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On Thursday’s edition of PBS’s Tavis Smiley show, William Hurt the star of AMC’s Humans (a science fiction show that addresses the future of artificial intelligence) assured PBS’s Tavis Smiley that self-aware androids weren’t the monster to worry about. No the real threat, according to the four-time Academy Award nominee, was “global warming.”

'There is an explosion of human suffering': Angelina Jolie begs the world to do more during visit to Turkish camps filled with Syrians and Iraqis who have fled war Angelina Jolie serves as a United Nations special envoy for refugees She visited a refugee camp in southeastern Turkey on Saturday, which is home to Syrians and Iraqis displaced by war This visit is the latest in a series of trips to Turkey as part of her work to bring attention to the plight of refugees This was Jolie's third visit to Turkey since 2011, when Syria conflict began Turkey hosts...

[BIG SNIP]The Quakers’[new penitentiary system using isolation]experiment revealed that the consultation of one’s inner self without outside reference or constraints, with nothing to measure one’s self against, could produce distorted human beings who became certifiably mad. Self-proclaimed gods can turn out to be a Caligula or a Jim Jones.Just as bad as the fact consulting the inner light can result in the exhibition of mad or corrupt behavior is the fact that the newly minted gods believe themselves to be entitled to demand obeisance from us mere mortals.We mere everyday humans must bow down and worship the deities among us....

“We don’t have all the facts, but we do know that, once again, innocent people were killed in part because someone who wanted to inflict harm had no trouble getting their hands on a gun,” Obama said. “And at some point it’s going to be important for the American people to come to grips with it, and for us to be able to shift how we think about the issue of gun violence collectively,” he said. In the midst of that statement, Obama appeared to acknowledge the political realities in Washington are not in his favor on this issue. “I...

With Republican politicians (or at least their staffs) busy reading, pondering, and strategizing about how to respond to Pope Francis' encyclical on the environment, I'd like to propose that pundits and political junkies play a little game to liven the mood. The rules are simple. Every time a Republican who is a Catholic is asked for an opinion on the encyclical, place him into one of two categories: the Catholic Republicans or the Republican Catholics. The difference between the categories depends on which term is doing the modifying. A Catholic Republican is a Republican whose Catholicism comes first, whose faith...

Dear Reader (including those of you self-described “transreaders” who do not in fact read this “news”letter but want to be considered the sort of person who does), I am writing this from the back parking lot of a random Ramada in Williamsburg, Va. I’m sitting in my car in a Tommy Bahama shirt and pinstripe suit pants smoking a cigar. It’s a pretty sketchy look, even before I take off my shirt to finish getting properly dressed. A passing cop would probably assume that I’m waiting for a hooker, a drug dealer, or maybe someone from the development office at...

HOUSTON (AP) — A Houston attorney on the National Rifle Association's board of directors is blaming the deadly Charleston church shooting on one of the victims, saying the slain pastor had opposed concealed carry legislation as a state senator that could have saved him and his fellow worshippers. Related Stories 1. NRA executive suggests slain Charleston pastor to blame for gun deaths Reuters 2. Slain Pastor Clementa Pinckney’s Mission Suited His Storied Church The Wall Street Journal 3. And The First Person To Blame The Charleston Shooting On A Lack Of Guns In Church Is... Huffington Post 4. White gunman...

If Episcopal delegates to General Convention pass two marriage resolutions in Salt Lake City later this month, it could seal the fate of any hope that the Anglican Communion can hold together, a Covenant notwithstanding. The worst fears of GAFCON Primates and Global South archbishops will have been realized -- the Episcopal Church will never repent of its sexual innovations thus sealing forever the unity of the Anglican Communion as an attainable goal. It is over. Never again will an Archbishop of Canterbury be able to call a meeting of his fellow primates; at least a third will be no...

Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush’s speech that launched his presidential campaign on Monday noted that Hillary Clinton’s “progressive agenda” includes the admonition that traditional religious beliefs “have to be changed.” Mrs. Clinton’s entire quote, in talking about opposition to her version of feminism and demands for abortion, was that “…deep-seated cultural codes, religious beliefs and structural biases have to be changed.” Bush also said of the Democrats, “They have offered a progressive agenda that includes everything but progress.” But it’s never been the case that the progressive agenda offers real progress, as ordinary people understand the term. Instead, the “progressives”...

