tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-75531020038588180352024-03-05T11:15:21.481-05:00 MY TAKE A blog of Cheryl K. Chumley's conservative and Christian views of the state of the nation, the Constitution and current day politics, policies, legislation and culture. Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09279049314094940021noreply@blogger.comBlogger334125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7553102003858818035.post-6509319273247087212016-10-31T09:23:00.004-04:002016-10-31T09:23:44.318-04:00'My Take' Has Moved! New Site: CherylChumley.Com<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Please visit <a href="http://www.cherylchumley.com/">www.CherylChumley.com</a>, my new author and blogging site.<br />
<br />
Going forward, no posts will be made to CherylChumley.Blogspot.com. If you'd like to continue receiving notification of new posts -- breaking news and opinion -- please subscribe at <a href="http://www.cherylchumley.com/">www.CherylChumley.com</a>, located on the right hand side of the page.<br />
<br />
Thank you for your patronage! And I hope to "see" you on my new page.<br />
<br />
-- Cheryl Chumley<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09279049314094940021noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7553102003858818035.post-87001511175479454602016-10-12T05:33:00.000-04:002016-10-12T05:33:04.015-04:00'Islamapalooza,' the Islam Fair, Comes to University of Florida<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="color: #141412; font-family: "Source Sans Pro", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
Islam Appreciation Month kicked off this week at the University of Florida, a campaign that runs through October 24 that's sponsored by the student organization, Islam on Campus.</div>
<div style="color: #141412; font-family: "Source Sans Pro", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
Islam on Campus – UF, according to its <a data-mce-href="https://www.facebook.com/pg/IslamOnCampus/about/?ref=page_internal" href="https://www.facebook.com/pg/IslamOnCampus/about/?ref=page_internal" style="color: #ac0404; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Facebook</a> page, "is a student organization at the University of Florida devoted to strengthening and uniting the Muslim community on campus through service, activism, educational and social activities as well as to spreading awareness and educating Muslims and non-Muslims alike about the religion of Islam."</div>
<div style="color: #141412; font-family: "Source Sans Pro", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<a data-mce-href="http://www.alligator.org/news/campus/article_77b90150-8f65-11e6-898f-ebf9b8d503f2.html" href="http://www.alligator.org/news/campus/article_77b90150-8f65-11e6-898f-ebf9b8d503f2.html" style="color: #ac0404; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Alligator.org</a>, the online version of The Independent Florida Alligator campus newspaper, reports the event is usually a spring affair, but this year is being held in the fall, as a replacement to the Islam on Campus's annual fundraiser.</div>
<div style="color: #141412; font-family: "Source Sans Pro", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
The big draw is Islamapalooza – or, as it was formerly called, the Islam Fair.</div>
<div style="color: #141412; font-family: "Source Sans Pro", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
The <a data-mce-href="http://www.alligator.org/news/campus/article_77b90150-8f65-11e6-898f-ebf9b8d503f2.html" href="http://www.alligator.org/news/campus/article_77b90150-8f65-11e6-898f-ebf9b8d503f2.html" style="color: #ac0404; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Alligator</a> reports:</div>
<blockquote style="color: #141412; font-family: "Source Sans Pro", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 24px; font-style: italic; margin: 24px 40px; quotes: none;">
<div style="margin-bottom: 24px;">
"UF’s Islam On Campus is hosting Islam Appreciation Month this fall in lieu of its annual fundraiser.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 24px;">
"The month-long celebration is starting with Islamapalooza, formerly named Islam Fair, on the Plaza of the Americas today from 10 a.m. until 3 p.m., and it will continue Wednesday from 10 a.m. until 3 p.m. The event will feature booths where students can get henna tattoos, play trivia about Islam and eat falafels, pita and samosas. ...</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 24px;">
"'[Islamapalooza] highlights a lot of the cultural aspects of Islam while getting the community at UF excited with incentives like free henna and food,' the 19-year-old UF psychology sophomore said.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 24px;">
"Maria Ilyas, 20, president of Islam On Campus, said the purpose of the event is to clear misconceptions about Islam and Muslims.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 24px;">
"'We’re trying to bring an awareness and appreciation to who Muslims are and what Islam is really about,' the UF microbiology senior said."</div>
</blockquote>
<div style="color: #141412; font-family: "Source Sans Pro", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
That's nice.</div>
<div style="color: #141412; font-family: "Source Sans Pro", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
The <a data-mce-href="http://www.alligator.org/news/campus/article_77b90150-8f65-11e6-898f-ebf9b8d503f2.html" href="http://www.alligator.org/news/campus/article_77b90150-8f65-11e6-898f-ebf9b8d503f2.html" style="color: #ac0404; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Alligator</a> goes on:</div>
<blockquote style="color: #141412; font-family: "Source Sans Pro", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 24px; font-style: italic; margin: 24px 40px; quotes: none;">
<div style="margin-bottom: 24px;">
"Daniel Khokar, 18, who identifies as Muslim, said the event means a lot to him because it gives him a sense of belonging.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 24px;">
"'It makes me grateful that I can be a part of this event and, furthermore, grow from it,' the UF biology freshman said."</div>
</blockquote>
<div style="color: #141412; font-family: "Source Sans Pro", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
Shouldn't all religions then be given the same opportunity? Shouldn't Jews be given a month to spread the word about Jewish teachings, Christians a month to teach – Buddhists, Sikhs and so forth and so on?</div>
<div style="color: #141412; font-family: "Source Sans Pro", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
Christine Williams, writing for <a data-mce-href="https://www.jihadwatch.org/2016/10/islamic-appreciation-month-comes-to-the-university-of-florida" href="https://www.jihadwatch.org/2016/10/islamic-appreciation-month-comes-to-the-university-of-florida" style="color: #ac0404; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Jihad Watch</a>, makes some good points about the appreciation month:</div>
<blockquote style="color: #141412; font-family: "Source Sans Pro", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 24px; font-style: italic; margin: 24px 40px; quotes: none;">
<div style="margin-bottom: 24px;">
"It is right that every innocent Muslim, as well as any member of any group, should feel a sense of belonging, but a sense of entitlement is not the equivalent of a sense of belonging. There are Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, Bahai students too; and there are also Jews on campuses who are treated with contempt and intimidation by jihadist Muslim groups operating right under the noses of university administrators. Shame on the University of Florida for this outright preferential treatment for Muslims over any other group.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 24px;">
"Islamic Heritage Month was recently declared in Ontario, also to make Muslims feel better, with the objective of combating “Islamophobia,” despite the fact that no stats bear out that “Islamophobia” is a significant problem. Muslims are the ones attacking Westerners, and despite this fact, the targeting of Muslims remains minimal, which demonstrates the exceptional evolution of the West in terms of tolerance. Sadly, however, blacks and Jews remain by far the greatest groups targeted by hate crimes.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 24px;">
"If Muslims collectively want to feel more included, then they would also collectively (and openly) condemn all forms of jihad (stealth and violent), as well as anti-West and anti-Israel hate messages globally, and the hate that is routinely being preached in mosques, Islamic centers and madrassas right on Western soil."</div>
</blockquote>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09279049314094940021noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7553102003858818035.post-3563839382342265432016-10-06T06:33:00.001-04:002016-10-06T06:34:12.907-04:0044 Afghan Troops Training on U.S. Military Bases Go Mysteriously Missing<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="color: #141412; font-family: "Source Sans Pro", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
Where did they go?</div>
<div style="color: #141412; font-family: "Source Sans Pro", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
That's the big question and mystery surrounding 44 members of the Afghanistan military who've been training on U.S. soil, at U.S. military bases, but who've now gone missing.</div>
<div style="color: #141412; font-family: "Source Sans Pro", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
As <a data-mce-href="http://www.foxnews.com/us/2016/10/06/dozens-afghan-troops-training-in-us-have-reportedly-vanished-from-military-bases.html" href="http://www.foxnews.com/us/2016/10/06/dozens-afghan-troops-training-in-us-have-reportedly-vanished-from-military-bases.html" style="color: #ac0404; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Fox News</a> puts it:</div>
<blockquote style="color: #141412; font-family: "Source Sans Pro", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 24px; font-style: italic; margin: 24px 40px; quotes: none;">
<div style="margin-bottom: 24px;">
"Nearly four dozen Afghan troops training in the U.S. have reportedly vanished in less than two years."</div>
</blockquote>
<div style="color: #141412; font-family: "Source Sans Pro", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
Since September alone, eight Afghan troops have gone missing, Reuters reported.</div>
<div style="color: #141412; font-family: "Source Sans Pro", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
The disturbing news from the Pentagon is that the soldiers – in all, 44 of them – are prsumed to have disappeared into America's job market to live and work as illegal citizens. But presumed is the key word; in other words, nobody really knows.</div>
<div style="color: #141412; font-family: "Source Sans Pro", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<a data-mce-href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-afghanistan-military-idUSKCN1260A1" href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-afghanistan-military-idUSKCN1260A1" style="color: #ac0404; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Reuters reports</a>:</div>
<blockquote style="color: #141412; font-family: "Source Sans Pro", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 24px; font-style: italic; margin: 24px 40px; quotes: none;">
<div style="margin-bottom: 24px;">
"A U.S. defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters that the frequency of Afghan troops disappearing from military training was truly concerning and 'out of the ordinary.' Pentagon spokesman Adam Stump said that eight Afghan troops have left bases without permission.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 24px;">
"'The Defense Department is assessing ways to strengthen eligibility criteria for training in ways that will reduce the likelihood of an individual Afghan willingly absconding from training in the U.S. and going AWOL,' Stump said."</div>
</blockquote>
<div style="color: #141412; font-family: "Source Sans Pro", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
The Afghans training on U.S. bases are supposedly vetted to make sure their pasts don't include ties to terrorism or to radicalize groups in the Middle East. And Stump also said no evidence exists to indicate the disappeared troops now pose a threat to America.</div>
<div style="color: #141412; font-family: "Source Sans Pro", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
But again: Who can say for sure?</div>
<div style="color: #141412; font-family: "Source Sans Pro", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
It's like a mad game of "Where's Waldo," only with national security as the stake.</div>
<div style="color: #141412; font-family: "Source Sans Pro", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
As <a data-mce-href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-afghanistan-military-idUSKCN1260A1" href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-afghanistan-military-idUSKCN1260A1" style="color: #ac0404; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Reuters</a> went on:</div>
<blockquote style="color: #141412; font-family: "Source Sans Pro", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 24px; font-style: italic; margin: 24px 40px; quotes: none;">
<div style="margin-bottom: 24px;">
"Although the number of disappearances is relatively small – some 2,200 Afghan troops have received military training in the United States since 2007 – the incidents raise questions about security and screening procedures for the programs.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 24px;">
"They are also potentially embarrassing for U.S. President Barack Obama's administration, which has spent billions of dollars training Afghan troops as Washington seeks to extricate itself from the costly, 15-year-old war. The disclosure could fuel criticism by supporters of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, who has accused the Obama administration of failing to properly vet immigrants from Muslim-majority countries and has pledged a much tougher stance if he wins."</div>
</blockquote>
<div style="color: #141412; font-family: "Source Sans Pro", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
Stump also told Reuters the Department of Defense is analyzing ways to strengthen the program's elegibility and vetting requirements, in order to lessen the chances of participants going AWOL in the future.</div>
<div style="color: #141412; font-family: "Source Sans Pro", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
Good idea.</div>
<div style="color: #141412; font-family: "Source Sans Pro", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
From <a data-mce-href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-afghanistan-military-idUSKCN1260A1" href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-afghanistan-military-idUSKCN1260A1" style="color: #ac0404; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Reuters</a>, once again:</div>
<blockquote style="color: #141412; font-family: "Source Sans Pro", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 24px; font-style: italic; margin: 24px 40px; quotes: none;">
<div style="margin-bottom: 24px;">
"The Afghan army has occasionally been infiltrated by Taliban militants who have carried out attacks on Afghan and U.S. troops, but such incidents have become less frequent due to tougher security measures."</div>
</blockquote>
<i>First posted at PamelaGeller.com, here: <a href="http://pamelageller.com/2016/10/44-afghan-troops-training-on-u-s-military-bases-go-mysteriously-missing.html/" target="_blank">http://pamelageller.com/2016/10/44-afghan-troops-training-on-u-s-military-bases-go-mysteriously-missing.html/ </a></i></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09279049314094940021noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7553102003858818035.post-76461407284374877222016-10-05T09:24:00.005-04:002016-10-05T09:24:51.646-04:00London Gives Cleric Who Tells How to Kill Gays a 10-Day Pass to Speak in City<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="color: #141412; font-family: "Source Sans Pro", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
London has given the thumbs-up to a Muslim cleric with a past that includes teaching how to kill gays to come to the city and deliver 10 days worth of speeches and lectures at an organization that's backed by Iran's government.</div>
<div style="color: #141412; font-family: "Source Sans Pro", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
