Spewing hatred & blood libels against Jews.
A functioning, democratic Syria at peace with its neighbors is possible in the post- Bashar Assad era, a Washington- based Syrian Kurdish opposition leader told The Jerusalem Post on Monday.
“We have a new vision for Syria – a federal Syria, a just Syria – not an Arab republic – that is inclusive, whether you’re Kurd or Arab, Christian or Muslim,” said Sherkoh Abbas, president of the Kurdistan National Assembly of Syria (KNAS).
He said a country as homogeneous as Syria is best suited to a federal model, in which areas with high minority populations enjoy certain powers not wielded by the national government.
The new Syria that Abbas envisions would be at peace with all of its neighbors, including Israel.
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In this powerful talk from TEDGlobal, Rebecca MacKinnon describes the expanding struggle for freedom and control in cyberspace, and asks: How do we design the next phase of the Internet with accountability and freedom at its core, rather than control? She believes the internet is headed for a “Magna Carta” moment when citizens around the world demand that their governments protect free speech and their right to connection.
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In 2008, a secret State Department cable warned of a growing chemical weapons threat from a Middle Eastern country whose autocratic leader had a long history of stirring up trouble in the region. The leader, noted for his “support for terrorist organizations,” was attempting to buy technology from other countries to upgrade an already fearsome stockpile of deadly poisons, the department warned.
The Middle Eastern state with the dangerous chemicals was not Libya, whose modest stockpile was thrust into the spotlight last week because of fighting there. It was Syria, another violence-torn Arab state whose advanced weapons are drawing new concern as the country drifts toward an uncertain future.
A sudden collapse of the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad could mean a breakdown in controls over the country’s weapons, U.S. officials and weapons experts said in interviews. But while Libya’s chemical arsenal consists of unwieldy canisters filled mostly with mustard gas, the World War I-era blistering agent, Syria possesses some of the deadliest chemicals ever to be weaponized, dispersed in thousands of artillery shells and warheads that are easy to transport.
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Nablus resident commandeers cab, rams Border Police road block, gets out, screams “Allahu Akbar” begins stabbing people; 5 police officers among injured.
Police said the terrorist, a 20-year-old Nablus resident, entered a taxi near the beginning of Salameh Street, and carjacked the driver, stabbing him in the hand. He then drove for approximately a kilometer down Salameh Street towards the Haoman 17 nightclub, which was filled with high school children at an end-of-summer party.
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I didn’t see it, but do I really need to? Look for it to air again and remember to keep the Pepto handy. Again, OMNI didn’t just broadcast this, they produced it. Here’s a description with the trailer below:
“Some of the interview subjects include Mahmoud Jaballah, British foreign correspondent Robert Fisk, filmmaker Alexandre “Sasha” Trudeau, Monia Mazigh — wife of Maher Arar, Israeli historian Ilan Pappé, Lebanese diplomat and academic Clovis Maksoud, Toronto Star editorial writer Haroon Siddiqui, and human rights activist Matthew Behrens.
How does the mass media cover issues important to Canadian Arabs and Muslims? Is it fair or are issues ignored?
“Guilty Until Proven Innocent” is a controversial documentary airing on OMNI television, Canada’s multicultural network, that explores whether the mainstream media gives balanced coverage towards matters of concern to Arabs and Muslims. It examines how perceptions of Arabs and Muslims are shaped by coverage of conflicts in the Middle East and Arab world.
“In light of 9/11 and the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and the on-going Israeli-Palestinian conflict, we felt there was a tremendous need to do a documentary that offered a different perspective on Arabs and Muslims that breaks with the terrorist stereotype,” explains Gaby Androas, the Lebanese-born director of the documentary whose company, Andraos Media, produced the film. “The power of the media is so strong in shaping perceptions towards minorities we thought this deserved some investigation.”
“Guilty Until Proven Innocent” examines the issue of security certificates, an arcane legal tool used by Canada’s intelligence services in recent years to arrest and detain suspected Arab terrorists without actually having to show the detainees or their lawyers the evidence against them. A focal point of the documentary is the case of Mahmoud Jaballah, an Egyptian religious teacher, who spent seven years behind bars in Canadian prisons for being an alleged terrorist.
