Pews Permanently Removed from U. of Chicago Chapel to Allow for Muslim Prayers

/16 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Campus Reform

University of Chicago (UC) administrators permanently removed pews from an 88-year old chapel on campus in order to accommodate Islamic prayers, according to a local news report.

Chicago NPR affiliate, WBEZ news, reported on May 23, the pews, which are now part of display at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) Chicago, were “removed in order to provide Muslim students a place to pray.”

Literature describing the artwork that was created by UC Director of Arts and Public Life Theaster Gates, also describes the removal of the pews as symbol of religious tolerance.

“The pews were recently removed from the chapel in order to offer Muslim students a place to pray, a symbolic gesture of religious tolerance,” according to an official description of the exhibit which includes a “set of repurposed pews from the University of Chicago’s campus church.”

A spokesperson for UC also appeared to confirm the reason for the pews’ removal in a statement emailed to Campus Reform on Friday.

Read more from this story HERE.

Veteran’s Antique Guns Confiscated After Visit to His Therapist (+video)

/32 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: AP

Arthur Lovi, 72, is in an ongoing legal battle with authorities after his antique guns were confiscated following a controversial session he had with a therapist.

His counselor claims that, during the appointment, he threatened a doctor who, years ago, treated his deceased wife. After the session in question, she called the Arlington Heights police in Illinois to report his controversial comments. While reporting the incident, she also told authorities that she didn’t think it was a viable threat and that he wasn’t a danger to himself or others…

In addition to sharing this emotional pain with the therapist, he detailed memories that haunted him from an Air Force crash he was involved in back in the 1960s, the drowning death of his granddaughter years later and the loss of his son-in-law to a drug overdose, among other tragedies…

The therapist’s call to authorities sparked yet more pain for Lovi. Police contacted the grieving widower following the therapist’s report and asked whether he had any weapons. The retiree explained that he had three antique firearms (one was a 100-year-old musket). While he claims he had never fired the guns, what happened next may be surprising…

The Daily Herald explains: “…that night about 11 p.m. there was a knock at Lovi’s door. His son answered and saw four or five police officers standing outside [and Lovi’s guns were confiscated].”

Read more from this story HERE.

Ron Paul: I’m Worried that the Government Might Kill Edward Snowden With a Drone (+video)

/0 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: YouTube

During an interview with FOX Business, former Rep. Ron Paul explained that he was concerned about the well-being of National Security Agency whistle-blower Edward Snowden.

“I’m worried about somebody in our government might kill him with a cruise missile or a drone missile,” Paul explained. “I mean we live in a bad time where American citizens don’t even have rights and that they can be killed, but the gentlemen is trying to tell the truth about what’s going on.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Grandma, 72, Shoots at Home Intruder in California, Defends Actions

/4 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: AP

A 72-year-old Southern California grandmother who shot at — and narrowly missed — a man trying to break into her home said Tuesday she was shocked at the attention her action was getting but does not regret defending herself and her husband, an 85-year-old World War II veteran who uses a wheelchair…

During a 911 call of the incident, Cooper can be heard begging with the dispatcher to send deputies and warns that she has a gun at the ready as her Rottweiler barks furiously in the background.

Minutes later, a breathless Cooper says the man has come to the back porch and is trying to get in the house through a sliding door. Through the vertical blinds, Cooper saw his silhouette just inches away through the glass as he began to slide open the door.

“I’m firing!” Cooper shouts to the dispatcher as a loud band goes off…

“You’d better get the police here. I don’t know whether I hit him or not. I’m not sure. He’s standing at my door, my back door. He’s in my yard,” she said.

Read more from this story HERE.

Actress Katee Sackoff Urges Gun Safety on Twitter, Loses Half Her Followers; Gun-Ban Advocates Outraged at Her

/14 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Fox News

Actress Katee Sackoff said she lost half of her Twitter followers when she tweeted a message urging people to practice gun safety.

After watching a television report about a four-year-old who accidentally shot and killed his father with a loaded gun that had been left unattended at a friend’s house, the “Battlestar Galactica” star tweeted Monday:

“Please practice gun safety. This is horrible!”

Soon after, Sackoff’s Twitter feed blew up with followers advocating gun control instead of gun safety.

“Here’s a radical idea folks. How about NO gun?” one wrote.

Read more from this story HERE.

DOJ Regards Criticism of Islam, Obama as Criminal?

/4 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: WND

The U.S. attorney who warned last week that “inflammatory speech” against Islam could violate civil-rights laws was the prosecutor who brought firearms charges against a Navy veteran who challenged the validity of President Obama’s birth certificate.

William Killian, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Tennessee, made the warning in a slide presentation June 4 in Manchester, Tenn.

The Navy veteran, Darren Huff, came on the federal government’s radar in 2010 when he and another Navy veteran living in Tennessee, Walt Fitzpatrick, filed civil actions in court charging President Obama with treason. The veterans claimed Obama assumed the presidency while refusing to prove he was born in Hawaii by presenting to the American public a 1961 original long-form Hawaii birth certificate that could be independently authenticated by court-recognized document experts.

