Dying Veteran’s Wish to See ‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’ Comes True

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A dying veteran asked to see the newest “Star Wars” movie before he passed and he received his wish.

Ron Villemaire, 69, of New Hampshire, has stage 4 colon cancer and is in hospice care in Bedford, NH. The U.S. Air Force and Vietnam War veteran asked to see “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” but could not get to a theater to sit down and watch it, FOX47 reported.

Ngo bought tickets to the movie at least a month ago, but Villemaire started experiencing more pain and it became difficult for him to sit up. His daughter, Elizabeth Ngo, asked for the public’s help to grant her dying father his last wish.

The Bedford and New Boston fire departments came through and announced they would take the veteran to a theater . . .

On Saturday, Villemaire was visited by Darth Vader at his hospital bed and was transported to O’Neil’s Cinemas for the show. Characters from the movie greeted the veteran upon his arrival at the theater. The theater allowed Villemaire and his family to watch the movie together. (Read more from “Dying Veteran’s Wish to See ‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’ Comes True” HERE)

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Planned Parenthood Insists ‘Abortion Is Health Care’

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You probably can understand the latest social media move by Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky . . .

But saying on Twitter, “Abortion is health care” nine times in a row was bound to get a response.

“If you’re among those who don’t believe that ‘abortion is health care,’ Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky hopes that repeating that several times might change your mind,” said Twitchy.

“I’m sure the baby would say it doesn’t fit this defeinition,” said Terry Weems, citing the definition as “the maintenance and improvement of physical and mental health, especially through the provision of medical services.”

Rebecca McCaleb said, “Last time I checked a BABY was not a illness or injury. And I’m pretty sure care is to protect. So NO cutting a baby into pieces and severing their spinal cord is doing NEITHER OF THOSE THINGS.” (Read more from “Planned Parenthood Insists ‘Abortion Is Health Care'” HERE)

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Court Upholds $135,000 Fine for Christian Couple Who Refused to Bake a Cake

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They refused to bake a cake. They were sued. Their business was forced to close. And now the Oregon Court of Appeals has upheld a decision to force the former owners of Sweet Cakes by Melissa to pay a whopping $135,000 fine.

In 2013, citing their Christian beliefs regarding gay marriage, Aaron and Melissa Klein refused to bake a wedding cake for Rachel and Laurel Bowman-Cryer. The Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries claimed the bakers had violated the Oregon Equality Act of 2007 and ordered the couple to pay $135,000 in damages for emotional distress.

The Kleins appealed the fine, arguing that Labor Commissioner Brad Avakian violated state and federal laws by targeting them for their Christian beliefs and violated their rights to religious freedom, due process, and free speech.

The appellate court ruled Thursday that Avakian did not target them for their religious beliefs and that statements he had made before deciding the case did not show a lack of impartiality, the Seattle Times reports. The court ruled that it is insufficient to assert that the Kleins’ cakes are art protected under the First Amendment.

Earlier this year, Melissa Klein told CBN News, “My cakes were my canvas. I sketched and custom designed each cake to fit each couple perfectly.”

“Although we accept that the Kleins imbue each wedding cake with their own aesthetic choices, they have made no showing that other people will necessarily experience any wedding cake that the Kleins create predominantly as ‘expression’ rather than as food,” the opinion says.

“Today, the Oregon Court of Appeals decided that Aaron and Melissa Klein are not entitled to the Constitution’s promises of religious liberty and free speech,” said Kelly Shackelford, president and CEO of the First Liberty Institute which represents the Kleins. “In a diverse and pluralistic society, people of good will should be able to peacefully coexist with different beliefs.”

Throughout the appeals process, the Kleins suffered harassment for their decision, received death threats, and were forced to close their business’ storefront after protests. For a time, they attempted to run the business online from their home, powered by donations. But eventually, that business closed too.

“We lost everything we loved and worked so hard to build,” Melissa Klein said. “I loved my shop. It meant everything to me and losing it has been so hard for me and my family.”

The Kleins have already paid the fine, but the $135,000 payment was held in escrow until the appellate court rendered its final decision.

