The Right Lane update 7.09.13

The pursuit of Constitutionally grounded governance, freedom and individual liberty

"There is but one straight course, and that is to seek truth and pursue it steadily." --George Washington

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Christians Silenced By ‘Separation of Church and State’ Lie  by Gary Frazier
For years, people have demanded one thing from the Christ-followers and allowed those who persecute them to do as they please. For example, a few years ago, the NFL banned anyone who brought a “JOHN 3:16″ sign to a game. Of course, it wasn’t long before they reverted to allowing people to bring those banners. The point is, nobody ever banned anyone from bringing any vulgar type slogan… Though, in 1974, I remember a mathematics teacher sending a guy to the office because his t-shirt said, “He** Yea, Allman Brothers Band” When he returned, the offending word was covered with masking tape.

That was 1974 … Now, it’s 2013 and that type of thing will not draw the ire of any teacher because the schools’ systems think of it as free speech. However, if your kid wears a t-shirt, with a Bible verse, he/she may be suspended or otherwise disciplined because people have been led to believe that “Separation of Church and State” is in the U.S. Constitution. Nobody has taken the time to read that document, so people are left to assume a phrase from a letter written by Thomas Jefferson to the Danbury, CT Baptist Church is part of it. The point I’m making is this: People have demanded God doesn’t have a place in schools, in municipal buildings, even in stores. Why? Because nobody has stopped to inspect the U.S. Constitution. The world keeps saying they’re right because of this, non-existent piece of legislation and Christians appear to be too scared to face them. So, for the past however many years, Christianity has been hogtied. It’s as if our children are now in danger of suspension if they add the Name of the Most High God into a written paper, while if an unbelieving student goes around taking that same Name in vain, it’s considered art!  These dictates will not end, either. Why? Because the secularists are in control — whereas in the ’40′s, ’50′s and early ’60′s the influence of the church, led by the Lord God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, dominated. Times have changed and, just like Christ foresaw, His followers are being hated because they refuse to relinquish the Name of Christ. Luke 21:17 — “And you will be hated by all on account of My Name.” This is where it improves: I Co. 9:24 – “Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win.” The Lord is waiting for His followers at the finish line. His people will be marching to the end. These will find the narrow gate, leading to life.

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Five unanswered questions about the NSA’s surveillance programs By Brendan Sasso

Leaks by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden have provided new insight into how the government monitors domestic and foreign communications for threats to national security.

Although the government has disclosed some additional details about the programs in response to the leaks, important questions remain about the nature and scope of the surveillance programs. Without that additional information, it is impossible to know the extent to which the government is peering into the lives of Americans in the name of national security, according to privacy advocates.

1. What other data is being collected under the Patriot Act?

The first leak from Snowden was a secret court order demanding that Verizon turn over vast batches of “metadata” on its U.S. customers. The data included the time and duration of calls, as well as the phone numbers involved, but not the contents of the conversations. The data collection was authorized under Section 215 of the Patriot Act.

The Director of National Intelligence (DNI) clarified that while the government does obtain data on millions of U.S. phone calls (and from more companies than just Verizon), it only “queries” the database a limited number of times for specific national security reasons.  Michelle Richardson, a legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), questioned whether the NSA is using Section 215 to collect more than just phone records.  “Is it also financial data or Internet records or other things?” she asked. “Knowing now that the court has been so broad in its interpretation, it’s even more important to figure out what else they’re getting.”  Greg Nojeim, a senior counsel for the Center for Democracy and Technology, said the NSA is likely using the Patriot Act to collect the credit card records and IP addresses of millions of people within and outside of the United States.

2. How broad are the programs?

How many people have been spied on through the NSA programs remains unclear. According to the NSA, it queried its massive database of phone records fewer than 300 times in 2012. But the agency did not disclose figures on other years or how many phone numbers were accessed in those queries. Richardson explained that a single query could be an algorithm that scans the database and returns information on many people. The other major program revealed by Snowden is the NSA’s Internet surveillance program, called PRISM. Unlike the phone record collection program under the Patriot Act, the NSA uses PRISM to access the contents of communications, such as emails, video chats, photographs and other information. According to the DNI, the NSA only accesses those online records if there is a “foreign intelligence purpose” and the target is “reasonably believed” to be outside of the U.S. The program is authorized by Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, and the searches require approval by a secret FISA court. The NSA has not disclosed how many people it has targeted under Section 702 or how many people were spied on incidentally as part of the program. “We have no idea how many U.S. persons have had their communications swept up,” said Sharon Bradford Franklin, senior counsel for the Constitution Project.

