Church-Burning Video Used to Promote Atheist Event at Fort Bragg. Do we send in the Marines to save base from the atheists?

Verne Strickland Blogmaster / January 28, 2012

Posted in Top Stories | 1,265 comments

Jan 27, 2012

Atheists are using a music video that celebrates the burning of churches and synagogues to promote an upcoming atheist-themed festival at Fort Bragg.

“Rock Beyond Belief” is scheduled to be held on the parade field at Fort Bragg in March. The event was created in part as a response to a Billy Graham Evangelistic Association event that was held last year.

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Justin Griffith, who organized “Rock Beyond Belief,” said he was personally offended that a Christian evangelical event like “Rock the Fort” was held on the base.

“We felt it was entirely inappropriate for anyone to say your current religion is wrong,” Griffith told Fox News& Commentary. “We view all soldiers as already spiritually complete. Whatever their current religious preference is has no bearing on how fit they are as a soldier or anything related to military business.”

Griffith confirmed the lineup includes atheist speakers, a rapper who raps about evolution and a “kiddy pool” where boys and girls will be able to scientifically walk on water.

There will also be a number of bands performing – the most famous of which is Aiden. They are featured in a video on the “Rocky Beyond Belief” website that includes images of burning churches and bloody crosses.
The website Christianfighterpilot.com was the first to raise questions about the music.

The website labels the song as the “atheist anthem.”

Among the lyrics: “Love how the burn your synagogues, love how they torch your holy books.”

The group is no stranger to strong lyrics. Another of their songs says, “F*** your God, F*** your faith in the end. There’s no religion.”

Griffith said that particular song would not be performed at the festival, but defended the video of burning churches.

“You can buy their albums in Wal-Mart, a Christian-friendly store,” Griffith said. “If you have issues with bands that sometimes have swear words, or naughty words, or shocking imagery, that’s a part of the First Amendment.”

Benjamin Abel, a spokesman for Fort Bragg told Fox News & Commentary that they were launching a review of the bands scheduled to perform along with their content.

“This is a family-friendly event and we expect the entertainment will meet the standards of decency that would be typical on a top-40 music station,” Abel said. “We owe it to our soldiers and families on post to make sure it is.”

As for the graphic, anti-Christian lyrics – Abel said “I would have to think we would have to take a very close look at that kind of lyric.”

“I don’t know how family-friendly that is,” he said.

Griffith said there is absolutely no controversy about Aiden’s upcoming performance.

“It’s a little shocking to hear some of this stuff,” he said. “I’m sure you understand that these types of shocking things are not going to be front and center for a rock concert that is on a military base. This is not controversy. This is not a real story.”

But if that’s the case, why is there a video of the band performing in front of burning churches on the “Rock Beyond Belief” website?

The military could not answer that question.

“I can’t speak to somebody’s website,” Abel said. “We are reviewing the material and will ensure that event organizers understand that we will have to hold them to a certain level of decency.”

http://radio.foxnews.com/toddstarnes/top-stories/fort-bragg-to-host-anti-religion-event.html

http://radio.foxnews.com/toddstarnes/top-stories/fort-bragg-to-host-anti-religion-event.html

Hey, jerk, you're not Verne -- that would be me!

 Filed January 24, 2012

Commenter on WWAY-TV3 news story falsifies identity, signing under name of Verne Strickland, conservative writer who supports GOP conservative Ilario Pantano – not liberal Democrat Mike McIntyre.

VS: It’s not Hallowe’en, but the liberal loonies are already coming out of their lairs and writing under falsified identities using the names of conservative activists. A story posted on the WWAY TV3 Web site reporting on Congressman Mike McIntyre’s campaign fund-raising was followed by this comment from a reader:

Go Mike!

Submitted by Verne Strickland (not verified) on Mon, 01/23/2012 - 2:06pm.

I'm proud to be a McIntyre supporter and to see that people in our area have enough sense to invest in the campaign of a level-headed and moderate representative.

VS: Such falsification of an identity is illegal under the rules of the WWAY-TV public forum – and on most established comment sections on the Internet. Unfortunately, it is easy for dishonest commenters to (anonymously) assume the identity of another person in order to post a misleading comment purported to be the statement of that individual.

In this case, the mischievous commenter chose to use my name under a comment praising liberal Democrat Congressman Mike McIntyre. It wasn’t my statement. I am a conservative blogger and investigative journalist. I support GOP conservative candidate Ilario Pantano.

While this act did me no personal or permanent damage, it does signal that liberal skullduggery is starting early in this 2012 election season. Actually, to be viewed as a threat to the campaign of Mike McIntyre is something I view as a badge of honor. It proves that the views with which I am identified are hitting the liberals where it hurts. I am complimented by that bit of notoriety.

