‘Bible torching,’ ‘neo-satanic’ college group planned ‘lamb sacrifice’ at Clemson University – TheBlaze.com

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A college group reportedly planned to hold a neo-satanic ceremony at Clemson University on Saturday.

According to a flier found in Clemsons Brackett Hall, students were invited to attend the Clemson Unorthodox Neo-Satanic Temples C.U.N.T. Afterlife Party on March 11. The flier, which features two satanic symbols, promises students a lamb sacrifice and live bloodletting, a public satanic ritual in which people draw blood from a live animal.

In addition to sacrificing lambs, the flier promised students a Bible Torching Ceremony at 7 p.m. and promised the C.U.N.T. sucker who brings the most bibles wins $25!

The Clemson Unorthodox Neo-Satanic Temple claims in the flier the event was planned to help summon Baphomet, a goat-headed satanic figure with horns.

Baphomet is a popular image in modern satanism. In 2014, a satanic group in New York designed and built a one-ton statue of Baphomet and attempted in vain to have the statue placed near a statue of the Ten Commandments at the Oklahoma State Capitol. However, that attempt failed when the Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled the Ten Commandments statue violated the states prohibition on using public property for religious purposes.

Its unclear whether the Clemson Unorthodox Neo-Satanic Temple truly held the event or where the event was scheduled to occur.

This isnt the first time a college group has attempted to hold a satanic ritual on or near a college campus. In 2014, a Harvard University student group, the Harvard Extension Cultural Studies Club, planned a large, satanic black mass on Harvards campus, but it was canceled after significant backlash from parents, students and faculty. Foxnews.com reported nearly 400 students and 100 alumni petitioned against the event.

The same organization that helped plan the event, the Satanic Temple, announced in May 2016 its plan to roll out an after-school satanic club for public elementary school students. According to a report in USA Today, the group is more interested in promoting rebellion against tyranny and authoritarian rule, as the group defines it, and places science above all religious ideas.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2001 religious groups have the right to use public school spaces as any other after-school club would.

(H/T: Campus Reform)

(Photo by Ken Lund)

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'Bible torching,' 'neo-satanic' college group planned 'lamb sacrifice' at Clemson University - TheBlaze.com

The Awolowo legacy and its message for Nigerian youths – Tribune – NIGERIAN TRIBUNE (press release) (blog)

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Being the 2017 Obafemi Awolowo memorial lecture delivered by Professor Banji Akintoye on March 6, in Lagos.

WE gather today, the sixth day of March 2017, as we have done unfailingly and dutifully every year for decades, to celebrate the birthday of our father and benefactor, Chief Obafemi Awolowo. Each celebration is our way of thanking him for the glistering heritage which he bequeathed to us; it also a way of reminding ourselves that we possess a great heritage, and that we can achieve whatever we set our hearts and minds upon to achieve.

Todays lecture is a message to our youths in these terrible times in the life and history of Nigeria. I will try to keep it as simple and brief as possible. Indeed, I want it to be as close as possible to a university classroom lecture, because I want my chosen audience, the youths of our country, to benefit fully from it.

Our father, Obafemi Awolowo, was an unrelenting searcher for information and knowledge about his society, country and world, a philosopher, a man of consistent efficiency and steadily high ideals in his private and public life, a man of titanic courage, an accomplished development planner, an endowed nation builder, an astute administrator, a great motivator, a wonderful leader of men and, above all, an inspired and inspiring teacher. It is one of the greatest joys of my life that, in my generation of Nigerian youths, I belonged to the select group of youths who were privileged to be close to Chief Awolowo as to a father, who were fortunate to learn at his feet, and who were called upon, under his leadership, to attempt great exploits towards the improvement of the quality of the lives of our people, and towards the prosperity and greatness of our country.

Chief Awolowo remains very much alive today, because his legacy continues to impact the lives of millions of his countrymen for good. I was in a get-together of old friends some weeks ago in a town in our Southwest. In the course of the evening, we in the gathering got into recounting our memories and reminiscences about our childhood lives. The few of us who were in our eighties told stories about how, when we were children, only a few of us in our towns and villages were going to school while the vast majority of our friends, brothers and cousins were not going, mostly because their parents could not afford to send them. But most of us in the gathering who were in our seventies and below told stories of how life suddenly changed for all children in their towns and villages in 1955, the year in which Chief Awolowo introduced Free Primary Education in the Western Region. Most of the men and women who are senior professors, senior administrators, senior statesmen, senior engineers, senior architects, senior lawyers and so on in our Southwest today, are so because Chief Awolowo opened the door of schools to all children from 1955 on in our Western Region. All these senior citizens are parents of highly educated families that today occupy very important places in the life of our region, our country, and other countries in the wide world families that will, probably many centuries from now, continue to be important in the lives of our communities and of the world.

Some years ago, while traveling in some countries of Southeast Asia, I met a Yoruba man who was Dean of Technology in his university there. He told me that his place of origin was a small village in a remote part of our Southwest. I jokingly asked him how he had managed to come from his remote village to the position of Dean in a university so far across the world, and he laughed and answered in one single word, Awolowo. What he meant is that it was Chief Awolowo that had made it possible for his poor parents to send him to the small school in his small village home, and that it was Chief Awolowo that thereby opened the paths across the world before him.

Chief Awolowo changed the life, the capabilities and the prospects of the whole Yoruba nation in Nigeria, a nation that now numbers about 50 million in population. I returned home a few months ago, after many years of living and working as a professor abroad, mostly in the United States of America. America is a country of thousands of universities; and there is hardly any one of those universities that does not have some Yoruba professors. These days, since my return home from abroad, when I wake up in the morning, I love to stand at a discreet street corner and watch streams of our children going to school. Many of the children are so young that their older sisters or brothers have to hold their hands or even carry them. The one sure thing that every Yoruba mother does for a child of school age today is to send him or her to school. Unknown to those mothers, they are building the Yoruba nation into a mighty nation in the world. In all the future, whenever the story of the greatness is written or told, it will always be remembered that it all started when Obafemi Awolowo opened the door to schools to all the children of his people. Free Education in our Western Region under Chief Awolowo was the very first in all of Africa.

The gift of Free Education was the greatest single gift given by Chief Awolowo to us his people, but it was not the only gift. Under his leadership, the Western Region stood out as the number one Region, the pace setter in development, in Nigeria. The wide-ranging development achievements included many miles of solidly surfaced roads all over our Region, pipe-borne clean water to many of our towns, the first television station on the African continent, the first public-owned sports stadium, the first industrial estate, imaginative support systems for our cocoa farmers (as a result of which our cocoa farmers became the most productive African farmers on the African continent), farm centres training our youths in modern farming, technical training centres teaching modern job skills to our youths, a broad-based investment corporation with investments in industries, commerce, banking, and real estate (the largest agglomeration of African-owned investment capital in Africa). Very importantly too, our Region was the leader in Nigeria in the development of a democratic society, and a government responsive to its people. On the whole, we in the Western Region were led to dream dreams of greatness in the world, we began to see ourselves as soon able to catch up with industrial world leaders like Japan. And we gave our Region the name First in Africa.

I need to add that Chief Awolowo did not intend to limit all these to the Western Region. No. When parents from other Regions brought their children across Regional borders to our free schools, Chief Awolowos government did not try to stop them. Moreover, he made dedicated efforts to give these goods to the whole of Nigeria. First and foremost in this regard, he was the leader who promoted most clearly and most consistently the idea that a country like Nigeria, comprising many different nationalities, in order to be able to live in harmony and make progress, needs to establish a rational federal system based on respect for the various nationalities. Other Nigerian leaders resisted this, and some castigated him for it, but he never gave up. His words have proved true in the course of the nearly sixty years of Nigerias independence. By concocting Nigeria into a country with an all-controlling central government, those who reject Chief Awolowos federalist ideas have led Nigeria into evil times times so evil that Nigeria may ultimately, or may even soon, break up.

Moreover, from 1959, Chief Awolowo embarked on efforts to take his development ideas to the Nigerian federal government and thereby to the whole of Nigeria. He fought titanic election campaigns, and reached the hearts of ordinary Nigerians far and wide. But, as we all know, most elections are won in Nigeria not through the votes of the common people but through the manipulations of powerful and influential citizens, especially powerful and influential citizens holding the machinery of the Federal Government. At federal election after federal election, Chief Awolowo won the majority of votes and lost the elections.

Unfortunately, in the midst of the rubble into which Nigeria has been reduced, the quality of the education which Chief Awolowo established for us is suffering today. Our children are not learning as much or as well as they should be learning in their schools. Most of the old school environments are run down and depressing and do not inspire the children to learn. Support for schools are generally poor across Nigeria, teachers are irregularly paid their salaries and are demoralised, and many teachers are forced to seek survival in all sorts of side ventures. Therefore, our youths are graduating from our schools, colleges and universities with very low levels of educational competence. The reasons for this sad state of affairs is well known. The persons who have been controlling most of the affairs of Nigeria through the Federal Government since independence are apathetic or even downright hostile to modern education. And, unhappily, the Federal Government which these people control has been gradually turned into the controller of all of Nigeria, with power and influence to determine what states may or may not do. The United Nations agency, UNESCO, estimates that a country that would have an efficient, effective and result-yielding educational system needs to be spending at least 26 per cent of its GDP (or annual budget) on education. Nigeria spends only about eight per cent on education. Moreover, federal policies, and federal dictation of the nature, contents, and direction of education at all levels throughout Nigeria, have had disastrous effects on education in all parts of Nigeria.

But I must hurry to add that, happily, we are beginning to see welcome changes in our educational system. Some of the school premises being built today for primary schools in some of our states deserve our commendation and our gratitude. While thanking our elected public officials for these, however, we must also urge them to venture into deeper changes in the education of our children. What we Yoruba people want for ourselves is to belong in the ranks of the most educationally, scientifically and technologically advanced peoples of the world. In addition, we want our children to learn, and become proficient in, our language and our history. Chief Awolowo put our feet on the path to all these; we must now resume the journey with all the vigour at our command.