On Thursday, 2016 Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton blamed the Charleston, South Carolina church shootings by racist Dylann Roof on the rhetoric of 2016 Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. Speaking with host John Ralston, she explained, “Public discourse is sometimes hotter and more negative than it should be, which can, in my opinion, trigger someone who is less than stable.” She continued, “I think we have to speak out against it. Like, for example, a recent entry into the Republican presidential campaign said some very inflammatory things about Mexicans. Everybody should stand up and say that’s not acceptable.” Presumably, Hillary...

If access to firearms were as easy as President Obama insisted in the aftermath of the South Carolina church massacre, Carol Bowne would be alive today. The 39-year-old New Jersey woman with a restraining order against an ex-boyfriend was murdered by that boyfriend while she waited for her application for a gun permit to wind its way through a process that takes at least two months to complete. But it wasn’t completed soon enough:

A former police officer, Assam, 42, was on security duty Sunday morning at New Life Church here. Hours earlier, a 24-year-old who had been rejected from a missionary school in a Denver suburb had shot and killed two staffers there. Now he was spraying New Life's parking lot with gunfire and pushing through the doors to the sanctuary.

As WND has reported, Charleston church shooter Dylann Roof was a known drug user who was caught with the powerful mind-altering narcotic Suboxone when apprehended by police during an incident on Feb. 28. Suboxone is used to treat addiction to opioid drugs such as heroin. It has a host of adverse side effects including irrational, violent behavior.

Here we go. The perfect incident just took place last night for creating chaos, conflict, and division when Dylann Storm Root decided to channel his inner Satan to slaughter innocent people praying at a church. Unlike the predecessors in the Soviet Union, China, and various fascist regimes during the past century, our leftists usually don't concoct phony incidents to propel their agenda. They wait, patiently, sometimes for years, waiting for an incident which can be used to promote their agenda. The agenda right now is fundamental transformation, and transformation is a revolutionary action that requires angry, focused masses gathered to...

As expected, the Vatican released Pope Francis’ much-anticipated encyclical on the environment this morning, and as anticipated, it demands a radical departure from the current status quo. Titled Laudato, Sí in honor of his namesake St. Francis of Assisi, the Pope calls for a “bold cultural revolution” in apparent ignorance of the horrors meted out in the previous century under that rubric, to combat evils in the present time, both imagined (or at least highly speculative) and real. The main focus for the media will be on the pontifical call to arms on climate change, but there’s at least...

The New York Times ran an article this weekend profiling and quoting many children of gay and lesbian parents under the headline “What Could Gay Marriage Mean for the Kids?”Noticeably absent were any children who, while loving their two moms or two dads, yearned for both a mom and dad.In my new book, “The Future of Marriage and Religious Freedom,” I devote a chapter to highlighting the stories of children of gays and lesbians who have spoken out about how redefining marriage has social costs. Their basic story is the same: Same-sex marriage denies children like them a relationship with...

Along with polar bears in ice floes drifting out to sea, a favorite image of the greenies is oil-soaked birds, flung before us every time there is an oil spill, even one so minor that the media expresses it in gallons, not barrels of oil, in order to make it seem large scale. The recent pipeline spill at Refugio State beach in California sounded much worse as 100,000 gallons than 2380 barrels. And pictures of oil soaked birds were ubiquitous.

Angel and Jeff Watts were blessed with the birth of twins four years ago. Two years after that, they were once again doubly blessed.  But with with two sets of twins, and with Angel turning 45, the Tennessee couple felt that that was enough. It wasn't a question of finding some method to control her fertility, as it might be with other couples who come to a point where they feel their "family is complete." It involved the matter of the Watts' six other children, waiting in the wings. Most people would call them frozen embryos. They were the "leftover" ones, from...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)Talk radio host Hugh Hewitt declared that right now, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) is the frontrunner to be the Republican nominee for president and would decimate Hillary Clinton in a debate on Wednesday’s “Huff Post Live.”Hewitt began by stating that Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) has “the lowest ceiling, but the highest floor” of the GOP candidates, before talking about his advice to Hillary Clinton regarding the different Republican candidates. He said Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) is Clinton’s “worst nightmare,” and that Hillary should avoid debating Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) if he’s the nominee because “he’ll kill you. He’ll take your...

Justin Welby issued declaration, which was signed by British faith leaders Called on all faiths to 'limit global rise in average temperatures to 2C' Pope Francis’s teaching document due to be officially released tomorrow Papal encyclical will tell Catholics that climate change is damaging earth The Archbishop of Canterbury yesterday launched a crusade against climate change – two days before the Pope. The Most Reverend Justin Welby issued a green declaration signed by British faith leaders, which asserted that climate change has hurt the poor of the world... The Anglican statement called on people of all faiths to ‘recognise...