The former chairman of the Republican National Committee (RNC) says that the Republican Party has been "cast in the negative" by the media for opposing marriage equality, but the focus should be on how the party is compassionate for allowing LGBT people hospital visitation rights.
During a Sunday panel discussion on Fox News, host Chris Wallace asked former RNC Chairman Ed Gillespie, who was also a senior advisor to former nominee Mitt Romney and former President George W. Bush, how the Republican Party would deal with the public opinion quickly trending toward equal rights for LGBT people.
"I don't see the Republican Party or most Republicans changing in terms of marriage is between one man and one woman," Gillespie explained. "I do think that in the context of this debate, as in so many other debates, Republicans have been cast in the negative -- you know in the negative, saying we're opposing something as opposed to talking about what most Republicans are for."
"Most Republicans are also for the benefits of marriage in the legal system that are afforded protections like, for example, hospital visitation rights or survivorship benefits," he added. "And I think you'll hear more Republicans making that point, that we can do those things without having the government sanction same sex marriage."
Wallace wondered if Gillespie would have any problem with the 2016 Republican Party platform saying that "marriage is between a man and a woman."
"I wouldn't have any problem with that," the former RNC chairman insisted. "I believe the platform right now calls for a federal constitutional amendment to ban it. There may be a debate about that. I don't think you would ever see the Republican Party platform say we're in favor of same sex marriage."
(h/t: @igorvolsky)
The US operation to remove military hardware and vehicles from Afghanistan as troops withdraw after 12 years of war will cost between five and six billion dollars, officials said Sunday.
Among statistics released by the military about the process known as a “retrograde” was that 25,000 vehicles have been shipped out of Afghanistan in the last year and another 25,000 remain in the country.
About 100,000 containers are also still in Afghanistan, and will be used to remove mountains of equipment ranging from fighting gear to fitness machines, furniture and computers.
“The retrograde from Afghanistan is one of the most challenging military transportation operations in history in terms of scale and complexity,” Brigadier General Steven Shapiro said in an email.
“Our number of vehicles in Afghanistan has dropped by nearly half in the past year.”
Shapiro, the commanding general of 1st Theater Sustainment Command, said decisions were being made on what equipment was left for the Afghan army and police to take on the fight against Taliban insurgents.
“Ground commanders are able to nominate this equipment as they assess the needs and maintenance capabilities of their Afghan partners and numbers will vary,” he said.
“The figures of five to six billion dollars corresponds to the total cost of retrograde from 2012 through 2014, and they’re constantly being reevaluated.”
Most of the hardware will be flown out of land-locked Afghanistan or taken by road to the Pakistani port of Karachi, though the route has been hit by militant attacks and was temporarily closed by spats between Washington and Islamabad.
The new Archbishop of Canterbury warned against “pinning hopes on individuals” to solve all of society’s problems in his first Easter Sunday sermon.
Justin Welby said a “hero leader culture” in which all trust was placed in one person only led to false hope.
Failing to recognise human failure in any organisation was “naive”, he told worshippers at Canterbury Cathedral.
“Put not your trust in new leaders, better systems, new organisations or regulatory reorganisation,” Welby said.
“They may well be good and necessary, but will to some degree fail.
“Human sin means pinning hopes on individuals is always a mistake, and assuming that any organisation is able to have such good systems that human failure will be eliminated is naïve.”
He said: “Human fallibility recognised, God’s sovereignty trusted — these are also the only stable foundation for human beings in society.”
The leader of the world’s 80 million Anglicans pointed to newspaper reports on Friday that only 40 percent of churchgoers are convinced that he can resolve the problems of the Church of England.
“I do hope that means the other 60 percent thought the idea was so barking mad that they did not answer the question,” Welby said.
In a radio interview before the sermon, the archbishop said the Church of England must show it can manage disagreement “gracefully” over issues such as women bishops and gay marriage.
Welby said the Church faced the “challenge” of showing society that its members can hold different views but still remain “gracefully and deeply committed to each other”.
Only once it could show it was capable of reconciling different viewpoints could it be a “sign to the world” of peace and reconciliation, he told Premier Christian Radio.
Welby, a 57-year-old former oil executive who was only ordained in 1989, was enthroned on March 21.
One of his predecessors as Archbishop of Canterbury, George Carey, on Saturday accused Prime Minister David Cameron of making Christians feel marginalised because he had backed the legalisation of gay marriage and other policies.
Carey spoke out following comments Cameron made at a pre-Easter reception for faith leaders at which he urged them to oppose “aggressive secularisation”.
“It was a bit rich to hear that the prime minister has told religious leaders that they should ‘stand up and oppose aggressive secularisation’ when it seems that his government is aiding and abetting this aggression every step of the way,” Carey said.
But Cameron used his Easter message to hail the “incredible role” played by Christian churches and organisations in Britain and across the world.