The Kleins have been bullied by the government and activists for refusing to make their services available in a way that violates their faith.

The message is clear. In the state of Oregon, you do not have the right to operate a business according to your religious beliefs. (For more from the author of “Court Upholds $135,000 Fine for Christian Couple Who Refused to Bake a Cake” please click HERE)

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California Professors Are Now Claiming Farmers’ Markets Are Racist

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Professors at San Diego State University are reportedly criticizing farmer’s markets for contributing to the oppression of racial minority groups, according to Campus Reform.

In a new anthology titled “Just Green Enough: Urban Development and Environmental Gentrification”, which includes features from several different professors, San Diego State University geography professors Pascale Joassart-Marcelli and Fernando J. Bosco apparently assert that farmers markets may hurt the very communities they were originally intended to aid.

The critique highlights the process of so-called “environmental gentrification”. In other words, the process by which environmental improvements “lead to the displacement of long term residents,” according to Campus Reform.

The anthology’s description on Routledge.com, argues that environmental improvements, like access to the high quality, fresh food available at farmer’s markets, will essentially increase property values. Therefore drawing in a higher income bracket, while pushing out the long-term inhabitants of the community.

“While global urban development increasingly takes on the mantle of sustainability and ‘green urbanism,’ both the ecological and equity impacts of these developments are often overlooked,” the description reads.

“One result is what has been called environmental gentrification, a process in which environmental improvements lead to increased property values and the displacement of long-term residents,” it continues. “The specter of environmental gentrification is now at the forefront of urban debates about how to accomplish environmental improvements without massive displacement.”

Farmer’s markets are often established in “food deserts,” low income, urban communities where the only grocery store may not have affordable fruits and vegetables of good quality.

As reported by Campus Reform, the professors argue that farmers’ markets are “white spaces where the food consumption habits of white people are normalized,” which leads to a “white habitus” that supposedly excludes minorities.

Bosco and Joassart-Marcelli reportedly conducted their research throughout San Diego, apparently claiming that 44 percent of the California city’s farmer’s markets are located in census tracts “with a high rate of gentrification,” according to Campus Reform.

The numbers have apparently lead the professors to discern that such developments are drawing people from a higher socioeconomic class, which is contributing to the gentrification of these areas, forcing minority communities out.

The professors wrote, “The most insidious part of this gentrification process is that alternative food initiatives work against the community activists and residents who first mobilized to fight environmental injustices and provide these amenities but have significantly less political and economic clout than developers and real estate professionals” reports Campus Reform.

According to the book’s description, the anthology was designed to recognize the possible “social justice” problems and look for alternative forms of greening.

“A ‘just green enough’ strategy focuses explicitly on social justice and environmental goals as defined by local communities, those people who have been most negatively affected by environmental disamenities, with the goal of keeping them in place to enjoy any environmental improvements” it reads.

The description continues by stating: “It is not about short-changing communities, but about challenging the veneer of green that accompanies many projects with questionable ecological and social justice impacts, and looking for alternative, sometimes surprising, forms of greening such as creating green spaces and ecological regeneration within protected industrial zones.”

However, Campus Reform reporter Toni Airaksinen states that the professors fail at providing concrete solutions.

“The professors stop short of offering specific remedies, but do conclude that ‘curbing gentrification is a vexing task’ that requires the involvement of both community members and local governments,” Airaksinen writes.

“‘Strong community involvement,’ they say, is necessary in order to ensure that ‘the needs of the poorest … residents are prioritized,’ while local governments can enact ‘equitable zoning policies, rent-control laws, and property tax reforms in favor of long-time homeowners’ to combat the trend toward gentrification.” (For more from the author of “California Professors Are Now Claiming Farmers’ Markets Are Racist” please click HERE)

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New Push for Abortions Sold Online Without Prescription

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A forthcoming study in the journal Contraception (prepublication copy here) by noted abortion advocates takes a look at abortion pills which may be ordered online without a prescription in America. The authors say that while the certain of the pills may have been “substandard” and the ordering process “suboptimal,” this method is nonetheless “feasible” for women who want to chemically abort but for some reason either can’t or don’t want to go to the clinic.

