An Appalling Betrayal of Imprisoned American Pastor Saeed Abedini

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Photo Credit: ACLJ.orgOn the night of November 23, 2013, the President of the United States left an American pastor, Saeed Abedini, behind.

The “deal” with Iran announced tonight by President Obama, which allegedly halts “part” of Iran’s nuclear program, allows Iran to enrich uranium and allows it to maintain a nuclear program in exchange for an easing of sanctions and humanitarian relief.

It is outrageous that the Obama Administration commenced these negotiations and concluded them without the release of Pastor Saeed – a U.S. citizen. In fact, the Administration has just confirmed that he was not even part of the negotiations, stating that “The P5+1 talks focused exclusively on nuclear issues.”

The Obama Administration did not volunteer this information; it was revealed only after a specific inquiry from Fox News.

For more than a year, Pastor Saeed has undergone torture at the hands of his Iranian captors, most recently being transferred to one of the most deadly prisons in the world. Yet instead of demanding the release of this innocent U.S. citizen as a precondition to any negotiations with Iran, the Obama Administration is relaxing sanctions and providing humanitarian relief, while getting nothing but more meaningless promises in return.

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When Abortion Hits Home

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Photo Credit: LifeNewsFeminist author and blogger Jessica Valenti, known for (among other things) advocating free abortions on demand and without apology, recently wrote an apology for her own abortion. Yet, she couldn’t even use the word. Instead, Valenti’s essay poignantly describes the dire medical circumstances surrounding her unplanned pregnancy, her adoring love for the toddler she already has, the loss of her hope to provide her daughter with a sister, and the traditions she has cultivated around the family table to pass on to her child, such as Sunday sauce.

So it is here, it seems—at the family table—that abortion has finally arrived in its collective meaning for all of us. The semiotics of abortion in American culture has evolved, and with it the images that give its meaning power: from the dark, dirty alley; to the clean, well-lighted clinic; and now, to the warm glow of the family dining room.

Nearly every table set for the family gathering at Thanksgiving this year will have a missing place, if not two or more, since one in three women in America now has an abortion by age 45; the majority of these self-identify as Christian. Even in the church, abortion is no longer something that affects “other” people; it affects us all. The volume of abortions has grown so astronomically high today that it’s virtually impossible not to be intimately acquainted with someone who has had one, explains Olivia Gans Turner, director of American Victims of Abortion. It’s statistically unlikely that our own families have been untouched by abortion. Abortion hits home for all of us.

Still, it too often goes unacknowledged, even unknown, in our own families. “We’re not going to discuss it over pumpkin pie,” she said. Yet trusted loved ones should be those most welcoming to women (and men) needing to share an abortion experience. Turner founded her outreach after going through acute distress following her own abortion as a college student. My friend Debbie, who had an abortion at 22 when she was homeless, jobless, and penniless, says her healing didn’t begin until she was able to “surrender the secret in a safe place.”

In a recent New York Magazine article, “My Abortion,” 26 women surrendered to millions of readers the moving stories of their abortions. Abortion, according to the introduction to their stories, “is something we tend to be more comfortable discussing as an abstraction; the feelings it provokes are too complicated to face in all their particularities.” It’s an issue yet to be resolved “in our consciences.”

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Severe Winter Weather Slams Much of U.S.: “This is Not Texas Weather…It’s Alaska, or Idaho”

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The wicked wintry weather that pummeled the West Coast is now barreling across the country, threatening to ruin millions of holiday travel plans just before Thanksgiving.

More than 300 flights have already been canceled in the Dallas-Fort Worth area — not exactly a bastion for snow storms. Sleet and freezing rain will keep blanketing parts of the Southern Plains and Southern Rockies on Monday.

“It’s going to be so close to freezing, that’s when we’re anticipating it to be bad,” Sgt. Lonny Haschel of the Texas Department of Public Safety said.

And after the storm deluges parts of the South with rain Monday evening, it’ll start zeroing in on the Northeast, the National Weather Service said. And that could spell more travel nightmares.

It’s not just the bad timing that has travelers riled up. In many of the places, this kind of weather isn’t supposed to happen.”This is not Texas weather, man,” driver Ron Taylor told CNN affiliate KTVT. “This is Alaska, or Idaho.”

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Charlie Rangel Attacks Tea Party, says Obama Should Rule Like Dictator

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Photo Credit: Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty ImageAccording to Rep. Charlie Rangel, D-N.Y., Tea Party Republicans want to destroy people in their districts, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid did a good thing when he violated Senate rules to invoke the nuclear option, and Barack Obama should simply rule by decree, issuing executive orders for “everything,” Politicker reported Saturday.

“You know, the DREAM Act for the kids that came over here and didn’t know their home town, the president did that by executive order. What I did is I’ve taken out the language that he used and I’m gonna see why we can’t use executive orders for everything,” Rangel told NY1. “What’s he gonna do? Make the Republicans angry? They’re gonna get annoyed? They’re not gonna cooperate?”

Rangel — who once served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney under Robert F. Kennedy — also praised Harry Reid for violating Senate rules to invoke the nuclear option on filibusters against judicial nominees and wished he could do the same for legislation in the House.

He then slammed Tea Party Republicans for refusing to cooperate with Obama, and compared them to criminals.

“A police officer once told me when I was a kid that the worst criminal to deal with is one that doesn’t mind dying,” he said. “And if you take a look at what these Tea Party people have done–recognizing that there’s more sick and poor white folks then there is–but they still are resisting everything that the president wants to do so they can destroy the people in their district in terms of education and jobs, the Congress, the Republican name. And when we had the debt ceiling crisis, they were really prepared to let the United States of America fiscal policy to go in the tubes. How can you talk with people like this?”

