Blue lives care. Via Buzz Feed On May 24, an Orange, Texas couple named Riley and Emily Portie were riding their motorcycle when they were struck by a drunk driver. The parents of five died at the scene. Officer Eric Ellison of the Orange Police Department responded to the scene of the crash, and was […]
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By pandering to Saudi Arabia and the Sunni-controlled Gulf states, the U.S. government is playing with fire, allowing the spread of Sunni radicalism to destabilize targeted governments like Syria but unable to control the resulting terrorism, writes Joe Lauria. By Joe Lauria African nations were in the forefront of opposing a U.N. Security Council resolution…
from Propaganda Guard
http://propagandaguard.blogspot.com/2015/05/playing-with-fire-of-terrorism.html
from Blogger http://robinreyrshaw.blogspot.com/2015/05/playing-with-fire-of-terrorism.html
Rape? Paging Bernie Sanders? Cleanup, Aisle 5! Via Truth Revolt: Breitbart.com reports that at a budget meeting of the Wisconsin State legislature’s Joint Committee on Finance, state Rep. Dale Kooyenga (R-Brookfield) proposed school reforms which would expand school choice, require students to pass a civics test prior to graduation, and allow for the transformation of […]
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Look good and can’t fight. Via Stars and Stripes Addressing more than 60 soldiers at the largest military base in volatile Helmand province, an Afghan commander preached classic counterinsurgency doctrine: patrol through a nearby village to constrict Taliban movements, assure citizens’ safety and gather intelligence. It was the type of speech Western forces would give […]
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Uh, no. Via Mediaite: A recent poll of Democratic presidential candidate obviously puts Hillary Clinton in first place, but Senator Bernie Sanders is actually in second place with 15 percent support. And that might come as a surprise to some people, seeing as how Sanders openly calls himself a socialist and publicly takes positions that […]
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The gift of life. Via Daily Mail: A Hooters waitress and a longtime regular customer who she donated a kidney to are out of surgery and doctors say the operation was a success. Mariana Villarreal, who works at a Hooters in Roswell, Georgia, shared in a post on social media that the kidney was a […]
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Greg Gutfeld of Fox News
Fox News host Greg Gutfeld had some startling comments for supporters of traditional marriage during a panel appearance on “The Five.”
Arguing that conservatives need to use homosexual marriage “against the left,” Gutfeld said: “Gay marriage, in my opinion, is a conservative idea. The left generally hates traditions. It’s all about breaking with traditions, and in this case it’s embracing a tradition, one that stabilizes a community, one that is valuable for families. Why would you exclude that from a group of people who are born that way?”
Gutfeld expanded his critique to the traditional religious teaching of marriage as a union of one man and one woman.
“If they are born that way, the idea that you are saying that you cannot be part of this, that’s an exclusive belief! As somebody who is not religious, who has been but not [now], I was under the impression that faith should be inclusive.”
Juan Williams congratulated Gutfeld on his comments, but claimed conservatives historically used opposition to homosexual marriage as a “wedge issue.”
Panelist Eric Bolling responded that the reason traditional marriage became so important to the American right is because “the first few caucuses [and] elections are so important, and they’re so heavily Christian, they’re so heavily evangelical.”
Bolling said expressing a belief akin to Gutfeld’s would likely result in a candidate losing the Christian, evangelical vote, thus dismissing adherence to traditional marriage as merely a political necessity.
Paul Kengor, a professor and author of “Takedown: From Communists to Progressives, How the Left Has Sabotaged Family and Marriage,” strongly disagrees with Gutfeld’s comments.
In an interview with WND, Kengor stated: “With all respect to Greg Gutfeld, who I appreciate and usually agree with, gay marriage is absolutely not a conservative idea. Not unless, as liberals do with marriage, you redefine conservatism. I understand Greg’s point, and I’ve heard the argument he’s making before, but gay marriage cannot possibly be construed as conservative.”
Kengor believes homosexual marriage fails the most essential definition of conservatism – resistance to radical change.
Watch the exchange:
He observed: “Conservatism aims to conserve the time-tested values, ideas, and principles that have been sustained over time by previous generations and traditions. These are values – usually with a Judeo-Christian basis – that have endured for good reason and for the best of society, for citizens, for country, for culture, and for order. That’s a brief summation of conservatism that the late Russell Kirk, probably conservatism’s pre-eminent philosophical spokesman, would endorse – as would (and did) Ronald Reagan.”
Kengor said conservatives need to remind people of the startling newness and radicalism of homosexual marriage, a legal mechanism utterly unprecedented in human history.
