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In around 1485 or 1486, Florentine artist Sandro Botticelli came up with probably his most famous painting, the "Birth of Venus." Botticelli’s choice of subject was nothing new. Venus and her equivalents, including the Greek Aphrodite and the Mesopotamian goddess Ishtar, are among the most common figures depicted in art. Archaeologists dub one of the oldest of all sculptures, the “Venus of Willendorf,” on the assumption that this 25,000-year-old work was intended to represent a Stone Age fertility goddess similar to the Venus of later tradition. In virtually all civilizations, a Venus equivalent plays a prominent role in myth, legend...

Gunfire erupts in area of Fourth of July parade route in Highland Park, Illinois, sheriff says The city's "Fourth Fest" celebration was canceled and residents were told to avoid downtown. July 4, 2022, 11:25 AM CDT By David K. Li and Matteo Moschella Gunfire erupted in an affluent Chicago suburb on Monday, prompting the city to cancel its Fourth of July celebration, authorities said. The shooting happened "in the area of the Independence Day parade route," the Lake County Sheriff's Office said in statement posted shortly after 11 a.m. CDT. No other details, including how many people were shot, were...

Multiple people are feared dead after a reported shooting at a 4th of July parade in Highland Park, Illinois, on Monday. Witnesses say crowds fled the sound of gunfire, and others saw at least five bloodied people lying on the ground and another under a blanket, according to the Chicago Sun Times. The number of victims remains unclear. This is a developing story.

CHICAGO -- At least 54 people have been shot, seven fatally, in 4th of July holiday weekend shootings across the city, Chicago police said. In fatal attacks this weekend, a woman was killed and a gunman was among two others wounded in a shootout Friday night in Chinatown, Chicago police said. A man and another gunman were shooting at each other about 10:50 p.m. in the 2200-block of South Wentworth Avenue, police said. A 24-year-old woman was struck in the torso and was taken to Stroger Hospital, where she died due to her injuries. Three people were shot, one fatally,...

Multiple people are feared dead after a shooting during a Fourth of July parade in a Chicago suburb on Monday, officials said. Witnesses told local media that crowds of people fled the scene after shots were heard in Highland Park, Illinois. The Lake County Sheriff’s Office confirmed that a shooting took place and told people to stay away. The office did not confirm the number of victims. Local media reported that several people possibly died in the incident. Law enforcement sources told Fox32 that one person died. A video posted by a reporter showed people watching the parade before gunshots...

The latest Supreme Court rulings make it clear: Our current constitution is ill-equipped to provide the necessary legal structures and framework of ideas necessary for democracy to flourish as an institution in the 21st century. This may be the real point of the latest rulings of our highest court. Rather than hold the position that the court ruled inappropriately, consider the argument that the court ruled correctly based upon the document they had at hand, namely, the United States Constitution. During the 1970s and ’80s, conservative groups dreamed of holding a constitutional convention. Why? To write into our governing document...

When the city of Friendswood, Texas, announced on Facebook that hometown hero Haley Carter would be the grand marshal for the town’s famed Fourth of July parade, the post was peppered with excited comments. Carter, who was in the Marines and is a retired professional soccer player, was just the type of person residents wanted to see lead the parade. Then the right-wing culture warriors showed up. Conservative radio host Jesse Kelly tweeted the same day that Friendswood had appointed a “gun-grabber” who is “into drag” and “trans activism” to lead the parade. Kelly is from Ohio, ran a failed...

As is usual, the Supreme Court saved its most important decisions for the end of this term, and the three biggies were handed down within days of each other: “Bruen (gun rights), Dobbs (abortion rights) and West Virginia (administrative regulation of CO2).” You don’t have to be a constitutional law scholar to wade through all this and the footnotes, citations, and legal disputations. Francis Menton has done it for you: (You can’t rely on the major media to do it. For the most part they share the same ideological viewpoint as that of the three dissenting justices, a view Menton...

Some employers in Florida will be prohibited from requiring their employees to attend activities that promote or otherwise endorse certain concepts related to race and sex beginning July 1, 2022. Specifically, the Stop Wrongs to Our Kids and Employees Act (Stop WOKE Act) (HB 7), which passed earlier this year, amends the Florida Civil Rights Act to create a new basis for an employment discrimination claim. Prohibited Activities for Covered Employers The new law, which applies to employers with 15 or more employees companywide, makes it an “unlawful employment practice” to require employees to attend any activity that “espouses, promotes,...