“As long as I am prime minister, they will have the support of this government,” he said.
Looking for some fresh perspective? The perfect bite might do the trick.
Looks like Britney Spears ' latest trip to LAX was to catch a flight to her hometown for the holidays!
The pop superstar was spotted yesterday afternoon in Kentwood, Louisiana, looking adorably casual as she picked up a few Easter essentials at the local Walmart...and she even made the shopping trip a family affair, as she was joined by her sister, Jamie Lynn , and her new fiance Jamie Watson!
Ch-ch-check them all out as they pushed their stocked carriages through the parking lot (above and below)!
We just ADORE seeing all of them spending time together - especially during this time of year!
Everyone deserves to spend the holidays surrounded by their family and loved ones, and we're so glad that the Spears clan knows how important that is!
Here's hoping you all had a GLORIOUS Easter Egg Hunt this morning!
[Image via FameFlynet Pictures .]
Hacking is still a loaded concept for many, often conjuring negative images of corporate espionage, fraudsters and prank-minded script kiddies. PBS' Off Book wants to remind us that hacking wasn't always seen this way -- and, thanks to modern developments, is mending its reputation. Its latest episode shows that hacking began simply as a desire to advance devices and software beyond their original roles, but was co-opted by a sometimes misunderstanding press that associated the word only with malicious intrusions. Today, hacking has regained more of its original meaning: hackathons, a resurgence of DIY culture and digital protests prove that hacks can improve our gadgets, our security and even our political landscape. We still have a long way to go before we completely escape movie stereotypes, but the mini-documentary may offer food for thought the next time you're installing a custom ROM or building your own VR helmet.
Filed under: Misc, Networking, Internet, Alt
Prepare yourselves, Directioners!
This MAY be a lot to digest all at once!
But it looks as though Harry Styles, arguably the biggest break-out star in One Direction , may be ready to leave his boy band days behind him...and follow in the footsteps of Justin Timberlake and Beyonce into an extremely successful solo career!
We KNOW! We weren't expecting it to be this quick, either!
They've only released two albums as a group, after all!
But according to sources, while Niall Horan used the brief break from the Take Me Home world tour to attend his brother's wedding, Harry took off to El Lay, where he spent his free time writing and recording his own material at Paramount, with the help of Ed Sheeran !
Insiders explain further:
‘He loves messing around with some of the new songs he’s been working on. He’s bounced some ideas off his friend Ed Sheeran and has already laid down some vocals. Harry’s priority is obviously still with 1D. But when he decides the time to go solo has arrived, he’s likely to have a project raring to go.’
PHEW! We were starting to get nervous that he was already half-way out the door!
And we just simply don't know if our heart could take that!
HOWEVER, we are delighted to hear that the 19-year-old has his creative juices flowing, and is already looking forward to and laying the groundwork for the next stage of his career!
Smart, practical thinking, Boo!
Now give us a sneak peek at some of the tunes on which you were working!
It IS Easter Sunday, after all! Ha!
What do U think? Should Harry leave One Direction for a solo career?!
[Image via WENN .]
The Milk of Sorrow , 2009 (dir. Claudia Llosa)
#whm
'We will not let them fail,' says British commander, before local troops take lead role in fighting Taliban insurgency
British commanders have warned that the war against the Taliban is entering its most critical phase as Afghanistan's security forces prepare to fight the insurgency on their own for the first time without Nato troops alongside them on the frontline.
President Hamid Karzai is expected to announce that the Afghan army and police will shortly take the lead in combat operations across the whole of Afghanistan, and senior officers interviewed by the Guardian said the next six months – known as the "fighting season" – would show if the bold strategy had paid off.
In Helmand, where British forces have been based since 2006, commanders believe the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) will be able to cope.
But they also insisted that UK combat troops would remain on standby until the end of 2014 to help "in extremis" – and that the ANSF had to try to reduce the number of casualties it has sustained.
Brigadier Bob Bruce, the commander of Task Force Helmand, denied the approach was a gamble, and said it was the right time for UK forces to step back to allow the Afghans to gain confidence before Nato combat troops withdraw next year.
"This is their problem. This is their insurgency. We know for a fact there is no military solution to the insurgency; there is no way the military is going to win a counter-insurgency [war] because it is essentially a political issue. It is a battle of offers: the offer the government makes to the people and the offer the insurgents make to the people."
Bruce admitted the campaign was "at a very challenging stage".
"It is a period of some uncertainties but we reduce the risk by retaining combat capability right to the end, to the end of 2014. We will have the capability to do so, at a reducing scale. We are here to support them if they really struggle."
"I am not interested in gambles. People's lives are at stake. This is a plan at the end of a long campaign. It is a plan that has some risk, but that has been carefully mitigated. I know they are good enough. They are genuinely very capable now."
