Ebola terror at Gatwick as passenger collapses and dies getting off Sierra Leone flight Aug 03, 2014 23:30 By Rebecca Younger, Andy Lines
Staff tell of fears as jet from Africa is quarantined after the death of passenger who was ‘sweating and vomiting’ before she collapsed
Airport staff tonight told of their fears of an Ebola outbreak after a passenger from Sierra Leone collapsed and died as she got off a plane at Gatwick.
Workers said they were terrified the virus could spread globally through the busy international hub from the West African country which is in the grip of the deadly epidemic.
The woman, said to be 72, became ill on the gangway after she left a Gambia Bird jet with 128 passengers on board.
She died in hospital on Saturday.
Ebola has killed 256 people in Sierra Leone.
A total of 826 have died in West Africa since the outbreak began in February.
Tests were carried out to see if the woman had the disease.
The plane was quarantined as officials desperately tried to trace everyone who had been in contact with the woman.
Airport workers faced an anxious wait to see if the woman had Ebola. One said: “Everyone’s just petrified.
“We’ve all seen how many people have died from Ebola, especially in Sierra Leone, and it’s terrifying.”
Porch Light Productions is once again nominated for TEN Perry Awards August 3rd 2014
Porch Light is a New Jersey theatre company established in 2005. Over the past several years, Porch Light has produced numerous professional, educational, and children’s theatrical works throughout the Northern New Jersey/New York City area. Porch Light focuses on the production of original and scripted pieces while also providing acting classes, seminars, and workshops.
Leaving the Light On
Growing up, I can remember playing outside with my friends for hours without end. As day became night, neighboring porch lights would illuminate the night sky, allowing us to play just a little bit longer. The porch light let us know we were safe and that there was always someone there if we wanted to go home. Porch Light Productions was named for this very idea.
Porch Light Productions provides an environment where artists of all ages are welcome to explore and experience the many aspects of theatre. Porch Light focuses on the production of original and scripted works while also providing instructional classes, seminars, and workshops. Finally, Porch Light Productions is committed to “leaving the light on” to ensure that all artists will always have a creative place to come home to.
Ryan Pifher, Owner/Artistic Director
Porch Light Productions is once again thrilled to be nominated for TEN Perry Awards in the following categories:
Outstanding Production of a Play- Ryan & Jenn Pifher/5 Women Wearing the Same Dress
Outstanding Production of an Original Musical- Ryan & Jenn Pifher & Jon Provan/Stage Fright
Outstanding Lead Actress in a Musical- Sindy de la Cruz/RENT
Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Musical- Peter Fournier/Next to Normal
Outstanding Youth Actor in a Musical- Matthew Mucha/Next to Normal
Outstanding Youth Actress in a Musical- Frankie Alicandri/Next to Normal
Outstanding Youth Actor in a Play- Lewis Friedenthal/Midsummer Night’s Dream
Outstanding Youth Actress in a Play- Sam Brady/Midsummer Night’s Dream
Outstanding Youth Actress in a Play- Lauren Arnold/5 Women Wearing the Same Dress
Outstanding Lighting Design of a Play- Zach Pizza & Raul Barcelona/ Next to Normal
Congrats to all of the nominees on a fantastic year in theatre!
Young Palestinian Girls Carrying Rockets, Gaza, Hamas
The West’s Death Wish Aug. 03 By Matt Rooney | The Save Jersey Blog
We’ve seen this movie before.
Israel is bombarded with rockets fired by Hamas-backed terrorists, flush with cash from international humanitarian aid efforts and the enemies of democracy lurking elsewhere, and hiding like the worst species of cowards among civilians in schools, mosques and hospitals: https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4553643,00.html
Understandably, Israel defends itself by moving into Gaza to destroy the tunnel networks and rocket sites utilized to terrorize and murder its population, the only peoples living in a health Middle Eastern democracy, all the while proving humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza. Wouldn’t we do the same if, hypothetically, Canadian terrorists began raining rockets down on Michigan tomorrow?
Amazingly the West’s answer isn’t universally affirmative.
Not everyone understands or wants to understand. The international community intervenes in the Israeli-Palestinian… by attempting to grab Israel’s wrists and inquiring, in an almost mocking fashion, “why are you hitting yourself?” while Hamas breaks one brokered cease fire after another with impunity. The international media, in turn, focuses on the collateral damage behind Gaza’s lines (remember: Hamas terrorists hide their munitions and fighters behind human shields) and ignores the 3.5 million Israeli citizens living under constant threat of annihilation.
