The following is an analysis of a currently (at the time of this writing in early June) unnecessarily embargoed vulnerability in multiple OSes regarding the userland heap/stack gap and how it affects grsecurity (or rather, doesn't affect it and hasn't affected it for many years). It's unnecessarily embargoed because the issue was already publicly discussed fully in Gaël Delalleau's underappreciated 2005 CanSecWest presentation available here. A patch (available here) for this problem even existed prior to that presentation, created by Andrea Arcangeli in 2004 and included in at least SUSE Linux Enterprise 9 and 11 (as mentioned here).

I am not a member of the private distros or linux-distros mailing lists, and though this particular issue is leaking through various channels like a sieve, I have no interest in digging out more details or ruining embargoes that I'm not party to. As a matter of principle, we choose not to participate in embargoes (even for issues reported to us) as they distort public perception of security: differences in response time, level of proactive measures, and quality of in-house security talent is obfuscated through the activity and delay happening behind closed doors. Effective security shouldn't depend on hoping the "bad guys" don't have early access to vulnerability information, which is what zero-days are all about. So this article is being written based off my impression of what the "newly" discovered vulnerability is, knowing nothing about whatever particular userland application prompted the sudden intense interest, and will be published immediately after expiration of the embargo.

Andrea's patch mentioned above was never included in upstream Linux in 2004, and no improved version appeared in its place in the years following. That changed in 2010 when a highly-publicized instance of the kind of vulnerability Andrea's patch was designed to prevent was published against the X server by Rafal Wojtczuk. Rafal had worked with distributions on the now-shuttered private vendor-sec mailing list to ensure a fix for the issue was created at the kernel level. Seven weeks later, based purely off private discussions, Linus attempted to silently fix the issue via this commit, yet it had to be revised repeatedly later (at least as late as 2013 -- see this commit) as it broke userland applications and oopsed the kernel. But more importantly, Linus' patch didn't address the wider problem, but instead only the particular reported instance of the problem -- attacker-controlled recursion that could be prevented by a single guard page. We mentioned the problems with the patch publicly in comments on an LWN article on Linus' patch, but those comments, technical explanations, and C/assembly examples of issues not covered by Linus' patch fell on deaf ears; the upstream Linux stack/heap guard code saw no improvements in the following years. And now, as they say, the chickens have come home to roost.

I imagine the issue is that someone again realized the behavior of GCC and LLVM on non-Windows OSes with regard to the default non-existence of stack probing and found some new instance of a vulnerable and widely-used application/service to exploit. The following is a summary of the main issues which have all been heavily detailed and explained already in Gaël's 2005 presentation from slide 24 onward (under the heading of "Jumping the stack gap"). Calls to alloca() over a page in size, large local variables, variable-length arrays (VLAs), etc can all easily skip over a single guard page and read from/write to an attacker-controlled mmap-based heap allocation and cause further deeper stack frames to do the same, with all the implications on saved instruction pointers, etc. Not only does this problem affect the main process stack, but it's an issue for thread stacks as well. It was part of the motivation for the creation of GRKERNSEC_RAND_THREADSTACK over four years ago in response to this alloca()-based vulnerability/exploit by Exodus Intelligence. Further easing exploitation is that Linux will honor mmap hints, conceivably permitting some rare vulnerable application to allow an attacker to suggest an allocation just below the stack guard page without needing to exhaust virtual address space to accomplish it (which would open up this vulnerability for more 64-bit apps).

Under PaX's ASLR, this is infeasible since mmap hints are ignored. MAP_FIXED requests are of course honored as required by the standard, but an attacker controlling those can just as easily blow away any existing allocation and replace it with their own content. Further, much like Andrea's original patch, our heap/stack protection (implemented via an enforced gap instead of Linus' guard page) can be adjusted in size at runtime. Andrea's patch defaulted to a single page gap (for compatibility reasons that aren't a problem for the PaX implementation) whereas the PaX implementation enforces a 64KB gap at minimum by default. Without stack probing in place, any uncontrolled alloca() could be abused, so the chosen size of the enforced gap is a tradeoff between virtual address space wastage and security-based assumptions about reasonable stack allocation ranges an attacker might have control over without being fully unbounded. It should be clear that kernel-only attempts to solve this problem will necessarily always be incomplete, as the real issue lies in the lack of stack probing. Since the alternative real solution depends on rebuilding all userland, this is likely the only feasible solution for the foreseeable future. On grsecurity systems, the size of the heap/stack gap can be adjusted via the /proc/sys/vm/heap_stack_gap sysctl entry. For instance, the following command will enforce a 1MB main stack gap for all new allocations:

echo 1048576 > /proc/sys/vm/heap_stack_gap

An interesting historical note: looking through the current upstream Linux kernel code, one will find a remnant perhaps of Andrea's never-merged original implementation, a single "int heap_stack_gap = 0;" line unreferenced by anything else in the kernel, but introduced by accident via an unrelated nommu commit by David Howells in 2005. This variable in Andrea's implementation held the number of pages of the variable-sized heap/stack gap, something Linus' later implementation crucially lacked. Despite several public comments and LKML threads about this line, it continues to stand alone as a reminder about the dangers of NIH.

One might now be wondering: doesn't this same issue also apply to the kernel stack? Yes, it does. Here too upstream developers failed to note or care about this particular excerpt from our KSTACKOVERFLOW configuration help:

This introduces guard pages that in combination with the alloca checking of the STACKLEAK feature and removal of thread_info from the kernel stack prevents all forms of kernel process stack overflow abuse.

The PaX STACKLEAK plugin was added to grsecurity prior to my work on KSTACKOVERFLOW, so KSTACKOVERFLOW built upon it. The STACKLEAK plugin importantly instruments all implicit and explicit calls to alloca() by the kernel, ensuring the requests wouldn't step outside expected stack boundaries. One might recall the STACKLEAK plugin from when it was "ported" by a member of the KSPP, making no mention whatsoever in the commit description or Kconfig help of this functionality, and also having failed to even enable the plugin at all due to failing to adjust some copied and pasted lines from the Makefile to actually enable the plugin. This functionality also wasn't mentioned during a subsequent recent "port". This is but one of many examples that seriously raise the question of how security functionality will be properly implemented and maintained upstream if the maintainers don't understand what the code they've copy+pasted from grsecurity does in the first place.

The upstream CONFIG_VMAP_STACK has been claimed by many to be equivalent to what's present in grsecurity. Its Kconfig description includes the following:

This causes kernel stack overflows to be caught immediately rather than causing difficult-to-diagnose corruption.

This claim was repeated by various news outlets reporting on the upstream VMAP_STACK feature. One may recall VMAP_STACK for being responsible for over a dozen kernel CVEs, introducing potential memory corruption and denial of service through its design and resulting in several additional CVEs for memory handling errors in the fixes needed for those CVEs. Defending VMAP_STACK recently against claims by me that the implementation is objectively bad, Kees Cook of the KSPP said "With this implementation in place, now those kernel stack exploit methods are dead." Remember that even though stack overflow vulnerabilities are quite rare in the first place, let alone exploitable ones, at least one of the published exploits for a Linux kernel stack overflow vulnerability (CVE-2010-3848) was exactly for this kind of vulnerability that VMAP_STACK would be unable to protect against. Unless there were at least 99 other exploitable stack overflow vulnerabilities in the kernel, characterizations by another KSPP and linux-hardened contributor that VMAP_STACK fixes 99% of the issue are also patently false.

In fact, VMAP_STACK lacking the equivalent functionality in grsecurity not only leaves it possible to exploit certain VLA-based overflows, it may ironically make it even easier to exploit these lingering forms of kernel stack overflows. Vmalloc allocations are less frequent to the point that one could more reliably target an adjacent victim kernel stack or other large allocation, not needing to know its absolute address.

As should now be clear, the kinds of kernel stack overflows grsecurity can prevent are not at all dead upstream, or for that matter in the recent linux-hardened project, which in its comparison matrix comparing upstream to grsecurity under the heading of "Prevent kernel stack overflows" suggests that upstream's reimplementation of grsecurity's protection for this class of vulnerabilities is "complete". In our comparison matrix we marked the associated KSPP feature with a orange minus symbol denoting "watered-down features that differ significantly in their implementation and security benefits". We'd been called misleading for this, while I held my tongue knowing the facts of the matter. By now it should be evident how much faith should be put into security claims and comparisons to grsecurity by developers that don't understand the basics of the code they're copying and pasting. It also demonstrates what we've said all along about the synergistic benefits of various grsecurity and PaX features that aren't realized by mindless piecemeal extraction.