Bruce said the ANSF was a new and developing force and it needed to be weaned off the support of Nato's International Security and Assistance Force (Isaf). In recent weeks, the Afghans had asked for help on low-level operations but the UK had refused.
"They are finding their feet and they are doing this in contact with a pretty ruthless and determined enemy. They have had a pretty hard fight, as have we. Confidence comes when you have overcome a challenge and this summer will be their biggest challenge yet."
He added: "We will not let them fail. When they really need us, we will intervene."
Lieutenant General Nick Carter, the most senior British officer in Afghanistan, and deputy commander of all Nato forces, said people should not be surprised if UK troops were called into action between now and the end of next year, when Nato formally ends 13 years of operations.
"We want the Afghans to manage this on their own but we do still need to be prepared to support them in the event of this fighting season becoming very intensive.
And that is why it is important that we still have combat power available.
"People should not be surprised if there is a setback that needs to be dealt with, because Afghanistan is still a very difficult place and there is a good deal more work to be done."
Carter admitted the ANSF were taking too many casualties – 1,100 deaths in six months last year, a rate he described as "unsustainable".
He said the high numbers were "indicative of the challenges" still facing the Afghans, and warned it would damage confidence unless it could be brought down.
"Most of their casualties are caused by IEDs [improvised explosive devices]. Their counter-IED capability is developing and they find more IEDs than we do, but they need greater capacity.
"The top of the Afghan army and Afghan MoD [defence ministry] need to recognise they have to drive a culture down through the army, to get leaders to acknowledge that the casualty rates are unsustainable And they have to do something about it," he said.
Carter also took issue with those who used a phrase coined by the Americans, "Afghan good enough", as the benchmark for success. It was first coined by the Americans and has been adopted by politicians and thinkers on both sides of the Atlantic.
"I have never liked that phrase because it is patronising," he said.
"My sense is that Afghanistan has reached a point of progression. Progress now needs to be maintained over the next 10–20 years and we need to help stimulate this mood and this momentum.
"As you travel in that direction you will obviously have speed bumps, and we are not going to solve many of the problems overnight but provided you get some development in civil society terms that becomes irreversible, and I think we are not far away from that point. You can park thoughts like being 'good enough', and you can see Afghanistan being pointed in a direction that is progressive and meets people's expectations."
Nic Hailey, acting UK ambassador in Kabul, said it was "inevitable" that parts of Afghanistan would not be under ANSF control by the end of 2014. He warned that the Taliban were divided internally about whether to enter the political process before next year's presidential elections.
 | Baseball uniforms made their debut in 1849 when the New York Knickerbockers took to the field in wool pants, flannel shirts and straw hats. The uniform has c... | From: Chevrolet Views: 32  2 ratings |
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Conservatives reacted with outrage on Easter Sunday after seeing that the search engine Google had honored labor activist and civil rights leader Cesar Chavez, who died 20 years ago.
“I thought the Chavez-google thing was a hoax or an early April Fool’s Day prank…are they just going to leave that up there all day?” Fox News host Dana Perino wrote on Twitter.
Other conservatives also expressed their disapproval of the “doodle” via Twitter. Some of the reactions were compiled by the conservative website Twitchy, showing conservatives announce their astonishment that the search engine didn’t recognize the religious holiday.
One man declared that Google had alienated “all Christians in America today.” Others promised to switch to Microsoft’s search engine Bing, which featured Easter Eggs on its website.
Radio host Glenn Beck also joined the chorus of conservative outrage on Twitter, writing, “Cool for Google to not celebrate Easter but really?!!? Go to http://google.com . HAPPY Caesar Chavez day everybody! #HELIVES!”
The “doodle” placed a portrait of Chavez in the middle of Google’s logo to commemorated his birthday on March 31. The date is celebrated as a state holiday in California, Colorado and Texas.
The Chicano labor leader gained iconic status after co-founding the United Farm Workers to fight against unfair labor conditions. The conservative publication Breitbart.com described Chavez as a “cult figure in California” and complained it was “not the first time that Google has chosen to honor leftists over tradition.”
[Woman yells at her computer via Shutterstock]
Rescuers in the Scottish Highlands searching for skier Daniel Maddox, who was killed in an avalanche, find his body
Rescue teams searching for a missing skier who was killed by an avalanche in the Scottish Highlands have found his body.
Daniel Maddox, from Clackmannanshire, was skiing in an off-piste area behind Glencoe ski centre when the avalanche struck at around 1pm on Saturday.
The 41-year-old, who was said to be an experienced skier, was swept away and buried under the snow.
About 30 people from Glencoe and Lochaber mountain rescue teams, police, the mountain resort's ski patrol and a helicopter from RAF Lossiemouth were involved in the search
Yes, the times are a-changing. Since the US Congress began enacting legislation like NAFTA and trade policies for globalization of the marketplaces, the American worker got screwed royally and is suffering badly for it.
