First U.S. Smart Gun Sale Will Trigger Ban on Traditional Gun Sales in NJ

 

Melissa Melton
Activist Post
For many gun rights advocates, May Day was a close call for one aspect of gun control. That’s the day that “smart guns” nearly went on the market – which would have triggered a 2002 law in New Jersey requiring that ALL statewide gun sales be ‘smart guns’ within three years of the first date of sale anywhere in the United States.
That would be a critical blow to the right to bear arms in New Jersey, furthering the often absurd efforts of gun control advocates in the wake of Sandy Hook and other exploited tragedies. That’s because many in power don’t just want ‘smart guns’ to be an available option on the market, they want them to replace all other legal firearms.
A Maryland gun store owner named Andy Raymond, owner of Engage Armament, found out about the smart-sale ‘trigger’ clause the hard way, after he stocked them and announced he was set to become the first retailer in the nation of the Armatix iP1, a .22 caliber ‘smart gun’ that requires the owner wear an RFID watch to authenticate and enable the firearm.
According to the manufacturer, “the intelligent iW1 wrist watch arms the weapon for firing and also has the following functions”:

• PIN code entry and PIN code management for weapon enablement
• charge level indicator for watch and weapon
• time-controlled weapon deactivation
• extensive watch functions, waterproof
• interchangeable straps, power supply for 5,000 rounds or a minimum of one year standby, depending on operation. [emphasis added]

That’s when he met a wave of criticism – and reportedly threats as well – urging him not to initiate the effects of the law that was written to mandate the replacement of traditional firearms in New Jersey – and perhaps eventually elsewhere. “I would never buy a gun from a retailer that does anything to hurt pro 2A causes. These guys do,” one Facebook user wrote in opposition.
Raymond issued an apology video, citing an onslaught of “drama” after fierce backlash from gun owners. “I did not know I would be screwing you over,” Raymond’s video stated. “I’m terribly sorry…You don’t have anything to worry about from me.” Many gun rights enthusiasts applauded Raymond’s reversal, vowing to now support the store.
“If someone wants to buy a smart gun, that is fine,” Raymond explained in a subsequent Facebook address. “When the law legislates it, that is a sin.”
Meanwhile, the NRA is urging the repeal of the New Jersey law, as many Democrat lawmakers, including State State Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg (D), who sponsored the bill, are vowing to repeal it, accusing the gun lobby of blocking the sale of any smart guns due to the mandate to override traditional gun sales.
The issue with Andy Raymond’s selling smart guns may be a moot point anyway, as there were reports in February of a California shop preparing to sell the smart gun soon. State Senator Loretta Weinberg apparently already issued a letter to New Jersey’s Attorney General demanding he “certify” that the technology is ready (as the wording of the law called for).
“I expect your prompt attention to this matter and look forward to your reply,” Weinberg wrote. Reportedly, she has not been issued a response.
Silicon Valley investor Ron Conway is backing a $1 million contest for smart gun technology, with emphasis on the smart phone’s fingerprint unlock mechanism. “We need the iPhone of guns. We want gun owners to feel like they are dinosaurs if they aren’t using smart guns,” Conway was quoted in the Washington Post as saying.
Plenty of others in the pro-gun control crowd have been pushing for “smart” solutions on guns… because, you know, anything that’s “smart” is automatically foolproof.
Of course, the idea that the technology works at all or enough to go on the market, and the idea that all its flaws and drawbacks are worked out are two entirely different things.
But if the gun is to be used for self-defense and/or security purposes, it is clear that it is just one more element that must be kept up with and work properly for the weapon to be effective – or in this case, to work at all.
The use of RFID authentication creates numerous problems with privacy, government intrusion, malfunction, interference and hacking. If hackers and robbers band together, they could make home defense inoperable: if a gun was inoperable, or the battery for the watch required to make the gun work was dead, or just the fact that the gun’s red light would give it away to any criminal, make deterrence ineffective as well.
Perhaps worse, if governments used the same “kill switch” technology it has over the Internet and cell phone communications (as the law enforcement community is now advocating as standard), it would act as a “kill switch” to 2nd Amendment rights as well. A world filled with “smart guns” would be effectively unable to resist tyranny… just saying.
Here are some of the arguments made by commenters themselves, wary of the advent of the “smart gun” age on a promotional video for the Armatix iP1:

“Lmao… someone really invented this piece of crap. Lol. ”

“There are more problems with this than benefits…”

“You can keep your “smart guns”. “Dumb guns” are the way to go!”

“Keep your crap ideas out of America! This is a solution looking for a problem. I want a gun that works when needed! Not a gun that won’t work if my watch goes dead.”

“i bet that the NSA can probably lock u out of your gun if they wanted to take u for some reason ( no fighting the military/police) when Martial Law comes with these Guns”

“Great for movies. Can anyone say dead battery or hacked? Keep it simple, stupid (KISS). The last thing a free citizen needs is a gun with an RF signature. That would be as dumb as a President placing monitors in our newsrooms… Where did I hear that?”

“This video plays on fears of an rare (not unheard of, but rare) problem, to sell you on a less-reliable solution. Way to fuel the gun-grabbers’ fantasies."

“So if the watch battery or the battery in the gun are dead then you can’t use it either. Plus what if there is a malfunction with the electronics which are much less reliable than a good gun design. If we all have these in the future, criminals will make jammers so they can break into your house and know that your gun won’t work when you try to defend yourself.”

Darth Varner sums up the argument well in a lengthy comment on the Verge, and why many think that ‘smart guns’ are just a precursor to authorizing only LEOs and special cases to have guns in the first place (as it is now in countries with strict gun control):

A personal protection firearm is something you hope you’ll never have to discharge outside a practice range. Period. It can go unused for extended periods, but if it fails to go bang because you forgot to wear a particular watch, your hand was dirty, it ran out of batteries, or got shorted out due to water exposure you may die.

This is why the fact of the matter is what the article alludes to: there is no market for smart guns. Those who think this is a good idea, are the ones who actually want no guns whatsoever for any reason; any actual person looking to purchase a firearm doesn’t want this. Anything less than 100% reliability is a non-starter. It’s not government conspiracy, it’s simple reliability.

“To follow up this point:

Obviously nothing is 100% reliable. The overall reliability of a given firearm is a product of the reliability (probability it will not fail or malfunction) of all components. So, if there are 5 components, you have:

R1 = c1*c2*c3*c4*c5

This means the overall reliability is always, by definition, lower than the reliability of the lowest. Put differently, it’s actually worse than the weakest link in the chain.

The smart gun tech adds a cascade of new and unnecessary reliability checks to this function, all of which are much higher than the original purely mechanical design.

R2 = c1*c2*c3*c4*c5*c6*c7*c8

Where c6 is the battery, c7 is the presence of the watch, and c8 is a blanket term for all possible electronic failures for any reason. There are a lot of these; I’ve covered a few in other posts.

R1 was probably around 99%, probably closer to 99.5%. Firearm design is that good. Add in all of these other factors, though, which include human error and forgetfulness, and R2 is going to be south of 90%, and quite possibly more like 75-80%.

Nobody who understands this would purchase such an item for personal protection. Your life is not worth that chance. [emphasis added]

Related Activist Post Articles:

• Now is the Time to Stop Smart Guns
• Demand a Plan to Stop Smart Guns

Melissa Melton is a writer, researcher, and analyst for The Daily Sheeple, where this first appeared, and a co-creator of Truthstream Media. Wake the flock up!

