Was This All God's Plan?
Posted By: DVC, 3/22/2021 11:52:21 AM
Let me be honest from the start of this. I’m not religious. I’m an agnostic. That is, I cannot say with any degree of certainty whether God exists or not. That would be any God, Christian, Muslim, or take your pick. My belief is much like a coin, flipped into the air to land, improbably, on edge and stand there. Perhaps wobbling and teetering a bit, but not ready to take that leap of faith one way or the other. To me, it seems that deciding to believe that God’s there or not, has to be done without the benefit of convincing evidence for or against
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Now that the Department of Justice and FBI are using the 1/6/21 Capitol incursion to demonize all who attended the massive rally that day, imputing “insurrection,” “white supremacy,” and “extremism” to them, massive political repression may be coming. Consider this from Politico:
The Department of Homeland Security is considering monitoring the travel of domestic extremists and expanding its use of the No Fly List, law enforcement sources told POLITICO.
The discussions are part of the Biden administration’s strategy of treating domestic terror as a national security threat, and not just a law enforcement problem.
Was This All God's Plan?
26 replies
Let me be honest from the start of this. I’m not religious. I’m an agnostic. That is, I cannot say with any degree of certainty whether God exists or not. That would be any God, Christian, Muslim, or take your pick. My belief is much like a coin, flipped into the air to land, improbably, on edge and stand there. Perhaps wobbling and teetering a bit, but not ready to take that leap of faith one way or the other.
To me, it seems that deciding to believe that God’s there or not, has to be done without the benefit of convincing evidence for or against
Taming the Chinese Rare-Earth Tiger
3 replies
Much is made of China's dominance in the rare earth elements (REE). Currently, China controls over 90% of the refined or processed market for REEs. Most advanced technologies, including weapon systems, depend on REEs, and adequate substitutes do not exist. On the surface, China's monopolistic control over refined REEs induces a severe case of the vapors among U.S. national security analysts. But how extensive and stable is China's control of the REE market? If China's market control is neither extensive nor stable, perhaps doing nothing or policies that target China's Achilles heel would be the U.S.'s best course of action.
For the past year, parents and students across the county, mostly in Democrat-run municipalities, have been experiencing excessive levels of stress due to unending school closures. Red states like Florida, Texas, and South Dakota have been open for months. Meanwhile, the teacher’s unions have a stranglehold on the public schools in Democrat states, refusing to open for a litany of absurd reasons.
Part of me sympathizes with the conservative parents who are struggling to cope with working from home and the online curriculum management of their children. (Though that sympathy does not extend to liberal parents who knowingly voted for this lunacy.) But I am struggling to understand why
Lots of people in Kansas and Missouri looked at their phones in confusion Tuesday morning at a tornado warning that did not indicate it was a test.Both states had long-planned to send out a tornado warning test Tuesday at 10 a.m., but a mistake in the process caused that warning to appear legitimate.
Emergency alerts sent to phones stated:
That caused the National Weather Service in Kansas City to quickly Tweet out the following:
Drill ** Drill ** DrillThis is a tornado DRILL. If this were an actual tornado warning, consider what you would do to shelter and stay safe.Let's spread the message as if it were a real tornado warning
Recently on FOX News's Hannity show, Ari Fleisher, a self-described member of the establishment GOP, weakly attempted to placate both sides of the fractured Republican Party. He emphatically pleaded the argument that the establishment needs to respect the patriot wing, and the patriot side needs the establishment to know how to pass laws. I am sure I was joined in a collective double-take upon hearing Mr. Fleischer's disconnected reasoning.
Since 2008, the Republican Party has been in a political downfall. Each political cycle, the self-lauded establishment GOP overwhelmingly endorsed weak candidates across the board
A picture from Iwo Jima
10 replies
It's February. The star-spangled kneelers of the NFL have given way to their imitators in the NBA, and soon some millionaire dugout squatters of baseball will be adding their insults to the flag they hate.
Today is February 23, an otherwise unremarkable day in history. The first Gutenberg Bible was printed, the first Salk polio vaccine shot administered, and Mississippi was allowed back in the Union. But nothing worth a holiday or a greeting card.