“Guilty Until Proven Innocent” also examines how media coverage of conflicts in the Middle East can shape popular perceptions towards Arabs and Muslims. In particular, the documentary uses as a case example the on-going Israeli-Palestinian dispute, exploring the roots of this conflict and how the Arab historical narrative is rarely touched upon in the media, as well as the unbalanced coverage of Palestinian fatalities compared with Israeli fatalities.
The documentary also examines the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in respect to death tolls caused by these conflicts. Finally, we touch upon media coverage of the Maher Arar case”.
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Just saying. Via The Jawa Report.
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BCF has a rather disgusting post up on a racist organization receiving $150,000 grant through the Ontario Trillium Foundation.
Here’s a look at some other worthy organizations the OTF is doling out tax dollars to. Do click on the OTF link, there’s so much more.
Dads Against Dirty Air, Inc. (DADA)
$107,500 to educate and encourage parents, students and school-bus drivers to reduce idling and localized pollution in the Peel school community. Funding will also help the organization promote its work in other areas of the province.
Mennonite Coalition for Refugee Support
$75,700 to raise awareness about the challenges facing refugee claimants in the community, to educate and mobilize the community to support refugee claimants, and to increase revenues for organizational stability.
Burlington Community Foundation
$37,500 to support the project management functions associated with establishing a collaborative shared office and meeting place for community and social mission organizations in Halton. UM WTF?!!!
BURLINGTON WELSH MALE CHORUS
$30,500 to purchase a practice piano, support additional music direction, concert soloists and concert supports to raise the membership and the profile of the choir.
Argonaut Rowing Club
$143,900 to insulate ceilings in the club’s boat bay and install a new roof and air conditioning at one of the oldest rowing clubs in Canada, making this Parkdale facility safer, energy efficient and more comfortable.
Wychwood Barns Community Association
$16,600 to formalize and strengthen volunteer management of the organization in order to enhance the arts and community programming at the Artscape Wychwood Barns in Toronto.
Toronto Summit Alliance
$107,400 to help at least one Toronto community move towards carbon neutrality, by developing a comprehensive framework and a suite of tools, resources and actions to minimize energy use. The learnings will be translated into a model to encourage other neighbourhoods to build a similar culture of conservation and ultimately achieve carbon neutrality.
Woodbridge Soccer Club
$50,000 to undertake a comprehensive organizational review of this community soccer club, including a review of its mission, policies, procedures, current funding model and a determination of what is needed for future efficient and effective operations by volunteers and staff.
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The State Department gave a crucial green light on Friday to a proposed 1,711-mile pipeline that would carry heavy oil from oil sands in Canada across the Great Plains to terminals in Oklahoma and the Gulf Coast.
The project, which would be the longest oil pipeline outside of Russia and China, has become a potent symbol in a growing fight that pits energy security against environmental risk, a struggle highlighted by last year’s oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
By concluding that the $7 billion Keystone XL pipeline would have minimal effect on the environment, President Obama would risk alienating environmental activists, who gave him important support in the 2008 election and were already upset by his recent decisions to expand domestic oil drilling and delay clean air rules. Pipeline opponents have protested in front of the White House for a week, resulting in nearly 400 arrests.
At the same time, rising concerns about the weak economy and high gas prices have made it difficult for the administration to oppose a project that would greatly expand the nation’s access to oil from a friendly neighbor and create tens of thousands of jobs.
The project still must clear several hurdles, including endorsement by other federal agencies, additional studies, public hearings and consultation with the states through which the pipeline will pass. But all signs point to the Obama administration approving the project by the end of the year, perhaps with modifications.
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Palestinian leader defiant ahead of UN statehood bid, urges international community to back off; “Don’t order us to recognize Jewish state”.
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“At American Independence Park in Israel we had the dedication of the Aqsa Parvez Memorial Grove, dedicated to her memory and those of all victims of honor killing. This was the first public declaration anywhere by anyone that we will not allow these girls to be forgotten, and will keep speaking out against this barbaric practice until law enforcement authorities take decisive action to stop it spreading further in the West.”
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In the past five days, the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR)
documented the injuries of eight persons, including two children and three
women, due to the explosions of home-made rockets in populated areas across the Gaza Strip.
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“Headlines often set the entire tone of an article and are the first things that the reader sees. The events of the past few days have generated some horrendous headlines. Here are just a few that we spotted.”
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Uncovering the story behind the mug shots.
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After publishing Wake Up Call with his cousin Gabrielle, Paris Dipersico was beaten by two men in what Oakville police now believe is a hate crime.