A careful reader may have noted the title of this article is a tongue-in-cheek reference to the LWN article linked above. This blog is being published as a teachable moment to demonstrate that articles written by non-security experts simply repeating the security claims of other non-security experts about their own code or others' code are to be taken with a large grain of salt. The "ancient kernel hole" LWN grandiosely proclaimed was closed, was in fact not closed at all for the past seven years. The facts destroying the myth have been available there for everyone to see all this time, but when a news site seems to care so little about accuracy in reporting that it doesn't (for instance) contact the subject of an article prior to publication, or correct glaring factual errors in its content that they've been made aware of, instead requiring readers to wade through pages of third-party comments, it's no wonder that the public is fooled by authoritative-sounding articles and don't bother investigating further. Some months ago I stopped publicly commenting on LWN due to its lack of concern for accuracy in reporting and commenters' lack of interest in learning. When the next issue is reported incorrectly, a reader can't assume an expert will chime in with a proper analysis as happened in this case seven years ago.

Technical debt always finds a way to be repaid, with interest.


Double Dragon is one of the most iconic games ever made, and while the series is best known as side-scrolling beat ’em up, there was actually a legit Double Dragon fighting game based in the 1994 movie.

Released for the Neo Geo CD, the movie-based fighting game was actually a well-developed and fun game that even The Angry Video Game Nerd (James) can’t help but praise. It’s apparently one of his favorite fighters of all time.

Now, James is no fighting game aficionado, but he is a gaming enthusiast who knows a thing or two about good and bad video games. Watch him play and critique the obscure Double Dragon fighting game…

Are you old enough to remember Double Dragon? Do you have any fond memories of the series? Let us know in the comments below.


Nintendo will release special shiny packaged versions of its upcoming Nintendo 3DS ports of Pokémon Gold and Silver, the company announced today — at least in Europe and Japan.

The company’s European division tweeted out the photo below, confirming that the boxes would contain digital download codes for the games; these can also be purchased separately.

On 22/09, shiny packaged versions of #Pokemon Gold and Pokémon Silver containing a download code will be released in shops. pic.twitter.com/PpfYtZFzp2 — Nintendo of Europe (@NintendoEurope) August 18, 2017

The Japanese version of the retail release includes additional goods: magnets shaped like the original Game Boy Color cartridges, stickers and a poster featuring the Gold and Silver generation’s Pokémon.

Polygon has reached out to Nintendo to ask if the special edition boxes will also be available in North America and will update when we hear back. Maybe don’t get your hopes up, however — similar retail releases for the 3DS Virtual Console ports of Pokémon Red and Green last year didn’t make it stateside.

Nintendo announced in June that Pokémon Gold and Silver, originally released in 2000 for the Game Boy Color, would be available to download on the Nintendo 3DS eShop. Nintendo also confirmed that the updated versions of the games would be compatible for the first time with Pokémon Bank, the 3DS service that allows players to deposit, store and manage their pocket monsters in private Boxes online.

Pokémon Gold and Silver will be available to download on Sept. 22.


TODAY marks the 22nd anniversary of Xena: Warrior Princess, who first came into our lives in 1995 and has remained a major part of pop culture ever since.

For many, Xena was an icon of feminism, female empowerment and strength and became an icon for the LGBT community thanks to her challenging ideas of masculinity and femininity, and her relationship with sidekick Gabrielle.

So to celebrate all that Xena’s given us over the years, here are a few facts you may not have known about the show, complete with tributes from around the Twittersphere from fans celebrating this auspicious day.

LUCY LAWLESS WAS NOT THE FIRST CHOICE TO PLAY XENA

Xena is so ingrained in pop culture now that it’s hard to imagine anyone else playing the part, but she wasn’t actually the first choice for it.

The first choice was British actress Vanessa Angel, who starred in the TV adaptation of Weird Science. However Angel fell ill before she was supposed to fly to the set and Tapert eventually decided on giving Lawless the role.

RENEE O’CONNOR WASN’T THE FIRST CHOICE FOR GABRIELLE, EITHER

Renee O’Connor has similarly become the only face fans could imagine playing Xena’s trusty sidekick and love interest Gabrielle, but she also wasn’t the first choice.

Sunny Doench was meant for the role but backed out, reportedly because she didn’t want to leave her partner in the States. Lucky break for us, but not so much for her.

XENA’S LOOK WAS MODELLED OFF A TENNIS STAR

Xena was originally going to be blonde, but Lucy Lawless died her hair black.

Lawless decided that an Amazonian princess should look more like Gabriela Sabatini who was “the big noise in tennis” at the time.

In an interview for the Emmys, Lawless said: “I was like, ‘What about being like her? She’s big and bronze and dark-haired.’ Fortunately they went that way, because my hair would have fallen out if we tried to keep it blonde.”

THE CREDITS HAD A RUNNING IN-JOKE FOR FANS

The credits regularly had a fake disclaimer similar to the Humane Association messages saying “no animals have been harmed”.

It started as an occasional joke in season one, but by season two, every single episode had disclaimers like, “Despite Gabrielle’s incessant hurling, Ulysses’ ship was not harmed during the making of this motion picture”, “No harpies were harmed in the making of this episode”, “No oversized Polynesian-style Bamboo Horses were harmed during the production of this motion picture. However many wicker lawn chairs gave their lives,” and in an episode featuring Xena’s death; “Xena was permanently harmed in the making of this motion picture, but kept her spirits up.”

Fans caught on and started keeping track of each message via internet forums. Which brings us to the next point.

XENA AND GABRIELLE WERE PRACTICALLY MARRIED

Speculation has always been rife over the relationship between Xena and Gabrielle and through many interviews over the years, the cast and crew have confirmed that gay subtext was done entirely on purpose.

But while the relationship was never made explicitly clear on the show, Lawless told Lesbian News in 2003 that Xena was “Gay. Gay, definitely.” Not bisexual, not pansexual, not even just curious and experimenting — as far as she’s concerned Xena and Gabrielle, “They’re married, man.”

XENA WAS ONE OF THE FIRST SHOWS TO HAVE AN ONLINE FANDOM — AND IT’S STILL GOING STRONG

While nowadays, we use the internet for pretty much everything all the time, the 90s were a different time. Yet somehow, Xena managed to grow an online fandom.

The Xena fandom was one of the first to utilize the net to discuss their favourite show via the Xena Online Community board.

The Xena fandom was so strong that it only just had its final convention in 2015, a full 14 years after the show ended, and the online forums are still alive and thriving.

XENA WAS ORIGINALLY SUPPOSED TO DIE

Xena was originally only brought into Hercules because producer Rob Tapert wanted a dark figure to counterbalance the cheerful and heroic Hercules.

She was supposed to be there for three episodes and then die, but Tapert and the other producers liked Xena so much that they remodelled their previously planned Hercules spin-off just for her.

Praise the TV Gods.

This story originally appeared in the New Zealand Herald.


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Occupy protestors performed a small bit of satirical play acting Wednesday as a form of demonstrating against the influence of corporate money in government.

Both Occupiers and supporters of LGBT rights had their say as the lawmakers and lobbyists observed from the balconies inside the Capitol Rotunda.

“Today's event is a piece of political theater and it’s is intended to showcase how ALEC, or the American Legislative Exchange Council has an influence and a direct impact on our legislative branch,” said Occupy Salt Lake protestor Michael Wilson.

ALEC describes itself as a conservative legislative think-tank that creates model legislation lawmakers can take to their states and use. According to their website, they are the "only" organization to provide that service in the country. Their next annual meeting is in Salt Lake City.

“Attending the summit here this summer is $7000 if you're an attendee or $50 if you happen to be a legislator,” said Wilson.

FOX 13 tried contacting ALEC via phone and email, but had not received a response back as of Wednesday whether those costs disparities between a private person and a legislator are true.

An LGBT protest that also happened earlier Wednesday had protestors expressing a degree of anger in regards to a statewide antidiscrimination bill getting quickly tabled by lawmakers.

FOX 13 will have more on this protest tonight during News at Nine.


MADRID — European basketball authorities say they will investigate an alleged assault of former Portland Trail Blazer player Rudy Fernandez while he was boarding the team bus in Lithuania.

Fernandez plays for Real Madrid, and the mayhem followed his team's 105-104 overtime win over Zalgiris Kaunas on Thursday.

