Dangerous idea 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post) 

Most nations were created by war or one impressive individual, for people united in bloodline. But America was created on the basis of an idea stated in the Declaration: all people were created and endowed by their Creator with unalienable rights, and governments exercise rightful power only by the consent of those people.

This is the principle which Rev. Martin Luther King reminded the American people about, and the moral basis for his campaign of equal rights for black people. It's also the basis for the whole human rights movement of the last century in America.

The Declaration, though written by sadly imperfect people, codified the principle into American law. This is the reason and basis for America, not promotion of slavery as claimed by the 1619 Project. It's the principle we go back to all through our history, that people should be free and that they can rightfully oppose government that doesn't help them.

It made America different. Monarchs around the world knew that America could be a dangerous game-changer . . and she was.

Dangerous idea

"Europe was created by history. America was created by philosophy." Margaret Thatcher was right in this, that America was founded on ideas. Our founders didn't invent the ideas, but they organized a whole country based on them.

Here's just one more take on that day (July 4, 1776) when the congress of the United States of America declared itself separate from its colonizer, the British Empire:

"America has always been a dangerous idea." Dangerous to whom?

from The Free Press 

(cont'd tomorrow) 

No saddles

Thomas Jefferson was the primary writer of the Declaration of Independence, that document which told the world that the American people intended to cut their bonds to England and take their place among the sovereign nations. 

An invitation to Washington D.C. to celebrate the signing of that document was sent to him fifty years later, in 1826, but he couldn't go because of ill health. 

It's clear how passionate he still was about the people's liberty and rights in his reply to the invitation, and he's still right about this: human beings are not born with saddles on their backs so that some elites can ride them with spurs and reins.

Our founding

Hillsdale College was asked by the President to help celebrate America's 250th birthday next year by producing a video series about America's founding. It's a great story - worth remembering together.

Here's the president of Hillsdale introducing it. We'll feature those videos in future posts.

Sorry girls!

Girls in college sports have something big to celebrate: they will no longer have to compete against male bodies at University of Pennsylvania. 

A former U Penn student and swimmer says “As a former UPenn swimmer who had to compete against and share a locker room with a male athlete, I am deeply grateful to the . . Administration for refusing to back down on protecting women and girls and restoring our rightful accolades. I am also pleased that my alma mater has finally agreed to take not only the lawful path, but the honorable one."

In negotiations, U Penn agreed to these actions: 

• Formal apologies will go out to the girls who wrongfully lost wins and records. 
• Trans athlete Lia Thomas (photo) will be stripped of his accolades won in girls' sports. 
• U Penn will stop violating Title IX and use biology-based definitions of female and male. 

 from NY Post

Tesla did it

Tesla is celebrating something else in addition to the Fourth of July this week: its first delivery of a new car driven to the purchaser entirely by what they call "full self-driving," meaning no driver even in the car. 

It certainly drove itself completely and you can see it below. (Just not completely sure I understand their definition of FSD yet.)  

This weekend my son rented one, and it took the family home from church unaided by a driver. Looks like we're in a new car era, all right.

Congratulations to Team Tesla!  

Move aside 8

Follow-up to these posts

Welcome to the week of celebrating Independence Day (4th of July). We start with an excellent ruling coming down last week from the Supreme Court: 

Parents are the authority in choosing what is best for their children. Schools cannot take that authority away from them. 

In a post from 2022, I reported that Muslim, Jewish and Christian parents tried to "opt out" their kids from classes promoting LGBTQ. School administrators would not cooperate, saying that parents have no right to "opt out" their kids. The Supreme Court decided with the parents that they do have that right. 

Many schools are trying to subvert the choices of parents, trying to get parents to "move aside" and let them take control (image generated by Grok). With this SC decision, that will end -- or should. When school teachers or administrators in the future try to re-assert dominance, a lawful judge will have to decide with the parents.

Polyface farm 2

(cont'd from yesterdays post)

Re-post from 2017 

Polyface Farm has not applied a chemical since the family bought it in 1961, says Joel Salatin. They don't run things like a "normal" farm does today. Mimicking the pattern of nature, fertilizer and sanitation are supplied by the animals instead of by chemicals and antibiotics. 

The farm is open to visitors and cameras every day, and he claims they have no disease problems like those that plague industrial farms. Cows are moved to fresh pasture every day, chickens follow cows by 3 days, then turkeys. Pasture receives the time it needs to re-grow.

"It’s all a symbiotic, multi-speciated synergistic relationship-dense production model that yields far more per acre than industrial models. And it’s all aromatically and aesthetically romantic." That means it smells good and looks good. We were there last summer, and it's beautiful.

