Marine Vet Slams Paul Ryan’s ‘Outrageous Attitude’ Toward Military Pension Cuts (+video)

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

Two days after President Barack Obama signed a budget compromise that slashed pension benefits for military veterans, retired Marine Jessie Jane Duff blasted Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) for his “outrageous attitude” toward the sacrifices those in the armed forces have made.

Appearing on Fox & Friends on Saturday, Jessie Jane Duff, who is at the E7 level, said Ryan, who brokered the deal with Sen. Patty Murray (D-WI), does not realize that many active duty military personnel go back to civilian life “broke” and “without a job” and have difficulty getting on equal footing with their “civilian counterparts.” She noted that many veterans have had to leave the armed forces early due to injuries or are suffering from things like PTSD.

The deal Obama signed includes a provision that would “pare down annual cost of living increases in benefits for military retirees under age 62, saving the government an estimated $6.3 billion over a decade.” What that means is a sergeant first class at the E7 level like Duff who retires at age 42 would lose $72,000 in benefits over a lifetime, according to a Fox News analysis.

Read more from this story HERE.

Coercing Conformity; Subjugating the First Amendment

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Photo Credit: National Review

Photo Credit: National Review

In “protecting the rights of all people to worship the way they choose,” then–secretary of state Hillary Clinton vowed “to use some old-fashioned techniques of peer pressure and shaming, so that people don’t feel that they have the support to do what we abhor.”

Mrs. Clinton required translation into the language of truth, as she generally does when her lips are moving. By the “rights” of “all people” to “worship” as “they choose,” she meant the sharia-based desire of Muslim supremacists to foreclose critical examination of Islam. Madame Secretary, you see, was speechifying before her friends at the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) — the bloc of 56 Muslim countries plus the Palestinian territories.

At that very moment in July 2011, Christians were under siege in Egypt, Syria, Sudan, Iraq, and Iran — being gradually purged from those Islamic countries just as they’d been purged from Turkey, which hosted Mrs. Clinton’s speech. As Christians from the Middle East to West Monroe, La., can tell you, the Left and its Obama vanguard are not remotely interested in their “rights . . . to worship the way they choose.”

What they choose, after all, is to honor Christian tenets about sexuality, freedom of conscience, and the sanctity of life. Those tenets, just like honest criticism of Islam, are consigned to the category Clinton calls “what we abhor.” And if progressives abhor something, it somehow always becomes everyone’s duty to make certain that those who embrace that something “don’t feel that they have . . . support.”

Of course, they do have support . . . at least on paper. The First Amendment protects all of us against government suppression of speech. But the amendment is just a parchment promise if the government against which it is a safeguard actively undermines it. That is today’s United States government: rendering free expression an illusory right by inciting the mob, by extortionate lawfare tactics that exhaust the resources and energy of the citizen.

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Abortion Doc Who Failed to Report Statutory Rapes Stops Abortions

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LifeNews

LifeNews

Forth Wayne, Indiana is temporarily abortion-free now that an abortion practitioner who failed to properly report cases of statutory rape to state officials has stopped doing abortions. How long Ulrich Klopfer, the Illinois-based abortion practitioner who did abortions in this large Indiana city until problems came up recently, will stop doing abortions remains to be seen.

Klopfer is the abortion practitioner who has come under fire for failing to report abortions on teen girls who were victims of rape. Klopfer called the failures an “honest mistake.”

Meanwhile, women have now filed more than 1,200 complaints against him. The complaints are the result of 1,494 errors and omissions made by Klopfer between July 1, 2011 and June 30, 2013 on terminated pregnancy reports that doctors are required by Indiana law to file for every abortion they perform. These complaints more than double the number of complaints currently pending against Klopfer.

Now, as the Fort Wayne News-Sentinel reports, Klopfer is stopping abortions because he doesn’t have a doctor at a local hospital to work with who will accept his patients in cases of botched abortions.

A pro-life doctor who was willing to treat Klopfer’s abortion patients should they be victimized by botched abortions is now no longer willing to assist him.