“It isn’t even as old as the cell phone. You would never expect a conservative to rush into trying something as utterly new and unprecedented – and that directly repudiates the laws of nature and nature’s God – as this completely novel current-day concept called ‘gay marriage.’ Same-sex marriage not only revolutionizes and redefines marriage but also human nature generally and family specifically, which conservatives have always understood as the fundamental building block of civilization.
“One would expect a secular, radical progressive to support redefining marriage, because for progressives, everything is always in a state of never-ending, always-evolving flux and change. Progressives have no trouble rendering unto themselves the ability to define human life itself. To redefine marriage is small potatoes for them. A progressive can wake up tomorrow and conjure up a new ‘right’ over a grande skim latte at Starbucks.
“For conservatives, however, this is unthinkable. A conservative cannot even ‘conserve’ when it comes to gay marriage, because gay marriage is an idea unimaginable by any people until only very recent times.”
But Dr. Michael Brown, an expert who holds a Ph.D. from New York University and has researched and written a multitude of books on homosexuality including the upcoming “Outlasting the Gay Revolution” suggests Gutfeld’s comments reflect the successful strategy of homosexual activists to disguise the radicalism of their agenda.
In an interview with WND, Brown observed, “As I explain in my new book, early gay activists despised the institution of marriage and wanted to undermine it, viewing it as destructive, antiquated, and patriarchal. But over time, other gay activists realized that the radical strategy wasn’t working – chanting ‘we’re here, we’re queer, get used to it’ only went so far – and so new strategies were needed.”
Brown suggests gay activists framed their language to appeal to more conservative Americans.
“One of those strategies was to be pro-marriage and pro- family, partly because many couples did want their relationship to be recognized as legitimate, and partly because that was the only way to win the cultural battle. So, oddly enough, the only way the gay revolution has succeeded is by arguing that, ‘We’re just like everyone else and our families are just like the rest of yours.’”
Unfortunately, as Brown explains, there is an essential deception at the heart of this strategy. He says, “The problem, of course, is that this is not true because two men or two women do not equal a man and woman, and the world’s best mother does not equal a father nor does the world’s best father does not equal a mother.”
Like Kengor, Brown believes Gutfeld is redefining marriage and thereby rendering it something different.
“Marriage, no matter what Greg Gutfeld says, has never been the union of any two people but the union of a man and a woman. This has nothing to do with being inclusive, any more than saying an aquarium should have lions and tigers is a matter of inclusivity. It is a matter of changing the meaning of words until they have no meaning at all.”
More importantly, Brown says the real target of homosexual activists is heterosexual marriage. And this goal, he maintains, remains the same no matter how eagerly conservatives try to appeal to them.
“Many gay leaders openly state that own of their goals is to change the nature of heterosexual marriage – I cite them in new book – and so once again, we see that no matter how ‘conservative’ gay activism may become, it remains a radical movement bent on transforming society, and transforming it in a way that will not be for the best in the long haul.”
Kengor said Gutfeld doesn’t understand the real basis of intellectual conservatism and cites President Ronald Reagan, who stated at the 1977 Conservative Political Action Conference:
“Conservative wisdom and principles are derived from willingness to learn, not just from what is going on now, but from what has happened before. The principles of conservatism are sound because they are based on what men and women have discovered through experience in not just one generation or a dozen, but in all the combined experience of mankind. When we conservatives say that we know something about political affairs, and that what we know can be stated as principles, we are saying that the principles we hold dear are those that have been found, through experience, to be ultimately beneficial for individuals, for families, for communities and for nations – found through the often bitter testing of pain or sacrifice and sorrow.”
Recalling Reagan’s words, Kengor pronounces, “That’s a solid definition of conservatism.”
And by Reagan’s standard, Kengor claims: “Gay marriage, merely by its total newness alone, not to mention other problems, totally fails that definition of conservatism. It may be many things, but it certainly isn’t conservative.”
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(DAILYMAIL) — US Secretary of State John Kerry broke his leg in a bike crash Sunday, apparently after hitting a curb while taking a break after talks in Geneva, Switzerland
The diplomat was biking near Scionzier, France before the accident, which caused him to scrap the rest of a four-nation trip that included an international conference on combating the Islamic State group.
