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Luis Miguel Goitizolo

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RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?
4/25/2015 11:52:49 PM

Same-Sex Marriage Hearings at the Supreme Court: What You Need to Know

ABC News

Same-Sex Marriage Hearings at the Supreme Court: What You Need to Know (ABC News)

This coming week, the Supreme Court will hear arguments on the highly controversial issue of same-sex marriage. But what does that mean exactly? And what are the potential national implications? We've asked Kate Shaw, an ABC News contributor and an assistant professor of law at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in New York, to provide some clarity.

1) OK, let’s start with the basics. Very simply, what is the constitutional explanation for why same-sex couples in Massachusetts can get married but why same-sex couples in Texas can’t? Why is the law different in different states?

SHAW: States have a lot of freedom to structure their laws in ways that reflect the preferences of their citizens; that’s one of the unique features of our federal system. Some states can allow 16-year-olds to drive while others set the driving age at 18; and some states have the death penalty, while others don’t.

But the principle that each state can tailor its laws to its citizens’ preferences has limits, and those limits come from the U.S. Constitution. The Supreme Court has made clear, for example, that the Constitution prevents states from prohibiting interracial marriage. So the question in this case is whether prohibiting same-sex couples from marrying is within the states’ regulatory power, or whether it violates the U.S. Constitution.

2) Got it, so how many states in the United States currently allow for same-sex marriage? What’s the story with D.C. and Alabama?

SHAW: Right now, 36 states and D.C. allow same-sex couples to marry. Alabama’s situation is unique: Earlier this year, a federal judge found the state’s ban on same-sex marriage unconstitutional, but the Alabama Supreme Court then ordered Alabama officials to stop performing same-sex marriages. A number of couples got married in the period between the federal and state court decisions, but right now no new same-sex marriages are being performed in that state.

Support for Gay Marriage Reaches Record High (POLL)

3) Remind us why there was a rapid increase in the number of states that allow for same-sex marriage in recent years. What happened in the courts?

SHAW: In June 2013, in a case called United States v. Windsor, the Supreme Court struck down part of the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) -- the part that prevented the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriages for purposes of everything from federal taxes to Social Security benefits. Although the court in that case didn’t explicitly rule that state bans on same-sex marriage were unconstitutional, lower courts in the wake of Windsor concluded almost uniformly that state marriage bans couldn’t survive. Windsor had held DOMA unconstitutional on the grounds that it harmed gay couples and their children without any permissible purpose, and most federal judges concluded that state marriage bans fell on the same logic. So that’s why you’ve had this cascade of decisions in the last two years. The number of states with same-sex marriage has jumped from 12 to 36.

4) OK, so what exactly is happening Tuesday at the Supreme Court, and who is involved?

SHAW: Cases from four states -- Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and Tennessee -- have been consolidated into one marathon argument session on two distinct questions: first, whether the Constitution allows states to deny gay couples the right to marry; and second, whether the Constitution requires states to recognize valid same-sex marriages performed in other states.

The plaintiffs are committed same-sex couples who either wish to marry in their states and have been prevented from doing so or who have gotten married in other states and wish to have their marriages recognized in the states they live in. A number are raising children; some are widowers; all tell very compelling stories about the harm they've suffered as a result of the law's refusal to recognize their relationships.

5) Do we know what the court will likely decide? There are nine justices. Do we have any indication as to how each might vote?

SHAW: If the court rules that the marriage bans in the 14 remaining states are unconstitutional, marriage equality will be the law of the land.

If the court rules that [same-sex] marriage is not required by the Constitution, the bans will survive, and the states in which [same-sex] marriage is legal as a result of a federal court decision will see their laws revert back to their previous status -- that is, not permitting same-sex marriage. The 11 states that permit same-sex marriage as a result of legislation or referendum would not be impacted.

In that case [that the court decides the Constitution does not require same-sex marriage], the question of recognition of out-of-state marriages would become very significant. If the court ruled that states did not need to recognize out-of-state marriages, that would be a huge defeat for same-sex couples. If the court ruled that states were required to recognize valid out-of-state marriages, couples would be able to marry and move to any state and be treated as married for both state and federal law purposes. This would be a far cry from marriage equality across the country -- but not a total loss for same-sex couples.

It’s impossible to know how any justice will vote, but here, as in so many areas, it seems highly likely that everything will turn on the vote of Justice Anthony Kennedy. And the plaintiffs have reason to be hopeful here: Justice Kennedy wrote the opinion in Windsor, as well as two important, earlier gay rights decisions -- one in 1996 and one in 2003.