Unless you are ninety-five years old and thinking back to that day of your youth when you were on hunkered behind some ugly volcanic rock stained red
An Offering of Squirrels
4 replies
t might have been Michelle Malkin — if it wasn’t, you’ll forgive me; the outbreak of global warming this week has robbed me of my long-term memory along with my admiration for the wonders of wind energy in powering the grid — who first coined the term “squirrels” to describe the cynical and often lazy distractions the Democrats and their media allies so often let loose in order to avoid a discussion of substantial and uncomfortable matters.
Squirrels can be large or small. For example, you might not have recognized that the advent of the current wave of identity politics in America was a squirrel — but it was.
An Oakland Chinatown liquor store owner was arrested by police after he intervened in a robbery outside his store on Monday, KTVU has learned.
A 36-year-old man faces one count of felony assault with a firearm, authorities said.
A community member told KTVU that the store owner fired four gunshots when he witnessed a woman being robbed for her camera outside his store at 9th and Franklin streets on Monday at about 5:45 p.m. No one was injured after his gun went off.
A 12-year-old boy fatally shot a man to protect his grandmother when two intruders broke into her North Carolina home, authorities said.
The incident occurred shortly after 12:30 a.m. Saturday when two masked men entered 73-year-old Linda Ellis’ home in Goldsboro, news station WRAL reported.
The pair demanded money and shot Ellis in the leg, prompting the 12-year-old to open fire, police said.
“[The intruder] just shot his grandma… He would have shot him too, he would’ve shot me too, he would’ve killed us all,” the boy’s great-uncle, Randolph Bunn, told news station WTVD.
A brief history of vaccine screw-ups
5 replies
I’ve made a minor hobby of looking skeptically at immunizations since my case report on atypical measles was published as the centerpiece article in JAMA 45 years ago. That case illustrated at least one unpublicized problem from immunizations.
It seems that the original measles vaccine, “a killed measles vaccine” was given to preschool kids beginning in 1962-63 and available until 1968. It did prevent measles for about six years. Thereafter, when these kids were exposed to measles they sometimes developed an inverted and much more serious illness. My case was the first that occurred in a young adult 14 years after immunization.
Make the United States Plural Again
8 replies
Make the "United States" plural again. Is that so much to ask? Up until the Civil War, that was the customary grammatical construction. "The United States of America are committed to..." "The United States of America have declared war upon..." "The United States of America stand together..."
Ah, there's the rub. These United States of ours do not really stand together anymore on anything, and only the linguistic shrewdness of treating the "United States" as a singular entity provides the fictitious veneer of national unity. In a world filled with fake news, fake markets, and fake elections, ignoring proper grammatical rules
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Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Bill Clinton will be speaking together at an event Friday hosted by the Clinton Foundation on the topic of empowering women in the United States and around the world.The Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) event will feature the two speaking one-on-one and will focus on the challenges that women have had to endure during the coronavirus pandemic, and how to empower women throughout the world.(Tweet) Harris is set to speak with Clinton despite the former president having faced allegations of rape and sexual assault from multiple women spanning decades.
The first test of a project backed to spray millions of tonnes of chalk into the stratosphere, in an attempt to 'dim the sun' and cool the Earth, could happen in June.
Harvard University experts will test the system by sending a large balloon 12 miles above the Swedish town of Kiruna and have it drop 2kg of chalk dust into the stratosphere.
The aim of the estimated $3 million mission, backed by billionaire Bill Gates, is to have the chalk deflect a portion of the sun's radiation, stop it from hitting the surface, and cool the planet.
The idea has been heavily criticised since its inception...
Fully vaccinated Americans can gather with unvaccinated family members and friends without any restrictions who live under one roof, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said on Monday. In a clarification of its guidelines for those who have received one of the three approved vaccines, the agency said that visits should be kept to one unvaccinated household at a time amid fears of large gatherings, CNN reported.
Officials also reiterated the unvaccinated people must be at low risk for severe illness or death from COVID-19.
More and more research suggests those who are fully vaccinated are less likely to be asymptomatic and spread
Kamala Harris’ apparent refusal to salute
military honor guard panned as ‘disgraceful’
disrespect 44 replies
military honor guard panned as ‘disgraceful’
disrespect 44 replies
In what amounts to being more about respect than required actions, Vice President Kamala Harris is getting plenty of scrutiny for not saluting the military honor guard when boarding or disembarking Air Force Two.To be sure, there is no specific regulation that calls on the president or vice president to salute military personnel, but it has become a modern tradition for the president to salute the honor guard stationed at the steps for Marine One and Air Force One.A tradition that was started by Ronald Reagan, as a sign of respect.Making matters worse for Harris,
President Biden urged Congress to ban “assault weapons” and high-capacity magazines following the Boulder, Colo., shooting in which ten people were killed.
