Random links of interest, concern or curiosity from the past week or so, that deserve at least a SHORT mention:

 
ObamaCare’s Latest Victims Include a Day-Care Center, And An Insurance Company ~ And the hits just keep on coming! A 30-year old church-run day care center in Texas, and a new nonprofit cooperative insurance provider (specifically created under the Affordable Care Act to generate more competition and choice in insurance markets, but now overwhelmed with claims); both casualties of the (UN)Affordable Care Act.
 

Sierra Leone Sees ‘Sharp Rise’ in Ebola Cases as Medical Funding Goes Missing ~ Although Ebola has been mysteriously missing from the headlines in recent weeks, it’s not because it spontaneously extinguished itself ~

…more than $3 million in funding to fight Ebola in Sierra Leone is wholly unaccounted for. The government has vowed a prompt investigation as it begins to quarantine previously untouched neighborhoods in the capital, Freetown.

Samaritan’s Purse has an Feb. 3 update on the deadly virus HERE. The news is mostly positive; Ebola didn’t spread nearly as rapidly as initially predicted ~

The general thinking is that the outbreak may be declared over in Liberia in the next couple of months. However, that is likely not true for Sierra Leone and Guinea. The bottom line is that no one is sure. EVD can spike at any time; it only takes one infected person to spread the disease.

More encouraging – the “Good News” of Jesus Christ is being spread ~

Since March 2014, the Gospel has been presented more than 50,000 times through our work. Nearly 1,200 people have made a profession of faith and received subsequent discipleship.

 
Top 10 Astroturfers ~ A primer from Sharyl Attkisson explains how to recognize the key propaganda pushers, including such notables as Media Matters, Daily Kos and Salon.com ~

Surreptitious astroturf methods are now more important to these interests than traditional lobbying of Congress. There’s an entire PR industry built around it in Washington.

Yippee. Lying for fun and profit – at our expense.
 

Fire Chief Sues City of Atlanta Over Unjust Termination ~ Chief Kelvin Cochran was fired for avowing his belief in traditional marriage ~

Mayor Kasim Reed first suspended Cochran for 30 days and announced that he would have to complete “sensitivity training” after activists who don’t agree with the fire chief’s Christian views on sex complained about a men’s devotional book Cochran had written on his personal time. Biblical sexual morality is mentioned only briefly in the 162-page book.
 
After an investigation that included interviews with employees found Cochran did not discriminate against anyone, the mayor fired him anyway – citing as his basis, ironically, the need to tolerate diverse views […]
 
“Every American should be concerned about a government that thinks it can fire you because of what you believe,” said ADF(Alliance Defending Freedom) Senior Counsel Kevin Theriot. “If it can happen to Chief Cochran, a distinguished firefighter who attained the highest fire service position in the United States, it can happen to anybody.”

 
Yes it can ~
How believing in the Bible can get you canned in today’s America ~ The Benham Brothers, whose HGTV show was cancelled because the network disapproved of their views on traditional marriage, discuss this chilling new trend. (Includes an inspiring video of a Fox & Friends interview)
 
And what happens when the intolerance from the diversity police escalates? Consider the Christians in another part of the world who are being martyred for their belief ~
The Middle East is red with the blood of Christians ~ Centuries-old Christian communities are being decimated. This UK Telegraph article documents years of persecution at the hands of the Religion-of-Peace ~

The atrocity by Islamic State sympathisers in Libya highlights the worsening persecution of non-Muslims all over the Middle East – violence that is driving them from their Biblical homelands.

 
Marie Harf explains ~ Some of the complete nonsense spouted by these State Department spokes-chicks is mind-boggling ~

“We cannot kill our way out of this war. We need in the medium to longer term to go after the root causes that leads people to join these groups, whether it’s lack of opportunity for jobs…”

Which brings me to… my favorite Tweet of the Week ~

I defy you to cite a stupider string of words ever uttered by another human being in the history of mankind. http://t.co/zRDnXNR6S3

— David Burge (@iowahawkblog) February 17, 2015