In a word, Save Jerseyans, the dynamic at work here is insane.
Deference to the “cause” of Hamas is so illogical, particularly in light of the latest broken cease fire, that I’m left to assume any support for Hamas is either (1) evidence of Antisemitism or (2) sufficient reason for a CT scan.
Contemplate the “cause” as articulated by its supporters and draw your own conclusions. Hamas’s charter unequivocally calls for the destruction of Israel. Not the relocation of Israel, a “land-for-peace” swap with Israel, a political compromise with Israel, or even monetary reparations to be paid by Israel. All of the Jews in the Holy Land dead. That’s their stated goal. Again, you don’t have to take my word for it. They’ve written it down!
Homicidal actors always announce what they’re going to do before they do it. Hitler and his brown shirts were unabiguously violent anti-Semitic in the 1930s. Mass murders regularly disclose their rants online or to those around them in the run-up to the massacre.
Anti-Semitism Rises in Europe Amid Israel-Gaza Conflict
By MELISSA EDDYAUG. 1, 2014
BERLIN — Across Europe, the conflict in Gaza is generating a broader backlash against Jews, as threats, hate speech and even violent attacks proliferate in several countries.
Most surprising perhaps, a wave of incidents has washed over Germany, where atonement for the Holocaust and other Nazi crimes is a bedrock of the modern society. A commitment to the right of Israel to exist is ironclad. Plaques and memorials across the country exhort, “Never Again.” Children are taught starting in elementary school that their country’s Nazi history must never be repeated. Even so, academics say the recent episodes may reflect a rising climate of anti-Semitism that they had observed before the strife over Gaza.
This week, the police in the western city of Wuppertal detained two young men on suspicion of throwing firebombs at the city’s new synagogue; the attack early Tuesday caused no injuries. In Frankfurt on Thursday, the police said, a beer bottle was thrown through a window at the home of a prominent critic of anti-Semitism. She heard an anti-Jewish slur after going to the balcony to confront her assailant, The Frankfurter Rundschau reported. An anonymous caller to a rabbi threatened last week to kill 30 Frankfurt Jews if the caller’s family in Gaza was harmed, the police said.
The string of incidents comes after Chancellor Angela Merkel condemned anti-Semitic chants from pro-Palestinian demonstrators and President Joachim Gauck called on Germans to “raise their voices if there is a new anti-Semitism being strutted on the street.”
But even as the police have clamped down on demonstrators, banning slogans that target Jews instead of Israeli policies, a spike in violence has spread fear among Jews, not only in Germany but also in other European countries.
“Those who know nothing about Islam pretend that Islam counsels against war. Those people are witless. Islam says: ‘Kill all the unbelievers just as they would kill you all!’ Does this mean that Muslims should sit back until they are devoured by the infidel? Islam says: ‘Kill them, put them to the sword and scatter them.’ Islam says: ‘Whatever good there is exists thanks to the sword.’ The sword is the key to Paradise, which can be opened only for the Holy Warriors! Does all this mean that Islam is a religion that prevents men from waging war? I spit upon those foolish souls who make such a claim.”
Obama military downsizing leaves U.S. too weak to counter global threats, panel finds
An independent panel appointed by the Pentagon and Congress said Thursday that President Obama’s strategy for sizing the armed services is too weak for today’s global threats.
The National Defense Panel called on the president to dump a major section of his 2014 Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) and write a broader strategy that requires the military to fight on multiple fronts at once.
It also said the shrinking U.S. armed forces, which are being downsized to fit that strategy and budget cuts, is a “serious strategic misstep on the part of the United States.” The forces’ numbers spelled out in Mr. Obama’s QDR are “inadequate given the future strategic and operational environment.”
The warning comes as Mr. Obama is under criticism from many Republicans and some Democrats for his standoff policy toward Syria and his limited response to a June offensive by an al Qaeda offshoot that has gobbled up swaths of territory in Iraq.
Congress authorized the panel of outside experts to review the QDR, a strategy for shaping the active and reserve force. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel appointed the co-chairmen: former Defense Secretary William Perry, who served under President Bill Clinton, and retired Army Gen. John Abizaid, who ran U.S. Central Command during the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq.
Obamacare Continues to Under Perform Edmund Haislmaier / August 02, 2014
Edmund F. Haislmaier is an expert in health care policy and markets at The Heritage Foundation — and is frequently asked to assist federal and state lawmakers in designing and drafting health reform proposals and legislation.
Obamacare’s initial open-enrollment period ended in mid April. The big question since then has been, “What were the results?”
