Month: November 2017

Faith: Verse of the Day for Friday, November 3

Dana Hunsinger Gill
Tennessee Star - Verse of the Day

  VERSE OF THE DAY Be blessed and be a blessing November 3, Friday Proverbs 15:1 “A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger. Matthew 7:3-4 “Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? 4 Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye?” James 4:1 What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you?

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Commentary: What is the Diversity Visa Lottery Program?

Tennessee Star Staff

By Printus LeBlanc November 2, 2017 On Tuesday, a radical Islamist launched a terrorist attack against pedestrians and cyclists, blocks from the World Trade Center in New York. The terrorist adopted the tactics of other attackers in Europe by using a vehicle as a weapon, in this case, a rented Home Depot truck. Shortly after the suspect was subdued by police, his identity and how he came to be in the U.S. became known. The man that killed eight and injured more than a dozen was an invited guest. Sayfullo Habibullaevic Saipov entered the U.S. legally through what is known as the Diversity Visa Lottery Program in 2010. The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 was amended in 1990 with the passage of the Immigration Act of 1990, S. 358. The 1990 bill increased the number of family-based immigration visas, created five occupational categories, and created the diversity visa lottery program. The program was designed to encourage legal immigration from countries that were “underrepresented” in the current immigration flows. The program makes 50,000 permanent resident visas available every year. The visas are divided among nations from which immigrant admissions were lower than a 50,000 over the preceding five years. To…

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Papa John’s Founder: NFL Protests Hurting Sales

Tennessee Star Staff

Papa John’s founder John Schnatter criticized NFL commissioner Roger Goodell on Wednesday for the lingering controversy of player protests during the national anthem and blamed the league for declining sales of his pizza. Schnatter expressed his disappointment on a conference call along with other executives from Papa John’s, the official pizza company of the NFL which…

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Brad Paisley, Kix Brooks, and Country Music Industry Leaders Urge Lee Thomas Miller to Run for Congress in 7th District

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Donald J. Trump was able to parlay his celebrity status into a successful run for the White House, can a Tennessee congressional candidate do the same thing? Some of the biggest names in the country music industry, both artists and songwriters, are publicly encouraging award winning songwriter Lee Thomas Miller to run for Congress in the 7th Congressional District seat that is being vacated by Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn who is running for the U.S. Senate. Nearly 80 artists and songwriters have signed and released a letter supporting and urging Miller to run. Some of the names on the letter are sure to draw attention, including Brad Paisley, Jamey Johnson, Kix Brooks, Brandon Heath, John Schneider, Craig Wiseman, Chris Destefano, Larry Stewart, and famed drummer Paul Leim. Miller is an award winning conservative songwriter who lives in Williamson County with his wife Jana and their four kids. He has penned hit songs for some of the top country artists, including Trace Adkins, Brad Paisley, George Strait, Jamey Johnson, Tim McGraw, Joe Nichols and Brandon Heath. Among his best known hit songs are “In Color,” “The Impossible,” “You’re Gonna Miss This,” and “I’m Still a Guy.” Despite seven No. 1 songs and…

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State Senator Mark Green Announces Campaign Team in Race for GOP Nomination in 7th Congressional District

Tennessee Star Staff

State Senator Mark Green (R-Clarksville) announced his complete campaign team for his run to receive the Republican nomination in the 7th Congressional District in a press release issued by his campaign on Thursday: FRANKLIN, Tenn. – Today, Dr. Mark Green announced the team he has assembled to lead his campaign to victory. Leading the campaign are Darren Morris as General Consultant and Stephen Siao as Campaign Manager. A veteran of many campaigns and longtime public affairs consultant, Morris previously served as the Tennessee State Director and Florida Chief of Staff for President Donald Trump. The Vice Chairman of the Williamson County Republican Party, Siao was the Georgia and Tennessee State Director for Senator Ted Cruz and a manager at Heritage Action. “I’m thrilled to have assembled the top talent both here in Tennessee and nationally for my campaign for Congress—and to have this team standing in the trenches with me fighting for conservative values,” stated Green. Robin Smith, owner of Rivers Edge Alliance and a former state chairman of the Tennessee Republican Party, serves as policy advisor to the campaign. The former President of Yes on 1 and former Director of Development for Tennessee Right to Life, Myra Simons, will…