Madrid official Juan Sanchez says two fans hit Fernandez on the shoulder and neck and struck a security guard several times. The Euroleague says it has asked for reports from both teams and the local police.

Fernandez was back in his home country of Spain on Friday. He says he is fine and thankful "things did not go further."

He stresses that "people should not think that all Lithuanian fans are like that just because of these two people. Not at all."

-- The Associated Press


Researchers from the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research, part of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, compared Connecticut's homicide rates during the 10 years following the law's implementation to the rates that would have been expected had the law not been implemented. The large drop in homicides was found only in firearm-related killings, not in homicides by other means, as would be expected if the law drove the reduction.

Earlier research from Webster found that Missouri’s 2007 repeal of its handgun license law was associated with a 25 percent increase in its firearm homicide rates. For the Connecticut study, Webster and his colleagues used comparison states with homicide trends that most closely matched those in Connecticut before the law went into effect in order to predict what would have happened to homicide trends in Connecticut had the handgun licensing law not been implemented. “Taken together, these studies provide compelling evidence that permit to purchase licensing systems is one of the most effective policies we have to reduce gun violence,” Webster says.

In 1995 Connecticut added a law to the state's books requiring licenses (permits) and requiring background checks. Researchers at Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research decided to look into whether or not there were any results as a result. Comparing these results with results of the inverse happening in Missouri after they repealed their handgun law license has led to the shocking conclusion that gun laws help save lives. Cold dead hands and all that.


Story highlights Police: 14-year-old was armed with a pistol, held hostages in a 2nd-floor classroom

He released the hostages first, then put down his gun and surrendered to authorities

(CNN) A 14-year-old boy held numerous students and a teacher hostage Tuesday inside his West Virginia high school -- a scary episode that ended peacefully with the teen dropping his gun and surrendering, police said.

A 911 call placed at about 1:30 p.m. alerted Barbour County authorities that a person with a gun was inside Philip Barbour High School in Philippi, a city of 3,000 people about 40 miles south of Morgantown.

According to a West Virginia State Police post on Facebook, responding officers arrived to find a 14-year-old armed with a pistol with other students and the teacher in a second-floor classroom.

Everyone else was quickly shuttled to safety, first to the school's football field and then home via bus.

No injuries were reported.

Read More


Tony Abbott under fire from Cabinet colleagues over decision to grant knighthood to Prince Philip

Updated

Some of Prime Minister Tony Abbott's most senior colleagues are bewildered, angered and dismayed by his decision to award an Australian knighthood to Prince Philip.

Prince Philip and former Defence Force chief Angus Houston were named Australia's newest knights today, under an honours system reinstated by Mr Abbott last year.

Cabinet ministers have told the ABC the Prime Minister did not consult any of the leadership group before announcing the move.

Mr Abbott agreed it was a "captain's call", saying he consulted only with Governor General Sir Peter Cosgrove and Order of Australia chairman Sir Angus.

Ministers said they would have opposed the knighthood, if asked.

One described it as a "stupid" decision that would make the Government an object of ridicule.

Another said the Prime Minister's colleagues were willing him to succeed, but he had started the year badly and had made the job of trying to lift the Coalition's electoral credibility just that much harder.

"There is an old saying that when you are in a hole you should stop digging," one minister said.

"Well, we've just punched through the Earth's crust."

Another Coalition MP said the move reinforced the left-wing caricature of the Prime Minister: the appointment harked to Australia's past and the opportunity of making a positive statement about the future on the national day had been squandered.

The private anger of Coalition MPs and ministers was given public voice by the conservative chief minister of the northern territory, Adam Giles.

He said that when he read reports of the Prince's knighthood this morning he wondered if he had woken on April Fools' Day.

"It's Australia Day," he said. "We're not a bunch of tossers, let's get it right."

The move to award an Australian knighthood to the Queen's husband has also been criticised by republicans, with former Western Australia premier Geoff Gallop calling it a "sad reflection" on Australia.

And it drew fire on social media from commentators including Canberra press gallery veteran Laurie Oakes, who tweeted: "Libs must wonder who can help a PM apparently determined to be seen as a joke. #jokeknighthood".

Answering questions about the decision at an Australia Day event in Canberra today, Mr Abbott said he was "really pleased" the Queen had accepted his recommendations on the knighthoods and added that whilst the Duke had not called to say thank you for the honour, he did not "expect gratitude".

And he said social media criticism of the move was akin to "electronic graffiti"

"I think that in the media, you make a big mistake to pay too much attention to social media. You wouldn't report what's sprayed up up on the walls of buildings and look, as I said, social media has its place, but it's anonymous," he told reporters.

"It's often very abusive and in a sense, it has about as much authority and credibility as graffiti that happens to be put forward by means of IT."

Mr Abbott said he stood by the decision to award the knighthood to 93-year-old Prince Philip because "the monarchy has been an important part of Australia's life since 1788".

"Prince Philip has been a great servant of Australia, he's been a great servant of all the countries of the Commonwealth.

"Here in this country he's the patron of hundreds of organisations. He's the inspiration and wellspring of the Duke of Edinburgh's Awards which have provided leadership training for tens if not hundreds of thousands of Australians over the years.

"I'm just really pleased that in his 90s, towards the end of a life of service and duty, we in this country are able to properly acknowledge what he's done for us."

Asked how widely he had consulted before making the decision, Mr Abbott said: "As you would expect, I consulted with the Chairman of the Order of Australia, and I consulted with the Governor-General. That's what you would expect."

Asked if Prince Philip was a "captain's pick" for the award, Mr Abbott said "I'm not going to dispute your characterisation" before calling for questions on other topics.

Shorten says award for British royal 'a time warp'

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten, who yesterday called for a renewed debate on Australia becoming a republic, said giving a knighthood to an English royal on Australia Day was outside the mainstream of Australian thinking.

"It's a time warp where we're giving knighthoods to English royalty," Mr Shorten told Fairfax Radio.

"On Australia Day, we're talking about Australia, Australian identity, the Government's managed to find a British royal to give a medal to, a knighthood to."

He said that if Labor won office it would not continue the tradition of knights or dames.

"When we look at Australia in the 21st century, it's about who we're going to be as a people and I just think giving out a top award to a British royal is anachronistic."

Prince has 'long relationship with Australia'

Earlier the head of Australians for Constitutional Monarchy, Professor David Flint, said the knighthood was an appropriate recognition for Prince Philip's "long relationship with Australia".

"He was a sailor in the convoys that protected Australian troops being taken to the Middle East in the Second World War," Professor Flint said.

"He was also in the Pacific Fleet and he was actually in Tokyo Bay at the time the Japanese surrendered.

"He opened the '56 Olympics, he's got a very long relationship through the Duke of Edinburgh Awards scheme."

But Mr Gallop said Mr Abbott's decision to start awarding Australian knighthoods had "heavily polluted" the Australian honours system.

"As we try to reflect upon our nation ... one of Australia's highest honours goes to someone who's not part of our community," he said.

"In effect this is the eccentricity of Tony Abbott's views on our constitution coming through.

"It certainly doesn't reflect the view of the Australian people through a meritocratic process."

Famed for his off-the-cuff quips and gaffes, Prince Philip, who married Queen Elizabeth in 1947, is the longest serving royal consort in British history.

The Queen once described him as "my strength and stay all these years".

But the duke, a constant presence by his wife's side throughout her six decades on the throne, has suffered a series of health scares in recent years.

Topics: constitution, government-and-politics, royal-and-imperial-matters, human-interest, abbott-tony, australia, united-kingdom

First posted


WE STILL NEED YOUR HELP! HOURS LEFT TO PLEDGE!

Even though we have met our goal, we'd love to raise another $3k to help cover the Kickstarter and Amazon fees (8-10%). We still have some great rewards available and even several producer credits left!

RECENT PRESS

Huffington Post - USA Today - Indiewire - "Project of the Day"

Sundance just featured us on their front page! Check it out here.

ABOUT THE FILM

FIGHT CHURCH is a feature documentary about the confluence of Christianity and Mixed Martial Arts. The film follows several pastors and fighters in a quest to reconcile their faith with a sport that some consider violent and barbaric. Faith is tried and questions are raised. Can you really love your neighbor as yourself and then punch him in the face?

WHY WE NEED YOUR HELP

The film is still a long ways from being done and we must raise 30k to complete our shooting and post production. Here's where your money will be going:

1) $12,500- We need to return to New York and various other states to film with our main character and additional characters. Without this footage, we won't be able to tell the full story.

