Background Toward Becoming an Okie

And a Bit About Oklahoma’s New Senator

By John R. Houk, Blog Editor

© March 26, 2026

 

I grew up in Eastern Washington State (to distinguish from the uber-Left West of the Cascades side). I graduated from High School in 1975. Sowed a bit of wild oats. Became a Christian. Graduated from my hometown College (CWU) in 1981 (BA-History). I became motivated to go to Bible School. Packed the family (at time – wife & two small kids) and moved to Oklahoma to attend Bible School between 1982-84. The school was called RHEMA Bible Training Center in those day and was a one year program with an optional second year. Now days the institution is an accredited college called RHEMA Bible Training College (ABOUT).

 

Between 1982 and 1997 I moved back and between Oklahoma and Washington State. It was actually a rough period of time because I experienced divorce. The GOOD NEWS is I found the love of my life in 1990 and remarried my Oklahoma Cherokee princess (well…princess to me). In 1997 we moved back to Oklahoma for my honey to attend RHEMA. We have lived continuously in Oklahoma since 1997.

 

So, why the background?

 

I’ve lived so long in Oklahoma that my oldest Washington-born daughter told me once I have an Okie accent. Frankly, I’ve resisted becoming an Okie transplant for a long time.

 

You may not believe this now, but most of my growing up years, Washington State a Republican Governor who after several terms on Office became a Republican Senator (Dan Evans). I mention this because Washington has not always been a Left-Wing Nut State.

 

Since living in Oklahoma and listening to updates from daughter who remains in Washington, my home State seems committed to compete with Commufornia as the most Leftist State on the West Coast.

 

And so for my now fellow Okies, you are probably aware that Markwayne Mullin is now the former Senator of Oklahoma and now is Secretary of the Dept of Homeland Security (DHS).

 

Now that I live in a dedicated Conservative State, and realizing the GOP majority is slim, I became concerned about the process to replace Mullin as Senator in Oklahoma.

 

On March 24 I ran into a news article from One America News that explains that Office replacement process in the State of Oklahoma. Okies in particular should be interested. AND Conservatives in general concerned about Dem-Marxists regaing political power should be interested. It turns out OK Governor Stitt has appointed Alan Armstrong to temporarily hold the Office of Senator pending the November 2026 Election. As you will read in the OAN article, appointed Office replacements are temporary in Oklahoma and prohibited from running in the next general election by Oklahoma law.

 

The most detailed profile of appointed Senator Armstrong I ran into after a cursory search is from ProfileLayers.com which can be examined HERE.

 

JRH 3/26/26

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Tulsa energy exec Alan Armstrong sworn in to replace Sen. Mullin

(L-top) Newly sworn-in Sen. Alan Armstrong (R-OK). (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images) / (L-bottom) Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt on February 18, 2026 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Heather Diehl/Getty Images)/ (Background) Newly sworn-in Sen. Alan Armstrong (R-OK) on March 24, 2026 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images) [OAN Photo]

 

By OAN Staff Brooke Mallory

March 24, 2026 4:20 PM

One America News

 

Oklahoma GOP Governor Kevin Stitt announced that he has appointed energy executive Alan Armstrong to the United States Senate, filling the vacancy created by Markwayne Mullin’s recent confirmation as the new secretary of Homeland Security.

 

The appointment, announced during a morning press conference at the State Capitol, places the former CEO of Williams Companies in the upper chamber at a pivotal moment for federal energy policy.

 

Armstrong was sworn in Tuesday afternoon by Senate President Pro Tempore Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), ensuring Oklahoma maintains its full representation as the Senate moves forward with a packed spring legislative calendar.

 

He will serve alongside Oklahoma Senator James Lankford as an interim appointee. Under Oklahoma law, he will serve until the results of the November 3, 2026, general election are certified, which is expected to happen by late November or early December.

 

Armstrong is also legally barred from running for the seat himself in that election.

 

Governor Stitt emphasized that Armstrong’s selection was driven by a need for a conservative business leader who could hit the ground running on infrastructure and regulatory reform.

