Bush Pilots Keep Alaska Moving

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Photo Credit: Chip Porter/Getty Photo, Getty ImagesWithin moments of entering the plane, I smelled the rich aroma of freshly ground coffee. The java, however, wasn’t being brewed by a flight attendant in the galley, because neither existed on this four-seater floatplane. The coffee was cargo. More on that in a minute.

Through headsets that thankfully muted the engine noise, pilot Paul Norden’s voice crackled, “All right, we’re out of here.” The plane began to race across a runway of water at the Lake Hood Seaplane Base, the largest such airport in the world, an aquatic version of New York’s JFK. A few seconds later, the Cessna 206 was airborne.

In most any other American tourist destination, I’d typically grab a cab. But these planes are the “cabs” of the Alaskan wilderness — and the limos and the supply trucks and the ambulances and vehicles for anything else that needs moving over this gorgeous, unforgiving land.

As the Anchorage skyline quickly disappeared behind us, Norden pointed out myriad lakes and rivers as he headed northwest. Flying only 700 feet above the ground, it was easy to spot an occasional moose — once the pilot pointed it out.

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The War On Women Continues… Because We Use The Word ‘Bossy’

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Photo Credit: IJ Review Facebook’s COO Sheryl Sandberg and the Girl Scouts of America have united to confront the issues that are really affecting females the world over. Step one: ban the word “bossy.”

Sandberg’s organization, LeanIn.org, is aimed at helping women achieve their career goals and get recognition for it. Her new effort is aimed squarely at the English language because one word has a “negative stigma” attached to it. With the help of Beyonce, she launched a web site Monday at BanBossy.com, on which is proclaimed:

When a little boy asserts himself, he’s called a “leader.” Yet when a little girl does the same, she risks being branded “bossy.” Words like bossy send a message: don’t raise your hand or speak up.

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Video: Kevin Bacon Explains the ’80s to Millennials

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Photo Credit: YouTubeKevin Bacon has an important message to share — about ’80s awareness.

The actor filmed a faux public service announcement for Mashable, in which he drops knowledge about the decade for those who might not remember it.

“Awareness of ’80s culture and technology has been in a significant decline,” he says in the clip. “Especially among a certain demographic — I’m talking to you, Millennials.”

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This State Could Jail U.S. Agents Who Enforce Federal Gun Laws

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Photo Credit: AP/Orlin WagnerA proposal in Missouri to nullify certain federal gun control laws could actually mean jail for federal agents who try to enforce them.

The nullification legislation passed the House General Laws Committee on Thursday, the Associated Press reported, after having passed the full state Senate last month.

The bill says any federal law impeding Missourians’ Second Amendment rights is null and void. Federal agents enforcing such laws could face civil or criminal penalties up to one year in jail with a $1,000 fine.

The effort might be futile, as courts have generally ruled that states can’t nullify federal laws. However, recent court decisions have also been more friendly to the individual right to bear arms. But it’s unlikely that Missouri Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon would sign the bill, after vetoing a similar measure last year.

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Snowden: NSA Leaders Have Harmed Our National Security ‘More Than Anything’ Else

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Photo Credit: Sunshinepress/Getty ImagesBy Dustin Volz.

America’s most high-profile fugitive visited one of the country’s most popular entertainment festivals in Texas on Monday, drawing thunderous applause from a crowded room filled with his adoring fans.

Edward Snowden, appearing from Russia through a live video stream, told attendees of the South by Southwest Interactive conference in Austin that Congress had fundamentally failed to do its job as an overseer of the government’s bulk surveillance programs, declaring that “we need a watchdog that watches Congress.”

The former National Security Agency contractor, in a conversation with the American Civil Liberties Union’s Christopher Soghoian and Ben Wizner, also charged the current and most recent chief of the NSA as the two people most responsible for jeopardizing the country’s national security due to their preference for aggressive collection of data rather than protection of it after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

“More than anything, there are two officials who have harmed our Internet security and national security,” Snowden said, his image backdropped by an enlarged copy of the U.S. Constitution. “Those two officials are Michael Hayden and Keith Alexander.”

He added: “When you are the one country that has a vault that is more full than anyone else’s, it doesn’t make any sense to be attacking all day and never defending your vault. And it makes even less sense when you’re setting the standards for vaults worldwide and leaving a huge back door open.”

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Edward Snowden: NSA is ‘setting fire to the future of the Internet’

By Ashe Schow.

Edward Snowden, the man who leaked the National Security Agency data collection programs, said Monday the act of mass surveillance is “setting fire to the future of the Internet.”

Snowden, speaking via satellite feed (in front of a green-screen display of the U.S. Constitution) to a panel at the annual South by Southwest conference, urged attendees to fight back against the spy programs and remember that more countries than the U.S. are involved.

“The NSA, the sort of global mass surveillance that’s occurring in all of these countries, not just the U.S. — and it’s important to remember that this is a global issue — they’re setting fire to the future of the Internet,” Snowden said. “And the people who are in this room now — you guys are all the firefighters. And we need you to help us fix it.”

Read more this story HERE.

Adam Lanza’s Dad Wishes Son Had Never Been Born, says ‘You Can’t Get Any More Evil’

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Photo Credit: Fox News The father of Connecticut school shooter Adam Lanza said in his first interview about the massacre that what his son did couldn’t “get any more evil” and he wishes his son hadn’t been born.