First U.S. Smart Gun Sale Will Trigger Ban on Traditional Gun Sales in NJ
Activist
Mon, 05 May 2014 23:15:00 GMT

Nearly 80% of Colorado Sheriffs File Lawsuit Against Anti-Gun Laws [VIDEO]

 

Last year, Democrats in Colorado pushed through restrictive gun control legislation, against the wishes of the majority of Colorado citizens.  The people responded by recalling and removing from office two of the legislators that were key to the law’s passage. The law has also received quite a bit of resistance from law enforcement in Colorado,

Related posts:

1. Report: Most Colorado Sheriffs REFUSE to Enforce Anti-Gun Laws
2. Colorado Sheriffs Unite With Lawsuit to Block Gun Control
3. Colorado Sheriff: We Won’t Enforce New Anti-Gun Laws

Nearly 80% of Colorado Sheriffs File Lawsuit Against Anti-Gun Laws [VIDEO]
Ben Marquis
Mon, 05 May 2014 22:26:50 GMT

FBI Cyber Division Bulletin: Health Care Systems and Medical Devices at Risk for Increased Cyber Intrusions

 

Health Care Systems and Medical Devices at Risk for Increased Cyber Intrusions for Financial Gain

• 2 pages
• April 8, 2014

(U) Cyber actors will likely increase cyber intrusions against health care systems—to include medical devices—due to mandatory transition from paper to electronic health records (EHR), lax cybersecurity standards, and a higher financial payout for medical records in the black market.

(U) The deadline to transition to EHR is January 2015, which will create an influx of new EHR coupled with more medical devices being connected to the Internet, generating a rich new environment for cyber criminals to exploit. According to open source reporting from SANS, Ponemon, and EMC²/RSA, the health care industry is not technically prepared to combat against cyber criminals’ basic cyber intrusion tactics, techniques and procedures (TTPs), much less against more advanced persistent threats (APTs). The health care industry is not as resilient to cyber intrusions compared to the financial and retail sectors, therefore the possibility of increased cyber intrusions is likely.

(U) A SANS report dated February 2014, indicates health care security strategies and practices are poorly protected and ill-equipped to handle new cyber threats exposing patient medical records, billing and payment organizations, and intellectual property. Data analysis revealed multiple devices (e.g., radiology imaging software, digital video systems, faxes, printers) and security application systems (e.g., Virtual Private Networks (VPN), firewalls, and routers) were compromised. Once medical devices are compromised, malicious traffic is transmitted through VPNs and firewalls. The biggest vulnerability was the perception of IT health care professionals’ beliefs that their current perimeter defenses and compliance strategies were working when clearly the data states otherwise.

(U) According to a Ponemon Institute report dated March 2013, 63% of the health care organizations surveyed reported a data breach in the past two years with an average monetary loss of $2.4 million per data breach. The majority of each data breach resulted in the theft of information assets. Lastly, 45% reported that their organizations have not implemented security measures to protect patient information.

(U) An EMC²/RSA White Paper published in 2013 indicated that in the first half of 2013, over two million health care records were compromised, which was 31% of all reported data breaches. Cyber criminals are selling the information on the black market at a rate of $50 for each partial EHR, compared to $1 for a stolen social security number or credit card number. EHR can then be used to file fraudulent insurance claims, obtain prescription medication, and advance identity theft. EHR theft is also more difficult to detect, taking almost twice as long as normal identity theft.

(U) Reporting Notice

(U) The FBI encourages recipients of this document to report information concerning suspicious or criminal activity to the local FBI field office. The FBI’s 24/7 Strategic Information and Operations Center can be reached by telephone at 202-323-3300 or by e-mail at SIOC@ic.fbi.gov. FBI regional phone numbers can be found online at http://www.fbi.gov/contact/fo/fo.htm. When available, each report submitted should include the date, time, location, type of activity, number of people, and type of equipment used for the activity, the name of the submitting company or organization, and a designated point of contact.