Kerry, 71, was in stable condition and in good spirits as he prepared to return to Boston for further treatment with the doctor who previously operated on his hip, US State Department spokesman John Kirby said.
from PropagandaGuard https://propagandaguard.wordpress.com/2015/05/31/john-kerry-breaks-leg-in-bike-crash/
Via Daily Mail: A Syrian Christian fighter has beheaded an ISIS militant to ‘avenge’ the people who have been murdered by the terror group. The execution took place in the north-east Syrian province of Al-Hassakah, according to British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. It claims the Christian militant took him prisoner when he found out […]
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Exclusive: The Islamic State and Al-Qaeda’s Nusra Front continue to make gains in Syria while Official Washington plays the blame game, pushing a dubious narrative that the crisis wouldn’t have happened if President Obama had just backed “regime change” earlier, Robert Parry reports. By Robert Parry Official Washington’s narrative about Syria’s civil war is that innocent “pro-democracy” protesters…
from Propaganda Guard
http://propagandaguard.blogspot.com/2015/05/holes-in-neocons-syrian-story.html
from Blogger http://robinreyrshaw.blogspot.com/2015/05/holes-in-neocons-syrian-story.html
Mr. Calhoun is holding a picture of his nephew as a child, another victim of gang violence. Via NY Post: A surge in New York City murders — including four people slain in just five bloody hours as the weekend began — has grieving family members begging Mayor de Blasio to bring back the NYPD’s […]
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Egypt’s brief experiment with democracy was crushed by internal and external forces alarmed by a populist Islamic government. With the backing of Israel, Saudi Arabia and others, a brutal military despotism took over and consolidated power, but it shouldn’t be called a government, says Lawrence Davidson. By Lawrence Davidson Military officers often take over countries,…
from Propaganda Guard
http://propagandaguard.blogspot.com/2015/05/egypts-descent-into-despotism.html
from Blogger http://robinreyrshaw.blogspot.com/2015/05/egypts-descent-into-despotism.html
Requiring car insurance stopped unlicensed drivers from driving. Via The Hill House Democrat Rep. Carolyn Maloney (N.Y.) has introduced a bill that would require gun owners to carry liability insurance. The Firearm Risk Protection Act, unveiled Friday, would require gun buyers to have liability insurance coverage before being allowed to purchase a weapon, and would […]
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The indoctrinator-in-chief has been on a literal rampage over the past month suggesting that climate change is the cause of..well nearly everything. One wonders how he sleeps at night worrying about such lofty and pressing issues.
As the coast guard article points out Obama has been omnipresent as a climate change apostle this month suggesting that it leads to global instability, poverty, environmental devastation, harm to animals, risks to national security, and is an insidious danger to general health. He is actually beginning to sound like Chicken Little- The sky is surely falling tomorrow if we don’t agree to the globalist climate change agenda. See bolded “Chicken Little” passage. While most American’s yawn over “climate change” and would rather discuss the bizarre Kardashian world, the indoctrinator-in-chief has done his best to whip the world up-or at least the brain-dead masses-into a frenzied panic.
Yesterday Obama suggested that “we weave climate change into science and social studies lessons because kids instinctively understand the importance of environment, impact on animals, health”, when asked how teachers should approach discussing climate change in a classroom setting. Of course no one wants free-thinkers or gasp, “climate skeptics” slipping through the cracks of the educational system so the children need to be bombarded from every academic discipline. Leave no stone unturned in the holy mission to indoctrinate children with fear mongering messages about a non-existent threat.
The origins of the “settled science number (97% of experts agree) that he continually repeats is examined below. Remember of course that repetition is essential to all phases of indoctrination. All authorities should seem to be in full agreement so that dissenters can be castigated and mocked.
Climate change: Mr. Obama, 97 percent of experts is a bogus number
Ninety-seven percent of scientists agree: Climate change is real, man-made and dangerous. President Obama tweeted that, and it has been repeated by countless others. It is tempting for a politician to claim that 97 percent of experts agree with you. But do they?
The paper is a treasure trove of how-not-to lessons for a graduate class on survey design and analysis: the sample was not representative, statistical tests were ignored, and the results were misinterpreted.
What was an incompetent piece of research has become a highly influential study, its many errors covered up.
Some of the mistakes in the study should be obvious to all. There are hundreds of papers on the causes of climate change, and thousands of papers on the impacts of climate change and climate policy. Cook focused on the latter. A paper on the impact of a carbon tax on emissions was taken as evidence that the world is warming. A paper on the impact of climate change on the Red Panda was taken as evidence that humans caused this warming. And even a paper on the television coverage of climate change was seen by Cook as proof that carbon dioxide is to blame.