Shaykh Hamza Sodagar, who delivered remarks earlier this year on "one of five" ways to kill homosexuals, is now set to speak at the Islamic Republic of Iran School in London.</div>
<div style="color: #141412; font-family: "Source Sans Pro", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
Just how fiery was his speech against gays a few months ago?</div>
<div style="color: #141412; font-family: "Source Sans Pro", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
As <a data-mce-href="http://www.breitbart.com/london/2016/10/04/behead-burn-and-crush-gays-islamic-preacher-to-deliver-10-days-of-lectures-in-london/" href="http://www.breitbart.com/london/2016/10/04/behead-burn-and-crush-gays-islamic-preacher-to-deliver-10-days-of-lectures-in-london/" style="color: #ac0404; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Breitbart</a> reported, a recently surfaced video reveals his remarks: "If there's homosexual men, the punishment is one of five things. One – the easiest one maybe – chop their head off, that's the easiest. Second – burn them to death. Third – throw 'em off a cliff. Fourth – tear down a wall on them so they die under that. Fifth – a combination of the above."</div>
<div style="color: #141412; font-family: "Source Sans Pro", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
And it's not as if Sodagar wants to keep his views to himself.</div>
<div style="color: #141412; font-family: "Source Sans Pro", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<a data-mce-href="http://www.breitbart.com/london/2016/10/04/behead-burn-and-crush-gays-islamic-preacher-to-deliver-10-days-of-lectures-in-london/" href="http://www.breitbart.com/london/2016/10/04/behead-burn-and-crush-gays-islamic-preacher-to-deliver-10-days-of-lectures-in-london/" style="color: #ac0404; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">From Breitbart</a>:</div>
<blockquote style="color: #141412; font-family: "Source Sans Pro", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 24px; font-style: italic; margin: 24px 40px; quotes: none;">
<div style="margin-bottom: 24px;">
"According to a speaker biography, Mr. Sodagar regards himself as a 'role model' for 'young Muslims all around the world.'" ...</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 24px;">
"As noted in 2014, he has also claimed Europeans and Americans are controlled by a 'Zionist web of media ... trying to control the minds of the people.'"</div>
</blockquote>
<div style="color: #141412; font-family: "Source Sans Pro", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
His speaking event was organized by the Ahlulbayt Islamic Mission.</div>
<div style="color: #141412; font-family: "Source Sans Pro", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
So just to get this straight: Ahlulbayt, who not only advocates for the killings of homosexuals, but explains in an easy to remember five-point bullet list just how to do it, is granted a 10-day pass to London by British authorities – and not just to tour, but rather spread his vicious rhetoric and Islamist views.</div>
<div style="color: #141412; font-family: "Source Sans Pro", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
But you know who's banned from Britain? Pamela Geller. Robert Spencer. Radio giant Michael Savage. Why? For telling the truth – or, as the government there considers it, for hate speech.</div>
<div style="color: #141412; font-family: "Source Sans Pro", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
Here's what Spencer says about the matter, on his <a data-mce-href="https://www.jihadwatch.org/2016/10/uk-admits-muslim-cleric-who-called-for-murder-of-gays-for-series-of-lectures-in-london" href="https://www.jihadwatch.org/2016/10/uk-admits-muslim-cleric-who-called-for-murder-of-gays-for-series-of-lectures-in-london" style="color: #ac0404; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Jihad Watch website</a>:</div>
<blockquote style="color: #141412; font-family: "Source Sans Pro", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 24px; font-style: italic; margin: 24px 40px; quotes: none;">
<div style="margin-bottom: 24px;">
"Shaykh Hamza Sodagar lives in Iran. That means he was admitted into Britain in order to give these lectures. I am, of course, banned by the British government from traveling to Britain because I noted (correctly) that Islam is 'a religion and is a belief system that mandates warfare against unbelievers.'</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 24px;">
"It is unacceptable to say that in Britain today. Shaykh Hamza Sodagar said: 'If there’s homosexual men, the punishment is one of five things. One – the easiest one maybe – chop their head off, that’s the easiest. Second – burn them to death. Third – throw ’em off a cliff. Fourth – tear down a wall on them so they die under that. Fifth – a combination of the above.' That is acceptable to say in Britain today.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 24px;">
"So apparently believing that Islam mandates warfare against unbelievers is unacceptable so long as one is against that warfare. If one is for it and preaches it, that’s just fine.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 24px;">
"Britain is finished."</div>
</blockquote>
<i>First posted at PamelaGeller.com, here: <a href="http://pamelageller.com/2016/10/london-gives-cleric-who-tells-how-to-kill-gays-a-10-day-pass-to-speak-in-city.html/" target="_blank">http://pamelageller.com/2016/10/london-gives-cleric-who-tells-how-to-kill-gays-a-10-day-pass-to-speak-in-city.html/ </a></i></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09279049314094940021noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7553102003858818035.post-88296459356419054272016-10-05T09:22:00.003-04:002016-10-05T09:22:58.914-04:00Left on Terror: Soft on Muslims – But 'Donald Trump is a Domestic Terrorist'<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="color: #141412; font-family: "Source Sans Pro", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
Get a load of this, the latest in what passes for logic to the left: Muslims are by and large peaceful, Islam is not a religion of violence, but rather the wayward acts of a select deranged few – but Donald Trump is a terrorist.</div>
<div style="color: #141412; font-family: "Source Sans Pro", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
That's the world according to <a data-mce-href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/03/opinion/campaign-stops/donald-trump-terroristic-man-toddler.html?_r=1" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/03/opinion/campaign-stops/donald-trump-terroristic-man-toddler.html?_r=1" style="color: #ac0404; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">New York Times</a> columnist Charles M. Blow, anyway. And sadly, it's shared by many on the left, including the present White House.</div>
<div style="color: #141412; font-family: "Source Sans Pro", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
Here's what Blow <a data-mce-href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/03/opinion/campaign-stops/donald-trump-terroristic-man-toddler.html?_r=1" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/03/opinion/campaign-stops/donald-trump-terroristic-man-toddler.html?_r=1" style="color: #ac0404; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">wrote</a>, in the pages of the newspaper, just this week:</div>
<blockquote style="color: #141412; font-family: "Source Sans Pro", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 24px; font-style: italic; margin: 24px 40px; quotes: none;">
<div style="margin-bottom: 24px;">
"Donald Trump is a domestic terrorist; only his form of terror doesn’t boil down to blowing things up. He’s the 70-year-old toddler who knows nearly nothing, hurls insults, has simplistic solutions for complex problems and is quick to throw a tantrum. Also, in case you didn’t know it, this toddler is mean to girls and is a bit of a bigot."</div>
</blockquote>
<div style="color: #141412; font-family: "Source Sans Pro", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
To Blow's credit, he didn't try to define what he meant by the word "terrorist." And that's a good thing – because he already looks foolish enough for his view.</div>
<div style="color: #141412; font-family: "Source Sans Pro", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
Let's swing on back to reality for a few and look deeper at the logic of the left.</div>
<div style="color: #141412; font-family: "Source Sans Pro", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
President Obama can't stomach the idea of stringing together the words radical and Islamic and terrorist in one single phrase because, in his mind, terrorism has little if nothing to do with the religion of Islam.</div>
<div style="color: #141412; font-family: "Source Sans Pro", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
Secretary of State John Kerry keeps calling ISIS "apostates," most notably in a speech from Rome just a few months ago in which he also seemed to suggest the terrorists were more like teens without fathers, raised by the streets, than violent men bent on spreading Sharia throughout the world.</div>
<div style="color: #141412; font-family: "Source Sans Pro", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
As the <a data-mce-href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2016/02/03/john-kerry-keeps-calling-the-islamic-state-apostates-maybe-he-should-stop/" href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2016/02/03/john-kerry-keeps-calling-the-islamic-state-apostates-maybe-he-should-stop/" style="color: #ac0404; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Washington Post reported</a>, Kerry said then:</div>
<blockquote style="color: #141412; font-family: "Source Sans Pro", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 24px; font-style: italic; margin: 24px 40px; quotes: none;">
<div style="margin-bottom: 24px;">
"Daesh [Kerry's name for ISIS] is in fact nothing more than a mixture of killers, of kidnappers, of criminals, of thugs, of adventurers, of smugglers and thieves,” Kerry said. “And they are also above all apostates, people who have hijacked a great religion and lie about its real meaning and lie about its purpose and deceive people in order to fight for their purposes.”</div>
</blockquote>
<div style="color: #141412; font-family: "Source Sans Pro", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
Nothing to do with the religion, right? Next thing you know, the administration will be touting jobs as the solution to terror .... oh wait. They already did ...</div>
<div style="color: #141412; font-family: "Source Sans Pro", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
The headline from <a data-mce-href="http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/02/17/state-department-spokeswoman-floats-jobs-as-answer-to-isis.html" href="http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/02/17/state-department-spokeswoman-floats-jobs-as-answer-to-isis.html" style="color: #ac0404; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Fox News</a> in February 2015: "State Department spokesman floats jobs as answer to ISIS."</div>
<div style="color: #141412; font-family: "Source Sans Pro", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
The story read, in part:</div>
<blockquote style="color: #141412; font-family: "Source Sans Pro", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 24px; font-style: italic; margin: 24px 40px; quotes: none;">
<div style="margin-bottom: 24px;">
"That's what a top State Department spokeswoman suggested when asked in a TV interview Monday night about what the U.S.-led coalition is doing to stop the slaughter of civilians by Islamic State militants across the region.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 24px;">
"'We're killing a lot of them, and we're going to keep killing more of them. ... But we cannot win this war by killing them,' department spokeswoman Marie Harf said on MSNBC's "Hardball." 'We need ... to go after the root causes that leads people to join these groups, whether it's lack of opportunity for jobs, whether --'"</div>
</blockquote>
<div style="color: #141412; font-family: "Source Sans Pro", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
Left, meet Delusion; Delusion, Left. And the media's been playing right along with the insane viewpoints.</div>
<div style="color: #141412; font-family: "Source Sans Pro", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
Trump the terrorist? Note to New York Times and Blow: Being "<a data-mce-href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/03/opinion/campaign-stops/donald-trump-terroristic-man-toddler.html?_r=1" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/03/opinion/campaign-stops/donald-trump-terroristic-man-toddler.html?_r=1" style="color: #ac0404; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">devoid of fixed principles</a>," as you accuse as Trump's albatross, does not a terrorist make.</div>
<div style="color: #141412; font-family: "Source Sans Pro", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<i>First posted at PamelaGeller.com, here: <a href="http://pamelageller.com/2016/10/left-on-terror-soft-on-muslims-but-donald-trump-is-a-domestic-terrorist.html/">http://pamelageller.com/2016/10/left-on-terror-soft-on-muslims-but-donald-trump-is-a-domestic-terrorist.html/</a></i></div>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09279049314094940021noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7553102003858818035.post-77167033334419734592016-09-30T09:04:00.002-04:002016-09-30T09:04:45.840-04:00Bill O'Reilly's Plea to President Obama: Call 'Islamic Terrorism' What It Is<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="color: #141412; font-family: "Source Sans Pro", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
Even Bill O'Reilly of Fox News fame doesn't think President Obama's outright refusal to string together the words "radical" and "Islamism" when discussing acts of radical Islamic terror attacks is the smartest move, either as a commander-in-chief or politically.</div>
<div style="color: #141412; font-family: "Source Sans Pro", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
In comments this week to a mother whose "son gave his life for acts of terrorism," she said, CNN reported, Obama explained just why he refused to use "Islamic terrorist" as a term to describe what was taking place at the hands of Muslim jihadists, the world over.</div>
<div style="color: #141412; font-family: "Source Sans Pro", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
Obama's comments, taken from <a data-mce-href="http://www.cnn.com/2016/09/28/politics/obama-radical-islamic-terrorism-cnn-town-hall/" href="http://www.cnn.com/2016/09/28/politics/obama-radical-islamic-terrorism-cnn-town-hall/" style="color: #ac0404; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">CNN</a>:</div>
<blockquote style="color: #141412; font-family: "Source Sans Pro", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 24px; font-style: italic; margin: 24px 40px; quotes: none;">
<div style="margin-bottom: 24px;">
"'These are people who've killed children, killed Muslims, taken sex slaves, there's no religious rationale that would justify in any way any of the things that they do,' he said. 'But what I have been careful about when I describe these issues is to make sure that we do not lump these murderers into the billion Muslims that exist around the world, including in this country, who are peaceful, who are responsible, who, in this country, are fellow troops and police officers and fire fighters and teachers and neighbors and friends.'"</div>
</blockquote>
<div style="color: #141412; font-family: "Source Sans Pro", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
And American Freedom Defense Initiative president <a data-mce-href="http://pamelageller.com/2016/09/obama-i-wont-say-islamic-terrorism.html/" href="http://pamelageller.com/2016/09/obama-i-wont-say-islamic-terrorism.html/" style="color: #ac0404; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Pamela Geller's response</a>, here:</div>
<blockquote style="color: #141412; font-family: "Source Sans Pro", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 24px; font-style: italic; margin: 24px 40px; quotes: none;">
<div style="margin-bottom: 24px;">
"Obama will not say Islamic terrorism because he is a true believer and will not violate the speech laws (blasphemy) under Islamic law (sharia). He was born a Muslim and went to Islamic schools in Indonesia. It’s very much part of who he is."</div>
