First Texas, now Alaska: Pressure from legislators there has forced TSA officials to consider the use of common sense profiling.
What would Jefferson say? Five people arrested this weekend in D.C. for dancing at the Jefferson memorial monument.
A victory for freedom: The court has thrown out the ban on Christian leafleting in Dearborn, Michigan.
Tolerance in the Middle East: A provincial official in Algeria has ordered seven Christian churches to close.
In 2008 the government applied measures in accordance with Ordinance 06-03 to limit the activities of non-Muslim groups, ordering the closure of 26 churches in the Kabylie region because they were not registered. No churches had been closed down since then. [Protestant Church of Algeria] members argue, however, that the law is impossible to implement as officials refuse to register their churches despite efforts to comply. They said the authorities apply the law when they want to harass churches.
Local authorities warn gun owners that they will be “inconvenienced” if they carry unconcealed handguns legally in Philadelphia.
Or to put it another way, the police have decided they can harass citizens who happen to be obeying the law.
All your Moon rocks are belong to us: A NASA sting nets a woman offering to sell a Moon rock for $1.7M.
The real Obama and gun control.
On March 30, the 30th anniversary of the assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan, Jim Brady, who sustained a debilitating head wound in the attack, and his wife, Sarah, came to Capitol Hill to push for a ban on the controversial “large magazines.” Brady, for whom the law requiring background checks on handgun purchasers is named, then met with White House press secretary Jay Carney. During the meeting, President Obama dropped in and, according to Sarah Brady, brought up the issue of gun control, “to fill us in that it was very much on his agenda,” she said.
“I just want you to know that we are working on it,” Brady recalled the president telling them. “We have to go through a few processes, but under the radar.”
In the meeting, she said, Obama discussed how records get into the system and what can be done about firearms retailers. Her husband specifically brought up the proposed ban on large magazine clips, and she noted that even former vice president Dick Cheney had suggested that some restrictions on the clips might make sense.
“He just laughed,” Sarah Brady said approvingly of the president. Both she and her husband, she emphasized, had absolute confidence that the president was committed to regulation. [emphasis mine]
Hamas TV praises jihadi suicide bombers and encourages young men to seek jihad martyrdom by killing Jews.
Sure, let’s give them a state. What could go wrong?
And how about this: Hamas co-founder admits that any “peace accord” would merely be a prelude to war.
Saying Hamas would accept a PA state based on the “1967 borders,” Zahar made it clear a peace accord would only serve as a prelude to Israel’s destruction. [emphasis mine]
A family in Missouri faces a federal fine of over $90,000 for simply selling bunny-rabbits.
“She said, ‘Well, Mr. Dollarhite, I’ve got the report on my desk, and I’m just gonna tell you that, once I review it, it’s our intent to prosecute you to the maximum that we can’ and that ‘we will make an example out of you.” When John once again tried to determine which law he and his wife had violated, he said the USDA lady replied, “We’ll forward you everything.”
“Ma’am, what law have we broken,” John said.
“Well, you sold more than $500 worth of rabbits in one calendar year,” she replied, according to John.
Thugs.
TSA does a security drill, and forgets to tell the police.
Obama and ignoring the War Powers Act.
If nothing happens, history will say that the War Powers Act was condemned to a quiet death by a president who had solemnly pledged, on the campaign trail, to put an end to indiscriminate warmaking.
The point here has nothing to do with whether the military operation in Libya is wise or foolish. The point is that Obama has now committed American troops to a war without legal authorization.
Obama transparency: The White House has shut out a reporter because it disliked the slant of the newspaper’s news coverage. In the administration’s own words:
“I tend to consider the degree to which papers have demonstrated to covering the White House regularly and fairly in determining local pool reporters,” White House spokesman Matt Lehrich wrote in response to a Herald request for full access to the presidential visit. “My point about the op-ed was not that you ran it but that it was the full front page, which excluded any coverage of the visit of a sitting US President to Boston. I think that raises a fair question about whether the paper is unbiased in its coverage of the President’s visits,” Lehrich wrote.
Napolitano: “Very, very, very few” people get TSA patdowns. NOT!
PolitiFact Georgia therefore took the TSA figures and did some math. The TSA’s Allen told us that “on an average day, about 2 million people are screened at TSA checkpoints.” Three percent of 2 million is 60,000 people. That means that over the course of a month, roughly 1.8 million people receive a pat-down. That’s more than four times the population of Atlanta.
Philladelphia police harass, threaten to shoot man legally carrying gun.
I guess they finally found out what’s in it: Twenty percent of the new waivers to ObamaCare are in Nancy Pelosi’s district.
