NEW YORK (AP) — On the latest list of books most objected to at public schools and libraries, one title has been targeted nationwide, at times for the sex and violence it contains, but mostly for the legal issues it raises.
The Bible.
“You have people who feel that if a school library buys a copy of the Bible, it’s a violation of church and state,” says James LaRue, who directs the Office for Intellectual Freedom for the American Library Association, which released its annual 10 top snapshot of “challenged” books on Monday, part of the association’s “State of Libraries Report” for 2016.
“And sometimes there’s a retaliatory action, where a religious group has objected to a book and a parent might respond by objecting to the Bible.”
LaRue emphasized that the library association does not oppose having Bibles in public schools. Guidelines for the Office for Intellectual Freedom note that the Bible “does not violate the separation of church and state as long as the library does not endorse or promote the views included in the Bible.” The ALA also favors including a wide range of religious materials, from the Quran to the Bhagavad Gita to the Book of Mormon. LaRue added that the association does hear of complaints about the Quran, but fewer than for the Bible.
The Bible finished sixth on a list topped by John Green’s “Looking for Alaska,” which has been cited for “offensive language” and sexual content. The runner-up, challenged for obvious reasons, was E L James’ raunchy romance “Fifty Shades of Grey.”
“I Am Jazz,” a transgender picture book by Jessica Herthel and Jazz Jennings, was No. 3, followed by another transgender story, Susan Kuklin’s “Beyond Magenta.” The list also includes Mark Haddon’s “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time,” Alison Bechdel’s “Fun Home,” Craig Thompson’s “Habibi,” Jeanette Winter’s “Nasreen’s Secret School: A True Story from Afghanistan” and David Leviathan’s “Two Boys Kissing,” with one objection being that it “condones public displays of affection.”
“Many of the books deal with issues of diversity,” LaRue said. “And that often leads to challenges.”
The association bases its list on news reports and on accounts submitted from libraries and defines a challenge as a “formal, written complaint filed with a library or school requesting that materials be removed because of content or appropriateness.” Just 275 incidents were compiled by the ALA, down from 311 the year before and one of the lowest on record. The ALA has long believed that for every challenge brought to its attention, four or five others are not reported. LaRue says the association does not have a number for books actually pulled in 2015.
Challenged works in recent years have ranged from the Harry Potter novels to Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird.”
Discussing recent events, LaRue said he was concerned by legislation that Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe recently vetoed forcing schools to warn parents if their children will be assigned books with sexually explicit content. A Fairfax County mother had protested the use of Toni Morrison’s Pulitzer Prize-winning “Beloved” in her son’s high school senior class. The 1987 novel set in the post-Civil War era includes scenes depicting sex, rape and bestiality and has appeared occasionally on the ALA challenged books list.
“We see the danger of censorship moving from the school library into the English classroom,” LaRue said.
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10,000 millionaires leave France in one year due to ‘religious tensions’
By Rick Moran
Back in 2012, French President Hollande made good on a campaign promise and imposed a 75% tax on millionaires. There were some high profile rich Frenchmen who exited the country, including Bernard Arnault, the chief executive of luxury group LVMH, who applied for Belgian nationality, and the actor Gérard Depardieu also moved across the border to Belgium before obtaining Russian citizenship.
Predictably the tax took in far less than advertised before it was dropped. But there was no mass exodus of rich people from the country. You don’t get to be rich by paying taxes; you get rich by shielding your money from the tax man.
But exiting because of terrorism is another matter. And last year, 10,000 rich people left France for greener pastures – an astonishing 3% of all the millionaires in the country.
IBT:
The report was compiled by New World Wealth, an agency that gives information on the global wealth sector. The report was based on data collected from investor visa programme statistics of each country; annual interviews with around 800 global high net worth individuals and with intermediaries like migration experts, second citizenship platforms, wealth managers and property agents; data from property registers and property sales statistics in each country; and by tracking millionaire movements in the media.
According to the report, Millionaire migration in 2015, France topped the list of countries with maximum millionaire outflows as it lost 10,000 millionaires, or 3% of its millionaire population. Among the cities that saw maximum millionaire outflow, Paris, was at the top – losing about 6% of its millionaire population or 7,000 millionaires in 2015 to the UK, the US, Canada, Australia and Israel.