“We often think of peace as the absence of war, that if powerful countries would reduce their weapon arsenals, we could have peace. But if we look deeply into the weapons, we see our own minds- our own prejudices, fears and ignorance. Even if we transport all the bombs to the moon, the roots of war and the roots of bombs are still there, in our hearts and minds, and sooner or later we will make new bombs. To work for peace is to uproot war from ourselves and from the hearts of men and women. To prepare for war,...

The conservative supermajority has weaponized this harmful judicial philosophy as a way to embrace a racist, patriarchal narrowing of political rights. Even as the first Black woman to sit on the Supreme Court was sworn in Thursday, the slate of rulings from the newly empowered, right-wing and originalist court majority this term has made it clearer than ever that the court is motivated by a reliance on the white supremacist patriarchy of the Constitution’s framers. With Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which overturned Roe v. Wade last week, and New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, the...

A 2024 Republican presidential primary poll shows former President Donald J. Trump holding a colossal 40-point lead over the rest of the potential field if he decides to run.The Harvard CAPS-Harris poll, obtained by the Hill, reveals that Trump drew 56 percent of respondents’ support, while 16 percent chose Gov. Ron Desantis (R-FL), making him the second leading candidate. Former Vice President Mike Pence garnered seven percent of the response if Trump were to run.Trump has repeatedly teased and hinted at a 2024 bid since December 2020, including at CPAC earlier this year and a Georgia rally in March. He...

Humanity was peaceful - until guns showed up. Learn how sinister and evil these weapons of mass destruction truly are.VIDEO here

If you want to get a full sense of why so many Democrats seem to be frustrated with President JOE BIDEN at the moment, here’s one piece you need to read: “Is Biden a Man Out of Time?” by The Atlantic’s Ronald Brownstein. Whether the specific issue is abortion rights, court reform, voting rights, the filibuster, or the DOJ’s investigation into DONALD TRUMP’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election, “[m]any Democrats share a sense that … Biden and his team have been following, not leading. And that tendency points to an enduring question about Biden, who was first elected to...

“All political power comes from the barrel of a gun. The Communist Party must command all the guns; that way, no guns can ever be used to command the party.” The quote was from Mao Zedong, founder of Communist China. Mao’s first act after gaining complete control of China in 1949 was to take away all guns from the population. It was a policy he began in 1935 as he took over each rural province. Anyone found with a gun post-confiscation was executed. An estimated 65 million Chinese died as a result of Mao’s repeated, merciless attempts to create a...

ALBANY, N.Y. -- New York would require people applying for a handgun license to turn over a list of their social media accounts so officials could verify their “character and conduct” under a bill headed toward passage Friday in the state Legislature.

The Supreme Court opinion on the New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen was released on June 22, 2022. It is a 6 to 3 opinion, which upholds the Second Amendment as applying outside the home and rebukes Circuit Courts for creating an unnecessarily complicated two step process in applying Second Amendment protection to statutes. The opinion is 135 pages long. Justice Clarence Thomas wrote the majority opinion, which was joined by Justice Alito, Justices Kavanaugh and Roberts, and Justice Barrett in concurring opinions. Justice Alito and Barrett concur in full. Justices Kavanaugh and Roberts simply concur.The opinion...

Comedian Chelsea Handler smeared Republicans while guest hosting for Jimmy Kimmel Monday on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, comparing the GOP to O.J. Simpson, and claimed Republicans are not pro-life because they support the Second Amendment.

Nigeria's Zamfara state will start issuing licences to individuals to carry guns to defend themselves against armed gangs of kidnappers causing havoc in the country's northwest, the state's commissioner for information said on Sunday. Armed gangs are rife across Nigeria's northwest where they rob or kidnap for ransom, and violence has been increasing, where thinly stretched security forces often fail to stop the attacks.The gunmen, known locally as bandits, operate from remote forests in the northwest and their deadly attacks and kidnappings, targeting villagers, farmers and travellers, have increased since the start of the year. Zamfara and neighbouring Kaduna are...

California gun owners have been put at risk by the Attorney General’s office after a new dashboard leaked their personal information. The California Department of Justice’s 2022 Firearms Dashboard Portal went live on Monday with publicly-accessible files that include identifying information for those who have concealed carry permits. The leaked information includes the person’s full name, home address, date of birth, and date their permit was issued. The data also shows the type of permit issued, indicating if the permit holder is a member of law enforcement or a judge.