 

“Alan’s story, as you guys get to know him, reflects the very best of Oklahoma,” he said. “Our values, our work ethic, and our pursuit of the American dream that is alive and well in the state of Oklahoma.”

 

Armstrong, 63, spent nearly four decades at Williams Companies, a Fortune 500 natural gas giant headquartered in Tulsa. He served as the company’s president and CEO for 14 years before transitioning to executive chairman in 2025.

 

According to surfacing reports, Armstrong’s primary focus during his tenure will be permitting reform. Both Stitt and Armstrong noted that they had consulted with President Donald Trump and Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) regarding the appointment.

 

All parties purportedly agreed that the Senate needs a technical expert to help break the long-standing deadlock over streamlining federal approvals for large-scale energy projects.

 

“The truth is, it’s gotten very, very hard to build large-scale infrastructure, and it is so critical to our country’s competitiveness in the long term,” Armstrong told reporters. He also noted that his background in the energy industry provides a unique perspective on the regulatory hurdles facing the U.S., adding that his primary focus in the Senate will be securing permitting reform to bolster national interests.

 

“This was definitely a tough decision on one hand,” Armstrong continued at the Tuesday press conference. “But on the other hand, it was kind of a no-brainer, because I really wouldn’t want to be sitting around in my retirement thinking, ‘gosh, I could’ve contributed and done something.’”

 

Duration

 

Armstrong will serve as an interim senator until the results of the November 3, 2026, general election are officially certified. Under Oklahoma’s 2021 vacancy law, the interim term concludes once a permanent successor is elected and sworn in, which is expected to occur in January 2027.

 

Party Alignment

 

Per Senate Bill 959, any interim appointee must have been a member of the same political party as the departing senator — in this case, the Republican Party — for at least five years immediately preceding the appointment.

 

Additionally, the appointee must sign a legally binding public oath or affidavit with the Secretary of State affirming they will not seek the office in the upcoming election, a measure designed to prevent them from having an “incumbency advantage.”

 

Succession

 

Republican Representative Kevin Hern of Oklahoma’s 1^st District [Blog Editor: This is this Editor’s Voting District] has solidified his position as the leading candidate for the permanent seat. Recently, his campaign gained significant momentum after receiving an early endorsement from President Donald Trump, who praised Hern as a “warrior” for the America First agenda.

 

With fellow Representative Stephanie Bice opting to run for re-election to the House instead of challenging him, Hern enters the June primary as the clear favorite.

 

The seat became vacant after Mullin was confirmed by the Senate in a 54-45 vote on Monday night to lead the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Mullin succeeds Kristi Noem, who was recently removed from the post by the Trump administration. Mullin, a member of the Cherokee Nation and a former MMA fighter, had served in the Senate since 2023.

 

Meanwhile, Armstrong’s arrival in Washington does not change the balance of power in the Senate, where Republicans currently hold a 53-47 majority. However, his deep ties to the energy sector and his previous roles, including chairing the National Petroleum Council, are expected to make him a central figure in upcoming debates over the “America First” energy agenda.

 

2026 © Herring Networks, Inc. All Rights Reserved. One America News HOMEPAGE. OAN ABOUT PAGE.

Watch the Hypocrisy – Defend Liberty to the Death

John R. Houk

© October 24, 2014

Danny Jeffrey wrote a convincing essay connecting cigarette smoking and constitutionally insured Liberty. Below is the comment I left to that essay (if indeed it posts) entitled “Seeking answers to today's issues.” You may understand my thoughts better if you read his essay.

+++

I didn't read all the comments Danny, but Wow! You certainly got a big response.

Anyway, you are one of my favorite polemicists. That said, you might be disappointed to learn that I am a non-smoker. And in my later years I have been somewhat militant about non-smoking.

