Gospel Music Pioneer Andraé Crouch Dies at 72

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Photo Credit: USA Today
Andraé Crouch, a gospel musician who bridged the worlds of church and mainstream music for more than 50 years, died Thursday afternoon. The 72-year-old singer, songwriter and choir director had been hospitalized since Saturday at Northridge Hospital Medical Center in the Los Angeles area after suffering a heart attack.

Crouch, sometimes called “the father of modern gospel music,” led the choirs that sang on such hits as Michael Jackson’s Man in the Mirror and Madonna’s Like a Prayer. As a songwriter, he wrote several gospel favorites, most notably The Blood Will Never Lose Its Power, My Tribute (To God Be the Glory) and Soon and Very Soon, a song sung at Jackson’s public memorial service.

A San Francisco native who grew up in the Church of God in Christ, Crouch wrote his first gospel tune at age 14. By 1960, he had formed the Church of God in Christ Singers, a group that featured Billy Preston on keyboards.

He started another group, Andraé Crouch & the Disciples, in 1965, eventually signing to a contemporary Christian label, Light Records. Crouch brought a contemporary pop and R&B melodic sensibility to gospel, making him uniquely suited to appeal to both black and white audiences during the early days of the countercultural “Jesus movement” and also bringing him attention beyond the church. (Read more from story “Andraé Crouch Dies at 72” HERE)

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It Only Took Bill Cosby Nine Words to Get Appalled Gasps From Audience

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It only took nine words from Bill Cosby Thursday night to draw “loud gasps” from an audience.

Cosby, performing in Canada, made a joke as one woman left the crowd to get a drink.

“You have to be careful about drinking around me,” he said, according to multiple reports.

The apparent joke, which comes on the heels of Cosby being accused by multiple women of sexual assault, resulted in “loud gasps from the audience,” according to Richard Warnica, a reporter for the National Post . . .

Following the joke, a heckler apparently accused the comedian of being a “rapist.” That man was escorted out by security. (Read more about what Bill Cosby said HERE)

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Obama Refuses to Call Paris Attack ‘Islamic’ and Rush Limbaugh Brings Up President’s Birth Certificate

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By Jerome R. Corsi. In response to the attack on the Paris magazine that published editorial cartoons mocking Islam, President Obama reluctantly classified it as an act of terrorism while refusing to associate it with Islam.

“I strongly condemn the horrific shooting at the offices of Charlie Hebdo magazine in Paris that has reportedly killed 12 people,” Obama said in a carefully worded statement released by the White House press office.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims of this terrorist attack and the people of France at this difficult time. France is America’s oldest ally and has stood shoulder to shoulder with the United States in the fight against terrorists who threaten our shared security and the world.”

Speaking in both French and English, Secretary of State John Kerry expressed U.S. solidarity with France against the “extremism” reflected in the terrorist attack on Charlie Hebdo. He also took care to characterize the attack as terrorism without specifically characterizing it as “Islamic terrorism.” (Read more from “Obama Refuses to Call Paris Attack ‘Islamic'” HERE)

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Rush Limbaugh Brings Up Obama’s Birth Certificate

By Joe Kovacs. Historians are still buzzing about the 1795 Boston time capsule that was buried by American patriots Paul Revere and Samuel Adams.

Among them is radio host and U.S. history author Rush Limbaugh, who said on Wednesday’s broadcast:

Because of our children’s book series, ‘Rush Revere and the Brave Pilgrims,’ the fact that a time capsule that was planted, if you will, by Paul Revere and Samuel Adams was opened yesterday in Boston … is uncanny news to us!

Paul Revere and Samuel Adams left a time capsule. It was found, and it was opened yesterday. It did not contain Obama’s birth certificate. Many people were thinking that it might. But it didn’t.

(Read more from this story HERE)

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Woman Travels from UK to US to Abort Viable Baby Just Two Months from Delivery

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By Steven Ertelt. The pro-life community from all across the world came together in prayer and action in an attempt to help a divided family from the United Kingdom who traveled to the United States for a late-term abortion. Unfortunately, the pro-life efforts were unsuccessful and a mother aborted her 30-week old baby yesterday in the U.S.