2) $17,500- We have another 6-9 months of editing ahead of us. We need to hire an editor and an assistant editor at a bare bones salary to work with us to shape the story. We have about half the film edited, but can't finish without a budget.

Please help us tell the stories of these amazing individuals today! We want to finish our passion project and can't do it without your help!

________________________________________________________

THE FILMMAKERS & THEIR FILMS

While some of you may already be familiar with our work, others may not. Here are a few of the past projects we've completed.

Daniel Junge, Director

Saving Face - Oscar Winner for Best Documentary Short. The film follows several Pakistani women who are victims of acid violence.

The Last Campaign of Governor Booth Gardner - Oscar Nomination. The documentary follows the assisted suicide ballot initiative in Washington State.

They Killed Sister Dorothy - Jury and Audience Award Winner at SXSW, Emmy-nominated, Oscar Short-Listed. Documentary on the killing of 73-year-old Catholic nun and activist Sister Dorothy Stang.

Bryan Storkel, Director

Holy Rollers: The True Story of Card Counting Christians - Award-winning documentary tells the story of a team of card counting Christians who took millions from Vegas.

Eben Kostbar & Joseph McKelheer, Producers (Film Harvest)

Free Samples - Narrative Feature starring Jesse Eisenberg, Jason Ritter, & Jess Weixler. Premiered at Tribeca 2012.

The Hammer - Award Winning Biopic on UFC fighter, Matt Hamill.

__________________________________________________

HOW CAN YOU HELP US FURTHER?

Please follow us on Facebook and Twitter, and please tell your friends and family about our Kickstarter campaign.

Fight Church on Facebook

Fight Church on Twitter

Because of how Kickstarter works, if we don't reach our goal of $30k, we won't get to keep any of the money. We can't do this without you! Here's how you can help us...

1) Like us on Facebook, then share the Kickstarter Link with your FB friends, asking them to pledge.

2) Make a small donation to help us finish the film!

THANK YOU VERY MUCH! :)


The spotlight cast on the novelist by the Charlie Hebdo attacks should not mislead us – his target here is not Islamism but suggestible modern men News: Houellebecq stops promotion of novel after Charlie Hebdo attack

As the aftermath of the Charlie Hebdo murders continues to unfold, French readers are turning to the magazine’s latest cover star, with Michel Houellebecq’s Soumission racing to the top of bestseller lists at Amazon.fr. But is France’s most celebrated controversialist offering a splenetic vision of the Muslim threat to Europe or a spineless “submission” to gradual Islamic takeover? Actually, neither. It’s much more interesting than that.

Those riffling impatiently through the opening for controversy will be disappointed, as we are introduced slowly to the narrator, François, a middle-aged literary academic who teaches at the Sorbonne. He is an expert on Huysmans, the cultish 19th-century anatomist of decadence, and he sleeps hungrily with his students. But he is bored. The narration is enjoyably sardonic, a pungent mixture of deadpan jokes about sexual politics and close reading.

The novel, due to be published in English later this year, is set seven years hence, in the year 2022. François settles in to enjoy the TV spectacle of the presidential elections, which he considers second only to the World Cup for entertainment value. After the first round of voting, the two candidates left are Marine Le Pen, leader of the far-right Front National, and the head of France’s new Islamic party, Mohammed Ben Abbes. The Socialists do a deal with the “Muslim Fraternity” to defeat Le Pen, and Ben Abbes becomes president. Immediately all women go veiled in the street, state secondary schools adopt an Islamic curriculum, and François is informed that he cannot return to his university work unless he converts to Islam.

Some in France have already complained that the novel fans right-wing fears of the Muslim population, but that is to miss Houellebecq’s deeply mischievous point. Islamists and anti-immigration demagogues, the novel gleefully points out, really ought to be on the same side, because they share a suspicion of pluralist liberalism and a desire to return to “traditional” or pre-feminist values, where a woman submits to her husband – just as “Islam” means that a Muslim submits to God.

But Soumission is, arguably, not primarily about politics at all. The real target of Houellebecq’s satire – as in his previous novels – is the predictably manipulable venality and lustfulness of the modern metropolitan man, intellectual or otherwise. François himself happily submits to the new order, not for any grand philosophical or religious reasons, but because the new Saudi owners of the Sorbonne pay much better – and, more importantly, he can be polygamous. As he notes, in envious fantasy, of his charismatic new boss, who has adroitly converted already: “One 40-year-old wife for cooking, one 15-year-old wife for other things … no doubt he had one or two others of intermediate ages.”

Michel Houellebecq stops promotion of new novel after Charlie Hebdo attack Read more

The novel ends in an almost science-fictional conditional mood, with François looking forward dreamily to his own conversion and a future of endless sensual gratification: “I’d have nothing to regret.” But with his publisher under police protection, Houellebecq must surely regret the manner in which his darkly clever and funny book has become another succès de scandale.


Two worlds collide in Mario + Rabbids® Kingdom Battle!

This game is available for purchase exclusively on Nintendo eShop for Nintendo Switch.

Gold Edition includes game and season pass:

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Image caption Harry Redknapp said two men fell on their knees and began pulling at his trouser legs

Tottenham Hotspur manager Harry Redknapp has revealed he was mugged while attending a football match in Spain on Thursday.

Redknapp, 63, was in Madrid to see the Spanish capital's two main teams, Real and Atletico, play in the Copa del Rey.

He said two men fell to their knees in front of him and tugged at his trouser legs to distract him while four others took money and items from his pockets.

Redknapp said he did not report the incident to police.

He said he was at the match with his assistant manager Kevin Bond and had to borrow money from him to pay for a taxi back to his hotel and for dinner before returning to London.

'Got some sweets'

The former Portsmouth and West Ham manager said: "I'm walking round the outside of the stadium, it's a fantastic atmosphere, there's all little stalls there selling sweets.

I just probably looked stupid or something Harry Redknapp

"I got some sweets, me and Kevin, and it was so packed. The next thing there's two guys on their knees in front of me and I felt someone pull my overcoat.

"I thought 'what are you doing?'. The next thing he's got my keys on the floor.

"I thought 'is he a blind man or someone having trouble walking properly?' What are they doing, these two blokes?

"I'm going 'let go of my trousers', pushing them away. While I'm doing that they're rifling my pockets, there were about six of them. And then they went.

Image caption The Spurs manager was in Spain to watch Real Madrid beat Atletico Madrid

"I thought 'what are they doing?' I went to put my hand in my pockets and realised what they'd done.

"They took everything. All my money, credit cards, everything really."

The Spurs manager said he did not believe the muggers knew who he was.

"I just probably looked stupid or something, and they thought 'here's one here, he's not Spanish, obviously and we're looking for a foreigner'."

Real Madrid won the match at Atletico's Vicente Calderon Stadium 1-0. Redknapp said the incident unsettled him and he left about 15 minutes before the end of the game, which he attended to watch potential transfer target Diego Forlan, the former Manchester United striker.


Image caption Mr Eastwood said if the 90,000 people who voted in the Brexit referendum turn out in March we wouldn't be 'hurtling towards direct rule'

The SDLP leader has urged the public to turn out for March's assembly elections in the same numbers as the EU referendum in June.

Colum Eastwood said if voter turnout was as high as it was for Brexit it could avoid the collapse of Stormont and a lengthy period of direct rule.

The referendum saw 63% of the electorate in Northern Ireland voting.

That was eight percentage points higher than the turnout for the Stormont election the previous month.

'Alternative power-sharing government'

Mr Eastwood told the BBC he believed that a higher turnout on 2 March would increase the chances of a change to the status quo.

Speaking to the Inside Politics programme, he argued that his party and the Ulster Unionists had shown they could work together in a spirit of co-operation, but acknowledged they would need other parties to form an alternative power-sharing government together.

Mr Eastwood said that next month's election presented a "major opportunity" to change local politics.

Image caption 62.7% of the electorate voted in the referendum, 8% higher than the turnout for the May's Stormont election

"If you take the 90,000 people who voted in the Brexit referendum but didn't vote in the May election," he argued, "if those people came out, then you'd have a very different type of politics.

"We wouldn't be hurtling towards direct rule that we might not come back from. We'd be able to form a government on day one despite all the differences and all of the challenges."

'Full transparency'

The SDLP leader said he wrote some weeks ago to the Secretary of State James Brokenshire asking him to name a date for the publication of party political donations.