Before you stone me you should be aware that my Grandmother whom I lived with was a lung cancer survivor twice. The second time she quite – cold turkey. I have to admit Grandma’s cold turkey was not a pleasant experience for me. Grandma was more than a bit grouchy about very simple matters. Going cold turkey affected her health in other ways. Cold turkey meant overeating to take her mind off the nicotine cravings. By her mid-70s she became a diabetic and died of a heart attack.

My Uncle was also a butt-hacker. When he was in his early 60s he became the unlucky recipient of lung cancer – and died 3 months later.

As I said my Grandmother was a smoker. Consequently my Grandfather was also a smoker. He actually smoked Camels without filters. He also quit cold turkey. Mysteriously he did not turn into a nicotine deprived monster as my Grandma did. He died in his mid-80s natural causes. I should mention he smoked from his teenage days until his early-50s when he quit cold turkey. Just guessing – it seems then he smoked nearly 40 years and was nicotine free for about 30 years.

My Grandmother was about 12 years older than my Grandfather and it was her 2^nd marriage (Yup, she robbed the cradle). Grandma smoked Raleighs. Since I was perched in the backseat when Mom drove and Grandma sat in the front passenger seat, the cigarette smoke flowed toward the back. Yup, car sickness was a frequent issue for me. A smoke filled living room was something I learned to tolerate but never enjoyed. In the present I often wonder how I trained myself to tolerate smoke filled rooms. Now-a-days being in a room that has been smoke filled nauseates me.

Nonetheless there was a silver lining to Grandma’s chain smoking days. Raleighs had reward coupons. We acquired many fun things over the years because Grandma was also a compulsive coupon saver. I still have fond memories of the excellently made croquette set those coupons delivered to us. I owned that croquette set through my own children’s childhood and teen years – long after Grams went to live with Jesus.

Here’s some irony for you Danny. You went to Washington State to visit a Conservative friend, right? I grew up in a small college town in Central Washington that had about 10,000 people living in it when I was a kid and about 14,000 by the time I graduated and moved to Oklahoma to attend a Bible School. For a little more background the small town was roughly divided between the College students (now University) and the local townspeople. I was one of the townspeople. As you can guess the townspeople tended to lean toward Conservatism even if it was unwittingly. And the College was quite liberal especially a significant number of the students were from the Seattle side of the Cascades that roughly divides Washington State.

Now I say unwitting “Conservatives” because most of the townspeople (including my family) acted like Conservatives in values but voted Democrat because of the false perception that Franklin Delano Roosevelt saved America from the Depression. Yup, I was one of those Baby Boomers that had the deprivations of the Depression history drilled into my childhood. Wasted food was a corporal punishment crime and my Mom walked uphill in the snow both ways to school.

Conservatism for me was thus a transition from the kind of Liberal Democrats that were around in my teen days to becoming a Born Again Christian at age 20. In the transition I played with Libertarianism for a while under the influence of Ayn Rand then embracing Conservatism. The Liberal Dems in Washington State in my teen days would be described as Neocons today. Socially Center-Liberal and with a big pro-military stand to fight Communism. My last Dem Senator Hero was Henry ‘Scoop’ Jackson.

So much for the small town background.

Sooo – cigarette smoke made me nauseated as a kid and really does now as a person a couple of years away from 60. I am one of those people Danny that you would be upset with. I am very gratified that non-smoking areas has increased exponentially since my childhood days.

On the other hand leave it to you to expose the hypocrisy of my gratitude. I would be one that rails against homosexual activists and atheist activists trampling on the First Amendment Rights of Christians. I would be the one exploding because a school banned a patriotic or Christian oriented shirt but saw no problem no problem in pressing anti-Christian homosexual acceptance and teaching the ways of Allah for multicultural understanding. AND yet your point that a smoker exercise in Liberty is hampered by regulating space where free will should occur when there is no harm to others.

Danny I would be one telling you that each cancer stick you smoke is another coffin nail in your life. But being your 70s that argument is pretty ridiculous to make. Danny I am assuming you are lung cancer free so telling you of the dangers of smoking to your lungs does seem a bit ludicrous. It has to sound a bit like telling a fish he might drown for spending so much time in the water.