Conservative congressional candidate Ilario Pantano visits Kinston.

Verne Strickland Blogmaster   January 15, 2012

Pantano running for Republican nomination for District 7

January 11, 2012 12:00 AM

David Anderson

Staff Writer

Residents of Lenoir County who are used to having either Rep. Walter Jones, R-N.C., or Rep. G.K. Butterfield, D-N.C., as their representative in the U.S. House might be seeing a new face in that seat next year, thanks to redistricting maps that put much of the county in a whole other district, District 7.

A Wilmington man who served as a U.S. Marine officer in Iraq is hoping that new face will be his.

“It’s a dramatically different electoral map,” said Ilario Pantano, who is running for the Republican nomination to unseat the current incumbent, Democratic Rep. Mike McIntyre.

McIntyre has represented District 7 since 1997. The district has covered Wilmington and its surrounding counties — up to the outskirts of Fayetteville — during the past decade. Lenoir County was split between District 1, represented by Butterfield, and District 3, represented by Jones.

New maps approved by the state legislature last summer show District 7 spreading to the north, encompassing Johnston County, all of Sampson and Duplin counties and much of Lenoir County.

District 7 now covers nearly all of Lenoir south of U.S. 70, except around La Grange. It also takes up the territory between La Grange and Kinston, and Kinston’s northwestern neighborhoods.

“It’s the new 7th District, where I’m excited to have an opportunity to make a first impression,” Pantano said.

Pantano said he started visiting his new areas and getting involved with local Republican Party chapters as soon as the new map was drawn. He visited Kinston this week for interviews with local media and to speak to voters.

“From Queen Street (in Kinston) to Southport, businesses are shutting down,” he said. “Jobs and the economy are the No.1 concerns on people’s minds everywhere, and I think I offer some insight, having worked in the global markets, as well as a small businessperson.”

Pantano grew up in the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood of New York City. He joined the Marines after graduating high school, and served during the 1991 Gulf War. He was discharged in 1993 and returned to New York, taking classes at New York University and working with the Wall Street firm of Goldman Sachs, but left in the late 1990s after becoming frustrated with the culture of Wall Street.

He started a media consulting business in New York, and was riding the subway to a business meeting on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001.

The train stopped, and he exited the station to the sight of the World Trade Center burning a mile away.

“It looked like a dandelion,” he said of the shower of paper floating down from the Twin Towers.

He added: “That day I came home, and I made the decision I was going back in the Marines.”

Pantano became a Marine infantry officer; by April of 2004, he was a second lieutenant leading troops in the deadly Sunni Triangle area of Iraq.

On the evening of April 15, Pantano and some of his men had detained two Iraqi men suspected of being insurgents.

He had the men search their car and told two of his Marines to stand guard. As their backs were turned, Pantano claimed the men — who were unarmed — came towards him in a threatening manner.

He shot and killed both of them, unloading two magazines of his M-16 rifle into their bodies.

“The bullets go right through the men into the car, into the trees. Into Iraq,” Pantano wrote in his 2006 memoir, “Warlord”.

Pantano found himself accused of premeditated murder, but in 2005, he was cleared of the charges.

He and his wife and their two children currently reside in Wilmington. He ran for the House in 2010, but lost to McIntyre by a slim margin.

He is currently running for the nomination against former state Sen. David Rouzer of Johnston County.

Pantano said the United States risks being in “second place” behind China by 2020, and the country must make difficult choices in the years ahead to get back on track.

“We need more broccoli, and less candy,” he said. “The easy choices have been made; now we have to do the hard things to get our country back on track.”

David Anderson can be reached at 252-559-1077 or danderson@freedomenc.com.

DOCTORS GOING BROKE

By Parija Kavilanz @CNNMoney January 6, 2012: 9:39 AM ET

 
Dr. Mike Gorman has taken out an SBA loan to keep his rural solo
practice running in Logandale, Nevada
 
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Doctors in America are harboring an embarrassing secret: Many of them are going broke.

This quiet reality, which is spreading nationwide, is claiming a wide range of casualties, including family physicians, cardiologists and oncologists.
Industry watchers say the trend is worrisome. Half of all doctors in the nation operate a private practice. So if a cash crunch forces the death of an independent practice, it robs a community of a vital health care resource.
"A lot of independent practices are starting to see serious financial issues," said Marc Lion, CEO of Lion & Company CPAs, LLC, which advises independent doctor practices about their finances.
Doctors list shrinking insurance reimbursements, changing regulations, rising business and drug costs among the factors preventing them from keeping their practices afloat. But some experts counter that doctors' lack of business acumen is also to blame.
Loans to make payroll: Dr. William Pentz, 47, a cardiologist with a Philadelphia private practice, and his partners had to tap into their personal assets to make payroll for employees last year. "And we still barely made payroll last paycheck," he said. "Many of us are also skimping on our own pay."
Pentz said recent steep 35% to 40% cuts in Medicare reimbursements for key cardiovascular services, such as stress tests and echocardiograms, have taken a substantial toll on revenue. "Our total revenue was down about 9% last year compared to 2010," he said.