Previously the SDLP had opposed full transparency over donations, but Mr Eastwood said that in the wake of the Renewable Heat Incentive scandal it is right that the current rules should change.

The SDLP leader said it is unfortunate that the DUP has not revealed the identity of an English organisation which helped fund its Brexit referendum campaign.

Questioned about the Irish government's opposition to the idea of special designated status for Northern Ireland within the EU, Mr Eastwood said he didn't care about the "semantics" of what any special measures are called, but supports protection for citizens, businesses and communities who will be disadvantaged as a result of Brexit.

Image caption On reforming the petition of concern, Mrs Long argued that neither the DUP nor Sinn Féin have been genuine in their approach.

'About policy, not people'

Meanwhile, the Alliance leader Naomi Long has said she will not base her decision on joining a future Stormont executive on whether Arlene Foster is nominated again as first minister.

Both Sinn Féin and the SDLP have said they would not be prepared to participate in an executive led by Mrs Foster before she is cleared of responsibility by the public inquiry now examining the Renewable Heat Incentive scandal.

However, if Alliance is approached to take a department it will not be taking a similar line as Mrs Long believes any decision "should not be about people or personalities, but rather about policy and practice".

On reforming the petition of concern, Mrs Long argued that neither the DUP nor Sinn Féin had been genuine in their approach.

She told Inside Politics the assembly must continue to have protection mechanisms for minorities and she believes Arlene Foster's suggestion that the petitions of concern could be abolished is in order to have "no restraint on the DUP's ability, or unionists' collective ability to simply override nationalist opinion."

On the RHI scandal, the Alliance leader said the publication of the names of RHI recipients of the scheme would only be meaningful if it happened in conjunction with the release of the names of donors to political parties in Northern Ireland.


What do you want done with your body after you die?

It is an unnerving but important question, and for most Americans there have long been only two obvious choices: burial or cremation.

But a third option, a liquefaction process called by a variety of names — flameless cremation, green cremation or the “Fire to Water” method — is starting to gain popularity throughout the United States.

This week, California became the 15th state to outline commercial regulations for the disposal of human remains through the method, chemically known as alkaline hydrolysis.

It may seem markedly different from the traditional means of digging graves or burning the dead. A machine uses a chemical bath to dissolve protein, blood and fat, leaving only a coffee-colored liquid, powdery bone and any metal implants, like dental fillings.


Mueller Turns Up The Heat With Unusual Search Warrant In Russia Probe

Enlarge this image toggle caption Alex Wong/Getty Images Alex Wong/Getty Images

Federal prosecutors have lots of ways to intensify pressure on the people they're investigating, from early morning FBI raids to leaning on relatives of those under government scrutiny.

But even by those measures, the special counsel investigating Russian interference in last year's presidential election is moving with unusual speed and assertiveness, according to half a dozen legal experts following the probe.

Consider disclosures that FBI agents executed a search warrant last month for business and tax records at the suburban Virginia home of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort. That step would have required them to prove to a judge that there's probable cause a crime has been committed.

Kenneth Starr, the Whitewater independent counsel frequently criticized for alleged overreach by then-President Bill Clinton, never utilized search warrants, two members of the team told NPR. Neither did the special counsel investigating the leak of a CIA operative's identity in the George W. Bush administration, said William Jeffress, a Washington attorney who represented White House aide Lewis "Scooter" Libby in that probe.

"A search warrant in a case like this is highly unusual," Jeffress said.

Lawyers said the special counsel may have been motivated to use a search warrant over concerns that evidence might be concealed or destroyed, which sometimes happens in terrorism and drug trafficking cases. Or, they said, Mueller may have been moving quickly amid a series of existential threats. In recent weeks, President Trump has blasted the Russia investigation as a "witch hunt" and flirted with the idea of firing Justice Department leaders as a roundabout way to get rid of Mueller himself.

Talking with reporters Thursday, the president said he was "very surprised" by the FBI raid at Manafort's home and said it sent a "strong signal." Trump also said that the White House is cooperating with the special counsel probe even though, he said, the subjects under investigation never happened.

In any case, the Justice Department frequently deploys tough tactics with a larger goal in mind: securing the cooperation of insiders who can guide authorities through a complex investigation and help deliver bigger targets.

"I call it 'climbing the ladder,' " Jeffress said. "It happens in every corporate investigation," where investigators question clerks and assistants, and then move up to vice presidents and higher-level executives.

A spokesman for Manafort, Jason Maloni, said he is responding to government inquiries.

Whether Manafort, former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn or anyone else decides to strike a deal with the government is being closely watched by people in and outside the probe.

Authorities routinely enlist relatives to try to turn up the heat. Recent media reports suggested that investigators have reached out to Manafort's son-in-law, with whom he'd entered into some real estate dealings.

Indeed, several members of Mueller's 16-lawyer special counsel team have a long history of approaching lower-level figures, including spouses and in-laws, to build bigger cases.

Take Andrew Weissmann, a special counsel lawyer who once led the Justice Department's Enron Task Force. Prosecutors looking to uncover and punish fraud at that defunct energy company famously threatened to charge the wife of the company's chief financial officer with tax offenses if he did not agree to plead guilty and testify against his corporate superiors. The finance official, Andrew Fastow, refused. So, authorities indicted his wife, Lea. They both served prison time.

A more recent addition to the special counsel team, Greg Andres, helped bring to justice the Bonanno crime family boss as a young mob prosecutor in Brooklyn, N.Y. Through the course of the trial, Andres helped unravel dozens of crimes over three decades, using federal agents and members of the crime family as narrators. One of his key witnesses was the brother-in-law of the defendant, Joseph Massino.

"The story principally was told from the vantage point of those involved in the crimes at issue and their credibility was a crucial issue," Andres told the publication Law360 last year.

Andres so got under the skin of the mobsters that one later testified he had been targeted for a "hit."


Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Jose Manuel Barroso: "Without the EU Britain will have less influence"

The UK would have "zero" influence if it voted to leave the EU, the outgoing president of the European Commission has said.

Jose Manuel Barroso said Britain could not negotiate with the US and China "on an equal footing" on its own.

He also said free movement of people within the EU was an "essential" principle that could not be changed.

Conservative Party chairman Grant Shapps said Mr Barroso was "out of touch" and an "unelected bureaucrat".

Mr Barroso was asked about Prime Minister David Cameron's stated intention to negotiate a better deal for the UK in Europe, ahead of an in/out referendum.

The prime minister has said he will "not take no for an answer" and "get what Britain needs" on the question of freedom of movement.

'One last go'

If the Conservatives remain in power, a referendum would be held by 2017, Mr Cameron has said.

Speaking on the BBC's Andrew Marr Show, Mr Barroso, whose term of office ends this month, said he believed Mr Cameron wanted Britain to remain in the EU.

"Britain is stronger in the European Union," Mr Barroso said, pointing to the Ebola crisis as an area where Britain would not have the same level of influence if it was outside the EU.

"David Cameron wrote to all of us about Ebola... What would be the influence of a prime minister of Britain if it was not part of the European Union?

"His influence would be zero."

Mr Cameron has said he wants to curb migration within the EU and last week pledged to have "one last go" at renegotiating the rules for Britain.

The Conservatives lost the recent Clacton by-election to the UK Independence Party, which wants the UK to leave the EU.

Image caption Conservative chairman Grant Shapps said Britain had negotiated "lots of impossible things" from the EU

Mr Barroso would not comment on a report in the Sunday Times that the government could limit the number of national insurance numbers given to low-skilled immigrants.

But he said that while the EU was willing to discuss benefit fraud and sham marriages, an "arbitrary cap" on migration would "not be in conformity with European rules".

He said Mr Cameron had previously asked him to enforce the free movement principle between Spain and Gibraltar.

Mr Barroso said 1.4 million Britons lived elsewhere in the EU and it was a "matter of fairness" that other EU citizens had the same rights.

He also criticised comments by Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond last week that Britain was "lighting a fire under the European Union" with the proposed referendum.

'Slap-down'

Mr Barroso said: "I'm told the foreign secretary was the former minister of defence. I think this reference to fire and weapons is more appropriate for defence than foreign secretary.

"It is very important to have a positive tone regarding these issues between Britain and the EU."

BBC political correspondent Matt Cole said this was a "bit of a slap-down" for Mr Hammond although Jean-Claude Juncker would shortly be taking over as commission president.

Analysis

Image copyright Reuters

By BBC political correspondent Ben Wright

These comments are definitely unhelpful - and a window into Brussels thinking.