6) When will we learn what the court has decided, and what are the potential decisions? What will the various outcomes actually mean in real terms?

SHAW: I’d guess we’ll know in the very last week of the term, perhaps even the very last day -- at the end of June. This is a hugely important decision, and it’ll come down to the wire.


Same-sex marriage case heads to Supreme Court


The court will hear arguments on the highly controversial issue this week, but what does that mean exactly?
6 key questions answered

"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)

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Luis Miguel Goitizolo

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RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?
4/26/2015 12:17:48 AM

Dust storm, lightning kill five in UP – epidemic of suicides reported, as climate unravels

Dust Storm India
April 2015UTTAR PRADESH, IndiaFive people including a woman were killed late Friday after a dust storm and lightning hit many parts of eastern Uttar Pradesh, officials said on Saturday. While two people died in Jaunpur after being struck by lightning, two others died in Pratapgarh and a woman lost her life in Azamgarh. Police said Afroz and Preeti were struck by lightning in Jaunpur and died later on way to a local medical facility.
Heavy rainfall and lightning in Pratapgarh killed two people while a woman, identified as Ramawati was killed in Kamharia village of Azamgarh when her mud house caved in due to the dust storm. Extensive damage to vegetable yield and wheat crop has also been reported. Hailstorm has been reported from Rasra in Ballia, leading to damage of crop and many vehicles. Extensive damage to vegetable yield and wheat crop has also been reported. Unseasonal rainfall and hailstorm in the past 40 days led to crop damage in the state, leaving the farmers devastated. Hundreds of farmers have committed suicide, while many died due to shock over losing the harvest. –Zee News



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Luis Miguel Goitizolo

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RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?
4/26/2015 12:34:08 AM

WND EXCLUSIVE

MEDIA BLITZ TO 'NORMALIZE' TRANSGENDERISM

Target: Your children

Published: 23 hours ago







Jazz Jennings, a transgender teenager, wrote a book about having a “girl’s brain in a boy’s body.” It is now being used in schools.


The establishment media has suddenly gone ga-ga over transgenders.

Whether it’s Bruce Jenner’s prime-time interview with Diane Sawyer to discuss his “journey” from a 1976 Olympic decathlon stud to surgery- and drug-induced womanhood, or teary-eyed parents waxing softly about their child’s difficult but rewarding transformation from one sex to another, the American public is about to be inundated with journalistic stories, TV shows, books, movies and ads promoting transgenderism.

Like all good propaganda campaigns, it starts in the schools.

Parents of a child at an elementary school in Maine were outraged last week when they found out a guidance counselor had read “I Am Jazz” to a class of first-graders. The autobiographical picture book is based on the life of Jazz Jennings, a transgender teenager who talks of having a “girl’s brain in a boy’s body.”

“From the time she was 2 years old, Jazz knew that she had a girl’s brain in a boy’s body. She loved pink and dressing up as a mermaid and didn’t feel like herself in boys’ clothing,” reads the description on Amazon. But her family was confused because they always thought of Jazz as a boy.

The book describes how Jazz “flourished once she was allowed to be herself,” said one reviewer, E.M. Kokie, in a review for ThePirateTree.com, a site that focuses on “social justice and children’s literature.”

The children’s book has won myriad awards.

NBC reported this week a story about how California Congressman Mike Honda’s “transgender daughter makes him proud.”

The boy (now girl)’s father says he just wants his child to “be happy,” as a tear forms in his eye.

Read Michael L. Brown’s sensational exposé of the perversion revolution – ‘A Queer Thing Happened to America’ – ½ price today only!

The NBC Today Show presented the stories of several sets of parents last week who have “struggled” with their young children’s gender confusion. Most decided to support their boys’ desire to be girls, and vise versa.

Not to be outdone, CBS did a story on a family celebrating their “5-year-old son’s transgender journey.”

This is the way CBS Boston reporter Ken McCleod began his story:

“A Massachusetts couple knew their child wasn’t happy. So they made the courageous and difficult decision to raise their daughter as a boy at his own request.”

The rest is predictable.

Then there is the new TV series “Transparent,” a comedy-drama television series produced for Amazon Studios Video that debuted last year. The series, created and directed by Jill Soloway, presents the story of a Los Angeles family and their lives following the discovery that the person they knew as their father Mort (Jeffrey Tambor) is transgender.

