‘Jaw-Dropping’ Scientific Breakthrough Hailed as Landmark in Fight Against Hereditary Diseases

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Photo Credit: RambergMediaImagesA breakthrough in genetics – described as “jaw-dropping” by one Nobel scientist – has created intense excitement among DNA experts around the world who believe the discovery will transform their ability to edit the genomes of all living organisms, including humans.

The development has been hailed as a milestone in medical science because it promises to revolutionise the study and treatment of a range of diseases, from cancer and incurable viruses to inherited genetic disorders such as sickle-cell anaemia and Down syndrome.

For the first time, scientists are able to engineer any part of the human genome with extreme precision using a revolutionary new technique called Crispr, which has been likened to editing the individual letters on any chosen page of an encyclopedia without creating spelling mistakes. The landmark development means it is now possible to make the most accurate and detailed alterations to any specific position on the DNA of the 23 pairs of human chromosomes without introducing unintended mutations or flaws, scientists said.

The technique is so accurate that scientists believe it will soon be used in gene-therapy trials on humans to treat incurable viruses such as HIV or currently untreatable genetic disorders such as Huntington’s disease. It might also be used controversially to correct gene defects in human IVF embryos, scientists said.

Until now, gene therapy has had largely to rely on highly inaccurate methods of editing the genome, often involving modified viruses that insert DNA at random into the genome – considered too risky for many patients.

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Population Control: Dan Savage Says ‘Abortion Should be Mandatory for 30 Years’ (+video)

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Photo Credit: Daily Caller Self-styled anti-bullying advocate Dan Savage told a giggling and applauding audience in Australia that “abortion should be mandatory for 30 years” on Monday during a panel discussion on Christianity, marriage and sex.

Savage made his remarks during a program titled “Q&A, Adventures in Democracy” broadcasted from the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall on Monday in response to the question: ”Which so-called dangerous idea do you each think would have the greatest potential to change the world for the better if it were implemented?”

“Population control: There’s too many g**da** people on the planet,” Savage said as the audience burst into applause at his predictable response. “You know, I’m pro-choice. I believe that women should have a right to control their bodies. Sometimes in my darker moments, I’m anti-choice. I think abortion should be mandatory for about 30 years.”

Savage, creator of the “It Gets Better” viral video anti-suicide crusade on behalf of gay teens, takes a hateful, violent pro-death position toward everyone who irritates him, from unborn babies to hapless Green Party candidates standing in the way of total Democratic domination.

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Snowden Reporter Glenn Greenwald Featured at Radical Muslim Event

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Photo Credit: WND The London Guardian journalist who presented Russian-exiled National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden to the world has fled to Brazil, but he is scheduled to be the keynote speaker at an annual fundraiser in Los Angeles for the local chapter of the radical Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Muslim Brotherhood front organization.

It would be Glenn Greenwald’s first scheduled appearance in the U.S., reports the Daily Caller, which cited an analyst who doubted U.S. authorities would prosecute the reporter if he enters the country.

Greenwald is the keynote for CAIR-LA’s “Faith in Freedom” dinner Nov. 16 in Anaheim, Calif.

He also spoke at the CAIR-NY awards dinner in May and last November addressed the CAIR-San Francisco Bay Area chapter.

He told the San Francisco group “there really is no organization with which I’d rather be spending my time, or with which I feel more at home than CAIR.”

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Michelle Obama: ‘We Want to Honor and Embrace All…Faith Traditions’

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Photo Credit: APAt a White House Diwali celebration on Tuesday afternoon, First Lady Michelle Obama said that she and her husband wanted to celebrate all the faith and culture traditions ‘that make us who we are as Americans.”

Even as she was saying this, there were 200 plaintiffs pursuing 77 lawsuits asking federal courts to protect their First Amendment right to the free exercise of religion from a regulation issued by the administration under Obamacare that requires health insurance plans to cover sterilizations, contraceptives and abortion inducing drugs and devices.

The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty maintains a website that tracks the lawsuits.

The plaintiffs range from the Hobby Lobby stores to the Catholic Archdiocese of Washington, D.C. In September, the Department of Justice appealed the Hobby Lobby case to the Supreme Court, asking the court to force the family that owns Hobby Lobby to act against their Christian faith by making them buy insurance coverage for abortion-inducing drugs and devices.

“As you may know, we’ve celebrated this holiday here at the White House every year since Barack took office,” Mrs. Obama said at the Diwali celebration.

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New Mexico Man Claims He Was Anally Probed 8 Times Following Traffic Stop

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Photo Credit: Joe Raedle/GettyA New Mexico man claims he was anally probed several times by police and medical officials following a traffic stop.

The victim, David Eckert, claims in a federal lawsuit that officers from the Deming Police Department pulled him over after he failed to make a complete stop at a stop sign outside a Walmart this past January.

When Eckert got out of his car, officers indicated that they believed he was in possession of drugs – in his anal cavity.

“They say when he stepped out of his car he was standing in a manner that looked as if he was clinching his buttocks,” Shannon Kennedy, Eckert’s attorney, told KOB-TV.

A judge granted a search warrant to perform an anal cavity search on Eckert shortly after he was taken into custody. KOB reports that a doctor refused to perform the anal cavity search at a Deming emergency room, saying it was “unethical.” Eckert was then transported to Gila Regional Medical Center, where his alleged trauma began.

