DOJ to Supreme Court: Killing Human Embryo in Womb is Not Abortion

Photo Credit: AP / Evan VucciThe U.S. Justice Department is telling the Supreme Court that killing a human embryo by preventing the embryo from implanting in his or her mother’s uterus is not an “abortion” and, thus, drugs that kill embryos this way are not “abortion-inducing” drugs.

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in the case of Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby. The crux of the administration’s argument in this case is that when Christians form a corporation they give up the right to freely exercise their religion–n.b. live according to their Christian beliefs—in the way they run their business.

It is in the context of this case, that the administration is making its argument that killing an embryo seeking to implant in his or her mother’s womb is not an abortion.

The dispute involves a regulation that Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius issued under the Affordable Care Act. This regulation says that virtually all health insurance plans must cover, without any fees or co-pay, all FDA-approved “contraceptives.”

But what the FDA and the regulation call “contraceptives” include drugs and devices that sometimes work not by preventing conception but by ending a human life after conception. In other words, in these circumstances, the mandated drugs and devices are not contraceptives at all, but post-conception killing agents.

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Sinkhole of Bureaucracy

Photo Credit: Todd Lindeman and David FahrentholdThe trucks full of paperwork come every day, turning off a country road north of Pittsburgh and descending through a gateway into the earth. Underground, they stop at a metal door decorated with an American flag.

Behind the door, a room opens up as big as a supermarket, full of five-drawer file cabinets and people in business casual. About 230 feet below the surface, there is easy-listening music playing at somebody’s desk.

This is one of the weirdest workplaces in the U.S. government — both for where it is and for what it does.

Here, inside the caverns of an old Pennsylvania limestone mine, there are 600 employees of the Office of Personnel Management. Their task is nothing top-secret. It is to process the retirement papers of the government’s own workers.

But that system has a spectacular flaw. It still must be done entirely by hand, and almost entirely on paper.

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In Case You Missed It…

Photo Credit: Brennan LinsleyGun Store Owner Defies ATF Order to Surrender His Private Client List

The owner of an Oceanside store that sells various gun parts to build a rifle from scratch refused to turn over his customer list when he was raided by federal agents Wednesday.

Dimitrios Karras, owner of Ares Armor, said the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agents were investigating their business, not for what they sell, but for the people who purchase their products.

Karras said the ATF threatened to shutter their business if they didn’t hand over the names of 5,000 customers who have purchased an 80 percent lower receiver (the base) for building an AR-15.

It is legal to build a rifle from scratch without serial numbers only if the base is manufactured to ATF specifications. The base is not considered a firearm if it’s sold separately.

A manufacturer made an 80 percent receiver in plastic with a different material and colors which show exactly where the customer can drill making it easier and cheaper to build. The ATF said it is illegal.

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Wyoming Welder Faces $75,000 a Day in EPA Fines Over What He Built on His Own Property

Photo Credit: Andy Johnson/FacebookAndy Johnson, a hardworking welder in Wyoming, and his wife put their “blood, sweat and tears” into building a stock pond on their 8-acre farm. They constructed it with their bare hands, filling it with brook and brown trout and even bringing in ducks and geese to float on the clear water.

However, Johnson’s dream of a pond quickly turned into a nightmare when the federal government stepped in and threatened him with civil and criminal penalties, including a potential $75,000-a-day fine.

In an interview with FoxNews.com, Johnson defiantly proclaimed: “I have not paid them a dime, nor will I.”

“I will go bankrupt if I have to fighting it. My wife and I built [the pond] together. We put our blood, sweat and tears into it. It was our dream,” he added.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) claims Johnson violated the Clean Water Act by “building a dam on a creek without a permit from the Army Corps of Engineers,” according to the FoxNews.com report. The federal agency also says material from his pond is leaking into other waterways.

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Louisiana Bans Use of Welfare Benefits for Tattoos, Lingerie, Jewelry

Photo Credit: APLouisiana welfare recipients will be prohibited from spending the federal assistance at lingerie shops, tattoo parlors, nail salons and jewelry stores, under new limits enacted by state social services officials.

The Department of Children and Family Services announced the emergency regulations late Thursday. They cover the Family Independence Temporary Assistance Program — commonly known as welfare benefits — and the Kinship Care Subsidy Program.