"On our farm we have cows, pigs, chickens, turkeys, rabbits, ducks, lambs, fruit, honeybees, forests--it's breathtaking choreography, always dancing," p. 119 of The Marvelous Pigness of Pigs.

Polyface Farm

Re-post from 2017

There's a beautiful farm in the Shenandoah Valley of northern Virginia. The passionate farmer, Joel Salatin, is known all over the world because his message resonates with almost everybody who loves nature, farming, or food . . also because he has oodles of personality and has written twelve books.

Polyface Farm is "the farm of many faces". They grow chickens, pigs, turkeys, cows, all the animals doing what they naturally do - unlike the typical industrial farm, which is a mono-culture of corn or chickens or something else.

Their methods are not ordinary, not like factory farms or CAFO farms. Animals are grown humanely on rich pastures which are sustainable. By the way, these pasture lands capture carbon like no factory farm can. The whole system produces healthy soil, healthy animals, nutritious food, and a beautiful environment.

It's called regenerative farming. 

Ancient 3

Follow-up to this post

An Islamic State man detonated bombs on his own body, killing at least 25 others in the congregation at a Christian church last Sunday and wounding another 63 (video from New York Post). It's a Syrian church in the city of Damascus.

. 

 The bishop of the Syriac Othodox Church says: “There is a lot of fear. The fear is not from this incident. It is from what is coming next."

from Washington Post 

Dig for truth

Christians in America are waking up to a couple of modern facts: our views and our churches don't enjoy near-universal approval anymore, and we need to re-think our response to our culture in light of that.

Modern life is confusing. American culture has been disrupted by people who don't share our values. 

This journalist (below) is a Christian. He challenges both himself and the rest of us to be careful to tell the truth rather than just play for hits and likes on social media, to do things God's way rather than the selfish way. He challenges all of us to respond with restraint and kindness even when confronted with opposition and hate.

We 're all going to have to "dig for truth" in this environment. Think things through.

Hopeful AI 3

Are you using artificial intelligence yet at work, at school, or for personal questions? If not, it's a good idea to get familiar with it. As you have probably heard, it's only going to grow and have huge impact.

Here's a suggestion for you. Get started. Grok, as well as other AI's, can be used for free (so far, anyway). I asked it this question: "Should I remove a second stem which has started to grow on my 6-foot spruce tree?" It answered thoroughly:

"For a young 6-foot spruce tree with an additional stem or trunk (often called a double leader or co-dominant stem), it’s generally recommended to remove one of the stems to promote the tree’s long-term health and structural stability. Here’s why and how to approach it:

"Why Remove One Stem?
1. **Structural Integrity**: Two competing stems can create a weak crotch (the point where they join), increasing the risk of splitting under wind, snow, or ice, especially as the tree grows taller.
2. **Aesthetic Shape**: Spruce trees typically have a single, straight leader for their characteristic conical shape. A double leader can lead to an unbalanced or irregular form.
3. **Resource Competition**: Two stems compete for nutrients, water, and sunlight, potentially weakening the tree’s overall growth."

There was much more, including detail about the method. The answer was practical and helpful. This is the most basic use of AI, and probably reliable. 

Space econ

Space came back to the headlines in America when SpaceX started a new era.

Cost was the huge deterrent to exploration. When SpaceX began to produce rockets that could be re-used, the enormous cost of getting out of earth's atmosphere was cut spectacularly.  

Other space companies followed, and space was no longer un-reachable. What else could we do out there?  

Materials - including water - exist on the Moon and Mars and beyond. When we get there, we'll apply intellect and knowledge and turn some of those materials into resources for humanity. A Hillsboro professor explains:

U.S. Army 1775

Relations were already tense in 1775 when British "redcoats" marched on an ammunition depot which their American colonists had stocked in Concord, Massachusetts. Civilian colonists took their firearms and stood to defend it (here and in nearby Lexington) against the foremost military of world. 

Who shot first is debated, but it's been called "the shot heard round the world" because the ensuing revolutionary war freed the colony to become the United States of America.

Just two months later, on June 14, the Continental Congress created its army to fill its need for a "united fighting force with a clear chain of command." George Washington was then selected to be its general, and a new chapter in world history began.

 Our Secretary of Defense tells the story of the formation of the U.S. Army:

Army's 250th

Under the previous administration in 2024, the United States Army was granted a permit to have a parade on the occasion of its 250th anniversary. That celebration took place last Saturday, June 14, in Washington D.C. 

Notice that the Vice President and his wife brought their three children.