At the Golden Globe Awards on Jan. 11, the show won the award for best television series.

Former model Tyra Banks has also produced a transgender TV series for VH1 called TransAmerica, starring transgender model/activist Carmen Carrera.

Transgender model Carmen Carrera stars in a new TV series produced by Tyra Banks.

According to Hollywood Reporter, “the eight-episode docuseries will chronicle a group of Chicago women united by the shared experience of being transgender. The series is described as an earnest look at a group of millennial women — who happen to be transgender — living, loving and building their careers. The series will explore how their sexuality impacts their lives.”

Susan Levison, executive vice president of programming for VH1, told Hollywood Reporter: “This is a show about a group of compelling, gorgeous young friends who are on a unique journey while staying true to their authentic selves. We believe that message resonates.”

Summer camps for the gender confused

And the movement isn’t limited to a media blitz.

The transgender movement now offers transgender-friendly summer camps for children of all ages.

Camp Aranu’tiq is one such venture. Launched in 2010, the program seeks to offer an overnight camp experience designed specifically for “transgender and gender variant youth.”

Aranu’tiq is a chugach (Indigenous people of Alaska) word for “a person who was thought to embody both the male and female spirit,” according to the camp’s website. “Aranu’tiq people were often revered and thought to be very lucky because their existence transcended traditional boundaries.”

Camps are held for pre-teens and teens at undisclosed sites.

The camp was founded by Boston native Nick Teich, a PhD candidate at Brandeis University and author of the book “Transgendered 101: A Simple Guide to a Complex Issue. He has a “deep personal interest in helping transgender youth to be themselves,” according to the camp’s website.

The assistant camp director is Morgan Darby, a former teacher and girls’ basketball coach who relocated from Oakland, California, to Boston. She is an active member of MassEquality, an LGBT statewide grassroots advocacy organization and holds and master of arts degree in gender and cultural studies from Simmons College.

The camp also has psychologists and therapists who collaborate with parents and support groups, “supporting families through transition.”

One such professional is Bob Ditter, a family therapist in Boston who, according to his bio, “is a nationally recognized trainer and consultant for organizations that work with young people. He has visited over 600 summer camps in the United States.”

Under a section “Who can attend Camp Aranutiq’s programs,” the camp’s website states:

“Camp Aranu’tiq is for those who feel that they do not fit into the norms our society has prescribed for gender. This includes those who have “transitioned,” those who happen to express their gender differently than others, and those who may experience teasing or bullying because of their gender.”

The camp says of its staff:

“About half to two-thirds of our counselors at each program are trans-identified. We feel it is important to have role models who are of all gender identities and expressions. We seek a diverse group of staff and volunteers.”

Camp Aranu’tiq was winner of the Eleanor Eells Award in 2012. This award recognizes program excellence as well as research in practice at camps, according the Eleanor Eells website.

Camp Aranu’tiq is just one example. There are dozens of similar camps easily found online.

‘Christian’ camps for transgenders?

Some even claim to be “faith-based.”

“The Naming Project” touts itself as a “faith-based organization that aims to provide a haven for LGBTQ and allies alike.”

The logo for The Naming Project, which claims to be a Christian ministry.

The logo for The Naming Project, which claims to be a Christian ministry.

It is holding a camp session from July 26-31 at Bay Lake Camp in Deerwood, Minnesota. “Youth ages 14-18 of all sexual and gender identities who are interested in talking and learning about sexuality and gender in the context of their own spiritual understanding are encouraged to attend,” according to the website glaad.org.

The Naming Project promotes a documentary called “Camping Out.”

The Naming Project says it is “a Christian ministry that walks with youth wherever they are on their own faith journey. Youth from around the country attend our summer camp, and we communicate with youth, parents, pastors, youth workers, and others who care for LGBTQ youth.”

The Naming Project is just one example of how the LGBT movement is spilling over into the Christian church.

The LGBT Humanist Council promotes a program called “Sharing Our Stories,” which celebrates the lives of LGBTQ people.

A group in Gastonia, N.C., called Gaston Has Heart is one of many to pick up on the theme, offering a “Sharing Our Stories” program at a local church, All Saints Episcopal, last month.