That these deadly pills are being bought and sold online in the U.S. is a big deal, but not necessarily a surprise. The sale of drugs from online pharmacies, legitimate and otherwise, is simply a consequence of living in the internet age, however big an enforcement headache it might present for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the government agency charged with monitoring drug safety and efficacy.

That entrepreneurs with access to knock off drugs from foreign pharmaceutical makers might try to make a quick buck off desperate women looking for a cheaper, more convenient way of obtaining these nearly “magical” abortion pills they’ve heard about is, sadly, not unexpected.

What may surprise people, though, is the way the abortion establishment not only defends but promotes these online sales, and how this fits in with their long term plans for the abortion pill expansion in the United States . . .

Researchers in four states (TX, WA, CA, and NY) acted as “mystery shoppers” (their own words) looking for abortion pills on the internet that sellers said they would ship to the U.S. Over a four month period from December 2016 to March 2017, they identified and ordered 22 products from 18 different websites. (Read more from “New Push for Abortions Sold Online Without Prescription” HERE)

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Historic Magnolia Tree Outside White House to Be Cut Down, and Melania Trump Is Being Blamed

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First lady Melania Trump is fighting back this week against what she believes was a misleading headline and accompanying tweet by Newsweek.

According to Fox News, the magazine drew widespread criticism in response to its report on the impending removal of a historically significant magnolia tree on the grounds of the White House.

In its headline, Newsweek cited Melania Trump as the individual who ordered the tree’s removal. While that is a technically true statement, critics have since argued it leaves out important context.

Namely, experts have long warned that the tree, which is the oldest on the property, is in need of removal. It has reportedly been supported by beams and wires, though those safety measures have failed in the past and specialists note its presence at the White House poses a safety concern.

Reports indicate it was Melania Trump who gave the order to remove the tree, but a spokesperson slammed Newsweek for its take on the story.

“Newsweek’s bias and disdain for the First Lady and our administration was on full display when they actively chose to use a false headline instead of practicing responsible journalism,” said Stephanie Grisham.

Others in the administration and conservative news media claimed the headline was off base. Dan Scavino Jr., the director of social media for the White House, called the claim “100% misleading.”

In an interview with Fox News, one conservative media critic called the Newsweek piece evidence of the “usual war on Trump” he believes exists across the industry.

Dan Gainor, vice president of the Media Research Center, went on to mock the magazine’s recent sale, in which a buyer paid a nominal sum for the publication while accepting all of its debt.

“Remember, Newsweek sold several years ago for $1,” he said. “It appears the buyers were cheated.”

Several reporters at mainstream outlets, including NBC’s Tom Winter, similarly rebuked the headline. He added that the assertion was “grossly misleading” in a tweet this week.

Newsweek has since updated its initial report to include details about the tree’s condition, including the fact that “the cabling system is failing on the east trunk, as a cable has pulled through the very thin layer of wood that remains.”

For 70 years during the 20th century, the magnolia tree appeared on the back of U.S. $20 bills. Legend suggests President Andrew Jackson wanted the tree planted as a memorial to his deceased wife.

The tree is scheduled to be removed within the next few days. (For more from the author of “Historic Magnolia Tree Outside White House to Be Cut Down, and Melania Trump Is Being Blamed” please click HERE)

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Amazon, Microsoft Bosses in Sex-Trafficking Sting

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“High-level Amazon and Microsoft directors” face charges following a sex trafficking sting that was based on emails sent to brothels.

According to Engadget, Newsweek “got its hands on a slew of emails sent to brothels and pimps between 2014 and 2016 that document the industry’s patronage of brothels and purchasing of services from trafficked sex workers.”

“Among the emails, which were obtained through a public records request to the King County Prosecutor’s Office, were 67 sent from Microsoft employee email accounts, 63 from Amazon accounts and dozens more from companies like Boeing, T-Mobile, Oracle and local Seattle tech firms,” the report claims. “Some of the emails were collected during a 2015 sting operation that targeted sex worker review boards and resulted in the arrest of 18 individuals, including high-level Amazon and Microsoft directors. Two opted for a trial, which is currently set to begin in March.”