Paid protester 2

Was that "paid protester" really offered money to protest, to play the part of an innocent demonstrator trying to change American policy out of sincere beliefs? Or did he make that up?

It wasn't just him. Someone published a craigslist ad seeking people to demonstrate in Seattle last Saturday for a pay check of $500/day. 

As this writer says:

"In case you believed the mainstream media when it said the anti-ICE protests aimed at frustrating the enforcement of just, democratically enacted, bipartisan U.S. immigration laws are spontaneous reactions from local communities to heavy-handed enforcement … well, just don’t."

Education crisis 1

Everybody seems to agrees that our education system is in crisis. Various opinions describe it as being teacher shortages, poor reading skills, student mental health, too much bureaucracy, and they're all right and there's more problems than these--they affect every educational level from K-12 right up to the college level.

Administrators and other non-teaching staff have grown by 7x the number of teachers in the last several decades. "Both students and staff are chewed up by a bureaucratic machine that favors ever larger budgets . . ." The cost keeps rising, yet test scores rise little or not at all.

Almost 100 Yale professors signed an open letter to its president, opposing the growth of non-teaching staff which now amounts to double the number there a couple of decades ago. 

This Brown University student testified before Congress that he found enormous, wasteful spending bloat at the university level: 

Paid protester

In the past, protests in America were mostly people caring passionately about some cause enough to go out on the streets and demonstrate for their opinion. Today many protesters are not moved by conviction but for pay. 

They may carry a sign, shout, obstruct the right of way for their neighbors, destroy public property, destroy private property (photo), attack the police, throw bricks. 

Here is a young man who was offered $150/day to protest in Los Angeles. He doesn't really care much about the point of it which is to protest ICE officers deporting illegal immigrants, but he needed the money so he took the job.

But he started realizing that he was involved in destroying the community. They told him to go to certain streets where he found pallets of bricks to use (in destroying the community). Later he saw a pallet of molotov cocktails and thought, "Man, should I really be doing this? Like, this is bad news." He didn't care about the city of Los Angeles, but he thought "But I'm American, after all, like, this is not good." This man's conscience kicked in.

"I got to thinking, whoever is funding this must really hate this country." Yup, I believe he's right. 

from X post 

Burn cars≠fun

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

If you followed a link on yesterday's post, you heard an ABC reporter telling people what he thinks is happening at the riots in Los Angeles: "just a bunch of people having fun watching cars burning".

"Fun"?? This is from a used-to-be-trusted legacy media news outlet. To the degree that anyone agrees with this deluded view of a violent situation, we have a genuine crisis going on in this country.

Peaceful?

Have you heard reports that the Los Angeles riots protesting federal ICE officers have been peaceful? 

One way or another, people are still finding ways to report true conditions (photo), a fruit of the freedom of speech we still have. 

Suggestion: if you heard that the protests are peaceful, a little suspicion would be appropriate in your future trust of that source. 

from Stream

AI in school 3

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Studying and learning are hard work. What if you, as a student, could delegate writing  assignments to artificial intelligence? That would mean less work, more free time, and it's super tempting. So students do it all the time . . even in writing classes.

A 20-year veteran of teaching gave it up because of that fact of life. Many students will do whatever they can to spare themselves the discomfort of difficult work. Thinking things through and communicating that through your own carefully constructed writing can be difficult. 

She was trying to teach writing at the college level, which includes reading and returning feedback to the student. Sadly, she discovered that most of her instructive feedback was a total waste because it was directed toward the AI that "wrote" it. So she quit.

If a student doesn't discipline himself to learn how to think and write, he's going to be at a disadvantage for the rest of his life to people who did learn it. 

How is our education system going to handle this?

from Time

AI in school 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Hannah would assign her students to write a paragraph, or five sentences, or an essay. Many were not able to do it, or complained that it was too hard, or questioned the value of doing the work . . and of course, many completed assignments were written by ChatGPT or another large language model (there's technology to determine that).

Some students saw no value in learning how to write a resume or a cover letter if they could simply make AI do it.

Are these kids learning how to write (photo)? Will their new employer be surprised with the low level of skill these students can execute when they need to think and write in the job environment? 

The problem is not only that turning in a writing assignment that the lazy student did not do is dishonest. It is dishonest, but there's more. Writing well requires a degree of clear thinking, often of making a reasonable argument. If this student ever has to recommend a certain decision to other people, in work or in the community, she will have to think through the options and make a case for the best one. She needs to build that communication skill.

 

AI in school

Teachers have been fleeing the profession in higher numbers for a while now, frequently citing poor behavior. Since ChatGPT came out in fall of 2022, it use and the widespread use of "large language models" (LLM's) like it have made teaching even harder, in the opinion of some.

