Blessing 2024

There's plenty of reason to be worried about the New Year--health scares, corruption, dishonesty in public life, crime . . you know that the list could go on for pages. Anxiety could overwhelm us if we let it.

We're not blind to the frightening possibilities. But as people of faith, we know where to take those concerns. We remember that God is (quoting from The Chosen) "King of the Universe." And he loves us.

For sure, we will bring our loved ones as well our neighborhoods and countries and the world to God in prayer. Now.

Space plane 4

Follow-up to this subject

United States Space Force space plane X-37B was successfully launched into orbit last night by SpaceX from Florida. Falcon Heavy's two outer boosters successfully landed back on earth after booster separation, the 257th and 258th successful landings of an orbital class rocket.

photo

X37-B is an un-crewed orbital test vehicle which will likely stay in space for months or years, testing the performance of certain equipment. Then it will glide back down to earth.

SpaceX itself was started to make humans interplanetary. To achieve that goal, it was absolutely essential to figure out how to make rockets reusable. 

from Space

Meaning 5

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

"There is no evidence of design or purpose to our universe," according to Lawrence Krauss.

Really, Dr. Krauss? No evidence that our universe is finely tuned? No hints that our planet is not just habitable for humans but that it's actually hospitable to humans?

He's unable to think outside his materialist box. Because if you're open to the possibility, there's a lot of evidence for the hand of a designer. But if you're determined to not see the evidence, then you won't see the evidence.

(cont'd tomorrow)

Meaning 4

(cont'd from last week)

Origin of life research, trying to answer the question of how the very first living cell began, has been going on for at least fifty years. Instead of finding the answer, the more science discovers about the living cell, the worse the complications get.

It's like a "factory that contains an elaborate network of interlocking assembly lines, each of which is composed of a set of large protein machines.” 

But the cell goes far beyond the function of a factory. Cells replicate themselves.

We're all messy

Maybe you tried hard to prepare for this day, to give your family/guests the best Christmas you could. Well, good for you! You tried to remember all the details, plan good food and pick good presents. Me too. You wanted to create something beautiful.

image

Some say you're just trying to impress people with your curated social media image. But not me. Your good intentions are just that, they're good. On the other hand (as you already know), you have weaknesses and you're not perfect. Your holiday will not be perfect.

Fallen, broken people are the reason God put on a human body and came to live with us. Jesus Christ is the way we can become children of God-- if we want that. 

Have reasonable expectations for your Christmas Day. You're not perfect. God knows you very well. Come to him just as you are, not as you wish you were.

from Stream

Rockin' #1

When Brenda Lee recorded her "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree," she couldn't have known it would still be popular 65 years later. Not only popular, but her song is #1 on the "Hot 100." She's the most mature musician ever to do that.

Music icons are a small world. She's friends with Dolly Parton, Tanya Tucker, Trisha Yearwood. Mariah Carey sent flowers and congratulations.

On a plane recently, the passengers asked her to sing it:

"We had a lot of turbulence on that flight, and everybody was really nervous. Somebody said, “Brenda, get up and sing “Rockin’!” Before I’d even thought about it, I was up singing. I don't like flying, but that was a fun time for me."

She put out a new video too:

Merry Christmas to you!

from Yahoo

Meaning 3

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Human beings do consist of material things: blood, bone, muscle, fat, etc. But most of us believe we are more than material. We have dreams, values, choices, loves, convictions - in short, we have a mind that goes beyond the physics and chemistry of our brain.

You are not just a collection of body parts. You are more.

(cont'd next week)

Meaning 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Back in the 1970's, popular scientist Carl Sagan was speaking with conviction to millions of people on tv, standing in a place of breathtaking beauty, when he famously said:

"The cosmos is all that is, or ever was, and or ever will be." 

But most people don't really believe the material cosmos (universe) is all there is. "It's the point of view - the faith - of a materialist. . . His claim is backed by charisma, rhetoric, and celebrity prestige. But not by facts."