</blockquote>
<div style="color: #141412; font-family: "Source Sans Pro", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
And now comes O'Reilly, chiming in with a more moderate voice – but one that nonetheless carries the same message, and that's to insist: President Obama, you need to start telling the truth.</div>
<div style="color: #141412; font-family: "Source Sans Pro", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
He said, on his recent <a data-mce-href="http://insider.foxnews.com/2016/09/29/bill-oreilly-talking-points-memo-president-obama-his-last-months-office" href="http://insider.foxnews.com/2016/09/29/bill-oreilly-talking-points-memo-president-obama-his-last-months-office" style="color: #ac0404; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Fox News broadcast</a>:</div>
<blockquote style="color: #141412; font-family: "Source Sans Pro", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 24px; font-style: italic; margin: 24px 40px; quotes: none;">
<div style="margin-bottom: 24px;">
"O'Reilly asserted that Obama is 'naive' when he declines to address Islamic terror by name.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 24px;">
"'Any rational Muslim is not going to take offense at the words 'Islamic terrorism,' O'Reilly said. 'Why? Because that would be irrational.'</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 24px;">
"'The enemy needs to be defined, Mr. President, and if some people get their feelings hurt, that's too bad.'</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 24px;">
"As for Obama's comments on law enforcement and race in America, O'Reilly said the president did not acknowledge that the 'overriding nobility' of America far outweighs individual bias and terrible mistakes on the part of a few police officers.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 24px;">
"Although Obama did mention the importance of respecting the flag and national anthem, he did not 'take a stand' or present 'strong leadership,' O'Reilly said.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 24px;">
"'Mr. Obama understands that diminishing America is a bad choice, but somehow he always equivocates and does not make his points with certainty and clarity.'"</div>
</blockquote>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09279049314094940021noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7553102003858818035.post-42921286657067547012016-09-29T09:27:00.000-04:002016-09-29T09:27:00.300-04:00Satanic Temple Gets OK for After-School Club for Elementary Kids<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
If this isn’t
proof positive of the demise of America, then what is?</div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
The Portland
chapter of the Satanic Temple – a reference that’s significant in itself, as it
shows a plurality and therefore, growth of organized Satanism in America – has
just <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/us/2016/09/27/satanic-temple-brings-after-school-satan-club-to-portland-school.html">won
an accommodation</a> from school officials to offer an after-school club for
children.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
It’s called the
“After School Satan Club.” How nice. It’s aimed at attracting the
elementary-age crowd. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
Beginning Oct. 19,
<a href="https://twitter.com/tstpdx/status/780551485922738176?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">Sacramento
Elementary School</a> will open doors to the satanic activity, which is being
billed as lessons “on science and rational thinking,” <a href="http://www.oregonlive.com/trending/2016/09/satanic_temple_brings_after-sc.html#incart_river_home">according</a>
to one of the temple’s local chapter heads, Finn Rezz.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
Rezz kindly
explained to the Oregonian it’s not that the members of the Satanic Temple are
truly Satanists, worshiping some sort of spiritual or supernatural entity of
the dark side. Rather, he went on, most are simply atheists who view Satan “as
an allegory for free thought,” the <a href="http://www.oregonlive.com/trending/2016/09/satanic_temple_brings_after-sc.html#incart_river_home">newspaper</a>
said.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
The club is solely
to foster in its participants a sense of “benevolence and empathy for
everybody,” Rezz said.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
He also said the
After School Satan Club is intended to provide students an option to the “Good
News Club,” a get-together arranged by the Child Evangelism Fellowship – a
Bible-based group – that’s allowed to meet at the school once a month. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
As if the two
groups are morally equivalent.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
This is the Child
Evangelism group’s stated mission, on <a href="http://ceforegon.org/">its
webpage</a>: “Child Evangelism Fellowship is a Bible-centered, worldwide
organization composed of born-again believers whose purpose is to evangelize
boys and girls with the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, disciple them in the
Word of God and establish them in a Bible believing church for Christian
living. We are committed to helping local churches and individuals evangelize
children.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
By comparison, the
Satanic Temple touts its mission, on its <a href="https://thesatanictemple.com/about-us/">own website</a>, as
“facilitate[ing] the communication and mobilization of politically aware
Satanists, secularists, and advocates for individual liberty.” The Satanic
Temple <a href="https://thesatanictemple.com/about-us/">also promises</a> to
“undertake noble pursuits guided by the individual will.” Really?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
Note to Satanic
Temple: Have you considered a Marketing 101 class?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
But here’s a free
thought observance – the Satanic Temple’s name is what it is because it aptly
describes all that flows from its members and missions. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
Wake up, America.
This battle for the soul of our nation – which used to be clearly stated,
taught and believed as a country where individual rights come from God, not
government – is growing more intense. And the enemy is not only disguising its
true intent, cloaking its wickedness in a guise of free thought and with a
cloak of kindness – it’s setting sights on the youngest, most malleable minds
of all: the children.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
And it’s doing it
in a way that Satan himself would be proud: by taking a truth and twisting it
just enough to cause chaos and confusion – by citing the First Amendment’s
religious freedom clause and demanding an equal access to the Christian groups.
The end result is predictable: Local governing authorities, afraid of lawsuits,
cave to the Satanic Temple’s demands.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
Local citizens,
even those of faith, ultimately bite their tongues and shake their heads,
unsure how to fight off such logical, law-based demands. And atheists,
progressives and others with similar mindsets who want nothing more than to
tear down the Judeo-Christian fabric of America’s founding and usher in a
secular society that breeds contempt for all-things-traditional, moral and
virtuous, rub hands with glee, fueled by yet another chink in the nation’s
faith-based armor.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
Well, here’s a
message to mull: Two roads diverged in a yellow wood – one leading down a path
of acceptance, conciliation, regret and loss and the other, down a path of bold
and righteous indignation, brutal fights to the finish, glory for God, and
honor to both individual and nation.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
Which to choose?
That, dear Christian and fellow patriot, will make all the difference.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<i>First posted at <a href="http://www.theblaze.com/contributions/satanic-temple-gets-ok-for-after-school-club-for-elementary-kids/" target="_blank">the Blaze</a>.</i></div>
<br />
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09279049314094940021noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7553102003858818035.post-8123572011709052702016-09-29T07:25:00.000-04:002016-09-29T07:25:33.230-04:00Christians Under Sharia in Iran Arrested, Face Floggings, for Taking Communion Wine<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="http://pamelageller.com/2016/09/christians-under-sharia-in-iran-arrested-face-floggings-for-communion-wine.html/" target="_blank">Three Christians in Iran</a> have been arrested and charged with "acting against national security" for drinking wine during Communion in violation of Sharia law.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDMiw6B3rAKuRV-0_0HctMHuWxRz1qWWBQ9gvOJwxZOrQNh_W5s1nukrFL-IiGivBjzqAkZW18riBlF0MG1_kJNBuZqT2A_ig13ZdOPjAjtjKU7VGwCu86jWPES2BIVO2UmFDU9MSZkUw/s1600/Wine.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="221" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDMiw6B3rAKuRV-0_0HctMHuWxRz1qWWBQ9gvOJwxZOrQNh_W5s1nukrFL-IiGivBjzqAkZW18riBlF0MG1_kJNBuZqT2A_ig13ZdOPjAjtjKU7VGwCu86jWPES2BIVO2UmFDU9MSZkUw/s400/Wine.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Communion wine</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Now the three face sentences of flogging.<br />
<br />
While the drinking of wine, which symbolizes the blood of Jesus, is common to the Christian faith, Sharia law apparently takes priority and Iran's police took the trio into custody this week. Initially, a pastor and his wife were detained, but police let them go.<br />
<br />
Their court date is set for sometime next week, the Express reported. And if they're found guilty, they will be flogged.<br />
<br />
The website Persecution, citing the Express, offers this commentary:<br />
<br />
"Iran continues to demonstrate its intolerance for Christianity by sentencing three Christians to be flogged for drinking wine during Communion.<br />
<br />
"Iranian police initially arrested five Christians but have since released a pastor and his wife. Iran's judicial system is based on Sharia law which forbids the consumption of wine, so Christians who choose to drink wine for religious reasons will be punished.<br />
<br />
"Iran contends that the Christians are a national security risk and require an extensive punishment which could include anywhere from 10-100 lashes."<br />
<br />
The Communion wine, which has been blessed by priests and considered holy, is used to celebrate the Eucharist. It's usually watered down so that children and those who abstain from the drinking of alcohol might take part, and it's served with a small bread wafer, known as the Sacramental Bread, the represents the body of Christ.<br />
<br />
Flogging is an extreme punishment that often causes the victim to pass out from pain after just a few lashes. Iran's Sharia law allows those found guilty of adultery, kissing in public, homosexuality and blasphemy to be sentenced to flogging as well.<br />
<br />
<i>Posted at PamelaGeller.com <a href="http://pamelageller.com/2016/09/christians-under-sharia-in-iran-arrested-face-floggings-for-communion-wine.html/">http://pamelageller.com/2016/09/christians-under-sharia-in-iran-arrested-face-floggings-for-communion-wine.html/</a></i><br />
<div>
<br /></div>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09279049314094940021noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7553102003858818035.post-44178432956891004732016-09-28T07:32:00.004-04:002016-09-28T07:32:37.686-04:00Texas to Obama: You Can Keep Your Refugee Resettlements – We Opt Out<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
Texas has taken the bold, in-your-face step of telling the federal government: You can take your refugee resettlement program and – find some other state to play.<br />
<br />
Gov. Greg Abbott said his state wasn't going to participate in the Office of Refugee Resettlement program because of security concerns.<br />
<br />
His comments come just a few days after terrorists struck New York and New Jersey in separate bombing incidents.<br />
<br />
Reuters has the story:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"The Texas State Refugee Coordinator sent a letter to the [federal Office of Refugee Resettlement] agency, giving 120 days notice of its intention to withdraw, charging the program was riddled with problems that present security risks, Republican Governor Greg Abbott said.</blockquote>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"The Office of Refugee Resettlement said in a statement its services to help integrate newcomers into U.S. society are only provided after they complete stringent U.S. security screenings.</blockquote>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"Despite multiple requests by the State of Texas, the federal government lacks the capability or the will to distinguish the dangerous from the harmless, and Texas will not be an accomplice to such dereliction of duty to the American people,' Abbott said in a statement."</blockquote>
<br />
A politician who puts Americans first – listen up, President Obama. You could learn a thing or two.<br />
<br />
Reuters went on:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"Texas, a bellwether state for conservative policies, has seen other Republican-led states follow its lead in challenging the Obama administration's refugee resettlement plans in and out of the courts."</blockquote>
<br />
Secretary of State John Kerry, apparently blind to the terrorist acts that were just committed on America's soil, and of the terrorism threat that open borders bring, had this to say, again from Reuters:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"The security vetting for this population, the most vulnerable of individuals, is extraordinarily thorough and comprehensive."</blockquote>
<br />
That was back in November in a joint statement with U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson to Abbott, outlining the resettlement program process.<br />
<br />
Well, that's all fine and dandy, but neither Kerry nor Johnson live in Texas – or outside any community that's not protected by armed, specially trained law enforcement agents, for that matter.<br />
<br />
For the rest of America, there's this, Reuters reported:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"Since Jan. 1, 2011, there have been 1,104 Syrian refugees resettled in Texas, according to the U.S. State Department-affiliated Refugee Processing Center. That is less than the 1,610 people resettled in California and the 1,515 sent to Michigan. ...</blockquote>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"The Obama administration said on Aug. 29 it would meet its goal of admitting 10,000 Syrian refugees during the current fiscal year a month ahead of schedule and was working with Congress to increase the target by a few thousand during 2017.</blockquote>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"U.S. admission of Syrian refugees has been a hot button issue in the 2016 presidential race.</blockquote>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"The civil war in Syria has led to a flood of refugees. The United States has offered refuge to far fewer than many of its allies. Germany has taken in over a million refugees from Syria, North Africa and Asia in the last year, while Canada admitted nearly 30,000 between November last year and May 1."</blockquote>
<br />
Reuters also reported a Texas withdrawal from the program wasn't likely "impair the work of private relief groups from resettling refugees in the state."<br />
<br />
In other words: Texans are getting refugees, like it or not.<br />
<br />
Post first appeared at PamelaGeller.com, <a href="http://pamelageller.com/2016/09/texas-to-obama-you-can-keep-your-refugee-resettlements-we-opt-out.html/">http://pamelageller.com/2016/09/texas-to-obama-you-can-keep-your-refugee-resettlements-we-opt-out.html/</a>.<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09279049314094940021noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7553102003858818035.post-5964159147279041512016-09-14T09:58:00.000-04:002016-09-14T09:58:00.279-04:00'ISIS in America' Cases on the Rise: Feds Call for Vigilance<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="color: #141412; font-family: "Source Sans Pro", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
Talk about burying the lead.</div>