FBI Cyber Division Bulletin: Health Care Systems and Medical Devices at Risk for Increased Cyber Intrusions
Public Intelligence
Tue, 06 May 2014 00:46:12 GMT

Oppose Corporations Helping NSA Spying

 
Charleston Voice

Beyond the technology companies who have been involved in the NSA spying program revealed by Edward Snowden via Glenn Greenwald at The Guardian, there is a large list of corporations who are providing essential services to the NSA.

Many of them aren’t publicly known as much of the spending is done on “black budgets.” But thanks to leaks by Snowden, it has been revealed that as much as 70% of the US intelligence budget goes to private contractors. (via policymic)
While earning a living and ensuring that a company provides a great return for investors is a proper function, helping the greatest violation of human privacy in the history of the world is not.
We will add companies to this list as research and information reveals them. Please help us dig for facts as well. If you know of a corporate contract with NSA, contact us to let us know!
Georgia Power “is the largest subsidiary of Southern Company, one of the nation’s largest generators of electricity.” It provides electricity to the NSA spying facility in Augusta, Georgia.
“Before a partnership in 2006 with Georgia Power, outages were a regular occurrence on post, particularly during the summer, when heavy demands were placed on the system.” (Augusta Chronicle)
SourceAmerica (formerly NISH) is a nonprofit organization that fits agency needs with the skills of job seekers with disabilities. It is providing grounds maintenance and snow removal contractors in Utah. (via DefenseOne)
Corporate Office Properties Trust (COPT), a publicly traded company based in Maryland, owns the forthcoming San Antonio facility, the Texas Cryptologic Center, and leases it to the NSA. (viaHouston Chronicle)
Vupen is a French hacking tools company, under contract with the NSA (via Mashable)
Intercontinental Hotels operate the hotel rooms at Fort Gordon. “The company has upgraded rooms, added wireless Internet, accommodated pets and improved customer service.” they’ve done a “phenomenal job” and allowed Fort Gordon to focus on its core mission. (Augusta Chronicle)
Rocky Mountain Power provides electricity to the new Utah Data Center in Bluffdale, UT. “Utah’s largest electric utility has known for several years the Utah Data Center would need a lot of energy to power its huge banks of computers. That gave Rocky Mountain Power ample time to ensure it had the resources to meet that additional demand on its system.” (via Salt Lake Tribune)
SAIC has a somewhat symbiotic relationship with the NSA: The agency is the company’s largest single customer, and SAIC is the NSA’s largest contractor. (via crocodyl)
Big-D Construction is one of three major contractors who built the Utah Data Center (via Wired) and reports are that they’ll be in a continuing relationship to service the center’s facilities as needed.
SI International, Inc. of McLean, Va., is a key NSA contractor now owned by Serco Inc. of the UK, the world’s largest outsourcing company. SI runs some of the NSA’s support and management functions. Its niche is advising intelligence and defense agencies on their acquisition and outsourcing strategies. (via crocodyl)
Narus, Part of Boeing – developed and provides the software “programs that conduct “deep packet inspection,” examining Internet traffic as it passes through the 10-gigabit-per-second cables at the speed of light.” (via Wired)
Baltimore Gas and Electric provides the electricity to NSA HQ in Maryland. In 2006, the grid was maxed out, encouraging the agency to look to other locations in order to continue its “mission” and expand it. “The cost of electricity at Fort Meade, provided by Baltimore Gas and Electric, was probably one of NSA’s single biggest expenses, said Matthew Aid, author of The Secret Sentry: 
The Untold History of the National Security Agency (Bloomsbury Press, 2009). He estimated the agency could end up spending 95 percent less on electricity in Utah than in Maryland.” (via NextGov)
BAE Systems has been awarded a multi-year $127 million contract to provide infrastructure and software development support to the National Security Agency’s (NSA) High Performance Computing Infrastructure Group. (via BusinessWire)
Zachary Piper hires cable technicians to pull, terminate, and test miles and miles of copper and fiber cables for NSA in Utah.
Hensel Phelps and Kiewit – this joint venture has been awarded a design-build contract for the new Maryland-based “High Performance Computing Center 2 (HPCC2) via DataCenterDynamics)
exp Federal, Inc. provides facilities security escorts and guides to the Utah Data Center.
Raytheon developed and operates the NSA’s “Perfect Citizen” program (via CNET)
Arrowhead Global Solutions is a leading provider of satellite and terrestrial telecommunications, professional services, server-based communication networks and integrated information technology solutions. It is awarded contracts with the NSA regularly.
SI International provides human resources support services (viaPRNewswire) at NSA HQ and potentially elsewhere.
PUBLIC UTILITIES AND CORPORATIONS
CPS Energy, Texas
PREVIOUS CONTRACTS – RESEARCH FOR CURRENT CONTRACTS PENDING:
IBM
General Dynamics
L-3 Communications
TopSecretProtection
Harris Corporation
Dakota State University
via offnow.org
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Oppose Corporations Helping NSA Spying
noreply@blogger.com (Charleston Voice)
Tue, 06 May 2014 00:20:07 GMT