The revelation that Amazon and Microsoft directors were implicated in the sting prompted the two companies to release statements condemning sex trafficking.

“Microsoft has a long history of cooperating with law enforcement and other agencies on combating sex trafficking and related topics, and we have employees who volunteer their time and money specifically to combat this issue as well. The personal conduct of a tiny fraction of our 125,000 employees does not in any way represent our culture,” declared Microsoft. “No organization is immune to the unfortunate situation when employees act unethically or illegally. When that happens, we look into the conduct and take appropriate action. Microsoft makes it clear to our employees they have a responsibility to act with integrity and conduct themselves in a legal and ethical manner at all times. If they don’t, they risk losing their jobs.” (Read more from “Amazon, Microsoft Bosses in Sex-Trafficking Sting” HERE)

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France OKs Muslim Prayers in Street, Bans Christmas Movie

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France is a secular Republic, because it separates religion and state and it mostly sees religion as a private matter; restricted to the home and places of worship.

But for years, France has allowed Muslim street prayers and to heavily criticise them was simply not done. Sometimes even roads were blocked and cars were being redirected to make room for Muslim street prayers. It looks like when Islam is involved, France’s secular principles have suddenly disappeared.

For Christianity in France it’s a totally different story. According to the European Post, a Christmas movie in the French city of Langon was banned, because it was “too Christian”, or “not secular enough”. The European Post writes:

A Christmas movie was judged by teachers as “not secular enough” and was therefore banned from schools in the French city of Langon in the department of Gironde on 13 December.

83 students of a French school started to watch the movie “The Star“, a computer animated adventure comedy based on the history of Jesus, a movie produced by Columbia Pictures.

(Read more from “France OKs Muslim Prayers in Street, Bans Christmas Movie” HERE)

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Proven: Facebook Leads to Depression

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Facebook has acknowledged what multiple studies have already confirmed – the social network has a tendency to make users depressed, stressed, and envious.

After years of studies pointing to negative experiences for users of Facebook, the social media giant has finally conceded that users may experience periods of sadness or depression. “In general, when people spend a lot of time passively consuming information — reading but not interacting with people — they report feeling worse afterward,” Facebook wrote in a new blog post titled “Hard Questions: Is Spending Time on Social Media Bad for Us?”.

Facebook mentions a University of Michigan study titled “Passive Facebook usage undermines affective well-being: Experimental and longitudinal evidence.” In the study students were randomly assigned to read Facebook for ten minutes. The students who only scrolled reported feeling in a worse mood by the end of the day when compared to students who talked to friends and posted on Facebook. The blog post also mentions a study from UC San Diego and Yale which found that people who clicked on about four times as many links as the average person, or who liked twice as many posts, reported worse mental health than average in a survey.

The blog also notes that a study conducted by Facebook and Robert Kraut at Carnegie Mellon University found that people who sent or received more messages, comments and Timeline posts reported improvements in social support, depression and loneliness.

Simply broadcasting status updates wasn’t enough; people had to interact one-on-one with others in their network. Other peer-reviewed longitudinal research and experiments have found similar positive benefits between well-being and active engagement on Facebook.

Facebook concludes their post by stating that their research and the academic literature “suggests that it’s about how you use social media that matters when it comes to your well-being.” Interestingly, Facebook’s solution to negative emotional responses caused by too much Facebook is basically to use Facebook more often and in a more social manner. Facebook writes:

According to the research, it really comes down to how you use the technology. For example, on social media, you can passively scroll through posts, much like watching TV, or actively interact with friends — messaging and commenting on each other’s posts. Just like in person, interacting with people you care about can be beneficial, while simply watching others from the sidelines may make you feel worse.

Although Facebook is only now publicly discussing the effects of the social network being so heavily intertwined with billions of people’s lives, there have been studies examining the issue since at least 2013. Reuters UK reported that a group of researchers from the Institute of Information Systems at Berlin’s Humboldt University found that “one in three people felt worse after visiting the site and more dissatisfied with their lives, while people who browsed without contributing were affected the most.”