But, as we gather here today, we are living in a Nigeria that has declined to its lowest levels of societal disorder, immorality, and hopelessness. All the negative inputs that have been fed into our countrys life since independence, all the crookedness, all the hatred and vileness and viciousness, all the involvement of the darkness of the occult and of Satanism into the affairs of Nigeria, all the murderous intent and the mass murdering of the weak and vulnerable, all the religious and inter-ethnic violence, all the sub-human greed and corruption in the ranks of the political and bureaucratic elite, all the impunity in the management of Nigerian affairs all have now converged and concatenated to make Nigeria a land of utter hopelessness for the vast majority of Nigerians, a land of poverty, hunger, disease and destitution, a land of desperation, fear and terror, a land in which rivers of human blood flow day by day, a land in which human life has become pitifully discounted.

A recent report by a United Nations agency described Nigeria as one of the poorest and most unequal countries in the world. Another UN report warned that if certain situations in Nigeria were not urgently changed, as many as 140 thousand children could die in a certain part of Nigeria in the next few months. Various reports are informing Nigeria and the world that the charitable money and other items sent by international organisations and individuals from across the world for the care of Nigerians internally displaced by Boko Haram violence are being stolen and shared by Nigerian officials, and that the camps where the internally displaced persons are being kept has become a horrible place of mass starvation and mass deaths. A report in the news media about two weeks ago alerted Nigeria to the fact that instances of mental sickness have risen to frightening heights, and are rising more and more sharply, in our country, and indicated that the cause of this is the condition of our country the hopeless poverty that reigns over the lives of masses of Nigerians, and the insensitive and utterly immoral governance of our country.

Instances of the vilest and most grotesque crimes, and of the most shockingly inhuman treatments of man by man, are reported daily from various parts of our country. The whole world has been watching videos of Nigerians calmly cutting the throats of hundreds of fellow Nigerians, and of Nigerians gathering groups of other living Nigerians together, dousing them with gasoline, and setting them on fire. Nigeria is becoming a strangely barbarous and repulsive spectacle in the world.

Not surprisingly, the outside world is already showing signs of rejecting Nigeria and Nigerians. About two weeks ago, towards the end of last January, some countries of the world issued warnings and advisories to their citizens, some urging their citizens to desist from going to Nigeria, some advising their citizens who are already in Nigeria to watch out for danger, and some advising their citizens to stay clear of certain parts of Nigeria. In the Union of South Africa, a member country of the African Union, the people are showing very definitely that they no longer want Nigerians in their country. In town after town in that country, crowds of citizens are rising up, attacking Nigerians, chasing Nigerians from their communities, killing some Nigerians in the process, and destroying the businesses and properties of Nigerians. This has been going on for some time, but it has reached a peak in recent months. And similar developments have occurred in some other African countries such as Kenya. Thousands of Nigerians regularly try to reach Europe through the Sahara Desert country of Libya in North Africa, another member of the African Union. According to official reports in recent months, Libyan citizens now commonly attack the arriving Nigerians, steal their money and other belongings, and then kill them.

As we all know, it is the youths of Nigeria that suffer the most from all these rot and ruin of Nigeria. By our youths I mean those Nigerians who belong to the age bracket of 18 to 40. As I said recently in a lecture which I delivered to Igbo Youths in Enugu, the people aged 18 to 40 are always the most dynamic sector of the population of every nation in the world. People below 18 are still children, mostly still schooling or learning in some other way. People in the age bracket 18 to 40 are usually graduates of schools, colleges and universities. In Nigeria, they constitute a majority of our countrys total population they are believed to be about 55 per cent of our population. Even more importantly, they are the most educated and most skilled sector of our adult population. They produce and raise most of the children that are being born into our population. They dream up most ideas in business; and they are the starters of most business ventures. They lead in all fields of adventure, sports, and arts. In short, they bear the biggest share of the burden of pushing our country forward in economic, business, professional, intellectual, cultural, social and artistic pursuits.

But since independence, planning for the empowerment of our youths has never been a serious and sustained feature of Nigerias national development. Even the programmes for youth empowerment started in the Western Region under Chief Awolowos Regional government in the 1950s have not survived in the era of federal control and federal fiats. For decades now, the rate of unemployment among our youths has been one of the highest in the world. It has often been estimated as ranging between 54 per cent and 70 per cent among our educated youths, and even higher among the uneducated ones. For even the best university graduates, working the streets for years without a job is the common experience all over Nigeria. Most of our educated youths are unemployable partly because their basic education is grossly defective, partly because they lack modern job skills, and partly because the overwhelming majority lack acceptable job ethics. At the same time, poor infrastructures, poor public administrative services, and insensitive financial services, drastically inhibit the spirit of entrepreneurship among our youths. In most countries in the world, a youth can sit at his mothers kitchen table or in his fathers garage and put together a business idea that can develop into a big winner in the market place; he does not have to fear for lack of electricity, lack of water, lack of good roads, lack of a supportive public administration, or lack of sensitive and helpful banking services. In Nigeria, even the most creative youth is deterred by such fears from going forward with his ideas; for those who choose to go forward, failure and drop-out are the very common outcomes.

However, even in these terrible times, I bring the message that any youth who chooses to learn from Chief Awolowos legacy stands a very good chance of acquiring for himself or herself a purpose-driven life, a life of success, and a life that impacts society, country and world in very positive ways. That is the central purpose of this lecture to invite and motivate our youths to benefit from the Awolowo legacy and use it to enrich, strengthen and beautify their lives and if possible, to use it to earn for themselves an image as bright and as enviable as Chief Awolowos in the world and for a long time in the future.

First then, I urge you to learn this first thing about Chief Awolowo. He was only a youth like many of you in my audience today when he started to give his life to great exploits. The decisions he took then any of you can take today. At a tender age, he tried his hand at a business of his own, and he also gave some of his time to the emerging nationalist politics of Nigeria. His first great achievement was his founding of the pan-Yoruba organisation, Egbe Omo Oduduwa, in 1945. He was only a student in London when he did this, and he was only 37 years old. At only 37, he thus stepped boldly into greatness. Then, two years later, he published his first book proposing the best direction for the constitutional development of Nigeria.

Any youth who chooses to do something like these along lines of his or her own interest has a fair chance of achieving success. World history is copiously dotted with stories of youths who stepped out early and achieved greatness early. Develop interest in such stories and then boldly choose your own line of action, instead of just roaming the streets for job opportunities that do not exist, or following and yelling after politicians, or attaching yourself to a group of area boys, or even blindly rushing away to other countries. To your surprise, you may acquire some highly valuable skill, or become the owner of an enterprise of your own, your own kind of enterprise. Though things are tough in Nigeria today, roads to success still exist for those who would decide and launch out with serious dedication as our father, Awolowo, did.

And then, one of the most impressive features Chief Awolowoslife was his love of learning, his dedication to finding information and knowledge. His central interest in this was to find out how a country is developed, how this country called Nigeria can be best developed, how to improve the quality of the lives of his countrymen, how to make himself a better and more informed servant of his people. Of course, he gave some time to other kinds of study for instance, he engaged in some scientific researches, and he set up a small laboratory for that purpose. But the subject of development and progress was his main interest, and he always went at it with almost superhuman energy, zeal and concentration. I and others of my age were only school boys during most years of his revolutionary premiership of the Western Region in the 1950s, but when he came back from his unfair political incarceration, followed by some years of service in the federal war cabinet, and after he returned to full politics in the 1970s, we were already fairly mature intellectuals, and we were among the closest persons in his circle for the rest of his life. He relentlessly pushed himself and us in the search for knowledge and that meant that he was constantly reading, constantly demanding clearer explanations and new writings and books, constantly doing very incisive writings of his own, constantly drawing us into discussion, frequently asking us to travel to other lands where there might be development information that could help to make our plans for Nigeria better, frequently urging us to take advantage of our academic travels to acquire information about our great central charge the development and beauty of our Nigeria. It is true, as he said in one of his most famous statements, that while other men slept, he kept working into the deep hours of the night, delving deeper and deeper into knowledge about how to make Nigeria a great country. He was truly the deep calling to the deep.

I believe that Chief Awolowo knew Nigeria more comprehensively and more deeply than any other Nigerian of his time. He was not merely another Nigerian politician. He understood more of Nigerias problems, and Nigerias economic and political life and prospects, and had clearer and more constructive ideas about the development and future of Nigeria. He fully deserves the deep respect, and the gravity, that he is receiving from us his children and from generations of other Nigerians. Again, I say to my youthful audience of today: any of you can start from this moment to include in your lives a search for knowledge in some field of interest of yours. Any of you who does that stands a fair chance of acquiring at least some of the kind of respect and immortality that Chief Awolowo now enjoys.

I now direct my youthful audience to one special issue over which Chief Awolowo never stopped writing and explaining till his last days. I refer to the issue of a rational and harmonious federation for this country and the fact that a terribly warped and over-centralized structure has been gradually foisted over our federation since 1966. This over-centralization is the root of all the evils that are now wrecking Nigeria, and the root of all the sufferings of all Nigerians, especially our youths. Our youths must not leave the fight against this destructive federal structure to scattered politicians and intellectuals. You must all rise up and fight it relentlessly, until the advocates and supporters of it yield to the demands for the rational restructuring of our federation.

As part of this war, it is crucial that the nations of Nigeria must be defended by all Nigerian youths. Some people who want a more or less unitary state in this multi-ethnic country have been perversely claiming that Nigerias nations are mere myths, that there is no Igbo nation or Yoruba nation or Igala nation or Ijaw nation or Urhobo nation, etc. Some treatises written in 2000-2001 under the auspices of a federal agency (Centre for Democratic Development Research and Training) stated these things explicitly and strongly. They are wrong; and they are deliberately propagating a dangerous falsehood. The youths of Nigeria must confront them powerfully and force them to give up their falsehood.

