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The mystery surrounding two white flags that appeared on top of the Brooklyn Bridge today deepened as the New York City Police Department admitted they don’t know who committed the security breach or how they accomplished it.

White flags, which are symbols of surrender, flew from poles on the stone supports atop the famed bridge that connects Brooklyn and Manhattan over the East River.

“I’m not particularly happy about the event,” said NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama’s health care law is snarled in another big legal battle, with two federal appeals courts issuing contradictory rulings on a key financing issue within hours of each other Tuesday.
But the split rulings don’t necessarily mean another trip to the Supreme Court for the Affordable Care Act.
And White House spokesman Josh Earnest immediately announced that millions of consumers will keep getting financial aid for their premiums — billions of dollars in all — as the administration appeals the one adverse decision.
In that first ruling, a divided three-judge panel in Washington called into question the subsidies that help millions of low- and middle-income people afford their premiums, saying financial aid can be provided only in states that have set up their own insurance markets, or exchanges.
About 100 miles to the south in Richmond, Virginia, another appeals court panel unanimously came to the opposite conclusion, ruling that the Internal Revenue Service correctly interpreted the will of Congress when it issued regulations allowing health insurance tax credits for consumers in all 50 states.

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Thousands march through French cities in protest of Israeli operation in Gaza Strip; French president says will not allow violence to spill over into France.

Protesters run by a fire barricade near the aerial metro station of Barbes-Rochechouart, in Paris, on July 19, 2014.

REUTERS – Thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters marched in French cities on Saturday to condemn violence in Gaza, defying a ban imposed after demonstrators marched on two synagogues in Paris last weekend and clashed with riot police.

A Reuters photographer said demonstrators in northern Paris launched projectiles at riot police, who responded by firing teargas canisters and stun grenades.

“We must show that as Muslims, we’re all united” // Shirli Sitbon reports for Haaretz from Paris

Demonstrators also climbed on top of a building and burned an Israeli flag. At least one car was set on fire.

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In huge demonstration, protesters denounce Israel as terrorist state, castigate PM Cameron for backing right to self-defense

Tens of thousands protested in London Saturday afternoon against Israel’s military operations in Gaza, denouncing Israel as a terrorist state and castigating British Prime Minister David Cameron for backing Israel’s right to self-defense against Hamas rocket fire

Led by speakers on a podium, protesters holding placards and banners chanted pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel slogans

At one point, a woman on the podium shouted “from the river to the sea” — a call for the elimination of Israel — and protesters responded by yelling “Palestine will be free.”

The crowd also directed shouts of “Shame on you” at Cameron, who publicly backed Israel’s right to defend itself against Hamas rocket fire aimed at the Israeli civilian population.

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“I am profoundly shocked and revolted. This aggression towards the Jewish community has taken an absolutely unacceptable turn,” Joel Mergei, president of the Israelite Central Consistory of France, told AFP.

Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo called for “calm in the face of tensions” in the Middle East.

“They are bombing innocent people. There are missiles being launched by Hamas, but the Israeli response is disproportionate. They are attacking the civilian population and not Hamas officials.”

The crowd, very young, shouted slogans such as: “We Are All Palestinians!” and “Only One Solution, End the Occupation!”.

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Jeffrey MacMillan for The Washington Post

My Post colleague Lyndsey Layton has written an illuminating story about the role Bill Gates and his money played in the Common Core State Standards initiative and its adoption by 45 states and the District of Columbia. In great detail, she explains how on one summer day in 2008, two men — Gene Wilhoit, then-director of the Council for Chief State School Officers, and David Coleman, at the time an educational consultant and an “emerging evangelist for the standards movement” — persuaded Gates to fund the creation and marketing of what became the Common Core.

The article makes a few things clear if they weren’t before:

*The Core wasn’t Gates’s idea, but his willingness to underwrite the effort — to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars — made it happen. Perhaps another billionaire might have done the same thing had Gates declined, but it wasn’t necessary for Wilhoit and Coleman to look for other funding.

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A government-contracted security force threatened to arrest doctors and nurses if they divulged any information about the contagion threat at a refugee camp housing illegal alien children at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas, sources say.

In spite of the threat, several former camp workers broke their confidentiality agreements and shared exclusive details with me about the dangerous conditions at the camp. They said taxpayers deserve to know about the contagious diseases and the risks the children pose to Americans. I have agreed to not to disclose their identities because they fear retaliation and prosecution.

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Hobby Lobby started out of a Christian families garage. As they made money they donated to Christian causes.