Thomas Friedman tackles this in his new piece, Need a Job? Invent It:
Wagner’s argument in his book “Creating Innovators: The Making of Young People Who Will Change the World” is that our K-12 and college tracks are not consistently “adding the value and teaching the skills that matter most in the marketplace.”
This is dangerous at a time when there is increasingly no such thing as a high-wage, middle-skilled job — the thing that sustained the middle class in the last generation. Now there is only a high-wage, high-skilled job. Every middle-class job today is being pulled up, out or down faster than ever. That is, it either requires more skill or can be done by more people around the world or is being buried — made obsolete — faster than ever. Which is why the goal of education today, argues Wagner, should not be to make every child “college ready” but “innovation ready” — ready to add value to whatever they do.
The technology boom and the global financial collapse has indeed made things utterly impossible for the youth of our nation to have a chance at succeeding after college costs have skyrocketed. "Suck on This" Friedman believes the children will have to invent their own job from now on.
My generation had it easy. We got to “find” a job. But, more than ever, our kids will have to “invent” a job. (Fortunately, in today’s world, that’s easier and cheaper than ever before.) Sure, the lucky ones will find their first job, but, given the pace of change today, even they will have to reinvent, re-engineer and reimagine that job much more often than their parents if they want to advance in it.
OK, I did invent C&L, so to speak ,and was the first at putting up video on blogs, so I can identify somewhat with the piece. But how many bloggers can actually survive out there in the marketplace of America? Not many, trust me. We're all facing hard times now, but if what Friedman (who married into millions) says is the only way for our students to make a living, then this country is sunk. The marketplace can only handle so many invented jobs at a time (there's one Twitter and one Facebook) and that would leave millions and millions of students left out in the cold trying to take care of themselves, without the resources to start a family or create a life of their own if they so desired.
But I do agree that the way we teach our kids may need to change. Here's an idea:
Teachers,” he said, “need to coach students to performance excellence, and principals must be instructional leaders who create the culture of collaboration required to innovate. But what gets tested is what gets taught, and so we need ‘Accountability 2.0.’ All students should have digital portfolios to show evidence of mastery of skills like critical thinking and communication, which they build up right through K-12 and postsecondary. Selective use of high-quality tests, like the College and Work Readiness Assessment, is important. Finally, teachers should be judged on evidence of improvement in students’ work through the year — instead of a score on a bubble test in May. We need lab schools where students earn a high school diploma by completing a series of skill-based ‘merit badges’ in things like entrepreneurship. And schools of education where all new teachers have ‘residencies’ with master teachers and performance standards — not content standards — must become the new normal throughout the system.”
But if the prescribed medicine is that our children are forced to invent their own jobs to survive then America is not ever recovering.
HAPPY FREAKING EASTER
Vincent.
Above the Law, 1988: inside Saint Mary of the Angels
“I’d take Bieber to the woodshed and spank him. His manager Scooter Braun is scared sh-tless. I don’t know what Bieber’s problem is. His career is over in three years anyway.”
- Peter Mensch, manager of Metallica and Red Hot Chili Peppers , on Justin Bieber's bad behavior, to The Sun .
[Image via WENN .]
“It seems to me that the intent of the gospel writers is not to make the resurrection seem somehow plausible or credible – this could hardly be done without diminishing its impressiveness as miracle – but instead to heighten its singularity, when, as even, it would seem by no means unexampled. I believe it is usual to say that that the resurrection established who Jesus was and what his presence meant. Perhaps it is truer to say that opposite, that who Jesus was established what his resurrection meant, that he seized upon a narrative familiar or even pervasive and wholly transformed it.
When, in the Gospel of John, weeping Mary Magdalene stoops to look into the tomb and sees angels, they ask her, ‘Woman, why weepest thou?’ The text creates the dreamy impression that the two angels speak together. Then she turns and sees a man standing behind her, Jesus, whom she mistakes for a gardener. He speaks the same words as the angels did, ‘Woman, why weepest thou?’ and he asks, ‘Whom seekest thou?’ Does he see and hear angels, too? Or does he know her thoughts? Or was it his voice she heard in the first place? Mary herself would not have known. Jesus seems to be teasing her toward delight and recognition, ready to enjoy her surprise, in something like the ordinary manner of a friend. The narrative asserts that he is a figure of unutterable holiness, only pausing to speak to Mary before he ascends into heaven, yet it is his very ordinariness that disguises him from her. Splendor is very well for youths and angels, but when Jesus takes up again for a little while the life he had wept to leave, it is the life of a plain man,” – Marilynne Robinson, “Psalm Eight,” from The Death of Adam: Essays on Modern Thought.
(“The Resurrection of Christ,” 1463, by Piero della Francesca, via Wikimedia Commons)
Amid much speculation on the future of the “smartwatch,” the consensus is growing: the time is right.
