The Front Page Cover
"I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened"
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Featuring:
Pluto And Us
Charles Krauthammer
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"Rise up together as one voice"
"Be careful where you stand"
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Negotiations With Iran Blow Past Another Deadline 
Another day, another deadline. For the fourth time since April, the U.S. State Department extended its talks with Iran over the mullahs' nuclear program. The past few weeks have accomplished little, unless you take into account the 10 pounds of Twizzlers and 20 pounds of string cheese Team USA consumed during that time. The longer Iran stays at the negotiating table in Vienna, the more it gets. Earlier in the year, Barack nObama boasted that his administration's diplomacy had halted Iran's nuclear program, reduced its uranium stockpile and forced the country to agree to give nuclear inspectors access — any time, anywhere. Yet for some reason, the negotiation team has conceded these vital elements to a nuclear deal that would ensure Iran would not weaponize its nuclear material. In fact, the U.S. has conceded to Iran at least 12 times. Robert Joseph, who was once the U.S. special envoy for nuclear nonproliferation, said of the deal, "Instead of holding the line on those key issues that would actually determine whether the agreement was good or bad or whether it advances U.S. security interests or undermines them, the [nObama] administration has made concession after concession and the consequences are profound." It is clear Iran is not sincerely negotiating with the West. Instead, it's playing the same administration that negotiated with the Taliban, trading five of theirs doing time at Guantanamo for one deserter. -The Patriot Post
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nObama Just Keeps Cutting Military
While the U.S. military is facing a myriad of threats, a smattering of merry little wars, the nObama administration is pushing forward with its plan to cut 40,000 troops from the ranks. According to a pentagon document that USA Today acquired, the administration wants to finish drawing down America's military capability by Sept. 30, 2018. In 2013, the Pentagon said a reduction of troops past 450,000 would start to impair the military's ability to respond to crises around the world. And these cuts would bring military strength right to that edge. The further budget cuts imposed by nObama's sequestration could push the number lower. For an example of how this hampers the U.S., look to the fight against the Islamic State. The nObama administration would rather train proxy fighters in Iraq and Syria — but just 60 Syrian fighters have so far been trained. On Monday, Barack nObama said the U.S. is ramping up the training of the Islamic State Iraqi forces. But the Senate Armed Services Committee found those training programs to be "anemic" and it called for reform of the airstrike campaign. If nObama continues these limp-wristed strategies, his only option will be to debate the Islamic State out of existence. -The Patriot Post
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Many Americans Clueless About First Amendment Protections
The Newseum Institute generates an annual survey called "State of the First Amendment," and this year's results illuminate the reason many Americans are nonchalant about the assault on religious liberty — because most have absolutely no idea that it's constitutionally protected by the First Amendment. According to the 2015 survey, "When asked to name the five specific freedoms in the First Amendment, 57% of Americans name freedom of speech, followed by 19% who say the freedom of religion, 10% mention the freedom of the press, 10% mention the right to assemble, and 2% name the right to petition. Thirty-three percent of Americans cannot name any of the rights guaranteed by the First Amendment." Alarming, yes, but shocking? Not really. When education establishments become more interested in gender and sexual orientation studies than in civics, American heritage and character development, society cannot be expected to uphold Rule of Law. -The Patriot Post
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Political Winds Shift Against nObama's Immigration Policies
The death of Kathryn Steinle has galvanized the political opposition to Barack nObama's non-enforcement of the nation's immigration laws. Congressional Republicans are heavily criticizing the nObama administration's tolerance of sanctuary cities that protect illegal aliens from deportation. In going after these "safe" havens, GOP lawmakers are going after the culture in the upper levels of the administration. In March, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director Sarah Saldana was asked in congressional testimony if she would support a law requiring local governments to cooperate with ICE. "Thank you — amen," was her reply. But she must have received a call from the White House, because the next day ICE released a statement "clarifying" her remarks to say she supported sanctuary cities.