How much of reality does that point of view leave out? A lot - the conviction and experience of millions of people throughout history, as the 6-minute video below explains.

(cont'd tomorrow)

Meaning 1

Science can tell us about the structure of planets, plants and animals, and about the physical laws that direct their behavior. But it's silent about why they exist. 

We human beings look for the meaning of things. We want to understand and know the truth.  We're looking for the reason behind the facts. All of us routinely ask "why?" Scientist Albert Einstein himself asked why the universe is the way it is and couldn't answer that question.

photo

Dr. John Lennox likes to use his example of a tea pot. Science can tell us the facts about H2O molecules, the temperature at which water boils, how long it will take, and more.  But only he can tell us why he's heating water. The answer is: he wants a cup of tea.

Some materialists would like us to agree with them that there's no purpose or meaning to reality, just the brute scientific facts: "[T]here is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil, no good, nothing but blind, pitiless indifference.

But people are not wired that way. We all know there is more.

(cont'd tomorrow)

Plagiarist 2

(cont'd from last Friday's post)

A member of the faculty at the University of Cambridge had something to say about the scandal of leadership in process at Harvard University in the U.S. 

"Claudine Gay is President of Harvard for the same reason she's allowed to commit plagiarism. She's at the top of the left's new racial and gender hierarchy, and she supports its program to create a new intellectual monoculture that discriminates against white, Asians, and men, and which outright bans conservatives . . .

"There will be little appetite among Gay's peers to hold her accountable for anything. Unsurprisingly, the members of the Harvard Corporation released a statement holding that Gay did nothing wrong and that they 'unanimously stand in support' of her.

"And why shouldn't they? Gay has done everything she was hired to do, namely, to be black, to be a woman, and to enforce woke orthodoxy."

From post on X

Space plane 2

SpaceX has announced the next possible launch date for U.S. Space Force's upcoming mission, USSF-52.

Falcon Heavy will lift off on the evening of Thursday, December 28, or Friday, December 29.

from SpaceX

Plagiarist

Maybe you are following the uproar over university presidents who can't bring themselves to say that genocide is always a bad thing. For the president of Harvard University, the spotlight on her testimony in Congress raised more issues.

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Dr. Claudine Gay used to be the Dean of Arts and Sciences before she was promoted to president. In that capacity, she denounced the plagiarism of 27 students who were then kicked out. Disappointingly, it turns out that she has a double standard: when they did it, that was bad; but when she did it, that was fine.

Former Vanderbilt professor Dr. Carol Swain is one scholar whose work Gay used but did not give credit to. Swain believes that standards for tenure are lower today. "I don’t believe her record warranted tenure, and I believe that I had to meet a much higher standard than she did."

In Swain's opinion, it's a case of "affirmative action." That's a privilege granted because of race rather than actual merit. As she says, "A white male would probably already be gone."

photo

from Christopher Rufo interview of Dr. Swain

EV materials 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Nobody is ready to dispense with modern technology, in spite of problems with their components. Rare earth metals are essential in the motor (not the battery) of electric vehicles, as well as in lots of modern devices like smartphones and wind turbines. They can be both toxic to people and the  environment, and radioactive. 

Most global production of these elements is controlled by China which is moving to increase their hold on the global market. They can use their dominance to achieve political goals.

What's a company to do? They sure won't quit manufacturing modern tech.

General Motors says they are "deeply committed to an all-electric future," so last month they announced a plan to solve the dilemma of rare earths, replacing them with magnets from Niron Magnetics which are not toxic, cost less, and are US-made. Their "Clean Air Magnet" appears on TIME's list of 2023 best inventions.

EV materials 1

As of 2023's third quarter, electric vehicles took 7.9% of the market, a new record. Tesla Motors still leads the field while other companies take an increasing share. EV's are exciting because of their benefits (like in traffic), but problems still exist. Some relate to the materials used in production.

