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

 
Pride in America, Then and Now — Apollo 11 ~ Mark Alexander at The Patriot Post reminds us to ignore the malcontents trying to denigrate American achievements ~

The fact is, the vast majority of Americans — “The People,” regardless of race, gender, ethnic heritage, income, or any of the other categories the Democrat Party and its Leftmedia propagandists use to divide us — the vast majority are good people. And most of what is going on across America, outside the Beltway, is framed in goodness, generosity, and respect.
 
This week, we are reminded of yet another reason to take great pride in our nation — the 50th anniversary of the first step on our moon and the decade of danger and failures it took to get there.

 
NASA Technologies Benefit Our Lives ~ (Courtesy of those evil white men) ~

Space exploration has created new markets and new technologies that have spurred our economy and changed our lives in many ways. This year, NASA unveiled two new complementary interactive Web features, NASA City and NASA @ Home, available at www.nasa.gov/city. The new features highlight how space pervades our lives, invisible yet critical to so many aspects of our daily activities and well-being.

 
50 Years Ago Today, Space Pioneer and Visionary Robert H. Goddard Gets a NY Times Apology ~ “The Times regrets…” again. Inspiring account of a little-known American visionary ~

50 years ago today, as Apollo 11 rocketed toward the moon, The New York Times admitted they’d had blown it. Nearly 50 years earlier, the Times ridiculed the notion of rockets travelling to the moon. More specifically, they mocked physicist and rocket pioneer Robert H. Goddard who said such a trip was possible.

 
Pompeo Does a World of Good on Religious Liberty ~ From Tony Perkins at Family Research Council. Last week the State Department held the second annual Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom, refocusing internationally on our First Freedom. Refreshing! ~

The State Department explained that it was appointing a new group of advisors, whose job would be helping the country get back to basics on human rights. In an age when liberals want that freedom to include everything from free health care to college tuition, Secretary Pompeo believes — and we agree — that it’s time to reel in our foreign policy to freedom that’s universal and God-given.

 
Renowned economist offers more than a dozen solutions for fixing higher education ~ A new book from Dr. Richard Vedder offers much-needed, statistically backed remedies for what ails the nation’s colleges and universities ~

… including ending or dramatically revising the federal student aid program, allowing students to earn a degree by taking courses from different universities concurrently, increasing faculty teaching loads, and instituting year-round campuses so students can graduate in three years.

 
Obama-era Officials Admit NYT’s Harriet Tubman $20 Hit Piece Was Fake News ~ More devious mainstream shenanigans exposed. (Funny how the correction is never anywhere near as widely circulated as the original smear-job) ~

Three officials who served in the Obama administration confirmed to the Washington Post that the Trump administration did not delay the release of the Tubman $20, despite the drama-infested saga perpetuated by New York Times last month. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, they say, is following the same timeline put forth by the Obama administration.

 
Transgender weightlifter wins two gold medals in women’s competition ~ The charade continues ~

The transgender conquest of women’s sports continued over the weekend as a New Zealand weightlifter took home multiple gold medals at the 2019 Pacific Games in Samoa […]
 
The 41-year-old weightlifter was born as Gavin Hubbard and reportedly transitioned while in the mid-30s.

 
Facebook bans group trying to stop drag queen story hours for ‘hate speech’ ~ The First Amendment doesn’t apply on Facebook (So why are you still using it?) ~

Anna Hall Bohach, founder of 500 Mom Strong, told LifeSiteNews over the phone that the group’s Facebook page was removed on Sunday after she received a final warning.
 
“It’s just insanity what they’re counting as hate speech,” she said.
 
Bohach’s offending posts included a placard saying “women don’t have to be polite to someone who makes them feel uncomfortable” and a message expressing sympathy with Andy Ngo, the conservative reporter hospitalized after being attacked by members of the far-left anarchist group Antifa.

 
Illegal Immigrants Drive Child Sex Crime Charges in North Carolina ~ No crisis here…

In North Carolina, during the past 18 months, more than 331 illegal aliens have been charged with 1,172 child rapes and child sexual assaults, according to data collected by an independent researcher.
 
James Johnson, who tracks the data on his website NCFIRE.info (North Carolinians For Immigration Reform and Enforcement), says he is only able to gather data from 30 of the state’s 100 counties, which means it’s likely the statewide count is significantly higher.

 
When Xenomaniacs Attack ~ Excellent article from John Zmirak at The Stream injects some much-needed sanity into the immigration debate ~

Immigration policy in America over the centuries, when it worked, was bound to respect the concrete realities which made ordered liberty possible in America. (It had proved impossible in most of Latin America.) The most fundamental fact was the dominant culture of tolerant Anglo-American Protestantism. Immigrants who arrived and could assimilate to that culture were welcome and could be a benefit. Those who wished to reject it had no place here.

 
When the Government Won’t Let Homeless People Get Glasses ~ Bureaucratic regulations make everything too expensive ~

We need regulations, but once you have regulations you’ll have regulators. Once you have those guys, you’ll have guys who will enforce the rules to the letter, no matter what. And people will get hurt. Like the homeless in Louisville, Kentucky.

 
Trump Deregulation Boosts American Families ~ The Trump Administration is quietly deregulating in a variety of areas, which is leading to increased competition, productivity and incomes ~

The White House Council of Economic Advisers released a report last Friday indicating that President Donald Trump’s deregulation efforts will lead to increased household incomes by an average of $3,100 over the next decade […]
 
“The ongoing introduction of costly regulations had previously been subtracting an additional 0.2 percent per year of real incomes, thereby giving the false impression that the American economy was fundamentally incapable of anything better than slow growth. Now, new regulations are budgeted and kept to a minimum.”

 
Neil Armstrong’s Most Significant Steps Weren’t On the Moon ~ Armstrong’s accomplishment as a NASA astronaut made his world famous, but his Christian faith mattered more ~

When Armstrong visited Israel in 1994 he was brought to a place in the Old City of Jerusalem and asked Meir Ben-Dov, his host and noted archeologist, if Jesus himself actually would have walked there.
 
“I told him, ‘Look, Jesus was a Jew,’” recalled Ben-Dov. “These are the steps that lead to the Temple, so he must have walked here many times.” […]

 
“I have to tell you,” Armstrong said to the Israeli archaeologist, “I am more excited stepping on these stones than I was stepping on the moon.”