The trouble does not end there. Cook has been reluctant to share his data for others to scrutinize. He has claimed that some data are protected by confidentiality agreements, even when they are not. He was claimed that some data were not collected, even when they were. The paper claims that each abstract was read by two independent readers, but they freely compared notes. Cook and Co. collected data, inspected the results, collected more data, inspected the results again, changed their data classification, collected yet more data, inspected the results once more, and changed their data classification again, before they found their magic 97 percent. People who express concern about the method have been smeared.
We would hope that the president of the United States of America does not spend time checking such trivia. That is the job of the editor of the journal, Dan Kammen of the University of California at Berkeley, who unfortunately has chosen to ignore all issues I and others raised about them. Similarly, the journal’s publisher, the Institute of Physics, and Cook’s employer, the University of Queensland, have turned a deaf ear to my concerns. What was an incompetent piece of research has become a highly influential study, its many errors covered up.
Obama warns Coast Guard cadets global warming a national security threat
At a time when the U.S. military is facing threats on multiple fronts — most immediately, the advances of the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, where the terror group recently seized Ramadi — President Obama told U.S. Coast Guard Academy graduates that climate change needs to be added to that list of threats.
“This is not just a problem for countries on the coast or for certain regions of the world. Climate change will impact every country on the planet. No nation is immune,” the president said. “So I am here today to say that climate change constitutes a serious threat to global security, an immediate risk to our national security, and, make no mistake, it will impact how our military defends our country. And so we need to act — and we need to act now.”
The president delivered the message at the Coast Guard Academy in New London, Conn.
The president in recent months has pressed for action on global warming as a matter of health, as a matter of environmental protection and as a matter of international obligation.
He even couched it as a family matter, linking it to the worry he felt when one of his daughters had an asthma attack as a preschooler.
His speech to the cadets, by contrast, focused on what the Obama administration says are immediate risks to national security, including contributing to more natural disasters that result in humanitarian crises and potential new flows of refugees. Further, the president said he sees climate change aggravating poverty and social tensions that can fuel instability and foster terrorist activity and other violence.
Obama said the cadets would be part of the first generation of officers to begin their service in a world where it is increasingly clear that “climate change will shape how every one of our services plan, operate, train, equip and protect their infrastructure.”
As for the impact in the U.S., Obama pointed to streets in Miami and Charleston, S.C., that flood at high tide and to military bases around the country already feeling negative effects.
“Around Norfolk, high tides and storms increasingly flood parts of our Navy base and an air base,” Obama said of military facilities in Virginia. “In Alaska, thawing permafrost is damaging military facilities. Out West, deeper droughts and longer wildfires could threaten training areas our troops depend on.”
The post Indoctrinator-In-Chief On A Climate Change Rampage appeared first on PropagandaGuard.
Via Yahoo: Transgender inmates jailed in Rio de Janeiro’s penitentiaries will be able to choose incarceration in prisons for men or women, a first for Brazil. The new rules were approved Friday by the state of Rio de Janeiro’s department of prisons. “It is treatment with dignity. It shows respect for this population,” the head […]
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Incoming Occupy Wall St sanctimony … Via Fusion.net: The City of Detroit began shutting off water access to residents behind on payments Tuesday, with thousands at risk of losing access. According to the Detroit Free Press, 64,769 delinquent residential customers owe the city’s water department a combined $48.9 million. That figure tops the estimated 41,000 […]
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Via: Fox News: Twenty-two people “may have been exposed” to an anthrax sample sent to a U.S. Air Force base in South Korea and are being treated, a senior defense official told Fox News — in the latest “precautionary measure” being taken after the Defense Department’s “inadvertent” shipment of live anthrax samples. Those samples were […]
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Via Fox News: The Obama administration warned Friday that a bundle of terror-fighting surveillance tools will expire at midnight Sunday unless Congress acts to renew Patriot Act provisions — putting pressure on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to break the impasse over the issue. The Senate deadlocked last weekend on a string of proposals meant […]
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Editor’s note: Mark Leibovit is one of the investment world’s top-rated gold timers, and helps investors anticipate and benefit from both the ups and the downs of the precious metals markets with his Leibovit VR Gold Letter (available to WND readers at a huge discount).
*****
From Jim Rickards’ Blog:
Why most gold bugs are dead wrong
By Jim Rickards, Editor, Jim Rickards’ Strategic Intelligence
One of the most persistent story lines among gold bugs and market participants who foresee the collapse of the dollar goes something like this:
China and many emerging markets, including the other BRICS, are looking for a way out of the global fiat currency system. That system is dominated today by the U.S. dollar. This dollar dominance allows the U.S. to force certain kinds of behavior in foreign policy and energy markets. Countries that don’t comply with U.S. wishes find themselves frozen out of global payment systems and find their banks unable to transact in dollars for needed imports or to get paid for their exports. Russia, Iran, and Syria have all been subjected to this treatment recently. China doesn’t like this system any more than Russia or Iran but is unwilling to confront the U.S. head-on.