In your sharing I was quite amused how you segued from smoke-Liberty to Americans losing their patriotic heritage to stand for Truth, Justice and the American Way or die trying. Frankly that is how you convinced me that smoke-Liberty is as important American Liberty. The old saying that goes: “I do not agree with what you have to say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it,” (Voltaire) is becoming a lost train of thought of in America’s divisive political spectrum.

Danny you have convinced me of your butt-hacker Liberty to smoke and I will die to defend that right. Wait, I’m an overweight dude on a disability. Will you defend my right to be a fatso to the death?

Just kidding. I’ll defend your right to smoke. Probably I won’t try dying though. As you pointed out in your essay there is a good chance I will fall victim to being overweight long before the last coffin nail hits your casket.

Danny since I now defend your smoke-Liberty, if our paths should ever cross perhaps you might give me a heads up before you light up. I got to tell ya man, smoking really does produce a nauseating feeling for me.

JRH 10/24/14

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Newbill Emails from 3-29 to 4-2-13

Tony Newbill

Edited by John R. Houk

Here are a series of emails from Tony Newbill with a bit of editing by yours truly. Newbill’s emails typically deal with Conspiracy issues which I love to read. I hope you enjoy them as well.

JRH 4/29/13

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Corporate-Government Conspiracy is Fascism

Sent: 3/29/2013 9:31 AM

To better understand this article you should become familiar with the Monsanto Company, the Monsanto Protection Act and Genetically Engineered Organism (GMO) which also known as Genetically Engineered (GE) seed.

http://www.naturalnews.com/039668_Monsanto_Protection_Act_Obama_deception_GMOs.html

(NaturalNews) President Barack Obama campaigned on promises to end secret prisons, decriminalize marijuana, balance the budget, honor the Second Amendment and make health care affordable. But what really unfolded was an explosion in the national debt (now $16 trillion and climbing), the signing of the NDAA, a claimed new power to kill any American at any time, even on U.S. soil, the use of military drones to murder American children overseas, a full-on assault against the Bill of Rights, a doubling of health insurance rates and the destruction of the U.S. economy.

But that's not all.

Now Obama has signed the "Monsanto Protection Act" into law, stabbing America in the heart yet again and proving that no matter how convincing politicians appear on the campaign trail, they are still sociopathic liars in the end.

The Monsanto Protection Act, part of the HR 933 continuing resolution, allows Monsanto to override U.S. federal courts on the issue of planting experimental genetically engineered crops all across the country. Even if those experimental crops are found to be extremely dangerous or to cause a runaway crop plague, the U.S. government now has no judicial power to stop them from being planted and harvested.

As ibtimes.com reports, the bill "effectively bars federal courts from being able to halt the sale or planting of GMO or GE crops and seeds, no matter what health consequences from the consumption of these products may come to light in the future."

GMOs now evade all regulations: America has become a grand Monsanto experiment

A Food Democracy Now petition now states:
With the Senate passage of the Monsanto Protection Act, biotech lobbyists are one step closer to making sure that their new GMO crops can evade any serious scientific or regulatory review.

This dangerous provision, the Monsanto Protection Act, strips judges of their constitutional mandate to protect consumer and farmer rights and the environment, while opening up the floodgates for the planting of new untested genetically engineered crops, endangering farmers, citizens and the environment.

Corporate-government conspiracy is fascism

This new law forces the USDA to automatically approve all GMO planting permits sought by Monsanto and other biotech firms, effectively granting Monsanto dominion over the U.S. government. This is the very definition of fascism, a form of tyrannical government where corporations conspire with the government to destroy or confiscate all rights, powers and assets, leaving the people impoverished and powerless.

What's interesting about this development is that now even democrats … Read the Rest

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Reason for Rejecting U.S. Dollar and U.S. Food Trade?

