House is Voting on Bill to BAN ABORTION After 20 Weeks

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Photo Credit: Life News By Steven Ertelt. Republicans in the House of Representatives will hold a vote on the anniversary of Roe v. Wade late this month on a marquee bill to ban abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy because unborn children feel intense pain in abortions.

Top Republicans and leading pro-life groups have been promoting the Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act that bans abortions from after 20-weeks of pregnancy up to the day of birth. . .

In a statement, [bill sponsor Rep. Trent] Franks told LifeNews: “More than 18,000 ‘very late term’ abortions are performed every year on perfectly healthy unborn babies in America. These are innocent and defenseless children who can not only feel pain, but who can survive outside of the womb in most cases, and who are torturously killed without even basic anesthesia. Many of them cry and scream as they die, but because it is amniotic fluid going over their vocal cords instead of air, we don’t hear them”. . .

A national poll by The Polling Company found that, after being informed that there is scientific evidence that unborn children are capable of feeling pain at least by 20 weeks, 64% would support a law banning abortion after 20 weeks, unless the mother’s life was in danger. Only 30% said they would oppose such a law. . .

Another bombshell dropped during the hearing came from Dr. Maureen Condic, who is Associate Professor of Neurobiology and Adjunct Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Utah School of Medicine. She testified that the unborn child is capable of reacting to pain as early as 8-10 weeks. This is when most abortions in America take place. (Read more about the bill to ban abortion after 20 weeks HERE)

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Abortionist Approves a 10 Year Old Girl’s Abortion, gets Medical License Revoked

By Kathy Ostrowski. Late Friday, the Kansas Board of Healing Arts issued a final order of license revocation for abortionist Kris Neuhaus, calling her “incapable of successful rehabilitation.” Kansans for Life applauds the resolve of the Board in protecting the public from her.

Neuhaus’ license had been revoked in 2012 for her failure to follow both standard of care and record-keeping protocols when providing the legally-required “second independent medical opinion ” that enabled 11 girls, aged 10-18, in 2003 to obtain third-trimester abortions at the Wichita abortion clinic of George Tiller.

Neuhaus challenged that revocation in state district court. While upholding the Board’s findings that Neuhaus repeatedly failed to document patient histories properly, Judge Franklin Theis vacated the standard of care charge and sent the matter back to the Board for a “do-over.” on Dec. 11. (Read more from this story HERE)

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Boko Haram Uses 10-Year Old Girls as Suicide Bombers

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By Jennifer Van Laar. In two attacks Sunday, young women were used as “suicide” bombers at a mobile handset marketplace in Potiskum, Nigeria.

The attacks, which killed five and injured 46, are suspected to have been carried out by Boko Haram, according to a Reuters report.

A trader, Sani Abdu Potiskum, described the scene:

“I saw their dead bodies. They are two young girls of about 10 years of age … you only see the plaited hair and part of the upper torso.”

This is not the first time Boko Haram has used girls in this manner. A 13-year-old girl refused to detonate her suicide vest in December and instead turned herself in to the police and gave an account of what happened. (Read more about the young girl being used as suicide bombers HERE)

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Senator Ted Cruz: Obama Encourages Islamic Terrorism

By Pam Key. Monday at the Heritage Action for America’s second annual policy summit, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) said President Barack Obama’s lackadaisical attitude toward radical Islam, as demonstrated by his failure to attend the Paris unity march, “encourages radical Islamic terrorists.” (Read more from this story HERE)

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Reuters: Cuba Releases 53 Prisoners

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Plenty of us had our doubts as to if it would actually happen, including yours truly. But if the breaking news from Reuters pans out, Raul Castro has carried through and released the full crop of 53 political prisoners under discussion in the ongoing American rapprochement with Cuba.

Cuba has released all 53 prisoners it had promised to free, senior U.S. officials said, a major step toward détente with Washington . . .

You’re not off base at all if you would rather wait until Congress has been briefed and we get this from multiple sources in DC. Getting mixed messages (or outright lies) out of Havana would be nothing new. But assuming this proves true, it shouldn’t be all that surprising. Cuba has a lot on the line in this deal as we’ve discussed here at length. The benefits to Castro and the communist party far outweigh anything we’ll see out of this deal, and if Raul had bailed out on one of the very first agreements he made – particularly one which was so easy for him to make good on with no restrictions on his end – then opponents of this deal would be handed a huge new slug of ammunition to undermine it going forward.

One of the chief complaints I heard when the deal was first announced is still in play, of course. Just because these prisoners were released this week and government leaders had a chance for a photo op, that doesn’t mean that they can’t be picked up again and thrown in a cell next week on “new charges.” But there is at least hope that things won’t play out that way because of the aforementioned need on Castro’s part to keep painting the best face on all of this. (Of course, it still wouldn’t hurt for those 53 to hightail it out of the country by Friday if they have the chance.)