Years ago Tesla set a goal to use less cobalt in its batteries. It's very expensive, the global supply may be declining, and children work the mines to get it in Africa. All good reasons to find an alternative. They've been working on solutions for at least six years.

photo

Cobalt contributes to the driving distance range of an EV battery (obviously important to the electric vehicle market) so results started in the standard-range models which use less.

As of a report on the first quarter of 2022, "nearly half of Tesla vehicles produced in Q1 were equipped with a lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery containing no nickel or cobalt." It's progress.

(cont'd tomorrow)

Note: SpaceX has delayed the launch of USSF-52 to a date TBA

Launch delay

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

For the second time, SpaceX has delayed the launch of NASA's space plane, United States Space Force's USSF-52 mission. Tonight (8:14 pm EST) I'll be watching.

From their website:

"This will be the fifth launch and landing of these Falcon Heavy side boosters . . . Following booster separation, Falcon Heavy's two side boosters will land on SpaceX's Landing Zones 1 and 2 (LZ-1 and LZ-2) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida." 

Those two side boosters on Falcon Heavy do look like they've seen duty.

photo

(cont'd this evening)

Note: another delay

Space plane 1

You may suppose that NASA's Space Shuttle (1972-2011) was unique in its design, but it is just one in the category of "space planes." They are launched by a rocket and then glide on their wings back to earth.

NASA has launched the reusable space plane X-37B six times, but SpaceX launched it for the first time yesterday.

Falcon Heavy is the launcher.

image

from Space

update: launch re-scheduled for tonight at 8:14 pm

(cont'd tomorrow)

EV mandate

Our government is solidly behind electric vehicles, probably for the climate connection. (The climate argument for EV's is not clear to me yet, since swapping gas for electricity will not eliminate fossil fuel use when electric power plants still use fossil fuels. Am I missing something? I welcome your comment.)

In fact, the current administration wants to force the issue. They mandated (an order, a command) what type of car citizens should drive and car companies should manufacture in the future.

                                       

photo

But the House of Representatives rejected it two days ago.

According to its sponsor, the "Choice in Automobile Retail Sales Act of 2023" will:

"put a stop to this executive overreach, allowing consumers to have the freedom to decide what car works best for them and their families and preventing auto manufacturers from being forced to meet unrealistic mandates driven by the President’s Green New Deal agenda.”

Traffic jams 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Japanese physicists set up an experiment in 2008 to study traffic. Even with every driver trying to drive a consistent speed, "jamitons" occurred - waves of slowing traffic, though there is no obstacle. Watch the pattern:

Recently researchers re-created the experiment . . but with one difference. An autonomous car was included. After jamitons started forming, the self-driving feature was activated on the one autonomous car, and it changed the pattern.

"What this means in reality is that the presence of just one autonomous car can reduce congestion for all drivers . . "

Practical improvements? According to researchers' calculations, reducing excessive braking will result in a 40% reduction in fuel consumption, and the throughput of the road goes up by about 14%.

Traffic jams 1

 2017 Re-post

When you're in a traffic jam, you guess there's a crash or an obstacle ahead. But then traffic starts moving normally again, you see no crash, and you may be a little annoyed as you think, "wait, so nothing caused this delay??"

There's a term for it: phantom traffic jam. It's caused by one car slowing for any reason, resulting in everyone behind him/her having to slow down even more, then speed up to catch the traffic again, etc., etc., resulting in a wave of slow downs. Call them jamitons.

The maker of this video says the solution to jams is for every driver to keep an equal distance from the cars in front and behind. But can we drivers actually do that? Not really. So the ultimate solution suggested is . . NO humans driving!

And that means autonomous cars, or self-driving cars. 

CNN propaganda

Americans' don't trust newspapers or television news. 

The last time a majority of us said that they had confidence in newspapers was back in the last century. Gallup reported (2022) that only 16% have it now. Confidence in tv news is even lower, just 11%. Most of us have little or none.

