Excerpt from freedomist.com
Jean Marshall, a 74-year-old woman who protested outside an unborn child murder center in Washington, D.C., was sentenced to more than 15 months in prison…
Culture Faith
The University of North Carolina (UNC) Chapel Hill revealed on Monday, May 13, plans to divert $2.3 million of funding originally designated to pay for DEI officers and programs. Instead, the funding will be used to beef up their campus police presence.
The move comes after Hamas supporters terrorized the university after the Gaza War broke out. This is the same school where fraternity brothers went viral for protecting an American flag from Hamas activists.
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Excerpt from amgreatness.com
On Monday, the board of trustees at the University of North Carolina (UNC) Chapel Hill voted to completely abolish the school’s diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs, and will redirect the remaining funds towards the campus police and other public safety measures.
According to Fox News, the decision by the board was unanimous. The reallocated funding is at least $2.3 million, compared to the university’s overall budget of $4 billion.
The growing list of Pro-Life activists behind bars under the direct action of President Joe Biden’s Department of Justice (DOJ) now includes 30-year-old Lauren Handy, who was arrested after peacefully protesting in front of an unborn child murder center. She is a member of Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising.
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Excerpt from thefederalist.com
U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly sentenced a pro-life activist on Tuesday to 57 months in prison and three years supervision for her participation in a peaceful pro-life protest at one the capital city’s most controversial abortion facilities.
Lauren Handy, 30, was one of several members of the Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising (PAAU), a primarily leftist organization with a pro-life streak, who initiated a “rescue and protest” at late-term abortionist Cesare Santangelo’s Washington, D.C., facility in October 2020.
“Some simply kneeled and prayed at Santangelo’s facility, some passed out pro-life literature and counseled abortion-minded women, and others roped and chained themselves together inside the facility,” Handy’s lawyers at the Thomas More Society noted.
Handy, PAAU’s director of Activism and Mutual Aid, decided to protest at Santangelo’s facility in particular after she heard him admit on an undercover video that he “would not help” a baby born alive after a botched abortion.
“My belief that was formed after watching the video was if the fetus survived the abortion attempt, they were left to die,” Handy told the court during witness testimony.
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Excerpt from freedomist.com
In a ruling that many in the religious community see as a threat to their own tax-exempt status, the Wisconsin Supreme Court has ruled that Catholic Charities, a Catholic Non-Profit that serves the poor and the homeless, is not, fundamentally a religious organization because serving the poor and homeless isn’t a religious act.
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Excerpt from freedomist.com
Bank of America has suddenly terminated the account of independent journalist and documentarian Christina Urso, also known as Radix Verum. According to a video posted by Urso herself, Bank of America not only terminated her account, but has frozen her assets as well.
A recent paper from the Massachusetts Institution of Technology (MIT) suggests Artificial Intelligence (AI) is learning how to use various forms of deception to achieve the goals they were programmed to complete.
Peter S. Park, the paper’s author, said of the paper, ‘Generally speaking, we think AI deception arises because a deception-based strategy turned out to be the best way to perform well at the given AI’s training task. Deception helps them achieve their goals.”
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Excerpt from freedomist.com
A recent paper from the Massachusetts Institution of Technology (MIT) suggests Artificial Intelligence (AI) is learning how to use various forms of deception to achieve the goals they were programmed to complete.
AI ethicists Tomasz Hollanek and Katarzyna Nowaczyk-Basińska have posited a theory based on a method of analysis called “design fiction” that has led them to conclude loved ones lost in the future, if they leave a digital footprint, including audio and video, can be recreated as an AI friend.
Nowaczyk-Basińska stated, “Rapid advancements in generative AI mean that nearly anyone with internet access and some basic know-how can revive a deceased loved one. At the same time, a person may leave an AI simulation as a farewell gift for loved ones who are not prepared to process their grief in this manner. The rights of both data donors and those who interact with AI afterlife services should be equally safeguarded.”
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Excerpt from www.popsci.com
AI ethicists and science-fiction authors have explored and anticipated these potential situations for decades. But for researchers at Cambridge University’s Leverhulme Center for the Future of Intelligence, this unregulated, uncharted “ethical minefield” is already here. And to drive the point home, they envisioned three, fictional scenarios that could easily occur any day now.