As WW3 Looms, The Elites Unleash Their Brand Of MERS-Y

 

Tonight on The KBS the guys, Kev Baker, John Sinclair “The Whistler” & Martin Hardy are joined by regular guest & researcher, Dulan.

As the violence intensifies in the East of Ukraine, the guys give their views on what is going down on the edge of Europe.

And, in a true Truth Frequency “Sync”, Kev and the guys decided a few weeks back to keep on top of the cutting edge viral info brought to them by Dulan, as Kev and the team felt this would potentially become a big story, and with the first cases hitting the USA, the guys have been proved right. Tune in to get the latest on the MERS virus and so much more…

website: www.facebook.com/Truthtube451

As WW3 Looms, The Elites Unleash Their Brand Of MERS-Y
kevbaker
Tue, 06 May 2014 00:00:00 GMT

132 Nations Want Out of the Cabal Banking System

 

Christina Sarich

Published: Monday 5 May 2014 

The secret cabal’s control over international markets is becoming less of a mystery as increasing numbers of markets reveal themselves so obviously to be fixed.

Just in case you haven’t been keeping up with the ‘tin-foil’ hat conspiracies, increasingly proven to be true, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, is the center of a secret global economy that has bailed out American International Group Inc., huge insurance companies like AIG, Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Merrill Lynch & Co., J.P. Morgan,Societe Generale and Deutsche Bank AG, among others.

The secret cabal’s control over international markets is becoming less of a mystery as increasing numbers of markets reveal themselves so obviously to be fixed. The cabal cheats the 99 percent with Libor interest rates, foreign exchanges, and gold, silver, and platinum price fixing. Then there’s high-frequency trading (HFT), where Wall Street banks use supercomputers to monitor incoming stock market orders, analyze their likely impact on prices, and place orders ahead of those trades to capture a bit of the price impact, called ‘stealing’ if it were properly named.

HFT data helps to explain the frenzy in today’s markets: The most aggressive firms tend to earn the biggest profits, hence the incentive to trade as quickly and as often as possible. Furthermore, these traders make their money at the expense of everyone else, including less-aggressive high- frequency traders. It is simply the latest and greatest scam on stock holders looking for real value in a company, thinking they can compete with the big guys.

Just a few weeks ago, 132 nations decided they’ve had enough of the ‘secret’ money jig we’ve all been dancing to. One of the largest coalitions of developing nations in history has urged Secretary-General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon, to provide, “as soon as possible…alternative options for banking services.” 132 countries, including China are done with the funny money scheme.

This comes on the heels of a mass cancellation of bank accounts in U.N. missions and those of foreign US diplomats. The G77 urges the secretary-general to review the “U.N. Secretariat’s financial relations with the JP Morgan Chase Bank and consider alternatives to such financial institutions and to report thereon, along with the information requested.”