<div style="color: #141412; font-family: "Source Sans Pro", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
Way at the bottom of a <a data-mce-href="https://ca.news.yahoo.com/u-charged-110-people-since-2013-islamic-state-164128705.html" href="https://ca.news.yahoo.com/u-charged-110-people-since-2013-islamic-state-164128705.html" style="color: #ac0404; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Reuters story</a> on recent statistics of ISIS-tied prosecutions in America was this tidbit:</div>
<blockquote style="color: #141412; font-family: "Source Sans Pro", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 24px; font-style: italic; margin: 24px 40px; quotes: none;">
<div style="margin-bottom: 24px;">
"The Department of Justice charged 60 people last year with supporting or committing crimes because of their sympathies to Islamic State, the largest annual figure on record."</div>
</blockquote>
<div style="color: #141412; font-family: "Source Sans Pro", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
Catch that? "The largest annual figure on record" means the number of ISIS terrorists and ISIS wanna-be terrorists has risen under President Obama, to levels never before seen.</div>
<div style="color: #141412; font-family: "Source Sans Pro", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
As if for comfort, Reuters then adds this:</div>
<blockquote style="color: #141412; font-family: "Source Sans Pro", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 24px; font-style: italic; margin: 24px 40px; quotes: none;">
<div style="margin-bottom: 24px;">
"The number arrested this year has been less than last year's figure."</div>
</blockquote>
<div style="color: #141412; font-family: "Source Sans Pro", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
But here's the real question to ask: Why are terrorists and terrorist-wanna-bes sneaking into America and roaming suburban communities in the first place?</div>
<div style="color: #141412; font-family: "Source Sans Pro", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
Common sense says a combination of open borders and the present administration's habit of drawing a moral equivalence between America and all-things-Sharia is part of the problem. But U.S. Assistant Attorney General John Carlin, speaking to reporters at the Justice Department this week, seems to suggest the American people might be to blame, at least in part, and the U.S. Constitution, in other part.</div>
<div style="color: #141412; font-family: "Source Sans Pro", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
Read this, from the same <a data-mce-href="https://ca.news.yahoo.com/u-charged-110-people-since-2013-islamic-state-164128705.html" href="https://ca.news.yahoo.com/u-charged-110-people-since-2013-islamic-state-164128705.html" style="color: #ac0404; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Reuters story</a>:</div>
<blockquote style="color: #141412; font-family: "Source Sans Pro", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 24px; font-style: italic; margin: 24px 40px; quotes: none;">
<div style="margin-bottom: 24px;">
"U.S. Assistant Attorney General John Carlin said on Monday that more than 110 people have been publicly charged in federal court since late 2013 on counts related to the Islamic State militant group that has overrun much of Syria and Iraq.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 24px;">
"Carlin said the U.S. Justice Department needs the American public to be more proactive about alerting federal authorities when they witness someone showing support for foreign terrorist organizations, such as Islamic State, in remarks to reporters at the U.S. Justice Department.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 24px;">
"In more than 80 percent of the Islamic State cases that have been prosecuted since 2013, someone in the community of the accused person believed they had witnessed the activity for which the person was ultimately charged, according to Carlin. In more than half of those cases, the witnesses did not report anything to law enforcement authorities until after the charges were made.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 24px;">
"Many of the Islamic State supporters prosecuted since 2013 have been charged under 'material support' statutes that prohibit supporting designated foreign terrorist organizations ... Carlin said he is open to considering whether affiliation with a domestic extremist group could 'warrant a special penalty' for people already charged with committing a violent crime. Simply supporting a domestic group where some of the members have committed crimes should not be prosecuted, Carlin said, because it 'runs into our Constitution and our values.'"</div>
</blockquote>
<div style="color: #141412; font-family: "Source Sans Pro", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
The figures and findings are alarming enough. But read between the lines, and it gets even more alarming. What's Carlin saying, exactly?</div>
<div style="color: #141412; font-family: "Source Sans Pro", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
On one hand, it appears he credits the American people with reporting suspicious behaviors, leading to prosecutions of ISIS-tied individuals. But on the other, he's calling on Americans to be more proactive in reporting suspicious behaviors, while saying the Constitution does not allow for feds to take proactive action themselves.</div>
<div style="color: #141412; font-family: "Source Sans Pro", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
But this is simply a red herring argument – and one that doesn't exactly assure the White House is going to fight terrorism in any sort of successful way.</div>
<div style="color: #141412; font-family: "Source Sans Pro", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
The real problem is this: America's borders are porous and Obama's policies are weak. And until those factors are properly addressed, hopefully by the incoming administration, America's safety from terrorism is far from secured.</div>
<i>First posted at <a href="http://pamelageller.com/">PamelaGeller.com</a>, here: <a href="http://pamelageller.com/2016/09/isis-in-america-cases-on-the-rise-feds-call-for-vigilance.html/">http://pamelageller.com/2016/09/isis-in-america-cases-on-the-rise-feds-call-for-vigilance.html/</a></i></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09279049314094940021noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7553102003858818035.post-73392695864803987372016-09-13T10:09:00.005-04:002016-09-13T10:09:51.974-04:00George Soros Lauds Efforts to Let Illegals Vote<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
In a Monday morning tweet, billionaire activist George Soros sent out some public praise for his own Open Society's work to make U.S. elections – in his mind – fairer, but that is really, in the views of constitutional, rule-of-law type Americans, aimed at giving illegal immigrants the ability to vote this November.<br />
<br />
Soros is already on record supporting Hillary Clinton.<br />
<br />
In July, Politico reported this:<br />
<br />
"Soros has donated or committed more than $25 million to boost Hillary Clinton and other Democratic candidates and causes, according to Federal Election Commission records and interviews with his associates and Democratic fundraising operatives. And some of his associated say they expect Soros, who amassed a fortune estimated at $24.9 billion through risky currency trades, to give even more as Election Day nears."<br />
<br />
Moreover, his personal political adviser, Michael Vachon, had this to say in the same story:<br />
<br />
"[T]his year, the political stakes are exceptionally high. They were high even before Trump became the nominee because of the hostility on the other side toward many of the issues George cares most about and has worked to support for many years, including immigration reform, criminal justice reform and religious tolerance."<br />
<br />
And now this, from Soros' own Twitter account, @georgesoros, just Monday morning.<br />
<br />
He first posted a photograph and beginning of a story entitled "Why the U.S. Elections Just Got a Little Fairer," the read: "A series of court rulings ensures hundreds of thousands of eligible voters will be able to exercise their rights at the polls this November.<br />
<br />
And he praised the "advocates' work," mirroring what the story said aboout their ensuring "elgible U.S. voters" can actually cast ballots this November.<br />
<br />
Only problem is: Click on the story, which was written in August for Soros' own Open Society Foundations, and you'll see the "eligible voters" he's talking about are mostly those who are anything but eligible.<br />
<br />
The story, written by Erica Teasley Linnick, reads in part:<br />
<br />
"Three years ago this summer, the U.S. Supreme Court gutted a key portion of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. The court’s ruling in Shelby County v. Holder left voters in 15 states without protections previously afforded them under the landmark civil rights legislation. State legislators whose election policies had previously been deemed discriminatory by the Justice Department were emboldened to enact voter ID and other suppressive measures that negatively impact voters of color, using false arguments about the prevalence of fraud to fuel their efforts.<br />
<br />
In response to these challenges, the Open Society Foundations created the Shelby Response Fund, bringing together litigators, researchers, state and local advocates, communications strategists, and organizers. The fund’s members worked on a number of fronts to try to restore voting rights protections stripped away by the high court ruling.<br />
<br />
Lately, one aspect of their efforts in particular has been bearing fruit. In recent weeks, our voting rights grantees have celebrated court victories ensuring that hundreds of thousands of eligible voters will be able to exercise their rights at the polls this November.<br />
<br />
On August 11, a federal district court in North Carolina held that the state legislature had unconstitutionally used race in redrawing district boundaries in 2011, unnecessarily increasing the percentage of black voters in districts where they had been successfully electing their candidates of choice for years. This case, filed by the Southern Coalition for Social Justice, was five years in the making—an example of how long justice can take, as well as the importance of the courts as a corrective. <br />
<br />
Last month, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit ruled that North Carolina’s 2013 voter ID legislation was enacted with discriminatory intent in violation of both the Voting Rights Act and the U.S. Constitution. This voter ID measure was infamously referred to as the “monster bill” because of its far-reaching impact on voting rights—it also eliminated early voting, same-day registration, preregistration for 16- and 17-year-olds, and out-of-precinct voting.<br />
<br />
Also in July, a federal court decided to provide a safety net for Wisconsin voters who, under a 2011 law, are required to present voter ID at the polls. With this ruling, the court gives voters who have a difficult time getting qualifying ID the option to vote by affidavit and receive a regular ballot instead of a provisional one. The court found that the state’s interests could not justify disenfranchising voters who cannot obtain ID with reasonable effort.In Texas, after three years of litigation, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled that the state’s 2013 voter ID law does indeed violate Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act by denying black and Latino voters an equal opportunity to cast a ballot.<br />
<br />
And in North Dakota, a federal court ruled that North Dakota’s voter ID law placed a disproportionate burden on Native American voters who didn’t have driver’s licenses or a tribal ID that included an address. “[N]o eligible voter, regardless of their station in life, should be denied the opportunity to vote,” the court held.<br />
<br />
The story ends with one final note of caution for citizens – legal ones – concerned about the possibility for shenanigans at the polls this fall.<br />
<br />
"This work is by no means done," it read. "These refcent victories will help bolster the advocates' efforts in the coming months and years, and ensure that so many voters disenfranchised by suppressive laws have an opportunity to participate fully in the elections this November."<br />
<br />
<i>First posted at <a href="http://pamelageller.com/">PamelaGeller.com</a>: Here ... <a href="http://pamelageller.com/2016/09/george-soros-lauds-efforts-to-let-illegals-vote.html/">http://pamelageller.com/2016/09/george-soros-lauds-efforts-to-let-illegals-vote.html/</a></i></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09279049314094940021noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7553102003858818035.post-17573028439246536522016-09-08T09:42:00.000-04:002016-09-08T09:42:19.657-04:00Hillary Clinton’s Health: All Fun and Games Until the FBI Finds Coincidence<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="background: white; font-family: arial; font-size: 13.3333px; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; padding: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: 13.3333px;">Once upon a time, a brash, bold-faced candidate called Hillary Clinton thought she’d take a seat in the back of the campaign room, collect donor dollars, and adopt a wait-and-see plan as her platform to the presidency, her sole strategy seeming: Donald Trump is a circus act and well – who ya gonna vote for, except me?</span></div>
<div style="background: white; font-family: arial; font-size: 13.3333px; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; padding: 0px;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="background: white; font-family: arial; font-size: 13.3333px; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; padding: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; font-family: arial; font-size: 13.3333px; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; padding: 0px;">
Her strategy was underscored by her 18 months-plus of dodging <a href="http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2016/09/05/hiding-hillary-day-275-coughing-fit-interrupts-impromptu-press-gaggle-still-no-press-conference/">press conferences</a>, and by her near-disappearance from the public campaign trails in August, in favor of <a href="http://www.breitbart.com/2016-presidential-race/2016/08/22/cash-scramble-hillary-closes-august-21-fundraisers-one-campaign-event/">private fundraisers</a>.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="background: white; font-family: arial; font-size: 13.3333px; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; padding: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; font-family: arial; font-size: 13.3333px; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; padding: 0px;">
Then came this, from the pundit and media class: What’s up with all her <a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/hillary-clinton-struggles-fight-back-coughing-attack-n643026">coughing</a> during public speeches? And this, from the medical community, the latest of which included <a href="http://www.mediaite.com/election-2016/dr-drew-says-hillary-clintons-medical-care-is-bizarre-concerning/">Dr. Drew</a>: Her brain is malfunctioning due to past injury, and she ought to get a neurological exam to prove fitness for the presidency. And then this, perhaps most damning: The FBI itself reported a tie between Mrs. Clinton’s memory lapses and her prior concussion.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="background: white; font-family: arial; font-size: 13.3333px; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; padding: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; font-family: arial; font-size: 13.3333px; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; padding: 0px;">
In the course of investigating Clinton’s long-running email scandal, and in the course of asking the former secretary of State to explain her take on the many briefings she attended while serving President Barack Obama’s administration that spelled out just how agents of government ought to handle classified information and public documents – queries she addressed by saying she didn’t remember -- the FBI, inadvertently but no less shockingly, drew a direct parallel between her brain injury and her inability to lead.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="background: white; font-family: arial; font-size: 13.3333px; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; padding: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; font-family: arial; font-size: 13.3333px; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; padding: 0px;">
