Study: New Technology Development Pushed By Feds Allows for Data Collection On Every Child (+video)

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Photo Credit: AFPA new study released by the Boston-based Pioneer Institute finds that new technology development that has been encouraged through the use of federal grants has served to threaten children’s privacy by allowing the collection of data on every child.

Authors of the study Emmett McGroarty, Joy Pullmann, and Jane Robbins make the case that by means of the nationalized Common Core standards, which states were lured into adopting through competitive grants in the Obama administration’s Race to the Top (RttT) stimulus program in 2009, the federal government has used grant funds to induce states to build identical, increasingly sophisticated student data systems.

McGroarty, executive director of the Education Project at the American Principles Project (APP), said the study, entitled “Cogs in the Machine: Big Data, Common Core, and National Testing,” exposes “an idea that dates back to the Progressive era.”

“It is based in a belief that government ‘experts’ should make determinations about what is successful in education, what isn’t,” he said, “and what sorts of education and training are most likely to produce workers who contribute to making the United States competitive in the global economy.”

Though violations of citizen privacy have become major news stories of late, the federal government has urged private sector design of student data collection systems at the same time it encourages individual states to participate in data collection initiatives such as the Data Quality Campaign, the Early Childhood Data Collaborative, and the National Student Clearinghouse, all of which help to increase the collection and sharing of children’s data.

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Wildfire In Alaska Is Bigger Than the Entire City of Seattle

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Photo Credit: MARK THIESSEN / APA wildfire in Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula south of Anchorage has grown to cover more than 193 square miles, but it was only 20 percent contained as of Sunday, fire officials said.

The Funny River Fire threatens about 150 cabins, vacation homes and year-round residences in three communities. Authorities have told people in those areas to be ready to leave but had not issued an evacuation order.

The fire, named after a road near its northern edge, was burning in the 1.9 million-acre Kenai National Wildlife Refuge and grew by about 42 square miles on Saturday but did not get any closer to structures. No buildings have been damaged and no injuries have been reported. The size of the blaze is not unusual for Alaska but the state does not usually see such large fires this early in the season, said Michelle Weston, spokeswoman with the

Alaska Interagency Management Team, which includes the state Division of Forestry and federal and local officials. For size comparison, as of Sunday morning, the Funny River Fire was larger than Seattle (143 square miles) but smaller than Anchorage (1,961 square miles).

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New Jersey Set To Ban Common Hunting Rifles

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Photo Credit: TownHallA bill has been sent to Governor Chris Christie’s desk in New Jersey that would have the effect of prohibiting many fixed-magazine weapons commonly used in hunting, and almost never in murders.

The Truth About Guns has the scoop:

The gun ban that has gone to New Jersey Governor Christie for signature has been described as a “gun magazine restriction“, but it bans numerous common sport and hunting rifles. The ban has no exemption for rifles with fixed magazines, including most common .22 rimfire rifles that are used for sport and small game hunting…and almost never used in crimes. Assembly Bill 2006 bans rifles that meet this definition: (4) A semi-automatic rifle with a fixed magazine capacity exceeding [15] 10 rounds . . .

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The Anti-Science Left Keeps On Keeping On

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Photo Credit: RedStateThe left often calls conservatives “anti-science.” This is simply a demonstration of the psychological phenomenon of transference when a person attributes their own feelings to another. A great example of this, also from the left, is their insistence on accusing their opponents of racism while being utterly racist themselves. It is the left that does not believe life begins at conception. The left continually harangues against GMO crops which prevent massive starvation. The left seems to think that electric cars are environmentally sound despite the fact that electricity has to be generated and the batteries used in these cars creates toxic by products. The left still buys into Rachel Carlson’s fradulent “Silent Spring” even though their campaign against pesticides has killed millions of people via malaria.

There is perhaps no subject shows the left’s aversion to science than the continual public presence of Paul Ehrlich, left wing professor and unrepentant crank.

