House Votes to Cut Funds for Universities Over Gay-Themed Books

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Photo Credit: REUTERSThe South Carolina House of Representatives approved nearly $70,000 in cuts to two public universities on Wednesday in retaliation over reading material containing homosexual themes, a move decried as “censorship” by critics but called necessary by supporters.

The House approved the cuts to the College of Charleston and the University of South Carolina-Upstate as part of the 2014-2015 budget bill after bids by Democrats to restore the funding failed. The bill now heads to the Senate.

Republican state Rep. Garry Smith proposed $52,000 in cuts to the College of Charleston and $17,142 in cuts to the USC-Upstate. The amount represents the costs of the schools’ required-reading programs.

The College of Charleston’s program selects one book a year for the entire campus to read, which this year was Alison Bechdel’s “Fun Home,” a memoir about the author growing up as a lesbian in rural Pennsylvania. USC-Upstate’s program has first-year writing students all read the same book, which this year was “Out Loud: The Best of Rainbow Radio,” a compilation of stories shared on South Carolina’s first radio station for gays and lesbians.

Smith told FoxNews.com he received complaints from constituents who have children at both schools. He said when they or their students objected to the books’ content, they were told they could not read an alternative book.

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Former MLS Player Lost his Battle with Cancer, but He Won So Much More

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Photo Credit: The Kuykendall FamilyIf you were to ask about the greatest play of Shawn Kuykendall’s life, it was the day he learned that he was going to die…

“We are all given this great gift of life and we have this finite time to do whatever we want. So we live the best we can, and for me, that means living the way I think God wants me to live. I need God more than ever now.” There was a pause as he rubbed his head, once full of dark flowing hair, now bald from the chemo.

“So praise be to God. I’m not going to waste time being sad or worried or scared. I have to fight. If I trust in him and fight, everything else will take care of itself.” We sat in silence for a moment. I mean, how do you follow up a thought like that? Well, if you’re Shawn …

“But seriously, can we talk about Liverpool’s buildup play? Four passes to get up the field and a shot on goal. Four passes!? Bazilly.” That was his essence. A thoughtful, spiritual, athletic, and vibrant soul. Shawn radiated life and love. Some people would call it style. Shawn would probably have called it swag. I believe it to be faith. Whatever “it” was, people loved him for it. Hundreds and thousands of people loved Shawn Kuykendall.

It was all very much worth it. None of it was wasted. Everything went to plan.

Shawn won.

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Debris Discovered? Government Agency Captures Image of Floating Objects in The Sea

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Photo Credit: Sky News By Sky News.

Malaysia and Vietnam sent aircraft to the sea off the southern tip of Vietnam and east of Malaysia on Wednesday evening after China released satellite images appearing to show potential debris.

Datuk Azharuddin Abdul Rahman, the head of Malaysia’s Department of Civil Aviation, said: “There is nothing. We went there, there is nothing.”

Vietnamese officials previously said the area had already been “searched thoroughly”.

The release of the images briefly raised hopes of an end to the mystery surrounding the fate of flight MH370, which left Kuala Lumpur bound for Beijing six days ago with 239 people on board.

The pictures, taken on Sunday and released by a Chinese government agency, appeared to show three floating objects of varying sizes in the sea.

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No debris found at spot shown on Chinese satellite images, Malaysia says

By Fox News.

No signs of the missing Malaysian jetliner have been found at a location where Chinese satellite images showed what was thought to be plane debris, Malaysia’s civil aviation chief said Thursday.

Datuk Azharuddin Abdul Rahman said planes searched the location Thursday. “There is nothing. We went there, there is nothing,” he told reporters in Kuala Lumpur.

China’s official Xinhua News Agency reported late Wednesday a government website has satellite images of suspected debris from the Malaysia Airlines plane that vanished with 239 people aboard just hours after leaving Kuala Lumpur for Beijing early Saturday.