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Democratic Rep. Steve Cohen Accuses Conservative Pro-Life Black Woman of ‘Ignorance’ in Abortion Debate Over Heartbeat Bill

Wendy Wilson
Steve Cohen

  U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN-9) on Wednesday accused an African-American conservative activist who testified about abortion’s harmful effects on the black community of “ignorance” with respect to the sincerity of his positions on social problems and an “inability” to appropriately address Congress. The tense exchange came during a hearing in Washington, D.C., before the House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on the Constitution and Civil Justice on the “Heartbeat Protection Act of 2017,” which would ban abortions of babies with detectable heartbeats. Star Parker, founder and president of the Center for Urban Renewal and Education (CURE) and a longtime conservative columnist and speaker, said it was “disingenuous” of Cohen to distract from the abortion issue by bringing Medicaid into the debate, reports LifeSiteNews. Cohen, whose district covers most of Memphis, is against the heartbeat bill, arguing that it violates Roe v. Wade. “The culture of death is taking 23 million people’s health care aware from them,” Cohen had said, according to a video of the hearing posted by The Daily Caller. “That seems to be the main focus of this Congress. It’s also taking a billion dollars from Medicaid, which is the main focus of the budget.” Cohen said that “if you believe…

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Commentary: Hillary Clinton, Alger Hiss and the Schism in the American Soul

Tennessee Star Staff

by George Rasley, ConservativeHQ.com Editor   In 1948, conflicting testimony offered to the House Unamerican Activities Committee (HUAC) by former Democratic State Department official Alger Hiss and Time magazine editor Whittaker Chambers began a dramatic two-year long investigation into which one of the two was lying about his Communist associations and espionage for the Soviet Union. In the end, after two trials and an extensive investigation by HUAC, Alger Hiss, the Phi Beta Kappa Johns Hopkins and Harvard Law graduate, clerk to Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, temporary secretary-general of the United Nations Charter Conference, Director of the State Department’s Office of Special Political Affairs, and president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace was convicted of perjury and sentenced to prison. However, Hiss, even in the face of damning physical evidence produced by Whittaker Chambers – the famous “Pumpkin Papers” – never admitted that he perjured himself or that he had been a Communist infiltrator and spy. In maintaining his innocence Alger Hiss was supported by generations of prominent liberals who adamantly refused to accept that Hiss was guilty. Indeed, despite the overwhelming evidence produced by Whittaker Chambers and others in the HUAC hearings, in FBI investigations, in…

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Franklin Theatre to Show ‘The Battle of Franklin’ Sunday

Wendy Wilson

The Franklin Theatre on Sunday will screen the 2007 Emmy-award winning documentary The Battle of Franklin. After the rare showing of the Civil War film, there will be a brief panel discussion on the historic battle, the making of the movie and preservation efforts. Produced and directed by Robert Lee Hodge, the documentary portrays Confederate General John Bell Hood’s struggle to gain control of Tennessee from Union forces. The 1864 Battle of Franklin is related through the actual thoughts and words of the soldiers who experienced the bloody and decisive conflict. The movie was partially filmed on the original battlefield. Ed Bearss, chief historian emeritus of the National Park Service, has said the film is “one of the best, if not the best, documentaries I have seen on a Civil War battle.” “Not since Ken Burns’ monumental PBS production, The Civil War, have I seen better,” Bearss said. Hodge gained famed as one of the Civil War reenactors profiled in Tony Horwitz’s book Confederates in the Attic. A photo of Hodge appeared on the cover. Horwitz first wrote about Hodge for a Wall Street Journal article. At age 9, Hodge already had an idea of what he wanted to accomplish, according to his…

