Chinese Father Chains his Blind, Mentally Ill Son in a Cave after Losing their Home

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Photo Credit: EuroPics

Photo Credit: EuroPics

A father has told how he’s turned his handicapped son into a real life caveman – chaining him naked to a rock face in central China.

Astonishing pictures of tragic Cheng Xiangtao, 26 – born blind and mentally disabled – chained by his ankle to his cave in remote Chengling village, Henan province, have outraged the country.

Dad Cheng Yuanchao, 70, abandoned his son after losing his home and going to live with his daughters.

‘I have no home of my own now and nowhere to house my son. This is the best I can do. I visit him three times a day with food and water so he is never hungry of thirsty.

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Gun Control Rally is Overwhelmed by Pro Gun Supporters Who Take Over Podium (+video)

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StopNRAYou know, we keep hearing about how 90% of the country supports expanded background checks, and a majority support new gun control.

However, whenever it comes to actually taking action, those alleged supporters are nowhere to be found. Often, participants at anti-gun rallies are outnumbered by organizers and the media.

A rally in support of expanded background checks in Ohio late this week was no exception.

Anti-gun speakers and protestors, who numbered only a handful, where quickly overwhelmed by NRA and Buckeye Firearms Association supporters in Columbus.

“As a gun owner, I’m a responsible person and I think it’s responsible to ask to have all gun owners have a background check,” said Blanche Luczyk [event organizer]. “It’s just common sense. Any responsible person who is willing to take the ownership of a gun should be willing to have that background check.”

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Krauthammer Warns Strike on Syria May Result In ‘Major Regional War’ (+video)

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krauthammer

On Friday’s “Special Report” on the Fox News Channel, Krauthammer elaborated on that reference, drawing a comparison of early 20th century Germany to modern-day Iran — a growing superpower that its neighbors do not know how to contain.

The question is — it is going to look as if the U.S. — the U.K. already walked away. Iran is in the driver’s seat. America is slinking away. And the problem is if you make a miscalculation here and you let Iran imagine that it is in charge, it threatens to attack Israel … Israel will respond fiercely it and it could get out of control. So, it isn’t as if Obama imagined — he says, ‘I’ll do a narrow thing, limited thing. It’s not going to be boots on the ground, as if he is pleading with Assad, you know, don’t take it seriously. It’s just going to be a few bombs in the desert. Well, if he miscalculates and the Iranians and Hezbollah react, we could have a regional war – a major regional war.”

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Video: Ralph Peters- Most Phenomenally Stupid Misuse Of Our Military I’ve Seen (+video)

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Photo Credit: National Review

Photo Credit: National Review

BILL HEMMER: You are strong in your opposition to this. Why?

RALPH PETERS: Well, because it’s the most phenomenally stupid misuse of our military I’ve ever seen. No one in this administration has been able to explain what tangible vital security interest we have in Syria or in stopping this fighting. This military demonstration — and that’s what it’s going to be — is about Obama shooting off his mouth about red lines and chemical weapons. Now he feels he has to do something. He doesn’t want to do too much, he doesn’t want to do too little. He’s not thinking through the potential consequences, and I see no, no way, Bill, in which a military attack on Syria is worth it for the United States or will end well.

HEMMER: Alright, let’s work through the scenarios then. How do you allow anyone on this planet to use chemical weapons, WMD, and not respond to it, not act?

PETERS: Where’s the rest of the world? Where are the neighbors? The Arab League said it doesn’t want us to attack. They obviously don’t care about poison gas being used on Muslims.

HEMMER: You have the French, and you have the British, and the Arab League did not come out yesterday in support, but there is support among these Arab nations that do it, whether or not it’s written on a sheet of paper or whether or not it’s declared in a mosque or not.

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President Obama Turns to Congress to OK Strike Against Syria

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

President Obama said Saturday the United States should take military action against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for using chemical weapons on civilians but also turned to Congress for approval — dealing a potential setback to America’s foreign policy and setting up what will likely be a hard-fought Washington debate on the issue.

“This menace must be confronted,” Obama said of the Assad regime’s alleged chemical attack, speaking from the Rose Garden.

However, the announcement also raised the question about whether the president put the burden on Congress to act.

“President Obama is abdicating his responsibility as commander in chief and undermining the authority of future presidents,” said New York Rep. Peter King, a member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. “The president doesn’t need 535 members of Congress to enforce his own red line.”

The president was driven to make a decision following an Aug. 21 chemical attack outside Damascus that killed more than 1,400 people, including hundreds of children. The attack was just one of several allegedly carried out by the Assad regime after Obama said about 12 months ago that the regime using a chemical weapon would “cross a red line.”