The satellite images from the morning of March 9 appear to show “three suspected floating objects” of varying sizes in the sea off the southern tip of Vietnam and east of Malaysia – a part of the original search area for the aircraft, which was en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

Pham Quy Tieu, Vietnam’s deputy transport minister, told The Associated Press that the area had been “searched thoroughly” by forces from other countries over the past few days. Doan Huu Gia, chief of air search and rescue coordination center, said Malaysian and Singaporean aircraft visited area again Thursday.

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CIA Head: Al-Qaeda Has ‘Perverse and Very Corrupt Interpretation of Qur’an’ (+video)

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Photo Credit: CNSNews.com/Penny StarrAl-Qaeda’s ideology, built on “a perverse and very corrupt interpretation of the Qur’an,” resonates in many parts of the world, and is often fed by political repression, economic disenfranchisement and “lack of education and ignorance,” CIA Director John Brennan said on Tuesday.

During an event at the Council on Foreign Relations, Brennan was asked about the “war of ideas” surrounding Islam, which the questioner said many Americans tend to equate with violence.

In the course of his response Brennan said al-Qaeda has “a perverse and very corrupt interpretation of the Qur’an. One of the things that I’m struck with when I travel throughout the Middle East and I meet with leaders, military and civilian – these are individuals who are Qur’anic scholars themselves and they are the ones who are most annoyed at how al-Qaeda has hijacked their religion and how they have really distorted the teachings of Mohammed, you know, for violent purposes.”

“Now, quite unfortunately, though, that ideology, that agenda of al-Qaeda has gained resonance and following in many parts of the world,” he continued. “It’s fed a lot of times by, you know, political repression, by economic, you know, disenfranchisement, by, you know, lack of education and ignorance, so there – there are a number of phenomena right now that I think are fueling the fires of, you know, this ideology.”

Assertions of a link between Islamist terrorism and poverty or lack of education have been called into question by some research.

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Wayne Allyn Root: Why Barack Obama’s Approval Rating Approaches Zero

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Photo Credit: TownHall Have you seen Obama’s poll numbers? They are among the lowest in history. As of last week, Obama’s approval rating is at 38%. That’s just barely above Richard Nixon. But that’s not the big story here.

Keep in mind that Obama has the support of about 35% to 40% of the population that will NEVER abandon him, no matter what he does, no matter how bad the jobs numbers look, no matter how low the economy goes, no matter how much scandal and corruption is exposed, no matter how strong the facts are against him. Nothing will ever change their minds. These are the “low information voters” of the Democratic Party.

In many cases they love Obama because of the color of his skin- and nothing else. They will never abandon a black President.

Even though black unemployment is at record levels. Even though black youth unemployment is at record levels. Even though black poverty is at record levels.

Even though Obama’s exact policies have been in place for over 50 years in Detroit, a majority black city run by black Democrat politicians…and the black population has been devastated, destroyed, and discarded. Left for dead in an abandoned, bankrupt city with very few street lights operating and the police leaving residents in many areas to fend for themselves.

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Republican Beats Out Dem in Florida Special Election

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Photo Credit: Fox News Republican David Jolly narrowly defeated Democrat Alex Sink on Tuesday in a Tampa-area House race largely seen as a critical test for ObamaCare.

With nearly 100 percent of the vote counted, Jolly had 48.5 percent of the vote to Sink’s 46.7 percent. Libertarian Lucas Overby had 4.8 percent.

The race to replace the late Rep. Bill Young was considered a tossup, and was cast as a political bellwether, and a testing ground for each party’s messaging strategy — which revolves in part around the Affordable Care Act.

Jolly’s election night headquarters in Clearwater Beach erupted into loud cheers as it became clear he was the winner. In his victory speech, Jolly simultaneously struck a conciliatory tone and expressed gratitude for his mentor, Young, and Young’s family. Jolly was introduced by former “Price is Right” game show host Bob Barker, via video. Young’s two adult sons were also onstage with Jolly, and he embraced them at the end of his speech.

Jolly didn’t mention the issue that dominated much of the campaign — the president’s health care package — and instead said that Pinellas County must work together.

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Head of Senate Intelligence Accuses CIA of Spying on the Committee, Violating Constitution

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Photo Credit: AFPA behind-the-scenes battle between the CIA and Congress erupted in public Tuesday as the head of the Senate Intelligence Committee accused the agency of breaking laws and breaching constitutional principles in an alleged effort to undermine the panel’s multi-year investigation of a controversial interrogation program.