The next goal on the table is to reopen the embassy in Havana and, presumably, the one in Washington also. We heard some strong words out of the GOP when this was first announced, specifically along the lines of, “Good luck getting funding for that.” As the weeks have gone by, though, general public support for easing restrictions has been nearing the 70% mark and I don’t know how many members of Congress are going to want to buck those types of numbers when the total money involved will be essentially a rounding error in the budget. (Read more about “Cuba Releases 53 Prisoners” HERE)

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Why Do Libertarians Support Putin Given His Catastrophic Corruption?

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Photo Credit: American Conservative Over 100,000 entrepreneurs and small business owners are in prison in Russia for not paying bribes to assorted inspectors or because parties to business disputes bribe police to arrest them on trumped-up charges. Russia’s private sector has very little security in law for its property rights. Almost everybody dragged before any court is found guilty. The consequences are minimal re-investment, low productivity growth, and owners who seek security by taking out maximum cash and, if able, stashing it abroad.

Consequently, Russia depends upon imports for 90 percent of its consumer goods. Its agriculture is still a shambles, with no secure property rights, lousy roads to get products to markets, and younger farm workers fleeing the boredom and poverty of the countryside. Just fly over any Russian city, as I have done, and see how little of the land is cultivated compared to cities in the rest of Europe.

Yet many leading libertarians have been very soft on Putin’s elimination of political freedoms and ruination of his country, excusing Russia because of NATO expansion and Western support for the overthrow of Ukraine’s Moscow-backed Yanukovych government. Some conservatives have even argued that Putin is an ally in supporting traditional “family values” because of his public opposition to homosexuality and gay marriage.

Ron Paul defends Putin, writing that there was no proof that Russian missiles shot down Malaysia’s Flight 17 over Ukraine. His allies argue that criticism or exposure of Putin’s regime merely strengthens the War Party in Washington, helping it to gain more spending and bring about more wars against more nations. They argue that it was NATO expansion and NATO’s attack on Serbia launched by Bill Clinton that ultimately led to the reactions and new aggressiveness of Russia. This is an argument I once appreciated, but it’s not a reason to whitewash today’s Russian dictatorship and incredible corruption. (Read more about why this author believes Libertarians support Putin HERE)

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Obama May Get Congress to Cooperate After All, When They Vote to Override His Keystone XL Veto

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Photo Credit: TownHallSenator John Hoeven (R-ND) told Fox News’ Chris Wallace on Sunday that only 4 more votes are needed in order to override the veto on the Keystone XL pipeline that the Obama administration has promised.

He said this about the current vote count and what they’re doing about it:

“Right now we’ve got about 63, but we’re going to the floor with an open amendment process trying to foster more bipartisanship, getting the Senate to work the way it’s supposed to work so that we can pass this measure and other measures and either override the veto or attach the bill to other legislation either that will get 67 votes.”

Obviously, there is no question that it will pass, just as it did in the House — with 28 Democrat votes in support of the measure — on Friday.

Joe Manchin (D-WV) is a the co-sponsor of the bill and would be the frontman on any Democrat-corraling efforts. New Majority leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has said that it’s passage will be the first order of business for the Senate. (Read more from this story HERE)

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Nearly 70 Poisoned by Crocodile Fluids in Africa

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Nearly 70 people died from drinking beer tainted with crocodile bile at a funeral in Mozambique, health officials said.

The toxic brew — dubbed “Pombe” — has claimed the lives of 69 people and left another 196 suffering from the poison.

“We are waiting for the results of the tests of the samples being done at Maputo Central Hospital so that we can identify the type of the product put into the drink,” provincial health director Carle Mosse told NBC News.

The Mozambique government called for a three-day mourning period to start Monday following the deaths.

As officials worked around the clock to determine the cause of death, doctors began seeing rapid rates of incoming patients who had similar symptoms. (Read more from “Dozens Poisoned by Crocodile” HERE)

Insane Case for Attacking North Korea

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[Editor’s Note: Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry argues in an opinion piece in The Week entitled “The Case for Invading North Korea” that the US should attack North Korea now. Daniel Larison argues in response that this would be “insane.” His comments follow].

Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry outdoes himself with this blithe argument in favor of attacking North Korea:

U.S. forces should be able to destroy all of North Korea’s artillery in one strike. After all, if there’s one thing that the U.S. military is very good at, it’s launching enormous amounts of rockets and bombs with great precision. With satellite, any significant artillery positions are known. Given the U.S.’s overwhelming technological advantage and total dominance of the sky, and the effect of surprise, it should not be impossible to pull off . . .