JP Morgan is the left arm of the cabal, along with other ‘big banks’ who were benefactors of billions in our tax money. They have shorted silveralong with Citibank to increase their physical silver holdings by 500%. They are also the ‘big bank,’ along with Chase that failed to stopPonzi-schemer Bernard Madoff. Why do that? He was cut from the same clothe as their top executives.

JPMorgan Chase & Co CEO Jamie Dimon pleaded with and complained to the U.S. Justice Department a few years back but couldn’t convince the government to end its criminal probe of his bank because prosecutors couldn’t figure out just how crooked this banking system really was.

Banks like these helped crash our economies, and they are trying to do the same now, so that they can profit from it.

The problem for countries around the world is simple: Chase bank currently handles billions in accounts maintained by the United Nations and its agencies, in guess where – NEW YORK CITY.

The countries express a ‘deep concern’ over the decisions made by several other banking institutions, known puppets for the cabal, including JP Morgan Chase, in closing bank accounts for mostly developing countries. The resolution proposed, still subject to amendments cites a 1947 agreement between the US and UN, which:

“. . .guarantees the rights, obligations and the fulfillment of responsibilities by member states towards the United Nations, under the United Nations Charter and international law.”

It also points out the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations as a regulatory framework for states and international organizations, specifcically the working relationship between the United Nations and the City of New York.

The countries have put forth the G77 as a means to utilize, “all necessary measures to ensure permanent missions accredited to the United Nations and their staff are granted equal, fair and non-discriminatory treatment by the banking system.”

At secret meetings around the G77 last month, representative after representative from these countries severely criticized the American banking system from cutting off banking services from the diplomatic community, specifically directing their outrage at JP Morgan Chase (formerly Chemical bank).

The accounts were closed when a request from the US treasury asked banks to report every single transaction of 70 ‘blacklisted’ diplomats as part of a monitoring system, just a new way that bankers are spying on all of us. Aside from a network of cameras, run buy the NSA, and a program with a codename of ‘Dishfire’ they also now indulge in practices which make you no different than America’s ‘enemies,’ or diplomats of emerging economies sick of being bullied by the petro-dollar:

1.  Every time you swipe your credit or debit card, the transaction is scored to gauge the risk of fraud.

2.  Banks use ‘behavior’ scores to figure out how you consume and deny you credit or increase your mortgage rates based on that behavior.

3.  Deposit behavior is also gauged. If you save a little or a lot, they are watching that and plugging in the data to determine whether or not to lend you more funny money.

4.  Investments and income are assessed utilizing a ‘wealth estimator.’ This also affects what financial products you have access to, and what you will pay for them.

5.  Both US and UK spy agencies avert internet encryption to look at your private emails, medical information and banking habits.

via nationofchange

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• Gold And Silver - Rothschild Klan Wants War - Front Man Obama Pushing Hard

 

132 Nations Want Out of the Cabal Banking System
noreply@blogger.com (Charleston Voice)
Tue, 06 May 2014 01:29:55 GMT

Latest Oil Train Derailment a 'Wake-up Call' for Renewable Energy

 

Smoke and flames rise as three tanker cars carrying Bakken crude slide into the James River on Wednesday. (Photo: Waterkeeper Alliance Inc./cc/via flickr)The fiery train derailment that struck the town of Lynchburg, Virginia should serve as a wake-up call for the dangers of transporting crude by rail as well as for the need for a renewable transformation, environmental groups charge.

read more

Latest Oil Train Derailment a 'Wake-up Call' for Renewable Energy
andrea
Thu, 01 May 2014 16:43:57 GMT

‘One nation under Allah’: FL conservatives push for anti-Sharia legislation

 

Rocky Mountain High School, Colorado (Image from 999thepoint.com)

Florida conservatives, evidently alarmed by changing social and income demographics, are pushing legislation to combat what they say is the attempted indoctrination of American students with Islamic ideology.