Sent: 3/29/2013 11:16 AM

This could create the reason why the US dollar is rejected with the rejection of US food trade.

http://naturalsociety.com/surprised-monsanto-openly-wrote-own-monsanto-protection-act/

It should come as no surprise to many of you to find out that Monsanto actually authored the wording of its own Monsanto Protection Act hidden in the recently passed and signed Continuing Resolution spending bill. How could a major corporation write its own laws and regulations, you ask?

Quite frankly I think it’s important to understand that the entire Senate passed the bill containing the Protection Act, but the politician who actually gave Monsanto the pen in order to write their very own legislation is no others than Roy Blunt — a Republican Senator from Missouri. As the latest IB Times article reveals, the Missouri politician worked with Monsanto to write the Monsanto Protection Act. This was confirmed by a New York news report I will get to shortly.

As you probably know I do not play the political clown game of left versus right, and instead highlight corruption and wrongdoing wherever it is found — regardless of party affiliation. In the case of Senator Blunt, he admits to colluding with Monsanto, a corporation that has literally been caught running ‘slave-like’ working conditions in which workers are unable to leave or eat (among many worse misdeeds).

This is one of the most blatant offenses against the citizens of the United States I’ve seen in a long time. A population that Blunt swore to serve. It’s not for the United States public at all, and it’s a serious matter that I don’t think is properly understood. The passing of this bill into law means that Monsanto is now immune from federal courts regarding any suspension or action on their crops that have been deemed to be dangerous to the people (or the environment).

This means crops that were approved and later found to damage the environment or the public will be immune from United States government action. Theoretically, one million studies could find that Monsanto’s latest creation was causing a massive cancer wave and … Read the Rest

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This is why WE MUST NEVER GIVE UP OUR GUNS!!!!!

Sent: 3/30/2013 9:38 AM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=vK-x9mqXML8   

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What do You Think about These Videos????

Sent: 3/30/2013 10:09 AM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=mE8hvfZsMLg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ATCjAOhHS0g

________________________

Oh the Hypocrisy...... Capitalism relies on Trust..!

Sent: 4/1/2013 7:44 AM

Oh the Hypocrisy...... Capitalism relies on Trust and this does nothing to ensure the system is trustworthy!!!!! 

Cyprus’ President-related company transfers €21mn to London prior to bailout agreement – report

http://rt.com/news/cyprus-president-money-withdraw-129/ 

A company owned by in-laws of Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades wired €21 million from Laiki Bank to London days before the Eurogroup’s crisis-triggering levy proposal, claims a Cypriot newspaper. The president demands an investigation.

During two days, 12 and 13 of March, the company A. Loutsios & Sons Ltd., co-owned by Loutsios John, the husband of Nikos Anastasiadis’ daughter, Elsa, took five promissory notes worth €21 million from Laiki Bank. The money was then transferred to London, reported Cypriot newspaper Harangue, affiliated to the communist-rooted AKEL party.

The withdrawal was fulfilled just three days before the Eurogroup meeting when euro finance ministers agreed a 10 billion euro ($13 billion) bailout for Cyprus.

The company, however, has firmly denied the reports.

…

Earlier in March the Eurogroup proposed the Cypriot government impose a new tax that would make citizens shoulder a 12.5-percent crisis tax on savings larger than €100,000, with a tax of 3 percent on smaller deposits.

The initial agreement suggested 9.9 and 6.7 percent levies on deposits above and below the €100,000 threshold respectively.

At dawn of March 25, Cyprus and the troika of international backers (EU, ECB, IMF) reached agreement on a €10bn bailout plan, aimed at preventing the bankruptcy of the island’s financial system and the country’s exit from the Eurozone.

The depositors holding over 100,000 euros at the Bank of Cyprus will lose 37.5 per cent in money in exchange for bank shares. These big depositors may further lose up to 22.5 per cent more if the experts consider bank’s balance insufficient.

This means that those with big deposits in Cyprus’ largest bank could lose could lose up to 60 percent of their savings in a harsh new EU and IMF bailout deal. Those with deposits less than 100,000 euros will be protected under the Cyprus deposit guarantee.

