Elon Musk grabbed the world's attention when he decided to sell all his properties. This month he put the last one on the market (for the second time). Like most homes, its value has risen - from the $23 million he paid for it in 2017 to the current asking price of $37 million.
So where does he live? When he's at Starbase to work on SpaceX, he lives in a $50k house. The Boxabl company makes them in a factory, folds them into a box shape for easy shipping, and assembles them on site.
Another dad speaks out in this video taken at a school board meeting. He hopes to get the board on track with common sense, so he talks about his lived experience in simple terms that they should be able to understand.
His message in summary:
Critical Race Theory teaches kids in effect to hate each other. How? It teaches them that they have no hope of achievement . . because the white race won't let them achieve. His own life shows that is not the case. He says, "How do I have two medical degrees, and I'm sitting here all oppressed? . . Are you kidding me?!"
Kay Coles James thinks for herself. She also speaks up for herself. And she doesn't allow herself to be ramrodded by critics who want to shut her up. Over four decades of lived experience as a black woman and a public figure, she's learned some strategies she'd like to pass on.
Here's a short summary of her advice to you and me.
1) Ignore cancel culture. 2) Make sure you have your facts straight, and tell the truth. 3) When you're wrong, admit it. 4) Don't be cruel, don't cancel others. 5) Your words should line up with your life. Don't be a hypocrite. 6) Speak carefully, not recklessly.
"[S]peak up for what you know is right. You will inspire others to follow your lead, and when more people speak up, we’ll reach enough critical mass to eventually cancel “cancel culture.”
from Washington Times
Minneapolis was the site of terrible things a year ago. What would it take to set off more violence this summer? A lot of people fear that it wouldn't take much.
But a Minneapolis Police inspector managed to keep a volatile situation from escalating into a crisis last week.
As he responded to an armed robbery, he called a neighborhood church pastor and a community organizer and asked them to send people to the scene. He even called the suspect's mom. It made all the difference.
from Kare11
About three months ago, Justin Bieber paid a visit to California State Prison to support faith-based activities. But about seven years ago, if things had been a little different, he might have gone there to live as a prisoner.
He was arrested in 2014 for DUI after drag-racing a Lamborghini on a residential street in Miami, his life out of control. For some in that situation, their life takes a dive into hopelessness. But Justin says that in his state of angry, unhappy confusion -- instead of diving into misery, he took a deep dive into his faith.
Sometimes you hear people say, "I found Jesus." Justin puts it differently. He says that Jesus "found me in my dirt and pulled me out."
From his 2014 world tour:
This dad and daughter are talking about serious stuff, but they will put a smile on your face
(cont'd from yesterday's post)
Andrew Gutmann, the dad in yesterday's post, wrote a clarifying update to his story. He does stand against the racism his daughter's school seems to support, but his primary concern is not race but rather the school's unwillingness to debate and interact about their "antiracism" policies.
Unwillingness to debate? That should ring a bell. It's the refusal to engage, to listen to each other where there's disagreement. It says to the whistle blower, "We're right, you're wrong, case closed." It's cancel culture.
In the time since his letter became public, he's heard from several thousand people who sound desperate and powerless. Devastated parents see their young kids come home from school loaded with guilt for the color of their skin, sometimes turning against their families. Grieving teachers are forced to teach divisive, racist doctrines that demonize their own students.
from The Hill
(cont'd tomorrow, another Dad taking a stand for his babies)
Two months ago, a dad in New York City wrote a letter to parents of students at his daughter's private school. It voiced the alarmed concern of many of the school's parents. It went viral.
He objects to the school's empty claim to favor diversity. If it really did, it wouldn't work so hard at indoctrinating students and families to a single mindset.
He objects to the school's empty claim to favor equity. If it really did, it would cease preferring rich and connected students for admission.
He objects to the school's empty claim to favor inclusiveness. If it really did, it would not teach that there are just two groups in this country, the oppressors and the oppressed.
He objects to the school's support for the Black Lives Matter organization. He objects to the censoring of good books simply because of dated language. He objects to grade inflation and reduced standards for classwork.
He objects to the school teaching racism while it claims to favor anti-racism. Its policies are "misguided, divisive, counterproductive and cancerous." And he calls on other parents to speak up.
from bariweiss
(cont'd tomorrow)
Small businesses create most of our jobs. And America has always been rich in small businesses, like Chobani was before it grew to be valued at billions of dollars.
Millions of jobs were destroyed by the global pandemic, but something else erupted in 2020 - new business startups.
Musical theater actress Jackie Nguyen did her very last performance in Miss Saigon on March 15, 2020. With no house, car, or big savings account, she made a big move to Kansas City where she opened her own colorful mobile coffee shop selling lattes flavored with cardamom and lychee. Compared to her $90k income as an actress, she now brings in revenue of $30k/month and says she will never go back. She likes making all her own choices.
Covid unemployment sparked an explosion of new startups, largely in "fly-over" country (not on the east or west coasts). Forbes, known for highlighting huge wealth and success, has decided to start a new program of highlighting small startups which they expect to stand out - the "Next 1000."
from Forbes
Yogurt 2
Re-posting an inspiring, true story of an immigrant who came to America this week
On the chance that some of you haven't seen this, here's a report of a diver who was gulped by a whale.
