Angelina Jolie Directing Movie “Unbroken” About Olympian/WWII POW Redeemed by Jesus

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Photo Credit: Universal Pictures

Photo Credit: Universal Pictures

Actress Angelina Jolie, like other powerful stars in Hollywood, has begun directing her own movies. Surprisingly, her next project is about a Christian athlete, with a script penned by the notorious Coen brothers (Fargo, Raising Arizona and True Grit).

The movie, Unbroken, is based on writer Laura Hillenbrand’s biography of Louis Zamperini, the Depression-era Olympic track athlete turned World War II hero turned follower of Jesus Christ via a Billy Graham crusade turned internationally renowned inspirational speaker. Talk about a cinema-worthy story arc.

Born the son of Italian immigrants in 1917, Zamperini was a smoker by age 5, a school bully by third grade and a menace to society by high school. Thankfully, Zamperini was encouraged to put his talents toward more productive pursuits, such as running track. Successful in the sport and eventually known as “the tornado from Torrance,” Zamperini was invited to train for the 1936 Olympics and eventually enrolled at the University of Southern California on a scholarship.

At the 1936 Olympics in Nazi-ridden Berlin, Zamperini’s most notorious fan was Adolf Hitler. After his disappointing placement in the 1936 games, Zamperini hoped to requalify for the Olympic team in 1940, but the games were canceled due to the outbreak of World War II.

A bombardier in WWII, Zamperini’s aircraft crashed into the Pacific Ocean. He and one other survivor spent 47 days at sea in a life raft, drifting some 2,000 miles, only to be picked up by a Japanese war ship. The Japanese put Zamperini and his companion into their horrific prison camps, where he was tortured beyond depiction for two years. He was made a special object of cruelty by the infamous Japanese torturer known as “The Bird.”

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Satanists Seek Spot Next to Ten Commandments Monument on Steps of Oklahoma’s Statehouse

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

In their zeal to tout their faith in the public square, conservatives in Oklahoma may have unwittingly opened the door to a wide range of religious groups, including satanists who are seeking to put their own statue next to a Ten Commandments monument on the Statehouse steps.

The Republican-controlled Legislature in this state known as the buckle of the Bible Belt authorized the privately funded Ten Commandments monument in 2009, and it was placed on the Capitol grounds last year despite criticism from legal experts who questioned its constitutionality. The Oklahoma chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union has filed a lawsuit seeking its removal.

But the New York-based Satanic Temple saw an opportunity. It notified the state’s Capitol Preservation Commission that it wants to donate a monument and plans to submit one of several possible designs this month, said Lucien Greaves, a spokesman for the temple.

“We believe that all monuments should be in good taste and consistent with community standards,” Greaves wrote in letter to state officials. “Our proposed monument, as an homage to the historic/literary Satan, will certainly abide by these guidelines.”

Greaves said one potential design involves a pentagram, a satanic symbol, while another is meant to be an interactive display for children. He said he expects the monument, if approved by Oklahoma officials, would cost about $20,000.

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NYC Group Puts Bounty on ‘Knockout Game’ Participants

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Photo Credit: YouTube Screenshot

Photo Credit: YouTube Screenshot

A Jewish group in New York City has begun offering a bounty of $5,000 on participants in the so-called knockout game in which participants attack innocent bystanders, attempting to render them unconscious with a blow to the head.

The game, which has spread nationwide, usually ends with a video of the attack uploaded to social media websites and has resulted in several deaths.

Most of the victims of the attacks in New York have been Jewish.

The Jewish Community Relations Council of New York, an umbrella organization coordinating activities among various Jewish organizations in the city, is now “offering a reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the perpetrators of ‘knockout’ attacks,” David Pollock, Director of Government Relations & Security at the JCRC, told The Jerusalem Post.

The organization, he said, has been in close contact with the New York Police Department, which he said has increased its patrols in the neighborhoods in which attacks have occurred.

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UIW Police Officer Involved in Fatal Shooting

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Photo Credit: JOHN DAVENPORT/SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS

Photo Credit: JOHN DAVENPORT/SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS

Just before University of the Incarnate Word senior Robert Cameron Redus was fatally shot in a struggle with a UIW police officer Friday morning, a neighbor overheard what may have been his last words.

“I heard (a man) say, ‘Oh, you’re gonna shoot me?’ like sarcastic almost,” said Mohammad Haidarasl, 22, who was on his couch in his ground-floor unit at the Treehouse Apartments in Alamo Heights at about 2 a.m.

Less than a minute later, Haidarasl heard four to six gunshots.

“I jumped up and hid in my closet,” he said.

Haidarasl didn’t look out the window until he heard emergency vehicles converging on the quiet apartment complex. It wasn’t until later that he realized the person shot was his upstairs neighbor, whom he described as “the nicest guy.”

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Obama Reveals How A Future GOP President Can Gut ObamaCare

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606x404-2efe36e30370e6ba74d76342f78fc799I owe Mitt Romney an apology. During the 2012 Republican presidential primary season, I repeatedly criticized Romney — and personally challenged him during his editorial board meeting with the Washington Examiner — for promising that if elected, on day one of his presidency, he would grant Obamacare waivers to all 50 states.

