Deceitful Dems don’t really want to stop gun violence – they want to stop Trump

Here’s another great commentary on mass shooters, cultural erosion and deceitful leftists from former governor, Mike Huckabee. He points out the dishonest mehtods that so many Democrats are using to demonize the president and divide, anger and incite Americans – all of it based on distortions and outright lies ~

I would love to see a debate that addresses the real root causes of these horrific acts of violence, which I’ve long written and talked about: the destruction of the family unit, the absence of fathers, the desensitization of kids to violence, the banishing of religion and moral teaching from the public square, undermining of respect for the sanctity of life, the way isolated social media relationships and coarse anonymous Internet sniping have replaced personal human contact in churches and community groups, the “war on boys” that tells young men they’re bad and useless just for being male, and on and on.

 
Ramirez-guncontrol 

I would even be willing to listen to suggestions for new gun laws, if they were effective at keeping guns out of the hands of dangerous people, and not just the same regurgitated anti-Second Amendment leftist wish list of “common sense” gun laws that are anything but. Those proposed laws invariably would have done nothing to stop the mass shootings, but they would disarm and criminalize law-abiding citizens while making it easier for criminals and deranged shooters to victimize us […]
 
All those things should be part of the constructive debate we should all come together to have. Alas, that’s not what’s going on. Instead of a serious attempt to understand the root causes of the problem and fix them, we’re getting nothing but cynical finger-pointing, political maneuvering, blame-shifting and fomenting of even more hatred, division and racial suspicion. What’s going on now isn’t useful, it isn’t bringing the country together, it’s harmful rather than healing, and frankly, in at least one way, it’s absolutely disgusting […]
 
Unfortunately, many who seek to be leaders in America are not very careful with their words. One reason I have a writing/research staff is because I don’t want to be accused of trying to promote my point of view by using incorrect “facts” or fake quotes. My people are very good at digging up reliable data, direct quotes from the source and accurate summaries of opposing viewpoints. In other words, I don’t just make this stuff up, or stuff straw men to argue against because it’s easier than engaging honestly. I wish everyone had the same attitude, particularly at a time like this, when slanderous false statements can spread anger and division that harm the entire nation […]

 
If only leftists had the same respect for the truth – and frankly, for the American people (who they must actually hold in contempt since all the ever do is lie to us!) ~

There’s hardly a debunked anti-Trump meme that he hasn’t resuscitated, from “all Mexicans are rapists and criminals” to “he tried to ban all Muslims from the U.S.” to “children in cages” to claiming Trump is an “open, avowed racist,” even though Trump has called himself the least racist person in the world — pretty bad avowing there. Even if Trump were a racist — which I do not believe he is — claiming he’s an “open and avowed racist” when he’s repeatedly denounced racism and denied being a racist makes me as skeptical of everything O’Rourke says as I am of his chances of ever being President […]
 

Putting aside all the violent rhetoric Biden has used about wanting to punch Trump, I wonder what kind of divisive presidential rhetoric might have been responsible for the shootings at the Sandy Hook school, the Aurora movie theater, the Washington Navy ship yard, Fort Hood, San Bernardino, the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, and the racially-motivated shooting of police officers in Dallas, to name just a few, all of which happened during the Obama/Biden years?

Read the whole article HERE.

 
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Related:
What part does “crazy” play in these mass shootings? We’ll never know if the Left gets its way
Some inconvenient truths about guns the Left ignores ~
5 Facts About Mass Shootings That The Gun Control Fanatics Don’t Want You to See
Media bias and the gun control debate

Posted in Cultural Erosion, Unvarnished | Leave a comment

What MAGA really means

In response to the controversy over Baltimore and the city’s rundown, dangerous, rat-infested neighborhoods, Scott Presler, a conservative, Trump supporter, founder of The Persistence and – gasp! – gay, organized a clean-up day ~
 

 
This needs to go viral! Not just the video – the movement. This volunteer, can-do effort represents the best of America. This sort of enthusiasm and optimistic attitude are an inspiration – and exactly what has always made our nation great.
 
Just imagine… with everyone pitching in – instead of sowing anger, hate and division – together we really can Make America Great Again.

Posted in Comfort & Joy, Fruits of Their Labors | Leave a comment

What part does “crazy” play in these mass shootings? We’ll never know if the Left gets its way

MassShooting-ElPaso 

“You never want a serious crisis to go to waste.
And what I mean by that is an opportunity to do
things that you think you could not do before.”

~ Rahm Emanuel ~

 

Because progressives are always so eager to use the latest mass shooting as another opportunity to repeal the second amendment, they rarely bother to consider motivation. Saturday’s Walmart massacre in El Paso is suddenly an exception since it appears that the shooter, Patrick Crusius, was anti-immigration. Therefore leftists, in their own twisted-logic way, can shift responsibility to President Trump. (He’s actually anti-illegal immigration, but it’s a distinction lost on them.) ~

Just nineteen minutes before the first shots rang out at an El Paso Walmart in what would go on to become the deadliest mass shooting of 2019, the man responsible for the killings allegedly uploaded a twisted and seething anti-immigrant manifesto to an online forum outlining his sickening motives.
 
The 2,300 word screed, attributed to the author P.Crucius on one website, speaks of a perceived ‘Hispanic invasion of Texas’, a detailed plan to segregate ethnic minorities into separate territories of the country, and expresses a belief that white people will soon be ‘ethnically replaced’ […]
 
The manifesto, titled ‘The Inconvenient Truth’, begins declaring the imminent shooting to be inspired directly by the shootings of two mosques in Christchurch New Zealand earlier this year, which left 51 people dead.

