Man Sues Dept. Of Ed. Over Teaching Evolution To Aspiring Veterinarian Daughter

A West Virginia man has decided to sue government officials for teaching evolution in schools, saying it is hampering his daughter's dream to become a veterinarian.

Kenneth Smith's lawsuit says that education officials are violating the Constitution and infringing the civil rights of his daughter by "propagating" the "religion" of evolution, according to the Charleston Daily Mail.

“Their actions during the 2014-2015 school year affects my child’s future directly through the state grading system to enter college and the ability to earn economic security and a good job in her chosen veterinarian medical field of work, by being taught a faith base (evolutionary ideology) that just doesn’t exist and has no math to back it,” the lawsuit reportedly said.

Acting as his own lawyer, Smith filed suit at the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia on May 12, suing everyone from the state Superintendent to U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, the Mail reported.


http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/kenneth-smith-west-virginia-evolution

Patriot Act That Dennis Hastert Passed Led To His Indictment

On Oct. 24, 2001, then-House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) shepherded the Patriot Act through the House of Representatives. It passed 357 to 66, advancing to the Senate and then-President George W. Bush’s desk for signing.

Hastert took credit for House passage in a 2011 interview, claiming it “wasn’t popular, and there was a lot of fight in the Congress” over it.

Little did Hastert know at the time that the law he helped pass would give federal law enforcement the tools to indict him on charges of violating banking-related reporting requirements more than a decade later.

The Department of Justice on Thursday announced Hastert's indictment for agreeing to pay $3.5 million in hush money to keep someone quiet about his “prior misconduct.” The indictment accuses Hastert of structuring bank withdrawals to avoid bank reporting requirements, and lying to the FBI about the nature of the withdrawals. It does not reveal the “misconduct” that Hastert was trying to conceal. The recipient of the money was a resident of Yorkville, Illinois, where Hastert taught high school and coached wrestling from 1965 to 1981.

The indictment suggests that law enforcement officials relied on the Patriot Act’s expansion of bank reporting requirements to snare Hastert. As the IRS notes, “the USA PATRIOT Act of 2001 increased the scope” of cash reporting laws “to help trace funds used for terrorism.” The Bank Secrecy Act of 1970, which was amended by the Patriot Act, had already required banks to report suspicious transactions.


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/05/28/dennis-hastert-patriot-act_n_7465780.html

Marvel invites high school girls to develop and demostrate their own "mico-tech" projects.

Marvel is targeting highschool girls in the above Ant-Man movie promo featuring Evangeline Lilly as the actress announces the "Micro-Tech" Challenge.

The challenge invites girls nationwide, ages 14 – 18, in grades 9-12, to design and build a DIY project using at least one readily available micro-technology component, which can enable tinkerers, makers, builders and future Imagineers to execute big ideas with a board that fits in their pocket and costs less than a video game. The projects can be utilitarian, artistic or just plain fun.

After completing a project, applicants will be asked to submit a short video demonstrating the project and explaining how it will inspire other girls to pursue interests in science, technology, engineering, or math.

The five winners will each receive: Two round-trip tickets to Southern California, including hotel accommodations, from June 28 through June 30, 2015, to be on the red carpet at the World Premiere of Marvel’s "Ant-Man" at the Dolby Theatre® in Dolby Atmos® on June 29, 2015; attend a special “The Evolution of Technology” workshop on June 30 at The Disneyland® Resort where they will meet Walt Disney Imagineers who will introduce them to the broader scope of technology and how innovation is inspired during a behind-the-scenes tour of The Disneyland® Resort; and receive a tour of the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, California.

Upon completion of the challenge, a STEM-based girls program in each winner’s hometown will be selected to receive “re-create” instructions for each project. Each winner will have the opportunity to lead a workshop in building her project with the girls in the selected program in her community. By sharing their work, the winners will accomplish big things from small beginnings by inspiring other young girls to follow their interests in computing, technology, and engineering.


http://www.cosmicbooknews.com/content/watch-ant-man-featurette-evangeline-lillys-micro-tech-challenge

Duggars will run to Faux News for first interview.

he famously conservative Duggars seemed to be models of wholesome family life, but son Josh was hiding a dark past: He allegedly molested five young girls as a teen. Subscribe now for an inside look at the Duggars' dark family secrets, only in PEOPLE.

Nearly nine days after the Duggar family responded to allegations that Josh Duggar has molested five underage girls when he was a teenager, the reality TV family announced they would be sitting down with Fox News reporter Megyn Kelly for an exclusive interview.

"Next week we will sit down with Megyn Kelly on Fox News to share our hearts with you about the pain that we walked through as a family twelve years ago, the tears we all shed and the forgiveness that was given," Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar wrote in a statement. "We appreciate the outpouring of love and prayers for our family at this time."

In a separate press release, Fox News announced that the interview would air during The Kelly File on Wednesday, June 3, at 9 p.m. ET. Additional portions will also air during a one-hour special on Friday, June 5, at 9 p.m. ET.


http://www.people.com/article/duggars-interview-post-molestation-scandal

Brooks & Dunn - Only In America

Sanders Wrote About Rape Fantasies as "satire".

New York (CNN)Bernie Sanders' campaign tried on Thursday to distance the presidential candidate from a 1972 essay in which he wrote -- among other things -- a women "fantasizes being raped by three men simultaneously."

Michael Briggs, Sanders' newly minted campaign spokesman, said the article was a "dumb attempt at dark satire in an alternative publication" that "in no way reflects his views or record on women."

