Chinese Caught Selling Rat Meat as Lamb

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Photo Credit: jo-hEven for China’s scandal-numbed diners, inured to endless outrages about food hazards, news that the lamb simmering in the pot may actually be rat tested new depths of disgust.

In an announcement intended to show that the government is serious about improving food safety, the Ministry of Public Security said on Thursday that the police had caught a gang of traders in eastern China who bought rat, fox and mink flesh and sold it as mutton. But that and other cases of meat smuggling, faking and adulteration featured in Chinese newspapers and Web sites on Friday were unlikely to instill confidence in consumers already queasy over many reports about meat, fruit and vegetables laden with disease, toxins, banned dyes and preservatives.

Sixty-three people were arrested and accused of “buying fox, mink and rat and other meat products that had not undergone inspection,” which they doused in gelatin, red pigment and nitrates, and sold as mutton in Shanghai and adjacent Jiangsu Province for about $1.6 million, according to the ministry’s statement. The report, posted on the Internet, did not explain how exactly the traders acquired the rats and other creatures.

“How many rats does it take to put together a sheep?” said one typically baffled and angry user of Sina Weibo, China’s Twitter-like microblog service that often acts as a forum for public venting. “Is it cheaper to raise rats than sheep?”

Residents of Shanghai recently endured the sight of thousands of dead hogs floating down a nearby river, apparently the dumped victims of disease in piggeries upstream.

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Round We Go: Murkowski’s Senior Fisheries Aide, Fresh out of Prison, Now a Lobbyist Seeking Favors from Begich

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A former aide to Sen. Lisa Murkowski who served time in prison for falsifying his fishing records is now working as a lobbyist.

Arne Fuglvog represented four commercial fishing companies: Aleutian Spray Fisheries, Blue North Fisheries, Fishermen’s Finest and Glacier Fish, according to lobbying records from the first quarter of this year. The Kodiak Daily Mirror reports that Fuglvog is listed as president of Coastal Resource Strategies LLC, a lobbying firm based in Seattle. He is listed on lobbying on issues like the Coast Guard authorization bill.

U.S. Mark Begich’s office confirmed that Fuglvog has been in contact with that office. Begich, an Alaska Democrat, is chairman of the Senate subcommittee on oceans, atmosphere, fisheries and the Coast Guard.

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Jason Collin’s LA High School Has No Tolerance for Religious Views on Homosexuality

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Photo Credit: joshuak8After the first NBA player to “come out of the closet” with respect to his sexuality made the media rounds this week, his old high school near Hollywood weighed in on the controversy.

According to the LA Times, Collin’s former school has zero tolerance for traditional religious views on homosexuality:

One of the school’s most active on-campus groups is its gay-straight alliance, roughly 50 students strong, according to Hudnut. Teachers, administrators and parents regularly speak about gay rights. Religion isn’t discussed much. If anyone were to come to campus expressing the view that homosexuals are sinners, they’d be met by outrage, said the school’s longtime basketball coach, Greg Hilliard.

“We have a lot less tolerance for people who make reactionary statements like Mr. Broussard,” Hilliard said, referring to ESPN television commentator Chris Broussard, who said Monday that, because of his religious beliefs, he did not condone homosexuality.

“If a guy like that came to this campus, that is where I would have to talk to my guys about the importance of tolerance.… They’d have some hard questions for a guy like that,” Hilliard said.

Poll: Almost One-Third of Voters Believe Armed Revolution May Be Necessary

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Photo Credit: leewrightonflickrAccording to a survey from Fairleigh Dickinson University, nearly a third of registered voters — 29 percent — believe an “armed revolution” might be necessary in the next few years in order to protect liberties.

The poll from the university’s PublicMind explored perceptions regarding Congress’ latest gun control push as well as the Sandy Hook mass shooting. That legislative push, launched in the wake of the Connecticut shooting, fizzled last month after the Senate blocked a bill that would have expanded background checks.

The poll showed 50 percent of voters still believe Congress should pass laws to protect the public from gun violence, while 39 percent say the opposite. But there is a huge partisan divide. Among Republicans, 65 percent don’t see new laws as necessary.

And the survey could help explain why applications for gun permits have hit record highs and retailers report ammo has been flying off the shelves. Not only are gun owners worried about new gun laws, but the poll suggests some voters think a revolution could be on the horizon.

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North Korea ‘Scared to Death of Christianity’, Jails Christian American for 15 Years

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Photo Credit: ReutersNorth Korea’s sentencing on Thursday of a US citizen to 15 years of hard labor could be a ploy by leader Kim Jong-un to get a high-profile American visit and burnish his leadership standing

But there may be another explanation for what is the toughest sentence ever handed to an American by a North Korean court, some North Asia analysts say. Kenneth Bae, the Korean-American arrested in November 2012 and accused of attempting to overthrow the government, is a devout Christian.

“The regime is scared to death of Christianity,” says Michael Green, a former senior director for Asia on the National Security Council.

Mr. Bae, a tour operator from Washington state who was living in a Chinese city near North Korea, was charged with carrying out “hostile acts” against the state that included having unspecified materials in his possession that prompted the accusations of planning the overthrow.

Was Bae carrying a Bible when he was arrested? The North Korean regime is particularly harsh with anyone found with a Bible, says Mr. Green, now the senior vice president for Asia at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

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Pentagon Report: N. Korea Will Eventually Reach US with Nuclear Arms

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Photo Credit: AFPNorth Korea’s continuing development of nuclear technology and long-range ballistic missiles will move it closer to its stated goal of being able to hit the United States with an atomic weapon, a new Pentagon report to Congress said on Thursday.