… Read Entirety

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Thanks, World Reserve Currency, But No Thanks: Australia And China To Enable Direct Currency Convertibility

4/1/2013 10:34 AM

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-03-31/thanks-world-reserve-currency-no-thanks-australia-and-china-enable-direct-currency-c

A month ago we pointed out that as a result of Australia's unprecedented reliance on China as a target export market, accounting for nearly 30% of all Australian exports (with the flipside being just as true, as Australia now is the fifth-biggest source of Chinese imports), the two countries may as well be joined at the hip.

…

Over the weekend, Australia appears to have come to the same conclusion, with the Australian reporting that the land down under is set to say goodbye to the world's "reserve currency" in its trade dealings with the world's biggest marginal economic power, China, and will enable the direct convertibility of the Australian dollar into Chinese yuan, without US Dollar intermediation, in the process "slashing costs for thousands of business" and also confirming speculation that China is fully intent on, little by little, chipping away at the dollar's reserve currency status until one day it no longer is.

That said, this latest development in global currency relations should come as no surprise to those who have followed our series on China's slow but certain internationalization of its currency over the past two years. To wit: "World's Second (China) And Third Largest (Japan) Economies To Bypass Dollar, Engage In Direct Currency Trade", "China, Russia Drop Dollar In Bilateral Trade", "China And Iran To Bypass Dollar, Plan Oil Barter System", "India and Japan sign new $15bn currency swap agreement", "Iran, Russia Replace Dollar With Rial, Ruble in Trade, Fars Says", "India Joins Asian Dollar Exclusion Zone, Will Transact With Iran In Rupees", and "The USD Trap Is Closing: Dollar Exclusion Zone Crosses The Pacific As Brazil Signs China Currency Swap."

And while previously the focus was on Chinese currency swap arrangements, the uniqueness of this weekend's news is that … Read the Rest

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The Culmination of Limiting Life in the USA

4/2/2013 9:10 AM

The Culmination of Limiting Life in the USA: Is this driven from an Ideology about Global Overpopulation Fears among the Elite that see the world from their Private Jet Window???

Is the President’s Efforts to Map Human brains a path towards using Eugenics to Select what Human traits are desirable and which are NOT???? And will this chart a course that takes Humanity away from the True Creator of Life and interrupt LIBERTY for all people if that Person is deemed not desirable due to a Human Determined Defect?? Does this set Humanity in the USA and the world on a dangerous slippery Slope of Limiting Unalienable Rights???

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugenics

Eugenics is the applied science of the bio-social movement which advocates practices to improve the genetic composition of a population, usually a human population.^[2][3] Eugenics is widely referred to as a pseudoscience ^[4] and is infamously linked to the racial policies that led to Nazi Germany's Holocaust.^[5].

It is a social philosophy advocating the improvement of human hereditary traits through the promotion of higher reproduction of more desired people and traits, and reduced reproduction of less desired people and traits.^[6]

… Read the Rest

Obama unveils White House brain-mapping project

http://vitals.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/04/02/17565983-obama-unveils-white-house-brain-mapping-project?chromedomain=usnews

VIDEO: President Obama has proposed $100 million in federal funding to start an exhaustive brain mapping initiative. NBC's Robert Bazell reports

By Maggie Fox, Senior Writer, NBC News

President Obama pitched a human brain research initiative on Tuesday that he likened to the Human Genome Project to map all the human DNA, and said it will not only help find cures for diseases such as Alzheimer’s and autism, but create jobs and drive economic growth.

Obama proposed $100 million in federal funding to kick start the Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies or BRAIN Initiative.

…

It's not clear just what the initiative will do. Obama and collins said they'd appointed a "dream team" of experts to lay out the agenda -- they should report back before the end of the summer. They are led by neurobiologists Cori Bargmann of Rockefeller University and William Newsome of Stanford University.

…

The public-private initiative, with money from groups such as the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen's brain mapping project, aims to find a way to take pictures of the brain in action in real time.

