State Department employee Anne Smedinghoff was killed in Afghanistan last weekend. At first reports suggested the young diplomat was part of an armed convoy that was bombed, but new reports say that she was actually on foot. And that the group she was with got lost on its way to deliver books.
ABC reported earlier in the week:
Afghan security officials told ABC News that the State Department convoy had just left its headquarters in Qalat and joined the convoy of the local provincial governor who was also headed to the school book giveaway.
That’s when two suicide attackers attacked the convoy. The security officials said there was an initial car bomb detonated by a remote device. Then a suicide bomber wearing a suicide vest appeared and caused more casualties.
Afghan sources say the school event had been announced a day in advance, which possibly allowed attackers enough time to plan the attack.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-04-13 01:54:072013-04-13 01:54:07Story of American Diplomat's Death in Afghanistan Changes (+video)
The words are written in crayon, in the haphazard bumpiness of a child’s scrawl.
“I am willing to give up some of my constitutional rights in order to be safer or more secure.”
They’re the words that Florida father Aaron Harvey was stunned to find his fourth-grade son had written, after a lesson in school about the Constitution.
Harvey’s son attends Cedar Hills Elementary in Jacksonville, Fla. Back in January, a local attorney came in to teach the students about the Bill of Rights. But after the attorney left, fourth-grade teacher Cheryl Sabb dictated the sentence to part of the class and had them copy it down, he said.
The paper sat unnoticed in Harvey’s son’s backpack for several months until last week, when his son’s mother almost threw it away. The words caught her eye in the trash, and she showed it to Harvey, who said he was at a loss for words. He asked his son, who said Sabb had spoken the sentence out loud and told them to write it down. Harvey said he asked some of his son’s classmates and got a similar answer.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-04-13 01:50:182013-04-13 01:50:18Teacher Tells Fourth Graders to Write, 'I am Willing to Give up Some of my Constitutional Rights…to be Safer'
A transgender woman whose use of a women’s restroom in an Idaho grocery store reportedly upset other customers has been cited for trespassing and banned from the store for a year, police said on Friday.
A Rosauers supermarket in Lewiston asked police to charge 25-year-old Ally Robledo, who was born male but identifies as female, with the misdemeanor trespass charge on Monday, Lewiston Police Captain Roger Lanier said.
“The store security officer said he had been dealing with a problem over a couple days with the person going into the women’s restroom and urinating while standing up,” Lanier said. He added that the store had reported that Robledo’s use of the restroom made other female customers “very uncomfortable.”
Robledo said she was being discriminated against.
“I’m a female trapped in a man’s body. It’s natural for me to go to the ladies’ room. Getting the no trespassing order for a public restroom was really painful,” she said. The incident follows several cases that have stoked public debate about the boundaries of gender identity and the rights of transgender people to use accommodations such as restrooms in government buildings and businesses open to the public.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-04-13 01:46:502013-04-13 01:46:50Transgender 'Woman' Banned From Idaho Store Over Use of Restroom
Ants know when an earthquake is about to strike, researchers have discovered. Their behavior changes significantly prior to the quake and they resume normal functioning only a day after it.
Gabriele Berberich of the University Duisburg-Essen in Germany presented these findings on Thursday at the European Geosciences Union annual meeting in Vienna according to LiveScience.
Berberich and her colleagues discovered that red wood ants preferred to build their colonies right along active faults in Germany. They counted 15,000 ant mounds lining the faults. These faults are fractures where the Earth violently ruptures in earthquakes.
Using a special camera mounted software that tracked changes in activity, Berberich and her colleagues tracked the ants round the clock for three years, 2009 to 2012. They found that the ants’ behavior changed only when the quake was over magnitude 2. There were 10 earthquakes between magnitude 2.0 and 3.2 during this period, and many smaller ones. Humans can also sense quakes of over magnitude 2 only.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-04-13 01:38:072013-04-13 01:38:07Ants Can Sense Earthquakes a Day in Advance
President Barack Obama has asked a mother whose 6-year-old son was killed in the Newtown, Connecticut massacre to deliver his weekly radio address, an unusual move expected to turn up the pressure on Congress to pass tougher gun control laws.
Francine Wheeler, whose son Ben was one of the 26 people killed by a gunman at an elementary school on December 14, will deliver the Saturday radio address, White House spokesman Jay Carney said.