The report, the first version of an annual Pentagon assessment required by law, said Pyongyang’s Taepodong-2 missile, with continued development, might ultimately be able to reach parts of the United States carrying a nuclear payload if configured as an intercontinental ballistic missile.

North Korea launched a multi-stage rocket that delivered a satellite into orbit in December, an advance that “contributes heavily” to the country’s development of a long-range ballistic missile capability, the report said.

It is also continuing to refine its atomic weapons capability, including with a nuclear detonation in February, and is capable of conducting “additional nuclear tests at any time,”the report said.

“These advances in ballistic-missile delivery systems, coupled with developments in nuclear technology … are in line with North Korea’s stated objective of being able to strike the US homeland,” the report said.

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Lawyer: Drone Strikes Literally Being Used as an Alternative to Guantanamo

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Photo Credit: Yahya Arhab/EPAThe lawyer who first drew up White House policy on lethal drone strikes has accused the Obama administration of overusing them because of its reluctance to capture prisoners that would otherwise have to be sent to Guantánamo Bay.

John Bellinger, who was responsible for drafting the legal framework for targeted drone killings while working for George W Bush after 9/11, said he believed their use had increased since because President Obama was unwilling to deal with the consequences of jailing suspected al-Qaida members.

“This government has decided that instead of detaining members of al-Qaida [at Guantánamo] they are going to kill them,” he told a conference at the Bipartisan Policy Center.

Obama this week pledged to renew efforts to shut down the jail but has previously struggled to overcome congressional opposition, in part due to US disagreements over how to handle suspected terrorists and insurgents captured abroad.

An estimated 4,700 people have now been killed by some 300 US drone attacks in four countries, and the question of the programme’s status under international and domestic law remains highly controversial.

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Obamacare Nightmare Begins: Younger Americans’ Health Insurance Premiums to Go Up a Mind-Boggling 169%!

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At his press conference Tuesday, President Obama assured Americans that, “To the 85-90 percent of Americans who already have health insurance: They’re already experiencing most of the benefits of the Affordable Care Act even if they don’t know it.”

Those benefits apparently include higher premiums. According to the Wall Street Journal, insurers are warning that premiums in the individual and small-group markets could double in the next few years. Already, they are well on their way. For example, California health insurers are proposing increases for some customers of 20 percent or more: 26 percent by Blue Cross, 22 percent by Aetna, and 20 percent by Blue Shield. In Maryland, Care First, the state’s largest insurer, has proposed a 25 percent increase for next year.

Younger and healthier Americans can expect to pay even more. According to a survey by the American Action Forum, healthy young people in the individual or small-group insurance markets can look forward to rate increases averaging as much as 169 percent.

While it is always difficult to pin down the exact reason for premium increases, a large portion is traceable to the new health care law. According to a recent study by the American Society of Actuaries, Obamacare will increase health insurance claims costs by 32 percent because of increased adverse selection in the insurance pool. That is, the law’s prohibition on medical underwriting will bring more older and sicker people into the insurance pool, while higher premiums will encourage the young and healthy to forgo insurance until they get sick. (The penalty under Obamacare’s individual mandate is low enough so that it will generally be cheaper for healthy people to “pay,” rather than “play.”)

In addition, Obamacare requires all health insurance plans to provide more benefits and have lower deductibles and co-payments than they do today…

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New California Law Forces Gun Owners to Fund Gun Seizure Program

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Photo Credit: APGov. Jerry Brown on Wednesday signed legislation aimed at taking handguns and assault rifles away from 20,000 Californians who acquired them legally but have since been disqualified from ownership because of a criminal conviction or serious mental illness.

The measure, the first of several gun-related bills to reach the governor, allocates $24 million in surplus funds to hire dozens of additional special agents to tackle a backlog of 40,000 weapons in the hands of people not allowed to possess firearms.

“This bipartisan bill makes our communities safer by giving law enforcement the resources they need to get guns out of the hands of potentially dangerous individuals,” said Evan Westrup, a spokesman for the governor.

The state operates a database that cross-references a list of gun owners with those disqualified later from owning guns. But, budget cuts have prevented the state Department of Justice from keeping up with the growing number of people on the list.

State Sen. Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) introduced SB 140, which takes the money from fees paid when people buy guns and allocates it to a three-year campaign to take guns from those ineligible to have them.

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Greg Laurie to Homosexual Activists: ‘I Won’t Back Down’

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Photo Credit: Harvest MinistriesA California megachurch pastor involved in the National Day of Prayer who has recently come under fire for his views on homosexuality has declared that he will not be intimidated.

At a prayer event held Wednesday morning at the Washington, D.C., office of the Family Research Council, Pastor Greg Laurie told those gathered, “I won’t back down.”

“They do not want me to pray. They describe me as ‘homophobic’ and so forth. How can you deal with such a situation? We’re in a time in our country now where I’m attacked because I believe what the Bible teaches,” said Laurie, ahead of Thursday’s National Day of Prayer.

“If people want to make it all about that I’m not going to back down. In the immortal words of the great theologian Tom Petty, ‘I won’t back down,’ I won’t. I’m not going to apologize.”

Laurie paralleled the efforts of gay rights activists to that of the palace officials who sought to stop Daniel (in the Old Testament) from praying and passed a law that resulted in him being thrown into the Lion’s Den.

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