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U.S. Supported Jihadi Rebels Inflict Biggest Massacre of Syrian Christians So Far

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Photo Credit: thecommentator.comThe worst massacre of Christians in Syria so far — complete with mass graves, tortured-to-death women and children, and destroyed churches — recently took place at the hands of the U.S.-supported jihadi “rebels”; and the U.S. government and its “mainstream media” mouthpieces are, as usual, silent (that is, when not actively trying to minimize matters).

The massacre took place in Sadad, an ancient Syriac Orthodox Christian habitation, so old as to be mentioned in the Old Testament.

Most of the region’s inhabitants are poor, as Sadad is situated in the remote desert between Homs and Damascus (desert regions, till now, apparently the only places Syria’s Christians could feel secure; 600 Christian families had earlier fled there for sanctuary from the jihad, only to be followed by it).

In late October, the U.S-supported “opposition” invaded and occupied Sadad for over a week, until ousted by the nation’s military. Among other atrocities, 45 Christians — including women and children — were killed, several tortured to death; Sadat’s 14 churches, some ancient, were ransacked and destroyed; the bodies of six people from one family, ranging from ages 16 to 90, were found at the bottom of a well (an increasingly common fate for “subhuman” Christians).

The jihadis even made a graphic video (with English subtitles) of those whom they massacred, while shouting Islam’s victory-cry, “Allahu Akbar” (which John McCain equates to a Christian saying “thank God”). Another video, made after Sadad was liberated, shows more graphic atrocities.

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Why Women Still Need Husbands

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Photo Credit: AP/THE TAMPA BAY TIMES, EVE EDELHEITOver the past several decades, America has witnessed a profound change in the way women view men and marriage. It began with the baby boomer adage “never depend on a man.”

This message resulted in a generation of women who turned their attention away from the home and onto the workforce. They did what their mothers told them to do: they became financially independent so they’d never have to rely on a husband.

In time, “never depend on a man” turned into the full-blown belief that men are superfluous. In 2010 Jennifer Aniston claimed women needn’t “fiddle with a man” to have a child.

This may strike you as an isolated case of stupidity, but Aniston’s willingness to put it out there speaks volumes about modern cultural attitudes. No actress would have said such a thing in the 70s, 80s, or even early 90s.

Fortunately, most women come to the realization that they do, in fact, need a man—at least if they want a family.

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Obama Makes Room for Fundraisers, Golf in his Schedule Despite Obamacare Troubles

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Photo Credit: REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque The bungled rollout of President Obama’s signature health care law might have kept the president away from Gettysburg, but it has not kept him off the links or away from the fundraising circuit.

Since the launch of the HealthCare.gov on October 1, Obama has gone golfing five times and attended ten fundraisers — with five more scheduled for the beginning of this week — while Obamacare’s favorability has hit all time lows.

And while President Obama’s schedule has been open for golf and fundraisers, he was unable to attend the anniversary of the Gettysburg Address Tuesday due to — as White House advisor Dan Pfeiffer put it – “this whole website thing that someone suggested might destroy the Dem Party.”

The problems affecting HealthCare.gov, however, did not stop Obama from golfing on Oct. 20, Oct. 27, Nov. 2, Nov. 9 or Nov. 17.

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No Obamacare Subsidy for Some Low-Income Americans (+video)

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Photo Credit: Reuters/Jonathan BachmanOne of the basic tenets of Obamacare is that the government will help lower-income Americans — anyone making less than about $45,900 a year — pay for the health insurance everyone is now mandated to have.

But a CNN analysis shows that in the largest city in nearly every state, many low-income younger Americans won’t get any subsidy at all. Administration officials said the reason so many Americans won’t receive a subsidy is that the cost of insurance is lower than the government initially expected. Subsidies are calculated using a complicated formula based on the cost of insurance premiums, which can vary drastically from state to state, and even county to county.

That doesn’t change the fact that in Chicago, a 27-year old will receive no subsidy to help offset premiums of more than $165 a month if he makes more than $27,400 a year.

In Portland, Oregon, subsidies for individuals making just $28,725 a year phase out for those younger than 35 years old.

The subsidies situation is adding another layer of complications and calculations to the already-complex picture of Obamacare.

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Watch the Moment When Woman Who Falsely Accused Duke Lacrosse Player of Rape is Found Guilty of Murder

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Photo Credit: YouTube raw videoThe woman who falsely accused three Duke University lacrosse players of rape has been found guilty of second-degree murder in the stabbing death of her boyfriend.

The jury deliberated for about six hours over two days before reaching their verdict in the trial of 34-year-old Crystal Mangum, who was sentenced to between 14 years and 18 years in prison.

Mangum was on trial in the death of 46-year-old Reginald Daye. He was stabbed on April 3, 2011 and he died of complications 10 days later.

In 2006, Mangum claimed Duke lacrosse players gang raped her at a team party where she was hired as a stripper.

The three arrested were eventually declared innocent by North Carolina’s attorney general after Mangum’s story crumbled and her mental stability was questioned.

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European Satellites Launched to Eye Earth’s Magnetic Field

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Photo Credit: Reuters The European Space Agency on Friday launched three satellites it hopes will help understand why the magnetic field that makes human life possible on Earth appears to be weakening.

The satellites, comprising ESA’s Swarm project, were launched from Russia’s Plesetsk Cosmodrome on a Rockot vehicle at 7.02 a.m. EST and were placed in near-polar orbit at an altitude of 490 kilometers (304 miles) about 91 minutes later.

Data that Swarm is due to collect for the next four years will help improve scientists’ relatively blurry understanding of the magnetic field that shields life on Earth from deadly solar radiation and helps some animals migrate.

Scientists say the magnetosphere is weakening and could all but disappear in as little as 500 years as a precursor to flipping upside down.

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