The Cafe' [Think Tank]

A tenured political science professor at Wheaton College, an evangelical university outside Chicago, has been suspended after she wrote in a Facebook post that Muslims and Christians worship the same God. Dr. Larycia Hawkins wrote on the social media site on Dec. 10 that she was donning the hijab head scarf during the period of advent before Christmas as a sign of solidarity with Muslims. In her post she said "we worship the same God."   After that statement drew criticism, the school said Hawkins was on administrative leave.   "In response to significant questions regarding the theological implications of statements that Associate Professor of Political Science Dr. Larycia Hawkins has made about the relationship of Christianity to Islam, Wheaton College has placed her on administrative leave, pending the full review to which she is entitled as a tenured faculty member," said the statement, issued on Tuesday.   Wheaton College spokeswoman LaTonya T...

Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik Credit Federal Bureau of Investigation SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. — The couple who carried out the deadly attack that killed 14 people here last week had long been radicalized and had been practicing at a target range days before their murder spree, the  Federal Bureau of Investigation  said Monday. The characterization of the husband and wife team, Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik, came as F.B.I. investigators were leaning away from the theory that Ms. Malik, who declared allegiance to the Islamic State on Facebook around the time of the attack, had led her American-born husband to the violence.   “As the investigation has progressed, we have learned and believe that both subjects were radicalized and have been for quite some time,” David Bowdich, the F.B.I. assistant director in charge of the Los Angeles field office, said at a news conference here. The authorities said th...

1. Is it true that Congress has given up on its Dec. 11 deadline for funding the U.S. government? Yes. Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said Tuesday that Congress will miss the Friday deadline because they don't have enough time to finish the spending bill by then. 2. So does that mean the government will shut down Dec. 12? No. Ryan said he will move a bill to extend current federal funding for a few days to give lawmakers time to reach a spending deal for 2016. 3. Couldn’t they just pass a bill to keep the government funded at last year’s levels for the rest of next year? They could, but they won’t. That is called a continuing resolution because it “continues” last year’s funding levels. But Congress has already agreed to boost the overall spending total by about $66 billion. A continuing resolution would forgo all of that new money. 4. But former speaker John Boehner struck a budget deal earlier this fall; wasn’t that supposed to avoid the crisis? That deal avoided...

© Mic Smith//AP Photo Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump gestures as he speaks during a rally coinciding with Pearl Harbor Day at Patriots Point aboard the aircraft carrier USS Yorktown in Mt. Pleasant, S.C., Monday, Dec. 7, 2015. (AP Photo/Mic… Even for Donald Trump, the Republican presidential hopeful who’s raised more eyebrows than Botox, it was a stunning thing to say. The GOP frontrunner’s pronouncement on Monday that he would support a blanket ban on Muslims entering the United States got him another tidal wave of the attention he so craves. It played directly into the fears and angers of the far-right wing of the party whose nomination he seeks. It made him look like a tough guy, or at least someone attempting to draw the starkest of contrasts to President Barack Obama , who just the night before—in a rare primetime address to the nation from the Oval Office—exhorted Americans not to take out their post- San Bernardino fears on their Muslim neighbors....

On November 14, 1908, Joseph McCarthy was born into a Roman Catholic family as the fifth of nine children in Appleton, Wisconsin. Although McCarthy dropped out of grade school at the age fourteen, he returned to diligently finish his studies in 1928, permitting him to attend Marquette University. Once accepted, he began his journey to become what many historians consider to be one of the least qualified, most corrupt politicians of his time. After receiving his law diploma at Marquette University, McCarthy dabbled in unsuccessful law practices, and indulged in gambling along the way for extra financing. Despite being a Democrat early in his political years, he quickly switched into the Republican Party after being overlooked as a candidate in the Democratic Party for district attorney. His dirty campaign to win the position as circuit court judge proved to be an ominous foreshadowing to his later era of “McCarthyism.” Senator Joseph McCarthy, McCarthyism, and The Witch Hunt T...