In recent weeks, reports have surfaced about plans for smartwatches from tech giants Apple, Samsung and Google, with launches possible later this year.
“I think we have reached a tipping point,” said Avi Greengart, analyst on consumer devices at the research firm Current Analysis.
Greengart said 2013 may be the year for the smartwatch because “the components have gotten small enough and cheap enough” and a large number of consumers now have smartphones that can connect to a wearable device.
The idea of the connected watch has been around for at least a decade: Microsoft had one in 2003. And some devices are already on the market including from Sony, the crowdfunded maker Pebble and Italian-based firm i’m.
Up to now, smartwatches have been able to connect to phones wirelessly to give users signals about new messages, and allow some limited Web access.
But analysts say once they gain traction, app developers can come up with new functions, possibly drawing on health and fitness monitoring devices now in use.
The likely entry of new heavyweight players like Apple “can catalyze the market,” Greengart said, while noting that any new device has to prove its utility to consumers.
“This is a market that needs to be created.”
Even though Apple has maintained its customary silence on the subject, that has not stopped speculation on the Internet, including a likely design of a curved glass “iWatch.”
ABI Research predicts that smartwatches and other wearable computing devices will “explode in popularity over the next year” and grow to 485 million annual device shipments by 2018.
“The furor about wearable technologies, particularly smart watches and smart glasses is unsurprising,” said ABI analyst Josh Flood.
“Apple’s curved glass-based watch could prove to be a revelation in the wearable technologies market. The major question is whether the digital time piece will act as a complimentary device to the company’s iPhone smartphones or as a standalone product with other functionalities like health or activity tracking capabilities.”
Citi analyst Oliver Chen said the smartwatch segment, which now includes devices from Fossil and Movado, could easily evolve into a $6 billion annual business with “higher than average” profit margins.
“A successful smartwatch likely needs to create a completely new market and not compete on fashion or luxury brand prestige,” Chen said.
Forrester Research analyst Sarah Rotman Epps noted that “the body is the next frontier for personal computing,” and that “it seems like only a matter of time before Apple enters the market directly.”
Epps said that this market could grow because “consumers love their smartphones, and there is some appeal in having an additional touchpoint,” which could allow a user to check messages or use other smartphone apps from the wrist.
But she noted that there are several other potential types of competing wearable computing devices, including Google Glass and other “smart” eyeglasses.
“I’m not convinced the smartwatch is the killer form factor,” Epps told AFP.
Danielle Levitas, analyst at the research firm IDC, said there is an opportunity for smartwatches and other wearable devices because consumers want to be connected without pulling out a phone, which might be impolite in some situations.
“It’s less rude to glance at your wrist than to take your phone from your back pocket,” she said.
But it will take some time for the market to sort out what consumers want.
“You could have a device with all the smarts embedded, or a device with lower costs that connects to a smartphone,” Levitas said.
Pricing of a fully autonomous watch could be $300 or more, she noted, plus data charges, but a smartphone-linked device may cost as little as $100.
Levitas said manufacturers will have to find the right size of display — large enough to be useful without being cumbersome.
“It’s going to be harder for women than men,” she said.
“If it’s big enough to be useful, it may look totally dorky. This may only appeal to certain segments.”
This article originally appeared on Usmagazine.com: Kourtney Kardashian Considers Being Khloe Kardashian's Surrogate
Looks like Justin Bieber and his pet monkey are inseparable!
Yeah, his Instagram pics are getting more and more b-a-n-a-n-a-s! But, he's not alone! Check out what other celebs were up to this week!
CLICK HERE to view the gallery "This Week In Celebrity Twitpics And Instagrams!"
CLICK HERE to view the gallery "This Week In Celebrity Twitpics And Instagrams!"
CLICK HERE to view the gallery "This Week In Celebrity Twitpics And Instagrams!"
CLICK HERE to view the gallery "This Week In Celebrity Twitpics And Instagrams!"
CLICK HERE to view the gallery "This Week In Celebrity Twitpics And Instagrams!"
P.S. CLICK HERE to "follow" Perez on Twitter!
P.P.S. CLICK HERE to "like" Perez on Facebook!
[Image via Justin Bieber's Instagram .]
So how's that rebranding effort working out for you Reince? Maybe instead of hoping this guy will resign from the RNC, someone could fire him instead.
Michigan Republican Refuses To Resign, Stands By Anti-Gay Facebook Post:
The Republican official in Michigan embroiled in controversy over an anti-gay Facebook post said Friday that he won't be heeding the calls to step down and he stands by the content of the inflammatory article.
Dave Agema, a Republican National Committeeman and former Michigan state representative, told Newschannel 3 that he has no intention of resigning, despite calls from members of his own party to do so. On Wednesday, Agema posted an article on his Facebook page in which homosexuals were described as "filthy." The article contained "some statistics about the homosexual lifestyle," such as: "50% of suicides can be attributed to homosexuals (10)" and "Homosexuals account for 3-4% of all gonorrhea cases, 60% of all syphilis cases, and 17% of all hospital admissions (other than for STDs) in the United States (5)." A screen grab from the Facebook post can be viewed here.
