Scrolling around...July 26, 2013

 The Earth From a Great Height

...the earth from almost a billion miles away!

How America's Top Tech Companies Created the Surveillance State  They’ve been helping the government spy on people for a very long time. The cozy relationships go back decades.

 IRS Targeting Witnesses Speak Out
...Timothy Savaglio, board member of the Liberty Township TEA Party, said dealing with the IRS’s demands following his request for his organization to be recognized as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit became a “full-time job.”

“I served 23 years in the United States Air Force voluntarily giving up personal freedoms only to find my government placed barriers and obstruction when I exercised those liberties as an ordinary citizen,” Savaglio said.

He applied for the tax exempt status in May 2010, and his request still hasn’t been approved or denied by the IRS...

National Treasury Employees Union Urges Members to Oppose Obamacare … For Themselves
The National Treasury Employees Union is urging its members to oppose legislation that would force federal employees off their government healthcare plans and onto the state and national healthcare exchanges established under Obamacare.

Members of Congress and their staffers are already required to participate in the exchanges, which will go into effect next October 1st under the Affordable Care Act.

However, a bill (HR 1780) introduced in April by Rep. David Camp (R–Mich.) would extend that requirement to all federal employees, an idea that does not sit well with the union....

Psychiatric Journal Published Study Linking Abortion with Depression, PTSD, and Drug Abuse   ...The study compared the women's psychological well being with childbirth outcomes such as delivering the baby, miscarriage, or abortion. The conclusion of the authors is that “fetal loss seems to expose women to a higher risk for mental disorders than childbirth; some studies show that abortion can be considered a more relevant risk factor than miscarriage”...

First Things: Surveillance Technologies and Bible Prophecy

DOJ Says Transgender Discrimination Is Sex Discrimination
...Whatever one thinks of this as a matter of policy, it is quite dubious as a matter of law. The relevant statutes here, as the Justice Department’s press release acknowledges, “prohibit discrimination against students based on sex.” The Justice Department’s position is that “sex” includes not only sex but also “a student’s gender identity, transgender status, and nonconformity with gender stereotypes.”...

Poll: Since Obama took office, View of U.S. race relations has plummeted   The most recent poll showed a sharp drop from the beginning of Obama's first term. At that time, 79 percent of whites and 63 percent of blacks then held a favorable view of American race relations.

Negative views on race relations have increased substantially. Forty-five percent of whites and 58 percent African-Americans now believe race relations are very or fairly bad. As soon as 2009, only 20 percent of whites and 30 percent of blacks held an unfavorable view....

Pakistan: Charity finds an average of 24 alive or dead babies every month on roadside trash heaps
...“The bodies are badly bitten by the dogs, cats, crows and eagles giving a horrible look to the innocent babies. We want to tell the people that regardless to their legitimacy or illegitimacy it is a murder of a human and thus the whole humanity,” Naseem said.

Most of the bodies or alive babies found are girls...

Franklin Graham: Why is Obama Silent as Iran Tortures American Pastor?  One of the nation's most prominent evangelical leaders wants to know why President Obama has remained silent as Iran tortures an American pastor held captive in one of the Islamic republic's most notorious prisons.

Franklin Graham, the president of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and Samaritan's Purse, told Fox News the imprisonment and torture of Pastor Saeed Abedini is a blatant example of "religious intolerance."

"Many in the international community are expressing outrage over this blatant example of religious intolerance," Graham said. "I ask that our government do the same and demand that Pastor Saeed Abedini be released and allowed to return home to his wife and family in the United States."...