  Couples who want to use the file-and-suspend strategy to maximize their Social Security benefits will have to rethink their plan. Thanks to a recent budget bill, the door is closing on two rules that allowed spouses to coordinate benefits so they could increase the overall amount of money they receive from Social Security. In addition, people older than age 66 who filed for benefits, and then suspended them in order to get a higher payout rate later, will no longer have the option to receive a retroactive lump sum payment if they change their mind and lift the suspension. According to experts, the changes are geared toward saving money and closing perceived loopholes in the Social Security program. “As much as I hate to admit it, I don’t think Social Security ever meant for these rules to [be used] that way,” says Mike Piershale, president of Piershale Financial Group in Crystal Lake, Illinois. How the government intended them to be used may be up for debate, but...

Unlike today in the 1960s there were no cellphones or social media, so someone had to monitor the activity of the police. Police brutality did not just start; it has always been a problem. Members of the Black Panther Party monitored the police by observing their interactions with the community. The Panthers could freely carry their weapons out in public because California was an open carry state. The Black Panthers made sure Black people were being treated fairly by all people, especially the police. Here are a few facts that you should know about the Black Panther Party. 1. The Black Panther Party was started by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale on October 15, 1966 in Oakland, Calif. Former Merritt College students Newton and Seale were involved in several Black civil rights organizations in the early ’60’s before launching the Panthers. The organization was focusing on the mistreatment of police officers in Oakland, California. It was also formed to monitor the behavio...

Alexander Crummell was born in New York. His father was a freed slave, reputedly an African prince brought from Africa to work for wealthy merchant in the city, and his mother was a free-born woman from Long Island. It is not known where in Africa their families originated. Although Crummell’s father was illiterate, his parents had aspirations for their five children and in the 1820s the young Alexander attended one of the African Free Schools, primary schools set up by New York abolitionists to educate the children of freed slaves. There he was encouraged by an Englishman called Charles Andrews, a stern disciplinarian. Many  #black  children left formal education at about 14 to begin work in lowly paid trades, though Crummell’s classmates were a gifted generation: one became a teacher, one a doctor, and several became ministers. Against all the odds, Crummell and two black friends were awarded places at a secondary school in New Hampshire. The local community was ou...

<img src="https://ioneblackamericaweb.files.wordpress.com/2014/12/mamievanbrittenlkbhf-660.png?w=630" style="width: auto; height: auto; max-width: 630px; max-height: 9999px;" title="Little Known Black History Fact: Marie Van Britten Brown" class="ione-660-tall" />     Date:  Mon, 1922-10-30         *Marie Van Brittan Brown was born on this date in 1922. She was an African American nurse and inventor.   Born Marie Van Brittan in Jamaica, Queens, New York City, in 1966 she had the idea for a home surveillance device. She applied for a patent along with her husband Albert Brown in 1966 for a closed circuit television security system. They created a system for a motorized camera to show images on a monitor. The patent, #3,482,037 was granted. Her devise was the forerunner to the modern home security system.   Brown's system had a set of four peepholes and a camera th...

President Obama said Thursday he is handing the San Bernardino massacre investigation over to the FBI. "At this stage we do not yet know why this terrible event occurred," Obama said. "It is possible this was terrorist-related ... it is possible this was workplace-related." by Corky Siemaszko But, the president said, "at this point, this is now a FBI investigation."                       "We are going to get to the bottom of this," he said. "There may be mixed motives in all of this." Obama, who has called for stricter gun control after other mass shootings, did so again on Thursday. "We need to make sure when individuals decide they want to do harm we make it harder because right now it's just too easy," he said. "We're going to have to I think search ourselves as a society to make sure that we take some basic steps that make it harder — not impossible — but h...

The Café : If you disarm Law Abiding Citizens then all the criminals and terrorists has all the guns. It seems that this administration hates our American freedoms!!!!! WAKE UP AMERICA!!!!! These are not excons or people of ill repute perpetrating these heinous/ terrorist acts. These are people that would have passed even the most stringent of background checks Mr Farook only indication would have been that he is muslim and his recent travels. He would have passed if islam is the only indicator because of the PC movement we would have been hard pressed to make sure that we did not use that information as a deciding factor. These are people that want to eliminate Our GOD and his order from our lives. They are not going through the legal channels to acquire these guns. So changing the laws are a mute point. California has some of the most strict gun control laws in the nation! Gun control laws only further government intrusions!!!!! You can...