 

So naturally, in the progressive mind, this one’s on Trump for taking a tough stance on illegal immigration – and of course for being racist (NOT). [And now that the Mueller collusion investigation has proven to be a total sham they’re holding onto their racist fabrication like a rabid Pit Bull.]
 

The Dayton lunatic wasn’t so easy to pin on the president, so the mainstreams won’t spend nearly as much time covering him ~ Dayton gunman Connor Betts described himself on social media as a pro-Satan ‘leftist’ who despised Donald Trump ~

In one message he posted on Twitter under the name “iamthespookster” Betts wrote: “I want socialism, and i’ll not wait for the idiots to finally come round to understanding.”
 
He also backed gun control and pointed the finger of blame towards Republicans for school shootings.
 
Betts wrote in December: “This is America: Guns on every corner, guns in every house, no freedom but that to kill.”

 
Clearly Connor Betts, who thankfully is no longer with us, was – dare we say it – nuts. Which incidentally describes all of these mass murderers. How could anyone gun down 5 -10 – 50 innocent people in cold blood and be sane?

 

But mentally-disturbed is too simple an explanation.
 
If the Left can’t directly blame the president, there’s always the guns. But what we never get from them is any sort of honest evaluation of the causes behind these tragedies.
 
For instance, if the mainstream media actually did their job, they would discover that nearly all mass shooters have been young men alienated from society. This is from a Wall Street Journal op/ed, the majority of which is behind their paywall, but the intro sufficiently makes the point: 
Trump-notguns

The mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton over the weekend are horrifying assaults on peaceful communities by disturbed young men. American politics will try to simplify these events into a debate about guns or political rhetoric, but the common theme of these killings is the social alienation of young men that will be harder to address.
 
One response to reject is the reflex to blame these shootings on political opponents. Before noon on Sunday we received an email from the Progressive Democrats of America declaring that “we blame President Trump for feeding into the anti-immigrant frenzy and white supremacist violence. Yes, you Mr. President had your finger on that AK-47.”
 
This is political cynicism. Mass shootings also occurred under Presidents Obama, Bush and Clinton. They occur around the world, if much less frequently, such as in Christchurch, New Zealand (2019), Australia (2019), and Norway (2011). The twisted motivations are varied and often too convoluted to sort into any clear ideology.
 
Take the El Paso shooter, who is suspected of writing a manifesto posted on the 8chan website before the rampage. He expressed sympathy for the racial motivations of the Christchurch killer and denounced Hispanic immigration, but he also raged against “unchecked corporations” who support immigration and pollute the land.

 

In the wake of the May 31st Virginia Beach shooting, Dennis Prager offered his thoughts on the causes behind these horrific crimes ~ Why So Many Mass Shootings? Ask the Right Questions and You Might Find Out ~

Liberals (in this regard, liberals’ views are essentially as the same as leftists’) are virtually united in ascribing these shootings to guns. Just this past weekend (June 1-2), in a speech in Brazil, former President Barack Obama told an audience:
 
“Our gun laws in the United States don’t make much sense. Anybody can buy any weapon any time — without much, if any, regulation. They can buy (guns) over the internet. They can buy machine guns.”
 
That the former president fabricated a series of falsehoods about the United States — and maligned, on foreign soil, the country that twice elected him president — speaks to his character and to the character of the American news media that have been completely silent about these falsehoods. But the main point here is that, like other liberals and leftists, when Obama addresses the subject of mass shootings — in Brazil, he had been talking about the children murdered at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012 — he talks about guns.
 
Yet, America had plenty of guns when its mass murder rate was much lower […]
 
Given the same ubiquity of guns, wouldn’t the most productive question be what, if anything, has changed since the 1960s and ’70s? Of course it would. And a great deal has changed. America is much more ethnically diverse, much less religious. Boys have far fewer male role models in their lives. Fewer men marry, and normal boy behavior is largely held in contempt by their feminist teachers, principals and therapists. Do any or all of those factors matter more than the availability of guns?
 

Let’s briefly investigate each factor.
 
Regarding ethnic diversity, the countries that not only have the fewest mass murders but the lowest homicide rates as well are the least ethnically diverse — such as Japan and nearly all European countries. So, too, the American states that have homicide rates as low as Western European countries are the least ethnically and racially diverse (the four lowest are New Hampshire, North Dakota, Maine and Idaho). Now, America, being the most ethnically and racially diverse country in the world, could still have low homicide rates if a) Americans were Americanized, but the left has hyphenated — Balkanized, if you will — Americans, and b) most black males grew up with fathers.
 
Regarding religiosity, the left welcomes — indeed, seeks — the end of Christianity in America (though not of Islam, whose robustness it fosters). Why don’t we ask a simple question: What percentage of American murderers attend church each week?
 
Regarding boys’ need for fathers, in 2008, then-Sen. Obama told an audience: “Children who grow up without a father are five times more likely to live in poverty and commit crime; nine times more likely to drop out of schools; and 20 times more likely to end up in prison.”
 
Yet, the New York Times has published columns and “studies” showing how relatively unimportant fathers are, and more and more educated women believe this dangerous nonsense.
 
Then there is marriage: Nearly all men who murder are single. And their number is increasing.
 

Finally, since the 1960s, we have been living in a culture of grievance. Whereas in the past people generally understood that life is hard and/or they have to work on themselves to improve their lives, for half a century, the left has drummed into Americans’ minds the belief that their difficulties are caused by American society — in particular, its sexism, racism and patriarchy. And the more aggrieved people are the more dulled their consciences.
 
When you don’t ask intelligent questions, you cannot come up with intelligent answers. So, then, with regard to murder in America, until Americans stop allowing the left to ask the questions, we will have no intelligent answers.