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Merle Haggard Museum and Restaurant to Open in Nashville Next Year

Wendy Wilson

A Merle Haggard museum and meat and three is set to open in Nashville next summer, reports Nash Country Daily. The museum and restaurant will open next door to the Johnny Cash and Patsy Cline museums downtown on Third Avenue South. As with the other two museums, Icon Entertainment is behind the new venture. The Cash and Cline museums are among Nashville’s top tourist destinations, according to Forbes. The Cash museum opened in 2013 and the Cline museum opened earlier this year on the second floor of the Cash museum. Merle’s Meat + 3 Saloon, a bar and restaurant offering Southern dishes, will be located under the museum devoted to Haggard’s career. The museum will showcase instruments, awards, outfits and other things that belonged to the late musician. His widow, Theresa Haggard, has been involved in getting displays ready for the museum. “Merle would be very happy knowing that his museum will be next door to his dear friend, Johnny Cash,” she said, according to Nash Country Daily. “I’m sure he is up there smiling about that.” Born in 1937, Haggard was raised in Depression-era California, where he lived with his family in a box car they made into a home. His father,…

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Just 1,200 New Arrivals in First Month of FY 2018 Refugee Resettlement Program

Tennessee Star Staff

The U.S. refugee program is off to a sluggish start in the new fiscal year, following newly announced screening procedures and a significant reduction in expected arrivals in the coming 12 months. About 1,200 refugees arrived in October, according to data made public through the U.S. State Department. The program, already cut down to the lowest…

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Roger Stone: McCain Has Become a ‘Cheerleader for the Obamas and the Clintons’

Tennessee Star Staff

Roger Stone, a long-time associate of President Donald Trump, blasted frequent Trump critic Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) during an interview Tuesday on “The Laura Ingraham Show” saying McCain has become a “cheerleader for the Obamas and the Clintons” and has rejected the populist movement in the Republican Party. Stone, who advised Trump during his presidential campaign,…

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NBC News Writes First Muslim ‘Backlash’ Story 6 Hours After New York Terror Attack

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NBC News began constructing a favorite media narrative in the hours following Tuesday’s terror attack in New York City, posting a story about potential “backlash” against Muslims just six hours after a Muslim man mowed down tourists on a bike path in Manhattan. Shortly after police identified the suspect as 29-year-old Sayfullo Habibullaevic Saipov, an Uzbekistan…

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Conservative Author Lee Edwards: Trump Is One of Us

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President Donald Trump was not born in the conservative movement, but he is doing conservative things, says Lee Edwards, a fellow in at the Heritage Foundation’s Institute for Constitutional Government. Edwards, a longtime conservative and historian of the conservative movement, told LifeZette on Tuesday that Trump is one of the good conservative guys, even though he…

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Some Nashville Entrepreneurs Question Mayor Megan Barry’s Mass Transit Plan

Wendy Wilson

While a number of Nashville entrepreneurs support Mayor Megan Barry’s $5.2 billion mass transit plan, some are saying the proposal is outdated for the needs of today. The Nashville chapter of the Entrepreneurs’ Organization has surveyed members on the proposal for Davidson County, reports Nashville Business Journal. Forty-four of the chapter’s more than 200 members responded. Eighteen percent said they are “strongly against” the mass transit plan, 6 percent are “somewhat against” it and 3 percent “neither support nor oppose” the proposal. Forty-five percent “strongly support” the plan and 28 percent “somewhat support” it. However, even some in favor of the plan expressed reservations in comments. Those opposed said new technology is consigning light rail to a thing of the past and that Nashville should be part of the latest innovation in transportation. Other critics have voiced similar concerns, saying people today want customized door-to-door transportation offered by services such as Uber and Lyft. They say city officials need to take a closer look at those services, and at how self-driving cars could have an impact in the future, as well as how technology will soon allow even more people to work from home. Some also want the city to consider…

