Sotomayor: Americans Should be Alarmed by Spread of Drones

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Photo Credit: Getty ImagesAmericans should be more concerned about their privacy being invaded by the spread of drones, Justice Sonia Sotomayor told an Oklahoma City audience on Thursday.

Speaking before a group of faculty members and students at Oklahoma City University’s law school on Sept. 11, Justice Sotomayor said “frightening” changes in surveillance technology should encourage citizens to take a more active role in the privacy debate. She said she’s particularly troubled by the potential for commercial and government drones to compromise personal privacy.

Said Justice Sotomayor:

There are drones flying over the air randomly that are recording everything that’s happening on what we consider our private property. That type of technology has to stimulate us to think about what is it that we cherish in privacy and how far we want to protect it and from whom. Because people think that it should be protected just against government intrusion, but I don’t like the fact that someone I don’t know…can pick up, if they’re a private citizen, one of these drones and fly it over my property.

Technological advances make it possible for devices to “listen to your conversations from miles away and through your walls,” Justice Sotomayor said. “We are in that brave new world, and we are capable of being in that Orwellian world, too.”

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School Bans 'Offensive' Chick-fil-A Sandwiches

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Photo Credit: Chick-fil-AFeathers have been ruffled at California’s Ventura High School, where the principal this week banned the football booster club from selling Chick-fil-A sandwiches over fears that people might be offended.

What, pray tell, could people find offensive about a plump juicy chicken breast tucked between two buttered buns?

Were English teachers put off by the restaurant chain’s grammatically challenged bovine pitchmen?

This is a classic example of those preaching inclusivity and diversity being the least inclusive and diverse of all.

Did the waffle fries and banana pudding milkshakes exceed the nutritional limits deemed acceptable by the federal government?

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Geography Lesson for Top Obama Aide: Syria Doesn’t Border Saudi Arabia

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Photo Credit: Daily SignalSpeaking to reporters before President Obama’s Wednesday night address on the terrorist group ISIS, a senior administration official mentioned Saudi Arabia’s “extensive border” with Syria.

Trouble is, Saudi Arabia and Syria share no border.

The senior Obama administration official, who was not identified by name under well-established rules, was speaking about 6 p.m. on a conference call with reporters about ISIS, also known as ISIL or the Islamic State, when he made the geographic gaffe. He said:

ISIL has been, I think, a galvanizing threat around the Sunni partners in the region. They view it as an existential threat to them. Saudi Arabia has an extensive border with Syria … So what we have here is a galvanizing threat from ISIL that is, I think, leading our Sunni partners in the region to join us along the range of potential capabilities that my colleague mentioned.

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Enterovirus D68 Sickens More than a Dozen in New York (+video)

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More than a dozen cases of Enterovirus D68 have been confirmed in New York state, according to officials.

“EV-D68 is causing cases of severe respiratory illness … sometimes resulting in hospitalization, especially among children with asthma,” the NYS Department of Health said in a statement Friday.

Enteroviruses are quite common in September; the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates 10 to 15 million people are infected by these viruses each year. But doctors believe this particular type of enterovirus, Enterovirus D68, is causing more serious problems than others have in years past.

As of September 11, more than 80 cases in six other states — Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky and Missouri — have been confirmed to be EV-D68, according to the CDC.

New York is the first state in the Northeast with confirmed cases.

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Satanists Sell Out Controversial Oklahoma 'Black Mass' Event, Will Stage Exorcism Despite Christian Protests

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Photo Credit: FACEBOOK / THE SATANIC TEMPLEThe Satanist group that will stage a controversial “black mass” at an Oklahoma City civic center has said that all 88 tickets for its Sept. 21 event are sold out. The co-founder of the group revealed that the ritual will go ahead despite strong Christian protests and will feature a satanic exorcism, but will be “toned down” to comply with state health laws.

“One of the dictates of the church is not only to educate the members but to educate the public, and to debunk the Hollywood-projected image of our beliefs,” Dakhma of Angra Mainyu’s Adam Daniels told ABC News.

He added that the group will comply with state health laws and substitute vinegar for actions involving urine as part of the satanic ceremony.

Daniels said that the ceremony will also feature Dakhma of Angra Mainyu deacons and priest who will stomp, spit on and use explicit language on an unconsecrated host, a wafer presented as a form of the resurrected Jesus Christ.

A satanic exorcism intended to draw the Holy Spirit from a follower’s body will wrap up the event, an inversion of Roman Catholic exorcism believed to expel the devil from a person.

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There Are Now 52 Explanations For The Pause In Global Warming

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Photo Credit: Flickr / Creative Commons It’s been a busy year for climate scientists, who have been trying to explain why there has been no global warming for nearly two decades.

The Daily Caller News Foundation reported in February there were eight mainstream explanations for the pause, but there are now a whopping 52 explanations for why there has been no warming trend for the last 215 months.

Explanations for the pause in global warming range from ocean oscillation cycles to Chinese coal plant emissions, volcanic activity to some scientists even saying there is no hiatus in warming.

