and has evolved over the past decade into a global phenomenon. K-pop’s most famous star, pop singer Psy, topped YouTube’s Most Viewed videos chart in 2012 with his song “Gangnam Style.”

One annual K-pop convention in Israel has reportedly seen attendance increase tenfold in three years, while Korean soap operas are apparently trumping U.S. dramas because they show how to preserve traditional culture while modernizing, and their leading characters remain positive in the face of adversity.

I have previously covered South Korea's infatuation with the Talmud, as well as an interesting contrast between how South Koreans and Arabs react to terror attacks done by their members.

Dubai couple gets one month prison sentence for kissing

From Gulf News:

A 31-year-old banker and her 19-year-old colleague have been given a one-month sentence each after they were caught kissing in a tinted car behind a mosque in Al Muhaisna.

An Omani man was said to have spotted the Emirati woman’s car with its engine on and parked suspiciously between two trucks.

The man claimed that he saw a couple clutching intimately to each other but he doubted that they were having sex. He called the police.

Prosecutors charged the Emirati woman and her fellow countryman with kissing inside the car on January 21.

The pair denied exchanging kisses and pleaded not guilty at the Dubai Misdemeanour Court, which sentenced them to one month each.

The defendants were immediately taken into custody when they appeared in court.

Court records said the defendants left the bank where they both worked at 6pm and drove their separate cars towards Beirut Street.

The Omani witness spotted the car and suspected that the couple was indulged in an indecent act and he called the police.

A Dubai Police patrol was dispatched to the scene and both were taken to the police station for questioning.

The woman said: “We chatted for a while before we started kissing. Suddenly a sports utility vehicle parked behind my car immediately… five minutes later, the police came. I admit that we kissed inside my car but we did not have consensual sex anytime... I’ve known him for one year now because we are work colleagues.”

The teenager claimed during police questioning that he parked his car near the woman’s and went into her vehicle.

“We started discussing work and then we changed the subject and spoke about romance and love. We spoke about our love affair then we exchanged kisses. Suddenly someone knocked the window at her side… the person wore ordinary clothes. He did not identify himself or present his police ID, but simply asked me for an identification. I refused to give him my ID. Shortly after that police arrived and took us to the station for questioning. We have never had sex but I do admit that we kissed,” he said.

A cougar!

Erdogan's team fixated on telekinesis

This is bizarre:

The suspicious suicides of four engineers working at the Turkish corporation ASELSAN could have been caused by telekinesis, according to a report by the Turkish Prime Ministry Inspection Board.

The report, presented to the Ankara Public Prosecutor in accordance with the ongoing investigation over the 2006-2007 suicides, claimed the victims could have been directed toward the suicides by way of telekinesis, citing the work done by neuropsychology expert Nevzat Tarhan.

Hüseyin Başbilen, an engineer at Turkey’s military research and development enterprise, Aselsan, was found dead in his car on Aug. 7, 2006. A court ruled in 2009 that he committed suicide. Two other engineers working at Aselsan died shortly after Başbilen.

Halim Ünal was shot in the head with one bullet on Jan. 17, 2007, while Evrim Yançeken fell from the balcony of his sixth-floor apartment nine days later. Burhanettin Volkan allegedly killed himself in 2009.

Tarhan’s study, included in the board’s report, asked the prosecution not to disregard the possibility of telekinesis as a possible cause of the suicides, which could cause severe distress and headaches in the victims, giving them a tendency to kill themselves.

The waves could be sent from 1.5 kilometers, and could direct victims towards a suicidal state of mind, Tarhan told daily Hürriyet.

It gets better:

Telekinesis recently made the news after journalist Yiğit Bulut claimed that certain powers were trying to kill Turkish Prime Minister Erdoğan through telekinesis. Weeks after his theories, Bulut was named a chief consultant for Erdoğan.

How long before Uri Geller is called out?