RIP Charlie 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Yesterday it started: Charlie's friends and fans pouring out what he meant to them. Here are a few posts that I saw on my X account: handling an encounter with a trans person with love and truth; sharing the gospel; and my personal favorite, this one, where he cites evidence showing that America had a Christian founding.

To my regret, it never occurred to me to pray for his safety before yesterday. But he knew there was danger from those who hated who he was and what he stood for, so he actually had a security detail.

He's with his Creator now. Rest in peace, Charlie; your life was a blessing to us.

RIP Charlie

Yesterday Charlie Kirk was doing what he so often did and loved to do: dialoging with people who disagreed with him on a college campus. He would invite questions/challenges and then respond respectfully, with civility, with honest and frank answers. 

Thousands of fans came out to watch and hear the debate at Utah Valley University. One individual came with evil purpose in his mind and hate in his heart.

Charlie was murdered. At the age of 31, he leaves behind his wife and two babies.

Super rich 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Sultan Bolkiah has some expensive hobbies. His 200 polo ponies are comfortable in their air-conditioned stables, and then there are cars . . a lot of cars.

His private collection of 7,000 luxury cars is the biggest in the world, and worth $5 billion. About 600 are Rolls-Royces, 450 are Ferraris, and 380 are Bentleys. For his daughter's wedding in 2007, he acquired a custom "gold coated" Rolls-Royce. In fact, it sounds like several are designed or coated with gold.

Included among his aircraft is a Boeing 747-400, and it's gold plated too. 

Apparently his $30 billion of personal wealth is enough to indulge all this extreme extravagance, but some people have even more money than the sultan. The richest man in the world (who created his wealth) has way more money. But he doesn't seem to have the same desires. He lives in a $50k home in Texas.

from The Economic Times

Super rich 1

Millionaires have money, yes, but they're not "super rich," and they're not that rare. About 58 million of them exist in the world and you probably don't know who they all are in your own city. Surprisingly, it's said that one in 15 Americans is a millionaire.

Today's super rich are billionaires, 3,028 of them globally. We wonder, how do they live? One of them, Elon Musk, bought homes for his children and their mothers, but he lives in a 3-bedroom house valued at $50k in the small community of Boca Chica TX, where SpaceX is located near the border with Mexico.

One of the most lavish lifestyles in the world is that of the Sultan of Brunei, said to be worth $30 billion. He owns the biggest residential palace in the world, Istana Nurul Iman Palace (photo).

It's colossal: 1,788 rooms and two million square meters, with its own mosque that can hold 1,500 people and a banquet hall for 5,000. Commissioned by the Sultan in 1981, it was completed in 1984 so it's relatively modern. That central dome in the photo doesn't just look golden. Gold actually tops it, 22-carat gold.

From Hindustan Times

(cont'd tomorrow)

Self aware

Chamath lost millions and millions (billions, he says) in 2022, the tech fortune he created as a young man, and he says it was the best blessing of his life. It changed him. 

He started asking questions of himself and found he was motivated by "stupid, inconsequential things."

It's a fascinating story as he tells it to Tucker Carlson over two hours' time. He has some political comments including the California governor's struggle, which he says is: trying to convince everyone that the fires were not the result of his negligence.

He says Elon Musk has incredible tolerance for pain and drudgery, yet he's "a kind guy."

I didn't finish it, but so far it sure is interesting.

Changed 2

Atheists of today have been loud in their rejection (and here) of Christianity. I welcome the change of mind some of them have had (here, here). 

Historian, atheist, and author Tom Holland (Dominion) changed his mind a few years ago from disdain of Christianity to surprised admiration. Now it seems like he has gone a step further, from admiration to something like faith. His understanding grows and grows.

He explains to this Jewish-and-open-minded interviewer (photo) how powerfully the life and crucifixion of Jesus changed the world. He says that even woke American ideologues are drawing from Christian values, but "they have cut themselves off from the scripture." 

He even says that the doctrine of original sin is important. Without it, we may think we have the ability to be good on our own, that we're sinless. 

He goes to church sometimes. Things about Christianity are really making sense to him. As in the theme of yesterday's post ("Lux Venit"), he says "the idea of light in the darkness is very vivid for me." Praying he goes the rest of the way.

from The Free Press

Elon donates 1

Giant personalities that dominate technology industries tend to support leftist politics. But Elon Musk, one of them, has changed political sides. He's promised to donate $45 million per month to the non-left side. It is very significant, though not nearly what Mark Zuckerberg donated back in 2020.