Meanwhile, in the suit against the federal government over nObama's executive actions on immigration, Judge Andrew Hanen ordered nObama's bureaucrats to court Aug. 19. He wrote, "Each individual Defendant must attend and be prepared to show why he or she should not be held in contempt of Court. … The Government has conceded that it has directly violated this Court's Order in its May 7, 2015 Advisory, yet, as of today, two months have passed since the Advisory and it has not remediated its own violative behavior." Say, here's a novel idea: What if there were sanctuary cities from the federal government? -The Patriot Post
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Clinton Denies Being Subpoenaed; Investigators Release Subpoena
{Lachlan Markay} ~ Hilly Clinton told CNN on Tuesday that she was never personally subpoenaed. Rep. Trey Gowdy (R., S.C.) says that is simply false, and on Wednesday he released the documentation proving it... Clinton was personally subpoenaed as part of an investigation into the 2012 attacks on U.S. diplomatic facilities in Benghazi, Libya, according to a copy of the subpoenareleased by Gowdy’s office. She was ordered to turn over emails to or from her personal email accounts, which she used to conduct official State Department business. “The committee has issued several subpoenas, but I have not sought to make them public,” Gowdy said in a Wednesday statement. “I would not make this one public now, but after Secretary Clinton falsely claimed the committee did not subpoena her, I have no choice in order to correct the inaccuracy.”
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Hamas spokesman Musheir al-Masri (left) says that Palestinian Authority collaborates with Israel and is "stabbing Hamas in the back." Senior Palestinian Authority security official Adnan Damiri (right) says that Hamas wants to destroy the PA and collaborate with ISIS.
Western Scandals in the Middle East
{Bassam Tawil} ~ The Islamic world is currently marking the month of Ramadan with day-long fasts; during this time every Muslim must give a reckoning to Allah on the personal level, the familial level, the local level and the level of the nation of Islam... Like the Israelis, Palestinians are now taking stock of the year that has passed since the 50-day war between Hamas and Israel -- what the Israelis call "Operation Protective Edge," and Hamas calls "Operation Solid." The report of the commission that investigated the conflict, written by pro-Palestinian Prof. William Schabas and signed by Ms. Mary Davis, did not surprise anyone in Palestine. Even before the report was published, we knew what it would say: every investigatory committee dealing with the Palestinian cause always sides against Israel, but never changes anything or influence the situation on the ground. As a Palestinian, I was glad the report made both Hamas and Israel equally responsible for the aggression, but to what avail? The result of this -- and all the previous reports -- only perpetuates the Palestinian problem. All the UN agencies condemn Israel, but no one ever helps the Palestinians. UNRWA has its own reasons for not resolving the issue of the Palestinian refugees (it is nearly impossible to close down a jobs program) and it provides Hamas terrorists with convenient installations from which to attack Israel with rockets. http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/6126/western-scandals-middle-east
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Iran ‘Shouts Hatred’ for Israel, Backs Palestinian Terror
{Adam Kredo} ~ Iranian President Hassan Rouhani urged the entire country to “shout its hatred for the Zionists” and back Palestinian efforts to seize territory from Israel, according to comments made Wednesday in celebration of Quds Day... which marks the last Friday in Ramadan and has historically been used to tout Palestinian violence against the Jewish state. As Iranian and Western negotiators in Vienna meet around the clock in a bid to strike a final nuclear accord, the Iranian president expressed his support for the Palestinian cause and urged the Islamic Republic to unite in its hatred of Israel. “People will tell the world on the Quds Day that the Muslim nations will never forget Palestine and occupation of this territory,” Rouhani was quoted as saying on state-run television by the Fars News Agency.
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EPA Clueless On 90,000 Tons of Toxic Waste Imported To U.S. Yearly
{Tim Brown} ~ An estimated 90,000 tons of hazardous waste enters the U.S. each year from foreign countries, but the Environmental Protection Agency often can’t say what or where the dangerous stuff is... Wherever it goes, hazardous waste presents a huge public health risk to Americans, according to a new EPA Office of Inspector General Report. “Based on our assessment of data in EPA information systems, the EPA has an incomplete picture of hazardous waste entering the country,” the IG report said. “This can give rise to undetected and unenforced violations of federal hazardous waste laws, which could result in unknown human and environmental exposure to toxic substances.”