Here's one of them, a high school teacher for three years. She thinks technology should be kept from students until college.

Europe ≠USA 4

(cont'd from this post)

A Harvard graduate, author, and columnist came to speak on a Hillsdale College stage in April. He came to say that, yes, the U.S. vice president was correct about EU leaders departing from the values they used to share with us . . like democracy. It's not very democratic if Europeans have voted for 50 years to reduce immigration but their leaders keep giving them more.

Regarding the annulled election in Romania, he added information. When the "populist" candidate beat the established elite candidate last November, authorities cancelled the election while claiming Russian disinformation interference. (Sound familiar?) Voters were told they must just believe it, without evidence.

When it was obvious that the populist was going to win the re-scheduled election too, he was arrested and banned from the vote.

Regarding Germany, the leftist establishment say that they had to keep the anti-immigration AfG out of legislative functions to which they are constitutionally entitled as the largest opposition party. Why? If they allowed them into power, they would risk going back to Nazi horrors! 

"Then the federal office of constitutional protection declared that AfD would be placed under heightened surveillance because they're a “threat to human dignity.” 

Troubling signs from the European Union (image).

 

from Imprimis

MB in France

All governments try to prevent "leaks" because they all keep secrets from citizens. A report on the activities of the Muslim Brotherhood in France was recently leaked to a "newspaper of record," Le Figaro.

Intended only for top government officials, the report claims "that the Muslim Brotherhood has built an extensive ideological infrastructure in France--not through violence, but through schools, charities, mosques, and soft power."  Its goal is to infiltrate civil society "under the guise of religious and educational activities." (Image)

 

The Brotherhood's French network includes 21 private schools (3 are state-funded), 815 Quranic schools ("66,000 minors are taught to see themselves as part of a global Muslim community in moral and cultural opposition to Western secularism"), and hundreds of mosques. A core concept is the hatred of Jews. 

None of this is illegal. It's a patient, gradual takeover which takes years. Will the French ultimately comply? 

That depends. How do they feel about being colonized?

from "How the Muslim Brotherhood is Capturing Europe"

Tech exit 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Social media is addicting. In fact, this author calls it "maximally addicting." When you think about it, social media companies have to be as addicting as possible for maximum profit and power (if they're not also and equally driven by a moral conscience).

Are they not aware of the bad effects on kids? She says they are aware of it, but they choose to do nothing. Snapchat, for example, gets 10,000 complaints about "sextortion" every month. How many are unreported? Parental controls are just a myth.

“It’s possible to reset a child’s brain,” says the author. "Despite how bad tech addiction can get for a child, it is possible for the brain to heal and reform itself."

Parents can agree with all this, but what should they really do about it? That's the focus of her book, how to replace screens with real world relationships and responsibilities. Hint: parents will have to be more intentional and more engaged, probably enlisting the support of other families.

 

Tech exit

Parents were put on alert to the harmful effect of smart phones on their children last year when The Anxious Generation came out. Many already suspected it, school administrators and teachers saw it, but that book really woke up the public.

Bringing phones to school was blocked in some districts, and parents have tried to figure out how to limit their kids' use of tech. But a new author says that screens are "digital fentanyl" and inherently harmful. So what's actually needed is a "Tech Exit."

Even adults know they can easily get addicted to their phones. Children don't have all the skills or discipline or wisdom to be self-sufficient--they need their parents to parent.

Seattle battle

A Christian organization submitted a request for a permit to hold an outdoor event in Seattle. Their application specified a venue request for Pike Place Market. The city denied that request and directed them to Cal Anderson Park. 

So they complied and held it there on May 24. Maybe that was a mistake. 

The park is "in the heart of the Queer community," according to a group called "Radical Women Seattle" which turned up to protest against "fascist family values."

 

Many hundreds of protesters tried to disrupt the event with bullhorns, shouting, signs, heckling. Police made 22 arrests.

It turned out that the mayor of the city is solidly behind the protesters.  He made a public statement:

"Seattle is proud of our reputation as a welcoming, inclusive city for LGBTQ+ . . . Today's far-right rally was held here for this very reason – to provoke a reaction by promoting beliefs that are inherently opposed to our city's values, in the heart of Seattle's most prominent LGBTQ+ neighborhood."

Somebody is lying about the choice of this park, and it should be easy to verify. The FBI is looking into it.

from CBN

Ancient 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Natural disaster or economic collapse may motivate large groups to emigrate out of their homeland. But what drove hundreds of thousands of Syrian Christians to leave was something else. 