Somehow we've picked up on the fact that impartial reporting is long gone, replaced by propaganda. Here's a CNN staffer confirming it:

"Our focus was to get Trump out of office . . I think that's propaganda . . and we did it." 

from Gallup News

 

Fame-driven

Eric Metaxas is always entertaining, but serious as well. In this interview he and his guest talk about the powerful drive for fame. Some people achieve it. Are they satisfied? For those who succeed at that goal, it's often extremely disappointing. 

They urge us to take our lives seriously, to respond to a drive that means something. God's ideas are better.

"Do not envy these people!"

Dr. Tour's story

His credentials, awards, positions, inventions, patents, professional papers are so numerous that I'm not going to list them for you. They're easy to google. This is one of the premier scientists in the world.

Given the materialist worldview so predominant among scientists, it might surprise you that Dr. James Tour is a born-again Christian. He doesn't hide it. Check out his website.

Raised in New York City among a Jewish family, he transitioned to Christian faith as a freshman in college. If your curiosity is raised about how that happened, watch him explain briefly while he also talks about his love of working at the level of molecules: "When I discover things, I see the hand of God."

Space elevator

An elevator to take people and payload up to space? It sounds totally crazy. But efforts are already underway in Japan and China to build one. And NASA agrees that the basic idea is sound. 

"Colossal" is the word to describe it, intended to go 22,000 feet high into the region where satellites move in synchronous orbit around the earth. 

image

Steel is way too heavy to use for the tether that holds it to the ground. But the wondrous newly-available graphene might do the job, if it can somehow be manufactured into a tether that long. 

from NBCNews

Graphene 3

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

According to the writer at Forbes, this breakthrough process may mean that the whole materials industry is going to be transformed. Amazingly, ounce per ounce, it's 200x stronger than steel yet light weight and stretchable.

Industries are anxious to use it. Ford Motor Co. has been putting it in every vehicle they make since 2020. The cost of using it in manufacturing will go down now that there's a less expensive way to get it.

Cement is responsible for 8% of global carbon emissions. If concrete is produced with just 0.03% of it being graphene, the resulting concrete is 25% stronger. So construction companies could use a quarter less concrete. How much carbon emission would that save? Very much -- an amount equal to the annual emissions of the nation of Brazil.

Medically there are ways to use graphene as well. Here's how Dr. Tour's team created graphene nanoribbons which were used to repair the spinal cord in a rat by enabling nerve cells to reconnect. If you make it through all the chemistry, you'll learn near the end that this method might in the future reconnect optic nerves in the eye.

Graphene 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Dr. Tour's team at Rice University in Texas can make graphene (about a kg/day) from garbage.  A business hopes to scale up production to a ton per day in a year or two. 

Just a "super-hot" flash of electricity aimed at a carbon-containing substance breaks the chemical bonds to re-order the atoms. Other elements in the substance escape as gases, leaving only the one-atom-thick lattice which is graphene. 

Not only garbage, but anything containing carbon can be used for the process. That includes plastic water bottles and worn-out tires. Worthless trash that we struggle to handle now could be turned into something of great value. One more benefit . . carbon from that decomposing trash would now be captured in stable graphene and kept out of the environment.

"Mountains of plastic could be reduced to their component molecules and repurposed into something useful."

What an incredible innovation!

from Forbes

(cont'd tomorrow)

Graphene 1

Graphene was created years ago (2004), a wonderful new innovative material that got science and technology people excited because there are so many ways it could be used. 

How big is an atom? That's how thin it is: a single layer of carbon atoms tightly bonded, "extremely strong, stable, and conductive."

photo

But discovery is not enough. Methods to produce it must be explored. As you would expect, the cheaper and easier way produces lower quality, while high quality is harder and more expensive. That's why graphene hasn't gone main stream yet, even with its promising features. 

A breakthrough was achieved three years ago. A team led by Dr. James Tour at Rice University published their research in 2020 showing a method that's both cheap and relatively easy, that produces graphene using carbon-based "household refuse." 