“The large outflow of millionaires from France is notable – France is being heavily impacted by risingreligious tensions between Christians and Muslims, especially in urban areas. We expect thatmillionaire migration away from France will accelerate over the next decade as these tensions escalate,” the report warns.
After France, the list of countries ranked by millionaire outflows includes China ranked second, followed by Italy, India, Greece, the Russian Federation, Spain and Brazil in descending order.
As for inflows, Australia was the favourite destination with maximum inflows in 2015 – a total of 8,000 new millionaires. The US was ranked second with 7,000 inflows, followed by Canada, Israel, the UAE and New Zealand.
Australian cities Sydney, Melbourne and Perth saw a significant millionaire inflow in 2015 from China, Europe, the UK, the US and South Africa, with Sydney topping the chart with 4,000 new millionaires or 4% added to its existing millionaire population, according to the report. Melbourne and Perth had 3,000 and 1,000 new millionaires in 2015, respectively. Tel Aviv, Dubai, San Francisco, Vancouver and Seattle also featured among the top eight cities with millionaire inflows.
People generally vote with their feet so the rich leaving France is a strong “no” vote for the way that the French government is handling their “Muslim question.” Recently, Hollande dropped the notion of taking away French citizenship for terrorists. What sort of signal does that send to terrorists?
More importanly, what kind of signal does that send to the French people who, in growing numbers, don’t want to live in a place where political correctness overrides the security of the people.
Internet domain handoff takes major step forward
A major step was taken Thursday in the U.S. government’s plan to hand off oversight of the Internet domain name system.
A nonprofit international group approved a plan and forwarded it to the Obama administration Thursday for review and approval.
The group, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), has historically been contracted out to manage the behind-the-scenes workings of the Internet that pair up numerical IP addresses with their familiar Web addresses.
A few years ago, the group was tasked with transitioning fully from U.S. government oversight to an international multistakeholder model.
The Commerce Department will have to sign off on the transition plan before it is allowed to go forward. But the Obama administration and Congress have been “watching closely,” said Steve Crocker, who leads ICANN’s board of directors.
“This proposal does not come as a surprise that requires a fresh start or a cold start and we fully expect that this will be viewed as 100 percent consistent with the criteria that was set out in advance and that which has been tracked all the way throughout the process,” Crocker said.
ICANN officials said Thursday the plan should meet the U.S. government’s priorities to protect the open Internet and to prevent any other government from gaining control. It also includes security and accountability measures, they said, and if the plan is implemented, Internet users should see no real difference.
Some Republicans have remained wary of the transition and Congress has blocked government funds from being used to finish the handoff for the past several years. Last year’s spending blocked the funds from being used until at least October.
In the past, the GOP expressed fear that the U.S. government’s handoff could allow other nations — specifically those that have a poor track record on Internet freedom — to gain more leverage over the Internet.
Some of those worries have been allayed by a number of accountability measures implemented by the non-profit group handling the transition. And the Commerce Department has repeatedly said it would reject any proposal that does not maintain the open Internet or allows for other governments to gain control.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and some others have continued to resist the transition, however. He has said Congress should have to vote before the administration signs off, but he has not succeeded in requiring that. Recently, he has accused the outgoing president of ICANN of having conflicts of interest.
The control that is being handed off relates to some of the technical functions that help users seamlessly search the Internet.
The Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration has had oversight of the Internet’s domain name system, and it has historically contracted that role out to ICANN.
“We discovered judge Scalia in bed, a pillow over his head. His bed clothes were unwrinkled,” said Poindexter.
MARFA — A first-time guest to the Cibolo Creek Creek Ranch, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia was animated and engaged during dinner Friday night, as one of three dozen invitees to an event that had nothing to do with law or politics, according to the ranch owner.
Just hours later, he would be found dead of apparent natural causes, which media outlets were reporting Sunday was a heart attack.
“We discovered judge Scalia in bed, a pillow over his head. His bed clothes were unwrinkled,” said Poindexter.
