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In a corner of Washington National Cathedral, several hundred Muslim worshipers and other invited guests gathered Friday afternoon for a first-ever recitation of weekly Muslim prayers at the iconic Christian church and to hear leaders of both faiths call for religious unity in the face of extremist violence and hate. Nevertheless, the carefully scripted ceremony was marred once when a well-dressed middle-age woman in the audience suddenly rose and began shouting that “America was founded on Christian principles. . . . Leave our church alone!” She was swiftly ushered out by security aides, and the service continued.

The US air force has fired two more nuclear commanders and disciplined a third, fresh evidence of leadership lapses in a nuclear missile corps that has suffered several recent setbacks including the removal of its top commander. The most senior officer to be relieved of command was Colonel Carl Jones, second in command of the 90th Missile Wing at FE Warren air force base, Wyoming, in charge of 150 of the air force’s 450 Minuteman 3 nuclear intercontinental ballistic missiles. He was dismissed on Monday “for a loss of trust and confidence in his leadership abilities” and reassigned as a...

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is paying a researcher $17,500 to make students at New Mexico State University wear a fat vest for “weight sensitivity training.” The 20-pound fat vest will be worn for an “empathy exercise” so non-obese students can experience what it is like to be obese. The premise of the project is to fight “weight prejudice.” “Weight prejudice (a.k.a. anti-fat prejudice and weight bias) is the presence of negative beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors toward individuals who appear to be overweight or obese,” a grant awarded by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture explains. The grant...

"It's Friday night." That was Al Sharpton's sheepish way of excusing the not-suitable-for-network-TV line that a guest had just uttered on this evening's Politics Nation. Australian satiricist Josh Zepps' zinger came during a discussion of a video ad in which young girls drop repeated f-bombs, supposedly in defense of feminism. The ad was produced by a clothing company trying to cash in with t-shirts bearing PC messages against sexism and racism. Zinged Zepps: "I'm offended by the shamelessness of the cheap ploy of the people that got them to do it . . . There's something about this company that...

The commander of a Fort Carson helicopter battalion objected when subordinates talked about a toxic command climate, according to documents obtained by The Gazette. "You want toxic? I'll show you toxic," Lt. Col. Tammy Baugh allegedly told soldiers in the 1st Battalion of the 25th Aviation Regiment, documents said. A 263-page Army investigation report released under the Freedom of Information Act portrays Baugh as a foul-mouthed boss who belittled soldiers, threw things during a meeting and sometimes stormed out of battalion gatherings. Baugh and the battalion's command sergeant major were temporarily relieved in July, but later placed back in command...

In dealing with contagious and deadly diseases, common sense says to err on the side of safety. Public safety must come before political correctness. Community and country come ahead of any obligation to the people of West Africa. Indeed, is not the first duty of the government of the United States to protect the lives, liberty and property of the citizens of the United States? Traveling to Africa decades ago, Americans were given a series of shots to avoid contracting indigenous diseases. Travelers to the United States were questioned about diseases to which they may have been exposed in third...

Two former school district employees, including the one who oversaw its affirmative action policies, filed race discrimination suits in September, saying they were fired because they're not Hispanic. Bernice Marshall, the former human resources manager, and Edmund Treadway, the former transportation manager, argue in Superior Court filings that the Perth Amboy School District is favoring Hispanic job candidates and employees. "No one's paying attention to the kids," said Marshall, who is African-American

Political correctness is apparently more important than educating children. At least that’s the message I take away from a Colorado Democrat’s plan to defund schools that have “unauthorized” mascots. Wielding the self-righteous tomahawk of political correctness, Democrat Joe Salazar has decided to leverage Colorado’s pawns kids as a bargaining chip in his effort to rid the world of “offensive” Native American mascots.Under the Thornton legislator’s plan, schools will be required to seek permission from Native American tribes for their western-themed mascots, or go without any state funding. (On the bright side, I can now honestly say I’ve seen a Democrat propose...

Gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men (MSM) make up 2 percent of the U.S. population but are the group most definitively affected by HIV, with 63 percent of those newly infected by HIV representing this group. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s weekly “Morbidity and Mortality” report shows that among persons newly infected with HIV in 2010, 63 percent were men who have sex with other men. Among Americans living with HIV, 52 percent were MSM – and a significant number of men with HIV are not receiving treatment. “Gay, bisexual, and other men who...

1182 Inadmissible aliens (a) Classes of aliens ineligible for visas or admissions except as otherwise provided in this chapter aliens who are inadmissible under the following paragraphs are ineligible to receive visas ans ineligible to be admitted to the United States 1 (a) health related grounds any alien who is determined (in accordance with regulations prescribed by the secretary of health and human services) to HAVE A COMMUNICABLE DISEASE OF PUBLIC HEALTH SIGNIFICANCE...