In a new study published in Philosophy and Technology, AI ethicists Tomasz Hollanek and Katarzyna Nowaczyk-Basińska relied on a strategy called “design fiction.” First coined by sci-fi author Bruce Sterling, design fiction refers to “a suspension of disbelief about change achieved through the use of diegetic prototypes.” Basically, researchers pen plausible events alongside fabricated visual aids.
For their research, Hollanek and Nowaczyk-Basińska imagined three hyperreal scenarios of fictional individuals running into issues with various “postmortem presence” companies, and then made digital props like fake websites and phone screenshots. The researchers focused on three distinct demographics—data donors, data recipients, and service interactants. “Data donors” are the people upon whom an AI program is based, while “data recipients” are defined as the companies or entities that may possess the digital information. “Service interactants,” meanwhile, are the relatives, friends, and anyone else who may utilize a “deadbot” or “ghostbot.”
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Excerpt from catholicherald.co.uk
Diocese was justified in firing gay teacher, rules federal appeals court
In a reversal of a 2021 decision, a federal appeals court has ruled that a Catholic school in the Diocese of Charlotte, North Carolina, was justified in firing a substitute teacher over his same-sex relationship.
Lonnie Billard, the teacher, sued Charlotte Catholic High School and the Diocese of Charlotte in 2017 for firing him from his teaching position after the school found out about his wedding to another man, which he posted about on Facebook.
In September 2021, U.S. District Judge Max Cogburn sided with Billard, ruling that Charlotte Catholic High School and the Diocese of Charlotte violated his constitutional rights – a decision the school and diocese appealed. On May 8, the appeal was successful.
“We conclude that because Billard played a vital role as a messenger of CCHS’s faith, he falls under the ministerial exception to Title VII,” Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Pamela Harris stated in her ruling. “Accordingly, we reverse the district court’s order with instructions to enter judgment for CCHS.”
Billard has 14 days to ask the Fourth Circuit to rehear his case, or 90 days to appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States.
Billard taught English and drama at Charlotte Catholic High School for more than a decade before eventually transitioning to a role as a regular substitute, typically working more than a dozen weeks per year. However, Billard was let go from his position in 2014 after the school discovered the Facebook post he made about his upcoming wedding.
According to the original lawsuit, soon after the firing then-Diocese of Charlotte spokesperson David Hains said that Billard was let go for “going on Facebook, entering into a same-sex relationship, and saying it in a very public way that he not does not agree with the teachings of the Catholic Church.”
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Excerpt from pjmedia.com… it’s apparently illegal to say the term “illegal alien” in a classroom as Leah McGhee’s high school son Christian found out.
The North Carolina kid was given an assignment by his English teacher to write about the word “alien.” Christian McGhee asked the teacher for clarification. Was it a “space alien” or an “illegal alien without green cards”?
One of the kids in Christian’s class took offense to using the term “illegal aliens,” and the school administration agreed. Christian was suspended for three days.
For sheer idiocy, this tops the list. The kid was asking a question about an assignment. He wasn’t disparaging anyone or singling out any ethnic group.
The Liberty Justice Center took the case.
“Even though Christian asked a factual, non-threatening question—about a word the class was discussing—the school board branded him with false accusations of racism,” Senior Counsel at the Liberty Justice Center Buck Dougherty said in a statement. “The school has not only violated his constitutional right to free speech but also his right to due process and his right to access education, a guaranteed right under North Carolina law. We are proud to stand beside Christian and his family in challenging this egregious violation of the First and Fourteenth Amendments.”
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Excerpt from news.sky.com
Miss Teen USA has given up her crown, just two days after Miss USA resigned to prioritise her mental health.
UmaSofia Srivastava, 17, said she was stepping down from the role because her “personal values no longer fully align with the direction of the organisation”.
Posting on Instagram, she said: “I am grateful for all the support from my family, my state directors, my sister queens, and the fans who have cheered me on since I won my state title.
“I will always look back on my time as Miss NJ Teen USA fondly, and the experience of representing my state as a first generation, Mexican-Indian American at the national level was fulfilling in itself.”
She was crowned in September 2023.
Her announcement came after Miss USA Noelia Voigt said she was relinquishing her title with a message urging people to look after their mental health.