"It was intended to attack gender stereotypes of the '70s, but it looks as stupid today as it was then," Briggs told CNN.

The Vermont senator is currently pursuing the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination.


http://www.cnn.com/2015/05/28/politics/bernie-sanders-rape-essay-1972/index.html

Not just the Duggars: Arkansas DHS keeps giving Christian conservatives a pass on child abuse

Two recent sex abuse cases involving the Duggar family and state Rep. Justin Harris — politically connected Arkansas religious conservatives — reveal serious problems in the state’s Department of Human Services.

A sexual molestation case involving Josh Duggar, the reality TV star and former high-ranking employee of the anti-LGBT Family Research Council, has dominated national news for more than a week as continuing revelations suggest the teen and his family may have received preferential treatment from authorities.

TLC has suspended airings of the family’s “19 Kids and Counting” program, but it has not yet been canceled despite the loss of several major advertisers.

As the Arkansas Times reported, Harris and his wife, Marsha Harris, have not faced any consequences since news broke in March that they gave away two adopted daughters to a man who later sexually assaulted one of the girls – although state legislators changed a state law to prevent others from doing the same thing.


http://www.rawstory.com/2015/05/not-just-the-duggars-arkansas-dhs-keeps-giving-christian-conservatives-a-pass-on-child-abuse/

Salon: I could’ve been a Duggar wife: I grew up in the same church, and the abuse scandal doesn’t shock me

Unlike most of the writers covering the Duggar sex scandal, I was raised in Advanced Training Institute (ATI), the fundamentalist Christian organization with which the family is affiliated. Joshua Duggar’s confession of sexually molesting young girls in his family’s home when he was a teenager didn’t surprise me, nor should it surprise anyone with any intimate knowledge about this organization, because ATI’s theological beliefs and practices cultivate an environment where women and children are more vulnerable to rape and sexual abuse. Ironically, the same theological beliefs and practices at the heart of this scandal are the same beliefs that created the Duggars as a media phenomenon, and drew viewers and fans to their TLC show “19 Kids and Counting.”

Non-mainstream religious sects have certainly been enjoying a cultural moment on television: “The Following,” “Sister Wives,” “Breaking Amish.” Netflix’s dark comedy “The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” explores the media hype around religious cult survivors in satirical detail. For me, though, that show should have come with a trigger warning, because in many ways, I am a real Kimmy Schmidt — a woman who spent her adolescence trapped inside a metaphorical bunker, and then was thrust into a world that she had never been prepared to be a part of.

The Duggars didn’t emerge from a subterranean bunker, though. They’ve been on TV promoting the fundamentalist Christian theology of ATI since their first special in 2004 (“14 Children and Pregnant Again!”). ATI is a Christian homeschool organization that hosts seminars worldwide, provides homeschooling curriculum, and even runs its own paramilitary training center. At one point, it was strongly affiliated with a Christian correspondence course law school. Its members are not concentrated in one area, and yet they maintain insular groups and often form churches in which all members are affiliated with ATI and/or follow its basic principles. Referred to as “Gothardism” within fundamentalist Christian circles, the teachings of ATI form an ideological system of practices based on the extremely strict, fundamentalist, and idiosyncratic Biblical interpretations of the organization’s founder, Bill Gothard – a man who, in 2014, stepped down as head of ATI following allegations of sexual misconduct with young girls.

The allegations against “Mr. Gothard” (as he is respectfully and worshipfully referred to by his acolytes) were an open secret among group members for many years. As a friend who worked at ATI headquarters once said to me with a wink: “The prettiest girls are always chosen to work the closest with Mr Gothard.”


http://www.salon.com/2015/05/28/i_couldve_been_a_duggar_wife_i_grew_up_in_the_same_church_and_the_abuse_scandal_doesnt_shock_me/

Politico Writer: 'Some Black Lives Really Don't Matter'

Politico magazine on Thursday published an op-ed by conservative writer Rich Lowry of the National Review bearing the headline: '#SomeBlackLivesDontMatter."

Lowry, a regular contributor to Politico magazine, argued that after the deaths of Michael Brown and Freddie Gray (whose name was originally misspelled throughout the piece as "Freddy Gray&quot , civil rights protestors complained much about police brutality but ignored deadly crime.

"Let’s be honest: Some black lives really don’t matter," he wrote, calling the #BlackLivesMatter movement, "a lie."

"If you are a young black man shot in the head by another young black man, almost certainly no one will know your name," he added.

The piece crescendoed to a section arguing that contrary to protestors, police need to crack down harder on what conservatives and others often call "black-on-black" crime:

The implication is clear: More people need to be arrested in Baltimore, not fewer. And more need to be jailed. If black lives truly matter, Baltimore needs more and better policing and incarceration to impose order on communities where a lawless few spread mayhem and death.

Ex-trooper: Duggars hid full extent of abuse

A former Arkansas state trooper claims the Duggar family concealed the extent of their son's alleged fondling of underage girls when the patriarch of the family turned to him for help disciplining the teenager more than a decade ago, the tabloid In Touch reports.

The tabloid broke the original story that Josh Duggar, the eldest son of the Duggar family, from the TLC reality show "19 Kids and Counting," had allegedly molested girls when he was a teenager. It published a 2006 police report on the incident.

Duggar has since apologized for "acting inexcusably" as a teenager and has resigned as executive director of the Family Research Council's lobbying arm.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/people/2015/05/28/jim-bob-duggar-state-trooper-josh-duggar-fondling-sex-abuse/28058841/