 

If our leftist friends actually cared about preventing more of these mass murders they would make a sincere effort to understand contributing factors and work to help heal our society. Instead, they callously take advantage these tragedies to foment division, to drive a wedge into the heart of America, caring only about winning the next election.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

“You never want a serious crisis to go to waste…”

 
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Related:
While we’re on the subject, it’s been almost two years since the Las Vegas massacre. Why do we still not know why Stephen Paddock murdered 58 people in the worst mass shooting in U.S. history?
Las Vegas shooting will remain forever a mystery
Apparently what happens in Vegas really does stay in Vegas
What role did anti-anxiety meds play in the Las Vegas massacre?

Posted in Arrested Development, Cultural Erosion, Good vs.Evil, Unvarnished | Leave a comment

“Charm City” needs a new nickname

Baltimore,MD has had several different nicknames over the years; Clipper City, The Monumental City, Charm City (1970’s), The Land of Pleasant Living (1855) 😯 . In 2000, an overly-optimistic mayor, Martin O’Malley, even launched a campaign to brand Baltimore as “The Greatest City in America.” Not so much huh?
 
One moniker that apparently goes back to Baltimore’s early days is a bit more fitting: Mobtown ~

The Mobtown nickname was bestowed on Baltimore because of how quickly the city would find an excuse to riot. Some sources trace the nickname back shortly after the American Revolution when an angry mob captured a newspaper baron at his home. The earliest known reference to the nickname found in “The Baltimore Sun” archives dates back to 1838—but one must keep in mind the archives begin in 1837.

 

“Mobtown” was certainly fitting after the 2015 Freddie Gray riots ~

Take a bunch of inner city malcontents who have lived under the thumb of Democrat rule all their lives, add an angry racist mayor with an entitlement mentality, toss in an ambitious attorney general looking to make a name for herself… then light a match named “Freddie Gray” – and watch Baltimore implode.

 
BaltimoreRats&Racism 
President Trump has been accused by the Left of being callous, offensive and of course RACIST for noting that Rep. Elijah Cummings’ district in Baltimore is “disgusting,” “rat infested,” “dangerous,” “very poor” and a “corrupt mess.”
 

Matt Walsh (writer, speaker and author) lived in the area for 20 years and concurs with those characterizations (if not Trump’s lack of decorum :) ) ~

Up until this weekend, you would have been hard-pressed to find any Baltimorean who would contest the claim that Baltimore is dangerous, poor, and, yes, in parts disgusting. You would have been even harder-pressed to find non-Baltimore residents who would disagree with the assessment. To the outside world, Charm City has for years been known first for murder and drugs, second for “The Wire” (a show about murder and drugs), and third for crab cakes. Natives of the city know it for all of those same things, along with Natty Boh and great football defenses […]
 
(E)ven the relatively “safe” and “family friendly” Inner Harbor has recently seen outbursts of chaos and violence. A huge swarm of teenagers descended on the harbor a few months ago and randomly assaulted tourists just for fun. Random assaults at the harbor are nothing new, and the problem isn’t going away. Just last week, a city employee was brutally beaten in daylight just blocks away — the second incident of this type in the last few weeks […]
 
With a poverty rate of 23% and a violent crime rate over 400% higher than the national average, Baltimore clearly fits the bill for poor and dangerous (and rat infested, by the way). There are well over 10,000 murders, rapes, robberies, and assaults reported in Baltimore in a given year, to go along with the 30,000 or so cases of property crime. In fact, 10 people were shot and several killed just since Trump’s tweet on Saturday. Including Friday in the total, Baltimore had 13 shootings and 6 murders in a single weekend. Meanwhile, the fire department was busy putting out 11 fires.

 
Things are so bad that – as Ellie Bufkin points out – Due To Homicide Rates, Baltimore Residents Could Claim U.S. Asylum ~

(W)hat good does it do to pretend Baltimore is not a rat- and rodent-infested mess? It is. In fact, Baltimore’s homicide rate is so high that under current U.S. asylum laws, the residents could qualify for refugee status in the United States. The population of Baltimore decreased by nearly 8,000 residents between 2017 and 2018 as residents fled the nightmare-like conditions of their neighborhoods.

 
And then there’s the perpetual corruption ~

It is a city that Democrats rife with scandal have controlled nearly uncontestedly for almost half a century. Legislation disguised as community boosting often contains tax hikes and other sneaking government regulations. Politicians campaign to residents they assume will vote for them entirely based on their identity – and they win.

 
It’s not “racist” to tell the truth about Baltimore’s myriad problems. It’s racist to ignore them and continue to doom the city’s residents to poverty, crime and despair.

 
Baltimore2 

Perhaps “Tragic Town” would be more appropriate.

 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Related:
Democrats Don’t Care About Baltimore ~

Progressivism isn’t about helping the people beneath you; it’s about establishing your moral superiority. Democrats support the status quo in Baltimore. It doesn’t bother them. That’s not surprising. They created modern Baltimore. The city hasn’t had a Republican mayor in more than 50 years. Things really began to fall apart after the 2015 riots. The Obama administration imposed a consent decree on the city’s police department that radically restricted its ability to protect citizens. Not surprisingly, crime exploded. Cummings, by the way, praised that consent decree. He’s very much part of the problem.

 
So of course, this is no surprise ~ Cummings Skips Tour Of HUD Facility In Baltimore ~ In the wake of Trump’s controversial tweets calling the city a “rodent infested mess,” Ben Carson scheduled a visit; Cummings wasn’t interested ~

Maryland Democratic Rep. Elijah Cummings declined an offer to tour a Baltimore Housing and Urban Development (HUD) facility with HUD secretary Ben Carson on Wednesday (July 31st).

 
POTUS Responds After Learning Elijah Cummings Was Burglarized — “Really Bad News, Too Bad!”