That demands also that our youths must all begin to propagate respect for the many nations of our country, large or small. Our youths must give up old tendencies whereby persons of one nation denigrate other nations. It is true that, in the complex and confusing politics of Nigeria, some of our nations have hurt one another in some ways in the past. But we must resist the temptation to keep wallowing in the mud-pits of the past; we must give concentration to the fight for a great future for our peoples. Every one of our nations must feel respected and wanted in our country. Every nation in our country, no matter how small, must feel confident in the assurance of protection by the collective will of Nigeria. That is what Chief Awolowo lived much of his life seeking the structural environment for. The kind of genocide now going on in parts of South Kaduna and other parts of the Middle Belt should be met with stout resistance by youths who call Chief Awolowo their father.

To achieve such noble purposes, our youths must develop very strong confidence in themselves, as Chief Awolowo developed great confidence in himself. You must stop the habit of thinking that you are weak, that you are weaker than, and subordinate to, the present class of politicians. Much of Chief Awolowos success was due to his confidence that the British white rulers of Nigeria were not superior to Nigerians, and that Nigerians can indeed achieve great things that the British rulers cannot. You are much stronger than you think. Sure, you do not have the kind of money that the corrupt politicians of these days have; but if you use your head, mobilize your huge numbers and your education sensibly, and if you operate purposefully and with discipline as Chief Awolowo would do in circumstances such as these, you can change the destiny of your peoples for the better even in a country like Nigeria.

Well, at any time, I can speak about Chief Awolowo for hours on end. He means that much to us, and much more. But I must remember my promise to make this a brief speech. Therefore, I will now round this speech up by bringing the youths of my audience to this final subject which Chief Awolowo always stressed very much in our circle.

Chief Awolowo always gave emphasis to the need for leaders and rulers to respect their people. In conversations with the young ones like me, he would often say, You must always take care to respect our people. If any of you find yourself in a governing position over any part of our people, your first line of survival and success is to respect them. They may be illiterate and poor, but they are members of ancient civilizations and they are more understanding than you think. If you are arrogant and overbearing, they will find ways to stop you and those ways may hurt your further chances. You must take care to explain things to them, and you must not falsely promise them what you know you cannot do. It is disrespectful to do that. Whatever you do as ruler, do it with our people, dont merely do it for them. We are not foreigners ruling our people, we are their kith and kin. Make sure to enhance their feeling of self-respect.

Because Chief Awolowo had such respect for our people, they trusted him. In many towns and villages in Yorubaland, there were old folks whom the local people called Awolowos father or Awolowos mother. In the 1970s when some of us Awolowos children were scattered all over Nigeria putting the Unity Party of Nigeria together, we were often surprised to find friends of his in even remote places. In a village called Ankpa in the then Benue State, one such old friend of Chief Awolowo took care of me like a son; and in Uyo in the then Cross River State, another old friend of his received me the same way. Many of my friends had similar experiences in the field.

And, now, I will close this with a story about this wonderful respect of our father for our people. In 1983, in preparation for the 1983 presidential election, Chief Awolowo was doing a campaign tour of Kano State, and I was leading a small team on a special part of our campaign in the then Plateau State. Chief Awolowo sent for me to come and see him for some information he needed to pass to me. I started off that afternoon with my team and, after a night in Kaduna, we reached Kano next morning. Papa had gone out on his campaign in parts of Kano State before we arrived, and he was scheduled to return to Kano City at about 4p.m to address the people of the city. Huge crowds were already gathering by noon. But 4p.m came and Papa did not arrive; then 5p.m, 7p.m, 9p.m, and he still had not come. Finally, between 9p.m and 10p.m, he and his large entourage arrived. What had happened is that at many villages along his way, where he had not been billed to stop, the villagers had come to the road and asked him to stop and speak to them. And each time he so stopped, he took his time to speak fully to the villagers and to answer their questions. He respected them too much to do any less. But the result of such strenuous exertion is that he looked fearfully tired when he arrived in Kano City. I went to his room in the house provided for us by the governor of Kano State; but he looked so terribly weak that I quietly gave up the attempt to discuss with him. Some medical doctors were always in our group, and these were hurrying in and out to attend to him. That night, many of us feared that we were going to lose our leader and father. It was a hard and sleepless night for many of us. Mercifully, however, he revived considerably before morning and was strong enough to talk with me and my team, and to address the large cheering crowd of Kano City people.

That is our father. His life is a whole book of instructions and lessons for us his children. I urge you all to take full advantage of the lessons and instructions.

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The Awolowo legacy and its message for Nigerian youths - Tribune - NIGERIAN TRIBUNE (press release) (blog)

What if the problem is simply liberals and conservatives just don’t like each other? – Fort Worth Star Telegram

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What if the problem is simply liberals and conservatives just don't like each other?
Fort Worth Star Telegram
It's not about tax rates, government regulation or even abortion rights. No, this is elemental. This is about the city versus the country, higher education versus a mistrust thereof, Christian fundamentalism versus secular humanism. And it is about ...

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What if the problem is simply liberals and conservatives just don't like each other? - Fort Worth Star Telegram

Ambrose: Stick up for free speech, America – The Columbian

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A A

Jay Ambrose

Charles Murray, someone who makes his living by thinking and appreciates its grandeur as a guiding force, recently had a firsthand encounter with a mob of college students insisting instead that fury should rule the day.

I am tempted to generalize about a sickeningly spoiled, intellectually betrayed younger generation out to announce its moral superiority by way of moral thuggery. That goes too far. Were talking about 100 people. But they symbolized more than themselves. Something significant is indeed going on. And it is pathetic.

The setting for this story is Middlebury College in Middlebury, Vt. Murray, a libertarian author and scholar at the American Enterprise Institute think tank, had been invited to speak at the school by libertarian students, and no wonder.

A few years back, he had written an amazing book that as much as predicted what we witnessed in the 2016 presidential election. It was called Coming Apart and was about an upper-middle class more and more separated from a white working class letting go of self-reliance, industriousness, marriage and religion. A nation once unified in its norms was no more and the result was gated communities over here and increased poverty, crime and family dissolution over there.

You could read the book and not be persuaded by every sentence while nevertheless feeling that, yes, it is crucial to restore the exceptionalism of earlier days. Worry about all of this grew in 2016 when we witnessed so much talk about the establishment masses growling at the elites who in turn looked down on the deplorables. Donald Trump then made vulgarity his calling card as he rose mightily against political correctness.

It was legitimate to do so. Political correctness can be incorrect to the point of pulling a professors hair, hurting her neck, making her fear for her life and sending her to a hospital. This was what happened to a woman who was on the scene to debate Murray after his talk. To its credit, the administration did its best to maintain peace and sanity, and the professor was there to assure another side got told. But the protesters were not about to permit something as civilized as an exchange of views.

So the students unleashed obscenities in chants and signs, pushed, threatened, banged on a car, roughed up the professor and left one thinking of what else we have seen lately: the violence, speech oppression and vandalism at Berkeley, still other frenetic, mindless protests, silly university speech codes, safe zones, microaggressions, trigger warnings and no-sombrero rules.

Look around and its clear mean-spirited, self-absorbed, holier-than-God attitudes are definitively with us. They did not arise out of nothing but out of modes of askew child rearing, cultural degeneration and too many postmodernist, leftist professors preaching what should never be practiced. To what extent could our future be shaped by those caught up in such a self-satisfied la la land of absurdist rationalizations and desires for collectivist control?

It is hard to say, but I am not just indulging ad hominem displeasure here. The main thing is the assault on free speech. Without it, there is no democracy. Truth becomes harder and harder to find. We do not grow. We do not learn. Without free speech, life shrinks, goodness shrinks, meaningfulness shrinks.

A few incidents do not give us the end of the American creed but they do point to ways in which it is being subverted. An incident in which a powerful, creative thinker is shut up is all the more frightening because it tells us how much we would be hurt if the villains of this tale were to grow as much as they would like in their power and influence.

Jay Ambrose is an op-ed columnist for McClatchy-Tribune. Readers may send him email at speaktojay@aol.com.

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Ambrose: Stick up for free speech, America - The Columbian

LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Free Speech Fairness Act doesn’t fix anything – Norman Transcript

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Editor, The Transcript:

I see where our Christian Right junior U.S. senator is complaining that churches cant engage in political activity. Well, they can, of course, if theyre willing to forfeit their tax-exempt status. Thats part of the time-honored separation of church and state.

Lankford, R-Okla., even labels his position as the Free Speech Fairness Act. But long-standing federal law, the Johnson Act of 1954, prohibits nonprofits and religious organizations from politicking.

Pandering to religious voters, President Trump supports the idea of removing this prohibition, but allowing churches and other nonprofits to enter the political arena would, in effect, provide a taxpayer subsidy to all sorts of controversial organizations.

I suspect most us would not want a devil-worshiping group to spend tax-free money to proselytize its views. Or, to follow Trumps position, allowing certain unpopular religious groups (e.g., Muslims) to promote their views with tax-exempt funds. The separation of church and state has served this nation well over our history. As the old saying goes, Dont fix it if it aint broke. So, back off, Senator. Youre messing with a vital part of our constitutional heritage.

DAVID MORGAN

Norman

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LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Free Speech Fairness Act doesn't fix anything - Norman Transcript

Heartland Event: Assaults on Free Speech and the Future of Liberty – Somewhat Reasonable – Heartland Institute (blog)

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Nancy Thorner

Nancy Thorner is a musician and patriot who writes regularly for Illinois Review, and occasionally for The Heartland Institute's Freedom Pub blog.

The Heartland Institute on Wednesday, February 22 hosted an event with Steve Simpson editor of the book Defending Free Speech and director of legal studies at the Ayn Rand Institute to discuss the constant assault on this fundamental freedom and its implications for the future of liberty.