Civil war broke out in 2011 and everything changed. The previous tolerant Muslim regime fell last December and militant factions (including ISIS) are in power.

"In village after village . . Christians were kidnapped, tortured, sometimes ransomed, and often executed. Monasteries were turned into battle stations. Churches were bombed. In Maaloula, jihadists entered homes and demanded that families convert to Islam or die. Some were killed in their doorways for refusing. 

"ISIS went further, targeting Assyrian villages in the northeast, executing men, enslaving women, and erasing churches that had stood since the fifth century."

While millions of refugees (photo) fled the country, it also became "a targeted campaign of cultural and religious cleansing," and the rest of the world let it happen according to this Middle Eastern writer.

from "The Vanishing Light"

Ancient 1

"The Christian golden age of Syria has ended . . . And it will not return."

Did you know that the nation of Syria had a Christian golden age? Me neither. Christian culture in this place has 2,000 years of history, but today we Westerners know almost nothing about it. 

Paul the Apostle was confronted by Jesus on the way to Damascus (the country's capital today). That means it goes way, way back. As one of the "original heartlands of Christianity," there were bishops, theologians, martyrs, and three actual popes.

About 300,000 Christian Syrians (photo) are still there, compared to over 1.5 million at one time. Their presence "was not a minor thread in the nation’s tapestry, but was woven into every aspect of culture, language, and national identity" along with other threads including Islam.

But most are gone now. "The Christian families that once ran shops in Aleppo, taught in schools in Homs, and prayed in the ancient basilicas of Damascus are now rebuilding their lives in Berlin, Detroit, and Melbourne."

from "The Vanishing Light"

(cont'd tomorrow) 

Test flight #9

Starship test flight #9 finally got off the ground (after some delays in FAA approval) yesterday.

After the first stage booster separated to leave Ship (second stage) in space, its engines shut down and then did a "boost back burn" to turn and come back to the launch site. A landing burn to slow it down would have been next, but control was lost. It was the first re-use of a Super Heavy booster, and some vital data was gained before its end in the Gulf.

Ship's engines ignited at separation and burned for a couple of minutes to propel Ship toward orbit. Then they stopped at SECO (ship engine cutoff). The SpaceX narrators seemed very relieved at the achievement of this important milestone.

One of the goals of this flight was to push Starship to its limits. One hundred heat shield tiles were intentionally removed over critical areas in order to see what would happen during re-entry. Unfortunately it didn't make it to re-entry.

So both stages eventually failed, but vital data was gathered.

Quits Harvard

Harvard University has lost its credibility among American taxpayers. As the federal government removes billions of dollars of public funding, they counter with the claim that they can do whatever they want to do under the umbrella of free speech and academic freedom. 

Yes, they have free speech but we don't have to pay them billions for misleading students and breaking civil rights law. 

 

A psychiatrist who taught in their medical school felt compelled to break away a year ago. He explained his understandable reasons:

"I stopped teaching at Harvard last year [2024] primarily because of its anti-truth-seeking culture, radical left-wing bias, racial and gender discrimination, and prevailing anti-intellectualism . .  Harvard has strayed from its foundational mission of unbiased truth-seeking . . ."

He doesn't hold back: "Harvard remains in denial of its own radicalism. It sneers and looks down on most of America and on American values like color-blind equality, meritocracy, free speech, hard work, and individual responsibility." 

from "Harvard Insider Blows Whistle: This Place is Totally Corrupted"

Memorial Day 2025

Re-post from 2015,  just "in case you thought it was National BBQ Day"

Memorial Day is set aside to honor and remember those who gave their lives in the service of their country. "[T]ime and time again brave men and women have been willing to fight for the freedoms we all too often take for granted.

To be more specific, let's honor those 1335 Americans who were killed in Ramadi, Anbar Province, Iraq, in 2004-2007. Some people are acutely aware of the sacrifice - like family of the fallen - since Ramadi was overtaken by ISIS this month.

While the U.S. State Department thinks it was a major blow to the fight against ISIS, Gen. Dempsey remarked that Ramadi was not that important. The mom of the first Navy Seal to die there put a personal face on it in her letter:

“You, sir, owe an apology to the families whose loved ones’ blood was shed in Ramadi. Ramadi matters to us and is very symbolic to us. You need to apologize to our troops whose bodies were blown to pieces from IEDs and bullet holes leaving parts and pieces behind. Ramadi matters to them. "

Brain≠Mind 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

If you literally are your brain, like some say, what hope would there be for a girl born with only half of a brain? A brain surgeon in the video below told her parents that there was little hope for her. But twenty years later, she is a vibrant young woman, functioning normally.