White Police Chief Loses It and Tells the Blunt TRUTH about Black Crime
Charlie Sheen HIV- we need O’bummer care to pay for my life choices !
Jewish High Holy Days invite Tibetan Monks to create an inter-dimensional Gate to the Underworld at Pico Union Project- 21 days later sudden destruction ?
Los Angeles, CA (PRWEB) September 02, 2015
Tibetan Buddhist monks from Drepung Loseling Monastery will construct a inter-dimensional gate to the underworld Sept. 21 to Sept. 27 at the Pico Union Project, 1153 Valencia Street, in Downtown Los Angeles, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The public is invited to come and attend special ceremonies whereby people are encouraged to open their chakras to invite wrathful deities to enter their bodies and city.
It will take the “Tibetan Buddhist Monks only seven days to create this inter-dimensional gate to the underworld at the Pico Union in the middle of our 10 holiest Jewish days,” said Craig Taubman, founder of Pico Union Project. “On the 7th day of creation, they will dissolve their art, then distribute the sand and instruct the easily deceived simple minded who have gathered, to disperse the sand into a fresh body of water.” This is to evoke wrathful water spirits into LA to bring the same destructive forces into the world that was over NAZI Germany.
From all the occult traditions of Tantric (sex possession) Buddhism, this ritual ranks as one of the most damaging to families.
To date the monks have created mandala portals in more than 100 museums, art centers, and colleges and universities in the United States and Europe.
California is also in a drought and the USA has changed dramatically, all from locations where they have opened these inter-dimensional gates and evoked wrathful spirits into peoples hearts, minds, sexual chakra’s, and cities then released into the worlds water ways. Powerful Voo-Doo
The Sanctuary@Pico Union is launching in time for the Jewish High Holy Days of Rosh Hashanah (Sept. 14), Kol Nidre (Sept. 22) and Yom Kippur (Sept. 23). Services will be led by Taubman together with musical and lack of spiritual understanding artists and educators including Shy Blakeney, Josh Goldberg, Martin Storrow, Deanna Neil, Rabbi Scott Westle, Ayana Morse, Stuart K. Robinson, Ron Wolfson and Shany Zamir.
The mandala underworld portal creation begins with an opening ceremony, during which the lamas consecrate the site and call forth wrathful deities, convincing the gatekeepers of the city to be in one accord and open their heart to invite these destructive forces into their cities believing these wrathful deities are forces of goodness. This is done by means of chanting, music and mantra recitation, and will be held on Monday, Sept. 21 at 9 a.m.
Ritualistically sand mandalas are destroyed shortly after their completion as the evil spirits that have been evoked into this temporary house or containment field must find moisture very rapidly. This is an important part of the ritual. The sands are swept up and placed in an urn; half is distributed to the audience at the closing ceremony, while the remainder is carried to a nearby body of water, where it is deposited.
These wrathful deities that came through the inter-dimensional gate to the underworld do not like to be in dry places so they seek to inhabit men or go into the oceans of the world increasing the darkness over the planet.
These rituals were performed extensively throughout Nazi Germany and the very Swastika that Hitler said had the dark influence that drove him, was indeed from Tibet. The closing ceremony will be held on Sunday, Sept. 27 at 5:30 p.m.
Doors for the exhibit at Pico Union Project will be open Sept. 21-22 and Sept. 24-27 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. In addition to the opening and closing ceremonies, the Tibetan Buddhist monks are offering a lecture on Thursday, September 24, at 10:30 a.m. on meditation.
About Pico Union Project
The Pico Union Project is dedicated to the Jewish principle to “love your neighbor as yourself.” (Which actually came from a teaching of Jesus whom they deny) It elevates this teaching into practice by further denying the Law of Moses (thou shall have no other gods) and instead does what the Jewish have always done, make golden calfs and worship other gods including the god of their intellect, in this case wrathful deities from the underworld.
Typically 750 principalities come through these portals at one of these rituals, times 100 gates to hell done throughout San Francisco, Washington DC, Schools in the US and Europe that is an additional 75,000 destructive gods released into the worlds oceans. Oh yeah.. problems seem to be mounting everywhere don’t they.