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"These cuts have destabilized private cardiology practices," he said. "A third of our patients are on Medicare. So these Medicare cuts are by far the biggest factor. Private insurers follow Medicare rates. So those reimbursements are going down as well."
Pentz is thinking about an out. "If this continues, I might seriously consider leaving medicine," he said. "I can't keep working this way."
Also on his mind, the impending 27.4% Medicare pay cut for doctors. "If that goes through, it will put us under," he said.
Federal law requires that Medicare reimbursement rates be adjusted annually based on a formula tied to the health of the economy. That law says rates should be cut every year to keep Medicare financially sound.
Although Congress has blocked those cuts from happening 13 times over the past decade, most recently on Dec. 23 with a two-month temporary "patch," this dilemma continues to haunt doctors every year.
Beau Donegan, senior executive with a hospital cancer center in Newport Beach, Calif., is well aware of physicians' financial woes.
"Many are too proud to admit that they are on the verge of bankruptcy," she said. "These physicians see no way out of the downward spiral of reimbursement, escalating costs of treating patients and insurance companies deciding when and how much they will pay them."
Donegan knows an oncologist "with a stellar reputation in the community" who hasn't taken a salary from his private practice in over a year. He owes drug companies $1.6 million, which he wasn't reimbursed for.
Dr. Neil Barth is that oncologist. He has been in the top 10% of oncologists in his region, according to U.S. News Top Doctors' ranking. Still, he is contemplating personal bankruptcy.
That move could shutter his 31-year-old clinical practice and force 6,000 cancer patients to look for a new doctor.
Changes in drug reimbursements have hurt him badly. Until the mid-2000's, drugs sales were big profit generators for oncologists.
In oncology, doctors were allowed to profit from drug sales. So doctors would buy expensive cancer drugs at bulk prices from drugmakers and then sell them at much higher prices to their patients.
"I grew up in that system. I was spending $1.5 million a month on buying treatment drugs," he said. In 2005, Medicare revised the reimbursement guidelines for cancer drugs, which effectively made reimbursements for many expensive cancer drugs fall to less than the actual cost of the drugs.

Congressional Committee asks Perdue to explain release of embargoed data

By RICK HENDERSON/MANAGING EDITOR Carolina Journal   January 3, 2012   RALEIGH — The U. S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce  has requested that Gov. Bev Perdue provide information spelling out how  she was able in August to release North Carolina employment data that was  supposed to be protected by an embargo. In a letter sent to Perdue Dec. 21, Committee Chairman Rep. John Kline,  R-Minn., cited a Carolina Journal Online story published Dec. 19 reporting  that Perdue, in a speech, publicly discussed information from the state’s monthly employment report before its scheduled release. The letter also stated that emails between the state’s Employment Security Commission (now the Division of Employment Security) and Perdue’s office  showed information was shared that may not have been authorized by the  cooperative agreement between the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics and  each state that is meant to protect the unauthorized release of protected  employment data. A CJ Online story published Monday reported BLS had concluded that  Perdue’s August remarks before the Rotary Club of Asheville violated the  cooperative agreement with BLS. At the time, state ESC Labor Market Information Division director Betty McGrath reported the violation to the BLS regional office in Atlanta, and BLS Regional Director Janet Rankin followed up with interviews of ESC officials. Rankin would not say if any further action was taken. The committee gave Perdue until Wednesday to produce copies of the state’s cooperative agreement with BLS; CJ requested that and other related information last week and was told the request was being  reviewed by DES lawyers. In addition, Kline’s letter asks the governor to produce a series of  documents and communications, including those: • “related to the protocols your office and [the N.C. Employment  Security Commission] have put in place to protect against the  unauthorized dissemination” of employment data; • “relating to the potential unauthorized released of BLS data;” • between the governor’s office and ESC relating to unemployment  data, and; • between ESC and the U.S. Department of Labor related to    unemployment data. Read the letter here (PDF download). U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx, a Republican who represents North Carolina’s 5th Congressional District, is a member of the committee. Attempts to get comment from the committee, Foxx, and Perdue  have not been successful. Rick Henderson is managing editor of Carolina Journal. Executive  Editor Don Carrington also contributed reporting for this story.

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