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Orion off-loaded from the well deck of the USS Anchorage Monday night after the amphibious ship docked in San Diego. NASA officials pronounced the two orbit, 4.5 hour flight maiden test flight of Orion on the Exploration Flight Test-1 (EFT-1) mission to be a complete success. The EFT-1 spacecraft was recovered at sea, brought to land, and off-loaded by a combined team from NASA, the U.S. Navy, and Orion prime contractor Lockheed Martin.

The House on Thursday approved a $1.1 trillion bill funding most of the government through September despite an outcry from Democrats and significant defections in both parties. By a vote of 219-206, the House sent the bill to the Senate, where a similar debate may break out between liberal Democrats and the White House. The vote split Democratic leaders, with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) opposing the bill and criticizing the White House, but Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) backing it. Fifty-seven Democrats voted for the bill, while 139 opposed it. The House also voted by unanimous consent on...

The U.S. Department of Justice reporting on this topic is unscientific and irresponsible The U.S. Department of Justice has released a report entitled “Rape and Sexual Assault Victimization Among College-Age Females, 1995-2013,” and in light of the Rolling Stone and Lena Dunham controversies, the DOJ report is getting some media attention. But the report simply does not answer the question at hand, nor can it. Nor can any report. The public and policy makers are going to eventually need to understand that we will never, ever know the real rate of sexual assaults in any demographic group, never mind among...

This so-called insurance meant from the beginning not merely compulsory insurance it also meant compulsory membership in a unitary system controlled and enforced by the state. The concept of a social safety net is well accepted throughout the Western World. The idea that some provision should be made for those who through no fault of their own are unable to provide for themselves first appeared as a state policy in Germany in the 19th century as the Iron Chancellor, Bismarck, sought to co-opt the popular appeal of socialism and strengthen the newly founded German Imperial state. The idea struck a...

I am given to wonder if in the very near future all of us will be relegated to speaking Arabic, as a large number of our young people can't seem to distinguish good from evil The kids at Harvard have been up so long it looks like down—literally, as Joe Biden would say. A recent poll taken by Campus Reform at Harvard University found that a fair number of students attending those ivied halls believe that America is a greater threat to world peace that ISIS. Yes, that ISIS, not the Egyptian goddess of health, marriage and wisdom, but the...

And here we go: Right off the deep end. It’s as predictable as the sunrise. As those who are genuinely and honestly outraged over the revelations contained within the Senate Intelligence Committee’s “torture” report strain themselves in the effort to adopt a posture of unparalleled indignation, they inevitably overreach. So far, the best example of this kind of indulgence in regrettable hyperbole in the pursuit of moral preening is Rep. Jackie Speier (D-CA). In an appearance on MSNBC on Wednesday, Speier reacted to the release of the SSCI’s report on the CIA’s Bush-era enhanced interrogation program by saying America’s clandestine...

Don't be lulled into complacency by their stupidity--they can be vicious and crazy as well. I would no sooner turn my back on a liberal than a rabid dog Seeing as how liberal stupidity is a given, the question becomes one of degree—just how stupid are liberals? Are they off-the-charts stupid, or simply low-wattage-dim-bulb stupid? Please don’t mistake my question for being merely some snarky ad hominem attack. You have only to look at the recent questioning of John Gruber by Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC) in order to see the truth of things. When Gruber called the American voters stupid...

There has been an apparent first in the fight against Ebola this week. According to flight records, the private jet company contracted by the State Department to transport Ebola patients flew two air ambulances to West Africa on the same day. Until Wednesday, Phoenix Air had flown only one Ebola-fighting mission at a time. A second Gulfstream jet featuring the ability to treat infectious patients in flight had been held back in case of an emergency with the first aircraft. But last month, the Georgia-based operation finished customizing a third jet to handle the specialized medical equipment.

as 2014 the year of the Un–Bum Steer? So many of our usual suspects behaved themselves (more or less) that we wondered if something was amiss. Texas A&M didn’t do anything too Aggie-like, the Dallas Cowboys were actually in the playoff hunt for a change, and Matthew McConaughey minded his p’s and q’s while picking up an Oscar along the way. Thankfully, politics didn’t let us down. Governor Rick Perry was indicted by a grand jury for abusing his power and coercing a public servant, and he celebrated having his mug shot taken with a jaunt to buy frozen custard....

Just thought if anyone wants a good skewering of the recent senate report heres the CIA's 135 page response released a few days ago. 1. I appreciate the opportunity for the Central Intelligence Agency to comment on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Study of the Agency's long-terminated Rendition, Detention, and Interrogation Program (hereafter referred to as the "Study"). As I noted during my confirmation hearing and in subsequent discussions with you and with Committee members, the lengthy Study deserved careful review by the Agency in light of the significance and sensitivity of the subject matter and; of particular concern;...