Simpson writes, speaks and gives interviews for ARI on constitutional law, freedom of speech, campaign finance law and other legal topics. A former senior attorney at the Institute for Justice, Mr. Simpson has litigated constitutional cases in the U.S. Supreme Court and state and federal courts throughout the nation on a wide variety of issues. Freedom of speech is indispensable to a free and civilized society, yet this precious right is increasingly under attack today.

Director of Communications Jim Lakely opened the event at Heartlands Andrew Breitbart Freedom Center by remarking how there was never a more timely time to hear about Defending Free Speech than now when Alinskyite tactics are being employed, riots are common all over this nation, and conservative speakers are protested or not permitted to speak on college campuses. Ann Coulter must provide body guards for her protection when she speaks, he noted, while left-leaning speakers never do.

You can watch Simpsons lecture in the player above, or here.

Opening Remarks by Simpson

Simpson recollected that it was only 25 months ago when the slaughter at the offices of the satire magazine Charlie Hebdo took place in Paris, France. Simpson believes that the primary threat to free speech doesnt come from terrorist attacks, per se, but from an unwillingness to defend free speech. Although terrorist attacks are not inconsequential, threats and killings can only succeed in chilling our speech if we let them through appeasing those who resort to threats and violence.

Consider, he said, how editor Flemming Rose of the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten was threatened with death for publishing drawings of Muhammad. It was on September 30, 2005 when the Danish newspaper published 12 editorial cartoons under the title, The Face of Muhammad the most notorious of which depicted the prophet with a bomb in his turban. Flemming Rose still lives under a death threat in the U.S.

Free speech cannot exist when some are willing to resort to force. Condoning violence in response to speech will only end up ensuring that violence will become the rule. The free speech now under attack in Western nations is far too often the product of radical Islamists. It is a scary, long-term situation. Unfortunately, appeasement seems to be the mode of operation in many nations. It is important what the public thinks about continuing attacks, for it is a window into how people regard freedom of speech today.

Steve Simpson also spoke of the current Supreme Court being one of the best courts for freedom of speech in many decades, at least for now.

What is Freedom of Speech?

Steve Simpson described freedom of speech as an individual right. We can do or say almost anything as long as it doesnt violate the rights of others. But too often lately, free speech is no longer appropriate if someone is offended.

Simpson said these fundamental ideas must endure the right of free speech to flourish:

Whats Happening to Free Speech of College Campuses?

Foremost in Simpsons mind were the riots at the University of California at Berkeley sparked by the mere presence on campus of Breitbart Tech editor Milo Yiannopoulos. He was invited to speak there by a college Republican organization, and the resulting violence forced the speech to be canceled. But it was what happened in the aftermath of the riot that caused much consternation and reflection.

TheDaily Californian, the student newspaper at the University of California, Berkeley, published a series of op-eds defending the use of violence to shut down Yiannopoulos lecture. The series is called Violence as self-defense, ostensibly on the premise that conservative speech is a physical threat.

A defense must be mounted against what happened at Berkeley, and what is also taking place on other college campuses. Speaking is not akin to engaging in violence. Never does what is perceived by another as offensive speech authorize acts of violence as a means of self-defense. Because Yiannopoulos speech represented a threat to the safety of students attending Berkley such as illegal immigrant students being ousted the college leftists determined that the only choice available was violence.

Importance of Reason, Pursuit of Happiness, and Individualism

As a moral argument, reason and persuasion should be used, Simpson said, not force.

From an individual standpoint, free speech and freedom of thought and the right to exercise these freedoms is essential to any man, woman, and child in any society. Our own expressions are essential in solving problems. Thinking cant be forced on us. We have the right to come to our own conclusions to guide us in our lives.

Simpson noted that reason was discovered in the Age of Enlightenment, sometimes called the Age of Reason. The American Enlightenment (1714 1818) was influenced by the 18th-century European Enlightenment and its own native American philosophy. Our Founding Fathers lived during this period of intellectual ferment in the 13 American colonies, which, in turn, led to the American Revolution and the creation of the American Republic. It was during the American Enlightenment that scientific reasoning was applied to politics, science, and religion.

When logic and reason are thrown out the window, violence remains the only option, as what played out at Berkeley. Yiannopoulos lecture remarks were predetermined to be offensive. Because of this assumption, there was no other choice open but to fight back.

What has caused reason to be dismissed by so many? According to Simpson, this disturbing trend ties in with the post-modernist strain of teachings in humanities, where reason is a nuisance and a made-up concept. Simpson cited Stanley Fish as believing there is no such thing as free speech; that its a political weapon that is used against other people.

In Fishs book published in 1944, Theres No Such Thing As Free Speech (and its a good thing, too), Fish wrote: Free speech is what is left over when a community has determined in advance what it does not want to hear.

Use of Collectivism to Limit Free Speech

ExxonMobil is facing investigation into whether it has been suppressing research findings on climate change as far back the 1970s, disregarding ExxonMobils nearly 40-year history of climate research that was conducted publicly in conjunction with the Department of Energy, academics and the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Exxons published input about the impact of fossil fuels on climate change took the form of a scientific debate: on the one hand, and on the other hand. Exxon was just looking into the issue to clarify it.

The attorneys general of New York and Massachusetts have brought lawsuits against Exxon, claiming Exxon knew it was lying about climate change and global warming, a concept which is now being promoted as truth, and as a ploy to sell more gasoline. Also under investigation is whether Exxon played a role in persuading President George W. Bush not to ratify the Kyoto protocol, a global treaty committing signatories to targets for reducing greenhouse gases.

There is nothing to prove that Exxon knew about the claimed potential risk of fossil fuels that now has been equated with man-made global warming.

Law exists to protect our individual rights. Its not the governments job is to protect society at large and to see that it remains moral according to what government dictates. Regarding how collectivism effects on the law: It protects everyone in general, but no one in particular. Collectivism is seeping into the law and is undermining our freedom of speech. It puts government in charge of what groups of individuals should think and the views of individuals are ignored

Questions and Answers

The session was thought-provoking and lively at times, which was altogether fitting as the exercise of free speech was on exhibit.

Question: It seems that in this society free speech can no longer be tolerated, even if persuasion is used. Those who disagree are shut down. Why?

Simpson: He admitted that free speech has plummeted on college campuses where advocates for Communism flourish.

[Thorner: It seemed incredible for Simpson to express his lack of knowledge about how billionaire George Soros is promoting violence, even at Berkeley, by using his tremendous wealth to train hundreds of paid individuals to invade events across this nation to cause havoc, stifle opposition, and try to destroy Trump and his administration. Such action constitutes treason to me. Find proof in the recent articles noted below that the protests and violence against President Trump and GOP legislators holding town hall meeting are not by chance, but are being organized and funded in a big way by George Soros and even an Obama-aligned organization with an intent to destroy Trump and his administration.]

Question: Are rants from Democrats taking President Trump to task out of line?

Simpson: He told of often hearing complaints from Democrats complaining of nasty comments made by Republicans, especially about Obamacare when Obama was in office.

[Thorner: Simpson seems to think what is good for the goose is good for the gander, but can rants against Obamacare, which rang of the truth, be compared to the present day rants by Democrats against President Trump because he won the presidency?]

Question: Is it fair for Trump to take the press to task?

Simpson: The press has become factionalized like many other groups of individuals. Check out Federalist No. 10.It also missed the story of the century. But Simpson believes that to attack the entire establishment press is counterproductive and problematic, although he did admit that the press does lean left.

[Thorner: What was most problematic is when Simpson stated: There are lots of journalists who are attempting to get and report the news fairly.]

Upcoming free Wednesday Night Heartland Events

March 15th Vaping: How Government Regulation Can Kill Innovation5:30 PM 7:30 PM Arlington Heights, Illinois

March 22nd Shall Not Be Infringed: The New Assaults on Your Second Amendment5:30 PM 7:30 PM Arlington Heights, Illinois

[First posted at Illinois Review.]

Heartland Event: Assaults on Free Speech and the Future of Liberty was last modified: March 11th, 2017 by Nancy Thorner

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‘Turkey-Netherlands tension sign of NATO breakup’ – Press TV

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Protestors wave Turkish national flags as they shout slogans during a demonstration late on March 11, 2017 in front of the consulate of the Netherlands in Istanbul.(Photo by AFP)

Turkey and the Netherlands have been moving on a collision course, with the events of the past few days testing the two NATO member states diplomatic relations. Press TV has asked investigative journalist David Lindorff to offer his analysis of how the current crisis is going to play out in light of Turkeys strained ties with the European Union.

Lindorff believes that the simmering tension between Turkey and the Netherlands is a sign that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is falling apart.

It is fascinating because if you recall Turkey and the Netherlands are both members of NATO. What we are seeing is signs of a fracturing of NATO gradually, particularly when it comes to Turkey which is being viewed increasingly negatively by most of the other NATO nations in Western Europe and particularly the original NATO nations, he stated.

Lindorff also noted that NATO is already under a lot of strain, and therefore a real blowup between two members was the last thing this organization needed.

So it really looks to me like the beginning of things falling apart, both for NATO and for the EU, he said.

Turkeys EU accession talks have largely failed since the country formally applied to be part of the European Union several decades ago. Late last year, the European Parliament voted to suspend membership negotiations with Turkey over human rights and rule of law concerns. The vote was largely symbolic.

The analyst further noted that there are several impediments to Turkey becoming a member of the European Union such as the death penalty and the crackdown on press, not to mention that a lot of Europeans are also becoming disenchanted with the whole notion of a wider EU.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is creating a kind of dictatorial situation by enhancing his executive powers, Lindorff said in reference to the upcoming constitutional referendum which seeks to extend the presidents mandate and give him wide-ranging political powers.

So a one-party rule and a very powerful executive [branch] kind of flies in the face of what the post-World War II tradition is in Europe. So it is really pushing things. The more power Erdogan tries to pull into his own hands, the harder it is to have Turkey in the EU, he said in conclusion.