They were blessed and grew, they continued their Biblical principles and continued to give out of their blessings.

They became an enormous prosperous business just like JC Penny who was also a Christian and reportedly gave up to 90% to Christian causes and he too grew huge, until corporate greed took control and made him stop giving and JC Penney is no more. But that’s another story.

Hobby Lobby,
When Obama Care Demanded they give birth control that kills a baby, they said that the principals God taught them and blessed them with, would not allow them to provide the means to kill babies.

They further felt that God would not bless them if they provided the means to kill babies to their employees, so they took it to the supreme court and won their case.

BTW, they didn’t object to preventative birth control, only the 4 types of Birth Control that kill the baby in the womb.

That’s the facts…
And now onto the Spin….

BY STEVE PEOPLES AND KEN THOMAS
ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans called it a win for religious freedom. The decision of the Supreme Court, they said, is further evidence the country’s new health care law is deeply flawed.

The claims of victory arrived almost immediately after the high court ruled Monday that some companies need not provide contraception to women as required by President Barack Obama’s signature domestic policy achievement. Yet there’s a risk for the GOP in crowing too loudly.

Republicans for years have tried to make inroads with two groups that tend to favor Democrats: women and younger voters. And as popular as the court’s decision will be with the Republican base, it’s likely to be just as unpopular this year and into 2016 with those who depend on insurance to pay for birth control – a group that includes women and younger voters.

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Banks should brace for assault as Arthur Andersen annihilator now controls world’s largest criminal conviction machine

Meet Leslie Caldwell. President Obama has installed Ms. Caldwell, known as a “terror of a prosecutor,” as head of the Criminal Division of the Department of Justice. It has been over a decade since Ms. Caldwell destroyed Arthur Anderson, and with it, 85,000 jobs—only to be reversed by the Supreme Court nine to nothing (well after she went into private practice). Now the president has brought her back—with a big promotion—and the vengeance of DOJ already aimed at Credit Suisse, BNP Paribas and others.

Ms. Caldwell and her then right hand man, Andrew Weissmann, viewed businessmen and bankers as “wise guys on Wall Street,” deserving of brutal prosecutorial tactics. Their prosecutions proceeded on the theory that the “end justifies the means.” Winning was the sole goal. They forgot that the job of a federal prosecutor is to seek justice—not convictions.

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Gary Oldman has sent an explanation to the Anti-Defamation League and the Simon Weisenthal Center, in response to the ADL’s charge he propagated anti-Semitic stereotypes in his Playboy Interview. He’s the response:

Dear Gentlemen of the ADL:

I am deeply remorseful that comments I recently made in the Playboy Interview were offensive to many Jewish people. Upon reading my comments in print—I see how insensitive they may be, and how they may indeed contribute to the furtherance of a false stereotype. Anything that contributes to this stereotype is unacceptable, including my own words on the matter. If, during the interview, I had been asked to elaborate on this point I would have pointed out that I had just finished reading Neal Gabler’s superb book about the Jews and Hollywood, An Empire of Their Own: How the Jews invented Hollywood. The fact is that our business, and my own career specifically, owes an enormous debt to that contribution.

I hope you will know that this apology is heartfelt, genuine, and that I have an enormous personal affinity for the Jewish people in general, and those specifically in my life. The Jewish People, persecuted thorough the ages, are the first to hear God’s voice, and surely are the chosen people.

I would like to sign off with “Shalom Aleichem”—but under the circumstances, perhaps today I lose the right to use that phrase, so I will wish you all peace–Gary Oldman.

via UPDATE: Gary Oldman Answers ADL Charges Of Anti-Semitism In Playboy Interview – Deadline.com.

‘N Sync’s Lance Bass and former “Real World” star Mike C. Manning executive produced the Showtime documentary

An ungodly amount of homosexual Christian kids are torn violently from their homes and sent to the Dominican Republic in the first official trailer for the ‘Kidnapped for Christ’ documentary, which asserts these are crimes for which somebody must ultimately pay.

Also read: Hillary Clinton Clashes With NPR Host Over Gay Marriage (Audio)

The eye-opening Showtime doc — executive produced by ‘N Sync’s Lance Bass, Mike C. Manning and Tom DeSanto — shines a harsh light on a Christian behavioral modification program called Escuela Carib. It seemingly hopes to indict the tyrannical religious leaders responsible for destroying so many thousands of lives over the years.

via Gay Teens Are Ripped From Their Homes in the Name of God in ‘Kidnapped for Christ’ Trailer (Video) – TheWrap.