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Senator Sessions Calls Out Marco Rubio For Job-Killing Attack
{rickwells.us} ~ Senator Rubio isn’t waiting for nObamatrade to swell the ranks of jobless Americans. He’s a co-sponsor of the “I-Squared” bill, a labor importation package designed to import three times as many high-skilled jobs candidates as currently allowed under existing inflated levels... Rubio teamed up in January with his despicable fascist comrade from Utah, Herr Orrin Hatch (R-UT), the same servant of multi-national corporations who ushered the anti-American TPA through the Senate, in crafting legislation to serve the mega rich by putting Americans out of work. Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL) one of the few statesmen in government today and a man who fights tirelessly for the American people, is the opposite of Rubio and sees quite clearly what Rubio is up to. Sessions is not the type to sit idly by and allow corrupt politicians to commit offenses against our nation. They may still attack us, and they may get away with it temporarily, but he’ll do his best to make certain we’re aware of what’s going on. Normally Sessions doesn’t name names, and he doesn’t have to. Rubio signed his own name to the bill. http://rickwells.us/senator-sessions-calls-out-marco-rubio-for-job-killing-attack-on-us-workers-serving-corporate-masters/
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Sen Sessions Indicts nObama
{rickwells.us} ~ Strong and truthful words were spoken by Senator Jeff Sessions Wednesday on the floor of the Senate in regards to who is to blame for the death of Kathryn Steinle and others... He put responsibility at the feet of the occupier of the White House, Hussein nObama, as it was by his blood-stained hands that the murderous Mexican thug was in the United States in the first place. Senator Sessions said, “Indeed, if not for sanctuary cities and the nObama administration’s continued destruction in other areas of immigration enforcement, Kate and others surely would be alive today. Her death could have been prevented. But the extreme open borders ideology that rejects even the deportation of criminals — that is, people who commit other crimes than the crime of entering the country illegally — has led to her death, as it has led to the death of many others.” http://rickwells.us/sen-sessions-indicts-obama-his-extreme-ideology-and-policies-killed-kate-steinle-and-many-others/
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nObama “Bringin It” To “Privileged” White America
{rickwells.us} ~ The Marxist agenda of nObama and his comrades requires that all of those who are under their boots be of equal social stature. Rather than the capitalist ideals of the past which with each generation raised society in general, the nObama goal is to degrade America to third world status... We’re then much easier to integrate into a world government system, minus the social barriers of economics and nationalism. In order toaccomplish those objectives, our private property, standard of living, societal cohesion and values must all be degraded. That’s where nObama and HUD come in. On Wednesday the regime unveiled new dictates by our fuehrer, presented as these things invariably are as a humanitarian response to a crisis, with forced equality being thesolution. Equality means Marxism and that’s where they’re taking us. This segment of the equality narrative focuses on eliminating racial segregation by forcing people who are different and choose to live in different areas to live together. Mandatory reporting to the federal monitors is included as a component, to ensure compliance and stamp out pockets of resistance. http://rickwells.us/obama-bringin-it-to-privileged-white-america-hud-obamathugs-crime-racism-relocating-to-suburbs/
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White House Blames GOP For Immigrant Murderer
{leanrightamerica.org} ~ The nObama White House has never embraced the “buck stops here” philosophy, but this may be one of their most embarrassing deflections to date... On July 1, a medical device sales representative named Kate Steinle was shot and killed while walking along San Francisco’s Pier 14 with her family. When police caught up to the suspect an hour later, they found him to be Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez, a Mexican illegal who had been deported no less than five different times. A felon with a hefty rap sheet, Lopez-Sanchez had been in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody only a few months prior. President nObama has been outspoken about the need to relax the nation’s immigration laws, so it was only natural that a reporter would ask Press Secretary Josh Earnest if he would like to comment on the administration’s culpability in Steinle’s murder. And while no one would expect Earnest to smile and accept responsibility, he surprised many by actually blaming the whole thing on Republicans. That is a bold face lie. Not taking responsibility and taking the blame is a cowards way of not getting the blame.