Halton police are treating an attack on a first-time author whose self-published book has been branded anti-Muslim as a possible hate crime.
Raised Islamic, Paris Dipersico, 24, reported being dragged from his bicycle Aug. 17, tied up among trees, then beaten briefly unconscious by two Muslim men.
Accused of being gay, they then “called me a Jew in Arabic and said the Jews are paying you to write this against Islam”.
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From left, Al-Quds University President Sari Nusseibeh; Professor Saeed Rahnema; Lorna Wright, York associate vice-president international; and York President & Vice-Chancellor Mamdouh Shoukri
“The agreement was signed by York President & Vice-Chancellor Mamdouh Shoukri and Professor Sari Nusseibeh, president of Al-Quds University, during a special ceremony held this spring at the University’s Keele campus.”
Some info on Al Quds U, an institute of higher terror learning:
Celebrating terror attacks
Hosting branches of the Hamas and Islamic Jihad terror organizations throughout Gaza and the West Bank.
Article here with more info:
– Hamas founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin founded the school in 1978.
– Sheikh Yassin, former Hamas leader Abdel Aziz Rantisi, and current Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh have all used the school as a base.
– Haniyeh sits on the school’s board of trustees.
– The school’s 16 parliamentarians account for more than one-fifth of all Hamas legislators.
– Hamas used the campus to host a two-day conference in 2005 on the “martyrdom” of Sheikh Yassin.
– Students gave 78% of their student council votes in 2005 to the Hamas-affiliated party.
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A budding middle class in the impoverished Gaza Strip is flaunting its wealth, sipping coffee at gleaming new cafes, shopping for shoes at the new tiny shopping malls, and fueling perhaps the most acrimonious grass roots resentment yet toward the ruling Hamas movement.
This middle class, which has become visible at the same time as a mini-construction boom in this blockaded territory, is celebrating its weddings in opulent halls and vacationing in newly built beach bungalows. That level of consumption may be modest by Western standards, but it’s in startling contrast to the grinding poverty of most Gazans, who rely on UN food handouts to get by.
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A journalist for Al-Jazeera has been arrested on suspicion of being an agent of the Palestinian terror group Hamas. The journalist, Samer Allawi, Al-Jazeera’s bureau chief in Afghanistan, is a Palestinian. He was apprehended by Israeli authorities as he attempted to leave the West Bank.
The detention of Allawi, a major development in the media wars over the future of the Middle East, is not the first time that Israel has detained journalists from the channel. During the 2006 war in Lebanon, several Al-Jazeera journalists working in Israel were apprehended and warned about providing military information to Hezbollah, another terrorist organization. The accusation was that Al-Jazeera journalists were reporting the specific location of Hezbollah rocket strikes on Israel, enabling the terrorists to more accurately aim their weapons. In total, Hezbollah rained an estimated 3,970 Katyusha rockets and longer range missiles on military and civilian targets in Israel. The rockets have no internal guidance system and needed to rely on spotters or media coverage of their strikes to increase their accuracy.
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So long as Hamas can attack Israel any time it wants, it can effectively veto any chance of peace with Palestinian moderates should any turn up who would actually be willing to sign a peace accord. The missiles from Gaza should also serve to remind both Israelis and the international community that Hamas’ deadly attacks are the true face of Palestinian independence. While the vast majority of Israelis would be glad to accept a Palestinian state in the West Bank provided this meant the end of the conflict, Gaza provides a glimpse of what that state might well become.
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It is interesting to contrast the religiously sanctioned abuse of dogs in the Muslim world with recent movements to remove dog and cat meat from its time-honored place on Chinese and South Korean menus.
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First things first: Israel is not an apartheid state and anyone who pushes that lie is a Jew hating fuck.
Now, on to the drooling Dawg:
“Commenters here and elsewhere have criticized me for “singling out Israel” in my blog—code for “anti-Semitism.” OK, I do write about Israel more than, say, Syria. A lot more, actually.
True, I have greeted the chaotic Arab Spring as a breath of fresh air, and attacked the classic anti-Semitism in the Hamas Charter, the vicious character of the Iranian regime, and the murderous theocrats of the Taliban. Just not as much.
Well, how come? Are my critics right?