Like Zuckerberg's, Elon's donation will go to a political action committee (PAC) that leans in the direction he prefers. "America PAC" was formed in May to "get out the vote" among sympathetic potential voters. 

Another tech leader supporting this PAC is entrepreneur Joe Lonsdale, founder of multiple companies including Palantir as well as a non-profit, the Cicero Institute. Regarding the Institute, he says "we seek to partner with . . courageous policymakers and public-spirited entrepreneurs who oppose special interests and uphold the common good."

While Musk has always been free with his opinions, he's made more political statements since 2020. He really doesn't like what's going on in California.

from MSN

(cont'd tomorrow)

News 4

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

That whistle-blower at NPR was punished with five days of suspension, and then he resigned his long-time position as editor and writer. Of course he did. It would be difficult to remain in the organization after calling it out publicly like that, and it cost him his job.

His accusation was that NPR is now partisan (though he shares its point-of-view), that its reporting is one-sided, that it does not tolerate dissent from its politics.

Its CEO fully participates with the "Disinformation" movement described in yesterday's post, acknowledging that it can be "tricky"null to censor dissent due to that pesky First Amendment in the U.S. Constitution. 

Public money is also a problem if the news organization is partisan as the whistle-blower reported, because taxpayers support it: "NPR may receive little direct federal funding, but a good deal of its budget comprises federal funds that flow to it indirectly by federal law."null

from Christopher Rufo and here

Ben himself

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

As a boy in school, Ben was called "Dummy," and he agreed with them, says he was a horrible student. Poverty and racial discrimination pervaded his neighborhood. He expected he would die before his mid-20's.

But his mother believed in him. She stood in the way of disaster, when no one would have predicted his spectacular destiny. 

His story should inspire everyone, so I'm putting up one more post, this time in his own words:

Just one mom 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Did this mom have economic or political power? No. But she was the mom of the house. She had the power to make good choices in her own home, and what she could do, she did do. Those decisions probably seemed small then, but this woman changed her family's lives--and many others--with her choices. She was not powerless to change things.

Her son, Dr. Ben Carson, earned his place in history. After graduating from Yale University, he became a famous neurosurgeon and eventually the U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. He influenced and blessed a whole lot of lives.

photo

His mom was no doubt tempted to take it easy watching television in the evenings after a hard day's work. But she had the quiet courage to make a better choice, even though it was not convenient and good results were not guaranteed.

"[H]istory is never a given. It is shaped by the courage or cowardice of people who can always make a choice...

(cont'd tomorrow . . because Dr. Carson has ideas for the reform of education)

Just one mom 1

Can just one person change the world? Yes, history shows that an extraordinary person can. But how about one poor, single, black mom with a third-grade education, living in Detroit about 60 years ago?

image

This mom supported her family by cleaning houses and was, by today's standard, "powerless." But she had power in her own home. Noticing that her rich clients tended to do a lot of reading, she turned off the tv for her boys and created a new reading habit for them.

One of them says he actually started to enjoy those books, then the new habit changed his life. High school teachers spent more time disciplining than teaching, so he created his own learning opportunity:

"I would go back after school, talk to my teachers, and say, “What were you planning on teaching?” They would always look forward to seeing me and knowing that they could share their lesson plan with somebody. I got a lot of extra tutoring. So, even though I was in an inner-city high school that wasn’t known for academics, I was able to get the kind of preparation that allowed me to get through Yale University."

from Bill Dembski's Substack

(cont'd tomorrow)

Ali flip 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Brought up Muslim in Africa, she was taught to hate unbelievers, particularly Jews, whom they cursed every day. She feared going to hell, because she adored forbidden things like movies and music. 

Atheism looked good to her (especially after the appalling 9-11 attack) because it offered "a simple, zero-cost escape from an unbearable life of self-denial and harassment of other people." 

Life in Europe and later as an American citizen created in her a love for Western Civilization, which she believes is threatened by aggressive Islamism, China and Russia, and woke ideology. 