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When Clinton, nObama and loose lips Biden debated sanctuary cities
{Byron York} ~ Years before the killing of Kate Steinle in San Francisco, sanctuary cities were a hot issue in the 2008 Democratic presidential primary campaign... And as it happened, the three top figures in today's Democratic party -- Barack nObama, loose lips Joe Biden, and Hilly Clinton -- were all running for president and were all grilled, in a single debate, about their stands on the question. Only one -- loose lips Biden -- said he would not allow cities to defy federal immigration law. nObama sidestepped the question but managed to leave the clear impression he would allow sanctuary cities to continue. And Clinton made clear she would leave sanctuary cities untouched. http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/when-clinton-obama-and-biden-debated-sanctuary-cities/article/2567899?utm_campaign=Conservative%20Inbox:%20Top%205&utm_source=Conservative%20Inbox:%20Top%205%20-%2007/09/15&utm_medium=email
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Trump Threatens “North American Union” Scheme
{Cliff Kincaid} ~ As Rush Limbaugh notes, Donald Trump has indeed made illegal immigration into an issue of national debate. The liberal media and now, apparently, the chairman of the Republican Party, have objected to Trump’s comments about criminal aliens... In fact, what Trump has done is jeopardize a plan that goes way beyond mere amnesty for illegals, and which has been on the drawing board for more than a decade. Simply put, the plan is to submerge the sovereignty of the United States of America and politically integrate the U.S., Canada, and Mexico into a trilateral entity called the North American Union. The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) calls it a “North American Community,” as if the corrupt culture and government of Mexico can be made to mesh with democratic systems in the U.S. and Canada. It means open borders and more criminal aliens in the U.S.
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Pluto And Us
Charles Krauthammer
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{freedomsback.com} ~ We need a pick me up. Amid the vandalizing of Palmyra, the imminent extinction of the northern white rhino, the disarray threatening Europe’s most ambitious attempt ever at peaceful unification — amid plague and pestilence and, by God, in the middle of Shark Week — where can humanity turn for uplift?
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Meet New Horizons, arriving at Pluto on July 14. Small and light, the fastest spacecraft ever launched, it left Earth with such velocity that it shot past our moon in nine hours. A speeding bullet the size of a Steinway, it has flown 9 1/2 years to the outer edges of the solar system..
To Pluto, the now-demoted “dwarf planet” that lives beyond the Original Eight in the far distant “third zone” of the solar system — the Kuiper Belt, an unimaginably huge ring of rocks and ice and sundry debris where the dwarf is king.
To Pluto, the now-demoted “dwarf planet” that lives beyond the Original Eight in the far distant “third zone” of the solar system — the Kuiper Belt, an unimaginably huge ring of rocks and ice and sundry debris where the dwarf is king.
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After 3 billion miles, New Horizons will on Tuesday shoot right through Pluto’s mini-planetary system of five moons, the magnificently named Charon, Styx, Nix, Hydra and Kerberos.
After 3 billion miles, New Horizons will on Tuesday shoot right through Pluto’s mini-planetary system of five moons, the magnificently named Charon, Styx, Nix, Hydra and Kerberos.
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Why through? Because, while the other planets lie on roughly the same plane, Pluto and its moon system stick up at an angle to that plane like a giant archery target. New Horizons gets one pass, going straight by the bull’s-eye. No orbiting around, no lingering for months or even years to photograph and study.
Why through? Because, while the other planets lie on roughly the same plane, Pluto and its moon system stick up at an angle to that plane like a giant archery target. New Horizons gets one pass, going straight by the bull’s-eye. No orbiting around, no lingering for months or even years to photograph and study.
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No mulligans. And no navigating. Can’t do that when it takes 4 1/2 hours for a message from Earth to arrive. This is a preprogrammed, single-take, nine-day deal.
No mulligans. And no navigating. Can’t do that when it takes 4 1/2 hours for a message from Earth to arrive. This is a preprogrammed, single-take, nine-day deal.
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For what? First, for the science, the coming avalanche of new knowledge. Remember: We didn’t even know there was a Pluto until 85 years ago when astronomer Clyde Tombaugh found a strange tiny dot moving across the star field.
For what? First, for the science, the coming avalanche of new knowledge. Remember: We didn’t even know there was a Pluto until 85 years ago when astronomer Clyde Tombaugh found a strange tiny dot moving across the star field.
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Today, we still know practically nothing. In fact, two of the five moons were not discovered until after New Horizons was launched. And yet next week we will see an entirely new world come to life. “We’re not planning to rewrite any textbooks,” said principal investigator Alan Stern in a splendid New York Times documentary on the mission. “We’re planning to write them from scratch.”