Hard data have been lacking — until now. My colleague Drew Gonshorowski and I have just finished reviewing insurance-market data from the first quarter of 2014, and we can report that Obamacare’s results are not very impressive.
Certainly they’re not as impressive as the Obama administration would like you to believe. On May 1, outgoing health and human services secretary Kathleen Sebelius triumphantly reported that 8 million people had picked a plan through the exchanges during open enrollment. Yet, since then, HHS has assiduously refused to provide figures for how many of those 8 million actually completed the transaction. Nor has HHS provided any breakout of exchange sign-ups by those who were previously uninsured versus those who were already insured but obtained replacement coverage through the exchanges.
Several prominent organizations — specifically, the Rand Corporation, the Kaiser Family Foundation, the Urban Institute, McKinsey & Company, and Gallup — have attempted to fill the information gap with their own coverage surveys. Yet even well-constructed surveys have limitations and, at best, can offer only approximate answers. Analysts and commentators (on both the left and the right) have also weighed in with varying guesstimates and interpretations.
Now, newly available health-insurance enrollment data provide a clearer and more comprehensive picture of the changes in coverage during the initial implementation of Obamacare. Unlike estimates based on survey results, the newly available data consist of actual enrollment counts for the private market, Medicaid, and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP).
The data on private coverage come from quarterly reports that insurers file with state regulators. At this point, only the first installment (data from the first quarter of 2014) of what we need for a full assessment is available. Because of delays in processing enrollments and a surge in exchange applications in March, we must wait for second-quarter data to see the complete picture.
Nonetheless, this first tranche of data is highly revealing. Drew and I present the numbers and analyze them in more detail in our new report, but here are three key takeaways from the data for the six-month period of October 1, 2013, through March 31, 2014:
– Net enrollment in the individual-coverage market grew by 2,236,942 individuals, while net enrollment in employer group coverage declined by 1,716,540 individuals.
– The decline in employer-sponsored coverage offset 77 percent of the gain in individual-market coverage, for a net increase in private-market coverage of only 520,000 individuals during the period.
– Medicaid and CHIP enrollment reports from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) show that enrollment in those programs increased by about 5 million individuals during the same six-month period, with 87 percent of those gains occurring in the 26 states (plus the District of Columbia) that elected to adopt Obamacare’s expansion of Medicaid to able-bodied adults.
The biggest piece of the puzzle still missing is the coverage status of the 3,777,438 individuals whom HHS reported as picking an exchange plan between March 1 and the close of open enrollment in April. Few, if any, of them would have had their coverage activated before the end of March, so those who actually gained coverage will show up in the second-quarter data, along with anyone who selected an exchange plan earlier but had his enrollment delayed beyond March due to the exchanges’ software problems.
Even so, this first installment of enrollment data marks a shift from speculation to reality in the ongoing public debate over Obamacare. It also offers guidance on what to expect next.
Assuming no further erosion in employer group coverage, and further assuming that all the individuals who picked an exchange plan during the last two months of open enrollment actually obtained coverage, it now appears that the upper bound for any net increase in private coverage during the first year of Obamacare will be in the neighborhood of 5 million individuals. Of course, those two assumptions are big ifs, so the final figure might well be lower.
We also know that Medicaid enrollment continues year-round. CMS reported that a further 1.1 million individuals were added to the Medicaid rolls in April. Thus, it’s pretty safe to project that when the final figures for Obamacare’s first year are in, the Medicaid expansion will be responsible for over half of any net increase in health-insurance coverage. In that regard, it should be noted that the Medicaid expansion population consists of able-bodied working-age adults, 82 percent of whom don’t have dependent children and 52 percent of whom are ages 19 to 34.
So far, this is not a particularly impressive performance — unless, of course, you believe that giving several million able-bodied, working-age adults substandard government health coverage as a consolation prize for remaining unemployed or underemployed — and doing so at considerable disruption and expense for everyone else — constitutes a significant achievement or an acceptable substitute for pro-growth economic policies.
This is very interesting and we all need to read it from start to finish. And send it on to everyone. Maybe this is why our American Muslims are so quiet and not speaking out about any atrocities.
Can a good Muslim be a good American?
This question was forwarded to a friend who worked in Saudi Arabia for 20 years.The following is his reply:
Theologically – No, Because his allegiance is to Allah, The moon god of Arabia .
Religiously – No. Because no other religion is accepted by His Allah except Islam. (Quran, 2:256)(Koran)
Scripturally – No, Because his allegiance is to the five Pillars of Islam and the Quran.