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Liberals Lose Their Minds After John Kelly Calls Gen. Robert E. Lee ‘Honorable’

Tennessee Star Staff

After White House Chief of Staff John Kelly told Fox News host Laura Ingraham that Confederate General Robert E. Lee was “an honorable man” and suggested that the Civil War could have been avoided if an “ability to compromise” was demonstrated, Twitter went berserk and dubbed Kelly a “racist.” During an interview that aired Monday on…

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Russell Moore Befuddles and Angers Many with Reformation Day Tweet

Wendy Wilson

Russell Moore, president of the Southern Baptist Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC), kicked up a storm Tuesday with a Reformation Day tweet in which he portrayed himself as a theological giant serving as a bridge between Protestantism and Catholicism. The tweet featured a photo of bobblehead dolls of Pope Francis, Moore and Martin Luther, with Moore standing between Francis and Luther. The tweet carried the words “A uniter, not a divider. #Ref0500.” Tuesday marked the 500th anniversary of the day Luther, a German monk, launched the Protestant Reformation with the posting of his 95 Theses. The movement led to a break with the Catholic Church and the creation of Protestant denominations, eventually including Baptist groups. Moore’s tweet confused and angered many conservative Protestants on social media. Many said he was minimizing the Reformation and also the doctrinal differences that continue to exist between Catholics and Protestants. Some called out Moore for being arrogant. Some took his tweet as a harmless joke, but others said that while it may have been a joke, it was an inappropriate one. Here are some of the comments tweeted Moore’s way in response: What denomination are you again? Was your account hacked? Seems a little…presumptuous,…

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‘Cosmo Hurts Kids’ Campaign Publishes Message on Memphis Billboard

Wendy Wilson

The “Cosmo Hurts Kids” campaign has left its mark on a Memphis billboard, which cautions that Cosmopolitan magazine features porn. The billboard is on Interstate 40 near Whitten Road, reports WREG News Channel 3. The movement is the work of Victoria Hearst, whose grandfather, publishing titan William Randolph Hearst, acquired the magazine in 1905. The publication was started in 1886. Victoria Hearst wants to make sure the magazine is kept out of reach of young people under 18. Her campaign “is not trying to censor the magazine or put it out of business,” she says on her website. “The goal is to have Cosmo labelled ‘Adult Material’ so that it cannot be sold to anyone under 18 years of age.” Cosmopolitan is not the same magazine it was when it was founded and when her grandfather owned it, she says. It used to be a wholesome publication with articles on fashion, home decor, cooking and raising children. Her grandfather hired writers such as O. Henry, Sinclair Lewis, George Bernard Shaw and Upton Sinclair to contribute stories and articles. The magazine floundered in the 1950s and 1960s because of competition from other media, including television. “In 1965, 14 years after my grandfather’s death, the…

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Richard Viguerie Commentary: Be A Third Force, Not A Third Party

Tennessee Star Staff

by Richard A. Viguerie, ConservativeHQ.com Chairman   As the establishment Republican Party’s Capitol Hill leaders continue to fumble – many would say block – the agenda that elected Donald Trump and built a new and winning conservative – populist political coalition, the mutterings for the formation of a third political party to compete with the Democratic and Republican establishments has grown louder. As I explained in my book TAKEOVER, the ideological incentive for conservatives to bolt the Republican Party seems to grow every time weak and feckless GOP “leaders” hold sway on Capitol Hill – but the political reasons to resist it are overwhelming: Because of the weakness of the Republican National Committee and the GOP leadership on Capitol Hill, plenty of conservatives then [1970s], as now, were inclined to leave the Republican Party, at least for a while. Every time the establishment GOP would “me-too” the Democrats, or strong-arm conservatives in Congress or Republican Party politics, some conservatives would contemplate forming a third party. This conservative disillusionment with the GOP wasn’t new, as I’ve mentioned before; it went back at least to the 1950s and early 1960s, when a vehement group of libertarian-minded thinkers, such as author Ayn Rand,…