While Agema distanced himself from the "filthy" characterization, he was quick to highlight the statistics on the gay "lifestyle and what it causes."
"They quoted as what somebody else said and attributed it to me; I didn't say that," Agema told the news station. "So, do I agreewith everything that that guy and the way he said it in the article, no. But he gives a lot of statistics on the results of the health and mental and physical health of the lifestyle and what it causes."
Cenk Uygur did a really nice job of pointing out in the clip above that if Agema didn't want what was in the article attributed to him, then maybe he should have thought twice about posting it and endorsing what was in it, and that he still agreed with the better part of the article, which is frankly, just bullshit made up statistics.
Pam's House Blend has more on why it's important to be paying attention to the lies being pushed by the religious right and then parroted by anti-gay bigots like Agema here: Gay community wasting good opportunity in Dave Agema controversy:
For those who wonder why bloggers like me “pay attention” to the religious right and spotlight their lies, the following post is you:
Michigan Republican Committeeman: Homosexuality ‘Usually Leads To Early Death ’ – During the Supreme Court hearings this week on Prop 8 and DOMA, Michigan Republican Committeeman Dave Agema posted on his Facebook page something called Statistics on Homosexuality , a vicious anti-gay list of lies, including:
Many homosexual sexual encounters occur while drunk, high on drugs, or in an orgy setting.
Homosexuals live unhealthy lifestyles, and have historically accounted for the bulk of syphilis, gonorrhea, Hepatitis B, the “gay bowel syndrome” (which attacks the intestinal tract), tuberculosis and cytomegalovirus .
25-33% of homosexuals and lesbians are alcoholics .
Of homosexuals questioned in one study reports that 43% admit to 500 or more partners in a lifetime, 28% admit to 1000 or more in a lifetime, and of these people, 79% say that half of those partners are total strangers, and 70% of those sexual contacts are one night stands (or, as one homosexual admits in the film “The Castro”, one minute stands).
Also, it is a favorite past-time of many homosexuals to go to “cruisy areas” and have anonymous sex.
78% of homosexuals are affected by STDs. 50% of suicides can be attributed to homosexuals The median age of death of homosexuals is 42 (only 9% live past age 65). This drops to 39 if the cause of death is AIDS. The median age of death of a married heterosexual man is 75. The median age of death of lesbians is 45 (only 24% live past age 65). The median age of death of a married heterosexual woman is 79.
Homosexuals are 100 times more likely to be murdered (usually by another homosexual) than the average person, 25 times more likely to commit suicide, and 19 times more likely to die in a traffic accident.
It wasn’t that long ago that “high-profile” religious right groups such as the Family Research Council, the American Family Association, the National Organization for Marriage, and Concerned Women for America peddled this information free and unashamed. They still do peddle these lies, but only covertly.
You see, this is why it is so important for us to focus on religious right groups and spokespeople. Not only because of the lies they peddle, but because how these lies can influence people already with an animus towards the lgbt community, such as Agema. These false statistics provide those folks with the push they need to attack the lgbt community with violence or anti-lgbt legislation.
Indeed, the vast majority of anti-gay legislation (whether it be Prop 8, DOMA, or fiendish legislation targeting our transgender brothers and sisters and people with HIV or AIDS) is rooted in these lies masquerading as good research.
It’s why I work as hard as I do to call these folks out.
Unfortunately as the media focuses on Agema’s nonsense, very few – if any at all – are making the point to refute his lies. The following links are posts I have done in the past which does look at claims made by Agema.
Go read the rest for the links to her past posts debunking these lies.
IDF has insufficient number of Iron Dome batteries to protect military sites and civilian areas from Hezbollah, says commander
Israel's vaunted missile defence system is likely to leave the civilian population exposed to an incoming barrage of rockets in the event of a war as it is deployed to protect key strategic and military sites, according the country's commander of the home front.
Despite the success of the Iron Dome anti-missile batteries at intercepting rockets launched from Gaza during November's eight-day conflict, the five units currently operational are insufficient to protect against the superior firepower of Hezbollah in Lebanon.
"I will recommend protecting the country's functional continuity and the ability to maintain an [Israeli Defence Forces] offensive effort over time, until the war is won," Major General Eyal Eisenberg, head of the home front command, said in an interview with Haaretz.
"That means protecting power plants and the air force bases before the big cities."
Israel needed more than 10 batteries to protect the civilian population in the targeted regions, he said. "As of now... we will have to introduce an order of priorities in resources. We will have to make a tough, trenchant and clear decision."
According to the Israeli military, about 1,500 rockets were launched from Gaza during Operation Pillar of Defence. Iron Dome intercepted 85% of those that were a risk to life. Four Israeli civilians were killed by rockets in the conflict.