It’s kinda like some child wanting to help put out a fire so the Tibetan Monk keeps giving the child gasoline telling the child to douse the fire with the gas. Then the fire gets worse, so the monk convinces the child to throw even more gas on the fire, and the ignorant cycle continues.
By agreeing with this, you will help bring more destruction into the world. DO NOT agree with or partake in spiritual darkness that you do not understand.
After they did these rituals up the east coast, hurricane Sandy brought 25 billion dollars of destruction into the USA. Same with Hurricane Katrina.
Global warming or inter-dimensional invasion?
Depends who you ask.
Politicians who can tax tax tax, money money money
Or Tibetan monks, VooDoo witch doctors or Jesus who had power over the spirits hiding in the sea and stopped the hurricane.
How about all the Jews that were killed by men under this “spiritual” influence?
And now the very Jews are repeating history as they always do… Amazing simply amazing
Group To Unveil Satan Statue In Detroit During ‘Largest Public Satanic Ceremony In History’
DETROIT (WWJ/AP) – A group is planning to unveil an 8-foot-tall bronze statue featuring a goat-headed Satan in Detroit during a gathering that’s being billed as the “largest public satanic ceremony in history.”
The Satanic Temple has said Saturday’s private event will be open only to people with tickets, $25 each. Invitations to “The Unveiling” summoned guests to prepare for “a night of chaos, noise, and debauchery… Come dance with the Devil and experience history in the making.” The event location is not being announced publicly and is known only to those with tickets.
The group said the bronze Baphomet monument, which weighs about one ton and has never been seen before in public, “is not only an unparalleled artistic triumph, but stands as a testament to plurality and the power of collective action.” The statue, which backed by an inverted pentagram and flanked by statues of two young children gazing up at the creature, shows Satan with horns, hooves, wings and a beard.
The group went on to say the unveiling event “will serve as a call-to-arms from which we’ll kick off our largest fight to date in the name of individual rights to free exercise against self-serving theocrats.”
Young boys exploited by their managers, agents and casting directors forms the explosive subject matter of Amy Berg’s nonsensationalist Hollywood documentary.
“An Open Secret,” Amy Berg’s nonsensationalist expose of the sexual abuse of young male actors by those with the power to make or break them, recasts an old Hollywood story, substituting boys for starlets and hot tubs for casting couches. Though clearly championing the cause of the ex-child thesps who candidly recount their ordeals, Berg’s crusade advances on eggshells, dodging the potential lawsuits looming at every name named. This caution somewhat fudges the film’s throughline, but if Berg can find a distrib willing to brave the forces that have silenced this open secret for decades, the documentary should find avid auds worldwide.
The film incorporates the testimony of several ex-child performers, interpolating their interviews throughout, sometimes merely as quick corroboration of another’s story and sometimes in great detail, complete with clips from commercials and TV shows in which they appeared. Segments with several parents, expressing their horror and/or justifying or lamenting their blindness in retrospect, intensify the emotional impact of their children’s testimonies.
In contrast to the victims’ well-composed and skillfully lit widescreen interviews, the “predators,” as they are designated, show up in grainy homemovies, TV newscasts and newspaper photographs. Berg structures her stories for maximum shock effect: The ultimate fate of Mark R., whose graphic deposition is tearfully read aloud by his father, is often hinted at but not revealed until almost the end of the film, where it comes as a surprise.
Evan H.’s vivid account of his abuse by his manager, Marty Weiss, is backed by a clandestine audio tape that unspools on camera, broadcasting Weiss’ self-justifying admission of guilt. But it is the copious homemovie footage of Weiss at Evan’s house on multiple occasions, where he is accepted as a genial presence and an integral part of the family, that resonates most tellingly in hindsight.
If Weiss incarnates the fun-loving, family-friendly predator, slowly grooming his victim to accept his advances as normal, Marc Collins-Rector embodies a more corporate, violent form of pedophilia, his hyphenate name, heavy-lidded eyes and supercilious look straight out of central casting. Together with Chad Shackley and Brock Pierce, he founded DEN, an early digital entertainment network, and threw sybaritic celebrity-studded parties where they seduced underage aspiring actors with promises of plum parts and threats of industry blackballing. When high-pressure persuasion didn’t work, according to one victim, they resorted to drugs and rape.
