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20 Jun, 2014

Against legalizing recreational drugs

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Francis tells delegates at a drug-enforcement conference in Rome that attempts to legalize recreational drugs such as marijuana…

…Are not only highly questionable from a legislative standpoint, but they fail to produce the desired effects. Let me state this in the clearest terms possible: the problem of drug use is not solved with drugs!

19 Jun, 2014

‘150 Australians in Syria’

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Foreign Minister Julie Bishop says that about 150 Australians are fighting in Syria:

In Syria, it seems that over a period of time they have moved from supporting more moderate opposition groups to the more extreme, and that includes this brutal extremist group ISIS

Radicalized fighters could pose a domestic threat:

We are concerned that Australians are working with them [ISIS], becoming radicalized, learning the terrorist trade, and if they come back to Australia, of course it poses a security threat. I’ve canceled a number of passports on the advice of intelligence agencies.

10 Jun, 2014

Driver tweets innocence

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Roper TweetsClaiming he is being targeted as a scapegoat because celebrities were involved, driver Kevin Roper sends out tweets of protest over the charges brought against him. Roper sent at least four tweets from his Twitter account, expressing his sorrow over the deaths and injuries, but claiming total lack of blame for the accident.  Roper states he was not drunk, high, or sleep deprived at the time of the crash.

7 Jun, 2014

Usher: Bieber not a racist

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Usher releases a public statement about Bieber via his Instagram account..

At my core, I am a person that supports growth and understands without judgement, that growth often comes as a result of pain and continues effort. As I have watched Justin Bieber navigate difficult waters as a young man, I can tell you that he hasn’t always chosen the path of his greatest potential, but he is unequivocally not a racist. What he was 5 years ago was a naive child who did not understand the negative power and degradation that comes from playing with racial slurs. What he is now is a young man faced with an opportunity to become his best self, an example to the millions of kids that follow him to not make the same mistakes.

4 Jun, 2014

Kerry dismisses election

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On a visit to Lebanon, Secretary of State Kerry declares the Syrian election meaningless and says it will have no impact on U.S. policy. Kerry says the United States continues to support a political solution to the Syrian crisis and announces a contribution of $290 million in humanitarian aid.

The elections are non-elections. A great big zero. Nothing has changed between the day before the election and after.

2 Jun, 2014

Governor awaits investigation

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Governor Deal makes a statement that he is awaiting the results of an investigation into the raid before further action, such as executive action or new legislation, is taken at the state level.

Any time you have bad facts like this one, it does give you cause for concern.  It’s one of those things that require a thorough investigation … to know what if anything we can learn from it.

Android ‘dominates malware market’

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Cook criticizes Google for not encouraging users to upgrade to a new version of Android. He says that nine out of ten iDevice users have upgraded to the latest version of iOS, but fewer than one out of ten Android users have the latest version, which introduces security risks:

This [upgrading] is particularly important for Android, which dominates the mobile malware market.

Attorney: Police negligent

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The family’s attorney asks state and federal investigators to review the raid.  He says that the sheriff’s story doesn’t add up, and that surveillance video should have shown the children, who lived in the home for nearly two months.  He also says that police also should have noticed a van in the driveway that night which had four child car seats installed.

We believe they were criminally negligent because of the children. This isn’t police work.  This is cowboys.

30 May, 2014

Mother: Kids obviously live there

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The mother of injured toddler tells news sources that police officers should have been able to see that there were children living in the house before the raid was executed.

They say there were no toys.  There is plenty of stuff.  Their shoes were laying all over.

25 May, 2014

Meets Abbas in Bethlehem

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Francis meets with Abbas, and holds and open air Mass for 8,000 local Christians near Bethlehem’s Church of the Nativity. The Pope arrives in Bethlehem by helicopter from Jordan. Israel permits over 600 Christians from the Gaza Strip to travel to Bethlehem, while Palestinian authorities deploy 3,000 security forces in the city to supervise the visit. Abbas:

For the good of all, there is a need to intensify efforts and initiatives aimed at creating the conditions for a stable peace based on justice, on the recognition of the rights of every individual, and on mutual security.

15 May, 2014

Solange statement

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Beyonce and Jay-Z release a statement about the elevator attack.

As a result of the public release of the elevator security footage from Monday, May 5th, there has been a great deal of speculation about what triggered the unfortunate incident. But the most important thing is that our family has worked through it. Jay and Solange each assume their share of responsibility for what has occurred. They both acknowledge their role in this private matter that has played out in the public. They both have apologized to each other and we have moved forward as a united family. The reports of Solange being intoxicated or displaying erratic behavior throughout that evening are simply false. At the end of the day families have problems and we’re no different. We love each other and above all we are family. We’ve put this behind us and hope everyone else will do the same.