The neurosurgeon was at that time a materialist, like so many. It's not that he made a conscious choice, but rather that worldview dominates in our culture and you just pick it up from school and media. Over his professional experience of doing 7,000 surgeries, he changed his mind.

He believes we have souls or immaterial minds, and that they use the brain. As Neil DeGrasse Tyson says, mapping of the brain shows that the brain does control movement, sensory perception, emotion, and memory. But no part of the brain has been shown to control abstract thought (like doing math or understanding history) or your free will.

Brain≠Mind

If someone denies the existence of God and everything supernatural, if he claims nothing exists but the natural world or universe, he or she is an atheist or materialist. Of course, that person must also believe that human beings have no immaterial soul.

One believer in this worldview is the well-known astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson. He ably articulates the materialist opinion against a soul: "What I do know is, everything you are derives from electro-chemical synapses running in your brain." He also gives evidence for that view.

So, you're just your material, physical brain (image) which is located in your skull. He thinks that is everything you are including thoughts, feelings, decisions, etc.

Christians hold a different view, taken from the Bible. God Almighty created human beings with a likeness to himself, whose immaterial soul or spirit will live beyond the life of their physical, material bodies. 

Here's a good question: is there scientific evidence for the Chistian view? Yes.

(cont'd tomorrow)

Gen Z & church

Polling in America has told us for decades that the number of people claiming no religious affiliation (the "nones") is rising. But that's leveled off. Bible sales are increasing and Christian entertainment has grown.

Generation Z (born 1997-2012) is a significant part of this trend. They generally seem to be curious about Christianity and are looking for hope.

 

It's especially interesting that young men lead the trend. Gen Z men go to church more than Gen Z women. 

Similarly, the Bible Society in partnership with a research team in Britain says:

"We found that the Church is in a period of rapid growth, driven by young adults and in particular young men . . . [Y]oung adults are more spiritually engaged than any other living generation, with Bible reading and belief in God on the rise."

from USA Today

Hopeful AI 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

So this author says AI will soon be smarter than us humans. That is still debated among the experts--but if true, then he's right that we will certainly have to lean on and develop the best parts of our human nature. 

Smartness has never been the only good thing about humans. It's good to know information and understand it, but as people created in the image of God, there's more.

• Having true friends and being one, having genuine relationships with other people, will never really be replaced by AI (though it can be faked).
• Creative thinking will never be replaced by AI, creative in the sense of creating new organizations, businesses, families, ideas (though some white-collar jobs will be replaced).
• Taking responsibility to build your own character virtues will never be replaced. Your experience of life will still be directly affected by your honesty, generosity, discipline, compassion, etc.

Materialists who believe nothing exists but physical reality may have to re-think their assumptions. Transcendent qualities like love and honor arise from outside the material world. 

These things arise from the immaterial spirit of a person (see Friday's post).

 

from The Free Press

Hopeful AI 1

So many experts in technology sound alarm bells about the danger of artificial intelligence (AI) to the future of humanity. Without a doubt, there are dangerous possibilities.

Other opinions, though, are out there. Naturally, CEO's of companies leading the way in AI are optimistic and enthusiastic. That would include Sam Altman and Larry Ellison. 

Altman's OpenAI has a vision for a beneficial role of AI in our future. They see AI elevating all humanity, functioning for our benefit. An AI user and an AI developer say, "This technology can usher in an age of flourishing the likes of which we have never seen."

 

But they also tell us to prepare for some disorientation as well, because "AI will change what it is to be human." They are certain that AI will exceed human intelligence by 2030 . . a mere five years away. So that means: we won't have intelligence supremacy anymore.

What should we do to prepare? More of what we are best at doing. We have value way beyond mere intelligence (see tomorrow's post).

 from The Free Press

(My image is Grok-generated)

(cont'd tomorrow)

EU immigration

Immigration (or shall we say invasion) is a monster-sized issue for Europe. Vast numbers have been allowed to overwhelm native populations in Germany, the UK, Ireland, and more. Mainstream political parties like AfD (labeled "far right") tap into very serious concerns.

Only days before the US vice president's address, Munich suffered another attack by an immigrant. The man, who was to have been deported back in 2020, sped up his car and drove into a crowd, injuring at least 30 people. It happened "just after a series of deadly attacks in Germany, all allegedly involving immigrants."

Though the chancellor says the man must be punished and deported, whether that will really happen remains to be seen.

You probably remember immigrant rape gang stories from the UK. Prime Minister Starmer seemed not to care. But maybe he feels a certain political pressure from the "far right" to start limiting the invasion:

Europe≠USA 3

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Vice President J. D. Vance's  address to the Munich Security Conference about "our shared values" is worth taking a closer look.

