Friday, November 24, 2017

In the news, Thursday, November 9, 2017


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NOV 08      INDEX      NOV 10
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Information from some sites may not be reliable, or may not be vetted.
Some sources may require subscription.

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from The Atlantic
[Information from this site may not be reliable.]

Russian Money in Silicon Valley
The Paradise Papers tell a story about the Kremlin’s evolving methods of manipulating the internet—and how it exported them.

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from CNSNews.com (& MRC & NewsBusters)
RIGHT BIAS

Calif. NAACP Demands 'Racist' 'Star-Spangled Banner' Be Removed as National Anthem
The California chapter of the NAACP are prepping a new campaign for when state lawmakers return to the state Capitol in Sacramento in January, calling for the removal of the “Star-Spangled Banner” as the national anthem. The crux of the problem is the vaunted third verse of “The Star-Spangled Banner,” which alludes to slavery, that absolutely no one sings and few people know exists. (Not to mention that entire verse has been taken wildly out of historical context and doesn't actually promote slavery in any way, so there's also that.)

U of Oregon Students Demand Not To Be Punished for Being Disruptive Jerks
Has anybody else had just about enough of campus crybaby syndrome? Student protesters at the University of Oregon — go figure — wrote an open letter to UO president Michael Schill and trustees of the school demanding the school “cease the punitive measures” for storming the stage during a “State of the University” address by Schill. The student protesters call themselves the "Student Collective." What a nice little Socialist name. “We ask that you cease the punitive measures against students and engage in a dialogue without the cloud of threat or intimidation,” the letter read.

Kathy Griffin Takes Back Apology for Fake Severed Trump Head 'One Thousand Percent'
Kathy Griffin is back, again reminding the population about her time in the limelight a few months ago when she posed with fake, bloodied head of President Trump. Rather than rolling with her apology and moving on with her life, Kathy has decided to again revert to this angry spectacle by taking back her apology for the photo. In an interview with the BBC World News program HardTalk, Griffin took back her previous apology for the photo “1,000 percent.” It was always a face-saving fake apology.

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from Daily Wire
RIGHT BIAS, MIXED, American news and opinion website

Higher Ed Gets It Backward Again: Harvard University Hosts Anal Sex Workshop
On Tuesday, at prestigious Harvard University, the university’s annual Sex Week offered a new feature: an anal sex workshop. Hosted by adult shop Good Vibrations, the workshop, titled “What What in the Butt: Anal 101,” gave invaluable tips on learning how to stimulate nerves in the rectum, how to use anal beads, and how to avoid infections, according to The College Fix.

BIGOTRY: Christian Couple Reportedly Denied Adoption For Believing Homosexuality Is Sinful
An evangelical Christian couple in Canada is taking legal action after their adoption application was reportedly denied because of their religious-based views on sexuality. The couple, who are not named in court papers, allege "initial recommendation they be allowed to adopt was revoked after 'interference' by the Ministry of Children’s Services, and that they were told their religious beliefs related to gender and sexuality were contrary to the 'official position of the Alberta government,'" reports National Post.

Rand Paul's Neighbors Say Landscaping Issues Didn't Prompt Violent Attack
On Friday, Sen. Rand Paul was attacked by a neighbor as he mowed his lawn. The senator suffered six broken ribs and pleural effusion, which is excessive fluids around the lungs, after he was tackled from behind.

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from EUobserver

EU registers 'highest economic growth rate in 10 years'
The European Commission gave an optimistic view of the EU economy, saying that it is "on track to grow at its fastest pace in a decade this year." All member states will grow this year, while wages remain low and impact of Brexit and Catalan crisis are still difficult to assess.

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from FEE (Foundation for Economic Education)
RIGHT-CENTER BIAS, HIGH, non-profit organization

Is Free Speech in the US Doomed?
To understand why an idea should be rejected first requires that the idea be understood. Nowhere is the practice of engaging with a diversity of ideas more important than at universities, but the growing trend of conflating speech with violence spells certain doom for the future of political discourse.

An Extended Tax Reform Debate Will Subject Us to the Usual Absurdities
John McCain’s confirmation he’d vote against the House tax reform bill as currently proposed means Republicans won’t be able to lower taxes - for some people - nearly as quickly as most of them want to. In all, three Republican senators have indicated their unwillingness to vote for the plan, meaning Republicans would need Democratic votes to get it through. As Democratic support is unlikely, the American public will have to endure several weeks or months of grandstanding, proposed amendments, and further neutering of any real benefit to taxpayers. The worst thing about these rituals is they are always largely a debate over absurdities. Here are just a few of the perennial favorites.

Wanting Something Doesn't Make it a Human Right
Any observer of American politics must be struck by the ever-expanding roster of things people have asserted they have rights to.  But seriously considered, there is little basis beyond widely shared desires or wishes for certain things, which supposedly implies that there should be rights for them. From there, it is but one more step to the legislative or judicial attempt to create such rights, promoted as social improvements provided by government. Few have thought as carefully about this confusion between wishes and rights as Leonard Read, particularly in “When Wishes Become Rights,” in his 1967 Deeper Than You Think.  In a world where turning one wish into a political right leads to still-further transmutations of other wishes, and every such step erodes liberty, Read’s views still deserve serious consideration on the 50th anniversary of their publication. If not for the corrupting lure of something for nothing, people would long ago have rejected the idea that wishes imply rights. But as ever-more goodies have been added to the lure, many Americans seem to have decided that the loot available from invented rights trumps worrying about the burdens to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” necessarily imposed on others as a result.