But Jose Manuel Barroso is on his way out - he's the outgoing president and a whole new commission will take over next month.

And in several areas where David Cameron wants to renegotiate, he has allies in Europe.

On restricting benefits that EU migrants can claim, his concern is shared in several capitals - most importantly Berlin.

I think there is some support for returning powers from Brussels to national governments.

But the big hurdle is this question of free movement of existing EU citizens which Mr Cameron is now talking about - even though we don't have a clear policy proposal from the government.

A change of treaty would be impossible, I think.

There could be an attempt to change the directive that puts the freedom into practice but that would require agreement by EU leaders and the parliament.

The incoming commission president Jean-Claude Juncker has said he is prepared to make a "fair deal" with Britain. But it won't be at any price.

'Total free movement'

Mr Shapps said Mr Barroso had "dismissed" the UK, adding: "If he can dismiss us... then every other country in the EU ought to look out because apparently no country means anything to him."

Speaking on the BBC's Sunday Politics, Mr Shapps said "a whole bunch of things" needed to change in the EU, of which immigration control was "one of the important ones".

Image copyright PA Image caption The government wants to get net migration below 100,000 a year

He said: "[Mr] Barroso is only the latest person from Europe to tell us we will never get what we want."

Mr Shapps said "there are lots of impossible things that we have negotiated" including a cut to the EU budget.

UKIP leader Nigel Farage said there was no way of limiting European migration while the UK remained an EU member.

"Do not take Mr Barroso's comments on their own," he said. "Everyone in Brussels... says the same thing.

"We are committed by treaty - we have been since 1973 - to total free movement of peoples within the European Union."

Non-negotiable

The level of net migration stands at more than twice the government's target of 100,000 a year.

International Development Secretary Justine Greening told Sky's Murnaghan programme: "Free movement of labour was never meant to be an unqualified principle, irrespective of how it might have worked on the ground.

"We do need to see action taken in relation to negotiation with the EU."

She said the government was "taking a fundamental look at some of the rules that allow unrestricted immigration".

Eurosceptic Conservative MP John Redwood said he understood work had been going on "for some time" to come up with ways to limit migration from the EU.

But the BBC's Mark Mardell said a senior Brussels source had told him Mr Cameron's plan was "complete nonsense legally and economically".

Mats Persson, director of Open Europe, a think tank that calls for EU reform, said free movement was "the most basic principle perhaps of European Union membership, so you are effectively saying to the EU 'we want to renegotiate one of your founding principles'".


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Since we started our IMAX screening series, we’ve mostly been focused on the newest movies about to be in theaters. While I love promoting new movies, when I first pitched the idea to IMAX for this series, the goal was to show both new and older films and balance the two. The fact is, while I love IMAX, the only negative about the format is that once a film is out of theaters, it’s extremely rare to be able to see it again on their massive screens. Which is why showing older films in our screening series is just as important to me as showing the newest release.

And this brings me to our next IMAX screening: TRON: Legacy.

On Tuesday, February 28 at 7pm, we’re going to be showing TRON: Legacy for the first time in laser projection and in 3D! Back in 2010, when Legacy was first in theaters, laser projection was still in development.

Following the screening, I’ll be moderating an extended Q&A with director Joseph Kosinski where we will go in depth about the making of the film, the amazing Daft Punk soundtrack, and so much more.

I’m a huge fan of Tron and the world Steven Lisberger created in the early 80s. I’ve probably watched the film more times than I care to admit and showing TRON: Legacy has been on my wish list for our IMAX screening series since it first started.

So if you’d like to see TRON: Legacy in IMAX 3D and watch our Q&A with Joseph Kosinski you need to click this link to enter for tickets. We’ll be accepting requests until February 23rd and soon after we’ll contact the people that won with exact details about the screening.

Good luck and hope to see you there!


But it is not so simple. The final weeks in a war zone are often the most dangerous, as weary troops get sloppy or unfocused. Once they arrive home, alcohol abuse , traffic accidents and other measures of mayhem typically rise as they blow off steam.

Weeks later, as the joy of return subsides, deep-seated emotional or psychological problems can begin to show. The sleeplessness , anxiety and irritability of post-traumatic stress disorder , for instance, often take months to emerge as combat veterans confront the tensions of home and the recurring memories of war.

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In their new normal, troops must reconnect with children, adjust to more independent spouses and dial back the hypervigilance that served them well in combat — but that can alienate them from civilians.

“The hardest part for me is, I guess, not being on edge,” said Staff Sgt. Francisco Narewski, a father of three who just completed his second deployment. “I feel like I need to do something, like I need to go on mission or I need to check my soldiers. And I’m not.”

For the First Battalion, 87th Infantry out of Fort Drum, N.Y., which recently finished a yearlong tour, leaving Afghanistan proved as deadly as fighting in Afghanistan. In the first 11 months of deployment, the battalion lost two soldiers, both to roadside bombs. During the next month, it lost two more, neither in combat.

On March 9, the day before he was scheduled to leave Kunduz, Specialist Andrew P. Wade, 22, was accidentally shot and killed by a friend who was practicing a drill with his 9-millimeter pistol inside their tent.

Three weeks later, Specialist Jeremiah Pulaski, who had returned from Afghanistan in February, was shot and killed by a police officer after he shot and wounded a man outside a bar in Arizona . He was 24.

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Both soldiers were considered among the best in the battalion. Specialist Wade, a whiz with a soccer ball, was a member of the elite scouts platoon and on a fast track to promotion. Specialist Pulaski could be quick to use his fists in an argument but was revered for his fearlessness on the battlefield.

Specialist Pulaski was awarded a Bronze Star with Valor for dashing across an open field during an ambush in December, drawing enemy fire away from his platoon. Later that same day, he killed several insurgents as they were trying to ambush his unit near a village called Haruti.

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Captain Bonenberger, Specialist Pulaski’s company commander, said the soldier saved his life twice that day — and it gnawed at him that he had been unable to return the favor.

“When he was in trouble, he was alone,” Captain Bonenberger said. “When we were in trouble, he was there for us. I know it’s not rational or reasonable. There’s nothing logical about it. But I feel responsible.”

Final Weeks

In Kunduz and Baghlan Provinces, war defied the usual rhythms last winter. American forces typically hunker down in the cold months to await the spring fighting season. But from October to January, American, German and Afghan forces cleared several major insurgent strongholds.

By February, the Afghan police were conducting regular patrols alone into places they had refused to visit without American forces just weeks before: Gor Teppa, Chardara and Aliabad in Kunduz, and Dahana-i-Ghori and the Golden Triangle north of Pul-i-Khumri in Baghlan.

Even a slice of Dasht-i-Archi, where the stoning of an adulterous couple last year became a worldwide symbol of the Taliban ’s resurgence, was cleared of mines and insurgent checkpoints.

American intelligence officers say scores of insurgent fighters were killed and as many as 300 laid down their arms or switched sides. Cellphone towers that had been shut down nightly by the Taliban started running 24 hours a day. A radio station that played rock music returned to the air. Commerce revived along roads once too dangerous to travel.

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Through the winter campaign, only a handful of American soldiers were wounded, and none died.

“The police are more capable today than they were a year ago,” said Lt. Col. Russell Lewis, the battalion commander. “They are going places they haven’t been in years.”

Photo

Still, there was much debate among American soldiers over whether the stability would last. Had insurgent forces melted away simply to regroup for a spring offensive? Would the insurgents who switched sides remain allies? Many soldiers had doubts.

Then came a series of attacks that made it clear the insurgents were not gone. In early February, the governor of Chardara District was killed by a suicide bomber just hours after a visit with Colonel Lewis. Two weeks later, a bomber detonated a powerful device in Imam Sahib, killing 30 people, most of them civilians. And in early March, another suicide bomber assassinated the police chief of Kunduz Province, Gen. Abdul Rahman Saidkhail, outside his heavily guarded office.

General Saidkhail had been aggressive in pursuing Taliban commanders and cajoling their fighters to switch sides. To American officers, his death was a blow to the government of President Hamid Karzai and an ominous indication of what lay ahead for Kunduz Province.

“Whatever chapter has been written is now finished,” Captain Bonenberger recalled thinking when he heard about the general’s death. “The book is lying on the table and that’s it. What’s done is done.”

Journey Home

The string of winter operations against the Taliban had given many soldiers a sense of accomplishment that was missing in the fall, when morale, like the temperature, was sinking. By the end of the tour, spirits were high and pranksters were afoot, hogtying officers in their beds and stealing clothing from showering soldiers.