Ehrlich burst into the public consciousness in 1968 with the Population Bomb, a book that quickly became the left’s equivalent of the Apocalypse of Saint John. The book is little more than a crudely worked modernization of the theories of Thomas Malthus. For instance:

The battle to feed all of humanity is over. In the 1970s hundreds of millions of people will starve to death in spite of any crash programs embarked upon now. At this late date nothing can prevent a substantial increase in the world death rate..

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22 Congressmen Urge Kerry to Tell Sudan: Free Meriam Ibrahim and Her Son Now

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Photo Credit: Gabriel Wani / FacebookTwenty-two House lawmakers led by Rep. Scott Garrett (R-N.J.) have sent a letter on Thursday to Secretary of State John Kerry, asking him to confront the Sudanese government about Meriam Ibrahim, a jailed pregnant Christian woman facing execution for apostasy.

“We urge the State Department to condemn the ruling handed down by Sudan’s court and call upon the Sudanese government to respect human rights and free Mariam Yahya Ibrahim [sic] and her young son immediately,” stated the letter, signed by 21 Republicans and one Democrat.

Meriam Yehya Ibrahim, who is eight months pregnant with her second child and imprisoned with her under two-year-old son, Martin Wani, was convicted of apostasy and adultery on May 11 and sentenced to death and 100 lashes, respectively, according to the Sudan Tribune.

Ibrahim was born to an Ethiopian Orthodox mother and a Sudanese Muslim father.

She married her husband, Daniel Wani, a South Sudanese-born U.S. citizen, in 2012.

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Pro-Vet “Rolling Thunder” Rally Comes to DC As VA Fails Veterans

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Photo Credit: TownHall By Kevin Glass.

Rolling Thunder, a biker rally in Washington, D.C. created during the Vietnam War to honor American veterans, comes to the Capitol during Memorial Day weekend during the VA health scandal in which the government has been falsifying information about their ability to help America’s veterans.

The rally is held every year during Memorial Day, and they expect over 500,000 motorcyclists to participate this year.

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Photo Credit: Chip Somodevilla / Getty VA scandal fits an established Obama narrative: skilled politician, lousy manager

By Doyle McManus.

We don’t normally expect our presidents to pay close attention to how long veterans are being asked to wait for care in the vast medical system run by the Department of Veterans Affairs.

But we do expect presidents to appoint Cabinet officers and other aides who can run the federal government well — well enough, at least, to prevent full-blown scandals from erupting.

That’s what the VA’s long-running scheduling problems have turned into after reports that veterans died while waiting for medical care — and bureaucrats apparently manipulated records to make their performance look good when it wasn’t.

No one can read the stories of individual veterans who suffered at the hands of the bureaucracy — like Edward Laird, a 76-year-old Navy veteran who lost half of his nose because he had to wait two years for cancer tests — without feeling helpless fury.

And those stories are certain to keep coming.

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7 Dead in Drive-By Shooting Near UC Santa Barbara

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Photo Credit: AP The Daily Nexus, Daniel SlovinskyBy Raquel Maria Dillon and Julie Watson.

A drive-by shooter went on a nighttime rampage near a Santa Barbara university campus that left seven people dead, including the attacker, and seven others wounded, authorities said Saturday.

The gunman got into two gun battles with deputies Friday night in the beachside community of Isla Vista before crashing his black BMW into a parked car, Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown said.

Deputies found him dead with a gunshot wound to the head, but it wasn’t immediately clear whether he was killed by gunfire or if he committed suicide, he said.

A semi-automatic handgun was recovered from the scene near the University of California, Santa Barbara. Investigators know the gunman’s name, but Brown said he couldn’t release it pending notification of relatives.

“We’re analyzing both written and videotaped evidence that suggests that this atrocity was a premeditated mass murder,” Brown said.

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Photo Credit: Facebook Santa Barbara Mass Shooting: Son of ‘Hunger Games’ Second Unit Director Is Suspected Gunman

By Erik Hayden.