The $100 million funding will come from the National Institutes of Health, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the National Science Foundation, the White House said.

“We want to understand the brain to know how we reason, how we memorize, how we learn, how we move, how our emotions work. These abilities define us, yet we hardly understand any of it," said Miyoung Chun, vice president of science programs at The Kavli Foundation, which is taking part in the initiative and which funds basic research in neuroscience and physics.

The project has some big money and some big science to build on. Allen pumped another $300 million into his institute's brain mapping initiative a year ago, and has published freely available maps of the human and mouse brains. The Howard Hughes Medical Institute built a whole research campus devoted to brain science, called Janelia Farm, in Virginia.

Arati Prabhakar, director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) pointed to a project that allowed a quadriplegic woman to control a robot arm with her thoughts alone.

…

Not everybody is happy about a centralized, administration-led project. Michael Eisen, a biologist at the University of California at Berkeley, said earlier this year that grand projects in biology such as Project ENCODE for DNA analysis were emerging as the "greatest threat" to individual discovery-driven science.

"It's one thing to fund neuroscience, another to have a centralized 10-year project to 'solve the brain,'" Eisen wrote in a Twitter update in February.

VIDEO: President Barack Obama announces a new research initiative that he hopes will advance understanding of the human mind and will help revive middle class job growth. … Read Entirety

There needs to be Limits Placed on where this Kind of Practice Intersects with Political and Congressional Legislative Law and Order in Effecting decisions made on the Individual basis of LIFE because as you see in Washington State trying to Force Capital Investment in Limiting Life would set a dangerous Precedent on Just How and why Life would be allowed or not.

Senator: Abortion insurance bill won't move forward

http://www.komonews.com/news/local/25-state-senators-express-support-for-abortion-insurance-bill-200942271.html

OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) - Despite a majority of Washington state senators having signed a letter in support of a measure requiring insurers to cover abortion, a key lawmaker said Monday that it will not advance from her committee.

Republican Sen. Randi Becker of Eatonville, chairwoman of the Senate Health Care Committee, announced that the bill would not move forward hours after her panel heard testimony on it.

"Even advocates of the bill admit that there is no need for the bill today as every health insurer in the state of Washington provides for abortion coverage," said Becker in a written statement. "As such, the decision of the committee is that the bill will not move forward from here this year."

…

The hearing attracted more than 250 people from both sides of the abortion issue, with many of those wearing rival buttons and ribbons and dressed in dueling color schemes left to watch the proceedings on a screen in a nearby room.

The bill, which supporters call the Reproductive Parity Act, was passed by the House by a 53-43 vote in February, with mostly Democrats in favor and Republicans opposed.

Gov. Jay Inslee, a Democrat and a bill supporter, has repeatedly urged the Senate to vote on it.

The bill would make Washington the first state to require insurers that cover maternity care - which they all most do - to also pay for abortions. Similar legislation has been introduced each session in the New York State Assembly for over a decade but has never received a public hearing.

In testimony before Becker's committee, those supporting the measure said it would ensure continued abortion coverage in the state once federal health care reforms taking effect next year trigger bureaucratic hurdles for insurers paying for the procedure.

The bill would ensure that a woman's decision about whether to get an abortion "is left with her, her family, her health-care provider and her God," said Elaine Rose, CEO of Planned Parenthood Votes Northwest, addressing the committee. "Not with government, not with her insurance plan, and with all due respect, not with any of you."

Opponents countered that abortion insurance coverage is already widespread in the state and that the bill is unnecessary. They also said the measure threatens the religious freedoms of businesses and individuals who oppose abortion rights and do not want to subsidize the cost of the procedure for others.

"You all have the second amendment right to bear arms, to own a gun," said Peggy O'Ban, spokeswoman for Human Life of Washington. "But does that mean I have to buy it for you?"

… Read Entirety

JRH Comment: God bless State Senator Randi Becker for preventing murderous Leftist Democrats from mandating insurance companies to kill unborn babies for birth control.

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© Tony Newbill

Edited by John R. Houk