Posted in Good vs.Evil, Unvarnished | Leave a comment

Saturday Shorts – 8-3-19

sshorts7-19-14

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

 
Pro-Life Dems (Gathered) Tuesday Ahead of Second Debate, Call for Inclusion in Party ~ Sorry to disappoint, but “Pro-Life Democrat” is an oxymoron these days ~

“Polls consistently indicate that one-third of Democrats are pro-life,” (Democrats for Life director Kristen Day) said in a press release Monday. And yet, “None of the men or women vying to be our next President are seeking the support of the 21 million Democratic voters who would like to see abortion less necessary and less common.”
 
It’s not just that Democratic candidates aren’t reaching out to pro-life voters. They’re running in the opposite direction.

 
Chinese Schools Urging Kids to Report Christian Relatives ~ Shades of Stalin’s U.S.S.R.; foment familial discord so human connections become frayed and one’s only loyalty is to the State ~

The Chinese government continues to tighten its grip on Christianity by actively discouraging young people to engage in things of faith. Under the last year’s new Regulations on Religious Affairs legislation, schoolchildren are even encouraged to report any family members who espouse Christian views.
 
According to Chinese persecution watchdog, Bitter Winter, the new policy has created fierce rifts amongst families as children are encouraged to questions and undermine the religious beliefs of those closest to them. In addition, the youngsters are fully aware that, if they report members of their family, it could result in their arrest and prosecution.
 
“My teacher says that Christianity is an evil cult,” one boy explained to his mother. “[That] if you believe in it, you will leave home and not take care of me. You might set yourself on fire, too.”

 
Venezuela’s socialist dictator publicly offers sanctuary to fugitive Colombian FARC narco-terrorists ~ Birds-of-a-feather…

With fellow Cuban dictatorship sock puppet Miguel Diaz Canel at his side, socialist dictator Nicolas Maduro publicly offered sanctuary in Venezuela to fugitive terrorists from FARC, the Marxist Colombian narco-terrorist group. The announcement came at the Sao Paulo Forum, a gathering of corrupt Latin American leftists and socialist tyrants.

 
Report: Co-Founder Of Small Nonprofit That Raises Millions For Priests Accused Of Sexual Abuse Is Accused Of Sexual Abuse ~ My my, what a coincidence :roll: ~

A small nonprofit group with alleged ties reaching all the way to the Vatican has quietly aided hundreds, if not thousands, of Catholic priests accused of sexual abuse for nearly two decades, according to an Associated Press report published Monday.
 
The nonprofit, Opus Bono Sacerdotii, has reportedly provided money, shelter, and legal aid to accused priests since 2002, setting up meetings in unmarked buildings with the clergymen in the tiny town of Dryden, Michigan. One of the organization’s founders, Rev. Eduard Perrone of the Archdiocese of Detroit, was reportedly removed from ministry earlier this month due to an allegation that he sexually abused a minor decades ago, which he denies.

 
Opposition To Judicial Nominees Skyrocketed After Trump Took Office ~ Kavanaugh’s ordeal was just the most notorious example ~

Since President Donald Trump took office, the regular order of the confirmation process has turned on its head. The percentage of judicial nominees facing opposition – even a single vote – to confirmation has skyrocketed from the traditional 3 percent to more than 70 percent.

 
Archaeologists Unearth the Church of the Apostles Near Sea of Galilee ~

A team of American and Israeli archaeologists say they have discovered the Church of the Apostles on top of what was once a home for two of Jesus’ disciples […]

 
Early Christian pilgrims wrote about the Byzantine church. Bavarian Bishop (and saint) Willibald mentioned it in 725 A.D. “[Willibald] states that the church was in Bethsaida built over the house of Peter and Andrew, among the first disciples of Jesus,” Notley told Fox News.

 

Gillette Comes within a Whisker of Disaster ~ How’s that gender-bender propaganda working out for Proctor & Gamble? Not so well ~

After a string of male-bashing, transgender shaving ads, the parent company of Gillette got nicked so badly, market experts wonder if the brand will survive. Gillette’s CEO insists the radical activism was “worth the price.” Let’s hope so — because so far, that price is a whopping $8 billion dollars.

 
Green Activists With Ties to China Advised Obama State Department ~ The enemy within ~

The Natural Resources Defense Council held close ties to the Obama administration, providing advice on joining the Paris Agreement while simultaneously maintaining ties to China, according to attorneys and policy analysts who have reviewed email records obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request […]
 
“NRDC’s opposition to America’s fossil-fuel development comports with China’s goal of hamstringing its chief global rival,” said Cohen. “The Paris Climate Agreement heavily restricted U.S. energy development, which is exactly what NRDC and Beijing want.”

 
Asteroid 2019OK’s Near Miss Rocks Scientism: Why a Little Humility is in Order ~ Not only did it pass just by us at just 20% of the distance between earth and the moon, no one even saw it coming. Maybe science isn’t omniscient after all.
Furthermore, as John Stonestreet points out, the danger of our arrogance is much more palpable when it comes to other issues, such as playing God with the human genome ~

We simply cannot predict the physical and social impact of gene-editing technology. Of course, that won’t stop us. The potentially disastrous process of “trial and error” with this technology won’t cause us to admit we aren’t nearly as smart as we think we are.

 
‘Hidden’ NOAA temperature data reveals that 6 of the last 9 months were below normal in the USA – and NOAA can’t even get June right ~ And yet the spin continues ~

The data, taken directly from NOAA’s national climate data page, shows not only that much of 2019 was below average, but that the US Temperature average is actually cooler now for 2019 than we were in 2005, when the dataset started.