Geographically – No, Because his allegiance is to Mecca , to which he turns in prayer five times a day.
Socially – No, Because his allegiance to Islam forbids him to make friends with Christians or Jews.
Politically – No, Because he must submit to the mullahs (spiritual leaders), who teach annihilation of Israel and destruction of America , the great Satan.
Domestically – No, Because he is instructed to marry four Women and beat and scourge his wife when she disobeys him. (Quran 4:34 )
Intellectually – No, Because he cannot accept the American Constitution since it is based on Biblical principles and he believes the Bible to be corrupt.
Philosophically – No, Because Islam, Muhammad, and the Quran does not allow freedom of religion and expression. Democracy and Islam cannot co-exist. Every Muslim government is either dictatorial or autocratic.
Spiritually – No, Because when we declare ‘one nation under God,’ The Christian’s God is loving and kind, while Allah is NEVER referred to as Heavenly father, nor is he ever called love in the Quran’s 99 excellent names.
Therefore, after much study and deliberation, perhaps we should be very suspicious of ALL MUSLIMS in this country. They obviously cannot be both ‘good’ Muslims and ‘good’ Americans. Call it what you wish it’s still the truth. You had better believe it. The more of us that understand this, the better it will be for our country and our future.
The religious war is bigger than we know or understand!
Footnote: The Muslims have said they will destroy us from within. SO FREEDOM IS NOT FREE.
Jon Voight Pens Letter to ‘Ignorant’ Javier Bardem, Penelope Cruz on Israel: ‘Hang Your Heads in Shame’
The actor urges colleagues to “examine their motives,” asking “Can you take back the fire of anti-Semitism that is raging all over the world now?”
My name is Jon Voight and I am more than angry, I am heartsick that people like Penelope Cruz andJavier Bardem could incite anti-Semitism all over the world and are oblivious to the damage they have caused.
They are obviously ignorant of the whole story of Israel’s birth, when in 1948 the Jewish people were offered by the UN a portion of the land originally set aside for them in 1921, and the Arab Palestinians were offered the other half. The Arabs rejected the offer, and the Jews accepted, only to be attacked by five surrounding Arab countries committed to driving them into the sea. But the Israelis won. The Arabs tried it again in 1967, and again in 1973, launching a sneak attack on the holiest Jewish holiday. Each time the Jews prevailed but not without great loss of life. And when Israel was not fighting a major war, it was defending itself against terrorist campaigns.
And yet Israel has always labored for a peaceful relation with its Arab neighbors. It voluntarily returned the Sinai Peninsula to Egypt in return for peace, and gave the Palestinians all of Gaza as a peace gesture. What was the response? The Palestinians elected Hamas, a terrorist organization, and they immediately began firing thousands of rockets into Israel.
Why Does the US Media Support Palestinian Terrorists?
July 29, 2014 by Chip Wood
What on Earth is so wrong with the mainstream media in the United States that it can somehow find “equivalency” between the terroristic assaults Hamas leaders in the Gaza Strip have ordered against Israel and what that beleaguered country is doing to defend itself?
And in many cases, the hand-wringing, condescending blowhards in our media don’t just blame both sides equally. No, they’ve somehow decided that Israel is the real culprit in the case.
But it is not Israel that is using its civilians, including children, as a human shield for waging war. It is not Israel that has hidden its rockets and mortars in schools, hospitals and civilian homes — and then ordered civilians not to leave the area.
It is not Israel that uses ambulances to disguise its armed combatants, as it moves them from place to place.
It is not Israel that has built dozens of tunnels under the border between the two areas and that uses them to transport weapons of war. Israeli forces have even captured Hamas infiltrators emerging from a tunnel carrying tranquilizers and handcuffs. Apparently, they were hoping to kidnap some Israeli civilians or soldiers, so they could demand another prisoner exchange. (Back in 2011, Israel agreed to trade 1,000 Palestinian prisoners for Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier who had been kidnapped by Hamas.)
On Sunday, Hamas said it would extend a temporary cease-fire that both sides agreed to on Saturday for another 24 hours. But later that afternoon, it resumed firing rockets into Israel, claiming that Israel demonstrated “a lack of commitment” to the cease-fire.
I think you’ll agree that it’s hard to show a commitment to peace when rockets are raining down on you. The Israeli Defense Forces said in a statement: “Following Hamas’ incessant rocket fire throughout the humanitarian window, which was agreed upon for the welfare of the civilian population in Gaza, the IDF will now resume its aerial, naval and ground activity in the Gaza Strip.”