She fears we could lose "everything," our whole Western way of life; and she identifies the reason we are losing to our enemies: it's that we have lost "faith in the Christian God." This she says in the first 6 minutes of this interview:

from "Why I am now a Christian

Ali flip 1

Another famous atheist has done the unexpected: Ayaan Hirsi Ali, respected intellectual with an amazing life story, converted to Christianity.

photo

In a public discussion event with Richard Dawkins last fall she said: 

"Like you, I did mock faith, in general, and probably Christianity in particular, but I don't do that anymore. ... I have come down to my knees to say that the people who always had faith have something that we who lost faith don’t have.”

“What you value in Christianity is something that really is absolutely necessary to pass on to the next generation,” she said. “And we have failed the next generation by taking [it] away from them . . and telling them it’s nonsense and false."

She, like Dawkins, admires the Western Civilization that Christianity built. But more than that, she found in Christianity the answer to her question, "what is the meaning and purpose of life?"

from Christian Post

(cont'd tomorrow)

Dawkins flip 1

Something unexpected has happened in the world of atheism. Richard Dawkins, that relentless enemy of religion, calls himself a "cultural Christian." 😮

It's not that he believes in God now or believes that Jesus rose from the dead. But it appears that he despises the faith a little less than he used to. Let's hear his 4-minute explanation:

(cont'd tomorrow)

University rot 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

As this interviewer explains, we can disagree with atheist Peter Boghossian on some important things while we agree on other important things.  We stand together with him in the vital importance of truth and the vital importance of free speech (freedom to say what we believe is true).

As a professor, he loved teaching his students how to engage with people who think differently while remaining civil and respectful. After ten years on the faculty at Portland State University, Peter resigned his position because, in his words, his employer made it impossible to continue. According to his resignation letter: 

The university "transformed a bastion of free inquiry into a Social Justice factory whose only inputs were race, gender, and victimhood and whose only outputs were grievance and division. Students at Portland State are not being taught to think. Rather, they are being trained to mimic the moral certainty of ideologues."

(cont'd Thursday)

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.

photo

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

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!"

A changed life

If you watched yesterday's video, you saw Becket Cook conducting the interview. After growing up Catholic in Dallas, Texas, Becket lived a glamorous Hollywood life in Los Angeles as a gay man doing writing, acting, fashion set design. But the glamor wore off and he began to ask himself, "is that all there is?"

God can change lives. Watch the 15-minute interview segment below (Eric Metaxas is the interviewer) to find out what He did for Becket.

Affirmative 3

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

One of the two African Americans on the Supreme Court voted with the majority, right before Independence Day, to say that race-based preference in college admissions violates the constitution. Though "affirmative action" admissions policies preferred his own race, Clarence Thomas does not defend it. 

As a child in the American South, he was subject to racism and bullying. But the work ethic and moral strength he learned from his grandfather pulled him through school successfully, and he graduated with top grades from a Catholic seminary and then college.

After also graduating from Yale Law School, he didn't get the job offers he expected. "Affirmative action," he believes, cast doubt on his qualifications. Why? Because the law firms couldn't know for sure whether he earned his degree by merit, by accomplishing the work, or . . because Yale admitted and graduated him just because of his race.

His own "lived experience" is strong in him still. He believes in the abilities of African Americans, and wants equal - not preferential - treatment for them. The court “must adhere to the promise of equality under the law declared by the Declaration of Independence and codified by the Fourteenth Amendment.”

from Britannica

Dorchester 1

Our stories of America should be remembered. Here is my favorite from the Revolutionary War.

Combat actually started before the famous Declaration of Independence was signed in July of 1776. George Washington was commissioned to head up the "army" of the colonials a whole year earlier. 

In June of 1775, he assumed command of the Continental Army at the Siege of Boston. The British were bottled up in Boston Bay and the standoff lasted many months. 

Washington's young officers were inexperienced but dedicated patriots. One of them, Henry Knox, was a 25-year-old bookseller whose credentials were only that he had read a few military books. But he was confident and bold.

image

British-held Fort Ticonderoga, about 300 miles north of Boston, had been captured.  The British had abandoned their artillery. Knox suggested that Washington send him north to bring it all down to Boston. Washington agreed.

So Knox took off as winter started in November, with animals and wooden sleds, over 300 miles of mountain trails, to bring back 59 cannons to his commander in Boston.

(cont'd tomorrow)