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Obama and Aides Did Not Want To Clutter Message with the Truth

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Photo Credit: APThe Wall Street Journal broke the news this weekend that, even as President Obama was telling the American people they could keep their health plans, “some White House policy advisors objected to the breadth of Mr. Obama’s ‘keep your plan’ promise. They were overruled by political aides.”

Overruled by political aides? This is simply damning.

It’s not easy to get a lie into a presidential speech. Every draft address is circulated to the White House senior staff and key Cabinet officials in something called the “staffing process.” Every line is reviewed by dozens of senior officials, who offer comments and factual corrections. During this process, it turns out, some of Obama’s policy advisers objected to the “you can keep your plan” pledge, pointing out that it was untrue. But it stayed in the speech. That does not happen by accident. It requires a willful intent to deceive.

In the Bush White House, we speechwriters would often come up with what we thought were great turns of phrase to help the president explain his policies. But we also had a strict fact-checking process, where every iteration of every proposed presidential utterance was scrubbed to ensure it was both accurate and defensible. If the fact-checkers told us a line was inaccurate, we would either kill it or find another way to make the point accurately. I cannot imagine a scenario in which the fact-checkers or White House policy advisers would tell us that something in a draft speech was factually incorrect and that guidance would be ignored or overruled by the president’s political advisers.

This whole episode is a window into a fundamentally dishonest presidency. And the story gets worse. After Obama began telling Americans they could keep their plans, White House aides discussed using media interviews “to explain the nuances of the succinct line in his stump speeches.” But they decided not to do so, because “officials worried . . . that delving into details such as the small number of people who might lose insurance could be confusing and would clutter the president’s message.”

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Seventeen Year ‘Pause’ in Global Warming May Last 20 More Years; Arctic Sea Ice Recovering

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Photo Credit: Daily Mail The 17-year pause in global warming is likely to last into the 2030s and the Arctic sea ice has already started to recover, according to new research.

A paper in the peer-reviewed journal Climate Dynamics – by Professor Judith Curry of the Georgia Institute of Technology and Dr Marcia Wyatt – amounts to a stunning challenge to climate science orthodoxy.

Not only does it explain the unexpected pause, it suggests that the scientific majority – whose views are represented by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) – have underestimated the role of natural cycles and exaggerated that of greenhouse gases.

The research comes amid mounting evidence that the computer models on which the IPCC based the gloomy forecasts of a rapidly warming planet in its latest report, published in September, are diverging widely from reality.

The graph shown above, based on a version published by Dr Ed Hawkins of Reading University on his blog, Climate Lab Book, reveals that actual temperatures are now below the predictions made by almost all the 138 models on which the IPCC relies.

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Obama Denies ‘You Can Keep It’ Videotaped Promises

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Photo Credit: APPresident Barack Obama told his enthusiastic supporters Monday night that he never promised what video recordings show him promising at least 29 times.

The videos show Obama promising 300 million Americans that “if you like your health-care plan, you will be able to keep your health-care plan, period.”

But that’s not what he really said, Obama announced Monday in a speech to about 200 Organizing for Action supporters, gathered at the St. Regis hotel in D.C.

“What we said was you could keep it if it hasn’t changed since the law was passed,” he told Obamacare’s political beneficiaries and contractors.

That claim is not supported by his videotaped statements, which don’t include any mention of his new “if it hasn’t changed” exception.

But the newly-revealed exception is justified by a higher-priority promise in Obamacare, Obama declared.

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No White House Petition to Defund or Repeal Obamacare

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Photo Credit: AP Photo/J. Scott ApplewhiteWith so many Americans complaining about Obamacare–the cancellation of individual insurance policies, the dysfunctional enrollment process, and privacy concerns–it is curious that a search of the White House petition website does not produce a single petition urging the defunding, repeal, delay or even repair of the Affordable Care Act.

There is, however, a petition titled, “Defund the House of Representatives,” created on Sept. 20.

The White House promises to respond to petitions that gather 100,000 signatures in 30 days, and presumably a petition focusing on one of the hottest topics of the year would easily rise to that level. But an overwhelming response might also embarrass a White House intent on defending President Obama’s signature legislation.

On Monday morning, Nov. 4, CNSNews.com searched “We the People,” the White House petition website, for the terms “Obamacare,” “Affordable Care Act” and “federal health care law.”

“Obamacare” returned only one petition, posted a year ago, urging the White House to “Include Licensed Naturopathic Physicians as primary care providers in the Federal Healthcare Law.”

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Army Veteran Banned from Daughter’s School after Posting Picture of Weapons Permit

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Photo Credit: WRDW.COMAn Army veteran living in Georgia says she wants an apology from her daughter’s former school after being banned from the building for posting a photo of her concealed weapons permit to her Facebook page, WRDW.com reports.

Tanya Mount says she was approached by a police officer from the Richmond County Board of Education at McBean Elementary School and was warned that she was about to get a criminal trespass warning.

The officer told her that the principal at the school was “scared” of her and did not want her on the school property, she told the station.

“He asks: ‘Were you in the Army?,”‘ she said. “I said, yes. He’s like, ‘Do you have a concealed weapons permit?’ I said yes,” she told the station.

A phone call from FoxNews.com to Richmond County Board of Education was not immediately returned. WJBF.com asked Janina Dallas, the school’s principal, if the “no trespass order” was issued over the post, and Dallas responded: “Yes, it was.”

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