Local New Mexico-based pro-life advocate Bud Shaver tells LifeNews that a 20-year-old woman came to Albuquerque, New Mexico to seek an abortion at 30 weeks of pregnancy. The young woman traveled with her radically pro-abortion father by her side, he said, who was pressuring her to have the abortion.

The woman’s mother sought help within the UK and then Priests For Life became involved once the woman was on her way to the United States. (Read more from the story, “Woman Travels to US to Abort Viable Baby” HERE)

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Congressional Bill Could Ban Late Term Abortions

By Steven Ertelt. Pro-life members of Congress today introduced legislation in the House of Representatives that bans abortions from after 20-weeks of pregnancy up to the day of birth.

With Republicans controlling both the House and Senate, there is a guarantee that the important pro-life legislation will finally receive a vote in both chambers of Congress. In 2013, the House approved the bill on a 228-196 vote with 6 Democrats voting for the bill and 6 Republicans voting against it. President Barack Obama has issued a veto threat against that bill and Senate Democrats refused to bring it up for a vote.

Congressman Trent Franks of Arizona, along with Representative Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, are the lead sponsors of the bill.

In a statement, 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. . .” (Read more from this story HERE)

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Study Shows Police are More Likely to Shoot Whites (+video)

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Photo Credit: The New American By Selwyn Duke. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio is notorious for giving his black son “the talk” — a warning about how his race will cause police to react to him. But it now appears his talk should have been in the nature of a reassurance, because a scientific study indicates that police are actually less likely to shoot black suspects.

The study, out of Washington State University (WSU), was conducted by lead researcher Professor Lois James and her collaborators, professors David Klinger and Bryan Vila. First published online May 22, 2014 in the Journal of Experimental Criminology, it was largely ignored but has taken on new relevance in the wake of the recently publicized deaths of black criminal suspects in confrontations with police. As to its findings, WSU News writes:

Participants in an innovative Washington State University study of deadly force were more likely to feel threatened in scenarios involving black people. But when it came time to shoot, participants were biased in favor of black suspects, taking longer to pull the trigger against them than against armed white or Hispanic suspects.

… The findings … run counter to the public perception, heightened with the recent shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., that police are more willing to shoot black suspects.

… James’ study is a follow-up to one in which she found active police officers, military personnel and the general public took longer to shoot black suspects than white or Hispanic suspects. Participants were also more likely to shoot unarmed white suspects than black or Hispanic ones and more likely to fail to fire at armed black suspects.

“In other words,” wrote James and her co-authors, “there was significant bias favoring blacks where decisions to shoot were concerned.”

When confronted by an armed white person, participants took an average of 1.37 seconds to fire back. Confronted by an armed black person, they took 1.61 seconds to fire and were less likely to fire in error. The 240-millisecond difference may seem small, but it’s enough to be fatal in a shooting.

(Read more on the study saying police are more likely to shoot whites HERE)
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Anti-White Curriculum Brought Back to Arizona by Teachers

By B. Christopher Agee. The Mexican-American studies curriculum offered in Tucson, Ariz., public schools in years past has been described by at least two federal judges as a program that promotes resentment against whites. As a result of the ruling, education officials passed a law in 2010 banning such lessons.

In 2013, however, reports indicate the city’s school board opted to resurrect the same courses determined to discriminate against Caucasians. Materials including Occupied America and Chicano! were among the offending books ordered as a result of the board’s vote.

Some individual educators took the initiative even further by introducing hardcore rock and hip hop songs with an identifiably prejudiced message. Pueblo Magnet High School Principal Augustine Romero proudly announced the return of the controversial curriculum and was caught on tape offering a profanity-laced defense of the program [WARNING: PROFANITY].

(Read more from this story HERE)

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Retaliation, Boehner-Style: Tea Party Rebels Stripped of Leadership, Benefits

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By Alex Pappas. Speaker of the House John Boehner is apparently punishing Republicans who voted against his re-election Tuesday, despite previously saying he would not do so.

Reps. Daniel Webster and Richard Nugent are both losing their seats on the House Rules Committee, Politico reported Tuesday evening. Both Florida Republicans voted for Webster instead of Boehner earlier in the day.

