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President Obama insisted America was 'digging itself out of hole' today as new figures offered a glimmer of hope for the country's beleaguered economy. Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1345047/Glimmer-hope-U-S-economy-jobless-rate-falls-lowest-level-19-months.html#ixzz1APgIdQ6H

Happy Festivus everyone!!!! May your Feats of Strength go well and have fun with the Airing of Grievances!

Liam Neeson has caused controversy by suggesting that Aslan, the Christlike character in C.S. Lewis’s Narnia books, could represent the prophet Mohammed or Buddha. The actor who voices the lion in the film adaptations of the books has angered some fans of the stories, who claim he is distorting Lewis’s intentions to be “politically correct”. Aslan the lion features in all seven Narnia books, guiding children away from evil and harm and encouraging them to do good. Lewis was clear that the Aslan was based on Christ, and once wrote of the character: “He is an invention giving an imaginary...

A ban on singing “Happy Birthday” lasted all of four days at Chesterfield Elementary School in Missouri after angry parents bombarded the school with complaints. “Singing is not permitted due to the sensitivity of all student beliefs,” wrote Principal Jodi Davidson in a letter to parents dated August 13. On August 23 Davidson sent another letter reversing the policy noting that students “are permitted and encouraged to sing the happy birthday song in the classroom.” However, students will not be permitted to sing the traditional song in the cafeteria and all birthday treats must be individually

Scientists and composers have produced a new choral work in which performers sing parts of their own genetic code. Human DNA is made up of just four different chemical compounds, which gave musician Andrew Morley the idea of assigning a note to each of them. The new piece, Allele, will be performed by the New London Chamber Choir at the Royal Society of Medicine on 13 July. Each of the 40-strong choir has also had his or her own DNA decoded. "I'd sung quite a lot with choirs in my youth and I've written stuff myself, and so I was...

Congress is debating legislation that could grant the federal government new powers to mandate the features and design of every phone, computer, GPS or any other device with a screen that connects to the Internet. The bill - which has been dubbed the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2009 - will soon face a key vote before the Energy & Commerce Committee and the House of Representatives.

Tax-free charitable gifts along with federal grants and loans have been used to turn a section of South Philadelphia into an Islamic enclave. Universal Companies -- the charity established in 1993 by the artist formerly known as Kenny Gamble -- has spent $1.6 billion to promote Islam much of it in the 800 block of South 15th Street, according to Paul Williams , Ph.D, of FamilySecurityMatters.org. The neighborhood now has a mosque and an Islamic charter school and tough-looking security guards on corners in kufis . Gamble and Leon Huff are the founders of Philadelphia International Records and wrote some...

The University of Colorado regents – in a close vote -- decided today that the school will continue the legal fight to keep guns off its campuses. Regent Tillie Bishop, R-Grand Junction, sided with the Democrats for the 5-4 vote in support of appealing to the Colorado Supreme Court. He said his University of Colorado regent Tom Lucero, right, speaks during a Board of Regents meeting on Friday. At left is regent Stephen Ludwig. (Marty Caivano)decision was based on his belief that the regents should maintain their authority when it comes to setting rules for CU campuses. Otherwise, the votes...

Ted Turner: If We Don't Prepare For Global Warming We'll Be Extinct By Noel Sheppard Created 05/30/2010 - 18:09 CNN founder Ted Turner said Saturday that if we don't prepare for global warming, we'll be extinct. In a multi-part interview with CNN Newsroom anchor Fredricka Whitfield, Turner spoke about his own devotion and dedication to environmental causes. "Have you altered all your life, all your living so you are what one would call energy responsible?" asked Whitfield. "What we really have is a choice whether we want to do the right things from an energy standpoint or the wrong thing,"...

Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) introduced a bill Thursday that would make it illegal for people to carry firearms into commercial airports throughout the country. The measure would prohibit people from carrying guns into areas outside of the screening checkpoints at airports, including the airport lobby, baggage claim area and ticket counters. It would not alter laws that allow licensed gun carriers to check unloaded guns in a locked case in their baggage. “In the post-9/11 world, it simply defies common sense that it would be legal to carry a gun into an airport,” Lautenberg said in a statement. “Our airports...

