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A spokesperson for U.S. Customs and Border Protection said officers are trained on how to handle confrontation, and refusal to comply with a direct order is justification to use pepper spray. A Canadian who demanded courtesy from a U.S. border security guard says he was pepper sprayed and held in custody for three hours for asking the disrespectful officer to "say please" when ordering him to turn his car off during a search. "I refused to turn off the car until he said please. He didn't. And he has the gun, I guess, so he sprayed me," said Desiderio Fortunato,...

Despite consistently describing the economic situation as being dire, President Barack Obama is rapidly moving forward with policies that have the potential to seriously harm American industry. He has tasked Vice President Biden to promote the cap-and-trade program that the envirolobby has been seeking after for over a decade. The Vice-President, armed with a new study purporting to claim that cap-and-trade would promote green jobs—via government t subsidy—is working to allay fears in industry-heavy states, many of which were instrumental in Obama's victory. The study, produced by the liberal environmentalist group Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), reveals a large number of...

(NNPA) - In the aftermath of President Barack Obama’s historic address to a joint session of Congress last week, the reaction to his call for American courage in the face of economic uncertainty has been widely hailed. ''Tonight, President Obama set forth a powerful vision for our country and an agenda for change that deserves the support of all Americans,” said Sen. Edward Kennedy (D- Mass). “President Obama is exactly the kind of leader we need in the face of our nation's significant challenges,” echoed Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ).

More than two decades after Yucca Mountain in Nevada was selected to be the national nuclear waste repository, the controversial proposal may finally be put to rest by the Obama administration. In keeping with a pledge President Obama made during the campaign, the budget released last week cuts off almost all funding for creating a permanent burial site for a large portion of the nation's radioactive nuclear waste at the site in the Nevada desert. Congress selected the location in 1987 and reaffirmed the choice in 2002. About $7.7 billion has been sunk into the project since its inception. "Yucca...

http://www.zenit.org/article-25260?l=english ZE09030310 - 2009-03-03Permalink: http://www.zenit.org/article-25260?l=englishKids Made-to-Order: Science Gone Awry Bishop Sgreccia Points to Instinct of Manipulation ROME, MARCH 3, 2009 (Zenit.org).- A Los Angeles-based fertility clinic offering would-be parents a child made-to-order -- complete with the desired skin tone or hair color -- is an example of science when it is not put at the service of the good, says Bishop Elio Sgreccia.The retired president of the Pontifical Academy for Life spoke to Vatican Radio today about an offer from The Fertility Institutes, to give would-be parents the physical traits they want in their child -- green eyes, for example,...

Jennifer Aniston likes her honey-colored locks parted down the middle in a simple, no-fuss style. Has for years and years and years. You'd think by this time she'd be able to use a brush or comb and achieve it all on her own, right? Apparently, not even close. When she was in London promoting her film Marley & Me, Aniston, 40, spent $50,000 keeping half of her hair on the left, and the other half on the right.

Lately I have been examining the changes in how people in the Reformed-Presbyterian faith traditions understand the role of art in worship. As I prepared for the fellowship I am now engaged in, friends and colleagues gently chided me, saying this will be one of my briefer presentations; everybody knows Reformed folks don't do art. A little background may be helpful here. Among the many catalysts for the 16th century Protestant Reformation in Europe was the issue of art in worship. The Roman Catholic Church, struggling to hold the Western world together during the Middle Ages, used art as a...

THIS WEEK, THE UNITED STATES SENATE WILL VOTE ON A SPENDING PACKAGE TO FUND THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT FOR THE REMAINDER OF THIS FISCAL YEAR THE SENATE SHOULD REJECT THIS BILL. IF WE DO NOT, PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA SHOULD VETO IT. THE OMNIBUS INCREASES DISCRETIONARY SPENDING BY 8% OVER LAST FISCAL YEAR'S LEVELS, DWARFING THE RATE OF INFLATION ACROSS A BROAD SWATH OF ISSUES…APPROPRIATE FOR A NATION FLUSH WITH CASH OR UNCONCERNED WITH FISCAL PRUDENCE, BUT AMERICA IS NEITHER. OUR NATION'S CURRENT FISCAL IMBALANCE IS UNPRECEDENTED, UNSUSTAINABLE AND, IF UNADDRESSED, A MAJOR THREAT TO OUR CURRENCY AND OUR ECONOMIC VITALITY. THE...

Insurer Hartford reportedly in talks to sell life insurance unit (AP) -- Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. shares slipped Wednesday after a published report said the insurer may be looking to sell one of its units. Shares fell 10 cents, or 2 percent, to $4.53 in afternoon trading after falling as low as $4.07 a share earlier in the session. The report said the Hartford, Conn.-based insurer is in talks to sell most of its life insurance subsidiary to Sun Life Financial Inc. of Canada. The report, by Bloomberg News, did not name its sources. It said a deal isn't...