Hezbollah has about 5,000 warheads in its arsenal, Eisenberg said. The area around Tel Aviv, Israel's major metropolis, will come under a massive missile barrage, he added. "In my estimation, the first days will be extremely difficult. I am preparing for a scenario in which more than a thousand missiles and rockets a day are fired at the civilian rear."
Instead of being in the rear, Israeli citizens would find themselves "on a second front".
The success of Iron Dome during November's conflict had given the Israeli public a false sense of security, he said. "Because of Iron Dome, the civilian population perceived the confrontation as being less intensive than it actually was."
In a future conflict, it was imperative the public followed self-defence instructions "as though there were no such defence systems".
It will be at least two years before Israel acquires another five operational Iron Dome batteries.
Powerful supporters in security forces accused of complicity in brutal attacks by militia in Democratic Republic of the Congo
Early on a Sunday morning last summer, the villagers of Epulu awoke to the sounds of shots and screaming. In the eastern reaches of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, that can often mean another round of violence and ethnic murder is under way. In this case, however, something even more horrific was afoot.
The village was under attack from a feared militia. In this case, the gunmen were motivated not by tribal rivalry but by land, gold and ivory. The village is situated inside a nature reserve in the Ituri rainforest, an area covering 5,000 square miles that is supposed to be off limits to hunters and gold prospectors. The militia, led by a former elephant poacher called Paul Sadala, has terrorised communities inside the reserve since 2012, employing methods brutal even by the grisly standards of this part of the world.
"The attacks were absolutely terrifying," said Justin Oganda, a representative of the residents of Epulu who remain displaced in Mambasa, about 50 miles away. By the end of that day in June, the militiamen had murdered, raped, burned people alive and even eaten the flesh and heart of one of their victims. "To have killed so many people, to burn them alive, the cannibalism … Mentally they cannot be normal," Oganda added.
As ever with Congo, it is not just a simple tale of victims and villains. Sadala, who goes by the nom de guerre Morgan, and his "Mai Mai Morgan" gunmen are thought to have powerful supporters in the security forces who enable their lucrative illegal trade in ivory and smuggled gold. Some local people with an eye on the gold in the ground beneath their feet tacitly support Morgan, who improbably also likes to be called Chuck Norris.
"There is complicity between [Morgan] and certain elements within the army," said Jefferson Abdallah Pene Mbaka, the MP for Mambasa. "With the support of certain army authorities [Mai Mai Morgan] have increased their poaching activities. The sale of ivory is organised by these figures in the army." Many people in the region believe soldiers have orders not to arrest Morgan.
Morgan's principal targets are those who operate and police the Unesco-recognised world heritage site known as the Okapi wildlife reserve, or by its French acronym, RFO. The laws of the reserve forbid the hunting of endangered species, especially elephants and okapi, and the exploitation of its gold reserves.
The headquarters of the park rangers is in Epulu, the village targeted in the attack last June. "Their goal was to kill all the guards, but most of us escaped," said Captain Benjamin Kalimutima Lulimba, a park ranger living in Epulu. "They murdered two guards, Fiston and Badus, and the wife of a guard called Amisi. They tied up Badus and Amisi's wife, put them inside a tyre and burned them alive. Then they cut and ate part of Fiston's leg, and they cut out his heart and ate it."
A group of militia fighters then broke off and moved towards the okapi zoo in the rangers' compound. The zoo had been established 25 years ago to house a small number of the timid and endangered okapis that are the familiar image of Congo's diverse fauna. Morgan's men slaughtered 13 of the 14 okapis there, and wounded the 14th so gravely it later died from its injuries. For Rosmarie Ruf, a conservationist with Gilman International Conservation (GIC) and co-founder of the zoo, this was the brutal end to a lifetime's work. "Twenty-five years of work is gone," said Ruf, sitting metres from the empty okapi pen as the Epulu river rushed past. "All that effort, all that money. It's my life which has been … I don't want to say ruined, but here now I'm standing in front of nothing."
The suspicion is that at least some of Morgan's booty winds up 280 miles south-west of Epulu, in the hands of the Congolese army. At the end of 2012 the United Nations group of experts on Congo issued a report that accused Congolese general Jean Claude Kifwa in the provincial capital, Kisangani, of giving "arms, ammunition, uniforms and communication equipment to Mai Mai Morgan in exchange for ivory".
Kifwa has vigorously denied any link to the militia, but one of Morgan's fighters, captured and held in prison in the district capital, Bunia, confirmed the trade with figures in Kisangani. "Morgan sent gold and ivory to Kisangani and our weapons came from there," said Basomaka Abundu, who took part in Morgan's attack on Mambasa in January.