 
Famed Yale computer science professor quits believing Darwin’s theories ~ Always encouraged to see folks like this who have sincerely considered the evidence for evolution… and found it to be pretty much non-existent ~

In May, the Claremont Review of Books published a column by David Gelernter headlined “Giving Up Darwin.” In it, he explained how his readings and discussions of Darwinian evolution and its competing theories, namely intelligent design, have convinced him Darwin had it wrong.
 
In particular, he cited Stephen Meyer’s 2013 book Darwin’s Doubt as well as The Deniable Darwin by David Berlinski […]
 
“My argument is with people who dismiss intelligent design without considering, it seems to me — it’s widely dismissed in my world of academia as some sort of theological put up job — it’s an absolutely serious scientific argument,” Gelernter said during his interview. “In fact it’s the first and most obvious and intuitive one that comes to mind. It’s got to be dealt with intellectually.”

Posted in Everything Else | Leave a comment

Rich and famous flock to Google’s climate conclave

It’s a daunting task, but somebody has to do it. Apparently the climate is in such dire straits that the planet’s hoi polloi had to rush off and spend several days at a special conclave. Isolated from the teeming masses at an exclusive seaside resort, they selflessly addressed the looming crisis, in the hopes of rescuing humanity from the evils of CO2 ~

It is hard to put a price on saving the planet – but Google now has an eye-watering tab to show for its attempt.
 
The tech giant spent an estimated $20million on an extravagant climate change bash for a host of A-list celebrities this week, flying hundreds of guests across the world and treating them to three days of luxury at a Sicilian seaside resort.

 
GoogleCampVerdura-resort 

Today the celebrity guests, who included Prince Harry, Harry Styles, Naomi Campbell and Bradley Cooper, faced ridicule and accusations of hypocrisy for meeting in Italy to save the planet while leaving a huge carbon footprint of their own.
 
The 300 guests at the secretive camp, who also included Katy Perry and Orlando Bloom, mingled on $400million mega-yachts and cruised around Sicily in $200,000 cars before watching Coldplay’s Chris Martin perform in ancient ruins which cost another $100,000 to rent – even before the show was put on.
 
Google picked up the tab for their flights, accommodation and entertainment during the three-day ‘Google Camp’, sending the costs spiralling.
 
With environmental costs thrown in – guests arriving in Palermo on 114 fuel-guzzling planes, roaring around Italy in Maseratis and enjoying the well-watered golf courses and swimming pools at their $903-a-night resort – the climate party quickly made a mockery of its grandiose intentions.

 

Gee, isn’t it touching how much the elitists care about the well-being of we peasants?

 

As Emily Smith and Ebony Bowden point out ~

… many of the guests, including Obama and DiCaprio — who has his own climate change foundation — have described global warming as the biggest threat to future generations

 
WRONG. They – and their arrogant, ruling class insolence – are the biggest threat to future generations. Future generations that is who might wish to retain the God-given rights guaranteed in our U.S. Constitution. These elitists, with their collective narcissistic-personality disorder, would ruthlessly trample on every of shred our autonomy, forcing us to submit to global governance in the name of saving the planet – – from a completely fake threat!

 

GoogleCamp
 
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Related:
Google’s celeb-obsessed search for climate change answers is a hypocritical joke
114 Private Jets flying into Google Global Summer Camp Party thing
World Leader’s Ignorance About Climate Change Continues Despite Simple, Obvious Evidence ~ Astute commentary from Dr. Tim Ball on the climate change delusion and contemporary western culture ~

Ignorance is a problem in itself but it is compounds itself because people, especially leaders, will lie and deceive to hide that ignorance. When the leaders learned that carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas was increasing, and global warming was inevitable they didn’t know enough to even ask the right questions. They didn’t know that it was only 4% of the total greenhouse gases and the human portion was only 0.4% of that. They didn’t know the people presenting this information deliberately limited themselves to only looking at human causes of climate change thus ignoring all natural, that is non-human causes.

Posted in Unvarnished | Leave a comment

Progressive indoctrination starts pre-K

Posted in Cultural Erosion, Unvarnished | Leave a comment

When life hands you locusts – make pizza!

A Las Vegas pizzeria is taking the old adage about making lemonade when life hands you lemons to heart.
 
Grasshopperpizza 
Grasshoppers? What’s up? Locusts invaded “Sin City” last week – and it looks like the plague of biblical proportions may last for weeks. They’re even messing with weather radars ~

An invasion of pallid-winged grasshoppers descended on Las Vegas this past week, taking over the Strip and several of the city’s most popular tourist spots, including the night skies above the Luxor hotel and casino […]
 
locusts 
An unusually wet year so far in Las Vegas, which has already exceeded its annual rainfall average of about four inches, is responsible for the arrival of the grasshoppers, said Jeff Knight, an entomologist with the Nevada Department of Agriculture.

 
In any event, I must say it’s encouraging to see that that can-do American response to adversity is still alive and well in Vegas.
 
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Related:
Sin City Indeed: Vegas Hit With Plague of Grasshoppers

Posted in Everything Else | Leave a comment

The World’s War on Christendom – Latest Dispatch from the Front

noChristiansJohn15 

Now that the U.K. has gone from post-Christian to secular-totalitarian it should probably come as no surprise that preaching in public is against the law, although Pastor Oluwole Ilesanmi was still stunned when he was arrested back in February for doing that very thing ~

Ilesanmi, 64, was detained by the Metropolitan Police, accused of “breaching the peace” and “Islamophobia” in February outside a London subway station.
 