One recent study found that the warming hiatus is due to “heat transported to deeper layers in the Atlantic and the southern oceans, initiated by a recurrent salinity anomaly in the subpolar North Atlantic.”

This oceanic cooling cycle “associated with the latter deeper heat-sequestration mechanism historically lasted 20 to 35 years,” according to Professor Ka-Kit Tung from the University of Washington.

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Silent Coup

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Photo Credit: AP“The constitutional amendment before us,” Harry Reid said Tuesday, describing a proposal to give federal and state governments the authority to regulate political giving, “isn’t about limiting free speech.”

Harry Reid, may I present the American Civil Liberties Union. I am sure you two have met before.

Writing in June that the nonprofit “strongly opposes” the so-called Udall amendment, the ACLU’s Laura Murphy and Gabriel Rottman called the Democratic proposal “deceptively complex,” “unnecessary,” “redundant of existing law,” “dangerous for liberties,” “vague,” “overbroad,” “exceedingly dangerous to democratic processes,” and “the first time the amendatory process has been used to directly limit specifically enumerated rights and freedoms.” Reid’s baby, the ACLU said, would “‘break’ the Constitution” by “amending the First Amendment.”

Two levels of government would be permitted “to criminalize and censor all issue advocacy that mentions or refers to a candidate under the argument that it supports or opposes that candidate.” Recall that Citizens United, which the Udall amendment is supposed to address, was not about Tea Party Astroturf. It was about the FEC’s attempt to censor a film critical of her royal highness.

The mandarins at the FEC and IRS, as well as their counterparts at the state level, would be responsible for distinguishing political communications that “support or oppose” a candidate from those that do not. They would penalize the individuals and groups they subjectively deem violators of administrative diktat. If this is not about “limiting free speech,” what is?

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Study Proves Abortion is More Dangerous Than Childbirth

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Photo Credit: LifeNewsPro-abortion activists fight for abortion throughout pregnancy for any reason—no exceptions. Their fundamental argument centers on women’s health.

But stunning research shows this concern is all smoke and mirrors.

Pro-abortion activists have long tried to claim that abortion is safer than childbirth. For years they’ve touted manipulated numbers, trying in vain to bolster this myth. We’ve always known those statistics were bogus, and a study by Dr. Priscilla Coleman and Dr. David Reardon reveals abortion is much more dangerous to women than giving birth. And the results are sadly even more devastating to women’s health than even I had anticipated.

First, let me vouch for the authors of this research. I know them both to be solid individuals with a reputation for thoroughness. I met Dr. Coleman in Santiago, Chile where we lectured at their largest university. We again shared an academic podium in Quito, Ecuador the following year.

Second, allow me to explain why this study is so important. It’s compelling because of its unmatched scope…

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After Booing Ted Cruz for Supporting Israel, Christian Leaders Meet with and Praise Obama

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Photo Credit: APAn email press release for In Defense of Christians (IDC), an organization that convened a three-day summit in Washington D.C. reportedly dedicated to bringing awareness to the persecution of Christians in the MidEast, states that five patriarchs from the conference—many of whom have been supporters of Hezbollah—met with President Obama at the White House just hours after Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) was booed during his keynote address for his public support of Israel.

“For the first time in history, five Christian Patriarchs representing Christian communities in the Middle East visited the White House to discuss the protection of Christians in the Middle East with President Obama and National Security Advisor Susan Rice,” the press release sent from IDC spokesperson Joseph Cella states.

“We want to thank President Obama at this critical moment in history for meeting with the representatives of these Christian communities from the Middle East who face suffering and hardship for professing their religious beliefs,” said IDC president Toufic Baaklini.

The leaders attending the meeting with Obama were Maronite Patriarch Mar Bechara Boutros Cardinal Raï; Melkite Greek Catholic Patriarch Gregorius III Laham; Syriac Orthodox Patriarch Mor Ignatius Aphrem II; Syriac Catholic Patriarch Ignatius Youssef III Yonan; Catholicos of the Holy See of Cilicia Aram I Keshishian; Most Reverend Metropolitan Joseph Al-Zehlaoui, official representative of Greek Orthodox Patriarch John X; Bishop Angaelos of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria; and Bishop Emeritus of Chaldean Eparchy of Saint Thomas the Apostle Ibrahim, Ibrahim.

As Breitbart News reported earlier Thursday, since this incident involving Cruz, funding for the IDC summit has been revealed to have come from Gilbert Chagoury, who pledged $1 billion to the Clinton Global Initiative in 2009. Additionally, some of the Christian leaders present and featured at the conference—and who later met with Obama—are supporters of Hezbollah.

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WATCH: Obama’s Commemorate 9/11 With Group Called ‘KaBOOM!’

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Photo Credit: Nicholas Kamm / AFP / GettyBarack and Michelle Obama commemorated 9/11 Thursday by working with a group called KaBOOM!.

Michelle instagrammed a photo the first couple working with the KaBOOM! volunteers to assemble backpacks with the caption: “President Obama and the First Lady joined millions across the country to commemorate the September 11 attacks with acts of service, assembling backpacks with @KaBOOM volunteers.”

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