3. What’s the legal rationale?

The NSA has insisted the surveillance programs comply with the law and are overseen by independent FISA courts. But the opinions of those courts are secret, so little is known about how the courts are enforcing privacy protections or why they signed off on certain surveillance methods. Section 215 of the Patriot Act allows the government to collect business records if they are “relevant” to a terrorism investigation. The FISA courts have determined that that provision allows the NSA to collect records on virtually all phone calls within and outside of the U.S. Why the court determined that so much data is “relevant” to a terrorism investigation remains unclear. “Generally we don’t know the legal rationale being offered by the administration and being accepted by the FISA court to justify these particular types of surveillance programs,” Bradford Franklin said. “We should not have secret law in a democracy.”

4. Is the NSA still collecting email records?

One of the latest leaks revealed that beginning in 2001, the NSA collected vast amounts of email records. The NSA was able to identify the email accounts that sent and received messages, as well as IP addresses. The data collection did not include the contents of the emails. The Obama administration confirmed the existence of the program, but said it ended in 2011 for “operational and resource reasons.”

One major question, according to privacy advocates, is whether the government is still able to obtain similar email records through a separate program.

5. Are there other programs that we don’t know about?

Although the NSA has provided some details about the programs leaked by Snowden, it is unclear what other programs exist and how they work together as part of a broad surveillance strategy.

“There’s this giant surveillance superstructure out there that we’re finally getting glimpses of, but there’s still a lot of questions of how does the whole thing work,” Richardson said.

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Progressive Insurance Is Destroying The American Way of Life Watch

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This represents some of the most radical thinking out there regarding abortion.

Without the moral compass provided by belief in God, anyone can rationalize killing babies while using the thin veil of "abortion".  A must read! Read the full article.

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PC is now enforced by the Police; Preacher Arrested for Calling Homosexuality a Sin  By Todd Starnes

An American evangelist said he was arrested and interrogated about his Christian faith after he was caught on a London sidewalk preaching that homosexuality is a sin. Tony Miano, a retired deputy sheriff and former chaplain with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Dept., was charged with “using homophobic speech that could cause people anxiety, distress, alarm or insult.” Miano had been preaching on a London street corner during the Wimbledon Tennis Championships with a ministry group called Sports Fan Outreach International. British police prepare to arrest American Evangelist Tony Miano.

He was preaching about immoral living – and cited homosexuality as an example of lifestyle choices that are contrary to biblical teaching. “I never used any gay slurs,” he said. “You would never hear me using slang or discriminatory language against homosexuals or any other group. That would be contrary to my faith.” At some point, the evangelist quoted I Thessalonians 4:1-2 – a passage of scripture that mentions sexual immorality. “I talked about women addicted to romance novels, men addicted to pornography, people with lustful thoughts, heterosexual fornication and homosexuality,” Miano told Fox News. “When I mentioned that the Bible was clear that homosexuality is a sin, a lady walked by and she glared at me and hurled the f-bomb.” Miano said the woman came back a short time later and began to videotape his sidewalk sermon. Then, she called the police.

“They were concerned about homophobic speech,” he said. “But I told them I don’t fear homosexuals. The language I used was not homophobic, as I was not promoting fear or hatred of homosexuals.”

Miano said he did not limit his remarks to homosexual acts. “I did not speak solely about homosexuality as a form of sexual immorality but also about any kind of sex outside marriage between one man and one woman, as well as lustful thoughts,” he said. “All of these are considered mainstream Christian positions and have been taught and believed by Christians for thousands of years.” Police took the retired deputy sheriff to a nearby jail where he was fingerprinted. Officers also took a sample of his DNA and then he was interrogated. “It was very distressing to be arrested and interrogated for openly expressing my deeply held Christian beliefs,” he said. According to a transcript of the interrogation provided to Fox News, the officers asked if he really believed homosexuality is a sin. He was also asked whether he would help a homosexual who requested a favor.