Read more from this story HERE.

Pioneering Alaska Doctor M. Marcell Jackson Passes Away at 84

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Photo Credit: Yahoo

Photo Credit: Yahoo

Friends and colleagues will gather January 19th in Anchorage to celebrate the life of family practioner Dr. M. Marcell Jackson, who passed away at the age of 84 on December 8th.

Despite contracting polio at the age of 2 (around the time her mother died) and having her spine fused when a teen, necessitating the use of a back brace, M. Marcell Jackson went on to become one of the first women doctors in Alaska, and delivered more than 1,000 babies, including one while she was in labor, herself.

Read more from this story HERE.

It’s Ironic that Some Really Thick Ice has Stonewalled this Ship – Here’s Why (+video)

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Photo Credit: 23am.com/flickr

Photo Credit: 23am.com/flickr

A Chinese icebreaker ship sent to Antarctica for the purpose of rescuing a trapped expedition vessel caught in ice was forced to call off the mission Friday — because it got stuck in ice.

According to Fox News, the Australian Maritime Safety Authority said the Chinese “Snow Dragon” came within six nautical miles from the Russian vessel MV Akademik Shokalskiy Friday, but could not go any further because the ice was too thick.

Zhao Yanping, second captain of the Snow Dragon, told CNN the ship was not technically stuck, just not advancing forward because of ice up to ten feet thick.

Read more from this story HERE.

Local Courts Reviving ‘Debtors’ Prison’ for Overdue Fines, Fees

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Photo Credit: REUTERS

Photo Credit: REUTERS

As if out of a Charles Dickens novel, people struggling to pay overdue fines and fees associated with court costs for even the simplest traffic infractions are being thrown in jail across the United States.

Critics are calling the practice the new “debtors’ prison” — referring to the jails that flourished in the U.S. and Western Europe over 150 years ago. Before the time of bankruptcy laws and social safety nets, poor folks and ruined business owners were locked up until their debts were paid off.

Reforms eventually outlawed the practice. But groups like the Brennan Center for Justice and the American Civil Liberties Union say it’s been reborn in local courts which may not be aware it’s against the law to send indigent people to jail over unpaid fines and fees — or they just haven’t been called on it until now.

Advocates are trying to convince courts that aside from the legal questions surrounding the practice, it is disproportionately jailing poor people and doesn’t even boost government revenues — in fact, governments lose money in the process.

“It’s a waste of taxpayer resources, and it undermines the integrity of the justice system,” Carl Takei, staff attorney for the ACLU’s National Prison Project, told FoxNews.com.

Read more from this story HERE.

Obama Admin Loses In Court – “Doesn’t Have the Right” to Impose HHS Mandate on Christian Colleges

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Photo Credit: WND

Photo Credit: WND

The Obama administration has lost yet another court case against the controversial HHS mandate that forces companies, colleges, and religious groups to pay for birth control and drugs that may cause abortions under their employee health plans.

Today a Houston federal court delivered a major blow to the controversial HHS mandate ruling in favor of East Texas Baptist University and Houston Baptist University. In a 46-page opinion, the court ruled that the federal mandate requiring employers to provide employees with abortion-causing drugs and devices violates federal civil rights laws, and issued an injunction against the mandate. Religious plaintiffs have now won injunctions in 9 out of 12 such cases involving non-profit entities challenging the mandate.

“The government doesn’t have the right to decide what religious beliefs are legitimate and which ones aren’t,” said Eric Rassbach, Deputy General Counsel at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, and lead attorney for East Texas Baptist and Houston Baptist Universities. “In its careful opinion, the Court recognized that the government was trying to move across that forbidden line, and said “No further!”

n its opinion, the federal court specifically rejected the government’s argument that it evaluate the Universities’ beliefs: “The religious organization plaintiffs have shown a sincerely held religious belief that the court cannot second-guess.”

The decision is part of a recent groundswell of cases decided against the government. In nine of the twelve cases decided thus far, federal district courts across the country have issued injunctions against the mandate.