Is College Prep Overrated?
The college application season is simply the culmination of a long and arduous competition which begins many years before graduation. We encourage students to invest in all sorts of tutoring, extra-curricular activities, sports, and high-profile internships in hopes that these opportunities will make their college application stand out. At the same time, we discourage them from picking up a low-level job because it might distract from their homework or their quest for the latest scholarship. Are we misguided in such a course?

Suppose They Gave a War and Nobody Came
We have a tendency to glorify war. People are drawn to the warrior, the strong and powerful leader who proclaims his willingness to go toe to toe with the "enemy". And in so doing, we neglect those whose aim was peace. War must be seen as a last resort.

Resolved: The Welfare State Should Be Abolished
That the welfare state is for the purpose of helping the poor is one of the great fictions of our time. There is nothing that the welfare state contributes to our lives that couldn’t be replaced by the normal operations of the market and civil society.

What We've Learned from a Century of Communism
Tuesday was the 100th anniversary of the Bolshevik seizure of power, which led to the establishment of a communist regime in Russia and eventually in many other nations around the world. It is an appropriate time to remember the vast tide of oppression, tyranny, and mass murder that communist regimes unleashed upon the world. While historians and others have documented numerous communist atrocities, much of the public remains unaware of their enormous scale. It is also a good time to consider what lessons we can learn from this horrendous history.

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from First Things

BETTER, MORE INCLUSIVE PARTIES
If our political parties want to be worthy of America, they should seek to represent more of America. The model of the current Republican leadership is force voters to choose between the policies they prefer and the candidates they find respectable. The Democrats are dominated by a power-hungry and vengeful upper-middle-class liberalism that is more intent on injuring (or even just seeking to injure) their cultural rivals than on winning elections. If our political parties want to be worthy of America, they should seek to represent more of America.

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from Missoulian
Newspaper in Missoula, Montana

Longtime Troy logging family puts its mark on Capitol Christmas Tree
When the chainsaw roared Tuesday and the chips began to fly off the base of the 79-foot Engelmann spruce destined to light up the U.S. Capitol’s lawn this Christmas, a lot of pride radiated from the direction of Pete Tallmadge’s family. “We’re not really too much for hoopla,” said Tallmadge’s mother, Chris. “But we really embraced this. It was an honor that our family was able to be part of all of this.” Pete Tallmadge was the sawyer selected to cut down this year’s Capitol Christmas Tree from the Three Rivers Ranger District of the Kootenai National Forest near Yaak.


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from The Olympian
Newspaper in Olympia, Washington

Why the Democratic dream of a construction budget is still in flux despite new majority
The election Tuesday of Manka Dhingra as senator from the 45th Legislative District means Democrats soon will have a one-vote majority in that chamber once she is sworn in. They already control the state House and the Governor’s Office. Trouble is Democrats need 60-percent approval in the Legislature to pass the financial package needed to approve a construction budget, which has languished in political purgatory since summer. Republicans have been holding up approval of the construction budget, which usually passes with strong bipartisan support, over a disagreement concerning rural water policy. Tuesday’s election of Dhingra hasn’t changed the Republican stance. Senate Republican Leader Mark Schoesler, soon to be in the minority, remained steadfastly against a construction budget, known as the capital budget, without an agreement to address a 2016 state Supreme Court ruling known as the Hirst decision. Schoesler predicted fellow Republicans would feel the same.

Bellevue company sued over foreclosures on military homes
Since 2010 a Bellevue company has foreclosed on at least 28 homes owned by military service members without obtaining required court orders, the U.S. Justice Department said. A lawsuit was filed Thursday against Northwest Trustee Services, Inc., in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington. The lawsuit claims the company violated the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, which protects the rights of service members who are on active duty by suspending or modifying certain civil obligations. The law prohibits foreclosing on the home of a service member during active military service and one year afterward without a court order if the mortgage originated prior to the servicemember's period of active military service.

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from Orthodox Christianity
Organization in Moscow, Russia

POLISH PM CALLS FOR AN EU WHERE CHRISTIANITY IS NOT CENSORED
Poland wants to be sure that Christian traditions are not subject to “ideological censorship” in the European Union, Prime Minister Beata Szydlo said on Thursday, emphasizing her party’s opposition to Muslim immigration. Along with Hungary, Poland has refused to take in any of its quota of the wave of refugees from Syria and elsewhere who have come to Europe since 2015, on the grounds that Muslim immigrants are a threat to their national security and stability.

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from Reuters
International news agency headquartered in London, England

Trump and Putin shake hands at APEC summit dinner
U.S. President Donald Trump and Russia’s Vladimir Putin shook hands at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit dinner in Vietnam on Friday, even though the White House said there would be no formal meeting. Trump and Putin smiled and stood next to each other for the traditional group photograph. Then they parted to sit at different parts of the table.

Polish PM calls for an EU where Christianity is not censored
Poland wants to be sure that Christian traditions are not subject to “ideological censorship” in the European Union, Prime Minister Beata Szydlo said on Thursday, emphasizing her party’s opposition to Muslim immigration. In a veiled criticism of France and Germany, the traditional motors of EU integration, Szydlo said that countries such as Poland should be a greater part of the bloc’s decision-making process.

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from The Spokesman-Review
Newspaper in Spokane, Washington

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