But there was also a more solemn sense among soldiers that they would return home altered by their year away.

Specialist Alan Bakula, 22, had seen the exhilarating highs and shattering lows of combat. One of the battalion’s steadiest fighters, he earned two Purple Hearts and an Army Commendation Medal with Valor in several major firefights.

Photo

But he had also been shot through the ankle and hit by shrapnel in the elbow and the face. He had also seen one good friend, Specialist Matthew Hayes, lose his leg to a mine and another, Specialist Wade, killed in an accident. By the end of the deployment, he had lost his taste for battle and was ready to trade the Army for college.

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“Getting injured a few times definitely changes your perspective a little bit, makes you feel a little less bulletproof,” he said in Kunduz.

Specialist Billy Moody, 26, wondered whether he could ever talk openly to friends about the close calls he had seen: rocket-propelled grenades that just missed, accurate mortar rounds that somehow failed to explode.

He detailed those experiences in a notebook that he planned to share with his wife and family, but no one else.

“Some stuff, people just don’t — they wouldn’t really believe or appreciate,” he said. “I hope people don’t ask me that kind of stuff, and then after I tell it to them, they think I’m exaggerating.”

Just getting the battalion’s nearly 800 soldiers home was far from simple. It would take a month, along with dozens of helicopters, military cargo planes and commercial jets, to move them the 6,500 miles from Kunduz through Mazar-i-Sharif and Kyrgyzstan to Watertown, N.Y.

On his final flight home, Private Stevenson, 20, fantasized about the freedoms he would soon taste again: texting anyone anytime, wearing blue jeans and T-shirts, taking his little brother to the zoo. Being alone.

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His deployment had been a mixed bag. After getting into an argument with a higher-ranking soldier, whom he half-heartedly threatened to kill, he lost a rank. But he had also performed well under pressure.

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While driving his platoon leader on a mission last fall, his truck hit a powerful mine that blew off its rear end and flipped it over. Private Stevenson was the first out and helped the three other passengers, including his lieutenant, escape. He earned a Purple Heart after sustaining a back injury and a possible concussion in the explosion.

As the plane approached New York, he was thinking about his next big challenge. His fiancée was pregnant, and he was so excited by the prospect that he planned to buy baby furniture and diapers as soon as he got home. More than ever, he thought he should get out of the Army and try college.

He had never known his own father and had lived on the streets of Port Arthur, Tex., as a teenager after his mother died of AIDS . “I know I’m not ready” to be a father, he mused. But he wanted badly to try.

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“I want to be there for my kid’s first steps; I want to be there for his first bicycle accident,” he said. “I kind of think the Army is not for me, family-wise.”

Reunions

A wet snow was falling as Sergeant Narewski’s charter DC-10 touched down at Wheeler-Sack Army Airfield in March. It was just after midnight, and the air was colder than it had been in Afghanistan. But he bounded off the plane beaming like a boy heading into summer vacation.

“I love America,” he shouted as he sprinted to the terminal.

His unit went through customs, turned in weapons and received safety briefings on base speed limits, malaria pills and mental health counseling. Then they waited. Finally, at 6 a.m., they boarded yellow school buses and headed to the Fort Drum gymnasium.

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In the bleachers sat his wife, Christina, with their three children. She had risen at 1 a.m. to apply her makeup, shimmy into a tight dress bought just for this occasion and hustle the children into front-row seats.

As the soldiers marched into the gym, she craned anxiously in search of her husband, squirming with impatience as they croaked their division’s song out of key. She kicked off her high heels, and as soon as a commander shouted “Dismissed!” she sprinted across the hardwood floor.

“Everybody was laughing at me, but I ran,” she said. “That’s all I remember, is running.”

For minutes, time enough for some couples to hug and leave, she buried herself in Sergeant Narewski’s broad arms, whimpering. “Just to have him hold you or be in his arms again is just the greatest,” she said. “You think about that not happening while he’s gone.”

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This second deployment of his had been harder than she anticipated, and she had begun taking medication to calm her nerves. To her delight, Sergeant Narewski, 31, accepted a drill sergeant assignment at Fort Jackson, S.C., a two- to three-year tour with no deployments.

Being a drill sergeant would be good for his career, the sergeant said. But inside, he was still thinking about leading soldiers into combat. “I love it,” he said. “I’m going to miss it. I miss it already.”

For Sgt. Tamara Sullivan, 32, there was nothing about Afghanistan she would miss. For days after arriving in Kunduz a year ago, she cried at the thought of not seeing her children, ages 4 and 2. The experience taught her a lesson about emotions, one she learned to apply with iron discipline.

“It’s something that you just have to learn how to turn off and on, like a light switch,” she said. “I don’t feel like it made me less of a mother because I learned how to shut it off. I think it made me a better soldier.”

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Now she was finally home, looking lost as she searched the crowd for her husband, Tim, who had come without the children from North Carolina , where the couple have a home. Suddenly he appeared, and they embraced awkwardly before rushing to find her bags.

She had been thinking for days about how this deployment might change their family dynamic. Tim had learned to be a single parent and was so comfortable in the job that she wondered whether he was prepared to give it up.

“I’m ready to come back home and jump back in, you know, where I left it, do my mommy role,” she said before leaving Afghanistan. “Just shoo him out of the way. I’m pretty sure he’ll be a little, you know, like, ‘Wait a minute, I used to do it this way.’ ”

But she would have to wait to test those waters. She was scheduled to transfer to Fort Gordon, Ga., in October, but until then, Tim and the children would remain in North Carolina. Except for occasional weekends, they would be apart for another six months.

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Still in her uniform, she took Tim to the airport and then went shopping at Wal-Mart . On a 3-by-5 card, she had neatly listed items she needed for her new apartment near Fort Drum: linens, a frying pan, food for one. She filled two carts and headed home.

In her second-floor home, she began unpacking boxes of paperback books, unused uniforms and crayon drawings from her children. Without the children, it had been a subdued, almost joyless homecoming. But she seemed content in her solitude. The Army is her career, and a good one, she told herself. She just needed to be patient.

“As long as my children are happy, as long as I know their education is set for, then I’m good,” she said. “I’ll just keep doing this as long as I have to.”

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Sergeant Keith’s homecoming was surprisingly boisterous, even without his wife and son. His parents, grandfather, brother, nieces and nephews greeted him at the gymnasium, then accompanied him to a new apartment they had found and furnished for him.

But when they left, he was by himself for the first time in practically a year. He took a shower, the longest and hottest in months, then crawled into a bed that felt as large as a swimming pool. “I never felt more alone any time ever in my life,” he recalled.

The deployment, his third in six years, had been great, and not because of the adrenaline rush of combat — he saw none of that. A fuel specialist, Sergeant Keith, 29, was responsible for making sure gas tanks were full and generators were running.

Sent from the battalion headquarters in Kunduz to an outpost in Baghlan, he had been left alone to do his job and loved the independence. For the first time in years, he felt proud to be a soldier, and ambitious to do more.

The deployment had clearly been hard on his wife and made him almost a stranger to his 18-month-old son. “I got to work my way back into his life again,” he said.

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And yet, almost to his surprise, he felt a sense of lightness and liberation now that his wife had left him. He went drinking at the American Legion with friends. Maybe he would start dating. And down the line, he felt almost certain he would deploy again.

Perhaps it was the clarity of deployed life that he craved. The structured routines seemed so much simpler than the messy realities of home. He could not quite put his finger on it, but he knew that “normal life” no longer meant what it once did.

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“Once you get stuck into that environment,” he said of deployment, “and you do it every day, it’s very, very hard coming back to the states and living a normal life. I’m just having a real hard time dealing with it.”

Healing

In the weeks after the battalion got home, Captain Bonenberger, 33, moved into an apartment with two fellow captains and considered his future. Should he accept a teaching position at West Point or get out of the Army?

Private Stevenson married and learned that his child, due in August, was a boy. He bought an SAT prep book.

Specialist Hayes, undergoing rehabilitation at Walter Reed Army Medical Center , visited his platoon mates at Fort Drum. To celebrate, they drank Guinness from his prosthetic leg.

And Sgt. First Class Brian Eisch, 36, struggled to learn how to run again.

A machine-gun burst had almost taken off his left leg during a battle in Kunduz last fall, and he had been flown to Walter Reed for treatment. Determined to return to a frontline unit, he would have to prove that he could run with a pack. Doctors told him to go slow, but it was not in his nature.

