Yahoo News

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A federal judge in Texas on Saturday ordered a halt to another Obama administration effort to strengthen transgender rights, this time over health rules that social conservatives say could force doctors to violate their religious beliefs.

The latest injunction signed by U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor comes four months after he blocked a higher-profile new set of transgender protections — a federal directive that required public schools to let transgender students use bathrooms consistent with their gender identity. Several of the Republican-controlled states that brought that lawsuit, including Texas, also sued over the health regulations that were finalized in May.   Continue reading “Texas judge halts federal transgender health protections”

IndieWire – by Michael Schneider

Just a day after the cable network hoped to silence criticism on its Ku Klux Klan-centric docuseries “Generation KKK” by changing the title, the network has now canceled the show all together.

In a statement, the network said it scrapped the series (which had been renamed “Escaping the KKK”) after discovering that participants on the show, including Klan members, were paid to participate by production company This Is Just A Test.   Continue reading “The controversial KKK series is canceled after A&E discovered Klan members were paid”

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Simple to Remember

In 46 B.C.E. the Roman emperor Julius Caesar first established January 1 as New Year’s day. Janus was the Roman god of doors and gates, and had two faces, one looking forward and one back.  Caesar felt that the month named after this god (“January”) would be the appropriate “door” to the year.  Caesar celebrated the first January 1 New Year by ordering the violent routing of revolutionary Jewish forces in the Galilee.  Eyewitnesses say blood flowed in the streets.  In later years, Roman pagans observed the New Year by engaging in drunken orgies—a ritual they believed constituted a personal re-enacting of the chaotic world that existed before the cosmos was ordered by the gods.   Continue reading “A History of New Years”

BBC News

At least 35 people have lost their lives in an attack on a nightclub in Turkey, Istanbul’s governor has said.

Among the dead at the Istanbul club is one police officer, Vasip Sahin stated, adding that it was a terror attack.

At least another 40 were injured in the attack which took place in the Reina nightclub, in the Ortakoy area, at about 01:30 local time (22:30 GMT).   Continue reading “Istanbul Reina nightclub attack ‘leaves 35 dead’”

Snopes – by David Mikkelson

CLAIM: A variety of superstitions are associated with New Year’s Day.

ORIGIN:Besides getting sloppy drunk and kissing everybody in the room at the stroke of midnight, celebrants throughout the ages have observed numerous lesser-known New Year’s customs and superstitions. Many of the superstitions associated with the event bear the common theme that activities engaged in on that day set the pattern for the year to come. Others have to do with warding off evil spirits or attracting luck.
Continue reading “New Year’s Superstitions”

Athens Puns

  1. Eating black-eyed peas and greens, I remember this one the most from other years and I remember eating them. Eating them brings good luck and financial prosperity. You are to eat the peas with greens for prosperity. The peas represent good luck and the greens represent money.
  2. Nothing goes out of the house, or you will be losing things during the upcoming year. Don’t take out the trash or food or anything, if your trash needs emptying, do it before midnight or on January 2nd. If you have food or anything to take somewhere on New Years day, have it outside or at their house already.

Continue reading “13 New Years Superstitions!”

Free Thought Project – by Matt Agorist

Washington — Confirming once again that war, to those who are sent to fight them, is absolute hell, newly released Pentagon statistics show that suicide — not combat — is the leading killer of US troops deployed to the Middle East.

According to a report in USA Today this week, of the 31 troops who have died as of Dec. 27 in Operation Inherent Resolve, 11 have taken their own lives. Eight died in combat, seven in accidents and four succumbed to illness or injury.   Continue reading “The Biggest Killer of US Troops in the Middle East Is Not ISIS — It’s Suicide”

Breitbart – by AWR Hawkins

House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) is considering a fine of $2,500 for U.S. representatives who use recording devices on the floor of the House.

In the event of a violation, the House sergeant-at-arms would hand down the fine, the goal being to take away the social media appeal of a “sit-in” by effectively blocking such a protest from outside view.   Continue reading “Speaker Ryan Considers Fines to Prevent Another Democrat-Sponsored Gun Control ‘Sit-In’”

Zero Hedge – by Tyler Durden

A group of anonymous hackers has a message for the 120 – 150 “Wealthy Political Elitist 1% Dominant Pricks” that gather each year at the annual conference known as the “Bilderberg Meetings” and they decided to takeover the organization’s website to share that message with the world.

Apparently the hackers, who refer to themselves as the “Hackback Movement,” are fed up with the “1% Richest Dominant Pricks” of the world perpetually exploiting the weak in favor of their own private interests and gave them exactly 1 year to remedy their bad behavior.   Continue reading “Bilderberg Website Taken Over By Anonymous Hackers”

AP News

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A Mexican man accused of raping a 13-year-old girl on a Greyhound bus that traveled through Kansas had been deported 10 times and voluntarily removed from the U.S. another nine times since 2003, records obtained by The Associated Press show.

Three U.S. Republican senators — including Kansas’ Jerry Moran and Pat Roberts — demanded this month that the Department of Homeland Security provide immigration records for 38-year-old Tomas Martinez-Maldonado, who is charged with a felony in the alleged Sept. 27 attack aboard a bus in Geary County. He is being held in the Geary County jail in Junction City, which is about 120 miles west of Kansas City.   Continue reading “Mexican man charged with rape had 19 deportations, removals”

BBC News

An electrical company in the US state of Vermont says it has found malware code allegedly used by Russian hackers on one of its company laptops.

The Burlington Electric Department said it had taken “immediate action to isolate” the computer, which was not connected to the electrical grid.

The government alerted them to the “Grizzly Steppe” code on Thursday.   Continue reading “‘Russia hacking code’ found on Vermont utility computer”