“In December of 2012,” the FBI wrote, in summary of interrogations of Clinton over her use of a private, home-based email server for secretary of State business, <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-clinton-emails-idUSKCN11829I">Reuters reported</a>, “Clinton suffered a concussion and then around the New Year had a blood clot. Based on her doctor’s advice, she could only work at State for a few hours a day and could not recall every briefing she received.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="background: white; font-family: arial; font-size: 13.3333px; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; padding: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; font-family: arial; font-size: 13.3333px; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; padding: 0px;">
While the FBI didn’t specifically say Clinton’s memory fails were due to her brain injury, the link speaks volumes. And when combined with other health-related snafus on the campaign trail, the question of her presidency has undergone a dramatic shift. No longer are Americans wondering which candidate, Clinton or Trump, would provide the best security, open the doors to the most vibrant economy, pave the way for the most sound and logical border plan. But rather the focus becomes: Will Hillary make it through the day without a visit to the hospital?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="background: white; font-family: arial; font-size: 13.3333px; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; padding: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; font-family: arial; font-size: 13.3333px; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; padding: 0px;">
Mrs. Clinton’s campaign has become like a NASCAR race – one boring lap after another, while waiting to see if there’s a crash and burn.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="background: white; font-family: arial; font-size: 13.3333px; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; padding: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; font-family: arial; font-size: 13.3333px; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; padding: 0px;">
The <a href="http://nypost.com/2016/01/25/hillary-clinton-cant-stop-coughing-during-speech/">New York Post</a> ran this headline, in January: “Hillary Clinton Can’t Stop Coughing During Speech,” in reference to her address before Iowa supporters.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="background: white; font-family: arial; font-size: 13.3333px; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; padding: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; font-family: arial; font-size: 13.3333px; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; padding: 0px;">
In mid-February, it was this from the <a href="https://www.conservativeoutfitters.com/blogs/news/88259009-hillary-has-another-severe-coughing-fit-while-speaking">Conservative Outfitters</a>: “Hillary Clinton Suffers From Another Severe Coughing Fit While Speaking in NYC.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="background: white; font-family: arial; font-size: 13.3333px; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; padding: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; font-family: arial; font-size: 13.3333px; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; padding: 0px;">
In <a href="http://www.theamericanmirror.com/hacking-hillary-complete-timeline-2016-coughing-fits/">April</a>, Mrs. Clinton suffered yet another bout of coughing during an interview with a radio station host, after which she pointed to the “allergy season” as the blame. In May, it was more of the same – this time, as the <a href="http://freebeacon.com/politics/clinton-suffers-another-coughing-fit/">Washington Free Beacon</a> reported – during a California campaign event.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="background: white; font-family: arial; font-size: 13.3333px; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; padding: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; font-family: arial; font-size: 13.3333px; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; padding: 0px;">
“On June 4,” the <a href="http://www.theamericanmirror.com/hacking-hillary-complete-timeline-2016-coughing-fits/">American Mirror reported</a>, “Clinton was [simply] listening during a round table discussion when she began hacking uncontrollably.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="background: white; font-family: arial; font-size: 13.3333px; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; padding: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; font-family: arial; font-size: 13.3333px; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; padding: 0px;">
Now this latest, another spasm of coughing just this week in Ohio – and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4UEY9mMFvQg">videos</a> are making the rounds.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="background: white; font-family: arial; font-size: 13.3333px; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; padding: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; font-family: arial; font-size: 13.3333px; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; padding: 0px;">
As the <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/06/30/is-hillary-clinton-s-cough-the-new-benghazi.html">Daily Beast opined</a>: “Is Hillary Clinton’s Cough the New Benghazi?”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="background: white; font-family: arial; font-size: 13.3333px; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; padding: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; font-family: arial; font-size: 13.3333px; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; padding: 0px;">
It’s actually a valid question – and one, like Benghazi and the death of four Americans on Mrs. Clinton’s watch, the mainstream media hates to ask. CNN even has a <a href="http://heavy.com/news/2016/08/hillary-clinton-health-medical-stamina-jimmy-kimmel-seizures-stroke-concussion-giuliani-trump-age-doctor-lisa-bardack-syringe-video-muffin-shop-hannity-breitbart-conspiracy-diet/">name</a> for those who question Mrs. Clinton’s physical ability to hold the high office – “healthers,” a play on the “birthers” who doubted Mr. Obama’s constitutional right to the presidency.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="background: white; font-family: arial; font-size: 13.3333px; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; padding: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; font-family: arial; font-size: 13.3333px; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; padding: 0px;">
But the facts are: Mrs. Clinton suffered a concussion in 2012. She was shortly after hospitalized for a blood clot in her head. She can’t remember key details of her own government briefings, according to the FBI. And now, her campaign trail is marked by one curious coughing fit after another. Her supporters may scoff, but the reality remains: A president who can’t speak, is going to be hard pressed at diplomacy. A president who isn’t healthy, especially in brain and in head, sets an uncertain White House tone and therefore, puts the fate of the nation at risk.</div>
<div style="background: white; font-family: arial; font-size: 13.3333px; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; padding: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; font-family: arial; font-size: 13.3333px; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; padding: 0px;">
First published at the Blaze: <a href="http://www.theblaze.com/contributions/clintons-health-all-fun-and-games-until-the-fbi-finds-coincidence/">http://www.theblaze.com/contributions/clintons-health-all-fun-and-games-until-the-fbi-finds-coincidence/</a></div>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09279049314094940021noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7553102003858818035.post-29173428886400440862016-09-06T09:23:00.002-04:002016-09-06T09:23:47.893-04:00Human Chip Implants Move Mainstream, Despite ‘Mark of Beast’ Fears<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
Call it the
coolness factor. Blame the <a href="https://www.salesforce.com/blog/2015/06/why-millennials-convenience-generation.html">millennial
mindset</a> of convenience at all costs. Or shrug it off as a natural
technological progression – the inability of a society to close a Pandora’s Box
once it’s been opened. But what’s becoming increasingly clear is what used to
be regarded as creepy and science fiction-like has now gone mainstream.</div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
Take RFID technology.
Formerly the stuff of <a href="http://www.microchipid.us/">animal
identification chip implants</a>, the technology’s now moved into the human
hand. It’s not – as this headline from the mainstream CBS News shows – exactly
a topic of underground discussion any longer.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
“Meet the humans
with microchips implanted in them,” the <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/news/meet-the-humans-with-microchips-implanted-in-them/">news
organization reported</a> in June, in a piece about a Minnesota software
engineer who used his chip in his finger to control his smartphone and a Dallas
woman who used hers to open doors at her place of work, in place of a key card.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
The once-queasy
technology seems destined now to grow popularity. <a href="http://www.catholic.org/news/technology/story.php?id=56738">Catholic
Online</a> may have recently written how “a microchip implanted on human beings
has chilling implications, conjuring up images of the ‘Mark of the Beast’ as
mentioned in the Book of Revelations.” But in the same article, it was noted at
length: the boon for society from chip implant technology is being touted as
just too good to pass up. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
The genie’s out
and he ain’t headed back to his lamp any time soon.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<a href="http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2014/08/30/is-there-microchip-implant-in-your-future.html">Fox
News</a> reported this, way back in 2014: “[For] soldiers and journalists in
war zones, such an implant could be the difference between life and death. A
chip implant could also help law enforcement quickly locate a kidnapped child,
… help monitor the location of people with Alzheimer’s … track the activities
of felons who have been released from prison.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
All good – inarguably
so.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
Meanwhile, on the
convenience side, there’s this: Chip implants in hands could make it really
fast to open a locked door, speed through a security checkpoint at the airport,
to provide crucial medical information to emergency response officials. And don’t
forget the quick-pay option. Rather than waste valuable seconds fishing into
pockets or pawing through purses to find debit or credit cards – or even more
archaic, personal checkbooks or cash – customers may one day be able to pay for
purchases simply by flashing a hand over a scanner.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
But technology
doesn’t always mean convenience. Just ask somebody whose computer’s been hacked,
or car alarm’s been activated. Technology also doesn’t always mean progress.
Sometimes it brings loss of personal freedom, and opens the door for government
intrusion and control.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
This, also from <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2014/08/30/is-there-microchip-implant-in-your-future.html">Fox
News</a>: “Chips are being used today to manage farm animals. Farmers can track
sheep, pigs and horses as they move through a gate, weigh them instantly and
make sure they are eating properly.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
Never mind the
imagery from George Orwell’s “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Animal-Farm-Anniversary-George-Orwell/dp/0451526341">Animal
Farm</a>” that passage brings to mind. The real question that emerges is this:
Is any technology that’s being used to manage farm animals really something
that human beings, created in the image of an omniscient, omnipresent God,
ought to be volunteering to implant? Common sense says no. The constitutionally
wise say heck no. And those of faith with fears of taking the “Mark of the
Beast” should stick with their instincts: The chip itself may not be satanic,
but the road it could lead to sure doesn’t pass the smell test of the
discerning.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<i>First appeared in the Blaze: <a href="http://www.theblaze.com/contributions/human-chip-implants-move-mainstream-despite-mark-of-beast-fears/">http://www.theblaze.com/contributions/human-chip-implants-move-mainstream-despite-mark-of-beast-fears/</a></i></div>
<br />
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09279049314094940021noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7553102003858818035.post-81529347410364376342016-08-27T06:57:00.003-04:002016-08-27T06:57:58.196-04:00Obama’s Sneak Attack on U.S. Sovereignty Sets Stage for Climate Regulation Nightmare<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
The regulations,
they are a-coming.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
That’s what at
least one noted climate skeptic warned, pointing to the very capable pen and
phone politicking of President Obama that’s allowed him great success in
bypassing Congress on various pet agendas – particularly, on those dealing with
the environment, and even more particularly, on one provision he signed earlier
this year, the Paris Accord. The measure supposedly commits America to abide what
<a href="http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/energy-environment/276668-president-obamas-signing-of-the-paris-agreement-is">the
Obama administration</a> described as “the most ambitious climate change
agreement in history.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
But as Marc Morano,
publisher of “<a href="http://www.climatedepot.com/">Climate Depot</a>” and
producer of the new film, “<a href="http://www.climatehustle.org/">Climate
Hustle</a>,” a production that exposes the propaganda side of environmentalism,
said in an interview: The commitment is smoke and mirrors, but a “cunning”
Obama may see his long-held green-based regulatory visions achieve reality all
the same, due to an unaware populace.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
The accord itself
is far-reaching and <a href="http://ec.europa.eu/clima/policies/international/negotiations/paris/index_en.htm">requires
participating nations</a> to actively prevent, via regulatory controls, the
average global temperature from rising more than two degrees Celsius above
“pre-industrial levels,” and to “undertake rapid reductions” on various
emission levels around the world. In other words, bye-bye U.S. economic
production.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
Technically, though,
Obama’s <a href="http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/energy-environment/276668-president-obamas-signing-of-the-paris-agreement-is">signature
means nothing</a>. Why?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
The Senate never
ratified the treaty, as required by the Constitution. Obama can sign all he
wants, but truly, the accord won’t last past January, when his administration ends.
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
So says the legalese,
anyway.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
But this president
operates under a policy of act first, seek permission – never. And if America
turns a blind eye to what he’s done in recent months -- not just with the Paris
treaty, but with his use of the Environmental Protection Agency to press
regulatory controls turned down by Congress -- the reality is the provisions of
the accord and more will take root and become the new national norm. It won’t
be long before all these environmental measures are considered binding. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
“If the next
president continues the policies of President Obama with the EPA and the U.N.
