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Some protestors called for the complete dissolution of the National Prayer Breakfast, claiming that the separation of church and state means Obama should not listen to religious leaders. Yet religious voices need to be heard by the president as much as the voices of any other group of people. Other constituency groups such as businesses, gender-based groups, and race-based groups receive opportunities to consult with political leaders in a personal setting, and it would be unfair for those who choose religion as their primary affiliation to not have the same opportunity...
However, the National Prayer Breakfast does create an uncomfortable pressure for attendees to support religious groups and religion in general. Inherent in the word “prayer” is the assumption that one’s spiritual choices involve supplicating a higher being. This is discomfiting to atheists and others whose religious beliefs do not involve praying to a God. This nominal objection is important because, in a country with a commitment to the separation of church and state, for any group to be disadvantaged or not included in the breakfast by virtue of their lack of faith...
...only 0.6 percent of the federal budget. And while it is true that there are many important issues to deal with and many projects that need funding, the scale of NASA’s funding pales in comparison to the 150 billion dollars spent bailing out American International Group, the nearly 130 billion dollars spent bailing out the auto industry, the 663.8 billion dollars allotted for the Defense Department budget, or the 1.58 trillion dollars allotted for social programs. The Department of Health and Human Services spends the equivalent of the annual NASA budget every 7.5 days. Support for NASA...
...TCPs that would ultimately last 21 days, two weeks longer than the usual rotation. Specialist Paul Cortez was put in charge of TCP2. The spiral of poor discipline, substance abuse, brutality and lack of senior oversight that began months ago was continuing unabated. By March 12, the small group of young soldiers Cortez was leading, including Steven Green, had reached their breaking point...
...Fonseka, by then a Lieutenant General, was nearly killed by a Tamil Tiger suicide bomber (the group pioneered the deadly tactic following the start of its war for an independent Tamil homeland in 1983). After receiving treatment abroad, Fonseka returned to his desk within three months of the attack...