“We were surprised by how many people have a negative experience from Facebook with envy leaving them feeling lonely, frustrated or angry,” researcher Hanna Krasnova told Reuters.

According to a 2014 study published in Computers in Human Behavior, most users are not very social when using social media, choosing instead to passively consume information. The study, “Facebook’s emotional consequences: Why Facebook causes a decrease in mood and why people still use it,” found that this leaves users feeling unfulfilled and dissatisfied. Users experienced a decline in mood after spending time scrolling through Facebook. The mood decline was not prevalent during browsing the Internet in general. The researchers believe people leave Facebook feeling as if they wasted their time and this causes them to feel sad for being unproductive.

Another study published in the June 2016 issue of Current Opinion in Psychology found that Facebook contributes to envy of friends and could lead to depression. A February 2017 study, titled “Association of Facebook Use with Compromised Well-Being: A Longitudinal Study,” argues that using Facebook regularly can have a negative effect on a person’s well being. “Exposure to the carefully curated images from others’ lives leads to negative self-comparison, and the sheer quantity of social media interaction may detract from more meaningful real-life experiences,” the report says.

In the report “Seeing Everyone Else’s Highlight Reels: How Facebook Usage is Linked to Depressive Symptoms,” researchers investigated how social comparison to peers through Facebook interactions might impact users’ psychological health. The research provides evidence that people feel depressed after spending a large amount of time on Facebook. The problem was again attributed to comparing oneself to others.

Indeed, the concern over Facebook use was recently echoed by Sean Parker, Facebook’s first president. Parker was speaking at an Axios event at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia when he discussed the origins and implications of Facebook:

“The thought process that went into building these applications, Facebook being the first of them … was all about: ‘How do we consume as much of your time and conscious attention as possible?’” Parker said.

“And that means that we need to sort of give you a little dopamine hit every once in a while, because someone liked or commented on a photo or a post or whatever,” he told Axios. “And that’s going to get you to contribute more content, and that’s going to get you … more likes and comments.”

Parker added: “It’s a social-validation feedback loop … exactly the kind of thing that a hacker like myself would come up with, because you’re exploiting a vulnerability in human psychology.”

“The inventors, creators — it’s me, it’s Mark Zuckerberg, it’s Kevin Systrom on Instagram, it’s all of these people — understood this consciously,” he said. “And we did it anyway.

As Aaron Kesel recently noted for Activist Post,

This is also not the first time Facebook has been outed for manipulating perception. In 2014 they were exposed for blatantly targeting human emotions in an experiment without their users’ knowledge:

Facebook revealed that it had manipulated the news feeds of over half a million randomly selected users to change the number of positive and negative posts they saw. It was part of a psychological study to examine how emotions can be spread on social media. (Source)

The implications of these studies should not be ignored. The world’s largest social network is already a partner of the U.S. government and maintains close relationships with intelligence agencies around the world. The fact that we also know the platform is harming us on an emotional, psychological, and possibly even spiritual level, should not be taken lightly. (For more from the author of “Proven: Facebook Leads to Depression” please click HERE)

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Disgusting: Prestigious College Publishes ‘Trans’lation of Bible – Offers Course in ‘Queering God’

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One of the nation’s most prestigious liberal arts colleges is advancing a “queer theology” agenda with hopes of destabilizing traditional beliefs about what the Bible says about gender and sexuality.

Swarthmore College, founded by Quakers, is offering courses in “queering the Bible” and “queering God.” The courses were first reported by Campus Reform.

“Queering the Bible” is a one-credit class that surveys “queer and trans readings of biblical texts.”

“By reading the Bible with the methods of queer and trans theoretical approaches, this class destabilizes long held assumptions about what the Bible – and religion – says about gender and sexuality,” the course description reads . . .

“The God of the Bible and later Jewish and Christian literature is distinctively masculine, definitely male. Or is He?” the course description reads. “If we can point out places in traditional writings where God is nurturing, forgiving, and loving, does that mean that God is feminine, or female?” (Read more from “Prestigious College Publishes ‘Trans’lation of Bible – Offers Course in ‘Queering God'” HERE)

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