Yes, it's a little like alchemy, making gold from garbage.

from Forbes

(cont'd tomorrow)

Silent anyway

Our institutions often look like they're trying to cut a middle path through our darkening culture, trying to stay out of the way of the intimidating woke wave, afraid to take a moral stand against the blaming/shaming pressure.

But most of us don't share the woke values. For instance, when organizations like Target or Bud Light bow to the pressure, they start to discover that they don't have us following them. 

Two European soccer teams demonstrated that idea pretty well last week. Their association refused to observe a moment of silence to remember the lost of October 7. So when the whistle blew to start the game, both teams did . . nothing, observing that moment of silence for themselves.

Thanksgiving 2023

"Envy is the art of counting the other fellow's blessings instead of your own ."

Envy can kill off any thankfulness you might have had, and it can happen right at the Thanksgiving table - or on social media.

Enjoy "Gratitude," performed on the set of The Chosen:

Dinner $ 2023

Dinner for ten on Thanksgiving this year will cost just a bit less than last year . . but much more than three years ago. 

Every year the Farm Bureau figures it out:

Farm Bureau image

Inflation cheapens the value of all our dollars.

Education $ #2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Government is expensive. The State of Minnesota spends billions on worthwhile things . . we suppose. So much money - and the more we learn, the more we are concerned.

Of course, running the state takes a lot. "General Government" takes all of 4% of the budget. 

"Public Safety and Corrections" includes running all the prisons. It uses up 3% of the budget.

"Transportation" includes roads and airports, using 3% of the budget.

All these big and important things need to be done. But that's only 14% of the budget. If they're not using it, where does most of the money go? The biggest portion of the budget goes to "E-12 Education" and that doesn't include university level.

All of that money goes to education in Minnesota. It will help to create the perverse political environment we saw in yesterday's post. 

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Education $ #1

New laws passed this year mandate changes to education standards in the state of Minnesota. No, the standards are not going to improve the declining quality of our schools, except in the opinion of woke ideologues. 

As the governor says, they will produce a "miracle" with emphasis on "equity," not academics. Teaching licenses now require teachers: to affirm different sexual identities, to "understand" white supremacy, to "empower" (read: train) students to become agents of social change.

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Why these disputed, divisive ideas? Because, as the state licensure board says, "a teacher must have a foundational understanding of how race and racism are embedded in our institutions and everyday life." 

That pernicious view is pushed, not by most people, but by one segment of one of our political parties. Now, children must be formally trained in it, and they'll believe it. We know what that portends for the future.

from Thinking Minnesota, "License to Woke"

(cont'd tomorrow)

Oops

 😕Today's post came up yesterday

Happy anyway

 Here's one person's thoughts on happiness. He's had a lot to deal with.

Sam is happy. He knows how to keep being happy, he's figured out some important things, and he'd like all of us to learn how to do the same in spite of our challenges.

Sam is challenged by the normal things of life, but especially by a disease that afflicts only 350 kids in the world: progeria.

Here he is explaining "My philosophy for a happy life."

Outcomes 3

(cont'd from yesterday's post) 

"[S]ound reason and scientific research—including the very latest discoveries—consistently support, rather than erode, confidence in the truth of the Bible and faith in the personal, transcendent God revealed in both Scripture and nature."

Reasons to Believe makes this claim in their mission statement. Since the Creator gave us both the universe and the Bible, the facts of nature and the Bible's narrative will be consistent and accurate. So they aim for "constructive integration of God’s revelation (in Scripture and nature)" and they aim to communicate "those reasons with gentleness, respect, and a clear conscience." Not a harsh, combative argument.

A scientist from Florida got excited about this message. Here's his story:

Outcomes 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

But that could be a dilemma for parents who don't believe in God or religion, yet who want their children to be well adjusted. What should they do?

Komisar's advice: lie to them. 

It's a pragmatic solution. If you think there's no God, no life after death, no cosmic purpose, no meaning, nothing more than the material universe--don't tell your kids! Lie to them, tell them God loves them so as to increase the odds that they will be happy.