climate treaty, we are going to have a situation where these climate
regulations will be codified,” Morano said.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
One immediate
impact? <o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
“The coal industry
will be long dead and buried,” he said.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
More detriments
will soon follow. <o:p></o:p><br />
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
“Be afraid, be
very afraid of the U.N. agenda,” Morano said. “The U.N. has been trying now
since at least 1992 to get the U.S. tied up in an environmental regulatory
scheme … but the United Nations openly admits they want to redistribute wealth
via climate policy. It’s social engineering.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
The situation is all
the more alarming because the will of the American people has been clear for
years: Voters don’t want overly restrictive climate change regulations. Not
only has cap-and-trade consistently gone down in legislative flames – not only
has the United Nations failed to receive U.S. Senate ratification on its many environmental
treaties and accords. But these climate skeptic camp wins have come even as
Democrats have held a clean sweep of the country’s highest political offices ==
while holding majorities in both House and Senate and serving under their own
party’s president. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
“We are facing
political defeat for the first time on global warming,” Morano warned.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
All eyes may be
currently turned on the presidential campaign. And voters of free-market minds
and conservative bents may be waiting with anticipation and relief for the
exodus of Obama. But his departure does not automatically undo the last eight
years. Remember, it was Attorney General Loretta Lynch who said in early 2016
her <a href="http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2016/01/11/lynch-well-position-doj-to-do-obamas-work-long-after-were-gone/">“goal
is to position”</a> the Justice Department to continue President Obama’s law
enforcement agenda, long after he leaves office.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="background-color: white;">It seems the White
House has set the same designs on Obama’s environmental agenda, leaving the
fate of America’s sovereignty, post-January 2017, in a state of uncertainty,
danger and potentially further demise. Only an aware constituency, emboldened
by a passion for freedom and a love of country, can control the bureaucratic
beast of Washington and press the new president, whomever that might be, to
keep to an “American first” mindset. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white;"><i>First published at the Blaze: <a href="http://www.theblaze.com/contributions/obamas-sneak-attack-on-us-sovereignty-sets-stage-for-climate-regulation-nightmare/">http://www.theblaze.com/contributions/obamas-sneak-attack-on-us-sovereignty-sets-stage-for-climate-regulation-nightmare/</a></i></span><br />
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09279049314094940021noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7553102003858818035.post-42560962948221427842016-08-26T07:55:00.003-04:002016-08-26T07:55:37.835-04:00Donald Trump and his Chicken Little detractors<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal">
It’s late August, the campaign clock is ticking. Donald
Trump’s <a href="https://www.qu.edu/news-and-events/quinnipiac-university-poll/national/release-detail?ReleaseID=2375">poll
numbers</a> are down – and not just by <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2016/08/clinton-leads-trump-by-10-in-national-poll-227406">slim
margins</a> – and Hillary Clinton’s camp has all but locked up the race.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So the <a href="http://www.politicususa.com/2016/08/25/trump-crashes-burns-hillary-clinton-beating-pro-republican-poll.html">story
goes</a>, anyway.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But Donald Trump, if nothing else, is a competitor. His
entire campaign has been marked by detractors, scoffers, mockers, predictors of
gloom, declarers of doom, prognosticators of losses and more losses – and yet,
in the end, the candidate’s steadfastly risen to the top. The smart voter, the
savvy pundit, ought not close the door on a Trump administration just yet.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Guessing in August which candidate will win in November is nearly
as impossible as predicting the Second Coming – and that’s not even based on
polls. That’s just common sense. Why? Polls are snapshots in time, fickle by
nature. They’re also about as scientific as <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2419557/Climate-change-models-accurate-study-finds-widely-overestimated-global-warming.html">climate
change modeling</a>, with outcomes that depend largely on the data that’s
inputted. A poll that queries, “If the election were held today, would you vote
for Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump,” is going to bring a lot different results
than one that poses 10 questions about platforms, policies and issues and then
asks, after each, “Which candidate, Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump, would do
the best job” on the particular topic. Heck, polls are so persnickety that even
the order of the candidates during the presentation of the question, or the phrasing
– the inquiring, for example, of which would prove more “successful” versus “do
a better job” -- influences the respondents and therefore, the results.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Historically speaking, polls just aren’t always what they’re
cracked up to be. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
U.S. News & World Report wrote in September 2015, in a
piece bluntly titled, “<a href="http://www.usnews.com/news/the-report/articles/2015/09/28/why-public-opinion-polls-are-increasingly-inaccurate">The
Problem With Polls</a>,” how Mitt Romney was supposed to beat Barack Obama,
then-Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell was supposed to lose to political
upstart Alison Lundergan Grimes and Scots weren’t all that decided on whether
to declare independence from Great Britain – all according to separate surveys
at the time. Well, how wrong the pollsters were, leading the news outlet to conclude
“public opinion polls have racked up a few big-time fails in recent years,
embarrassments that compelled a leading firm to conduct an internal audit to
find out what went wrong.” <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Yet here we are, a year later, gasping a collective breath
about what <a href="http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/latest-polls-reinforce-republicans-sense-dread">MSNBC
reports</a>: “Latest polls reinforce Republicans’ sense of dread.” Fox News
hosts and pundits Eric Bolling and Dana Perino gave a <a href="http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/dana-perino-eric-bolling-trump-polls">real-time
sense</a> of what this supposed dread’s all about during a recent televised
discussion on Trump’s falling numbers and the validity and value of polls. When
Bolling cited skewing as a factor, Perino blasted back, in essence: Don’t be
absurd.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“The future of this party is at risk,” she <a href="https://twitter.com/DanaPerino">tweeted</a>, shortly after. And in <a href="http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/291817-dana-perino-i-will-never-lie-to-you">another
tweet</a>, she vowed, “I will not lie to you about the state of this race.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But really, isn’t the only truth here the one that says
predicting the outcome of this presidential race is impossible?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Both Trump defenders and Trump detractors can find plenty in
the polls to support their respective causes. On the pro-Trump side, there’s
the botched Literary Digest straw poll in 1936 that predicted Alf Landon over
Franklin Delano Roosevelt; the 1996 failure of three television stations to
properly place Bob Dole in the race against Steve Forbes and Pat Buchanan for
the presidential primary in Arizona; the epic exit polling fails, and
subsequent mistaken media announcements, that gave wins to the wrong
presidential candidates in 2000 -- Al Gore over George Bush – and in 2004, John
Kerry over again, Mr. Bush. Don’t forget the famous Ronald Reagan-Jimmy Carter
campaign season, and the wide discrepancies in real numbers versus polled
numbers. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
On the “Trump’s going down in flames” side, however, there’s
this: Polls sometimes prove correct. And just because they aren’t 100 percent
accurate, that doesn’t mean they aren’t sometimes accurate.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If that’s the argument – and it has to be, because that’s
the base truth of the matter – then the smart voter, the smart pundit, resists
the panicked “sky is falling” politicking and realizes the race is long, the
candidates are savvy, the campaigns are both making adjustments and in
response, so will the numbers. Let’s not call the race just yet – let’s put
Chicken Little back in the cage.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>First published at the Washington Times: <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/aug/24/donald-trump-and-his-chicken-little-detractors/" target="_blank"> </a></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/aug/24/donald-trump-and-his-chicken-little-detractors/" target="_blank">http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/aug/24/donald-trump-and-his-chicken-little-detractors/</a></i></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09279049314094940021noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7553102003858818035.post-62834021826818733652016-08-23T08:50:00.002-04:002016-08-23T08:50:34.655-04:00Massachusetts Uber Tax Sheds Light on the Socialist Mindset<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
Massachusetts has
a new tax aimed at punishing Uber and Lyft drivers who dare to compete with the
government regulated taxi companies.</div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
Of course, the tax
advocates don’t describe it that way. Rather, they say the <a href="http://www.boston.com/news/business/2016/08/01/uber-lyft-state-house-bill">20-cent
fee</a> – and note, it’s always a fee in bureau-speak, never tax – is a win-win
for all that will take a cut of all Uber and Lyft rides to distribute among the
taxi companies, the cities and towns and to the state. The <a href="http://www.rawstory.com/2016/08/massachusetts-to-tax-ride-hailing-apps-give-the-money-to-taxis/">estimated
pot</a> of this fee-not-tax could reach millions of dollars annually, and
provide big bucks to the state’s transportation fund. On top of that, the
revenues will also be used to help taxi services identify and put in place “new
technologies and advanced service, safety and operational capabilities” that
could also lead to more workforce development, according to the text of <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-massachusetts-uber-idUSKCN10U1ST">the
bill signed into law</a> by Gov. Charlie Baker, a Republican no less.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
Wow. It’s like a
wonder drug -- a cure-all for the state’s transportation and job opportunity
woes that seem to include failing taxi technology, whatever that means. But
peer past the politicking and take a whiff of the stink. The tax, which take a
nickel per Uber ride for the taxi companies, a dime per ride for the local
governments, and another nickel for the state to deposit in its transportation
coffers, is rooted in socialist ideology.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
As <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-massachusetts-uber-idUSKCN10U1ST">Reuters
reported</a>, Larry Meister of the Boston-area Independent Taxi Operator’s
Association cheered its passage by saying it’s about time – Uber and Lyft
drivers have been dodging the regulations that taxi companies have had to abide
for years. One such regulation? Vehicular inspections by police.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
“They’ve been
breaking the laws that are on the books that we’ve been following for many
years,” Meister reportedly said.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
So the answer is
more laws – more fees, taxes and government controls and interventions? That’s
a miserable mentality that has no place in a free-market America. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
As Kirill Evdakov,
the chief executive of Fasten ride service, said while opposing the tax in the
same Reuters story: “I don’t think we should be in the business of subsidizing
potential competitors.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
That’s exactly
right. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
Only a socialist –
someone who thinks the government should oversee and control business and the
economy – could applaud a tax that takes money from a private enterprise and siphons
it into the hands of another private enterprise. It’s particularly galling,
though, when the money being taken from the private business is being used to
bolster the bottom line of a competing business – and then sold as a “safety”
benefit for all. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
This is theft,
pure and simple. And the perpetrator is
the government.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
Calling it a fee,
dressing it as a workforce development benefit, touting it as a safety measure
and talking it up as a fairness issue that levels the free market field so all
can compete is nothing but spin. You want an equitable playing field for both
taxi and Uber drivers – one that provides a fair shot at profit for all? Think
less government, not more. Think capitalism, not socialism.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
Taxi drivers ought
to be fighting for less regulation of their companies, not more rules and
burdens for their competitors. That, after all, is the free-market way.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="background: white; line-height: 15.0pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<br /></div>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09279049314094940021noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7553102003858818035.post-79911975470751096912016-08-10T14:41:00.000-04:002016-08-10T14:41:06.842-04:00LGBTs vs. the First Amendment: The Fight for Religious Freedom Ratchets<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
Tread carefully,
America. The skirmishes around the nation centered on rights for lesbians,
gays, bisexuals and transgenders are not really about rights for lesbians,
gays, bisexuals and transgenders.</div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
They’re about the
decimation of the First Amendment and the destruction of traditional family.
And the latest local battle to drive a wedge in the national norm is in Utah,
where 25 groups dedicated to advancing the LGBT rights’ movement have signed on
<a href="https://twitter.com/Jake_Trotter/status/762818906608119808">to a
letter</a> urging the Big 12, which is considering a team expansion, to turn a
blind eye on <a href="https://home.byu.edu/home/">Brigham Young University</a>.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
Of the Mormon
school, the coalition wrote: “[BYU] actively and openly discriminates against
its LGBT students and staff. In fact, through its policies, BYU is very clear
about its intent to discriminate against openly LGBT students, with sanctions
that can include suspension or dismissal for being openly LGBT or in a same-sex
relationship. … Given BYU’s homophobic, biphobic and transphobic policies and
practices, BYU should not be rewarded with Big 12 membership.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
But that’s typical
special interest-driven bunk.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<a href="https://www.facebook.com/byutobig12/">BYU</a>, a private facility in
Provo that’s owned and operated by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints, does in fact have policies regarding homosexual relations. It also has
them – and curious, but the coalition’s letter doesn’t speak to this – for
heterosexuals. In fact, the school’s honor code, which speaks to the need of
students and staff to “demonstrate in daily living on and off-campus those
moral virtues encompassed in the gospel of Jesus Christ,” is specific in its
expectations for everybody who attends. It <a href="https://policy.byu.edu/view/index.php?p=26">requires all BYUers</a> to
“be honest,” to live a chaste and virtuous life,” and to “participate regularly
in church services.” It doesn’t even allow them to swear – or drink coffee or
caffeinated tea.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
It’s in the
context of discussing the do’s and don’ts of proper BYUer behaviors that
homosexuality is brought up, in a special section that makes clear: “Homosexual
behavior is inappropriate.” <o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
But before
cracking the “see, I told you so” whip wielded by the rabidly pro-LGBT rights’
crowd, read a little bit more. Simply professing same-sex attraction is not a
code violation.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
“One’s stated
same-gender attraction is not an Honor Code issue,” the <a href="https://policy.byu.edu/view/index.php?p=26">policy reads</a>. “[BYU] will
respond to homosexual behavior rather than to feelings or attraction.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
That means an honor
code violation is only given in those instances when students or staffers act
on those sexual attractions. But here’s the part the LGBT agenda-drivers
conveniently overlook and ignore: BYU’s sex-based prohibitions apply equally to
homosexuals as well as heterosexuals. In other words: the honor code demands
chastity for all unmarried students and staffers, no matter their sexual
preferences.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
If the whole LGBT
movement is aimed at demanding and receiving equal rights and equal treatment –
at getting the same types of societal benefits as heterosexuals – then the
reaction to BYU’s honor code should be this: Mission accomplished. But it’s
not. And that’s because the LGBT community’s clamor for rights at choice spots
around the nation in recent months has little to do with justice and equality
and everything to do with destroying societal roots, norms and standards. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
In 2012, lesbian
activist Masha Gessen said <a href="http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/04/29/lesbian-activists-surprisingly-candid-speech-gay-marriage-fight-is-a-lie-to-destroy-marriage/">in
a speech</a> “it’s a no-brainer that the institution of marriage should not
exist” and that sanctioning a man and a woman as the legal caretakers of
children is ridiculous. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
In 2013, the
far-left Nation <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/whats-next-lgbt-movement/">published
opinions</a> from LGBT activists Tamara Metz and Amber Hollibaugh who said,
respectively, the next step for the movement was to “disestablish marriage” and
to “queer” the country’s economy.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
“I want a LGBTQ
movement that queers the reality of Walmart line jobs, sex work and homeless
shelters,” Hollibaugh wrote. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
And in 2016, the <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/30/redefining-the-traditional-american-family-_n_7653520.html">Huffington
Post’s “Queer Voices”</a> section blasted this headline in a story about
offering stock photographs of gays to wire services like Getty: “Redefining the
‘Traditional’ American Family in 7 Stunning Images.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
Meanwhile, the
battle over bathroom genders goes on, with entities from the <a href="http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/05/13/477896804/obama-administration-to-offer-schools-guidance-on-transgender-bathrooms">White
House</a> to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/05/13/target-ceo-responds-to-nationwide-boycott-of-the-store-over-transgender-bathroom-policy/">Target</a>
retail demanding men dressed as women be given access to female facilities, and
vice versa. But this BYU battle is a First Amendment religious freedom hit in
disguise. What the coalition of LGBT groups is in effect saying in their letter
is that Christian-based organizations have a right to their religious beliefs –
so long as those religious beliefs don’t conflict or oppose the LGBT agenda.