It starts out with a foundational principle of democracy. Including himself among the audience members who have a position in government, he says "Now it's time for all of us (who have been fortunate enough to be given political power by our respective peoples) to use it wisely to improve their lives."

America's Declaration of Independence states the principle: government gets its just (fair and right) powers from the consent of the citizens who are governed. 

Then VP Vance tells them that Americans are shocked when they hear that the Romanian election was "annulled," that Germany was also threatened with the same thing if things don't go "correctly." He reminds them that tyrannical forces in Europe once "censored dissidents, closed churches, cancelled elections" . . and they were not the good guys.

Europe≠USA 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

It has been our impression that the people of Europe, like we Americans, believe in democracy. That includes the principles of free speech, free and fair elections, the people themselves voting for representatives who will support their wishes. 

But do they really share our values? Our vice president spoke in Munich two months ago on that very question. There's evidence that they don't. 

An election was just held in Germany. During the political campaign leading up to it, one of the parties, Alternative for Germany (AfD), was "shut out of governing coalitions" and "denied committee chairmanships in the national parliament in Berlin that its numbers would otherwise entitle it to." Media "kept AfD officials off the airwaves."

"While other political leaders, including far leftists, are regularly quoted in the press and interviewed, AfD are rarely heard or seen on broadcasts or given space in publications." Why? Because, according to leftist power-holders, they are "far right." 

But the tide may be turning. AfD won more seats in the government a week ago. AfD is not an extremist group, though it's convenient for the establishment to call them names.

from City Journal

(cont'd tomorrow)

Europe≠USA 1

"Extremist," "far right,"--terms meant to scare the public--are used by the left both in the USA and in Europe. 

In France, the second biggest political party (RN) and its leader Marine Le Pen are labeled "far right" in every headline listed on the first page of a google search I did. But can that be accurate when so many citizens vote for it?

In Germany, the first or second biggest political party (AfD) has been labeled an "extremist" organization. The federal parliament may ban it from future elections. But it represents nearly half of the German voters (photo).

 

Changing the meaning of words is one way to manipulate the perceptions of the public. Legacy media still has some credibility with some people, and the left uses it to scare and confuse.

You may have heard the terms "literal nazi" and "far right" used by the left in our presidential campaign last year, but they didn't entirely work. The right American political party won that election and became the current administration.

from "Killing Democracy to Save It"

(cont'd tomorrow)

Starship V3

How can we make it better? That's a central question which SpaceX addresses to its Raptor engines, but it doesn't stop there. Innovation keeps coming with regard to the "ship" spacecraft which is the top half of the integrated "Starship." 

Version 2 is currently being used for test flights, but V3 is coming (see this video from one of the many avid SpaceX watchers to learn the details) and it's full of upgrades. 

It's bigger, to accommodate both more fuel capacity and bigger payload. Elon's X post shows Starship 3 in comparison to Falcon 1, the first rocket they produced (still in use). 

Vast improvement was made in the relative cost to put payload into orbit: 400x better. (Click on the image to see the small print.)

NPR & PBS 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Public radio/TV must be non-partisan to qualify for government funds. So the question is, are we sure that the Corp. for Public Broadcasting (NPR & PBS) is biased in favor of the left? The NPR head testified before Congress on this question (photo).

 

You may remember that a veteran of NPR (25 years) became a whistleblower, even though he leaned left himself. In his article for The Free Press, he details several major stories in which NPR intentionally took the side of the progressive left without giving the opposing views any consideration.

Research shows that far more interviews and guests are from the left. In a four-month period, the non-left political party was referred to as "far right" or "hard right" extremists. No such terms were applied to the progressive left.

As one journalist used to say, "There's no such thing as neutrality in journalism. There's only transparency." 

NPR & PBS should transparently admit they are not neutral. They can continue their progressive leftist slant, but should give up demanding that taxpayers foot the bill.

 from "NPR and PBS Dug Their Own Graves"

NPR & PBS

News reporting and broadcasting should be "fair and balanced" in America, and that's what we look for. But of course there are journalists who think their own opinions are right and refuse to give coverage to other views. 

It's allowed in America, where we have protected free speech. But the other half of Americans, who see things differently, certainly should not be forced to pay for the broadcasting of opinions they believe to be wrong. That wouldn't be fair.

Those other Americans have been in this position for decades. Complaints that government-funded Corporation for Public Broadcasting (NPR and PBS) is biased go back to the 1960's. But moves to cut public funding were always de-railed by appealing to kids' programing like Big Bird and Mr. Rogers.