So after returning to Fort Drum in February, he went to the gym almost nightly, working the shreds of muscle still in his calf. When he continued to limp, his doctors suggested that he replace the leg with a prosthetic. No way, he said.

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“I’m trying to put on the happy face and the strong guy, but at the end of the day I’m almost in tears in pain, “ he said. “It hurts.”

A single father, Sergeant Eisch was also trying to get his sons reacquainted with Fort Drum. They had spent the first half of his deployment in Wisconsin with their uncle. Now back home, Joey, 8, was dodging homework, and Isaac, 12, was having nightmares about bad things happening to his father.

“I explained to him, that’s just your body,” said Sergeant Eisch, who was having his own recurring nightmares. “Your body is just trying to get rid of stress.”

Though he earned a Bronze Star with Valor for aiding a critically wounded Afghan police officer, Sergeant Eisch was also plagued by self-doubt. “There’s a sense of me that says I failed for getting shot,” he said.

Doctors suggested he had post-traumatic stress disorder, but Sergeant Eisch questioned the diagnosis. He also bristled at his assignment to a Warrior Transition Unit, where he felt he was surrounded by unmotivated and overmedicated soldiers.

Up and then down. He raged at the Army. Then he bought himself a new boat to go with his new truck. He bemoaned his bad leg. Then he hugged his boys and considered himself lucky.

It was like that in the Army. Hero one day, faceless grunt the next. Scout platoon sergeant in November, wounded warrior in March. He had rolled with it for almost 17 years; he hoped he could make it three more to retirement .

“Hey, I’m still kicking, and there’s new motivation there,” he said. “I’m going to heal.”


Researchers at Johns Hopkins University will perform the US's first penis transplant in 2016, according to The New York Times. And when they do, they will be helping a soldier who was injured by a bomb blast in Afghanistan.

Johns Hopkins has given its doctors permission to perform 60 of the experimental surgeries. It's unclear how high the demand is for this type of transplant, but a lot of people might end up benefitting from these operations if the researchers are successful. Between 2001 and 2013, more than 1,300 men in the US military have suffered injuries to their genitals, according to the Department of Defense Trauma Registry. Most were under the age of 35 at the time, and many lost all or a portion of their penises or testicles.

These injuries are "as devastating as anything that our wounded warriors suffer."

"These genitourinary injuries are not things we hear about or read about very often," W. P. Andrew Lee, the chairman of plastic and reconstructive surgery at Johns Hopkins, told the Times. But these injuries are "as devastating as anything that our wounded warriors suffer."

This won't be the world's first penis transplant. The first successful surgery was performed in December of last year; the recipient was a 21-year-old man in South Africa who lost the organ because of complications related to a traditional circumcision procedure. In June, his doctors announced another success: the recipient's partner is pregnant. There has been another high-profile attempt in 2006, but it ended in failure. Doctors in China spent 15 hours attaching a penis to a 44-year-old patient, only to reverse it two weeks later at the patient's request. At the time, the recipient and his wife said they were suffering from psychological problems.

As with any transplant, the risks of this operation are great. Bleeding, infections, rejections, and psychological effects could all arise; and some men may not regain complete function. But for many, the benefits may outweigh the risks. Lee told the Times that fathering children after the operation is a "realistic goal."

For now, the transplant will be available only to veterans who were injured during a combat mission. The operation will take 12 hours and cost between $200,000 and $400,000; the university has offered to pay for the first surgery. For all 60 operations, the penis will come from a deceased donor. If the surgeries go well, Johns Hopkins University may decide to make the transplant a standard treatment.


White House Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney called the administration's budget proposal a "Taxpayer First Budget," on May 23, and defended its cuts to federal anti-poverty programs. (Reuters)

President Trump on Tuesday proposed a new process for closing numerous military bases, the elimination of government funding for public radio and television, and cuts of more than $1 billion to after-school programs.

He called to weaken the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), defund several programs that study climate change, cut research on infectious diseases and reduce the Strategic Petroleum Reserve by 50 percent.

Much of the focus on Trump's $4.094 trillion budget plan has been on the large reductions in safety net programs such as Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, but there are dozens of smaller budget cuts that, in aggregate, would amount to a major realignment of the government’s role in society.

Aside from national defense and border security, Trump’s plan would put the onus on states, companies, churches and charities to offer many educational, scientific and social services that have long been provided by the federal government. This was the overriding goal in revamping numerous anti-poverty programs, prodding states to do more to limit the number of people who seek and receive benefits.

Top White House advisers said that the government spends too much and that a dramatic reduction is necessary to make the government — and its presence in society — smaller.

“We're no longer going to measure compassion by the number of programs or the number of people on those programs, but by the number of people we help get off of those programs,” White House Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney said Tuesday.

The budget would also cut retirement benefits for federal employees, reduce health-care benefits for low-income children and make it harder to qualify for disability benefits.

These changes, the White House said, are necessary to eliminate the deficit over 10 years, though many critics have questioned the budget math used to wipe out the gap between spending and revenue. Because the government spends more than it brings in through revenue, the government runs a deficit, which adds to the federal debt each year.

“If I take money from you and I have no intention of ever giving it back, that is not debt, that is theft,” Mulvaney said. “And if we're going to borrow money from people, we have to have a plan for how we are going to pay it back.”

White House Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney defended the projection of unemployment rates in the administration's 2018 budget proposal on May 23, amid criticism of their assumptions about future economic performance. (Reuters)

Under Trump’s plan, a number of the government’s biggest obligations would remain intact. It would continue to fully finance Medicare and Social Security retirement benefits, which combined will account for $1.5 trillion in federal spending next year.

But myriad other programs would be structurally changed. The White House proposes reducing the size of the federal workforce (though it doesn’t specify by how much) and trimming regulation in a way that top aides argue will foster more economic growth. Workforce training programs run by the Labor Department would be scaled back.

Critics have raised alarms that the changes would cut the government’s investment in future growth, making companies less competitive.

“The budget shrinks the core parts of government — the parts that do education, research, infrastructure — to unprecedentedly low levels for a modern economy,” said Jason Furman, who was a top economic adviser during the Obama administration. “In doing so, I think it would make it harder — not easier — to reach the outlandishly high growth target that the administration has set for itself.”

The budget would crack down on the CFPB, an agency created after the financial crisis that is designed to ensure that lenders don't rip off consumers. It proposes reducing the CFPB's funding by $6.8 billion between 2018 and 2027. The watchdog agency is an “unaccountable bureaucracy controlled by an independent director with unchecked regulatory authority and punitive power,” the White House said in its budget request. The agency needs to be restructured, it said, and limiting its budget in 2018 would “allow for an efficient transition period.”

Supporters of the CFPB, however, believe weakening it will make it easier for lenders to trap borrowers with predatory loans. Similarly, the Trump budget plan would strip some money from the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The Trump administration renewed a long-held call by the Pentagon for a new round of base realignments and closures, saying it could save $2 billion per year that could be spent on boosting military readiness.

The request asks Congress to authorize the Defense Department to begin studying base realignment, with an eye toward carrying out the plan in 2021. But there could be strong resistance on Capitol Hill, where lawmakers have long been resistant to base closures in their districts.

The last round of base realignment was carried out in 2005 by the administration of President George W. Bush.

The White House is also proposing to shift the way it delivers some foreign aid programs, replacing grants with loans that must be repaid.

Not all of the budget is red ink, though.

In its $27.7 billion budget request, the Justice Department asked for $26 million for 300 new prosecutors in U.S. attorney's offices nationwide to support Attorney General Jeff Sessions’s emphasis on targeting violent criminals and prosecuting illegal immigrants. An additional $75 million was requested for 75 more immigration judges to adjudicate removal proceedings for people in the United States illegally. About $80 million was sought to fully open an underused federal prison in Thomson, Ill., which was once considered as a possible facility to hold Guantánamo prisoners and would provide the Bureau of Prisons with 1,500 to 2,000 more beds.

And at least one of the cuts the White House had threatened has been pulled back.

The budget would retain the Office of National Drug Control Policy, which had been threatened with virtual extinction, with $368.5 million in funding, a small decrease from its 2017 funding.

In an email to full-time employees this month, Richard Baum, the acting director of the office, said the administration’s proposal for the fiscal year that begins in October would reflect “a nearly 95 percent” cut in the agency’s budget. That appears to have been largely reversed, and the office’s two major programs — the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas Program and the Drug-Free Communities Support Program — have been retained.