This has been on my mind for quite some time and I’ve shared it with others, friends who tend to be like minded these days. It’s been a very difficult month for most Americans. Our Government passed a piece of legislation (our TURD II as I’ve fondly nicknamed it) with the admission that not one (confirmed 2/13/09 on Greta Van Susteran that not ONE had read more than 5 lines of the cumbersome language of the more than 900 pages of text) Our President and his team “assured them” that they “didn’t have time to go through the fine print”...

Genuine conservatism is a three-legged stool. We believe that reclaiming America requires spiritual renewal, political reform, and social relief. Not one or the other, but all three. Take away one leg or the other, and the stool falls over. True conservatives do not have to choose between them, but willingly and gladly embrace all of them and want each leg to be strong and steady. Conservatives know and believe, for instance, that it is impossible for America to be great again without a renewal of its faith. We must have a fresh spiritual awakening to counter the decay and rot...

The Dow is down more than half. California's unemployment rate has climbed above 10 percent. Furlough seems to be the word of the day. Yet California voters are more optimistic about the direction of the country than eight months ago. And so far, they seem willing to put their trust in President Barack Obama.

January-February 2009 One-Way Ticket to Mars by  James C. McLane III Our best hope to reach the red planet might be to send just one person there ... forever.I once worked in America’s Manned Space program, proud to be one of perhaps a quarter million folks around the world trying to send humans into space. We like to think it’s humanity’s destiny to spread out across the universe, but less than one out of twenty-five thousand of us on this planet are really doing anything toward that goal. There was a time when human space travel was big business....

The race between Republicans and Democrats has once again tightened up in the latest edition of the Generic Congressional Ballot. For the third time in the last four weeks, Republicans have pulled to within two points of the Democrats. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that 41% of voters said they would vote for their district’s Democratic candidate while 39% said they would choose the Republican (see crosstabs). While support for the Democrats has not changed since last week, support for the GOP has increased two points. Over the past year, Democratic support has ranged from a low...

<p>British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, in a formal address to Congress this morning, announced that Queen Elizabeth has conferred honorary knighthood on Sen. Edward Kennedy, the veteran Massachusetts Democrat who is battling brain cancer.</p> <p>Northern Ireland is today at peace, more Americans have healthcare, more children around the world are going to school, and for all those things we owe a great debt to the life and courage of Senator Edward Kennedy.</p>

CAVUTO: Let me ask you. This comes at a time when there are all sorts of rumors in Washington that you and the president, though you started hitting it off — he had this dinner for you, I think, the night before inauguration, and then he was talking about how crucial your support was on the troop drawdown in Iraq — and then it seemed like the wheels kind of came off the goodwill wagon. What has happened here? MCCAIN: Neil, I am the loyal opposition.I work with the president, as I did on the Iraq issue. I will work...

Many environmentalists preach the immediate need for urgent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions in order to avoid … well, very, very bad, irreversible climate change. Todd Stern, the Obama administration’s new top climate-change negotiator, wants to tamp down on the expectations. He talks tough and is all for the shift to a low-carbon economy, but he’s not an ideologue. And he may well be reflecting the White House’s pragmatism in the face of numerous challenges. In a speech that Stephen Power reported in the Wall Street Journal , Mr. Stern said the road map of greenhouse-gas emission reductions laid out...

Sarasota, FL -- A new Planned Parenthood abortion center in this Florida city will feature an interesting addition, an art gallery. Because local officials in Sarasota require retail space at the street level of any development to encourage shopping and tourism, the abortion business had to think outside the box. So, when it build its new abortion center, relying on $1.3 million in local grants from three community foundations, Planned Parenthood teamed up with Ringling College of Art and Design. Full story and action alert at: http://www.LifeNews.com/state3915.html

As the Coast Guard ended its search for three missing football players whose boat tipped over in high Florida seas, the lone survivor said two of those lost gave up after hours in the frigid water and the third tried to swim to safety. South Florida player Nick Schuyler told investigators that all four of the friends on a fishing excursion were initially wearing life vests and clinging to the 21-foot boat belonging to Oakland Raiders linebacker Marquis Cooper. But two to four hours after the boat capsized, one of the NFL players removed his life jacket and let...

Take Obama's word for it. He promised Planned Parenthood he would sign the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA) - and pro-life Americans need to let Congress know that we OPPOSE this radical legislation. A new liberal majority is now in control of Congress and working to pass this monstrous bill. Take action today!