Such moves seem to contradict recent statements made by Boehner and his office.

We asked last week if any Republicans who voted against Boehner would be punished, spokesman Michael Steel told The Daily Caller by email: “Boehner has said publicly that there will be no retribution for ‘no’ votes.” (Read more about how Boehner is punishing the tea party rebels HERE)

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Strange Twist: Boehner’s Re-Election Assured by Mario Cuomo’s Death

By Dana Milbank. John Boehner won reelection as speaker of the House on Tuesday with the help of an unlikely ally: Mario Cuomo, the former Democratic governor of New York.

Astute readers may have noticed that Cuomo is currently deceased. He died on New Year’s Day and was buried Tuesday — and thus, quite inadvertently, did he help to stack the deck for the Ohio Republican to keep the speaker’s gavel in the 114th Congress.

Dana Milbank writes about political theater in the nation’s capital. He joined the Post as a political reporter in 2000. View Archive

Twenty-five conservatives — more than 10 percent of the Republican caucus — rebelled against their leader on the first day of the new Congress. It was the largest revolt against a House speaker in more than a century, and the rebels were within striking distance of the 29 votes they would have needed to deny Boehner the speakership — if all sitting members of the House voted.

But more than two dozen were missing when Congress convened at noon, a few because of snow-related travel delays but most of them Democratic members of the New York delegation who were attending Cuomo’s funeral. Because the speaker is elected based on the majority of those voting, this reduced the number of votes Boehner needed from about 218 to 205 — and the conservative rebellion fizzled before it ever had a chance. (Read more from this story HERE)

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Agent Defends Ben Carson Against Plagiarism Charges

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On Tuesday, BuzzFeed posted an article showing similarities between Carson’s book, which he wrote with his wife Candy, and a variety of other sources, including from material published in 2002 by a website called SocialismSucks.net.

Entire paragraphs, word for word, like this from SocialismSucks.net appeared in Carson’s book: “Anytime you give to government the responsibility and authority to provide government-made jobs, old-age financial security, ‘free’ health care, and ‘free’ education and indoctrination of children, it will control the lives of the people who live under its jurisdiction, and individual liberty and freedom of choice are sacrificed.”

BuzzFeed noted how Carson’s book also apparently lifted material from authors Cleon Skousen and Bill Federer, a CBS News article and other works.

Speaking by phone, Yates, the literary agent, said he and the Carsons were in the process of trying to fully understand the situation. . .

Armstrong Williams, an aide to Carson, declined to make the former neurosurgeon immediately available for an interview, explaining Carson wants to wait before speaking out. (Read more from “Agent Defends Ben Carson” HERE)

Why Do Liberals Cower in Front of Muslim Fundamentalists?

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By Michael Weiss. The New York Times tweeted today that the satirical French magazine Charlie Hebdo, which found itself the victim of a gruesome massacre, “long tested the limits of satire.” I did not know that there were limits to satire or that the Gray Lady, which often unintentionally engages in the art form, had managed to uncover them. The implication here is one that will surely become as tediously explicit in the hours and days ahead as it is familiar: If you “provoke” Muslims by mocking their religion, then you’ve only yourself to blame for what happens next.

Some in the media are admirably honest about why they go mum in this regard. Stephen Pollard, the editor of London’s Jewish Chronicle, today explained that his newspaper will not run any of Charlie Hebdo’s notorious cartoons in its coverage of the terrorist attack on the French weekly: “Get real, folks. A Jewish newspaper like mine that published such cartoons would be at the front of the queue for Islamists to murder”. . .

But now contrast Pollard’s justification with how Bruce Crumley, Time magazine’s then-Paris bureau chief, characterized the work of satirists after Charlie Hebdo’s offices were firebombed in 2011 for the ostensible “offense” of putting Mohammed in the editor’s chair for a single issue: “[N]ot only are such Islamophobic antics futile and childish, but they also openly beg for the very violent responses from extremists their authors claim to proudly defy in the name of common good. What common good is served by creating more division and anger, and by tempting belligerent reaction?”