Chairman Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) accused the CIA of ­secretly removing documents, searching computers used by the committee and attempting to intimidate congressional investigators by requesting an FBI inquiry of their conduct — charges that CIA Director John Brennan disputed within hours of her appearance on the Senate floor.

Feinstein described the escalating conflict as a “defining moment” for Congress’s role in overseeing the nation’s intelligence agencies and cited “grave concerns” that the CIA had “violated the separation-of-powers principles embodied in the United States Constitution.”

Brennan fired back during a previously scheduled speech in Washington, saying that “when the facts come out on this, I think a lot of people who are claiming that there has been this tremendous sort of spying and monitoring and hacking will be proved wrong.”

The dueling claims exposed bitterness and distrust that have soared to new levels as the committee nears completion of a 6,000-page report that is expected to serve as a scathing historical record of the agency’s use of waterboarding and other brutal interrogation methods on terrorism suspects held at secret CIA prisons overseas after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

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Sowell: The Left Versus Minorities

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Photo Credit: Matthew Kenwrick / Creative CommonsIf anyone wanted to pick a time and place where the political left’s avowed concern for minorities was definitively exposed as a fraud, it would be now — and the place would be New York City, where far left Mayor Bill de Blasio has launched an attack on charter schools, cutting their funding, among other things.

These schools have given thousands of low income minority children their only shot at a decent education, which often means their only shot at a decent life. Last year 82 percent of the students at a charter school called Success Academy passed city-wide mathematics exams, compared to 30 percent of the students in the city as a whole.

Why would anybody who has any concern at all about minority young people — or even common decency — want to destroy what progress has already been made?

One big reason, of course, is the teachers’ union, one of Mayor de Blasio’s biggest supporters. But it may be more than that. For many of the true believers on the left, their ideology overrides any concern about the actual fate of flesh-and-blood human beings.

Something similar happened on the west coast last year. The American Indian Model Schools in Oakland have been ranked among the top schools in the nation, based on their students’ test scores. This is, again, a special achievement for minority students who need all the help they can get.

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Hoyer on Keystone: ‘I’m in Favor of Building It’

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Photo Credit: APDemocratic Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said he supports building the Keystone XL Pipeline and that he agrees with the State Department’s report that not building the pipeline would increase greenhouse gas emissions.

At a pen-and-pad briefing at the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday, CNSNews.com asked Hoyer, “In the State Department’s report, it said that if the Keystone Pipeline is not built, the method of delivering oil would increase greenhouse gases from 28 to 42 percent, are you in favor of not building ….”

Hoyer said, “If it was not built? Sorry, I don’t understand the question.”

CNSNews.com rephrased the question saying, “The State Department’s report, it said that not building the Keystone pipeline, the method of [delivering the] oil would increase greenhouse gases. Are you in favor of not building the pipeline, even if it means greenhouse gases will increase?”

Hoyer then said, “In favor of not building it? I’m in favor of building it. I said about a year ago, I think in this group, that I was for Keystone.”

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Phantom Phone Calls Haunt Families of Vanished Malaysia Airlines Flight

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Photo Credit: Washington Post For three days, relatives awaiting word on the vanished Malaysia Airlines jet have endured a cruel roller coaster of emotions.

First came the shock. Then, with each development that has emerged, they have careened between hope and despair. But by Monday, the predominant emotion was anger.

Gathered at a hotel in northeast Beijing, many still resented Malaysia Airlines for having sent no one to explain anything during the first 15 hours after the plane’s disappearance. They blamed the Chinese government for not even meeting with them until Monday, three days into the crisis.

More than 100 of them signed a petition demanding answers and government assistance. Representatives selected from the families brought their protests to the Malaysian Embassy in Beijing.

And Monday afternoon, when Malaysia Airlines officials returned for yet another briefing with little more to offer, some relatives threw water bottles at them in frustration. The question-and-answer session Monday eventually devolved into crying and shouted demands: “All you have to say is empty talk!”

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