According to the Department of Justice website, Huff, on April 20, 2010, traveled from his home in Dallas, Ga., to Madisonville, Tenn., upset at the refusal of the grand jury in Monroe County, Tenn., to indict Obama for treason. He allegedly carried with him a .45 caliber handgun and an AK-47 with ammunition for both weapons and subsequently was arrested.

“Huff told people that day that he had 300-400 rounds of ammunition with the AK-47,” the DOJ website said. “During a traffic stop by a Tennessee State Trooper on his way to Madisonville, Huff stated, ‘I’ve got my .45 because ain’t no government official gonna go peacefully.’”

Read more from this story HERE.

Ted Cruz: Obama Targeting Enemies, Can’t be Trusted

/3 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Washington Examiner

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz on Tuesday decried the spread of unaccountable federal agencies like the IRS and National Security Agency caught prying into American lives, charging that President Obama’s promise that his administration isn’t snooping on citizens can’t be trusted.

What’s more, Cruz said that by spreading a broad net to include average Americans in its search for terrorists via the NSA, the administration missed catching actual U.S. enemies such as the Boston Marathon bombers and the Fort Hood, Texas killer.

“It may well be that the administration is focusing more energy on casting the net wide and invading the privacy of law abiding-Americans rather than targeting the bad guys, targeting actual terrorists,” Cruz said after addressing a Federalist Society conference focused on the expansion of the executive branch.

Read more from this story HERE.

Obama’s Hollywood Supporters Abandoning Him Over NSA’s Unconstitutional Surveillance

/3 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Reuters

Revelations that the National Security Agency (NSA) has been secretly logging the phone and Internet activity of millions of Americans has caused a rift between President Obama and several of his Hollywood supporters.

Actor and liberal activist John Cusack tweaked the administration, tweeting “Prism the name for electronic prison – all have to wear lojacks,” in reference to the PRISM data mining program revealed in leaks by former NSA employee Edward Snowden last week.

Cusack also re-tweeted “Obama is becoming the next Nixon.”

Prominent writer/director Judd Apatow of “Knocked Up” fame also took to Twitter to blast the administration: “What is this, North Korea? We are so inundated with so much info and so many problems – we have given up caring”…

Liberal filmmaker Michael Moore also hopped on the bandwagon, tweeting “the administration has now lost all credibility” while spotlighting a 2007 Obama quote: “that means no more illegal wiretapping of American citizens. No more (spying) on citizens… No more tracking citizens…”

Read more from this story HERE.

The Perfect Leak

/2 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: AP

In his dealings with the media, Edward Snowden played his hand like a pro.

Snowden, 29, was looking to disclose top-secret information about the National Security Agency’s surveillance programs to the world — and to do so he arranged a powerful one-two combination punch with the press that provided both mainstream credibility (Barton Gellman and The Washington Post) and someone who shared his ideological inclinations (Glenn Greenwald), according to media observers and whistleblower experts.

As more and more agenda-driven outlets, reporters and bloggers hit the media scene, leakers such as Snowden find themselves with a wealth of potential options to get their information out. It’s a seismic shift from the old media landscape, when would-be leakers had only one clear path to ensuring widespread attention for their stories: a successful pitch to a handful of national newspapers or TV networks.

But the traditional national security media heavyweights — led by The New York Times and The Washington Post — still have outsize influence on stories about intelligence gathering and potential overreach by the government.

So at the end of the day, experts told POLITICO, Snowden found a way to pull off what was in effect the perfect leak. He established parallel tracks with the MSM — The Washington Post and The Guardian — and also found a member of the media who was sympathetic to his cause. Snowden’s material was given widespread exposure and credibility in the traditional press and at the same time had the hand of a friendly journalist on the wheel for at least part of the ride.

Read more from this story HERE.

Putin May Grant Asylum to NSA Leaker Snowden

/3 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Getty Images

Russia would consider granting asylum to the American who has exposed top-secret U.S. surveillance programs, if he were to ask for it, President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman said on Tuesday.

Spokesman Dmitry Peskov stopped short of saying Moscow would accept Edward Snowden, but pro-Kremlin lawmakers spoke out in favor of the idea, tapping into a lingering Cold War rivalry with the United States and a vein of anti-American sentiment Putin has often encouraged.

“Promising Snowden asylum, Moscow takes upon itself the defense of people persecuted for political reasons,” Alexei Pushkov, chairman of the international affairs committee in the lower house of parliament, said on Twitter.

“There will be hysteria in the United States. They recognize this as their right alone,” he said.

Putin and other Russian officials have often accused the United States of hypocrisy, saying it tries to impose standards of human rights, freedom, and democracy on other nations while falling far short of them itself.

Read more from this story HERE.