Thus far, Israeli authorities say that Hamas has launched more than 2,200 rocket attacks against them. Happily, most of them have been stopped by Israel’s very sophisticated Iron Dome defense system. Still, rocket attacks are a constant danger in the country.
Muslims Force Christian To Convert To Islam, Then Brutally Behead Him
By Theodore Shoebat
A Christian man was captured by Muslims in Syria, and forced him to declare the Shahadatan (“There is no god but Allah and Muhammad is his messenger). After he stated the heretical creed, they deemed him an infidel anyway and brutally beheaded him.
Rescue Christians is now working on the ground in Syria and Iraq as we are partners with Sister Hatune Dogan who already has saved thousands of Christians from death. We can save and protect many more Christians in Syria and Iraq with your help. Sister Hatune has been awarded the Order of Merit by the German Government for her work (equivalent to Congressional Medal of Honor). Please click here to partner with us to save thousands more from the Islamic oppressors. All donations are fully Tax deductible.
Our contact from Syria found the video of the beheading, which has never been exposed in the Western media until now, and provided the translation for it. You can watch it here:
As a lesson, if you ever find yourself in such a situation as this, do not say the Islamic creed, but the Lord’s Prayer:
Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth, as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
The Syrian Christians are being persecuted every sing day, with rape, beheading, kidnapping, and all sorts of other horrific violence.
PLEASE DONATE TO SAVE THE LIVES OF CHRISTIANS IN SYRIA
The Government Should Stop Discriminating Against Religious Adoption Agencies
Sarah Torre / @sarahtorre / Ryan T. Anderson / @RyanT_Anderson / July 31, 2014
Kelly Rosati, whose four children joined her family through foster care adoption, knows first-hand the pain and difficulties caused by a broken child welfare system
“These are kids who wake up every day not knowing if they are going to be moved that day, who have no permanence in their lives,” Rosati said. “Many of them have only known neglect, abuse and abandonment.”
“Because we don’t have orphanages in America,” she says, “we think we don’t have orphans—but we do.”
Every year about 400,000 children spend time in our nation’s foster care system, with roughly 100,000 eligible for adoption, as we point out in our recent Backgrounder. Many bounce from home to home and are never adopted. Many will “age-out” of foster care, facing increased risk for low academic achievement and poverty.
And yet various states have adopted policies that would require faith-based providers to place children with same-sex couples, in violation of some agencies’ deeply held beliefs that children deserve a mom and a dad – effectively forcing these agencies out of adoption and foster care service. These policies do nothing to help children and unnecessarily limit the number of good agencies working on their behalf.
On Wednesday,, Rep. Mike Kelly, R-Pa., and Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., introduced the Child Welfare Provider Inclusion Act, which would protect the right of child welfare providers, including private and faith-based adoption and foster care agencies, to continue providing valuable services to families and children. The federal government and states receiving certain federal child welfare funds would be prohibited from discriminating against a child welfare provider simply because the provider declines to provide a service that conflicts with their religious or moral convictions.
This is good policy. The efforts of faith-based organizations and the work of more than 1,000 private, licensed foster care and adoption providers across the United States are helping to increase the number of children adopted every year.
As vice president of Community Outreach for Focus on the Family, Rosati directs the organization’s Wait No More program. Wait No More conducts one-day events that provide the tools, information, and network to encourage families to consider opening their homes and lives to the hundreds of children waiting for adoption in their own communities.
To date, 2,700 families across 17 states have begun the process of adopting children who are in foster care. In Colorado alone, the number of children in foster care waiting for adoption was reportedly cut in half within just a couple of years because of ongoing efforts such as Wait No More and other faith-based collaborations.
Private providers handle roughly a quarter of the domestic adoptions by non-relatives that occur in the United States. Faith-based agencies also provide spiritual, emotional and relational support to families that seek to adopt or become foster parents they are less likely to receive from state-run agencies.
Foster care and adoption policy should seek to increase the number of families willing to foster and potentially adopt children, not risk reducing the number of agencies or families working for children. Provided these agencies meet basic requirements, they should be free to operate according to their values, especially their reasonable and religiously informed beliefs about marriage.
Protecting religious liberty in this instance takes nothing away from anyone. Couples who do not wish to work with faith-based agencies because of a difference of belief are free to work with another private provider or directly with the state offering foster care services. A diversity of providers only increases the chances more children will end up in permanent, loving families.
America’s foster care programs are in dire need of systemic reform. Foster care and adoption policy always should put the best interests of children first, and that means removing barriers to families seeking to adopt and providers seeking to place children in those loving homes.
