Indiana College Bans "Too Violent" National Anthem | NBC Washington

Indiana College Bans "Too Violent" National Anthem | NBC Washington

Tiny Goshen College in Indiana has banned the "The Star Spangled Banner: at all sporting events because the Mennonite school's president considers the National Anthem's words to be too violent.

The 1,000-student school had already banned the words last year, but the band could still play the music for patriots in attendance. Now, the school has banned the song entirely, according to NBC Sports.

The school’s board of directors told college President Jim Brenneman to “find an alternative to playing the National Anthem that fits with sports tradition, that honors country and that resonates with Goshen College’s core values and respects the views of diverse constituencies.”

Brenneman was okay with that.

“I am committed to retaining the best of what it means to be a Mennonite college, while opening the doors wider to all who share our core values,” Brenneman said. “And I invite others to join us at Goshen College as we make peace in all of its forms, even with the national anthem.”

Art professor John Blosser told The Goshen News that there is much national pride at the school, but that most people aren't going to blindly accept what the country does.

NBC Sports' Rick Chandler weighed in, saying: "I suppose we could have followed the example of the Mennonites and simply fled, giving the nation back to the British. But then we’d all be playing cricket."

John Kerry: Media Has "Responsibility" To "Not Give Equal Time" To Tea Party | RealClearPolitics

John Kerry: Media Has "Responsibility" To "Not Give Equal Time" To Tea Party | RealClearPolitics: "Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) told MSNBC's 'Morning Joe' on Friday that the media has the responsibility to not give equal time or credence to the Tea Party's views:

SEN. JOHN KERRY: 'And I have to tell you, I say this to you politely. The media in America has a bigger responsibility than it's exercising today. The media has got to begin to not give equal time or equal balance to an absolutely absurd notion just because somebody asserts it or simply because somebody says something which everybody knows is not factual.'

'It doesn't deserve the same credit as a legitimate idea about what you do. And the problem is everything is put into this tit-for-tat equal battle and America is losing any sense of what's real, of who's accountable, of who is not accountable, of who's real, who isn't, who's serious, who isn't?'"

The Government War On Kid-Run Concession Stands

The Government War On Kid-Run Concession Stands

Air Force Suspends Christian-Themed Ethics Training Program Over Bible Passages - FoxNews.com

Air Force Suspends Christian-Themed Ethics Training Program Over Bible Passages - FoxNews.com: "The Air Force has suspended a course that was taught by chaplains for more than 20 years because the material included Bible passages.

The course, called “Christian Just War Theory” was taught by chaplains at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., and used Scripture from both the Old and New Testaments to show missile launch officers that it can be moral to go to war.

But the watchdog group, Military Religious Freedom Foundation, said the course violated the constitutional separation of church and state and filed a complaint last Wednesday on behalf of 31 missile launch officers – both instructors and students."

Catholic scholars blast 'aggressive' US contraceptive mandate :: Catholic News Agency (CNA)

Catholic scholars blast 'aggressive' US contraceptive mandate :: Catholic News Agency (CNA): "A new federal requirement that employers’ health care plans must cover contraceptives is an “aggressive” approach that could hinder or shut down Catholic institutions because of inadequate and “impossibly narrow” religious exemptions, several Catholic commentators have said.

“This will likely drive many important Catholic social service providers to close up shop, inevitably harming the poor communities that they serve,” Notre Dame Law School professor O. Carter Snead told CNA Aug. 2."

Green Movement–Saving the Planet By Destroying Our Wildlife � Commentary Magazine

Green Movement–Saving the Planet By Destroying Our Wildlife � Commentary Magazine:

More evidence has emerged that the environmentalist movement–and not the oil industry–is the premier energy-related threat to the survival of America’s wildlife. The obsession with green energy has led to the growth of the wind power industry, which has been killing birds and bats since its inception–and usually with impunity.

But that may come to an end, according to today’s L.A. Times. The paper reports the federal government is investigating the killing of six golden eagles at the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power’s Pine Tree Wind Project:

So far, no wind-energy company has been prosecuted by federal wildlife authorities in connection with the death of birds protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act. A prosecution in the Pine Tree case could cause some rethinking and redesigning of this booming alternative energy source. Facilities elsewhere also have been under scrutiny, according to a federal official familiar with the investigations.

“Wind farms have been killing birds for decades and law enforcement has done nothing about it, so this investigation is long overdue,” said Shawn Smallwood, an expert on raptor ecology and wind farms. “It’s going to ruffle wind industry feathers across the country.”

Get it? Ruffle their feathers. But seriously, the green movement isn’t just killing federally protected animals; they may also be sending some animals on their way to the list of endangered species. Take the bat, for example. In addition to fighting off white-nose syndrome, bats are falling victim to the wind turbines too:

Wind turbines are apparently killing migratory bats as well—by 2020, an estimated 33,000 to 111,000 bats are predicted to be killed by turbines in the mid-Atlantic Highlands alone. The authors in the Science paper worry that as wind power ramps up in the U.S., more bats will end up pureed by the blades.

This is bad for the economy, since bats eat an astounding number of insects and save farmers billions on pesticides. It’s terrible for the environment too, since those pesticides will have to replace the bats. And nobody wins when our food supply is eroded in the meantime by the pests that survive thanks to the wind turbines.

So the green movement is destroying wildlife, the environment and our nation’s food supply. But don’t worry: at least we’re not drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.