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

 
CDC: Youth Suicide Skyrockets 70% Over Last Decade. Here’s Why ~ In a nutshell: nihilism ~

There seems to be a crisis of meaning taking place in America. And that crisis of meaning is heavily linked to a decline in religious observance […]
 
(P)eople need meaning and purpose in life. Our focus on materialism from both the political right and left — on income inequality and intersectional victimhood from the left, and on tribal affinity and economic deregulation from the right — ignores the key problem: Americans, particularly young Americans, increasingly don’t feel that their lives have purpose. This isn’t a problem that can be cured by redistributing Xboxes. This is a problem of the soul.

 
Muslims riot, assault people with weapons to shut down free speech at London’s Speakers’ Corner ~ The UK’s dhimmification will soon be complete ~

The May government is bowing to the new masters of Britain, who support Sharia blasphemy restrictions, and handing them the leadership of the country. Theresa May will go down in British history, if there are any free Britons in future generations, as the most venal, banal and self-serving of traitors, but a traitor and betrayer of her nation nonetheless.

 
Ex-Nobel Secretary Admits Obama’s Prize Was A Mistake ~ Just as we suspected ~

Geir Lundestad has admitted that Obama did not deserve the prize but rather they thought the award would strengthen Obama. It is a maddening admission that the committee bypassed a list of worthy candidates with proven contributions to humanity to give a boost to someone that the Committee simply liked.

 
Venezuelan children are starving to death at an increasing rate ~ More on the ongoing tragedy of socialism; equal misery for all (but the elite of course) ~

Fr. Sifontes, a priest of the Diocese of Maturin in eastern Venezuela visits homes and hospitals constantly, sees many children begging on the streets and families looking for food in the garbage. “They’re starving,” he said. “They’re like dogs on the street looking for food.” […]
 
“There are six to eight children dying a week,” Fr. Sifontes said in an interview Thursday. “In my state of Monagas, in the first two and a half months of 2018 we have seen 34 children die of malnutrition. A family needs the equivalent of 22 salaries just to get a basic basket of food, to cover the basic nutrition for a month for children in their family. Sometimes that help doesn’t even get to the children because the aid must pass through various hands, and the food disappears.”
Similar things are happening to medicine, he and others reported.

 
Violence Paralyzes Minnesota School District; Administrators do little as school descends into war zone ~ No #MarchForLives here… Weird. When are these delusional lefties going to get it? It’s not the guns, it’s not the fists, it’s the social deterioration ~

On top of an already failing administration, Southwest High School staff are struggling to maintain peace between students. Last Friday, March 2, multiple fights broke out during the school’s second lunch period. Despite attempts to sweep the issue under the rug and downplay the violence, persistent students and parents forced the administration to address the situation.

 
John Oliver Targets Pence Daughter’s Children’s Book. Then His Followers Spam The Book’s Amazon Page With Hateful Garbage ~ Why are leftists so malicious? ~

This is the nature of the hard-Left: they hate conservatives so much that they’re willing to smear completely apolitical children’s literature in order to target those conservatives. Charlotte is a delightful young woman with no discernable political background other than her association with her dad; the book is utterly apolitical. So naturally it must be made a target of LGBT mockery. You know, to save the country from Trump.

 
Program embedding conservative profs at CU Boulder doubles in size after early successes ~ Well, it’s a start (you never know…) ~

A University of Colorado Boulder program that brings a token conservative scholar to campus each year is expanding, with organizers citing its popularity with both right- and left-leaning students and well-respected scholars as big reasons for its growth.

 
Disney’s ‘A Wrinkle in Time’ Erases Book’s Bible Quotes, Cuts Jesus, Christian Figures From History ~ In the atheistic land of make-believe, anything that points to God’s truth must be expunged ~

The battle between good and evil (light and darkness) forms a central theme in “A Wrinkle in Time,” and both book and film mention many historical figures who fought the darkness on behalf of the light. Disney seemed zealous to excise any hint of Christianity from the film, going so far as to cut even historic artists mentioned by Madeleine L’Engle, the book’s author […]
 
Every figure even partially associated with Europe and Christianity — even great artists like da Vinci, Michelangelo, Beethoven, Rembrandt, and Bach — were cut.

 
The Growing Iranian Cyber Security Threat; The most underestimated weapon in Iran’s arsenal ~

In addition to its rogue nuclear activities (which have not ceased despite the signing of the JCPOA), its advanced ICBM program, its use of proxies to spread misery throughout the Mideast, its narco-terror and money laundering schemes, the West now has to contend with growing Iranian cyber security menace […]
 
While Iran’s cyber hacking operatives have not reached the level of sophistication and capability of their Russian and Chinese partners in crime, they are very active in this new area of virtual warfare and are learning quickly.

Just this week, the Justice Dept. indicted nine Iranians for a large-scale hacking campaign on U.S. colleges and businesses on behalf of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. ~ Iran Hacking Operation Swiped 15B Pages of Academic Data, Infiltrated Government Agencies
 

Tariffs Were Killing New Zealand’s Economy. Free Trade Turned It Around ~ After implementing revolutionary economic reforms thirty years ago, New Zealand now ranks third in The Heritage Foundation’s Index of Economic Freedom ~

New Zealand’s adoption of less restrictive trade policies has corresponded to its climb up the trade-freedom scale in the Index of Economic Freedom, and with a huge boost in per capita gross domestic product.

 
California High School Teacher On Leave After Questioning School Shooting Walkout ~ Another victim of the public school Thought Police ~

Benzel says she never discouraged her students from participating in the national school walk out, but she did question whether it’s appropriate for a school to support a protest against gun violence if they’re not willing to support all protests […]
 
“If you’re going to allow students to walk up and get out of class without penalty then you have to allow any group of students that wants to protest,” she said.

‘It’s the Gospel That Saves People’: One Man’s Journey From Addict to Pastor ~ A wonderful story of salvation – and the redemptive power of the Holy Spirit ~

It was the fourth stint in rehab that finally brought (Eric Presgrove) to his knees. After almost two decades of trying to quit drinking, he cried out to God with a desperation he hadn’t had before. “Lord, if you are who you say you are, you’re going to have to help me stop drinking,” he recalled. “I told the Lord, ‘I’ll do whatever you tell me to do and I’ll put you first.’ I’d never done that before.”[…]
 
“I just believe that if we preach the truth and we believe that the things that happened in the Bible still happen today we will see that happen today,” he added. “And I don’t think we have to sugarcoat the gospel. And I don’t think we have to make a show out of it because it’s the gospel that saves people.”

Pastor Presgrove’s Crosswalk Church is located at 4600 Wheeler Street, Fort Worth, Texas 76117.