How US covered up Saudi role in 9/11

crash_trade_centerIn its report on the still-censored “28 pages” implicating the Saudi government in 9/11, “60 Minutes” last weekend said the Saudi role in the attacks has been “soft-pedaled” to protect America’s delicate alliance with the oil-rich kingdom.

That’s quite an understatement.

Actually, the kingdom’s involvement was deliberately covered up at the highest levels of our government. And the coverup goes beyond locking up 28 pages of the Saudi report in a vault in the US Capitol basement. Investigations were throttled. Co-conspirators were let off the hook.

Powerful Ecuador earthquake kills 238

The strongest earthquake to hit Ecuador in decades killed at least 238 people and injured more than 1,500 others Sunday as damage stretched for hundreds of miles to the capital and other major cities.

The magnitude-7.8 quake was centered on Ecuador’s sparsely populated fishing ports and tourist beaches, 105 miles northwest of Quito, the capital.  Source

Catholic fans chant ‘You killed Jesus’ during basketball game

church-sign-saying-jews-killed-jesus-2873765_289753_ver1-0_640_480Catholic high school students chanted, “You killed Jesus” at a basketball game against a predominantly Jewish high school in a Boston suburb on Friday night.

During the playoff contest between Catholic Memorial School and the public Newton North High School, fans of the latter began shouting, “Sausage fest!” at the opposing team, an off-color reference to the fact that CMS is an all-boys institution.

In response, the Catholic fans repeated, “You killed Jesus, you killed Jesus,” spectators at the event said.

The Catholic fans’ cheer was a reference to Jewish deicide, the charge that Jews are responsible for the death of Jesus Christ. Source

Judge: Can’t force Catholic hospitals to abort babies

st-patricks-cathedral-catholic-churchA federal judge has rejected an ACLU demand that he order Catholic hospitals to perform abortions in violation of church teaching.

The victory for religious rights was announced by the Alliance Defending Freedom, which intervened on behalf of the Catholic Medical Association, the Christian Medical and Dental Associations and the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists.

“No American should be forced to commit an abortion – least of all faith-based medical workers who went into the profession to follow their faith and save lives, not take them,” said ADF Senior Counsel Kevin Theriot.

“No law requires religious hospitals and medical personnel to commit abortions against their faith and conscience, and, in fact, federal law directly prohibits the government from engaging in any such coercion. As we argued in our brief to the court, the ACLU had no standing to bring this suit and demand this kind of government coercion.”  Source

Revealed! Feds’ demands to manipulate global-warming data

climate_change4It’s something climate skeptics have long suspected: Government involvement in science has skewed data to reflect the government’s agenda.

“Many have suspected that U.S. political intervention in climate science has corrupted the outcome,” notes Ron Arnold in an essay posted on CFact.org. “The new emergence of an old 1995 document from the U.S. State Department to the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change confirms those suspicions, or at least gives the allegation credence enough to ask questions.”…

“Among the more revealing tidbits is a remark scolding a scientist for being honest about the weakness of aerosol forcing data: ‘We clearly cannot use aerosol forcing as the trigger of our smoking gun, and then make a generalized appeal to uncertainty to exclude these effects from the forward-looking modeling analysis.’ One instruction was to change a correct statement about warming rates into a flat lie: ‘Change “continue to rise” to “rise by even greater amounts” to provide a sense of magnitude of the extended change.  Source

TENNESSEE GOVERNOR VETOES BIBLE BILL

bible-pageTennessee Gov. Bill Haslam vetoed a bill that would have made the Bible the official book of the state, saying the measure actually downplayed the significance of the Good Book and turned it into a historical, rather than spiritual, text.

“In addition to the constitutional issues with the bill, my personal feeling is that this bill trivializes the Bible, which I believe is a sacred text,” Haslam wrote in a letter to the speaker of the statehouse, the Washington Post reported.

He went on, saying: “If we believe that the Bible is the inspired word of God, then we shouldn’t be recognizing it only as a book of historical and economic significance. If we are recognizing the Bible as a sacred text, then we are violating the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of Tennessee by designating it as the official state book.”

Supporters said the Bible actually holds economic, cultural and historical significance for Tennessee and pointed to the text of the bill, which reminded “printing the Bible is a multi-million dollar industry for the state with many top Bible publishers headquartered in Nashville.   Source

Shaky Economy Costs General Conference Millions of Dollars

An unsteady global economy shaved 20 percent off the income received by the General Conference last year, and church leaders are reworking budgetary plans as they prayerfully seek to navigate the uncharted waters ahead. While tithe and offerings remained strong worldwide in 2015, exchange-rate losses linked to the fluctuationsadventist-spring-meeting-april12-2 of regional currencies against the U.S. dollar cost the General Conference, the administrative body that oversees the Seventh-day Adventist Church, a total of $19.4 million.

“My fears that were presented in October actually came true,” General Conference treasurer Juan R. Prestol-Puesán said in an interview…

The General Conference would have had $19,441,294 additional income this year if 2015 exchange rates had remained the same as in 2014, according to the treasury report to the Spring Meeting. In another loss, the variability of financial markets cost the General Conference a total of $2.8 million in capital and unrealized gains in 2015. Those investments had represented a gain of $2 million in 2014.  Source

Joe Biden will visit the Vatican to discuss his fight to cure cancer

PANAMA-US-MARTINELLI-BIDENVice President Joe Biden, who has traveled to some America’s leading medical centers in recent weeks as part of what he has called his moonshot to cure cancer, will soon take his quest to the Vatican.

Biden will address a major conference on the progress of regenerative medicine in Vatican City on April 29, the vice president’s office said Wednesday.

The gathering, hosted by the Stem for Life Foundation and the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Culture, will also draw leading physicians, ethicists and philanthropists to discuss the potential of emerging research to treat cancer and other diseases. The initiative has been championed by Pope Francis, who worked as a chemist before he entered the priesthood and has written in support of scientific progress.

Biden, the nation’s first Catholic vice president, attended Francis’ papal inauguration in 2013 and attended multiple events during the Catholic leader’s visit to the U.S. last fall, including his address to Congress and departure from Philadelphia after the World Meeting of Families there. Source

Norway’s Lutheran Church Votes to Support Same-Sex Marriage

chruchnorway3Norway is a progressive country. It has already adopted policies and legislation to support minority rights, women’s rights, and LGBT rights. It was the first country to pass an anti-discrimination law to protect the rights for same-sex couples.

In the year 2009, it became the sixth country to provide complete marriage equality to same-sex couples. Last Monday, Norway again displayed its sense of practicality in this modern world by voting in favor of allowing same-sex marriage in the church. At the annual conference of the Norwegian Lutheran Church, 88 delegates out of 115 in total, voted to approve same-sex marriages in church. An increasing number of churches all over the world are becoming more tolerant towards their attitude regarding the LGBT community. In the year 2015, the French Protestant Church decided to allow same-sex marriages in the church. The U.S. Presbyterian Church rewrote its Constitution to include gay marriage. The LGBT community is hoping to see in the coming years many more churches following the path. Source

EU parliament votes to re-approve glyphosate despite ‘concerns about carcinogenicity’

570eb31fc46188f86b8b45e9The European Parliament has backed a re-authorization of a pesticide believed to be carcinogenic for another 7 years, despite a widespread protest campaign calling for a full ban instead of a downsized “compromise” deal.

The weedkiller glyphosate is to be given market approval for another seven years, instead of 15 as originally requested, while its use should be limited to professionals only, the European Parliament said in a non-binding resolution approved on Wednesday. The body also advised the chemical shouldn’t be used in public locations, such as parks and playgrounds. Source