One of Berg’s biggest rug-pullers involves sexagenarian Michael Harrah, introduced as head of the Screen Actors Guild’s Young Performers Committee, and interviewed in the widescreen, well-lit mode of the doc’s victims and spokespersons. It only gradually becomes evident that Harrah is one of the bad guys, his confused, waffling denials suddenly ringing hollow after a cell-phone confession to one of his former proteges.
But the most shocking aspect of Berg’s documentary is what it presents as the abusers’ utter lack of accountability. The widely reported lawsuits brought against Bryan Singer and other notables by Michael Egan III (identified here as Mike E.) were dropped, ostensibly for inconsistencies in the victim’s account, proving Berg’s point but skewing what one supposes was her intended structure for the film (Singer’s name is still loosely bandied about in connection to the pool parties). An in-depth examination into DEN’s questionable practices by an investigative reporter was summarily axed by the magazine that commissioned it.
Even when convicted of sex crimes, offenders receive light sentences and can calmly resume their careers in the industry, the case of Brian Peck at Nickelodeon and other kidvid venues being a prime but by no means lone example. When menaced by a hefty sentence, Collins-Rector simply relocated his operations to Europe.
Supreme Court Forces Same Sex Marriage on all states and claims the states have been oppressing people illegally for 128 years !
Get ready for;
Lawsuits, lawsuits, lawsuits…
Now we who are gay can sue the states for damages for the past 128 years, we’ll punish them and get rich off the states, in effect bankrupting them thereby punishing the people of the state.
And with that “New” money, continue to create programing and legislation protecting my next fantasy.
You got it, man boy love coming soon to an alter near you. And if you’re not in San Francisco you can stream it live HD being performed right on the streets in front of the San Francisco Justice system who now allows open public nudity and every type of sex acts. In effect making San Francisco an open air Porn Site. hurray !
Now we who are gay can sue the pastors and the moral objectors for discrimination, we’ll destroy the church and lift God’s hand of blessing off ALL of America, not just California where this all started…
Hmmm…
Is it Climate Change or Judgment? Any Californians thirsty yet?
Meanwhile ISIS continues to attack in France and other countries, shooting 28 people sun bathing at a beach front resort, beheading others in France. Why won’t they just roll over and let us bowl them over with our legislation? What’s wrong with them? Maybe more laws? ? ?
Isis is against the “western” mind set as demonstrated today, once again by the Supreme Court.
So expect more serious attacks in the future… They believe they are fighting Big Brother and the Great Satan after all.
Have a nice day…
Donald Trump For President- What do you think?
I’ve always said, “Never elect a person to president who is not already wealthy, otherwise they will use their office to set themselves up to be multi-million aires after they are out of office, by doing favors and making deals while in office.”
Case in point: How many millions did the Clintons make while Hilary was Secretary of State doing the “Pardons” and “Sweet” deals that she tried to hide by illegally using a private mail server and not turning over all communications to the Feds, then “Shredding” the evidence?
The reality: business owners that provide jobs will vote for Trump.
The real question is: will non business people who only work for hourly wage actually understand what brings prosperity? Or will they vote the government to “Bleed” the rich, causing them to close down and you’re jobs to be lost?
Your choices will set your blessing or a future curse on all our lives !
Do you really want to pull ALL PROSPERITY DOWN so at least everyone is miserable and poor?
Why don’t you first study the Great Depression !
No money, no food, no hope, EVERYONE WAS DEPRESSED because they could not do anything.
Is that really what you want?
When is the last time you can name that a poor person “trickled up” and provided an income for anyone else?
Stop listening to Michael Moore.. he is a moron and is not providing jobs for you, he is only taking your money, feeding you a line of bull…
At the world Council Affairs meeting at the Beverly Hills Hilton, Michael Moore told everyone he lied about Bush. He did it for the money. Everyone fell out of their chairs…
WAKE UP ! Greed and lies is nothing more than Greed and Lies…
Harry Reed lied about Romney never paying taxes. He did it from the floor of the Senate.