Today, we still know practically nothing. In fact, two of the five moons were not discovered until after New Horizons was launched. And yet next week we will see an entirely new world come to life. “We’re not planning to rewrite any textbooks,” said principal investigator Alan Stern in a splendid New York Times documentary on the mission. “We’re planning to write them from scratch.”
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Then there’s the romance. The Pluto fly-by caps a half-century of solar system exploration that has yielded staggering new wonders. Such as Europa, one of Jupiter’s moons, with its vast subterranean ocean under a crust of surface ice, the most inviting potential habitat for extraterrestrial life that human beings will ever reach.
Then there’s the romance. The Pluto fly-by caps a half-century of solar system exploration that has yielded staggering new wonders. Such as Europa, one of Jupiter’s moons, with its vast subterranean ocean under a crust of surface ice, the most inviting potential habitat for extraterrestrial life that human beings will ever reach.
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Yes, ever. Promising exoplanets — the ones circling distant stars that we deduce might offer a Goldilocks zone suitable for water-based life — are being discovered by the week. But they are unreachable. The journey to even the nearest would, at New Horizons speed, take 280,000 years. Even mere communication would be absurdly difficult. A single exchange of greetings — “Hi there,” followed by “Back at you, brother” — would take a generation.
Yes, ever. Promising exoplanets — the ones circling distant stars that we deduce might offer a Goldilocks zone suitable for water-based life — are being discovered by the week. But they are unreachable. The journey to even the nearest would, at New Horizons speed, take 280,000 years. Even mere communication would be absurdly difficult. A single exchange of greetings — “Hi there,” followed by “Back at you, brother” — would take a generation.
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It’s the galactic version of the old Trappist monastery joke where every seven years one monk at one meal is allowed one remark. A young novice arrives and after seven years a monk stands up at dinner and says: “The soup is cold.”
It’s the galactic version of the old Trappist monastery joke where every seven years one monk at one meal is allowed one remark. A young novice arrives and after seven years a monk stands up at dinner and says: “The soup is cold.”
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Seven years of silence. Then another monk stands and says: “The bread is stale.”
Seven years of silence. Then another monk stands and says: “The bread is stale.”
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Seven years later, the now-aging novice rises and says: “If you don’t stop this bickering, I’m outta here.”
Seven years later, the now-aging novice rises and says: “If you don’t stop this bickering, I’m outta here.”
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Which is what a conversation with Klingons would be like, except with longer intervals. Which is why we prefer to scour our own solar system. And for more than just the science, more than just the romance. Here we are, upright bipeds with opposable thumbs, barely down from the trees, until yesterday unable to fly, to communicate at a distance, to reproduce a sound or motion or even an image — and even today barely able to manage the elementary decencies of civilization — taking close-up pictures and chemical readings of a mysterious world 9 1/2 years away.
Which is what a conversation with Klingons would be like, except with longer intervals. Which is why we prefer to scour our own solar system. And for more than just the science, more than just the romance. Here we are, upright bipeds with opposable thumbs, barely down from the trees, until yesterday unable to fly, to communicate at a distance, to reproduce a sound or motion or even an image — and even today barely able to manage the elementary decencies of civilization — taking close-up pictures and chemical readings of a mysterious world 9 1/2 years away.
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One final touch. Every ounce of superfluous weight has been stripped from New Horizons to give it more speed and pack more instruments. Yet there was one concession to poetry. New Horizons is carrying some of Clyde Tombaugh’s ashes. After all, he found the dot. Not only will he fly by his netherworldly discovery, notes Carter Emmart of the American Museum of Natural History, he will become the first human being to have his remains carried beyond the solar system.
One final touch. Every ounce of superfluous weight has been stripped from New Horizons to give it more speed and pack more instruments. Yet there was one concession to poetry. New Horizons is carrying some of Clyde Tombaugh’s ashes. After all, he found the dot. Not only will he fly by his netherworldly discovery, notes Carter Emmart of the American Museum of Natural History, he will become the first human being to have his remains carried beyond the solar system.
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For the wretched race of beings we surely are, we do, on occasion, manage to soar.
For the wretched race of beings we surely are, we do, on occasion, manage to soar.
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