Tag Archives: United States

Star of Fox Hit TV Show “Empire” Says “Without God, I’m Nothing”

Taraji P. Henson, breakout star of the Fox show “Empire”, told the crowd at the Critics’ Choice Television Awards she is “nothing without God.”

“Thank you God, because without God, I’m nothing,” said Henson. “And the fans. I love awards, they’re great, but this just means I’m touching lives, and that’s why I got into acting.”

Henson had just received the award for Best Actress for her portrayal of “Cookie Lyon” on “Empire”.  The Academy Award and Primetime Emmy award nominee has been very bold about her Christian faith and how God drives her.

“I moved to California with $700 in my pocket with my son and a dream and faith,” explained Henson to the Christian Post. “And every time a door would close I would pray to God, like ‘I know you’ve got a plan for me because I’m still here.’ There’s a plan for me and I believe in that.”

“Whenever I thought I was supposed to get something and it didn’t fall through, I would just fall back to God and be like, ‘OK, well what else, because whatever you’ve got must be better than this,'” she added.

Henson was the first African-American actress to win the award.

Live Anthrax Found Shipped To More Labs

The Pentagon says an investigation into an accidental shipment of live anthrax to labs in nine states and South Korea was significantly larger and lasted over a decade.

The anthrax, sent from the Dugway Proving Ground in Utah, has been shipped to 51 sites in the United States and overseas in the last 10 year.  The samples were all believed to have contained irradiated and inactivated virus.

The officials admitted they are testing 400 additional batches and if they are found to be live, the number of locations with live virus could significantly jump.

Deputy Defense Secretary Robert Work said that 31 lab workers have ben undergoing post-exposure treatment as a precaution but that the public is safe.

“We know of no risk to the general public from these samples,” Work said.

The admission of the shipments of live anthrax are part of a pattern of accidents involving viruses that have observers questioning the way the military is handling potentially deadly pathogens.  A year ago, the CDC admitted a dozen employees may have been exposed to live anthrax and that another lab contaminated a flu virus with the deadly H5N1 bird flu and then shipped it out to another laboratory.

Less than a year ago, live smallpox vials were found in a storage lab at the National Institutes of Health.

Marine and Wife Become National Witness For Christ

They didn’t realize a moment of obedience and placing God first would turn them into witnesses for Christ on the national stage.

Marine Cpl. Caleb Earwood was due to marry the love of his life Maggie in Asheville, North Carolina last Saturday.  He wanted to make sure that their marriage began in the way a marriage should begin: dedicating all to the Lord.

So he asked his friends and family to arrange a way for him to pray with his wife-to-be without violating the marriage tradition of the groom not seeing the bride before the wedding.

“They hid me in a room and he stepped up on the stairwell and he stuck his hand out and I grabbed his hand,” Maggie Earwood told ABC News.

The couple held hands around a corner and prayed.  A picture was taken and shared on social media.

And then it blew up all over the world.  The photo appeared in magazines like US Weekly and even had the couple make an appearance on NBC’s Today show.

“We were about to take our first steps in life together, and we didn’t want to take a step without it being in God’s will,” Caleb, 21, told TODAY.com. “I prayed to God for my beautiful and intelligent wife that he blessed me with and the amazing family I was marrying into.”

Maggie said it was a great relief for her on her wedding day to know the person she was about to vow to spend the rest of her life with felt the same way about God as her.

What many didn’t know about the wedding is that Caleb almost didn’t make it.  He had emergency surgery the week prior for kidney stones and had to work to keep up his strength for the big day.

Now, the couple is thankful their picture is blessing others and showing the importance of placing God first.

“We’re thankful that our picture is able to bless so many people and touch that many hearts,” said Caleb.

FBI Found Using Mysterious Surveillance Aircraft

The FBI has been operating their own air force of low-flying surveillance planes hidden behind fake front companies.

According to a review by the Associated Press, the FBI flew over 30 cities in 11 states during the last 30 days.

The FBI claims the flights are done with the permission of a judge and are connected to specific investigative operations.  The planes carry video cameras and also the ability to intercept and record any cell phone call within the range of the plane.

The discovery by the AP forced the government to acknowledge the program publicly for the first time.  The most basic parts of the program have been classified from the public until now.  The AP traced 13 companies that turned out to be fake.  FVX Research, KQM Aviation, NBR Aviation and PXW Services were among the companies exposed as government fronts.