“The day will consist of three wonderful keynote speakers, Joshua Burford; The Dr. Rev. Gary Butterworth; and Matthew Morrell Comer. Also, we will offer ten educational workshops, on a wide-variety of topics related to the LGBTQ Community, over the span of three concurrent sessions,” the group’s Facebook site says. “Finally, we will hold a ’round table’ discussion on collaboration in the Community.”

The site further explains that, “‘Sharing Our Stories’ is appropriate for anyone in the LGBTQ Community, its allies and advocates, educators, those in the human services field, parents, families, friends, members of the faith community and many more.”

But not all scientists are on board with the transgender movement’s basic hypothesis, that gender confusion is a genetic, permanent condition.

Top psychologist throws water on LGBT ‘science’

There is a solid body of research that indicates gender confusion is best understood as a mental disorder, often temporary in nature.

Former psychiatrist-in-chief at Johns Hopkins Hospital, Paul R. McHugh, M.D., concluded it is “biologically impossible” for a person to change the sex they were born with, and those who advocate “sexual reassignment surgery” are thus promoting mental illness.

Writing in the Wall Street Journal, McHugh, who is Hopkins’ Distinguished Service Professor of Psychiatry, cites a long-term Swedish study that followed transgendered persons for up to 30 years, and revealed that “beginning about 10 years after having the surgery, the transgendered began to experience increasing mental difficulties. Most shockingly, their suicide mortality rose almost 20-fold above the comparable non-transgender population.”

McHugh’s research further concluded: “When children who reported transgender feelings were tracked without medical or surgical treatment at both Vanderbilt University and London’s Portman Clinic, 70%-80% of them spontaneously lost those feelings.”

Yet, the push to normalize transgenderism rushes forward.

It’s no coincidence that the transgender movement should follow on the heels of a very successful same-sex marriage movement, says David Usher, president of the Center for Marriage Policy.

It comes in the wake of a late 2014 ABC News poll showing 58 percent of American adults now approve of same-sex marriage, up from just 32 percent nine years ago. So the media machine is moving on to the next stop on its family-destroying agenda, says Usher.

He believes the movement will result in tragedy for hundreds of young people who are being sold a lie.

“I’m just wondering what planet I’m living on now, but this is all basically straight out of (Alfred) Kinsey (the famous sexologist). The whole concept is that one’s biological sex is completely immaterial,” he said. “That’s just the next phase of the sexual liberation movement, to make it so physical sex means absolutely nothing.”

Inherent in this “junk science” is the idea that the mind is all powerful and the mind prevails over reality.

“And basically we live in an age when reality just doesn’t matter anymore. What is, isn’t. This is basically liberals trying to bring in the last stage of cultural destruction laid out by Herbert Marcuse,” Usher said.

Building a new social order

Marcuse was a German-American philosopher, sociologist and political theorist associated with the Frankfurt School of critical theory. This school taught that it was necessary to advance the theories of Karl Marx beyond economics into the realm of sociology and culture. It was the crossing of Marx with Freud.

“Just as classical economic Marxism argued that under capitalism the working class was oppressed, so the Frankfurt school used Freud to argue that under Western culture everyone lived in a constant state of psychological repression,” said William Lind in a documentary produced by the Free Congress Foundation.

The idea was to end sexual alienation, which cultural Marxists argued was just as significant as economic alienation.

Just as economic Marxism had to destroy capitalism before it could rebuild a society under socialist principles, cultural Marxists work to destroy the family and religious institutions so they can usher in a new order based on secularism and brute materialism.

Some have called it “cultural terrorism.”

“This is the socialist mindset. If you can destroy the meaning of what it means to be a woman or a man, then the whole country is up for grabs,” Usher said.

The American Psychological Association decided in 1974 that homosexuality was no longer a mental health issue. Transgengerism is the next phase of that metamorphosis.

School counselors in some school districts are already being directed to “new research” that suggests they must “advocate” for gender-confused students in elementary and middle schools.

“So what the APA has done is create a lot of people who are very malleable and they get sick, get depressed, and they need resources, which of course is always presented in another government program, because you create people with mental problems who need constant counseling,” Usher said.

These kind of strange approaches to mental health issues, and the blurring of the lines between men and women were common in the Soviet Union, Usher said. But even the Soviets and the Nazis were not as extreme in embracing transgenderism as those who make the rounds in America’s left-of-center political circles.

“If only a few people believed it, it wouldn’t be so frightening,” he said.


Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2015/04/media-blitz-to-normalize-transgenderism/#DHS303BI23Cq5ig8.99


"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)

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Luis Miguel Goitizolo

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RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?
4/26/2015 10:41:02 AM

A dozen arrested as Freddie Gray protests turn violent

Associated Press

Associated Press Videos
Police: Gray Should've Received Medical Care

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BALTIMORE (AP) — Thousands of protesters took to the streets Saturday in the largest Freddie Gray rally yet, and after hours of peaceful demonstrations, pockets of protesters smashed out police car windows and storefronts.

Two people were hurt in the mayhem and at least a dozen were arrested. The problems happened near Camden Yards, where the Baltimore Orioles game against the Boston Red Sox went on as scheduled, only fans were told toward the end of the game to stay in the stadium because of public safety worries. Before the game, demonstrators fought with fans at a bar.

Gray died April 19 after suffering a fatal spinal injury while in police custody. Authorities have not explained how or when Gray's spine was injured. Police have said Gray should have received medical attention at the spot where he was arrested — before he was put inside a police transport van handcuffed and without a seat belt, a violation of the department's policy.

In her first public comments since Gray's death, his twin sister, Fredricka Gray, appealed for calm as she appeared with the mayor at a news conference.

"My family wants to say, can you all please, please stop the violence?" she said. "Freddie Gray would not want this. Freddie's father and mother did not want nobody ... Violence does not get justice."

There have been near-daily protests since Gray's death. On Saturday, a small group threw cans and plastic bottles in the direction of police officers. One protester broke out the window of a police cruiser, grabbed a police hat inside and wore it while standing on top of the cruiser with several other protesters.

At that point, scores of officer rushed into the area, stopped and formed a line, three officers deep. The protesters scattered but returned a few minutes later and began yelling "What do we want? Justice! When do we want it? Now!"

From inside the stadium, fans watched the protesters gather.

Before the protest turned tense and violent, demonstrators filled two city blocks and marched 2 miles to City Hall, where the crowd overtook the grassy plaza adjacent from the building.

Tanya Peacher, a 36-year-old Baltimore resident, said she'd never attended a protest in the city before, but watching a video of Gray's arrest motivated her.

"I looked at my son," she said, "and thought 'that is my son.'"

Residents young and old, from Baltimore and beyond, voiced their anger at how the department and the city's officials are handling the investigation into Gray's death. At one point, the crowd paused for a moment of silence in front of Shock Trauma, the hospital where Gray died. The marchers then migrated to Camden Yards.

At a downtown intersection, a dozen marchers laid down in the street during an impromptu "die-in."

Wearing a sign around his neck that said "I am Freddie Gray," 33-year-old Dante Acree joined thousands of others outside City Hall. Acree said he came out to the protest because "it could have been one of my kids."

"It could have been my brother, my father," he said. "I'd want the same support."

Leonard Patterson, 56, said he drove from Manassas, Virginia, to be a part of the protest. Patterson said he decided to come after thinking about his college-aged daughter.

"I'm trying to do everything in my limbs, everything in my power, to make this a better world for her," said Patterson, holding up his black and white drawing of Freddie Gray. The drawing shows Gray being hoisted from a police van to heaven by two angels.

"I'm here to do what I can. Police brutality is as old as the 1950s, the 1960s. It's still here," he said.





"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)

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Luis Miguel Goitizolo

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RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?
4/26/2015 10:58:32 AM

FBI Investigating Possible Islamic State Terrorism Plot In U.S.: Report

Reuters
Posted: Updated:

Family ObÂÇFlickr




WASHINGTON, April 25 (Reuters) - The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is investigating a possible Islamic State-inspired terrorism plot in the United States, CNN reported on Saturday, quoting law enforcement officials.

A Federal law enforcement official who asked not to be named said there was a known threat to Los Angeles International Airport, but did not say whether this was a new threat or was associated with Islamic State.

CNN said the investigation started after intercepted communication and other intelligence information that led officials to believe that a plot could be under way.

The network quoted an official as saying the plot focused on parts of California and that officials there had stepped up security.

The Transportation Security Administration had also alerted local law enforcement agencies responsible for security around airports in the state although the possible threat was not necessarily related to aviation, CNN said.

It added that some U.S. cities had increased their security, but gave no further details.

No one at the FBI was immediately available to comment. Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson also declined to comment on the reported threat to Las Angeles airport. (Reporting by Sandra Maler and Mark Hosenball)

(HuffingtonPost.com)

"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)

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