But wait, there's something better. Instead . . you could take the big questions of life seriously, and investigate God for yourself rather than simply swallow secular conventional wisdom. Possibly you have missed something. How great would it be to find out that the truth is also just what your family needs.

Here's a suggestion to get started. Go to Reasons to Believe. Astrophysicist Dr. Hugh Ross started this organization to show evidence from science that the omnipotent, personal God of the Bible does exist. Nobody's asking you to believe without reasons.

photo

(cont'd tomorrow)

Outcomes 1

A therapist who has experience helping kids has a counter-cultural suggestion for their well-being: they will do better if they go to church!

Therapist Erica Komisar is often asked to help depressed or anxious children. She offers her view on why it's so common:

"One of the most important explanations—and perhaps the most neglected—is declining interest in religion. This cultural shift already has proved disastrous for millions of vulnerable young people."

Studies have shown for years that people of faith tend to be happier in comparison to most people. So her view on this point is mainstream:

“Children or teens who reported attending a religious service at least once per week scored higher on psychological well-being measurements and had lower risks of mental illness. Weekly attendance was associated with higher rates of volunteering, a sense of mission, forgiveness, and lower probabilities of drug use and early sexual initiation,” she noted of the latest studies on the impact of religion on the mental health of children and teenagers.

from WSJ
(cont'd tomorrow)

Veterans Day 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Officially, the Treaty of Versailles ended World War I (WWI) in 1919. But hostilities actually stopped at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918. Technically it was just an "armistice," a temporary truce, but the fighting didn't resume and the truce became permanent.

That's the original reason for the U.S. holiday of "Armistice Day" on November 11: to remember and honor the end of the disaster that was World War I. Under President Eisenhower the holiday's name was changed in 1954 to "Veterans Day" in order to honor all our veterans.

To all our veterans, "Thank you for your service."

Veterans Day 1

Veterans Day is coming up on November 11, a national holiday. It began as a celebration of the end of the first world war a century ago (1914-1918): 

Austria-Hungary's heir to the throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, was murdered in the summer of 1914. That event started the ball rolling for the disaster that became World War I (WWI).

Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, then drew in its ally Germany. Eventually most other European countries and their colonies around the world also joined the war. That's how it became more or less global.

This global disaster resulted in at least 9 million military deaths and 5 million civilian deaths (mostly due to famine and disease). 

(cont'd tomorrow)

Indoctrinated 3

Follow-up to this post

Students in our academic systems are being trained to look at things in perverse ways: condemning whole races and groups of people as irredeemably bad. This wave takes over America after decades of civil rights work, reversing all progress.

Now there's evidence that the perverse wave is not driven by academics only. This anti-America, anti-Israel woke wave is an opportunity for an "influence campaign" by certain foreign countries to push their own views on American students, and they can buy their way in.

Network Contagion Research Institute released a study finding, among other things, that:

"[A]t least 200 American colleges and universities illegally withheld information on approximately $13 billion in undisclosed contributions from foreign regimes, many of which are authoritarian."

Correlation is not causation, as this author reminds us, which means that this does not prove wrongdoing. But these colleges kept large amounts of money hidden from the government.

It would be hard to believe "that these countries give nine- and ten-figure gifts to universities expecting nothing in return." Yes, it's hard to believe that. They expect something. What?

from Free Press

Not woke 3

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Maher lists "individual liberties, scientific inquiry, rule of law, religious freedom, women's rights, human rights, democracy, trial by jury, freedom of speech" - all these ideals can be found in today's Israel and "virtually nowhere else in the Middle East."

As for the claim that Israel is a colonizer for existing, he says the state was established by the United Nations. "Gaza wasn't seized by Israel, like India or Kenya was by the British Empire, and the partitioning of the region wasn't decided by Jews, but by a vote of the United Nations. But apparently they don't teach this at drag-queen story hour anymore."

