1/25/2014::No less important, stories not gotten to

AFA Radio Host: It’s the Fault of African Americans That White People Are Racist

It’s sometimes hard to know just exactly what the American Family Association, the rabidly anti-gay group based in Tupelo, Miss., believes. It’s obviously against the advancement of any rights for the LGBT community, and it clearly harbors substantial fears about a secular government. But when it comes to matters of race? That’s when things get murky.

This week, on the AFA’s radio network, American Family Radio, host Sandy Rios went wild with a twisted view of racism after a listener accused her of being a racist. Rios, who is also a Fox News Channel contributor, quickly offered a surprising and completely inaccurate assertion – that white people have moved beyond racism, except in response to black racism.

“The American Anglo-Saxon crew really has moved past racism. They did it quite a long time ago. I mean, they did elect Barack Obama – twice,” Rios said last week in comments reported yesterday by Right Wing Watch. “But racism seems to be raging in the black community.”

She added, “What’s causing it is people like Barack Obama and Eric Holder who can’t say enough and stir the pot enough to create anger and hatred and bitterness.”

Fox Fears That Ensuring Religious Freedom In The Military Degrades Core Values

Fox News spread fears that new military instructions that grant commanders the discretion to accommodate service members' religious practices and physical appearance will threaten the core military values and cohesion of the troops despite the fact that the Pentagon requires these accommodations be made on an individual basis in consideration to the health and safety needs of each unit.

On January 22, the Department of Defense released new instructions on accommodations for religious expression -- instructions which they believe will reduce discrimination "toward those whose religious expressions are less familiar to the command." The Washington Post reports the new instructions will ensure "rights of religious-minority service members to display their beliefs outwardly -- such as wearing a turban, scarf or beard -- as long as the practices do not interfere with military discipline, order or readiness."

There Has Been An Average Of One School Shooting Every Other School Day So Far This Year

Last year was supposed to be a year of action to curb gun violence in our schools. But three weeks into the new year, statistics suggest that the problem could actually be worsening.

Though the sample size is far too small to draw any definitive conclusions, 2014 is off to a deadly start: in the first 14 school days of the year, there have been at least 7 school shootings. For sake of comparison, there were 28 school shootings in all of 2013, according to gun violence prevention group Moms Demand Action.

Purdue University is the most recent, when a 23 year old teaching assistant fired four shots inside a campus building on Tuesday, killing a 21 year old senior. One day earlier, a student was hospitalized after being shot near the athletic center on the campus of Widener University in Pennsylvania. And last week, there were at least three other school shootings, resulting in the hospitalization of five students between the ages of 12 and 18.

Georgia Bill To Legalize Cannabidiol Oil Inspired By Politician's Visit With 4-Year-Old

A Republican lawmaker in Georgia is planning to unveil a bill to legalize a medicine derived from marijuana after paying a visit last week to a local 4-year-old girl whose severe seizure disorder could be mitigated by the substance.

"I'm an unlikely champion for this cause. I've never done drugs. Never smoked marijuana in my life," state Rep. Allen Peake (R-Macon) told The Huffington Post over the phone. "But I had a visit with Haleigh Cox, the daughter of a constituent of mine. The result of seeing the pain and suffering she goes through, having 100 seizures a day, and seeing a potential remedy through cannabidiol treatment, I was compelled to move to action."

Peake told HuffPost he is currently drafting a limited-scope bill that would legalize cannabidiol oil in the state of Georgia to help children like Haleigh cope with their seizures. Cannabidiol is a non-psychoactive component of the marijuana plant.

Skeptic Takes A Tour Of Self-Help's 'Promise Land'

A lot of self-help books have simple formulas. They promise 30 days or 10 easy steps to having thinner thighs, landing a spouse, having a great sex life, starting a new life after divorce, climbing the corporate ladder while dressed for success, and, of course, finding inner peace. And while many swear by the power of their favorite self-help philosophy, there are still a lot of skeptics.

In Promise Land: My Journey Through America's Self-Help Culture, one such skeptic, Jessica Lamb-Shapiro, decides to give self-help a try. She's the daughter of a child psychologist who's written about 40 self-help books, many self-published and none that became big sellers.

Bayer CEO Marijn Dekkers explains: Nexavar cancer drug is for "western patients who can afford it.”

Today health advocates were shocked by the direct and appalling statements attributed to Bayer CEO Marijn Dekkers. Published in Businessweek on January 21, 2014 and written by Bloomberg reporter Ketaki Gokhale, a news story about disputes over drug patents (link here) ended with an account of the India compulsory license on the cancer drug Nexavar, and practically exploded. Dekker is quoted as saying Bayer did not intend the cancer drug to be sold to cancer patients in India, adding “We developed it for western patients who can afford it.” From the Bloomberg/Businessweek story,,,