I don’t really think I can improve on this comment, made in response to an utterly indefatigable self-described “liberal Zionist”:
Who in Canada feels anything but disgust and horror at Assad’s butchery? Does the government support Assad publicly? Try to explain away his crimes? Act as Syria’s best friend? Vote against anti-Assad motions in the UN? Are there bloggers rushing into print to excuse him?
There’s no debate about Syria. As yet, there is a public debate about Israel. Too bad it’s not a very good one.
In fact, there’s no debate about North Korea or the theocratic regime in Iran. There’s no debate about Saudi Arabia or other corrupt and brutal regimes in the Arab world and elsewhere.
Short of lame “me-tooism,” there’s simply not much to say about these places when everyone already more or less agrees on the fundamentals anyway.”
Got it?
The reason Dawg and his buddies don’t obsess about the most brutal regimes on earth is because everyone already knows they’re bad, so why bother criticizing them and exposing their savagery? Why bother trying to help the suffering innocent victims of Islamists who number in the hundreds of thousands?
I ask, are their lives less precious than palestinian lives?
Of course there’s no debate or discussion among Dawg and his cohorts on these hell-hole countries – that’s because the Jew haters set the agenda for what’s discussed, debated and condemned in the media, blogosphere and our universities. Dawg and his racist friends don’t call for boycotts on Iranian food products, don’t raise money for flotillas to help the oppressed in Syria, don’t hold Saudi Arabian apartheid week at our universities, don’t question the borders of any Middle East country (other than the Jewish state) all because…..it’s a given that Muslim countries are run and populated with barbarians – so let’s just ignore them? I believe that’s referred to as racism of lower expectations, not to mention the racism of double standards for Jews.
While Baglow comically explains why he ignores all kinds of Muslim massacres, he doesn’t bother trying to justify his disregard for the sick society of the palestinians. Coincidentally , Dawg published this post the day after palestinian terrorists murder 8 in cold blood and rained dozens of rockets down on Israel. No comment or condemnation from the filthy Dawg.
He’s silent on actual apartheid in palestine, brainwashing young children to hate Jews, honour killings, persecution of queers, theft of cash aid, paying imprisoned terrorist’s salaries, etc. – and I won’t even get in to his complete ignorance or intentional deception regarding the history of the Arab/Israeli conflict and how we got to where we are today.
Why? Is it because everyone already knows that the Palestinians and their leaders are violent animals or is it because the palis get a pass on their savagery since it’s Jews they’re fighting?
I know why, readers here know why, and Dawg knows why.
No need to keep digging your hole Baglow, you’re already buried.
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…..you know who.
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There‘s some curious merchandise for sale in CBS News’ online store.*
Alongside a travel mug, tote bag and T-shirt that all bear the CBS News logo, the store also includes the following:
In fact, out of the 13 items for sale, seven are Obama-related, in addition to the late Sen. Ted Kennedy’s memoir, “True Compass.” The only CBS-related item is a DVD copy of “60 Minutes Presents — Obama: All Access – The Road to the White House.”
There is so much merchandise that a side bar on the site even has a separate “Barack Obama” tab for quick browsing.
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Left-leaning Judeophobes, unlike their predecessors of a century ago, never call themselves “antisemitic.” Indeed, they are usually indignant at the very suggestion that they have something against the Jews. Such denials notwithstanding, they are generally obsessed with stigmatizing Israel. The dream of the far left has long been to dissolve the hated “Zionist entity” and, in the name of human rights, make the world Judenstaatrein. Thus, they deny to the Jewish people a fundamental human and political right that they would militantly defend for nonwhite peoples—above all, the Palestinians—namely, the right to national self-determination. This anti-Zionism of the radical leftist camp, profoundly discriminatory toward Jewish nationalism, has now spread into the mainstream liberal left, whose rhetoric relentlessly seeks to undermine the moral and historic legitimacy of a Jewish state. Liberal leftists portray Israel as a state born of the “original sin” of displacing, expropriating, or expelling an “aboriginal” population.26
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At least a dozen rockets, 10 hurt.
Related: Suicide bomber kills Egyptian soldiers near Philadelphi route.
Bonus chutzpah: Palestinian terrorist government warns Israel against “irresponsible retaliation”.
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New schools in Pakistan are attempting to de-radicalize captured Taliban members.