Obama brought families of the Newtown victims to Washington on Air Force One on Monday, and they have been meeting with senators to urge them to support new laws that, among other measures, would require more background checks for gun sales.
“He believes their voices and resolve have been critical to the continued progress we’ve seen in the Senate,” Carney said.
Vice President Joe Biden has occasionally delivered the weekly address, but the short message to Americans is traditionally given by the president himself.
Last night, Wisconsin Congressman and former vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan energized pro-life advocates with a rousing speech against abortion that provided hope for ending the travesty someday.
In his speech at the Susan B. Anthony List gala, Ryan urged pro-lifers to be active in the battle to change hearts and minds — setting up political change down the road.
“Here’s my thinking: We need to articulate a vision — one that can attract a broad coalition,” Ryan said. “To advance the pro-life cause, we need to work with people who consider themselves pro-choice — because our task isn’t to purge our ranks. It’s to grow them.”
He urged pro-life advocates to never abandon the cause of life or accept and political truce on the issue of abortion and protecting unborn children under law.
“Our critics say we should abandon our pro-life beliefs. But that would only demoralize our voters,” he told the audience. “It’s an odd strategy, I think: the cynical ploy followed by the thumping defeat. Besides, you’re proving the critics wrong. You’re helping pro-life leaders win races across the country. You’re showing that “what convinces is conviction,” he will say.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-04-13 01:00:502013-04-13 01:00:50Paul Ryan Energizes Pro-Life Advocates with Speech Against Abortion
With no debate, the Republican National Committee voted unanimously here Friday to reiterate the party’s opposition to gay marriage.
The push from social conservatives came after last month’s “autopsy” report called for more GOP outreach to gays and said the party must change its tone on the issue to appeal to younger voters.
Some party leaders were frustrated by the optics of passing such a resolution at a spring meeting in the heart of one of the country’s most gay-friendly enclaves, and there was a clear effort to avoid a public back-and-forth over the measure. The resolutions committee passed it during a private Wednesday session that was closed to the press.
The language of the resolution affirms the party’s “support for marriage as the union of one man and one woman” — a position that was already in the platform that passed at last August’s Republican convention.
A Wall Street Journal/NBC poll released earlier in the day found that 53 percent of registered voters now favor allowing gay and lesbian couples to marry, with 40 percent in opposition. The poll found that 54 percent of independents back gay marriage, but 66 percent of Republicans oppose it.
A combat battalion commander assigned to the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, sent an email out to several dozen subordinate officers and senior noncommissioned officers describing conservatives as members of hate groups.
The senior officer, seen in the YouTube below, apparently decided that his ignorant soldiers needed some political indoctrination regarding the Army’s new values, as decreed by Obama.
Using the subject line of ‘Domestic Hate Groups,’ LTC Jack Rich warned his subordinate leaders that,
Many events have been taking place across the country – just want to ensure everyone is somewhat educated on some of the groups out there that do not share our Army Values.
When we see behaviors that are inconsistent with Army Values – don’t just walk by – do the right thing and address the concern before it becomes a problem.
In other words, this misguided Army ‘leader’ is telling his junior officers that they are to actively intervene with any of their troops that they suspect has ‘hateful’ beliefs.
Once identified, the hater presumably will be forced to recant such beliefs.
Sound familiar? Turn back the clock to the Cold War years and you might mistake LTC Rich with a political commissar, the Soviet ideological officer who guarded military units against “harmful” beliefs.
• members of the Christian right (like Focus on the Family’s former leader, James Dobson)
• anti-gay groups (those who oppose the “so-called homosexual agenda”)
• members of Patriot organizations (those “opposed to the ‘New World Order'”; those who believe that the “‘New World Order’ is imposing a global plan, called Agenda 21, to take away citizens’ property rights”; those who “believe that being well armed is a must”; those who fear “impending gun control or weapons confiscations, either by the government or international agencies”)
• anti-Muslim groups (those who “broadly defame Islam”; those who believe the “inherent danger to America posed by its Muslim-American community”, that Muslims are a “fifth column intent on undermining and eventually replacing American democracy and Western civilization with Islamic despotism”; those who “allege that Muslims are trying to subvert the rule of law by imposing on Americans their own Islamic legal system, Shariah law”)
• anti-illegal alien groups
Commissar Rich identifies the Family Research Council, American Family Association, United States Justice Foundation, Atlas Shrugs, Sharia Awareness Network, Bare Naked Islam, and many other organizations as hate groups.