In his most extensive comments since the shooting, Peter Lanza described his struggle to comprehend the actions of his son, who killed his mother then gunned down 20 children and six educators at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown in December 2012.

Lanza also told The New Yorker magazine in a series of interviews last fall that he believes Adam would have killed him, too, if he had the chance. And he often contemplates what he could have done differently in his relationship with Adam, although he believes the killings couldn’t have been predicted.

“Any variation on what I did and how my relationship was had to be good, because no outcome could be worse,” Peter Lanza told the magazine in an article dated March 17. “You can’t get any more evil. … How much do I beat up on myself about the fact that he’s my son? A lot.”

He said he hadn’t seen his son in two years when Adam committed one of the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history. Adam killed himself as police arrived at the scene. He also fatally shot his mother, Nancy, in their Newtown home before going to the school.

Read more this story HERE.

Study: Southern Poverty Center Ignores Liberal Hate

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Photo Credit: Breitbart An academic study has accused the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) of having an anti-Christian bias in its reporting on hate groups in America.

Once considered the “gold standard” in reporting on violent anti-government or racist groups in America, the Southern Poverty Law Center’s reputation has begun to wither as it has started targeting conservative Christian groups including the Family Research Council (FRC) for what SPLC claims is anti-gay animus.

SPLC says FRC gins up hatred and possible violence against gays because it has reported certain ideas that are taboo to SPLC: that hate-crimes laws will be used to stifle preachers; that because of HIV-AIDS and other diseases gays may not live as long as others; that gay parenting is not as good for children as more traditional parenting; that same-sex attraction is not inborn; and that gays can stop being homosexual. Believing or espousing any of these ideas makes you eligible for the SPLC hate list. [Full disclosure: the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute, of which I am president, was just placed on SPLC’s hate list for espousing some of these ideas.]

Professor George Yancey of the University of North Texas says he is not arguing one way or the other about FRC’s inclusion on the list but merely demonstrating SPLC’s outrage is subjective, selective, and never reckons progressive groups guilty of the same things of which it accuses conservative ones.

Yancey looks at the work of a left-wing group called the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF), started by Michael Weinstein after he said he experienced discrimination at the hands of Christians in the military.

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Establishment Groups on Retreat Against Tea Party Incumbents

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Photo Credit: Getty Images Big-business and establishment groups vowed they would wage war on conservatives and Tea Party candidates, particularly incumbents, in 2014, but they are backing off after realizing they may not want to throw money at losers.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce vowed to spend $50 million taking sides in GOP primaries for establishment-friendly candidates, and other GOP establishment front-groups vowed to raise and spend millions more dollars against conservative and Tea Party candidates.

“Big Business swore this would be the year it would wrestle back the soul of the Republican Party from the grip of the tea party,” Politico writes. “But with primary season looming, the big threats from Big Business appear to be just that.”

Politico notes that the big-business groups are not backing many candidates early and have not “cowed conservative groups fueling challenges to incumbent senators.”

The Republican party has shifted to the right for at least the last thirteen years, according to Gallup polls, and on issues like amnesty, grassroots have mobilized against it even without big-money being spent by amnesty opponents. For instance, after the House GOP released its so-called “immigration principles,” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) slammed the document as “amnesty.” That was enough to stall whatever momentum there may have been as the grassroots galvanized against amnesty, forcing GOP leaders to declare that they would not go forward on amnesty until they can trust President Barack Obama to actually enforce any new law that may be passed.

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Immigration Change Gives Legal Status to Undocumented Relatives of US Military

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Photo Credit: Fox News Immigration reform may be stalled in Congress, but a new Obama administration policy is extending legal status and military benefits to thousands of illegal immigrants who are the spouses, parents and children of American military members.

Supporters say the policy — which applies to active-duty military, reservists and veterans — is long overdue.

“Those veterans and those men and women who serve in the National Guard certainly deserve the peace of mind that their family members will not be deported,” immigration attorney Faye Kolly said.

But critics say the policy is tantamount to backdoor amnesty.

“A whole class of aliens with no right to be in the United States are suddenly going to be allowed to live and work here on the basis of their relationship with military and veterans,” said Dan Cadman, with the Center for Immigration Studies.

Read more this story HERE.

Where in the World is Malaysia Airlines Flight 370? Conspiracy Theorists Take to the Internet (+video)

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Photo Credit: BJÖRN WYLEZICH
Details concerning the sudden, Saturday disappearance of Malaysian Airlines flight 370 continue to trickle in. Azharuddin Abdul Rahman, the head of Malaysia’s Civil Aviation Authority, said the missing Boeing 777 carrying 227 passengers presents an “unprecedented mystery.”

Here’s what we do know: The flight disappeared on Friday night/Saturday morning en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. The plane was at cruising altitude (35,000 feet) and weather was more or less clear. Air traffic controllers in Vietnam say contact with the crew disappeared about 120 nautical miles east of the Malaysian town of Kota Bharu, and radar signals suggest the plane may have turned around before losing contact.

And yet, nearly three whole days later, there are still no signs of the jet or its passengers. And an oil slick spotted in the South China sea originally thought to be a clue turned out to be a false lead:

Two Italian passengers said to be aboard the flight turned out to be safe on the ground, when they told authorities that their passports had, in fact, been stolen earlier. Someone aboard the flight was said to be using them, one of whom resembled a famous soccer player:

Read more this story HERE.