What is going on in the House right now betrays every American citizen who voted for a change in irresponsible governing The 2014 Midterm Election was a historical rejection of President Barack Obama, and the policies of the Democrat Party. The strategies of the Republican Party always seems to be to vote away any leverage they may have in future debates, by giving in to too many of the liberal left Democrat Party’s demands, and voting for bills or resolutions that are a longer term than they should be in regards to their best interests, while trying to give us...

A new report on sexual assault released today by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) officially puts to bed the bogus statistic that one in five women on college campuses are victims of sexual assault. In fact, non-students are 25 percent more likely to be victims of sexual assault than students, according to the data. And the real number of assault victims is several orders of magnitude lower than one-in-five.

I think I speak for the VAST MAJORITY of those who voted Republican in the midterm election when I say F*** Y** John Boehner! This SOB IGNORED THE MANDATE OF THE MIDTERM ELECTION, thus back-stabbing all of us by spearheading passage and funding of amnesty and Obamacare. Save to mention he has just committed suicide of the Republican party! Job ONE of next year's newly seated members of the House is to REPEAL AND REPLACE JOHN BOEHNER AS SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE!!!! May you ROT in hell for what you have just done to the Republican party, Speaker Boehner!

Deny Government Employees the Vote During fifteen years in civil service, I only found out after being laid off from a government jurisdiction whose tax base collapsed, that it was an unreal world."Civil Servants" aren't servants at all, they are de facto superiors of the citizenry whose lives they regulate.Their government union representatives feel free to hijack compulsory union dues, promote socially destructive, sexually-radical policies, in the meantime, corrupting the political process that is supposed to regulate government employment.The only solution is to politically disenfranchise public employees–deny them the vote. Let's set up the brouhaha this invites, by contrasting some...

December 12, 2014Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe    Reading 1 Zec 2:14-17 Sing and rejoice, O daughter Zion! See, I am coming to dwell among you, says the LORD.Many nations shall join themselves to the LORD on that day,and they shall be his people,and he will dwell among you,and you shall know that the LORD of hosts has sent me to you.The LORD will possess Judah as his portion in the holy land,and he will again choose Jerusalem.Silence, all mankind, in the presence of the LORD!For he stirs forth from his holy dwelling. or Rv 11:19a; 12:1-6a, 10ab...

Published on Dec 10, 2014Las Cruces City Attorney Harry S. Connelly lays out the incentives and tactics that drive the practice of policing for profit, better know as civil asset forfeiture. He explains how nuisance ordinances are lucrative grounds for police departments to mine.

Russian media has reported that China's latest indigenous Type 1130 close-in weapon system can fire 10,000 rounds per minute and destroy 90% of hypersonic missiles traveling at a speed four times the speed of sound, reports our Chinese-language sister paper Want Daily. The system, which is the third-generation of the close-in weapon system developed by China, was recently spotted being installed on a PLA Type 054A frigate. Compared to its seven-barreled Type 730 predecessor, the Type 1130's Gatling-type gun has the same 30 mm caliber but the number of barrels increased to 11. While the Type 730 has only one...

Dear Mona,It seems like homeownership is a common data filter in the social sciences. But nearly everyone I know who “owns a home” is paying a mortgage. How many “homeowners” have actually paid off their houses?John, 34, Mount Vernon, Washington Dear John,Your question is an important one, not only because home ownership can have big consequences for the economy, but because 56 percent of all the housing units in America (that includes trailers, apartments and houses) are owned by the people who live in them.According to last year’s American Community Survey, one in three of those owner-occupied housing units doesn’t...

The House narrowly approved a vital spending bill Thursday night despite deep misgivings among liberals and conservatives alike, sending the measure to the Senate as a funding deadline looms. The bill passed on a 219-206 vote, following an intense lobbying effort by House Republican leaders and the White House. Current government funding technically runs out at midnight Thursday, and lawmakers still are expected to move a stopgap measure to buy time as the Senate considers the main $1.1 trillion spending package. That debate could last through the weekend and potentially into Monday. Passage in the House followed hours of urgent...

The most conservative candidates are, with the exception of 1964, invariably the bridesmaid and never the bride in the GOP presidential primary. (In 1980, there were candidates such as Rep. Phil Crane of Illinois to Ronald Reagan’s right.) Part of the explanation is that the most conservative voters divide their support among candidates, leaving a path for a more moderate figure to coast to victory. And part of the explanation is that they tend to set upon candidates who self-destruct, are not qualified or are simply too extreme — and often all three. In 2016, how can they break this...