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'Turkey-Netherlands tension sign of NATO breakup' - Press TV

Shattered Alliance: Unpleasant Legacy of NATO’s Fast-Tracked Expansion in Europe – Sputnik International

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However, the first country ofthe former Soviet bloc tojoin NATO was de facto the German Democratic Republic in1990. By agreeing tothe reunification ofGermany, Moscow secured commitment that the West would not deploy troops onthe territory ofthe former East Germany and NATO would not expand tothe east.

Then-German Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher assured his Soviet counterpart Eduard Shevardnadze: "For us, it stands firm: NATO will not expand itself tothe East."

AFP 2017/ JANEK SKARZYNSKI

Meanwhile, inthe first half ofthe 1990s, the United States and the European Union were inno haste toadmit the three former Socialist countries intothe alliance. However, finally a way intoNATO forthem was opened.

In 1997, six years afterthe dissolution ofthe Warsaw Treaty Organization, then-NATO Secretary General Javier Solana announced that the alliance decided toinvite Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary toadmission talks.

Madeleine Albright, NATO and Eastern Europe

Many Russian political analysts agree that American politician and diplomat Madeleine Albright played a key role inthe integration ofthe former Warsaw Treaty countries intoNATO.

In 1993, Albright became Washingtons Ambassador tothe UN and in1997 she was appointed asSecretary ofState.

Speaking inthe Senate inApril 1997, Albright said: "Russia would likeus tomake absolute commitments aboutthe deployment ofnuclear and conventional forces onthe territories ofnew members. But we will not compromise onthis issue," Albright said.

The State Secretary noted that the US did not plan todeploy nuclear weapons toprotect Eastern Europe. She added that NATO would not permanently station "substantial combat forces" inthe region.

First Expansion

In the second half ofthe 1990s, relations betweenRussia and the West were relatively warm and Moscow did not regard the NATO enlargement asa direct military threat. In 1998, then-Russian Foreign Minister Evgeniy Primakov said it was rather a psychological problem.

"There are some real issues, and there is also the psychological factor. It should be considered. Russia is underpressure because the alliance is expanding and nearing our borders. At the same time, the Founding Act onRussia-NATO ties helped ease tensions," Primakov said.

Moscow was concerned overthe pace ofthe NATO expansion. In fact, the admission ofPoland, the Czech Republic and Hungary was fast-tracked.

What is more, the fast pace ofintegration was dictated bythe upcoming military operation inYugoslavia. The first bombs were dropped onMarch 24, 1999, just 12 days afterPoland, the Czech Republic and Hungary became NATO members.

Moscow was outraged withNATOs intervention ofYugoslavia. Foreign Minister Primakovs plane made the famous U-turn overthe Atlantic, marking the beginning ofa new stage inRussia-NATO relations.

Bargaining Chip

In Russia, there is a common notion that NATO is a monolith organization. In fact, there have always been differences withinthe alliance. During the Cold War, its unanimity was cemented withthe "Communist threat." But afterthe Soviet bloc collapsed, NATOs unity shattered.

Sputnik/ Sergei Guneev

In the mid-2000s, Warsaw and Prague turned a blind eye onmass protests and agreed onthe deployment ofcomponents ofthe US global missile shield. Launched in2001 byPresident George W. Bush, the initiative was regarded asa threat byMoscow.

Finally, the efforts ofthe Polish and Czech government toprove their loyalty toWashington backfired. In 2009, Barack Obama became US President and adjusted the strategy towardsWashingtons allies inEastern Europe, thus, showing their real role inUS foreign policy.

"The Russia connection is simply that we're working and indeed, a number ofcountries incentral Europe are working toreset the relationship withRussia," US National Security Advisor Antony Blinken said in2009.

Thus, Washington indicated that Poland, the Czech Republic and other former Warsaw Treaty states were just a bargaining chip inUS-Russia relations.

Disputes Over Russia

Oddly enough, NATOs unity has been further undermined bythe situation aroundRussia. The Czech Republic, Hungary and Bulgaria do not want a confrontation betweenthe West and Moscow.

Moreover, Czech President Milos Zeman has repeatedly called forthe removal ofanti-Russian sanctions and underscored the importance ofdialogue withMoscow.

New Bulgarian President Rumen Radev is also known asa vocal critic ofthe Western anti-Russian approach. Despite the fact that Radev is pro-European and pro-NATO, he insists that West-Russia ties cannot be based onconfrontation.

"Bulgaria is a loyal member ofNATO and the EU. Historically and culturally, Bulgaria has always been a European country. It has chosen a stable and unswerving path ofpro-European development. We shall not stray fromit. We want toassert ourselves asa most reliable NATO partner. But that does not mean we have tobe an enemy toRussia, a country we have important economic interests with," Radev said inan interview withLe Monde inDecember.

In an interview withRT, Ivan Konovalov, a senior analyst atthe Russia Institute forStrategic Studies, noted that NATO has found itself ina stalemate.

"Western Europe and the US do not want tosponsor Eastern Europe, and Eastern Europe does not have money torestore its defense capabilities. The situation is further complicated withcalls toend confrontation withRussia," Konovalov said.

The expert suggested that Eastern European states have not gained their desired benefits fromNATO integration.

"The armed forces offormer Warsaw Treaty members are indecay. Their Soviet-made military hardware is poorly maintained, and they do not receive new equipment. Moreover, they cannot cooperate withRussia, they do not wage wars. So, it is unclear what is the reason forthem tobe inNATO," Konovalov said.

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NeverTrumper Michael Hayden of CIA, NSA: Breitbart News … – Breitbart News

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Given his background, those words carried weight and contributed to the climate of fear and division that burdens our democracy today, including within the intelligence agencies.

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Hayden also signed a letter last August urging Americans to vote against Donald Trump. Anything Hayden says about politics today must therefore be interpreted in that context. He is hardly a disinterested observer, and clearly resents the fact that the American people ignored his unsolicited advice.

Now, Hayden tells the Business Insider that Breitbart News has an illegitimate worldview. He was apparently objecting to Breitbart News storylast week documenting mainstream media reports that the Obama administration had conducted surveillance at Trump Tower and of people connected to the Trump campaign, and that it had disseminated the products of that surveillance.

Hayden admitted that he had not examinedthose media reports themselves. Nevertheless, he attacked Breitbart, Drudge and others:

The retired four-star Air Force general said too that theres an amazing consistency on numerous subjects between the information disseminated by Russian media outlets and that of conservative American sources like the Drudge Report, radio and television host Sean Hannity, and Breitbart.

You have a Breitbart News story essentially launching the Starfleet of the federal government about one of the most horrible political scandals in American history, if true, Hayden said, adding that it was very troubling the president seeming to value Breitbart reports over data compiled by intelligence agencies.

Breitbart doesnt do any creative journalism it just moves the parts around, Hayden continued. And I havent done this personally, but Ive heard others say, when you dig into the Breitbart sources, the articles dont really say that.

They have a worldview, and they are playing with it, he said. I think its an illegitimate worldview, and I think its a non-fact-based worldview. Its a worldview in which preexisting visions seem to be being used to distort the fact pattern that exists.

The proper address for Haydens complaints is the mainstream media, and possibly the Obama administration. Regardless, the views he considers illegitimateareenjoyed by the 45 million unique visitors who read our website every month.

The fact that Hayden and other disgruntled members of the Washington establishment still refuse to acknowledge the basic validity of a different perspective outside the Beltway and the mainstream media is precisely why Trump won in November.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. He was named one of the most influential people in news media in 2016. His new book,How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.

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Rape Survivor Explains Why She Supports The Second Amendment [VIDEO] – Daily Caller

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On May 12, 2006, Kimberly Corban was asleep in her college bedroom when a complete stranger raped her.

She thought those was her last moments on earth, as he tried killing her soul by brutally assaulting her body. This assault, her 911 calland her decisions afterward changed the trajectory of her entire life.

Now, she believes your greatest courage comes from your worst struggles. She has vowed never to be vulnerable again as she has learned more about self-protection, including how to use a firearm.

With her help and courage, her rapist was caught and convicted in 2007. She has also become a role model and an inspiration to a multitude of other young people who are learning how to protect themselves.

Last week, the head-turning, entrepreneurial TurningPointUSA launched the Trigger Warning Campus Tour, featuring Corban talking about her story and what students can do. Her motto is being a victim is never a choice, but becoming a survivor is.

I dont carry because I worry about what could happen. I carry because I already know.

There are no promises once citizens learn and train how to use a firearm, but the way you train or how much you know or what you choose to carry is going to be one more tool in your toolbox, Corban says. Safety and security are multi-layered, she says, mentioning dogs, security systems, and mace.

The Daily Caller News Foundation filmed Corban at Conservative Political Action Conference after her Armed and Fabulous panel. She spoke along with Kristi McMains, Katie Pavlich, Antonia Okaforand Ashlee Lundvall.

In this interview, Corban tells how she met Kristi McMains, a Louisville attorney attacked in January 2016. The two met in 2016 at the NRA annual meeting. Kristi had been so moved by Corbans story that she began carrying a gun for self-protection only to find within weeks her life was threatened by a man with a knife. Kristi says she was alive because of Corban, who told her story and changed McMains life.

Corban says at the first meeting last year, they ugly cried. Then, at CPAC, Corban was a proud mom hearing McMains tell her story for the first time.

Corban says she avoids movies that glorify rape. She says, what its like to have your soul murdered is never accurately depicted. I dont seek out fictional depictions of it in movies because theres enough of it in real life.

For more on Kimberly Corban see her website, the NRA ad she was inand her interaction with former President Obama, who she voted for in 2008, at a CNN town hall in 2016 about gun control here or follow her on Twitter @Kimberly_Corban.

Videographer Sean Moody is credited with the video work for this piece.

Mrs. Thomas does not necessarily support or endorse the products, services or positions promoted in any advertisement contained herein, and does not have control over or receive compensation from any advertiser.