“The FBI’s aviation program is not secret,” spokesman Christopher Allen said in a statement to the AP. “Specific aircraft and their capabilities are protected for operational security purposes.” Allen added that the FBI’s planes “are not equipped, designed or used for bulk collection activities or mass surveillance.”

The FBI asked the AP to not reveal the names of the companies being used because it would “increase costs” to taxpayers when the FBI created new fake companies. The FBI would not confirm employees of the companies were actually employees of the federal government.

ISIS Forces Civilians To Watch Executions In Amphitheater

The Islamic terrorist group ISIS, attempting to solidify their takeover of the ancient city of Palmyra, have forced the residents of the town to fill an ancient amphitheater to watch the execution of 20 men.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the men were accused of serving as members of the army for President Bashir al-Assad.  The method of execution was not reported by the group.

The United Nations World Heritage site was overrun by the terrorists last week.  The U.N. also reported that residents told them the Syrian government forced them to remain until all troops withdrew from the city, placing them at the mercy of the terrorists.

The terrorists have also killed 67 civilians, including 14 children and 12 women, in the city of al-Sikhni.  The terrorists said they were harboring regime forces to hide them from ISIS.

The UN has also reported that the terrorists burned a young woman alive because she would not be used as a sex slave by the group.

“They are institutionalizing sexual violence,” Zainab Bangura, the U.N.’s special representative on sexual violence in conflict, said of the Islamic State. “The brutalization of women and girls is central to their ideology.”

Pro-Abortionist Sympathizers In California Legislature Pass “Bully Bill”

A bill that pro-life organizations call the “bully bill” requiring pregnancy care centers to inform women about abortion and provide locations to obtain an abortion has passed the California Assembly.

AB 775, titled the “Reproductive FACT Act” was written by a Democratic assemblyman specifically targeting pregnancy care centers that do not provide abortion services or information.

“The author contends that, unfortunately, there are nearly 200 licensed and unlicensed clinics known as crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs) in California whose goal is to interfere with women’s ability to be fully informed and exercise their reproductive rights, and that CPCs pose as full-service women’s health clinics, but aim to discourage and prevent women from seeking abortions,” the bill written by Assemblyman David Chiu reads.

Chin and fellow Democrats placed in the bill language that requires any pregnancy care center to give in print to clients a statement that reads: “California has public programs that provide immediate free or low-cost access to comprehensive family planning services (including all FDA-approved methods of contraception), prenatal care, and abortion, for eligible women. To determine whether you qualify, contact the county social services office at (telephone number).”

The Assembly voted 49-26 to pass the bill and send it to the Senate.

Republican Jim Patterson, who co-founded a pregnancy care center and adopted two children, spoke against the bill and voted against approval.

“It is an effort to force objectionable, state-mandated speech on pro-life pregnancy care centers which have freely formed in order to compassionately present alternative views—views which are rightly protected by the Constitution,” he said. “To force these centers to post and to distribute how to obtain free abortions cuts to the core of their founding purpose and their reason for being.”

“Two of my adopted children and all three of my grandchildren are the living witnesses of the profound and life-affirming options these centers provide,” Patterson continued. “Privately-funded pregnancy resource centers, and the compassionate people who volunteer at them, have a First Amendment right to freedom of speech. And it is our duty as officers of the state of California to protect that right, not to assault it.”

Fox To Air “Lucifer” TV Series

Fox is planning to air a TV series that focuses on Satan coming to Earth as a nightclub owner.

“Bored and unhappy as the Lord of Hell, Lucifer Morningstar has abandoned his throne and retired to L.A., where he owns Lux, an upscale nightclub,” a description of the series reads on the Fox website.

“Charming, charismatic and devilishly handsome, Lucifer is enjoying his retirement, indulging in a few of his favorite things—wine, women and song—when a beautiful pop star is brutally murdered outside of Lux,” it continues. “For the first time in roughly 10 billion years, he feels something awaken deep within him as a result of this murder. Compassion? Sympathy? ”

The series is based on comic books by author Neil Gaiman which focus on occult culture.

The Fox description then goes to say that Satan will begin to wonder if “there’s hope for his soul” because of the “inherent goodness” of the police detective he works with to solve a murder.

Criticism of the show has been swift.

