Professor at Right-Wing Evangelical University Touts Domestic Drones to National Sheriff's Conferenc

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/civil-liberties/us-sheriffs-hear-evangelicals-tout-unmanned-drones



John Marselus, associate dean of Flight Operations for the School of Aeronautics at the Evangelical Christian college, Liberty University, spoke to sheriffs from across the U.S. about the benefits of using Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS)—a.k.a. drones—during the National Sheriffs’ Association Annual Conference in Charlotte, N.C. on June 22. A gaggle of industry professionals, including Marselus, was invited to speak at the conference after giving a similar presentation on April 18 at the Virginia Sheriffs’ Association Convention in Portsmouth, Va.,

Liberty University is the world’s largest evangelical Christian university, and as David Swanson's investigative reporting for the Huntington News website and in Sojourners magazine disclosed, is among the foremost national training grounds for “pilots who go up in planes and drone pilots who sit behind desks wearing pilot suits.”

Marselus developed and teaches several UAS courses, and according to Liberty University News Service (LUNS), is “working to forge partnerships with industry, government, and other innovators as the school works to remain on the cutting edge of aeronautics development in the U.S.”

As LUNS reports, Congress instructed the Federal Aviation Administration to integrate UAS into U.S. domestic airspace by Sept. 2015.

[LuvNewcastle]

1. Liberty is a training ground for fascist enemies of the people.

One can expect no less from a university founded by Jerry Fartwell. Anybody who encourages the use of domestic drones, especially for law enforcement, is promoting domestic terrorism, in my opinion.

[southernyankeebelle]

2. And guess where they will put these things? Most likely in urban areas and the areas minorities

and poor whites live. Watch friends and you shall see. Orwell's 1984 is a coming. Yes indeed facism coming all wrapped up in the flag and a cross. We are losing our freedoms.

[LuvNewcastle]

3. They're getting their ducks all in a row, one by one.

It's like watching an accident in slow motion. I just hope it's not too late when people finally decide to stop it. I'm beginning to wonder if people will ever decide that it's gone too far.

[southernyankeebelle]

8. I have been waiting for the crazy train to derail for a while now. I worry it won't until

our country finally has had enough and explodes into a riot. People will have enough of the crazy talk about government being the bad guy because they have the gall to want to help left all boats. I guess until enough republicans finally see their boats are sinking with them in it then maybe we can turn this country back around. But I guess we have another cycle or 2 until the republicans keep moving more and more to the right and then gerrymandering won't help them either. I waiting waiting and patiently waiting.

[JHB]

4. Founded by Falwell, and rescued from bankruptcy by Sun Myung Moon

Don't leave out the connection to a member of the Right-Wing Billionaire Wingnut-Bankroller's club.

Reber and Thomas came to Falwell's rescue in the nick of time. Their non-profit Christian Heritage Foundation of Forest, Va., snapped up a big chunk of Liberty's debt for $2.5 million, a fraction of its face value. Thousands of small religious investors who had bought church construction bonds through a Texas company were the big losers. But Falwell shed no tears. He told local reporters that the moment was "the greatest single day of financial advantage" in the school's history.

Left unmentioned in the happy sermon was the identity of the bigger guardian angel who had been protecting Falwell's financial interests -- from a distance and without publicity. That secret benefactor was the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, the self-proclaimed South Korean messiah who is controversial with many fundamentalist Christians because of his bizarre Biblical interpretations and his brainwashing tactics that have torn thousands of young people from their families. Moon also has grown harshly anti-American in recent years. Covertly, Moon helped bail out Liberty University through one of his front groups which funnelled $3.5 million to the Reber-Thomas Christian Heritage Foundation, the non-profit that had purchased the school's debt.


***

At about that same time, in January 1995, Reber and Thomas were completing their purchase of about one-half of Liberty University's debt, much of it for a fraction of the face value. The big losers included 2,500 bondholders who invested in the Texas-based Church & Institutional Facilities Development Corp., which had owned $12 million of the school's debt. Reber and Thomas scooped up the bonds at a bankruptcy fire sale for about 20 percent of their value, or $2.5 million.

Many bondholders were "mom and pops cashing in their IRA money because their local minister and Falwell's letters said they'd be doing God's work," recalled Doug Hudman, a lawyer in the case. "The true victims are the mom-and-pop believers who think their money was going to a good cause. All it was doing was going to fund Mr. Falwell's continued indebtedness. It's kind of sickening."

http://www.consortiumnews.com/archive/moon3.html

[malaise]

5. To call Liberty a University is a first rate

oxymoron - it is a propaganda institution for right wing Fundie 'morans'.

[East Coast Pirate]

6. Isn't that whole conference right wing kookery?

Something to do with this? http://www.countysheriffproject.org/

[hexola]

7. Drones are good. Killing is bad.

I think we need to retain our rights build and own these machines.

There are so many uses beyond killing.

And lets not forget there are terrestrial drones also.

These kind science/tech initiatives that should be embraced.

Lots of universities have UAS programs now.

http://diydrones.com/

It might be the "HAM Radio" of this generation.