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Rape Survivor Explains Why She Supports The Second Amendment [VIDEO] - Daily Caller

How Trump’s Vow To Protect Second Amendment Is Causing Turmoil for Outdoor Retailers – TheStreet.com

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While U.S. President Donald Trump's vow to "totally" protect the Second Amendment has eased gun owners' worried minds, his lax stance on firearms is causing a negative impact on the outdoor retail industry.

The F.B.I. said it conducted 2.23 million background checks in February, representing a 14% decline from February 2016. Background checks were down 20% in January and 17% in December, as gun owners no longer feel the need to rush to stock up on firearms as they did when former President Barack Obama was pushing for stricter federal gun laws.

During his campaign, Trump was even endorsed by The National Rifle Association (NRA).

But, as gun sales drop, outdoor retailers across the board are feeling the pressure.

Dick's Sporting Goods (DKS) said on its recent fourth-quarter earnings call that its outdoor category was particularly pressured, "driven in part by a decline in hunting."

"We did say that the hunting business was difficult," Dick's CEO Edward Stack said in response to an analyst's question on individual categories. "That hunting business...it continues to struggle and struggled in the fourth quarter, both firearms and a bit from an ammunition standpoint."

Olin (OLN) , owner of Winchester Ammunition, reported a 20% slip in ammo sales in its recent fourth quarter. In a December report, Wunderlich Securities analyst Rommel Dionisio estimated that firearms sales will "likely slow" in 2017. Looks like consumers are proving his prediction right.

Gander Mountain, one of the largest outdoor retailers in the U.S., filed for bankruptcy protection under Chapter 11 on Friday, listing $500 million to $1 billion in assets and liabilities.

Gander Mountain, which touts itself as being "America's Firearms Supercenter," blamed its filing on slowing foot traffic. The company operates about 110 stores in 26 states in the U.S.

To combat its own slipping gun sales, American Outdoor Brands (AOBC) is trying a different tactic in separating itself from the firearms industry. For instance, it changed its name from Smith & Wesson, a brand too associated with guns.

At its investor day in January, American Outdoor said it would be expanding on acquisitions of companies that are not so heavily focused on firearms to create long-term value. The move follows its recent acquisitions of knife maker Taylor Brands and Ultimate Survival Technologies, the manufacturer of survival, rescue, life support and disaster preparedness equipment.

Shares of American Outdoor have fallen about 15% since Trump was elected to office.

Trump and your taxes: Watch Jim Cramer lead a roundtable discussion on how investors and retirement savers should position their portfolio.

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Criminalizing the First Amendment: Republicans can’t handle truth … – Sacramento Bee

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Criminalizing the First Amendment: Republicans can't handle truth ...
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Convinced that paid, professional protesters are behind demonstrations against President Donald Trump, Republican lawmakers in several states are pushing ...

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Jitsi for Mac OS X Secure instant messaging and VoIP

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Posted10 August 2016

Jitsi is cross-platform, free and open-source software for Instant Messaging (IM), Voice over IP (VoIP) and video chat. It is compatible with many popular IM and telephony services and provides reliable end-to-end encryption for text chats (and somewhat experimental end-to-end encryption for voice chats).

Jitsi is cross-platform, free and open-source software for Instant Messaging (IM), Voice over IP (VoIP) and video chat. It is compatible with many popular IM and telephony protocols, including Jabber/XMPP, Facebook Messenger, AIM, ICQ, MSN, Yahoo! Messenger and SIP. It provides end-to-end encryption for text chats through the Off-the-Record (OTR) protocol. It also supports end-to-end encrypted voice chat using ZRTP over SIP, though it tends to be somewhat unstable when used in this way.

Important: If you and those with whom you communicate use OTR encryption for text chats and ZRTP encryption for voice chats, Jitsi will protect the content of your conversations from service providers like Google and Facebook. However, these providers can still monitor certain metadata about the conversations you have through Jitsi. Examples include:

They can share this information with third parties, including other companies and governments. For conversations where such metadata could be sensitive, you and those with whom you communicate should consider using a trusted, independent service provider.

Jitsi allows you to use your existing accounts to communicate securely through the use of end-to-end encryption. This not only makes the content of your communication inaccessible to various third parties, such as government or corporate surveillance platforms, it also protects your conversations from those who operate the chat services themselves (such as Facebook, if you are using Facebook Messenger, or Google, if you are using Google Talk).

Note: Jitsi was written in the Java programming language. As such, Java must be installed on your computer in order for it to work. Though Java itself does not represent a significant security risk, Java browser extensions are often found to contain vulnerabilities that allow malicious websites to assume control of your computer or install malware. If your browser has a Java plugin installed, we strongly recommend that you disable it.

Jitsi is available for Mac OS, GNU Linux, and MS Windows. It can be used to communicate with other XMPP or SIP clients that support end-to-end encryption through OTR (for text chat) or ZRTP (for voice chat). Examples are recommended below:

To install the latest stable version of Jitsi, follow the steps below:

Step 1. Go to the Jitsi download page.

Tip: Make sure you're on the secure version of the Jitsi download page before you download anything. (The 'https' part encrypts the connection between your browser and the website, thus making it harder for an attacker to modify the file you're going to download.)

Step 2. Select the appropriate Jitsi Mac OS X Package for your computers operating system.

Figure 1: Jitsis Download Page

If you are using OS X versions 10.8 and above, click on the main Mac OS X Packages link directly below the apple icon. If you are using versions 10.6 or 10.7, click on the No-JRE Packages Mac OS X 10.6/10.7 link. Most users with up-to-date operating systems will click on the main Mac OS X Packages link.

Tip: If you are unsure of which version your operating system is, click on the apple icon in the menu at the top of your screen, then scroll down to select About This Mac. A window will appear that includes the current version number of your operating system.

Step 3. Click to download the appropriate version of Jitsi. Save it to your Downloads folder.

Figure 2: Downloading Jitsi

To install Jitsi, follow the steps below:

Step 1. Navigate to the folder in which you saved the Jitsi package (titled jitsi-latest.dmg' or jitsi-no-jre-latest.dmg). In this example, we saved it in the Downloads file.

Figure 1: The Downloads folder containing the Jitsi .dmg file

Step 2. Double-click the Jitsi .dmg file to mount it as a disk image. It should show up in a new window (Figure 2, below) and under Devices in the left-hand sidebar of a normal Finder window.

Figure 2: Inside the mounted Jitsi disk image

Step 3. Drag the Jitsi.app into the Applications folder.

Figure 3: Dragging the mounted Jitsi.app into the Applications folder

It will then copy over into Applications.

Step 4. Before we start using Jitsi, we should unmount (or 'eject') the Jitsi disk image. Find Jitsi under Devices in the Finder sidebar. Click on the {eject} icon next to it in the sidebar to unmount the disk image.

Figure 4: Unmounting (or ejecting) the Jitsi disk image

Jitsi is written in the Java programming language andat the time of writingrequires an older, 'legacy' version of Java in order to run on Mac OS X.

Therefore, the first time you run Jitsi, you will probably see a message (as seen in Figure 1, below) informing you that you need to install the legacy Java SE 6 runtime in order to open and use Jitsi. (This same legacy version of Java is also called 'Java for OS X 2015-001' by Apple, as seen in Figure 2, below.)

To install this required legacy version of Java, follow the steps below:

Step 1. Locate Jitsi in your Applications folder and double-click to open it.

Step 2. If you need to install the legacy Java SE 6 runtime, the alert in Figure 1 will pop up.

Figure 1: Alert window notifying the user to install the legacy Java SE 6 runtime for Jitsi

If you already have this version of Java installed, Jitsi will open without this installation message, and you can skip to Section 3, Adding accounts to Jitsi.

Step 3. Click on More Info in the alert window. This will open up a webpage in your browser where you can download the required legacy version of Java 6 from Apple.

Figure 2: Apple support page for legacy Java 6

Step 4. To download the legacy version of Java 6, click on the [Download] button at the top of the webpage. Save the file to your Downloads file.

Figure 3: Download progress bar in Firefox

Step 5. Navigate to the folder in which you saved the Jitsi file (titled JavaForOSX.pkg). In this example, we saved it in the Downloads file.

Figure 4: The Downloads folder containing the Jitsi .pkg file

Step 6. Double-click the Java .pkg file to mount it as a disk image. It should show up in a new window (Figure 5, below) and under Devices in the left-hand sidebar of a normal Finder window.

Figure 5: Inside the mounted Jitsi disk image

Step 7. Double-click JavaForOSX.pkg in the mounted disk image. It will open the installer for the legacy version of Java for OS X 2015-001.

Figure 6: Installer for Java

Step 8. There is no special installation details for Java. Click [Continue] through the Read Me section, then review and agree to the License agreement. To install Java in the default location for installation (Macintosh HD), input an admin-level password to authorize the installation of Java.

Figure 7: Java installation complete

When you are finished, the installer will show that the installation was successful.

Step 9. Click [Close] to exit the Installer.

Step 10. Before we continue, we should unmount (or 'eject') the Java disk image. Find Java for OS X 2015-001 under Devices in the Finder sidebar. Click on the {eject} icon next to it in the sidebar to unmount the disk image.

Figure 8: Unmounting (or ejecting) the Java disk image

When you have the newest version of Jitsi and the legacy version of Java SE 6 installed, you can open Jitsi for the first time. Depending on your System Preferences for Mac OS X, you may see a few messages when you run Jitsi for the first time.

To navigate these and run Jitsi for the first time, follow the steps below:

Step 1. As with most Mac OS X apps downloaded from sources other than those downloaded from Apples official App Store, youll see a confirmation alert the first time you open Jitsi.

Navigate to your Applications folder, locate the Jitsi app, and double-click to open it.

Step 2. Youll see the pop-up in Figure 1 below, asking you if youre sure you want to open Jitsi. Click [Open].