Openly beg. I wonder if Crumley will write that the 10 Charlie Hebdo employees gunned down today by men claiming (evidently in perfect French) to have “avenged the Prophet Muhammad” got what they deserved or were perhaps laïcité’s answer to suicide bombers. . . (Read more about the liberal media’s refusal to confront Muslim fundamentalists HERE)

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Guess Who Gives Cover to the Jihadist Murderers?

By Ben Shapiro. Here are the top ten recent examples of top politicians and media figures providing justification for jihadi killing of those who slander the prophet of Islam.

President Barack Obama, 2012: On September 11, 2012, Islamic terrorists attacked the American consulate in Benghazi, Libya, murdering four Americans, including Ambassador Chris Stevens. President Obama and his administration promptly blamed a filmmaker who made the YouTube film “The Innocence of Muslims.” He then went to United Nations on September 25, 2012, and said:

The future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam. . .

General David Petraeus, 2011: The general in charge of America’s war in Afghanistan ripped Pastor Terry Jones of Florida after Jones burned a copy of the Koran. Petraeus said that burning the Koran was

hateful, it was intolerant and it was extremely disrespectful and again, we condemn it in the strongest manner possible. . .

President Bush, 2008: After a video emerged of an American sniper shooting a Koran, White House press secretary Dana Perino said that Bush had apologized to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki:

He apologized for that in the sense that he said that we take it very seriously. We are concerned about the reaction. We wanted them to know that the president knew that this was wrong.

Bush State Department, 2006: After the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten published a cartoon of Mohammed, ambassadors from 11 Islamic countries demanded that the newspaper be punished in a letter to the Danish prime minister:

We deplore these statements and publications and urge Your Excellency’s government to take all those responsible to task under law of the land in the interest of inter-faith harmony, better integration and Denmark’s overall relations with the Muslim world.

(Read more from this story HERE)

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Persecution: Atlanta Fire Chief Fired Because He is a Bible-Believing Christian

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Photo Credit: Fox News
Kelvin Cochran was five-years-old when he realized that he wanted to be a firefighter. . .

But now Chief Cochran’s storied career is up in smoke – all because of a book he wrote for a men’s Bible study group at his Baptist church.

Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed announced Tuesday that Cochran had been fired. The announcement came on the same day Cochran was supposed to return to work following a 30-day suspension.

“The LGBT members of our community have a right to be able to express their views and convictions about sexuality and deserve to be respected for their position without hate or discrimination,” Cochran told me in an exclusive interview. “But Christians also have a right to express our belief regarding our faith and be respected for our position without hate and without discrimination. In the United States, no one should be vilified, hated or discriminated against for expressing their beliefs.”

Cochran had been suspended in November because of a passage he wrote about homosexuality in a book titled, “Who Told You That You Were Naked?” The book’s theme is about biblical morality [and was used in his church’s men’s bible study group]. (Read more about the persecution of this Atlanta fire chief HERE)

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Secret Past of Mayor de Blasio Comes to Light

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By Aaron Klein. Largely unreported in the news coverage of the recent race-related demonstrations is that New York Mayor Bill de Blasio has a history of working with extremist activist groups to stir protests.

Further, de Blasio has a largely unreported history with the controversial Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN.

ACORN’s renamed group, the New York Communities for Change, is one of the organizations helping to lead the protests over the death of Eric Garner, who was killed by police in July.

De Blasio has been accused by critics, including New York police officers, of helping to fuel racial tension between police and protesters.

One of the major anti-police protests in New York that received media attention was an attempt to shut down Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue shopping district before Christmas. (Read more from “The Past of Mayor de Blasio Comes to Light” HERE)

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De Blasio Boots Judge Who was Tough on Criminals

By Jamie Schram. A Manhattan judge known for being tough on criminals has been booted from the bench by Mayor Bill de Blasio — even against the ­advice of his own vetting team, law enforcement sources told The Post on Tuesday.

The move comes on the heels of de Blasio’s reappointment of Brooklyn Judge Laura Johnson, who set free without bail two men who threatened to kill cops just days after a double police assassination.

The booted judge, Diana Boyar, “was fair, knowledgeable and ran the courtroom professionally,” a stunned source said. (Read more from this story HERE)

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