When he realized he was in a whale's mouth, he thought he'd come to the end of his life.
from NY Post
As a materialist and atheist, Richard Dawkins firmly believes that the living cell was not designed by God. But he is still able to respond with "wonder at the miniaturized intricacy of the data-processing machinery in the living cell.”
He sets a good example for young scientists who are really committed to materialism as their worldview, their foundational assumption.
Scientists who don't want to believe in a Creator must be careful to follow the advice of Francis Crick: "Biologists must constantly keep in mind that what they see was not designed, but rather evolved." Because evidence of intelligent, engineered design is strong in the living cell.
from Evolution News
Amanda Ensing, so inspired by beauty, started building her make-up platform early and earned the sponsorship of companies like Sephora.
Daughter of an immigrant from Puerto Rico, Amanda calls herself pro-family, pro-God, pro-freedom. When she started expressing her views on social media, she discovered the "thought police." She tried hard to avoid offending anyone but found herself a target of cancel culture.
Eventually she decided to "grow a spine" and "be unapologetically myself." She believes that "speaking up" was the best decision she ever made and recommends it: "You speaking up will be the most liberating thing you will ever do."
Salt Lake City, Utah, is the site of a trending innovation in the housing industry: a new apartment building made of shipping containers.
According to the structural engineer on the project, it's built "like a tank." Because the apartments are made of heavy steel containers, they are earthquake-proof and very safe. Since the cost of conventional building materials has skyrocketed, there's an affordability advantage as well.
Similar projects are being used in other cities, including Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
from KomoNews
This is the guy from yesterday's post whose radio show was banned from youtube, Eric Metaxas.
He published an article about the growing body of scientific evidence for the God of the Bible in the Wall Street Journal several years ago.
The gigantic response from WSJ readers revealed that people are hungry for this type of information, which our culture/media can't give them. He starts with a little humor, then the content begins at 2:00 minutes.
Civilly allowing other people to talk about what they believe used to be a primary value in America. It probably still is, in the minds of most Americans. But that value is far from universal today. Social media openly judges and cancels speech it doesn't like. What are they afraid of?
Free speech is protected in the American constitution, affirmed many times both in the courts and in academia. The American way to handle dissent is to listen, engage, and make the case for your own opinion. To force dissenters into silence is the way of fascists, the way of totalitarian governments.
Eric Metaxas, New York Times bestselling author of Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy, is the latest to be cancelled. His radio show had over 215,000 subscribers on Youtube, but it was permanently banned from the site for "violating community standards."
Did he post obscenity? or foul language? or slander? No, none of those. He interviewed people that Youtube/Google doesn't like.
C elegans, a tiny worm about a millimeter long, is a simple animal . . or it seems that way until you find out what's going on inside it. Every cell in its body has DNA, 100 million base pairs of it, containing coded information on its inherited traits.
In 2002 a team of three scientists received a Nobel prize for their work on this worm. One of them meticulously documented how the worm develops from its original fertilized egg all the way to the adult form.
Says Dr. Paul Nelson (video), "For the first time in biology, we were able to see and track the development of a animal from one cell to the adult. It had never been done before." This information, right down to the individual cells, was worthy of a Nobel prize.
Starting with the first cell division into two, the daughter cells are different. They shut down most of their DNA to concentrate on one system of the complete animal. It's called cell differentiation. How does the daughter cell know what to concentrate on? Natural selection can't operate at this level.
It's like it's engineered to work toward a future goal. No wonder Francis Crick felt it necessary to warn biologists to constantly remind themselves that what they see was not designed.
How much knowledge has science revealed to us in the last century? Enormous advances in the understanding of chemistry, our planet, and even the whole universe can't even be calculated.
About a hundred years ago, science made an enormous change in its understanding of the universe. Prevailing theory had said that the universe was probably eternal. But new discoveries showed that the universe really had a starting point about 13.8 billion years ago - in other words, that the universe was finite.
In 1931, British scientist Sir Arthur Eddington said he didn't like this development: "Philosophically the notion of a beginning of the present order of nature is repugnant to me . . I should like to find a genuine loophole."
Why repugnant, disgusting? Eddington didn't want to hear any scientific evidence that challenged his materialism (the belief that nothing supernatural exists). The evidence might show that God created the universe.
Christians, like Dr. Stephen Meyer in our time, have no problem with the scientific evidence.
"Business Leaders in Christ" (BLinC) is a Christian club at the University of Iowa, and it requires its leaders to adhere to traditional Christian sexual morality. The University claimed that they violated its "Human Rights Policy," so they de-registered the club.
When the club took the matter to court, federal judge Stephanie Rose ruled (February of 2019) in BLinC's favor because the university was inconsistent with their policy. A singing club, a Chinese student club, LGBTQ groups, etc., were not forced to give up standards for their leaders - but BLinC was.
Just four months later the university was back in court because they de-registered another Christian club, Intervarsity Christian Fellowship (IV), for the same reason.
Judge Rose (appointed under Pres. Obama) took stronger steps this time. She ruled that university officials would be personally responsible for the legal costs incurred by Intervarsity to defend their lawful rights. IV and other religious groups had to be re-instated.
Intervarsity's attorney remarked that it's "too bad it took twice for the university to learn its lesson."
from SalvoMag