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Biden: We’ll Target Congressmen Who Oppose Gun Control Efforts

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images (1)The White House will continue its push to strengthen gun control laws, even if it means targeting members of Congress who oppose its agenda, Vice President Joe Biden said Thursday.

“If Congress doesn’t act, we’ll fight for a new Congress,” Biden said in the Roosevelt Room of the White House as he swore in B. Todd Jones as the new director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. “It’s that simple. But we’re going to get this done.”

In April, a bipartisan gun-control plan that would have expanded background checks and banned assault weapons failed to garner support in the Senate and was killed off, despite polls that showed massive public support in the wake of the Newtown, Conn. school massacre last Dec..

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Could Clouds be Zapped by Laser to Stop it Raining? Scientists to Discuss Plans to Control the Weather

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Photo Credit: Glenn Copus

Photo Credit: Glenn Copus

We may have all dreamt of zapping away the rainclouds when it’s damp and miserable outside. But it seems that one day, the dream could actually come true.

Scientists are hopeful that lasers could be used to guarantee a cloudless sky – and will gather next month to discuss the possibility of shooting pulses of light into the heavens to control the weather.

In laboratory tests Swiss researchers have succeeded in using the technology to promote cloud formation. In theory, it could be used to trigger rainfall far out at sea or over uninhabited land – and keep it away from a major event.

The technique has also been used to control lightning, with the long-term aim of diverting it away from built-up areas.
Controlling the weather has been attempted before, most famously during the 2008 Beijing Olympics when scientists apparently fired chemicals into the sky to disperse cloud for the opening ceremony.

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Four Historians Take On ‘The Butler’s’ Racist Depiction of Reagan

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

Four Ronald Reagan historians have slammed the portrayal of former President Reagan in the movie “The Butler,” saying that the 40th president’s “attitudes toward race” as shown in the movie are inaccurate.

They begin the article, “What ‘The Butler’ gets wrong about Ronald Reagan and race,” published in The Washington Post, by recounting instances in Reagan’s life when he decried racism and took a stand for the African-American community.

While serving as president of the Screen Actors Guild, for example, “Ronald Reagan called upon the entertainment industry to provide greater employment for black actors.” That position was controversial at the time.

When giving his infamous “evil empire” speech in March 1983 against the Soviet Union, Reagan also attacked the “the resurgence of some hate groups preaching bigotry and prejudice” in America.

These examples came after the historians recount the time when young Reagan brought two African American football teammates home from college to spend the night with his family.

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HHS Awards $556K to Train Med School Students on LGBT Mental Health Care

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

The Department of Health and Human Services has awarded $556,000 to Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine for an LGBT mental health internship program.

“Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) individuals experience unique health disparities. As a group, LGBT adults experience more mood and anxiety disorders, an elevated risk for suicide, and substance use as compared with heterosexual adults. LGBT people are more frequently the targets of stigma, discrimination, and violence because of their sexual- and gender-minority status,” the grant abstract said.

“LGBT adults have higher rates of smoking, alcohol use, and substance use than heterosexual adults, which leads to long-lasting effects on both the individual and the community. Health professionals with greater exposure to LGBT patients and formal education in LGBT Psychology are better able to provide competent care,” it said.

The program is considered to be the first of its kind to focus on pre-doctoral LGBT psychology training, according to the grant abstract.

“Health professionals with greater exposure to LGBT patients and formal education in LGBT Psychology are better able to provide competent care that improves long-term mental health outcomes, reducing the risk of suicide and substance abuse,” HHS spokesperson Martin Kramer told CNSNews.com.

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$5.7M NSF Grant For Card Games, Videos To Teach Public About Global Warming

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Photo Credit: CNS News

Photo Credit: CNS News

A multi-million dollar project funded by the National Science Foundation is developing card games, videos and other educational programs “to engage adult learners and inform public understanding and response to climate change.”

The $5.7 million Polar Learning and Responding (PoLAR) project is just the latest in a series of federally-funded climate change efforts since Congress established the Climate Change Educational Partnership (CCEP) in 2009.

CCEP has already spent $46 million on taxpayer-funded research projects around the country designed to find the most effective ways to convince Americans that the federal government should confront what researchers claim is the threat of global warming.

Stephanie Pfirman, principal investigator and professor of environmental science at Barnard College, told CNSNews.com that one of the games under development by PoLAR is “EcoChains” – a card game in which “players learn the components of an Arctic marine food chain, the reliance of some species on sea ice, and potential impacts of future changes.”

Other games include “Future Coast” – described as “a community-based activity where participants consider the implications of sea level rise coupled with a storm surge, as happened with [Hurricane] Sandy.”

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