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Gaza’s borders with Israel may be tightly sealed, but its western boundary with Egypt has long been porous — shot through with tunnels, as well as the official border crossing — and in recent weeks so have routes south through the Sinai wastes toward the unfenced boundary with Israel. For years under the reign of Egyptian president Mubarak, it was nearly impossible for Bedouin tribesmen or militants from the north to get past military checkpoints blocking the way south, where the Red Sea resorts on both the Egyptian and the Israeli side made tempting targets for terror attacks. But roads that were heavily patrolled a year ago are now largely open to north-south travel. Smugglers in Rafah, on the Gaza border, recently told TIME of having arrived from Sharm el Sheik, on the Red Sea, via north-south roads with no trouble.
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Liveblog at Israel Matzav.
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Your weekly dose of celebrity dross.
“Every Wednesday, I’ll bring you a sort of “Page Six” round-up of Hollywood news — if “Page Six” were written by a snotty, right-wing broad with a GenX sensibility, a 20-gauge shotgun, and appallingly low-brow taste.” Shaidle.
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Iranian snipers have been deployed in Syria as part of an increasingly brutal crackdown on protests against the rule of President Bashar al-Assad, according to a former member of the regime’s secret police.
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A decision by the United Nations Relief and
Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) to suspend services in the
northern West Bank city of Jenin on Friday had upset local activists.
Adnan Hindi, head of the popular services committee in Jenin refugee camp,
condemned UNRWA’s decision, saying it was unjustified.
UNRWA suspended its operations in the Jenin area refugee camps following
allegation of threats received by its staff.
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A major problem in Canada’s $192-billion health-care system is accessibility: many patients face long queues and live in doctor-starved areas. Despite talk about patient-centred care, the system revolves around those who provide, not receive, treatment. But that’s what you get when you have a monopoly.
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The United Nations Relief and Works Agency, UNRWA, has issued a statement in which it says it is “gravely concerned about the heavy gunfire from Syrian security forces in and around the Palestinian refugee camp situated in the El Ramel district of Latakia.”
“According to reports from the camp, there is incoming fire from tanks which have encircled the area as well as fire from ships at sea,” UNRWA said. “The camp itself has been hit and there are reports of deaths and casualties.”
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American counterterrorism officials are increasingly concerned that the most dangerous regional arm of Al Qaeda is trying to produce the lethal poison ricin, to be packed around small explosives for attacks against the United States.
For more than a year, according to classified intelligence reports, Al Qaeda’s affiliate in Yemen has been making efforts to acquire large quantities of castor beans, which are required to produce ricin, a white, powdery toxin that is so deadly that just a speck can kill if it is inhaled or reaches the bloodstream.
Intelligence officials say they have collected evidence that Qaeda operatives are trying to move castor beans and processing agents to a hideaway in Shabwa Province, in one of Yemen’s rugged tribal areas controlled by insurgents. The officials say the evidence points to efforts to secretly concoct batches of the poison, pack them around small explosives, and then try to explode them in contained spaces, like a shopping mall, an airport or a subway station.
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Egypt’s largest political group, the Muslim Brotherhood, warned the country’s military rulers Saturday not to interfere in the writing of a new constitution.
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Syria used gunboats for the first time Sunday to crush the uprising against Bashar Assad’s regime, hammering parts of the Mediterranean coastal city of Latakia after thousands marched there over the weekend to demand the president’s ouster. At least 25 people were killed, according to activists.
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Human trafficking has been referred to as “modern-day slavery” and involves the domestic or international recruiting, transporting and harbouring of people for forced labour exploitation and is unlike human smuggling, where people pay someone to bring them into the country illegally.
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“Canada, despite a reputation for being an inclusive society that celebrates diversity, will have to defend itself against UN concerns about racial discrimination—all over a term designed precisely to combat racial discrimination. Next year, for the second time in five years, a delegation from the Ministry of Canadian Heritage will appear before the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, to answer criticisms over Ottawa’s use of the term “visible minorities.”
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Went to the Abstract Expressionist show at the AGO today; all I can say is, WOW! If you live in the GTA I highly recommend seeing it. Absolutely stunning. Details here.
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What PR value is there in a military display that includes crippled and injured operatives? According to the Islamic Jihad’s website, the military wing recently held maneuvers in which veteran members of the Jihad who had been injured over the years in battles with Israeli forces had a starring role.
The maneuvers included sights not usually seen on the battlefield, one-legged men carrying Kalashnikov rifles or RPG launchers while leaning on crutches or sitting in wheelchairs.
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