We have just survived the worst debt-fueled binge since the Roaring '20s. Now two professors at Yale University are suggesting we introduce leverage into a new realm of our lives — our retirement portfolios. TIME's Barbara Kiviat asked economists Ian Ayres and Barry Nalebuff to explain themselves and the strategy they lay out in their new book Lifecycle Investing. You are advocating that people in their 20s and early 30s take all their retirement savings and buy stocks on margin. Can you explain why that's not as crazy as it sounds? Ayres: It's not as crazy as it sounds because...

Those members of Ireland's ethnic minorities who participated in last year's St Patrick's Day parade in Dublin want to be able to express their own cultures more fully in future events. The claim has been made by academics from Queen's University Belfast who have been working with colleagues in the University of Limerick and St Andrews in Scotland on a research project into Irish identities. While the parade participants congratulated the organisers on creating an impressive and inclusive event, many from Ireland's ethnic communities said they would prefer it if they were allowed to express themselves on their own terms,...

Most Americans trade an hour's sleep this weekend for more evening sunshine to enjoy after work. Officially the change to daylight saving time occurs at 2 a.m. Sunday, local time, though most folks set their clocks and watches ahead an hour before going to bed on Saturday

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The top Democrat on the Senate health committee says insurance companies who refuse coverage to people with pre-existing medical conditions are engaging in discrimination. Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa told participants at the White House's health summit that such refusals are akin to racial discrimination that was legal during parts of the last century. Harkin says it's time to end discrimination based on health in this century. Democrats are pushing a health care overhaul that would make it illegal for insurance companies to refuse coverage to people who have conditions such as asthma or diabetes.

It turns out that crackpot Ron Paul’s son Rand can understand why poor, innocent Iran might want nuclear weapons—they feel “threatened” by big, bad America (hat tip to Rand Paul: Too Kooky for Kentucky for the video): Watch it at NRB - sorry, can't embed videos here at FR.

....In other words, the prize was conferred by experienced politicians who seem to know exactly what they were doing. Expressing its particular approval of Obama's "vision ... of a world without nuclear weapons," the committee wrote: "Obama has as president created a new climate in international politics. ... Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world's attention and given its people hope for a better future. ... For 108 years, the Norwegian Nobel committee has sought to stimulate precisely that international policy and those attitudes for which Obama is now the world's leading...

The United States should find a way to collaborate with Russia in establishment of missile defenses, U.S. President Barack Obama said yesterday (see GSN, Sept. 29). "It is important for us to reach out to Russia and explore ways in which the missile defense configurations that we envision could potentially lead to further collaboration," Obama said after meeting with NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen. "We want to improve generally not only U.S.-Russian relations, but also NATO-Russian relations, while making absolutely clear that our commitments to all of our allies in NATO is sacrosanct," the president added, according to Agence...

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Obama recently shared sensitive intelligence with Russia and China about Iran's newly unveiled nuclear facility to get the two countries' leaders on board with new sanctions against Tehran, senior U.S. officials revealed Friday. President Obama speaks with Chinese President Hu Jintao, left, at the Group of 20 plenary session Friday. And the strategy to build a coalition with Russia and China "has already begun to bear fruit," one senior U.S. official said.

Purported non Muslim Barack Hussein Obama made a presidential appointment of Muslim Los Angeles Deputy Mayor Arif Alikhan for a top job at the federal Department of Homeland Security. In his new job, Arif Alikhan will be Assistant Secretary for the Office of Policy Development at the Department of Homeland Security. Alikhan has been Deputy Mayor of Los Angeles--in charge of public safety for the city. Why Muslim Alikhan at the Department of Homeland Security you might ask? DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano said Alikhan’s “broad and impressive array of experience in national security, emergency preparedness, and counterterrorism will make him...

"I shall never fight in the armed forces with a Negro by my side... Rather I should die a thousand times, and see Old Glory trampled in the dirt never to rise again, than to see this beloved land of ours become degraded by race mongrels, a throwback to the blackest specimen from the wilds.” — Robert C. Byrd, in a letter to Sen. Theodore Bilbo (D-MS), 1944 Within the democratic party sits a former high member of the actual KKK. That's not taking a shot at someone, that's fact. The Congressional BLACK Caucus is saying that not punishing Joe...