PastorOluwoleIlesanmi 
In a video that went viral, taken by Ambrosine Shitrit, Ilesanmi can be seen protesting ” Don’t take my Bible!” as two officers handcuffed him and reportedly responded: “You should have thought about that before being racist.” […]
 
The 64-year-old street preacher was then driven five miles away, beyond the area where he could use his metro card, and left with no means to pay for his ticket home, according to Christian Concern, the group that represented Ilesanmi. But all he wanted to do was get back to Southgate and start preaching again.

 

The U.K. Daily Mail spoke with the woman who videotaped the incident ~

Ambrosine Shitrit was passing by when she saw Mr Ilesanmi debating with a Muslim man who she said was becoming aggressive.
 
She said: ‘The preacher was fearless, but if I hadn’t started filming he would have been attacked. He was not breaching the peace and in no way had he been Islamophobic. I would’ve been the first person to have said something if he had been.’

 

While Pastor Ilesanmi’s story does have a mostly happy ending – he was just awarded more than $3,000 in damages for wrongful arrest – the whole episode is a sorry commentary on how a nation whose foundation and entire history is rooted in Christianity has strayed so far from its roots ~

“When I came to the UK it was a free Christian country, but now preachers like me are being arrested for speaking the truth,” he added. “Christians and freedom of speech must be protected, especially by the government and police.” ~ Pastor Oluwole Ilesanmi

 
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Related:
Christian street preacher to receive £2,500 payout from Met Police after wrongful arrest ~

Pastor Oluwole said: “I am glad that the police have recognised that it was not right to arrest me for preaching from the Bible. It was traumatic being arrested and left many miles from my home. But God was always with me and even though I was left in a place I did not know, I was determined to get back to Southgate and start preaching the gospel again.

Posted in Good vs.Evil, Unvarnished | Leave a comment

Draining the swamp in Puerto Rico

After Hurricane Maria swept through Puerto Rico almost two years ago, the Left wasted no time attacking Donald Trump for not immediately restoring the island to its pre-storm condition. The problem was, in many cases its pre-storm condition was pretty awful, as I mentioned here and here. And the current president had absolutely nothing to do with that.
 
PuertoRicoThe fact is, economic destruction, wrought by government corruption, left the Caribbean territory ill-prepared for a direct hit from a storm of Maria’s magnitude ~

“(F)or the last 30 years, the Puerto Rican government has been completely inept at handling regular societal needs, so I just don’t see it functioning in a crisis like this one.
 
“Even before the hurricane hit, water and power systems were already broken. And our $118 billion debt crisis is a result of government corruption and mismanagement.” ~ Jorge Rodriguez (CEO of PACIV, a Puerto Rico-based engineering firm)

 

The good news is, the law is catching up to some of these sleazy bureaucrats. Last October, the mayor of Sabana Grande and a couple other officials were arrested on corruption charges. San Juan mayor, Carmen Yulin Cruz (the one who tried to blame the president for the post-hurricane mess), along with others in her administration, has been under investigation for obstructing critical supplies and suspected corruption in the purchasing department.
 

Then, earlier this month ➡ FBI arrests ex-Puerto Rico officials for disaster aid-funded payoffs ~

July 11, 2019 ~ The FBI has arrested two former Puerto Rico officials for funneling disaster aid payments to politically connected contractors.
 
The Wednesday arrests have prompted concern on Capitol Hill that the island’s corruption will blunt the effectiveness of a recently passed disaster aid bill […]
 
The FBI indictment charges Puerto Rico’s former Education Secretary Julia Keleher, former Health Insurance Agency Chief Ángela Ávila-Marrero, and four others with crimes related to grifting U.S. disaster aid.

 

The most recent news from Puerto Rico was the resignation of Governor Rosselló last week ~

Puerto Rico’s Gov. Ricardo Rosselló resigned from office late Wednesday night, capitulating in the face of massive protests in the streets, multiple corruption probes into his government, and an imminent impeachment proceeding.
 
The beginning of the end for the governor started a few weeks ago when six Puerto Rican officials, including the former education secretary, were indicted for corruption charges. The arrests were seen as emblematic of a culture of corruption that plagued the island’s government and bureaucracy.

 
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Because Rosselló is a Democrat, our mainstreams didn’t want to focus on any of that messy betrayal of the public trust. Instead they made it all about his offensive emails ~

Days after the indictments, investigative journalists released nearly 900 pages of secret group chat messages that included the governor, cabinet officials, and other power players in the Puerto Rican government. The messages were shockingly homophobic, misogynistic, and disrespectful to constituents, activists, and opposition members.

 
This disgusting behavior was really only the final straw. As Jan Sobieski III, writing at Conservative Papers explains, there’s a lot more history to the sordid tale than the media happened to mention ~

Puerto Rico’s arrogant, condescending, deplorables-deploring governor, who got caught sending disparaging messages about Puerto Rican hurricane victims on a bulletin board limited to just his inner-circle cronies, is on his way out […]
 
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What led to this state of affairs? Same thing that led to Venezuela’s meltdown: Socialism. Puerto Rico went bankrupt in 2016 based on socialist overspending and had to be bailed out by Uncle Sam. The refusal to live within means led to an embarrassing federal “oversight board’ and a program called PROMESA, which sounds like a U.S.-style IMF austerity program. The only reason such a thing could happen is that the local government couldn’t be trusted not to adhere to double-entry bookkeeping. Since the party in power — called the New Progressives — were on the leftside, favoring statehood with the U.S. to help elect Democrats — a bailout would have otherwise meant that they’d just go on spending like Hugo Chavez, offering free stuff to their friends for in exchange for votes. And if statehood were achieved, they’d have access to much more of the cash.
 
Didn’t work that way. That bankruptcy and its after-effects have made life miserable for Puerto Ricans. The country was struggling under a $74 billion debt heap with an additional $50 billion in unpaid pensions. To pay the debts, the roads, the schools, the services went to heck. As a result, people started to leave, eroding the tax base even further. As many as 700,000 fled to Florida and beyond between 2010-2016. The ugly emails from the governor, effectively calling the remaining Puerto Ricans deplorables for complaining, were just too much.

