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INDIANAPOLIS – Indiana lawmakers are pushing a bevy of bills this year that ease gun regulations – from allowing firearms to be transported without a license to pre-empting local gun laws. “Emotions run high in this debate,” said Sen. Jim Tomes, R-Wadesville. “We’re zeroed in on gun owners who are good citizens.” But some advocates and municipal officials are concerned that the proposed changes go too far. “I wish the legislature would spend more time making it harder for dangerous people to get guns rather than making it easier to have guns wherever you want,” said Paul Helmke, former Fort...

Monday, April 11 How to Be Humble ...to speak evil of no one, to be peaceable, gentle, showing all humility to all men. Titus 3:2 Recommended Reading 1 Peter 5:5-6 Desalinization--removing minerals from seawater, making it potable--is increasing as resources of clean water contract around the world. While the primary product of desalinization is water, there is a by-product: the 90+ minerals that are found in and removed from ocean water. As a by-product, these mineral elements--like salt--find their way into other products and processes. There are by-products in the spiritual life as well--like humility. Although we are told in...

What I’m hearing all over the news is that the “leaders” of the Democrat Party are claiming victory and the Republican Party “leaders” are claiming victory in last week’s short term budget battle. The fact is that they are both right. They both won. The only losers in this deal are the American people and the Republic for which we stand. In the short run it was a great achievement for ambitious politicians who fantasize about their place in history. In the long run it will not matter what they did because the way things are going, someone else, Communist...

You should know that the Zionist regime has reached the end of the line and no one can save this regime.” Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in a speech Thursday April 7th, 2011. (SOURCE) Earlier, on April 4th, Ahmadinejad said: “A Mideast without Israel and America is now possible.” (Source) American evangelical Christians are backing Israel now, more than ever, as they interpret Obama’s rejection of Israel as the fulfillment of Bible prophesy in reference to the so-called “end-times.” In the Scriptures, as the huge armies gather from, in my opinion, Russia, China, and the Arab Nations to bring all their...

Walker says unions hope to replicate in Wisconsin ‘what was pulled off with Senator [Al] Franken in Minnesota.’ He promises, though, that Republicans will be on guard against any post-election ballot shenanigans.”

I remember a few months ago when the guns-on-campus bill was introduced. I rejected it as nothing more than ludicrous Republican posturing. Apparently, I was wrong. In a 33-24 vote, Arizona passed SB 1467 — which allows guns to be carried on malls and streets that run through campus, but not in buildings. It now awaits Gov. Jan Brewer’s signature to become law. We are now the second state ever to pass legislation that allows guns on school campuses. Utah is the only other state with similar legislation. Has there been a sudden surge in gun-toting lunatics that I was...

Song of the Week #182 by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart It’s not the vulgarity of current pop that alarms me (Katy Perry’s “F**k You” , Pink’s “F**kin’ Perfect”), nor the crassness (Kesha’s “Take It Off”) nor even the grunting moronic ugliness (“Sex Room” and “Candy Shop”, the latter apparently a synonym for the former). I’m way beyond that: Driving around and roaming the dial, I’m struck, even in the non-effin’, disrobin’, sex-room humpin’ numbers, by something more basic - the absence of tenderness. The first quarter-century of rock’n’roll saw a diminution in harmonic sophistication and the discipline of rhyme...

Breathe deep. That’s what defeat smells like. Get used to it. Boehner and the freshmen sold us out.In the first test of the new speaker, in the first demonstration of what the tea party Republicans are made of, they got nothing. They caved. They sold out. And we got screwed. Do this math with me. The deficit is $1.4 trillion. They cut $38 billion. That’s less than 3 percent. And that’s failure. You write a check for $100 more than you have in your account. The bank tells you it’s rubber. So you rip it up and write a check...

The state Government Accountability Board and Milwaukee County district attorney's office has scheduled a news conference Monday afternoon to discuss the results of a "significant investigation." No details were given about the investigation. The news conference is scheduled at 2 p.m. Monday at the Government Accountability Board office in Madison.

PHILADELPHIA – On a crisp February morning, President-elect Abraham Lincoln and his son Tad arrived at Independence Hall here for a flag-raising to mark the admittance of Kansas to the Union. They were swept into the hall and surrounded by city councilmen and other elected officials, who gathered two hours earlier in anticipation of his arrival. Outside, more than 100,000 people – an astonishing number for the time – gathered to watch him raise the flag. Lincoln was unprepared for a speech; he expected only to raise the flag, then catch the train to Harrisburg. He also was unprepared for...

As the possibility of a federal government shutdown loomed over thousands of Americans, the article in CNN, April 2, 2011: “Americans Flunk Budget IQ Test”, was quite intriguing. According to a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey, most Americans think that the government spends a lot more money than it actually does on Government pensions and benefits. On average, Americans think the federal government spent 10 percent of its 2010 budget on pensions and retiree benefits; the OMB figures indicate the real number is about 3.5 percent. Another area that is not often talked about is the big difference for federal workers...

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) The Texas Senate abruptly cut off debate Thursday as support weakened for a GOP-backed measure that would allow concealed handguns in college classrooms, but the bill's sponsor expressed confidence he could round up the necessary votes by early next week.

As the Obama administration prepares to finance a Fiscal Year 2011 budget deficit expected to top $1.6 trillion, the American public is largely unaware that the true negative net worth of the federal government reached $76.3 trillion last year. That figure was five times the 2010 gross domestic product of the United States and exceeded the estimated gross domestic product for the world by approximately $14.4 trillion.

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Speculation is rampant since Iowa Sen. Charles Grassley revealed in a letter to ATF Acting Director Kenneth Melson that Phoenix Assistant Special Agent in Charge George Gillett was, through and in conjunction with his attorney, “cooperating with” Grassley’s investigation of ATF’s Project Gunrunner. Earlier, when Gillett was not invited to a Gunrunner confab at ATF headquarters, there was speculation that ATF higher-ups were planning to throw Gillett under the bus. It was a question about not being at that meeting that caused Gillette to quickly terminate a telephone conversation with this column early last month. This weekend’s speculation is whether...

SENDAI, Japan -- A strong new earthquake rattled Japan's northeast Monday as the government urged more people living near a tsunami-crippled nuclear plant to leave, citing concerns about long-term health risks from radiation. The magnitude 7.0 [USGS revised now to 6.6] aftershock came just hours after people bowed their heads and wept in somber ceremonies to mark a month since a massive earthquake and tsunami that killed up to 25,000 people and set off a crisis of radiation leaks at the nuclear plant by knocking out its cooling systems.

The big surprise guest of CPAC’s first afternoon was Donald Trump, who told the crowd he will make his final decision on a presidential run by June. It sounds like he doesn’t think he can do it without the CPAC crowd on his side. He gave a pretty good sales pitch. The most remarkable thing about watching Trump handle a crowd is his combination of confidence and happiness. He loves being up there, and he didn’t love it any less when the Ron Paul contingent tried to shout him down. He looked them in the eye (all of them at...

Editors' note: this column is co-authored by Robert Morrison. Richard Goldstone is a retired justice of South Africa ’s Constitutional Court . He is Jewish and a Zionist. So, when this distinguished jurist issued a report commissioned by the UN’s Human Rights Council, it was known that the Goldstone Report would gain worldwide attention. It did. That’s because this September 2009 report condemned both Israel and Hamas for “possible crimes against humanity.” This is the first time a credible figure like Goldstone lent his name to such an explosive allegation. To place Israel on a par with known terrorist groups...