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Recovery woes: America's second-largest employer is a temp agency BY: Ashe Schow

In the first quarter of 2013, U.S. staffing companies employed an average of 2.86 million temporary and contract workers, according to the American Staffing Association. (Thinkstock). Behind Wal-Mart, the second-largest employer in America is Kelly Services, a temporary work provider. Friday's disappointing jobs report showed that part-time jobs are at an all-time high, with 28 million Americans now working part-time. The report also showed another disturbing fact: There are now a record number of Americans with temporary jobs. Approximately 2.7 million, in fact. And the trend has been growing.

In the first quarter of 2013, U.S. staffing companies employed an average of 2.86 million temporary and contract workers, or 2 percent of all non-farm employment in the United States, according to the American Staffing Association. This represents a 2.9 percent growth from the same period in 2012. For just the month of June, there was a 6.7 percent growth in the number of staffing jobs than last year.

Temp jobs made up about 10 percent of the jobs lost during the Great Recession, and because of high turnover (the average length of temp employment is 3 months before a worker moves on to a permanent job), one in 10 non-farm workers were employed by a US staffing firm at some point during the past year, according to ASA. In fact, nearly one-fifth [20%] of all jobs gained since the recession ended have been temporary. It's a sad state of affairs for our country. While part-time and temp jobs reached highs last month, full-time jobs decreased by another 240,000. The recovery, or lack thereof, is being fueled by a shift from full-time to part-time work. Don't buy the hype the new jobs report is good news, it is not!

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Obama (Scut Farkus), Europe (Grover Dill), and Snowden (Ralphie)  by Gary North

We all know Scut Farkus, the bully who pushed the little kids around in A Christmas Story. Then there was his toady, Grover Dill. He acted tough, because he did everything Farkus told him to do.

Then there was Ralphie, who finally got revenge. Last week, some bonehead in the Obama administration — the media did not bother to find out who — decided that he would issue an order to France, Italy, Spain, and Portugal to forbid the overflight of the presidential jet of the President of Bolivia. Did he do this on his own authority? Bureaucrats do not put their careers on the line because some low-level political hack tells them to. They want orders from the top. They got these orders.

That forced the pilot of the plane to land in Vienna. At that point, the next phase of the bonehead’s plan involved the use of Austrian officials, meaning either the police or the military, to board the plane and search it to find Edward Snowden. The problem was, Edward Snowden was not on the plane. That immediately caused a sensation around the world. Especially in Latin America, heads of state criticized the U.S. government’s interference with the presidential jet of the Bolivian President. At that point, Venezuela’s President finally jumped off the fence, and offered Snowden asylum. He had resisted doing this prior to the decision of the bonehead to interfere with the Bolivian jet. Not to be outdone, the President of Bolivia then offered him asylum, and then the President of Nicaragua did the same. The President of Nicaragua is Danny Ortega, the Sandinista.

So, before the bonehead made his decision, no country was willing to offer Snowden asylum. But, because the bonehead decided to risk making a fool of the United States government, Snowden now has three places he can flee to. This is a classic political mistake. The hack had almost no understanding of the potential fallout from his decision. This particular hack never bothered to consider the fallout in Latin America from the decision of the United States to pressure its toadies in Europe to forbid the jet from flying over their air space. Next, the toadies in Europe were exposed as exactly what they are, namely, toadies of the United States, so they are much less likely to cooperate in any further interference with Snowden’s travel plans. Third, the Austrian government looks even worse than the other four governments, because it sent armed officials onto the plane in a fruitless search for a man who was not there. This makes leftists in Latin American look like courageous heroes, because they are standing up to the United States government. But they decided to do this only because of the bonehead’s decision to make the United States government look bad in front of the whole world. Now they can present themselves as standing tall. But they only stood up because of the bonehead.