Despite the brutality of the attacks, many reserve dwellers express sympathy for Morgan, with some even confessing to outright support for him. "I am behind Morgan," said an 18-year-old in a small village not far from Epulu who refused to give his name. "Because Morgan is here the rangers cannot patrol and we are free to dig for gold. But I wouldn't support him if he came here and burned our homes."
Most people, however, have a more nuanced position, saying that although revolted by his methods, they support his stated desire to see the size of the reserve reduced and more rights given to locals to hunt and dig.
"The forest is where we find what we need to survive," said Matope Mapilanga, the leader of a Pygmy community on the edge of the reserve. "[The park authorities] have cut our land, there is now a part we cannot access. It has worsened in the last few years, since the RFO got bigger. We would prefer that the people of the RFO weren't in our forest. We feel like the big non-governmental organisations and the rangers have privileged the animals over the people."
The conservationists remain unconvinced, though. "The people who say they support Morgan are just those people who want to dig gold and exploit timber," said Robert Mwinyihali, the project leader for Wildlife Conservation Society's (WCS) work in the Ituri rainforest. WCS has given financial backing to the park rangers and the Congolese Wildlife Authority's work in the reserve. "There are laws in Congo about the exploitation of resources," said Mwinyihali. "These people can either respect those laws, or they can ignore them and commit criminal acts."
WCS and GIC's support for the park rangers has led to accusations that they are partly responsible for the militarisation of the conflict. However, Mwinyihali said the biggest problem was the absence of effective intervention by the Congolese state, which meant NGOs and the park rangers had had to fulfil roles that should be the government's responsibility: for example, bringing in armed guards to track Morgan. Bernard Iyomi Iyatshi, the director of park rangers, complained about a lack of government funds for his anti-poaching operations.
Mwinyihali also accused the Congolese government of doing little to reconcile the park authorities and local communities. As mutual resentment and misunderstanding grows, Morgan and other armed groups are able to exploit the toxic atmosphere and continue their poaching, digging and savage attacks.
"There are no job opportunities created by government investment here," said Mwinyihali. "This has led to this crisis, where people have no option but to want to dig for gold. This leads to the conflict with the park authorities, and then it is only a small step to people taking up arms and joining militias."
Despite being a member of the ruling party, Mbaka is an outspoken critic of the government's policy, or lack of it, in the region. "Swaths of the park are inaccessible, there's just no infrastructure," he said. "It's an absolute scandal, there's potentially so much wealth here. It also means it is difficult to track and stop men like Morgan."
Even if Morgan is caught, people fear that his powerful backers in the army will find another militia to continue poaching and stealing gold. Back in Mambasa, Justin Oganda thinks carefully when asked what could resolve the crisis. "Really, we need to discourage the international markets for ivory and smuggled gold," he said. "That would help. Until then, these armed groups will keep coming to kill the animals and take the minerals."
The growth in the global ivory trade has had a devastating impact on the African elephant population. An estimated 17,000 elephants were killed for their ivory by poachers in 2011, and while there are no definitive statistics for 2012, poaching is thought to be on the rise.
On 14 March a Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites) conference issued a warning to the eight countries most heavily implicated in the ivory trade; they have until July 2014 to formulate and implement plans to reduce the trade in ivory or face sanctions.
The supply countries named are Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania, but the problem in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is significant. The population of elephants in eastern Congo has fallen by about 50% over the past decade due to poaching and conflicts in the region.
About 70% per cent of the ivory from slaughtered African elephants goes to China, another of the countries warned by Cites. The price of ivory has rocketed. Cites reported that the price more than doubled between 2004 and 2010, from about $300 to $700 (£198 to £462) a kilogramme. An Associated Press investigation in 2010 claimed ivory was being sold in China for $1,800 a kilogramme.
The endangered and protected okapi is also hunted in the Ituri rainforest. Rosmarie Ruf, of Gilman International Conservation, estimated that in the 1990s there were 5,000 okapis in the rainforest. Ten years later that figure had fallen to 3,400. The current population is not known but a similar drop in the next 10 years would be disastrous.
There are two kinds of computer owners: those that backup their data, and those who will backup after they lose something irreplaceable. It's that last group for whom World Backup Day exists, and the special occasion has returned for a third year to make sure we all wind up in that first, very responsible camp. Thankfully, it's easier than ever to have at least some kind of safety net. Along with ridiculously high-capacity external hard drives, both Mac and Windows users have simple built-in software to make backup a set-it-and-forget-it affair. No money or room for an extra drive on the desk? No problem: cloud storage is ubiquitous, and even includes unlimited options. Mobile users have it a little easier with a myriad of Apple, Google and Microsoft cloud services, although there's third-party options in that space, too. In short, you've got few excuses to skimp out when it comes to safeguards, and enough choices to seriously consider using two or more -- which might be wise in this dangerous era of meteorite showers and brick-tossing robots.
Filed under: Storage, Internet
Source: World Backup Day
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