 

Puerto Rico has been run by a bunch of feckless, greedy, socialist politicians for far too long. Rosselló’s resignation and the ongoing FBI investigations are a good start at disinfecting the place. But ultimately, it will be up to the Puerto Rican people themselves to choose free market reforms and government accountability – or stick with the island’s ruinous corrupt-ocracy.

 
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Related:
FBI Arrests Former Top Puerto Rico Officials In Government Corruption Scandal
 

How School Choice Is Breaking Down Barriers in Puerto Rico ~ More promising news from the territory; the public education system has been in dire need of reform ~

The new year is bringing exciting developments to Puerto Rico’s education reforms. Not only will the U.S. territory open new charter schools, it will also launch a new pilot private school voucher program in the fall.

Posted in Fruits of Their Labors, Unvarnished | Leave a comment

North Korea’s biggest fear

noChristiansNo, it’s not Donald Trump. Or nuclear weapons. Turns out what the DPRK fears most is Christianity. Which is why the regime works so hard to eliminate all traces of the faith.
 

On July 18th, Vice President Pence spoke at the second annual Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom (the largest religious liberty gathering in the world). His remarks about Christian persecution in various countries around the world included the country that’s been the worst offender for the last two decades – North Korea ~

As the U.N. Commission on Human Rights reported,
“The violation of human rights in the DPRK constitute crimes against humanity, the gravity, scale and nature of which has no parallel in the contemporary world.” […]
 
The North Korean regime formally demands that its officials act – in their words – “to wipe out the seed of Christian reactionaries.” Possession of a bible is a capital offense.

 

Five years ago, Maureen Callahan at the NY Post reported on life inside the surreal, cruel & sheltered North Korea. It’s unimaginably bleak ~

The nation has so little electricity that, in the ultimate metaphor, nighttime satellite imagery shows North Korea gone dark, the only country in the world not illuminated. Travelers are only allowed to move within a circumscribed part of Pyongyang and are chaperoned and surveilled by government officials. […]
 
In North Korea, a ballpoint pen is considered a luxury item. Men make it to their mid-20s without knowing that women menstruate, or what menstruation even is. The use of anesthesia for surgery is a fairly recent development. There is no sex education. You can marry for love, but only within your own social caste — determined by birth and generational loyalty to the regime.

 
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The only gods permitted in North Korea are the country’s dear leaders ~

Religion is a threat to the state and is banned; instead, children are raised to worship the late Kim Il-sung, who was made “president for life” four years after his death, in 1998, by his son and successor, the late Kim Jong-il. There are 34,000 statues of Kim Il-sung in North Korea, and all wedding ceremonies must take place in front of one.
 

All citizens must hang government-provided portraits of Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il in their homes, and once a month, the police come by to inspect them. All, too, must wear uniforms, and their future careers are based on caste and dictated by the government.

 

According to the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (Southern Baptist Convention) ~

Torture is routine in North Korea, as is death at the hands of the regime.
 
Although there are three Protestant churches, one Catholic church, and one Russian Orthodox church in the North Korean capital city of Pyongyang, they are little more than a state-sponsored façade.
 
The reality of religion in North Korea is best seen in Kim Jong-un’s demand for total allegiance to himself from the North Korean people. The North Korean constitution does not allow religious freedom because the constitution bars any religious ideology from posing a threat to the political status quo.

 
Despite these aggressive attempts to prevent any mention of God, it appears that – according to a formerly imprisoned pastor – North Korea is more afraid of Christians than nuclear weapons ~

Kenneth Bae,* a Korean-American pastor, who was held hostage in North Korea from 2012 to 2014, explained that when North Korean authorities arrested him and found out that he was a missionary, he was told that he was trying to overthrow the North Korean government. For years, Bae had been leading teams into North Korea so they could visit as tourists but pray and worship while in the land.
 
The North Koreans also told him that if one person came back and started an orphanage and 10 children became Christians, they will only multiply from there and present a threat to the nation.
 
“They said ‘we are not afraid of nuclear weapons … we are afraid of someone like you bringing religion into our country and use it against us and then everybody will turn to God and this will become God’s country and we will fall.

 

Notice how communists are never particularly worried about Islam, secular Humanists, Rastafarians or Gaia worshipers? Because even the godless understand that only the gospel of Jesus Christ represents transformative Truth ~
 

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son,
that whosoever believeth in him should not perish,
but have everlasting life.
~ John 3:16

 
 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
*Pastor Kenneth Bae is the author of the 2016 memoir Not Forgotten: The True Story of My Imprisonment in North Korea. Today he leads the Nehemiah One Million Prayer Petition Campaign, an effort to mobilize intercession for the North Korean people.
 
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Related:
North Korean woman imprisoned for faith shares how God sustained her amid horrific abuses
The difference between North and South Korea; a brief history lesson for ignorant progressives
Following Jesus, whatever the cost
Despite the DPRK menace, God is still in control
Escape from Hermit Kingdom Hell

Posted in Comfort & Joy, Good vs.Evil | Leave a comment

Saturday Shorts – 7-27-19

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

 
The Bizarre 1919 Catastrophe You Never Learned About in History Class ~ Whoa. I had certainly never heard of The Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919, fascinating ~

Paul Revere made Boston’s North End famous when he began his historic midnight ride from there in 1775. Over time, it became a melting pot of Italian American culture. But history has mostly forgotten another extraordinary event that happened on those streets one hundred years ago.