Yes, the thought police have infected the U.S. Military. Never mind that troublesome First Amendment. Obama must be proud.
Here’s a video of Commissar Rich at a live fire exercise at Fort Campbell. Let’s pray he doesn’t make it beyond O-5:
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-04-12 03:24:552013-04-12 03:24:55Declaration of War on American Values: Battalion Commander Tells Troops that Patriots, Christians belong to Hate Groups
In a Public Notice this past week, the Federal Communications Commission announced that it is considering relaxing its indecency standards to allow broadcast of the F-word, as well as other presently-banned profanity, and full frontal nudity.
You can see the FCC’s Public Notice HERE.
The FCC’s purported excuse for rethinking its indecency standards is compliance with “vital First Amendment principles” as established by recent Supreme Court cases. It also wants to reduce its backlog of thousands of indecency complaints.
Essentially, the FCC is contemplating allowing pretty much any profanity as long as it is “isolated”; in other words, it can’t be “repetitive” or “use[d] in a patently offensive manner…”
Similarly, for nudity, as long as it’s isolated and “non-sexual,” the FCC is contemplating allowing it on the airwaves.
To add injury to insult, the FCC doesn’t seem to mind that the new indecency standards would be applied to all hours of broadcasting, even those most frequently watched by children.
As this is not a final decision, please submit your comments on these proposed changes to the FCC HERE. Enter 13-86 as the Proceeding Number and submit your comments.
UPDATE: Former FCC Commissioners Believe that the Use of ‘Redskins’ is Obscene and Should be Prohibited by the Agency
By Brooks Boliek. The Washington Redskins name, long accused by many of being an offensive moniker to Native Americans, may also be flat-out indecent, according to some former FCC officials and public interest advocates.
In a letter to Redskins owner Daniel Snyder, former FCC Chairman Reed Hundt, former Commissioners Jonathan Adelstein and Nicholas Johnson, and others contend that an indecency case could be made against broadcasters who air the offensive name.
“It is impermissible under law that the FCC would condone, or that broadcasters would use, obscene pornographic language on live television,” they write. “This medium uses government owned airwaves in exchange for an understanding that it will promote the public interest. Similarly, it is inappropriate for broadcasters to use racial epithets as part of normal, everyday reporting.”
Never using the team’s name, they chastise broadcasters for using a name that is equivalent to the “n-word.”
“XXXskin is the most derogatory name a Native American can be called. It is an unequivocal racial slur,” they write. “As The Washington Post’s Mike Wise pointed out, ‘America wouldn’t stand for a team called the Blackskins — or the Mandingos, the Brothers, the Yellowskins, insert your ethnic minority here.’” Read more from this story HERE.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-04-12 03:23:592013-04-12 03:23:59FCC Contemplating Full Frontal Nudity, Use of the F-Word on Broadcast TV
For two years the University of Southern California student had listened to the classroom ranting of liberal professors. So it wasn’t much of a surprise when Darry Sragow, his political science professor, launched into an anti-Republican tirade on the first day of class.
“I knew that this was going to be a professor that was very left-wing, very biased,” Talgo told Fox News. “I knew this would be one of those classes where the professor would be biased all the time.”
So Talgo decided to fight back. “As soon as I got back to my dorm, I decided to video his lectures,” he said. “I got inspired.”
The 20-year-old political science major bought a hidden camera disguised as a shirt button. And that’s how he was able to secretly videotape every single lecture delivered by Professor Sragow.
“It’s one thing to say this happened,” Talgo said. “It’s another thing to show that it happened.” Talgo culled 15-minutes worth of Republican, Tea Party and conservative ranting from Sragow’s lectures and shared them with Campus Reform reporters Oliver Darcy and Josiah Ryan.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-04-12 03:22:552013-04-12 03:22:55Video: Professor Calls Republicans Stupid, Racists and More
A combat battalion commander assigned to the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, sent an 
In a 
By Brooks Boliek. The Washington Redskins name, long accused by many of being an offensive moniker to Native Americans, may also be flat-out indecent, according to some former FCC officials and public interest advocates.