And they’re trying to steamroll that belief into the common culture via the
sports world. Americans, particularly those of Christian faith and patriotic
bent, take heed. BYU today; the local church tomorrow.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09279049314094940021noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7553102003858818035.post-23571544609020840122016-08-06T08:41:00.001-04:002016-08-06T08:41:37.221-04:00North Carolina Bathroom Battle Brings Out the Big Guns – DOJ Plus Business<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
Talk about a
federal clamp-down. <a href="http://www.recode.net/2016/7/8/12128698/apple-cisco-intel-salesforce-68-companies-north-carolina-anti-lgbt-law-hb2">Nearly
70</a> of the country’s largest corporations have jumped into the LGBT boat
with the Obama administration’s heavy-handed Department of Justice and set
course toward one target: North Carolina’s bathroom law.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
Who’d have thought
transgender rights would be the issue that finally moved this administration
past campaign rhetoric and into the field of actual action?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
After all, America
suffered through red line after red line in the Syria fiasco – in which
President Obama kept threatening, then backtracking on threats, then
threatening again to take military action if President Assad didn’t turn over
his cache of chemical weapons. Then Americans suffered through month after
month, turning to year after year, of dismal job prospects, all the while
tuning in to national TV to hear a do-nothing Obama brag about the feds’ more
positively skewed statistics. Then the world watched and waited for Obama to
take decisive action on terrorism and ISIS – and, sadly, as any good Orlando,
Florida, or Nice, Paris, resident could confirm, is still watching and waiting.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
But making sure
girls’ bathroom doors are open to boys, and women’s to men? Obama’s on it.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
His latest is to
make sure North Carolina, which passed a law – (Note to Obama: You know, that
thing that goes through the legislative process and is duly debated and decided
by the constitutionally elected?) – called the “Public Facilities Privacy and
Security Act,” requiring individuals to use the public restrooms that conform
to their birth genders. The law was North Carolina’s defense against Obama’s
unilateral – meaning, devoid of Congress – dictate to states, via <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/13/us/politics/obama-administration-to-issue-decree-on-transgender-access-to-school-restrooms.html?_r=0">Justice
Department and Education Department letters</a>, to open public school
restrooms and changing facilities to those of both genders, so that boys who
went to bed on Monday as males but awoke on Tuesday as females could then use
the girl’s facilities. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
North Carolinians
didn’t agree with that line of thinking, and thus, HB2 was born, via
electorate-supported legislation. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
But Obama doesn’t
agree with North Carolina’s stance, aligned with the Tenth Amendment and
states’ rights as it is, and sent out his federal top law enforcement dogs to
issue a quick smack-down. The <a href="http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/politics-government/article87910867.html">Justice
Department</a> in early May <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2016/05/09/north-carolina-justice-dept-face-monday-deadline-for-bathroom-bill/?utm_term=.d2cdc231c95a">filed
a suit</a> to halt North Carolina’s law from taking effect – and this time,
dozens of big businesses piled on to pressure the state to back down.
Specifically, in early July, almost 70 of the country’s top corporations,
including PayPal, Nike, Capital One, IBM, Salesforce, Apple, American Airlines
and Marriott, jumped into the legal fray and <a href="http://www.recode.net/2016/7/8/12128698/apple-cisco-intel-salesforce-68-companies-north-carolina-anti-lgbt-law-hb2">filed
a legal brief</a> with the Human Rights Campaign in support of the Obama
administration and its Justice Department’s demands.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
What a heavy boot
for something like <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/09/upshot/the-search-for-the-best-estimate-of-the-transgender-population.html">0.3
percent</a> of the country’s population. If only Obama could amass such a
speedy and hefty show of force against America’s enemies – against radical
Islamists, for example, or North Korean dictators vowing to <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/03/27/north-koreans-just-threatened-to-nuke-d-c-and-they-can-actually-do-it.html">obliterate
the West</a>.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
But this battle
for transgender rights being waged by the Obama administration is not really
about transgender rights. It’s about upsetting a republic and overturning a
Constitution – about tossing out the traditional and heralding in a new order,
one that talks a talk of fairness and justice but walks a walk of intolerance
for all views tinged with conservatism, Christianity or even unbridled American
patriotism.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
With the suit,
this is the message Obama, the Justice Department and Big Business send: White
House wishes trump legislatively enacted law. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
Or, as Justin
Danhof, legal counsel and director of the Free Enterprise Project for the
National Center for Public Policy Research <a href="http://www.nationalcenter.org/PR-Civil_Rights_Act_071516.html">put it</a>:
“Since the DOJ doesn’t have the constitutional authority to rewrite laws, it is
trying to seek the same result by establishing precedent with this court case.
Such a result would irreparably damage America’s unique separation of powers
and open the floodgates for increased executive branch control over state and
local matters.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
In other words,
not only would Obama get to play king, once again. But future presidents, both
Democrats and Republicans, would have a clear path to play the king’s role
themselves. Bathroom rights? Think longer term. Transgender justice? Hardly. This
battle over gender is about power, control and the fate of Americans to govern
as Founding Fathers envisioned.<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09279049314094940021noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7553102003858818035.post-50018493505600891682016-08-05T06:46:00.001-04:002016-08-05T06:46:42.157-04:00IRS, DOJ Slapdown: One Small Step for 4th Amendment<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal">
David, meet Goliath. Incredibly enough, a small-town
Maryland dairy farmer and his wife just won their legal claim against the
Internal Revenue Service and Department of Justice and will now be able to
recoup tens of thousands of dollars seized in what turned out to be an
unconstitutional application of civil asset forfeiture.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
What’s more, the win could prove a chip in the whole block
of forfeiture laws, also known in constitutional circles as the Devil of the Fourth
Amendment and by property and business owners as government-sanctioned theft. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
That’s because civil asset forfeiture laws, as overseen and
implemented by the Department of Justice and the <a href="https://www.usmarshals.gov/assets/">U.S. Marshals Service</a>, with some
help from the IRS, allow government entities to seize properties – including cash,
cars, computers and a host of other items beginning with the letter A and
running through the letter Z – from those who have not been convicted of any
crime. In some cases, like in that of the Maryland dairy farmers, <a href="http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/politics/blog/bal-maryland-dairy-farmer-randy-sowers-will-have-seized-money-returned-20160629-story.html">Randy
and Karen Sowers</a>, the targets of seizures don’t even have to be formally
accused of any crime.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It’s a profitable business, this government taking, In 2015
alone, the <a href="https://www.justice.gov/afp">Department of Justice</a>
oversaw the collection of more than $1.6 billion from the 50 states
participating in the civil asset forfeiture “equitable sharing” program that
then disburses funds back to localities.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The <a href="http://americanfarm.com/publications/the-delmarva-farmer/3078-irs-returns-30000-in-cash-back-to-sowers">Sowers</a>
were just another statistic caught in the government’s civil asset forfeiture
ring.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
For years, the couple operated South Mountain Creamery in
Middletown, selling eggs, milk and other dairy products at local farmers’
markets, in mostly cash transactions that poked the interest of the IRS. In
2012, the <a href="http://dailysignal.com/2015/07/20/two-business-owners-fight-the-irs-to-get-their-seized-money-back/">agency
seized tens of thousands of dollars</a> from the couple’s bank account, saying
they had purposely deposited money in amounts less than $10,000 to avoid
tripping the banking reporting requirements – a practice known as
“restructuring” and one that feds say is commonly used by criminals to dodge
taxes and prosecutions for illegal business ventures.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But as <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/instituteforjustice/2016/06/29/maryland-dairy-farmer-beats-the-irs-will-recover-nearly-30000-seized-through-civil-forfeiture/#412fc67c143a">Forbes</a>
pointed out in a recent article: “Randy and Karen were never charged with
structuring (or any other crime).”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
With civil asset forfeiture, the absence of criminal
behavior is not a defense. <a href="http://dailysignal.com/2016/06/29/irs-to-return-30k-it-seized-from-maryland-dairy-farmers/">Cash
seized</a>, the Sowers faced the dismal prospect of fighting in court to prove
their innocence, or forfeiting $29,500 to the feds – so they chose the payoff,
Option B. Then in 2014, the IRS changed its policy and said restructuring laws,
the frequent precursor to civil asset forfeitures, could only be applied to
actual criminals – ostensibly, no longer to those who simply deposited the
wrong amounts of cash in the bank from milk and ice cream sales. Good news for
the Sowers; they sued, and the Institute for Justice that handled their case
won.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="http://ij.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/IJ079288.pdf">In a letter</a>,
the Department of Justice wrote “the forfeiture in this matter is being
mitigated in the full amount forfeited of $29,500,” and advised the Sowers to
contact the IRS Asset Forfeiture Coordinator for payment. What a win – and now,
the Institute for Justice is predicting the victory could “set a precedent that
should make it possible for hundreds of other property owners in similar cases
to get their money back as well.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Great. But before cheering, consider this: The U.S. Marshals
Service says it’s <a href="https://www.usmarshals.gov/assets/">currently
managing</a> $3.1 billion worth of assets seized under the forfeiture program.
That translates into 17,564 individual pieces of property or sums of seized
cash, according to the agency’s own website. In 2015, roughly $365 million of
seized assets were shared with state and local law enforcement. And since 1985,
a total of $7.4 billion of seized properties have been shared with
participating agencies. The point?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Sowers’ win is tremendous. The chance for the Sowers’
case to set a precedent that will lead to the return of wrongfully seized
properties for hundreds of other families is terrific. But that’s just a dent.