“I can’t really say that. But Bill Maher and Jon Stewart can, and nobody’s going to stop them from working because of it,” he tells the magazine

Gary Oldman might not be the only actor fed up with the new look of Hollywood, but suddenly he’s the most vocal.

In a surprisingly frank Playboy interview, the “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes” star eviscerates a film industry that has made him millions while also coming across as strangely supportive of ostracized celebrities like Mel Gibson and Alec Baldwin.

See video: ‘Dawn of the Planet of the Apes’ Trailer: Gary Oldman Rallies Humans, Caesar Attacks (Video)

1. On Hollywood’s sensitivity toward racism:

“At the Oscars, if you didn’t vote for ’12 Years a Slave’ you were a racist.”

See also: Oscars Propel ABC to Most-Watched Week in 4 Years

2. On the political correctness police:

“I just think political correctness is crap. That’s what I think about it. I think it’s like, take a fucking joke. Get over it. I heard about a science teacher who was teaching that God made the earth and God made everything and that if you believe anything else you’re stupid. A Buddhist kid in the class got very upset about this, so the parents went in and are suing the school! The school is changing its curriculum! I thought, All right, go to the school and complain about it and then that’s the end of it. But they’re going to sue! No one can take a joke anymore.”

3. On Bill Maher and Jon Stewart’s free pass:

“Well, if I called Nancy Pelosi a cunt–and I’ll go one better, a fucking useless cunt–I can’t really say that. But Bill Maher and Jon Stewart can, and nobody’s going to stop them from working because of it. Bill Maher could call someone a fag and get away with it. He said to Seth MacFarlane this year, ‘I thought you were going to do the Oscars again. Instead they got a lesbian.’ He can say something like that. Is that more or less offensive than Alec Baldwin saying to someone in the street, ‘You fag’? I don’t get it.”

Also read: Bill Maher Shocks ‘The View’ With Karl Rove Gay Lover Joke (Video)

4. On empathizing with Mel Gibson:

“I don’t know about Mel. He got drunk and said a few things, but we’ve all said those things. We’re all fucking hypocrites. That’s what I think about it. The policeman who arrested him has never used the word nigger or that fucking Jew? I’m being brutally honest here. It’s the hypocrisy of it that drives me crazy. Or maybe I should strike that and say ‘the N word’ and ‘the F word,’ though there are two F words now.”

Also read: Mel Gibson in Talks to Star in ‘Taken’-Style Action Thriller ‘Blood Father’

5. On his political leanings:

“I would say that I’m probably a libertarian if I had to put myself in any category. But you don’t come out and talk about these things, for obvious reasons.”

6. On legalizing marijuana:

“It’s silly to me. I’m not for it. Drugs were never my bag. I mean, I tried it once and it wasn’t for me, though, unlike Bill Clinton, I did inhale. To me, the problem is driving. People in Colorado are driving high and getting DUIs. That’s what I worry about. Listen, if you want to do cocaine, heroin, smoke marijuana, that’s fine by me. It’s just that I worry about kids behind the wheel of a car more than anything.”

Also read: Stephen Colbert Endorses Marijuana: ‘The Market is Toking’ (Video)

7. On his insecurities as an actor:

“At first I passed on [‘Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy’], but then I couldn’t stop thinking about it. Once I signed on, I thought, Fuck me! I can’t do this. I can’t pull this off. Everybody’s going to see what a fake I am. This is the moment I get found out. Who does he think he is? He thinks he’s Alec Guinness.”

8. On the death of colleague Philip Seymour Hoffman:

“On the outside someone like Philip Seymour Hoffman appeared to be happy professionally. He had kids; he was working with interesting people. But one never really knows. What eventually happens is you put the drink or the drug before everything else. There’s no argument about how good he was, but who knows what was going on inside? I don’t mean this disrespectfully, but maybe he looked in the mirror and always saw that very pale sort of fat kid. It’s a real tragedy for his family.”

Also read: Philip Seymour Hoffman Autopsy: Actor Died of Mixed Drug Intoxication

9. On the importance of winning Oscars and Golden Globes:

“What people don’t realize is that you need to work at being a celebrity. I’m not talking about movies. I mean the other side of it. You have to campaign. It’s a whole other part of your career, and I wish I could have navigated it a bit better. I may have an Oscar now, had I… I know it certainly doesn’t mean anything to win a Golden Globe, that’s for sure.”

via Gary Oldman Is Mad He Can't Call Nancy Pelosi a 'C-nt' but Bill Maher Can – 9 Outrageous Quotes From Playboy – TheWrap.