Instead, China is quietly accumulating massive amounts of gold and building alternative financial institutions, such as the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank, AIIB, and the BRICS-sponsored New Development Bank.
When the time is right, China will suddenly announce its actual gold holdings to the world and simultaneously turn its back on the Bretton Woods institutions such as the IMF and World Bank.
China will back its currency with its own gold and use the AIIB, NDB, and other institutions to lead a new global financial order.
Russia and others will be invited to join the Chinese in this new international monetary system. As a result, the dollar will collapse, the price of gold will skyrocket, and China will be the new global financial hegemon. The gold bugs will live happily ever after.
The only problem with this story is that the most important parts of it are wrong. As usual, the truth is much more intriguing than the popular version.
Here’s what’s really going on.
As with most myths, parts of the story are true. China is secretly acquiring thousands of tons of gold. China is creating new multilateral lending institutions. No doubt, China will announce an upward revision in its official gold holdings sometime in the next year or so.
In fact, Bloomberg News reported on April 20, 2015, under the headline “The Mystery of China’s Gold Stash May Soon Be Solved” that “China may be preparing to update its disclosed holdings …”
But the reasons for the acquisition of gold and the updated disclosures – if they happen – are not the ones the blogosphere believes. China isn’t trying to destroy the old boys’ club – it’s trying to join it. China understands that despite the strong growth and huge size of its economy, the yuan is not ready to be a true reserve currency and will not be ready for years to come. It is true that usage of the yuan is increasing in international transactions. But it is still used for fewer than 2 percent of global payments, compared with over 40 percent for the U.S. dollar.
In addition to a bond market, you need the “plumbing” of a bond market. This includes a network of primary dealers; hedging tools such as futures and options; financing tools such as repurchase agreements, derivatives, clearance, and settlement channels; and a good rule of law to settle disputes, secure creditors, and deal with bankruptcies.
China has none of these things on the needed scale or level of maturity. When it comes to true reserve-currency status, the yuan is not ready for prime time. China is also not ready to launch a gold-backed currency. Even if it has 10,000 tons of gold – far more than it currently admits – the market value of that gold is only about $385 billion. China’s M1 money supply as of April 2015 is about $5.4 trillion. In other words, even on assumptions highly favorable to China, its gold is worth only about 7 percent of its money supply.
Historically, countries that want to run a successful gold standard need 20-40 percent of the money supply in gold in order to stand up to bank runs in the market. China could reduce its money supply to get to the 20 percent level, but this would be extremely deflationary and throw the Chinese economy into a depression that would trigger political instability. So that won’t happen.
In short, China can’t have a reserve currency because it doesn’t have a bond market, and it can’t have a gold-backed currency because it has nowhere near enough gold. So what is China’s plan?
Gold is still the safest asset, and every investor should have some in his portfolio. The price of gold will go significantly higher in the years ahead. But contrary to what you read in the blogs, gold won’t go higher because China is confronting the U.S. or launching a gold-backed currency.
It will go higher when all central banks – China’s and the U.S.’s included – confront the next global liquidity crisis, which will be worse than the one in 2008, and individual citizens stampede into gold to preserve wealth in a world that has lost confidence in all central banks.
When that happens, physical gold may not be available at all. The time to build your personal gold reserve is now.
*****
From Bloomberg.com:
Chinese gold standard would need a rate 50 times bullion’s price
A move to a gold standard in China would require an exchange rate of as much as $64,000 an ounce, 50 times bullion’s price now, according to Bloomberg Intelligence.
A traditional gold standard, in which the precious metal backs the currency, is basically impossible at current prices due to the amount of metal needed and there’s no evidence that the sixth-biggest bullion holder will adopt one, said Bloomberg Intelligence. Any attempt probably would involve new technologies and depend on the ratio of what is backed, it said.
Chinese policy makers are trying to establish the yuan as a reserve currency, and backing it with gold would help attract foreign capital inflows, the Bloomberg research unit wrote. Theoretically, to create an exchange rate of one ounce of gold for every $64,000, the country would need about 10,000 metric tons of the metal, they estimated. That’s nine times the nation’s official holdings and about 6 percent of all the bullion ever mined globally. …
*****
From Bloomberg.com:
Peak gold seen this year as mining’s ‘weaklings’ bite the dust
The world looks headed for peak gold this year. Record output, spurred by a 12-year bull run that fizzled in 2012, is ready to slide as mine operators that piled in during the good times finally give up hope of a recovery, according to the head of Russia’s second-largest miner of precious metals.