Fans of the zany Tom and Jerry cartoons from the golden age of animation might be in for a shock, as the classic shorts now carry a politically-correct warning on Amazon's streaming video service. On Tuesday, BBC correspondent Sean Coughlan reported that on Amazon Prime, the "Tom and Jerry: The Complete Second Volume is accompanied by the caution: 'Tom and Jerry shorts may depict some ethnic and racial prejudices that were once commonplace in American society. Such depictions were wrong then and are wrong today.'" Coughlan spotlighted the criticism of University of Kent professor of sociology Frank Furendi, who blasted...

Score one for Joe Scarborough. The Morning Joe host today unleashed a tirade against the FBI for treating as a case of "workplace violence" the beheading by a fanatical Muslim convert of a fellow worker in Oklahoma. Scarborough lashed out at the FBI's political correctness in claiming that there was "no indication" that the suspect, Alton Nolen, was copying the recent ISIS beheadings. Said Scarborough: "how stupid does the FBI really think we are? Who exactly are they afraid of offending?" Political correctness, in its more innocuous manifestations, can be good fodder for humor. But when our government becomes so...

Paging the MSNBC PC police! On his All In show this evening, Chris Hayes used some decidedly un-PC language to dismiss concerns that ISIS or other terrorist groups might be infiltrating across our porous southern border. Huffed Hayes: "in the years since September 11, there have been occasional stories of this type. Sort of, a kind of girl talk mash-up of the fear about the border and the fear about terrorism being fused together." The fear of terrorists coming across the border is "girl talk?" Off to the re-education camp with Chris! View the video here.

When Pepsi-Cola President Walter Mack recognized his company could sell more product to black Americans in the 1940s, he initiated a racially-targeted marketing effort to increase sales. It worked and the company’s market share rose dramatically in just a few years. The strategy was so successful, some inside the company were concerned it might be off-putting to white consumers, prompting Mack to declare that Pepsi would not, “become known as a n----r drink.”This infamous racial slur, unapologetically stated in the presence of African-American ad executives, ran through my mind after reading media reports about the racist emails from Atlanta Hawks...

A Home Office researcher whose report into child sexual exploitation problems in Rotherham was ‘suppressed’ more than a decade ago has claimed she was threatened by two police officers. The researcher claims she was approached by two officers while she was in her car at night, to be told it would be a ‘bad thing’ if the abusers she was investigating found out her home address. The researcher, who has not been named, gave evidence in a private session to the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee yesterday, and said she ‘feared for her life’ as a result of harassment in...

Social worker chiefs, police and council bosses ignored the plight of child victims as 1,400 young victims as young as 11 were targeted.Raped, beaten and abused by paedophiles, child victims of the vile monsters deserved the full support from the authorities whose job was to protect them.[snip] As the report highlights the majority of the perpetrators, though not exclusively, were of Pakistani heritage. All of them will have been brought up in Muslim households.[snip]Prof Jay’s report said almost all the offenders were of Pakistani heritage but not all the victims were young white girls. And senior people in the council...

Here is a snapshot of a series of truly ridiculous things that happened in a small New England town this week, followed by an extended examination of how it represents a deep societal pathology. In Winooski, Vermont, a small town northeast of Burlington, a restaurant was awarded a sign placement for its participation in a beautification project. Proud of its bacon (among other things, I’m sure), Sneakers Bistro chose a sign that said “Yield for Sneakers Bacon.” A Muslim woman, fond of neither pork nor free speech, complained online, garnering a sufficient contingent of busybodies to pressure the restaurant...

ROTHERHAM, England (AP) — Rotherham is a working-class town that is remarkable in its ordinariness — a collection of charmless discount stores, betting shops and kebab counters, surrounded by sleepy residential streets lined with brick houses that have seen better days. But below the drab surface, shock was evident Wednesday as the people of this northern English town learned that for 16 years, girls as young as 11 in their community had been subjected to sexual exploitation on a vast scale. The number of victims — 1,400 — was terrifying enough for a community of just 250,000. But that wasn't...

On his Friday program, Keith Olbermann called on ESPN to "officially" ban the use of "Redskins." Citing Greg Gumbel, Tom Jackson, Peter King, Phil Simms, Mike Caray, Tony Dungy and others who have expressed concerns about using the team's name, Olbermann said that ESPN is the "conduit of sports" in the country while also being "loathe to be the news." Olbermann said that list of the words he and his colleagues cannot say on the air is "justifiably long" and "way less offensive than the name of the Washington team." He said he personally felt that "it is time for...

Where does all this stuff that you’ve heard about this morning – the victim feminism, the gay rights movement, the invented statistics, the rewritten history, the lies, the demands, all the rest of it – where does it come from? For the first time in our history, Americans have to be fearful of what they say, of what they write, and of what they think. They have to be afraid of using the wrong word, a word denounced as offensive or insensitive, or racist, sexist, or homophobic. We call it “Political Correctness.” The name originated as something of a joke,...