As I reported, under the text of the law, the ability to offer waivers to states was subject to many restrictions and wouldn’t even be an option until 2017, four years after his hypothetical swearing in.

Though I still believe I was right about what the statute said, as it turns out, I was being old-fashioned by taking the letter of the law so literally.

Having watched President Obama and Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius over the past several months unilaterally alter or outright ignore major portions of the law, I now believe that a future Republican president would have greater latitude to gut Obamacare than I once thought possible.

The changes instituted by the Obama administration in response to implementation snags have ranged from perfectly legal areas of administrative discretion stemming from the vast regulatory powers granted to the HHS secretary under Obamacare, to more creative interpretations of that discretion, to Obama simply choosing to ignore parts of the law that became inconvenient.

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Ted Cruz and Mike Lee Being Vindicated on Shutdown

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The GOP establishment is loath to admit it, but the government shutdown is turning out to be a brilliant political chess move on the part of Senators Ted Cruz and Mike Lee. The Obamacare disaster, fully predictable by anyone who understands the effect of incentives and the fundamental incompetence of academic theorists and left wing ideologues, has made the go-for-broke attempt to stop it an obvious profile in courage.

Just take a look at this chart from the Huffington Post, via Charlie Cook:

generic ballot 12 13

Cook, a seasoned observer, sees the polling data moving against Democrats, and wonders, “Can Democrats Recover From the Obamacare Catastrophe?” But he fails to connect the dots, and dishes some typical establishmentarian snark at Cruz and Lee.

…in August, statements started coming from some of the more exotic Republicans in the House and Senate that perhaps it was a good idea to shut down the government over the implementation of the Affordable Care Act. Notwithstanding warnings from House and Senate Republican leaders and experienced (and wiser) members that such an effort would be a disaster for the party, the Republicans in the “kamikaze caucus” barreled ahead, over the cliff, shutting down the government.

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South Korea to Make Announcement On Air Zone; Expansion is Anticipated

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

South Korea was scheduled to make an announcement on Sunday amid anticipation that it will expand its air defense zone south into a zone newly declared by China that has spurred regional tensions.

South Korea’s defense ministry said the announcement at 0500 GMT/Midnight ET would be about its Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ), but declined to comment on the details.

South Korea has said China’s move is unacceptable because its new zone includes the maritime rock named Ieodo which it controls, with a research station platform built atop it. China also claims the submerged rock as its own.

China’s decision on November 23 to declare an air defense zone in an area that includes islands at the center of a territorial dispute with Japan has triggered louder protests from Tokyo and Washington.

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1,148,000 Fewer Americans Have Jobs Today Than 7 Yrs Ago

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Photo Credit: AP Photo/Charles Dharapak

Photo Credit: AP Photo/Charles Dharapak

1,148,000 fewer Americans held jobs this November than did seven years ago in November 2006, according to data released today by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Back then, according to BLS, 145,534,000 Americans held jobs. This November, according to BLS, only 144,386,000 Americans hold jobs. That is a drop of 1,148,000 in the number of Americans working.

This decline in the number of Americans who actually have jobs has come even though the size of the nation’s civilian noninstitutional population and the size of the nation’s civilian labor force have both grown significantly over the last seven years.

The civilian noninstitutional population is made up of all people 16 or older who are living in the United States and are not in the military or a prison, mental facility or nursing home. The civilian labor force consists of all people in the civilian noninstitutional population who either have a job or who actively sought a job in the past four weeks.

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Patriot Act Author: Obama’s Intel Czar Should Be Prosecuted

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Photo Credit:: Greg Nash

Photo Credit:: Greg Nash

Rep. James Sensenbrenner Jr., the original author of the Patriot Act, says Director of National Intelligence James Clapper should be prosecuted for lying to Congress.

“Lying to Congress is a federal offense, and Clapper ought to be fired and prosecuted for it,” the Wisconsin Republican said in an interview with The Hill.

He said the Justice Department should prosecute Clapper for giving false testimony during a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing in March.

During that hearing, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) asked Clapper whether the National Security Agency (NSA) collects data on millions of Americans. Clapper insisted that the NSA does not — or at least does “not wittingly” — collect information on Americans in bulk.

After documents leaked by Edward Snowden revealed that the NSA collects records on virtually all U.S. phone calls, Clapper apologized for the misleading comment.

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IRS Using Google Maps to Spy On Taxpayers

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Photo Credit: REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton

Photo Credit: REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton

Agents from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) are using Google Maps as part of their tool kit to audit taxpayers and organizations, The Daily Caller has learned.

A redacted IRS letter dated Sept. 8, 2011 reveals that at least in one case the IRS’s examiners used photos of a property, obtained through Google Maps, as evidence to revoke the 501(c)(4) status of a homeowner’s association.

“The road consists of a two-mile loop around the inside of the property. It goes not have any sidewalks or bicycle lanes. The examining agent printed and copied a map from Google Maps (www.google.com) into this report,” states the letter.

501(c)4 is a tax-exempt status that includes certain “social welfare organizations,” “local associations of employees,” “homeowners associations,” “volunteer fire companies,” and certain lobbying organizations.

The IRS became mired in scandal in May 2013 after a report by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration found that IRS staffers had singled out tea party groups seeking 501(c)(4) tax-exempt status for extra scrutiny.

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