 
The Death Penalty Is Pro-Life. And Those Who Oppose It Usually Aren’t ~ John Zmirak comments on the Trump Administration’s reactivation of the federal death penalty (which recognizes the sanctity of all life) ~

Part of human dignity is paying for your crimes. We don’t imprison people or execute them first and foremost to keep society safe. That’s a happy side effect. But it’s only right to do that if we’re also enacting justice. If we are proportionately punishing an actual person for his real crimes against his neighbors and the community.

 
President of National Border Patrol Council: ‘Ocasio-Cortez is trying to dehumanize us’ ~ Leftists have got no pictures, no video, just endless false accusations of deplorable conditions. And the mainstreams give them a platform to disseminate their lies ~

“This is a horrible insult to the memories of the innocent men, women and children slaughtered by the Nazis, and to our Border Patrol agents – implying that our agents are no different from the Nazi butchers. The outrageousness of this vicious slander is breathtaking – especially coming from a member of Congress.” – Brandon Judd, president of the National Border Patrol Council

 
Here’s a little dose of reality for AOC & friends ~ Border deaths declined in Trump’s first two years in office, data shows ~

According to statistics compiled by the United States Border Patrol, there were 298 border deaths in 2017 and 283 in 2018, making it an average of 291 per year. The average yearly deaths under President Obama stood at 372 and 382 under the Bush administration.

 
The Nightmare Of An America Ruled By AOC And Her Socialist Pals ~ Excellent analysis from Kurt Schlichter ~

If these freaks ever got power it will be open season on your ability to participate in our society and our government. After all, you’re a racist Jesus-loving/observant Jew NRA monster of greed and privilege and hatred and you deserve no rights. Your (alleged) rights are an obstacle to the fundamental transformation of America into Venezuela that they seek. In other words, your rights are expendable, and once in power the left will get right to expending them.

 
Understanding Why ‘The Squad’ Screams ‘Racism’ ~ Great article from Star Parker, who just happens to be a woman-of-color herself ~

These four young freshmen Democrats have no interest in a public discourse of deliberation where we soberly seek what is true and what really works. Their only interest is selling their dogma.
 
So, following the advice of (Saul) Alinsky, they get attention not by developing quality ideas for public policy reform and engaging in thoughtful discourse about these ideas, but through sensational hype of dogma and character assassination of those who disagree […]
 
Demagoguery is an age-old threat to freedom and the democratic process. There will always be those who long for power and will try to get it with heat rather than light.

 
More evidence of that demagoguery ~ New Poll Shows More Americans See Improved Race Relations Under Trump ~

20 per cent said getting better compared to 34 per cent who said they were getting worse while 44 per cent said they were staying about the same.
 
This compares to just 14 per cent who said they were getting better and 44 per cent who said they were getting worse when the same question was asked in 2018.

 
Un-diverse US team ties for first place at International Math Olympiad ~ And the reality of diverse abilities wins ~

Quick! Call the diversity police! For the fourth time in five years the US team placed first in the International Mathematical Olympiad, this year tying for first place with China.
 
The six U.S. team members also won gold medals for their individual high scores on the Olympiad, known as the world championship mathematics competition for high school students.
 
However, this very dominating winning team does not look like America — all members are males, 5 Asians and one Caucasian, judging by appearances.

 
BBC Mislead Public With Fake Heat Record Scares ~ Because they cherry-pick the facts. Paul Homewood at NotALotofPeopleKnowThat.com sorts them out.

 
Meanwhile, climate alarmists are increasingly unhinged ~ Environmental protesters arrested after gluing themselves to tunnels under Capitol ~

U.S. Capitol Police (USCP) on Tuesday arrested environmental protesters who had glued themselves to two doorways connecting the Cannon Building to the U.S. Capitol in an apparent bid to stop members of Congress from an evening vote.
 
The protesters were with the D.C. chapter of the U.K.-based environmental group “Extinction Rebellion.” Eight people were charged with crowding, obstructing, or incommoding, USCP said. Seven also were charged with defacing public property.
 
In addition, nine were arrested in the Cannon House Office Building and charged with crowding, obstructing, or incommoding, according to USCP. Eight of them also were charged with defacing public property.
 
“We are superglued to the tunnels under the Capitol because what other choice do we have when our politicians choose money over life?” read an earlier tweet from Extinction Rebellion Washington, D.C.

 
Union Twists Man’s Inspirational Bootstrap Story Into Smear ~ Sleazy union tactics. Yet another example of how the Left distorts good into bad for their own nefarious ends.

 
Woman plans to marry 91-year-old chandelier ~ Another loon to add to the menagerie ~

Amanda Liberty, 35, who changed her last name from Whittaker during a prior long-distance relationship with the Statue of Liberty, is ready to finally settle down with the light of her life […]
 
Liberty, of Leeds, who identifies as an objectum sexual, is putting the spotlight on the little-known attraction to inanimate objects, according to the outlet.

Well, OK then. :roll:

 
Massive Drop in Global Poverty Due to Free Market ~ Even though the U.N. tries to pretend otherwise ~

The UN noted, “Poverty has declined globally, from 1.7 billion people in 1999 to 767 million in 2013, a drop in the global poverty rate from 28 percent in 1999 to 11 percent in 2013. The most significant progress was seen in Eastern and South-Eastern Asia, where the rate declined from 35 per cent in 1999 to 3 per cent in 2013.” […]
 
The fact of the matter is that greater individual freedom coupled with a free-market economy is the greatest factor in diminishing poverty, not socialist, government-controlled economies. The individual will always have a greater interest in taking care of himself than will any government bureaucrat. When people are free to enjoy the fruits of their own labor, they are more apt to work harder and with more innovation than will those who find themselves and their labor owned and controlled by the state.

Posted in Everything Else | Leave a comment