1) to the ignorant, that statement apears to be true because it is coming from the floor of the senate by a senator.
2) to the lying senator Hairy Reed, he knows he’s protected on the senate floor from slander law suits so he uses the system at the cost of his integrity and now has resigned with all the money and business deals and favors he has set up for himself while in the senate.
3) to the educated, NO ONE CAN BE SUED FOR ANY LIE THEY TELL FROM THE FLOOR OF THE SENATE. THAT IS THE LAW !!
Harry Reed exploiting the law the ignorant do not know about: “well who cares, Romeny didn’t win did he”. So Hairy Butts lies to the people to get them to vote against a lie, and the same ignorant are in worse poverty today because of lying senators!
Is it true lying liberals cannot win unless they lie?
Do you really want to win by Lying? Do you really think lying leaders will do anything but defeat the moral of the USA and bring poverty to us all? PLEASE DON’T BE STUPID. You are hear because this country is the Promise. If you do not believe, go back to your poverty country !!!
Government CANNOT REPLACE GOD and CANNOT PROTECT YOU !
Do we have a future of blessings or will you bring everything down to hell?
Wake Up !!
The Biggest Thing Google Didn’t Announce Was Its Robot Brain that Learns
Behind the scenes of Google’s neatest new tricks is an artificial mind that’s getting smarter… We are getting closer to Skynet and Terminator…
And you are building the face recognition database via Facebook and iPhotos that Skynet will use to identify you and your loved ones… oh silly people…
This year’s Google I/O was kind of a quiet one. There were no fancy new watches, no self-driving cars, and definitely no sky-diving from blimps. But behind smaller (and still awesome!) announcements like a photo service that will store and organize all your photos for you, and a version of Google Now that can intelligently suggest reminders, is a titanic achievement Google only hinted at onstage: A robotic brain that can learn.
Taking in the world
To be fair, this isn’t the first time Google’s toyed with a robot brain. In 2012, an army of 16,000 computers hidden away in the deep, dark recesses of the experimental Google X labs accomplished a complex and impressive feat, at least by the standards of a computer brain working with silicon neurons.
It taught itself to recognize a cat.
By pouring over some 10 million images from YouTube videos and thinking really, really hard (for a computer), this network actually taught itself to conceive of the idea of cat, and put a furry face to that concept. It’s easy to gloss over the magnitude of that; these are cats after all. Remember the one with the keyboard? Lol. The cheeky headlines basically write themselves.
But now, three years later, we’re starting to really see the fruits of that labor pay off. Google’s new Photo’s app seems to be much the same experiment but put towards a practical goal. Instead of a million YouTube images, this brain is looking through thousands of personal photos. Instead of a cat, it’s learning to recognize your friends and family. Also, coincidentally, your cat.
Real time Calculator of the destruction of CO2 to Oxygen Converters world wide.
Global Warming is a money scam lead by governments so as to find new ways to tax people even more money, driving the cost of energy up and passing that cost on to the consumer.
Science Lesson 101 forests breath in CO2 and exhale Oxygen.
Kind of a cool thing God created.
If Obama and Al Gore (made and set to make millions off Global Warming scam) really wanted to address the CO2 levels wouldn’t they simply deal with the junk mail going into Manhattan NY for example?
Since Man keeps destroying the CO2 converters is it any wonder the CO2 levels would rise?
Look at this real time calculator to watch and get an understanding of just how much wasted wood / paper / junk mail is going into your box…
I thought we all had digital “free” environmental friendly email ?
Check out in real-time what is happening around the World. Here are some events and their frequency after you visited the page!
PROPHET LEAVES CALIFORNIA ZONE- LARGEST EARTHQUAKE IN 25 YEARS HITS SAN FRANCISCO AREA
The San Francisco area was hit with the strongest quake in 25 years. The 6.0 magnitude earthquake hit in the early hours of Sunday morning.
The power was out in Napa, only 6 miles away from the earthquakes epicentre, affecting over 10,000 households, and some cellphone networks were down. California’s Highway 12 was also damaged, with areas of the highway buckled by the quake. There was damage to buildings in Napa. There were no fatalities in the quake.
Read More: The Telegraph