Pelosi’s district secured almost 20 percent of the latest issuance of waivers nationwide, and the companies that won them didn’t have much in common with companies throughout the rest of the country that have received Obamacare waivers. Other common waiver recipients were labor union chapters, large corporations, financial firms and local governments. But Pelosi’s district’s waivers are the first major examples of luxurious, gourmet restaurants and hotels getting a year-long pass from Obamacare.
Then there’s this new poll: By 17 percentage points, Americans support repeal.
Repeal is supported by men and women; by those in their 30s, 40s, 50s to mid-60s, and mid-60s on up; and by all income groups (ranging from under-$20,000 to over-$100,000 a year).
The Islamic education system: Taliban mullahs are now recruiting nine-year-old suicide bombers. More here. Key quote:
“Our mullah told us that when we carried out our suicide attacks, all the people around us would die, but we would stay alive,”
But we’re told that today’s Islam is just another religion, morally equivalent to modern Christianity, Judaism, or Buddhism. How could this be?
Not good: Google shuts off blog, then cuts off people who criticize Google.
Bill Clinton yesterday called for the creation of a government agency, either by the U.S or UN, to discredit bad political reporting and quash Internet rumors.
Doesn’t that sound just peachy keen: giving the government the power to correct and control political reporting.
Climate science meets Islam! A climate scientist was immediately banned from Saudi Arabia when he showed a picture of dog with Saudi dress during a lecture there.
A State Department report on religious freedom in Afghanistan: deteriorating. Two quotes from the report:
Respect for religious freedom deteriorated during the reporting period, particularly for Christian groups and individuals. Residual effects of years of jihad against the USSR, civil strife, Taliban rule, popular suspicion regarding outside influence and the motivations of foreigners, and still weak democratic institutions remained serious obstacles. There were cases of harassment, occasional violence, and inflammatory public statements made by members of parliament and television programming against religious minorities, particularly Christians, and Muslims who were perceived as not respecting Islamic strictures. Negative societal opinion and suspicion of Christian activities led to targeting of Christian groups and individuals, including Afghan converts to Christianity. The lack of government responsiveness and protection for these groups and individuals contributed to the deterioration of religious freedom.
and
The right to change one’s religion was not respected either in law or in practice. Muslims who converted to Christianity risked losing their marriage, rejection from their family and village, and loss of jobs. Following the May 2010 suspension of two NGOs on suspicion of proselytizing, some parliamentarians advocated violent responses toward the alleged apostates, including public execution. [emphasis mine]
This report actually came out in November, 2010, but I hadn’t known of it until now. It is worth reading. Though there are clearly some positive signs, overall the state of religious freedom in Afghanistan appears abysmal.
A judge has ordered the Obama administration to act on six offshore drilling permits within 30 days.
Recent data leaks from particle hunters is now raising questions among physicists about the question of controlling scientific secrecy. To me, the most significant quote from the article was this:
“Should leakers or bloggers be punished for making early findings public?
That this question is even asked by someone in the science field is disturbing. Though the leaks might be annoying and counter to the agreements the scientists signed when they joined these various projects, I wonder how the author expects such punishment to be administrated. And who would do it? And should such punishment apply to everyone, or just to the participating scientists?
Pakistan has cut off nine foreign satellite news channels, including the BBC, Voice of America, CNN, Fox,, NBC, CNS, IBN, Sky News, and Al Jazeera.
[Information Minister Firdous Aashiq Awan] said that certain violations had been observed in the past week’s coverage of the Abbottabad operation to kill al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden. “They were spitting venom against Pakistan,” said the information minister.
The FAA: slow to ramp up in its role of regulating human space travel.
This ain’t good. It also is not a surprise. The only real question is whether the government bureaucrats at the FAA will get out of the way of those who are really trying to do the work.
Islamic tolerance: In a fourteen hour attack on Sunday, Egyptian Muslims killed 12 Christians and wounded 232.
And Obama wonders why oil prices are high? Shell has abandoned its oil drilling plans in Alaska after an EPA regulatory board denied it permits. This after the oil company had spent $4 billion over five years developing those plans. To me, the quote below reveals much about the political agenda behind the EPA’s decision:
The Environmental Appeals Board has four members: Edward Reich, Charles Sheehan, Kathie Stein and Anna Wolgast. All are registered Democrats and Kathie Stein was an activist attorney for the Environmental Defense Fund.
Muslim policemen shouting “Allahu akbar” open fire on Jews praying at Joseph’s Tomb, killing 2 and injuring five.
And yet, it is Terry Jones who is criticized and imprisoned for wanting to stand in front of a mosque in the U.S. with a protest sign.
The world, and justice, is upside down.
More government foolishness: U.S. border guards seize chocolate Easter eggs.