Times change. Under the current president, government funding -- provided by taxpayers -- may really end. CPB is shocked. They are suing.

(cont'd tomorrow)

25 in 2025

SpaceX started testing the integrated Starship (the ship mounted on the giant booster) two years ago, April of 2023. Test flight #8 took place two months ago, so that's eight test flights in two years.

Things are going to get a lot busier. SpaceX asked the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for permission to launch 25 test flights this year, and FAA just issued its approval.

Starbase, the SpaceX launch site, will soon officially be a city: Starbase, TX.

DOGE discovers 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post) 

Embedded and hidden corruption discovered by the DOGE team continues from yesterday's video of their staff meeting.

At the "U.S. Institute of Peace" they found a contract (for unknown services) with an ex-Taliban for $130k, and found loaded firearms as well. 

 

Their chief accountant had deleted over a terabyte of accounting records, financial data which the team was able to recover. Since hiding or destroying records is illegal, this coverup was referred to the DOJ and FBI.

The agency had received $55 million/year from congress. Any unspent funds were swept into a private bank account having no congressional oversight, which funded events and private jets.

Asked whether DOGE would be ongoing, Elon answered: "If we drop the ball, fraud and waste will come roaring back." But by ending contracts and fraudulent practices now, it will be harder to get it going again in the future.

DOGE discovers

DOGE leader Elon Musk gets some staff together once a week at 10 p.m. They each answer the question, "what did you get done this week?" A media guy got to sit in on one of these meetings and discovered more absurdities that our taxes have been paying for:

• Investigation found that a $4 billion covid fund was used to rent stadiums for parties, with no explanation. Correction: now any drawdown must be identified as to purpose and receipts must be uploaded.
• Alpaca farming in Peru
• Marketing of peas in Guatamala
• GAO also found that only 10-15% of the money for these causes was actually getting to the stated destination. 
• So it's possible that "no one got a sex change in Guatemala" (a worthless expense discovered months ago)
• Grants may go to a cause that sounds good theoretically, like "save the baby pandas," but no evidence is forthcoming that any panda was actually saved. 

New media 4

Follow up to post, post, post

Legacy ("old") media has lost the trust of many Americans, demonstrated by declining subscribers and declining influence. Some are trying to face that fact, to "right the ship," and to regain trust. Surging in the gap is "new media," including podcasts and X and independent videos/reports. 

For example, there were hundreds of authentic videos (like yesterday's) published on X of real conditions last fall after Hurricane Helene created chaos in western North Carolina.  They challenged some misleading legacy media reports in newspapers and on TV.

We learned not to trust "old" media's version of reality. Now there's an alternative that seems more trustworthy. As Konstantin Kisin says, "what could go wrong?"

Hopefully, new media will prove more reliable. But it will still be produced by flawed human beings, like the "old."

Mountain home 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Bat Cave NC and Chimney Rock NC, where Amish volunteers from Pennsylvania are working, are in Hickory Nut Gorge. The flooded river scoured out landscape and buildings resulting from  Hurricane Helene last fall. 

One young man says (yesterday's video), "It fills my heart with joy watching people get their life back again." 

Someone commented: "Absolutely incredible. While career politicians hold press conferences and fundraisers, the Amish are out here swinging hammers, rebuilding a town brick by brick, no spotlight, no selfies, just service. God bless the Amish, the backbone of real America, showing us what it means to love thy neighbor."

Drone footage clearly shows the scar:

Mountain home

Hurricane Helene is long gone from the headlines, but flood victims in North Carolina are still struggling to return to their homes and the normal life they lived before Helene.

From their own home hundreds of miles away, two thousand Amish volunteered to come and work to restore homes and businesses:

Raptor explained

(cont'd from yesterday's post) 

While currently using version #2 of the Raptor engine on Starship tests, the third is in testing phase, and SpaceX is already working on version #4. Innovation does not stop.

If you're interested in the engineering, go here for the strategies they use in the design of Raptor 3. Here's Elon Musk himself explaining Raptor design elements:

Innovation doesn't stop, and neither does testing. As Elon puts it, "Oh we blew a lot of engines up." To keep up that pace, he says "A high production rate cures many ills. If you have a high production rate, you can have a lot of iterations. You can try lots of different things." You can risk failing because you have a lot more engines in the pipeline.

Five years ago, Jim Bridenstine of NASA put his finger on this distinctive of SpaceX: "SpaceX has something NASA has been lacking, a willingness to fail." They fly, test, fail, fix -- over and over again.

It's still that way at SpaceX.