“We are waiting for the weaklings to drop off,” Polymetal International Plc Chief Executive Officer Vitaly Nesis said in an interview. “A lot of CEOs still hope against hope that happiness is just around the corner. This year will see some modest growth. Next year, we will definitely see a decline.”
Investors and some executives lambasted mining companies for producing too much high-cost gold. The industry lacked discipline, hurting prices, Randgold Resources Ltd. chief Mark Bristow said last year. Output rose to a record 3,114 metric tons in 2013 as demand fell 15 percent to a five-year low.
Production rose about 2 percent in the first quarter from a year before, while the market needs at least a 2 percent decline to support higher prices, Nesis said. Difficulty in closing mines, low energy prices and too much hope only delayed things.
“Sooner or later the mines will close down,” Nesis said in London. “We will see more forced closures.”
Weaker output will start in the fourth quarter of 2015 or the first three months of next year, he said. Still, it will take about four straight quarters of declines to improve the market’s mood toward gold prices and mining stocks, Nesis said.
*****
Special offer: WND readers can get a huge discount on the insider investor newsletter produced by top-rated gold market timer Mark Leibovit, the Leibovit VR Gold Letter.
from PropagandaGuard https://propagandaguard.wordpress.com/2015/05/30/rickards-why-most-gold-bugs-are-wrong/
(The Hill) House Democrat Rep. Carolyn Maloney (N.Y.) has introduced a bill that would require gun owners to carry liability insurance.
The Firearm Risk Protection Act, unveiled Friday, would require gun buyers to have liability insurance coverage before being allowed to purchase a weapon, and would impose a fine of $10,000 if an owner is found not to have it. Service members and law enforcement officers, however, would be exempt from the requirement.
“We require insurance to own a car, but no such requirement exists for guns,” Maloney said in a statement. “The results are clear: car fatalities have declined by 25 percent in the last decade, but gun fatalities continue to rise.”
from PropagandaGuard https://propagandaguard.wordpress.com/2015/05/30/house-bill-requires-liability-insurance-for-gun-owners/
(CNN) The Washington Metro board voted on Thursday to stop showing issue ads throughout its system, just a few days after Texas activist and conservative blogger Pamela Geller requested the system place ads showing cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed.
In a brief motion, the board’s chairman Mort Downey, wrote only that the “Board directs management to close WMATA’s advertising space to any and all issue-oriented advertising, including but not limited to political religious and advocacy advertising until the end of the calendar year.”
The board made no mention of Geller or the Mohammed cartoons. But in a statement, Geller accused the Washington Metro board of being “cowards.”
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“Ride the Thunder” scene
“I think the president should see this movie,” a decorated Vietnam veteran told WND after he attended the premiere of the wildly popular “Ride the Thunder: A Vietnam War Story of Victory and Betrayal” in April.
“I’ve been waiting 40 years for this film!” was a common refrain among hundreds of Vietnam War veterans and the South Vietnamese Americans – most with tears streaming down their faces – who gathered to witness their powerful story finally making it onto the big screen.
And now the movie is catching fire, with showings in at least four states in June.
As WND reported, the vividly accurate film about one of the most shockingly misunderstood wars in American history took Westminster, California, by storm when it premiered from March 27 to April 2, selling more than $30,000 in tickets in just three days during its limited release at a single movie theater. The film soared to No. 1 in the nation for box office revenue from March 27-29 on a per-theater basis.
And now, at one theater in Tempe, Arizona, “Ride the Thunder” Producer Fred Koster told WND that with advance ticket sales, “we sold out our original screen at the theater.”
“So they put us in a larger screen, and then we sold that screen out. So now they put us in their largest screen with 400 seats. There is a lot of excitement here.”
The film has been showing in Oceanside, California, this week as well. Koster said the moviegoers there have been very passionate about the movie.
“There were many veterans in tears telling us, ‘Finally the truth is being told about the war,’” he said. “A high-school teacher told us he didn’t know about this history of the war, and he is going to tell his class to see the movie and make a report on it. It really is amazing! People want the truth to be told.”
And now the film is coming to the following theaters in California, Texas, Arizona and Nevada:
It’s only the first stage of a national rollout. More locations will be announced for July.
Filmmakers encourage Americans to contact veterans, family and friends to spread the word about the film and share the website. Profits will support four charities: Semper Fi Fund, Agape International Missions, Field of Dreams and Allegiant Giving.