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Virginia GOP Gubernatorial Candidate Ed Gillespie Slams ‘Latino Victory’ Ad That Plays to Racial Fears As a ‘New Low’

Tennessee Star Staff

Virginia gubernatorial candidate Ed Gillespie slammed a new ad on Tuesday that plays on racial fears. “In Virginia, we respect civil discourse, and this is a new low in politics here,” Mr. Gillespie, a Republican, said on Fox News. “It’s a sad day. I was glad when a couple of the Democratic members in the House…

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Manafort Prosecutor Has a History of Bullying, Withholding Information, Critics Say

Tennessee Star Staff

Andrew Weissmann, a key prosecutor on special counsel Robert Mueller’s team, has a history of aggressive tactics in pursuing targets — including actions that critics argue have crossed ethical boundaries. Reporters covering Mueller’s probe of Russia’s election interference saw Weissmann entering the grand jury room in U.S. District Court in Washington on Friday. That same grand…

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Bear Dashes into Gatlinburg Candy Store

Wendy Wilson

Who isn’t eager to go into a candy shop? Aunt Mahalia’s Candies in Gatlinburg can’t even keep the wildlife away. At least, that was the case last Thursday night, when a black bear dashed into the store. No one was inside the store on the Parkway at the time. Employees were washing dishes in the back. Tina Aucker, one of the employees, heard screams from a crowd outside the store. “I come walking around like this and there was a bear standing right there,” Aucker told WATE 6 News. “And I looked at it like this and I said, ‘Hang on one moment and I’ll be right back.’ I turned around, walked back to the door and yelled, ‘Amy, there’s a bear out here.’” The bear was soon gone. Employees believe the crowd outside the shop spooked the bear, prompting the animal to barrel inside. Bill Stiver, a Great Smoky Mountains National Park wildlife biologist, told WATE that bears are busy this time of year finding various food sources and eating. They will soon start hibernating for winter. Stiver advised people to keep their distance when they see a bear. Wildlife biologists emphasize that a bear’s behavior is unpredictable. The whereabouts…

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Gubernatorial Candidate Diane Black Hits Hard on Randy Boyd’s ‘B-Roll Run’

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Representative Diane Black’s latest hit on fellow gubernatorial candidate Randy Boyd is sure to have news professionals chortling with the clever use of the media jargon ‘b-roll’ to describe Mr. Boyd’s 100-day publicity tour of Tennessee featuring his literally running across the state. The term ‘b-roll’ – sometimes called ‘cutaways’ – is a media industry phrase that is used to describe the images viewers see when the news-personality is talking about the story at hand. The lesser-used term ‘a-roll’ is the video of the interviewer or interviewee talking on-camera. For instance, when a story is presented about a bake sale, the footage of cookies, batter, icing, and cakes that show while the reporter talks about the where and when of the bake sale is ‘b-roll.’ Often, b-roll is considered the fluff or filler of a story. The strategy animating the ‘Run with Randy’ project is to showcase the Knoxville businessman’s outdoorsy, fitness-loving personality. However some are beginning to compare Boyd’s literal run to a similar strategy by fellow fitness enthusiast, Senator John Kerry, in his presidential bid of 2004. “Today, Randy Boyd completes his ‘B-Roll Run’ across Tennessee,” a statement from Diane Black’s campaign began. “But he’ll have to keep running if he wants to…

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Faith: Verse of the Day for Wednesday, November 1

Dana Hunsinger Gill
Tennessee Star - Verse of the Day

  VERSE OF THE DAY Be blessed and be a blessing November 1, Wednesday Matthew 10:16-24 “Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. Beware of men, for they will deliver you over to courts and flog you in their synagogues, and you will be dragged before governors and kings for my sake, to bear witness before them and the Gentiles. When they deliver you over, do not be anxious how you are to speak or what you are to say, for what you are to say will be given to you in that hour. For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you. … Romans 8:15 The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.”

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