Both programs pay cash assistance to low-income families for items like food, clothing and housing.

DCFS Secretary Suzy Sonnier said the agency decided to ban the use of electronic benefit cards, which work as debit cards, at stores that don’t sell items that are considered basic needs for families.

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WATCH: NY Gun Owners Burn Assault Weapon Registration Forms Mandated by ‘SAFE’ Act

Photo Credit: benwatts / Creative Commons In the state of New York, hundreds gathered near Sarasota Springs in a fiery act of civil disobedience aimed at gun control lawmakers.

According to the Post Star, “nearly a thousand gun registration forms were turned into ashes Sunday.” Under NY’s SAFE Act, those who possess what the State of New York considers to be military-style “assault weapons” have to register by April 15th.

“Once the Second (Amendment) falls, the rest will go with it. It’s an unconstitutional law, done in the middle of the night with no input from the public,” E.J. Stokes told the Post Star.

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Alaskan Police Fatally Shoot Man who Discovered the Body of ‘Into the Wild’ Wanderer

Photo Credit: APA man fatally shot by authorities in Alaska over the weekend was a moose hunter who found the body of a young wanderer whose story was featured in the movie “Into the Wild,” his nephew said Friday.

Gordon Samel was shot Sunday night after he backed his pickup toward a Wasilla police officer north of Anchorage, Alaska State Troopers said. An investigative report will be provided to the state Department of Law to determine if deadly force was justified by a trooper and a Wasilla police officer, according to troopers.

Samel, 52, was among three hunters who discovered the body of Christopher McCandless in an abandoned bus on the Stampede Trail near the interior Alaska town of Healy in 1992. McCandless was made famous by the book by Jon Krakauer and subsequent film directed by Sean Penn.

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MA Firefighters Sing to Soothe Scared Little Girl (+video)

Photo Credit: Fox NewsIt may not be in their job description, but that didn’t stop firefighters in Reading, Mass., from singing to a scared little girl.

Kaelyn Kerr, 4, got stuck in an elevator with her mother and baby brother on Wednesday. The only way out was up a ladder and over a wall, prompting Kaelyn to panic.

The firefighters learned that Kaelyn likes the Disney movie, “Frozen,” so firefighter Scott Myette pulled out his phone and began playing the movie’s theme song, “Let It Go.”

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How Sanctions Against Russia Could Signal the Beginning of ‘World War III’

Photo Credit; AP Photo/Alexander ZemlianichenkoRussia is preparing to fight World War III against the United States, not with conventional weapons but with the American dollar, a financial analyst told TheBlaze.

Kevin Freeman, a global financial analyst with expertise in financial warfare and terrorism, warned that Russia, along with allies like China, could cripple the U.S. financial system.

It’s not a theory but a “very real reality” that should not be ignored, he said.

“The real risk is if we go after them with economic weapons, they come back after us and this creates World War III,” said Freeman, who has consulted for the Pentagon, CIA and FBI. “This is a very tough game of chicken that we’re playing, and Putin is serious.”

On Wednesday, The Blaze TV’s For The Record investigative news magazine show will examine the global impact of the Ukraine crisis in “Resistance” (8 p.m. ET). For The Record will take viewers into Ukraine and reveal firsthand accounts of the deadly violence that has gripped the country, and explain how the international tug of war over Crimea could change the world.

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Is Common Core Intentionally Designed to Make America’s Children Mentally Ill?

Photo Credit: Natural NewsIf you look around America today, mathematical mental illness is found everywhere. It’s found in the federal budget, where numbers only mean what we are told they mean, not what they really mean. Mental illness is also found in medicine, where mentally ill victims of mercury in vaccines viciously attack parents who seek to protect their children from those very same vaccines. It’s also found in the new “Common Core” curriculum, spearheaded by the federal government, which seems intentionally designed to make children mentally ill and as confused as possible.

Case in point: See this homework assignment from an elementary school in New York. The “mathematics” exercise instructs children to “Draw the cubes you colored in the number bond” and then “Show the hidden partners on your fingers to an adult.”

The final instruction asks students to “Color the fingers you showed.”

I do PhD-level work in analytical chemistry and code complex relational databases, yes despite my best efforts to grasp this Common Core exercise, I have no idea what on Earth this lesson is attempting to teach.

Here’s the homework assignment. See if you can figure it out:

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