And 40 years after the fall of Saigon and the end of the Vietnam War, U.S. Marine and Army veterans remembered harrowing fire fights alongside their South Vietnamese brothers in arms – and their return to a nation that turned its back on its own freedom fighters.
But the momentous event wasn’t about re-opening old wounds.
Instead, it was a heartfelt celebration of brotherhood, a long overdue welcome home and a chance to finally tell the remarkable story of unparalleled sacrifice that most Americans have never heard.
“The film record of the Vietnam War is what will determine history 10, 20, 50 years from now when all the Vietnam veterans are gone,” Richard Botkin, executive producer of “Ride the Thunder,” told WND at the red-carpet event.
Watch the trailer for the film:
Many popular films dealing with Vietnam – such as “Apocalypse Now,” “The Deer Hunter,” “Platoon,” “Good Morning, Vietnam,” “Rambo” and “Full Metal Jacket” – serve as great entertainment, Botkin said, but they grossly distort the reality of the warriors who fought courageously to stop the spread of communism.
“Those films portray our troops as victims, as dupes,” he said. “It marginalizes them, shows them very unfavorably and the leadership unfavorably. It shows our Vietnamese allies as even worse. Our film is an effort to begin to turn the tide against that so that, in the future, people will realize that America was right to fight in Vietnam, to stop communism, and that our South Vietnamese allies were worthy of our sacrifice and that they fought well also.”
Koster told WND: “I believe, as many others, that our problems in America today have their roots in the Vietnam War era. It was a time when self-serving opportunists realized that they could spout outright lies and never be questioned or challenged on it. It was the beginning of the end of the checks and balances that the media should be providing to the people of America.”
The main character of the film is South Vietnamese Marine commander Le Ba Binh, who was a prime example of enduring courage in a battle of David and Goliath proportions as his battalion of only 700 men held 20,000 communist invaders in Dong Ha.
Binh, a man with few equals in the war-fighting profession, served 13 years in heavy combat (1962-1975) and another 11 years in communist prison camps. Despite numerous battle wounds and lost comrades, he showed unwavering courage in the face of extreme hardship.
“Americans, when they went to Vietnam, if they were a Marine, they went 13 months for one tour. If they were in the Army, 12 months. Some men went two or three times, but very few,” Botkin explained.
“The Vietnamese generally had one tour that ended with death or dismemberment, so they fought forever. My main character, Binh, fought forever – 13 years, wounded nine times. At the end of the war, the communists put him in prison – they called it euphemistically ‘re-education camp’ – for 11 years. He comes to the U.S. because he’ll never get ahead in Vietnam. He comes to the U.S. with nothing and prospers. That’s the Vietnamese story in America – suffering, hardship, come to America, work hard and succeed. It’s a great story.”
South Vietnamese Marine veterans surround commander Le Bah Binh, center, at the “Ride the Thunder” premiere (WND photo/Chelsea Schilling)
Botkin traveled to Vietnam seven times to do research for the film and the WND book that inspired it, “Ride the Thunder: A Vietnam War Story of Honor and Triumph.” He and Binh visited Saigon and toured battlefields where the South Vietnamese Marines and their American advisers had fought so valiantly.
“Ride the Thunder” Executive Director Richard Botkin at the premiere of the film:
The film cast includes many Vietnamese “boat people,” refugees who came to America’s shores on overcrowded boats. They endured violent storms and even vicious attacks by pirates. An estimated 250,000 refugees died at sea in their unwavering pursuit of freedom.
“No one dies breaking in to communist countries,” Botkin said. “They all die breaking out. These people broke out. They were the risk takers. Those are the people who came to the United States. We got the best of the best. The risk takers came here, and that’s why they’ve done so well.”
“Ride the Thunder” producers and film cast members, March 27, 2015 (WND photo/Chelsea Schilling)
Botkin’s name was on the lips of most veterans and Vietnamese-Americans attending the premiere, all of whom said they were profoundly grateful that he and Koster endeavored for so many years to finally bring the untold story to the big screen.
One Vietnamese couple, Kim Ly and Thomas Ly, was filled with emotion after seeing the film.
“Ride the Thunder” Executive Producer and author Richard Botkin
With tears welling in her eyes, Kim told WND: “There were a lot of memories. We cried so much when we were watching that movie.”
Thomas said his brother, an Army of the Republic of Vietnam general who was famous for his leadership at the Battle of An Loc in 1972, is his “first hero.”
“But Richard Botkin, he’s my second hero,” Thomas said. “When I watch this film, I am so proud.”