Lawmakers are currently considering a so-called “anti-Sharia bill” which passed through the state Senate with a 24-14 vote on Monday. Sharia, which varies between cultures, is the basic path which devout Muslims try to follow. The rules, while strict by Western standards, often stretch past the confines of a mosque and regulate aspects of secular law, including crime, public policy, sex, diet, and economics.

“Those people who want to come to America, we welcome them, but when you come to America, you are going to be governed under American laws, when you come to Florida you are going to be governed by Florida laws, and we ought not to apologize for that,” Sen. Alan Hays, a Republican, told the Orlando Sentinel after the bill passed through the state Senate.

While the bill will now move to the state House of Representatives for approval, members of the Senate were still wondering who, exactly, is trying to impose Islamic restrictions on the mostly Christian Florida population. According to a recent analysis from the Pew Research Center, a mere one percent of Florida’s population is Muslim, compared to the 66 percent of Floridians who practice some form of Christianity.

“There is no record of Sharia law being implemented in the courts of Florida or any other state,” Sen. Eleanor Sobel, a Democrat who opposed the bill, told the Sentinel.

Officials were similarly confused when educators, in an apparent attempt to break down cultural barriers, came under attack from members of their community who were trying to do the opposite.

A controversy erupted in Volusia County, Florida in November when a student brought her social studies textbook home to her parents, who found that the curriculum dedicated a specific section to the history and beliefs of Islam. Experts told the Daytona News Journal that the rest of the book was full of references to Christianity and Judaism, but the first complaint blossomed into a contingency of parents who felt that their rights were somehow being infringed upon.

“We hope that the School Board will respect our voices in the process of education and reject voices of intolerance and censorship,” a petition calling on administrators to replace the book read. The document failed to explain how an education based on the knowledge of various religions equated to censorship.

Conservatives in Colorado were equally upset when a Muslim student led the rest of the school in the Pledge of Allegiance while replacing the traditional “under God” with “under Allah.” The pledge was adopted in US schools in 1942 at the height of World War II but was only amended to include “under God” a decade later, as a way for Americans to differentiate themselves from the Soviet Union’s atheism policy during the Cold War.

Colorado’s Cultural Arms Club, which advertises its mission to “destroy the barriers, embrace the cultures” that exist throughout the region, organized the “under Allah” pledge at Rocky Mountain High School. It quickly came under fire from parents who felt that it would be unpatriotic to utter the pledge in any form other than the traditional one.

“These students love this country,” school principal Tom Lopez told Fox News at the time. “They were not being un-American in trying to do this. They believed they were accentuating the meaning of the words as spoken regularly in English.”

The problem, Lopez said, was not that the school was trying to be more inclusive, but that a vocal fraction of the community was so up in arms.

“I’ve been shocked with prejudicial statements that have been made,” he continued. “I’ve been shocked with the lack of seeking understanding. There’s definitely some suspicion and fear expressed in these people’s minds. There’s some hate,” he said.

Like Principal Lopez, a growing number of pundits and lawmakers have called for more information on Islamic culture and beliefs. Even now, more than a decade after religious tension heightened in the wake of the September 11, 2001 terror attacks, nearly two-thirds of Americans asked about other world faiths admitted they had “little or no knowledge” about what Muslims believe, according to New York University professor Jonathan Zimmerman.

“To live together as citizens of a nation, we need to understand each other’s fundamental assumptions and beliefs about the world,” Zimmerman wrote in the New York Daily News. “And we can’t do that without understanding religion, which remains the basic wellspring of those beliefs for many of us.”

Delivered by The Daily Sheeple

---

Contributed by RT of RT.com.

‘One nation under Allah’: FL conservatives push for anti-Sharia legislation
Contributing Author
Thu, 01 May 2014 16:00:58 GMT

Teachers refuse to do standardized tests

 

Image courtesy: DNAInfo.com.

