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

 
Venezuela’s Maduro closes Brazil border to block aid entry ~ Socialist tyrants never actually care about the people – beyond their value as willing pawns ~

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — As a showdown looms over humanitarian aid destined for Venezuela, President Nicolas Maduro closed off his country’s border with Brazil, vowing on Thursday to block the emergency food and medicine that has rallied his opponents and which he claims is part of a U.S.-led coup plot.

 
Federal Reserve Confesses Sole Responsibility For All Recessions ~ Between printing money (“quantitative easing”) and manipulating interest rates, it’s all a precarious juggling act – with trillions at risk. No worries though ~

It’s not every day that the Fed admits total culpability for the death of every expansionary period. Nor that it admits that the inflation its expansionist monetary policies create force it to become the culprit. Nor that it routinely overplays its hand.

 
Missionary bishop in Africa: Abuse crisis was caused by homosexuals becoming priests in 1970s ~ Spanish bishop, Juan Jose Aguirre, has been a missionary to the Central African Republic (CAR) for almost four decades ~

“The first is the entrance of homosexual priests to the seminary, who have lived their homosexuality within the Church in the 1970s to the 1990s. Secondly, the arrival of Internet, through which the negative impulses of many priests have been awakened. Thirdly, there are priests who do not occupy their time well, who have too much free time and let themselves be tempted by the devil,” he said.

 
Report: Widespread National Food Stamp Fraud Totals at Least $1 Billion ~ Government give-a-way programs are always rife with opportunities to steal from the taxpayers ~

According to a new report produced by the Government and Accountability Office (GAO), at least $1 billion in food stamp benefits are “trafficked annually,” meaning they are fraudulently used. The extent of the fraud is uncertain, the GAO warns, estimating the abuse of the program could be as high as $4.7 billion […]

 
“Welfare fraud is one of the biggest untold stories of the last decade, robbing resources from the truly needy and eroding public trust in the integrity of our welfare programs,” Sam Adolphsen, vice president of executive affairs at FGA (Foundation for Government Accountability), said in a statement. “While the bad-actor food stamp retailers exposed in this GAO report are in part to blame, we must not lose sight of the accountability that falls upon the food stamp recipient willing to commit fraud and abuse the system.”

 
Why Omar’s views are dangerous ~ Ilhan Omar may be pushing the anti-Semitic envelope a bit too far – even for Democrats. The first-term representative from Minnesota accuses Israel of “hypnotizing the Jews,” supports the BDS movement, fund-raises for CAIR, and…

In 2016, Omar asked a federal judge for leniency against a Minnesota man who had pledged allegiance to ISIS. In the letter to the judge, she called efforts to put the man in prison for life “punitive” and blamed Americans for breeding extremism.

 
LGBTQ Sports Group Drops Martina Navratilova For Saying Transwomen Are Cheaters ~ How dare the former tennis great tell the truth about the physical differences between men and women ~

Because transwomen are actually men, and if they compete as women, they’re cheating. It’s all very biologically accurate when one looks at science, like the effects testosterone has on the human body. Nevertheless, if one dares question the transgender agenda, one should be prepared to have their entire life destroyed.

 
Protesters take over Border Patrol museum, deface pictures of fallen agents ~ Absolutely disgusting! ~

Dozens of demonstrators occupied and vandalized a privately owned U.S. Border Patrol museum near El Paso, Texas, over the weekend, according to the site’s top official.
 
Museum director David Ham told the Washington Examiner his staff and guests worried for their safety Saturday when a group of about 50 rowdy protesters entered the facility, defaced property, and refused to leave the grounds.
 
Protesters plastered dozens of images on pictures, glass, painted walls, mannequins, and vehicles throughout the building. They also posted the pictures on the faces of Border Patrol agents who died in the line of duty.

 
The mental and emotional benefits of healthier food: Study finds children who eat well are happier, have better self-esteem, are less likely to get bullied than their peers ~ Weirdly enough we instinctively knew this in the 50’s and 60’s, when most kids grew up in intact nuclear families, moms took the time to prepare healthy food, bullies weren’t ubiquitous, and childhood obesity was rare ~

The study found that diet quality and psychosocial well-being have a bidirectional (two-way) link in young children: Children who eat healthy food were found to be more stable socially, emotionally, and psychologically, over those who don’t eat healthy food. In addition to this, children who are mentally stable tend to eat healthier food than children who have social issues such as low self-esteem and experiences of being bullied.

 
Is Capitalism Based on Greed? ~ Michael J. Kruger discesses Jay W. Richard’s book “Money, Greed, and God:Why Capitalism is the Solution and Not the Problem” ~

Richards’ book (particularly chapter five) reminds us that capitalism is not opposed to Christian thinking, but actually is consistent with the Christian understanding of human nature. It recognizes the proper role of self-interest. It encourages freedom, not coercion. It recognizes people are fallen and sinful and channels bad behavior towards good ends. And it ends up providing more prosperity out of which people can give generously.

 
Networks Refuse to Cover Senate’s ‘No Russia Collusion’ Report ~ What media bias?

The same networks that spent 2,202 minutes of collective airtime to push the Russia Collusion Media-Hoax are refusing to cover the Senate Intelligence Committee bipartisan report, which found no collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.

 
MIT scientists are using lobsters to develop a new form of flexible body armor ~ Biomimetics. More copying from the Master Designer. It’s OK, He doesn’t mind ~

Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard say the soft membrane covering the crustacean’s joints and abdomen — a material that is as tough as the industrial rubber used to make car tires and garden hoses — could guide the development of a new type of flexible body armor for humans, one designed to cover joints such as knees and elbows.

 
Teen builds working nuclear fusion reactor in Memphis home ~ Bet you’re glad your kid doesn’t have to compete against Jackson in the next school science fair ~

MEMPHIS, Tenn.- Some kids spend their time on social media, other kids spend their time playing video games. When it comes to 14-year-old Jackson Oswalt, his time is spent in a laboratory working on a nuclear fusion reactor.
 
The Memphis teen finished his reactor and achieved fusion at the age of 13. He’s regarded by experts as the youngest in America – maybe even the world – to accomplish it. Jackson built a steel machine made up of vacuums, pumps and chambers that is capable of smashing atoms together through force in a smoking hot plasma center that releases a burst of fusion energy. If you’ve ever wondered how the sun and other stars are powered, the process within Jackson’s nuclear fusion reactor is comparable.