If any part of Gobry’s “plan” were to go less than perfectly, Seoul would be reduced to a ruin in a matter of hours and it is more than likely that millions of people would be killed in the ensuing war. In order for this so-called “plan” to “work,” the regime would have to collapse almost instantly, but that is the least likely thing to happen in a country that has known no other government for more than half a century. And no matter how widely hated the regime is, the first instinct of people everywhere when they come under attack is to rally against the foreign attacker. If the regime did collapse in fairly short order, that would produce an unparalleled humanitarian disaster for which no neighboring country could possibly be prepared. (Read more about the case for attacking North Korea HERE)

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Men Who Post Selfies Show Psychopathic Tendencies (Really)

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Photo Credit: Medical News Today If you are a guy and follow in the selfie-fanatic footsteps of Justin Bieber, posting regular snaps of yourself on social media sites such as Facebook and Instagram, the picture is not pretty – you could be on the line to antisocial trait central.

A new study conducted by Jesse Fox, assistant professor of Communication at The Ohio State University, with Margaret Rooney a graduate student at Ohio State, shows that men in the study who posted more photos of themselves online than the rest of the group, scored higher on measures of narcissism and psychopathy.

Additionally, men, who tended to edit their selfies before posting, scored higher up the scale in narcissism and self-objectification, which measures the extent to which they prioritize their appearance.

“It’s not surprising that men who post a lot of selfies and spend more time editing them are more narcissistic, but this is the first time it has actually been confirmed in a study,” says Jesse Fox, lead author of the study.

Narcissism is demonstrated by a belief that you are more intelligent, more attractive and generally better than others, although with some level of underlying insecurity. Psychopathy involves a lack of empathy and regard for others and a tendency toward impulsive behavior. (Read more about the psychopathic tendencies of men who post selfies HERE)

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Man Awakes from Coma After 12 Years

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Martin Pistorious fell into a mysterious coma when he was a vibrant 12-year-old boy in the 1980s. He found himself locked inside his own body – unable to speak, make eye contact or even move his own limbs.

Martin’s doctors told his parents, Rodney and Joan Pistorious, that the boy had cryptococci meningitis. They said Martin should be taken home to die in peace. But Martin would live 12 years in that vegetative state.

“ . . . I was there, not from the very beginning, but about two years into my vegetative state, I began to wake up,” Martin recalls. “I was aware of everything, just like any normal person. Everyone was so used to me not being there that they didn’t notice when I began to be present again. The stark reality hit me that I was going to spend the rest of my life like that – totally alone” . . .

Now Martin, 39, is in full control of his body. He’s married and lives a normal life in Harlow, England. (Read more about “Man Awakes from Coma” HERE)

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Texas Earthquakes Rattling Nerves

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Photo Credit: BreitbartWhen you think “earthquake,” you don’t exactly think of Texas but it continues to be seismic central in Dallas. On Sunday, January 11 at 7:46pm, the Richter scale hit magnitude 2.5. This newest shaker was centered in the City of Irving near the former site of the Texas Stadium, the site of much of the rumbling in North Texas. Although there has been no damage, it has rattled nerves, caused schools to run earthquake drills, and gotten some folks to ask about earthquake insurance policies.

The Dallas Morning News reported that the latest tiny temblor marked the 16th occurance. The most notable of the shakers came on Tuesday, January 6. It was a magnitude 3.5 and it was felt citywide across Dallas. The Sunday night quake was felt from East Dallas to Irving to Northwest Dallas, based on emails and tweets.

Previously, on Thursday, January 8, two mild shockwaves each measuring 1.9 magnitude rolled through the Dallas suburb of Irving at 4:08am and 7:24am, according to NBC-5. Both were centered near the same former site of Texas Stadium where 12 earthquakes already rocked the area to varying degrees. Later that day, a 2.7 magnitude shaker occurred at 2:12, approximately four miles west-northwest of Midlothian in Ellis County.

These are not big quakes by California standards but, relatively speaking, Texans are not used to feeling like they are living on top of the San Andreas Fault, which runs across so much of the state of California. The frequency of the shakers has not calmed any nerves in Dallas either.

In response to all the ground movement, on Friday, January 9, the Dallas Independent School District (ISD) Department of Emergency Management issued an earthquake preparedness information memo outlining procedures. It noted that before 2008, North Texas had no real discernible seismic activity. The memo stated that since that time, over 120 earthquakes have occurred in North Texas, mainly centered in Irving. (Read more about the Texas earthquakes HERE)

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