13 May, 2014

‘Sexual assault violators’ graffitti

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hamilton_bathroom1-260x346A list of “sexual assault violators” is written on the walls of various womens’ bathrooms on the Columbia campus. While the names are redacted in the reports, it is believed that Nungesser’s name is one of those mentioned. The messages are repeated over several days, titled “Rapists on Campus.” All names are written in the same style this time, suggesting a single author, and include the names of a big campus DJ, an athlete training for the Olympics, and a male student who worked at the Bwog, a campus news blog. Sulkowicz says she does not know who was behind the graffiti, but that the list includes the name of the man who had assaulted her.

I think that it’s important for people to know the names, because it’s a matter of safety

And also comments a few days later:

The fact that the University sends Public Safety to tape down the bathrooms—I think that’s a stifling of sorts. For other graffiti they wouldn’t tape the bathroom down. If it were a drawing of a smiley face, they wouldn’t do that.

30 Apr, 2014

Defends Putin remark

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Salmond defends his remark that Putin has ‘restored a substantial part of Russian pride’:

When people see the comments I made, they will see that they’re perfectly reasonable. I said I deprecated Russian actions in Ukraine and also its human rights record. I pointed out that the western press underestimated Putin and that’s obviously true … When I was talking about the pride issue, it was in the aftermath of the Sochi [winter] Olympics, which was obviously a restoration of Russian pride. Those are reasonably balanced remarks.

24 Apr, 2014

Defends gay marriage

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Comments Austin made on his podcast defending gay marriage come to attention:

I don’t give a shit if two guys, two gals, guy-gal, whatever it is, I believe that any human being in America, or any human being in the goddamn world, that wants to be married, and if it’s same-sex, more power to ’em. What also chaps my ass, some of these churches, have the high horse that they get on and say, ‘We as a church do not believe in that.’ Which one of these motherf-ckers talked to God, and God said that same-sex marriage was a no-can-do? Okay, so two cats can’t get married if they want to get married, but then a guy can go murder 14 people, molest five kids, then go to f-cking prison, and accept God and He’s going to let him into heaven? After the fact that he did all that shit? See that’s all horseshit to me, that don’t jive with me.

21 Apr, 2014

White House petition response

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A petition with 273,968 signatures which requests that the singer be deported after his DUI arrest, has received a response from the White House:

Sorry to disappoint, but we won’t be commenting on this one. The We the People terms of participation state that, ‘to avoid the appearance of improper influence, the White House may decline to address certain procurement, law enforcement, adjudicatory, or similar matters properly within the jurisdiction of federal departments or agencies, federal courts, or state and local government in its response to a petition.’ So we’ll leave it to others to comment on Mr. Bieber’s case, but we’re glad you care about immigration issues. Because our current system is broken.

16 Apr, 2014

Ultimate Warrior memorial published

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Warrior’s wife, Dana pens memorial for her late husband and a message to his fans. WWE publishes the piece on WWE.com

On Sunday night, I was told WWE would pay tribute to Warrior and so I set the DVR planning to watch it when we were ready. As the hour neared, I broke resolve and turned on every TV in the house to full blast and snuggled our daughters close to me on the couch, unsure what we would see. As the scene unfolded with that amazing roster of talent gathered donning Ultimate Warrior shirts and even his face paint, we cheered and sobbed simultaneously. To everyone who stood there, thank you. My girls will remember your bowed heads for the rest of their lives. You are not just Superstars; you are super people.

28 Mar, 2014

Will install high-strength battery shields

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TeslaTesla announces plans to reinforce the undercarriage of about 16,000 cars with high-strength shields to reduce the risk of damage from a crash starting a fire. The NHTSA did not ask Tesla to issue a recall for the Model S. Tesla said the retrofits are voluntary and that federal regulators did not find a “safety-related defect trend.”

25 Feb, 2014

Support for Bitcoin Unshaken By Mt. Gox Collapse

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In an email to The New York Times Cameron, who with Tyler own about $64.1 million worth of the virtual currency, said that the closure of Mt Gox’s closure “underscores just how far the Bitcoin ecosystem has come.”

Cameron: Several exchanges have seamlessly picked up the slack and the market price has shown remarkable resilience. Mt. Gox is in the past, and the brightest minds in the room are hard at work building a responsible and secure future.”

7 Jan, 2014

‘Crush other rebels’

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ISIS calls on its fighters to destroy rival opposition groups in an audio message from spokesman Abu Mohammad al-Adnani:

Crush them totally and kill the conspiracy at birth

A warning to the rebels:

None of you will remain, and we will make of you an example to all those who think of following the same path