THE SILENCING: Paper Will Limit Anti-Gay Marriage Op-Eds

The editorial board of PennLive/The Patriot-News in Harrisburg, Pa. is taking a hardcore stance against those who disagree with the Supreme Court ruling to legalize gay marriage.

“As a result of Friday’s ruling, PennLive/The Patriot-News will no longer accept, nor will it print, op-Eds and letters to the editor in opposition to same-sex marriage,” they declared. 

After receiving strong pushback, the newspaper’s editorial board, which is overseen by Editorial Page Editor John Micek, quickly revised its policy. Freedom of speech will be allowed — but only for a “limited” period of time.

Micek explained on Twitter: “Clarification: We will not foreclose discussion of the high court’s decision, but arguments that gay marriage is wrong/unnatural are out.”

Before that, there was this: “From the edit: ‘PL/PN will no longer accept, nor will it print, op-Eds and letters to the editor in opposition to same-sex marriage.’ …This is not hard: We would not print racist, sexist or anti-Semitc letters. To that, we add homophobic ones. Pretty simple.”

The notice at the top of the editorial page of the website now reads: “12:58 p.m. This post has been updated to further elaborate PennLive’s policy for accepting letters and op-Eds on same-sex marriage.”

A wealth of commenters were not pleased.

• “Big Jasper” opposes the policy: “Nice to see strict speech codes will be enforced by a ‘free’ press,” he wrote. “No need to worry about that messy ‘freedom of expression’ thing anymore.”

• “Motown” remarked, “God has the real say not some loony editorial board.”

• And “hgunwilltravel0″ said this: “In layman’s terms, any Christian view on anything will not be tolerated on this liberal website. Say it like it is and cut to the chase, and add my statement above to your manifesto.”

• “Chappedunderkee” focused on his bottom line and saw the glass half full. “I don’t mind who’s marrying who. It’s a good day to be a divorce lawyer.”

The editorial heavily praised the Supreme Court ruling, saying, “[Justice Anthony] Kennedy nailed it: There are no rights more fundamental than due process and equal treatment under the law.”

Via: Daily Caller

Continue Reading....

School lunch program scans student thumbprints for ‘tracking purposes’

TOWNSHIP, Pa. – A Pennsylvania school district is scanning students’ thumbprints, tracking all of their lunch purchases, and turning the data over to the federal government.

The Hazleton Area School District recently announced it would be providing free meals to all students, regardless of need.

The move comes after the federal government began incentivizing school districts to provide more meals to more students.

As The Citizens’ Voice reports:

While it would seem that providing all children with lunch would cost districts more, the pilot federal initiative turns that assumption on its ear. The initiative encourages school districts to move toward full participation by providing districts with reimbursements that will in fact absorb the cost of providing lunch to students of all income levels, whether they walk to school — or if a chauffeur drives them.

“We will at least break even, if not come out ahead because of federal reimbursement,” according to district superintendent Craig Butler.

The conclusion comes after the Hazleton district purchased biometric software to track students who receive free or reduced-cost lunches.

The student’s thumbprint was scanned each time he or she received a meal.

“This data provided by the biometrics was made available to the district and federal government for tracking purposes,” the paper reports.

Administrators are “unsure” whether they will continue the tracking scheme now that they have bountiful federal cash.

They didn’t indicate how the data was being protected, if it was identifiable to an individual student or how long the federal government would retain it. (Who cares when there’s Michelle O cash to be had??)

Similar fingerprint and tracking initiatives have been hit with stiff resistance from parents — when they knew about them.

Massachusetts’ North Adams Public Schools deployed a lunch payment program using scanners.

“It’s definitely going to streamline the system and make the transactions more accurate,” Nicholas says, iBerkshires.com reports. “Those that participate are able to see all those little transactions … we want to make sure those transactions are as transparent as possible.”

Via: EAG News

Continue Reading....

PENNSYLVANIA TOWN GIVES ANTI-GUN MAYOR THE BOOT

Chambersburg, PA residents voted Mayor Pete Lagiovane (D) out of office on November 5th after he signed up to be part of former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's Mayors Against Illegal Guns (MAIG).

According to Salena Zito on RealClearPolitics.com, the anti-gun influence of Bloomberg made Chambersburg hunters and gun owners feel like they were under attack. And the combination of Bloomberg and "Washington [trying to regulate] gun ownership with more background checks" caused Chambersburg residents "to react in the only respectful way they know: [by voting] out of office those who are infringing on their way of life." 

Mayor-elect Darren Brown (R) says that once he is sworn into office in January 2014, "the very, very first thing [he'd] like to do is get Chambersburg off the [MAIG] list."

According to Brown, "a mayor should focus on such issues as curbing crime and drugs, or keeping the sidewalks clean—not on the issues of outside groups that don't understand a town's way of life."

Via: Breitbart

Continue Reading....