By Leo Hohmann

Teachers at a New York City high school fired a shot across the bow of the concept of a nationalized education industry Thursday, becoming the first in that state to refuse to administer a standardized test tied to the controversial Common Core national standards.

The boycott by teachers at Prospect Heights International School in Brooklyn comes amid a small but growing “opt out” movement in which thousands of parents across the country have refused to let their children sit for standardized tests tied to Common Core’s data-hungry student assessment industry.

The state assessments are given at least twice a year, and a growing number of parents are choosing to “opt out,” saying the tests cause anxiety and other health problems in young children. Still others have refused the tests because of data mining conducted on students by the companies that write and analyze the tests.

If the movement needed a jolt, it came from the most unlikely of places, a high school that caters mostly to New York City’s immigrant community. About 95 percent of the students at Prospect Heights are learning English as a second language.

The teachers held a press conference Thursday morning to announce their refusal to administer the NYC English Language Arts Performance Assessment. They were photographed by friends and family holding signs that said “Fewer tests, fewer tears” and other slogans. They said they refused to administer a test that is part of the new teacher evaluation system pushed by Mayor Bloomberg and the United Federation of Teachers as part of Common Core.

No fewer than half the parents at Prospect Heights have opted their children out of the test, according to an April 28 letter sent to the school system chancellor by 30 teachers and staff, a copy of which has been obtained by WND.

In accordance with Common Core standards, part of teachers’ annual evaluations is tied to the test scores their students receive on state-sponsored, standardized tests.

See just what’s going on in public schools, in “IndoctriNation: Public Schools and the decline of Christianity in America.”

“We understand our decision to abstain from administering the test may impact aspects of our evaluations. Despite the potentially negative consequences, our professional judgment dictates that we cannot participate in this assessment,” the letter from the teachers stated. “We are not willing to sacrifice the trust of our students, their feelings of self worth, and our professional duty to do what is best for them.

“In good conscience, as educators dedicated to the learning of our students and the welfare of our school communities, we are not administering this test.”

Fred Klonsky, in a blog picked up by ReclaimReform.com, an education reform website, photographed the teachers, one of which was his daughter, at Thursday’s protest.

“This morning teachers and staff at the International High School at Prospect Heights are rebelling against the wrong that standardized testing has become,” Fred Klonsky wrote. “Each staff member – teachers, psychologists and paraprofessionals – has signed on to a letter to the new New York City Schools Chancellor, Carmen Fariña.

“Among the dedicated teachers whose name is on the letter printed below is my daughter Jessica Klonsky. She is a teacher at this wonderful Brooklyn high school serving the community’s immigrant students. She is a veteran of more than a dozen years.”

This latest salvo in the battle against Common Core testing in New York is likely to echo loudly in states like Georgia, Alabama, California, New Jersey and Colorado, all of which have their own nascent “opt out” movements.

But this is the first time a group of teachers have taken such a bold move against Common Core in New York, which is considered a national leader in the opt-out movement. The NYC teachers sent the letter to Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña urging her to drop the test for the city’s immigrant students still learning English.

The letter said the New York ELA Performance Exam was made “without any thought to the 14 percent of New York City students for whom English is not their first language.”

Teachers refuse to do standardized tests
-NO AUTHOR-
Fri, 02 May 2014 02:39:23 GMT

Obama's golf-trip flights cost $3 million

 

(Washington Times) President Obama’s trips this year to the golfing playgrounds of Palm Springs and Key Largo cost taxpayers nearly $3 million for flight expenses alone, according to Air Force records.

The activist group Judicial Watch said the trips in February and March cost $2,952,278 for flight expenses of Air Force One.

Mr. Obama combined his trip to Palm Springs with an event to highlight California’s severe drought. Critics noted he spent the rest of the weekend golfing on exclusive courses in the desert that use about 1 million gallons of water per day to keep them green.

Obama's golf-trip flights cost $3 million
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Fri, 02 May 2014 01:54:18 GMT