See the emotional reactions to the “Ride the Thunder” film:
Lt. Col. Gerry Turley
WND also interviewed Col. Gerry Turley, member of an all-star American team of advisers who found the moral courage to persevere when he was forced into one of the highest positions of leadership in the midst of a brutal and bloody confrontation.
Turley, whose real-life story is told in the book, admired Binh’s determination and sacrifice.
“I think that Col. Binh was illustrative of all of those other Vietnamese officers who served their country,” he said. “He really laid his life on the line so many times. Then he became a prisoner. All he had to do was say, ‘I accept communism.’”
Skipper John Ripley and “Ripley Raider” Sgt. Chuck Goggin, Ca Lu, 1967
Another leading character in the book and film is the late U.S. Marine Capt. John Ripley, who showed exceptional physical strength and courage when he took on the superhuman task of detonating a steel bridge at Dong Ha on Easter Sunday, 1972 – before the enemy could cross with its tanks and 20,000 invaders.
Ripley had not slept or eaten a solid meal in four days when he shimmied up and down the I-beams of the bridge for nearly four hours, rigging them for detonation. His legs dangled like moving targets, inviting enemy fire from snipers and North Vietnamese tanks. While most people might never have dared attempt the monstrous feat, Ripley never backed down, purchasing critical time for allied forces.
Actor Eric St. John
Hollywood actor Eric St. John played the part of Ripley in the film. He said he drew all of his inspiration and insight on Ripley’s character from the WND book, “Ride the Thunder.”
“It was a tremendous honor to play this great man. There’s a responsibility when you play such a great person, a historical figure,” he told WND. “There’s an abundance of great material about him, his life, his family, what he did in the war. It makes the job easier as an actor when you have a book with such rich details about this person’s life. Usually you’re using your imagination and also your life experiences, but … it was great to have that book to go to and get all those details. I hope I did him justice.”
Vietnam veteran Capt. Ed McCourt and his wife, Dr. Susan McCourt, at the “Ride the Thunder” premiere (WND photo/Chelsea Schilling)
Capt. Ed McCourt, who served in Vietnam in the 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marines, knew Ripley personally. McCourt, who grew emotional when recalling his time in Vietnam, told WND the film accurately depicted Ripley, the war heroes and the reality of the battles they fought.
“John Ripley was a real Christian type of individual,” he said. “Fidelity was number 1 on his list. He was a super individual, inside and out. … His troops would follow him to hell and back just because he asked them to go. That’s the kind of leader he was. … When his company would go out, he was like a [North Vietnamese Army] magnet. Every time they’d go out, they’d get in a fire fight.”
McCourt said his Marines liked to go with Ripley on patrol because “we knew we’d get into something and not just walk around for six or seven days.”
McCourt lamented that the U.S. military is still enforcing the same rules of engagement he says handicapped the warriors in Vietnam.
“We’ve got the same thing happening right now,” he said. “We send Marines, soldiers, airmen, Navy SEALs and whatever to combat, but we’ve got rules of engagement that will not let them win. This is ridiculous. We didn’t learn anything in Vietnam when it comes to that.”
Nationally syndicated talk-radio host Hugh Hewitt
Asked how he felt about the film as a whole, McCourt said: “I’ll tell you, it brought me closure. … I thought it was fantastic. … I think the president should see this movie.”
Nationally syndicated talk-radio host Hugh Hewitt said he “loved” the documentary film. He attended the premiere and saw the movie twice – once with a primarily Vietnamese-American crowd and a second time with a crowd of American veterans.
“The Vietnamese audience reaction was significantly different from the American veterans,” Hewitt told WND. “The American veterans were moved and touched by the story of their compatriots. The Vietnamese were, in part, angry and very chatty about what they were seeing because many of them had survived the re-education camps before they got to the United States.”
Hewitt predicted that the film will “play very well across the United States” and the word will get out “Dinesh D’Souza style.”
“It accomplished its ends. It was very sober. It’s not propagandistic. It’s just a telling of a story that needs to be told,” Hewitt said. “[T]hey allow the film to tell the story about the people who were against the war and the propaganda they created for the enemy and the fact that they need to apologize. It really creates a moral obligation on the part of people like Jane Fonda and John Kerry and Donald Sutherland to step up and say, ‘I’m sorry. I was wrong.’”
WND asked Hewitt: What was the most significant lesson you learned from this film?
“Don’t give up the fight for history,” he said. “It’s never over.”
from PropagandaGuard https://propagandaguard.wordpress.com/2015/05/30/finally-a-stunning-war-story-media-hate-to-report/