“I urge my colleagues in the House and Senate to act,” Biden said at a press conference. “We can ban assault weapons and high capacity magazines in this country once again.”
Biden also called on the Senate to pass a bill already approved by the House, which tightens background checks for potential gun buyers.
“The United States Senate, and I hope some of them are listening, should immediately pass the [bills] that close loopholes in the background check system,” Biden said.
While the last election is still fresh in the minds of most Americans, the next one is going to become an issue a lot sooner than most people think.
Republicans are poised to retake the House due to redistricting alone. That and the historical fact that the first midterm for a newly minted president is almost always a bloodbath has Democrats dreading what looks to be coming. That’s why you see such a push to get rid of the filibuster now. Democrats know they are on borrowed time, and they want to push through what they can now.
There has been one thing that the left have been hoping will save them
Former President Barack Obama on Tuesday released a statement on the Boulder shooting saying recent killings are being driven by “disaffection, racism and misogyny”—despite Colorado officials identifying the gunman who slaughtered 10 inside a grocery store as a Syrian-born immigrant. Authorities have not alleged a motive for suspect Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa, 21, but his brother told the Daily Beast he was “very anti-social” and suffered from paranoia and possible mental illness.(Snip) “It will take time to root out the disaffection, racism and misogyny that fuels so many of these senseless acts of violence. But we can make it harder
On Monday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “All In,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) stated that not passing gun control legislation unintentionally endorses mass shooters and “these minds that are starting to become unhinged imply that it’s okay.”Murphy said that the U.S. is a country with a high amount of guns and gun violence, and “we’re also a country that sends an unintended but meaningful message to mass shooters of endorsements. I mean, when Congress doesn’t do anything year after year, decade after decade in the wake of mass shooting after mass shooting, these minds that are starting to become unhinged imply that it’s okay.
A federal appeals court ruled Wednesday that there is no right to carry a gun in public. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in a 7-4 ruling rejected a challenge to Hawaii’s requirement that residents must pass an application to have weapons outside the home. Hawaii’s law requires residents to show an urgency or need to carry a firearm, the applicant must have good character, and be “engaged in the protection of life and property.”(Snip) “We can find no general right to carry arms into the public square for self-defense,” the majority wrote, claiming that the Second Amendment applies to
The Republican-controlled Wisconsin state assembly on Tuesday passed a resolution to authorize an investigation into the 2020 presidential election.The resolution passed on a 58-35 party-line vote.The committee will now have subpoena power to compel testimony and gather documents.The Associated Press reported:The Republican-controlled Wisconsin Assembly passed a resolution Tuesday to authorize an investigation into the 2020 presidential election that President Joe Biden narrowly won in the state.The resolution, opposed by Democrats, is needed to give the committee authorization if it decides to issue subpoenas to compel testimony and gather documents, said Rep. Joe Sanfelippo.
The suspect who has been detained in Monday's mass shooting in Boulder, Colo. has been identified as Ahmad Alissa. The 21-year-old suspect is alleged to have entered a King Soopers grocery store in Boulder and killed 10 people. Boulder Police Chief Maris Harold said that Alissa is from Arvada, which is 20 miles south of Boulder, according to the New York Post.
"I want to say to the community, I am so sorry this incident happened," Harold said, "and we are going to do everything in our power to make sure this suspect has a thorough trial and we do a thorough investigation."
Karl Rove will hold a bigtime virtual fundraiser on March 31 for vocal Trump-hater Adam Kinzinger.Top GOP donors from Illinois are expected to attend this fundraiser. Adam Kinzinger, the poor man’s Mitt Romney, is one of the most vocal Trump-haters in the US Congress. Kinzinger gladly voted to impeach President Trump in January along with 9 other Republican lawmakers. (Tweet) The Chicago Sun-Times reported: A fundraiser for Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., will be headlined by Karl Rove and co-hosted by a who’s who of Illinois Republicans, a show of political strength coming as ex-President Donald Trump vows revenge against GOP House members
Comments:
Please take the time to read this one all the way through. Please don't let the opening three sentences put you off.
It may be one of the most thoughful, and insightful discussions of our current situation that you read this year.
This one is worth passing on to friends, I think.