The clip is full of his signature killer lines.

He asks a great question for anti-American, anti-Western political and academic activists: "Why is it that every other culture gets a pass, but the West is exclusively the sum of the worst things it has ever done?"

"Hey hey ho ho Western Civ has got to go" (1987)

Not woke 2

If you listen to Bill Maher, it won't take long to notice that he shows no sign of being a man of faith. But it doesn't take Christian faith to believe in things that most Americans value. So we have some things in common. He posted a clip on X with some observations about Israel that should resonate with Americans. 

He starts out with this, "For all the progressives and academics who refer to Israel as an outpost of Western civilization, like it's a bad thing, please note: Western Civilization is what gave the world pretty much every [deleted] liberal precept that liberals are supposed to adore." 

True statement. As atheist and historian Tom Holland affirms, those precepts are based on the worldview that built Western Civilization, which is Christianity.

(cont'd tomorrow)

Indoctrinated 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

A 21-year-old student at Stanford University says that she understands why about half of her peers support Hamas in the shooting, raping and beheading of families in Israel. 

Most students probably have parents who decry the attack (yesterday's post). But they've been "carefully taught" in school to condemn groups of people based on ethnicity, race, gender, religion.

"In high school, my homeroom had an exercise where we made a T-chart dividing various ethnicities, religions, and other identities into the categories of 'oppressor' and 'oppressed' Women: oppressed. Straight people: oppressor. Black people: oppressed." It condemns whole categories of people, including Jews in some cases. You're irredeemable if you're white or male. Children are learning this. 

"I had a nonacademic weekly homeroom class in which we learned that every white person is racist, and all men are evil. It took me a long time to shake off a hatred of men. It wasn’t socially acceptable to disagree, and no one really tried."

from Free Press

Indoctrinated 1

Since Hamas invaded Israel with the accompanying barbaric atrocities on October 7, America's government has condemned the assault and promised help to Israel. 

U.S. voting citizens are solidly and massively in agreement. According to the Harvard/Harris Poll performed twelve days later, about 86% of us call it terrorism. Most of us see genocide of Jews as the purpose of Hamas behind the attack.

All of the horror we feel for what was done to innocent women, children and the elderly stands in contrast to widely reported protests of some Harvard students. A letter justifying Hamas and blaming Israel was signed by 31 student groups. Other campuses are similar.

Jewish student in her junior year at Stanford says she's not surprised at student support for the attack. Though most of those students have parents who brought them up to abhor extreme violence, their education has indoctrinated them to align themselves with a completely different mindset.

(cont'd tomorrow)

Hero

Andrew Carnegie must have realized how important it is to recognize people for doing good. In 1904 he started the Carnegie Hero Fund with his own money to recognize "individuals in the United States or Canada who risk death or serious physical injury to an extraordinary degree saving or attempting to save the lives of others."

Nick Bostic, 25-year-old pizza delivery guy, repeatedly ran into a burning house in 2022 to rescue five who were sleeping in the house. Read the details here. 

photo

In a way, his own life was saved in the process. Nick had attempted suicide three times in his life, but he now has plans and hope for his future. He says everything has changed: "It really opened some doors and dreams of mine that now I can actually pursue and I see the light on the other side that I see is obtainable." 

“It’s in my blood to defend and protect and it’s kind of my job in life. 

Suing Meta

Meta has run into problems since it was introduced by Mark Zuckerberg. Now, in addition to its financial and public image trouble, it's being sued by forty-one states. 

This is a big deal. Their claim is that "that Meta knew its “addictive” features were harmful and intentionally misled the public about the safety of its platform." The Attorney General of the state of California says, "Meta has been harming our children and teens, cultivating addiction to boost corporate profits.” 

image

According to the lawsuit, "Meta designed and deployed harmful and psychologically manipulative product features to induce young users’ compulsive and extended Platform use."

Meta is in the crosshairs of the attorneys general of 41 of America's 50 states. That's a lot of firepower.

from Yahoo