“It was only a matter of time before Hollywood gave the devil a prime time television show on a big network,” wrote Joe Schimmel of Good Fight Ministries and host of the documentary “Hollywood’s War on God” in an online post this week. “After all, for the last several years, Hollywood has portrayed everyone from meth dealers to sexual deviants as ‘cool,’ while depicting Jesus as a cuss word!”

Pastors are saying the show is a danger to youth, showing Satan to be “cool” instead of his truly evil nature.

Marine Officer Court Martialed For Refusing To Remove Bible Verse

A U.S. Marine has been found guilty of disobeying a “lawful order” of a superior officer because she would not remove a Bible verse that she had taped onto her computer and desk.

Former Marine Lance Corporal Monifa Sterling has posted Isaiah 54:17, “no weapon formed against me shall prosper,” on her computer along with other Bible verses that she used for inspiration.

Her staff sergeant ordered her to remove the verses but Sterling refused, saying she had the First Amendment right to have those verses at her workstation.  The next day, they had been removed by someone else.

She defended herself at trial and was found guilty of showing disrespect toward a superior commissioned officer, four instances of disobeying a lawful order of a noncommissioned officer, and failing to go to her appointed place of duty.

An appellate court said because she shared the desk with another Marine, she cannot claim the order violated her religious freedom.

“The military judge found that the signs verbiage was biblical in nature, that the desk was shared with another Marine, and the signs were visible to other Marines who came to the appellant’s desk for assistance,” the court ruling states. “The implication is clear — the junior Marine sharing the desk and the other Marines coming to the desk for assistance would be exposed to biblical quotations in the military workplace.”

“It is not hard to imagine the divisive impact to good order and discipline that may result when a service member is compelled to work at a government desk festooned with religious quotations, especially if that service member does not share that religion,” the court ruling continued.

The Liberty Institute has now stepped in and is defending the rights of Sterling.

“If a service member has a right to display a secular poster, put an atheist bumper sticker on their car, or get a Star of David tattoo, then Lance Corporal Sterling has the right to display a small Bible verse on her computer monitor,” Mike Berry of the Liberty Institute said to the Christian Post. “If the government can order a Marine not to display a Bible verse, they could try and order her not to get a religious tattoo, or go to church on Sunday.”

“Restricting a Marine’s free exercise of religion is blatantly unconstitutional.”

The Liberty Institute noted that no one else was using Sterling’s desk when the incident took place, meaning the appellate court ruled with a false basis.  They also say that Sterling’s rights under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

Netanyahu Tells U.S. Senator ISIS Should Be Fought; Iran Stopped

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy and said that while ISIS needs to be fought, Iran needs to be stopped in their nuclear program.

“We shouldn’t give Iran a path to nuclear weapons and billions of dollars to pursue aggression because of ISIS. ISIS should be fought; Iran should be stopped,” Netanyahu said.

“As horrific as ISIS is, once Iran acquires nuclear weapons, it will be a hundred times more dangerous and more destructive than ISIS,” Netanyahu said.

Netanyahu spoke to the Senator about the nuclear negotiations that have resumed with Iran.

“I see no reason to rush to a deal, and certainly not a bad deal that paves Iran’s path to the bomb, but also fills Iran’s coffers with tens of billions of dollars to pursue its aggression throughout the Middle East and around Israel’s borders,” Netanyahu said.

Cassidy, who defeated incumbent Mary Landrieu in a runoff election last year, has been a staunch supporter of Israel during his time in the U.S. House of Representatives.

President Admits Flaws In Plan Against ISIS

President Obama has admitted there were flaws in his plans to subdue the Islamic extremist group ISIS in Iraq.

The President insisted, however, that despite the flaws the U.S. is not losing in the battle against ISIS.

“I don’t think we’re losing,” Obama told The Atlantic in an interview days after the fall of Ramadi.

“There’s no doubt there was a tactical setback, although Ramadi had been vulnerable for a very long time, primarily because these are not Iraqi security forces that we have trained or reinforced.They have been there essentially for a year without sufficient reinforcements, and the number of ISIL [ISIS] that have come into the city now are relatively small compared to what happened in [the Iraqi city of] Mosul.”

Members of Congress have been critical of the President and his plans for not using ground troops in Iraq to stop the terrorists.

Senator John McCain of Arizona said the fall of Ramadi to the terrorists was “one of the most disgraceful episodes in American history.”