A 22-year-old gunman killed six people in an Isla Vista rampage that began with a 140-page manifesto and an apartment stabbing and ended with a crashed BMW and an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.

“It all has to come to this,” Elliot Rodger stated during a nearly seven-minute “Retribution” video uploaded to YouTube on May 23. He later added: “After I’ve annihilated every single girl in the sorority house, I’ll take to the streets of Isla Vista and slay every single person I see there.”

Rodger, who died of a gunshot wound in the BMW, is the son of Hunger Games second unit director Peter Rodger. He had been a student who attended Santa Barbara City College classes sporadically since 2011.

The Santa Barbara sheriff’s office had made contact with Rodger three times prior to the mass shooting, including an April 30 incident where deputies followed up on a request from a family member who asked that police check on his welfare.

“The deputies contacted the suspect, at the time found him to be polite and courteous, he downplayed the concerns for his welfare and the deputies cleared the call,” stated Sheriff Bill Brown at a Saturday evening press conference carried live on local stations and cable broadcasters.

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Now South Carolina: 3 Dead, 1 Wounded at Beach Motel

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Photo Credit: AP / The Sun News, Janet Blackmon MorganThree people were killed and a fourth person was wounded in a shooting at an oceanfront motel in Myrtle Beach, one of South Carolina’s most popular tourist destinations.

The shootings took place around 11 p.m. Saturday in front of crowds of tourists at the Bermuda Sands Motel along the beach’s new boardwalk, Myrtle Beach Police Capt. David Knipes said.

Officers draped towels over the balcony of a breezeway just outside the doors to the rooms of the motel to shield two of the bodies from people on nearby Ocean Boulevard.

“We’ve got detectives working on it around the clock,” Knipes said Sunday. “We don’t have any suspects in custody.”

Knipes would not say whether detectives have determined a motive for the shooting, but said it didn’t appear to be a random shooting.

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Afghan President Turns Down Invitation To Meet With Obama

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Photo Credit: Richard Pohle – Pool / GettyAfghan President Hamid Karzai turned down an invitation to meet with President Barack Obama Sunday. A White House official issued a statement to the press pool attributing Karzai’s decision to the “short notice” of the request and the fact Obama’s surprise visit to Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan was dedicated to meeting with U.S. troops ahead of the Memorial Day holiday.

“As we said, we weren’t planning for a bilateral meeting with President Karzai or a trip to the palace, as this trip is focused on thanking our troops,” the official said. “We did offer him the opportunity to come to Bagram, but we’re not surprised that it didn’t work on short notice.”

Karzai, who became president in late 2001 after U.S. troops helped topple the Taliban regime, has had a difficult relationship with America. In an interview with the Washington Post in March, he said the relationship between America and Afghanistan “has been at a low point for a long time.”

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Scientists Rebut White House Global Warming Claims

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Photo Credit: NASA Goddard Photo & VideoA group of independent scientists, economists, and meteorologists has issued a pointed response to the scientific foundation of the Obama administration’s claims that humans are drastically changing the climate by burning fossil fuels.

With expertise in multiple disciplines, including climate research, weather modeling, physics, geology, statistical analysis, engineering, and economics, the 15 signers make the case that the foundation of the White House National Climate Assessment (NCA) is a “masterpiece of marketing” that crumbles like a “house of cards” under the weight of real-world evidence.

“They promote their ‘Climate Models’ as a reliable way to predict the future climate. But these models dramatically fail basic verification tests. Nowhere do they admit to these well-known failures. Instead, we are led to believe that their climate models are close to perfection,” assert the scientists.

The 829-page NCA report was released on May 6 and was characterized by administration officials as “the most comprehensive, authoritative, transparent scientific report on U.S. climate change impacts ever generated.”

The administration seized on the NCA findings as justification for its push to further regulate the fossil-fuel industry and to bolster alternative green-energy sources.

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