Anything less than what the <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/fourth_amendment">Fourth Amendment</a>
promises – that the “right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses,
papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be
violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probably cause” – is an
unconstitutional taking. A handful of wins does not an intact Fourth Amendment
make.<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09279049314094940021noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7553102003858818035.post-58765761242993177732016-07-18T07:13:00.002-04:002016-07-18T07:15:54.382-04:00'Pakistan Kim Kardashian' Murdered in Honor Killing as Brother Brags: 'Yes Of Course I Strangled Her'<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
A 26-year-old woman dubbed the “Pakistan Kim Kardashian” for her <a href="https://www.facebook.com/OfficialQandeelBaloch/photos/a.381098535368238.1073741830.339947236150035/882198388591581/?type=3&theater" target="_blank">many social media postings of herself</a> in sultry poses, was strangled to death by her brother, who told police and press conference attendees he carried out the honor killing to protect his family’s name and reputation.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgd8LwrzixNR-L3tzHLEbrcQKb0cSVgzRT_ZgPE2yeowjH49D6HvJ_FowYIDVirdXVVKo_6JA0te77KeSoSxumXcHfDkmN-OMx4H3LS3sYTWKU_idqmMDJWMBA5rgEPHupahzYpojSomec/s1600/PakistanKimKardashian.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="160" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgd8LwrzixNR-L3tzHLEbrcQKb0cSVgzRT_ZgPE2yeowjH49D6HvJ_FowYIDVirdXVVKo_6JA0te77KeSoSxumXcHfDkmN-OMx4H3LS3sYTWKU_idqmMDJWMBA5rgEPHupahzYpojSomec/s320/PakistanKimKardashian.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fouzia Azeem, known in celebrity circles as Qandeel Baloch</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The woman, born Fouzia Azeem, went by the Instagram and Facebook celebrity name of Qandeel Baloch and also advocated for women’s rights in Pakistan.<br />
<br />
The ‘Stop Hillary’ campaign is on fire! Join the surging response to this theme: ‘Clinton for prosecution, not president’<br />
<br />
“Yes of course I strangled her,” said Muhammad Wasim, to reporters during a press conference after his arrest, the <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/07/17/pakistan-s-kim-kardashian-drugged-and-strangled-in-honor-killing.html" target="_blank">Daily Beast reported</a>.<br />
<br />
He then described how he allegedly committed the crime, beginning with feeding her a sleeping pill and waiting until she fell asleep.<br />
<br />
“She was on the ground floor while our parents were asleep on the roof top,” he said, citing her “intolerable behavior” as the motivating force and decrying how her many media postings were bringing “dishonor” on the family.<br />
<br />
And he wasn’t the least bit contrite.<br />
<br />
“I am not embarrassed at all over what I did,” Wasim said, the Daily Beast reported.<br />
<br />
Baloch’s photos, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/OfficialQandeelBaloch/photos/a.381098535368238.1073741830.339947236150035/882198388591581/?type=3&theater" target="_blank">posted on the Internet</a> – and followed by thousands – are tame compared to Western standards. While the real Kim Kardashian might post nudes of herself, Baloch was fully dressed, even wearing full-length pants and a black top in one.<br />
<br />
But in Muslim-dominated Pakistan, where Shariah law adherents have been trying to block legislation that would protect women from violence, the photos were racy enough to warrant outrage. As the Daily Beast reported, the nation’s Human Rights Commission has recorded almost 1,000 so-called honor killings and crimes against women in the last year alone.<br />
<br />
In September, for instance, a man in Sargodha shot and killed two of his sisters for displaying what he deemed “bad character,” the news outlet reported, citing Human Rights Commission findings. And in that same time period, another man shot and killed three of his cousins in the Punjab province for the same “honor” reasons.<br />
<br />
Outraged social media followers posted angry comments beneath Baloch’s photos on Facebook, saying her poses were too risque for a proper woman to adopt.<br />
<br />
“What’s ur goal? U want to [be] most insulted person in the world?” wrote one.<br />
<br />
And another: “If u closely look at her face, u can see clearly she looks just like a prostitute.”<br />
<br />
Baloch was more than a social media celebrity, however. She also spoke out strongly for women’s rights and against Pakistan’s patriarchal system, referring to herself as a “one-woman army,” the Daily Beast reported.<br />
<br />
In one July 4 post, that included a link to a BBC news report about her, she wrote: “At least international media can see what i am up to. How i am trying to change the typical orthodox mindset of people who don’t wanna come out of their shells of false beliefs and old practices.”<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09279049314094940021noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7553102003858818035.post-47622861599823330372016-07-14T06:22:00.000-04:002016-07-14T06:22:31.015-04:00Republican Freedom Caucus Moves to Impeach IRS John Koskinen, Saying He 'Lied' on Scandal<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Members of the House Freedom Caucus on Capitol Hill, made up entirely of select members of the Republican Party, pushed forward with a resolution seeking to impeach John Koskinen, the IRS commissioner.<br />
<br />
The group, led by Reps. John Fleming and Tim Huelskamp, filed the resolution to impeach late Wednesday evening, Fox News reported. The resolution isn't "privileged," and therefore must wait its turn in line for vote – an often lengthy process that can drag for months.<br />
<br />
But GOPers in the caucus said they're tired of waiting on leadership to give the thumbs-up to try and impeach Koskinen, even though doing so would move the resolution to the front of the voting line and onto the House floor for a quick pass or fail decision.<br />
<br />
Koskinen has been in the crosshairs of Republicans – and many Americans – for years, due to a 2010 IRS scandal that saw many tea party-type and conservative organizations seeking non-profit status placed on hold. Later investigation revealed officials within the IRS unduly delayed the permit applications of groups that leaned ideologically right.<br />
<br />
Republicans who called Koskinen to Congress to explain the agency's actions accuse that he intentionally ignored and "lied" about goings-on at the IRS in the non-profit application division.<br />
<br />
The resolution to impeach will most likely force leadership to make a decision about its outcome this fall, Fox News reported.</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09279049314094940021noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7553102003858818035.post-88406002805819250732016-07-13T13:33:00.001-04:002016-07-13T13:33:27.965-04:00Man Dressed as Woman Arrested for Voyeurism Tied to Picture-Taking in Pro-LGBT Target Dressing Rooms<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px;">A man named Sean Patrick Smith who identifies as a woman by the name of Shauna Patricia Smith was arrested on charges tied to taking photographs of women inside a dressing room at a Target retail store in Ammon, Idaho.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px;"><br /></span></span>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTReksnRNLLRVi37xe8LAJpG0VLa16QtI-YEW8H6qunyQQXz7dUbSPCS9UTqyKx0lKWt9GgwiAGZoesqIiGVS_ze2IYl1P8TUi7F5cT2yNpT_w_-qSzTncieW1DHmN6af_Z4o2JllT2iw/s1600/SeanSmith.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="159" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTReksnRNLLRVi37xe8LAJpG0VLa16QtI-YEW8H6qunyQQXz7dUbSPCS9UTqyKx0lKWt9GgwiAGZoesqIiGVS_ze2IYl1P8TUi7F5cT2yNpT_w_-qSzTncieW1DHmN6af_Z4o2JllT2iw/s320/SeanSmith.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Suspect Smith, who claims to be a woman</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px;">Target, which recently opened its bathrooms and dressing rooms to both genders, allowing users to visit the facility that most corresponded with their chosen sex – so men could use women's facilities, and vice versa – has caused widespread outrage among shoppers. The American Family Association, for example, launched a petition signed by more than 1.3 million demanding a reversal of open-door policy. Shareholders concerned about falling stock prices confronted CEO Brian Cornell at a June meeting in California and asked him to consider a return to single-sex bathrooms. And Franklin Graham, president of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, issued a scathing criticism of Target over what he called a policy that "encourages sexual predators and puts women and children in danger,."</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px;">Now Graham's prediction seems to have come to pass.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px;">Smith, a 46-year-old Idaho Falls man, was booked into the Bonneville County Jail on a felony count of voyeurism after a woman reported to deputies how a man, dressed in women's clothing, entered the female dressing room at Target and started snapping pictures. East Idaho News reported he took pictures of the woman in the stall next to his, while she was changing.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px;">"The woman was begging for help as she chased the man out the door," a witness said, the local newspaper reported. "She kep saying she wanted those pictures deleted."</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px;">Detectives located Smith some time later, at a location outside of Target. Bonneville County Sgt. Bryan Lovell said investigators are trying to determine if there were other victims.</span></span><br />
<br /></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09279049314094940021noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7553102003858818035.post-46414559997118676362016-07-12T11:48:00.001-04:002016-07-12T11:48:38.834-04:00NeverTrumper Brags He 'Humiliated' Trump Campaign, as Judge Tosses Law Binding Vote to Billionaire<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
In a win for the never-die wing of the Never Trump crowd, a federal judge in Virginia said the state could not force delegates to support the state’s primary winner at the coming national convention.<br />
<br />
The case involved a Republican delegate, Carroll “Beau” Correll Jr., who supported Sen. Ted Cruz for president, but not Donald Trump. Trump won Virginia’s primary, however. And according to state law, as well as party rules, that meant GOP delegates had to vote for Trump at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland this month, else face possible fines.<br />
<br />
But Correll didn’t want to, so he went to court and challenged the party regulations.<br />
<br />
The judge just sided with him, tossing the rule as antithetical to the First Amendment – and sending Correll into very public expressions of glee.<br />
<br />
“[Trump’s campaign got] morbidly humiliated,” he said, NBC News reported. “They put all their chips on the table and they lost all of them. If I were them I’d go hide in a closet in Trump Tower.”<br />
<br />
Correll then issued a written plea to others in the party who don’t want to vote for Trump.<br />
<br />
“To national political figures that are on the sidelines and awaiting your calling,” he wrote, “I implore you to take a step forward from the darkness and into the light. Show us that you have the courage to stand for leader of the Free World, appeal to the better angels of our nature, and to deliver this Republic from the abomination of a Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton presidency.”<br />
<br />
Legally speaking, the judge’s ruling only affects Virginia delegates. It also doesn’t change RNC rules – rules that Correll agreed to abide when he accepted the appointment as delegate. And one rule? Party delegates have to vote for the candidate who wins the primary, something the Trump campaign said the judge actually reinforced in his ruling.<br />
<br />
As such, the billionaire businessman’s political operatives aren’t seeing the judge’s decision as a loss at all – rather a “fatal blow to the anti-Trump agitators,” the campaign said in a statement.<br />
<br />
“The court has confirmed what we have said all along: Rule 16 is in effect and thus delegates, including Correll, are bound to vote in accordance with the election results,” said Trump campaign attorney and former FEC chairman Don McGahn, NBC News reported.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09279049314094940021noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7553102003858818035.post-72621171570672477552016-07-07T10:09:00.000-04:002016-07-07T10:09:15.678-04:00Republican-Controlled Senate Rejects Defunding of Sanctuary Cities<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
The Republican dominated Senate failed to pass a couple of bills that would have stripped funding to cities with sanctuary policies sheltering illegal aliens from deportation.<br />
<br />
The Senate, with 54 Republicans versus 44 Democrats and two Independents, both of whom generally caucus with the Democratic Party, voted 53-44 in favor of the bill that would have stripped funding. But because the vote didn't meet the Senate's own self-imposed filibuster rule requiring 60 votes to act, the measure died.<br />
<br />
"We are failing to adequately deter deported illegal aliens from illegally re-entering the country, especially those with violent criminal records," said Sen. Ted Cruz, Fox News reported.<br />
<br />
Cruz sponsored one of the bills; his would have granted the courts the right to sentence illegals caught re-entering the country to a 10 years in prison. It failed on a 55-42 vote.<br />
<br />
Sen. Pat Toomey sponsored the other; his would have prevented federal tax dollars going toward cities with sanctuary policies. Toomey's stemmed from the widely reported 2015 public shooting death of Kate Steinle as she walked a California pier with her father. An illegal immigrant with a felony record who was deported on several prior occasions was charged in her murder.<br />
<br />
"Sanctuary cities are Orwellian in their logic," Toomey said, after his bill failed on a 53-44 vote, Fox News reported. "They give extra protection to dangerous criminals, just because they happen to be in the country illegally."<br />
<br />
Both bills were subject to the Senate's 60-vote standard to move forward – a threshhold described by one legal mind as "artificial" and an outrage to the constitutional process.<br />
<br />
"Since the Senate operates under a self-imposed filibuster rule requiring 60 votes to act, senators representing 11 percent of the national population can veto laws supported by senators representing 89 percent of the population," wrote New York University School of Law professor Burt Neuborne said in an April 2913 written opinion for <a href="http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/politics/295859-senate-60-vote-rule-is-an-abuse-of-democracy" target="_blank">the Hill</a>. "That's not democracy. It's more like being governed by the British House of Lords. Actually, it's more like being governed by the American House of Cowboys."<br />
<br />
Neuborne at the time had been criticizing the failure of Democrat-pressed gun background checks passing through the Senate, despite a vote of 55-45.<br />
<br />
The White House had already indicated disapproval with both measures, saying in a statement neither bill provided "comprehensive reforms needed to fix the nation's immigration laws."<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09279049314094940021noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7553102003858818035.post-8797527969172740552016-07-06T06:49:00.001-04:002016-07-06T06:49:11.581-04:00Sarah Palin Blasts Stubborn '#NeverTrump Traitors' as Hillary Clinton's Biggest Supporters<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<i>At this point ... she has a point.</i><br />
<br />
Sarah Palin, former governor of Alaska and vice presidential candidate, took to <a href="https://www.facebook.com/sarahpalin/?fref=ts" target="_blank">Facebook</a> to react to FBI Director James Comey's recommendation to not indict Hillary Clinton and ended up blasting those in the Republican Party who still, after all the former secretary of State's scandals and deceptions, refuse to support presumptive GOP White House pick Donald Trump.<br />
<br />
Her all-capped headline read: "GOP #NEVERTRUMP TRAITORS – HILLARY DELIGHTS IN YOU, FOR SHE CAN'T WIN WITHOUT YOU."<br />
<br />
Palin also linked to the statement from Judicial Watch about Comey's findings.<br />
<br />
"Ironic, tragic, but not unexpected – amidst America's Independence Day celebrations the Ruling Class put another boot on our neck to snuff liberty's life out of We the People," she wrote. "It's a farce that 'no one is above the law' and my heart goes out to all who've been unjustly accused and destroyed over much lesser crimes than Hillary's."<br />
<br />
Palin then appealed for patriotic Americans to take heart – to not give up the fight for a just government.<br />
<br />
"We MUST redouble efforts to restore the rule of law that had sustained the most exceptional nation on earth, with everyone doing their part," she wrote.<br />
<br />
And among her recommendations: "Don't put blind faith in any politician ... Teach your children American's foundation built on the rule of law ... United behind those who have no part in the corrupt political machine that would mock, silence and destroy the outsiders committed to serving for the right reasons ... Get your boots on the ground and work for what you know is right for our country's survival. Don't just preach to the choir – infiltrate and influence outside your comfort zone to empower others to take a stand."<br />
<br />
Palin then called the FBI "forgiveness of tyrants' illegal acts" an example of why patriots ought to "rise up and tear down this tyrannical system that is destroying America from within," and said bluntly: "Truly, you're either with us or you're against us."<br />
<br />
And to Republicans who still refused to endorse Trump, Palin had the harshest words.<br />
<br />
"Message to all the 'Republican' elites throwing in for Hillary, boasting they'll stay home instead of vote because their particular weakened good ol' boy is not the GOP nominee (the R.A.T.s suffering chappedass because their power and purse are threatened by the grassroots movement to destroy their failed politics-as-usual), Hillary thanks you. She knows she can't win without you," Palin wrote.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09279049314094940021noreply@blogger.com0