Figure 1: Confirmation alert when opening Jitsi for the first time

Step 3. Depending on what your Firewall settings are in the Security & Privacy section of System Preferences, you may also see a second alert as Jitsi opens.

Figure 2: Authorization alert for Jitsi to accept incoming connections

The alert window will ask you if you want the application Jitsi.app to accept incoming network connections? Click [Allow].

Jitsi supports many different services and protocols for text chat. The first time you launch Jitsi, you will see the window shown in Figure 1, which allows you to add the accounts you want to access through Jitsi.

Figure 1: Jitsi's initial account configuration screen

You can use this screen to enter a username and password for each of the services displayed, for a total of four accounts. But you must already have accounts for these services before configuring them for use here in the Jitsi client. The sections below describe how to set up accounts for various IM and VoIP service providers.

Note: Both Google Talk and Facebook may require that you change certain account settings before you can access their text chat services through Jitsi. To learn how, see the following two sections:

As shown in Figure 1 of the previous section, the first time you launch Jitsi, you will see an account configuration screen that allows you to add various chat services to the application. After you have added at least one account, this screen will no longer appear. In order to add additional accounts, follow the steps below.

Step 1. Click File in Jitsi's menu and scroll down to select Add new account... to choose the service or protocol you want to use.

Figure 1: Add New Account screen

Step 2. Select Google Talk from the Network drop-down list.

Figure 2: Entering Google Talk account details into the Add New Account screen

Step 3. Type your Google username

Step 4. Type your Google passphrase

Step 5. (Optional) Uncheck the Remember Password box.

Important: If you want Jitsi to remember your Google Talk account password for you, you should first enable its Master Password feature.

Step 6. Click [Add]

You can now use Jitsi to communicate through the Google Talk account you have added.

Note: If you are using 2-step verification to protect access to your Gmail account, you may see an error like the one shown in Figure 3 when Jitsi tries to access your account. (It will also display the same error if you get your passphrase wrong.)

Figure 3: Google Talk authentication failed (possibly as a result of "2-step verification" settings)

To access Google Talk using Jitsi, you will need to generate an "application-specific password". To learn how, see Google's instructions. When you have generated an app password for Jitsi within your Google account, you will enter that password within Jitsi as the main password for your Google Talk account.

There are two settings that you may need to change on the Facebook website first before Jitsi can use Facebook for chat: - Create a username for your Facebook account. - Turn on Facebooks application platform.

Step 1. Assign a username to your Facebook account on the Facebook website.

Before Jitsi can connect to Facebook to use its chat functionality, you must assign a username to your Facebook account. Unlike most Web services, Facebook does not require you to select a username when you create your account, but it does allow you to create one if you wish. You can confirm your username by signing into your Facebook account.

Your username is what appears in the address bar of your browser after https://www.facebook.com/ when you view your Timeline or Page. So, if your username is elena.katerina, you should see https://www.facebook.com/elena.katerina in your browser's address bar when viewing your Timeline. Your username is also part of your Facebook email address (elena.katerina@facebook.com, for example).

If you do not have a Facebook username, you can choose one by signing into your Facebook account and selecting Settings > General or by navigating to https://www.facebook.com/username.

Facebook may need you verify your account before allowing you to select a username. This could require giving Facebook a mobile phone number at which you can receive a text message. For more details see Facebooks explanation of usernames.

Step 2. Turn on Facebooks application platform in order to give Jitsi access to your Facebook account. To do this, sign in to Facebook, select Settings > Apps, then confirm that the Apps, Websites and Plugins setting is Enabled.

Note: Turning on Facebooks application platform opens up some of your Facebook data to third-party application developers. This data is available not only to the Facebook applications that you choose to use, but also to the Facebook applications used by your friends. After turning on Facebooks Apps, Websites and Plugins, be sure to check the settings under Apps others use. This setting allows you to hide some personal information from applications used by your friends. Unfortunately, Facebook does not offer settings to hide all personal information. As long as the application platform is Enabled, certain categories of data (including your friend list, your gender, and any information you have made public) are accessible to apps used by others. If this is unacceptable, you should disable Apps, Websites and Plugins and avoid using Jitsi with Facebook Messenger.

Once have chosen a Facebook username and enabled the application platform, you can add your Facebook account to Jitsi.

As shown in Figure 1 of the Add accounts to Jitsi section, the first time you launch Jitsi, you will see an account configuration screen that allows you to add various chat services to the application. After you have added at least one account, this screen will no longer appear. In order to add additional accounts, follow the steps below to add your Facebook account to Jitsi.

Step 3. Click File in Jitsi's menu bar and select Add new account... to choose the service or protocol you want to use.

Figure 1: Add New Account screen

Step 4. Select Facebook from the Network list to enter your username and passphrase

Figure 2: Entering a username and password into the Add New Account screen

Step 5. Type your Facebook username

Step 6. Type your Facebook passphrase.

Step 7. (Optional) Uncheck the Remember password box

Important: If you want Jitsi to remember your account passwords (or passphrases) for you, you should enable its Master Password feature.

Step 8. Click [Add]

You can now use Jitsi to communicate using your Facebook account.

XMPP and Jabber are different names for the same instant messaging (IM) protocol. It is an open standard, and there are many providers who offer free Jabber/XMPP accounts that you can use with Jitsi. The IM Observatory allows you to evaluate some security properties of public Jabber/XMPP services.

If you have experience running online services, you can also install a Jabber/XMPP server (such as ejabberd or Prosody IM) on your own server and provide accounts to members of a particular community or organization.

Below, we recommend a few services that have a great deal of experience protecting their users' privacy.

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Jitsi for Mac OS X Secure instant messaging and VoIP

OMG! Is Facebook Messenger Day a Total Ripoff of Snapchat? – CIO Today

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Child Porn Case Dropped as U.S. Refuses To Show Software code

. Updated March 09, 2017.

Charges against Vancouver, Washington, teacher Jay Michaud in U.S. District Court in Seattle were dismissed Monday.

In 2015, Michaud was arrested and accused of downloading child pornography. During the child porn investigation, the FBI allowed a secret child porn website on the largely anonymous Tor network to run for two weeks while it tried to identify users by hacking into their computers.

The child porn website, called Playpen, operated on Tor, which provides users anonymity by routing their communications through numerous computers around the globe, and it had more than 150,000 members. The Tor browser is based on Firefox. While the network is used for various reasons -- including circumventing free-speech restrictions in some parts of the world -- it has also provided sanctuary for child pornography, drug trafficking and other criminality.

After arresting Playpen's operator in Florida in early 2015, the FBI let the website continue running for two weeks while trying to identify users, a move the agency said was necessary to apprehend those posting and downloading images of children being sexually abused. Defense attorneys criticized the tactic as unethical.

A magistrate in Virginia issued a search warrant allowing the agency to deploy what it calls a "network investigative technique": code that prompted the computers that signed into Playpen to communicate back to the government certain information, including IP addresses, despite the anonymity normally afforded by Tor.

The FBI then obtained further warrants to search suspects' homes. At least 137 people were charged. Defendants have challenged the FBI's hacking on numerous grounds.

A federal judge in Washington state threw out the government's evidence against Michaud last year, saying that unless the FBI detailed the vulnerability it exploited, the man couldn't mount an effective defense.

The DOJ said previously the information is not relevant. Defendants have been offered or provided all the evidence they need, including limited source code and data streams showing what the program did, the FBI has argued.

Michaud's lawyer, Colin Fieman, said in an email to The Associated Press that they are relieved and grateful his case is done but that many unanswered questions remain about the FBI's investigation, known as Operation Pacifier.

"Mr. Michaud maintained his innocence from the outset, and the dismissal is a result of the FBI's overreaching and misuse of its computer hacking capabilities, including its operation of the world's largest child pornography web site and attacks on computers in over 120 countries," Fieman said. "It remains to be seen whether the FBI will ever be held fully accountable for those aspects of its investigation that put core privacy rights at risk and violated common standards of decency when it comes to how law enforcement agencies do their job."

A school district spokeswoman says Michaud hasn't returned to work, KGV-TV reported.

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OMG! Is Facebook Messenger Day a Total Ripoff of Snapchat? - CIO Today

Vancouver child-porn case dropped as US refuses to show software code – Q13 FOX

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Q13 FOX
Vancouver child-porn case dropped as US refuses to show software code
Q13 FOX
The child porn website, called Playpen, operated on Tor, which provides users anonymity by routing their communications through numerous computers around the globe, and it had more than 150,000 members. The Tor browser is based on Firefox. While the ...
Vancouver man's child porn charges dropped as feds refuse to disclose hacking techniquesKING5.com

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Vancouver child-porn case dropped as US refuses to show software code - Q13 FOX

Bitcoin ETF Rejection Reinforces Faith in Cryptocurrency – newsBTC

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When SEC announced the rejection of Bitcoin ETF, a huge drop in Bitcoin price was expected. But nobody expected a sudden recovery soon after. Read more...

Bitcoin ETF easily qualifies as one of the buzzwords of 2017. The much-awaited SEC ruling on Bitcoin ETF left many people disappointed after the regulatory body weighed against it. However, the incident has also presented Bitcoin in a new light.

Bitcoin price is known for its volatility due to various influencing factors. These external factors fuel speculation, driving demand against supply. As the cryptocurrency matures, the room for speculating is gradually reducing, and need-based demand has taken over the driving seat, influencing Bitcoin price.

The renewed interest among investors in light of the potential approval of Bitcoin ETF by the SEC was considered to be the reason behind increasing demand in the recent days. It was also predicted that the failure of ETF approval would lead to a massive drop in demand, driving the digital currencys price down by hundreds of dollars. When the SEC announced its decision, people were expecting the cryptocurrency market to face a huge shock which might take a while to recover.

These speculations partially came true. Bitcoins price following the SEC announcement fell by close to $200. But surprisingly, the digital currency price recovered soon after to reach close to the earlier held levels. The quick bounce-back wasnt expected by many people, just like the time when the Chinese government cracked down on the countrys Bitcoin platforms. The effects of external factors on Bitcoin price has reduced drastically in the past few months, showing resiliency.