Read more from this story HERE.

‘Duck Dynasty’ to Resume Filming with Phil Robertson

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

By Fox News.

The A&E Network announced Friday it would resume filming “Duck Dynasty” with Phil Robertson and the rest of his family next spring in a reversal of its decision last week to suspend him for comments he made about homosexuality.

In an exclusive statement to FoxNews.com, the family said it was “excited to keep making a quality tv show for our dedicated fans, who have showed us wonderful support. We will continue to represent our faith and values in the most positive way through Duck Dynasty and our many projects that we are currently working on.

” The outpouring of support and prayer has encouraged and emboldened us greatly.”

Robertson had been indefinitely suspended by the network on Dec. 18 for remarks he made in an interview with GQ Magazine.

The removal of the 67-year-old family patriarch triggered support from gay rights organizations but objections from many fans of the show, including such political figures as former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal.

Read more from this story HERE.

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Photo Credit: Facebook

Photo Credit: Facebook

Petition in Support of Duck Dynasty’s Phil Robertson Gets Over 250,000 Signatures

By Michael Gryboski.

An online petition started in support of “Duck Dynasty” star Phil Robertson after he was suspended for expressing anti-gay views has garnered more than a quarter of a million signatures.

Found at the website “Faith Driven Consumer,” the petition directed against A&E for suspending Robertson has past 252,000 names as of Friday morning.

“I am asking your network to immediately reinstate Mr. Robertson to ‘Duck Dynasty,’ and to formally apologize to him, his family, and the millions of viewers who tune in every week, stand by him, and share his worldview,” reads the petition in part.

“While the LGBT community may be offended by his opposing viewpoint, your rash, discriminatory, and unfair treatment toward Mr. Robertson – a recognized symbol of the faith community – is a slap in the face to Faith Driven Consumers and everyday Americans alike.”

Earlier this month, the publication GQ posted online an interview with Robertson scheduled to be published in January.

Read more from this story HERE.

People Wait in Line to Register Guns Before New Laws Go into Effect (+video)

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Photo Credit: WFSB

Photo Credit: WFSB

There are only five more days until the new gun laws go into effect for our state, that means a dash to register assault weapons or high capacity magazines.

A long line of people stood outside of the Public Safety Building in Middletown all day Thursday to register firearms.

Specifically, anything the state considers an assault weapon or a high capacity magazine must be registered before Jan. 1, 2014.

“If they were trying to make them illegal, I’d have a real issue, but if they want to just know where they are, that’s fine with me,” said Charles Gillette, who was registering magazines.

“I understand why they’re doing it, but I don’t think it’s constitutional,” said Scott Boccio, who was registering guns.

WFSB 3 Connecticut

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Alaska, Lagging in Oil Production, Looks to Bring Back Boom (+video)

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Photo Credit: Kiskadee 3

Photo Credit: Kiskadee 3

The U.S. is on its way to becoming the world’s top oil producer. The Energy Department believes American output will soar to 9.6 million barrels a day by the year 2016. But surprisingly, Alaska, one of the country’s top oil suppliers, is being left in the dust.

Paul Hughes owns a snowmobile shop near Anchorage. He says there’s one day each year every Alaskan looks forward to: the day the state announces the oil dividend. He said this year it’s almost $900.

Every man woman and child in Alaska gets a check, their share of the state’s vast oil revenues. Hughes told CBS News’ Ben Tracy some people spend the money on snowmobiles and he used one of his kids’ checks to buy a new stove.

However, those annual oil checks are getting smaller because Alaska is producing less oil. Production on the North Slope peaked at 2 million barrels per day in 1988 but has dropped to less than 500,000 barrels currently. There’s so little oil flowing through the 800-mile Trans-Alaskan Pipeline that some state leaders say it may freeze and shutdown.

The problem isn’t that they’re running out of oil in Alaska — the oil industry says there’s still billions of barrels of oil in the North Slope alone. But they say the problem is taxes.”

Read more from this story HERE.