These two examples Chinese market volumes and Bitcoin ETF, were both expected to have a long-term effect on the digital currency. But thanks to the active community, effects were negligible, which has, in turn, increased the credibility of Bitcoin. The cryptocurrency has proved to be more stable than ever, giving it a chance to grab the mainstream currency title.

The failure of SEC to approve Bitcoin ETF may have proven to be more beneficial for Bitcoin than expected. The cryptocurrency has gained the faith of people, irrespective of whether they are part of the Bitcoin community or not. It will help Bitcoin further expand its community and emerge stronger than ever. Eventually, it will also influence regulatory agencies to approve the use of Bitcoin like any other currency.

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Bitcoin ETF Rejection Reinforces Faith in Cryptocurrency - newsBTC

Bitcoin Crash Creates Golden Opportunity – Yahoo Finance

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Ive been wrong about my timing of the silver and gold trade twice now. Once to my followers in Momentum Trader and another time in a much more public way, on Bloomberg the end of last year. My fundamental investment thesis surrounding gold hasnt been wrong just my timing. And now, with gold prices bouncing off $1,200 and last weeks Bitcoin debacle Im taking another stab at it.

The Bitcoin debacle Im referring to is last weeks decision by the SEC to reject the Winklevoss Twins proposal for a Bitcoin ETF. An ETF would have helped to legitimize the cryptocurrency and expose it to an entire new market of potential investors. The SECs decision was based on the unregulated nature of the Bitcoin market itself. With no way of overseeing the underlying investment, there was no way the SEC could give it a stamp of approval.

You could argue that Bitcoin and gold are both alternatives to global fiat currencies. Neither has a central bank which governs them nor do they pay interest. They are both a store of value and can be held anonymously. Gold and silver have a tendency to track with each other so Im including it when I look for stock ideas.

Of course theres one giant difference between the two. Gold has been a historic store of value for ages and something you can physically possess. Bitcoin is a digital currency that was created from nothing a few years ago. There is still a huge amount of skepticism surrounding Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. A rash of high profile hacks, essentially digital bank robberies, have loomed like a cloud over Bitcoin for years. This ETF would have been something like a Bitcoin coming out party.

However, that was not the case and Bitcoins value plunged in Friday trading. Nearly simultaneous there was a huge rally in gold prices with the metal bouncing from just under $1,200 an ounce, an obvious psychological support level. Gold still does have an inverse relationship with yields. As interest rates rise you tend to see pressure on gold prices. We all know the Fed is going to hike rates next week. That is a huge negative on gold pricing. But if the metal can rally even in the face of that hike, then there could be overpowering fundamentals at play.

One way to play a potential continuation of silver and golds move higher is to look at the silver and gold miners. A lot of these companies got lean and mean in order to survive the plummet in prices and have emerged with much stronger balance sheets. They have found ways to minimize their acquisition costs and streamline their mining process. Ive put together a list here of gold stocks that are Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) and Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) stocks for you to investigate a little further.

Alamos Gold (AGI)

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Alamos Gold Inc., together with its subsidiaries, engages in the acquisition, exploration, development, and extraction of gold deposits in North America. It also explores for silver and precious metals. The company holds interests in the Young-Davidson mine, which includes contiguous mineral leases and claims totaling 11,000 acres located in Northern Ontario, Canada; the Mulatos mine located within the Salamandra Concessions in the Sierra Madre Occidental mountain range in the east-central portion of the State of Sonora, Mexico; and the El Chanate mine that comprises 22 mineral concessions covering 4,618 hectares situated in the State of Sonora, Mexico. It also holds interests in a portfolio of development stage projects in Mexico, Turkey, Canada, and the United States.

Avino Silver (ASM)

Avino Silver & Gold Mines Ltd. engages in the production and sale of silver, gold, and copper bulk concentrates; and the exploration, evaluation, and acquisition of mineral properties. The company owns 42 mineral claims and leases 4 mineral claims in the state of Durango, Mexico. It also holds 100% interests in the Bralorne mine located in the Lillooet mining division, British Columbia, Canada; and the Eagle property located in the Mayo mining division of Yukon, Canada.

Fortuna Silver (FSM)

Fortuna Silver Mines Inc. engages in the exploration, extraction, and processing of mineral properties in Latin America. The company explores for silver, gold, lead, and zinc deposits. It holds interests in the Caylloma mine located in the Arequipa Department in southern Peru; and the San Jose mine located in the State of Oaxaca in southern Mexico.

Great Panther Silver (GPL)

Great Panther Silver Limited, a silver mining and exploration company, engages in the mining of mineral properties in Mexico. It explores for silver, gold, lead, and zinc. The company holds interests in the Topia Mine and Guanajuato Mine Complex properties. It also holds mineral property interests in the exploration stage, such as the El Horcon and Santa Rosa projects located in Mexico, and Coricancha Mine Complex located in the Central Andes of Peru.

Bottom Line

I think Bitcoin blowing up here could benefit gold and silver over the short run. That being said, a great way to play the rise in these metals could be to look at the silver and gold miners. This is a short list to start researching the best one to buy.

Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Great Panther Silver Limited (GPL): Free Stock Analysis Report Fortuna Silver Mines Inc. (FSM): Free Stock Analysis Report Avino Silver (ASM): Free Stock Analysis Report Alamos Gold Inc. (AGI): Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research

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Bitcoin Crash Creates Golden Opportunity - Yahoo Finance

Norway Asks Online Drug Dealers to Pay up, in Bitcoin – newsBTC

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Prosecutors in Norway are demanding three darknet drug dealers to pay the penalty in Bitcoin. Read more...

Bitcoin has been portrayed as the most favored currency among the criminal kind. Thanks to increased usage of the likes of Bitcoin among the darknet marketplaces. However, the pseudonymous nature of Bitcoin leads to criminals getting caught on a regular basis. But usually, those who face the trial usually end up having their cryptocurrencies, devices confiscated, sentenced to jail time with or without a monetary penalty slapped on them.

The penalties paid by the dark net drug or weapons dealer caught in the act is usually in the form of fiat currency, but not in Norway. Recently, reports have emerged that the Norwegian prosecutors are demanding three convicts, charged with dealing drugs on dark web marketplaces, including the Silk Road to repay the profits in Bitcoin. If the court does allow the prosecutors to have it their way, then the dealers will be forced to pay about 120 bitcoins, which is worth around $140,000. But it doesnt end here. They are also demanding 3.1 million in the countrys native fiat currency, Norwegian Kroner as well.

The case dates back to the Silk Road days, and the three men were arrested way back in June 2015 for running an online drug distribution ring. The arrests were the result of a 2-year long investigation by Norways law enforcement authorities along with other international investigators. The arrests which took place in Oslo, Norway, also resulted in the seizure of a considerable amount of narcotics, computers and even an indoor marijuana farm.

News articles on media outlets state the prosecution saying that they have enough evidence for the sale in Bitcoins to convict the drug-dealing trio. However, the demand for profit repayment in Bitcoin is heard for the first time in the Norwegian judicial system. The demand made by prosecutors could soon set a precedent for other courts within and beyond the region to adopt a similar practice.

The governments interest in seeking Bitcoin payment, which is not even a recognized currency in Norway also sets a milestone in Bitcoins timeline, pushing it one step closer to recognition as a mainstream currency.

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Norway Asks Online Drug Dealers to Pay up, in Bitcoin - newsBTC

Bitcoin’s Market Cap Percentage Continues To Shrink Due To Mounting Transaction Fees – newsBTC

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Moreover, people need to keep in mind not every altcoin is a bitcoin competitor.

No one can deny the cryptocurrency is thriving right now. Some people want to see more money flow to bitcoin and other currencies at a quicker pace, though. One interesting trend is how bitcoins percentage of the total cryptocurrency market cap is going downhill. Right now, that percentage sits close to 81%, whereas it used to be over 95% in January of 2014.

For the longest time, bitcoin has been the dominant cryptocurrency. That is only normal, as it is the only one to gain some market traction. However, several altcoins have proven to be a favorite among speculators and traders as well. Albeit very few of these currencies have use cases, they are perfect vehicles for value speculation. As a result, some money is flowing from bitcoin into the altcoin sector on a regular basis.

This trend is not alarmed by any means. In fact, diversification of a cryptocurrency portfolio is a good thing. While bitcoin still represents the vast majority of total market capitalization of all cryptocurrencies, its share is dropped. In fact, it has been dropping for quite some time now. Back in January of 2014, bitcoin represented 96% of the total cryptocurrency market cap. Fast forward that day, and that number has shrunk to just 84%. Not a big change according to some people, yet it goes to show something is changing behind the scenes.

Looking at the charts, bitcoin has gone through this cycle before. Its market cap percentage dropped below 80% in January of 2015, June of 2016 and Late 2016 as well. Bitcoin rebounds successfully every time, though, and it is expected this pattern will repeat itself once again. After all, there is no reason to ditch bitcoin holdings In favor of any altcoin right now, even though some investments may look appealing.

One contributing factor to the demise of bitcoin is the high transaction fee problem. With fees increasing rapidly, altcoins are becoming more popular due to lower costs. Then again, none of these networks have been tested to handle the transaction volume bitcoin processes every day. Until that happens, it is impossible to tell which currency can keep the costs down in the end. Reducing bitcoins fees would be a good start, though, that much is certain.

Moreover, people need to keep in mind not every altcoin is a bitcoin competitor. Ethereum, for example, is not positioned to be a currency like bitcoin. Neither is Ripple, as it is a competing technology that appeals to banks. Dash and Monero can compete with bitcoin, although the anonymity features may put off some people. Only time will tell how these percentages evolve over the next few months, though.

Header image courtesy of Shutterstock

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Bitcoin's Market Cap Percentage Continues To Shrink Due To Mounting Transaction Fees - newsBTC